What the Hell is this?

[Imban]

Of all of the horrible feats I've ever seen in my life, I think this one takes the cake.

Robust (General)
Prerequisite: Endurance
Benefit: You do not die until falling to –12 hit points. If you have an ability that allows you to continue functioning at less than 0 hit points, you may continue taking actions until you reach –12 hit points.
Normal: Characters normally die at –10 hit points or lower.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.

[AlphaNerd]

That is... worse than toughness! With a prereq! One of these days I will stop being impressed at how bad some feats are...

[RandomCasualty]

lol. Wow.

[Modesitt]

We really ought to do a Worst Feat EVER competition. Everyone goes through their WotC books to find the worst feats EVER. Going through 3rd party books is really just too easy. We should probably categorize them, maybe something like:

1. Worst Prereq
2. Worst Feat That Does Nothing
3. Worst Feat That Does Something
4. Worst Explanatory Text
5. Worst Flavor Text
6. Worst Trend-Setting Feat
7. Worst Feat EVER

Anyone game?

[Iaimeki]

What book, dare I ask, is Robust from?

For my money, the worst feat in WotC material comes from It's Hot Outside.

Blessed by Tem-Et-Nu

Prerequisities: Patron deity Tem-Et-Nu, must have defeated a hippopotamus in single combat.

Benefit: Hippopotami [sic] cannot attack you unless they are magically compelled. In addition, if you possess the turn or rebuke undead class feature, you can rebuke or command hippopotami [sic] as an evil cleric rebukes or commands undead. You gain a +2 sacred bonus to your Armor Class against chaotic-aligned creatures with the fire subtype.

Cleric is now an additional favored class for you; the cleric class does not count when determining whether you take an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Special: Your aura radiates law with a strength equal to your character level (see detect law, page 219 of the Player's Handbook.) If you ever lose favor with Tem-Et-Nu, or change your patron deity to another deity, you lose all benefits of this feat and take damage if you were bitten by a hippopotamus. You do not gain a replacement feat. If you later return to Tem-Et-Nu's faithful and receive an atonement spell, you regain the benefit of this feat.

[josephbt]

From Planar Handbook:

Nonverbal Spell(General)

You can cast spells that have verbal components without actually verbalizing the words.
Benefit: You can cast spells with verbal components without needing to utter verbal components. You still make noise when casting such a spell(which may be anything from recognizable speech to elaborate song to simple growls), but the noise is unrecognizable as a verbal spell component. A silence spell would still prevent you from completing the spell, for example. Spells without verbal components are not affected.
This feat is most beneficial to races incapable of speech in the traditional sense, but still capable of communication. However, it can also prove helpful to characters wishing to disguise the verbal components of their spells.


From Races of Destiny:

Smatterings(General)

You have a talent for acquiring languages - at least enough of each one to get by.
Prerequisite: Int 13
Benefit: You can learn enough of a simple language to ask and understand simple questions, explanations, and instructions. This benefit only applies to verbal communication. After 2d6 days of listening to a new language, you know enough to ask simple questions and to follow simple directions. Upon every future encounter with this language, you need only 1d4 days to regain that knowledge.

Would write more but i gotta go sleep. More bullcrap later.

[Crissa]

Well... At least Nonverbal Spell isn't meta-magic, right? But Smatterings seems to be... uhh... Harder than just spending a skill point on a language.

I dunno about the favor... It seems kinda cool, a good example of what a setting-specific feat could be - a way to allow more multi-classing or spell list - (assuming multi-classing worked) and a couple silly flavor bennies.

-Crissa

[RandomCasualty]

Nonverbal spell is a monster feat. If for whatever reason you wanted an awakened bear (or some other creature that can't talk) to be a spellcaster, you could take nonverbal spell. Also I can see taking it in a political intrigue campaign where you want to disguise your spellcasting.

It's useless for conventional combat characters, but certainly not for all campaigns.

Smatterings does indeed suck. I would think a DM would let you do that normally assuming you took some time to study a language in character.

The favor feat is silly, but not useless, the cleric favored class alone may make it worthwhile for some builds.

I think Robust still holds the worst feat award.

[Imban]

If anyone's wondering, Robust is from White Wolf's Player's Guide to Fighters and Barbarians, which is a very bad book.

[Crissa]

...I don't see what Robust does. Isn't that basically the normal rules, but -12 instead of -10?

-Crissa

[Imban]

It gives you two extra hit points which are only valid while you're lying in a pool of your own blood.

As opposed to Toughness, which gives you three extra hit points which are valid all the time.

[User3]

1164186297[/unixtime]]It gives you two extra hit points which are only valid while you're lying in a pool of your own blood.

As opposed to Toughness, which gives you three extra hit points which are valid all the time.

But the two HP you get are far more valuable, because you get them when you need them most (that is, when you have the fewest), as opposed to when two or three HP don't matter.

