Homebrew Feats for 5E

[Kalshane]

Figured I'd share some of the house rule feats I'm using for my 5E games.

Bladesong
You've trained in the graceful sword-fighting arts favored by elven fighter-mages.

• You gain +1 to Dexterity or Intelligence, to a maximum of 20.
  
• You may treat a longsword as a finesse weapon.
  
• When wielding a longsword in one hand and no weapon or shield in the other you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Elusive
You are skilled at slipping out of danger.

• You gain +1 to Dexterity, to a maximum of 20.
  
• Whenever you make a successful Tumble attempt to move through an opponent, you do not provoke an attack of opportunity for leaving that opponent’s threatened range.
  
• You may attempt to escape a grapple as either a Bonus Action or an Action. (Meaning you can potentially attempt to escape twice on the same turn.)

Juggernaut
When you get moving, few can stand in your way

• You gain +1 to Strength or Constitution, to a maximum of 20.
  
• Whenever you make a successful Overrun attempt, you do not provoke an attack of opportunity for leaving that opponent’s threatened range.
  
• If you use the Dash action on your turn, your Overrun attempt is made with Advantage.

Knife Expert
You have exceptional skill with daggers and throwing knives

• When making a melee attack with a dagger, you score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20
  
• Any daggers you draw during your turn do not count against your actions for that turn.
  
• Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature does not impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
  
• You have Advantage on any Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks to hide a dagger or throwing knife on your person.

Politically Adept
You know the ins and outs of noble politics, allowing you to navigate them with ease.

• Gain +1 to your Charisma, to a maximum of 20
  
• You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks when speaking to nobles whose culture you are familiar with. (Generally, if you can speak their native language, you are familiar with their culture.)
  
• With sufficient time in a locale, you can identify the major players in local politics as well as their alliances and rivalries. A small village may take a couple hours, where as a major city may take a week or more. (This ability does not allow you to gain knowledge of hidden organizations: secret societies, cults, criminal organizations and the like, though you may hear whispers of their existence.)

Swordmaster
You know how to utilize all aspects of your sword

• At the start of your turn, when wielding a longsword or greatsword, you can change your grip on the weapon so as change the striking surface, allowing you to do slashing (blade), piercing (point or quillions) or bludgeoning (pommel) damage with it.
  
• At the start of your turn, when wielding a longsword or greatsword, you can instead choose to take a half-sword grip, allowing you to do 1d8 slashing or piercing damage with the blade with an Attack action. You can then choose to use your Bonus Action to strike with the other end to either Shove an opponent or make a melee attack for 1d4 piercing or bludgeoning damage.

Throw Anything
You can throw assorted objects with accuracy.

• Increase your Dexterity or Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
  
• You are considered proficient in splash weapons (such as alchemist’s fire and acid) and improvised throwing weapons.
  
• You treat any melee weapons you are proficient in as if they have the thrown quality, with a range of 20/60.

Thug
Where others may strike with a subtle knife in the ribs, you prefer attacking with brutal force.

• You gain +1 to Strength, to a maximum of 20.
  
• You may perform a sneak attack with any melee weapon in which you are proficient, provided you meet the other requirements.
  
• Whenever you use a melee weapon to hit an opponent with a sneak attack or critical hit that deals damage, you can use your Bonus Action to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check against that opponent. If successful, the opponent has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn.

One note for Thug, I have house-ruled the Great Weapon Fighting style to do Strength modifier damage on a miss if the roll is within 5 of the target's AC, so Fighter/Rogues can't use a great sword and re-roll their sneak attack damage. A different option would be to restrict the feat to only allowing sneak attack with one-handed weapons.

[Arakhor]

I really like the ideas behind a few of those. :)

[SmiloDan]

These look really good. I just have some nitpicky issues with some of the language.

I think they changed the name of AoO to opportunity attacks.

For Throw Anything you might want it to grant proficiency in splash weapons, and not just be "considered" proficient in splash weapons.

This isn't a language critique, but more of a design issue. For Knife Expert I want to know if you want to finagle the wording so Champion Fighters can crit on 18-20. I don't think that would be overpowered, unless you're concerned about a Fighter 3/Rogue X getting lots of sneak attack crits.

But other than those, these are some really great feats.

