Please answer the poll above. After you answer, please respond and say what your favorite racial feat is and why.
My favorite racial feat is Svirfneblin Magic. I think it is a very powerful feat, especially since you gain the ability to cast Nondetection on yourself at will. You can also now cast Blindness/Deafness, Blur, and Disguise Self, and you can cast each once per long rest. The only downside is you have to be a Deep Gnome (Svirfneblin) to gain this feat.
Dragon Fear is the strongest Frightened ability in 5E (of which there already are not many). Both mechanically satisfying, and a good thematic way to make a Dragonborn feel more dragon-y.
Elven Accuracy is over-valued. It is a good feat, but the actual value is about 1/2 as much as people think. Among other things, it does not work with Strength, and your 3rd roll does not matter if your 2nd is a 20. Best use is to obtain additional criticals, not additional hits. So you need to play a character that specializes in both advantage and in criticals, and has a good way to gain advantage.
Now, the build is very NICE, but this feat takes a lot to make full use of it. You basically end up basing your build on it.
In general, they're fine for developing abilities that truly could only be physically developed by your race's physiology. But that isn't what half of them are. Instead, they're just reinforced bigotry. Why can a human not become as accurate as an elf? No one ever hear of Robinhood? That's just an artificial racist restriction put in place, without merit.
Dragon Fear? Okay, you're tapping into your draconic heritage to unlock an otherwise latent draconic ability. That makes sense.
Prodigy? "You have a knack for learning new things" What kind of bigotry is THIS monstrosity? Only Half-Elf, Half-Orc, or Humancan learn things now??? Not enough skills? Must be that lack of human blood. This is toxic AF. It's just a few skills. HOW is this justifiable as a racial feat without being actual racism??
Idk. Racial feats could have been great but they put racists in charge of writing up some of them.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
My favorite racial feat is Svirfneblin Magic. I think it is a very powerful feat, especially since you gain the ability to cast Nondetection on yourself at will. You can also now cast Blindness/Deafness, Blur, and Disguise Self, and you can cast each once per long rest. The only downside is you have to be a Deep Gnome (Svirfneblin) to gain this feat.
I just love the idea of a paranoid gnome constantly casting Nondetection on itself. Great feat.
I love Infernal Constitution for Tieflings. +1 Con - two resistances and advantage against poisoned? What's not to like? I know they're not the best resistances to get; Cold and Poison - but they're still great - especially considering a Tiefling already has Fire resistance.
And I agree with DxJxC - if it weren't for Tasha's Skill Expert - I would probably have chosen Prodigy.
My favourite is Fey Teleporation, personally. Not necessarily the strongest racial feat, but I like that it reinforces one of their more esoteric features rather than being something purely physical. Has a lot of flavour to it, it's a bit of a shame TCoE's Fey Touched is both better and more accessible than it. Well, from a worldbuilding viewpoint, at least. I like Fey Touched, too. ;3
In general, they're fine for developing abilities that truly could only be physically developed by your race's physiology. But that isn't what half of them are. Instead, they're just reinforced bigotry. Why can a human not become as accurate as an elf? No one ever hear of Robinhood? That's just an artificial racist restriction put in place, without merit.
Dragon Fear? Okay, you're tapping into your draconic heritage to unlock an otherwise latent draconic ability. That makes sense.
Prodigy? "You have a knack for learning new things" What kind of bigotry is THIS monstrosity? Only Half-Elf, Half-Orc, or Humancan learn things now??? Not enough skills? Must be that lack of human blood. This is toxic AF. It's just a few skills. HOW is this justifiable as a racial feat without being actual racism??
Idk. Racial feats could have been great but they put racists in charge of writing up some of them.
Yeah, it's not like elves are something like, say, a race of superhumanly agile (racial Dex bonus) fae (Fey Ancestry, Fey Teleportation feat, eladrin in general) with a cultural focus on archery (Elf Weapon Training), long-lived enough to devote centuries to perfecting the way of the bow (adult at 100, typically live to ~750), and hints of having a genetic memory (implied by Revenant Blade feat), right? They're clearly just on the same level as a single human being devoting what, a decade or two to archery, without the benefit of multiple generations of advisors or trainers, right? 🙄
Not all racial traits are immediately obvious, the biggest one here is simply a combination of living longer (and thus having more time to perfect their aim) and a cultural focus on archery & similarly "graceful" forms of combat.
