Ranking EVERY Feat in D&D 5e: Player's Handbook (part 2 of 2) 

I would agree that in most instances I prefer ASIs in limited levels and in point buy. So I would agree with it. VHuman and CL really allow more of those lower ones to shine without sacrificing too much mechanical weight.

Something my brother and I are testing is what happens if you give an extra feature at the beginning of the game. So if you are playing a vh or cl then you start with two additional features. I am still running my two year campaign in a more typical fashion al by comparison, but with the extra time we both have to DM we're both experimenting. The idea, hopefully, is that it gives more room to try out quirkier builds. I will point out, however, that I suspect it will only serve to get builds online faster, and then focus on ASI earlier. If you've optimized properly and your build is complete then those ASI increases are typically the only factor left to boost your potential, when if it is just a 5%.

If you only have one relevant stat at an odd number then you probably want a decent half feat over the ASI.

I think Chris is assuming that the +1 bumps your modifier though, and that it’s your primary ability score being increased. +2 to one ability score that only increases its modifier by 1 would probably be worth like 30-35 points. So to get the largest effect you would want to boost two ability scores that are both odd, but both of those scores would need to also be your primary ability scores to justify valuing them at a full 50. A wizards bumping their Int mod by one and their wisdom mod, or even their Con, by one would be hard to justify valuing at a full 50 points.

It was pointed out to me that most of the time, the choice is between something that helps you in a lot of situations (the ASI) versus something that's applicable to more specific situations (the feat). That's more generalization than a hard-and-fast rule--obviously something like Lucky is pretty helpful in almost any situation--but overall I think it's an accurate observation.

Exactly. It’s so disappointing when DMs miss this! It makes Darkvision seem way more powerful than it is. Whenever I ask my players passive Perception, then tell them it’s minus 5 for relying on darkvision, suddenly they start actually making decisions, balancing the risk of giving away their position vs. blundering into a trap. If a DM plays by the rules, that third bullet on Skulker is worth more.

@@jeffreycarlson1523 Agreed. And on a Gloomstalker it's even better.

More importantly, they don't enforce the -5 penalty for passive perception checks. It's a good feat in that it removes the penalty, but one that I'd consider less useful than concentration protection.

​@@jeffreycarlson1523Yeah, darkvision as a trait in DnD is less powerful than IRL darkvision, in that while it does allow you to see things, you still take disadvantage on perception checks, whereas a lot of IRL animal species like lions would not have this drawback.

Agreed, my rogue has expertise in Perception but is still failing a lot of checks because of dim light!

Since druids generally get screwed on cantrip ranges, this can be one of my favorite feats for druids, as I *REALLY* don't like the Circle of the Moon subclass. And it's especially nice for Circle of Stars and (~cough~ bugbear ~cough~) Circle of Wildfire druids, both of which have *INTERESTING* ranged spell attack options. 😁

It is an easy feat to fix with just some minor tweaks

​@@TreantmonksTempleI suspect that if it wasn't for the update this would have been an errata.

Wizard: I did that a while ago

Ritual Caster is largely redundant on Wizards specifically

​@@SortKaffeit's totally redundant for a wizard. If you are going to try to be a ritualist you have to be a Tomelok.

@@nickm9102 tomelock is best for it, but I could see myself going for it with a monk. Especially if the party doesn't otherwise have all those utilities available.

Should be High A. Good but Ac is really not that important in 5e compared to prior systems. Moderately Armoured is good but is really on par with the mobile feat as avoiding potential damage all together by bonus action disengage on a rogue is far more useful then an extra 3 ac. is good but is really on par with the mobile feat as avoiding potential damage all together by bonus action disengage on a rogue is far more useful then an extra 3 ac. Mobile should be higher then ritual caster as well for the former infuriates the DM while the latter doesn't. ''Moderately Armoured'' above 'sentinel' is just wrong. I'd say the ranking are about right but think about how these work in play from experience & observation at the table?

Thing is though, I can get medium armor proficiency from a single level in the right class. I get way more levels than I do feats. It’s not always going to be the correct decision, but it makes it a harder choice than it would a feat that gives me something only a feat could give.

