D&D 5E So I think the Designers get the "Alertness" feat wrong and made it OP

[Athinar]

So I think the Designers get the Alertness feat wrong and made it OP; should be:

Alertness - +5 to "Perception" and Advantage with "Perception" with Surprise Rolls; if you win the Perception to Stealth contest you gain +5 to Initiative

fits better for the "Always on the lookout for danger"

Not "can no longer be surprised" - OP

Wiki - Alertness is the state of active attention by high sensory awareness such as being watchful and prompt to meet danger or emergency, or being quick to perceive and act

the way it is written it will be used by Rogues and Assassin to get a Higher Initiative and it was written for "Always on the lookout for danger" and not "With this Feat I am the Danger"

 

[Paraxis]

There are a few things that modify initiative and make you immune to surprise.

Surprise Immunity

• Alertness feat
• Weapon of Warning (uncommon magic weapon)
• Ioun Stone of Awareness (rare magic item)
• Feral Instincts (Barbarian ability 7th level)
• Foresight (9th level spell)

Initiative Bonus

• Alertness feat +5 bonus
• Rod of Alertness (very rare magic item) advantage
• Sentinel Shield (uncommon magic item) advantage
• Guardian (minor magic item property) +2 bonus
• Weapon of Warning (uncommon magic weapon) advantage
• Jack of all Trades (Bard ability 2nd level) +1/2 prof bonus
• Feral Instincts (Barbarian ability 7th level) advantage
• Remarkable Athlete (Champion Fighter ability 7th level) +1/2 prof bonus

I don't think the feat is out of line with the rest of the abilities.

Surprise isn't that big of a deal, and some people love going first but honestly after the first round of combat initiative is not that big of a deal either.

I did leave off the artifacts, having both the hand and eye of vecna makes you immune to surprise and the sword of kas gives you a +1d10 to initiative, but those are artifacts and not commonly seen.

 

[DaveDash]

There are a few things that modify initiative and make you immune to surprise.

Surprise Immunity

• Alertness feat
• Weapon of Warning (uncommon magic weapon)
• Ioun Stone of Awareness (rare magic item)
• Feral Instincts (Barbarian ability 7th level)
• Foresight (9th level spell)

Initiative Bonus

• Alertness feat +5 bonus
• Rod of Alertness (very rare magic item) advantage
• Sentinel Shield (uncommon magic item) advantage
• Guardian (minor magic item property) +2 bonus
• Weapon of Warning (uncommon magic weapon) advantage
• Jack of all Trades (Bard ability 2nd level) +1/2 prof bonus
• Feral Instincts (Barbarian ability 7th level) advantage
• Remarkable Athlete (Champion Fighter ability 7th level) +1/2 prof bonus

I don't think the feat is out of line with the rest of the abilities.

Surprise isn't that big of a deal, and some people love going first but honestly after the first round of combat initiative is not that big of a deal either.

I did leave off the artifacts, having both the hand and eye of vecna makes you immune to surprise and the sword of kas gives you a +1d10 to initiative, but those are artifacts and not commonly seen.

Surprise IS a big deal but you can't always get it, but when you can get it, it's huge.

Having said that I don't think this feat is OP.

 

[DMCF]

Everybody hates giving a person who is never suprised a cool birthday gift.

 

[frankthedm]

Feats can be very strong, so you should think long and hard before allowing them.

"He-heheh"

 

[Kikuras]

I suppose the real test of OP is whether or not it's used over other feats, which would be an interesting set of data. How often does Alertness show up on any particular character build? Which feat slot is used for Alertness? Is there a correlation between use of the Alertness feat and the Variant Human racial option? Is WotC crunching these numbers? Should they be?

 

[Shiroiken]

Alert is a strong Feat. It's about the power level I feel they should be. Compared to other really good Feats (Lucky, Great Weapon Master, Resilient), it's pretty much on par. Compared with some of the weaker Feats (Linguist, Medium Armor Master, , Weapon Master), it's OP.

 

[Paraxis]

Let us examine the feat as it is written now.

ALERT
Always on the lookout for danger, you gain the following benefits:

• You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.
• You can't be surprised while you are conscious.
• Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls you as a result of being hidden from you.

The initiative bonus is nice but considering how broad the range of the d20 is, not game breaking. Spellcasters with large AoE offensive spells who want to go before the mixed melee starts likes going first, the rogue assassin likes going first, for everyone else sure it is better to go sooner but not the end of the world to roll badly on initiative.

Can't be surprised, surprise happens maybe once every other game session against the PC's and then it is action denial for 1 turn only. You have to check against perception the most common skill and there are things like Observant feat that boost that even higher. It is a nice ability but remember surprise is an individual thing, not everyone in the group is going to have the Alertness feat. Also if you just have to slit throats you still can because you just catch them while they are unconscious.

Enemies don't gain advantage on attack rolls against you if they were hidden, great perk but unless you fight nothing but ninjas and rogues it wont see a bunch of play either. Again something that might come up every other session or so.

Alertness is a good feat, keeps you safe from rogues while if a rogue a good ability yourself, but not OP or broken.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I dont consider alertness OP at all. It is primarily a defensive feat, or for assassins it's strong to increase the chance of a free crit attack. Still not OP compared to Lucky, GWM, Shield Master, etc

 

[Athinar]

I believe the intent of the Feat was Defense but maybe it was for both Offense and Defense. But if it is for both then the wording should have been written different "Always on the lookout for danger" to something like
"Always on the lookout for danger and always on the lookout for weakness" or something like that