Shield bashing/knocking down build help

[Klorox]

I seem to remember reading a build that was a barbarian/warlock that used the shield feat and knocked people down. It was a build made around controlling the opponent rather than straight damage, but I'm away from my books and can't find it on here.

Can anybody let me know the essentials on this idea? TIA

[RulesJD]

Warlock:

Hex makes an enemy make one selected attribute's checks as Disadvantage. Shove checks (prone) will be a Str or Dex check contested by your Athletics roll. If you Hex them for Str (and Str is their strongest stat) you are basically forcing the enemy to make their contested Shove check at disadvantage

Shield Mastery Feat:

You can make a Shove (prone) check as a bonus action.

[Klorox]

Oh, that's easier than I thought. LOL.

I think rage does advantage on strength checks when hex is not an option, right?

[RulesJD]

Oh, that's easier than I thought. LOL.

I think rage does advantage on strength checks when hex is not an option, right?

Yes.

It's a pretty 1 trick pony build, but it is effective at what it tries to accomplish.

[Goober4473]

Of course both hex and the shield bash use a bonus action, so you couldn't do both in one turn.

I'm playing a Paladin/Rogue with the Shield Master feat that uses Expertise in Athletics to get a huge bonus. Most monsters aren't proficient in Athletics or Acrobatics, so my +11 at level 11 is usually fine.

[gfishfunk]

On the flip side, you use barbarians because they get advantage on strength checks during the rage.

However, you cannot rage and use Hex at the same time due to concentration limitations (as I believe Hex is concentration based, but its not in the SDL).

Bards and Rogues have expertise, which can be used on athletics to make it better as well, but that is not what you were originally asking.

Shield Master is the preferable vehicle for shoves since you can do it on a bonus action, but it is not required. You can use one of your attacks to shove during a normal attack.

[Klorox]

Thanks guys. I'm going to start a new thread on what I'm really looking for. 👍