@@daracaex Yeah, something I'd like to see someone do is take these scores and then apply them to what level 1 in each class provides (likely as a multiclass) to get a sense of exactly how useful those dips are.

@@daracaexVery valid point! I might even lower ''moderately armoured'' a tad more from high A to mid or even low A with that taken into consideration. it's still good but overrated.

Highly overvalued, given how useful it might be for say a warlock to multi-class into something like a paladin.

What’s more that tends to get overlooked is that this lets you pickup tool proficiencies, too. The Artificer gains expertise at level 6 in ALL tools with which they are proficient in. Skilled shouldn’t be slept on

​@@MelandBLT Tool proficiencies are surely the ribbon of all ribbons. The part of the game they are usually used in is the bit that isn't the campaign. That is F tier but it doesn't mean F tier can't be fun.

​@@apjapkiThanks to Xanathar's Guide of Everything, there are a lot more uses for tools, and while skills will come up more often than tools, if you have a feature that grants you expertise in tools, it's reasonable to take a tool proficiency now. Poisoner's Kit and Thieves' Tools are very good examples of when I'd pick a tool proficiency, since these have consistently useful effects.

@@sharmakefarah2064 Thieves tools are obviously good beyond what other tools can do. Poisoner's kit is pretty much the same. It's the others I am referring to. +2 on lockpick attempts for a feat seems pretty bad when things like Aid exist. Yes of course I am aware of the Xge expanded tool rules and it's still completely minimal. It's FUN as all hell but it's clearly F.

@@apjapki It depends on the tool, but IMO Xanathar's has buffed most tools enough beyond my examples, like say Cooking Utensil's or Mason's Tools by healing more hit points when short resting and finding traps better in very common building types respectively that I'd give tool proficiencies in general a solid C-B tier, though different tools vary wildly in quality for proficiency here. Not the most useful proficiency, but is pretty reasonable to pick them up, and while not game-changing, XGtE made them surprisingly useful in real adventures. Agree to disagree here.

Yeah, that's enough to actually make them competitive with Firearms in the modern day, because most firearms that aren't rifles have range limits well under 600 feet. Admittedly, 200 yards is unfortunately close in modern combat, but that's still enough to reach almost rifle range, and handily beats out all carbine and pistol ranges.

I really expected a higher score for ritual caster. I get that it is somewhat DM dependent, but it can give a player the ability to cast a dozen good spells: alarm, detect magic, identify, unseen servant, comprehend languages, find familiar, augury, skywrite, tiny hut, water breathing, phantom steed, divination, and telepathic bond. Surely it should be in high S tier. That's definitely why it got nerfed in the OneDND UA.

Even without that nuance, it’s an amazing feat for martial classes. Imagine a feat that allowed you to have advantage on roughly half of your attacks, whether ranged or melee; and allowed you to do aerial scouting. It would be S-tier without question. That’s JUST Find Familiar from Ritual Caster.

@@DukeTrout I'm not sure a familiar used to grant Advantage in combat would survive very long, but yes, it's a fantastic spell to have.

@@davec1 An owl with flyby doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. So opponents would have to use actions to attack the familiar, which is as valuable if not more valuable than advantage.

It’s not bad on a variant human monk since monks need help with survivability.

Tough is so close to the value of an ASI in my opinion as +2 to constitution is worth just the slightest bit more in my eyes but it's a close call. Totem Barbarian as rage makes it double effectively or if a lower HP build like wizard perhaps but even on wizard I'd take +2 con. people that argue tough is F think 'defensive duellist' is good which it is not as a +2dexderity is twice as valuable if one ignores rule of cool for flat figures.

"Any character that ever gets hit is built poorly" is a pretty insane take, but it's definitely one of them.

you can get tough from a spelljammer background , if you are allowed them at your table

If you've built yourself not to get hit or to always take reduced damage, Tough is even better. I feel like anybody who argues that Tough isn't worth it isn't needs to up their encounter difficulty to 2xDeadly, 3xDeadly, etc, so they'll give Tough some respect. There are a lot of bad feats if you have 1 combat every few sessions and it lasts 1 round.

