5 rounds of combat is a high estimate, 3.5 rounds is more accurate.
And two combats per short rest is low, for many published campaigns. Rough math is rough.
I was previously modeling the "6 encounters per day" standard, and those are medium encounters that typically run three rounds or so. If we start talking about the way the game is actually played the Champion looks even worse, because it's more prone to a single Deadly encounter (taking around 5 rounds) per short rest, which highly values burst damage.
Isn't that just base fighter, but very occasionally benefitting from a few minor champion subclass abilities?
This is kind of the problem: Champion isn't versatile, its just basic and lacking features.
I mean, it's like having two different base fighters in one, with better initiative. Pretty good, no?
A bonus to initiative is always welcome, but it's not earth shattering, and you don't get it until level 7.
5% extra crit chance in reality only adds up to a fraction of 1 HP of damage per attack. Best case scenario if you're using a great sword (7 hp average damage), you'll roll a 19 once per twenty attacks on average. That's an extra 7 damage for every 20 times you swing your sword, which works out to 0.35 extra damage per swing. A +3 magic weapon does not change the math at all. Something like flame tongue does because you're adding dice, but it's still nothing to write home about.
It certainly isn't earth shattering, but the point I was making with my aforementioned build, is that it can be fairly effective and good.
Isn't that just base fighter, but very occasionally benefitting from a few minor champion subclass abilities?
This is kind of the problem: Champion isn't versatile, its just basic and lacking features.
Most Fighters that I've played and seen played are really good at one thing so they do that one thing a LOT. How many times does a fight start with "My Barbarian will Rage and charge the BBEG and wail on him with Reckless Attack"?
Many Warlocks spam Eldrich Blast.
Shooters shoot.
This isn't a lack of versatility it's doing what you do best.
But Fighters are generally versatile at the things they do through base class features.
A subclass that is just "improved crit range and an extra fighting style" is behind other fighters in ability.
Isn't that just base fighter, but very occasionally benefitting from a few minor champion subclass abilities?
This is kind of the problem: Champion isn't versatile, its just basic and lacking features.
I mean, it's like having two different base fighters in one, with better initiative. Pretty good, no?
A bonus to initiative is always welcome, but it's not earth shattering, and you don't get it until level 7.
5% extra crit chance in reality only adds up to a fraction of 1 HP of damage per attack. Best case scenario if you're using a great sword (7 hp average damage), you'll roll a 19 once per twenty attacks on average. That's an extra 7 damage for every 20 times you swing your sword, which works out to 0.35 extra damage per swing. A +3 magic weapon does not change the math at all. Something like flame tongue does because you're adding dice, but it's still nothing to write home about.
It certainly isn't earth shattering, but the point I was making with my aforementioned build, is that it can be fairly effective and good.
the bigger point is that it's just not bad.
The things that make it good are the base fighter. I judge a subclass by what it adds on top.
Isn't that just base fighter, but very occasionally benefitting from a few minor champion subclass abilities?
This is kind of the problem: Champion isn't versatile, its just basic and lacking features.
I mean, it's like having two different base fighters in one, with better initiative. Pretty good, no?
A bonus to initiative is always welcome, but it's not earth shattering, and you don't get it until level 7.
5% extra crit chance in reality only adds up to a fraction of 1 HP of damage per attack. Best case scenario if you're using a great sword (7 hp average damage), you'll roll a 19 once per twenty attacks on average. That's an extra 7 damage for every 20 times you swing your sword, which works out to 0.35 extra damage per swing. A +3 magic weapon does not change the math at all. Something like flame tongue does because you're adding dice, but it's still nothing to write home about.
It certainly isn't earth shattering, but the point I was making with my aforementioned build, is that it can be fairly effective and good.
the bigger point is that it's just not bad.
That could be equally true if you decided to homebrew a fighter with no subclass whatsoever though. There just isn't enough with the champion to make it noticeably different from that.
