Cantrip Expert Feat

[Garfunion]

I wanted to create a feat similar to the crossbow expert feat that had a bit more beneficial effects for spell casters.

Cantrip Expert
requirement: must have the spellcasting or pact magic class feature

•When you use your action to cast a cantrip that requires the target(s) to make a saving throw, you may increase the DC of the cantrip by 2.
•Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged spell attack rolls.
•You learn one cantrip. Choose the cantrip from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list. Your spellcasting ability for this cantrip depends on the spell list you chose from: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, and warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.

[noob]

Increasing save dcs goes against the principle of bounded accuracy I believe.

[Garfunion]

Increasing save dcs goes against the principle of bounded accuracy I believe.

I suppose but, there is a fighting style that increases range attacks by 2.

[JeenLeen]

I'm not sure of how 5e has evolved since I was seriously playing it, but does letting anyone pick up Eldritch Blast break anything?
I thought the feat in the PHB that allowed one to learn a cantrip restricted the lists such that you couldn't learn that one.

[Garfunion]

I'm not sure of how 5e has evolved since I was seriously playing it, but does letting anyone pick up Eldritch Blast break anything?
I thought the feat in the PHB that allowed one to learn a cantrip restricted the lists such that you couldn't learn that one.
Nope both magic initiate and spell sniper feats allow you to pick eldritch blast cantrip.

[Anymage]

I'm not sure of how 5e has evolved since I was seriously playing it, but does letting anyone pick up Eldritch Blast break anything?
I thought the feat in the PHB that allowed one to learn a cantrip restricted the lists such that you couldn't learn that one.

EB by itself isn't too bad. It's a bit better than Fireblast, but not by much. You need invocation support to make EB by itself really shine, and you can't pick up the relevant invocations without being a warlock. So poaching it with a feat or a magical secret doesn't mess with much.


I suppose but, there is a fighting style that increases range attacks by 2.

That's one option for a class feature. Throwing it onto a feat would set a much more worrisome precedent.

Plus, since both this feat and Spell Sniper give a bonus cantrip (and Magic Initiate nabs you two), I wonder what sort of cantrip spammer you're planning your feat for. Eldritch Blasting warlocks can just take Repelling Blast, which means second and subsequent attacks on a creature don't have disadvantage plus you get the thing out of your face. Anybody else can just take one melee cantrip as a class pick plus one ranged one off of a feat (or even one of each from MI), and have options. Or pick up a cantrip with a save instead of an attack roll. So while I get the goal, and I'd be fine with swapping the Crossbow Expert effect for one of the bonuses in Spell Sniper if you really wanted it, I think that there are enough other options towards the same effect that you don't really need to dig for relevant extra bennies to justify this being a whole feat.

(Alternately if you really want it, a half feat with just the xbow expert part should do. The +2 attack is again quite a lot, and settling this in as a half feat should reduce the need to find a third perk to round this out as a whole feat.)

[Garfunion]

That's one option for a class feature. Throwing it onto a feat would set a much more worrisome precedent.
Funny, with the new Tasha’s book you can now get it with a feat.


Plus, since both this feat and Spell Sniper give a bonus cantrip (and Magic Initiate nabs you two), I wonder what sort of cantrip spammer you're planning your feat for.
I really don’t think that is something to really worry about but, I can remove the 3rd bullet if it helps.



(Alternately if you really want it, a half feat with just the xbow expert part should do. The +2 attack is again quite a lot, and settling this in as a half feat should reduce the need to find a third perk to round this out as a whole feat.)
It is a +2 to cantrip saving throw DCs not attacks. It would open up the door to allow certain cantrips to shine a bit more for example those cantrips that require a constitution saving throw.

I’ll probably add a requirement to the feat similar to what spell sniper has.

[Deepbluediver]

Let me start out by saying that my first introduction to D&D was with 3.5, and so my sense of balance and power and versatility is colored by all of that. So all criticism is welcome and you can't be too harsh.

With that out of the way, one thing I've wondered about is how you might incorporate something like advancing cantrips so that they were effectively 1 tier higher. I.E. if the the cantrip advances it's effect at levels 5, 11, 17, etc, then you treat a cantrip as if it were a single step greater than intended. So if you're at levels 1-4, then you treat it as if you were at 5; if you're at 5-10, then you treat it as if you were level 11, etc etc etc.
This was born out of my current game, where our GM converted us to a spell-point system instead of spell-slots, and I found my character with 1 single leftover solitary spellpoint that I had no use for (a 1st level spell costs 2 spell points). So I suggested that you could improve a cantrip by 1 step if you spent a single spellpoint. The group hasn't adopted it yet- our GM (bless their soul) is of the mind that cantrips should be the most simplistic of magic, and aren't really open to modification. Which I don't object to- I admit that my sense of what's fair and what's gamebreaking is limited.

But it was something I've considered in one form or another, and since the OP seemed to be looking at improving cantrips I thought this could be a good place to air my thoughts.



Also, finally, I'm currently playing 2 different 5th edition games- one in which I'm a single-class Druid, and the second in which I'm a multi-class mess of a character. :smallbiggrin: And if you decide to go for some sort of multi-caster build, then you could potentially end up with a LOT of cantrips. That, or someone taking a dip into a caster, seems like the sort of character this feat could appeal to. That's not really a "yay" or "nay" with regards to the OP's suggestion, just something that I thought I'd point out.