[4e] On Energy Focus

[Tequila Sunrise]

I was thinking the other day, "Why not let players mix 'n' match their energy focus feats?" For example if a wizard likes fire and cold spells, he could take 'Flaming Blizzard' instead of having to take Astral Fire and Burning Blizzard. Stat prereqs would look something like this:

Acid: Int
Cold: Wis
Fire: Dex
Lightning: Dex
Necrotic: Con
Psychic: Wis
Radiant: Cha
Thunder: Con

But then I thought "Wait, why do weapon wielders get one feat with no prereqs that affects all their powers, while implement wielders get a bunch of feats with a bunch of prereqs to cover only most of their powers?" So then I thought of simply offering an Implement Focus feat instead.

Thoughts?

[Mando Knight]

+1 to Implement Focus.

[Shadow_Elf]

+1 to implement focus. In fact, if I was a DM, I would call it "Combat Focus" and just make it give a +1 feat bonus to all damage, weapon or implement. That way, my players would be able to make Ranges with a hammer in one hand and an axe in the other, and to make it easier for rogues with a crossbow and a light blade. Weapon Focus really pidgeonholes characters into picking one weapon type and sticking with it, which is silly, IMHO.

[Tequila Sunrise]

+1 to implement focus. In fact, if I was a DM, I would call it "Combat Focus" and just make it give a +1 feat bonus to all damage, weapon or implement. That way, my players would be able to make Ranges with a hammer in one hand and an axe in the other, and to make it easier for rogues with a crossbow and a light blade. Weapon Focus really pidgeonholes characters into picking one weapon type and sticking with it, which is silly, IMHO.
As common a choice as Weapon Focus already is, I think Combat Focus would be such a no-brainer as to become feat tax. Which I despise.

Another thought occurred to me last night: instead of combining the energy focus feats into Implement Focus, I could split Weapon Focus into a bunch of feats with a bunch of different prereqs. :smallamused:

[AgentPaper]

As common a choice as Weapon Focus already is, I think Combat Focus would be such a no-brainer as to become feat tax. Which I despise.

Another thought occurred to me last night: instead of combining the energy focus feats into Implement Focus, I could split Weapon Focus into a bunch of feats with a bunch of different prereqs. :smallamused:

Now that sounds like a nice idea. Especially if you make it so that each one works for two different, but similar, weapon groups. Like hammers and bludgeoning.

Edit: I'd actually probably go with the following:

Heavy Blades/Light Blades
Mace/Pick
Axe/Hammer
Spear/Flail
Polearm/Staff

[Alteran]

+1 to Implement Focus.

I agree as well. If I were to DM, Implement Focus feats would be one of my first houserules. It's silly enough that casters are currently stuck boosting two damage types, the feats also have ability score prerequisites? What? How did that ever seem like a good idea? Maybe the designers were worried that casters would overpower weapon users like they did in 3.5, but I think if anything it's the other way around in 4e. Nothing so severe, but weapon users seem to have a lot of small advantages.

[AgentPaper]

I agree as well. If I were to DM, Implement Focus feats would be one of my first houserules. It's silly enough that casters are currently stuck boosting two damage types, the feats also have ability score prerequisites? What? How did that ever seem like a good idea? Maybe the designers were worried that casters would overpower weapon users like they did in 3.5, but I think if anything it's the other way around in 4e. Nothing so severe, but weapon users seem to have a lot of small advantages.

The problem is, that it's then a very, very boring feat choice.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Now that sounds like a nice idea. Especially if you make it so that each one works for two different, but similar, weapon groups. Like hammers and bludgeoning.

Edit: I'd actually probably go with the following:

Heavy Blades/Light Blades
Mace/Pick
Axe/Hammer
Spear/Flail
Polearm/Staff
If I were to split up WF, I'd keep each feat limited to just one weapon group. Because while a wizard can apply two energy focusses to most of his spells if he picks common elements like fire and cold and limits his options, a weapon user can apply just one weapon group focus to 100% of his build powers and 95% of all attacks he ever makes. So my Weapon Focus feats would look like:

Axe Focus: Con 13
Flail Focus: Dex 13
Hammer Focus: Con 13
Heavy Blade Focus: Dex 13
Light Blade Focus: 13
Mace Focus: Con 13
Pick Focus: Con 13
Polearm Focus: Wis 13
Spear Focus: Dex 13
Staff Focus: Con 13

But honestly, I'm a fan of simplicity and my experience is that players tend to forget house rules that require more than one line of text. And I already have about a dozen house rules to fix 4e's bugs, so I'll likely go the Implement Focus route.

[Alteran]

The problem is, that it's then a very, very boring feat choice.

So what? I by far prefer boring and good to overcomplicated, "interesting", and bad. I don't even see what's so interesting about Astral Fire et al. They have shiny names, and everything else is way worse. You're stuck with two damage types, so it's easy to have one that you don't care about. There are also stat prerequisites that have absolutely nothing to do with the damage types being boosted. Weapon Focus feats requiring stats makes more sense, since there are already predetermined stats for each weapon group's feats.

For example, Telepathic Psions will have a hard time qualifying for Dark Fury, so that they can get an all-important boost to psychic damage (but also necrotic damage, which they don't care about at all). They need 13 Con, which is rather easy in paragon and trivial in epic. They'd probably have it anyway. However, they also need 13 Wis. Wis is a total dump stat for Psions, so we have points wasted that could be spent on enhancing ability scores that Psions actually care about.

[Yakk]

Energy Focus:
Select two energy types (with a list of perquisite stats).
When you make an attack with a power with that key word, gain a +1/2/3 feat at level 1/16/26 bonus to your attack roll and a +2/4/6 feat bonus at level 1/11/21 to damage. If you make a critical hit, instead gain a +5/10/15 feat bonus to damage at levels 1/11/21.

That would make the feats worthwhile over a theoretical implement focus feat.

[Alteran]

That would make them worthwhile, certainly, but I worry about overpowering classes that use a very narrow range of energy types. Telepathic Psions are the obvious example, almost every power they have deals psychic damage. For a class like that, this would effectively be a better "implement focus" with almost no downside. Storm Sorcerers aren't quite as limited in their choices, but one could still make a build using almost exclusively lightning and thunder damage.

As for stat prerequisites for each energy type, I'll give you a proposed list.

Acid: Dexterity
Cold: Constitution
Fire: Charisma
Lightning: Dexterity
Necrotic: Charisma
Psychic: Intelligence
Radiant: Wisdom
Thunder: Constitution

Acid could be Strength, if you want all ability scores could be covered. Fire might also work as Intelligence.

[Sir Homeslice]

What I prefer to do, instead of this feat finangling business, is to give every single character that I DM for a +1/3/4/6/7/9 bonus to damage rolls at 1/5/11/15/21/25, to represent ____ Focus and Iron Armbands of Power/Bracers of Archery. Then I remove both of those items. Not only does it free up two more feat slots for less "boring" feats, it opens up the Arms slots for more interesting items. (Also there's the +1/2/3 bonus to all attack rolls at 1/11/21)