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D&D 5E Best feats in Xanathar's Guide

Erechel

Explorer
What do you think about the racial feats on the XGTE? Do you have a favourite or very useful one. I, for instance, think that Prodigy is super useful, specially for human fighters, as it gives +1 to a stat and Expertise to a stat. My obvious choice would be Strength + Athletics. Combine it with Heavy Armor Master and you'll have the perfect grappler (+2 to Str with all the benefits of the two feats) at level 4. I plan also to use it the same way with my shield master (kicking prone with Expertise!!). It isn't broken, just very useful.

Which other feats did you love?
 

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mellored

Legend
Prodigy also works with stealth. Nice for a subtle sorcerer.

Elven accuracy is good for samurai archers and darkness warlocks.

Bountiful luck isn't bad if you have a big party who makes lots of attack rolls. Someone is bound to roll a 1 fairly often.
 

Prodigy, Elven Accuracy and Fey Teleportation are good for a decent range of builds.

Fade Away is good for Rogues.

Bountiful Luck is OK for a Halfling support character.

Dragon Fear is good for Oath of Conquest Paladins (and that's all).

The rest of them range from meh to awful.
 


Erechel

Explorer
Prodigy doesn’t give any stat increase. It gives expertise plus one skill, one tool, and one language proficiency.
I missread!
Prodigy.png
 


mellored

Legend
The rest of them range from meh to awful.
Their half feats, so you need to compare them to durable, keen mind, linguist, athlete, or actor. And they do well.
(Resilient and heavy armor master are still winners for odd Wis and Str scores).

It's just that if your using point buy, they aren't worth ending with an odd stat.
 


Dausuul

Legend
My take:

Bountiful Luck: The halfling's Lucky trait is worth a bit less than +0.5, but you get it on every single d20 roll. Now you can give that bonus to the whole party (unless two people roll 1s in a single round). I think that's pretty good, though I'd have to see it in play to be sure.

Dragon Fear: This is a big sloppy kiss to every dragonborn paladin out there. "+1 stat" feats in the stat where you get a +2 racial bonus are the bee's knees. If you're using point buy or standard array, you'll start with a 17 in that stat, which means you don't lose anything from taking the feat instead of an ASI; and you get the feat's secondary benefits as well. And in this case, the benefits are darn good. Paladins are front-line fighters and benefit enormously from giving all their foes disadvantage to hit them.

Dragon Hide: This would be an okay feat for a dragonborn bladelock, I guess. At least, it would be if you were playing a bladelock who wasn't a hexblade. Which I don't understand why you would do. Or if you rolled for stats and ended up with an odd number in Charisma (after the racial bonus)? Seems like a really niche feat.

Drow High Magic: Nope. Pass. I can't imagine taking this at 4th or 8th level; boosting my primary stat is far more important. So it'll be 12th level before I'd even look at this, and when I do, what do I see? The ability to cast one 2nd-level spell and one 3rd-level spell once each per day, when the 3rd-level spell is a highly specialized one that rarely sees any use in play. Oh, and detect magic at will, which is a 1st-level spell that can be cast as a ritual anyway. This at a level where the party spellcasters are slinging around 6th-level spells and even the "half casters" have 3rd-level slots. Total waste of a feat.

Dwarven Fortitude: Uh... I guess maybe if I had an odd-numbered Con and had already maxed out my primary stat, and was playing a class that got the ability to Dodge as a bonus action? So... I'm playing a dwarf rogue or monk. Who rolled for stats, or is 12th level (rogue) or 16th (monk). And I'm taking this instead of Resilient...? Or maybe I'm getting it so I can heal quickly out of combat? Still not worth a feat. Skip this one.

Elven Accuracy: This feat is the bomb. You can be an elf or a half-elf. You get +1 to any of four stats, including Dex (where elves get +2) and Cha (where half-elves get +2). So it's got the same "+1 to a stat where you get +2 racial" benefit of Dragon Fear, only it works for two races instead of one. And the secondary benefit is very useful indeed. Every elf rogue is drooling over this one, but it's by no means limited to rogues.

Fade Away: Good for gnome wizards, who benefit from the "+1 stat and +2 racial" effect. Secondary effect is decent, not spectacular. However, the only other +1 Int feats for a gnome are Resilient (Int), Observant, Keen Mind, and Linguist. Observant is a great feat if you have high Wisdom and your DM uses passive Perception a lot, sucky otherwise. There's no reason for a wizard to ever take Resilient (Int). Keen Mind and Linguist are just sad. So... yeah. Gnome wizards, this one's for you.

Fey Teleportation: So, I looked at this and thought, "Every high elf wizard ever is gonna love this!" Then I thought about it some more and realized that very few high elf wizards are gonna want it at all. If you went standard array or point buy, you started with a 16 Int. Taking this feat will delay your march to 20 by 4 levels, and all you get in exchange is the ability to cast a spell that's on your class spell list anyway - yes, it has a short rest refresh, but still. This feat is good if you're playing a high elf with Cha as your primary stat; if you rolled for stats and wound up with an odd-numbered Int; or maybe for something to take at 12th level after your primary stat is maxed. Useful sometimes, but not the awesomesauce it appears at first glance.

Flames of Phlegethos: Yet another "+1 stat and +2 racial" feat, and a boatload of style into the bargain. That said, the secondary benefit is very limiting: You have to be a spellcaster who uses fire a lot. Draconic sorcerers want to marry this feat and have its babies. Warlocks with the Fiend patron will like it too (+12% damage to your fireballs is nothing to sneeze at). Maybe a wizard who rolled for stats and got an odd-numbered Int? Can't think of anyone else who would really care about it.

Infernal Constitution: If your primary stat isn't up to 20 yet, I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. If your primary stat is 20, and you have an odd-numbered Constitution, and you already have or don't care about proficiency in Con saves... well, resistance to cold and poison is not a bad thing at all. Mostly I'd go with Resilient (Con), though. Unless you're in an arctic campaign or something, in which case this might be just what the doctor ordered.

Orcish Fury: Another "+1 stat and +2 racial." The benefit isn't staggeringly good, but it's decent, and the ability to punish the bastard who just knocked you down to 1 seems like it would be viscerally satisfying. Not bad, not great.

Prodigy: This is something I've wanted since 5E came out: A way to get expertise without having to dip rogue! It's not a combat powerhouse by any means, but sometimes you're creating a character whose concept just demands that they be good at a particular skill. And since it's available to humans, "variant" humans can take it with their bonus feat and not sacrifice stat points.

Second Chance: +1 stat and +2 racial, yet again. However, the ability to maybe deflect one hit every short rest is crappy. There are better +1 Dex feats out there. Like the next one on this list.

Squat Nimbleness: Now this is solid. +5 to speed, a free skill proficiency, and advantage to escape grapples, all on top of a "+1 stat, +2 racial" feat. This is incredible for a mountain dwarf heavy melee type (increased movement is sooooo good for melee warriors), and very good for halfling Dex specialists, too.

Wood Elf Magic: This is the wood elf equivalent of Drow High Magic. It's not any better for wood elves than it is for drow. Skip it.
 
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pukunui

Legend
[MENTION=6784868]Erechel[/MENTION]: Isn't it against the forum rules to post an image from what is clearly an illegally scanned pdf of the book?
 

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