Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or higher
When you are wielding a finesse weapon with which you are proficient and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you.
Defensive Duelist: The Best Defense is Not to Offend
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Reactions are few and far between in 5e. Every character has attack of opportunities and readied actions, but a lot of characters aren’t actively setting those up round after round, which leaves their reactions wasted. Defensive Duelist is an underrated option any Dexterity based character should easily be able to slot onto their character sheets that can give you more places to use your reaction in a meaningful way. It gets outshone by other martial feats, but if you’re not in any of those lanes and want a defensive option, this can be a major asset.
Requiring a finesse weapon is a really low bar to clear; outside of two-handed weapon builds, finesse weapons are the default for most classes. Monks, rogues, fighters, rangers, druids, and even a good chunk of melee warlock and sorcerer builds will have their second highest stat Dex specifically because it's adding to both AC and hit bonuses. This defaults you to using rapiers or dual-wielding short-swords or daggers, all of which are only really outclassed by a great-sword, but at the cost of lower AC or requiring heavy armor. Every character outside of the heavy armor great-sword builds doesn’t always have great things to with their reactions. If you want something impactful, Defensive Duelist delivers so long as you’re wielding one of a dozen solid finesse weapons. It pairs well with shields, unarmored AC, and bonus action dodges to really ensure you’re getting hit as infrequently as possible.
I will say the cost is fairly substantial. Feats tend to be massive power spikes for characters, and Defensive Duelist doesn’t feel like a massive power spike. Great Weapon Master, Magic Initiate, Sharpshooter, and Lucky all dramatically change how your character is able to perform in some way or another. These all tend to assist you proactively, whereas Defensive Duelist is only ever a defensive reactive option that doesn’t even ensure your safety. It’ll feel like a passive +PB AC for the first attack each round that matters, almost like holding a free shield. That’s good, and can keep you in fights to keep getting swings in, but it's not able to really compete with options that completely shut down enemies with massive damage bursts.
Where I think Defensive Duelist gets outshone the most is with Polearm Master; Polearm Master is offering a ridiculous reaction option as a reward for using polearms, plus it comes with a free bonus action option. Killing a creature will be the most certain way you can have to ensure you aren’t getting hit. Sentinel (often paired with Polearm Master) offers a similar level of reaction, giving you a tool to punish enemies for engaging allies or getting anywhere near the team.
If you’re already maxed out on Dexterity, or want something to do with your reaction as one of the main targets' damage is being thrown at, Defensive Duelist will absolutely help keep you alive. It's not something you build towards, but something you take if it fits what you’re already doing. A lot of the time just taking an ASI with +2 Dex is going to be as good or better, especially early on, but as you get a higher PB in the mid to high end of play, getting a free one attack Shield every round can be exceptional.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.