My first 5e character was a champion fighter. It doesn't have to be especially good to be fun. But the subclass that you either play around or use for noobs isn't something to recommend it.
If you can reliably crit once per turn, with Slasher or Crusher instead of Piercer, that is a VERY unique take on recreating a Marshall leader-type without Battlemaster or Bard or whatever. I think it’s a class that is easy for new players to pick up without too many strange abilities or resource management thrown at them, but with feats and multiclassing, there’s a depth of angles for experienced players to build around too.
At level 6 with two weapon fighting, your chance of a crit during a turn is 3% with disadvantage, 27% normal, 47% with advantage, 61% with elven accuracy. Certainly a decent level of control if you can reliably manage advantage, but double feat and reliable advantage is really still in the tier 3 build range.
A Kobold Champion in an Underdark campaign using Bludgeoner and a Quarterstaff and PAM can be be proving a powerful debuf every turn or every other turn right from level 6. Finish off their +2 Str at 8, or even Sentinel at 12, and they’ve got nothing but room for whatever other direction they want to take in life, their 3 or 4 attacks per round having a reliable 20% chance each to cause their team to have advantage all round against that foe. No opposed skill check or condition immunity concerns like Shoving has for inflicting prone, and also no choosing to help melee allies but punish ranged attackers with probe… you’re essentially just unleashing an action-free Zealot 10 team buff every round, of every fight, all day long.
This is not “nothing.” Other subclasses cannot hope to do this. The only other class that can come close might be a Hexblade, but their curse is far more limited, and their advantage and melee competency harder to build.
Champion can be good and complex, y’all.
Edit: I did overlook that Crusher has a size limitation, and isn’t as good on a small character… still a good build in an underground campaign that will be likely to face lots of medium or smaller foes, however.
At level 6 with two weapon fighting, your chance of a crit during a turn is 3% with disadvantage, 27% normal, 47% with advantage, 61% with elven accuracy. Certainly a decent level of control if you can reliably manage advantage, but double feat and reliable advantage is really still in the tier 3 build range.
Yeah and if you get ADV any to hit and CRIT I'm not sure what advantage crusher gives you then if you already have ADV?
I guess you give it to others but still....I would rather be just outright killing things to be honest with the higher damage builds.
A Kobold Champion in an Underdark campaign using Bludgeoner and a Quarterstaff and PAM can be be proving a powerful debuf every turn or every other turn right from level 6. Finish off their +2 Str at 8, or even Sentinel at 12, and they’ve got nothing but room for whatever other direction they want to take in life, their 3 or 4 attacks per round having a reliable 20% chance each to cause their team to have advantage all round against that foe. No opposed skill check or condition immunity concerns like Shoving has for inflicting prone, and also no choosing to help melee allies but punish ranged attackers with probe… you’re essentially just unleashing an action-free Zealot 10 team buff every round, of every fight, all day long.
This is not “nothing.” Other subclasses cannot hope to do this. The only other class that can come close might be a Hexblade, but their curse is far more limited, and their advantage and melee competency harder to build.
Champion can be good and complex, y’all.
Edit: I did overlook that Crusher has a size limitation, and isn’t as good on a small character… still a good build in an underground campaign that will be likely to face lots of medium or smaller foes, however.
Man a BM with SS/CBE Kobold in the same situation is melting things with 3 attacks that have +13 damage... It's not even close.
Kobold can't even use heavy weapons so they are very far behind in damage them with just a quarterstaff.
Overall it's fine but again it's far behind what other builds offer.
That wasn’t a damage build, it was a party Marshall, like I just said. The shapshooter is a selfish build who is able to occasionally Provide some buffs a few times/short rest, not every round. Apples to pears, close but not really the same thing.
For those with ears to hear, I’ve made my point. That point is not that the Champion is “the best” at everything, but rather, that there are some fun ways to play it, and it’s worth a closer look than it’s reputation deserves.
