Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Xeviat-DM Apr 25, 2015 15:28:47	Hey all. I haven't had the chance to run as many sessions as I'd like to yet, so I had a question from those who have played more.   What seems to be taken more first: feats or ability score improvements? Do players rush to 20 in their prime stat, or do they grab some feats first?   Having started with 3E, then 4E, having feats and ability score improvements be separate just seems different to me. How has it played out?
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Apr 25, 2015 19:07:01	I have one player that figures out what feats could possibly help his character be more/better at the thing he wants the character to do, and he goes for feats first.   I have one player that skips feats entirely unless someone points out a feat that enables their concept to be more functional (so far she has taken no more than 1 feat with any character, and they are things like Weapon Master for her wizard she wanted to wield a sword, and Elemental Adept for a sorcerer she wanted to mostly rely on fire spells with).   My other three players are more moderate in their approach, grabbing a feat if it enables their character concept, but improving abilty scores rather than insisting on finding a feat that will aid them otherwise.
#3 sirkaikillah11 Apr 26, 2015 0:13:05	All my players have gone for the feats. My guess is that they are just more fun.
#4 supreme_slayer Apr 26, 2015 7:59:29	It's been mixed for me, mostly. Variant humans seem to pick up feats the least since they already have the one they wanted most, and it's half the time that they get feats.   For me, I usually have to get ability increases because I play extremely MAD builds, and pick races that are against the grain. Such as my Cleric/Monk Dwarf, and my Monk/Bard (Yes, I love monks), and Paladin/Wizard.
#5 RasmusNord Apr 26, 2015 8:27:27	So far it is a mixed bag. Feats are often for specific builds, but the paladin in one group took leadership, which is very helpful to the group.    For a 12th level one-shot adventure there were some quite powerful fighter-builds with feats.
#6 DemoMonkey Apr 27, 2015 10:57:43	In my experience, characters started at higher level tend to have their primary stats maxed out and then feats taken during the build stage, whereas characters played "organically" from 1st level tend to take feats more often.   Mainly because there is a perception that feats are more fun to play than vanilla stat boosts.
(Reply to #6) Jenks	DemoMonkey wrote:
#8 Xeviat-DM Apr 27, 2015 13:03:33	Hmm, so some of the examples here reflect what I was feeling. Ability score improvements are boring. Feats are fun.   My group is talking about breaking the feats up into 2 and giving out a feats and ability score improvements more frequently. Since the ability score improvement/ability score is built into the class progression, it might be difficult. Alternately, we could break the feats up into two and pair each one with an ability score improvement.   Since 3rd, I've always wanted to avoid choices that just seemed necessary and not fun. Ability score improvements feel like that for this edition.
#9 Jenks Apr 27, 2015 14:08:29	Ability scores do not feel necessary to me, at least at a certain point. Whilst the difference between having a 16 and 20 int might sound huge, it doesnt make a huge difference in practice. At least not as big as it seems on paper. I really do feel there's a good balance struck between "I'm better at ranged attacking in general" (Dex bump) and "I'm better at crossbows specifically" (Feat). Not to mention the 20 cap puts less pressure on you to get your score up immediately, unlike previous editions where putting your ability score points somewhere else put you permanently behind because you can go as high as you want.   My two cents.
(Reply to #9) Rhenny	Jenks wrote:
#11 Ralif_Redhammer Apr 29, 2015 8:58:32	It seems to vary. We’re using the standard array ability generation system, so everyone started with a penalty to something. Some immediately went for getting rid of the penalty, while other went for a feat.   One of the reasons I went with the standard array was to make the ability score increases more attractive.
#12 iserith Apr 29, 2015 10:07:10	I always use standard arrays to build characters and so I generally do at least one ABI to get a stat up to 18. If a feat stands out as particularly nice for my character concept or useful for a particular game/campaign, then I'll grab it.
#13 BoldItalic Apr 30, 2015 10:28:34	The two are about equally balanced. Assume 50/50.   Just curious - now that you know, what will you do that is different?
(Reply to #6) sirkaikillah11	DemoMonkey wrote:
#15 Xeviat-DM May 01, 2015 3:28:33	BoldItalic wrote: