Kobold: “Sword and Shield is bad” JoCat: “You’re wrong, I hate you, and you’re a big smelly doodoo head!”

@mariofan1ish

11 ай бұрын

"Bold talk for someone in Sword and Shield range."

@Akario3

11 ай бұрын

"What's your point person within Sword and Shield range?"

@ericwhite1942

11 ай бұрын

I mean, it's really not bad. A basic +2 to AC plus and magic bonuses and 5E rewards high AC more so than other editions.

@VestedUTuber

11 ай бұрын

@@ericwhite1942 To be fair, the issue with Sword and Board isn't the Board, it's the Sword. Longsword does 1d8, which is a decent baseline, but there are weapons that get compatibility with better feats, particularly any sort of polearm. Quarterstaff actually reigns supreme here despite being a 1d4 damage baseline, due to compatibility with the Polearm Master feat (giving an extra attack, which effectively means 2d4 damage per turn which averages out better) AND compatibility with Shillelagh via Magical Adept (Druid) (bumps your quarterstaff damage to 1d8 and uses WIS for attack, which may not be ideal for a normal fighter build but if you intentionally build for it it means you can get away with dumping STR, something normally not viable for fighter outside of DEX builds. Plus using WIS rather than DEX or STR allows for multiclassing into WIS casters in the future). Combining both gives 2d8 using WIS to attack, which is around double that of a longsword. Of course, all of that only really matters if you're trying to optimize. If you don't play in that kind of environment then you can run whatever you want.

@ncamon

11 ай бұрын

The title of this video is fightin' words.

I am reminded of Big Man Tyrone's in-depth review of Martials in 5e, where he insightfully explained, "A Martial! Hahaha. HAHAHA! Martials! LOL!! A F***ING MARTIAL!! HAHAHA!! They could've given them a single worthwhile f***ing feature! But they couldn't even do that!! HAHAHAHA!"

@curnott6051

11 ай бұрын

Martial's have a single worthwhile thing! ...Battlemaster Fighter and Rune Knight and....Ummm....

@merlannin2108

11 ай бұрын

Which video is that from?

@deathpacito8702

11 ай бұрын

@@merlannin2108 kzread.info/dash/bejne/p2WmxJukdqnIm6Q.html

@greyscaleadaven

11 ай бұрын

The only true martial that genuinely competes with casters when fully optimized and doesn't need multiclass IMO is Swashbuckler Rogue. Which is sad considering there are like 4 primarily true martial classes in 5e with a handful of Gishes that are the only other viable options really.... Swashbuckler being what I'd consider on a similar level in terms of Defense (Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, naturally high AC bc of DEX being its primary Ability Score), Utility (Expertise, Reliable Talent, Cunning Action, Panache) and Offense (Sneak Attack damage and Rakish Audacity for almost free sneak attack as a martial) to a caster with their robustly filled out action economy. Almost every other rogue archetype is usually either more optimal with feat investment into a crossbow or mixes both anyways with no real detriment in playstyle by going ranged or martial, tactically meaning that ranged is always the correct choice before martial. Swashbuckler can genuinely be a "front-liner" like people want without much risk due to disengage as a bonus action or for free after an attack with its Fancy Footwork feature. Flavor is free, pretend the character is a knight or swordsperson who so happens to strike in ways that catches an attacker off guard using their sword training. They could also have Expertise in physical skills like Athletics making use of it far better than a unmulticlassed STR martial could, even with a lower STR total due to optimized stat distribution. Someone could even use STR primarily instead with a scimitar/rapier if they really wanted to for flavor bc it works with sneak attack, and they could always wear plate with a variant human heavy armor master feat for more damage reduction and STR idk. Honorable Mention for Battlemaster, it's alright early but really falls off mid to late game with the dice only increasing by a small margin of d8 to d10 etc. instead of with the number of dice rolled. The utility of its maneuvers stays though and benefits from the extra charges it gets over levels. Honestly, could work adjacently to Metamagic as a secondary feature for Fighters using melee weapon attacks specifically, it would really help them keep up. Gishes are also a great option for makeshift viable martials, ranging from tertiary to half to full casters. Some are specific to martial combat like Paladin, but others like Sword Bard, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster technically, etc. can also work too depending on flavor/playstyle.

@asturias0267

11 ай бұрын

Echo Knight is still very cool.

So speaking of game roles, Adam Miller - Game Architect has a really good video on the topic called "Why Do So Many Games Have Tanks, Healers and DPS?". Adam points out that the three Roles directly line up with the three main kinds of interaction players have to deal with, ie Player to Enemy, Enemy to Player, and Player to Allie. DPS are offensive builds that focus on interacting with the enemy until they fall over dead, Healers interact with their allies, keeping them in the fight, and Tanks focus on controlling the ways that enemies can interact with their allies. Under this paradigm, taunting enemies isn't the only way to tank, it's just the main way tanking works in mmo's so we keep trying to port it to whole other mediums/genres where it doesn't fit. Look at 3.5/pathfinder, where grapple builds were pretty common as a way to lock down enemies, and prevent them from taking actions. Tanks, or perhaps it might be better to call them Defenders, do exist in 5e as well. The defender fighting style, vicious mockery, and the fear condition all apply disadvantage on your enemies attacks. Sentinel and Mage Slayer let you restrict a key enemies from taking certain actions. Counterspell and Silvery Barbs let you lock down key spells. Evard's Black Tentacles grapples a bunch of people. Of course, this just further backs up your point, that Casters are better at protecting their allies than martials.

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

Even if you used 3.5/pathfinder, you'll notice that the martial caster divide is bigger there than in 5e. The casters are gods and have a ton of options. If you cast create pit from pf1, that's a DC 25 to climb out of the pit, it's crazy strong and its a 2nd lvl spell, that's clearly better than any grapple build. If you summon many creatures and make them grapple enemies for you then that's clearly better than any grapple build. It makes sense why it would because its many grapples. If I used those systems then finding problems would be easier compared to 5e. 5e is better designed then those 2 games and my first system was pathfinder 1.

@Pendragondnd

11 ай бұрын

@@PackTactics 100% agree that 5e stands head and shoulders above those two systems. Just trying to point out that instead of being stuck in the Tank = Taunt mentality, we should focus on the other kinds of defensive actions that have existed across the editions. Sorry if this came off as edition warring.

@aralornwolf3140

11 ай бұрын

@@PackTactics, Depends on the game system. PF1e is based on 3.5e. However, the caster martial divide has been removed in PF2e.

