D&D (2024) How to get option to have all feats available at 1st level?

[UngeheuerLich]

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a feat that is something like militia training.
Some weapon and armor proficiencies. To finally make the soldier background make sense.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a feat that is something like militia training.
Some weapon and armor proficiencies. To finally make the soldier background make sense.

That feat concept makes sense from a narrative point of view... but mechanically I just don't know if having one is justified? Because any class that uses weapons and armor already will have proficiency in the weapons and armor they need. And the classes that don't have a fuller access to all the weapons... say the rogue and the monk... have class features that trigger off the specific proficiencies they already have and thus guarantee they wouldn't want to use different ones they might get from the feat. And for the classes that mainly cast spells but might use a weapon as well, they usually gain additional proficiencies in those weapons via their subclass and thus don't need a feat either.

That's always been the issue with weapon and armor proficiency feats... the classes that would want the weapons and armor you gain from them already have proficiency in them from their class. And the classes that don't have proficiency in them don't want to use them anyway.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That feat concept makes sense from a narrative point of view... but mechanically I just don't know if having one is justified? Because any class that uses weapons and armor already will have proficiency in the weapons and armor they need. And the classes that don't have a fuller access to all the weapons... say the rogue and the monk... have class features that trigger off the specific proficiencies they already have and thus guarantee they wouldn't want to use different ones they might get from the feat. And for the classes that mainly cast spells but might use a weapon as well, they usually gain additional proficiencies in those weapons via their subclass and thus don't need a feat either.

That's always been the issue with weapon and armor proficiency feats... the classes that would want the weapons and armor you gain from them already have proficiency in them from their class. And the classes that don't have proficiency in them don't want to use them anyway.

I see this problem too. I still want to have it.
The question is, what extra benefit would be appropriate to attach it to that feat.
Maybe as a sub feature of savage attacker?
Giving some simple weapon proficiencies in combination with some extra damage.
Maybe something like parry (+prof bonus to armor as reaction) in combination with light armor proficiency? Would be good as a first level feat and getting more and more useful the more you level up.

Would make sense from story perspective and grows

 

[TwoSix]

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a feat that is something like militia training.
Some weapon and armor proficiencies. To finally make the soldier background make sense.

There's a couple problems with this. One, you have to have the base of a prospective "solider feat" be something besides weapon/armor proficiencies, or no fighter type is going to take it, which is bad flavor for a soldier background. So, you need to add some weapon and armor proficiencies as essentially a ribbon to another mechanic. Two, if you make the armor proficiency too generous (like both light and medium armor), then every light armored caster class is going to be an ex-soldier, which isn't great either.

So a prospective background soldier feat should be something along the lines of
-Two martial weapons
-Light armor
-Some other martially focused benefit. Quick don/doff of armor? No movement penalties in armor? Dunno, spitballing here.

 

[tetrasodium]

That feat concept makes sense from a narrative point of view... but mechanically I just don't know if having one is justified? Because any class that uses weapons and armor already will have proficiency in the weapons and armor they need. And the classes that don't have a fuller access to all the weapons... say the rogue and the monk... have class features that trigger off the specific proficiencies they already have and thus guarantee they wouldn't want to use different ones they might get from the feat. And for the classes that mainly cast spells but might use a weapon as well, they usually gain additional proficiencies in those weapons via their subclass and thus don't need a feat either.

That's always been the issue with weapon and armor proficiency feats... the classes that would want the weapons and armor you gain from them already have proficiency in them from their class. And the classes that don't have proficiency in them don't want to use them anyway.

You mean that there is no first level feat to put half plate on your wizard or sorlock?.. Good! That would be much better than other first level feats and do nothing for martial classes. Likewise with adding longbow to a class with only shortbow or a crossbow

 

[Horwath]

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a feat that is something like militia training.
Some weapon and armor proficiencies. To finally make the soldier background make sense.

fighting style feat would make perfect sense for this.

And it's not even that good as full feat.

 

[DEFCON 1]

One thing that I'd actually like to see in the revision would be a change to classes like Rogue and Monk that currently have abilities that only trigger using specific lists of weapons... rather than any weapon the class has proficiency in. This was one of the hiccups 5E had with not getting a chance to review and redesign the weapon charts prior to release... you had things like Rogues being given proficiency with longswords but never in a million years wanting to actually use one because Sneak Attack only could be used with finesse and ranged weapons. I think for simplicity's sake if nothing else... a class's list of weapons they can use with certain abilities should just match their proficiencies. If you are proficient with a weapon, you can use it for Sneak Attack, or you can use it for Martial Arts. Were you to do this... then absolutely, having a feat to gain more weapon proficiencies would be worthwhile for at least some classes.

Yes... the designers might have to take a little bit of time to review the balance on Rogues and Monks using larger martial weapons... but that's what this whole revision time is for-- to get these charts organized and working together well across all the classes and their abilities.

 

[Maxperson]

There's no doubt anyone could allow most feats for possible Background features... the question then just becomes like @Horwath asked... whether it could/should/would be allowed to have a +1 ASI feat in addition to the +2/+1 you'd get. And I don't know the answer myself.

If taken as a level 1 feat I would say no. I don't recall seeing a level 1 feat that gave a +1 to a stat.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

fighting style feat would make perfect sense for this.

And it's not even that good as full feat.

So fighting style +basic weapon and armor proficiencies?

 

[Horwath]

So fighting style +basic weapon and armor proficiencies?

fighting style + 4 weapons or fighting style + one armor category