Jaeger Class From Steinhardt’s Guide – D&D 2024 (5.5e) Optimisation Guide

Bio-engineered hunters with enhanced senses and reactions that build up attacking momentum.

At a glance

Jaeger Features

Adrenaline (Lv1) – 4/5

Initially, you gain weapon parry and dodge step as adrenaline arts you can use. They occupy the same space in your repertoire; they’re both defensive reactions. This means you can use one or the other when hit with an attack.

Dodge step has the most potential as you can completely avoid the damage of any attack and prevent that damage, even from really high damage attacks. But it requires a saving throw success. Weapon parry has a lower potential benefit. At level 1, you’re probably talking somewhere between 4-10 damage prevented but this range will increase to about 6-15 by the time you reach level 17.

The stunned condition is very useful here and has no saving throw. If you have a tough enemy rolling low on damage, you can almost guarantee stunning them for a little bit (note it ends at the start of your turn, so no boosted attacks for you from this, but allies may benefit and you essentially end their turn). As a general rule, I’d favour weapon parry for low damage and when I want to stun, and dodge step for high damage attacks.

Because dodge step requires a dexterity saving throw (and for other reasons I’ll come to later), dexterity tends to be a better ability score to invest in for a Jaeger than strength.

Flexible combatant (Lv1) – 3/5

This feature is intended to facilitate the extensive range of firearms Steinhardt’s guide adds to the weapon list. In particular, it makes dual wielding firearms more possible. I think the idea that you might have multiple firearms you’re dual wielding and then swapping for preloaded guns is the idea here.

It also facilitates easier loading while dual wielding and even some close combat use of firearms. There’s complexity behind firearms in Steinhardt’s guide, but often, they require using an attack to reload guns that have run out of bullets. For this reason, I’d favour a multi-gun approach and simply swap guns when they need reloading. This works especially well when you’re dual wielding and taking the flexible fighting fighting style which enables this kind of dual wielding.

There are feats that can aid your gunslinging further, but more on that in my build optimisation section.

Eldritch hunter (Lv1) – 1/5

Tracking and identifying certain creature types is rare and often not overly crucial to perform well on. This is more of a ribbon feature and one for flavour than anything else, but I don’t see it being used loads.

Weapon mastery (Lv1) – 4/5

Weapon mastery properties enhance your attacks a decent bit. 2 options should be mostly sufficient here. The weapons you choose will largely depend on your fighting style. Are you building for ranged or melee combat? Are you building for strength or dexterity? For more ideas on what weapon mastery options to choose, check out my weapon mastery guide.

Fighting style (Lv2) – 4/5

You’ll want to grab whichever fighting style matches your weapon loadout. Two weapon fighting for dual wielders, dueling for sword and shield, archery for a ranged build and so on. You can check out my fighting styles guide for more advice here.

However, the Jaeger also gets 2 unique fighting style options available; flexible fighting and focused fighting.

Flexible fighting looks like it occupies the same design space as things like the two weapon fighting feat and dual wielder while preventing the use of the nick weapon mastery property. However, it actually allows for something a little different. Normally you can only dual wield with light weapons. The dual wielder feat will let you make an offhand attack with a non-light weapon but flexible fighting lets you dual wield two weapons that are not light. This means you can wield a longsword and a battleaxe, for example. It also adds +1 damage to the attacks from both weapons. This isn’t as strong damage per attack as other fighting styles, but it is enabling higher damage weapons with that bonus action which brings it roughly on par with some of the better fighting styles. But that’s only the case if you’re regularly using your bonus action for attacks. You may find it used for other things at times.

I’m not convinced this is better than nick weapon mastery, two weapon fighting and the dual wielder feat (or even without the dual wielder feat). These feats mostly don’t interact with flexible fighting either. Flexible fighting is still a good option, just maybe not as good, but it also requires less investment in feats and other things.

For focused fighting, this will be good for any Jaeger and works alongside any fighting style approach. I probably wouldn’t consider this for my main fighting style (you lose too much from pure damage once you get extra attack) but I might consider it as a secondary fighting style in place of a general feat.

Jaeger’s surge (Lv2) – 3/5

Keep using adrenaline points when they’ve all been expended. Good for when you’ve got multiple encounters between short rests. The initiative boost is nice too.

Momentum (Lv2) – 4/5

The finishers you unleash can be pretty brutal and add some serious damage or conditions on enemies. It shouldn’t be too tricky to be building up momentum, especially in substantial combats where you’ll use a lot of adrenaline points. It also shouldn’t be hard to maintain momentum, but this does get a little fiddly to track.

