Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting introduces new weapons, a full crafting and harvesting system, and a set of feats to support all of those.
Unlike feats you’d find in a standard rulebook, these are often tied to the supplement’s own mechanics, whether that’s a specific new weapon type, the harvesting system or the crafting rules.
In this article I’m going to analyse each of these feats and work out which are worth taking for your next adventure.
Combat Feats
Blade Barrier – 5/5
Prerequisite: Proficiency with twinblades
Good for: Melee martials committed to the twinblade, especially dex-based builds.
Ability: Upgrades the twinblade’s Whirl bonus action to also include a bonus d4 attack, and widens your opportunity attack window to trigger when creatures enter your reach or attack you in melee. Comparable to Polearm Master (but without the long reach), a well regarded feat in its own right.
Tactics: The twinblade’s Whirl already gives you an AC boost as a bonus action, which is genuinely strong. Blade Barrier turns that defensive move into something offensive too. The d4 is not going to set the world alight, but a free attack is a free attack.
The wider opportunity attack window is the more interesting part. Most opportunity attacks only trigger when a creature leaves your reach, but this fires when they enter it or attack you in melee too. That punishes enemies for almost any aggressive action near you. Decent if you are already committed to the twinblade, but you would never build around this the way you would Sentinel. Too specific to be widely used.
Cat’s Caress – 4/5
Prerequisite: Proficiency with claws
Good for: Grapple builds and dual-wielding martials.
Ability: Enables a bonus action attack with a second claw after the Attack action, grants advantage on claw attacks against grappled targets, and allows claws to be equipped or unequipped as a bonus action.
Tactics: The grapple synergy is the main focus. Advantage on all claw attacks against a grappled target is going to make attacks land much more often and combined with three total attacks After you take the attack action using a claw in one hand, you can use a bonus action to make two more attacks with a different claw – which will stack up quickly.
The bonus action attack works like standard dual wielding, so no ability modifier on bonus attacks unless you have the Two-Weapon Fighting Style. Decent on the right build, with classes like the Paladin or Ranger able to stack on even more damage through abilities like Hunters Mark or Smite.
Fearsome Flourisher – 3/5
Prerequisite: Proficiency with nunchaku
Good for: Dexterity based builds wanting some battlefield control. Not much else.
Ability: Adds a bonus d4 attack after the Attack action, and allows the Flourish action to attempt to frighten a nearby creature, with a DC that improves if you have Intimidation proficiency.
Tactics: Very similar to Blade Barrier in structure: attack, then use a bonus action for an extra d4. The twist is the option to instead apply the frightened condition, which imposes disadvantage on attack rolls and stops the target moving closer to you.
Although there is a small risk to hit yourself when using the nunchuku to flourish, it is offset nicely by the flourish attack and impressing the frightened condition on an enemy. Even with Intimidation proficiency improving the fear DC, nunchaku are a tough sell as a primary weapon and this feat does not elevate them enough to compete with stronger options. The self-hit risk alone knocks this down a bit.
Scourge Master – 3/5
Prerequisite: Proficiency with whips or tetherhooks
Good for: Controllers and utility based martial fighters who enjoy manipulating the battlefield.
Ability score improvement: Strength or Dexterity
Ability: Bonus action disarm attempt on hit, and the ability to retrieve small objects within weapon reach.
Tactics: The ability score improvement is a nice bonus and the only one among the combat feats here. The disarm is the main focus: stripping a shield removes an AC bonus from an enemy, and pulling a weapon from a key enemy’s hands can be disruptive. The contested check makes it unreliable against high strength targets though.
Item retrieval is situational as it needs to be used against enemies wielding a weapon (so no monsters), but there will be ample opportunities to make use of it across youe average campaign.. The tetherhook has its own grapple hook property and Scourge Master builds reasonably on top of that, but the feat is too weapon-specific to justify a higher rating. Decent utility if you are already using these weapons.
Spray ‘n’ Pray – 2/5
Prerequisite: Proficiency with a magitech firearm or tommybow
Good for: Ranged builds using the supplement’s new weapons specifically, which is a bit niche, but no more than the likes of Great Weapon Master.
Ability: Bonus action reloading, no close-range disadvantage, one-handed dual wielding with these weapons, and one or two bonus ranged attacks after the Attack action, with a -5 penalty if taking two.
Tactics: The two-attack option with the -5 penalty isa bit steep and hard to justify without reliable accuracy boosts like the Archery fighting style or Bless. Without those, one reliable bonus attack is often the better call. If your table allows standard feats to apply to these weapons anyway, this is less attractive.
Crafting Feats
Heliana’s Guide features a detailed crafting system split across Manufacturing (forging physical items) and Enchanting (adding magical properties to weapons). These feats are only valuable if your DM is running the full crafting system, which is worth keeping in mind when weighing them against standard feat options.
Expert Enchanter – 2/5
Good for: Anyone wanting to be the party’s primary enchanter in a campaign using Heliana’s crafting system.
Ability score improvement: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma
Ability: Doubles proficiency on Enchanting checks, allows improvement of quirk roll results, and cuts enchanting time in half.
Tactics: Within Heliana’s enchanting system, this is essentially mandatory for the party enchanter. Double proficiency makes your checks significantly more reliable, quirk roll improvement means fewer unwanted outcomes on finished items, and the time efficiency makes you twice as productive during downtime. The catch is it is completely useless if your table is not running the system. Decent in the right campaign, but irrelevant in another.
Expert Forger – 2/5
Good for: Anyone wanting to be the party’s primary forger in a campaign using Heliana’s crafting system.
Ability score improvement: Strength, Dexterity or Constitution
Ability: Doubles proficiency on Manufacturing checks, allows improvement of quirk roll results, and cuts forging time in half.