@erikwilliams1562

11 ай бұрын

​@aralornwolf3140 it really is the most balanced. Casters loose DPS and world changing power for versatility which IMO is a fair trade

@aurtosebaelheim5942

11 ай бұрын

@@PackTactics I'd argue that the divide is significantly mitigated at low-to-mid levels by caster actually having a disadvantage state. Casters in PF1 may have better tools to swing a fight in the party's favour, but they have much worse tools for closing the fight out and a compromised caster has a much worse time in PF1 than they would in 5e. Moreover, full spell preparation means that much of a caster's power won't be on-hand at any given time and they have to be more cautious about rationing out resources. A full caster in PF1 can easily flip-flop between completely trivialising one encounter to being completely useless in the next. In this regard I find it more 'balanced' than 5e, though it is much more dependant on good encounter/adventure design (which the game isn't good at teaching) and making sure that the martials know what they're doing (because it's very easy to build a bad martial). There are times in Pathfinder where a martial will be the right choice for a given situation, I feel like in 5e a full caster is always the better choice. For a direct comparison between Create Pit and a grapple build, Create Pit is generally the stronger CC, however: - It's useless against an opponent who can fly, jump high or has extraordinary climbing ability. Grappling will be equally effective against any of these. - It's a 10ft. x 10ft. hole. Huge and larger creatures are unaffected. Grapple has no size limit, though it does become significantly harder against larger opponents. - It lasts a pretty short time and doesn't innately open up any fight-ending methods, it mostly serves as a divide-and-conquer tactic. Grapple can innately lead to tying up the target and there are a number of options to make grappling incredibly deadly (I forget the specifics, but I've seen a 1-turn coup de grace build that got there via grappling). - It alters the battlefield for the full duration. Many times this will be a positive, but shoving a hole in the battlefield can be really annoying. A grapple is less disruptive to other combatants and can be ended should it become a nuisance.

I genuinely wish they made sword and board better. It's the most classic fantasy weapon you can use yet they made it so bad in dnd compared to more boring options

@foldionepapyrus3441

11 ай бұрын

There are lots of fun and flavourful skills that require a shield, and IMO none of the martial builds are entirely bad in 5E, even if they don't do great dpr they have a role to play (and are often a really solid start for a multi-class that brings in the magic later). Pure martial could certainly use a buff in the later levels that almost nobody ever actually plays compared to spellcaster, but in the zone 5E tends to get played all a martial is in general is somewhat simpler to play well - less choices than a spellcaster but that is actually sometimes a good thing. Not every player wants a class with a million options that can change on every rest, especially for their first characters...

@bobbycrosby9765

11 ай бұрын

It's because shields are underpowered in rpgs compared to their historical benefits.

@jamesgrant3752

11 ай бұрын

Yeah it'd be cool if they atleast gave shield a mastery property in one dnd.

@aralornwolf3140

11 ай бұрын

@@bobbycrosby9765, Not really... it depends on the RPG.

@rinktheredlink9317

11 ай бұрын

@@nyanbrox5418 woooooah woah. Chill it's just an opinion.

Small correction, it's not quarterstaff counting as focus, but focus staves counting as quarterstaves. The stick monks can get at lvl1 wont be a focus, but a lvl 1 wizard's focus option: staff can be given to the monk(or whoever really) to be used as if it was a quarterstaff.

@renatocorvaro6924

11 ай бұрын

According to Mike Mearls (who is an idiot but also, uh, "designed" 5e), it's a quarterstaff that counts as a focus. That might sound really dumb, but that's only because it is really dumb.

@nessesaryschoolthing

11 ай бұрын

@@renatocorvaro6924 Seems kinda harsh. What did he do? (Googles it) Oh, shit, nevermind. Carry on.

@asheronwindspear552

11 ай бұрын

​@@renatocorvaro6924 that's strange because in the equipment section of the PHB focus staffs cost 5 GP and the quarterstaff costs only 2 SP. I can understand the extra utility only happening with the more expensive option but it feels weird to have that same utility for a lower price.

@jimjimson6208

11 ай бұрын

@@nessesaryschoolthing Bro you have no idea of the rabbithole this comment sent me down fr

@scotmcpherson

11 ай бұрын

I think he’s referring more to the proficiency rather than the actual object.

Yes! Oh god I missed normal videos

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

Me too lol. This was more fun to make.

@christophermurray9777

11 ай бұрын

So tired of One D&D videos. No one I know is planning on playing with the new rules.

@chillycharizard5985

11 ай бұрын

@@PackTactics well it was also more fun to watch! And this was a long procrastinated topic of optimization so I'm really glad you finally covered it!

@xiongray

11 ай бұрын

​@christophermurray9777 Cherry pick what's good and bad. Feats were buffed. Weapon mastery is good though people always forgot it. Sorcerers gained an additional Metamagic on 2nd level.

@christophermurray9777

11 ай бұрын

@@xiongray that level of stitching rules together just doesn't interest me anymore. If I can't play a game right out of the gate, I don't play it.

Martials need DMs to hand out magic weapons. Kobold's math is solid here, but the numbers are different if the weapon is a flametongue. Sword and board with a shadow blade can be interesting.

@kuroshinigami9143

11 ай бұрын

not to mention a vast majority of magic weapons in the books are either longswords or one handed/versatile. this is remedied with DMs who homebrew items, but the printed adventures are VERY stingy with actually giving out items.

@MrJerks93

11 ай бұрын

Yeah. I think there are a couple of soft things about the game design that don't translate out directly. While the classes can be balanced in the absence of magical weapons, the game has always had a baseline assumption of magical items being distributed within the party and the tables heavily favor swords as the magical items of choice. By 20th level, the fighter probably has magical plate armor and a magical weapon. The party roles may be a myth mechanically in 5e, but there are rooted in the traditions of the game. I suspect that a lot of areas where 5e kind of falls down in this respect are areas where the design team wanted to improve the play experience for all the roles. Wizards having a d4 Hit Die and the old rule about cantrips not doing damage is dramatically different from today's game. If you really wanted to balance it out, the design choice to have cantrips be the primary attack for magic using classes should be changed. Either make damage the sole province of leveled spells or make them limited use.

@bulletmagnet1038

11 ай бұрын

Not to mention, Shield Master's Shove can be used to force something prone. It doesn't say you have to attack first. Just it has to be the same turn. So you could shove as a bonus action, and if they go prone, that's all attacks at advantage

@redwarrior864

11 ай бұрын

@@kuroshinigami9143 My approach is that any weapon can suit an enchantment within reason. Flametongue longsword? Nope, now it's a flametongue halberd. Spinning wheels of fire boiiiiis.

@Tortle-Man

11 ай бұрын

You are wrong and that was addressed in an errata of that rule. You were intended to attack, THEN push after the attack roll. Anything else is a house rule.

Wait wait wait wait wait, I think you got it backwards A quarterstaff as a spellcasting focus? How I'm reading it, is the casting staff can be used as a quarterstaff, but not the other way around

@asheronwindspear552

11 ай бұрын

That's the way I read it too, the spellcasting staffs are also 5 GP compared to the quarterstaff costing only 2 SP (subject to change based on setting prices.)

@jimjimson6208

11 ай бұрын

Doesn't really matter either way though, does it?. A casting staff that works as a quarterstaff and quarterstaff that works as a casting staff are identical from a mechanical perspective.

