What's the difference between a Specialty and a feat?

Question

Today's (8/22/12) update of the D&D Next playtest contained a list of "Specialties", with this "helpful" info:

When you create your character, you can choose a specialty. You may take the specialty suggested by your class, or you may choose a different one.

...

A specialty comprises a handful of feats, which provide special abilities to your character. You gain a feat at levels 1, 3, 6, and 9.

Each feat’s entry describes the feat’s effect in the game world and includes a benefit, which explains how the feat works in the game rules.

Some feats have prerequisites. For example, the Aura of Souls feat requires a character to be able to cast spells. You must meet a feat’s prerequisites to take that feat. You can take a feat only once, unless a feat says otherwise.

So what exactly is a specialty? Is it just a group of (arbitrarily) grouped feats?

Do I have to take the feats in order? For instance, the two playtest feats under the Archer specialty have no requirements. Could I take the Sniper feat without taking the Rapid Shot feat?

Going beyond that, is there any significance of the listed level on a Specialty Feat? I.e., the Sniper feat is listed as level 3 - does that mean it has an implicit requirement of level 3, or can I take it at first level?

(I feel it's important to add that the only place in the playtest material that lists feats is the "Specialties" document)

Answer 1

In his reddit AMA, Mearls discussed how themes were going to work. It sounds like "themes" were renamed specialties. If so, they (at least previously) planned on letting you choose your own feats. Remember that this is a playtest with only the default parts of the whole system.

You can see this in how we've handled themes and feats. A theme is like a kit, in that it represents something in the world of D&D. You train as a healer, or study to become a magic-user.

Themes are built from feats, the mechanical expression of the theme's story.

A player can take a theme because he's more interesting in his character's story and role in the world. The mechanics are part of that choice, but the key thing is the story element and the roleplay opportunities it offers.

Another player might care more about optimization in the 3e/4e mold. She might skip directly to the feats in search of an interesting combo or unique build.

I'm fairly certain I've seen him mention this elsewhere, but the AMA was the easiest to find.

Answer 2

Yeah, they've said from the beginning that the theme/specialty was simply an optional feat delivery device so that you can create a character quickly if needed, or if you don't care that much about the feat choices. The same goes for Backgrounds; the skill list can be completely chosen by you, and you can choose an available trait as well. I'm not sure that the suggested equipment builds are technically interchangeable.

Answer 3

A specialty is a group of feats. They are listed in the "Specialties" documents with a group of related feats and some flavor text (currently no more than two as they've only defined L1-5 and feats come at 1,3,6....).

Feats are granted from specialties at each level. At L1 you the L1 feat for your specialty and at L3 you get the L3 feat for the specialty. As of now it looks like your feat selections are locked in based on your specialty.

The feats for the most part seem complimentary, sort of like an advancement tree. Where they allow you to specialize in a certain combat style (ranged/melee), or add a small amount of MC goodness (magic user specialty allows non magic character to add some cantrips and then a familiar).

Without the full character creation rules we can't be sure what the mechanics truly look like, but for no it looks like feat selections are indeed locked to specialty selection. What we've been given is (hopefully) just a basic preview of what character creation will look like. Hopefully there will be some more customization knobs and levers that can be turned released later.