Feats (4E)

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

This article lists new feats for use with 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Genre feats are used to describe different settings and genres. Feats with this descriptor should only be included in a campaign if the effect of the feat is something the DM wants to be a trait of the campaign world. You should ask the DM before taking genre feat.

Heroic Tier Feats

Brutal Throw

Benefit: When using a heavy thrown weapon with a power that normally bases its attack roll and damage on Dexterity, you can use Strength instead.

Channel Divinity (Cleric, Paladin)

Prerequisite: Channel Divinity feat or class feature

Benefit: You learn the channel divinity power of a god you worship.

Special: A cleric can worship several gods, and can learn this power several times. Each time, you learn the channel divinity power of another god you worship.

Comment: This is a generic feat that replaces the specific channel divinity feats with a single unified feat; moving the deity-specific channeling powers into the description of the religions.

Dodge

Prerequisite: Dexterity 13

Benefit: When wearing cloth armor, you gain a +2 armor bonus to armor class. You add the enhancement bonus of your cloth armor to this.

This can represent things like the 3E mage armor or martial arts. Its identical to Armor Proficiency (leather) except for style, in that it uses cloth armor abilities (that tend to be pretty good), and that is requires Dex 13 (as opposed to no prerequisites).

Dread Strike (Warlock)

Prerequisite: Warlock, Con 13

Benefit: You can use any warlock at-will ranged attack power as a melee attack power instead.

Familiar

Benefit: You have a tiny animal familiar that functions similar to a minion, doing minor services for you. The familiar has your speed and one of fly, swim, or climb movement rate. It uses your skill values, limited by its physical form. As a minor action you can order it to move within 10 squares of you and pick up, move, or manipulate an object. It can only carry objects weighing a pound or less. As a free action you can order it to drop whatever it is holding. You can communicate non-verbally just as if you had a shared language.

It acts on your initiative in combat but has no attacks. A familiar can only be attacked when it’s not in your square and does not trigger opportunity attacks. It has the same defense values you have, including armor worn. Any hit will cause it to flee and hide and not take any more orders. When you take a long rest, you can always order it to return to you, even in the middle of an errand or if it is in hiding.

A familiar can perform some additional services, but after doing one of these it will not be able to do anything but run away and hide.

• It can be sent on an extended errand, in which case it can move outside the regular range. It will be just as able as you are to find its way. The errand must be one single definite task, such as spying on a location or delivering a message.
• If it begins its turn in your square, it can deliver one of your non-weapon, non-personal powers, in which case the power originates from the familiar instead of from you. If the power has melee range, the familiar must be in the same space as the target to deliver it.

Favored Channel

Prerequisite: Patron god

Benefit: You can use your patron god’s channel divinity power once per day.

Fencing (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 13.

Benefit: When wielding a single melee weapon in one hand and not using a shield or two weapons, you get a +2 shield bonus to armor class. You can still wield an implement or missile weapon in the off hand.

Special: This does not work along with the Swordmage's Swordmage Warding ability.

Fencing Stance (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 15, Fencing.

Benefit: When wielding a single melee weapon in one hand and not using the other hand for anything, you get a +2 shield bonus to reflex defense.

Firearms training (Genre)

Prerequisites: Dwarf or Human

Benefit: You are proficient with all firearms, and gain a +2 feat bonus to damage with such weapons.

Heroic Defense

Prerequisite: Con 13, Dex 13, training with leather armor or Dodge

Benefit: When wearing light armor, instead of adding Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to Armor Class, you can choose to use an armor bonus of +5, +1 per five levels. You add the enhancement bonus of any armor worn to this.

This is magical/martial arts defenses one AC point worse than chainmail at levels 1-10, but has none of the penalties.

Mount Companion

Prerequisite: Mounted Combat

Benefit: Select one mount of your level or less when you learn this feat; that mount will advance in level as you do, using the normal rules for increasing monster levels.

Rapid Reload

Benefit: Reload time for weapons is reduced one step. Load minor become load free, load move becomes minor, and load standard becomes load move.

Single-Weapon Defense (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 13.

Benefit: When wielding a single melee weapon in one hand and not using a shield or two weapons, you get a +1 shield bonus to armor class and reflex defense. You can still wield an implement or missile weapon in the off hand.

Special: This does not stack with the Swordmage's Swordmage Warding ability.

Single-Weapon Stance (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 15, Single-Weapon Defense.

Benefit: When wielding a single melee weapon in one hand and not using the other hand for anything, you get a +2 shield bonus to Armor Class. This supersedes the shield AC bonus from Single Weapon Defense.

Staff Fighting

Prerequisite: Wis 13, proficient with quarterstaff.

