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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[Oofta]

So, can we all agree that Investigator is terrible? Most searching won't even be in situations where I need to track Action economy.

What would make a good replacement?

While I agree, I think the fundamental issue is that the concept is broken, which is the problem. You could say that in certain circumstances you succeed if you hit a DC 15 like acrobat. You could get advantage on your next attack or ability check ala Sherlock Holmes but that's already taken by Empathic. You could think of some clever way to assist someone ... no that's Historian.

The structure of proficiency bonus + some unique cool power associated to that ability is the issue. There's just not that much room for unique powers that aren't overpowered or change the flavor of the game that also mean something when you have 18 of them.

I feel for the author of the article. I do. Because if this were a previous edition of the game it would be easier. You could have looked at the rules for stealth and given a specific advantage that was not already indicated by the specific rules instead of giving a specific (overpowered IMHO) rule in a system that was purposely left vague.

So my suggestion? Maybe just the proficiency bonus - and the proficiency bonus alone - is enough. They're already half feats, do they need anything more?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

While I agree, I think the fundamental issue is that the concept is broken, which is the problem. You could say that in certain circumstances you succeed if you hit a DC 15 like acrobat. You could get advantage on your next attack or ability check ala Sherlock Holmes but that's already taken by Empathic. You could think of some clever way to assist someone ... no that's Historian.

The structure of proficiency bonus + some unique cool power associated to that ability is the issue. There's just not that much room for unique powers that aren't overpowered or change the flavor of the game that also mean something when you have 18 of them.

I feel for the author of the article. I do. Because if this were a previous edition of the game it would be easier. You could have looked at the rules for stealth and given a specific advantage that was not already indicated by the specific rules instead of giving a specific (overpowered IMHO) rule in a system that was purposely left vague.

So my suggestion? Maybe just the proficiency bonus - and the proficiency bonus alone - is enough. They're already half feats, do they need anything more?

Well, the benefit works fine, as is. It's just not a particularly useful benefit, at least IME, because it's so narrow. The only time Search as a Bonus action is going to come up is combat with hidden creatures, and the occasional "gotta find the mcguffin and do the thing with it while the doom clock counts down" scenario. Pretty much every other feat is useful a lot more often than that.

But I'd have no issue with it if it were just part of a feat. Or a small class feature, etc.

Also, yes, the feats do need more than proficiency. Look at the half feats in he phb, other than the sad AF Linguist feat. We switched that to this still of feat, bc we have the Riddle skill, which covers cyphers, translating text, and speaking in and understanding coded language. Side note, I've mostly seen players take these feats to get proficiencies they didn't have, so far.

Some things Investigation handles are;

examining something to learn about it's past. "The door handle is well worn, as is the floor in front of the door, this room is accessed often." Or forensics stuff like examining a body for clues.

Research? Or am I adding that to my games because I do a lot of investigation?

What it doesn't naturally do, I would say, is allow for big jumps like Sherlock Holmes makes. Or to learn things normally covers by other skills, examine magical effects to deduce their purpose...all things a feat could add.

 

[Gradine]

I'm just relaying what I've seen. If I have a shallow 20 ft wide river that has water tumbling over rocks and is therefore difficult terrain, I may not think of the option as a DM that the character could dextrously jump from rock to rock. But now? If we use this feat I guarantee someone will raise a fuss if someone tries to cross without the acrobat feat.

Maybe I just need better players. Unfortunately I kind of like them. Heck, I liked one of them so much I married her.

I can sympathize with that. I recognize that it's a lot easier in theory to talk about player vs. DM expectations and aesthetics and talk about how some players may not fit at some tables, and yet... not everyone has the luxury of choosing their table. I don't know how uncommon or common it is, but I too run mostly for people who are already my friends (rather than specifically finding new players for my games). I imagine AL also makes it hard to choose who your players or DM is.

