The Best & Worst Feats In D&D
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With 5e drawing to a close, let's take a look at the best and worst FEATS ever made for the system!
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0:00 - 5th Best
1:11 - 5th Worst
2:29 - 4th Best
3:31 - 4th Worst
6:05 - 3rd Worst
7:10 - 3rd Best
8:09 - 2nd Worst
9:32 - 2nd Best
10:42 - The Worst
12:16 - The Best - Hry
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Your purple hoodie goes unnecessarily hard
There is no way in hell that Lucky is the #1 feat. It's good, but doesn't even come close to the other 4 listed here, especially Fey Touched and Sharpshooter/GWM. It's arguably less good than Elvin Accuracy, Resilience or Sentinel also. Why? Because it's 3/day. Good, not broken.
Keen Mind is actually OP if you have a bad memory but your character no longer does. Make the DM recall everything you don't remember in the last 30 in-game days with perfect details.
Factual!
Mixing best and worst feats is genius for retention, especially since we have bookmarks on the timeline these days
he's so good at this -- almost makes me wish I still cared about 5e
@@whitleypedia You must care at least a little bit otherwise you wouldn't have loaded the video to comment.
I've seen this format in this order a long time ago, so I don't think he invented it and I'm not sure if that was even intentional
Still very smart if it was
What does “retention” mean? (English isn’t my first language)
@@desmo6765 "the condition of being retained."
Specifically in CZcams, it is talking about retaining the audience's attention throughout the entire video
Having high retention is a really good thing in CZcams
Keen Mind has a great IRL usage for when you miss something in your notes and your DM is being uncool about it - having your character remember everything perfectly from the last month in game time means that I the player can’t be punished for having had things happen in my life in between sessions and not remembering something
Plus the best thing for a wizard with Keen Mind is that they can recall every single spell they've read in the last 30 days. With a GM willing to roll with it (so basically only in a one-shot unless you're luckier than a Halfling), you've got a Wizard with the ability to use any of their spells every day. True, the designers came out and said that it wasn't intended to change how spell preparation works, but as written it definitely does.
To be fair thats kind of just your DM being a jerk imo
It also means you can't be punished for being a lazy player that doesn't take any notes... which is more often the case.
That's why the DM allows 31 in-game days to pass in between you not taking notes and then needing to remember all thirteen of the books on the mayor's bookshelf that you made him list for the lols.
Look its lucky if the dm remembers half the details they concocted.
I think Liam O’Brien proved how incredibly useful Keen Mind is for a wizard- especially one that doesn’t take the best notes and forgets things lmao
agreed xD but that only works for dnd campaign where people take things seriously. I campaign in our friends circle we don't pay much attention to day/night, time, North or memories of something. DM can just tell whatever it is. However, in Critical Role that was so valuable!
In his case, in the game he's in, it works. Keen mind is as important as the DM makes it.
Grappler does have an ultra niche application where if you play an Oath of the Open Sea Paladin and is level 7 you gain immunity to the Restrained condition. So you can pin an enemy and then gain all the benefits of the enemy being restrained while suffering none of the penalties.
okay, but it's homebrew, therefore invalid (unless in the tal'dorei campaign, but that would not be under my ruling)
@@captainpolar2343 Not quite homebrew, so only invalid by your rulings. Oath of the open sea ,echo knight, chronomancer and graviturgy wizard are all published by Wizards in EGTW and widely used at many tables, however they are rarely restricted.
Edit:it wasn't released in egtw, but was released alongside the book on DND beyond in 2020
So, in the best case scenario grappler is able to compete with a push?
Restrained is different, it makes them fail very popular saves @philtess3126
@@Gallacantthe other benefit for restrained is that a prone enemy does give disadvantage to ranged attacks on them so restrained doesn't nerf you're squishier backliners
My favorite use of tavern brawler: punching an opponent, then using a bonus action to grapple them. They die. Use my action on the following turn to pick up the first creatures corpse and smack them into another creature, then, since the first creature was an improvised weapon, use my bonus action to start a grapple with the second creature
Damn, that sound like a very feral barbarian build
The Lucky feat and its interaction with disadvantage reminds me of a scene from Sir Terry Pratchett's 'Guards! Guards!' where a particularly genre savvy character sited the trope that one in a million chances tend to happen nine times out of ten, and preceded to set up an *exactly* million-to-one shot to give themselves the best chance for success.
So as a result the 'disadvantage becomes super advantage' aspect makes total sense and anyone who knows that they are a particularly lucky protagonist would absolutely abuse it
Yeah I've always found it to be super flavorful. People get so uppity about lucky, but there are a number of RPGs that have hero points by default (PF2e being a big one right now) and it's even an optional rule in the dmg. I hope people end up deciding on using hero points more often in future (as someone with terrible dice luck) and stop getting so weird about changing the outcome of so few dice per session, surely over the course of the campaign you'll affect like maybe 5% of rolls that happen, if that, whereas an ASI can mean so much more than that.
Slight correction, and also one of the things that makes Terry Pratchett so great, is that the characters miscalculated, and they failed to make their odds of success exactly one in a million, so their plan didn't work. Fortunately for them, the odds of them surviving the dragon's retaliation *were* exactly one in a million.
@@CivilWarMan G-d bless that man.
PS, don’t checkout the backgrounds in Book of Many Things in which Rewarded gives you the choice of taking the Lucky feat for free….
That man was a master of words.
