Ranger (Gloomstalker) 3 + Fighter 2 = 4 attacks in round 1?

[Segev]

Dread Ambusher lets a Gloomstalker Ranger make an extra attack in the first round of combat if he takes an attack action "during that round." Action Surge lets a fighter take a second action in a round. If it's the first round of combat, and a Gloomstalker Ranger attacks, then takes his bonus Dread Ambusher attack, then Action Surges and attacks again, he's still taking an attack action on the first round of combat, and so it seems he should trigger Dread Ambusher's extra attack (and bonus damage) again!

Now, compared to a straight Gloomstalker 5, that's only one more attack on the first round, and also burns a short rest feature. On subsequent rounds, the Ranger 3/Fighter 2 has only one attack per round, while the Gloomstalker 5 has 2 attacks per round. (The Fighter 5 also has a flat 2 attacks per round, and also gets 4 attacks on the round he uses Action Surge, now that I think of it.)

Is this more useful at higher level, dipping Ranger 3 after, say, a Fighter has 3 attacks natively in order to get one more attack on round one? Doubled if he Action Surges round 1?

[Mr Adventurer]

It doesn't say "when", it says "if" - which is binary?

[stoutstien]

I'd still be hard pressed to dip before extra attack.

[CTurbo]

Yes Dream Ambusher triggers again on an Action Surge.

So a Gloom Stalker 5/Fighter 2 or Fighter 5/Gloom Stalker 3 gets 6 full attacks in the first round with an Action Surge.

[Segev]

Yes Dream Ambusher triggers again on an Action Surge.

So a Gloom Stalker 5/Fighter 2 or Fighter 5/Gloom Stalker 3 gets 6 full attacks in the first round with an Action Surge.

As I read that...

Does that mean that a flat Gloom Stalker 5 gets 4 total attacks on round 1?

[Hytheter]

I'm currently playing a build that will eventually use this, as well as Assassin Rogue. Battle Master 5/Gloom Stalker 3/Assassin 3 (at least). It's not going to happen every time of course, but get the drop on someone and you can get six attacks in the first turn, all at advantage and dealing crits automatically. UA Ambush Maneuver helps ensure that you pass stealth rolls and win initiative, while Precision Attack and Elven Accuracy help mitigate the penalty of Sharpshooter.

That said, Fighter 2/Gloom Stalker 3 is inferior to Fighter 5. You want that Extra Attack before you bother picking up Dread Ambush. edit: or you can go stalker 5 ofc, I'm eventually going further into Fighter myself though.

[MaxWilson]

As I read that...

Does that mean that a flat Gloom Stalker 5 gets 4 total attacks on round 1?

No, because they have no Action Surge. (2+1)*2 = 6, but 4 != 2 + 1.

I feel like there's a Clue joke in there somewhere.

[Yakk]

Yes, this is a common combo.

You level one EA(2) class to 5; which one varies. You get Fighter 2 (sometimes 3 for a subclass) gloom 3.

BM 5/Gloom 3/Assassin 3 for example, gives you 6 (!) attacks, and if you win initiative they are all auto-crits with advantage. Which you can then dump doubled BM dice on.

[x3n0n]

Yes, this is a common combo.

You level one EA(2) class to 5; which one varies. You get Fighter 2 (sometimes 3 for a subclass) gloom 3.

BM 5/Gloom 3/Assassin 3 for example, gives you 6 (!) attacks, and if you win initiative they are all auto-crits with advantage. Which you can then dump doubled BM dice on.

Just a nit: if they're *surprised*, they're auto-crits; if you "just" win initiative, they're all at advantage. (Still quite the crazy nova round.)

[CTurbo]

I played a Battle Master 7, Gloom Stalker 3(Revised), Assassin 5, War Cleric 1

20 Dex Wood Elf
Archery and Close Quarters Shooter for +3 to hit
Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy, and Alert feats
+2 Vicious Longbow and Bracers of Archery(+2 damage)


I pulled off this best case scenario twice.

The first time, with Action Surge, Dread Ambusher, and War Priest, I could make 7 attacks, all with triple advantage, all autocrits.(The Cleric had Bless on me too)

Each attack did 2d8+2d6+21

The breakdown on that is d8 from longbow, d6 is from Hunter's Mark, both doubled on crits. The 21 is +5 Dex +10 Sharpshooter +2 magic longbow +2 bracers +2 favored enemy(Dragons).

On top of that, I spent all 5 of my superiority dice, added sneak attack, and rolled a nat 20 3 times which triggered the extra damage from the Vicious weapon.
That's an extra 10d8+12d6 for a grand total of

24d8+26d6+147 damage = ~346 damage on average but I had to have done at least 367 because I soloed an Ancient Black Dragon before it could even react.

[da newt]

If you take the Echo Knight fighter subclass, you can tack on an extra attack per attack action (up to CON mod per day) So a Echo Knight 5 Gloomstalker 3 w/ PAM or XBE could max out at (2 multi att +1 Dread Ambusher att +1 Evoke Incarnation att)*2 with action surge + BA att for 9 attacks in the first round, right?

I don't know if that would be more or less OP than BM fighter, but having a 9 att nova round capability is pretty cool. (And if you are invisible in the dark those are all w/ ADV ...)

[Segev]

If you take the Echo Knight fighter subclass, you can tack on an extra attack per attack action (up to CON mod per day) So a Echo Knight 5 Gloomstalker 3 w/ PAM or XBE could max out at (2 multi att +1 Dread Ambusher att +1 Evoke Incarnation att)*2 with action surge + BA att for 9 attacks in the first round, right?

I don't know if that would be more or less OP than BM fighter, but having a 9 att nova round capability is pretty cool. (And if you are invisible in the dark those are all w/ ADV ...)

Might even make 3 levels of rogue for assassin worth it to maximize that nova.