Your Favorite Feats and Class Concepts

[ekarney]

As per the title - 3.5, PF, 3rd party it's all good.

What are your favorite feats? fluff or crunch wise it doesn't matter.


What about your favorite class concepts? I'm aware that that is a rather broad term and I intend to keep it broad.
But essentially, what classes do (or try to do) something you find really cool, it can be their fluff or their crunch, they don't have to be mechanically great, you just have to be able to see what WotC were trying to do and think "I can appreciate that"


As for the answers I don't really have a specific feat in mind but I did think the regional feats from FR were pretty cool, and classes; The Sohei from OA whilst it's not incredible crunch-wise the fact that the writers tried to mash Barbarian and Monk features and throw in casting was a pretty cool idea if I do say so myself.

[Manyasone]

I like casters, but due to my anime fondness I love powerful warriors. Regardless of how to make them... PoW, SoP, Psionics and Akashic make for a very good base line in building these... In Pathfinder anyway

[LordOfCain]

I like Martial Study to add a bit of versatility and typically like casters that can take a hit, although my favorite class, despite it not being a "caster" is the warblade.

[Krazzman]

In 3.5 I love the Initiators and the Totemist (never bothered with the other class featured in the book... or the prestige classes).
Both in terms of doing cool while being bad as as well as general versatility. Would've loved to play a crusader but after getting ToB only got to play a warblade and then switched to Pathfinder.

In Pathfinder I really love Rage powers and the gish classes (Magus, Inquisitor, Warpriest, Hunter, Bloodrager, Bard).
Save for the inquisitor I haven't had the chance to really play them... I see a pattern there.
Feat wise I really like deadly aim, power attack and piranha strike (?) how they are in Pathfinder.

[Malimar]

You take Renegade Mastermaker and turn yourself into a cyborg. I think that's just the neatest thing ever. So much so that I wrote a handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482653-Being-a-Steampunk-Magitek-Cyborg-A-Renegade-Mastermaker-Handbook).

[Forrestfire]

Hmm. That's a tough one. For 3.5, I've got a top 5-ish feats list:


Snowcasting:Fr A little microcosm of everything wrong with and everything right with 3.5. Enabler of a ton of fun TO stuff.
Knight of Tyr's Holy Judgement:CV The most unique ability I've seen on a feat in any edition. Fascinating implications and roleplay opportunies on a character.
City Magic:Ci Super-cool thematics (fireball that deals damage by throwing bricks at them, yanked from nearby buildings? Heck yeah!), very useful effect.
Customize Domain:Dr325 On the list because I greatly enjoy the shenanigans this feat can create, particularly in E6, and this feat led to one of the most fun characters I've played in a campaign.
Slot 5 is a toss-up; I'm torn between a small group of them:

Astral Tracking:Dr309 A useful tool for tracking mages, one that doesn't show up anywhere else in the game, and in general just really awesome.
Dragonfire Inspiration:RotD The thing that turns bards from useful utility to combat powerhouses, with awesome thematics.
Nemesis:BE The most powerful detection ability in the game, and a quite useful effect for rangers.
Power Attack:PHB The Core Martial Feat. This feat is the epitome of practicality, and the granularity the 3.5 version gives means you can adjust it to the situation.
Silver Tongue:OA/Dr318 Even if Diplomacy is a mess, this feat's set of social skill uses is quite awesome.


Honorable mention to the Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmark feats. Better luck next time, awesome magic tattoos. Your issues make you impractical to actually use.

In Pathfinder, a lot of my favorite feats don't exist or were nerfed, but there's a couple really nice ones I like. False Focus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/false-focus) is an awesome and useful tool for casters without getting too strong, Overwatch Style (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/overwatch-style-combat-style) and its associated feats are just cool, and can be made useful on account of each shot being taken at full BAB, and finally, though it's often overlooked, Antagonize (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/antagonize), because the feat is a unique, nonmagical aggro-drawing tool. Sure, it only works once per opponent per day, but it trades a standard action for at least one (sometimes two) of their turns being forced to be used on directly attacking you instead of doing stuff like summons, buffing, running away, or attacking your friends.

For classes, I would say that from 3.5, I really enjoy the Truenamer (conceptually, though not mechanically), the Ranger (mechanically, assuming all of its material is accessible), the Binder (mechanically and conceptually), the Warblade and Crusader (mechanically great and some of the best-written lightweight fluff I've seen), and the Bard (mechanically, conceptually, especially with its options from splatbooks). If I expand the list to PrCs, it includes the Abjurant Champion and Swiftblade for awesome gishing, the Dragonmark Heir for dragonmark use, and finally, the Silver Key for its wonderful, wonderful capstone of "immunity to doors."

