Dungeons and Dragons offers a lot of optional rules and tweaks for creating a new character, and these options even branch out and get more complicated as the character levels up. Newcomers to the game are often intimidated by the complexity of the systems, and many opt for playing simpler martial classes rather than the more advanced spellcasters.
There are a lot of different martial classes and subclasses in Dungeons and Dragons, and knowing which feats are better for each class is very complicated. But, there are some feats that are good for martial classes across the board, and it’s handy to know these options whenever a character reaches a level when they can pick up a feat.
10 Magic Initiate
Except for Rangers, Paladins, and some powerful Rogue and Fighter subclasses, one of the most common weaknesses of martial classes is their low flexibility out of combat. While they can deal a lot of damage and tank the enemies to keep their casters safe, they have fewer abilities for exploring and problem-solving.
Having access to a few cantrips and even just one 1st level spell can go a long way toward giving the character more flexibility in these situations. Cantrips such as Firebolt or other damaging cantrips can be especially useful for melee classes and help them with enemies that are out of reach, and there are a lot of great options for 1st level spells that can help in a variety of situations.
9 Mobile
Melee classes often face the issue of being unable to close the distance on ranged enemies, and they usually have to either waste a turn to take the dash action or use weaker ranged options to attack. For these classes, being faster is always an underrated but important feature.
The Mobile feat gives the character an extra 10 feet of movement. This alone should be enough for any melee class to consider. However, in addition to that, when the character with this feat attacks an enemy, whether they hit or not, they don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that enemy for the rest of the turn.
8 Mage Slayer
Spellcasters are always a threat to the party, but especially for martial classes. They usually have lower saving throws against magical effects, and they can more easily become neutralized by powerful spellcasters.
The Mage Slayer feat makes melee classes more powerful against spellcasters when they close the distance. They can more easily break their concentration, they have advantage against their spells when they are close to the caster, and they can even make an opportunity attack when the caster casts a spell.
7 Dual Wielder
Dual-wielding weapons is both thematically and mechanically an exciting feature. Most classes can have an off-hand weapon such as a dagger or scimitar, but without this feat, they are usually very weak.
With the Dual Wielder feat, the character can equip two weapons in their hands even if they are not light weapons, they get +1 to their AC, and they can add their damage bonuses to the attack of their off-hand weapon.
6 Crossbow Expert
Crossbows are powerful weapons that often get overlooked because of their loading property. But, the Crossbow Expert feat, not only gets rid of this property, which lets the character fire the weapon multiple times in a turn, it also offers two other powerful features.
This feat removes the disadvantage on ranged attacks when a hostile creature is within five feet of the character, and it also allows the character to use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow that they are holding in their off-hand, after attacking with their main hand weapon.
5 Martial Adept
The Battle Master is one of the most popular and powerful fighter subclasses. This is thanks to their maneuvers and superiority dice. With the Martial Adept feat, any class can get access to this powerful feature.
With this feat, the character can choose two maneuvers from this Fighter subclass, and gain one superiority die to spend on those maneuvers. There are a lot of options to choose from that can be useful for most builds, so this feat can be useful for most characters.
4 Sharpshooter
This feat is the top choice for any ranged character. The Sharpshooter feat allows the character to attack without disadvantage even at the long range of their weapon, and they also ignore partial cover when attacking an enemy.
But the most powerful aspect of this feat is the damage increase that it offers. Before making an attack, the player can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll, and if they hit, they can add +10 to their damage.
3 Great Weapon Master
Much like the Sharpshooter feat, this is a great feat for melee classes that use heavy weapons. It is especially popular for Barbarians as they have access to the powerful ability Reckless Attacks. It offers the same risk and reward mechanic, so the player can choose to take a -5 penalty to their attack roll and add +10 to their damage.
The Great Weapon Master also lets the player make a melee attack as a bonus action after they score a critical hit or reduce a creature to 0 hit points on their turn.
2 Polearm Master
Polearm Master alone is one of the greatest feats in the game. But in combination with the next entry in this list, they create one of the most infamously over-powered builds in D&D.
With this feat, when the character attacks with a reach weapon like a halberd or glaive, they can use their bonus action to make an extra attack with the blunt end of the weapon. In addition, a creature provokes opportunity attacks even when they enter the character’s reach, as opposed to just when they leave their reach.
1 Sentinel
The Sentinel Feat offers three powerful benefits for melee classes. When a creature attacks someone other than the character that has this feat, they can make an opportunity attack against them. Creatures that use the disengage action still provoke opportunity attacks when they leave the character’s reach.
But the most powerful benefit of this feat is that when the character hits a creature with an opportunity attack, their speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn. This means that enemies can get away from powerful melee characters, and if the character uses reach weapons with the Polearm Master feat, they can’t even get close to them since they provoke an opportunity attack when they enter their 10 feet radius.
NEXT: All Martial Subclasses In Tasha’s Cauldron Of Everything, Ranked
