Defensive Duelist

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.

Benefits

• Reaction Defense: Use your reaction to add proficiency bonus to AC against one melee attack
• Scaling Defense: The bonus increases as you level up (from +2 at low levels to +6 at high levels)
• Works with any finesse weapon: Rapiers, shortswords, daggers, scimitars, and more

Analysis

Defensive Duelist provides a scaling defensive option that becomes more powerful at higher levels. The ability to turn a hit into a miss can be campaign-saving, especially against high-damage attacks. However, it competes with other reaction uses like opportunity attacks or spells.

Best For

• Rogues: Natural finesse weapon users who value survivability
• Dex Fighters: Especially Duelists or finesse-based builds
• Bards: Sword Bards benefit significantly
• Rangers: Dex-based melee rangers