Minor correction for anyone that wants to run a longsword monk: you dont bump from d6 to d8, because you can still use the longsword in 2 hands as a monk and you bump to d10.
I mean, looking at a lot of Wuxia films it’s not even that weird for a shaolin monk to pick up a sword
@@Delmworks Absolutely. Honestly Monks got kinda screwed in DND by being put into such a strict niche. There are so many types of monk and monk like characters who use so many different kinds of weapons. Monks should just get to choose a weapon to be proficient in as a monk weapon. Also is there a heavy weapon monk because that also has both real world and Wuxia examples.
@@Merilirem no, even the weapons specialist monk Kensei has the restrictions that is no heavy or special traits weapons making them redundant now that Dedicated weapon exists.
Best feat in D&D: Getting your friends together to play. Worst feat in D&D: Getting your friends together to play. 😅
While not broken, the Tough feat is severely underrated
It’s really not. If you don’t need it, then extra hp doesn’t add anything, and if you do need it, then the DM has overtuned the numbers. It’s a redundant noob trap.
@@MayHuggerI use Tough on some of my tank builds and it can be hilarious to watch my DMs faces when I say I’m still alive after the fifth attack. I blame this feat for being the only reason I have never had a character die, even in campaigns where several other characters died. It’s not a great feat, sure, but it’s not bad by any means.
@@ameliasaurus9326 Refer to my previous comment. It is bad, and redundant.
@@MayHugger just take that spelljammer background that gives it to you for free. what else are you using your background for anyway, gambling proficiency?
@@MayHugger Not sure there's a single character that WOULDN'T benefit from extra health. If the DM's doing their job, there is no such thing as a safe build.
I'd make an argument that Keen Mind lets you memorize a spell to copy into your spellbook at a glance.
And if your GM is REALLY insane, technically preparing spells is "memorization." So with Keen Mind, you'd be able to have every single spell prepared.
Upon seeing the spell be cast, or upon seeing a spell scroll? Because if its the former, then pairing that with Arcane trickster can get you the true "Definately not a bootleg Uchiha" vibes.
It also makes it so you don’t have to take notes or make history checks on anything that happened recently. Just ask the DM for the information that you as a character would already remember but you as a player may have forgotten.
If you tried to convince me that Keen Mind means you have unlimited spell slots, I'd kick you out of my game.
@@kilbert666Not unlimited spell slots, unlimited spells known.
@@kilbert666 Not unlimited spell slots, just unlimited spells prepared.... specifically as a Wizard, as the means for "preparing a spell" for them means (RAW) memorizing the incantations and gestures needed to cast them. Keen Mind specifically states "You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month", which IS memorization. So if the Wizard has read through their entire spellbook sometime within the last MONTH, they essentially have all their spells prepared.
This most definitely is NOT RAI, but it most definitely is RAW.
Say what you will about bad feats but you cannot deny the cool imagery of a wizard running into battle armed with a great axe, a trident, a musket, and a whip wearing studded leather armor.
I think an honorable mention is the alert feat, it gives you a plus 5 to initiative and you can’t be surprise attacked
Did you just call Keen Mind useless? Are you trying to rage-bait me into making a comment? I shan't be baited, sir. I shan't!
I remember all keys in that store down to the last one
he commented
He called it useless because it is useless.
@@avakio19I play a pact of the chain warlock in our current campaign and the whole build is based on the keen mind feat. My character is an excellent spy/information broker. You might be unaware of how a character can benefit from photographic memory, but that does not mean it is useless.
I have to agree Keen mind in an espionage campaign is God tier.
Outside of that, most games don't see enough RP to make it worth the time
Literaly Athletic is a better feat than grappler for grappling builds, you suplex your grapled target by jumping and dropping it and the you can stand up from prone, if you can jump more than 10ft (this hight includes your characters' hight) the target falls prone and you only need 5ft, to not be prone, and with Tasha's custom fall rules, the target gets his and half your fall damage
Now I'm just picturing a dude in full plate performing a Spinning Piledriver on some hapless sod.
its just hulk hogan in a shiny armor
The Super Mario build
But... but... Grappler is the only Feat in Dnd Beyond.
Idk if you are meming or not. But if you aren't it's because you don't have any books purchased. They unlock a ton of stuff feats included
I’ve played with Feytouched little brother Shadowtouched on my Triton Rogue. The most fun combat encounter I had was turning Invisible and disabling a hell portal while everyone else were fighting the demons. Plus, it fitted thematically with my character
Shadow Touched is fantastic as well, and something I try to get on my spellcasters when possible. I only lean Fey Touched first for access to Gift of Alacrity.
I'd just like to take a moment to recognize you for talking about Sharpshooter properly, and recognizing the advantages of longbowing from afar, rather than pairing it with hand crossbows like everyone else seems to, as though every combat ever will happen within their terrible range.
I mean, they will if you've got primarily melee-focused martials in your party. Actually, in my experience, the thing that's very rare to happen is that you'll be able to engage a group of enemies from further than 60 or 100 feet out.
My friend once used Sharpshooter+Longbow to kill all of an armies siege giant-zombies before they could even reach the wall.
I'd just like to take a moment to say that both Sharpshooter and GWM feats are seriously nerfed at my table, as they are totally OP and broken. Like a lot of 5e rules, aimed at showering players with 'gifts' and multiple Toys'R'Us badassery options without regards to immersion, context, or general game balance, so that said-players can keep buying more badly-written books from WotC... * end of rant , thank you ! *
My longest running character is a wood elf, with a long bow, so you want to talk about the stereotype everyone using short crossbows, I am here to break that stereotype
@@Thumperoo How you gonna rant like that but then not specify how you changed the feats?
