# D&D 5e 2014 Defense, Skill and Utility Feats: All 14 Ranked > Every defensive, skill and utility feat in D&D 5e 2014 compared in one place: Lucky, Alert, Resilient, Tough, Observant, Skill Expert, Mobile and the rest, rated by class and judged against the ability score increase you give up to take them. Source: https://theroleplayersguild.com/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-defense-utility-feats-guide Published: 2026-09-14 Updated: 2026-09-14 Author: Andrew Blase Site: The Role Players Guild **Short answer:** Lucky is the strongest of these 14 feats in D&D 5e 2014 because three rerolls per long rest apply to every attack roll, ability check and saving throw in the game, including attacks made against you. Alert and Resilient are next: Alert decides who acts first, and Resilient patches whichever saving throw your class never got. Tough and Skill Expert are solid second picks. The three armour proficiency feats are the weakest group, because a one-level class dip usually delivers more than any of them. --- ## Introduction Fourteen feats in the 2014 rules make your character harder to kill, better at skills, or faster to act. None of them adds damage, which is what makes them harder to evaluate than the combat feats: there is no arithmetic that proves Alert is worth a slot the way the minus five for plus ten trade proves Sharpshooter is. What they compete with instead is the ability score increase you give up, and that is the comparison this guide is built around. Seven claims commonly made about these feats are corrected here against the printed text, including one about Lucky that inverts the feat's timing rule, and one that this library itself published in two contradictory versions on the same page. ![D&D 5e defence, skill and utility feats guide](hero.webp) --- ## Disclaimer This guide covers these feats **as written in the 2014 Player's Handbook and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything**, both 2014-era books. All rules, terminology and class references follow the 2014 edition. This is not a 2024 edition guide. --- ## The Short Answer **Lucky is the best feat in this group and one of the best in the game.** Three rerolls per long rest, applicable to every attack roll, ability check and saving throw you make, plus the ability to force a reroll on an attack against you. No prerequisite, no build requirement, good on every class at every level. **Alert decides who acts first, and acting first decides fights.** A flat +5 to initiative is five times what two points of Dexterity buys on that roll, and it removes surprise against you entirely. **Resilient is the most efficient half-feat here.** A point of a stat plus proficiency in that stat's saving throw, scaling to +6. It exists to patch the save your class was never given, which is usually the save that takes you out of an encounter. **Tough and Skill Expert are the reliable second picks.** Tough is 40 hit points by level 20 with no conditions attached. Skill Expert corrects any stat, adds a proficiency and adds expertise, which is three things for one slot. **The three armour feats are the weakest group in the phase.** Heavily Armored and Lightly Armored both lose to a one-level class dip in almost every case, and Lightly Armored also loses to a spell. Medium Armor Master is the one worth taking, and only at Dexterity 16 or higher. | Feat | Rating | Book | Best for | | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ---- | ------------------------------------ | | Lucky ● | ● | PHB | Every class, every level | | Alert ● | ● | PHB | Control casters, Rogues, Monks | | Resilient ● | ● | PHB | Any class missing a key save | | Skill Expert ● | ● | TCoE | Skill-light classes, odd stats | | Mobile ● | ● | PHB | Rogues and Monks who skirmish | | Tough ● | ● | PHB | Frontliners, low-hit-die casters | | Observant ● | ● | PHB | The party scout | | Inspiring Leader ● | ● | PHB | Charisma leads in attrition games | | Medium Armor Master ● | ● | PHB | Dexterity 16+ in medium armour | | Durable ● | ● | PHB | High-Constitution, short-rest tables | | Actor ● | ● | PHB | Infiltration and intrigue campaigns | | Heavily Armored ● | ● | PHB | Casters who cannot multiclass | | Athlete ● | ● | PHB | Terrain-heavy campaigns only | | Lightly Armored ● | ● | PHB | Almost nobody | --- ## What These Feats Actually Compete With A combat feat justifies itself with damage. None of these does, so each one has to beat the alternative use of the same slot: two points of an ability score. That comparison is the single most useful tool for reading this group, and it splits the fourteen into two clean categories. **Six are half-feats.** Resilient, Skill Expert, Observant, Actor, Athlete and Medium Armor Master each raise a stat by 1 alongside their effect. If the stat you raise is sitting on an odd number, that point is worth a full step of modifier, and the feat effectively costs you only one point rather than two. This is why a Wizard at Constitution 15 should look hard at Resilient and a Rogue at Dexterity 19 should look hard at Skill Expert: half the price is already paid. **Eight are not.** Lucky, Alert, Tough, Durable, Mobile, Inspiring Leader, Heavily Armored and Lightly Armored cost the full two points. Each has to be worth more than a complete step of your primary modifier, which is a real bar. Lucky and Alert clear it comfortably. Lightly Armored does not clear it at all. **The odd-score rule of thumb.