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.

​

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

See the full dev video here.

 

[FrogReaver]

I’m puzzled that feats are less popular with the highest level characters than with characters in the 2nd highest level range.

 

[icedrake]

I wonder how many of these characters are used in play, or are thought experiments people do as a form of solo play to build a theoretical character.

 

[Jester David]

I love how Actor is more popular than Polearm mastery

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder how many of these characters are used in play, or are thought experiments people do as a form of solo play to build a theoretical character.

Worth covering again: these numbers are only for characters who have been filtered to reflect those in actual use. Not perfect, but they have methods to eliminate test PCs from the demographics.

 

[ClaytonCross]

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.


I can leave now; my job is done.

I am thinking based off the previous slides where they pointed out that character play after level 10 drops off, that is simply a result of campaigns restarting at lower level. Not 1% is not much of a variation (especially since these seem to be rounded % so it could be as low as .5%) so I imagine if they are polling only active characters it will fall below and rise above the 12-16 level usage as characters go inactive. This is just where we are right now.

I get that your joking because we have talked quite a bit over the years, this counter point is more for those who are taking your post too seriously in the defense of not using feats. I know your not a fan but there is a majority that does by a 14% gap 57 vs 43. I am actually surprised its as close as it is. Though I am reasonably sure the lead is based more on the joy of customization than on the believe that feats are need for optimization. That's pretty clear to me by the fact they are at 34% at level 4 when even characters that rolled a perfect 18 primary stat would get more out of a +2 to that stat than any feat (we use point by so unlucky players aren't horrible every game, which caps them at 16-17 making that more true).

 

[Staffan]

I wonder how many of the Actor bards or Observant monks/clerics/druids, or Keen mind wizards are variant humans who took the feat for the stat bonus.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not enough people seem to realise the awesome power of Polearm Master!

Magical polearmns are rare in WoTC adventures. omes down to DM may I, so GWM+ somethign else might be beter.

Babarian raging dual wielding longswords might be another example of doing something similar to PAM bu with more common magical variants.

Sharpshooter+ warcaster are top 5 feats material. So is healer IMHO but its boring and power doesn't always represent popularity.

Every caster seems to know warcaster is good, figured that out in 2014.

 

[Staffan]

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

Probably because most people playing fighters would rather mix it up in melee. I mean, ranged fighters are perfectly viable, but it's not the common way to play the class.

That's one of the things I sort of liked about 4e, by the way. It specifically had fighters as being melee-focused. You want to play a dude who shoots people? That's the ranger.

 

[iserith]

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.

In my experience, most DMs don't really make a big deal about cover, so I bet many people don't see that as the best benefit since cover doesn't come up as much as perhaps it should. (With all the usual caveats about how a game "should" be.)

 

[S'mon]

Magical polearmns are rare in WoTC adventures. omes down to DM may I, so GWM+ somethign else might be beter.

Never occurred to me to worry about having a magic weapon when my non magical one is doing 60-80 damage a round at level 5.

The great thing about polearm master is how it stacks with greatweapon master and barbarian reckless attack. I get 3 attacks with advantage at -5/+10 from 10' away (2 d10s and if neither killed foe a bonus 1 d4, plus Rage & STR added to all, x2 Rage if GM allows Slayer Barbarian from Primeval Thule), then step back and get a fourth attack as a reaction when enemy enters my reach.

Barb-5 STR 16 human barbarian with gw & pm has 2 points of Rage & is hitting for (3x advtg & -5 reckless gwm) d10+15, d10+15, d4+15, and a reaction (standard bonus) for d10+5.