Tactics: The direct Manufacturing equivalent of Expert Enchanter and the same rating applies. Doubled proficiency and quirk control make you much better at forging and the time efficiency stacks well over long crafting projects. But like Expert Enchanter, this does nothing outside of Heliana’s crafting system.
Field Cook – 2/5
Good for: Support characters at tables that actively use the cooking system. Too situational for most campaigns.
Ability: Grants cook’s utensil proficiency, more flexible ingredient substitution and the ability to replace quirk rolls with inspiration or remove flaws from finished dishes.
Tactics: There is some genuine mechanical upside here. Guaranteeing inspiration for the whole party from a meal is a strong group benefit and flaw removal is a nice safety net. But this requires your DM to be running the cooking system and downtime meals to be a regular part of play. That is a lot of conditions to meet for a feat slot. Most campaigns will never get full value from this.
Forgemaster – 2/5
Prerequisite: Expert Forger
Good for: Dedicated crafters who want to be the unquestioned manufacturing specialist at the table.
Ability score improvement: Strength, Dexterity or Constitution
Ability: Advantage on Manufacturing checks, proficiency with two additional tools, and forging time efficiency increases to triple speed.
Tactics: A meaningful upgrade on Expert Forger. Advantage on top of doubled proficiency pushes your Manufacturing checks into highly consistent territory, the extra tool proficiencies broaden your options, and jumping from 2x to 3x time efficiency matters on long projects. Within Heliana’s crafting system this is the endpoint for a dedicated forger. Outside of it, it is worthless. The same ceiling applies as Expert Forger, just higher within that narrow lane.
Jack of All Tools – 2/5
Good for: Parties without a dedicated crafter who still want some manufacturing capability. Not a replacement for Expert Forger.
Ability score improvement: Strength, Dexterity or Constitution
Ability: Proficiency with three tools, half proficiency on unfamiliar Manufacturing checks without disadvantage and manufacturing time cut in half.
Tactics: Three tool proficiencies and the ability to attempt unfamiliar tasks without penalty is useful in principle, but the ceiling is noticeably lower than the Expert Forger path. You are spreading yourself thin rather than excelling at anything particularly. The time efficiency matches Expert Forger too, which makes it feel like a consolation prize version of that feat. Decent in a party with no dedicated crafter, but if someone is going to invest in crafting properly, the Expert Forger path is the right call.
Weavebonder – 2/5
Prerequisite: Expert Enchanter
Good for: Dedicated enchanters who want maximum control over their crafted items.
Ability score improvement: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma
Ability: Advantage on Enchanting checks, roll twice on random quirk elements and choose either result and enchanting time efficiency increases to triple speed.
Tactics: The enchanting counterpart to Forgemaster and the same logic applies. Advantage on top of doubled proficiency makes your checks highly reliable, and rolling twice on random quirk elements gives you real control over the final properties of enchanted items. Combined with Expert Enchanter’s existing quirk nudging, a Weavebonder has a remarkable degree of control over crafting outcomes. The same caveat applies though: outside of Heliana’s enchanting system, this does nothing.
Harvesting Feats
Heliana’s Guide features a full harvesting system for extracting useful components from defeated monsters, feeding directly into the crafting system. Like the crafting feats, these are only worth considering if your DM is running the harvesting system in full.
Expert Harvester – 2/5
Good for: Anyone taking the lead role in harvesting at a table running Heliana’s harvesting system.
Ability score improvement: Dexterity or Intelligence
Ability: Doubles proficiency on Harvesting checks, adds proficiency bonus to checks even without the required skill, improves the helping bonus when assisting others, and removes disadvantage when performing assessment and carving checks alone.
Tactics: A comprehensive package for the party’s primary harvester. Doubled proficiency makes you reliably excellent on familiar monster types, the bonus on unfamiliar checks means you are never completely shut out, and the solo disadvantage removal is a practical benefit that pays off consistently in play. Decent in the right campaign. Like all the system-dependent feats here, completely irrelevant if your table is not using the harvesting rules.
Reapmaster – 2/5
Prerequisite: Expert Harvester
Good for: Dedicated harvesters who want to be as reliable as possible across the widest range of monster types.
Ability score improvement: Dexterity or Intelligence
Ability: Advantage on Harvesting checks and proficiency in one additional relevant skill.
Tactics: Advantage on top of doubled proficiency makes your harvesting checks as reliable as they can reasonably get and the extra skill proficiency expands the range of monster types you can harvest from. There is not much complexity here, it just makes you significantly better at what Expert Harvester already set you up to do. If harvesting is a core part of your character’s identity and the system is in play, this is worth taking. Otherwise, skip it.
Are the Feats in Heliana’s Guide worth taking?
The honest answer is: it depends entirely on how much of Heliana’s Guide your table is actually using.
The combat feats are the most accessible since they stand on their own without the full supplement. None of them are essential picks in the way that Sentinel or Great Weapon Master are, but Blade Barrier and Scourge Master offer decent utility for players already committed to those weapons. Fearsome Flourish and Spray ‘n’ Pray are the weakest of the bunch, held back by unreliable mechanics and better alternatives already available in the core rulebooks.
The crafting and harvesting feats are very context-dependent. At a table running Heliana’s systems in full, the Expert and Master tier feats are solid and worth investing in. At a table that is not, they are dead weight in a feat slot. Know your table before you take any of them.
Overall, Heliana’s Guide feats are well-designed for what they do, but what they do is pretty narrow. They will not replace core rulebook picks for most characters, but at the right table, they do exactly what they are supposed to.
Spotlight on Heliana’s Guide
Check out more of our guides for Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting.
