D&D 5e Feats: Rating the Best and Worst Feats

By Flutes / May 15, 2024 May 26, 2024 / Feats, Player Resources, Top Read / 24 Comments

Featured D&D 5e feats ratings art is “Into the Fray” by desmondWOOT. Creative Commons License.
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Feats add a degree of customization to a tabletop RPG that I enthusiastically enjoy; however, there is inequality among feats. I believe it’s acceptable for some feats not to be as good as others, but some feats seem like traps lying in wait for hapless players to choose them. Other feats seem like must-haves by various players. Unfortunately, many feats push a character to select character choices, such as many ranged characters using hand crossbows because the Crossbow Expert feat is so good. Feats should be flexible, creating variety in our characters, and I generally think 5e feats have failed to do. I have my own opinions, so strap in as I spew my thoughts onto the internet.

I’ve listed every official feat so that I can grade them and provide my thoughts. I omit feat descriptions due to copyrighted material. As of this publication’s recent update, there are 78 officially published feats in D&D Fifth Edition, and I’ve painstakingly reviewed each one. I’m not including the Strixhaven “feats” unless they become mainstream outside of their settings. The most recent update included feats from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons.

Grading Methodology for Feats

I’m grateful that there is a humble amount of feats to grade compared to previous game editions. I’ve listed feats in alphabetical order. I ignored feats in Unearthed Arcana.

I’ve given each feat a star rating from one to five. A five-star rating is high/good, and a one-star rating is low/bad. I rate each feat in three categories: design, power, and fun. I also explain my ratings and any suggestions I have (if any) to improve the feat.

Flutes Loot articles about feats.
Most-picked feats of D&D Beyond characters on (Feb. 2019).

Class-Specific Feat Articles:

Note: I have not included verbatim feat descriptions; this is to avoid plagiarism. To reference feats, please purchase the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

Misty Step to a Specific Feat:

Aberrant Dragonmark
Actor
Alert
Artificer Initiate
Athlete
Bountiful Luck
Charger
Chef
Crossbow Expert
Crusher
Defensive Duelist
Dragon Fear
Dragon Hide
Drow High Magic
Dual Wielder
Dungeon Delver
Durable
Dwarven Fortitude
Eldritch Adept
Elemental Adept
Elven Accuracy
Fade Away
Fey Teleportation
Fey Touched
Fighting Initiate
Flames of Phlegethos
Gift of the Chromatic Dragon
Gift of the Gem Dragon
Gift of the Metallic Dragon
Grappler
Great Weapon Master
Gunner
Healer
Heavily Armored
Heavy Armor Master
Infernal Constitution
Inspiring Leader
Keen Mind
Lightly Armored
Linguist
Lucky
Mage Slayer
Magic Initiate
Martial Adept
Medium Armor Master
Metamagic Adept
Mobile
Moderately Armored
Mounted Combatant
Observant
Orcish Fury
Piercer
Poisoner
Polearm Master
Prodigy
Resilient
Revenant Blade
Ritual Caster
Savage Attacker
Second Chance
Sentinel
Shadow Touched
Sharpshooter
Shield Master
Skill Expert
Skilled
Skulker
Slasher
Spell Sniper
Squat Nimbleness
Svirfneblin Magic
Tavern Brawler
Telekinetic
Telepathic
Tough
War Caster
Weapon Master
Wood Elf Magic

Flutes’ Favorite Underutilized Feats:

Aberrant Dragonmark (ERftLW)

Summary: Gain an unstable magical mark that grants you spells and bolsters your health at the cost of unstable manifestations. It can be upgraded when leveling up at level ten and above, but only by chance.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

This feat ticks a lot of boxes for me. The design is unique to all other feats in the game because no other feat comes with implicit roleplaying opportunities. Aberrant Dragonmarks come with flaws like the ones players choose at character creation. It’s interesting to explore a character’s progression when they gain a flaw during a campaign in addition to what they have from their backstory. Any player can choose to have new flaws for their character, sure, but this is the only feat that encourages it.

Aside from the roleplaying aspect, I love that the Aberrant Dragonmark boosts Constitution. Feats that boost a good stat are easier to justify taking. Learning a cantrip plus a level-one spell is not unique to feats, but that’s because it’s useful. Rogues benefit from cantrips like Booming Blade. Several first-level spells are useful at all levels of play, like Shield, Absorb Elements, Find Familiar, and Fog Cloud.

The randomness of possibly bolstering yourself with temporary hitpoints or harming yourself or others is interesting. I have learned from polls and interactions with other players that D&D players enjoy randomness, particularly from wild magic. This resembles the joy that players feel from wild magic. It’s notable that you could cast Find Familiar with this feat and potentially gain temporary hitpoints that don’t have a set duration. Harming yourself in this instance could be minor since you’d likely be in a spot to heal yourself or rest (in contrast to using it in the chaos of combat).

Another truly unique detail of this feat is the optional progression to Greater Aberrant Powers. Gaining an epic boon by change at higher levels is unlike any other feat. Again, the randomness would appeal to many players. The drawback seems warranted since epic boons are potent to have.

Overall, I believe this is feat has the best game design in the game. It feeds into both mechanics and roleplay directly instead of leaving it up to the players, and it has a chance for becoming even better at high levels. No other feat does what this feat does, and I love it.

Actor (PHB)

Summary: Improved ability to disguise yourself and mimic people.

Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You have an advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Performance) checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person.
You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

One pitfall of utility/roleplay feats is that they sometimes grant abilities that seem like any smart roleplayer could perform. The Actor feat does not commit this feat sin because it merely grants advantage to skill checks that already exist mechanically. Actor’s bonus to Charisma and specific-enough mimic ability will lend to any character that wants to be a charlatan of sorts.

Since Actor doesn’t break the game, empowers a playstyle, and can lead to fun interactions, I believe it’s a strong feat. The only downside is how circumstantial it is. In some campaigns, it would be useless; in roleplay-heavy campaigns, it would be a godsend. Due to this swing of power/fun’s dependence on your group’s play style, it gets dinged a bit in my rating. Its design remains strong for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Alert (PHB)

Summary: Improved initiative rolls and inability to be surprised if conscious.

You can’t be surprised while you are conscious.
You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.
Other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

Experience suggests that PCs are not often surprised by their foes, but I still hear other players excitedly choose this feat from time to time. Even if they never get to use the anti-surprise features of Alert, the initiative bonus seems to get them feeling jazzed about this feat. They love going first!

This feat could’ve been designed to scale, such as a bonus to initiative equal to proficiency bonus. This alteration would make it similarly powerful at low levels and much more powerful at higher levels. I also wish Alert had an offensive perk, such as gaining advantage or a flat bonus to attack rolls during the first round of combat if the character takes the first turn in combat. Rogues that aren’t already Assassins might jump at that feature, but alas, this feat is mostly defensive except for the initiative bonus.

Moving first in combat can really put opponents on their back foot. For this reason, I rated the power higher. Plus, as mentioned earlier, players seem to enjoy this feat, so it must be fun to roll high on initiative. Games that run many combat encounters per session will inflate Alert’s value for players, especially if the game uses random encounters while resting.

Martial classes will want to move fast to take out enemy spellcasters, so initiative is paramount to win. Likewise, spellcasters can control the direction of a fight if they move first. Going first is one of those intangible benefits that are difficult to quantify, but I think we inherently understand its value. Alert is great!

Artificer Initiate (TCoE)

Summary: Gain spells and proficiencies from the Artificer class.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

As one of the many feats that give a taste of a class, I think it’s great. It’s not too powerful, but it lessens the need for some multiclassing to get a few spells or proficiencies for a specific concept. For that reason, game design is excellent. This feat’s power and fun will depend on how sly the player is and the type of game they’re participating in (like if tool proficiencies are important). The Artificer spell list has interesting spells at level one! You may choose Absorb Elements or Feather Fall spells for emergencies. A Wizard might choose this feat to learn Cure Wounds to become a healer option in the party (the Intelligence stat would be synergistic too).

Artificers can also choose this feat to get more of their own goodness. Though there are niche uses for this feat, Magic Initiate is probably better for you. I would’ve liked to see an infusion option or something here.

Athlete (PHB)

Summary: Jump, move, and climb with ease as you qualify for the Olympics.

Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of your movement.
Climbing doesn’t cost you extra movement.
You can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★★

Fortunately, this feat comes with a versatile stat boost; otherwise, it would never be selected. The average game of D&D does not seem to care about rules involving running-vs-standing long jumps or climbing quickly, making half of Athlete’s features irrelevant. Standing up from being prone without using half of your movement isn’t strong enough to be its own feat, but it’s the only part of this feat that seems to come in handy.

Climbing encounters are rarely hasty portions of combat. Climbing typically is part of travel/exploration that isn’t rushed. Even if you can climb quickly, most DMs require skill checks and equipment to attempt a climb. This feat has little to offer the average character unless the DM enjoys using fringe rules.

To make Athlete more appealing with a simple change, you could also grant proficiency in Athletics skill checks. If that’s not enough, I recommend considering another perk involving hit dice, such as gaining additional hit dice or adding the proficiency bonus to hit die rolls. Honestly, the Durable feat could be removed to add its perks to the Athlete feat. There are plenty of small tweaks that this feat could receive, but it still wouldn’t get picked often.

Bountiful Luck (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Halfling
Summary: Share your Halfling luck with your friends.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

Allies will praise you as you save them from themselves. The dreaded crit-fail will haunt your party no more as your Bountiful Luck allows them to reroll ones on their d20’s (as long as you stay within thirty feet of them and preserve your reaction). Since Bountiful Luck requires proximity and a reaction, I don’t recommend taking this feat if you’re a Wizard in a party of melee fighters because you typically shouldn’t be within thirty feet of them during a fight. I also don’t recommend Bountiful Luck if you’re a class that constantly spends its reaction for other things, such as a Rogue’s Uncanny Dodge.

Bountiful Luck is thematically consistent with Halfling luck. It’s designed well in that it effectively disables a Halflings Lucky racial trait for a round, limiting how much luck can be spread around the party and the Halfling itself. There is also no limitation on how much Bountiful Luck can be used between rests, so you can keep using it.

The power of Bountiful Luck will vary depending on how DM’s interpret a critical fail on attacks. If your DM inflicts dire consequences for critical fails on attack rolls, this feat is going to bless your party immensely. I’ll also point out that this feat benefits ability checks and saving throws when a ‘1’ is rolled on a d20. Skill checks and saving throws can’t technically fail critically, but I see many players and DMs preferring to treat every d20 ‘1’ as a crit fail. For those players, Bountiful Luck’s power grows exponentially. You’re not limited to combat encounters to use it. No matter how your gaming group interprets rolls of ‘1’, this feat remains epic.

This feat also effectively grants free advantage to bad rolls, which can be even better than basic advantage because it can’t be canceled by disadvantage. In fact, this feat in specific circumstances can be like a triple advantage on a roll: if your ally has advantage on an attack roll, but one of the rolls is a ‘1’, you can allow that ‘1’ to be rerolled, resulting in your ally actually rolling three times instead of two. This circumstance morphs Bountiful Luck into a pseudo-Elven-Accuracy feat (commonly considered one of the strongest feats in the game by players). When the stars of ill fortune align against your party, you get to share your Halfling wealth with your friends. Every party loves helpful players, and being loved is fun! Bountiful Luck is an excellent feat for any Halfling to consider, and it makes me want to play a Halfling.

I am currently playing a Halfling with this feat, and I’ve found that having a large party is the key to getting the most out of it. If you have more than five players in your campaign, this feat starts to look mighty tempting for the wee folk.

Charger (PHB)

Summary: Turn the Dash action into a charging attack.

When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed).

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

You might expect me to give this feat a low rating, but I’m going to surprise you. Charger rewards players who know how to optimize their bonus actions. It enables melee players that lack magic to chase teleporting wizards all over the battlefield without sacrificing attack power. I also consider ten-foot push potential to be underrated for battlefield control. If there is a cliff or other hazard nearby, you can use the Charger feat to mobilize and shove foes around as you please. I wish the feat didn’t make me choose between attacking or shoving.

Charger can also be an alternative to multiclassing to Rogue for the Cunning Action ability (at least the dashing part). Having said that, this feat isn’t great for already-mobile classes like Rogues and Monks.

If you’re playing in a game that often lacks dynamic battlefields (picture a 30×30 room with walls and regular floors), Charger will disappoint you. Otherwise, I dare you to try it out if you have a party that enjoys teamwork and creativity. If your Wizard sets up a battlefield hazard, you’ll become her best friend when an enemy can’t get out of the hazard without you shoving them back in. Additionally, you can have fun telling opponents that there’s nowhere to run. Unfortunately, most players choose feats that allow themselves to be cool independent of their party, so Charger doesn’t get much love.

One more thing: shoving a creature normally requires you to choose between knocking it prone or shoving it away from you. Charger allows you to do both! You can move in a line toward a target and use your bonus action to shove. Explain that you’re shoving the creature to the ground to knock it prone. Charger says that when you move ten feet in a straight line before this kind of shove attack, you gain an extra shove distance of ten feet. That extra ten feet is only dependent on the shove action, not on which shove option you chose!

