Class Features that could work as feats?

[Wasp]

Hi everyone

Are there class features you think could work as feats without breaking the game or the "feeling" of 5e (where classes are quite distinct)? What kind of restrictions would you set for such a feat?

Also: What kind of class featured would you love to being able to pick as a feat?

I was thinking for example of a Mage Hand Ledgermain Feat.

[Jerrykhor]

Fighting style could be half feats. Its already shared by a number of classes.

Maybe Champion's increased crit range.

Unarmored Defense, to make an unarmored paladin or cleric.

[DarkKnightJin]

Metamagic, handled like Martial Adept:
Pick 1 Metamagic option, and you have Sorcery Points equal to your Proficiency Modifier.
Would give Sorcerer something to pick if they'd like, as well.

Maybe Arcane Recovery, with a number of Spell levels equal to half your Proficiency Modifier, rounded up.

Both of these options would have the prerequisite of having the Spellcasting class feature/being able to cast at least 1 spell. Same as War Caster.

[Man_Over_Game]

You'd want to avoid doing this for classes that are underplayed. No Barbarian or Ranger features, as you'll end up removing content instead of adding to it. However, it doesn't matter how many caster feats you make, people will always play Wizards and Paladins.

Also, try to focus on classes that provide a lot of proficiencies, as they inherently provide benefits for taking those classes instead of cheesing out their class features with a feat. For example, you might just take Cleric levels because of the multiple benefits you can get, even though a feat might get you the Channel Divinity you originally wanted.

A few examples:


Paladin's Divine Smite
Long Rest Action Surge
A single Sorcerer Metamagic and 2 Sorcery Points to use it.
A Short Rest spell slot that comes with two Warlock spells.
A fighting style with a +1 attribute.

[Wasp]

Fighting style could be half feats. Its already shared by a number of classes.

Maybe Champion's increased crit range.

Unarmored Defense, to make an unarmored paladin or cleric.
That all sounds like great fun. Especially the Fighting Style Half Feats. Thank you!


Metamagic, handled like Martial Adept:
Pick 1 Metamagic option, and you have Sorcery Points equal to your Proficiency Modifier.
Would give Sorcerer something to pick if they'd like, as well.
Love this. I mean - allowing your stealthy casters like Arcane Tricksters or Bards to get Subtle Spell sounds like such a pleasure! Cool!


You'd want to avoid doing this for classes that are underplayed. No Barbarian or Ranger features, as you'll end up removing content instead of adding to it.
That's a good point. It may be necessary to add Monk to that list!

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Any other ideas?

[Rukelnikov]

You'd want to avoid doing this for classes that are underplayed. No Barbarian or Ranger features, as you'll end up removing content instead of adding to it. However, it doesn't matter how many caster feats you make, people will always play Wizards and Paladins.

Also, try to focus on classes that provide a lot of proficiencies, as they inherently provide benefits for taking those classes instead of cheesing out their class features with a feat. For example, you might just take Cleric levels because of the multiple benefits you can get, even though a feat might get you the Channel Divinity you originally wanted.

A few examples:


Paladin's Divine Smite
Long Rest Action Surge
A single Sorcerer Metamagic and 2 Sorcery Points to use it.
A Short Rest spell slot that comes with two Warlock spells.
A fighting style with a +1 attribute.


I agree with most you said, but the two bolded cases.

The Sorcerer Metamagic, 2 Sorcery points may not be enough for the MM you picked, so you are effectively getting nothing, I'd do it 1/lr, or if you want, make it twice for those that cost only 1 SP.

The short rest slot with two Lock spells may be too powerful, compare it to MI, 2 cantrips + one 1st lvl spell/LR, this is one 1st lvl spell/SR with some versatility. Also, it being a slot per se, means it can be used for other stuff, like consuming for SP, and if the spells are cast from a slot then they are known spells, which would make this feat a actual poacher.

[Chrizzt]

I have the feeling this would take away some of the unique abilities and hence flavor of classes.

I would love my wizard to have some Metamagic, but I have to grudgingly accept that this comes with style and intent of the sorcerer. And I like such cleavages between classes. I would not want to return to 3.5 where all that became blurred.

And if I was playing a sorcerer I would not want someone non-sorcerer to be able to cherry pick wat is supposed to be my schthick.

I dont doubt that many of the suggestions above would not be unbalancing, perhaps, but it would certainly change the feel for me.

[Bjarkmundur]

I have them as "Multiclass Feats" in my Houserule document (it's near the bottom, table of content is hyperlinks)

[Mjolnirbear]

I've don't the fighting style one, with +1 Constitution.

I like and loathe the metamagic idea. I strongly feel sorcerers get shafted compared to other full casters, so if I did use this, I'd honestly just shortlist the metamagic options: basically, you can't take twinned or Quickened.

Unarmored Defense I feel is too special, and problematic on both Druids and clerics because they already max Wisdom.

Arcane Recovery would need to exclude Warlock or be worded in such a way that warlock could use it. It also can't stack with wizards or land Druids.

A short-rest spell slot would, effectively, become a feat tax on warlocks. It would also be much more powerful than MI if taken with Shield or Absorb Elements, which are both extremely strong spell choices to begin with.

