D&D 5E So Was That Z Fellow right?

[FrogReaver]

1. Well, you cant use it that much as you cant use it on huge or larger creatures. It does compete with your bonus action usage, on my current Paladin its about %75 of the time as a guesstimate.

2. I would say that's about right. With the feat you will max your STR score sooner rather than earlier and it is an opposed check.

3. Correct, you and your rogue or monk or paladin or barbarian.


Of course this would take a little work, and would not include staying power of +2 to AC and the rest of the shield master benefits to saving throws. A lot of the work has been done here already. https://1drv.ms/b/s!AtVzM7E-c0rph61NMMkxGZD9ojIyTw



BTW, the ability to prone or push ANY size is what makes open hand monks by far the best IMO. Its not as flashy but proning to set up the team or at least halving their movement is useful. There are a bunch of huge and tough creatures in the game with poor DEX saves.

So I used the assumptions listed and looked at 2 level 10 characters since that's all our assumptions required. The first a basic sword and shield fighter with shield master and duelist style. The 2nd was a level 10 barbarian with GWM that didn't use reckless attack. I didn't calculate anything related to crits but the impact should be fairly minimal.

What I found:
Shield Master Increased party DPR by a minimum of +5 and a maximum of +7.5 (depends on AC and skews closer to +7 overall if I had to nail down a single value).

Again this was following our assumptions outlined above.

It's a nice bit of DPR. No where near the SS + CE combo but for a single feat vs 2 feats its not bad. Of course it's a little more finicky as their are a lot more variables that impact it's usefulness over the CE SS Battlemaster Fighter.

 

[FrogReaver]

While I'm not about to defend [MENTION=6780330]Parmandur[/MENTION] about the head hunting thing, I think he's gone too far, he does make a point. This is a one trick pony that adds nothing else to the group.

I LOVE characters like this because it's so easy to challenge them. Drop them in a pit filled with water - watch that dump stat Str try to swim and climb. Use the rules for buying magic items as a downtime activity and watch them fail every time because they have no social skills. Fun.

Or, heck, the Ravenloft module has no magic pistol crossbows at all, and no magic bolts. At least, none that we found. Watch Mr. Specialist whine and complain because he's doing half damage to every single major opponent in the entire module, that, after all, only goes to about 10th level, so, this build actually only comes into play in the very, very tail end.

The build occurs at level 4 with variant human. Level 6 otherwise.

Lack of any magic weapon or arrows/bolts is a pain. Magic weapon is a good option here, or switching to that magic shortbow you found when you fight something that has resistance. Heck, my favorite thing to do with the build is to carry around a longbow and a hand crossbow. If things are far away then I use the longbow. Once they get close enough I switch to the hand crossbow. The forge cleric has a great level 1 ability for this too and only requires a single level dip.

The point being, lack of a magic weapon is annoying and hand crossbows are rare and magical ones even rarer in most published adventures. However, it can be overcome through many different options.

 

[Caliban]

Cranky, no; amused, yes.

Admit it, now you are just posting so that I don't get the last word.

 

[Caliban]

I LOVE characters like this because it's so easy to challenge them. Drop them in a pit filled with water - watch that dump stat Str try to swim and climb. Use the rules for buying magic items as a downtime activity and watch them fail every time because they have no social skills. Fun.

Fun for you maybe. All I can say is that it sounds like anti-fun to me.

You brag about making "challenges" that only target their weaknesses. Are there ever any challenges that involve something they are good at, or is that reserved for the characters that are built according to your pet preferences?

But D&D can support a variety of play styles, and if you and your players enjoy that type of game, who am I to judge? (Oh right - an internet denizen. I judge everyone. )

 

[Parmandur]

Admit it, now you are just posting so that I don't get the last word.

Agree to disagree on that.

 

[Caliban]

Agree to disagree on that.

Prove it.

 

[Parmandur]

Prove it.

You first. [emoji14]

 

[Shasarak]

I'm reminded of the end of one session with a CE/SS who argued he deserved a magic item more than anyone else at the table because he did the most damage. The sad thing was, two other players agreed with him. <facepalm>

How do you normally decide who gets the magic item? Do you usually Dice off?

 

[Shasarak]

Personally, if I saw a player trying to do this, the character wouldn't make it to level 10 alive without some amazing luck and footwork. If a player will metagame, so can the DM.

That just means that the Player needs to meta-meta-game.

Its game theory all the way down.

 

[Caliban]

You first. [emoji14]

Oh, I'm totally posting in order to get the last word.