You know that scene in Wonder Woman where she bats a mortar aside with her shield? I did that with a Meteor Swarm. S tier for me.

I just wanna know who the fun hating jerk was that decided you should only get the shield’s AC to Dex save bonus if the effect only targets you.

To be fair, it wasn't as viable until Tasha's. It's also nice since Monks can benefit from more than just a d10 weapon. They can weaponize Whips better than most with the Martial Arts die, and then attempt Stunning Strikes safely from 10ft reach. A Long Bow cannot be a Dedicated Weapon, but we could only dedicate one at a time anyways so it doesn't hurt to have it for long distance pot shots when nothing is in range of a BA melee attack. Then they could get something squirrely like Net proficiency. If nothing else, grabbing two d10 Versatile weaps instead of one offers different damtypes for Crusher/Slasher/Piercer, potential vulns, resists, immunities, or most impactful could be qualifying for stock adventure/campaign magic weapons. Definitely neat that weak feats can look nice when they're pitted against other weak feats that accomplish mostly the same thing. This is an interesting option for Rogues who also lack proficiency with Whips, Longbows, Nets, and certain magical Longswords slap on the Finesse property like the Sun Blade. A classic for the Rogue is the Scimitar of Speed to make a Bonus Action attack without needing to take the Attack Action. Thus allowing us to Ready an Attack for two Sneak Attacks per round...but while Rogues like Monks do get proficiency in Shortswords, they don't get the very mechanically similar cousin that is Scimitars!

It's an obvious choice for an eldritch knight! :)

Out of combat ... Gives a fighter something to do. However save your slot and take 1 level of fighter. Instant ritual casting and all the spells you can find .. or gain

Telling that PAM is worse than XBE because "it's melee" is ridiculous (or weird at best). You are fighting with a melee weapon, where are you supposed to be? If you are taking PAM it's obvious that your build is optimized for melee fighting.

@@parheliaa There is a logic to it, in the sense that ranged is "better" than melee because someone who can fight at range can generally deal damage more reliably and, since most potential enemies are melee-focused, usually takes damage less frequently. Player characters who rely on melee can have their damage drop off sharply if faced with enemies who are more mobile than them, unless they have a way to boost their own mobility or hinder their enemies'. Ranged characters just need the enemies to be visible and somewhere in their general area to deal damage.

@@CivilWarMan If you are optimizing for melee this is irrelevant. Because in that case some of your other feats like Sentinel would also be useless.

@@parheliaa You are missing the point. Polearm Master is just as powerful for melee characters as Crossbow Expert is for ranged characters, but melee and ranged are not equal. Crossbow Expert scored higher because, given equal levels of skill and optimization, a ranged character is going to be stronger in most scenarios because the very nature of melee's stricter positioning requirements makes melee characters deal damage less reliably and take damage more frequently, simply due to how 5E works. That doesn't make melee or its associated feats useless. A party without someone who can fight well in melee is usually going to struggle. But if the party already has a good balance between melee and ranged and has all of the critical party roles covered, adding more ranged characters is going to increase their effectiveness a lot more than adding more melee characters, and that means feats that boost the power of ranged characters are generally going to be considered more powerful than equivalent feats that boost the power of melee characters.

Agreed. Savage Attacker can be better on a high level rogue as well, and Martial Adept is stronger on a battlemaster who has plenty of fuel for the added versatility of those maneuvers. I think Chris is right to assess these in a vacuum, but players should be mindful to apply their own situational context.

Martial adept synergizes really well with the superior technique fighting style and the battle master subclass. I wouldn't mind two dice from it, though. Savage attacker synergizes really well with rogues and paladins, if we interpret it to allow a boost on sneak attack dice and smites.

I believe Magic Initiate is still the only feat to give you booming blade/greenflame blade though, which can be super valuable on certain builds.

@@jeffreycarlson1523 Savage Attacker only lets you reroll the *weapon's* damage dice. It does not do anything for the rogue and its sneak attack.

But melee rogues are highly sub-optimal. He's rating these as if they are being used in the most effective way.

