Speaking as someone who took Slasher on their barbarian and then after several levels asked for (and was granted) permission to change it to Skill Expert due to Slasher having had so little actual impact on my character's abilities that both I and the GM had forgotten that I even had it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
They do completely different things (slasher is a combat bonus, skill expert is generally not unless you're doing a grappling build), so it depends on the focus of the campaign, but you're probably better off just taking an ASI instead of Slasher, it's kind of a bad feat.
The other factor is that reducing an enemy's movement once they're already in melee with you often isn't useful. And there's a lot of other effects that can give an enemy disadvantage on attacks that are much more reliable.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The other factor is that reducing an enemy's movement once they're already in melee with you often isn't useful.
It means they're inclined to stick around and beat on you instead of running off to beat on someone else, but sentinel is a much better choice if you want to tank.
I always had an idea for a build using slasher and crusher with thrown weapons. Just throwing axes and hammers knocking people back and then slowing them down. Not much damage, but crazy battlefield control and flavorful. And with a path of the giant barbarian, it might work really well. You could upgrade at least one of your thrown weapons to battle axe or war hammer. And still have the others just in case.
Skilled is probably still the better choice for the OP, just putting that out there.
Skill Expert (Athletics) is stronger if you plan to grapple but I'm with Pantagruel, why is the choice between these two? Expertise in Athletics is rarely necessary as a Barbarian since they'll almost always have advantage in a fight, and I'd much rather have other feats first like GWM, PAM, Sentinel and Resilient (Wis) anyway, so in most campaigns I probably wouldn't have room for either of these two anyway.
The other factor is that reducing an enemy's movement once they're already in melee with you often isn't useful.
It means they're inclined to stick around and beat on you instead of running off to beat on someone else, but sentinel is a much better choice if you want to tank.
Most of the time, the enemy's going to be inclined to stick around and beat you anyway once you're that close.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I always had an idea for a build using slasher and crusher with thrown weapons. Just throwing axes and hammers knocking people back and then slowing them down. Not much damage, but crazy battlefield control and flavorful. And with a path of the giant barbarian, it might work really well. You could upgrade at least one of your thrown weapons to battle axe or war hammer. And still have the others just in case.
Skilled is probably still the better choice for the OP, just putting that out there.
Path of the Giant is actually the worst Barbarian subclass for any of the weapon feats since Elemental Cleaver changes the weapon's damage type, which means that you get no benefits from the feat while Elemental Cleaver is active.
And I suspect that OP is asking about Slasher vs Skill Expert rather than Skilled because they have a strength score that's an odd number.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I always had an idea for a build using slasher and crusher with thrown weapons. Just throwing axes and hammers knocking people back and then slowing them down. Not much damage, but crazy battlefield control and flavorful. And with a path of the giant barbarian, it might work really well. You could upgrade at least one of your thrown weapons to battle axe or war hammer. And still have the others just in case.
Skilled is probably still the better choice for the OP, just putting that out there.
Path of the Giant is actually the worst Barbarian subclass for any of the weapon feats since Elemental Cleaver changes the weapon's damage type, which means that you get no benefits from the feat while Elemental Cleaver is active.
And I suspect that OP is asking about Slasher vs Skill Expert rather than Skilled because they have a strength score that's an odd number.
Ohh, good point. I was just thinking about the throwing part and returning weapon. But that's right.
And I suspect that OP is asking about Slasher vs Skill Expert rather than Skilled because they have a strength score that's an odd number.
There are other half feats that can give strength, though I might just get an ASI and use the other point to either increase an odd stat to even, or bank it for later utility (for example, boost wisdom to an odd number in expectation of taking resilient(wisdom) in four levels).
To be fair, Barbarians can have an improved chance at getting the crit proc on Slasher with Reckless Attack. It is still unreliable, though, and the once per turn feature is definitely less impactful than the Crusher or Piercer options.
I use Slasher on my Wild Magic Barbarian. It's not great, but I use a glaive and when I roll the difficult terrain result on the table, it's very effective. Enemies often can't even reach me, let alone reaching my allies. So like, if your party uses difficult terrain more reliably than mine (and they should, it's very powerful), you might get a lot of value out of Slasher.
Still though, skills are nice to have and Barbarians barely get any. I'd be more inclined towards Skilled than Skill Expert personally.
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See Question:
Skill Expert.
Speaking as someone who took Slasher on their barbarian and then after several levels asked for (and was granted) permission to change it to Skill Expert due to Slasher having had so little actual impact on my character's abilities that both I and the GM had forgotten that I even had it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
They do completely different things (slasher is a combat bonus, skill expert is generally not unless you're doing a grappling build), so it depends on the focus of the campaign, but you're probably better off just taking an ASI instead of Slasher, it's kind of a bad feat.
The other factor is that reducing an enemy's movement once they're already in melee with you often isn't useful. And there's a lot of other effects that can give an enemy disadvantage on attacks that are much more reliable.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
It means they're inclined to stick around and beat on you instead of running off to beat on someone else, but sentinel is a much better choice if you want to tank.
I always had an idea for a build using slasher and crusher with thrown weapons. Just throwing axes and hammers knocking people back and then slowing them down. Not much damage, but crazy battlefield control and flavorful.
And with a path of the giant barbarian, it might work really well. You could upgrade at least one of your thrown weapons to battle axe or war hammer. And still have the others just in case.
Skilled is probably still the better choice for the OP, just putting that out there.
Skill Expert (Athletics) is stronger if you plan to grapple but I'm with Pantagruel, why is the choice between these two? Expertise in Athletics is rarely necessary as a Barbarian since they'll almost always have advantage in a fight, and I'd much rather have other feats first like GWM, PAM, Sentinel and Resilient (Wis) anyway, so in most campaigns I probably wouldn't have room for either of these two anyway.
Most of the time, the enemy's going to be inclined to stick around and beat you anyway once you're that close.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Path of the Giant is actually the worst Barbarian subclass for any of the weapon feats since Elemental Cleaver changes the weapon's damage type, which means that you get no benefits from the feat while Elemental Cleaver is active.
And I suspect that OP is asking about Slasher vs Skill Expert rather than Skilled because they have a strength score that's an odd number.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Ohh, good point. I was just thinking about the throwing part and returning weapon. But that's right.
There are other half feats that can give strength, though I might just get an ASI and use the other point to either increase an odd stat to even, or bank it for later utility (for example, boost wisdom to an odd number in expectation of taking resilient(wisdom) in four levels).
I just read the Slasher feat. It is impressively niche. It's so bad it makes Mage Slayer look powerful.
Crusher, absolutely!
To be fair, Barbarians can have an improved chance at getting the crit proc on Slasher with Reckless Attack. It is still unreliable, though, and the once per turn feature is definitely less impactful than the Crusher or Piercer options.
I use Slasher on my Wild Magic Barbarian. It's not great, but I use a glaive and when I roll the difficult terrain result on the table, it's very effective. Enemies often can't even reach me, let alone reaching my allies. So like, if your party uses difficult terrain more reliably than mine (and they should, it's very powerful), you might get a lot of value out of Slasher.
Still though, skills are nice to have and Barbarians barely get any. I'd be more inclined towards Skilled than Skill Expert personally.