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Sentinels are defensive specialists. They provide interference, drawing enemy aggression toward themselves and using their enhanced defense to minimize damage to the party.

Primers: Battle

Sentinel is a paradigm role in Final Fantasy XIII whose main function is to shield allies from enemy attacks with enhanced defense. They can counterattack after taking on enemy attacks. The role is symbolized with the initials SEN and the color yellow.

Profile[]

Mediguard FFXIII

Fang using Mediguard as a Sentinel.

Merely being in the role boosts the character's defense against both physical and magical attacks and the bonus is distributed to a lesser degree to the other party members. The bonus depends on the role level and applies even if the attack ignores physical/magical defense. If a paradigm has more than one Sentinel, the bonus is the sum of all applicable Sentinel bonuses.

Achievement icon.

Sentinel is a primary role for Snow and Fang, and a secondary role for Lightning, Vanille, Sazh, and Hope.

The player earns the Sentinel's Seal achievement upon learning all the abilities and reaching level 5 for the Sentinel role of a single character. This can only be achieved after defeating the final boss to unlock Stage 10 of the Crystarium.

AI mechanics[]

  • The Sentinel's first move is to draw in all enemy aggression. If there are at least three enemies that can be provoked, but are not currently provoked, the Sentinel will use the Provoke ability. If there are one or two enemies that can be provoked, but are not currently provoked, the Sentinel will use the Challenge ability. If Challenge is not available, they will use Provoke instead. Enemies that have "high damage-dealing potential" are always provoked first. Sentinels will only use Provoke and Challenge once per turn.
  • Once all enemies are provoked, the Sentinel will use their guard abilities depending on their current HP. If their HP is full or close to full, Sentinels will use counter attack abilities, such as Vendetta or Entrench. If their HP is around half full, Sentinels will use Mediguard. If their HP is very low, Sentinels will use Steelguard. Sentinels will only guard once their ATB gauge is full.

Role levels[]

Below are the Crystarium Levels when each character can advance in role level.

Role Level Lightning Sazh Snow Vanille Hope Fang
1 7 7 1 7 7 1
2 9 9 5 9 9 4
3 10 10 6 10 10 6
4 10 10 8 10 10 8
5 10 10 10 10 10 10

The Sentinel's role bonus reduces damage, and the bonus extends to other party members. If the party has more than one Sentinel, the Sentinels get both their personal bonus for being a Sentinel in addition to the party Sentinel bonuses from the other Sentinel(s). The role bonus is not contributed if the party member is incapacitated, and when summoning an Eidolon, only the party leader's role bonuses count.

Level Self Party
1 0.65 0.92
2 0.63 0.92
3 0.60 0.89
4 0.56 0.86
5 0.50 0.8

Abilities[]

Auto-cover[]

Stock a set of commands focused on protecting allies.

Description

While a Sentinel is using any of its defending abilities, they won't flinch from attacks or be launched by them.

Ability ATB Crystarium Stage
Lightning Sazh Snow Vanille Hope Fang
Provoke 1 7 7 1 7 7 5
Entice enemies in range to attack you.
Target all nearby enemies in an attempt to apply the Provoke status. If successful, increases chain bonus and duration and causes enemies to focus attacks on the user.
Elude 1 7 7
Defend with a high probability of evading enemy attacks.
Increases damage reduction by 20%. While guarding, character has 50% chance to avoid an enemy attack. Not all attacks can be evaded. Will not activate Counter.
Challenge 1 7 6 7
Force a single enemy to attack you.
Target a single enemy in an attempt to apply the Provoke status with a higher success rate. If successful, increases chain bonus and duration and causes the enemy to focus attacks on the user.
Vendetta 1 7 5 8 8
Counterattack after defending, dealing more damage the more you are attacked.
Increases damage reduction by 10%. Counter attack after guarding. The more damage the Sentinel takes, the more damage they deal to the enemy in return; each received attack increases the final damage by 10% to a max bonus of 300%.
Entrench 1 7 9 7 7
Counterattack after defending, dealing more damage the longer you defend.
Increases damage reduction by 10%. Counter attack after guarding. The longer the Sentinel guards, the more damage they deal to the enemy in return; each stocked Entrench command increases the final damage by 30%.
Steelguard 1 7 1 7 6
Defend, boosting physical and magic resistance each time you are attacked.
Increases damage reduction by 20%. Defense increases each time the Sentinel is attacked while guard is in effect; each received attack increases the damage reduction by 1-3%.
Mediguard 1 6 7 5
Defend while gradually recovering HP.
Increases damage reduction by 20%. Each stocked Mediguard command recovers ~4% of max HP over time.

Passive abilities[]

Ability Crystarium Stage
Lightning Sazh Snow Vanille Hope Fang
Evade 7 5 7 5
Occasionally evade enemy attacks.
20% chance of avoiding enemy attacks. Only activates when a character is not performing an action, not stunned, and is not being attacked by more than one enemy. Not all attacks can be evaded, but multiple attacks can be evaded simultaneously.
Counter 7 8 7 7
Occasionally counterattack enemies after evading their attacks.
90% chance to counterattack after evading an enemy attack with Evade. Never activates if character evades an attack using Elude. Not all attacks can be countered even if they can be evaded.
Deathward 7 9 6 10 5
Boost physical and magic resistance when HP is low.
Whenever the Sentinel's HP is below 30% i.e. critical, the resistance to physical and magical damage increases by 25%.
Fringeward 9 7 1 5
Reduce damage to nearby allies when you are the target of an area attack.
Whenever the Sentinel is targeted by an enemy attack, any party members involved in that attack will receive 35% less damage. The Sentinel still takes full damage.
Reprieve 10 8 7 9 9
If HP is above a certain threshold, retain 1 HP when an attack would otherwise KO you.
Whenever the Sentinel's HP is above 30% i.e. critical and they receive an attack that should have reduced the Sentinel's HP to zero, they will remain alive with one HP.

Other abilities[]

If hacked, Hand Grenade and the Potion ability are fully functional and work as intended. Hand Grenade can appear within the Auto-battle command while both Hand Grenade and Potion can manually be selected from the Abilities command. The Hand Grenade is fire-elemental.

Name ATB Cost Description
Hand Grenade 2 Deal physical damage to targets in range.
Potion Battle: 1
Menu: 2
Restores a small amount of HP to all allies.

Other appearances[]

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia[]

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Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade[]

Ability Cards
Legend Cards
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper[]

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Gallery[]

Etymology[]

A sentinel is a person or thing that watches or stands as if watching.

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