@Shadowrendx

11 ай бұрын

@@jimjimson6208kinda different. Think of them as the difference between a metal rod and a crowbar (irl, not in dnd). A crowbar can be used to pry things open effectively because of the way it’s designed, and because of its heft and shape, it can be used as a bludgeoning weapon. A metal rod however can be used as a bludgeoning weapon, but because it’s not designed in a way to make it good for slipping into cracks and prying things open, it can’t be used effectively to do that. Crowbar is the casting staff, metal rod is the quarter staff

I kinda feel that Martials should have shield mastery as a base feature. This way they have a tiny bit more options while casters like Cleric need to make a more conscious decision to use shields for more than just an AC buff. It probably wouldnt change much, but at least they are less replaceable lol (And maybe then they can buff shield mastery too)

@nswmeeuwes89

11 ай бұрын

I honestly feel that way for all the "equipment feats". You pick a weapon and there's a feat you have to take to use the weapon optimally, making them all auto-picks. Big weapon? GWM. Polearm? PAM. Bow? SS. Xbow? CE and SS. Two weapons? lol, no. Why?! There's just nothing interesting to it, why aren't all these things built into martials? Level 4 you pick your weapon feat, the end. The huge disparity only making the problem even worse.

@adrianrandom3448

11 ай бұрын

Martial should get a lot more things at base to be honest

@georgethompson1460

11 ай бұрын

@@nswmeeuwes89 It should be tied as an affect of the weapon rather than a feat, with proficiency allowing you to use those effects.

@hartthorn

11 ай бұрын

@@nswmeeuwes89 Honestly, I'd ponder making them all "Fighting Styles" and then letting everyone who gets a fighting style pick, like, THREE options. Maybe not all at once, of course. But fairly early on. So you can still grab whatever "core" fighting style you want, your feat style, and potentially a 3rd supporting one or a wholly separate secondary weapon type so you can mix it up. But then Clerics and similar have to spend a feat to get ONE fighting style to even begin emulating this playstyle.

@jameswhitley4101

11 ай бұрын

I really like that idea. You could also make the fighting style/feats tiered: there's the basic version (something like whats in the PHB), then theres an advanced version and maybe also master version, each level incrementally increasing your bonuses or utility (Advanced Dueling gives you an additional d4 nstead of a +2, Advanced Archery increases your crit range to 19-20, etc.) When you first get your fighting style, you get one or two points to buy one of these (or maybe another normal feat if you want), and then as the you level up you get more points. So in the same way that spellcastwrs gradually get more spells and spell utility, a martial's weapon progresses from a mere d8 to much greater power.

What is strong about it is that you have two sources of AC that scale. If your DM is more liberal with magic items, and you get a +2 on both your armor and shield, that is a +4 on AC, unlike your friends, who only got a +2. It makes your defenses very strong. IF your DM gives you magic armor and shields, that is

@nswmeeuwes89

11 ай бұрын

The AC bonus of magic shields does tend to get overlooked a bit imo. Still, the damage disparity is bigger than it should be. Namely due to bonus action attacks though, without feats I think the trade-off is fair, although it worsens the martial/caster divide.

@AtelierGod

11 ай бұрын

A Bladesinger wizard with maxed out dex and int with shield of faith up and in studded leather armor will have a AC of 24, a Sword and Board Fighter with +2 heavy armor and +2 shield will have a AC of 24, in other words a caster can have better AC with no magic items than a fighter with multiple magic items, not to mention the readily available casting of shield to make Bladesingers AC 29 and that’s assuming they haven’t been given their own +2 armor or maybe even +3 armor, in addition they’re full spellcasters they have far more deadly options in their bag then shield of faith, Haste for example. Haste not only gives a +2 to AC but an additional action, now cast spell with your action, attack with your hasted action, and cantrip with your second attack, Fighters, Paladins and Rangers wishes they could be as good as you at everything they’re supposed to be good at.

@lordrumfishsmagicarena271

11 ай бұрын

I have found that you have to go out of your way to prioritize finding AC bonuses on shields in 5e. Depends on your DM of course, but it's a big enough problem that I will absolutely choose a basic AC bonus shield as a starting magic item if it's an option.

@bryanwoods3373

11 ай бұрын

In a way, I think sword and board struggles with the same problem as everything else. It's more limited by the player than anything. Like I see people that have these preconceived notions that bards have to be singers no matter what subclass you take. But a used car salesman type that can sell ice to an Eskimo is a viable Bard. I do sword and board all the time. Usually with a paladin, and I take Dueling fighting style. I'm not trying to tank exactly, more outlast. I did similar with a bear barbarian. No fighting style, but my goal was to survive and outlast. And paladins have good burst damage.

@nswmeeuwes89

11 ай бұрын

@@bryanwoods3373 Paladins are quite good for sword and board, because if they want to deal damage they use smites. There are ways to build around it, but you do usually have to try pretty hard to be effective and it mostly involves spellcasting. Clerics are good at it too. That does leave some character concepts in the dust though. You could go the "flavor is free"-route, but in my experience many small problems tend to come up when having that do all the heavy lifting. So yeah, if you're gonna do it, paladin is the best way to go. ancestral guardin barbarian can work well. Cleric for sure. Rangers do pretty good too with added damage dice on hits and support options. :)

Sword and board needs a feat similar to great weapon master.

@40Found

11 ай бұрын

I'd honestly be happy if -5/+10 was just baked into all melee weapon attacks

@RobKinneySouthpaw

11 ай бұрын

I made a homebrew sword feat and it works pretty great. Give a bonus action attack, a reaction attack when missed in melee, and advantage on the reaction attack proficiency times per long rest. Make it not work with heavy weapons to exclude Greatswords.

@kuroshinigami9143

11 ай бұрын

@@40Found alternatively -proficiency to attack roll, add double proficiency to damage. so that it grows over time, which is something martials really lack is any meaningful growth after their 2nd attack (fighter notwithstanding)

@harperna3938

11 ай бұрын

@@40Found i'd rather see them move away from power attack as a primary damage source in favor of toning spell damage and monster HP down. power attack isn't really a meaningful interaction, it's just necessary for martials to deal competitive single-target damage

@Funkin_Disher

11 ай бұрын

Shield master? Or do you specifically mean a ‘more damage’ feat?

Idea. What if Martials had the spell progression of a full caster, but all of their "spells" were things like battle master manuevers, extra damaging attacks (physical smites?), stunning strike, whirlwind attack, defensive and offensive buffs, taunts etc.

@TubeTAG

11 ай бұрын

So… 4e?

@Luke-yq2lf

11 ай бұрын

That's a 3.5 swordsage

@TheShrewdMonarch

11 ай бұрын

To whoever is more knowledgeable than me, isn’t this fighter from pathfinder 2e?

@15PaperSpearsProtectTheWise

11 ай бұрын

Every time someone reinvents 4e, an angel gets its wings

@CyberPunkBadGuy

10 ай бұрын

@billcasey2732 There is a homebrew for this called MARTIAL MIGHTS , we play with it , I think One dnd should do something VERY similar to that.

My first character was a Cleric 1+ Wizard x. He used medium armor + shield + staff of defense. It was so strong that my DM destroyed my staff XD (he asked me first so it was ok, i have a glass shield naw 😺)

@renatocorvaro6924

11 ай бұрын

Your first character was the best class build in the game. Good job.

@3of6mylove

11 ай бұрын

​@@renatocorvaro6924No, that'd be artificer 1, chronurgy wizard x.

@KuaEtus

11 ай бұрын

@renatocorvaro6924 Thanx 😊, that was like 7 years ago, i just wanted to heal my party and, eventually, use fabricate + knowledge channel divinity to be able to create everything 😅.

