Fell Handed question

[Deadandamnation]

Fell Handed Say:

Unearthed Arcana 6 June 2016

You master the handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, warhammer, and maul. You gain the following benefits when using any of them:

You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls you make with the weapon.
Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two d20 rolls would also hit the target.
Whenever you have disadvantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of 0) if the attack misses but if the higher of the two d20 rolls would have hit.
If you use the Help action to aid an ally’s melee attack while you’re wielding the weapon, you knock the target’s shield aside momentarily. In addition to the ally gaining advantage on the attack roll, the ally gains a +2 bonus to the roll if the target is using a shield.

The great part is knoking targets prone for free with no save...raw should Be like that. It's a little op.

If you have 50% chance to hit (hitting on 11+)
Each Attack have 25% chance to knock down.

So combine that with Barbarian Reckless Attack= 50/75% chance to knock down each turn for free with no save.

And a +1 to hit that further enanche the chance to knock down.

[Lalliman]

Your math is off. If you have a 50% chance to hit (say your attack is +5 and your target has 16 AC), then with advantage you have a 75% chance to hit and a 25% chance to knock prone.

It's nice to have, but I don't find it that impressive. Targets can simply get up from prone on their turn, so it's only really good if you can grapple the target to keep them from getting up, or if you or your allies can attack them right when they fall down. Neither of which you can reliably do because you have no control over when the knockdown happens. There's going to be quite a few times where you knock the target down, only for them to get up with no harm done.

Admittedly, I've never tested this one. I find it to be a terribly clunky feat.

[Deadandamnation]

Your math is off. If you have a 50% chance to hit (say your attack is +5 and your target has 16 AC), then with advantage you have a 75% chance to hit and a 25% chance to knock prone.

It's nice to have, but I don't find it that impressive. Targets can simply get up from prone on their turn, so it's only really good if you can grapple the target to keep them from getting up, or if you or your allies can attack them right when they fall down. Neither of which you can reliably do because you have no control over when the knockdown happens. There's going to be quite a few times where you knock the target down, only for them to get up with no harm done.

Admittedly, I've never tested this one. I find it to be a terribly clunky feat.

Nope, my math is totally right:

25% First Attack
25% second
25% third

75% chance to knock

[PhantomSoul]

If you mean to knock Prone at all and it's 25% to knock Prone, then you've got a 75% chance not to with any given attack. If you would knock Prone -- but they're already Prone -- then knocking them Prone isn't doing anything.

P = 0.75 * 0.75 * 0.75
P = 0.421875

So you have a 42.19% chance to not knock Prone, meaning a 57.81% chance to knock Prone.

[Deadandamnation]

If you mean to knock Prone at all and it's 25% to knock Prone, then you've got a 75% chance not to with any given attack. If you would knock Prone -- but they're already Prone -- then knocking them Prone isn't doing anything.

P = 0.75 * 0.75 * 0.75
P = 0.421875

So you have a 42.19% chance to not knock Prone, meaning a 57.81% chance to knock Prone.

Right, still is nearly 60% with 3 strikes and nearly 40% with 2.

A prone target mean advantage for anyone in melee who act before him.
If he stand up that's wasting 1/2 is movement and he shouldn't be able to make AoO.

Prone is not gamebreaking but it's still good.

[tieren]

I have a player using it on a samurai who can use a class ability to give himself advantage. It's dramatic to keep knocking a big threat down, helps other melee party members hurts ranged. Basically it's fun and balanced.

[Kyrinthic]

Right, still is nearly 60% with 3 strikes and nearly 40% with 2.

A prone target mean advantage for anyone in melee who act before him.
If he stand up that's wasting 1/2 is movement and he shouldn't be able to make AoO.

Prone is not gamebreaking but it's still good.

You can make Aoos while prone, you just have disadvantage on them.

It is generally a trivial thing unless the target is significantly outnumbered, or their action was right after the person who knocked them prone. Otherwise maybe someone will get an advantaged attack, but maybe they wont. Spending half movement getting up isnt that important if the target is still right next to them after all, and barbarians tend not to move away :)

It can be good to do on other builds, light fighters with shield bash, because it gives follow up attacks advantage, but that doesn't really apply when you are using reckless.

[GlenSmash!]

I love the Fell-Handed feat, if more in concept than in execution. It's an attempt to make the lower of the dice rolled with advantage matter, and I think that is neat.

I hate the +1 to hit though. Super boring.

[Lalliman]

Nope, my math is totally right:
25% First Attack
25% second
25% third
75% chance to knock
You didn't say you were talking about multiple attacks, thus my confusion.

Still, you can only get that 75% percent knockdown chance with a few specific builds. A level 5 Berserker can do it, but only by taking a level of exhaustion. A Barbarian 2 / Fighter 11 can do it, but that's higher than most games go. You'll also have only two Rages and less HP than a full barbarian, which means you can't afford to Reckless Attack all the time. And a level 5 Barbarian dual-wielding hand axes can do it. That one admittedly seems pretty good, though your third attack will be denied some of the time by starting Rage.