D&D (2024) Should "Lucky" remain in the game?

[Shiroiken]

While Lucky has always been one of the power feats, I think it still deserves to be in the game.

 

[Umbran]

What are thoughts on the feat "Lucky," and the related racial ability "Halfling Luck"?

I think they're fine.

I have never liked either, and would be perfectly happy to see them gone. I think they negatively effect the game's story, because they are typically used (Halfling luck always used, by design) to circumvent critical failures, critical hits, etc., and take a lot of impact out of the game.

If we found that everyone was going out of their way to take this, then maybe you'd have a point. But I don't think that's what we see in practice. So, in effect, it doesn't take " a lot" of impact out of the game, in general. It is just one small way a few characters can be special.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I like Halfling Luck, just because with the racial feats, it lets them take a support role in a different way. So there's a reason to consider having one around.

Dislike the Lucky feat - while its effect is fine, giving the player more control over pivotal saves etc, the whole thing is just so nondescript and devoid of character.

 

[TerraDave]

I have seen fun generated with Halfling luck, and would like it to stay.

Lucky could go, maybe by merging into inspiration, though I am not sure that the OP would like the result.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, I feel like it takes away the drama of the dice rolls. It's like, the table gasps at a particular dice roll, but then Lucky comes along like Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park:

Dislike the Lucky feat - while its effect is fine, giving the player more control over pivotal saves etc, the whole thing is just so nondescript and devoid of character.

 

[Xamnam]

These abilities only give you a second chance, not a guaranteed success, so they're no skin off of my back. Like Umbran said, sure, if the entire party took it, maybe it'd bother me, but I'd say I typically only see either of them picked once per party. And in my experience, it only makes the re-rolls (and to a degree, all of the Halfling's rolls) more exciting for the whole table than the failure alone would be.

 

[Aurel Guthrie]

I like that lucky is being rewritten in a way that makes it so you can't use it if you already have advantage on a roll. The original lucky granted you a reroll, meaning you could use it if you had advantage. Now it grants advantage, which you can't stack.

 

[Kai Lord]

Yeah, I feel like it takes away the drama of the dice rolls. It's like, the table gasps at a particular dice roll, but then Lucky comes along like Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park:

Mechanically it really isn't that different from characters having advantage though since in both scenarios you get two rolls instead of one. Or think about a fighter who levels up and gains a second attack per round. Does that suddenly remove all drama from die rolls now that he permanently gets to roll two attacks per round instead of one? Not at all. Sure it increases the odds of a hit connecting or a save succeeding but there's still going to be elation at a natural 20 when it's a situation that really counts. And it will make failures that much more humiliating if you roll single digits on both dice (which is all too easy to do, lol.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If it's just the player taking a re-roll with Lucky, that's one thing. When it's forcing the DM to re-roll, as the DM I naturally find that to be less enjoyable.

Mechanically it really isn't that different from characters having advantage though since in both scenarios you get two rolls instead of one. Or think about a fighter who levels up and gains a second attack per round. Does that suddenly remove all drama from die rolls now that he permanently gets to roll two attacks per round instead of one? Not at all. Sure it increases the odds of a hit connecting or a save succeeding but there's still going to be elation at a natural 20 when it's a situation that really counts. And it will make failures that much more humiliating if you roll single digits on both dice (which is all too easy to do, lol.)

 

[jmartkdr2]

I don’t like Lucky as a feat - the flavor for it seems more like a rogue subclass to me (Jack Sparrow ir Philip J Fry - perpetually failing upwards).

The mechanic, even with the ability to invert disadvantage, is fine, but I’d rather tie it to dm inspiration than a simple feat.