Unlike Eldritch Knight, which is just a steaming pile of dragon poop at every tier 😂
A Kobold Champion in an Underdark campaign using Bludgeoner and a Quarterstaff and PAM can be be proving a powerful debuf every turn or every other turn right from level 6. Finish off their +2 Str at 8, or even Sentinel at 12, and they’ve got nothing but room for whatever other direction they want to take in life, their 3 or 4 attacks per round having a reliable 20% chance each to cause their team to have advantage all round against that foe. No opposed skill check or condition immunity concerns like Shoving has for inflicting prone, and also no choosing to help melee allies but punish ranged attackers with probe… you’re essentially just unleashing an action-free Zealot 10 team buff every round, of every fight, all day long.
This is not “nothing.” Other subclasses cannot hope to do this. The only other class that can come close might be a Hexblade, but their curse is far more limited, and their advantage and melee competency harder to build.
Champion can be good and complex, y’all.
Edit: I did overlook that Crusher has a size limitation, and isn’t as good on a small character… still a good build in an underground campaign that will be likely to face lots of medium or smaller foes, however.
Man a BM with SS/CBE Kobold in the same situation is melting things with 3 attacks that have +13 damage... It's not even close.
Kobold can't even use heavy weapons so they are very far behind in damage them with just a quarterstaff.
Overall it's fine but again it's far behind what other builds offer.
A Kobold Champion in an Underdark campaign using Bludgeoner and a Quarterstaff and PAM can be be proving a powerful debuf every turn or every other turn right from level 6. Finish off their +2 Str at 8, or even Sentinel at 12, and they’ve got nothing but room for whatever other direction they want to take in life, their 3 or 4 attacks per round having a reliable 20% chance each to cause their team to have advantage all round against that foe. No opposed skill check or condition immunity concerns like Shoving has for inflicting prone, and also no choosing to help melee allies but punish ranged attackers with probe… you’re essentially just unleashing an action-free Zealot 10 team buff every round, of every fight, all day long.
This is not “nothing.” Other subclasses cannot hope to do this. The only other class that can come close might be a Hexblade, but their curse is far more limited, and their advantage and melee competency harder to build.
Champion can be good and complex, y’all.
Edit: I did overlook that Crusher has a size limitation, and isn’t as good on a small character… still a good build in an underground campaign that will be likely to face lots of medium or smaller foes, however.
Man a BM with SS/CBE Kobold in the same situation is melting things with 3 attacks that have +13 damage... It's not even close.
Kobold can't even use heavy weapons so they are very far behind in damage them with just a quarterstaff.
Overall it's fine but again it's far behind what other builds offer.
But do you really wanna be that guy?
That's an important question.
If you are going to go 90% of the way there by being a Kobold in an underdark campaign why not at that point....
Eldritch Knight: No DPR boost at all, even if you have 16 Intelligence you're unlikely to do more damage with a spell than a weapon attack. 0 DPR.
If you take Find Familiar as one of your spells, and use the owl, you can effectively generate advantage for all of your attacks in tier 1. That's a solid boost, if only for accuracy alone. If you have one of those DMs who rule seperate initiative for familiars, then, at least you're generating advantage for someone else's attacks, which is still a worthwhile DPR boost.
But back onto topic. An argument could be made that a champion might shine in campaigns where short resting doesn't happen as much as you'd like. They exist, and they're more common than you think. A long term campaign I was in and completed was one such campaign. A battlemaster in the same situation will be hurting after running dry of superiority dice after an encounter or two. But the champion doesn't run out of gas in the same way.
If you can reliably crit once per turn, with Slasher or Crusher instead of Piercer, that is a VERY unique take on recreating a Marshall leader-type without Battlemaster or Bard or whatever. I think it’s a class that is easy for new players to pick up without too many strange abilities or resource management thrown at them, but with feats and multiclassing, there’s a depth of angles for experienced players to build around too.
