Balancing Homebrew Feats

Hi everyone! Just joined today, and a relative novice in dnd. Was hoping to get some feedback from you guys about a few Homebrew feats I have, bits and pieces I picked up from other homebrew campaigns.


For lore reasons a character can only pick one from this list, their "profession" in a way. So I'd like them to be pretty decently balanced so that people won't all just pick the same one? Here's the eleven!



Would appreciate any comments or suggestions on how to balance.



Unlock Feat "Explorer": Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Luck seems to smile at you, you may re-roll a skill check or save, you must take a long rest before using this skill again. Your instincts of discovery are well honed, you can precisely recall the exact route you've travelled over the past three weeks.



Unlock Feat "Guardian": Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You have a keen eye when it comes to safety. You and your companions can travel at a normal speed through crowds. When you enter combat your body instantly responds releasing a heavy dose of adrenaline into your system. After rolling your Initiative roll, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Constitution modifier.



Unlock Feat "Incredible Inventor": Your knack for creation has lead to you creating companion constructs. You may choose any beast with a challenge rating of 2 or less. The companion uses that beast's statistics, but are considered constructs. They don’t need to eat or breath, they are immune to poisoned/charmed/exhaustion and are immune to poison damage. The companion obeys your orders to the best of its ability. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own. Over the course of a long rest, you can repair a slain construct with 5gp if you have access to its body. It returns to life with 1 hit point at the end of the rest. If the construct is beyond recovery, you may build a new one over the course of a week (8 hours each day) using 500gp of materials.



Unlock Feat "Keen Eye": You gain proficiency in History or Investigation. If you are already proficient in it, you gain expertise and double your proficiency bonus on that skill. You can cast the spell Identify at will, but only on items. Your skills in trade means you can usually find better prices for buying or selling items and services.



Unlock Feat "Fearless Warrior": You have Advantage on saving rolls against Fear effects. Whenever a creature makes an attack roll against you with a melee attack, you have Advantage on attack rolls against this creature on your next turn.



Unlock Feat "Fiery Temper": You gain an additional +2 on attack rolls with weapons or spells that deal fire damage. For any Attack you make unarmed or with a non-magical piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning weapon, you may choose to deal fire damage with it instead. The bonus to attack roll does not apply to any weapon modified in this way.



Unlock Feat "Knowledgeable": You are learned in all subjects, having mastered the very art of learning. Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Choose a skill you are proficient in, you gain expertise in that skill, doubling your proficiency bonus. Additionally, when you make a roll for any skill or ability check, you may choose to add your Intelligence modifier to that roll. You may only do this once per long rest.



Unlock Feat "Bounty of the Water": You are able to breathe underwater, and gain a swim speed equal to your base walking speed. Additionally, any healing spells you cast is far more effective. Whenever you use a spell to restore hit points, you may choose another target within range (including yourself), this target will recieve half the spell's recovery effects (rounded up). If they were already targeted by the spell, they gain 1.5x the amount of hit points instead.



Unlock Feat "Scent of the Wild Lands": You gain proficiency in using the Poisoner's kit. While in forested terrain, you may ignore any disadvantage applied to your rolls. Additionally, you may cast the spell Plant Growth once per long rest without expending a spell slot.



Unlock Feat "Shadow Training": You have trained in the ways of Yaksha and you can become with the shadow. You are permanently under a spell of Nondetection. You may dismiss this effect for a duration by maintaining concentration. You may cast Disguise Self or Silent Image once per long rest without using up a spell slot.



Unlock Feat "Magical Teachings": (Requirement: Must be able to cast spells) You gain one extra spell slot with level equal to the highest level spell you can cast.

I'm going to say they seem pretty underpowered on the whole. For instance, Incredible Inventor seems strictly worse than Magic Initiate. (Fearless Warrior would probably be an exception, it might be too strong.)

Also, a lot of these do what I personally don't like, which is provide the ability to do something that arguably anyone should be able to at least try. By putting it in a feat it makes me feel like the feat is the only way to get that ability. But I'm sure not everyone would feel that way.

Thanks for replying, I might have to think through them a bit more ><

jaelis said:

I'm going to say they seem pretty underpowered on the whole. For instance, Incredible Inventor seems strictly worse than Magic Initiate. (Fearless Warrior would probably be an exception, it might be too strong.)

