The Best Feats That Increase CON In DnD 5e

Highlights

• Boosting your Constitution score can give you extra hit points regardless of your class in Dungeons & Dragons, increasing survivability.
• Consider “Half-Feats” like Tavern Brawler, Chef, and Durable to not only increase constitution but also gain additional benefits.
• Exclusive feats like Orcish Fury, Infernal Constitution, and Dwarven Fortitude offer unique advantages based on your character’s species.

Buffing your health bar is useful no matter what class you’re playing as in Dungeons & Dragons. Everyone can use a few extra hit points, after all. Because of that, you may be tempted to increase your constitution score, even though you still need to focus on whatever ability score your attacks rely on and feats for additional tricks to pull off.

Luckily for you, you can get yourself a “Half-Feat,” a feat that also increases one of your ability scores by one point, which can increase your constitution bonus if this +1 puts your constitution score on an even number. So, which feats will also increase your constitution?

10 Tavern Brawler

Weapons Are For Losers

It goes without saying, but you’ll get a +1 on your constitution, just like the other feats here. Still, you can let this +1 go to your strength if that’s interesting to you. Apart from that, your unarmed strikes will now use a d4 rather than a simple one – unless your unarmed strikes are already higher than that, like being a monk or having the Unarmed Fighting Style.

You’ll also become proficient with improvised weapons, so you can have fun roleplay moments where you attack your opponent with a bottle or a chair, among many other options. Lastly, whenever you use an improvised weapon or your unarmed fists, you can use your bonus action to attempt a grapple.

9 Chef

Don’t Fight With An Empty Stomach

The +1 here can go to your constitution or your wisdom, and overall, this feat has a more supportive role. You’ll become proficient in cooking utensils, and you can prepare food during short rests. Whoever eats it will gain an additional d8 along with their hit dice if they choose to recover health during the short rest.

You can also prepare snacks during long rests, but they’ll work differently. You can make some treats equal to your proficiency bonus, and whoever uses their bonus action to eat them will gain temporary hit points, which are also equal to your proficiency bonus. The treats will last for eight hours without spoiling.

8 Durable

Make Your Short Rests Count

This feat can only increase your constitution and is also a more supportive feat, though this time, it’ll only support you. Whenever you roll one of your hit dice to recover health, the minimum you can recover will be twice your constitution bonus, meaning this feat will annul bad hit dice rolls.

If your constitution reaches 20, for example, that means your constitution bonus is five. In other words, if you roll anything less than ten on the hit die, you’re guaranteed to recover ten hit points either way.

7 Crusher

Perfect For Bludgeoning Weapons

Another feat you can choose to improve either your constitution or your strength, but there’s more. You’ll also be able to move five feet after hitting an enemy with a bludgeoning weapon, though you can only do this once per turn, and the creature can’t be two sizes (or more) bigger than you.

That’s not all, though. If you do a critical hit with a bludgeoning weapon, every attack this creature takes until the start of your next roll will be at an advantage, meaning everyone will have a higher chance of taking them down.

6 Orcish Fury

A Half-Orc Exclusive

We’ll have a lot of racial-exclusive feats from here on. The first goes to Half-Orcs, though it would make sense for Orcs to get it – at least if they follow Monsters of the Multiverse rules. Aside from the +1, you can choose to roll an additional weapon die to your attack when it hits, making it more deadly (you can wait for a critical hit so this die doubles, too). You can only use this feature once per any rest, though.

But there’s more. Whenever you use the racial feature Relentless Endurance, you can immediately use your reaction to make a weapon attack so you can punish whoever tried to take you down.

5 Infernal Constitution

A Tiefling Exclusive

Now for our Tieflings, this feat can increase your survivability a lot, perfect for both squishier characters and tank Tieflings. They naturally have fire resistance, but with this feat, you’ll also get cold and poison resistance right away. And that’s not all.

When dealing with the poisoned condition, you’ll have an advantage on any Saving Throws against it, increasing your chances of not getting that nasty condition that gives you a disadvantage on attacks.

4 Dwarven Fortitude

A Dwarf Exclusive

For the Dwarves, this feat is particularly useful if your character is also a tank, allowing them to heal themselves a bit. If your character uses the Dodge action, you can immediately use one of your hit dice to heal yourself right there in the middle of combat (don’t forget that a hit die always has your constitution bonus on the result).

What’s particularly fun here is that this feat will function alongside Durable since Durable’s trigger isn’t resting but the use of a hit die, meaning you’ll be guaranteed to heal a considerable amount. Just don’t waste them all here since the more hit dice you use in battle, the fewer you’ll have when short-resting.

3 Second Chance

A Halfling Exclusive

For those playing as a Halfling, this feat can be used for a +1 on your constitution but also on your dexterity or charisma. That said, its main feature is toying with your enemies. If a creature that you can see hits an attack, you can force them to roll the attack again with your reaction, potentially saving someone from getting hit.

You can only use this feature once per battle (once per every time you roll initiative, to be more accurate to its description), but it also resets whenever you use any type of rest.

2 Dragon Fear And Dragon Hide

Dragonborn Exclusives

Both of these feats are Dragonborn exclusive, with a +1 that can go to your constitution, charisma, or strength. Dragon Hide will give you a natural armor, similar to Lizardfork, making your armor class calculation be 13 plus your dexterity bonus (AC calculations don’t stack, so this is useless for classes like barbarians, for example). Along with that, you also get claws as natural weapons, which cause a d4 plus your strength bonus.

As for Dragon Fear, you can spend a use of your Breath Weapon to roar, forcing enemies who can hear you in a wisdom Saving Throw, and they’ll become frightened for a minute if they fail. Personally, we recommend this feat over the other, especially for tanks, as the frightened condition is quite powerful.

1 Honorable Mention: Tough

This One Is Not A Half-Feat

Increasing your constitution bonus comes with a few perks, as it’ll help with any Saving Throw that comes with it. However, many players choose to increase their constitution for the sole reason of increasing their health, and while Tough doesn’t add any bonuses to your constitution, it does increase your health.

It’ll instantly give you a number of hit points equal to your current level times two, and every time you level up, it’ll give you two extra hit points. Essentially, you’ll get 40 extra hit points (if you reach level 20, that is), which is a significant health boost. But it won’t improve your ability score bonus.