Broken Dragon Feats

[zerombr]

I'm curious, what are your favorite broken feats from Dragon, that only the most reckless or obtuse DM would let you get away with.

My favorite two are

Improved Combat Reflexes - lets you make a two AoOs against a foe that provokes once, the second one at a -5

Greater Combat Reflexes - lets you make three AoOs against a foe that provokes once, the second is at -5, and the third is at -10.

these two are SO exploitable with Rolibar's gambit/Karmic Strike, and even more so factoring in Double Hit....insanity

[Fax Celestis]

I'm a fan of Customize Domain.

[Stupendous_Man]

Chicken Infested

[zerombr]

care to list their descriptions, to those unenlightened?

[Fax Celestis]

Customize Domain lets you remove spells from one of your domains and replace them with equally-leveled spells off of any list that are thematically appropriate. It's an interesting feat, but it can also be horrendously broken.

[Saph]

Keen Intellect was a feat that let you use your Intelligence modifier instead of your Wisdom one for Will saves and a few skills. There's also Faerie Mysteries Initiate - I think this was supposed to add your Int bonus to your HP but due to some bad writing, ended up sounding like 'use Int instead of Con for HP every level'. Both are munchkin magnets.

And then there's Easy Metamagic, which lets you reduce the level adjust of a metamagic feat. As a general rule, anything that allows you to get metamagic without paying the full price for it has enormous abuse potential.

- Saph

[Gorbash]

Keen Intellect was a feat that let you use your Intelligence modifier instead of your Wisdom one for Will saves and a few skills.

I want that one. Which Dragon is it from?

[afroakuma]

A player wanted to use Faerie Mysteries Initiate in my game. That was a no.

[Saph]

I want that one. Which Dragon is it from?

Can't remember. I think it was suppposed to be a Kitsuki family ability from the Legend of the Five Rings Rokugan setting.

- Saph

[zerombr]

Isn't there a splatbook feat called Mind over Matter, that does the int bonus to hp?


and you get +1 hp for every metamagic feat you learn

[Blood_Lord]

Keen Intellect was a feat that let you use your Intelligence modifier instead of your Wisdom one for Will saves and a few skills. There's also Faerie Mysteries Initiate - I think this was supposed to add your Int bonus to your HP but due to some bad writing, ended up sounding like 'use Int instead of Con for HP every level'. Both are munchkin magnets.

1) Keen Intellect also uses Int for several previously Wis based skills.

2) I'm pretty sure that replacing Con with Int is exactly what FMI was intended to do. Since the actual wording is: "Use your Int bonus in place of your Con bonus to calculate HP."

[Saph]

2) I'm pretty sure that replacing Con with Int is exactly what FMI was intended to do. Since the actual wording is: "Use your Int bonus in place of your Con bonus to calculate HP."

Yes, but that's so obviously broken that you need a further explanation. My guess is that they meant it to be like the old 3.0 Mind over Matter feat, where it replaced Con with Int for level 1 only, but someone didn't get the memo.

Edit: Oh, and it's apparently a Greyhawk regional feat. Well, that gives a second reason to say no to it, like you need one. :P

- Saph

[Kurald Galain]

A player wanted to use Faerie Mysteries Initiate in my game. That was a no.

Interestingly, this one and a few others are extremely frequent suggestions in any character creation thread, with the apparent implication that they are commonly allowed in a game (which I'm reasonably certain they're not, for a variety of reasons).

[Coplantor]

A fellow player's character has Fearie Mysteries as a feat. The condition the DM put was that she should take it as her first level feat, but it will take her from one to three character levels to find another person to perform the ritual with.

[Gorbash]

What does Faerie Mysteries Initiate do? Except from sounding exquisitely girly.

Keen Intellect is from Dragon #318. In addition to letting you use Int for Will saves it also let's you do the same for Heal, Spot, Sense Motive and Survival.

[Coplantor]

FMI ,eakes you use your int bonus instea of your con bonus to calculate Hp

[Ponce]

I'd feel the need to take a shower if I made serious use of Easy Metamagic.

[KKL]

I really like the feat that replaces one of your casting stats with another stat, only because I find the idea of casting magic with your Dexterity to be awesome.

Breakdancing for magic? Sign me up.

[NEO|Phyte]

What does Faerie Mysteries Initiate do? Except from sounding exquisitely girly.

