optional feats

[goatmeal]

I’m starting to get ready to run my first 5e campaign in a few months after GMing Pathfinder for a few years, and I had a few questions before I start. My biggest question was about the optional feat rule for humans. I really want to use this, because if I were a player I would think getting +1 to every stat was the most vanilla bonus ever. However, I wanted to see what the consensus is among those who have tried it. Is it optional for the sake of simplicity or because of concerns about abusing it? If it’s a little OP, what are some fixes people have tried so that it will work?
I’ll post more of my questions once I’ve heard back about this one.

[tkuremento]

I believe it is optional because feats are TECHNICALLY optional in 5e. If you actually read the Variant Human box it says the "optional feat rules."

[goatmeal]

I believe it is optional because feats are TECHNICALLY optional in 5e. If you actually read the Variant Human box it says the "optional feat rules."

Yes. Obviously.

Does not answer my question, however.

[Matticusrex]

Its optional in that if you hate martial classes and want casters to be even more overpowered, you can ban feats. Dont ever ban feats unless you are ready to fill your fighter up with more magic items than he has room for because he is in for a boring ride.

[Hrugner]

It's generally a pretty good choice. Whether or not it's balanced depends on how often other races abilities will come into play. If something like darkvision is really important, which is usually the case, then I'd say it's pretty balanced with the dark vision races. If you wanted to fiddle with it at all, put a level 4 requirement on Polearm mastery, Greatweapon mastery, shield master, sharpshooter and crossbow expert. I don't think it'd be necessary, but those are the only ones I can think of that are fairly potent starting feats.

[Fishyninja]

Every game I have played in has utilised feats. Out of my 4 current playable characters 2 are currently using feats.
Alert and Athlete. Both have some very good features but are highly situational.

That is the thing many of the feats are situational in how they can be used then there are others which are extremely poweful but not game breaking (GWM/SS/PAM/Sentinel spring to mind).

[busterswd]

Like most editions of DnD, Humans are one of the best races in the game. Having a feat at level 1 ensures your build comes online that much sooner; most other races won't even consider a feat until at least level 6 or 8, because they overlap with ASIs. Generally, variant Humans are the only race that can have an 18 in their primary stat and a feat by level 4.

That being said, there are other races that are just as good, but not as generalist. Half Elves are an excellent choice for any class that can use Charisma. Vanilla Elves are also an excellent race if your stat bonuses are usable. If you're using one of the 3 splatbooks, Aaracokra have a fly speed at level 1, which will break some encounters.

A fix I've seen more than once is giving ALL races a feat at level 1, which kind of makes sense; there's no other way to get a feat before level 4 without picking variant Human. This takes away a lot of the variant human thunder, but it ensures you'll get race variety.

Couple things to bear in mind: level 1 goes by REALLY fast, and level 2 almost as quickly, so waiting until level 4 for your first ASI isn't quite as lengthy as it sounds. (Level 4 --> 5 can take a while to get to, though.) Also, while Variant Human is an excellent choice, it's not so brokenly good that picking another race that matches your desired stats is a terrible choice. There are certainly some powerful feats early on (Warcaster, Sentinel, Sharpshooter/GWM, Lucky tend to be the more popular ones), but they're not going to obviate other characters that don't have a feat yet.

[ad_hoc]

Variant Humans are certainly on the upper end of races.

An easy balance tweak would be to move their bonus skill to the standard human.

I wouldn't give out extra bonus feats. I would also only use standard array/point buy if using feats. Feats become overpowered if rolling for stats.

[Addaran]

I’m starting to get ready to run my first 5e campaign in a few months after GMing Pathfinder for a few years, and I had a few questions before I start. My biggest question was about the optional feat rule for humans. I really want to use this, because if I were a player I would think getting +1 to every stat was the most vanilla bonus ever. However, I wanted to see what the consensus is among those who have tried it. Is it optional for the sake of simplicity or because of concerns about abusing it? If it’s a little OP, what are some fixes people have tried so that it will work?
I’ll post more of my questions once I’ve heard back about this one.

It's optional because feats are optional, it got nothing to do with simplicity or abuse.

