SangoProduction
2022-01-17, 03:40 AM
Preamble: Sentinel is my second choice that I’m waffling between with Commander for my character. Rather than giving in to analysis paralysis, and completely unhelpful teammates, I’m going to review this and determine how crab this class is so that I can make a truly objective decision. Yup. Sure.
link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KcCzmVEdUx0qHlNyxZYeVoPgPHwSyyUh8VmL8x7Y2UY/edit?usp=sharing)
Post-Review Analysis:
Actually a much more compelling class than expected. Yes, it does exactly what you expect, but somehow makes it compelling. Which… I guess is probably not what you expect.
Combat Training (G)
Full practitioner. Yay.
Defender’s Soul (G)
And a bonus challenge package for your full practitioner. Nice.
Guardian Challenge (M)
A teeny tiny boost to hit and damage vs challenged target(s).
Sentinel’s Reserve (M-G)
Clearly to be combined with Guardian’s delayed pool. It doesn’t make it clear if it means 2*BAB+Wis or 2*(BAB+Wis).
Wise Reflexes (u)
That seems… really potent. After a couple levels in. Given heavy armor, you can basically dump Dex. Seems potent. I might be completely missing a different use for Dex. But you’re probably not going to be shooting a gun. And heavy armor individuals are unlikely to care about stealth.
Guard Wall (N)
Insignificant, even if it were passive.
Dedicated Defense (N-M)
DR 1 is insignificant. But at least it’s passive, and starts at level 1, and can’t be penetrated.
Second Wind (G)
Rather than temp hp, if you’re below half, you can heal for real hp. At a decent rate too. Just up to half hp. But still.
Sentinel’s Imposition (G)
Gain AoO against challenged targets that don’t target you.
Opportunistic Offense (u)
I am really unsure of what total effect this has. I believe quite a few talents trigger on attack action, like duelist and fencing, without themselves being attack actions. But I do not know enough about SoM to make a sum total approximation of this effect’s worth.
Counter Critical (N-M)
Like… maybe if you spot some huge giant wielding a 4+ times crit weapon… maybe you would hold your martial focus to counter that specific threat, since it might be big enough, even if it's a low enough chance that you’d have to fight it multiple times to probably be crit.
Defender’s Determination (S)
Blinded and entangled are positively crippling for a frontliner trying to hold the line. Ignoring it is game changing. But only once per day per condition.
Deathless Challenge (u)
Harder to kill, and can stay conscious even in the negatives. Neat in lethal campaigns. If you make it this far. Also gives you a chance to (temp) heal yourself.
Stalwart (G)
Evasion for fort and will. Not many effects that it affects, but it’s good when it’s good. Especially for those overly complex spells that just happen to have a fort save to prevent bleeding, but would normally always have a secondary effect like fatigue.
Empowering Challenge / Sentinel’s Surge (N-M)
Meh. Striking the final blow on a creature is not the most abundantly common thing to happen. Even if you have the exact same build and weaponry as everyone else, you’ve got as low as a 1 in 8 chance of the killing blow coming from you rather than your allies.
Sentinel’s Wrath (G)
Advantage on damage against challenged targets. Neat.
Sentinel’s Poise (S)
Even more crippling effects that you can turn off.
Eternal Challenge (F)
I just find this hilarious. It’s not particularly useful. But it’s very amusing.
Instant Challenge (G-S)
Challenge downed? Challenge up!
Diamond Aegis (G)
Getting to immediately spend a reserve point on failing a save is pretty useful. Especially to fight conditions.
Invincible Soul (G)
Doubles any DR against challenges. And has heavy fortification against them. Neat
Final Challenge (M)
Effectively infinite HP while she has an ongoing challenge. And she can challenge her friends if so needed. Now you’re actually getting use from the fast healing.
Adds a neat gimmick to the defending deal. And I kind of like it, even if it mightn’t be the most mechanically potent thing in the world.
Dimensional Step (M-G)
Loses Guardian sphere to gain Warp-specific caster levels. And 1 magic talent and drawback. Warp is relatively inconsequential, as far as magic goes.
Spell Pool (G)
Lose the pool of healing for spell points. But needs to multiclass to make it more generally useful.
Emergency Step (M)
Immediate action teleport is neat. Very short range though.
Shuffle (G)
Not explicitly linked to Emergency Step, so potentially a really long range ally swapping as an immediate action. Which is neat. Soaks spell points pretty quickly.
Warping Imposition (G)
Free teleport and attack. Pretty neat.
