You must gather your party before venturing forth. A few questions good sirs and fair maidens.
First adventure. Just made level 3 as a human fighter. Picked Battlemaster and am thinking these three maneuvers.
Menacing attack
Riposte
Sweeping attack
Thoughts?
Question - Can I make my first attack and use a superiority dice for a menacing attack, action surge, then use another superiority dice when I attack using my action surge?
I just made level 3, but am already thinking about level 4. I'm looking for suggestions on whether I should increase two attributes or pick a feat. Role playing wise, I am an older fighter, not very old, about 33, but more of a wiser fighter. Attributes are:
STR - 16
DEX - 13
CON - 17
INT - 12
WIS - 15
CHAR - 12
AC is 18, chain mail, sword and shield, protection style so I can protect the other fighter who I am sworn to protect who is a younger fighter. I'm thinking of increasing my CON and WIS next level to go with my idea that he is relentless and wise. Alternatively, I'm thinking of the following feats: Alert, Savage Attacker, or Tough. Thoughts? Which would give me more hit points each level, +1 to my CON or Tough? I like the idea of Alert to hopefully go first in fights, but I'm not sure that would be as beneficial as more CON and WIS. Thoughts?
There's nothing wrong with your choice of Maneuvers.
"Can I make my first attack and use a superiority dice for a menacing attack, action surge, then use another superiority dice when I attack using my action surge?" Yes.
Wisdom does little good for a Battlemaster. Being "wise" is a matter of roleplay, you don't need to put points into it. Wisdom is handy because of things like Perception, so it's not wasted, but it would be my last priority to raise it. Any of the Feats you list would be fine.
You would get more hip points out of being Tough.
Your Constitution and Wisdom are fine as is. Alert would be just as good as anything else and keys in well with your high Perception.
The only remaining thought I have that has not been mentioned is Precision Strike. The maneuver gets you a bonus to hit that can be considerable at lower levels. Things that you can give to yourself, by yourself, that increase your chance to hit are few and far between.
You can use a Maneuver for each attack as long as you have the superiority die to spend for it. As for Maneuver choices, my personal favorites are: Disarming Attack, Goading Attack and Trip Attack.
Disarming Attack is great because it can greatly decrease an enemies damage or force them to drop something important or valuable. Fun tip you can disarm them, Action Surge and pick up their stuff then run away with it.
Goading Attack is great because as the shield wielding heavy armor user you have a very high AC which means you want enemies to try hit you. And Goading does that unless they want to attack something else with disadvantage.
Trip Attack is better at higher levels when you get Extra Attack features. Basically load your first attack with this and if it succeeds they fall prone and the rest of your attacks have advantage for the turn.
In terms of ASI I suggest maxing your Str first, since you are a Fighter ASIs will appear quite often and Str governs a lot of things you might do such as grappling, pushing people and the DC save for some of your maneuvers also depend on it. Str also increases your odds of landing attacks and the damage you do.
Another asi to consider is 2 in str. Hitting things is your bread and butter, and that will help you hit things. I’d also consider 1 to con and dex. You won’t get the ac bonus from dex, but you get initiative and dex saves, which are pretty big, along with a few skills. Con and wis would also be a good choice. Wis will, as geann notes, boost your perception and a couple other skills. And wis saves are going to be what stops you from getting dominated or charmed.
Feats are fun, but for new players, I usually suggest asi. It’s a static, passive bonus, instead of adding in another ability to keep track of.
And going first in fights isn’t always best. Once you run in there, it gets a lot harder for the wizard to place their fireball, for example. It’s not bad, by any means, and earlier us generally better than later, but there are some tactical considerations.
This is great. Thanks everyone. Has anyone used Sweeping Attack? Thoughts? I was thinking in terms of multiple enemies and since my son and I are both Battlemasters. I thought if we both had Sweeping Attack that combined we could do significant damage. But now I'm thinking of switching Sweeping Attack for Precision Attack or Trip. Thoughts?
Sweeping Attack may work once in a while but chances are your DM will vary the encounters so that the enemies are not clumped together all the time as that will get stale. I have already explained why Trip Attack is one of my favorites and Precision Attack is a solid pick especially in the earlier levels but is something you may replace when you start increasing your Str and finding better weapons.
