General Feats in D&D 5e 2024

Feats for level 4 and beyond.

How do general feats work?

General feats are the types of feats you’ll likely be familiar with from D&D 5e 2014. Back then, these were optional for DMs to allow players to use in place of an ability score improvement. Now, they’re always an option for players.

Not only that, but they’re all half feats now. This means you get 1 ability score improvement and the benefits of the feat, and this applies to every general feat. The 2014 feats only had some that were half feats, and usually these had weaker abilities to compensate.

You don’t have to take a general feat either, you can stick with the ability score improvement and get +1 to 2 abilities or +2 to a single ability.

All general feats

There are a lot of general feats and knowing which one to pick can be tough. Below, I’ve explained them all and how best to use them.

I’ve also rated them so you can get a sense of how good they are too. If you think a feat will work really great for your character, and I’ve given it a low score, don’t be too put off. Sometimes I’ll give a low score because a feat has quite niche application, but if it works for your character or campaign, then that’s great and you should go for it!

Actor – 2/5

Good for: Charismatic characters that intend to use a lot of disguises and impersonations.

Ability score: +1 charisma

Ability: Advantage on charisma checks when disguised. Can mimic the voice of others.

Changes from 2014: Feat is more streamlined now. No requirements on time spent listening to someone to mimic them. Checks to perceive your mimicry are against your DC and impersonation only works while disguised.

Tactics: This is excellent for anyone intending to do a lot of impersonations. Otherwise, it’s not worth bothering with, even for a party face. If you’re using 2014 species, grab a Changeling for instant and compelling disguises.

I can’t give this more than a 2 due to it’s situational nature, but if you do intend to play an impersonator, don’t be put off, this feat is still great for that very niche type of character.

Athlete – 2/5

Good for: Burglars and anyone else intending to scale buildings and rooftops.

Ability score: +1 dexterity or strength

Ability: Climb speed equal to your move speed. Get up from prone using 5ft of movement. Jump with a shorter run up.

Changes from 2014: Nothing mechanical, just slight wording changes.

Tactics: While a climb speed can be useful in certain situations, it more depends on your DM and how much they do with the environment. Prone is not that problematic, even if we can expect it to be more common. Jumping is also quite a situational need. All of this makes this feat too situational to score highly.

Charger – 3/5

Good for: Hit and run melee warriors.

Ability Score: +1 strength or dexterity

Ability: Add 10 to your speed when you dash. Add 1d8 damage or push 10ft on one attack per turn if you move 10ft in a straight line before you hit them.

Changes from 2014: 1d8 damage instead of a flat +5 which is slightly worse on average. No more attacks as a bonus action, but also doesn’t rely on dashing as an action. You also don’t have to dash to get the bonus damage/push.

Tactics: Decent enough damage per turn, and a free push is nice to merge with weapon masteries and other abilities, but it can be a little contrived to keep moving in and out of combat.

Possibly your best approach for this is actually something like a rogue or a monk or something else built for hit and run tactics. Use push to help you shift out of combat and your rogue can spare their weapon mastery on something like nick (plus these classes can dash as a bonus action).

Chef – 2/5

Good for: Anyone wanting to enhance healing at rests.

Ability score: +1 constitution or wisdom

Ability: Gain proficiency in cooking utensils. Party members regain extra hit points when expending hit dice to heal on a short rest. Cook treats that provide a small number of temporary hit points each long rest.

Changes from 2014: No change.

Tactics: I’m not convinced the extra healing is needed or enough for most adventuring parties unless you’re having very long adventuring days. The temporary hit points are alright and you should grant them every long rest, but they feel too small to normally make much difference in battle.

Crossbow expert – 2/5

Good for: Anyone wanting to dual wield hand crossbows or use crossbows when they have extra attacks.

Ability score: +1 dexterity

Ability: Ignore the requirements of loading crossbows. No disadvantage shooting crossbows when in 5ft of an enemy. You can add your ability modifier when making a crossbow attack when taking the extra attack from the light property.

