D&D: ‘Expert Classes Feats’ Get Major Buffs & Nerfs
D&D’s new Expert Classes Unearthed Arcana fixes a lot of feats while nerfing a few into the ground. Did your favorite survive?
In the Expert Classes Unearthed Arcana, Bards, Rangers, and Rogues got their turn in the spotlight. But they weren’t the only ones shining in the Expert Classes, feats were also on hand to get some fantastic upgrades. The new UA feats have a lot to love about ’em.
For starters, a number of feats now actually do what they say they were there to do. Charger and Lightly Armored, for instance, got some pretty significant upgrades. But some of the most popular feats in 5E have been hit pretty hard with the nerf bat.
Expert Classes Feats – Winners
First of all, let’s take a look at some of the feats that come out on top in the Expert Classes Feats playtest. At long last, we get to see Grappler actually be good. It’s one of the more maligned feats in 5th Edition. But the Expert Classes version is actually worth taking.
Not only do you get advantage on attack rolls against creatures you’re grappling, but you also aren’t slowed when you move the grapple. But best of all, this feat lets you grapple for free as part of an attack action when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike.
Charger also stands out as getting a pretty big buff. Now instead of just giving you a bonus action attack if you spend your action to Dash, Charger actually does something you’re likely to use. It increases your speed by 10 feet for any Dash Action you take (Rogues and Monks will enjoy that). And as long as you move at least 10 feet in a straight line before hitting with an attack as part of the Attack Action, you can either deal an extra 1d8 damage or push the target up to 10 feet from you.
Lightly Armored now gives you training with light armor, medium armor, and shields. It’s a huge jump for anyone looking to pick up armor training. The age of dwarven armor-wizards continues.
Mounted Combatant gives you advantage against any creature smaller than your mount, not just unmounted ones. And it’s easier to train and handle mounts too!
Ritual Caster is absolutely incredible now. Not only do you increase one of your mental stats by 1, you can also cast any ritual spell using its regular casting time instead of as an extended ritual (without using a spell slot). You can only do this once per long rest, but that’s still pretty amazing. Sadly it’s not a free Ritual Spellbook ability for even non-mages anymore.
Even Weapon Training which was always kind of sketchily useful at best got buffed. Now it gives you proficiency with all Martial Weapons. And it’s a 1st level feat so you can snag it as part of your background.
The Nerfs
That said, a few other feats have been hit pretty hard with the ol’ nerf bat. These are the biggest nerfs in the Expert Classes feats playtest. Notably Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter have had the wind let out of their sails. They no longer offer one of their primary benefits: a -5 to attack rolls in exchange for a +10 to damage.
This shows where WotC’s thinking is currently at. These were two of the most popular feats, especially for anyone dealing melee damage. With these changes, other fighting styles become a little more competitive. Dueling and dual-wielding in particular are pretty strong in comparison.
Mage Slayer also got nerfed pretty hard. It lost its primary feature: the ability to spend your reaction to attack a creature casting a spell within 5 feet of you. Which makes it much less worth picking up, though, like most every 4th level feat it’s also half an ability score increase.
Spell Sniper no longer doubles the range of your spells for free. It’s still pretty good, but it’s actually reined in a little now. This means you might actually decide to take something like Elemental Adept instead.
Happy Adventuring