Benefit: You can treat the quarterstaff as a double weapon. As a double weapon, the staff deals 1d8/1d8 damage and gains the defensive and off-hand properties.

Official: This is now an official feat. It is described in Dragon 368.

Weapon Finesse (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 13

Benefit: When using a light blade or unarmed attack, you can substitute your Dexterity bonus for your Strength bonus for the hit and effect lines of powers and basic attacks.

Weapon Training

Benefit: You gain proficiency in all simple and military weapons.

Comment: This might seem overly useful, but actually is rarely attractive compared to simply learning a superior weapon.

Paragon Tier Feats

Contortionist

You have the extraordinary ability to contort your limbs and dislocate your bones in order to squeeze through openings to small for ordinary people to move through.

Benefit: You count as one size smaller when using the squeeze action. Decrease the DC of all escape artist stunts by 10.

Deadeye Shot

Requirements: Dex 17, Wis 13

Benefit: You treat all firearms as high crit weapons.

Note: The name of the feat is taken from the ability of the same ability of the Master Thrower in the third edition of the rules. The effects are similar (the Master Thrower ability increased the critical multiplier by one) albeit for different weapons.

The ability requirements are based on the Deadly Axe feat but adapted to ranged weapons.

Flashing Blade

Prerequisites: Dex 17, Str 13

Benefit: If you miss with a melee attack with a rapier or sabre and you wouldn’t otherwise still deal damage on the miss, you deal damage to your original target equal to your Dexterity modifier. This damage receives no modifiers or other benefits you normally gain on weapon damage.

Comment: This is the equivalent of Scimitar Dance for rapier. The ability prerequisites have been changed to fit light blades.

Paragon Defense

Prerequisite: Level 11, Dexterity 15, Heroic Defense

Benefit: Improve the AC bonus granted by Heroic Defense by +2.

This has the same AC as chain with specialization. Chain can now get rid of movement restrictions.

Prodigious Leap (Genre)

Prerequisite: Trained in Athletics.

Benefit: You can jump a number of feet equal to the result of your Athletics check but do not benefit from a running start. It takes a full five feet to jump one square. You can jump up no more than half this distance, but do so at no extra movement cost.

Ritual Extension

Prerequisite: Ritual Casting.

Benefit: When you cast or support a ritual with a duration of 1 hour or more, the duration of the ritual is extended to 24 hours. Rituals without a fixed duration are not affected. This increases the cost of ritual components by +100%.

Ritual Multitarget

Prerequisite: Ritual Casting.

Benefit: When you cast or support a ritual that normally affects only the caster, or that affects a limited number of allies less than eight, now affects up to 8 targets. This increases the cost of ritual components by +100%.

Epic Tier Feats

Aerial Combat (Genre)

Prerequisite: Prodigious Leap.

Benefit: You can fly at your land speed, but crash at the end of each of your turns. You can make opportunity attacks against enemies a number of spaces above ground equal to your speed.

Epic Defense

Prerequisite: Level 21, Dexterity 17, Heroic Defense, Paragon Defense

Benefit: Improve the AC bonus granted by Heroic Defense by +3 instead of the +2 granted by Paragon Defense.

Threatening Reach

Prerequisite: Str 17, Wis 17

Benefit: You have threatening reach with reach weapons.

Multiclass Feats

See also Weapon mastery.

Beast Attack (Multiclass Ranger)

Prerequisite: Beast Guard

Benefit: You can order your Beast Companion to move away from you and attack even when it is not adjacent to you. You qualify for paragon paths as if you were a beast master ranger.

Beast Guard (Multiclass Ranger)

Benefit: You gain the ranger's Beast Mastery class feature from Martial Power, page 38, except that you do not get the Raise Beast Companion ritual, that it will only attack when adjacent to you, and that you cannot order it to move away from you when in combat. You use and qualify for powers and feats as if you were a beast master ranger.

Cantrips (Multiclass Wizard)

Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana

Benefit: You learn to use all wizard cantrips.

Combat Superiority (Multiclass Fighter)

Prerequisite: Fighter

Benefit: An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack. If it still has actions remaining, it can use them to resume moving.

Divine Channel (Multiclass Cleric Paladin)

Prerequisites: Cleric or Paladin.

Benefit: Gain the Divine Channel abilities of the class you have multiclassed into

Human Versatility (Multiclass Human)

Prerequisites: Human, any class-specific multiclass feat

Benefit: Replace one of your at-will powers with one from your multiclass.

Comment: This works with paragon multiclassing since it would still leave a human with at least one at-will power from his base class.

Pact Curse (Multiclass Warlock)

Prerequisites: Pact Initiate

Benefit: You gain the pact boon of your chosen pact. Once per encounter, you can use the Warlocks’s Curse class feature. Your curse last until the end of your next round.