The Artificer used to be on this list, but writing a guide for it made me unable to play it and feel good about playing it, even when holding back from its most extreme power.

In PF, my favorite classes would be...

The Occultist: A great mechanical implementation and awesome fluff, though it's hampered by its presentation making it seem overly complex and boring
The Vigilante: I'm still shocked about this; the concept seems really silly, but the mechanics work great, and some of its archetypes are quite cool.
The Magus: One of my favorite classes in 3.x as a whole; my only real complaint is that its lack of variety in its spells causes it to be rather monobuild.

With 3pp materials on the table, my list of favorite classes in PF would be include:

The Empath Medium: An archetype for the Medium in DSP's Psionics Augmented: Occult project. Actually my favorite class in all of 3.x, if I'm gonna be honest.
The Hidden Blade Unchained Rogue: I enjoy pretty much everything about how this initiating rogue plays. Eldritch Scoundrel optional, but also fun.
The Avant Guard Roil Dancer Kineticist: Strong and capable initiator kineticist that has a unique HP-tank bruiser sort of playstyle. It feels disingenuous to list this when I wrote both the Avant Guard and Roil Dancer, but oh well.

[Alea]

I really like incarnum and pact magic, so incarnate and totemist, binder and DSP’s empath medium are very high on my list.

I’ll echo Forrestfire’s Knight of Tyr’s Holy Judgment, and then take credit for it since I discovered the feat in one of her games :smalltongue: I also really like Nymph’s Kiss.

Crusader is my favorite mechanics of any class, without question. Supremely elegant and effective.

I really like barbarian, cleric, fighter, and paladin as building blocks. I actually dislike each of these classes on their own, but a level here and a level there are extremely useful in building characters.

I’ve always had a fondness for horizon walker, even though I have literally never actually played one. The concept is just really cool to me.

Knight has the best capstone. Jade phoenix mage and silver key are close.

For Pathfinder, aside from the aforementioned third-party empath, I quite like the magus. It’s really the only class by Paizo themselves that I actually like. There are a number of others that have cool concepts, but whiff way too hard on the execution. For third-party, I’d also mention DSP’s aegis.

[Inevitability]

Hmm. That's a tough one. For 3.5, I've got a top 5-ish feats list:


Snowcasting:Fr A little microcosm of everything wrong with and everything right with 3.5. Enabler of a ton of fun TO stuff.
Knight of Tyr's Holy Judgement:CV The most unique ability I've seen on a feat in any edition. Fascinating implications and roleplay opportunies on a character.
City Magic:Ci Super-cool thematics (fireball that deals damage by throwing bricks at them, yanked from nearby buildings? Heck yeah!), very useful effect.
Customize Domain:Dr325 On the list because I greatly enjoy the shenanigans this feat can create, particularly in E6, and this feat led to one of the most fun characters I've played in a campaign.
Slot 5 is a toss-up; I'm torn between a small group of them:

Astral Tracking:Dr309 A useful tool for tracking mages, one that doesn't show up anywhere else in the game, and in general just really awesome.
Dragonfire Inspiration:RotD The thing that turns bards from useful utility to combat powerhouses, with awesome thematics.
Nemesis:BE The most powerful detection ability in the game, and a quite useful effect for rangers.
Power Attack:PHB The Core Martial Feat. This feat is the epitome of practicality, and the granularity the 3.5 version gives means you can adjust it to the situation.
Silver Tongue:OA/Dr318 Even if Diplomacy is a mess, this feat's set of social skill uses is quite awesome.


Honorable mention to the Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmark feats. Better luck next time, awesome magic tattoos. Your issues make you impractical to actually use.

In Pathfinder, a lot of my favorite feats don't exist or were nerfed, but there's a couple really nice ones I like. False Focus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/false-focus) is an awesome and useful tool for casters without getting too strong, Overwatch Style (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/overwatch-style-combat-style) and its associated feats are just cool, and can be made useful on account of each shot being taken at full BAB, and finally, though it's often overlooked, Antagonize (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/antagonize), because the feat is a unique, nonmagical aggro-drawing tool. Sure, it only works once per opponent per day, but it trades a standard action for at least one (sometimes two) of their turns being forced to be used on directly attacking you instead of doing stuff like summons, buffing, running away, or attacking your friends.

