Cameleon base feats

[Draxar]

What feats are good to take with a Cameleon, to maximise the use of their switchable feat?

For example, Combat Expertise (as well as being quite useful itself) gives you access to Improved Trip, Improved disarm, Improved Feint, and probably some more. What other feats are there out there which give you access to a wide variety of toys?

[Thurbane]

The heritage feats in CM (Fey, Fiendish) have a decent selection after the initial feat.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The Craft feats are an excellent use of downtime. The Shape Soulmeld feats from MoI also are awesome, since you gain 10 for 10 days of work that don't go away when you swap the feat for PA or whatever. Anything situational(Track) or anything that is normally limited by not scaling(Extra Spell) is nice, too.

[Draz74]

What feats are good to take with a Cameleon, to maximise the use of their switchable feat?

What other feats are there out there which give you access to a wide variety of toys?

Martial Study ... opens up the door to more Martial Study feats in the same discipline (with a wider variety of maneuvers), as well as Martial Stance in the same discipline.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Warlock12/Chameleon2 is the ultimate item crafter...

[Draz74]

Warlock12/Chameleon2 is the ultimate item crafter...

Some items require more than one Crafting Feat to make, though. So to make the ultimate item crafter, you might have to actually take some Crafting feats, not just rely on Chameleon floating feats.

IIRC, most such items (besides relics) have Craft Magic Arms and Armor as one of the two required feats.

There's also the whole XP cost thing, that makes the Artificer still a better crafter in some ways ... though you can get around that with Thought Bottle cheese.

[deuxhero]

Thought that was artificer.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Correction,

Warlock12/Chameleon2 is the best non-tier .5 item crafter. Artificers are Gouda, but they go out on a Limburger...

[Tavar]

The shape soulmeld is definitely the most powerful choice overall. You get bonuses to Int, skills, healing spells cast or cast on you, bonus armor, bonuses to saves, several minions...the list goes on. This of course would probably be looked at oddly by and DM, and most would say that you lose the soulmeld if you lose the feat.

Another interesting use would be the hidden Talent feat. Again, unless your dm rules that you lose the benefits of the feat if you lose the feat, you might be able to swing multiple level 1 powers and a large number of power points.

[Draxar]

The shape soulmeld is definitely the most powerful choice overall. You get bonuses to Int, skills, healing spells cast or cast on you, bonus armor, bonuses to saves, several minions...the list goes on. This of course would probably be looked at oddly by and DM, and most would say that you lose the soulmeld if you lose the feat.

I agree Shape Soulmeld is very useful and may often be a common choice. I would assume that I would lose the soulmeld if I lost the feat.

However, that was not what I was asking. What I was asking was this:

Given that I have a feat that I can change to be any feat I meet the prerequisites for, what feats (and indeed, skills) should I take with my 'normal' feat slots, in order to widen the range of options available to me.

[Jack_Simth]

I agree Shape Soulmeld is very useful and may often be a common choice. I would assume that I would lose the soulmeld if I lost the feat.

However, that was not what I was asking. What I was asking was this:

Given that I have a feat that I can change to be any feat I meet the prerequisites for, what feats (and indeed, skills) should I take with my 'normal' feat slots, in order to widen the range of options available to me.

Depends on your entry.

A Bard-5/Chameleon-X?

Practiced Spellcaster (Bard) and Craft Rod are surprisingly handy.

See, Craft Rod means you can use your floating feat for a metamagic feat... and spend time making the metamagic rods (which you then use for the metamagic feats when you're using your floating feat on something else). The rest of the time, you can use downtime for Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item, Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, or whatever you would have been building that day. You become a mini-artificer during down-time (especially as you can only craft one item on any given day anyway), with access to almost all of the item-crafting feats (of the Core ones, you're missing: Craft Staff, Forge Ring - as they require a higher caster level than you'll have).

[Draxar]

A Factotum Changeling, in a post-apocalyptic Eberron campaign.

Also, I dislike the 'spending your precious XP on items' mechanic, and thus probably won't be doing much crafting. So while that advice is useful for looking at this topic as a whole, it's not so great for me specifically.

