D&D 5e 2014 Racial Feats: All 15 Ancestry Feats Ranked

Introduction

Fifteen feats in Xanathar's Guide to Everything can only be taken if you were born the right way. They are gated on ancestry rather than class, stat or proficiency, which makes them a different kind of decision from every other feat in the game: you cannot plan toward them, and no amount of build optimisation opens one up.

That gate also makes them easy to overrate. A feat with your ancestry's name on it feels like it belongs on your sheet, and most build advice treats these as the natural pick for the ancestry they are attached to. Several of them are not. Four grant no ability score increase whatsoever, one is nearly worthless without a build condition most characters never meet, and one reduces to a stat bump unless your spell list is shaped a particular way.

Three claims commonly made about these feats are corrected here against the printed text, including a Dispel Magic difficulty that this library published in two different wrong versions on the same page.

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Disclaimer

This guide covers the racial feats as written in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (2017), a supplement for the 2014 Player's Handbook ruleset. All rules, terminology and class references follow the 2014 edition. This is not a 2024 edition guide.

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The Short Answer

Elven Accuracy is the highest ceiling and the sharpest condition. On a build that attacks with advantage every round it is among the best feats in the game. On a build that does not, it is close to dead. Nothing else here swings that far on one variable.

Infernal Constitution is the safest pick in the guide. Two damage resistances and advantage on saves against being poisoned, all passive, all permanent, no trigger to remember. It asks nothing of your build.

Orcish Fury and Dwarven Fortitude reward a playstyle rather than a class. Orcish Fury pays out when you get dropped and stand back up. Dwarven Fortitude pays out on turns you were already spending on defence. Both are strong for the character who plays that way and weak for everyone else.

Fey Teleportation and Second Chance recharge faster than anything else here. A free Misty Step on every short rest, and a forced reroll in every fight. Both are half-feats, and both are better than their ancestry's better-known feat for most characters.

Four feats cost you a full ability score improvement. Drow High Magic, Wood Elf Magic, Bountiful Luck and Prodigy raise no stat. At-will Detect Magic, a free Pass without Trace and Prodigy's expertise all earn their place, but the missing +1 is a real price and most guides do not mention it.

Dragon Fear, Dragon's Hide and Flames of Phlegethos are conditional. The first two split the Dragonborn's options between control and defence, and neither is an upgrade so much as a sidegrade. Flames of Phlegethos needs a fire-heavy spell list to be anything at all.

Bountiful Luck is the narrowest. No rest limit, which is unusual and good, but it needs an ally within 30 feet rolling a natural 1 and it benches your own Lucky trait to fire.

Fade Away and Squat Nimbleness are solid but small. Fade Away is a once-per-rest escape for a gnome caster. Squat Nimbleness fixes a 25-foot walking speed and does little else.

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What An Ancestry Gate Actually Costs You

Every feat in this guide competes with the same thing every other feat competes with: two points of an ability score. What makes this group different is that the gate removes the usual first question. You are not asking whether this feat suits your build. You are asking whether, given that you already are a Tiefling, this particular Tiefling feat beats a straight increase.

Eleven of the fifteen are half-feats. They raise a score by 1, so the real cost is one point rather than two. If the score they raise is sitting on an odd number, that point converts into a full step of modifier and the feat is close to half price. This is the single most useful check to run before comparing any of them.

Four are not half-feats, and this is the group's most important fact. Drow High Magic, Wood Elf Magic, Bountiful Luck and Prodigy grant no ability score increase at all. A Warlock taking Drow High Magic at level 4 arrives at level 12 with a lower spell save DC than a Warlock who took the increase, permanently, in exchange for three spells. That trade is defensible for a utility-focused character in a dungeon-heavy campaign. It is rarely defensible for a character whose attack rolls and save DCs decide fights.

Ancestry-gated does not mean ancestry-optimal. The most common mistake with this group is assuming that the feat named after your ancestry is the feat your ancestry wants. A Wood Elf Ranger is usually better served by Elven Accuracy than by Wood Elf Magic. A Half-Orc Barbarian is usually better served by Great Weapon Master than by Orcish Fury. These feats compete with the entire feat list, not only with each other.

One more consideration specific to this group. Because the gate is ancestry rather than level or proficiency, every one of these is available at level 1 to a character who takes a feat there. That matters most for Elven Accuracy, which wants to be online for as many combats as possible, and least for Orcish Fury, whose signature benefit triggers off a trait you rarely use before higher levels.

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The Elf And Halfling Feats

Six feats belong to the two ancestries with the most feat support in the book. They cover the widest quality range in this guide: the best feat here and one of the weakest both live in this section.

Elven Accuracy ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Elf or half-elf. Increase your Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll using that ability, you can reroll one of the dice once.

The effect is best-of-three, and that is a large jump. With advantage you already roll two dice and take the higher. Rerolling the lower one and taking the best of what remains works out to the same distribution as rolling three d20s and keeping the highest. Against a hard armour class that is a meaningful gain in hit rate, and the chance of a natural 20 roughly triples compared to a single die, which is why crit-focused builds want it more than anyone.

The condition is the entire feat. The reroll fires only when you already have advantage. A build with no repeatable advantage source gets a +1 and a benefit that appears once or twice a session. Before taking this, count the rounds per combat in which you actually attack with advantage. Hiding first as a Wood Elf, Faerie Fire, a familiar using Help, Pack Tactics allies, or Devil's Sight paired with Darkness all produce it reliably. Occasional flanking does not.

