Add your Proficiency Bonus when you roll Initiative. Can also swap your Initiative with a willing ally in the same combat.
Crafter
Gain proficiency with three different sets of Artisan’s Tools. Gain a 20 percent discount on nonmagical items. Can craft an item from a Fast Crafting table, which lasts until you finish another Long Rest.
Healer
When you Utilize a Healer’s Kit as an action, a creature can expend one Hit Dice to heal. Your Proficiency Bonus is added to the roll. When you roll to determine Hit Points when healing with this feature or a spell, you can reroll the dice if it rolls a 1. You must use the new roll.
Lucky
After finishing a Long Rest, you have a number of Luck Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You can expend one when you make a D20 Test to give yourself Advantage. You can also expend one to impose Disadvantage when a creature rolls a d20 to make an attack roll against you.
Magic Initiate
You gain two cantrips and one level 1 spell from the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell list, and can replace them with another spell of the same level from the same list when you gain a level. You choose Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma as your spellcasting modifier for these spells when you take this feat. You can cast these spells once per Long Rest without expending a spell slot, and can cast them again using spell slots.
This feat can be taken more than once, but you must choose a different spell list each time.
Musician
You gain proficiency with three musical instruments of your choice. At the end of a Short or Long Rest, you may play the instrument and grant Heroic Inspiration to a number of allies equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Savage Attacker
Once per turn, when you hit a target with a weapon attack, you can reroll the damage dice and use either roll against the target.
Skilled
You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice. You can take this feat more than once.
Tavern Brawler
When you hit with an Unarmed Strike you can deal 1d4 + your Strength modifier. If the damage dice for your Unarmed Strikes roll is a 1, you can reroll it and must use the new roll. You have proficiency with improvised weapons. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an Unarmed Strike as part of the Attack action, in addition to dealing damage, you can push the target 5 feet away from you.
Tough
When you first gain this Origin feat, your Hit Point maximum increases by twice your character level. Thereafter, your Hit Point maximum increases by 2 each time you level up.
Alert - hugely nerfed from 2014 with an overall reduction in the flat initiative bonus to +PB instead of +5 and that unseen attackers no longer lose advantage when attacking you. Can function better in larger groups - the more initiative spots to choose from, the better and the more likely you can go first. Still a solid consideration for some builds.
Crafter - as a non-combat skill, this will likely be passed over by many players. It is startlingly a merchant feat, giving a 20% discount on standard items. I can't help but wonder how important is this going to be - is it going to be essential (or at least very helpful) to have a merchant in your party? This opens the door for more of a crafting mini-game where characters can use their downtime to make money than the existing artisan background, which I think lets you make about 2gp/day. So why do they risk their lives as adventurers? Why do I want to craft an item that will last about a day, which I assume will be a standard nonmagical item - do I not have enough money to buy the adventuring gear I need? Maybe it could help to be a tinkerer in the dungeon and make a fishing rod or block and tackle McGuyver style but will need to see to options from the fast crafting table to assess the usefulness.
Healer - not sure how the healer's kit functions in 2024, but this could be another one that is passed over a lot of the time. It always seems tougher to me to take a ribbon sort of feat over one that would be mechanically beneficial. There will be situations when a short rest isn't possible, and it does fit the flavor of a lot of characters. Maybe a Healer's Kit will be a tool you can be proficient in and this could be a real source of healing between or even during combats?
Lucky - not usable after the roll any more but still a way to grant yourself advantage on an attack, and thus will remain a key part of character builds.
Magic Initiate - can be taken multiple times! Your Human can start with 2x Magic Initiate and have as much or more magic as a level 1 spellcaster (based on 2014 class tables) - 4 cantrips and 2 first level spells (castable once a day) from different spell lists using the same ability for the spellcasting modifier. I think melee characters could get the most out of this if we find synergy to gain additional or enhanced attacks. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for any damage-dealing cantrips that got changed to be a bonus action (Produce Flame?) or anything like a spell that makes an unarmed attack (hypothetically a reworded Primal Savagery?).
Musician - if you have a lot of Humans in your party it might not be so good, but it is a general booster that can trigger multiple times per day.
