Once you get to level 4 in any Dungeons & Dragons 5E class, you have an important decision to make. The choice between an Ability Score Improvement and a Feat is a hard one. It doesn’t help that all of these feats are in five different official sourcebooks! So, as you level to 4 – and past 4 – you might need a quick guide to all of the feat options that you have. This 5E Feat List will give you a very small idea about what each feat does and which ones are useful.
5e feats guide
there are 5 official resources that contain feats; player’s manual (phb), eberron: rising from the last war (erlw), mordekainnen’s tome of enemies (mtf), tasha’s cauldron of everything (tce), and xanathar’s guide to everything (xge). Of these books, the player’s handbook, tasha’s, and xanathar’s have the largest groupings of feats. these books are also the most likely to be allowed in any campaign.
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aberrant dragonmark (erlw)
The dragonmark system is specific to eberron, and therefore this feat may not be available in all campaign settings. however, if it is allowed… this is insane. you gain constitution, you gain a free cantrip and a first level spell from the wizard list, and you can spend hit dice aggressively. your options are pretty limited, but you have some surprisingly good options like absorb items, cast a spell on the person, spray color, drop feathers, mist cloud, mage armor, magic missile, shield…these are all emergency options! really solid! and getting a free cantrip is never a bad thing; your options here will surely be damage oriented. green flame blade, fire ray, infestation… or alternatively you can get a lesser utility, like with friends, light, or sleight of hand. As for the hit dice system… well, you can spend a hit die to deal damage or “heal yourself”. damage can damage allies, so it’s best to leave it alone unless you feel like gambling.
actor (phb)
fun feat! +1 charisma will keep your bard or rogue on the right track. the perk bonus is fantastic, especially for an experience class… but it’s so situational! you really need to know what’s going on in the campaign if you want your acting skills to be relevant! the mimicry ability is surprisingly powerful, but again, you need the right situation. disguising is such a difficult task in 5e. your group should work with you as you prepare a diversion; maybe you’re bringing some “dangerous prisoners” to a fortress, or want to sneak into a noble house. unfortunately, unless your dm is nice, you can’t disguise others so easily. At the very least, this feat will likely make any stealth mission dice-proof. now, you just need to figure out when you’re allowed to use disguises effectively…
alert (phb)
my personal favorite feat! please excuse my bias. but, +5 initiative is lots of fun! this is the equivalent of +10 dexterity! it’s hard to have that much initiative, and that means you’re likely to be first in a lot of fights. going before someone else may not seem so important. but that means you can speed up a fighter, sneak attack the lich, heal someone who went down last turn… going first is really strong! the other two benefits are minor but situationally strong; surprise immunity and advantage immunity due to stealth can come in handy. however, the real reason for taking this feat is initiative +5. if you feel like the fight is over before it starts, or maybe you could save a life if you were a little faster, then this is the feat for you.
artificer initiate (tce)
this feat is divided into 3 benefits, although 2 are quite related to each other. the first is that you get some artificer spells; a cantrip and a 1st level. the artificer spell list isn’t the best in the game, but there are some good options here! on the cantrip side, there’s magic like fire ray, acid splash, rumble blade and green flame blade, thunder, thorn whip, message, mage hand…that’s solid, and it’s just a sample! your top-tier options take a lot from wizards and wizards, but you have definite winners here. absorbing items can save your life, feather drop can do the same, and shrine can protect high priority targets. on the damage side… you’re dealing with level 1 spells. tasha’s catapult and caustic brew are legitimately good, but nothing impressive. you get a free spell slot to cast your first-level artificer spell, and you can cast it with any spell slot you have. that’s a bit unimportant; the top tier options you have are situational but not the strongest. then there’s the benefit that goes beyond spell slots; craftsman tools. okay, but the tools are very difficult to use without a creative direct message. can you at least hold them in your hand while casting wizard or artificer spells? It is not the best. this feat can open up your spell toolkit to a bard, druid, cleric, or paladin, or allow a wizard to gain a new focus on spellcasting.
athlete (phb)
It’s time to upgrade! you get +1 strength or dexterity, so you’re not losing all the skill score improvement. standing up quickly is not very helpful. however, in emergencies, regaining 10 feet of movement speed can save you! great for ranged or melee characters, as some spells can send you away from the enemy and knock you down. however, spending a feat to prepare for this situation isn’t great. magic might be all you need here. same for the climbing fan, although this has the unique benefit of allowing you to really abuse the walls. find places where your dm allows you to climb and get out of close combat! the final benefit requires that you need 1 less square of movement for a running jump. this increases your jump by 5 feet, but allows you to jump from a slightly narrower area. this feat gives you 1 good stat and 3 highly situational benefits. that might be worth it on a character who is often prone, or an archer who wants quick escapes. but this might work for all builds.
good luck (xge)
This halfling-only feat allows you to grant your lucky racial trait to an ally within 30 feet. This is a weird support buff that makes your allies very happy! if you’re a halfling in a non-reaction class that you take every turn, like a ranged archer, then this is an interesting option. you give your friends an advantage whenever they roll a 1… and that’s it. spent your reaction, and you can’t use luck on your turn. That’s a lot of restrictions! but it shouldn’t be underestimated how useful it can be to give someone another chance on a streak. And it’s not like you’re guaranteed to roll a 1 on the turn you use this feat, right? always keep an eye on your reactions when you’re a halfling, because this feat can be an option when you don’t need to improve your ability score.
loader (phb)
the charger feat gives you a new action when you use the run action; a bonus action melee attack. right off the bat, this makes dash more useful in classes that like a good, clean 1 hit. for example, a heavily armored paladin can quickly clear the distance to an enemy before hitting them with a powerful blow. or a barbarian can make sure to land the heavy blow after getting close. now, the other benefit is that if you’ve moved 10 feet, you can add 5 damage to your roll. that’s a lot! Grand Master of Arms is considered a must-have feat, and only adds 10 damage with a negative 5 to attack! this makes running almost worth it… but you don’t get any extra attacks, you You can only use melee weapon attacks, and that’s all the feat gives you. it’s never worth it, unless you’re having a lot of trouble getting to the front.
cook (tce)
a really strong support feat. You gain your average skill score upgrade to Constitution or Wisdom; both solid options. kitchen utensils have great historical significance; perhaps your character learned to cook after eating half-burnt bear meat three days in a row. the tool itself isn’t powerful, but you can use it as part of a short rest to heal anyone who spends hit dice for 1d8 more health. giving your entire party 4 more hit points on every short break is significant, especially early on. the final perk, cookies, grant even more healing. 3-6 temporary hit points can be the difference between life and death! unfortunately, you don’t get many of them. this feat tastes great, doesn’t cost much thanks to +1 constitution or wisdom, and grants a surprising amount of healing. this is a delicious option!
crossbow expert (phb).
the crossbow expert grants 3 benefits; you ignore the charge quality of crossbows. that makes crossbows effective on bonus attack classes, as they can suddenly pull off multiple attacks in one turn. ignore enemies in melee range; that allows you to get away with sword and hand crossbow, or just shoot people in the face. the final benefit, however, is what really matters; As a bonus action, you can fire a hand crossbow. you just need another one handed weapon… like a second hand crossbow! this changes the structure of the crossbow from “bow but worse” to “suddenly I can pump out really big numbers with two tiny crossbows!” this is especially useful since this is not a two-weapon fight! that means your hand crossbow adds dexterity to damage. this build can deal incredible damage for a ranger or fighter build, though the bonus action eventually becomes less impactful.
