Looking at: Alert, Lucky, Magic Initiate (Hunter's Mark), CON to 18 & 20, WIS to 18 & 20.
Feel good about most options. Simplest would be stat boosts & Alert. Stat boosts & Lucky would help saves most. Lucky & Magic Initiate would help hit/damage most. First time playing this high. Never used Lucky or Hunter's Mark.
Remaining sessions will be mostly combat vs. BBEGs. Unsure how many combats per rest. Main play for Samurai is Bonus Action Fighting Spirit. With only 3 uses per combat, I wouldn't mind casting Hunter's Mark 1st round w/ BA for more damage throughout. Would apply on 3 then 4 attacks and I see it lasts an hour. So could be cast ahead, and/or last multiple combats? Conversely, losing the concentration would feel like a waste. CON saves are +9 currently. Maybe the extra ~3.5 damage per hit is not worth greater HP and/or saves?
Not so sure about magic initiate. It might be OK if you are ony fighting single enemies but against multiple enemies you are likely to need to use your bonus action most rounds to redirect the hunters mark. Lucky is a great option but I would mostly use it on saves rather than attacks. Using lucky to turn one miss into a hit is a lot less impactful than preventing yourself being commanded (so you can not attack at all) or even dominated (so you attack your friends)
I would look to tough before increasing con, it desn't add one to your con save but gives twice as many extra HP. Alert is a great option for increased damage, (going 1st in combat compared to last essentially gives you an extra round per combat).
Another option would be gift of the chromatic dragon. The extra damage is only 1d4 rather than hunter's mark's 1d6 and it only lasts for a minute but it only requires a single bonus action on the first round you don't need as it works on any target you attack, it also doesn't require concentration. depending on what you fight the biggest draw towards this feat could be reactive resistence, it is essentially 5 castings of absorb elements per day, amazing when when fighting things hat fo lots of elemental damage like dragons.
Not so sure about magic initiate. It might be OK if you are ony fighting single enemies but against multiple enemies you are likely to need to use your bonus action most rounds to redirect the hunters mark. Lucky is a great option but I would mostly use it on saves rather than attacks. Using lucky to turn one miss into a hit is a lot less impactful than preventing yourself being commanded (so you can not attack at all) or even dominated (so you attack your friends)
I would look to tough before increasing con, it desn't add one to your con save but gives twice as many extra HP. Alert is a great option for increased damage, (going 1st in combat compared to last essentially gives you an extra round per combat).
Another option would be gift of the chromatic dragon. The extra damage is only 1d4 rather than hunter's mark's 1d6 and it only lasts for a minute but it only requires a single bonus action on the first round you don't need as it works on any target you attack, it also doesn't require concentration. depending on what you fight the biggest draw towards this feat could be reactive resistence, it is essentially 5 castings of absorb elements per day, amazing when when fighting things hat fo lots of elemental damage like dragons.
Oh dang, that also sounds quite good. More efficient than Hunter's Mark, looks like. And the damage resistance is solid bonus in tandem, especially with 5 uses, and my Reaction currently being free.
And yeah the extra save chances from Lucky might be most sensible. Though, my understanding is it's not a pure re-roll upon failure. You only get to see the dice rolls and then use a luck point, not knowing for sure what the DC is, correct? Still good.
You do need to decide whether to use luck before know8ng the DC (or the AC if you are using it on an attack) but you usually have a pretty good idea what it is. Short of any other information I would work on DC 17 to 20 at level 15 increasing to 20 to 24 at level 20, though you can work of your recent combats.
Unlike a lot of features you do not have to use the new roll. Say you roll a dirty 20 and you do not know if it is enough so you use a luck point and get 16. You can still use the 20 so luck never turns a success into a failure.
Some people say luck turns disadvantage into superadvantage. If you roll at disadvantage and roll a natural 20 and a nat 1 using luck allows you to choose the natural 20 (whatever you roll with the luck die) if your DM rules this way lucky becomes extremely powerful but does make things non-sensical as you can look for ways to get disadvantage on your saving throws (though 5he 3 per day admittedly limits this)
You do need to decide whether to use luck before know8ng the DC (or the AC if you are using it on an attack) but you usually have a pretty good idea what it is. Short of any other information I would work on DC 17 to 20 at level 15 increasing to 20 to 24 at level 20, though you can work of your recent combats.
