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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I kinda wish the Chef feat had been a full on Bard subclass...

Or Artificer subclass.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I guess if you don’t use tools or languages much it can seem like the new features is flat out more powerful, but...that isn’t power creep, it’s just serving different campaign styles. Good.

So I'm starting with the assumption...because that's how I'd use the feat...that the +1 would be used to get a primary stat to an even value, effectively giving you +1 to all your attacks and damage, and probably a bunch of other stuff as well. Now I'm sure there are campaigns out there where an extra tool use and a language would be as useful overall as that +1, but I've never played in one. And I'm guessing that's pretty broadly true for others.

You can take just about any feat that most people consider underpowered because it doesn't directly help combat and imagine a campaign where it would be the best thing ever (Actor, anyone?) but I don't think that negates the premise that some feats are more powerful than others.

So, yeah, I agree that it's good that different feats suit different campaign styles. AND some feats are better than others, averaged across the whole range of campaigns.

 

[Weiley31]

It used to be about the music, but then he totally sold out. To a talking sword.

You mean a Singing sword?

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s the same as for crossbows, but doesn’t add a bonus action attack. Seems fair to me.

But firearms have larger damage dice than crossbows, and the bonus action attack only works with hand crossbows.

 

[Undrave]

Or Artificer subclass.

That works but I also feel like cooking is more of an art and thus more Bard -like?

 

[Charlaquin]

The benefit of firearms in my campaign is that everyone is proficient (its simplistic, load thingy, point, shoot, realistic? nah) so I might leave the ignore loading in the feat.

That makes sense to me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

That works but I also feel like cooking is more of an art and thus more Bard -like?

I guess, but it's also a tool, which already falls underneath the Artificer's umbrella for Tool Expertise and Artisan's Tools. I could also see a Life Cleric focusing on this, but Artificer seems most thematic to me.

(Also, Artificers seem to be better at the "Arts" than Bards as well. Tool Expertise works on instruments, Painter's, Potter's and other tools are better with Artificers. I think a Chef subclass would fit as well with the Artificer as the Alchemist or Archivist)

 

[Charlaquin]

Do they do twice as much as a comparable bow or crossbow? Because otherwise I believe they're below par.

Pistol does 1d10 one-handed, which is not quite double hand crossbow, but still pretty solid. Musket does 1d12 two-handed, which is only one size up from a heavy crossbow. Still, I think there’s got to be a better way to improve a firearm user’s damage output with this feat than to ignore loading. Especially since this feat would be the only non-homebrew way to get proficiency with firearms. If the only way to gain proficiency also lets you ignore one of a weapon’s properties, why is the property even there to begin with?

 

[Charlaquin]

Maybe it should only give that upgrade if you're already proficient with firearms from some other source.

Currently it’s the only (official) source of firearm proficiency though. I think that’s what bugs me most about it. If firearms were better integrated into the standard game I think a Feat to remove Loading from them would be fine, but with this being the only way to access proficiency with them, any perks the Feat grants are going to be shared by 100% of firearm users.

 

[Leatherhead]

Currently it’s the only (official) source of firearm proficiency though.

Artificers can have Firearm Proficiency as an optional rule (providing that your DM uses guns of course)