clearstream
(He, Him)
After much helpful feedback, including a survey in which ~240 ASIs were recorded, I have refined my proposed PHB feat revisions down to those I feel most likely to be successful. (I'm using these in my game.) In brackets I have briefly explained my reasoning, such as low pick rate. I have tried to avoid introducing new content. Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback.
Players Handbook Refined Feats (also attached as Home Brewery PDF - v3 is last version)
Brawler (merges Grappler with Tavern Brawler—together taken 1/240 picks)
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You are proficient with improvised weapons. Your unarmed strikes use a d4 for damage. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target. You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling. Once you have grappled a creature, you can use an action and make another grapple check to pin it. If you succeed, you are both restrained until the grapple ends.
Crossbow Expert (no longer frees all ranged from disadvantage in melee—house preference that melee beat ranged in close quarters)
You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient. When you use the Attack action to attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to load and attack with a hand crossbow you are holding. Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on attack rolls you make with hand crossbows.
Duelist (merges Defensive Duelist with Savage Attacker, uses any 1H weapon, broadened prerequisite, reroll all damage dice, improves feat support for 1-H weapons and Rogue—together, the two feats were taken 4/240 picks)
Prerequisite: Strength or Dexterity 13 or higher
When you are wielding a one-handed melee weapon with which you are proficient and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you. Once per turn, when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the damage dice and use either total.
Mage Slayer allows melee weapon attack to interrupt cast—taken 0/240 picks
When a creature within 5 feet of you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to attempt to interrupt it. Make a melee weapon attack against that creature. If you hit, it makes a Constitution saving throw. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you inflicted, whichever number is higher. If it fails its saving throw, its spell fails and has no effect.
When you damage a creature that is concentrating on a spell, that creature has disadvantage on the saving throw it makes to maintain its concentration. You have advantage on saving throws against spells cast by creatures within 5 feet of you.
Moderately Armored (removes prerequisite, merges Lightly Armored with Moderately Armored—together taken 0/240 picks)
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with light and medium armour, and shields.
Mounted Combatant (merges Charger with Mounted Combatant—together taken 0/240 picks)
You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount. You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead. If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
When your mount uses its action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed). You can make the roll to shove using either your own, or your mount’s ability.
Observant (merges Dungeon Delver with Observant, clarifies house preference that only Investigation detects doors—Dungeon Delver was taken 0/240 picks, Observant 3/240)
Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
If you can see a creature’s mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it’s saying by reading its lips. You have a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Intelligence (Investigation) scores, and you have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect the presence of secret doors.
You have advantage on saving throws made to avoid or resist traps and have resistance to the damage they deal. You can search for traps while traveling at a normal pace, instead of only at a slow pace.
Sharpshooter (−5/+10 is once per turn—reduces potential for ranged attacks to warp narrative)
Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls. Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half and three-quarters cover. Once per turn, before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a −5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.
Skilled (merged with Linguist, dropping ciphers—together taken 2/240 picks)
Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools or languages of your choice.
Skulker (merges Athlete with Skulker, climb and swim speed increase instead of climb cost reduction, supports Thief—together taken 1/ 240 picks)
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or higher
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Your speed increases by 10' You can try to hide when you are lightly obscured from the creature from which you are hiding, and when you are hidden from a creature and miss it with a ranged weapon attack, making the attack doesn't reveal your position. Dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight.
Spycraft (merges Actor with Keen Mind, takes ciphers from Linguist—Actor was taken 2/240 picks, Keen Mind was taken 0/240)
Increase your Intelligence or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You always know which way is north and the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset, and you can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month.
You can ably create written ciphers. Others can’t decipher a code you create unless you teach them, they succeed on an Intelligence check (DC equal to your Intelligence score + your proficiency bonus), or they use magic to decipher it.
You have an advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Performance) checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person. You can also mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.
Tough (merges with Durable—Durable was taken 0/240 picks)
Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points.
When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).
Weapon Master (grants proficiency in all weapons—taken 1/240 picks)
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in all simple and martial weapons.
