D&D 5E (2014) Feats *and* aibility increases

[VenomousFiligree]

So my players are nearing 4th level and they want to take a feat and gain the ability increase. Any reason why I shouldn't let them?

 

[Li Shenron]

It won't break the game, but why do they want more than the books gives them? Do they demand their rights to get 6 or 7 cards when playing poker?

 

[trentonjoe]

It'll make them a little better. You'll have to include more or better monsters to balance combat.

 

[LesserCure]

It's an issue of tuning. Sure you can let them do that if you like, then be aware that your PCs will be somewhat more powerful than their standard counterparts, so you'll possibly need to adjust their challenges accordingly. It's okay IMHO if you want a more 'heroic' campaign, so to speak.

 

[Eejit]

What classes are they? Some builds will benefit far more from feats than others, so not having an opportunity cost might cause some intra-party unbalance.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I see issues with classes that gain feats and ability score increases more often than others, like the fighter and the rogue. What are you going to do with them?

 

[VenomousFiligree]

They're about 2/3 of the way through LMoP, after that it'll be some ToD with some personal quests thrown in too.

 

[VenomousFiligree]

Party is Warlock, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, Druid and Fighter.

 

[Eejit]

Ok. I'd suggest it's fine to allow it once, at level 4, but after that have them choose. The Paladin and Fighter will probably get much more benefit from feats than most of those others.

 

[Tormyr]

Character building in 5e is all about making choices. Half-orc or elf. Rogue or Paladin. Multiclass or single class. ASI or feat. If it were my table, I would be saying to the players that they need to make the choice as to which is more important to them.

In my opinion, the evidence that it should be a choice between feats or ASIs should be self evident. Aside from the rules stating that this is the case, taking the feat at level 1 as a human variant takes 4 of those +1 ASI away during character creation.