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I like story feats and story specific powers. One of my players, when hes GM, loads all his games with story and character specific advancement bonuses. The big problem with using out of the box story feats, however, is they're almost always mechanically inferior to a 'build' feat. Why would a level 1 elf barbarian (only gets 1 feat) want to take Vengeance feat over say, power attack or weapon focus? Freeing story feats from the feat advancement math coded into each class, to be given by the GM as appropriate, feels a lot more organic than burning one of your limited combat enhancements for something story appropriate.
I agree with archmagi1.
I loved the idea of story/achievement feats, but as we all know, feats are the most resource starved currency in the game. Almost every class treasures every feat they get. I never see anyone take a story feat over mechanical feats used to improve their character.
If I were to use story feats as a GM, I would give them as a one-off bonus to whomever wanted to have one to expand their backstory.
Only time I've ever used one was when it was given out for free to all characters.
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Only time I've ever used one was when it was given out for free to all characters.
This +1. I even let story feats and traits be interchangeable. You can have a free story feat or two traits.
Story, yes. Those are fun and drive the narrative.
Achievement feats are almost universally terrible though, they really don't reward anything but book keeping, lack much interesting flavor, and encourage the addition of grind to the game.
In at least one campaign I played in, I would've loved to have taken some story feats, as I'd in-game completed the requirements to both take them and complete them. Alas, I needed feats for other things. I think they'd work better as a reward system outside of the feat system.
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Depends on the story feat, really. For Curse of the Crimson Throne our GM has said everyone needs to have a story trait specific to the AP. If you already had two traits he was going to allow a 3rd one with zero effect. I ended up dropping one of my traits to pick up the Dockside Avenger trait with effect granted.
The story feats do look interesting. Not sure if I'd take one unless I'm running out of things I 'need' for my build though. And they seem better to take early, that way you have more of a chance to meet the requirements.
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Only time I've ever used one was when it was given out for free to all characters.This +1. I even let story feats and traits be interchangeable. You can have a free story feat or two traits.
I've heard people do that, and to me it doesn't seem worth it. 2 traits can do a LOT, especially compared to 1 story feat. It's why I just give a story feat, and let them do what they want with it since even at full power, a story feat is rarely worth two traits.
I haven't gotten into a PbP yet (need a new computer first because trying to edit something big like a character sheet from a phone would be just awful), but if I get into a Rise of the Runelords PbP, I have a Story Feat equipped Wizard almost ready to go(*). This probably has to do with (almost) classic Wizard being surprisingly easy to build (even if I don't agree about it being overpowered as seems to be popular to claim) -- other characters I have tried to build always seem to be extremely feat-starved (and skill-starved, and ability-score-starved . . .).
(*)Fair warning: This build contains an error -- I recently found that you can't pick an arcane subschool if you choose Thassilonian Specialist. Probably also want to tweak a couple of other things for better conceptual fit before going live -- some of the stuff recommended in Wizard guides for best mechanical optimization doesn't fit so well conceptually).
The achievement feats involve the sort of detail tracking which I hate. Story feats would be a maybe, if they were better.
Again, one huge issue with a story feat is, basically, 'Do I need this or is there something more important?'. I'm dithering on whether I should take my noncaster through the Master Craftsman/Craft Magic Arms feats or not, and I don't know how story feats compare to that (the spirit is 'I make my own damn magic weapons, so @#$% you magic economy!').
For me, these feats make it feel like my character's actions and achievements have an organic effect on the game. I'm not just riding the rails, moving from set piece to set piece.
I prefer to achieve this through allowing player actions to affect the game world - who lives, who dies, who's an ally or enemy.
Though I might consider offering players a free story feat - a Vengeance or Mercy or Friendship or Justice or Villainy feat, based on how they responded to a situation. But there are too many desirable feats around to expect them to take them in place of the feat of their choice.
I also don't like the achievement feats - and frankly, I can't imaging how they'd even work in a typical game - I've just never tracked the numbers they require.
Story feats, on the other hand, are pretty interesting - if they are very in tune with the character. I had a Soul Forger who got great use of the Magnum Opus feat, for instance.
I use them but give one out free to my players. No players ever take them otherwise.
In the past, our 'oldies' group experimented with both, ultimately rejecting both, achievement for above reasons and story because we often had players drop for a bit and restarting the 'story' proved annoying.
One player drug Story into her kids' game and worked out the drudgery: the PC is responsible for driving their own story. I am seeing it 'work' in her rare runs, but she's taking control of our RotRL game and forcing germane Storyline 'feats' upon us. Her rules include no early completions.