What are everyone's favorite "5th Wheel" feats?

[Deadkitten]

So i was going on a feat dive the other day and I came across a feat called Fell Conspiracy from heroes of Horror. Its a ceremony feat that, only really requires knowledge religion to be used, and has some pretty nifty abilities for your entire party depending on your ranks. Starts out with message at will, a potentially hefty bonus to listen and spot paired with telepathy within 100ft of each other, and ends with requiring all of you to be flat footed or flanked for any of you to have those conditions as long as your within 100ft of each other.

This got me thinking, Fell Conspiracy is a fantastic feat, but its generally hard to fit into most builds due to stuff that usually fits better for how your character will perform. So I guess the Question i ask the community is: what feats are similar to the saying of the bard being the 5th wheel of an adventuring party?

I generally define that as, something you would ALMOST take as a feat but getting it for free would be really cool and fun.

[Jervis]

Fling ally from Races of Stone. Its so situational and so hard to qualify for but sooo funny. My only issue with it is that its existence means that you can't do that with a strength check. Then again there are a lot of feats like that in 3.5.

[Particle_Man]

There was a whole list of feats (I think in PHB II?) whose prerequisite included having a specific spell cast on you, and they were flavourful. I think if you got those feats for free after having the relevant spell cast on you I would find it cool, but I don't think I would drop a feat slot on any of them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

There was a whole list of feats (I think in PHB II?) whose prerequisite included having a specific spell cast on you, and they were flavourful. I think if you got those feats for free after having the relevant spell cast on you I would find it cool, but I don't think I would drop a feat slot on any of them.

Spell-touched feats. They're in UA and on the srd (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm).

[T.G. Oskar]

There was a whole list of feats (I think in PHB II?) whose prerequisite included having a specific spell cast on you, and they were flavourful. I think if you got those feats for free after having the relevant spell cast on you I would find it cool, but I don't think I would drop a feat slot on any of them.

Spelltouched feats (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm), and they're on Unearthed Arcana.

That said: Live My Nightmare is pretty cool for an NPC, if you feel your PCs are abusing divination too much. Send a Scrying spell, suddenly they must make a Will save and a Fort save or potentially die. Momentary Alteration also allows you to turn into an Avariel or Crucian for 1 minute; if you have a way to have Alter Self cast on you constantly (maybe a potion?), you could use it to get a crucial form for a crucial battle. It's arguably one of the better feats out of the list.

[Toliudar]

Spelltouched feats (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm), and they're on Unearthed Arcana.

I just read those over and oh my goodness they're fun! Not useful enough to take as a choice for most PC's, but I love the idea of characters building up to getting them as a bonus feat thanks to exposure.

[Troacctid]

Dragonmarks!

[Asmotherion]

I like reserve feats a lot thematically, but between Pre-reqs for PRCs and Metamagic feats, I rarelly have space for them.

I'd be very happy if my DM allows one for free.

[ChaosStar]

Feats that require sucky feats first, like Spring Attack. Those sucky feat requirements mean I'd almost never take the feat since I'd find some other way of doing it.

[T.G. Oskar]

I just read those over and oh my goodness they're fun! Not useful enough to take as a choice for most PC's, but I love the idea of characters building up to getting them as a bonus feat thanks to exposure.

Legacy Items have that concept, where if you complete a ritual, you get the feat for free. IIRC, there's also Achievement feats in Pathfinder 1e, but I'm not sure if those could be gained for free or just got an improvement if you got the achievement.

In either case, it'd be fun as a houserule - if you comply with the prereqs, you get the feat for free, but perhaps only one or two such feats at a time. (Maybe 1 for spellcasters, 2 for half-casters and 3 for non-casters; that would mean manifesters, meldshapers, binders, truenamers and shadowcasters would count as casters, whereas initiators would count as non-casters.) Or maybe limit the amount of spelltouched feats you could get to the Tier of your classes and the levels you have on them.

In fact...it'd be cool if you do that to 5th Wheel feats. Food for thought.

[Thurbane]

Draconic Aura is cool (if you are dragon blooded), especially if the DM allows you to select from Dragon Shaman auras as well as those in the feat.

[bean illus]

I've always love Quick Reconnoiter. A free Listen and Spot every round, and +2 initiative? Great on a Scout.

[radthemad4]

Shape Soulmeld and/or Open Chakra in general (e.g. Pauldrons of Health for disease and nausea immunity, Blink Shirt for a very short range teleport as a standard action at will). They're neat, but I usually want to do other things with my feats (or need them to meet prereqs for something).

[Deadkitten]

good discussion so far.:smallsmile:
i actually forgot about the good old core default improved initiative. my DM always says, if you dont know what to pick, just grab improved initiative :smallbiggrin:

[tiercel]

The Fey Heritage (Complete Mage) line of feats: they feel like they’d fit thematically (and even mechanically) on a warlock or bard: boosting enchantments, giving DR/cold iron, supplying a handful of actual useful (Sp) disguise, enchantments, summon, dimension door....