@johndevlin9225

11 ай бұрын

@@3of6mylove Well, Cleric 1/Wizard X was best in the pre-artificer days, and Peace Cleric 1/Chronurgy Wizard X barely edges out Artificer 1/Chronurgy X in the post-Tasha's days imo.

@lightning2034

7 ай бұрын

any class that gives armor proficiency to a squishy wizard is already one of the best multi classes in game

As someone who likes playing a tank in DnD it’s just so hard to pull off. You are just better off being an melee DPR as most of the time they are just better because dead is the best condition in DnD.

@RobertPatrician

11 ай бұрын

The key to being a good tank is not to have super-high AC, because then foes will just go around you to attack the squishies. You want to be hittable enough that foes are willing to attack you, but not so hittable that you get hit too much. That's why barbarians make amazing tanks.

@TieberiusVoidWalker

11 ай бұрын

​@@RobertPatricianexcept killing the caster is the smarter thing to do so the enemy should just ignore the barbarian. I say this as someone playing a barbarian and end up barely hit most of the time

@connordarvall8482

11 ай бұрын

@@TieberiusVoidWalker Which makes it ironic that all the draw aggro abilities are only available to melee classes that aren't barbarians.

@ZeoffArcaneOfficial

11 ай бұрын

@@connordarvall8482 Spirit Barbarian has draw aggro abilities, people just don't play it because Totem

@absolstoryoffiction6615

11 ай бұрын

@@RobertPatrician Eldritch Adept Feat, Lv4 Eldritch Knight: "I cast Silent Image (Invocation)." Enemy: "Must not fail to... Resist!" DM: "And the Enemy failed to discern the illusion. Your party gets a free a turn."

Your point about raising the DPR floor is really important. If character options are being boosted across the board, it just means monsters get stronger. The game doesn’t change. What really needs to happen is that outliers need to be toned back, and that most notably means casters… and yet casters are getting buffs across the board in OneD&D. It’s a serious issue and most of the commentary I see about OneD&D seems to lose itself in evaluating new features for casters as “good” and “strong” when they need to be thinking about whether or not it brings casters to the same level as martials.

@trombonegamer14

11 ай бұрын

You have no idea where the casters are at because you've barely seen any spells. Casters are good because of spell casting, not features. Wotc needs to release spells for us to reasonably evaluate power level from class to class, until they do most of this discussion is useless.

@MatthewDragonHammer

11 ай бұрын

@@trombonegamer14 You are assuming that there will be sweeping changes to spells. The handful of spells we've seen changed thus far have only been to boost some of the most-complained-about-as-being-weak spells. And a re-work of some spells that scale weird or have needlessly confusing or convoluted mechanics. My expectation is that the vast majority (probably 85-90%) of spells will remain unchanged.

@MatthewDragonHammer

11 ай бұрын

Outliers? Spellcasters aren't the minority in 5e. They're the majority. 9 of the 13 official classes rely heavily on spellcasting. Toning back spellcasters would mean making 3/4 of players less happy, so that's not what they're gonna do.

@bananajoe113

11 ай бұрын

Easiest way to nerf casters is to have spells cast become active at the start of the next round. If you're hit before the start of the next round your spellcasting is likely interrupted. The only exception would be cantrips which would go off immediately.

@bananajoe113

11 ай бұрын

@@trombonegamer14 Spells are features. Each spell they give a choice for to spellcasters is a new feature they can use. Martials don't have that level of feature flexibility.

Just more evidence to the martial caster divide. One thing that could help someone who wants to be a tank (that's the way they want to play), to talk with the DM, express they want to be taking hits, and then as RP be taunting the enemy trying to convey to the DM like come at me bro.

Sometimes, kobold and gator's relationship is the most wholesome thing and it makes me happy. "Kobold! I love pizza!" "I know you do

@margaretmyklebust2577

11 ай бұрын

I agree

@lufasumafalu5069

9 ай бұрын

they are same person if you dont know

@MrJackolicious

9 ай бұрын

@@lufasumafalu5069 lol, I appreciate your concern. The person making the voice is the same, but the characters are different people in my heart 💖

Kobold! World Anvil is incredible, I am so happy I used your code a month ago, now my players can actually find the information they're looking for! Also, this was a pretty depressing video for someone who has always loved the flavour of sword and board. Your quarter staff and shield vs sword and shield breakdown made me eat an entire bag of chocolate covered peanuts to try and feel a better about my poor choices.

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

Sorry for the depressing video. I'll make a happy one with Baldur's gate 3 soon!

Would like to see an analysis of common martial-boosting magic items. A Flametongue Longsword and a Belt of Giant Strength probably go a long way towards improving martial performance in terms of better accuracy and damage.

@janus2773

11 ай бұрын

i played a fighter 12/barb4 with a belt and a flametongue greatsword once with gwf and gwm, the dpr was unbelievable

@dominicl5862

11 ай бұрын

Realizing there's a ton of stat setting items, specifically for strength, is the next step for character creation. Start with 16 str and get feats until you eventually find a belt of giant str. If playing for late game it opens up a potential 30str. +10 bonus.

@soldaeternidade

3 ай бұрын

@@dominicl5862 It's a +9 bonus max in STR, because the highest you can get is 29 using a Belt of Storm Giant's Strength.

Not to tank, but surviving goes up considerably when you can get +2 and +3 shields. The new shield master actually looks good too

Shield is amazing for AC stacking. If you're tanking, it's just the superior option. At higher levels you can fairly easily get 40AC.

@MysticColorsAttack

11 ай бұрын

literally how

@ProfessorCLion

7 ай бұрын

Go on, how could you easily have 40AC whilst still actually being able to be involved in the fight?

@dazeen9591

7 ай бұрын

@@ProfessorCLion literally just google DnD highest AC stack there's plenty of step by step guides for maximum of 114 AC i believe

@SomaTDW

2 ай бұрын

@@dazeen9591 God people love to throw this kind of stupid builds that wouldnt real work on a real game.

@dazeen9591

2 ай бұрын

@@SomaTDW ??? It does work. You're just delusional

Terchnically, a "quarterstaff" does not count as an Arcane Focus, an Arcane Focus staff counts as a quarterstaff. The difference? About 4g, 8s. Quarterstaff is 2s, Arcane Focus staff is 5g. Possibly relevant to a starting character. Also worth asking if your DM is willing to house-rule that a spear can be an Arcane Focus staff with a bladed head.

@louiesatterwhite3885

11 ай бұрын

It's also worth noting that some classes, cleric and paladin in particular, can have their spellcasting focus, aka their holy symbol, on their shield

I'll also say that for the Sword and Board, adding spells/ War Caster with EK really took my fighter from a flat 20 AC with Plate + Shield to 25 AC w/Disdavantage with Plate + Shield + Shield spell + Blur. It felt really nice.

@Red13aron

11 ай бұрын

It also helped that SCAG weapon cantrips were available to play around with. Though I hope the next EK functions more like Bladesinger where you can incorporate your Cantrip into your attack routine rather than having to choose at level 11.

The Shield Master feat is great but not as a stand alone feat. If you use it as a one handed component of Blade Mastery, Fell Handed or Spear mastery then it's makes those feats worth taking. It really gives you the feel of a shielded tank.

