Fun Feat Selection Help

[Gene,Eric'sUser]

Hi all,

New to GiTP, and (relatively) new to 4e. Recently, our GM gave us the option to take a "for fun" (read flavorful) feat, at paragon tier or lower. Ideally these feats would be noncombat or slightly combative "flavorful" feats to add some zest to our (pretty well optimized) party and give us the opportunity to take a feat that we would never take otherwise. The first, (and really only) options I can see for this type of thing are the Arcane Familiar feat and the Multi-classing/Skill Focus Feats and the Linguist feat. I think the Linguist and Familiar feat are more what the GM was going for. Anyways, my question is, without regard to race/class what are some good options for fun, flavorful feats?

Thanks!

[Dimers]

Top pick for me would be a Heritage feat. Very flavorful, often applicable beyond combat. They can almost always connect your character to organizations or traditions in the game world.

Some skill powers are flavorful and noncombat(ish), so Skill Power feat is a good choice.

I use Wild Talent Master a lot.

A few more:

dragonmark feats
jack of all trades
any Channel Divinity feat
Alchemist, Ritual Caster, Practiced Study, ((ritual type)) Mastery, Herbalist
any guild or tribal feat
far thought (goes well with Wild Talent Master, thematically)
foreign memories, deep sage
winter walker
fey bond, fey cantrip, fey-minded
long jumper, sure climber
connected
inner compass
light of order
armored endurance/swiftness training
martial adaptation/flexibility/ploy/readiness
steady feet
traveler's insight

[ThePurple]

Some skill powers are flavorful and noncombat(ish), so Skill Power feat is a good choice.

Skill Power is a pretty powerful feat, in my experience, because there are some skill powers that are straight up *good* (I've seriously considered outright banning Arcane Mutterings from my game because it's too damned useful). It's important to remember that, unlike most of the other power feats, Skill Power straight up gives you an additional utility power rather than giving you the option to replace. In my mind, a "for fun" feat should be one that basically doesn't provide any real tactical advantage or would only provide one in such specialized circumstances that you would never take it willingly.

Similarly, some of the dragonmarks are incredibly powerful and form the basis of specific optimization paths.

If you want to go in a purely gamist fashion, this is a great time for everyone to take the same tribal or guild feat, as suggested, since it can provide a decent bonus and is a good demonstration of teamwork and group cohesion from a lore perspective (Bloodied Spear is a way for the party to provide a huge boon the party's defender; Enduring Mountain would basically give *everyone* epic tier Swift Recovery that stacks; Swift Jaguar is a better Improved Initiative). If you're actually having everyone spend a real feat on one of these, it's not particularly good, but, if you're getting it for free, it's amazing.

To the OP, the Multiclass feats actually tend to be so powerful that they're something that *every* optimized build ends up taking at least one of: the actual written effects of the feat might be kinda meh (some are utterly amazing though) but the real benefit is in allowing you to access all of the feats and PPs that class gets, which can be extremely good.

"For fun" feats are probably best reserved to those that improve non-combat performance: JoAT, Skill Focus/Training, Ritual Caster (or other "Ritual" feats), Linguist, etc. The closest I'd get to affecting combat functionality with a "for fun" feat would be a Channel Divinity feat for specific deities (not something like Storm Sacrifice or Solar Enemy which can very easily be optimized around).

[Gene,Eric'sUser]

Thanks for all the input!

I think I'm going to try to sell the GM and players on the tribal feats, which looks pretty useful, or the heritage feats. If that doesn't work, I'll revert back to Arcane Familiar (Book Imp) or Wild Talent Master.

Or just bite the bullet and take Skill Power (Arcane Mutterings). Our party lost its bard recently, and with him died all of our chances at reasonably passing any social encounter or skill challenge.... It would be nice to not have to punch our way out every tavern, Kingdom, dragon den.... and go on the run because we were "disrespecting the (insert establishment here)".

Thanks again!

[MwaO]

Arcane Familiar(Disembodied Hand, Rakshasa Claw and other free action swap familiars) can be ridiculously powerful depending on access to magic items. Multiclass feats as noted are really good.

Note, if you have a Wizard in the party, 2 of the cantrips you can take are ones allowing you to use Arcana instead of social skills - Suggestion and Spook...