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.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Druids aren't banned from using bows.

They were in older editions.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yep. Im one of the Mike Mearls happy time fun hours (or whatever they were called), he said something to the effect that they don't worry about edge cases, and instead designed with the average player in mind.

I hardly think people using feats and magic items are "edge cases", but that's WotC's position.

 

[Undrave]

I explained many times what is my personal gripe: retraining rules make it a player's right.

I fail to see that as a negative.

But actual rules establish exactly what, when and how retraining should happen, and that doesn't suit with me at all, because I am then expected to abide by such rules, and I cannot prevent shenanigans by munchkins who figured out how swapping gives them some advantage.

Munchkins are the exception, not the rule. WotC doesn't design for corner cases like that, as has been mentioned in this thread. Swapping a Fighting style is not going to give anyone any better an advantage than what they had before, except maybe make them more likely to use a random Magic Weapon they found instead of selling it to pick up one they CAN use with their current build. A Fighter who wants to be better at protecting others might start with the Protection Fighting style, and then grab the Sentinel Feat at level 4 and decide to switch to a different fighting style so your reactions don't clash. That's about as good as swapping gets IMO, the ability to keep your concept without having redundant features get in the way of each other.

The particularly nasty ones which allows retraining just at a long rest's notice, might also have the effect of reducing character variety. There is much less difference in the world and the story between an elementalist and a necromancer if it takes 2 weeks to completely replace your set of known spells.

I don't want to rehash that particular debate all over again (I don't mind whichever way WotC goes on that one) but I will say that I played both a Cleric and a Druid and I barely ever changed my spells. I had a few 'extras' I kept noted (usually rituals) down as options, but I had a precise core most of the time and I expect most newbies act the same.

They also reduce the importance of good character design, when you can just make rush choices knowing you can always fix them later.

That sounds like punishing bad system mastery to me. Retraining rules are there for newbies.

Furthermore, Spellcasters can retraining a spell choice at level up already, so I don't see any problem extending that to Fighting styles.

 

[Minigiant]

Apples and oranges. You want a max DPS Kensei Duelling is definitely better.

True. Dueling is better for offense.

Very arguably. Hexblades are good at crit fishing, and critical hits double the effect of GWF. But why not have both? A vuman hexblade is SAD, so they will be looking to pick up a second feat by level 12.
And with Fighting Adept, if they find a really good one handed weapon they can change to duelling. Can't do that with GWM.

I agree that variant humans get a lot out of this feat as they can power out their concep twith feats earlier. Classes orcampaigns that do a lotofweapon switching between quests and offer lots of magic weapons as treasure would prefer Fighting Initiate.

Part of me wishes that they'd make another "simpler fighter" that has fighting style swapping as a class feature over a second FS. Like bringing back the 4e Slayer.

3rd level: Slayer- Gain a bonus to the damage rolls of melee weapon attacks equal to your Dexterity modifier. Gain a bonus to the damage rolls of ranged weapon attacks equal to your Strength modifier
7th level: Third Wind- Use Second Wind 2 times before short/long rest
10th level: Versatile Fighting Style- Can switch Fighting Style on a long rest.
15th level: ????
17th level: ????

If you only want the one manoeuvre, who cares? But chances are the pseudo-battlemaster face bard will pick up both feats.

I think that's what you'll mostly see with this feat. It would be a second feat to take once you hit your ability score cap.
Only GWF and TWF are worth taking early. So it won'tbe seen often on nonhumans in campaigns that end entering Tier 3.

 

[Azzy]

I hardly think people using feats and magic items are "edge cases", but that's WotC's position.

That's a nice straw man you built there.

An abjuration wizard using a this particular feat to constantly reheal its ward is pretty much an example of an edge case.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think that's what you'll mostly see with this feat. It would be a second feat to take once you hit your ability score cap.
Only GWF and TWF are worth taking early. So it won'tbe seen often on nonhumans in campaigns that end entering Tier 3.

It's shear flexibility makes it an excellent feat to pick up early.

As we discussed in the monk thread, a monk starts off with Unarmed Fighting style, giving them 1d8 on both attacks. Then switch to duelling (with a shortsword if not a kensei) at level 5. Then switch to something else (if not a kensei) at level 11, such as Thrown Weapon, Blind Fighting or Superior Technique.

And that hexblade? They can't use a 2H sword until level 3, so they can start out with duelling for their first two levels.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's a nice straw man you built there.

An abjuration wizard using a this particular feat to constantly reheal its ward is pretty much an example of an edge case.

I was referring to the stated position that WotC mostly balances against people who don't use feats, multiclassing, or magic items, and the irony that many players use one or more of those things. Certainly what you're describing above is more of an edge case than that. I would never expect any system to take that abjurer into account. If it becomes a problem at a table, IMO it is a table problem, not a rules one.

 

[Azzy]

It's because they're crescent-shaped, like the moon.

That's pretty much an apocryphal explantion, though. I've never seen it verified by Gygax or anyone else from early TSR. (I could have missed something, though.)

My guess has been that it stems from the fact that in the notes of the scimitar in the 1e AD&D PHB's weapon table, the stats for the scimitar also include the "Cutlass, Sabre, Sickle-sword, Tulwar, etc." Between that and and Gygax's statement that "Druids can be visualized as medieval cousins of what the ancient Celtic sect of Druids would have become had it survived the Roman conquest" in the PHB (a dubious statement at best), and the falcata is a sickle-sword associated with the Iberian Celts... Well, squint and you might see it.

 

[Azzy]

Never mind.

 

[Azzy]

I was referring to the stated position that WotC mostly balances against people who don't use feats, multiclassing, or magic items, and the irony that many players use one or more of those things. Certainly what you're describing above is more of an edge case than that. I would never expect any system to take that abjurer into account. If it becomes a problem at a table, IMO it is a table problem, not a rules one.

Oh, sorry for misinterpreting you. This all makes so much more sense to me.