Unlike a lot of features you do not have to use the new roll. Say you roll a dirty 20 and you do not know if it is enough so you use a luck point and get 16. You can still use the 20 so luck never turns a success into a failure.
Some people say luck turns disadvantage into superadvantage. If you roll at disadvantage and roll a natural 20 and a nat 1 using luck allows you to choose the natural 20 (whatever you roll with the luck die) if your DM rules this way lucky becomes extremely powerful but does make things non-sensical as you can look for ways to get disadvantage on your saving throws (though 5he 3 per day admittedly limits this)
Good clarification, thx. Yeah feeling out the DCs seems not too hard. Often the DM even says it out-loud announcing the attack.
Question: What about for enemy crits against you? Cuz once you know the die roll, you know the result as well. I guess if the DM doesn’t tell you, you know it’s a Nat 20?
Or wait, do DMs have to tell you the roll results?
Good clarification, thx. Yeah feeling out the DCs seems not too hard. Often the DM even says it out-loud announcing the attack.
Question: What about for enemy crits against you? Cuz once you know the die roll, you know the result as well. I guess if the DM doesn’t tell you, you know it’s a Nat 20?
Or wait, do DMs have to tell you the roll results?
Lucky only works when YOU roll the die so can not be used for attacks against you where the enemy rolls to hit.
Good clarification, thx. Yeah feeling out the DCs seems not too hard. Often the DM even says it out-loud announcing the attack.
Question: What about for enemy crits against you? Cuz once you know the die roll, you know the result as well. I guess if the DM doesn’t tell you, you know it’s a Nat 20?
Or wait, do DMs have to tell you the roll results?
Lucky only works when YOU roll the die so can not be used for attacks against you where the enemy rolls to hit.
You mean in the 2024 version? The 2014 version reads: "You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours."
You mean in the 2024 version? The 2014 version reads: "You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours."
You are correct. In that has it is up to the DM, and your set up. The second parapragh of the rule deos not say it is after you see the roll so a DM could say you have to decide whether to use luck "blind" on attacks made against you. I have never seen a DM go that way.
You could know the roll but not be told the "to hit" and hence not know whether it it a hit or not but in my experience the DM will tell you the total roll and asks if it beats your AC. If you play remotely the likes of Roll20 will normally display the total roll (though the DM can hide it) at least in my games the DM will tend only to do that for enemy saves so we don't know how many legendary resistances have been used..
You mean in the 2024 version? The 2014 version reads: "You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours."
You are correct. In that has it is up to the DM, and your set up. The second parapragh of the rule deos not say it is after you see the roll so a DM could say you have to decide whether to use luck "blind" on attacks made against you. I have never seen a DM go that way.
You could know the roll but not be told the "to hit" and hence not know whether it it a hit or not but in my experience the DM will tell you the total roll and asks if it beats your AC. If you play remotely the likes of Roll20 will normally display the total roll (though the DM can hide it) at least in my games the DM will tend only to do that for enemy saves so we don't know how many legendary resistances have been used..
That makes sense. Yes the "to hit" is the unknown, like the DC for saves. It's just if a nat 20 is rolled, the result is also immediately known, since the "to hit" doesn't matter. As soon as the DM declares the nat 20, everyone knows. So there's no way to squeeze in the Lucky point after the roll but before the result, if that makes sense? I guess a question for each DM, was just curious how people handled this.
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Curious to hear what feats folks would take for levels 16 & 19 for a Samurai Fighter Archer (2014 rules, longbow)?
Already have: Max DEX, Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy, Resilient DEX, Fey Touched.
Looking at: Alert, Lucky, Magic Initiate (Hunter's Mark), CON to 18 & 20, WIS to 18 & 20.
Feel good about most options. Simplest would be stat boosts & Alert. Stat boosts & Lucky would help saves most. Lucky & Magic Initiate would help hit/damage most. First time playing this high. Never used Lucky or Hunter's Mark.
