I'm playing a Hill Dwarf Ancestral Guardian Barbarian who just reached level 4 and I'm don't know which half-feat would be better. My options are Tavern Brawler, Skill Expert (Athletics), Crusher or maybe Slasher.
His stats (thanks to Tasha's custom) are STR 17, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8.
I want to round up his STR and also add some versatility to his combat repertoire -- and each feat can contribute with something.
I personally would choose Skill Expert (Choosing a skill nobody has in your party, like nature or religion possibly), even with -1 INT you'd have +3 to Nature with expertise and at 5th level that would increase to +5. Expertise is VERY strong.
That being said another possible choice is Squat Nimbleness. It will give +1 STR, 5 extra feet of movement, proficiency in Acrobatics, and ADV on checks to escape being grappled. Movement being less than 30 is rough, even though you'll have +10 movement starting next level an extra +5 here isn't bad.
Both Crusher and Slasher are valid options though but do lock you out of wanting to use any cool magic items you might find that don't deal that type of damage. Your DM will probably account for this, but its worth noting.
Personally from those choices, I’d go slasher or crusher — battlefield control is always useful. Crusher seems more fun to me. An angry dwarf with a war hammer knocking people around the map seems really fun.
Maybe I'm too stereotypical but, I imagine a Barbarian with a 2 hander. The single biggest improvement Feat in my mind is Great Weapon Master to start. At 8th lvl and beyond I would worry about upping STR and versatility.
I'm playing a Hill Dwarf Ancestral Guardian Barbarian who just reached level 4 and I'm don't know which half-feat would be better. My options are Tavern Brawler, Skill Expert (Athletics), Crusher or maybe Slasher.
His stats (thanks to Tasha's custom) are STR 17, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8.
I want to round up his STR and also add some versatility to his combat repertoire -- and each feat can contribute with something.
What are your insights and recommendation?
Sounds like you would have been happier as a Simic Hybrid, if you want to fight this way.
Tavern Brawler is a waste of your time. You can't bonus action rage and bonus action grapple at the same time, and more importantly, you can only use it after hitting with an inferior weapon.
How good Crusher is is very dependent on what shove hazards your party is putting down, and you didn't describe any - the big seller is the forced movement without a save (especially since the crit effect doesn't stack with Reckless Attack and you want RA online to help you crit more often). Slasher is a poor choice for your subclass.
Skill Expert (Athletics) is 100% my recommendation for you from this list, since you clearly want to lean into being a Shovebarian - it makes you better at grappling, shoving 5 feet, and shoving prone as necessary. That said, I would seriously consider the Sentinel feat, which is particularly good on Ancestral Guardians.
I guess I should have provided more details about the build and the role my character has in the party. So we already have “alpha strikers” in the group with a Fighter GWM and a Ranger/Fighter Archer SS. My party needs more protection, damage mitigation and battlefield control. Our Wizard has some control spells, but she is more of a fireball person. Therefore, I’m not considering GWM at all, since DPR is not my priority.
About the feats suggested:
Tavern Brawler: I agree the bonus action anti-synergy with Rage and the requirement to hit a weak attack is kind of sucks. I wish Shield Master were half-feat. Sentinel: I love this feat, but I think it will compete in the future with my level 6 reaction sub-class ability, right? Skill Expert: Sounds really good, but is not like a waste/overkill since high STR, prof + advantage when in Rage will make me succeed most likely? Crusher (or Slasher): I don’t want to limit weapon option of this character, but it seems the 5 ft push could help some allies to run away without provoke OAs or something.
Well, I don’t know yet. But once again, thanks for your inputs.
Crusher and switch between two weapon fighting light hammers or a quarterstaff with a shield. Allows you to rage, attack with crushing damage from 20-60 foot away by throwing hammers. Upon landing the attack to impose disadvantage and resistance for your party members, move 10-15ft away. This allows you to stay within the 30ft to reduce damage on your allies in melee combat with the creature. This makes your strikers immensely difficult to damage by most creatures. If you crit your strikers will all get advantage vs the creature you’re all focused on, which drastically increases your offense. Later on you could potentially pick up polearm master to be a bit more offensive, at least in regard to potentially attacking 3 times with crushing damage to crit fish by attacking recklessly.
if you don’t want to invest in polearm master two weapon fighting with light hammers isn’t too bad with the crusher feat and reckless attack. 26%chance to crit at least once per turn since you’d be rolling 6 die.