Chef (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost and cooking skills to share with the party, even giving treats for temporary hitpoints.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

This little nugget is deceptively useful, but only because it comes with a stat boost. The temporary hitpoints gained as bonus actions can help sustain a party like a Skyrim player downing carrots. Short rest heal-boosting is nice to have if you short rest often, though the metagame seems to be that most games aren’t utilizing short rests. The real kicker is the stat boost; it’s so much easier to decide a feat isn’t a waste of time if it at least comes with a stat boost. This is a fun feat for someone who wants to enable a character to be a cook! I wish the short-rest-healing-boost were stronger. Short rests aren’t commonly used, and a feat’s benefit should be better than a die roll that could result in a mere ‘1’ healing bonus.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s the temporary hitpoints as a bonus action that really works for me. Heaps of people homebrew that players can drink potions as a bonus action, so this is a soft way to replace the need for that alteration to the Use an Object rule. Chef benefits characters who are taking damage while not regularly using their bonus action each turn. They can freely buff themselves with temporary hitpoints. It’s like Chef is a scaling version of the Warlock class Invocation ‘Fiendish Vigor’ that allows False Life to be used at will. I’d still only choose this feat if I had no other feat that sounded fun for my character.

Crossbow Expert (PHB)

Summary: Load crossbows quickly and fire in melee with ease as you let loose. You get a bonus action attack with hand crossbows.

You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient.
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a one handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

This feat is the gold standard for optimization. It makes many other build choices irrelevant when you look at it mathematically, and it even negates entire subclass features and spells. I want to be clear that this feat is extremely powerful, but I think it’s also bad for the game because of the lack of competition it has. It’s too easy to use it, and there aren’t enough options to weigh against it.

There are no feats that specifically empower longbows, shortbows, or any other common ranged weapons. This absence of feats for other ranged weapons means Crossbow Expert is too powerful for one reason: bonus action to gain another attack with a hand crossbow. Making more attacks is typically best because of synergy with Sharpshooter for fixed damage bonuses.

As I mentioned a moment ago, Crossbow Expert is synergistic with other ranged-attack feats like Sharpshooter, and there is no real competition for its damage output. To be clear, I wish more feats empowered specific weapons. Some weapons are seldomly used because their damage is suboptimal. I’ve seen many videos and opinion pieces that talk about optimal archer builds. 99% of those builds require Crossbow Expert and a hand crossbow as the weapon of choice. It’s dull for a game of player choices to limit optimized ranged combat to one type of weapon. For these reasons, the feat is poorly designed despite its might.

I give Crossbow Expert credit for including benefits that are ubiquitous to other ranged weapons. It’s unfortunate that the feat is also unclear as to what it means to ignore the loading property of crossbows; this is made worse by a majority of D&D groups not worrying about how many times a crossbow can be loaded in a turn, negating this benefit in common games. It’s a mostly-dead perk.

To be fair, martial characters need damage boosts from feats like these to keep up with spellcasters. I don’t think they’re “broken” or “OP” in the context of the greater game. My point is that feats could’ve been designed better for martial characters.

Aside from design flaws, the feat is powerful. It’s also fun to picture characters that can wield a blade while concealing a hand crossbow. At high-level play, martial characters need powerful feats to keep up with spellcasters.

Crusher (TCoE)

Summary: Gain a stat boost, and empower your bludgeoning attacks to knockback and cripple enemies as you smash them flat.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★★

Stat boosts are premium for feats, so this one already has it going on. It’s made for knocking foes off a cliff! Hammer wielders should salivate when an enemy is precariously standing by a ledge. As a caveat, knocking enemies back with bludgeoning attacks won’t matter in campaigns that don’t regularly use combat positioning. You could have fun with combos that involve knocking an enemy into the air to fall down.

You’ll set up your allies to brutalize a foe after you strike a critical hit; this passive perk is powerful, thematic, and it encourages teamwork. This is a good feat. Characters who make many attacks with bludgeoning damage will love this feat, such as the Monk!

Defensive Duelist (PHB)

Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or higher
Summary: React quickly to attacks to defend yourself.

When you are wielding a finesse weapon with which you are proficient and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★★

While inferior to the Shield spell, I like that Defensive Duelist scales with your proficiency bonus as you level up. At higher levels, it’s like casting the Shield spell with the AC bonus you gain, though it doesn’t last the round (just one attack). Since this feat only protects you from one attack, it should be considered carefully. Games that constantly have waves of minions will make this feat less effective, while it’s more effective in games that commonly have solo tough opponents.

It shouldn’t be underestimated that this feat allows you to know if an attack will hit you before you decide to spend your reaction parrying the attack. It doesn’t explicitly say you get to know the foe’s attack roll total, but most DMs will blurt out the total to ask you if it hits; in this case, Defensive Duelist is even better because you know if the reaction parry will save you or not! Your DM might eventually change how they are declaring monster attack rolls just to handle this feat correctly. They also might not care.

As with any ability or feat that uses your reaction, you should consider whether or not you can afford to use your reaction on Defensive Duelist. Rogues commonly use their reactions to Uncanny Dodge to take half damage from an attack, so Defensive Duelist may be less enticing even though it could potentially avoid a hit altogether. Feats are valuable; you choose feats that conflict with your class traits.

Remember using a finesse weapon does not mean you are required to use your Dexterity as the attack’s relevant statistic; you have the option between Dexterity and Strength when using a finesse weapon. Defensive Duelist is based on the proficiency bonus, so Dexterity is not required. This gives you the versatility to invest in Strength if you want to use heavier armors. Having said that, don’t forget that choosing Defensive Duelist requires a Dexterity score of thirteen or higher, so you might be spreading your character stats thin. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that some players are not concerned with defense when they play spellcasters as they’re just resigned to being hit when attacked, so they try to avoid being attacked rather than bolstering their AC’s.

So which classes may feasibly be proficient with finesse weapons (and use them), have Dexterity scores of thirteen, have reactions to spare, and will actually benefit from a selective AC boost?

Fighters are clear options for Defensive Duelist as they have complete versatility in their weapons and fighting styles (other martial classes have abilities that steer them toward particular weapons). If a Fighter uses finesse weapons and has the Dexterity for it, they’re easily one of the classes that benefit most from Defensive Duelist’s AC boost. Reactions are up for grabs for Fighters since their majority of class features don’t use reactions.
Rangers often use two-handed fighting to benefit from Hunter’s Mark. These weapons can easily be finesse weapons that allow Rangers guard against attacks as duelists.
Monks do have reactive abilities like Deflect Missiles, but their reactions are freed up for melee defenses. Their monk weapons don’t count as finesse weapons even though they allow Monks to utilize them with Dexterity as finesse weapons do. Monks have options for finesse weapons within their monk-weapon repertoire, including daggers and shortswords. Kensei monks can choose whichever finesse weapons they want.
Clerics might be my favorite choice for Defensive Duelist classes. Their shields count as arcane focuses for spellcasting with material components, so non-shield hands can hold whatever they please. Depending on the Cleric domain, a Cleric might be limited to medium armor, but some are proficient with heavy armor. I’ll leave it to you to experiment with Cleric stat builds that can include a Dexterity score of thirteen. Clerics are already fairly tanky for spellcasters, and they seldom use their reactions. Defensive Duelist instills a sense of uniqueness to a Cleric and bolsters defenses to stay healthy and aid the party.
Warlocks who’ve chosen Pact of the Blade can choose to invest in Dexterity to wield finesse weapons. Defensive Duelist would likely be useful for them if they’re not fishing for additional Hex-boosted reactive attacks.
Bards have been used in many multiclass builds due to their versatility and Charisma-based spellcasting, and a minority of those builds involve the College of Valor. CoV Bards have proficiency with shields and medium armor, and they tend to prioritize Dexterity over Strength. All Bards can potentially benefit greatly from Defensive Duelist, but Bards of the College of Valor are likely in the thick of battle where their defenses need to be superior.
Paladins have been designed as dex-based before, and they don’t usually need to hold material components to cast spells. Paladins can strap on a shield while holding a rapier to parry incoming attacks with Defensive Duelist. Since Paladins tend to be smite-hungry, they might choose feats that increase the action economy to attack. They may save their reactions in hopes of landing opportunity attacks.
Druids can afford to invest a bit of their stats in Dexterity, and I like the idea of using Wild Shape to become a monkey brandishing a blade. Just throwing it out there…
Barbarians don’t typically use heavy armor, which means they might invest in a Dexterity score of fourteen to earn +2 to AC while wearing medium armor. If a Barbarian doesn’t mind wielding a more ‘puny’ weapon, she could wield a rapier to bolster defenses with Defensive Duelist. I wager most Barbarians won’t like this idea because they want to swing enormous axes.

Dragon Fear (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Dragonborn
Summary: Add an alternative fear option to your breath weapon feature.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

Update: after the Dragonborn was revamped in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, this feat got better since it can be used more frequently. It was limited before, but it had its place in the game. Fear-inducing characters and effects are fun but hard to come by.

Dragon Fear is basically the Fear spell with a quadrupled area of effect and no Concentration requirement. It’s weaker than the Fear spell because it doesn’t have added benefits, like forcing victims to drop what they’re holding. The frightened condition will give victims disadvantage on attack rolls and limitations on movement (PHB p.290). Frightened creatures won’t be able to rush against the source of their fear, the Dragonborn, which can make unwinnable fights against hoards winnable as creatures won’t be able to swarm effectively. The fear will also make ranged fighters less effective. Make sure you don’t damage the frightened creatures until you’re ready to fight them.

Finally, I commend the feat’s versatility to boost several stats of choice.

Dragon Hide (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Dragonborn
Summary: Gain scale and claw traits of dragons.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

I once again commend the versatility of the stat boost, but this feat is underwhelming. You basically gain a pocket knife that isn’t versatile and a boost to AC when you’re unarmored. Spellcasters might utilize the AC bonus to avoid casting Mage Armor… but they could also just cast Mage Armor instead of paying the hefty cost of a feat for that AC. Some players will choose this because they want their Dragonborn to better-resemble dragons, but the choice won’t be fueled by optimizing power or utility. It’s uncommon for players to lose equipment and justify this feat.

Drow High Magic (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Elf (drow)
Summary: Learn additional spells innate to the Drow.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

I’m impressed that this feat allows you to cast a spell without spell-slot expenditure. I’m disappointed that the at-will spell is Detect Magic because I think it’s an overrated spell, but every spell seems cool when it’s at-will.

Levitate and Dispel Magic once per long rest is an amazing benefit for any class. Levitate is often considered a powerful, underrated spell by experienced players. Dispel Magic is clearly useful because it can deal with a multitude of magic-sourced problems.

Drow characters already have a useful repertoire of spells from their racial traits, so this feat is the icing on the cake. Racial feats should be cool enough to make me want to play a specific race just for the feat, and this feat does that. The ‘Fun’ score is dinged a bit just because perpetual Detect Magic can be annoying for a DM to navigate and reward.

Dual Wielder (PHB)

Summary: Improve speed and defense while wielding two weapons.

You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.
You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren’t light.
You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

Dual Wielder allows you to upgrade damage output by picking up non-light weapons, maxing out at 1d8 instead of 1d6. This increases the average damage roll of your weapon by one (4.5 instead of 3.5). For a feat, that’s a negligible damage boost.

I don’t know many people playing this game that care about how many weapons they can draw and stow each turn, so the ability to draw and stow two weapons feels like it’s a non-benefit. The AC bonus is useful since you won’t be using a shield when fighting with two weapons.

In summary, in an average game, this feat gives melee characters an effective +1 to damage and +1 to AC… that sucks for a feat. This feat sucks!

Dungeon Delver (PHB)

Summary: Your paranoia of becoming slain by traps has made you an expert on surviving traps.

You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect the presence of secret doors.
You have advantage on saving throws made to avoid or resist traps.
You have resistance to the damage dealt by traps.
Travelling at a fast pace doesn’t impose the normal -5 penalty on your passive Wisdom (Perception) score.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★

This feat is too swingy. Campaigns with many traps and dungeons will almost force players to choose Dungeon Delver. Many campaigns aren’t dungeon-heavy, rendering this feat nearly useless. Traps aren’t widely considered a fun game feature as they typically are meant to wear the party down rather than give them an enjoyable encounter. There are exceptions, of course.

It’s fine for what it does, but it’s circumstantial. Some feats can be hyper-specialized to enable a particular play style, but the circumstance should be more dependent on the player than the DM. This feat fails to empower players’ ideas, only allowing them a tool to deal with circumstances. The abilities granted are also fairly reactive; players like to be proactive.

Durable (PHB)

Summary: Improved healing from rolling Hit Dice.

Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★
Power: ★
Fun: ★

The math for Durable works out to only be useful if you have a very high Constitution modifier. Most characters I’ve seen never go above a Constitution score of sixteen, meaning this feat would give them a Hit Die roll that heals a minimum of six. If they didn’t have this feat, the minimum they could heal from a Hit Die roll would be four. If you play in games that often utilize short rests and Hit Dice, this feat might give you some utility, but even then… not much. This feat sucks! At least it boosts your Constitution score by one.