They’re actually pretty nice — the hard part is justifying the opportunity cost of feats that might otherwise be part of a particular build

[Akal Saris]

Tiercel beat me to it, I was also going to say the Fey/Infernal Heritage feat line. It looks like a fun package of abilities but man, it needs to be 1 fewer feats to get all the goodies.

I'm also a fan of the various [Vile] feats from Elder Evils and Book of Vile Darkness: I had a character build once that basically took all of them and used binder shenanigans to negate the ability score damage from using some of them.

I also love the feats that boost multi-classing by sharing abilities, and there were a ton printed in some Dragon Magazine issues, but a lot of them are sharing class abilities that just kind of suck, like Wild Empathy.

[Doctor Despair]

Tiercel beat me to it, I was also going to say the Fey/Infernal Heritage feat line. It looks like a fun package of abilities but man, it needs to be 1 fewer feats to get all the goodies.

I'm also a fan of the various [Vile] feats from Elder Evils and Book of Vile Darkness: I had a character build once that basically took all of them and used binder shenanigans to negate the ability score damage from using some of them.

I also love the feats that boost multi-classing by sharing abilities, and there were a ton printed in some Dragon Magazine issues, but a lot of them are sharing class abilities that just kind of suck, like Wild Empathy.

Insane Defiance + Naberius is pretty fun. Throw your enemies abilities back at them -- or target yourself with your own abilities, and redirect them at enemies at a much higher DC!

[Telonius]

The "[thing] of the Mage" feats from Dragon 359 (p. 124-125). They're ridiculously flavorful, but the mechanical benefit is usually so minor (for a caster) that I'd almost never take it. Name of the Mage is something a villainous 20th-level caster ought to just have.

[Demidos]

Keen Eared Scout.

I also loved the Fell conspiracy feat, but it gets so much juicier with Keen Eared scout. Basically, if you make listen checks, you can ask the DM to tell you the size, location, speed of whatever caused the sound......along with the type of armor it wears, everything it is carrying, and what type and subtype the creature is.

Cut to your DM having to tell you the mysterious cloaked stranger is actually a undead/devil/half-saguahin, and that it is carrying 3 gold coins, 12 silver, 315 copper, a ring, and an eagle's feather.

It's a pretty useful feat, but also just pure comedy gold!

[Wildstag]

Shape Soulmeld and/or Open Chakra in general (e.g. Pauldrons of Health for disease and nausea immunity, Blink Shirt for a very short range teleport as a standard action at will). They're neat, but I usually want to do other things with my feats (or need them to meet prereqs for something).

Shape Soulmeld and Open Chakra are actually pretty useful for some builds, since you can get Uncanny Dodge and Evasion from feats instead of class levels. I've certainly considered using the feats for entry into Thief-Acrobat from Fighter, to have as full a BAB as possible.

As for my entry into the discussion, Wild Cohort is really great in a lot of builds, but the cohort dies too easily. It doesn't work well for getting mounts, but hey, it can make a Knight actually have a mount for all those mounted feats.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Endurance. Running forever and sleeping in armor are both cool benefits, but there's always either something better to take or something that qualifies you for something cooler.

[Wildstag]

Steadfast Determination is pretty much the only reason I've ever seen people take Endurance.

[Doctor Despair]

Steadfast Determination is pretty much the only reason I've ever seen people take Endurance.

I liked it on my Master of Many Forms ranger build. More stat consolidation for those high-con forms! :)

[Wildstag]

I forgot about it being a PrC prerequisite. I love the Primeval, and Endurance is required for it.

And as a joke, I've used the Ring of Arming on a few characters to have a backup magic armor as pajamas. Sleep comfortably in the armor so you can take an ambush attack, then switch into the full-plate when you're up and ready for a scrap.

Endurance is kinda boring by itself though. It's really only good for what other things rely on it.

[Thurbane]

The Strong Stomach feat has Endurance as a req: it renders you immune to Sickened, and lessens Nauseated to Sickened. Not half bad. Maybe not worth a feat, but still decent.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Wow, those Spelltouched feats are pretty legit!

Very flavorful, but some are fairly widely applicable: +2 NA, all Knowledges as trained, DR 3/Bludgeoning, 1 Commune question per week.

Other can be incredibly clutch: mirroring Power Words, auto-detecting as crying sensor so you aren't scry and fried, sending a Phantasmal Killer when you are scribed upon, automatically faking you've been Domimated/Charmed.

And I find the one that redirects Lightning damage just plain cool, even if it isn't super strong.

[Talverin]

It's a Homebrew feat, but there's an 'extension' of Endurance called 'Campaigner.'
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Campaigner_(3.5e_Feat)

Fluff as hell, something most people would never actively spend a feat on, but I feel like it's a really great 'gift' feat that a DM could give a character for their backstory and such.