D&D (2024) Just realized Sentinel is heavily nerfed! No longer works with PAM, no longer works on most enemies who Disengage.

[ECMO3]

One of the PCs in a game I DM is running a PAM/Sentinel Fighter. The traditional pole arm guy with a 10 foot reach.

Bad guy approached and the Fighter made his AOO, dropping move to 0 or so I thought, as did the player. One of the other players at the table pointed out that the PAM attack when he enters reach is not an "Opportunity Attack" and therefore does not trigger the "Halt" portion of Sentinel.

After reading further we realized the new Sentinel also does not work against enemies who disengage, it only works against them if they actually take the Disengage action while standing next to you and then it works even if they don't move. As long as they take the disengage action when they are more than 5 feet away from you they don't provoke from you even if they move in and out of your reach.

The player in question is kind of bummed about this turn of events. I might let him retcon it and choose a different feat.

 

[SableWyvern]

One of the PCs in a game I DM is running a PAM/Sentinel Fighter. The traditional pole arm guy with a 10 foot reach.

Bad guy approached and the Fighter made his AOO, dropping move to 0 or so I thought, as did the player. One of the other players at the table pointed out that the PAM attack when he enters reach is not an "Opportunity Attack" and therefore does not trigger the "Halt" portion of Sentinel.

After reading further we realized the new Sentinel also does not work against enemies who disengage, it only works against them if they actually take the Disengage action while standing next to you and then it works even if they don't move. As long as they take the disengage action when they are more than 5 feet away from you they don't provoke from you even if they move in and out of your reach.

The player in question is kind of bummed about this turn of events. I might let him retcon it and choose a different feat.

Instead of changing feats or sticking with an unfun RAW version, have you considered just using the version that you all like and thought was being chosen?

 

[cbwjm]

I'd definitely allow the player to switch up their feats, or at the very least, make the PAM reach attack count as an opportunity attack and halt their movement. I'm sort of less concerned about the disengage one, but maybe it would be better to just use the 2014 feats instead.

 

[Tonguez]

2014 mix n match

 

[Clint_L]

2014 mix n match

I can’t say I’m sad that the polearm+sentinel combo was nerfed. Did they also pick bugbear as their species?

 

[GMMichael]

Instead of changing feats or sticking with an unfun RAW version, have you considered just using the version that you all like and thought was being chosen?

Might as well. WotC says they're compatible.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, just use the ones your prefer. They're all compatible. It's the same edition, y'know!

 

[Shiroiken]

The removal of PAM's reactive strike and Sentinel's halt combo was almost certainly intentional, and a good thing IMO.

The change to the disengage action is interesting and I wonder if it was intentionally changed to not work with reach weapons. Personally, I could see changing the wording to say "when a creature within your reach" rather than "within 5 feet," but I wonder if there's some abusive combo. Tactically, you could have the polearm sentinel in the 2nd rank, allowing them to make a lot of extra attacks against front line creatures that attack your front line, but this seems like a historically accurate strategy.