D&D 5E Idea for a new feat - Martial Flexibility

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes, that's exactly why I pointed out earlier this is a limitation of mine, not anything wrong in the system.

Still, I feel like even though there are so far no options that really motivate players to spread scores, the game has design space for more balanced heroes to be competitive with the focused ones, it is just that this path is yet to be explored, and I was trying to propose something to that regard.

Hey, I get what you are trying to do. I even laud it. I can NEVER bring myself to min-max characters because I like what ALL the abilities say about my character. I like my characters to be at least a little bit good at everything. Which, of course, makes them very good at not anything.

It seems you haveca pretty good solution. I don't know much about feat balance, though. Can you post the finalised version of the feat for people to discuss its balance?

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[Igfig]

I am really glad that you managed to get my initial intent, as it seems to have been lost somehow, throughout the thread. Your suggestion is really solid, as it creates a path to allow for a more balanced hero to be competitive with their focused counterparts, is overall simpler in design than what I was suggesting earlier and even avoids boring wording related to level limitations on the feat. The interesting perk is that, by agreeing on taking a slower path towards optimal attack bonus, the player will be rewarded at epic levels with a slight boost.

I really liked it, I will suggest it to my players and see how they feel about it. Thank you very much for the contribution, and for the earlier posters who seeded the concepts that were put together here.

Glad you like it! I should point out that that's still only half a feat though. I'd probably just go with player's choice of +1 Str or Dex for the other half, but I'd be open to having some kind of feature, too. 77IM's thing with weapon proficiency and attacking while dodging is pretty neat.

For now it would look something like:

Martial flexibility
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher, Dex 13 or higher
You <brief flavour description>. You gain the following benefits:

• Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1 to a maximum of 20.
• When making a melee weapon attack, you may add both your Strength and Dexterity modifier to the attack and damage rolls. The total of these two modifiers cannot exceed your proficiency bonus.

 

[Igfig]

One of my players just pointed out to me that that feat as it is isn't actually very fun. All it's actually doing is filling a mechanical hole. It needs either a ribbon, or a half-feat to replace the stat boost.

Anyone want to brainstorm some on-theme half-feats? 77IM's is a good start.

(they don't have to be dodge-based or anything, that's just one idea)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

"When you take the dodge action and an enemy misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against that enemy."

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[Dausuul]

One of my players just pointed out to me that that feat as it is isn't actually very fun. All it's actually doing is filling a mechanical hole. It needs either a ribbon, or a half-feat to replace the stat boost.

Anyone want to brainstorm some on-theme half-feats? 77IM's is a good start.

(they don't have to be dodge-based or anything, that's just one idea)

Hmm. Well, the theme of the feat is versatility, right? And you want to encourage a mix of Strength and Dexterity. So how about:

• In a pinch, any weapon becomes a deadly projectile in your hands. Your range with any thrown weapon is always at least 10 feet times your Strength modifier (20 feet times your Strength modifier for long range). In addition, you can treat any melee weapon as if it had the thrown property, using the above range.
• You never miss a chance to take advantage of an enemy's distraction. As a reaction, when an ally makes an opportunity attack, you can make an attack with a ranged weapon against the same target. The target must be within a distance of 5 feet times your Dexterity modifier.

 

[Horwath]

If the feat would give expertise to attack rolls and no ability mod to attack rolls(only damage) it would be worth half a feat.

+1 attack roll in end-game tier and -3 to -5 damage is down right bad. I hope that stats that are more spread around would give the skill impact to compensate for combat penalty.

Full feat; too weak.

Half feat; decent half feat.

 

[Igfig]

Where are you getting the -3 to -5 damage from, Horwath? The sum-of-ability-mods-capped-at-proficiency-bonus applies to damage rolls too.

I like that one even better, FitzTheRuke! The first version wasn't very useful for monks.

Dausuul, I don't know if it's necessarily about versatility per se, though it's not an unreasonable approach. Personally, my motivation for having a character with moderate levels of both Str and Dex is that D&D has never been very good at modeling the sort of fantasy hero that you see in movies, who's fairly strong and fairly quick but not, like, a hulk or a ninja. (I'm of the camp that says that Str really is about big muscles, and not just general athleticism.)

I suppose that sort of guy usually is pretty decent at throwing, though, so I'm tempted to change the wording of the feat to "when you make an attack with a melee weapon or an unarmed attack" instead of "when you make a melee weapon attack". That way it still applies to thrown weapons.

 

[Barolo]

Wow, I am really enjoying the turn this conversation has taken now. Thank you all!