** Work out which of your scores are odd before you open a feat list. A half-feat that fixes an odd score is doing two jobs, and the feats in this group are close enough in power that this consideration decides most picks. A character with every score already even should weight the full feats higher than any tier list suggests. **One caution about stacking defensive feats.** Tough, Durable and Resilient all improve survivability by different routes, and taking all three is usually worse than taking one and putting the other two slots into your primary stat. More hit points do not help if you never land a spell, and a higher save DC ends fights before the hit points matter. Pick the one that addresses how your character actually dies. --- ## The Survivability Feats Three feats make you harder to remove from a fight. They work by completely different mechanisms, and the right one depends on how your character tends to go down. ### Tough ● **What it does.** Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain the feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points. **The total is always 40 by level 20, and when you take it does not change that.** This is worth stating plainly because it is widely reported the other way. The retroactive clause pays out twice your level at the moment you take it, and the ongoing clause pays 2 per level afterwards, so the two halves always sum to twice your final level. Taken at level 4 you get 8 immediately and 32 more across levels 5 to 20. Taken at level 16 you get 32 immediately and 8 more. Both arrive at 40. What taking it early buys you is the use of those hit points for more of the campaign, which is a real benefit, but it is not a larger number. **Where it is worth most.** Proportionally, on small hit dice. A Wizard with a d6 and Constitution 14 averages about 5 hit points per level, so 2 more is a 40 percent increase. A Barbarian with a d12 and Constitution 18 averages about 10, so the same 2 is a 20 percent increase. The absolute number is identical; measured by how much longer you survive, the caster gains more. **Where it loses.** Against an ability score increase into Constitution, when your Constitution is odd. That increase gives 1 hit point per level, better concentration saves, better hit die rolls, and better resistance to poison and disease. Tough gives 2 hit points per level and nothing else. Fix odd Constitution first; take Tough once the stat is even or capped. **Who should take it.** Low-hit-die casters who keep ending up within reach. Fighters and Paladins who have already bought their core combat feats. Any character in a campaign with scarce healing and long adventuring days. ### Resilient ● **What it does.** Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20, and gain proficiency in saving throws using that ability. **This is the most efficient half-feat in the group.** Saving throw proficiency adds your full proficiency bonus, which is +2 at level 1 and +6 at level 17, and it never stops applying. Unlike a one-off bonus it grows on its own, and unlike most feat effects there is no condition attached to it firing. **Choosing the ability is the whole decision.** - **Constitution** for any caster whose combat identity rests on a concentration spell. Wizards and Sorcerers have no Constitution save proficiency at all, which means their concentration rests entirely on a bare modifier. - **Wisdom** for Fighters, Rogues and Wizards. Wisdom saves defend against Hold Person, Dominate Monster and the frightened condition, and failing one of those does not damage you, it removes you from the encounter. - **Dexterity** for a melee character with no Dexterity save proficiency, who is otherwise taking full damage from every area effect in the game. - **Strength, Intelligence and Charisma** are situational. Intelligence in particular is almost never the right pick outside a campaign built on mind flayers. **The trap.** Proficiency does not stack with proficiency. A Cleric taking Resilient (Wisdom) already has Wisdom save proficiency and gains only the ability point, wasting most of the feat. Read your class's two saving throw proficiencies before you choose. **Who should take it.** Wizards and Sorcerers, taking Constitution. Fighters and Rogues, taking Wisdom. Anyone at all with an odd score in the ability that is getting them killed. ### Durable ● **What it does.** Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. When you roll a hit die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier, with a minimum of 2. **It only pays out on short rests, which is the whole problem.** Hit dice are spent during short rests. If your table takes two short rests per long rest, as the game's own pacing assumes, Durable smooths every one of them. If your table takes none, which is extremely common in practice, the feat does nothing but raise a stat by 1. **It also needs a high Constitution to matter.** The floor is twice your Constitution modifier. At Constitution 12 that floor is 2, which is what you would have got from a bad roll anyway. At Constitution 20 the floor is 10, which on a d10 hit die means every die you spend recovers at least 10. The feat scales sharply with the stat, and below Constitution 16 it is barely doing anything. **Who should take it.