Blink as a Feat

[Kafana]

One of my players is going has an eldritch knight and he would like us to homebrew a feat he can obtain at level 6 that can allow him to cast Blink.

This would be as sort of a spell-like ability tied to the story of his character and an ancient civilization that relied on inter-dimensional travel. I need help balancing this feat.

What would be an appropriate way to make this ability and also have it scale?

The options I am seeing so far:



Can be cast X times per short rest, lasts 1 minute.
Can be case as an action or as a bonus action and lasts for 1d3 (1? 1d4?) rounds. When cast as a bonus action it has recharge 5-6 and you can't cast it in any form until it recharges.


The scaling can come by increasing the duration, increasing the chance you blink (e.g., at level 9 you need to get 8 or higher, at 13 5 or higher), or the number of uses if option 1 is selected.

[Fnissalot]

Since magic initiate gives a lvl 1 spell once per long rest (and 2 cantrips), a lvl 3 spell will have to be nerfed quite a bit to feel fair. The xanatar racial feats are often discussed as better. Fey teleportation gives a once per short rest 2nd level spell. Fade away gives you invisibility as a reaction.

Why does he want it? Is it the trip to the ethereal plane, the random flashing out of existence for enemy turns, or the teleportation movement outside of turns, or something else? Giving the whole spell as a once per Long rest feat will probably be too much while at the same time feel bad since you cannot use it that often.

How about either (you could probably add a small ribbon to each of these as well):
A)When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you phase out until the start of your turn. The phasing works like the blink spell. You can phase out as many times as your proficiency bonus (or Con mod?). You regain your phase outs when you finish a long rest.

B)When you take the Dodge action, you have a chance of falling out of sync with the dimensions. Roll a d20, on an 11 or higher you phase out as if you were phased out by the blink spell. (Might need to be limited to set amount of times)

C) take fade away but change invisibility to phase to the ethereal plane as a reaction once per short rest.

[DeTess]

If none of the other characters get special powerful feats, I wouldn't make this feat any stronger than 'you add blink to your list of spells known+some ribbon'.

Alternatively, make it something party-friendly. Since it has to do with an ancient civilization and inter-dimensional travel, give him the ability to shift the entire party to the ethereal fora very short amount of time. At first it's just for dodging something nasty (lasting 1-2 turns), and at higher levels it could last long enough to do some actual travel (10 minutes to 1 hour).

[MilkmanDanimal]

Eldritch Knights don't even get third-level spells until level 13, so asking for a feat to replicate that is . . . a lot. Magic Initiate is a single first-level spell, once a day, plus a couple cantrips, and there's no way to balance a third-level in the same way. I'd say no, and wait until level 13. Maybe they can find a magic item of some sort to do it once a day or whatever, but, as a feat, I don't know how it fits in with all the other fits and doesn't seem really unbalanced.

[Crgaston]

What if it were an item?
Perhaps an amulet or a weapon from the ancient civilization that can only be attuned by someone of that bloodline which allows the bearer to cast Blink once per Short Rest?

[Rukelnikov]

Since magic initiate gives a lvl 1 spell once per long rest (and 2 cantrips), a lvl 3 spell will have to be nerfed quite a bit to feel fair. The xanatar racial feats are often discussed as better. Fey teleportation gives a once per short rest 2nd level spell. Fade away gives you invisibility as a reaction.

Why does he want it? Is it the trip to the ethereal plane, the random flashing out of existence for enemy turns, or the teleportation movement outside of turns, or something else? Giving the whole spell as a once per Long rest feat will probably be too much while at the same time feel bad since you cannot use it that often.

How about either (you could probably add a small ribbon to each of these as well):
A)When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you phase out until the start of your turn. The phasing works like the blink spell. You can phase out as many times as your proficiency bonus (or Con mod?). You regain your phase outs when you finish a long rest.

B)When you take the Dodge action, you have a chance of falling out of sync with the dimensions. Roll a d20, on an 11 or higher you phase out as if you were phased out by the blink spell. (Might need to be limited to set amount of times)

C) take fade away but change invisibility to phase to the ethereal plane as a reaction once per short rest.

These are pretty good suggestions!

[BloodOgre]

As a feat, since Fey Teleportation (essentially a second level spell) is once per short rest, the I would make Blink once per long rest and make 6th level a prereq.

But I agree with those above who say it may be better as an attuned magic item, providing the ability to cast blink once per day, or give it three charges, costing one charge to cast blink, but it only recovers one charge a day. I think this would be equivalent to a major, rare magic item.

[Nagog]

Do they have 3rd level slots yet? If they do, I'd just let them prepare it. Frankly the Eldritch Knight's spell school limitation is flavor enforcement more than balancing, so it shouldn't be a problem. If they don't, make it a feat to cast it using a resource they already have access too, like Action Surge or a lower level spell slot. No need to over complicate things too bad.