D&D 5E If "Extra Attack" Was A Feat, What Would Its Prerequisites Be?

[Kurotowa]

True Strike in the UA is a "blade cantrip".

UA True Strike is different because it attacks with your caster stat. Which is an advantage for some classes, but a disadvantage for the EK. The EK can't go all-in on Int because they'll always have to make unaltered weapon attacks. It also has a significantly lower bonus damage profile than the two Tasha's Cauldron blade cantrips; less damage on the main attack, and no conditional secondary damage effect.

That's why I consider UA True Strike to fundamentally different from the true blade cantrips. It's useful to an entirely different sort of character build.

 

[CleverNickName]

The other thing this allows is full progression in one class while cherrypicking the highlights from another.

This is the first time I've seen Extra Attack described as a "highlight" of a class. It seems pretty ubiquitous to me, across the martial/caster spectrum.

 

[Kurotowa]

This is the first time I've seen Extra Attack described as a "highlight" of a class. It seems pretty ubiquitous to me, across the martial/caster spectrum.

Rather than "highlight", would you prefer "central pillar"? It's not exciting but it's a foundational part of how weapon focused classes scale in power. Even with just the base version, it's doubling the potency of most bonuses to your weapon attack. All the math around what sort of other benefits a martial class adds to their attacks is based around that core engine.

 

[ECMO3]

Mostly true, yep. Although, if bladetrip + BA attack is your intended attack progression, you should really be bailing out of EK after 7, or at worst 8. Or you should have just gone bladesinger 6, and still had your BA available.

I love Bladesingers and have played a bunch of them, but that is generally a different kind of Gish than an EK.

To go Bladesinger you generally want a high intelligence and you need a 13 Intelligence to multiclass a bladesinger, while Intelligence is usually a dump stat on EKs. EKs are also usually heavy armor and high strength, while Bladesingers are usually light or no armor and high dexterity. Those are strereotypes and you can go against them and build heavy armor Bladesingers and dex/intelligence EKs and be fine, but usually you would pick the other class if you wanted that.

I do agree about multiclassing an EK, but I think 10th-12th level is the sweet spot as far as max fighter level. Usually I multiclass it with Paladin, sometimes with a Warlock dip as well (for EB/AB).

10 levels of EK gives you Eldritch Strike which works really, really well with the Paladin smite spells and when you use them you would not have a bonus so you would use extra attack not war magic ...... which is a reason to go one more level to 11 in fighter .... and then if you go 11 there is an ASI and another multiclass caster level at 12.

Here is a 19th level EK 11/Paladin 6/Warlock 2 I am playing right now:

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She has been a blast to play. She will probably take her last level in EK.

 

[pnewman]

I would require 11th level, because only once the Fighter gets three attacks should anyone else be able to get two attacks.

I would not auto-scale it to grant a third attack ever, but if you really wanted to you could either require a second Feat, grant it at 17th (?) level when Fighters get a fourth attack, or even both. (Which might also make it worth taking for high level Rangers and Paladins who already have two attacks.)

 

[Starfox]

If you deconstruct the classes, turning everything into feats, this could come form a limited feat with abilities that are now class features. So at 5th level you get access to a special type of feats that can do things like give access to spells of 3rd to 5th level, give an additional attack, give more than 2d6 sneak attack and so on. Basically a smorgasbord of class features.

 

[CleverNickName]

So I did more digging around in all of my rulebooks, and here's what I came up with. (I don't have access to every book published by Wizards of the Coast for D&D 5E, but I do have a lot.)

• There are 5 classes that always gain the Extra Attack feature (Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, and Ranger.)
  • Of these 5, two of them also gain the Spellcasting feature (Paladin and Ranger)
  • None of them are "full" casters (able to cast cantrips thru 9th level spells.)
  • The Fighter can gain Spellcasting, but only by choosing the Eldritch Knight subclass.
  • Only the Barbarian and the Monk never gain the Spellcasting ability through subclasses or other class options.
• There are 4 classes that can gain the Extra Attack feature by selecting certain subclasses and/or class options (Artificer, Bard, Warlock, and Wizard.)
  • All of them have the Spellcasting feature (or the Warlock equivalent, Pact Magic)
  • The Bladesinger (wizard subclass) is the only option for a player that that wants Extra Attack and full-caster Spellcasting.
• There are 4 classes that can never gain the Extra Attack feature, regardless of subclass or other options (Cleric, Druid, Rogue, and Sorcerer.
  • Three of them are "full casters" (Cleric, Druid, and Sorcerer.)
• About three-quarters of all classes (9 out of 13) can gain Extra Attack, almost all classes (11 out of 13) are able to cast spells, and more than half (7 out of 13) can do both.

Conclusions that we can draw from this:

Extra Attack is not a "martials only" class feature. All classes have access to Extra Attack or Spellcasting, and most classes have access to both in some way.

Extra Attack isn't consistent across the classes. Different classes gain it at different levels, they gain it with or without subclasses, and non-casters, half-casters, and full-casters all can get access to it.

Classes that gain Extra Attack as a class feature (independent of subclass) typically gain it at 5th level. Classes that gain Extra Attack as a subclass feature typically gain it at 6th level.

Without this feat, the only way a Cleric, Druid, Rogue, or Sorcerer could gain the Extra Attack feature would be to multiclass with one of 9 other classes that grant it. This doesn't incentivize "non-caster" multiclassing, however---Sorcerers almost always multiclass with Warlock, for example.

 

[CleverNickName]

With all that in mind, here's the "playtest" version of this feat.

Extra Attack​

Prerequisites: 8th level, proficient with at least one martial weapon.​

When you use the Attack action on your turn, you attack twice instead of once.​

Thanks for your feedback and input, everyone! At the very least, I think my players will enjoy this a lot more than having to multiclass. One of my players is going to give it a test-run at our gaming session this weekend (a druid using shillelagh) and see how it goes.

 

[ECMO3]

UA True Strike is different because it attacks with your caster stat. Which is an advantage for some classes, but a disadvantage for the EK. The EK can't go all-in on Int because they'll always have to make unaltered weapon attacks. It also has a significantly lower bonus damage profile than the two Tasha's Cauldron blade cantrips; less damage on the main attack, and no conditional secondary damage effect.

That's why I consider UA True Strike to fundamentally different from the true blade cantrips. It's useful to an entirely different sort of character build.

Agree, Most EKs I play dump intelligence.