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Amechra
2019-02-10, 04:15 PM
So, one of the issues with 3.X is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of feats... and most of them are just "you get +X to roll Y in situation Z". Talk about snoozeville. So I came up with this little system for when you don't feel like dumpster diving - ideally, you'd also make a list of cool feats for attractive people that you could pick from.

Whenever you would select a feat, you may instead select two of the following:
• Proficiency with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to a skill of your choice.
• A +1 circumstance bonus to a save of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to the check for a special attack.
• A particular skill is always a class skill for you.

In any situation where you could take a [Fighter] feat, you may also choose from the following list:
• A +1 circumstance bonus to attack rolls with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to damage rolls with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +1 circumstance bonus to AC when wearing a specific class of armor (light, medium, or heavy).
• +3 HP.

In any situation where you could take a [Psionic] feat, you may also choose from the following list:
• +1 power point.
• [special] Choose two non-special options from any list. You gain the benefits of those options while you are psionically focused.



This is more of a proof of concept than a full system, to be honest - ideally, I'd want stuff for Incarnum feats and the like.

Mith
2019-02-10, 04:29 PM
So, one of the issues with 3.X is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of feats... and most of them are just "you get +X to roll Y in situation Z". Talk about snoozeville. So I came up with this little system for when you don't feel like dumpster diving - ideally, you'd also make a list of cool feats for attractive people that you could pick from.

Whenever you would select a feat, you may instead select two of the following:
• Proficiency with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to a skill of your choice.
• A +1 circumstance bonus to a save of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to the check for a special attack.
• A particular skill is always a class skill for you.

In any situation where you could take a [Fighter] feat, you may also choose from the following list:
• A +1 circumstance bonus to attack rolls with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +2 circumstance bonus to damage rolls with a weapon group of your choice.
• A +1 circumstance bonus to AC when wearing a specific class of armor (light, medium, or heavy).
• +3 HP.

In any situation where you could take a [Psionic] feat, you may also choose from the following list:
• +1 power point.
• [special] Choose two non-special options from any list. You gain the benefits of those options while you are psionically focused.



This is more of a proof of concept than a full system, to be honest - ideally, I'd want stuff for Incarnum feats and the like.

So ugly people are just left with this list, eh? :smalltongue:

Personally, since I do not care for the feat bloat, I like this system. Would it be too much to have a skill feat give you an additional skill point? (Personally I always feel skill point starved in 3.5 personally.)

The only thing I can think of with this is that your Special Attacks are for the most part always available, but require more action economy resources to execute, with feat investment making it more efficient, and 10% easier to make the roll. But this last part may actually be against 3.5 design goals. I have more familiarity with 5e design goals, simply through more in depth working with them in comparison to 3.5.

noob
2019-02-11, 03:38 AM
So ugly people are just left with this list, eh? :smalltongue:

Personally, since I do not care for the feat bloat, I like this system. Would it be too much to have a skill feat give you an additional skill point? (Personally I always feel skill point starved in 3.5 personally.)

The only thing I can think of with this is that your Special Attacks are for the most part always available, but require more action economy resources to execute, with feat investment making it more efficient, and 10% easier to make the roll. But this last part may actually be against 3.5 design goals. I have more familiarity with 5e design goals, simply through more in depth working with them in comparison to 3.5.

I believe there is a feat that gives an extra skill point per level.

DeTess
2019-02-11, 07:13 AM
I believe there is a feat that gives an extra skill point per level.

There is (Nymph's kiss), but it's an [exalted] feat with some very specific fluff.

Anachronity
2019-02-11, 01:10 PM
Overall very neat idea. I also like the 'becomes a class skill' option, since that's a reasonable benefit from a feat that I often find myself wanting, but the actual feats that do that are scattered about and only available for certain arbitrary skills based on the overall theme of the feat, with accordingly arbitrary requirements.

Not sure 'circumstance' is the right bonus type? Circumstance bonuses stack with all other bonus types, which means that these might as well be untyped. The name 'circumstance' is just used because these are usually something the GM awards to you for doing something that should be easier than the mechanics say it is. The "unless they arise from essentially the same source" bit is just going to cause a whole bunch of questions. Are these intended to stack if you take them multiple times in place of multiple feats?

See: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm#modifierTypes

Also, 1 power point is not ever worth a feat or even half a feat. Neither is 3 hit points, really, but that's another topic entirely.
Being psionically focused also isn't particularly difficult to achieve, and losing those benefits when not focused isn't very costly to anyone who isn't a dedicated psionic character. It probably doesn't justify doubling the bonus.

Also worth noting that the "+1 circumstance bonus to AC when wearing a specific class of armor" would apply against touch attacks, even though the armor in question would not.


An idea for incarnum feats might be...

-"You gain 1 point of essentia"
-"[special] Choose two non-special options from any list that each grant a numerical bonus but do not grant essentia. Once per day, you can invest essentia into this feat, and gain the benefit of the chosen options, with each numerical bonus multiplied by the amount of invested essentia."

rferries
2019-02-13, 05:00 AM
I quite like this. Agreed with others that it would be nice to have these options as feats unto themselves (that can be taken more than once), for symmetry's sake.

PairO'Dice Lost
2019-02-13, 03:59 PM
The problem with this approach to replacing feats is that the list of "feats that this system covers" and "feats that people actually want to take" don't overlap at all.

The feats you've listed basically map to the following:
Simple Weapon Proficiency
Half of a +2/+2 skill feat
Half of Great Fortitude/Lightning Reflexes/Iron Will
Sorta kinda Ability Focus
A side benefit of Education/Martial Study/etc.
Weapon Focus
Weapon Specialization
Part of Heavy Armor Optimization
Toughness
Psionic Talent
Sorta kinda Inquisitor/Up The Walls/etc.

You'll notice that all of those are feats (or only parts of feats!) that basically no one cares about and wasn't dumpster-diving for in the first place, and even getting two of those benefits at once doesn't change that. Heck, you could give my martial PC proficiency, +1 to attack, and +2 to damage with all weapons for the cost of a single feat slot, and while it's better than not getting those bonuses I'd still prefer to take TWF, Power Attack, Martial Study, Improved Shield Bash, Precise Shot, or any feat that actually gives my character new options (or turns existing subpar options into usable ones).

And then there's the balance issue of providing bunches of numerical bonuses. If Mr. Fighter takes the "+1 with X weapon group" option four times, then he can Power Attack or Combat Expertise for -4 all the time for free, which combos very nicely with a bunch of real feats; if Mr. Rogue takes the "+2 damage with X weapon group" option four times, then he's dealing an extra +24 damage every round with his TWFing at mid levels, all of which is multiplied on a crit. And if they don't stack and/or you can only take each once, well, we're back to snoozeville with things no one wants to take.

There really isn't a good way to make a one-size-fits-all feat replacement system with a bunch of different bonuses. Either the bonuses are too small to bother with, or they're big enough to tempt people to pass up e.g. Divine Metamagic or Shock Trooper for them in which case they'll be incredibly broken. About the only way I can see this working out is to remove flat +X bonuses from feats and then grant these benefits in addition to normal feats, but while that cuts out a lot of chaff feats it doesn't entirely remove dumpster diving as is your stated goal.