Is +1 dmg worth a feat?

[Tatterdemalion]

I'm building a character, and I'm considering a feat that provides +1 damage (Dark Fury).

Can anyone convince me that +1 damage is worth burning a feat? Other feats I'm partial to include Skill Focus (whatever) and Alertness, as well as a Multiclass feat or two.

Thanks :)

[Sebastian]

The only thin I can say is that feats ain't what they used to be. You get a lot more of them and they aren't as powerful, so +1 to damage isn't a terrible thing to spend a feat on.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it's what I've got.

[Kvantum]

I've seen +2 to all damage as an Epic feat, so +1 sounds about right as a normal feat.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Tatterdemalion wrote:

I'm building a character, and I'm considering a feat that provides +1 damage (Dark Fury).

Can anyone convince me that +1 damage is worth burning a feat? Other feats I'm partial to include Skill Focus (whatever) and Alertness, as well as a Multiclass feat or two.

Thanks :)

Well I was half way through a post on why I thought it was not as good as something like Human Endurance or Durable when I kind of realized that, in comparing them, I was not so sure. I mean if your going to fight lots of stuff that +1 will come up a lot and that seems roughly as good as being able to where better armour or getting some more hps.

As Sebastian says, you get lots of feats but their not that strong. +1 to damage is comparable, I suppose, to +5 hps or +3 to a skill check. Though I'd think it would usually be better to get the bonus in the to hit part and worry about damage after you hit.

This is especially true if you think your fellow players are pretty good - cause the DM will probably counter that by cranking up the difficulty level - its going to start to get harder to hit.

[David Marks]

+1 to your min and max damage over the lifetime of your character will probably rack up quite a hefty total by retirement (whether voluntary or forcible)

It's not a very sexy choice, but it seems decent enough, to me. :)

[Tatterdemalion]

My conflict is skill bonuses vs additional damage. Give me a +3 (Skill Focus) on a skill and I have a significant improvement on one of my abilities. A +1 to damage, in contrast, doesn't seem like a significant improvement.

It sounds like nobody can talk me out of going with Skill Focus, or other feats granting bonuses to skills.

Thanks :)

[vance]

I have to say that it's fairly weak for a feat, but I think it's done to avoid the mass modifier stacking that 3.0 and 3.5 had.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Tatterdemalion wrote:

My conflict is skill bonuses vs additional damage. Give me a +3 (Skill Focus) on a skill and I have a significant improvement on one of my abilities. A +1 to damage, in contrast, doesn't seem like a significant improvement.

It sounds like nobody can talk me out of going with Skill Focus, or other feats granting bonuses to skills.

Thanks :)

Skill focus is great - if your using skills a lot. If they just don't seem to come up between sessions of killing monsters and taking their stuff then they are clearly a lot less useful. Its going to depend on your DM and the adventures being played.

[Tatterdemalion]

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:

Skill focus is great - if your using skills a lot. If they just don't seem to come up between sessions of killing monsters and taking their stuff then they are clearly a lot less useful. Its going to depend on your DM and the adventures being played.

I like to have a character be really good at one or two things. Skill Focus can make a character really good at something -- a +1 to damage can't.

I guess my mind is made up :)

[David Marks]

Tatterdemalion wrote:

I like to have a character be really good at one or two things. Skill Focus can make a character really good at something -- a +1 to damage can't.

I guess my mind is made up :)

Skill Focus will really let you shine in any Skill Challenges that come up, if you can work your skill into them. Really, it's more about the DM and the game you're playing though. Both are useful, depending on the situations you're more commonly thrown into.

I'll admit, 3E's Skill Focus was never even looked at, unless I needed it as a prereq for something. In 4E, I can see taking it for at least one skill with most characters eventually ...

Cheers! :)

[Teiran]

Tatterdemalion wrote:

My conflict is skill bonuses vs additional damage. Give me a +3 (Skill Focus) on a skill and I have a significant improvement on one of my abilities. A +1 to damage, in contrast, doesn't seem like a significant improvement.

It sounds like nobody can talk me out of going with Skill Focus, or other feats granting bonuses to skills.

Thanks :)

Trouble is, they're roughly the same power. The effectiveness of both feats depends entierly on what kind of character you are, how often the skill gets used, and what powers that +1 damage gets applied to.

You can safely assume that the skill you take the feat for will get used at least once in each game. That means you need at least three attacks which will get the damage bonus or they won't balance up even on the numbers. If you know you'll be using that skill a whole lot more then just once a game, it becomes much more powerful.

but if, say, the feat your are taking gives a +1 fire and radiant damage bonus and you're playing a dragonborn cleric who breaths fire, well you could be stacking that damage quite often.

I am not sure how useful Dark Fury would be to you over the skill bonus feat, it will really depend on how often both come up.

[Matthew Koelbl]

There are few feats anymore that you must take - but, equally, there are very few feats that aren't in some way worthwhile to take.

+1 damage will be felt in the long run - it might not be a lot on its own, but it will make the difference in plenty of fights.

On the other hand, skill focus might make the difference in skill challenges, alertness might help you survive being ambushed, and so forth.

The only feat that is really high numberwise is Toughness - and then, only because it has a topheavy bonus. (You are essentially getting an extra 1 hitpoint per two levels, but they give you the full amount for each tier at the start of the tier.) 5 hp at level 1 is pretty huge.

On the other hand, my own 1st level character ended up going with damage boosting feats instead of toughness, so clearly I'm not one to talk. >_>

Anyway, it sounds like you are going for Skill Focus, which is a perfectly good option. And, if it proves unneeded, you can always change your mind and switch it out later. :)

[P1NBACK]

Tatterdemalion wrote:

I like to have a character be really good at one or two things. Skill Focus can make a character really good at something -- a +1 to damage can't.

I guess my mind is made up :)

I like that feats like skill focus are more appealing than damage bonus feats. :)

[Teiran]

P1NBACK wrote:

Tatterdemalion wrote:

I like to have a character be really good at one or two things. Skill Focus can make a character really good at something -- a +1 to damage can't.

I guess my mind is made up :)

I like that feats like skill focus are more appealing than damage bonus feats. :)

It does frankly feel good to take a Skill feat in this edition of the game. You no longer feel like you're hamstringing your character by taking them, especially if you're a fighter.

Before, you'd get a +2 bonus and that just felt weak because of how quickly you got skill ranks in trained skills.

Now, well taking one skill feat makes you just as good as someoen trained in the skill, and two skill feats to get a +8 to Diplomacy makes you better then most social based classes.

It makes the skill system much more flexible, because now you can make any class good at a skill without having to build your entire character aroudn that. A very nice change in the skill system I feel.

[F33b]

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:

Skill focus is great - if your using skills a lot. If they just don't seem to come up between sessions of killing monsters and taking their stuff then they are clearly a lot less useful. Its going to depend on your DM and the adventures being played.

At the very least, Perception and Stealth should be regularly seen at even the most door kicking, skull crushing, monty haul campaigns. The Lurker is, after all, a formal monster role. Intuition, Endurance, Thievery, Athletics and Acrobatics also have a place. The more social oriented skills and knowledge skills are much more campaign/DM dependent.