I guess I should have provided more details about the build and the role my character has in the party. So we already have “alpha strikers” in the group with a Fighter GWM and a Ranger/Fighter Archer SS. My party needs more protection, damage mitigation and battlefield control. Our Wizard has some control spells, but she is more of a fireball person. Therefore, I’m not considering GWM at all, since DPR is not my priority.
About the feats suggested:
Tavern Brawler: I agree the bonus action anti-synergy with Rage and the requirement to hit a weak attack is kind of sucks. I wish Shield Master were half-feat. Sentinel: I love this feat, but I think it will compete in the future with my level 6 reaction sub-class ability, right? Skill Expert: Sounds really good, but is not like a waste/overkill since high STR, prof + advantage when in Rage will make me succeed most likely? Crusher (or Slasher): I don’t want to limit weapon option of this character, but it seems the 5 ft push could help some allies to run away without provoke OAs or something.
Well, I don’t know yet. But once again, thanks for your inputs.
One benefit of Crusher is that you'll have two chances (after level 5) to apply the debuff for control, which combined with Reckless Attacks should occur frequently (and often on the first attack meaning the second attack won't be able to apply the debuff). This will limit the amount of wasted actions, which is critical for control options. When you do crit, everyone will be able to get advantage on their attacks (which doesn't benefit people who use saves). The tradeoff versus grapples is more damage for a usually weaker control. The 5 ft push is effective against melee attackers if it pushes them out of range of your allies or into other effects. It actually is a worse situation for most ranged attackers since being within 5 ft of you imposes disadvantage on their attacks, leaving the edge case of just moving them out of their attack radius against one of your allies. It does little against creatures that force saves, though the ranges their spells and abilities have tend to be shorter.
Skill Expert (Athletics) simply means that you'll have fewer wasted actions trying to control a creature, and the control is more significant. Since athletics checks are a one shot option per turn without causing damage, missing on them can cause problems. High strength plus expertise at advantage helps to ensure those fails are limited.
A grapple limits all attackers' ability to move, hampering their ability to force a save or make an attack (still weaker against saves).
Shoving Prone protects from melee attackers by placing disadvantage on their attacks and limiting their movement to half of its normal amount.
It gives advantage to your melee allies within 5 ft, but does limit your ranged allies.
Prone
A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the attack roll has disadvantage.
Consider which option fits your party better and choose it.
Out of curiosity, where would I find the list of Half-Feats you used? All I can find is the ones in Xanathar's; Squat Nimbleness and Dwarven Fortitude. Out of those two, it's hard to make a choice.
Squat Nimbleness gives you
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check you make to escape from being grappled.
Dwarven Fortitude gives you
Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Whenever you take the Dodge action in combat, you can spend one Hit Die to heal yourself. Roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain a number of hit points equal to the total (minimum of 1).
You would want Squat Nimbleness for tanking probably, but Dwarven Fortitude might be better. I notice your party doesn't have any healing but what the Ranger can provide, and they aren't very good at that.
As for the rest, I'm pretty sure Tavern Brawler would be useless to you. Being proficient in Improvised Weapons will always be inferior to a real weapon ,and you've got one at least.
Sentinel sounds nice.
Skill Expert... How often do you make skill checks while you are raging in combat?
You don't like Crusher or Slasher...
I'd suggest if you want to go on the offence, (in the "best defense is a good offense" kind of way) go with Savage Attacker, or possibly you could take Tough. You're really going to need those hit points.
It seems counterintuitive, but Barbarians can get away with lower/slower Strength than other melee combatants. Between Rage providing a damage bonus, Reckless Attack giving advantage, and Rage giving advantage on strength checks… a +3 Str Barbarian attacks about as well as a +5 Str fighter! So if you WANT shield master now to define a cool defensive+control fighting style… take it! Skill Expert (Athletics) will synergize well with Shield Master, making those shoves prone a sure thing even when you aren’t raging for advantage. skill expert-athletics(Str), shield master, crusher (con), chef (con), ASI (Str), tough, sentinel… i might consider picking five of those and plotting out a progression.
Out of curiosity, where would I find the list of Half-Feats you used? All I can find is the ones in Xanathar's; Squat Nimbleness and Dwarven Fortitude. Out of those two, it's hard to make a choice.
Squat Nimbleness gives you
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check you make to escape from being grappled.
Dwarven Fortitude gives you
Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Whenever you take the Dodge action in combat, you can spend one Hit Die to heal yourself. Roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain a number of hit points equal to the total (minimum of 1).
