For those of you who have experience using the Sentinel Feat, how would you optimize your movement, positioning, and tactics on the battlefield to trigger it more often?
On Reddit, a poll suggested you might get one use out of Sentinel per battle on average, so is there a way to make sure you can get more than one use out of it? I am hesitant to choose a Feat that will rarely trigger.
Suppose you were playing a Fighter and you took the Sentinel Feat, and you were playing alongside a Barbarian and Paladin with the Sentinel Feat. Hypothetically, couldn't you coordinate your positioning and movement to optimize the uses of Sentinel, when an enemy within 5' of you, attacks another character with the Sentinel Feat?
If I choose the Feat at some point, I'd like to try and optimize its potential.
My first thought was to go with the classic of pair it with polearm master and a reach weapon. Hit an enemy as they approach and stop their movement, then back up on your turn and do it again. But it looks like that doesn’t work anymore as the PAM attack is no longer called an opportunity attack, so sentinel doesn’t trigger. I’d think then, the best bet is to have other allies in melee with you and for them not to have it, so you can trigger it when the enemies attack your allies. But also remember once per combat (if that number is even correct, as it would be impossible to make an accurate generalization) isn’t too bad. Most fights last 3-5 rounds, and you only get 1 reaction per round, so even only once per fight means 20-33 percent of the chances you might have to use it.
So there are two components of Sentinel with respect to it's use.
1) locking down an opponent to stop them moving away from you and/or attacking other characters. This is optimally used with an Echo Knight + Rogue MC where you leave your echo next to enemies while you Disengage and move away.
2) getting extra DPR. This is optimally used when multiple melee members in the party gang up on one baddie. In this case your strategy is to have the highest AC of the melee party members, and you all move to be within 5ft of the same baddies. You have sentinel and the others don't. Now the enemy has a choice: (1) attack you allowing you to make use of your AC to potentially block the attack, or (2) attack someone squishier allowing you to get a free hit on them.
Tactics for Sentinel are super simple: You and the ally of your choice both run straight at the biggest, baddest enemy on the field and clobber it. Sometimes it is possible for you to skirt around within 5ft of the biggest, baddest enemy while picking off minions to avoid drawing attention to yourself to increase the chance the BBEG will attack your ally instead.
So there are two components of Sentinel with respect to it's use.
1) locking down an opponent to stop them moving away from you and/or attacking other characters. This is optimally used with an Echo Knight + Rogue MC where you leave your echo next to enemies while you Disengage and move away.
2) getting extra DPR. This is optimally used when multiple melee members in the party gang up on one baddie. In this case your strategy is to have the highest AC of the melee party members, and you all move to be within 5ft of the same baddies. You have sentinel and the others don't. Now the enemy has a choice: (1) attack you allowing you to make use of your AC to potentially block the attack, or (2) attack someone squishier allowing you to get a free hit on them.
Tactics for Sentinel are super simple: You and the ally of your choice both run straight at the biggest, baddest enemy on the field and clobber it. Sometimes it is possible for you to skirt around within 5ft of the biggest, baddest enemy while picking off minions to avoid drawing attention to yourself to increase the chance the BBEG will attack your ally instead.
Sounds like it could be extremely useful for a boss fight, thanks!
How about if 2 or 3 of us each had Sentinel when teaming up to take down a big bad? Whichever one the enemy tries to hit, the other(s) would get an opportunity attack? If it was 3 of us teaming up and it tried to hit one of us, I suppose the the other two would get an opportunity attack? Of course when 2 or 3 of us are that close together, it could leave us susceptible to AOE damage.
Sounds like it could be extremely useful for a boss fight, thanks!
How about if 2 or 3 of us each had Sentinel when teaming up to take down a big bad? Whichever one the enemy tries to hit, the other(s) would get an opportunity attack? If it was 3 of us teaming up and it tried to hit one of us, I suppose the the other two would get an opportunity attack? Of course when 2 or 3 of us are that close together, it could leave us susceptible to AOE damage.
Sentinel is basically a tanking mechanic (it appears heavily influenced by 4th edition fighter mechanics that were explicitly for tanking) -- it used to not trigger if the monster attacked a target that had the feat, but I guess they decided that was unnecessary in 2024, so multiple PCs with sentinel does work decently well in 2024. Best use case is probably rogue/fighter hybrids (melee rogue without any fighter is on the squishy side).
Sounds like it could be extremely useful for a boss fight, thanks!
How about if 2 or 3 of us each had Sentinel when teaming up to take down a big bad? Whichever one the enemy tries to hit, the other(s) would get an opportunity attack? If it was 3 of us teaming up and it tried to hit one of us, I suppose the the other two would get an opportunity attack? Of course when 2 or 3 of us are that close together, it could leave us susceptible to AOE damage.
Sentinel is basically a tanking mechanic (it appears heavily influenced by 4th edition fighter mechanics that were explicitly for tanking) -- it used to not trigger if the monster attacked a target that had the feat, but I guess they decided that was unnecessary in 2024, so multiple PCs with sentinel does work decently well in 2024. Best use case is probably rogue/fighter hybrids (melee rogue without any fighter is on the squishy side).
