TheDungeons & Dragons2024 Player’s Handbookintroduces epic boons as high-level feats for player characters.There are twelve available in the new book, and each grants an active or passive buff which strengthens the character who takes it immensely. Unlike origin feats, which are tied to background options, any character of any class or origin can take any of the epic boons when they reach 19th level.
Some players may wonder which boon is most effective or useful for their character.Each of these boons grant a +1 bonus to one ability score of the player’s choice(there are two exceptions to this discussed later), in addition to the powerful features the epic boons grant. While all of these options will boost a character’s strength, some are more useful than others, especially for players looking to optimize certain builds.
12The Boon Of Irresistible Offense Is Easily Surpassed By Every Other Option
Boosts To Weapon Attacks That Are Largely Irrelevant By High Levels
Out of all of these powerful options, the boon of irresistible offense feels the most like a trap. It sounds like it would be a good option for martial characters, when in reality,the boosts it offers are not especially useful at higher levels. Plus, this is one of the two epic boons that limits the player’s choice of ability score improvement, since it can only be used to get a +1 bonus to strength or dexterity.
This ability score restriction doesn’t necessarily make the feat less powerful, but it does impose some limit on player choice in comparison to its peers.
This boon grants extra damage when players roll a 20 on an attack rollequal to their strength or dex modifier, and lets their attacks ignore resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage. The critical damage bonus is quite low in proportion to the damage output of max-level characters and doesn’t benefit from other abilities that improve crit chance. And while the physical damage buff sounds good, most high-level martial characters will have magic weapons that already carry this property.
11The Boon Of Energy Resistance Doesn’t Quite Have The Power It Needs To Stand Out
Useful In Certain Cases, But Its Best Features Are Replicable In Other Ways
The boon of energy resistance grants players some methods of mitigatingelemental damageand reflecting it back on their enemies. It is neat and grants some cool ways to use one’s reaction, but doesn’t quite have enough power to stand against the other choices.This feat grants two damage resistances, which can be any type other than force or physical, and lets players redirect that damage back at attackers.
The two resistances can be quite useful in certain campaigns, and the fact thatthey can be switched out on a long restmeans that players who know what they are fighting can prepare accordingly. But damage resistance is easily gained from a plethora of other features, items, and consumables, making this feat a little redundant at higher levels. Plus, the damage from the redirected attack is rather low, making it hard to use in a way that feels effective.
10The Boon Of Fate Grants A Small But Important Power To Tip The Scales
Bending The Luck Of The Game – To An Extent
The boon of fate grants an ability that is actually quite powerful, but is held back by its limited number of uses. The feat functions much likethe old version of lucky,allowing characters with it to apply a bonus or penalty to a d20 rollmade within 60 feet of themselves after knowing its result. The amount changed is equal to 2d4, which can be quite an impactful amount to change a failure into a success or a hit into a miss.
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However,this ability can only be used once before it has to recharge. It comes back on a short or long rest, or when the character rolls initiative. Depending on how many encounters a party deals with in a day and how much they are resting, characters may be able to use this ability a lot or hardly at all. It’s powerful, but limited, and players will want to consider that before taking it.
9The Boon Of The Night Spirit Is Quite Powerful, But Situational
The Environment Of The Campaign Will Make Or Break This Feat
The boon of the night spirit provides a specific but powerful option for builds that rely on attacking from the shadows. It not only provides offensive and stealth-based improvements, but also a pretty sizable defensive feature. The caveat is thatthe feat’s features only function when the character is in dim light or darkness.Certain campaigns and dungeons will make that prerequisite harder to meet than others, but for those who can reliably take to the shadows, this boon is a great option.
Characters who take this boon can use a bonus actionto turn invisiblewhile in dim light or darkness, remaining so until they take an action, bonus action, or reaction. They can still move while invisible to reach a new position, and they can use this feature as much as they want.They are also resistant to all damage, except psychic and radiant, while in the shadows, giving stealthy characters a durability often reserved for tanks.
8The Boon Of Skill Makes Anyone A Jack Of All Trade
Turning Characters Into Skill Jockeys
This boon is strong and simple: it gives a character proficiency in every skillthat they didn’t already have it in, and expertise in one skill. Skill checks are the most common type of roll in the game, and by the point that characters are level 19, their proficiency bonus is +6. That is a massive buff to every single skill in the game.
