Feat Point System

Back to SeanKReynolds.com home

Not all feats are created equal. Certainly Power Attack is a better feat than Run, and even the most ardent roleplayer willing to sacrifice all game power for a character concept has to cringe when he puts "Endurance" in the feats section of his character sheet. Some feats suck so much that they're used as "payment" to get into cool prestige classes, like Endurance for the Dwarven Defender, or some as-yet-uninvented mind-bogglingly powerful prestige class that requires Spell Focus (divination) as a prereq. So what do we do about this situation?

Well, characters get many skill points to divide up among skills they want. What if instead of a certain number of feat slots, they got feat pointswhich could be used to buy feats? Better feats would be worth more, worse would be worth less, and the guy who built his character concept around a marathon runner wouldn't feel bad about taking Endurance and Run compared to his buddy with Power Attack and Weapon Focus because the runner wouldn't have paid as much for those feats and might have enough feat points left over to snag another suboptimal feat like Quick Draw, completing his "I'm a fast guy" theme.

To make things simple, I just treated each feat slot as 10 feat points. Each time a character gains a feat, they'd get 10 more feat points. If they were a fighter with a bonus feat, those 10 feat points could only be spent on fighter feats, and likewise with a wizard, who could only spend her bonus feat points on item creation feats, metamagic feats, or Spell Mastery. All that remains are setting certain "benchmark" feats --feats which are considered the appropriate power level for their 1-featcost (10 feat points in this system) and by which we can use to evaluate the cost of other feats (much like how magic missile is a benchmark for spells because it's the best 1st-level spell, and how fireball is your typical 3rd-level area attack spell, etc.) .

You'll notice in the list that follows that most feats are rated less than 10 feat points. That's because in the design of the PH (and hopefully most other books!) the designers erred on the side of caution, making other feats less powerful than the benchmark rather than pushing the envelope. However, there are some strong feats in the PH that are valued at more than 10 points, and the feat point system lets us make sure that a character who chooses those strong feats isn't at an advantage compared to a character who chooses weak feats.

Note that when pricing feats for the feat point system, you don't take into account the prerequisites for the feat or any special circumstances for taking it (such as race or regional origin) . You just evaluate what the feat does, how much of a benefit that is, and how often such a thing comes into play in a typical campaign. A feat that lets you do triple damage on all attacks against Tiamat may seem very powerful, but most of the time the feat is going to be utterly valueless and so it will be priced lower than a less powerful feat that you can use all day on anything, like Weapon Focus. Likewise, Endurance and Run are going to be low-priced feats because in most games the effects of lengthy strenuous tasks and running don't often come up. If your campaign involves fighting Tiamat once a week or daily marathon competitions, these two feats should be priced higher.

(FYI, prerequisites don't matter in pricing the feat point cost because prereqs determine whether or not you can take the feat, not necessarily how powerful it is, and the point system is there to rate a feat's power and utility, not how hard it is to acquire.)

On to the rulesy part!

Feat Points
Each time a character gains a feat, she instead gets 10 feat points which she can use to purchase feats. Characters must still meet all prerequisites as normal. Unspent feat points carry over from level to level, but a character can only purchase feats with feat points at the times in her adventuring career when she could normally select a feat, even if she has extra feat points left over (for example, a character with 6 feat points left over from character level 3 could not spend them until level 6--the next level at which she gains a feat) .

A class that grants bonus feats grants bonus feat points of the appropriate type. For example, the fighter class gives 10 fighter feat points at levels 1, 2, 4, 6, and so on. Typed feat points can only be used on feats of the appropriate type, so a fighter can only use his fighter feat points to purchase fighter feats. However, any normal (typeless) feat points can be combined with typed feat points to purchase typed feats. You can still only use these feat points to purchase feats of the type you could normally purchase at that level.
    Example:Tegdar is a human ftr1 with 3 typeless feat points left over from 1st level. He reaches 2nd level and gains 10 fighter feat points. Tegdar decides to use 7 of those points to purchase Combat Reflexes (cost: 7 points) , leaving him with 3 fighter feat points and 3 normal feat points. He decides to combine these feat points and purchase Far Shot (cost: 6points) . He now is completely out of feat points. He could not have used his 3 normal feat points to purchase feats other than fighter feats because he can only select those feats at level 1, 3, 6, and so on.

