Hi, I am a new player, and I was told I rolled really well lol, but my stats are 20 for str, 14 for dex, 16 for con, 12 for int, 14 for wis, and 12 for char.
I was thinking about taking one of the feat options, but wasnt sure, the fighter initiate for great weapon fighting, or great weapon master. Possibly sentinel. or would putting 2 in con be a smarter play?
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you ol' pros think!
It all depends on what you wanna do, and could depend on your subclass.
Wanna do lots of damage? Go with GWM. Are you playing a bear totem barbarian? Then, you actually don't really need to pump CON, as that's overkill on the tankiness department.
One thing to note, though, is that grabbing fighting initiate for great weapon fighting style translates into a fairly small DPR boost. That's all it is, tiny DPR boost. The biggest boost you would see is if you used a greatsword, which bumps your average dice roll to 8.3 from 7. In two swings, that's 2.6 bumped up. Would you rather spend a feat for a small DPR boost, or a big boost with GWM? For that reason, I don't recommend you grab fighting initiate.
Let's assume you're lvl 4, and you go with GWF, and you go with a greatsword for maximum effect. your dpr would be 13.6 with advantage. If you had gone with GWM, then you'd see a bigger increase to 15.9 with advantage. Which, you should always be attacking recklessly!
Since you've already got +3 in Constitution you don't really need another +1 just yet (plus it's only four extra HP at this level anyway), and your AC should be plenty at this level (as a Barbarian you don't necessarily want it to be too high or enemies may not attack you).
Great Weapon Master and Sentinel are two popular feats for a Barbarian and with good reason; Great Weapon Master combined with Reckless Attack (to counteract the -5 to hit) can give you a big boost in damage, not to mention the bonus attack when you kill or crit, which is always good.
Even if you want to double down on tanking, Sentinel is a better option now than more Constitution, as it lets you pin enemies down, and gives you a reaction attack if an enemy attacks nearby allies, which may be quite reliable depending upon how the rest of your party fights. It's a good one if you have an ally who fights alongside you, like another fighter, or even a Rogue (who may take advantage of you being nearby for their sneak attacks), as you can stop enemies going for them, or punish them if they do anyway.
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It would be helpful to know your character or build concept.
If your goal is just damage then Great Weapon Master is probably your best bet and definitely the best option of the ones you listed. Pole Arm Master can also be really good, depending on your subclass, but only applies to a very specific set of weapons. But especially given your high strength you are going to be able to get away with using GWM more often than normal so it is probably the better option still.
Sentinel is a really good feat if you want to lock enemies down and prevent them from running away or getting to your squishier party members. The extra reaction option is generally a trap as you usually want to save your reaction for an opportunity attack to keep an enemy locked in melee with you. The stickiness of Sentinel is very powerful and I have seen BBEGs let a player with Sentinel get next to them and then fail to get away when they needed to as a result.
But yeah, you rolled some really good stats and I would probably always choose to get a feat rather than increase an ability score.
Hi, I am a new player, and I was told I rolled really well lol, but my stats are 20 for str, 14 for dex, 16 for con, 12 for int, 14 for wis, and 12 for char.
I was thinking about taking one of the feat options, but wasnt sure, the fighter initiate for great weapon fighting, or great weapon master. Possibly sentinel. or would putting 2 in con be a smarter play?
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you ol' pros think!
Reckless Attack is only during your turn (which makes Sentinel less interesting) and raises your accuracy (which makes GWM more interesting). GWF is the worst fighting style in the game - you shouldn't take it even if you multiclass into Fighter, let alone spend a feat on it. The only real contenders in your list are GWM and +2 Con. +2 Con is worth an escalating amount of hit points based on your level (from levels 4 to 8, 4 to 8 hit points in battle plus another 4 to 8 in Short Rest Healing), as well as +1 to Con saves (should take you from +5 to +6 at level 4, then from 5 to 8 take you from +6 to +7) and +1 to Unarmored AC (which should be immaterial for you for now - your Unarmored AC is only 15 base, and raising it to 16 won't exceed the same 16 you can get from Medium Armor without Disadvantage on Stealth or 17 with). That means GWM is the better choice from a greedy perspective.
That said, you didn't list PAM. Granted, Barbarians have slightly less use for PAM than most due to needing to spend a Bonus Action to Rage, but even so PAM should be better than GWM at level 4 (because you don't have Extra Attack yet), making it the clear winner from a short-term greedy perspective. Longer term, the standard auto-takes for melee DPR feats are PAM and GWM, and it's not a big deal the order you take them in. Because you have S20 already, you never need to worry about lagging behind enemy AC - you're as accurate as you can get already.
This all assumes your goal is DPR. You didn't tell us your subclass, so we have to assume that's your goal. If your goal is tanking, which Barbarians are better at than DPR, Sentinel and +2 Con surge back to the forefront of consideration.
