The Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook Introduced new ways to categorize the feats available to player characters. Feats, which grant some ability or passive buff that functions independently of the character’s class, are now separated into general, origin, and fighting style feats, as well as epic bonuses. The new categories have level and stat requirements that were not present in the 2014 version of the TTRPG and change the way players build their characters. This is primarily due to All characters now gain an Origin feat at level one.
Each character gets an origin feat determined by their background, which connects in some way to the previous experience of the character and makes each player character more unique. There are ten starting fits to choose from linked to the sixteen character backgroundsRanging in utility and strength. Players may wonder which of these feats might be considered the best or most powerful for certain character builds, and which options are best avoided.
10
Musician has its uses, but is more limited than other options
A lackluster performance of the feat
The Musician feat gives players the ability to use instruments and musical power to inspire their allies. They gain proficiency with three instruments of their choice, and after completing a short or long rest, Can perform a song that gives allies heroic inspiration. Heroic Inspiration lets players choose to re-roll a d20 check after making it, and is quite useful.
unfortunately, Many parts of this feat conflict with the skills characters can already get in other ways. Of course, bards already get instrument proficiency, making half of this feat almost useless for them. And people already get heroic inspiration at the end of each long rest. There are cases where this will be a good feat, especially if non-bards just want to be able to play instruments, but its strength is limited by how easy it is to emulate the effects.
9
Flink suffers from comparison to its predecessor
A faith players may want to sleep on
Flink is a tragedy, given how much worse it is than its 2014 version. The old feat grants a +5 bonus to initiative and immunity to being surprised. now, Agility gives characters an initiative bonus equal to their proficiency bonusand allows them to exchange initiative with a willing ally at the start of combat.
The bonus to initiative will be lower than it once was for almost the entire time a player uses a character, until they reach very high levels. The loss of surprise immunity is a big deal As well, though with the new rules around surprise making it much less deadly, even that wouldn’t save the feat. And as for initiative swapping, while there are some niche circumstances when it can be handy, letting players keep their turn to go after one another is already something that many DMs allow by default.
8
Wild Attack is often more trouble than it’s worth
A buff to damage rolls that can bog down combat
Savage Attacker sounds like a great feat for martial characters, but often ends up letting them down. The feat works essentially the same as it once did in the 2014 Feb. When the player rolls damage for a weapon attack, They can choose to re-roll the dice for one attack per turn and take whatever result they wantAlmost always which is highest. In theory, this affects how much damage characters like fighters and rogues can do on their turns.
But in practice, the increase in damage from this feat leaves a lot to be desired. The fact It can only be used once per turn Means you’re often re-rolling just one dice, a 1d8 for a longsword, for example. If players roll a 1 on the dice, there’s a good chance they’ll increase their damage by 2 or 3 by re-rolling. But on higher initial rolls, the odds of the second roll is the same or higher than the first drop quickly. This is a feat that gets worse at higher levels, as martial characters gain extra attack, and won’t want to slow down combat just for a 1 or 2 point damage increase.
7
Crafter provides some unique options for creative players
Those missing the artificer should try this feat
Crafter is not a good fit for min-maxxers or optimized builds. What it’s great for is Expanding on the options players have in terms of equipment And give smart players some creative ways to use their tools. The feat gives characters three new tools and the ability to use those tools to craft certain items during a long rest.
While the Artificer did not receive updated rules like the other classes in the 2024 Player’s HandbookIt is still compatible with the other classes with its existing rules. Whether the artificer will receive an update for the new rules is unknown.
The things are all mundane, like ladders, torches and clubs, however Careful thinking can allow players to devise ways to use this stuff to great effect. These items fall apart after a day, so they won’t last forever, but it gives players an easy way to temporarily get some gear they’re short on. Faith also comes with a 20% discount on buying nonmagical itemsBut the usefulness of this will be heavily dependent on the campaign setting.
6
Skilled is as useful as it is bland
Nothing too exciting, but powerful nonetheless
The skillful feat is very straightforward, Give players three new skills and/or tools For their character. Skill checks are probably the most common type of check in D&DAnd getting some better checks is always a good thing. But this feat just feels boring compared to some of the other options, which give new actions or ways to use skills.