Also, a lot of these do what I personally don't like, which is provide the ability to do something that arguably anyone should be able to at least try. By putting it in a feat it makes me feel like the feat is the only way to get that ability. But I'm sure not everyone would feel that way.

Click to expand...

Alright, I've changed them incorporating some of your input What'd you think now?

Hi, and welcome to the boards!

Here are some thoughts:

Explorer: connection with Charisma seems weak; perhaps wisdom or intelligence?

Guardian: 10+CON temporary hit points seems too much to me, especially at lower levels and for every combat (compare the Tough feat). A flat 5 temporary hit points, or 2xCON might be reasonable.

Incredible Inventor: I'm not looking at a list of beasts, but there will be ways to break this. Certainly a robot mount is fun and flavourful, but since you are giving players a choice of beast, I expect it will have some unexpected byproducts. I would (a) give a shortlist of possible forms (robot horse; robot wolf; robot shark; robot eagle) and (b) explain why players can only have one. Perhaps include proficiency with tinkers tools.


Keen Eye. Theres a lot here. A choice of skills, and the possibility of double proficiency, is fiddly. I would suggest just the choice of skills. Double proficiency is currently available as a racial feat in XGTE, and so this would be overpowered with the other things against that.
Any at-will spell is also a lot. Identify is a pretty lowpower ability, and you will need to clarify the use of the pearl. I would suggest 1 casting per long rest (don't worry about the restriction on objects only; again, it's fiddly.), but no pearl. That would be cleaner, and is still going to be sufficient.
The third sentence is pretty generic and not mechanized. I think it can just go.
That would leave one of two skills, and Identify 1/long rest. That's less than Magic Initiate; perhaps double proficiency on a specific skill (you pick one, but don't leave it to the players) would be acceptable. Compare the wording of the Scout abilities in XGTE.

Fearless Warrior. Really powerful choice for rogues, since this will let them use Sneak attack in melee consistently. I suspect it is too powerful for any rogue, and any character with more than one attack per round. But I'd want to try it. This seems to me to be a must-get for many builds, which suggests it is overpowered.

Fiery Temper. This feels like a gimmick, and it's not clear what the story is. The two abilities are self-excluding, so a player would only be gaining the benefit of one of them at a time (unless I am missing something). That's a bit weird.

Knowledgeable: I would suggest giving double proficiency (expertise) only to an intelligence-based skill (Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion; not Investigation). Compare the Knowledge Cleric, who if they took this could have a third skill with the equivalent of expertise.
The Intelligence bonus to any skill roll is fun, and will lead to some funny situations (I once read a book about high-diving, and so I add my Int to the Athletics roll...)

Bounty of the Water. There's two completely separate abilities here. The first, I think, is worded awkwardly. I would simply say you can breathe water and not frame it in terms of the spell. I would also give a swim speed equal to you walking speed.
The second ability, on healing, adding 50% healing for any healing spell you cast. That excludes Paladin healing, but includes Bards; you'll have to decide if that's worth worrying about. I play clerics regularly, and I think this would be fairly powerful. My concern is that some characters might take it just for the first benefit; others might take it for the second and never go swimming. The two don't seem to work well together.

Scent of the Wild Lands. Again, there's a lot here. Why Poisoner's kit and not Herbalist's kit? The latter makes more sense to me. Ignoring disasvantage to all rolls (including attack) might be too much with the other things; but I get that it is situation dependent. Would people be just as happy with that bonus "in a dungeon"? I doubt it. And so I suspect it should only be saves and skill rolls; not attacks. (It also avoids weirdness when prone in a forest, etc.)
And there's a low-level spell, which is fun. With this, the package seems to me too much, when measured against Magic Initiate.

Shadow Training. Again, two distinct abilities. For me, the permanent Nondetection is very powerful -- the equivalent of a third-lelvel spell, which normally has a gp cost, on the self. Many characters would want this. The ability to dismiss it at the cost of concentration is classy -- I really like that.
The ability to cast a spell on top of that is too much. I would take it at level 8 or 12 for just the first ability with many builds.

Magical teachings. I don't know what the impact of this would be in play -- it's a rolling benefit, so what starts as a low-level slot becomes much higher. I would word it as "one additional slot at the highest level you can cast" and have a prereq only of the ability to cast a spell. The benefit is different for different characters then, but prevents a paladin suddenly having a seventh-level slot they can't use. It would also be useful for warlocks.

