Prose's Guide to Xanathar's Guide to Everything

[ProseBeforeHos]

Prose's Guide to Xanatar's guide to Everything
Subclasses, Feats and Spells

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Image Copyright WotC

With the release of Xanathar's Guide to Everything we have the finalized form of many of the sub-classes that were previously available via Unearthed Arcana. This "guide to the guide" is my take on the subclasses, feats and spells in Xanathar's from the perspective of someone who is interested in character optimization. Although I have played the UA versions of many of these subclasses, I will admit up front that I have not had first hand experience with every option presented in this guide, and this is only my subjective opinion as a player with 10+ years of roleplaying experience. Additional input and comments are always welcome!

Color Scheme

A strong option, good for most character builds.
Solid! But not quite as good as sky blue.
Mediocre, but not terrible.
A bad option, best avoided.
Special: Purple denotes a choice that can be occasionally useful, but is limited in scope or applicability.


Table of Contents:
1-12. Xanathar's subclass options
13. Racial Feats
14. New Spells

Edit: The long overdue guide update is finally here. I've added the sub-classes I missed from the original guide (i.e. stuff that is merely reprinted from the SCAG), as well as updated my rating for a lot of stuff that I have changed my mind on after seeing it in play.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Barbarian Primal Paths

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Barbarians in Xanathar's get a wide spread of options, overall good, but with some paths being notably stronger than others.


Ancestral Guardian
The "tankbarian" option. Good at protecting allies and forcing others to attack you which, with your resistances and HP pool, is just gravy.

Ancestral Protectors: 'Mark' a target while raging and apply disadvantage as well as resistance to its attacks to your allies? A very nice defensive tool. The only reason why this is not rated higher is that a) it requires that you hit the target with your attacks and b) the resistance only applied to attacks, not spell damage or other effects.

Spirit Shield: -2d6 damage as a reaction? Pretty damn nice, especially since barbarians are not usually very efficient in their action economy, and this gives you a good use for your reaction that you should be able to make use of almost every turn. The only downside is that doesn't scale particularly well, 2d6 at lvl 6 is a lot more impressive than 4d6 at level 14.

Consult the Spirits: Super flavorful, but limited in usefulness. Clairvoyance can be situationally very good for scouting, but augury seems like it's mostly there for the roleplaying opportunities. Nothing bad, but not the reason to pick this path.

Vengeful Ancestors: Haha! Take 4d6 back in your face! Well... 4d6 isn't that much at this level. Still, passive bonuses are always strong.


Storm Herald
A barbarian that specializes in AOE control and damage. You'll get much more use out of this barb in a game with a defined battlemap so you can position yourself to hit as many creatures as possible with your aura.

Storm Aura:

Desert: Fire damage is widely resisted, the damage amount is low and it hits your allies? Not very impressive.
Sea:The best damage dealing option, it's not any weaker against single targets and lightning is rarely resisted.
Tundra: Keep in mind temp HP doesn't stack which doesn't make this as good as it might initially appear. In a melee heavy party this might get stronger.


Storm Soul:

Desert: Fire damage is widely resisted, but also a very common damage type on monsters. For the same reason that the damage aura is bad, the resistance here is good.
Sea: Lightning damage is rare. But a swimming speed and underwater breathing is probably the most useful of the environmental advantages.
Tundra: Cold damage doesn't come up as much as fire. The ice-cube making effects are fluffy, but you'll struggle to find a more practical use for it.


Shielding Storm:
Desert is the real winner here, as it makes the level 3 aura much better, as your allies are only taking half the damage you're dealing now. There's a lot of nasty aoe fire spells that this also helps guard against. The other damage types aren't common enough to be as useful, though it may occasionally save your skin.

Raging Storm:

Desert: Better than the damaging aura, but not by much, and with the same restrictive damage type.
Sea: A strong ability, potentially setting up both you and your allies with advantage.
Tundra: Seems good at first glance, but the limited range of your aura (and the general flexibility of higher level monsters) make this less useful.


Since you're "locked into" your abilities depending on which aura you pick at level up, each one might as well be considered a separate path in terms of power. As such, it's easier to rate each one individually than the entire path - Desert and Tundra are both underwhelming, whereas Sea is the best option here.

Edit: This does fluctuate between levels though. You might want to start off a sea barbarian between levels 1-9, and then switch out to Desert at level 10. Then maybe back to Sea at level 14.


Zealot
By Crom this is a strong path! Mixing a good selection of damaging, defensive and utility options to make a very barbarian so good it'll make you want to find religion.

Divine Fury: Starting strong right off the bat, the damage bonus you get at lvl 3 already puts the Storm Herald to shame and radiant is a fantastic damage type, rarely resisted and super good vs the undead. If you want to be edgy and go necrotic instead it's not quite as strong but 1d6+1/2 levels will always be relevant.

Warrior of the Gods: No mere fluff ability this. Removing the need for material components for resurrection effects will save your party a lot of gold and will means that resurrection is always an option even when you havn't had a chance to purchase supplies. Seeing as you can get revivify as early as level 5 (cleric) or 6 (lore bard) you can leap into the fray without any fear of death right from the lower levels.

Fanatical Focus: As a barbarian, charms and holds are more likely to take you out of a fight than raw damage. A reroll on a failed save is boring but fantastic.

Zealous Presence: A powerful combat opener giving your entire party both a offense and defense boost. Once per long rest is the major drawback, but save this for the big climatic encounter and you can't go wrong.

Rage Beyond Death: Between this and relentless rage how do you ever kill this guy? They actually buffed this ability compared to the UA, if you're healed before your rage ends you can cheat death once again. Makes Warrior of the Gods almost redundant. Who cares though? This ability is awesome!

[ProseBeforeHos]

Bard Colleges

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Bards feel like they got a lot of specialization options in Xanathar's, with College of Swords being perhaps my favorite of the new subclasses.


College of Glamour
Lore bards finally get some competition for the default "caster bard" option. Sadly, I don't think Glamour quite measures up, but it has its highlights!

Mantle of Inspiration: At lower levels this ability is nuts, essentially a better Aid spell that doesn't need a spell slot, can be cast as a bonus action, and allows your allies to reposition at will. Sadly, even with the fairly decent scaling, the temp HP will get a lot less valuable as you level up. Multiple free disengages on the other hand never go out of style, so this ability remains blue.

Enthralling Performance: In the right situation this ability could potentially be very powerful (playing before the king perhaps?). In most games however it's going to be difficult to convince a Hobgoblin Warlord to sit still while you sing it the song of your people for 60 seconds.

Mantle of Majesty: Whhaa? A Black rating? Free Command spells as a bonus action for one minute a day doesn't impress you? Sadly, no. This ability has a number of serious drawbacks. First it's only once per long rest, secondly it won't help you at all against enemies that are undead or can't speak your language (a depressingly large selection) but most importantly it requires concentration, very limiting for bards who have a powerful selection of concentration spells they'd rather be using. It's not terrible, since more resources are always good, but most of the time this will be reserved for those situations where you've exhausted all of your spell slots and have nothing else to concentrate on.

Unbreakable Majesty: Take note Mantle of Majesty, this is how it's done. No concentration? Check. Comes back with a short rest? Check. Fantastically useful defensive ability that works against enemies that are immune to charm? Check and check. Even coming in at level 14 this deserves a sky blue rating.


College of Swords
I love the changes to this subclass compared to the UA. Melee bards will never be as powerful as their caster focused cousins, but this subclass has all the tools required to play a super fun swashbuckling type of bard without gimping yourself.

Bonus Proficiencies: They lose shields compared to the UA, still scimitars and medium armor are pretty good additions. More importantly this allows you to use a weapon as a spellcasting focus, meaning duel wielding bards are a-go (you only need a single hand free to cast: sheath before casting, draw before attacking and you'll be fine).

Fighting Styles:

Dueling: Without shield proficiency this is less powerful. If you're picking shields up from somewhere else (Hexblade?) this is as good as it usually is.
Two-weapon fighting: Normally the weakest option for fighting styles, the removal of bonus actions from flourish, and the loss of shield proficiency really pushes the CoS bard down this path.


Blade Flourish:

Defensive Flourish: As a melee bard both your AC and HP will be relatively low. As well as reinforcing your defenses with spells, this ability will make it easier for you to hang in melee. By level 5 you're getting an avg. 4.5 AC from this ability, almost as good a shield spell!
Slashing Flourish: Situationally useful since it has no limit on the number of creatures you can hit. If you can hit 3 or more it may be worth it, for less than that I would prefer the other options.
Mobile Flourish: Again, situational. Knock a guy off a bridge. Or use it to create space for you to escape a fight without disengaging (very good with the +10 ft. movement you get). The least useful part of this is the reaction to follow up.


Extra Attack: Another important change from the UA version of this subclass. Now you can make two attacks every turn without needing to use a flourish. Absolutely essential, and a very welcome change.

Master's Flourish: Not as powerful as you might think, since by level 14 you should have 5 or more inspirations to use, and they come back on a short rest. Still, knowing that you never have to not flourish like a pleb is a decent addition.


College of Whispers
Just a hot mess of a subclass. Like they tried to put "assassin bard" and "spy bard" in the same package, and ended up with a class that isn't particularly good at either.

Psychic Blades: At the level you get this ability it's quite powerful. Essentially a sneak attack that uses inspiration. Problem is threefold: the damage doesn't scale well past lvl 5, as a full caster without extra attack you have better things to do with your action than use a weapon attack, and finally it eats up your inspirations, which are already excellent, and at medium to high levels will be more useful than a few paltry d6's of damage.

Words of Terror: I suppose the idea behind this ability is that you steal someones appearance with Mantle of Whispers, use their knowledge to get someone alone to use Words of Terror on them, and the you can have the big boss feared in preparation for the final encounter due to you telling him what a bad-ass the party fighter is. Thing is even if all the planets align, and you get the opportunity to pull off this perfect plan, it can still be a) saved against b) the fear is broken the second the enemy takes damage c) only ever relevant against humanoids. Just... awful.

Mantle of Whispers: Finally we get something that is straight up good. It's still situational, but the ability to disguise self and gain information from the humanoid you just killed will be useful even in games that aren't heavily based around intrigue and subterfuge. It refreshes on a short rest, which is also nice.

Shadow Lore: Ironically as a tool for subterfuge or extracting information this ability will be fairly redundant for a level 14 bard who has plenty of tools to do exactly that. More useful is the concentration-less charm ability. It can't make an enemy switch sides, but just taking them out of the fight is enough to make this ability powerful. Only once per long rest though, and if you're fighting enemies that can't understand you then you're **** outta luck.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Cleric Domains

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Clerics get two of the best subclass options in Xanathar's, both with fantastic flavor.


Forge Domain
Considering how perfect Hill Dwarf stats line up for cleric, I'm surprised something like this wasn't in PHB. Oh well! It's here now, and it's great.

Domain Spells:
Identify is nice to have in every party, searing smite is pretty worthless, heat metal is a great spell, magic weapon not so much, elemental weapon isn't worth your concentration, but protection from energy sometimes might be, fabricate is too situational, wall of fire in contrast is fantastic cc, animate object is one of the best summoning spells hands down, creation is in the same boat as fabricate. Overall rating for these domain spells: Solid.

Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor is great.

Blessing of the Forge: Magical weapons from level 1? Very nice little passive ability. I suggest using it on a weapon rather than armor, ideally on your best damage dealer, as +1 atk/dmg edges out +1 AC. Only in the highest magic games will this ability stop being useful, as there's always going to be someone in the party with a non magical piece of equipment. In very low magic games where magical items are rare this is even better.

Artisan's Blessing: Don't underestimate this, having unlimited ammo as long as you have gold to craft, or being able to turn 45gp of coins and metals into a suit of studded leather armor at early levels can be pretty nice. Ultimately though the 100g cap puts a limit on it's usefulness in the long term.

Soul of the Forge: Fire resistance and +1 AC as a passive bonus? It's not flashy, but it's still good.

Divine Strike: Fire is a weak damage type, and a level 8 cleric will probably be better off using their cantrips anyway.

Saint of Forge and Fire: Immunity to fire? Permanent stoneskin? Even as late at level 17 you'll still be glad to have this.


Grave Domain
The first time I messed around with this domain in the UA I thought it would be weak. Boy was I wrong. A nice defensive subclass with some interesting offensive tools thrown in.

Domain Spells:
Bane is never worth your concentration, false life is strong at the very early levels but scales badly, gentle repose is nice to have prepared, ray of enfeeblement is pretty bad, revivify should always be prepped, vampiric touch would be better on a more melee focused cleric, blight is nothing special, death ward in contrast is a great buff, antilife shell has its uses, raise dead, well, see revivify. Overall rating: Good.

Circle of Mortality: Healing people on 0hp is half of a cleric's job. Bonus action auto-stabilize to a range of 30' means that even when you have run out of slots your allies will still be hard to kill with you around.

Eyes of the Grave: 60ft. range makes this a very situational ability. Fighting invisible undead? Suspect the local barmaid might be a vampire spawn? Otherwise, pretty useless.

Path to the Grave: Although somewhat dependent on your party, swapping channel divinity for more damage is never terrible. If you have a rogue or paladin and can co-ordinate well this it becomes potentially deadly.

Sentinel at Death's Door: A big critical hit (or a series of them) are a leading cause of both PC deaths and TPKs. For the measly cost of your reaction you can prevent that. Fantastic.

Potent Spellcasting: Since you don't get heavy armor or martial weapon proficiencies you're probably sitting at the back casting cantrips anyway. This helps with that.

Keeper of Souls: A nice little passive healing power. It's limitation really is that at the level you get it the healing won't keep up with the amount of damage coming your way. Still, useful to have.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Druid Circles


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Only two circles for the druids, but pretty good ones.


Circle of Dreams
The designated "healer" druid. Useful for when the party needs a healer, but you can't stomach a cleric.

Balm of the Summer Court: 1d6+1 healing per level isn't a fantastic amount of healing, comparable to a Paladins lay on hands. The real strength of this ability is that A) It's usable a a bonus action and B) It's not a spell. These things taken together mean you can cast a spell that requires an action on the same turn that you heal an ally.

Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow: It's Leomund's Tiny Hut as a class ability. The good news: Leomund's Tiny Hut is great! The bad news: Wizards can cast this as a ritual, making it rather obsolete if you have a wizard in your party. Overall? Meh.

Hidden Paths: Here's something strong. A 60ft. misty step that doesn't require a spell slot, and can be used up to your wisdom modifier per long rest? Oh, and in a pinch you can teleport an ally out of (or into) danger? Yes please.

Walker in Dreams: A ton of utility, with the standout being the teleportation circle that allows you to return to the location of your last long rest. Have the party wizard teleport you where you want to go, when you're done, teleport the party back to your grove. Honestly, at level 14 utility shouldn't be a major concern, but the sheer flexibility of this ability makes it worth a... edit: I overrated this on my original examination. Utility is nice but it's not good enough for a blue rating.

Circle of the Shepard
A note on this circle: Any class or subclass that relies on summons is highly game dependent. Much like moon druid, in a game with a lot of magical items and very powerful monsters your CR1 bears aren't going to feel too powerful. Circle of the Shepard isn't just summons, but in a game that tends towards high power levels Shepard won't be quite as good.

Speech of the Woods: Why don't druids get this as a main class ability? It seems so quintessentially druidic. Anyway - it's situational but decent. Sylvan helps you communicate with your summons, and permanent beast speech would be fantastic for a wilderness campaign.

Spirit Totem:

Bear: At low levels this is amazing (7 temp HP in an aoe is game breaking at level 2). As you get to higher levels the temp HP become weaker, but even at high levels the advantage on strength ability checks can be powerful. Any shield master fighter will love you.
Hawk: the go-to totem for most of your adventuring "career". Swapping your fairly useless reaction for giving an ally advantage is totally worth it. Make your rogue happy!
Unicorn: Looks good, but the healing isn't that much, and rarely will you need an aoe heal this large. Still, if your party just got rocked by a dragons breath Unicorn totem into mass cure wounds might be just what you need to stabilize. Edit: Rating upped to sky blue. This can add some incredible amounts of healing depending on how your GM judges it's interaction with abilities such as Healing Spirit.


Excellent size of the aura, the fact that it can be moved 60ft. as a bonus action, and restoring on a short rest makes this a powerful tool even when you can't use your summons.

Mighty Summoner: Conjure animals is already one of the best summoning spells in the game. This makes it even better. A brown bear gets an extra 8hp from this ability, and with claws that can damage magically resistant enemies the spell remains useful longer.

Guardian Spirit: At this level our summons will likely die quickly enough that the regeneration won't be much help. Still, it synergises with two of your most powerful abilities to make them stronger, you can't complain too much.

Faithful Summons: Although you'll never be too happy to have to use this ability, and those CR2 beasts are fairly weak for a level 14 fight, at the end of the day any summoned creatures that don't require concentration are good by default. If you have a generous DM maybe he'll let you use the bear's actions to make medicine checks to stabilize (a cave bear gets a +1 on the check)? Licking the wounds closed maybe?

[ProseBeforeHos]

Fighter Martial Archetypes


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Alas, the various fighter subclasses have all been heavily nerfed (or changed in such a way that feel like a nerf) since their UA releases. At least they get the full three options.


Arcane Archer
Nerfed since it's UA debut the arcane archer is still one of the best fighter archetypes out there, and perhaps even the best ranged archetype (though battlemaster remains a competitive option for a ranged fighter) due to it's strong control options.

Edit: Alright, it's still not as good as the Battlemaster, even as a dedicated archer. My original take was a tad too optimistic. I'm still keep the blue rating on this though, as it's fine archetype in it's own right.

Arcane Archer Lore: Better than your average ribbon. Arcana is a nice skill option, and a free cantrip gives some utility.

Arcane Shot:

Banishing Arrow: Charisma saves are often low, especially on unintelligent monsters, and the control here is great. A+
Beguiling Arrow: Wisdom saves are good to target, and the extra damage is nice. But charm is an unreliable form of cc. There are better options.
Bursting Arrow: The aoe damage option! But the damage is pathetic. Leave this to the casters.
Enfeebling Arrow: Suffers from the same weakness as the spell it's based on. The targets you'd want to have their weapon damanged nerfed tend to have good con saves.
Grasping Arrow: Poison is a terrible damage type, but this arrows ability to do damage round after round make it powerful. If they choose to use an action to get rid of it, that's fine with us! As long as our enemies aren't casting spells or attacking us we're happy.
Piercing Arrow: Could potentially do massive damage. In reality you'll struggle to line targets up, and then they get a save... pass.
Seeking Arrow: Good for pinpointing invisible enemies. Getting around cover is nice, but chances are you'll take the sharpshooter feat at some point anyway. Pretty situational.
Shadow Arrow: Here we go! Great for neutering both archers and spellcasters. A great pick!


Between the ability to do magical weapon damage from level 3, and the control options this ability provides, overall Arcane Shot is the highlight of this archetype and it's strongest selling point.

Magic Arrow: Comes in a little late at level 7. Most characters will have some sort of magic weapon by this point. If you don't, great! If you do this is essentially redundant.

Curving Shot: A great ability. When combined with the sharpshooter feat it gets even better.

Ever-Ready Shot: Since you get arcane shot back on a short rest this isn't that strong. But it's not weak either.


Cavalier
I'm very disappointed with the changes to this subclass. The ability to ride around the battlefield marking targets was a large draw of the UA "knight" that this class is based on. Despite the changes this class is still decent, though it feels much more static and boring than it was.

Born in the Saddle/Bonus Proficiency: Ribbons. Though an extra skill is always nice.

Unwavering Mark: Weaker than it used to be, but still good overall. Protect your allies and gain bonus attacks, all gravy (note the 5ft. limitation makes polearm Cavalier's a non-starter).

Warding Maneuver: Very strong. Can be used on both you and your allies, and even if you fail to block the attack entirely it still cuts the damage in half.

Hold the Line: Simultaneously better and worse than the sentinel feat. Better because you can stop people trying to "shift" around you, worse because it doesn't stop disengages. More control is good though.

Ferocious Charger: You'll be lucky to get more than one use of this off in a fight (maybe not even that if you're ambushed). Still, it's not bad when you can activate it.

Vigilant Defender: Ironically one of the Cavalier's major drawbacks is that too many separate abilities compete for it's reaction in a turn. This ability solves that problem quite nicely. Pick up the sentinel feat at level 16 and when you get this ability you will become the ultimate roadblock for enemies.


Samurai
I'm sick of all this "masterwork Cavalier" bull**** going on in 5e system right now. Samurai deserve better than that. Much, much better than that. *Cough* excuse me. Samurai takes a huge knock in power compared to it's UA incarnation. It can still be powerful at higher levels, but it lacks at lower levels due to it's limited resources. Despair, and curse the roundness of your eyes weeaboos!

Bonus Proficiency: More ribbons. Woohoo.

Fighting Spirit: A shadow of it's UA precursor, this version of fighting spirit suffers from two drawbacks A) the temp HP is rather small and doesn't scale very well B) unlike most fighter abilities it's limited to long rests rather than short ones. This is a real killer, and means usage of this ability has to be carefully managed at lower levels. This ability gets better when combined with Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter feats for big damage.

Elegant Courtier: You'll never beat the bard at being the party face. Thankfully with wisdom saving throw proficiency added to it, this is no mere ribbon.

Tireless Spirit: Slowly the Samurai improves. Getting a free use of fighting spirit at the start of combat means you have to be less reserved with your uses. Good stuff.

Rapid Strike: Now fighting spirit essentially gives you an extra attack when you use it. If your party can set you up with advantage some other way you're making 4 attacks a round at level 15. Finally the samurai shows his steel! Shame it takes 15 levels to get there...

Strength Before Death: Although this is nothing like as good as some of the barbarian options, it's still pretty solid. An extra turn once per long rest is nothing to sneeze at. Remember to keep a fighting spirit or second wind at hand so you can take yourself off of 0hp. Seriously, why do all the great Samurai abilities come so late? :smallfrown:

[ProseBeforeHos]

Monastic Traditions


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Sun Soul gets reprinted in Xanathar's meaning we only see two new monastic traditions. I won't bother breaking down Sun Soul extensively since so many other guides have covered it, sufficient it's the best monk option for AOE damage and taking on the undead - a decent option.

Edit: I will be breaking it down after-all!


Way of the Drunken Master
Like an improved version of Way of the Open Hand, this tradition takes what is best about monk (flurry and it's general mobility) and makes it better. A front loaded tradition that scales well. Strong in most games (with fantastic roleplaying opportunity).

Bonus Proficiencies: Even as a ribbon this is awful. Performance? Will you really have the Charisma to use this?

Drunken Technique: The ability that makes the tradition amazing. When you flurry you get a free disengage and +10 ft. of movement. Just fantastic! Better even than Open Hand Technique since it doesn't require you to attack a target in order to avoid it's OA. Move right past the front line and unleash hell on squishier targets, or unleash a barrage of blows at the target you are fighting and then disengage 50ft.+ away from them where they have to dash to catch you.

Tipsy Sway: Fantastic flavor for this class, but in practice not all that good. Probably the best ability is getting off of the floor for 5ft. of movement, keeping you ultra mobile even when knocked on your ass. Ironically the power of Drunken Technique makes Tipsy Sway less effective. Ideally you should be spending your KI to position yourself in places where you can't be hit. Rarely will the stars align to set up "deflected attack" of one enemy onto another.

Drunkard's Luck: At two KI points this ability is expensive to use. What I strongly don't suggest you do is make a lot of attacks at disadvantage and burn your KI points making them normal attacks, that is a fantastic way to waste KI. Where this ability comes into it's own is when a spell or ability or forcing you to make a save or skill check at disadvantage. In those situations this can be a strong 'panic' button to save your skin.

Intoxicated Frenzy: Synergises amazingly well with the mobility of Drunken Technique, as long as there are enemies to hit you should be able to reach them. Even if you can't get the full three additional attacks off, if you're getting one or two additional attacks in a round that's still a lot of extra damage. Do you have any excuse not to flurry every round?


Path of the Kensai
Between this and the samurai WOTC seem to really not want eastern style characters taking over their system. Kensai is thematically awesome, but it's abilities are underwhelming.

Path of the Kensai:

Kensai Weapons: The difference between a versatile longsword and versatile spear is only 1 damage per attack, not much to write home about. Opening up your weapon options may be useful in a more magic item heavy game. The strongest part of this feature is for non-elf monks to grab longbow proficiency, shoring up your weak ranged options.
Agile Parry: Give us better weapons, then reward us for not using them? +2 AC is better than +1 damage, smack with your fist then parry. This ability is good, unless you're packing some sort of amazing magical weapon you should be making use of it every round.
Kensai's Shot: 2.5 damage for the cost of your bonus action? It's alright.
Way of the Brush: Ribbon.


A note on kensai weapons; one of the major advantages of the monk is the ability to take lesser used weapons like clubs, the quarterstaff and knives and make them useful via martial arts. The kensai's abilities sadly locks you into using weapons that are more generally useful to your more martial allies, which is a very limiting aspect of this tradition (agile parry for example is easily the best of the kensai's level 3 abilities, but can only be used with a kensai weapon).

For weapon choices I would suggest longsword and longbow at level 3, then battleaxe and warhammer. If you find a very powerful weapon as you level up feel free to pick that; remember, a Kensai weapon doesn't have to be a martial weapon.

One With the Blade:

Magic Kensai Weapons: Magical resistance no longer is a concern for you... exactly the same as any other level 6 monk. I suppose this does allow you to use the better damage dice of your main weapon, then again if you have a magical weapon it's entirely redundant.
Deft Strike: 1 KI point gets you 1d10 (usually) damage. That's... not that great. In a tough boss fight being able to flurry and deft strike on the same turn might be worth it, most of the time you're going to using your ki on... welll... anything but this.


Sharpen the Blade: Suddenly, out of no-where, comes an ability to write home about. A measly 3 KI points for +3 attack and damage for a a whole minute? Activated as a bonus action? Fantastic! though admittedly very GM dependent since the bonus doesn't stack with magical weapons you already have. If you're already packing a +2 weapon then 3 KI probably isn't going to be worth it, if you have a +3 weapon this is entirely redundant, in an ultra low magic game this becomes exceptional.

