I have seen very little use of Teamwork feats, and considering everything, I understand why, feats are effectively a very scarce resource, supply does not exceed demand.
Here is one of my ideas.
Teamwork
Teamwork feats are gained based on BAB.
----)1 feat per point of BAB
-------)plus 1 per 5 ranks in Profession (Soldier)
Retraining Mechanics should apply to Teamwork feats
Basic Fighters count as having any teamwork feat for supporting an allies known feat
-)unless the feat require abilities the fighter does not possess, like spellcasting.
----)(The fighter provides the bonus to the ally, not to himself)
------)(unless he actually has the feat, of course.)
I have seen very little use of Teamwork feats, and considering everything, I understand why, feats are effectively a very scarce resource, supply does not exceed demand.
Here is one of my ideas.
Teamwork
Teamwork feats are gained based on BAB.
----)1 feat per point of BAB
-------)plus 1 per 5 ranks in Profession (Soldier)
1 feat/BAB seems too much. More so if we're talking about a fighter, who gets a feat every level anyway. I like the skill ranks idea, though. Basically works like a skill unlock.
Retraining Mechanics should apply to Teamwork feats
Totally agree.
Basic Fighters count as having any teamwork feat for supporting an allies known feat unless the feat require abilities the fighter does not possess, like spellcasting.
----)(The fighter provides the bonus to the ally, not to himself)
------)(unless he actually has the feat, of course.)
1 feat/BAB seems too much. More so if we're talking about a fighter, who gets a feat every level anyway. I like the skill ranks idea, though. Basically works like a skill unlock.
I kind of agree that 1 per BAB may be too much
----) Maybe 1/2 or 1/3 might be betterSince fighters are seriously feat driven I think that the 1 feat per level isn't as big a deal as it looks, but I don't really have much problem with fighters being battlefield terrors.
Yeah 1/3 seems a bit more balanced, especially if it involves a system similar to skill unlocks. Not quite as nasty as a feat tax, but still requires some investment to access. It would be even better if fighters naturally had something akin to the Brawler's Martial Flexibility so they could pick up feats (specifically Teamwork feats in this case) for specific encounters.
Inkeeping with the theme, maybe taking a general attack penalty of one per feat bought this way, until the encounter is over?
The potential issues I see with these house rules are...
A) Teamwork feats are not-so-secret class features of cavaliers, inquisitors, hunters, and similar classes (much like weapon specialization is for fighters). Giving too many of them away for free feels like it would step on the toes of classes that paid an opportunity cost to have these abilities.
B) There are several highly game breaking Teamwork feats (like Escape Route), which are mitigated by the high opportunity cost of their usage.
C) As a GM, I feel like most of the Teamwork feats were written with my use in mind, not the players'. Teamwork feats allow me to generate reasonably challenging encounters against larger numbers of weaker creatures, and give them an identifiable tactic which has unusual mechanical benefits the party cannot abuse themselves because of their focus on individual power levels.
That being said, I do like the idea of granting a bonus teamwork feat with every 5 ranks in Profession (Soldier), and I might even reduce it to one for every 4 ranks. Profession (soldier) is a fairly useless skill by itself, and expending a fairly limited resource for martial characters (skill points) to gain a fairly limited benefit (teamwork feats) seems like a reasonable exchange to me.
In a similar vein, you could also write a homebrew teamwork feat that simply allows the character to count as having every (or X number of selected) teamwork feats for the purpose of other characters gaining the benefits of their teamwork feats, but doesn't grant you the benefits of those teamwork feats yourself (call it Team Player or some such)
Cantriped,
I would think that anything to put more teamwork feats into the hands of their allies would only improve the overall effectiveness of the Cavalier, Hunter or Inquisitor. Note that, additionally, they will receive just as many extra feats, and will just be scarier, as their powersets are better able to capitalize on those extra teamwork feats.
Second posting, not even I would be likely to spend the feat for that. I do a lot of support characters, but unless you have already done something to make more people purchase teamwork feats, that one would be borderline at best.
Alright, ignoring my previously stated opinions, and moving towards developing house rules to increase the accessibility of Teamwork feats:
How do you feel about granting players the ability to use the retraining rules to grant their character a one or more bonus teamwork feats; in the same way they can already use retraining to grant themselves one or more bonus languages:
You can spend time to learn an additional teamwork feat. It takes 20 days of training to gain a bonus teamwork feat, and these days need not be consecutive. Each teamwork feat requires a trainer who shares a language with you and knows the teamwork feat you want to learn, or a book written in a language you know that explains the basics of the teamwork feat you want to learn.
The new teamwork feat does not count toward the number of feats gained as a result of your character level or class features. You can train this way only a number of times equal to 1 + your Intelligence bonus.
Cantriped,
I like the mechanic.
I did want to get away from the cap being Int based.
In my experience, and to quote someone who really knew what he was talking about, "teamwork is less about being smart than just bloody well paying attention."
(Followed by a list of my deficiencies in that regard, you see, figuring out the right move and messing up everyone else is still a fail, his actual words here would crash the censors)
I wanted to go (fraction of) BAB based to make it more of a function of appropriate experience, and to take away the Feat cost. Having that being a retraining cap rather than just a gimme makes a lot more sense.
I did want to get away from the cap being Int based.
In my experience, and to quote someone who really knew what he was talking about, "teamwork is less about being smart than just bloody well paying attention."
I didn't like the Int based cap either, but I wanted to keep the text concise. In regard to the quote presented above I would suggest basing the teamwork feat cap on retraining on Wisdom instead of Intelligence, wisdom is the ability score for perception after all. However as far as limitations go, 1 +1/5th of you BAB would work as well, it just means the cap will shift more with levels, and the system will favor martials over casters, and put the inquisitor and hunter and other medium BAB teamwork centric classes in a slightly disfavored position.