You can not delay selecting the feat. You have to pick the feat at the level you get it.
Better question:
Why do you so badly want Dodge at 3rd level?
Hmm what needs Dodge...Crane Style? Spring Attack? Whirlwind Attack? Prestige Class?
Anyway for you to work in a bonus feat at level 4?
Hmm what needs Dodge...Crane Style? Spring Attack? Whirlwind Attack? Prestige Class?
Ooh, good point. I doubt the first few feats, since those tend not to be feats low Dex characters gravitate to, but the prestige class got me thinking: Stalwart Defender maybe? But then, there's no reason he couldn't take it at 5th.
Hrm, back to the drawing board.
Maybe he just vastly overestimates the value of a +1 Dodge bonus to AC?
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Dodge is a prerequisite for 19 different feats, including multiple chains that are several feats long, as well as for several prestige classes (non-Fighters need Dodge by third level to enter Duelist at seventh). There's any number of reasons to want to get Dodge as soon as possible - in fact, since the main reason to take Dodge is as a prerequisite for something, almost every use of Dodge wants to take it as early as possible. The prerequisite system is designed so that you really need to plan your character out starting from level 1 if you want to take remotely interesting feat chains or prestige classes (but if you plan out your character from level 1 then you're a munchkin who doesn't understand true roleplaying).
Dodge is a prerequisite for 19 different feats, including multiple chains that are several feats long, as well as for several prestige classes (non-Fighters need Dodge by third level to enter Duelist at seventh). There's any number of reasons to want to get Dodge as soon as possible - in fact, since the main reason to take Dodge is as a prerequisite for something, almost every use of Dodge wants to take it as early as possible. The prerequisite system is designed so that you really need to plan your character out starting from level 1 if you want to take remotely interesting feat chains or prestige classes (but if you plan out your character from level 1 then you're a munchkin who doesn't understand true roleplaying).
Good to have you back :)
Ask your DM to allow you to delay selection of the feat? Going a whole level without a feat you've earned seems like plenty enough punishment to me.
Selecting a feat may have to be done immediately... but does leveling up have the same rule? You could risk staying 2nd level until you hit a town.
Selecting a feat may have to be done immediately... but does leveling up have the same rule? You could risk staying 2nd level until you hit a town.
Whenever you reach the required number of experience points, you level up. You don't make a choice in the matter - it just happens.
Advancing Your Character
A character advances in level as soon as he earns enough experience points to do so—typically, this occurs at the end of a game session, when your GM hands out that session's experience point awards.
As soon as you earn the experience, you level up. So if your DM awards experience in the middle of a dungeon, and you have enough XP to level, you immediately level. If your DM holds off on giving your your XP until you reach a town (or other suitable resting spot), then you don't level up until then.
From a pure rules perspective, feats are selected as soon as you reach the level at which they are awarded. They can't be 'banked up'.
From a table rule POV:
So taking the Dodge example, someone could save up a feat slot, pick up a DEX bonus belt a few sessions later, and then take Dodge. But if a feat had, say, a BAB requirement or a caster-level requirement that was not met at the time the feat was 'banked', then they could not 'buy' it.
