D&D 5E Build advice needed. Planning out a fighter and don't know when to place the -5/+10 feats

[Minsc]

Hey guys.

When you're using point buy for stats, and you're building a fighter intent on dealing damage, when do you add in either sharpshooter or great weapon master?

Look at it this way: assume a starting 16 in either DEX or STR (with either the ranged or melee attacker, respectively).

Variant human.

You start level 1 with either crossbow master of polearm master.

You want to bump your prime stat twice (to get to 20)
You want to get sharpshooter (ranged) or great weapon master (melee)

That's three bumps. You can accomplish this by level 8.

But what order is optimal? Is it better to bump that prime stat to 20 before ever looking at the -5/+10 feats?

 

[krunchyfrogg]

For your pole arm build, I suggest sentinel at 4, str to 18 at 6, great weapon master at 8, and str 20 at 10 (hoping you get a belt of hill giant str before level 10)

For hand xbow dude, sharpshooter at 4, dex at 6 and 8. Difference here is I'd rarely use the 5/+10 from sharpshooter unless you were pretty sure you could hit. Sharpshooter offers so many other bennies.