crusher (tce)
smash is a half feat as well, meaning you get +1 to your skill score. this time, it’s strength or constitution! Constitution is always a great option, so this is a good start. once per turn, you can move your target for free to an unoccupied space. this can draw him away from his allies, ruin flanking tactics, and force the enemy into range of your paladin or ward fighter. if that wasn’t enough (which wasn’t really enough), you also gain a critical hit buff; allowing all attacks for the next turn to be made with advantage. this is dangerous for that opponent, as long as everyone in your party has some on an attack roll. your entire party can catch crits. and if you crit at the start of your extra attacks, then the rest will be at an advantage! stellar for a monk or fighter with a blunt weapon.
defensive duelist (phb)
a feat of reaction. you can add competition to your ac. for an attack. where you just passed your reaction. and you need 13 or more dexterity. y only works against melee attacks. negativity out of the system, this feat can save your life and can steadily increase your ac up to 6 in the late game. that’s one shield spell every round! That being said… it’s a more restricted shield spell that doesn’t last as long. even though you have access to it more often, the fact that it can compare negatively to a level 1 spell reduces its value as a feat. this would be a more reasonable option if it came with dexterity, or allowed you to perform an attack afterwards. As it stands now, there are probably better defensive options.
fear of the dragon (xge)
This feat unique to the dragonborn comes with a +1 to Strength, Constitution, or Charisma. good start! your other +1 to an ability score allows you to roar violently. this roar is a Wisdom save (DC based on your Charisma modifier) or they are frightened. this means that, once per short rest, you can scare a 30-foot radius around you. that’s really nice in some situations; if you are surrounded by angry farmers, this roar would be much better to allow you to escape without harming people. however, you are giving up a lot for a simple effect of fear; +1 to an ability score cannot be underestimated. you’re replacing better rolls for this area of effect… and you know what, it’s not abysmal. if your dragonborn wants to chase down frightened enemies, or just wants to be left alone, this is worth considering, especially if your charisma is close to reaching an even number.
dragon skin (xge)
Like fear of the dragon, this feat starts at +1 to Strength, Constitution, or Charisma. all great options for this giant of a breed! first, you get 13 + dexterity modifier ac, with which you can use a shield. that’s great! permanent mage armor is surprisingly strong, and you can even boost it further with a shield. alternatively, this allows you to wear bracers of armor without penalty. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get enchanted clothing, or any +1, +2, or +3 magic to AC without armor. therefore, you will not outperform light armor late in the game. however, that’s not all you get. you also gain new unarmed attacks that deal 1d4 + strength. It’s not too important, since it’s relatively weak, but you’re always wielding a weapon. that can come in handy! the 13 ac allows you to ignore armor or unarmored defense alike, allowing you to work with a high dexterity build. at 20 dexterity, you’re equal to plate armor! If your dm allows you to gain a +3 enchantment bonus to ac without wearing armor, you can keep up with the best armor in the game permanently. talk about a good deal! and you’re only losing +1 to an ability score. solid for a lighter construction.
drow high magic (xge)
this drow feat is…interesting. For starters, you gain detect magic as a spell at will. that’s how it is; no ritual casting, no spell slots required. you can only cast it as an action, every round if you want. this is a huge time saver, and it’s rare that you get a top-tier spell as an at-will effect! if that’s not enough, you can cast levitate and dispel magic once per day. levitate is a surprisingly effective utility spell. you can use it to keep a dangerous melee enemy out of the way, use it to blow someone across a chasm, or use it as a strong mage hand. dispel magic needs no introduction; you just have to finish one spell. that can decimate a combat encounter, as many bosses use magical traps to protect themselves. These are three great spells, and it’s rare for a stunt to give you this powerful magic! this is really something to consider if you’re playing a drow.
dual wield (phb)
This feat has an offensive, defensive, and utility component and greatly improves dual wielding in 5e. It starts with some damaged component. being able to wield non-light weapons increases your damage dice from an average of d4 or d6 to d8. that’s usually a +1 to your damage, which is solid. non-light weapons also tend to have better qualities than light weapons, though not by much. this is important for strength based builds, but not that important. You also gain +1 to AC, increasing your chance to dodge attacks by 5%. it’s not crucial, but it’s far from bad. you basically have half a shield on yourself. the ultimate ability gives you some action economy; drawing two weapons at once is great! it means you can be combat ready in any situation. unfortunately, this is not great. you don’t get the two-weapon fighting style, so you still don’t add your damage modifier to your second hit; it’s just +1 to average damage. You also don’t get dexterity or strength or anything. so this has some small improvements without really being necessary for any dual wielding build. great if you have room to grow, but not necessary for a dual wield setup to work.
dungeon explorer (phb)
one of the more situational feats in the game, though not necessarily a bad one. advantage of seeing things is great, but only to see secret doors? that’s not terribly important. slightly more interesting are the buffs you get against cheats. you gain dodge advantage and take half damage from them. that means you get 1/4 damage if you save against the trap. against some traps, this turns it from a single shot to just a tickle. unfortunately, traps that make attack rolls against you don’t get worse because of the advantage clause. at least they do less damage if they hit! The last perk is also quite useful as it allows you to be the eyes and ears of a fast-moving group. dungeon delver works well for a perception-oriented rogue, ranger, or any other trap taker. is this feat required? not at all, you can get away with getting the observer or even skill expert feat. however, this has a lot of fun flavor that can be useful in very dungeon-oriented campaigns.
durable (phb)
durable is a rare feat. instead of increasing your constitution by 2 at this level, you can only increase it by 1. instead of your other +1 to an ability score, you get guaranteed health regeneration. you can’t roll less than twice your Constitution modifier. this makes your short breaks tip-proof. the minimum healing you get from each hit die is now 3x constitution modifier. At +3 Constitution, this is insane! however, this feat makes it more difficult to build a high constitution or make better attack rolls. this is only for a short healing at rest. it’s probably not worth wasting an extra skill score buff. it’s too situational, and while the healing is great, it may not be worth the potential for extra attacks and damage. consider this if you’re a tall build class with a warlock, sorcerer, monk, or other short rest-loving class in your party.
dwarven fortress (xge)
This dwarven-exclusive feat offers valuable healing and durability. you get 1 constitution, which can turn an odd amount of constitution into an even number. +1 constitution can be very useful, increasing your health by 1 per level. however, you still lose 1 skill score upgrade. and what is the replacement? you can burn hit dice to heal yourself in the middle of a dodge action. instead of a short break, all it takes is one action. this can be valuable healing during tense situations. and since it’s part of a dodge action (rather than an action itself), it still gives your team a valuable hard-to-hit wall of dwarves as a shield. for some, that might be worth it! however, it suffers from being incredibly defensive, and losing that +1 to strength or dexterity can limit the amount of damage the dwarf can deal in the long run. however, the tank is important, so it’s worth considering for your dwarf!
supernatural adept (tce)
This spellcaster-only feat has exactly one benefit, though the benefit can be quite large. you gain a single supernatural summon. you are not considered a warlock of any level (unless you are already a warlock), so you get the summon you qualify for by default. there are some good ones here, like permanent mage armor, seeing in dark magic, gaining 6 temporary hit points at will, and more. Also, in addition to getting the summon, you can replace it at each level like a warlock would. this means you can have some versatility in whatever summon you want. Are you going to the underdark for a while? take the devil’s eye. he just got put in prison? maybe permanent mage armor is right for you. however, without gaining any Charisma or Ability Score, this feat lacks long-term power. Might also be good for a Warlock, since an extra high-level summon wouldn’t be too bad.
elementary expert (phb)
This spellcasting-only feat is perfect for elemental specialist classes like fire domain. taking this, you choose an elemental damage type of your choice; acid, cold, fire, lightning or thunder. when you deal that damage, your damage ignores resistance and you can re-roll damage dice on a 1 or 2. this is great if your choice is fire, since fireball and fire magic are that strong . otherwise, there are some subclasses that love a single magic damage type, like alchemist or tempest mastery, that can benefit from this. That said, there are some significant downsides. you don’t get mental stat bonuses, you don’t ignore immunity, and your options don’t include poison or psychic. these limit your late game power and don’t solve a big problem; some monsters will be able to ignore your favorite school of magic anyway. still, this is a huge increase in damage, as long as you have enough specialization in your damage type.