Feat Point Debt
At 1st level, and 1st level only, a character is allowed to overspend her feat points by selecting one or more feats with a cost of 11 or more feat points. The extra cost of these feats is carried over until the next time she gains feat points of the appropriate type. She can go into "feat point debt" up to 3 points. Feat point debt is tracked separately by type of feat point (typeless, fighter, wizard, etc.) .The feat point debt system allows characters using it to maintain parity with characters who don't (characters using the standard rules could sometimes end up with several strong feats at 1st level, penalizing the feat-point character) .

    Example: Vidda, a halflingrog1, has 10 feat points. She selects Two-Weapon Fighting (11 points) and goes into feat point debt by for point. The next time she gains typeless feat points (3rd level) she only gains 9instead of 10 because of the 1-point debt. She gains the normal 10 feat points at levels 6, 9, and so on.
    Example:Tegdar, a human ftr1, has 20 typeless feat points (10 from being1st-level, 10 from being human) and 10 fighter feat points. He chooses Point Blank Shot (9 points) and Two-Weapon Fighting with his typless feat points, which brings his typeless feat points to 0 (if there were a 12-point feat he qualified for, he could have selected that instead of Two-Weapon fighting, which would have put him in debt for 1feat point) . He purchases Rapid Shot (11 points) with his fighter feat points, which puts him in debt for one fighter feat point. At 2ndlevel, he gains 9 fighter feat points instead of 10 because of the1-point debt. He gains the normal 10 fighter feat points at fighter level 4, 6, and so on. His typeless feat points (at level 3, 6, and soon) are unaffected (though if he had chosen a 12-point feat instead of Two-Weapon Fighting he would have paid that typeless feat point debt at level 3 when he gained more feat points) .

Virtual Feats
Virtual feats, such as those conditional feats granted by the monk and ranger classes, do not grant feat points, cost feat points, or cause or negate feat point debt.

Pricing Feats
When pricing feats, keep in mind these guidelines (in no particular order) . "Better" in these circumstances means "will have a higher feat point cost." Note that many feats choose a weaker option; this does not make the feat flawed, as it is usually done for balance or playability.

1. Something that gives you an extra attack better than an equivalent feat that doesn't.Two-Weapon Fighting is better than Weapon Focus because TWF gives you one more opportunity to use Weapon Focus (and Power Attack, and Weapon Specialization, and Cleave, and Improved Critical, and Improved Disarm...) .
2. Typeless bonuses are better than typed bonuses. Purely a matter of stacking or not.
3. Offense is better than defense.A +1 to attack is better than +1 to AC because you control who you attack and where best to devote your combat assets, while your enemies choose to attack you or not and decide where to devote their combat assets; a +1 to AC does you no good if none of your enemies are attacking you.
4. Giving a bonus is better than reducing a penalty.Penalties are caused by circumstances that can usually be avoided in some way without spending a feat (the firing into melee penalty can be avoided by shooting non-meleeing targets or larger creatures, ranged penalties can be avoided by moving closer, movement AOOs can be avoided by using Tumble or staying out of threatened areas, etc.) while there are few circumstances where you can gain a bonus. In combat, not having a penalty means (at best) that you're able to fight at your normal effectiveness, whereas having a bonus means you are fighting better than normal.
5. Not having a use limitation is better than having a use limitation.Being able to stun an attacker an unlimited number of times is better than Stunning Fist's daily limit to your number of stunning attacks. A feat that gave a +4 dodge bonus to AC against all AOOs would be better than Mobility's limited set of qualifying AOOs that trigger the bonus.
6. Not having to declare to use the feat is better than having to declare.Automatically improving your critical threat range with Improved Critical is better than a theoretical feat which requires you to declare using it to improve your critical threat range.
7. Not having a power cap is better than having one.A feat is more versatile (and therefore more powerful) if you can push it to extremes. Power Attack is better than Combat Expertise because the former doesn't have the +5/-5 limitation of the latter (both have a cap equal to the character's BAB, of course) . Scribe Scroll is better than Brew Potion because Scribe Scroll doesn't have a 3rd-level spell limit.
8. Not having a cost is better than having a cost.A feat that made all your spells castable silently is better than an identical feat that requires you to use a higher-level spell slot.
9. A bonus to a broad category is worth more than the same bonus to a smaller category. +1 to all spell DCs is better than +1 to DCs from just one school.
10. Specialization is rewarded. +3 to one skill is better than +2 to two skills or +1 to three skills, even though the total plus value is the same or greater.
Not quite a big rule: #11. Some feats are worth more to some classes than others. In particular, metamagic feats are better for spontaneous casters than preparing casters; that's because a metamagic feat for a spontaneous caster is like adding an entire new complement of spells, which is great since they have few spells but many spell slots. Eventually we'd need to work out some sort of cost modifiers for such things, but for now be aware that metamagic feats should cost more (probably just +1 or +2) for spontaneous casters.

