Feat Stacking, Backgrounds and Hit Dice | Sage Advice | D&D

Todd Kenreck and Jeremy Crawford discus what Sage Advice is, about adding feats to backgrounds, feat stacking and using hit dice in new ways in recent Unearthed Arcanas.

0:00 Start
0:04 What is Sage Advice
5:30 Backgrounds with Feats
11:15 Feat Stacking
15:50 Using Hit Dice and Proficiency Bonus in new ways.

What is Sage Advice?

Curious how to interpret a rule in the Player’s Handbook? Unsure what the D&D team meant when we wrote a section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide? Want some light shed on an unclear bit of the Monster Manual or another D&D book? Then Sage Advice is for you!

Rules are a big part of what makes D&D a game, rather than simply improvised storytelling. The game’s rules are meant to help organize, and even inspire, the action of a D&D campaign. The rules are a tool, and we want our tools to be as effective as possible. No matter how good those tools might be, they need a group of players to bring them to life and a DM to guide their use.

The DM is key. Many unexpected things can happen in a D&D campaign, and no set of rules could reasonably account for every contingency. If the rules tried to do so, the game would become unplayable. An alternative would be for the rules to severely limit what characters can do, which would be counter to the open-endedness of D&D. The direction we chose for the current edition was to lay a foundation of rules that a DM could build on, and we embraced the DM’s role as the bridge between the things the rules address and the things they don’t.

In a typical D&D session, a DM makes numerous rules decisions—some barely noticeable and others quite obvious. Players also interpret the rules, and the whole group keeps the game running. There are times, though, when the design intent of a rule isn’t clear or when one rule seems to contradict another.

Dealing with those situations is where Sage Advice comes in. This column doesn’t replace a DM’s adjudication. Just as the rules do, the column is meant to give DMs, as well as players, tools for tuning the game according to their tastes. The column should also reveal some perspectives that help you see parts of the game in a new light and that aid you in fine-tuning your D&D experience.

When I answer rules questions, I often come at them from one to three different perspectives.

RAW. “Rules as written”—that’s what RAW stands for. When I dwell on the RAW interpretation of a rule, I’m studying what the text says in context, without regard to the designers’ intent. The text is forced to stand on its own.

Whenever I consider a rule, I start with this perspective; it’s important for me to see what you see, not what I wished we’d published or thought we published.

RAI. Some of you are especially interested in knowing the intent behind a rule. That’s where RAI comes in: “rules as intended.” This approach is all about what the designers meant when they wrote something. In a perfect world, RAW and RAI align perfectly, but sometimes the words on the page don’t succeed at communicating the designers’ intent. Or perhaps the words succeed with one group of players but fail with another.

When I write about the RAI interpretation of a rule, I’ll be pulling back the curtain and letting you know what the D&D team meant when we wrote a certain rule.

RAF. Regardless of what’s on the page or what the designers intended, D&D is meant to be fun, and the DM is the ringmaster at each game table. The best DMs shape the game on the fly to bring the most delight to his or her players. Such DMs aim for RAF, “rules as fun.”

We expect DMs to depart from the rules when running a particular campaign or when seeking the greatest happiness for a certain group of players. Sometimes my rules answers will include advice on achieving the RAF interpretation of a rule for your group.

#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #sageadvice

[loc]

Thanks, Crawford. I will continue to use your rulings to settle disputes and ignore them when everyone at the table prefers something else.

[theescottiep]

Sage Advice and Lore you should know are two segments that give me the most value as a DM. Thank you for putting this together!

[bradbradfordson]

I feel like a lot of tables like to allow players to start with a feat as it is. Tying the idea of a feat packaged in a background is a good way to explain this both in the system and the characters backstory, which I really like. Although for tables looking for a greater challenge or for new tables who are still learning the rules these options can be a lot.

[intruder]

I've been playing D&D for 35 years, as has two others in my group (current group makeup has been running for 25+ years overall) and am fully aware of how it all works and the context of Sage Advice: so what we usually want IS the Rules as Intended. If it reaches the stage of us consulting SA we've already discussed it and either disagreed or decided to get a quick fix!

So please keep them crunchy and not just say 'whatever works for you' as that goes without saying really!

[jasond]

The idea of alternate HD usage becomes even more interesting and calculated with Slow Natural Healing.
Also, many Players and DMs overlook the RAW option to pick up Feats as a reward during downtime rather than always being stuck waiting for ASI levels.
Interesting stuff all around.

