Well to be blunt gastalt is not something the system was meant to support and thus the game was not balanced with the feat needs of two classes in one.
On top of that many classes get bonus feats. So personally find it to be perfect. There is enough for builds but not so many that you don't have to give some thought to your choices. If I did not have to think about my choices at all I would quickly be bored.
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A Druid, Monk, Fighter, Bar mix gives you a wildshape focused druid that can do 1.5x str on claw attacks and up to 6 natural attacks (on a pounce.) and 4 natural attacks in a full round attack.
The Monk and Fighter levels will give you all the combat feats you need with a feat slot or 2 left over for feats like natural spell or boon companion.
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You kids are so spoiled today! Back in my day we didn't have feats. Not one! You know what we had? We had THAC0 and combat/non-combat skills. We had to walk a thousand miles up a mountain of thick, cloying snow only to get instantly killed at the dungeon entrance by a sphere of annihilation hiding in the apparent key hole. No save. No chance to avoid. Stick your hand in the hole and you died. And with virtually no chance of resurrection! Get over yourself you young whippersnapper. You got it easy. Have some respect for us old timers who had it much, MUCH harder than you! (Also, we had to use paper and pencil, for real, none of this electronic hoodads from Star Trek to track our stats.)
*Firmly tongue in cheek.*
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Well, some classes need more feats than others, and MoMS and Druid are both in that category. Druid especially, as you get ZERO bonus feats and Natural Spell as basically a feat tax on the class. MoMS, meanwhile, gets two bonus feats but needs about 5-6 feats to really make having two styles worthwhile.
Long story short: if you don't want to feel feat-taxed, play a less complex, feat-hungry build. There are plenty of them out there. Usually, unless you're trying to go Two-Weapon Fighting or some such, the classes that need lots of feats get bonus feats. Other classes either get other abilities to compensate for lack of feats (rogue talents, rage powers, spellcasting, etc.), or don't need feats to be effective; thus, you can then spend your feats making your character MORE effective at their regular stuff (e.g., Power Attack) or opening up alternate abilities (e.g., Eldritch Heritage, weapon proficiencies). If you're always feeling feat starved, you should probably stick to the classes that get bonus feats - Monk, Ranger, Fighter, and so on.
(That being said, do look at taking 1 level of Unarmed Fighter, then 1-2 levels of MoMS monk - you'll have a goodly number of bonus feats. Of course, you might need to take Boon Companion and/or Shaping Focus if you want your druid abilities to be up to snuff...)
...Back in my day we didn't have feats. Not one! You know what we had? We had THAC0 and combat/non-combat skills. We had to walk a thousand miles up a mountain of thick, cloying snow only to get instantly killed at the dungeon entrance by a sphere of annihilation hiding in the apparent key hole. No save. No chance to avoid. Stick your hand in the hole and you died. And with virtually no chance of resurrection! Get over yourself you young whippersnapper. You got it easy. Have some respect for us old timers who had it much, MUCH harder than you! (Also, we had to use paper and pencil, for real, none of this electronic hoodads from Star Trek to track our stats.)...*sniff* I miss those days so much!
Not mention that poison was save or die. None of this ability damage crap, just D.E.A.D. That was when (teenage nerds pretending to be) men were men. Ungrateful punks - pull up your pants and get off my lawn ;).
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That sounds good, but be aware that by RAW animal shaman archetypes don't get to wildshape until level 6, at which point they wildshape as a level 8 druid for their animal and a level 4 druid otherwise. Also, you technically need Feral Combat Training to use styles with natural attacks, which also requires Weapon Focus for the given natural attack. (See what I mean about monks & druids being feat-heavy?)
If your GM handwaves that stuff, go right ahead. Personally, I love the whole idea of a monkey king-style kung fu gorilla, and think it's pretty dumb that you need two dozen feats to make it work. Remember, the rules and structure of the game exist to make it more fun, not less fun; you can always talk to your GM about waiving this type of thing so that everyone has more fun.
Hahaha, they were combat and non-combat proficiencies, not skills.
You mentioned THAC0, but missed the extremely screwy saving throw table!
Hey man, I'm old. Memory isn't what it used to be.
do you guys feel the feat every other level for classes to be fine? I know im biased but i feel like feats are fun, one of my favorite parts of leveling. and exasperated with picking MoMS monk archetype i jsut feel like i cant get anything fun or interesting, im stuck wtih must haves.
I do feel that a feat every other level is fine. But, yes, I still want more sometimes. When I do, I just sit back and remind myself that the characters build over time and I'll eventually get where I'm going and not be impatient. It's all about managing your own expectations.
Must haves? There are feats that are good for achieving certain goals, but try to divorce yourself from thinking of them as must haves. You're only frustrating yourself by doing so.
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You kids are so spoiled today! Back in my day we didn't have feats. Not one! You know what we had? We had THAC0 and combat/non-combat skills. We had to walk a thousand miles up a mountain of thick, cloying snow only to get instantly killed at the dungeon entrance by a sphere of annihilation hiding in the apparent key hole. No save. No chance to avoid. Stick your hand in the hole and you died. And with virtually no chance of resurrection! Get over yourself you young whippersnapper. You got it easy. Have some respect for us old timers who had it much, MUCH harder than you! (Also, we had to use paper and pencil, for real, none of this electronic hoodads from Star Trek to track our stats.)
*Firmly tongue in cheek.*
-smacks toothless gums, and cackles-
I remember having a first level wizard with one actual hitpoint. And one magic missile per day. Yes, we got to roll for our stats, but we actually had to roll for our first level hitpoints too. Wizards on a d4. And it took six months of weekly game play to go up a level. Bah! You think this is hard?
Feeling feat starved is normally why I mostly end up using two handers. Entire feat chain = Power Attack... and maybe Cornugon Smash if I have high intimidate. Feels good to not have to look at your really cool build that comes into its own around level 7 and then cry because you're starting at 1.
And it took six months of weekly game play to go up a level. Bah! You think this is hard?
Sounds like the game I'm in now. Been level 9 for at least 4 months of weekly sessions.
You kids are so spoiled today! Back in my day we didn't have feats. Not one! You know what we had? We had THAC0 and combat/non-combat skills. We had to walk a thousand miles up a mountain of thick, cloying snow only to get instantly killed at the dungeon entrance by a sphere of annihilation hiding in the apparent key hole. No save. No chance to avoid. Stick your hand in the hole and you died. And with virtually no chance of resurrection! Get over yourself you young whippersnapper. You got it easy. Have some respect for us old timers who had it much, MUCH harder than you! (Also, we had to use paper and pencil, for real, none of this electronic hoodads from Star Trek to track our stats.)
*Firmly tongue in cheek.*
[accent="Yorkshire"]THAC0? THAC0?? That new-fangled 2nd edition thing? We had no such of that, just attack tables - no non-combat proficiencies, no "skills" unless you were a rogue and even then you only had a snowball's chance in hell of doing anything at first level! I remember when the reason wizards got to be gods at high level was because most of 'em died young!
You didn't know you were born at 2nd edition, I tell you! Try playing Basic or Advanced D&D and that'll teach you a thing or two about role-playing. Why, I remember when we - the players! - 'ad to walk eighteen hours to get to a game, play for five minutes and our fathers were calling us on the phone telling us to be 'ome in five minutes or they'd serial kill us by chopping us into slices wi' bread knife 'cos we were late for diner!
But if you tell the kids these days that they won't believe you...[/accent]