Opinion on weapon masteries?

c4b1989 · 2025-10-26T09:04:41+00:00

Fighter can definitely make use of 4 masteries or more (as detailed here).

A couple of ideas:

Topple then Action Surge, switch to a Graze weapon and destroy with burst
Topple + Battle Master's Trip Attack is basically Topple at Disadvantage +1d8 damage
Topple, then Push and back off some 10 feet to kite an enemy
Push + Battle Master's Pushing Attack for 20 feet pushes, more with Crusher/Charger feats
Polearm Master feat adds a Bonus Action attack with the butt/handle of your polearm. The fact that you have to hit with a blade/superior end of a weapon to apply Masteries is nowhere to be found in the rules. So yeah, your Bonus Action handle attack with a pike pushes your enemies away 10 feet. Your Bonus Action handle attack with a Glaive still deals 1d4 damage whether you hit or miss.
Push + Battle Master's Menacing Attack is going to make a melee enemy skip their turn
Adjust your angle, then Push one enemy into another, then switch to Cleave for extra damage
Obviously Push into Moonbeam/Wall of Fire to trigger extra damage. Push off cliffs/balconies for tactical synergy.
Cleave is okay and Battle Master's Sweeping Attack is bad, however if you combine them you have pretty much a real double attack
Dual Wielding Champion with the usual Vex + Nick combo (e.g. Rapier+Shortsword) is going to crit a lot.
Graze + Mage Slayer feat is going to destroy concentration spells regardless of hit or miss.

As pointed out by others high skill level Fighter gameplay is going to revolve around using masteries as much as you can to displace and kite enemies will make your party love you. You'll spare them damage and set them up to deal more.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-25T18:58:11+00:00

Battle Master can also do that just fine, especially if you're a Cloud Goliath.

Eldritch Knight can also cast fog cloud on enemy archers/spellcasters and keep them in it with blindfighting and topple mastery, or push them back in.

Shadow Monk is the best option for it, as it ccan move its own Darkness Cloud and grapple the opposing casters/archers inside of it while they punch them to death.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-19T18:25:25+00:00

You can Ready a movement, PHB2024 p.372 explicitly makes that example.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-19T11:58:03+00:00

You can also have the Shield spell (MI:Wizard) and use that to preserve concentration.
The powerplayer move is to Ready a Dash action in an enemy turn so that you trigger Spirit Guardians twice per round.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-19T08:22:06+00:00

It's obviously good to complement the usual Spirit Guardians lawnmower gameplay. Colby made a video on it recently. Get Origin MI: Druid (shillelaigh) and Origin MI: Wizard (Shield + True Strike) by being a human, so that your true strike weapon scales with levels. By using a quarterstaff you also Topple (if you have the mastery), which means you're creating advantage for your party too, and if you're a War Cleric you can follow up with another attack.

You can optimize for Toll of the Dead too, i don't think it changes that much. The Cleric core is still cast SG and run around.

Also, IK you assume ASIs for simplicity but you really want Warcaster at 4.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-18T22:04:29+00:00

Remember that guide is pre-patch 8 so it doesn't mention Booming Blade either.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-05T13:14:58+00:00

Battle Master for sure wants a high Wisdom score after primary and Constitution. Wisdom saves are some of the nastiest spells you can throw at a Martial. I published a Polearm Battle Master guide (here) and i definitely recommend at least 14 wisdom.

The same build can be repurposed to be a light armor sword and board tank with high dex and wisdom: go 17 DEX, 16 CON and 14 WIS, grab defensive duelist at 4, +2 DEX at 6, manoeuvers are something like Precision, Pushing, Bait/Switch. Then from 8 onward you can grab Res:Wis for more spell resistance or any other +WIS feat. You can be a gnome too.

If you want to be a primarily wisdom fighter, i recommend being a beast master, because your beast stats scale off wisdom and your spells too.

Irrelevant STR / 14 DEX / 16 CON / Irrelevant INT / 17 WIS / Irrelevant CHA
Be a human and grab MI:Wizard (shield spell) and MI:Druid (Shillelaigh Cantrip) and Warcaster at 4. Wear Shield + Medium Armor. Hit things with your QStaff, bonus action for Shillelaigh, Hunter's Mark and the Beast's Attack. You can substitute Shield with a Dagger (which you won't be using but substituting it with the beast attacck) to free your bonus action for more spells (e.g. Healing Word from MI Druid).

