D&D (2024) Revisiting Feats post-PT7

[Kobold Stew]

My biggest issue is still the overuse of the level 4 prerequisite. I don't mind if there are specific feats that actually need to be limited to levels 4+ for balance reasons, but the playtests seemed to treat it as the default, even for feats that would have made a lot of sense as part of a background and didn't present any balance issues for 2014 variant humans. Keeping most feats in a single category and making the +1 ASI part of the feature granting feats at level 4+ (rather than the feats themselves) would allow a lot more characterization options with little or no downside.

Agreed.
If suddenly all the feats were level 1 fests, but the ASI were taken away, and at level 4 you got a feat and +1ASI, the whole thing would be more straightforward and allow a greater range of builds.

I also think the Quick Ritual feature is problematic thematically. The sort of character I'd want to model with Ritual Caster is one who needs time and reference materials to cast spell. Magic Initiate already exists for those who want access to magic on the same time scale as spellcasting classes.

Exactly.

 

[Charlaquin]

Agreed.
If suddenly all the feats were level 1 fests, but the ASI were taken away, and at level 4 you got a feat and +1ASI, the whole thing would be more straightforward and allow a greater range of builds.

Personally, if WotC doesn’t figure this out by the time they publish the new core books, I’ll just house rule it to work this way.

 

[Charlaquin]

Speaking of PAM, you can no longer combine it with Sentinel to prevent an enemy from ever reaching melee range with you.

Sentinel reduces a creature's speed to 0 if you hit it with an Opportunity Attack. PAM was rewritten to allow you to use your weapon to make a melee attack when a creature enters your reach — not an Opportunity Attack.

Damn, good catch! That sucks to lose.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Alternatively, you could have the Crossbow Expert feat allow you to load a crossbow you have equipped even when you have a weapon equipped in the other hand, a la Warcaster. Then you could actually just dual-wield hand crossbows instead of having to solve this weird draw-sheathe puzzle to dual wield one hand Crossbow and one shortsword or dagger (or one rapier if you also have the dual-wielder feat).

Thanks for spelling this all out.

This seems the cleanest solution.

 

[TwoSix]

Alternatively, you could have the Crossbow Expert feat allow you to load a crossbow you have equipped even when you have a weapon equipped in the other hand, a la Warcaster. Then you could actually just dual-wield hand crossbows instead of having to solve this weird draw-sheathe puzzle to dual wield one hand Crossbow and one shortsword or dagger (or one rapier if you also have the dual-wielder feat).

My personal preferred solution is to just have self-loading hand crossbows as a common magic item in the PHB that costs 75 gp or so. That gets around the "my verisimilitude!" complaints but still keeps D3 Demon Hunter/BG3 style dual hand xbows in the game.

 

[Parmandur]

I thinknwe will see a new go at Feats soon, since they are close to hashing out the basics sof the Classes. The Background Feats did receive good feedback, apparently.

 

[Charlaquin]

My personal preferred solution is to just have self-loading hand crossbows as a common magic item in the PHB that costs 75 gp or so. That gets around the "my verisimilitude!" complaints but still keeps D3 Demon Hunter/BG3 style dual hand xbows in the game.

I actually really like the idea of Crossbow Expert letting you load an equipped crossbow while you have a weapon in the other hand. Anyone who’s waited tables knows that holding more than one thing in the same hand isn’t that hard, and holding a light weapon between your finger and thumb while drawing a bolt and loading it into your hand crossbow with your other three fingers sounds like exactly the kind of thing being an expert with crossbows ought to allow you to do.

 

[TwoSix]

I actually really like the idea of Crossbow Expert letting you load an equipped crossbow while you have a weapon in the other hand. Anyone who’s waited tables knows that holding more than one thing in the same hand isn’t that hard, and holding a light weapon between your finger and thumb while drawing a bolt and loading it into your hand crossbow with your other three fingers sounds like exactly the kind of thing being an expert with crossbows ought to allow you to do.

I'd be fine with that too, and I'd probably house-rule it for my players using the 2024 book.

 

[Horwath]

I actually really like the idea of Crossbow Expert letting you load an equipped crossbow while you have a weapon in the other hand. Anyone who’s waited tables knows that holding more than one thing in the same hand isn’t that hard, and holding a light weapon between your finger and thumb while drawing a bolt and loading it into your hand crossbow with your other three fingers sounds like exactly the kind of thing being an expert with crossbows ought to allow you to do.

you grab your light weapon by the blade and pull back crossbow with your crossguard.
Even easier if you have hammer/axe in your hand

 

[Horwath]

My personal preferred solution is to just have self-loading hand crossbows as a common magic item in the PHB that costs 75 gp or so. That gets around the "my verisimilitude!" complaints but still keeps D3 Demon Hunter/BG3 style dual hand xbows in the game.

I would just add it to +1,+2,+3/uncommon, rare, very rare) with added attunement requirement.
Same for instant return throwing weapons.