D&D 5E D&D Beyond Revisits Popular Feats

The folks over at D&D Beyond have revisited the stats in the most popular feats used by class on the DDB platform.

It looks like the percentage of characters using feats has increased slightly.

Here are the most popular feats in 2018 and now.

And here are the top feats for each class in 2018 and now.

 

[abirdcall]

All magic items are cogs in the mechanics of the game, whether customized or random. So is every other element of the game that has anything to do with mechanics. Magic doesn't need to be random to be fun, otherwise why let wizards pick spells? Heck, why even let players choose to be wizards?

I don't understand wanting to play an RPG as just a pile of mechanics.

I'd rather play a strategy board game. It is more challenging as it is an actual competitive game and takes much less time.

But I guess if you do it makes sense that you want "magic items" to be this way.

One of the best things 5e did for me was to put the magic back in magic items and do away with magic marts.

 

[Stalker0]

Prodigy is on this list even though it’s not a core feat. That should tell you how high it’s considered

 

[jmartkdr2]

I don't understand wanting to play an RPG as just a pile of mechanics.

I'd rather play a strategy board game. It is more challenging as it is an actual competitive game and takes much less time.

But I guess if you do it makes sense that you want "magic items" to be this way.

One of the best things 5e did for me was to put the magic back in magic items and do away with magic marts.

I think you're adding "unexpected" to the definition of magic - take that away and a lot of the conclusions you reach about how magic should be incorporated into to world no longer hold. Not that there's any flaw in your logic - I'm just working from different axioms.

As for "just a pile of mechanics" - I certainly don't play that way and wouldn't want to. I just don't think more random = more fun.

 

[abirdcall]

As for "just a pile of mechanics" - I certainly don't play that way and wouldn't want to. I just don't think more random = more fun.

I wouldn't phrase it that way.

Instead I say 'without the unknown there is no adventure.'

Adventure requires risk. Part of the fun is discovering the unknown.

If everything is pre-determined then there is no game. How far along we want to go on that spectrum is a matter of taste.

Pre designing custom items for characters to gain as they level is far too along that line for me.

It just removes such a great opportunity for discovery, imagination, character growth, and ingenuity.

 

[jmartkdr2]

How far along we want to go on that spectrum is a matter of taste.

That's the crux of it, alright.

I just find that randomizing something as central to the character concept as their weapons is too random - you lose the ability to make informed choices, and then it's just gambling, not challenging.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Just to clarify: I also don't think all magic items should be up to the player, just the primary/signature one that really define playstyle. Potions and most wonderous items can be randomized.

 

[abirdcall]

That's the crux of it, alright.

I just find that randomizing something as central to the character concept as their weapons is too random - you lose the ability to make informed choices, and then it's just gambling, not challenging.

It depends on where the play is.

One characteristic that is common among lovers of 3e is being involved in the game away from the table.

5e is very much designed to be engaged at the table only which turns those players off.

Designing a custom item might be a 'challenge' away from the table but that has no value to me.

I don't see it as gambling at all. But then I also don't see the point of the game to "win" as it isn't a strategy game.

I want things in the game to occur where I ask myself how my character would react and change due to that interaction.

A magic item is a perfect catalyst for that change.

Making it just another part of character creation robs that chance. I don't want to plan what magic item I'm going to have at 8th level (or whatever) when I make my character. I want the character to have the chance to evolve in unexpected directions and then respond based on their existing personality and characteristics.

I don't care about the +1, I don't care about how that impacts the "challenge." I care about what it means to the character to have it.

Keep in mind that 5e is specifically designed without magic items being part of the balance. A character doesn't need to have an epic item specifically tailored to them. Getting one should be a cause of celebration, not just predetermined expectation. That's boring.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Keep in mind that 5e is specifically designed without magic items being part of the balance.

Aside from differing preferences, I agree with everything but this.

5e is balanced (as much as it is balanced) around any amount of magic items, including none. But also including a few, some or many. Adding any magic items at all does not unbalance the game.

 

[DEFCON 1]

why would it matter if said features are coming from a class or a magic item if they tend not to use it anyways? If they found something that works consistently they're not going to change just it up for the sake of it.

I guess I don't understand your goal of wanting your players to take more time to decide what to do.

No wonder you didn't understand it. What you wrote wasn't my goal.

My point has always been that due to feats and all the other features PCs get through class, subclass, race, background and all other character bits... they no longer need or necessarily want the special abilities that magic items give. Which isn't an issue per se... but it just means that it cuts down on the things that I can reward the players with for adventuring. Not a huge issue necessarily, but still an issue I have to work around.

 

[Ath'kethin]

People evaluate things so differently than I do.

I think Tough is a no-brainer feat... over level 12 or so. I don't really see the allure before then, especially when it competes with +2 Con. I'd probably put Resilient (Wisdom) higher than Resilient (Constitution), too.

Are people really that terrified about losing a concentration spell to damage? I mean, I do think that aspect of concentration is far too punitive -- spells like Hold Person or Ray of Enfeeblement are a complete joke now because there's often 3 checks of some kind made before the spell actually does anything and that is very feelsbad for the player -- but I guess I just don't see spending a feat on it early.

How long have you been playing D&D? Some of us are still traumatized from trying to cast a spell at a climactic moment back in the 1e days and lost it due to getting bonked by a @!#$ sling stone or something.

The fear is real, folks.