[You'll notice that with the exception of Spell Mastery, there are no feats valued at less than 5points. That's because I didn't want a character to pick up weak but useful-as-prereqs feats just by dropping 1 or 2 spare feat points. Feat choices for a character should still require some serious thinking, and a significant cost means players are less likely to gloss over the cost. Also, by having all feats cost 5 or more points, it makes sure that characters won't end up with more than 2x the number of feats as a "normal, " non-feat-point character (even though they'd all be weak feats) .]
br >These point costs are estimates and I'm willing to discuss them on my message boards if you think any are too high or too low. Benchmark feats are listed in bold.]
[The Relevant Rule column is a quick pointer to the rule explaining why I downgraded the cost of a feat; in other words, these are the reasons why the cost was reduced, rather than justifying a boost in the cost. Of course, I could have missed some. :P]

Feat Name Point Cost Compare To...
Relevant Rule
Acrobatic 9 Skill Focus 10
Agile 9 Skill Focus 10
Alertness 9 Skill Focus 10
Animal Affinity 9 Skill Focus 10
Armor Proficiency (Heavy) 9 Weapon Focus 3
Armor Proficiency (Light) 5 Armor Proficiency (heavy) . Light armor is usually so weak compared to no armor that it's a very small reward for taking the feat. Its main benefit is that once you have armor you can start putting enhancement bonuses and magic on it. 3
Armor Proficiency (Medium) 7 Armor Prof (heavy) . Somewhat better than light armor proficiency, but still of limited use compared to heavy armor (especially given the tradeoff in AC vs. max Dex bonus and such) . 3
Athletic 9 Skill Focus 10
Augment Summoning 7 Spell Focus (it's limited to one school and only to certain spells within that school--spells that summon creatures) 9
Blind-Fight 8 Weapon Focus
4
Brew Potion 9 Scribe Scroll
7
Cleave 8 Weapon Focus 1, 5
Combat Casting 10 Skill Focus (Concentration) (since most of the time you're make Concentration checks are in combat so it's in your best interest to take this +4 feat over the general +3 feat) 10
Combat Expertise 9 Power Attack
3, 7
Combat Reflexes 7 somewhat useful for being able to AOO while flat-footed, of somewhat more limited use in raising the number of AOOs per round 1
Craft Magic Arms and Armor 10 Scribe Scroll (anyone can use either weapons or armor, and even characters who don't use them benefit by having them in the party)
Craft Rod 7 (the "use limitation" and "power cap" in this case are that you normally can't use rods to make items that duplicate spell effects) 5, 7
Craft Staff 9 Scribe Scroll (reduced slightly because you're always going to be paying more per charge than a wand, though the use-the-user's-caster-level feature of staffs helps make up for that)
Craft Wand 10 Scribe Scroll (has a power cap, but not having to deal with AOOs is a form of not having a penalty)
7, 8
Craft Wondrous Item 10 Scribe Scroll (you're making items that anyone can use; slightly less valuable than Scribe Scroll because it uses item slots but the ability for any character to use them makes up for that)
Deceitful 9 Skill Focus 10
Deflect Arrows 7 Weapon Focus (similar to a negate-combat-penalty feat like Improved Bull Rush or Improved Disarm, this feat is of limited use and has limited conditions for triggering it) 3, 5
Deft Hands 9 Skill Focus 10
Diehard 7 Weapon Focus
4, 5
Diligent 9 Skill Focus 10
Dodge 7 Weapon Focus defensive rather than offensive, conditional, only affects one person per round 3, 5, 6
Empower Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Endurance 5 Skill Focus
5
Enlarge Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Eschew Materials 4 Scribe Scroll (same issues as with all metamagic feats, plus costless material components are almost never a limitation except in the Slavers adventures where you're stripped of everything you own) 6, 7, 8
Exotic Weapon Proficiency 9 Martial Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization (gives access to a single weapon whose mechanics are good enough to make it less available than the (decent) martial weapons; often the average damage difference between a martial and comparable exotic weapon is +1, which means we should compare it to Weapon Specialization's +2 to damage)
4
Extend Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Extra Turning 10 (gives many extra uses to an already useful ability, at least at low levels where you're going to be using it more often to stop enemies, at higher levels it gives you more uses of your spend-a-turn-to-get-something powers) 3, 9
Far Shot 6 Weapon Focus (range increments are rarely a significant factor in most combat (i.e., dungeon combat) , and in such cases it's normally only going to reduce the penalty by 2 (assuming you're considered one range increment better than normal) , and reducing a penalty is less valuable than giving a bonus) 4, 5
Forge Ring 7 Scribe Scroll (there's nothing you can do with this that you can't do with Craft Wondrous Item despite the higher caster level requirement for Forge Ring, also limited to making ring slot items; cost would be revised if I ever get around to writing up my revised Forge Ring rules) 9
Great Cleave 6 Weapon Focus (comes up even less often than Cleave, especially at higher levels where weak multiple-cleave opponents are usually taken out by archers or area spells) 1, 5
Great Fortitude 10 a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Greater Spell Focus 7 Spell Focus 5, 9, 10
Greater Spell Penetration 8 Spell Penetration 5
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting 10 Weapon Focus
1
Greater Weapon Focus 10 Weapon Focus
Greater Weapon Specialization 10 Weapon Specialization
Heighten Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Improved Bull Rush 8 Weapon Focus
4, 10
Improved Counterspell 7 Scribe Scroll
3, 4, 5, 6
Improved Critical 10 Weapon Specialization (though your most common weapons are going to average +.45 points of damage per round with this compared to Weapon Specialization's +2, the character with a decent crit-mod weapon and a large damage bonus gets to add that damage bonus several times, which makes this feat more valuable than it first appears)

