Best Half Feat for Wisdom

[SleepIncarnate]

Much as the title says, I'm trying to find the best half feat for improving wisdom. I'm playing a bard, and while I don't have proficiency in perception (and my wisdom is only 13 so I only get +1 to it before jack-of-all-trades bonus), observant is a rather powerful bonus with the +5 passive. However, I've also been looking at the skill feats, and could definitely benefit from perceptive (to gain proficiency) or empathic (to gain expertise in insight, enabling an eventual 5th expertise) and the free advantage on non-combat rolls.

My character is the face of my party, as well as our primary crowd controller, but not our main scout. I can somewhat serve as a rogue replacement, but our ranger a.) plans on multiclassing to rogue in a couple levels, b.) has 20 dexterity for all those related skills, and c.) has a criminal (spy) background, so he already has a lot of the same potential or better for the scouting/trap type stuff.

Any suggestions on the best half feat for my pick? I know the three mentioned are decent options, but there are others like resilient (to give better resistance against things like charm or fear in our rare combats), so what suggestions do you all have?

[CTurbo]

For Barbarians and Fighters..... Res(Wis) easily

For all other characters, Observant

[dragoeniex]

Careful on empathic. If it's insight expertise you're after, you need to have proficiency in addition to picking up that feat. The action for insight checks it grants is interesting and seems best suited for out of combat or just before combat initiated by you.

If your DM takes passive perception into account once in a while, observant can be great. Suddenly, you're the character picking up on things no one else could. If you're the face (read: in a bunch of social situations by choice and/or party kicking you out front) and know a couple common languages, you may also find reading lips a fun and useful ability.

Resilient is never bad, but I find passive feats less exciting. Also, unless you're a melee bard, you don't have to worry so much about playing freeze tag mid-fight. Trust your pals to go whallop the offending caster for you.

[SleepIncarnate]

Careful on empathic. If it's insight expertise you're after, you need to have proficiency in addition to picking up that feat. The action for insight checks it grants is interesting and seems best suited for out of combat or just before combat initiated by you.

I have proficiency in insight, granted by my college (a homebrew one that is closest to lore, but more focused on languages and magic than skills), so I would pick it up as expertise. My existing expertise picks at level 4 are deception and persuasion, because I'm the face so often.


If your DM takes passive perception into account once in a while, observant can be great. Suddenly, you're the character picking up on things no one else could. If you're the face (read: in a bunch of social situations by choice and/or party kicking you out front) and know a couple common languages, you may also find reading lips a fun and useful ability.

See above regarding my college. My college's enhancement to inspiration lets me pop an inspiration to gain the combined effects of the spells Comprehend Languages and Tongues for a number of hours equal to whatever I roll.


Resilient is never bad, but I find passive feats less exciting. Also, unless you're a melee bard, you don't have to worry so much about playing freeze tag mid-fight. Trust your pals to go whallop the offending caster for you.

I am most definitely not a melee bard. In fact, in our one major combat we've had (our party against 40 goblins broken into four groups of ten coming at us from different directions), I never even got attacked. Our sorcerer and ranger both got attacked but never hit. The barbarian took a beating, but as a bear totem tank, he shrugged it off. I think the paladin took a mild hit or two? Regardless, even our DM was amazed at how quick of work we put into the encounter. Later on with casters and archers becoming more common, I expect to take some hits so still considering something like war caster (after resilient for con), but getting hit isn't high on my list of expectations.

EDIT: Also, our ranger is going to be multiclassing into rogue at 6, already has proficiency in perception, and will probably take expertise in both stealth and perception when he does so.

[DeTess]

I have proficiency in insight, granted by my college (a homebrew one that is closest to lore, but more focused on languages and magic than skills), so I would pick it up as expertise.

Any chance you could share this homebrew somewhere (Or even just DM me the details)?

[SleepIncarnate]

Any chance you could share this homebrew somewhere (Or even just DM me the details)?

Done. It can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?574408-(Homebrew)-Bard-s-College-of-Linguistics).

[Lunali]

If your DM takes passive perception into account once in a while, observant can be great. Suddenly, you're the character picking up on things no one else could. If you're the face (read: in a bunch of social situations by choice and/or party kicking you out front) and know a couple common languages, you may also find reading lips a fun and useful ability.