elvish precision (xge)
This feat unique to the elves will come in handy for any archer…sometimes. first of all, you basically get a free skill score boost. you can’t put it into strength or constitution, but you can put a +1 into any other ability score! that’s actually very useful, since elves are probably a dexterity build in the first place. however, where does the other +1 go? well, when you have advantage on any attack roll other than strength or constitution… you can re-roll. so advantage is now essentially three rolls, where you roll 2 dice and then roll your worst dice again. that is very beautiful! but, there are some obvious problems. requires advantage, which can be difficult to acquire at all times. he must also roll again and take the new result, according to the wording. the good news is that this benefit applies to all attacks you make with advantage, not once per round. that means classes like monk or fighter that can attack multiple times can fully benefit from this! this is great for dexterity builds or weird warlocks, but only with good combos.
disappear (xge)
This gnome-exclusive feat grants a pretty stellar reaction. you start by being able to increase dexterity or intelligence by 1; two great options for a gnome, who tends to be an artificer or wizard. the other +1 to an ability score is instead a reaction. you can turn invisible after taking damage, and the invisibility lasts until the end of your next turn… or until you take an aggressive action, such as dealing damage or forcing a saving throw. this means you get an invisibility reaction, which can save your life! or, if you’re up against a group of mages… they can shoot a fireball into your square. much. so this reaction works well if you are being assaulted by rogues or other martial characters, and gets worse the more magic the enemy has. either way, this can get you out of a bind! unfortunately, it’s once per rest, which limits how often you can escape with it. for softer gnomes, this is a worthwhile consideration. however, knowing your limits is essential.
fey teleport (xge)
This feat is only available to the high elf subrace, without dm intervention. as a result, it is quite specialized. you gain intelligence or charisma, which is solid for casters. considering you’re a high elf, intelligence is the most likely choice and tends to work on some rogue builds. charisma still works well if you want to play a high elf bard or something. you also learn a language; wild. sylvan is really cool as many fairies want to talk to the group before attacking. this can allow for more creative diplomacy, but it’s not incredibly versatile; you know elvish! finally, you can cast misty step once a day, and you can retrieve the cast on a short or long rest. misty step is a fantastic extra action spell that gives you very good mobility. the ability to recover a 2nd tier strong spell in a short break is significant! and it is very good that you recover it in short breaks; otherwise this feat would be totally dwarfed by fey touch! consider this if your high elf needs a good mobility option, and misty step is difficult to acquire otherwise.
fey touched (tce)
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If fey teleportation was good, fey touch is arguably better. You start by increasing a mental stat by 1. This makes this feat great for any shooter, and any non-shooter who’s still interested in their mental stat game. however, this feat is definitely caster-friendly; you learn misty step as a spell, you can cast it with any spell slot you have and gain a free daily spell slot for it. while the free slot isn’t as flexible as it was for fey teleportation, the ability to have it written into the feat so you can use other spell slots is very nice. if that wasn’t enough, you also get another 1st level spell. And their options are surprisingly good! you can get aggressive spells like the hunter’s mark and hex, or buffs like bless or the gift of promptness, or crowd control like ghastly laughter. that’s a surprisingly good list! and this first-tier spell gets a free spell slot and joins your spell options. this is an absolutely crazy package, and it’s one of my favorite feats.
started in fight (tce)
The Fighting Initiate feat allows you to add a fighting style to your build, provided your class is proficient with any martial weapon. you can take only one fighting style. Let’s talk about those fighting styles, because that’s the only thing this feat gives you. fighting styles do quite a bit of damage to you; dueling gives you +2 damage on each attack, two-weapon fighting gives you up to +5 damage on your bonus action. however, that’s not much and arguably not worth the more consistent skill score buff. archery is interesting as few feats can grant bonuses on attack rolls, but only after maxing out your dexterity. some rare options include superior technique (although martial adept is a better version of this style), interception/protection for barbarian or ranger tanks… and unarmed fighting. taking on the unarmed fight as a human monk might seem unnecessary, but it actually gives you a damage buff early on. and then later on you can take another fighting style that works better, like superior technique, blind fighting, or archery. however, in the long run, this feat doesn’t give much more than a small damage boost. if you prefer to have that instead of +2 to your skill scores, then consider this feat a simple boost to your combat skills.
flames of phlegethos (xge)
This tiefling-exclusive feat gives you some amazing benefits. first, you gain a +1 to intelligence or charisma. these are the two standard caster class lines that tieflings like. perfect! then you can reroll the fire damage if you rolled 1. this increases the damage very slightly as you can only activate it in 1s… and you might get another 1. still better than nothing! finally, you gain a shield of flame that deals 1d4 damage to melee attackers. 2 damage (on average) to melee attackers might not sound like much…and it’s not. however, each point of damage matters, and this adds an additional effect to your fire magic. in most situations, I would not accept this higher elemental adept. however, your stat boost and the little extra flame barrier can be a fun build path that doesn’t absolutely ruin your character. let’s go tiefling!
fighter (phb)
The wrestler feat is famously useless, but let’s review the benefits. first, you need more than 13 strength to get it. When you grab a creature, you gain advantage on attack rolls against that creature. this is a legitimately useful perk that gives you a pretty consistent reason to attack an enemy. grappling in 5e is essentially a way to stop your opponent from moving and nothing more. now, you can stop them from moving while constantly hitting them in the kidney. that doesn’t make sense, although it’s far from great, since fighting is a very difficult thing to do in 5e. the other benefit of grappler is that it provides the pin action. the pin action requires you to make a grapple check to contain yourself and the creature. that’s how it is; you restrain yourself. if the opponent even has a unique friend, you’ve just given them the upper hand by beating the shit out of you. sure, your allies can do the same to the target you’ve immobilized, but surely there’s a way to gain advantage on attacks that doesn’t require you to be paralyzed! grappler doesn’t provide many benefits, and the first benefit is really good! but, tavern brawler or even getting the unarmed combat style may be more useful for your fighter in the long run.
grand master of weapons (phb)
Grand Weapon Master is one of the greatest feats in the game, and for a specific reason. the one everyone knows is that you can lower your accuracy to deal a lot of extra damage. specifically, you take a -5 to the attack roll to deal +10 more damage. that’s a great exchange! Against enemies you know to be low on AC, you can rely on the dice to increase your damage by 10. 10 damage is massive, especially for classes that can hit multiple times like a fighter. on the other hand, classes like the barbarian or paladin can gain ways to gain attack advantage or gain a massive increase in accuracy, further increasing your chances of getting this huge damage boost! however, there is another benefit; when you critically hit or kill someone, you can make another hit as a bonus action. this means that your fighter can do 5 hits with a two-handed weapon! that’s really hard to deal with, and almost certainly worth losing like that. for any class planning on dual-wielding a weapon, this should be factored into your final build! however, consider increasing your strength enough that even a -5 is negligible.
gunner (tce)
Before taking this feat, make sure your dungeon master is okay with you selecting firearm feats. this isn’t too useful without firearms! you increase your dexterity by 1, which is perfect for firearms. this will increase your damage and survivability quite a bit, on its own! however, you didn’t take the gunner feat to gain some prowess. you gain proficiency in firearms. these weapons tend to be stronger than crossbows by 1 or 2 damage dice. for example, a musket hits for 1d12. that’s great! this is a solid damage increase for your crossbow build, though its range will tend to be a bit lower. additionally, you ignore the charge property of weapons, allowing you to make multiple attacks in one round. ideal for any character with an extra attack in their pocket, or characters who want to fight with two weapons. Finally, you don’t need to worry about close combat. you can shoot people in the face, no problem! overall, if you want to shoot people really well, the gunner is the way to go! this doesn’t necessarily work better than bows or crossbows, but if your dm wants to use weapons, then consider this feat!
