D&D 5E Some Feat Adjustments

[Hawk Diesel]

I've made some adjustments to a couple of feats. Thought I'd post them for feedback and in case anyone enjoys them.

Great Weapon Master
You’ve learned to put the weight of a weapon to your advantage, letting its momentum empower your strikes. You gain the following benefits:

• On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.

• Before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a penalty to the attack roll equal to your proficiency bonus. If the attack hits, you add double your proficiency bonus to the attack’s damage.

Sharpshooter
You have mastered ranged weapons and can make shots that others find impossible. You gain the following benefits:

• Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.

• Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.

• Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a penalty to the attack roll equal to your proficiency bonus. If the attack hits, you add double your proficiency bonus to the attack’s damage.

Reasoning: I think it makes the power of the feats more reasonable at lower levels. I also prefer the idea that feats increase with level in someway, and think the -6/+12 is more fitting or appropriate for higher level play.

Durable
Hardy and resilient, you gain the following benefits:

• Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, you add your proficiency bonus to the total of each roll.

• Once per long rest, you can use an action to spend a number of Hit Dice equal to your proficiency bonus to regain hit points.

Reasoning: I always felt Durable was a pretty lame feat. I've never known anyone to take it. I think this makes it a more appealing option.

Grappler
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
You’ve developed the skills necessary to hold your own in close-quarters grappling. You gain the following benefits:

• You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling.

• You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, the creature is restrained until the grapple ends.

• When you use your reaction to make an attack of opportunity, you can choose to attempt a grapple instead.

Reasoning: The third bullet point of Grappler is useless due to an outdated mechanic. This makes things a bit interesting.

Heavy Armor Master
Prerequisite: Proficiency with heavy armor
You can use your armor to deflect strikes that would kill others. You gain the following benefits:

• Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• While you are wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from non-magical weapons is reduced by your proficiency bonus.

Reasoning: Once again, the power of the feat gets tied to the level of the character, which I tend to prefer.

Savage Attacker
When you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the weapon’s damage dice and use either total.
You can do this a number of times per turn equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). You can never reroll more than once per attack.

Reasoning: Once more, this feat now grows with your level. Also, can potentially apply to multiple attacks per round.

Weapon Master
You have practiced extensively with a variety of weapons, gaining the following benefits:

• Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• You gain proficiency with four weapons of your choice.

• You gain +2 bonus to damage with the weapons chosen for this feat.

Reasoning: Another feat that I never really saw get taken. I thought this would both increase the feat getting taken, and perhaps reduce the number of people that take a level dip in martial classes for the proficiencies.

Tavern Brawler
Accustomed to rough-and-tumble fighting using whatever weapons happen to be at hand, you gain the following benefits:

• Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• You are proficient with improvised weapons.

• Your unarmed strike uses a d4 for damage, rather than just dealing 1 damage. If you are a monk, you gain +1 damage to your unarmed strike.

• When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target.

Reasoning: Seemed a bit unfair to make it so monks didn't get the same level of benefit as other classes. This way they get full use of the feat.

 

[Gladius Legis]

I'd make GWM/SS minus half proficiency (rounded up) to hit for proficiency to damage. -3/+6 is about the limit of sanity for that sort of mechanic, even at high levels.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I'd make GWM/SS minus half proficiency (rounded up) to hit for proficiency to damage. -3/+6 is about the limit of sanity for that sort of mechanic, even at high levels.

Agree to disagree. At high levels, I don't see an issue with that kind of damage.

 

[Fanaelialae]

In the case of Tavern Brawler, why not have it increase the damage die one step? It's the same average damage whether it's 1d4+1 or 1d6, but with the latter your players won't have to second guess where the extra +1 is coming from (which I know would happen to me).

 

[Hawk Diesel]

In the case of Tavern Brawler, why not have it increase the damage die one step? It's the same average damage whether it's 1d4+1 or 1d6, but with the latter your players won't have to second guess where the extra +1 is coming from (which I know would happen to me).

They are essentially the same thing. However, my personal style I like static bonuses over random bonuses whenever possible.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

• You gain proficiency with four weapons of your choice.

• You gain +2 bonus to damage with the weapons chosen for this feat.

I'm not a fan of this mechanic, because it makes you relatively worse with weapons that you should already be good with. Like, rogues are normally good with rapiers and shortswords, but they can never gain the benefit of this feat for those weapons; so they're suddenly not only proficient in scimitars, but they're also better with the scimitar than they'll ever be with the rapier or shortsword.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I'm not a fan of this mechanic, because it makes you relatively worse with weapons that you should already be good with. Like, rogues are normally good with rapiers and shortswords, but they can never gain the benefit of this feat for those weapons; so they're suddenly not only proficient in scimitars, but they're also better with the scimitar than they'll ever be with the rapier or shortsword.

I understand where you're coming from, but it could equally represent specialized training with the chosen weapons. If you are choosing this feat, it's because you don't have proficiency with a weapon that you clearly want to use. However, from my perspective, getting that proficiency alone is not really worth a feat.

So how might you rework the feat to be one that a player might actually wanna take rather than a fighter/paladin/ranger dip?

 

[Dragongrief]

I understand where you're coming from, but it could equally represent specialized training with the chosen weapons. If you are choosing this feat, it's because you don't have proficiency with a weapon that you clearly want to use. However, from my perspective, getting that proficiency alone is not really worth a feat.

So how might you rework the feat to be one that a player might actually wanna take rather than a fighter/paladin/ranger dip?

*Choose four weapons. You gain proficiency with them if you did not already have it, and attacks made with these weapons deal +2 damage.*

Basically remove the implication that you have to choose weapons you don't know. That allows someone to become very good with the weapons while still being able to be taken by someone with martial proficiency. That said, you may want to reduce the number of weapons that it applies to... four different weapons are more than a lot of (most?) characters rotate between.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

*Choose four weapons. You gain proficiency with them if you did not already have it, and attacks made with these weapons deal +2 damage.*

Basically remove the implication that you have to choose weapons you don't know. That allows someone to become very good with the weapons while still being able to be taken by someone with martial proficiency. That said, you may want to reduce the number of weapons that it applies to... four different weapons are more than a lot of (most?) characters rotate between.

That's an interesting idea. If that is the ability granted by the feat, it may be too much to also add a +1 to strength or dexterity. Maybe some other ribbon ability of some sort instead.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I understand where you're coming from, but it could equally represent specialized training with the chosen weapons. If you are choosing this feat, it's because you don't have proficiency with a weapon that you clearly want to use. However, from my perspective, getting that proficiency alone is not really worth a feat.

So how might you rework the feat to be one that a player might actually wanna take rather than a fighter/paladin/ranger dip?

Yeah, that's super weird if it's possible for a rogue to specialize in a weapon, but impossible for them to specialize in a rogue weapon.

Off the top of my head, I would nix the bonus to Strength or Dex, and replace it with a flat +1 bonus to all weapon attacks. That would keep the rapier at the top of the rogue's list, instead of spontaneously demoting it to inferior, and it would also make the feat tempting enough to forgo one of your six ability boosts rather than one of your twenty levels.

It would also give fighters a reason to take it, even though they don't benefit from the extra weapon proficiencies, since +1 to hit with all weapons is roughly on-par with +2 Strength or +2 Dex. The only downside I see is that some players might see it as a feat tax, since they're still going to max out their attack stat anyway, but that's going to be a problem with any feat that's actually comparable to +2 in your main stat.