Halflings have one of the most impressive starting feats of any of the races with their Lucky racial feature which allows them the ability to re-roll every one that’s rolled. Many a player at a D&D table has been saved by the fact that they were a Halfling and thus allowed to re-roll a 1. Now imagine you could wait for someone else at the table to roll a 1, and then “lend” them your ability to re-roll.
Welcome to the 5E Bountiful Luck feat which does exactly that. In exchange for giving up your ability to use that ability on your next turn you can allow a teammate to reroll a one.
The bountiful luck is one of the strongest racial feats in 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons and allows a Halfling to lend their ability to re-roll 1’s to another player after they roll a 1. This ability recharges at the end of your next turn.
Not only did our Halfling companion seem to have good luck at every turn, but having him around seemed to bring his good fortune to every one of us at our time of need!
Any adventurer with a bountiful luck Halfling in their party ever
When the difference between life and death in a tough adventure can sometimes rely completely on the roll of a die, you and your party need every advantage they can get and Bountiful Luck is an awesome feat that allows you to do just that.
Let’s dive into the Bountiful Luck feat and why every single Halfling adventurer should take it. You heard me.
Every. Single. One.
Breaking Down the Bountiful Luck Racial Feat
Well let’s grab the text directly from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything to see exactly what benefits Halfling adventurers (the only ones who can take the Bountiful Luck feat) are getting.
Directly from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything:
Prerequisite: Halfling
Your people have extraordinary luck, which you have learned to mystically lend to your companions when you see them falter. You’re not sure how you do it; you just wish it, and it happens. Surely a sign of fortune’s favor!
When an ally you can see within 30 feet of you rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to let the ally reroll the die. The ally must use the new roll.
When you use this ability, you can’t use your Lucky racial trait before the end of your next turn.
p.74-75, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Pretty straight forward here. Most halfling characters are going to be in the midst of combat among their allies so the 30 feet range isn’t a problem, and it gives a use to a reaction, which is great.
Benefit #1: Forfeit your lucky trait reroll ability for one round to give it to a party member within 30 feet who has failed an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.
There doesn’t need to be more to this, because it’s amazing. First, let’s start with the fact you don’t have to use it until you know someone in the party critically failed. That means you can wait until the perfect time to toss some luck someone’s way and save the day. You do have to see them fail, but most of the time that won’t be a problem.
There is a 1 in 20 chance this backfires since if you roll a 1 you can’t reroll it (or 1 in 400 if you have advantage for your roll), but if you cancel 20 critical failures and even half of those become successes before you fail, the math works out very, VERY well in your favor.
Since the ability recharges at the end of your next turn, and this uses a reaction, that means at worst you can use this ability every other round, but if you use it on a teammate before you go in a round, you can use it every round!
That is potentially game-breakingly powerful!
Who said one-trick ponies couldn’t be devastating in 5th Ed? Bountiful Luck is one of the strongest feats in the game, and that would be including in comparison to the regular feats.
How Good Is Bountiful Luck?
Bountiful Luck is incredibly powerful, to the point where I would have it as one of the highest rated feats in the entire game. It’s not quite as game breaking as the Lucky feat, but it is incredibly powerful. To the point where every single Halfling adventurer should look at taking it. Especially if they are a class that can create advantage a lot (hello rogues) or they can cast greater invisibility on themselves to create that advantage since that nullifies the 1 in 20 chance of a backfire based on rolling a 1 without your lucky trait becomes 1 in 400 in which case…it was meant to be?
Looking at the pros and cons of the Bountiful Luck feat:
Pros:
- Cancels out a ton of critical fails for the entire team
- Helps teammates inflict damage on attacks and avoid damage thanks to “un-botching” saves
- Mathematically translates into insane positive gains for your team
- Nullifies a lot of the DMs who believe in critical failures, inflicting extra penalty on a rolled 1
Cons:
- Supports others in the party, not yourself
- Leaves you potentially vulnerable (even if it is a 1 in 20)
Who Should Take Bountiful Luck?
- Literally every single Halfling adventurer
This can be an incredibly powerful boost to the party, and even classes that have a use for reaction will see Bountiful Luck as one of the more powerful options available to them to use. If you think a good bard was a terror with battlefield control earlier, imagine a Halfling using variable ability stat block to optimize charisma with Bountiful Luck and Lucky.
Bountiful Luck Feat FAQ
How many times can you use bountiful luck?
Bountiful luck can be used a maximum of once per round, and possibly two. This refreshes at the end of a Halfling’s turn when they get their lucky trait back, which means if they use their reaction before their turn in the round, they can use this once a round. If they use it on someone after them in the initiative order, then they won’t get the ability to use it again until the end of their turn in the next round, which technically means they can use it on someone behind them that round.
But the short answer is at worst every other round otherwise up to every single round.
Can you use Bountiful Luck on yourself?
No. This specifically talks about taking your lucky trait and wishing it to a friend or ally, which means it can’t be used on yourself.
Should Bountiful Luck be banned?
I personally don’t think so. While there are genuine arguments that can be made for banning the Lucky feat in a campaign, Bountiful Luck is extremely powerful (and annoying to a DM) but it is fully in the realm of the game and since it is a reaction, the Halfling can only save one companion a round.
If they all crap the bed…well tough luck.
Final Thoughts for 5E Bountiful Luck
There’s nothing else to say about this feat that hasn’t already been said. Bountiful luck is a fantastic feat and something that fits in so well with Halflings and the idea that their luck is a mystical core piece of their identity that can be further understood and shared. It’s a gregarious feat for a conventionally gregarious group of people and it just really works perfectly.
Other DnD Articles You Might Enjoy
- Complete DnD Racial Feat Guide
- Elven Accuracy 5E
- DnD Feat List
- When Do You Get Feats in DnD?
- Best 5E Feats for Artificers
Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.