D&D: Five Great Feats for Spellcasters
Playing a spellcaster is one of the most powerful options in D&D. Take your next magic user further with one of these spellcaster feats!
You know, they don’t call them Fighters of the Coast. And nowhere is that more readily apparent than when you play as one of D&D’s many spellcasting classes. Not only do primary spellcasters make up a full half of D&D’s core 12 classes, or more if you take Paladin and Ranger into account, they are also among the more powerful options. You don’t have to do much to play a powerful spellcaster. Just pick a few good spells, and then get your spellcasting ability score up to 20 and you’ve got it made.
That’s all you have to do. But you can go a step further. The right spellcaster feats can take a good character and make them a great one. Great in terms of mechanical power, sure… but as you’ll see, these can have a lot of narrative impact too. Here are five of our favorite spellcaster feats for your next magic user.
Spell Sniper
We’ll start with the most obvious one here, Spell Sniper. This is a great spellcaster feat for anyone who makes a lot of ranged spell attacks. Which is a significant number of spellcasters in D&D.
This feat lets you double the range on any spell that requires you to make an attack roll. Which is already great. It also lets your ranged spell attacks ignore half and three-quarters cover, a useful feature if you’re playing with a DM who uses those rules.
And you get a bonus cantrip from off of any of the primary caster spell lists. That can be a fantastic way to get your Sorcerer or Bard something like Eldritch Blast. Sadly your ability score is locked to the cantrip’s class, but there’s still some fun stuff to play with there.
War Caster
This is another go-to spellcaster feat. Though War Caster is aimed more at folks who use a lot of concentration spells. Again, that is a large number. Concentration spells often provide a powerful boost, though not always, as you’ll see in our series on the worst spells in D&D.
War Caster is for spellcasters who like the good concentration spells, though. It grants you advantage on concentration checks, allows you to cast spells with somatic components even if you have a weapon or shield in one or both of your hands, and you can cast a spell when someone provokes an opportunity attack from you.
It’s important to note that you can cast a fully leveled spell too, not just a cantrip. That’s a huge difference from how it plays in Baldur’s Gate 3, so if that was your introduction, know that this feat is even more powerful
Telekinetic
Telekinetic, out of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, is one of my favorite spellcaster feats. It’s a very subtle one, but it can enable some fun shenanigans in play. It grants you a +1 to the spellcasting stat of your choice, which is always nice. On top of that, you get the Mage Hand cantrip, and if you already know it, the range increases by 30 feet, and it can be invisible. Handy.
But the real treat here is the ability to try and telekinetically push or pull one creature within 30 feet as a bonus action. This can be a game changer for ongoing spell effects like Stinking Cloud or even Spirit Guardians. Use your bonus action to shove someone into the area of your spell, forcing them to take damage. And that’s just one tip of that particular iceberg.
Ritual Caster
Another perennial favorite spellcaster feat. Ritual Caster is a great way to expand your character’s available spells. This lets you cast spells as a ritual, which means they do not take a spell slot to cast, nor do they need to be prepared. It can turn any spellcasting class into a little bit of a Wizard as well.
Because, with Ritual Caster, you gain a ritual book, which you can scribe further spells into if you come across a spell scroll or spellbook. It has to be on the list of the class you choose when you take the feat (you also get two 1st-level spells for your trouble). It’s a great way to make your magic user even more magical. I love it on almost any class, though you might have a way of getting this feature through your class or subclass, so you will want to check. Wizards, for instance, don’t get a ton out of this feat, but nobody would stop you from taking this feat and learning Cleric or Druid ritual spells.
It’s not optimal, necessarily, but could be a ton of fun.
Alert
Spellcasters are generally at their best when they’re acting before everyone else. This lets them take control of the fight before it has a chance to spiral into chaos. The Alert feat is a fantastic way to do exactly that.
Taking it not only gives you a +5 initiative bonus, it also means you can’t be surprised, and they don’t gain advantage on attack rolls if you can’t see them. Which is an exceptionally powerful benefit in its own right. So while this one isn’t a feat centered around casting spells, it’s still a great feat for spellcasters.
What are your favorite feats to take on a magic user?
