D&D General Miss at Most Once per Duel with Studied Attacks, Elven Accuracy and Vex?

Silam · Friday at 12:40 PM

The Fighter’s 13th level feature seems under-discussed… (or perhaps under-studied?)

Level 13: Studied Attacks
You study your opponents and learn from each attack you make. If you make an attack roll against a creature and miss, you have Advantage on your next attack roll against that creature before the end of your next turn.

This, in combination with Elven Accuracy and a Vex weapon seems quite strong.

If you miss, Studied Attack gives you advantage.
If you hit, then Vex gives you advantage.
And if you have advantage, Elven Accuracy almost guarantees you’ll hit again, and hence go back to step 2.

This is an at will combo. There are no expendable resources involved at all. The one drawback is the advantage sticks to a single enemy only, so it’s effective against a strong boss, but not against mobs. I was originally going to title this thread "Miss at Most Once per Combat" but then renamed it to "per Duel" because of this non-transferrability of the advantage across opponents…

13 levels in a class is a big investment for any build, but it’s not like the Fighter is a slouch either way. By then you also get the 3rd Extra Attack and many other goodies.

Maybe this is so obvious that’s why it’s not discussed much, but I just thought I’d bring it up

Anything else worth considering to add to this mix, or to substitute for of one of these ingredients?

FrogReaver · Friday at 8:04 PM

Silam said:
The Fighter’s 13th level feature seems under-discussed… (or perhaps under-studied?)

This, in combination with Elven Accuracy and a Vex weapon seems quite strong.

If you miss, Studied Attack gives you advantage.

If you hit, then Vex gives you advantage.

And if you have advantage, Elven Accuracy almost guarantees you’ll hit again, and hence go back to step 2.

This is an at will combo. There are no expendable resources involved at all. The one drawback is the advantage sticks to a single enemy only, so it’s effective against a strong boss, but not against mobs. I was originally going to title this thread "Miss at Most Once per Combat" but then renamed it to "per Duel" because of this non-transferrability of the advantage across opponents…

13 levels in a class is a big investment for any build, but it’s not like the Fighter is a slouch either way. By then you also get the 3rd Extra Attack and many other goodies.

Maybe this is so obvious that’s why it’s not discussed much, but I just thought I’d bring it up

Anything else worth considering to add to this mix, or to substitute for of one of these ingredients?

Numbers are above. It's notable that you have a greater than 5% to miss subsequent attacks assuming a standard 60% base chance to hit. So it's more likely you'll miss again than roll a nat 20 on a single d20.

Going from 84% hit rate to 93.6% hit rate on subsequent hits is approx +11% increase in DPR.

If we start with just vex and add on those other 2 features we go from a running average after 10 hits of 76.454% to 90.240%. That's a DPR increase of approx 18%.

All in all it's fairly minor to moderate increases on an already very accurate character.

It is cool to almost never miss though.

FrogReaver · Friday at 8:07 PM

To buff the combo further, you could use battlemaster precision attack or champions heroic inspiration on the 1st attack. Though at that point studied attacks is doing even less.

sentinel would be great with your super high accuracy, stopping enemies trying to move around you.

Riposte manuever with a really high accuracy hit feels really good as well.

Zardnaar · 2026-04-04T00:25:52+0100

FrogReaver said:
To buff the combo further, you could use battlemaster precision attack or champions heroic inspiration on the 1st attack. Though at that point studied attacks is doing even less.

sentinel would be great with your super high accuracy, stopping enemies trying to move around you.

Riposte manuever with a really high accuracy hit feels really good as well.

This.

Elven accuracy is kinda cheesy in 5.5.

Vex plus battlemaster is easiest way to do it.

Ive seen lvl 10 champion fighter with it dual wielding, piercer feat. You dont miss much.

Silam · 2026-04-04T03:32:09+0100

FrogReaver said:
To buff the combo further, you could use battlemaster precision attack or champions heroic inspiration on the 1st attack. Though at that point studied attacks is doing even less.

