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One under utilized element of feat trees I always thought was the lack of background and profession options. This is the kinda stuff that fell into Traits and background packages.
I always felt they were better serviced by being something you could progress with as feat selections. Rather than half feats and measures it would be nice to have actual profession feats that grant you social ties, bonuses to actions tied to your chosen job, etc.
Imagine a nice way to expand your reach as a Noble if you gained feats that gave you specific stunts "Call in X favors a day/week/etc", or +X vs contacts of your skill tree, better rates for rewards (or a better bonus to rolls for such). Etc.
I could also see things like "Burgler" package that gave you an excuse to pick up Thief skills just with out the Rogue raw bonus. Just enough to give you the dabbler package. That way I could pick up the package Thieves Guild package with say my Barbarian levels and make a pretty good take on Fafhrd. Or conversely play a Rogue with Apprentice feats to make Gray Mouser.
THis could cover the class skill dip packages, jobs, backhistory, etc.
Great for 'touched by aberrations' backstory to explain your weird non-natural ability to absorb electricity damage and attack intangible X times a day kinda stuff.
Feat packages is just something I've seen hinted at but never really developed very far.
This would be doable in 5E, where the feats are broader, more powerful and more meaningful. I'm not sure it's doable so much in Pathfinder, where even the sample feats we're seeing from PF2 are just as narrow and low-powered as in PF1. So at most, a feat might give / upgrade proficiency in a couple skills, if not even only one skill.
(That said, count me in as preferring the 5E feat style... just not at the expense of ability scores like in 5E.)
I think the Devs have said Backgrounds grant Proficiencies in some skills, but it would be nice if each of them also had some sort of special ability (or Feat, if you want) that got more powerful as you advanced.
Sort of like a Bloodline or a Domain, but for a Profession or Background.
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I think the Devs have said Backgrounds grant Proficiencies in some skills, but it would be nice if each of them also had some sort of special ability (or Feat, if you want) that got more powerful as you advanced.
Sort of like a Bloodline or a Domain, but for a Profession or Background.
This is what I'm talking about. I know PF2E's feats are not quite as broad as 5E's feats, but you can build a tree of advancement and benefits.
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I think that a lot of the kinds of stuff you are talking about here will be covered very nicely by the proficiency and skill feat mechanics. Having legendary proficiency in society would seem like it should grant some fairly remarkable access to social boon feats.
This would be doable in 5E, where the feats are broader, more powerful and more meaningful. I'm not sure it's doable so much in Pathfinder, where even the sample feats we're seeing from PF2 are just as narrow and low-powered as in PF1. So at most, a feat might give / upgrade proficiency in a couple skills, if not even only one skill.
(That said, count me in as preferring the 5E feat style... just not at the expense of ability scores like in 5E.)
I'd like a mix. At first level get some meaty 5E style feats. Then as leveling get traditional PF feats.
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Reposting this tidbit from elsewhere, since it seems relevant:
FWIW, Jason and Stephen discuss PF2 Backgrounds in this presentation, starting at 43:00. It's a good overview. Some highlights.
Building your characters is following your ABCs: Pick your Ancestry, your Background, and your Class ... You pick your Ancestry, that's where you came from, that's how you were born; you pick your Background, which is how you grew up; and then you pick your Class, which is what you've trained to be.Stephen describes Backgrounds as a more-robust system that serves about the same function as PF1 traits. "We wanted something a little more robust and mostly, that Adventure Path people could play with." The Core Rulebook will present generic Backgrounds (e.g., old barkeep, ex-slave, "all sorts of stuff") but the goal is to allow AP writers to create Backgrounds that really fit into the world of the AP (much like the AP traits from PF1).
Stephen: The Background system "affects the skills that you're good at and it also your ability scores to a certain degree."
Jason adds that your Background gives you one Lore for free, which is a highly specific Knowledge skill. He gives as examples Lore (Alcohol) and Lore (Warfare) (which Valeros has).