SOURCE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Rating the Benefits of Elven Accuracy

Benefit #1 – 

Increase Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20

Half an ASI is something seen across many feats. What isn’t common is how many stats can be chosen to boost. 4 is an exceptional spread, and every build will find something to use here

Benefit #2 – 

When attacking with advantage using the stats mentioned above, a character with this feat can reroll one of the dice

What if advantage, but better? Yes, this feature lets a character roll three dice, picking the highest, when attacking with advantage. Built and used correctly, a character with this feat might never miss again

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

The main benefit of Elven Accuracy is simple to understand:

When a character is making an attack roll using one of the stats specified by the feat, and has advantage on that attack roll, they can reroll one of the dice. 

While this is a simple effect, it’s also incredibly powerful. 

Advantage allows a character to roll two dice when attacking, and choose the highest. This makes an attack much more likely to land (mathematically, it’s equivalent to a +5 bonus.)

When Elven Accuracy is layered on top of this, a character gets to roll two dice when they attack, look at the results, then pick one of them up and reroll it. 

Essentially, this is super-advantage. Instead of rolling two dice, you’re rolling three. Every single time you make an attack with advantage on the roll. 

The feat does have some limitations. Most obviously, if a character isn’t attacking with advantage, the feat has no effect. 

Adding to this, to qualify, the attack has to be made with either Dex, Int, Wis, or Cha. This permanently prevents the feat from being used with the most damaging weapon types in the game. 

Honestly, though, that’s barely an issue. A character taking this feat knows the limitations going in and can build around it. The difference in damage between Strength-based weapons and the Dex-weapons the feat allows is low when factoring in round-by-round DPS and how much more often a build with Elven Accuracy should be landing hits. 

Plus, there are so many ways to easily boost damage in 5e, from class features like Sneak attack, other feats, fighting styles, and magic weapons, through to spells like Hunter’s Mark or Crusader’s Mantle that a properly built Elven Accuracy character can out damage almost anything.  

What can Elven Accuracy be used for?

The benefit of this feat works on anything that uses an attack roll and uses any of the four stats specified in the feat description to make that roll. 

The most obvious use is on weapon attacks that use Dex (or other qualifying stats, more on this below/) Importantly, attacks using Strength do not ever qualify for this feat, which locks out a lot of the weapon list, including two-handed and polearm style weaponry. 

Elven Accuracy also works on any spell that makes an attack roll. As an example, the Firebolt cantrip, chosen from the Sorcerer spell list, makes an attack roll using the character’s Charisma bonus to attack. If this attack is made with advantage, you can use Elven Accuracy on it. 

Importantly, the feat doesn’t work on any spell that requires a saving throw instead of an attack roll, even if the roll is made with advantage.  

Which weapons qualify for Elven Accuracy?

The Elven accuracy feat can be used with any weapon that uses Dex to attack. This means every ranged weapon qualifies, as do all melee weapons that have the Finesse quality, which lets a character make melee attacks with their Dexterity modifier. 

Do you have to attack with the stat improved by the feat?

No. The wording of the Elven Accuracy feat is clear. Any attack made with Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma qualifies. It doesn’t matter which stat is boosted, any of them allow the rerolls offered by the feat. 

This is particularly relevant to characters that commonly mix attack rolls and spellcasting, like Rangers, Druids, or a casting subclass like the Eldritch Knight. A build with this feat can freely intermix attacking spells and weapon strikes, confident in the knowledge that no matter what they’re throwing out, it qualifies for a full reroll.

Key Stats

The Elven Accuracy feat gives a character +1 to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. 

The main function of the feat also requires making attack rolls with any of these stats. Realistically, as no one attacks with their Con bonus, this locks out the Strength stat as the only non-useful stat for Elven Accuracy. 

Ideal Characters for Elven Accuracy

Top Classes

Rogue – Most Rogues make one attack per round, maybe two if they’re going two-weapon fighting. So that one attack needs to hit. The massively boosted hit chance of Elven Accuracy synergizes incredibly well here, especially if taking the Steady Aim alternate feature, which allows free advantage if the character doesn’t move. 

