Donning my flame-retardant suit and submitting my first pass at house ruling some of the feats I consider to be outliers in power level (either two low or high), to help prevent them from breaking encounter design and reducing their impact for Variant Humans at early levels to keep them more in line with other races.
Especially curious what @Zardnaar thinks, given he's a constant critic of SS and GWM feats.
Combat Shooter
This feat replaces the Crossbow Expert feat on page 165 of the PHB.
You excel at using a ranged weapon at point-blank range. You gain the following benefits while wielding a ranged weapon with which you are proficient:
Design notes: this feat is something most ranged fighters will want, but the original text makes crossbows overshadow other ranged weapons. This extends the bonus action attack benefit of hand crossbows to slings and blowguns, and instead of making crossbows better than bows, gives them a tactical difference without overtly punishing classes with the Extra Attack feature.
Elemental Adept
The following replaces the Elemental Adept feat on page 166 of the PHB.
Your mastery over forces natural or unnatural make your abilities more difficult to resist.When you gain this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. You gain the following benefits:
Design notes: this feat was generally underpowered compared to weapon-focused feats that significantly change a character's playstyle. In addition, certain damage types suffer from limited spell lists and frequent monster immunity, and omitting them from this feat was unnecessarily punitive. Adding poison and necrotic damage ensures builds centered around those types aren't useless. Allowing weapon attacks and adding absorb elements to the feat also incentivizes non-casters to take the feat, much like crossbow expert had benefits for casters.
Great Weapon Master
The following replaces the Great Weapon Master feat on page 167 of the PHB.
You've learned to put the weight of a weapon to your advantage, letting its momentum empower your strikes. You gain the following benefits when attacking with a two-handed or versatile weapon held in two hands that you are proficient with:
Design notes: the fantasy of this feat is of a player wielding massive, powerful weapons. Instead of bonus damage for inaccuracy and additional attacks, this feat instead represents the innertia of a massive weapon slinging foes across the battlefield, and cleaving multiple enemies.
Mounted Combatant
The following replaces the Mounted Combatant feat on page 168 of the PHB.
You are a dangerous foe to face while mounted. While you are mounted and aren't incapacitated, you gain the following benefits:
Design notes: mounts are fun, but the mechanics of 5e make them pretty bad choices for the most part, with their hit points and defenses not scaling beyond the first couple levels. The original mounted combatant feat didn't solve this problem, especially for small characters riding 5hp mastiffs. The new design allows the player to protect its mount, and also allows the player to use its mount as a weapon, which was very much the case in medieval warfare.
Polearm Master
The following replaces the Great Weapon Master feat on page 168 of the PHB.
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits when wielding a glaive, halberd, lance, quarterstaff, spear or trident in two hands:
Design notes: it's nonsensical that this benefit applies to some hafted pointy weapons and not others, and it's also bizarre to wield a quarterstaff one-handed.
Sentinel
The following replaces the Sentinel feat on page 169 of the PHB.
You have mastered techniques to take advantage of every drop in an enemy's guard, gaining the following benefits:
Add the following condition to page 292 of the PHB.
Taunted
Design notes: the ability for a 40-pound gnome to lock an ancient dragon in place by slapping it with a 1-damage unarmed strike defies physics. Similarly, the sentinel's lockdown can present narrative problems for DMs. In addition, Sentinel can be combined with other similar abilities in ways that don't make sense. For example, this refines the description of Compelled Duel:
Although ostensibly a nerf, the taunt mechanic allows a sentinel to punish more actions than before, such as casting spells or tactical movement. Narratively, the effect makes more sense.
Sharpshooter
The following replaces the sharpshooter feat on page 170 of the PHB.
You have honed your skill and focus with ranged weapons, and can make shots that others find impossible. If you do not move on your turn, you gain the following benefits:
Design notes: the fantasy of this feat is of a hawk-eyed sniper laying waste to enemies from afar; the PHB design doesn't fit that fantasy because it trades away accuracy. The updated feat fleshes out the fantasy of the calm, focused sniper.
Especially curious what @Zardnaar thinks, given he's a constant critic of SS and GWM feats.
Combat Shooter
This feat replaces the Crossbow Expert feat on page 165 of the PHB.
You excel at using a ranged weapon at point-blank range. You gain the following benefits while wielding a ranged weapon with which you are proficient:
- Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
- You can use your crossbow, sling (while loaded), or net as a melee weapon. When used in this way, your weapon does 1d4 bludgeoning damage or 1d8 bludgeoning damage if it has the two-handed property.
- When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a one-handed ranged weapon you are holding.
Design notes: this feat is something most ranged fighters will want, but the original text makes crossbows overshadow other ranged weapons. This extends the bonus action attack benefit of hand crossbows to slings and blowguns, and instead of making crossbows better than bows, gives them a tactical difference without overtly punishing classes with the Extra Attack feature.
Elemental Adept
The following replaces the Elemental Adept feat on page 166 of the PHB.
Your mastery over forces natural or unnatural make your abilities more difficult to resist.When you gain this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. You gain the following benefits:
- Your spells and attacks ignore resistance to damage of the chosen type and treat immunity as resistance.
