This is awesome! I'm a little sad about the prerequisite clause in Eldritch Adept requiring warlock levels, but I suppose a full Sorcerer/Bard/Paladin+Spell Sniper (Eldritch Blast)+Eldritch Adept (Agonizing Blast) is just a bit silly. Like others have said, it really seems like we'll get Xanathar's 2.0 this year.... is it too much to hope for expanded Racial Feats?
The eldritch adept doesn't need warlock levels, it says "or pact magic feature" not "and..."
Unless the invocation has a prerequisite, then you need to meet that prerequisite as a warlock.
Most of the recent ua have been super interesting, I hope much of it makes it through the final pass.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
On one hand, it's a really cool option that negates the need in a lot of builds for costly warlock dips. It also fits really well for Tiefling in my world since the world hasn't really evolved past the whole "oh my god you're a demon!" thing so they have to keep hidden. This combined with me using race-appropriate 1st lvl feats and the existence of Mask of Many Faces can really help them in this regard.
On the other hand, the thought of a party reaching level 4 and telling me they're all going to beseech a patron for either party wide Mask of Many Faces, or Devil Sight and the resultant magical darkness spam terrifies me.
Alright, most of them are pretty cool. There are a few I think are worth criticizing though.
Crusher: While I'm a fan of the concept, I'm not sure how moving a target 5ft to an unoccupied space necessarily qualifies as being a "crusher." Feat might deserve a different name.
Fey Touched: I get what they were going for here. But this feat's story would functionally just be a sorcerer. I think the name and concept deserves to be the Sorcerer's feywild subclass instead.
Metamagic Adept: This cuts far too close to the core identity of what a sorcerer is. Sorcerers are special BECAUSE their innate control of magic grants them abilities beyond a regular wizard (or other caster). I really don't think a non-sorcerer should be able to just suddenly twist spells like that.
Shadow Touched: This just reads like a neutered version of the Sorcerer's Shadow Magic bloodline. I don't like the trend I'm seeing with some of these feats.
Shield Training: I've noticed that some newer NPC stat blocks have this new ability to attack with their shield for damage, shove a target back 5ft, and then move into that space all in one action. It's a pretty cool bit of flavor and I'm a bit disappointed Wizards didn't take the opportunity to include that here.
Overall? I like most of them, but I feel like some of these feats are cutting a bit too close to a sorcerer's territory. Gaining power from being infused by the energy of a plane of existence... is literally what makes you a sorcerer.
Shield Training: I've noticed that newer NPC stat blocks have this new ability to take an action to shove a target back 5ft and then move into that space. I'm a bit disappointed Wizards didn't take the opportunity to include that here.
You can just do that with movement, you don't need a feat to tell you to walk forward 3 paces
I just want to say that I love all of these feats! I'm glad WoTC is taking notes Paizo and buffing the different damage types with the Slasher, Piercer, and Crusher. I like the spell buffs you can get. All in all, I really enjoy the choice to improve your specialty. Thank you, WoTC!
Shield Training: I've noticed that newer NPC stat blocks have this new ability to take an action to shove a target back 5ft and then move into that space. I'm a bit disappointed Wizards didn't take the opportunity to include that here.
You can just do that with movement, you don't need a feat to tell you to walk forward 3 paces
I did a poor job of writing that sentence (hazards of not having the NPC in front of me while I typed it). Obviously you can move independently of actions, so no, I don't need a feat to tell me to do that. But the NPC action I was referring to essentially created a shield bash (something that isn't really a thing in 5e as far as I know) that combined the shove action with damage. Seemed like a fun bit of flavor for a feat all about using the shield.
I'm far from a master of 5e so maybe I'm overestimating how interesting/useful that'd be, but it sounds fun to me. *shrug*
I made a homebrew bard subclass that had a little bit of metamagic overlap and boy howdy did people bellyache at me. "That's stepping all over sorcerers! The designers let them have metamagic all to themselves for a reason."
Chef: very flavorful (that wasn't intentional), but not super mechanically powerful. I would have preferred something like being able to make a hearty meal that cures exhaustion, or some other buff instead of flat out restoring hit points.
Crusher: I'll do all the damage type dependent feats at the end
Eldritch Adept: Now here is where it starts to get interesting. It gives you one Eldritch Invocation, but it can't be one with a prerequisite. This means none of the Eldritch Blast invocations are eligible, which I think is a good thing. This also rules out ones with a level prerequisite, such as Tomb of Levistus. I have a feeling Devil's Sight will be a popular invocation choice.