​@@matthewtopping Most do forget that rogues have ranged weapons. Even a few newer DM's I had were flummoxed when I stated I throw or loose such at the said enemy. Arcane trickster with find familiar to give advantage through the help action at range is one of the most reliable ways to get off sneak attack while avoiding any damage. Still rogues are probably the 9 or 10th of the 13 class in power but they are fun. More what I use in short campaigns as they get a tad reparative.

@@arnijulian6241 sentinel doesn't work with ranged.

@@TespriTrue but with Pole arm master & valid melee options it is very good. A paladin & barbarian for instance has no reliable ranged options baring multiclassing which is often not worth it for range.

I agree. To a degree. I think the first bullet point should hold a lot less weight, the third a bit more, but also Sentinel is a C tier feat in my opinion. It just doesn't come up nearly as often as other powerhouse feats that churn out functionality. Rogues aren't exactly safe in melee. They're built around skirmishing and avoiding the front line. Even still, OAs are rare for most tables, and they can miss. This Reaction attack is more likely to occur, but still needs some stars to align. Advantage on these attacks are incredibly rare. Speeds don't get zeroed when we miss, and if we do zero speeds...most monsters don't care! They're usually built around melee, and can just attack us. If they had to Disengage or Dash to get to a more vulnerable ally, that is them wasting their turn and buying the PCs precious time and action economy. Now, if a dragon is swooping into attack before risking some damage to retreat back into the skies, then Sentinel can shine, but that's a very specific scenario. All the other S and A tier feats are crushing it round after round. This feat also works worse and worse when we get better Reactions. It even has to compete with OAs to an extent. When an enemy dies to Sneak Attack because they tried to slip past the Rogue, this feat does nothing. PAM with Glaive does make it pretty darn nice, but sword and board is also great for PAM. GWM is great for PAM. Resilient, ASIs, or just multiclassing cutting into these builds makes fitting in Sentinel real hard to actualize. Especially since most characters are playing within Tier 1-2.

The only issue with that is, that would pretty much make the entire Battle Master subclass obsolete.

This is commonly brought up, but it made me think today about how much easier it is to generate advantage for GWM (melee). There are so many effective ways to get something Prone, and then of course there's Reckless Attack. XBE muddies this a bit with also being able to take advantage of Prone targets by cutting the disadvantage that can be imposed within 5ft of ranged attackers, but that's still requiring two feats working in tandem. Along with sometimes awkward positioning. I also think the BA attack of GWM never gets enough credit. It's a lot more potent than additional accuracy, and comes up a ton. For many tables/combats, the increased range SS and bypassing partial cover may rarely if ever come up. Ranged combat being vastly superior to getting up close and personal means SS will pretty much always "win", but I think it's pretty cool how closely these two can compete for offensive capability.

@@Guyoverthere07in my opinion the BA attack of GWM is more of a ribbon feature. Scoring a crit doesn’t not happen, but with advantage making two attacks per turn it’ll only happen about once every other fight. If you have a BA that competes with it that’s an opportunity cost, if you’re a barbarian (the best class for GWM) you’ll be using your BA to rage on your first turn ever combat, and if your combats average less than 5 turns, that means your BA will be spoken for more often than you crit. If you’re a barb subclass that uses their BA, then that’s further competition for it.

@@grayson9124 Yup the crit triggering it is really rare. But “Reducing a creature to zero hit points? That is likely to be triggered much more often.

