Lae'Zel level 8 feat

[craig234]

Between increasing STR from 18 to 20, or Great Weapon Master. Both seem good.

[Popsicles]

Alert feat. Initiative is most important.

[craig234]

I should add athlete, and Popsicles added alert.

Alert is nice, but I'm not sure it outweighs the others.

[DeMasked]

Athlete is kinda meme though the +1 str gets you to 18. Enhance Leap is a Ritual Spell so you could cast it on everyone for further jump like Longstrider.

Alert is super useful especially if you go Battle Master fight subclass because you can use your first turn before enemies to use Manoeuvres to really great effect (making a boss drop their weapon for instance). At level 8 you have 4 attacks for melee or ranged with special arrows.

If you are playing on Tactician or Honour mode Alert is a must have imo (especially for casters). If you are on another difficulty you can easily get away with the +2 stats or Great Weapon Master. Pure Fighter does get 4 feats which can give some wiggle room.

[Deviant]

Originally posted by Popsicles:

Alert feat. Initiative is most important.

that feat is garbage

[craig234]

She's already 18, so the 1 str would be 19.

I agree alert is nice, but it's just that first turn, other options benefit every turn.

And it's not even every battle; some battles you can surprise. On athlete:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/15mbety/giving_laezel_the_athlete_feat_was_one_of_the/

[DeMasked]

Alert makes you immune to Surprise.

edit: Going first in the fight is super valuable. If the enemy goes first and it's a boss they could use a really powerful spell to mess you up - if you go first perhaps you can move away from your party or perhaps cc that enemy.

edit 2: Again on Tactician and Honour Mode Alert is pretty much a must have especially for those who use magic.

[DeMasked]

Initiative in BG3 is different then D&D5e in that everyone rolls a d4 + dex modifier as opposed to a d20 + dexterity modifier. Having that extra +5 pretty much guarantees those with Alert to go first.

[Dr. Sinclair]

Originally posted by Deviant:

Originally posted by Popsicles:

Alert feat. Initiative is most important.

that feat is garbage

have fun being at the bottom of the initiative in a boss fight in honour mode

[craig234]

FYI, playing on normal difficulty. Hard to pick more STR or Great Weapon Master.

Maybe either if I get another feat at 10.

[craig234]

If the main benefit to 20 STR is a 5% increase in rolls, maybe GWM.

[Aerohank]

Alert > every other feat.

[ahsanford]

I honestly think alert is overrated, esp. for melee classes that lack a hard taunt. Disarming or goading is nice, but passing up either a +2 ASI or +1 ASI / athlete or +1 ASI / Heavy Armor Master seems a poor trade. (If you are a huge AOE or CC dealer, Alert makes a ton of sense -- lock down half the room or vaporize a few enemies before they get to act. Alert has more merit there for me.)

I think GWM is a miss if you don't have advantage absolutely on lock. If you do obtain one of the 3 (or is it 4?) items that give you all-day melee advantage, then yes, GWM is a good call if it suits Laez's build (i.e. she's not dueling or DW now). But I usually don't give it to her in favor of Karlach being my big hitter.

With Laez in all my playthroughs, I use her as a sword and board battlemaster:

Feat at 4: HAM (should take her to STR 18)

Feat at 6: ASI STR to 20

Feat at 8: You've got options -- ASI to get CON to 18, Savage Attacker, Tough, but I love Athlete with high STR players. Even if you are already at 20 STR, it's huge for leaping mobilty and getting to the melee target in the first turn without blowing a misty step or Gith jump to get it. Laez just flies all over the map at STR 20 with that feat.

Feat at 12: Same options as 8, whatever you didn't pick there.

- A

[craig234]

Feat at 6? Good points though. Thing with GWM, she has abilities to knock enemies prone, giving her advantage.

[Aerohank]

Originally posted by craig234:

Feat at 6? Good points though.

Everyone gets feats at 4, 8, and 12.
Fighters also get another one at 6.

[ahsanford]

Originally posted by craig234:

FYI, playing on normal difficulty. Hard to pick more STR or Great Weapon Master.

Maybe either if I get another feat at 10.

I really think it depends on her role in your party. I play her as a battlemaster, and she is regularly moving to goad, menace or disarm. Throwing to hit away for extra damage is a fair trade, but when I'm trying to goad/menace/disarm, she needs to hit to have a chance to trigger the intended effect.

Also, your riposte chance (if you get riposte) suffers as well.

If you have advantage melee items, go for it, but I feel that's not what I ask battlemasters to do in my party. You may have a very different party setup where GWM would make more sense.

- A