Unerring Accuracy: Another decent ability. Sadly it comes waaayyyy too late in the day to save this tradition. Keep in mind it only applies to your two monk weapon attacks, not your unarmed attacks.


Way of the Sun Soul
Ho hum. A reprint :smallannoyed: Way of the soul soul basically makes four elements obsolete as it does a better job at the only thing four elements does better than other paths i.e. area of effect. It also might be the best path for Curse of Strahd, or any other undead focused campaign.

Radiant Sun Bolt: The good news is that this gives you a decent (albeit short-ranged) ranged option for monks (why are darts not classed as a monk weapon??? What an oversight!). It's also an excellent source of on demand radiant damage, a very powerful tool in the right type of campaign (read: undead focused). The downside? It doesn't actually boost your damage over that of your melee attacks, and you can't stunning blow with your holy shuriken.

Searing Arc Strike: A decent, if restrictive, aoe option for a class that usually has nothing of the sort. Better in action efficiency than the four element monk as it only eats a bonus action as opposed to Sweeping Cinder Strike's full action (and really highlighting how very bad four elements monks are). Major downside is that you're locked into a single, commonly resisted damage type. Still, overall it's not bad.

Searing Sunburst: An on-demand 2d6 damage radiant fireball is pretty atrocious for a level 11 ability, especially one resisted by a con save. What saves this ability is the fairly cheap KI to damage cost. 3 KI points for a fireball's worth of damage (with a better damage type) is decent even at level 11. There will, even in higher level campaigns, always be situations where you need to blast a lot of weak enemies all at once, and nothing most monks get will give you the equivalent of this versatility.

Sun Shield: If this was actual sunlight it might be worth something for battling vampires and the like As it is it's pretty worthless. Damage is low and it eats your reaction, and the blow actually has to land on you to work. Disappointing for a level 17 ability.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Paladin Oaths


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Paladin gets only two oaths, which span from edge-lord Oath of Conquest to hippy dippy Oath of Redemption. Thematically I... kinda hate them both, but mechanically at least they have some bright spots.


Oath of Conquest
Wielding the power of fascism this paladin oath specializes in offense and control abilities but falls a little short. The natural choice to combine with the new Dragonborn racial feat.

Edit: Bumped the rating of this class up from black to blue, because a paladin (very strong base class) who can get a "third attack" via spiritual weapon at level 5 is a very powerful combination.

Oath Spells:
Armor of Agathys is better on a warlock than on you, command is alright, hold person comes just about fast enough to be relevant, spiritual weapon does not require concentration, bestow curse is actually pretty good on a melee class like you, fear synergises well with your class abilities, dominate beast is a dud, stoneskin is good even at this level, cloudkill is hot garbage, dominate person comes way too late. Overall rating: An underwhelming list saved by spiritual weapon.

Channel Divinity:
Conquering Presence: 30ft. is a very large radius. In the right type of fight (hordes) it's good.
Guided Strike: My bias makes me want to mark down abilities stolen from the PHB, but to be honest this is better on you than the war cleric. Combine with Great Weapon Master feat for results.

Aura of Conquest: Thematically cool, practically less so. Reducing speed to 0 doesn't actually do much (enemies can't move towards you while feared anyway) and while aoe damage is nice, it's limited by the short range of the aura (when it expands this gets better). This is no aura of warding...

Scornful Rebuke: On one hand the ability is strong, on the other it comes in a little later than is required to make this powerful.

Invincible Conquer: An extra attack that doesn't require a bonus action and enhanced criticals? This might actually be the best of the "paladin super saiyan capstone powers" and that's saying something!


Oath of Redemption
I'm not sure "monster slayer and treasure hunter" would be the natural profession for a pacifist. This oath isn't just about turning the other cheek, thankfully.

Oath of Redemption Spells:
Sanctuary can save a life, sleep is almost obsolete at the level you get it, calm emotions is hyper situational, hold person is alright, counterspell is good on anyone, hypnotic pattern is still good even at level 9, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere is pretty bad on a melee class, stoneskin is good, hold monster is alright, wall of force even at lvl 17 is still decent. Overall rating: Meh.

Channel Divinity:

Emissary of Peace: As a caveat; yes, in a pure dungeon crawl this ability is bad, but why the hell are you playing peacenik-a-din in a meat grinder? In the vast majority of games persuasion is the go-to "talk my way out of trouble" skill. With a charisma of 16, proficiency in the skill and this ability activated you can get an avg. roll on a persuasion check of 20.5 at level 3. Not bad!
Rebuke the Violent: Too limited to be good. Can only be used once a fight and can be saved against for half damage. Basically, use it on the first crit in a fight, or just save your CD for emissary of peace.

Aura of the Guardian: The problem with this ability is that at lower levels your aura is fairly small and the targets you would want to use this on will usually be in the backline (i..e. the party wizard or rogue), while you will be in the front. Also, it doesn't mitigate damage at all, just shuffles it around (onto you!). Still, occasionally it will allow you to prevent an ally going down so I can't rate it lower.

Protective Spirit: The 1/2 HP caveat is the major limiting factor here. Still, 1d6+1/2 your level is pretty nice amount of passive regen.

Emissary of Redemption: The two abilities don't have much synergy . For the resistances alone though, it's still powerful.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Ranger Archetypes

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How disappointing. UA ranger doesn't get released in Xanathar's, nor does the improved beastmaster. That being said, rangers get some great options, including the official releae of deep sta- excuse me, Gloom Stalker. Both of the PHB options look increasingly redundant compared to these.


Gloom Stalker
The rich get richer. Or in this case the strong get stronger. The best ranger archetype is arguably buffed compared to it's UA release, sufficient to say it's still exceptional.

Gloom Stalker Magic:
Disguise Self is decent but you lack the charisma to really abuse it, rope trick can get you out of some sticky spots, fear is decent cc, greater invisibility is fantastic on a ranger, seeming comes in too late to be good on you. Overall rating: Good.

Dread Ambusher: Better initiative rolls, more mobility and an extra attack, dealing additional damage, on the first (and most important) round of combat? One attack doesn't sound like a lot but when paired with stealth (for advantage) and sharpshooter (for extra damage) you can unleash a huge amount of damage in the first round of combat, and heavily tilt fights in your parties favor.

Umbral Sight: Dear lord, they actually buffed this? "Relies on darkvision to see you in darkness" is 90% of the monster manual, making you an exceptional scout in dungeons and caves. It's a little weaker on humans and halflings than it used to be (60ft. vs 90ft. darkvision) but since they gain more from this ability than other races you have no right to complain.

Iron Mind: Good, obviously.

Stalker's Flurry: Not quite a third attack, but about as close as rangers get. Makes sharpshooter even better.

Shadowy Dodge: A nice little defensive ability, even if it comes in a tad late.


Horizon Walker
I love the flavor of this path. Great for Aasimar or Tiefling rangers. It's also pretty strong too, winner-winner!

Horizon Walker Magic:
Protection from evil is always nice to have prepared, misty step is great, haste is awesome, banishment is decent even at level 13, you are not the character to be using teleportation circle. Overall rating: fantastic.

Detect Portal: "Situational" is an understatement here.

Planar Warrior: Let's start with the positives. 1d8 is good damage, this ability can be used every turn without requiring resources spent and force is an excellent damage type resisted by almost nothing, and since it makes the entire weapon damage the same type, in the early game this is a great way to get around monsters who are resistant to nonmagic weapons. The downsides? The range is limited to 30ft. (making this less useful for archer rangers) and it eats your bonus action (TWF rangers need not apply) which means that it's competing against hunter's mark for your "bonus action damage boost". Overall though, since it can be combined with hunters mark, and even archer rangers often shoot at targets close to them, despite all the drawbacks, it's still a good ability.

Ethereal Step: I'm a fan of panic buttons. This one is limited to one round, and the slower moment in the ethereal plane is a pain, but situationally this will still be nice to have. Comes back on a short rest too.

Distant Strike: *Teleports behind you* Psshh... nothing personal kid. Mobility and a fairly reliable way to get a third attack all bundled into one ability. Great for melee rangers, even better for archer rangers who can use their range to reliably strike two targets more-or-less every round (and get a free disengage thrown in with it).

Spectral Defense: Uncanny dodge? Even at level 15 this ability is still powerful, and a welcome addition.


Monster Slayer
Is that you Geralt? There's some false advertising going on here as this archetype really feels more anti-mage than anti-monster. Some highlights, but still easily the weakest of the three.

Monster Slayer Magic:
Protection from evil is situationally nice, zone of truth is underwhelming, magic circle is too limited in it's use, banishment is good even at level 13, hold monster comes in way too late to be good. Overall rating: Bad.

Hunter's Sense: Very GM dependent. If your GM is fond of using custom monsters this can be a life saver, identifying their weaknesses and resistances. Knowledge is power and all that. If your GM isn't fond of using monster with resistances/weaknesses or just heavily borrows from the MM (where metagaming is probably inevitable) then it's not as good. The range is also somewhat limiting (60ft.).

Slayer's Prey: Edit: I misinterpreted this ability in my original guide. This is better than I thought it was since it can be reused over and over. Levels 1-6 you still want to open with hunter's mark and then tag them with Slayer's Pray. Post level 7 (and Supernatural Defense) you'll often want to apply them in the opposite order.

Supernatural Defense: This makes slayer's prey a very good ability indeed. Better even than Hunter's mark against any enemy that might be forcing you to make saves. A single d6 averages out to +3.5, that's almost like having a personal paladin aura. I would rate it sky blue, except that there's plenty of deadly enemies in DnD who will never require you to make a saving throw at all (giants et. al).

Magic-Users Nemesis: See what I mean? Why is this class not a "Mage Slayer"? The downsides: your wisdom DC is likely low, and enemies that cast spells usually have good wisdom saves. The upside: it only costs your reaction, and refreshes on a short rest, so you're losing nothing. Decent.

Slayer's Counter: Free attack as a reaction, that causes you to automatically make a save if you hit? Fantastic (and yet another ability that seems designed to slay mages rather than monsters).

[ProseBeforeHos]

Roguish Archetypes


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Rogues get a little shortchanged in Xanathar's with two reprints and one of the most boringly straightforward archetypes in the book. I won't rehash Swashbuckler or Mastermind which were originally published in SCAG and have been covered in other guides.

Edit: Finally got off my ass and added the two "missing classes".


Inquisitive
A strange archetype that will vary in power heavily depending on the game in which you play. Heavy in intrigue and subterfuge? It's decent. Dungeon crawling all day? Pass on this.

Ear for Deceit: In most games that aren't pure meat grinders you'll find at least some use for this ability, I feel like I'll be saying this a lot about this subclass but it's very game dependent how much mileage you'll get out this.

Eye for Detail: This on the other hand just feels like a gyp. Perception checks as a bonus action! Oh boy!

Insightful Fighting: Assuming you took specialization in insight (which is probably required for Inquisitive) this ability will be reliable enough to allow you to succeed the check a majority of the time. Of course, as a rogue you have a ton of tools for setting up a sneak attack without this...

Steady Eye: Automatic advantage on perception checks while scouting make you a trap and ambush detecting machine. Any rogue would be glad to have this.

Unerring Eye: I'm temped to rate this as bad due to the fact that it eats an action and thus isn't very good in combat. Situationally though, this could come on handy so i'll be generous and give it a purple rating.

Eye for Weakness: For a level 17 ability 3d6 isn't all that great and this only applies to insightful fighting sneak attacks. If you're looking for damage you'd be better off multi classing into fighter for a 2nd attack and an action surge. Underwhelming.


Mastermind
Much like inquisitive, this style of rogue fits a specific type of campaign better than others. Overall though I think it's actually a better path, even in a combat heavy game, as Master of Tactics is a much better 'bread and butter' combat option than Insightful Fighting.

Master of Intrigue: Better than the average ribbon ability but, and stop me if you're tired of hearing this, heavily game/GM dependent. Courtly intrigue? You're golden. Fighting undead hordes? Might wish you'd taken something else...

Master of Tactics: Very solid ability assuming someone in your party can capitalize on it. Another rogue, or a Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter user will love you. Even certain wizard spells benefit from the advantage to the spell attack roll. Party co-ordination is key (as is fitting for a class called 'Mastermind').

Insightful Manipulator: In most games this will be strait up bad, and won't do you much good to know that the Orc shaman doesn't have good intelligence to go with his wisdom. In very specific circumstances knowing that the legendary warrior is a fraud, and doesn't actually have any have any class levels might pay off... like the majority of this class it's purple all the way.

Misdirection: Hide from arrows behind your allies, shift the attack to them if you get tagged. Occasionally lightning will strike and you'll be able to shuffle an attack onto an enemy. Mostly this will be redundant.

Soul of Deceit: This ability makes Mastermind rogues excellent big-bads for campaigns, leading your seemingly canny players astray with his mental tricks. Is it as good for players? Say it with me now, heavily game dependent.


Scout
I'm not a fan of this archetype because I think it's ultra-boring and it really blurs the lines between ranger and rogue. Still, it's undeniable effective at what it does.

Skirmisher: Free disengages as a reaction? Good for any rogue, fantastic for archers (which you probably are).

Survivalist: I was temped to rate this as a purple skill, but let's be honest, if you're picking scout at all it's likely in a game where nature and survival will be useful. In which case what is the value of two additional skills with expertise in both? A lot.

Superior Mobility: +10 speed is just a nice solid boost. It also applies to swiming speed and climbing speed, so the more exotic races don't get shortchanged.

Ambush Master: Scout in a nutshell is just a lot of very solid abilities piled up on top of each other, and here is yet another. Advantage on initiative rolls? Free advantages on the creature you 'mark'? All good.

Sudden Strike: Two sneak attacks in one turn? Yeah it eats your bonus action but if you can pull it off you will be smiling. Only reason it's not sky blue is that it requires you sink 17 levels into rogue and pass up the opportunity to gain extra attack via multiclassing.


Swashbuckler
As a disclaimer - I think melee rogues are bad. A light crossbow does just as much damage as a rapier, and being able to hide as a bonus action makes setting up free advantage (and sneak attacks to go with it) so much easier when you stay at range. That being said, if you're committed to being an Errol Flynn type, then this subclass is about everything you could have wanted. I just can't rate any melee focused rogue build better than blue.

Fancy Footwork: The crux of this class. Waltz through enemies as you attack them, or attack one enemy a single time then use your bonus action dash to zip away from them. This is a subclass that benefits from speed (Wood elf or mobility feat a plus).

Rakish Audacity: Again, almost required to pull off this class's particular fighting style.

Panache: Borders on abuse-able, since you can just keep kiting 'taunted' enemies around with bonus action dashes and the auto disengage on your attacks. The 'language barrier' is the only real downside.

Elegant Maneuver: The swashbuckler goes downhill pretty fast after level 9. Might very well be worth multi-classing into fighter around that point (two weapon fighting style is obviously a big plus). This ability is fun, but not really worth setting 13 levels into. If you do go this 'deep' make sure you abuse it though; expertise in acrobatics and a 20+ dexterity will allow you to hit some insane DC's.

Master Duelist: A decent ability, but being limited to once per short rest, and the 17 level investment required doesn't make it good enough imo. Contrast this with say, Sudden Strike, and tell me it's worth it.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Sorcerous Origin


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Another SCAG reprint with the Storm Sorcery origin which is still an alright pick. The origins we get in Xanathar's are both strong, and Divine Soul especially opens up some very interesting build options.

Edit: Storm sorc is now included.


Divine Soul
The ability to mix and match clerical magic with arcane magic opens up the possibility for a really insane spell-list options and meta-magic combos. Despite that this path has it's limitations. Sorcerers are already low on spells known which puts a cap of their flexibility with clerical spells.

Divine Magic:
You gain one "innate" cleric spell to expand your known spells, pretty nice since even a single extra spell helps sorcerers a lot early game. I could rank the starting spells in terms of power but since you can swap it out for another cleric option as soon as you level it really doesn't matter which one you start with.

Notes on divine magic:
As a general rule of thumb arcane magic tends to be better than clerical magic. Most of the sorcerer spell list has a lot more flash and punch than the cleric list. The wrong way to play divine soul is basically as a sorcerer-cleric who fills out their list with cleric spells and generally plays like a weaker, unarmored cleric with a smaller number of prepped spells and no channel divinity. The right way to play divine soul is to take the cream of the cleric list and use to fill out your spell list with the absolute best options from both classes. As such I'll suggest what I consider to be the absolutely best spells to consider "poaching".


Guidance: The best cantrip in the game?
Toll the Dead: The best (non-Warlock) damaging cantrip in the game?
Bless: The best low level concentration spell? Can be swapped out at higher levels.
Healing Word: Bonus action, ranged. The healing is small but 1hp is all you need to get someone up off the floor. Can be twinned also.
Guiding Bolt: The damage is lower than chromatic orb, but giving advantage makes it slightly better IMO. Good candidate for twin-spell.
Spiritual Weapon: Why the hell doesn't this require concentration??? Auto-pick.
Revivify: If no-one else can take this you may eventually have to.
Spirit Guardians: Insane aoe damage. Better on the cleric than you, but still good.
Mass Cure Wounds: I'm trying to avoid the healing spells, but this is one of the best, more so when quickened.

A sorcerer has to be level 19 before getting more than a single 6th+ level slot, for that reason I suggest sticking with the more powerful arcane options in the higher levels. Just to reiterate: you are not a cleric, don't fill your known spells with healing garbage, it's not what you're good for.

Favored by the Gods: 2d4 is more powerful than you think, an avg. of +5 is usually more than enough to pass that failed save. That it refreshes on short rest makes this a very nice ability.

Empowered Healing: It's a trap! Don't let this ability fool you into thinking divine soul is a dedicated healing subclass, if you take cure wounds to get mileage out of this ability you've been fooled.. The ability isn't even that good anyway, you're better off twinning healing spells with your sorcery points.

Otherworldly Wings: Concentration free flying speed? Now you too can be as good as a level 1 Aarakocra! Jokes aside, this is great.

Unearthly Recovery: It's a decent ability, but is it worth going past level 17 in sorcerer? I would say... probably not.


Shadow Magic
Crawling in my skin, these wounds, they will not heal! Almost unchanged from the UA version, this subclass in my experience plays a little worse that it looks on paper. Nothing about is it under powered, it just suffers from having too many abilities competing for limited sorcery points.

Eyes of the Dark: On everyone except underdark races this is a nice little boost. It also essentially gives you a free spell. Even better on races that lack darkvision naturally (variant humans really needed a boost).

Strength of the Grave: Unreliable and comes with some limitations, nevertheless a nice addition. All D6 classes are only one high damage roll away from eating flagstone, more so for sorcerers with their more limited defensive options.

Hound of Ill Omen: At the level you get this is amazing. A buffed CR1 creature that you can summon as a bonus action and makes your spells harder to resist is pretty good value for 3 sorcery points. The weaknesses of this ability is that the hound can only attack a single target and that the temp HP the hound gains from your levels do not scale well enough to make it survivable at higher levels. Eventually this ability may become a one turn wonder - but hey, even in the worse case scenario it's not worse than heighten spell!

Shadow Walk: While it's annoying to see them recycle the shadow monk's abilities, a bonus action Teleport via dim light is a great, if unoriginal, power even coming in at level 14.

Umbral Form: 6 sorcery points is a lot to blow on one ability, even at level 18, and the way sorcerers gain spells means that there's a great temptation to to multi class as soon as you hit level 17. On the other hand the duration is good, and the resistances are fantastic. A tough choice.


Storm Sorcery
I hate reprints. This subclass is pretty underwhelming outside of a single, incredible feature (that comes too late to matter in most games).

Wind Speaker: Cool, but weak even as ribbons go.

Tempestuous Magic: A nice free disengage when you cast spells. The 'flying' aspect of this movement won't come up often due to the limited range, but if it can position you above your enemy then, go ahead.

Heart of the Storm: Marginally better than the War Mage Wizard's ability due to the resistances, but not much better... don't be baited into using bad spells for this mediocre ability.

Storm guide: Thematically awesome, and... occasionally useful? Anyone running pirates in 5e?

Storm's Fury: Sadly, a lot of high level enemies have pretty amazing strength saving throws. Also this ability requires that you have taken the hit (which means odds are you're down anyway). The far better option is just to use your arsenal of spells not to get into melee range (you are level 14 after all). Still, it might save your life.

Wind Soul: Up there with Create Thrall as one of the best abilities in the game. Frankly amazing, almost worth the 17 levels of mediocrity required to get here...

[ProseBeforeHos]

Warlock Patrons


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I honestly think warlocks got the best treatment out of Xanathar's. Celestial is somewhat dull, but the Hexblade almost feels like a new class, and all those new evocations? Delicious.


Celestial
What kind of self-respecting Warlock player picks this? Working for an unicorn? That's not edgy at all! All in all a mediocre subclass that suffers from being too "back loaded" (i.e. it's best abilities come at the high levels).

Expended Spells:
You have a better natural healing ability than cure wounds, guiding bolt scales too poorly for a warlock, flaming sphere actually might be worth using over hex in the earlier levels, never take lesser restoration or daylight, revivify is a spell someone has to take, guardian of faith is too situational, wall of fire is decent, as is flame strike, greater restoration is a pass.

A note on Warlock spell lists: Since you don't gain any of these automatically it's rather pointless to give them an "overall rating" as I do with other lists. Each spell might as well be an individual, optional class feature.

Bonus Cantrips: If you desperately need to cancel a vampire's regeneration sacred flame might be handy. Ultimately there's only one cantrip warlocks care about and it's not either of these ones (rhymes with "Meldrich Last").

Healing Light: Hold still while I copy paste what I wrote for circle of dreams druid. Actually this is a little more limited since you can't spend more than your charisma score in healing dice. Still good for all the same reasons Balm of the Summer Court is good.

Radiant Soul: Resistance to radiant will almost never come up. Adding charisma to damage rolls is what warlocks already do better than anyone. This is a sorcerer ability on a class that doesn't have the slots to be a true caster. If you like aoe fire damage I suggest fiend patron over this.

Edit: As people have noted, this ability is pretty awesome when combined with the Aasimar's racial abilities (both radiant soul for single target DPR and radiant consumption for aoe). The Aasimar celestial warlock may be the best way to get mileage out of this patron.

Celestial Radiance: I want to whine "it scales poorly" but how well should an an ability that gives a decent chunk of temp hp to up to 6 allies (including you) and activates on a short rest scale? If this were any better it would be broken.

Searing Vengeance: Get half your hp back, deal some damage, and blind everyone around you in an aoe with no save allowed!? This might be the best panic button ability in DnD 5e.


Hexblade
It's been a long wait fellow gith lovers, but finally we reach the day when the words "melee warlock" aren't automatically followed by gales of laughter. This is, hands down, the best patron for pact of the blade warlocks. There's really no reason to consider anything else (at least from a mechanical standpoint). The bad news? It's still not as good as say; a boring blaster fiend warlock.

Edit: Changed to a duel rating to reflect the two distinct playstyles. When used as a strait blaster or as a 1 level multi-class dip, this class is truly top tier. When played as I imagine WotC intended (i.e. as the patron for pact of the blade warlocks) it's merely good.

Expanded Spells:
It doesn't scale at all with spell levels but shield is still probably worth the pick, wrathful smite is has the same problem but isn't as good, blur is a decent defensive option, branding smite is in the same boat as wrathful, blink is random but good, elemental weapon is not worth concentrating on, phantasmal killer is a dud, staggering smite I'd pass on, banishing smite in contrast is strong control, cone of cold is a nice aoe damage option.

More notes on Warlock spells: You do not get the same number of spell slots as other classes, but all of your spells at always cast at the highest level of magic your warlock level allows. Because of this scaling is important in warlock spell selection in a way that it isn't for other classes. A spell like Shield might be better than Armor of Agathys at level 1 or 2 when +5 AC is undoubtedly better than 5 temp hp/5 cold damage, but the same comparison made at say, level 7, is +5 AC vs 20 temp hp and 20 cold damage. That is no-where near as clear-cut. IMO a well played Hexblade will swap out spells often as they becomes obsolete (e.g. shield 1-2, blur 3-4, hex at level 5 to go with your 2nd attack etc.).

Hexblade's Curse: The healing isn't much but the extra damage and crits are nothing to sneeze at. Comes back on a short rest too (and you will be making a lot of short rests).

Hex Warrior: Everything you need to be an effective melee combatant. Shields, medium armor, charisma as a main attack stat, and since you will be taking pact of the blade at level 3, don't worry too much if you wanted to do a two handed or even duel wielding Hexblade since the bonuses apply to to both your pact blade and the weapon you touch in the morning (you'll still need a fighting style if you want this to work though, and I wouldn't recommend it).

Edit: As Malisteen pointed out in the comments below, you don't actually have to go pact of the blade on Hexblade. The extra damage and crits both apply to ranged attacks (i.e. Eldritch Blast) so Hexblades make perfecly good blaster warlocks (better in AC and single target DPS, generally worse in cc and aoe options).

A note on Hex Warrior: Requiring only a one level investment this ability seems to scream "multiclass" and I'm not the first person to note how perfectly these abilities seem to synergize with, say, college of swords or valor bard (it also gives access to the shield spell which is far better when you have more slots to burn).

Accused Specter: The downsides? This requires you have humanoids to kill, the CR 1 monster you summon won't scale well, it's only once per long rest, and the summon has sunlight sensitivity. The upsides? It's a summon that doesn't require concentration. So, yeah, edit: black (after play-testing this it's really not that great).

Armor of Hexes: Seen a lot of people hating on this and I really don't know why. Your reaction for a 50% chance to negate a hit? IMO a very solid tool for tough fights.

Master of Hexes: Giving up the healing is no big deal. Thankfully this ability applies "when the creature dies" not "when you kill the creature" so there's no danger of your allies breaking your hex. It also doesn't require so much as a reaction to swap targets. Very good.