Savage Attacker - rerolling damage dice is always amazing - you'll never roll lower damage with this - and this is the most direct combat feat, most obviously impacting sneak attack dice. Once per turn means your AoO could get you an extra use in a round.
Skilled - again non-combat, though if a healer's kit is a tool or crafting is more necessary, this could be a lot more relevant.
Tavern Brawler - the boost to unarmed strike damage and proficiency with improvised weapons is usually negligible, but rerolling 1's on your unarmed strike damage is just great for Monk and maybe for Dance Bard, too.
Tough - it's still boring and only 2hp/level. If monsters are at all tougher, this is just worse than in 2014.
I just hope the list is longer, because about 5-6 of these seem good and Humans get 2, which I think will lead to a lot of overlap between characters. I foresee a lot of Human Dance Bards with Musician and Tavern Brawler and Human Assassins with Alert/Lucky and Savage Attacker and Human Monks with Savage Attacker and Tavern Brawler.
I also wonder about how Humans will compare with other races overall. I think other races seem to have an overall edge in terms of power level. Do you think that min/max builds will default to Human in 5.24 because of the two origin feats the same way variant human was a crutch for 5e?
I think this is the list as its going to be, since a bunch of them are the feats that came with the backgrounds from Spelljammer, Book of Many Things and other newer books. Even if the list is bigger and not fully revealed, its still only going to be roleplaying and situational feats.
I like these feats, a few bonus feats that will make character creation more fun and unique, and add to roleplay. I dont think Tough is as weak as you think. 40 extra hp feels like a lot to me.
It feels like theyve evened out some of these feat to be similar in power, though, some are obviously very situational and roleplay heavy. Alert and Lucky definitely took some small nerf hits.
Keep in mind that the ones that were "nerfed" like Alert and Lucky, used to be level 4 feats for everyone who wasn't a Vuman or CL anyway. They needed to be brought in line with other background feats.
I believe Lucky can still be used after the roll but before the result, though not 100% sure.
A Thief rogue with the healer feat will be pretty neat since they can use the Utilize action as a bonus action. If it's not once per short rest any more, the Healer feat could effectively allow "short rest" healing between rests in a couple of minutes.
Maybe Thief Rogue 3 / Mercy Monk X. Sneak Attack and Hands of Harm for offense. And Healer feat and Hands of Healing for support.
Just keep in mind that character options described in the articles are paraphrased and not enough in a vacuum to draw nerf/buff/optimization conclusions from.
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I haven’t decided if I like or dislike that they’re tied to your background choice. (Until we get custom rules.) Since there’s likely going to be 1 or two backgrounds that really work for each class because of ability score boosts, there’s going to be lots of characters running around where most every bard has this feat or that while every fighter has the same one or two, etc. I prefer when you can use feats to really differentiate your character. On the other hand, it’s probably more realistic that fighters tend to have been a guardsman and not a sage. So it would stand to reason that many of them will have a similar skill set. But the better part, imo, is it does open up what could be an interesting decision point, where you choose a background for your feat (and/or story reasons of course) instead of the ability scores. So maybe you’re a fighter who’s str isn’t as high, but you have this cool trick you learned.
Just keep in mind that character options described in the articles are paraphrased and not enough in a vacuum to draw nerf/buff/optimization conclusions from.
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought it was the book text rather than a paraphrase.
A Thief rogue with the healer feat will be pretty neat since they can use the Utilize action as a bonus action. If it's not once per short rest any more, the Healer feat could effectively allow "short rest" healing between rests in a couple of minutes.
Maybe Thief Rogue 3 / Mercy Monk X. Sneak Attack and Hands of Harm for offense. And Healer feat and Hands of Healing for support.
I hope the healer's kit will be a tool that incorporates your proficiency bonus into the healing in some way if you are proficient with it. I like the idea of the Expert classes being able to get expertise with it and do some fair bit of healing.
I dont think Tough is as weak as you think. 40 extra hp feels like a lot to me.
