D&D: Five Great New Feats For Melee Characters
Now that the new Player’s Handbook is out, here are five of the best feats for melee characters in D&D 5.5E.
The new D&D Player’s Handbook contains 75 feats that span a range of categories. From D&D feats that give you extra hit points, to feats that let you give your friends extra hit points, there sure are a lot to pick from. And if you’re playing a melee character, you might want to reach for one of these five melee feats, which hit different in 5.5E.
Defensive Duelist
Let’s start with one of the most improved feats in 5.5E – and one that’s great for a melee character. Well, a certain kind of character, anyway. This melee feat benefits characters who wield Finesse weapons. With it, you not only increase your Dexterity by one, you also can, if you’re holding a Finesse weapon, add your Proficiency Bonus to your AC as a reaction to being hit with a melee attack. And unlike 5E, in 5.5E Defensive Duelist applies to all melee attacks (weapon, spell, or otherwise) until the start of your next turn.
Which is kind of like having your very own Shield Spell but without needing to spend a spell slot on it. Sure you get a slightly worse AC bonus, but you can basically have it in every fight, across every round in some cases.
Great Weapon Master
This feat is still good in 5.5E. It boosts your strength by one, and it boosts the damage of attacks you make with Heavy Weapons as part of the attack action on your turn. To those specific attacks (so not attacks of opportunity) you get to add your proficiency bonus in extra damage. And that’s still pretty good round to round. Especially since after you get a crit or drop someone to 0 HP, you can make an attack as a Bonus Action.
Charger
The new Charger Feat got a glow up in 5.5E. It used to mean you had to trade out your action to Dash, gaining only one attack, making it mediocre at best, and an absolute trap at worst. The new Charger feat is much more straightforward. All you have to do is move at least ten feet in a straight line toward a target and then hit them with a melee attack made with the Attack action.
Do that, and you can either add 1d8 bonus damage or push your target up to 10 feet away from you. Plus you can raise your strength or dex by 1, and whenever you Dash, your speed increases by 10 feet. It’s great for Rogues, Fighters, Monks and anyone else that wants to close the distance, Dash, and make Attack actions.
Shield Master
Another of the glow up melee feats in 5.5E, Shield Master is now a solid choice. A slight change to the way it works makes all the difference. Now, instead of giving up your bonus action to make a Shield Bash, you can just do that as part of your attack action. When you hit with a melee attack, you can follow it up with a shield bash that either knocks an enemy prone or pushes them back five feet if they fail a save.
And you can use your reaction to gain evasion (taking only half damage if you fail a Dex save, and no damage if you succeed), as well as increasing your Strength by one.
Polearm Master
The more thing change, the more they stay the same. Polearm Master is still just as good a melee feat as it ever was. Boost your strength or dex by 1, and then get yourself a bonus action attack that you can always use. Plus you can make a reaction attack against creatures entering your reach, giving you even more options to try and hit your foes.
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