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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 9666164" data-attributes="member: 6795602">We've talked quite a bit about ranged martial control and not just damage.There's been a few common themes around ranged martial control.  I'm curious how you all rate these in terms of their control effects and drawbacks.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heavy Crossbow with Push Mastery (no save)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ensnaring Strike (str, large or larger adv, requires (action for str athletics check to end)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlemaster Menacing Strike (wis)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlemaster Trip Attack (str)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlemaster Pushing Attack (str)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rogue Cunning Strike Poison (reoccurring con)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rogue Cunning Strike Trip (dex)</li> </ul>For me it's -1. Push Mastery on a ranged weapon as the best. Though it's limitation of not working against more than large creatures can hurt.  It opens up so many combos.  It makes kiting most melee enemies a breeze.  Etc. 2. Menacing Strike.Ranged Fear is good.  Can keep enemies from advancing to party.  If enemy can't reach you but can an ally then it's at least disadvantage to hit the ally.  And couple this with Push Mastery on the Heavy Crossbow and you can take a number of enemies out of the encounter for a round at any time.  It's also not restricted by enemy size.3. Ensnaring strike. When it works it's just soo good, especially if you couple it with push mastery from the heavy crossbow.  You can take many types of enemies completely out of the encounter if it lands.  Best thing is it also brings flying enemies to the ground.  The only problem is that advantage vs the initial save means many enemies it won't have a high success rate against.  Another Drawback is that it's concentration and requires a bonus action, both things that often interfere with other abilities.4.  Rogue Cunning Strike (both Poison and Trip as you get them at the same time).Trip is great in that it targets a dex save.  Still limited to Large or smaller though.Poison is a great general purpose debuff that also has a reocurring save.  It's not as powerful as some of the other options in their best use cases, but it's generally applicable to a wider array of situations.Of course the biggest downside to any of the Cunning Strike abilities is that they take away some of your damage potential.  Though, they can also be used every single turn, which is really nice.  One of the biggest drawbacks is a pure or primary rogue loses alot of mobility to keep accuracy up with steady aim.5.  Trip and Pushing attack.  Both are great abilities but the Str Save is a limitation and the restriction on large or smaller is another.  Menacing is generally the better Battlemaster Manuever, but these can serve as solid backups for situations where it doesn't work well.*Note any of the prone abilities work well against Flying enemies.</blockquote>

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