I think... technically, RAW you can use sharpshooter and great weapon master on the same strike. GWM requires "a melee attack with a heavy weapon that you are proficient with" and sharpshooter says "make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with". Not a ranged attack, an attack with a ranged weapon. A Heavy Crossbow is both a ranged weapon and a heavy weapon. Fitting the description of both. Therefore, hitting someone, as in bludgeoning them with a Heavy Cross bow allows you to take a -10 to hit for 20 additional damage.
I guess... but going by RAW that melee heavy crossbow attack would probably be considered an improvised weapon attack, which you wouldn't be proficient with unless you also took the tavern brawler feat... That's a lot of feats for being able to make an attack that is unlikely to hit ^^.
@@trebmal587It also may not necessarily be a heavy weapon and/or a ranged weapon. The DM can treat it as a the closest analogue of a real weapon, which is this case may be a club or mace. Considering it as such would nullify both feats.
@@trebmal587 This just made me realize, my current DnD character uses a gun that also has an axe head for melee attacks, which means, if I took sharpshooter then the beneficial effects should technically apply to those melee attacks without me having to suffer any improvised weapon disadvantage. Which would make the already broken feat even more broken for me.
Now if only the weapon was heavy umu.
I think most DMs would rule that a crossbow isn’t a ranged weapon while you’re using it to make a melee attack. The rules might support this too, but I’d have to check. I’m all for cheeky rulings to support niche strategies, but with this one you’re stacking two of the best feats in the game.
Using a ranged weapon as a melee weapon would be making an improvised weapon attack, which would make it no longer a ranged weapon unfortunately. If your GM goes for it though yes you can, although a -10 to hit would probably not be worth it except in very specific scenarios
Let’s not forget that Fey Touched gives access to Gift of Alacrity, a spell accessible by only a single subclass in the Chronurgy Wizard (assuming you allow EGtW content) - an incredibly useful spell that assists with boosting initiative and doesn’t require concentration.
Use this on a Sorcerer who can extend Extend Spell this before a long rest to start the next day with 8 hours of GoA plus a reset free casting or twinned spell to buff 2 allies at the cost of a single Sorcery Point and no spell slots.
again, love the differnet places your recording in, it feels so much closer and nicer, i think its a great idea
Sentinel, and war caster on a warlock with repelling blast goes crazy.
throw in some echo knight levels and you're cooking with gas :)
Forcelance or even better, Ghostlance!
Except it doesn’t work work the way I bet you think it does, as War caster lets you cast a spell instead of using your attack of opportunity. Thus, Sentinel doesn’t do anything for Eldritch Blast. Also, since Eldritch Blast is a ranged spell attack, you would still have disadvantage.
Sentinel reduces an enemy's speed to 0 when you hit an opportunity attack, which isn't the same as casting a spell. Despite that, you can do something similar with polearm master and war caster because of the order of operations. Hold a polearm with reach, creature steps into your 10ft melee range, trigger opportunity attack, opportunity attack is replaced by the cast a spell action, eldritch blast hits x times and creature is pushed x feet away, likely preventing damage. You don't even need to be proficient with the weapon, just holding it increases your melee range.
I'd say that "Holding a pole arm for purposes of triggering sentinel requires both hands and the use of the pole arm". Leaving no hands free for the spell/cantrip of eldritch blast which has no feat allowing you to cast as a reaction. You can't have your pole arm in 2 hands for the attack manuvere that was clearly intended to be a performed with the pole arm and yet not have it come into play while casting a cantrip with one hand. No having of cake and eating it too.
Rules as intended not as written.
Important note about Sharpshooter: only the first two effects, ignoring cover and long range, work on thrown weapons. The -5/+10 does not work with thrown weapons RAW. The first two effects just say "ranged weapon attacks," but the other specifies "an attack WITH a ranged weapon."
Unless you go for darts yeah, which is the only thrown ranged weapon. I made a grung monk build a while back that used darts with SS
I was about to write this same thing, I'll leave you the like
What is the difference between the two? They sound the same
@@Kayledon777 a ranged weapon attack is an attack with any weapon that is at ranged. An attack with a ranged weapon is any attack, melee or ranged, made with a weapon in the ranged category. A dagger for example has the thrown property, you can make ranged attacks with it. But they are ranged attacks with a melee weapon. The only ranged weapon with melee is the dart, which works with sharpshooter
@@collinw9792 How does a dart have a melee attack option? It just has the finesse and thrown properties.
Him shitting on linguist has me tilted. My lvl 8 rogue speaks 12 languages and can create unbreakable cyphers. It has absolutely been helpful in my campaign.
It's such a good base for a spy or Indy type character. If you stack it with Observant it's so good. You thought DMs get mad when you have dark vision? Reading lips of the sketchy dudes across the bar or through a spy glass? Oh the salt.
The cyphers thing can be useful but you can just create a cypher by yourself and use it, if the master wants to decipher it, he will find a way. "oh you used a cypher to leave a message for your contact, the contact happens to be charmed and tells me everything" or similar loophole. My point being : you don't need a feat saying that your cyphers can't be deciphered, just use a cypher that is reasonably hard to decypher. You can use the feat for something else. Of course, if you like it, more power to you, it's flavorful for sure.
