D&D 5E Help me build a character around a bad feat

[BookTenTiger]

I love 5e Feats. I almost always take a Feat when available, even if an ASI would be more powerful.

That said, there are some feats I would never take, like Keen Mind:

Keen Mind:

You have a mind that can track time, direction, and detail with uncanny precision. You gain the following benefits.

Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You always know which way is north.
You always know the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset.
You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month.

Or Weapon Master:

Weapon Master

You have practiced extensively with a variety of weapons, gaining the following benefits:

Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 2
You gain proficiency with four weapons of your choice. Each one must be a simple or a martial weapon.

Neither of those feats have ever seemed worth the sacrifice of an ASI, or powerful enough compared to others.

So here's my challenge: can you come up with a character build or concept based around the Kern Mind or Weapon Master feats? Something fun or effective that uses these weak feats?

Or other character concepts that use other underpowered feats?

 

[Shiroiken]

Halfling Rogue Weapon Master
Use weapon master to take whip, heavy crossbow, net, and scimitar. Primarily use Cunning Action to hide behind a PC, then attack through them with the whip for sneak attack. Heavy crossbow is the best rogue option for ranged attacks. Net's trickier to use, but if you throw it while hiding behind an ally, you don't have disadvantage. Scimitar is just in case you get a magic one.

Keen Eye Inquisitive Rogue
Not really strong, but the ultimate Sherlock Holmes. You are good at figuring things out, and don't forget anything.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

A character with access to illusion spells could probably get a lot of use out of Keen Mind.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Halfling Rogue Weapon Master
Use weapon master to take whip, heavy crossbow, net, and scimitar. Primarily use Cunning Action to hide behind a PC, then attack through them with the whip for sneak attack. Heavy crossbow is the best rogue option for ranged attacks. Net's trickier to use, but if you throw it while hiding behind an ally, you don't have disadvantage. Scimitar is just in case you get a magic one.

Keen Eye Inquisitive Rogue
Not really strong, but the ultimate Sherlock Holmes. You are good at figuring things out, and don't forget anything.

These are great! I love that Halfling Rogue.

 

[BookTenTiger]

A character with access to illusion spells could probably get a lot of use out of Keen Mind.

That's a great idea!

 

[ECMO3]

I love 5e Feats. I almost always take a Feat when available, even if an ASI would be more powerful.

That said, there are some feats I would never take, like Keen Mind:



Or Weapon Master:



Neither of those feats have ever seemed worth the sacrifice of an ASI, or powerful enough compared to others.

So here's my challenge: can you come up with a character build or concept based around the Kern Mind or Weapon Master feats? Something fun or effective that uses these weak feats?

Or other character concepts that use other underpowered feats?

Weapon Master is easy.

Weapon Master:
That is a good 1st level feat for a human or custom Rogue or Bladesinger wizard. Before Tasha's this was a very good feat for either of these and probably the optimal build. After TCE you can change your weapon proficiencies around, so you can get most of this feat with Dwarf, Elf or Gith races making it less useful.

For a Rogue it gives you longbow, heavy crossbow, whip and something else, probably scimitar or net.

For a Bladesinger you get hand crossbow and three of rapier, short sword, scimitar and whip. The one on that list you did not get you pick up at 2nd level.

With either of these you can start at out with an 18 dex using custom, for a bladesinger I would also start with a 15 intelligence and take a half feat for intelligence at 4th level (most likely fey touched).

These weapons are great in the arsenal of either of these characters. The whip gives them a reach, finesse melee weapon and all (Bladesinger) or most (Rogue) of the other Finesse martial melee weapons. These melee weapoons are particularly good if you can't buy magic items in your campaign. It substantially increases the chance you will get a magic weapon you can use effectively.

Heavy crossbow gives a Rogue the highest Sneak attack weapon in the game and Longbow gives him the longest range sneak attack. For a Bladesinger hand crossbow gives her the best missile weapon to use with the bladesinger extra attack feature.

Keen Mind:
I have never taken this feat myself, but here is my best

Keen mind would need the right kind of DM. If you have a DM that makes you write down all your notes and makes the player remember everything herself (what was the name of that wizard we were looking for?) then I would think keen mind is necessary for someone in the party to have. I have never played with a DM like that though. I could also see using the feature to replace or automatically succeed on some nature, history or religion checks.

 

[Quickleaf]

Tiefling Blood War veteran who acquired all kinds of weird monstrous weaponry on the campaign – kuo-toa pincer staff, spiked shield, flind bar, snap-tong, devil's fork, etc. (Weapon Master)

 

[BookTenTiger]

Tiefling Blood War veteran who acquired all kinds of weird monstrous weaponry on the campaign – kuo-toa pincer staff, spiked shield, flind bar, snap-tong, devil's fork, etc. (Weapon Master)

The fighter in my game loves to disarm enemies with unique weapons, this would be a really fun way for them to use the weapons.

 

[FrogReaver]

I took Keen Mind once. It added some really fun flavor. And if you plan carefully you can take an odd INT and use the feat to bump it up to even.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Weapon Master has always been an odd duck -- gives some flexibility to Rogues, but more times than not it's better to dip into Fighter for a level (or two). The only use I have found for it is to allow PCs to gain proficiency in weapons not on the PHB list, e.g. the Spiked Shield of the Lizard folk (which allows an attack without losing the benefits of the shield, which admittedly some DMs would allow anyways, but I would not).

Keen Mind helps de-fang some traditional disorientation puzzles (snow storms, fog banks, illusory mazes with shifting walls), but it's also really useful for online play, I have found, when games stretch out for months. Instant recall aided by the DM is very useful for that style of play.