** Fighters, Warlocks and Monks, whose class features already push them toward frequent short rests, at a table that actually takes them, with Constitution 16 or better. That is a stack of three conditions, which is why the rating sits where it does. Ask your GM how the adventuring day is paced before spending the slot. --- ## The Armor Proficiency Feats Three feats grant armour you do not otherwise have. As a group these are the weakest feats in this guide, for one reason: a single class level usually delivers the same proficiency plus several other features, and the feat delivers only the proficiency. Worth knowing before comparing them: wearing armour you lack proficiency with is punishing. You have disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw or attack roll that uses Strength or Dexterity, and you cannot cast spells at all. Armour proficiency has never added your proficiency bonus to armour class, so the cost of going without is the disadvantage and the lost spellcasting, not a missing bonus. ### Medium Armor Master ● **What it does.** Prerequisite: proficiency with medium armour. Wearing medium armour does not impose disadvantage on your Stealth checks, and when you wear medium armour you can add 3 rather than 2 to your armour class if you have a Dexterity of 16 or higher. **The armour class benefit is exactly one point, and it is conditional.** Below a Dexterity modifier of +3 you gain no armour class whatsoever. At Dexterity 16 in half plate you reach armour class 18, which equals plate armour while requiring Dexterity instead of Strength 15 and carrying no stealth penalty. That specific comparison is the case for the feat. **The stealth clause is the half that always applies.** Medium armour normally imposes disadvantage on Stealth. Removing that lets a scout wear real armour, which otherwise forces a choice between armour class and staying hidden. Even at Dexterity 14, where the armour class benefit is zero, this part still works. **The competing option.** If your Dexterity is 14, raising it to 16 with an ability score increase gives you the same +1 armour class by reaching the ordinary +2 cap, plus better initiative, attack rolls, Dexterity saves and Stealth. The feat is the better buy when Dexterity is already 16, and the increase is usually better when it is 14. **Who should take it.** Rangers, who default to medium armour with Dexterity as a primary stat. Clerics of domains that grant no heavy armour. Valor Bards. Druids, who cannot wear metal and top out at scale mail. ### Heavily Armored ● **What it does.** Prerequisite: proficiency with medium armour. Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20, and gain proficiency with heavy armour. **Plate is armour class 18 flat, ignoring Dexterity entirely.** That is the highest armour class available from non-magical equipment, and it is why the feat exists. It also requires Strength 15 to wear without a speed penalty, imposes disadvantage on Stealth, and costs 1,500 gold. **The dip beats it in most campaigns.** One level of Fighter grants heavy armour, shield proficiency, a fighting style and Second Wind. Heavily Armored grants heavy armour and one point of Strength. If you can multiclass, the level is the better trade for nearly any build that wants plate. The feat becomes correct when your table restricts multiclassing, or when delaying a caster level would cost you a spell tier you need on schedule. **Who should take it.** Hexblade Warlocks who want plate without spending a level outside the class. Strength-based gish builds. Both are narrow, and both should check whether a dip is available first. ### Lightly Armored ● **What it does.** Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20, and gain proficiency with light armour. **A first-level spell beats it outright.** Mage Armor sets your armour class to 13 plus your Dexterity modifier for eight hours with no concentration. Studded leather, the best light armour, gives 12 plus your Dexterity modifier. The spell is one point better at every Dexterity value and costs no feat. Any class that can cast Mage Armor should never take this feat. **A class dip beats it too.** One level of Fighter or Ranger grants light armour alongside a fighting style and more. The feat grants light armour and one ability point. **When it is correct.** Your campaign bans multiclassing, and Mage Armor is unavailable to you, and you still need light armour proficiency, and the ability point is useful. All four conditions at once. That is a narrow enough intersection that most characters will never meet it. **Who should take it.** Realistically, nobody under standard conditions. Resilient (Dexterity) gives the same point of Dexterity plus proficiency in Dexterity saving throws, and is the better feat for almost every character who was considering this one. --- ## The Skill Feats Four feats improve what your character can do outside combat. Their value swings harder on campaign style than anything else in this guide, which is why two of them rate well and two rate poorly despite being similarly constructed. ### Skill Expert ● **What it does.** Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20. You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice. Then choose one skill in which you have proficiency and gain expertise with it, doubling your proficiency bonus for checks with that skill. **The ability point is unusually flexible.