Bro at that point just cast tongues.
Literally cast tongues.
@@MayHugger I mean If you want to burn a 3rd level spell slot for a limited amount of time sure (assuming the group caster takes that spell which I've never seen).
its funny how life works. yesterday i spent over and hour looking up what the best feats are and then this video pops up in my for you page the next day
Hey... _Linguist_ and _Keen Mind_ can be very useful. In a campaign where there are a lot of languages used, _Linguist_ can really round out your capabilities, and _Keen Mind_ essentially adds a flashback button to your DM. Combine it with actor and some way of disguising yourself (magically if you can get it) and you've given yourself a way to lawlessly impersonate anyone without needing to roll a single die.
You have to look at it from the perspective of DnD being a combat game, which is it for about 80% for the vast majority of people. Most groups I played in never bothered with language really being a thing unless we were visiting aeons-old ruins.
I feel like linguist is overshadowed by spells like "Comprehend languages" and "Tongues" not to mention College of Eloquence bards in combination with CL
@@The_Remage You're not wrong, though it does let you access mutual communication earlier and more permanently, and doesn't cost spell slots. There are situations where that is very useful - and if you communicate to your DM that you want to play a diplomat-type of character, you can even have the story be one where it _is_ useful.
You might scoff at the idea that someone would give up a feat for that... but I'm planning to take _Eldritch Adept: Beast Speech_ on my ranger as soon as I can, because I want to be able to talk to my pet bat permanently.
@@MalloonTarka Oh by no means, I like the feat as to what it does - I especially love the whole cypher schtick, so you can feel like a real spy.
I mainly just had the internal need to denote it a bit as feat-less options exist, haha. Like especially where one of them is just a ritual, the feat feels better suited for intermediate-to-advanced players that can do all the lovely fluff around it. I DO have to say that it is completely pointless in the majority of APs, though, which I find to be a shame
Man I sure do love having 7 languages especially when it gives me the chance to teach a Xorn Common XD
10:42 The Grappler feat is also the only feat available for free on D&D Beyond
Bro, you are funniest dnd CZcamsr I have seen in the last Century 😍😂...
I have said what you wanted. Could you now please release my Family from your basement?
the video just came out, but I already know there's the grappler feat somewhere
oh yeah, the best feat in the game had to make an appearance!! GRAPPLE 'EM BABY!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥💀
@@DnDShortsyou should be grappled for making that joke😅
Grappler? I hardly know'er.
**badum-tsss!**
I had a lot of fun playing a wrestler (mostly fighter with a little bit of Barbarian) who had grappler, tavern brawler, and the unarmed fighting style. But I also had a belt of giant strength and a custom set of magical elbow and kneepads that made my unarmed attacks magical and hit a little harder. Very generous DM. Probably not a build that I would have tried building up from level 1, but I was joining a campaign at level 10, so everything was already online. I never used the restraining feature, but I made a lot of attacks at advantage, and with Rage for important fights nobody was escaping my grapples. For the reasons you listed, for most people, not an ideal feat. But under some very special circumstances it can add a nice little extra boon to your build
Thank you yet again for a wonderful video that's not clickbait but actually useful. The choice to highlight both the best and worst feats was a masterstroke!
Glad to see you still finding fresh ideas for longform videos man.
Hot Take:
I think Feats like Warcaster and Dual wielder aren't actually good at all.
They 're obligatory taxes that you have to pay to be able to do something you feel like you should be able to do anyway.
Now I'm not saying they should be given out from level one, but there should be a way for spellcasters to gaint he ability to cast while holding a shield within their own class progression. Ditto Dueal wielding which should really be part of the two weapon fighting style or some advanced version of it unlocked at a higher level.
Totally get that perspective! This video didn't discuss the concept of "healthy" feats. I agree that some feats are so powerful that they demand players take them, and as such can be limiting to builds
I think the rules for a spell focus help with some of those. I know clerics and paladins at least can have a holy symbol on their shield for a focus and some other subclasses can integrate a focus into their weapons.
Considering that Feats are optional and not the default: No they are not obligatory :P
You know what is tax feat? the one that give light armor skill, you either hinder by it, start off with one or already have a better one in the list
Spellcasters that are expected to be able to wield weapons or shields from within their own class progression usually either already have ways around needing a free hand to cast, aren't typically expected to have a shield, or are mechanically forbidden from having a free hand anyway.
The two-weapon fighting rules in 5e are kind of a mess to begin with, and the feat only sort of helps with that.
Other comments have already said this, but I feel like Weapon Master is mainly for characters to get access to firearms. If I were to try to fix this feat, I'd make it more like the Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization feats from 3.5 and Pathfinder. Something like "Choose a weapon (or x number of weapons) you're proficient with, and gain a bonus to attack rolls (maybe double Proficiency) and damage rolls (maybe your Proficiency bonus, or reroll and choose like Savage Attacker)." Maybe throw in Improved Critical, as a treat. I don't know, it's a work in progress that I haven't started.
Honestly I wouldn't mind it at all if it gave actual mastery of weapons, as in all weapons. A feat to get access to martial weapons wouldn't be so bad, getting all weapons under the sun though, that would be awesome on characters who normally can't use simple and martial. There are so many builds that just can't use all the weapons you want and personally I like the option of using whatever we find. Sometimes the DM gives the fighter too many weapons and a hand me down can go to the other members. Some of which might be running melee caster builds that don't get the proficiency they need for that weapon even though they could use it otherwise.