- When you roll damage for a spell you cast that deals damage of that type, you can treat any damage die as a 2.
- You learn the Absorb Elements spell (EEPG15) and can cast it at its lowest level if you take damage of your chosen type, even that damage type is not normally allowed by the spell. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again. Constitution is your casting ability for this spell.
- You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose a different damage type.
Design notes: this feat was generally underpowered compared to weapon-focused feats that significantly change a character's playstyle. In addition, certain damage types suffer from limited spell lists and frequent monster immunity, and omitting them from this feat was unnecessarily punitive. Adding poison and necrotic damage ensures builds centered around those types aren't useless. Allowing weapon attacks and adding absorb elements to the feat also incentivizes non-casters to take the feat, much like crossbow expert had benefits for casters.
Great Weapon Master
The following replaces the Great Weapon Master feat on page 167 of the PHB.
You've learned to put the weight of a weapon to your advantage, letting its momentum empower your strikes. You gain the following benefits when attacking with a two-handed or versatile weapon held in two hands that you are proficient with:
- When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can spend your bonus action to try to shove the target of your attack
- Before you make a melee weapon attack against a creature you have not attacked this turn, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you can repeat the attack against a second creature within 5' of the target and within your reach that you have not attacked this turn.
Design notes: the fantasy of this feat is of a player wielding massive, powerful weapons. Instead of bonus damage for inaccuracy and additional attacks, this feat instead represents the innertia of a massive weapon slinging foes across the battlefield, and cleaving multiple enemies.
Mounted Combatant
The following replaces the Mounted Combatant feat on page 168 of the PHB.
You are a dangerous foe to face while mounted. While you are mounted and aren't incapacitated, you gain the following benefits:
- A creature provokes an opportunity attack from you when it makes an attack against your mount.
- When your mount takes damage, you can choose to take the damage instead.
- Your mount adds your proficiency bonus to its AC and all saving throws (it can only add this bonus once).
- If you control your mount, as a bonus action you can command your mount to its action available to it instead of the three action options normally available to controlled mounts.
Design notes: mounts are fun, but the mechanics of 5e make them pretty bad choices for the most part, with their hit points and defenses not scaling beyond the first couple levels. The original mounted combatant feat didn't solve this problem, especially for small characters riding 5hp mastiffs. The new design allows the player to protect its mount, and also allows the player to use its mount as a weapon, which was very much the case in medieval warfare.
Polearm Master
The following replaces the Great Weapon Master feat on page 168 of the PHB.
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits when wielding a glaive, halberd, lance, quarterstaff, spear or trident in two hands:
- When you take the Attack action you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The weapon's damage die for this attack is a d4, and the attack deals bludgeoning damage.
- Other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach.
Design notes: it's nonsensical that this benefit applies to some hafted pointy weapons and not others, and it's also bizarre to wield a quarterstaff one-handed.
Sentinel
The following replaces the Sentinel feat on page 169 of the PHB.
You have mastered techniques to take advantage of every drop in an enemy's guard, gaining the following benefits:
- When you hit a creature no more than one size larger than you with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn unless it has taken the disengage action.
- As a bonus action on your turn, you can active a 5-foot aura. While within the aura, your enemies are taunted by you. You can end this effect as a bonus action. When a creature violates your taunt, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.
Add the following condition to page 292 of the PHB.
Taunted
- A taunted creature feels compelled to attack the taunter over others.
- Creatures immune to the frightened condition are also immune to the taunted condition. Becoming taunted removes the frightened condition.
- A creature violates a taunt if it moves more than five feet within the taunter's reach or makes an attack or casts a spell not targetting a creature taunting it. The effect of violating a taunt is determined by the taunting creature.
Design notes: the ability for a 40-pound gnome to lock an ancient dragon in place by slapping it with a 1-damage unarmed strike defies physics. Similarly, the sentinel's lockdown can present narrative problems for DMs. In addition, Sentinel can be combined with other similar abilities in ways that don't make sense. For example, this refines the description of Compelled Duel:
You attempt to compel a creature into a duel. One creature that you can see within range must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is taunted by you. For the duration, must make a Wisdom saving throw each time it attempts to violate your taunt or move to a space that is more than 30 feet away from you.
Although ostensibly a nerf, the taunt mechanic allows a sentinel to punish more actions than before, such as casting spells or tactical movement. Narratively, the effect makes more sense.
Sharpshooter
The following replaces the sharpshooter feat on page 170 of the PHB.
You have honed your skill and focus with ranged weapons, and can make shots that others find impossible. If you do not move on your turn, you gain the following benefits:
- Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.
- Your ranged attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
- The first ranged attack you make on your turn deals extra damage equal to your level. If you score a critical hit, this extra damage is doubled.
Design notes: the fantasy of this feat is of a hawk-eyed sniper laying waste to enemies from afar; the PHB design doesn't fit that fantasy because it trades away accuracy. The updated feat fleshes out the fantasy of the calm, focused sniper.
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