It has a few ritual things you can do for various benefits, one of which is an, uh, "act" with another person with the feat that lets you use Int rather than Con for HP.

[Coplantor]

I really like the feat that replaces one of your casting stats with another stat, only because I find the idea of casting magic with your Dexterity to be awesome.

Breakdancing for magic? Sign me up.

Wich feat allows you to do that?

[Blood_Lord]

Yes, but that's so obviously broken that you need a further explanation. My guess is that they meant it to be like the old 3.0 Mind over Matter feat, where it replaced Con with Int for level 1 only, but someone didn't get the memo.

Edit: Oh, and it's apparently a Greyhawk regional feat. Well, that gives a second reason to say no to it, like you need one. :P

- Saph

I'm sorry, how is replacing one stat with another broken? You don't need a further explanation. It's called:

Hey, Elven Wizards have Con penalties and that sucks because con is needed by everyone, let's give them a feat that changes it to Int.

And then they did, that was their intention, you don't need further explanation, they already had the old Mind Over Matter feat, so if they had wanted it to be like that they could have.

Which is more likely: A huge error, somebody had no idea what they were writing.

WotC decided to give Wizards a super cool option to reward them for high Int because they were under some mistaken impression that Wizards had low HP and that mattered.

The only complaint you have is: "It makes Wizards have too much HP." Which is precisely the point, it's supposed to give them more HP.

I mean, toughness is better then Mind over Matter in most cases. Some feats aren't balanced on Weapon Focus. They are balanced on Quicken Spell or Shocktrooper.

[mikeejimbo]

So, a Wizard who takes Keen Intellect and Faerie Mysteries Initiate doesn't need Con (because of FMI), doesn't need Wis (Because of Keen Intellect) and doesn't need Cha (because he's not the face). He needs Dex (AC, reflex, Initiative), Str (for ranged touch only, really). Say, isn't there a feat that lets you use Int for some Dex things?

[Coplantor]

insightfull reflexes allows you to use int rether than dex to calculate your reflex saves. And str is not used on ranged touch attacks, dex is for that.

[Fax Celestis]

So, a Wizard who takes Keen Intellect and Faerie Mysteries Initiate doesn't need Con (because of FMI), doesn't need Wis (Because of Keen Intellect) and doesn't need Cha (because he's not the face). He needs Dex (AC, reflex, Initiative), Str (for ranged touch only, really). Say, isn't there a feat that lets you use Int for some Dex things?

Ranged touches use Dex, not Str.

[mikeejimbo]

Ranged touches use Dex, not Str.

Oh, that's right! So, our Wizard only needs Dex and Int, eh?

[Fax Celestis]

Oh, that's right! So, our Wizard only needs Dex and Int, eh?

Pretty much, yeah.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

I'm sorry, how is replacing one stat with another broken? You don't need a further explanation. It's called:
Hey, Elven Wizards have Con penalties and that sucks because con is needed by everyone, let's give them a feat that changes it to Int.

A wizard isn't going to have more than +5 modifier to constitution, even with a bonus item. That gives +100 HP.
The same wizard is going to have a +12 modifier to intelligence. That's +240 HP.

Effectively, Faerie Mysteries Initiate means +140 HP for wizards plus no longer needing to pay 36.000 GP for constitution boost item. Does the +140 HP and 36.000 GP for a single feat seem balanced to you?

[Coplantor]

With the right feats, wizards are so SAD.

[Fax Celestis]

A wizard isn't going to have more than +5 modifier to constitution, even with a bonus item. That gives +100 HP.
The same wizard is going to have a +12 modifier to intelligence. That's +240 HP.

Effectively, Faerie Mysteries Initiate means +140 HP for wizards plus no longer needing to pay 36.000 GP for constitution boost item. Does the +140 HP and 36.000 GP for a single feat seem balanced to you?

I dunno. Why don't you do a similar cost comparison to the potential benefits of, say, Power Attack?

[SurlySeraph]

I really like the feat that replaces one of your casting stats with another stat, only because I find the idea of casting magic with your Dexterity to be awesome.

Breakdancing for magic? Sign me up.

If that's an actual feat, I now have an excellent character concept to apply it. In two words: Barbarian Batman. In more words: an orc who casts spells by hitting reality with his axe so hard that it conforms to his will.