Uncanny Dodge could be fun as a full feat. It would make tanks tankier or half-tanks like bladelocks able to full tank. Competing with Sentinel and PAM means it stacks less well with other options. I'd give it a high Dex prereq to prevent moon druid shenanigans, as they really don't need it. Danger sense could be another good one to add.

Bardic Inspiration would be too boring, and Guidance would be better in any case. Magical Secrets might be useful though: you can't switch it out like a bard can and can help improve flavour.

I would not allow Rage, Animal Companion, or Wild Shape. They are too unique, useful, or steps on the original class too much.

[DarkKnightJin]

That all sounds like great fun. Especially the Fighting Style Half Feats. Thank you!


Love this. I mean - allowing your stealthy casters like Arcane Tricksters or Bards to get Subtle Spell sounds like such a pleasure! Cool!


That's a good point. It may be necessary to add Monk to that list!

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Any other ideas?

For the Metamagic one, I just looked at Martial Adept. Sure, it allows a non-Battlemaster to do a maneuver.. or it lets a Battlemaster be even better at what they do.
Just applied the same basic idea to Metamagic.
And the Sorcery Points might be better at 1/2 prof mod, rounded up/down (DM's discretion, I suppose) to be a bit more balanced.
Though I personally don't think that a 20th level Sorcerer with 26 instead of 23 Sorc Points would really be any noticable amount stronger..

[Chrizzt]

I dont think you can balance metamagic as a feat appropriately. Its too interwoven with the sorcerer, who can burn slots to get sorcery points.

As a feat, it probably will not be worth it if you restrict it to 2-3 sorcery points (with 1 or 2 known kinds of metamagic). Going above that, on the other hand, gets too far into foreign territory.

If however it also grants a sorcerer new applications (in addition to 3 sorcery points) it might become nice for sorcerers. I dont know if that becomes unbalancing, when sorcerers can basically get al MM applications. A feat is no small tax

[Fable Wright]

Paladin's Divine Smite

Full stop, no. This is the fundamental core of the Paladin class and an extremely efficient burst DPS mechanic. A Bladesinger with this feature, a Moon Druid who picked it up as a feat, or a War Cleric using it with Channel Divinity cause math to break down a bit.

On the other hand, I could see...


You may Channel Divinity 1/Long Rest, and may choose a Channel Divinity option from any Domain or Oath you do not possess.
+1 Wis, Wild Shape 1/Long Rest, Druidcraft Cantrip
Jack of All Trades
Mystic Tutelage: At the end of each long rest, you may swap a spell known from your class list for another one and repeat this process a number of times up to your spellcasting ability modifier, minimum 1 (giving Bards, Warlocks, and Sorcs a tiny taste of Wiz/Dru/Cle flexibility).

[Man_Over_Game]

Full stop, no. This is the fundamental core of the Paladin class and an extremely efficient burst DPS mechanic. A Bladesinger with this feature, a Moon Druid who picked it up as a feat, or a War Cleric using it with Channel Divinity cause math to break down a bit.

On the other hand, I could see...


You may Channel Divinity 1/Long Rest, and may choose a Channel Divinity option from any Domain or Oath you do not possess.
+1 Wis, Wild Shape 1/Long Rest, Druidcraft Cantrip
Jack of All Trades
Mystic Tutelage: At the end of each long rest, you may swap a spell known from your class list for another one and repeat this process a number of times up to your spellcasting ability modifier, minimum 1 (giving Bards, Warlocks, and Sorcs a tiny taste of Wiz/Dru/Cle flexibility).


I still think there's enough of a reason to pick up Paladin levels, between the plethora of other features they get in the first few levels. Additionally, I think it'd be fair to limit it based on spell slot level. That is, you can spend any spell slot, but it only goes up to 2d8 damage.

[Haldir]

Stunning Strike- I care not a whit for how special it makes the monk. Monk is trash conceptually and in design anyway.

Honestly, I'd consider a houserule to allow stunning strikes as an option instead of extra attack. I hate that kind of artificial specialness in game design.

[DanyBallon]

Actual feats that take from class features:

Martial Adept is Battle Master maneuvers and superiority dice but with only one dice that is lower and don’t scale and only two maneuvers.

Magic Initiate let you be a spellcaster with two cantrip and a single level 1 spell.

Prodigy let give you access to bard or rogue expertise, but only for a single skill.

Healer gives you access to a bit of healing

Ritual Caster let you cast ritual spells. Two from the start, more if you find other rituals through adventuring.


All these feat gives you very limited access to relatively generic class features.

I’d say that if we should try giving access to other class features, we should look for more mundane features and/or nerf them in a way it won’t compete with the class
i.e. if I were to create a feat that gives Sneak Attack to a character, then it would grant only a single dice and instead of being a d6, it would be a d4. And maybe add a feature that help getting advantage so you can use your Sneak Attack more often.

[Daghoulish]

Stunning Strike- I care not a whit for how special it makes the monk. Monk is trash conceptually and in design anyway.

Honestly, I'd consider a houserule to allow stunning strikes as an option instead of extra attack. I hate that kind of artificial specialness in game design.

"Artificial specialness"? What else is "artificial specialness"? No action surge because it makes the fighter too special, no metamagic can't have sorcerers being too special, paladin's can't have smite it makes them too special. If you don't like monk, just say that and leave it. Don't make ridiculous claims of "artificial specialness" as if that's actually a thing.