At high levels Precision Strike remains solid. You get more bonuses to hit, and even more to damage. You attack a lot more often. Armor class can get very high with all the ways to improve on that. Bounded Accuracy makes it difficult to get a good size bonus to hit. Your relevant score caps out pretty quickly, Proficiency goes up very slowly, magical weapons top out at +3 and I can't think of a Feat that gives a big bonus to hit. Even at high level the potential to add +8 is beefy.
I'm not that impressed with Sweeping Attack, but it's far from useless. Bait And Switch might suit you, since you can switch places with the other Fighter you are guarding and even get a bonus to armor class while you do it. There are other maneuvers that can be used to try and pull enemies off your allies and make them focus on you. I gathered you were looking for a wise advisor who fought alongside your allies, not a tank who took the damage for them.
Your maneuvers are fine. Sweeping is good early on in an adventuring career, and given your role as a protector, menacing is great.
Most maneuvers are used on a hit, not an attack, which doesn't risk having the superiority die go to complete waste. If your party has a rogue or paladin, commander's is really powerful.
I've got a high wisdom fighter, though it's an archer monk multiclass with an emphasis on awareness (alert, observant, skill expert). For you, I'd recommend your ASI idea or resilient for wisdom saves. Wisdom helps protect against a ton of save-or-suck abilities.
Sweeping sucks, ngl. Take it from someone who's first character was also a battle master that took sweeping as one of my first three maneuvers. Precision is way better choice. Seriously, you can spend a die to potentially do 3 damage, or you can turn your miss into a hit, which is way more damage for your die and action economy.
Brace is a very nice maneuver as well, it’s all about these amazing off-turn attacks.
I don’t like the Protection fighting style particularly, mainly because it’s not that hard to give disadvantage to your enemies’ attack (shove prone and grapple; Dodge action, etc; lots of spells and abilities). I recommend the Interception fighting style, damage prevention is much more reliable than healing!
Definitely drop sweeping for precision. I take it you're more melee than ranged, right? Precision+Menacing+Trip is great for laying the hurt on your target, but riposte is a perfectly fine third choice. Brace is good if you're not taking PAM.
AC is 18, chain mail, sword and shield, protection style so I can protect the other fighter who I am sworn to protect who is a younger fighter. I'm thinking of increasing my CON and WIS next level to go with my idea that he is relentless and wise. Alternatively, I'm thinking of the following feats: Alert, Savage Attacker, or Tough. Thoughts? Which would give me more hit points each level, +1 to my CON or Tough? I like the idea of Alert to hopefully go first in fights, but I'm not sure that would be as beneficial as more CON and WIS. Thoughts?
Assuming you will go to at least level 6 (which seems likely) I would use the ASI to bump Dex and Con. That basically gives you a feat that give you 4 more HP and +1 to Initiative, all melee weapons and all Dex-based ability checks. Not bad.
But why Dex and Con and not Wis and Con or Tough, or Alert or some other feat? Well, you really don't need to take those yet. Starting with the easiest, Tough, it only gives you 4 more HP compared to boosting Con which at this level isn't that many. I'd save Tough for level 12, or so. Alert is good but you get some of the perks from raising your Dex and again, you can always wait a bit.
So why not Wisdom? Again, you really don't need it, for now. You are already really good at Wisdom stuff so you can afford to spend your resources where you get more bang for the buck, so to speak. You can always pick Skill Expert later to boost your Wisdom.
Side note, since you're playing a Human, did you go with regular Human or did you go Variant Human? If so, what feat did you pick at level 1?
Of your initial maneuver choices, I agree with some here that Sweeping Attack is probably the weakest of the three, but it's by no means useless. When I played a Battlemaster in Princes Of The Apocalypse, Menacing Attack was my MVP. I was an archer, so I could hit someone with it while they were still at a distance, and let the spellcasters take potshots for a round while they couldn't advance. I never used Riposte or Sweeping Attack, because archer. :) Precision Attack is definitely one you'll want to look into, not many things feel better than turning a miss into a hit. Well, a likely miss that is. You can use it after you roll, but I believe it has to be before you know if the attack hits. But if you've figured out the Boss' likely AC, and you're trying to land that killing blow, you can turn that "Missed it by THAT much!" into a "How do you want to do this?".
