I'm playing a Tabaxi Revised Ranger/Gloom Stalker and we're approaching Level 4 so I'm debating between the Sharpshooter feat or the ASI. My ability scores are currently... STR: 8, DEX: 17, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 15, CHA: 9.
Since it's Revised Ranger, I always get advantage on the first turn of combat, which makes SS more effective. We also have a bard in our party that uses Faerie Fire quite effectively, so I'd get advantage from that too.
On the flip, if I took the ASI, I'd bump my DEX to 18 and my WIS to 16. Since I'm purely ranged, getting my Dex to 18 would be nice for the to hit and the damage bump. Plus, Gloom Stalker adds my WIS mod to initiative so if I took ASI, my Initiative would then be +7.
As far as the cover portion of SS goes, it's nice but our DM does count cover for targets in melee so it may be less useful and the max range perk is nifty but I'm not sure how often it'll come up. The nicest part is that since I may get advantage so much, it really helps negate the -5 to hit from SS power attack.
I know this is a lot but any help would be greatly appreciated!
SS is really good, but you have your basis covered in terms of damage with Hunters Mark, Favored Enemy and good spells. At level 5, being able to capitalize +3d6 damage from Hunters Mark (with your three attacks) is awesome. +1 DEX will improve your To Hit, AC, Initiative (very important for Gloomstalker) and Stealth.
Believe me, when you see yourself in a tough situation, you’ll probably decide to attack with +9 than +4 — even with this juicy +10 to damage. I don’t know how magic items are planned at your table, but Bracers of Archery are super common.
There are several simulators over there about GWM/SS, but I personally decide to chose those feats when I don’t have good ways to increase damage by myself (like as a Fighter).
If you allow me a small tweak, assuming it’s possible since there wouldn’t be impact in your past gameplay, I would assign this lovely 15 to CON, not WIS. Oddly enough, Rangers don’t rely so much in WIS, but a good CON score is always nice.
The reason I was bumping WIS instead of CON is because if I bump my WIS up to 16, it increases my modifier. Bumping my CON to 15 doesn't increase my modifier.
I think ironsoul was suggesting you ask your dm if you can swap your wis and con scores round, so you end up with 18 Dex 16 con 14 wis.
Generally for max power you want to max your primary stat to 20 first, sharpshooter with lots of advantage might so slightly more on some builds but you are also getting an ability increase on your secondary stat so it is a no brainer.
I think ironsoul was suggesting you ask your dm if you can swap your wis and con scores round, so you end up with 18 Dex 16 con 14 wis.
Generally for max power you want to max your primary stat to 20 first, sharpshooter with lots of advantage might so slightly more on some builds but you are also getting an ability increase on your secondary stat so it is a no brainer.
As far as SS with lots of advantage, I'd be getting advantage from attacking first as GS, stealth attacking from darkness or from my bard casting Faerie Fire.
SS is great, but to get the damage-per-round boost from it, it's important to have a maxed attack stat. Otherwise, you're just pushing your to-hit percentage unacceptably low on too many tough enemies.
You may be able to get away with SS at 8 once you have 18 Dexterity, but really it's a T3 feat to pick up at 12 (or, something that Fighters or Rogues can get earlier in T2 with bonus feats, or that V. Humans might start with at 1), not something that you need to take early in your career to define your playstyle. SS doesn't really "do" anything other than make numbers go up (numbers which, due to your class features, are already probably pretty good compared to your group). It isn't like Sentinel or Dual Wielder or something like that, which changes what your character does round to round.
I would definitely go with the ASI to bump two ability scores from odd numbers to even numbers. That gives you +1 on two different ability scores instead of the +1 that we normally get from ASIs.
I’ve built characters around that 4th level ASI to increase two ability scores before!
I would definitely go with the ASI to bump two ability scores from odd numbers to even numbers. That gives you +1 on two different ability scores instead of the +1 that we normally get from ASIs.
I’ve built characters around that 4th level ASI to increase two ability scores before!