@@grayson9124 It'd be a ribbon to me too if it was just bound by how often you crit, but kills are so common. Barbs are great to talk about since they've got the perfect pairing for GWM--Reckless Attack, and potentially have some BAs. Everyone uses Rage round 1, but at some tables that resource does run out. A lot of Barbs have another BA through the PAM feat, but not all! More importantly, they may not have that feat before GWM and in that case PAM isn't online until level 4 or 8. Two big gaps there in play. Now, if we're starting from level 1, PAM is best to start. Technically. Most tables blaze through levels 1 and 2, where Barbs are quite front loaded anyhow. Many just start from level 3 or higher. Once we're level 5, GWM takes priority over PAM. If you're Custom Lineage or Variant Human, this doesn't matter, but for most Barbs it's a big decision. Then let's look at the Barb subs with BAs. There's three awful ones that almost no one plays--Battle Rager, Berserker, and Tempest. Frenzy has some chops at some tables or one shots, but it's normally too big a detriment. Then there's a niche one in Totem Eagle, Wild Magic, and some level 10 and 14 features. Many of these BAs are used in niche situations, and/or don't see much if any play. Giant's Mighty Impel being the latest and greatest, but it's online too late for most builds/tables. More importantly, PAM with Elemental Cleaver is often stronger...on paper. I think this feature is both powerful and fun, but how many characters, let alone Barbs, making it to level 10+ and playing much beyond that is rare. The only real one I think worth our concern is Wild Magic. HALF of the 8 Wild Surges result in another way to use our BA round after round. That makes GWM a little more redundant for sure, but it makes PAM a lot more redundant. PAM is stronger than most Surge BAs, yes, but not strong enough. Picking a different feat is best. Where we don't already have solid BAs between Rage, GWM, and half our baseline subclass feature. Not to mention any BAS from our race, multiclass, or items we may pick up. Bolstering Magic also improves GWM--basically giving it the Archery Fighting Style--so that more kills with it are possible. Anytime we fail to kill/crit, we are still likely to have a BA to utilize. This is one of the strongest subs for Barbs imo now. Often overlooked, because people focus on the random table. The other one that also sings with just GWM is the Beast Barb. Claws give us 3 attacks to proc a crit or secure a kill instead of 2 before using our BA. For reference, that's 26.49% of one crit instead of the typical 18.54%. Pretty nice, and Claws are really good at finishing off low hp enemies that don't need a risky power attack behind em. PAM is not viable on this sub since to make the BA attack we have to use the Attack Action only with our polearm. So we can't mix in claws. A lot of people like to try to make TWF, the DBS, Longtooth Shifter, or Soul Knife to squeeze out a 4th attack with this sub, but the classic GWM Barb beats them all for streamlined DPR. These two Tasha subs can take great advantage of the martial half feats from Tasha's (Crusher/Slasher/Piercer).

@@Guyoverthere07 creatures dying happens often, but it being you who gets the killing blow isn’t something you can guarantee. It’s the same issue necromancy wizard suffers from. If you’re playing with 4 players, you’re probably only gonna get 25% of the kills, and if you’re a GWM barbarian, you should be targeting the biggest baddest monster in the encounter, which means the BA from killing isn’t going to be usable against the most meaningful target, and it’s definitely not a good idea to change up your targeting just to swing more.

It is. It allowed my swords bard to gain 18 armor class from half plate with shield proficiency, the shield spell, and bardic inspiration. With ring of protection and cloak of protection, I was hitting 40 ac

Nah, it's a bad feat, it's not underrated at all. It's an anti-feat. You can go 1 level dip in fighter and get the equivalent power of 4 to 5 feats and still retain your full ASI progression. And, for casters (which are the only ones that can benefit from this), basically all 20th level features are garbage. So, without a dip in fighter, you gain a 7th level spell slot and a useless feature, but you sacrifice a feat. If you dip 1 level in fighter, you sacrifice a functionally useless feature and a 7th level spell slot, but you gain the equivalent power of 4 to 5 feats AND you get to keep your full ASI progression, since you don't have to waste an ASI on Moderately Armored. There's literally no contest. Moderately Armored is absolute garbage IF mutliclassing is allowed.

I really hope the 2024 version is better than the playtest. They slaughtered my boy.

Yeah you take it on basically any character (a Fighter for example) and you suddenly increase their out of combat utility dramatically.

I was a little surprised too. I will say that on the right build, Moderately Armored is S-Tier, but I think it's a lot more niche than most of the other S-tiers, which wouldn't be my definition of S-Tier.

It's an objectively good feat that I'm unlikely to take due to aesthetic/roleplaying reasons.

Same. It's not worth that many points. Middle of A, at best.

@@KevinVideo Plus it's effect can be accomplished with a 1 level dip in cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, fighter, artificer, hexblade or barbarian* [*if you start as barbarian]. Acknowledging that levels aren't free, but neither are feats, and you certainly get more levels than feats, in addition to the other features from a level dip.

