D&D (2024) 2024 PHB Feats and Misc discussion

[Horwath]

For general use I think it is a good limitation (though this is just a playtest). Like you say, it is easy to ignore/change, but I think it is a good default.

maybe it should be;
For beginners, take one of these several feats,
For experienced players; take any feat,

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Lets wait and see. And give feedback. Xanathar's was great. I want that in the PHB.

No question Xanathar's is better than the pure PHB so I will be feeding that back, but I will be echoing @DEFCON 1 's point re: some Tool profs having no skill to go with them and that being a bit of an issue.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The stand out bad feat is Savage Attacker because, uniquely among the feats, it doesn't scale. It adds in rough terms an average of 1.5 damage to the attacks it applies on. Which is ... OK ... at first level when a fighter is doing about 10 damage per hit.. But there are two big issues.

• As you level up you do more damage per hit. A level 1 duelist fighter with Str 16 will do an average of 9.5 damage per hit and the 1.3 damage is about 13% and meaningful. A level 9 duelist fighter with Str 20 and a Flametongue Longsword will do an average of 18.5 damage per hit - and the 1.3 extra damage is about 7% and ... a whole lot less meaningful. This is before taking into account anything like other feats or subclasses further increasing your damage
• As you level up you get more attacks. 2 at level 5 - and then there's the three at level 11 and how many more options to use bonus actions or reactions to attack with. Savage Attacker caps at one attack.

Meanwhile every other feat with the exception of Tavern Brawler scales somehow. Normally with proficiency. And even Tavern Brawler's shove has some scaling.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Honestly I feel like Tool profs are a very half-arsed system and you've kind of nailed it by pointing out the mismatch with Skill profs. Xanathar's was heading in the right direction but it didn't get there.

I believe they'll put the tools rules from XGtE in the book. I wish they do the same with the downtime rules, by the way; rules about players actions should be in the PHB.

I think they should go back to 4e's ''martial rituals'' (cant remember their real name) to use with the Tools Proficiencies. That'd be nice.

 

[Neonchameleon]

another bad decision and failure to admit mistake of 5E that feats are "optional"

1. Feats never should have been optional
2. All characters should have started with one feat
3. All feats should be comparable with each other as much as possible and being competitive with +2 to primary ability at level 4.

There is a major problem with feats in 5e - and that is that because they can all without exception be taken at level 4 none of them can give abilities that would be out of line for a level 4 character.

This playtest explicitly talks about level 1 feats - which are not level 4 feats and are entirely appropriate for a level 1 character. They aren't +2 to a primary ability score or Great Weapon Fighter. And they aren't intended to be; they are intended for level 1 characters.

This is IMO an improvement - a way that you can have all characters starting out with one feat while not having all characters able to start with e.g. Polearm Master while at the same time not removing PAM from the game.

 

[Horwath]

There is a major problem with feats in 5e - and that is that because they can all without exception be taken at level 4 none of them can give abilities that would be out of line for a level 4 character.

This playtest explicitly talks about level 1 feats - which are not level 4 feats and are entirely appropriate for a level 1 character. They aren't +2 to a primary ability score or Great Weapon Fighter. And they aren't intended to be; they are intended for level 1 characters.

This is IMO an improvement - a way that you can have all characters starting out with one feat while not having all characters able to start with e.g. Polearm Master while at the same time not removing PAM from the game.

played many games with variant humans/custom lineage and house ruled bonus feat at 1st level.

only feat that is somewhat of a problem is Heavy armor master at 1st level, but the feat is bad later on.
Maybe it should have been prof bonus damage reduction. Or DR 1 per 2 levels(round up) max of 5.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is IMO an improvement - a way that you can have all characters starting out with one feat while not having all characters able to start with e.g. Polearm Master while at the same time not removing PAM from the game.

The only issue I see with it is that frankly some of the L1 Feats are dangerously close to being "Trap Feats" (i.e. "take this if you don't know how the game works mechanically!"), and there aren't enough L1 Feats. It'll be interesting to see the L4 and L8 and so on.

 

[Horwath]

The only issue I see with it is that frankly some of the L1 Feats are dangerously close to being "Trap Feats" (i.e. "take this if you don't know how the game works mechanically!"), and there aren't enough L1 Feats. It'll be interesting to see the L4 and L8 and so on.

I really hope there wont be level 8 requirement feats.

there should only be a handful of feats with lvl4 requirement as many people are worried about having feats at 1st level.

have following feats lvl4 as min level;

Heavy armor mastery
Polearm mastery
greatweapon mastery
Sharprshooter
Crossbow expert
Mobile
Savage attacker(just kidding, delete this waste of space)

 

[Aldarc]

One thing they said about these starter feats is they want them to also work for characters whose schtick matches the feat. So they would want Tavern Brawler to be useful for a Monk.

And I almost fairly certain that they will not give bonus +1s to any of these Level 1 feats because they are only going to be used by characters who are already gaining +2/+1 from their chargen.

I kinda wish that they would rename "Tavern Brawler" to "Street Fighter."

 

[Neonchameleon]

The only issue I see with it is that frankly some of the L1 Feats are dangerously close to being "Trap Feats" (i.e. "take this if you don't know how the game works mechanically!"), and there aren't enough L1 Feats. It'll be interesting to see the L4 and L8 and so on.

Is "some" a euphemism for Savage Attacker (and possibly Tavern Brawler)?

I really hope there wont be level 8 requirement feats.

there should only be a handful of feats with lvl4 requirement as many people are worried about having feats at 1st level.

Why out of curiosity? There is no current feat that should have a requirement higher than L4 - but why can't we have stronger feats as we level up?