Low Level Feats
This week we welcome Sonia Amadon! She a professional Dungeons & Dragons DM and a longtime 5e player with a penchant for rolling nat 1s on death saving throws.
So, sadly, some feats are better than others. And some feats just were not designed to be taken at level 1. This is a list of feats that are extremely powerful at those lower levels where you can only get a feat through Variant Human, Custom Lineage, house rules (such as a free feat for everyone at level 1), or if you’re doing a Theros game, your heroic background.
This is not a list of what feat to take for certain flavors. Skulker is a very cool feat for an assassin who wants to stick to the shadows and avoid detection but does not have the sheer power level that the following feats do. This is the article for the players who want to help carry the team at those early, dangerous levels where it’s killed or be killed. There will be some obvious, often-heard feats here; Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master should surprise no one in being on this list. But I hope that there are a couple of surprises here, too, that you might not have thought of. This list is not in any particular order and is not sorted by “these are the most broken feats first.”
Best of the Best
Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master
That said, we’re going to start with the most obvious choices. These feats are probably the most popular feats to house rule or ban, and for a good reason, I’m going to throw some numbers at you.
At 1st level, with 14 Strength/Dexterity and rolling a 1 on damage every time you use this feat (for a total of 13 damage), you one-shot a total of 95% of CR1/8 creatures. This is followed by 61% of CR1/4 creatures and 20% of CR1/2 creatures. In total, you one-hit-kill 54% of CR1/8-½ creatures with your minimum damage roll. These feats are some of the most powerful at level 1, by far, and if you hit, you are doing massive damage to things without the HP to handle it. Of the two, Sharpshooter is slightly better, in my opinion; the ability to get +2 to hit with the Archery fighting style helps a lot in mitigating that accuracy penalty.
Inspiring Leader
This is one where, unlike the above feats, this one doesn’t immediately seem that good. You’ll want this on someone with at least a +2-3 modifier to Charisma, but at level 1, this feat is surprisingly powerful. With 16 Charisma (which can be managed by either race by putting a 1 into a 15 or a 2 into a 14 with Standard Array or Point Buy from your racial ASI), you are increasing the effective hit point total of your squishiest party members by 50%. A wizard with 14 Con goes from a paltry 8 HP to a much more secure 12, almost like they’re the second level. These extra 3-4 temp HP per party member go a long way at level 1 to making your party super survivable. That wizard goes from a 17% chance of getting one-shot by a goblin attack to a 0%. Your 14 Paladin (assuming the Charisma is 16) sees about a 33% increase in tankiness. And this recharges on a short rest, not long- that 4 temp HP for the party is if you follow the ideal adventuring day, a whopping 12. Your mileage with this feat will vary if you aren’t short resting often, but even without a short rest, this feat outclasses Tough at level 1 by a long mile if you have the Charisma for it.
Heavy Armor Master
At level one, the damage is pretty low. Goblins do 3-8 damage on a hit, and that damage range is about average for this level. Being able to mitigate 100% of a weak hit, or 37.5% of a strong one, goes a long way in making your precious few HP go farther. Assuming average damage of five on each hit, a 16 Con Fighter/Paladin goes from being three-hit-killed to seven-hit-killed. There’s not really too much to say about this feat- it’s the more selfish alternative to the above feat, making yourself far tankier without relying on Constitution.
Fey-Touched
Of course, all of the good feats aren’t just in the PHB. A new feat to the scene, Fey-Touched is very powerful. It’s a half feat that can be used to increase any mental score, making it a good choice on any spellcasting class. You get Misty Step at 1st level, where you are not expected to have any teleportation at all, and you get a free spell from the divination or enchantment school, off of any spell list. This caveat also makes it good for martial classes, as it’s an easy way to get Bless, Hex, or Hunter’s Mark. Monks, in particular, get a lot from this feat at 1st level. While their bonus actions are often used at 2nd level when you have the Ki, at 1st level, it’s wide open for a Hex or Hunter’s Mark (reminder that unarmed strikes count as weapon attacks, which is why they work with Stunning Strike), only competing with a d4 unarmed strike as a bonus action- this missed unarmed strike being compensated for immediately by the bonus damage from Hex or Hunter’s Mark. Even after 1st level, throwing a Hex or Mark on a big enemy can allow you to lay hefty damage on them the next round with Flurry of Blows. And, to top it all off, you can boost your Wisdom with this feat for a little extra AC.
Metamagic Adept
Metamagic, bound to a sorcerer in the turn of 5e, is now freely accessed by all of the spellcaster classes. This has huge ramifications. All but Heightened and higher-leveled twinned spells are accessible, which opens a lot of room. Charisma-based casters can cast Charm Person or (at higher levels) Suggestion unnoticed. Everyone can empower their spells, or twin lower-level ones, or, most powerfully, quicken them. No longer does the cleric have to spend a turn casting Bless before jumping into the fray! Warlocks can let loose two Eldritch Blasts a turn! Non-Moon druids can throw out a spell quickly before Wild Shaping! Metamagic lends itself to creative players.
Honorable mentions: Eldritch Initiate, Lucky, Chef, Healer, Shadow-Touched
Eldritch Initiate Sure, you can’t get an invocation with a prerequisite, but you can still get many powerful options, particularly the at-will spells. The ability to cast Speak with Animals, Mage Armor, or Silent Image at will is something people base builds around. It’s not amazingly powerful, though, and you only get one.
Lucky It’s a powerful feat and one that gets a full article in another dimension. But it isn’t strongest at low levels like most of the above feats, and there’s not a lot to write about it besides “man, being able to reroll dice is cool.”
Chef This feat is also excellent, in part because it is a half feat. The benefits you get from the feat aren’t world-shattering, though, but they are nice.
Healer At 1st level, the heal from this feat is pretty big. But 10 gp is all of a lot of backgrounds’ starting gold.
Shadow-Touched Like Fey-Touched, this feat is pretty good. But Darkness is not as versatile a spell as Misty Step, and the schools you get access to with this feat aren’t as good with stand-out options like Hex, Bless, or Hunter’s Mark.
