Echo Knight & PAM - almost OP in tier 1-2

[da newt]

I've been playing a V Human PAM Echo Knight for a bit (lvls 1-7 so far). His survivability, mobility, and damage output has been surprisingly good. For RP reasons I didn't min-max. His DPR isn't OP, but the whole package is impressive.

Once the subclass came on line, positioning has been interesting. The Echo's ability to move in any direction and hover at any height has been sooo handy. W/ the Glaive's reach and functionally occupying two spaces with 30' movement each or teleport swap positions, battlefield maneuvering is interesting.

Adding the Unleash Incarnation extra attacks w/ Action Surge and PAM's BA attack and frequent Op Att has allowed him to strike often. If he needs to 'nova' at 5th level he can att, att, UI att, Action Surge, att, att, UI att, BA att and then hope for a Op Att - for 7+ attacks in a round. With clever positioning, the Op Att happens often.

If you don't want to 'nova' in one round you can spread it out for an action surge round 5 att, then UI for a couple rounds of 4 att each, and all of this not counting the frequent Op Atts on top of that.

I also picked up Sentinel, and it's pretty great but it hasn't been as game changing as I had hoped (so far). I can't wait for GWM ...

Now I'm adding a bit of Barb for Rage, Reckless, and a subclass - it just keeps getting better. I don't know if I've optimized leveling, but it's working so far. What's the point of this post? I didn't think this subclass would be this good. I think it may be the best non-casting class out there.

[Sception]

note that the echo only gets to make standard attacks and opportunity attacks against adjacent enemies moving away, it can't use PAM's reaction attack for enemies moving within reach, nor can it use PAM's bonus action attack, nor can it even use a polearm's reach for opportunity attacks.

But otherwise, yeah, sentinel + Echo knight is crazy good for locking down a single tough melee enemy with only one attack and only regular movement. Which is a big deal, especially at level 3 or 4 when the combo comes online.

That said, teleporting enemies, or one that can explicitly move without provoking opportunity attacks, can get away. Enemies with ranged attacks, long reach, or especially those that can provoke saving throws at range may not care so much about being locked down. Groups of enemies don't care as much since the fighter only has a single reaction to lock down a single target. And multiattacking enemies can spend one attack to pop the echo then move off to make their remaining attacks against whoever they like. So even if you have an echo sentinel in the party, there are still several ways for the DM to make an encounter difficult for the party.

[da newt]

"note that the echo only gets to make standard attacks and opportunity attacks against adjacent enemies moving away, it can't use PAM's reaction attack for enemies moving within reach, nor can it use PAM's bonus action attack, nor can it even use a polearm's reach for opportunity attacks."

All true. The PC must make the BA PAM attack, PAM's enter's range Op Att only applies to PC, Sent's attack against an ally in 5' only applies to PC, and the Echo's Op Att trigger is only if an opponent moves out of 5' range. But if an opponent tries to move away from the echo, Op Att and 0 speed, or if an opponent moves into the PC's range, Op Att and 0 speed. Between just these two, Op Att triggers all the time.