Tal’Dorei Feats Introduction

In addition to the official 5e source books (Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep), the team at Critical Role also published Tal’Dorei: Campaign Setting Reborn, which details the setting of the first campaign of Critical Role. Among the detailed setting information, we also got some exciting new character options.

Please note that while Matt Mercer and the rest of the folks at Critical Role do have a working relationship with the team at Wizards of the Coast, Tal’Dorei: Campaign Setting Reborn is still a 3rd-party product published under the Open Gaming License, and isn’t considered official material. Please talk to your DM and your party before bringing the content into your game.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Feats

Cruel

The effects are fine, but not amazing, and you don’t get enough dice per day to justify a feat. If this recharged on a short rest, I would rate it green.

Note that the damage option is not multiplied on a critical hit. You roll the die and add the result to the total rather than adding the die to the damage.

Flash Recall

Amazing on any prepared spellcaster. The fixed number of prepared spells per day intentionally limits your versatility, and this makes weird, situational spells available without the frustration of accumulating a mountain of scrolls.

Mystic Conflux

Extremely unpredictable and totally dependent on whatever loot you find. The ability to cast identify is neat, but it’s also a low-level ritual, so it’s not very interesting. You’re here for the attunement slot.

Remarkable Recovery

A massive improvement to your character’s durability, provided that you have a way to trigger the healing. A Healer’s Kit will automatically stabilize you, which triggers the second bullet’s healing and gets you back to consciousness. If someone hits you with Healing Word instead, you get to add your Con modifier to the amount healed from the spell, potentially giving you another round to live.

Several healing options present abuse cases when combined with this feat. It makes Spare the Dying a healing spell with no cost except the action to cast it, provided that you’re at 0 hit points. If you do want to spend a slot, spells which offer repeat healing like Healing Spirit, Aura of Life, and Lay on Hands can repeatedly trigger the third bullet, making those options an extremely efficient source of hit point recovery. Lay on Hands for one point triggers the healing, and you can do that until you run out of points. Regenerate gives you 1+Con hp every turn for an hour. I think the intent is that you get the extra healing once each time something triggers it (once per spell cast, etc.), but talk to your DM.

I would take this before Tough any day of the week. It’s a great option on front-line martial characters who are often limited most by running out of hit points and hit dice with which to recover them.

Spelldriver

This allows for some very powerful combos. It was likely written with spells like Misty Step in mind, and that’s certainly a great example, but that’s certainly not your only option. Clerics can get Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians up and running in one turn.

Sorcerers with the Quickened Spell metamagic feat will find this especially powerful.

Thrown Arms Master

This is so close to being good, but it just barely misses the mark because it doesn’t solve the biggest issue with thrown weapons: reloading. You’ll still need Fighting Style (Thrown Weapon Fighting), which means that this is largely only useful for fighters since other classes are unlikely to invest two feats for the novelty of throwing a greataxe.

Once you solve the reloading problem, this is pretty good. A +1 ability score increase and likely a big damage boost by switching from throwing javelins to throwing greatswords.

Extending the range of thrown weapons makes options like daggers much easier to use, but more likely you’re going to throw two-handed weapons for those big damage dice. Lances and greatswords are likely your best choice because two-handed weapons are big enough that your DM might start using encumbrance rules if you’re carrying around a stack of 10-pound mauls.

If you do use light weapons (daggers, short swords, etc.), the boomerang effect is a neat novelty. But remember that you’re actively trying to hit, and you only get your weapon back on a miss, so you’re doing your best to avoid benefiting from the boomerang effect. Consider throwing rapiers instead.

Vital Sacrifice

Astoundingly good. 1d6 damage is easily recovered outside of combat with inexpensive, efficient healing like Prayer of Healing, or you could have someone cast Heroism on you before you start hurting yourself. There doesn’t appear to be a limit on how many boons you can have, and temporary hit points seem to protect you just fine.

The first two uses for your boon are for martial characters and spell attacks. +1d6 to hit is great for high-damage attacks, such as if you’re using Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter. The second benefit is great for critical hits, but even if you use it on a regular hit, trading 1d6 damage to yourself for 2d6 to your target is a decent (but not amazing) trade. The phrase “hit with an attack or spell” isn’t correct rules language, but I believe the intent was that it applied to weapon attacks and spell attacks.

For casters, -1d6 to a save-or-suck spell is amazing. Stack that with the penalty from Mind Sliver (-1d4), and you can reliably use basically whatever spell you want, including spells which target problematically high Constitution saves. Hit every enemy that legitimately threatens you with Blindness and you’ll barely ever need to cast anything above 3rd level.

If you need a nerf for this, limit the user to having one boon at a time. Even with the small hp cost to use it, the action economy cost to get a new boon mid-combat will prevent things from getting too crazy.