D&D 5E Advice on building a fighter with a couple house rules in place

[Valdier]

I am building a fighter (first one in 5e) and while I've played/run a lot of games, I've never played a straight fighter.

We have a couple house rules in play that tone back GWM and SS. Instead of -5/+10, they instead add a straight +3 damage per attack.

With that said, I'm considering a battlemaster or samurai and can't decide between which build I might want to do.

I'm strongly leaning toward either a crossbow expert, or a sentinel polearm master. I've previously played a two handed paladin and sword and board, so I am looking for something different.

It appears that Polearm Master slightly outpaces Crossbow Expert in DPR, but CE is a lot safer and provides a lot of benefits from Dex (init, saves, skills).

I would love to hear thoughts on build ideas, noting the house ruled feats, and generally not multiclassing (although dipping a few levels into rogue could work for background).

Thoughts on each from me:


Both: Human Variant
PAM: Polearm Master, Sentinel, GWM, Tunnel Fighter
1st level, 16 Str = 2ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+3 x 2 = 17 avg
5st level, 16 Str = 3ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+3 x 3 = 25.5 avg
11th level, 18 Str = 4ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+7 x 4 = 50 avg

CE: Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, Archery Style
1st level, 16 Dex = 2 attacks per round. 1d6+3 x2 = 13 avg
5th level, 16 Dex = 3 attacks per round. 1d6+6 x3 = 28.5 avg
11th level, 20 Dex = 4 attacks per round. 1d6+8 x4= 46 avg (but +3 more to hit raising the avg)

So because of the feat cost of PaM the crossbow expert scales faster, but never seems to really beat PaM in damage, other than the +2 to hit from Archery. But does that offset all the OA's that PAM can get, especially in the first round with tunnel fighter and a 10' reach?

 

[FrogReaver]

I am building a fighter (first one in 5e) and while I've played/run a lot of games, I've never played a straight fighter.

We have a couple house rules in play that tone back GWM and SS. Instead of -5/+10, they instead add a straight +3 damage per attack.

With that said, I'm considering a battlemaster or samurai and can't decide between which build I might want to do.

I'm strongly leaning toward either a crossbow expert, or a sentinel polearm master. I've previously played a two handed paladin and sword and board, so I am looking for something different.

It appears that Polearm Master slightly outpaces Crossbow Expert in DPR, but CE is a lot safer and provides a lot of benefits from Dex (init, saves, skills).

I would love to hear thoughts on build ideas, noting the house ruled feats, and generally not multiclassing (although dipping a few levels into rogue could work for background).

Thoughts on each from me:


Both: Human Variant
PAM: Polearm Master, Sentinel, GWM, Tunnel Fighter
1st level, 16 Str = 2ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+3 x 2 = 17 avg
5st level, 16 Str = 3ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+3 x 3 = 25.5 avg
11th level, 18 Str = 4ish attacks per round with OA. 1d10+7 x 4 = 50 avg

CE: Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, Archery Style
1st level, 16 Dex = 2 attacks per round. 1d6+3 x2 = 13 avg
5th level, 16 Dex = 3 attacks per round. 1d6+6 x3 = 28.5 avg
11th level, 20 Dex = 4 attacks per round. 1d6+8 x4= 46 avg (but +3 more to hit raising the avg)

So because of the feat cost of PaM the crossbow expert scales faster, but never seems to really beat PaM in damage, other than the +2 to hit from Archery. But does that offset all the OA's that PAM can get, especially in the first round with tunnel fighter and a 10' reach?

Assuming a base 60% accuracy for the PAM and a 70% for the archer. That means 35% vs 45% after GWM/SS. Once you factor in the accuracy from Archery Style the SS/CBE fighter really tends to outperform the PAM/GWM fighter, except against low AC's.

I tend to consider the benefits of range as comparable to the benefits of melee. OA's can increase damage. Being targeted more can decrease damage. Requiring melee can lead to lost turns where a ranged character could hit with no problems. To me all that is more or less a wash.

In terms of performance I'd suggest the SS/CBE. However, the game isn't just about using the best performing options.