Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Races

I find this line mystifying: "These feats don’t assume that multiclassing is used in a campaign."

What are they trying to say here? Do these feats become unbalanced when combined with multiclassing?

Also, some of the feats significantly alter a character's body. Barbed Hide, for example, endows a Tiefling with a barbed hide. That's not the sort of thing that you can acquire through training. Which gives rise to the question, "Why couldn't the Tiefling do this at level 1?" It's not like Pole Arm Master, where you can explain the acquisition of the new ability through practice and training. Either you were born with a barbed hide or you weren't.

Same with Dragon Wings: "You sprout draconic wings." I'm not well-versed in Dragonborn lore, but is that really something that just... happens during their adult life?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I agree that the human stuff is kind of bland, but that is par for the course for humans. Unless they decided that humans were better mystics than other races or something like that (and made feats that facilitated being a mystic if you were a human), it would be hard to give humans something special.

Unless.....

With all the half-this or half-that, you could do something like "elf blooded" or "dwarf blooded", ect. where your parents were human, your grandparents (both sides) were humans, but a long time ago, a little bit of X race got in your family tree, not enough at this point to make you a half-X, but through the same kind of luck that makes a sorcerer a sorcerer, you are getting a little bit of the benefits of the other race (pick one racial ability or you count as a member of X race for taking a feat).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I really like those feats.
With a few exception they look either balanced, or they are bringing back abilities of 4e.
I do miss dragon senses for dragonborn though. The dwarven dodge feat definitely needs a limit per short rest. Maybe twice per shot rest or so.
Some feats like dragon wings maybe need a level restriction.

 

[Al2O3]

I like how the feats bring back things I miss from 4e racial features and racial feats. What I like even better are the narrative related feats such as the tiefling ones.

Not sure what I think about racial multiclass lite such as Dwarven grudge. A feat with that name and story is great and a version of favoured enemy might be the best way to implement it (in particular if multiclassing is forbidden at the table). Still, it could be nice to have a more unique expression of the concept.

Overall I'm more interested in playing races I typically avoid (night blind races, slow races and tieflings).

Sent from my Nexus 6 using EN World mobile app

 

[Ketser]

Well... I like them a lot, a few of them could use a bit of adjustment. They add the nice element of some members of a race having rare talents, training, mutations or bloodline stuff that allows them to unlock abilities uncommon among their race. And i like that they are an option to add back some 4e racials to people who might want them.

The only problem i have is that those feats cover only the PHB races and not the EEPC and Volo stuff. Would also like to see some aasimar, lizardman, etc feats.

In general about the power level of feats and other issues: I feel most of the issues with feats are born from the issue that they were turned into an optional rule. This puts them also more strongly into "rulings not rules" territory and leaves the DM to deal with consequences of allowing feats. At home there is no issue i know to adjust the enemies if the party has GWM and/or Sharpshooter. I can see why its a greater issue in Al or other forms of organized play.

 

[zaratan]

In that case, I propose the Variant Human Variant (VHV). The VHV is exactly the same as the VH, with the exception that they can only pick from one of the Human racial feats as their bonus feat.

Or maybe VHHVHV, Variant Half Human Variant Humanoid Variation, that is exactly like VHV, but he can pick only feata from other humanoids because he as half that.

 

[Mercule]

I like these a lot more than the skill feats. Wait.... That's a low bar.... I like these feats. There are some I'm not totally sold on (Elven Accuracy), but the whole is interesting.

Most of the dwarven feats are winners, IMO. Ditto with the dragonborn and tiefling (the late manifestation doesn't bother me, other than, maybe, the wings).

The not-so-good: Still don't like handing out Expertise. This is why I gave pretty negative feedback on the skill feats. Just don't do it.

I'll agree with [MENTION=16728]schnee[/MENTION] about handing out spell-like abilities. I'd much rather see things that could be described as a mundane ability be handled as such. Sure, some things make sense as a spell, but save it for things that actually are spell-like. Dunno, maybe they really mean for things like the wood elf stealth to be magical. If so, then I just disagree about the aesthetics.

While I'm coming to the same conclusion as [MENTION=57494]Xeviat[/MENTION] on half-feats, I think it's for a different reason. I don't want an abundance of either ASIs or feats, so forcing folks to choose between them is perfect, IMO. I just think that a partial ASI should be a last-ditch padding for a feat. It makes a ton of sense for things like Resilient. Otherwise, try to come up with something more else to make the feat worth a "whole feat". One problem with "half feats" is that it forces the player to potentially accept a boost to an already maxed stat, if he wants the feat power. The more feats with partial ASIs, the more likely that is.

 

[Mercule]

Or maybe VHHVHV, Variant Half Human Variant Humanoid Variation, that is exactly like VHV, but he can pick only feata from other humanoids because he as half that.

That kinda hurts my head.

How many variants would a variant human vary if a variant human could vary humans?

 

[phantomK9]

I agree that the human stuff is kind of bland, but that is par for the course for humans. Unless they decided that humans were better mystics than other races or something like that (and made feats that facilitated being a mystic if you were a human), it would be hard to give humans something special.

Unless.....

With all the half-this or half-that, you could do something like "elf blooded" or "dwarf blooded", ect. where your parents were human, your grandparents (both sides) were humans, but a long time ago, a little bit of X race got in your family tree, not enough at this point to make you a half-X, but through the same kind of luck that makes a sorcerer a sorcerer, you are getting a little bit of the benefits of the other race (pick one racial ability or you count as a member of X race for taking a feat).

I really like this idea. In fact a character that was in a campaign we just finished (got to level 20!) a few weeks ago had this exact thing in his family background....descended from Elven nobility, but the blood was diluted through many generations of humans. Would be neat to allow something like that as a feat. Although, if you are already playing variant human you could simply take a high DEX, for example, and claim that a "Elven heritage", but I like being able to take feats like this.

In a setting that I'm working on, humans are the most recent race to show up in the setting and they can interbreed with nearly every other sentient race in the game world (not just orcs and elves) so some mechanic like allowing bloodline feats for just a little bit of variety would be interesting.

 

[phantomK9]

Or maybe VHHVHV, Variant Half Human Variant Humanoid Variation, that is exactly like VHV, but he can pick only feata from other humanoids because he as half that.

My mind looks at that and immediately reads it as HVV (Human Vampire Virus), too much Shadowrun in my youth.

 

[Ketser]

Or maybe VHHVHV, Variant Half Human Variant Humanoid Variation, that is exactly like VHV, but he can pick only feata from other humanoids because he as half that.

Leaving all the human variant variant jokes aside i feel that combining variant human and the human determination feat actually make a pretty decent house ruled human race (+3 to freely chosen stats, extra skill and the determination ability) if you want a bit more interesting human race than the standard, but don't want to allow human characters access to some/most/all other feats at 1st lvl. Especially if you want add the humans are determined to the typical humans are versatile trope or play more on that angle as some settings do.