The Spell Sniper feat is a favorite for spellcasters who like to sit a little bit further back in battle because they’re not exactly built for taking splash damage when enemy spellcasters try taking out your tanks on the frontline.
Often referred to as “Sharpshooter for Spells,” the Spell Sniper Feat allows players to Increase one casting Ability Score by +1, Spells requiring attack rolls now ignore Half Cover and Three Quarters Cover, casting within 5 feet of an enemy no longer imposes Disadvantage on Spell-based attack rolls, and the range of your ranged attack spells increases by 60 feet.
That’s a lot of benefits wrapped into one feat, but does it add up to a killer feat or do the parts not quite add up to something special?
Let’s dive in and find out!
Spell Sniper Feat DnD One Review
The best way to break down a feat is to check out the exact wording. So let’s take a look at the newest version of the Spell Sniper feat by seeing how it’s written out for One DnD/6E.
From Unearthed Arcana:
Prerequisite: Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature
You have learned techniques to enhance your attacks with certain kinds of spells, gaining the following benefits:
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Bypass Cover. Your Attack Rolls for Spells ignore Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover.
Casting in Melee. Being within 5 feet of an enemy doesn’t impose Disadvantage on your Attack Rolls with Spells.
Increased Range. When you cast a Spell that has a range of at least 10 feet and that requires you to make an Attack Roll, you can increase the Spell’s range by 60 feet.
Unearthed Arcana, Expert Classes 2022
Interesting. Now that we see the exact wording and get a sense of what the feat is going for, let’s break each benefit down one by one and see how it stacks up.
Benefit #1: Increase the casting stat of your choice by +1 (Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom).
This is a pretty basic half feat benefit, but it is a benefit and it helps get one of those odd numbers up to even. This could be a main casting stat, or if that one is already in a good place, the other off two have plenty of good skills attached to them meaning a little bump to one of those could also be beneficial if it takes the core stat from an odd number to an even one where the next tier of bonuses happens at.
Benefit #2: Your Spell Attack Rolls ignore both Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover.
This is a great benefit, and really is a huge part of that “Sharpshooter for Spell Casters” reputation that the Spell Sniper feat gets. Being able to ignore all but full cover is a great benefit and in and of itself would make this a pretty solid feat for spellcasting builds in D&D.
Benefit #3: You no longer have Disadvantage on attack rolls when casting a spell when an enemy is within 5 feet of you.
You don’t want to let enemies get within melee of you, but as we all know the best laid plans are…well…in D&D sh*t happens. Best to have this so you still have the ability to at least try to fight off an attacker that has managed to somehow close that gap. Still not ideal, but trying to throw spells at disadvantage is even worse. Solid feature.
Benefit #4: For spells with a range of 10 feet or more you may add 60 feet to the range of the spell.
Nice! Moving the distance you can fire most spells from 30 feet to 90 is a huge jump, and even for spells with other ranges, an extra 60 feet is really good. Touch spells still require you to be right up next to a target, but that extra range is a major boon especially if you find yourself facing spellcasters who do not have the same benefits.
How Does The Spell Sniper Feat Measure Up?
The Spell Sniper Feat is one of the strongest in the game especially for spellcasters. This is a very strong feat that gives a boost to a core stat, drastically increases the effective range of attack magic, as well as its effectiveness. This covers multiple aspects of being a spellcaster and helps to boost all those various aspects in powerful ways.
This is a great feat and one that remains useful even as more and more spells go to AOE versus individual attack rolls. The other benefits like being able to cast while in Melee range and ignoring cover still make a difference and there’s a reason this is consistently rated as an A-level feat.
This is one of the better feats we’ve seen so far in One DnD, and it’s one that DMs should expect to see a lot in their future games at the table, just as it was a feat that you often expected to see at a 5E gaming session.
Spell Sniper Feat: One DnD/6E Vs 5E
While there were some changes from the 5E version to the new One DnD (aka 6E) in general the One DnD Spell Sniper Feat if anything is stronger, making it an even better take than before. The One DnD version of Spell Sniper adds the +1 to a casting core stat, takes away disadvantage from casting an attack spell when an enemy is within 5 feet, and does add a slightly stricter magic requirement which won’t affect many people.
Just creative game-breaking jerk builds like some of my favorites 🙂
Related Article: 5E Spell Sniper Feat Guide
The one change is that in 5E the attack spell of a range was just doubled. The problem was that many players argued with DMs that a touch spell should be 10 feet then, and it had the potential to cause confusion. Now it’s any spell with a minimum range of 10 feet just gets a +60 feet increase which clarifies an earlier rules loophole that existed and also gives a boost to many ranged spells.
Overall, that’s a boost in addition to clarifying how the feat works, so it’s hard not to see the One DnD version of this feat as being the far superior option.
Who Should Take the Spell Sniper Feat in DnD One?
Spell Sniper should be on the shortlist for any spellcasting build in 6E, just like it was for 5E, and since it was only further boosted, this makes it even stronger than before.
You definitely want to take this feat, or look very hard at it, if you’re playing:
- Bard
- Sorcerer
- Warlock
- Wizard
These builds can almost always use the benefits of the Spell Sniper feat, and the following classes are ones that can also see some benefit based on the build but it’s not as much of a requirement.
- Clerics
- Druids
- Eldritch Knights
- Rangers
Also if you have a DM that is okay with homebrewing or bending the rules, it’s worth talking to them to see if the distance could also apply to spells like Cure Wounds or those without actual Attack Rolls because that would drastically improve the viability of this spell for some other classes where it might be a 50/50 pick otherwise.
DnD One Spell Sniper Feat Final Grade
There’s a reason that Spell Sniper is one of the most popular feats in the game, and it works for a variety of different casters. The Bard will find this feat just as valuable as the Wizard, the Sorcerer, and even the Warlock (depending on spell choices). It’s a fantastic feat and that’s why once again the grade I’ve giving the Spell Sniper Feat is a solid A.
This feat is a must-take for most spellcasters and a wonderful addition to most of those character builds.
Other Articles of Interest
- One DnD Ritual Caster Feat Guide
- One DnD Resilient Feat Guide
- One DnD Mage Slayer Feat Guide
- What Types of Damage Are in D&D?
- What Are the Core Stats in D&D?
- One DnD Keen Mind 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.