As overwhelming as it might feel to create your character and pick your race and class at the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian actually kept one aspect of this process tucked away from you. As you level up and learn new abilities, you will eventually unlock what are known as Feats.
Simply put, Feats are additional buffs or bonuses you add to your character, such as stat bonuses, granting a new ability, or adding perks to weapon types. Once you’ve unlocked a specific Feat, it will remain on your character until the end of the game.
Despite there being over 40 in the game to pick from, each character only gets three opportunities to select them. You can get a new feat when your class — not your character — reaches levels 4, 8, and 12. At these level increments, you will be prompted to scroll through the giant list of Feats to select one, with only a select few having limitations on which you can take based on things like your stats or weapon proficiencies.
This isn’t exactly a Feat like the others, but more of an easy option that any person can pick and feel good about their choice. When you take Ability Improvement, which is the only Feat you can select all three times you’re given a new Feat, you can either improve one ability by 2 points, or two abilities by 1 point each. Abilities are always capped at 20, so you can’t go beyond that using this, but this is a great way to smooth out your character’s stats, or simply focus hard on one ability to make sure you never fail a roll. Because of how versatile this is, with no downsides unless you simply choose a stat you never use, this is the easiest Feat to recommend to everyone.
Another Feat that every class can benefit from is being Lucky. This feat gives your character 3 Lucky Points, which are used to give you an advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, or forcing enemies to reroll their attack rolls. Because these are points you must spend them, but they do replenish after a long rest. Still, just like Inspiration, you want to think carefully about when to spend such a valuable resource.
Now for a Feat focused on all you melee classes out there, check out the Great Weapon Master Feat. How this one works is that each time you land a critical hit or kill a target with a melee weapon, you are able to attack a second time for a bonus action during that turn. Plus, if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, you can also toggle on a feature where any attack you do with a heavy weapon deals 10 additional damage, but you suffer a -5 attack roll penalty. You’ll need to weigh the positives and negatives on that one, but the main function can’t be underestimated.
Nothing’s worse than walking through a dungeon and getting ambushed. If you add the Alert Feat then your character will get a flat +5 bonus to Initiative and be unable to have the Surprised status. The bonus Initiative almost guarantees your character gets the first move in combat, while not being able to be Surprised absolutely ensures that you won’t have to sit the first round out. Rogues tend to get the most use from this skill but is great for all classes.
A great Feat to pair with Alert is Dungeon Delver. This time, instead of avoiding ambushes, this Feat helps you avoid all those nasty traps by giving you a Perception check to detect hidden objects and on your saving throws to avoid or resist them. Even if both fail, this Feat also reduces the amount of damage traps deal so you still get something even if luck is against you.
This Feat comes in different flavors depending on which specific spellcaster you are. Obviously, you will want to pick the one related to your class, but the general advantages are the same. This Feat will allow you to learn 2 Cantrips and a level-one spell from your respective class’s spell list. That spell can be cast once per long rest, and your spellcasting for each of these new spells will be based on your class’s primary stat (Charisma for Bard, Wisdom for Cleric, etc.). The more Cantrips and spells you have access to as these classes, the better, so this Feat is already a bigger power buff than a normal level.
This is a simple Feat, but another one perfect for tanks and frontline classes. Adding Durable will give you +1 to your Constitution (unless it’s at 20 already) but make it so you can restore all your HP rather than just half when you take a short rest. The single point for Constitution is really the cherry on top of the buff to short rests. This will save you untold supplies, plus the amount of time you can save without having to go all the way back to camp during a quest can really cut down on your playtime.