Fey Touched: First, this is an Asi and a half feat, like Chef, so it won't have as significant of the other effect. However, it seems to be fairly powerful. It grants you one use Misty Step and one other first level enchantment of divination spell. I don't know how significant that other first level spell will be, but Misty Step is always nice.
Fighting Initiate: This feat grants you an additional fighting style. This might amount to basically plus 1 AC when ever person who took Duelist or Archery picks up defense, but I have a feeling dexterity builds are going to want this so that they can have both Two-Weapon fighting and archery.
Gunner: Eh. It gives your firearms proficiency, and some other Crossbow Expert-esque buffs, but it doesn't seem very exciting. For one, it uses DMG firearms, when I find the CR firearms much more interesting. However, it also gives a +1 to DEX, so it isn't so terrible. It seems designed for the rare player that finds a firearm when they weren't expecting to get one and wants to use it. This is a small niche, but I'm fine with it getting filled.
Metamagic Expert: Wow. You get two metamagic options, and two sorcery points. Quickened spell, twinned spell, and most importantly subtle spell seem like the big contenders here. This makes dips into sorcerer feel obsolete. However, I would actually want to take this on some of my sorcerers. It is surprisingly good for them.
Poisoner: I really, really, like this feat. Finally, a way to actually use effective poison without selling your major organs. It is still expensive, but at 50 gp per batch and they never go bad, it isn't the end of the world. The poison isn't the best though. I would have preferred some sore of scaling as you level.
Practiced Expert: Prodigy, but better. Much better. This is yet another shovelful of dirt on Skilled's grave.
Shadow Touched: The mirror of Fey Touched. Instead of Misty Step, you get the much better Darkness, and one other Illusion or Necromancy spell. This is a must-have for my Hexblade.
Shield Training: Another half-feat with an additional small mechanical benefit. It also lets you use a shield as a focus, but I don't know how relevant that will be.
Tandem Tactician: This seems really good. Really, really good. It lets you Help as a bonus action, effect two people, and use it ten feet away. A pair of blaster casters both on the back lines spamming help for each other and their teamates to trigger Elven Accuracy and sneak attack seems incredibly powerful.
Tracker: Half feat that buffs Wisdom, and totally eliminates the need for rangers in the game. (Way to go Wizards. Make the weakest class even less relevant.)
Finally, the damage type feats. They are each half feats, already making them competitive choices, and gives you a buff on a normal hit and a crit. Crusher lets you move people around, which I agree doesn't seem appropriate for a "Crusher." In addition, when you crit on someone, other attacks on them are made with advantage. This seems flavorful, with some tottering around stunned after bash them on the head. Piercer obviously effects piercing damage, and lets you reroll one damage dice as a static buff. It also slightly buffs crits, letting you roll one additional die. Slasher allows you to reduce the speed of people you hit, but you can't stack that effect on multiple attacks. When you crit on someone, they get disadvantage on attack rolls. All in all, I like that these feats allows for more variance in combat and weapon choice. Crusher seems the coolest overall, and makes mauls an appetizing choice of weapon.
Summary
Ones I liked: Eldritch Adept, Fighting Initiate, Poisoner, Shadow Touched.
Ones I didn't like: Tracker.
Ones that feel OP: Tandem Tactician, Practiced Expert.
This was a good UA. I hope that most of it makes it into a sourcebook intact.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
To be fair, Tex...Metamagic is basically the only reason to be a sorcerer. Don't get me wrong, I like sorcerers more than wizards most of the time and I enjoy making sorcerous characters, but mechanically there is dick-all nada reason to be a sorcerer over a wizard. Wizards only just barely get actual subclasses and their 'School' choices are still almost universally more useful than the majority of Sorcerous Origin abilities, and the fundamental skeleton of the sorcerer class is just categorically weaker in every possible way than a wizard with the sole exception of metamagic. Sorcerers are far and away the weakest of the game's suite of full casters, whose only defining trait is metamagic.
I can understand sorcerer people feeling some kind of way about that, especially when nobody ever gives the sorcerer players any bones.
Anyways. On the UA as a whole: Interesting, but this feels like another 'pasta at the wall' document. I guarantee none of this is getting implemented on DDB; we've been asking them to make Metamagic and Invocations feat-able for forever and we keep getting "Naaaaaaaah, you guys are fine", so clearly the tech just isn't there. Same as CFVs. I like the idea of the damage type specializations and allowing weapons in 5e to ACTUALLY MATTER FOR ONCE, but that very same notion is going to be why the UA never goes anywhere. Nobody in this game's wider community can tolerate any depth, or any specialization that locks them out of their special snowflake weirdboi build idea. The planar ones are a goodly bit overpowered, but I'll admit - I really, really want Practiced Expert. Like, a lot. That feat fixes so goddamned many problems, it's a perfect hole-filler for people desperately trying to find a half-feat for an oddball stat, or one for which they;ve already taken the only other relevant half-feat for whatever reason.
