Hello folks, sorry for putting you through the ordeal of reading a textwall written in poor English, but I'm no native speaker and I need an external (and quite urgent) advice for my build.
I'm playing a level 7 Half Orc BattleMaster (STR Build, Dueling Fighting style) wielding a +1 Longsword and a +1 shield. The party I'm in (Rogue, Bard, Wizard, Cleric) is pretty squishy, with only the Cleric being able to take a beating; I'm also the only character that gets in the thick of melee, as the other players prefer a more cautious ranged approach (yes, even the Cleric). So, naturally, I end up filling the role of the tank and I'm always the first, and sometimes to only one, to be targeted during battle. So I need a way to improve my bulk and battlefield control, and I'm thinking of multiclassing into barbarian after level 8 as I have the DEX to pull it off without massive repercussions on my AC... but first I'd like to get a feat and I've been absurdly indecisive about it.
On paper, Sentinel looks like a match made in heaven for my fighter and it's my primary choice, but I'm not totally sold on its actual utility. On my table we can go for months without a monster provoking OAs, as the DM loves to throw at us small armies instead of single big monster. My character always get surrounded and beaten by enemies holding their ground, so I won't get much mileage from the speed reducing feature. Is the reaction attack in clutch situations, on top of a possibile maneuver, really worth a feat?
Shield master is a close second, seeing as my table rules it without the errata; I can't really use the bash to push prone the opponent without hampering the rest of the party, but the push back is nice for preventing OAs, and the half-evasion comboes really well with the barbarian levels I'm about to take.
Resilient Wisdom is always good, as my WIS score is only 10 and I dig the idea of a Steel will fighter.
Based on these limited informations, which feat should I take? Sorry again for the textwall, and thank you in advance for any suggestion.
I would throw heavy armor master into the mix. It gets less useful as you level up, but DR 3 against typical melee damage can effectively net you lots of hit points. Really handy if you’re tanking
Get hit 3 times in a round, it saves you 9 hp, roughly the value of a cure wounds (depending on how the cleric is built).
Sadly, HAM is incompatible (and redundant) with barbarians, and I'd like to stick with the multiclassing idea. Also, I've already maxed my STR score, so half of the feat is wasted.
Sentinel can be good if the rest of the party is squishy, since it helps draw stack to you instead of them, but if you’re surrounded and not able to get to your allies to help them, you might not get much mileage from it
If you’re mostly getting mobbed, shield master might not be that useful, since to me it’s mostly about helping you against incoming fireballs. If you’re going to start running into casters, wisdom to stop you getting dominated. There’s also lucky, which I always think sounds really useful, though I never take it myself.
Look taken: Defensive Duelist needs a finesse weapon, Lucky is banned at my table, and Savage attacker is not so useful for a defender with a small damage die. I've already restricted my choices to on one of Sentinel, SM, and Res WIS. But I can't seem to settle on one of them.
Personally, I would take GWM and Totem sub for the ridiculous damage resistance while raging. Increase damage given and reduce damage taken at the same time.
You've already argued for and against the feats you mentioned so, I'm not sure what anyone can really add to that.
The GWM build, while I agree it's amazingly strong, requires me to dump all my magic gear, lefting me with a pointless fighting style, no way to hurt magical-resistent enemies and a pissed off DM (he gave me that stuff to help my character make up for the party's weakness). I appreciate all the suggestions given to me, but what I'm asking for its an opinion on which one of the three chosen feat you would/I should stick to.
If you're the only character consistently in Melee, then I really don't think sentinel is all that great. It really shines when a monster attacks someone that isn't you. You get a free attack against that monster and make their movement speed zero. They also can't disengage to prevent your OA. That being said, if you're not getting a ton of OAs and no one is next to you most of the time, there isn't a ton that you can do with the feat so I would pass on it in this situation. Generally I think this feat is amazing though. Anything that allows you to use your reaction is good. That being said, you might already be using your reaction on battlemaster stuff like riposte.
I'm not 100% what you mean when you say the errata for Shield Master. I assume it's when Crawford just said that you have to use the bonus push after all your attacks. I honestly don't think that's so bad. Was there something else that I don't know about? It's still useful although it sounds like the push won't be terribly valuable at your table if everyone else likes to be ranged. That being said, rogues like attacking prone enemies in melee because they get advantage and thus sneak attack. The enemy can't attack opportunity attack while prone so the rogue wouldn't need to use cunning action on disengage to get away. They could use it to hide or dash instead. The other parts are very good though if your table is seeing a lot of spells coming your way. It could potentially help out a lot if you're using a lot of dex saves. It'll help you out a lot if you are getting lots of fireballs thrown at you. If you're not rolling many dex saves, than this is a pretty hard pass. Pushing enemies away from you with this has a lot of really great value though.
Resilient wisdom is alright I suppose. You're not getting anything out of upping your wisdom up to 11 though. Are you rolling many wisdom saves? I'll be honest, my favorite D&D memory was when my barbarian failed his save and got mind controlled then started murdering the party. I only killed the Bard so it wasn't so bad! That's a pretty silly reason to not like this feat though. It's fine. If you're rolling lots of wisdom saves and like the RP value, then go for it. Or if you plan on multiclassing something that requires 13 wisdom, this would get you 1 ASI away from getting that. Probably ill advised though.
I think shield master and sentinel are fantastic feats. I'm pretty apathetic about Resilient Wisdom. They're all situational though and if your situations don't lend themselves to being useful, then you might want to look elsewhere for your ASI. Maybe getting to max constitution or if you're already there, maybe take tough.
