New Weapons vs. Old Feats

[Stephen J. Dewey]

I am running a campaign and one of the characters, a paladin, has used a greatsword since his creation. He has recently wanted to switch over to another weapon (a halberd) but is concerned because all of this feats have been chosen to promote a greatsword (improved critical, weapon focus, etc). Is there a feat or class feature somewhere that allows you to swap which weapon your combat feats are tied to?

Thanks!

[agentJay]

I do not believe so however, the point of the game is having fun. So I say let him switch his stuff especially if he has a good role play reason.

I have seen many good weapons get sold or passed on because people have feats tied up. I do not think it would hurt to let people switch feats related to their weapon of choice as long as it is not every adventure. As always ymmv.

Thanks,

+J

[Terronus]

Ultimate Campaign is going to support rules for retraining, I believe. You could allow it ahead of time knowing its not unreasonable to do so!

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

I have not needed to use it in a long time, but a rule we used to have was:

If you have a feat(s) that has choice in it (such as weapon spec) at every level advance you could switch the choice on 1 feat. This could make some your feats invalid. In that case you would still 'have' them they just wouldn't give you any benefit until you were again qualified to use them.

[ub3r_n3rd]

I totally agree with agentJay that it's about having fun even if you don't always follow all the RAW.

RAW: Those feats can be taken multiple times so that players can use different weapons, but as a GM I'd allow the player to switch all of the greatsword stuff over to the halberd if it had good role playing involved. Just tell him he can only do it this one time and that he can't switch back to greatsword or a different weapon later, this is a one-time thing for him.

[TGMaxMaxer]

Fighters get to retrain the Feat itself every 4 levels, it wouldn't be too unbalancing to let them retrain the weapon chosen... I'd say every level they can change the weapon on -one- feat if it's in the same weapon group, and every other level if it's a different weapon group.

My logic being that going from a longsword to a bastard sword or falcata is much less of a switch than going from a longsword to a flail/polearm.

[Roberta Yang]

It wouldn't be unbalancing to let them retrain every single one of their choose-a-weapon feats whenever they get 8 hours of rest.

[Strannik]

I think I would be ok w/ players having a one time "I hate this weapon can I please switch to something else" event. Perhaps they are new and now find shields worthless? But if this is something they want to do every time they find loot, b/c that +2 halberd is so much better than their +1 greatsword...then no, that reeks of cheese to me. :P

[TriOmegaZero]

I had a player take shield proficiency as a fighter. When he realized his mistake, I let him pick another feat.

I see this as no different than that.

[MacGurcules]

I agree with the general sentiment here. The point is, the fighter has to choose the situation in which he wants his feats to work. So if he has Weapon Focus or Improved Critical with his signature glaive, he can't get those benefits when he gets disarmed and pulls his backup mace.

I would probably lean towards a pretty permissive allowance like Roberta. Make them make a choice, but let it be flexible.

[TGMaxMaxer]

On point tho, this is a paladin. Not a fighter... (yes I know it's still a martial)

He has been swinging a huge slab of metal for several levels now (OP said since creation, and if he's got imp crit that's 8 levels at least) so make him take a little time to get to be used to a stick with metal at one end.

[Dark servitude]

Mostly comes down to a personal opinion as a DM, but you can't play the game if your players are un happy about sokmething if you, as a DM, refuse to let them change. If you are for the change and want them to actually work for it...that would be cool for an RP. Like a trial ish with a reward at the end. But can still switch out his feats of course. =P

[Roberta Yang]

Strannik wrote:

I think I would be ok w/ players having a one time "I hate this weapon can I please switch to something else" event. Perhaps they are new and now find shields worthless? But if this is something they want to do every time they find loot, b/c that +2 halberd is so much better than their +1 greatsword...then no, that reeks of cheese to me. :P

The fact that fighters can use almost none of the magic weapons they find as loot because even the ones with a larger enhancement bonus make them worse at fighting, forcing them to treat weapons that should be good as vendor trash, is a bug, not a feature. In a game where the wizard can always learn any spell, fill empty spell slots with whatever she wants with only one minute of memorizing, swap out her entire spell list every day, and craft whatever magic items she wants at half-price, it hardly reeks of cheese for the fighter to want to actually be able to use the magic halberd she finds.

[Acobar]

I have a bit of experience handling medieval weapons, and I would say that greatsword and polearm are similar enough that I think that a lot of the feats should be more or less transferable.

Honestly, I think a lot of the specializations and such should be more geared towards weapon groups (polearms/spear, 2h swords, mace/club, 1h slashing (such as scimitars), 1h piercing(such as rapiers/shortswords), 1h piercing/slashing (such as bastard swords and long swords or other cut-and-thrust weapons)

[Roberta Yang]

"Thanks for Excalibur, miss lady of the lake, but I'm afraid my weapon-specific feats make it less useful than this +1 Greataxe I have here... I appreciate it though, and I'm sure it will fetch a decent price when I sell it back in town!"

[Strannik]

Roberta Yang wrote:

Strannik wrote:

I think I would be ok w/ players having a one time "I hate this weapon can I please switch to something else" event. Perhaps they are new and now find shields worthless? But if this is something they want to do every time they find loot, b/c that +2 halberd is so much better than their +1 greatsword...then no, that reeks of cheese to me. :P

The fact that fighters can use almost none of the magic weapons they find as loot because even the ones with a larger enhancement bonus make them worse at fighting, forcing them to treat weapons that should be good as vendor trash, is a bug, not a feature. In a game where the wizard can always learn any spell, fill empty spell slots with whatever she wants with only one minute of memorizing, swap out her entire spell list every day, and craft whatever magic items she wants at half-price, it hardly reeks of cheese for the fighter to want to actually be able to use the magic halberd she finds.

You know what, you're right. From a mechanical perspective it would actually help the martial classes catch up a little bit. I definitely was too quick to throw out the "cheese" word.

I do think from a rp perspective, that I really enjoy playing a fighter that is a master of one particular weapon, I'm sure that shaded my opinion. (And perhaps I've had better luck finding good loot?) Also I'm old and grumpy. :P