A Player's Guide to Feats - Mage Slayer
Tired of the sorcerer or warlock ballsy enough to slide up next to you and blast you in the face with a spell? What about monsters with spellcasting abilities, along with powerful melee attacks? If this is an ongoing problem for you, then the Mage Slayer feat is one you should consider. It’s not for everyone, but certain characters can benefit from it. So, let’s take a closer look at the Mage Slayer feat and see what it’s all about.
What is the Mage Slayer feat?
You have practiced techniques useful in melee combat against spellcasters, gaining the following benefits:
When a creature within 5 feet of you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.
When you damage a creature that is concentrating on a spell, that creature has disadvantage on the saving throw it makes to maintain its concentration.
You have advantage on saving throws against spells cast by creatures within 5 feet of you.
Dissecting the Feat
Mage Slayer was an awesome feat for front-line melee heroes, but Jeremy Crawford and the team went ahead and ruined it. How? Why? In the first part of the feat, you use your reaction to make a melee attack. Any uses for your reaction are great, so it’s great, right? With the changes made to creatures regarding their spellcasting lists and replacing many of the spells with a spell attack action, the opportunity to use Mage Slayer dropped dramatically. Between the start and end of 2021, there was a shift from creatures having spell lists. To (once again) simplify the game, the reduced number of spells was replaced by spell attack actions. The question in my mind is, are these spell attack actions the same as casting a spell? Per Jeremy Crawford’s 2017 tweet, they are not. (Thanks to Arcane Eye for the link to the tweet)
@JeremyECrawford
Counterspell foils spells. A monk's Radiant Sun Bolt isn't a spell, so counterspell has no effect on it. #DnD
So, they neutered one-third of this feat, making it a lot less attractive to take. To compound this, some spell effects will happen before you can take your reaction - teleportation spells, for example - so you won't be able to use your reaction to hit them since they won't be there. This also decreases the number of times you'll get an advantage on your saving throws against spells for the same reason. The Mage Slayer feat does not protect you against attack spells, only against effects spells make incur.
That leaves the breaking of concentration portion of the feat when you stab it with your sword as its primary component. It's extremely helpful when, let's say, a lich successfully casts dominate monster on your pet or cloudkill over your head. It shouldn't be overlooked, but does that make the feat worth taking? Probably not, except for a few classes.
Speaking of classes and the Mage Slayer feat, let's examine which if any, classes should consider taking the feat.
The Mage Slayer Feat Useability by Class
Artificer: Except for the Armorist, the artificer will be in the background, lobbing explosives and shooting creatures with their eldritch cannon to cast spells.
Barbarian: Not worth taking. There are too many other feats the barbarian could and should take.
Bard: College of Swords or maybe College of Valor might consider the feat since they will be hitting creatures, but for the most part, a bard will pass over the feat.
Cleric: Another class with very specific subclasses that may consider the feat. War cleric, for sure, and they should seriously consider taking the feat. Other clerics, unless they are dying to hit things with a mace (pun intended), should probably take the ASI and be happy.
Druid: I’m always saying, “Just be a bear” when talking about a feat and the druid. In this case, the feat is worth considering if you’re a Circle of the Moon druid, wild shape into a bear, and start slashing away at your enemies.
You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.
Your feat abilities fall under “other source,” so claw away and break the poor, defenseless wizard’s concentration.
Fighter: Maybe, but this falls under the same category as the barbarian. Could it be useful? Of course, but there are so many other feats to consider, you should scroll up to Great Weapon Master or down to Resilient or Tough.
Monk: Not worth taking.
Paladin: I love this feat for the paladin. Every Oath is (usually) a front-line melee hero so they can utilize their smite attack. It gives you a use for your reaction, which is great since you can attack, smite, bonus action smite spell, and then use your reaction to possibly attack again later in the round. You also gain additional attacks as you level up, providing you more chances to break their Concentration.
Ranger: Gloomstalker and possibly Monster Slayer. With the changes we talked about above, Monster Slayer is usually going to be the target of spell attacks instead of spells, so I rescind the idea that it’s worth taking.
Rogue: I like this feat for the rogue. With Sneak Attack, there’s a good chance they’ll be activating some part of the feat. Also, the rogue will usually get the hell out of there after they attack. The spellcaster may be pissed and fire a spell off at you, but at least it’s not going to be shocking grasp.
Sorcerer: Not worth taking. Stay in the back and try not to get within 5 feet of any creature. It’s bad for your health.
Warlock: Unless you’re playing a Hexblade warlock, it’s not worth taking
Wizard: 100% not worth taking, even more so than the sorcerer.
Conclusion
With the changes to how spells and spell attacks are now used by creatures, the Mage Slayer feat becomes barely viable. For the most part, you can move on to other feats unless you’re playing in a campaign where it’s wizards and spellcasters all day long.
Looking at you, Strixhaven.
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