"Holding" a Feat Pick for later?

[Dirk_Poignard]

Two of my players have an odd request for our new Starfinder game I didn't ever get in Pathfinder.

Both of them are playing +0 BAB character classes. Both of them have their eye on feats which require +1 BAB, and want to hold off on Feat selection.

Is there a rule that a Feat *must* be taken every opportunity there is to do so?

(I do understand that allowing a character to take a feat at 2nd lvl instead of 1st will in the end make them more powerful.)

[David knott 242]

This same question has come up frequently in the Pathfinder forums, and the usual answer has been no, you must pick feats immediately when you qualify for them. I am not aware of anything in the Starfinder Core Rulebook that changes that. In Pathfinder, you could retrain your 1st level feat at 2nd level, but Starfinder's Mnemonic Editor does not allow you to do that.

[Peat]

Similar vein (and maybe I should just start a new thread) but what are thoughts on holding a rebuild of a Mechanic Drone that is also granted each time you gain Mechanic level? Unlike a Feat, it's not something you can do immediately in many cases since it takes 24 hours of uninterrupted work to complete. Given that, how long could you wait until performing that 24 hours of work? Would be a nice perk to be able to 'bank' that rebuild until you really needed it (wait until a big assault mission then turn your hover drone into a Combat with Heavy Weapons)

[David knott 242]

That is the real question -- whether you can save up those rebuilds over several levels or whether (for example) you lose the opportunity to do your 2nd level rebuild as soon as you reach 3rd level. That is definitely a good FAQ candidate.

Of course, we are both assuming that you don't need to use up that rebuild just to advance your drone to its higher level form.

[IonutRO]

I say force them to wait until 3rd level to be able to get the feat they want, that seems like a fair trade off.

Basically say that yes, they can save up their feat slots, but they can only buy feats at odd levels, not even levels.

This means that they don't waste any feat slots, but have to spend 2 levels with fewer feats than normal as a trade-off.

[Dirk_Poignard]

Fair answers. Thanks. Something for me to think on.

[Tryn]

This question came up in my PF rounds often and we houseruled that the feat must be selected before you get the next one (exception Level 1 feats have to be selected at character creation).

Example:
You build a Level 3 character - you have to pick the 1st Level feat right away, but could "withhold" the 3rd Level and take it anytime (within reason (e.g. in combat)) before you hit Level 5 (when you get the next feat).