A Player's Guide to Feats - New Edition Update
With a copy of the new Player’s Handbook in my grubby hands, I wanted to look at feats and how they have changed. If they have, how does this affect your desire to take them? We will look at that today for all the feats we’ve previously discussed in the Player’s Guide to Feats series.
A couple of quick notes. Origin feats you get right out of the gate, and everyone gets one. All general feats are only available starting at 4th level. It makes sense since you now get an origin feat based on your background. Also, every feat now comes with an ability score boost. That alone makes some of the feats I was on the fence about worth taking. Many feats have fallen off the list, whether because they were silly ones from the newer books (looking at you, Dragonlance) or tied to race.
So, let’s dive in and look at how if at all, feats have changed.
Actor
It’s a general feat, with the prerequisite of a 13+ Charisma. The Charisma ability score increase and the abilities are the same, but the wording and some of the mechanics have changed. When you’re trying to pass yourself off as someone, it is now phrased as:
Impersonation - While you’re disguised as a real or fictional person, you have Advantage on Charisma (Deception or Perception) checks to convince others that you are that person.
So that’s a whole lot of words to describe the same ability. The mimicry ability no longer requires you to listen to a person for 1 minute before you can copy their voice. Your chance to pull mimicry off now requires the creature to succeed on a Wisdom (Insight) to determine if you’re faking it. It’s no longer contested by your Deception (Charisma) check but DC 8 plus your Charisma modifier and Proficiency Bonus).
Alert
Alert is an Origin Feat, which only the Criminal and Guard can access. There are significant changes to the feat. When you roll advantage, you no longer add 5 to the roll but your Proficiency Bonus. Ok, you will eventually get to add 5 to your Initiative roll…at the 13th level.
Gone is you can’t be surprised while you are conscious and other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you. A single ability, Initiative Swap, has replaced these.
Immediately after you roll Initiative, you can swap your Initiative with the Initiative of one willing ally in the same combat. You can’t make this swap if you or your ally have the Incapacitated condition.
It’s a tactical maneuver benefit. It’s much more helpful than either of the old abilities. You can potentially use this in every combat, where you are never surprised, and other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you due to being unseen by you, which are uncommon events.
Artificer Initiate - No Artificer class means no more Artificer Initiate feat.
Athlete
Athlete is a general feat, but it comes with a prerequisite of having a Dexterity of 13 or more. The ability score options (Strength and Dexterity) remain the same. All the abilities remain identical, just with new language. Nothing to see here.
Bountiful Luck
The bountiful luck feat has been removed. Sorry halflings.
Charger
It is a general feat that's wholly reworked. You need a Strength or Dexterity of 13 or higher to take this feat. Dashing no longer provides an additional bonus action attack or the shove action. Replacing it is the Improved Dash benefit.
When you take the Dash action, your speed increases by 10 feet for that action.
I don't know how that's "improved." Next, when you're dashing, you no longer obtain a +5 bonus to your attack roll. The two abilities from the feat are split. The new Charge Attack only requires you to move 10 feet in a straight line toward your opponent. In doing so, you can either push the target 10 feet - or, as we know it, shove them - or gain a 1d8 bonus to your damage roll. You determine whether a bonus to hit or damage is better. Given how easy it is to hit most creatures, I like the damage option.
Chef
A general feat, the Chef feat remains the same. Eat up, everyone.
Crossbow Expert
A general feat, the essentials remain the same but with more minor mechanical adjustments. The feat now comes with a +1 ability score increase to your Dexterity score.
There are a lot more words about ignoring loading for crossbow.
You ignore the Loading property of the Hand Crossbow, Heavy Crossbow, and Light Crossbow (all called crossbows elsewhere in this feat). If you're holding on to one of them, you can load a piece of ammunition into it even if you lack a free hand.
Talk about space filler.
I'm sensing a trend when I tell you you can no longer make a bonus action attack roll with a hand crossbow. Bonus Actions seemingly fall by the wayside, as we'll see as we move forward. The Dual Wielding portion of the feat seems oddly worded.