Dwarven Fortitude (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Dwarf
Summary: Heal with Hit Dice when using the Dodge action.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

While not as fun as other racial feats, Dwarven Fortitude is still a good one. The Dodge action is underused in D&D 5e, so I love that this feat improves other game design aspects. Healing is also premium in combat, so having an option to heal quickly is clutch! Just don’t count on it if you’re the last man standing in your party. This feat shines when you can allow your allies to cover your brief retreat. Hit Dice are also underused in groups that don’t short rest often. It’s pleasing to see them used elsewhere.

Constitution is a stat that any class can use, so any Dwarf should consider this feat. If you’re a class like Monk that can Dodge as a bonus action, even better. I also recognize many players enjoy playing as Dwarves for their stout features. A Hill Dwarf player with extra hit points from the race will likely covet this feat to become tankier.

Eldritch Adept (TCoE)

Summary: Gain an Invocation from the Warlock Class that you meet prerequisites for. You can swap it out when you level up.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★★

Another feat that gives a taste of a class without multiclassing. It’s a special part of the game design now. There are fun Invocations to choose from. You can swap them out as you level up to keep them relevant. This feat’s power and fun will depend on how sly the player is and the type of game they’re participating in. Take this one at early levels so you can swap it out as you play, depending on your needs! You can also choose Eldritch Adept as a Warlock to gain another Invocation if you’re feeling greedy. I love Invocations, so I’d pick this feat as a Warlock.

Elemental Adept (PHB)

Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
Summary: Improve elemental damage rolls and overcome elemental resistance.

When you gain this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder.
Spells you cast ignore resistance to damage of the chosen type. In addition, when you roll damage for a spell you cast that deals damage of that type, you can treat any 1 on a damage die as a 2.
You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose a different damage type.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★

Elemental Adept’s power is circumstantial. If you combat many foes with resistance to fire attacks, and you have chosen fire spells for combat, then Elemental Adept is an incredible choice for you. If not, it’s not great. I won’t talk much about the rerolling mechanic of the feat because it’s not mathematically significant.

The fun of this feat is tied to the circumstances that make it powerful or not powerful. Other than that, it might seem fun to a spellcaster who wants to focus on a particular elemental damage type.

The design is ok. I appreciate that it specifies that you can choose the feat more than once to power up a variety of damage types for diverse spellcasting. Rerolling dice slows down the game, so it’s good that this feat doesn’t require rerolling 1’s. That said, it’d be better if it turned 1’s and 2’s of your damage rolls into 3’s. This feat would be perfect if it included special abilities based on the elemental damage types that are chosen (like the Tiefling racial feat Flames of Phlegethos does).

Elven Accuracy (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Elf or half-elf
Summary: Gain super advantage on attack rolls that use mental stats or Dexterity.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

I’d wager many readers scrolled to this feat specifically. Elven Accuracy has made waves in the D&D community as it grants what can be referred to as ‘double’ or ‘super’ advantage on attack rolls. I’ve heard it called ‘triple advantage’ since it allows three rolls, but ‘double’ is accurate. It works for spell attacks and melee dexterous attacks, but Elven Accuracy shines with ranged weapon attacks that couple with the accuracy-dependent Sharpshooter feat to rack up damage. This combination is enough to make me want to play as an Elf, which I count on with racial feats.

Analyzing Elven Accuracy objectively, super advantage only triggers with attacks that have advantage. It also has no limit to many times it can be used. Crit fishers will enjoy the extra roll as it grants an approximate 5% increased chance of rolling a natural twenty. Aside from critical hits, super advantage is not as impactful as regular advantage because of the math/economic principle of Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, which I often refer to as diminishing returns (on the statistical value of the roll).

The statistical chance of increasing damage output also diminishes when an enemy’s armor class reaches sixteen (this is assuming you’re level four and just chose the Elven Accuracy feat, and you have the Archery fighting style). As your Dexterity and Proficiency bonuses increase, this feat will also become more valuable against high-armor-class enemies. You’ll find no shortage of mathematical analyses on this feat if you search for it, so I’ll leave that to you.

Elves are famous for their archery, so it feels right to be ‘better’ at it than other races. I’ll chalk that up as a point towards its Fun score. Rolling three dice can be satisfying as well (I recommend doing it that way instead of rolling two dice and rerolling one); players love dropping more dice on the table. I like the design, especially since it suits elves and encourages multiple playstyles.

Elven Accuracy’s Power rating depends on some math, but mostly on how easily an attack can earn advantage. In this way, other PCs are incentivized to give you advantage on attacks so you can use Elven Accuracy. I won’t analyze how advantage can be gained, but I reckon I’ll give this feat a slight knock to my Power rating because of this requirement. It remains an excellent feat for any Elf or Half-elf to select. Happy crit fishing to you!

Fade Away (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Gnome
Summary: Go invisible when poked.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

The ability to turn invisible as a reaction to damage may be helpful in some games. By RAW, it’s less impressive. Invisibility is not the same as being hidden from other creatures. If you become invisible after being sliced with a sword, the attacker may keep attacking that spot you’re in with disadvantage because you’re merely unseen. It’s good that the invisibility can last until the end of your next turn. Notably, this can be used during your own turn when you take damage from an opportunity attack. Use the Hide action after scurrying away invisibly until the end of your next turn (next round).

The brief invisibility can be useful out of combat as well if you want to dart across a crowded room without being seen; prick your finger to take damage so you can react and become invisible, then dash across the room before your invisibility ends. Perceptive NPC’s may hear your rushed footsteps, so move stealthily if you don’t need the extra movement to get across the hypothetical room. There may be other circumstances like this, but I’d say it’s a minor trick in this regard.

The flexible stat boost is good for this feat. Gnomes often use Dexterity and Intelligence for their optimal class options. Gnomes are often less tanky, so an escape trick is more useful for them than other races in a pinch. It’s a fun concept to fade away after taking damage to get out of trouble, like Frodo putting on the One Ring to become invisible. Fade Away would be more fun if it allowed a benefit as you leave invisibility, like an ambush attack with advantage and extra damage, or imposed disadvantage on a saving throw you force on other creatures with a spell (like the Arcane Trickster subclass ability). Gnomes can make naturally talented illusionists, so this feat does hit the mark in that regard.

Overall this feat is just ok. I can see it being picked for frail or tricky characters, but it’s reactive and not very interesting. Fade Away isn’t cool enough to make me want to play a gnome by this feat alone, but I might consider it for a Gnome Artificer or Wizard.

Fey Teleportation (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Elf (high)
Summary: Learn to teleport with Misty Step and speak with fey creatures.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

Languages are useless 99% of the time (fight me), so let’s get that out of the way. Misty Step, however, is a useful spell for any game. It’s best to keep Misty Step as a trick for a tight spot, meaning you don’t usually need to cast it twice in a day if you’re careful. For this reason, having Misty Step as a constant spell in the pocket allows a Wizard to prepare an extra spell since one of their escape mechanisms is covered by this feat. This Misty Step refreshes with short rests to be useful more often.

The flexibility to choose Charisma or Intelligence is nice, but most High Elves will not be using Charisma as much as Intelligence. The stat flexibility is fairly benign. If this feat had one more benefit, I might rate it higher. I suspect this feat is meant to combine the High Elf in the PHB with the Eladrin subrace concept in the DMG.

Fey Touched (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost plus you learn Misty Step and a level-one enchantment/divination spell.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

Misty Step is an excellent spell to have up your sleeve, no matter who you are. There are cool choices for level-one spells, such as Bless! This is a cool feat to gain extra spells and boost your stats. I highly recommend this feat if you’re a spellcaster who wants more spells or you’re a non-spellcaster who wants some spell powers. It’s seriously a premium detail to get a stat boost with a feat like this. Warlocks especially might appreciate a feat like this that increases their spellcasting options outside of their Pact Magic limited spell slots. Hunter’s Mark is also an excellent choice.

Fighting Initiate (TCoE)

Summary: Learn a Fighting Style to improve your combat prowess (no repeating choices). You can swap the Fighting Style later.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

This feat doesn’t come with a stat boost, unfortunately. Gaining a Fighting Style is more powerful now. New Fighting Styles were added in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything in the section on Fighters. This is a great way to pick up passive bonuses to empower your martial characters. You also have the versatility of switching your choice when you gain an ASI, making the feat even better as you adapt to higher levels. Your martial classes can diversify their skills or learn their first Fighting Style (Barbarians are happy) thanks to this feat.

You might want to multiclass one or two levels of Fighter instead of taking this feat, but it depends on your “style.”

Flames of Phlegethos (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Tiefling
Summary: Improve fire damage and gain a flame cloak ability.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

I don’t hold Elemental Adept in high esteem. Flames of Phlethethos, though similar to Elemental Adept, does have the advantage of a slightly flexible stat boost. I have to wonder if spellcasters would be surprised by how often the flame-wreathing ability would not be handy. Be ready to be in the thick of battle if you are counting on using this, but Hellish Rebuke is also innate to some Tieflings, so that’s always an option.

Rerolling damage dice can slow down the game if a player is less experienced, but rerolling is better than turning 1s into 2s like Elemental Adept. The flame-wreathing ability feels cool and is useful since it’s not limited to once per short rest or anything, just when you cast a fiery spell.

I like that Flames of Phlegethos is limited to Tieflings because it would have been utterly better than Elemental Adept for pyromaniacs. It’s limited to fire spells, so it’s less flexible. The Tiefling race is also thematically perfect for what this feat does.

Gift of the Chromatic Dragon (FBtoD)

Summary: Imbue a weapon with an elemental damage boost (1d4) for one minute as a bonus action (once per long rest). Use a reaction to resist elemental damage (do this a number of times per long rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus).

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

This is a fun feat that allows you to quickly add elemental flavor to a weapon wielder. The reaction to resist elemental damage isn’t as good as the Absorb Elements spell, but it won’t require spell slots or spellcasting. This feat doesn’t stand out to me as a particularly strong option that would compete with other feats, but I’m sure it has its place for players who fancy it.

Fighters might benefit the most from this feat with their many weapon attacks, but any class making multiple attacks without bonus actions can stand out (Gloomstalker, for example). It’s still tough to compete with other bonus action options in combat. I recommend lighting up your weapon with elemental damage before combat if you can.

Gift of the Gem Dragon (FBtoD)

Summary: Gain a defensive reaction option to deal force damage and push an enemy away (use number of times equal to Proficiency Bonus times per day). Boost a mental stat by one.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★★

Forced movement is very useful for combos, but doing so as a reaction is more difficult to maximize. The stat boost is nice, but the reaction is often worse than using reaction spells like Shield, though it doesn’t require spell slots. I’m sure someone will come up with a useful character build that wants to react with force damage and a push, but it doesn’t stick out to me immediately.

I still think this is a fun feat even if it won’t compete with feats like Telekinetic and Fey Touched very well. DMs would do well to reward these draconic feats as quest rewards, in my opinion. I like that it applies to attackers within ten feet so it can work on reach-weapon users.

Gift of the Metallic Dragon (FBtoD)

Summary: Learn the Cure Wounds spell. Gain a reaction option to defend yourself and others with an AC bonus equal to your Proficiency Bonus (use a number of times per long rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus).

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★★

While not as good as the Shield spell, it’s nice to gain a thematic AC bonus as a reaction against one attack. This reminds me of the Defensive Duelist feat, and I believe it’s the best of the draconic feats from Fizban’s.

It doesn’t have the limitations of Defensive Duelist, and it comes with Cure Wounds. Defensive Duelist can be used each round forever, but this draconic version has a limited number of uses. I highly recommend this feat for someone looking to increase their defenses without multiclassing for the Shield spell. It’s fun, interesting, and useful!

Grappler (PHB)

Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
Summary: Wrestle well and often. Learn a pinning move for mutual restraint.

You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling.
You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

One thing to get out of the way: gaining advantage on attacks against someone you’re grappling is only useful if you have the means to attack with another hand (or any part of your body if you’re a Monk). For this reason, those that only use two-handed weapons should choose other feats.

This feat is actually pretty cool if you like combat options beyond attacking. The ability to restrain a creature is uncommon and powerful, but you restrain yourself as well. The PHB errata removed the third bullet point for Grappler because any character can attempt to grapple a creature that is one size larger even without this feat. Grappling creatures larger than your creature size is so cool; imagine yourself wrestling a bull to the ground with your bare hands or jumping on a wyvern to force it to the ground.

This feat is for advanced players because its greatest benefits are not obvious without knowing the rules and careful planning based on character combat abilities. You still have to be strong to take the feat, especially to roll high on Athletics checks to grapple/restrain with the feat. If you choose this feat, I recommend finding ways to gain bonuses to your Athletics skill checks, such as with a Rogue’s Expertise feature. Remember, this feat invests in disabling a single foe. It’s poor in battles with massive or modest waves of monsters. You’re also sacrificing dealing damage for a little while, so choose wisely when to grapple.