healer (phb)
This feat has two facets, which is nice. The first is that when you stabilize a creature with a healer kit, the creature also heals 1 hp. That is fantastic! that use of the healer’s kit just brought someone out of consciousness. having that body in the fight will be essential in intense fights and gives you a reason to bring out a healer team during a fight. the other benefit of the kit is similarly strong. you can spend an action to heal someone for 1d6+4 + total life points on hit dice; for example, on a 4th-level character, this action heals 1d6+8. this healing is limited to once per short or long rest. that means you can use it to bring someone up off the ground with a good amount of hit points to work with. however, this healing is limited, so you can’t have it active all the time. Fortunately, the first benefit is not limited! That said, Healer isn’t a replacement for Heal Words or Heal Wounds, and those spells have a bit more versatility. this feat is a lot to spend on healing. however, at a party with characters who like to take short breaks… it’s not really that bad. he’s worth playing as if you’re a character with plenty of feats and you’re expected to support your party.
heavily armored (phb)
This feat is only available to characters with average armor proficiency. in exchange, you gain +1 strength and heavy armor proficiency. strength is good, because wearing heavy armor can actually take a lot out of you. having strength high enough to ignore debuffs is useful for melee builds. it also increases the damage of most melee characters, so it’s a huge +1 skill score boost! heavy armor is the best armor in the game; plate mail beats all armor (unless your dm gives you a way to beat 20 dexterity). so if you want to maximize your durability, heavy armor is the way to go! this is a great feat for classes like cleric or ranger who want to get into close combat without any prowess. but it’s also fine for any class that just wants a little more than medium armor can get.
heavy armor master (phb)
For any character with heavy armor proficiency who wants to take their durability to the next level, you… should probably look elsewhere. The heavy armor master increases your strength by 1. For most heavy armor builds, this is good. you want some strength to wear heavy armor without being punished with movement speed reduction. it also slightly increases the melee damage of most characters. Always cool! now the other benefit is that you take less non-magical physical damage while wearing heavy armor. how much less, you ask? 3. You take 3 less damage from these attacks. Now this is nothing. there’s a surprising amount of non-magical damage sources even in the late game, like large animals. and taking 3 damage from all those natural attacks may be enough to save your life. however… that’s 3 less damage from pretty specific sources. this can save your life, but also toughness. And that helps absorb magic damage too!
hellish constitution (xge)
A puzzling feat for tieflings alone. infernal constitution increases your constitution by 1. a good start! Constitution boosts mean that you will eventually improve your health, and each modifier on constitution is your additional health level! very good way to get meaty. however, that is far from it; gain resistance to cold and poison damage. those sources of damage are actually very popular with monsters. so many of them do poison damage that it looks like you’ll have a 50/50 chance of getting your poison resistance in a fight! the cold isn’t too bad either, although it improves if you know you’re getting into a frost-based campaign. finally, you have advantage on saving throws to avoid being poisoned. poisoned is a very annoying status condition, so it’s quite nice to be able to get rid of it fairly reliably. if you’re a tanky tiefling character who needs health for whatever reason, the infernal constitution might be worth it!
inspiring leader (phb)
a peculiar feat. you need 13 charismas or more to get it, and it gives you exactly one buff; after a period of 10 minutes, give 6 characters your level + charisma in temporary hit points. you can refresh these temporary hit points after a short rest. Now, there is actually a great benefit to this. Let’s say you get this feat at level 4 and have 16 charisma. this feat, at the end of every short rest, increases the health of your entire party by 7. that’s pretty wild! and, at the end of the game, you give everyone 25 health. depending on your party size, that’s up to 150 health after a break. spells can replicate some of this, but you get a surprising amount of value from this feat. especially for parties with witches or monks, who appreciate short and consistent breaks! perfect for the caring bard or paladin who wants their party to be safe.
sharp mind (phb)
A Sharp Mind is a flavor-oriented feat, which sucks in traditional dungeon crawling campaigns. increases your intelligence by 1, which is a good start. intelligence is a niche mental stat, best on artificers or mages. however, you can get this on arcane knights or arcane cheats without delaying too much. the following buffs are nice, but won’t help in a fight. you always know which way is north, you know how far it is until the next sunrise or sunset, and you have a month-long photographic memory. So, you are a compass, a calculator and an encyclopedia. the first two buffs can usually be handled by someone with good survivability control. however, when you’re underground, it can be hard to keep track of those things. maybe then, you might want to do a little extra feat work to help your party stay on track. the final benefit is quite interesting. a photographic memory is hard to come by, though it can be emulated with intelligence checks. If you have this feat, you may find it easier to remember someone’s appearance or the shape of a specific emblem, or a conversation you’ve heard before. that way you don’t need to trust your dm to be nice; you have the benefits right on paper! try it out during a campaign specifically geared towards RPGs.
lightly armored (phb)
lightly armored is nice and simple. you gain +1 strength or dexterity. any of these stats are good, but dexterity is the best stat in the game. if you’re not trying to use force to destroy your opponents, you need to gain dexterity to increase your survivability. then, you gain proficiency in light armor. light armor gives you a +2 to your ac without the need for a shield or any magic items. this isn’t as good as mage armor (until you get magic armor), but it doesn’t require any spell slots either. In general, by the time you can take a feat to gain proficiency with light armor, light armor should always be better than mage armor. however, it is always important to improve your skill scores and the effectiveness of your magic. consider whether saving 1 level 1 spell slot is worth a stunt before taking this stunt for good.
linguist (phb)
Linguist is one of those feats that gets so overwhelmed by magic that it seems hard to use. we start with a +1 to intelligence; ideal for an artificer or wizard, or as a late game option in an intelligence scaling subclass. if you don’t need it for magic, it’s almost useless. now, the interesting parts of the feat are the benefits. you learn 3 languages. picking up languages like draconic, jungle, dwarven, celestial, infernal… they can have a really positive impact on your campaign! however, there is a small drawback… understanding languages is a first-rate spell. this can overcome many barriers to understanding right away. understanding languages does not allow for two-way communication, but one-way communication can do a lot. languages are only useless with 3rd tier spell tongues, and 3rd tier spell slots are pretty stellar! the other benefit is being able to create a cipher, a hidden code that you can teach others. this is great! it is also quite difficult to crack the cipher; dc 26 to 20 intelligence, level 17+. however… magic can read your cipher. that sucks a lot! depending on your dm, understanding the language might be enough to silence your cipher. however, a dm who likes this feat can cause language understanding to fail, and then it’s much harder to break magic. super unique feat, but overwhelmed by the force of language magic.
luck (phb)
everyone has rolled bad dice at the worst possible time. lucky is exactly the exploit to counteract this problem. you get a storage of 3 luck points that is updated every day. those luck points can be burned on an attack roll, skill check, saving throw, or attack roll against you, after the dice are rolled, but before the dm says whether or not it failed. the luck point allows you to roll another d20, unaffected by advantage or disadvantage, which you can choose to use. this feat only has one perk, but you can use it three times a day. and what a benefit! A lot of the problems in 5e come from the dice not helping you; crit by failing a disintegration attack roll, failing the dc to resist holding the person, and much more. luck gives you another chance to get out of those terrible situations; It’s not a guarantee of success, but it’s better than any other feat in the game. if you don’t need any stat boosts, this is almost certainly the feat to go for!
