Last response on this:

>- 17 STR means you are probably going to be at max carry
>weight almost all the time, especially with wands and preps in
>the inventory. Also, their average size and low STR (which
>means low weight) means bashing is generally going to suck,
>which leaves trip as your option to keep people in a
>fight...good luck there at hero.

If you're bashing, you're doing it wrong. You can keep plenty of people there other ways (curse, deafen, trip, vault lag, morosa lag, crippling strike, etc). I assure you, even dark-elf APs do fine and that 17str is not that big of an issue at all.

>- The "sweet spot" size you say they are at isn't really sweet
>at all. Sure they can shrink/enlarge, but so can non-rager
>giants. The ensuing bash-down by a giant sword spec would be
>brutal.

Again, if you're getting bashed, you're doing it wrong. If you're that worried about bash, either get the wraithform prep or friends or don't fight - what a concept! I assure you there are a lot of other classes out there that don't bash. Nor would you care if some idiot is bashing you when you have 100 charges - he's impaling himself on you. I said the best, not the easiest.

>- Until they reach critical mass (and who really knows how
>many charges that might be with a felar - it's uncharted
>territory), there are many, many things that should be able to
>beat one fairly easy imho.

I had a pretty high amount on my felar and I was already starting to get there but it ended tragically. When you're hitting for ***DEMO/OBLIT with claw hits, you'll see how quickly it could become strong. I never said it was easy...

>- A felar AP can't use an orb of travel if they are using a
>spear (and I am pretty damn sure you'd want to use a spear or
>other 2-handed weapon), and it's a lifesaver in so many
>situations that people will engineer to bring down an AP.

Have you read my FAQ? I know this better than probably anyone. You can always excision a wand, invoke a strange opal, bring friends, don't fight in dumb places, etc. Being an AP is all about knowing when to fight. Any AP can die, orb or not if you don't play well and get lucky.

>- Bards will theoretically rip you a new one. You won't be
>able to lag them. If they have semi-decent saves, good luck
>with deafen. And, if it lands, they will just run. If they
>fiend you, you're pretty screwed.

Fiends aren't that bad as a felar. There are a lot of uber gears that can easily give you a ton of -mental saves, plus there's always resist mental preps. With haste, claw+weapon attacks, ABS, etc fiends weren't an issue. Fiends eat up unprepared people or villagers.

>To sum it all up, I predict a huge let down from this build. I
>think it has _potential_ in the way that everything has
>potential under the perfect circumstances. Feel free to try,
>but don't be pissed if it doesn't go at all the way you
>imagine it will. I believe bash will be your #1 enemy, and
>Ragers will eat you alive. Rager bards even moreso.
>Additionally, you aren't going to have an easy time keeping
>anyone in combat. You'll have to do some extremely tedious
>prep-juggling due to your weight-carry restrictions from being
>so pathetically weak. So, lots of running around, lots of near
>kills without sealing them, and lots of bashdown deaths.
>Sounds fun.

Until you get an AP with 150+ charges, you don't have much experience to stand on. Not trying to be mean here, but this build was never suggested for people who think unability to bash will be a problem. I assure you, plenty of APs do not just bash people down. All your arguments are even more slanted against drows and yet they have been some of the strongest APs - and now felars have their sleep capability *and* insane combat with better bonuses/stats/etc.

It's not easy but it has the potential to easily be the best. 100+ charges on a fire giant vs felar, I'd take the felar every time.