D&D 5E How many feats is a 5e level worth?

[greg kaye]

(Another way to ask it could be, how many offered feats would it take for a feat-hungry character to sacrifice a level?)

I'm thinking of starting a 5e campaign perhaps at level two but thought I might give an option to start at level one but with one or more free feats.
How would you relate the value of a level in terms of feats?
How would you relate the value of a level in terms of points on abilities point buy?
I'd also considered letting players sacrifice, say, three points in point buy for a feat.

Per response to a comment by ad hoc below, the idea might be that, after taking the feats in lew of a level, the character would then permanently remain one level behind other characters, It would be like they'd taken a one-level dip in another class, but just for the acquisition of feats.

 

[Vaalingrade]

To do this, you have to go class by class, subclass by subclass and categorize each class feature in comparison to a median power feat.

 

[ad_hoc]

The game is designed to have levels have different values.

Level 1 by experience takes about 1/2 session to get through.

Level 5 takes about 3 sessions.

A character who starts at level 1 will catch up to characters who start at 2 by 5th level (probably 3rd). They will likely always be the same level from there on.

 

[greg kaye]

To do this, you have to go class by class, subclass by subclass and categorize each class feature in comparison to a median power feat.

I suspect that most players (if they were to be willing to sacrifice a whole character level) wouldn't opt for a median feat. They certainly might be quite unlikely to opt for dungeon delver of medium armour master even with it's additional access to dex mods. One level in fighter and gives a hit die, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, a Fighting Style and Second Wind. Two levels in cleric can give heavy armour and spells... but, I guess a player could have taken the level in fighter first for the heavy armour and con saves.

But yes, it would be more likely to be a class and subclass that would especially benefit from the acquisition of a feat and that's a valuable point. It raises the question as to which classes and subclasses it would be that might most greatly benefit from an additional feat or feats.

 

[greg kaye]

The game is designed to have levels have different values.

Level 1 by experience takes about 1/2 session to get through.

Level 5 takes about 3 sessions.

A character who starts at level 1 will catch up to characters who start at 2 by 5th level (probably 3rd). They will likely always be the same level from there on.

That's a good point. I was considering the acquisition of n feats to have cost a level of experience and then continue on a milestone basis from there. Opting for feats like this might be an equivalent of taking a dip into a ~secondary class.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I suspect that most players (if they were to be willing to sacrifice a whole character level) wouldn't opt for a median feat.

Well the thing is, you baseline on one class feature = one feat.

The issue is that some class features are spells and some class features are your choice of a class feature you didn't want to pick six levels ago. You've got to average it out.

Plus some levels have fewer features and some levels have ASIs, which are inherently worth less than a feat worth taking.

 

[J-H]

It depends on which levels, too. level 1 to level 2, level 2 to level 3 are huge jumps. Level 15 to level 16 is not such a big jump.

 

[greg kaye]

It depends on which levels, too. level 1 to level 2, level 2 to level 3 are huge jumps. Level 15 to level 16 is not such a big jump.

That's a really valuable insight - and in this context, we see that, if a character had theoretically swapped a level for feat/s, it would be at level 2 while others were at level 3 and at level 15 while others were at level 16. At other times the loss of level might not be as notable.

 

[LordEntrails]

Apples and Oranges.
As pointed out, levels are not of a consistent value. And feats themselves are not always the same value to each other.
To me, they are intrinsically different and trying to equate one for another lies the way of madness

And then it comes back to how you value something. Is it DPR? Is it amount of average damage over an adventuring day? During an encounter? What about out of combat utility? What about dependency on other abilities or feats?

imo if you want a feat heavy game, just give every PC an extra feat at odd numbered levels. Or every level, or every third.

 

[aco175]

I was thinking two as a guess. 1 for HP and 1 for things like a couple spells. Level matters though, going to 5th level is a big bump in power, like 11th level.