For classes, I would say that from 3.5, I really enjoy the Truenamer (conceptually, though not mechanically), the Ranger (mechanically, assuming all of its material is accessible), the Binder (mechanically and conceptually), the Warblade and Crusader (mechanically great and some of the best-written lightweight fluff I've seen), and the Bard (mechanically, conceptually, especially with its options from splatbooks). If I expand the list to PrCs, it includes the Abjurant Champion and Swiftblade for awesome gishing, the Dragonmark Heir for dragonmark use, and finally, the Silver Key for its wonderful, wonderful capstone of "immunity to doors."

The Artificer used to be on this list, but writing a guide for it made me unable to play it and feel good about playing it, even when holding back from its most extreme power.

In PF, my favorite classes would be...

The Occultist: A great mechanical implementation and awesome fluff, though it's hampered by its presentation making it seem overly complex and boring
The Vigilante: I'm still shocked about this; the concept seems really silly, but the mechanics work great, and some of its archetypes are quite cool.
The Magus One of my favorite classes in 3.x as a whole; my only real complaint is that its lack of variety in its spells causes it to be rather monobuild.

With 3pp materials on the table, my list of favorite classes in PF would be include:

The Empath Medium: An archetype for the Medium in DSP's Psionics Augmented: Occult project. Actually my favorite class in all of 3.x, if I'm gonna be honest.
The Hidden Blade Unchained Rogue: I enjoy pretty much everything about how this initiating rogue plays. Eldritch Scoundrel optional, but also fun.
The Avant Guard Roil Dancer Kineticist: Strong and capable initiator kineticist that has a unique HP-tank bruiser sort of playstyle. It feels disingenuous to list this when I wrote both the Avant Guard and Roil Dancer, but oh well.


Something you may like: Astral Tracking was reprinted in the Dragon Compendium. That should make it legal at a few more tables/competitions.

[Forrestfire]

Something you may like: Astral Tracking was reprinted in the Dragon Compendium. That should make it legal at a few more tables/competitions.

Oh, that's neat, I wasn't aware. I had skipped out on the Dragon Compendium because of my long-running subscription to the magazine itself, and only recently rediscovered this feat when stepping through magazines in my free time for interesting things (see the link in my sig for the results). I'll need to look that up and see if anything changed about it.

[Erit]

As far as 3.5 goes, I'm quite fond of things like Monkey Grip and Improved Natural Attack, feats/abilities that allow characters to hit far above their weight class without magic. Yeah, they're not optimal, but damn it if they aren't cool to think about. For classes? Binder, which I've never played, is my hands-down favorite simply because of all the lore that went into it. Every vestige is a storytelling opportunity, and playing some hermetic scholar-type who researches esoteric existences has awesome implications.

As for Pathfinder? Fighters with Martial Study, I'm particularly fond of taking Prodigous Two-Weapon Fighting and hurling bastard swords for massive damage. Things like Ki Meditation into Serene Stride are amazing for anime nonsense, and I love Barbarians for some of the rage powers. I'm irrationally fond of Ground Breaker in particular.

And in both systems, Up The Walls is my favorite feat bar none.

[Gruftzwerg]

There are many things that I really like.

1) The Power Attack and Charge Feats ^^. I played many of these builds. They are simple and 1-trick ponies but sometimes that what you want for some hack 'n slay fun. Especially if it's a low lvl campaign. Oneshotting almost anything is always fun

2) Shape Changing builds. They are flexible , strong and fun to play.

3) Gish! Gish here, gish there.. did I mentioned that I love gish?^^ I like monkgish builds the most, because of their anime-martial arts fluff. Atm I am having fun with an Eldritch Claws build. Black flaming Claw fists, how cool is that xD add flying and you feel like a super saiyajin ;)

[ExLibrisMortis]

My favourite concept is "deep understanding of magic", usually by being int-based and mixing casting types. I also like gishes - Swiftblade, Ruby Knight Vindicator, Ordained Champion, all the classes that trade spellcasting for legitimately good abilities.

I'm currently playing a StP erudite, and I hope to someday play a Mind Mage, especially in a gestalt (wizard 3/cerebremancer 2/mind mage 10/cerebremancer +5//erudite 3/monk 2/erudite +1/wizard +1/erudite +1/wizard +1/warblade 11). It's going to be awesome!... someday. I hope.

Favourite feats: Master's Voice (hack zombies and mindless constructs with an UMD check), Linked Power + Metapower (+ synchronicity), Psicarnum Infusion + Azure Talent (if houseruled to provide temporary pp), Psiotheurgy, Martial Study and Martial Stance, Shape Soulmeld.

[meemaas]

The Avant Guard Roil Dancer Kineticist: Strong and capable initiator kineticist that has a unique HP-tank bruiser sort of playstyle. It feels disingenuous to list this when I wrote both the Avant Guard and Roil Dancer, but oh well.


