D&D 5E Halfling Fighter + Mobile Feat Combo

[james.paten]

Hello ENWorld,

Building a Dex-based halfling fighter as a sub-optimal build more for flavor than anything else. Planning on alternating between a hand crossbow and a short sword (with possible back up weapons on hand as necessary).

I'm looking at the Halfling Nimbleness Racial Trait, which allows the ability to move through the space of any creature a size larger. Being a Small sized race, this would mean anything Medium size or larger. Fair enough.

Then looking at the Mobile Feat, which adds 10 feet to your base speed and (in addition to a lackluster Dash Ability) allows you to avoid any AoO against a creature whom you have attempted a melee Attack on (regardless of hit or miss).

If I took this feat, could I hide directly behind a Medium ally (obtaining cover), run through their legs with Nimbleness, use multiple attacks to hit my targets (and maybe peppering in a bonus Hand Crossbow Attack if I later grab Crossbow Expert), then get to scamper back behind my ally into cover, all without incurring any AoO (assuming I melee Attack all possible attackers)?

If it is possible, would this be a worthwhile tactic and/or Feat to invest in?


Thanks in advance for the feedback and I apologize if I have missed anything of import in my post.

 

[AverageCitizen]

You got it. Seems like a pretty good way to go to me. You'll be paying for your trick, though, since you'll do less damage and will be delaying your first ability score increase. It is sub-optimal because you'd get more damage out of staying behind your allies and shooting with a normal crossbow. But hey, the trick sounds like more fun to me.

 

[james.paten]

Well, I wasn't able to use a heavy crossbow due to my size, so this left either the normal or the handcrossbow. And with the Loading quality of them, this would limit to me to one Attack per turn (only one Free Action per round, after all). Granted, this is fixed by the Crossbow Expert Feat, but I'd like to incorporate the Mobile tactic early on in the character build.


Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Wik]

It's a very fun build, and would be quite useful. Imagine a cramped area where you can move through the enemy's front line, hit their back line, and then scamper your way back. Especially with Action Surge, you'd be quite amazing. I'd recommend Two Weapon Fighting at first, so you can use that bonus action for something useful.

 

[james.paten]

I did want something with range to be versatile, but I'll give it some thought to be dual wielding instead.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If I took this feat, could I hide directly behind a Medium ally (obtaining cover), run through their legs with Nimbleness, use multiple attacks to hit my targets (and maybe peppering in a bonus Hand Crossbow Attack if I later grab Crossbow Expert), then get to scamper back behind my ally into cover, all without incurring any AoO (assuming I melee Attack all possible attackers)?

You can move through the spaces of non-hostile creatures without Halfling Nimbleness. Nimbleness is needed for moving through the spaces of enemies that are one size larger rather than two.

You still won't be able to stop in the spaces of other creatures. So, for example, you wouldn't be able to end movement in the space of an ally holding a choke point, attack the enemies that ally is in melee with, and then move back behind the ally.

Combine that with the spaces of other creatures are still counting as difficult terrain whether they're hostile or not and 35 feet of movement may not get you very far. That's where the Dash aspect of the Mobile feat comes in, which seems to have been designed to pair with the Cunning Action feature of the Rogue.

I agree this sounds like a fun character, but what you're going for may work better as a Rogue than as a Fighter.

 

[Rune]

Another nice thing about going two-weapon is it helps you spread your attacks out, so that's one more enemy who won't get an opportunity attack on you.

 

[james.paten]

You can move through the spaces of non-hostile creatures without Halfling Nimbleness. Nimbleness is needed for moving through the spaces of enemies that are one size larger rather than two.

You still won't be able to stop in the spaces of other creatures. So, for example, you wouldn't be able to end movement in the space of an ally holding a choke point, attack the enemies that ally is in melee with, and then move back behind the ally.

Combine that with the spaces of other creatures are still counting as difficult terrain whether they're hostile or not and 35 feet of movement may not get you very far. That's where the Dash aspect of the Mobile feat comes in, which seems to have been designed to pair with the Cunning Action feature of the Rogue.

I agree this sounds like a fun character, but what you're going for may work better as a Rogue than as a Fighter.

For RP reasons, I'm locked into being a fighter. And I've got some other ideas of how to be effective in combat, I just wanted to get the boards feedback on if the use of these two abilities together would work. I don't think the difficult terrain would be TOO big of an obstacle (as a halfling, I have a base speed of 25 feet, so the Mobile feat moves that up to 35. Moving through an ally would be 5' in and 5' out, double that for difficult terrain and that still is 20, which gives me 15', or three grid squares, to work with. If the enemies are further than that, I'll just poke out from behind my ally cover and hit them long range, then move right back.

At least, that's how I imagine it playing out in my mind. We'll see if it reflects reality.

 

[Mephistopheles]

For RP reasons, I'm locked into being a fighter. And I've got some other ideas of how to be effective in combat, I just wanted to get the boards feedback on if the use of these two abilities together would work. I don't think the difficult terrain would be TOO big of an obstacle (as a halfling, I have a base speed of 25 feet, so the Mobile feat moves that up to 35. Moving through an ally would be 5' in and 5' out, double that for difficult terrain and that still is 20, which gives me 15', or three grid squares, to work with. If the enemies are further than that, I'll just poke out from behind my ally cover and hit them long range, then move right back.

At least, that's how I imagine it playing out in my mind. We'll see if it reflects reality.

No problem. Just pointing out things you didn't mention that may get in the way.

A few levels down the track Haste spells or Boots of Speed will make it a lot more viable as a Fighter.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Like any "hide behind allies" build, this might annoy the other players, who will take more hits because of the way the build works. If you are a small party I would not recommend it. If you are 5-6 guys, fair enough.