I seriously think that's the rationale whoever wrote the feat was using. Either that, or it's a feat for undead. Undead 'die' at 0 or fewer HP, so being able to go for another 12 is acually a bit of a boost.

[MrWaeseL]

I nominate Spell Focus: Divination. Are there even any spells of that school that force a save?

[Neeek]

1164145354[/unixtime]]
Blessed by Tem-Et-Nu

That's not that bad. Imagine how good it would be in a hippo-focused campaign, which I'm now feeling compelled to write/run.

[AlphaNerd]

1164195670[/unixtime]]I nominate Spell Focus: Divination. Are there even any spells of that school that force a save?

Detect Thoughts to get read thoughts. Also, scrying, analyze dweomer (attended object), Discern Thoughts. That's all according to the spell filter at d20srd.org.

[User3]

1164195670[/unixtime]]I nominate Spell Focus: Divination. Are there even any spells of that school that force a save?

To add to AlphaNerd's list, there are now a bunch of Divination "attack" spells in the various new spell-heavy sourcebooks. Check the PHB-2, Spell Compendium, various Eberron sourcebooks, etc.

It's still a crap feat though.

[Username17]

Eagle Claw Attack still wins. It "allows" you to make sunder attacks with unarmed attacks - something you can already do because technically unarmed attacks are bludgeoning.

That's the most useless feat, because it actually doesn't do anything. It's also impressive because the thing it allows you to do is something you'd never care about because unarmed strikes suck ass at sunder anyway.

-Username17

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Eagle claw attack does in fact do something.

It adds your wisdom bonus to damage against objects when using an unarmed strike.

Granted, it doesn't do anything that anyone would care about. But it does technically do something.

[Imban]

Craft Set [Item Creation]
You can create sets of magic items.
Prerequisites: Caster level 15th, item creation feat to be selected.
Benefit: Select an item creation feat. You can create any set (consisting of two or more magic items) whose pre-requisites you meet.
Enchanting a set takes one day for each 1,000 gp in its price. To enchant a set, you must spend 1/25 of the set’s price in XP and use up raw materials costing half of this price. As normal, a weapon, armor, or shield planned to be part of a set must be a masterwork item that you provide. Its cost is not included in the above cost (and in the sample calculation below).
You can also mend a broken set item if it is one that belongs to a set you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that set item in the first place.
Some sets of magic items incur extra costs in material components or XP, as noted in their descriptions. These costs are in addition to those derived from the set’s base price. You must pay such a cost to create a set or to mend a broken one.
Sets require the fulfillment of the set-prerequisites (e.g. each set item must be worn by a single individual), as noted in their descriptions, to get all parts of the set to fully function. This factor reduces the set price. The final cost figure is calculated as follows:
1. Calculate the cost of each set item without additional set powers (e.g. 1,000 gp [+1 full plate armor] and 1,000 gp [+1 heavy steel shield] for the Bastion of Light [see New Magic Sets]).
2. Calculate the cost of each set item with additional set powers (e.g. 9,000 gp [+2 light fortification full plate armor] and 9,000 gp [+2 blinding heavy steel shield] for the Bastion of Light).
3. Calculate the cost difference of each item (e.g. 9,000 - 1,000 gp = 8,000 gp and 9,000 - 1,000 gp = 8,000 gp for the Bastion of Light).
4. Divide the sum of the cost differences by the number of set items (e.g. (8,000 gp + 8,000 gp) / 2 = 8,000 gp for the Bastion of Light).
5. Calculate the sum of 1. and 4. (e.g. 1,000 gp + 8,000 gp and 1,000 gp + 8,000 gp for the Bastion of Light) to get the cost figure of each set item.
6. Calculate the sum of 5. to get the final cost figure of the set (e.g. 18,000 gp for the Bastion of Light).
If multiple creatures wear a set item, use 5. for the calculation of character wealth.
Special: A character can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time a character takes the feat, it applies to a different item creation feat. If you have selected this feat two or more times, you can also create cross-category sets (e.g. a set consisting of a ring and a sword if you have the Craft Set [Craft Magic Arms and Armor] and Craft Set [Forge Ring] feats).

Seriously, what the fvck?

[Username17]

Just checking, but creating a magical set reduces the cost of the bonus spcial abilities by nothing right? Apparently set items are a way to make weaker equipment with no special advantages at all. I'm totally impressed, that is in fact shittier than even the original Eagle Claw Attack - that did nothing. This does less than nothing.

It is like a feat that allows you to make scrolls that take longer to read...

-Username17

[MrWaeseL]

But it's worded so needlessly complicated that noone will ever know!

[Imban]

Yes, Frank, you read it correctly. The feat does absolutely nothing except let you make items that are worse than usual.

[Zherog]

Where's that from?

[Imban]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php? ... r][br]This. It's free because it's worth nothing.

[Draco_Argentum]

Arg, someone has been playing Diablo 2.