"As a Bonus Action, you can expend one Superiority Die and take the Disengage action. You also roll the die and add the number rolled to your AC until the start of your next turn."
*Defensive Duelist*
"Parry. If you’re holding a Finesse weapon and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can take a Reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your Armor Class, potentially causing the attack to miss you. You gain this bonus to your AC against melee attacks until the start of your next turn."
Can these two abilities stack together on a single round to get a characters AC crazy high ? One is a bonus action and the other is a reaction. So it seems to me like they can. Is there any thing I am missing here ?
That's a good point. So they would stack against melee attacks, and if you were attacked with a ranged attack between your turns and you had both of these options active from a previous melee attack, only the Evasive Footwork bonus to your AC would count against that attack and the Defensive Dualist AC bonus wouldn't... right?
That's a good point. So they would stack against melee attacks, and if you were attacked with a ranged attack between your turns and you had both of these options active from a previous melee attack, only the Evasive Footwork bonus to your AC would count against that attack and the Defensive Dualist AC bonus wouldn't... right?
If you Dodge with your main action you will be nearly invincible.
Evasive Footwork is appearing to be quite good. Free Disengage and a AC bonus for the cost of your Bonus Action and a Superiority Die; this is more or less comparable to Shield spell.
18 DEX (Rapier +7 to Hit 1D8+6 damage)("Dueling" fighting style)
"If" the character would end up in a battle with say a lot of zombies surrounding them in a small room, combat could look like this
Round One.
Action = Attack x2
Bonus Action = "Evasive Footwork" - 1D8 to AC
Turn ends and character tries to move to a better position.
Enemies turn - They move up to the character and melee attack possibly triggering Reaction "Defensive Duelist - Parry"
If triggered "Parry" adds current Proficiency Bonus of +3 to AC on top of "Evasive Footwork" AC boost.
There is now a possible +11 boost to the characters AC until the start of their next turn for a total possible AC of 29 at Level 5. Which is only going to go up as the Superiority die size and Proficiency Bonus goes up as the character levels up.
I am trying to rebuild a "Swordsman" character for the 2024 rules who used to be a Swords Bard that I played in a few One-Shots for a new campaign. Since Swords Bard didn't get updated with the new rules I thought I'd try to rebuild him as a Battle Master, and I'm liking the idea so far. I used to be able to crank up the Swords Bards AC using "Defensive Flourish", but his AC never got this high. I might have to keep this character. Thanks for the info and insight guys.
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*Evasive Footwork*
"As a Bonus Action, you can expend one Superiority Die and take the Disengage action. You also roll the die and add the number rolled to your AC until the start of your next turn."
*Defensive Duelist*
"Parry. If you’re holding a Finesse weapon and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can take a Reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your Armor Class, potentially causing the attack to miss you. You gain this bonus to your AC against melee attacks until the start of your next turn."
Can these two abilities stack together on a single round to get a characters AC crazy high ? One is a bonus action and the other is a reaction. So it seems to me like they can. Is there any thing I am missing here ?
They stack, but Defensive Duelist only works against melee attacks.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
That's a good point. So they would stack against melee attacks, and if you were attacked with a ranged attack between your turns and you had both of these options active from a previous melee attack, only the Evasive Footwork bonus to your AC would count against that attack and the Defensive Dualist AC bonus wouldn't... right?
Correct.
pronouns: he/she/they
If you Dodge with your main action you will be nearly invincible.
Evasive Footwork is appearing to be quite good. Free Disengage and a AC bonus for the cost of your Bonus Action and a Superiority Die; this is more or less comparable to Shield spell.
For fun I was just doing some AC math.
Battlemaster Fighter Level 5.
18AC (Breastplate & Shield)
18 DEX (Rapier +7 to Hit 1D8+6 damage)("Dueling" fighting style)
"If" the character would end up in a battle with say a lot of zombies surrounding them in a small room, combat could look like this
Round One.
There is now a possible +11 boost to the characters AC until the start of their next turn for a total possible AC of 29 at Level 5. Which is only going to go up as the Superiority die size and Proficiency Bonus goes up as the character levels up.
I am trying to rebuild a "Swordsman" character for the 2024 rules who used to be a Swords Bard that I played in a few One-Shots for a new campaign. Since Swords Bard didn't get updated with the new rules I thought I'd try to rebuild him as a Battle Master, and I'm liking the idea so far. I used to be able to crank up the Swords Bards AC using "Defensive Flourish", but his AC never got this high. I might have to keep this character. Thanks for the info and insight guys.