The Rogue can also make great use of every single stat offered by the feat and is uniquely positioned to benefit from all the crits a character is going to roll when throwing 3 dice per attack. Sneak Attack damage is doubled on crit. Which is awesome for you, and unfortunate for whatever poor creature finds itself on the other end of your blade. 

The Assassin subclass gains situational advantage in the first round of every combat. But the subclass is generally considered … not very good. We’d recommend finding other ways to gain advantage, either by working with your party, attacking from Stealth, or taking the Arcane Trickster and magically disabling your enemies first. 

Fighter – No class is better with every style of combat than the Fighter. It’s right there in the name. Elven Accuracy, paired with the consistent strength of the class, is a very strong combo, especially on the Go Turn, when Action Surge is activated. 

Multiple subclasses love this feat. Battle Masters can drop conditions onto opponents that debuff, demoralize, and offer an easy advantage not just to themselves, but to the party. The Samurai, on the other hand, can choose to gain advantage as a bonus action multiple times per day. 

Monk – Combine a class that stacks Dexterity and Wisdom, makes a ton of attacks, and can readily gain advantage on all of them by Stunning their chosen target for a fantastically powerful base to build Elven Accuracy upon.  

The Kensai is a strong subclass with this build, able to choose traditional Elven weapons as their Monk weapons and flex into defense as necessary. Alternatively, the Way of Shadow focuses on the Stealth aspects of the Monk, and can easily multiclass with the Rogue to build a literal ninja. 

Warlock – We’ve aired our opinion on the Warlock before. The class isn’t a spellcaster. It’s a ranged DPS striker with magically eldritch flavoring, focused heavily around the most powerful cantrip in the game – Eldritch Blast, which makes up to four attack rolls in a round. Advantage and rerolling a dice on each one of these is incredibly efficient. 

To this end, the Warlock has multiple ways to gain an easy advantage every single turn. The simplest is the Darkness + Devil’s Sight combo, though this doesn’t tend to play well with most party comps. 

The Fathomless subclass makes more attacks than most Warlocks, adding an extra attack every turn with its bonus action tentacle slap. Alternatively, the Undead can activate a spooky transformation multiple times per day that frightens the targets of your attacks. Enough failed saves can chain scare an enemy every single turn until it dies. 

Multiclassing Considerations

Hexblade – The Hexblade’s ability to make weapon attacks with their Charisma bonus is uniquely awesome with the Elven Accuracy feat, especially on classes like the Paladin which otherwise don’t like to take Dex. 

One level is enough to grab everything a character needs; Using Cha for attack and damage rolls on one-handed weapons, cantrips, a regenerating spell slot, and a cute little short rest damage bonus. 

Race or Subrace Choices

The Elven Accuracy feat can, unsurprisingly, only be taken by Elves. But in 5e, the Elf umbrella is deceptively broad. Every standard Elf subrace qualifies, as does the Half-Elf, and also the Drow. 

Wood Elves love this feat in wilderness environments; their ability to hide behind a knee high shrub conferring advantage on attacks from hiding. 

Generally, most of the Elven options are decent. We’d be wary around the Drow, though. As a race, it’s powerful, with boosted Darkvision and innate spellcasting, but the Sunlight Sensitivity feature makes it impossible to gain advantage in areas lit by direct sunlight, which utterly disables everything this feat wants to do. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Sharpshooter – The Sharpshooter feat offers a disgustingly powerful damage boost to ranged attacks, at the cost of making it much harder to hit. That becomes less of an issue when you can roll three times and pick the highest. 

Defensive Duelist – Melee weapons that work with this feat are almost certainly going to work with Defensive Duelist. This is an easy way for a character who doesn’t often spend reactions to increase their toughness.  

Fighting Initiate – Grab the Archery or Dueling fighting style, as appropriate. 

Spells that Synergize

Faerie Fire – Do you want advantage for one minute against every enemy that fails its save in a surprisingly large area? Yes, please!

Invisibility/Greater Invisibility – Invisibility gives a character advantage on their first attack and makes it much simpler to get into position. That’s already strong. Against enemies that don’t have a way around it, the ability to attack while staying hidden from Greater Invisibility is an “I win” button. 