Whew. There's a lot here. I hope this hasn't come off too negatively. I think you have some great ideas, and they'd be fun to play with.

(keeping this below, since you are changing the original post)

FelinaeFatale said:

Hi everyone! Just joined today, and a relative novice in dnd. Was hoping to get some feedback from you guys about a few Homebrew feats I have, bits and pieces I picked up from other homebrew campaigns.


For lore reasons a character can only pick one from this list, their "profession" in a way. So I'd like them to be pretty decently balanced so that people won't all just pick the same one? Here's the eleven!



Would appreciate any comments or suggestions on how to balance.



Unlock Feat "Explorer": Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Luck seems to smile at you, you may re-roll a skill check or save, you must take a long rest before using this skill again. Your instincts of discovery are well honed, you can precisely recall the exact route you've travelled over the past three weeks.



Unlock Feat "Guardian": Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You have a keen eye when it comes to safety. You and your companions can travel at a normal speed through crowds. When you enter combat your body instantly responds releasing a heavy dose of adrenaline into your system. After rolling your Initiative roll, you gain temporary hit points equal to 10 + your Constitution modifier.



Unlock Feat "Incredible Inventor": Your knack for creation has lead to you creating companion constructs. You may choose any beast with a challenge rating of 2 or less. The companion uses that beast's statistics, but are considered constructs. They don’t need to eat or breath, they are immune to poisoned/charmed/exhaustion and are immune to poison damage. The companion obeys your orders to the best of its ability. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own. Over the course of a long rest, you can repair a slain construct with 5gp if you have access to its body. It returns to life with 1 hit point at the end of the rest. If the construct is beyond recovery, you may build a new one over the course of a week (8 hours each day) using 500gp of materials.



Unlock Feat "Keen Eye": You gain proficiency in History or Investigation. If you are already proficient in it, you gain expertise and double your proficiency bonus on that skill. You can cast the spell Identify at will, but only on items. Your skills in trade means you can usually find better prices for buying or selling items and services.



Unlock Feat "Fearless Warrior": You have Advantage on saving rolls against Fear effects. Whenever a creature makes an attack roll against you with a melee attack, you have Advantage on attack rolls against this creature on your next turn.



Unlock Feat "Fiery Temper": You gain an additional +2 on attack rolls with weapons or spells that deal fire damage. For any Attack you make unarmed or with a non-magical piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning weapon, you may choose to deal fire damage with it instead. The bonus to attack roll does not apply to any weapon modified in this way.



Unlock Feat "Knowledgeable": You are learned in all subjects, having mastered the very art of learning. Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Choose a skill you are proficient in, you gain expertise in that skill, doubling your proficiency bonus. Additionally, when you make a roll for any skill or ability check, you may choose to add your Intelligence modifier to that roll. You may only do this once per long rest.



Unlock Feat "Bounty of the Water": You gain the spell Water Breathing if you do not already have it. You may cast it at will without expending a spell slot, in which case the spell affects only yourself. Additionally, any healing spells you cast is far more effective. Whenever you use a spell to restore hit points, you may choose another target within range (including yourself), this target will recieve half the spell's recovery effects (rounded up). If they were already targeted by the spell, they gain 1.5x the amount of hit points instead.



Unlock Feat "Scent of the Wild Lands": You gain proficiency in using the Poisoner's kit. While in forested terrain, you may ignore any disadvantage applied to your rolls. Additionally, you may cast the spell Plant Growth once per long rest without expending a spell slot.



Unlock Feat "Shadow Training": You have trained in the ways of Yaksha and you can become with the shadow. You are permanently under a spell of Nondetection. You may dismiss this effect for a duration by maintaining concentration. You may cast Disguise Self or Silent Image once per long rest without using up a spell slot.



Unlock Feat "Magical Teachings": (Requirement: Must have at least 2 levels in a spellcaster class) You gain one extra spell slot with level equal to half your total spellcaster levels rounded down (An extra 4th level slot at 8 spellcaster levels, 9th level slot at 19 spellcaster levels etc.).

Click to expand...

Thank you! And the feats are intended to be pretty good, since any character can only pick up one of them ^^
You have some great ideas though, I'm definitely going to incoporate them.