@bananajoe113

11 ай бұрын

Shield master is good for lowering how much damage you take. The primary things you get from it is using your AC in your dex saves. Get a magic shield (I know not always realistic) and you up the amount of dex save bonus you get from spells that only target you. You get the bonus action shove and you get a discount evasion when you use a reaction to avoid all damage on a successful save. If you have a paladin on your team or are the paladin, its very effective since its really often you'll make the dex save if you have a high charisma.

@Gorasta100

11 ай бұрын

Just as an FYI to all who reads this in the future: Blade Mastery, Fell Handed, & Spear Mastery are from Unearthed Arcana

@johndevlin9225

11 ай бұрын

@@bananajoe113 Except for the part where most effects that require a dex save are AOE, and thus shield master won't apply.

7:40 rip Tunnel Fighter, a archived UA fighting style that kicked ass but never got approved. BA to make all of your opportunity attacks cost no reaction.

'Board and Board' is one of my favorite builds to use. Bear Totem Barbarian Battlemaster Fighter Tanky and practically immune against Dex Save spells.

Spear + Polearm Master + Shield + Dueling is pretty decent. Also gives you an extra chance for a smite crit every turn.

"Casters are better tanks" implies that casters know how to build a character. My martials don't know either but they have more hp sooooooo....

Just started a new campaign with a Dex-based thri-kreen using a shield and two shortswords with two-weapon fighting. Haven't done the math, but they were tearing it up in the first fight

Sword and sword

There is no myth about the party roles - it is just from old editions. In the day, you played in dungeons so you literally could control enemy movement and focus that on a very powerful defender. The issue we have today is that if you are a Marshall character or a skills based one this game does not support well unless you become a caster.

@AuspexAO

11 ай бұрын

5e pretty much neutered maritals, but the role of a martial is to get right up in the enemy's face. This serves two purposes: It makes it impossible for that enemy to attack your fragile casters (which 5e likes making less and less fragile because they want every caster to be like the artificer and have a freaking d8 hit dice and unlimited flexible spells and their own form of invocations). The other purpose it serves is that the martial themself is heavily armored so he's hard to drop, and he's doing a lot of damage so of course the monster stays focused on them. Sure, they're not doing as much AoE damage as a mage, but they're absolutely not supposed to be getting shown up by a warlock casting agonizing eldritch blasts every turn. 5e ruined martials and for some reason refuses to fix them. Make battlemaster maneuvers standard fighter kit. Stop making feats weapon type specific so any type of weapon becomes viable, and give weapon types a little unique flavor built in (axes can splinter enemy shields or spears have reach and are good against charging monsters).

My last druid character actually had a shield as his arcane focus with it being a latge hardened mushroom cap.

yes, there are not many ways for forcing enemies to hit you specifically as a tanking method in 5e but on the other hand if this was the case every dnd party should be built around the holy trinity of tank healer and dps imho. to me a good "tanking method" in 5e is the frightned condition with features like: oathbreaker and conquest paladin channel divinity, undead and fey warlock, I think they could be another way to see "tanking" in 5e

@GrimHeaperThe

11 ай бұрын

Could play 4e instead.

@wereowl9369

11 ай бұрын

@@GrimHeaperThe Going to need the heavy flammer for this heresy.

@GrimHeaperThe

11 ай бұрын

@@wereowl9369 You have to roll your save for being stunned first. You get a 1d20 and nothing else.

@wereowl9369

11 ай бұрын

@@GrimHeaperThe *rolls* 1 :/

This is cool, thanks man

I'm in the process of putting together a homebrew revision of a lot of 5e mechanics. Sword and board is definitely one of those things I'm going to look at making more effective.

@nielgawi9102

3 ай бұрын

So any news on your revision of sword and board?

I think moving the thunder thing for Wrath of the Sea to the beginning of the druid's turn would pretty much fix it

So, is he declaring war on Jocat? Because I think this is how you declare war on Jocat.

Back in 1st edition D&D, a shield gave you +1AC, a long sword did 1d8 damage and a 2H sword did 1d10 damage. It was a very small tradeoff. Eventually, they increased the damage of 2H sword to 2d6 and then decided to balance things, shields needed a +2AC. Now they have feats which can greatly increase 2H damage but they haven't really added anything to make sword and board more balanced.

I think the underlying intended use of "wrath of the sea" is that you are on a ship or dock or near water in combat. So it literally pushes enemies off of ships into the ocean. It is very situational, but the subclass is kind of made to be used at sea. So if your DM is running a nautical themed campaign, this ability is actually quite good.

This plus recent events at my table are starting to convince me - martials need more juice, or casters need less. I’d love to hear about homebrew solutions you may have explored

@bionicdragon5

11 ай бұрын

You've probably heard this a million times, but maybe try Pathfinder. Martials are good and weapons actually matter.

The DMG has rules regarding marking that makes it allot easier for martial classes to control enemies. Whenever you hit an enemy with a melee attack, you can mark them for one turn. When a marked enemy provokes an attack of opportunity, you gain advantage on a single opportunity attack against them while not expending your reaction. So it effectively gives a martial character the ability to have a number of opportunity attacks equal to the number of creatures they hit on their turn. Combine that with Sentinel that reduces a creature's movement speed to 0 when hit by an opportunity attack and Polearm Master, you can effectively lock down an area preventing them from reaching your party members.

the armor artificer also has the ability to impose the disadvantage on targets they hit. not sure if that wasnt included because its a half caster or not. but i have been playing one for a while now and i do believe they have a few abilities that allow them to tank. they have the ability to mark targets as mentioned but also at higher levels they can pull enemies to themselves to keep them off your back line, they have really high AC (currently rocking a 28 as a warforged) and with the right feats i have stupid high saves (take the resilient feat to gain wisdom save, the shield master feat to gain the shield + to dex saves and evasion for tanking dragons breaths, on top of soul of the artificer gives like a +6/7 to all saves and make yourself a belt of hill giant str to boost str dump stat.) coupled with things like absorb elements and stoneskin to reduce incoming damage. and because i have cantrips like green-flame blade and booming blade the sword(fist) and board aspect still works.

I homebrew it so if a character is wielding a shield + a melee weapon, they get +3 instead of +2. This way casters don't get the full bonus in a lot of cases and hopefully it helps the sword and board a little. Is this bad or imba?

It's potentially up to +5 AC In a game with limited accuracy, that's amazing. In my campaign, the paladin uses sword and board plus sentinel. Locks enemies down and defends with AC 22, 24 with shield of faith.

........ok, a few things if i may? 1;One of the best Fighting Styles is The Protection Style, which gives disadvantaged against 1 ally within 5ft of you per turn. It only costs you a reaction. 2; The base +2 to AC plus any magic bonuses is really useful in 5E. High AC is rewarded here more so than older editions. 3; "But if your using a shield in your off hand, you cant use 2 weapon fighting or great weapon master so your damage suffers." Well, there's ways around that. You can use a shield as a off hand (Even getting spikes put on and giving magic weapon bonuses is optional) and to use Great Weapon Mastery, you can just drop the shield as a move action (Or wear a buckler and release the holding strap as a reaction, although you cant shield bash with a buckler so keep that in mind) 3; There's alot of feats and magic enchantments for shields that are amazingly useful. (Sentinel Shield, Dancing Shield, resistance vs whatever) If you dont like the idea, thats fine play however you want. I just dont think its accurate to say its bad.

thanks we need this kind of videos

The simplest solves are either: a) Allow a fighting style or mastery that gives the shield a bash offhand attack. b) Allow a mastery or fighting style that allows you to enhance your defense with a shield if you're trained.