Match the point to your attack stat, not your best stat. The +1 and the reroll key off the same ability. A Ranger who puts it into Wisdom for a higher spell save DC gets no reroll on bow attacks, because those are Dexterity. Decide which ability rolls your attacks, then put the point there.

The Barbarian trap. Reckless Attack is the most reliable advantage source in the game, granted at 2nd level, and it looks like the perfect partner for this feat. It is not, because standard Barbarian attacks use Strength and Elven Accuracy does not cover Strength. Only a Dexterity-based finesse Barbarian makes the combination work, which is a narrow build.

Who should take it. Wood Elf Rangers and Rogues who open from hiding. Devil's Sight Warlocks fighting inside their own Darkness. Champion Fighters stacking a widened crit range on top of near-permanent advantage. For anyone without a repeatable advantage source, take something else.

Drow High Magic ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Elf (drow). You learn Detect Magic and can cast it at will without a spell slot. You also learn Levitate and Dispel Magic, each castable once without a slot, regained on a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for all three. It grants no ability score increase.

At-will Detect Magic is the benefit that earns the slot. Most feat-granted spells are rationed once per long rest. This one is unlimited, which changes behaviour rather than just adding a resource: you scan every room on entry, every corpse, every pile of loot, without weighing whether it is worth the cast. In a dungeon-heavy campaign that is a steady stream of information nobody else in the party is producing.

Dispel Magic is the emergency valve. Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends automatically. For a spell of 4th level or higher you make an ability check with your spellcasting ability against DC 10 plus that spell's level, so a 5th-level spell needs a 15. Because the feat sets Charisma as the casting ability, a Charisma-primary character makes those checks far more reliably than a Fighter would.

Levitate is the weakest of the three. It controls vertical movement and nothing else. A creature that fails the save floats, but it can still act, still attack and still cast. Treat it as a way across a chasm or up to a ledge, not as a lockdown.

The missing ability score increase is the real cost. This is one of only three feats in the guide that gives no stat at all. A Drow Warlock taking it instead of a Charisma increase carries a permanently lower spell save DC and spell attack bonus for the rest of the campaign.

Who should take it. Drow Warlocks, Sorcerers, Paladins and Bards, whose Charisma already matches the feat's fixed casting ability. Martial Drow should usually decline, because they lose the stat and gain spells they will rarely cast in a fight.

Wood Elf Magic ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Elf (wood). You learn one druid cantrip of your choice. You also learn Longstrider and Pass without Trace, each castable once without a spell slot and regained on a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for all three. It grants no ability score increase.

Pass without Trace is the reason to consider this at all. It gives you and every creature you choose within 30 feet a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks for up to an hour, on concentration, and leaves no tracks. A +10 is the largest single skill bonus in the game and it applies to the whole party at once. A free casting every long rest can remove an entire encounter from the session.

Use it before the fight. It is a spell for avoiding combat, setting up an ambush or slipping past a guarded stretch. Cast after initiative it does essentially nothing, which is the most common way players waste it.

The cantrip list is unrestricted. Any druid cantrip qualifies, which players routinely assume is not the case. Shillelagh turns a quarterstaff into a Wisdom-based weapon for a melee build. Guidance adds a d4 to any ability check and is the strongest utility cantrip in the game for a skill-heavy party. Produce Flame gives a clean ranged option.

Longstrider is filler. Ten feet of walking speed for an hour, once per day. It matters on a travel day or during a chase and rarely otherwise.

Who should take it. Wood Elf Druids and Clerics, whose Wisdom already matches the casting ability so nothing is wasted. Any Wisdom-primary character in a campaign built on overland travel and stealth. Rangers should usually take Elven Accuracy instead, because a Ranger is hungry for both Dexterity and Wisdom and this feat supplies neither.

Fey Teleportation ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Elf (high). Increase your Intelligence or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. You learn to speak, read and write Sylvan. You learn Misty Step and can cast it once without a spell slot, regaining that use on a short or long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

The short-rest recharge is what sets it apart. Every other spell-granting feat in this guide recharges on a long rest only. Misty Step on a short rest means two or three free teleports on a normal adventuring day, each one a bonus action that moves you 30 feet to a space you can see. That is an escape from a grapple, a way out of a surrounded position, or a route across a gap, and you get it back after lunch.

It is a half-feat that points at the right scores. Intelligence covers the Wizard, Artificer, Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster; Charisma covers the Sorcerer, Warlock, Bard and Paladin. A Charisma caster still casts the free Misty Step with Intelligence, which does not matter, because the spell has no attack roll or save.

The prerequisite is the high elf specifically. The book's flavour mentions the eladrin, but an eladrin is its own elf subrace in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, not a high elf, and already has Fey Step. Neither the wood elf nor the drow qualifies.

Misty Step has a verbal component. A silenced or gagged elf cannot use it, and it is not a reaction, so it will not save you from the attack that is already coming. Plan it on your own turn.

Who should take it. High Elf Wizards and Eldritch Knights who want a repeatable exit without spending a spell slot, and any High Elf melee character who has trouble reaching the enemy. A Wizard who already knows Misty Step still gains the free casts, which saves a 2nd-level slot each time.