Having to just multiclass fighter instead because feats literally can't do that is kinda silly.
They made the gunner feat to get around that and that’s a half feat and removes disadvantage firing in melee.
@@AtelierGod True, but we didn't have Gunner until Tasha's Cauldron was released in 2020 (and maybe in a UA a bit earlier).
Always love your videos, this is a great approach thanks!
man ur videos are the best, have a nice day!!
Gotta love Elven accuracy!
My dm was like, wait whut? when io showed it to him (he did allow it), it just feels too good to roll 3 d20's
My favorite combo of this was using it in combination with Artificer Armorer Thunder Gauntlets to impose disadvantage while my wolf totem barbarian buddy went reckless and was giving me advantage. Banger synergy.
Elven Accuracy is a bit overrated IMO. Whenever you roll an attack with advantage, you're already quite likely to succeed. The only time this feat does something is when your two first rolls didn't allow you to land the attack, but the third did. Sure it might make a difference sometimes, but was that really worth sacrificing an ability score improvement or not taking an other feat ?
The only builds I can think of that truely benefit from this feat are the critfishers or power attack users (sharpshooter or heavy weapon master). But even then, I think the lucky feat would do more for them, and whithout having to play an elf or half-elf.
EDIT : oh wait, I just realised that you can't use elven accuracy with strength based attack, so you can't use it on HWM unless you made the heavy weapon a monk weapon, a batllesmith weapon, or an hexblade pact weapon...
@@trebmal587 it's extremely useful in letting you spread your stats around to other areas because consistent advantage means you don't need to bump your attacking stat quite as much. Further, any build that just needs to hit can always benefit from higher accuracy (sometimes you just roll badly) and higher crit rate (more damage!)
Plus, any build that does an on-hit effect (Armorer Thunder Gauntlets to impose disadvantage on attacks against allies meaning they target you) just needs to hit *once* to be doing their job.
@@unboundsoul3582 Well, upon re-reading the feat, my opinion changed a bit : the fact that it is an half feat makes it a bit better than I thought, I didn't remember it was one. Still, getting a third dice on advantages is probably not that much of a buff for most characters, but on low accuracy builds or crit fishers it might be.
Come to think of it, wouldn't the Grappler pin move just remove the first benefit? If both you and the target are restrained, then attacks against the target are made at both Advantage (because they're restrained) and Disadvantage (because you're restrained), and because sources of (dis)advantage don't stack and cancel each other out, it's going to be a straight roll to attack when you would normally have advantage.
A feat that removes its own benefits is uniquely bad.
To be fair, it's a bit better if treated as Super Prone for fellow Martials. Keep the guy in a headlock while your allies destroy him.
As a basic feat to pick up, yea Grappler is kinda bad. For a dedicated grappling build though, this and Tavern Brawler are your only options. And do not underestimate a dedicated Barbarian Grappler. I once managed to sit for 5 turns being constantly stunned by a monk before taking them down in 2 with almost no difficulty (they'd stunned after I managed to already grapple). Grappler just giving somewhat reliable advantage to grapplers is pretty decent on its own. Though, yea, debatable whether it's worth the rest. Maybe if it were a half-feat.
Do you think it was meant to negate the disadvantage you get with the double advantage? Not how it works sadly, but maybe that's how it was intended?
At least if it didnt take a full action, you could take Tavern Brawler and bonus action grapple before using your second attack to pin.
@@VakovoSheggorri Ehh, to be fair, while it's only once pet short rest, Fighting Initiate can get you Superior Technique, which gives you Grappling Strike, which adds a Superiority Die on top of the Grapple Check
The idea with the grappler pin isn't to give yourself benefits, it's to combo with your teammates. You can grapple an enemy to get advantage for yourself, or you can pin to give advantage to your friends in exchange for taking penalties yourself. From what I know, grapple builds often sacrifice damage potential, so the idea is that with the Grappler feat is not to enhance your own build, but to turbocharge the Rogue or Paladin so they can absolutely obliterate your pinned target. It's still a really poorly designed feat, but it isn't a bad idea in concept
@@VakovoSheggorribetter than tavern brawler for an unarmed/grappler build would be fighting initiate for the unarmed fighting style from TCE
Will. Just wanna say. YOU ROCK, MATE...! I love all your videos... And yours is the only channel where the adds are just as funny as the rest of the content... Keep it up...😂
I feel elemental adept (all of them) should get an honorable mention, ignoring resistances of a specific damage type and increasing your damage slightly is great
I think Elemental Adept sounds better on paper than it is in practice. It's got great flavor potential for a single damage type blasting character, but there are a few things holding it back.
1. It ignores resistance, but does nothing against immunity, so that Pyromancer character is still going to need to take some non-fire spells in order to contribute to that fight against the Adult Red Dragon.
2. It only applies to spells you cast, so it has no effect for a character like an Ascendant Dragon Monk or a character wielding a Flametongue weapon.
3. Not all damage types are created equal. Elemental Adept (Thunder), for instance, is not going to be relevant all that often, since there are relatively few spells that deal Thunder damage, and also not a ton of monsters that are resistant to it. Elemental Adept (Fire), on the other hand, applies to a ton of spells, and there are a ton of fire-resistant enemies, but there are also a ton of fire immune enemies, which circles back around to issue 1.
