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.

 

[billd91]

As a chef, this isn't true. All chefs worth their salt (no pun intended) know how to make ice cream, and do often as on demand special flavors.

If you don't believe me, watch a few episodes of Chopped or Iron Chef

yeah, but they don’t necessarily know when (or more accurately when not) to make ice cream. I saw the Thanksgiving episode of Iron Chef America with the turkey ice cream. SHUDDER

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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

Sure, but it makes the hand crossbow very strong, because you're getting 1d6+dex as a bonus action at very little cost, at-will.

Getting to use firearms without any hassle is most of what the feat does. In a game that has more advanced firearms, the feat is kinda weak, since reloading as a bonus action after 6 shots isn't as big of a deal as not being able to use Extra Attack with your weapon.

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.

Would a disclaimer that firearms are martial weapons if your campaign features fairly common firearms help?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

I think a lot of groups that use feats take as many half-feats as they can make good use of, because taking an ASI is painfully boring. So, it's just a +1. It's half a modifier increase. I'm sorry, but I'm just not willing to even consider the possibility of looking at the balance strictly from a "raise an odd main stat to an even number" assumption. I do consider that as part of the equation, but it's not the only usage of such a feat, by far.

And yeah, I'd rather, on many characters because +1 isn't actually that needed, get a tool and a language than bump my main stat by 1 mod a bit earlier.

And again, it being better by some given metric than an existing option doesn't make it power creep. It doesn't invalidate Prodigy, and it doesn't make the type of character who would otherwise take Prodigy more powerful than if it didn't exist, nor does it make any character more powerful than they could be using only the PHB.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I like these a lot, except for the gun one. I’m fine with there being a Feat to gain proficiency with firearms, but that Feat shouldn’t allow you to ignore the loading property on them. I’m fine with removing the disadvantage for attacking with them in melee, but the ignore loading is too much, IMO.

Only pistols and muskets have the loading property, the rest have the Reload property which is an entirely different mechanic. Pistols and muskets do have better damage (1d10 and 1d12 respectively) compared to bows and crossbows but poorer range (30/90 and 40/120 respectively) so you'd still have to take Sharpshooter before you could really use them effectively all the time. Given that a heavy crossbow is only one die size lower than a musket with better range and that a Crossbow Expert can switch that up with going hand crossbow for the extra attack, I'd say Crossbow Expert is the stronger feat if it's only the "Renaissance" firearms being unlocked by this one.

Now the "modern" and "future" firearms in the DMG are actually more powerful, but if the DM is bringing those into the mix then this feat is hardly to blame for things being overpowered, and none of them have "loading".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Okay, first, maybe the firearms conversation would be better on another thread, do you all agree?

Secondly, I hope they add a feat like the Invocations one, but for Artificer Infusions.

 

[Parmandur]

Especially since this feat would be the only non-homebrew way to get proficiency with firearms.

Unless that's something already being covered by the book they are testing for here in some other way...

 

[Parmandur]

I would love to see an variant option like that, though I'd probably just add it to the game on top of what is there, because I love feats.

But speaking as someone with thousands of hours in both editions prior to 5e, I recommend trying 5e feats at some point, because they are fundamentally different from 3 or 4 e feats.

There have been times where my brother in law was DMing where he wanted to emphasize to everyone that Feats were in the table...but we all found the idea of being hit 5% less often, or what not from an ASI, more attractive?

 

[Charlaquin]

Sure, but it makes the hand crossbow very strong, because you're getting 1d6+dex as a bonus action at very little cost, at-will.

Yeah, a hand crossbow with crossbow expert and a musket with this feat have pretty comparable damage output, with a slight edge to the crossbow user, at the cost of a bonus action. So they’re definitely well-balanced next to each other this way.

Getting to use firearms without any hassle is most of what the feat does. In a game that has more advanced firearms, the feat is kinda weak, since reloading as a bonus action after 6 shots isn't as big of a deal as not being able to use Extra Attack with your weapon.

I agree, I just feel like getting to use firearms without hassle just kinda goes against the flavor of medieval/renaissance firearms. The whole idea is that they’re powerful but unwieldy. I’m not particularly concerned with modern or futuristic firearms.

Would a disclaimer that firearms are martial weapons if your campaign features fairly common firearms help?

That would help, but I think it would create a separate problem of firearms effectively just being more expensive, higher damage crossbows. I double checked though and the DMG does suggest firearm proficiency being learnable through the training downtime activity. So maybe it’s fine and I’m just being too nitpicky.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There have been times where my brother in law was DMing where he wanted to emphasize to everyone that Feats were in the table...but we all found the idea of being hit 5% less often, or what not from an ASI, more attractive?

Unfathomable!

 

[Weiley31]

Yeah, a hand crossbow with crossbow expert and a musket with this feat have pretty comparable damage output, with a slight edge to the crossbow user, at the cost of a bonus action. So they’re definitely well-balanced next to each other this way.


I agree, I just feel like getting to use firearms without hassle just kinda goes against the flavor of medieval/renaissance firearms. The whole idea is that they’re powerful but unwieldy. I’m not particularly concerned with modern or futuristic firearms.


That would help, but I think it would create a separate problem of firearms effectively just being more expensive, higher damage crossbows. I double checked though and the DMG does suggest firearm proficiency being learnable through the training downtime activity. So maybe it’s fine and I’m just being too nitpicky.

Hey, if your PC encounters Mercer the Legendary NPC Gunslinger, you now have source to learning Firearm proficiency.