ASI or Feat

[Skrum]

I'm playing a orc battlemaster fighter who's about to hit level 6. My stats are 16 - 12 - 14 - 8 - 8 - 16. At level 4 I took Polearm Mastery, and fight with a shield and spear. No magic items so far, and due to the particulars of the game, getting a +1 weapon is highly unlikely. I actually have some level of control over when he goes up a level, and I've been avoiding it cause I really don't know what the right direction to go in is.

I've basically narrowed it down to this: Sentinel at 6th, ASI at 8th, or the reverse. Writing it down it looks like a stupid problem to have but I'm really stuck on this :smallfrown:

I'm open to other feat options too, but probably not GWF (there's already several other PC's with that feat).

[MaxWilson]

Sentinel will probably make you feel more powerful/have more tactical impact than Str +2 will. You can use Precision Attack to compensate for near-misses.

[KorvinStarmast]

I agree with Max. My orc battlemaster fighter with Polearm master/spear+shield did decent damage but his ability to control the fight was limited by what maneuvers I picked.
Sentinel's a good choice at 6. Bump the STR at lvl 8. maneuvers can took care of the rest.

[Kane0]

Are you currently suffering in combat particularly? Because typically i would vote for a feat that expands on some other aspect like observant, ritual caster, prodigy, etc

Edit: or the tashas feat that lets you pick up more maneuvers, speficically the ones that you can use on insight checks and such.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

If you take sentinel I'd seriously consider at least carrying a reach weapon for fights against creatures limited to 5', if not making this your primary tactic. Stopping baddies before they can even attempt to hit you seems better than a +2 AC.

[Lunali]

My general rule for feat vs ASI. The ASI will do more to get monsters dead, the feat will be more fun.

[Keravath]

How useful is sentinel?

"You have mastered techniques to take advantage of every drop in any enemy's guard, gaining the following benefits:

• Whenever you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, its speed drops to 0 for the rest of the turn. This stops any movement they may have been taking.

• Creatures within your reach provoke opportunity attacks even if they took the Disengage action.

• When a creature within your reach 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."

This depends on the composition of the party and the DM.

1) You can drop a creatures movement to zero for the rest of the turn if you hit them with an op attack. This works well with PAM which gives you an op attack when they enter your reach. However, with a 5' reach weapon you will stop them adjacent so they still get to attack. This can be useful if they are trying to run past you to attack a team mate in your back line. However, you only get one reaction and can only stop one creature.

2) Creatures provoke op attacks even if they disengage. In my experience, most opposing creatures want to use their action for something so unless they are about to die or really need to escape, they eat the op attack anyway so this feature isn't triggered very often. You will stop their movement if you hit so this can still be useful.

3) The third ability depends on your party. If you are often fighting with allies in melee with the possibility that a creature next to you attacks someone other than you then it can be very useful. However, this is another feature that is useful with a reach weapon since you can attack over or past an ally to hit someone on the other side of them ... lots more opportunities to trigger this with a reach weapon.

Sentinel + PAM still works with a spear - it is just more effective with a 10' reach polearm.

If you really want to keep the shield you might want to consider the shield master feat instead (check with your DM how they rule the shove prone bonus action but this does conflict with PAM for bonus action usage).

If you plan to stick with shield and sword and I would tend to boost strength first, if you plan to swap to a reach polearm then sentinel might make more sense at level 6.

---

Also, you mentioned that +1 weapons are highly unlikely. I am wondering whether you need to plan to multiclass to obtain a magic weapon. Opponents that are resistant or immune to non-magical weapons get more common as you go up in levels. With your stats you could multiclass into warlock for pact of the blade and obtain a magical weapon and some spell abilities that way. Whether it is worthwhile would depend on your character and the nature of the campaign. I would have suggested a couple of levels of artificer but you don't have the intelligence required. Forge cleric would also be an option but you don't have the wisdom. Anyway, if magical weapons are that scarce then character decisions like this can become plot driven :)

[JonBeowulf]

Somebody's gotta explain to me how Spear+Shield benefits from Polearm Master. I see nothing in the feat description that would apply.


Polearm Master
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
- When you take the Attack action with a only a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the 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 your reach.
Errata added the following:

The bonus attack uses the same ability modifier as the main attack.

[meandean]

Somebody's gotta explain to me how Spear+Shield benefits from Polearm Master. I see nothing in the feat description that would apply.It got errata'd (https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf).

[Abracadangit]

Somebody's gotta explain to me how Spear+Shield benefits from Polearm Master. I see nothing in the feat description that would apply.

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf

This got errata'ed, a little while back. The relevant bit:

"Polearm Master (p. 168). A second sentence has been added to the first benefit: “This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack.” Both instances of “or quarterstaff” have been changed to “quarterstaff, or spear."

I was late to find this out too. Makes sense, though - if staff is okay, why not spear, right.

Edit: Seeing someone else linked it while I was posting, ha ha. Sorry about that!

[JonBeowulf]

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf

This got errata'ed, a little while back. The relevant bit:

"Polearm Master (p. 168). A second sentence has been added to the first benefit: “This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack.” Both instances of “or quarterstaff” have been changed to “quarterstaff, or spear."

I was late to find this out too. Makes sense, though - if staff is okay, why not spear, right.

Edit: Seeing someone else linked it while I was posting, ha ha. Sorry about that!

Ah, I didn't have that edition of the errata. Going off old data.

[Ir0ns0ul]

Resilient: Wisdom is a must have for every Fighter.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Resilient: Wisdom is a must have for every Fighter.

Definitely not the worst idea either. If I have an odd ability score it's usually going into Wisdom for this reason. Our last campaign the fighter got to 8th level before he got tired of me targeting him (with intelligent foes) with Wisdom saves. This is one of those feats that scales with proficiency, so it does get more valuable at higher level. Does the OP need it at level 6 for a +3 bonus? Probably not, but I'd definitely want it before it's worth a +4.

[KorvinStarmast]

Resilient: Wisdom is a must have for every Fighter. Yep.
Getting dominated/charmed/whatever and whacking your allies is the epitome of suck. :smallyuk:
Getting feared by a dragon sucks even worse.

[Gignere]

Yep.
Getting dominated/charmed/whatever and whacking your allies is the epitome of suck. :smallyuk:
Getting feared by a dragon sucks even worse.

What are you telling me triple sharpshooter with precision attacks back on the party is not fun?