What are the 5 most powerful feats in the PHB?

[Slife]

I think Iron Reflexes is the best feat by far.

 

[drothgery]

I think blasting through DR is a huge advantage at mid to high levels. In a recent game, power attacking helped against a creature with DR/silver. The rest of the party members in melee were doing very little actual damage while hitting more often than the PA fighter. Even my monk doing a "flurry of misses" was hitting quite a bit but doing little damage.

Not so much. If anything has significant DR that can't just be overcome by swapping out weapons, then the blaster caster of the group is going to be the one punching through it, not the fighter.

 

[Nifft]

I think Iron Reflexes is the best feat by far.

It's up there with Great Will and Lightning Fortitude.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Deset Gled]

1. Leadership
2. Natural Spell
3. Power Attack
4. Spring Attack
5. Improved Trip

I'm kinda surprised Spring Attack hasn't been brought up yet. It opens up a world of opportunities to any fast moving character.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Really? How many optimised druids did you game with? And did you ever see a 10+ level wildshaping druid? Summoning druid?

I've had a pretty optimised summoning druid, up to 13th level - as I mentioned above I found natural spell to be useful, but not gamebreaking in any way. What techniques have you found that made it uber-powerful?

Cheers

 

[Drowbane]

This feat is underrated. If you've ever been on the receiving end of it, you would appreciate it more. Ouch!

I still wince whenever I think about those Armanites (spelling?) that Rabelais threw at us...

Demonic-centaur-things with perfect (or so it seemed) flight and spirited charge is just... wrong.

 

[Set]

Improved Initiative just gets exponentially better if you are playing a summoner, or have a horde of minions (via Animate Dead, for instance). When your entourage is specifically listed as going on your Initiative count, it's pretty nice having the whole pack going faster. Otherwise, I rarely take it.

If Natural Spell was a Metamagic feat, and was exclusive, it would be a lot less scary, since the Druid would have to prepare the spells he wants to be able to cast in Wild Shape specifically with the feat in advance, which would leave him with two sets of spells, those he can only cast in animal form, and those he can only cast in human form.

It would pretty much have to be by class / role.

Augment Summoning is crazy good for a Conjurer or Druid or Cleric.

Rapid Shot, Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Quick-Draw, etc. are great for a Rogue. Anything that could allow multiple Sneak Attacks in a round is gold.

 

[buzz]

... except that by high levels they're doing ungodly amounts of damage even without power attack (insane strength, powerful magic weapons, feats, other magic items, buffs from allies, barbarian rage, high levels of ranger favored enemy-age or paladin smiting), so increasing the chance of missing has a tendency to reduce expected damage even when you're only making a single attack.

I'm playing a 17th-level barb right now with a greatsword, and PA has been indispensable. He has four attacks and is usually buffed by Haste or his bracers of rapid strike. Ergo, he has more attacks than I know what to do with. Given that he has so many chances "at bat," and almost every single monster we face has DR, it's insane for me not to use PA as much as possible, even if it's just soaking up buff and flank bonuses. That little boost alone will often totally compensate for most creatures' DR.

That said, our longword-wielding paladin doesn't get as much mileage out of PA, but that's the price you pay in D&D for going sword-and-board.

 

[Shade]

Really? How many optimised druids did you game with? And did you ever see a 10+ level wildshaping druid? Summoning druid?

For me it's...

1) Leadership (Duh)
2) Natural Spell (Duh)
3) Augment Summoning (For druids, the summoner build)
4) Improved Trip (Spiked chain tripper)
5) Greater spell penetration

In that order.

I've never found druids with natural spell to be very problematic. 2-for-1 Power Attack has thrown my campaign nearly out-of-whack. I've seen Rapid Shot and Manyshot make already deadly archers even deadlier (not broken, just really good). I threw Quick Draw on the list for its effectively negating disarm attacks and great use for thrown weapons and TWF. I threw Combat Reflexes on the list from a DM's perspective. Since monster monsters are bigger than PCs, I've found it to usually be effective if they haven't assigned some ranks in Tumble.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I've never found druids with natural spell to be very problematic. 2-for-1 Power Attack has thrown my campaign nearly out-of-whack.

By out of whack, you mean let fighting characters dominate combat? I'm not sure how thats a problem. They arent scrying, teleporting, speaking with the dead, or calling outsiders to clip their nails. Fighters should hands down, be the best class in combat - deal the most damage and be the last one standing. They do jack squat outside of it.