D&D General Bonus feats for everyone!

[Minigiant]

WOTC listened to the crowd that said D&D is too complex for new players and didn't have 1st level feat.

They finally realized that the complex of a single feat was overstated and not worth the loss of customization from not having it.

 

[Remathilis]

WOTC listened to the crowd that said D&D is too complex for new players and didn't have 1st level feat.

They finally realized that the complex of a single feat was overstated and not worth the loss of customization from not having it.

Mike Mearls was adamant about recreating the Basic D&D fighter, the one where "I attack" is the only option. In the pursuit of this, we got feats as optional and the champion fighter.

It seems WotC is finally giving up on using 5e to replicate Basic...

 

[DEFCON 1]

WOTC listened to the crowd that said D&D is too complex for new players and didn't have 1st level feat.

They finally realized that the complex of a single feat was overstated and not worth the loss of customization from not having it.

Heh heh... I think it might also be that they finally realized that most players don't consider features "real" unless there's a game mechanic directly tied to it.

I mean let's be honest... every single 2014 Background had what we could call a "feat". Each Background Feature was essentially a "roleplaying feat"... a special customization ability a PC could have that got them all kinds of cool boons-- get free room and board, never get lost in a city, criminal contacts to get you what you need, some mysterious revelation that only you know about, a position of privilege in the high court, and so forth. They were all narrative story boons they just "got" as being a part of that Background.

But because none of these had game mechanics attached to them... no one ever used them as such. They usually just got ignored. Because D&D "the game" requires dice rolls to do anything and everything... we were and are still conditioned to expect dice rolling any time we want to accomplish something. So the fact that these Background Features gave us things to do "for free" without having to roll any dice? That went entirely against the ethos of the game. It's the exact same reason why so many people bounced off of and didn't like the idea of the Ranger class letting the party never get lost "for free" via the Natural Explorer feature. Removing dice rolls and just "doing things" was the exact opposite of what many people I think saw of as "the game".

The D&D Team when putting 5E together tried to slightly move the game towards the more indy-game style of letting things just happen via fiat and declaration (more free-form improv)... no dice involved. But they weren't able to get the general D&D gaming populace to follow them. Which I think is now why they are giving out Feats at 1st level rather than Features... because having something that ties into the "mechanics" of the game is what players of D&D actually want.

 

[Minigiant]

Mike Mearls was adamant about recreating the Basic D&D fighter, the one where "I attack" is the only option. In the pursuit of this, we got feats as optional and the champion fighter.

It seems WotC is finally giving up on using 5e to replicate Basic...

He really should have just naked a new class for the basic warrior or maneuver warrior. It was clearly surveyed that the community at the time was split on wanting the simple and the complex.

 

[Minigiant]

Heh heh... I think it might also be that they finally realized that most players don't consider features "real" unless there's a game mechanic directly tied to it.

More that player don't consider it real unless they have agency over it or it is near guaranteed to happen every 1-3 sessions.

 

[bedir than]

I wonder how / if / when this might manifest for all PCs in DnDbeyond.

You've always been able to give a free feat on DnDBeyond.

 

[Vaalingrade]

More that player don't consider it real unless they have agency over it or it is near guaranteed to happen every 1-3 sessions.

Boom.

Because of the game culture that's been fostered, unless you have mechanics to back it up, you can't have any faith that it will work or be a thing.

 

[Remathilis]

More that player don't consider it real unless they have agency over it or it is near guaranteed to happen every 1-3 sessions.

To a point.

Pathfinder had a huge problem with trying to codify every trait, quirk, or action with a mechanical benefit. Your character is from the desert? Take the heat tolerance perk for a +1 to Fort saves against hot weather. Want to convince a guard your gnome is harmless? Sorry, you didn't take the Tricky Gnome feat that allows you to do that. Can I jump on the table and kick food into the enemy's face? Well, that's a DC 18 jump check and use of a dirty trick maneuver, which since you don't have Improved Dirty Fighting triggers an OA...

 

[jgsugden]

You've always been able to give a free feat on DnDBeyond.

Right - but when does it give you an option of one of these three by default?