Changes from 2014: Although the wording changes, this essentially works the same.

Tactics: Only take this if you really want to use crossbows and will get an extra attack, or if you want to dual wield hand crossbows. It’s pointless if you’re using a light crossbow as you’ll get the same damage from a longbow which isn’t hampered by the loading property.

This score’s lower because there are similarly effective ways to shoot/throw projectiles without having to spend a feat to make crossbows work for you.

Crusher – 3/5

Good for: Melee warriors using bludgeoning weapons.

Ability score: +1 strength or constitution

Ability: Push a creature 5ft once per turn when you hit. Attacks made after a critical hit have advantage until your next turn.

Changes from 2014: No changes.

Tactics: A free push is great and combines nicely with other weapon masteries. Use it to knock enemies off of ramparts or to move an enemy away from you for hit and run tactics, making this a good option for something like a monk.

Critical hits will land on 5% of attacks, and advantage will only work for that same turn, so the benefits of this come from either landing a critical early on your turn if you have multiple attacks, or by working in tandem with allies to hit the same target. For this reason, a monk remains a good option here with lots of attacks and needing to fight alongside allies.

Defensive duelist 4/5

Good for: Melee warriors wielding finesse weapons.

Ability score: +1 dexterity

Ability: Add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction until the start of your next turn.

Changes from 2014: This is far better now as it protects you against all melee attacks until the start of your next turn, not just a single attack.

Tactics: This is a really good feat. You essentially get +2 AC against melee attacks with that increasing as you gain levels up to +6. This is better than most things you can do with your reaction and while the shield spell might outperform it at low levels, it requires spell slots and eventually will be outperformed by this.

I’d use this whenever you can as long as you know it’ll prevent an attack from hitting. Just be aware that you can only use it against melee attacks so it’s of less value to ranged characters.

Dual wielder – 3/5

Good for: Dual wielders.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Be able to make a bonus action attack from dual wielding with any one handed weapon (not just a light weapon) and draw or stow an extra weapon.

Changes from 2014: No +1 to AC anymore when dual wielding. But you can now get another extra attack from dual wielding when combining with the nick property.

Tactics: The best way to use this feature is in conjunction with the nick weapon mastery (as long as you don’t intend to use your bonus action much for other things). This gives you a separate extra attack with your bonus action so you can make your normal attack action, use the extra attack from the nick property as part of the attack action, and have room in your bonus action to make this extra attack too.

You can combine it with the two weapon fighting style to add your ability modifier to the attacks too. Check out my dual wielding guide for more detail on how all this works.

Durable – 2/5

Good for: Tanks with little else to do with their bonus action.

Ability score: +1 constitution

Ability: Advantage on death saving throws. Expend a hit dice to heal as a bonus action.

Changes from 2014: It used to be that you had a minimum number of hit points healed when using your hit dice. This version is definitely better, but still not that great.

Tactics: This feat diminishes in value as you gain levels as the healing becomes more insignificant compared to your hit points. It won’t revive anyone from hitting 0HP so except at low levels, it’s likely one of the lesser things you can do with your bonus action.

Advantage on death saving throws is alright, but hopefully your healer is trying to get you back in the action ASAP so you don’t need to get 3+ death saving rolls in anyway.

Elemental adept 1/5

Good for: No one. It’s not a good feat, but I guess it’s designed for spellcasters wanting to use spells with commonly resisted damage types.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma

Ability: Choose a damage type and ignore resistances to it. Also, treat any damage roll of 1 as a 2 for that damage type.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: How much you gain from this likely depends on the kinds of monsters you’ll face. If you know you’ll be fighting fiends, fire could be decent, but knowing what you’ll be fighting for a whole campaign is rare and often not consistent. Chances are, even with a commonly resisted damage type, you’ll actually get very little use out of this feat. It’s also easy to prepare a spell list that doesn’t rely on a single damage type either. And I definitely wouldn’t recommend taking this feat multiple times!