I'd probably go shield master. I think you'll get a lot out of shoving. You can shove the enemy prone and give melee attackers advantage, or you can shove them 5 feet potentially away from one of these squishy allies or off a cliff or into some other obstacle. You also get to add your shield AC value to dex saves. That's +3 to dex saves! And you
Hello folks, sorry for putting you through the ordeal of reading a textwall written in poor English, but I'm no native speaker and I need an external (and quite urgent) advice for my build.
I'm playing a level 7 Half Orc BattleMaster (STR Build, Dueling Fighting style) wielding a +1 Longsword and a +1 shield. The party I'm in (Rogue, Bard, Wizard, Cleric) is pretty squishy, with only the Cleric being able to take a beating; I'm also the only character that gets in the thick of melee, as the other players prefer a more cautious ranged approach (yes, even the Cleric). So, naturally, I end up filling the role of the tank and I'm always the first, and sometimes to only one, to be targeted during battle. So I need a way to improve my bulk and battlefield control, and I'm thinking of multiclassing into barbarian after level 8 as I have the DEX to pull it off without massive repercussions on my AC... but first I'd like to get a feat and I've been absurdly indecisive about it.
Based on these limited informations, which feat should I take?
Sorry again for the textwall, and thank you in advance for any suggestion.
I would throw heavy armor master into the mix. It gets less useful as you level up, but DR 3 against typical melee damage can effectively net you lots of hit points. Really handy if you’re tanking
Get hit 3 times in a round, it saves you 9 hp, roughly the value of a cure wounds (depending on how the cleric is built).
Sadly, HAM is incompatible (and redundant) with barbarians, and I'd like to stick with the multiclassing idea. Also, I've already maxed my STR score, so half of the feat is wasted.
Sorry, I didn’t read the OP closely enough.
Sentinel can be good if the rest of the party is squishy, since it helps draw stack to you instead of them, but if you’re surrounded and not able to get to your allies to help them, you might not get much mileage from it
If you’re mostly getting mobbed, shield master might not be that useful, since to me it’s mostly about helping you against incoming fireballs. If you’re going to start running into casters, wisdom to stop you getting dominated. There’s also lucky, which I always think sounds really useful, though I never take it myself.
Maybe take a look at Defensive Duelist, Lucky and Savage Attacker?
Look taken: Defensive Duelist needs a finesse weapon, Lucky is banned at my table, and Savage attacker is not so useful for a defender with a small damage die.
I've already restricted my choices to on one of Sentinel, SM, and Res WIS. But I can't seem to settle on one of them.
So, your going to be a sword and board Barbarian?
Personally, I would take GWM and Totem sub for the ridiculous damage resistance while raging. Increase damage given and reduce damage taken at the same time.
You've already argued for and against the feats you mentioned so, I'm not sure what anyone can really add to that.
You said you have strength maxed.....what about your constitution score? More H.P. is always a good thing. ASI can be better than Feats in some cases.
The GWM build, while I agree it's amazingly strong, requires me to dump all my magic gear, lefting me with a pointless fighting style, no way to hurt magical-resistent enemies and a pissed off DM (he gave me that stuff to help my character make up for the party's weakness). I appreciate all the suggestions given to me, but what I'm asking for its an opinion on which one of the three chosen feat you would/I should stick to.
If you're the only character consistently in Melee, then I really don't think sentinel is all that great. It really shines when a monster attacks someone that isn't you. You get a free attack against that monster and make their movement speed zero. They also can't disengage to prevent your OA. That being said, if you're not getting a ton of OAs and no one is next to you most of the time, there isn't a ton that you can do with the feat so I would pass on it in this situation. Generally I think this feat is amazing though. Anything that allows you to use your reaction is good. That being said, you might already be using your reaction on battlemaster stuff like riposte.
I'm not 100% what you mean when you say the errata for Shield Master. I assume it's when Crawford just said that you have to use the bonus push after all your attacks. I honestly don't think that's so bad. Was there something else that I don't know about? It's still useful although it sounds like the push won't be terribly valuable at your table if everyone else likes to be ranged. That being said, rogues like attacking prone enemies in melee because they get advantage and thus sneak attack. The enemy can't attack opportunity attack while prone so the rogue wouldn't need to use cunning action on disengage to get away. They could use it to hide or dash instead. The other parts are very good though if your table is seeing a lot of spells coming your way. It could potentially help out a lot if you're using a lot of dex saves. It'll help you out a lot if you are getting lots of fireballs thrown at you. If you're not rolling many dex saves, than this is a pretty hard pass. Pushing enemies away from you with this has a lot of really great value though.
Resilient wisdom is alright I suppose. You're not getting anything out of upping your wisdom up to 11 though. Are you rolling many wisdom saves? I'll be honest, my favorite D&D memory was when my barbarian failed his save and got mind controlled then started murdering the party. I only killed the Bard so it wasn't so bad! That's a pretty silly reason to not like this feat though. It's fine. If you're rolling lots of wisdom saves and like the RP value, then go for it. Or if you plan on multiclassing something that requires 13 wisdom, this would get you 1 ASI away from getting that. Probably ill advised though.
I think shield master and sentinel are fantastic feats. I'm pretty apathetic about Resilient Wisdom. They're all situational though and if your situations don't lend themselves to being useful, then you might want to look elsewhere for your ASI. Maybe getting to max constitution or if you're already there, maybe take tough.
I'd probably go shield master. I think you'll get a lot out of shoving. You can shove the enemy prone and give melee attackers advantage, or you can shove them 5 feet potentially away from one of these squishy allies or off a cliff or into some other obstacle. You also get to add your shield AC value to dex saves. That's +3 to dex saves! And you