mage killer (phb)
Do you hate magic users? well, the counterspell isn’t the only option! mage slayer is a melee-focused feat for anti-magic fighters. To start, you can use a reaction to attack a creature within 5 feet of you. you have a chance to instantly interrupt a focus spell or just bombard them with rage damage. Speaking of concentration, the caster has disadvantage on the save to concentrate on the spell. if you’re dealing good damage with your attacks, this almost guarantees that they’ll drop their spell. finally, if the caster targets you while you are within 5 feet of you, you have advantage on the save. that’s a bit niche, but if a caster freaks out and tries to use magic to shake you off, you get two chances to save. great! you wanted to be in close combat anyway, so now you’re going to be a big threat. Enough creatures in 5e use magic to make this feat at least somewhat useful in most combat. however, you may want to talk to your dm before blocking this.
magical initiate (phb)
This feat has been relatively surpassed at this point, but let’s review. Choose a list of spells from level 9 casters. From that caster’s list of spells, you can learn 2 cantrips. that’s pretty good to start with; very few feats have that many cantrips for you, and most casters have some trouble getting the cantrips they want. this gives you a few more options. in addition, you learn a first level spell and cast it for free. that’s… not so good, since it’s a first level spell at the minimum level, but you also learn it permanently. this is a great way to give classes different utility options; healing word on mage, or hover disk on cleric, just for a few examples. however, at this point, feats such as faerie or artificer-initiated headdress give very slightly better effects for the cost of a feat. if the magical initiate gave a +1 to the mental stat the class cast with, then it would be much more useful.
expert in martial arts (phb)
the martial arts expert is proof that the battlemaster is perhaps the most interesting fighter archetype. you get two maneuvers from the battle masters list. these maneuvers can do things like knock an enemy down, push them back, or deal damage to two enemies. to use these maneuvers, you need superiority dice. this feat gives you one, a d6, that you can use. this die refreshes on short breaks. For Barbarians, Monks, or Paladins, this offers a very unique utility aspect to weapon moves. however, you gain one maneuver per short rest. while increasing your damage by 3.5 on a hit per break isn’t bad, you really need to make good use of those maneuvers! for the battlemaster archetype, this feat becomes significantly different; you gain an additional die that scales with your level and two additional learned maneuvers. that is much more interesting! no matter what class you use with this feat, it will make you very dangerous with a short rest attack, which can wreck bosses and normal enemies alike.
medium armor master (phb)
If you’re proficient in medium armor, this feat is worth considering. First of all, you no longer take the stealth penalty that some medium armor provides. that’s great, since breastplate is the best medium armor and makes it very difficult to stealth. now, you ignore that and can wear armor that is just a little worse than full plate at 14 dexterity. however… now you can do better! you increase the max dexterity of your ac by 1! thus, your breastplate can be 18 ac, as long as you have 16 or more dexterity. And you don’t have to worry about any stupid strength requirements! In the long run this may not always be better than heavy armor as it gives you some extra stats. but this is a great option for high dexterity builds, like rangers, who just want a touch of extra ac.
metamagic adept (tce)
The metamagic adept is drawn from the sorcerer class. you get two metamagic options. for the uninitiated, you can choose options like slowing your spellcasting speed to one extra action, doubling your spell duration, or protecting allies within the radius of your spells. however, you can’t cast all of your magic with these bonuses! you gain 2 sorcery points to spend on this magic, refreshed with a long rest. overall, this is very, very good. on a sorcerer, you get 2 more points to play and two more metamagic to work. that means you basically have all metamagic options at max level. a lot to do! in non-sorcerer classes, this is still great. once per day, a warlock can cast a spell and then an eldritch blast. twice a day, a mage can use a 2 minute standby person. the options are quite wide! however, you get no stat bonuses and only get 2 points! that is very restrictive. your burst of magical potential is extremely strong, but that’s all this feat does for you. however, it is a very good consideration for a sorcerer.
mobile (phb)
mobile technology is a very interesting feat, for several reasons. You start with a 10 foot movement speed boost. for a melee fighter or paladin, this is very tempting. you can get right into the enemy’s grill and start blasting them with an extra 10 feet of speed. you can argue that most fights don’t really need this extra speed, as 30ft speed is pretty hard to beat. however, some dms may allow flying characters, like aarakocra, to gain that speed to fly. that’s great! and it’s not even the end of the feat. the action of running to ignore rough terrain is certainly pretty. if you run, your movement speed is doubled. so you are already “negating” the difficult terrain. now, you’re almost guaranteed to get 80 feet of movement. that’s… a little crazy. some creatures have trouble racing you, and rough terrain racing is yours by default! finally, melee attacks negate a creature’s ability to make attacks of opportunity. so instead of the retreat action, you can take the attack action! very good economy of action, and will keep rogues and monks very safe. whether all those minor buffs are worth your feat slot… that’s up to you! If you’re having trouble chasing down magic users or archers, this might be what you need.
moderately armored (phb)
This feat is available to characters who have proficiency in light armor. To start, you gain +1 Strength or +1 Dexterity. immediately, this means you win half of your asi, which is good! dexterity will almost always be the best option here, but if you want to be a strength rogue, you could take much worse feats! Dexterity is best for saving throws, defense, and attacking with ranged weapons. however, that is not the reason this exploit exists. gain medium armor proficiency! this ability is pretty stellar, but only for builds that don’t want to hit 20 dexterity. bards and rogues like dexterity a lot, but bards may not be able to hit that 20 mark; medium armor can be a good middle ground. warlock is in a similar boat! So for any of these classes that you really want to consider working towards higher base ac, this is worth considering.
mounted combatant (phb)
this is weird, extremely situational. mounted combat grants benefits only to creatures riding a mount, such as a horse or guard dog. allows you to gain advantage on attacks that are smaller than your mount. for horses, that gives you advantage on attacks against medium or small creatures, which is a significant number of monsters. good start! you can also redirect attacks aimed at your mount back at you. depending on your mount, you may have more or less health, or ac, than her. therefore this can be useful to ensure that enemies attack the target with higher hp or ac. finally, your mount gains evasion; takes half damage from spells or effects that use a dexterity save, and ignores the damage entirely if it saves. this greatly reduces the effective damage your character takes from area of effect spells like fireball. the mounted combatant is worthless in any class that doesn’t grant a mount… which is every class in the game! if you can find a way to get a strong mount, like a griffin or a tyrannosaurus rex, then this starts to look a bit better.
observer (phb)
a very fun feat! you start with +1 to your intelligence or wisdom. ideal for casters or any character looking for some wisdom! monks or rangers can take this very well. The real meat and potatoes are the passive and lip-reading bonuses. lip reading allows you to ignore whispers or the silent casting of spells to better understand the situations around you. this probably won’t be useful all the time, but it can be really great for social campaigns. the other benefit is more universally good; You gain +5 to your passive perception and passive investigation. that’s big! with 10 Wisdom and no Perception proficiency, that’s 15 dc to sneak past you! that’s crazy! and you’ll probably be in a class that can see around them, like rogue or ranger. in that case, you can get more than 20 perception without even searching anything. really annoying for a dm, and potentially worth the lost skill score point on its own!
orc rage (xge)
This half-orc-only feat is perfect for a burst of damage, and not much else. you start with +1 strength or +1 constitution. both options are fine; strength is a boon for your standard half-orc, and works well for any melee build. constitution is more useful overall as it increases your hp but doesn’t help you deal any extra damage. the other benefits are situational as heck; once per short rest, you can add one additional weapon damage die to a hit. this hit is added to the base damage of the attack. that’s pretty weak… but maybe not as weak as you’d expect. that’s because it increases with a critical hit. so, to build a greataxe, you deal 2d12 base damage, and then a critical hit deals 2d12 more damage. then you get your bonus damage die! so, with this feat in hand, your critical greataxe can deal 5d12 damage. absolutely crazy! that’s like a high level spell! if that wasn’t enough, you get a final attack when you blast your relentless stamina. it’s okay. requires an enemy to be within range, so it’s easier to do with a ranged attack. a reaction to the attack is perfectly acceptable, but you don’t want to relentlessly snap for no reason. this is quite a feat for a weapon based orc build! check it out if you have an odd number of constitution or strength.
