Finlam
2017-10-17, 11:05 AM
Hello Playground,
We've all seen the spell "Vampiric Touch" and noticed that while it's conceptually cool, it's definitely not optimal. In this post we're going to optimize it a bit by porting it over to the Mystic class. This build has 3 key components
The spell:
The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon force from others to heal your wounds. Make a melee spell Attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. Until the spell ends, you can make the Attack again on each of your turns as an action.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.
The Discipline:
Immortal Discipline
You infuse yourself with psionic energy to grow to tremendous size, bolstering your strength and durability.
Psychic Focus. While focused on this discipline, your reach increases by 5 feet.
Ogre Form (2 psi; conc., 1 min.). As a bonus action, you gain 10 temporary hit points. In addition, until your concentration ends, your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, and your reach increases by 5 feet. If you’re smaller than Large, you also become Large for the duration.
Giant Form (7 psi; conc., 1 min.). As a bonus action, you gain 30 temporary hit points. In addition, until your concentration ends, your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 2d6 bludgeoning damage on a hit, and your reach increases by 10 feet. If you’re smaller than Huge, you also become Huge for the duration.
The subclass:
Arcane Dabbler
At 6th level, you learn three wizard spells of your choice and always have them prepared. The spells must be of 1st through 3rd level.
As a bonus action, you can spend psi points to create spell slots that you can use to cast these spells, as well as other spells you are capable of casting. The psi-point cost of each spell slot is detailed on the table below.
[table redacted]
The spell slot remains until you use it or finish a long rest. You must observe your psi limit when spending psi points to create a spell slot.
Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the chosen wizard spells with a different wizard spell of 1st through 3rd level.
So now our 6th level character can Vampiric Touch at a range of 10 feet while gracefully maneuvering outside of melee range of most monsters. Yet it's still only 1d6 damage per spell level, it uses our attack action, and it has a chance to miss. Can we make it better?
The extra oomph (another discipline):
Immortal Discipline
You augment your natural strength with psionic energy, granting you the ability to achieve incredible feats of might.
Psychic Focus. While focused on this discipline, you have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks.
Brute Strike (1–7 psi). As a bonus action, you gain a bonus to your next damage roll against a target you hit with a melee attack during the current turn. The bonus equals +1d6 per psi point spent, and the bonus damage is the same type as the attack. If the attack has more than one damage type, you choose which one to use for the bonus damage.
Knock Back (1–7 psi). When you hit a target with a melee attack, you can activate this ability as a reaction. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked 10 feet away from you per psi point spent. The target moves in a straight line. If it hits an object, this movement immediately ends and the target takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage per psi point spent.
Mighty Leap (1–7 psi). As part of your movement, you jump in any direction up to 20 feet per psi point spent.
Feat of Strength (2 psi). As a bonus action, you gain a +5 bonus to Strength checks until the end of your next turn.
Now our 6th level Wu Jen has 10 feet of reach and can Vampiric Touch for 8d6 necrotic damage (healing half the amount) with the option to push the target away and gain extra damage from pushing it into a wall.
The downsides are that Vampiric Touch has an innate lack of synergy with any reach build because a spell that heals the caster does not synergize well a build that avoids damage to the caster.
For an even lighter investment we could just dip Mystic 1 to get the 10 feet of reach, but that 2 point psi-limit is really going to hurt our ability to nova.
Considering that core of the build uses only two of our 5 disciplines and only 1 of our 3 spells known, it presents a powerful option for characters who need to heal and deal a decent amount of damage.
---That's the base build---
Now let's explore potential add-ons.
Can we take it farther?
We could throw in some cleric for the Death Domain
Channel Divinity: Touch of Death
Starting at 2nd level, the cleric can use Channel Divinity to destroy another creature's life force by touch.
When the cleric hits a creature with a melee attack, the cleric can use Channel Divinity to deal extra necrotic damage to the target. The damage equals 5 + twice his or her cleric level.
But since this ability scales with cleric level, we're pretty committed to going Mystic 6/Cleric X. Also, the death domain already gains vampiric touch. Paradoxically enough, our Vampiric Touch build has very little synergy with the Death Domain.