4. The damage boost only happens at all if you roll poorly, and even then the boost can be pretty disappointing. One of the *best* case scenarios for the damage boost is a Fire Adept rolling all 1s on their Fireball, because the feat would then double the damage from 8 to 16, for a spell that does an average damage of 28. Worst case scenario, you roll all 2s on the damage dice, and get no damage boost at all.
It basically ends up coming down to the fact that while a character that specializes in a single element is a really cool theme, Elemental Adept doesn't really provide enough of a benefit for that type of character, especially when compared to a character that gets around resistances by diversifying the damage types of their spells.
Honorable mention for the one of the worst feats yeah
I honestly wish Elemental Adept did something a little more, like once per turn being able to convert other elemental spells to your element of choice as well.
It'd be so cool (heh) to be making an ice character and be able to use Elemental Adept to turn Fireball into a a blizzardball. Especially for the elements that don't have enough spells.
@@ZeoffArcaneOfficial transmute spell metamagic and order of scribes wizard both do that already. you can do a decent level 2 combo with vuman scribe wizard and elemental adept, it increases magic missile's minimum damage to 9 from 6.
@@thalmorjusticiar1 I am aware that both of those do that. It just seems like something that should have been on the elemental feat long before those became a thing
The really funny combo is adding War Caster to the already silly Polearm Master and Sentinel combo, while playing a warlock with the Repelling Blast invocation. Now, when an enemy comes within 10 feet of you, not only do you get an attack of opportunity which stops them in their tracks -- you can opt to cast Eldritch Blast as your attack of opportunity instead of a polearm strike, and not only STOP their movement, but then *launch them back 10 feet per blast that lands* (so, 30 feet potentially when you'd have all three feats up). It's a lot of investment, and won't be happening until late game, but it's the KING of 1v1 nuisances against any enemy without ranged attacks of their own.
you can have it by level 8 if you take the human variant with a feat at level 1
Warcaster and Sentinel don't work together. Warcaster replaces your opportunity attack with a spell, so Sentinel doesn't apply.
@@Guy_With_A_Laser sentinel doesnt specify it needs to be a melee attack on opportunity attack, it says
"When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature."
no where does it say it needs to be a melee attack, so this combo works
@@mightytoothpick Yes, that is what Sentinel says. The problem is War Caster specifically says "you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, RATHER THAN making an opportunity attack" (emph mine). You are not making an opportunity attack with War caster, so Sentinel does not apply.
@@Guy_With_A_Laser This seems to be a common misunderstanding. A lot of players seem to think that casting a spell is just any old action, but it's specifically the "casting a spell" action, which is distinct from the "opportunity attack" action. when a feature mentions an "opportunity attack" it means exclusively the weapon or unarmed attack that is made when a creature exits your melee range. The reason polearm master works with warcaster is that you are replacing the opportunity attack that polearm master gives you with the casting a spell action. This, in turn, nullifies sentinel, which only triggers on the opportunity attack action.
I love the prodigy feat! 😮 the slander on this!
same. The character I'm playing is a linguistics nerd and a skill monkey, so Prodigy is literally perfect for him. The fact that he also slandered linguist... tsk tsk tsk
Absolutely awesome as usual!
It'd be freaking awesome if the footage / visualisations could have a footnote saying which game or show they came from!
Nice movie clips: got Iron Monkey & Dragon-Tiger gate clips in the same vid! Pretty badass
In my brother's current airship-focused campaign, my monk has Dungeon Delver... I picked it up as an RP thing, but due to how my brother builds battlefields and hazards, the resistance to traps has been useful... a lot.
In a campaign that starts later today, I'm playing a custom lineage that took skill expert but another player is a human that took prodigy specifically because they wanted another tool proficiency.
I used Dungeon Delver to great effect in a heist one shot. Obviously it was a very particular arcane trickster build, but there is a niche place for it.
I love ALL DnD Shorts videos!
Shoutout to Elemental Adept. Our DM allowed us to use it with Class Features in addition to spells - including my Artillerist Artificer's Flamethrower. The amount of times I rolled a 1 on my damage rolls alone made it worth it. And it made me able to cook a Shambling Mound.
Already backed! Can't wait for that kickstart
One of my old characters was an Elf Ranger who had the Sharpshooter feat. She was an absolute beast with a longbow. Miss playing her.
I once made a wild mage halfling sorc with Lucky. So many rerolls, it was great.
I didn't know all of the sources of the cutscenes. Those were awesome
Good stuff!
Keen mind is really useful for urban campaigns- anonymity is a key part of stealth in that environment. If you can memorise crowds and everyone you’ve seen in the last month that is hugely beneficial.
It is fun to make some lesser known feats and try and workshop it. I love taking dwarven toughness on monks so every time you patient defense you can pop a hit die
Damn strait to the point, i like it :)
I combined Grappler and Tavern Brawler and Skill Expert with Fighter with Unarmed Fighting Style to make basically a fun heavy armor monk. Expertise on Athletics, High Str, hit them unarmed for 1d8 then Bonus Grapple then Adv on all future unarmed attacks plus the 1d4 each turn I maintain said grapple. Was a fun build.
i once wanted to create a viper from xcom 2 in d&d, grabbed a naga rogue and to focus in the crossbows i went for scout, but if i wanted to weild the hardest and farther hitting crossbow there is as for the "sniper" fantasy i needed weapon master and sharpshooter but it was either grabing the heavy crossbow or being able to hit hard with it as well as any other ammunition range weapon
I played a college of whispers bard and picked up the sharpshooter feat.