It’s actually pretty good as a paladin. Your damage isn’t as good as two-handed, but smites make your damage still really high. Getting the +2 AC from the shield is often more useful than more damage when you’re already dealing so much. As a cherry on top, the PHB says that to use a holy symbol as a spellcasting focus for divine spellcasters like Paladins, it just had to be “worn visibly”. So you don’t have to worry about it clogging up your hands.

I'm going to say sword and shield Great combo most common magic items I see are magical swords in magical shields so playing a fight or a paladin basically guarantees Great magic items but that just is in my case different DMs made divy out items differently

"and board" refers to your ability to make a living as an adventurer, but just enough to eat, and your ascension to immortal requires level 7402 instead of around 36 because of how weak you are. ...then you can ascend as the god of sock puppets, with the ability to look JoCatfaced at will for your clerics.

Is better using wrathcof the sea feature with a spell that can give disadvantage on saving throws, or build a melee druid with some weapon mastery.

5e kinda works like FF14 where everyone is Dps, even the healers, as long as you don't do damage you are prolonging the encounter and are waisting resources.

Now I await the mythical board & board playstyle breakdown

A character I would like to play at some point is a vengeance Paladin with polearm master. I feel like the improved Divine smite at level 11 (+1d8 radiant damage on melee attacks). This could go with a heavy polearm or go spear and shield. I feel this helps close the damage gap when you are getting 3 attacks per round. The additional attacks from polearm master also improves the chances of critting and dropping smite bombs.

Kobold then Lance and shield would be more viable for this type of combat? (taking into account that you will use mounted combat)

I had a battlesmith artificer that took a different approach to tanking. They were small and their steel defender was a tank. He could hide inside it for cover, pop out, fire their gun and duck back down.

Great video, i think my best sword and board character was a paladin, smite can really make up for the damage and magic items and a +sheild can make you AC nuts, it's not like anyone is forced to attack you but crazy AC and big Smites is incredibley fun at that's why I play with a sheild and sword.

In the video, can you sub a spear for the quarterstaff to rock the 300 effect?

@gavinlopez6258

5 ай бұрын

You couldn't if you wanted to use it as your spellcasting focus RAW, but I think most DMs wouldn't mind

I did a sword and board for role play purposes (but I still wanted to be useful). I chose sword bard based off of Treantmonk's build. I was surprised by the dex fighter feel with the blade flurish featurs despite me only having 14 dex. That is the best sword and bord build I could come up with. Any of you guys have any ideas?

Dueling Style is interesting on a barbarian, though. With a good strength score, you can have a 9 (or even 10) damage per hit with three attacks with polearm master as level 6 while raging. I compared it to the ckassic Greatsword setup with Great Weapon Master and even the Great weapon Fighting style - and what I found is that you have to crit with the greatsword to outperform the staff and shield. Sometimes the damage the staff puts out is actually better when that happens, because the +2 to damage helps to better counteract those extreme values whereas with the more D6 you roll the more you favor middle values regardless.

could a thri kreen make better use of sword n board given they have bonus mini arms? can their mini arms actually help add damage?

Thank you for your information video

I'm thinking the first change I'd make is removing concentration from melee weapon-enhancing spells to encourage using them more. Tell me, is it more beneficial to shut down the enemy completely with flaming sphere or web or is it better to give the fighter a +1 to damage with magic weapon? Keep in mind that both of these cost a LV2 slot and concentration. Secondly, Add an additional attunement slot to characters, but make component pouches and arcane foci cost attunement. And no skirting around it by making a magic item that counts as an arcane focus. The idea is to give martials something that doesn't feel like just giving them spellcasting, but giving them something that increases their power without casters hijacking it (like with armour) These aren't massive changes, but incremental changes can help lower the power gap.

On the point of tanks - in my campaign my character tends to be the focus of enemy aggro as a twilight cleric / EK fighter multiclass. The protective auras from TwCleric mean my allies are taking extremely reduced damage unless enemies deal with me first, so it gives a hard decision for foes - they can either do highly reduced damage to the dps ranger or they can try to eliminate the cleric in the hopes they survive long enough to deal with the ranger. 'tanking' is done by being a threat or otherwise huge headache to leave untouched. best way to 'tank' is to be a highly disruptive caster

I think it'd be cool if there was a way to taunt as a bonus action if you use the shield-master feat. Target creature rolls a charisma saving throw vs. your Intimidate roll, if they fail, they can't move away from you for the duration of the turn.

A personal opinion based on a War Master Fighter I'm currently playing, but I've found that the Dual Wielder feat is arguably more useful and flavorful than Sword and Board. You'll get a +1 to your AC, and you'll get two weapon options to choose from while out in combat (perhaps a longsword and a quarterstaff, if you wanted the spellcasting focus discussed in the video?). Pair that with your Extra Attack, your Action Surge, and (should you choose it) a Bonus Action attack using two-weapon fighting, you become a swirling storm of oppressive steel.

Wait, how does a 1d12 wis save beat out a 1d8+5 attack in dpr?

You went for level 20 characters, then didn't give the fighter a magic weapon. The unfortunate reality is that martials need magic weapons to keep up regardless of weapon choice.

i feel like sword and board works best on a gish, classically and especially a paladin, where the sword is only a fraction of your damage and the +2 ac from the shield adds a lot to your rounds until downed by making your built in healing more effective

What made me laugh was Kobold ripping apart Wrath of The Sea while listening to intensifying bagpipes.

An easy and quick way to make the longsword better: Give it all of the weapon damage types. Slashing, nice, makes sense. Piercing, why not? It's got a point at the end! Bludgeoning? Hold it a certain way and it just becomes a club!

One problem with the "quarterstaff and board" option for the crown paladin: unless you pay the 5gp for an actual staff focus (which is separate from a quarterstaff despite being similar enough shape-wise), then you cannot use the quarterstaff as a focus, due to the fact that a weapon, on its own and without the war caster feat tax, cannot be a focus, as well as the focus itself needs to be able to be USED as a quarterstaff in that capacity. Instead, you could make the shield you're holding into a divine focus MUCH easier, and is supported in the rules WITHOUT needing an additional cost for function. It can even be part of your starting equipment, whereas the staff focus has to be either in your starting equipment as a focus, or purchased with 5 gold. 5 gold you could've spent on other things, such as a ranged option for in case you can't reach the enemy with your movement ok your turn, but still want to deal some damage. As for the sea druid, the only "problem" is that you're not using your aura effectively. The shove is on top of the damage you deal, which is a number of d6s equal to your wisdom modifier, at the end of your turn. Do I have to mention how many spells you could use in conjunction with this feature that makes this much more worth your time than just simply "running and potentially having to soak an attack of opportunity"? I thought we were better than this Kobold, it's free damage! You can use it in conjunction with wildshape! You can even use it after you cast a spell! And if you laid out something like Web or Spike Growth beforehand, you would be forcing them to take the 15ft of movement to get back into position, which will either have a new opportunity to damage or immobilize the target you just pushed! It's one of the best things Druids received since the circle of spores considering the synergy it has with spells that take effect only WHEN the target has to move through an affected area! It even works with summon spells, as (at least the ones from and post-Tasha's) have your summon act after you, and what happens when you end your turn (if you choose to do it)? You push the enemy away AND deal damage on top of that, giving your summon the opportunity to capitalize on said push. This is honestly a no-brainer, and I'm honestly a little shocked Kobold doesn't address this, or even attempt to utilize it wisely.

