D&D 5E 2016 Feats Review

[CapnZapp]

EDIT- I just noticed that you've graded almost everything as purple or red, so ... I guess on your curve you're grading alert as a pretty awesome feat, which is good?

While you have rated a feat as gold for power, any feat that gets that rating is a broken feat.

You shouldn't do any recalibration. You will want to keep Gold ready for when you do your own versions of the feats, wont you?

Now that I can look back, it's evident my gut feeling was correct - to say this nicely: there is plenty of room for improvement...

If you feel there's more to say on these subjects, feel free to ask me again.

Regards,
Zapp

 

[Horwath]

Finally done!

(Though keep your corrections and improvements coming. Nothing here is set in stone!)

Reading through the entire list, here's my draft at a list of to-do's:

High priority redesigns
Athlete, Charger, Crossbow Expert, Grappler, Great weapon master, Heavily/Moderately/Lightly Armored, Savage Attacker, Sharpshooter, Weapon Master

Medium priority redesigns
Alert, Defensive Duelist, Durable, Elemental Adept, Inspired leader, Keen Mind, Linguist,

Low priority redesigns
Dungeon Delver, heavy/medium armor master, Observant, Resilient, Sentinel

And a gentle reminder - the exact changes will be a subject for other thread(s). Let's keep this thread focused on evaluating the RAW (or at least the RAI) and the RAF!

Would you re-do the feats as they are written in PHB with tweaks or would you do all feats as "half feats" to give players more flexibility in leveling.

having all "half feats" makes giving bonus feats easier and less game breaking. I.E. lots of people want to have a feat at 1st level to make their character stand out in the sea of same class characters.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Over the Hill Gamer]

I am late in joining this exchange but since we take a novel approach to feats, I thought it might be worthing sharing. We like feats but exclude some feats based on a single criteria -- do they create additional die rolls? Based on this criteria, we eliminated Charger, Crossbow Expert, Dual Wielder, Healer, Lucky, Martial Adept, Polearm Master, Savage Attacker, Sentinel, Shield Master, and Tavern Brawler. Each of these feats adds a reaction, a bonus action, or in some way permits additional die rolls. By eliminating these specific feats we found it helped speed up play.

 

[Yunru]

I am late in joining this exchange but since we take a novel approach to feats, I thought it might be worthing sharing. We like feats but exclude some feats based on a single criteria -- do they create additional die rolls? Based on this criteria, we eliminated Charger, Crossbow Expert, Dual Wielder, Healer, Lucky, Martial Adept, Polearm Master, Savage Attacker, Sentinel, Shield Master, and Tavern Brawler. Each of these feats adds a reaction, a bonus action, or in some way permits additional die rolls. By eliminating these specific feats we found it helped speed up play.

Have you tried removing Extra Attack ehile you're at it? Maybe attack rolls entirely? Just take 11 on all attacks. Much faster. Oh and get rid of pesky damage dice too.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Let's forget about the pipe just long enough to focus on what Prism is saying, shall we?


Note: the "you" here isn't Kobold.

No. The "you" was Guachi. Who had pointed out that according to Fighter 3 in Prism's sketch, he didn't actually have a free hand. That was Guachi's point, and the one that I was clarifying to Prism after Prism's somewhat condescending response indicated that Prism had missed it.

Nothing to do with the fact that Fighter 3 wasn't dual-wielding. Just that Fighter 3 in Prism's sketch was lying, either about getting the same amount of shots off, or about the things that he did with his off hand.

Sure, but now we're talking about how Crossbow Expert gives everything a dual-wielder could wish for (and more!)...

...except the actual cool image of dual wielding

...while simultaneously putting Drizzt (the melee dual wielder) in the corner. And nobody should put Drizzt in the corner!

If the DM is OK with fully-automatic crossbows then they can bring them in. But without that, you're stuck with the somewhat more realistic point that you can get a faster sustained rate of fire with one handcrossbow than with two.

I don't entirely agree with the feat, but that is a separate matter.

And I'd be happy to put Drizzt in the corner. With a pointy had with a "D" on it.

 

[CapnZapp]

Would you re-do the feats as they are written in PHB with tweaks or would you do all feats as "half feats" to give players more flexibility in leveling.

having all "half feats" makes giving bonus feats easier and less game breaking. I.E. lots of people want to have a feat at 1st level to make their character stand out in the sea of same class characters.

I understand the value in having all (most) feats be half feats, but no, not at this time.

Cheers

 

[CapnZapp]

After seeing that you've graded alert as a "medium priority redesign," I would have to strongly disagree.

Noted - you feel Alert is good as-is.

I can certainly downgrade it to low priority (which probably means "never") but in my ideal world there is no such thing as "You are immune to [insert common real-world thing here]"

Cheers

 

[CapnZapp]

I am late in joining this exchange but since we take a novel approach to feats, I thought it might be worthing sharing. We like feats but exclude some feats based on a single criteria -- do they create additional die rolls? Based on this criteria, we eliminated Charger, Crossbow Expert, Dual Wielder, Healer, Lucky, Martial Adept, Polearm Master, Savage Attacker, Sentinel, Shield Master, and Tavern Brawler. Each of these feats adds a reaction, a bonus action, or in some way permits additional die rolls. By eliminating these specific feats we found it helped speed up play.

Based on your other thread, I see how this might appeal to you.

But making the most of your bonus action and reaction is bread and butter to the power gamer (since not letting these go unused is among the biggest power-up you can accomplish) - this makes feats that fuel your bonus action and/or reaction very valuable.

(At least to players that aren't afraid of more crunch, and in fact relish it.)

Just saying this to explain why I will choose another path than you. Good luck with your game!