I agree it's probably better than I think but it's still boring lol. At level 5, you get +10 HP from the feat. CR 5 monsters deal like 25-30 average damage a round with a +7 to hit. I find it's around this point that the monsters get enough of a bonus to hit that AC feels less impactful. If a lvl 5 Fighter has let's say 44 hit points without Tough, 54 HP with tough, they still go down in two rounds where they get hit either way. I'd have to factor in Second Wind+Tough or some other healing to get to a third round. If a lvl 5 Sorcerer has let's say 27 HP without Tough, 37 HP with Tough, that does make a difference between going down in one round versus two on average. And that's no guarantee if the monster rolls higher than average damage or crits. CR 5 Dragon's breath is dealing like 36 damage (8D8) on average on a failed save, so characters could get 1-shot even with Tough. This is a simplified, reductive look at it, but this is why Tough seems not great to me - it doesn't guarantee anything. But it does make a more consistent difference stacked with other effects, and maybe that healing kit could be a good example. Or along with the increased healing from spells.
I dont think Tough is as weak as you think. 40 extra hp feels like a lot to me.
I agree it's probably better than I think but it's still boring lol. At level 5, you get +10 HP from the feat. CR 5 monsters deal like 25-30 average damage a round with a +7 to hit. I find it's around this point that the monsters get enough of a bonus to hit that AC feels less impactful. If a lvl 5 Fighter has let's say 44 hit points without Tough, 54 HP with tough, they still go down in two rounds where they get hit either way. I'd have to factor in Second Wind+Tough or some other healing to get to a third round. If a lvl 5 Sorcerer has let's say 27 HP without Tough, 37 HP with Tough, that does make a difference between going down in one round versus two on average. And that's no guarantee if the monster rolls higher than average damage or crits. CR 5 Dragon's breath is dealing like 36 damage (8D8) on average on a failed save, so characters could get 1-shot even with Tough. This is a simplified, reductive look at it, but this is why Tough seems not great to me - it doesn't guarantee anything. But it does make a more consistent difference stacked with other effects, and maybe that healing kit could be a good example. Or along with the increased healing from spells.
These are bonus feats that we get at lvl 1 that we didnt used to get. I think it will be fine, you know. We still get our feats and ASI at lvl 4.
2014 character have been doing fine without Tough so I think it will be even better with Tough even though it might be a boring feat.
Note also that the fixed backgrounds do help to make Human a bit more attractive. Say you want Tavern Brawler and good starting stats on your Monk, but don't want your backstory to be a Sailor - you can pick something else with Dex/Wis like Guide or Wis/Con like Hermit*, and then pick Tavern Brawler as your bonus origin feat anyway.
*using the UA skills here, take with grain of salt
My plan is to take a Con/Cha build with tough to maximize my health for my Celestial Warlock’s Searing Vengeance attack that restores half your maximum health. Other Feat/ASI will likely be Actor, + 2 Cha, + 2 Con, +2 Con and finally whatever the new Boons are for 19th level. So, if anything, I’m more curious and excited about those.
i just hope that 1. I can still use my old race Verdan and 2. There’s a background that I like rather than having to change who my character is from a Celebrity Adventurer’s Scion just to optimize it. Honestly, I don’t get why they chose to do it this way when so many species already have optional stats they can boost.
Nah, they showed Hermit in one of the videos and it's exactly the same as the one from UA but with three scores instead of two. I believe the third score was Charisma, but don't remember.
Nah, they showed Hermit in one of the videos and it's exactly the same as the one from UA but with three scores instead of two. I believe the third score was Charisma, but don't remember.
That was exactly my point though - a Human Monk can go Hermit for +2 Wis/+1 Con (you can ignore the third stat), have a more thematically fitting narrative backstory than being a Sailor, and rather than only being stuck with Healer they can pick up Tavern Brawler anyway. In other words, Humans have more options for combining backgrounds with the origin feats they want, which makes them slightly more attractive.
But thank you for the reminder that some of them were visible in that video, I'll go back through it for sure 🙂🙂
It's yet another design choice that creates an even bigger power gulf between people who build their character as a character, who base their character choices to support the narrative, and people who build their characters as a build caring only about how powerful their PC is.
Want to have an assassin raised in a religious order? You will invariably be weaker than a Rogue built by a player who couldn't care less about roleplay and picked a background that let them increase their Dexterity and pick a feat that supports their class.
