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Custom Feat: Master Duelist
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<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7547223" data-attributes="member: 12377"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Other suggestions:</p><p> - 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.</p><p> - 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."</p><p> - 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.</p><p> - 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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="77IM, post: 7547223, member: 12377"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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