Jul 7

Jul 7 A Player's Guide to Feats - Chef

Did your dreams of attending culinary school get crushed when you couldn't get that school loan and are now forced to slay dragons to earn tuition? Is cooking a side hobby that keeps you sane on those downtime days? Or maybe you want to bake cookies as good as your grandma did. Whatever the reason, the Chef feat has you covered. Whether or not that makes it a feat worth taking is another matter entirely.

What is the Chef Feat?

The Chef feat is described as the following:

Time spent mastering the special food has paid off, granting you the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution or Wisdom score by 1 to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with cook's utensils if you still need it.
As part of a short rest, you can cook exceptional food, provided you have ingredients and cook's utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 + your proficiency bonus. At the end of the short rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain hit points regains an extra 1d8 hit points.
With one hour of work or when you finish a long rest, you can cook a number of treats equal to your proficiency bonus. These special treats last 8 hours after being made. A creature can use a bonus action to eat one of those treats to gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.
Tasha's Guide to Everything

Dissecting the Feat

There is a lot of information here, so let's look and see what's valuable and what isn't.

Tasha's ushered in the idea that all feats should come with a stat boost and whatever particular traits the feat entails. The Chef feat grants +1 to either Constitution or Wisdom, giving the feat some attractive flexibility depending on your class. Some say this is the only redeeming part of the feat. I can't entirely agree, but it is an slightly enticing reason to take the feat. Since it looks like, moving forward, all feats will come with a stat boost, your chef skills need to be good to justify taking the feat.

You gain proficiency in cook's tools. Well, duh.

The meat of the feat comes into play when you take a rest. Short rests are all about using your hit die pool to heal yourself. Once the chef has created their tasty little treat, you can save a hit die by gaining 1d8 by eating said treat. Being able to create six treats at the first through fourth level should cover the entire party. It's terrific that you can whip up ten healing bites at the 20th level, but does anyone care? Probably not.

A long rest has you cooking even more but producing less. You create a number of goodies equal to your proficiency modifier for all your hard work. That's underwhelming, for sure. And what do these tasty treats do? Grant you temporary hit points equal to your proficiency modifier. Now we go from underwhelming to incredibly disappointing. To use these snacks, you'll need to use a bonus action, limiting their use in combat. Since temporary hit points don't stack, the idea that your 2nd level monk will waste a bonus action to gain a measly two temporary hit points is ridiculous.

The Chef Feat Useability by Class

Artificer: Adds a layer of flavor (an alchemist artificer that was once a chef sounds like fun).

Barbarian: Not worth taking unless your barbarian thinks they are Godron Ramsey.

Bard: The Chef is the best fit for the feat. Being the skill monkey most bards are, the Chef feat adds another layer of skills to their repertoire. Baking up some healing brownies while creating the soothing sounds of the bard's Song of Rest equates to hit dice+1d6+1d8 during a short rest. In addition, since you're dumping most of your points in Charisma and Dexterity, you can use the +1 in two possibly neglected ability scores.

Cleric: +1 to Wisdom is nice and fits with the whole" I'm you're healer" motif.

Druid: Flavor only.

Fighter: Way too many uses for their bonus action to take the feat, let alone eat cookies in the heat of battle.

Monk: Way too many uses for their bonus action to take the feat, let alone eat cookies in the heat of battle.

Paladin: Sacrificing your bonus action smites to add a tiny number of hit points isn't worth it. If your cleric is all about healing, then consider it, but realistically, there are any number of better feats.

Ranger: Hunt for your food and a night of cooking over the campfire. Sounds great, but it's more for the flavor than practicality.

Rogue: See monk.

Sorcerer: Not worth taking.

Warlock: Not worth taking

Wizard: Ignore the feat unless you're desperate for a bump to your Constitution.

Conclusion

The Chef feat is quite viable at lower levels to extend your hit dice out as long as possible. Hit points are the name of the game, and they go quickly when you're a lowly fighter. The problem is, you aren't going to stay at a low level long (or so you hope), and the feat's traits are rendered obsolete. A 13th-level character isn't going to waste their bonus action to gain a few hit points.

The Chef feat does add flavor and can be a fun part of your background. Does that mean you should take it? Probably not, for while it does have some redeeming qualities, there are other, better feats out there, not to mention those golden two ASI points calling your name at every opportunity.

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