One thing to be aware of is the class enables dual wielding which means a fairly occupied bonus action. Some of the finishers require a bonus action to activate which is a conflict. Your finishers will be better than your standard bonus action attack when dual wielding, but you may want to invest in other finishers unless you think something like volley finisher is worth the occasional unused offhand attack.

Piercing gaze (Lv3) – 3/5

This is an expanding improvement to your vision, gaining darkvision, sight through magical darkness, see invisibility and eventually, true seeing. By 7th level you can handle invisibility which is always important for a party.

Being able to see through magical darkness opens up interesting tactics you can combine with allies. Cast darkness and stand in the darkness to cause disadvantage on attack rolls against you and potential advantage on your attack rolls.

Seasoned survivor (Lv4) – 1/5

Another quite situational scouting style feature. How often you look for secret passages or seek to interpret messages from creatures I generally find to be rare so think this feature primarily goes under the flavour category. That’s fine here though as you’re getting an ability score increase anyway.

Extra attack (Lv5) – 5/5

An extra attack is a big boost to your damage output and an important one for a martial class.

Hunter’s pursuit (Lv6) – 3/5

Jaegers aren’t hugely durable with just a d8 hit die and no easy disengagement like the other less durable martials in rogues and monks.

This gives some of those hit and run benefits allowing you to easily move away from enemy reach and gaining a decent speed boost. One problem is it must be used at the beginning of your turn so you can’t slip into melee range, strike then move away (at least not safely and easily). It’s still a decent safety feature though.

Evasion (Lv9) – 4/5

Like rogues, evasion is a strong safety feature as dexterity saving throws are one of the more common saving throws and tend to be among the more damaging options. Jaegers usually range from good to very good at dexterity saving throws so you’ve got a solid chance at taking no damage.

Lethal tempo (Lv11) – 4/5

This will hugely up your momentum allowing for more frequent and bigger finishers. This should seriously increase the effectiveness of your attacks. With 2 standard attacks and the potential for more with dual wielding, you should be benefitting from this most turns.

Relentless pursuit (Lv13) – 2/5

Saving on adrenaline points is OK, but this will generally require getting out of reach of one creature to be in reach of another. I see hunter’s pursuit as more of a safety feature for getting away from enemies not simply repositioning to another enemy, though that is a valid use case. The benefits here I think are small and the circumstances often won’t be right to work it this way.

Inured to madness (Lv15) – 3/5

Some solid resilience to frightened, charmed and madness (basically up to 3 rolls to make the save). These saving throws often rely on wisdom which Jaeger’s don’t tend to be strong with. This helps close the gap a bit, but without a bit of investment in wisdom, you may still struggle at these later levels when many saving throws will have a high DC.

Eternal watch (Lv18) – 3/5

Piercing gaze is now permanent so you don’t have to worry about multiple encounters per day with invisible creatures.

Always ready (Lv20) – 4/5

An extra reaction per round for weapon parry or dodge step that doesn’t expend adrenaline points is quite good for your defense. You could parry or dodge 2 attacks per round this way or mix in opportunity attacks too. With this, it makes sense to be using one of these adrenaline arts each round you can.

The absolute chapter gets more from this feature as they can get an attack with their weapon parry making it even more effective.

How good is the jaeger?

The Jaeger fits somewhere in between a rogue and a ranger in terms of design. It’s very much a scout/hunter style class. It tends to lean towards a dexterity build while relying more on evasiveness than brute endurance to survive. It also relies on finishers especially, but also adrenaline arts to a degree to enhance damage dealing. This is different to more consistent sources of extra damage like rages, hunter’s mark and a fighters additional attacks. Instead it feels more like a halfway approach to a rogue’s sneak attack and cunning strike or perhaps like spell-less smites.

Subclasses go some way to helping here, often making the Jaeger more evasive or more durable. They remain inferior at both to a rogue or ranger, but with subclasses, the combined impact feels like it balances this out.

If you’re after a martial with a little more complexity and options to transform play style a fair bit through a subclass, then this is a decent class. It’s neither too powerful or too underpowered making for some nicely balanced design, but don’t expect a top tier power class here.

