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Technically they can even Stride away from the Barbarian. It is just that doing so triggers the No Escape reaction.
But no, No Escape is a reaction and Step explicitly prevents triggering reactions caused by the movement. That would include preventing No Escape.
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Yep. No escape is a reaction with a trigger like any other, and stepping says:
Stepping doesn't trigger reactions, such as Attacks of Opportunity, that can be triggered by move actions or upon leaving or entering a square.
In this case the reaction No Escape is triggered if a foe within reach "move[s] away from you". The only way No Escape could get around that would be if it specifically mentioned being able to be used when someone "steps" away from you or similar wording to override the clear wording in the step action. It doesn't have that wording, so it works exactly like any other reaction.
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Yes it is not a good feat after a while as you should just take attack of oppourtunity instead. That is normally a far better use of your reaction.
Technically it is still useful if you have lots of reach so they can't easily step away, such as if you are a Giant Instinct Barbarian, and/or have a polearm.
Maybe it has some value as a temporary filler feat to retrain later, as there are so many good feats that a Barbarian wants at mid level it can be useful for a bit.
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It's better when combined with a Silence (Level 4) spell to lock-down a caster, but otherwise, it's not a particularly good reaction outside of specific circumstances (maybe insuring a flanking bonus for the 'Gang Up' rogue who is going next).
It's really a bit of a trap because it seems really good until you realize it actually prevents you from making an opportunity attack...
In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.
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Yes it is not a good feat after a while as you should just take attack of oppourtunity instead. That is normally a far better use of your reaction.
It doesn't fully prevent an enemy from getting out of melee range. It does force them to spend two actions to do it. That is quite the trade. Considering it often only takes the Barbarian one action to Stride back to melee range again on their turn.
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In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.
Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.
In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.
This is true, but it doesn't mean that a GM should make those ability useless by making every (or even most) enemies play around them.
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This is true, but it doesn't mean that a GM should make those ability useless by making every (or even most) enemies play around them.In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.
I agree that a GM should not have most monsters avoid reactions by default. But, doing so does not make the feat useless. Forcing enemies to play around your reactions is useful even when they don’t trigger.
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In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.
Bur did the monster spend an action to make a recall knowledge check to see that that the pc's may have offensive reactions?
Goose. Gander.
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In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.Bur did the monster spend an action to make a recall knowledge check to see that that the pc's may have offensive reactions?
Goose. Gander.
Recall Knowledge would be to know which specific reactions this one unique individual is known to be capable of. Since the PCs are also Unique that's a hard check.
But guessing that anything playing at this level and does melee has some kind of reaction, that wouldn't need recall knowledge.
In most cases, the enemy shouldn't know that the Barbarian has got that feat, at least the first time it tries to move away.Although by level ~6 all martial classes can learn some kind of reaction, like AoO, Stand Still or Disrupt Prey, so it's not such a leap for a monster to be careful.Bur did the monster spend an action to make a recall knowledge check to see that that the pc's may have offensive reactions?
Goose. Gander.
Recall Knowledge would be to know which specific reactions this one unique individual is known to be capable of. Since the PCs are also Unique that's a hard check.
But guessing that anything playing at this level and does melee has some kind of reaction, that wouldn't need recall knowledge.
But how does the monster know the difference between a level 1 Barbarian without an attack reaction and a level 6 Barbarian with an attack reaction?
Are monsters born with this ability to discern the difference between abilities in humanoids approaching them? I haven't seen that ability in a stat block anywhere.
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No. A creature can reasonably think "this sword wielding humanoid might have a reaction" and be wary without taking any special action. It doesn't mean they can or should always be guessing correctly about who has reactions, or what the triggers for those reactions are. It's exactly the same as how PCs may decide to Step instead of Striding, just in case.
No. A creature can reasonably think "this sword wielding humanoid might have a reaction" and be wary without taking any special action. It doesn't mean they can or should always be guessing correctly about who has reactions, or what the triggers for those reactions are. It's exactly the same as how PCs may decide to Step instead of Striding, just in case.
And how can a creature reasonably think that if they have only encountered low level combatants without offensive reactions, which is a distinct possibility?
I didn't say (or imply at all) "every creature should think 'this sword wielding humanoid might have a reaction'". What were talking about here, in universe, is just being cautious and moving in a guarded manner, which also pays off dealing with some animals. Why would a creature that it makes sense to play as a cautious type need to have firsthand experience with class features for that?
Cause if it beat low level combatants to death for most of its life why would it ever begin to think it needs to be cautious?
Well, let's see. A creature, depending on what it is, might have:
1. Not always been as strong as it is now.
2. Encountered real threats before, humanoid or otherwise.
3. Decided something is different about our hypothetical barbarian when he was able to deflect/withstand its initial attack.
4. Developed a penchant for playing with its food and dancing around it.
5. Decided that it doesn't like thise occasional minor injuries it sustained killing lesser combatants in the past.
6. Realized that our hypothetical barbarian killed all of its lackey on the way in, and is more dangerous than the average sword wielding humanoid.
Or a million other things.
Or maybe it's:
1. An unthinking engine of destruction
2. Wildly overconfident
3. Dedicated to flexing on its food by not bothering to defend itself
Or any number of other reasons for it not to be cautious of reactions.
It seems like you have a particular image of "a creature" in mind while I'm talking about more of a general case. If a creature doesn't care about exercising caution for whatever reason, what knowledge it has about how to do that doesn't matter. If a creature is the type to exercise some caution, and hasn't gotten advance knowledge of the PCs or made its own knowledge checks, there's no reason for it not to be able to make guesses, any more than there is for those guesses to always be right.
So either or you're saying. Will be cautious. Or will not be cautious.
No case of "hmmm i think i want to be cautious so i should think of what i know about this oncoming threat to see how i want to handle it." Gotcha.