What's the deal with the master performer and grandmaster feat

[Doompatrol]

So there are 2 Bard feats pointed out in a thread, they both give a stacking bonus to Bard bonuses from performances, seems like a no brainer.

But they come from a really old source, the faction guide and 5 TPA, whatever that is.

Are these something that's normally allowed/accessible for players or are these throw backs from when the system was closely linked with D&D and too good as a feat

[Coidzor]

I believe the TPA represents standing with the faction.

Master Performer and Grand Master Performer are what you're referring to, correct?

+4 to your allies attack and damage via Inspire Courage is definitely nice at level 9, but that's also half or more of your feats by 9th level and likely a significant investment into an NPC organization. Inspire Competence is a joke unless you're a dwarf and take another feat to make it actually work, so another +2 there isn't much, especially since we're talking skill checks. Inspire Heroics doesn't open up until level 15, at which point the difference between +4 and +6 Dodge bonus to AC is not that significant given the attack bonuses of the things that will be trying to murder the PCs.

It shouldn't work on Inspire Greatness, and that's the only performance where I can see a real argument for it being broken to get 4 bonus HD instead of 2 HD. If the GM somehow ruled it as doing so.

If you're comparing it to D&D 3.5, though, it's definitely weaker than that, because in D&D 3.5 you have the ability to double Inspire Courage bonuses and are not limited by rounds per day. Granted, I'm of the opinion that, in general, PF erred on the side of making feats too weak and making too many feat-chains in exchange for increasing the raw number of feats.

As for whether it's generally allowed, I can't help you with that one.

[VoodistMonk]

They are faction feats. If your GM is willing to play with faction rules, then the feats are allowed.

You have ties to The Kith' in your background... my Bards are generally related to Merriweather Stokes for flavor reasons.

Have your GM give you little downtime missions... like you must Perform in public for the sake of furthering the prestige of the fabulous Kithardian Academy. Maybe some side quests for the whole party related to the Lion Blades or some such BS.

Anyways, track your Total Prestige Award points... roughly 3-5 points should be made available each level... you have to earn them. You can spend them on Bard-related BS in towns that you have Performed. Each point of Prestige Award is worth like 350gp. You subtract the points from your Total Presitge Award points earned to get your Current Prestige Award points. Obviously, your CPA can never exceed your TPA.

The feats in question have prerequisites based on your TPA, so you can spend Presitge Award points to where your CPA is below the prerquisites... but if your TPA qualifies, you also qualify.

It's literally no different than Hero Points, except it's related to The Kith'.

[Derklord]

It's an optional subsystem (with no D&D connection).

There's a ton of rules involved, including (for the faction in question at least) strict behaviour restrictions ("Rebels, petulant nobles, and thieves are quickly ejected from the school’s ranks"). The character needs strong ties to the school, and probably needs to frequently visit the location.
The book actually outright warns you that using the factions system takes some work on altering the campaign (and if you want to play be the rules you definitely need the book text aviable), but it does also suggest alternatives: "While most these new feats, magic items, spells, traits, and pieces of equipment are associated with the various factions in this book, you don’t have to limit access to them to members of those factions. For example, if you have a bard PC but you’re not using the Kitharodian Academy faction in your game, you could still let the bard take the Master Performer feat if he meets some other roleplaying requirement." The idea is clearly that it should take some effort beyond just picking a feat on levelup.