How powerfull is this feat/how to fix it? (tremorsense for a player)

[Swaoeaeieu]

hello everyone,

im playing in a 5e campaign and have the good fortune to have a DM who allows some Homebrew, after its deemed balanced. Wich for me means i get to play an earthbender, wich is awesome.

My problem is as follows, i want to take a feat, wich is homebrew from the same homebrew book my class comes from, but it sounds powerfull. it is however cool and gives lots of out of combat oportunities for me.
What do you guys think of the following feat, and if it is too powerfull, how would you fix it?


You learn to feel the vibrations in the earth, using it as an extension of your own senses. You gain the following benefits:
-Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
-You gain tremorsense to a range of 30 feet. If you already have tremorsense, its range increases by 30 feet. On your turn, you can take a bonus action to increase the range to 90 feet until the beginning of your next turn, or an action to increase the range to 270 feet.
-You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) rolls you make against any creature that you can see with your tremorsense.

thanks in advance!

[ad_hoc]

+1 Con
60ft Tremorsense


Done.

[dmteeter]

+1 Con
60ft Tremorsense


Done.

what he said.

not only does this balance it it also makes it much less confusing.
bonus action=
action=
add again for 270
its all too much

the plus 1 to con
and the 60ft range seems fair and easy to keep track of from a DM perspective

[BurgerBeast]

Caveat: I’m not as good as most at understanding balance.

This feat Strikes me as having vastly different power levels depending on the game. For example, in a typical dungeon it is incredibly powerful. In outdoor settings it is significantly less so.

It does seem to be very (if not extremely) powerful in most situations, and even in situations where it is not obviously useful, it still can be used to great effect with clever play.

If I were DMing, I would:

(1) ban it, because of my inability to gauge its power (for example if I didn’t know where the campaign would be set on future adventures), and for the DM headache factor of having to always have encounters feel by-passed by that one particular ability
(2) ban it, because I knew the particular setting would make it OP, for example in a mega dungeon
(3) allow it as a full feat (lose the Con bonus), because even though it’s situational, it’s disproportionately powerful in those situations; in this case I would explain to the player that it is a trial run and I reserve the right to axe it later.
(4) allow it because, when compared to other homebrew options that I had already permitted, it fit the power level

[Swaoeaeieu]

follow up question: Is tremorsense a balanced thing to have for players at all? being able to tell whats in the next room, or feeling an ambush coming might break the game a whole bunch.

[Ekayyy]

Tremor sense even without the +1con is just too much power.

I typically abuse Tremor sense using level 10 elemental forms on moon druid to go earth and its hugely powerful.

All of those darkness,invisible,assasins,ambushes all go out the window.

Its a huge boost to perception, which is a very strong mechanic already

In a dungeon its like you have sight behind corners.

Yeah, tremor sense is a fun mechanic to play against. Like if someone with tremor sense in chasing you like a land shark and you need to get off the ground to hide or to catch someone avoiding you by being able to sense where you are. But for a player its busted.

[Damon_Tor]

Tremor sense even without the +1con is just too much power.

I typically abuse Tremor sense using level 10 elemental forms on moon druid to go earth and its hugely powerful.

All of those darkness,invisible,assasins,ambushes all go out the window.

Its a huge boost to perception, which is a very strong mechanic already

In a dungeon its like you have sight behind corners.

Yeah, tremor sense is a fun mechanic to play against. Like if someone with tremor sense in chasing you like a land shark and you need to get off the ground to hide or to catch someone avoiding you by being able to sense where you are. But for a player its busted.

At it's core, tremor sense is just "hears good". It says you can "detect and pinpoint the Origin of vibrations within a specific radius, provided that the monster and the source of the vibrations are in contact with the same ground or substance." There's less guidance in 5e than there was in 3e, so there's plenty of room for interpretation. After all, humans are entirely capable of "detecting and pinpointing the origin of vibrations" in the air. That's what hearing is. So you hear with your feet. So what?

If someone is standing still, can tremorsense detect them? If they're walking with the intent of moving silently? Really, what's the difference between tremorsense and just hearing things normally?

[ad_hoc]

follow up question: Is tremorsense a balanced thing to have for players at all? being able to tell whats in the next room, or feeling an ambush coming might break the game a whole bunch.

Oh sure, it shouldn't be in the game.

But if it is going to be in the game because of the way a specific campaign is, then just make it simple.

[Kadesh]

Keep it simple. Don't make powerful mechanics frustrating to use as a means of balance. If it is too powerful, then tone it down.

A 14th level Rlgue gets blindsense. An ability shouldn't be available earlier to nearly invalidate the usefulness of this ability as it is possibly capstone territory for many campaigns.