D&D 5E 2016 Feats Review

[CapnZapp]

Too much personal bias, not enough facts and hard evidence.

For instance, Crossbow Expert:
You can work in melee as well as you can at 30ft, and you can make an extra attack with your bonus action if you relegate yourself to using a 1d6 weapon. Oh wow, really overpowered. Not.

Crossbow Expert is the basis for all of the following, describing things in layman's terms so everybody understands:

• You effectively turn the hand crossbow into a (finesse) melee weapon with 120 ft reach
• Also, you effectively treat it as a dual-wieldable weapon it though that's normally impossible. And you get to combine two fighting styles within a single class (Archery and Two-weapon fighting).
• Also, you effectively treat it as a greatweapon for purposes of the -5/+10 mechanism. Which not coincidentally makes the d6 damage die rather irrelevant.

How does your attempt at snark look like now?

Please consider not throwing out baseless accusations like "not enough facts and hard evidence". Not only is it insulting, it is also risky when you're talking to people who knows what they're doing...

 

[CapnZapp]

Back to business... Last feat reviewed was Martial Adept, so Medium Armor Master is next.

Medium Armor Master
Max Dex for medium armors become +3; no disadvantage on Stealth for medium armors (i.e. Scale mail and Half plate)
Design: As one of the more invisible feats, I expected mediocricity going in. But I can appreciate that they've tried to do something out of nothing in this narrow design space. Still, effectively +2 AC to builds that maximize medium armor, allowing you to turn Half Plate into "Stealth Full Plate"... is that worth an entire feat?
Fun: Nice for those few that take it, but fun?
Power:This isn't so much outright bad, as it's so incredibly niche. Had this been a half feat (+1 Dex), even a MAD one (+1 Str), it would be an easy black grade. Now it's a borderline purple one that I generously grade black.

 

[Yunru]

• You effectively turn the hand crossbow into a (finesse) melee weapon with 120 ft reach
• Also, you effectively treat it as a dual-wieldable weapon it though that's normally impossible. And you get to combine two fighting styles within a single class (Archery and Two-weapon fighting).
• Also, you effectively treat it as a greatweapon for purposes of the -5/+10 mechanism. Which not coincidentally makes the d6 damage die rather irrelevant.

• Except it only has 30ft reach unless you also take Sharpshooter, or are willing to have disadvantage.
• Two-Weapon Fighting with Hand Crossbows at the cost of a feat? Sounds balanced enough.
• Speaking of irrelevant, this point is completely irrelevant to Crossbow Expert and is exclusively Sharpshooter's domain.

You were saying?

 

[knasser]

I don't know, "you're only surprised when you roll 1 on your Perception" say. This allows the DM to proceed with his scripted surprise (perhaps the character's daughter is throwing a surprise party, for crissake) even in the face of a rules-lawyery player that simply won't accept that his character can be surprised "it says right here I can't be surprised", simply by telling the player "I rolled for you in secred and I rolled a 1". Whether that's a bald-faced lie or not, doesn't matter.

It matters quite a lot, actually. Lying to my players or giving up my neutrality is not an acceptable resolution for any problem in the game.

 

[Prism]

I am interested to see how people interpret the crossbow expert feat when it comes to the bonus attack. Its for an offhand attack right, so do people allow it to be used simply by saying that all of the PCs attacks are with their offhand (whatever that actually means)? Or is it only allowed when a different weapon is used in the main hand?

Also, it doesn't allow you to load the crossbow to shoot it (needs to be already loaded) so it could be argued that it can only be used effectively once per combat as a bonus attack.

I suppose I am saying that I don't get the feeling that the designers were expecting a character with this feat to take a couple of shots with their main hand, then toss the crossbow into their offhand and take another shot. Is that what people are doing?

I say all this because our rapier and crossbow rogue uses this as I think it is intended. Once per fight, when they miss with a sneak or they need a ranged attack they use the crossbow. If they take any time out during the fight, maybe while hiding for a round, they might reload it if they get chance.

 

[guachi]

The extra attack is not with the off hand. Use attack action to attack however many times you can attack. Use bonus action to attack again using same crossbow.

 

[CapnZapp]

Mobile
+10 Speed, Dash negates difficult terrain, you can shut off opportunity attacks
Design:Again a feat that risks throwing out a bit of baby with the bathwater in its attempt at simplicity. Ignoring difficult terrain is an ability that's a tad too absolute for me, especially since not few character gain the ability to Dash as a bonus action. Still, I see what they're doing here, and I can't immediately come up with an alternative that remains simple.
Fun: Being free of restrictions is always fun. The reliability of these abilities is a good thing from the fun perspective.
Power: This is an enabler, rather than being outright powerful in its own regard.

