2 thoughts on “Mastering Dungeons – Fifth Edition Revisited, Pt. 6”

1. In a manner of thinking about it, Backgrounds already granted Feats. Almost all Backgrounds grant some special Feature that could be thought of, or equated to, a low level Feat.
   For example:
   – Acolyte grants the Shelter of the Faithful Feature.
   – Sage grants the Researcher Feature.
   – Criminal grants the Criminal Contact Feature.

   It sounds like–since they are encouraging the creation of custom backgrounds, which is great–they are providing the Feat(ure) portion of the Background for you.

   (BTW 5e specifies that Feats can optionally be taken instead of ABIs, not vice versa, which is a relevant distinction for design considerations.)

   The suggestion that DMs shouldn’t require a roll if something is impossible is a big pet peeve of mine. The reason a DM might require a roll is that it is often more appropriate and fun not to let the players know that something is impossible, or it may just be impossible for some PCs and not others.

   Incapacitation causing Disadvantage on Initiative is relevant when you’re Incapacitated when combat begins. (It could also mean that if you’re Incapacitated during combat, you have to re-roll Initiative and take the new roll if means going later in the Initiative order.) It only means having to remember your previous Initiative if the original Initiative rolls were discarded (keeping only recording the order).

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2. If you get grappled, as your action you can unarmed strike your grappler and chose to push them – breaking the grapple. Then move.

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