When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the extra attack if that attack is with a crossbow that has the Light property and you aren't already adding that modifier to the damage.
The "extra attack" is found nowhere in the feat. It's entirely possible that there's something I haven't read regarding crossbows, light weapons, and extra attacks, but I haven't seen it. It turns out that the extra attack has to be with a crossbow with the light property, damage bonuses are restricted, blah blah blah. The ability score increase makes it a viable feat, but boy, did they overthink this one.
Crusher
A general feat with no changes.
Defensive Duelist
A general feat with a lot of additional words for the same benefits. You also increase your Dexterity by 1.
Dragon Fear - Goodbye, Dragon Fear, we barely used knew you.
Dragon Hide - Apparently, the new edition has something against Dragonborn abilities, which makes sense since everything is tied to your background.
Dual Wielder
A general feat with which you now can increase either your Strength or Dexterity by 1. The ability to draw or stow your weapons is the same. Gone are the AC bonuses. The two weapon-fighting benefit have been changed to Enhanced Dual Wielding.
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a weapon that has the Light property, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn with a different weapon, which must be a melee weapon that lacks the Two-Handed Property. You don’t add your ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative.
Once again, that’s a whole lot of words to basically recreate the ability to use two-weapon fighting even when the one-handed melee weapons you are wielding aren't light. I guess the new edition writing is much more verbose.
Durable
A general feat with some changes. You can now roll a Hit Die as a bonus action and when you do, you regain hit points equal to the number on the die. It previously was twice your proficiency bonus, making this a downgrade. Most characters who take the feat will have a high Constitution. In the 5e version, its a fixed amount of hit points. It’s a tradeoff of sorts. You can gain hit points back at any time using a bonus action, but you’ll gain, on average, fewer hit points per Hit Die.
Defy Death is a great addition, as you have Advanatge on Death Saving Throws. Dying sucks, so anything to reduce the chance of doing so is fantastic.
Eldritch Adept - It no longer exists.
Elemental Adept
Other than increasing your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, nothing changes.
Eleven Accuracy - Being a racial feat means it goes the way of the dodo bird.
Fade Away - Has faded away, no longer existing.
Fey Teleportation- Teleported into nothingness.
Fey Touched
A general feat with no changes, and why would you want it to? Being able to cast misty step for free doesn’t need much in the way of improvement.
Fighting Initiate - Gone. Only fighters get fighter fighting styles. (That’s a lot of fighting)
Flames of Phlegethos - Nope.
Grappler
A general feat that now requires a Strength or Dexterity of 13. You still have Advantage on attack rolls on a creature you are grappling. You no longer have the option to restrain a creature, but there are some upgrades. First up is Punch and Grab
When you hit a creature with an Unarmed Strike as part of the Attack on your turn you can use both the Damage and the Grapple option. You can use this benefit only once per turn.
If you ask me, the unarmed strike part of the feat makes sense, but it has more of a Tavern Brawler feel. Monks could make the most use of this benefit. Next is the Fast Wrestler portion of the feat
Your speed isn’t halved when you move a creature Grappled by you if the creature is your size or smaller.
On the surface, it doesn’t sound like a great addition. It can, however, be used in several useful ways. Maintain battlefield control by moving a creature around like a pawn. Drag a creature over to have the spellcaster use touch spells without fear of getting their heads sliced off. Reaching the cliff ledge 20 feet away only takes one turn, letting you toss the bad guy over to their death sooner. There are more ways to utilize this than meets the eye if you use your imagination.
Great Weapon Master
A general feat that requires a Strength of 13 or more, and you increase your Strength score by 1. The Hew benefit has you retaining the chance to bonus action when landing a critical hit or dropping a creature to zero to attack a creature.
The whole -5 to an attack roll to gain +10 to damage is replaced with Heavy Weapon Mastery. Now, when you hit a creature with a weapon with Heavy property, you deal damage equal to your Proficiency bonus. You’ll never get to +10, but it applies to every attack with your giant sword, and you never have to take a penalty.