[Edit: Renamed Skulker to Agile to hopefully better convey how it is conceptualised. Edit to remove Elemental Adept (benefit too minor to be worth changing). Edit to merge Lightly Armored with Moderately Armored, and adjust Agile to revert to Athlete benefits. Edit to revert Agile to granting a speed increase, which feels better to me than the grab-bag of climbing and jumping benefits Athlete gave. Edit to fix a bug in Grappler carried over from PHB RAW i.e. RAW on this feat is bugged. Edit to revert Grappler change, and rename Agile back to Skulker in line with streamlined handling of Athletics benefits. Note - this will be final update - 25 September 2017]
Players Handbook Refined Feats (also attached as Home Brewery PDF - v3 is last version)
Brawler (merges Grappler with Tavern Brawler—together taken 1/240 picks)
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You are proficient with improvised weapons. Your unarmed strikes use a d4 for damage. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target. You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling. Once you have grappled a creature, you can use an action and make another grapple check to pin it. If you succeed, you are both restrained until the grapple ends.
Crossbow Expert (no longer frees all ranged from disadvantage in melee—house preference that melee beat ranged in close quarters)
You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient. When you use the Attack action to attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to load and attack with a hand crossbow you are holding. Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on attack rolls you make with hand crossbows.
Duelist (merges Defensive Duelist with Savage Attacker, uses any 1H weapon, broadened prerequisite, reroll all damage dice, improves feat support for 1-H weapons and Rogue—together, the two feats were taken 4/240 picks)
Prerequisite: Strength or Dexterity 13 or higher
When you are wielding a one-handed melee weapon with which you are proficient and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you. Once per turn, when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the damage dice and use either total.
Mage Slayer allows melee weapon attack to interrupt cast—taken 0/240 picks
When a creature within 5 feet of you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to attempt to interrupt it. Make a melee weapon attack against that creature. If you hit, it makes a Constitution saving throw. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you inflicted, whichever number is higher. If it fails its saving throw, its spell fails and has no effect.
When you damage a creature that is concentrating on a spell, that creature has disadvantage on the saving throw it makes to maintain its concentration. You have advantage on saving throws against spells cast by creatures within 5 feet of you.
Moderately Armored (removes prerequisite, merges Lightly Armored with Moderately Armored—together taken 0/240 picks)
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with light and medium armour, and shields.
Mounted Combatant (merges Charger with Mounted Combatant—together taken 0/240 picks)
You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount. You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead. If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
When your mount uses its action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed). You can make the roll to shove using either your own, or your mount’s ability.
Observant (merges Dungeon Delver with Observant, clarifies house preference that only Investigation detects doors—Dungeon Delver was taken 0/240 picks, Observant 3/240)
Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
If you can see a creature’s mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it’s saying by reading its lips. You have a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Intelligence (Investigation) scores, and you have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect the presence of secret doors.
You have advantage on saving throws made to avoid or resist traps and have resistance to the damage they deal. You can search for traps while traveling at a normal pace, instead of only at a slow pace.
Sharpshooter (−5/+10 is once per turn—reduces potential for ranged attacks to warp narrative)
Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls. Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half and three-quarters cover. Once per turn, before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a −5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.
Skilled (merged with Linguist, dropping ciphers—together taken 2/240 picks)
Increase your Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools or languages of your choice.
Skulker (merges Athlete with Skulker, climb and swim speed increase instead of climb cost reduction, supports Thief—together taken 1/ 240 picks)
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or higher
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Your speed increases by 10' You can try to hide when you are lightly obscured from the creature from which you are hiding, and when you are hidden from a creature and miss it with a ranged weapon attack, making the attack doesn't reveal your position. Dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight.
Spycraft (merges Actor with Keen Mind, takes ciphers from Linguist—Actor was taken 2/240 picks, Keen Mind was taken 0/240)
Increase your Intelligence or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You always know which way is north and the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset, and you can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month.
You can ably create written ciphers. Others can’t decipher a code you create unless you teach them, they succeed on an Intelligence check (DC equal to your Intelligence score + your proficiency bonus), or they use magic to decipher it.
You have an advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Performance) checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person. You can also mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.
Tough (merges with Durable—Durable was taken 0/240 picks)
Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points.
When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).
Weapon Master (grants proficiency in all weapons—taken 1/240 picks)
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in all simple and martial weapons.
[Edit: Renamed Skulker to Agile to hopefully better convey how it is conceptualised. Edit to remove Elemental Adept (benefit too minor to be worth changing). Edit to merge Lightly Armored with Moderately Armored, and adjust Agile to revert to Athlete benefits. Edit to revert Agile to granting a speed increase, which feels better to me than the grab-bag of climbing and jumping benefits Athlete gave. Edit to fix a bug in Grappler carried over from PHB RAW i.e. RAW on this feat is bugged. Edit to revert Grappler change, and rename Agile back to Skulker in line with streamlined handling of Athletics benefits. Note - this will be final update - 25 September 2017]
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