When I first released this article, I didn’t talk about Grappler synergy with Tavern Brawler because Tavern Brawler is a mess, and the cost of a feat is too great to want grappling as a bonus action. Sure, it’s a cool combination if you’re into it, but I don’t widely recommend it.

Great Weapon Master (PHB)

Summary: Swing large weapons with abandon to deal additional damage and attack more.

On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
Before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

Wow, powerful feat… The problem is that it doesn’t scale at higher levels, and it’s uber murderous at low levels. If I prefer swinging large weapons, want to gamble to deal more damage, and want a chance to dish out a bonus action attack (I do want these things), this feat is an excellent choice. I’ve seen many human characters choose this as their feat at level one because of how powerful it is. Abilities and conditions that allow advantage on attack rolls will make this feat even more powerful because it’s likely to hit even with the -5 penalty to attack rolls. The +10 damage at level one is enough to kill many low-level foes with one strike.

Interestingly, this feat’s first bullet point is not limited to two-handed or heavy weapons; it works for any melee weapon. This means some min-max builds will choose this feat just for the potential bonus action attack.

This feat also has synergy with other weapon feats like Polearm Master, and I like when Fighters can take multiple feats that stack damage. Fighters get more feats (ASI’s) than any other class, so they should capitalize on that benefit. Feats are to Fighters what Invocations are to Warlocks. Part of me wonders if feats like this would be better as Fighter class features.

I don’t think I’d suggest nerfing this feat as much as I’d like to see some other weapon feats strengthened. This feat has been enjoyable to use for me without negating alternative weapon choices, but it’s nearly at that point. If you choose this feat in a group of new players, be prepared to possibly make the other players feel like their characters aren’t so formidable because their damage output will likely be much lower at low levels.

Gunner (TCoE)

Summary: Learn to use a gun and stop getting spooked when someone is in your face.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★

This feat seems obligatory to create a definite way to gain firearm proficiency without taking the Skilled feat. It does come with a stat boost to make you feel better about taking it, and it gives you the same benefit of the Crossbow Expert feat to ignore disadvantage on ranged attacks while enemies are adjacent to you. If your campaign uses guns, and you like being a ranged attacker, I reckon this is a must.

Healer (PHB)

Summary: Heal people better with a healer’s kit by restoring hitpoints.

When you use a healer’s kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.
As an action. you can spend one use of a healer’s kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature’s maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can’t regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

The Healer feat is solid; its healing feature does not overshadow class features’ healing while the healing remains relevant enough to be used. Since you can heal your allies once per short rest, this feat couples well with the Inspiring Leader feat since you can heal and grant temporary hitpoints to your allies during short rests with the two feats.

The other feature that allows stabilization of dying creatures to regain a hitpoint is not to be underestimated. Gritty DMs might inflict exhaustion or other penalties to characters that are constantly being knocked unconscious, but even if your DM enjoys this gritty realism, this feature is still incredible. If a player regains one hit point, they can GTFO so they aren’t in danger. That same player would be dead weight and vulnerable without that one-hitpoint gift.

Healer would be picked more if players enjoyed playing healers (many don’t). The fun rating takes a small hit because of this meta reason. I personally enjoy playing the party’s healer. I’d still rate this as one of the best all-around feats in the game. Don’t waste doses of your healer’s kit by healing allies before a rest where they’ll heal anyway.

Heavily Armored (PHB)

Prerequisite: Proficiency with medium armor
Summary: Wear heavier armor.

Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with heavy armor.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★

This feat is just ok. I’m glad it’s part of my game options, so I rate its design highly. If I want to gain armor proficiencies, multiclassing to a Cleric domain that gets heavy armor proficiency as a class feature at level one might be better than these feats that grant armor proficiencies. One level of such a Cleric will give a Wizard proficiency with heavy armor instead of climbing the armor feat ladder. Having said that, this is the most useful of the armor proficiency feats because it has more classes that can dramatically benefit from it.

Classes that benefit most from Heavily Armored include Clerics whose domains don’t grant heavy armor proficiency.

A great option if you want to upgrade your armor proficiencies to improve your AC. I’d usually multiclass if I wanted new armor proficiencies. This feat allows you to commit all twenty levels in one class while armoring up. I would guess optimizers only choose this feat with a specific idea in mind.

Out of the three armor-proficiency feats, this one is only useful for characters with enough Strength to wear heavy armor. Those characters are probably using Dexterity more than Strength since they only had proficiency with medium armor. A cleric without domain features to gain heavy armor can probably benefit most from this feat.

Heavy Armor Master (PHB)

Prerequisite: Proficiency with heavy armor
Summary: Use heavy armor effectively to reduce damage.

Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
While you are wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical attacks is reduced by 3.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★

I’m surprised this feat isn’t chosen more often; it’s an excellent way to prevent damage from hoards of weaker enemies. Even without the stat boost that comes with it, I’d consider choosing Heavy Armor Master.

It should be noted that DMs have varying interpretations of which monsters have ‘magical’ attacks when they bite, swipe, and crush. If your DM interprets a dragon’s claws to be magical, this feat is less good. Most DMs will not throw goblins at you that possess magic weapons. Heavy Armor Master is best at low levels, so variant humans should consider it at level one.

Players may not enjoy the strain of remembering to reduce the named damage types by three, and an entire group may get tired of the HAM player constantly asking the DM if incoming damage is magical.

Infernal Constitution (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Tiefling
Summary: Gain resistance to cold and poison.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★

I’m on board for two more resistances. I have a Tiefling character (Cleric of War) that recently chose this as his first feat at level four. The problem is that these new resistances just haven’t mattered yet for the module we’re playing. My primary reason for choosing Infernal Constitution was that my Constitution modifier was an odd number, so this feat’s stat boost rounded it out to an even number to gain more health and a stronger Constitution saving throw. Advantage against poison-induced saving throws is nice, but not good enough to choose this feat on that benefit alone.

I’ll keep this one short. Infernal Constitution is just ok. It’s not a racial feat that gets me excited to play a Tiefling on its own. It makes me more durable, which is cool, but it’s circumstantial. It’s another feat that I wish had one more benefit to be proactive instead of reactive only (“use your action to do ‘x’ once per short rest” kinda stuff).

Inspiring Leader (PHB)

Prerequisite: Charisma 13 or higher
Summary: Start your day with an inspiring speech to your allies to gain and grant temporary hitpoints.

You can spend 10 minutes inspiring your companions, shoring up their resolve to fight. When you do so, choose up to six friendly creatures (which can include yourself) within 30 feet of you who can see or hear you and who can understand you. Each creature can gain temporary hit points equal to your level + your Charisma modifier. A creature can’t gain temporary hit points from this feat again until it has finished a short or long rest.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

Another solid feat that is chosen often enough and doesn’t break the game. I do question the ten-minute requirement since no gaming group will roleplay that every time unless Patrick Stewart is delivering the speech. This feat is good because it scales as you level.

I have experienced some players choosing this feat who get uncomfortable roleplaying twenty seconds of an inspiring speech. It was less fun for them until we stopped expecting them to roleplay it. This feat has also been less effective in parties that already have options to gain temporary hitpoints when resting, but that’s not a common conflict of temporary hitpoints.

Keen Mind (PHB)

Summary: Remember with extreme detail. Know which way is north.

Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You always know which way is north.
You always know the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset.
You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★
Power: ★
Fun: ★★

Useless in 99% of games. Quirky and fun to some roleplay-heavy games, like Critical Role’s character Caleb. This feat needs additional benefits, like halved time and cost for Wizards to learn new spells. I’ve rarely witnessed a DM withhold information from the players due to not paying attention; the DM will typically repeat the information. If games are complicated enough, players probably are taking notes or don’t care anyway.

Lightly Armored (PHB)

Summary: Learn to use basic light armor.

Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with light armor.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★

A great option if you want to upgrade your armor proficiencies to improve your AC. I’d usually multiclass if I wanted new light armor proficiencies. This feat enables commitment to all twenty levels in one class while gaining armor. I would guess optimizers only choose this feat with a specific idea in mind.

Out of the three armor-proficiency feats, this one is the weakest. If you’re thinking of taking this feat, you’re probably a spellcaster who can cast Mage Armor instead.

Linguist (PHB)

Summary: Speak additional languages and learn to code.

Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You learn three languages of your choice.
You can ably create written ciphers. Others can’t decipher a code you create unless you teach them, they succeed on an Intelligence check (DC equal to your Intelligence score + your proficiency bonus), or they use magic to decipher it.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★★

Between spells and skills between players that already provide this ability, gaining this feat won’t make a difference in 99% of games. And ciphers aren’t useful in short-term games like one-shots. If you play in a political game where messages can be intercepted, go for it, but I bet most people reading this will think the cipher feature sounds useless.

Lucky (PHB)

Summary: Reroll the d20 when it misbehaves.

You have 3 luck points. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to spend one of your luck points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.

You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker’s roll or yours.

If more than one creature spends a luck point to influence the outcome of a roll, the points cancel each other out; no additional dice are rolled.

You regain your expended luck points when you finish a long rest.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★

Lucky is one of the most popular, ubiquitous feats in the game. Any character can benefit from it, which is both good and bad. It’s a poor design to have a feat that is better than other feats. This feat is not as good as I’ve heard other players speculate; it’s just widely applicable. Luck points return on long rests, which means that the adventurers will make numerous d20 rolls that could potentially use luck in a typical adventuring day. If the luck roll isn’t good, this feat is not fun or useful.

Keep in mind that this feat is wholly mechanical/meta-gamey, thus less fun. Feats should provide choices that are new and impressive: new bonus action options, proficiencies, etc. Lucky gives you a statistical safety net. Optimized characters choose Lucky as their last feat because it’s considered the best feat to choose if no other feat is needed.

I’ll admit that Lucky can be powerful. It’s not designed well, and it’s not particularly fun. People still pick it, so I’ll temper my ratings. I also add to its power because it can gain advantage on any d20 roll. Other feats that are considered good also grant advantage, but they’re limited to specific rolls. Lucky’s versatility can make it better than other feats in that aspect.

Mage Slayer (PHB)

Summary: Specialize in taking down spellcasters.

When a creature within 5 feet of you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.
When you damage a creature that is concentrating on a spell, that creature has disadvantage on the saving throw it makes to maintain its concentration.
You have advantage on saving throws against spells cast by creatures within 5 feet of you.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

I have a bias for this feat because I chose it for my first-ever D&D 5e character due to how much he had been fighting spellcaster priests in a Paizo/homebrew campaign. It just made sense for him. He was also a Rogue, and it was hotly debated at the time whether a Rogue could get Sneak Attack damage on another creature’s turn; now I know Rogues can gain Sneak Attack out of turn, so this feat is even better.

Anything that gives a Rogue an opening for an attack during another creature’s turn is a premium opportunity. Massive damage plus imposed disadvantage to maintain concentration equals a potent chance to end a spellcasting nuisance. Rogues also do well against Dexterity and Wisdom (once they gain Slippery Mind) saving throws, and now they can gain advantage when they’re in close quarters with arcane assailants. This feat is an excellent boon to any Rogue.

For other classes besides Rogues, this feat is still a solid option as long as the character is motivated to nuzzle up close to soothsaying enemies. This feat is wholly unique and encourages a play style, even if it’s reliant on facing enemies that cast spells (not hard to find).

Many say this feat is useless because spellcasters will teleport away. I can say from experience that most spellcasters will either Misty Step and not get far while disabling their action to cast a leveled spell, or they’ll sit there and take the beating because they don’t know you have this feat and they want to cast their spells. If you have a DM who optimizes monsters and NPCs as much as optimizer players do for the characters, this feat quickly becomes poor. I contend, though, that the average game has a place for this feat.

Magic Initiate (PHB)

Summary: Learn several basic spells.

Choose a class: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You learn two cantrips of your choice from that class’s spell list.

In addition, choose one 1st-level spell to learn from that same list. Using this feat, you can cast the spell once at its lowest level, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.

Your spellcasting ability for these spells depends on the class you chose: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, or warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

Cantrips and 1st-level spells are surprisingly versatile. With Magic Initiate, a martial class can gain the Shield spell to bolster defenses once per long rest while gaining cantrips for utility or offense. Even full-blown spellcasters can benefit by freeing up a once-per-rest casting of Mage Armor by choosing this feat. Wizards can only prepare so many spells, so Mage Armor would be an easy choice to bolster their spell ammo on a given day.

It’s best to choose a spell that is still effective at level one. Magic Initiate’s excellent 1st-level spells include Absorb Elements, Find Familiar, Feather Fall, Good Berry, Healing Word, and Fog Cloud. Additionally, don’t forget that cantrips will get stronger as you level up, regardless of which class you’re playing. Two cantrips will make a strong addition to spellcasting arsenals or utility options.

Melee martial classes should consider this feat to gain cantrips that improve attack damage like Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade. These cantrips are less helpful for Fighters and Monks that can already attack many times. Rogues will benefit since they’re likely attacking once per round anyway (might as well make it a spell action that includes an attack and maintains Sneak Attack potential). Fighters aren’t left out because they often have a bonus action available to learn Hex to deal more damage with their attacks.