** Most half-feats restrict you to a specific trio of stats. This one raises anything, which makes it the cleanest way in the game to fix a single odd score while still getting an effect. **Expertise is the part that compounds.** Doubling your proficiency bonus means +4 at level 1 growing to +12 at level 17 on the chosen skill. On Perception it also raises your passive score permanently, which is why Perception is the usual pick. Stealth is the alternative for infiltration builds. **On whether the new proficiency can be the expertise skill:** the text permits it. The benefits are written in order, so by the time you choose the expertise skill you are already proficient in the one you just gained. Some tables rule against this, so confirm with your GM rather than assuming it either way. **Who should take it.** Rogues and Bards extending expertise past what the class grants. Fighters, Paladins and Barbarians, who begin with only two skill proficiencies and feel every gap. Anyone sitting on an odd score who does not want to spend a whole slot on stats. ### Observant ● **What it does.** Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20. If you can see a creature's mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it is saying by reading its lips. You have a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Intelligence (Investigation) scores. **Passive scores run constantly, which is the argument.** Your passive Perception is checked every time something hidden is near you, whether or not anyone announces a roll. A +5 is the largest single improvement to that number available, and stacked with Perception proficiency and decent Wisdom it pushes a character past the Stealth modifiers of most creatures in the Monster Manual. One party member taking this protects everyone. **It does nothing on active rolls.** When you spend an action to search and roll a d20, Observant contributes zero. It is entirely a passive-score feat, and players who take it expecting better search rolls have bought the wrong thing. **The lip reading has no range limit.** The condition is that you can see the mouth and that the creature is speaking a language you understand. There is no distance in the text. Descriptions imposing a 10-foot limit are adding a restriction that does not exist, and ones that drop the language requirement are removing one that does. **Who should take it.** Rangers first, who already want Wisdom and usually have Perception. Rogues, who can pair it with expertise. Druids. It rewards exploration and dungeon campaigns far more than combat-dense ones. ### Actor ● **What it does.** Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You have advantage on Deception and Performance checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person. You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures, provided you have heard them speak or make the sound for at least 1 minute, and a listener can detect the mimicry with a Wisdom (Insight) check against your Charisma (Deception) check. **The advantage is narrower than it reads.** It applies only when you are impersonating a specific person. Ordinary lying, ordinary performing and general social pressure get nothing. That restriction is what keeps this from being a strong social feat rather than a specialised one. **The mimicry is the creative half.** Reproducing a voice you have heard for a minute covers issuing orders in a captain's voice, imitating a creature call to move a patrol, or faking a known figure through a door. No roll produces the sound; rolls only come in when someone suspects. **It needs Deception proficiency to work.** Advantage on a roll you make without proficiency is still a weak roll. This feat assumes you are already the party face, and on a character who is not, it underperforms badly. **Who should take it.** Bards and Rogues in campaigns built on infiltration, heists or court intrigue, ideally with expertise in Deception already. In a combat-focused campaign it is close to a dead slot, and the rating here reflects the average table rather than the best case. ### Athlete ● **What it does.** Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20. When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of movement. Climbing does not cost you extra movement. You can make a running long jump or running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot rather than 10. **Each benefit needs a specific table to matter.** Standing from prone normally costs half your speed, so the feat saves 10 feet, but only on turns where you were knocked down. Climbing at full speed matters only when your GM tracks climbing movement rather than calling for one Athletics check. The jump run-up reduction matters only when the 10-foot requirement has actually been binding. **Most tables resolve athletics with a single check.** That is the honest reason this rates where it does. In a campaign that tracks terrain closely, with vertical dungeons and enemies that knock prone, Athlete contributes every session. In the more common style it is a stat bump attached to three rules that rarely come up. **Mobile is the better mobility feat almost always.** Ten feet of speed, ignoring difficult terrain when you Dash, and no opportunity attack from the creature you attacked is a far more consistent package than what Athlete offers. **Who should take it.