A common house rule in manyDungeons and Dragonsgames is to allow players to take a “starting feat” at first level. Feats tend to open up some additional actions and options for characters, and taking one at first levellets players individualize their character a bit more right from the jump. It also allows DMs to have slightly more difficult encounters while still giving their early-level players a chance for survival. However, this was a house rule, not something officially supported by Wizards of the Coast.
That is, until the release of the2024 Player’s Handbook, which brought a handful of changes to how players build their characters. The largest alterations pertain to character origins, which include player background and species, andwith the new rules, players do choose a feat right at level one. Now, the feat is tailored to their background and chosen from among a set of options reworked to function at earlier levels. This change brings some official support to a rule many tables enjoy using already.
How D&D’s New Origin Feats Work In The 2024 Player’s Handbook
Giving Characters A Bit More Power At The Start
The2024 Player’s Handbookincludes sixteen new background options, mostly revised versions of previously existing backgrounds like the criminal and soldier. Going along with them areten reworked “origin” feats, newer versions of classics like skilled and magic initiate, as well astwo entirely new feats: musician and crafter. Depending on which background option players choose, they get one of these feats during character creation.
D&D’s 2024 Player’s Handbook Has New Rules That Make Multiclassing Much Harder
Subclasses are now all reserved for level three, making a one or two level dip into certain classes much less valuable.
Importantly, none of the options are “half feats,” which grant an additional ability score point. This eliminates the option of using a starting feat to get ahead in that way. In fact, all of these feats have been reworked to attempt to make them more balanced with one another. That being said,certain options like lucky definitely stand out as better than others, like the new version of the alert feat. Still, this official version of the starter feat rule certainly imposes some restrictions to ensure the balance between party members isn’t as affected.
How New Character Creation Differs From Common House Rule
More Structure Eliminates Certain Overpowered D&D Builds
The key difference here is thatthe choice of feats is much more limited,both in general and depending onplayers' character origins. This is probably a good thing overall, as it keeps players from taking something like crusher or observant at level one and breaking the balance of the game. And it’s worth pointing out that this rule is not entirely new:certain backgrounds available in earlier content, likethose fromSpacejammer, already included feats as part of their abilities.
It seems like some of the more recent WotC content has been testing out these more important backgrounds for quite some time, with the rewarded and ruined background options from theBook of Many Thingsstanding out in particular.
This rule won’t wildly change the game or how characters are made inDungeons & Dragons. But it will provide a bit more structure to the process and make it easier for newer players to make characters that feel powerful and fun to play. It will also help deal with some of those inconsistencies from earlier 5th edition content,streamlining the character creation process.