Bountiful Luck ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Halfling. When an ally you can see within 30 feet rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, an ability check or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to let them reroll. The ally must use the new roll. When you use this, you cannot use your own Halfling Lucky trait before the end of your next turn. It grants no ability score increase.

There is no rest limit, which almost no other reaction feat can say. Most reaction feats ration themselves per rest. This one does not: the only constraints are the 30-foot range, line of sight, having a reaction free, and the Lucky lockout. In a long fight with a clustered party it can fire several times.

The Lucky lockout is the actual cost. Halfling Lucky is one of the best racial traits in the game because it quietly deletes the worst result on the die. Turning it off until the end of your next turn to rescue an ally's roll is a real trade, and it is the part players forget until they roll a natural 1 themselves a moment later.

Spend it on saves, not skill checks. A natural 1 on a death saving throw, a concentration save, or a save against being banished or held is worth a reaction. A natural 1 on a Perception check to notice a decorative urn is not, and using it there is how you end up without your own Lucky trait when it matters.

Who should take it. Support-leaning Clerics and Bards who stay near the party and already track ally rolls. It is a poor pick for a Halfling who scouts ahead, holds a flank, or otherwise spends fights away from the 30-foot cluster the feat needs, and it competes badly against feats that improve your own character directly.

Second Chance ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Halfling. Increase your Dexterity, Constitution or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. When a creature you can see hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to force it to reroll. Once you do, you cannot do so again until you roll initiative at the start of combat or finish a short or long rest.

The recharge makes it a once-per-fight feat. Rolling initiative resets it, so in practice you get one forced reroll in every combat, plus one more if you are attacked outside initiative after a rest. That is a far better rate than a per-rest feat.

Save it for the hit that matters. The trigger is a hit, so you already know the result when you decide. A goblin's scimitar is not worth the reaction; an ogre's greatclub, an assassin's poisoned blade or a critical hit is. Because the attacker rerolls the whole attack, a critical hit can turn into a miss.

It competes with your other reactions. Using it means no opportunity attack and no Shield spell until your next turn. It does not interact with your own Lucky trait at all, unlike Bountiful Luck, which switches Lucky off.

Who should take it. Halflings who get attacked: Stout Halfling Fighters and Barbarians, and front-line Paladins, all of whom want the Constitution or Charisma point anyway. It is the better Halfling feat for most characters, because it protects you rather than someone else.

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The Dragonborn Feats

Two feats split the Dragonborn's options in opposite directions. Neither is an upgrade to the ancestry so much as a choice about what kind of Dragonborn you are, and both are frequently overrated because they carry the ancestry's name.

Dragon's Hide ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Dragonborn. Increase your Strength, Constitution or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. While you are not wearing armour, your armour class equals 13 plus your Dexterity modifier, and you can use a shield and still gain this benefit. You also grow retractable claws that need no action to extend or retract, dealing 1d4 plus your Strength modifier slashing damage in place of an unarmed strike's bludgeoning.

The armour class is not the upgrade it appears to be. A chain shirt gives 13 plus your Dexterity modifier, capped at +2, and costs 50 gold. Dragon's Hide gives 13 plus your Dexterity modifier with no cap. For a Strength-based Dragonborn with Dexterity 10 to 14, which is the archetypal build, the two produce exactly the same number. The feat only pulls ahead once your Dexterity modifier passes +3.

What it actually buys is proficiency independence. The formula is not armour, so it works for a character with no armour proficiency at all. That is worth a great deal to a Sorcerer or a Warlock, who otherwise cannot wear a chain shirt without disadvantage on every Strength and Dexterity roll and no spellcasting. Judge the feat on that, not on the armour class line.

The claws are a backup, not a weapon upgrade. 1d4 plus Strength is below a shortsword. Their value is that they are always available: when disarmed, when grappling, when a weapon is not in hand. They also give a slashing option to a Monk whose kit is otherwise all bludgeoning.

It stops working the moment you put on armour. A breastplate overrides the feature completely. If you have medium or heavy armour proficiency and intend to use it, the armour class half of this feat is dead weight.

Who should take it. Dragonborn Sorcerers and Warlocks with no armour proficiency, especially with Dexterity 16 or better. Monks, for the damage type. Strength-based Fighters and Paladins should usually skip it and buy a chain shirt.

Dragon Fear ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Dragonborn. Increase your Strength, Constitution or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. Instead of exhaling destructive energy, you can expend a use of your Breath Weapon to roar, forcing each creature of your choice within 30 feet to make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC of 8 plus your proficiency bonus plus your Charisma modifier. A target automatically succeeds if it cannot see or hear you. On a failure it is frightened of you for 1 minute, and it can repeat the save whenever it takes damage.

It is a second mode, not a second resource. You are choosing what one use of Breath Weapon does, never getting an extra one. That framing matters, because it changes the comparison: the question is not "is a fear effect worth a feat" but "on a given rest, do I want damage or control from this trait."

The Charisma DC with a Wisdom save catches people out. Your Charisma sets the difficulty, but targets resist with Wisdom. A high-Charisma Paladin does not therefore beat high-Wisdom monsters; beasts and constructs with strong Wisdom saves shrug this off regardless of how high your own Charisma climbs. Check the target's Wisdom save before relying on it against a boss.

