Brace (Melee)

See also: Brace (Ranged)

Brace (Melee) is a weapon action available to characters proficient in and wielding a glaive, or pike in their main hand.

Description

Spend ⁠6 m / 20 ft of your movement. For the rest of your turn, roll melee damage twice and use the highest result.

Properties

Cost

 6 m / 20 ft Movement Speed

Details

Duration: 1 turn

 Recharge: Short rest

Condition: Braced

 Braced

Duration: 1 turn

• On Damage Rolls, roll twice and use the higher result.

How to learn

Granted by wielding the following weapon types with proficiency:

•  Glaives
•  Pikes

Notes

• The average bonus damage dealt per die is equivalent to taking the  Savage Attacker feat.

Bugs

• When used with  Savage Attacker, it rolls each dice 3 times and uses the highest result.
  • The tooltip shows 4 rolls but this appears to be a bug as of patch 6.
• When used with  Savage Attacker and  Great Weapon Fighting, Brace will do a first roll and reroll if it is a 1 or 2, and then roll 2 more times and use the highest result. When used in this way, the effects of Savage Attacker and Great Weapon Fighting still function together, but with diminishing returns (see tables below).
  • The tooltip shows 4 to 6 rolls, but this appears to be a bug as of patch 6.

Math

Average bonus damage of Brace

Average bonus damage per die rolled

Damage die	Average bonus damage	Average damage roll
1d4	0.63	3.13
1d6	0.97	4.47
1d8	1.31	5.81
1d10	1.65	7.15
1d12	1.99	8.49
2d6	1.94	8.94

Average bonus damage of Brace and Savage Attacker

Average bonus damage per die rolled

Damage die	Average bonus damage	Average damage roll	Avg bonus damage added by Savage Attacker (or Brace)
1d4	0.94	3.44	0.32
1d6	1.46	4.96	0.49
1d8	1.97	6.47	0.66
1d10	2.47	7.97	0.82
1d12	2.98	9.48	0.99
2d6	2.92	9.92	0.98

Average bonus damage of Brace and Savage Attacker and Great Weapon Fighting

Average bonus damage per die rolled

Damage die	Average bonus damage	Average damage roll	Avg bonus damage added by Great Weapon Fighting	Avg bonus damage added by Savage Attacker
1d4	1.08	3.58	0.14	0.21
1d6	1.62	5.12	0.16	0.35
1d8	2.13	6.63	0.16	0.51
1d10	2.64	8.14	0.17	0.67
1d12	3.14	9.64	0.16	0.83
2d6	3.24	10.24	0.32	0.70

External Links

• Savage Attacker and Great Weapon Fighting calculations by Kalaeman