D&D (2024) Epic Boons Ranking

[Clint_L]

What are your thoughts on how the epic boons stack up?

All of them add 1 to any ability score, to a maximum of 30.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Combat Prowess: once per round, turn one miss into a hit. "A" tier for martial classes, "S" tier for rogues. If you have a lot of attacks, you are likely to use this once per turn, and if you rely heavily on a single attack and need to make sure it hits (i.e. you're a rogue), this seems essential.

Dimensional Travel: after taking the magic or attack action, you may immediately teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. "A" tier for any class. This is just incredibly valuable in so many situations. And fun!

Energy Resistance: you gain resistance to TWO damage types, excluding bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or force, and can change those resistances after a long rest. Also, if you take damage from one of those types that you are resistant to, as a reaction you may do 2d12+con modifier damage of the same type to any creature you can see that is within 60 feet and doesn't have total cover, unless they make a dex save (DC 8+con modifier+proficiency bonus). Whew. "C" tier for any class...maybe "B" if you are a specific type of tank. Maybe. The damage redirect is fairly worthless at high levels, so really it just gives you two resistances that you can change. Which is...okay, but resistance isn't too hard to come by at level 19 if you really need it.

Fate: whenever any creature succeeds OR fails on a d20 test, you can add OR subtract 2d4 from the roll; resets every time you roll initiative or after any rest. "S" tier. Amazing. As a DM, I kind of hate it because failures make the story more fun, but having this once per combat is going to be clutch so often.

Fortitude: add 40 to you hit points, and, once per turn, whenever you regain hit points for any reason, add your constitution bonus to the healing. "C" tier. Basically the toughness feat with a little kicker added on. As epic boons go, doesn't feel that epic.

Irresistible Offence: your bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks ignore resistance, and when you roll a 20 to hit with an attack (not when you score a critical), add damage equal to the ability SCORE raised by this boon. Maybe "C" tier? With the current rules, it's "D-C" tier. That damage bonus seems huge, but it's really not - basically, it adds 1 damage on average to each attack, so the more attacks (or rolls with advantage) the better. But IF magical weapons no longer allow you to ignore resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks and that resistance remains relatively common, then this might get up to a "B" tier for...well, for fighters and barbarians, basically. It would sure be fun when you do roll a 20, though!

Night Spirit: when in dim light or darkness, can give yourself the invisible condition as a bonus action, ending when you take any action, bonus action, or reaction, and you have resistance to anything but radiant or psychic damage. "C-A" tier, depending on character build. Okay on any character, but it is not hard to see how you could create some pretty strong builds around this boon.

Recovery: Two parts: (1) Last Stand: When you would be dropped to 0 hit points, you go to 1 HP instead, AND gain HP equal to half your maximum. Once per long rest. (2) Vitality: you have a pool of 10d10 and as a bonus action may roll as many of those dice as you like, healing for the total. Replenishes on a long rest. "A" tier, "S" tier for frontline combatants, unless they are already barbarians. Soooooo much better than fortitude.

Skill: gain proficiency in all skills, and expertise in one. I dunno..."C" tier? At best? By this level, your party mostly has skill checks covered. Fun at an individual level, I guess. If you're not already a bard or something. Would be pretty interesting on rogues with reliable talent.

Speed: increase movement by 30 feet, can disengage as a bonus action, which also ends grapple on you. "A" tier. Grapple is going to be used so much more now, so that alone makes it a pretty awesome boon, and an extra 30' of movement is great on anyone (monks would have a base move of 90!).

Spellcasting: when you cast a level 1-4 spell, roll a D4 and if your roll matches the spell level, it isn't lost. "D" tier. At this level you might succeed on this 1-2 times per combat. So it's basically like having a ring of spell storing, except it's random. Fun for gamblers, I suppose.

Truesight: you have truesight to 60'. "B" tier, depending on character build. Always handy, occasionally clutch.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think Fortitude is actually much better than Recovery in most cases. Recovery’s 10d10 of self-healing every day sounds cool on paper, but it’s functionally about 55 HP - only 15 more than you get from Fortitude, and you have to actually take the damage first and then heal it, whereas Fortitude gives you the 40 up front.

Also, Fortitude adds your Con mod to all sources of healing, which would include hit dice you spend on a short rest. At 20th level, that’s going to mean 20x your con mod HP per day, which will probably mean about 40 for most characters; even more for barbarians. And that’s before considering any additional healing from spells or potions. I think that’s easily going to outpace the 1/2 HP once per day from Recovery, especially since you have to drop to 0 HP first, which might not even happen on any given day.

 

[Kinematics]

I think Spellcasting might have more value for ½ or ⅓ casters. For full casters, that's just your pool of common utility spells, not your real power spells, so whether you get an extra slot or two back each day barely matters. For ½ casters, that covers most of their casting, and for ⅓ casters, that covers all of their casting. For those, an average extra 3 slots or so per day if they're burning all their spell slots would be a fairly nice bump.

