Elven Accuracy 5E Racial Feat Guide: The Perfect Feat for Elves?

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There aren’t many racial feats that get a lot of attention in 5E D&D, but Elven Accuracy is one that has caught the attention of plenty of elf adventurers, and it’s easy to see why. This is one of the stronger racial feats that can be found in Xanathar’s, and really plays to the strength of most builds that are done with elves in mind.

Whether ranger, rogue, or spellcaster, there’s a lot about the Elven Accuracy feat to like and it is one of the few racial feats that should be under the “Must Consider” list of feats for any 5E campaign for those characters who qualify.

Elven Accuracy is a good 5E racial feat from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything that buffs Dexterity or a casting stat by +1 and allows the player to re-roll one die of their choice once on any attack roll that is done at advantage.

This makes it an extremely powerful feat for individual classes or built teams that focus on surprise or giving advantage to the party via spellcasting.

If you want to know more about Elven Accuracy, you’ve come to the right spot! This is one of the best racial feats in 5E DnD.

Elf Rogue Fighter
For an Elven rogue/fighter the Elven Accuracy feat is a no brainer.

Breaking Down the Elven Accuracy Racial Feat

Based on the idea of additional decades, or even centuries, spent honing the fine details of their craft, elves are famous for their accurate ranged attacks whether the arrow of a ranger, the spell of a caster, or even the throw daggers of the occasional wizened rogue.

Directly from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything:

Prerequisiite: Elf or half-elf

The accuracy of elves is legendary, especially that of elf archers and spellcasters. You have uncanny aim with attacks that rely on preision rather than brute force. You gain the following benefits:

  • Increase your Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
  • Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll using Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, you can reroll one of the dice once.

p.74, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Benefit #1: Increase your Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1 to a maximum of 20.

I’m usually not one for +1 ability scores but this is next level versatility. Since the feat doesn’t add a spell governed by a stat boost it’s even better because a ranger/rogue with an even number for Dex or a spellcaster with their main stat maxed out can take any of the other stats that shores up another set of skills without worrying about not being able to min-max the build.

This makes this +1 much more valuable than it is with most of the traditional feats from the PHB, and although I like the direction Tasha’s went with the more versatile +1 options with feats, this even beats that. It’s a nice addition that is surprisingly flexible.

Benefit #2: Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll using Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, you can re-roll one of the dice one time.

This is an incredible benefit, and incredibly powerful. This allows players to re-roll a die on a hit to go for a crit, or to re-roll a die on a miss to go for a hit. This makes advantage crazy strong, further minimizes any chance of ever missing when attacking with advantage, and should increase the number of crits by at least 5% according to the basic math.

Considering the number of attack spells that have a player roll for each beam, that could mean 3-4 potential die re-rolls per attack and that can change the odds on a battlefield very quickly.

How Good Is Elven Accuracy?

Elven Accuracy is an outstanding feat and one that does a great job of playing into both the storyline of elves while delivering an outstanding mechanic. Of course they have accuracy – they live many centuries more to practice!

There aren’t too many racial feats that I would consistently consider taking, but Elven Accuracy would be towards the top of the list for most builds involving an elf, especially with their predilection towards rangers, casters, and Dexterity-based fighters or rogues.

Pros:

  • The re-roll of a die applies to every attack roll – meaning every single attack roll on an attack (so multiple for ray of frost, eldritch blast, etc)
  • Extremely versatile +1 for ability scores
  • Very good feat on both the mechanical and story front
  • Potentially improves both bad and good rolls made with advantage

Cons:

  • In low combat campaigns this will only come up so often
  • Can be situational if you don’t have a way to create advantage for your attacks

Who Should Take Elven Accuracy?

This is a really good and versatile feat, and it’s one that is meant to have a broad number of applications. There is one potential trip up, and that’s with the spell casters because getting advantage on an attack spell generally requires one of three situations in most campaigns:

  1. A surprise round – Where your entire group gets the jump on another, which doesn’t happen too often in my experience
  2. Greater Invisibility – You get advantage on attacks when they can’t see you, so a wizard casting this is a warlock’s best friend
  3. Spell-granted advantage – Looking at you Faerie Fire and I guess, ugh, True Strike.