3/5

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Optimising a jaeger build

If you think of a Jaeger like a ranger then you’re probably on the right track when it comes to optimisation. There are definite differences though and for more specific advice, you can check out my guidance below:

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Strength: I think the Jaeger tends to work best investing in dexterity over strength, but strength builds are possible, especially if you’re playing the marauder chapter. I wouldn’t invest much here if going for a dexterity build.
• Dexterity: Potentially your most important ability score. Get this as high as you can to boost attacks and AC if going for a dexterity build or get it to 14 for a strength build to boost your AC in medium armor. This will also be used for the DC for things like your finishers.
• Constitution: Jaeger’s rely more on evasion than resilience, but in reality, you’ll need both. Constitution will help beef up your HP and your constitution saves.

Options to avoid

• Intelligence: Most Jaeger’s can dump this other than the heretic chapter who will need it high for spellcasting.
• Wisdom: You should have space to invest in a mental stat at least a bit. Of those, I’d choose wisdom (again, unless you’re part of the heretic chapter, then go with intelligence). It’s not a high priority, but it will help your scouting for perception and aid a lot of saving throws. Not one to invest in heavily, but one to throw a few spare points into.
• Charisma: Should be dumped. Jagers aren’t built for conversation.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	10/15/8	12/15/12
Dexterity	15/14/15	15/14/15
Constitution	15/15/15	14/13/13
Intelligence	8/8/15	10/10/14
Wisdom	14/10/8	13/12/10
Charisma	8/8/8	8/8/8

Skills

Recommended options

• Acrobatics/Athletics: Good options for tackling physical obstacles. Take acrobatics If you’re a dexterity build or athletics for a strength build.
• Perception: While your wisdom may be low, perception is good for anyone, especially someone that might be doing hunting.
• Sleight of hand: Good for a scout class, but perhaps less crucial for you than stealth.
• Stealth: Important for a scout class. Many sessions require stealth segments so this is a strong option.

It is worth noting that heretics should have a decent intelligence making them a good option for knowledge skills, especially if you already have a party scout. This makes things like arcana, history, religion and investigation decent options.

Species

For this section, I’m going to assume that you’ll be primarily using species options from Steinhardt’s Guide. Where a currently released species for D&D 2024 fits particularly well, I mention them too.

Below are some general things you’ll want to gain from your species for a jaeger.

• Toughen up: Jaeger’s are martials that are lacking a little in the resilience department so some resilience features like resistances, extra HP and improved AC will go a long way.
• Damage dealing: You’re also there to deal damage. Any species that can enhance this will be useful.
• Be aware of traits that require reactions: Jagers tend to have quite a busy reaction so traits that require this may not be overly useful.
• Innate spellcasting may be less useful unless playing a heretic: You probably won’t have the spellcasting ability to do this well unless you’re playing a heretic who will also be able to repeat cast spells.

Recommended Steinhardt species

• Dwarf: Damage resistance gives you resistance to the most common damage type and toughness gives you more hit points for more resilience. You also get poison and prone resilience too making this one for really gnarly Jagers.
• Human: An extra skill will help you become an adept scout. An extra origin feat can be useful for all sorts of things, but tough is definitely a good option for the extra resilience. More heroic inspiration is always useful.
• Orc: Orcs are tough. They get extra temporary hit points, can survive the odd drop to 0HP and can dash sometimes as a bonus action. All good for a Jaeger.
• Scourgeborne: Even better dexterity saving throws (which will help evasion even more) if you’re evil. Aranea and Cervus lineages will help your movement and scouting too. Belua will allow for easy bonus action attacks that can grant healing too.

Other recommended species

• Autognome: Slightly better AC than studded leather is good on a dexterity build plus some poison resilience is great for durability. Built for success means more accuracy or protection from saving throws, both are great for a Jaeger.
• Bugbear: The extra reach is great for building in hit and run tactics and the damage boost on early combat attacks works well for a usually high initiative class.
• Goliath: Best on a strength build as they can grapple larger enemies, the most important thing here is you get some damage/condition boosts or teleportation for some safety. It may be tempting to go with the stone giant heritage, but it will compete with other reaction evasion options you already have anyway through adrenaline arts.
• Warforged: Improved AC and other resilience features make this good for toughening up your Jaeger.

Backgrounds

You’ll want to choose a background with useful ability score increases with dexterity and constitution usually being priorities. Some builds may want to prioritise strength and intelligence too. You’ll also want to focus on origin feats that work well for a Jaeger (see my recommendations later for these) and scouting or perhaps knowledge skills (if you’re a heretic).

