Two of the best feats from Heroes of Faerun.
Heroes of Faerun came with a bunch of brand new character options, including a load of new feats. I analysed all of them and felt like there was a real mix of feats from the overly situational to those that were OK and unique.
Some of these feats though, are excellent and really worthy additions to the hard-not-to-take list of feats. I recently wrote about how spellfire spark is one of those for spellcasters. This time I want to explain why the 2 Zhentarim feats are now top tier options for martials.
How Zhentarim ruffian works
Zhentarim ruffian is an origin feat so you can take it from level 1. It gives 2 benefits:
- Roll damage dice twice for opportunity attacks and pick the highest roll.
- Use heroic inspiration to give yourself and allies advantage on initiative rolls.
Why is Zhentarim ruffian so good?
Initiative is really important
If you can land attacks before the enemy, you effectively have an extra turn on them as you kill them before they can have their turn on the round they die. You might even kill some enemies in the first round, removing them from having any influence on the combat.
Zhentarim ruffian helps the whole party accomplish this. There is a big if here though. You can only use it if you have heroic inspiration…
Make sure someone in the party has the musician feat
This is easily solved though. If someone in the party has the musician feat, the whole/most of the party gets regularly restored heroic inspiration each rest. This means you should have enhanced initiative most rounds.
Enhanced opportunity attacks is situational… For now
Chances are, at level 1 you’re not making loads of opportunity attacks so probably won’t benefit from the enhanced damage a lot. But at level 4, you can grab feats that enable more frequent opportunity attacks. This includes the likes of sentinel, polearm master and yes, Zhentarim tactics.
This is devastating on a rogue
If you can get your rogue landing opportunity attacks fairly regularly, they can potentially do so with their sneak attack too. That’s a lot of damage dice getting a reroll making the potential damage boost much higher.
How Zhentarim tactics works
To take Zhentarim tactics, you must have Zhentarim ruffian so the feats go hand in hand.
You’ll get 2 benefits from Zhentarim tactics (plus an ability score increase):
- Make an opportunity attack against a creature that hits you within 5ft.
- A changeable expertise.
What makes Zhentarim tactics so good?
Easy opportunity attacks
Being hit from 5ft away is relatively common, especially if you’re playing a frontline combatant. This means an extra attack per round which increases your damage output a fair bit.
Rogues can use it for a 2nd sneak attack per round
A rogue’s sneak attack is precious and managing a 2nd use of it each round really ups their power levels. This also combines with Zhentarim ruffian for even higher damage opportunity attacks too.
Expertise on its own is solid
There’s already a feat for this called skill expert. It will give you a skill proficiency and an expertise (Zhentarim tactics only gives you the expertise). What skill expert won’t do is give you the chance to change that expertise each long rest. On its own, this is a decent feat, alongside easier opportunity attacks, it’s fantastic!
What builds work best for Zhentarim ruffian and Zhentarim tactics?
This is primarily for classes that want to be making melee attacks. Fortunately, there are plenty of those. It also works well on classes wanting to be really strong at skills. Everyone wants to go early in combat so the initiative boost is universally strong.
I’ve already mentioned rogues and this suits them very well. You may need to build a more high risk rogue that actually stands their ground a bit rather than using hit and run tactics. This will allow you to get those opportunity sneak attacks, especially if you use a vex weapon or can stick close to allies.
Fighters, paladins and barbarians are a natural fit here too. They tend to draw attacks more than rogues making opportunity attacks even easier to gain (though less impactful).
Other classes can build into this role too like rangers, armorer artificers, battle smith artificers, blade warlocks, valor bards, moon druids and others.
Are Zhentarim ruffian and Zhentarim tactics top tier feats?
On its own, Zhentarim ruffian is strong, but not top tier. However, once you grab it’s partner, Zhentarim tactics, both become top tier feats. Gaining an extra attack each round is really strong. Improving initiative, increasing opportunity attack power and gaining an expertise are all additional benefits that are also strong options on their own.
This does make the Zhentarim feats a little hard to ignore for a lot of martial builds. I definitely think it’s one for players to consider for their martials characters.
I once played a full caster who took Zhentarim Ruffian and Fate Gambler (from The Crooked Moon by Avantris Entertainment)
I would use AoE, Saving throw-based spells to farm Heroic Inspiration. I was able to give inspiration to allies, give my self temporary HP, and ensure that the party consistently had advantage on initiative rolls (which helped me secure more Heroic Inspiration in future combats.)
I didn’t make a lot of opportunity attacks, but it still created a very splashable engine that would work on any full caster. I especially recommend it on a Cleric, because of Spirit Guardians.