D&D 5E Is Savage Attacker worth it?

[Sword of Spirit]

It looks weak to me, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

 

[Fanaelialae]

It's not the strongest feat, but for someone who hates rolling minimum damage it's great (from a psychological standpoint).

I had a 10th level rogue player who took the feat. He used a Sunblade (1d10 finesse) so it wasn't the worst choice he could have made. I explained that it would only apply to the Sunblade's damage and not sneak attack, but he was fine with it. It didn't make a huge difference in his damage obviously, but he was definitely happy when he'd roll low on his d10 and get to reroll.

 

[famousringo]

How good it is depends on how many dice you roll and how big they are. Big dice make it more valuable because you have more variance, more dice make it less valuable because the more dice you roll the more likely your roll will regress to the mean.

Average damage on a single d6 goes from 3.5 to 4.47, on a d10 it goes from 5.5 to 7.15. A d12 goes from 6.5 to 8.48. I haven't crunched the numbers on 2d6 (I'm sure proper stasticians have a more elegant technique then what I've been doing), but I'd expect it to be worth less in that case.

Edit: Okay, because I like a challenge and I have a masochistic streak, I did the math, and I figure 2d6 goes from 7 average damage to 8.37 with savage attack.

So there you have it, Savage Attack is worth around +1 to +2 damage. Not super awesome, but if damage is all you care about...

 

[Fralex]

It's basically "permanent advantage, but for damage rolls," so it's hard to imagine it being bad. Of course, advantage on d20 rolls is great because d20s are so big. So yeah, what they said. Go for big dice and it'll work out, probably.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The biggest problem is that it's once per turn, rather than once per attack. It's much better just to increase your ability score. Even with only a single attack, +1 to hit and +1 to damage is better effective damage.

It would still be weak even if it applied on each attack.

It seems like the only time this is even barely worth taking is you have already maxed out your attack stat, and have already taken the good feats. Even then, I'd have a hard time justifying that over taking something like Actor for flavor.

I wonder if a bullet point was dropped. Maybe it was supposed to give you a +1 Stength also.

 

[Flamestrike]

I dont see any reason why it wouldnt apply to sneak attack or smite damage, so its certainly worth it in those cases.

You can also make a pretty solid argument for barbarians and champions (particularly half orcs) packing great axes and crit-fishing. Rerolling 3-6d12 is anywhere from 6-12 extra damage on average. Even higher with GWF style.

The maths synergy on GWF stlye is also pretty decent. You get to re-roll the damage (re-rolling any 1 or a 2 using GWF style), record that result and then get to re-roll the roll again (again re-rolling 1's and 2's) before taking the highest of the two results.

My maths-fu isnt the best; can anyone figure out what the average of [(roll d12, re-roll 1's and 2s) x 2, take the highest] and [(roll 2d6, re-roll 1's and 2s) x 2, take the highest] works out to be?

My personal gripe is it slows the game down with re-rolling and more calculations.

 

[Psikerlord#]

It's a fine feat. As always, simply averaging things doesn't tell the whole story. It is quite wonderful when you roll a 2 on damage, then reroll it as 8. Especially when you do it on multiple rounds over a combat. This feat protects you from sh*t damage rolls.

 

[Shiroiken]

I understand it not working with all damage dice (it would be an auto take for Rogue for Sneak Attack), but I don't understand why it's only once per turn. IMO, it should either work on each attack, making it very powerful for Fighters (Action Surge/numerous attacks), or it should have a +1 Str bonus attached. It's not a full Feat on it's own, unless all you care about is damage output potential.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

I don't know about anyone else, but after reading this thread, I'm convinced Savage Attacker isn't worth a feat slot.

 

[PnPgamer]

I dont see any reason why it wouldnt apply to sneak attack or smite damage, so its certainly worth it in those cases.

the feat specifies rerolling weapon's damage dice.