Tactical Feats

[Guest 6801328]

I've been trying to homebrew some classes/sub-classes with some ideas for mechanics I've been working on, but it occurred to me that maybe the best place for them is in some feats so that they can be added to any class.

Nimble Misdirection
When an enemy makes a weapon attack against you with disadvantage, you may use your reaction to try to trick your attacker into missing you and hitting another target. Make an Acrobatics (Dexterity) check with a DC of the attack roll. If you succeed the attack is redirected to a target of your choice within 5' of you, using the same two rolls but now with advantage.

Take One for the Team
As a bonus action you may provoke, without moving, an Attack of Opportunity from one enemy within 5’. If that attack is made it will provoke Attacks of Opportunity from all enemies (of your target). The target may make an opposed Intelligence test to have the option of not taking the attack.

So Crazy it Just Might Work

• +1 Intelligence
• You may add your Intelligence bonus to your initiative rolls.
  
• If you can study a location, or have a detailed description of a location, for one minute, when a combat begins you and any allies with whom you can communicate start the combat with Inspiration.

War Song
As an action you may start singing a rousing martial song, which you then can sustain for up to a minute. Any of your allies may use their reaction to join in. Each round, each participant in the song heals an amount equal to your proficiency bonus, plus 1 for each singer including yourself. (This one is the roughest. The mechanics don't feel quite right and don't scale well, and I'd like there to be a choice of effects.)

Thoughts? Any of them need a +1 ability score to be worth it?

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I like Take One For the Team. It sounds pretty reasonable; I'd consider allowing that option to all characters as an action (without a feat gate--just as a combat option; feat would just turn it into a bonus action).

 

[Guest 6801328]

I like Take One For the Team. It sounds pretty reasonable; I'd consider allowing that option to all characters as an action (without a feat gate--just as a combat option; feat would just turn it into a bonus action).

If there are 3+ allies surrounding the target it can be crazy OP. Especially since, as a bonus action, you can combine it with Dodge. It also strikes me (get it?) as something that it is also something of "special trick", i.e. not everybody trained with a weapon would know how to do it.

Oh, also, I whipped those names off without much thought. Would love suggestions for better names.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

When you take the Dodge action, until the beginning of your next turn when you are the target of a weapon attack you may use your reaction to try to trick the attacker into missing you and hitting another target. Make an Acrobatics (Dexterity) check with a DC of the attack roll, using the lower of the two rolls. If you succeed the attack is redirected to a target of your choice within 5’, using the higher of the two rolls.

Taking the dodge action doesn't always mean that there will be two rolls made: you should specify what happens if the dodge is just cancelling out advantage.

I might suggest something more along the lines of:
When an enemy attacks you with disadvantage, if the higher of the two rolls would also miss you, you may redirect the attack into an opponent adjacent to you and in the range of the attack. If the higher roll is equal or greater than their AC, they are affected by that attack as if they were the target.

Take One for the Team
As a bonus action you may provoke, without moving, an Attack of Opportunity from one enemy within 5’. If that attack is made it will provoke Attacks of Opportunity from all enemies (of your target). The target may make an opposed Intelligence test to have the option of not taking the attack.

I don't like the idea of forcing the opponent to make an attack of opportunity, but if you use it, you need to make it more explicit earlier in the feat rather than just provoking.
This is quite powerful if you can force an opponent to lose their reaction and give everyone in range an AoE on them, particularly since its fairly easy to make it hard for an opponent to hit you.
I'd suggest there should be a definite cost to using this: its better than some of the BM maneuvers that actually cost resources. If you're going to allow it for free, I'd suggest at least making the AoO from the opponent an automatic hit.

As an action you may start singing a rousing martial song, which you then can sustain for up to a minute. Any of your allies may use their reaction to join in. Each round, each participant in the song heals an amount equal to your proficiency bonus, plus 1 for each singer including yourself. (This one is the roughest. The mechanics don't feel quite right and don't scale well, and I'd like there to be a choice of effects.)

Way too powerful. A single feat should not grant infinite healing.

Make it 1 temporary HP, and make it require continuous upkeep.

That balances it better against feats like heavy armour master and Inspiring leader, since the temp HP won't stack, its basically reducing damage by 1 point per round.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I think nimble misdirection could use a secondary benefit. To me it's comparable to the shield master feat granting shove as a bonus action and the shield master feat also gives the benefit of downgrading dex save consequences. You could add a +1 dex or another flavourful benefit like advantage on Deception checks when you attempt to deceive through your actions rather than your words. Unless deception specifically says that it involves talking, in that case it could be sleight of hand, or performance checks.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

If there are 3+ allies surrounding the target it can be crazy OP. Especially since, as a bonus action, you can combine it with Dodge. It also strikes me (get it?) as something that it is also something of "special trick", i.e. not everybody trained with a weapon would know how to do it.

You mean, 3+ allies surrounding the target who have no other use for their reaction (like Uncanny Dodge/Shield/Defensive Duelist/Sentinel). And they have to have a high movement rate as well or else the target can retaliate by striking them and moving out of attack range (so they get no attacks that turn), because they've already used up their reaction.

