D&D 5E (2014) Has anyone made feats into tiers?

[TwoSix]

Looks like it will get a second pass to tighten it up based on some feedback from the reddit thread. Really looking forward to it.

Yea, I might post some feedback there tonight. But a lot of the concepts are solid.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The value of almost any feat is based on what you enjoy about the game, how you play your character, where the ability scores you are sacrificing are at, what level you are at and, your expectations, subchoices you make for the feat, and how the DM rules on things. Ratings are always going to be subjective, but feat ratings are going to be a particularly biased form of subjective.

I think it would be great if there was a multi-tier feat system, but they haven't really been written for that. There are those that kind of suck in most cases, and some that are borderline broken played correctly with the right build, taken at the right time. But there are not enough of these, and plenty of common class/builds don't really have a particularly powerful feat available.

The major exception, of course, is that many of them are written as "half feats". I've definitely heard of groups just doing "everyone chooses a half-feat without the ability boost" at character creation. Most other feats have constituent parts that one could hypothetically use as lesser feats, but these are not really balanced against the other constituent parts of the feat so how to divide them up is a tricky question.

If I was going to let people grab more "lesser" feats it would probably consist of a single half feat at level 1 for flavor and then again to particular classes where they have levels I find uninspiring. But then the problem with that is that Rangers would get like 5 extra half feats.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

The revision is up:

 

[NotAYakk]

I just found this yesterday on reddit by coincidence. Some of you might find it useful. I think it's pretty well done.
It's a rebalancing of the PHB and XGtE feats:

Only real complaint is Martial Adept got overtuned. 3d8 BM dice is crazy strong.

 

[Zardnaar]

I allow an extra 30-50 feats into the game. I've banned certain feats before. The 5 power feats are IMHO.

Sharpshooter
GWM
Healer
Warcaster
Resilient (con).

Those 5 are the worst offenders being more powerful than anything else. Two of them ramp up the damage, 2 make concentration trivial and healer is just so efficient.

A few others are powerful but not in the same league. PAM and CBE come to mind.

Mostly I allow PHB plus Midgard Heroes Handbook.

 

[NotAYakk]

I allow an extra 30-50 feats into the game. I've banned certain feats before. The 5 power feats are IMHO.

Sharpshooter
GWM
Healer
Warcaster
Resilient (con).

Those 5 are the worst offenders being more powerful than anything else. Two of them ramp up the damage, 2 make concentration trivial and healer is just so efficient.

A few others are powerful but not in the same league. PAM and CBE come to mind.

Mostly I allow PHB plus Midgard Heroes Handbook.

My problem with banning the damage ones is that they are the feats that seriously compete, combat-power wise, with getting to 20 in your primary stat.

And even then they often lose.

They are only really strong against very low AC foes, or when you have advantage. Advantage in turn requires serious investment (by at least 1 party member), landing a spell against a save, or concentration.

Concentration competes with polymorph, haste, animate objects, etc - very powerful spells.

Now liberal use of commands in animate objects can be used to generate some advantage, or familiars, or the like. But now you have a tower of investment, not just one feat.

 

[Pauln6]

Only real complaint is Martial Adept got overtuned. 3d8 BM dice is crazy strong.

I'd be happy with 2d6 or an extra 2 dice added to your existing class feature. If anything I'd quite like a third Manoeuvre.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Garbage (generally trap options)

• Defensive Duelist (could be defining, but weak)
• Magic Initiate
• Moderately Armored
• Ritual Caster

On what planet are these garbage?

(Other than Defensive Duelist not really being worth it until Lv. 8 or higher, but you could say the same for Resilient.)

 

[Nebulous]

I really like these bundled and boosted feats.

 

[NotAYakk]

On what planet are these garbage?

(Other than Defensive Duelist not really being worth it until Lv. 8 or higher, but you could say the same for Resilient.)

Assuming AC is in bounded range, a +4-6 has a X=20%-30% chance of being useful each attack.

At 4 attacks and 30%, you get a ~76% chance of using it each round, blocking ~19% of the potential damage.
At 3 attacks and 30%, you get a ~66% chance of using it each round, blocking ~22% of the potential damage.
At 2 attacks and 30%, you get a ~51% chance of using it each round, blocking ~26% of the potential damage.
At 1 attack and 30%, you get a ~30% chance of using it each round, blocking ~30% of the potential damage.

I think high level monsters more rarely have single attacks. And at high levels you fight such monsters more often.

At low levels, you both have few attacks and your chance is low per attack; so it is less useful. But I think it does plateau.

I suspect the 2->3 transition, where monsters typically go from 1 attack to 2, is a wash.

Then, at high levels, threat coming in the form of saves starts ramping up. So by the time you get a high +6 modifier, lots of the fights it is near useless.