Unless you really want to get those 20th level features, a dip in fighter is better. But the limitation on what characters can actually benefit from the feat is limited anyway. Bard (non-Valor), Warlock (non-Hex), and Rogue can take advantage of the feat with out taking Lightly Armored, but I don’t know if my Wizard or Sorcerer want to take two feats instead of dip. I personally can only imagine taking this on a Rogue so you can still Stroke of Luck or multiclass into Sorc/Wizard. Although, if you really wanted to use sub-par legacy Hobgoblin to get Light Armor as a Sorc/Wiz, you only need one feat!… it’s a good feat, IF you can take advantage of it

Well it's about situationality.

@@apjapki Savage Attacker sucks in every situation, though.

can you clarify what you mean? What exactly doesn't it do?

@@tommihommi1 so basically if you have a spell focus in one hand, and you have something like a rope, or a potion bottle in the other hand, then you are unable to cast a whole bunch of spells due to somatic component rules. War caster doesn’t help you to bypass this at all, despite some claims to the contrary.

@@ethans9379 You could store something like a potion or a spellcasting focus with your free object interaction as part of the spellcasting action. An instance where both hands are being occupied by something you can't drop/store, at a time when you would want to cast a spell, seems pretty rare.

A bigger issue is needing the free hand for material components for M spells. So it works with a shield or weapon in one hand and a free hand or you’re limited to spells without a material component. Even the spell focus doesn’t substitute for M spells with consumed material components.

This isn't at all based on data.

@@Spyger279. It is based on data, not all based on data. Thanks for clarifying.

You could get 2 of those tool proficiencies from your background, a far smaller price to pay. It's wild that you don't get extra skills as you level up. Skilled shouldn't even need to exist, make it at least a half feat.

Admittedly, it's suboptimal compared to stuff like getting it from your background or class, but yes this can be helpful, thanks to Xanathar's Guide of Everything finally making quite a bit of tools go from trash to decently helpful for adventurers, like Mason's tools or Cooking Utensils.

You have a point as I have taken observant unlike athlete which both are out of combat roles that have use. Observant is very Dm dependant as it fluctuates from high D to low A depending on agreed interpretation. Low B or high C as very finicky but a flat ASI is usually a better choice.

I don't think it's incredibly useful in social or scouting situations either. You're still limited to languages you understand. You also need to be able to see the creature talking, but not hear them speak, to get value out of the feat. It's nice when you need it, but overall still rather situational.

@@deathpacito8702 Comprehend Languages is a must ritual spell for ''observant''. Really it is wither a wizard, artificer or arcane trickster or pact of the tome warlock as they are ritual casters as well. Observant is not a feat most classes should even consider but it has niece use.

I have a feeling this was erataed out but that might be the fighting style in particular that was hit with that errata.

@@abcrasshadow9341 You gain one superiority die, which is a d6 (this die is added to any superiority dice you have from another source).

Battlemasters are the only characters I like the feat on. Expanding their already good pool of maneuvers and superiority dice just feels better than knowing two maneuvers and only being able to use one per short rest.

And the Archery fighting style makes in easier to hit with than GWM.

@@ElJefeRules GWM is a lot easier to get advantage with though.

That's true and it shows what a good game this is, that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Savage Attacker is best on a Rogue's Sneak Attack.

Tanky spellcasters seem to be the standard for powergaming in 5e. And honestly I don’t like them too much in my mind theatre. Maybe it’s oldschool, but powerful wizards in lord of the rings for example wear robes, not platemail. Heavy or medium armored arcane spellcasters is something I’d honestly hope WotC would disincentivize or put some penalty on in the 2024 PHB. But probably that won’t happen from what I’ve seen so far.

The silly thing is, rules as written, your spell focus doesn't count as a free hand unless the spell being cast has a material component, so you can't cast spells with a somatic component but no material component (there's a lot of these) unless you have a hand without the spell focus in it free.

If you take your dex to 16 you are most likely taking it to 20. At which point studded leather is only 1 AC less than half plate with MAM. Might as well take Fighting Initiate: Defense at that point.