Note: As strong as Master of Hex's is, there's a very strong temptation to multiclass as soon as you get the lifedrinker invocation at level 12 - probably into bard or sorcerer. Which is better, a Hexblade 14 or a Hexblade 12/Sorcerer 2? Hard to say, both will have their advantages.


A little disappointing - a lot more duds than studs in this selection. Still, the best invocations here are competitive with the many of the better ones from the PHB, and frankly, it's just nice to finally have more published options.

Aspect of the Moon: I'd rather just play an elf than invest an invocation in this.

Edit: As people have pointed out, coffee-lock shenanigans make this broken, but seriously, what GM allows this stupidity? :smallannoyed:

Cloak of Flies: Fairly underwhelming for blaster warlocks, the obvious beneficiary of this would be the Hexblade. Obviously don't pick it over thirsting blade, but since you have three invocations at level 5 this might make the cut for one. Despite it's limitations (poison damage, effects allies) an always on aoe damage aura is strong (nice bonus to intimidation too).

Eldritch Smite: Who needs Hexblade/Paladin multiclassing? Smite with unholy power! Well... the good news is it scales with spell level, and the auto-knockdown is strong. The bad news is 1d8 per spell level isn't that much damage (this invocation was far more powerful in the original UA). When you have more slots and more invocations I would eventually take this if for no other reason than it can be used as part of a full attack action. Early on there are better options.

Ghostly Gaze: See into a room without opening the door? See inside a chest without opening it? Look for traps built into the masonry? 30ft. Might be far enough to see from one corridor of a dungeon to another. It's hardly top-flight invocation material, but I'd say it's competitive with most of the utility options.

Gift of the Depths: Planning a trip to the elemental plane of water? No? Then don't take this!

Gift of the Ever-Living Ones: The only warlock that should be regularly taking hits is the Hexblade. Pass.

Grasp of Hadar: Let's start off by talking about what this isn't. This is not a tool to get ranged enemies into melee with a Hexblade - you do not have enough invocations to waste on something so frivolous. What this might be good for is additional control options for a blaster warlock who've already invested in all the other, better EB invocations. Pull an enemy into range of your tank? Or off a cliff? Flexibility is power.

Improved Pact Weapon: Do you have a +1 weapon? If no - this is good. If yes - swap this out. Longbow warlock you say? We have eldritch blast, we don't need to fire bits of wood like a pleb!

Lance of Lethargy: It's not quite as good as repelling blast since it only activates once per round. Still, it's close enough. Combine them and you have insane control synergy.

Maddening Hex: I'll admit this is a good invocation, but I'll dissent from those saying it's auto-pick. The range is limited (30ft.), it eats a bonus action (so it can't be used on the same turn as you apply your hex or curse), and the damage is not that great. I'd probably pick cloak of flies before this on a Hexblade. That being said, anything that improves your hex is pretty good.

Relentless Hex: Is this controversial? You can't use this ability on the same turn you curse someone (competing bonus actions) and if you can't get within 30ft. of them it's unusable. What madman would take this over, say, Sculptor of Flesh? Gets a lot better for a level 14 Hexblade.

Shroud of Shadow: Not much to say. Just a good, solid utility option, useful even at level 15.

Tomb of Levistus: Ice block comes to DnD 5e. As panic buttons go, it's alright - 10hp/level is a lot, but it comes with major drawbacks. I honestly can't see myself taking this over a myriad of better options, but you're not exactly hurting yourself if you do (it does have fantastic flavor).

Tricksters Escape: Freedom of movement is a great, concentration free, buff especially for Hexblades. This doesn't even expend a spell slot to use, so you can auto escape a grapple in combat and still have slots to burn. This invocation also comes under the banner of "better than Relentless Hex".

[ProseBeforeHos]

Wizard Arcane Traditions


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Wizard players may complain that they got only one tradition in this book, but seeing as they already have 9 potential options in printed publications alone, and that the spell selection in Xanathar's contains so many wizard spells I think they did just fine.


War Mage
Thematically I really hate this option. It seems to be half way between "defense mage" (abjurer?) and "blaster mage" (evoker?) without being committed to either. It's main "gimmick" power-surge is poorly designed too. I have my issues with bladesinger but at least it was unique. The good news is that at least mechanically there's a lot to like here.

Arcane Deflection: Shield is strictly better in terms of giving you AC for your reaction and the drawback for using this is very debilitating. So this ability sucks right? Well, no, not really. Saving yourself a spell slot rather than using shield may be worth resigning yourself to a cantrip at lower levels where slots are limited (and you weren't planning to cast anyway), and there's no level 1 spell that gives you +4(!) to a saving throw. Which is worse: not being able to cast because you used arcane deflection, or not being able to cast because the medusa turned you to stone/beholder disintegrated you/vampire charmed you etc. etc.

Tactical Wit: Initiative is great for wizards. Going first means often ending the fight before it starts with the right aoe cc or damage spell. By level 8 most wizards will be getting a +5 bonus from this, very significant!

Note: Combine this with the alert feat and you'll have a wizard that will almost always get the drop on enemies. Very powerful.

Power Surge: What is the point of this? A huge spiel about how to gather power surges and then the ability is a paltry 1/2 wizard level damage to one target. I'm very disappointed in this, it seems like it could have been a really interesting mechanic at the core of the tradition. Instead it's a pile of meh (especially compared to how fantastic the level 2 abilities are).

Durable Magic: By level 10 this might as well read "gain +2 to AC and saves" which is, of course, really good.

Deflecting Shroud: Power surge times three when you use your arcane deflection. What's three times garbage? Still garbage.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Racial Feats


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Image Copyright WotC

New Feat options are long overdue for 5e, and I like the way that these have been tied into variant races. The fact that only variant humans get to start with a feat, and overwhelming power of certain popular feats (Sharpshooter, GWM, Warcaster etc.) means that unfortunately many of these options may never see the light of day. More options are never unwelcome though.

A note on optimizing racial feats: The best use of most of these feats is "fix" odd stats. E.g. say I am using standard 27 point buy. I start with a 15 in strength on my Dragonborn paladin, gain +2 from my racial bonus, and when I hit level 4 I take Dragon Fear and gain an extra +1 bumping me up to 18. This way you can gain the advantage of the racial feats without "falling behind" in terms of stat progression. In almost all of my assessments of these feats I'll be using the assumption that you're using this method (since none of these abilities are better than a boost to your main attack/spellcasting stat).


Bountiful Luck (Halfling): Not off to a good start. This eats your reaction, has limited range, and unlike some of the better feats on this list gives you no stat bumps. If this gave you a +1 dexterity or charisma it might be worth picking, as written it's not worth it,

Dragon Fear (Dragonborn): The limited range and being tied to your Charisma really make this a paladin only ability. Even then, it's not that great, but it will be better than your crappy 3d6 dragon's breath, and it does give you a stat bump. Did I mention I really wish they hadn't changed the conquest paladin aura from the UA? :smallfrown:

Dragon Hide (Dragonborn): The claws are hot garbage. The one redeeming feature here is that a non-Dragon sorc can get a free mage armor while upping their charisma. I wouldn't bother personally. For everything else it's bad.

Drow High Magic (Drow Elf): I wouldn't take this over a bonus to my main stat, but once that is maxed out, this is pretty good. Detect magic at will? Dispel Magic? Nice stuff.

Dwarven Fortitude (Dwarf): It isn't terrible, but it's not good either. Having to take a dodge action to gain 1HD of healing? Is this worth a precious feat? Could hypothetically be good on a Dwarven monk (patient defense) maybe? Still think I'd rather have more dex/wis.

Elven Accuracy (Elf/Half-Elf): Honestly the "super advantage" is a little redundant, normal advantage usually gets the job done. It's still an extra edge though, and since this gives you a stat bump you can work it into your build without making sacrifices. Might be more attractive to UA Rangers or assassins (e.g. anyone who can reliably gain advantage).

Fade Away (Gnome): Gnomish master race does it again. A fantastic panic button for both gnome wizards and rogues. Comes back on a short rest too.

Fey Teleportation (High Elf): *sigh* It's good. It does kinda highlights one of the major oversights in 5e, which is that if your GM allows DMG Eldarin, they are a strictly "better" version of high elf. This is a feat that basically does nothing but turn a high elf into an Eldarin, and I still have to rate this ****er blue.

Flames of Phlegethos (Tiefling): Love the 4e callbacks on these names. Long story short - Draconic sorcerers obviously get the most use out of this, which is annoying, since they get the least use out of the damage aura. Overall though, like any racial feat with a stat bump, it's hard to be too critical, you can easily slip this into your build without losing much.

Infernal Constitution (Tiefling) : Giving +con doesn't help most builds very much, but... two resistances in one feat? With advantage on poison saves thrown in? This is strong enough to merit serious consideration. It may get even better when the UA tiefling options get finalized.

Orcish Fury (Half-Orc): The weapon damage isn't much, but attack as a reaction is nice. Since this gives +1 str I can't rate it lower...

Prodigy (Human/Halfbreeds): Skill? Meh. Language? Meh. Tool? Double meh. Expertise??? Now we're talking! Grab athletics expertise on a shield master fighter? Or stealth expertise on a ranger? Lots of potential.

Second Chance (Halflings): Ugh! This would be fantastic for halfling rogues, especially swashbucklers. Sadly you already have a great use of your reaction in uncanny dodge. Dex based fighters or warlocks may still get some mileage out of this.

Squat Nimbleness (Shorties): Well, halfling rogues don't have to be too sad that they can't benefit much from second chance, since this is another feat with a bunch of pretty good(tm) abilities and +dex thrown on. Blue all over.

Wood Elf Magic (Wood Elf): Some crappy cantrip, and longstrider are not why we pick this. Pass without trace is an awesome spell even only once a day. If you're not a ranger or druid this is a nice way to get it - this feats seems almost custom made for wood elves playing the new Scout rogue archetype.

[ProseBeforeHos]

New Spells

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The good news is that Xanathar's adds dozens of new spells to 5e casters, and (discounting SCAG which only gave us a few cantrips) this is the first book to do so since Princes of the Apocalypse. The bad news is that almost all of the EE spells have been reprinted here, the list of truly original spells isn't actually that large. Since some of the EE have been changed slightly since their original publication, I will just bite the bullet and do the entire list.


Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: It was bad in EE, it's still bad! Con save, necrotic damage, and only does 1d8 more than a lvl 8 cone of cold. Don't use this!

Absorb Elements: It was amazing in EE and it's still amazing! "Shield for spells". Just remeber this *does* require a hand free (somatic) to cast.

Aganazzar's Scorcher: Somewhat underwhelming. It does less damage than a chromatic orb of the same level. It's value is highly related to how much use you think a line aoe will be to you.


Beast Bond: Very selective in it's use. Beastmaster rangers who don't use wolves (who already gain advantage) will find this useful. Otherwise it's not good enough. This assumes you're playing UA beastmaster btw, friends don't let friends play PHB beastmaster.

Bones of the Earth: Lots to say about this spell. First of all it's flexible, it can be used to provide your ranged allies with safe firing platforms, or isolate enemy melee combatants (yeah they can jump off, but they take 3d6 and are knocked prone). More powerfully it any area where there is a ceiling within 30ft. of the floor (i.e. every dungeon) it can deal decent damage and potentially restrain 6 enemies without concentration! Oh and finally, for them to escape the "pin" they need to make str/dex checks not saves vs your DC, so good luck getting out. This spell is crazy good.


Catapult: A bit worse than chromatic orb since you can't target elemental weaknesses. If the enemies you're fighting have high AC and low dex saves (rare) this might be worth using.

Catnap: A short rest in 10 minutes? Only in a very specific situations will you have enough time for a 10 minutes rest, but not enough for a 60 minute one.

Cause Fear: This isn't bad as a disabler at low levels. Scales pretty well too.

Ceremony: Oh my god! This spell is fantastically flavorful! So many options, so many fun things to throw into your games, many with potent mechanical benifits. Potentially abusable also, does dying and being resurrected count as being 'widowed'? :smallconfused:

Chaos Bolt: Thematically I love this to death, but in practice the slim chance of a second attack probably isn't worth the random damage type (and less of that damage) compared to chromatic orb. A roleplay option for wild mages.

Charm Monster: Somehow I feel this will be less useful than a charm person. Monstrous enemies aren't known for sitting around passively waiting for you to cast this spell on them. It's also a hell of an investment compared to charm person (lvl 4 vs lvl 1).

Control Flames: This cantrip, like many others like it, comes under the umbrella of "non-combat utility" i.e. it has little to no combat effectiveness, but can be used for other things. Some of these (e.g. minor illusion) can be fantastic. Control flames, however, is among the worst of these options, everything is does is limited only to fire and it's most useful quality (on demand flames) are done by better, damaging cantrips (e.g. create bonfire).

Control Winds: You essentially gain gust of wind, and windwall in a single level five spell. A lot of "additional cost" for the versatility of picking between them. If I felt I needed both I think I'd rather just memorize the lower levels spells. The ulta-situational ability to aoe down a large number of flying enemies is the standout feature.

Create Bonfire: Decent damage cantrip with a bit of utility thrown in. Good for druids.

Create Homunculus: So, the stats of the monster you create are terrible, the cost is high (1000gp!), and the ability to swap your max HP to the monster will never be worth it. On the other hand: it's a concentration free perma-summon, and as a level 11 Wizard money is a non-issue for you. Create one as soon as you have some downtime, then send it off to spy on your enemies/clean your linens/feed your Pegasus etc.

Crown of Stars: A decent use for your level 7 slot, mostly due to to the ability to use each star as a bonus action, and the lack of concentration. Compared to the power of other level 7 spells, I'm not sure if damage alone is enough to justify taking this.


Dance Macabre: DM's will love this spell, but for players it has some major drawbacks. You need 5 corpses to be in once place, the range you can command your undead is limited to 60ft. and most importantly it requires concentration. For these reasons I think PC necromancers will be better off sticking with Animate Dead.

Dawn: Against most enemies 4d10 with a con save is a joke, and this spell will not be worth using. Against certain undead (and underdark races) being able to create specifically sunlight can be a powerful weapon. Situational, but potentially encounter ending.

Dragon's Breath: Burning hands might be a bad spell, but burning hands as an action, with flexible damage types, every round for a minute is a very efficient use of a single level 2 slot. If you're looking for a single concentration spell to drop at the start of a fight to conserve your better spells for later encounters, I think Dragon's Breath is comparable with spells like flaming sphere and spiritual weapon in terms of the damage you'll get out it in during an average length fight.

Druid Grove: Another spell that comes under the banner of "better for DM's than PC's". Though if you have a year's worth of downtime, then yeah set up your druid real estate, why the hell not?

Dust Devil: It's been changed slightly since EE giving you the option to produce a mobile cloud of obfuscation. Is that good enough to make it usable? No.


Earthbind: Don't use this against dragons, or other large flyers with good strength scores (Roc's etc.). Against anything else that flies this can be a death sentence.

Earth Tremor: Typo here, range is self - 10ft. radius. Low damage, low range, hits allies. Not good enough.

Elemental Bane: Low damage, gives a con save and eats your concentration. Even on the classes that this should be ideal for (i.e. dragon sorc) you have better options.

Enemies Abound: Edit: One of the spells I really misjudged. This is very good. Use it on the Orc boss and watch him slit up his underlings.

Enervation: The damage is low, and the healing is situational for a caster (better to not get hit), but it has potential when combined with quickened spell for a sorcerer. 4d8 as a bonus action isn't bad for a 5th lvl spell.

Erupting Earth: Worse damage than fireball but with a control aspect and better scaling. I think fireball is the better spell overall (and especially at lvl 5-6) but for those who are sick of the same spell-lists this is an acceptable replacement.


Far Step: On demand misty steps... are.. not very good, since unlike the original (or the dream druid ability, hidden paths) this requires concentration.

Find Greater Steed: If you don't already have a loyal flying mount there's no reason not to use this. The Pegasus is probably your best option, but just imagine the roleplay opportunities for the paladin who rides a rhinoceros!

Flame Arrows: Underwhelming damage, but on demand fire damage can situationally be useful (trolls, hydra's etc.).

Frostbite: It's alright. Con saves are usually fairly good on monster who want to smack you with things. I prefer both frostbolt and firebolt to this, but it is usable.


Guardian of Nature: The effects are so cool, however sadly druids will struggle to get use out of this. It's better on rangers (especially the rare strength ranger) but comes very late for them. Note - even if your GM allows you to use this with moon druid forms, I still think you'd be better off with bark/stoneskin for your concentration.

Gust: Another utility cantrip that underwhelmes. Stick to druidcraft.


Healing Spirit: A lot of discussion over this spell. I'll echo those who say as a spell to use in combat, it's alright. 1d6 in a combat round isn't fantastic and it eats you concentration, but even a single hp is enough to get an ally off the floor and reset their death saves. It's real strength is it's out of combat healing, where a lvl 2 slot will give you an avg. of 35hp, which you can very accurately apply to your party in d6 'chunks'. For comparison a prayer of healing spell on three people will do about 39 points of healing (assuming 18 wisdom and that the players got the full benefit of the heal - which they often don't). with the same slot. Sufficient to say that this spell altogether is very, very good.

Holy Weapon: The duration is good, the damage is decent, the typing is strong and it has extra cc thrown in. Paladins get this too late to be useful (you should be packing an actual holy avenger by level 17), but clerics (especially those with fighter buddies who can action surge) will find this a great tool for maximizing the value of your lvl 5 slot, especially vs the undead.


Ice Knife: As good as it was in EE. Nice low level aoe.

Illusory Dragon: Super fun and pretty damn strong. Aoe fear combined with bonus action aoe damage. Yes to all of that. It's not necessarily the best choice to take on a small group of very tough enemies (especially ones you suspect could see through the illusion) but if you need to a spell to single-handedly take on an army this is it.

Immolation: Pathetic damage for a spell of this level. Barely better than a fireball, across multiple turns, and requiring you to concentrate. It might not be the worst spell in DnD 5e but it's the worst spell in Xanathar's.

Infernal Calling: This spell is similar to conjure elemental, in that while the creature you summon is strong the potential downsides are massive. Given that, I would suggest going for the more reliable elementals when you have the choice. Warlocks may wish to risk it, especially if they have a talisman - but for god's sake, watch your concentration!

A note on Devils: All this assumes you're summoning a CR 5 barbed devil with a level 5 slot. Weaker devils aren't worth a 5th level slot, and this spell doesn't scale well enough to imo to justify for of the higher CR devils (is a CR 8 chain devil that might turn on you really worth a lvl 7 slot?).

Infestation: Con save, poison damage, low damage. The movement effect isn't worth these drawbacks.

Investiture of Flame: The investiture spells follow a pattern of giving you a) immunity to a damage type b) an aoe damage aura and c) on demand damage of the same type. Generally speaking I think these spells are not good. Against an enemy where immunity to fire could be useful (say, a red dragon), the damage aura and line damage are going to be worthless. Seeing as this is a high level spell that requires concentration, I expect more. If the duration was longer I might be temped to rate it higher, but at 10 minutes it's too limiting.

Investiture of Ice: See above.

Investiture of Stone: Better, due to being a stoneskin effect without the material cost. It's "attack" function is weak, but at least doesn't lock you into a damage type. The most usable of the four, though the duration remains hugely limiting.

Investiture of Wind: Fly is nice, disadvantage on ranged attacks is nice. Using a level 6 slot for what is essentially a fly spell is less nice. 10 minute limit is not nice at all.

Invulnerability: Being invincible is overrated. Level 17 wizards have plenty of defensive options, and your precious level 9 slot should ideally be used for something more impactful than this. Even in games where wish is banned you'll find better uses for your big gun than this.


Life Transference: Take an avg. of 18 damage, heal an avg. of 36. The heal is almost too big to be used efficiently, and the penalty is significant. Remember resistance to necrotic can't let you "cheat" the effect since the healing is based on damage taken. A life cleric with blessed healer may find this spell more appealing (take 13, heal for a ridiculous 41!).


Maddening Darkness: Yes the radius is undeniably huge (60ft.!), and yes this spell will wreck hordes to pieces with both cc and damage. Doesn't it feel a bit... redundant though? Illusory dragon will wreck a large group of enemies just as well as maddening darkness can, a how many options does a level 15 spellcaster need to deal with, say, an orcish warband?

Maelstrom: 6d6 isn't impressive, but the ability to create a large (30ft.) area of difficult terrain that can suck enemies in while damaging them? Good control option (and for contrast - three spell levels lower than maddening darkness).

Magic Stone: 1d6+ability modifier will be good for caster druids at levels 1-4 (almost making shillelagh obsolete) then will quickly drop off. That being said, druids lack for ranged damage cantrips, so it might be worth keeping. For Hexblade warlocks that don't want to take the agonizing blast invocation, this is a better ranged option lvl 1-4 than eldritch blast.

Mass Polymorph: It would be skyblue if not for the existence of the wish spell making virtually every other level 9 spell look bad in comparison. If wish is barred, this is a great option.

Maximilian's Earthen Grasp: Restrained and damaged, requiring a strength check to break out. Assuming you're not fighting giants or their equivalents this is a nice level two spells, comparable to flaming sphere in it's usefulness.

Melf's Minute Meteors: The situation where this spell would be more useful than a fireball spell is hard to imagine. Yes it's more damage overall (12d6 vs 8d6) but it eats concentration and is spread out over so many turns. Perhaps when fighting trolls? Or masses of weak enemies? It does scale rather well...

Mental Prison: Why is this spell not on the bard list? So yeah, this spell is good; cc if they don't move massive damage if they do. Is it better than phantasmal force for a single target cc though? Especially as PF comes in 4 spell levels lower than this...

Mighty Fortress: Forget your mansion Mordenkainen, real mages summon a 120ft. square fortress to hole up in. This spell has some seriously limitations though, it only lasts 7 days, and the walls aren't actually that durable (AC 15, 30hp). If you're trying to hold a pass from an invading army, throwing a fortress in their path that they didn't expect to be there is worth a lvl 8 slot.

Mind Spike: This is a damaging spell with a tracking function, so it isn't as subtle as say, a hunter's mark or scrying spell, but the actual damage it does is underwhelming (3d8 w/ save). Pass, pass, pass.

Mold Earth: It's a bit better than some of the other 'red rated elemental utility cantrips' like control flames, but not good enough. You'd never take this over more flexible utility cantrips.


Negative Energy Flood: Like a mini-finger as death, but worse since 5d12 on a failed con save is some underwhelming damage for a level 5 spell. The zombie you get doesn't even follow your orders... ew.


Power Word Pain: Alimony? A powerful disabler, unfortunately the con saves at the end of turn make this a little less impactful than I would wish. And this all assuming you don't flub the spell by using it too early (i.e over 100hp). Not worth your precious lvl 7 slot.

Primal Savagery: Levels 1-4 shillelagh is better level 5 and higher this is the most damaging melee druid cantrip. Personally I still wouldn't take it, I prefer my caster druids to stay at range, and even if you want a melee cantrip thorn whip is more flexible, but if you do find yourself in melee a lot this is a decent option.

Primordial Ward: A super version of protection from energy, protecting you from multiple damage types and giving you a 'panic button' ability to gain total immunity (e.g. use this when the dragon uses it's breath weapon on you). Is this worth a level 6 slot? I would say yes, assuming you know you're fighting enemies with a lot of elemental damage.

Psychic Scream: Haha, head explosion as a core mechanic? What is this, SotDL? Funky SFX aside, this is a good spell, the damage is garbage, but an intelligence based stun, long range and large number of effected enemies (with 0 concentration) will end most encounters you use it on. What a shame wish exists and makes all other level 9 spells redundant.

Pyrotechnics: This spell has been changed to "non-magical flame". There goes the combo with flaming sphere, and your major reason to want to take this spell.


Scatter: "On the ground or the floor" is the killer here. Otherwise this spell would be sky blue. Despite that, there's plenty of situations where this ability could be encounter ending, it just requires either some sort of debilitating terrain feature or perhaps an aoe cc for you to teleport them into.

Shadow Blade: My major complaint is that I wish the weapon counted as pact weapon, since it seems thematically perfect for hexblades. The real winner here is the arcane trickster since this weapon is both an illusion spell and a light, finesse-able (and throwable!) weapon. A serious contender for your first lvl 2 trickster spell. Edit: Eldritch Knight Fighters and even Valor or College of Swords bards can all get some real mileage out of this spell. Remember: just because a weapon can be used with dexterity doesn't mean it has to be. This spell is just as good for beefy types.

Shadow of Moil: It's not quite as good as greater invisibility, but it's still good enough to be usable. Warlocks (especially Hexblades) who want a powerful defensive concentration spell, but who don't have access to greater invis. could do worse.

Shape Water: Yet another EE utility cantrip that you won't take for any other reason than roleplay flavor.

Sickening Radiance: Exhaustion is crazy and if you have some way to keep enemies in the aura for more than two rounds it's basically a death sentence. It also some nice utility an an anti-invisibility tool. Pretty good.

Skill Empowerment: Edit: As Tesla Dragon noted in the comments you can't use this on a skill that already benefits from expertise making it absolute trash.

Skywrite: The effect is so-so, but hey, it's a ritual! If you need something to fill out your prepared spells it's good enough.

Snare: Even a crappy hunting trap can be surprisingly effective at low levels when setting up an ambush. This is a several degrees better than that. Situational, but strong.

Snilloc's Snowball Swarm: Much worse than shatter at the same level. Cool effect, rubbish in practice. They couldn't have buffed this?

Soul Cage: Feels more like a spell for the villains, but it's not without it's uses for PC's. Advantage on a save (powerful!)? Six question that must be answered truthfully (forget messing around trying to take enemies alive)? Is this worth a 6th level slot though? Usually you're going to want something more direct. But this spell is unique enough that it can fill a roll in your spellbook that no other spell can.

Steel Wind Strike: *Teleports behi- Damn, I already did that joke. It's a good spell, limited by it's availability. Melee rangers will love this - except that they don't get it till level 17. Wizards won't love this, even though they get it at level 9. Hexblades get shafted yet again since this isn't on the warlock list.

