I've Found Some Stuff...

[Pichu]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."

-Paladin, Elder Champion (pg. 87): This says you cannot die, basically. It doesn't say this doesn't work when you are at 0 HP, so you just keep regenerating. For 1 minute, you are invincible.

-Warlock, Eldritch Invocations, Fiendish Vigor (pg. 111): "You can cast false life as a 1-st level spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components". Seems harmless. However False Life (pg. 239) gives you 1d4+4 temporary HP for 1 hour. Yeah Warlocks! Keep spamming this!

Please tell me if any of these are invalid, or if you found any of your own. Thanks!

[EvilAnagram]

The lanuage of, "two other ability scores," necessarily excludes raising the same score twice. It simply does so with slightly different language than Variant Human.

[GanonBoar]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."
This is false. It says 'Increase two other ability scores' (emphasis mine). This means that you must increase two scores by 1. You don't get 2 points to put into whatever stat.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[Gastronomie]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:Well, actually three. Just saying.

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."Yeah, but this isn't like Yugioh where some simple words actually change effects (in fact that idea in Yugioh is just absurd and makes no sense anyways). Since it specifically says "two ability scores", any DM would rule it's "two different scores".
That being said, DMs like me allow the players to tweak around all the racial pluses (like a Dragonborn with CON +1 and CHA +2 instead of STR +2 and CHA +1, and a Half-Elf with INT+2 and two other stuff, and other sorts of tweaks like that - makes the classes and races less connected, promoting creating unique characters).

-Paladin, Elder Champion (pg. 87): This says you cannot die, basically. It doesn't say this doesn't work when you are at 0 HP, so you just keep regenerating. For 1 minute, you are invincible.Yeah, but it's a capstone ability, you'd expect it to be that good. Archdruid is probably better anyways in how it pretty much makes you invincible for most of your life, instead of "one minute per day". What? Foe Slayer? Dunno what you're talking about.

-Warlock, Eldritch Invocations, Fiendish Vigor (pg. 111): "You can cast false life as a 1-st level spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components". Seems harmless. However False Life (pg. 239) gives you 1d4+4 temporary HP for 1 hour. Yeah Warlocks! Keep spamming this!Yeah, but you can only have only one form of Temporaly HP at a time. A second casting of False Life will force you to either trash your last temporary HP or just say "nah, don't wanna do that".
That being said, you can keep on repeating it till you roll a 4 with the 1d4, so it's essentially "you always have 5 temporary HP when a fight starts". Not a bad option at low levels.

[GanonBoar]

That being said, you can keep on repeating it till you roll a 4 with the 1d4, so it's essentially "you always have 5 temporary HP when a fight starts". Not a bad option at low levels.
I'm just nitpicking, but really it's 8 THP, not 5.

[Belac93]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."
It specifies 2 other ability scores. Otherwise, I think it would have said something like an ability score increase.


-Paladin, Elder Champion (pg. 87): This says you cannot die, basically. It doesn't say this doesn't work when you are at 0 HP, so you just keep regenerating. For 1 minute, you are invincible.
Yep, except for the rule of coup de grace. It pretty much makes you really hard to kill, not invincible.


-Warlock, Eldritch Invocations, Fiendish Vigor (pg. 111): "You can cast false life as a 1-st level spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components". Seems harmless. However False Life (pg. 239) gives you 1d4+4 temporary HP for 1 hour. Yeah Warlocks! Keep spamming this!

This is valid. However, by what you said, I'm not sure you read the section of the PHB where it says temporary hit points do not stack. So the maximum you can get from this is 8. But you can keep using it if you take damage.

EDIT: Much ninja'd.

[Gastronomie]

I'm just nitpicking, but really it's 8 THP, not 5.im soo smurt

Yeah, true. It's nice for low levels if you're not of the Fiend Patron.

[JeffreyGator]

That being said, you can keep on repeating it till you roll a 4 with the 1d4, so it's essentially "you always have 5 temporary HP when a fight starts". Not a bad option at low levels.

always expecting character death, I have a backup character for my current game that would start as you said always with eight temporary hitpoints and is fiend pact and so expects to get a refresh whenever he kills someone.

These together with medium armor from being a mountain dwarf help to make a bladelock tankier than he would be otherwise.

[Demonslayer666]

always expecting character death, I have a backup character for my current game that would start as you said always with eight temporary hitpoints and is fiend pact and so expects to get a refresh whenever he kills someone.

These together with medium armor from being a mountain dwarf help to make a bladelock tankier than he would be otherwise.

A mountain dwarf bladelock?

Wow. Just...wow.

[RulesJD]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."

*snip*

Besides not working how you think it does (as others have stated above), there is a way to start with +2 Wisdom. How you say?

V Human (+1 Wis) with the Resilient (Wisdom) feat (+1 Wis) at level 1. This is actually part of my builds for my Monk and Cleric/Sorc.

[JoeJ]

-Paladin, Elder Champion (pg. 87): This says you cannot die, basically. It doesn't say this doesn't work when you are at 0 HP, so you just keep regenerating. For 1 minute, you are invincible.

The regeneration works if you have 0 hp. It requires an action to activate the ability in the first place, however, so you have to start the 1 minute duration before you drop to 0 hp.