Instead we're better off adding a mere 2 levels of Sorcerer for the metamagic options:
When you Cast a Spell that has a Casting Time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the Casting Time to 1 Bonus Action for this casting.
Why quicken? Let's take one more look at the wording for vampiric touch: "Make a melee spell Attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. Until the spell ends, you can make the Attack again on each of your turns as an action."
By quickening the spell we can make two attacks with Vampiric Touch in the first round that we cast it. But that's not really optimal either: we gain more by using our bonus action with Brutal Strike instead and just pumping up the damage at a 1 PP to 1d6 ratio. Honestly, rather than quicken, we'd get more mileage out of Empower which at least allows to re-roll some of of 1's.
Sadly, none of the other metamagics will really help us to optimize this spell as it is range of self, can't be twinned, and has a long enough duration to make extending it unappealing.
Perhaps instead, 2 levels of Wizard for the Necromancer ability:
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill with your spells. Once per turn when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell's level, or three times its level if the spell belongs to the School of Necromancy. You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
At least now we're getting (8d8)/2 + 9 hit points back if we kill something with Vampiric Touch. That's OK, but we're now 8th level Mystic 6/Wiz 2. Can we get more oomph out of it?
We can as a Fiend Warlock:
Starting at 1st level, when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level (minimum of 1).
So now when we kill something with Vampiric Touch we gain (8d8)/2+9 HP and Warlock Level + CHA temp HP. Better, but a lot of investment for a niche trick, especially when almost all of our effectiveness comes from our first choice of Wu Jen 6.
Warlock levels may be worth it if we plan on going Warlock for the rest of build.
In conclusion: the Vampiric Touch spell is neat conceptually, but requires a lot of bizarre and unintended ability interactions to make it even somewhat effective. The most "bang for our buck" comes from exploiting the Mystic ability to smite with the spell's existing damage type; everything else is a lot of investment for relatively small gains. It may be worth it on a Mystic (Wu Jen) 6, but I don't think I'd look twice at it on any other class.
Can we improve it further? Post your ideas below.
Vampiric Touch (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Vampiric%20Touch#content)
Mystic v3 (https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UAMystic3.pdf)
Death Domain (http://mcdt25e.wikidot.com/subclass:death-domain)
We've all seen the spell "Vampiric Touch" and noticed that while it's conceptually cool, it's definitely not optimal. In this post we're going to optimize it a bit by porting it over to the Mystic class. This build has 3 key components
The spell:
The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon force from others to heal your wounds. Make a melee spell Attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. Until the spell ends, you can make the Attack again on each of your turns as an action.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.
The Discipline:
Immortal Discipline
You infuse yourself with psionic energy to grow to tremendous size, bolstering your strength and durability.
Psychic Focus. While focused on this discipline, your reach increases by 5 feet.
Ogre Form (2 psi; conc., 1 min.). As a bonus action, you gain 10 temporary hit points. In addition, until your concentration ends, your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, and your reach increases by 5 feet. If you’re smaller than Large, you also become Large for the duration.
Giant Form (7 psi; conc., 1 min.). As a bonus action, you gain 30 temporary hit points. In addition, until your concentration ends, your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 2d6 bludgeoning damage on a hit, and your reach increases by 10 feet. If you’re smaller than Huge, you also become Huge for the duration.
The subclass:
Arcane Dabbler
At 6th level, you learn three wizard spells of your choice and always have them prepared. The spells must be of 1st through 3rd level.
As a bonus action, you can spend psi points to create spell slots that you can use to cast these spells, as well as other spells you are capable of casting. The psi-point cost of each spell slot is detailed on the table below.
[table redacted]
The spell slot remains until you use it or finish a long rest. You must observe your psi limit when spending psi points to create a spell slot.
Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the chosen wizard spells with a different wizard spell of 1st through 3rd level.
So now our 6th level character can Vampiric Touch at a range of 10 feet while gracefully maneuvering outside of melee range of most monsters. Yet it's still only 1d6 damage per spell level, it uses our attack action, and it has a chance to miss. Can we make it better?
The extra oomph (another discipline):
Immortal Discipline
You augment your natural strength with psionic energy, granting you the ability to achieve incredible feats of might.
Psychic Focus. While focused on this discipline, you have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks.
