‘One D&D’ Playtest – New Feats Spell Better Character Builds
The One D&D Playtest adds new Feat rules to the game. One D&D‘s take on Feats means more and better options for building your character.
Feats are one of the most integral parts of D&D 5E play, which is strange, given that they’re optional rules. That’s right, by the book, you’re not technically expected to have them. Though the reality is most players play with them, even as early as 2019 (oh those were the days) we knew that more than half the players used feats. Now it’s time for the One D&D Feats treatment.
And in One D&D Feats have a better base to build from. The new playtest packet introduces different feats and implies further build options down the road. Check it out!
One D&D Feats Playtest Rules
First things first, One D&D continues their trend of making the game a little game-ier. If you haven’t noticed certain capitalizations by now, Feats are their own distinct thing. And just as Backgrounds are a little more universal, so too are Feats. Feats all have the following parts:
- Level requirement – you must be this level to play
- Prerequisite (if any) – for specialized feats
- Repeatable – can you take the feat more than once
But unlike Backgrounds, which are very build-your-own, or the new Races, which are a little more standardized, Feats feel like they flourish in this environment. In the One D&D Feats playtest there are new takes on old favorites, as well as a few new feats.
Reading through these, each feat changes how you interact with certain parts of the game. They either give your character something new to do, or a new way to use a skill. It’s honestly quite similar to the Pathfinder 2E feat rules, in particular Skill Feats which give you new ways of doing things with your existing skills. But let’s look at what exactly these new feats let you do.
Alert
The Alert feat returns. In 5E, it meant you couldn’t be surprised while you were conscious, a +5 bonus to initiative, and other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls if you can’t see them. Powerful fun stuff all in all.
New Alert is different. Much less broad. It’s a 1st level feat with no prerequisites, nor is it repeatable, but it lets you add your proficiency bonus to Initiative rolls, and allows you to swap your Initiative with one willing ally immediately after you roll it.
That’s it. This one suffers a little in comparison. But hey that’s what playtest feedback is for.
Crafter
Finally a feat for players hoping for concrete crafting rules.
This new feat, also a 1st level feat, non-repeatable, gives you Tool Proficiency with three different Artisan’s Tools to begin with. But then it immediately gives you a use for those. You reduce crafting time by 20 percent, and you get a 20 percent discount on buying any nonmagical item.
Healer
Healer gets a much-needed buff in the One D&D Feats playtest. Now it has two benefits: the Battle Medic benefit, which lets you spend a use of your Healer’s Kit as an action to let a creature roll one of its Hit Dice and regain whatever they roll plus your Proficiency Bonus. A marked upgrade for most folks.
And Healing Rerolls lets the Healer reroll 1’s on any option that restores hit points, be it a spell or the feat’s Battle Medic benefit.
Lucky
Lucky is changed, and some players will be very sad about it. In 5E, Lucky lets you spend one of three Luck Points to roll an additional d20 on any roll, and then it lets you choose which to use. This meant that a Lucky character could turn Disadvantage into Super Advantage where they roll 3 and keep the best.
Now, in the D&D Feats playtest, Lucky still gives you Luck Points (equal to your Proficiency Bonus) but they are much more in line with how the designers perhaps intended them to work originally.
You can spend them immediately after you roll a d20 to give yourself Advantage on any roll, or to give an enemy attacking you Disadvantage.
Magic Initiate
One of the more popular feats in D&D, this feat is changed for One D&D‘s playtest. Now it’s no longer limited by class. Instead, you get to pick two cantrips and a 1st level spell from a list of spells. There are Arcane, Primal, and Divine spells now, more on what those mean in another article.
You can take this feat multiple times, and each time you pick a different Spell list.
Musician
Much like Artisan, this feat gives you proficiency with three Musical Instruments of your choice. And you can use them to play a song during a Short or Long Rest which grants Inspiration to your allies (up to your Proficiency Bonus in affected creatures).
Savage Attacker
This feat used to be part of the Half-orc’s race. Now it’s been moved to a 1st level feat that anyone can take. It functions similarly: when you hit a target with a Weapon as part of the Attack action, you can roll your damage dice twice and use whichever result you want against your target.
Skilled
This feat gives you proficiency in three Skills.
Tavern Brawler
This feat sees some much-needed changes in the One D&D feats playtest. As before this feat is all about brawling and dealing unarmed damage. With it you deal 1d4+strength on an Unarmed Strike… but there’s more. You can also reroll your die if it’s a 1 (and it’s not limited to a d4, so a Monk might ever actually pick this feat), and you can Shove a target. This is a rider to a normal attack that lets you push a target five feet away from you as part of a successful Unarmed Strike on an Attack.
Finally, you can wield furniture AND ONLY FURNITURE as a weapon, either a club or greatclub.
Tough
Tough is the last of the One D&D Feats, and it works exactly as it did in 5E: increase your hit points by twice your character level, and gain 2 extra hit points per level on top of that.
Notably, no Feats in this list give you Ability Score Increases. Whether they’re decoupled entirely from the concept, or will just be in a later playtest remains to be seen. But the new system looks intriguing.
Will D&D be moving more toward picking multiple Feats? It feels like it, given what we’ve seen.
What do you think of the new take on Feats in ‘One D&D’?
