Clint_L
Legend
Disadvantage against attackers is extremely potent. The math is complicated and varies a lot according to all kinds of factors, but imposing disadvantage is generally worth a minimum of +2.5 to AC, and sometimes significantly more. On top of that, it makes you virtually immune to suffering a critical hit from the attack (reducing them to a .2% likelihood). At low levels, and with a high AC like this feat would allow, the feat would make the character nearly invulnerable to typical melee foes. At the cost of a reaction, which is basically no cost 90% of the time for classes like a fighter. And then it gives you another attack at completely no cost, which is actually rolled into your opponent's action! And that attack does extra damage!
This is FAR better than the current Great Weapon Master; the math isn't even close. If this feat was in the game, you should 100% take it, along with the duelist style, and do a dex build, fighting at level 1 with chainmail, shield, and rapier.
You will have an AC 18, plus all melee attacks are at disadvantage (so you will virtually never suffer a critical hit), plus you will get your base attack (1d8+5) and most rounds a second attack at (1d8+1d6+5) damage. So a total of 22.5 average damage. And that's just off the "parry" ability!
Great weapon master: AC 16 with no disadvantage, so you are getting hit way more (depends on foe, but at least twice as often at low-mid tier play, plus you are way more likely to suffer a critical). Your base damage is (2d6+3), so an average of 10, with an option to risk -5 on your hit roll to get that to 20 average damage. Which is still less than what the rapier/parry combination gives on a typical round while offering extremely high defence!
Say you are fighting a goblin at level 1. Parry build as described in OP: it will need a 14+ to hit you, so rolling with disadvantage it has a 9% of hitting you and a .2% chance of scoring a critical. You attack back with a 91% chance of getting a second attack due to its miss, and hitting on a 10+, between the two attacks you will hit and likely kill it in the first round roughly 75-80% of the time. You're doing about 12.5 average damage per round in this fight.
GWM build: it will need a 12+ to hit you, so 40%, with a 5% chance of scoring a critical. You will not opt to even use GWM feat against a goblin, so you will have a 55% chance of hitting and likely killing it in the first round. You're doing 5.5 DPR (using the GWM feat in this scenario increases your DPR slightly, to 6, less than half what the parry/rapier build is giving, but is not worth it because goblins have so few HPs).
GWM build gives you much worse defence and significantly less offence. And we could run those numbers against, say, an ogre, where you might want to use the GWM feat, but you will still be doing less damage and taking WAY more.
Actually, let's do the ogre. This would be a very dangerous fight at level 1...but much less so for that parry build:
Parry build: Ogre hits you 20-ish% of the time, doing an average DPR of 2.6, with a .2% chance of a critical hit. So you now have a 70% chance of that extra attack. That gives you a main attack average
DPR of 7.2 and parry attack average of 6.8 for a total average DPR of 14 damage per round.
GWM build: Ogre hits you 55% of the time, so an average DPR of 7.2. If you do a regular attack, your DPR = 7.5. Using GWM, that goes up to 10 DPR. Still significantly behind what the rapier parry build is doing, at much higher risk! You're taking almost triple the damage to output roughly 40% less!
The concept of a parry/riposte system is cool, but those numbers need a lot of adjustment.
This is FAR better than the current Great Weapon Master; the math isn't even close. If this feat was in the game, you should 100% take it, along with the duelist style, and do a dex build, fighting at level 1 with chainmail, shield, and rapier.
You will have an AC 18, plus all melee attacks are at disadvantage (so you will virtually never suffer a critical hit), plus you will get your base attack (1d8+5) and most rounds a second attack at (1d8+1d6+5) damage. So a total of 22.5 average damage. And that's just off the "parry" ability!
Great weapon master: AC 16 with no disadvantage, so you are getting hit way more (depends on foe, but at least twice as often at low-mid tier play, plus you are way more likely to suffer a critical). Your base damage is (2d6+3), so an average of 10, with an option to risk -5 on your hit roll to get that to 20 average damage. Which is still less than what the rapier/parry combination gives on a typical round while offering extremely high defence!
Say you are fighting a goblin at level 1. Parry build as described in OP: it will need a 14+ to hit you, so rolling with disadvantage it has a 9% of hitting you and a .2% chance of scoring a critical. You attack back with a 91% chance of getting a second attack due to its miss, and hitting on a 10+, between the two attacks you will hit and likely kill it in the first round roughly 75-80% of the time. You're doing about 12.5 average damage per round in this fight.
GWM build: it will need a 12+ to hit you, so 40%, with a 5% chance of scoring a critical. You will not opt to even use GWM feat against a goblin, so you will have a 55% chance of hitting and likely killing it in the first round. You're doing 5.5 DPR (using the GWM feat in this scenario increases your DPR slightly, to 6, less than half what the parry/rapier build is giving, but is not worth it because goblins have so few HPs).
GWM build gives you much worse defence and significantly less offence. And we could run those numbers against, say, an ogre, where you might want to use the GWM feat, but you will still be doing less damage and taking WAY more.
Actually, let's do the ogre. This would be a very dangerous fight at level 1...but much less so for that parry build:
Parry build: Ogre hits you 20-ish% of the time, doing an average DPR of 2.6, with a .2% chance of a critical hit. So you now have a 70% chance of that extra attack. That gives you a main attack average
DPR of 7.2 and parry attack average of 6.8 for a total average DPR of 14 damage per round.
GWM build: Ogre hits you 55% of the time, so an average DPR of 7.2. If you do a regular attack, your DPR = 7.5. Using GWM, that goes up to 10 DPR. Still significantly behind what the rapier parry build is doing, at much higher risk! You're taking almost triple the damage to output roughly 40% less!
The concept of a parry/riposte system is cool, but those numbers need a lot of adjustment.