Improved Disarm 8 Weapon Focus
4, 10
Improved Feint 7 Weapon Focus (makes the rogue's sneak attack class ability useable once per round, but you still have the skill check to successfully feint, so it's not the best feat)
1, 5, 6, 8
Improved Grapple 8 Weapon Focus
4, 10
Improved Initiative 8 Skill Focus (not quite as good as a +2/+2 skill feat because you normally can only use it once per combat) 5, 10
Improved Overrun 8 Weapon Focus
4, 10
Improved Precise Shot 8 Weapon Focus 4, 10
Improved Shield Bash 8 Skill Focus
4, 10
Improved Sunder 8 Weapon Focus
4, 10
Improved Trip 8 Weapon Focus 4, 10
Improved Turning 8 Extra Turning (a good feat because it helps the cleric beat the +4 levels higher effective limit on turning checks, which can be really useful at higher levels because every undead seems to have Turn Resistance, but not as versatile as Extra turning)
3, 5 10
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting 10 Weapon Focus
1
Improved Unarmed Strike 7 Weapon Focus 4, 10
Investigator 9 Skill Focus 10
Iron Will 10 a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Leadership 8
1, 5, 7
Lightning Reflexes 10 a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Magical Aptitude 9 Skill Focus 10
Manyshot 12 Weapon Focus
1
Martial Weapon Proficiency 6 Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization (gives access to a single decent weapon, removing a penalty, but it's given out like candy as a class feature so it can't be too valuable; often the average damage difference between a simple and comparable martial weapon is +1, which means we should compare it to Weapon Specialization's +2 to damage) 4
Maximize Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Mobility 8 Weapon Focus
3, 4, 5
Mounted Archery 6 Weapon Focus, Precise Shot 4, 5
Mounted Combat 5 Weapon Focus 3, 5
Natural Spell 5 Combat Casting, Silent Spell, Still Spell
4
Negotiator 9 Skill Focus 10
Nimble Fingers 9 Skill Focus 10
Persuasive 9 Skill Focus 10
Point Blank Shot 9 Weapon Focus
5
Power Attack 10 a benchmark for combat feats that trade BAB for something else
Precise Shot 10 Weapon Focus (this negates a combat penalty that comes up almost every round for any adventuring archer, therefore very valuable even though all it does is negate a penalty instead of giving a bonus)
4
Quick Draw 7 Weapon Focus (can give your full iterative attacks with thrown weapons, but in most cases it's just saving you a move action)
1, 5
Quicken Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Rapid Reload 7 Weapon Focus (can give your full iterative attacks with some crossbows, but you could just get those by using a conventional bow, and it doesn't remove the reload AOO so it's less valuable than feats like Improved Disarm which do)
1, 5
Rapid Shot 11 Weapon Focus
1
Ride-By Attack 8 Weapon Focus, Spring Attack
4, 5
Run 5 Skill Focus
4, 5
Scribe Scroll 10 benchmark for item creation feats because it can be used for any of your spell levels, can always be used by you, and doesn't use an item slot
Self-Sufficient 9 Skill Focus 10
Shield Proficiency 5 Armor Proficiency (light) 3
Shot On The Run 8 Mobility, Spring Attack
5
Silent Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Simple Weapon Proficiency 7 Weapon Focus, Martial Weapon Proficiency (gives access to a whole class of sub-optimal weapons, removes a penalty, but it's given out like candy as a class feature so it can't be too valuable 4
