Custom Feat: Master Duelist

[BacchusNL]

So here is a bit of background first; I've been playing with the same group (high beer & pretzel level, super fun and easy going) for almost 2 years now, and a while back we started a new campaign where is decided to play an Arcane Trickster I had some pretty cool character ideas for. Ok, it was just "Machete Kills!!...Dragons!! In cinemas this fall!!", but that's pretty deep as far as character concepts go for me. Now opinions may vary here, but from an optimisation-PoV it's very hard to argue that going Sharpshooter (with advantage from familiar or bonus action hide) will beat any melee build, hands down. Except I would really prefer to stab\ hack\ bash and booming blade things with this guy.

Now I'm not against feats like GWM and SS (though there could probably be some level requirements attached to them or so), but what grinds my gears is that there is no one-handed equivalant, for example, for them and how terrible and utterly useless other feats are. Both me and my GM enjoy home-brewing though, so this is what we came up with as a one-handed melee feat

Master Duelist:
- +1 Dex, Str or Int
- Your one-handed melee attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20
- After an enemy makes a melee attack while you are holding a one-handed melee weapon you can use your reaction to riposte for a attack of opportunity, with advantage if the attack missed.

The aim was mostly to make a feat that works for all characters that use one handed melee attacks; both weapons, fists and magic melee attacks. It has to impact damage in a meaningful way, be an interactive choice to make in combat, and have a "feel-good" factor. Having synergy with popular other choices like Elven Accuracy and Warcaster are a big +

The extra stats were my DM's idea. Personally, I think that to see something like this printed it's a bit overkill, but if your DM gives you a free stat you shut up and take it. I'm wondering what people think of the general approach\ feel of the feat though. Do you think it would fill it's role in a fair way compared to SS\ GWM? Are there maybe some wording-issues that I might not have considered if we go by RAW? Do you have anything similiar homebrews\ ideas? Let me know!

 

[CTurbo]

A feat that grants infinite riposte is too strong. Even without the other features. Every Rogue would take it asap and would be irresponsible not to.

 

[Quartz]

It's not infinite riposte; it's 1 per round. But even so this feat is still far too powerful and fails on the game balance side: Riposte steals a Battlemaster fighter's class feature, and is strictly better than Martial Adept as the latter gives 2 uses per short rest. The second feature steals the Champion fighter's key class feature so needs to be dropped. And you get a stat bump!

Let's tone it down to something more reasonable: you get the stat bump and the Riposte is 1 / short rest and depends upon a missed attack and you don't get Advantage on the attack from the feat. (You might get Advantage from a different source.)

This is still very good for a Rogue.

 

[77IM]

Without the stat bump, this feat actually seems balanced to me, compared to taking a +2 to your attack/damage ability score. Critting on a 19-20 is a big deal in 5e (you're doubling your number of crits, and several classes can do really nasty things on a crit) and the reaction attack is also a big deal (it lets you use your reaction to basically get an extra attack, which is a substantial increase to damage output). The feat seems roughly on-par with Polearm Master, which is a pretty good feat that is possibly better than +2 to your ability score. Compared to Master Duelist, PM gets you more bonus-action attacks for less damage, but fewer reaction attacks but which you can take with less risk, plus PM stacks with things like Sentinel and War Caster in really sick ways. So my gut is saying that Master Duelist (without the stat bump) is probably about as good.

However with the stat bump it becomes much harder to evaluate, because sometimes that +1 won't matter and sometimes it will matter a lot, depending on whether or not your ability score is even or odd when you take it. (In general I don't like feats that include a stat bump because it feels like a cop-out. If a concept isn't worth an entire feat, it's only worth half a feat, it shouldn't be in the game.) Since it already feels "powerful enough" without the stat bump, I'd eliminate that.

