Well, the way they're presented in 4E, it does mention that they're special and only very rarely seen outside the house/race lines, but it also explicitly says that player characters should feel free to take them anyway regardless of race because a heroic PC is by definition already a remarkable and anomalous individual. It's rare to find people who can snap off two arrows at a time to hit different targets, who can make people shake off sword wounds with a rousing cry of inspiration, or evoke magic with a snap of their fingers, but level one PCs can all do stuff that.
From the point of view of the 4E game design, it's an anomaly... a misstep in my opinion... to have these feats which are essentially double and triple powered feats... and just have them be regular single slot feats. The equivalent would be if there was a seventh attribute that was as important as all the other attributes are individually but also increased all three of your defenses the same and could be used for any attack roll, but the attribute still cost the same as the others in the point buy system with the explanation "well it's supposed to be rare to have a high value"... the 4th Edition moved away from putting things like that into DM discretion, with the idea of embracing the Big Damn Heroness of it all. There are options presented to DMs and there's always the possibility of house rules, but if something is listed as a heroic tier feat, it's a heroic tier feat.
It feels to me like they took a 3E idea and didn't think very hard about how to actually translate it into 4E. And maybe Eberron characters are just supposed to be a little overpowered compared to other campaign settings as a result of this, but it feels like something weird is going on when there's one feat you can take that gives you mastery of three languages and another feat that gives you mastery of FOUR languages plus bonuses to magic scrolls plus some ritual mastery, likewise a mounted combat feat and then another feat that gives you that feat plus bonuses plus rituals.
I don't think it breaks the game... it just means that almost every Eberron player will have a Dragonmark unless they're a die had "concept gamer" who won't take feats that don't fit their character concept, and if that's the intention... as well it might be, to tie back into the idea that this is the Big Damn Heroes edition... but they've just done such a great job of maintaining quick-and-dirty across the board game balance everywhere else, and this looks weird to me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-06-18 05:32 am (UTC)From the point of view of the 4E game design, it's an anomaly... a misstep in my opinion... to have these feats which are essentially double and triple powered feats... and just have them be regular single slot feats. The equivalent would be if there was a seventh attribute that was as important as all the other attributes are individually but also increased all three of your defenses the same and could be used for any attack roll, but the attribute still cost the same as the others in the point buy system with the explanation "well it's supposed to be rare to have a high value"... the 4th Edition moved away from putting things like that into DM discretion, with the idea of embracing the Big Damn Heroness of it all. There are options presented to DMs and there's always the possibility of house rules, but if something is listed as a heroic tier feat, it's a heroic tier feat.
It feels to me like they took a 3E idea and didn't think very hard about how to actually translate it into 4E. And maybe Eberron characters are just supposed to be a little overpowered compared to other campaign settings as a result of this, but it feels like something weird is going on when there's one feat you can take that gives you mastery of three languages and another feat that gives you mastery of FOUR languages plus bonuses to magic scrolls plus some ritual mastery, likewise a mounted combat feat and then another feat that gives you that feat plus bonuses plus rituals.
I don't think it breaks the game... it just means that almost every Eberron player will have a Dragonmark unless they're a die had "concept gamer" who won't take feats that don't fit their character concept, and if that's the intention... as well it might be, to tie back into the idea that this is the Big Damn Heroes edition... but they've just done such a great job of maintaining quick-and-dirty across the board game balance everywhere else, and this looks weird to me.