All Feats/No ASI Variants

[Renvir]

I find the choice between taking a feat or an ability score improvement to be a pretty compelling decision. But, I also think feats are much more interesting in terms of character development and game play than just increasing your attributes. So I want to create a system where you are only allowed to take feats. I knew I couldn't just leave it at that though because people will still want the option to reach higher attribute scores and some attributes are severely lacking in feats that give them that +1. (WereRabbitz posted a helpful list if you are interested in seeing for yourself http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?495899-Feats-by-Ability).

With this in mind I came up with two solutions to this problem:

Solution 1: I've added six new feats and unlike most feats, you would be allowed to take any of these multiple times. Yes, the names are boring but the feats themselves are quite boring compared to the ones already in the PHB so that seems only fair.

Strong: +1 to STR. Add +1 to Athletics skill and Damage Rolls that use Strength.
Dexterous: +1 to Dex. Add +1 to Stealth, Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Initiative.
Endurance: +1 to Con. Hit point maximum increased by 10.
Wise: +1 to Wis. Add +1 to all Wis skills.
Intellect: +1 to Int. Add +1 to all Int skills.
Charismatic: +1 to Cha. Add +1 to all Cha skills.

Solution 2: Make players take a feat and get +1 to any attribute of their choice on top of it. This felt like it would make players stronger than what 5e intends but is also much simpler.

Let me know which you think is better or what changes you would make for a campaign that doesn't allow ASI's.

[Zman]

Ok, there are some major problems with your proposed fix.

So, my Rogue character starts at 14 Dex and I spend every single ASI on your Dex Feat. I end up with a 20 Dex, but now I have a +5(Dex) +6(Dex Feat) +6(Prof) and +6(Expertise) for a total +23 in Stealth, that kind of really breaks bounded accuracy, and offers a +17 to Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and +11 Initiative.

Basically each of these feats has problems.


What might serve you better is Kryx's half feat variant. (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/H19CLykV)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I recommend granting ASIs as normal, but feats every few levels-- say 3rd, 7th, and 15th-- with no option to trade. Your method still basically gives you a "boring option" tax to keep your numbers up, though Kryx's variant looks solid.

[Belac93]

Fighters would love this variant.

GWM, and then the strength feat 5 times, constitution feat once, and variant human for constitution feat an extra time.

We end up with 20 strength, GWM, and CON 18.

This character has the same hit points and attack bonuses as a regular fighter, but an extra 5 damage on each hit. With 4 attacks a round, that increases your DPR by 20.

And you don't really lose anything valuable.

Also, spellcasters get shortchanged by this.

[Cybren]

Fighters would love this variant.

GWM, and then the strength feat 5 times, constitution feat once, and variant human for constitution feat an extra time.

We end up with 20 strength, GWM, and CON 18.

This character has the same hit points and attack bonuses as a regular fighter, but an extra 5 damage on each hit. With 4 attacks a round, that increases your DPR by 20.

And you don't really lose anything valuable.

Also, spellcasters get shortchanged by this.

Well, in your example case you lose out on taking lucky, mobile, alert, pole-arm master, sharpshooter, crossbow expert, and resilient. The power gamers would be annoyed they have to number crunch which feats are 'objectively superior' to a normal ASI and the new feats, and more casual players will either not care or have decision paralysis