I hate the fact that they changed the shield master interp.. It was the one way I would consider a champion fighter....with this change I feel battlemaster is a no brainer and by far superior.....
..however the sequence of shield shove, drop shield, two handed attack and grapple is rather absurd. I certainly wouldn't allow it in my game.....
For those curious, I did go with sword and board (now level 5). DM did allow me to change to Dueling. I took Shield Master...sometimes useful, sometimes not. I've just found a frostbrand handaxe, which I may switch to instead of the magic sword.
Sivashor I do like your suggestions. I may need to take a second look at Menacing Attack.
I played a Battle Master archer in a Princes Of The Apocalypse game, and Menacing Attack worked REALLY well. Imposing Disadvantage on attacks is not to be underestimated. The battlefield control aspect of the target being unable to move closer to you is nice, but I actually think that part of it works better from range. If they're up close with you already, it's not like they can get closer anyway, and it's a lot easier for them to just circle around you. For a melee Battle Master, I would also consider Goading Attack as a possible alternative to Menacing Attack. It targets the same saving throw, but it doesn't impose a condition the target could be immune to.
I hate the fact that they changed the shield master interp.. It was the one way I would consider a champion fighter....with this change I feel battlemaster is a no brainer and by far superior.....
..however the sequence of shield shove, drop shield, two handed attack and grapple is rather absurd. I certainly wouldn't allow it in my game.....
To be fair, the original ruling made no sense, this was a ruling about bonus actions in general, and Battlemaster was always the no-brainer choice.
Hi Kerrec,
The official interpretation has changed since the time of my post:
1. https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/557816721810403329
2. https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/994993596989300736
Fair enough.
I played a Battle Master archer in a Princes Of The Apocalypse game, and Menacing Attack worked REALLY well. Imposing Disadvantage on attacks is not to be underestimated. The battlefield control aspect of the target being unable to move closer to you is nice, but I actually think that part of it works better from range. If they're up close with you already, it's not like they can get closer anyway, and it's a lot easier for them to just circle around you. For a melee Battle Master, I would also consider Goading Attack as a possible alternative to Menacing Attack. It targets the same saving throw, but it doesn't impose a condition the target could be immune to.
You can use actions and movement between attacks, so as long as you take the attack action, (whether you have made the attack or not) you can use this
Just realized this is 4 year old thread. Presumably he made a choice by now.