Here Are The Most Popular D&D Feats (War Caster Leads The Pack!)

Swarmkeeper · Feb 22, 2019

Li Shenron said:
Ok but the question was why the % of feat-users in Tier 4 is actually slightly lower than that in Tier 3...

I'm reading it this way:

Of all the PCs who are currently an active Tier 3 character in DDB, 58% have feats.
Of all the PCs who are currently an active Tier 4 character in DDB, 57% have feats.

So there's no overlap in the groups as the PCs are only counted in the category that they are in right now.

pukunui · Feb 22, 2019

Parmandur said:
It's pretty straightforward: Paladins are casters who have weapons and shields. War caster makes it easier to cast while holding a weapon and a shield.

Except that Crawford has already established that clerics and paladins don’t need War Caster if they’ve got their holy symbol on their shield. I suppose some people might not know that, but I’m leaning more towards clerics and paladins taking the feat for its other benefits.

FrogReaver · Feb 22, 2019

pukunui said:
Except that Crawford has already established that clerics and paladins don’t need War Caster if they’ve got their holy symbol on their shield. I suppose some people might not know that, but I’m leaning more towards clerics and paladins taking the feat for its other benefits.

I’ve got it from a good source that nearly half of d&d players don’t value anything JC says more than they value what a bum on the street says

Satyrn · Feb 22, 2019

Ganders said:
A few of the numbers surprised me. But the biggest surprise isn't even about feats:

Only 4% of characters are variant human! Since we know from a previous reveal that over 25% of characters are humans, that makes variant-human much less popular than I expected.

I'm gonna be making a new character next session, and I'm planning on playing a standard human.

My vision is "the guy with all the weapons" ( like the picture [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] occasionally posts). I'm going Champion fighter with high Strength and Dexterity so that I can go melee or ranged equally well.

And I'm going featless (at first level at least) because lots of the feats kinda feel like they'd lock me into a specific weapon choice/style. Sure there are feats that don't do that (And this is why I'll be taking the Protection fighting style, too) but I'm not really inclined to go hunting for such a feat when the standard human's stat boosts are quite appealing.

Maybe others are thinking similar thoughts, and that's why there are so few variant humans.

Dessert Nomad · Feb 22, 2019

ClaytonCross said:
You can drop your weapon as a free action and pick it up as part of an attack...per RAW. So there is no mechanical impact... Are you saying Paladins are taking Warcasters so they don't have to explain that to their GM each round?

How does this work if the enemy sees you drop your cool sword and snags it for their own use? It's also a free action for them to grab it, so it seems like if you're actually doing this per RAW you'd end up with your preferred weapon being used against you an awful lot.

Dessert Nomad · Feb 22, 2019

pukunui said:
Except that Crawford has already established that clerics and paladins don’t need War Caster if they’ve got their holy symbol on their shield. I suppose some people might not know that, but I’m leaning more towards clerics and paladins taking the feat for its other benefits.

Actually, Crawford has established that you don't need warcaster for casting spells that do have a material component if you've got a focus on your shield, but that you DO need it for casting spells with a somatic but no material component. So Cure Wounds, Divine Favor, Heroism, Lesser Restoration, Magic Weapon, Daylight, Dispel Magic, Elemental Weapon, Remove Curse, and Holy Weapon all require you to give the opponent a chance to pick your weapon up if you want to use them. And that's only if people use that odd, non-official ruling.

Li Shenron · Feb 22, 2019

pukunui said:
Except that Crawford has already established that clerics and paladins don’t need War Caster if they’ve got their holy symbol on their shield. I suppose some people might not know that, but I’m leaning more towards clerics and paladins taking the feat for its other benefits.

How is that possible? :/

The holy symbol is a spellcasting focus i.e. can be used in place of material components, but doesn't remove the need for somatic components. War Caster is still needed.

Hjorimir · Feb 22, 2019

I think the warcaster popularity has more to do with the fact that are relatively few feats that benefit pure spellcasters.

pukunui · Feb 22, 2019

Li Shenron said:
How is that possible? :/

The holy symbol is a spellcasting focus i.e. can be used in place of material components, but doesn't remove the need for somatic components. War Caster is still needed.

Here’s the relevant bit from the Sage Advice Compendium (OverlordOcelot is correct; I’d forgotten the second part below):

Another example: a cleric’s holy symbol is emblazoned
on her shield. She likes to wade into melee combat with a mace in one hand and a shield in the other. She uses the holy symbol as her spellcasting focus, so she needs to have the shield in hand when she casts a cleric spell that has a material component. If the spell, such as aid, also has a somatic component, she can perform that component with the shield hand and keep holding the mace in the other.

If the same cleric casts cure wounds, she needs to put the mace or the shield away, because that spell doesn’t have a material component but does have a somatic component. She’s going to need a free hand to make the spell’s gestures. If she had the War Caster feat, she could ignore this restriction.

So never mind, I was misremembering.

Azzy · Feb 22, 2019

OverlordOcelot said:
How does this work if the enemy sees you drop your cool sword and snags it for their own use? It's also a free action for them to grab it, so it seems like if you're actually doing this per RAW you'd end up with your preferred weapon being used against you an awful lot.

Use a tether to keep your weapon from completely falling... then it's just dangling from your arm when you "drop" it.

Here Are The Most Popular D&D Feats (War Caster Leads The Pack!)

Swarmkeeper

Hero

pukunui

Legend

FrogReaver

As long as i get to be the frog

Satyrn

First Post

Dessert Nomad

Adventurer

Dessert Nomad

Adventurer

Li Shenron

Legend

Hjorimir

Adventurer

pukunui

Legend

Azzy

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