SOURCE: Player’s Handbook 

Rating the Benefits of Charger

Benefit #1 – 

A character using their action to Dash can make an attack as a bonus action. Alternatively, the character may shove an enemy 

It’s rare to be able to move twice and then make an attack in D&D 5e. Charger is one of the few ways to consistently move further than your speed while maintaining combat effectiveness. 

Benefit #2 – 

If the character moves at least 10ft before making the bonus action attack from Charger, it has a +5 bonus to damage. 

If the character chooses to shove a creature instead, they are moved 10ft instead of 5ft

A bonus to damage is excellent. +5 is roughly equivalent to adding another d8 damage dice. 

The boosted shove is less useful, but might still find use if encounters happen around dangerous environments, or to free up vulnerable party members.  

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How Charger Functions

How to run screaming into combat

Essentially, the Charger feat lets a character move twice, then make an attack with a pretty hefty +5 bonus to damage. 

+5 flat damage is a strong bonus, generally increasing the expected damage of that attack by 25-50%, depending on weapon type. 

Stronger Shoves

Instead of attacking, a character who makes the Charger special attack can choose to shove their target instead. 

There’s no bonus to the Athletics check, which is a shame because it seems like it’d be a thematic bonus. 

If the shove attempt succeeds, the target is moved back 10ft, instead of the standard 5ft.

I’m not gonna lie, this is a bad ability. Many spells and class abilities push enemies around. Simple cantrips like Thorn Whip or Eldritch Blast (with Invocation support) can shove enemies 10ft or more every turn. Often without a save. While still dealing damage. 

This asks a character to give up their entire damage potential for a turn, including the bonus damage granted by the Charger feat, for one attempt at a slightly stronger shove.

Just walk up and shove them with your standard Attack Action instead. 

Why the Charger Feat isn’t a good option 

At first glance, this sounds reasonable. But closer examination reveals that, for many characters, Charger doesn’t do enough to justify its asking price. 

In fact, in a lot of situations, using the benefit of the Charger feat is actually a net negative. 

Here’s why: 

Bonus Action Attacks

In D&D 5e, many characters and weapon styles offer an easy way to attack using your bonus action. The two-weapon fighting style, Polearm and Great Weapon Master feats, multiple class abilities like the Monk’s Flurry of Blows. 

All of these offer ways for a character to make more attacks, every turn, using the same resource as the Charger feat. 

True, there are few ways to Dash and then attack in one turn. Rogues can Dash using Cunning Action, then attack. Fighters can Action Surge. Tabaxi characters can double-move once per encounter for free. So the bonus from Charger is surprisingly unique. 

But that still doesn’t make this good. To understand why, let’s break down a standard encounter further. 

Encounters, Movement, and Range

Many encounters in D&D 5e start near enough that characters can use their standard movement of 30ft to close into melee range in a single turn. Even encounters in larger spaces, or across open ground, tend to quickly spiral into knife fighting range, generally within a turn or two. 

That precludes the use of the Charger feat’s special ability. After all, there’s no reason to Dash when you can simply walk up to your enemy and hit them with something heavy.

The second problem this brings is round-by-round maneuverability and encounters quickly bogging down into brutal melee deathballs. To gain the bonus from the Charger feat, a character has to move at least 10ft in a straight line. 

By turn 2, many combat encounters won’t be set up in a way that allows a character to comfortably do this, without specifically aiming for it. Yes, this might just mean taking a few steps back every turn to take a run up, which just seems silly. 

Another thing to consider is whether your character gets to move at all. A poor initiative roll and a Character with the Charger feat is acting last, which means every other creature, enemies included, gets to go first and dogpile them, locking them in place until the combat is over and rendering their feat worthless.  

Finally, movement in 5e tends to be a non-issue for a lot of character builds. 

• Classes like Barbarians and Monks gain boosted movement speed
• Spells like Zephyr Strike and Misty Step let a character teleport huge distances and still attack
• Efficient ranged attack options are prevalent for basically every class

Multiple Attack Efficiency

The last, and possibly biggest, issue with the Charger feat is this.

By level 5, an optimized combat character will be making at least 2, and probably more, attacks every turn. 

So, to work out whether Charger is worthwhile, we have to look at whether a single attack with +5 to its damage is better than taking several attacks per turn.

The simple answer is this.

No.

Yes. Your single attack indeed does more damage.

If it hits. 

And that’s a big if. Running the probability shows that, in every single case, making two attacks without the +5 damage bonus has more reliable damage on a turn-by-turn basis.  

The reasoning is simple; a character who makes two attacks has a non-zero chance of scoring two hits, which deals almost double the damage of the guy using the Charger feat. 

And this is only when making two attacks. A character who can make three or more attacks per turn (easily possible with certain classes like the Fighter and Monk) skews the math even further in favor of just throwing out as many attack rolls as possible. 

This means, that as soon as a character hits level 5 and gains the Extra Attack feature, the Charger feat is always less efficient than stepping up and taking the basic attack action. 

Using the Bonus Action Economy

There’s one final point to touch on:

As the design of 5e has evolved, many characters have multiple ways to spend their bonus action every single turn. 