As I’ve said before, I appreciate feats that enable playstyles. Players aren’t required to multiclass to get what they want. Sometimes martial characters want a dose of magic without committing to subclasses like Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, and sometimes spellcasters want to broaden their spell options and ammo. This feat is almost a collection of feats because it enables so many player choices; I love it!

Martial Adept (PHB)

Summary: Become slightly more like a Battle Master (Maneuvers and Superiority Dice).

You learn two maneuvers of your choice from among those available to the Battle Master archetype in the fighter class. If a maneuver you use requires your target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver’s effects, the saving throw DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).
You gain one superiority die, which is a d6 (this die is added to any superiority dice you have from another source). This die is used to fuel your maneuvers. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★

Battle Master Fighters can benefit from this, but that’s about it else. Only gaining 1d6 superiority die is horrible value for a feat, but Battle Masters can benefit from the two additional maneuvers to broaden their options. This feat can’t be chosen multiple times (few feats can).

I’d like to see more feats like this that can empower specific class archetypes. For this reason, I’ll rate the design well, even if it’s not a powerful feat. Let’s see more feats like this!

Medium Armor Master (PHB)

Prerequisite: Proficiency with medium armor
Summary: Improve your agility while wearing medium armor.

Wearing medium armor doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
When you wear medium armor, you can add 3, rather than 2, to your AC if you have a Dexterity of 16 or higher.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★★

Are you willing to take a feat that gives you +1 AC conditionally based on having high Dexterity and normal stealth skill checks while in medium armor? Most characters will absolutely not benefit from this feat. The majority of classes have medium armor proficiency and can viably invest in Dexterity. That’s a perk of this feat’s design. Adding AC isn’t a fun factory, but normally rolling for stealth can be clutch. Stealth isn’t always the most useful ability if the party doesn’t rely on it.

Metamagic Adept (TCoE)

Summary: Learn to use Metamagic while gaining sorcery points.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

No stat boost, but this is an excellent tool for spellcasters. A Sorcerer can further its spellcasting powers, or another type of spellcaster can gain some Metamagic. Since you’ll only gain two Sorcery Points, you’ll be limited to certain Metamagic options that don’t use three or more points. I think the best choices for this feat’s Metamagics are Quickened Spell and Distant Spell, but the new Transmuted Spell and Seeking Spell Metamagic options can be good for different builds too. You can learn more about Metamagic in my article on the topic. Quickened Spell will be perfect for Warlocks who use their actions to cast Eldritch Blast, allowing them to cast spells as a bonus action. Subtle Spell allows concealment of spellcasting. Beguile and charm foes with enchantment spells while unnoticed. You’ll also be immune to Counterspell when using Subtle Spell.

Mobile (PHB)

Summary: Move like a leaf on the wind (swift, evasive movement).

Your speed increases by 10 feet.
When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

Most players will concentrate on the ten-foot movement bonus. Don’t underestimate the buff to the Dash action and the Attack action. If you want to get away from your foes, you usually have to choose between risking opportunity attacks or using the Disengage action. With Mobile, you can attack the foes next to you instead of disengaging because, whether you hit or not, you won’t provoke opportunity attacks from those foes. I picture a Fighter who really wants to get to the enemy spellcaster to force concentration to drop, but several brutes are next to him.

The Mobile feat is basically giving a Fighter a buff to Disengage because they get to attack the foes before disengaging. Then that Fighter can Action Surge to lay waste to the spellcaster thirty feet away. Additionally, a ranged weapon PC can attack an enemy at melee to effectively disengage and then step back to make ranged attacks without disadvantage. That step back could be at least 35 feet, so the melee foe might require a Dash to reach the ranged PC again, possibly not being able to attack.

Difficult terrain can severely hinder movement. Ignoring difficult terrain when you Dash can make a deadly encounter easier to navigate. This is not limited to using Dash as your action, so if you’re a Rogue with Cunning Action, you can be both faster and nearly impossible to be slowed by terrain as you sprint like the wind to stick your target.

This is easily one of the best all-around feats. It helps with exploration and combat, and it’s fun to utilize and describe. If it merely granted +10 to speed, those who run theater-of-the-mind games would not value this feat, so it’s good that the other features are worthwhile. Mobile doesn’t break the game, and it’s effective at what it’s meant to do. Nuff’ said!

Moderately Armored (PHB)

Prerequisite: Proficiency with light armor
Summary: Learn to use medium armor and shields.

Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with medium armor and shields.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★

A great option if you want to upgrade your armor proficiencies to improve your AC. I’d usually multiclass if I wanted medium armor proficiencies. This feat gives the option to commit all twenty levels in one class while improving armor. I would guess optimizers only choose this feat with a specific idea in mind. Shield proficiency should not be ignored either. That’s an additional +2 to AC after the likely +3 or +4 gained from upgrading light armor to medium armor. Out of the three armor-proficiency feats, this one provides the biggest jump in AC for a non-dexterity, non-strength character.

Mounted Combatant (PHB)

Summary: Fight well with a mount as you fight in unison and you protect your companion.

You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.
You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.
If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

D&D 5e doesn’t feature heaps of encounters on horseback or other mounts, but this feat is great for any gaming group that uses them. Mounted Combatant mitigates the complication of riding a beast while keeping it alive. Gaining advantage against unmounted, smaller creatures is crazy strong if enemies are on foot! Games that are heavy on humanoid combat should weigh the benefits of this feat. I wish more players would take the time and invest the gold to amass a fleet of fleet-footed beasts of burden and war, especially if they aren’t playing a Monk with stallion-comparable movement speed.

This feat doesn’t need to be incredible because mounting combat is already advantageous when used correctly; it just needs to make mounted combat more viable, which it does! I’ll lower my ratings just because mounted combat is often ignored. It’s not fun to have mounts that keep dying, which is bound to happen. It remains a useful feat for experienced players.

Observant (PHB)

Summary: Nothing escapes your watchful eye.

Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
If you can see a creature’s mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it’s saying by reading its lips.
You have a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Intelligence (Investigation) scores.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★★★

Perception may be the skill check that is most frequently used. For this reason, Observant is valuable for players who like to notice details, spot stealthy opponents and traps, and so on. Passive Investigation is less important in an average game, but DMs will probably allow you to use it more if you take the Observant feat and ask about it. Only your passive perception will be bolstered (not your rolls), but maybe that’s all you need.

Reading lips is cool. It’s a concept that inspires creativity. Barbarians who have chosen the Eagle Totem as their second totem feature can use lip reading to spy from great distances. Lip reading is also useful if your stealthy characters can’t utter a sound without being discovered; you can still coordinate in that moment without purely metagaming.

Observant is a commonly picked feat. It’s an easy one to choose when you’re unsure what to choose (kind of like Tough or Lucky). It couples well with Alert.

Orcish Fury (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Half-orc
Summary: Lash out when in danger and occasionally deal bonus damage.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

Wow, this sucks! Without the stat boost that comes with it, I would’ve given this feat even worse ratings. The feat gives you a chance to attack when you’re about to die (players don’t like to be close to death). And one additional damage die once per short/long rest is pitiful. If someone is unfortunate enough to get suckered into picking this feat for their Half-orc, I really hope they get a chance at great drama as they avoid death and attack for the finishing blow against a foe before numerous other attacks can be made.

That sounds fun but unlikely. A Barbarian fishing for critical hits might enjoy this feat since it boosts a relevant stat and effectively gives two more dice to critical hits. Save the extra damage for your crits, and you’ll be golden. It’s essential to use a weapon that gets 1d12 damage for the weapon’s damage; you don’t want to use a greatsword because you’d only gain 1d6 instead of 1d12 from Orcish Fury.

Crit fishing isn’t an optimal way to go, but people love it!

Piercer (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost and increased damage potential for piercing weapons.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

Without the stat boost, I might never take this feat; however, the stat boost makes it an incredible choice for someone using piercing weapons, including ranged weapons. You can increase your damage potential to avoid low rolls. Your critical hits become more critical. It is a great choice and probably better than the other weapon-type-specific feats since many relevant ranged weapons use piercing damage.

Archers and dual wielders of rapiers can pair this with Elven Accuracy to dish out more devastating critical hits. This feat is so good for Rogues and Dexterity-based attackers.

Poisoner (TCoE)

Summary: We finally have improved methods for using poisons! Concoct potions and use them quickly.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★★

This feat covers the bases for poisoners. If you wanted to use a poisoner’s kit before this feat, it wasn’t easy. Now you can apply poisons as a bonus action to seamlessly increase your attacks’ threat level, especially if you have special poisons. Ignoring poison resistance is also important due to how common that resistance is. This feat was needed for the game, so it’s about time! I enjoy feats like this that get me excited about a particular playstyle, and I haven’t been interested in poisons in ages. This feat should’ve offered expertise to a character that already possesses proficiency with the poisoner’s kit, such as the Assassin Rogue. On the downside, many monsters are completely immune to poison, so this feat won’t help against many monsters. It’s handy for assassinating poisonable characters like you!

Polearm Master (PHB)

Summary: Swing your polearm preemptively and use the pummel to attack.

When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.
While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, quarterstaff, or spear, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with that weapon.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

This feat is good on its own, but it’s game-changing when combined with other feats and abilities. Two martial classes with Polearm Master and Sentinel can shut down enemy melee combatants who lack weapons with reach properties; this is because their movement is stopped (Sentinel) with a special opportunity attack when they enter reach (Polearm Master). That combination alone makes this feat incredible.

Warlocks of Pact of the Blade can make a polearm their pact weapon. They can then use the Hex spell coupled with Polearm Master and invocations (Lifedrinker) to make Polearm Master’s pummel attack deal 1d4+Strength+Charisma+1d6. I love that this feat enables different play styles and builds for player characters. Another feat like Great Weapon Master would only sweeten the deal! And don’t forget that polearms can be difficult to carry around because they don’t typically sheathe like video games would have us believe, so Pact of the Blade can make a polearm disappear until needed.

Feats that work together with other game mechanics are premium in my eyes, so Polearm Master is amazing. I’ve never felt useless as a polearm martial class because of this feat. The ability to make different types of opportunity attacks is awesome too. It’s far more common to have an enemy enter your reach than leave it. I love Polearm Master!

Having said that, this falls into the same category as some other feats where I think the game design isn’t great here. This is one of those feats you see a lot when players are optimizing for damage output, and there isn’t much competition. It’s debatable whether damage builds should even go melee at all since Crossbow Expert is so good, so Polearm Master still has an ok game-design rating in my book.

Prodigy (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Half-elf, half-orc, or human
Summary: Gain proficiencies and choose a skill with expertise.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

Got at least 50% of that premium human blood in your veins? Then you qualify for expertise, baby! Gone are the days of human PC’s multiclassing levels in Rogue just for the expertise feature. Humans can now take a feat to remove the roguish middleman.

Once again, racial feats that make me want to play a specific race are incredible, and Prodigy does not disappoint. Players who prefer combat will skip this one, but everyone else can find something to enjoy about Prodigy. The expertise in a skill is the real win, followed by the new skill proficiency, then tool, then language (languages are still useless 99% of the time, as I’ve said before).

You can compare Prodigy to other feats like Linguist and Skilled, which are not popular. Linguist even comes with a stat boost, but it’s not enough. It’s Prodigy’s expertise that makes it shine. Players’ concepts often have a skill that their players want to focus on, whether it be Investigation for a detective or Medicine for a healer, and Prodigy can help with that dream if the race is right. Humans are versatile, and this feat proves it.

This feat isn’t as useful after Tasha’s gave us the Skill Expert feat for any race.

Resilient (PHB)

Summary: Gain proficiency in a saving throw.

Increase the chosen ability score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in saving throws using the chosen ability.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★

Are you worried about failing particular saving throws? Do you need to round out an odd stat to an even number? Resilient is for you. I recommend choosing Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom as those are commonly used saving throws. Resilient is definitely a mechanical, reactive feat, but it’s a solid choice in many circumstances due to how often saving throws are made in D&D.

Players want to pass their saving throws, and this is a great way to accomplish that without the messy dice rerolls that come with the Lucky feat. In fact, Resilient and Lucky are best friends for players who are paranoid about passing saving throws. This is also one of the few feats that scale as you level up since it’s tied to the proficiency bonus. Players who are confident in their combat abilities already and want to improve their defenses should consider Resilient. I tend to pick Resilient for my spellcasters at early levels. My martial classes get it at higher levels.

Revenant Blade (ERftLW)

Prerequisite: Elf
Summary: Become skilled with Eberron’s double-bladed weapons.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

I’m not super familiar with the Eberron setting or why this feat exists for Elves. I do know that it seems to resemble the Dual-Wielder feat, which isn’t great. This feat comes with a stat boost, so I’ll rate it higher than Dual-Wielder. It sounds like it might be useful for an Elf to wield a double-bladed scimitar in Eberron, so I’ll assume this benefit is useful.

Ritual Caster (PHB)

Prerequisite: Intelligence or Wisdom 13 or higher
Summary: Acquire a ritual book to learn and cast spells with the ritual tag.

