So you're sitting there trying to figure out how to make your character more versatile and you think, "I only have a limited amount of feats, but how much can I emulate feats by buying stuff?"
Is there a metric that can be devised to figure out the going rate for a feat in terms of gold spent?
On easy example would be Weapon Focus versus a Masterwork Weapon. Both give a +1 to hit, so one could say that a feat is worth 300 gold.
However, go look at a Climber's Kit versus the feat Athletics. For 80 gold you get only half a feat's worth of bonuses. So you could say 160 gold for a feat.
Then switch to Boots of Striding and Springing versus the Fleet feat. For 5500 you are gaining +10' of movement, along with +5 to Acrobatics checks. That's right around four feats right there. Two Fleets, plus Acrobatic, plus Skill Focus. Will shave a little off for not getting a bonus to Fly checks from Acrobatic, giving us a value of 1250gp per feat.
That's all over the place, from 160gp (a level 1 items) to 1250gp (for a 10th level item) in those examples. It's likely that feat value would have to be scaled up to a degree as you level, although I suspect that there would be a plateauing at a certain point, as you move away from features that can be emulated by equipment, into areas that never get emulated by equipment.
Well, we know that a "trait" is approximately ½ a feat. We also know that the "Rich Parents" social trait gives approximately 900gp (a bit less because this replaces the character's normal starting monies).
Feats weren't designed with monetary values in mind. Also consider that a Feat or item that gives you +1 weapon damage is worth it's weight in gold for a Fighter, in silver for a Rogue and in wood for a Wizard.
Not true. Weapon Focus (Ray) has been quite valuable.
Weapon Focus adds +hit, not +damage :)
I know. A +1 on the Ranged Touch is just awesome when you have a wizard's base attack bonus.
Yeah, but I was writing about a feat that adds +damage from weapons, and it's relative usefulness to each class.Weapon Focus adds +hit, not +damage :)I know. A +1 on the Ranged Touch is just awesome when you have a wizard's attack progression.
True. But I don't know of any feat that does that. Specialization does a +2, but no-one except a fighter can get it.
What feats are you trying to emulate? Other than not provoking with a maneuver or gaining channel energy most feats grant a bonus of some sort and they have a formula table for that.
Basic feats are roughly valued at 8,000-12,000 GP if made into a magic item, IIRC.
There were a few magic items out there in 3.0 and 3.5 that give a basic feat and they are almost all 8000 gold each.
There used to be a great thread on the old 3.5 boards about items that gave feats where I first noticed this.
Look through the magic items in 3.5 and Pathfinder and find the ones that actually give you an effective feat. I bet they fall into that range.
Of course not all feats are equal, so if you make an item of a feat you should definately price it to it's effect.