I’ve opted to just consider backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook and Steinhardt’s Guide as these are the more compatible sources.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Beast hunter	Strength, dexterity, wisdom	Grizzled	Athletics, survival	Herbalism kit
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forger’s kit
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One type of musical instrument
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	Stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Marked for death	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Grizzled	Arcana, survival	None
Scion	Strength, dexterity, intelligence	Curious	Arcana, investigation	Tinker’s tools and one other type of artisan’s tools
Scribe	Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom	Skilled	Investigation, perception	Calligrapher’s supplies
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	Cartographer’s tools

Choosing your subclass

Like all classes, Jaegers gain a subclass (known as a chapter) at level 3. You have 5 options here which I’ve detailed below:

Feats

Origin feats

Below I’ve evaluated your origin feat options for a Jaeger, including both those found in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, and those found in Steinhardt’s Guide as both are available to Jaeger’s:

Recommended options

• Alert: Earlier turns in combat is always useful. Jaegers tend to be especially good here and with that, can share their high initiative order with others if they need it more.
• Curious: For a potential scout, Jaeger’s aren’t as blessed in the skill department as the likes of rogues or even rangers. That changeable skill proficiency will help fill those gaps nicely. Knowing the resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities of a creature each combat is also useful.
• Grizzled: You may become bloodied a fair bit so that heroic inspiration when you do can be really useful. A boost to frightened saving throws is decent too.
• Lucky: Imposing advantage or disadvantage on a d20 test 3 times a day is always going to be good.
• Musician: Always a strong origin feat for sharing out more heroic inspiration round the party.
• Skilled: Use this to enable yourself to be a better scout or, if you’re a heretic, better with knowledge skills.
• Tough: More hit points is especially useful for a martial who lacks in these a bit.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. I’ve included both those found in the 2024 Player’s Handbook and Steinhardt’s Guide:

• Brutalizer – Want a two handed weapon and a bonus attack with another weapon. This enables that and works even better if you have the two weapon fighting style feat.
• Crusher – A great way to get push working on your attacks without having a weapon with the push mastery. This can enable hit and run tactics. Enhanced critical is sometimes nice but not something to rely on.
• Dual wielder – If you plan on taking two weapons and want 2 offhand attacks through nick and this, then this is a good route to go. It doesn’t combine with flexible fighting though, but you can take two weapon fighting instead if you’re happy using at least one light weapon.
• Fey-touched – Misty step works well for moving where you need to be. I quite like the idea of grabbing hex or hunter’s mark for a jaeger for even more damage. This is especially useful for a heretic that can repeat cast spells. For more ways to optimise for this feat, check out my fey-touched guide.
• Focused hunter – Another adrenaline point and adrenaline art is useful if you plan on using a lot of these.
• Great weapon master – Decent extra damage if you’re wielding a heavy weapon. This is best for the marauder who will be using two handed weapons anyway and likely a strength build as a result. No good on a dexterity build though.
• Heavily armored – Proficiency with heavy armor will let you completely ignore dexterity if you want to go with a strength build and some heftier weaponry.
• Marksman – Dual wield certain firearms without worrying about reloading (or only using a bonus action, depending on the weapon).
• Medium armor master – Could help a dexterity build achieve better AC than they could in studded leather, but stealth will be compromised with this setup.
• Shield master – A free push or prone per turn and better defence against AoE spells.
• Speedy – Decent option for hit and run techniques by giving you extra speed and being harder to hit from opportunity attacks.

Epic boon feats

• Boon of combat prowess: Great for a guaranteed hit each turn.
• Boon of dimensional travel: Get wherever you need to be in combat really easily without expending actions economy.
• Boon of fate: More reliable (or unreliable) d20 tests is great for anyone.
• Boon of fortitude: A big stack of extra hit points is great for increasing your durability
• Boon of recovery: Allows you to heal yourself with a bonus action and recover half your hit points if you’re reduced to 0. Great for a less resilient martial class.

Weapons

Jaegers can wield a variety of weapons well. Most work best as dexterity builds though, which does limit their options a bit to finesse and ranged weapons.

With little competition for their bonus action, dual wielding can be a good option for a Jaeger, especially with the right feats (two weapon fighting, flexible fighting, dual wielder etc). They also have their own benefits with dual wieldin, including easier reloading.

You might instead want to sacrifice damage output for defence by taking a shield. You don’t need a hand free for reloading so this can work for one handed ranged weapons as well as melee weapons.

If you’re playing a marauder or a strength build, you may want to go for a two handed weapon instead.

Armor

If you’re a strength build, get your dexterity up to 14 and grab some half plate for maximum AC. If you want to do some stealthing, grab a breastplate instead.

For a dexterity build, you can go for studded leather and get your dexterity as high as possible. A shield is a solid option if you want to go for more defence over damage.

More from Steinhardt’s Guide