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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[Ovinomancer]

Both [MENTION=7706]SkidAce[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6855149]Prakriti[/MENTION] have it right. Advice column.

And, it's not so much of a case of I haven't seen it. It's I can't find ANY evidence of it. At all. If expertise was this major deal, you'd think that we'd have seen a few threads over the years complaining about it. But, pretty much nothing. It's passed muster with hardly a whisper.

So, granting expertise as a feat shouldn't be an issue. I mean, we're talking about very high level characters who've not only burned one of their very limited feats, but also a couple of ASI's on whatever that feat is for, just so they can reliably do something that isn't all that powerful to begin with. I mean, for most of the lifespan of a PC, we're talking about a +3-4 to a single skill. Umm, yay?

"I haven't seen it, trust me on this" != doesn't exist.

 

[Corwin]

"Expertise is a problem, trust me on this" != expertise is a problem.

 

[Mistwell]

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.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

So axing something in the face is "better" than grabbing something and axing it in the face for your preferences, therefore the game should not give people who like the later options which might "overshadow" your preferences if they spend their limited resources on it (though people could already do this with bard or rogue levels and it's never caused a problem before)?

 

[CapnZapp]

So axing something in the face is "better" than grabbing something and axing it in the face for your preferences, therefore the game should not give people who like the later options which might "overshadow" your preferences if they spend their limited resources on it (though people could already do this with bard or rogue levels and it's never caused a problem before)?

I used enough "I" and "me".

Baseless accusation ignored.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Corwin]

I used enough "I" and "me".

Used enough "what", "will", "is" and "need" too...

 

[Mistwell]

I used enough "I" and "me".

Baseless accusation ignored.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

What's baseless about it, and how was that ignoring it?

You said you had preference X. Rather than saying, "And therefore I won't use this option in my game" you said, "I need the rules for grappling to be ungenerous enough to not overshadow the regular combat routine."

My read of that is you don't want the rules to include this option at all, as opposed to you not wanting to use this option but being OK with others using it.

Sure seems like my "accusation" was well founded. Am I reading that wrong, and if so, could you please clarify?

 

[Hussar]

"I haven't seen it, trust me on this" != doesn't exist.

Where's your evidence? Six WotC mega modules and no DC inflation. Hundred plus modules on DmsGuild and no inflation. Three years and thousands of posts and threads and no complaints.

Are you seriously arguing that you've identified a problem that no one else has seen?

 

[Ovinomancer]

Where's your evidence? Six WotC mega modules and no DC inflation. Hundred plus modules on DmsGuild and no inflation. Three years and thousands of posts and threads and no complaints.

Are you seriously arguing that you've identified a problem that no one else has seen?

DC inflation in printed modules wasn't your argument before (we can just scroll back to the threads I responded to). If that's what you meant, instead of there being no complaints about expertise in general or grappling in specific, then, sure, there's no DC inflation in printed material.

 

[Corwin]

DC inflation in printed modules wasn't your argument before (we can just scroll back to the threads I responded to). If that's what you meant, instead of there being no complaints about expertise in general or grappling in specific, then, sure, there's no DC inflation in printed material.

The point, if I may, seems to be that there is no DC inflation while simultaneously expertise has been in existence the entire time. Countless characters, benefiting from expertise for years, against those consistently static DCs. Where are all the complaints and problems with expertise braking 5e?

 

[Ovinomancer]

The point, if I may, seems to be that there is no DC inflation while simultaneously expertise has been in existence the entire time. Countless characters, benefiting from expertise for years, against those consistently static DCs. Where are all the complaints and problems with expertise braking 5e?

Well, as I've shared complaints about expertise at ENW before, in other threads, and been joined by others, all I can say is, around.