[EvilestWeevil]

You end up not so invincible given that things can hit you while you are down giving you a death save fail, and dragons get plenty of attacks to death save you out of a fight.

[Vogonjeltz]

Besides not working how you think it does (as others have stated above), there is a way to start with +2 Wisdom. How you say?

V Human (+1 Wis) with the Resilient (Wisdom) feat (+1 Wis) at level 1. This is actually part of my builds for my Monk and Cleric/Sorc.

Er...why would you waste the feat like that?
Clerics start with proficiency in wisdom and monks get it eventually.
Pick up a useful feat instead, like Observant.

[RickAllison]

Er...why would you waste the feat like that?
Clerics start with proficiency in wisdom and monks get it eventually.
Pick up a useful feat instead, like Observant.

I love Observant. Get advantage on Perception checks and laugh maniacally as your ability to see things eclipses that of the lesser goddess Tiamat!

[Coffee_Dragon]

I love Observant. Get advantage on Perception checks and laugh maniacally as your ability to see things eclipses that of the lesser goddess Tiamat!

But only as long as you're not looking...

[Theodoxus]

Er...why would you waste the feat like that?
Clerics start with proficiency in wisdom and monks get it eventually.
Pick up a useful feat instead, like Observant.

For the monk, yeah - though I think for the cleric/sorc, you start Sorc for the Con prof and grab Res: Wis for the boost to both Wis and Saves... it's not a bad idea, really. If I wasn't absolutely in love with helves for just about any class, I'd use it.

[JeffreyGator]

A mountain dwarf bladelock?

Wow. Just...wow.

Dwarves are just as tempted by fiendish pacts as any other race. Our table rolls for stats and so this makes more sense from that perspective perhaps.

Fire loving dwarf who sold his soul. STR 18 dex 12 con 11 int 8 wis 9 cha 17.

[RulesJD]

Er...why would you waste the feat like that?
Clerics start with proficiency in wisdom and monks get it eventually.
Pick up a useful feat instead, like Observant.

As someone said above me, for Sorc/Clerics you always start Sorc to get Con save prof, although in reality you could just take Resiliency (Con) for roughly the same effect.

As for Monks, how often have you played a level 14 Monk? Me neither. Having a low Wis save on a Monk is a death sentence at level 5+ and a DM that knows they don't get proficiency in it. Not to mention that my Monk builds all top out at Monk 11 anyways, so I'll never see that 14.

[EvilAnagram]

As someone said above me, for Sorc/Clerics you always start Sorc to get Con save prof, although in reality you could just take Resiliency (Con) for roughly the same effect.

As for Monks, how often have you played a level 14 Monk? Me neither. Having a low Wis save on a Monk is a death sentence at level 5+ and a DM that knows they don't get proficiency in it. Not to mention that my Monk builds all top out at Monk 11 anyways, so I'll never see that 14.

How is it a death sentence? Occasionally falling victim to a charm doesn't strike me as basically death.

[Demonslayer666]

Dwarves are just as tempted by fiendish pacts as any other race. Our table rolls for stats and so this makes more sense from that perspective perhaps.

Fire loving dwarf who sold his soul. STR 18 dex 12 con 11 int 8 wis 9 cha 17.

I come from a land (time?) where dwarves could not be wizards, so it strikes me as odd. :)

[PoeticDwarf]

So my friend and I were reading the PHB and found two little things that we thought were interesting:

-Half Elf, Traits (pg. 39): It says you can "increase two other ability scores of your choice by 1". That means you could get +2 Wisdom, the only race in the game that can. 'It means two different ones, Madauhcip', I hear you saying. Well actually, under Variant Human (pg. 31), it says specifically, "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1."

-Paladin, Elder Champion (pg. 87): This says you cannot die, basically. It doesn't say this doesn't work when you are at 0 HP, so you just keep regenerating. For 1 minute, you are invincible.

-Warlock, Eldritch Invocations, Fiendish Vigor (pg. 111): "You can cast false life as a 1-st level spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components". Seems harmless. However False Life (pg. 239) gives you 1d4+4 temporary HP for 1 hour. Yeah Warlocks! Keep spamming this!

Please tell me if any of these are invalid, or if you found any of your own. Thanks!

Half'elf. Depends on RAI and not a big de
Paladin: way worse than regeneration. A small deal. Really small. And RAI
Warlock: so? 1d4+4 as an action. You will not waste in combat action so you have a few temp HP when a fight starts... so so?

[RulesJD]

I'll add this nugget:

1. Initiative rolls are a Dexterity check. What does this mean? Anything that impacts an ability check can also impact Initiative.

So:
Guidance cantrip cast before a fight = mini-version of the Alert feat

Hex (Dexterity) on a target before combat starts = Disadvantage on Initiative roll

Champion Fighter Remarkable Athlete ability = +1/2 proficiency mod (rounded up) to Initiative rolls

Bard Jack of All Trades feature same as Champion except rounded down

Wild Magic Sorcerer can Tides of Chaos their Initiative roll (added effect of triggering more Wild Magic Surges)

Bardic Inspiration/Cutting Words/(maybe Peerless Skill)

Enhance Ability (Cat's Grace) grants advantage on Initiative rolls (combine with Glyph of Warding to avoid concentration requirement)