In the 2024 edition of theDungeons & DragonsPlayer’s Handbook, backgrounds became incredibly important, since now they are the ones that dictate your ability score bonuses, not your species. But that isn’t the only thing they give, since now they also come with origin feats, special feats that come bundled into the backgrounds associated with them.
These origin feats include some classics like lucky and tough, but reworked in some way that makes it balanced for a level 1 party. The strength of each background depends highly on the available origin feat, so you better know what your options are before you start the game with a less-than-optimal background.
10Crafter
Making The DM Do The Math
Being a crafter sounds flavorful and fun but not all that useful. You can start your day with a handy torch if you forgot to buy one, but making such an item with the fast crafting ability means that it falls apart once the day is over.
The real benefit of the feat is the 20 percent discount you gain on nonmagical items, but you’ll have to remind your DM that you have such a discount. You might inadvertently gain the wrath of said DM, since what should have been a simple transaction now has them looking for the calculator app on their phone as they fumble trying to give you the right price.
9Tavern Brawler
Only Good For Unarmed Fights
The tavern brawler feat has been slightly reworked from its 2014 incarnation, and it is now a perfect feat for monks or characters with an unarmed fighting style. It lets you reroll any damage die that lands on a 1, and you can push enemies you land hits on.
The issue with this feat is that if you aren’t fighting barehanded, you have no use for it. Even if your fighter has a deep backstory about drunken fights in pubs, tavern brawler will do nothing for them if they spend their whole adventure with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.
8Alert
You Are No Longer Immune To Surprises
Alert used to be a fantastic feat, since it made you immune to being surprised; you could still be ambushed, but your character would roll initiative and take their turn as normal. This is no longer the case in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, since that immunity to being surprised is completely gone.
Being surprised, however, is no longer so bad, since now it only gives you disadvantage in your initiative roll. Alert still gives you a bonus to your initiative, and it comes with the added effect of letting you swap your initiative with another ally; potentially useful, but not as impactful as it once was.
7Tough
You Can Take More Hits
There isn’t anything particularly special about tough, and it still works as it always has:you get more health. Since, mathematically speaking, you always gain the same amount of health whenever you take the feat, you are free to skip it on the earlier levels and just gain it later on.
Thanks to how backgrounds work, however, tough has seen some interesting improvement. Taking it at level 1, with a background like farmer, makes you gain all the additional health as usual while not sacrificing any ability score improvement in the process, making it ideal for an early-game tank build.
6Healer
A Better Cleric
Healer is an interesting feat that lets any charactertake the support role, albeit with limited results. As long as you have a healer’s kit (given by backgrounds like hermit), you can heal others with their hit point dice and add your proficiency bonus to the amount healed.
The real strength of the feat is the healing rerolls, where if a die rolls a 1 when you’re healing someone, you get to reroll it. Since this affects all healing spells, not just using the healer’s kit, this is an ideal feat for players aiming to support others with classes like clerics or druids.
5Magic Initiate
Choose From Cleric, Druid Or Wizard
Magic Initiate lets you learn two cantrips and a level 1 spell from either cleric, druid, or wizard. you’re able to take this feat more than once as long as you don’t pick the same class, making three the max number of times you can pick magic initiate, although you rarely want to take it more than once.
This is a powerful feat that can define certain builds, although you need to pay attention to what is giving you access to this feat. After all, a background like acolyte makes you pick cleric when choosing this feat, so only go with that background if you’re planning on using the spells available to clerics.
4Skilled
Be Proficient In Everything
Skilled is simple and to the point: you gain proficiency in 3 skills or tools of your choice, and you can even repeat this feat at later levels to gain even more proficiencies. When picked as part of a background, it can really bolster how you build your character, letting you make them experts in various walks of life.
Since you can also take it at later levels, there might be certain skills or tool proficiencies that can serve the campaign to a great extent. While skilled is rarely anyone’s first choice, you should always keep it in mind, particularly when your ability scores are already as high as you need them to be.
3Savage Attacker
Reroll Damage No Matter The Weapon
If you’re all about dealing as much damage as possible, then savage attacker is for you. As long as you land a hit with some kind of weapon, you can roll damage twice and keep either result, but only once per turn.
Clearly, savage attacker has a much bigger impact the fewer attacks you can make. Once you hit level 5, you’ll have to decide which attack deserves the double roll, although the DM might let you decide when to use this ability only after rolling for the first time.
2Lucky
Start Each Day With Advantage
The lucky feat has been slightly reworded from its 2014 incarnation, but it still works largely the same. You have a set of luck points, determined by your proficiency bonus this time, and you’re able to spend them to give yourself advantage on a check or give someone disadvantage when attacking you.
Since you start each day with all your luck points, there is no point in saving them for a rainy day unless you know there is a boss fight coming. Since they are now dependent on proficiency bonus, you start with less than before, but you’ll gain even more as the adventure progresses, so it is a net positive.
1Musician
Handing Out Heroic Inspiration
Usually, playing music is a traitexclusive to bards, but thanks to the musician feat, now everyone will want to know how to play at least a lute. This is because, other than giving you proficiency with three musical instruments, the feat also gives you access to the encouraging song.
This song can be played at the end of a short or long rest and gives allies that hear the song (up to your proficiency bonus) heroic inspiration, letting them reroll any dice roll by expending one heroic charge. While characters can only have one heroic inspiration at a time, you can still recharge it after each short rest, giving players near unrestricted access to a mechanic previously only available when the DM deemed it appropriate.