WotC is telling anyone who gives a crap about anything but buildcrafting and combat that they aren't welcome at their table.
Want to have an assassin raised in a religious order? You will invariably be weaker than a Rogue built by a player who couldn't care less about roleplay and picked a background that let them increase their Dexterity and pick a feat that supports their class.
The custom background rules (which solve this problem quite easily) will be in the DMG apparently. (I would have preferred they stay in the PHB, but I expect they kept them in the DMG so DMs who want that kind of optimization/build choice to be in the game could have it.)
The move to put custom backgrounds in the DMG is likely to allow DMs to create backgrounds that are more campaign-specific for their worlds. In other words, custom backgrounds are more a function of world building than character building.
However, for players who want a bit more flexibility, they added guidance for using older backgrounds with custom ASIs and Origin Feats.
Do we know/can we predict which feats each background gets? The ones below are based on what’s already been shown, plus UA1
Acolyte - Magic Initiate (Cleric)
Artisan - Crafter
Charlatan - Skilled
Criminal - Alert
Entertainer - Musician
Farmer - Tough
Guard - Alert
Guide - Magic Initiate (Druid)
Hermit - Healer
Merchant -
Noble - Skilled
Sage - Magic Initiate (Wizard)
Sailor - Tavern Brawler
Scribe -
Soldier - Savage Attacker
Wayfarer - Lucky
My assumption based on JC's comments that some origin feats will be available on more than one background:
Scribe: Magic Initiate (Wizard)
Merchant: Either Skilled, Lucky or Crafter
It's a shame they decided not to include some of the other background options from the UA. Cultist would've been perfect for a Warlock or Sorcerer, Gladiator for most martial classes would've been an interesting backstory; even Pilgrim or Laborer would've worked fine for some classes.
Let's talk first impressions for the origin feats for 2024. https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1785-the-backgrounds-and-origin-feats-in-the-2024
Alert - hugely nerfed from 2014 with an overall reduction in the flat initiative bonus to +PB instead of +5 and that unseen attackers no longer lose advantage when attacking you. Can function better in larger groups - the more initiative spots to choose from, the better and the more likely you can go first. Still a solid consideration for some builds.
Crafter - as a non-combat skill, this will likely be passed over by many players. It is startlingly a merchant feat, giving a 20% discount on standard items. I can't help but wonder how important is this going to be - is it going to be essential (or at least very helpful) to have a merchant in your party? This opens the door for more of a crafting mini-game where characters can use their downtime to make money than the existing artisan background, which I think lets you make about 2gp/day. So why do they risk their lives as adventurers? Why do I want to craft an item that will last about a day, which I assume will be a standard nonmagical item - do I not have enough money to buy the adventuring gear I need? Maybe it could help to be a tinkerer in the dungeon and make a fishing rod or block and tackle McGuyver style but will need to see to options from the fast crafting table to assess the usefulness.
Healer - not sure how the healer's kit functions in 2024, but this could be another one that is passed over a lot of the time. It always seems tougher to me to take a ribbon sort of feat over one that would be mechanically beneficial. There will be situations when a short rest isn't possible, and it does fit the flavor of a lot of characters. Maybe a Healer's Kit will be a tool you can be proficient in and this could be a real source of healing between or even during combats?
Lucky - not usable after the roll any more but still a way to grant yourself advantage on an attack, and thus will remain a key part of character builds.
Magic Initiate - can be taken multiple times! Your Human can start with 2x Magic Initiate and have as much or more magic as a level 1 spellcaster (based on 2014 class tables) - 4 cantrips and 2 first level spells (castable once a day) from different spell lists using the same ability for the spellcasting modifier. I think melee characters could get the most out of this if we find synergy to gain additional or enhanced attacks. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for any damage-dealing cantrips that got changed to be a bonus action (Produce Flame?) or anything like a spell that makes an unarmed attack (hypothetically a reworded Primal Savagery?).
Musician - if you have a lot of Humans in your party it might not be so good, but it is a general booster that can trigger multiple times per day.