The frightened condition breaks on damage. The target repeats the save whenever it takes any damage, so if your party is focusing the creature you just frightened, expect the effect to end quickly. It works best on a target you intend to leave alone while you deal with something else.

The quiet argument for it. Breath Weapon damage scales poorly and falls behind weapon attacks quickly after level 5. Once that has happened, the roar is arguably the better default use of the trait rather than a niche alternative to it, which makes this feat more attractive at higher levels than its reputation suggests.

Who should take it. Melee Dragonborn Paladins and Fighters who want an occasional lockdown and have stopped valuing Breath Weapon damage. It is a poor fit for Barbarians, who want enemies attacking them rather than fleeing, and for ranged builds, which do not want to be within 30 feet at all.

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The Tiefling Feats

Two feats for the same ancestry that sit at opposite ends of the conditionality scale. One asks you to build around it and one asks nothing at all, and the one that asks nothing is the better feat for most characters.

Infernal Constitution ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Tiefling. Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You have resistance to cold damage and poison damage, and advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.

Nothing here has a trigger, a resource or an action cost. That is the whole argument and it is a strong one. Every other feat in this guide asks you to build toward it, position for it, or spend something to use it. This one is simply on, from the moment you take it, in every encounter for the rest of the campaign.

Poison is one of the most common threats in the game. Giant spiders, drow, assassins, oozes, snakes and a large share of traps all deal poison damage, inflict the poisoned condition, or both. This feat covers both halves at once, which is unusual: the resistance halves the damage and the advantage helps you avoid the condition.

Resistance and the condition are separate benefits. Halving poison damage does nothing to stop you being poisoned, and advantage on the save does nothing to reduce damage that gets through. Players regularly assume one implies the other. This feat happens to give you both, which is why it covers the threat category so completely.

Cold resistance is the underrated half. It shows up in ice dungeons, against white dragons and in winter travel, and because Tieflings already resist fire, a Tiefling with this feat resists three of the most frequently dealt damage types in the game.

The stat keeps its value even at the cap. If your Constitution is already 20 the +1 is wasted, but the resistances and the save advantage are unaffected. That is not true of most half-feats, and it makes this an unusually safe late pick.

Who should take it. Any Tiefling at all, most of all Paladins, Barbarians and Fighters who take hits. Concentration-heavy casters may prefer Resilient (Constitution) or War Caster, because this feat's advantage does not extend to concentration checks from other damage types.

Flames of Phlegethos ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Tiefling. Increase your Intelligence or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20. Whenever you roll fire damage for a spell you cast, you can reroll any 1 on the fire damage dice, but you must use the new roll even if it is another 1. Whenever you cast a spell that deals fire damage, you can wreathe yourself in flames until the end of your next turn, shedding bright light for 30 feet and dim light for another 30, and any creature within 5 feet that hits you with a melee attack takes 1d4 fire damage.

Both benefits require fire spells, which is the whole question. The reroll needs fire damage dice. The wreath needs you to have just cast a fire spell. A Tiefling Cleric or Druid with no fire spells gets a +1 and nothing else. Before taking it, name three fire spells you will cast regularly; if you cannot, the feat is not for you.

Hellish Rebuke is the floor. Every Tiefling gets it, it deals fire damage, and it triggers both halves of the feat. That guarantees the feat is never completely dead, but one reaction spell per rest is thin justification for an ability score improvement.

The wreath is deterrence, not damage. It only punishes creatures that close to melee and hit you, and only during a short window after you cast. It will not generate meaningful damage against ranged attackers or casters who never approach. Treat it as a reason for a melee enemy to pick a different target for one round.

Elemental Adept is the better single feat for a fire caster. It ignores fire resistance entirely, which matters constantly because fire is the most commonly resisted damage type in the game, and it turns 1s into 2s. Flames of Phlegethos does not address resistance at all. A dedicated fire caster who can only take one should usually take Elemental Adept; one who can take both gets a meaningfully higher damage floor.

Who should take it. Tiefling Sorcerers, Warlocks and Wizards whose spell lists lean on fire, ideally alongside Elemental Adept. For every other Tiefling this is a stat bump wearing a costume.

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The Dwarf And Half-Orc Feats

Two feats that reward how you play rather than what you are. Both are strong for a specific pattern of turns and weak for anyone whose turns look different.

Dwarven Fortitude ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Dwarf, which includes Hill Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf and Duergar. Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Whenever you take the Dodge action in combat, you can spend one Hit Die to heal yourself: roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain that total, minimum 1.

The healing is free, but Dodge is not. The heal rides along on the Dodge action rather than costing a separate one, so the feat adds nothing to your action economy. What it costs is the turn: Dodge means no attack, no spell, no other action, in exchange for disadvantage on attacks against you and advantage on Dexterity saves. This feat does not make Dodge free; it makes a turn you were already spending on defence worth more.

That makes it a playstyle feat, not a class feat. A sword-and-board Fighter holding a doorway, a Paladin anchoring with Sentinel, a front-line Cleric who has already cast the spell that mattered this fight, all take Dodge turns naturally. A Rogue chasing Sneak Attack or a Ranger maintaining Hunter's Mark almost never does, and on those characters the feat simply will not fire.

It spends a Hit Die, which is a real resource. Hit Dice also fuel short rests. A Dwarf who burns several mid-combat may find themselves unable to recover properly at the next rest, so the healing is borrowed from later rather than created.

