Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Get Better At Skills With These Feats

The latest Unearthed Arcana from Jeremy Crawford and again featuring guest writer Robert J. Schwalb introduces a number of feats which make you better at skills. Each increases the skill's primary ability score, doubles your proficiency bonus, and gives you a little bonus ability. "This week we introduce new feats to playtest. Each of these feats makes you better at one of the game’s eighteen skills. We invite you to read them, give them a try in play, and let us know what you think in the survey we release in the next installment of Unearthed Arcana."

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[Satyrn]

Yes and why are people thinking I think they stack

Probably because someone on your "side" thought so, and they're projecting that onto you.

 

[Satyrn]

Because they missed the rule? Because they only skimmed over the "how to create a character section"?

Man, oofta, you're not getting the question he's asking.

Try rereading it as though you've never read it before, and don't know the context.

 

[Oofta]

Man, oofta, you're not getting the question he's asking.

Try rereading it as though you've never read it before, and don't know the context.

Gaahh. It's a Monday. I shall now go hang myself from the tree of shame. Very similar to Conan's Tree of Woe.

It's just a normal tree, with a bunch of mockingbirds saying "shame!" over and over again.

 

[CapnZapp]

I am basically saying it is just a feat tax.

To me it can never become a feat tax. It's just skills, after all.

They seldom accomplish anything a sword and a spell can't do. I would never waste a whole feat on expertise in just a single skill; not even Perception.

This doesn't mean I can't see that it might be a feat tax for you, and people playing the game like you.

Just that you can relax: a general feat tax it is not.



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[BookBarbarian]

To me it can never become a feat tax. It's just skills, after all.

They seldom accomplish anything a sword and a spell can't do. I would never waste a whole feat on expertise in just a single skill; not even Perception.

This doesn't mean I can't see that it might be a feat tax for you, and people playing the game like you.

Just that you can relax: a general feat tax it is not.



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As my posts in this thread have indicated I'm a big fan of Shoving and Grappling. I would spend a feat on Athletics Expertise.

i would probably want Expertise anytime I expect a contested skill check rather than a set DC.

 

[CapnZapp]

Sure.

I just don't find the game fun anymore if it devolves into grappling every monster to kill it.

Which is what the rules lead to, since a specialized grappler will easily outdo any beast he's able to at all grapple.

To me D&D is about axing monsters in the face.

I need the rules for grappling to be ungenerous enough to not overshadow the regular combat routine.

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[BookBarbarian]

Sure.

I just don't find the game fun anymore if it devolves into grappling every monster to kill it.

Which is what the rules lead to, since a specialized grappler will easily outdo any beast he's able to at all grapple.

To me D&D is about axing monsters in the face.

I need the rules for grappling to be ungenerous enough to not overshadow the regular combat routine.

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I've never seen the game devolve to grappling every monster to kill it. Reasons including but not limited to:

Creatures that are bigger than size Large.
Creatures that are immune to Grappling such as Water Wierds
Creatures that Damage players that are near it like Balrogs

I guess if every combat had a number of Large or smaller creatures less than or equal to the number of grapplers in the party, than I suppose the game could devolve into grappling Every monster to kill it.

In my experience it's more typical to have one Grappler in the party grab one (usually Medium or smaller, but occasionally Large) monster before it can get to the spellcasters, pin it, and rip into it's face with the one handed or versatile weapon of choice, possibly aided by other members of the party, but unlikely to be since they will be dealing with the other monsters in the encounter.

And I've never found the rules for grappling to be generous enough to overshadow regular combat simply by virtue of the fact that grappling is limited to free hands, of which my player's characters have only a maximum of two and of those two one is usually holding a weapon or on a rare occasion a shield.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I am saying my vote is against this for the feedback they want from Unearthed Arcana articles. Skills should be good enough on their own without a feat to be good at the skill.

They...are. With or without these feats.

 

[Hussar]

As my posts in this thread have indicated I'm a big fan of Shoving and Grappling. I would spend a feat on Athletics Expertise.

i would probably want Expertise anytime I expect a contested skill check rather than a set DC.

But, that's the point here. You can already do that. 1 level of rogue and POOF you have multiple skills with expertise. Getting expertise in Althletics is already very, very easily achievable.

Has it been a problem? Are people constantly sending Agony Aunt style letters to WotC complaining about how grappling and expertise is broken? Three years of 5e on these boards, and I'm not recalling a single instance of anyone complaining about this.

So, gaining Expertise through a feat is about the same cost as taking 1 level in rogue (after all, you gain quite a suite of goodies with 1 level of rogue) and fits a LOT better with many character concepts where a level in rogue makes no sense.

The mechanical arguments here don't make any sense to me. We've HAD this for three years already and it hasn't been a problem. Why is it suddenly a problem now? Up to, what 9th level (Books are not here), we're talking a +3 bonus to a single skill. Even at 20th level, we're talking a +5 bonus. That's it.

If your game breaks because someone has a +5 to a skill, I'm thinking that there might just be larger problems at the table.

 

[Corwin]

The mechanical arguments here don't make any sense to me. We've HAD this for three years already and it hasn't been a problem. Why is it suddenly a problem now?

I've seen Bard/Rogue multiclasses, primarily for expertise stacking skill monkey as a goal. Still wasn't broken.