Between class abilities, spells, bonus attacks, and more, a character might not even have the space in their action economy to use the benefits of the Charger feat. 

Quick example: If you ask someone to think of a class that wants to leap headfirst into the enemy’s battle lines while screaming a warcry, the Barbarian probably comes to mind. 

But almost every Barbarian is going to spend their bonus action in the first round on Rage. Which means they cannot use the Charger feat. 

On top of this, the Paths of the Berserker and Storm Rager need to be using their bonus action every turn to use their special Rage actions. 

Even without this, any properly optimized Barbarian is almost certainly going to find a way to attack with their bonus action, normally by picking up a weapon feat like Great Weapon Master. 

All of these things mean that, realistically, the Charger special attack isn’t going to happen, and when it does, it’s going to feel underwhelming compared to just attacking your opponents.

Key Stats

The Charger feat doesn’t grant a character any stats and doesn’t have any stat requirements to use. 

However, high Strength is recommended to get the best use out of the feat. Both to use the heavy weapons that work best with its big single attack and for any possible shove attempts a character might make. 

Ideal Characters for Charger

Top Classes

Rogue – Melee Rogues might just be the best users of the Charger feat. Combining a Dash with an attack that has another +5 to damage almost guarantees that Sneak Attack will land on the right target every turn.  

Plus, Cunning Action allows a Rogue that gets stuck in combat to safety dance backward, ready to repeat the process.

Fighter – The Fighter possesses an ability that makes the Charger feat much better. Action Surge. The main issue of the Charger feat is the single attack limit, tied to the Dash action. 

Being able to Charge into combat, make a singularly powerful swing, then take a second Action to Attack as normal piles on the damage. Alternatively, combining a Dashing shove with an Action Surged grapple can drive an enemy out of the combat space and completely lock them down. 

Druid – Many Wild Shape forms only get one strong attack.  Boosting the damage of that attack, while increasing the threat range of a character by doubling their movement, is a reasonable deal. 

Non-Moon Druids need not apply. There’s nothing here for spellcasters. 

Warlock – The Hexblade can stack damage into one almighty strike. Combining a two-handed weapon or polearm with the Great Weapon Master bonus damage, Booming Blade and Eldritch Smite can throw a dozen damage dice from as early as level 5. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Tabaxi – 5e’s cat people can choose to double their speed for a turn with no action cost. Combining that with the Dash from Charger means at least 120ft of movement in a single round. 

Owlin – Constant, at-will flight is an incredible benefit for a character that wants to charge into combat every turn. 

Wood Elf – A bonus to movement speed is great, as is the ability to hide in natural environments, all the better to ambush your opponents before you sprint headlong straight at them. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Great Weapon Master – Stack another +5 damage onto the damage from GWM. Just make sure your one big attack hits 

Mobile – Combining Mobile and Charger allows a character to dash up to an enemy, throw out one accurate attack, and then duck backward to repeat the process next turn. 

Spells that Synergize

Smite spells – All smite-type spells can be stored when they’re cast, activating the next time a successful attack is made, stacking more damage dice, and a bonus effect onto the Charger special attack. 

Strategies for Maximizing Charger Effectiveness

Guaranteeing the Hit

Since Charger only offers a single attack per turn, making sure that landing single hits is the best way of increasing its efficiency. 

There are two main ways to do this: Hit bonuses, and advantage

• Hit bonuses are anything that flatly increases an attack roll. Examples might include the +1 from magic weapons, the +1d4 from Bless spells, or the Battlemaster Fighter’s Combat maneuvers. 
• Advantage can be gained from a massive variety of sources. Conditions like Prone, Stunned or Blinded. Class abilities like the Barbarian’s Reckless Attack and spells like Fairie Fire are all ways for a class to gain that sweet, sweet second attack dice. 

Everything in its place

Characters who plan on using the Charger feat want to make sure that they have enough movement to reach their target and trigger the special attack bonus. 

• Wood Elves and Tabaxi have racial bonuses to movement
• The Monk and Barbarian classes gain innate, permanent bonuses to speed
• The Mobile feat adds 10ft to a character’s speed

An alternative option is to keep distance from enemies, preventing them from reaching you every turn, to keep triggering the charge. This is similar to the historical cavalry tactic of “cycle charging,” involving repeated charges and withdrawals. 

• The Rogue’s Cunning Action lets a character Disengage as a bonus action
• The Mobile feat (again) allows a character to ignore opportunity attacks from a creature that they’ve attacked this round
• Using polearms or other weapons with reach to avoid an enemy’s threatened squares
• Class abilities, such as those granted by the Swarmkeeper Ranger or Drunken Master Monk

Final Thoughts on Charger

Charger has never been a good feat. Even when 5e was first released, many characters had better things to do than spend an entire turn making a single, slightly stronger attack. 

And as the edition has matured, and the overall power level of the game has increased, trading in everything else a character could do to run up and slap someone once just isn’t worth it. 

While the Charger feat isn’t going to break a build, there are so many better ways of building mobile, aggressive brawlers in 5e, and unfortunately, Charger just doesn’t make the cut.