Thoughts on feat for an archer

[DocSharpe]

So my archer (battlemaster fighter) just hit 8th level, and I'm waffling on what feat to take. He's a variant human, so the Sharpshooter feat was taken at level 1. Dex maxed with ASIs at level 4 and 6, plus he picked up an Amulet of Health early, so I'm not bothering to increase Con. Wisdom is decent enough that I'm not worried about improving it (or other stats).

No one feat jumps out at me as a must have, and I'm going back and forth on the following feats:

• Lucky: This would give me a bit more comfort when taking the -5 to get the Sharpshooter damage bonus.
• Crossbow Expert: I'd only take this one to negate the disadvantage when being pressed by melee attackers...and this has typically not been a problem for me to avoid in this campaign.
• Magic Initiate: Either Warlock to get Hex, or Cleric to get Guidance and Bless. (Both also make sense for RP reasons)
• Alert: This is not a priority...our bard has a weapon of warning, and I'm usually in the top half/third of the initiative.

Mobile would be hot if the attack which prevented OAs could be ranged...



Thoughts? Am I missing an obvious choice? I may MC rogue and/or ranger after level 11... but I'm racing to that third attack first

 

[mellored]

Healer, if no one else has it. It will let your bard save his spell slots for offense rather then healing. Unless your DM lets you buy healing potions in mass. Inspiring leader would also be good for someone in the party to have, but i assume you don't have Cha, and/or your bard took it.

Resilient (Wis). You're still vulnerable to hold person.

But, this is a problem with higher level fighters, they have more feats then they no what to do with.

 

[RulesJD]

Healer, if no one else has it. It will let your bard save his spell slots for offense rather then healing. Unless your DM lets you buy healing potions in mass. Inspiring leader would also be good for someone in the party to have, but i assume you don't have Cha, and/or your bard took it.

Resilient (Wis). You're still vulnerable to hold person.

But, this is a problem with higher level fighters, they have more feats then they no what to do with.

Res (Wisdom). You need to shore up that weak save quick because you're starting to hit when a lot of monsters have attacks/abilities that target Wisdom.

Also, might want to look at doing a 1 level dip into Cleric. Pick up Bless/Guidance/War Bonus attack/Divine Favor. Divine Favor is great because it doesn't eat your Bonus each time (albeit not a big concern for an archer). After that, you can keep going Fighter until level 12 and pickup Magic Initiate (Hex).

 

[Voort]

So my archer (battlemaster fighter) just hit 8th level...

Am I missing an obvious choice?

Martial Adept?

 

[DocSharpe]

Thanks for the ideas. Resilient (Wisdom) was something I remember looking at when I created the character (and may have been why I left my Wisdom at an odd number).

For Martial Adept...at 8th level, I already have 5 maneuvers and 5 dice which recharge with a short rest. Voort, have you been finding the 6th d8 (or the extra 2 maneuvers) worth it?

 

[Voort]

Voort, have you been finding the 6th d8 (or the extra 2 maneuvers) worth it?

I'm mostly a DM. The only battlemaster at my tables spends maneuvers like a drunken sailor trying to be a 4e warlord.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Thoughts? Am I missing an obvious choice? I may MC rogue and/or ranger after level 11... but I'm racing to that third attack first

I really enjoy Mobile, but from a DPR optimization standpoint, Crossbow Expert is the obvious choice. The bonus action attack from Crossbow Expert would give you three attacks now instead of at level 11. Only d6 damage but that doesn't matter much. It would also let you use heavy crossbows for d10 instead of d8 at long range.

But, I also don't like the Crossbow Expert tactic. Supposedly it is RAI, at least according to Jeremy Crawford, but it runs contrary to the plain reading of the PHB (in my opinion), which make it sound like a dual-wielding thing (e.g. sword and crossbow), and trusting dev tweets above the plain reading of the text always smells like an exploit to me.

So, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably pick something which gives breath over depth. My three obvious candidates are:

1.) Ritual Magic: either Cleric for Augury/Divination/Commune/Meld Into Stone, or Wizard for Find Familiar/Phantom Steed/Leomund's Tiny Hut/Unseen Servant. Depending on who else is in your party, and how often the party splits, this can give you entirely new capabilities. Also, Phantom Steed's 200' of movement per round is pretty sweet for an archer.

2.) Healer: stretch party resources without requiring spell slots, and lets you patch yourself up when needed, or revive the bard if he is down.

3.) Defensive Duelist: use your high Dex to tank in melee when you want to.

Runner-up:

4.) Mounted Combatant: be a Mongol horse archer.

Note that Mounted Combatant and Ritual Magic (wizard) both give you, in their own ways, the benefit you were looking for from Mobile: you can Disengage for free and then fire off some arrows. Note further that all three of my top picks have one thing in common: they make you more self-sufficient and more capable of solo adventures. That's my bias.

Anyway, overall I recommend Ritual Magic (wizard), provided that your DM will give you the chance to actually learn some ritual magic spells by copying from someone appropriate.

 

[DocSharpe]

Thanks. Ended up going with the Resilient (Wisdom), which turned out to be a good choice (at least in the short term) since we promptly ran into a mind flayer who tried to dominate me. (Int saves still suck...)

I think Magic Initate and Defensive Duelist may come in later. DD may be the equivalent of a Shield spell at that level, and could give me what would have been nice to have gotten from Mobile.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Thanks. Ended up going with the Resilient (Wisdom), which turned out to be a good choice (at least in the short term) since we promptly ran into a mind flayer who tried to dominate me. (Int saves still suck...)

I think Magic Initate and Defensive Duelist may come in later. DD may be the equivalent of a Shield spell at that level, and could give me what would have been nice to have gotten from Mobile.

My favorite part of Mobile is actually a piece that tends to get ignored: you can ignore difficult terrain when Dashing. That means that in a forest or indoor area crowded with rocks and furniture/etc., your Expeditious Retreat/Cunning Action becomes twice as effective, and even regular Dashing goes from "barely keep ahead of monsters with 40' movement" to "leave non-flying monsters behind in the dust."

I get the impression that most DMs tend to underuse difficult terrain (rooms have no furniture, etc.), which might explain why this part of Mobile doesn't get much play. But even if your DM doesn't naturally place difficult terrain, you can either seek it out or create it in advance using nothing more than time.

The only reason I don't suggest Mobile for you is that when there are a bunch of melee dudes in the party already, they'd have to significantly change their playstyle in order for you to benefit from Mobile. For example, they wait behind a corner while you scout on ahead until you see a monster (monsters). You start shooting it (one of them) until it pursues (they pursue) you, and then you commence hitting it (one of them) while you retreat back to where your buddies suddenly burst out and murder them all. This would be pretty pointless in a CAS campaign since surprise and enemy mistakes aren't really a thing there (the DM has more tendency to metagame), but in a CAW scenario it can be valuable for your enemy to underestimate the threat until it's in melee range. What's that saying? Something about how, since you can't usually hide a threat entirely, "[military] surprise is what happens when something you saw all along turns out to be different than what you thought." But it won't work on a DM who metagames, because he knows all along what the real threat is.