Practiced Expert: amazing. The rest: very good to moderately overpowered, and also extremely unlikely to ever actually see the light of day outside UA.
To be fair, Tex...Metamagic is basically the only reason to be a sorcerer. Don't get me wrong, I like sorcerers more than wizards most of the time and I enjoy making sorcerous characters, but mechanically there is dick-all nada reason to be a sorcerer over a wizard. Wizards only just barely get actual subclasses and their 'School' choices are still almost universally more useful than the majority of Sorcerous Origin abilities, and the fundamental skeleton of the sorcerer class is just categorically weaker in every possible way than a wizard with the sole exception of metamagic. Sorcerers are far and away the weakest of the game's suite of full casters, whose only defining trait is metamagic.
I can understand sorcerer people feeling some kind of way about that, especially when nobody ever gives the sorcerer players any bones.
Anyways. On the UA as a whole: Interesting, but this feels like another 'pasta at the wall' document. I guarantee none of this is getting implemented on DDB; we've been asking them to make Metamagic and Invocations feat-able for forever and we keep getting "Naaaaaaaah, you guys are fine", so clearly the tech just isn't there. Same as CFVs. I like the idea of the damage type specializations and allowing weapons in 5e to ACTUALLY MATTER FOR ONCE, but that very same notion is going to be why the UA never goes anywhere. Nobody in this game's wider community can tolerate any depth, or any specialization that locks them out of their special snowflake weirdboi build idea. The planar ones are a goodly bit overpowered, but I'll admit - I really, really want Practiced Expert. Like, a lot. That feat fixes so goddamned many problems, it's a perfect hole-filler for people desperately trying to find a half-feat for an oddball stat, or one for which they;ve already taken the only other relevant half-feat for whatever reason.
Practiced Expert: amazing. The rest: very good to moderately overpowered, and also extremely unlikely to ever actually see the light of day outside UA.
I think we'll see all of them except the Metamagic and Innovation ones
Artificer Initiate: I'm particularly encouraged by this line "you can use that type of tool as a spellcasting focus for any spell you cast that uses Intelligence as its spellcasting ability" as it's a way through RAW for an Alchemist to extend Alchemical Savant to other spells outside the Artificer list. That still leaves the issue of even GETTING those spells mind (outside of backgrounds and races that literally add it to your list already), but it's nice to see some benefit there. Aside from granting an Artificer an extra cantrip they can swap on level up.
Metamagic Adept: This is crazy good. If anything they should probably limit it to just one metamagic option at a time or not allow changing it on level up. Honestly just Twinned alone is hella useful on a lot of characters.
Poisoner: This is pretty cool. I'm glad they're recognizing how the mechanics for poisons need work. This... seems to me an odd way to fix it considering the DC is still fixed, and it's weird how [Proficiency Bonus] doses of "potent poison" is half the cost of a single dose of basic poison. But it seems to me this is their way of gauging interest in improving poison mechanics which I wholeheartedly approve of them doing. I mean imagine if all of the poisons listed in the DMG gave you a number of doses equal to your proficiency bonus when you craft/harvest them.
Feats that grant spells: I like the inclusion of being able to cast leveled spells with spell slots if you have them. It's much more intuitive than how Magic Initiate currently works.
Lots of other good (and some overpowered) things but these were the ones I particularly wanted to comment on.
Artificer Initiate is literally just Magic Initiate but for the Artificer class. I see no problems here. Though as someone said above, I'm mildly surprised there isn't also an Infusion Adept feat that gives a single Infusion (with a couple eliminations).
Chef is neat, but it feels more like a flavorful ribbon to flesh out a backstory more than an actual Feat. Perhaps I'm just not appreciating the magnitude of the benefit... Not bad, just decent. I see no problem here.
Crusher is interesting, but I have to agree, the name is off. Probably change it to Bulldozer to better account for the push. As someone who primarily plays casters, however, this is something I don't have a good estimate on.
Eldritch Adept seems like it's going to be a very, very popular take. The theme I'm seeing, looking over the Feats as a group, is an attempt to eliminate 1 level dips, especially across the Charisma classes. Excluding Agonizing Blast feels like a very smart decision. I have a Sorcerer character who I could see this being very useful for, via Mask of Many Faces, since she's not only escaped a cult and wants to avoid being noticed, but her Tiefling coloration all on it's own stands out as being unusual.