** Barbarians and Monks in terrain-heavy games where prone and climbing recur often enough to notice. Otherwise, take Mobile, or take the ability score increase. --- ## The Tempo Feats Four feats change when and where you act rather than how hard you hit. Three of the four are among the best picks in this guide, because controlling the sequence of a fight is worth more than incremental numbers inside it. ### Lucky ● **What it does.** You have 3 luck points. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional d20, and you choose which of the d20s is used. You can also spend a luck point when a creature makes an attack roll against you, rolling a d20 and choosing which of the two dice is used for that attack. You regain your luck points on a long rest. **Spend the point after you roll, not before.** The feat states that you can choose to spend a luck point after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You are meant to look at the number, judge whether it is going to fail, and then decide. This matters more than it sounds: a rule that forced you to commit in advance would waste points on rolls that were going to succeed anyway, and it would make Lucky a far weaker feat. Guides that describe the timing the other way are describing a restriction the feat does not contain, and this library published that mistake in four separate places on the page this section replaces. **The defensive use is the one players forget.** When a creature attacks you, a luck point makes it roll a second d20, and you pick which one it uses. Against an incoming critical hit from something that would drop you, that single point is worth more than any three offensive rerolls. Nothing else in the feat list lets you reach across the table and take back an enemy's good roll. **Two Lucky creatures cancel out.** If more than one creature spends a luck point to influence the same roll, the points cancel each other and no additional dice are rolled. Both points are still gone. It is a flat cancellation, not a contest and not a bigger pool to choose from. **With advantage or disadvantage you roll three and choose.** The extra d20 joins the two you already rolled and you pick among them, which with disadvantage improves your odds considerably rather than merely restoring a straight roll. One consequence catches people out: disadvantage still counts as disadvantage for anything that checks for it, so a Rogue attacking with disadvantage cannot use Sneak Attack even after choosing a high die. **Who should take it.** Everyone. Rogues, whose once-per-turn Sneak Attack makes each attack roll disproportionately valuable. Wizards, who are fragile and live or die on saving throws. Paladins, protecting Bless concentration and landing smites. There is no class where a reroll is a bad purchase; the only question is whether a class-defining combat feat should come first. ### Alert ● **What it does.** You gain a +5 bonus to initiative. You cannot be surprised while you are conscious. Other creatures do not gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being hidden from you. **Five points of initiative is not a small number.** Raising Dexterity from 18 to 20 improves your initiative by 1. Alert improves it by 5, for the same slot. If acting first is what your build wants, no ability score increase competes. **Acting first is worth more to some builds than others.** A control caster whose Hypnotic Pattern lands before any enemy moves may end the encounter on the spot. A Rogue gets a clean Sneak Attack against a target that has not yet moved to cover. A Monk stuns before the enemy acts rather than after. A Barbarian rages and closes before the line forms. For a healer with no opening play, the same +5 is worth considerably less. **Surprise immunity is a defensive feat hiding inside an offensive one.** A surprised character loses their entire first turn while enemies act freely. Alert removes that for you personally, which in an ambush-heavy campaign is worth a slot by itself. Note it protects you and not the party. **The hidden-attacker clause is narrow but permanent.** Creatures hidden from you gain no advantage on attacks against you. It does not reveal them and it does not stop them attacking; it removes the advantage. Against an assassin or an invisible enemy that is a meaningful reduction in incoming damage. **Who should take it.** Control Wizards, Assassin Rogues and Monks first. Anything that wants to act before the enemy. It is a weaker pick for Clerics and Paladins, who usually want concentration protection or survivability before tempo. ### Mobile ● **What it does.** Your speed increases by 10 feet. When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain does not cost you extra movement that turn. When you make a melee attack against a creature, you do not provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn. **It is targeted immunity, not Disengage.** This is the single most misread part of the feat. Attacking one enemy frees you from that enemy's opportunity attack only. Every other creature still threatens you normally. A character who walks out of a crowd of four after attacking one of them takes three opportunity attacks, and players who treat Mobile as a free Disengage discover this the hard way. **The speed and the terrain clause are the quiet value.** Ten feet is a third of a typical character's movement, permanently. Ignoring difficult terrain on a Dash turns a Web, a Grease or a field of rubble into open ground for you while it still slows everyone else. In a fight shaped by terrain that is a positional advantage no one can answer. **It wants a build that actually moves.