D&D 5E Take two half-feats, hold the ability score boost

[Blue]

If an ASI is +2 (or +1/+1) and a half-feat is +1 and something, that something is worth about a half a feat. Considering we call them "half-feats" this seems to be commonly accepted.

Hypothosis: In place of an ASI, I can grant my players any two half-feats, holding the +1 ability increase from both, since two halves should make up a whole.

This has been inspired by the amount of half-feats from the last two UA articles, so I consider them free game to be part of the discussion.

On the other hand, I was picturing two different half-feats, not spending a single feat to take Resilient in both the major saves that you didn't get from your class. Though you could do that over two different ASIs just like you can from now.

BTW, particular combinations that are over/under powered are of interest, but as long as they are exceptions instead of "all are too good/bad", it's okay.

So, what are your thoughts?

 

[BenKester]

Interesting hypothesis. I'll offer some general feedback from a game designer perspective. Others may have specific
The devs probably view those as half-as-powerful, so you might be OK in general (there may be some exceptions).
But, two halves don't make a whole. Min/maxers are going to have even scores for most of their skills. Half feats are less valuable then because a +1 on an even ability score is worthless. If you're rolling for abilities, it's less of a difference because players aren't as biased to have even ability scores.
Also, a half feat that gives you +1 to a dump stat isn't valuable.

The half feats aren't terribly strong. Resilient is popular. An armor bump might be helpful for some folks. Resilient + armor might be a popular option. If a character has no armor and no bonuses (unarmored defense, dragon skin, etc), getting medium + shields is nice. It's still less than what you can get with a single level of multiclassing.

You're giving people more versatility which adds value. That value is moderate enough that you shouldn't have much power creep, unless there's an exception.

 

[Bardic Dave]

If an ASI is +2 (or +1/+1) and a half-feat is +1 and something, that something is worth about a half a feat. Considering we call them "half-feats" this seems to be commonly accepted.

Hypothosis: In place of an ASI, I can grant my players any two half-feats, holding the +1 ability increase from both, since two halves should make up a whole.

This has been inspired by the amount of half-feats from the last two UA articles, so I consider them free game to be part of the discussion.

On the other hand, I was picturing two different half-feats, not spending a single feat to take Resilient in both the major saves that you didn't get from your class. Though you could do that over two different ASIs just like you can from now.

BTW, particular combinations that are over/under powered are of interest, but as long as they are exceptions instead of "all are too good/bad", it's okay.

So, what are your thoughts?

Just wanted to draw your attention to a rule you've overlooked. You can't take any feat more than once, unless that feat explicitly allows you to do so. Resilient does not contain such an exception, so you can't pick it twice. The only feat in the PHB that can be chosen more than once is elemental affinity.

 

[OB1]

I'd say in general that this method would be almost always better than the current method but not game breakingly so. I'd say that the something is probably worth about 60% of a full feat and the +1 by itself is only worth about 40% on average because of the delay in gaining benefit from it when applied to a stat that is currently even.

And I can still see deciding to take the +1 when it fits with your Standard Array 13 ability.

 

[LapBandit]

At my table, I've broken down all but a few feats into half-feats costing 1 of the 2 points a PC gets as an ASI. I've also introduced a few half-feats since this new way of doing it is so flexible and easy to add to.