Fey Touched seems like must-pick for a Wizard or a Sorcerer (especially a Sorcerer, since it gives not 1 but 2 spell choices). That said, I feel like it's too strong to give a half ASI as well as learning 2 extra spells and giving each of them 1 free cast a day. It should do one of those things, not both. Give a +1 to a stat, OR give a free cast of each a day. Both together seems too strong.
Fighting Initiate could be very useful, but I'm kinda torn. Restricting it to characters who already have Martial Weapons means that only certain Clerics, for example, are able to take it. And rather than giving a list of curated Fighting Styles, it just gives access to any and all of the Fighter ones. I can definitely see this being a big take for Rogues to get Two Weapon Fighting, but there's this nagging suspicion at the back of my mind that Paladins will want to take this very aggressively, too. I guess the good news is that it does not contain the Ranger's UA Druidic Warrior one.
I have no strong opinions on Gunner. Though I will comment that almost all the official source rules that give proficiency with Firearms also allow the wielder to ignore the Loading property on any Firearms they use. *deep ponder...*
On one hand, Metamagic Adept is a really cool benefit that I can see any caster salivating to take. Even Sorcerers will want it, for the extra 2 options (you can now get 6 of the 8 if you take Sorcerer to 17), as well as the 2 extra Sorcery Points (from how it's worded, it appears this increases your max by 2, so again, Sorcerers are salivating). But... Well, I'm seeing a theme here in this UA that Sorcerers are not being taken seriously as a base class. More on that at the end. Bottom line, this is going to be mandatory on every Sorcerer, and highly valuable on any caster.
Like Crusher, Piercer seems like a neat addition. That said, something feels like it's missing. I kinda want to have it temporarily reduce AC on the target somewhere in there, but I'm not sure how powerful that would be or which part would be better replaced by it. Seems like a near miss to me.
It's long overdue for weapon poisons to be a practical thing, but Poisoner only does 2 of the 3 things to make that work. You can make Poison on your own, instead of buying it. And you can apply it as a Bonus Action, instead of an Action, which is a massively needed addition. But then I look at the actual stats of the poison it produces.... DC 14 Con save is not very potent, though 2d8 is respectable. But nothing on a successful save... The DC of the poison needs to scale with Proficiency bonus, at least, and there should be some kind of scaling table where you can optionally spend more resources to have a more dangerous poison that deals more damage, or lasts longer, or both.
Practiced Expert seems in the same vein as Chef, to me. Add another Skill or Tool, then gain Expertise in any Skill or Tool known. Certainly can aid in flavoring a character, but nothing earth-shattering about it. Bards and Rogues can be super experts in all the things, I suppose.
Shadow Touched is basically the same as Fey Touched but with darkness instead of fairy mischief. There's nothing wrong with that, but it has the same criticisms. It doesn't need both the stat boost AND the free cast a day of both spells. It should be one or the other, not both. Additionally, though, this one also has further ramifications on the Sorcerer, because it's basically a better version of the Shadow Magic Sorcerer's Eyes in the Dark feature. The Sorcerer might also get 120 feet of Darkvision, but for them to cast their class feature Darkness, they use Sorcery Points to do so. I'm genuinely curious, do people actually 1 level dip into Shadow Sorcerer to get this ability?
My jaw literally dropped when I read Shield Expert. Every full caster now needs to change their underwear. +2 AC and shield is a spellcasting focus. I... I don't.... This is must-pick on any caster. No exceptions. And it doesn't interfere with Mage Armor, either. Add Blur.... Yeah. This is crazy powerful and I don't see it ever going to print.
Slasher feels a little weak to me by comparison to Crusher and Piercer. Reducing a target's movement by 10 feet can be useful to some characters, like a Swashbuckler Rogue or the more warrior flavored Bards. Maybe a Hexblade Warlock. But I don't see this being relevant for other frontline classes. And handing out Disadvantage for 1 turn on a crit seems underwhelming for how rare that will happen. The other 2 seem a little more on-target than this one. But again, I play casters, so perhaps my judgement isn't accurate.
Tandem Tactician seems really useful for a frontline tank to make the party more effective. Maybe it should have 1 more ribbon, something about positioning relative to allies, maybe the user doesn't provide cover if in the line of fire of an attack or something like that. Otherwise spot on.