For a character who wants to focus on being a jack of all trades, or who lacks a particular skill they want, this feat can fulfill that need. While this feat is polite, it will always be at least somewhat useful For any player to take. One more issue here, however, is that, from background to class choice to even certain spells, there are plenty of ways to boost skill checks that don’t require a feat. Because of this, this option feels fairly watered down.
5
Tavern Brawler provides great buffs for certain images
This feat is not for everyone, but definitely makes a difference
Tavern Brawler is a really fun feat that’s great (and almost required) for any unarmed build, monk or not. The Monk is, of course, the most popular choice for players who are unarmed, but this feat makes the use of other classes with this build viable. It allows characters to deal 1d4 + Strength bludgeoning damage with unarmed strikesAnd re-roll unarmed hit damage if it’s a single.
The first part of the feat does not help monks, but the second part definitely does. With small damage dice for their attacks, monks will likely roll a lot of ones, and rerolling them will almost always improve damage output. But this is not all the tavern brawler: it gives characters improvised weapon proficiency and Let them push enemies with an unarmed strike while still hurting. Improvised weapons are a whole bunch of worms that will depend on your DMs style for their usefulness, but moving enemies around is always powerful.
4
Hiller sees minor improvements from his 2014 inspiration
A good support option for any character
The healer feat is good for a support character to take, but even better for a non-support character to take. It gives players options for healing and saving their party members without magic or spell slot use. The feat lets Characters use a healer’s kit and one of an ally’s hit dice to let the ally recover a few hit points. Additionally, characters with this feat re-roll ones on healing dice when healing themselves or another creature, which means they will rarely heal for the minimum amount.
The changes made to this feat from its 2014 version are big. In this version, creatures cannot benefit from the healing more than once per short rest. Now, the only limit is how many hit dice they want to spend. And these Re-roll feature means the feat is also good for characters who already have healing spellsSince it will slightly buff the amount that they heal by.
3
Lucky is still great, even with a debuff
Influence the luck of the game
Many veteran players from D&D Probably know that Lucky was one of the most broken feats in the game. and luckily, The Fit has received several downgrades in this new one PHB. These changes haven’t changed the fact that this is one of the most powerful feats players can take. The feat grants characters “luck points,” which they can spend to gain advantage on a d20 check they make or give an enemy disadvantage on an attack roll.
The old version of Lucky let players choose to re-roll after seeing the initial result, which was more powerful. But the new version still allows players to change the luck of the game dice rolls, one of the most important aspects. moreover, The number of luck points they get balances with their proficiency bonusWhich means many characters eventually exceed the 3 luck point limit of the original feat.
2
Hart buffs up any character that needs more armor
Tough is another simple feat that gives a powerful passive buff. Players get two hit points for every level they’ve beenAnd continue to gain an extra two at each level-up. With this buff, characters can quickly exceed the average hit point maximum of their class at any given level, especially classes with smaller hit dice.
Hart is great for survival, and gives players a lot more of a margin of error before losing their character. Much like skill, it’s a bit bland in that it doesn’t give the player anything to do actively. But Tough is a feat that will come in handy in any situationNo matter the character’s class, origin, or the campaign they are in. It is always better to have more hit points than less.
1
Magic initiates let anyone experiment with spellcasting
A great feat for casters and marshals alike
Magic Initiate is a feat with a lot of versatility in its own right, letting Players choose one of the spell lists from the spellcasting class to gain some magical powers. Players pick a list and get two cantrips from it, as well as one spell. They use the ability score that the class they took the spells from would use, and they can cast the first-level spell once per day without using a slot.
This feat is amazing, and opens up so many options for Dungeons & Dragons Players to choose from. Martial classes can get a taste of magic from this feat, as well as a spell like shield, and casters can get a little more versatility for choosing their spells. The new version of this feat also adds some big alterations to its rules. The first-level spell chosen can be swapped for another from the same list at each level upMeaning players can experiment with different choices, and they can use existing spell slots to cast the spell as well.