How do we solve the "variant human with alert feat' problem?

By not letting your players use variant humans. Feats are cool and all but the way things stand now the level 1 feat is too much. So fuck'em, they get their +1 in all stats and extra skills and that's it.

It depends on how hard you want to rules-lawyer. Because an alert character can't be surprised by stealth, the attacker can't get advantage, and adavntage (depending on how you wana rules lawyer) is required for sneak attack to work.

And then you also have the brand of player who uses "can't be surprised by stealth" as an excuse to instantly be able to see invisibility, concealed weapons, the eyes of gods, ect. But that's mostly just shit memes now, doubt most of the stories about it are actually true.

Congratulations, you've now ensured that what's supposed to be the most common race in the game will never be played ever, because regular humans are complete and utter shit unless you're playing some retarded homebrew class that's so MAD you have to have to have points in every single attribute.
You've also ensured a stream of endless bitching from your players, and probably widened the martial vs caster rift even further.

It's almost like, regular ass bone standard humans are, in fact complete and utter shit

You can also get SA if there's an ally adjacent to the target. Alert does jack and shit to stop that.

Surprised has a strict rules meaning. Arguing that Alert lets you be omnisicient has about as much backing in rules fact as the argument that aiming for the head should make all your attacks instant kills.

Have you tried being a strict DM?
Have you tried discussing it with your players?
Have you tried not playing DnD?
Have you tried being a decent human being?
Have you tried having fun?

I'm out of the loop, what's a variant human?

They're not SUPPOSED to be though. Humans are supposed to be the "good at everything, but the best at nothing" race. Instead regular humans are just shit at everything and variant humans are the best at everything (because a free feat is usually more beneficial to a specific build than any racial bonuses are).

If Variant Human is banned, there is no reason to ever play a normal human. If there is no reason to ever choose an option in the game, it shouldn't be in the game. This sorta makes me go "What were they thinking?!" when humans are supposed to be the most common race in many settings. Humans should've gotten two attribute +2s or something, in exchange for not getting any other interesting or useful racial feats at all.

In 5th edition DnD, regular humans get a +1 to all attributes. This SOUNDS good in theory, but a +2 in even one stat is usually better than a +1 in two or even three stats, because most classes only really need one or two main attributes to do their job well. Thus regular humans are shit.

Variant Humans get a +1 in two stats of their choice. However Variant Humans also get a free feat. In 5e you only get like 5 feats over the course of your character's entire career from levels 1 to 20 (if you even play to level 20), so feats are EXTREMELY valuable. This free feat makes Variant Humans the uncontested best race for almost any niche in the game (unless you're counting overpowered monster-manual races or homebrew).
For shits and giggles, Variant Humans also get a free skill-proficiency, because you know, they're not overpowered enough already. This is essentially 4 free skill proficiencies if they spend their free feat on the Skilled Feat, more than any other race starts with.

Honestly you're right, Two +2's or some kind of non-feat something or other would be a much better alternative.

But if it's between one of the other, I'd rather take the standard human and work with the player to make sure the character is fun and worthwhile and not just shit garbage.

Same way we solve the Sarte problem. We ignore it.

That is to say, ban variant human.

The Variant rules for Humans in 5E DnD. They start with a +1 in two stats (I think) but the kicker is they start with a feat and some feats in 5E are too powerful to not take.

It should be noted that feats in and of themselves are also technically an "optional" rule.

It's not that feats are "too powerful" so much as it is that certain classes just need them to function well. A caster can usually get by without any feats (although certain feats like Lucky are still super beneficial to them). For a Martial though, you NEED stuff like Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Crossbow Expert, ect. to do your job well and keep up as the difficulty of enemies rises, because unlike a caster you're not really getting more damage or tactical options in the form of spells, and your class features alone usually aren't enough to keep up.

Have you ever tried just not optemizing charicters in 5e? It doesn't need it.

>ul" so much as it is that certain classes just need them to function well. A caster can usually get by without any feats (although certain feats like Lucky are still super beneficial to them). For a Martial though, you NEED stuff like Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Crossbow Expert, ect. to do your job well and keep up as the difficulty of enemies rises, because unlike a caster you're not really getting more damage or tactical options in the form of spells, and your class features alone usually aren't enough to keep up.
No class in 5e needs anything but a decent primary stat to function well.

It's simple!
We kill the D&D franchise!

Tell that to Bladelock.

Bladelocks do just fine as long as they stay away from their blade.
Which is admittedly rather counterproductive to the goal of being a bladelock, but they're still functional if they don't do their thing.

Tell that to PHB Ranger and Way of the Four Elements Monk. They don't function well no matter WHAT you give them.

It's simple, we rely on internet people to solve our problems.

I'd like to note I did not make this

>It depends on how hard you want to rules-lawyer. Because an alert character can't be surprised by stealth, the attacker can't get advantage, and adavntage (depending on how you wana rules lawyer) is required for sneak attack to work.
>And then you also have the brand of player who uses "can't be surprised by stealth" as an excuse to instantly be able to see invisibility, concealed weapons, the eyes of gods, ect. But that's mostly just shit memes now, doubt most of the stories about it are actually true.

Rule 0

I mean, advantage (or flanking, though I'm yet to meet a DM who actually allows that part) is required for sneak attack to work, but Alert only saves you from advantage as a result of the attacker being hidden from you. The rogue can still gain advantage and/or sneak attack from:
sneak attack itself: adjacent enemies of the target
spells: faerie fire, guiding bolt, etc
conditions: prone (for melee), paralysis, petrified, restrained, stunned, unconscious
I'm sure there's also a bunch of random class features that can give allies advantage or confer advantage on attack rolls vs a target.

Also re: Alert + Invisible attackers:
Per the rules for Unseen Attackers and Targets, "hidden" is defined as "both unseen and unheard," so Stealth checks are still necessary for an Invisible enemy to remain "hidden."
The "Invisible" condition states that you cannot be seen by conventional senses, requiring magical means or other senses (tremorsense, blindsight). It also states the Invisible creature has advantage on attack rolls, as a blanket thing. That's actually not contingent on the target seeing them, or being hidden from the target, or anything. Alert does nothing versus Invisible enemies, because they're not getting advantage from being hidden or from you being surprised, they're getting advantage from being invisible. If they want to play RAW hardball, that's what they get, stupid as it may be.

So the harder they want to rules lawyer in favor of Alert saving them from all applications of Sneak Attack, the harder they're going to get fucked by Sneak Attack. Hell, if they argue it, I'd stack an extra d6 on for every page of the book referenced, even though I know the end result.

Oh, and players shouldn't even be that concerned about Sneak Attack in terms of bonus damage from stuff. Martial Advantage co-opted from Hobgoblins is much more likely to come up, and you can't do shit against that.

>Because an alert character can't be surprised by stealth, the attacker can't get advantage, and adavntage (depending on how you wana rules lawyer) is required for sneak attack to work.
That's stupid. Being surprised is not what gets advantage, it's being attacked by an enemy you do not see. "Surprised" is a quality that is only determined in the first round of combat, and only by the DM, and for the most part being surprised only matters to Assassins because their attacks automatically deal critical hits to surprised targets.
In other words you're not even rules lawyering, you're literally just being a munchkin faggot.