Who should take it. Sentinel-style Fighters and Paladins holding a line, front-line Clerics with spare turns, and Hill Dwarves in particular, who stack it on top of Dwarven Toughness for a large effective health pool. Anyone who attacks every round should take Tough instead, which asks nothing of the turn.

Orcish Fury ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Half-Orc. Increase your Strength or Constitution by 1, to a maximum of 20. When you hit with a simple or martial weapon, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice an additional time and add it as extra damage of that weapon's type; once used, you regain this on a short or long rest. Immediately after you use your Relentless Endurance trait, you can use your reaction to make one weapon attack.

The reaction attack is the real feat. Relentless Endurance drops you to 1 hit point instead of 0 once per long rest. Orcish Fury turns that moment from pure survival into a counterpunch: you should have been unconscious, and instead you are standing and swinging. No other feat in this guide converts a near-death moment into tempo against the enemy.

The damage die is the weaker half, and that is fine. One extra weapon die roughly once per fight averages out to a handful of damage across an adventuring day. It is worth holding for a hit that decides something rather than spending on the first goblin. Bigger dice help: a greataxe's d12 gets more from the reroll than a shortsword's d6.

Both halves are rest-gated, which caps the feat. Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master fire every relevant turn. Orcish Fury fires roughly once per fight and once per day respectively. That is why it reads as a strong second or third feat rather than a first pick for a damage-focused Half-Orc.

The prerequisite is Half-Orc specifically. A campaign using a separate playable Orc lineage from another product does not grant access unless your GM says otherwise. Confirm before building around it.

Who should take it. Half-Orc Barbarians and Fighters who land many hits and expect to hit 0 hit points at least once a day. Rogues should decline: Relentless Endurance triggering means something already went wrong, and the damage die does not change Sneak Attack arithmetic.

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The Gnome Feat And The Two Shared Feats

Three feats remain. One belongs to the gnome alone. The other two are the only feats in this guide open to more than one ancestry: Squat Nimbleness to any Small race and to dwarves, and Prodigy to humans, half-elves and half-orcs.

Fade Away ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Gnome. Increase your Dexterity or Intelligence by 1, to a maximum of 20. Immediately after you take damage, you can use your reaction to magically become invisible until the end of your next turn, or until you attack, deal damage, or force someone to make a saving throw. Once you use it, you cannot again until you finish a short or long rest.

It does not stop the damage that triggered it. It fires after the hit lands. What it buys is the rest of the round: attackers who cannot see you have disadvantage against you, and enemies cannot target you with spells that need a creature they can see.

The ending conditions tell you what to do with the turn. Attacking, dealing damage or forcing a save ends the invisibility. Moving, casting a buff, healing an ally, taking the Help action or drinking a potion do not. The feat is best used on a turn you were going to spend repositioning anyway.

Intelligence makes it a Wizard and Artificer feat. The +1 lands on the casting stat, and a gnome Wizard is exactly the character who gets hit, needs to escape, and then casts a support spell from a safe spot.

Who should take it. Gnome Wizards and Artificers, and Dexterity-based gnome Rogues who can use a turn of invisibility to get away. Barbarians and other characters who want to be hit should skip it.

Squat Nimbleness ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Dwarf or a Small race. Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20. Your walking speed increases by 5 feet. You gain proficiency in Acrobatics or Athletics, your choice. You have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check you make to escape a grapple.

The speed is the real benefit. Dwarves, gnomes and halflings all walk 25 feet. This brings them to 30, the same as most races. On a melee character that is the difference between reaching a target and ending your turn a square short.

The grapple half is narrower than it looks. It only covers escaping a grapple. It does nothing for starting or holding one, and it gives no help against being restrained or knocked prone.

Everything here is modest. A +1 to a physical stat, 5 feet of speed and one skill: nothing is bad, but nothing changes how the character plays. Mobile gives 10 feet and more besides, and is open to everyone.

Who should take it. Small or dwarf melee characters with an odd Strength or Dexterity score who keep ending turns out of reach. Dwarf Fighters and Paladins in heavy armour keep the full 30 feet, because heavy armour never slows a dwarf.

Prodigy ●

What it does. Prerequisite: Half-elf, half-orc or human. You gain one skill proficiency, one tool proficiency, and fluency in one language, each of your choice. Choose one skill you are proficient in and gain expertise in it, doubling your proficiency bonus for checks with that skill. The skill cannot already benefit from a feature, such as Expertise, that doubles your proficiency bonus. It grants no ability score increase.

Expertise is the reason to take it. Only the Rogue and Bard get expertise as a core class feature; a few subclasses and optional class features add it elsewhere. Doubling your proficiency bonus on one skill adds +2 at level 1 and +6 by level 17, and on a skill you roll every session that is a large gain.

Pick the skill you roll constantly. Perception, because it also raises passive Perception. Stealth for a scout. Athletics for a grappler, because it is the only check you make to grapple and shove. Persuasion for the party's face. Choosing a skill you roll twice a campaign wastes the feat.

It is the feat of the Variant Human. Humans reach it at level 1 through Variant Human, which is why it shows up in so many level 1 builds. A half-elf or half-orc only reaches it at the first ability score improvement.

The missing ability score increase matters less here. The other three feats with no stat give you spells or a reaction. Prodigy gives four separate proficiencies, which is more than most half-feats offer, and a skill-focused character who takes it at level 1 has not yet lost a point of an attack stat.

