D&D General Can you use a 2024 feat in a 2014 Champaing?

[ILikeSuccubus]

The new Arcana unleashed feats seem very fun for some characters, but I already have those characters in a long-running 2014 campaign, and I will probably not play a similar character anytime soon. I can't find any official rules stating that you can or cannot use 2024 feats in older campaigns. If you can't, it seems unfair to me that you can't enjoy any new content, such as new books if you don't upgrade to 2024

 

[UngainlyTitan]

This a conversation with your DM. There will not be any official support for that kind of thing. The official position is that one can use old material with the new rules base.
On the other hand, there are people mixing things up. The biggest issue with using new feats under the base 5.0 rules are that these feats have a +1 to a stat, which their old equivalents do not have. Your DM may demand that you get the feat without the +1.

 

[aco175]

@ILikeSuccubus first welcome to the site.

Second, you will get many different opinions. There is the one about asking your DM if it is cool. There is another that will say, sure it is not that powerful- go ahead. Some will say that there are not that compatible even though Wizards says backward compatible.

I tend to see the 5.5e as a bit more powerful than the 5e but not to the point that one character cannot play in a game with the other. I also think that characters made with one edition should not take things from the other. I find that it would lead to cherry-picking a class from one and multi-classing with the other where one class gets a power at one level and the same class but other edition gets it at another level.

For a specific feat being used in the older edition, I would let it at my table depending on where we are in the campaign. If it is more at the end of the campaign, I might let more in that I would tend to not. If a player came to me and asked about it. I might also not notice what feat a PC took until something came up and then ask about it though.

 

[Li Shenron]

The new Arcana unleashed feats seem very fun for some characters, but I already have those characters in a long-running 2014 campaign, and I will probably not play a similar character anytime soon. I can't find any official rules stating that you can or cannot use 2024 feats in older campaigns. If you can't, it seems unfair to me that you can't enjoy any new content, such as new books if you don't upgrade to 2024

I don't think feats have compatibility problems, unless a specific feat addresses one of those few rules that changed between versions of 5e (such as surprise rules or drinking potions).

 

[Dessert Nomad]

What rules are used in a campaign is up to whoever is organizing the campaign (usually the DM, but it could be handled different ways). WOTC doesn't make official meta-rules about how to combine newer stuff with older rulesets and doesn't do much, if any, playtesting or designing for that sort of backward compatability.

If I was running a 5.0 game then I wouldn't allow 5.5 feats, classes, etc. since that would defeat the purpose of running an old version, but I also probably just wouldn't run a 5.0 game in the first place since I think 5.5 is an improvement. I don't think it's unfair, if you're choosing not to use the new rules then you're... not using the new rules.

 

[GMMichael]

I can't find any official rules stating that you can or cannot use 2024 feats in older campaigns.

How's this?

https://dndbeyond-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/46714534613524-Can-I-use-5e-and-5-5e-content-together-on-D-D-Beyond

 

[jasper]

THOU shall not mix editions or partial editions. We will send the Pinkerstones to stop you. <EVIL GRIN>

 

[Tigris]

THOU shall not mix editions or partial editions. We will send the Pinkerstones to stop you. <EVIL GRIN>

Except the official stance is the opposite its 1 edition.

 

[Tessarael]

From a game balance perspective, I think they did a very good job with the D&D 5.5E update to feats in the 2024 Player's Handbook (PHB). Many of the 2014 PHB feats were on the weak side, whereas they evened out much of this in the 2024 update. Now regarding other 2024+ feats, your mileage will vary - there's always going to be some creep as more and more gets published, and certain combinations or a particular feat may be more powerful than is reasonable for a typical feat.

From a fairness perspective, I would suggest that your group should either use 2014 D&D feats or 2024 D&D feats, and only mix the two when there is no equivalent in the other edition, subject to DM approval. I do think the 2024 D&D feats are generally better designed, so in any new campaign I was use the D&D 2024 feats myself as a DM.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The new Arcana unleashed feats seem very fun for some characters, but I already have those characters in a long-running 2014 campaign, and I will probably not play a similar character anytime soon. I can't find any official rules stating that you can or cannot use 2024 feats in older campaigns. If you can't, it seems unfair to me that you can't enjoy any new content, such as new books if you don't upgrade to 2024

As others have said, this can only be answered by your GM. There isn't, and likely never will be, an official ruling. 5.5e is backwards-compatible because they want to ensure that old product still works. They have never discussed, and would likely never attempt, to adjust 5.0 to make it "forwards-compatible" with everything 5.5e is doing. In the near-guaranteed absence of official rules, GM adjudication is the one and only option.

That said, unless your GM actively dislikes 5.5e rules, it really shouldn't be a problem. All 5.5e feats give a bonus to a stat, this is true, but by that same token...a lot of 5.0 feats suck, and 5.5e at least attempts to fix that. It doesn't always succeed, but it's actually trying. If the GM thinks the feat is OP, just offer to skip the stat bonus. That alone is a consequential nerf for anything.