Savage Attacker - rerolling damage dice is always amazing - you'll never roll lower damage with this - and this is the most direct combat feat, most obviously impacting sneak attack dice. Once per turn means your AoO could get you an extra use in a round.
Skilled - again non-combat, though if a healer's kit is a tool or crafting is more necessary, this could be a lot more relevant.
Tavern Brawler - the boost to unarmed strike damage and proficiency with improvised weapons is usually negligible, but rerolling 1's on your unarmed strike damage is just great for Monk and maybe for Dance Bard, too.
Tough - it's still boring and only 2hp/level. If monsters are at all tougher, this is just worse than in 2014.
I just hope the list is longer, because about 5-6 of these seem good and Humans get 2, which I think will lead to a lot of overlap between characters. I foresee a lot of Human Dance Bards with Musician and Tavern Brawler and Human Assassins with Alert/Lucky and Savage Attacker and Human Monks with Savage Attacker and Tavern Brawler.
I also wonder about how Humans will compare with other races overall. I think other races seem to have an overall edge in terms of power level. Do you think that min/max builds will default to Human in 5.24 because of the two origin feats the same way variant human was a crutch for 5e?
I think this is the list as its going to be, since a bunch of them are the feats that came with the backgrounds from Spelljammer, Book of Many Things and other newer books. Even if the list is bigger and not fully revealed, its still only going to be roleplaying and situational feats.
I like these feats, a few bonus feats that will make character creation more fun and unique, and add to roleplay. I dont think Tough is as weak as you think. 40 extra hp feels like a lot to me.
It feels like theyve evened out some of these feat to be similar in power, though, some are obviously very situational and roleplay heavy. Alert and Lucky definitely took some small nerf hits.
Keep in mind that the ones that were "nerfed" like Alert and Lucky, used to be level 4 feats for everyone who wasn't a Vuman or CL anyway. They needed to be brought in line with other background feats.
I believe Lucky can still be used after the roll but before the result, though not 100% sure.
A Thief rogue with the healer feat will be pretty neat since they can use the Utilize action as a bonus action. If it's not once per short rest any more, the Healer feat could effectively allow "short rest" healing between rests in a couple of minutes.
Maybe Thief Rogue 3 / Mercy Monk X. Sneak Attack and Hands of Harm for offense. And Healer feat and Hands of Healing for support.
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I haven’t decided if I like or dislike that they’re tied to your background choice. (Until we get custom rules.) Since there’s likely going to be 1 or two backgrounds that really work for each class because of ability score boosts, there’s going to be lots of characters running around where most every bard has this feat or that while every fighter has the same one or two, etc. I prefer when you can use feats to really differentiate your character.
On the other hand, it’s probably more realistic that fighters tend to have been a guardsman and not a sage. So it would stand to reason that many of them will have a similar skill set. But the better part, imo, is it does open up what could be an interesting decision point, where you choose a background for your feat (and/or story reasons of course) instead of the ability scores. So maybe you’re a fighter who’s str isn’t as high, but you have this cool trick you learned.
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought it was the book text rather than a paraphrase.
I hope the healer's kit will be a tool that incorporates your proficiency bonus into the healing in some way if you are proficient with it. I like the idea of the Expert classes being able to get expertise with it and do some fair bit of healing.
I agree it's probably better than I think but it's still boring lol. At level 5, you get +10 HP from the feat. CR 5 monsters deal like 25-30 average damage a round with a +7 to hit. I find it's around this point that the monsters get enough of a bonus to hit that AC feels less impactful. If a lvl 5 Fighter has let's say 44 hit points without Tough, 54 HP with tough, they still go down in two rounds where they get hit either way. I'd have to factor in Second Wind+Tough or some other healing to get to a third round. If a lvl 5 Sorcerer has let's say 27 HP without Tough, 37 HP with Tough, that does make a difference between going down in one round versus two on average. And that's no guarantee if the monster rolls higher than average damage or crits. CR 5 Dragon's breath is dealing like 36 damage (8D8) on average on a failed save, so characters could get 1-shot even with Tough. This is a simplified, reductive look at it, but this is why Tough seems not great to me - it doesn't guarantee anything. But it does make a more consistent difference stacked with other effects, and maybe that healing kit could be a good example. Or along with the increased healing from spells.