Moderately Armored
medium armor, shields proficiency
See discussion above. This is an incredibly expensive way to gain these proficiencies compared to multiclassing (or even choosing the right race).

Mounted Combatant
advantage, safeguard mount, mount evasion
Design: First off, realize mounted combat never happens in many campaigns. This grade assumes a moderate amount of mounted combat. And I'd say this feat is right on the money for that. Safeguarding your mount and giving it evasion is exactly what you need. The mount-neutral design is good.
Fun: Advantage is never unfun.
Power: In many campaigns, this is worthless. In campaigns where you never leave horseback (griffonback?) this is a must-have. How to rate that? In-between, is how.

Observant
read lips, +5 bonus to passive perception and investigation
Design: Ouch. On one hand, incredibly worthless (other than the half-feat for wizards). On the other, potentially game-wrecking. This guy will autodetect everything, and I do mean everything since this stacks with the +5 from advantage on passive perception. The thing, however, is that I can't blame the feat for that. Getting that +5 should have worked, only it doesn't. In the end I'll have to grade the feat by the fact I hope nobody ever takes it in my campaign.
Fun: Again, if you take this feat, you do so because you enjoy lipreading. And spotting every trap. But more generally, I'll stick to a black rating.
Power: I guess black for a wizard thief. Others interested in lip reading are hosed.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

Actor + Charlatan + Changeling: Don't see this as OP. If you allow changelings into the game, expect them to do changeling things. Imitating a voice is already taken care of with the changeling polymorph. Actor probably helps with cadence and other quirks and it does give advantage if the DM calls for a roll so that's good. You still need to do research in the papers you are forging and learning about your mark and perhaps even acquiring an appropriate costume and gear. And you still need to lie convincingly since you don't automatically have all the knowledge your mark does. Potent, especially in the hands of a clever player, but a clever DM can just as easily throw potential pitfall after pitfall at you and watch you squirm.

Crossbow Expert: This is just leads to boring gameplay since it makes virtual all combats and all targets identical for the PC. Enemies that take cover are the same as those that don't. The PC will never have to move to flank enemies since it's all the same to them. Enemies that are in melee are the same as those in the back line. Enemies that are at range are the same as those in melee with the PC. The PC is no longer constrained by the tactical situation and is free to do as they please, which is to invariably focus fire on the most vulnerable or critical target. The damage boost from SS makes that focus fire even more devastating. At least a GWM melee fighter is still constrained by the tactical situation. They can only attack those they are in melee with or need to move to their target before their attack (possibly incurring attacks in return). Movement leads to dynamic combats that change from round to round. If all combatants had ranged attacks and CE they just stand in line and shoot each other in a simplistic attack roll-off until one side was victorious. Now that's a boring combat.

Imagine if there was a feat that allowed you to make melee attacks against targets up to 30 feet away (or more) without moving and without penalty. That's what CE does.

Alertness: I'm not a big fan of this one either. +5 to initiative is pretty huge. If you act first in round one that basically gives you an extra round's worth of actions over your opponents. The surprise bonus is icing on the cake. I limit it to strictly combat surprise. If something happens unexpectedly outside of combat (pit traps, the duke being murdered, the devil teleporting away, etc.) I don't automatically give the PC a chance to counter or mitigate it.

 

[Prism]

The extra attack is not with the off hand. Use attack action to attack however many times you can attack. Use bonus action to attack again using same crossbow.

Ah, yes. I always thought you needed to use an offhand presuming that the one handed weapon used to trigger it was another weapon. However I still think there is an interpretation that suggests the crossbow needs to be already loaded for bonus action to trigger, rather than loading it during the attack. They could have just said ' you use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding'.

It seems to me that the intent of the feat was to dual wield rather than just a feat that gives you an extra attack per round but I can see it both ways. We try to keep a lid on bonus attacks I guess.

 

[CapnZapp]

You were saying?

That Crossbow Expert should be removed from the game in its entirety. It's the basis of a completely gamewrecking build.

If you want to offer constructive advice on how to rephrase the feat so it can't be used as that basis, I guess I should give that a shot in the interest of fairness. But I should tell you I am predisposed to cutting it out.

What will take you nowhere, however, is the argument "it's only overpowered together with X". One way or another, the final build needs to be made inaccessible.

For more on this, I refer the interested reader to an old thread of mine:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?470488-Crossbows-and-dual-wielding