Skill Focus 10 a benchmark for defining what plus to a single skill is worth a feat
Snatch Arrows 6 Weapon Focus, Deflect Arrows (this really ought to be part of the Deflect Arrows feat, but still viable since it lets you have an extra attack on the uncommon occasion that you manage to use Deflect Arrows) 1, 3, 5
Spell Focus 7 Weapon Focus (limited to one school, limited to certain spells within that school (those that have DCs) ; never going to be as universally as effective as Weapon Focus is in the hands of a fighter) 5, 9, 10
Spell Mastery 4 Scribe Scroll (almost useless because wizards are almost never in situations where they can't access their spellbooks unless you're playing the Slavers adventures) 4, 5
Spell Penetration 8 Weapon Focus (the use limitation here is that not all spells are affected by SR)
5
Spirited Charge 8 Improved Critical, Weapon Specialization (use limitation is that it's only while charging, and inmost cases just once per round)
5
Spring Attack 9 Mobility, Weapon Focus (better than Mobility because you don't provoke movement AOOs any more, but slightly limited in that you're normally only going to be able to take one attack per round)
4, 5
Stealthy 9 Skill Focus 10
Still Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8
Stunning Fist 8 Improved Critical, Weapon Focus
5, 6
Toughness (3 hp) 6 see Toughness (5 hp)
Toughness (5 hp) 10 a benchmark because your typical creature with 1d8 and this feat is going to have max hp compared to the same kind of creature without it; handy because it's half the fighter hp from a d10 and just over the max for a wizard's from a d4; also evenly divisible by 5 so you could have the option of buying extra hp at the price of 1 hp per 2 feat points
Tower Shield Proficiency 5 ShieldProficiency 3
Track 7 Skill Focus
4
Trample 6 Improved Overrun, Improved Trip
4, 5, 10
Two-Weapon Defense 7 Shield Proficiency
1, 4, 5
Two-Weapon Fighting 11 Weapon Focus
1
Weapon Finesse 9 Weapon Focus ("penalty" is normally that your Str bonus to attacks is poor compared to your Dex bonus, use limitation is that it can only be used with certain weapons) 4, 5
Weapon Focus 10 a benchmark because a fighter with his chosen weapon will get to use this feat every round of combat, all day; the epitome of usefulness; defines a standard of "+1 to attack" for a feat; helps set the parameters of "would I rather take another (stackable) Weapon Focus, or some other feat that gave me a special attack or removed an attack penalty?"
Weapon Specialization 10 a benchmark because a fighter with his chosen weapon will get to use this feat every round of combat, all day; the epitome of usefulness; defines a standard of "+2 to damage" for a feat; helps set the parameters of "would I rather take another (stackable) Weapon Specialization or some other feat that gave me a damage bonus or removed a damage penalty?"
Whirlwind Attack 9 Great Cleave, Weapon Focus (in times when you'd use this (when you're partly or completely surrounded) you're probably getting extra attacks when using this compared to your normal full attack, but (like Great Cleave) the opportunity to use this feat doesn't occur very often)
1, 5
Widen Spell 5 Scribe Scroll
6, 7, 8

