Power and Spells and Feats, oh my

[Joe Mucchiello]

So really, why are powers granted by feats located in the spells list, but feats aren't? Why separate them? Or why include powers in a spells list? Rituals have their own section, why not powers?

Or why not just shove everything into one big list? Class and Race descriptions drop to 3 and 1 page each. The feats section go away. And then you have 150 pages of nothing but similarly formatted chaos.

Sorting the spells by level, then name, since spells no longer have different levels for different caster types, would make it much easier to generate a character.

Removing the powers and sorting them by class, level and name would be a godsend.

Skill and general feats should be ordered by type (trait, sorry) then level, then name.

And finally race feats should have heritage feats in a separate section so you don't miss any of them. And at 5th level, you know to just ignore those feats.

I know everyone thought 3e D&D's sorting of spells by name was a great idea. But it actually wasn't. It makes it harder to understand what goes with what power level. If level were the first sort criteria, it would make the book less intimidating.

"Now pick spells?"
"I have to read that 86 page spells chapter?"
"No, you only have to look at the 8 pages of 1st level spells and 4 pages of cantrips."
"Oh, that's much better."

[Traiel]

Seconded!

[Xenocrat]

Powers are there because they follow all of the same rules for spells except for the resource expended. Powers costs spell points, spells cost spell slots. In all other ways they operate identically.

[Culach]

Xenocrat wrote:

Powers are there because they follow all of the same rules for spells except for the resource expended. Powers costs spell points, spells cost spell slots. In all other ways they operate identically.

This is true.

The problem is, most of the powers are unique to a class (Clerics and Paladins Share) and their mention in the class lacks a page number to reference meaning that the reader has to try and find the power.

Second, for new players who don't know that powers and spells are almost identical, they may not realize they need to look in spells. It isn't necessarily intuitive.

My recommendation would be to have a power listed with the Bloodline/Domain/School that it is associated with in order to simplify locating it. Barring that, powers should have their own section separate from spells for easier location.

Right now it just isn't intuitive.