I am giving them in addition to all normal feats. I also believe their intent (at least from the perspective of James Jacobs as expressed in some other thread somewhere) is to be additional feats beyond the normal feats. If you look at the iconics in the back, they all have one as an extra feat. I think the reasoning is that they are not really overpowering and that they are more about helping your PCs have a Varisian flavor.
Ah here you go. Check out THIS thread.
I'm the GM of this campaign, so I guess it is technically my decision, but I was wondering if anyone else has any input or insight. Thanks ahead of time for your help.
In my campaign, not only am I allowing them to take one of the Varisian feats for free at first level, we're experimenting with a whole new angle on feats.
With the vast number of feats available to us in the core books and all of the WOTC expansions, Dungeon & Dragon Magazine, and so forth, it seemed criminal to us that a player really only gets to choose 8 feats over the course of a level 1-20 career (bonus feats, race- and class-granted feats notwithstanding.) There are so many many feats out there that would add variety and roleplaying hooks to our characters, but we would never in a million years think of "wasting" one of our feat choices on a feat such as "Diligent" unless it was absolutely required by a prestige class we're aiming for. Plus, depending on your class, there are several feats that are almost "obligatory" to ensure that character can survive. So we've decided to try something new: Every level, a character gets a new feat.
Now before you think we're heading off into Munchkin-land (so ok, we might be on the brick road already), hear us out. On the levels where a character would normally get a feat (1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.), they can choose any feat they're allowed to, just like normal. However, on those levels where they would not normally gain a feat (2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, etc), they may choose a feat off the "Second Tier" feat list.
This is a list of feats that a player might want to choose, but never waste a level on. The Second Tier (for lack of a better term) feat list is short, and relegated to those feats that usually don't provide a combat bonus - things like "Diligent" and "Deceitful" and "Animal Affinity". The general rule of thumb on deciding on what's a Second Tier feat or not is if you look at it and either say "wow, that's a lame feat" or "hmm, interesting, but I'd never blow a feat slot on it", then its probably 2nd tier. Stuff that gives direct bonuses in combat like Power Attack or metamagic feats are out. Things like one time +2 bonuses to skills are in.
Our thinking is that this will do two things:
1) Add some more roleplaying flavor to our characters by giving them access to some of the more uncommon, skill-adding feats. "I see that you have a real affinity for animals. Weren't you born in the city?" "Why yes, but I did caravan work for years. There was this one time..."
2) No more wasted levels. "Whee, I'm a level 5 fighter - no feats, no special class skills, just a handful of skill points and a bump in HP." Every level will allow a player to advance somewhat.
Like I stated at the beginning, this is an experiment. We might end up with uber-powered characters at the end, I don't know. If we do, its my job as DM to adjust the adventures to fit them anyway (like any good DM should). I'm sure other downsides will present themselves as our Pathfinder campaign progresses. But for now, everyone's very excited about the idea, and we'll have to see how it turns out.
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*nods*
Giving everyone an extra feat doesn't hurt. The local games I've been playing in here have done that with the Forgotten Realms region feats that can only be taken at 1st level (and there are a lot o them.)
One of the biggest flaws of the 3E are the monsters. Under the character creation system Wizards came up with the create 3E and 3.5E monsters, in order to give a monster a lot of hit points, or specific abilities, they had to have all the "other" stuff. As a result, you have monsters with ridiculous saves or powers that no one uses when running the monster, but the system Wizards used dictate it.
Hooking your players up doesn't hurt your character progression because for 90% of the monsters in the Core books, they're tougher then they're actually supposed to be because of the silly rules they came up with. When 4E hits, you're going to see a lot of monsters that have the same abilities, perhaps the same hitpoints, but aren't as ridiculous in what you can't do to them.