You would want Squat Nimbleness for tanking probably, but Dwarven Fortitude might be better. I notice your party doesn't have any healing but what the Ranger can provide, and they aren't very good at that.
As for the rest, I'm pretty sure Tavern Brawler would be useless to you. Being proficient in Improvised Weapons will always be inferior to a real weapon ,and you've got one at least.
Sentinel sounds nice.
Skill Expert... How often do you make skill checks while you are raging in combat?
You don't like Crusher or Slasher...
I'd suggest if you want to go on the offence, (in the "best defense is a good offense" kind of way) go with Savage Attacker, or possibly you could take Tough. You're really going to need those hit points.
The ones mentioned are either in the PHB and Tasha's.
It seems counterintuitive, but Barbarians can get away with lower/slower Strength than other melee combatants. Between Rage providing a damage bonus, Reckless Attack giving advantage, and Rage giving advantage on strength checks… a +3 Str Barbarian attacks about as well as a +5 Str fighter! So if you WANT shield master now to define a cool defensive+control fighting style… take it! Skill Expert (Athletics) will synergize well with Shield Master, making those shoves prone a sure thing even when you aren’t raging for advantage. skill expert-athletics(Str), shield master, crusher (con), chef (con), ASI (Str), tough, sentinel… i might consider picking five of those and plotting out a progression.
I'm inclined to agree here. If being a "DPR" is not a goal, why not reduce STR to an even 16 and continue to raise CON and/or DEX for HP and AC?
Hi friends,
I'm playing a Hill Dwarf Ancestral Guardian Barbarian who just reached level 4 and I'm don't know which half-feat would be better. My options are Tavern Brawler, Skill Expert (Athletics), Crusher or maybe Slasher.
His stats (thanks to Tasha's custom) are STR 17, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8.
I want to round up his STR and also add some versatility to his combat repertoire -- and each feat can contribute with something.
What are your insights and recommendation?
I personally would choose Skill Expert (Choosing a skill nobody has in your party, like nature or religion possibly), even with -1 INT you'd have +3 to Nature with expertise and at 5th level that would increase to +5. Expertise is VERY strong.
That being said another possible choice is Squat Nimbleness. It will give +1 STR, 5 extra feet of movement, proficiency in Acrobatics, and ADV on checks to escape being grappled. Movement being less than 30 is rough, even though you'll have +10 movement starting next level an extra +5 here isn't bad.
Both Crusher and Slasher are valid options though but do lock you out of wanting to use any cool magic items you might find that don't deal that type of damage. Your DM will probably account for this, but its worth noting.
Check out my latest homebrew: Mystic Knight (Fighter) v1.31
Personally from those choices, I’d go slasher or crusher — battlefield control is always useful. Crusher seems more fun to me. An angry dwarf with a war hammer knocking people around the map seems really fun.
Maybe I'm too stereotypical but, I imagine a Barbarian with a 2 hander. The single biggest improvement Feat in my mind is Great Weapon Master to start. At 8th lvl and beyond I would worry about upping STR and versatility.
Sounds like you would have been happier as a Simic Hybrid, if you want to fight this way.
Tavern Brawler is a waste of your time. You can't bonus action rage and bonus action grapple at the same time, and more importantly, you can only use it after hitting with an inferior weapon.
How good Crusher is is very dependent on what shove hazards your party is putting down, and you didn't describe any - the big seller is the forced movement without a save (especially since the crit effect doesn't stack with Reckless Attack and you want RA online to help you crit more often). Slasher is a poor choice for your subclass.
Skill Expert (Athletics) is 100% my recommendation for you from this list, since you clearly want to lean into being a Shovebarian - it makes you better at grappling, shoving 5 feet, and shoving prone as necessary. That said, I would seriously consider the Sentinel feat, which is particularly good on Ancestral Guardians.
Crusher/Slasher or GWM (it's just too good not to mention for a barbarian) get my vote...
Hey folks, thanks very much for your replies.
I guess I should have provided more details about the build and the role my character has in the party. So we already have “alpha strikers” in the group with a Fighter GWM and a Ranger/Fighter Archer SS. My party needs more protection, damage mitigation and battlefield control. Our Wizard has some control spells, but she is more of a fireball person. Therefore, I’m not considering GWM at all, since DPR is not my priority.
About the feats suggested:
Tavern Brawler: I agree the bonus action anti-synergy with Rage and the requirement to hit a weak attack is kind of sucks. I wish Shield Master were half-feat.
