D&D 5E Minotaur Sentinel Awesomeness

[NADRIGOL]

So I've been building an awesome Sentinel build and wanted to share it with you guys.

I'm going to drop in a level 8 character sheet here. I think level 8 is where the build has all of its basic components in place.



Now let me justify the build and explain the concepts.

Minotaur - The +2 STR is great, but it's the horns and the BA shove that really bring the build together.
Battle Master - Fighter is obvious for such a feat heavy build. Battle Master brings so many cool options to the table... although I'm sure you could justify EK.

Tunnel Fighter, Polearm Master, Sentinel - So Tunnel Fighter is probably broken... not all the time, but it can be abused... which is why I'm here! By bringing simultaneous Halberd (10') and Horns (5') to the build, the unlimited OA's granted by Tunnel Fighter allow this build to attack:
Targets entering 10' reach (Halberd, Polearm Master)
Targets entering 5' reach (Horns, Polearm Master - RAW, although a tweet confirmed RAI PM OA's must be made with polearm)
Targets leaving 5' reach (Horns)
Targets leaving 10' reach (Halberd)
So basically movement is crazy locked down in a 15' x 15' area. You can even burn an RA with the other Tunnel Fighter feature if you miss your regular OA's on a really important to lock down target rushing your back line. This is very powerful in horde battles, and has crazy potential against single melee targets.

I went Battle Master because the maneuvers are excellent action economy. EK could do some awesome stuff (Misty Step into the middle of a group of baddies and hold them all in place? yeah...), and I was super tempted by doing some Warcaster OA Booming Blades for even more lockdown, but in the end I liked the idea of Battle Master better.

Menacing Attack for some potential OA proc. Precision Strike for guaranteeing those important lockdown OA's. Pushing Attack, because forced movement is king. Riposte because burning your RA is ok with Tunnel Fighter. Trip Attack because it's amazing.

The rest of the build is pretty open. Great Weapon Master is coming up. You could keep running with Fighter to get the extra attacks and most ASI's, but there is probably some solid justification for MultiClassing at this level.

I conceptualized this build while planning out the Fighter 1 Bladesinger X I'm currently playing. My thoughts were that mixing this build with a mobile caster with a combination of forced movement (e.g. Lightning Lure) and high damage location spells (e.g. cloud of daggers) would be awesome. Recently I've been thinking of mixing one or two of these Minotaurs with one or two of a bladesinger-esque character. Huge field of lockdown where you just set up hazards and move targets around.

Let me know what you guys think. I feel like the combination of UA rules being brought together will never reach publication in their current state, but I'm happy to abuse them in the meantime!

 

[MYV]

i'm not sure i get what you mean.
basically you are saying that since you have both a "weapon" with 5' reach (horns) and a weapon with 10' reach they provoke OA when they enter and/or leave both the 5' reach and the 10' reach?

I personally think that since your 10' reach includes the 5' reach, enemies only provoke when enetering or leaving the 10' line...
ofc if they move more than 5' and you have tunnel fighter active you get to attack them with your reaction.

 

[Coyote81]

Try this build with a Minotaur Paladin Oath of Vengeance. At level 7 you get a cute trick where whenever you attack with a OOA, you get a free half speed move, allowing you to move away and then attack with the polearm again if they move within 10'. This build effectively works with anyone race with polearm master and tunnel fighter.

I was thinking something more along the lines of V-Human Paladin7(Oath of Vengeance) with Tunnel Fighter, Great Weapon master and Pole-Arm Master. On your turns, you move within 10' of an enemy and attack with multiple attacks at 10'. Use your BA to activate tunnel fighter (No smite spells on those attacks) Pole-arm master gives you a 10' reach with tunnel fighter. and a step away thanks to Relentless avenger from being a paladin. For a nice topper. All of your AOO allow you to expend spells slots to make the target suffer smite damage as well.

Bless will be your go to concentration spell, and with any luck you with AOO everyone that gets close and move away, thus rarely having to worry about concentration checks.