Yeah, it's not like elves are something like, say, a race of superhumanly agile (racial Dex bonus) fae (Fey Ancestry, Fey Teleportation feat, eladrin in general) with a cultural focus on archery (Elf Weapon Training), long-lived enough to devote centuries to perfecting the way of the bow (adult at 100, typically live to ~750), and hints of having a genetic memory (implied by Revenant Blade feat), right? They're clearly just on the same level as a single human being devoting what, a decade or two to archery, without the benefit of multiple generations of advisors or trainers, right? 🙄
Not all racial traits are immediately obvious, the biggest one here is simply a combination of living longer (and thus having more time to perfect their aim) and a cultural focus on archery & similarly "graceful" forms of combat.
So you agree, and are expanding on the case for why Elves should be eligible for Prodigy feat?
Since they have hundreds of years to learn and can tap into their genetic memory that might have a few more skills than a shorter life spanned humanoid? Or, wait... was it supposed to be the humans that were just somehow magically more capable of skills and learning things? Oh shoot, now I think we're getting our racist tropes mixed up!
Look at some others, like Human Determination. Okay, you can force advantage on a roll, neat trick. Why can only Humans do that? Or Everybody's Friend, proficiency in Deception and Persuasion, (or essentially expertise)... because obviously as we all know only half-elves can be good at persuasion or deception...
Like I said, some are kinda ok, others are filler that were slapped together to fill some 'feature' quota for the book and ended up poorly designed. If the feat isn't clearly rooted in some bizarre or mystical physiology, then it should NOT be a racial feat.
Something as mundane as a proficiency in something, or making a roll at advantage, or etc... those aren't the sort of thing that should be "racially" excluded. A fear effect from dragonborn? Now, that's great. Barbed skin from tieflings!? Iconic! Learning the persuasion skill? Just... no. Lazy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Like I said, some are kinda ok, others are filler that were slapped together to fill some 'feature' quota for the book and ended up poorly designed. If the feat isn't clearly rooted in some bizarre or mystical physiology, then it should NOT be a racial feat.
Something as mundane as a proficiency in something, or making a roll at advantage, or etc... those aren't the sort of thing that should be "racially" excluded. A fear effect from dragonborn? Now, that's great. Barbed skin from tieflings!? Iconic! Learning the persuasion skill? Just... no. Lazy.
I don't think you're wrong, but it's kinda off-topic for this thread.
I like Elven Accuracy and Dwarven Fortitude alot, but recently I have really found myself drawn to Flames of Phlegethos for Tieflings. I like the ability to reroll 1's on fire spell damage and to summon a protective fire veil. The damage on the veil isn't superb, but its a nice addition and kind of makes me want to play a Four Elements monk with all the fire spell elemental disciplines, since the monk will get more use out of the veil in melee range than most other casters. Pair it with Elemental Adept for fire damage and you basically guarantee great damage with your fire spells.
Its not stupid powerful, but I feel it does make the Tiefling the best race for using fire-based magic.
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So you agree, and are expanding on the case for why Elves should be eligible for Prodigy feat?
Since they have hundreds of years to learn and can tap into their genetic memory that might have a few more skills than a shorter life spanned humanoid? Or, wait... was it supposed to be the humans that were just somehow magically more capable of skills and learning things? Oh shoot, now I think we're getting our racist tropes mixed up!
Look at some others, like Human Determination. Okay, you can force advantage on a roll, neat trick. Why can only Humans do that? Or Everybody's Friend, proficiency in Deception and Persuasion, (or essentially expertise)... because obviously as we all know only half-elves can be good at persuasion or deception...
Like I said, some are kinda ok, others are filler that were slapped together to fill some 'feature' quota for the book and ended up poorly designed. If the feat isn't clearly rooted in some bizarre or mystical physiology, then it should NOT be a racial feat.
Something as mundane as a proficiency in something, or making a roll at advantage, or etc... those aren't the sort of thing that should be "racially" excluded. A fear effect from dragonborn? Now, that's great. Barbed skin from tieflings!? Iconic! Learning the persuasion skill? Just... no. Lazy.