If your DM doesn't like to use passive perception, you can also try to convince them to give you advantage on checks instead.

[dragoeniex]

My college's enhancement to inspiration lets me pop an inspiration to gain the combined effects of the spells Comprehend Languages and Tongues for a number of hours equal to whatever I roll.

Okay, so. Both of those spells say you understand any spoken language "that you hear" (with comprehend languages adding script if touching). This could be fairly ruled to mean lip reading still only works with languages you have actually learned, since mouth shapes are not writing or sounds in and of themselves.

However, your DM was willing to work with you on cool language mechanics. If they can be tempted to overlook this...

Observant. Go observant. There's no way this isn't coming in handy on the regular. You walk into a grandiose party and know what anyone is saying if you can just get line of sight and look inconspicuous while you watch. And you're a bard, so you know how to do that. The aristocracy's whispers are yours.

Heck, you walk out into a busy, loud marketplace or into a cult speaking nothing but Sylvan, and you still know what any given person is saying provided you're not blindfolded and they aren't masked!

You will never in your life build a character of such universal eavesdropping. Go forth.

[djreynolds]

For a bard, resilient wisdom is big.

Countercharm is great... if you can cast it... if you are not charmed

Resilient wisdom is not flashy, but it will keep your bard in the fight to fix the others.

If it is a choice between resilient wisdom and resilient con, I might take wisdom, you can always take war caster for concentration checks.

Fear and charm and dominate are game changers

[SleepIncarnate]

Okay, so. Both of those spells say you understand any spoken language "that you hear" (with comprehend languages adding script if touching). This could be fairly ruled to mean lip reading still only works with languages you have actually learned, since mouth shapes are not writing or sounds in and of themselves.

However, your DM was willing to work with you on cool language mechanics. If they can be tempted to overlook this...

Observant. Go observant. There's no way this isn't coming in handy on the regular. You walk into a grandiose party and know what anyone is saying if you can just get line of sight and look inconspicuous while you watch. And you're a bard, so you know how to do that. The aristocracy's whispers are yours.

Heck, you walk out into a busy, loud marketplace or into a cult speaking nothing but Sylvan, and you still know what any given person is saying provided you're not blindfolded and they aren't masked!

You will never in your life build a character of such universal eavesdropping. Go forth.

To clarify, the college ability is actually more powerful than those two spells combined, but it was a good point of reference. I spend an inspiration die to gain the ability to speak, read, and write ANY language for a number of hours equal to the roll. So yeah, I could pop in to the marketplace where various people are speaking different languages and understand them all.

That said, up to this point, we've not been involved in major politics or anything. This is a full 1-20 campaign, and we just hit level 4 with our session earlier this week. We did trigger an event that's definitely setting things up for a higher tier of play, but we're still basically straddling that point between local heroes and more large scale stuff. Basically, we've been kinda a pirate campaign to date, with our own ship and crew of NPCs, with a very coastal campaign to date. Of course, we also just lost our ship, so...

Point is, while I like the lip reading, not sure if it will be as amazing in our campaign world as it would be in a high intrigue one. Expertise in insight plus the ability to gain advantage on the next roll gives me a lot of power on single target, while observant gives a lot of power on multiple targets. And resilient (wis) would help in combat when we start facing other crowd controllers.



For a bard, resilient wisdom is big.

Countercharm is great... if you can cast it... if you are not charmed

Resilient wisdom is not flashy, but it will keep your bard in the fight to fix the others.

If it is a choice between resilient wisdom and resilient con, I might take wisdom, you can always take war caster for concentration checks.

Fear and charm and dominate are game changers

Well, I also have an odd constitution score, so I'll be taking something to up that, and it's a toss up between resilient and infernal constitution. Extra resistances (and especially advantage on poisons) can be great for combat, our DM's love of poisonous traps, and even the fun 'negotiation by drinking contest' bit where I could potentially drink most anyone under a table to get what I want. But resilient (con) is the stronger option for now, because of how important my concentration is for the rest of the party.

[djreynolds]

It's the best part about the game is choices.

I would if possible tell the DM I am always singing my counter charm or whatever it is for you.

Also heroism is good 1st level spell

Instead of a +1 wisdom feat, why not grab spell sniper for an attack cantrip