Edit: Now that i think about it this is an contender for college of valor/sword bards when they get their lvl 10 magical secrets.

Storm Sphere: Difficult terrain is good, the damage is meh, the bonus damage action is meh. Is this better than just a fireball? In certain situations where you need a hold a certain arena, perhaps.

Summon Greater Demon: This is what dealing with fiends should be like. High risk high reward (unlike the infernal version which is high risk, ok reward). A CR 5 summon out of a lvl 4 slot is way above curve, and the Barlgura specifically is a very strong for a CR 5 monster (with a weak charisma save, perfect for this spell). Of course if the spell goes awry it could be disastrous, which is why you make sure that you're the member of your group standing in the circle!

Summon Lesser Demons: Ehhh strictly weaker than the greater version. The lower CR demons are fairly weak compared to their larger cousins, and you have no option at all to control them. Hypothetically they could be used to tie up a group of enemies chasing you, but this doesn't feel like a spell I'm going to have prepared just for that eventuality.

Synaptic Static: Damage wise it's a level 5 fireball which would be bad but the concentration-less aoe debuff that works off intelligence (usually fairly weak stat), makes this a fairly awesome spell. Target it against the right type of enemies (beefy idiots) and it's an encounter ending spell.


Temple of the Gods: Another fun downtime option for high levels PC's. Build a scrying proof, undead and fiend repellent temple that boost your healing, decorated however you like. Is this any good in a dungeon? Absolutely not!

Tenser's Transformation: Here's the good news - if you seriously want your wizard to mix it up in the melee, this gives you everything you need. Temp hp, two attacks and a ton of bonus damage. The downside is... is this seriously better than just blasting them with ? The potential for exhaustion after casting is also a pain.

Thunderclap: The potential for aoe doesn't make up for the crappy damage and targetting con saves. Bad.

Thunder Step: I prefer misty step but this ain't bad. The damage isn't much, but being able to whisk a buddy out of harms way is worth your action. It's not a replacement for, say, fireball but at higher levels when you have more 3rd level slots this could certainly warrant a spot in your prepared spells.

Tidal Wave: I was quite excited for this spell the first time I tried it, but in my experience it's area is too small and it's damage is too low. Strength saves (like con saves) are often fairly good on unintelligent monsters. I do not recommend this.

Tiny Servant: As a combat summon it's beyond terrible. As a utility option to spy on someone, I think I'd rather just use my familiar. This spell needed to be a ritual.

Toll the Dead: What to say? With both a D12 damage dice (usually) and the targeting of wisdom saves (rather than dex for sacred flame) this is the best damaging cantrip that isn't called "Eldritch Blast". In the majority of games this will be a cleric's go-to option for an offensive cantrip.

Transmute Rock: Transmuting an area of the floor to mud will be the ability you're most likely to use, and although the ability is hardly the most powerful cc ability on your list, the size of the area and -most importantly- the lack of concentration make this potent. At higher levels you can 'double up' by casting this to create an area of mud, then casting again to trap enemies in stone, very potent!


Vitriolic Sphere: Barely better than a fireball cast at the same level, with the damage split across two turns. Is acid a better damage type than fire? Probably. Is that enough to justify preparing this spell? Probably not.


Wall of Light: It's not bad, even though the damage and blindness target con. The "laser" effect might be better for sorcerers who can quicken spell. Is it better than wall of force in the same slot, doing largely the same thing? No.

Wall of Sand: If you want to block sight, why not just use an illusion? Yes this spell provides a [I]sort of physical barrier, but not much of one.

Wall of Water: Better than wall of sand, but not by much. The key to making this useful is to follow it up with an ally using some sort of cold spell directly afterwards. Is the effect worth the effort and co-ordination required? Ehhhh...

Warding Wind: The best ability is the disadvantage vs ranged attacks, and for that I think I'd rather just use blur. There's 'situational' and then there's 'redundant'. This is feels like the latter.

Watery Sphere: One of the best EE spells remains unchanged. Tie up multiple enemies, drop them off cliffs. Endless fun.

Whirlwind: Fairly good cc, even at the high level required to cast it. You have to pick your targets carefully, since plenty of enemies have excellent strength scores, but I still don't feel like I can rate an aoe damaging, restraining effect that can be re-positioned as an action any lower than blue.

Word of Radiance: Edit: Better than the wizard cantrip this is based on since it does the useful radiant damage type, and also heavily armored clerics are much more likely to be in the melee.

Wrath of Nature: Prepare for long, involved debates on the number of rocks in any area of a forest. Long story short - if you're in a heavily forested area with lots of fauna this is a fairly devastating crowd control ability, with multiple effects each turn to make your enemies suffer. If not then swap it out.


Zephyr Strike: If this was just disengage as a bonus action as a level 1 spell that would be good enough to potentially warrant taking this. Add in extra damage and free advantage and we have an excellent spell. This only requires a verbal component so useful for TWF rangers too.

[polymphus]

Response goes here

[Easy_Lee]

Response goes here

Disagreement with your response that implies negative characteristics about you goes here.

[lunaticfringe]

Disagreement with your response that implies negative characteristics about you goes here.

Verbose response to your disagreement that proves how intelligent I am while implying you are a troll goes here.

[Eragon123]

Disagreement with your response that implies negative characteristics about you goes here.


Verbose response to your disagreement that proves how intelligent I am while implying you are a troll goes here.

[Joke about how 2/3 first responders have Rangers in their signatures goes here.]

[Theoboldi]

Question about whether a guide to everything contains a guide to itself goes here.

[lebefrei]

Five joke replies...

So, thanks for making this. Who knows if anyone is going to update their class guides, so this is a useful resource. As a DM I like having players that are at least a bit informed about their new abilities when they come in with them, and guides like this help. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Naanomi]

A few thoughts...

inquisitive rogue being called out as not great in a dungeon crawl game seems a bit off to me. It is specifically the environment where trap detection, passive perception, invisible monsters, etc come into play. While I don’t think it makes inquisitive much better than your analysis, I think inquisitive as a dungeon-crawling specialist is one area it shines

Divine Soul and Empowered Healing: note it also helps Healing spells cast by people other than yourself... not stellar for you, perhaps, but potential teamwork when you are Sorcerer Jesus and you have Cleric Paul backing you up

[Bloodcloud]

Note on the kensai, I believe it gets real damn good with a whip since you get range and up its pitiful damage with matial art... Was that considered?

Props otherwise

[Provo]

I'm not sure the Desert Storm barb aura should be red. Yes it is weak damage and highly resisted, but it has a hidden benefit.

When facing regenerating characters such as trolls/hydra. You are guaranteed to cancel out their regeneration EVERY turn in an aura.

The ability is still weak, but I'd argue for purple as it is a niche benefit.

[Unoriginal]

I'm pretty sure you cannot both seath a weapon and draw it again as a free action, so I don't think what you mentioned for the Bard work.

[Dudewithknives]

I'm pretty sure you cannot both seath a weapon and draw it again as a free action, so I don't think what you mentioned for the Bard work.

Sheath it no, but you could drop it for free and pick it up.
Or you could sheath on the round you cast the spell, then next round when you go for the attack draw it again.

Once you get haste later it makes things even better.

[Naanomi]

Since the weapon counts as your focus, most spells you don’t even need a free hand right? Only those with expensive material componants, or somatic componants without material ones?

[PeteNutButter]

Good summary.

I think it's important to note your wording/interpretation on Kensei ignores the potential to add the +3 to hit and damage onto a magical weapon that does not have a bonus to attack and damage. That means the Kensei could take his flametongue and turn it into a +3 flametongue, or for that matter make better use of any of the less powerful magic weapons that exist in the DMG without any +1-3 bonuses.

Also I think your judgement of the class is a bit harsh. +2 AC for the difference of what is usually 1 point of damage, no ki cost, is a huge buff to any class. Note that anyone can MC into it, and get that benefit regardless of their armor and fighting style. This could be worth it for a S&B fighter that also has a racial damage boost to their unarmed strike, such as lizardfolk, tortle, tabaxi, etc.

[Foxhound438]

Thus far everything's pretty agreeable. I expect you'll have a to of people yelling about how arcane archer should be red because it only gets two shots per rest, but I recommend you keep it where it is. The shots can be really powerful, and 2 per rest is already super good.

[rbstr]

Thus far everything's pretty agreeable. I expect you'll have a to of people yelling about how arcane archer should be red because it only gets two shots per rest, but I recommend you keep it where it is. The shots can be really powerful, and 2 per rest is already super good.

I totally agree. I think the thing that does suck about the class is that the arrow damage upgrade could have easily been split to give a minor bump at like level 7.

[mephnick]

Once you get Extra Attack with Kensai you can use your new special weapon and still get the AC bonus as long as your second attack is an unarmed strike.

[Dudewithknives]

Once you get Extra Attack with Kensai you can use your new special weapon and still get the AC bonus as long as your second attack is an unarmed strike.

I never liked the idea of:

Here is a special subclass all about being a mystical weapon master so you can use weapons with your monk abilities.
By the way we know that monks have AC problems so we are also giving you an ability that adds +2 AC.
But to get the ac bonus, you have to not actually use your own weapon your subclass is based on.

It should have just said if you attack with an unarmed strike on your turn. That way it only works in melee range, but can activate with martial arts attack that could not be weapon attacks anyway.

[mephnick]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

[Dudewithknives]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

I still just want my damn Duelist subclass, for fighters preferably.

Unarmored Defense, Good AC without a shield, and precision type abilities.

Every edition I want to play 3 things at least once. (actually I like those types in any type of game, NWOD, D&D, OWOD, ect)

1. The Subtle Manipulator type, which is solid gold with subtle spell sorcerers.
2. The bloodhound tracker archer.
and the most liked
3. A single weapon duelist type (fighter/duelist/champion of corian in 3.5, Swashbuckler in PF, ect)

So far, nothing really does it right in 5e.

[mephnick]

I still just want my damn Duelist subclass, for fighters preferably.

Unarmored Defense, Good AC without a shield, and precision type abilities.

Rogue 2/ Monk/ 1 Fighter X gets you unarmoured defence, unarmoured movement, bonus action dodges/dashes/disengages, sneak attack and maneuvers. Ignore the Ki fluff.

It's not perfect but it hits all your boxes.

[thepsyker]

I never liked the idea of:

Here is a special subclass all about being a mystical weapon master so you can use weapons with your monk abilities.
By the way we know that monks have AC problems so we are also giving you an ability that adds +2 AC.
But to get the ac bonus, you have to not actually use your own weapon your subclass is based on.


See, I don't think the designers were looking at it as a way to address any AC problem of the monk. I think they viewed it more as giving flexibility in letting the monk choose between a more offensive or defensive style depending on the situation. Basicaly, you can pick between the additional damage of a larger weapon die (at least for most of the characters life) and eventually deft strike, sharpen blade and/or the accuracy ability thats name is escaping me on one attack or you can get +2 AC. Of course the question then becomes if they correctly estimated the value of the two sides of that scale.

[Spiritchaser]

Rogue 2/ Monk/ 1 Fighter X gets you unarmoured defence, unarmoured movement, bonus action dodges/dashes/disengages, sneak attack and maneuvers. Ignore the Ki fluff.

It's not perfect but it hits all your boxes.

Fair enough but...

It was possible to make a Fighter/Bladelock MC that worked before XGTE, but they were still kind enough to give us a single class build that ticked all the boxes... so why not ask

[Easy_Lee]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

I think they're going for a sort of Wushu image. Use your weapon to bind your opponent's while you kick or otherwise strike him. That said, it's not like knights or samurai never did this, but whatever - not a reality simulator.

[Nargrakhan]

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.


I think they're going for a sort of Wushu image. Use your weapon to bind your opponent's while you kick or otherwise strike him. That said, it's not like knights or samurai never did this, but whatever - not a reality simulator.

*rant mode*

Not to go too off topic, but doesn't the Battlemaster already capture the thematic feel of a Kensai?

For example Assassin from FATE screams Battlemaster to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZG15BaK9r8


All those fancy moves remind me of Maneuvers. For example at the 0:24 mark I see Parry and then Push being used. Hell... even his ultimate technique Tsubame Gaeshi at the end (bending space-time to attack multiple times in a single strike) is what an Action Surge can be described as.

If you feel anime action scenes don't equate well with DnD, then there's Hattori from the Zatoich reboot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lme7A_WR5VQ

I see him using Riposte, Parry, Disarming, and Menacing in that fight.

I've never supported the idea of using "cultural specific" terminology for subclass names. The features in the Samurai martial archetype don't just apply to anime/theater style samurai... nor are those features the only abilities attributed to anime/theater samurai. I recall watching a South African movie about a heroic Zulu warrior who's abilities in the film would perfectly match the Samurai if I wanted to recreate him in the game. It feels wrong having the word Samurai on such a character sheet...

*rant mode off*

[Sception]

Not sure that I agree hexblades /must/ go blade pact. Non-melee, shadow-themed warlock is a strong thematic choice, and the hexblade's curse works just as well, if not better, with eldritch blast as it does w melee attacks, and with less invocation overhead.

Plus, ranged fighting tends to work better with the warlock's easiest form of advantage - darkness/devil's sight - to crit fish off the expanded range on a cursed target

As you mention, even with all the buffs to blade pact, a melee hexblade is still weaker than a normal blastibg fiendlock. Well, that applies to a blasting hexlock as well.

if you're going for blade pact, you absolutely need to go hexblade, but the reverse is not at all true. The writers stapled a fix to blade pact to tge patron, but underneath that fix hexblade is still a fully functional curse themed patron that works just fine with other pact boons.

[mgshamster]

Well, it seems my own trend is unbroken. The abilities that these guides rate as red or "the worst" are usually the things I look at and think, "That is really cool! I want to play that!"

Frenzy? Check.
Champion? Check.
Beast Master? Check.
Elemental Monk? Check.
Thief? Check.
Wild mage? Check.
Transmutation? Check.

And so far, I've had a blast with all of those classes, despite them being "the worst." And amazingly, I'm able to contribute and keep up with "the best" classes in all those cases.

And now the XGE version!

Desert barb? That was the very first thing I fell in love with in XGE. Check!
Whisper bard? Check!
Kensai? Oh yeah!
Celestial Warlock? Yup!

Surprisingly, the Horizon Walker, bar non my new favorite ranger, wasn't rated as horrible! Of course, the reason I love it isn't for anything that was rated blue - I love it because it's literally a Planewalker! And those who know me know my love of Planescape.

Despite all that, I'm willing to bet that everything in this book, from the worst to the best, still fall within the usual Tier 3 range that the other books falls into. Nothing is outlandishly good or bad, and nothing is so good as to get up to tier 2 or so bad as to fall to tier 4.

[Nargrakhan]

Well, it seems my own trend is unbroken. The abilities that these guides rate as red or "the worst" are usually the things I look at and think, "That is really cool! I want to play that!"

Optimization does not equate into fun. Fun does not equate into optimization.

I'm 100% with you that not being the absolute best can be a memorable experience. My favorite 5e character of all time was a 16th level Fighter Battlemaster with 20 in Strength AND Dexterity, but only 14 in Constitution (optimization says pick STR or DEX, have the one not chosen a dump stat, and at least 16 CON).

However the purpose of this thread is rating things based on the meta. I also like knowing about these things. While I don't play a totally optimized character, I also don't want to be a burden on my party. I could play a fighter with 8 in all three attributes of STR, DEX, and CON -- and I'm sure it would be hilarious -- but what about the other players depending on me to pull some weight to success. It's kinda selfish to completely focus on what I purely want.

I don't entirely abandon optimization biased choices, so I can make sincere contributions to successfully finishing the campaign. Threads like these help me do that. I will still cling to the non-meta character concept I want to roleplay, but still take the the time to seriously consider a few optimal choices so I won't be entirely useless for most of the adventure.

[Spiritchaser]

As you mention, even with all the buffs to blade pact, a melee hexblade is still weaker than a normal blastibg fiendlock. Well, that applies to a blasting hexlock as well.


I'm not really sure that I agree with this.

With CHA to attack, you have room in your build for a great many feats, and you can still preserve a decent CON. Accordingly, GWM and PAM are solid.

Combine this with darkness from 3-6, or with shadow of moil at 7 to 16, or foresight if you live to 17, and you'll be able to outperform a blastlock for DPR for much of your journey. This can be especially true if you happen to be a half elf, where elven accuracy gives you a stunning absence of penalty for using that -5/+10.

For example, using no slots for eldritch smite you could be hitting for 58 points of damage on average per round at level 8 with a half elf with point buy. Considerably more at 12 when PAM becomes available and you don't have to worry about a crit proc of your GWM bonus attack.


That damage at that level is not something an eldritch blaster can do.

And you can still blast.

Don't get me wrong, I think when all things are considered the fiend patron is still very strong, and probably a hair stronger than hexblade overall, but melee warlocks now have a solid place where they surpass their blaster bretheren:

Bringing the pain, at will, round in, round out.

And you're a warlock. You owe everyone pain.

Except those celestials I guess...

[Temperjoke]

My only complaint, which is the same complaint I have about most of the class guides on here, is that it's centered purely on combat. I mean, I understand that when you're looking for optimization that's the information you need, but at the same time it also causes a lot of abilities that are good out of combat to get tossed in the trash, and deters people from trying the class.

[mgshamster]

Optimization does not equate into fun. Fun does not equate into optimization.

That certainly true!

Some people forget that, though. :)

Take, for example, the current thread complaining about weapons in 5e, and how the OP can't play the PC he wants to play because it's not optimized.

So I feel it's good to remind people that in 5e, even the most unoptimized character can still contribute to the group in a meaningful manner, and can still be fun. The PC won't be grossly outshined by even the most optimized character. A little outshined, maybe, but not overly so.

It's hard to make a PC that truly sucks; you really have to try to do it. Like making a melee PC with 8 in all your physical stats. And even then it's doable (for example, with a hexblade or Shillelagh cantrip w/ magic initiate or a moon druid).

And still, I think it's funny that whenever I look at a class and think "this is awesome," it's almost inevitably going to be rated poor in the guides. That's just funny. :)

[Danielqueue1]

I bought Xanathar's guide, but it still doesn't ship for a while. Does empowered healing from Divine soul only affect a single instance of healing? or could it be used on the Druid's Healing spirit for a bonus each tic?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Spirit Shield: -2d6 damage as a reaction? Pretty damn nice, especially since barbarians are not usually very efficient in their action economy, and this gives you a good use for your reaction that you should be able to make use of almost every turn. The only downside is that doesn't scale particularly well, 2d6 at lvl 6 is a lot more impressive than 4d6 at level 14.

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

[Talamare]

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

Only works when ANOTHER creature takes damage...
Unless your plan is that the entire team is Ancestral Barbarians
... Which honestly would probably work...


Edit - Oh, tho the level 3 feature works by whatever the barb hits, gets debuffed for a turn. So that if they hit anyone but the barb, the have disadvantage on the attack AND disadvantage on the damage

ffs this subclass is broken...
It's like the designers have a hardon for barbarian considering bearbarian also exist...

It's like the designer said, people are saying bearbarian is the most broken subclass in the game? HOLD MY BEER!

[Talamare]

Ancestral Guardian
The "tankbarian" option. Good at protecting allies and forcing others to attack you, which with your resistances and HP pool is just gravy.

Ancestral Protectors: 'Mark' a target while raging and apply disadvantage as well as resistance to it's attacks to your allies. An insanely powerful defensive tool. That cripples the offensive potential of any enemy you hit. They are now given the choice of having Disadvantage and Resistance vs someone that they can kill OR likely hit someone with Resistance against the biggest meat bag on the team. Remember that the condition for this is easy to achieve since you always have the option of getting advantage on your attacks by using Reckless Strike.

Spirit Shield: If giving an enemy Disadvantaged on Attack AND Damage wasn't enough, you're able to screw over another attack once per turn by massively reducing the damage. Ideal for either massive hits on an ally, or a target you weren't able to mark. This even stacks with Ancestral Protectors, but since flat damage is done before Resistance it's not as insane. If your ally is being hit by 30 damage, and you reduce it by 15 with this feature. Resistance will then reduce it to 7.

Consult the Spirits: Incredibly Useful Flavor

Vengeful Ancestors: Free damage is always good, this has the added bonus of being a spit on the face of the enemy.

[Klorox]

Great job.

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.

I’m going to hold judgement until I see a few in action.

Is that zealot barbarian on par with the bear totem barbarian? It looks really, really good.

Thank you for your hard work putting this together!

[Talamare]

Great job.

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.

I’m going to hold judgement until I see a few in action.

Is that zealot barbarian on par with the bear totem barbarian? It looks really, really good.

Thank you for your hard work putting this together!

Yes, and no

Bearbarian is still #1 in personal survivability
Ancestral is #1 in party survivability
Zealot is #1 in damage dealing

So... different broken strokes for different folks

[Kuulvheysoon]

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

So I don't have the book (yet), but is Spirit Shield applied before or after Resistance?

[Danielqueue1]

So I don't have the book (yet), but is Spirit Shield applied before or after Resistance?

In the PHB all modifiers to damage happen before resistance. but the wording on this ability might be different. (I don't have xanathar's yet either.

[SaurOps]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

Especially since it was originally a fighter sub-class when it first appeared. And the monk should arguably not exist as a class in 5e, since monastic folk fall under Acolytes and Hermits, in Backgrounds. With the folding of so much OA material into one class (the samurai is an outlier among fighters), 5e has royally botched the conceptualization of ki and turned it into the Asian Power Source.

[mephnick]

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.
!

Let's be honest, when you're out of shots you're still probably a Sharpshooter dpr buzzsaw who can take free shots. I think everyone will survive the "lack" of arcane shots.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Only works when ANOTHER creature takes damage...
Unless your plan is that the entire team is Ancestral Barbarians
... Which honestly would probably work...

Ah, I just assumed “you are your own ally” applies here. The new feature is different from the old (UA transferred your resistance), so I don’t actually know the new text—but the only reason this was useless for defending yourself before is because you already had the reduction.


In the PHB all modifiers to damage happen before resistance. but the wording on this ability might be different. (I don't have xanathar's yet either.

Is that a Heavy Armor Master ruling? Unfortunate if true here, but, resisting the remaining damage means uou’re Still cutting more than expected at face value (though not based on the feature’s merits).

[Warwick]

The zealot seems really cool. Actually makes me consider playing a barbarian, which is unusual (nothing against it, but normally not my thing). The range limit on the Horizon Walker's bonus damage is a little disappointing (and a little inexplicable, to be honest), but I like the concept there as well.


Let's be honest, when you're out of shots you're still probably a Sharpshooter dpr buzzsaw who can take free shots. I think everyone will survive the "lack" of arcane shots.

It sort of undermines the magical archer archetype if 95% of the time you're just a regular archer and a couple of times a day you get a piece of magic ammo. It may or may not be weak, but it's definitely lame. I'd rather have a couple of cantripesque arrows than the +1 attack/damage magic arrows (which is the epitome of 'solid but boring')

[Draco4472]

Awesome guide. Hexblade seems a really strong dip for a college of sword Bard or Swashbuckler rogue.

[Lolzyking]

I think you are underselling the kensei, its not as limiting as it was in the ua.

Kensei weapons are treated monk weapons, this means weapons like the whip, or darts if chosen scale with martial arts die.

you only need to make one of your attacks with your unarmed strike to gain benefit of agile parry.

sharpened blade can work well with magical weapons that don't give +1s such as flame tongue or a lightning javelin. (this is useful in adventures league where such weapons are considered trash items due to harsh optimization)

[Ralanr]

Did the book get leaked early and I missed the link?

[Unoriginal]

Did the book get leaked early and I missed the link?

Some stores got it on the 10th.

[Ralanr]

Some stores got it on the 10th.

Oh.

[Curse words]

[Unoriginal]

Oh.

[Curse words]

Though of course you can find it leaked online.

[Ralanr]

Though of course you can find it leaked online.

That I expected but I probably can't find it easy.

[Unoriginal]

That I expected but I probably can't find it easy.

Oh you can.

Sorry I can't help you more, but it's probably against the rules.

[Ralanr]

Oh you can.

Sorry I can't help you more, but it's probably against the rules.

That's fair.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Not sure that I agree hexblades /must/ go blade pact. Non-melee, shadow-themed warlock is a strong thematic choice, and the hexblade's curse works just as well, if not better, with eldritch blast as it does w melee attacks, and with less invocation overhead.

Plus, ranged fighting tends to work better with the warlock's easiest form of advantage - darkness/devil's sight - to crit fish off the expanded range on a cursed target

As you mention, even with all the buffs to blade pact, a melee hexblade is still weaker than a normal blastibg fiendlock. Well, that applies to a blasting hexlock as well.

if you're going for blade pact, you absolutely need to go hexblade, but the reverse is not at all true. The writers stapled a fix to blade pact to tge patron, but underneath that fix hexblade is still a fully functional curse themed patron that works just fine with other pact boons.

Yes this is true, I will edit my guide to reflect this. As you rightly point out the Hexblade (ironically) makes a good blasterlock.

[ProseBeforeHos]

I think you are underselling the kensei, its not as limiting as it was in the ua.

Kensei weapons are treated monk weapons, this means weapons like the whip, or darts if chosen scale with martial arts die.

you only need to make one of your attacks with your unarmed strike to gain benefit of agile parry.

sharpened blade can work well with magical weapons that don't give +1s such as flame tongue or a lightning javelin. (this is useful in adventures league where such weapons are considered trash items due to harsh optimization)

Whip is an interesting option, but would not allow you to use flurry or agile parry while using the range.

Indeed, however I think my assessment still stands. You are being rewarded for not using one of (what should be) your subclasses core strengths.

An interesting point. But enough to warrant a better rating? I'm skeptical.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Great job.

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.

I’m going to hold judgement until I see a few in action.

Is that zealot barbarian on par with the bear totem barbarian? It looks really, really good.

Thank you for your hard work putting this together!

Curving shot is surprisingly good. We have an Arcane archer in a Curse of Strahd game, and he's been a DPR machine (he took both elven accuracy and sharpshooter).