You have learned a number of spells that you can cast as rituals. These spells are written in a ritual book, which you must have in hand while casting one of them.

When you choose this feat, you acquire a ritual book holding two 1st-level spells of your choice. Choose one of the following classes: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You must choose your spells from that class’s spell list, and the spells you choose must have the ritual tag. The class you choose also must have the ritual tag. The class you choose also determines your spellcasting ability for these spells: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, or warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.

If you come across a spell in written form, such as a magical spell scroll or a wizard’s spellbook, you might be able to add it to your ritual book. The spell must be on the spell list for the class you chose, the spell’s level can be no higher than half your level (rounded up), and it must have the ritual tag. The process of copying the spell into your ritual book takes 2 hours per level of the spell, and costs 50 gp per level. The cost represents the material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

Not for the faint of heart, Ritual Caster requires research to use effectively. New players beware! A player must know which ritual spells will be useful. Luckily, resources have been compiled to allow quick referencing to spells with the ritual tag over the years. Rituals are typically utility spells for research, communication, role play, and other non-combat game aspects.

Notice the requirement that spells copied to your ritual book be of a level no higher than half your character level. That means that even half-casters, quarter-casters, and non-casters can use spells of the same levels as full-casters. That’s pretty neat to think a tenth-level Fighter can cast 5th-level ritual tags. Several ritual spells are notable to me: Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Silence, Leomund’s Tiny Hut, and Rary’s Telepathic Bond.

Since ritual spells are typically considered with a passing ‘meh,’ I don’t imagine many players select Ritual Caster. Wizards get the least utility out of this feat, though they could choose it to gain ritual spells from other classes (such as Silence or Ceremony from the Cleric spell list). Since this feat requires a fair investment in either Intelligence or Wisdom, martial classes might shy away from it in favor of optimizing their combat abilities.

Ritual Caster is an excellent feat to have. It allows character parties that lack ritual casters or spellcasters to acquire utility spells. I visualize clumsy martial classes going through entire rituals to cast a spell, which is cool to me. Players should make sure DMs will facilitate opportunities to gain spell scrolls and other methods for adding additional ritual spells to their ritual books.

Savage Attacker (PHB)

Summary: Reroll melee damage rolls of weapons once per turn.

Once per turn when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the weapon’s damage dice and use either total.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★
Power: ★
Fun: ★

Rerolling damage dice will not significantly increase damage output in the long-term average. Not only does Savage Attacker seem worthless for this reason, but it also is based on gambling. This gamble can slow down the game slightly as players debate whether to reroll, but the game of chance can be fun and rewarding to players. Unfortunately, RAW doesn’t allow rerolling of additional attack damage beyond the actual weapon being used. You won’t be rerolling Sneak Attack or Divine Smite damage.

I’ve heard many debates and homebrew rulings that allow Sneak Attack and other damage dice added to attacks to be rerolled with Savage Attacker, but that also applies to the fighting style of Great Weapon Fighting. I don’t currently rule in favor of this change when I run a game. Excessive rerolls during combat can be annoying. I also don’t want Savage Attacker to be a must-pick feat for all Paladins. It’s either essential or awful either way. Maybe this feat would’ve been better if it allowed any weapon dice that roll maximum damage (like a d6 rolling a ‘6’) to keep that damage but reroll for additional damage.

Second Chance (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Halfling
Summary: Use your luck defensively.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

I almost thought this feat was useless, but then I noticed it could be used and refreshed to be used again in each combat encounter with an initiative roll. Many abilities and feats are useful only once per rest cycle, so this feat is unique. In fact, some classes have high-level abilities that allow their abilities to refresh, and high-level class features are meant to be strong, so you can bet this feat is actually worth choosing for Halflings! The Halflings really made out like bandits with their new racial feats because they’re unique and useful.

Second Chance can effectively give an enemy disadvantage to attack you if you use your reaction. It’s better if an enemy has disadvantage because you force four rolls. That means this is like a mini version of the Lucky feat, but it uses your reaction. It’s debatably better than the Lucky feat if you’re in a dungeon crawl campaign with many isolated battles per session because you could potentially refresh the ability 4+ times in an adventuring day. However, my experience indicates that Lucky would still be superior (minus the stat boost that Second Chance provides).

The stat boost for this feat is also so good because it’s versatile, and the options are bound to be useful for any Halfling character. This is another racial feat that is so unique and useful that it makes me want to play the associated race, Halfling, for my next D&D 5e character. Halflings are lucky little rascals with many feats now that support their concept of being inherently lucky.

Sentinel (PHB)

Summary: Stop enemies in their tracks and defend allies.

When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature’s speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn’t have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

The first two Sentinel features are circumstantial depending on how often enemies are running away from your reach. If your DM is the type to have monsters run away or attempt to outmaneuver you, these first two features become premium. Monsters with other features that don’t rely on the Disengage action will still be able to get away from you unchallenged, such as characters with the Mobile feat or another ability akin to it. It feels great to stop an enemy in its tracks.

Attacking enemies who assail allies is the best part of Sentinel, especially if your attacks have added powers like Sneak Attack, Divine Smite, or Battle Master Maneuvers. Remember, this type of Sentinel attack is not technically an opportunity attack, so you can’t stack the feat with some other feats and class features, such as the War Caster feat, which allows spellcasting with opportunity attacks. You’ll need to be part of a party composition that involves common scenarios where several of you are fighting side by side; parties that don’t fight together in this way will not allow you opportunities to unleash your reaction attack with Sentinel.

I’ve heard it said that this feat is overpowered, but it’s a solid feat that stacks well with other feats like Polearm Master. Rules errata has clarified that the rule about being within five feet to make the reaction attack for Sentinel is not what WotC intended for this feat. With that text removed, polearm users can fully utilize Sentinel. Martial classes should consider Sentinel based on the reasons I mentioned above. Enemies don’t always provoke opportunity attacks, but they often attack your allies. Sentinel will allow you to retaliate for your ally. That’s a nice boost to your action economy.

By RAW, it’s a bad design for Sentinel to stop a creature’s movement regardless of size or prerequisites. For this reason, the Design rating took a hefty hit.

Shadow Touched (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost and learn Invisibility and a 1st-level illusion/necromancy spell.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

I love these spellcaster feats, especially the ones that give stat boosts. Invisibility is an oft-useful spell to learn and have available without needing a spell slot once per long rest. Silent Image would be an excellent choice, but there are other first-level spells you could learn from illusion and necromancy. Spellcasters could benefit from this feat, as well as Thief Rogues missing out on invisibility since they’re not Arcane Tricksters. Great Old One Warlocks could enjoy being Invisible without spending spell slots as they telepathically creep people out or manipulate them while remaining unseen. I also think feats like this are great for rewarding characters after they complete a milestone, such as escaping the Shadowfell and becoming ‘shadow touched.’ Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for the illusion/necromancy spell choice from first-level spells that are good enough to pick, so this feat is a little less powerful.

Sharpshooter (PHB)

Summary: Become a sniper with ranged weapons to strike with precision.

Attacking at long range doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.
Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half and three-quarters cover.
Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If that attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

Missing an attack isn’t fun, but gambling in a game of probability is fun to me. I enjoy making an educated decision of whether to take the -5 penalty to increase my damage potential; however, it can bog down the game if players constantly pause their turns to consider whether to take the penalty. The DM and players can get upset with each other because a player isn’t declaring the -5 before rolling to hit. Having said that, Sharpshooter is both fun and powerful.

This feat’s power swings too wildly at low levels due to the heavy -5 to hit and the hefty +10 damage. Ten damage is a much bigger deal at level one than level twenty, as is the -5 to hit. An easy fix, which I’ve heard from other gamers, would be to change the penalty to your proficiency bonus and the damage bonus to be equal to double your proficiency bonus. This is a good idea because the proficiency bonus naturally scales as a character increases in level.

It’s useful to avoid disadvantage on a weapon’s greater range, especially for the massive range of a longbow. I also like ignoring partial cover. However, few DMs I play with are utilizing cover for monsters, and many fights occur in closer quarters. For this reason, the power rating took a bump, but in the right circumstances, this feat’s power is definitely five stars. Set yourself up to use the range benefit; you won’t regret it.

Sharpshooter should not be compatible with the Crossbow Expert feat. This is because the combination allows a character to gain a bonus action attack while also dealing massive damage from Sharpshooter (if choosing to take the penalty). I’m not trying to limit power; I want to make sure there isn’t a combination that is always chosen by players who want to optimize combat, and Sharpshooter+Crossbow Expert is chosen too often, in my opinion. I also believe Sharpshooter should be for a sniper with a two-handed ranged weapon, not a tiny hand crossbow with low range. An easy way to negate this feat combination would be to limit Sharpshooter’s potential damage bonus to only work with a two-handed ranged weapon.

I know… I know… any character technically can be a ‘sharpshooter’ if their accuracy is precise, but for game design, I think my analysis is accurate. Besides, if accuracy is all that matters, then thrown melee weapons should also be compatible with Sharpshooter, so the feat is already limiting to anyone with the point of view that Sharpshooter should be pervasive with ranged attacks.

I will boost the score since the ability to ignore partial cover means you can shoot through a crowd of people accurately to strike a target. Not all DM’s would make it difficult to shoot through a crowd, but enough of them would that this rule still matters. To test your knowledge of Cover rules in D&D 5e, read my article on the topic.

Shield Master (PHB)

Summary: Defend yourself better and shelter yourself with your shield.

If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.
If you aren’t incapacitated, you can add your shield’s AC bonus to any Dexterity saving throw you make against a spell or other harmful effect that targets only you.
If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

We need more feats like this that enhance a particular weapon or shield choice to give more variety to martial combat styles. The design is solid and not overpowered. If it was overpowered, everyone would automatically wield shields to choose this feat when playing martial classes.

The ability to shove a creature as a bonus action is great because you can force them to be prone on the ground, then use subsequent attacks to whoop them with advantage on the rolls. You can also shove them five feet away to possibly fall off a cliff or into a battlefield hazard like a pool or trap. If you’re a Fighter with many attacks in a round, you can shove your foes multiple times to push them further and further away until they end in a hazard or far away from your dying ally.

Notably, the bonus action shove occurs after you’ve already used the Attack action on your turn, so Shield Master has more value for classes that use multiple attacks per round. Extra attacks can immediately receive advantage against the prone target. You ought to use the Attack action to strike and then use your bonus action to shove with your shield before resolving your other attacks.

Now that I’ve pointed out how the Shove bonus action is great for your subsequent attacks, I need to pump the brakes there. While that’s how every DM I’ve ever played with has ruled the Shield Master feat to function, it’s technically not RAW, according to Jeremy Crawford. The Shield Master feat requires the Attack action’s resolution (all of the attacks) before a bonus action, reaction, or other ability can be used. Sure, you can move between attacks, but you can’t use Shield Master’s Shove for some reason.

For example, a Monk with Extra Attack would resolve all of the attacks that result from the Attack action before the Monk could use a bonus action to make Martial Arts attacks. This is because the Martial Arts attacks with the bonus action are predicated on the Attack action, not an attack. A character with the Shield Master feat couldn’t use the bonus action Shove until all attacks with the Attack action were resolved. Shield Master’s bonus action is predicated on the Attack action, not an attack.

While I understand the ruling now from Jeremy Crawford, I’ve never seen Shield Master applied this way. I’m not too fond of this ruling, but it’s a weakness in Shield Master’s design more than a weakness in the game’s design. I had to dock some of SM’s points for this reason.

One of my favorite Rogue abilities is Evasion. Shield Master mimics Evasion to negate damage from a Dexterity saving throw potentially. Unlike Rogues, Shield Master requires your reaction to negate the damage, and it doesn’t guarantee half damage. So it’s not the same as Evasion, but it’s near enough that I like it (I’d call it bad design if it were the same as a level-seven class feature). You’ll also be more likely to succeed at Dexterity saving throws as you add +2 to those rolls based on your shield AC. If you have a shield that grants more than +2 to AC, it will truly bolster your Dex saves.

I prefer using shields, especially since the math behind fighting styles makes me prefer Duelist, so I like sword-and-shield martial class builds. This feat is an easy choice to make shields great again. Be careful if you have a character that is using its bonus actions for other things. You might be disappointed at how seldom you shove creatures due to other options for your bonus action. And do not forget you can only use the bonus action to shove if you also have used or are about to use the Attack action in the same turn.

Lastly, I quickly skimmed to see which spells Shield Master would grant +2 to Dex saves for. Here are the ones I found:

Chain Lightning
Cordon of Arrows
Disintegrate
Enervation
Hellish Rebuke
Immolation
Resilient Sphere
Snare

Skill Expert (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost, skill proficiency, and a helping of Expertise.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

I guess we’re just ignoring the Prodigy feat from XGtE… but at least you can stack both feats for a skill monkey character! The stat boost is important for this to be worth choosing, so it’s a good thing it has it. This feat is just fine if it’s what you’re looking for. It can empower skill checks important to a character, such as Athletics for a grappling character.

Skilled (PHB)

Summary: Gain proficiency with skills and tools.