Who should take it. Variant Humans at level 1 who want to be the party's scout, face or grappler. Rogues and Bards gain less, because they already have expertise, but a Rogue can still use it on a third or fifth skill.

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Choices Inside The Gate

Several of these feats sit on ancestries that have meaningful subrace decisions of their own, and in a few cases the subrace changes how well the feat performs. This is the part most feat lists skip, because it requires holding the race and the feat in view at once.

Elf subraces and Elven Accuracy

The feat is open to every Elf and to half-elves, but the subraces do not arrive at it equally.

• Wood Elf is the strongest home for it. Dexterity +2 points the ability point at the stat most builds attack with, and Mask of the Wild makes hiding in natural terrain a repeatable advantage source rather than an occasional one. The subrace supplies the condition the feat needs.
• High Elf points at Intelligence instead, which suits an Arcane Trickster or a War Magic Wizard making Intelligence spell attacks. Put the point where the attacks are, not where the cantrip is.
• Drow gets Charisma +1 and innate Darkness. Paired with Devil's Sight from a Warlock's invocation list, Darkness becomes an advantage engine that runs every round, and Drow is the subrace best positioned to build it.
• Half-elf qualifies identically and usually has the most flexible score spread, which makes reaching a useful starting number easier without sacrificing a primary stat.

A High Elf also has Fey Teleportation to weigh. For a High Elf Wizard the choice is usually easy: Wizards rarely attack with advantage, so Fey Teleportation's short-rest Misty Step does more than Elven Accuracy would.

Draconic ancestry and the two Dragonborn feats

Your draconic ancestry sets your Breath Weapon's damage type, shape and save. It does not change either Dragonborn feat's mechanics: Dragon Fear's roar always calls for a Wisdom save regardless of ancestry, and Dragon's Hide's armour class formula and claw damage are identical across all ten dragon types.

What ancestry does change is how the roar compares to the breath you are giving up. A cone ancestry (gold, green, silver, white) already wants enemies clustered in front of you at close range, which is the same positioning the roar's 30-foot radius rewards, so the two modes compete for identical situations and the choice is purely damage against control. A line ancestry (black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, red) reaches targets strung out in a row, which the roar's radius may not cover in the same shape. Line ancestries therefore lose slightly less by roaring in a scattered fight and slightly more in a tight one.

For Dragon's Hide, pick ancestry entirely for the resistance and breath shape you want. The feat layers on top of any of them without interacting.

Dwarf subraces and Dwarven Fortitude

• Hill Dwarf is the best fit. Dwarven Toughness already adds a hit point per level, giving a larger pool for Dwarven Fortitude to refill, and the two stack into a frontline character who is hard to put down.
• Mountain Dwarf brings Strength +2 and armour proficiencies, which points at exactly the chokepoint-holding martial whose turns include Dodge in the first place.
• Duergar counts as a Dwarf for the prerequisite and shares the Constitution-friendly spread that makes the healing arithmetic worthwhile.

Whichever subrace, the healing scales on your Constitution modifier, so the feat rewards the same stat all three subraces already want.

Halfling subraces, Bountiful Luck and Second Chance

• Lightfoot brings Charisma and Naturally Stealthy, which suits a support-leaning character who stays with the group, which is exactly the positioning the 30-foot trigger requires.
• Stout brings Constitution and poison resistance, pointing at a frontline-adjacent support character who is standing close to allies for other reasons anyway.

Either works. The subrace matters far less here than whether you spend fights near your party or away from it.

Second Chance changes the Stout picture. Its +1 can go to Constitution, and a Stout Halfling who fights in front is the character most likely to be hit, so Second Chance is usually the better Stout pick. Bountiful Luck stays the better choice for a Lightfoot support character.

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Feat Pairings Worth Knowing

Most of these fifteen combine with something outside this guide rather than with each other. These are the pairings that change the arithmetic rather than merely sounding thematic.

Elven Accuracy with any repeatable advantage source. This is the only pairing on the list that is close to mandatory. Devil's Sight plus Darkness on a Warlock, Mask of the Wild on a Wood Elf, a familiar taking the Help action every round, or Pack Tactics allies all convert the feat from situational to permanent. Without one of these the feat is not worth the slot.

Elven Accuracy with Sharpshooter. They do not interact directly, they compound. Sharpshooter's accuracy penalty is affordable exactly when your hit chance is high, and best-of-three dice raise that hit chance. A Wood Elf Ranger running both is the archetypal build for this combination.

Elven Accuracy with a widened crit range. A Champion Fighter crits on 19 or 20, later 18 to 20. Rolling three dice instead of one roughly triples the chance of any given face, so the two multiply rather than add. This is the strongest crit-fishing package available in the 2014 rules.

Infernal Constitution with Hellish Resistance. Every Tiefling already resists fire. This feat adds cold and poison, so a Tiefling holding it resists three of the most commonly dealt damage types in the game, with no action and no resource.

Flames of Phlegethos with Elemental Adept (Fire). Two feat slots, but they close different gaps. Elemental Adept ignores fire resistance, which is the single biggest problem a fire caster faces, and turns 1s into 2s. Flames of Phlegethos rerolls 1s. Together the damage floor rises meaningfully and resistant enemies stop being a wall.

