Post originally by Darrin Bright at 2005-04-11 06:11:17
Converted from Phorums BB System

Racial abilities are now feats? Ok... I guess I'll have to thumb through the book, then, but on the whole I'm against feats being used for mundane or mechanical purposes. I seem to be the only person on the planet bothered by this, though.

In my mind, feats should be heroic "stuff of legend" things, things that ordinary folks ordinarily don't have the time or inclination to develop. This is what bugged the hell out of me in Star Wars d20... being able to fly a starship should NOT be a feat! A stormtrooper can fly a starship for crissakes, he shouldn't need a feat to be a pilot.

Likewise, I *hate* feats that give you just a bonus on a skill roll. Being 10% better than someone else just isn't heroic, especially when they can get just as good at better by spending more skill points.

From what I can see, more and more D20 designers are using Feats as some sort of fluffy pink bondo, to buff out or cover up what's really bugging them about D20... which is they really want a more freeform "pay as you go" system, something similar to a point build where you buy what you want. But there are more elegant systems out there that already do this pretty well without going anywhere near those huge headaches caused by levels, BAB, saving throws, etc.

The Blue Rose treatment of skills intrigues me, though... I've been considering that the whole "skill point" thing is entirely ditchable, and I'm wondering if Blue Rose managed to do it right.