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Essentially, I want to gain expertise in 2 skills but without having to take a level in Rogue (Or several in Bard)

There are already feats to gain proficiency in various skills/weapons, but I can't find anything (apart from a human-only from Xanathar's guide) that grants you the double proficiency.

So I figure making this a feat could work. But, I fear my lack of experience in home brewing things means this could be under/overpowered.

Is 2x proficiency on 2 skills OP? Bearing in mind this is instead of a stat boost - which would give a +1 to all skills in a category, whereas I want to be extra at something specific.

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Balanced to core material, but depends on the campaign

In non-playtest material, there is the feat you mentioned yourself, Prodigy (in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, D&D Beyond link) that grants the character one skill proficiency, one tool proficiency and one new language, in addition to expertise with one skill (either a pre-existing one or the new one from this feat). Your suggested feat essentially forgoes the additional skill proficiency, tool proficiency and language proficiency in favor of having a second skill for expertise - seems like a fair trade to me. Your feat is in line with existing material.

However, whether Prodigy itself is balanced greatly depends on the role of skill checks in your campaign. How much a single check can accomplish is quite heavily at the GM's discretion, and so varies a lot from table to table as well as between situations. Before picking Prodigy or homebrewing another feat that grants skills or expertise, consider whether the campaign you're playing offers ample opportunities to use the bonuses granted by these feats. If not, you'll find both rather underpowered, possibly completely useless.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ So, if anything you're suggesting my new Expertise feat needs a bit more to it be worthwhile? \$\endgroup\$ – ErosRising Jun 7 '18 at 14:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ErosRising No, what I'm saying is I can't really know whether it's worthwhile without knowing more about your campaign. The utility of skill checks vary wildly between different GMs and campaigns, and depending on the content you'll be facing your feat (or Progidy) might be anything from game-breakingly overpowered to completely useless. \$\endgroup\$ – kviiri Jun 7 '18 at 14:44
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There is a precedent for such feats in Unearthed Arcana:Feats for Skills.

Naturally as Unearthed Arcana this is only playtest material as you can see in the PDF.

I have personally only seen the "Arcanist" feat from that UA in one of my games and it did not seem to cause any balancing issues.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ "Brawny" here is almost what I'm after - I wonder though, as I've already picked Goliath as my race, would I then count as 2 sizes larger? \$\endgroup\$ – ErosRising Jun 7 '18 at 14:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ErosRising You shouldn't ask follow-up questions in comments, but it turns out that question already has an answer here: Do multiple sources of counting as one size larger for carrying capacity stack? \$\endgroup\$ – David Coffron Jun 7 '18 at 14:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCoffron oops, more thinking out loud, but thanks for the pointer! \$\endgroup\$ – ErosRising Jun 7 '18 at 14:55

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