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

[Athinar]

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?).

A Feat that makes you immune to the "Frightened" condition would be in my eyes OP, Advantage on Frightened condition like the Halfling's Race Ability and or +5 on save vs. Frightened/Fear condition would make you near immune but not quite

 

[Athinar]

Rogue Assassin, Immune to Surprise takes away the Prime Ability to Assassinate and the Rogues Sneak attack unless there is an Friend next to the target (First Round of combat most like the Rogue will beat all others in Initiative so there would be no Friend near the target, delay action until a friend gets next to the target)

So I see it that it does

Remember we are only talking about Feats, Not Magic Spells or Items

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I dunno, it's missing something. I know!

Preternaturally Alert. You cannot be surprised while unconscious.

 

[Mistwell]

Rogue Assassin,

That's one sub-class, one ability. Not a primary ability of Rogue, which is what you said. Also, you still get advantage for an assassin - it's advantage for going before them, not advantage for surprising them. You only miss out on the critical hit from surprise.

Immune to Surprise takes away the Prime Ability to Assassinate and the Rogues Sneak attack unless there is an Friend next to the target (First Round of combat most like the Rogue will beat all others in Initiative so there would be no Friend near the target, delay action until a friend gets next to the target)

You ready an action to shoot/attack once your ally is next to them. Just play a rogue rather than trying to do this in the hypothetical. I've never once heard of anyone having an issue with the Alertness feat. Not once, in 2 years now of playing.

So I see it that it does

Remember we are only talking about Feats, Not Magic Spells or Items

You want to see a mage shut down by a feat? Mage Slayer. Grappler with Mage Slayer is even worse. There are builds that 100% lock down spellcasters - as in knock them to the ground, grapple them so they cannot get up, and beat the crap out of them. Shutting down one aspect of one sub-class of Rogue (the critical hit portion of assassinate) is nothing compared to that.

 

[Athinar]

If you can not surprise them, then it is "Initiative" for the encounter; Assassin gets no Advantage on initiative but does get the initiative to any one who has not taken it's turn, just the opposite, the Feat gives +5 to initiative, a very large boost to initiative, an increase of Dexterity like to the range of 20 to 30

 

[Athinar]

[QUOTE
Mage Slayer. Grappler with Mage Slayer is even worse. (the critical hit portion of assassinate) is nothing compared to that.[/QUOTE]

Grappler - You gain Advantage on Attack rolls (not Automatic like Immune to Surprise)
Your Action to try to pin (Not Automatic Pin)
make another grapple Check (Not Automatic Grapple Check)

Mage Slayer - a Creature that is within 5 feet of you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack (Not Automatic hit on Spell Caster)

That creature has disadvantage on concentrating (Not Automatic loss of Concentration)

You have Advantage on saving throws (Not Automatic Saves)

Everything in those Feats are not Automatic Like Alertness -
You gain +5 initiative
Automatically immune to surprise
Automatically - Creatures don't gain advantage on Attack Rolls against you as a result of being hidden from you

No Sneak Attack unless you have a friend next to the target

That is why I said the feat should be

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

which would not make it an Automatic Feat

and the other Feats should also have a contest to see if the Disadvantage or advantage is gained (i.e. Crossbow Expert; Make a Acrobatics skill check to see if you gain the Advantage/Disadvantage; Crossbow Expert: +5 to Acrobatics Check and Advantage on Acrobatics Checks for imposing disadvantage on your ranged attack roll)

Crossbow Expert: +5 to Sleight of Hand and Advantage on Sleight of Hand for ignoring the loading quality of crossbows; DC is what? Hand Crossbow, DC 10, Light Crossbow DC 12, Heavy Crossbow DC 15? Even worse in combat

 

[Athinar]

I can see why some Tables don't allow Feats

 

[Paraxis]

Just how many times is there going to be an assassination attempt on the characters in a campaign? How many of those times is the one member of the party with the Alert feat going to be the primary target?

If a character spends a feat on Alert and the most OP thing that happens with it, is he prevents a sniper from one day shooting him in the back of the head I don't see any issues with it.

Surprise is not a group thing, only the individual character is immune to being surprised all of his allies still might or might not be surprised, have the assassin target one of them instead.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I would like it more if it gave +proficient bonus to initiative instead of +5

 

[CapnZapp]

Athinar, by now we get your point.

You believe the feat is overpowered.

But by now, it should be clear to you that most other posters do not.

And that's that. There really isn't much more to say. You're not going to persuade the rest of us that Alertness is overpowered. Most people do not think the designers made a mistake, and most people are fine with the feat as written.

End of story, really.

Cheers,
Zapp