SOURCE: Player’s Handbook 

Rating the Benefits of Durable

Benefit #1 – 

+1 to Con, up to a maximum of 20

Con is an essential stat for every character. +1 is good for evening up odd ability scores and means the rest of the benefits are considered equivalent to half a feat

Benefit #2 – 

Whenever the character spends a hit die to heal, they can’t gain less HP than double their Con modifier

Many characters have a Con bonus of around +2, meaning no hit die can recover less than 4 HP. This can add up to a reasonable chunk of HP over the course of a day, but is entirely reliant on the amount of short rests a party takes 

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

The main benefit of the durable feat is the increased healing when spending a hit die, which will almost always happen when a character takes a short rest.  

How this works is incredibly simple.

A character has a pool of hit die equal to their level. Their hit die is the same size as the die that is rolled to generate a character’s total HP. 

As an example, a level 5 Fighter has 5 hit dice that are d10s. 

Whenever a character takes a short rest, they can choose to take any amount of these hit dice and spend them to heal by rolling the dice and adding the total to their HP. 

Spending hit dice is only relevant for short rests. During a long rest, a character regains all of their lost hp. A character also regains half of their hit die. 

This means a character who spends all of their hit dice during an adventuring day only starts the next day with half of their total available. It requires two days of rest to regain all of their hit die. 

As for spending hit die, these are rolled like any other dice. Class hit dice can be anything from d6 for Wizards, up to d12s for Barbarians, with d8s and d10s being by far the most common. 

The Durable feat prevents a character from regaining less HP than twice their Con modifier per dice spent. Most reasonably optimized characters in 5e tend to start with a Con bonus of +2. This means no hit die spent to heal can restore less than 4 HP. 

So let’s do some math. 

We’ll assume a very basic character, with a +2 Con modifier and a class that grants a d8 hit die. 

This character spends a hit dice. Any rolls under 4 are increased to 4. 

This means our total hit point gain from the feat is this:

+3, +2, +1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

This translates to an average of 0.75 HP gained per hit die rolled. A character rolling 5 dice regains an extra 3.75 HP on average. On the face of it, that’s not very good. 

These numbers improve slightly for characters with smaller-sized hit die and/or a higher Con bonus. The numbers get worse if a character has a larger hit die, and/or a low Con bonus. 

But the truth is this. Durable’s main mechanic is only ever impactful in the times when a character rolls a high number of hit dice and they all come up with incredibly low rolls. 

We’ve already pointed out that a character rolling 5 dice regains 3.75 extra HP. A level 5 character who chooses to forgo a feat and increase their Con bonus? Gains 5 permanent HP at that level. Plus increases their Con save, and that HP boost only goes up as a character gains more levels. For most characters, the choice between the Durable feat and taking an ASI in Constitution shouldn’t be difficult. 

Anyone considering taking the feat also has to understand their character’s role in the party, how useful non-magical healing is, and the campaign they’re playing in. 

For example, a Ranger built for melee DPS is going to get hit more often than a Ranger specialized in bows, and Durable’s utility goes up. The party has limited resources, and often can’t spare spell slots for a lot of healing. Durable seems more attractive. Does the party spend a long time delving deep into dungeons and relying on their resources? The Durable feat might be a good pick.

But the sad truth is, for many campaigns, and most characters, Durable probably isn’t worth it. There are better feats to keep a character’s HP topped up, including Healer and Chef, which sit in similar niches. Many parties will have access to spells and items which can heal party members when necessary. And finally, retreating and Long Resting to regain full HP is generally something most games allow. 

Key Stats

The Durable feat boosts Con by 1, up to a maximum of 20. 

Con affects a key saving throw, and a character’s total HP is also affected by their Con score, both of which go a long way to making a build much tougher. 

Ideal Characters for the Durable feat

Top Classes

Barbarian – The Barbarian has no real option but hardcore, brawling combat and has class features that make them easier to hit. The class stays alive through stacked damage resistances, and the largest hit die in 5e. 

Both of these things work incredibly well with the durable feat, which gains maximum benefit the larger a character’s HP pool and hit die. There’s also great flavor in a character who almost dies every single fight, then literally walks it off straight afterward.  

Monk – Monks are a skirmishing, front-line melee class at heart that tends to want to take a lot of short rests to refresh their Ki class resource. Adding a way for the class to keep their HP high means a Monk can take more risks and provide less of a drain on party healing resources. 

