Mage-Slayer Build (No Magic)

[Mr.Kraken]

Hello! I've been building up an old character of mine for 5e. He used to be a fighter/ranger/occult slayer extremely focused on mage-slaying. I had to brainstorm quite a bit in order to translate him into 5e and I think I've got it. I went with Vuman Ranger (Revised, Spell-less, Monster Slayer). My DM has let me pick casters as my favorite enemy, but I had to choose one kind of caster (arcane, divine, innate) each time I get to pick a creature type. Character's level 5 and for now I picked arcane.

For feats I went with Mage Slayer (Variant human) Savage Attacker (Bonus level 1 feat, house rule) and Resilient [Con] (level 4)

Ability scores are as follows: Str 19 (Gauntlet of Ogre Power, bonus uncommon item, house rule, 14 without gauntlets), Dex 12, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8.

This build gives me higher damage against arcanists, advantage on initiative checks, being able to detect a creatures immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities, being able to sense the presence of casters up to 5 miles, ignoring difficult terrain, creating healing poultices, superiority dices and maneuvers... At level 6, I will have advantage on all saving throws against arcane casters' spells.

At level 5, he can deal 2d8+1d6+8 (Flail, duelist fighting style, favored enemy, slayer's prey, superiority dice), with natural explorer and savage attacker to further amplify his attacks. Looks good to me.

So, guys, I really like this build so far, but am open to your interpretation. Is there anything I could add? Anything I should change? Anything I got wrong?

[Lalliman]

Seems like you have all the mage-slaying stuff down.

But why in the world would you take Savage Attacker, the sh*ttiest feat known to man? At level 5 it gives like +2 average damage per ROUND. Are you using a homebrewed version? Is there a restriction on which bonus feats you can take? Cause if not, there are many better options. Resilient (Wis) would be particularly appropriate.

[Specter]

Seems like you have all the mage-slaying stuff down.

But why in the world would you take Savage Attacker, the sh*ttiest feat known to man? At level 5 it gives like +2 average damage per ROUND. Are you using a homebrewed version? Is there a restriction on which bonus feats you can take? Cause if not, there are many better options. Resilient (Wis) would be particularly appropriate.

The houserule he mentioned is probably about taking only crappy feats.

Well, you're not bad, but with your DEX as is, you can't ever multiclass, so there's not much you can plan ahead.

[Angelalex242]

Oath of the Ancients Paladin with Sentinel and Mage Slayer does it better. Less muss, less fuss.

[Quoz]

If you want to stop casters cold, not much tops silence. Depending on how strict you adhere to your 'no spells' limitation, 3 levels or more in shadow monk would let you cast that with Ki points. alternately, you could probably work out some magic item as your GM seems fairly generous. If you can drop a zone of silence and find a way to stop movement (Conquest paladin fear aura or grappling being the most straightforward non-spell options I can think of) most casters will be shut down hard. Blindness or magical darkness will block anything that requires line of sight. getting the thief subclass of rogue could let you steal a component pouch with your bonus action.

there are probably more pieces you could put together when making an anti-caster toolkit. It looks like you've got a good start. I would keep an eye out for things that give initiative and mobility, as getting to the caster first will usually be your top priority.

[Mr.Kraken]

Seems like you have all the mage-slaying stuff down.

But why in the world would you take Savage Attacker, the sh*ttiest feat known to man? At level 5 it gives like +2 average damage per ROUND. Are you using a homebrewed version? Is there a restriction on which bonus feats you can take? Cause if not, there are many better options. Resilient (Wis) would be particularly appropriate.

Oh, at first I didn't think it was that bad. It could change a 1 into an 8... But I see what you mean. What other feat should I take in its place, then?

I also thought you couldn't take Resilient more than once.

[strangebloke]

Oh, at first I didn't think it was that bad. It could change a 1 into an 8... But I see what you mean. What other feat should I take in its place, then?

I also thought you couldn't take Resilient more than once.

Savage Attacker is fine, provided you're a barbarian with brutal critical, or a caster with a shadow-blade out. You need some mechanism to vastly increase your weapon die. If you're just rerolling a d8, it's less powerful than a fighting style, which is usually evaluated at half-a-feat.

You are correct. Unless a feat explictly says you can take it twice, you can't. That said, I think your DM will be fine with you taking it twice; it isn't remotely overpowered. Picking CON is an interesting choice. Most casters choose that to ensure that they don't loose concentration on their spell... But of the big three, CON is actually the least common (if you're not a caster.)

I would look at Mobile, maybe? Or spending your next few levels in rogue or monk. You're going to want to run into the enemy's backline, and that means running past the enemy's minions. Ranger usually has spells for this stuff, like zephyr strike, but you opted out of that. Your enemy is going to fail their concentration checks when you get close, I mean, you're going to be forcing 3 saves or more with disadvantage. Even at DC 10, and assuming they have a +2, they'll fail something like 97% of the time. So I think having solved that problem, your priority has to be surviving when the caster's minions collapse on you, rather than dealing more damage. (tho more damage is always better)

[Specter]

Oh, at first I didn't think it was that bad. It could change a 1 into an 8... But I see what you mean. What other feat should I take in its place, then?

I also thought you couldn't take Resilient more than once.

Yeah, you can't.

Probably Alert, since mage-slaying relies a lot on going first in a combat.