captain america

[MadBear]

Hi all,

looking for advice on how to make a good captain america build, using a Fighter Battlemaster. One nice thing is that my Dm homebrewed a style to help it work:

Captain Style: You can dual wield a shield along with an unarmed attack. Both deal 1d8 damage + modifier, and the shield gains the thrown property (20/60).

Obviously this solve a lot of problems that would have required feats to pull off. So with this style in mind, what are some flavorful feats that will help capture the feeling of this character? The fact that I don't need the dual wield feat, definitely help make twf with this character feel good.

Right now I'm thinking some good feats might be:

- Athlete: I mean Cap is an at the pinnacle of human conditioning
- Prodogy: Picking up expertise in athletics might be better then athlete
- Resilience (wisdom): Just seems good

Feats I'm not considering:
- Shield Master: I'm already getting to use a shield as a weapon, and can attack/shove with it as a bonus action. So a large portion of the feats usefulness is gone
- Tavern Brawler: I'm already getting to hit things as a d8 with my fists and shield, so not really necessary

Is there any feats out there worth considering that I haven't said yet? Or is there another class that might capture the feeling of Cap better?

[RickAllison]

You should look at Battle Smith Artificer. Or any Artificer, really, even just a dip. Namely you are looking for the Returning Weapon invocation which will let you bounce your shield back to your hand. Bonus points for having the character be Small and riding your Iron Defender which is a WW2 Jeep.

Barbarian is another good class for this, albeit needing a dip. That gets you advantage for your Athletics, extreme resilience, and other cool stuff. That being said, Champion really is peak Captain (and would let you pick up a second combat style), mainly because at higher levels, you can legitimately say “I can do this all day.”

[MadBear]

You should look at Battle Smith Artificer. Or any Artificer, really, even just a dip. Namely you are looking for the Returning Weapon invocation which will let you bounce your shield back to your hand. Bonus points for having the character be Small and riding your Iron Defender which is a WW2 Jeep.

Barbarian is another good class for this, albeit needing a dip. That gets you advantage for your Athletics, extreme resilience, and other cool stuff. That being said, Champion really is peak Captain (and would let you pick up a second combat style), mainly because at higher levels, you can legitimately say “I can do this all day.”

Your right about champion being a pretty good representation of Cap (although thinking about it maybe the Brute could be good as well). In that case, maybe picking up Martial Adept a few times would be worth doing (I know you normally can't, but the DM is ok with this feat being taken multiple times).

[Damon_Tor]

Frankly the Purple Dragon Knight is the subclass that's going to feel the best here. In a team that includes gods his own damage output/intake has never been impressive. His role on the team is as a leader. The PDK isn't as bad as people like to say: it's on the fighter chassis, which already means it's going to be better than most other characters.

If you have dire concerns about performance, get him enough paladin levels to feel leadery instead.

I wouldn't worry about Artificer levels to make the shield return to you: Cap didn't build the thing. Your DM has brought you this far, he's not going to leave you without your signature item.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Paladin is probably closer than Fighter, honestly. Mind you, if third party is on the table, my Guide to Greatness has a few things that might be of interest to you. There's a Throwing Master feat and an inspiration-based Marshal subclass for the Fighter, but I've actually got something even closer for you: Monk.

No, hear me out. One of my new Monk subclasses, the Way of the Iron Hand, is all about being an armored and/or shield-wielding Monk. You get to wear armor, power Monk features with Strength, use a shield as a Monk weapon (with the Throwing property!), knock dudes around with shield bashes, tank hits, and all kinds of good stuff. Dump Wis and focus on Strength, with 14 Dex for medium armor/acrobatics and 12-14 Cha for leadership.

[Reevh]

You should look at Battle Smith Artificer. Or any Artificer, really, even just a dip. Namely you are looking for the Returning Weapon invocation which will let you bounce your shield back to your hand. Bonus points for having the character be Small and riding your Iron Defender which is a WW2 Jeep.

Barbarian is another good class for this, albeit needing a dip. That gets you advantage for your Athletics, extreme resilience, and other cool stuff. That being said, Champion really is peak Captain (and would let you pick up a second combat style), mainly because at higher levels, you can legitimately say “I can do this all day.”

Eldritch Knight can also resummon the shield as a bonus action if it’s one of your bonded weapons.

[Red Vax]

Look up Tulok the Barbarian on Youtube. He has a video of a Captain America build, as well as the rest of the Avengers.
(I would have posted a link, but I'm not cool enough yet.)

[Talionis]

If you go Paladin then Inspiring Leader is a good Feat. Shield Mastery is a good way to get pseudo evasion and I think you still get a lot from Shield Mastery.

[Chad.e.clark]

One of the AL characters i just made with leftover DM rewards was named Reeve Stogers, Tavern Brawler feat Vhuman with Battlemaster with Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. Might take a level of War Cleric, flavoring Bless as rallying the troops, Healing Word as "you don't have my permission to die yet, soldier!"- pick me up, and if I put a few more levels into it, Spiritual Weapon could definitely be flavored as the shield being thrown.

Edit:
Spirit Guardians could also be flavored as the shield being thrown, on further thought.