I would say bear totem remains the best overall choice assuming you grab sentinel. Zealot is close behind though.

No problem! Hope it's useful to you.

[ProseBeforeHos]

My only complaint, which is the same complaint I have about most of the class guides on here, is that it's centered purely on combat. I mean, I understand that when you're looking for optimization that's the information you need, but at the same time it also causes a lot of abilities that are good out of combat to get tossed in the trash, and deters people from trying the class.

This is a fair complaint. I do try and talk about my reflections on the thematic "coolness" of the class, but in my defense this is an optimization thread, and what classes have what roleplay value is highly subjective.

From an RP perspective I hate the scout and love the drunken master, but someone else will have the opposite opinion :smallsmile:

[Ralanr]

So I got a few questions:

Do Zealot Barbarians hurt allies with their damage aura? In the UA my friends couldn't find where it said it didn't so it cause the class to be a team killer.

Can Storm Herald choose it's storm types each level like totem warrior or is it a one storm choice?

[Naanomi]

So I got a few questions:

Do Zealot Barbarians hurt allies with their damage aura? In the UA my friends couldn't find where it said it didn't so it cause the class to be a team killer.

Can Storm Herald choose it's storm types each level like totem warrior or is it a one storm choice?
Zealots don’t have an aura anymore, and storm herald is ‘locked in’ to one choice

Edit: a neat trick for Celestial Warlocks: if you are an Aasimar, use your racial to add radiant damage to all your spells... and then get them boosted because they now deal radiant damage.

[Ralanr]

Zealots don’t have an aura anymore, and storm herald is ‘locked in’ to one choice

Edit: a neat trick for Celestial Warlocks: if you are an Aasimar, use your racial to add radiant damage to all your spells... and then get them boosted because they now deal radiant damage.

1. Good to know.

2. Aww...

[Eric Diaz]

Take, for example, the current thread complaining about weapons in 5e, and how the OP can't play the PC he wants to play because it's not optimized.

This is a lie (I've never said I "can't play" any PC).

It is also off-topic.

And, TBH, a bit unpleasant to see myself criticized for a false reason when casually reading a thread in which I didn't participate.

If I've said something you disagree with, you can try and talk to me directly. I hope you'll find I'm quite agreeable.

Other than that I completely agree with the sentiment that fun and optimization are separated, that thy can be discussed separately, and that it is cool to like both.

[Easy_Lee]

When your character must suck for you to have fun, that's not fun. Nor is it always sustainable. If your idea of a fun character is one who charges naked into battle wielding a sickle and your foes are giants, you don't get to have fun.

That doesn't mean every option needs to be the best, only that every supported option needs to be viable, meaning able to handle the expected level of challenge.

But this is off-topic. From what I've seen of the new Xanathar's options, they're all viable.

[tsotate]

Bearbarian is still #1 in personal survivability
Ancestral is #1 in party survivability
Zealot is #1 in damage dealing

Arguably, Zealot's free rez makes it #1 in long-term personal survivability.


Did the book get leaked early and I missed the link?
Release date for FLGSes was last week. It's only the 21st for Amazon and other big retailers.

[mgshamster]

From what I've seen of the new Xanathar's options, they're all viable.

Yeah, that's my general point. There's nothing that truly sucks in 5e, like there was in 3.X. Back then, it was really easy to make a character which was accidentally a detriment to the group. I've done so several times trying to create a fun concept.

It's rather hard to do that in 5e. Even the things rated red are still useful and can still be viable. It may not be the absolute best, but it by no means truly sucks.

The difference between the best and the worst abilities in 5e is rather small, and XGE continues that trend. It's a great addition to the game.

[Reosoul]

Nice guide so far, can't wait to see what you have to say about the spells.

[Easy_Lee]

Yeah, that's my general point. There's nothing that truly sucks in 5e, like there was in 3.X. Back then, it was really easy to make a character which was accidentally a detriment to the group. I've done so several times trying to create a fun concept.

It's rather hard to do that in 5e. Even the things rated red are still useful and can still be viable. It may not be the absolute best, but it by no means truly sucks.

The difference between the best and the worst abilities in 5e is rather small, and XGE continues that trend. It's a great addition to the game.

There are still a few things that fall behind the curve. Elements Monk and BM Ranger are the most common examples, as both require exceptional play or careful building to compete with your standard warlock, rogue, or barbarian.

But my point was that none of the Xanathar's options fall into that category. They're all good, and in many cases are better than anything in the PHB (such as the new sorcerer archetypes).

[Spiritchaser]

To the OP, I would submit that for a hexblade bladelock, elven accuracy is Very potent

[Malaketh]

Maybe this was discussed elsewhere and I missed it, but regarding power surge. I know they didn't plural creature in the description but it affects the target of the spell. It doesn't say 1 target of the spell. Wouldn't a fireballs target be everything in the radius? Still not great but better than a single creature.

Unless I am misinterpreting the wording(highly possible)

[EvilAnagram]

This is a very solid guide. Great job!

[TheRedTemplar]

Aura of Conquest: Thematically cool, practically less so. Reducing speed to 0 doesn't actually do much (enemies can't move towards you while feared anyway) and while aoe damage is nice, it's limited by the short range of the aura (when it expands this gets better). This is no aura of warding...


I've been playing the Oath of Conquest Paladin, and from what I've used it for in-game, I think you're overlooking what the Aura of Conquest was made to do: support the party by making you unbelievably sticky.

While the Frightened condition prevents enemies from approaching you, you're also forgetting one important thing: many of the spells or effects that induce the frightened condition make the target want to (or sometimes force them to) run away from you. This means you have to chase them down, and it gives them extra chances to save. The Aura keeps feared targets from fleeing, and prevents them from moving at all, not only meaning your allies are (probably) safe from the enemies you frightened (Don't worry about those orcs my wizard friend, they won't be hurting you anytime soon!), but this also opens up a whole can of combos you can drop on them with your party (shoving them prone so they can't get up due to no movement, dropping a wall of fire on them, etc).

Not to mention, forcing enemies to attack with disadvantage or waste their action fleeing/dodging (depending on the source which inflicted the fear) makes the aura even better for tanking and hindering your enemies. And the best part is, thanks to being a Paladin of Conquest, you can frighten you enemies in ways that either require no concentration (such as from their Channel Divinity, or the Dragon Roar Feat), make them waste their action to make a check with disadvantage to escape the fear effect (Wrathful Smite is amazing on this paladin), or just flat-out denying them the chance to make any further saving throws to escape the effect (Seriously, the Fear Spell is easily one of the best parts of their spell list due to how well it combos with the aura, as the aura will prevent them from fleeing or movement, keeping them from getting far enough away to make another saving throw).

Heck, the Fear spell itself is amazing with the Aura of Conquest, as in addition to the reasons above, you can just kick all the stuff they drop out of their reach, leaving them weaponless or staff-less or whatever. Of course, this only applies to the enemy if they were holding something in the first place, but my point stands: The Power to negate enemy movement on those frightened in the aura and keep them close to you is amazing for a martial class. The Psychic Damage dealt isn't the draw of the Aura, it's just the cherry on top. And when the Aura expands to 30 feet the Fear spell might as well be pushing the 'We Win' Button for the party. I believe that, thanks to the Oath of Conquest's powers and how well they mesh with each other, this Paladin Oath is easily the best for support and/or battlefield control, if not one of the best Oaths period for dealing with minions and hordes. Honestly, a lot of monsters are surprisingly not immune to fear unless they're undead or automatons. Even Big Bad Monsters like BALORS can be frightened.

[This Oath also gets major props for being the only (and I mean only) class in the entire game that can actually make use of the Mace of Terror. My Conquest Paladin has one, and it's an AMAZING weapon for the class. As well as thematically fitting.]

[Nargrakhan]

When your character must suck for you to have fun, that's not fun. Nor is it always sustainable. If your idea of a fun character is one who charges naked into battle wielding a sickle and your foes are giants, you don't get to have fun.

If a character concept sucks or is not fun for me, is not for you to decide. It is an opinion. Just how I cannot tell you what idea you must like, you cannot tell me what I idea I must like.

I'm in a campaign right now, where another Fighter is playing an 8th level Eldritch Knight. He wanted to play a character who uses his shield and actually does damage with it. Because the GM refused to house rule something, to get this he invested in the Tavern Brawler (shield counts as an improvised weapon) and Dual Wielder (improvised weapons aren't finesse) feats. Sub-optimal has hell and he's the lowest damage dealer in the party.

You know what? He's having fun. He's having a total blast. In his mind eye, his character wades through battle, finishing off opponents with epic shield bashes that sends their freshly dead corpses flying. BEFORE and AFTER every gaming session, he won't stop talking about the awesomeness of his sword and board character. According to optimization he's doing it completely wrong (he doesn't even have Shield Mastery because he decided on War Caster first).

But you know what, I agree with him. His character is freaking awesome. Every time he beams at his latest shield kill, it gets contagious around the table. We cheer and make shield puns about it. I'm GLAD he made that character. It's one of the many reasons I'm going to be sad when this campaign ends (GM said it's going to finish at about level 9 or 10).

I don't know... maybe someone could make a naked sickle wielding warrior fun and sustainable. I didn't think anyone could make a 1d4 bludgeoning bonus attack shield warrior fun. I was proven wrong.

[Easy_Lee]

If a character concept sucks or is not fun for me, is not for you to decide. It is an opinion. Just how I cannot tell you what idea you must like, you cannot tell me what I idea I must like.

I'm in a campaign right now, where another Fighter is playing an 8th level Eldritch Knight. He wanted to play a character who uses his shield and actually does damage with it. Because the GM refused to house rule something, to get this he invested in the Tavern Brawler (shield counts as an improvised weapon) and Dual Wielder (improvised weapons aren't finesse) feats. Sub-optimal has hell and he's the lowest damage dealer in the party.

You know what? He's having fun. He's having a total blast. In his mind eye, his character wades through battle, finishing off opponents with epic shield bashes that sends their freshly dead corpses flying. BEFORE and AFTER every gaming session, he won't stop talking about the awesomeness of his sword and board character. According to optimization he's doing it completely wrong (he doesn't even have Shield Mastery because he decided on War Caster first).

But you know what, I agree with him. His character is freaking awesome. Every time he beams at his latest shield kill, it gets contagious around the table. We cheer and make shield puns about it. I'm GLAD he made that character. It's one of the many reasons I'm going to be sad when this campaign ends (GM said it's going to finish at about level 9 or 10).

I don't know... maybe someone could make a naked sickle wielding warrior fun and sustainable. I didn't think anyone could make a 1d4 bludgeoning bonus attack shield warrior fun. I was proven wrong.

Your shield-bearing friend isn't fighting challenges he can't face. If I had to guess, I'd say he does less damage than normal, but his AC is fine and his party makes up for his shortcomings.

Imagine a party full of Mr. Shieldbash trying to handle a hard campaign.

It's not up to me to decide what you think is fun. But I absolutely can tell you if your build mechanically sucks. That doesn't always matter, but it's damned frustrating when it does. It's even more frustrating when you are just playing a standard character, like a non-mounted beast master or a four elements monk or a blasting-focused wild sorcerer, and realize that the character sucks natively.

[Foxhound438]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: It was bad in EE, it's still bad! Con save, necrotic damage, and only does 1d8 more than a lvl 8 cone of cold. Don't use this!


I hate to crack down instantly on the first batch of spells, but this is definitely not red- it's purple. Exactly necromancer wizards get benefit from this in its buffed form, being an AOE necromancy damage spell makes it better than cone of cold for that specific subclass. If it hadn't gotten the extra 2d8 from EE it would be red, but the buff makes it niche at worst.

[Ravinsild]

As far as RP versus Optimization goes: Any of you guys watched critical role? Their characters are essentially trash as far as optimization goes, but a ton of people love them for their RP anyway.

The beast master girl literally never even uses her bear so she's just an archer lol.

[mephnick]

As far as RP versus Optimization goes: Any of you guys watched critical role? Their characters are essentially trash as far as optimization goes, but a ton of people love them for their RP anyway. .

They're also paid actors who don't follow the rules and are generally let to do whatever on a whim. Not a great example of how characters would hold up in a general game.

[mgshamster]

As far as RP versus Optimization goes: Any of you guys watched critical role? Their characters are essentially trash as far as optimization goes, but a ton of people love them for their RP anyway.

The beast master girl literally never even uses her bear so she's just an archer lol.


They're also paid actors who don't follow the rules and are generally let to do whatever on a whim. Not a great example of how characters would hold up in a general game.

These two posts are the perfect example of the two primary player types:

1) This is a game
2) This is a story

[Ravinsild]

They're also paid actors who don't follow the rules and are generally let to do whatever on a whim. Not a great example of how characters would hold up in a general game.

I'm pretty sure they do the show on their own free time as a hobby. Although, yeah, they've probably played for more years in 5e than in Pathfinder at this point so you would think their system mastery would be a little better by now. They often do forget some rules though, but as far as I could tell it mostly seemed to be pretty standard 5e with a touch of homebrew here and there.

It's not like they blatantly constantly do things the rules don't allow from what I remember.

[mephnick]

These two posts are the perfect example of the two primary player types:

1) This is a game
2) This is a story

I refuse to tell a story. Refuse!

[mgshamster]

I refuse to tell a story. Refuse!

No story allowed!

Non-jokingly, sorry for implicating you in the idea that you're on an extreme end. You're not.

All of us fall within some part of that spectrum, but there is a line from which each of us must decide which is more important - the story or the rules.

Those who say the story are more likely to favor RP over optimization, and more likely to ditch the rules to allow for some for of rule breaking creativity. An extreme end of this will prefer free-form games.

Those who say the rules are more important are more likely to prefer an optimized PC and have some level of desire for the story to be told within the rules. An extreme form of this will say things like, "Why would I ever play something less than optimal and why should I ever allow a non-optimized PC in my group?" or "The more rules there are, the easier it is for a new DM to run a story." I've even seen one DM run a Hardcover book where there was zero RP and the entire campaign was battle after battle with short and long rests in between each one.

[Easy_Lee]

All of us fall within some part of that spectrum, but there is a line from which each of us must decide which is more important - the story or the rules.

There is another path: the meta. And I don't mean rules meta, I mean meta about the game. Transcend the game. Why are you playing it? Escapism? Fantasy? I don't think so.

D&D isn't about the PCs, the rules, the story, or the world. It's about the people. Transcend the rules vs story argument and instead adapt to the people around you. If we all do that, every game will go smoothly regardless of how it's played.

[Ravinsild]

No story allowed!

Non-jokingly, sorry for implicating you in the idea that you're on an extreme end. You're not.

All of us fall within some part of that spectrum, but there is a line from which each of us must decide which is more important - the story or the rules.

Those who say the story are more likely to favor RP over optimization, and more likely to ditch the rules to allow for some for of rule breaking creativity. An extreme end of this will prefer free-form games.

Those who say the rules are more important are more likely to prefer an optimized PC and have some level of desire for the story to be told within the rules. An extreme form of this will say things like, "Why would I ever play something less than optimal and why should I ever allow a non-optimized PC in my group?" or "The more rules there are, the easier it is for a new DM to run a story." I've even seen one DM run a Hardcover book where there was zero RP and the entire campaign was battle after battle with short and long rests in between each one.

I guess that's beauty of roleplaying games in real life/tabletop. In a video game you often hear "can't we just skip the RP?" in a WoW raid or something. In D&D in real life you can decide if you want a combat simulator type game or a loosey-goosey free-form style game like Critical Role where it's 90% story where the fights are there to accentuate the drama.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I like to optimize an RP concept to be the best at that niche. Like I want to build a Hexblade that specializes in cold and necrotic spells/damage who is sort of a shadow caster that's great at fighting in melee.

Ordinarily the most optimized just take the best spells at whatever level for their utility. However I want a specialized concept with a very strict design and I hate PAM because I think Glaives and stuff look goofy on my character concept. So I just want to build the best optimized version of my character to do a good job at being what he's supposed to be, but not the overall MOST optimized character. Otherwise it's a hodge-podge of random spells with no theme and a stupid (IMO) looking weapon.

[Talamare]

I'm pretty sure they do the show on their own free time as a hobby. Although, yeah, they've probably played for more years in 5e than in Pathfinder at this point so you would think their system mastery would be a little better by now. They often do forget some rules though, but as far as I could tell it mostly seemed to be pretty standard 5e with a touch of homebrew here and there.

It's not like they blatantly constantly do things the rules don't allow from what I remember.

I think it STARTED that way, but the show is making money
At this point, I do think that each of them are getting a share of the wealth

Also, MM uses a LOT of Rule of Cool and his own Rule of Logic.

If someone says something clever, he will usually let it roll
If someone tries to do something clever, he will probably let them

It's rarely a good idea to bog down the game trying to find out exactly how to play some minor rule.

[mephnick]

Non-jokingly, sorry for implicating you in the idea that you're on an extreme end. You're not. .

No problem. I am pretty far to one end on the Story - Game spectrum. I try not to be too militant about it but sometimes I fail!

[Temperjoke]

Getting a bit off topic now.

[mephnick]

Getting a bit off topic now.

Eh, it's a class options rating thread. No one reads past the first page of these things.

[Waterdeep Merch]

The catapult spell can actually be one of the single most damaging in the game if you're a rich lunatic with access to plenty of acid. Just put all the acid into a pack of the right weight for the spell slot you're going to use (4 for the basic one, since the other pound is taken up by the pack), and get ready to throw fists full of dice. 3d8 (13.5) to the primary target and 8d6 (28) to them and everyone next to them in an AoE, all for a level 2 slot and a little over 100 gold per casting. Add 1d8 (4.5) bludgeoning and 10d6 (35) additional AoE acid damage for every 125 gold and spell slot higher than 2nd spent doing this.

The price gets outrageous fast and god help you if you don't have either a high strength score or (preferably) a bag of holding, but if you're in AL and have way too much money anyway, this is how you melt encounters. Literally.

[Ravinsild]

The catapult spell can actually be one of the single most damaging in the game if you're a rich lunatic with access to plenty of acid. Just put all the acid into a pack of the right weight for the spell slot you're going to use (4 for the basic one, since the other pound is taken up by the pack), and get ready to throw fists full of dice. 3d8 (13.5) to the primary target and 8d6 (28) to them and everyone next to them in an AoE, all for a level 2 slot and a little over 100 gold per casting. Add 1d8 (4.5) bludgeoning and 10d6 (35) additional AoE acid damage for every 125 gold and spell slot higher than 2nd spent doing this.

The price gets outrageous fast and god help you if you don't have either a high strength score or (preferably) a bag of holding, but if you're in AL and have way too much money anyway, this is how you melt encounters. Literally.

lmao, now you too can be Grand Apothecary Putress and chuck the perfected plague at both the living and the scourge!

[Temperjoke]

Eh, it's a class options rating thread. No one reads past the first page of these things.

People do ask questions, or contrary opinions on some of the ratings, which can get lost in side conversations.


lmao, now you too can be Grand Apothecary Putress and chuck the perfected plague at both the living and the scourge!

"Did you think we had forgotten? Did you think we had forgiven?" When I played WoW, he had my favorite armor in the game.


Back on the original subject, for a number of the classes in here, they would do way better in a less combat-focused game. Like the Inquisitive, Mastermind, and Whispers Bard would all do well in a mystery or political plot. On the Bountiful Luck halfling racial, for the halfling sure, it might not be great, but I see it as a great way to aid your group.

[Saggo]

Also, MM uses a LOT of Rule of Cool and his own Rule of Logic.

If someone says something clever, he will usually let it roll
If someone tries to do something clever, he will probably let them

It's rarely a good idea to bog down the game trying to find out exactly how to play some minor rule.

Maybe. I think people assume it's a lot because the show is under public scrutiny. I'd bet most players/DMs would be surprised how many times their tables actually houseruled or made a ruling contrary to RAW. Critical Role is like any table I've seen, Player wants to do some cool/exciting/epic thing and DM adjudicates.

I understand that not everyone likes the show, to each their own. I don't understand why many people adamantly claim they're not playing the 5e system.

[MeeposFire]

Maybe. I think people assume it's a lot because the show is under public scrutiny. I'd bet most players/DMs would be surprised how many times their tables actually houseruled or made a ruling contrary to RAW. Critical Role is like any table I've seen, Player wants to do some cool/exciting/epic thing and DM adjudicates.

I understand that not everyone likes the show, to each their own. I don't understand why many people adamantly claim they're not playing the 5e system.

On a site like this it really seems to grind people's gears if you do not play something similar to their debatable vision of RAW. Clearly if you are not using this rule or that rule then you are not really playing 5e.

Of course their houserules and rulings are fine but the stuff on that show are not 5e.

[mephnick]

I understand that not everyone likes the show, to each their own. I don't understand why many people adamantly claim they're not playing the 5e system.

Oh yeah it's fine. It's ran in a way to be entertaining to viewers, no problem with that.

Basically I'm about to open up my table to a whole bunch of random people and I'm just worried they've seen CR and are expecting the freedom to do a bunch of emotional monologuing while the rest of the table sits there.

[Chugger]

Very good guide. I agree with almost all of your conclusions. Thanks for writing this.

I want to discuss two things; one being Circle of Mortality (Grave Domain). You hint at the 0 healing aspect of this without really explaining it or explaining why it could be very good. Why do I think it's good? An important character (like a front-line meleer) gets dropped to zero, and it falls to me (as a non-Grave caster) to heal him back - and I roll a 1 on the dice. Or I upcast cure w to lvl 2 and roll a 1 and a 3. That sucks. Even adding the wis bonus to these rolls, the guy I just healed is very likely to be put right back down on the floor, zero'd again.

But let's say my wis is 18 and I upcast cure w at lvl 2 on a 0'd char as a Grave cleric. I'm rolling two 8s (when healing a 0'd char your dice are maxed). I wouldn't gloss over that. This is big. It means in a very critical moment in the fight, instead of healing the tank for 5 pts damage or 8 pts damage - I just healed him for 20! Twenty should keep him in the fight - and if it doesn't it's because we're higher level and maybe I should have upcast even higher. Anyway, I feel the guide glosses over this aspect of Circle of Mort - and maybe you wanna look at this. (edit, with Grave you can precisely control how many hit points you want to give a 0'd character by choosing how far to upcast).

The other thing is the racial feats. Experienced players know well what I'm about to bring up, but inexperienced players may not. In a point-buy system of char generation, if a racial feat gives a +1 to a stat that only got a +1 on generation, you're not "keeping up" if your goal was to hit 20 in your main stat by lvl 8. In other words, if you can give yourself a 17 in a key stat, a racial feat is golden because you go to 18 at lvl 4 and get a useful or not so useful extra thing. But if a racial feat gives you +1 on a stat that can only be as high as 16, you are giving yourself an odd stat - which is usually bad (17) - and so you have to ask yourself if it's really worth it.

Where it might shine is if your Tiefling had 13 con to start and you really want those resistances to cold and poison and so on. You'll get a meaningful con boost to 14 and abilities you very much want. Good.

Anyway, I have no idea if you want to adjust this section and add a (more efficiently boiled down version of) this. Inexperienced players seeking help from a guide might benefit tons from this - it might save them from locking into a "mistake" - a choice that will prove disappointing and that will gimp their character forever. A lot of AL players come here, and point-buy is what AL uses - so I would think adding this info would help them a ton. But it's your call. Again I do like your guide a lot - you worked hard on it - so again thank you very much.

[Saggo]

Oh yeah it's fine. It's ran in a way to be entertaining to viewers, no problem with that.

Basically I'm about to open up my table to a whole bunch of random people and I'm just worried they've seen CR and are expecting the freedom to do a bunch of emotional monologuing while the rest of the table sits there.
Ah, yes. That's fair. Wears on me sometimes, too.

[Marcloure]

About your rating of Dragon's Breath as red. As how the spell is written, it seems you can cast it on a familiar and have a flame breathing owl. The familiar uses its own action to deal 3d6 [type] damage in a 15-foot cone, so you and your allies can still use yours own actions to do your things. This way, the spell damage is an addition, not substitution.
Doing this combo, the spell doesn't seem so bad to me. What do you think of it?

[Saiga]

About your rating of Dragon's Breath as red. As how the spell is written, it seems you can cast it on a familiar and have a flame breathing owl. The familiar uses its own action to deal 3d6 [type] damage in a 15-foot cone, so you and your allies can still use yours own actions to do your things. This way, the spell damage is an addition, not substitution.
Doing this combo, the spell doesn't seem so bad to me. What do you think of it?

That sounds like a fun use of both spells, familiars are pretty squishy though.

Shadow Sorcerors could use this with their hound couldn't they?

[Marcloure]

That sounds like a fun use of both spells, familiars are pretty squishy though.

Shadow Sorcerors could use this with their hound couldn't they?

Yes, but the Shadow Hound already have a good dire wolf attack. And a owl can fly up to 60 ft. and doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, so you can keep it safe behind trees, rocks, around the corner or just behind the front line.

[mgshamster]

About your rating of Dragon's Breath as red. As how the spell is written, it seems you can cast it on a familiar and have a flame breathing owl. The familiar uses its own action to deal 3d6 [type] damage in a 15-foot cone, so you and your allies can still use yours own actions to do your things. This way, the spell damage is an addition, not substitution.
Doing this combo, the spell doesn't seem so bad to me. What do you think of it?

I've got a pyromancer sorc who twins Dragons Breath on an ally and the two of them breathe fire on larger groups.

[Saggo]

Of course their houserules and rulings are fine but the stuff on that show are not 5e.

Sure it is. That was the idea, we all have a laundry list of contrarian housrules and rulings. The 5e systems are all primarily intact and adhered to in the show.

[ProseBeforeHos]

The other thing is the racial feats. Experienced players know well what I'm about to bring up, but inexperienced players may not. In a point-buy system of char generation, if a racial feat gives a +1 to a stat that only got a +1 on generation, you're not "keeping up" if your goal was to hit 20 in your main stat by lvl 8. In other words, if you can give yourself a 17 in a key stat, a racial feat is golden because you go to 18 at lvl 4 and get a useful or not so useful extra thing. But if a racial feat gives you +1 on a stat that can only be as high as 16, you are giving yourself an odd stat - which is usually bad (17) - and so you have to ask yourself if it's really worth it.


