Are Champion fighters better now that we have Crusher/Piercer/Slasher?

[JNAProductions]

They'd still gain more AC from not having to use RA, and the entire party benefits from Advantage, not just them

Right... But that triggers on a crit, which would presumably need Reckless Attack to increase the odds.

It's not a bad build, assuming you go Barb 5 BEFORE anything else, but I wouldn't consider top-notch competitive for this showing.

[J-H]

I don't have DNDB, so please excuse the lack of detail. Here's a shot at a viable champion.
Drow
Dex-based
Feats:
Elven Accuracy
Drow High Magic
Possibly: Invocation feat for Devil's Sight

Bonus Action Feat choices (choose 1 or 2):
-Shield Master for AC, and for shoving to give the party advantage. Sure, your STR isn't going to be super-high, but non-beefy enemies still have a good chance to fail. Gets even better if you can do your bonus action shove after your first attack, but before your extra attacks.
-TWF for an extra attack and +1 AC.
-Poisoner. Stockpile the poison you can make pretty inexpensively, harvest wyvern tails, etc., and be a more drow-y drow. Non-resistant enemies have a decent chance of failing a DC 14 Con save. 2d8 poison is nice, but the really nice part is the Poisoned condition for 1 round. That gives them disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Ability checks include things like "resist being shoved prone" and "resist being grappled by the wizard's Bigby's Hand." Poison your weapon in advance, get a failed save, and then your Shield Master shove has an even better chance of hitting.

Drow gives Faerie Fire 1/day, which grants advantage if it sticks, and a way to detect enemies. Darkness negates sunlight sensitivity... and if drow can't see in their own darkness, pick up the invocation via feat, or take the Blindsight fighting style - or both.
Elven Accuracy gives triple advantage (3d20), increasing crit chances substantially when you have advantage from Darkness, Faerie Fire, or the rest of the party doing something to help.
Drow High Magic gives Detect Magic at will, which is nice. Levitate gives some aerial mobility, and Dispel Magic 1/day is pretty handy.

A Battlemaster or Cavalier can do anything a Champion can do, but Elven Accuracy and multiple methods of gaining advantage substantially helps crit-fishing. Obviously you want a nice flaming rapier or something to take maximum advantage of this, but EVERY fighter wants that.

This actually looks pretty fun to play. I might try it if someone actually starts a game soon (I mostly just DM :-/).

[Kane0]

It's not optimal, but I would have a lot of fun with a build like this:

Half-Elf or Elf Champ Fighter 4-5 / Dao Genielock 2-3 / Scout Rogue 13-14
Trade around stats using Tasha's to start with as much Dex as you can but you also need at least 13 Cha to multiclass.
5 ASIs: Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter, Crusher, Piercer, one more of your choice (Lucky, Observant, Skulker, etc)

It's a little silly but you're basically a sniper. Get yourself a bow or crossbow or bundle of darts and use your Tasha's Rogue bonus action to get yourself advantage to hit coupled with Elven accuracy. Dao adds +Prof bludgeoning to your attack so you can pair up Piercer and Crusher effects. Sharpshooter extends your range and adds the +10 damage option if you want to take a risk which is mitigated a little by the Archery fighting style. If you miss an important shot you can Action Surge for another attempt or it can be used in conjunction with Cunning Action to GTFO if a situation really goes bad.
Because you're not moving the Scout's reaction is important for when enemies close on you, and when you get a crit off you can instead use cunning action normally to reposition as you have advantage to hit from Crusher, which also does a bit of forced movement to keep people away (but not as much as a traditional repelling blast)
On top of that you have a good spread of skills/tools and a bit of spellcasting plus 2 invocations up your sleeve, so you aren't a one trick pony. Beast Speech, Beguiling Influence, Eldritch Sight, Mask of Many Faces and Misty Visions are all fun options.
That last level is open so you can choose if Fighter's Extra Attack, Warlock's Pact Boon or Rogue's Blindsense is more important to you.

[LudicSavant]

Dao adds +Prof bludgeoning to your attack so you can pair up Piercer and Crusher effects.

Interesting idea. Though unfortunately the benefit of the Dao ability will only apply to one of your attacks. So if you wanted to maximize the chance of activating the crit rider, you'd have to hold onto it, and risk a miss with your final attack. Still might work out. Hmm.

Another random thought along these lines -- a Fey-Touched Scribe Wizard could convert Hex to Bludgeoning by also having Catapult or Earth Tremor in their book, thus getting extra per-attack damage and being able to dip multiple damage types for the Tasha half-feats. Notably, those feats do not require the damage to be from a weapon, it can be from spells.

Not sure if any of that would be worth, but it's something to think about, perhaps.

[Kane0]

Though unfortunately the benefit of the Dao ability will only apply to one of your attacks. So if you wanted to maximize the chance of activating the crit rider, you'd have to hold onto it, and risk a miss with your final attack.

Thats okay because as primarily a rogue you’re only attacking once a turn anyways (also why crossbow mastery isnt mentioned).

