D&D 5E STR and DEX fighter stupid?

[krakistophales]

I would get the alert feat on top of having a final dex of 14, but that would leave me with wis 10, which in my experience might also be low enough to be terrible.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Well, not sure if anyone has addressed it, but if you are already a STR based fighter, and Initiative is important, why not use that ASI on the Alert Feat?
As others mentioned a +1 on the other DEX checks is not going to make or break your character, and you won't be getting any benefits to AC without taking yet another feat.

Or go the DEX fighter AND take the Alert Feat anyway
Nova on the Boss before he finishes his evil speech ---> Cooler than a Silence spell being casted on him

Yes. Alert feat serves another purpose too. It makes perception and thus wisdom less important. You still have to worry about saves a bit but you can live with lowe dex and wis. Take resilent wisdom as another feat and also shield master and you are up to all tasks except sneaking.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

A related question.

I have a level 10 PC (6+4 MC - primary class fighter)
With the following stats:
20 STR
13 DEX
14 CON
12 INT
13 WIS
10 CHA

I have 3 optional stat/feat increases at lvl 12, 16 and 20. As a fighter i have proficiency at STR and CON. What do you think should be the path to follow from this moment on?

I was considering at least one feat in resilient, most like wisdom, so the character can be proficient in wisdom saves. Maybe one in dexterity as well, to get +2 bonus with ranged weapons and more saves. This would also allow me to go medium armor and make more stealthy. But i also like toughness (+2HP per level) as i am still primary a melee fighter, i just like flexibility. But, from a role playing aspect, the alertness feat sounds very attractive as well.

What feats would you advise and in which order (priority)?

 

[Tanaka Chris]

Well, if you kinda want to cover a range of Saves....
Can I just suggest picking the lucky feat? You'd only need it if you fail after all, and the dice could always come up high/low regardless of your modifier.

Also, what's your other class? Or are you a mishmash of various things with primary class fighter?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You are not allowed by the rules to take rel
silence more than once.
Lucky is a good choice as well as just increasing dex and wis with an ASI.
Your saves are worse you have more bonuses to skills. A little bonus but it may pay out over time.
Resilence wisdom is a good feat. Dexterity may be increased later with an ASI and increase CON as well. And as a last feat you may take Durable, if your group uses the reading that the minimum of your roll is 2 times CON and you add CON on top of it.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

Well, if you kinda want to cover a range of Saves....
Can I just suggest picking the lucky feat? You'd only need it if you fail after all, and the dice could always come up high/low regardless of your modifier.

Also, what's your other class? Or are you a mishmash of various things with primary class fighter?

I'm doing my concept 2E justifier in 5E, so the other class is a ranger.

You are not allowed by the rules to take rel
silence more than once.
Lucky is a good choice as well as just increasing dex and wis with an ASI.
Your saves are worse you have more bonuses to skills. A little bonus but it may pay out over time.
Resilence wisdom is a good feat. Dexterity may be increased later with an ASI and increase CON as well. And as a last feat you may take Durable, if your group uses the reading that the minimum of your roll is 2 times CON and you add CON on top of it.

Where do the rules state we can't take R e s i l i e n t more then once?

EDIT: found it:
"You can take each feat only once, unless the feat’s description says otherwise"

 

[krakistophales]

I suppose this came from the desire to create a "master swordsman" sort of build, and it seems the only optimized way to do this is the greatsword/heavy armor battlemaster, since light armor will provide too little AC early in the career and having a tertiary CON will leave you with only 8 average HP per level for most of the career, which isn't great.

This assumes a variant human start, and the ultimate question becomes: Is it better to have 20 STR/20 CON/14 DEX as level 20 stats with the alert feat, or is it better to have 20 STR/20 CON/16 DEX as level 20 stats with the resilient feat? Resilient will make you proficient with DEX saves, which can be a huge help and kind of a roleplay thing for a guy in huge armor, but alert gives more initiative/can't be surprised/no disadvantage against hidden/invisible enemies. I'm rather torn on this feat choice, so which outcome would be better assuming a tertiary DEX stat?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

For a Fighter, I agree it's not especially useful.

For a Valor Bard, on the other hand, a 14 Dex is pretty important, even if you pump Str for offense (as I did, for a handful of reasons). I'll never invest any further in it, since it's not worth a feat+an ASI to get just +1 AC, but once I get my hands on a Breastplate, my life will be a lot easier in melee. Same goes for many other classes, if you play a Mountain Dwarf and thus get Medium armor prof for free.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Dex 14 is good enough for all purposes. take the alert feat, since it allows you to cover the most important aspects of both wis and dex. (except wis saves). I just won't dump dex without at least akmnowledging that I am giving up certain things. DC for sneaking up on enemies is often in the DC 10 or lower range.The difference between +2 or -1 is huge. Especially with advantage or disadvantage.
(we are speaking of 85-90% succes rate (1-0.35^2 at advantage with dex +2) vs sucessrate of only 25 percent (0.5^2 at disadvantage and dex -1). Disadvantage because of heavy armor. Advantage because of inspiration or help or advatageous circumstances.

Yes. I assumed some advantage for the dex +2 user. But the heavy armor guy won't butn inspirarion on his check to increase his odds from 25% to 50% because its still a coin flip situation and the chance to still raise alarm is still high and you may as well save inspiration for the following combat.

 

[krakistophales]

I was just thinking, though, that resilience dex with a 16 dex at the end would ultimately give you +9 to dex saving throws for a guy in heavy armor. That's kind of interesting, counter intuitive to the norm of the hulking guy with a greatsword, and would reinforce the "master swordsman" concept while still allowing a guy to clunk around in heavy armor and a greatsword. The only thing is, is it possible with starting stats and a variant human to achieve? No matter how I think about it I can't find a way to have it work out so that you can evenly get a 16 dex in the end, which would mean you'd have to start with either a 12 or a 14 to account for the +1 of resilient, and add +1 to it later, but that means another stat has to hang around as odd for a while, which screws up the initial stats. Any ideas?

The reason I think I might want to do resilient DEX over alert is that with resilient you end up, even with a 14 dex, of a +8 to initiative and dex saves instead of +5 to initiative and admittedly not being surprised and DA against hidden/invisible foes. Which is better? Higher initiative and dex saves, or lower initiative, much lower dex saves, but never being surprised and not getting DA vs hidden/invisible foes?