** On a character who plants themselves in a doorway and dares enemies to walk past, Mobile contributes almost nothing. It is the counterpart to the lockdown style rather than a complement to it, and taking both approaches at once produces a character that does neither well. **Who should take it.** Rogues above all, whose Cunning Action bonus-action Dash combines with the extra speed to cover most of a battlefield in one turn, and who need only one attack to land. Monks, already the fastest characters in the game. Skirmishing Fighters. Not anchored defenders. ### Inspiring Leader ● **What it does.** Prerequisite: Charisma 13. You can spend 10 minutes inspiring up to six friendly creatures within 30 feet of you who can see or hear you and who can understand you. Each gains temporary hit points equal to your level plus your Charisma modifier. **The arithmetic is larger than it looks.** At level 10 with Charisma 20 that is 15 temporary hit points each. Across a party of five plus one companion that is 90 points of buffer, delivered for ten minutes of downtime and no combat action at all. Very few things in the game move that much effective health for that little. **Temporary hit points stack on top of full health.** This is what makes it different from healing. A fully rested party can still take the buffer, so the first hits of the next fight land on points that cost nobody a spell slot. It also fits inside a short rest without disrupting it, so the ten minutes usually costs nothing at all. **The mistake is hoarding it.** There is no daily limit. Use it before every fight you can see coming, not only before the ones that look important. Temporary hit points do not stack with themselves, so refresh it between encounters once the old buffer is spent. **It works at low Charisma, just less well.** At the prerequisite of Charisma 13 the modifier is +1, so a level 10 Fighter still hands out 11 each. That is a real contribution from a character with no other support tools. **Who should take it.** Paladins and Bards, who have the Charisma and the party role already. Sorcerers once their concentration needs are met. It is worth most in long adventuring days and attrition campaigns, and worth least in games of one short decisive fight per session. --- ## Lucky's Timing Rule, Corrected This deserves its own section because it is the most consequential error in the set of pages this guide replaces, and because it changes how the strongest feat here is played. **The rule.** You can choose to spend one of your luck points **after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined**. **What that means at the table.** You roll your attack. You see a 6. The GM has not yet said whether it hits. That is the window: you may spend the point now, knowing the 6 is probably a miss. If instead you roll a 19, you keep your point, because you do not need it. **What the retired pages said.** They stated, in four separate places including the frontmatter FAQ and the closing FAQ, that the decision must be made before the roll and that you cannot wait to see a failure. That is the opposite of the printed rule, and following it would have had readers burning luck points on rolls that were going to land and holding them on rolls they could have seen fail. **Why the error matters more than most.** Lucky's power comes almost entirely from information. Three rerolls used with knowledge of the die are worth far more than three rerolls declared blind, and the blind version is a meaningfully weaker feat. A reader who adopted the retired guidance would have concluded Lucky was overrated, which is the reverse of the correct conclusion. **One boundary worth keeping.** "Before the outcome is determined" is a real limit. Once the GM announces the result, the window has closed. You cannot hear "that misses" and then spend a point. --- ## Seven Corrections To Claims Commonly Made About These Feats Each of these is stated against the printed feat text, and each corrects something this library previously published or that circulates widely in build guides. **1. Lucky points are spent after the roll, not before.** The feat permits spending "after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined." The retired page asserted the opposite four times. **2. Two Lucky creatures cancel; no dice are rolled.** The retired page contradicted itself on this, with a frontmatter answer claiming both dice are added and the affected character chooses from the pool, and a body answer stating the correct cancellation. The frontmatter version is the one that fed the page's FAQ structured data. **3. Lucky with disadvantage gives you three dice to choose from.** It does not merely restore a straight roll, and it does not leave you bound to the lower of the first two. It also does not switch off disadvantage for features that check for it, so Sneak Attack stays blocked. **4. Observant's lip reading has no distance limit.** The condition is seeing the creature's mouth while it speaks **a language you understand**. The retired page imposed a 10-foot range that does not exist and omitted the language requirement that does. **5. Tough's total does not depend on when you take it.