The patrol package version of the class. Neither inherently improves nor diminishes the class. Only pointing out notable not 1-for-1 trades
Active Imposition (G)
Adds an additional trigger for AoO. Once / round.
Undying Patrol (G)
Save to effectively avoid damage.
Buffering Defense (G)
Although a very small amount of temp hp for 1 round… it’s probably happening for free nearly every round.
Last Stand (N-M)
While even more fool proof, where even your allies can all die, and you won’t… It’s still only a save vs avoiding damage rather than effectively infinite hp, 99% of the time.
Doesn’t actually lose much despite tying itself (loosely) to alignment. Doesn’t gain much either. Just strange.
Chosen Alignment (u)
Basically a Twitter paladin, swapping principles and reasons on a whim, but maintaining the same fervor. (Well, I mean, I guess that’s being generous to Twitter. But let’s leave it there.)
Judging Challenge (G)
…May… just be poorly written. As the only bonus challenge provides is to hit the Paragon. Which… if this were intentionally a twitter analogy might make sense. But I feel like that mightn’t be the intention.
If it were to be less dysfunctional, it might intend to increase the penalty? Probably worth losing the bonus talent to get an increased penalty (even if it’s unreliable). I’ll rate it as though it increased the penalties.
Healing Wind (G)
Healing allies to half heal and losing nothing for it? That’s … an objective capability bump.
Unerring Nemesis (M-G)
I really expected this to replace Guard Wall. But at least it also adds bonus saves so… yeah.
Takes hits on the temp HP, rather than avoiding damage.
Reckless Stance (N)
An objective drawback. And loses Wise defenses.
Reckless Defense (M-G)
Basically doubles the DR.
Defend Other (G)
Trade useless feature for a bonus talent
Selfless Defense (G)
Defend Other as an AoO. Neat. Possibly better than imposition.
Frightening Response (M)
Replaces an inconsequential thing with another one.
Eh… I don’t like it.
Combat Training (N-M)
Trading Wis initiation to Cha is mechanically worse..
Laughing Warrior (M)
Gladiator is much worse than Guardian. But you simply get it as a bonus talent without losing guardian. Strange. Still don’t care for it.
Rocksteady (M)
Still inconsequential.
Taunt Coward (N)
The boasts are generally worse than an AoO.
Braggarts Recovery (M-G)
Generally meaningless. But neat. And replaces critical counter, which is positive.
link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KcCzmVEdUx0qHlNyxZYeVoPgPHwSyyUh8VmL8x7Y2UY/edit?usp=sharing)
Post-Review Analysis:
Actually a much more compelling class than expected. Yes, it does exactly what you expect, but somehow makes it compelling. Which… I guess is probably not what you expect.
Combat Training (G)
Full practitioner. Yay.
Defender’s Soul (G)
And a bonus challenge package for your full practitioner. Nice.
Guardian Challenge (M)
A teeny tiny boost to hit and damage vs challenged target(s).
Sentinel’s Reserve (M-G)
Clearly to be combined with Guardian’s delayed pool. It doesn’t make it clear if it means 2*BAB+Wis or 2*(BAB+Wis).
Wise Reflexes (u)
That seems… really potent. After a couple levels in. Given heavy armor, you can basically dump Dex. Seems potent. I might be completely missing a different use for Dex. But you’re probably not going to be shooting a gun. And heavy armor individuals are unlikely to care about stealth.
Guard Wall (N)
Insignificant, even if it were passive.
Dedicated Defense (N-M)
DR 1 is insignificant. But at least it’s passive, and starts at level 1, and can’t be penetrated.
Second Wind (G)
Rather than temp hp, if you’re below half, you can heal for real hp. At a decent rate too. Just up to half hp. But still.
Sentinel’s Imposition (G)
Gain AoO against challenged targets that don’t target you.
Opportunistic Offense (u)
I am really unsure of what total effect this has. I believe quite a few talents trigger on attack action, like duelist and fencing, without themselves being attack actions. But I do not know enough about SoM to make a sum total approximation of this effect’s worth.
Counter Critical (N-M)
Like… maybe if you spot some huge giant wielding a 4+ times crit weapon… maybe you would hold your martial focus to counter that specific threat, since it might be big enough, even if it's a low enough chance that you’d have to fight it multiple times to probably be crit.
Defender’s Determination (S)
Blinded and entangled are positively crippling for a frontliner trying to hold the line. Ignoring it is game changing. But only once per day per condition.
