Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition has added a lot of cool feats, or features, that allow you to make a really unique character. From subclasses that flavor your character history to backgrounds detailing the life they had before adventuring.
Well to take this amazing customization to the next level, you have Feats. Today we will be going over what Feats are, how your character can acquire them, and the different types of feats.
WHAT IS A FEAT?
So what is a feat? Quoted directly from the Player’s Handbook Page165 “A feat represents a talent or an area of expertise that gives a character special capabilities”. For example this could be a fighting technique that your character is exceptionally good at.
Or your character has spent most of their life in peak physical health, which allows them to gain a boost to their overall health. If you want something to really give your character a great bonus that others won’t have, the Features are a great way to further customize your character.
HOW DO YOU GET FEATS?
How do I acquire a Feat? As your character levels up, there will come times when you gain an Ability Score Improvement. But in lieu of boosting your stats, you can instead, take a feat.
However it’s important to note that some feats have a prerequisite you must meet before taking it. For instance some feats will say you must already have a Strength of at least 13 or higher. If you take a feat with a prerequisite that you meet and you happen to decrease in the stat listed, possibly due to a curse, you cannot use that feat again until your stat once again meets that requisition.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
So now you’re probably wondering what are the benefits to taking feats? Well let's take a look at what some of the feats offer. The Alert feat allows the character to always be on the lookout for danger.
That said, your character cannot be surprised while they are conscious and creatures attacking do not gain advantage from being unseen by you when they make an attack roll. You also gain a +5 to your initiative rolls.
Now let’s look at the Heavily Armored feat. For this one you must already be proficient in medium armor before taking it. Gaining this feat shows that your character has trained to be able to use heavy armor. This is mainly used for classes that do not give your character proficiency to use heavy armor in the first place. You also are able to increase your Strength ability score by 1, to a max of 20. Another example of a useful feat is the Savage Attacker which allows the character to reroll your weapon’s damage dice once per day and choose the damage total from either of the two rolls.
BOTTOM LINE
There are many more feats listed in the Player’s Handbook and all of them have some amazing perks that can take your character and your party to the next level when used wisely. They can be fun additions to the character, but by no means does your character need to take a feat.
They are just enhancements that can add to the way you want to customize your character. But remember that when taking a feature, you are losing the opportunity to increase your stats, so think wisely as they both have their pros and cons.
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