Savage Attacker 5e (Updated for the 2024 Rules)

By Mike Bernier

Published on February 15, 2025, Last modified on February 16th, 2025

Discover why Savage Attacker falls short in D&D 5e. Learn how its diminishing returns and gameplay slowdown make it a less-than-ideal feat.

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

What Is Savage Attacker 5e?

This feat allows you to roll the damage dice for a melee weapon attack twice and choose either result, but only once per turn. This means, in theory, you have a second chance to maximize your damage output with every swing. But in reality, this feat falls short of being a hit.

The Savage Attacker Feat in 2014 vs 2024

While the wording has changed from the 2014 Player’s Handbook to the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the function of the feat is basically identical. Before, you could reroll your damage die and choose either result. Now, you can roll your damage die twice and choose either result.

The 2024 version is actually quite substantially worse because, previously, you could see the result of the first roll before deciding if you wanted to reroll using Savage Attacker. This would have been more advantageous for any class that gains multiple attacks.

How Does Savage Attacker Work?

  • Savage Attacker: You’ve trained to deal particularly damaging strikes. Once per turn when you hit a target with a weapon, you can roll the weapon’s damage dice twice and use either roll against the target.

 

How to Get the Savage Attacker Feat

You can pick up the Savage Attacker feat when you choose the Soldier background at character creation or any other time you’re allowed to choose a feat (like at character level 4).

Is Savage Attacker Good?

We gave Savage Attacker a D Tier rating In our 5e Feats Tier List, making it an underwhelming feat in most cases.

Unfortunately, this feat just simply does not work when you look at the math. For example, a greataxe typically inflicts an average of 6.5 damage (1d12). With the Savage Attacker feat, which allows you to reroll and choose the higher result, the average damage increases by 1.65, bringing it to 8.80.

Savage Attacker 5e Interactions

A Concrete Example: A d6

For a d6:

  • Normal Average:
    (6 + 1) / 2 = 3.5
  • With Savage Attacker:
    The probability that the maximum of two d6 rolls is exactly k is:
    P(max = k) = (k/6)² - ((k - 1)/6)²The expected value is then:
    E[max] = Σ (from k = 1 to 6) k × [ (k/6)² - ((k - 1)/6)² ]When you work that out, you get approximately 4.47.
    So the increase is about:
    4.47 - 3.5 ≈ 0.97 per d6
Other Dice
  • d8:
    Normal average: 4.5
    Savage Attacker average: ≈ 5.81
    Increase: ≈ 1.31 per d8
  • d10:
    Normal average: 5.5
    Savage Attacker average: ≈ 7.15
    Increase: ≈ 1.65 per d10

In the 2014 rules, the math really starts to fall apart is when you look at simply increasing your Strength by 2. Not only does this give you a flat increase of +1 to damage, but it also makes you more likely to hit, thus increasing the chance that you’ll do damage. When these factors are brought into play, Savage Attacker simply isn’t worth it unless you’re trying to eke out some more damage after already getting to 20 Strength. Even then, there are plenty of feats that will provide extra attacks or extra damage, which are much more worth it.

Luckily, in the 2024 rules, Savage Attacker is an Origin feat, meaning you don’t have to trade off an ASI to pick it up. Still, when compared with other Origin feats such as Lucky or Magic Initiate, it still falls massively short.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Savage Attacker?

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

  • Red: Weak, unlikely to contribute to your build
  • Orange: Situationally good, but below average
  • Green: A solid choice
  • Blue: A great option worth considering
  • Sky Blue: One of the best choices for optimization

Artificer: Skip this feat.

Barbarian: Even though this feat is best with Heavy weapons, which fits the Barbarian's playstyle, it's much more worth it to go with Great Weapon Master or one of the Tasha's weapon feats.

Bard: Skip this feat.

Cleric: Skip this feat.

Druid: Skip this feat.

Fighter: Even though this feat is best with Heavy weapons, which fits some Fighter's playstyle, it's much more worth it to go with Great Weapon Master or one of the Tasha's weapon feats.

Monk: Skip this feat.

Paladin: Even though this feat is best with Heavy weapons, which fits the Paladin's playstyle, it's much more worth it to go with Great Weapon Master or one of the Tasha's weapon feats.

Ranger: Skip this feat.

Rogue: Skip this feat.

Sorcerer: Skip this feat.

Warlock: Skip this feat.

Wizard: 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.