Strategies for Maximizing Elven Accuracy Effectiveness

Stack Damage

Characters with the Elven Accuracy feat and a reasonably consistent way of gaining advantage should hit with almost every attack they make. So stop focusing on hitting your enemy, and start worrying about how to hurt them. 

An illustrative example is Sharpshooter. Already a fantastically strong feat, Sharpshooter is balanced by the hit penalty a character takes whenever they attack with the +10 damage bonus the feat offers. 

We go over the math fully in our Sharpshooter feat guide, but the damage bonus is so high that a character is almost always better off firing at full power. 

Similarly, Rogues, Paladins, and other characters with massive damage steroids who have taken this feat should be looking at maximum offense. The damage potential of multiple landed attacks per turn, plus possible crits, is so high that the rest of the party can focus on keeping the DPS machine alive and setting up enemies for murder with disabling spells and abilities. 

Take the appropriate fighting styles

An Elf with this feat should seriously consider picking up a fighting style that supports their weapon, which is either going to be Archery or Dueling:

• Archery – One of the few ways to flatly increase hit chance, the +2 to hit from the Archery fighting style is incredibly strong, already pushing a character ahead of their expected hit chance. Stacking Elven Accuracy on top of it can make it near-impossible to miss when attacking with advantage. 
• Dueling – Instead of boosting hit chance, the Dueling style gives a character +2 to damage when attacking with a single one-handed weapon. Notably, a character can’t use two-weapon fighting with this but can hold a shield, which makes this the perfect balance between offense and defense. 

Attacking without using Dex

The Elven Accuracy feat lets a character make rerolls with attacks using Dex, Int, Wis, and Cha. The last three stats in this list are mental stats and are only generally used for spells. But what if a character wants to try and hit someone, but with the power of their mind? Here’s a handy list of ways to do that:

• Hexblade Warlock – Everyone knows it by now, but the Hexblade allows a character to make weapon attacks using their Charisma bonus for one-handed weapons, increasing to the full weapon roster when taking the Pact of the Blade (and maybe an Invocation or two.)
• Battle Smith Artificer – Similar to the Hexblade, the Battle Smith can use their Intelligence mod in the place of physical stats when attacking with weapons from level 3. 
• Way of the Astral Self Monk – Astral Monks can channel their inner Jojo, flexing so hard their spirit escapes from their body and starts punching people using Wisdom instead of Dex. 
• Shillelagh and Magic Stone – Two cantrips. One turns a club or staff into a Wisdom-reliant beating stick, and the other turns standard pebbles into magical Wis meteorites.
  
  A character might also pick up these cantrips with Warlock using Pact of the Tome, or as a Bard using Magical Secrets so they can attack with Charisma (again.)

Should you ever not reroll?

So the Elven Accuracy feat allows a character to reroll one of the dice whenever they attack with advantage. Is there ever a time when this isn’t a good idea?

In almost all cases, no. It’s always smart to reroll the lower of the two dice and see if you can improve your odds. 

The only real time it might be a consideration is in the vanishingly narrow situation where an enemy can force a PC to pick the lowest of two dice with a spell or ability, and both dice show mid to high rolls. But this is such a niche case that it’s likely to never come up. 

TL DR: Always reroll the lowest dice.  

Final Thoughts on Elven Accuracy

Elven Accuracy is a great feat, with a strong benefit that’s simple to understand and immediately impactful. Nothing beats picking up a dice that missed and rerolling it into success. 

But there’s a serious caveat:

The effectiveness of Elven Accuracy is reliant on finding ways to gain advantage on attack rolls. Without advantage, the feat does absolutely nothing. 

But if your build or party has easy ways to do this and is happy to play along and lean hard into giving you what you need, taking this feat can turn any character into Legolas, landing attack after attack no matter the situation. 

The thing is, unless your GM hates you, gaining advantage isn’t that hard for a competent party. Elven Accuracy on a character focused around attack rolls will skyrocket their effectiveness. It’s a good feat, and well worth taking.