Feat Name	Point Cost	Compare To...	Relevant Rule
Acrobatic	9	Skill Focus	10
Agile	9	Skill Focus	10
Alertness	9	Skill Focus	10
Animal Affinity	9	Skill Focus	10
Armor Proficiency (Heavy)	9	Weapon Focus	3
Armor Proficiency (Light)	5	Armor Proficiency (heavy) . Light armor is usually so weak compared to no armor that it's a very small reward for taking the feat. Its main benefit is that once you have armor you can start putting enhancement bonuses and magic on it.	3
Armor Proficiency (Medium)	7	Armor Prof (heavy) . Somewhat better than light armor proficiency, but still of limited use compared to heavy armor (especially given the tradeoff in AC vs. max Dex bonus and such) .	3
Athletic	9	Skill Focus	10
Augment Summoning	7	Spell Focus (it's limited to one school and only to certain spells within that school--spells that summon creatures)	9
Blind-Fight	8	Weapon Focus	4
Brew Potion	9	Scribe Scroll	7
Cleave	8	Weapon Focus	1, 5
Combat Casting	10	Skill Focus (Concentration) (since most of the time you're make Concentration checks are in combat so it's in your best interest to take this +4 feat over the general +3 feat)	10
Combat Expertise	9	Power Attack	3, 7
Combat Reflexes	7	somewhat useful for being able to AOO while flat-footed, of somewhat more limited use in raising the number of AOOs per round	1
Craft Magic Arms and Armor	10	Scribe Scroll (anyone can use either weapons or armor, and even characters who don't use them benefit by having them in the party)
Craft Rod	7	(the "use limitation" and "power cap" in this case are that you normally can't use rods to make items that duplicate spell effects)	5, 7
Craft Staff	9	Scribe Scroll (reduced slightly because you're always going to be paying more per charge than a wand, though the use-the-user's-caster-level feature of staffs helps make up for that)
Craft Wand	10	Scribe Scroll (has a power cap, but not having to deal with AOOs is a form of not having a penalty)	7, 8
Craft Wondrous Item	10	Scribe Scroll (you're making items that anyone can use; slightly less valuable than Scribe Scroll because it uses item slots but the ability for any character to use them makes up for that)
Deceitful	9	Skill Focus	10
Deflect Arrows	7	Weapon Focus (similar to a negate-combat-penalty feat like Improved Bull Rush or Improved Disarm, this feat is of limited use and has limited conditions for triggering it)	3, 5
Deft Hands	9	Skill Focus	10
Diehard	7	Weapon Focus	4, 5
Diligent	9	Skill Focus	10
Dodge	7	Weapon Focus defensive rather than offensive, conditional, only affects one person per round	3, 5, 6
Empower Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Endurance	5	Skill Focus	5
Enlarge Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Eschew Materials	4	Scribe Scroll (same issues as with all metamagic feats, plus costless material components are almost never a limitation except in the Slavers adventures where you're stripped of everything you own)	6, 7, 8
Exotic Weapon Proficiency	9	Martial Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization (gives access to a single weapon whose mechanics are good enough to make it less available than the (decent) martial weapons; often the average damage difference between a martial and comparable exotic weapon is +1, which means we should compare it to Weapon Specialization's +2 to damage)	4
Extend Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Extra Turning	10	(gives many extra uses to an already useful ability, at least at low levels where you're going to be using it more often to stop enemies, at higher levels it gives you more uses of your spend-a-turn-to-get-something powers)	3, 9
Far Shot	6	Weapon Focus (range increments are rarely a significant factor in most combat (i.e., dungeon combat) , and in such cases it's normally only going to reduce the penalty by 2 (assuming you're considered one range increment better than normal) , and reducing a penalty is less valuable than giving a bonus)	4, 5