If you insist on taking this feat, damage types like cold, lightning and thunder aren’t often resisted anyway so are even more redundant (at least at the time of writing).

You can check out my full elemental adept guide for more details.

Fey-touched 4/5

Good for: Spellcasters wanting extra spells or spells from other class lists. Also good for non-casters that want a couple of spells in their repertoire.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma

Ability: Gain misty step and a level 1 divination or enchantment spell as prepared spells. You can cast each once per long rest for free.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Misty step is an excellent, protective spells. Great for getting out of danger. If you’re looking for a buff, bless is good. If you want to incapacitate enemies, Tasha’s hideous laughter works well. Detect magic and charm person work well out of combat.

If you want to enhance your damage, this is one of the few ways characters that aren’t rangers or warlocks can get Hunter’s mark and hex. I’d favour hex for the disadvantage on certain ability checks which can be very useful, though Hunter’s mark does have a slightly superior damage type in force. These spells could work nicely for an eldritch knight with their multiple attacks and repeat spellcasting.

My fey touched guide has even more ways to optimise for this feat.

Grappler 4/5

Good for: Characters wanting to do a lot of grappling.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity

Ability: Can both deal damage and grapple in the same unarmed strike. Advantage on attacks against creatures grappled by you. Speed isn’t halved when grappling a creature your size or smaller.

Changes from 2014: No longer an option to restrain a grappled creature, but you can now damage when making a grapple and move more freely when grappling making this a big buff.

Tactics: If you have this, you might as well grapple every turn as you’ll deal damage too. You’ll also get advantage on subsequent attacks. Being able to move freely while grappling is great for moving enemies wherever you like. You can easily just drop them down pits, off ledges or into AoE spell areas.

This will only work for certain characters though. High strength, athletics proficiency, the tavern brawler origin feat or having enhanced unarmed strikes like a monk will all make this more worthwhile.

Great weapon master 4/5

Good for: Two handed weapon wielders and martials with a lot of attacks.

Ability score: +1 strength

Ability: Deal extra damage each time you hit a creature with a heavy weapon equal to your proficiency bonus. Gain a bonus action attack when landing a critical hit.

Changes from 2014: Previously gave a +10 to damage but at -5 to hit.

Tactics: The more attacks you make, the more damage this will grant so fighters are going to benefit the most.

At +2 damage per attack with more damage as you gain levels, this can really stack up. Most martials at level 5 will be making 2 attacks with a +3 proficiency bonus so up to 6 extra damage per turn is pretty strong. Compare that to something like dual wielder which gives you an extra d8 damage per turn (average of 4.5 per hit) and uses your bonus action, it shows just how strong an option this is, especially as the damage scales further with levels.

Just note that this extra damage wont stack with things like opportunity attacks or polearm master bonus action attacks as it only applies to attacks made using the attack action.

Heavily armoured 1/5

Good for: Almost no one. In theory it’s for medium armor proficient characters that want to wear heavy armor, but I struggle to see which classes would really want to invest this way.

Ability score: +1 constitution or strength

Ability: Gain proficiency in heavy armor if you already have medium armor proficiency.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: There aren’t many classes with medium armor proficiency, that would want heavy armor proficiency. Rangers, clerics and barbarians fit this mould. Druids can also choose to take medium armor training. We can rule out barbarians whose best option is unarmoured defense. Rangers need to be stealthy so heavy armor doesn’t work for them. Druids can easily invest in dexterity while clerics can grab heavy armor training through their class.

There are some niche situations when you might want this, perhaps if you want your cleric to both enhance their spellcasting and protection rather than taking thaumaturge for your divine order. But the use cases are minimal and can easily be overcome. Add to this the strength requirements for the best heavy armor and this is a nearly pointless feat.

Heavy armor master 3/5

Good for: Tanks wearing heavy armor.

Ability score: +1 strength or constitution.