Yeah that wasn't necessarily clear in my description. A feat like fade away I rated sky blue in the assumption you're boosting intelligence from 17 to 18. If you're a gnome rogue and you start dex 16 then you're probably better off just raising dex to 18.

Of course all these calculations go out the window if you're rolling stats (some people still do...).

[ProseBeforeHos]

About your rating of Dragon's Breath as red. As how the spell is written, it seems you can cast it on a familiar and have a flame breathing owl. The familiar uses its own action to deal 3d6 [type] damage in a 15-foot cone, so you and your allies can still use yours own actions to do your things. This way, the spell damage is an addition, not substitution.
Doing this combo, the spell doesn't seem so bad to me. What do you think of it?

I think it's the best use of the spell I have yet to see. However it's still a level 2 slot for 3d6 of damage. Evaluating spell quality is not just about the burst you can do in a single round, but also the general efficiency of the spell. I still struggle to imagine the scenario where I take it over many of the other, better lvl 2 options.

Edit: I read the spell description more carefully, I think you may be right here. I clearly underestimated this spell. Thanks for the input.

[Maxilian]

I don't think the Desert aura for the Barbarian is a trap option, is true that many monster have resistance to it or inmunity but, having in mind the amount of damage it does, resistance is not really that relevant, the good part about this aura is that the damage is secure, and you need to Attack an enemy, deal damage or take damage if you want to keep your rage, so this allow you to keep this up in a really secure way.

[Puh Laden]

I don't think the Desert aura for the Barbarian is a trap option, is true that many monster have resistance to it or inmunity but, having in mind the amount of damage it does, resistance is not really that relevant, the good part about this aura is that the damage is secure, and you need to Attack an enemy, deal damage or take damage if you want to keep your rage, so this allow you to keep this up in a really secure way.

Technically, dealing damage doesn't prevent your rage from ending, only taking damage and attacking.

[Maxilian]

Technically, dealing damage doesn't prevent your rage from ending, only taking damage and attacking.

I kind of feel bad now, i guess i will go back to play my Shepard druid or prepare my backup Rouge / Kensai character

[Foxhound438]

Ah, the rest of the spells

Only 2 issues I have with the remainder:

1) Maddening darkness should be the same rating as illusory dragon. You say yourself that it's just as good, so the lower rating is just you being picky. Having both would be pretty unnecessary, but it's buyer's choice. If anything, the darkness is better- more damage, no further action required. The fear effect of the dragon is probably in most cases just worse than flat out blinding everything with darkness. No spellcasting through it, basically. And most of all, you completely ignore the fact that warlocks get MD but not the dragon.

2) hand of radiance is at least situationally useful for clerics, since it's pretty common for them to end up in melee, and as soon as there's more than one target you're doing better with this than you would a melee attack- especially on clerics that get potent casting. A light cleric standing next to two things is almost strictly better off using this, and don't say they should avoid melee in the first place, because you can build them to be just as or more tanky than any divine strike cleric since after maxing wis, these guys pump con instead of having to boost strength as well.

[MeeposFire]

Sure it is. That was the idea, we all have a laundry list of contrarian housrules and rulings. The 5e systems are all primarily intact and adhered to in the show.

Lol I guess I should have used blue text even though I hate that concept. That part was me being a bit sarcastic about how people are ok with their houserules and rulings but other people's stuff is of course to them out of bounds for being 5e to them.

[Bardock here]

Earth Bind is Sky blue. If used with Distant (600 feet) / Quicken Metamagic.
A Divine Soul / Warlock keeps distance (Free wings) while blasting with Spell Sniper feat + Distant Metamagic Repelling Agonizing Eldritch Blast (Repelling 10 feet each hit).
It's a death sentense.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Earth Bind is Sky blue. If used with Distant (600 feet_ / Quicken Metamagic.
A Divine Soul / Warlock keeps distance (Free wings) while blasting with Spell Sniper feat + Distant Metamagic Repelling Agonizing Eldritch Blast (Repelling 10 feet each hit).
It's a death sentense.

IMHO, it doesn't deserve the Sky Blue. It's very powerful with a very specific build. That alone doesn't shoot it into the stratosphere of power.

[Bardock here]

IMHO, it doesn't deserve the Sky Blue. It's very powerful with a very specific build. That alone doesn't shoot it into the stratosphere of power.

Fair enough.

But, It has potential to be a "death sentense".

[Kuulvheysoon]

Fair enough.

But, It has potential to be a "death sentense".

So does Elven Accuracy - if you have the Devil's Sight/Darkness/Hexblade combo. But take it on a vanilla Elven Ranger (TWF), let's say, and it's good: knock 'em prone and you're basically guaranteed to hit. But it doesn't reach the ridiculous heights of the aforementioned build.

[Tesla Dragon]

Skill Empowerment is more limited than you've noted. It must be used on a skill the target has proficiency in and, more disappointingly, it can't target a skill which already benefits from doubled proficiency such as Expertise.

[Renduaz]

Listing invulnerability as anything but so powerful that it's actually incredible Wizards of the Coast even allowed it is how you spot someone who plays in scrub difficulty campaigns and whose DM spoonfeeds him in encounters. He was probably never pitted against anything stronger than textbook Tiamat ( Actually, high doubt that he even faced Tiamat while dismissing total damage immunity ) and likely plays in the campaigns where the number of creatures in an encounter somehow matches perfectly with his party's given strength ( And probably never on the "Deadly" balance ) rather than Hardcore Realistic scenarios where you may face entire armies to accomplish what you want.

No, total immunity to all damage for 10 minutes is not overrated. It seems rather useful if you need to defeat some eldritch abomination in the heart of Elemental Chaos in which otherwise the ambient damage alone would rip you to shreds in a turn or when fighting off a Legion of Red Dragon armadas. Add Freedom of Movement, Mind Blank, True Seeing and you're literally an unstoppable Overdeity. Add a Simulacrum into the mix, have it Wish for a Mordekainen's Private Sanctum ( 600 feet cube at the 9th level ) over an area to block all teleportation and planar travel within it ( Or do so beforehand if possible ) and now you can't even be banished. Dispel and Antimagic is pretty much your only weakness ( As it would be if you were to Shapechange as well ) for which you'll likely want to keep a handy supply of Counterspells. Although granted, if you're facing a Mage college then you're already screwed since they have the very same spell themselves, but otherwise it is simply indispensable in almost every situation.

[Saggo]

Lol I guess I should have used blue text even though I hate that concept. That part was me being a bit sarcastic about how people are ok with their houserules and rulings but other people's stuff is of course to them out of bounds for being 5e to them.

My apologies. :)

[ProseBeforeHos]

Skill Empowerment is more limited than you've noted. It must be used on a skill the target has proficiency in and, more disappointingly, it can't target a skill which already benefits from doubled proficiency such as Expertise.

Well spotted, it seems I misread the spell, will change.

[ProseBeforeHos]

No, total immunity to all damage for 10 minutes is not overrated.

I strongly disagree. It does nothing to protect you from save or suck effects, and it eats your concentration massively limiting your in combat effectiveness ,(since almost all of the best spells in the game are concentration). Perhaps I should have ranked it black, but no higher than that.

[Renduaz]

I strongly disagree. It does nothing to protect you from save or suck effects, and it eats your concentration massively limiting your in combat effectiveness ,(since almost all of the best spells in the game are concentration). Perhaps I should have ranked it black, but no higher than that.

You might as well give every spell a red rating for not protecting you from save or suck, because few things in the game do, and therefore that's not really a standard of judgement. The first would be Antimagic Field which also completely removes your own spellcasting and magical gear, and hence almost useless to most casters. The second would be Counterspell which you still have access to at any rate. The third, and most effective way, which actually not many are aware of, does involve the 9th level Shapechange, in which you are ( by RAW ) permitted to use a creature's Legendary Resistances, and once you exhaust the reservoir of one ( Say, a Blue dragon ), then you switch to a Red, and go through the entire roster of Ancient White/Brass/Adult metallic/Chromatic dragons to have unlimited legendary resistances, however even this cheesy little trick will mean nothing if someone wipes out your form in a single hit.

Spells like Blink, Sanctuary, and so forth among other things which reduce your probability of being targeted in the first place are all still available along with Invulnerability. Mind Blank, True Seeing and Freedom of Movement ( All lasting 1 hour plus, no concentration ) shield your from most conditions. As said, a Private Sanctum might even shield you from unwilling plane shifts and teleports, which otherwise you have no defense against. Except this time you at least won't die when you get transported to the bottom of the Lake of Fire or into the Negative Energy Plane.

The fact that you consider immunity to all damage to be a bad tradeoff just because you can't have some more dice or controlling effects for combat effectiveness once again indicates that you never have to deal with "Very Hard" difficulty encounters in which you can suffer a TPK-level amount of environmental or direct damage ( Being shot by dozens of archers, being roasted by ten dragons, being targeted by Asmodeus's Ruby Rod in his own plane, etc.. ) before you can even open your mouth to say "combat effectiveness". When you're actually fighting an army or hardcore enemies, there's nothing more ridiculously important than total damage immunity. Save-or-Suck effects will always be there anyway.

As a side-note just browsing over the guide in general, I can't really make sense as to why the Sea Barbarian's raging storm is somehow blue but Tundra is red based on the explanation given. You say it looks good at first glance but mention the limited range of the aura, whereas Sea is just as limited in range. Sea is way worse in that regard in fact, since the creature still needs to be within your aura ( 10 feet ) and you need to attack and hit it too, whereas with Tundra you literally just need to see and choose it. Sea then gets even worse by expending your reaction to accomplish something that high-level monsters are the most flexible towards ( Prone, they have Prone immunities ) while Tundra expends nothing to perform a function which there isn't any natural immunity against, save for a Freedom of Movement spell. You should flip those the other way around than what they're listed as.

[ProseBeforeHos]

The fact that you consider immunity to all damage to be a bad tradeoff just because you can't have some more dice or controlling effects for combat effectiveness once again indicates that you never have to deal with "Very Hard" difficulty encounters in which you can suffer a TPK-level amount of environmental or direct damage

This a very conceited thing to say. You have no idea what kind of games I either play in or run. I'd suggest the opposite, that your overrating of damage immunity shows a lack of understanding of how many defensive options a lvl 17 mage has that make a 10min damage immunity less attractive.

Your comments on the storm herald barbarian are more legitimate though. I've had some negative feedback on that so I may go back and rewrite/re-clarify that section.

[Renduaz]

This a very conceited thing to say. You have no idea what kind of games I either play in or run. I'd suggest the opposite, that your overrating of damage immunity shows a lack of understanding of how many defensive options a lvl 17 mage has that make a 10min damage immunity less attractive.

Your comments on the storm herald barbarian are more legitimate though. I've had some negative feedback on that so I may go back and rewrite/re-clarify that section.

I think I'm sufficiently familiar with a mage's defensive options (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?533093-The-Defensive-Wizard-Strategy-Build&p=22283122), particularly at high level. I still can't really see the rational basis for dismissing total damage immunity, unless one is involved in encounters where damage always remains low enough to never compromise a major problem beyond the scope of healing or other defenses.

You wave it off since it won't help against save-or-suck, but without any relevant connection. Such as, what do I gain by keeping my 9th level slot or concentration that helps much so much against save-or-suck, that it's worth giving up on invincibility for? Since as far as I know, the best protection spells against conditions ( All the ones I even listed ) don't even require my concentration.

Secondly, I'm still asking you what exactly would you consider a better option to deal with fighting some eldritch primordial abomination in the hear of elemental chaos whose lair effects include doing 100 points of get-rekt damage every turn just by virtue of being in that place, let alone it's own attacks, along with similar scenarios, or what would be better against a hundred high-level Elven archers with longbows, or wading through the pits of Carceri ( which one can't easily escape out o with magical means ) filled with an endless swarm of demons after getting banished there by some evil deity avatar, and so on and so forth?

How does combat effectiveness come into play in a scenario where you'll be killed on the spot before even reaching the 3rd round?

[ProseBeforeHos]

I'm not interested into getting into endless roundabout of hypothetical scenarios. I will keep invulnerability red until I've had first hand experience that's better than I suspect it is. If you wish to create your own guide to Xanathar's spells then please, by all means, be my guest.

[Temperjoke]

And this is another reason why I'm not fond of guides like this. Sometimes a consensus can be reached regarding how things should be rated, but just as often it boils down to the OP's opinion and if you can convince him/her to change it based on your opinion.

[2D8HP]

The guide seems amazingly thorough and done so quickly!

Kudos!

[Arvin Natsuko]

And this is another reason why I'm not fond of guides like this. Sometimes a consensus can be reached regarding how things should be rated, but just as often it boils down to the OP's opinion and if you can convince him/her to change it based on your opinion.

The name is "Prose's Guide". It's his opinions. He made an effort of explain his points about something and gave that to us. I like read and think about what the ideas he brings to the table. Try to modify his opinion is not the main purpuse of the thread. And this ir my opinion.

If you don't like free stuff a random dude put on internet, don't read. Is that simple.

[Temperjoke]

The name is "Prose's Guide". It's his opinions. He made an effort of explain his points about something and gave that to us. I like read and think about what the ideas he brings to the table. Try to modify his opinion is not the main purpuse of the thread. And this ir my opinion.

If you don't like free stuff a random dude put on internet, don't read. Is that simple.

1. Placing a guide on the forums invites commentary, questions, comments, and discussion. If you don't want that, don't put it on a public forum, put it on a personal blog online.

2. I didn't say changing his opinion was the purpose of it. I said, in a general sort of way, that because it boils down to one person's opinion, that's why I'm not fond of guides like this. They are presented as solid fact, when often times they are subjective opinion. Especially because guides like this look at how well a spell, ability, feat, class works purely by itself for the character alone in combat, and ignores circumstances like how it works in a group, how it does in situations outside of combat. He's accepted and acknowledged when I pointed out this before that it was a valid point.

None of this is saying that the OP shouldn't have made this guide, nor is it saying that people should never make guides like this. But it's important to recognize the limits of guides like this for the people who come across this guide and other guides like it on the internet, to ensure that they're not immediately discouraged from trying something out that would work for their game, and not the game how the guide's creator envisioned it when they wrote the guide.

[ProseBeforeHos]

The guide seems amazingly thorough and done so quickly!

Kudos!

Thankyou :smallbiggrin:

[MeeposFire]

Well spotted, it seems I misread the spell, will change.

To be fair the restriction on double prof skills is actually not even needed as there is a rule already in place that says you cannot do more than double the prof bonus so the restriction is more an academic reminder than a special restriction.

[Rhaegar14]

Improved Pact Weapon: Do you have a +1 weapon? If no - this is good. If yes - swap this out. Longbow warlock you say? We have eldritch blast, we don't need to fire bits of wood like a pleb!

I do want to contend the point about Eldritch Blast versus longbow here a bit. I'm not gonna say Eldritch Blast isn't a better ranged option IF you invest all the invocations into it. However, a hexblade with a pact longbow is gonna do comparable damage to Agonizing Blast until 17th level (EB is firing more rays than Bladelock gets attacks at 11, yes, but at 12 they get Lifedrinker so the difference still isn't huge yet). If you're a (typical melee bladelock) Hexblade with a non-enchanted pact weapon, this is a pretty good alternative to Agonizing Blast for your ranged option, because it also (slightly) improves your primary melee attack, the downside being that you need to spend a standard action to switch between melee and ranged attacks as opposed to just firing off whatever strikes your fancy on a given turn. I'd also argue that if you want to sink a feat into Sharpshooter this definitely becomes a better option than Agonizing Blast (not that most melee bladelock builds will do that until a high level if at all).

To be clear, I'm in no way claiming this is a BETTER ranged option than Agonizing Blast; just that there are cases where it would be a valid choice and they're comparable enough that you probably shouldn't take both.

So tl;dr the pact longbow merits consideration as a secondary ranged attack for a Hexblade.

It's also worth noting that the bit where your pact weapon is your arcane focus makes Improved Pact Weapon a very solid option for sword and board or two-weapon bladelocks. Combine with Warcaster and you can cast freely even though your hands are full.

[Talamare]

I do want to contend the point about Eldritch Blast versus longbow here a bit. I'm not gonna say Eldritch Blast isn't a better ranged option IF you invest all the invocations into it. However, a hexblade with a pact longbow is gonna do comparable damage to Agonizing Blast until 17th level (EB is firing more rays than Bladelock gets attacks at 11, yes, but at 12 they get Lifedrinker so the difference still isn't huge yet). If you're a (typical melee bladelock) Hexblade with a non-enchanted pact weapon, this is a pretty good alternative to Agonizing Blast for your ranged option, because it also (slightly) improves your primary melee attack, the downside being that you need to spend a standard action to switch between melee and ranged attacks as opposed to just firing off whatever strikes your fancy on a given turn. I'd also argue that if you want to sink a feat into Sharpshooter this definitely becomes a better option than Agonizing Blast (not that most melee bladelock builds will do that until a high level if at all).

To be clear, I'm in now way claiming this is a BETTER ranged option than Agonizing Blast; just that there are cases where it would be a valid choice and they're comparable enough that you probably shouldn't take both.

So tl;dr the pact longbow merits consideration as a secondary ranged attack for a Hexblade.

It's also worth noting that the bit where your pact weapon is your arcane focus makes Improved Pact Weapon a very solid option for sword and board or two-weapon bladelocks. Combine with Warcaster and you can cast freely even though your hands are full.

Not to mention...

ITS REALLY COOL

[polymphus]

Notable re Steel Wind Strike: it is now the go-to lvl10 Valor Bard Magical Secret pick. Ranger doesn't get it until too late and Wizard doesn't get as much out of melee-range mobility but for a gish at lvl10? It's pretty much perfect.

[tsotate]

To be clear, I'm in no way claiming this is a BETTER ranged option than Agonizing Blast; just that there are cases where it would be a valid choice and they're comparable enough that you probably shouldn't take both.
For example, a Hexblade who took Eldritch Smite could use the auto-prone aspect of it to shoot fliers out of the air with their Pact Weapon longbow.

[Zerdal]

Notable re Steel Wind Strike: it is now the go-to lvl10 Valor Bard Magical Secret pick. Ranger doesn't get it until too late and Wizard doesn't get as much out of melee-range mobility but for a gish at lvl10? It's pretty much perfect.

Actually, it's a good damaging spell option for any bard, not just Valor. Up to 30d10 force damage is no joke, especially If you cast a faerie fire in previous turn and you have a grave cleric in your party.

[Saiga]

Swooooord Bard

Valor Bard ending its teleport near one of the targets also works great with Battle Magic.

[tkuremento]

inquisitive rogue being called out as not great in a dungeon crawl game seems a bit off to me. It is specifically the environment where trap detection, passive perception, invisible monsters, etc come into play. While I don’t think it makes inquisitive much better than your analysis, I think inquisitive as a dungeon-crawling specialist is one area it shines


I am sure this has already been talked about in a 140+ post discussion but I agree. I actually quite love Inquisitive so I might be slightly biased though.

[ProseBeforeHos]

inquisitive rogue being called out as not great in a dungeon crawl game seems a bit off to me. It is specifically the environment where trap detection, passive perception, invisible monsters, etc come into play. While I don’t think it makes inquisitive much better than your analysis, I think inquisitive as a dungeon-crawling specialist is one area it shines


This is a fair point. When I said "dungeon crawl" I suppose what I meant to say was "meat grinder, combat-o-rama". In a game where trap detection is a premium they certainly have their own niche.

[KorvinStarmast]

I didn't think anyone could make a 1d4 bludgeoning bonus attack shield warrior fun. I was proven wrong. You and your friend are my heroes for the day. Thanks for sharing that with us. :smallsmile:

These two posts are the perfect example of the two primary player types:
1) This is a game
2) This is a story And the third type who are somewhere in between.

D&D isn't about the PCs, the rules, the story, or the world. It's about the people. Transcend the rules vs story argument and instead adapt to the people around you. If we all do that, every game will go smoothly regardless of how it's played. Yeah. A lot of good DMing is about the people at the table.

Basically I'm about to open up my table to a whole bunch of random people and I'm just worried they've seen CR and are expecting the freedom to do a bunch of emotional monologuing while the rest of the table sits there. *giggles*
This is a fair point. When I said "dungeon crawl" I suppose what I meant to say was "meat grinder, combat-o-rama". In a game where trap detection is a premium they certainly have their own niche. Like Tomb of Horrors? :smallbiggrin:

[Ogre Mage]

Very useful, thank you!

[ProseBeforeHos]

Added the Expanded Racial Feats.

[Renzlir]

For the Kensai, wouldn't your martial arts attack on your bonus action count for the unarmed attack on your Attack action for Agile Parry? One could argue that you can only make that unarmed attack as a bonus action due to you taking the Attack action with a monk weapon, and you are only granted that bonus action for taking the Attack action to begin with.

You only get a bonus action if something gives you a bonus action(PHB p 189), otherwise you don't get one. Since the Attack action is giving you this unarmed bonus attack, I would consider it part of the Attack action, so they get their +2AC.

I'm going to allow it, just wondering what others think.

[Badrick]

Very useful guide. Thank you!

I have an Evocation Wizard approaching 7th level, and I'm trying to pick the spells to give her once she gets there.

Right now the list is:

7th: Polymorph, Watery Sphere
8th: Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility

I'm thinking that, as an Evocation Wizard, Sickening Radiance might be a better choice than Watery Sphere, since I can protect my allies from it while providing some nice area denial. Actually, I'm not sure why Watery Sphere is so highly regarded. What do y'all think?

[EvilAnagram]

For the Kensai, wouldn't your martial arts attack on your bonus action count for the unarmed attack on your Attack action for Agile Parry? One could argue that you can only make that unarmed attack as a bonus action due to you taking the Attack action with a monk weapon, and you are only granted that bonus action for taking the Attack action to begin with.

You only get a bonus action if something gives you a bonus action(PHB p 189), otherwise you don't get one. Since the Attack action is giving you this unarmed bonus attack, I would consider it part of the Attack action, so they get their +2AC.

I'm going to allow it, just wondering what others think.

It arbitrarily removes the limiting factor of that particular ability and goes directly against RAW. The idea is that by being less aggressive, you get a defensive boost. There's a trade-off. Just getting the boost at low levels is very strong.

[ad_hoc]

The following is a bit harsh but also deserved as you should not be making guides.

You really need to be comparing features to what you are giving up to get them. I don't want to write a book so here is one example.

Take Hexblade. It is overpowered and I will not be using it (though it's not game breaking, just completely overshadows every other patron so I understand why others are okay with it).

Compare Hexblade's Curse and Hex Warrior to:

(in order of strength)

Telepathy to 30ft
1/short rest charm/frighten for 1 round.
Temp HP on creature death

While the last one is quite good it is nothing compared to:

Medium Armour and Shields (Martial Weapons are superfluous) This alone is worth a half feat and is better than anything else other patrons get at 1st level
Cha to hit/damage
Super Hex 1/short rest.

The Super Hex itself has one ability which is just a bit worse than the Fiend's 1st level ability. That is all the Fiend gets and the Fiend is the strongest one.

Both the patron and the pact boon are minor abilities which add up to a typical subclass. Hexblade is ridiculously overpowered compared to every other patron.

[Naanomi]

The following is a bit harsh but also deserved as you should not be making guides.

You really need to be comparing features to what you are giving up to get them. I don't want to write a book so here is one example.

Take Hexblade. It is overpowered and I will not be using it (though it's not game breaking, just completely overshadows every other patron so I understand why others are okay with it).

Compare Hexblade's Curse and Hex Warrior to:

(in order of strength)

Telepathy to 30ft
1/short rest charm/frighten for 1 round.
Temp HP on creature death

While the last one is quite good it is nothing compared to:

Medium Armour and Shields (Martial Weapons are superfluous) This alone is worth a half feat and is better than anything else other patrons get at 1st level
Cha to hit/damage
Super Hex 1/short rest.
Celestial’s healing is also very strong...
And Undying’s ‘weak undead protection’ is probably weaker than the telepathy...

[krugaan]

The following is a bit harsh but also deserved as you should not be making guides.

You really need to be comparing features to what you are giving up to get them. I don't want to write a book so here is one example.

Take Hexblade. It is overpowered and I will not be using it (though it's not game breaking, just completely overshadows every other patron so I understand why others are okay with it).

Compare Hexblade's Curse and Hex Warrior to:

(in order of strength)

Telepathy to 30ft
1/short rest charm/frighten for 1 round.
Temp HP on creature death

While the last one is quite good it is nothing compared to:

Medium Armour and Shields (Martial Weapons are superfluous) This alone is worth a half feat and is better than anything else other patrons get at 1st level
Cha to hit/damage
Super Hex 1/short rest.

The Super Hex itself has one ability which is just a bit worse than the Fiend's 1st level ability. That is all the Fiend gets and the Fiend is the strongest one.

Both the patron and the pact boon are minor abilities which add up to a typical subclass. Hexblade is ridiculously overpowered compared to every other patron.

Out of context (odd to make this assumption) it is bad. In context (trying to make a fundamentally ranged class a melee one) then yeah, it is not nearly as bad. They realized that bladelock was pretty much inferior to blastlock at every turn, so they needed a real way to incentivize it. This is what they came up with.

What I don't understand is why they decided to make superhex apply to all hits and not just hits with the pact weapon(s).

Also, warlock are just frontloaded and a little bit broken anyway. THE LURE OF POWER and all that.

[Dudewithknives]

Out of context (odd to make this assumption) it is bad. In context (trying to make a fundamentally ranged class a melee one) then yeah, it is not nearly as bad. They realized that bladelock was pretty much inferior to blastlock at every turn, so they needed a real way to incentivize it. This is what they came up with.

What I don't understand is why they decided to make superhex apply to all hits and not just hits with the pact weapon(s).

