D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: 16 New Feats

"Today’s Unearthed Arcana presents a selection of new feats for Dungeons & Dragons. Each feat offers a way to become better at something or to gain a whole new ability."

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The feats include Artificer Initiate, Chef, Crusher, Eldritch Adept, Fey Touched, Fighting Initiate, Gunner, Metamagic Adept, Poisoner, Piercer, Practiced Expert, Shadow Touched, Shield Training, Slasher, Tandem Tactician, and Tracker.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I like the THP from food idea. It reminds me of the role nutritionists take in sports. By manipulating carbohydrate intake up to a big game or competition some athletes see a huge performance boost the day of a game or competition from a sudden influx of carbs.

Also after strenuous anaerobic exercises you need protein to rebuild micro tears in muscle tissue. In a way that's very much healing.

Uh....yeah. I guess.

I was thinking about the way my High Speed Quad (4 shots of espresso, equal amount of steamed milk) turns me into a superhero first thing in the morning.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm pretty happy with this UA. A lot of those feats would be appreciated at my table. I particularly like the Shield Training feat as a way to get access to shields for those who don't want to MC. A rogue I played a few years back would have preferred this over taking Moderately Armored.

I also really want to build a variant human glamour bard who takes the inspiring leader, healer, and chef feats. At level 8 I will be the ultimate cheerleader/snack provider.

Team Mom.

 

[Todd Roybark]

Is WotC throwing a retirement celebration for the Mastermind subclass for the rogue class?

Tandem Tactician ENSURES, nobody will ever select the subclass again.

Also the Winner of the WotC policy of racial inclusiveness is:
The Variant Human.

Metamagic Adept...Now Bards can cast Hypnotic Pattern JUST as well as Sorcerers via the Careful Spell Metamagic.

Extend spell for the win! 16 hour Mage Armor + 2 minute Shadow Blade. 20 minute Spirit Guardians. 2 hour Pass Without Trace.

The feat is probably too good, and will save caster classes other than the Sorcerer, many a spell slot.

Should we include the Sorcerer class as part of the farewell celebration for the Mastermind subclass?

Fey Touched....horrible name...might as well call it "Hag Molested".

Eldritch Adept .... that Lore Bard that selects the Eldritch Blast Cantrip as part of their Additional Magic Secrets ability is selecting this feat later for Agonizing Blast/Repelling Blast.

Bye, Bye Magic Initiate...see you at the WotC retirement party.
Hello, taking this feat for Fiendish Vigor, or Devil's Sight, or Mask of Many Faces, or Armor of Shadows (especially with an Abjurer).

Dear WotC....at will is better then once per day.

Chef...because the XGE rules were not enough.
Samwise Gamgee had the Chef and Healer feats....no wonder Frodo Lives!

 

[Blue]

Except, IMO that is too broad for a feat. To me, it makes sense you would need to train differently for different weapon types and this need to train multiple times to learn those skills.

Ah, "sense". I prefer "fun" as my guideline. Because, fun is the final objective of the game.

In a highly simulationist game, that verisimilitude would add to my fun. In a wonky game with HPs and surviving axe blows to the stomach or falling 100' feet and keeping fighting, trying to impose sense like that brings me zero additional fun.

So, let's evaluate it other ways:

Is it more powerful? No, any attack will only use one.

Which is more fun. Fun ranges from exactly the same (you never change your weapon style) to more fun for the player (they find a flavorful magic weapon of a different type, they switch up weapons to fight different targets just like clerics, druids and wizards switch up spells.

Final result - the "overly broad" feat is either the same or better when it comes to delivering fun to a D&D 5e game in every line item. Now, your table may have more focus on that "sense". But if it's actually important and not just a hill to stand on, you're already condeming yourself to playing a game you hate because that's not something 5e supports. On the other hand, if you like 5e, it has plenty of choices where "makes sense" was lower priority than "makes fun".

