Game-Changing Feats and Feat Combos

[Rubik]

I'm interested in learning about more feats that change the way the game is played for the character who take them. I'm not talking about feats like Combat Expertise or Power Attack, as all those do is shift numbers around and give you more AC or damage. I mean things like:

Knockback, which opens up a ton of new ways to deal with enemies on the battlefield by letting you smack them around and make them go flying.

Knock Down does what it says on the tin: it lets you make a trip attempt on any enemy you hit with an attack that deals 10+ points of damage. Since boosting damage is easy, this means you can get lots of trip attacks. And it combos extremely well with Improved Trip, since you can hit an enemy, trip them, and hit them again.

Leadership and its derivatives, because having a (not so) small army at your beck and call, and another character nearly as powerful as you, opens up a ton of options.

Psicrystal Affinity, Obtain Familiar, and Wild Cohort can open lots of tactics that were previously unavailable, which differ based on which one you get and what level you are. From orbital bombardment arrays to a free-action trigger for a tinfoil hat to a very tough mount, these all can change up how you play the game by giving lots of new options. The feats that springboard off of these are good for this, too, such as Improved Familiar and Psicrystal Containment.

Metamagic and metapsionic feats that don't just increase damage numbers. Empowering and Maximizing most spells is just a bit of a boost to what you were already doing, but Persisting and Extending your spells can completely change the way you play by negating buff routines and catapulting previously so-so, low-duration spells into must haves that are now up 24/7. If you have any metamagic or metapsionic feats that are especially good at being gamechangers, lay them on me.

Linked Power, for instance, changes which powers you manifest and when, because it can massively shorten manifesting times and give you extra actions, as well.

Shape Soulmeld, Martial Study, and Martial Stance can open up plenty of new options and change things up dramatically, depending on which soulmeld, maneuver, or stance you pick. Are there any these that are particularly dramatic in this way?

Whirlwind Attack doesn't do that much to alter your actions on the battlefield, but Improved Whirlwind Attack gives you a lot more options, especially if you can move between your W.A. and the full attack you get after, through swift action teleportation and the like.

Combat Reflexes can give you a lot of attacks of opportunity, depending on your Dex score. This doesn't seem like much, except you can completely replace your normal attack routine with this, especially with a long reach, because you can cover the whole battlefield with attacks of opportunity. Plus, a lot of options which were extremely mediocre, or even bad, are now super-special-awesome. Decisive Strike is a monk ACF which allows you to take a full-round action to deal double damage with your unarmed strike. This is generally really bad when two regular unarmed strikes can do just as well. But with Combat Reflexes and a good reach, Str, and Dex, you dole out a lot more damage than you could with a flurry, since there are no real attack penalties to deal with, especially iterative penalties.

Improved Trip has a really uselessly sucky prereq, but it opens new avenues of attack through battlefield control. It combines well with a lot of other options to make them better, from Combat Reflexes for wide-area battlefield control to Knock Down for better offense and a lot more available attacks.

Jotunbrud is normally only accessable through humans, which is nice enough, but if you can make yourself count as a human, through Human Blooded or Human Heritage, and can manage to take Jotunbrud at first level, having a Small or even Tiny character counting as Large can open up a lot of builds that weren't doable before. A gnome tripper? A petal dungeoncrasher? If you get your bonuses high enough, you can do it. Plus, being considered Large sized means you can now affect Huge enemies with battlefield maneuvers, which even humans couldn't do before.

Karmic Strike and Robilar's Gambit are great for doling out punishment for anyone who tries to attack you, possibly even allowing you to avoid being hit altogether, if you can smack them using Karmic Strike and a disarm attack before their attack can actually hit you. Works fantastically well with Knockback.

Snap Kick doesn't seem like much until you realize that you can chain it with other attacks. Let's say you whack an enemy with your sword, followed by a Snap Kick, using that Snap Kick attack to use the Knock Down feat, which allows you to use Improved Trip for another attack, which you can pair with another Snap Kick, which you use with Knockback to send your foe flying away from you. Chaining is pretty nice for getting lots of extra attacks in.

Throw Anything paired with Improved Unarmed Strike means you can now throw yourself up to 50' as an attack action. This grants a ton of mobility, and you can move between attacks up to 50'. Pair with range increases through Far Shot and the like to make it even better.

Inhuman Reach, Extended Reach, and Willing Deformity: Tall can dramatically widen the area you threaten. Combine with reach weapons, the extending weapon property, and size increases, and suddenly you can threaten enemies way across the battlefield. Acts as a force multiplier for the usefulness of Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip.

