Gift of the Gem Dragon 5e

Published on August 21, 2023

Harness the power of the gem dragons and let their psionic energy flow through you!

David Rapoza - Wizards of the Coast - Dragonsguard Elite

Arcane Eye may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn more.

What Is Gift of the Gem Dragon 5e?

If you’ve ever felt a connection to the majestic gem dragons or wished to harness some of their innate telekinetic abilities, the Gift of the Gem Dragon feat is your gateway. This feat not only allows you to enhance one of your mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma), but it also grants you the power to retaliate against foes with a burst of telekinetic energy. Embrace the gem dragon within and let your foes feel its wrath!

How Does Gift of the Gem Dragon Work?

This feat provides two main benefits:

Ability Score Increase: Boost your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
Telekinetic Reprisal: When harmed by a nearby creature, you can use your reaction to unleash telekinetic energy against them. This forces the attacker to make a Strength saving throw or suffer force damage and be pushed away. The number of times you can use this reaction is tied to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all uses after a long rest.

Let’s delve deeper into these abilities:

The ability score increase is straightforward, and is beneficial for classes with spellcasting abilities.

Telekinetic Reprisal is a bit more exciting. Its baseline provides a solid amount of damage, a good damage type, and some extra action economy. If you’re fighting around battlefield hazards, this ability has a higher ceiling as it can potentially net you some huge damage if you’re able to knock your foe off a cliff with the knockback. Also, this ability is a godsend to squishier classes or ranged builds, as you can knock an enemy away from you so you don’t have to Disengage to move around.

Is Gift of the Gem Dragon Good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Gift of the Gem Dragon was given an A Tier rating, making it an excellent pickup for specific classes.

While it may not be as universally powerful as some other feats, it’s a solid baseline boost to most casters. It can really shine in the hands of half-caster martials who want to boost their spellcasting ability while also gaining a powerful reaction-based damage and battlefield control ability.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Gift of the Gem Dragon?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Gift of the Gem Dragon 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

Seeing as this feat only increases spellcasting abilities and the DC for the Telekinetic Reprisal is based off the ability you increased with your ASI, it’s scope is somewhat limited. Some martials won’t have use for the ASI because they’re focusing on Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution, this means the save DC for Telekinetic Reprisal won’t be high enough to make the effect worth it.

This feat works well for full casters who can buff their spellcasting ability and get a way to make some distance with their attackers. The best use for this feat, however, is half-casters who want to be in the heat of battle but will also have a high enough spellcasting modifier to make the reaction-based attack worthwhile.

Artificer: Can be a good option for artificers that want to be in the fray, like Armorers and Battle Smiths. Boost your Intelligence and gain a powerful reaction-based attack.

Barbarian: While the reaction would be awesome, your barbarian's Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom likely won't be high enough to make this worthwhile.

Bard: Decent reaction-based attack that can buy you some space from attackers, all while boosting your Charisma.

Cleric: Seeing as you can boost your Wisdom with the ASI, this is a solid ability for caster clerics and an awesome ability for frontline clerics.

Druid: Good defensive ability, plus you get to boost Wisdom. Circle of the Moon druids will love this as a way to boost their damage.

Fighter: Most fighters likely won't have a high enough Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom to make this work. Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors, on the other hand, will love this ability as it boosts Intelligence.

Monk: Boost Wisdom and get an awesome defensive reaction that can help you avoid hits, reposition enemies, and move around the battlefield.

Paladin: This is an awesome ability for paladins, who get to boost their Charisma and gain a powerful defensive reaction.

Ranger: This is an awesome ability for rangers, who get to boost their Wisdom and gain a powerful defensive reaction. This is especially true for ranged rangers, who don't like enemies being within 5 feet of them.

Rogue: Rogues already have Uncanny Dodge as an on-hit reaction, which is important for them to mitigate damage.

Sorcerer: Boost Charisma and gain a nice reaction-based ability that can buy you space from enemies.

Warlock: Boost Charisma and gain a nice reaction-based ability that can buy you space from enemies.

Wizard: Boost Intelligence and gain a nice reaction-based ability that can buy you space from enemies.

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.