Remaining sessions will be mostly combat vs. BBEGs. Unsure how many combats per rest. Main play for Samurai is Bonus Action Fighting Spirit. With only 3 uses per combat, I wouldn't mind casting Hunter's Mark 1st round w/ BA for more damage throughout. Would apply on 3 then 4 attacks and I see it lasts an hour. So could be cast ahead, and/or last multiple combats? Conversely, losing the concentration would feel like a waste. CON saves are +9 currently. Maybe the extra ~3.5 damage per hit is not worth greater HP and/or saves?
Thoughts?
Chef Feat.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Not so sure about magic initiate. It might be OK if you are ony fighting single enemies but against multiple enemies you are likely to need to use your bonus action most rounds to redirect the hunters mark. Lucky is a great option but I would mostly use it on saves rather than attacks. Using lucky to turn one miss into a hit is a lot less impactful than preventing yourself being commanded (so you can not attack at all) or even dominated (so you attack your friends)
I would look to tough before increasing con, it desn't add one to your con save but gives twice as many extra HP. Alert is a great option for increased damage, (going 1st in combat compared to last essentially gives you an extra round per combat).
Another option would be gift of the chromatic dragon. The extra damage is only 1d4 rather than hunter's mark's 1d6 and it only lasts for a minute but it only requires a single bonus action on the first round you don't need as it works on any target you attack, it also doesn't require concentration. depending on what you fight the biggest draw towards this feat could be reactive resistence, it is essentially 5 castings of absorb elements per day, amazing when when fighting things hat fo lots of elemental damage like dragons.
Chef - Oo, fun idea. Actually not sure if one of our group has this already (joined late)..
If not, good way to boost team HP.
Oh dang, that also sounds quite good. More efficient than Hunter's Mark, looks like. And the damage resistance is solid bonus in tandem, especially with 5 uses, and my Reaction currently being free.
And yeah the extra save chances from Lucky might be most sensible. Though, my understanding is it's not a pure re-roll upon failure. You only get to see the dice rolls and then use a luck point, not knowing for sure what the DC is, correct? Still good.
You do need to decide whether to use luck before know8ng the DC (or the AC if you are using it on an attack) but you usually have a pretty good idea what it is. Short of any other information I would work on DC 17 to 20 at level 15 increasing to 20 to 24 at level 20, though you can work of your recent combats.
Unlike a lot of features you do not have to use the new roll. Say you roll a dirty 20 and you do not know if it is enough so you use a luck point and get 16. You can still use the 20 so luck never turns a success into a failure.
Some people say luck turns disadvantage into superadvantage. If you roll at disadvantage and roll a natural 20 and a nat 1 using luck allows you to choose the natural 20 (whatever you roll with the luck die) if your DM rules this way lucky becomes extremely powerful but does make things non-sensical as you can look for ways to get disadvantage on your saving throws (though 5he 3 per day admittedly limits this)
Good clarification, thx. Yeah feeling out the DCs seems not too hard. Often the DM even says it out-loud announcing the attack.
Question: What about for enemy crits against you? Cuz once you know the die roll, you know the result as well. I guess if the DM doesn’t tell you, you know it’s a Nat 20?
Or wait, do DMs have to tell you the roll results?
Lucky only works when YOU roll the die so can not be used for attacks against you where the enemy rolls to hit.
You mean in the 2024 version? The 2014 version reads: "You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours."
You are correct. In that has it is up to the DM, and your set up. The second parapragh of the rule deos not say it is after you see the roll so a DM could say you have to decide whether to use luck "blind" on attacks made against you. I have never seen a DM go that way.
You could know the roll but not be told the "to hit" and hence not know whether it it a hit or not but in my experience the DM will tell you the total roll and asks if it beats your AC. If you play remotely the likes of Roll20 will normally display the total roll (though the DM can hide it) at least in my games the DM will tend only to do that for enemy saves so we don't know how many legendary resistances have been used..
That makes sense. Yes the "to hit" is the unknown, like the DC for saves. It's just if a nat 20 is rolled, the result is also immediately known, since the "to hit" doesn't matter. As soon as the DM declares the nat 20, everyone knows. So there's no way to squeeze in the Lucky point after the roll but before the result, if that makes sense? I guess a question for each DM, was just curious how people handled this.