Dwarven Fortitude with Sentinel. Sentinel rewards standing still and controlling a space, which naturally produces more turns where Dodge is the right action. The feats do not interact mechanically; Sentinel simply creates the condition Dwarven Fortitude needs.

Dwarven Fortitude with Tough. Tough enlarges the pool, Dwarven Fortitude refills it mid-fight. Neither needs the other, but a Dwarf tank running both has an unusually large effective health total.

Orcish Fury with Savage Attacks. The Half-Orc racial trait adds a damage die on a critical hit; the feat adds one on any hit, once per rest. Because they trigger on different conditions they never compete, so a Half-Orc holding both has a bonus die available in more situations than either provides alone.

Orcish Fury with Great Weapon Master. Expensive at two feat slots, but they stack cleanly on the same two-handed build with no conflict, and the greataxe's d12 is the largest die the Orcish Fury reroll can work with.

Bountiful Luck with Bless. Bless adds a d4 to attacks and saves, which reduces how often an ally rolls a bare natural 1 at all. The two overlap in purpose, and the feat still catches what the spell does not prevent.

Second Chance with a high armour class. The reroll only helps when the new roll can miss. Against a Halfling with armour class 18 or higher, a forced reroll is likely to turn a hit into a miss; against armour class 12 it rarely does.

Prodigy with Skill Expert. Skill Expert, from Tasha's, adds a second expertise and a +1. A Variant Human who takes Prodigy at level 1 and Skill Expert at level 4 has two expertise skills by level 4, the same number a Rogue starts with.

Drow High Magic with a Charisma-primary class. The feat fixes Charisma as the casting ability for all three spells whether or not it suits you. On a Warlock or Sorcerer that is free alignment; on a Fighter it means the Dispel Magic check is made with a modifier that never improves.

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Picking By Ancestry

Because the gate is ancestry rather than class, the useful question is not "which of these fifteen is best" but "given what I already am, is my ancestry's feat worth a slot at all." For several ancestries the honest answer is no.

Dragonborn, Tiefling and Halfling have the hardest internal choices. A Dragonborn picks between defence and control, and neither option is strong enough to be automatic. A Tiefling picks between a feat that always works and one that works only inside a fire build, and the always-on one wins for most characters. A Halfling has three options, and Second Chance is the best of them for anyone who fights in front.

Elf is the ancestry where the named feat is often wrong. A Drow or Wood Elf reading their subrace feat first will often find that Elven Accuracy, available to every Elf, beats it. Both of those subrace feats withhold the ability score increase that Elven Accuracy provides. The High Elf is the exception: Fey Teleportation is a half-feat, and for a caster it usually beats Elven Accuracy.

Dwarf has the narrowest options. Dwarven Fortitude depends on how you spend turns, and Squat Nimbleness does little beyond speed. Both compete poorly against feats that improve a dwarf directly.

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Three Corrections To Claims Commonly Made About These Feats

Each of these is stated against the printed text, and each corrects something this library previously published.

1. Dispel Magic's check is against DC 10 plus the spell's level. The retired Drow High Magic page gave this difficulty two different ways, and both were wrong: once as "a DC equal to the caster's spell save DC," and once as "a DC equal to the spell's level." The rule reads: any spell of 3rd level or lower ends automatically, and for each spell of 4th level or higher you make an ability check with your spellcasting ability against a DC of 10 plus that spell's level. The second published version is wrong by exactly 10, which would tell a reader that dispelling a 5th-level spell needs a DC 5 check rather than DC 15, turning a real decision into an apparent formality.

2. Reckless Attack is a 2nd-level Barbarian feature, not 1st. The retired Elven Accuracy page described it as available "at will starting level 1." This matters specifically for the build the page was recommending: a Variant Human Barbarian taking a feat at level 1 does not yet have the advantage source the feat depends on.

3. Pass without Trace grants a +10 bonus, and the number should be stated. The retired Wood Elf Magic page called it "a substantial bonus to Stealth checks." It is a +10 to Dexterity (Stealth) for every creature you choose within 30 feet, for up to an hour on concentration. That is the largest single skill bonus in the 2014 rules and the main reason the feat is worth considering, so burying it behind a vague adjective understates the feat it is attached to.

One suspicion that proved unfounded. The retired Bountiful Luck page stated the feat has no daily or short-rest limit. That was doubted during this review and checked; the page was right. The feat carries no rest restriction at all, and the only costs are the reaction, the 30-foot line of sight, and the lockout on your own Lucky trait.

A note on what is not corrected here. The retired Elven Accuracy page described the reroll as letting you "keep the better of the two results." The printed text says only that you "can reroll one of the dice once" and does not settle whether the new roll replaces the old or whether you choose between them. Three separate sources returned the same wording and none resolved it. Because the outcome is best-of-three either way, and because the rules are silent on the mechanism, no correction is issued. Asserting a ruling the text does not contain would be inventing one.

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Verdict

Elven Accuracy is the best feat here and the easiest to take by mistake. On a Wood Elf Rogue who opens from hiding, a Devil's Sight Warlock inside their own Darkness, or a Champion Fighter with a widened crit range, it is among the strongest feats in the game. On an Elf without a repeatable advantage source it is a +1 and a benefit that shows up twice a session. The feat does not change; your build decides which of those two you bought.