Ability: Reduce damage received from bludgeoning, piercing and slashing attacks by your proficiency bonus.

Changes from 2014: Damage reduction was a flat 3 (worse than the new version as this becomes 3 in one level and scales higher). It also didn’t protect against magical attacks of an appropriate damage type.

Tactics: Strong option for tanks that expect to take a lot of hits that also intend to wear heavy armor. Ranged classes are likely to get less benefit from this. Still, 2-6 less damage per attack from many attacks types is pretty good.

Inspiring leader 5/5

Good for: High charisma/wisdom characters that want to buff their allies.

Ability score: +1 wisdom or charisma.

Ability: Grant temporary hit points to your allies every rest equal to your character level plus the ability modifier chosen for this feat.

Changes from 2014: Took 10mins rather than a short rest, but could still only be used once per rest. Was also restricted to charisma modifier.

Tactics: Just use this every rest and give to a party member with a high charisma or wisdom. It’s hard to get a higher number of temporary hit points for so many characters from any other sources and with this being such a strong feat, it’s worth every party trying to have someone with this feat. It also scales nicely with levels.

To demonstrate just how good this is, compare it to aid at level 2 which temporarily increases the hit point maximum of 3 creatures by 5. If we assume using these feats/spells at level 4, and wisdom/charisma is a core ability for the character, then this will be about 7 temporary hit points across up to 6 characters so 42 hit points in total Vs the 15 from aid, without expending a spell slot and being able to be used every short rest, making this a really amazing feat!

Keen mind 1/5

Good for: Knowledge focused characters.

Ability score: +1 intelligence.

Ability: Gain proficiency or expertise in a knowledge skill and take the study action as a bonus action.

Changes from 2014: A different kind of poor skill where you knew things that were rarely useful.

Tactics: It’s rare that the study action needs to be performed so quickly that you need it to occur as a bonus action. Knowledge skills are OK but it’s rare that they are really crucial. Normally if you can’t work out something for lack of knowledge, you can find an NPC willing to help you instead. Compare this to skill expert which will give you any skill proficiency and an expertise (which is way better than studying as a bonus action) and you realise you should probably just take that if you want to be really good at a skill.

Lightly armored 3/5

Good for: Spellcasters that don’t want to use spells for protection and don’t naturally have armor proficiency. Also good for giving some classes shield proficiency.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Gain training with light armor and shields.

Changes from 2014: You didn’t gain shield training before.

Tactics: Works nicely for the likes of wizards and sorcerers who normally have to rely on magical protection and using spells slots for protection. Also good for something like a rogue to give them extra protection from a shield. Just beware that you lose out on the benefits of dual wielding and/or the nick mastery with a shield.

Keep in mind that monks can’t use a shield to benefit from their unarmoured defense so this won’t work for them.

Mage slayer 4/5

Good for: Fighting spellcasters and saving against powerful effects.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Disadvantage on concentration saving throws against your attacks. Also, a type of legendary resistance against intelligence, wisdom and charisma saving throws.

Changes from 2014: You no longer get a reaction attack to spells cast within 5ft of you. You also no longer have advantage on saving throws against spells cast within 5ft of you. You now get a type of legendary resistance instead.

Tactics: That legendary resistance style ability is very powerful and a great option against nasty conditions that might be imposed against you. Wisdom saving throws are quite common so it won’t be rare to experience this type of saving throw.

You’ll be the best person to throw off spellcasters from their concentration spells so focus your efforts on mages that are concentrating. This is particularly strong if you make multiple attacks for multiple concentration saving throws so this is more worthwhile on a fighter or monk than a rogue for example (but still good for a rogue).

Martial weapon training 1/5

Good for: Not particularly good for anyone.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Proficiency in martial weapons.

Changes from 2014: Was called weapon master and only gave you proficiency with 4 weapons of your choice, not all martial weapons.

Tactics: Most classes that benefit from martial weapons are able to use them. Spellcasters will normally do more damage with cantrips. This only leaves rogues and monks without training in all martial weapons, but they have the weapons for their needs. Maybe a rogue that wants to sneak attack with a musket!?