Warlock – If any class needs short rests, it’s the Warlock. A Warlock without short rests has a paltry two spell slots per day, which refresh on every rest. The Con bonus also helps with passing Concentration tests, as well as increasing total HP on a relatively squishy chassis. 

Melee subclasses will make better use of this, especially the Hexblade. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Dwarf – Dwarves have a decent smattering of racial traits, but we’re here for the Dwarven Fortitude feat, which lets a character spend hit die to heal whenever they dodge. More on this later.   

Half-Orc – The Half-Orc can choose to not die once per day, which makes it that much more likely to get to the next rest and heal up. The rest of the kit is strongly melee focused. 

Dragonborn – The Dragonborn’s racial breath weapon has a DC based on Con. The rest of the package is powerful, with variants that are good for melee fighters, ranged attacks, and spellcasters. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Chef – Further boost Con, or Wis if that’s more important. Heal even more when you take a short rest, and cook magical cookies for the whole party that hand out a bunch of temp HP. 

Tough – Staple even more HP onto a build. The very essence of boring but practical. 

Spells that Synergize

Wither and Bloom – This spell deals damage to enemies in a small burst and lets an ally spend a hit die to heal at the same time. 

Catnap – Once per day, instead of a short rest requiring a full hour, it takes only ten minutes instead. 

Rope Trick/Tiny Hut – You’re going to be resting a lot. Better to rest inside a bubble of magical safety. 

Strategies for Maximizing Durable Effectiveness

Spending Hit Die in other ways

The main way almost every character will spend their hit die is during a short rest, to heal. 

There are surprisingly few other ways for a character to spend hit die. We’ve compiled a list below: 

• The Dwarven Fortitude feat is unsurprisingly restricted only to Dwarves. (More on this feat below.)
• The optional Healing Surge rule from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which essentially lets a character spend hit die like they’re resting as an action once per rest. 
• The Wither and Bloom spell from the Strixhaven, A Curriculum of Chaos book allows a friendly character in the AOE to spend a hit die, and heal. 
• The Autognome race can spend a hit die whenever the Mending cantrip is cast on them. 

Dwarven Fortitude and Rogues

If your GM allows the racial feats from Xanathar’s Guide, Dwarven Fortitude is a great addition to the Durable feat, especially for a character with the Rogue class. Here’s why:

The Dwarven Fortitude feat lets a character spend hit die when they dodge, and the Rogue’s Cunning Action allows a character to Dodge as a bonus action. This frees up the character to still attack, cast spells, or take some other combat action. 

While the hit die won’t last forever, this combination of feats essentially gives the character a Fighter’s Second Wind ability, except usable an amount of times per day equivalent to the character’s level. That’s pretty good, especially since this comes online after Rogue level 2, and can be comfortably jammed into many builds while still being functional. 

Sorcerers and the Bloodwell Vial

Building on the point above, one build that has genuine potential with this feat is a Sorcerer that has access to the Bloodwell Vial magic item. 

The Vial is already a powerful item for Sorcerers, allowing a character to regain 5 Sorcery Points once per day when they spend hit die. 

Combining that with any of the above abilities that allow a character to spend hit die outside of resting makes this combo genuinely surprisingly strong. 

Evaluating the Durable Feat vs Other Options

Durable isn’t the only method of boosting short rest healing in 5e. Other examples include:

• The Bard’s Song of Rest feature adds a d6 to every character that heals during a short rest, scaling up as the character levels. 
• A Cleric’s Channel Divinity comes back when a character short rests. Several options restore party HP. 
• The Fighter’s Second Wind heals a good chunk of HP and comes back on a short rest. 
• Similar to the Cleric, a Paladin’s Channel Divinity comes back on a short rest. Oath of the Crown has an AOE healing burst channel. 
• A Warlock with healing spells can spend them before resting, as their spell slots refresh. 
• The Chef feat touched on above, adds more healing on short rests. 
• The Inspiring Leader feat can be used once per rest and takes 10 minutes to layer a good chunk of temp HP onto the whole party, preventing damage in the first place.

Final Thoughts on Durable

Let’s not mince words. The Durable feat sucks. 

+1 Con is okay, but many feats offer half an ASI as part of their benefits now, and most of those at least give you a choice of stat. 

But the main feature, increasing the amount of HP gained back when resting and spending hit die, is sooo bad. The HP gain is tiny. Many campaigns won’t use short rests enough to make spending a feat slot on this worthwhile. Some campaigns might not even use the mechanic at all. 

Long story short, there are far better feats to make a character tougher.