Also, warlock are just frontloaded and a little bit broken anyway. THE LURE OF POWER and all that.

They did not make it all pact weapons because not every hex blade will be pact of the blade, i have seen quite a few who just took hex blade for the armor and nothing else mattered.

[krugaan]

They did not make it all pact weapons because not every hex blade will be pact of the blade, i have seen quite a few who just took hex blade for the armor and nothing else mattered.

If they took hexblade for just the armor, why not take fighter and get a fighting style too? or Paladin, or Cleric, or what have you? Unless their stats are so abysmal they can't multiclass...

edit: 99% of the problem with warlocks would just go away if it was an INT based class instead of CHA based...

[Zene]

99% of the problem with warlocks would just go away if it was an INT based class instead of CHA based...

Omg, so so true. It sucks that they changed that in development —just because of people’s expectations from prior editions. Apparently the devs have even admitted it probably should have stayed int based.

[krugaan]

Omg, so so true. It sucks that they changed that in development —just because of people’s expectations from prior editions. Apparently the devs have even admitted it probably should have stayed int based.

Thematically, yeah warlocks are probably cha based.

But balancewise? Bad move.

[Dudewithknives]

Thematically, yeah warlocks are probably cha based.

But balancewise? Bad move.

I never undestood why they should be CHA based.

Sure you may have had to convince a planar being to give you power, but how did you find them, summon them or know about them. Int makes sense. Not only that but if they were super charismatic they would have gotten better deals.

[Oramac]

Great guide! All things considered, I think you did a wonderful job with it.

I admit, however, that I am one of those people who is extremely disappointed with the Arcane Archer. I wouldn't rate it red, but certainly not blue either. Only ever getting 2 uses of your signature ability outside of higher levels is just lame. I don't care how powerful the Shots are. Personally, I see it as a thematically awesome but mechanically disappointing Battlemaster. Some of the Shots are more powerful than the Maneuvers, but there's fewer Shot options, and you can only use it twice.

This is especially egregious on a class who's really big feature is getting Extra Extra Attacks. Assuming a 5 round combat encounter, once you hit Tier 3 play, you're looking at 15 attacks, 13 of which are no more special than anyone else since first level. Comparatively, a ranged Battlemaster can use one third of its attacks (5/15) on maneuvers at the same level. And it gets a 6th at the same level the Arcane Archer sort-of gets three.

Don't get me wrong. Thematically, I love it. It's so damn cool. But that just makes the mechanics that much more disappointing to me.

[mephnick]

I never undestood why they should be CHA based.

Sure you may have had to convince a planar being to give you power, but how did you find them, summon them or know about them. Int makes sense. Not only that but if they were super charismatic they would have gotten better deals.

You don't even have to convince them unless the DM makes you. The books say you can just find them and find a way to draw off their power without them even noticing.
I get the "force of will" argument, but I still think they should be INT based.

[krugaan]

I never undestood why they should be CHA based.

Sure you may have had to convince a planar being to give you power, but how did you find them, summon them or know about them. Int makes sense. Not only that but if they were super charismatic they would have gotten better deals.

Charisma is no longer just "good at talking" ... it's more like force of will.

The way I always see it is the physical stats have mental counterparts. Int is mental dex, wisdom is mental con, cha is mental str.

Your explanation is as good as any, but they could also dominate or charm planars through force of will.

edit: apparently mephnick beat me to it. humph.

[Dudewithknives]

Charisma is no longer just "good at talking" ... it's more like force of will.

The way I always see it is the physical stats have mental counterparts. Int is mental dex, wisdom is mental con, cha is mental str.

Your explanation is as good as any, but they could also dominate or charm planars through force of will.

if a piddley commoner or low level person has enough charisma to dominate or charm a planar being, how in the hell would that being be strong enough to be a magical power source in the first place.

[Naanomi]

I never undestood why they should be CHA based.

Sure you may have had to convince a planar being to give you power, but how did you find them, summon them or know about them. Int makes sense. Not only that but if they were super charismatic they would have gotten better deals.
The idea is that they didn't have to 'learn' magic, they just had it 'awakened' in them; in ways similar to a Sorcerer (which were, at the time, the first full Charisma spellcaster) and most other 'natural/unlearned ability' casters were the same way.

I agree it was a 3.5ism that could have been moved on from, but that is the origin of the idea

[Dudewithknives]

The idea is that they didn't have to 'learn' magic, they just had it 'awakened' in them; in ways similar to a Sorcerer (which were, at the time, the first full Charisma spellcaster) and most other 'natural/unlearned ability' casters were the same way.

I agree it was a 3.5ism that could have been moved on from, but that is the origin of the idea

That is not the same.

A sorcerer is born with their power by blind luck, a Warlock had to go out and seek their power and get it for themselves.

[Naanomi]

That is not the same.

A sorcerer is born with their power by blind luck, a Warlock had to go out and seek their power and get it for themselves.
No, but the idea of 'then the power is just innate in you like some sort of superpower' is the same

(and, incidentally, not all Sorcerers are 'born with the power'... some have it awakened in them by an accident or exposure to planar energy later in life)

[krugaan]

if a piddley commoner or low level person has enough charisma to dominate or charm a planar being, how in the hell would that being be strong enough to be a magical power source in the first place.

Pets are real life warlocks. They charm humans and get food and shelter and stuff. Humans make them follow some arbitrary rules, in exchange. The Prime Material is really just one big PetsMart.

[ad_hoc]

If they took hexblade for just the armor, why not take fighter and get a fighting style too? or Paladin, or Cleric, or what have you? Unless their stats are so abysmal they can't multiclass...

edit: 99% of the problem with warlocks would just go away if it was an INT based class instead of CHA based...

You are making the same mistake as the OP, not comparing it to other options.

The armour proficiency alone is better than the other patrons. Hexblade is the strongest patron by far, even if you don't use any weapons.

The only ability that relies on a weapon is Cha to hit/dmg instead of str/dex. Everything else can be used with Eldritch Blast which already gets Cha to hit anyway.

[krugaan]

You are making the same mistake as the OP, not comparing it to other options.


Ok, lets look at it again.



The armour proficiency alone is better than the other patrons. Hexblade is the strongest patron by far, even if you don't use any weapons.

At level 1, sure. Hex armor is also good at level whatever-you-get-it-at. Moving your super hex around is also pretty good. The GOO enslave thing is borderline broken, though, and is one of the coolest abilities ever. Hurl Through Hell is also really, really good.

The poor thing about Hexblade, IMO, is that your slots and concentration and higher level abilities are all going to be spent on hex and eldritch smite, and preclude you from using those slots to do any kind of controlling. Which is totally fine and great if that's what you want. Hexblade goes great with sorlock.

There are other ways to get armor that don't involve you locking yourself into a subclass that doesn't really offer anything to more controlling / utility locks.

It seems to me that you're just considering the warlock dips and not the higher level stuff.


The only ability that relies on a weapon is Cha to hit/dmg instead of str/dex. Everything else can be used with Eldritch Blast which already gets Cha to hit anyway.

This, I think, was a mistake on the part of the designers.

They should have designed lock better from the ground up if they wanted to make blade pact more viable. As it is, hexblade is just the default "damage" pact, period.

[ad_hoc]

The GOO enslave thing is borderline broken, though, and is one of the coolest abilities ever. Hurl Through Hell is also really, really good.

Those are 14th level abilities. The vast majority of campaigns won't even see play at that level. Even for the ones that do the total campaign play time at that level or above will be a small % of the rest of the campaign.

The abilities that define a character come into play at most as high as 7th level.



The poor thing about Hexblade, IMO, is that your slots and concentration and higher level abilities are all going to be spent on hex and eldritch smite, and preclude you from using those slots to do any kind of controlling. Which is totally fine and great if that's what you want. Hexblade goes great with sorlock.

Just don't do it. I think Hex is very much overrated as it is. Super Hex though which doesn't use a spell slot 1/short rest is really good. Hexblade gets a free better version of Hex 1/short rest and you are arguing that they will need to waste slots on casting Hex over other Warlocks? That doesn't make any sense.

Just look at the abilities on their own. None of them require using Eldritch Smite.



They should have designed lock better from the ground up if they wanted to make blade pact more viable. As it is, hexblade is just the default "damage" pact, period.

Blade pact is fine as is. The pacts are all minor boons. The mistake is expecting a pact to completely change the character. Blade pact is perhaps the weakest of the 3 pacts but not by much.

[krugaan]

Those are 14th level abilities. The vast majority of campaigns won't even see play at that level. Even for the ones that do the total campaign play time at that level or above will be a small % of the rest of the campaign.

The abilities that define a character come into play at most as high as 7th level.


Hmm, OK. I'm AFB but there are other non - 14th level abilities which are very good as well. Although the fact that I can't remember any off the top of my head...



Just don't do it. I think Hex is very much overrated as it is. Super Hex though which doesn't use a spell slot 1/short rest is really good. Hexblade gets a free better version of Hex 1/short rest and you are arguing that they will need to waste slots on casting Hex over other Warlocks? That doesn't make any sense.


You can always transfer hex. Super hex is good only for damage ... on one thing ... once per short rest ... and isn't transferrable until level 14. It is a plus that it doesn't require concentration, but otherwise extra crit and +2 to +3 damage isn't super spectacular for a short rest option. It's fine if you're trying to burn down a BBEG, but hex will still be useful against all the minions.



Just look at the abilities on their own. None of them require using Eldritch Smite.


Sorry, but isn't it a bit ... disingenuous to say "you're not comparing these to the other options" and then say "look at them on their own?" Your whole point is "compared to other pacts, hexblade is the best, hands down" and my point is "yeah ... at doing what though?"

My personal opinion is that eldritch smite is pretty badass ... no save anything is pretty cool. Not really sure if its worth it, though.



Blade pact is fine as is. The pacts are all minor boons. The mistake is expecting a pact to completely change the character. Blade pact is perhaps the weakest of the 3 pacts but not by much.

Well, I feel blade pact is really crappy because you have to spend all those invocations, many of which are powerful and unique, to replicate what other classes get for free, basically, on top of requiring you to be in melee, on a class that has generally crappy AC and middling hit points, and requires you to be MAD to really to anything in melee, and still does barely more damage than a regular lock, IF THAT.

Hexblade was pretty much explicitly designed as a bandaid for this. But again, all the class features have to do with armor and damage, and none with general utility. At all.

[ad_hoc]

You can always transfer hex. Super hex is good only for damage ... on one thing ... once per short rest ... and isn't transferrable until level 14. It is a plus that it doesn't require concentration, but otherwise extra crit and +2 to +3 damage isn't super spectacular for a short rest option. It's fine if you're trying to burn down a BBEG, but hex will still be useful against all the minions.

It's not an either/or. Also, you get HP healing from the Super Hex.

It isn't a "short rest option" that takes the place of another one. It's an extra thing.



Sorry, but isn't it a bit ... disingenuous to say "you're not comparing these to the other options" and then say "look at them on their own?" Your whole point is "compared to other pacts, hexblade is the best, hands down" and my point is "yeah ... at doing what though?"

The abilities don't require you to make poor choices elsewhere.

You need to look at the abilities in comparison to other abilities that you are giving up to take them.

Arguing about whether the Super Hex is better than regular Hex is not comparing them to other pacts.
[/quote]



My personal opinion is that eldritch smite is pretty badass ... no save anything is pretty cool. Not really sure if its worth it, though.

Again, you don't need to spend an invocation slot on Eldritch Smite. You can just not take if you don't want it.



Well, I feel blade pact is really crappy because you have to spend all those invocations, many of which are powerful and unique, to replicate what other classes get for free, basically, on top of requiring you to be in melee, on a class that has generally crappy AC and middling hit points, and requires you to be MAD to really to anything in melee, and still does barely more damage than a regular lock, IF THAT.

You don't have to spend any invocations. Just compare Blade Pact to the other boons, not to other classes. While it is the weakest of the boons, they're all not that powerful.



Hexblade was pretty much explicitly designed as a bandaid for this. But again, all the class features have to do with armor and damage, and none with general utility. At all.

And yet only the Chat to hit/dmg has anything to do with Blade Pact.

It's a monstrously overpowered patron that, if you care about power, should be taken by all Warlocks.

Most of the abilities of the other patrons are concerned with combat as well. Unless you want to argue that telepathy 30ft is somehow comparable to everything Hexblade gets at 1st level.

One is on the level of a cantrip, the other is worth about 1.5 feats.

[krugaan]

/snip

You're right.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Take Hexblade. It is overpowered and I will not be using it (though it's not game breaking, just completely overshadows every other patron so I understand why others are okay with it).

Compare Hexblade's Curse and Hex Warrior to etc. etc.

This is a fair point. When I have Hexblade a blue rating I was mentally comparing it to a fiend warlock blaster, and thinking that it doesn't quite stack up. But as you, and others, have pointed out "blaster hexblade" warlock is probably the best warlock build in officially published materials.

When I have some free time I intend to go back and update this guide with some of the suggestions people have made (I already have for quite a few of the spells, but some of the rating I gave bother me a bit).


The following is a bit harsh but also deserved as you should not be making guides.


This is a little uncalled for though, no? I'd stand by 90% of my ratings for this guide. I actually read treantmonks (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bZj3Xbzh-LuPiYcfK02S-uHqu-3ibxQlKonTJ9a5g48/edit) guide recently and was surprised how close a lot of the ratings were (still think he overrates mantle of majesty).

[ProseBeforeHos]

I admit, however, that I am one of those people who is extremely disappointed with the Arcane Archer. I wouldn't rate it red, but certainly not blue either. Only ever getting 2 uses of your signature ability outside of higher levels is just lame. I don't care how powerful the Shots are. Personally, I see it as a thematically awesome but mechanically disappointing Battlemaster. Some of the Shots are more powerful than the Maneuvers, but there's fewer Shot options, and you can only use it twice.

You shouldn't underestimate it. In practice it plays a lot like a battle-master archer i.e. wants to short rest after every combat. If you do that '2 shots' won't feel too limiting. 1-6 it's certainly weaker, but curving shot makes up for a lot. I played the UA version of this class in a CoS game I was in and it was disgustingly good with sharp shooter since the guaranteed reroll really opens you up to take more risks with the 'power attack'.

Sadly I think Battlemaster is just one of those subclasses, like Lore Bard or Life Cleric, that just seems to tower over all other options in general power.


Great guide! All things considered, I think you did a wonderful job with it

Thankyou :smallbiggrin:

[Oramac]

You shouldn't underestimate it. In practice it plays a lot like a battle-master archer i.e. wants to short rest after every combat. If you do that '2 shots' won't feel too limiting. 1-6 it's certainly weaker, but curving shot makes up for a lot. I played the UA version of this class in a CoS game I was in and it was disgustingly good with sharp shooter since the guaranteed reroll really opens you up to take more risks with the 'power attack'.

I admit I haven't seen it in play yet. Hopefully it holds its own once I do. One of the players in a game I just started is planning to use it, so fingers crossed.


Sadly I think Battlemaster is just one of those subclasses, like Lore Bard or Life Cleric, that just seems to tower over all other options in general power.

That's true. I'd add Bear Barbarian to that list too. Ancestral Guardian gives it a legit run for its money, to be sure, but resistance to everything is still REALLY strong.

[Easy_Lee]

This is a fair point. When I have Hexblade a blue rating I was mentally comparing it to a fiend warlock blaster, and thinking that it doesn't quite stack up. But as you, and others, have pointed out "blaster hexblade" warlock is probably the best warlock build in officially published materials.

The best at what? We might say it's the best at general combat, but that's only one pillar of the game. Sadly, that seems to be the only thing anyone cares about on forums because everything else is campaign-dependent.

[Naanomi]

The best at what? We might say it's the best at general combat, but that's only one pillar of the game. Sadly, that seems to be the only thing anyone cares about on forums because everything else is campaign-dependent.
Too hard to evaluate social pillar for the most part; and published campaigns are heavily combat focused... heck, many subclasses only have combat abilities to evaluate in the first place

[Easy_Lee]

Too hard to evaluate social pillar for the most part; and published campaigns are heavily combat focused... heck, many subclasses only have combat abilities to evaluate in the first place

That's a good point, but that also means we can't say A is better than B unless we have a specific situation in mind. I don't agree with the idea of ranking builds without specifying the conditions.

I think it would be more useful to say "A is good at this, B is good at that." A Hexblade is good at fighting in close quarters and killing individual powerful creatures. A fiend warlock is good at blasting creatures from afar and dealing with creatures succeptible to fire. A great old one warlock is good at manipulating people. And so on.

[mephnick]

Sadly I think Battlemaster is just one of those subclasses, like Lore Bard or Life Cleric, that just seems to tower over all other options in general power.

Eh, maybe Lore Bard, but I'd probably take EK and a few clerics before I went BM or Life Cleric.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I always have trouble deciding what spells to choose and this will help a lot.

[Dudewithknives]

Eh, maybe Lore Bard, but I'd probably take EK and a few clerics before I went BM or Life Cleric.

I think it is more along the lines of that with limited numbers of subclasses some that are just markedly inferior stand out.

Berzerker and somewhat Battlerager Barbarian
Elemental Monk
Beastmaster Ranger
Champion Fighter
Wild Magic Sorcerer

There is a reason people only take those for a level or 2 if at all. The other choices are just plain better.

[mephnick]

There is a reason people only take those for a level or 2 if at all. The other choices are just plain better.

Oh for sure, there are subclasses that are obviously the weakest. I'm not sure there are many classes where one option is obviously the best though.

Maybe Totem Barb before Xanathar's (of course I'm crazy and regard Bear Totem as my 2nd or 3rd choice).

[Dudewithknives]

Oh for sure, there are subclasses that are obviously the weakest. I'm not sure there are many classes where one option is obviously the best though.

Maybe Totem Barb before Xanathar's (of course I'm crazy and regard Bear Totem as my 2nd or 3rd choice).

Hexblade is just straight up better than every other patron at this point.
Like to the point that is is almost like getting another class.

[mephnick]

Hexblade is just straight up better than every other patron at this point.

Agreed. I don't allow it because Bladelocks are good enough for that archetype with minor changes which I've made.

[Easy_Lee]

Hexblade is just straight up better than every other patron at this point.
Like to the point that is is almost like getting another class.

Better for general combat only. The other patrons are better at a variety of things.

[Snowbluff]

Psychihc blades is comically underrated. It's a smite yo uget back on a short rest, and bards can get swift quiver. It's far better than the flourishes of the other bard college at first level and scales better from there.

Basically a Whisper bard would be fighting by putting on haste or swift quiver, getting their trigger on psychic blades. Then their standard action is free for a full spell. It's like a Bizzaro Sorc/Paladin. minus some bulk and plus skills.

[mephnick]

Psychihc blades is comically underrated. It's a smite yo uget back on a short rest, and bards can get swift quiver. It's far better than the flourishes of the other bard college at first level and scales better from there.

Basically a Whisper bard would be fighting by putting on haste or swift quiver, getting their trigger on psychic blades. Then their standard action is free for a full spell. It's like a Bizzaro Sorc/Paladin. minus some bulk and plus skills.

I mean, if your 3rd level ability is dependant on using a 10th level ability to select a certain spell, it's probably not great. It also doesn't really fit the theme of the class to me.

I don't think it's a red option, but it's definitely not a feature I'm picking the subclass up for which is usually what you want the 3rd level ability to be. Honestly they should have made Shadow Lore the level 3 subclass feature because that's thematic as hell.

[Naanomi]

Better for general combat only. The other patrons are better at a variety of things.
They are not as much better at their things as hexblade is better at general combat

[krugaan]

They are not as much better at their things as hexblade is better at general combat

If you're melee. Although I suppose this is true for the most part. But if you're not planning on being in melee, it's not as much of a benefit.

Hexblade is mechanically the best for damage. But it doesn't have anywhere near the flavor of GOO or Fiend, or even celestial. You get stuff to do damage.

I never thought I'd say this, but it's not always about doing damage.

Imagine being able to project your voice directly into someones brainhole. The possibilities for mindfookery are nearly endless.

[Easy_Lee]

Imagine being able to project your voice directly into someones brainhole. The possibilities for mindfookery are nearly endless.

Exactly. Endless and very campaign-dependent.

For an easier example, consider that the sun soul monk is often criticized as being underpowered. But against undead, particularly vampires, the archetype shines. You could not say Sun Soul was a bad choice unless you knew what you'd be fighting in the campaign.

Back on Warlock patrons, that's why I think it's more useful to simply state what they can do well. Players will do a better job picking the one they think suits their intentions best if, rather than ranking archetypes outside of any sort of context, we state their strengths.

[Snowbluff]

I mean, if your 3rd level ability is dependant on using a 10th level ability to select a certain spell, it's probably not great. It also doesn't really fit the theme of the class to me.

I don't think it's a red option, but it's definitely not a feature I'm picking the subclass up for which is usually what you want the 3rd level ability to be. Honestly they should have made Shadow Lore the level 3 subclass feature because that's thematic as hell.

I agree the theme is weird.

However is psychic blades was placed later it would probably be a case of too little too late, where it wouldn’t scale super well. Then shadow lore might not be bringing enough to the class.

However it allows you to make a version of a multiclassed build without multiclassing, so I would rate it more highly than the flourishes. On a more global level, you get to be a rogue with no condition for cha mod rounds/short rest.

[Naanomi]

If you're melee. Although I suppose this is true for the most part. But if you're not planning on being in melee, it's not as much of a benefit.
To a degree, but the difference between 14 AC and 19 AC is significant even for ranged characters; even ignoring all the other bonuses

[krugaan]

To a degree, but the difference between 14 AC and 19 AC is significant even for ranged characters; even ignoring all the other bonuses

True. There's other ways to get armor proficiency that don't involve locking you into a damage only subclass though.

[ad_hoc]

The best at what? We might say it's the best at general combat, but that's only one pillar of the game. Sadly, that seems to be the only thing anyone cares about on forums because everything else is campaign-dependent.

I would argue that the Hexblade is better at things like social interaction and exploration because it has so much combat power that the Hexblade can save its spells and invocations for those sorts of things.

It has far and away more power than any other patron. It's not even close. And this is for all warlock types, not just weapon builds.

[Dudewithknives]

True. There's other ways to get armor proficiency that don't involve locking you into a damage only subclass though.

Having a specter under your control that can go through walls and help spy for you is not combat only.

Locked door. Specter unlocks it.
Is that chest trapped? Specter checks it, possibly from the inside
Need someone to bait out an enemy. Specter does it.

It is one of the best support abilities of any patron.

[krugaan]

Having a specter under your control that can go through walls and help spy for you is not combat only.

Locked door. Specter unlocks it.
Is that chest trapped? Specter checks it, possibly from the inside
Need someone to bait out an enemy. Specter does it.

It is one of the best support abilities of any patron.

Seems to me that unseen servant could do almost all those things, but I don't remember offhand what the specter exactly does, im AFB atm.

[Dudewithknives]

Seems to me that unseen servant could do almost all those things, but I don't remember offhand what the specter exactly does, im AFB atm.

Are you going to spend 1 of your 2 spell slots on that?
Only warlocks of 1 pact that takes 1 invocation can do it with a ritual, and that takes 10 mins.
It also only follows commands and has no real mind.

The specter is essentially essentially a very cool familiar that can go through walls, and fight with you. And follows advanced directions because they are pretty smart.

[krugaan]

Are you going to spend 1 of your 2 spell slots on that?
Only warlocks of 1 pact that takes 1 invocation can do it with a ritual, and that takes 10 mins.
It also only follows commands and has no real mind.

The specter is essentially essentially a very cool familiar that can go through walls, and fight with you. And follows advanced directions because they are pretty smart.

If I'm tome, I probably have it as a ritual.
If I'm chain, then I *already* have a cool familiar that can do all that.
If I'm blade, then I'm a hexblade and the argument is moot.

I dislike that you have to personally kill something to get this cool familiar, because that generally precludes its use in intrigue or similar campaigns. Of course, that hardly matters for dungeon crawls, but that's not the point of my argument.

[ad_hoc]

To a degree, but the difference between 14 AC and 19 AC is significant even for ranged characters; even ignoring all the other bonuses

Not only that but the underlying assumption here makes the argument moot.

Either -

Combat is dangerous and it's possible to lose/tpk so you should expect to be attacked. As such combat stats like AC are vital.

OR

It's easy to avoid even being attacked in combat because it is trivial and as such it doesn't matter what options are taken because the party is easily going to win anyway.

In the latter case guides are completely worthless because every option results in success.

For example, I just started up a new campaign with my group and we invited a new player. She brought a Ranger from a previous campaign by lowering her level a bit. She had leather armour, I suggested that she get better armour and she said leather was a character choice. Sure. So 2nd combat encounter of the session is comprised of 4 orcs. They use their bonus action dash to close the distance and 2 of them attack her and drop her in the first round. If she had better AC should would have been fine and the tide of battle wouldn't have swung against the party. The spellcasters fired off spells in the 2nd round to save the day, but now they are down those spells for the adventuring day, all because her AC is low. Not only did the orcs not care that she was armed with a bow, it made her a bigger target.

I keep hearing that Hexblade is a damage only patron and the other patrons offer so much more...but what is that more exactly?

Telepathy to 30ft?
Charm for 1 round?

What are these magnificent exploration and social interaction abilities? Warlocks have a lot of these abilities...they're just not from their patrons.

[Dudewithknives]

If I'm tome, I probably have it as a ritual.
If I'm chain, then I *already* have a cool familiar that can do all that.
If I'm blade, then I'm a hexblade and the argument is moot.

I dislike that you have to personally kill something to get this cool familiar, because that generally precludes its use in intrigue or similar campaigns. Of course, that hardly matters for dungeon crawls, but that's not the point of my argument.

The point of your argument was thay hexblade is the combat only subclass.