The short list that immediately comes to mind is:

  • Half-Elf or Elf Rogues (the attack only needs to be Dex-based, meaning flanking comes into play)
  • Half-Elf or Elf Rangers
  • Half-Elf or Elf Sorcerers and Wizards, IF the build calls for many spells that use attack rolls
  • Half-Elf or Elf Warlocks who have another caster in the party willing to give them Greater Invisibility on a consistent basis
  • Half-Elf or Elf Druids who use Shillelagh or Thorn Whip (and to a lesser extent, Faerie Fire) a LOT

There are actually multiple builds that work really well with this feat, and anyone playing a ranged attack elf or an elf spell caster who is finding attack roll spells dominating their list versus AOEs and support should take a hard look on how much this might be able to help them.

An adventuring party built heavily around casting invisibility and Faerie fire provides additional support that makes this feat all the better as they will mark enemies that puts all your attacks and advantage, so tee up and go to town!

Attack Roll Spells Affected by Elven Accuracy

While many spells, especially high level, are AOEs or require saves, there are still many spells early to mid-levels that require attack rolls and depending on your class, some of them are an essential part of the build!

Here’s a full list as of the latest books for spells that require one or multiple attack rolls and thus would fall under the Elven Accuracy feat if you rolled with advantage:

  • Acid Arrow
  • Blade of Disaster
  • Booming Blade
  • Chaos Bolt
  • Chill Touch
  • Chromatic Orb
  • Contagion
  • Crown of Stars
  • Dispel Evil and Good
  • Eldritch Blast (the ArchFey Elf Warlock becomes terrifying with this feat…especially with a support wizard in the party)
  • Faithful Hound
  • Fire Bolt
  • Flame Blade
  • Green-Flame Blade
  • Guiding Bolt
  • Ice Knife
  • Inflict Wounds
  • Jim’s Magic Missile
  • Magic Stone
  • Melf’s Acid Arrow
  • Mordenkainen’s Sword
  • Primal Savagery
  • Produce Flame
  • Ray of Enfeeblement
  • Ray of Frost
  • Ray of Sickness
  • Scorching Ray
  • Shillelagh
  • Shocking Grasp
  • Spiritual Weapon
  • Steel Wind Strike
  • Thorn Whip
  • Vampiric Touch
  • Storm Sphere
  • Wall of Light
  • Witch Bolt

What’s the Probability of Elven Accuracy Getting Triggered?

This is going to vary widely based on the campaign, the DM, and the specific character. Rogues with sneak attack can usually count on at least one attack with advantage in a round, which means they are going to have the additional damage that the feat Elven Accuracy can provide.

The 5E Elven Accuracy feat can definitely beat out many full half feats from 5E depending on the build, and it’s a nice little surprise to keep adding up some damage and to make those attacks even more effective. The accuracy of the elves is renowned in the D&D universe and this is a feat that brings some extra damage on these characters’ attack based on the legendary accuracy.

Elves are supposed to be champion level fighters, archers, and mages, so it follows that an elf character should be able to do extra damage and Dexterity is more of a precision-based ability score than Strength, so it’s a very well designed feat.

The other consideration is party mates. If they know they can get you advantage through flanking because your DM uses the flanking rules then having a barbarian in the party could be a major help.

Final Thoughts for 5E Elven Accuracy

If you’re playing an Elf in a 5E campaign, you need to take a serious look at what the Elven Accuracy racial feat brings to the table. As long as you use Dexterity-based attacks or are a spellcaster with plenty of attack roll spells (versus save and AOE spells) then you will find plenty of use for the Elven Accuracy feat.

This is a powerful feat, that with the right builds or parties, can become overpoweringly strong. Especially if there are multiple elves in the group. It’s a fantastic racial feat, and I feel that if more of them had been written with this versatility, power, and usability, that the racial feats would have been more likely to catch on.

Elven Accuracy Feat FAQ

Can Half Elves take Elven Accuracy?

A half-elf is absolutely eligible for the Elven Accuracy racial feat, the only one of the elven racial feats that a Half Elf actually can take.

What classes should take the Elven Accuracy feat?

Unlike most of the original feats, racial feats are not necessarily connected to class, though among the Half Elf and Elf characters, there are a few classes that should definitely look at this feat like rangers and rogues, followed by warlocks and some sorcerers and wizards.

When can I take Elven Accuracy?

Any time you can get a feat in 5E is a time where you can choose to take any of the racial feats including Elven Accuracy. There is no level restriction for when to take this racial feat.

What is the best build to use the Elven Accuracy feat?

The Elven Accuracy 5E Rogue is almost certainly the best build to take advantage of this feat and also to create a build that is all around a specific feat.

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