The boon of skill has much in common with the origin feat “skillful.” Both are quite bland, but useful to almost any player. Yet, a player who takes skillful at level one benefits less from this boon at level 19.
The only issue with this feat is that it is hard to say who it is for. Anyone can benefit from it, but it seems like skill jockeys would want to put the most power into this part of their character. Yetrogues and bards already have a ton of proficienices and expertises, making this feat less powerful for them. Other characters, like barbarians, will be more interested in other epic boons, making the market for this feat rather nebulous.
7The Boon of Fortitude Increases Durability, But Is Outclassed In Most Cases
An Epic Boon Outdone By Another Epic Boon
The boon of fortitude is a beefed-up version of the tough feat many players know and love.It provides a flat +40 bonus to a character’s hit point maximum, and increases the amount of hit points they get back once per turn when healed. Combined with tough, characters can reach insanely high levels of health with this boon. Yet this feat faces a problem, in that another epic boon is often the better choice.
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That boon, the boon of recovery, also deals with increasing the durability of a character. Typically, characters looking for a durability increase are either tanks or squishy spellcasters who want to be harder to kill. In the latter case, this boon provides a proportionally large boost; butin the former case, the boost is smaller in comparison to how many hit points they will already have. This is because it gives a flat increase. The boon of recovery works differently, and is often better for tanky characters.
6The Boon Of Truesight Offers A Staggering Amount Of Utility
This Feat Is A Real Eye-Opener
The boon of truesight, as one might expect,grants 60 feet of truesight to a character. This is a powerful sense that allows creatures to: see in any kind of darkness, see through illusions and magical transformations, see the true forms of shapeshifters, see invisible creatures and objects, and see into the ethereal plane. That’s a lot of utility from one feat.
This sense can be temporarily gained through use of a sixth-level spell, true seeing, which lasts an hour. The fact thatthe ability this boon grantscan be replicatedknocks it down a peg, but having it up all the time means players will never be caught off-guard and don’t have to spend spells slots on it. It’s a nice feature to have for players going up against magic users and other tricky foes.
5The Boon Of Recovery Is The Ultimate Lifesaver
Making One’s Hit Point Count For More
As stated earlier,the boon of recovery is the best option for tanky charactersto get the most out of their hit points. When a character with this boon hits zero hit points, they instead recover half of their maximum hit points. They get this benefit once per long rest, and they also get a pool of ten d10s that they can expend any number of with a bonus action to recover health.
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This not only gives non-healers a powerful healing feature, it also maximizes on the large health pools tanky characters have. A barbarian with a 170 hit point maximum would gain another 40 per day from the boon of fortitude;from this boon, they are potentially getting another 85 hit points per day, plus 10d10 available healing. Characters don’t suffer penalties from being low on hit points, only from hitting zero, and that is what this boon helps prevent.
4The Boon Of Speed Provides Big Buff To Manuverability
Excellent For Fast And Slow Characters To Gain An Edge In Combat
The boon of speed provides an enormous boost to character movement speed.It adds 30 feet to the speed of a character, which does not specify walking speed, meaning characters with a swimming, climbing, or flying speed gain this benefit as well. Aside from that, this boon grants a bonus action disengage ability that also allows the character to automatically escape a grapple.
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Even monks and rogues, which already get a bonus action disengage, could benefit from this feat, sincegrapple typically takes an action to escape. And every class benefits from improved movement speed. Maneuvering around the map is key to finding better positions and avoiding danger inD&D, and this feat is great for that.
3The Boon Of Dimensional Travel Provides An Even Bigger Buff To Maneuverability
Characters Will Be Darting All Over The Map With This Feat
But not as great as the boon of dimensional travel. This boon gives players a free action to take after attacking or casting a spell,teleporting up to 30 feet to a place they can see. Teleporting is another great way to escape a grapple, or even the restrained condition, and doing so this way does not cost a bonus action.
One downside to this feat is that it becomes useless if a character is blinded or in a dark space where they cannot make out their surroundings.
In fact, this is better than the boon of speed in almost every way. Both grant a flat 30 feet of extra distance covered per turn, and this version would allow characters to avoid opportunity attacks for no cost. Granted,it is limited in that the teleportation is only available after players attack or cast a spell,but those are the most common actions taken on a turn, so it is not that big of a restriction most of the time.
