Five new feats: Please critique

[Vicar In A Tutu]

I wanted to make some new feats for my campaign. When making these feats, I wanted them to be useful along the lines of Polearm Mastery and other, similar strong feats in the PHB. What do you think? Are some overpowered? Underpowered? Too specific? Too generic?

UNDEAD HUNTER

You have spent much of your life fighting the living dead, gaining the following benefits:

* You have advantage on saving throws against being paralyzed.
* You gain a +1 AC bonus when you are adjacent to three or more opponents.
* Before you make a ranged or melee attack, you can decide that the attack will deal radiant damage instead of the damage type it would normally deal.


GIANTSLAYER

Your experience fighting giants have netted you the following benefits:

* You gain a +1 AC bonus against large, huge and gargantuan opponents.
* You score a critical hit against large, huge and gargantuan opponents on a roll of 19-20. If you already have an extended critical hit range, you instead increase the critical hit range by one when attacking large, huge and gargantuan opponents.


MAUL MASTER

You have practiced extensively with mauls. You gain the following benefits:

* Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
* If you successfully hit an opponent with a maul and the modified attack roll exceeds that opponent's armor class by five or more, you can use your reaction to shove that opponent 5 feet and knock him prone, provided that the opponent is no more than one size category larger than you.

DAGGER MASTER

Your skill with daggers is extraordinary. You gain the following benefits:

* Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
* If you attack with a dagger and roll a 1 on the attack roll, you can use your reaction to treat the roll like a 10 instead.
* If an adjacent opponent attacks you and rolls a 1 on the attack roll, you can use your reaction to make an attack with a dagger against that opponent.


MACE MASTER

You are extra effective against heavily armored opponents. You gain the following benefits:

* You deal an extra 1d4 damage with a mace against opponents in heavy armor.
* You deal an extra 1d4 damage with a mace against opponents with natural armor. This does not stack with the extra damage against opponents in heavy armor.

 

[Kobold Stew]

It's clear you've worked hard to balance all of these -- each one has a limit of some kind, and that's a mark of good design.

I'd say none of these is overpowered; each has a niche, but they're not going to lure me to use them to use a mace or a maul, nor is it how I would model undead hunting.

The most appealing to me is dagger master, but I'd suggest allowing the ability bonus to apply to either Strength or Dexterity.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Maybe say Advantage on all dagger attacks rather than an automatic never fumble?

 

[Kobold Stew]

Maybe say Advantage on all dagger attacks rather than an automatic never fumble?

That would be quite powerful, esp. for rogues. That ability alone might be worth a feat.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

To soften it, reroll a 1 but you must abide by the second roll. So it avoids a fumble except on a double 1 roll.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

It's clear you've worked hard to balance all of these -- each one has a limit of some kind, and that's a mark of good design.

I'd say none of these is overpowered; each has a niche, but they're not going to lure me to use them to use a mace or a maul, nor is it how I would model undead hunting.

The most appealing to me is dagger master, but I'd suggest allowing the ability bonus to apply to either Strength or Dexterity.

Thanks! Just out of curiosity: How would you model undead hunting? I'm interested in as many ideas as possible. The feats are not there to "lure" anyone into doing anything. They're there to make players who like mauls, daggers, etc. a little customization.

Maybe say Advantage on all dagger attacks rather than an automatic never fumble?

That would be incredibly overpowered. Unconditional advantage on all attacks with weapon X or Y is broken (and boring).

 

[Kobold Stew]

Thanks! Just out of curiosity: How would you model undead hunting? I'm interested in as many ideas as possible. The feats are not there to "lure" anyone into doing anything. They're there to make players who like mauls, daggers, etc. a little customization.

I'd probably want to think about it, but perhaps something modelled on the "favoured enemy" ability of rangers in 3.5?

UNDEAD HUNTER:
* +2 damage vs undead in melee
* advantage on Insight, Perception, Survival, and Intimidation rolls against undead

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

I'd probably want to think about it, but perhaps something modelled on the "favoured enemy" ability of rangers in 3.5?

UNDEAD HUNTER:
* +2 damage vs undead in melee
* advantage on Insight, Perception, Survival, and Intimidation rolls against undead

The design philosophy of 5E is so different from 3E when it comes to feats. I wanted the abilities given to undead hunters to be specific thematically, but at the same time I wanted the advantages to be useful against other foes as well. Feats in 5E are much broader than just giving a bonus to damage against one type of enemy. Advantage on saving throws against paralyzation: This bonus comes from interaction with ghouls. Bonus on AC with 3 or more adjacent enemies: This represents the "surrounded by hordes of undead"-scenario so common in undead themed stories. The last ability, giving radiant damage to attacks and spells, shuts down the "Undead Fortitude" ability of Zombies and has occassional utility against other undead (Shadows, mainly).

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

That's why I posted a second time - I don't think immunity to fumbles (and some may not use fumbles but I do) is in order, but a conditional advantage on a 1 may ameliorate things.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

But it only comes up 5% of all rolls. Do you have special fumble rules beyond the "always a miss"-rule? I don't see why being immune to fumble is such a big deal. The word "fumble" isn't even referenced in the indexes in the DMG and the PHB.