From the caster martial disparity thread...
Feats like skill focus, weapon focus, and dodge are solid feats, but they are really boring. All they do is add +X to some number. I would love it is all feats gave a solid mechanical benefit, and also added new gameplay options.
For example,
Skill Focus(Bluff) gives you +3/+6 to you bluff checks, and lets you avoid the effects of one truth based divination once per day.
Skill focus(Stealth) gives you +3/+6 to stealth checks and lets you hide in plain sight for one minute a day.
Skill focus(Actobatics) gives you +3/+6 to Acrobatics and lets you stand up as a free action once per day.
Skill focus(Appraise) gives you +3/+6 and lets you identify an items magical properties.
Dodge gives you +1 AC, and lets you gain +4 AC as a swift action once per day.
Arcane Strike gives you +1 damage, and lets you ignore DR on one strike per day.
Power Attack/Deadly Aim gives you the normal benefit, and lets you ignore the to hit penalty on 1 strike per day.
Far Shot gives the normal benefit plus allows you to ignore all range penalties for 1 shot per day.
Rapid Shot lets you take 2 extra shots once per day in addition to the normal benefit.
The idea is to keep the mechanical benefits of these feats while increasing the choices that martial character can make in combat, because right now most martial characters boil down to 5 foot step and full attack.
Please add your own feats, and ideas.
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I like the idea of giving "X/day" benefits to such feats, but I'm not sure adding them to already powerful feats is a good idea. Skill Focus and Dodge are probably the best candidates of those you listed for such a benefit, but the benefit should be minor as they are already okay feats.
(The main issue here is to avoid promoting them from "decent" to "you're an idiot if you don't take these". Power Attack and Deadly Aim are already of the latter category and there is no reason to improve them further.)
Perhaps instead of extending the existing feats, adding a secondary feat that gives a potent benefit would be appropriate. For example, having a Hide in Plain Sight feat (with some restriction to its function, like the shadowdancer has) that requires something like 9 ranks in stealth and skill focus would be a cool feat. Possibly insert a "Camouflage" feat in the middle there that allows you to treat yourself as having cover for the purposes of stealth, so it becomes Skill Focus -> Camouflage -> Hide in Plain Sight. The Camouflage feat makes you go chameleon, while the hide in plain sight improves it to the point that even those already watching you will often lose track. Think Predator.
I like the idea of giving "X/day" benefits to such feats, but I'm not sure adding them to already powerful feats is a good idea. Skill Focus and Dodge are probably the best candidates of those you listed for such a benefit, but the benefit should be minor as they are already okay feats.
(The main issue here is to avoid promoting them from "decent" to "you're an idiot if you don't take these". Power Attack and Deadly Aim are already of the latter category and there is no reason to improve them further.)
Perhaps instead of extending the existing feats, adding a secondary feat that gives a potent benefit would be appropriate. For example, having a Hide in Plain Sight feat (with some restriction to its function, like the shadowdancer has) that requires something like 9 ranks in stealth and skill focus would be a cool feat. Possibly insert a "Camouflage" feat in the middle there that allows you to treat yourself as having cover for the purposes of stealth, so it becomes Skill Focus -> Camouflage -> Hide in Plain Sight. The Camouflage feat makes you go chameleon, while the hide in plain sight improves it to the point that even those already watching you will often lose track. Think Predator.
The idea is to give good feats a weaker per day bonus while giving the weaker feats a better per day bonus. I don't see a problem with give out a short term HiPS with SF(Stealth). At level 3, you are already competing with invisibility.
I like the basic idea for skill focus, not so much the more powerful feats, even without the /day bonus, they're still better than the others.
Specifics? What if the Rapid shot was 2 extra attacks at a -4 once per day? My goal is have every feat increase combat options, and increase balance by making the weaker feats have better per day options.
I'm finding myself increasingly fond of the idea of allowing a character to roll two dice and take the best a few times a day instead of giving out a flat numerical bonus that stacks with almost everything.
It takes away the chance that the character is going to breach ridiculous skill DC or AC levels, but does make the character a great deal more competent with the skill than others. It also has the benefit of not entirely removing the chance of failure from the roll, just making it less likely. (And if you roll two ones, destiny is probably telling you that you need to fail this roll.)
If Weapon Focus isn't doing it for you, you might consider a once-a-day where they get to roll two dice on an attack roll when using the weapon. (I would put in that you shouldn't allow them to crit based on the weapon's natural threat range, as that is strongly affected by this math-wise).
Power Attack and Deadly Aim risk being stupidly desirable, but if you really want them to do something, you could allow a once-per-day ability to reroll damage dice. I would recommend making this on an attack they aren't using with the feat, to represent their tendency to get more out of their impacts even when trying to be "safe."
I would almost say to some of the Skill Focus feats that their numbers should be taken down a peg and just allow the character to roll two dice with the skill like twice a day (four times a day past level 10). Certain skills like Diplomacy or Perception might need re-evaluating compared to others like Appraise, but that's an issue with the skill system in general, too.
Having formerly played an Alchemist, Rapid Shot is a doozy to touch. Perhaps letting a single attack sequence jump the initiative once a day after the first round as long as you're full-attacking with a readied set of ranged weapons and using the feat. Probably not as meaningful since ranged attackers are usually using Dex and therefore at the front, but it's better than lumping even more Bombs onto something.