You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★★

For skill monkeys only, and maybe not even then. Most players that would consider this feat have already built their characters to have proficiency in skills they care about. It can be fun to build a character proficient in all skill checks, but it’s not a goal that is pursued often. When Wizards of the Coast published the racial feat Prodigy, I think that was a slap in Skilled’s face (even if limited to full or half-human races).

I believe this feat needs to exist in the game, so I’m glad we have it. It’s just not a widely desirable feat. Skilled can improve if one of the newly learned skills or tools came with expertise for double proficiency bonuses to rolls, but I also think there is power creep going on with D&D 5e where expertise is becoming more common, thus less fun to have.

Skulker (PHB)

Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or higher
Summary: Improve effectiveness as you skulk in the dark to attack.

You can try to hide when you are lightly obscured from the creature from which you are hiding.
When you are hidden from a creature and miss it with a ranged weapon attack, making the attack doesn’t reveal your position.
Dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

This feat would be mechanically sound, but average DMs and players do not widely understand the mechanics it attempts to exploit. The features of Skulker are almost useless in average games that aren’t taking time to check on dim lighting or how obscured a character is for a stealth roll. I can’t rate Skulker as highly because of this fact. That said, I won’t give it abysmal ratings because I know it can be useful at tables that are honoring these rules.

One homebrew way to improve Skulker is to double your proficiency bonus for attack rolls against creatures from whom you are hidden. This would be appealing to stealthy characters to nearly guarantee that they don’t miss those stealthy shots. Their positions will not be revealed when they occasionally miss.

Slasher (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost and added effects to your slashing attacks.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

I like to imagine the abilities here as cutting into someone’s leg to slow them. The stat boost is important. If you’re worried about foes running away, the slow effect is nice, but I imagine it won’t come up often. The ability to hinder foes’ attacks when you land critical hits is an important feature. Take this feat if there isn’t anything else you want to do with your slashing attacks. You might be better off taking the Sentinel feat if you want to lock down enemy movement and you don’t need a stat boost.

One other problem with this feat is that slashing weapons are often two-handed weapons, and there are much stronger feats for those types of weapons.

Spell Sniper (PHB)

Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
Summary: Gain range and precision for ranged spell attacks.

When you cast a spell that requires you to make an attack roll, the spell’s range is doubled.
Your ranged spell attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
You learn one cantrip that requires an attack roll. Choose the cantrip from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list. Your spellcasting ability for this cantrip depends on the spell list you chose from: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, and warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

The majority of spells that require ranged spell attack rolls are cantrips, and the ones that aren’t cantrips are not that popular. The range doesn’t always matter in combat unless the battlefield is larger than the average tavern or dungeon room. It’s nice to ignore partial cover for these ranged spell attacks, but my DMs don’t typically plan for my enemies to take cover. If you want to be blasting everybody with your Warlock’s Eldritch Blasts from obscene distances, Spell Sniper will work for you.

Some players want to blast stuff with their cantrips to save spell slots, so this feat is fine. Its mechanics don’t seem to matter very often. But at least you’ll get an additional attacking cantrip! It is useful to keep your distance in a fight that spreads your group out; spellcasters typically want to stay out of harm’s way, so it’s useful to avoid mobile enemies by really making them work to close the gap.

The problem with this feat is that your cantrips will often have enough range to do what you need them to do already.

Squat Nimbleness (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Dwarf or a Small race
Summary: Improve mobility and become more slippery to grapples.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★

It’s cool that Squat Nimbleness effectively removes one of the downsides to being a Dwarf, namely their reduced movement speed. This feat conveniently removes that limitation.

The stat boost is versatile and relevant to dwarven races, and the feat also aids in either Acrobatics or Athletics to further synergize with itself. I don’t know how often their enemies grapple dwarves, but this feat circumstantially depends on that frequency. Since I don’t think Dwarves are being grappled often except for certain big monsters, I’ll assume the de-grapple feature is fairly benign. But the rest of the feat is a reliable benefit.

I bet it’s satisfying to roll with advantage against grapple contests and avoid getting lifted by a Kraken’s tentacle. The feat is reactive (as opposed to proactive), and it doesn’t make me want to play a Dwarf. As a racial feat, it’s unimpressive.

Svirfneblin Magic (EEPC)

Prerequisite: Gnome (Deep Gnome)
Summary: Learn several spells based on illusions.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★
Fun: ★★★

I don’t remember the last time I participated in a game where anyone played as a Svirfneblin. This feat isn’t bad, but it’s almost forgotten, just like the Svirfneblin.

Nondetection is a pretty good spell to have on an at-will basis. It would be nuts if it did not limit this at-will casting of Nondetection to yourself, as I would have used it on my entire party all the time if it was not limited to self-casting. Nondetection also normally costs 25 gold to cast, so this feat is getting a lot of mileage out of the spell. The other spells are good, too, though not castable ‘at will.’ Since Intelligence is the spellcasting ability, and since Intelligence is commonly the dump stat of non-Wizards, this feat is more popular for Wizards and other subclasses that use Intelligence. Having said that, these spells are mostly not too dependent on their spellcasting ability association.

Since Svirfneblin Magic does encourage a unique playstyle, I’ll rate it a little higher. I have to ding it because it’s not easy to spell. This feat is a great example of the game designers wanting to allow cool races for players to choose from without making them as strong as their monster counterparts by default. It’s a progression to become more like non-PC versions of these races.

Tavern Brawler (PHB)

Summary: Punch, bite, and chair-slam enemies like a pro-wrestler.

Increase your Strength or Consititution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You are proficient with improvised weapons.
Your unarmed strike uses a d4 for damage.
When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★★
Fun: ★★★

Tavern Brawler initially reads as a feat designed for goofy players to do goofy things viably, but let’s see if it’s actually useful to the average character. Starting with the stat boost options, they’re solid. Constitution is great for anyone, and Strength is likely desired for characters choosing this feat.

A huge problem with Tavern Brawler is that the PHB rules errata has made every PC proficient with unarmed strikes, making this part of Tavern Brawler moot. Another problem is that improvised weapons already deal 1d4. This feat doesn’t improve that damage (which makes sense because some improvised weapons can resemble actual weapons to use greater dice types by DM ruling).

There are rare situations where PCs lose all their equipment for a time, relying on what the gods gave them. Tavern Brawler helps in those situations, but not by much, and those instances are uncommon.

Fortunately, this feat gets a stat boost, or it might be utterly forgotten. Some characters that don’t have their hands full might benefit from a bonus action to grapple following an unarmed strike, but it’s probably better to strap on a shield. If you want to have some fun, pair Tavern Brawler with the Grappler feat; it’s a concrete path to take, but you’ll have fun if you’re into a fighting option that isn’t necessarily optimal in many situations compared to other feats you could choose. It is powerful to gain a restraining ability that you can reliably pull off, so I boosted the power rating slightly for this feat due to the synergy with Grappler. I’d personally not choose Tavern Brawler when there are much cooler/stronger feats to choose, and we don’t get many feats per character (maybe Fighters could afford it, haha).

Telekinetic (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost and spooky mind powers for shoving and grabbing.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

I like the subtle touch they used here to improve the Arcane Trickster’s Mage Hand abilities due to increased range, rather than negating the Arcane Trickster’s skill entirely. It’s also a nice touch to allow shoving to be chosen to fail so you can push allies around when it suits the situation, such as pulling them out of a fire. This is a unique feat that adds to the psionic trend in D&D 5e, and I like it. It’s not too powerful, but it’ll surely have its uses as players experiment with it.

A handful of battlefield hazard spells that would normally only work on a creature’s turn could deal damage sooner when you telekinetically push or pull them into the spell’s area. This would mean they are technically entering a spell’s area on a turn, which wouldn’t be true if you just dropped the spell on top of them. You’d force them to make saving throws on the same turn you cast the spell! Many spellcasters aren’t using their bonus actions, so this feat is super useful. You can knock weak spellcasters and thieves off of cliffs with your mind bullets.

You could potentially push/pull your allies into better positions in battle, such as pulling them out of a Cloudkill spell. Mage Hand is also a versatile spell, especially when invisible! Pushing an enemy away from you is effectively a lesser Disengage action. I wonder if you could move as compelled movement to avoid opportunity attacks, but I’d rule that it would provoke opportunity attacks when using it on yourself. You could certainly pull or push an ally out of the threat zone of an enemy combatant without provoking opportunity attacks. This feat is amazing for creative players! Prepare for constant Telekinetic shenanigans.

Telepathic (TCoE)

Summary: Stat boost, telepathy, and mind-reading.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★★

WotC subtly added art next to this feat in TCoE to point out that Telepathy can enable silent use of usually-audible abilities, such as Bardic Inspiration. It’s a nice touch. The stat boost is important for this feat. Constantly casting Detect Thoughts will drive your DM crazy as they struggle to defend the thoughts of NPCs in a strategic/political game. Have fun with that! Detect Thoughts will be imperceptible to foes as you begin concentrating and reading minds. Many DMs would negate the choice of this feat by making NPC’s especially good at guarding their thoughts, so if you’re a DM, don’t do that! Make sure your DM won’t do that.

Druids using Wild Shape will also love this feat as they won’t lose the ability to communicate. They could also deceive enemies into thinking they’re encountering a celestial spirit in beast form, or a Druid could infiltrate a prison to get information from a prisoner without having to plan a prison break. This facilitates many possibilities for creative players, and I love that.

Tough (PHB)

Summary: Increase your hitpoints.

Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★★

If you want more hitpoints and you’re not interested in other feats or stat boosts, pick Tough. It’s one of the most commonly chosen feats according to D&D Beyond several years ago. I bet it’s oft chosen at higher levels after characters already have better feats. You can never go wrong with more hitpoints, so why not choose Tough? It’s somewhat boring, that’s why! But some players love to boast about how many hitpoints they have (*cough* Barbarians *cough*). Tough works retroactively and scales with you up to a maximum of forty additional hitpoints at level twenty, so it’s designed well.

The honest truth about Tough is that you could take other feats that would be handier for not taking damage in the first place. It’s better to increase your Armor Class, stats, Initiative bonuses, and other aspects of your character that will keep you out of harm’s way.

I kinda wish Tough came with just one more benefit, so I’ll share some ideas that I’d consider to make the feat more interesting (I wouldn’t pick more than one to change the feat though):

Advantage on saving throws to resist exhaustion.
Advantage on rolls to resist being shoved.
Immunity to non-magical fear.
Advantage on saving throws to resist being stunned or paralyzed.
Whenever the Tough character rolls initiative and does not have any exhaustion levels, the character gains temporary hitpoints equal to its proficiency bonus.

War Caster (PHB)

Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
Summary: Concentrate in combat while casting more spells while your hands are full.

You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
When a hostile creature’s movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

Several years ago, this was the most commonly picked feat on D&D Beyond. Spellcasters hate losing concentration, which can mean life or death, so War Caster is understandably popular. I will note that War Caster only helps with concentration rolls when prompted by damage taken, so spells like Sleet Storm remain a weakness of a War Caster character for breaking concentration.

Allowing your hands to be full and still perform somatic components of spells is the main reason I’d choose this feat. I actually don’t think I’d choose War Caster unless I were also a martial class that used spells. My Wizards would rather take the Resilient feat to add proficiency bonuses to Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration; the Lucky feat would also help maintain concentration. I will ding the design rating a bit since many players don’t really consider rules for somatic components of spells, so that feature might be ignored since the game doesn’t emphasize these rules (at least not to new players). I can’t help but reduce design ratings for benefits tied to rules that aren’t important to many players.

However, the ability to cast spells when making opportunity attacks is awesome. Consider this feat if you have single-target spells and are typically in the thick of things in combat.

In short, War Caster is an excellent feat for a variety of classes and character types. Just keep in mind that it shouldn’t be an automatic choice. Look at the spells you’ve chosen (or commonly prepare), and consider whether you can or would cast them during opportunity attacks. Think about how often your hands are full and how worried you are about concentration saves. You’ll be disappointed if you’re not thinking about these perks and whether they apply to you.

Weapon Master (PHB)

Summary: Learn to use four types of weapons.

Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with four weapons of your choice. Each one must be a simple or a martial weapon.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★
Power: ★
Fun: ★

This is one of the worst feats in the game. Characters that want to use particular weapons will probably be proficient with those weapons already unless some player wants a Wizard to swing a greatsword for some reason. This feat should have been designed to help characters specialize in particular weapons to gain small bonuses to attack rolls, damage rolls, or both. At the very least, it could’ve provided a fighting style. This feat is so bad that it almost demands homebrew variants. Even Unearthed Arcana has provided other feat ideas for specific weapons, encouraging feats to be homebrewed in thoughtful, mechanically balanced ways.

I would give this feat a one-star rating across the board, but I’ll give the design two stars since it’s at least useful for characters who want to gain weapon proficiencies without multiclassing. The stat boost is also slightly redeeming for Weapon Master.

Wood Elf Magic (XGtE)

Prerequisite: Elf (wood)
Summary: Learn spells to improve primeval mobility.

