D&D (2024) So the Power Feats Got Nerfed!

[Zardnaar]

I’ve seen old Healer in action, gotta agree that it’s a fantastic feat. Helps conserve so much spell slots that would otherwise get wasted on healing. Loses a bit of steam beyond level 8 or so.

GWM and SS were obviously high power choices.

Resilient (Con) is golden merely because of how dangerous effects that target Con can be. If you’re also a spellcaster, it kinda becomes an auto pick.

Warcaster wasn’t as powerful overall compared to the others, IMO. Unless you built something cool around the spell opportunity attack.

Primary use for warcaster/resilient is maintaining concentration.

I've seen healer in action as well not since 2019 though. Also seen it in action on a thief bonus action short range healing word.

Mostly healer is used outside combat though.

 

[Li Shenron]

I also identified bless and guidance very early on.

Not to derail your thread, but with Guidance I agree with you. Together with Druid's armor restrictions, it is literally the only bit of 5e I regret it made to the PHB. I always had to overuse my DM's rule 0 a bit in order to prevent abuse with Guidance. Sadly, the new proposed version is much worse, and would be even harder for me to prevent its abuse.

 

[Zardnaar]

It has been nerfed because WotC conjured up an idea of "1st level feat" ad those feats must be weaker than other for some unknown reason.
Healer was put in those categories in hope that someone would finally take that feat.

I have never seen in 8 years that someone took that feat.

If it were half feat with current rules maybe.

The reason they're weaker is because they're free feats. Everyone gets one and you can kinda build your own race based on your training vs biology.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not to derail your thread, but with Guidance I agree with you. Together with Druid's armor restrictions, it is literally the only bit of 5e I regret it made to the PHB. I always had to overuse my DM's rule 0 a bit in order to prevent abuse with Guidance. Sadly, the new proposed version is much worse, and would be even harder for me to prevent its abuse.

How to build a skill monkey. Be a cleric or druid take guidance. Standard array 16 wisdom 14 dex/con use medium armor.

 

[Charlaquin]

I remember you identifying these as the 5 best feats, along with Bless and Guidance being abusable, pretty shortly after the final playtest packet. My opinion has not changed since then: Yes, you are correct that these are the best Feats, and that Bless and Guidance have the potential to break bounded accuracy, but I think you overstate the impact they have. Are they First Order Optimal Strategies? Yes. Is that a significant problem? I don’t really think so. Maybe starting with 3.5 just set the bar too high for me, but no amount of character optimization possible in 5e really feels game breaking. The difference between a fully optimized character and a totally unoptimized one is not so great that the gameplay experience would be ruined should both be in the same party. But again, maybe my broke-o-meter is calibrated wrong after having experienced CoDZilla.

Regardless, I imagine seeing the feats you identified as most problematic before the game had even officially released finally get hit with the nerf bat must feel pretty vindicating.

 

[Zardnaar]

I remember you identifying these as the 5 best feats, along with Bless and Guidance being abusable, pretty shortly after the final playtest packet. My opinion has not changed since then: Yes, you are correct that these are the best Feats, and that Bless and Guidance have the potential to break bounded accuracy, but I think you overstate the impact they have. Are they First Order Optimal Strategies? Yes. Is that a significant problem? I don’t really think so. Maybe starting with 3.5 just set the bar too high for me, but no amount of character optimization possible in 5e really feels game breaking. The difference between a fully optimized character and a totally unoptimized one is not so great that the gameplay experience would be ruined should both be in the same party. But again, maybe my broke-o-meter is calibrated wrong after having experienced CoDZilla.

Regardless, I imagine seeing the feats you identified as most problematic before the game had even officially released finally get hit with the nerf bat must feel pretty vindicating.

Not really as I said I saw them get abused very early on just after the phb got released.

We did kinda miss spirit guardians. We knew it was good but missed how good it was.

 

[Olrox17]

Regardless, I imagine seeing the feats you identified as most problematic before the game had even officially released finally get hit with the nerf bat must feel pretty vindicating.

Unless I’m missing something, resilient remained the same, and warcaster was actually buffed considerably by becoming an half feat (except for the lost interaction with polearm master, but that was niche).

Primary use for warcaster/resilient is maintaining concentration.

Resilient (Con), specifically, yeah, although as I said before there are many dangerous Con saves around the game. I’ve seen non-arcane rogues take it.
Then there’s Resilient (Wis), which is also a common pick in my experience, because Wis saves are abundant and it usually sucks to fail them.

 

[Horwath]

The reason they're weaker is because they're free feats. Everyone gets one and you can kinda build your own race based on your training vs biology.

everyone should get a normal feat at 1st level. not this watered down version.

 

[Zardnaar]

everyone should get a normal feat at 1st level. not this watered down version.

It makes certain builds to power and combo enabling.


This is how we got SS+20 dex by level 6 or CBE+SS and 18 dex by level 6, 20 dex by lvl 8.

 

[Charlaquin]

Unless I’m missing something, resilient remained the same, and warcaster was actually buffed considerably by becoming an half feat (except for the lost interaction with polearm master, but that was niche).

Oh, yeah, good call.