Forge Ring	7	Scribe Scroll (there's nothing you can do with this that you can't do with Craft Wondrous Item despite the higher caster level requirement for Forge Ring, also limited to making ring slot items; cost would be revised if I ever get around to writing up my revised Forge Ring rules)	9
Great Cleave	6	Weapon Focus (comes up even less often than Cleave, especially at higher levels where weak multiple-cleave opponents are usually taken out by archers or area spells)	1, 5
Great Fortitude	10	a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Greater Spell Focus	7	Spell Focus	5, 9, 10
Greater Spell Penetration	8	Spell Penetration	5
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting	10	Weapon Focus	1
Greater Weapon Focus	10	Weapon Focus
Greater Weapon Specialization	10	Weapon Specialization
Heighten Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Improved Bull Rush	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Counterspell	7	Scribe Scroll	3, 4, 5, 6
Improved Critical	10	Weapon Specialization (though your most common weapons are going to average +.45 points of damage per round with this compared to Weapon Specialization's +2, the character with a decent crit-mod weapon and a large damage bonus gets to add that damage bonus several times, which makes this feat more valuable than it first appears)
Improved Disarm	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Feint	7	Weapon Focus (makes the rogue's sneak attack class ability useable once per round, but you still have the skill check to successfully feint, so it's not the best feat)	1, 5, 6, 8
Improved Grapple	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Initiative	8	Skill Focus (not quite as good as a +2/+2 skill feat because you normally can only use it once per combat)	5, 10
Improved Overrun	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Precise Shot	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Shield Bash	8	Skill Focus	4, 10
Improved Sunder	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Trip	8	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Improved Turning	8	Extra Turning (a good feat because it helps the cleric beat the +4 levels higher effective limit on turning checks, which can be really useful at higher levels because every undead seems to have Turn Resistance, but not as versatile as Extra turning)	3, 5 10
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting	10	Weapon Focus	1
Improved Unarmed Strike	7	Weapon Focus	4, 10
Investigator	9	Skill Focus	10
Iron Will	10	a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Leadership	8		1, 5, 7
Lightning Reflexes	10	a benchmark for defining what plus to a single save is worth a feat
Magical Aptitude	9	Skill Focus	10
Manyshot	12	Weapon Focus	1
Martial Weapon Proficiency	6	Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization (gives access to a single decent weapon, removing a penalty, but it's given out like candy as a class feature so it can't be too valuable; often the average damage difference between a simple and comparable martial weapon is +1, which means we should compare it to Weapon Specialization's +2 to damage)	4
Maximize Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Mobility	8	Weapon Focus	3, 4, 5
Mounted Archery	6	Weapon Focus, Precise Shot	4, 5
Mounted Combat	5	Weapon Focus	3, 5
Natural Spell	5	Combat Casting, Silent Spell, Still Spell	4
Negotiator	9	Skill Focus	10
Nimble Fingers	9	Skill Focus	10
Persuasive	9	Skill Focus	10
Point Blank Shot	9	Weapon Focus	5
Power Attack	10	a benchmark for combat feats that trade BAB for something else
Precise Shot	10	Weapon Focus (this negates a combat penalty that comes up almost every round for any adventuring archer, therefore very valuable even though all it does is negate a penalty instead of giving a bonus)	4
Quick Draw	7	Weapon Focus (can give your full iterative attacks with thrown weapons, but in most cases it's just saving you a move action)	1, 5
Quicken Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Rapid Reload	7	Weapon Focus (can give your full iterative attacks with some crossbows, but you could just get those by using a conventional bow, and it doesn't remove the reload AOO so it's less valuable than feats like Improved Disarm which do)	1, 5