Tracker is to the Ranger what Metamagic Adept is to the Sorcerer. I guess this really cements the deal on the UA class variant for the Ranger letting them use Hunter's Mark without actually casting it. So that's some good news. And it would prevent the 1 level Ranger dip a lot of people were complaining about with that alternate feature. But... without some more substantial renovations to the Ranger class as a whole, I feel like a lot of people will just play Fighter and take this feat and pretend they are a Ranger.
More hits than misses overall. Some really solid stuff.
Frankly, the content of several of these feats just shits all over the Sorcerer class as a whole. The class has the lowest number of spells know of any full caster, with only the Clockwork Soul getting an expanded spell list. The Sorcerer spell list is the most restrictive of any of the full caster classes, further constrained by availability of alternate damage types to Fire, Radiant, and Bludgeoning. It's the only full caster class that doesn't get Ritual Casting. And now the only thing unique about the Sorcerer -- Metamagic -- is available to literally any class able to cast a spell. And both of the 'Touched" feats are must-pick for a Sorcerer, while Shadow Touched is strictly better than the lvl 1 Shadow Sorcerer's Eyes of the Dark class feature.
After taking my look over this UA, I'm seeing a trend with how people are seeing this and I'm fairly close to what ya'll think too...
Artificer Initiate - This is a solid feat. Does it do anything to break the mold or do anything new? No, but I still see it as a welcomed feat that works as a good "initiate" feat for a 1/2 caster that still good and is flavored correctly with the tool bonus.
Chef - I understand wanting to make feats for tools, but not sure how I feel about this one. Are the bonuses good? I'd say that they're okay, but not sure how many people would want to take this over a full ASI or choosing a different feat. I do know, I would like to see more tool/skill feats.
Crusher, Piercer, Slasher - I like the idea of feats/boons that involve adding more flavor for weapons, but I'm not sure why, but i don't know if I like these or not. I do know that because of the wording, these effects also apply to spells that deal these damages because it never states that it had to be a weapon attack.
Eldritch Adept, Metamagic Adept - I do like these feats, and some people have said that they don't simply because they give a portion of a class to another. Though, I don't see that issue brought up when it comes to things like mage initiate where a feat gives casting to non casters. I also see this as a way to gain more options to those class if they so choose, like if a battlemaster picked up the martial adept feat.
Fey Touched, Shadow Touched - Both of these are strong, and I'm kinda surprised they didn't do an "angel touched," "devil touched" or something else too. Gain an ASI with 2 addition spells from limited pool with a free use... seems fine to me, but they kind of feel more like boons that a DM might give more than a feat, but that could just be me.
Fighting Initiate - Just going to say... Finally...
Gunner - You want guns, well... here's a gun feat. I don't think I need to explain much on why this is good. Though I do find it kind weird that they would introduce this feat without there being any official firearm content (less I'm mistaking). hmm... maybe in new book?
Poisoner - I definitely like this feat because it actually makes using poisons good, or at least more viable than before.
Practiced Expert - From what I've seen people have the same issue that I do with this feat, it's just better Prodigy. Now would I welcome it, sure, because those who can pick prodigy can do both if they so choose... though... not sure how many actually will.
Shield Training - I'm not sure if it's just me but I find this feat to be pretty underwhelming with the strongest part being the ASI and shield as a spellcasting focus being the strongest part of the feat.
Tandem Tactician - This feat is pretty dang good. Don't think I needs to explain why since this is the feat that most people are talking about.
Tracker - As someone who loves to play rangers, my first impression of this feat is this needs to be a thing, and we need the variant features. Just like the other feats that give a flavor feature from other classes while buffing the same class, this one goes a little too far. The ASI and hunter's mark w/ free use is good, it's the tracking feature that I think needs to be slightly changed. As is, who ever picks this up becomes pretty good at tracking, while for a ranger they would still have the INT bonus from favored enemy but can track anything better... My suggestion for this is to turn it into basically "you choose a favored enemy" whether if its all the bonus of favored enemy or just the tracking portion. It would still be a tracking buff for those who pick the feat but would also grant the ranger another option when it comes to rangers also picking this feat.
And both of the 'Touched" feats are must-pick for a Sorcerer, while Shadow Touched is strictly better than the lvl 1 Shadow Sorcerer's Eyes of the Dark class feature.
You may have missed the very important detail that you can't see in the magical darkness from Shadow-Touched.
I believe that this part is what EddyJ was referring to.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Unless the invocation has a prerequisite, then you need to meet that prerequisite as a warlock.
Most of the recent ua have been super interesting, I hope much of it makes it through the final pass.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I'm torn on Eldritch adept.
