D&D 5E Feat Workshop

[tuxgeo]

I'm a bit surprised to see that you aren't considering Spell sniper, Polearm Master, and Lucky for review.

As for Athlete, combine it with Grappler.

Superior Athlete
Gives the character Expertise (and consequently proficiency if it did not otherwise apply) in STR checks, Shove checks, and Grapple checks, but not other attack rolls. In addition, this bonus is applied to calculating how well you can jump.
You are no longer restricted by size when attempting to make a grapple check.
You do not suffer a movement penalty for swimming, climbing or crawling; and standing up from Prone only costs 5' of movement. (Difficult terrain still applies).

This means a level 20 character can have a +17 bonus on str checks. Meaning they still fail "nearly impossible" checks on anything less than a 13. Alternatively single classed Barbarians can get up to a +19. Still not quite enough to take 10 on, but expect many displays of Herculean prowess reguardless.
Long Jumps go up to 32' after you dash. High jumps become 20'. I know the World Records for both of those are more like 9' and 8' respectively, but I honestly don't see it as unbalanced or game breaking to be allowed such minor (and I do mean comparatively minor) feats of Wuxia. Heck, it's not even really all that immersion breaking unless you somehow consider characters that are above level 6 to somehow still be "normal". . . .

I wanted to comment about the Athlete feat, because some change is needed. This Expertise idea might be what I was looking for.

Regarding Long Jump records:
Wikipedia says: "On 30 August 1991 Mike Powell of the United States set the current men's world record at the World Championships in Tokyo. . . . Powell's record 8.95 m (29 ft 4 1⁄4 in) has now stood for almost 25 years; . . ."

If you were meaning that the World Record for the Long Jump was more like 9 meters instead of 9 feet, you were very close.

 

[Horwath]

For Great Weapon Master, how about:

"You've learned to trade accuracy for devastating force with your two-handed weapons. Whenever you make an attack with a melee weapon you wield in two hands, you can take disadvantage on the attack to maximize the weapon damage roll of the attack. This effect only applies to the base damage roll of the weapon, not any other effects that add dice to the damage roll, such as Sneak Attack or critical hits."

Personally, I like fixed values more in this kind of mechanics.

And it is too weak. You gain max +5,5 damage(greataxe) for average -4 penalty. And almost negate any chance of critical hit.

Also it does not stack with already present disadvantage so it's kind of cheap shot at rules in that case.

 

[Shiroiken]

[MENTION=6775477]Shiroiken[/MENTION]: not to dwell on this, since it's okay to have different opinions, but:

Charge: agree, if I can tie the movement to combat in a graceful manner, I will. I don't think wizards running away should be a concern, however - if they take it despite wasting all the other benefits, let them.

Agree on loss felt to other fighting styles. The solution is to offer them another feat. Each fighting style should have a feat. Agree the UA idea to tie the feats to actual implements is too narrow. A feat should work for all tools for a certain fighting style. Whether you dual wield two daggers or two hammers is not something the feat should constrict.

Ideally a feat (or other kind of ability) is as useful at level 1 as at level 20. Action Surge, for instance. But a feat must be fairly simple to work at all, and if I need to make a hard choice between overpoweredness at one end and underpoweredness at the other, I will choose the latter every time.

In the end, the player's choice fixes this. Joe not taking a too poor feat is not a big problem. Sue taking a too good feat is.

I agree with most of this, but remember to try and avoid System Mastery. Joe taking a too poor feat is just as bad as Sue taking a too good feat.

 

[Leatherhead]

I wanted to comment about the Athlete feat, because some change is needed. This Expertise idea might be what I was looking for.

Regarding Long Jump records:
Wikipedia says: "On 30 August 1991 Mike Powell of the United States set the current men's world record at the World Championships in Tokyo. . . . Powell's record 8.95 m (29 ft 4 1⁄4 in) has now stood for almost 25 years; . . ."

If you were meaning that the World Record for the Long Jump was more like 9 meters instead of 9 feet, you were very close.

Bah to conversions

 

[Xeviat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXRKzhBYmWg

Just posting this while I digest this thread. I've been really wanting to rework the feats myself.

Here is my try on this.

All feats reduced in power to "half feats" and hopefully little more balanced.

Tavern brawler: as PHB but after attack action with melee weapon you can use bonus action to make one unarmed attack or one grap attempt.

Weapon master: gain one fighting style. Gain proficiency in one weapon. Can be taken 2 times.

If lightly, moderately or heavily armored is still too weak, maybe add it to Skilled feat instead of one skill proficiency.

Horwath, I've been wanting to do the same thing for a while (partially so I could just give feats out as part of a basic progression and not as part of your Ability increases). I really like a lot of yours, especially the ones I quoted here.

As for the armor proficiency feats, it seems that "+1 AC" is considered to be "half a feat" in the current set up. The armor proficiency feats are all roughly +1 AC (light is +2 AC), and since medium comes with shield it's potentially +3 AC. I think the armor proficiency feats are fine. Giving out a fighting style with weapon master could make it good, as the weapon proficiency portion is hardly needed.

 

[CapnZapp]

Athletics feat

The existing abilities that the feat grants are rather nice: You don't want to add much to it or it will become too powerful.
I'd suggest not expanding Athletics skill too much: its already head and shoulders above Acrobatics.
Perhaps a small speed boost when you take the Dash action?

What I mean is that the feat doesn't even come close to rather common spells. In a game where you can spider climb, levitate and even misty step, mundane increases of regular movement modes simply don't cut it.

As a power gamer you simply never take a feat like this, you go straight for the abilities that really make a difference.