I do think that's something that I'm overlooking too. Most ASIs are just bumping up one stat mod. This ASI would allow to bump my DEX and WIS mod. And then I could still just take SS at Level 8.
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I'm playing a Tabaxi Revised Ranger/Gloom Stalker and we're approaching Level 4 so I'm debating between the Sharpshooter feat or the ASI. My ability scores are currently... STR: 8, DEX: 17, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 15, CHA: 9.
Since it's Revised Ranger, I always get advantage on the first turn of combat, which makes SS more effective. We also have a bard in our party that uses Faerie Fire quite effectively, so I'd get advantage from that too.
On the flip, if I took the ASI, I'd bump my DEX to 18 and my WIS to 16. Since I'm purely ranged, getting my Dex to 18 would be nice for the to hit and the damage bump. Plus, Gloom Stalker adds my WIS mod to initiative so if I took ASI, my Initiative would then be +7.
As far as the cover portion of SS goes, it's nice but our DM does count cover for targets in melee so it may be less useful and the max range perk is nifty but I'm not sure how often it'll come up. The nicest part is that since I may get advantage so much, it really helps negate the -5 to hit from SS power attack.
I know this is a lot but any help would be greatly appreciated!
SS is really good, but you have your basis covered in terms of damage with Hunters Mark, Favored Enemy and good spells. At level 5, being able to capitalize +3d6 damage from Hunters Mark (with your three attacks) is awesome. +1 DEX will improve your To Hit, AC, Initiative (very important for Gloomstalker) and Stealth.
Believe me, when you see yourself in a tough situation, you’ll probably decide to attack with +9 than +4 — even with this juicy +10 to damage. I don’t know how magic items are planned at your table, but Bracers of Archery are super common.
There are several simulators over there about GWM/SS, but I personally decide to chose those feats when I don’t have good ways to increase damage by myself (like as a Fighter).
If you allow me a small tweak, assuming it’s possible since there wouldn’t be impact in your past gameplay, I would assign this lovely 15 to CON, not WIS. Oddly enough, Rangers don’t rely so much in WIS, but a good CON score is always nice.
You also get a +1 for all those lovely skills: sneak, perception, survival, animal handling, acrobatics.
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]I'd also advise taking your dex up as a priority.
SS can come later.
The reason I was bumping WIS instead of CON is because if I bump my WIS up to 16, it increases my modifier. Bumping my CON to 15 doesn't increase my modifier.
Yeah, I'm starting to lean ASI, as well. If my DM counted cover for targets in melee than SS would be a lot better.
I think ironsoul was suggesting you ask your dm if you can swap your wis and con scores round, so you end up with 18 Dex 16 con 14 wis.
Generally for max power you want to max your primary stat to 20 first, sharpshooter with lots of advantage might so slightly more on some builds but you are also getting an ability increase on your secondary stat so it is a no brainer.
As far as SS with lots of advantage, I'd be getting advantage from attacking first as GS, stealth attacking from darkness or from my bard casting Faerie Fire.
SS is great, but to get the damage-per-round boost from it, it's important to have a maxed attack stat. Otherwise, you're just pushing your to-hit percentage unacceptably low on too many tough enemies.
You may be able to get away with SS at 8 once you have 18 Dexterity, but really it's a T3 feat to pick up at 12 (or, something that Fighters or Rogues can get earlier in T2 with bonus feats, or that V. Humans might start with at 1), not something that you need to take early in your career to define your playstyle. SS doesn't really "do" anything other than make numbers go up (numbers which, due to your class features, are already probably pretty good compared to your group). It isn't like Sentinel or Dual Wielder or something like that, which changes what your character does round to round.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I would definitely go with the ASI to bump two ability scores from odd numbers to even numbers. That gives you +1 on two different ability scores instead of the +1 that we normally get from ASIs.
I’ve built characters around that 4th level ASI to increase two ability scores before!
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I do think that's something that I'm overlooking too. Most ASIs are just bumping up one stat mod. This ASI would allow to bump my DEX and WIS mod. And then I could still just take SS at Level 8.