** The feat grants twice your level on acquisition and 2 per level thereafter, so a level-20 character has gained 40 either way. The retired page gave three mutually inconsistent figures, including a claim that taking it at level 16 yields "only +10 HP total by level 20," which does not follow even from its own stated mechanic. **6. Wearing armour without proficiency does not cost you a bonus to armour class.** Proficiency never added one. The actual penalty is disadvantage on every Strength or Dexterity ability check, saving throw and attack roll, plus total inability to cast spells. **7. Skill Expert's text allows the new proficiency to be the expertise skill.** The benefits are ordered: you gain the proficiency, then choose a skill in which you have proficiency. The retired page presented the restrictive reading as what "most GMs rule," which overstates a table-level disagreement as settled practice. **A note on how error 5 was verified.** A web search run to confirm the Tough arithmetic returned this library's own page among its sources and quoted the incorrect figure back as though it were independent corroboration. The correction here rests on the feat's printed text and on sources that exclude this domain. Published mistakes propagate, including back to their author. --- ## Picking By Class The same feat lands differently on different chassis. These are the first choices for each class, assuming no specific campaign pressure and no half-feat bargain from an odd score. | Class | First pick | Second pick | Skip | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | [Wizard](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-wizard-guide) | Resilient (Constitution) | Alert or Lucky | Athlete | | [Sorcerer](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-sorcerer-guide) | Resilient (Constitution) | Lucky | Heavily Armored | | [Cleric](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-cleric-guide) | Lucky | Medium Armor Master, without heavy armour | Resilient (Wisdom), already proficient | | [Druid](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-druid-guide) | Medium Armor Master | Observant | Resilient (Wisdom), already proficient | | [Warlock](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-warlock-guide) | Resilient (Constitution) | Durable, on a short-rest table | Athlete | | [Bard](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-bard-guide) | Skill Expert | Inspiring Leader | Heavily Armored | | [Paladin](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-paladin-guide) | Inspiring Leader | Lucky | Lightly Armored | | [Fighter](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-fighter-guide) | Resilient (Wisdom) | Alert or Tough | Lightly Armored | | [Rogue](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-rogue-guide) | Alert | Mobile or Lucky | Heavily Armored | | [Barbarian](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-barbarian-guide) | Resilient (Wisdom) | Lucky | Lightly Armored | | [Ranger](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-ranger-guide) | Medium Armor Master | Observant | Lightly Armored | | [Monk](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-monk-guide) | Mobile | Alert | Any armour feat | | [Artificer](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/class-guides/dnd2014-artificer-guide) | Resilient (Constitution) | Skill Expert | Athlete | **The Wisdom save gap is the most under-addressed weakness in the game.** Fighters, Rogues, Barbarians, Wizards and Sorcerers all lack Wisdom save proficiency, and Wisdom saves are what Hold Person, Dominate Person and the frightened condition target. Failing one of those does not hurt you, it removes you from the encounter while your party fights short-handed. Resilient (Wisdom) appears on five rows above for that reason. **Check your existing save proficiencies before taking Resilient.** Clerics and Druids already have Wisdom, so the obvious pick is wasted on them and Constitution is the better choice. Fighters, Rangers, Barbarians, Monks and Sorcerers already have one of the physical saves. Two minutes with your character sheet prevents spending a feat on half an effect. **Monks should not take any armour feat.** Unarmored Defense keys off Dexterity and Wisdom and is turned off entirely by wearing armour or a shield. The three armour feats are dead slots on the class. --- ## Verdict **Lucky is the best feat in this guide and belongs on almost any character who has bought their class-defining combat feat.** Three rerolls a day, usable on anything you roll and on attacks aimed at you, decided after you see the die. Nothing else here is that flexible. **Alert and Resilient are the two that most reliably change outcomes.** Alert decides who acts first, which decides a surprising share of fights outright. Resilient patches whichever save your class was never given, which is the save that eventually takes you out of an encounter. **Tough and Skill Expert are the dependable follow-ups.** Tough is 40 hit points by level 20 with no condition attached and no table dependency. Skill Expert fixes any odd score, patches a proficiency gap and adds expertise, which is unusually good value for one slot. **The armour feats are the weakest group, and Lightly Armored is the weakest feat in the guide.** A first-level spell beats it and a single class level beats it. Medium Armor Master is the exception worth taking, at Dexterity 16 or higher, where half plate reaches armour class 18 with no stealth penalty and no Strength requirement. **Durable, Actor and Athlete are conditional picks that depend on your GM, not your build.