D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: 16 New Feats

"Today’s Unearthed Arcana presents a selection of new feats for Dungeons & Dragons. Each feat offers a way to become better at something or to gain a whole new ability."

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The feats include Artificer Initiate, Chef, Crusher, Eldritch Adept, Fey Touched, Fighting Initiate, Gunner, Metamagic Adept, Poisoner, Piercer, Practiced Expert, Shadow Touched, Shield Training, Slasher, Tandem Tactician, and Tracker.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

(Thank you. Covid makes every single hour of working in retail noticeably more stressful, especially as a front of store manager at a company that isn't enforcing mandatory masks and is barely enforcing social distancing or giving us adequate tools to mitigate the risks posed by noncompliant idiots that I can't kick out of the store unless they get belligerent. We don't even have any sort of clear barrier at the counter. People are literally talking at me, unmasked, from maybe 6 ft away, with nothing in the way. It's super great.)

That sucks. I'm lucky, I don't have to go work during the pandemic.

Anyway, The only thing the rogue has that the ranger lacks is expertise. That's it. The ranger can get expertise with these feats. Every other benefit of these feats is just as good for the ranger as they are for the rogue.

But they can't get it on the same level that rogues can, especially scout rogues. Also, the rogue is benefitted more from this feat than the ranger, as the ranger already had access to hunter's mark, a fighting style, shields, and so on. Both classes are winners in this UA, but rogues are bigger winners.

And the rogue still won't have Pass Without Trace or any other ranger spell beyond 1st level, the ability to auto-succeed on many wilderness/travel challenges, the ability to sense the presence of creatures in an area and gain detailed information about them en masse, expert knowledge about a type of creature including fluency in their primary language, etc, etc.

Sure, they won't have spells, but that comes down to what makes a ranger be a ranger, and I don't think we (or mostly everyone here) will agree on this, so maybe it's best to drop it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That sucks. I'm lucky, I don't have to go work during the pandemic.

But they can't get it on the same level that rogues can, especially scout rogues. Also, the rogue is benefitted more from this feat than the ranger, as the ranger already had access to hunter's mark, a fighting style, shields, and so on. Both classes are winners in this UA, but rogues are bigger winners.

Sure, they won't have spells, but that comes down to what makes a ranger be a ranger, and I don't think we (or mostly everyone here) will agree on this, so maybe it's best to drop it.

Sure, some folks don't even want Rangers to have spells, but...I mean, in 5e a lot of their Rangering is accomplished via spells. Is that controversial?

Anyway, I don't think that rogues get more out of these feats than rangers do, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm happy to discuss that, though, if "what makes a character a ranger" is too hopeless a topic.

 

[Mistwell]

You know, a statement only exists in context. If it doesn’t make sense or seem right to you without context, check the context to clarify meaning, before making snarky retorts that add nothing to the conversation, and try to keep in mind what the failure state of “clever” is.

There was nothing snarky about my question. If there is some other context, I am not seeing it. You have me wrong on this one. I thought you were suggesting there was a sneak attack feat? What do you mean by your comment?

 

[Rancho]

They have to willingly move to take the damage. However you are forcing them to take the damage or accept the new position you put them in, which is still pretty awesome.



It's unnecessary for a Mastermind Rogue, just letting them do what they can already do better. I think it is strongest in the hands of whatever character has a lot of unused bonus actions. Rogue's have some of the busiest bonus actions around.

But yes, it is made to stack on the Mastermind's abilities. If you really wanted to fully commit you'd build a Mastermind Rogue/Wizard with the Flock of Familiars spell and this feat who used all of their actions and bonus actions and the all actions of their familiars to generate advantage for allies, all while staying up to 40 feet away from the enemy. Eventually they could get a simulacrum and have them do it at well.

Yes exactly right.

 

[Ashrym]

I'd probably take tandem tactician on an alchemist as an alternative to spell slots used for flaming sphere. Any good bonus action option helps that subclass because the others are a bit more tied up.

 

[Seramus]

Is that a thing? Do people ask their DMs for specific magic items, and the DM complies?

We've had threads about this, but sometimes yeah. I mix it up, with random items, some custom items hand placed, and occasionally a wish list item from a player. Depends on the needs of the story, of course.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There was nothing snarky about my question. If there is some other context, I am not seeing it. You have me wrong on this one. I thought you were suggesting there was a sneak attack feat? What do you mean by your comment?

1, I don’t believe you.

2, read the thread in between the post you quoted here and now. I’m not gonna repeat myself.

 

[Gradine]

Tandem Tactics strikes me as broken as hell, is it just me?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But they can't get it on the same level that rogues can, especially scout rogues. Also, the rogue is benefitted more from this feat than the ranger, as the ranger already had access to hunter's mark, a fighting style, shields, and so on. Both classes are winners in this UA, but rogues are bigger winners.

So what?!

People are far to hung up on labels.

5e lets you play a sneaky wilderness guy. That's great. What it says in the class box on your character sheet is irrelevant. Call your character Bob the Ranger and you are good to go.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Tandem Tactics strikes me as broken as hell, is it just me?

It's you. Remember the opportunity cost of selecting a feat instead of an ASI is high.