Criting isn't that important to fighters. Their damage comes from the number of attacks, not from the number of dice.
Eldritch Knight: No DPR boost at all, even if you have 16 Intelligence you're unlikely to do more damage with a spell than a weapon attack. 0 DPR.
If you take Find Familiar as one of your spells, and use the owl, you can effectively generate advantage for all of your attacks in tier 1. That's a solid boost, if only for accuracy alone. If you have one of those DMs who rule seperate initiative for familiars, then, at least you're generating advantage for someone else's attacks, which is still a worthwhile DPR boost.
But back onto topic. An argument could be made that a champion might shine in campaigns where short resting doesn't happen as much as you'd like. They exist, and they're more common than you think. A long term campaign I was in and completed was one such campaign. A battlemaster in the same situation will be hurting after running dry of superiority dice after an encounter or two. But the champion doesn't run out of gas in the same way.
That's something to value.
A battle master who only gets to use 4 martial dice a day will still average out to about the same damage as a champion, sadly enough, and will take off in terms of combat utility any time they get an additional short rest. That the champion doesn't run out of gas doesn't mean much when its advantages are negligible.
Every subclass is a special butterfly, they all do something. But if we're talking about how subclasses perform damage-wise, assuming two encounters per short rest, lets say 5 rounds per combat, at level 3 you've got:
Arcane Archer: twice per short rest, an effect and/or maybe something like 2d6 damage. So, two instances of average 7 damage over 10 rounds, 1.4 DPR, and/or some minor effect.
Battlemaster: four d8's per short rest, and effects. So, four instances of average 4.5 damage over 10 rounds, 1.8 DPR, and some minor effects.
Cavalier: occasionally a special bonus action attack, up to Str times per long rest. So, three instances of average 6ish(polearm)+3(str)+1ish(GWFS)+1(half fighter level)+(the damage signifigance of advantage giving you a +5% chance to hit, call that .3 for a d10 weapon) over 20 rounds, .... so call it about .6 DPR and some taunting.
Champion: every round, you have a 5% higher chance to crit with every one of your weapon attacks. Thats worth about .2 for a d6 or d8, .3 for a d10, or .35 for a 2d6 on every attack, not much but not nothing. Somewhere between .2 and .35 DPR from this subclass' features at this level, though it'll benefit more from Extra Attack than most of the other subclasses, so this is one of the worst levels to look at it.
Echo Knight: occasionally a special bonus action, up to Con times per long rest, with no bonuses. 3 instances of average 6ish+3+1ish over 20 rounds , .2 DPR. Wait, 1.5? Where did I screw up my math...?
Eldritch Knight: No DPR boost at all, even if you have 16 Intelligence you're unlikely to do more damage with a spell than a weapon attack. 0 DPR.
Psi Warrior: four d8's per short rest but no effects, see battlemaster above. 1.8 DPR.
Purple Dragon: No DPR boost, 0 DPR.
Rune Knight: up to two types of either a 2d6 bonus damage and effect, or some other effect that might redirect a single attack, over 10 rounds. Probably about Arcane Archer level, of 1.4 DPR. But also, can transform for a bonus d6 once per turn for the whole fight, enough times to do it every fight. So add 3.5 to that, for a total of about 4.9 DPR boost, great subclass!
Samurai: we talked about advantage basically being +5% chance to crit, which on its own is .2 for a d6 or d8, .3 for a d10, or .35 for a 2d6 (plus the DPR boost of hitting more often). Three times per long rest, you'll add that something between .2 and .35. Over 20 rounds, no more than .05 DPR.
Is Champion at the top of this pack, with its .2-.35 DPR Impact at Level 3? Nope, Rune Knight takes the cake with 4.9, with Psi Warrior, Battlemaster, tied for second at 1.8, and then Arcane Archer with 1.4, and then Cavalier in fourth with .6. But is at the bottom? Nope, it's more significant than PDK and EK (0 DPR), Samurai (.05 DPR), Echo Knight (.2 DPR)... Solid middle of the pack choice... and if we were to look at this again at 5th, 11th, and 20th level, Champion would be moving up in the rankings, because its the only subclass whose DPR impact scales up for every attack the Champion makes.
