Durable 5e

Published on August 21, 2023

Big muscles are appealing, but is the Durable feat really worth it?

A durable-looking man stands ready to fight

Willian Murai - Wizards of the Coast - Hero of Iroas

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What Is Durable 5e?

On paper, Durable might seem like a decent choice for those who want a bit more stamina over a long adventuring day. It boosts your Constitution and ensures a minimum healing from Hit Dice. But when you look closer, is it really giving you the bang for your buck?

How Does Durable Work?

This feat claims to offer two main “benefits”:

You can increase your Constitution score by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

While the feat is straightforward, it’s not really powerful. Sure, you have a higher baseline for Hit Dice rolls, but with so many other ways to regain hit points in D&D, is this really the best use of a feat? The main downside here is that healing via Hit Dice is only available during a short rest (barring a couple niche abilities). That makes this feat redundant because if you’re not healed up enough, you can always ask your party for healing spells or potions.

Plus, most tables don’t run enough encounters per day to have the party run out of Hit Dice before they can long rest.

Is Durable Good?

We gave Durable a C Tier rating In our 5e Feats Tier List, making it a below-average feat in D&D 5e.

Unless you are in a very hard, gritty game of D&D, Hit Dice don’t run out very easily. If your campaign doesn’t allow for long rests very often (lots of dungeon delving, etc.), this could be a worthwhile pickup.

Durable 5e Interactions

Rolling Hit Dice in Combat

If your character has ways to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (wither and bloom spell, Dwarven Fortitude feat, etc.), this can actually be an awesome way to self-heal, as long as you also have a solid Constitution modifier.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Durable?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Durable 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.

Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
Green is a good option
Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

This feat only really benefits builds that are already stacked into Constitution and have high Hit Dice (d10 or d12). If you have a +1 or +2 to Constitution and a d6 Hit Dice, this feat likely won’t swing the result of your rolls enough to make a noticeable impact. But, for classes that need a high Constitution because they’ll be soaking damage, this can be a decent way to stay up throughout the day.

Artificer: Nothing particularly exciting here for an artificer.

Barbarian: A barbarian with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).

Bard: Nothing particularly exciting here for a bard.

Cleric: Nothing particularly exciting here for a cleric.

Druid: Nothing particularly exciting here for a druid.

Fighter: A fighter with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).

Monk: Nothing particularly exciting here for a monk.

Paladin: A paladin with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).

Ranger: A ranger with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).

Rogue: Nothing particularly exciting here for a rogue.

Sorcerer: With a d6 Hit Dice, sorcerers can skip this feat.

Warlock: Nothing particularly exciting here for a warlock.

Wizard: With a d6 Hit Dice, wizards can skip this feat.

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.