Sir_Tom
2019-05-17, 01:32 PM
Hi guys, long time reader first time poster so here we go.
So this is the story of my second D&D playable character ever.
So after my first character, a Dragon Born Barbarian, met a untimely end via lich I needed a new character. At the time I felt like he felt a bit ineffective in comparison to the other characters, and tbh the Dragonborn race feels a bit underpowered to me but at some point I'll make a post about that later.
So our character creation wasn't to much off standard. We rolled a set of stats twice and then we got to pick which set we wanted to work with, which resulted to some pretty powerful characters, particularly the tabaxi rogue in our party rolled pretty bonkers, which might be why most of the characters are OG. This happened 7 sessions in or so , Rashathar (former charecters name) had just hit lvl 4 and was just starting to feel effective before he died hard.
So I wanted a character that felt more effective and also wanted to start off learning the magic system of D and D and I decided on Paladin. So then I started researching , RPG bots guide, among others and a few of the wikis and I was looking across fighting styles. (some of you may know where this is going) I ran across tunnel fighter saw a UA next to and had no idea what that meant. I know all of letters meant what book they were from or if they were Unearthed Arcana. Tunnel Fighter reads as follows
"Tunnel Fighter
You excel at defending narrow passages, doorways, and other tight spaces. As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your
reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach."
Depending on your interpretation my brain either started or stopped working at this point because I remember seeing Polearm Master so I went to look that up
Polearm Master
"You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
-When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary weapon. The weapon's damage die for this attack is a d4, and the attack deals bludgeoning damage.
-While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with that weapon."
This was obvious enough synergy but I was on the feat lists which listed all of them and ran across Sentinel
"Sentinel
You have mastered techniques to take advantage of every drop in any enemy's guard, gaining the following benefits:
When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
When a creature within 5 (10 due to polearm master and having a polearm) feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature."
A trifecta of synergy seemed too good to pass up add in the smites and the damage per full round potential seemed crazy.
In my head the combo went something like - if a hostile comes within 10 feet I get a opportunity attack, if they make attack on a ally within my range I get a opportunity attack, if they try to leave my range disengage action regardless I get a opportunity attack, if they move more then 5 feet within my range I get a opportunity attack, if I get a opportunity attack that lands they cant'y move more that turn, and if I hit them its gonna hurt oddles because smite. Not to mention if theirs only 1 foe left I get 3 chances to smite. And I don't run out of opportunity attacks because tunnel fighter.
Do do inexperience and encountering a lich this didn't actually strike me as overpowered at first because I thought well still range and magic can get me, I didn't think over powerful I thought just really powerful.
So when the only experienced player at our table besides the mentioned what unearthed arcana meant, and that I would have to ask the DM I asked with confidence, and explained roughly what tunnel fighter did. I don't know if I did a bad job explaining it, or what but she SAID YES. (for those of you keeping track maybe the first thing that wasn't my fault) Also since Rashathar was level 4 my new charecter, started at lvl 4 read here already broken af.
So I was thinking of names of spear fighters, or deities that have spears or polearms like Odin or maybe Posideon and then I'm not sure if a song came on or what but my brain thought Judas Preist.
So Judas came along and Destroyed. For a while. I'm gonna make a follow up to this piece later. Hope you guys enjoyed.
So this is the story of my second D&D playable character ever.
So after my first character, a Dragon Born Barbarian, met a untimely end via lich I needed a new character. At the time I felt like he felt a bit ineffective in comparison to the other characters, and tbh the Dragonborn race feels a bit underpowered to me but at some point I'll make a post about that later.
So our character creation wasn't to much off standard. We rolled a set of stats twice and then we got to pick which set we wanted to work with, which resulted to some pretty powerful characters, particularly the tabaxi rogue in our party rolled pretty bonkers, which might be why most of the characters are OG. This happened 7 sessions in or so , Rashathar (former charecters name) had just hit lvl 4 and was just starting to feel effective before he died hard.
So I wanted a character that felt more effective and also wanted to start off learning the magic system of D and D and I decided on Paladin. So then I started researching , RPG bots guide, among others and a few of the wikis and I was looking across fighting styles. (some of you may know where this is going) I ran across tunnel fighter saw a UA next to and had no idea what that meant. I know all of letters meant what book they were from or if they were Unearthed Arcana. Tunnel Fighter reads as follows
"Tunnel Fighter
You excel at defending narrow passages, doorways, and other tight spaces. As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your
reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach."
Depending on your interpretation my brain either started or stopped working at this point because I remember seeing Polearm Master so I went to look that up
Polearm Master
"You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
-When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary weapon. The weapon's damage die for this attack is a d4, and the attack deals bludgeoning damage.
-While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with that weapon."
This was obvious enough synergy but I was on the feat lists which listed all of them and ran across Sentinel
"Sentinel
You have mastered techniques to take advantage of every drop in any enemy's guard, gaining the following benefits:
When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
When a creature within 5 (10 due to polearm master and having a polearm) feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature."
A trifecta of synergy seemed too good to pass up add in the smites and the damage per full round potential seemed crazy.
In my head the combo went something like - if a hostile comes within 10 feet I get a opportunity attack, if they make attack on a ally within my range I get a opportunity attack, if they try to leave my range disengage action regardless I get a opportunity attack, if they move more then 5 feet within my range I get a opportunity attack, if I get a opportunity attack that lands they cant'y move more that turn, and if I hit them its gonna hurt oddles because smite. Not to mention if theirs only 1 foe left I get 3 chances to smite. And I don't run out of opportunity attacks because tunnel fighter.
Do do inexperience and encountering a lich this didn't actually strike me as overpowered at first because I thought well still range and magic can get me, I didn't think over powerful I thought just really powerful.
So when the only experienced player at our table besides the mentioned what unearthed arcana meant, and that I would have to ask the DM I asked with confidence, and explained roughly what tunnel fighter did. I don't know if I did a bad job explaining it, or what but she SAID YES. (for those of you keeping track maybe the first thing that wasn't my fault) Also since Rashathar was level 4 my new charecter, started at lvl 4 read here already broken af.
So I was thinking of names of spear fighters, or deities that have spears or polearms like Odin or maybe Posideon and then I'm not sure if a song came on or what but my brain thought Judas Preist.
So Judas came along and Destroyed. For a while. I'm gonna make a follow up to this piece later. Hope you guys enjoyed.