Heroes of Krynn Revisited Knight feats Good/Bad/Broken?

[MadBear]

So one of my players is looking to use the Knight feats from the Heroes of Krynn revisited, and I'm curious what other peoples thoughts are on this. Their level 6 variant human with the knight background would have the following feats:

- Square of Solamnia (free feat from the background)
- Martial Adept (1st level feat from variant human)
- Knight of the Rose (4th level feat)
- Knight of the Sword (6th level feat)


This also means that by 6th level, the character will have

4 superiority dice that are d8's that recharge on a short rest (base class)
2 superiority dice that is a d6 that recharges on a short rest (one from the martial adept feat, the other from the fighting style that grants superiority dice)

7 superiority dice that are d8's that only recharge on a long rest. (3 from squire feat and 2 from each of the knight feats)

Finally, this will give the fighter 9 different maneuvers.

My table tends to play fairly optimized characters, so I'm curious how this would stack up against optimized other classes like a cleric and/or wizard.

Thoughts?

[Dork_Forge]

If no one else is getting a free feat (which is what the background is) then I think this would stand out as significantly powerful. The Fighter will essentially have enough dice to be dumping them heavily in almost every encounter.

Depending how long the game goes their d6s will increase too.

[diplomancer]

The free-feat backgrounds don't "break" the game, but they are unbalanced compared to the other backgrounds.

Easiest solution is probably the one presented in the Dragonlance book. Give those who don't get those backgrounds their choice of the Skilled or Tough feat instead.

[MadBear]

The free-feat backgrounds don't "break" the game, but they are unbalanced compared to the other backgrounds.

Easiest solution is probably the one presented in the Dragonlance book. Give those who don't get those backgrounds their choice of the Skilled or Tough feat instead.

That makes sense. Seems like an easy solution that feels good to those who get it.

[MadBear]

So I take it that the lack of responses are probably a good sign that this build wouldn't be considered broken.


If no one else is getting a free feat (which is what the background is) then I think this would stand out as significantly powerful. The Fighter will essentially have enough dice to be dumping them heavily in almost every encounter.

Depending how long the game goes their d6s will increase too.

The d6's wouldn't increase as they're from the martial adept feat and superior technique fighting style which grant d6's and are not upgraded over time.

[Dork_Forge]

So I take it that the lack of responses are probably a good sign that this build wouldn't be considered broken.

Broken no, strong yes, it really depends on if other PCs get starting feats.


The d6's wouldn't increase as they're from the martial adept feat and superior technique fighting style which grant d6's and are not upgraded over time.

Improved Combat Superiority (10th level) uplifts all SD, not just from the subclass. That's both Raw and how JC ruled it so presumably RAI.

[MadBear]

Improved Combat Superiority (10th level) uplifts all SD, not just from the subclass. That's both Raw and how JC ruled it so presumably RAI.

Wait. Really? I could have sworn that they ruled that it didn't improve it. That's good to hear.

[Dork_Forge]

Wait. Really? I could have sworn that they ruled that it didn't improve it. That's good to hear.

Link for verification https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1250815333331382274

But yeah, something to keep in mind depending how long the game goes.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

The free-feat backgrounds don't "break" the game, but they are unbalanced compared to the other backgrounds.

Easiest solution is probably the one presented in the Dragonlance book. Give those who don't get those backgrounds their choice of the Skilled or Tough feat instead.

The book also gives other feats as the PCs level up, IIRC. I think at 4 you can get Sentinel or War Caster for free.

[diplomancer]

The book also gives other feats as the PCs level up, IIRC. I think at 4 you can get Sentinel or War Caster for free.

Yes, but everyone's getting those extra feats for free as well, so a Squire could now become a Knight, and so on. You don't really need to do that just to balance the initial free feats, though of course you can do it too.

The free level 4 feats are definitely more powerful than the free level 1 feats, though, so I wouldn't necessarily assume that they're well balanced with the background feats.