D&D 5E So I think the Designers get the "Alertness" feat wrong and made it OP

[Athinar]

The Feat alertness for an Assassin would be very useful if the group uses the Surprise in the Initiative round and not before it. Some use the surprise before the Initiative, others give the one doing the surprise top Initiative and others give Advantage on Initiative.
If Surprise is used in the Round like written in RAW, then Surprise is weakened and the rolls to get the surprise could be meaningless. But.... o'well after thinking about over sleep I can see it both ways. Leaving it as RAW. Assassin will be taking the Feat to increase initiative

 

[Athinar]

I believe any Feat that makes you immune to anything is OP,
Magic, be it a Spell or an Item is not included in this, only Feats
Feats should give only advantages (not the Advantage Roll, maybe the Advantage Roll) on a situation

So I made this Feat not to make you immune to Surprise but to give you an Advantage on being surprised
Alertness - +5 to "Perception" and Advantage with "Perception" Surprise Rolls; if you win the Perception to Stealth contest you gain +5 to Initiative
and this takes away the permanent Initiative increase

 

[Athinar]

Can I have a Feat that makes you immune to Poison? Immune to Death, Immune to Magic, Immune To Everything

Maybe a Ring of Feats - each day at sun rise you name the Feat and the Ring will grant you this feat for 24 hours

 

[Fanaelialae]

Can I have a Feat that makes you immune to Poison? Immune to Death, Immune to Magic, Immune To Everything

Maybe a Ring of Feats - each day at sun rise you name the Feat and the Ring will grant you this feat for 24 hours

That's not a good comparison. If you want to use Alertness as a basis for a feat that grants immunity, you need to consider what surprise is most like. In my opinion, surprise most closely resembles some of the weaker conditions. I could definitely see a feat that gives immunity to the Frightened condition, for example. It should probably have some kind of kicker as well (a bonus to Intimidation perhaps?).

 

[Fanaelialae]

I believe any Feat that makes you immune to anything is OP,
Magic, be it a Spell or an Item is not included in this, only Feats
Feats should give only advantages (not the Advantage Roll, maybe the Advantage Roll) on a situation

So I made this Feat not to make you immune to Surprise but to give you an Advantage on being surprised
Alertness - +5 to "Perception" and Advantage with "Perception" Surprise Rolls; if you win the Perception to Stealth contest you gain +5 to Initiative
and this takes away the permanent Initiative increase

This would be true in 3rd edition, where a human fighter could have almost a score of feats by level 20. However, you have to consider the opportunity cost in terms of 5e.

As far as I can tell, the maximum number of feats you can possibly have in 5e is 8. This requires you to be a 19th level Fighter using the Human Variant, and also requires that you didn't use any ability score improvements to improve your ability scores. A more typical class will have a maximum of 5, if they forgo all ability score improvements.

In that light, I don't think it's unreasonable for a feat to grant immunity to a minor condition. Not counting surprise, there are 14 conditions in the game. Even if you play the above fighter, and you provided feats for immunity to every condition (not something I'd recommend), he'd still only have immunity to slightly more that half the conditions (and sacrificed raising his ability scores in order to do so).

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Most feats in 5e aren't overpowered within the 5e system. Sure, if you take a 5e feat (any 5e feat) and drop it into a 3e, 4e, or Pathfinder game it will be overpowered. But you have to interpret them in context of 5e itself--in which there are only a couple of feats (or feat combos) that people tend to be concerned about. Alertness isn't one of them. Really, it's fine.

 

[Kikuras]

I suppose if it was expected that every encounter the PCs were being surprised, then Alertness would go up in value on the power scale. I've had DMs like that... "You are surprised by the three giants who were just quietly standing there for the last five minutes, you should have looked harder."

 

[Athinar]

I suppose if it was expected that every encounter the PCs were being surprised, then Alertness would go up in value on the power scale. I've had DMs like that... "You are surprised by the three giants who were just quietly standing there for the last five minutes, you should have looked harder."

Three Invisible Giants working with the Lich

 

[Athinar]

What other feats can you choose that makes you immune to a condition like surprise that affects a prime ability of a Class?

immune to Surprise takes away the prime ability of the Rogue class, what other feat takes away the prime ability of a class, What Feat takes away spell casting? What Feat takes away the prime ability of the warlock? what Feat takes away Devil Sight or the Paladins connection to the Higher Powers or Lower Powers? What Feat takes away the prime Ability of the Barbarian, What Feat takes away Rage?

Alertness - +5 to "Perception" and Advantage with "Perception" with Surprise Rolls; if you win the Perception to Stealth contest you gain +5 to Initiative

This makes you not immune to surprise but it does make it very hard to be surprised therefore does not takes away the Prime ability of the Rogue

 

[Mistwell]

What other feats can you choose that makes you immune to a condition like surprise that affects a prime ability of a Class?

immune to Surprise takes away the prime ability of the Rogue class

Uh, what? No it doesn't. Sneak attack can be done any time any ally of yours is next to your foe. That's easy to get. Alertness has no impact on it.