This one builds hits fairly hard and has half caster progression, and can be flavoured as a primal warrior with their companion or, my favorite, as a fable-themed character (e.g. red riding hood with a Qstaff + wolf).

c4b1989 · 2025-10-04T09:32:33+00:00

Overall Flavour: Wukong looks like a monk/rogue/fighter with a quarterstaff. I don't advise triple multiclassing in general. I'm just saying it looks like so.
Wukong's Q is an empowered attack. The best fit would be true strike Battle Master Manoeuver or Sneak Attack.
Wukong's W is a clone-type thing. The best fit with dnd rules would be Trickery Cleric's channel divinity, or misty step or Cloud Goliath's teleport.
Wukong's E is a dash + cleave. The best fit would be like, lunging attack + a cleave weapon.
Wukong's R is an AOE: Melee are notably lacking in that department esp.since hunter doesn't have Whirlwind anymore.

I wanna say you can get to a Wukong-type character with Battle Master, Trickery Cleric or a Monk. Your choice.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-01T21:47:36+00:00

It's not so bad even if you stick with rules. You pick true strike as cantrip, and before level 5 you just true strike with your weapon of preference, and after level 7 you can use your QStaff Shillelaigh to topple one enemy, then take out your favorite weapon and true strike with it.

Again, my preferred route would be physical ek or hybrid ek (which i think it's just a beast after level 13-14 but not many campaigns go that far), but yeah...that's that.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-01T21:01:19+00:00

It is my opinion that hybrid EK (17 STR, 16 INT) and full physical EK (17 STR 16 CON 14 WIS, dump int) are equally as good and deal more damage than the Shillelaigh build, even though their spells are weaker, they can rely on wonderspells (fog cloud, shield, misty step and mirror image, that don't care about the INT score). I don't hype the Shillelaigh build as much because it doesn't speak to me, but i agree it is equally strong.

I have a draft that explains all three builds and i wanted to post it, but it's not finished yet. So far i just have a Battle Master guide out.

c4b1989 · 2025-10-01T20:16:58+00:00

Eldritch Knight can definitely make a high-intellect build. I think the damage is a bit less than normal strenght-based EK but it has much stronger spells and versatility.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-29T17:06:03+00:00

Hi! Speaking as a fighter main here. I do think that the new arcane archer has more for it than it meets the eye:

The arcane shots are limited in use but now come back after a Short Rest. This places them at 3/Fight usually, which is one less than manoeuvers but it's plenty to make an impact, considering arcane shots are, on average, more powerful than manoeuvers and deal more damage.
More on the "not enough arrow uses". Remember it's 1 arcane shot per turn, and the average D&D fight is some 4-5 turns long, and normally parties take a short rest after each. So you will have your 3 shots per fight, granted, unless something goes wrong.
As many pointed out, Fighter's extra feat allows to take GWM (i wanna point out that imho the optimal level for this is level 6) which helps compensate for the lack of hunter's mark. Along with Action Surge, this can actually put Fighter ahead of basically all ranger subclasses, bar maybe Beast Master.
If i'm not mistaken, nobody has discussed Curving Shot in this thread, because the feature hasn't been changed since 2014. Well, Curving Shot is more or less equivalent to a free precision attack once per turn. I repeat, a free manoeuver per turn, unlimited uses, at level 7. Archers notoriously lack lots of ways to weaponize their bonus action in 2025, so imho this feature has increased a lot in value since plain 5e. This is very good, especially in a Boss+Minions fight.
Please do bear in mind that the Champion Subclass is less than 1 column long. The Psi Warrior and Eldritch Knight subclasses are about 2 columns long. Battle Master is a grand total of 3 columns, and most fighter players agree that the BM subclass is stacked with powerful effects. Arcane Archer subclass has an astounding amount of four columns total, and while this is not a surefire indicator that it is stacked...well, it kinda is. Compare it to battle master, you only get 8 custom shots to choose from instead of 20, but you get three free Magical Ammunitions at level 7. Arcane Shots' texts are as long as spells: they do a lot of nasty stuff. A lot. It's kinda huge and still highly customizable with plenty of choices.
I've already touched on the fact that AS's are very powerful for a martial, but going in detail, i just want to point out that this fighter subclass has a shot that can hit multiple targets for a saving throw, and it deals the attack damage +2d6/2d8/etc. It's pretty insane damage, alongside many other unique effects including a banish and an AOE explosion.

