Savage Attacker

Cool

I likea da feet :D

I think you might have inadvertently divided the result by 2 somewhere—when I do a similar calculation, I end up with 5.1. I think the calculation we should be doing is adding up the differences between your low roll and your high roll:

from random import randint

def roll (n, times):
        return sum(randint(1, n) for _x in range(0, times))
diff = 0
N = 10_000
for i in range(0, N):
        a = roll(6, 7)
        b = roll(6, 7)
        diff += max(a, b) - min(a, b)

print(diff / N)

 But I think rolling a lot of dice actually _understates_ its value—when you roll a lot of dice, you're already making it more likely that the sum of those dice will cluster around the average roll. I think you can see a more realistic impact when you look at a single weapon die:

- 1d12 ~= 4
- 1d10 ~= 3.3
- 1d8 ~= 2.6
- 1d6 ~= 1.96

That's a pretty solid impact for an origin feat, especially at early levels. It seems like the kind of feat that will make your lower leveled character feel like they have military experience and are skilled in combat. That seems fun! As levels go up, its damage as a percent of your total will only ever go down, but that's okay—it's still a nice flavorful boost.

Quote from Nihil_Keygain >>

 

It's not worth it. Not for any character you're going to play past level 5 at least. Take literally any other origin feat, you'll have way more fun.

If you're really set on playing a character with military experience, and feel like you have to take this feat because it's part of the Soldier background - don't. Just take the Farmer background instead, say your character grew up on a farm and enlisted as soon as they were old enough. You'll get a bunch of extra HP from the Tough feat, and the word "Farmer" appearing on your character sheet won't limit your roleplaying one bit. And if your Dungeon Master says otherwise, tell 'em I said they're being a jerk.

 Yeah, Military Rank from the old Soldier background was kinda useless in most situations, but at least it was about as much of a waste as a lot of the others. To be honest the whole new background system gets on my nerves a bit, I'm trying to make a cleric with a military medic type history and thanks to the new background system, if I want to be able to add to Wisdom I'll need to use a different background. But hey, like you said, there are other and better options. 

The key here is to play the character the whole time. By the time you're level 11, you know what you're doing. Your turn takes the same amount of time as anyone else's. Also, think about your turn before it gets to your turn. Honestly, when your turn starts, it should generally involve saying what you're doing, move then action, action then move, and start rolling. If the first time you consider what you're going to do is at the start of your turn, that's why your turn is taking so long.

Works GREAT with sneak attack!

Quote from SorrowfulCheshire42 >>

Works GREAT with sneak attack!

Unfortunately, no it doesn't, not really. The reroll effect from this feat only applies to the base weapon damage dice, not to any extra damage dice added by features like Sneak Attack. This was clarified in Sage Advice here.

Almost a year ago, but still, I feel this could mislead people so I'll add my 2 cents.

I would argue you make valid points, ONLY for in person play. Which we can all admit most of currently played DND is not.

Roll20 easily facilitates this with macros. You simply make one that attacks and then rolls damage twice, or attacks and then rolls damage once. It auto calculates, you would know instantly by which number is biggest which you want to use, and it would only add the extra complication of "Do I click the macro that rolls damage once or the macro that rolls damage twice" and if you named the twice one Savage Attacker you'd know instantly which you wanted to click.

I am sure there's some way to do this on dndbeyond, but I personally think the dnd beyond sheets are immensely lackluster and tedious to use, so I've never happened across how to do it like I did with roll20 in casual use.

Shot a guy with a Handgonne, rerolled for the highest damage

Yes it makes sense, my guy takes the round I fired and places it neatly on a targets vital spot however the hell that makes sense.

10/10 would play again

How is this complicated? Roll a hit, roll the damage. If you roll horrible, roll again and take the better one. The wording doesn't say the two rolls have to be at the same time. Just says once per turn you can take the higher of two rolls for damage.

All this does is let you fudge a horrible damage roll into a good one every once in a while when you really need a better attack.

For a character who really depends on their hits, this is a great safeguard against three nat 1s in a row turning your finest hour into a slapstick nightmare.

Does the Savage Attacker Origin Feat from Player's Handbook 2024 stack with the Zhentarim Ruffian Origin Feat from the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn book?

It's a cool feat, but in the end it doesn't add much damage on average. I've run this several ways and at best it's an extra 2 damage per turn. Usually it's closer to +1. 

Quote from HalfAssWizard >>

 

It's a cool feat, but in the end it doesn't add much damage on average. I've run this several ways and at best it's an extra 2 damage per turn. Usually it's closer to +1. 

I think in practice it's only even maybe worth it if you're using a weapon with multiple damage dice. If you've got a Flame Tongue Greatsword, so you're getting to reroll four dice, maybe that'd be worthwhile.

I never understand this logic with true strike. The spell description has you "...make one attack with the weapon used in the spell’s casting." You are making an attack...with the weapon, ergo the damage dice you roll are associated with that weapon. In my mind there's no logic where that doesn't qualify as the weapon's damage dice for that given attack. All True Strike does is let you effectively use a melee weapon without needing str or dex if you wish to do so.

It says that absolutely nowhere. I don't know where you're getting that you need to decide before rolling damage. 

I'd say it's the part of the feat that says "when you hit a target with a weapon, you can roll the weapon’s damage dice twice and use either roll against the target." You choose to roll the dice twice when you hit the target. If it was a reroll it use the same language of 2014, and say "Once per turn when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the weapon’s damage dice and use either total." Since it doesn't mention anything about rerolling in 2024, and explicitly states you roll the weapon's damage dice twice, it's a decision that's made proactively, rather than reactively. Like how lucky in 2024 is a choice you make before you roll, rather than afterwards.

Unless there's another source ruling that the "extra 2d6 Fire damage" from the Flame Tongue's feature is included in the "weapon damage dice," I see no reason to assume that it is. Sage Advice has clarified that Savage Attacker does not include "any extra damage that a feature or other ability might grant." Speaking a command word to set ablaze the weapon grants "extra" Fire damage. It does not alter the "weapon damage dice" of the weapon. For good measure, the Flame Tongue entry even has a table listing the damage dice of each type of Flame Tongue, and as you can see, it does not include the 2d6 Fire damage.

However, Savage Attacker does affect the dice from a critical hit, as crit dice replace the base damage, rather than add to it.