Advanced Advancement For 5e

Players commonly want more customization out of 5e, partly more options like races and sub-classes between characters, but also partly more options within the same character: More feats, more skill proficiencies, more ribbons, that kind of thing. A free feat at level 1 is a pretty common house rule, especially for people who’ve already had a campaign or two and are already familiar with the standard character advancement from the PHB.

A free feat at level 1 helps, but this system gives out an additional feature of some kind at every single character level, in addition to class features. I did cheat a little by counting proficiency bonus increases as a class feature (sort of, see the double-cut content for something to put in those levels as well), and also the ASIs work the same way they do in the PHB, because those really are pretty much just fine as they are, their only problem is they don’t come often enough. The other 12 levels of the progression, however, are filled with extra skills, expertise, and minor feats, all balanced with existing 5e content (including monsters).