D&D 5e: Feats for Skills (Unearthed Arcana)

Since Jabes is slammed at work, I will take up the mantle of posting the latest Unearthed Arcana playtest material to come out of WotC: Feats for Skills.

I mostly love the feats in this document. They are adding flavour without power creep, and are eliminating the need to multiclass rogue, bard, or knowledge cleric in order to become an expert in a certain field. These are perfect for adding a mechanical benefit to make you really feel like your character is incredible at some skill. Also, it's a way for classes like Barbarian and Fighter to fill out those skill gaps and make them more versatile outside of combat.

Investigator seems a little bland, and being a Survivalist and learning the alarm spell seem like an awkward fit. Also, this puts a bit more strain on my verisimilitude regarding the variant human. Now an upstart first level human can be a better historian than a 100 year old elf? These aren't significant problems though, and I mostly found the material presented here useful.

While I agree the Investigator feat is a bit lackluster, I have to say the alarm spell is a perfect fit for Survivalist (especially if you're a cleric or druid that is a bush man).

You're a master of the forest, hunting and gathering for your food; your home is where you make it. After an eventful day of hunting you find a prime location to set up camp for the nigh; the cliff overhang diverts the wind so your fire is able to live. You put the meat over the fire to roast, the delicious smell of cooking meat erupts and fills the air. You eat your fill then take the leftovers and begin to cure it for tomorrows adventure. Sleep finds you easily in the forest; the calming view of the stars above, the left over warmth from the lulling fire, and the gentle sounds of the wood cracking all help send you to a peaceful rest.

PING!

The sound rings out through your mind, to you and you alone There's something in your camp. you think to yourself as you jump up and ready your bow. You lay in wait for the beast that lurks towards your camp, it none the wiser to its demise...the hunter has become the hunted.

If I ever made a live-off-the-land type character, that is definitely a feat I would take.

LOL! Thanks! :-D

Yeah, this is good stuff. Lots of flavor, which always has my vote. Am seeing these as an extension of one's Background. Might be weird if taken later in the PC's caree unless supported by some roleplay/fiction.

I'm cool with the idea of making your camp secure, but I don't like that being a survivalist means you have to cast a spell. It's fine though, I can always reflavour it if I use it for my low-magic setting characters.

I love all those unearthed arcana, but I feel that for this one, most of the actions the feats give are actions I've somehow permitted my players to do with the skills already. But I like the idea that somebody else than the rogue or bard having expertise, maybe gonna work this part inside the backgrounds somehow ?