To justify its cost, a movement-related feat can't exist in isolation. Yes, its modest benefits might be realistic, but D&D offers so much more. It comes across as way more effective to focus your feat purchases on things that magic doesn't offer as cheaply.

As for Athletics the skill, I probably was confused when I wrote that. Yes, I had the imbalance between Athletics and Acobatics in mind, I just confused which was the better one. In d20 both had their applications, now one has been robbed of most of its utility. But lets leave it at that, I really did not mean to bring a skill discussion into this feats workshop.

So back to Athletics the feat

As for Athlete, combine it with Grappler.

When I re-did some feats, I combined Grappler with Tavern Brawler

That's certainly one option (combining two weak feats into one decent one)

Athlete - Maybe increase your dash speed? Advantage on one strength or dexterity check per short rest? (though that adds more accounting fiddliness)

Getting back to this, my primary thought is to take Athletics as far as possible without completely entering the supernatural.

Analyzing the RAW feat in detail, we have:
* +1 makes it a half-feat
* stand up from prone costs 5 ft instead of half speed.
* climbing doesn't halve your speed (errataed into climbing doesn’t cost you extra movement, which actually means you become immune to difficult terrain while climbing)
* make a running jump after 5 ft instead of 10 ft

First off, benefits #2 and #4 come across as incredibly bean-counting and petty. This is a game where you fly or teleport across battlefields. This is a game where monks can flying kick your face in from a hundred yards away. #4 is actually kind of broken, together with the Jump spell, since you're still restricted by your Speed.

Because you can't run your speed and then make a jump, the game suffers a lot from the artificial segmentation that is combat rounds. (If the chasm is right at your feet, or starts too far away, you simply can't jump across it this round. In the first case because only movement this round counts towards making a running leap. In the second because the jump can't exceed your Speed this round.)

I would very much see if we can't burst all these petty limits before we look into combining it with other feats.

How about...

Athletics feat

• stand up from prone costs 5 ft instead of half speed.
• you gain "Swash Speed 30". Swash Speed lets you move freely using ropes, vines, chandeliers, handrails, ship rigging, the shoulders of peasant crowds, anything solid really. You can move in all directions, although climbing straight up still costs you 2 ft for each feet of movement. Swash Speed still require you to adhere to gravity and friction. You must move on top of items - you cannot use Swash Speed to climb on a ceiling upside-down, sit like a flyon a wall or ascend smooth sheets of ice. Unlike wuxia masters, you still have weight - you cannot run on thin glass, lily blades, paper walls or empty air.
• you may take the new Leap action once per round

Also change the feeble Jump spell:
Jump
You touch a creature. The creature may take the new Leap action once per round until the spell ends.

Leap (action)
You make a mighty leap, jumping up to your Speed lengthswise and half your Speed heightswise. You must land on something solid at the end of your jump, or you fall.

The regular rules allow for a Strength 15 fighter making a long jump of up to 15 feet and only after 10 feet of run-up, and a high jump of 3+2=5 feet, again only after 10 feet of run-up. This is pathetic, and never in my history of DMing D&D have we ever used these rules.

Not only are they fiddly, they are very weak sauce indeed. Not only are they weaksauce, they're almost impossible to actually use in practice, since the restriction of a jump having to take place entirely within a single round's worth of movement (60 feet) isn't lifted.

No wonder players simply say "you can't jump as a regular D&D hero" and go straight for the Slippers of Spider-Climbing, the Fly potions and the Shadow Monk's Shadowstep!

With this feat you simply jump up to 30 feet long and 15 feet high. No need to check how much movement you've used before or after the leap.

This brings the ability much more in line with what the game's other options already offer.

Zapp

PS. Note how I haven't (yet) included the +1 to Strength/Dex. If y'all feel Swash Speed™ plus Real Leap™ is attractive enough on its own, there's no need to add it back.

 

[Yunru]

I'd just straight up fold Athlete into Mobile.

 

[Yunru]

Grappler: Like with Athletics, I'm open to suggestions.

Keep advantage on attacks against grappled opponents, it's nice, even if it's not a draw factor because of prone.
Maybe grant advantage on grapple checks, both making and you escaping.
The restrain function wouldn't be too bad if it didn't take an action and restrain you as well. Maybe have it take an attack (like prone and grabbing in the first place) and only restrain them (or maybe restrain them and drop your speed to 0)?

 

[Yunru]

Heavily/Moderately/Lightly Armored and Weapons Master
These feats used to offer absurdly expensive proficiencies compared to simple multi-classing. Or even picking the right race!

All these four feats are replaced with Martial Training:

Martial Training

• Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
• Then, pick three out of the following five options:

# Proficiency with light armor
# Proficiency with medium armor
# Proficiency with heavy armor
# Proficiency with shields
# Proficiency with three weapons of your choice (you may pick this more than once, picking three more weapon proficiencies each time)​

Are we sure we couldn't go one further? Would it be too powerful to just grant proficiency with martial weapons, all armour, and shields?

 

[Yunru]

For the time being, I'm starting out by the idea to combine Durable with Savage Attacker. And going from there...:

Savage Attacker

• When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, add a d6 to the number of hit points you regain.
• Once per turn when you have hit with a melee attack, add a d6 to the damage.
• When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, the target becomes frightened of you until the end of its next turn.

The third benefit is meant as a perk especially for Champion Fighters.

I think it veers to far from the base intent of Savage Attacker. I would suggest:

• When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, add a d6 to the number of hit points you regain.
• Once per turn [, on your turn,] you may reroll the damage dice of a melee attack.
• When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, the target becomes frightened of you until the end of its next turn.

That way we have feats that appeal to the more spike damage classes like the Rogue and Paladin. (While not being too bad because they'd have to reroll the good with the bad. It basically puts them closer to the average, on both ends.)