[Wyrmshield]

I would love to see sage advice show up more frequently like this! I really enjoyed seeing behind the curtain of the game's design like this and I am especially excited for what more is going to happen with hit dice. Spending vitality to have access to more powers sounds almost like a "stamina" system

[New_Definitions]

It is always good to hear from Jeremy Crawford - he seems like such a reasonable and kind man, would love to play in one of his games.
It is a shame that almost all DM's I have ever played with don't really give out feats as downtime or alternate rewards. I think that a lot of them would feel too powerful or difficult to balance. I kind of feel like perhaps there should be a reworking of many feats and the creation of a new category, especially for feats with less combat utility. Those 'secondary feats' like chef for example, should just be given a section of their own in the handbook with DM's advised to give them out after a number of levels or give some clear examples of how a character could go about getting them. Especially with multiclassed characters it can be frustrating when there is such a long gap of levels before you get an ASI/feat where getting it through an alternate means would help storytelling.
1) There could be an interesting place for feat like traits that cause negative as well as positive effects (a bit like some magical items) that DMs can give out to reflect how the campaign is going or a character's backstory. Looking at Critical role and Caleb's
2) I think there would be a great place (especially for stacking feats) for more feats along the line of crusher, piercer etc. Therefore a character concentrating on a specific weapon could obtain more benefits from using constantly using it and it would help make weapons feel more interesting and different. Maybe even allow players to unlock alternate ways of attack with a weapon (e.g. make rapier attacks either do d8 or the option to poke them and make them bleed doing d6 this turn + d4 next turn)
3) Stacked feats would be great as an alternative to multiclassing

Personally, I tend to give all my players a feat at the outset if they can give me a page or something of background that makes the feat make sense for their character. Found it helps get people to know their character better.

[engilaru]

Really happy to see them going towards feats in backgrounds. There are a ton of benefits to this approch:
* They still provide all the tools to make custom background. You simply pick proficiencies and a feat as they fit the theme.
* Free feat at level 1 is the most common houserule (at least according to what I've seen from online discussions), having that extra level of character customisation at level one is very popular.
* It makes perfect sense that someone might start of with a Chef background that includes the Chef feat, or become a Chef during the adventure. Now the two possibilities to learning cooking are covered by one instance of the feature rather that it written twice in different parts of the book
* Setting books can easily contain setting specific backgrounds with setting specific feats and groups can still take advantage of those new features as they see fit in ongoing campaigns by picking the feats on level up.
* It insentience WotC to write more flavourful character feats over combat feats. I always praise the Chef feat as being peak feat design and love to see more feats like that, les feats like great weapons master or polearm master that are entirely based on combat and should quite frankly have been part of some cross martial class feature system rather than feats.

[vadermug]

I feel like the feat/proficiencies from choosing a background should just be an option for any character in the first place. A lot of people will choose the background that provides feats/stats that line up with their playstyle - even if the background itself makes no sense for their backstory.

One free feat.. helps to customize your playstyle and theme without sacrificing stats, or putting some random label on your backstory.

[DHS]

“I’m sad when I see rules used as weapons against players.” Mr. Crawford must avoid Adventurers League like the plague for his own emotional stability then.

[nickpalframan]

I am certainly someone who appreciates an official ruling as it offers clarity on intent - especially on areas where the rules seem unclear. I.e. can I shield bash before or after my attack with the shield Master feat.

I really love the recent design choices and think its very elegant and intuitive to apply existing structures in multiple ways. I.e. tying ability uses or strength to PB.

Additinaly, regarding player and buid expressiom, I really like this idea of feats in backgrounds. Because of the math of the game's bounded accuracy (which I am a fan of) it makes picking feats very difficult. Giving up those ASI is punishing and many games do not go into high levels so waiting til lvl 12 to pick up a feat you've wanted feels bad. But losing out on a +to hit pr spell save DC as monster strength increases also feels bad. Like adding flexibility to racial ability modifiers, adding a feat into your background opens up a lot of room for play. As a DM who is also a player and loves building characters and customization, I always house rules players get a free level one feat regardless of race. This recent direction feels validating to that player experience and I look forward to it being expanded and adapted further!

Thank you Mr. Crawford!

[TonySamedi]

I honestly love the concept of feats as background stuff.
Even if backgrounds are things that do come up, sometimes when it's a flavor description it just won't fit for the kind of campaign.

Like I love the Gambler background as a concept, but it's feature is basically "ask the DM for a hint which way you should go" which seems boring.
Similarly Charlatan is perfect for a fast talking con-man, but the whole having an entirely different identity thing may not even work with some player concepts for that kinda character.
I think changing some these to give feats would fit better.

Gamblers maybe having the Lucky feat because they need luck to be a successful gambler. (admittedly one can make the case for less powerful feats)
Charlatans getting Actor because they have to be able to fool people.

[CamJacobson]

Love seeing Sage Advice moving to a video format. How often can we expect these? Monthly would be great. Weekly would be incredible. Keep up the great work and much love!

[RonPower]

Thank god Sage Advice is back. Don't know why they took it off the podcast, but that show has been running off the rails lately. Just happy to see Jeremy is back and dispensing advice.

[gamerprettyboy]

We are truly blessed as a gaming community to have Jeremy Crawford and we will never deserve him.

[JasonHobson]

Huge fan of the evolution on backgrounds and hit dice!

[ChaswellQuint]

I really like the directions that you're going. How can we make intelligence more important in the game, award extra languages?

[CharalamposKoundourakis]

I look forward to this. Intellectual chats about d&d!

[bitspersecond]

I hope Sage Advice continues to appear in the written word as that is much easier to discover and understand the design intent for a particular question. I would not want to see that wholesale replaced by this video series. I’d gladly take both!!

[LilFrahOfficial]

The legendary Italian guy, sage advice