I'm not sure about what you mean by the "usually be attacking at 10' or 15'" but this is basically comparable to a Rogue using Cunning Action to dash. If you mean can you move, then begin your dash, and "interrupt" you dash with an Attack action then complete the remaining movement you're allowed with the dash. Yes, but be aware you are vulnerable to an attack of opportunity if you're in melee range of your Attack target.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
By 10' or 15' I'm referring to my Bugbear using a melee or reach weapon. I most cases, I would not be in an enemies threat area, so they would not get their opportunity attack.
I'm thought is, to move close, attack and then move away. Then do it again if possible next turn. I plan to have "Mobile" and cast ET, so I would have 40' or 80'.
If you have the mobile feat and therefore your base speed is 40', and you have cast Expeditious Retreat and use that to take the Dash action with your Bonus Action, then you could have 80' of movement total in that turn. You can split that movement up in any way you like around your attack(s). So you could move 10', attack and then have 70' of movement to go wherever you like. or you could move 50', attack and then have an additional 30' of movement left to use. If you have extra attack, then you could also do something like move 20', attack, move 40' to a different target, attack with your second attack, and then move another 20' wherever you like.
If you have the mobile feat and therefore your base speed is 40', and you have cast Expeditious Retreat and use that to take the Dash action with your Bonus Action, then you could have 80' of movement total in that turn. You can split that movement up in any way you like around your attack(s). So you could move 10', attack and then have 70' of movement to go wherever you like. or you could move 50', attack and then have an additional 30' of movement left to use. If you have extra attack, then you could also do something like move 20', attack, move 40' to a different target, attack with your second attack, and then move another 20' wherever you like.
Okay, that's what I was wondering about. I'm trying to be a fighter that's going to be very hard to hit in melee. Run, attack and the retreat. Our party will be fairly "shooty" so I want to stay out of their way, but still soften the enemy up.
Regardless of how much extra movement you again using Dash, you can always Break up Your Move on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action as well as Moving Between Attacks by breaking up your movement even further by moving between attacks If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack
As others have said, yes you can do this, and, with the bugbear’s reach your attacks ( especially with reach weapons) occurs from outside most foes areas for opportunity attacks. However, there are two related problems with this style of run around fighting. 1) you don’t really form the wall your trying to do and most of the enemy will normally take the attack and keep moving past as they head for the really dangerous ranged characters behind you and leave your “dancing” bugbear for last when they can surround you after the ranged foes are dead. 2) any foes left up are still just as deadly as long as they have even 1 HP so “softening them up” isn’t really a strategy (see #1 above) - you have to have a way to stop ( at least slow) their ability to get to your squishies not just do a little damage here and there.
As others have said, yes you can do this, and, with the bugbear’s reach your attacks ( especially with reach weapons) occurs from outside most foes areas for opportunity attacks. However, there are two related problems with this style of run around fighting. 1) you don’t really form the wall your trying to do and most of the enemy will normally take the attack and keep moving past as they head for the really dangerous ranged characters behind you and leave your “dancing” bugbear for last when they can surround you after the ranged foes are dead. 2) any foes left up are still just as deadly as long as they have even 1 HP so “softening them up” isn’t really a strategy (see #1 above) - you have to have a way to stop ( at least slow) their ability to get to your squishies not just do a little damage here and there.
I dunno. I’m playing a rogue 8/barbarian5 in SKT where we fight a lot of giants who hit you really damn hard if you’re dumb enough to let them. Sure, Ancestral Protectors is helpful when I’m raging and next level Panache will be helpful for when I’m not but honestly the warlock, bard and cleric in my party have managed just fine while I skirmish. They play smart and use their movement, spells and other resources to keep themselves safe without relying on me to stand toe to toe with the bad guys which is nice because, again, giants hit really freaking hard and I don’t want to do that.
This game doesn’t really require a tank in the video game sense where it is any one melee character’s responsibility to preserve the safety of those fighting at range any more than it requires a dedicated healer. Doing your reasonable contribution to damage and moving away is a fine strategy because it’d be pretty foolish for anyone to allow the foes that “walk past” you to approach and smash them. Ranged characters need to be tactical and practice self-preservation while bringing the pew pew.
As others have said, yes you can do this, and, with the bugbear’s reach your attacks ( especially with reach weapons) occurs from outside most foes areas for opportunity attacks. However, there are two related problems with this style of run around fighting. 1) you don’t really form the wall your trying to do and most of the enemy will normally take the attack and keep moving past as they head for the really dangerous ranged characters behind you and leave your “dancing” bugbear for last when they can surround you after the ranged foes are dead. 2) any foes left up are still just as deadly as long as they have even 1 HP so “softening them up” isn’t really a strategy (see #1 above) - you have to have a way to stop ( at least slow) their ability to get to your squishies not just do a little damage here and there.
