D&D 5E Feat at 1st Level: How To Go About It?

[jodyjohnson]

I'd give an extra feat as a "carrot" to counteract "the stick" of knocking the top feats down into a less potent range (CE, GWM, PAM, SS). And going 'crazy' and capping stats at 18 instead of 20.

Old Skool.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Seriously? All this analysis? Just give each PC a feat. It is no big deal. Try it out. If it was written into the rules then no one would be battering an eye lid. If this was the first game you play of 5E with your players, they won't even know what 'the norm' is. Best thing re 5E is the ability to mess with it, so mess with it and see how it goes.

There are have been some great suggestions on how to do this, and it seems the original poster has chosen one. Well done - pleased to hear how it goes. But whatever you do, don't choose your ideas based upon number-crunching 'balance'.

 

[Kalshane]

I'm playing in two games. One was rules as-written and the other gave everyone a free feat at first level (Variant Human was changed to +2 to 1 stat, +1 to a second, 2 skills, 1 language and 1 free saving throw proficiency.) I'm honestly not seeing a huge difference in power between the two campaigns (we are now 7th level in one and 6th in the other). We've got a mix of races in both games, and humans don't seem better or worse in either. (Though the lack of darkvision for the humans has been a major PITA on numerous occasions in the second campaign.)

So my vote is just give them a free feat. It won't break anything. (And as others have suggested, those that don't like feats can have Tough or Skilled or Resilient for free so there's no special mechanics to worry about.)

 

[leonardoraele]

Give them an "Ability Score Improvement". If they don't want to choose a feat, they can choose to gain a +2 on one ability score; or three skills/tools proficiencies (Skilled feat).

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

• Standard 27 Point Buy (scores between 8 and 15)
• Standard Racial Adjustments (and Variant Human is on the Table)
• Bonus Feat or Ability Score Increase (+2 to one score or +1 to two scores, but this may not raise any score above 17)

• If a player doesn't want their character to have either an Ability Score Boost or a feat at first level, they may apply it at a later time so long as it is applied before the character reaches 4th level.​

Just thought I'd report back. Our group got together for several multi-day marathon sessions over the past week or so and we used these rules.

We played in a homebrew world where we'd been trapped in a Dwarven Kingdom that had collapsed after the 99% of the dwarves had been turned to ash after falling into demon worship. Needless to say, the only way out appears to be down.

The characters ranged in level from 1st to 5th and these feat at first level rules worked wonderfully. Definitely helped make each character feel a little more unique. And, surprisingly enough, the players that I was worried about not liking feats, really liked the options they provided (though they did ask for help in creating their characters (or converting from 3E as the case may be) from the more experienced DnDers of the group.

Overall, I don't feel that a feat at first level using these guidelines really increased the power level much, at all. For one large section of the adventure, I imported the free version of Stonefast (which I found on through a review on MerricB's site. Although the adventure was written for 1st level characters, our six characters which ranged in level from 1st to 5th (with all but one being 3rd level or higher) had considerable difficulty with many of the encounters. I didn't really notice the feats making the characters any stronger than expected for their level. And, it also showed the strength of 5E in allowing a higher level group to be challenged by an adventure written for 1st level characters.

Overall, a great experience. And, we'll be continuing with these rules for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to everyone that provided input into this thread. I really do appreciate it.

 

[77IM]

I'd let them either pick a feat OR get a +2 to an ability score, but this bonus does not stack with racial ability modifiers. That lets people boost a secondary/tertiary ability, which is not as game-breaking, but still feels very satisfying during character creation.