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.

 

[TwoSix]

I wonder what Firearm Specialist is; I can't find that feat in D&D Beyond at all.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

No kidding, especially in combination with Great Weapon Master!

I suspect that the reason Polearm Master doesn't make it into the top 3 of Fighters and Barbarians is that the characters that took it also take Great Weapon Master. But because Great Weapon Master is also viable on weapons that are not polearms it eclipses it in popularity here.

My best guess for why it appears in the Paladin's top 3 is that since Paladin is a bit MAD with wanting both charisma and constitution after their primary stat that they don't typically get a chance to pick up both Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master.

 

[Satyrn]

I'm surprised by Dual Wielder's popularity.

I kept not taking it everytime I had a chance with my dual wielding fighter, everytime asking myself "why wouldn't I just bump my Dex instead?" before taking some other, even weaker feat like Martial Adept.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that my preference for fun feats isn't shared by the majority of users of DDB.

 

[Parmandur]

A few of the numbers surprised me. But the biggest surprise isn't even about feats:

Only 4% of characters are variant human! Since we know from a previous reveal that over 25% of characters are humans, that makes variant-human much less popular than I expected.

25% of all characters across all levels are Humans: might be lower among level 1-3 characters. We know fro ma previous bit of numbers from D&DB that a little less than half of that 25% is variant rather than standard Humans.

Considering the preponderance of lower level play, this chart does suggest why WotC has been slow to add more feats.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

 

[Satyrn]

I notice that Grappler isn't mentioned anywhere.

That means that these stats really are based on characters paying customers are making, right? I've been wondering about the preponderance of Champion fighters, Life clerics and other basic rules contents from the previous stat dumps.

 

[Mistwell]

I am surprised at the popularity of Observant. I think it's a good feat myself and am considering it for my Fighter character, but I didn't think my appreciation for it was a common belief.

 

[Leatherhead]

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

For some reason, people on message boards always forget that 2/3rds of Sharpshooter is dedicated to boosting accuracy. Despite the accuracy boost being the most powerful and impactful part of the feat (which makes it head and shoulders more powerful than it's cousin, GWM), the -5/+10 mod is all people talk about. It really shows you that people only pay attention to big numbers, despite the little ones adding up to more.

Likewise, Warcaster does a lot more than just boost concentration, it also lets you ignore the drawbacks of Somatic components to spells (which are a huge headache, especially if you want to use a shield), and it lets you use cantrips (or even more powerful spells) as an Opportunity Attack (which hearkens back to 4e, and also allows for huge nova potential)

A few of the numbers surprised me. But the biggest surprise isn't even about feats:

Only 4% of characters are variant human! Since we know from a previous reveal that over 25% of characters are humans, that makes variant-human much less popular than I expected.

11% of the characters are Variant human. However, only 4% of level 1-3 characters are variant humans.

Me personally, I ban variant humans, but not feats. Because a feats at level 1 are crazy powerful. If someone wanted to create a level 4+ variant human, I would be more inclined to let them get away with it.

The big surprises for me? Tough: +2 hp per level is significant (much less so on the Fighters and Barbarians that have it for some reason), but absolutely boring. Also, Firearm Specialist is not only a 3rd-party feat, but also one that boosts Guns! It being just out of the top ten despite of those knocks against it is astounding.

 

[MarkB]

I'm surprised sharpshooter is so popular for the rogue.

I'm surprised it's not more popular with Fighters. I've been having a great time playing a ranged Battlemaster.

 

[Psyzhran2357]

I wonder what Firearm Specialist is; I can't find that feat in D&D Beyond at all.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/feats/firearm-specialist

Looks like its from Critical Role.