As for your ASI/Feat choices, looking at your stats I'd likely go with the following: Level 4 - Str+2, Level 6 - Dex+1 and Con+1, Level 8 - Resilient(Wis)
Just me personally, I pretty much always try to have my attack stat up to at least 18 by Level 4 if I can. I might swap the Level 6 and Level 8 choices, depending on what sort of monsters I've been seeing. Folks here are right, you don't need super high Wisdom. Wisdom SAVES are another matter. Of the big 3 saves, failing a Dex save usually just means more damage because you couldn't dodge the fireball/lightning/etc. Failing a Con or Wis save are where the status effects start kicking in. Getting poisoned, charmed, dominated, frightened, paralyzed, etc. SUCKS OUT LOUD. As a Fighter you've got Con saves covered, I would HIGHLY recommend Resilient(Wis) at some point.
This is great. Thanks everyone. Do your views of Sweeping Attack change if both fighters in the party are Battlemasters, fight side-by-side, and are facing multiple monsters? Both could attack the same one but Sweep Attack the same other. But I suppose smart monsters would just separate and move around so they're not side-by-side so that answers my question. I think we'll go with Menacing, Precision, and Riposte.
What determines the wisdom saving throw DC for a monster against menacing attack? Is it strength? I see one of us has a DC of 13 and the other 14. The 13 has 16 STR and the 14 has 18 STR. Thanks.
What determines the wisdom saving throw DC for a monster against menacing attack? Is it strength? I see one of us has a DC of 13 and the other 14. The 13 has 16 STR and the 14 has 18 STR. Thanks.
Formula for the DC of your maneuvers is 8 + proficiency bonus + strength OR dexterity modifier
This is great. Thanks everyone. Do your views of Sweeping Attack change if both fighters in the party are Battlemasters, fight side-by-side, and are facing multiple monsters? Both could attack the same one but Sweep Attack the same other. But I suppose smart monsters would just separate and move around so they're not side-by-side so that answers my question. I think we'll go with Menacing, Precision, and Riposte.
That's a good group of maneuvers for sure. Tripping Attack is also an excellent option worth considering taking when you can take more, especially since you have a 2nd front line melee fighter in your party. If you can trip a monster for not only any other attacks you have on that turn but also for the 2nd fighter, well you're giving your party a lot of attacks at Advantage
You must gather your party before venturing forth. A few questions good sirs and fair maidens.
First adventure. Just made level 3 as a human fighter. Picked Battlemaster and am thinking these three maneuvers.
Menacing attack
Riposte
Sweeping attack
Thoughts?
Question - Can I make my first attack and use a superiority dice for a menacing attack, action surge, then use another superiority dice when I attack using my action surge?
I just made level 3, but am already thinking about level 4. I'm looking for suggestions on whether I should increase two attributes or pick a feat. Role playing wise, I am an older fighter, not very old, about 33, but more of a wiser fighter. Attributes are:
STR - 16
DEX - 13
CON - 17
INT - 12
WIS - 15
CHAR - 12
AC is 18, chain mail, sword and shield, protection style so I can protect the other fighter who I am sworn to protect who is a younger fighter. I'm thinking of increasing my CON and WIS next level to go with my idea that he is relentless and wise. Alternatively, I'm thinking of the following feats: Alert, Savage Attacker, or Tough. Thoughts? Which would give me more hit points each level, +1 to my CON or Tough? I like the idea of Alert to hopefully go first in fights, but I'm not sure that would be as beneficial as more CON and WIS. Thoughts?
Thanks.
There's nothing wrong with your choice of Maneuvers.
"Can I make my first attack and use a superiority dice for a menacing attack, action surge, then use another superiority dice when I attack using my action surge?" Yes.
Wisdom does little good for a Battlemaster. Being "wise" is a matter of roleplay, you don't need to put points into it. Wisdom is handy because of things like Perception, so it's not wasted, but it would be my last priority to raise it. Any of the Feats you list would be fine.
