Unearthed Arcana 16 New UA Feats: THE POLL!

[DND_Reborn]

Actually, I only really like the idea of Practiced Expert, but we just house-ruled Prodigy available to every race so it isn't needed really. And actually, a +1 ASI and a skill and an expertise is a bit much for a feat, so we won't use it anyway.

Too many of the other feats invade class features, or are too much fluff for me, or just don't really fit. But as I wrote in the other thread, at least they are thinking about more feats, which is cool.

 

[delphonso]

Getting an extra eldritch invocation would be really nice. It's also a good way for humans to get Devil's sight at first level.

I quite like all of these. They seem mostly strong, and cater to lots of character builds.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I like that there is a shield proficiency feat, but I think that one needs work. First off one of the features is being able to equip or unequip the shield as a free action which is the way everyone I've ever played with seems to play already. That dropping your shield requires an action seems to be about the most obscure and rarely enforced rule in the game, so ignoring it seems like a rather minor feature. Maybe this is an unfair criticism, but I've seen people make the same argument about drawing two weapons with the dual wielder feat, and I've played at tables that were relatively strict about one free object interaction, but I've never encountered a table strict about shields. Seems like it needs another feature.

More importantly though I just think, if making shields a spell focus is going to be one of the big selling points of the spell it needs a different name like "Shield Caster" or something, to make it clearer to the uninitiated browsing through that this is a feat for people who otherwise wouldn't be using shields to use shields rather than to make your fighter into Captain America.

I like that there is one for guns, though it might need some language to make it clear that the "loading" property is different than the "Reload" property, and generally would benefit from having an original feature. This feels like some cautious DM's homebrew reskinning of Crossbow Expert for a player who wanted to use a gun. Maybe it should make you proficient with gun maintenance and gunpowder production.

Otherwise I love them all. A lot of characters have been rescued from awkward multiclasses here.

 

[bedir than]

WotC says they want 70% approval from UA. While ENWorld is never going to get the response rate that WotC does, it is interesting to look at the few feats that aren't even close to 70%

 

[Weiley31]

I just like how you can use these feats for even classes that normally get something. Eldritch Adept give you an extra Invocation after max level is golden! Sorcerer getting Metamagic Adept is solid.

 

[Horwath]

I like most of them,

Practiced expert might be a little strong,

feats that give fixed tool proficiency should come with expertise tagged along.

Fighting Initiate is weak for a full feat.

 

[CleverNickName]

We have a feat that will let you pick a combat style. And we have a feat that will let you choose a warlock invocation. And a feat that will let you choose a metamagic option. And they have Artificer and Ranger-flavored feats, too. They all look pretty useful and interesting, with the occasional fun combo (if maybe broken a little).

I wonder why they didn't offer a "channel divinity" flavored feat? Or a "sneak attack" flavored feat?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

WotC says they want 70% approval from UA. While ENWorld is never going to get the response rate that WotC does, it is interesting to look at the few feats that aren't even close to 70%

Yes, I think the two that score low is the useful information in this poll.

On Gunner: I actually split this hair pretty narrowly: I don't mind guns in my fantasy, but I don't like guns in my DnD.

I'm not totally sure why that is, but it might come form starting in the late 80's right after DnD started to become it's own IP and not just a mishmash of whatever fantasy tropes the authors last ran into.

I think the issue with Gunner is it's a player facing option. It is basically telling players "guns are a thing". If anything belongs in a campaign setting book rather than core rules it is this feat.

Poisoner simply doesn't do enough to make poisons a viable option for players. It needs something fluffed as "you are so good at mixing poisons that you can even make a concoction that that works on things that are normally immune to poison". You could either do that as bypassing poison immunity, or let you freely change the damage type of your poison to something else.

 

[Li Shenron]

Chef is quite original and interesting, altogether I would prefer it without the ability bonus.

Fey/Shadow Touched are reinforcing the important of those 2 planes in the setting, which could be fine if you're into it, not particularly original but at least flavorful.

With all the others I have issues of various kind.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Fey/Shadow Touched are reinforcing the important of those 2 planes in the setting, which could be fine if you're into it, not particularly original but at least flavorful.

I think they are intended as a way to add more spells to sorcerers (and other casters who might be dissatisfied with what is on their class lists).