Excluding monster saves, there are a fair number of qualifying spells. Disintegrate, enervation, immolation, catapult, sacred flame, hellish rebuke, snare, cordon of arrows, acid splash*, grasping vine, guardian of faith, light, resilient sphere, maybe others. Do you think by RAW it would be applicable as well in scenarios where you are the only target within a dex save's AOE? Regardless, Tavern Brawler has no business ranking higher than it...

Well they designed a whole feat around just that.

He is but he did core rule book feats in 2 part video as you have 40 odd in the core players hand book. I assume you didn't watch Treantmonks set up video explaining his criteria & scope for the coming feat videos at present. You have 104 feats last I checked so about another 60 await. Colour coding is to come in short for Xanathar's, tasha's & so forth! Kind regards!

Let’s leave the expertise out so Skill Expert retains its niche.

He ignore rules i think

Yep, that's the big use case here, and this can be very, very important. I think at least one character should have the skulker feat for a party.

Kill is too common but Crit is great.

I agree with you that it will come up often in practice since you've pluralized your character and Dex saves are common. What I feel like I could say for Treantmonk though is that the mount often won't utilize Evasion as well as say a Monk or Rogue would. Most mounts lack the health and Dex saving throw mod to capitalize on Evasion. They'll rarely make their saves to ignore damage, and even if they succeed they might still get one shot or now be one more blast away from that. While it definitely provides value to this feat and build concept, it may not get as much mileage as we like. I actually think Shield Master has the exact same problem, but in reverse. Sure, bullet point two doesn't do anything for bullet point three, but...the two bullet points offer something against every type of Dex save! Also, bullet point two being weak doesn't detract from bullet point three being strong. Yes, it costs a Reaction, but getting a form of Evasion for a PC over say an NPC like a mount is a much bigger deal. Another reason that may ring true is that a PC is more likely to have a bonus they can add to a save, from an ally, than the mount would get. Be that from Bardic Inspiration, Bless, Bond, Flash of Genius, etc.

@@Guyoverthere07 I can mostly agree with that, though even if the mount only gets one extra round of survival that is pretty huge for your total effectiveness if you have built around being mounted, rather than just happened to have a mount for now. (In which case a feat to boost your mounted prowess...) And the Feat means you probably get many many more than just one or two rounds more life out of the mount, as you end up targeted (and probably not hit nearly as much as your AC is likely higher) and the AOE effects powerful enough to take a mount down in one or two hits are generally not going to fire off every round. If the mount survives just one of them it may well survive the entire fight.

Dipping means you don't get higher level class abilities. For some classes it doesn't matter but for others it absolutely does, especially lower level play.

You also don't get many feats al low levels. Grabbing one level in something means you can take a better feat as well. Ritual Caster lets you pick up things like Water Breathing and Rary's Telepathic Bond at higher levels, so not exactly a Wizard-1 situation.

I agree, one correction though. Ritual caster can't really be replaced by a level 1 wizard dip if you gain access to future higher level ritual spells, which is the majority of the feats potential value IMO. To add higher than level 1 rituals to their book the wizard would need to have the class level investment for the spell, so 5 wizard levels for phantom steed, 9 for contact other plane etc

True there are some high level rituals, it was an easy example. Still unique still has more value, but very good points on those higher ones.

At some tables* It heavily relies on your DM using passive checks

It should be but many DMS don't actually play with passive perception or reward it

This can be fixed by simply giving a plus 5 to all passive or active investigation and perception checks

@@abcrasshadow9341 I'm always the DM at my table ^^, but I had a player who picked this feat, with a Elf bladesinger. So obviously I said 'If you want a +1 INT, Fey Touched or Shadow Touched are better". But she didn't like those feats because they didn't fit her character concept. And so she took Observant, which is way better than Keen Mind imo. It has helped her on several crucial moments.

My current bounty hunter runs with Observant. Nice thematically and mechanically. Most of the traps and hidden monsters are spotted without even making active perception check. Even passive investigation comes up from time to time

Both parts work on dex saves of any nature

In the final video I will have the scores for every feat in the description in order from highest to lowest.