D&D 5E 5e Fighter/Barb optimization - Battlemaster + shield master + rage

[Salthorae]

Why would you ever Dex16 on a Str build?
I'm not seeing anything that makes me believe the OP wants Dex16.

You start Str16 / Dex14, enough for medium armor and defensive duelist. Your rapier has +3 hit and +5 damage when you rage.

+7 damage when you rage! Duelist Fighting style is giving you +5 all the time on the rapier.

 

[bid]

+7 damage when you rage! Duelist Fighting style is giving you +5 all the time on the rapier.

That too.

 

[VrangsigBaran]

I'm making a fighter battle master16/barbarian4 multiclass character. STR16 DEX16 CON14 INT8 WIS10 CHA8. For race I took human variant to get shield master feat from the start. Levels 1-5 fighter levels, level 4 medium armor master feat, level 6 barbarian (rage, UAD)level 7 fighter alert feat, levels 8-9 barbarian(reckless, danger sense, totem bear), level 10-11 fighter(know your enemy+maneuvers etc.+resilient WIS feat), level 12 barbarian ASI STR +2. Levels 13-20 fighter, level 15 extra attack(2), level 16 ASI STR +2, level 18 feat, level 20 feat.
I delayed second extra attack to be more versatile.

 

[Blue]

I'm making a fighter battle master16/barbarian4 multiclass character. STR16 DEX16 CON14 INT8 WIS10 CHA8. For race I took human variant to get shield master feat from the start. Levels 1-5 fighter levels, level 4 medium armor master feat, level 6 barbarian (rage, UAD)level 7 fighter alert feat, levels 8-9 barbarian(reckless, danger sense, totem bear), level 10-11 fighter(know your enemy+maneuvers etc.+resilient WIS feat), level 12 barbarian ASI STR +2. Levels 13-20 fighter, level 15 extra attack(2), level 16 ASI STR +2, level 18 feat, level 20 feat.
I delayed second extra attack to be more versatile.

F 1-5 / B 1 / F 6 / B 2-3 / F 7-8 / B 4 / F 9-16

I like this progression more that the OP. It looks a lot more playable going up the levels. It gets the level 5 power bump before worrying about multi-classing It thinks about levels with ASIs so as not to leave them waiting too long.

If I had a suggestion, it would be the order of the ASI/feat choices.

Level 4 falling +1 hit/damage behind for +1 AC is a reasonable choice for a pure fighter. But with shield master from variant human you want STR to prone foes, plus you'l have barbarian resistance during rage coming on in a few levels making the occasional extra hit not a big deal.

At level 8 you've usually see a full +5 in an attack ability score and you're still at only +3. You've had another ASI/feat pick at 7th for Alertn - good feat but I wouldn't consider it more important then a seriously lagging attack ability. In rage you do have advantage on those STR rolls to prone with your 1st level feat, and you can reckless attack at any time but the disadvantage of that will more then offset the +1 AC from your level 4 feat.

 

[VrangsigBaran]

Now that I've thought about again, I'll ditch the alert feat and take +2 to STR at level 7. Much more needed/useful =)
Or I could take STR ASI at level 4, MAM at level 6, then barb1 at level 7.
I've noticed with this build that there are many roads to same destination. =)

Thanks, Blue