I don't think the fact that these random spell slot cancellations mean you can potentially cast another spell that turn is going to turn up that often, though. Maybe an Eldritch Knight using Action Surge with Improved War Magic?

Anyway, I could see it being C or B tier for those types.

 

[mellored]

Fortitude: add 40 to you hit points, and, once per turn, whenever you regain hit points for any reason, add your constitution bonus to the healing. "C" tier. Basically the toughness feat with a little kicker added on. As epic boons go, doesn't feel that epic.

Goodberry says you should rate this higher.
Aura of Vitality agrees.

 

[Minigiant]

To me epic boons commented really three groups

• Must Picks
• Eventually Chosen in a Epic Campaign
• Doesn't Synergize with Your PC

Before you get into tiers.

Like Recovery and Fortitude. Not your first pick but if you are playing a level 20 plus game every PC eventually would have one or the other.

 

[Clint_L]

I think Fortitude is actually much better than Recovery in most cases. Recovery’s 10d10 of self-healing every day sounds cool on paper, but it’s functionally about 55 HP - only 15 more than you get from Fortitude, and you have to actually take the damage first and then heal it, whereas Fortitude gives you the 40 up front.

Also, Fortitude adds your Con mod to all sources of healing, which would include hit dice you spend on a short rest. At 20th level, that’s going to mean 20x your con mod HP per day, which will probably mean about 40 for most characters; even more for barbarians. And that’s before considering any additional healing from spells or potions. I think that’s easily going to outpace the 1/2 HP once per day from Recovery, especially since you have to drop to 0 HP first, which might not even happen on any given day.

I think it sort of depends on how you play - our games tend to have a few big fights rather than a bunch of little ones, so that 55 HP is sure to be used, and getting dropped to zero is not uncommon. I feel like when that kicks in, you'll be really glad to have it, whereas a bit of extra healing on short rests or from a potion...eh. Probably won't make much difference.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it sort of depends on how you play - our games tend to have a few big fights rather than a bunch of little ones, so that 55 HP is sure to be used, and getting dropped to zero is not uncommon. I feel like when that kicks in, you'll be really glad to have it, whereas a bit of extra healing on short rests or from a potion...eh. Probably won't make much difference.

40 hit points is hardly “a bit.” It’s almost as much as the 55 points of healing you get from Recovery. And you’ll be getting a few more points every time your party cleric casts a healing spell. That’ll easily add up to make up the 15 points of difference.

 

[Clint_L]

We don’t use healing spells or potions unless it is a BIG heal, in which case 4-5 extra HP doesn’t make much difference, or a little heal just being used to get someone back up, in which case the same. The action economy is terrible on anything but big heals or heals that pick up characters from zero.

At level19+ an extra few HP on a healing word makes no difference. But the tank popping up from a possible KO and being at half health is huge. And if they can then use a bonus action for another 55? The extra 40 HP would be nice but they could just take the toughness feat for that.

 

[mellored]

40 hit points is hardly “a bit.” It’s almost as much as the 55 points of healing you get from Recovery. And you’ll be getting a few more points every time your party cleric casts a healing spell. That’ll easily add up to make up the 15 points of difference.

You missed the other half of Recovery.

Getting back half your hit points, plus whatever extra damage would of knocked you out. Call it ~100 HP worth.

For Fortitude to catch up, you need to heal 30 or so times.

Which you can do with some goodberry, healer feat, a wagon of cheap healing potions. Or probably best of all, Regenerate.


I feel like the names are swapped...

 

[Charlaquin]

You missed the other half of Recovery.

Getting back half your hit points, plus whatever extra damage would have knocked you out. Call it ~100 HP worth.

Half of a 20th level character’s HP is somewhere between 55 and 85 HP on average, depending on their class; plus or minus about 20 if they’ve got an unusually high or low con mod. But, again, you have to actually fall unconscious to get that extra HP, which most 20th level characters probably aren’t doing every day - especially not if they have an extra 10d10 HP in their back pocket.

That’s the biggest thing for me, Fortitude gives you 40 HP up front and lets you heal another 40 on short rests, so an 80 HP buffer from going unconscious. Recovery gives you no HP up front, a 55 HP healing buffer, and another ~65ish backup that you only get access to if your HP and your buffer both fail. It’s a bit more total HP, but more than half of it can only be used in emergencies, and the first half actively makes the second half harder to access.

For Fortitude to catch up, you need to heal 30 or so times.

Between the 40 extra HP and 20 hit die uses, you’re already 2/3 of the way caught up to the Recovery user who used all 10d10 healing and still managed to fall unconscious. You need to be healed 20 times to catch the rest of the way up, which is a big number sure, but again, they had to fall unconscious once to get most of that, whereas all of your extra HP got to go towards keeping you on your feet.

Which you can do with some goodberry, healer feat, a wagon of cheap healing potions. Or probably best of all, Regenerate.


I feel like the names are swapped...

The names make sense to me, because Fortitude is functionally like a +4 to your constitution score, plus a small bonus to healing effects on you, where as Recovery is a big pool of self-healing and a free bounce-back if you get knocked out.