 

[Guest 6801328]

Although the "Practiced Expert" feat is indeed power creep from Xanathar's, I would never take the original feat but would strongly consider this one.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

A thing I appreciate from Artificer Initiate is that I can use the 1st level spell gained with your normal spell slots. Cure wound on an Transmuter or Abjurer could make for a nice support healer with their damage mitiagation/healing features.

On another note: casting with a shield is really cool for an arcane caster. A war wizard with that feat would look amazing (with maybe a fighting style? Defense or the new shield block from the last UA?)

 

[Ashrym]

Chef reminded me of Bender's Iron Chef episode.

"The secret ingredient is confidence... confidence and LSD..."

It sounds like performance enhancing drugs. ;-)

A lot of these feats are "multiclass lite" feats. I like them.

That's what I thought. I prefer feats to multi-classing.

I like a few of them, but I'm not overly fond of duplicating class features in a feat. About as close to that as I'd like is Magic Initiate.

I feel differently.

If a non-human or non-half human Wizard or Fighter finally getting to be as good at Arcana or Athletics, respectively, as a Rogue or Bard is "power creep," then I welcome the power creep.

No kidding. Spending a feat for the same bonus seem reasonable to me.

It was totally expected that early or late they would come up with a feat or something else to steal the one and only reason to play a Sorcerer.

Now, to restore the fairness, there has to be a feat which grants a Spellbook feature so you can scribe unlimited spells for the same cost as a Wizard.

Nah. Sorcs can take a the feat too and make better use of it with more sorc points. Those other feats can add more spells known too.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Is WotC throwing a retirement celebration for the Mastermind subclass for the rogue class?

Tandem Tactician ENSURES, nobody will ever select the subclass again.

Also the Winner of the WotC policy of racial inclusiveness is:
The Variant Human.

Metamagic Adept...Now Bards can cast Hypnotic Pattern JUST as well as Sorcerers via the Careful Spell Metamagic.

Extend spell for the win! 16 hour Mage Armor + 2 minute Shadow Blade. 20 minute Spirit Guardians. 2 hour Pass Without Trace.

The feat is probably too good, and will save caster classes other then the Sorcerer, many a spell slot.

Should we include the Sorcerer class as part of the farewell celebration for the Mastermind subclass?

Fey Touched....horrible name...might as well call it "Hag Molested".

Eldritch Adept so that Lore Bard that selects the Eldritch Blast Cantrip as part of their Additional Magic Secrets ability is selecting this feat later for Agonizing Blast/Repelling Blast.

Bye, Bye Magic Initiate...see you at the WotC retirement party.
Hello, taking this feat for Fiendish Vigor, or Devil's Sight, or Mask of Many Faces, or Armor of Shadows (especially with an Abjurer).

Dear WotC....at will is better then once per day.

Chef...because the XGE rules were not enough.
Samwise Gamgee had the Chef and Healer feats....no wonder Frodo Lives!

Counterpoints, though more in the interest of clarity than persuation:

Masterminds get the range boost to the help action - allowing multi-help at range. The features stack.

2 Sorcery points a day don't sound like much to me.

You can't take Eldritch Adept to gain agonizing blast unless you're already a warlock - and warlock 2 is probably better than warlock 1 + a feat.

Magic initiate also grants 2 cantrips. (Which isn't to say at-will 1st-level spells isn't often better, but it depends on how the spell interacts with specific features.0

 

[BookBarbarian]

Uh....yeah. I guess.

I was thinking about the way my High Speed Quad (4 shots of espresso, equal amount of steamed milk) turns me into a superhero first thing in the morning.

lol

Caffeine is common in most pre-workouts for this very reason

 

[Parmandur]

See I like feats. They let you do cool stuff, or do stuff better. And I've never run or played a game since 3rd ed where the players didn't want feats. I just wish it was easier to adjust threats to account for them.

Meh, they provide more complications than they do benefits. Best ignored, as a rule. And I've never seen Feats in play in 5E yet...