Feats and opposites.

[Morithias]

I've been looking through my feat indexes and such and have come to a realization that almost every feat is designed without variants in mind. Half the smiting feats require "Smite Evil" not "Smite Any", and there are very few multi-classing feats that can be used with variants.

I'm wondering if there's ever actually be an official stance on this. Like in the Draconium where it's talking about swapping out your Paladin Mount for a dragon, or your Blackguard Fiendish Servant for a Dragon. Good enough, until you realize that the feat that allows you combine ranger and paladin levels flat out says "Smite evil" and RAW can't be taken with Blackguard, when the whole point of the Blackguard originally was to be basically an evil Paladin on every level.

You can't even take Ranged Smite, RAW with blackguard.

So has there actually been any official word, or common consent about what you can and can't assume is swappable?

And no, I don't want "Ask your DM". It's obvious rule 0 is final answer, and a lot of the time such things only come into problem when we're dueling our builds.

[Popertop]

all the paladin feats should work for a blackgaurd,
unless it specifically states that you can't do it if you're evil.

probably just an oversight, I'm sure no one would complain

[Siosilvar]

If you don't want "ask your DM" as an answer...

If it doesn't say it counts as something else to qualify, then it doesn't, no matter how similar it might be.

With "ask your DM" included, there's at least some leeway.

[Popertop]

yeah, ask your DM will pretty much be the thing that matters most,
since in the book it says you can change anything you want to about the game

[Person_Man]

The RAW answer is that feats that require Smite Evil require Smite Evil. However, you should also note that some feats that require Smite Evil actually works on all Smite attempts, because they read "when you Smite an enemy" and not "when you use Smite Evil on an enemy."

Also note that the best classes for Smite optimization (which in itself isn't that great of an idea) are the Binder, the Pathfinder Paladin, and the Ordained Champion. The Binder can Smite Evil AND Good with the Andras vestige once every 5 rounds, and can also Smite Evil with the Desharis and The Triad vestiges. Pathfinder Paladin has amazing Smite abilities, and it's Smite Evil, so qualifying for feats would never be an issue. Ordained Champion can burn Turn attempts to gain additional Smite uses. For him qualifying might be an issue. But you could always take some Grey Guard so that you could Smite regardless of alignment.

[Morithias]

Thanks people. I'll be sure to keep all of your advice in mind. :)