Rapid Shot	11	Weapon Focus	1
Ride-By Attack	8	Weapon Focus, Spring Attack	4, 5
Run	5	Skill Focus	4, 5
Scribe Scroll	10	benchmark for item creation feats because it can be used for any of your spell levels, can always be used by you, and doesn't use an item slot
Self-Sufficient	9	Skill Focus	10
Shield Proficiency	5	Armor Proficiency (light)	3
Shot On The Run	8	Mobility, Spring Attack	5
Silent Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Simple Weapon Proficiency	7	Weapon Focus, Martial Weapon Proficiency (gives access to a whole class of sub-optimal weapons, removes a penalty, but it's given out like candy as a class feature so it can't be too valuable	4
Skill Focus	10	a benchmark for defining what plus to a single skill is worth a feat
Snatch Arrows	6	Weapon Focus, Deflect Arrows (this really ought to be part of the Deflect Arrows feat, but still viable since it lets you have an extra attack on the uncommon occasion that you manage to use Deflect Arrows)	1, 3, 5
Spell Focus	7	Weapon Focus (limited to one school, limited to certain spells within that school (those that have DCs) ; never going to be as universally as effective as Weapon Focus is in the hands of a fighter)	5, 9, 10
Spell Mastery	4	Scribe Scroll (almost useless because wizards are almost never in situations where they can't access their spellbooks unless you're playing the Slavers adventures)	4, 5
Spell Penetration	8	Weapon Focus (the use limitation here is that not all spells are affected by SR)	5
Spirited Charge	8	Improved Critical, Weapon Specialization (use limitation is that it's only while charging, and inmost cases just once per round)	5
Spring Attack	9	Mobility, Weapon Focus (better than Mobility because you don't provoke movement AOOs any more, but slightly limited in that you're normally only going to be able to take one attack per round)	4, 5
Stealthy	9	Skill Focus	10
Still Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8
Stunning Fist	8	Improved Critical, Weapon Focus	5, 6
Toughness (3 hp)	6	see Toughness (5 hp)
Toughness (5 hp)	10	a benchmark because your typical creature with 1d8 and this feat is going to have max hp compared to the same kind of creature without it; handy because it's half the fighter hp from a d10 and just over the max for a wizard's from a d4; also evenly divisible by 5 so you could have the option of buying extra hp at the price of 1 hp per 2 feat points
Tower Shield Proficiency	5	ShieldProficiency	3
Track	7	Skill Focus	4
Trample	6	Improved Overrun, Improved Trip	4, 5, 10
Two-Weapon Defense	7	Shield Proficiency	1, 4, 5
Two-Weapon Fighting	11	Weapon Focus	1
Weapon Finesse	9	Weapon Focus ("penalty" is normally that your Str bonus to attacks is poor compared to your Dex bonus, use limitation is that it can only be used with certain weapons)	4, 5
Weapon Focus	10	a benchmark because a fighter with his chosen weapon will get to use this feat every round of combat, all day; the epitome of usefulness; defines a standard of "+1 to attack" for a feat; helps set the parameters of "would I rather take another (stackable) Weapon Focus, or some other feat that gave me a special attack or removed an attack penalty?"
Weapon Specialization	10	a benchmark because a fighter with his chosen weapon will get to use this feat every round of combat, all day; the epitome of usefulness; defines a standard of "+2 to damage" for a feat; helps set the parameters of "would I rather take another (stackable) Weapon Specialization or some other feat that gave me a damage bonus or removed a damage penalty?"
Whirlwind Attack	9	Great Cleave, Weapon Focus (in times when you'd use this (when you're partly or completely surrounded) you're probably getting extra attacks when using this compared to your normal full attack, but (like Great Cleave) the opportunity to use this feat doesn't occur very often)	1, 5
Widen Spell	5	Scribe Scroll	6, 7, 8