D&D 5E What if you had to take a feat at ASI levels?

[Cruentus]

We have been doing this from basically the beginning. It has worked great for us. Feats are much more interesting than a simple ability bonus. Also, it keeps bonuses lower which I think works better with the default monster math for our group. However, we do allow almost all UA feats, so we have a larger variety of options (and more half feats).

PS. I see concern about balance between feats. That has not been a concern/issue for us. My group doesn't seem to care if a feat is more or less powerful, just if it is interesting and fits their character. They definitely don't care if one character has "better" feats than another.

When you say you use the UA Feats, and have a larger variety of half feats, are you still giving out stat increases for Feats, or only for half feats?

I feel like the proposed options were
1) Feats and no ASI (Feats don't give ASI)
2) Feats with +1 ASI

Or am I off in left field?

Basically @dave2008 how exactly have you set this up in your game? I'm interested in knowing. Thanks!

 

[Maxperson]

I think I would prefer to only get feats and not ASIs. It would make stats and stat gain worth more like in the olden times. When you get to that 20 it would really mean something, rather than just being, "I made level 4."

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Honestly I'd prefer if both ASI and Feat were atomized out of the game as I find the barely-a-race to 20 deeply boring and that there's too much features in each class already, but I think just feats would be a nice compromise

 

[DND_Reborn]

Honestly I'd prefer if both ASI and Feat were atomized out of the game as I find the barely-a-race to 20 deeply boring and that there's too much features in each class already, but I think just feats would be a nice compromise

I wonder if players were offered:

• an extra hit die, or
• an additional spell slot (maybe at the highest level they can cast?)

If people would take them over a feat/ASI?

(Because I agree most classes have a lot of features already!)

 

[Vaalingrade]

After the sunshining all day and all the evils of the world ending?

We'd need way more decent feats than the sad handful we have now.

 

[Maxperson]

I wonder if players were offered:

• an extra hit die, or
• an additional spell slot (maybe at the highest level they can cast?)

If people would take them over a feat/ASI?

(Because I agree most classes have a lot of features already!)

It would have to be better than a hit die for martials to equal a spell slot. Perhaps extra uses of a class feature that you already possess at each "ASI." A wizard could choose an extra spell slot, Portent, etc. A fighter an action surge. And so on.

 

[Micah Sweet]

We all know feats are not all created equal, which makes the idea that they’re balanced against an ASI pretty dubious. One alternative is to just not use feats, since they are optional. But what about going the opposite direction? You can only take a feat when you reach an ASI level.

Obviously this would slow down ability bonus advancement. It would still be possible to increase ability scores with “half-feats,” but that limits your selection of feats, which seems like a reasonable trade-off to me. And even then you only get +1 instead of +2.

Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it go? If not, what are your thoughts about it?

I love this idea! We should be slowing down ASI advancement, and forcing the issue is the only i can see it happening.

 

[dave2008]

When you say you use the UA Feats, and have a larger variety of half feats, are you still giving out stat increases for Feats, or only for half feats?

I feel like the proposed options were
1) Feats and no ASI (Feats don't give ASI)
2) Feats with +1 ASI

Or am I off in left field?

Basically @dave2008 how exactly have you set this up in your game? I'm interested in knowing. Thanks!

There are some feats that give a +1 to an ability score along with some other things. The bonus is typically related to the feat. We allow these feats. Some are "official" and some only appeared in a UA (like the weapon feats IIRC). IMO, there is no such thing as a half feat, though I understand what people mean when they say that

 

[ScuroNotte]

One table we started with an array of 17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 10. Then each ASI we had to choose a feat (some homebrew). The GM tweaked the creatures at the lower levels, but so far we are level 7 and we are having fun. I started as a variant Human but have only selected 2 feats that had no ASI bonus so far, though I plan to take Resilient Constitution at 8th level.

 

[Horwath]

only feats IMHO,

since we will have agnostic racial ability bonuses in two years, we can axe that too.

have modified starting array/point buy and have ability increase only with magic items or very rare class bonuses.

starting array: With small ASI's included that would come from leveling.

18,16,14,12,10,8

or point buy:

19pts:

6: -2pts(optional if players desire bigger stat penalty)
8: 0pts
10: 1pt
12: 2pts
14: 3pts
16: 5pts
18: 8pts
20: 12pts(optional for more starting points in pool and high powered campaign)

14 needed for multiclassing option.