I expect to hit "most" of the time and with Slasher, their speed will be reduced. If we assume their speed will then be 20', the ranged party members should be safe and I am also factoring that "they" can move 30' and still have their actions. This will obviously be at higher levels, since I'll need to be level 8 for the 3 Feats I need. We also have a Blood Hunter with Sentinel and the Swashbuckler Rogue will be melee and one of the Ranger may be more melee also. ..and everything changes with multiple enemies, but with my plan, I can kill, or slow the ones which get past the front line.
As others have said, yes you can do this, and, with the bugbear’s reach your attacks ( especially with reach weapons) occurs from outside most foes areas for opportunity attacks. However, there are two related problems with this style of run around fighting. 1) you don’t really form the wall your trying to do and most of the enemy will normally take the attack and keep moving past as they head for the really dangerous ranged characters behind you and leave your “dancing” bugbear for last when they can surround you after the ranged foes are dead. 2) any foes left up are still just as deadly as long as they have even 1 HP so “softening them up” isn’t really a strategy (see #1 above) - you have to have a way to stop ( at least slow) their ability to get to your squishies not just do a little damage here and there.
I dunno. I’m playing a rogue 8/barbarian5 in SKT where we fight a lot of giants who hit you really damn hard if you’re dumb enough to let them. Sure, Ancestral Protectors is helpful when I’m raging and next level Panache will be helpful for when I’m not but honestly the warlock, bard and cleric in my party have managed just fine while I skirmish. They play smart and use their movement, spells and other resources to keep themselves safe without relying on me to stand toe to toe with the bad guys which is nice because, again, giants hit really freaking hard and I don’t want to do that.
This game doesn’t really require a tank in the video game sense where it is any one melee character’s responsibility to preserve the safety of those fighting at range any more than it requires a dedicated healer. Doing your reasonable contribution to damage and moving away is a fine strategy because it’d be pretty foolish for anyone to allow the foes that “walk past” you to approach and smash them. Ranged characters need to be tactical and practice self-preservation while bringing the pew pew.
Sounds like the giants aren’t throwing many boulders at your pew pewers. Yes dodging in and out prevents you from taking a significant portion of the giant’s ( considerable) melee damage but the giants should be able to close to stone throwing range and then your arrow/spell slingers are on the losing end of the damage see saw in most cases. Taking them out quickly calls for focusing on one to reduce the numbers as fast as possible. Good luck
Well, the giants are not always going to hit and most parties are not just "shooters". In the last few fights against giants, my CROWN OF MADNESS WORKED really well, because they are stupid. I also TWINNED it.
Staying outside the short range of rocks and therefore imposing disadvantage on the rock attacks is a fine method of combat against giants. Backing this up with ancestral guardians and granting resistance to the giants rock dmg to other players sounds fun. There is no range limitation on ancestral guardians, you can hit a creature and run away and it still works.
Giants will have the same combat reach of your bugbear and can generally move 40ft not 30 so the reduction in movement from slasher isn’t as great.
if you're a swashbuckler keep using your fancy footwork to freely disengage (the creature you attacked) and then bonus action to dash. be careful to get out of range or out of line-of-sight, or use terrain & obstacles for bonus AC, because if you couple this up with barbarians reckless attack it will give the giants advantage on the rocks against you (cancelling out the disadvantage from long range).
a swashbuckler barbarian isn’t a tank and it would be dumb to play it like one, you are a rogue that can rage not a meat head in a shield wall - keep up being Speedy Gonzales!
avoid combinations that use your bonus action, you need that for dashing and have a ranged weapon you can use to keep your rage going if the enemy backs out of your dash distance
Sounds like the giants aren’t throwing many boulders at your pew pewers. Yes dodging in and out prevents you from taking a significant portion of the giant’s ( considerable) melee damage but the giants should be able to close to stone throwing range and then your arrow/spell slingers are on the losing end of the damage see saw in most cases. Taking them out quickly calls for focusing on one to reduce the numbers as fast as possible. Good luck
Yes of course, we are doing it wrong. There is only one way to play this game. What was I thinking? We definitely can’t focus fire because there is no dedicated tank. The only reason we don’t die all the time is that our DM throws us softballs out of a pre-printed adventure path. There’s just no way the warlock, cleric and bard are experienced, intelligent and creative players who have access to vast toolboxes with which to confound or defeat an enemy while I run around stabbing stuff and they most certainly don’t all have access to spells with effective ranges that are double and more than what a giant can throw a rock before incurring disadvantage. Bahahahahaha. Are you kidding me right now? (For the cheap seats, none of that is true)
RightheAndyman618, skirmish all you want. I’ve been playing this character, in this group, in this campaign weekly for coming on two years now—levels 9 to 13 over that time. It’s a fine tactic as long as your party mates aren’t a pack of numbskulls so disinterested in their own continued survival that they refuse to practice basic tactical repositioning or deploy the appropriate resources when endangered.