Yeah, I guess it's an ability you'd rather not need. But if you do end up needing it, it's quite nice. Kinda like wearing a jockstrap and not needing it because needing it while not wearing one is too painful

Thanks for sharing the data! I'd be curious to see the source for that spreadsheet, if you care to share...

Benjamin Olson · 2026-04-04T03:32:13+0100

I think if I was setting out to exploit this I would have to go Champion Fighter. An expanded crit range when you're rolling like 7 d20s a turn (by time this gets online) is pretty wild.

Silam · 2026-04-04T03:41:56+0100

Something else occurred to me... Vex weapons say the next attack before the end of your next turn has advantage, but does not mandate that it should be with the same weapon... or even that it should be a weapon attack at all.

Makes me wonder about gish combos where you first vex some opponent(s) with a rapier, before unleashing an expensive spell you really don't want to miss with. For example, jump in the middle of a mob, try hitting each opponent once. If it takes a few rounds to do it, fine, just stick with it until all the hits land, then at that point you have advantage loaded against all of the opponents, so next round (or same round if you have the ability to quicken it somehow) you unleash Steel Wind Strike on all of them, but with advantage on all or most of the attacks. Make sure those 6d10 all hit home and none get wasted.

Can't have SWS and Studied Attacks on the same build so this brain fart is veering a bit off-topic but anyhow. With a less expensive spell (up to 4th level) I guess it's feasible. Then you wouldn't even need to wait more than one round for the setup. Either hit or miss against all of the targets you care for, then blast away.

Maybe a bit convoluted, but I thought it's interesting

...

Zardnaar · 2026-04-04T04:56:57+0100

Benjamin Olson said:
I think if I was setting out to exploit this I would have to go Champion Fighter. An expanded crit range when you're rolling like 7 d20s a turn (by time this gets online) is pretty wild.

Ive done tgat piercer feat.

Champion fighters better than internet claims if you know whst youre doing.

Zardnaar · 2026-04-04T04:58:40+0100

Silam said:
Something else occurred to me... Vex weapons say the next attack before the end of your next turn has advantage, but does not mandate that it should be with the same weapon... or even that it should be a weapon attack at all.

Makes me wonder about gish combos where you first vex some opponent(s) with a rapier, before unleashing an expensive spell you really don't want to miss with. For example, jump in the middle of a mob, try hitting each opponent once. If it takes a few rounds to do it, fine, just stick with it until all the hits land, then at that point you have advantage loaded against all of the opponents, so next round (or same round if you have the ability to quicken it somehow) you unleash Steel Wind Strike on all of them, but with advantage on all or most of the attacks. Make sure those 6d10 all hit home and none get wasted.

Can't have SWS and Studied Attacks on the same build so this brain fart is veering a bit off-topic but anyhow. With a less expensive spell (up to 4th level) I guess it's feasible. Then you wouldn't even need to wait more than one round for the setup. Either hit or miss against all of the targets you care for, then blast away.

Maybe a bit convoluted, but I thought it's interesting ...

Multiclass war cleric. Action surge, vex, stell wind strike. Eldritch knight.

With spirit guardians running as well.

FrogReaver · 2026-04-04T05:53:41+0100

Silam said:
Yeah, I guess it's an ability you'd rather not need. But if you do end up needing it, it's quite nice. Kinda like wearing a jockstrap and not needing it because needing it while not wearing one is too painful

Thanks for sharing the data! I'd be curious to see the source for that spreadsheet, if you care to share...

Not sure how to share an excel. I can explain any calc you want on it though.

For the vex column the first attack is at. 60% chance to hit. That means the second attack has a (60% * 84%) + (40% * 60%) chance to hit. Then we reference that cells chance to hit and replace the first 60% by that result and the 40% by 100% - that result. Then just cascade that down if you used cell references.