Due to being a bard he had several spells in his back pocket to give himself and the party advantage while being extremely deadly in combat once he dropped the theatrics.
Several encounters got absolutely wrecked by him.
That lizardman or dragonborn art from the kickstarter was sick as heck. 10 out of 10!
So, I have taken the Weapon Master-feat unironically once and I am not regretting it (yet).
I have a Variant Human Bladesinging Wizard that started with an 18 in INT, a 17 in DEX and a 16 in CON. Race feat went into Tough for the extra HP, but on level 4 I actually came out an Weapon Master as a half feat.
I picked up shortsword, longsword, scimitar and longbow (i already had the rapier proficiency due to my subclass). Basically to be a bit thematic with the whole Bladsinging-vibe but also for some niche applications. Shortsword proficiency to go into a Sun Blade later on and go full Jedi with that build and the longbow proficiency to bolster the ranged damage with the Bladesinging extra attack (fire bolt + longbow shot).
It is definitely not the minmaxers route but I am pretty happy with it ...
It's important to know that making an attack with two hands ends bladesong, and hand crossbows are the only one handed ranged weapon. you don't need bladesong up for your extra attack, but it will essentially restrict your ranged attacks to before you start bladesong. that also means longsword proficiency is wasted, because if you're in melee without bladesong active you're on something.
I mean yeah, but the Sunblade is cool enough that it justified going out of your way to get proficiency in it
If you're having fun, then that's all that matters
i just wanna say, keen mind isn't always trash, it depends on the style of play (and the GM's style). i once played a higher level oneshot and i took keen mind for my wizard, and the oneshot involved breaking into a building, but we were not given a map of the building, only allowed to study one during our planning session. because my wizard had keen mind, i was the only one in party who got to keep accessing the map, because my character could instantly memorize things. if the gm is the kind of person who will remind players of anything they forget no matter what, i can see why keen mind might be less useful. but in more immersive games where the gm challenges you to rely on your own note-taking, keen mind can be a little bit of a nice "phone a friend" style cheat. it just takes a little imagination
It's also decent in more survival-based games.
Funny thing, I actually took feat keen mind in a campaign as a battle master artificer. I used it to round up my intelligence to 18 at lv 4 but more importantly the ability to recall accurate info for the last month. Now ordinarily I agree it's not great, but in a campaign where the party is struggling with amnesia on a daily basis due to outside influence this feat gave a chance to keep at least some, if not all memories if I rolled well on history checks and intelligence saving throws (DM's ruling). We did find/fix the amnesia problem, but for roleplay it was funny being the only one who remembered what was going on in character
The picture for samurai fighter lives rent free in my head, is it from book of spirits?
In a Tomb of Annihilation game rn and Dungeon delver on my arcane trickster bomb defusal bot autognome was one of the best picks I ever took. Helped us through the jungles and is now helping me and my party in the tomb. Pretty much useless outside of specific campaigns or rulesets? Absolutely but it has saved mine and my party's lives on multiple occasions. So it does have at least some use in my eyes.
my fav underrated (i think) feat is elven accuracy i love it and use it on a sharpshooter build to basically never miss its just so nice and crazy that its a half feat
it's definitely not underrated
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE ah ig i feel like i dont hear many people talk about it cause its a racial feat but i love it
A warlock with a level dip in fighter and the pact of the blade loves war caster. I would know, it's me.
Regarding the Grappler feat, as someone who built a brawler fighter in 4e, the way to make the 5e feat worthwhile is this: you have advantage when initiating grapples, enemies grappled by you grant advantage to creatures attacking them, and you can move up to your speed while grappling a creature, taking them with to, no opportunity attacks granted to your grappled victim. Also increase strength by 1 because even the benefits I listed are only so-so.
The tag on his beanie looks like a tuft of hair and I can't stop looking at it lol love the vids though
I actually took Prodigy for my bard so that I could flavor his contracts with calligraphy. I weaved it into his backstory pretty well, too, so I can see some flavor uses for it with variant humans. It was the only feat I could find that gave tool proficiency & his background wasn't giving me anything, so I had to take it.
I also took it as a variant human, though it was a warlock. The character is a literal child prodigy with a devil patron, so Infernal language and skill bonuses made perfect sense. Furthermore they had a stuffed animal that could could be possessed by a familiar so a proficiency in weaver tool let him fix damage it had taken... Really don't understand the comment in the video that it can't contribute to roleplaying. It absolutely can. 🤷♀
@@FelisMortis My bard's muse is also a devil. I wonder if all prodigies are devil worshippers...
I need to know where you got that purple patterned hoodie thing, it's so cool
oh and the video was cool i guess
Love the Grappler feat (and all the grappling rules changes) in D&D 2024!
Thought we would have seen Cardomancer from the book of many things. As if I understand it correct it just gives you an extra spells lot of any level and makes you able to cast the spell as a bonus action
Very niche use for grappler. Moon druid lvl 10 with an enlarge potion and a belt of hill giant strength can shapeshift into an air-elemental, make two grapple checks a turn (one for each attack)and if he succeeds drag a dragon to the floor. (Legendary save doesn't work because its a contested role)Then your party can go balistic on the creature. If he wastes his action to get free its worth it and you do the same thing next turn. Haste spell helps too. You also have resistence to slash/bludgening/piercing so he won't cut through your 80 HP that quick. If its a green dragon use heroes feast and it should be a walk in the park 11:00
I once played a halfling divination wizard/clockwork soul sorcerer with the Lucky feat. I played him as a tourist who hired the party as guides and believed nothing truly terrible could happen to him because he wasn't involved. He also strongly believed that he was completely ordinary and non-magical, so all of his spells were flavored as random things serendipitously happening because of his insane good luck.