Staying outside the short range of rocks and therefore imposing disadvantage on the rock attacks is a fine method of combat against giants. Backing this up with ancestral guardians and granting resistance to the giants rock dmg to other players sounds fun. There is no range limitation on ancestral guardians, you can hit a creature and run away and it still works.
Giants will have the same combat reach of your bugbear and can generally move 40ft not 30 so the reduction in movement from slasher isn’t as great.
if you're a swashbuckler keep using your fancy footwork to freely disengage (the creature you attacked) and then bonus action to dash. be careful to get out of range or out of line-of-sight, or use terrain & obstacles for bonus AC, because if you couple this up with barbarians reckless attack it will give the giants advantage on the rocks against you (cancelling out the disadvantage from long range).
a swashbuckler barbarian isn’t a tank and it would be dumb to play it like one, you are a rogue that can rage not a meat head in a shield wall - keep up being Speedy Gonzales!
avoid combinations that use your bonus action, you need that for dashing and have a ranged weapon you can use to keep your rage going if the enemy backs out of your dash distance
We won't be encountering giants for many months. They're fairly easy to handle. There's a lot more to fear in the game.
And yes, that's my plan, hit and run. Not always, but when I can. ABBORANT DRAGONMARK will give me a Cantrip and level 1 spell, which will be EXPEDITIOUS RETREAT. I plan to take MINOR ILLUSION for the Cantrip. I'll create a 5' cubed bolder, if needed. If the enemy wants to waste an action to disbelieve it, I'm fine with that. MOBILE will be first though.
We won't be encountering giants for many months. They're fairly easy to handle. There's a lot more to fear in the game.
And yes, that's my plan, hit and run. Not always, but when I can. ABBORANT DRAGONMARK will give me a Cantrip and level 1 spell, which will be EXPEDITIOUS RETREAT. I plan to take MINOR ILLUSION for the Cantrip. I'll create a 5' cubed bolder, if needed. If the enemy wants to waste an action to disbelieve it, I'm fine with that. MOBILE will be first though.
just remember because of the concentration requirement you can’t use expeditious retreat and rage unless you don’t care about dropping the spell when you need to rage
I’m not saying don’t take it, it will work, but have a think about other feats or spells that might not have the Rage limitation (Longstrider?)
If I cast Expeditious Retreat, can I do part of the Dash, Attack and then do the rest of the Dash? I would usually be attacking at 10' or 15'.
I'm not sure about what you mean by the "usually be attacking at 10' or 15'" but this is basically comparable to a Rogue using Cunning Action to dash. If you mean can you move, then begin your dash, and "interrupt" you dash with an Attack action then complete the remaining movement you're allowed with the dash. Yes, but be aware you are vulnerable to an attack of opportunity if you're in melee range of your Attack target.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
By 10' or 15' I'm referring to my Bugbear using a melee or reach weapon. I most cases, I would not be in an enemies threat area, so they would not get their opportunity attack.
I'm thought is, to move close, attack and then move away. Then do it again if possible next turn. I plan to have "Mobile" and cast ET, so I would have 40' or 80'.
If you have the mobile feat and therefore your base speed is 40', and you have cast Expeditious Retreat and use that to take the Dash action with your Bonus Action, then you could have 80' of movement total in that turn. You can split that movement up in any way you like around your attack(s). So you could move 10', attack and then have 70' of movement to go wherever you like. or you could move 50', attack and then have an additional 30' of movement left to use. If you have extra attack, then you could also do something like move 20', attack, move 40' to a different target, attack with your second attack, and then move another 20' wherever you like.
Okay, that's what I was wondering about. I'm trying to be a fighter that's going to be very hard to hit in melee. Run, attack and the retreat. Our party will be fairly "shooty" so I want to stay out of their way, but still soften the enemy up.
Regardless of how much extra movement you again using Dash, you can always Break up Your Move on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action as well as Moving Between Attacks by breaking up your movement even further by moving between attacks If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack
As others have said, yes you can do this, and, with the bugbear’s reach your attacks ( especially with reach weapons) occurs from outside most foes areas for opportunity attacks. However, there are two related problems with this style of run around fighting.
1) you don’t really form the wall your trying to do and most of the enemy will normally take the attack and keep moving past as they head for the really dangerous ranged characters behind you and leave your “dancing” bugbear for last when they can surround you after the ranged foes are dead.