Medium armor master 2/5

Good for: A bit of extra AC for medium dexterity characters.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Can add up to 3 AC from your dexterity modifier rather than 2 when wearing medium armor.

Changes from 2014: Wearing medium armor wouldn’t impose disadvantage on stealth checks previously.

Tactics: There’s a really niche number of builds that this is useful for; and that may change as you gain levels. You need to have 16 or 17 dexterity, medium armor proficiency and no intention of progressing your dexterity. But most classes that are taking their dexterity this far, will want to take it even further. Having said that, this can get you 18 AC just from your armor, while studded leather will get you 17 so it technically can be a +1 AC, but half plate will cost you a lot more than studded leather.

Moderately armored 1/5

Good for: characters that can’t normally use medium armor, but want to.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Gain training with medium armor.

Changes from 2014: You no longer gain training with shields.

Tactics: There are only a few classes with light armor training that don’t have medium armor training. They are rogues, bards and druids, though druids have an option to take medium armor training if they want. Rogues are unlikely to want this as they rely on stealth leaving them with breastplates which are equal to studded leather at 18 dexterity, which you could achieve by going for an ability score increase at this level instead, plus rogues need dexterity for weapon attacks and skills too.

This leaves bards who may enjoy this, but also tend to prefer a high dexterity and may want to be stealthy too. A melee bard might like this but Valor bards get this as standard and dance bards get unarmoured defense. Essentially, this is ok for a very niche kind of bard or a druid that didn’t take the option from their class, but to be honest, it’s easy enough in most of these cases to just invest in dexterity.

Mounted combatant 3/5

Good for: Mounted melee warriors.

Ability score: +1 strength, dexterity or wisdom.

Ability: Advantage on attacks while mounted against unmounted creatures within 5ft. Mount when ridden has evasion. Can cause attacks against your mount to hit you instead.

Changes from 2014: Basically the same but a slight difference as advantage used to be for melee attacks rather than attacks against enemies 5ft away.

Tactics: Great for characters wanting to ride a mount a lot. You’ll want to go with a melee build for this though as you’ll lose your main benefit if you go for a ranged build. Grab something like find steed or phantom steed for an always available mount. Paladins get find steed as standard and make a good option for this.

Observant 1/5

Good for: Characters wanting to be good at observant skills.

Ability score: +1 intelligence or wisdom.

Ability: Gain proficiency or expertise in investigation, insight or perception. Take the search action as a bonus action.

Changes from 2014: Previously let you lip read and improved passive perception and investigation.

Tactics: These are all great skills but searching as a bonus action is only rarely useful. Skill expert is a better option as you can gain a proficiency and an expertise in a skill (including any of these).

Piercer 3/5

Good for: Characters wielding high damage, piercing weapons.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Reroll a piercing damage die once per turn. Roll an additional die for damage when landing a critical.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: You can get a decent boost to damage here, especially if you wield a piercing weapon with high damage dice. 1d12 is ideal as if you roll a 1 or 2, your reroll will average a 6.5 leading to typically higher damage. On top of this, for the critical hits, an extra D12 is solid. But it only happens rarely. More attacks means more chances of this happening though, making a fighter a good choice.

Poisoner 3/5

Good for: Occasional, high power, problematic attacks from dexterity-based martials.

Ability score: +1 dexterity or intelligence.

Ability: Your attacks ignore poison resistance. Poison kit proficiency. Use a bonus action to apply poison to a weapon which causes 2d8 damage and the poisoned condition on a failed saving throw.

Changes from 2014: Was a flat DC of 14, now this scales with your level and should be a minimum of 14 when you hit level 5 if you’re a dexterity martial (and only these types of martials should take this feat).

Tactics: Ignoring poison resistance is decent as it’s the most common damage type and taking this feat means dealing a fair bit of poison damage. You’ll deal an average of 9 damage per turn you use this and cause the poisoned condition.