These are bonus feats that we get at lvl 1 that we didnt used to get. I think it will be fine, you know. We still get our feats and ASI at lvl 4.
2014 character have been doing fine without Tough so I think it will be even better with Tough even though it might be a boring feat.
Its just fun to get extra feats.
Note also that the fixed backgrounds do help to make Human a bit more attractive. Say you want Tavern Brawler and good starting stats on your Monk, but don't want your backstory to be a Sailor - you can pick something else with Dex/Wis like Guide or Wis/Con like Hermit*, and then pick Tavern Brawler as your bonus origin feat anyway.
*using the UA skills here, take with grain of salt
My plan is to take a Con/Cha build with tough to maximize my health for my Celestial Warlock’s Searing Vengeance attack that restores half your maximum health. Other Feat/ASI will likely be Actor, + 2 Cha, + 2 Con, +2 Con and finally whatever the new Boons are for 19th level. So, if anything, I’m more curious and excited about those.
i just hope that 1. I can still use my old race Verdan and 2. There’s a background that I like rather than having to change who my character is from a Celebrity Adventurer’s Scion just to optimize it. Honestly, I don’t get why they chose to do it this way when so many species already have optional stats they can boost.
Nah, they showed Hermit in one of the videos and it's exactly the same as the one from UA but with three scores instead of two. I believe the third score was Charisma, but don't remember.
Edit: It's the one on the top left at 10:29 on the video: Art and Design 2024 PHB
That was exactly my point though - a Human Monk can go Hermit for +2 Wis/+1 Con (you can ignore the third stat), have a more thematically fitting narrative backstory than being a Sailor, and rather than only being stuck with Healer they can pick up Tavern Brawler anyway. In other words, Humans have more options for combining backgrounds with the origin feats they want, which makes them slightly more attractive.
But thank you for the reminder that some of them were visible in that video, I'll go back through it for sure 🙂🙂
Do we know/can we predict which feats each background gets? The ones below are based on what’s already been shown, plus UA1
Acolyte - Magic Initiate (Cleric)
Artisan - Crafter
Charlatan - Skilled
Criminal - Alert
Entertainer - Musician
Farmer - Tough
Guard - Alert
Guide - Magic Initiate (Druid)
Hermit - Healer
Merchant - [Lucky]
Noble - Skilled
Sage - Magic Initiate (Wizard)
Sailor - Tavern Brawler
Scribe -
Soldier - Savage Attacker
Wayfarer - Lucky
It's yet another design choice that creates an even bigger power gulf between people who build their character as a character, who base their character choices to support the narrative, and people who build their characters as a build caring only about how powerful their PC is.
Want to have an assassin raised in a religious order? You will invariably be weaker than a Rogue built by a player who couldn't care less about roleplay and picked a background that let them increase their Dexterity and pick a feat that supports their class.
WotC is telling anyone who gives a crap about anything but buildcrafting and combat that they aren't welcome at their table.
The custom background rules (which solve this problem quite easily) will be in the DMG apparently. (I would have preferred they stay in the PHB, but I expect they kept them in the DMG so DMs who want that kind of optimization/build choice to be in the game could have it.)
The move to put custom backgrounds in the DMG is likely to allow DMs to create backgrounds that are more campaign-specific for their worlds. In other words, custom backgrounds are more a function of world building than character building.
However, for players who want a bit more flexibility, they added guidance for using older backgrounds with custom ASIs and Origin Feats.
My assumption based on JC's comments that some origin feats will be available on more than one background:
Scribe: Magic Initiate (Wizard)
Merchant: Either Skilled, Lucky or Crafter
It's a shame they decided not to include some of the other background options from the UA. Cultist would've been perfect for a Warlock or Sorcerer, Gladiator for most martial classes would've been an interesting backstory; even Pilgrim or Laborer would've worked fine for some classes.
Merchant and Wayfarer are both confirmed to have :Lucky (Merchant from the Art video, and Lucky from the PixelCircus preview.)
My guess is that some of the backgrounds that didn't make the cut will be included in future books with different ASI/feat combinations.