| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Let's take a look at the Core Rogue or more specifically, at the Core Rogue's Talents. Compare them to their upgraded Unchained Rogues Talent equivalents or even the Vigilante's...Notice anything?
Most of the Core Rogues Talents that were changed are either, extremely situational, only usable once or twice per day, or generally aren't very applicable or strong. When Unchained came out, you guys added more uses per day, generally strengthened the talents, and most importantly...
You consolidated the extremely situational talents so that they would be useful over a broader spectrum of similar activities.
And that, is what I want to talk about for today, consolidating Skill Feats.
When I go through the Skill Feats for the Playtest, I am reminded of many of the Core Rogue Talents. Mainly, many of the noncombat based Skill Feats are rather situational.
Take for instance, the social skills. The in-combat feats like Cruel Deceiver will generally get used because you can build your combat tactics around them but the out of combat feats like Confabulator, Hobnobber, and Charming Liar are used far more scarcely.
No one, that I know anyway, wants to spend a tenth of their skill feats on something that doesn't come up very often. So these feats need a little extra incentive...
I know of two ways to incentivize taking a situational feat.
1. Make it extremely good at what it does so that it completely eliminates a problem. (I don't suggest this one. Take the Unchained Rogue Talent Kip Up, especially when combined with the skill unlock. If faced against someone who specializes in tripping, then the Rogue can repeatedly be tripped and come out unscathed. It makes someone who takes it awesome in a rare situation but doesn't help them the rest of the time.)
2. Make the feat help in a variety of similar situations.
(I recommend this one. Look at the Unchained Rogue's Quick Disable and Expert Leaper, or the Vigilantes Sure Footed. They help you often enough that you might consider spending a tenth of your talents on it.)
So my suggestion is that each situational Skill Feat be expanded to more, similar, situations so that it's more generally useful.
Please consider it.
Good day!
P.S. If more skills advanced with proficiency level then proficiency would feel more important and less like a Prerequisite Tax.