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

[Horwath]

I thought Musician was a joke feat, but others persuaded me it's not as bad as it looks at first. Completely ignore the musical instruments part. Let's say you have two short rests a day, and of course you start your day with a long rest. And let's say your proficiency bonus is a 3. So that's 9 advantages you're handing out every day, which can be used on key things like saving throws, including concentration checks and death saves. And PCs who receive your inspiration can now trade them out to other PCs who need them. And the feat scales with level - once you get a 4 proficiency bonus, now you're handing out 12 advantages every day.

That's pretty good. It's not as good as Alert, Lucky and Magic Initiate, but it's far better than Crafter and Savage Attacker and fits well with a number of good character concepts.

if the short rest gets reduced to 1-5 min it might work, then again you gain inspiration if you make any roll a 20.

I'm sure that there will be lots of calling to make skill(ability) checks for trivial things.

it if were made a half-feat, I might be half interested in it.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've been giving feats out at 1st level, for free, since 2017. I haven't noticed any issues with game balance yet.

I guess it's nice to know that my house-rule is about to be codified in the rulebook.

 

[Horwath]

I've been giving feats out at 1st level, for free, since 2017. I haven't noticed any issues with game balance yet.

I guess it's nice to know that my house-rule is about to be codified in the rulebook.

I thing they implemented it as it was one of the most popular house rules.

but still, they feel they need to to half arsed job out of it by limiting what feats are taken.

 

[Mistwell]

if the short rest gets reduced to 1-5 min it might work, then again you gain inspiration if you make any roll a 20.

I'm sure that there will be lots of calling to make skill(ability) checks for trivial things.

it if were made a half-feat, I might be half interested in it.

Why do you view Lucky as worthwhile, with 3-4 advantages/disadvantages a day, while Musician as worthless with 9-12 advantages a day? Yes, Lucky lets you gain advantage after the roll so it's wasted less often, but it has far less uses a day. I still put Lucky above Musician but I definitely no longer see Musician as a bad feat. You're not rolling a ton of natural 20s every adventuring day. It's still only a 5% chance.

 

[Weiley31]

and bring back the drunken condition

Imagine if they reworked subclasses, and Druken Master required ya to be in the Druken condition all the time in order to use it fully?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

And, on that subject, they've apparently re-nerfed Dragon Breath. Le sigh. Metallic, Chromatic, and Gem Dragonborn were nice while they lasted...

Not if we all "HATE IT!" when the survey arrives!

 

[Sir Brennen]

I can only see one mention of Short Rest, and then it's not defined in the glossary ( whereas long rest gets a full write up?) Or are my ancient half-elf eyes fading????

In the second paragraph of the Rules Glossary:
"If a term doesn’t appear here, use its
definition in the 2014 Player’s Handbook."

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I like feats and felt the game lost a lot when they became optional. So attaching feats to backgrounds is a good thing. It makes since in places where you strongly want to attach special background stuff to characters like Strixhaven and those UAs that are trying to test these sort of things.

Do I do find feats like Great Weapon Mastery to be a problem, they represent things I didn't like about must have feats in 3e for characters to be viable like: Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Great Cleave, Spring Attack and Whirlwind Attack. In the case of Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter and the like, I think those should be an "Advanced Fighting Style" feature that classes like Fighter, Ranger, Paladin and Barbarian get.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Tweaks I might make:

Add the following sentence to Savage Attacker:
"In addition, when you score a Critical Hit with a Weapon as described above, instead of rolling the damage dice for the Weapon a second time, use the max value for the Weapon's damage dice and add that as extra damage to the target."

(This is a change I might instead implement for critical weapon hit by anyone, because it sucks rolling two 1's for a critical hit. But then would need something else for Savage Attacker. Provided the Critical Hit changes make it through.)

Add the following sentence to Tavern Brawler - Furniture as Weapons:
"Whenever you roll a damage dice for attack using furniture, you can reroll the die if it rolls a 1, and you must use the new roll. However, the furniture breaks if you do this."

I know, minor damage boost with a downside, but I like the flavor of actually smashing a chair across an opponent.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Something I don't think is intended but needs better wording for Tavern Brawler:

"Enhanced Unarmed Strike. When you hit with
your Unarmed Strike* and deal damage, you
can deal Bludgeoning Damage equal to 1d4 +
your Strength modifier, instead of the normal
damage of an Unarmed Strike."

Reading as is, it could be interpreted that a Monk with a d10 Unarmed Strike would have it reduced to 1d4.

Another thing about TB, the Shove action lets you do damage AND shove the target. So, it's essentially a free action. I was confused by the suggestion earlier to make it a bonus action, as that would actually be a nerf (unless it would still deal damage as a bonus action, in which case it'd then be a bit over the top.)