New Warforged AC with Cavalier

[Master O'Laughs]

For current question see post #9

A few questions about fighting styles and weapon choice. A warforged with heavy plating will start with 18 AC without a shield. Does it seem reasonable to go for a greatsword or greataxe as a weapon to make your mark mechanic more punishing?

Also, does defense fighting style work with the composite and heavy plating? It mentions armor in the description.

Even if defense doesn't work. is it better to use a shield anyways? You would have 20-21 AC at level 1. With a shield, you eventually end up with 24-25 AC before any magic items.

Another FS question would be instead of defense, would great weapon fighting or dueling be better to up damage?

[Master O'Laughs]

I am about to start a roll20 campaign and had amazing rolls 18,17,16,13,13,12 I was thinking Envoy to round out all odd scores.

S-18
D-14
C-18
I-12
W-16 or 14
Ch-14 or 16

I was planning on making a disguise kit my integrated tool so I can appear human-like.

[MaxWilson]

A few questions about fighting styles and weapon choice. A warforged with heavy plating will start with 18 AC without a shield. Does it seem reasonable to go for a greatsword or greataxe as a weapon to make your mark mechanic more punishing?

Also, does defense fighting style work with the composite and heavy plating? It mentions armor in the description.

Even if defense doesn't work. is it better to use a shield anyways? You would have 20-21 AC at level 1. With a shield, you eventually end up with 24-25 AC before any magic items.

Another FS question would be instead of defense, would great weapon fighting or dueling be better to up damage?

I think defense style would not work.

Whether or not it's better to use a shield will depend on what you're fighting. The lower the enemy's to-hit, the more value you get out of +2 AC, so against swarms of orcs or giant rats or gnolls you'd probably want to use a shield, but against something that has a high to-hit bonus or that ignores AC altogether (like an adult dragon) you'd probably want to configure for maximum damage.

Great Weapon Fighting is relatively worthless, so personally I'd go for Archery style and Dex specialization. Unlike a normal Heavy Armor wearer you don't need high Strength to use heavy plating, and high Dex just gives you more options both in and out of combat. (E.g. you can switch to lighter plating for stealthy adventures, and go back to heavy plating for pitched battles.)

[MaxWilson]

I changed my mind about Defense style. Warforged description says, "You gain no benefit from wearing armor," but it does not say you cannot wear armor. Defense style says, "While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC." It would appear that you can indeed wear armor and benefit from Defense style even if you do not benefit from the armor per se.

With that in mind I would still strongly consider Archery style anyway, especially as a Skirmisher, but Defense is a strong pick too. The marginal value of +1 AC increases as your base AC gets higher, up to a certain point anyway. If you feel like you're going to be in melee a lot, definitely feel free to go for Defense.

Dueling isn't terrible but isn't very compatible with GWM, so if you're going to optimize for melee damage dealing I'd just go for Defense + GWM.

[Master O'Laughs]

Thanks for the reply. The party so far consists of a blood hunter, rogue, cleric, and myself. The cleric is a homebrew domain but I do not think it is a front line fighter. So if I want to optimize for damage, I would want to go defense and then I can carry a sword and shield and a 2 hander for whatever the occasion calls for. If I want to keep my shield on at all times, then dueling would be a reasonable choice to increase damage.

[Master O'Laughs]

Also, would taking Sentinel at level 4 be worth it? It seems like you get a similar ability for your lvl 10 feature. Would I be better off taking Heavy armor Master, Shield Expert, or something else?

[nickl_2000]

It really depends on how high your campaign will be going. If you are only going to level 8 sentinel is worth considering, same at level 11. If you think you will be getting higher than level 12 or 13 it probably isn't worth it.

[Master O'Laughs]

It really depends on how high your campaign will be going. If you are only going to level 8 sentinel is worth considering, same at level 11. If you think you will be getting higher than level 12 or 13 it probably isn't worth it.

The last the campaign the DM ran went to 20. This one is set in the same world but in the future. Unless unforeseen things happen, it will be going to 20.

Skills/RP question:
My character as an envoy, used to be used for infiltration/assassinations (Spy background).

Skills from background are Stealth and deception. I am currently being employed to hunt down those who misuse magic and either have them reform or eliminate them. I was thinking Insight would be useful to determine if I am being lied to. Intimidate would be useful to get them to submit (also strength can be used for the check under certain circumstances). Athletics because strength. Perception to pick up whispered words. I can only choose 3. At level 3, I can pick up another through cavalier but was thinking animal handling would be important if I plan on being mounted. How important is animal handling if I plan on being mounted?

If it turns out being mounted is impractical then it solves the problem and I will just pick up the last skill.

[Master O'Laughs]

At lvl 1 each character gets a legacy weapon that will grow as we level and unlock more abilities. They all require attunement. I am trying to determine out of 2 of them which would be best.

1 gives you a 4th death saving throw before dieing and rolling 1 only counts as a singular failure.

The other lets you 1/day add 1d8 elemental damage to an attack.

As a warforged at lvl 1 I have 20 AC with my shield. with no other defensive implements to increase it, I will end up with 24 AC. I am guessing the death save weapon will possibly grow in defensive properties where as the elemental will grow in offensive.

Would I be better off getting an offensive weapon for more punishment if an ally is attacked? This would also me a blood hunter PC would grab the death save weapon most likely.

TL:DR is it better to maximize defensive bonuses or offensive punishment?

[Tetrasodium]

Keith baker has answered a lot of these questions in wgte faq here (https://www.emlalock.com/#/)
defemsive style would not work as written, this is fine. Heavy armor master would not workas written, this is fine Barbarian rage in heavy plating would work because you are, this is fine.

[Master O'Laughs]

Keith baker has answered a lot of these questions in wgte faq here (https://www.emlalock.com/#/)
defemsive style would not work as written, this is fine. Heavy armor master would not workas written, this is fine Barbarian rage in heavy plating would work because you are, this is fine.

Thanks, I have already decided to pick dueling. My main question now is about whether it would be better to stack defensive advantages or offensive ones?

Particularly in relation to the above mentioned weapons which will have some sort of scaling as I level.

[Tetrasodium]

Thanks, I have already decided to pick dueling. My main question now is about whether it would be better to stack defensive advantages or offensive ones?

Particularly in relation to the above mentioned weapons which will have some sort of scaling as I level.

AC alone is of less importance as you go up in levels & warforged already have great AC

[Master O'Laughs]

AC alone is of less importance as you go up in levels & warforged already have great AC

So the the current advantage is needing 4 failed death saves to die and nat 1's only counting as 1 failed save. As a PC that wants to be the main target. Would this be a better benefit then dealing an extra 1d8 of damage 1/day?

Additional benefits would be added as the weapon "levels up" but those will not be know until it happens.

[Tetrasodium]

So the the current advantage is needing 4 failed death saves to die and nat 1's only counting as 1 failed save. As a PC that wants to be the main target. Would this be a better benefit then dealing an extra 1d8 of damage 1/day?

Additional benefits would be added as the weapon "levels up" but those will not be know until it happens.

I'm not sure how to get those benefits? I wan;t saying that defense is useless, but there are diminishing returns & you shouldn't put all your eggs that one basket. Warforged have great AC without needing to invest as much as a meat race in getting it, so you should branch out instead of trying to one up the meat races by acting like them.