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

You ignored the most important argument against sea druid and you fell for the trap that I've talked about many many many many times. You somehow convinced yourself this is "Free damage". Ending your turn close to melee is not free damage because of the potential damage taken. Why didn't you consider the most important part of optimization? Why isn't damage dealt vs damage taken a no brainer? Why isn't basic concentration protection a no brainer? Btw, this metal medium armor and shield prof druid normally doesn't care about a single OP usually. Sometimes walking away normally is fine and its better than staying in melee just to be greedy with a little bit of damage and then suddenly get swarmed. If we put it under a microscope, the druid walking takes less damage and has a better a vantage point at putting down a fresh control spell. Imagine walking away 30 ft and then putting down spike growth. Imagine an optimal party kiting with spike growth because they have 2 encounter days so resources doesn't matter in the first place. Imagine casting conjure animals and then walk away so you don't have a greater chance of losing that concentration.

@elizamalaguld9064

11 ай бұрын

@@PackTactics And there you go assuming that being within melee range is a problem for the druid, when in reality, if you're actually using the features given to you BY just being a Druid, then you don't have to worry about taking damage in the first place. You have somehow convinced yourself that by being close to melee means that it's being not optimal, when in reality, damage taken is a non-issue so long as you don't fall to 0 HP. And why WOULD you worry about taking damage? You have wildshape, giving you temp HP, Conjure Animals, which is something YOU conveniently praised as the BEST use of Druid spellslots as it gives you a whole herd of animals to use as a wall between you and the enemy (you even had an entire video dedicated to the spell!), and either Web or Plant/Spike growth down as well, which can either immobilize (Web) or slow to a crawl with difficult terrain (Plant/Spike Growth). And then to say that "you have the chance to lose concentration" after that, would be a feat unto itself, due to what we've just laid out. You can even still move away before the end of your turn if you're that scared of being hurt, nothing has taken up your move action. And, if it would help damage, or even outright kill just 1 of the enemies in an encounter, you just reduced the danger you're in by a significant margin regardless by either setting up the kill, or, as previously stated, killing the target, making any damage you would take, again, a non-issue. Should I even have to mention Goodberry here as an option to heal after the battle, or have you forgotten your own videos where you were praising that spell to the high heavens too?

A clarification is needed that might matter in some edge case scenarios. The Quarterstaff is an Arcane or Druidic spell casting focus. RAW, it would not work as such for a Paladin or Cleric, who require a holy symbol. That holy symbol, however, can be on a shield or worn, so it doesn't technically matter for them for this type of build as long as they can touch their holy symbol, it's on their shield, or it's very visibly worn. PHB p151 on the holy symbol. So, for the Paladin or Cleric, that means you really don't need to use a Quarterstaff. In fact, you can't use a Quarterstaff as those classes for the purposes of casting spells. However, you can use any melee one handed weapon and still cast spells and have fun with your fantasy.

I did a Conquest Pally/Hexblade character with S&B and a wolf from Find Steed. He was hella effective. Soaked up and shrugged off almost every hit with high AC plus Shield spell, and with Shield Mastery and doggy was proning stuff all over the place. Damage output was good.

I tried using a shield because I wanted massive AC. Then no one tried to hit me so I had to spent eight turns equipping my halberd lol

How good a magical weapon would be needed to restore parity?

1:09 also if your a warlock, consider getting a hexblade, then your able to use your hexblade as your arcane focus, ao you can use a glaive or a spear instead.

Hey kobold, I love to play the tanky protector style classes in video games that’s what I find most fun for me. so I would like to ask, could you make a video on how you would improve sword/anything and board? Would adding something to select marshals be a way to go? For example say the fighter would probably do more damage close to what other martials do and on the other side maybe give cleric more tank like options but still hold there own with melee. Or maybe adding feats that are specifically for shield/weapon combos be a better option? If you are reading this thanks for your time. I really enjoy your videos and i really hope you make a video about this have good day!

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

Sorry, this is not a Homebrew channel nor am I a game designer but I did give ideas to how to improve it and it's straight forward right now because its simply starved. These playstyles need more options and they should be friendlier to pick. That can be through fighting styles, maybe weapon masteries, feats, new features, subclasses, there's a lot of angles you can go right now because remember what I said, we basically only have 2 options.

I made some changes because one of my players wanted to play sword and board but as you pointed out, the game doesnt really offer that playstyle in a fun or effective way. DISCLAIMER: we do not use 5e Monster Manuals or Adventure paths, the balancing is based around our own monsters and world so it might not work with yours. Change 1: Assuming your are proficient, a shield also gives you the "Shield Bash" Bonus Action. When you take the Attack action and attack, you can use a bonus action to attack with your shield. When doing so you reduce your to-hit modifier by -2. Hitting your target causes 1d6 (blunt) damage. Shield Bash does qualify for the Two-Weapon Fighting style but does not count as a weapon (for the purpose of the Dueling fighting style). When using the Parry Maneuver you add your Shield AC and Enhancement Bonuses to it. Change 2: All martial classes gain what we call the four "basic" Maneuvers. Those being: Feint, Parry, Riposte and Brace. These can be performed without any Superiority Dice, their effect is determined by your Proficiency. If you have Superiority Dice they are added to that effect (Proficiency + Superiority Die). Change 3: Too many feats to list them all here but they are related to reactions, shoving, tripping, attacks of opportunity etc. also stuff like causing flying creatures to stay grounded, cause damage over time effects (bleed mostly), punishing enemy casters etc. Regarding Shield Bash and it being a contender for the lackluster dual wielding concept: if you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and a light melee weapon in the other you may attack with the light melee weapon twice. If you have the Dual Wielder feat, your second weapon does not need to be a light weapon.

tanking isnt real, but your AC being so high that your enemy needs to crit to hit you is fun. One argument to be made for the sword and board build is very campaign and DM dependant though, and not something you can really math out in testing: a vast majority of magic weapons are longswords or single handed/versatile weapons. not counting the dragons wrath series there is barely any notable ranged/heavy weapons that are not just +X, so you are much more likely (again, DM and game dependant) to find a good magic weapon if you are playing either a sword and board or dual wielder. too vague to optimize what might happen, but is worth it if you know the module or if your dm likes giving out weapons.

There needs to be more/better options for covering allies, redirecting attacks, block damage mitigation, "thorns" damage, crowd control abilities (stuns with shield, disarms, trips, knockdowns, shoves, etc), morale effect bonuses of some sort that allies can use (similar to a bardic inspiration), just to name a few things. If you can't tank and do damage, tanking and controlling the battlefield while limiting monsters actions would be just as useful... until you get turned into a dragon - then it doesn't matter... boost martials...😅

Actually, if you have spike growth, this wrath of the sea might be busted. C'mon, you push enemy 15ft, he has to come back it again, it's 12d4 + 3d6 on 3rd lvl with point buy. Plus, as a druid you can have shield, medium armor, and have some great healing spells, so you don't have to worry about taking one hit from time to time.