You would get more hip points out of being Tough.
Your Constitution and Wisdom are fine as is. Alert would be just as good as anything else and keys in well with your high Perception.
The only remaining thought I have that has not been mentioned is Precision Strike. The maneuver gets you a bonus to hit that can be considerable at lower levels. Things that you can give to yourself, by yourself, that increase your chance to hit are few and far between.
Have fun in your games.
<Insert clever signature here>
You can use a Maneuver for each attack as long as you have the superiority die to spend for it. As for Maneuver choices, my personal favorites are: Disarming Attack, Goading Attack and Trip Attack.
Disarming Attack is great because it can greatly decrease an enemies damage or force them to drop something important or valuable. Fun tip you can disarm them, Action Surge and pick up their stuff then run away with it.
Goading Attack is great because as the shield wielding heavy armor user you have a very high AC which means you want enemies to try hit you. And Goading does that unless they want to attack something else with disadvantage.
Trip Attack is better at higher levels when you get Extra Attack features. Basically load your first attack with this and if it succeeds they fall prone and the rest of your attacks have advantage for the turn.
In terms of ASI I suggest maxing your Str first, since you are a Fighter ASIs will appear quite often and Str governs a lot of things you might do such as grappling, pushing people and the DC save for some of your maneuvers also depend on it. Str also increases your odds of landing attacks and the damage you do.
Hope this helps.
Another asi to consider is 2 in str. Hitting things is your bread and butter, and that will help you hit things.
I’d also consider 1 to con and dex. You won’t get the ac bonus from dex, but you get initiative and dex saves, which are pretty big, along with a few skills. Con and wis would also be a good choice. Wis will, as geann notes, boost your perception and a couple other skills. And wis saves are going to be what stops you from getting dominated or charmed.
Feats are fun, but for new players, I usually suggest asi. It’s a static, passive bonus, instead of adding in another ability to keep track of.
And going first in fights isn’t always best. Once you run in there, it gets a lot harder for the wizard to place their fireball, for example. It’s not bad, by any means, and earlier us generally better than later, but there are some tactical considerations.
This is great. Thanks everyone. Has anyone used Sweeping Attack? Thoughts? I was thinking in terms of multiple enemies and since my son and I are both Battlemasters. I thought if we both had Sweeping Attack that combined we could do significant damage. But now I'm thinking of switching Sweeping Attack for Precision Attack or Trip. Thoughts?
Sweeping Attack may work once in a while but chances are your DM will vary the encounters so that the enemies are not clumped together all the time as that will get stale. I have already explained why Trip Attack is one of my favorites and Precision Attack is a solid pick especially in the earlier levels but is something you may replace when you start increasing your Str and finding better weapons.
At high levels Precision Strike remains solid. You get more bonuses to hit, and even more to damage. You attack a lot more often. Armor class can get very high with all the ways to improve on that. Bounded Accuracy makes it difficult to get a good size bonus to hit. Your relevant score caps out pretty quickly, Proficiency goes up very slowly, magical weapons top out at +3 and I can't think of a Feat that gives a big bonus to hit. Even at high level the potential to add +8 is beefy.
I'm not that impressed with Sweeping Attack, but it's far from useless. Bait And Switch might suit you, since you can switch places with the other Fighter you are guarding and even get a bonus to armor class while you do it. There are other maneuvers that can be used to try and pull enemies off your allies and make them focus on you. I gathered you were looking for a wise advisor who fought alongside your allies, not a tank who took the damage for them.
Have fun in your games.
<Insert clever signature here>
Your maneuvers are fine. Sweeping is good early on in an adventuring career, and given your role as a protector, menacing is great.
Most maneuvers are used on a hit, not an attack, which doesn't risk having the superiority die go to complete waste. If your party has a rogue or paladin, commander's is really powerful.
I've got a high wisdom fighter, though it's an archer monk multiclass with an emphasis on awareness (alert, observant, skill expert). For you, I'd recommend your ASI idea or resilient for wisdom saves. Wisdom helps protect against a ton of save-or-suck abilities.
