What type of drawbacks would merit another feat at first level?

[thorr-kan]

I love feats. They're the one thing I miss most about 3E. At the same time, I like that 5E seems to have put a little more thought into its feats. No feat tax, few feat chains. Most of them are useful.

But some of my characters would like more feats, especially at first level. What type of drawbacks would merit another feat at first level?

Has this design space been explored by any third-party?

Yes, I'm reinventing flaws.

[Skrum]

Playing a martial class (any class without full casting).

[Kane0]

Not getting +2 to stat from race.

[Gignere]

I love feats. They're the one thing I miss most about 3E. At the same time, I like that 5E seems to have put a little more thought into its feats. No feat tax, few feat chains. Most of them are useful.

But some of my characters would like more feats, especially at first level. What type of drawbacks would merit another feat at first level?

Has this design space been explored by any third-party?

Yes, I'm reinventing flaws.

Just start everyone with a free feat, it’s a common house rule. Flaws were always a bad idea and just a char op exercise that ensures, you get the benefits without much of the flaw.

[animorte]

Considering 5e turned feats into an optional/variant rule, I think making reasonable exceptions is acceptable. 3.5e feats took up an obscene amount of space to get what you were looking for, silly amounts of inconsistent prerequisites.

[OldTrees1]

The impact, and thus merit, of a Flaw is always context dependent.

Consider a Rogue with Light Blindness in a campaign that is often in the sun. That is a hefty disadvantage that would double the Rogue's requirements for Sneak Attack (they need to cancel the disadvantage AND have an ally near the target).

Now consider a Evoker with Light Blindness. They probably just buy some shades for 2 gp.

The Rogue might merit Inspiration and 1-2 feats. The Evoker merits an Inspiration.

[Rukelnikov]

Losing the +2 stat modifier from race sounds reasonable, but probably still a net gain, so I'd probably go a bit further and say you lose 3 stat bonuses from race, Vhuman can't afford it, most other races would gain no stat bonuses, a few like Helf and Mountain Dwarf would still get a +1. That's fair I think.

[Witty Username]

Having only one hand?

[Leon]

Why do they need to be flaw granted, this is 5e, the simple game. Just give everyone a free feat. I know whenever I get around to running a game again everyone is going to get the skilled feat for free (because all characters should have a interesting variety of skills to use) at the very least.

[fbelanger]

-3 constitution.

[Catullus64]

Depends quite a bit on the feats. Some of the more roleplay-heavy, low combat-power feats I might just give for free, especially if it's not particularly synergistic with the person's class. A Barbarian I might grant Keen Mind for free; a Wizard would have to accept a serious drawback. Likewise, that same Barbarian would have to pay a heavy drawback for Great Weapon Master.

Another option is to award feats for completing quests. The feat could be tied to a magic item the party wants to retrieve, or maybe an NPC will teach his secret technique if the party perform a dangerous task for him. Talk to PCs about what bonus feats they want and decide what kinds of quests are appropriate. Just make sure any feat quest also incurs extra rewards for the other PCs; allow them to demand a higher share of treasure, place magic items well-suited to them, or give opportunities for them to earn their own feats as part of the quest.

[Psyren]

None honestly. If you're allowing feats at all, allowing one at first level / as part of a background is proven to be fine and is a pretty common houserule at the tables I've seen. Judging by the recent UAs WotC themselves appear to be coming around on this too.

If you want to get fancy you can try limiting it to just feats martials would be interested in, or lower-powered generic ones like Skilled or Tough, but such limits aren't necessary at the end of the day.

[thorr-kan]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.