I just leveled up to 4 and get to choose a Feat for my sword and shield Battle Master. We are playing Curse of Strahd.
I keep going back and forth between Sentinel and Charger and I am struggling to choose.
I like Sentinel, because I also have Riposte. I get opportunity attacks, get to stop movement, and with Riposte, I am able to to hit an enemy within 5' it it hits an ally, or I can hit them with Riposte if they try to hit me instead of my ally and miss. The damage from Sentinel will also be greater than 1d8. My Melee weapons currently deal 1d8+6 (Dueling Fighting Style).
I like Charger, because all you have to do is move 10' in a straight line and I can add 1d8 damage to those attacks if they hit. I expect I will get more consistent damage from Charger than I would Sentinel. I also have a Warhammer along with the Push Mastery, so I can also push them 10' away, in addition to dealing that extra 1d8 damage.
I also have Trip Attack and Feinting Attack as my other Maneuvers.
Which would you choose between the two Feats if you were me?
I'm sure others can break it down statistically for you, but as far as for me, other than if I were the only melee martial in the group, I would take Sentinel first. Stopping an enemy's movement benefits everyone in your party (and if you are successful in your trip attack, especially your melee teammates).
Notice I said first. If you like them both, you can always just take the other at Level 6. In other words, don't sweat it too much. 🙂
I'm sure others can break it down statistically for you, but as far as for me, other than if I were the only melee martial in the group, I would take Sentinel first. Stopping an enemy's movement benefits everyone in your party (and if you are successful in your trip attack, especially your melee teammates).
Notice I said first. If you like them both, you can always just take the other at Level 6. In other words, don't sweat it too much. 🙂
I will likely to take the other at 8 and we also have a Paladin and Barbarian in the group, so plenty of melee characters. I'm leaning towards Sentinel right now. I've thought about seeing if one or both of the Paladin and Barbarian will also want to take the Sentinel Feat (neither have chosen yet), because we could conceivably team up against bosses or the most powerful enemy on the board and get opportunity attacks whenever one of us is hit, along with a fair amount of stopped movement.
How often do you have allies within 5’ of you. Ime, that situation ends up being pretty rare. Especially in higher levels where you want to spread out to avoid AoEs. Sentinel is a good feat, but the 5’ thing is usually about running back to protect the wizard not standing up there protecting the barbarian. The benefits of charger, I also find, don’t come up that often — maybe at the start of a combat, but there doesn’t tend to be a lot of moving around once a fight starts.
Still given those choices, I’d go sentinel.
But using a warhammer, I’d take a good look at crusher. The distance would stack with the mastery giving nice battlefield control. Or, assuming you’re in heavy armor in the 24 rules, heavy armor master is also worth considering. There are lots of creatures doing elemental damage, but pulling a few points off from most hits (even more so when you start running into folks with multiattack) is really good. The less damage you take, you save the cleric a spell slot, or yourself a hit die between fights.
How often do you have allies within 5’ of you. Ime, that situation ends up being pretty rare. Especially in higher levels where you want to spread out to avoid AoEs. Sentinel is a good feat, but the 5’ thing is usually about running back to protect the wizard not standing up there protecting the barbarian. The benefits of charger, I also find, don’t come up that often — maybe at the start of a combat, but there doesn’t tend to be a lot of moving around once a fight starts.
Still given those choices, I’d go sentinel.
But using a warhammer, I’d take a good look at crusher. The distance would stack with the mastery giving nice battlefield control. Or, assuming you’re in heavy armor in the 24 rules, heavy armor master is also worth considering. There are lots of creatures doing elemental damage, but pulling a few points off from most hits (even more so when you start running into folks with multiattack) is really good. The less damage you take, you save the cleric a spell slot, or yourself a hit die between fights.
In addition to my Battle Master, we have a Paladin and Barbarian, so we have 3 front liners. So far, we have tended to stay pretty close together. We haven't encountered any AOE (yet!). The Paladin and I have both decided to take Sentinel and plan to tag team the strongest enemies and bosses. The Barbarian is still up in the air and she might take the Feat too...
I just leveled up to 4 and get to choose a Feat for my sword and shield Battle Master. We are playing Curse of Strahd.
I keep going back and forth between Sentinel and Charger and I am struggling to choose.
I like Sentinel, because I also have Riposte. I get opportunity attacks, get to stop movement, and with Riposte, I am able to to hit an enemy within 5' it it hits an ally, or I can hit them with Riposte if they try to hit me instead of my ally and miss. The damage from Sentinel will also be greater than 1d8. My Melee weapons currently deal 1d8+6 (Dueling Fighting Style).
I like Charger, because all you have to do is move 10' in a straight line and I can add 1d8 damage to those attacks if they hit. I expect I will get more consistent damage from Charger than I would Sentinel. I also have a Warhammer along with the Push Mastery, so I can also push them 10' away, in addition to dealing that extra 1d8 damage.
I also have Trip Attack and Feinting Attack as my other Maneuvers.
Which would you choose between the two Feats if you were me?
TIA
I'm sure others can break it down statistically for you, but as far as for me, other than if I were the only melee martial in the group, I would take Sentinel first. Stopping an enemy's movement benefits everyone in your party (and if you are successful in your trip attack, especially your melee teammates).
Notice I said first. If you like them both, you can always just take the other at Level 6. In other words, don't sweat it too much. 🙂
I will likely to take the other at 8 and we also have a Paladin and Barbarian in the group, so plenty of melee characters. I'm leaning towards Sentinel right now. I've thought about seeing if one or both of the Paladin and Barbarian will also want to take the Sentinel Feat (neither have chosen yet), because we could conceivably team up against bosses or the most powerful enemy on the board and get opportunity attacks whenever one of us is hit, along with a fair amount of stopped movement.
How often do you have allies within 5’ of you. Ime, that situation ends up being pretty rare. Especially in higher levels where you want to spread out to avoid AoEs. Sentinel is a good feat, but the 5’ thing is usually about running back to protect the wizard not standing up there protecting the barbarian. The benefits of charger, I also find, don’t come up that often — maybe at the start of a combat, but there doesn’t tend to be a lot of moving around once a fight starts.
Still given those choices, I’d go sentinel.
But using a warhammer, I’d take a good look at crusher. The distance would stack with the mastery giving nice battlefield control.
Or, assuming you’re in heavy armor in the 24 rules, heavy armor master is also worth considering. There are lots of creatures doing elemental damage, but pulling a few points off from most hits (even more so when you start running into folks with multiattack) is really good. The less damage you take, you save the cleric a spell slot, or yourself a hit die between fights.
In addition to my Battle Master, we have a Paladin and Barbarian, so we have 3 front liners. So far, we have tended to stay pretty close together. We haven't encountered any AOE (yet!). The Paladin and I have both decided to take Sentinel and plan to tag team the strongest enemies and bosses. The Barbarian is still up in the air and she might take the Feat too...
Sentinel. I don't think you'll get that extra 1d8 all that often. Also, options are better than what could easily be 1 point of damage.