Piercer Feat 5E Guide | Pros, Cons, Builds, and More
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything wanted every feat to feel like an important part of the build. So, if you’re using a bow or a stabbing weapon, you might like the sound of Piercer. Your accuracy with a sharp weapon is talked about in small towns, and every blow you make was calculated flawlessly. Whether you’re hitting arrows or with a rapier, you always find your mark. Is this feat worthwhile? Check out our Piercer Feat 5E guide to find out!
What is the Piercer Feat in 5E?
- Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack that deals piercing damage, you can re-roll one of the attack’s damage dice, and you must use the new roll.
- When you score a critical hit that deals piercing damage to a creature, you can roll one additional damage die when determining the extra piercing damage the target takes.
The piercer feat allows you to increase either your Strength or Dexterity by +1. Once per turn, you’re allowed to reroll a damage dice on any attack that deals piercing damage. You must take the reroll. In addition, when you deal critical, piercing damage, you get to roll an additional damage dice.
Is Piercer a Good Feat?
This is a good amount of benefits! You only lose half of your Ability Score improvement, which is great for any feat. The damage reroll is nice; you’ll avoid a ton of ones, which is a death sentence for weapon users! You’ll want to reroll any dice that rolls below average (which is usually half of the damage dice’s maximum!).
The critical effect is fairly brutal too, adding another 3-5 damage (on average) to your critical hit! Yowch, you normally need to be a Barbarian to even attempt to do that!
Downsides for Piercer
So, rerolling a damage dice is neat, but you must take the reroll. It’s not like advantage; that second dice is your result. So, you can reroll a 1 into a 1, or a 3 into a 1… And then this feat will actively reduce your damage. You can act on statistics all you want; sometimes, statistics fail you!
The critical hit effect doesn’t even change that much. The other two feats on this list that work like this (Crusher feat and Slasher feat, respectively) have an actual effect on them. Damage is fine, but that’s a really low amount of damage to add to a critical hit!
Who Should Take the Piercer Feat?
Any weapon build that focuses on piercing weapons benefit at least enough from this. Fighters tend to really like making many attacks, so you’ll benefit from the Piercer’s once per turn ability more often.
Best Classes for the Piercer Feat
A Barbarian (who uses a Piercing weapon, so like a Spearbarian?) might love this feat because of advantage making critical hits more common, and their critical hits being absolutely crazy. This turns Brutal Critical into 4 dice! 5d8 on a rapier, or on a spear!
So, this feat doesn’t specify that you must reroll a “weapon” damage dice, just piercing damage. That means a Mastermind Rogue can reroll a 1 that they get on Sneak Attack to hope for more damage. Since you roll so many dice, you’re fairly likely to roll a 1 somewhere in your pile of d6s!
Classes That Could Avoid Using This Feat
Outside of a handful of spells, piercing damage is usually the realm of weapons users like rogues and rangers. If you are playing a spellcaster like a wizard or a genie warlock, there are countless better options to take here.
Piercer 5E FAQ
Does Piercer Apply to Sneak Attack?
Yes, piercer applies to an attack where a rogue deals sneak attack damage. There is nothing in the rules that would force you to choose one or the other.
Does Piercer Worker with Spells?
The piercer feat works with spells as long as they involve an attack role and deal piercing damage. The feat only specifies that an attack must be made, not a weapon attack. Some spells that will work include magic weapon and thorn whip.
What Book is the Piercer Feat Found in?
You can find Piercer in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
Wrapping Up our Piercer 5E Guide
Piercer is fine. It’s a good amount of inconsistent damage, but damage nonetheless. If you like never really rolling ones on damage with your weapons, you’ve found a great feat! Still on the fence? Check out our Feats 5E Guide for more character options!