piercer (tce)
If you’re wielding a piercing weapon, the piercing can look pretty juicy. +1 strength or dexterity is a good start. strength and dexterity are great for your specific build paths. dexterity gives you damage, ac, and good saving throws, so it’s generally more useful. however, if you’re using a spear build, force might be more useful. piecer can also reroll for a single damage die. Has your rapier hit ever let you down for 1? this gives you another chance at life! for a rogue, this can really help your sneak attack quite a bit. Thats not all; critical hits deal 1 additional damage die to the target, added to the end of the critical hit’s damage. this is a minor increase in damage, but much loved. this gives you another die to re-roll with the first payoff too! both of these buffs are minor, but you can use them every round in combat! that’s huge and useful for any ranged, rogue, or many other builds! if your goal is to be more consistent with damage and you like rapiers or other piercing options, you can do much worse.
poisoner (tce)
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well isn’t this the name of a spicy feat? you start by ignoring poison resistance. that’s a solid start, as many creatures resist poison. that doesn’t make poison too much good, as many creatures (such as constructs or undead) ignore poison damage entirely. however, it certainly improves the effectiveness of the poison, especially against humanoid targets. you can also poison weapons as a bonus action, which greatly improves how good poison can be. that is a great economy of action; you don’t need to prepare before a fight and just poison a single guy! Greatly improved action. Finally, you can make poison with 50 gold that deals 2d8 poison damage and the poisoned condition with a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. All in all, if you want to poison people, this is a great feat to help you out! spending a bonus action to add 9 average damage to an attack is pretty solid. as long as your poison can do some damage to your target, you’ll hurt people a lot!
master of polearms (phb)
the master of the polearm is a simple feat, with a simple goal; to show why spears are the most powerful weapon in the world. attacking with a glaive, halberd, staff, or spear gives you an additional action to strike with the other side of the weapon. the bonus action deals d4 damage and uses the same modifier as the initial attack. so for classes that don’t have big bonus actions, like artificer or fighter, this can increase the damage a lot. the modifier is more important than the small size of the dice here, since you can still deal your strength or other modifier to the damage. also, when a creature enters your range, you have an attack of opportunity! That is very strong! creatures can’t just attack you and dance around your range. you get that stab in them! if only it was easier to get more reactions so you could really take control of this feat… well! it’s still a huge boost to your damage.
wonder (xge)
Your half-elf, half-orc, and human have the opportunity to learn new things…very quickly! to start with, you gain 3 proficiencies; into a skill, a tool and a language. mastery of the skill is solid. For combat, skills like acrobatics or athletics can help you escape from bad situations. trickery, intimidation, and persuasion can allow you to be a good party face. and the perception is really strong all the time! tools have less impact; just pick one that fits your background! blacksmith’s tools or thieves’ tools are usually a bit more powerful. finally, the language is whatever. just pick one you like, or pick one like draconic, sylvan, or elven that a lot of people know. the final benefit is granting experience to a skill you have. the proficiency doubles your proficiency bonus for that skill; so if it had a +3 proficiency bonus, it gives +6 to a skill with experience. great for increasing consistency in the skills you do for your party. choose this carefully, and maybe talk to your group beforehand! this feat is excellent for skilled monkeys… but could be dwarfed by skill experts. tool and language are not worth -1 skill score!
resistant (phb)
Resilient may be the simplest feat in the game, but it’s an important one! gives +1 to any skill score, which is half what you would have gotten with a basic upgrade. that’s solid, but where did the other +1 go? well, you get a saving throw ability. for any class other than monk or paladin, saving throws are difficult. the monk is the only class in the game that naturally grants proficiency on saving throws other than its initial 2. resistant gives you an extra, as long as you choose an ability score that you have no proficiency with. that’s solid! for classes like cleric, you can get force saves. for rangers, you can get wisdom saves. that’s good for the fighter too! proficiency in saving throws can sometimes save your life; getting up to +6 to save is worth a lot! if you can make use of the skill score boost, this feat is an easy pick!
resurrected blade (erlw)
This elven feat comes with a +1 strength or dexterity, and you know how much I like them! elves tend to prefer dexterity, and this feat is a huge enhancement to dexterity constructs that use this weapon. Why is that? well, you can apply the finesse property to your double-bladed scimitar! that means your 2d4 weapon is a dexterity-based weapon, and that means you can use the special bonus action with dexterity too! really good for characters who want to specialize in an admittedly powerful weapon. If that’s not enough, while wielding the scimitar, you gain +1 to ac. that’s stellar, as you can’t really have a shield while doing this build. a really wacky fighter build, or a niche rogue option, that can actively decimate your enemies, but at a -1 cost to skill score. if you want to get rid of everything and use this eberron weapon, go for it! make sure your dm plans to give you opportunities to upgrade your scimitar in the future.
ritual caster (phb)
this… is weird. if you have more than 13 intelligence or wisdom, you can accept this feat. You learn two 1st-level spells from any 9th-level caster. those spells must be able to be cast as rituals. you can cast them as rituals now, using the original casting modifier; charisma for bard, sorcerer, and warlock, wisdom for cleric and druid, and intelligence for wizard. additionally, you can learn additional spells by writing them into the ritual book from a spell scroll or wizard spell book. not bad! you basically have a little book to hold a bunch of ritual spells, which greatly enhances the utility. ritual spells can do a lot! and you don’t even need to be a spell caster to take this feat, so a fighter can cast, detect magic, or understand languages. great utility, especially if your dm likes to hand out spell books or scrolls!
wild attacker (phb)
this feat is a single sentence. You can re-roll a weapon damage roll once per turn. this can lead to high damage potential, as you can choose between the two options. but why? how about taking piercer to get the skill score and critical hit bonuses? or take a big gun fighter or a sniper for +10 damage? why not take up the weapons master for more weapon options and better accuracy? this exploit is useful, don’t get me wrong. but it’s so one-dimensional and bland that it can’t really be called a top-tier pick. perhaps consider him on a half-orc build with a barbarian to maximize damage, or a rogue who has a large deviation between damage rolls. but… only after maxing out your strength or dexterity.
second chance (xge)
Halfling-only feats tend to go after your luck theme, and this one is no different. You start with +1 to Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma. great stats for a medium! dexterity is generally excellent for weapons, ac, and saves. the constitution gives health and saves. charisma is really specific, but halflings are fantastic charisma casters! however, instead of another +1 to ability score, you can use your reaction to cause a creature to reattack you. this refreshes on any rest, or if you roll initiative at the start of combat. so, once per combat, you can try to negate an attack roll. this is not foolproof; your replay can still hit you, and you might even get really unlucky and get a critical hit to the face. but, it’s a second chance! for a squishy character, it might be worth security once per fight. for a frontline character, negate a critical or potentially a hit that could knock you down? that’s worth something right? great defensive option, but only for those who like to roll the dice.
sentinel (phb)
this is the best stunt in the game if your goal is to annoy your dm. ward gives 3 buffs; When you hit with an attack of opportunity, you reduce the target’s movement speed to 0. You can take an attack of opportunity even if an opponent retreats. and you can take advantage of an attack of opportunity against someone if it targets someone other than you while you’re in melee range. this is big business! you can very easily protect your soft wheels with your threatened squares by literally forcing the boss to stop moving. you can also punish enemies for hitting your monk or rogue with an attack of opportunity that paralyzes them. this is actually a valid damage buff, as you have a high chance to land attacks of opportunity. but, basically you’re saying “come and hit me!” you better have the health, air conditioning, and saving throws to tank for your team if you take this feat! if you do, your team will fall in love with you.