Evasive Reflexes allows you to make a 5' step as an attack of opportunity. Note that AoOs take place before the actions that provoke them, so taking Karmic Strike lets you simply move out of the way of any attack that would otherwise hit you. Combine with a sparring dummy of the master (if you're a monk or have a high UMD) for 10' steps and the ToB stance Press the Advantage for two such steps at a time.

The first two options for the Sun School tactical feat aren't worth much, but the third option... Hoo boy. Making an attack when you "move instantaneously" adjacent to an enemy is no small thing, especially since you can get such movement as standard, move, swift, and even immediate actions. The shadow hand school of maneuvers is full of these, and even the conjuror wizard's abrupt jaunt ACF and the Travel Devotion feat allow for this. Pair with Snap Kick and the chain stacking I mentioned to basically get a full attack on a teleport.

Travel Devotion and any other way of getting additional movement allow you to set up combos you otherwise couldn't. Can't charge from where you are? Just move 20' that way, and now you can. Need to do a full-round action attack on someone way over there? Use your extra movement and do what you need to do. Even pounce does this, and although it's considerably more limited in the things it allows you to do, it can be a lot more powerful with all the ways of boosting damage on a full attack.

Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk change the way that a lot of Small or smaller characters play. It's hard to set up sneak attacks without a flank, but with these feats, you can zoom through another creature's space and hide, and next round you can sneak attack the heck out of them. Plus, Underfoot Combat allows you to share a space with other creatures, giving you a lot more options of where you can hide. Want to play Shadow of the Colossus with the tarrasque? Now you can.

Got any more for me?

[TypoNinja]

Large and In Charge synergizes quite well with Combat Reflexes.

It lets you push (modified bull rush) back anybody who provokes an attack of opportunity by moving, back into the square they started from. With a bonus on the check based on your AoO damage. It also ends their movement.

I've done this in a high level game where I was a dragon, so I was large enough that my allies could stand around me attacking at range with impunity while anything that tried to enter melee got Dragon'd.

[avr]

Shock Trooper turns Power Attack from a tradeoff into an absolute nuke of an alpha strike. Leap Attack makes it even nastier, but it's the first two feats named that carry the weight.

Stormguard Warrior lets you spend a round of setup to put your an enemy in a situation where they should run, surrender or just die. Getting that setup is a pain as is preventing the enemy from killing you first or just running, but it's great if you can get it off.

Item creation feats make getting obscure magic items much more straightforward as well as making your money go further.

Reserve feats can make spell casters useful in endurance scenarios as addition to the usual run of the mill.

On the subject of stuff you can do with Martial Study/Stance; using dex for trips (setting sun throws) or for general damage (Shadow Blade) springs to mind. Sudden Leap is a little swift action mobility (which acts as the prereq for getting scent via Martial Stance, too), there are a bunch which replace saves with concentration checks, or which heal you as you attack, or give you a flanking buddy as a swift action.

[Balmas]

Shock Trooper is a staple on most of my two-handed builds. D&D is mostly structured around the party beating up one CR-appropriate monster, which will usually be able to land its hits no matter how high you stack your AC. Pulling from AC to fuel your power attack is a godsend.

[ben-zayb]

So this is something like a "Johnny" Feat Compilation? I'll bite.

Divine Metamagic discussed to death

Metamagic Song allows you to use Bardic Music as a resource for metamagic addition (with limits). Broken by getting the Firre Eladrin's Song ability on Sorcs and friends.

Lyric Spell allows you to use Bardic Music as a resource for spontanerous arcane spellcasting. Broken the same way.

Echoing Spell (aka Batman, the feat) allows prepared spellcasters to literally have any of their spells prepared beforehand, without touching fresher spell slots. Chameleons love this feat if they can pay the price.

Invisible Spell discussed to Death

Haunting Melody adds another layer of depth to bard's ability whenever performing , at the cost of bardic music

Dreadful Wrath adds another layer of depth to fighting, magical and physical attacks alike

Imperious Command allows the normally, singly, weak Shaken status ftom demoralization to turn into Cowering, enabling a lockdown tactic among other things

Assume Supernatural Ability gives practically anyone that has shapechanging ability a whole new dimension of playstyles.

Bind Vestige less options than Shape Soulmeld and Martial Study, but here for the same reason

Scorpion's Grasp for similar reasons as Knockdown and Knockback, using the grapple version

Fell Conspiracy allows medium-range, networked, communication far earlier than what most casters get access to

Flyby Attack achieves what Spring Attack hopes to, in making non-mounted mobile fighting versatile


I'm pretty sure there are tons more, if you try hard enougj

[stanprollyright]

Font of Inspiration: Yes, you already have inspiration points. But with a few of these your Factotum can go from 1-2 extra standard actions per combat to extra actions all day and bonuses to every roll.