We played on Sunday and spent hours defending a fort outside of Vallaki and the two of us (Paladin and I) who took Sentinel, got a good amount of use out of it. The Paladin was strategically better with it than I was, but I got a couple of uses out of it. I think he got to use it 4 or 5 times. I think we made the right decision. The Barbarian went with Great Weapon Master. I think three Sentinels would have worked really well, but I can't fault her for taking +2 damage to every attack.
Sentinels reaction triggers are Indeed strong. One of the major changes is that it is no longer “turned off” if another character with sentinel is next to you. positioning yourself to another character with sentinel can make targeting either of you less appealing . I think there might be value gained with other reactions whose triggers are mutually exclusive with sentinel.
A rogue with sentinel feat and uncanny dodge would have a high chance to effectively use their reaction effectively every round.
EDIT:standing next to a fighter or other teammate who can use protection fighting style is a relatively low cost to synergize with a sentinel rogue. Even works out well at high level when the rogue cant be attacked with advantage under normal circumstances since the disadvantage on attacks vs the rogue would be difficult to mitigate. Attack rogue, all attacks made at disadvantage with one that hits being halved by uncanny dodge.
For those of you who have experience using the Sentinel Feat, how would you optimize your movement, positioning, and tactics on the battlefield to trigger it more often?
On Reddit, a poll suggested you might get one use out of Sentinel per battle on average, so is there a way to make sure you can get more than one use out of it? I am hesitant to choose a Feat that will rarely trigger.
Suppose you were playing a Fighter and you took the Sentinel Feat, and you were playing alongside a Barbarian and Paladin with the Sentinel Feat. Hypothetically, couldn't you coordinate your positioning and movement to optimize the uses of Sentinel, when an enemy within 5' of you, attacks another character with the Sentinel Feat?
If I choose the Feat at some point, I'd like to try and optimize its potential.
TIA
My first thought was to go with the classic of pair it with polearm master and a reach weapon. Hit an enemy as they approach and stop their movement, then back up on your turn and do it again. But it looks like that doesn’t work anymore as the PAM attack is no longer called an opportunity attack, so sentinel doesn’t trigger.
I’d think then, the best bet is to have other allies in melee with you and for them not to have it, so you can trigger it when the enemies attack your allies.
But also remember once per combat (if that number is even correct, as it would be impossible to make an accurate generalization) isn’t too bad. Most fights last 3-5 rounds, and you only get 1 reaction per round, so even only once per fight means 20-33 percent of the chances you might have to use it.
So there are two components of Sentinel with respect to it's use.
1) locking down an opponent to stop them moving away from you and/or attacking other characters. This is optimally used with an Echo Knight + Rogue MC where you leave your echo next to enemies while you Disengage and move away.
2) getting extra DPR. This is optimally used when multiple melee members in the party gang up on one baddie. In this case your strategy is to have the highest AC of the melee party members, and you all move to be within 5ft of the same baddies. You have sentinel and the others don't. Now the enemy has a choice: (1) attack you allowing you to make use of your AC to potentially block the attack, or (2) attack someone squishier allowing you to get a free hit on them.
Tactics for Sentinel are super simple: You and the ally of your choice both run straight at the biggest, baddest enemy on the field and clobber it. Sometimes it is possible for you to skirt around within 5ft of the biggest, baddest enemy while picking off minions to avoid drawing attention to yourself to increase the chance the BBEG will attack your ally instead.
Sounds like it could be extremely useful for a boss fight, thanks!
How about if 2 or 3 of us each had Sentinel when teaming up to take down a big bad? Whichever one the enemy tries to hit, the other(s) would get an opportunity attack? If it was 3 of us teaming up and it tried to hit one of us, I suppose the the other two would get an opportunity attack? Of course when 2 or 3 of us are that close together, it could leave us susceptible to AOE damage.
Sentinel is basically a tanking mechanic (it appears heavily influenced by 4th edition fighter mechanics that were explicitly for tanking) -- it used to not trigger if the monster attacked a target that had the feat, but I guess they decided that was unnecessary in 2024, so multiple PCs with sentinel does work decently well in 2024. Best use case is probably rogue/fighter hybrids (melee rogue without any fighter is on the squishy side).
We played on Sunday and spent hours defending a fort outside of Vallaki and the two of us (Paladin and I) who took Sentinel, got a good amount of use out of it. The Paladin was strategically better with it than I was, but I got a couple of uses out of it. I think he got to use it 4 or 5 times. I think we made the right decision. The Barbarian went with Great Weapon Master. I think three Sentinels would have worked really well, but I can't fault her for taking +2 damage to every attack.
Sentinels reaction triggers are Indeed strong. One of the major changes is that it is no longer “turned off” if another character with sentinel is next to you. positioning yourself to another character with sentinel can make targeting either of you less appealing . I think there might be value gained with other reactions whose triggers are mutually exclusive with sentinel.
A rogue with sentinel feat and uncanny dodge would have a high chance to effectively use their reaction effectively every round.
EDIT:standing next to a fighter or other teammate who can use protection fighting style is a relatively low cost to synergize with a sentinel rogue. Even works out well at high level when the rogue cant be attacked with advantage under normal circumstances since the disadvantage on attacks vs the rogue would be difficult to mitigate. Attack rogue, all attacks made at disadvantage with one that hits being halved by uncanny dodge.