D&D: Five Feats That Will Make You Feel Like a ‘Big Guy’
The secret to RPGs is being a weird little guy. But what happens if you want to be a weird little guy who is big?
Every RPG is full of weird little guys waiting to be found. But what happens when you want to be a big guy? Well if you’re playing D&D, your options are very limited, since 5th Edition is afraid of letting you actually be big with mechanical impact and everything.
But you should never let the rules keep you down. Because even they are full of ways to be a big guy, even if you’re not actually big. Like using some of these five feats to capture the feel of having thews that are mighty.
Use a Big Weapon With Crusher
Crusher is one of the most fun feats in 5E. To begin with, you have to use a bludgeoning weapon, which already makes you a champion. Everyone knows that the biggest guys at heart all use bludgeoning weapons.
And Crusher not only raises your strength or constitution, it also lets you move a creature into an unoccupied space, even if it’s up to one size larger than you. And if you crit, you stagger the creature, meaning anyone who attacks that creature has an advantage until the start of your next turn. It’s the easiest way to feel like a big guy.
Heavy Armor Master
The other thing big guys are good at is taking it on the chin. And one easy way to do that is with the Heavy Armor master feat, which reduces bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks by 3. This is a great way of not only being tougher but being very big in terms of making your hit points go further so that the party lives.
Athlete
Being a terrific athlete isn’t just for the Homestar Runner. With the Athlete feat, climbing doesn’t cost you extra movement, you can easily stand up, and you can make big long or high jumps after just a single step.
That’s about as big a guy as it gets, movement-wise.
Martial Adept
This one’s a little more roundabout way of being a big guy. But the Martial Adept feat is a fantastic way to round out the things you can do. Like with Crusher, Martial Adept can let you mess with enemies in ways that feel like a big guy would do.
You can make an attack that knocks someone prone, or that pushes them back. But you can also pick up something like Menacing Attack, which makes a target Frightened of you, on account of how big and imposing you are.
Inspiring Leader
There’s no way you don’t wake up feeling like you’ve got temporary hit points after a nap like that. Image via Studio Ghibli.
Finally, big guys are all secretly cozy. Inspiring Leader is a feat that lets you grant temporary hit points to up to six friendly creatures by “inspiring them.” Whether that’s by giving an inspiring speech, or just being strong, in a non-threatening, reassuring kind of way, is up to you, honestly.
But the best way to be a big guy is to make everyone around you feel big.
If only there was a feat that let you take 2nd-level spells, that’d be an easy include.
