Toward Comprehending Feats

by Joe Wetzel (joewetzel at gmail dot com)

Overview

The lists of feats in most sourcebooks are categorized poorly. Usually three categories are found: General, Item Creation, and Metamagic. Sometimes a sourcebook may introduce a new game concept that warrants a new category of feats. Even if that is the case the Item Creation, Metamagic and new feat category probably have around 10 feats while the General category has over 100. To make it easier to understand these General feats, it makes sense to better categorize them.

Looking at the General feats, a number are related to magic (but not metamagic), some offer skill enhancements, others can not be easily categorized, but the majority are related to combat. These combat feats can further be divided: some are general, others are only good in melee, some are for ranged attacks, etc.

A thumbnail view of the relationships between combat feats.

In the end, the following categories gave the most descriptive and best breakdown of the core open game content feats: Combat General, Combat Proficiencies, Combat Defense, Combat Melee, Combat Ranged, Combat Unarmed, Combat Mounted, Magic, Skill Enhancement, and Miscellaneous in addition to the traditional Item Creation and Metamagic feat categories.

Furthermore, this categorization makes it a little easier to see which feats are prerequisites for others, particularly for Combat feats. Making these relationships visual helps both new and experienced players better understand how to use feats to match a character concept.

Therefore this article includes a large image and a PDF version of a large chart showing the relationships for combat feats. Below is a better list of all of the common feats using a the categories listed above:

Categorized Feats

Combat General

• Blind-Fight
• Greater Weapon Focus
• Greater Weapon Specialization
• Improved Critical
• Improved Feint
• Improved Initiative
• Improved Overrun
• Improved Sunder
• Quick Draw
• Weapon Focus
• Weapon Specialization

Combat Proficiencies

• Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
• Armor Proficiency (Light)
• Armor Proficiency (Medium)
• Exotic Weapon Proficiency
• Martial Weapon Proficiency
• Shield Proficiency
• Simple Weapon Proficiency
• Tower Shield Proficiency

Combat Defense

• Combat Expertise
• Deflect Arrows
• Dodge
• Mobility
• Snatch Arrows
• Two-Weapon Defense

Combat Melee

• Cleave
• Combat Reflexes
• Great Cleave
• Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
• Improved Disarm
• Improved Shield Bash
• Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
• Power Attack
• Spring Attack
• Two-Weapon Fighting
• Weapon Finesse
• Whirlwind Attack

Combat Ranged

• Far Shot
• Improved Precise Shot
• Manyshot
• Mounted Archery [also Mounted]
• Point Blank Shot
• Precise Shot
• Rapid Reload
• Rapid Shot
• Shot On The Run

Combat Unarmed

• Improved Bull Rush
• Improved Grapple
• Improved Trip
• Improved Unarmed Strike
• Stunning Fist

Combat Mounted

• Mounted Archery [also Ranged]
• Mounted Combat
• Ride-By Attack
• Spirited Charge
• Trample

Item Creation

• Brew Potion
• Craft Magic Arms and Armor
• Craft Rod
• Craft Staff
• Craft Wand
• Craft Wondrous Item
• Forge Ring
• Scribe Scroll

Magic

• Augment Summoning
• Combat Casting
• Eschew Materials
• Greater Spell Focus
• Greater Spell Penetration
• Improved Counterspell
• Improved Familiar
• Natural Spell
• Spell Focus
• Spell Mastery
• Spell Penetration

Metamagic

• Empower Spell
• Enlarge Spell
• Extend Spell
• Heighten Spell
• Maximize Spell
• Quicken Spell
• Silent Spell
• Still Spell
• Widen Spell

Skill Enhancement

• Acrobatic
• Agile
• Alertness
• Animal Affinity
• Athletic
• Deceitful
• Deft Hands
• Diligent
• Investigator
• Magical Aptitude
• Negotiator
• Nimble Fingers
• Persuasive
• Self-Sufficient
• Skill Focus
• Stealthy

Miscellaneous

• Diehard
• Endurance
• Extra Turning
• Great Fortitude
• Improved Turing
• Iron Will
• Leadership
• Lightning Reflexes
• Run
• Toughness
• Track

The text above uses content published under the Open Game License.