Squat Nimbleness: I’ll Be Going Shortly

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

A holdover from past editions carried into 5th that's working its way out is slower smaller races. It's not as bad as the 20 ft. speeds races had to deal with in older editions, but halflings, gnomes, and dwarves being stuck with 25 foot speeds often leaves them just feeling sluggish. Squat Nimbleness is a fairly concise solution to that problem; you’re getting a Str or Dex bump, which automatically makes this feat very attractive to characters with an odd Str or Dex, a bonus speed to bring you up to par with the medium races, and gives you a free skill and benefits escaping grapples. All of these words on their own don’t really justify a feat; together, though, they will act as a major quality of life upgrade that will highlight the values of being smaller too.

Increasing your speed by five will functionally put you on par with the medium races in most cases, but there are some exceptions. Goblins and kobolds are quicker small races, meaning this feat will feel like a hybrid version of Mobile to them. You’re getting to go even faster than normal in those cases, and can make small monks and barbarians able to cover further and further distances in the blink of an eye. That’s a pretty solid boon on its own.

Of the two skill proficiencies, acrobatics I find is slightly less used than athletics, but both contribute to grapples, making this feat work on characters who want to grapple as well as characters whose goal is to remain unrestrained. This scales up with the flat advantage on escaping a grapple, and while I would have liked instead to see this become a bonus action option for small characters, advantage is great, especially considering you’re also going to be using the skill you just got proficiency in to use it.

Every fight can incorporate grapples, and even in those that don’t, the speed boost and Strength or Dexterity boost absolutely can matter. Squat Nimbleness gives the smaller races just enough to justify taking it (only with an odd score, though) while “patching” some of the old game rules to better fit modern tables.

All in all, I like this feat. If you’re tired of lagging behind your human and tiefling friends as the halfling ranger or dwarf paladin, this is an easy way to address that annoyance while simultaneously pushing yourself towards a high number in an important ability score.

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