** Durable needs short rests to exist. Actor needs a campaign with people to impersonate. Athlete needs a GM who tracks climbing and prone rather than resolving athletics with one check. Ask before you spend the slot, because the answer is outside your control. > **Hot Take:** The most common mistake with this group is not picking the wrong feat, it is stacking three of them. A character with Tough, Durable and Resilient has spent three ability score improvements to be harder to kill and has a spell save DC two points lower than the party expected, or an attack bonus that misses the enemies these feats were meant to survive. Defensive feats do not compound the way damage feats do: the second one is worth much less than the first, because the first already addressed how you were actually dying. Take one survivability feat, take Lucky or Alert for tempo, and put the rest into your primary stat. A character who never goes down but never contributes is a harder problem for a party to solve than one who occasionally needs healing. **Best for:** Characters who have already secured their core combat feat should take Lucky. Casters protecting concentration at range should take Resilient (Constitution). Anyone who wants to act before the enemy should take Alert. Fighters and Rogues should close the Wisdom save gap before anything else on this list. Related reading: the [combat and weapon feats guide](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-combat-feats-guide) covers the 18 feats that improve weapon attacks, and the [caster feats guide](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-caster-feats-guide) covers the 11 spellcasting feats, including [War Caster](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-caster-feats-guide#war-caster), which is the melee counterpart to Resilient for protecting concentration. The [racial feats guide](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-racial-feats-guide) covers the 10 ancestry-gated feats, including [Dwarven Fortitude](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-racial-feats-guide#dwarven-fortitude), which a Dwarf should weigh against Tough before spending the slot. The [setting feats guide](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-setting-feats-guide) covers the five standalone setting-book feats, including [Gift of the Metallic Dragon](/articles/dnd-5e-2014/feat-guides/dnd2014-setting-feats-guide#gift-of-the-metallic-dragon), which puts a free Cure Wounds on a party that has no healer. --- ## FAQ **What is the best feat in this group?** Lucky. Three rerolls per long rest that work on every attack roll, ability check and saving throw you make, and on attacks made against you. **When do I spend a luck point?** After you roll the die, before the outcome is determined. You are entitled to see the number first. Guides that tell you to declare it in advance are describing a restriction the feat does not have. **What happens if two creatures spend luck points on the same roll?** They cancel out and no additional dice are rolled. Both points are still spent. **Does Lucky help when I have disadvantage?** Yes, you roll a third die and choose among all three. But disadvantage still counts as disadvantage, so Sneak Attack stays blocked. **Is Resilient or War Caster better for concentration?** Resilient at range, War Caster in melee. Resilient scales with proficiency and covers every Constitution save; War Caster's somatic and opportunity-attack benefits are worth nothing at 60 feet. **Which ability should I pick for Resilient?** The save your class lacks. Constitution for Wizards and Sorcerers, Wisdom for Fighters, Rogues and Barbarians. Proficiency does not stack, so check your sheet first. **Does it matter when I take Tough?** Not for the final total. Twice your level on taking it plus 2 per level after always reaches 40 by level 20. Taking it early means holding the hit points longer, not gaining more. **Is Tough better than raising Constitution?** Usually not while Constitution is odd, because the increase gives hit points plus concentration saves, hit dice and poison resistance. Tough wins once Constitution is even or capped. **How far can Observant read lips?** There is no range limit. You need to see the mouth and understand the language being spoken. **Does Observant improve active Perception rolls?** No. Passive Perception and passive Investigation only. **Does Mobile work like Disengage?** No. It stops opportunity attacks only from the creature you attacked. Everyone else still threatens you. **What does Medium Armor Master actually give me?** Removal of stealth disadvantage in medium armour, and one point of armour class if your Dexterity is 16 or higher. Below that, no armour class benefit at all. **Is Lightly Armored ever right?** Only when multiclassing is banned and Mage Armor is unavailable and you still need the proficiency. Otherwise Resilient (Dexterity) is the better version of the same purchase. **What happens if I wear armour I am not proficient with?** Disadvantage on every Strength or Dexterity check, save and attack roll, and you cannot cast spells. **Can Skill Expert's new proficiency be my expertise skill?** The text allows it, since the proficiency is granted before the expertise choice. Some tables rule otherwise, so confirm with your GM.