We all like options in our games. No one likes to be given a single person’s idea of what they expect the player will like to play. There are preconceived notions about fantasy characters and how they behave, react, or interact with others. Feats are like the icing of character creation. They sugar coat the character and give them some unique ability that normally they wouldn’t have. But few realize that the shiny, happy bonus you get may not be what you need a few levels down the road. What then? What if your character concept changes? What if you change class or even race due to changes in conditions, curses, or magic? Will your feat choices hold up in the long haul?

I’ve recently gotten a cleric to 15th level after playing this character in 2 different game systems (2nd edition Advanced D&D and D&D 3.5). My interpretation of the character has changed over the years that I’ve played - from an acolyte with strong convictions, to a martyred prophet seeking to fulfill a prophecy, to the very mouthpiece of his goddess and future inheritor of an Epic template that will change him forever. My feat choices over the short term have been combat oriented since it seems we are more and more finding ourselves bogged down in melee with undead, outsiders, and evil wizards/clerics. My goals have no specific feats in mind - the character is defined by his religion, titles,  and class, not his feat selections. Yet so many others select feats that lead them on some grand quest to become the ultimate “something-or-other,” and very few actually take the time to think about why they are focusing on feat (or prestige class) acquisition other than the “kewl” powers they get when they level up.

There’s a nasty little truth built into the game that few ever consider: you are likely never going to have more than 7-8 feats during the game from levels 1-20.  Sure, some classes provide bonus feats (such as fighters, wizards, and monks), but these are from a limited list that hasn’t really been expanded all that much. Some of the classes have built in abilities that are bonus feats without choice (such as the ranger’s track and combat style options) or provide feat-like abilities (like the rogue’s special abilities and cleric’s domain powers). Barbarians, bards, druids, paladins, and sorcerers gain NO bonus feats and have few options as far as abilities go (even though they gain a specified ability every level or so…well, except sorcerers). They have to rely on their character level feats (and bonus feat if human) to make themselves stand out from the crowd.

The Player’s Handbook has in excess of 100 feats. There are a similar amount of feats in the Player’s Handbook II and the Epic Level Handbook. Each Complete Guide has about 30+ additional feats. Every supplement put out in the last 4 years has had 20+ feats. That leaves somewhere on the order of 1,000 feats to choose from! Some feats build on others; some stand alone. Some of the truly powerful feats have the most useless of pre-requisite feats (look at Dodge, for example). Others require about 4-6 pre-requisite feats before they can even be selected (thus guaranteeing that the character will never get the feat until very high in level - when it is likely that the feat will no longer be useful or super-”kewl”). Few players have the patience to wait so long for that sort of gratification, so they instead lose interest and grab a “short-term fix” feat instead, or something more useful to them at the moment.

Fighters are the only class that make out like a bandit from adopting feats of various types. By broadening their abilities, they allow themselves to be useful in all combat situations instead of just a specialist in one area of the game. Fighters end up with a whopping 18 feats (19 if human) by the time they are 20th level. That’s almost 1 feat per level! Fighters are therefore constantly rewarded for their choices and if they make a poor choice, they only have to wait a level or two to pick a more useful feat. Not so with the poor sorcerer who has to wait 3 levels before getting another feat if they made a poor choice.

Some of the feats adopted for 3.5 from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting were meant to be background bonus feats for Regions. As such they are more like background info translated into game stats. These were only supposed to be taken at 1st level and don’t provide much of a bonus for an ability you only get once every 3 levels. Many of these are the double-skill bonus feats that add +2 to two related skills based on the character’s background and skill choices (obviously you’ll take skill points in one of these skills or else it’s just a waste of a feat). Metamagic feats can only be taken at higher levels if you are looking to affect your useful spells. Taking a metamagic feat at 1st-level is next to useless since they all take up higher level spell slots. Item creation feats have caster level pre-requisites so there is a limit to those that can be selected as bonus Wizard feats.

Most of the problems I see in feats have to do with usefulness. At low levels, when feats would really help character survivability, they are less than useful unless you choose from a very limited list (for example, Toughness for wizards or sorcerers, Extra-Turning for clerics, Power Attack for fighters and barbarians, etc.). As the character increases in level, so do their opponents (through the magic of the CR system), so that the bonuses the feats once provided are no longer that useful (spells suffer the same problem). A few feats DO increase with level (namely Power Attack) and this is why such a feat is desirable. Each character type should have a feat of similar increase (maybe gain +1 Spell Focus per 5 levels, or clerics gain +1 turn attempt per 4 levels with Extra-Turning, or add +1 Dodge bonus per 3 levels, etc.). Such feats should be basic enough that anyone can take them, thus making the feat into a makeshift character ability, but one that others may not necessarily possess.

Given all the options available in all the books, you would think that the players would select the best and most meaningful feats available, but they always just go for the flashy, most useful-for-the-moment feats that really end up making the character a bunch of minor abilities. Since D&D 3.5 is all about gauging the power to the threat, feat choice becomes important at higher levels. Look at the importance of Spell Penetration for higher level spellcasters! In order to get the all powerful feats of the higher levels, you have to take the lower pre-requisite feats. The Player’s Handbook II is chock full of ridiculously powerful feats that require a load of pre-requisite. There is also a re-training rule in there that allows one to change their feats they selected at lower levels.

Perhaps items that grant feats as abilities are better to own than those that cause actual damage or protect against certain spells or attacks. For example, a metamagic rod is priceless to spellcasters! Are there weapons, armor, or other items that already incorporate feats? How would one go about making them? For example, boots of speed granting the Improved Initiative feat to the wearer, a circlet that granted a Skill Focus of +3 to Concetration checks, an enchanted axe that bestows the Power Attack feat on its wielder when used in melee, or enchanted gloves that bestow the Improved Disarm feat when worn. Some of these items were already made in the Neverwinter Nights computer game and were very useful to own. Making the items with feats that one could not normally gain right away (like Whirlwind Attack, Improved Critical, or Maximize Spell) makes the item much more useful to the user since that now enables them to select other feats when they make the required level. Perhaps this idea has already been implemented in some sourcebook - if it was, then I say great! But to my knowledge no rules exist for making such items in the Core Books, so that’s probably not the case.

In the end, you really shouldn’t build a character around a feat or list of related feats, even though this is what’s expected. Even building a character around a single class ability is tricky since you may find yourself useless against a class of monsters, in certain non-combat situations, or other circumstances. Feats should remain fluff, not crunch. They should add to the depth of the character, not become the actual character concept. Sure, that barbarian with the two-handed great axe and Power Attack is a memorable character, but what else can you say about him, especially since te tactic is so popular that EVERY barbarian becomes extremely similar? Is he more than just a damage range? What about that Rogue who does nothing but pick locks, spending every possible feat and skill point perfecting that ability to the point that they can do little else? Or that wizard who gave up on several other character-developing feats just to forge a ring that can cast a maximized, extended, enlarged fireball spell, only to face a cult of fire-worshipping clerics and their minions for three levels who are basically immune to these attacks?