In terms of effects, this is better than top damage dealers like great weapon master (+6 damage per turn for most martial classes at level 5) or dual wielder (avg. +4.5 damage per turn) and it causes a condition. The challenge is the economics of it. Like dual wielder, it’ll use your bonus action, but at level 5, it’ll cost 50gp for 3 uses. This does improve with levels, but remains expensive. In reality, this would be too powerful if it were used for every attack so this limits things in a reasonably balanced way, giving you a few extra powerful attacks each day.

I’d favour melee weapons over ammunition for this so you don’t waste uses with a missed shot. I’d also favour using it against highly problematic enemies to apply the disadvantage from being poisoned and the extra damage as they may be worth the cost.

Polearm master 4/5

Good for: Frontline martials that wield polearms.

Ability score: +1 dexterity or strength.

Ability: When attacking with a polearm, you can make another attack with your bonus action at D4 damage. You can also use a polearm to make an attack as a reaction against a creature that enters your reach.

Changes from 2014: Slightly expanded use cases such as a lance and a pike can be used for both abilities (it may have been a mistake that pikes were omitted from the bonus action attack).

Tactics: This only works for characters that have less worthwhile things to do than make an attack with their bonus action. The best damage you’ll deal is through your reaction though. You’ll make more use of this as a frontline melee warrior like a fighter or barbarian rather than a hit and run specialist like a rogue or monk.

Sadly, a rogue can’t use this for easy reaction sneak attacks as there’s no crossover between polearms and finesse weapons that can perform sneak attacks.

Resilient 3/5

Good for: Extra resilience to saving throws. Spellcasters wanting to maintain concentration.

Ability score: +1 to an ability score you lack saving throw proficiency in.

Ability: Gain saving throw proficiency in an ability.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Best for wisdom and constitution which require the most saving throws and tend to be more debilitating. Spellcasters might want to consider constitution for improved concentration. You could go for war caster instead, or both of these for really reliable concentration as they do stack.

Ritual caster 3/5

Good for: Grabbing some extra utility spells for out of combat.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma.

Ability: Gain a number of prepared level 1 spells equal to your proficiency bonus. Cast 1 ritual spells as a ritual with the normal casting time each day.

Changes from 2014: Previously, you learnt less spells, you were limited to a single class list and had rules for learning ritual spells from scrolls.

Tactics: Although this is a lot of spells, you’re limited by which spells you can take. Most of these are only useful out of combat, but if you need some utility, there’s no feat that will grant you more spells.

Sadly, there’s only 1 spell that’s useful casting at its reduced casting time (as you can use it quickly in combat) and that’s silence. It’s decent, but you can’t grab it with this feat as it’s a level 2 spell. Because of these limitations, I’d often prefer the better options found from things like fey-touched and shadow-touched, but this has its place if you need a bunch of extra spells like detect magic, find familiar or speak with animals.

Check out my article on ritual casting for a full break down of this feat.

Sentinel 4/5

Good for: Tough, frontline martials that fight alongside allies.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: You can also use opportunity attacks when a creature uses the disengage action and when a creature within 5ft attacks someone other than you. Your opportunity attacks also stop enemies moving.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Disengaging isn’t hugely common so you’re relying on your buddies getting attacked. You’ll want to be in the centre of melee combat, fighting with allies to make use of this.

Shadow-touched 4/5

Good for: Stealth spellcasting. Especially for spellcasters.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma.

Ability: You have invisibility and a level 1 illusion or necromancy spell always prepared and can cast each once per day for free.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Invisibility is a top spell, especially for stealth. You don’t need to be a spellcaster to make it work either so a rogue could easily grab this. This works better for spellcasters though with repeat castings and more options for your other spell.