[SLOTHRPG95]

I don't have DNDB, so please excuse the lack of detail. Here's a shot at a viable champion.
Drow
Dex-based
Feats:
Elven Accuracy
Drow High Magic
Possibly: Invocation feat for Devil's Sight

Bonus Action Feat choices (choose 1 or 2):
-Shield Master for AC, and for shoving to give the party advantage. Sure, your STR isn't going to be super-high, but non-beefy enemies still have a good chance to fail. Gets even better if you can do your bonus action shove after your first attack, but before your extra attacks.
-TWF for an extra attack and +1 AC.
-Poisoner. Stockpile the poison you can make pretty inexpensively, harvest wyvern tails, etc., and be a more drow-y drow. Non-resistant enemies have a decent chance of failing a DC 14 Con save. 2d8 poison is nice, but the really nice part is the Poisoned condition for 1 round. That gives them disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Ability checks include things like "resist being shoved prone" and "resist being grappled by the wizard's Bigby's Hand." Poison your weapon in advance, get a failed save, and then your Shield Master shove has an even better chance of hitting.

Drow gives Faerie Fire 1/day, which grants advantage if it sticks, and a way to detect enemies. Darkness negates sunlight sensitivity... and if drow can't see in their own darkness, pick up the invocation via feat, or take the Blindsight fighting style - or both.
Elven Accuracy gives triple advantage (3d20), increasing crit chances substantially when you have advantage from Darkness, Faerie Fire, or the rest of the party doing something to help.
Drow High Magic gives Detect Magic at will, which is nice. Levitate gives some aerial mobility, and Dispel Magic 1/day is pretty handy.

A Battlemaster or Cavalier can do anything a Champion can do, but Elven Accuracy and multiple methods of gaining advantage substantially helps crit-fishing. Obviously you want a nice flaming rapier or something to take maximum advantage of this, but EVERY fighter wants that.

This actually looks pretty fun to play. I might try it if someone actually starts a game soon (I mostly just DM :-/).

Sounds fun! If relying primarily on rapier for melee and longbow for ranged, Piercer might make a lot of sense for this build. Sure, it's not as flashy as Slasher/Crusher, but as a Dex-based Champion many of your best weapon options will be getting a reliable damage boost, plus bigger crits (which are semi-reliable with EA + Champion).

[heavyfuel]

Okay, so a more serious answer, though it's still only a Champion dip.

Mark of Shadow Elf (+2 Dex, +1 Int) with an initial array of 8 16 14 16 12 8

Arcane Trickster 4 / Champion 4 / AT +12

Feats: Elven Accuracy+Dex at 4, Piercer+Dex at 8, +2 Dex at 12, Sharpshooter at 14, Lucky at 16, +2 Int at 20

Tactics: If you can hide, use Cunning Action to do so, then shoot. If you can't hide, use CA to aim and shoot.

Once you get Haste, cast it on yourself every combat. Sharpshooter and Heavy Crossbow allows you to stay very very far from the fight, so losing Concentration isn't likely. Use your haste action to attack, and use your regular action to ready an attack for as soon as your turn has passed. Though it might be difficult to gain Advantage on the readied attack, this is still a massive bonus to your DPR (assuming you have an ally in melee who can grant you SA)

[Kane0]

Another idea would be something like Champion 11+ / Beast barb 3+ to stack as many Claw attacks as you can using Reckless Attack, then tack on Slasher as a debuff which cancel Reckless Attack penalty and also helps your party. Claws work on the attack action so you also get your free swing when action surging too! Shame it doesn't sync up with dex-based options like Elven accuracy, sneak attack or monk but you can still be a Half Orc for the extra crit damage.

If you really want to be nasty throw in Mobile and simply move away when you're finished savaging someone with crit claws. Then the only thing left to do is find something to do with your Bonus Action when you're not entering rage, like GWM but half of it would go to wasted. A better option might be Orcish Aggression which would sync up with Mobile.

Oh and Hunter Ranger 3 can get you either bonus damage for your crit or an extra attack via reaction or against a second target, because why not, but you'd need some Wis to multiclass and would probably be giving up an ASI to do so.

[Zhorn]

Claws work on the attack action so you also get your free swing when action surging too!

Unfortunately the wording on Claws is the free attack is a "once on each of your turns when you attack with a claw using the Attack action" deal.
I was thinking about a Fighter dip for my current Beast Barbarian to have that and was rather disheartened when noticing that wording.

[Kane0]

Ugh you’re right, can’t catch a break!

[stoutstien]

Ugh you’re right, can’t catch a break!

Still pretty easy to use combo. With adv and 3 attacks, claw has a good enough chance to crit to work with and the speed reduction is very handy for a class who wants to avoid ranged combat as much as possible

[Zhorn]

Still pretty easy to use combo. With adv and 3 attacks, claw has a good enough chance to crit to work with and the speed reduction is very handy for a class who wants to avoid ranged combat as much as possible

And if you don't mind a bit of convoluted weapon dropping/retrieving each round, you can get that up to 4 attacks by level 5 without additional dips or feats, so it is viable for doing with Slasher as your level 4 ASI pick.
(this is just an extract from another thread on the topic a while back, click into it for a listing of all rules references that allow it to work)

Assuming no feats, start each round with a light melee weapon in each hand (also assuming you are already raging at this point with claws)

Step 1: Free actionless drop one weapon
Step 2: Attack Action with claw
Step 3: Free claw as part of the same action
Step 4: Object interaction pick up dropped weapon
Step 5: Extra Attack with that picked up weapon
Step 6: Bonus Action off hand attack with Two-Weapon Fighting

With our end state now matching our starting state.
4 Attacks with a level 5 Path of the Beast Barbarian, all 100% RAW compliant and supported without feats

Just be sure that the one handed light weapons you are using deal slashing damage