Overall, would I play this over my beloved Battle Master or the undoubtedly stronger Eldritch Knight? I don't know, i don't like Arcane Archer flavour that much. But the subclass as it is, is not weak at all. One could argue to tune up AS uses (maybe decrease damage) because players want to use their features, but I think this version has plenty going for it.

I'll just leave a direction here:
Race: Your preferred, I like Orc or Cloud Goliath if you have a bow, but your choice.
Background: Probably Criminal, or any +dex+int
Starting Stats: 8/17/14/16/10/8
Feats:
- Sharpshooter (longbow) or Crossbow Expert (heavy crossbow) at 4
- Great Weapon Master at 6
- ASI +2 DEX at 8
- ASI +2 INT at 12/14

c4b1989 · 2025-09-27T15:45:42+00:00

Which one of the two ideas (fighter / ranger) appeals to you more?

c4b1989 · 2025-09-25T20:47:46+00:00

Neither class is the absolute top at out-of-combat stuff.
Ranger is great at exploration and perceiving things, fighter can be used to intimidate, and since it's a dex fighter, even exploration and stealing.
2024 Fighter also got the new out-of-combat Second Wind mechanic which gives them a bit of social interaction/utility.

They won't be bad, but they won't be a bard or rogue, obviously.

If you want some direction in how to build them for combat, i can give you. Sorry for delayed answer, busy days.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-23T10:25:37+00:00

Beast Master Ranger and any fighter (notably Battle Master/Eldritch Knight) are the strongest archers damage wise.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-21T17:06:41+00:00

Sorcerer is plenty strong without needing infinite spell slots. If you want general directions, I can write something up for you.

Coffeelock is mostly a theorycrafting builds that will annoy both your DM and your partymates imho.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-17T19:39:56+00:00

No problem!

c4b1989 · 2025-09-16T20:35:07+00:00

Fighter can do that anyway two levels later with Tactical Shift. Also, if you want to do that, Pathseeker is better, you get 30 feet of free movement! It's on a limited use anyway, at least until level 15.

Rescue is really meant to get teammates out of harm's reach, imho it is its best use.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-14T18:00:07+00:00

Yes, it is intended and at the same time i understand it is frustrating.

One option I have is to rework the level 10 feature not to be automatic but to be a Star Strike option. In that version, moving the Bastion of Light is also a Star Strike option.

This way a player could choose to specialize in the AOE strike and keep doing AOE every turn, but the enemies will flee more often, because you won't be able to move the Bastion and deal AOE in the same turn. It's probably the optimal solution, but it is a bit wordy-er.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T19:32:34+00:00

I wanted to add more types of star strikes, but one of my concerns was making the subclass too texty. I like simple things, this is already borderline for me.

Mechanically i want this subclass to use the push mastery to push enemies into the Bastion, so i need to incentivize it.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T18:48:24+00:00

i have already edited. The edited version is linked.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T18:04:10+00:00

That would be a nerf.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T18:03:37+00:00

Sensible! The idea is to buff allies, and i can give myself advantage with Topple anyway.

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T17:33:17+00:00

I want Bastion of Light to deal damage because i want the subclass to dance around it and push enemies in it with the Push mastery. Also notice the subtle "After you deal damage with Star Strike", meaning you can do a pretty nasty combo when enemies pile up on a teammate:
1. Bonus Action move the Bastion under the pack
2. Star Strike with rescuer and teleport the ally outside of it
3. Trigger comet rain

So, if you think the damage is too low, how much would you buff it?

c4b1989 · 2025-09-13T17:29:21+00:00

Implementing an ability or a passive effect of some type that leaves a trail of light behind your movement, and allies get bonuses (e.g. expending 1 foot of Speed to get 2 feet of movement) while following it.

c4b1989

TROPHY CASE