2) any foes left up are still just as deadly as long as they have even 1 HP so “softening them up” isn’t really a strategy (see #1 above) - you have to have a way to stop ( at least slow) their ability to get to your squishies not just do a little damage here and there.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I dunno. I’m playing a rogue 8/barbarian5 in SKT where we fight a lot of giants who hit you really damn hard if you’re dumb enough to let them. Sure, Ancestral Protectors is helpful when I’m raging and next level Panache will be helpful for when I’m not but honestly the warlock, bard and cleric in my party have managed just fine while I skirmish. They play smart and use their movement, spells and other resources to keep themselves safe without relying on me to stand toe to toe with the bad guys which is nice because, again, giants hit really freaking hard and I don’t want to do that.
This game doesn’t really require a tank in the video game sense where it is any one melee character’s responsibility to preserve the safety of those fighting at range any more than it requires a dedicated healer. Doing your reasonable contribution to damage and moving away is a fine strategy because it’d be pretty foolish for anyone to allow the foes that “walk past” you to approach and smash them. Ranged characters need to be tactical and practice self-preservation while bringing the pew pew.
I expect to hit "most" of the time and with Slasher, their speed will be reduced. If we assume their speed will then be 20', the ranged party members should be safe and I am also factoring that "they" can move 30' and still have their actions. This will obviously be at higher levels, since I'll need to be level 8 for the 3 Feats I need. We also have a Blood Hunter with Sentinel and the Swashbuckler Rogue will be melee and one of the Ranger may be more melee also. ..and everything changes with multiple enemies, but with my plan, I can kill, or slow the ones which get past the front line.
Very well worded, specially the "pew pew'! :)
Sounds like the giants aren’t throwing many boulders at your pew pewers. Yes dodging in and out prevents you from taking a significant portion of the giant’s ( considerable) melee damage but the giants should be able to close to stone throwing range and then your arrow/spell slingers are on the losing end of the damage see saw in most cases. Taking them out quickly calls for focusing on one to reduce the numbers as fast as possible. Good luck
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well, the giants are not always going to hit and most parties are not just "shooters". In the last few fights against giants, my CROWN OF MADNESS WORKED really well, because they are stupid. I also TWINNED it.
Staying outside the short range of rocks and therefore imposing disadvantage on the rock attacks is a fine method of combat against giants. Backing this up with ancestral guardians and granting resistance to the giants rock dmg to other players sounds fun. There is no range limitation on ancestral guardians, you can hit a creature and run away and it still works.
Giants will have the same combat reach of your bugbear and can generally move 40ft not 30 so the reduction in movement from slasher isn’t as great.
if you're a swashbuckler keep using your fancy footwork to freely disengage (the creature you attacked) and then bonus action to dash. be careful to get out of range or out of line-of-sight, or use terrain & obstacles for bonus AC, because if you couple this up with barbarians reckless attack it will give the giants advantage on the rocks against you (cancelling out the disadvantage from long range).
a swashbuckler barbarian isn’t a tank and it would be dumb to play it like one, you are a rogue that can rage not a meat head in a shield wall - keep up being Speedy Gonzales!
avoid combinations that use your bonus action, you need that for dashing and have a ranged weapon you can use to keep your rage going if the enemy backs out of your dash distance
Yes of course, we are doing it wrong. There is only one way to play this game. What was I thinking? We definitely can’t focus fire because there is no dedicated tank. The only reason we don’t die all the time is that our DM throws us softballs out of a pre-printed adventure path. There’s just no way the warlock, cleric and bard are experienced, intelligent and creative players who have access to vast toolboxes with which to confound or defeat an enemy while I run around stabbing stuff and they most certainly don’t all have access to spells with effective ranges that are double and more than what a giant can throw a rock before incurring disadvantage. Bahahahahaha. Are you kidding me right now? (For the cheap seats, none of that is true)
RightheAndyman618, skirmish all you want. I’ve been playing this character, in this group, in this campaign weekly for coming on two years now—levels 9 to 13 over that time. It’s a fine tactic as long as your party mates aren’t a pack of numbskulls so disinterested in their own continued survival that they refuse to practice basic tactical repositioning or deploy the appropriate resources when endangered.
This guy gets it.
We won't be encountering giants for many months. They're fairly easy to handle. There's a lot more to fear in the game.
And yes, that's my plan, hit and run. Not always, but when I can. ABBORANT DRAGONMARK will give me a Cantrip and level 1 spell, which will be EXPEDITIOUS RETREAT. I plan to take MINOR ILLUSION for the Cantrip. I'll create a 5' cubed bolder, if needed. If the enemy wants to waste an action to disbelieve it, I'm fine with that. MOBILE will be first though.
just remember because of the concentration requirement you can’t use expeditious retreat and rage unless you don’t care about dropping the spell when you need to rage
I’m not saying don’t take it, it will work, but have a think about other feats or spells that might not have the Rage limitation (Longstrider?)
He's a fighter, not Barb.
What’s the mix of class? Or is he pure fighter
i mixed yours up with Born of Fires character
Pure Fighter. The Feats will give me the extra stuff.