On one hand, it's a really cool option that negates the need in a lot of builds for costly warlock dips. It also fits really well for Tiefling in my world since the world hasn't really evolved past the whole "oh my god you're a demon!" thing so they have to keep hidden. This combined with me using race-appropriate 1st lvl feats and the existence of Mask of Many Faces can really help them in this regard.
On the other hand, the thought of a party reaching level 4 and telling me they're all going to beseech a patron for either party wide Mask of Many Faces, or Devil Sight and the resultant magical darkness spam terrifies me.
Alright, most of them are pretty cool. There are a few I think are worth criticizing though.
Crusher: While I'm a fan of the concept, I'm not sure how moving a target 5ft to an unoccupied space necessarily qualifies as being a "crusher." Feat might deserve a different name.
Fey Touched: I get what they were going for here. But this feat's story would functionally just be a sorcerer. I think the name and concept deserves to be the Sorcerer's feywild subclass instead.
Metamagic Adept: This cuts far too close to the core identity of what a sorcerer is. Sorcerers are special BECAUSE their innate control of magic grants them abilities beyond a regular wizard (or other caster). I really don't think a non-sorcerer should be able to just suddenly twist spells like that.
Shadow Touched: This just reads like a neutered version of the Sorcerer's Shadow Magic bloodline. I don't like the trend I'm seeing with some of these feats.
Shield Training: I've noticed that some newer NPC stat blocks have this new ability to attack with their shield for damage, shove a target back 5ft, and then move into that space all in one action. It's a pretty cool bit of flavor and I'm a bit disappointed Wizards didn't take the opportunity to include that here.
Overall? I like most of them, but I feel like some of these feats are cutting a bit too close to a sorcerer's territory. Gaining power from being infused by the energy of a plane of existence... is literally what makes you a sorcerer.
That's correct. Sorry that my original post's wording caused confusion!
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
You can just do that with movement, you don't need a feat to tell you to walk forward 3 paces
I just want to say that I love all of these feats! I'm glad WoTC is taking notes Paizo and buffing the different damage types with the Slasher, Piercer, and Crusher. I like the spell buffs you can get. All in all, I really enjoy the choice to improve your specialty. Thank you, WoTC!
I did a poor job of writing that sentence (hazards of not having the NPC in front of me while I typed it). Obviously you can move independently of actions, so no, I don't need a feat to tell me to do that. But the NPC action I was referring to essentially created a shield bash (something that isn't really a thing in 5e as far as I know) that combined the shove action with damage. Seemed like a fun bit of flavor for a feat all about using the shield.
I'm far from a master of 5e so maybe I'm overestimating how interesting/useful that'd be, but it sounds fun to me. *shrug*
I haven’t taken an in-depth look yet, but they look good at first glance. I’m so excited for Xanathar’s 2!
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
Subclasses | Races | Spells | Magic Items | Monsters | Feats | Backgrounds
Now all we have to do is wait until next week for these to be utilized on D&D Beyond.
I made a homebrew bard subclass that had a little bit of metamagic overlap and boy howdy did people bellyache at me. "That's stepping all over sorcerers! The designers let them have metamagic all to themselves for a reason."
And then this feat comes out. I had to chuckle.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Here's my evaluation of the feats:
Summary
Ones I liked: Eldritch Adept, Fighting Initiate, Poisoner, Shadow Touched.
Ones I didn't like: Tracker.
Ones that feel OP: Tandem Tactician, Practiced Expert.
This was a good UA. I hope that most of it makes it into a sourcebook intact.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
To be fair, Tex...Metamagic is basically the only reason to be a sorcerer. Don't get me wrong, I like sorcerers more than wizards most of the time and I enjoy making sorcerous characters, but mechanically there is dick-all nada reason to be a sorcerer over a wizard. Wizards only just barely get actual subclasses and their 'School' choices are still almost universally more useful than the majority of Sorcerous Origin abilities, and the fundamental skeleton of the sorcerer class is just categorically weaker in every possible way than a wizard with the sole exception of metamagic. Sorcerers are far and away the weakest of the game's suite of full casters, whose only defining trait is metamagic.
I can understand sorcerer people feeling some kind of way about that, especially when nobody ever gives the sorcerer players any bones.
