Party Feats.

[Stygofthedump]

Has anyone considered allowing feats for the entire party? Something like 'teamwork' allowing swapping initiative scores, or 'pious' allowing a pool of minor channel divinity for party to use.

I'm also interested in the idea of Kama. I realize that this mostly happens in game but what about an actual mechanical effect detrimental to the characters for evil deeds done. Maybe just give DM advantage to use for adversaries' rolls?

[OldTrees1]

Yes. There are reasons an entire party might get a blessing, feature, or curse that functions on the group as a whole rather than each character separately.

[Skrum]

I've given NPC characters abilities like this, like dwarven or hobgoblin mercenaries that can march in formation (all of them can take a move action at the same time). Going along with this, phalanx fighting granting defensive benefits when allies are adjacent.

As a player, I would never spend personal resources on something like this, but as a relatively minor boon granted for RP purposes? This could be really cool

[f5anor]

Has anyone considered allowing feats for the entire party? Something like 'teamwork' allowing swapping initiative scores, or 'pious' allowing a pool of minor channel divinity for party to use.

I'm also interested in the idea of Kama. I realize that this mostly happens in game but what about an actual mechanical effect detrimental to the characters for evil deeds done. Maybe just give DM advantage to use for adversaries' rolls?

Chef, Inspiring Leader, Bountiful Luck are some examples of party benefiting Feats.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Once upon a time, I believed in party teamwork.

I allowed the party to choose their own order of initiative. I suggested offensive casters went first, followed by buffers followed by melee followed by ranged, and lastly healers and those that preyed on the weak/low HP enemies (eg. fiend patron warlock). Not all parties agreed. The point was they knew who would act first, act last, and why. They could change this order after a rest assuming a team meeting could happen.

When we went to foreseen combat, they all rolled initiative and contributed their results to the party, with the highest going to the player the party wanted to go first. In unforseen combat, I ran it as RAW.

There was also a noncombat order, which is the order in which I asked the players what they were doing. This usually kept the most extroverted from having an unearned "initiative" in social situations, blurting out something regrettable.

So that's my party feat. I didn't call it that back then, I called it teamwork. Eventually I gave up on it. I don't recall why. I blame COVID.

[sambojin]

High Dex and Alert is surprisingly synergistic on any full caster as a party feat. The list of options it gives you on having a pretty good chance of acting before anyone else is handy, as is the "no surprise" thing (even if everyone else is, having one party member not being able to be is a godsend if they're a full caster).

Metamagic Adept, especially with Careful Spell to open up tonnes of options for party friendliness. Extended Spell does too on a "save your resources, my one hour duration spell will cover a couple of encounters now it's two hours" type of thing. Quickened Spell can do some stuff, just because casting a spell and then dragging someone out of the way (or cantrip'ing something really pertinent) can save lives.

Lucky, because it is generally good at getting stuff done. Or not done to others.

Ritual Caster is nice, because if you don't have a Wizard, you're the free spell and prep slots for the party. Better on casters, but good for any party. Not bad even with a Wizard, because if someone is going to ritual something for free, you may as well too.

Sentinel/PAM is just plain handy for martials. Kinda proper lockdown, works with lots of stuff, and saves the whole party's backside so often from annoying stuff that it's like a gameplay feature for many parties.

Magic Initiate or Fey/Shadow Touched or Wood Elf magic can fill a lot of holes on capabilities of any party. Don't have a thing? Now you have a thing. Even +10 stealth.

As well as the others mentioned above.


So, with these as the base level for any particular single character, you could probably power the homebrew ones up a bit considering two or more N/PCs have to take the feat for them to be a true Party Feat. If one feat is good, two or more should be even better for party synergy, considering the opportunity cost for the players.

[KorvinStarmast]

High Dex and Alert is surprisingly synergistic on any full caster as a party feat.

Yeah: our Wizard (Evoker) took Alert at my suggestion and has been thanking me ever since. If I can find him a dagger of warning it would be awesome.

[RogueJK]

...Wood Elf magic can fill a lot of holes on capabilities of any party. Don't have a thing? Now you have a thing. Even +10 stealth.

I find Wood Elf Magic to be a pretty overlooked feat. In the context of "feats to help the entire party", it can be quite beneficial to a party, especially if they don't otherwise have a Druid (or a Ranger with the Druidic Warrior fighting style).

Guidance
Longstrider
Pass Without a Trace

Three great party buffs. Guidance is constantly handy for skill checks, plus the other two are situationally very useful and you don't have to prepare them or use a spell slot on them.



It could even be adapted to mirror the Fey/Shadow Touched feats, if you wanted to. This would bring it in line with these newer style of feats, as well as open it up to more than just Wood Elves. Something like:

Nature Touched
Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You learn the Pass Without Trace spell, and either one Druid cantrip of your choice or one 1st level spell of your choice from the Transmutation school. You can cast Pass Without Trace, and the 1st level Transmutation spell (if chosen), without expending a spell slot. Once you cast either of these spells in this way, you can’t cast that spell in this way again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using spell slots you have of the appropriate level. The cantrip's/spell's spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.

(WotC already did basically the same thing with the old Fey Teleporation feat for High Elves and the newer Fey Touched feat for everyone.)

[KorvinStarmast]

Party Feats

1. Life of the party.
Add 1 to your Charisma score.
You gain the shoot confetti cantrip. (Or Thaumaturgy, or Minor Illusion)
Wearing a lampshade on your head give you advantage on performance checks.
You are never hung over the morning after the party

2. Wedding Crasher
Add 1 to your Charisma score
You have advantage on Persuasion checks.
You can cast alter self once per long rest

shoot confetti
cantrip, conjuration
Range: 30 ft
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: S, V

You point a finger from either hand in a direction away from you. A stream of confetti bursts forth to a point within 30' of you, partially obscuring a volume no larger than a 5' cube for 1d4 rounds. You can have two of these effects present at any one time.

The confetti is flammable: mundane fire (rotches, matches, lanterns, etc) and spells such as fire bolt that set fire to flammable materials burn the confetti away, causing 1d4 fire damage.
This fie damage is increased to 2d4, 3d4, and 4d4 at levels 5, 11, and 17 respectively.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Huh, my brain first went to thinking someone was testing the idea of party-wide feats, like a special feat the players choose that applies to everyone.

Which is suddenly an idea that I really, really love and want to flesh out.

[Carlobrand]

Cheerleading!

[Abracadangit]

Or how about feats that let players team up for sick two-character maneuvers!? Like Chrono Trigger-style double techs? Who doesn't want that!?

There has to be like a million threads about that already, right. Right?

[Cicciograna]

In some of the 3.5 Ed splats there used to be a section on teamwork benefits. I don't remember exactly where it was, but I remember really liking them. Basically if the team satisfied a certain number of prerequisites (like having certain feats or a specific number of ranks in some skill) they could attempt some nifty maneuver.

It could be interesting to re-implement them in 5e, although the smaller flexibility in character building could somewhat limit their feasibility.

[RogueJK]

Or how about feats that let players team up for sick two-character maneuvers!? Like Chrono Trigger-style double techs? Who doesn't want that!?

In some of the 3.5 Ed splats there used to be a section on teamwork benefits. I don't remember exactly where it was, but I remember really liking them. Basically if the team satisfied a certain number of prerequisites (like having certain feats or a specific number of ranks in some skill) they could attempt some nifty maneuver.

Pathfinder (basically 3.75E) went full-tilt with dozens of Teamwork Feats, whereby if two or more party members each had a specific Teamwork feat, they got additional benefits when they all attacked the same enemy. There were even classes the specialized in making the most of these Teamwork feats.