Sentinel: I love this feat, but I think it will compete in the future with my level 6 reaction sub-class ability, right?
Skill Expert: Sounds really good, but is not like a waste/overkill since high STR, prof + advantage when in Rage will make me succeed most likely?
Crusher (or Slasher): I don’t want to limit weapon option of this character, but it seems the 5 ft push could help some allies to run away without provoke OAs or something.
Well, I don’t know yet. But once again, thanks for your inputs.
Crusher and switch between two weapon fighting light hammers or a quarterstaff with a shield. Allows you to rage, attack with crushing damage from 20-60 foot away by throwing hammers. Upon landing the attack to impose disadvantage and resistance for your party members, move 10-15ft away. This allows you to stay within the 30ft to reduce damage on your allies in melee combat with the creature. This makes your strikers immensely difficult to damage by most creatures. If you crit your strikers will all get advantage vs the creature you’re all focused on, which drastically increases your offense. Later on you could potentially pick up polearm master to be a bit more offensive, at least in regard to potentially attacking 3 times with crushing damage to crit fish by attacking recklessly.
if you don’t want to invest in polearm master two weapon fighting with light hammers isn’t too bad with the crusher feat and reckless attack. 26%chance to crit at least once per turn since you’d be rolling 6 die.
One benefit of Crusher is that you'll have two chances (after level 5) to apply the debuff for control, which combined with Reckless Attacks should occur frequently (and often on the first attack meaning the second attack won't be able to apply the debuff). This will limit the amount of wasted actions, which is critical for control options. When you do crit, everyone will be able to get advantage on their attacks (which doesn't benefit people who use saves). The tradeoff versus grapples is more damage for a usually weaker control. The 5 ft push is effective against melee attackers if it pushes them out of range of your allies or into other effects. It actually is a worse situation for most ranged attackers since being within 5 ft of you imposes disadvantage on their attacks, leaving the edge case of just moving them out of their attack radius against one of your allies. It does little against creatures that force saves, though the ranges their spells and abilities have tend to be shorter.
Skill Expert (Athletics) simply means that you'll have fewer wasted actions trying to control a creature, and the control is more significant. Since athletics checks are a one shot option per turn without causing damage, missing on them can cause problems. High strength plus expertise at advantage helps to ensure those fails are limited.
A grapple limits all attackers' ability to move, hampering their ability to force a save or make an attack (still weaker against saves).
Shoving Prone protects from melee attackers by placing disadvantage on their attacks and limiting their movement to half of its normal amount.
It gives advantage to your melee allies within 5 ft, but does limit your ranged allies.
Prone
Consider which option fits your party better and choose it.
Out of curiosity, where would I find the list of Half-Feats you used? All I can find is the ones in Xanathar's; Squat Nimbleness and Dwarven Fortitude. Out of those two, it's hard to make a choice.
Squat Nimbleness gives you
Dwarven Fortitude gives you
You would want Squat Nimbleness for tanking probably, but Dwarven Fortitude might be better. I notice your party doesn't have any healing but what the Ranger can provide, and they aren't very good at that.
As for the rest, I'm pretty sure Tavern Brawler would be useless to you. Being proficient in Improvised Weapons will always be inferior to a real weapon ,and you've got one at least.
Sentinel sounds nice.
Skill Expert... How often do you make skill checks while you are raging in combat?
You don't like Crusher or Slasher...
I'd suggest if you want to go on the offence, (in the "best defense is a good offense" kind of way) go with Savage Attacker, or possibly you could take Tough. You're really going to need those hit points.
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It seems counterintuitive, but Barbarians can get away with lower/slower Strength than other melee combatants. Between Rage providing a damage bonus, Reckless Attack giving advantage, and Rage giving advantage on strength checks… a +3 Str Barbarian attacks about as well as a +5 Str fighter! So if you WANT shield master now to define a cool defensive+control fighting style… take it! Skill Expert (Athletics) will synergize well with Shield Master, making those shoves prone a sure thing even when you aren’t raging for advantage. skill expert-athletics(Str), shield master, crusher (con), chef (con), ASI (Str), tough, sentinel… i might consider picking five of those and plotting out a progression.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The ones mentioned are either in the PHB and Tasha's.
I'm inclined to agree here. If being a "DPR" is not a goal, why not reduce STR to an even 16 and continue to raise CON and/or DEX for HP and AC?
Well, makes a lot of sense. Thanks very much for your insights. It helped a lot. SHIELD MASTER it is.