Feats
Including Traits and Flaws!

The Player's Handbook states that a feat is "...a special feature that either gives your character a new capability or improves one that he or she already has." To put it another way - feats are abilities that let you break the rules. You want to wrestle an opponent without provoking an attack of opportunity? Take a feat. You want your character to be more resistant to fear spells? Take a feat. There is a feat for any conceivable eventuality in the game, and that is the problem.

More that seven hundred feats have been published in official D&D sources from Wizards of the Coast. The list is daunting to say the least. This section of the site hopes to help the player make the right selection that benefits his character. You have a finite number of feats... don't waste them!

Below are links to more information on feats. There is a list of new feats (mostly necessitated by changes I have made to the system). I also include rules for buying feats with experience points - because sometimes you just need that one more feat to round out your character. I also use the rules for Weapon Group Feats that first appeared in the Unearthed Arcana - those rules appear in full in this section.

More on Feats

• New Feats
• Buying Feats
• Weapon Group Feats

Advice on Selecting Feats

I will be in a position to say more on selecting feats whent he Master List section is finally up and running. However, there are a few tips I can give the new player in regard to their feat selection. There are so many different feats to choose from that it can be difficult to decide what is best for your character. Here is my advice:

• The Player's Handbook is the core rulebook for a reason. It offers a wide variety of starting feats for any character. You could do worse than limiting your choice just to that book. The PHB contains the most basic and the most common feats known by characters. Always look in here first.
• Does your character class have specific feat list you can look at? If you are playing a fighter then look at the list of Bonus Fighter Feats. If you are a spell-caster look at the Metamagic and Item Creation feats. This will give you some idea of the type of feats available to you.
• Is there a class specific book you can look at? If you are playing a martial character then look in the fighting-specific feats listed in Tome and Blood and Complete Warrior. If you are playing Druid then take a gander at one is on offer in Masters of the Wild. Looking in the right book can save a lot of time.
• Are you working toward a particular prestige class? Most prestige classes will demand you know certain feats in order to qualify. What are those feats? The decision as to which feats to take might be taken out of your hands.
• Have a look at the Regional Feats. These have to be selected at first level, so they might be a good place to start during character generation.
• Finally, ask the advice of more seasoned players or the GM. If you can explain what you want your character to do then someone might remember a feat that does the trick.

Magic versus Psionic Feats

The Player's Handbook and Expanded Psionics Handbook list a number of feats that modify magic spells and psionic powers, and other feats that allow characters to create magical or psionic items. For the purposes of the House Rules, and in keeping with the ethos that psionics is just another term for magic, I rule that different feats that do the same thing are interchangable. This is best explained by way of an example.

Extend Spell (PHB p94) is a metamagic feat that doubles the duration of any spell that does not have an instantaneous or permanent duration. The metapsionic feat Extend Power (PSI p46) does exactly the same thing but for psionic powers. As far as I am concerned these two feats are the same feat. A multiclass wizard/psion who has either one of these feats would be able to extend either his magic spells or his psionic powers.

The following table lists the most common metamagic and item creation feats along with their psionic equivalents. If a character selects one of these feats he is automatically considered to have the other. Some feats have no equivalent. Normally, I will refer to feat only by its magical version - when I do so, however, I mean both the magical and psionic versions. It is likely that this list is not complete, however the principle behind it remains sound for any other similar feat you discover.

The Psionic Focus

According to the standard rules, the use of many metapsionic feats require a manifester to "expend their psionic focus" (see Expanded Psionics Handbook p37). The psionic focus is both a blessing and a curse to psions. It enables them to achieve feats of concentration generally unreachable by non-psionics but it also means that once they have used a metapsionic feat they need to meditate for a full round (provoking an attack of opportunity) before they can use another one.

This complicates things when a character can cast both spells and manifest psionic powers and has one feat that can augment both types of spells. Therefore I rule this: psions who expend their psionic focus to cast a metamagically enhanced spell cast the spell as a standard action. Psions can still metamagically enhance their spells without expending their psionic focus, but the spells are cast as full round actions. The use of the psionic focus for activating other psionic feats or "taking 15" on a concentration check is unchanged.

This means that a multiclass psion/sorcerer could expend his psionic focus to metamagically enhance an arcane spell and cast it as a standard action, even though sorcerers normally must take a full round to cast such spells.

Traits

Traits are an option I include relatively unwillingly. Introduced by p86 of Unearthed Arcana traits are supposed to be roleplaying aids. They define a part of the character's personality or physique - such as Inattentive, Skinny or Dishonest and attempt to convert it into game terms. A trait grants a bonus to a certain skill or other game related mechanic along with a comensurate penalty to another related area. It is very difficult to Min-Max traits because the areas of benefit and penalty are so closely related, and often the penalty is greater than the benefit.

Players are entitiled to select two traits at first level, but they should discuss this choice with the GM who (if it is me) will attempt to talk them out of it. I don't really see what traits add, but I am willing to be convinced. If you want to roleplay an honest character then roleplay an honest character! You don't need a +1 bonus to diploamacy and a -1 penalty to bluff to improve your roleplaying! Stil, I suppose there might be occassions where Traits can draw something out of a player that wasn't there originally.... have a look at UE during character generation and see.

Flaws

If I dislike Traits then the rules for Flaws are close to pushing me over the edge. Flaws appear on p91 of Unearthed Arcana and smack too much of GURPS for my taste. The idea is that flaws are the anti-feats. You can take up to two flaws during character generation and for each flaw you take you get a bonus feat.

The thing is, I can see players quickly crippling their character to get an advantage in the game. What is to stop all invokers taking a -2 to hit in mêlée combat in return for an extra metamagic feat for their ranged spells? Now flaws tend to be more powerful than feats in an attempt to stop that from happening, but I see trouble ahead..... "So, you're playing a one-legged dwarf with three months to live... and you have an damage bonus of what?"

The UE has a very small list of flaws (only twelve) although players could devise their own if they wanted to. Personally, I don't think that flaws are necessary. If you want more feats then buy them with your experience points - it is cheaper and safer. However, if you really want to have a flaw then discuss it with the GM. If we can come up with a good story-related reason for it that adds to the roleplaying goodness of the group then I'm happy to go along with it.