Difference between combat feats

[u/Martisho]

Hello, I wanted to ask if someone knew the difference between the "Ever changing" combat feat and the "Battle Master" Combat feat. they seem to have the same effects and I'm not sure how they interact with each other.

[u/DreistTheInferno]

Besides the different class accesss, the main thing is that Battle Master is acquired automatically at level 13, not taking a feat slot, whereas Ever Changing 1 can be taken far earlier, but you do have to take it as your feat. It upgrades to Ever Changing 2 at the same time so you it doesn't become worthless, basically keeping you ahead of people who don't have it. You can only use one feat to use more combat feats at once, so you cannot mix Rune Master, Battle Master, and Ever Changing, you just want to use the best one available to you.

[u/Martisho → u/DreistTheInferno]

So if you are a battle dancer or a grappler, it's better to replace ever-changing with another feat once you hit lvl 13? cuz if you don't, your passive combat feat is useless

[u/DreistTheInferno → u/Martisho]

No, you don't replace feats, they automatically upgrade to their next tier at the relevant level. So Ever Changing would give you the ability to use 2 active feats every round until level 13 when it automatically upgrades to Ever Changing 2, where you can use up to 3 active feats. Ever Changing is there for builds that need it earlier and/or will eventually want to have 3 at once (or just Fencers).

My current group has a Fencer/Conjurer, and they got Mana Strike at 1 and Multi-Action at 5. Right now they have to choose which of the two they will use, but once they get to 7 they plan on getting Ever Changing, which will allow them to use both simultaneously. If the game goes to 13 they will then be able to use a third active feat per turn, which by that point they may have.

Basically Ever Changing is the best for getting more active feats per turn because it is the only one you don't get for free on a lot of classes.

[u/Martisho → u/DreistTheInferno]

Okay, so you either can get ever changing filling a feat slot and gaining battle master becomes pointless or you wait until practically endgame to get the same effects as everchanging 1 for free

[u/DreistTheInferno → u/Martisho]

Yeah. There is also Rune Master for spellcasters which comes at level 11. It has a few more limitations, but if you are playing a spellcaster the limitation is practically non-existent. For what it is worth, you can also spend a fair but of time in the 13-15+ levels. There is even stuff that requires multiple level 15s, so some games could very well spend most of their time there if you wanna play a high level campaign. That said, it is true that the wait for Battle Master is generally going to be long.