Gunner - No more guns.
Healer
An origin feat gained by taking the Hermit background. I was hoping there would be some significant changes to the feat. There weren’t any, and the changes made nerfed the feat. Stabilizing a creature with a healer’s kit leaves them unconscious still, and no one is regaining a hit point. Instead, you re-roll a 1 on a die using the Battle Medic portion of the feat. What is the Battle Medic benefit, you ask?
If you have a Healer’s Kit, you can expand one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself as a Utilize action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Point Dice, and then you roll that die. The creature regains a number of hit points equal to the roll plus your Proficiency bonus.
Before, it was a flat 1d6+4, plus additional hit points equal to the creature’s max number of Hit Dice. Now, the die used depends on your Hit Dice. Barbarians have the best chance to gain the most hit points (1d12 + plus the healer’s Proficiency bonus), while the poor sorcerer and wizard have the lowest total (1d6 + Proficiency bonus). One’s Proficiency bonus doesn’t scale nearly as well as the number of hit dice one may have.
For example, a 5th edition 7th level Cleric could gain a maximum of 17 hit points (1d6 +4, plus their 7 hit dice). Assuming the character healing the Cleric is of the same level, it tops out at 11 hit points (1d8 hit die + +3 Proficiency bonus).
Infernal Constitution - No longer exists
Inspiring Leader
It's a general feat that increases your Wisdom or Charisma by 1. There are a few tweaks to the feat, but it basically remains the same. You can't stop, take 10 minutes, give a rousing speech, and grant temporary hit points. You can only do such a speech (or song or dance) after you've taken a long or short rest. Also, you add either Wisdom or Charisma to the temp hit points based on which ability score you decided to increase.
Lucky
An origin feat obtained via the Merchant or Wayfair background. The rest of you slobs must wait until the 4th level to take the overpowered feat. But wait; the Lucky feat has been made even more powerful! If any feat needed to be knocked down a peg, Lucky was it. Unfortunately, the creators didn’t agree with literally everyone, so they gave it a boost.
The Lucky Feat is broken up into two parts, the same as before but with fancy, yet obvious, titles: Advanatge and Disadvantage.
When you roll a d20 for a D20 test (ability check, saving throw, or attack roll), you can spend 1 Luck Point to give yourself an advanatge on the roll.
When a creature rolls a d20 for an attack roll against you, you can spend 1 luck Point to impose Disadvantage on that roll.
The Disadvantage portion of the feat replaces the head-to-head d20 rolls. That’s a wash. You still roll two dice, and who rolls them doesn’t make a difference.
The feat grows in power because you gain a number of Lucky points equal to your Proficiency bonus. If you take the feat at the 4th level, you only have to wait until the 5th level to gain an equal number of Lucky Points as the 5th edition version. Once you hit the 9th level, you get +4, the 13th +5, and the 17th +6.
Are you kidding me?
Mage Slayer
A general feat granting a +1 to either your Strength or Dexterity. There's no more using your reaction to make a melee attack benefit or having Advanatge on saving throw against spells within 5 feet. Damaging a creature and imposing Disadvantage of their saving throw remains.
The added benefit gained is called Guarded Mind.
If you fail an Intelligence, Wisdom, or a Charisma saving throw, you can cause yourself to succeed instead. Once you use this benefit, you can't use it again until you finish a Short or Long rest.
Dexterity is missing from the list, so that isn't great. An automatic save? That's awesome. Plus, there's no limitation on the range of the range of the spell cast against you. Sure, you can only use it once per Short or Long Rest, but ensuring you aren't sent to a demi-plane and stuck in a labyrinth (maze) or have your mind melted by a psychic blast (feeblemind) is beyond excellent.
Moving forward in the Player’s Guide to Feats series, we’ll also discuss the differences between the editions and, if that changes, whether or not you should consider taking the feat. Until then, may all your rolls be 20’s.
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