Good options for your level 1 spell include; color spray, disguise self, silence, silent image and wrathful smite. Use disguise self and silent image for added stealth options. Silence and color spray are good for nullifying the effectiveness of enemies in combat. Wrathful smite is a good option for melee warriors. An eldritch knight might get a lot of use out of this, or even an arcane trickster. It also happens to be one of very few ways of getting a smite spell without taking levels as a paladin.

You can read my shadow touched guide for more ways to use this in your build.

Sharpshooter 2/5

Good for: Archers.

Ability score: +1 dexterity.

Ability: Ranged attacks ignore half and three quarters cover. No disadvantage on ranged attacks when in 5ft of an enemy. Long range doesn’t impose disadvantage on attacks rolls.

Changes from 2014: Can no longer reduce accuracy for greater damage, but can shoot just as well when in melee now.

Tactics: Great for archers, but may depend on how your DM sets up combat. If they like to use a lot of scenery, then this could be quite effective, if they don’t, then this ends up being fairly pointless.

Shield master 3/5

Good for: Shield wielders.

Ability score: +1 strength.

Ability: Each turn, you have the option to bash your opponent 5ft away or knock them prone with your shield. Can use a reaction to take no damage on dexterity saving throws if you pass.

Changes from 2014: Can now cause prone and pushing/toppling doesn’t require a bonus action. You also don’t add the shields AC to dexterity saving throws.

Tactics: Only worthwhile if you plan on using a shield. Combine pushing and knocking prone with weapon mastery properties for some interesting combos. Knock enemies away further with double push or knock them prone first for advantage on attacks rolls for subsequent attacks.

Skill expert 3/5

Good for: Filling skill gaps in the party.

Ability score: +1 to any ability score.

Ability: You gain proficiency and expertise in one skill.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Use this to become really good at a skill and decent at another (or the same one). A decent way to fill skills gaps in the party.

Skulker 3/5

Good for: Rogues wanting to enhance hiding in combat and characters that want blindsight.

Ability score: +1 dexterity.

Ability: Gain 10ft of blindsight. Advantage on stealth checks to hide in combat. Missing a shot while hiding doesn’t reveal your location.

Changes from 2014: Previously allowed you to hide when only lightly obscured and dim light wouldn’t impose disadvantage on perception checks. You gain blindsight and advantage on hiding in combat instead.

Tactics: Blindsight is pretty circumstantial, but when you need it, it’s really useful. You can work it into your tactics by using things like darkness to impose blindness on your enemies while you don’t suffer from the same issues. Everything else is really designed for a rogue. Only rogues can regularly manage to combine hiding with attacks in combat so I’d only really recommend this for a rogue.

Slasher 2/5

Good for: Characters wanting to slow enemies down and that wield slashing weapons.

Ability score: +1 strength and dexterity.

Ability: Slashing attacks can reduce an enemy’s movement by 10ft once per turn. Critical hits cause the target to have disadvantage on attacks rolls for a turn.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Slowing tends to be most useful when you’re attacking at a distance and trying to keep an enemy away. This could work with thrown weapons like handaxes. Otherwise, you’ll need to combine it with other weapon properties to make it truly effective. Combining with things like push and topple can make it easier to escape enemies. This makes this decent enough for hit and run characters but not much else.

It’s worth being aware that you can combine this with other sources of slow, even if the same sources of slow don’t stack.

Disadvantage from criticals is good, but will only occur on 5% of attacks so not something you can rely on, but more attacks will mean more chances to land this.

Speedy 3/5

Good for: Hit and run characters and anyone that wants to move faster.

Ability score: +1 dexterity or constitution.

Ability: An extra 10ft movement. Difficult terrain doesn’t take extra movement when dashing. Opportunity attacks have disadvantage against you.

Changes from 2014: The old version of this was mobile which would prevent opportunity attacks against you altogether if you attack the enemy.

Tactics: Use this to move more quickly. It’s great for hit and run tactics allowing you to get into and out of range of enemies and close the gap between melee targets more quickly.

Disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you is enough to make moving away from enemies without disengaging fairly tempting. It works nicely for rogues, bards and monks that want to hit and run without expending their bonus action.