I made very good use of “Prodigy” on a character. Wanted him to mostly be almost indispensable in situations involving language and puzzles. He spoke something like 9 languages and always learned things first or exclusively through eavesdropping
In the last campaign I played, our Paladin had Polearm Master and Blind Fighting, and she was a killing machine
For warcaster it's only advantage on conc checks from taking damage, which while that's definitely the most common way to have to make checks, isn't the only way
Nice use of Donnie Yen in dragon tiger gate for the polearm master
I appreciate the ESO footage use. :)
"Keen mind is trash", my party going like XP to level three: "I remember EVERY. SINGLE. KEY"
fantastic video.
Magic Initiate is a very good feat. Use it to get Find Familiar and from it get an owl familiar. Your familiar can take the help action giving you advantage on your first attack every round. What’s more, the owl doesn’t provoke opportunity attack when it leaves your opponent’s space, so it can safely circle round, harrying your enemy.
Thank you for the information, and greetings from germany. Maybe my Players will use this information.
I recently made a Human Warlock and took Weapon Master as my Variant Feat since I rolled high Strength, which allowed me to not have to sink my Warlock levels into Hexblade and POTB or take Fighter levels to be still be decent in Melee, and so I could focus more on other Warlock options and take Fiend with Pact of the Tome, while having the 4 weapons I chose (Glaive, Flail, Scimitar, and Trident) all being symbolic of my Patron, which was how he had proficiency in them.
Just shows that even mediocre feats mechanically can shine when incorporated well enough into a character
No hate, I'm not sure if it's mechanically shining on a class that doesn't get extra attack. Unless your charisma got dumped for some reason, using a glaive over a great club, which warlock already gets proficiency with, is only an extra like 1 damage on a hit. Which is fine! It's ok to take feats for flavor, but unless there's a big part of your build I'm missing it doesn't mechanically really shine, at least on my opinion
@@collinw9792 Mainly for flavor to take advantage of the highest Strength I rolled with alongside high Charisma to wield weapons symbolic of my patron while building pure caster Warlock
@@ScarHydreigon87 right! And I love that! And it's fine to make less than mechanically optimal choices. You said it mechanically shines tho, I'm saying I disagree with it being mechanically shining is all. Flavor is great
Okay great video but that purple sweater is incredibly stylish, where did you get that
My DM allowed my character to take just the first part of the Grappler feat, to have advantage on grappled creatures, as an off time training result. My character is a hexblade paladin with elven accuracy. The reason why this part of the feat is important, is that we don't use the flanking advantage rule, so it was easier for me to pin people in place, while getting my elven accuracy super advantage
I would like to give an honorable mention to alert, being unable to be surprised and +5 to initiative has saved my ass so many times
I learned a lot today. But I’m still taking Mobile as my bladesingers first feat 😂
As an arachnid/crustacean themed moon druid I have forms with an auto grappler feature. Could grappler help balance out the low to hit chance that comes with almost all beast shapes?
Really depends on the campaign. I played in a game where the DM had a list of exotic weapons (weapons with extra effects) that you could had to take weapons master to get proficiency. I played a spy/information peddler wizard in another game that combined observant, keen mind, and linguist to great effect. The best/worst fests are really context dependent
With the as of yet unofficial lessons of the first ones, prodigy was an excellent choice for my warlock of Mask. Thieves' tools, slieght of hand expertise, and thieves' cant with no levels in rogue? Awesome.
6:04 wait ... was that a brief shot from the Firestarter video?
I see you Ryoko"s Guide in the Thumbnail
First level spells don't scale in damage. But Opportunity Attacks made by your allies do.
Fey Touched also gives you the option of taking either Command or Dissonant Whispers. These spells are great first level damage spells in that you can cause your enemies to flee, thus provoking Opportunity Attacks. Add them to a Sorcerer with Twinned spell and you've got the best first level damage spell available IMO.
I am about to take one of these two on my Sorcerer and I have two melee characters in my party, a rogue and a paladin!
I'd like to add the Alert feat on the great list
Alert has 3 effect :
- +5 initiative (always good)
- cant' be surprised while conscious (no lost turn during ambush, take advantage when reacting to traps)
- Creatures don't gain advantage on attack roll on you if they are unseen (Rogue are way less of a threat)
I’m a bit surprised as to the fact that crossbow expert isn’t included with polearm master as the bonus action attack serves the same purpose as the increase martial dpr, and the ignoring of disadvantage at close range is nice. It also removes the loading property from crossbows so they can be used for multiple attacks. This compounds to make the fear about equal to the polearm master feat in my eyes.
Sorcerers and wizards also get shield so at higher levels when you can blow the 1st level slots the AC boost is pretty free
8:53 we really need to bring back traps in a big way, but the Venn diagram of interesting traps and traps you can organically place within an area is almost two separate circles
I got with my DM on a set of magic items for my party. They are little goblin pins. I made them for real and everyone in my party got one.
In game, their pins allow them to save a failed death saving throw.
Mine allows me to know the location of anyone with one.
The source of the free death saves isn’t free. It comes at the cost of one of my luck points. If my luck points are exhausted, I lose the luck feat for a certain amount of time a day, a week, a month, forever.
A party wipe would essentially make me very unlucky.