Darkstalker: Sneak up on anybody.

Mindsight: Super detection.

Natural Spell: Do I need to explain this one?

Reserve Feats: Running out of spells is no longer an issue.

Knowledge Devotion: It only grants you numeric bonuses, but it makes your knowledge skills into combat skills.

Dragonfire Inspiration and Words of Creation: These make Bards into insane buffing machines.

[Norin]

Would Tomb Tainted Soul qualify when used on a Dread Necromancer?
It gives you unlimited healing (mainly out of combat) from level 1.

[Jowgen]

Great Flyby Attack from savage species. With enough speed, reach and dex you can essentially attack the entire grid at once.

[Necroticplague]

Flyby Breath: Now using your Breath doesn't interfere with running around. Useful to add damage while you maneuver (especially if added with Entangling Exhalation to make it harder for them to follow). Completely breaks things with Dragonfire Adepts.

Otherworldly and Human Heritage: Changing your type can drastically change how you play. Both of them have the sub-use of allowing you to retain your type after applying templates, which can be handy.

[Telonius]

Melodic Casting. Bards' action economy suddenly gets a whole lot better, and you have greater flexibility in choosing your skills.

Battle Blessing. Paladins no longer have to choose between self-buffing and eviscerating the enemy.

Vow of Poverty. (Not all change is good).

Able Learner. It can make qualifying for certain feats and prestige classes a whole lot easier. Even if you don't multiclass, it greatly expands the options of skill-starved classes.

[Balmas]

Would Tomb Tainted Soul qualify when used on a Dread Necromancer?
It gives you unlimited healing (mainly out of combat) from level 1.

Personally, I prefer to go Necropolitan. It's a bit more expensive at first--you won't have enough gold to go through with it until level 3 unless you get special DM dispensation--but it means that you can save a feat. That's a worthwhile cost for me.

[nedz]

Darkstalker
Almost a feat tax for stealth characters

These are Build orientated.

Educated
This opens doors and allows you to qualify for feats and PrCs which would be otherwise difficult for your class.

Improved Sigil (Krau),Versatile Caster, Heighten Spell, Sanctum Spell, Earth Spell
Early entry tricks

[Rubik]

Some of these don't really qualify. For instance, Darkstalker just gives you a few enemies here and there that you can use the schtick you can already use on. That's more of "game-stays-the-samers," rather than "game-changers."

The thread is about new options, not old options with a few minor tweaks.

Also (and some of you are already doing this), make sure to add details. Don't just throw down the names of some feats and walk away. How are they game-changers?

[sleepyphoenixx]

I'm surprised Uncanny Forethought wasn't mentioned yet.
Getting spontaneous spellcasting on your wizard is a pretty big change, because suddenly all those situational spells are worth learning when you can cast them as a full-round action instead of needing 15 minutes to prepare.

Psionic Meditation is pretty much a feat tax for most psionic users. Without it using metapsionics in combat more than 1/encounter is nearly unthinkable.

Metamorphic Transfer the ability to get (Su) abilities changes everything about how you look at available forms.

Divine Defiance because the ability to counterspell as an immediate action actually makes it worth using, in a manner that easily fits into many builds without eating up all of your resources to become competitive.

[Necroticplague]

Improved Sigil (Krau),Versatile Caster, Heighten Spell, Sanctum Spell, Earth Spell
Early entry tricks

On the same note, Eldritch Corruption letting you heighten spells by two levels without using up a higher slot is very useful for entering spellcasting PRCs.

[eggynack]

Most of the wild shape form adding feats are rather game changing. Aberration's at the top of the game changing heap, offering everything from doubled actions to crazy vision modes to however you categorize dualplanar, and a bajillion other things. Dragon's next down with all those immunities, generally interesting statistically oriented powers, and some cool unique abilities like shadow blend. Then is exalted, with crazy dimension door action combined with fancy extraordinary abilities on your animal companions. Finally is frozen, with its massive beatstickery backed by a couple of marginal other options.

Honestly though, if you're picking a feat for a druid, it's incredibly likely that it's going to be a game changing one. Numerical feats just don't offer enough to make it interesting for the most part, though there is the occasional exception like natural bond or augment summoning. As a result, you could probably just toss almost every feat in my handbook, at least the ones outside the core section and excluding most of those specifically for animal companions, onto this list. I mean, you're not changing the game massively by picking up some arbitrary initiate feat, but the variety of things added is still going to be greater on an absolute scale than what you get on a game changing melee feat.

