D&D 5E Feats that equal +1 ability score

[GX.Sigma]

I am not actually convinced any of those are better than +1 to your prime stat.

They are all very dependent upon an actual situation where they are useful coming up frequently in game.

Even the third and fifth ones? Okay, let me try harder.

Fall With Style
You gain a fly speed of 60 feet.

Planar Ally
You have enslaved a creature, such as a demon, from a plane other than the Prime Material. This creature must be the same level as you or lower. You have a telepathic bond with your planar ally and can dictate its actions. If your planar ally dies, you can bind a new one with a ritual that takes 1 day and 50 gp.

Quickness
On your turn, you can take an additional action.
Special: You can take this feat more than once.

 

[jadrax]

Even the third and fifth ones? Okay, let me try harder.

Those were the weakest two!

Fall With Style
You gain a fly speed of 60 feet.

Planar Ally
You have enslaved a creature, such as a demon, from a plane other than the Prime Material. This creature must be the same level as you or lower. You have a telepathic bond with your planar ally and can dictate its actions. If your planar ally dies, you can bind a new one with a ritual that takes 1 day and 50 gp.

Quickness
On your turn, you can take an additional action.
Special: You can take this feat more than once.

Ok, I would definitely take 'Fall With Style' and 'Quickness'.

Whereas I wouldn't take Planer Ally if I had to choose between that and lowering a stat by 1. ;o)

 

[JasonZZ]

Even the third and fifth ones? Okay, let me try harder.

Fall With Style
You gain a fly speed of 60 feet.

Planar Ally
You have enslaved a creature, such as a demon, from a plane other than the Prime Material. This creature must be the same level as you or lower. You have a telepathic bond with your planar ally and can dictate its actions. If your planar ally dies, you can bind a new one with a ritual that takes 1 day and 50 gp.

Quickness
On your turn, you can take an additional action.
Special: You can take this feat more than once.

Ooh, can I try?

Za Warudo
You may use Time Stop once per rest as a spell-like ability.

Now I just need one for infinite knives, and I'm set.

 

[DEFCON 1]

They could handle this if there was a module that let 1st level players start off with 20s in scores of their choice: "Start your character with 10s in all abilities, add X number of points, no score can be higher than a 20, you can reduce any stat to 8 to get extra points."

Yes, this means that most builds would get a 20 in their prime attribute, but that would happen after a few levels anyway. Strip out the current bonus points for race and class with advice for races ("Dwarves typically have a high constitution") and class ("This is the recommended stat build for a melee fighter. Str 20....).

It is a heck of a lot easier than the current systems and min-maxing basic attributes doesn't seem problematic with me with flatter math.

Ick. No thanks. Starting with a 20 at Level 1? At that point, why even bother with stat increases at all then?

Maybe if they indeed did remove the ability mod from attack bonuses and gave a separate "attack" stat it wouldn't be too bad. Because then, the stats would only be there for damage bonuses, which wouldn't make things so cut and dried.

 

[Dausuul]

Ok, I would definitely take 'Fall With Style' and 'Quickness'.

Whereas I wouldn't take Planer Ally if I had to choose between that and lowering a stat by 1. ;o)

I would! Fall With Style lets you fly, and Quickness gives you two actions per round, but Planar Ally can potentially do both at once. All three feats are crazy broken, though.

 

[Szatany]

Ooh, can I try?

Za Warudo
You may use Time Stop once per rest as a spell-like ability.

Now I just need one for infinite knives, and I'm set.

That's the entire point of this thread

Mind Matrix
Prerequisites: Int 13+.
You gain an extra spell slot for each spell level you can cast.

Metamagic Mastery
Prerequisites: Level 10+.
Whenever you cast a spell, you may modify it in one or more of the following ways:
- double its range (if range is expressed as a distance)
- maximize the damage it deals
- save made to resist the spell are made with an disadvantage
- casting time is reduced. Anything less than a full rounds is reduced to a free action. Anything more than a full round is reduced by half.
- spell ignores damage resistances.
For each effect you add to the spell, you can't use this ability for the next 1d6 rounds.

 

[Blackbrrd]

My guess though is that we're going to see the exact same result as we did when they created Expertise Dice for the Fighter. Using them for Deadly Strike (IE extra damage) every single round just became the most useful, powerful, and default choice, and thus all the special maneuvers apparently never got any play (and as a result they felt like they had to split the extra damage component out of the Expertise Dice mechanic after all). I suspect we're going to see the same thing here-- no one's going to select any Feats until their primary ability score gets maxed to 20 and quite possibly their secondary score as well, since that option will be the most useful, powerful and become the default choice. Thus defeating the entire purpose of the change.

I am actually fine with +stat being a very strong feat. It creates simple, but powerful characters. For people that want they can have a bit lower stats to get a cool feat combo going. In 4e you have the characters with powerful feat comboes and the people who don't want to spend hours reading through feats with less optimized characters.

 

[Rhenny]

I think that many people underestimate how many players out there would rather play an interesting PC that has more options than a strictly more powerful PC. (And I'm not convinced that even an additional +2 to any one ability over the course of an adventuring career is all that powerful). I'm really looking forward to the idea that feats will be more substantial, and I don't think they have to be super-powerful to tempt enough people to use them instead of an attribute bump. I think many people would choose more spells, more powerful spell casting, additional maneuvers that are meaningful and "cool", enhanced skill use attempts, advantages to saves, limited spellcasting ability, traits like being lucky, or persuasive, or acrobatic (especially if the benefits make the character more interesting to play).

I do however like the ideas in the OP. What's most important is that the name of the feat really confers enough relevant and meaningful bonuses to mechanics, and playable options for players who want a more complex PC. I'd be happy to sacrifice an attribute bonus for a richer play experience.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think that many people underestimate how many players out there would rather play an interesting PC that has more options than a strictly more powerful PC.

We'd like to think so... but it wasn't so long ago we had dozens upon dozens of threads here on the boards decrying the arrival of the 4E "Expertise" feats because now they no longer had "any choice" in feat selection. They were taking that feat because it was objectively better and thus they felt like they no longer had any opportunity to take "interesting" feats. Their egos wouldn't allow them to forsake the objectively better choice for the more interesting choice.

And with +1s as a substitute for feats... I do think (as I mentioned above) that unless these new feats are tremendous... four out of every five players will take the +1s until they reach 20 in their prime stat. I just think that's a fait accompli.

 

[tuxgeo]

Even if there are limitations on the number or frequency of times you can take a +1 ability feat?

So far no limitations have been mentioned, and I think that a limit of "may take this feat once per X levels" or "no more than Y times" is perfectly reasonable and easy for a player to figure out. < snip >

Alas, limitations are unlikely: WotC seems to be using this as a way to make Feats "optional" without impacting playability, as follows: If one group decides they aren't using Feats at all, then each PC in that group will only, ever take the ability boosts at those characters levels where Feats are scheduled in their classes. For that reason, there cannot be any limitations on the number of times a PC can take boosts.

IMHO, if WotC weren't trying to use this as a way to make Feats optional then there would be no point to the exercise.