Deathless Challenge (u)
Harder to kill, and can stay conscious even in the negatives. Neat in lethal campaigns. If you make it this far. Also gives you a chance to (temp) heal yourself.
Stalwart (G)
Evasion for fort and will. Not many effects that it affects, but it’s good when it’s good. Especially for those overly complex spells that just happen to have a fort save to prevent bleeding, but would normally always have a secondary effect like fatigue.
Empowering Challenge / Sentinel’s Surge (N-M)
Meh. Striking the final blow on a creature is not the most abundantly common thing to happen. Even if you have the exact same build and weaponry as everyone else, you’ve got as low as a 1 in 8 chance of the killing blow coming from you rather than your allies.
Sentinel’s Wrath (G)
Advantage on damage against challenged targets. Neat.
Sentinel’s Poise (S)
Even more crippling effects that you can turn off.
Eternal Challenge (F)
I just find this hilarious. It’s not particularly useful. But it’s very amusing.
Instant Challenge (G-S)
Challenge downed? Challenge up!
Diamond Aegis (G)
Getting to immediately spend a reserve point on failing a save is pretty useful. Especially to fight conditions.
Invincible Soul (G)
Doubles any DR against challenges. And has heavy fortification against them. Neat
Final Challenge (M)
Effectively infinite HP while she has an ongoing challenge. And she can challenge her friends if so needed. Now you’re actually getting use from the fast healing.
Adds a neat gimmick to the defending deal. And I kind of like it, even if it mightn’t be the most mechanically potent thing in the world.
Dimensional Step (M-G)
Loses Guardian sphere to gain Warp-specific caster levels. And 1 magic talent and drawback. Warp is relatively inconsequential, as far as magic goes.
Spell Pool (G)
Lose the pool of healing for spell points. But needs to multiclass to make it more generally useful.
Emergency Step (M)
Immediate action teleport is neat. Very short range though.
Shuffle (G)
Not explicitly linked to Emergency Step, so potentially a really long range ally swapping as an immediate action. Which is neat. Soaks spell points pretty quickly.
Warping Imposition (G)
Free teleport and attack. Pretty neat.
The patrol package version of the class. Neither inherently improves nor diminishes the class. Only pointing out notable not 1-for-1 trades
Active Imposition (G)
Adds an additional trigger for AoO. Once / round.
Undying Patrol (G)
Save to effectively avoid damage.
Buffering Defense (G)
Although a very small amount of temp hp for 1 round… it’s probably happening for free nearly every round.
Last Stand (N-M)
While even more fool proof, where even your allies can all die, and you won’t… It’s still only a save vs avoiding damage rather than effectively infinite hp, 99% of the time.
Doesn’t actually lose much despite tying itself (loosely) to alignment. Doesn’t gain much either. Just strange.
Chosen Alignment (u)
Basically a Twitter paladin, swapping principles and reasons on a whim, but maintaining the same fervor. (Well, I mean, I guess that’s being generous to Twitter. But let’s leave it there.)
Judging Challenge (G)
…May… just be poorly written. As the only bonus challenge provides is to hit the Paragon. Which… if this were intentionally a twitter analogy might make sense. But I feel like that mightn’t be the intention.
If it were to be less dysfunctional, it might intend to increase the penalty? Probably worth losing the bonus talent to get an increased penalty (even if it’s unreliable). I’ll rate it as though it increased the penalties.
Healing Wind (G)
Healing allies to half heal and losing nothing for it? That’s … an objective capability bump.
Unerring Nemesis (M-G)
I really expected this to replace Guard Wall. But at least it also adds bonus saves so… yeah.
Takes hits on the temp HP, rather than avoiding damage.
Reckless Stance (N)
An objective drawback. And loses Wise defenses.
Reckless Defense (M-G)
Basically doubles the DR.
Defend Other (G)
Trade useless feature for a bonus talent
Selfless Defense (G)
Defend Other as an AoO. Neat. Possibly better than imposition.
Frightening Response (M)
Replaces an inconsequential thing with another one.
Eh… I don’t like it.
Combat Training (N-M)
Trading Wis initiation to Cha is mechanically worse..
Laughing Warrior (M)
Gladiator is much worse than Guardian. But you simply get it as a bonus talent without losing guardian. Strange. Still don’t care for it.
Rocksteady (M)
Still inconsequential.
Taunt Coward (N)
The boasts are generally worse than an AoO.
Braggarts Recovery (M-G)
Generally meaningless. But neat. And replaces critical counter, which is positive.