Flutes’ Evaluation:
Design: ★★★★
Power: ★★★★
Fun: ★★★★

A Wood Elf character will likely be a Ranger or something similar to it like a Rogue Scout, so these spell options are actually pretty clutch for a Wood Elf. Druids have useful cantrips, so the additional cantrip will surely be useful for Wood Elves. I like that this feat mentions the primeval woods concept because that’s the definite flavor of the Wood Elf Magic feat.

For a racial feat, it’s not as mechanically useful as others. It’s definitely cooler than the worst ones. This would be a top-tier racial feat if stealth and movement speed were ubiquitous to theater-of-the-mind combat and dice rolls. It’s typically a mid-tier racial feat, lending well to the race it’s designed for. I like it, even if it depends slightly on party and DM styles.

Pass Without Trace never seems to be a waste of a spell unless stealth doesn’t come up in your game (I’d be surprised if it doesn’t). I also note that this feat allows you to learn the spells. Treat them as additional spells learned to be used with spell slots for improved resource utilization. Longstrider lasts one hour, so you can treat this feat as if it gives you a flat +10 to movement speed when you think you’ll need it. Pass Without Trace similarly lasts for one hour but requires concentration; however, it can benefit your whole party with +10 to stealth. Since you learn the spells, you can cast them again after they wear off if you want to use spell slots.

D&D 5e Feats Conclusion

Thus concludes my evaluation of every officially published feat (as of 1/24/2022). I plan on updating this list when new feats are published. I learned heaps from writing about and rating each feat. My insights are bound to have been useful for readers, so scry on the comment section and cast Sending to tell me which concepts stood out to you. Do you think my arbitrary ratings are erroneous, or do you think I nailed it?

Thanks for reading; see you in the next article! Check out other D&D 5e feats articles.

About The Author

Flutes

Flutes is a seasoned DM and improvisational performer. He brings fresh perspectives on game mechanics, group dynamics, and roleplaying insights for all TTRPG enthusiasts.

24 thoughts on “<b>D&D 5e Feats</b>: Rating the Best and Worst Feats”

Michael
June 3, 2020 at 4:49 pm

I liked it and think you nailed it, definitely helped me out on what not to take.

Reply
Kronner
June 16, 2020 at 3:11 am

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I think most ratings are all pretty arbitrary based on the DM and setting of the campaign, but you bring up some creative ideas of how to use some of these.

Reply
1. Flutes
  June 16, 2020 at 4:43 am
  
  Hi Kronner,
  It’s true; rating feats is exceptionally arbitrary. I actually put off writing this article for a long time until I figured out a format that I thought was useful and informative without being too limited or rigid. I learned a lot about feats by analyzing them from different perspectives. I’m glad you liked the article!
  
  Reply
Torben
July 14, 2020 at 9:51 pm

Well written and informative. I especially like that you looked past the numbers aspect and focused on practicality and character fit. Thank you!
For Shield Master though, I think you can only take a bonus action to shove after an attack, not before even if you are intending to attack.

Reply
1. Flutes
  July 15, 2020 at 8:52 pm
  
  Thank you for the compliment, Torben! My aim was to not focus on numbers alone.
  And you’re correct that Shield Master’s bonus action requires an attack prior to its use. Some DMs I know wouldn’t care, but RAW does demand an attack prior to the bonus action, as confirmed in a tweet by Jeremy Crawford a while ago (reversing a previous ruling): https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/994993596989300736
  My Shield Master review didn’t make this clear, so I updated it today. Thank you for helping me to keep my content accurate and widely useful.
  
  Reply
Andrew
July 22, 2020 at 5:08 am

Thank you for the analysis, i can see you put a lot of time and effort into it! I’ve directed players to this on more than one occasion.

I have a question though: why is tavern brawler rated so low as compared to grappler? Both grant an ability related to grappling (advantage on attacks vs grappling as a bonus action) but the ability from grappler is replicated and improved by simply knocking the opponent prone.

First: all credit to Blublabolbolbol (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/tips-tactics/34007-the-grappler-guide-grappling-offensively-and)

Senario: you area martial class with extra attack, lets say paladin, and you take the tavern brawl feat. You’ve also taken a level of Rogue for expertise (athletics) and sneak attack. You use your first attack action to shove the target prone. For your next attack you hit unarmed with advantage for 1d4+1d6+str and maybe smite. Great, now you get a bonus action to grapple. You drag him back over to your allies for them to rag on and with advantage for melee attacks. On the opponent’s turn they roll to break your grapple.

On a fail they can’t stand up because grapple reduces your movement to 0, and you get to attack with advantage next turn twice. On success they get up and now have 15 less movement and you can catch up to them (probably).

Same scenario with grappler instead of tavern brawler: Your first attack you grapple, and attack as before: with advantage for 1d8+1d6+str and maybe smite for 2 more damage on average. Granted, you still have your bonus action, but your allies don’t get advantage and the enemy doesn’t take disadvantage on their attacks. They also have full movement if they escape the grapple. If you restrain on your next turn, that’s your action. Allies get advantage, but so do your enemies against you, and you have disadvantage on attacks which cancels out your grappler advantage.

Also what’s with the comment about grappling larger opponents? Grappler doesn’t grant that. If your talking about the third point of the grappler feat that was errated away since larger creatures don’t automatically succeed in escaping. (I was a error when the feat was copied from 3.5.

Reply
1. Flutes
  July 22, 2020 at 5:03 pm
  
  Hi Andrew, thank you for the compliment and for sharing this article with players. I did put heaps of time and effort into this one.
  
  I did not know that Grappler’s third effect for grappling larger creatures was removed in the PHB errata! I’ll adjust my entry for Grappler as a result. Thanks for pointing this out. I’m sure I read that point in the errata long ago, but didn’t commit it to memory. It’s strange that they’d alter Grappler in the errata in this way without similarly altering Sentinel (many people mock how it can halt movement of any creature regardless of size). Oh well, I’m not a game designer, so I’ll just shrug on that one.
  
  I was aware of the synergy between Grappler and Tavern Brawler, but I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. You’ve changed my mind. I’ve adjusted the scores for both feats, mentioned the synergy, and pointed out the erratas. Keeping a hand free for grappling can be a heavy cost compared to using a shield or holding a weapon with two hands to use Great Weapon Master for damage bonuses, but it’s still viable to couple Grappler and Tavern Brawler. Shield Master also can replicate the advantage as you expressed by knocking enemies prone as a bonus action. I’d personally just take Grappler on its own and ignore Tavern Brawler (not worth it to me). I covet my feat choices, and Tavern Brawler doesn’t do it for me. Maybe for a one-shot adventure I’d consider Grappler+Tavern Brawler just to explore the concept without committing it to a campaign.
  Any other points in the article you’d want to discuss? I love talking about D&D, obviously.
  
  Have a good one, and thanks for reading.
  
  Reply
  1. Andrew
    July 29, 2020 at 1:30 pm
    
    Awesome, glad you made the changes!
    I think you misunderstood something though. Anyone can grapple something one size larger, it’s in the grapple rules. That’s why wizard’s removed the bullet point. You just can’t grapple creatures two sizes larger.
    
    Reply
    1. Flutes
      July 29, 2020 at 3:16 pm
      
      Ah, I see. I totally forgot that was allowed by the basic rules. The original PHB printing of the Grappler feat surely threw off my memory! Thanks for reminding me that anyone can attempt to grapple a creature that is one size larger than itself.
      
      Reply
Arakkun
September 17, 2020 at 4:37 pm

You don’t gain heavy armor proficiency by multiclassing into classes that have it, you only gain it by starting as those classes. ( https://5thsrd.org/rules/multiclassing/ )

Reply
1. Flutes
  September 17, 2020 at 4:55 pm
  
  Hi Arakkun,
  You are correct, with some exceptions for Cleric domains that gain heavy armor proficiency at level one (this is separate from the proficiencies gained from multiclassing table). I reviewed my article to correct any wording that may have been confusing about this point, particularly an incorrect example of a Wizard multiclassing to Fighter; I changed that example to point out that Cleric domains can grant heavy armor. Thank you!
  
  Reply
Arakkun
September 17, 2020 at 5:00 pm

For Crossbow Master:
1) Most ranged weapons are 2-handed. Best one-handed ranged weapon is literally the hand crossbow (1d6). So it already limits the weapons you will wield
2) The hand crossbow costs a lot. Figure dual wielding them
3) It’s used cause it gives the same effect as Close-quarter Archery style to all ranged attacks. It removes disadvantage from ranged attacks made while enemies are near
4) This feat makes the heavy crossbow an amazing choice. (no loading)
5) There aren’t many things that make that 1d6 higher, but there are a lot of things that will make your first action hit for much more than just a 1d6 bonus. The only plus to that 1d6 would be using sharpshooter -5 to hit/+10 to damage and pray

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Olov
December 1, 2020 at 12:34 am

The bit about Hexblade and Polearm Mastery seems wrong. Hexblades can’t channel into weapons with the Two-handed property. It’s a shame though, it really got me excited for it.

Reply
1. Flutes
  December 1, 2020 at 4:04 am
  
  Hi Olov, you’re in luck! The Hexblade Warlock’s feature known as Hex Warrior would normally not work with two-handed weapons, BUT the last sentence of the description says this: “If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.” It’s that last bit that matters most about not worrying about the type of weapon if you choose Pact of the Blade at third level as a Warlock. For this reason, you can indeed use the Hex Warrior feature with Polearm Master.
  My description of the Polearm Master feat was limited to the Pact of the Blade, which is actually separate from the Hexblade entirely. I was referring to the Warlock Invocation that boosts damage of the Pact Weapon, and that Invocation is called “Lifedrinker” in the PHB. Thank you for your comment, and I hope you remain excited about the concept! 🙂
  
  Reply
Vance
May 11, 2021 at 6:02 am

Several of the statements about Shield Master are incorrect. By the wording, the Shield Master’s shove bonus action must follow the attack action, which is the whole set of attacks, not just the first attack. Jeremy Crawford has clarified this here (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/995024061267767298). As a result, it’s not possible to insert the shove between your set of attacks with a bonus action as suggested. Due to the order of attack(s) then shove, followed by the opponents turn where they will usually just stand up again, Shield Master tends to be a very poor way of gaining advantage for your own attacks, but it can be useful to give advantage for your nearby allies.

Reply
1. Flutes
  May 11, 2021 at 3:55 pm
  
  Hi Vance,
  While this clarification from Jeremy is great for interpreting specific abilities like a Monk’s Flurry of Blows, he’s not talking about the basic Attack action of the Shield Master feat’s shove. The advice doesn’t apply to the Shield Master feat’s shove bonus action. The Attack action is one attack. You can gain more attacks from the Extra Attack feature that grants more attacks that can be broken up by movement and other abilities in a round. A Monk’s Flurry of Blows requires the two attacks to be made sequentially with the bonus action. It’s a specific ability that differs from the Attack action itself. Let me know if I can clarify further. Have a nice day!
  
  Reply
  1. Vance
    May 18, 2021 at 3:55 am
    
    He further clarified it here (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/995025029740949504). Essentially, once you start an action, you can move while completing the action, but there’s no way to interrupt it to do other things like bonus actions. The first attack and any extra attacks are all part of the character’s action, and thus it is not possible to interrupt those attacks during the action to insert a bonus action like the Shield Master feat’s shove.
    
    Reply
    1. Flutes
      May 18, 2021 at 6:40 am
      
      I think I understand now. For example, a Monk with Extra Attack would be required to resolve all of the attacks that result from the Attack action before the Monk could use a bonus action to make Martial Arts attacks. This is because the Martial Arts attacks with the bonus action are predicated on the Attack action, not an attack. A character with the Shield Master feat wouldn’t be able to use the bonus action Shove until after all attacks with the Attack action are resolved because Shield Master’s bonus action is predicated on the Attack action, not an attack. While I understand the ruling now from Jeremy Crawford, I’ve never seen Shield Master applied this way. Interesting.
      
      Reply
Jake
May 27, 2021 at 7:01 pm

hi Flutes, it seems you forgot the Aberrant Dragonmark feat (Eberron campaign setting, like Revenant Blade, wich you put) wich can be pretty cool, with the Greater Aberrant Power feature, wich lets you take an epic Boon from the boon options in the DMG (optional though, so don’t count on this).

Reply
1. Flutes
  May 30, 2021 at 4:17 pm
  
  Hi, Jake. You’re right, I missed this one. I thought it was UA for some reason. I’ll work on adding it to my list!
  
  Reply
2. Flutes
  June 6, 2021 at 2:37 pm
  
  I’ve added it now. This feat escaped my notice, but its design is fantastic.
  
  Reply
Pingback: Understanding D&D Ability Scores - Wizard Of The Tavern
J
December 21, 2023 at 11:51 pm

Better title: Alphabetising the feats from A to Z. Goddam clickbait.

Reply
1. Flutes
  December 29, 2023 at 5:28 am
  
  I spent a lot of time on this, shucks, lol. What were you hoping for? I had avoided saying what the feats do because of copyright, but idk maybe it doesn’t matter.
  
  Reply