All this mobility is done while wearing the heaviest armor you can find and maxing out Strength and Charisma. I would probably finish the build with 1 level in paladin and 12 in fighter(Battlemaster), That nets you 5 ASI (with one spent on Great weapon master) a 2nd fighting style to get Great weapon fighter (and Great weapon master for the -5/+10 on each attack, which is nice when it's offset by Battlemaster precision attack). If you skip the feat you still get 20 in STR and CHA with a 13 in Con. (16,10,13,8,10,16 as starting stats). Fighter also gets you a 3rd attack at 11, and a nice variety of maneuvers that can be used when performing those AOOs. Action Surge is always nice and second wind is useful. Goading attack was almost made for this build. Maneuver Strike would be interesting. I would probably start with precision, goading and trip attack.

Honestly, this build could be a DM's nightmare when it comes to board control.

 

[NADRIGOL]

i'm not sure i get what you mean.
basically you are saying that since you have both a "weapon" with 5' reach (horns) and a weapon with 10' reach they provoke OA when they enter and/or leave both the 5' reach and the 10' reach?

I personally think that since your 10' reach includes the 5' reach, enemies only provoke when enetering or leaving the 10' line...
ofc if they move more than 5' and you have tunnel fighter active you get to attack them with your reaction.

Whether two simultaneous wielded weapons yield two simultaneous reach distances is unclear. They avoid it for the most part by making reach weapons two-handed, although you could wield a whip and dagger. I've tweeted for confirmation.

If the call is that you can only have one reach, than the build is silly, and you could pull something better off with another race. Probably like what Coyote has put together.

 

[NADRIGOL]

Yeah Coyote... we're building similar but in reverse order. Paladin was my favorite for multiclassing after the Battle Master Build.

One thing to note. You'll need a dip or Magic Initiate to pick up Booming Blade as it's restricted to S/W/W.

As well, Relentless Avenger specifically states "as part of the same reaction", so RAW I don't think you could use it multiple times with Tunnel Fighter, and technically the new reaction granted by Tunnel Fighter isn't an AOO. So you'd really only pull that off when you couldn't spend your BA on your defensive stance (which could be valuable if you had something like Misty Step to BA, or as you note, Smite)

I didn't choose Goading attack since the build has so much lockdown anyways, and menacing attack can achieve essentially the same thing with correct positioning, plus protect yourself (Thanks Art of War guide!). Maneuvering strike would be great with something like a Rogue in the party... I was planning the build with a front-lining wizard in mind who wouldn't really need to be positioned.

Definitely hell for a DM with Tunnel Fighter in the mix though. I don't think it will make it to print in it's current state.

 

[Coyote81]

Initially I was going to pick up booming blade with the spell sniper feat, get the cantrip and makes it 10'.

I actually think it works fine as write because the handbook assumes OAs are always reactions, so all of the abilities are written that way. But if an ability allows you AOs without a reaction, you should ignore those lines in the book. Or least as a DM I would. The handbook seriously tells you the only way you can even make a AO is using you reaction agaisnt a provoking target.

Yea I doubt it makes it to print like it is.

 

[NADRIGOL]

Finally got a twitter answer about the multiple reaches

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/793862968882503680

Confirmed, if you have two weapons with different reaches, you maintain both reaches and each triggers its own OA's.

The UA content is still unofficial, but if a DM allows it, this build works RAW.

 

[zaratan]

So any one with a 10' weapon have two reach. You always can use your head or kick 1d4 + Str

Enviado de meu SM-G900MD usando Tapatalk

 

[NADRIGOL]

So any one with a 10' weapon have two reach. You always can use your head or kick 1d4 + Str

Well an unarmed strike only does 1 damage unless you're a monk or have Tavern Brawler, but yes, that seems reasonable. I'm tweeting for follow-up confirmation.

Although the damage would suffer (and Minotaur's are sooo cool), that would seemingly make this build possible with a non-Minotaur race. Variant Human could get the key elements of this build (Tunnel Fighter, Sentinel, Polearm Master) by level 4 (to be fair Minotaur could do it in 6, I pushed to 8 for an ASI).

 

[zaratan]

true, I was thinking in improvised weapons.

about tunnel fighter, as someone with a battle master tunnel fighter sentinel polearmaster in my table, yes it is completly broken. When the sorlock twinned dissonant whisppers or the bard start to cast fear, any numerous encounter is useless. Even when the enemies try to leave the AoE from the druid spells, or break the entire encounter in a small area with melee enemies. I really recommend do not use tunnel fighter in any table or at least limit to one attack per turn.