Other suggestions:
- I'd change the reaction so that you can only riposte on a miss. The advantage thing is very strong, making the reaction attack better than an attack on your turn, in some ways. It also encourages you to increase your AC and do other things to make the opponent miss, which is very duelisty. Plus it simplifies the rule, and simpler is always better.
- Consider the combining this with the Defensive Duelist feat, so that there's only one feat for duelists. Defensive Duelist is very weak. You could rephrase it to say, "...If the attack misses you, you may make a single melee attack against them using the weapon you used to parry."
- I'd make these benefits only work when you have a weapon in one hand, and not a weapon in the other hand. I.e., no two-weapon fighting. Look at the Dueling fighting style for an example of how they word this. Because the crit 19-20 thing might be too powerful combined with two-weapon fighting.
- Personally, I'm fine with the crit 19-20 thing, even though it steals some of the Champion fighter's thunder. I don't think only Champion fighters should ever get this ability, and flavor-wise it makes sense. But, I can see why some people might not like it, as a form of niche erosion, and possibly because it is overpowered in combination with Sneak Attack and/or Divine Smite. You might replace it with something that gives +Int to damage, or maybe +Cha (although then it becomes attractive to bladelocks). Instead of straight-up +Int to damage, you could say something like: when you roll a weapon damage die, if the result is lower than your Int modifier, it becomes your Int modifier (max equal to the highest face on the die, e.g. you can't have a d4 dagger deal 5 damage because you have Int mod +5). That's interesting to me because it gives you a decent reliable minimum on your weapon damage, which seems like it would fit with the precise nature of a master duelist.

 

[BacchusNL]

Thanks, those are all valid critisism. As mentioned it's definatly not infinite riposte, it still shares a spot with all other reactions (including a rogues uncanny dodge, in my case). Which is one of the things I like about it; it's not always the best choice to always press that button, esspecialy when you are dealing with several enemies. You also can't use it several times in a round, like Greatweapon Master or SS, so compared to that it's quite balanced imo. I agree that the stat bump is probably a bit overkill and could go, but like I mentioned; it was free so I'm not gonna complain ^_^

I feel like this talent is still OK for dual-wielders aswell tbh, aslong as it doesn't work with hand crossbows in any way. Not only is it the kind of bump that monks and rangers desperatly need, it can also incentivise a barbarian to pass on that 2-handed axe for once and grab 2 warhammers instead, for example. I can definatly see how some would feel this steals a fighter's thunder, but I really think there has to be more ways in general for some classes to get that 19-20 crit without multi-classing for 3 levels tbh, and I if you want to bump up the power of 1-handed melee weapons compared to 2-handers and ranged then giving them that extra crit works very well, I think. I'm also all for letting these stack on top of fighter abilities btw, and let a Champion with one-handers crit on 18 or 17-20 or let a Battlemaster riposte with his dice without using a reaction.

 

[CTurbo]

When I said infinite riposte, I just meant that you could use your reaction every round to do it with no limit to how many times per day, not that you got infinite reactions. It's still too powerful IMO even without the other 2 points.

 

[BacchusNL]

I don't think it's that different from the Sentinel feat, which also gives you "infinite reaction attacks" tbh.

 

[ad_hoc]

This is worth at least 2.5 feats. It is nowhere close to balanced.

I suggest going back to the published feats and creating something that is in line with those.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not infinite riposte; it's 1 per round. But even so this feat is still far too powerful and fails on the game balance side: Riposte steals a Battlemaster fighter's class feature, and is strictly better than Martial Adept as the latter gives 2 uses per short rest. The second feature steals the Champion fighter's key class feature so needs to be dropped. And you get a stat bump!

Let's tone it down to something more reasonable: you get the stat bump and the Riposte is 1 / short rest and depends upon a missed attack and you don't get Advantage on the attack from the feat. (You might get Advantage from a different source.)

This is still very good for a Rogue.

I think if you change the language of the crit feature so that it stacks with Champion, it works fine without stepping on their toes. I'm 100% ok with feats giving things that you can also get by multiclassing, as long as they can also be used to beef up that thing for that class, like Martial Adapt and Magical Adept.

The Repost, I'd say 1/SR when an enemy misses works. It no more steals the BM's thunder than Shield Master does, but what I don't like is that it gets kinda weird when you make a BM with the feat. I don't have any better solution than yours, though.

Also, damn it is pretty much the same as the Sentinel feat attack.

 

[ad_hoc]

Here are 2 balanced feats:

Feat 1:

While wielding a finesse weapon in one hand and having a second hand free, your weapon attacks with that weapon score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Feat 2:

While wielding a finesse weapon, when a creature misses you with an attack you may use your reaction to make an attack with that weapon against that creature.

...

If you must add power you could do this:

While wielding a finesse weapon in one hand and having a second hand free, your weapon attacks with that weapon score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. Also, if a creature misses you with a melee weapon attack, your next melee weapon attack against that creature has Advantage as long as you make the attack before the end of your next turn.