[Kalshane]

Yeah, it should say "Opportunity Attacks". My 3.x/PF is showing there.

Let me double-check the Tavern Brawler feat when I get home. I'm not sure if I used "considered proficient" for a specific reason (ie to match Tavern Brawler) or if it's just a case of me wording things oddly.

All instances of increased threat range that I can find (Champion Fighter, one or two magic items) specify the range rather than saying it increases the existing range, meaning they're not intended to stack. So I kept that language.

I don't think allowing them to stack would necessarily break the game, but without actually seeing in practice, I couldn't say. So I erred on the side of being more conservative and sticking with existing language in the rules.

[Lorathorn]

I wanted to ask about knife expert, and whether the lack of disadvantage when making ranged attacks when within 5 ft of a hostile enemy meant thrown knife attacks or any ranged attack.

I love the other feats. They really help a character showcase an area of interest and specialty.

The swordmaster feat might need just one more oomph though.

[Jiggy]

I like Bladesong, except that you flavor it as being related to fighter-mages while it has absolutely nothing to do with magic. I would either tweak it to have at least some token connection to magic, or else change the theming.

Elusive/Juggernaut: Is "overrun" or "tumble" even actually a thing in 5E? I didn't think they were, but I could have missed them.

Knife Expert: Drawing daggers doesn't cost actions in 5E, so you'll need to re-word that part to do what I think you're trying to do. Also, as someone else mentioned, is the ranged attacks thing supposed to apply to everything?

Swordmaster's second ability starts to feel weird once people have Extra Attack.

Does Throw Anything's third ability override the existing range of melee weapons that are already Thrown?

Thug: What's the DC? Is that standardized elsewhere that I overlooked?

[Kalshane]

Lorathorn wrote:

I wanted to ask about knife expert, and whether the lack of disadvantage when making ranged attacks when within 5 ft of a hostile enemy meant thrown knife attacks or any ranged attack.

The lack of Disadvantage is for any ranged attack, much like Crossbow Expert.

Quote:

I love the other feats. They really help a character showcase an area of interest and specialty.

Thank you.

Quote:

The swordmaster feat might need just one more oomph though.

I agree, though an ability boost would be too much. Not sure what an appropriate minor bonus would be.

Jiggy wrote:

I like Bladesong, except that you flavor it as being related to fighter-mages while it has absolutely nothing to do with magic. I would either tweak it to have at least some token connection to magic, or else change the theming.

It's meant to be a callback the 2E class/proficiency. The flavor is meant as just that, not set in stone.

Quote:

Elusive/Juggernaut: Is "overrun" or "tumble" even actually a thing in 5E? I didn't think they were, but I could have missed them.

They're optional rules (which I'm using in my game) in the DMG.

Quote:

Knife Expert: Drawing daggers doesn't cost actions in 5E, so you'll need to re-word that part to do what I think you're trying to do.

You only get one free object interaction per round. So you could draw a single knife for free. Beyond that it would take an action normally.

Quote:

Swordmaster's second ability starts to feel weird once people have Extra Attack.

The idea is you reduce your main damage with the weapon (which would to apply to any attack you make that turn) to 1d8 in exchange for getting a bonus action attack or shove with pommel end.

Quote:

Does Throw Anything's third ability override the existing range of melee weapons that are already Thrown?

No. I should clarify that. Existing thrown weapons would retain their normal range.

Quote:

Thug: What's the DC? Is that standardized elsewhere that I overlooked?

I wrote this feat before I realized the DMG didn't have any standardized rules for using Intimidate. I'd say maybe the DC is 10+the target's proficiency bonus+their Wisdom modifier? Or would an opposed roll of some kind be better?

[SmiloDan]

For Thug, probably make it an opposed check or maybe even a saving throw (Wisdom or Charisma?) with a DC = to the Intimidate check?

For Swordmaster, maybe allow versatile weapons to do their two-handed damage even when wielded one-handed? Or maybe allow a Swordmaster to use a bonus action to make a melee sword attack? Or maybe allow the Swordmaster to use a reaction to add his proficiency bonus to his AC against a single attack, or maybe use a reaction to grant resistance against a melee attack and/or advantage on the saving throw to avoid a carrier effect on a successful hit.

Jiggy, overrun and tumble are optional combat actions in the DMG.