Anyways. On the UA as a whole: Interesting, but this feels like another 'pasta at the wall' document. I guarantee none of this is getting implemented on DDB; we've been asking them to make Metamagic and Invocations feat-able for forever and we keep getting "Naaaaaaaah, you guys are fine", so clearly the tech just isn't there. Same as CFVs. I like the idea of the damage type specializations and allowing weapons in 5e to ACTUALLY MATTER FOR ONCE, but that very same notion is going to be why the UA never goes anywhere. Nobody in this game's wider community can tolerate any depth, or any specialization that locks them out of their special snowflake weirdboi build idea. The planar ones are a goodly bit overpowered, but I'll admit - I really, really want Practiced Expert. Like, a lot. That feat fixes so goddamned many problems, it's a perfect hole-filler for people desperately trying to find a half-feat for an oddball stat, or one for which they;ve already taken the only other relevant half-feat for whatever reason.
Practiced Expert: amazing. The rest: very good to moderately overpowered, and also extremely unlikely to ever actually see the light of day outside UA.
Please do not contact or message me.
I think we'll see all of them except the Metamagic and Innovation ones
I'm really looking forward to a melee artillerist with shield training. Looking forward to shocking folks with an electric shield.
Artificer Initiate: I'm particularly encouraged by this line "you can use that type of tool as a spellcasting focus for any spell you cast that uses Intelligence as its spellcasting ability" as it's a way through RAW for an Alchemist to extend Alchemical Savant to other spells outside the Artificer list. That still leaves the issue of even GETTING those spells mind (outside of backgrounds and races that literally add it to your list already), but it's nice to see some benefit there. Aside from granting an Artificer an extra cantrip they can swap on level up.
Metamagic Adept: This is crazy good. If anything they should probably limit it to just one metamagic option at a time or not allow changing it on level up. Honestly just Twinned alone is hella useful on a lot of characters.
Poisoner: This is pretty cool. I'm glad they're recognizing how the mechanics for poisons need work. This... seems to me an odd way to fix it considering the DC is still fixed, and it's weird how [Proficiency Bonus] doses of "potent poison" is half the cost of a single dose of basic poison. But it seems to me this is their way of gauging interest in improving poison mechanics which I wholeheartedly approve of them doing. I mean imagine if all of the poisons listed in the DMG gave you a number of doses equal to your proficiency bonus when you craft/harvest them.
Feats that grant spells: I like the inclusion of being able to cast leveled spells with spell slots if you have them. It's much more intuitive than how Magic Initiate currently works.
Lots of other good (and some overpowered) things but these were the ones I particularly wanted to comment on.
Artificer Initiate is literally just Magic Initiate but for the Artificer class. I see no problems here. Though as someone said above, I'm mildly surprised there isn't also an Infusion Adept feat that gives a single Infusion (with a couple eliminations).
Chef is neat, but it feels more like a flavorful ribbon to flesh out a backstory more than an actual Feat. Perhaps I'm just not appreciating the magnitude of the benefit... Not bad, just decent. I see no problem here.
Crusher is interesting, but I have to agree, the name is off. Probably change it to Bulldozer to better account for the push. As someone who primarily plays casters, however, this is something I don't have a good estimate on.
Eldritch Adept seems like it's going to be a very, very popular take. The theme I'm seeing, looking over the Feats as a group, is an attempt to eliminate 1 level dips, especially across the Charisma classes. Excluding Agonizing Blast feels like a very smart decision. I have a Sorcerer character who I could see this being very useful for, via Mask of Many Faces, since she's not only escaped a cult and wants to avoid being noticed, but her Tiefling coloration all on it's own stands out as being unusual.
Fey Touched seems like must-pick for a Wizard or a Sorcerer (especially a Sorcerer, since it gives not 1 but 2 spell choices). That said, I feel like it's too strong to give a half ASI as well as learning 2 extra spells and giving each of them 1 free cast a day. It should do one of those things, not both. Give a +1 to a stat, OR give a free cast of each a day. Both together seems too strong.
Fighting Initiate could be very useful, but I'm kinda torn. Restricting it to characters who already have Martial Weapons means that only certain Clerics, for example, are able to take it. And rather than giving a list of curated Fighting Styles, it just gives access to any and all of the Fighter ones. I can definitely see this being a big take for Rogues to get Two Weapon Fighting, but there's this nagging suspicion at the back of my mind that Paladins will want to take this very aggressively, too. I guess the good news is that it does not contain the Ranger's UA Druidic Warrior one.
I have no strong opinions on Gunner. Though I will comment that almost all the official source rules that give proficiency with Firearms also allow the wielder to ignore the Loading property on any Firearms they use. *deep ponder...*
On one hand, Metamagic Adept is a really cool benefit that I can see any caster salivating to take. Even Sorcerers will want it, for the extra 2 options (you can now get 6 of the 8 if you take Sorcerer to 17), as well as the 2 extra Sorcery Points (from how it's worded, it appears this increases your max by 2, so again, Sorcerers are salivating). But... Well, I'm seeing a theme here in this UA that Sorcerers are not being taken seriously as a base class. More on that at the end. Bottom line, this is going to be mandatory on every Sorcerer, and highly valuable on any caster.