That's pretty niche--you basically have to build your whole party around the feat in order to make it at all OP, and even then it's only OP-ish at low levels. By the time you hit level 5, a free opportunity attack is only a 50% bump to damage for warriors, and by level 12 it could only be 33%--you'd probably benefit more from a grapple/prone combination, which tends to swing loss ratios by 100% or more.

It doesn't set off any of my powergaming alert instincts. You wouldn't need to do anything unusual in order to challenge a party where someone had this feat. In fact it probably leads them down a suboptimal path where everybody is trying to get into melee simultaneously.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Taking the dodge action doesn't always mean that there will be two rolls made: you should specify what happens if the dodge is just cancelling out advantage.

Good point

I might suggest something more along the lines of:
When an enemy attacks you with disadvantage, if the higher of the two rolls would also miss you, you may redirect the attack into an opponent adjacent to you and in the range of the attack. If the higher roll is equal or greater than their AC, they are affected by that attack as if they were the target.

Oh, that's good. And simpler, too.

I don't like the idea of forcing the opponent to make an attack of opportunity, but if you use it, you need to make it more explicit earlier in the feat rather than just provoking.
This is quite powerful if you can force an opponent to lose their reaction and give everyone in range an AoE on them, particularly since its fairly easy to make it hard for an opponent to hit you.

It doesn't actually force the opponent to make the attack unless it fails a contested Int roll. Maybe that's not exactly the right mechanic, but I don't think it can (or should be) totally left to the DM's discretion.

I'd suggest there should be a definite cost to using this: its better than some of the BM maneuvers that actually cost resources. If you're going to allow it for free, I'd suggest at least making the AoO from the opponent an automatic hit.

Maybe it's an action rather than a bonus action, so it has a definite cost and you can't combine it with Dodge.

Way too powerful. A single feat should not grant infinite healing.

Make it 1 temporary HP, and make it require continuous upkeep.

That balances it better against feats like heavy armour master and Inspiring leader, since the temp HP won't stack, its basically reducing damage by 1 point per round.

Agreed. That was a rough first pass at the mechanic. Maybe, partly because Inspiring Leader already exists, it should be a benefit other than HP. My real starting point is that I love the idea of starting a song and having others join in, but at some kind of cost so that it's a real decision.

Thanks for feedback.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Nimble Misdirection

When you take the dodge action you aren't a threat that round, and make yourself a poor choice of target. Layering you-might-hit-your-buddy on top of that prettymuch means you won't be attacked well dodging.
Maybe add that opposed intelligence check? (INT save vs INT-based DC would be better, IMHO)
Or make it a Reaction to go give an attack against yourself disadvantage and a chance of hitting someone else?

I do like the way you incorporate the disadvantaged attack roll into it, though.

Take One for the Team

Bonus action makes this more reasonable to pull, at least some of the time. As limited a resource as actions are, though, it's marginal.

Tactical Acumen

• +1 Intelligence
• You may add your Intelligence bonus to your initiative rolls.
  
• If you have one minute to study a location before a combat begins there, you and any allies with whom you can communicate start the combat with Inspiration.

The last function doesn't quite seem right. Actually, the mechanic, each ally gets Advantage, once, in the forthcoming fight is OK, but the label 'inspiration' doesn't fit. And, I feel like you won't often get to survey the field beforehand like that. (Though, it'd make it a good feat for a stealthy rogue or ranger scouting around.)

War Song

Regeneration (in essence) is both marginal in combat, and potentially broken outside of it (and could lead to angst over when you're in combat and how you can fake being in combat, &c).
You might want to rip the HotFw Skald's 'Aura' a little harder, here, and have it trigger HD with a bonus to the HD roll, mirroring the surge-healing aspect, and having it use the bonus action of the character receiving the healing, or of an adjacent ally, to trigger it.
Couldn't hurt to also give inspiration, too, maybe if you trigger it for someone else, you get inspiration, or if you join in for more than a round you earn inspiration - or if the player with the feat chooses a theme/topic/story for his song that speaks to one of your Bonds?
Or the base effect could be temp hps (making it redundant if you already have inspiring leader?) rather than healing, with the healing requiring HD.


Hmm... since I brought up HD, I should also mention that they're the least available of all PC resources, recovering at only 1/2 HDs per long rest.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

When you take the dodge action you aren't a threat that round, and make yourself a poor choice of target.

Nitpick: Monks can Dodge as a bonus action, and Sorcerers can quicken spells and Dodge. Anyone with Sentinel remains a threat even while Dodging: either the enemy moves away toward another target (and the Sentinel gets a free strike with his reaction), or the enemy attacks someone else already in range (and the Sentinel gets a free strike), or the enemy strikes the Dodging Sentinel after all.

So it would be at least theoretically possible to use Nimble Escape effectively, if you pay the Sentinel feat tax first or are a monk or sorcerer.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Nitpick: Monks can Dodge as a bonus action.

Not surprised I missed that: Could be good for them, then. Just like the Tactical Acumen survey of the field could be good for a stealthy-scout type. Tad specialized.

Anyone with Sentinel remains a threat even while Dodging: either the enemy moves away toward another target (and the Sentinel gets a free strike with his reaction), or the enemy attacks someone else already in range (and the Sentinel gets a free strike), or the enemy strikes the Dodging Sentinel after all.

Sounds worthwhile. Not sure it fits the 5e style of feat design, but that doesn't really matter so much in a homebrew.