Sweeping sucks, ngl. Take it from someone who's first character was also a battle master that took sweeping as one of my first three maneuvers. Precision is way better choice. Seriously, you can spend a die to potentially do 3 damage, or you can turn your miss into a hit, which is way more damage for your die and action economy.
Brace is a very nice maneuver as well, it’s all about these amazing off-turn attacks.
I don’t like the Protection fighting style particularly, mainly because it’s not that hard to give disadvantage to your enemies’ attack (shove prone and grapple; Dodge action, etc; lots of spells and abilities). I recommend the Interception fighting style, damage prevention is much more reliable than healing!
Definitely drop sweeping for precision. I take it you're more melee than ranged, right? Precision+Menacing+Trip is great for laying the hurt on your target, but riposte is a perfectly fine third choice. Brace is good if you're not taking PAM.
Assuming you will go to at least level 6 (which seems likely) I would use the ASI to bump Dex and Con. That basically gives you a feat that give you 4 more HP and +1 to Initiative, all melee weapons and all Dex-based ability checks. Not bad.
But why Dex and Con and not Wis and Con or Tough, or Alert or some other feat? Well, you really don't need to take those yet. Starting with the easiest, Tough, it only gives you 4 more HP compared to boosting Con which at this level isn't that many. I'd save Tough for level 12, or so. Alert is good but you get some of the perks from raising your Dex and again, you can always wait a bit.
So why not Wisdom? Again, you really don't need it, for now. You are already really good at Wisdom stuff so you can afford to spend your resources where you get more bang for the buck, so to speak. You can always pick Skill Expert later to boost your Wisdom.
Side note, since you're playing a Human, did you go with regular Human or did you go Variant Human? If so, what feat did you pick at level 1?
Of your initial maneuver choices, I agree with some here that Sweeping Attack is probably the weakest of the three, but it's by no means useless. When I played a Battlemaster in Princes Of The Apocalypse, Menacing Attack was my MVP. I was an archer, so I could hit someone with it while they were still at a distance, and let the spellcasters take potshots for a round while they couldn't advance. I never used Riposte or Sweeping Attack, because archer. :) Precision Attack is definitely one you'll want to look into, not many things feel better than turning a miss into a hit. Well, a likely miss that is. You can use it after you roll, but I believe it has to be before you know if the attack hits. But if you've figured out the Boss' likely AC, and you're trying to land that killing blow, you can turn that "Missed it by THAT much!" into a "How do you want to do this?".
As for your ASI/Feat choices, looking at your stats I'd likely go with the following: Level 4 - Str+2, Level 6 - Dex+1 and Con+1, Level 8 - Resilient(Wis)
Just me personally, I pretty much always try to have my attack stat up to at least 18 by Level 4 if I can. I might swap the Level 6 and Level 8 choices, depending on what sort of monsters I've been seeing. Folks here are right, you don't need super high Wisdom. Wisdom SAVES are another matter. Of the big 3 saves, failing a Dex save usually just means more damage because you couldn't dodge the fireball/lightning/etc. Failing a Con or Wis save are where the status effects start kicking in. Getting poisoned, charmed, dominated, frightened, paralyzed, etc. SUCKS OUT LOUD. As a Fighter you've got Con saves covered, I would HIGHLY recommend Resilient(Wis) at some point.
This is great. Thanks everyone. Do your views of Sweeping Attack change if both fighters in the party are Battlemasters, fight side-by-side, and are facing multiple monsters? Both could attack the same one but Sweep Attack the same other. But I suppose smart monsters would just separate and move around so they're not side-by-side so that answers my question. I think we'll go with Menacing, Precision, and Riposte.
What determines the wisdom saving throw DC for a monster against menacing attack? Is it strength? I see one of us has a DC of 13 and the other 14. The 13 has 16 STR and the 14 has 18 STR. Thanks.
Formula for the DC of your maneuvers is 8 + proficiency bonus + strength OR dexterity modifier
That's a good group of maneuvers for sure. Tripping Attack is also an excellent option worth considering taking when you can take more, especially since you have a 2nd front line melee fighter in your party. If you can trip a monster for not only any other attacks you have on that turn but also for the 2nd fighter, well you're giving your party a lot of attacks at Advantage
Thanks.