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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6982543" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Huge creatures is yet another example of why Eldritch Knights are the best kind of Fighter. An Eldritch Knight could Enlarge himself to deal with a Huge enemy, if there wasn't a party wizard who was willing to Enlarge him instead. (Thanks to Action Surge, Enlarge doesn't even delay his ability to grapple the foe.)Hobgoblins would bypass Defensive Duelist entirely with their longbows. It only works against melee attacks.I agree with your overall point: the cage-fighter build (EK or not) is not optimal for all situations. I think either you or hawkeye may be the one who's been making the point all along that "optimal" tactics vary by situation, and that which situations are most common in your games strongly influence which builds are perceived as strong or weak.My personal bias is towards tactical flexibility, since you never know exactly what a given DM is going to serve up. It's generally better to be 80% as strong as the "optimal" character in any given situation, rather than being 100% optimal in a narrow set of circumstances and 30-70% of optimum in the rest. If you forced me to pick one of the three builds in the Slaad test, I'd go for the Swashbuckler. He's ranged-specialized, but he can hold his own in a cage match anyway, winning about 70-80% of the time against the spell-less Death Slaad. Once the Death Slaad starts chucking Fireballs and Fear Spells and such he'll look even better; and of course in any real scenario (non-cage-match) he'll shine.Swapping Champion 5 for either Ranger 5 (Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth, Ensnaring Strike, Hunter's Mark) or Eldritch Knight 5 (Shield, Expeditious Retreat/Find Familiar, Mage Armor) can only improve his capabilities further.</blockquote>

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