Infernal Constitution is the pick to make when you do not want to think about it. Passive, permanent, no trigger, and it keeps most of its value even when the ability point is wasted against the cap. No other feat in this guide can be recommended to a Tiefling without asking a follow-up question first.

Drow High Magic and Wood Elf Magic both cost you an ability score increase outright. At-will Detect Magic and a free Pass without Trace are real prizes, and they are paid for with permanent stat growth you do not get back. Take them for a utility character in a dungeon or travel campaign, not for a character whose attack rolls and save DCs decide encounters.

Orcish Fury and Dwarven Fortitude are second feats, not first ones. Both are gated behind rests or behind spending your turn on defence. Buy your primary combat feat first, then take these if the playstyle fits.

Fey Teleportation and Second Chance are the two most underrated feats here. Both are half-feats that recharge more often than anything else in this guide. A High Elf caster and a front-line Halfling should both look at them before the better-known feat for their ancestry.

Prodigy is the best non-combat feat here. It gives up the ability score increase, but expertise at level 1 on a Variant Human is hard to get any other way.

Dragon Fear, Dragon's Hide, Flames of Phlegethos, Bountiful Luck, Fade Away and Squat Nimbleness are conditional picks that need a specific build, a specific spell list or a specific seat at the table to be worth a slot.

Hot Take: The defining mistake with racial feats is treating the ancestry gate as a recommendation. A feat that requires you to be a Tiefling is not thereby the best feat for a Tiefling; it is simply the feat Tieflings are allowed to consider, and it competes with the entire rest of the list. The clearest case is the Elf: a Wood Elf reading their subrace's own feat will find it grants no ability score increase, while Elven Accuracy, open to every Elf, grants one and improves the rolls they make every round. Four of these fifteen feats give no stat at all, and a build guide that recommends them without saying so is quietly costing the reader a permanent point of spell save DC or attack bonus. Read the ability score line before the flavour text.

Best for: Advantage-generating Elf builds should take Elven Accuracy. Any Tiefling who wants a feat that always works should take Infernal Constitution. Half-Orc martials with a damage feat already secured should take Orcish Fury. Everyone else should check whether a plain ability score increase is simply better.

Related reading: the combat and weapon feats guide covers the 18 weapon feats these compete with, including Great Weapon Master, which usually outranks Orcish Fury on a damage-focused Half-Orc. The caster feats guide covers the 11 spellcasting feats, and the defense, skill and utility feats guide covers the remaining 14, including Tough, which is the unconditional alternative to Dwarven Fortitude. The setting feats guide covers the five standalone setting-book feats, including Gift of the Gem Dragon, which is available to any character rather than gated on Dragonborn ancestry.

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FAQ

What is the best racial feat in D&D 5e 2014? Elven Accuracy, but only on a build that attacks with advantage most rounds. Without one, it is among the weakest picks here.

Which of these give no ability score increase? Drow High Magic, Wood Elf Magic, Bountiful Luck and Prodigy. The other eleven raise a score by 1.

Does Elven Accuracy work on saving throws? No, attack rolls only, and only those using Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. Strength attacks get nothing.

At what level does a Barbarian get Reckless Attack? Second level. Guides describing it as a level 1 feature are wrong on the class table.

What DC does Dispel Magic use? Ten plus the spell's level, for spells of 4th level or higher. Spells of 3rd level or lower end automatically.

Does Bountiful Luck have a rest limit? No. It is limited only by your reaction, the 30-foot range, and the lockout on your own Lucky trait.

Is Dragon Fear an extra Breath Weapon use? No. You spend an existing use to roar instead of exhaling damage.

What save does Dragon Fear use? A Wisdom save against DC 8 plus proficiency bonus plus your Charisma modifier. A target that cannot see or hear you succeeds automatically.

Is Dragon's Hide better than a chain shirt? Only above a Dexterity modifier of +3. Below that the armour class is identical; the feat's value is needing no armour proficiency.

Does Flames of Phlegethos help without fire spells? Barely. Hellish Rebuke qualifies, but one reaction spell per rest does not justify a feat slot.

Is Infernal Constitution worth taking at Constitution 20? Yes. The two resistances and the poison save advantage are unaffected by your score.

When does Dwarven Fortitude pay off? Only on turns you take the Dodge action. If you attack every round, take Tough instead.

Is Orcish Fury better than Great Weapon Master? Not for damage. Great Weapon Master fires every turn; Orcish Fury's die recharges on a rest. Its stronger half is the free attack after Relentless Endurance.

Which druid cantrip can I take with Wood Elf Magic? Any of them. The feat does not restrict the list, contrary to a common assumption.

How big is the Pass without Trace bonus? A +10 to Dexterity (Stealth) for every creature you choose within 30 feet, for up to an hour on concentration.

Can an eladrin take Fey Teleportation? No. The prerequisite is the high elf subrace, and an eladrin is a separate subrace.

How often can I use Second Chance? Once per combat in practice. It comes back when you roll initiative or finish a short or long rest.

Does Fade Away prevent the damage that triggers it? No. The damage applies, then you turn invisible until the end of your next turn unless you attack, deal damage or force a save.

Which races can take Squat Nimbleness? Dwarves and any Small race, such as gnomes, halflings, goblins and kobolds.

Is Prodigy worth taking without an ability score increase? For a skill-focused character, yes. A skill, a tool, a language and expertise is more than most half-feats offer.