[Jack_Simth]

A Factotum Changeling, in a post-apocalyptic Eberron campaign.

Also, I dislike the 'spending your precious XP on items' mechanic, and thus probably won't be doing much crafting. So while that advice is useful for looking at this topic as a whole, it's not so great for me specifically.

Ah.

Well, there's:
Improved Unarmed Strike (Deflect Arrows, Improved Grapple, Stunning Fist)
Combat Expertise (Improved: Disarm, Feint, Trip) - which you mentioned already.
Mounted Combat (Mounted Archery, Ride-by Attack, Trample)
Power Attack (Cleave, Improved: Bull Rush, Overrun, Sunder)
Point Blank Shot (Far Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot)
Two-weapon Fighting (Two-weapon defense, Improved two-weapon fighting)

... and that's just Core.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Also, I dislike the 'spending your precious XP on items' mechanic, and thus probably won't be doing much crafting. So while that advice is useful for looking at this topic as a whole, it's not so great for me specifically.

Not disagreeing, since I have the same reaction, but if the DM runs XP as he's supposed to, you actually gain XP by crafting. By remaining a level behind the group(which does hurt), you gain more XP each combat. That bonus can be used either to catch up to the group, or to craft even more items. The math is a bit difficult, but generally, if you are confident enough to stay a level behind, the boost in wealth more than makes up for it.

[Draxar]

Aye, the DM has pointed that trick out to me a few times, but I'm still very much not fond of the idea. Partly because I dislike the thought of being a level behind the rest of the party, and partly because you then need to absolutely make sure that the items you make, make up for that level lost, and there's also the issue of whether you make stuff for other PCs, at which point your precious XP is helping the others who are already a level ahead of you.

I'd be willing to play an Artificer (indeed, another of my backup characters for this game is a warforged artificer making maximum use of the fact his XP counts double for making Magic Arms and Armour), with the bonus XP and the ability to deconstruct items you don't want.

Personally I like the Pathfinder system. Yes, I accept it changes what WBL is, but mostly I think that if someone's willing to throw feats at making stuff, they should be able to get the benefits of such without yet more drainage.

[Darrin]

I agree Shape Soulmeld is very useful and may often be a common choice. I would assume that I would lose the soulmeld if I lost the feat.

Actually, the soulmeld stays shaped until you unshape it. From MoI:

"Once shaped, a soulmeld remains in effect until the character chooses to unshape it (typically to shape a new soulmeld in its place). A soulmeld can remain shaped for a day, a month, a year, or even a character’s entire life."

A chameleon can shape up to 10 soulmelds (one for each chakra) over 10 days and enjoy their basic effects pretty much permanently. He'll need a high Con score, though (maximum number of shaped soulmelds = Con score - 10).

[Draxar]

Actually, the soulmeld stays shaped until you unshape it. From MoI:

"Once shaped, a soulmeld remains in effect until the character chooses to unshape it (typically to shape a new soulmeld in its place). A soulmeld can remain shaped for a day, a month, a year, or even a character’s entire life."

A chameleon can shape up to 10 soulmelds (one for each chakra) over 10 days and enjoy their basic effects pretty much permanently. He'll need a high Con score, though (maximum number of shaped soulmelds = Con score - 10).

However. there's also a limit on the number of shaped soulmelds you have 'up' based on whatever gives you the ability to shape them. I would consider the Shape Soulmeld feat to give you the abilty to have one soulmeld shaped. I would consider losing the feat to lose you that slot, causing the soulmeld to unshape.

I can see what you are suggesting, but I'd cosider that munchkinry, and I've no interest in doing what I would consider to be a direct abuse of the rules.

[The Gilded Duke]

If you are a changeling chameleon. Racial Emulation from Races of Eberron. Lets you count as the race of a humanoid creature you are shapeshifted to resemble for spells, feats, and other prerequisites.

So you can do things like make yourself look like a catfolk, and then pick up catfolk pounce as your floating feat. Or make yourself into one of the dragonmarked races and pick up any least dragonmark feat.