touched shadow (tce)
This exploit is ideal for stealth-minded people. You increase a mental score by 1. This will likely be the mental score you cast spells with, as this feat is significantly better considering spell slots. that’s because you learn to be invisible! this is a spell you can cast with your own spell slots, and you get a free one to cast a second level version of invisibility. You also learn a first-level illusion or necromancy spell. invisibility is a fantastic spell to have learned at all times! Unless the enemy has a magical way of seeing you, you have a good chance of avoiding damage, even if they know what space you’re on! the more magical the enemy, the worse it gets. And against hordes of melee bandits, invisibility can literally win the fight! the first tier spell isn’t that impactful; 1st tier illusion spells aren’t great after level 2. and necromancy isn’t much better, though you can still get some powerful debuffs and situational spells. All in all, perfect for any character who really likes using invisibility and wants some extra benefits along with it.
sniper (phb)
Sniping is often said to be one of the best feats in the game for a ranged build. And there are quite a few reasons for that! first, you ignore the long range penalty. this is huge; Quadruples the range of most bows and crossbows. however, this is only significant if you are chasing an enemy or are in an open area. otherwise, it’s rare that you need more than 100 feet of range. perhaps more useful in standard dungeon crawl campaigns is the ability to ignore almost all cover. as long as he can see them, he ignores the penalties he would normally take for taking cover. that’s stellar! this grants +2 or +5 to your attack roll if enemies try to hide from your arrows. super good precision hobbyist. finally, you can take a -5 to your attack roll to deal +10 damage. that’s huge! if you’re a fighter, you can do over 50 extra damage per round, if you can rely on your enemy’s low ac. even rangers still get 20 damage per round from this feat, and they have extra ways to be precise. sniper is a pretty stellar damage (and even accuracy!) increase to your standard ranged build. consider it once you feel comfortable with your dexterity.
shield master (phb)
This feat is rarely remembered, and it’s a shame. actually not bad! to start with, you get a bonus action; if you attacked, you can push. therefore, you can roll the disputed athletics check to move someone 5 feet. this rarely matters, but can be good if you want to team up with a polearm master and force the enemy back into threatened tiles. in some cases this is an “extra attack”, if you really want to push someone into a flashlight or wall or deal extra damage before repositioning them. the second benefit is much more interesting; adding his shield bonus to Dexterity saves. unfortunately, the effect can only affect you… which means most Dexterity saves ignore this. still, you can jump out of the way of some deadly single-target spells, and adding a +5 to your saves (with a fully enchanted shield) is as good as tough. finally, you can spend a reaction to take no damage when you would have taken half damage on a Dexterity save. this can save lives; half of the average fireball damage is still 14 damage, which hurts a lot! spending a reaction to ignore that damage is a huge health efficiency and might be worth it. especially now that your dexterity is so much better! in general, the benefits of dexterity save and shield bash may be too situational for the shield master to be worth the feat slot. might be worth considering for team combos.
skills expert (tce)
the skill expert is really nice! first, you get your +1 to any ability score. great start! you’re only losing a +1 to an ability score, which is much better than most feats give you. so, you get two benefits; you become proficient in 1 skill. that ability can be any of the list; it doesn’t have to be related to your +1 skill score at all. then, you gain experience in whatever skill you’re proficient in. experience means you earn twice as much as your competition; so, this gives your ability from +3 to +6 to an ability of your choice. this is great! you can really focus on your personal role in the party in a way that only bards and rogues can. for example, a ranger can become extremely good at perception, or a fighter can overpower enemies with athleticism. the additional skill is also good! if you care about skills and want great consistency with a specific skill that your party trusts you to perform, this feat is for you!
expert (phb)
expert is like skill expert but worse. well, possibly. skilled gives you 3 skill proficiencies, or you can take tool proficiencies instead. so, in a vacuum, this is not stellar. this is one of the ways classes like monk or ranger can gain mastery of thieves’ tools, but a background would always be a slightly better option than a feat. however, 3 skills are nothing to sneeze at. it’s a huge burst of versatility and allows a single character to solve a lot more problems with more consistency. however… the skill expert has this rhythm. for long! you are on a team for a reason; let your team members help with your skills, while you focus on what your character is good at. skilled just takes much too much power from your character, and only rewards you with little versatility.
prowler (phb)
skulker isn’t great. is a stealth feat, available to characters with Dexterity 13 or higher, with some benefits. first, you only need to be slightly obscured to hide from a creature. this is good; Increases a rogue’s ability to return to stealth after revealing you. the second benefit allows you to miss ranged attacks without revealing yourself. this is awful! who wants to plan around losses when they have an advantage on attacks? I guess it helps when both bonus dice screw you up and you need another chance. however, this has a very fun benefit; you can actually shoot arrows from the dark, and no one gets another chance to see you. just take the enemies wherever you want, since you haven’t technically hit anyone! a really fun way to emulate illusion magic with just one feat. finally, you can see in low light without penalty. for some races, like anyone with darkvision, this is more than useless. Unfortunately, Skulker doesn’t give you more than small buffs. if you really want help with stealth, it might be better to pick shade touched and gain invisibility, or skill expert for more consistent stealth checks.
trimmer (tce)
the slasher feat is specialized for slashing weapons. Disgusting surprise! you get +1 to strength or dexterity, which is perfect for the melee builds it’s used for. most slashing weapons lack the finesse property, so make sure you’re building your character correctly beforehand! Slasher’s first buff reduces movement speed by 10 feet each time you hit a target. this is normally quite useless. however, for a defender build, 10 feet could be the difference between your mage getting hit or not. a good location makes slasher work much better! though, don’t get me wrong; it’s still not great to slow down by just 10 feet. many dangerous enemies can use the mist step or other teleports to get past the front lines, or have 80 or more feet of movement speed. if you critically hit the target, then the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls. this is great for countering melee or bow wielding attackers and making them nearly useless for a round! however, this ability does nothing to casters, who can only target saves and ignore their debuff. Overall, this feat might be the weakest of the crusher/piercer/assassin trio. but it’s still a +1 to a stat and can be a good zoning tool. it’s not useless, but consider your other options first.
sniper spell (phb)
spell sniper is an immensely specific option, but it can have some surprising uses. First, you double the range of attack roll spells. this rarely comes into play; dungeon rooms rarely exceed 100 feet, and many attack roll spells come with a range of 120 feet. however, if you get creative with your surroundings or fight in open fields, you can safely bombard enemies from such a ridiculous range that they can’t do anything to stop you! this with a scorching ray on a caster using a distant spell has a range of 480 feet! enemies with a 30 foot move would have to take the dash action every turn for 8 turns to reach you! potentially more importantly, spell sniper allows you to ignore non-complete cover. this means that enemies hiding from your magic don’t benefit from cover unless you can’t see them at all. it rarely comes into play, but when it does, it gives you +2 to +5 to your attack roll. finally, you gain a ranged attack cantrip. your list is limited, but dealing d10 damage with firebolt will never be bad. realistically, this feat only works for meme moments where you dive into someone a mile away… or for an eldritch blast build, to make your warlock extremely safe and accurate with eldritch blast barrages. overall not very good. take it only if you think the campaign will work with your massive rank.