This low level decimal math is very uninteresting, and nobody is picking a subclass because of a perceived difference between .2 DPR and .6 DPR over 10 rounds or more. Champion is fine, and crits feel good.
Edit: I dunno, I screwed up Echo Knight's math, probably screwed up others as well... who cares.
Some of those I agree with, as Champion isn't the only fighter subclass that sucks. But there's too many to answer all of them one at a time, so I'll address:
Battle Master: Precision Strike turns 0 damage into the entire attack worth of damage. Also, "some minor effects" - many of those effects are pretty good. ALL the Champion gives you is damage and the damage it gives you is dismal. No "minor effects", no defense, nothing else except a modest boost to skill checks which includes initiative.
Eldritch Knight DOES add damage, via Booming Blade and Green Flame blade. With War Magic this includes when you have two attacks. You also get huge defensive buffs with spells like shield and mirror image. You can also pick up battle field control spells, and at level 10 you can give your opponents disadvantage against them. The spells you get gives you a TON of options. The options for the Champion? There are not. It's just mechanically a very tiny sliver of extra damage.
This is the rub. It's not JUST that the Champion subclass adds dismal extra damage in a fight. The rub is that's all it does. The Ancestral Guardian Barbarian subclass adds 0 damage but it's a great subclass because it does so many cool and useful things. To Champion, not so much. The crit range is supposed to be the crown jewel of its subclass abilities and it's terrible. Normally a subclass gives you one or two good-to-great abilities and one or two minor ones, like extra skills. The Champion: At level 3 you get ONE ability that looks great on paper, but objective math exposes it as just plain bad - Improved Critical.
Eldritch Knight: No DPR boost at all, even if you have 16 Intelligence you're unlikely to do more damage with a spell than a weapon attack. 0 DPR.
If you take Find Familiar as one of your spells, and use the owl, you can effectively generate advantage for all of your attacks in tier 1. That's a solid boost, if only for accuracy alone. If you have one of those DMs who rule seperate initiative for familiars, then, at least you're generating advantage for someone else's attacks, which is still a worthwhile DPR boost.
But back onto topic. An argument could be made that a champion might shine in campaigns where short resting doesn't happen as much as you'd like. They exist, and they're more common than you think. A long term campaign I was in and completed was one such campaign. A battlemaster in the same situation will be hurting after running dry of superiority dice after an encounter or two. But the champion doesn't run out of gas in the same way.
That's something to value.
Yes and no. I see your argument about the champion. But that's because, in general, outside of Action Surge, the champion doesn't have many ways to control the fight to begin with! There's nothing to run out of, when you never had any abilities that have limited uses. A battle master can trip an opponent to possibly gain advantage on the next attack and do more damage or make a precise attack to better ensure some crucial hit lands, etc. The champion has no control over the fight. The die roll is it. Yes, we all rely on die rolls, but other fighters frequently have abilities to augment their attacks and or damage, on demand. The champion just rolls the dice and did you get a 19 or 20?
This is why I think champion is best when multi-classed with barbarian. Reckless attacks gives the champion fighter the ability to have advantage on demand. Mix advantage with expanded crit range and you have something. :)
This is why I think champion is best when multi-classed with barbarian. Reckless attacks gives the champion fighter the ability to have advantage on demand. Mix advantage with expanded crit range and you have something. :)
Yeah, if you're trying to make a champion work, crit-fishing has to be your end-all be-all, so your best two choices are Barbarian for Reckless Attack or Rogue for Steady Aim (and/or Arcane Trickster). If you do neither of those, you're going to fight like a Samurai-but-worse or an Eldritch Knight-but-worse.