This argument pretty much run its course thirty pages ago, so I won't drag it on further. I still stand by what I've always claimed: that no matter what it looks like a 5e feat does not override the core frameworks of 5e. I frankly think that they're in the right direction with these feat riders, but they've missed the mark on quite a few of them. But if you or your players have a problem with them, I can't tell you to just change your framework so that they aren't a problem anymore (I mean, I can, and I have, and I'm still not quite sure why that doesn't just solve it for anyone, but that's neither here nor there ). And I definitely stand by what I've said about the impact of parameters on creativity. But there's little more to be gained from continuing to hash that out.

 

[Gradine]

So my suggestion? Maybe just the proficiency bonus - and the proficiency bonus alone - is enough. They're already half feats, do they need anything more?

I think that they do. Maybe not to the extent that some (most?) of these do currently, but yeah, I think they need to do something more. Otherwise they're a 3.X or 4e feat; some bonuses to die rolls, and that's not what 5e feats should represent. There needs to be that extra rider. But the riders could be better, more interesting, less intrusive. But they should probably follow a few rules more strictly:

* They are still ability checks; ie, DM still has to determine chance of success/failure before calling for a check.
* That means no static DCs. I'd avoid opposed rolls too, at least in combat. Which reminds me...
* NO DIRECT COMBAT UTILITY. Leave these riders for mostly Exploration and Social pillars. That's going to be unavoidable for some skills that already have combat utility (see: Athletics) but I can't imagine how that's going to be especially game-breaking.
* Which means no action economy rules, no conditions, probably nothing related to specific movement (which ties back into the action economy, really).

Something neat and conditional that might very well turn the tide in a particular non-combat encounter every once in a blue moon. Because from a balance perspective, Expertise plus the half ASI is probably enough for the feat, so the rider doesn't have to powerful or consistently useful. But it does need something interesting and flavorful, something that expands upon the idea of what skills can be used for without also gating said content. I really do think feats like Actor or Keen Mind should be the examples to follow here.

 

[Oofta]

Something neat and conditional that might very well turn the tide in a particular non-combat encounter every once in a blue moon. Because from a balance perspective, Expertise plus the half ASI is probably enough for the feat, so the rider doesn't have to powerful or consistently useful. But it does need something interesting and flavorful, something that expands upon the idea of what skills can be used for without also gating said content. I really do think feats like Actor or Keen Mind should be the examples to follow here.

The problem is that they have to come up with 18 such feats the way these are done. Actor and Keen Mind started with the question of "We have this common fantasy trope that the rules don't currently have, how do we implement that without breaking the game?"

These feats try to reverse that process with "We have these 18 skills, where can we cram them in?" I think it would be difficult, if not impossible to do that with the open nature of 5E.

If they had instead come up with 1 or 2 special abilities per attribute then maybe you could have something.
- Strength grants proficiency in Athletics. Gain advantage on strength checks (other than grapple) or the ability to use strength instead of charisma for intimidate.
- Dexterity grants proficiency in one Dexterity based skill. Gain advantage on dexterity saves vs traps or the bonus action sleight of hand.

And so on. The idea is that you could narrow down the special abilities you gain to be meaningful without being game breaking. Focused advantage on a particular type of check or something fun based on the ability but not necessarily the skill.

I'd have to think about it a little more, but I think I have a decent start on a home rule I'd be OK with.

[EDIT] added the "other than grapple", because otherwise it would be too powerful.

 

[Ashkelon]

I am disappointed about how many of these feats provide additional combat features. I feel it is a missed opportunity to enhance a characters social or exploration pillar.

I don't think these feats should give players capabilities they couldn't already do with skills, but instead should enhance what those skills already do by getting rid of the skill check automatically or providing a drastically improved effect.

For example, with the acrobatics feat I think it should just allow the character to ignore difficult terrain. That wouldn't be overpowered by any stretch. That way players without the feat could attempt to ignore difficult terrain with an acrobatics check, but possessing the feat ensures your ability to always inore difficult terrain.

The athletics feat should grant a climb and a swim speed. Athletics already let's you climb and swim, but the feat allows you to do it without needing a check.

The deception feat could produce a non magical effect similar to the suggestion spell. Deception already allows you to convince NPCs to do things, the feat just makes the types of effects bigger and better.

More cool abilities like that would have been welcome

 

[apollophin]

Oh yeah, more feats.