Daily Feats for Everyone

[Arz]

Did you ever feel jealous of the Chameleon and his snazzy daily bonus feat? Well don’t be, they had to take a feat and be of a certain race. That daily bonus feat is worth the cost, so let’s expand this tactic to the warriors and spellcasters.

First step is to pick a class with the following rider tacked onto the description for the bonus feat: "If she already has that feat, she may choose a different one." This was a common sentence in the Miniatures Handbook and shows up in various (prestige) classes and races. I’ve summarized my finds here:

(click to show/hide)

Class	Level	Feat	Type
Animal Lord (Ape)	6	Brachiation
Animal Lord (Bear)	6	Improved Grapple	Fighter
Animal Lord (Bird)	6	Flyby Attack
Animal Lord (Cat)	6	Lightning Reflexes
Animal Lord (Horse)	6	Trample	Fighter
Animal Lord (Shark)	6	Improved Critical	Fighter
Animal Lord (Snake)	6	Improved Initiative	Fighter
Animal Lord (Wolf)	6	Improved Trip	Fighter
Combat Trapsmith	2	Skill Focus
Dragon Samurai	8	Blind-Fight	Fighter
Druid (ACF)	4	Strong Stomach
Favored Soul (ACF)	3	Dragontouched
Favored Soul	3	Weapon Focus	Fighter
Favored Soul	12	Weapon Specialization	Fighter
Frostblood Half-Orc		Endurance
Frostblood Orc		Endurance
Hand of the Winged Master	1	Draconic Senses	Draconic
Hand of the Winged Master	3	Dragonfire Strike	Draconic
Healer	2	Skill Focus
Holt Warden	9	Timeless Body	Class Feature
Malconvoker	3	Skill Focus
Marshal	1	Skill Focus
Moonspeaker	7	Improved Natural Attack	Shifter
Ordained Champion	2	Diehard
Pact-bound Adept	3	Eschew Materials
Swift Wing	2	Draconic Senses	Draconic
Tactical Soldier	2	Sidestep
Warmage	7	Sudden Empower	Metamagic?
Warmage	10	Sudden Enlarge	Metamagic?
Warmage	15	Sudden Widen	Metamagic?
Warmage	20	Sudden Maximize	Metamagic?

Honorable Mentions: Knight of Veluna(9), Legenday Captain(1)

   Warmage had notably poor editing when copied over from Miniatures Handbook to Complete Arcane. They added the restriction of Metamagic feats and forgot to print Sudden Enlarge. I'd like to ignore this printing if not for the spell list. Original source arguments might give this class some relief, but don’t count on it as Sidestep should also be a fighter feat.

   Two common feats show up quite often, the problematic Focus feats; Skill & Weapon. Each specialty is a separate feat that needs to be duplicated exactly. Weapon Focus has affiliations, classes, feats, and weapons that can loosen these limitations. Skill Focus has no such redemption and is technically useless. In both cases, its worth asking your DM if just the Focus feat is enough.

   Next, we need to acquire the bonus feat on a temporary basis. Everybody can solve this by spending money on items and potions of substitute domain, heroics, and alter self. Others have covered this topic exhaustively, so look over these wonderful resources.

Handbook of the Exotic Practice of Feat Binding
Spells that save you from taking feats or investing skill points
3.5 Forms for Alter Self

(click to show/hide)

Affiliation	Score	Feat	Notes
Blackwheel Company	24	Fighter
Blackwheel Company	30	Favored in House, Leadership
Bloodbound of the Red Ring	4	Exotic Weapon Proficiency	Fighter
Cabal of Shadows	30	Leadership
Cairn's Keepers	30	Leadership
Covenant of Light	30	Leadership
Crimson Codex	30	Leadership
First Scroll	26	Dragontouched	Draconic
Golden Helm	15	Craft Magic Arms & Armor	Item Creation
Land of Honor	16	Quick Draw	Fighter; only when drawing katana
War Domain	30		Apply single weapon feat to weapon class
Wintervein Dwarves	15	Weapon Focus*2	Fighter
Wintervein Dwarves	30	Improved Critical*2	Fighter

   Lastly, lets talk about how to tailor your bonus feats to be more useful. Favored Soul’s ACF eliminates one bonus feat and adds another, leaving the language about choosing another feat intact. This is a helpful little example when one brings in the tactic of the Dark Chaos Shuffle. This allows you to fine tune your class bonus feat to something which has a more easily accessible feat for duplication in your build.

[nijineko]

interesting... care to give a step by step of how you are thinking the process will work swapping out a feat - for those who do not want to look up all the moving parts themselves?

[Arz]

Lets call some attention to a special case; Spellscale’s blood quickening. Everyday, they can choose Astilabor (for Eschew Materials) and gain a daily feat via Pact-bound Adept.

Hope my editing helps. Later I'd like to summarize from yours and other threads, if alter self doesn't drive me insane.

[Power]

I mean, when it comes to this sort of chicanery, just use Alter Self to turn into a Human for the bonus feat. You'll need to ask your GM if he'll allow that, I reckon, but that also goes for the stunts that you are attempting.

Frankly, I'd be inclined to read that the text that gives you a substitute feat if you already possess the feat it was going to give only applies upon the level-up. After that, you are stuck with the feat you obtained, and if you get the same feat more than once, tough cookies. Better hope you have a way to retrain feats.

[Arz]

Most people don't like to play that way, since the downside is a human using alter self risks cascade failure after losing his bonus feat.

Table rules are always table rules.

[nijineko]

I mean, when it comes to this sort of chicanery, just use Alter Self to turn into a Human for the bonus feat. You'll need to ask your GM if he'll allow that, I reckon, but that also goes for the stunts that you are attempting.

Frankly, I'd be inclined to read that the text that gives you a substitute feat if you already possess the feat it was going to give only applies upon the level-up. After that, you are stuck with the feat you obtained, and if you get the same feat more than once, tough cookies. Better hope you have a way to retrain feats.

*cough*Psychic Reformation*cough*

[Power]

Most people don't like to play that way, since the downside is a human using alter self risks cascade failure after losing his bonus feat.

Table rules are always table rules.

Yeah, that's why you have to run it by your GM. At least this is a fully legitimate and appropriate application of the polymorph rules. It's just that people prefer to carve out an exception for this.

*cough*Psychic Reformation*cough*

Psychic Reformation abuse makes getting a single feat of your choice a day positively tame.

Incidentally, if you're looking to do this sort of thing in Pathfinder, here is the Ultimate Paragon Surge thread/mini-guide. Odds are Improved Eldritch Heritage (shapechanger) and Paragon Surge is all you really need for a single feat of your choice per day, but that thread went the extra mile to let you change your feat of choice at-will.

[Arz]

Personally have neither interest or experience in pathfinder.

So, did I miss any classes with this rider? I trimmed off Legendary Captain since it doesn't quite reach the bar.

[Power]

I don't blame you.

The main options are really Chameleon PrC, using Alter Self (Human), or using Psychic Reformation (usually a rechargeable psionic tattoo is popular for this). You can also indirectly get a Psychic Reformation with Limited Wish.

[nijineko]

*cough*Psychic Reformation*cough*

Psychic Reformation abuse makes getting a single feat of your choice a day positively tame.

Using an official power exactly the way it was intended, that also passed the errata and faq sweeps, and requires one to spend XP, is not abuse.

Avoiding paying the XP somehow, now that would be abuse.

[zook1shoe]

for PF.... Paragon Surge (Self-Realization subdomain "removes" racial requirement) + Emergency Attunement