squat agility (xge)
hello short stuff! What’s up? this feat can be good if you want to bridge the gap between you (a dwarf or small sized race) and those of standard height. first, you gain +1 strength or dexterity. great start! dexterity is useful for almost any class, and strength is a great benefit for dwarves or other melee builds that like heavier armor. that is far from everything! you gain 5 feet of movement, which is equal to another square. that’s good for keeping up with your enemies in a fight, and can be a big help in crowd fights. you also get a skill competition, but only in acrobatics or athletics. both feats have to do with performing feats of movement, but athleticism tends to come up much more often. acrobatics are still quite useful, but athletics is usually the preferred option. finally, you’re great at escaping grappling hooks; you gain advantage when using acrobatics or athletics to escape a grapple check. Okay! that makes you less likely to get eaten by slimes or dangerous tigers. overall… not bad! It gives you a buff to skill score, movement speed, an ability, and some situational defense. consider it if you’re small!
svirfneblin magic (mtf)
Deep gnomes come with tricky magic. if you’re one, you can get some crazy magic! this feat allows you to cast nondetection at will. that’s absurdly specific, but against magical bosses, you can stay safe. sure, whatever. you get three more spells to help build this feat, though these spells can only be cast once per day. blindness/deafness can ruin a physical boss, which can easily save the party a lot of pain. blurring is useful, as it gives you an easy way to spread debuffs on attack rolls if you’re a leader, like a rogue. dressing up isn’t helpful in a fight, but it can allow for fun and creative solutions to problems. overall this feat comes with two good spells and two very situational ones. however, one of those situational spells is active 100% of the time, and the other one is really fun. this can be worth it once your primary stat is at 20.
tavern brawler (phb)
This is one of the few feats in the Player’s Handbook that can be turned into a full build. to start, you get +1 strength or +1 constitution. good start! both are good for a melee build. the build will be better overall, especially if you’re going for a monk concept. You gain proficiency with improvised weapons. that… doesn’t matter at all. the problem is that dms can choose if he can use his proficiency modifier with an improvised weapon anyway. I guess this exploit allows you to use whatever you want without asking the dm, which saves time. but, improvised weapons that are not weapon-like deal 1d4 damage. that’s not fantastic. it’s also not great to increase the damage of your unarmed strike to d4. obviously 1d4 is much better than 1, the standard damage for an unarmed attack. so at least you’re getting updates! finally, when hitting with improvised weapons or your fists, you can grab as a bonus action. grab isn’t great, but getting it as a bonus action? it’s okay. this feat gives you enough small buffs that you can consider whether you’re looking for an unarmed fighter or a strange rogue build. it’s also arguably the best fighting feat… aside from expert skill.
telekinetic (tce)
Your mind reaches far beyond the few realms known to most! To start, you gain +1 to any mental stat of your choice. perfect for casters, and non-casters can still benefit from the best saving throws or class features depending on their mind! then, you learn mage hand. you can cast it without components, and it’s invisible. additionally, if you can learn it from a spell list, you gain +30ft range. what fun for this spell! mage hand is already a pretty stellar utility spell. now, you can do it without any sound or movement components, no one can see it, and it has a range of 60 feet if you already have it. while not terribly useful in a fight, this is a fun perk to play around with! already a good choice for a supernatural cheater! if that’s not enough, as a bonus action, you can push someone 30 feet away, you can force a force saving throw. this saving throw forces the target to be pushed 5 feet toward you or away from you. creatures can also fail this voluntarily. that’s very, very basic. but, you can get interesting with this. against enemies, this small push can be enough to force a target out of melee range. alternatively, you can get someone close enough for your sentry tank to destroy them! for allies, this can be an extra 5 feet of movement, which can either save them from attacks of opportunity or put them in range to wreck a caster’s life. For any caster, this is a 100% reasonable option for a utility spell.
telepathic (tce)
telepathic is pretty much what it says on the tin; you have the limited link to the minds of others that psychics need to prove themselves! You start with +1 to a mental stat of your choice. great for throwers or some martial classes, and a great start to any feat! So, you have two benefits. first, you can speak telepathically within 60 feet. this telepathy is language dependent and the target cannot respond. but, this is pure, silent communication between you and a target. you can ignore silence or any kind of barrier that might prevent noise (but not sight!). And you can scare anyone who doesn’t trust telepaths! good material. the other option is that you learn to detect thoughts and can cast it once a day as a level 2 spell. good stuff too! detecting thoughts is great for gathering information from secretive targets. it can also allow you to find intelligent invisible characters, allowing you to come in handy for a combat situation. solid stuff! Because telepathy is based on language, you’ll want to detect thoughts as part of why you want to get this feat. you’ll probably also want to be a class that can speak in tongues, as long as your dm allows it to be used with telepathy.
hard (phb)
resistant is a simple feat. 2 hp per level is extremely useful; it makes a fighter as tough as a barbarian, or a mage as tough as an artificer. That may seem minor, but you’ll get up to 40 hp at level 20. Usually that means you can survive a full turn of extra combat! essentially, this feat increases your constitution by +4, instead of the +2 you might normally get. however, you do not gain the boost from saving throws or constitution-based class characteristics. so hard is really just here to allow you to get punched in the face a little harder. great for classes that need the extra punch! however, if you’re a caster with spells like invisibility or other defensive options, this might not be necessary. think about the magic you have access to before spending a feat on anything but extra health.
war caster (phb)
A feat unique to the spellcaster, Warcaster is perfect for any magic user who wants to be able to come face to face with the enemies they cast spells on. For starters, you gain an advantage when focusing on spells because you take damage. concentration spells are very, very strong. so having a little extra protection from falling off these spells is a great start to a fight! however, remember that you only gain this buff when taking damage. that’s why it has some other features! you can use weapons or shields to perform somatic components. this rarely comes up; most dms don’t check to see if a cleric has a free hand. but, for the dms who are picky about these things, he has written evidence that he is good. it also makes it easier for non-holy symbol classes to wreak havoc on weapons. finally, you can make attacks of opportunity with magic. that’s brutal! you can punish someone for leaving your squares threatened to keep the person or disintegrate. that’s absolutely wild! If you want your cleric, druid, warlock, or any other melee wizard to be feared on the front lines, this feat is a must!
weapons master (phb)
Have you ever played a cleric or warlock and only wished you could wield weapons with the best? Well, with this feat you can! You start with +1 to Strength or Dexterity. good start, considering you’re trying to master weapons! dexterity tends to be a bit easier to use, with bonuses to your ac and being a more specific saving throw. but, if you’re trying to be a force mage, be my guest! otherwise, your benefit is 4 simple or martial quality weapon proficiencies. these can be any weapon, and you should almost always choose martial weapons. Simple weapons aren’t bad, but they generally do less damage or have additional penalties that make them difficult to use. For great martial weapons, you can choose weapons such as long bows, rapiers, long swords, great axes or any other! however, this feat will take some planning. if your class doesn’t have proficiency in martial weapons, it could be because your character is better at throwing. for rogues, make sure your weapon qualifies for a sneak attack; it has to be finesse or a ranged attack. As long as you make good use of the weapon, the weapon master is a great way to get your proficiency without multiclassing.
magic of the forest goblins (xge)
Would you like your wood elf to be a little more in tune with nature? well now you can! This exclusive feat of the wood elves comes with a druid cantrip of your choice. these are somewhat restricted; without sleight of hand or message or magician’s hand. but you can go with druid, freeze, guide, magic stone, mend, shape water and thorn whip! good options here. However, this not all. you can cast longstrider and slip by once each without spending a spell slot. longstrider is a bit situational, since 10 feet is not that much. however, starting a dungeon with it can make it quite effective for your melee combatants! Pass Without a Trace allows you to sneak around with ease. +10 to stealth is absurd! this combo doesn’t really work very well together, but pwt is a star spell that can really alter the way a dm sets up encounters. This stunt probably isn’t worth losing, a major skill score boost, but it could be fun for your level 12 stunt. Try it on your next wood elf!
See Also: Greg Iles – Book Series In Order