I reiterate my point from earlier. That is by and large one of my favorite combinations for the Kineticist. I literally cannot wait to get to try it out in my real life game, and I love that you wrote them to be compatible.

[ekarney]

You take Renegade Mastermaker and turn yourself into a cyborg. I think that's just the neatest thing ever. So much so that I wrote a handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482653-Being-a-Steampunk-Magitek-Cyborg-A-Renegade-Mastermaker-Handbook).

Oh hell yes, I totally forgot that existed!
I am now going to spend a lot of time with my face in your handbook since I wasn't aware that one even existed.

[AnachroNinja]

My standard is wizards that do everything possible to never get hit, ever. It seems the closest to realism for me since I certainly wouldn't take the job training that includes "get hit in the face with an axe" as a required course (melee).

My personal favorite concept that I never get to play though is the warforged wild shape ranger into master of many forms. My DMs and I have always ruled that since warforged keep their armor bonus, that they transform into metallic versions of their wildshape forms. You lose the ability to hide as an animal, but it sure is cool.

[Malimar]

Oh hell yes, I totally forgot that existed!
I am now going to spend a lot of time with my face in your handbook since I wasn't aware that one even existed.

If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to speak up. The necro limit may have expired on that thread (I'm not sure to what extent the necro rule applies to threads that are meant to be long-term resources, but I assume it does?), but you can PM me if there's anything I can do to improve it.

[Quertus]

Not specific to 3.x, I like casters. In 3.x, they happen to be powerful, and generally play annoying resource management games, but that is largely irrelevant.

I like the undead. Classes that create undead, feats that boost your undead, and classes that turn undead from enemies to allies are great.

Classes that have Mind Rape and Dominate Monster, that can turn living foes into allies are nice, too.

I like characters that can do unique things. Classes that can create custom items and research custom spells certainly can qualify.

I like big tables of doom, like the 2e wild surge table, or the Warhammer Fantasy mutation table. AFAIK, 3.x has no such cool tables.

I like probability manipulation, rerolls, etc. I think about the best 3.x does there is classes that get access to Fate of One.

I like "jealousy"-based abilities. Illithid Savant, and classes with Clone are nice.

In theory, I like shapeshifting. In practice, I haven't found the sweet spot between "bland and useless" and "impossible to run, or breaks the game".

[Amphetryon]

I really like the debuffing gish archetype.

For specific Classes, I like Dread Necromancer, Totemist, Hexblade, Wilder, Psychic Warrior, and Binder. JPM and Anima Mage are my favorite Prestige Classes.

Favorite Feats are harder to choose. Generally, HoH, Libris Mortis, and LoM have my top choices.

[Vizzerdrix]

For feats, Im fond of improved familiar, extra familiar, dragonmarks (aberrant in particular), things that chain off of dragonmarks, troll Blooded, aberrant feats, and cerebrosis (from a dragon mag, but Im afb atm and dont remember what one).

For class concepts, Ive always wanted to play a plant based druid (using the plant companion out of dragon mags).
A druid who sees aberrations as just strange animals displased from their natural habitats (using aberrant wildshape and monsterous companion feats).
I partially played an alchemy focused wizard. It was lots of fun and did amazing but the game ended around 6th level. Id play another one in a heartbeat.
The weresheep flaw. I want to make something with it. I may have already but if I did then it needed improvement. Maybe a dwarven defender?
Id also like to make something from Lantan Artificer, and Shadowsmith. But not together. Both are horrably flawed though.
Id love to try a wizard who keeps taking extra familiar and have a gaggle of little critters around. Maybe a game where the party members are the familiars!
Last, I claim shapesand is a 100gp class feature, and Id like to play something one day to prove that. Maybe even homebrew a class. Yes I am aware of sandshaper prc. I dont think it does it right.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I'm a fan of the warrior who carries specific weapons for his various foes. The monster slayer specialist that knows the weaknesses of his enemies and uses that against them. It doesn't work out very well in 3.5 unless you're an Artificer as you have to carry several different weapons and a bunch of items to make it work, but it's fun as hell to try.

[Vizzerdrix]

I'm a fan of the warrior who carries specific weapons for his various foes. The monster slayer specialist that knows the weaknesses of his enemies and uses that against them. It doesn't work out very well in 3.5 unless you're an Artificer as you have to carry several different weapons and a bunch of items to make it work, but it's fun as hell to try.

Shapesand did you say? Get some and a fiend of possesion cohort and just go to town. :)