The human ones do feel kinda lax, yes, and could logically apply to most other races. That's the thing, though, humanity's most defining race trait in most fantasy settings is the lack of a distinct racial trait, except perhaps... ahem, promiscuity. Humanity is a conglomeration of countless cultures rather than the standard "one or two primary cultures with maybe some subcultures" model most races follow, typically on at least decent standing with the other races, often more driven then and eager to learn from other races (usually justified by having the most realistic lifespans, and thus dying much faster than other races), and (out-of-universe) the only real template writers have to base most other races on... and the assumed yet unspoken "second half" in every "half-X" race. As a result, the standard defining human "race trait" that most writers draw on when coming up with things like racial feats is genericity, but played in a positive light: Humanity's "specialty" is exploiting its lack of an actual specialty to mix-and-match everything from every source and culture available to them; cultural minmaxing, if you will (best example is Variant Human, which has no defining features whatsoever, but whose choice of feat makes it the lovechild of minmaxers everywhere). So, I can see Prodigy being, e.g., a result of mixing elven, dwarven, tortle, and tabaxi techniques in a way that members of those races might be unwilling to, to create new practices beyond any one "tutor" race's norm.
But yeah, I'd have to agree with kenclary, this isn't really the best place to discuss issues inherent to creating fantasy races in a setting that also has standard humans.
Loved Squat Nimbleness for my dwarf characters prior to Tasha's, fixes their speed, stat boost where I want it and some extra fluff thrown in. Post Tasha's I'm all about that Skill Expert, so nice to actually be good at skills and be able to stay in the class I enjoy most.
I don't know if the mechanics are the strongest, but I do think that Dragon Hide and Fey Teleportation are really cool and very on-brand. If I'm thinking in terms of mechanical power, I keep coming back to Infernal Constitution. I mean, look at it. You get a +1 to your Con, which everyone can use. You get resistance to cold and poison damage, both of which are fairly common. And that's on top of the fire resistance you already have as a Tiefling. Makes a non-Bear Totem Barbarian a VERY intriguing option :) AND you get advantage on saves against the poisoned condition, another roll that comes up often enough to make the feat useful.
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Please answer the poll above. After you answer, please respond and say what your favorite racial feat is and why.
My favorite racial feat is Svirfneblin Magic. I think it is a very powerful feat, especially since you gain the ability to cast Nondetection on yourself at will. You can also now cast Blindness/Deafness, Blur, and Disguise Self, and you can cast each once per long rest. The only downside is you have to be a Deep Gnome (Svirfneblin) to gain this feat.
I look forward to seeing your responses!
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Eliem Lightblossom a High Elf Blood Hunter
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Dragon Fear is the strongest Frightened ability in 5E (of which there already are not many). Both mechanically satisfying, and a good thematic way to make a Dragonborn feel more dragon-y.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Elven Accuracy is over-valued. It is a good feat, but the actual value is about 1/2 as much as people think. Among other things, it does not work with Strength, and your 3rd roll does not matter if your 2nd is a 20. Best use is to obtain additional criticals, not additional hits. So you need to play a character that specializes in both advantage and in criticals, and has a good way to gain advantage.
Now, the build is very NICE, but this feat takes a lot to make full use of it. You basically end up basing your build on it.
Nah.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I really like the racial "magic" feats. Going to vote drow since I can only pick 1.
I would have said prodigy before Tasha gave us skill expertise.
Racial Feats are a bad concept for the game.
In general, they're fine for developing abilities that truly could only be physically developed by your race's physiology. But that isn't what half of them are. Instead, they're just reinforced bigotry. Why can a human not become as accurate as an elf? No one ever hear of Robinhood? That's just an artificial racist restriction put in place, without merit.
Dragon Fear? Okay, you're tapping into your draconic heritage to unlock an otherwise latent draconic ability. That makes sense.
Prodigy? "You have a knack for learning new things" What kind of bigotry is THIS monstrosity? Only Half-Elf, Half-Orc, or Human can learn things now??? Not enough skills? Must be that lack of human blood. This is toxic AF. It's just a few skills. HOW is this justifiable as a racial feat without being actual racism??
Idk. Racial feats could have been great but they put racists in charge of writing up some of them.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I just love the idea of a paranoid gnome constantly casting Nondetection on itself. Great feat.
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(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I love Infernal Constitution for Tieflings. +1 Con - two resistances and advantage against poisoned? What's not to like? I know they're not the best resistances to get; Cold and Poison - but they're still great - especially considering a Tiefling already has Fire resistance.
And I agree with DxJxC - if it weren't for Tasha's Skill Expert - I would probably have chosen Prodigy.
