Sharpshooter was the first feat I ever took as a D&D player. When 5E came out, my introduction to D&D, I chose to play a Ranger. For anyone who knew how bad the early Ranger was before the upgrades and addendums, the good news was it was all going to be better from there (and even as a newbie it didn’t take me long to figure out you HAD to multi-class to Rogue around half way through). That meant as a long range archery build Sharpshooter was on the list from very early on.
But how does it hold up in the new One DnD/6E system?
The OneDnD Sharpshooter feat is a 4th-level feat that increases Dexterity by 1, allows ranged attacks to ignore half & three-quarters cover, takes away Disadvantage from ranged attacks within 5 feet of an enemy and allows players to use the full long range of ranged weapons without disadvantage.
Let’s dive in!
Let’s dive in further to find out.
Sharpshooter Feat DnD One Review
The best way to break down a feat is to check out the exact wording.
From Unearthed Arcana:
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Any Martial Weapon
You can make shots that others find impossible, granting you the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Bypass Cover. Your Ranged Attacks with Weapons ignore Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover.
Firing in Melee. Being within 5 feet of an enemy doesn’t impose Disadvantage on your ranged Attack Rolls with Weapons.
Long Shots. Attacking at Long Range Doesn’t impose Disadvantage on your ranged Attack Rolls with Weapons.
Unearthed Arcana, Expert Classes 2022
That’s a lot to look through with one of the classic feats, so let’s break down each feat one by one.
Benefit #1: Increase your Dexterity score by 1 up to a total of 20.
A very basic +1 but since Sharpshooter is a feat that is specifically aimed at at Dexterity based ranged weapons, this is the ability score improvement that makes the most sense.
Benefit #2: Ranged attacks with Weapons ignore Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover.
For me this has always been one of the most important benefits of the Sharpshooter feat. Being able to ignore everything except total cover takes away a lot of penalties and disadvantage shots that would otherwise make many shots very hard if not nearly impossible. I think this benefit is underrated but it’s critical for any build that’s going to focus on long distance weapons like bows and crossbows.
Benefit #3: When an enemy is within 5 feet, you no longer get Disadvantage when attacking with ranged weapons.
Very handy and helps counter the popular DM tactic of having a creature bum rush the back line to force close combat.
Benefit #4: You can now attack with a weapon’s long range without disadvantage on the long range.
While this is going to be situational, especially depending on the DM, it comes up often enough in our open world campaigns that it’s a major benefit, especially when adding in the ability to ignore partial cover.
How Does Sharpshooter Feat Measure Up?
Sharpshooter is meant solely for bow and arrow and crossbow builds, but it’s an absolute necessity for those types of builds. The +1 DEX is nice for players stuck with an odd number, but not a huge deal. The combination of ignoring partial cover, being able to use the full range of a weapon without penalty, and no longer having disadvantage on close range are great mechanics that will come up over and over again.
This also makes playing an archery build much easier since you just don’t have to worry about extra modifiers. Enemy gets in your face? No problem. Enemy at the edge of long range? Also no longer a problem.
This is one of the better feats in the game and although it’s aimed at a very specific niche group of builds, it’s an S-Tier feat for those builds.
Sharpshooter Feat: One DnD Vs 5E
There are very few changes from the 5th Edition version of Sharpshooter to the new One DnD version, however the main change between the two is a big one. While One DnD adds a +1 to Dexterity that the 5E version didn’t have, that’s not the big change. The big change is the removal of the -5 to hit/+10 to damage option that this feat used to have.
Related Article: 5E Sharpshooter Feat Guide
This was extremely popular with many players and as long as your dice rolls weren’t terrible at high levels, it gave the ability to really pile on some damage.
Many players considered this the most important feature of the Sharpshooter feat in D&D. Personally, I wasn’t with that group, in large part because my dice rolls could make Wil Wheaton wince, but it was still a nice option to have when a fight was going sideways and you needed to inflict some serious damage right now.
Whether that’s a make or break change will be up to how you like to change, but it doesn’t change the fact to have an effective ranged build in either system you’ll need this feat to be part of your build.
Who Should Take the Sharpshooter Feat in DnD One?
Any build that is focusing on long distance weapons. This generally means short bow, long bow, or crossbow as those are the main long distance weapons that will be commonly available in a D&D campaign.
In most cases this will mean:
- Rangers
- Fighters (built for range)
- Some Combat Bard Builds
- Some Warlock Builds
That’s pretty much it, but all of these builds can be very effective with the right feats and setup, including Sharpshooter to help them get the perfect aim on any attack.
DnD One Sharpshooter Feat Final Grade
For me Sharpshooter is still a top notch feat and a must-take for archery builds. I understand that many players really loved the -5/+10 aspect and it is a powerful part of the old feat but it was never my favorite part of it. I understand that at high levels the odds are in your favor, but our DMs loved high AC and custom enemies at high levels and my dice rolls were so often bad that even with all the “to hit” bonuses, taking that -5 was a bad move.
So to me that’s not a gamebreaker when it comes to the changes, and as it sits this is still an excellent half feat for One DnD that every ranged unit is still going to want to take as full long distance and ignoring partial cover are major benefits that no archery-based build is going to want to play without.
Other Articles of Interest
- One DnD Crossbow Expert Feat Guide
- One DnD Alert Feat Guide
- DnD Best Feats for Rangers
- 5E DnD Damage Types
- How DnD Core Stats Work
- One DnD Resilient Feat Guide
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.