D&D 5E Savage Attacker - what does it do?

[clearstream]

Does it work with the cold damage of a frost brand or the radiant damage of a holy avenger?

Yes, exactly. Part of the change I'm recommending is to reroll all the damage dice. That makes the feat better for Rangers (Hunters Mark), Paladins (Smite), Blade Pact Warlocks (Hex), Rogues (Sneak Attack), some gishes (Booming Blade), and some magic items (as you point out).

It ends up supporting a few strategies that I believe need a bit of support (Rangers, Rogues). A more important question becomes whether the feat is now worth taking? I feel like it is close to where it should be: you look at it, and you can see it isn't quite competitive (from an minimax point of view). The extra damage is now at least relevant (for some strategies). Getting the 1H defensive ability along with it is reasonable... what do you think?

 

[clearstream]

I think a better fix would be to just have it work every time you roll damage. The fix you proposed is a bit awkward because the reroll benefit is much better for a 2H weapon, while the duelist benefits require a 1H weapon.

I did consider that, but I felt that such a change is not helping anyone who needs help.

Power-attacking (GWM and SS) scales much better with number of attacks than Savage Attacker, so for 2H weapon and ranged weapon users those other feats will still be picked first.

For single/few-attack classes, like Rogues, making it scale with number of attacks does literally nothing. I don't think we need another feat that helps multiple attack classes and does nothing for single attack classes.

Note also that I've changed it to reroll all damage dice, not just the weapon, removing that bit of awkwardness!

 

[CapnZapp]

As you know, I'm trying to take a conservative approach - minimising word changes and limiting additions.

I believe my change is also very minimalistic: instead of re-rolling dice, you add extra dice. In all other aspects, the feat works like the book.



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[clearstream]

I believe my change is also very minimalistic: instead of re-rolling dice, you add extra dice. In all other aspects, the feat works like the book.

Hmm... my change to the Savage Attacker text deletes the word "weapon’s". Like my change to Bladesinger (changes the word "short" to "long") and to Sharpshooter (adds the words "Once per day") I enjoy what can be accomplished so concisely.

But that's not of central importance, because we know that the mechanical result is what counts. Say we want Savage Attacker to add ~100 damage/day (or whatever). The most straightforward way to do that would be something like +4 damage a hit. Due to "Once per turn" that scales most with accuracy, and with things that give you more hits outside your turn (PAM, Sentinel, Riposte). We can add some variance to that using dice, in order to create more highs and lows that players enjoy. There are multiple effects in the game that already do that, but this would stack.

What I like about using a reroll, is that it does all those things while also scaling with the number of dice you get to roll. I like the way that supports Rogues, who are pretty much out in the cold feat-wise unless they take SS/CEx. Attaching that as an underpowered damage-boost to an ability that improves one-handed melee defense appeals most to Rogues who expect to be melee, which shifts it away from being a buff to ranged attacks (which are good enough already). With the additional benefit that attaching it to a one handed melee feat ensures it boosts rather than risks overshadowing Dueling fighting style.

At the cost of deleting one word...