[Rubik]

Most of the wild shape form adding feats are rather game changing. Aberration's at the top of the game changing heap, offering everything from doubled actions to crazy vision modes to however you categorize dualplanar, and a bajillion other things. Dragon's next down with all those immunities, generally interesting statistically oriented powers, and some cool unique abilities like shadow blend. Then is exalted, with crazy dimension door action combined with fancy extraordinary abilities on your animal companions. Finally is frozen, with its massive beatstickery backed by a couple of marginal other options.

Honestly though, if you're picking a feat for a druid, it's incredibly likely that it's going to be a game changing one. Numerical feats just don't offer enough to make it interesting for the most part, though there is the occasional exception like natural bond or augment summoning. As a result, you could probably just toss almost every feat in my handbook, at least the ones outside the core section and excluding most of those specifically for animal companions, onto this list. I mean, you're not changing the game massively by picking up some arbitrary initiate feat, but the variety of things added is still going to be greater on an absolute scale than what you get on a game changing melee feat.

Are any of those druid feats usable by a psionic manifester, with or without a psicrystal? Obviously not the wildshape feats, but...

[ben-zayb]

Also (and some of you are already doing this), make sure to add details. Don't just throw down the names of some feats and walk away. How are they game-changers?

Oops, alright.
Divine Metamagic like Metamagic Song, it gives a different resource a whole new functionality, which is to add metamagic without increading spell slot

Invisible Spell the nebulousness enables a whole usage of spells, namely permanently invisible objects/creatures and effects. Invisible Fog Cloud, Wall of X, Minor Creation, Fabricate, Summon X, X Binding, Animate Dead, Flesh to X, etc.

Anything else I missed?


EDIT: And what exactly is "new options that tweak old options"? Rider effects? Something else?

[Rubik]

EDIT: And what exactly is "new options that tweak old options"? Rider effects? Something else?

If it's something that doesn't really give any new options overall, it's not really a viable candidate here. Pretend Gravestrike was a feat, rather than a spell. Sure, it allows you to sneak attack undead, but sneak attacking stuff wasn't something you couldn't do before. It's just more of the same old stuff, just with a slightly widened purview.

Whereas Knockback gives you an entirely new paradigm to work with. Instead of taking a full round action to bull rush a single creature, suddenly you can smack every enemy you hit across the battlefield with every attack you make. It opens up lots of new options and can be a literal paradigm shift for someone who takes it.

I suppose Darkstalker might count if you're a stealthy character in a campaign where basically everything you go up against can pinpoint your location via blindsight, tremorsense, and similar, but I can't imagine that really ever happens.

[stanprollyright]

I suppose Darkstalker might count if you're a stealthy character in a campaign where basically everything you go up against can pinpoint your location via blindsight, tremorsense, and similar, but I can't imagine that really ever happens.

Like, say, a subterranean campaign? Also, considering that almost every animal has scent and that dragons (which are so iconic they're in the name of the game) have blindsense, there's a pretty good chance you'll be running into enough monsters with alternate detection modes that Darkstalker becomes a must-have for stealthy characters, especially at high levels.

I do see your point, though, about broadening the purview of something you already do vs. getting whole new options. But if we're being strict about it, Jotunbrud just gives numeric bonuses to things you could already do, Combat Reflexes just gives you more AoOs on top of the one you already have every round (though I'd still consider it a game-changer because it opens up all those other lockdown/controller options). The part of Shock Trooper that everyone uses simply shuffles some numbers around, whereas the other two uses of the feat actually change your gameplay by allowing you to Bull Rush several opponents without going in a straight line and trip them all when you run them into each other.

For submission:
Cleave is a low-level game changer, allowing a Fighter or Barbarian to take on mobs.
Spirited Charge line: Ride-by-Attack is the big one in this context, but this feat chain as a whole forms the cornerstone of all mounted builds.
Improved Unarmed Strike: I can't believe this was forgotten. Always being considered armed is quite a game-changer. Plus, you can deal lethal damage and no longer provoke when you make an unarmed strike.
Combat Brute: If sundering is something you want to do, this is how. Combines well with Shock Trooper.
Improved Familiar: Yes, you already have a familiar if you're taking this feat. However, the difference between having a little bird that scouts for you and delivers touch spells compared to a creature with SLAs that can use wands and scrolls is pretty huge.