My brother(the DM) and I made our own holy trinity system. It took us like 30 hours of brainstorming and we’re still playtesting it, but we’re having tons of fun so far. Probably not what everyone wants to do but it was fun to make.

5:56 polearm master and war caster are how im currently playing a halberd-wielding Paladin. Will eventually throw in mounted combatant

Can I get an opinion on a sword and board build? It's oath of the crown pally, shield and longsword with dueling fighting style and *possibly* sentinel? Just because I think sentinel would pair nicely with the other abilities like compelled duel and champion challenge. With other pally stuff like auras and stuff like that I think it would be a good build, sure I can't grab polearm master with a longsword but 1d8+5 damage isn't bad to start at all, and then with smites and stuff I feel like it wouldn't be a bad build at all. Thoughts?

@40Found

2 ай бұрын

Compelled duel is a very weak spell and polearm master would do 50% more damage. I'd recommend looking at the Crown Paladin build in the description as an example.

I'm pretty sure a staff can be a quarterstaff, but a quarterstaff is not necessarily a staff. A staff is a spellcasting focus that you can use as a weapon, but a quarterstaff is just a weapon. The main reason I say this is that the quarterstaff only costs 4 sp and the staff costs 5 gp

Ok, _partial_ counterargument to the idea that tanking isn't possible in DnD: Battlemaster Warrior's Goading Attack maneuver. "When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to goad the target into attacking you. You add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls against targets other than you until the end of your next turn." While it's not perfect by any means, it does mean enemies have to choose to either attack the Battlemaster or deal with potential misses due to having disadvantage, which either way allows the Battlemaster to protect their allies.

Try a swords bard with one level of hexblade. AC through the roof and a full caster. Lots if reasons to attack a bard that is concentrating on animate objects or hypnotic pattern. Warcaster lets you cast shield and also helps with those concentration checks

Does a Kender taunt used by a cleric of trickery with invoke duplicity activated allow you to "tank" for one round? Maybe enough time to save a downed teamate?

I tried buffing martials with my house rules: Most melee weapons are up a damage die, STR counts for 1.5x on attack and damage. Being outclassed at everything by a Bard with a couple levels in Warlock is kinda a bummer for STR Fighters.

i couldnt agree more with this video. im actually doing a pretty unique build right now where im basically a "control paladin" im oath of ancients, satyr race. shield in one hand and my other hand is free. everyone in the party has higher damage than my d6+3. So i dont even try to compete for damage until its time to fight bosses. I stand shoulder to should with the cavalier fighter, we force enemies into choke points so that they cannot flank our healer. I will often sacrifice attacking enemies on my turn to either dodge, or use objects and the environment. dodging encourages enemies to attack the fighter, and I use my reaction for protection(i swapped it out for interception recently though). ill also use spell slots for shield of faith or heroism, heroism usually pulls more weight during boss fights because the monsters usually will out hit the +2. recently we fought goblins coming over a small bridge, i could have held the line against them, but even with heavy armor master i should avoid taking unnecessary damage. i head butted the bridge and collapsed it, effectively removing the goblins ability to attack me in melee or shoot arrows at my party behind me due to the elevation difference. I can also channel divinity to restrain targets, which is super useful for our cavalier fighter and drake warden ranger. in conclusion tanking isn't a build, its a type of team work. everyone at the table needs to be committed to helping create situations in which 1 or 2 people with specialised defenses force enemies to attack them. oh and just to be clear, large open arena's make this team strategy crumble immediately. adapt the strategy or die.

Assuming that an enemy has a 65% chance of failing is VERY rich. In my experience playing above level 10, **everything always** saves, except MAYBE Intelligence if they roll a 4.

@PackTactics

11 ай бұрын

I used a spread sheet of averages from all of the monsters in all of the books combined. On average its usually 65%. There's never a spot that makes a dramatic change based on average and if that did exist then I would talk about it.

I think using sword and shield works better if the character has a protection fighting style so that he can use the shield to impose a disadvantage to an attack against an ally within five feet. If there are multiple fighters, all armed in a similar manner fighting in a shield wall, they can work together to reduce incoming hits against them, just as these formations worked historically. In this case, it isn’t about the damage being done, it is the damage being denied while other party members can cast spells, shoot arrows, etc.

I have a Forge Cleric that started at 22 AC (23 at level 6) with Green Flame Blade. At level 5, 8, 11, 14 & 17 you get an additional 1D8 fire damage on your basic attacks thanks Divine Strike & GFB. So for ME, Sword & Board works fine for me. Also, going from a 1D8+5+2 (11.5 average) to 1D10+5+2 (average 12.5) is only a n 8% increase in average damage.

You can also be a Thri kreen and perform your somatic components with both of your extra hands.

Shield Master feat is really good for this build.

1:12 this says that wizard staffs and the likes can be used as quarterstaffs. It doesnt say thay any ordenary stick in the shape of a quarterstaff can work as a focus.

Fantastic video. I feel that Martials across the board need buffs or more general rules options. I have found that the Mark feature from the DMG helps to expand on what a Defender melee martial can do. From the perspective of the Sentinel Martial they can now effectively be the antithesis of the Mobile feat for its opponents; any and all targets it makes a melee attack against is marked until its next turn and therefore the Sentinel Martial can opportunity attack against them without expending its Reaction with advantage. It's a small buff but a buff nonetheless. It not taking up their reaction goes a long way. I personally also think that the Extra Attack feature should be take out as a class feature and turned into a general rule of weapon proficiency. We homebrew at our table that all characters with proficiency in a weapon can make an additional attack with that weapon at the same character levels as the cantrips. This would open up the Martial classes for more interesting and potent features as the Tiers of play advanced. Does this skew the math at higher levels? Definitely. Has that been much of a problem for the DM? Not really, seeing how the caster's damage scaled just as hard at said levels and at the higher tiers of play just smacking monsters for big damage was not the only thing necessary to play the Roleplaying Skirmish game that is DND. But having at least 1 key feature early on that the players/DM could work with to really make the class stand out has been great.

i fins two weapon focus and tavern brawler for this works great, spike the shield, off hand weapon, add throwing weapon fighting style you can throw the shield, treating it as a dagger or throwing axe talk to dm

PT you are forgetting another part of the dps race... the enemy does damage, the Fighter is going to have a higher CON than the Cleric (a fair assumption) and they have higher hit dice. What the sword & board fighter needs to be more interesting are maneuvers around using Shield Bash, that has always been the case in 3.5 and Pathfinder. The problem with "tanking" in D&D comes from how the players and GMs roleplay the combat. If you do something like chess, yeah... kind of dull, there aren't many things that pull you into melee. You can test a bit the *Mark* mechanic in the DMG 141pg... at least it's a free reaction. Back in the older editions, the Fighter was attacked simply because it was in the front line and probably the corridor is only 10ft. wide... on the wilderness monster could gang up everyone at the same time or a worse scenario you got ambushed by monsters in a corridor and suddenly your backline is your front line.