This entirely depends on what you want from your barb. Damage? tankiness? A certain flavour or aesthetic. You rolled well enough you get some breathing room here
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Hi, I am a new player, and I was told I rolled really well lol, but my stats are 20 for str, 14 for dex, 16 for con, 12 for int, 14 for wis, and 12 for char.
I was thinking about taking one of the feat options, but wasnt sure, the fighter initiate for great weapon fighting, or great weapon master. Possibly sentinel. or would putting 2 in con be a smarter play?
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you ol' pros think!
Definitely pick GWM for damage.
It all depends on what you wanna do, and could depend on your subclass.
Wanna do lots of damage? Go with GWM. Are you playing a bear totem barbarian? Then, you actually don't really need to pump CON, as that's overkill on the tankiness department.
One thing to note, though, is that grabbing fighting initiate for great weapon fighting style translates into a fairly small DPR boost. That's all it is, tiny DPR boost. The biggest boost you would see is if you used a greatsword, which bumps your average dice roll to 8.3 from 7. In two swings, that's 2.6 bumped up. Would you rather spend a feat for a small DPR boost, or a big boost with GWM? For that reason, I don't recommend you grab fighting initiate.
Let's assume you're lvl 4, and you go with GWF, and you go with a greatsword for maximum effect. your dpr would be 13.6 with advantage. If you had gone with GWM, then you'd see a bigger increase to 15.9 with advantage. Which, you should always be attacking recklessly!
Since you've already got +3 in Constitution you don't really need another +1 just yet (plus it's only four extra HP at this level anyway), and your AC should be plenty at this level (as a Barbarian you don't necessarily want it to be too high or enemies may not attack you).
Great Weapon Master and Sentinel are two popular feats for a Barbarian and with good reason; Great Weapon Master combined with Reckless Attack (to counteract the -5 to hit) can give you a big boost in damage, not to mention the bonus attack when you kill or crit, which is always good.
Even if you want to double down on tanking, Sentinel is a better option now than more Constitution, as it lets you pin enemies down, and gives you a reaction attack if an enemy attacks nearby allies, which may be quite reliable depending upon how the rest of your party fights. It's a good one if you have an ally who fights alongside you, like another fighter, or even a Rogue (who may take advantage of you being nearby for their sneak attacks), as you can stop enemies going for them, or punish them if they do anyway.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Thank you, I appreciate the detailed response, I think Great Weapon Master is the way to go after listening to everyone!
It would be helpful to know your character or build concept.
If your goal is just damage then Great Weapon Master is probably your best bet and definitely the best option of the ones you listed. Pole Arm Master can also be really good, depending on your subclass, but only applies to a very specific set of weapons. But especially given your high strength you are going to be able to get away with using GWM more often than normal so it is probably the better option still.
Sentinel is a really good feat if you want to lock enemies down and prevent them from running away or getting to your squishier party members. The extra reaction option is generally a trap as you usually want to save your reaction for an opportunity attack to keep an enemy locked in melee with you. The stickiness of Sentinel is very powerful and I have seen BBEGs let a player with Sentinel get next to them and then fail to get away when they needed to as a result.
But yeah, you rolled some really good stats and I would probably always choose to get a feat rather than increase an ability score.
Reckless Attack is only during your turn (which makes Sentinel less interesting) and raises your accuracy (which makes GWM more interesting). GWF is the worst fighting style in the game - you shouldn't take it even if you multiclass into Fighter, let alone spend a feat on it. The only real contenders in your list are GWM and +2 Con. +2 Con is worth an escalating amount of hit points based on your level (from levels 4 to 8, 4 to 8 hit points in battle plus another 4 to 8 in Short Rest Healing), as well as +1 to Con saves (should take you from +5 to +6 at level 4, then from 5 to 8 take you from +6 to +7) and +1 to Unarmored AC (which should be immaterial for you for now - your Unarmored AC is only 15 base, and raising it to 16 won't exceed the same 16 you can get from Medium Armor without Disadvantage on Stealth or 17 with). That means GWM is the better choice from a greedy perspective.
That said, you didn't list PAM. Granted, Barbarians have slightly less use for PAM than most due to needing to spend a Bonus Action to Rage, but even so PAM should be better than GWM at level 4 (because you don't have Extra Attack yet), making it the clear winner from a short-term greedy perspective. Longer term, the standard auto-takes for melee DPR feats are PAM and GWM, and it's not a big deal the order you take them in. Because you have S20 already, you never need to worry about lagging behind enemy AC - you're as accurate as you can get already.
This all assumes your goal is DPR. You didn't tell us your subclass, so we have to assume that's your goal. If your goal is tanking, which Barbarians are better at than DPR, Sentinel and +2 Con surge back to the forefront of consideration.
This entirely depends on what you want from your barb. Damage? tankiness? A certain flavour or aesthetic. You rolled well enough you get some breathing room here