Here Are The Most Popular D&D Feats (War Caster Leads The Pack!)

It's time for some more D&D Beyond stats! This time we take a look at the most popular feats! War Caster, Tough, Lucky, and Sharpshooter lead the pack. We recently looked at stats for adventures, classes by tier, subclasses, and multi class combinations.

The last time DDB looked at this, the number of characters using feats was lower than it is now. Once feats come in properly at levels 4-7, over a third of characters choose a feat. By the time they reach 8th level, half of characters are using feats.

These are the most popular feats across all classes. A year ago, the dev says that Great Weapon Master was in the top four.

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And here we have the top feats broken down by class.

See the full dev video here.

 

[Kurotowa]

Probably not, but the CharOp consensus is bullish on EB. Which is the point, most people are not plugged into that.

I haven't seen the stats but I'd put my bet on it being due to high representation from Blade Pact Warlocks. Gish are always a popular choice and Hexblade makes Blade Pact Warlocks a viable build. And if you're Blade Pact you're almost certainly not investing in EB, to the point where taking it at all is pretty optional. A straight EB spam Tomelock might be effective, but it's competing for space with archery focused Rogues and Rangers.

I mean, look at the feat selection data in this thread alone. Sharpshooter is at 30% for Rangers and 13% for Rogues, the number one pick for both and a sure indication of an archery focused character. Meanwhile look at the ranking of War Caster and Spell Sniper for Warlocks. The former indicates a high chance of a melee Blade Pact character, the latter almost guaranties an EB sniper. War Caster is in first place with 17% representation and Spell Sniper is in third at 7%.

If that doesn't indicate that people who want a ranged attack spam character are going with Ranger and Rogue archers over EB spam Warlocks, I don't know what would.

 

[FrogReaver]

2 longsword for style is what I am thinking. It seems like they are taking it for the removal of the finesse requirement for duel wielding and the +1 to AC which doesn't require armor.

I guess a lot of people choose more based on aesthetics than anything. Interesting.

 

[FrogReaver]

I haven't seen the stats but I'd put my bet on it being due to high representation from Blade Pact Warlocks. Gish are always a popular choice and Hexblade makes Blade Pact Warlocks a viable build. And if you're Blade Pact you're almost certainly not investing in EB, to the point where taking it at all is pretty optional. A straight EB spam Tomelock might be effective, but it's competing for space with archery focused Rogues and Rangers.

I mean, look at the feat selection data in this thread alone. Sharpshooter is at 30% for Rangers and 13% for Rogues, the number one pick for both and a sure indication of an archery focused character. Meanwhile look at the ranking of War Caster and Spell Sniper for Warlocks. The former indicates a high chance of a melee Blade Pact character, the latter almost guaranties an EB sniper. War Caster is in first place with 17% representation and Spell Sniper is in third at 7%.

If that doesn't indicate that people who want a ranged attack spam character are going with Ranger and Rogue archers over EB spam Warlocks, I don't know what would.

1. Different classes take any feat vs don't take a feat at different rates
2. Sharp Shooter is hands down a feat that benefits any archer greatly. Even then only 30% of rangers had it. Surely the remaining 70% aren't melee rangers? That presumably leaves a lot of rangers with bows not using it
3. Spell Sniper doesn't have near the impact that SS does. Presumably that means even more EB Warlocks would skip taking it than Rangers that skipped Sharp Shooter.
4. Kind of redundant but the point is that Archery or EB focused characters don't have to take archery or EB related feats.
5. Warcaster is also useful to keep concentration saves up on an eb warlock

There's simply too many jumps from the data presented to your conclusions. You simply don't have the data needed to draw the conclusions you are drawing.

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm surprised sharpshooter is so popular for the rogue. I would figure with one attack it is far too risky to use half the feat.

I do think the prevalence of warcaster shows just how important whether good or bad that keeping concentration is for casters.

Also surprised to not see healer for the Rogue.

Everything else was fairly predictable

Not everyone shares the interpretation of healers feat and thief rogues that makes it good.

 

[ad_hoc]

If that doesn't indicate that people who want a ranged attack spam character are going with Ranger and Rogue archers over EB spam Warlocks, I don't know what would.

I think story decisions far out way combat mechanic decisions.

I bet few people think 'I want to play a ranged attacking character, what class and feats do I choose for that'. Rather they look at the theme of classes, backgrounds, races, and choose ones and create a character who they think would be fun to play as. Once they decide on their class, then they look at what sorts of weapons, spells, and such that character would use.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but that's not really what I am asking. What I am asking is, "Why?" Warcaster is not really a flavor feat its more of a function feat. Taking tavern brawler because you want to fist fight the party monk, actor to pretend to be the captain of the guard, skilled to fill out a story concept roll, or even Mage Slayer because a sorcerer kill your paw... sure. I understand those. Warcaster isn't a strong flavor options for building a character concept and its not very functional for Paladins. So my question is what are people taking it for? They are not taking Resilient (CON) for the same function so I already figured they are not looking for better concentration saves. I am just trying to figure out what draws paladin player to pick this to such an extent that its the #1 picked paladin feat. I am not say they are wrong. I am just curious what the thought pattern is because I don't see it.

It's pretty straightforward: Paladins are casters who have weapons and shields. War caster makes it easier to cast while holding a weapon and a shield.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm surprised sharpshooter is so popular for the rogue. I would figure with one attack it is far too risky to use half the feat.

I don't know why people take Sharpshooter, but if I took it, it would be because of the other benefits which almost read as "ignore range and cover". I'd keep the damage tradeoff as a fancy extra for occasional experiments.

Levels 12-16: 58% use feats.
Levels 17-20: 57% use feats.

So what we are saying is that ... Tier IV characters have been .... defeated.

My guess is that lv17-20 characters in D&D are older, and perhaps many players start looking into feats only at their second or further character of the same kind, to differentiate from the previous.

 

[ClaytonCross]

It's pretty straightforward: Paladins are casters who have weapons and shields. War caster makes it easier to cast while holding a weapon and a shield.

You can drop your weapon as a free action and pick it up as part of an attack...per RAW. So there is no mechanical impact... Are you saying Paladins are taking Warcasters so they don't have to explain that to their GM each round? Sounds like a strange meta reason for taking an unnessicary mechanical feature and which provides nothing in story or flavor. I was assuming its from one of the other features like a spell opportunity attack.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know why people take Sharpshooter, but if I took it, it would be because of the other benefits which almost read as "ignore range and cover". I'd keep the damage tradeoff as a fancy extra for occasional experiments.



My guess is that lv17-20 characters in D&D are older, and perhaps many players start looking into feats only at their second or further character of the same kind, to differentiate from the previous.

Most likely explanation is that the people who use Feats and people who play past level 10 or so have a high overlap on the Venn diagram: a fraction of games get to Tier 3, let alone Tier 4.

 

[Kurotowa]

There's simply too many jumps from the data presented to your conclusions. You simply don't have the data needed to draw the conclusions you are drawing.

Pelor's Nipples, I'm not trying to prove a detailed scientific case, I'm pointing at obvious broad trends. Sharpshooter is the most popular feat for Rangers and Rogues. More Warlocks take War Caster than Spell Sniper. Those aren't "conclusions" that's just the data itself. I don't know what you think you're showing but you didn't do anything to re-contextualize it or disprove a single thing I said.