[Rubik]

Like, say, a subterranean campaign? Also, considering that almost every animal has scent and that dragons (which are so iconic they're in the name of the game) have blindsense, there's a pretty good chance you'll be running into enough monsters with alternate detection modes that Darkstalker becomes a must-have for stealthy characters, especially at high levels.

That's fair.

I do see your point, though, about broadening the purview of something you already do vs. getting whole new options. But if we're being strict about it, Jotunbrud just gives numeric bonuses to things you could already do,

It also allows you to affect Huge-sized creatures with pretty much everything a fighter does aside from full attacks. I suppose that could be on the same vein as Darkstalker, but for a Human Blooded kobold, that pushes the effects from "can bull rush Medium creatures" to "can bull rush Huge creatures." That's a significant chunk of everything at higher levels, turning a mundane character from "I am useless" to "I can use all the things." It's a big enough bump in ability that it qualifies.

And before you say that you can't get big enough modifiers to matter, I have a kobold build with +87 to bull rushes without any equipment aside from ability score boosters, and he can effectively bull rush Gargantuan creatures with no problems.

Combat Reflexes just gives you more AoOs on top of the one you already have every round (though I'd still consider it a game-changer because it opens up all those other lockdown/controller options). The part of Shock Trooper that everyone uses simply shuffles some numbers around, whereas the other two uses of the feat actually change your gameplay by allowing you to Bull Rush several opponents without going in a straight line and trip them all when you run them into each other.

That's why they're included here.

[stanprollyright]

It also allows you to affect Huge-sized creatures with pretty much everything a fighter does aside from full attacks. I suppose that could be on the same vein as Darkstalker, but for a Human Blooded kobold, that pushes the effects from "can bull rush Medium creatures" to "can bull rush Huge creatures." That's a significant chunk of everything at higher levels, turning a mundane character from "I am useless" to "I can use all the things." It's a big enough bump in ability that it qualifies.

And before you say that you can't get big enough modifiers to matter, I have a kobold build with +87 to bull rushes without any equipment aside from ability score boosters, and he can effectively bull rush Gargantuan creatures with no problems.

I guess I didn't realize the size limit thing.

[Rubik]

I guess I didn't realize the size limit thing.

It's good stuff. Add in the Totem Avatar soulmeld bind, and you count as Large (Jotunbrud) which is increased to Huge (Totem Avatar), and since you can affect creatures a size category larger, that means Gargantuan.

[stanprollyright]

That's really cool. Does it work on a human who happens to be Wildshaped?

Are you going to edit these into the OP for ease of reference? This is a good way to think about feat selection.

[Rubik]

That's really cool. Does it work on a human who happens to be Wildshaped?

It does. You keep your type and subtype, so you continue qualifying, and you still receive the benefits of Jotunbrud. You just need to retain feet in order to keep the Totem Avatar feet bind.

Are you going to edit these into the OP for ease of reference? This is a good way to think about feat selection.

Nah. I figure I could leave it as a reason for people to read the rest of the thread.

It's not a handbook, after all.

[eggynack]

Are any of those druid feats usable by a psionic manifester, with or without a psicrystal? Obviously not the wildshape feats, but...

I'm doubtful. Druid feats tend to be rather druid specific, split directly across the major druid class features with limited room for outside use. I'm not all that familiar with the specifics and peculiarities though, so it's plausible that there's some interaction that I'm unaware of, so it may be worth looking at the list anyway.

[Rubik]

What feats (if any) are available to emulate the war mind's sweeping strike ability, or the war hulk's great swing? I think Huge creatures can get a tail sweep attack, but that's only 1/round.

I'm doubtful. Druid feats tend to be rather druid specific, split directly across the major druid class features with limited room for outside use. I'm not all that familiar with the specifics and peculiarities though, so it's plausible that there's some interaction that I'm unaware of, so it may be worth looking at the list anyway.

Not really seeing anything that would work all that well. Thanks for the guide, though. It's a great read, even though I generally don't play druids. (Vancian casters: ugh.)

[avr]

What feats (if any) are available to emulate the war mind's sweeping strike ability, or the war hulk's great swing? I think Huge creatures can get a tail sweep attack, but that's only 1/round.

Another 1/round ability (actually 1/encounter) would be the Steel Wind maneuver, accessible via martial stance.

Or if you're willing to use a boomerang (or maybe aptitude weapon cheese) there's Boomerang Ricochet.

[ben-zayb]

^^ The Area Attack feat from Savage Species is considered/classified as an attack, though it takes a standard action. Make of that what you will.

[Endarire]

Throw Anything: Why do you mention this is a 50' move when the feat says 10'? Is this from the 'limit of 5 range increments' rule?