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Well, from a worldbuilding viewpoint, at least. I like Fey Touched, too. ;3Yeah, it's not like elves are something like, say, a race of superhumanly agile (racial Dex bonus) fae (Fey Ancestry, Fey Teleportation feat, eladrin in general) with a cultural focus on archery (Elf Weapon Training), long-lived enough to devote centuries to perfecting the way of the bow (adult at 100, typically live to ~750), and hints of having a genetic memory (implied by Revenant Blade feat), right? They're clearly just on the same level as a single human being devoting what, a decade or two to archery, without the benefit of multiple generations of advisors or trainers, right? 🙄
Not all racial traits are immediately obvious, the biggest one here is simply a combination of living longer (and thus having more time to perfect their aim) and a cultural focus on archery & similarly "graceful" forms of combat.
So you agree, and are expanding on the case for why Elves should be eligible for Prodigy feat?
Since they have hundreds of years to learn and can tap into their genetic memory that might have a few more skills than a shorter life spanned humanoid? Or, wait... was it supposed to be the humans that were just somehow magically more capable of skills and learning things? Oh shoot, now I think we're getting our racist tropes mixed up!
Look at some others, like Human Determination. Okay, you can force advantage on a roll, neat trick. Why can only Humans do that? Or Everybody's Friend, proficiency in Deception and Persuasion, (or essentially expertise)... because obviously as we all know only half-elves can be good at persuasion or deception...
Like I said, some are kinda ok, others are filler that were slapped together to fill some 'feature' quota for the book and ended up poorly designed. If the feat isn't clearly rooted in some bizarre or mystical physiology, then it should NOT be a racial feat.
Something as mundane as a proficiency in something, or making a roll at advantage, or etc... those aren't the sort of thing that should be "racially" excluded. A fear effect from dragonborn? Now, that's great. Barbed skin from tieflings!? Iconic! Learning the persuasion skill? Just... no. Lazy.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I don't think you're wrong, but it's kinda off-topic for this thread.
I like Elven Accuracy and Dwarven Fortitude alot, but recently I have really found myself drawn to Flames of Phlegethos for Tieflings. I like the ability to reroll 1's on fire spell damage and to summon a protective fire veil. The damage on the veil isn't superb, but its a nice addition and kind of makes me want to play a Four Elements monk with all the fire spell elemental disciplines, since the monk will get more use out of the veil in melee range than most other casters. Pair it with Elemental Adept for fire damage and you basically guarantee great damage with your fire spells.
Its not stupid powerful, but I feel it does make the Tiefling the best race for using fire-based magic.
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The human ones do feel kinda lax, yes, and could logically apply to most other races. That's the thing, though, humanity's most defining race trait in most fantasy settings is the lack of a distinct racial trait, except perhaps... ahem, promiscuity. Humanity is a conglomeration of countless cultures rather than the standard "one or two primary cultures with maybe some subcultures" model most races follow, typically on at least decent standing with the other races, often more driven then and eager to learn from other races (usually justified by having the most realistic lifespans, and thus dying much faster than other races), and (out-of-universe) the only real template writers have to base most other races on... and the assumed yet unspoken "second half" in every "half-X" race. As a result, the standard defining human "race trait" that most writers draw on when coming up with things like racial feats is genericity, but played in a positive light: Humanity's "specialty" is exploiting its lack of an actual specialty to mix-and-match everything from every source and culture available to them; cultural minmaxing, if you will (best example is Variant Human, which has no defining features whatsoever, but whose choice of feat makes it the lovechild of minmaxers everywhere). So, I can see Prodigy being, e.g., a result of mixing elven, dwarven, tortle, and tabaxi techniques in a way that members of those races might be unwilling to, to create new practices beyond any one "tutor" race's norm.
But yeah, I'd have to agree with kenclary, this isn't really the best place to discuss issues inherent to creating fantasy races in a setting that also has standard humans.
Loved Squat Nimbleness for my dwarf characters prior to Tasha's, fixes their speed, stat boost where I want it and some extra fluff thrown in. Post Tasha's I'm all about that Skill Expert, so nice to actually be good at skills and be able to stay in the class I enjoy most.
I’m partial to Infernal Constitution and Dragon Hide myself.
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I don't know if the mechanics are the strongest, but I do think that Dragon Hide and Fey Teleportation are really cool and very on-brand. If I'm thinking in terms of mechanical power, I keep coming back to Infernal Constitution. I mean, look at it. You get a +1 to your Con, which everyone can use. You get resistance to cold and poison damage, both of which are fairly common. And that's on top of the fire resistance you already have as a Tiefling. Makes a non-Bear Totem Barbarian a VERY intriguing option :) AND you get advantage on saves against the poisoned condition, another roll that comes up often enough to make the feat useful.