Incorrect! They use a mount to more effect than a Cavalier or Paladin does, and are THE class that the Grappler feat is for! Splash them into a Monk, to make Stunning Fist self serving! Work for your Advantage, it’s there to find if you look for it.
Incorrect! They use a mount to more effect than a Cavalier or Paladin does, and are THE class that the Grappler feat is for! Splash them into a Monk, to make Stunning Fist self serving! Work for your Advantage, it’s there to find if you look for it.
Grappler feat is terrible garbage...
You are better off just proning and using the feat for literally anything else.
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I was previously modeling the "6 encounters per day" standard, and those are medium encounters that typically run three rounds or so. If we start talking about the way the game is actually played the Champion looks even worse, because it's more prone to a single Deadly encounter (taking around 5 rounds) per short rest, which highly values burst damage.
It certainly isn't earth shattering, but the point I was making with my aforementioned build, is that it can be fairly effective and good.
the bigger point is that it's just not bad.
But Fighters are generally versatile at the things they do through base class features.
A subclass that is just "improved crit range and an extra fighting style" is behind other fighters in ability.
The things that make it good are the base fighter. I judge a subclass by what it adds on top.
That could be equally true if you decided to homebrew a fighter with no subclass whatsoever though. There just isn't enough with the champion to make it noticeably different from that.
My first 5e character was a champion fighter. It doesn't have to be especially good to be fun. But the subclass that you either play around or use for noobs isn't something to recommend it.
If you can reliably crit once per turn, with Slasher or Crusher instead of Piercer, that is a VERY unique take on recreating a Marshall leader-type without Battlemaster or Bard or whatever. I think it’s a class that is easy for new players to pick up without too many strange abilities or resource management thrown at them, but with feats and multiclassing, there’s a depth of angles for experienced players to build around too.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
At level 6 with two weapon fighting, your chance of a crit during a turn is 3% with disadvantage, 27% normal, 47% with advantage, 61% with elven accuracy. Certainly a decent level of control if you can reliably manage advantage, but double feat and reliable advantage is really still in the tier 3 build range.
A Kobold Champion in an Underdark campaign using Bludgeoner and a Quarterstaff and PAM can be be proving a powerful debuf every turn or every other turn right from level 6. Finish off their +2 Str at 8, or even Sentinel at 12, and they’ve got nothing but room for whatever other direction they want to take in life, their 3 or 4 attacks per round having a reliable 20% chance each to cause their team to have advantage all round against that foe. No opposed skill check or condition immunity concerns like Shoving has for inflicting prone, and also no choosing to help melee allies but punish ranged attackers with probe… you’re essentially just unleashing an action-free Zealot 10 team buff every round, of every fight, all day long.
This is not “nothing.” Other subclasses cannot hope to do this. The only other class that can come close might be a Hexblade, but their curse is far more limited, and their advantage and melee competency harder to build.
Champion can be good and complex, y’all.
Edit: I did overlook that Crusher has a size limitation, and isn’t as good on a small character… still a good build in an underground campaign that will be likely to face lots of medium or smaller foes, however.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Yeah and if you get ADV any to hit and CRIT I'm not sure what advantage crusher gives you then if you already have ADV?
I guess you give it to others but still....I would rather be just outright killing things to be honest with the higher damage builds.
Man a BM with SS/CBE Kobold in the same situation is melting things with 3 attacks that have +13 damage... It's not even close.
Kobold can't even use heavy weapons so they are very far behind in damage them with just a quarterstaff.
Overall it's fine but again it's far behind what other builds offer.
That wasn’t a damage build, it was a party Marshall, like I just said. The shapshooter is a selfish build who is able to occasionally Provide some buffs a few times/short rest, not every round. Apples to pears, close but not really the same thing.
For those with ears to hear, I’ve made my point. That point is not that the Champion is “the best” at everything, but rather, that there are some fun ways to play it, and it’s worth a closer look than it’s reputation deserves.