Like Crusher, Piercer seems like a neat addition. That said, something feels like it's missing. I kinda want to have it temporarily reduce AC on the target somewhere in there, but I'm not sure how powerful that would be or which part would be better replaced by it. Seems like a near miss to me.
It's long overdue for weapon poisons to be a practical thing, but Poisoner only does 2 of the 3 things to make that work. You can make Poison on your own, instead of buying it. And you can apply it as a Bonus Action, instead of an Action, which is a massively needed addition. But then I look at the actual stats of the poison it produces.... DC 14 Con save is not very potent, though 2d8 is respectable. But nothing on a successful save... The DC of the poison needs to scale with Proficiency bonus, at least, and there should be some kind of scaling table where you can optionally spend more resources to have a more dangerous poison that deals more damage, or lasts longer, or both.
Practiced Expert seems in the same vein as Chef, to me. Add another Skill or Tool, then gain Expertise in any Skill or Tool known. Certainly can aid in flavoring a character, but nothing earth-shattering about it. Bards and Rogues can be super experts in all the things, I suppose.
Shadow Touched is basically the same as Fey Touched but with darkness instead of fairy mischief. There's nothing wrong with that, but it has the same criticisms. It doesn't need both the stat boost AND the free cast a day of both spells. It should be one or the other, not both. Additionally, though, this one also has further ramifications on the Sorcerer, because it's basically a better version of the Shadow Magic Sorcerer's Eyes in the Dark feature. The Sorcerer might also get 120 feet of Darkvision, but for them to cast their class feature Darkness, they use Sorcery Points to do so. I'm genuinely curious, do people actually 1 level dip into Shadow Sorcerer to get this ability?
My jaw literally dropped when I read Shield Expert. Every full caster now needs to change their underwear. +2 AC and shield is a spellcasting focus. I... I don't.... This is must-pick on any caster. No exceptions. And it doesn't interfere with Mage Armor, either. Add Blur.... Yeah. This is crazy powerful and I don't see it ever going to print.
Slasher feels a little weak to me by comparison to Crusher and Piercer. Reducing a target's movement by 10 feet can be useful to some characters, like a Swashbuckler Rogue or the more warrior flavored Bards. Maybe a Hexblade Warlock. But I don't see this being relevant for other frontline classes. And handing out Disadvantage for 1 turn on a crit seems underwhelming for how rare that will happen. The other 2 seem a little more on-target than this one. But again, I play casters, so perhaps my judgement isn't accurate.
Tandem Tactician seems really useful for a frontline tank to make the party more effective. Maybe it should have 1 more ribbon, something about positioning relative to allies, maybe the user doesn't provide cover if in the line of fire of an attack or something like that. Otherwise spot on.
Tracker is to the Ranger what Metamagic Adept is to the Sorcerer. I guess this really cements the deal on the UA class variant for the Ranger letting them use Hunter's Mark without actually casting it. So that's some good news. And it would prevent the 1 level Ranger dip a lot of people were complaining about with that alternate feature. But... without some more substantial renovations to the Ranger class as a whole, I feel like a lot of people will just play Fighter and take this feat and pretend they are a Ranger.
More hits than misses overall. Some really solid stuff.
Frankly, the content of several of these feats just shits all over the Sorcerer class as a whole. The class has the lowest number of spells know of any full caster, with only the Clockwork Soul getting an expanded spell list. The Sorcerer spell list is the most restrictive of any of the full caster classes, further constrained by availability of alternate damage types to Fire, Radiant, and Bludgeoning. It's the only full caster class that doesn't get Ritual Casting. And now the only thing unique about the Sorcerer -- Metamagic -- is available to literally any class able to cast a spell. And both of the 'Touched" feats are must-pick for a Sorcerer, while Shadow Touched is strictly better than the lvl 1 Shadow Sorcerer's Eyes of the Dark class feature.
What's the point of playing a Sorcerer, again?
After taking my look over this UA, I'm seeing a trend with how people are seeing this and I'm fairly close to what ya'll think too...
My Homebrew | Background | Feats | Magic Items | Races | Spells | Subclass | Homebrewery
To see my more recent homebrew creations, please check out my content on Hombrewery.
You may have missed the very important detail that you can't see in the magical darkness from Shadow-Touched.