Are vhuman OP? Some think yes, others think no. There's a bunch of thread about it or you can find some homebrew here. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481588-D-amp-D-5e-Homebrew-Compendium-2

[DanyBallon]

Like many already said, Variant Human are optional because feats are optional as well. That being said. V. Human is quite popular for those who want to get a specific feat early, otherwise every other races, including regular human are competitive. The later being more useful when you roll stats and get many odd stats.

[Renvir]

I've found that the V. Human is strong initially, not game-breaking though, but balances out by level 4 when other people can start taking feats.

Some variant rules I've seen or tried:
-Postpone bonus feat until level 4. This one worked fine though we started at level 2 so it was only a few sessions to level 4.
-Don't allow weapon feats (PAM, GWF, SS). These feats seem to be at the heart of most peoples concerns about feats at level 1.
-Give the V. Human a feature from another race and a bonus language tied to that race. No ability score stuff but things like weapon training, luck, darkvision, breath weapon, etc. I'm sure you can RP a reason for why a human can breath fire like a dragonborn.

[goatmeal]

It's generally a pretty good choice. Whether or not it's balanced depends on how often other races abilities will come into play. If something like darkvision is really important, which is usually the case, then I'd say it's pretty balanced with the dark vision races. If you wanted to fiddle with it at all, put a level 4 requirement on Polearm mastery, Greatweapon mastery, shield master, sharpshooter and crossbow expert. I don't think it'd be necessary, but those are the only ones I can think of that are fairly potent starting feats.

Thanks, that was very helpful. Darkvision is definitely going to be useful, especially after around level 3 or 4, as its a megadungeon. So having the most powerful feats restricted until level 4 sounds like a good plan.

[goatmeal]

Like most editions of DnD, Humans are one of the best races in the game. Having a feat at level 1 ensures your build comes online that much sooner; most other races won't even consider a feat until at least level 6 or 8, because they overlap with ASIs. Generally, variant Humans are the only race that can have an 18 in their primary stat and a feat by level 4.

That being said, there are other races that are just as good, but not as generalist. Half Elves are an excellent choice for any class that can use Charisma. Vanilla Elves are also an excellent race if your stat bonuses are usable. If you're using one of the 3 splatbooks, Aaracokra have a fly speed at level 1, which will break some encounters.


Also
A fix I've seen more than once is giving ALL races a feat at level 1, which kind of makes sense; there's no other way to get a feat before level 4 without picking variant Human. This takes away a lot of the variant human thunder, but it ensures you'll get race variety.

Couple things to bear in mind: level 1 goes by REALLY fast, and level 2 almost as quickly, so waiting until level 4 for your first ASI isn't quite as lengthy as it sounds. (Level 4 --> 5 can take a while to get to, though.) Also, while Variant Human is an excellent choice, it's not so brokenly good that picking another race that matches your desired stats is a terrible choice. There are certainly some powerful feats early on (Warcaster, Sentinel, Sharpshooter/GWM, Lucky tend to be the more popular ones), but they're not going to obviate other characters that don't have a feat yet.

Thanks for the thorough reply. I probably won't give everyone a feat, but might restrict options early on.

Level 1 looks like it goes fast. Can you do 6-8 encouters at level 1?

Also, what is considered a splat book? SCAG? Volo's?0

[Naanomi]

V Human is a strong option for most builds; but I don't dislike that. Most settings are Human dominant, but there have been editions in the past where you wonder why... there was little mechanical reason to play a human over other choices. With V Human on table, I can expect a Human member in the party l, if not a human dominated party... without it I would be shocked to ever see anyone playing a human character, adventurers just are not humans I guess

[busterswd]

Thanks for the thorough reply. I probably won't give everyone a feat, but might restrict options early on.

Level 1 looks like it goes fast. Can you do 6-8 encouters at level 1?

Also, what is considered a splat book? SCAG? Volo's?0

I used "splat book" to mean anything not in the PHB.

6-8 encounters or more is easily doable for level 1 --> 2, especially if there's no quest XP; your goal this early on is to give encounters that won't needlessly TPK a party. You'll want to err on the side of less monsters. Let's say you throw a pack of wolves at a party of 4; 3 wolves would be a difficult encounter, and it's only 1/8 of the way to level 2.