Unlike Eldritch Knight, which is just a steaming pile of dragon poop at every tier 😂
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
But do you really wanna be that guy?
That's an important question.
If you are going to go 90% of the way there by being a Kobold in an underdark campaign why not at that point....
If you take Find Familiar as one of your spells, and use the owl, you can effectively generate advantage for all of your attacks in tier 1. That's a solid boost, if only for accuracy alone. If you have one of those DMs who rule seperate initiative for familiars, then, at least you're generating advantage for someone else's attacks, which is still a worthwhile DPR boost.
But back onto topic. An argument could be made that a champion might shine in campaigns where short resting doesn't happen as much as you'd like. They exist, and they're more common than you think. A long term campaign I was in and completed was one such campaign. A battlemaster in the same situation will be hurting after running dry of superiority dice after an encounter or two. But the champion doesn't run out of gas in the same way.
That's something to value.
Criting isn't that important to fighters. Their damage comes from the number of attacks, not from the number of dice.
A battle master who only gets to use 4 martial dice a day will still average out to about the same damage as a champion, sadly enough, and will take off in terms of combat utility any time they get an additional short rest. That the champion doesn't run out of gas doesn't mean much when its advantages are negligible.
Some of those I agree with, as Champion isn't the only fighter subclass that sucks. But there's too many to answer all of them one at a time, so I'll address:
Battle Master: Precision Strike turns 0 damage into the entire attack worth of damage. Also, "some minor effects" - many of those effects are pretty good. ALL the Champion gives you is damage and the damage it gives you is dismal. No "minor effects", no defense, nothing else except a modest boost to skill checks which includes initiative.
Eldritch Knight DOES add damage, via Booming Blade and Green Flame blade. With War Magic this includes when you have two attacks. You also get huge defensive buffs with spells like shield and mirror image. You can also pick up battle field control spells, and at level 10 you can give your opponents disadvantage against them. The spells you get gives you a TON of options. The options for the Champion? There are not. It's just mechanically a very tiny sliver of extra damage.
This is the rub. It's not JUST that the Champion subclass adds dismal extra damage in a fight. The rub is that's all it does. The Ancestral Guardian Barbarian subclass adds 0 damage but it's a great subclass because it does so many cool and useful things. To Champion, not so much. The crit range is supposed to be the crown jewel of its subclass abilities and it's terrible. Normally a subclass gives you one or two good-to-great abilities and one or two minor ones, like extra skills. The Champion: At level 3 you get ONE ability that looks great on paper, but objective math exposes it as just plain bad - Improved Critical.
Yes and no. I see your argument about the champion. But that's because, in general, outside of Action Surge, the champion doesn't have many ways to control the fight to begin with! There's nothing to run out of, when you never had any abilities that have limited uses. A battle master can trip an opponent to possibly gain advantage on the next attack and do more damage or make a precise attack to better ensure some crucial hit lands, etc. The champion has no control over the fight. The die roll is it. Yes, we all rely on die rolls, but other fighters frequently have abilities to augment their attacks and or damage, on demand. The champion just rolls the dice and did you get a 19 or 20?
This is why I think champion is best when multi-classed with barbarian. Reckless attacks gives the champion fighter the ability to have advantage on demand. Mix advantage with expanded crit range and you have something. :)
Yeah, if you're trying to make a champion work, crit-fishing has to be your end-all be-all, so your best two choices are Barbarian for Reckless Attack or Rogue for Steady Aim (and/or Arcane Trickster). If you do neither of those, you're going to fight like a Samurai-but-worse or an Eldritch Knight-but-worse.
Incorrect! They use a mount to more effect than a Cavalier or Paladin does, and are THE class that the Grappler feat is for! Splash them into a Monk, to make Stunning Fist self serving! Work for your Advantage, it’s there to find if you look for it.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Grappler feat is terrible garbage...
You are better off just proning and using the feat for literally anything else.