Greyhawk Feats for 5E

Here we go with yet another bit of Greyhawk goodness for the 5E fans out there. This time I’ve converted the wonderful Greyhawk Regional Feats by Erik Mona (originally seen in Dragon magazines 315 and 319), and added a few more of my own to round things out a little. There are feats that are based on both home region and race, and a few that are available to certain classes (including the orders of knighthood in the previous book).

Of course, feats as a whole are an optional rule in 5E, but these sorts of feats allow your characters to add a little regional color with some minor mechanical effects, which I find adds depth. Of course, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who want ’em…

You can download the file here.

And, as with the others in this series, I really would appreciate it if you could hit the ol’ tip jar off to the right if you liked the booklet. This one clocks in at 18 pages.

Written by 

Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

7 thoughts on “Greyhawk Feats for 5E

  1. Interesting. But most if not all of these feats are way too weak or situation-specific. Considering that you forgo your Ability Score Improvement when taking a feat, I cannot imagine my players taking any of them, save perhaps one or two. The advantage they give rarely if ever apply in most games. Too bad.

    1. I understand your concern Nebbiolo. I think in keeping with the spirit of the original Mona article they should be awarded only at character creation, for free perhaps, instead of requiring the optional rule or spending an ability score raise.
      (I’ve looked into adapting these myself, thanks Joe for the hard work!)

    2. Have to agree with this (except for BLOOD OF KORD and NEXUS METHOD, which is overpowered). Standard feats pack a punch and these do not.

      Additionally, they should specify what happens with “add your proficiency bonus” in case of already being proficient and feat chains are frankly a big no no.

      The ideas are nice, but the execution makes them close to pointless. To be honest, it doesn’t seem like much care went into the mechanics Trollblooded is perhaps the most egregrious – I like the concept, but you pay a feat to re-attach/regenerate limbs, when there are no rules for severing limbs in 5e (other than a drigging double crit with a sword of sharpness). And for that you get -1 to initiative in sunlight.
      I wouldn’t take that feat for free, let alone at the expense of an ability score increase. But, as written, no one can take it anyway, since it has a feat chain requirement and can only be taken at 1st level.

      Besides the mechanical underpoweredness, I would also say that good feats are ones that don’t just pad your existing bonus on a certain type of roll, but allow you to do something you couldn’t otherwise (fx good feats: Shield Master – shove with a bonus action and evasion on DEX saves, Inspiring Leader granting temp. hp to allies. Boring feats: Resilient gives bonus to an ability and proficiency in a save, Weapon master giving bonus to ability score and proficiency with four weapons).

      EXERCISES OF ARND (minus the pointless feat prerequisite) is a good feat, balanced and interesting. LANDLESS NOBILITY interesting enough that I would consider taking it. The rest don’t really do enough to justify their existence.

      1. I have bloggers remorse on the tone of this comment. I could have been more constructive than this, so would like to apologise for the way I wrote this.

  2. While certainly not the power boost that regular feats grant, I applaud your efforts for making feats that customize rather than optimize a PC. After five years of playing 5e and using the optional feat rules, I had grown tired of players always opting for one of the top six feats, and had fully intended to prohibit all feats in my next campaign. Your selection of GH feats, however, is exactly what I’m looking for: region-specific talents that encourage character building. I’m happy to incorporate these into my game…nicely done!
    Because they are weaker than feats offered in the PHB, I may offer one to each PC at character creation or as an option to take one feat and one ability point boost at 4th, 8th, 12th, etc. (instead of two ability points). There are a few things I might tweak. For instance, some feats offer a +2 bonus to a die roll. In keeping with 5e’s philosophy of simplicity, I might turn those +2’s into advantage (or disadvantage, depending on the feat). Regardless, the mechanics can be adjusted. The flavor these feats bring to the game is more important to me. Thanks for putting these together.

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