Spell sniper 2/5

Good for: Spellcasters wanting to fire spell attacks at range and into cover.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma.

Ability: Spell attacks ignore half and three quarters cover. No disadvantage for ranged spell attacks when in 5ft of an enemy. Ranged spells can be cast 60ft further.

Changes from 2014: Used to offer double range rather than a flat 60ft increase. You’d also learn a spell attack cantrip rather than being able to cast ranged spell attacks in melee without disadvantage.

Tactics: Great for spellcasters with a lot of spells attacks, but is a tad too situational to recommend. It relies on your DM having long range combat with a lot of cover to be useful. Spellcasters can also bypass cover with spells attacks that use saving throws, like toll the dead.

Telekinetic

Good for: Utility in and out of combat.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma.

Ability: Learn to cast an invisible mage hand. Can use a bonus action to telekinetically shove someone 5ft towards or away from you.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: An invisible mage hand is a great utility option allowing you to grab out of reach items. It being invisible makes it even better for stealth. Pushing can be really beneficial for knocking enemies off ledges or into AoE spells, especially from a distance.

Telepathic 3/5

Good for: Stealth and information gathering.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom and charisma.

Ability: Telepathy of 60ft. Detect thoughts as a prepared spell with a free casting each day.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Telepathy is useful when being stealthy with a party or during social situations when you need to communicate secretly.

Detect thoughts is a decent information gathering spells.

War caster 4/5

Good for: Spellcasters that concentrate on a lot of spells and that might get a lot of opportunity attacks.

Ability score: +1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma.

Ability: Advantage on concentration saving throws. Opportunity attacks using spells. Somatic components can be used with both hands occupied.

Changes from 2014: None.

Tactics: Great for Spellcasters that are often using concentration spells. It’s not that common for spellcasters to regularly use concentration spells and be getting attacked to allow for opportunity attacks. Emanations might be your best bet here. Spells like spirit guardians might be a good shout with clerics being one of your better options. Melee rangers need to concentrate on things like Hunter’s mark while being in the midst of combat too. Eldritch knights might do well here too.

Weapon master 4/5

Good for: Melee characters without their own weapon masteries.

Ability score: +1 strength or dexterity.

Ability: Weapon mastery with one weapon.

Changes from 2014: This is a brand new feat.

Tactics: Great for characters wielding weapons that don’t already get weapon masteries. This includes things like monks, valor bards and certain warlock builds. The likes of push and topple are useful for these kinds of hit and run melee classes while nick can be useful for getting an extra attack while freeing up your bonus action (which these classes will typically want to be using).

I wouldn’t recommend this for classes that already have weapon mastery as they should have enough options for their needs.

Which general feats are best?

This is a tricky question to answer as a lot depends on your individual build. However, some feats are more useful than others.

Below are some that I’d highly recommend:

• Defensive dualist – Great protective feat for finesse wielding melee characters.
• Fey-touched – Great spell-casting feat with some of the best spell options.
• Grappler – A must have for grappler builds.
• Great weapon master – Great damage increase for two handed weapon wielders.
• Inspiring leader – Possibly the best general feat available. Every party will benefit from a high wisdom or charisma character from taking this feat for a plentiful supply of temporary hit points.
• Mage slayer – Great for dealing with enemy spellcasters and something nearly as good as legendary resistance.
• Polearm master – Great for polearm wielders wanting more attacks from bonus actions and reactions.
• Sentinel – Great for getting in more opportunity attacks and keeping enemies in arms reach.
• Shadow-touched – Great spell options for a feat, especially for stealthy characters.
• War caster – Great for characters that like to use concentration spells and get stuck into the middle of combat.
• Weapon master – Great option for melee characters without weapon mastery already.

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That’s everything you need to know about general feats in D&D 2024. Are there any feats you love to use? Or got any great tips for builds with different feats? Let me know in the comments below.

Spotlight on D&D 2024

All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.