D&D 5E Doubling down on race

[Warpiglet-7]

My pal knows I like to play pretty closely to the books (especially since they implemented most of our house rules from 1e!) but has offered to DM for a small party.

he wondered how I would like to try starting with a racial feat for all characters at level 1.

I actually was intrigued by the idea.

half orcs, half elves and humans would have access to a free prodigy feat allowing them all to be really good in one skill off the bat.

the tiefling would not have to grow into their resistances if they did not want to.

we had toyed with a free feat at level 1, but I rather liked the race or species angle. wondered if anyone has tried this before.

aside from elven accuracy, don’t see a huge shift in power though some spells will potentially get added early...

 

[DND_Reborn]

We play with a feat at level 1 and it works fine. You could limit the feat selection, or just leave it open.

Depending on your feat selection, it can boost PCs power a bit, but nothing too much IMO.

 

[Aaron L]

We give every PC a bonus Feat starting at 1st level (the Variant Human is changed to give +1 to 5 ability scores and one extra skill proficiency.) In compensation, every monster is given the Tough Feat. We have had no problems resulting from this change.

 

[bedir than]

I'm also in the Feats at First Level group. I love that extra bit of fluff they offer

 

[ph0rk]

Racial feats at level 1 seem cool; other than prodigy or some special cases for others (drow high magic for warlocks/eldritch knights/arcane tricksters) I don't think they'd get a lot of use from me otherwise.

I'd probably want to limit GWM/XBE/SS/PAM for these bonus feats, but otherwise none of them seem terribly game breaking.

 

[Shiroiken]

I think the concept of adding a racial feat at level 1 is probably a descent idea, as it would help people flesh out their characters a bit more. You could even add some of the less commonly taken feats to certain races or classes as options. Barbarians, for example, might be allowed to take Charger, while Rouge might allow Dungeon Delver. This will slightly increase the power of characters overall, but it shouldn't take too much adjusting to balance this out.

 

[DammitVictor]

I am generally in favor of adding more mechanical weight to race choice, and this seems like an easily implemented and easily-adjusted way of doing that.

I am not familiar enough with 5e to suggest sweeping changes, but it seems like if you look at subraces like Hill and Mountain Dwarf, the new racial ASI changes, and this suggestion... if you wanted to make sweeping changes, you could probably make the system considerably more elegant with little risk of knocking it off its hinges.

 

[Horwath]

Racial feats at level 1 seem cool; other than prodigy or some special cases for others (drow high magic for warlocks/eldritch knights/arcane tricksters) I don't think they'd get a lot of use from me otherwise.

I'd probably want to limit GWM/XBE/SS/PAM for these bonus feats, but otherwise none of them seem terribly game breaking.

this.
I would add heavy armor mastery to this list also.

 

[Aaron L]

this.
I would add heavy armor mastery to this list also.

Heavy Armor Mastery is a tremendous Feat for low-level PCs to have.

We currently have a 4th level Paladin in one of our parties who has rolled a 3 and a 1 for Hit Points over the past two levels, and his taking of that Feat at 1st level is one of the only things that has allowed him to survive. He is the DM of one of our games, and is actually our original DM, whom most of us have been gaming under since the late '80s to early '90s, and he greatly prefers to roll for Hit Points rather than taking Average+1... despite (or, more accurately, because of) the possibility of rolling poorly for HP and therefore making the PC more memorable.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I do something similar to this. I give everyone an extra feat, but it has to be connected to their race/class/background. For example, a Dark Elf Swashbuckler Rogue with the Entertainer (Gladiator) background would get a feat from a list dependent on their race (from Dark Elf they get Elven Accuracy, Drow High Magic), class (from Rogue they get Alert, Athlete, Mobile, Skilled, and Skulker), and background (gladiator grants Athlete, Actor, Defensive Duelist, Shield Training, Martial Adept, and Shield Master).

So, in my system everyone gets a free feat, but their character options determine which feats they have access to taking. Variant Humans get 2 feats, one from this feature that works like the other races, and another of their choice not restricted this way.