Fun with Fred or how I've been burned by DDO's ridiculous design flaws.

[waximus]

I play a monk. His name is Xiubei and he is level 12. I recently decided that it was time to use my free feat exchange to get Stunning Fist, one of the defining feats of the monk class.

So I visit good old Fred. He'll sort me out right quick right? WRONG!!!

I offered Fred every single feat I have in turn and Fred would not offer me Stunning Fist in it's place. I checked and rechecked but no Stunning Fist no matter what feat I put on the block. So I started thinking maybe it's stunning blow that I need and it works different for monks then it does for other classes. I take stunning blow and thank Fred.

I then check out stunning blow and realize that no, it's not the same as stunning fist and I've just wasted my free feat exchange on a worthless feat. Furious, I go back to Fred and again offer him every single feat I have, again checking and rechecking for Stunning Fist and, once again, it does not show up in the available feat list regardless of which feat I put on the block.

This is ridiculous. Fred is broken. There is no arguing this. I would like my free feat exchange restored and I would like stunning blow to be reverted to the feat I exchanged for it as I would not have taken stunning blow if I hadn't been confused by the complete failure of Stunning Fist to appear in Fred's available feats list.

[Lithic]

Friend of mine had a similar problem. It seems that you cant switch in stunning fist later, you need to take it as you level up, as one of your monk (lvl 1, 2, 6) feats. A TR, or LR might solve it though.

[vVAnjilaVv]

It's not that u cannot switch it....it's that you HAVE to take it at 1,2, or 6.

If u really want it u will have to swap one of the bonus feats.....not regular character feat....but monk bonus feat that you got at one of these levels to switch into that.

Basically, get used to doing feat swaps or be happy with your character.....this is now a major money maker for Turbine, and it even inclines many people to just LR instead of grind the gold in addition to the Flawless Shard you need.

Turbine will continue to make changes to the game and enhancements that will make them a ton of money on respecs. Why do you think they are waiting and slowly releasing new prestige lines.....$$$<------that's your answer right there.

[Impaqt]

How about you ask what your issue is rather than proclaiming the mechanic is broken.

Most likely, you have taken prereq feats in your Monk Feat slots. there is a feat you have that requires you keep those feats. So fred wont let you swap them...

FOr example. If you took Power attack at level 6 monk feat, but then took Cleave at level 9, you wont even get the option to swap out Power attack until you swap out cleave.

What feats did you take where?

[vVAnjilaVv]

How about you ask what your issue is rather than proclaiming the mechanic is broken.

Most likely, you have taken prereq feats in your Monk Feat slots. there is a feat you have that requires you keep those feats. So fred wont let you swap them...

FOr example. If you took Power attack at level 6 monk feat, but then took Cleave at level 9, you wont even get the option to swap out Power attack until you swap out cleave.

What feats did you take where?

Yes this is very true as well...feat respecs can be very complicated and you have to factor in pre-req requirements to.

BTW Impy...why so grouchy lately :D

[waximus]

I had actually thought of all of that before I made the original post. The only prerequisite feat that I had taken would have been two weapon fighting as I now have improved twf.

Some of the other feats I have are dodge, lightning reflexes and toughness. At least one of those was something I chose as a monk bonus feat and none of them are a prerequisite for any other feat. And as I said, I've tried trading Fred every single feat I have and he will not offer stunning fist in exchange for any of them.

[Impaqt]

I had actually thought of all of that before I made the original post. The only prerequisite feat that I had taken would have been two weapon fighting as I now have improved twf.

Some of the other feats I have are dodge, lightning reflexes and toughness. At least one of those was something I chose as a monk bonus feat and none of them are a prerequisite for any other feat. And as I said, I've tried trading Fred every single feat I have and he will not offer stunning fist in exchange for any of them.

List all your feats.

Do you have Multiple TOughness feats?

[waximus]

For the sake of clarity I just looked at my feats and when Fred says I took them so I'll list them.

Level 1: Dodge and Toughness - This should be enough right here. One of those is my monk 1 feat and nothing else I have taken relies on either of those.
Level 2: Must be TWF but it's covered by imp TWF so I can't be sure.
Level 3: WF:bludgeon and path of harmonius balance.
Level 6: Power attack and weapon finesse - Again, I don't know which one of these was the monk bonus feat but neither of them are a prerequisite for anything else.
Level 9: Lightning Reflexes
Level 12: Imp TWF

So Impaqt, is the issue still with me? I should be able trade either one of my level 1 feats or one of my level 6 feats for Stunning Fist and I can not.

Edit. Alright it's not quite so simple. I do have toughness twice. Being human I guess I should have three level 1 feats and one is missing. I'm thinking I may have taken TWF at level 1 and toughness again at level 2. This means that level 1 is out but level 6 still should work and if I took toughness a second time at level 2 why can't I trade that in. Why does it stack so that I lose a feat I should be able to trade?

[Fridas]

I did something like this to my ranger who was lvl 9 at the time, I saved my feat exchange and when I tried to use it the feat I wanted wasn't offered, so I waited until she got to lvl 10 thinking I could fix it when I leveled, but I couldn't and I ended up also messing up the skill points I wanted. Long story short at lvl 12 I GR'ed into what I wanted and ungimped her. I just hit lvl 13 and I'm very happy with how she turned out.

On the bright side it took this experience to help me learn more about the mechanics of the game, not saying the OP needs to learn, just that it helped my understanding of how things work.