Brute Strike (1–7 psi). As a bonus action, you gain a bonus to your next damage roll against a target you hit with a melee attack during the current turn. The bonus equals +1d6 per psi point spent, and the bonus damage is the same type as the attack. If the attack has more than one damage type, you choose which one to use for the bonus damage.
Knock Back (1–7 psi). When you hit a target with a melee attack, you can activate this ability as a reaction. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked 10 feet away from you per psi point spent. The target moves in a straight line. If it hits an object, this movement immediately ends and the target takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage per psi point spent.
Mighty Leap (1–7 psi). As part of your movement, you jump in any direction up to 20 feet per psi point spent.
Feat of Strength (2 psi). As a bonus action, you gain a +5 bonus to Strength checks until the end of your next turn.
Now our 6th level Wu Jen has 10 feet of reach and can Vampiric Touch for 8d6 necrotic damage (healing half the amount) with the option to push the target away and gain extra damage from pushing it into a wall.
The downsides are that Vampiric Touch has an innate lack of synergy with any reach build because a spell that heals the caster does not synergize well a build that avoids damage to the caster.
For an even lighter investment we could just dip Mystic 1 to get the 10 feet of reach, but that 2 point psi-limit is really going to hurt our ability to nova.
Considering that core of the build uses only two of our 5 disciplines and only 1 of our 3 spells known, it presents a powerful option for characters who need to heal and deal a decent amount of damage.
---That's the base build---
Now let's explore potential add-ons.
Can we take it farther?
We could throw in some cleric for the Death Domain
Channel Divinity: Touch of Death
Starting at 2nd level, the cleric can use Channel Divinity to destroy another creature's life force by touch.
When the cleric hits a creature with a melee attack, the cleric can use Channel Divinity to deal extra necrotic damage to the target. The damage equals 5 + twice his or her cleric level.
But since this ability scales with cleric level, we're pretty committed to going Mystic 6/Cleric X. Also, the death domain already gains vampiric touch. Paradoxically enough, our Vampiric Touch build has very little synergy with the Death Domain.
Instead we're better off adding a mere 2 levels of Sorcerer for the metamagic options:
When you Cast a Spell that has a Casting Time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the Casting Time to 1 Bonus Action for this casting.
Why quicken? Let's take one more look at the wording for vampiric touch: "Make a melee spell Attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. Until the spell ends, you can make the Attack again on each of your turns as an action."
By quickening the spell we can make two attacks with Vampiric Touch in the first round that we cast it. But that's not really optimal either: we gain more by using our bonus action with Brutal Strike instead and just pumping up the damage at a 1 PP to 1d6 ratio. Honestly, rather than quicken, we'd get more mileage out of Empower which at least allows to re-roll some of of 1's.
Sadly, none of the other metamagics will really help us to optimize this spell as it is range of self, can't be twinned, and has a long enough duration to make extending it unappealing.
Perhaps instead, 2 levels of Wizard for the Necromancer ability:
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill with your spells. Once per turn when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell's level, or three times its level if the spell belongs to the School of Necromancy. You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
At least now we're getting (8d8)/2 + 9 hit points back if we kill something with Vampiric Touch. That's OK, but we're now 8th level Mystic 6/Wiz 2. Can we get more oomph out of it?
We can as a Fiend Warlock:
Starting at 1st level, when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level (minimum of 1).
So now when we kill something with Vampiric Touch we gain (8d8)/2+9 HP and Warlock Level + CHA temp HP. Better, but a lot of investment for a niche trick, especially when almost all of our effectiveness comes from our first choice of Wu Jen 6.
Warlock levels may be worth it if we plan on going Warlock for the rest of build.
In conclusion: the Vampiric Touch spell is neat conceptually, but requires a lot of bizarre and unintended ability interactions to make it even somewhat effective. The most "bang for our buck" comes from exploiting the Mystic ability to smite with the spell's existing damage type; everything else is a lot of investment for relatively small gains. It may be worth it on a Mystic (Wu Jen) 6, but I don't think I'd look twice at it on any other class.
Can we improve it further? Post your ideas below.
Vampiric Touch (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Vampiric%20Touch#content)
Mystic v3 (https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UAMystic3.pdf)
Death Domain (http://mcdt25e.wikidot.com/subclass:death-domain)