D&D 5E Dex Vs Strength

[pukunui]

We faced an adult red dragon a session or two ago. It was a hard fight, but we prevailed.

My PC is a fighter 2 / paladin 18. She's got +1 mithril plate, +1 guardian shield, +1 cloak of protection, and both the Defense and Dueling fighting styles. Her AC is 24. I can bump that up to 26 with shield of faith. I also have the Inspiring Leader feat, which gives us all 25 temporary hit points (her Cha is also maxed out along with her Dex). I think she's got about 170 hp of her own as well. And she's got Undying Sentinel on top of that. So she's really hard to kill.

But she's also super-powerful on the offense. She does 1d8+10 slashing damage plus 1d8 radiant (or 2d8 vs fiends and undead) with each hit from her moonblade. I used to only smite if I got a crit, but now that rolling a natural 20 usually means the monster's instagibbed*, I've started using my spell slots for other things more.


*My DM decided to play the moonblade like a legacy weapon, so he didn't give me all the properties at once. Instead, he's been rolling for a new one every few levels. One time, after I destroyed an empyrean, he decided it was time to roll again ... and he rolled the vorpal property (which only has a 1% chance of coming up).

 

[SunGold]

I feel like the dex-based barbarian needs some love in this thread.

 

[Zardnaar]

With feats strength is better as dex has nothing equivalent to GWM, Polearm Master, Shield Master or even Heavy Armor Master. Without feats it depends on the class but generally dex is better. One advantage strength has is you can max your AC without having to pump your primary attribute. Assuming melee of course. At range the Hunter Ranger with a longbow+sharpshooter is decent along with the Fighter with sharpshooter+CE.

 

[DaveDash]

No kidding! One of my paladin's fellow PCs is a rogue/wizard/fighter who has Expertise in Athletics. Since we're in the late stages of Age of Worms, and we're battling all manner of dragons and giants and other big beasties, he likes to exploit the grappling rules by casting enlarge on himself so he can grapple Huge creatures. Because he's got a massive Athletics bonus, and most monsters in the MM don't have anything more than their Strength mod, he is practically guaranteed to win. So he grapples them and knocks them prone and keeps them there* so we can get advantage on our melee attacks against them.


*Standing up requires you spend half your movement, but being grappled reduces your speed to 0, which means that if you're prone and grappled, you *can't* stand up.

We've been using Silence + Barbarian Grapple against casters recently. Pretty much shuts them down completely, which is good because we don't have access to counterspell etc.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I think it's actually perfectly balanced in 5E. Str is good for some things and Dex is good for other things.

Unbalance is only created by houserules or bad dungeon design.

 

[Kalshane]

I've got a Dex-based Vengeance Paladin/Rogue in one of my games. Mithral fullplate so he still looks paladin-y, but can sneak and do rogue-y stuff as necessary. He's a church inquisitor, so his Expertise was used for Intimidate and Insight.

I've also got a strength-based sword-and-board Devotion Paladin with Shield Master. I enjoy both characters but they both play and feel very different.

So, really, it's about your character concept and how you want to do things.

 

[Miladoon]

Depends on the character I would want to play. If I want to run as Conan then I'm going to be focusing most on strength. For a lightly armoured agile hero then I'm of course going to focus on dexterity. For classic character concepts such as an elven fighter/mage I'm probably going to focus on Strength, with enough dex for medium armour, because I like to use a longsword for my fighter/mages. I don't really optimise my character stats, by level 20 a fighter/mage may not even have a 20 strength although I'd like to have at least a 16.

This.

I typically avoid making a melee character that does not get hit, but can soak damage. With some characters, I like going last or near the last.

 

[Paraxis]

The top damage per round builds in the game all use great weapon master, but dexterity has a lot going for it like great save, initiative, and so on.

It balances out IMO.

Now one thing to consider is how the DM handles strength(athletics) and dexterity(acrobatics), we all know athletics is key to grabs and shove attacks, but I see plenty of games where the DM uses these skills interchangeably outside of combat and that isn't right. Running and jumping is always athletics so strength, balance is acrobatics, if you want your character to leap over things and parkour up walls you need strength(athletics) for that.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I feel like the dex-based barbarian needs some love in this thread.

Where's the love for a strength-based monk?...

 

[Miladoon]

I had a WIS/STR Mtn Dwarf 4Elementals Monk that I shelved after sage advice nerfed water whip. Didn't have to but I did it anyway. They could of just as easily made fist of unbroken air a bonus action, but alas.