My point was that you were wrong and it has one of the best utility features of any warlock subclass

Also, no your familiar can't phase through a wall, or a chest and spy on the other side, it has to be able to get there like any physical being.
Also the specter lasts until your long rest so that could be quite a while.
Just because you are pact of chain does not make it less worthwhile, you can have 2 pets 2 that can be invisible 2 that can walk through walls

Hexblade is the new broken patron for any build really.
You can still be chain or tome if you want, none of their abilities force you to use a weapon. You could just take the nice armor, curse and use normal spells

The point is that Hexblade is not the "combat only patron"

[krugaan]

The point of your argument was thay hexblade is the combat only subclass.

My point was that you were wrong and it has one of the best utility features of any warlock subclass


Yes, but that utility is *tied* to combat (unless you think of some clever way around it). I'll concede this one feature has *some* utility, but not much more than a chainlock pet by itself, and there's that pesky corpse thing you need as a prerequisite to use it.



Also, no your familiar can't phase through a wall, or a chest and spy on the other side, it has to be able to get there like any physical being. That is pretty cool.
Also the specter lasts until your long rest so that could be quite a while. I suppose this is a bonus?
Just because you are pact of chain does not make it less worthwhile, you can have 2 pets 2 that can be invisible 2 that can walk through walls You can dismiss and resummon your pet at any point you can see within 30 ft, IIRC.


Still, cooler than I thought.



Hexblade is the new broken patron for any build really.
You can still be chain or tome if you want, none of their abilities force you to use a weapon. You could just take the nice armor, curse and use normal spells

The point is that Hexblade is not the "combat only patron"

Sigh, we'll just agree to disagree, then.

[ad_hoc]

Yes, but that utility is *tied* to combat (unless you think of some clever way around it). I'll concede this one feature has *some* utility, but not much more than a chainlock pet by itself, and there's that pesky corpse thing you need as a prerequisite to use it.


What does Pact of the Chain have to do with the Hexblade Patron?

It's like arguing that the Warlock's spellcasting ability is both stronger than the Hexblade features and provides more out of combat utility. Of course it does. Only you still get to cast spells as a Hexblade just as you can still take the Pact of the Chain.

[ProseBeforeHos]

I keep hearing that Hexblade is a damage only patron and the other patrons offer so much more...but what is that more exactly?

Telepathy to 30ft?
Charm for 1 round?

What are these magnificent exploration and social interaction abilities? Warlocks have a lot of these abilities...they're just not from their patrons.

"So much more" is an overstatement but the comparison between the patrons isn't entirely cut and dry. Fey has much better cc options (sleep and faerie fire at low levels), fiend has the best aoe damage (fireball, wall of fire) and has good defensive options vs spells (something which hexblade doesn't have). Great old one has perhaps the best single ability of any warlock patron (create thrall) and even celestial can fill a healing niche in a party that already has good single target dpr, but lacks for a cleric.

If I had to create a warlock "tier list" it would look something like this:

Powerful Tier - Hexblade blaster, fiend blaster
Good Tier - Hexblade bladelock, all other blaster locks
Mediocre Tier - fiend bladelock
Trash Tier - all other bladelocks

The real power discrepancy is pact of the blade vs eldritch blast, not so much between the individual patrons.

Edit: The one area where the Hexblade is just impossibly far ahead is multi-classing. Giving you medium armor, shields and the curse for a one level dip is obscene...

[krugaan]

Edit: The one area where the Hexblade is just impossibly far ahead is multi-classing. Giving you medium armor, shields and the curse for a one level dip is obscene...

This is almost certainly true. They could have just made warlocks an Int class...

[Dudewithknives]

"So much more" is an overstatement but the comparison between the patrons isn't entirely cut and dry. Fey has much better cc options (sleep and faerie fire at low levels), fiend has the best aoe damage (fireball, wall of fire) and has good defensive options vs spells (something which hexblade doesn't have). Great old one has perhaps the best single ability of any warlock patron (create thrall) and even celestial can fill a healing niche in a party that already has good single target dpr, but lacks for a cleric.

If I had to create a warlock "tier list" it would look something like this:

Powerful Tier - Hexblade blaster, fiend blaster
Good Tier - Hexblade bladelock, all other blaster locks
Mediocre Tier - fiend bladelock
Trash Tier - all other bladelocks

The real power discrepancy is pact of the blade vs eldritch blast, not so much between the individual patrons.

Edit: The one area where the Hexblade is just impossibly far ahead is multi-classing. Giving you medium armor, shields and the curse for a one level dip is obscene...

Don't forget the cha to hit and damage too.

[Naanomi]

Powerful Tier - Hexblade blaster, fiend blaster
Good Tier - Hexblade bladelock, all other blaster locks
Mediocre Tier - fiend bladelock
Trash Tier - all other bladelocks
Somehow I'm surprised to see Fiend called out as being better than other options, without Undying called out as being worse

[krugaan]

Somehow I'm surprised to see Fiend called out as being better than other options, without Undying called out as being worse

What does undying get, again?

[Naanomi]

What does undying get, again?
1st: sanctuary effect Vs undead
6th: small conditional self-heal on long rest
10th: no sleep, eat, etc; slow ageing
14th: second smaller self-heal on short rest

[krugaan]

1st: sanctuary effect Vs undead
6th: small conditional self-heal on long rest
10th: no sleep, eat, etc; slow ageing
14th: second smaller self-heal on short rest

Another frontloaded pact. Also, that sounds terrible.

[Dudewithknives]

What does undying get, again?

Not much. It is by far the weakest of the patrons.

At level one they get a cantrip it makes no sense for them to ever cast, Spare the Dying.

They get a version of sanctuary that only works if directly targeted by undead.

At 6, if they makes a death save 1/long rest they gain 1d8+X hp.

At 10 they do not need to eat, drink or breath anymore but they still need to rest, and they slow their aging to 1/10th. So essentially they get nothing because by level 10 you are not going to care about food and water.

At 14 they get a once per rest heal of 1d8 + warlock level, and can re-attach severed body parts, which is also kind of pointless considering unless your DM throws it in there as a RP point to screw you, you are not losing a body part anyway and a greater restoration spell fixes that anyway which clerics got 5 levels before.

If you are in a MAJORLY undead centered campaign and did not mind being the weakest person in the group it could work thematically, otherwise it is just wasted book space or an NPC villain option.

[krugaan]

Not much. It is by far the weakest of the patrons.

At level one they get a cantrip it makes no sense for them to ever cast, Spare the Dying.

They get a version of sanctuary that only works if directly targeted by undead.

At 6, if they makes a death save 1/long rest they gain 1d8+X hp.

At 10 they do not need to eat, drink or breath anymore but they still need to rest, and they slow their aging to 1/10th. So essentially they get nothing because by level 10 you are not going to care about food and water.

At 14 they get a once per rest heal of 1d8 + warlock level, and can re-attach severed body parts, which is also kind of pointless considering unless your DM throws it in there as a RP point to screw you, you are not losing a body part anyway and a greater restoration spell fixes that anyway which clerics got 5 levels before.

If you are in a MAJORLY undead centered campaign and did not mind being the weakest person in the group it could work thematically, otherwise it is just wasted book space or an NPC villain option.

That sounds a little better than naanomi's description, but still, really really bad.

It's pretty funny how most of the pact is invalidated by one celestial pact ability you get at level 1.

[Dudewithknives]

That sounds a little better than naanomi's description, but still, really really bad.

It's pretty funny how most of the pact is invalidated by one celestial pact ability you get at level 1.

If a Warlock could make a great Necromancer and pet class it would be ok, but they don't.

[krugaan]

If a Warlock could make a great Necromancer and pet class it would be ok, but they don't.

Chain warlocks desperately need to be able to charm / bind / dominate creatures appropriate to their patron. Right now they get ... a pet.

[rbstr]

That's the point: Pact Boons aren't supposed to be particularly strong strong. It's a single-level non-scaling feature that shares the 3rd level feature budget with gaining access to 2nd level spells.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Somehow I'm surprised to see Fiend called out as being better than other options, without Undying called out as being worse

Haha, you're not wrong. I'd honestly forgotten that patron existed it's so rare to see it :smallbiggrin: Certainly, it is the worst!

[Platypusbill]

Slayer's Prey: Underwhelming compared to say, planar warrior even with the extra range this has. Long story short - it's still "decent" because it's free, so you can combine it with hunters mark, or use it when you're out of spell slots. If it didn't refresh on a short rest it would be red but thankfully it does.

As I interpret the text, you can actually use the ability at-will; there is nothing that says "You regain the use of this ability when you finish a rest" or anything similar. Rather, it says "This benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest. It ends early if you designate a different creature". I.e. "until you finish a short or long rest" is just the duration of the effect.

[Spiritchaser]

Chain warlocks desperately need to be able to charm / bind / dominate creatures appropriate to their patron. Right now they get ... a pet.

There’s nothing stopping them from doing so, except the DM at hand

Certainly the find familiar spell can call other creatures, and there is some guidance that stock MM/Volos creatures such as a Gazer could qualify.

It’s probably something best written into the story; do a special service for your patron, get a special reward, or some such

[ShikomeKidoMi]

I noticed you focused on the defensive part of Unbreakable Majesty, but it's worth pointing out that it has a pretty powerful offensive component. Disadvantage on spell saves is nothing to sneeze at. High Charisma foes that insist on attacking a Glamour bard are opening themselves up for reprisal.

[Avonar]

Something to remember for Hexblade/Blade Pact is that to maximise how good it is, you need several invocations. Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite, all combat abilities that mean you will be taking fewer of the other invocations. I am currently playing a Fiend Warlock, and going Hexblade would probably have meant that I wouldn't be doing the cool stuff I am, such as Disguise Self at will and Silent Image at will.

So yes, if you want to max out your Hexblade potential you will definitely be losing out in terms of non-combat stuff you can do.

[krugaan]

There’s nothing stopping them from doing so, except the DM at hand

Certainly the find familiar spell can call other creatures, and there is some guidance that stock MM/Volos creatures such as a Gazer could qualify.

It’s probably something best written into the story; do a special service for your patron, get a special reward, or some such

I didn't mean permanently, like a pet ... that would be strong as hell.

But instead of free hold monster, they should also get to charm / dominate them if they like, instead.

[Sception]

Something to remember for Hexblade/Blade Pact is that to maximise how good it is, you need several invocations. Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite.

Eh. Unless you're going for a ranged weapon build, Improved Pact Weapon can be swapped out as soon as you get an actual magic weapon, assuming you haven't picked one up by the time you would even be taking it. And eldritch smite, while not at all bad, is hardly compulsory. Bladelocks have good enough spells, and few enough slots to work with, that a smiting mechanic is hardly obligatory in a single classed build. And even in multiclassed builds, the fact that eldritch smite only works with warlock slots still keeps it from being a 'must have'.

I'd personally consider 'relentless hex' a higher priority than eldritch smite, but maybe that's just me.


So, in general, i think bladelocks really only have a couple obligatory invocation slots at a time, since you should hopefully have found at least a +1 weapon by the time you're level 12. that's not too bad.

Really, the only problems with hexblade are that hex warrior - which is really nothing other than a bladelock fix - should have been part of pact blade itself, not part of another patron, and that hexblade's curse should scale with warlock level, not character level. Beyond that, it's fine, and doesn't need to be tuned down.

Some other aspects of warlock could afford to be tuned up, though.

[ProseBeforeHos]

As I interpret the text, you can actually use the ability at-will; there is nothing that says "You regain the use of this ability when you finish a rest" or anything similar. Rather, it says "This benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest. It ends early if you designate a different creature". I.e. "until you finish a short or long rest" is just the duration of the effect.

Good catch, you're right I misread it. I'm going to do a big update to this guide soontm and I will up the rating accordingly.


Something to remember for Hexblade/Blade Pact is that to maximise how good it is, you need several invocations. Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite.

As Malisteen pointed out that's not really true. The "incantation tax" is fairly light only thirsting blade and lifedrinker are really required and so few games go to level 12 anyway.

Improved pact weapon is purely optional (and even if you take it you will swap it out eventually), you can build a perfectly good bladelock without ever taking smite (though I think eventually it becomes worth it).

The bigger issue is... is any of this worth not just building a blasterlock? They do comparable damage but at range, and don't have to worry about having a weapon in their hand impeding their casting.

[MeeposFire]

Good catch, you're right I misread it. I'm going to do a big update to this guide soontm and I will up the rating accordingly.



As Malisteen pointed out that's not really true. The "incantation tax" is fairly light only thirsting blade and lifedrinker are really required and so few games go to level 12 anyway.

Improved pact weapon is purely optional (and even if you take it you will swap it out eventually), you can build a perfectly good bladelock without ever taking smite (though I think eventually it becomes worth it).

The bigger issue is... is any of this worth not just building a blasterlock? They do comparable damage but at range, and don't have to worry about having a weapon in their hand impeding their casting.

Do you want to hit things with a weapon often while still being a warlock? Well if so EB is not going to work as your primary attack. If you are just a numbers person you can get better numbers using blade but you have to work for it and invest and it will be more dangerous. It is all about style and what you want to do an EB only using warlock will not scratch various kinds of itches and if you have that itch well you need to find something that scratches that.

[Nargrakhan]

I think Toll the Dead and Shadow Blade should mention having phenomenal potential with Eldritch Knights.

EK can't get Shadow Blade until level 7, but when they do... WOW. 3d8 + 7 per hit if using a 3rd level spell slot with max Dexterity and the Duelist fighting style. All that and you can still carry a shield.

(I'm mulling over creating an AL point build EK with Shield Mastery and Shadow Blade for the next campaign I'll participate in. Paragon means I don't have to necessarily max out STR for it to be viable).

Toll the Dead has major synergy with Eldritch Strike.

[Rogerdodger557]

I think Toll the Dead and Shadow Blade should mention having phenomenal potential with Eldritch Knights.

EK can't get Shadow Blade until level 7, but when they do... WOW. 3d8 + 7 per hit if using a 3rd level spell slot with max Dexterity and the Duelist fighting style. All that and you can still carry a shield.

(I'm mulling over creating an AL point build EK with Shield Mastery and Shadow Blade for the next campaign I'll participate in. Paragon means I don't have to necessarily max out STR for it to be viable).

Toll the Dead has major synergy with Eldritch Strike.

And since fighters get so many ASIs, the MADness for Toll the Dead isn't quite as bad. I have an AL level 17 EK that has max Int and 5 feats, and I'm considering taking a 6th when I get there.

[Easy_Lee]

I think Toll the Dead and Shadow Blade should mention having phenomenal potential with Eldritch Knights.

EK can't get Shadow Blade until level 7, but when they do... WOW. 3d8 + 7 per hit if using a 3rd level spell slot with max Dexterity and the Duelist fighting style. All that and you can still carry a shield.

Sure, but you're competing with Haste. That said, Shadow Blade is a bonus action to summon, and doesn't make you lose your turn of you lose concentration. As a result, Shadow Blade might be overall the more beneficial spell for eldritch knights (as opposed to arcane tricksters who will get more mileage out of Haste due to the Ready action and Sneak Attack).

Assuming a TWF build at level 11: 9D8+15 psychic, 1D6+5 (other hand), for a total of 64 average damage, +1 if you took Dual Wielder. That ain't bad at all. You could also have the Warcaster feat and use Booming Blade on opportunity attacks (you'll need it to cast spells with your hands full anyway).

[Dman]

Do you want to hit things with a weapon often while still being a warlock? Well if so EB is not going to work as your primary attack. If you are just a numbers person you can get better numbers using blade but you have to work for it and invest and it will be more dangerous. It is all about style and what you want to do an EB only using warlock will not scratch various kinds of itches and if you have that itch well you need to find something that scratches that.

This is pretty much why I am excited to play Hexblades. I already have a character idea in mind for a modern game involving guns but I also want to experiment since it will be my first time playing a warlock so I am going to build a backup character in another friends game and see how it goes with ranged weapons.

[ProseBeforeHos]

I think Toll the Dead and Shadow Blade should mention having phenomenal potential with Eldritch Knights.

EK can't get Shadow Blade until level 7

8th level actually, since it's an illusion spell so they'd need to use their 'special slot' on it.

For that reason I'd say it's good for an EK, amazing for an arcane trickster.

[Rogerdodger557]

8th level actually, since it's an illusion spell so they'd need to use their 'special slot' on it.

For that reason I'd say it's good for an EK, amazing for an arcane trickster.

But since an EK can swap their level 3 special slot for it, they can still get it a 7.

[ProseBeforeHos]

But since an EK can swap their level 3 special slot for it, they can still get it a 7.

By RAW you cannot, it has to be 8th/14th or 20th lvl 'special slot' (I admit as a DM I would allow my player to do so).

Again, it's not that it's bad on EK it's just a little weaker since unlike the trickster you have to burn a 'special' pick.

[Sception]

I do think this guide is underrating Oath & Aura of Conquest.

Yeah, fear already stops enemies from moving closer to the source of their fear, but that's not all that helpful on a tank. Preventing enemies from moving away, though, that's a big deal. Under the aura's effects, frightened enemies can't scatter and regroup. They can't leave the paladin to go engage other party members. They can't get out of line of sight to be able to make saves on the fear spell, which the subclass grants at ninth level. They can't stand up from prone. They can't go get their weapons if you command them to "throw" them away. If the paladin is using a reach weapon, they might not be able to attack /anyone/ unless they have reach or ranged attacks themselves, and even if the paladin is going sword & board, non-ranged mooks are stuck throwing attacks at disadvantage against probably the best AC in the party. And if you're willing to take a bit of pain yourself, your party blaster can drop a persistent damage aoe on your head, and the enemies trapped in your aura will just have to suffer in there with you. Again, especially if you tagged them with fear, which doesn't even allow follow up saves if they fail the first one if they can't get away from you.

From level 7 on (or more realistically 8 on, given the strong incentive for a second level hexblade dip), they're among the stickier tanks in the game, at least against fear-vulnerable targets. Yeah that's not everyone, and probably doesn't include the BBEG, but what other tank locks down crowds like a conquest paladin? And before that they've got solid oath spells (armor of Agathys at level 3, Spiritual Weapon at level 5) and strong channel divinities.

They trade some damage dealing or mitigating potential for crowd control, but that still seems like a solid deal to make for any paladin who wants to focus on tanking. IMO, both the subclass as a whole and the aura in particular rate at least a solid dark blue.

[Nargrakhan]

8th level actually, since it's an illusion spell so they'd need to use their 'special slot' on it.

For that reason I'd say it's good for an EK, amazing for an arcane trickster.



By RAW you cannot, it has to be 8th/14th or 20th lvl 'special slot' (I admit as a DM I would allow my player to do so).

It can be learned at level 7. You're using an old version of the PHB. See errata:

http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf

Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher (p. 75). The final sentence ends as follows: "… unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 3rd, 8th, 14th, or 20th level from any school of magic" (6th printing).

Don't worry: I didn't know until a player of mine corrected me. Change didn't happen till the 6th printing.

Anyone who didn't let their EK player change a spell at level 7 since 2016, owe that player a beer. :smalltongue:

***EDIT***
Changed errata link to the 2017 version... 2016 version had it, but isn't the latest version.

[ProseBeforeHos]

It can be learned at level 7. You're using an old version of the PHB. See errata:

http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf

Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher (p. 75). The final sentence ends as follows: "… unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 3rd, 8th, 14th, or 20th level from any school of magic" (6th printing).

Don't worry. I didn't know until a player of mine corrected me. Change didn't happen till the 6th printing.

***EDIT***
Changed errata link to the 2017 version... 2016 version had it, but isn't the latest version.

Good catch, and a good change from WOTC. I think most non-sadist DM's would have ruled it that way anyway.

[JellyPooga]

Not much. It is by far the weakest of the patrons.

At level one they get a cantrip it makes no sense for them to ever cast, Spare the Dying.

They get a version of sanctuary that only works if directly targeted by undead.

At 6, if they makes a death save 1/long rest they gain 1d8+X hp.

At 10 they do not need to eat, drink or breath anymore but they still need to rest, and they slow their aging to 1/10th. So essentially they get nothing because by level 10 you are not going to care about food and water.

At 14 they get a once per rest heal of 1d8 + warlock level, and can re-attach severed body parts, which is also kind of pointless considering unless your DM throws it in there as a RP point to screw you, you are not losing a body part anyway and a greater restoration spell fixes that anyway which clerics got 5 levels before.

If you are in a MAJORLY undead centered campaign and did not mind being the weakest person in the group it could work thematically, otherwise it is just wasted book space or an NPC villain option.

While the features of Undying are somewhat underwhelming, their bonus spells are arguably quite good. If nothing else, getting access to Death Ward that recharges on a Short Rest is remarkably useful; got a spare slot you didn't use before resting? D.Ward yourself or an ally.

[Kadzar]

Psychic Scream: Haha, head explosion as a core mechanic? What is this, SotDL? Funky SFX aside, this is a good spell, the damage is garbage, but an intelligence based stun, long range and large number of effected enemies (with 0 concentration) will end most encounters you use it on. What a shame wish exists and makes all other level 9 spells redundant.
I don't understand how you can say Wish makes all other level 9 spells redundant. It can only replicate 8th level or lower spells without you suffering a massive debuff and having a chance to never be able to cast Wish again.

[fatestick]

Since the weapon counts as your focus, most spells you don’t even need a free hand right? Only those with expensive material componants, or somatic componants without material ones?

This correct point seems to have gone a bit unnoticed: the hand holding a spellcasting focus can also be used for a spell's somatic components, so a dual-wielding College of Swords Bard or Warlock with Improved Pact Weapon need not perform sheath-and-drop/draw shenanigans unless casting a spell that requires an unusual (expensive) component. This is especially useful for the casting of reaction spells by those character-types, during which they cannot sheath and arguably cannot even drop.

As I see it, an advantage of these Swords and Hexbladelock gish-types is their ability to use two-weapon-fighting to get a foothold on the bonus action economy that often eludes casters, however slight (and yes, cantrip scaling does make up for a lot of it). As far as design history goes, Hex Warrior was rewritten (between the UAs and XGE) to allow the use of Charisma with two weapons at once, and the first "Kits of Old" UA College of Swords received only Two-Weapon Fighting as a fighting style. Of course, the point about the Hexbladelock begging for a fighting style becomes even more apt in this case, to the point that it should maybe even be linked up with how the Patron seems built for multiclassing.

All of these recommended changes really just amount to changes to commentary, rather than rating (particularly in the College of Swords portion, and of course ratings you can judge for yourself), but if there was one related rating I would change, it's the rating on Improved Pact Weapon. It's design history includes, first, the addition of the spellcasting-focus benefit, and then an often-overlooked qualification on the +1 bonus in XGE (that is, a magical pact weapon still gets +1 from the invocation as long as its magical properties don't already include such a bonus, improving an odd class of magical weapons). If we take for granted the utility of the spellcasting-focus feature towards opening up two-weapon-fighting to Bladelocks in a way that doesn't (much) interfere with spellcasting, then that invocation does that for any Bladelock, regardless of Patron, increasing their general viability at least a little. Combine that with the way Improved Pact Weapon has been redesigned to work with a similarly often-overlooked feature of Bladelocks, namely the flexibility to complement spellcasting with applications of magical effects from some weapons, and I think maybe the ranking should go up a bit.

Edit: My prior evaluations contained a significant oversight: as Naanomi had correct in the quote above, having a weapon in each hand prevents casting a spell with a somatic but no material component even if one is a spellcasting focus. This well-understood, Crawford-sourced interaction was one that had escaped my attention. Having realized that, I still felt that I could say something along the lines of "Maximizing this convenience is restrictive to spell selection, but I for one find it refreshingly interesting to have more of a reason to pay attention to spell components," but then it occurred to me that I should actually take a look at the Bard and Warlock spell lists for their components. 40% of the Hexblade's expanded spells cannot be cast while holding both a focus and anything else, just like 42% of Warlock spells and 36% of Bard spells. The applicability of my reaction point was similarly undermined: even widening the search as via Magical Secrets, there is only one reaction spell that fits the bill (Feather Fall on the Bard). I have to say that I find the idea that a dual-wielding Hexbladelock cannot cast Shield without shenanigans or a feat to be very frustrating.

[2D8HP]

Thanks @ProseBeforeHos, for your great guide!

Hoping to try a Wood Elf Gloom Stalker/Scout now!

:smile:

[Garresh]

Man I'm late to this thread.

Anyways, Mantle of Inspiration and Unicorn Spirit should both be sky blue imho.

Mantle of Inspiration doesn't need a heal to be excellent. You give your entire party a reposition. It's not JUST disengage. It's a disengage and a movement action for the ENTIRE PARTY. At the cost of a bardic inspiration? That's absolutely nuts. Like that should be sky blue without the healing. With healing its absurdly cost effective. Never have your wizard caught in melee again. Never have your beatstick NOT in melee. It's just really strong.

Unicorn Spirit is also amazing, but not for the reasons you think. It casts as a bonus action, for one. It's not a spell. And it doesn't require concentration. A typical druid combat involves casting a powerful concentration spell first turn. Now the turn you do that, you also drop a Unicorn Spirit. Going forward, you do whatever your typical combat routine is. Only now you can spend a level 1 spell slot to healing word as a bonus action and also nova heal. At level 10 your 1st level healing words heal 1d4+15 to one party member and 10 to everyone else. When was the last time a 1st level spell cast as a bonus action restored 50 hp? This is the ultimate boss fight healing ability, because it doesn't hinder your primary combat strategy but also allows you to drop insane healing bursts using a 1st level spell slot and a bonus action.

[Merudo]

New Spells

Shadow of Moil: It's not quite as good as greater invisibility, but it's still good enough to be usable. Warlocks (especially Hexblades) who want a powerful defensive concentration spell, but who don't have access to greater invis. could do worse.


Why is it worse than greater invisibility? Contrarily to greater invisibility, it still works against True Sight / See Invisible, and does a free 2d8 damage when hit.

Just use regular invisibility when trying to be sneaky.

[ProseBeforeHos]

Why is it worse than greater invisibility?


Less versatile since it can't be cast on others.

[Snowbluff]

"Swords bard gets extra attack which is great. Adding damage and bonus with inspiration is good."

"As Whisper bard you have spellcasting you can be doing. Adding damage with inspiration is bad." \
:smallconfused:

[ProseBeforeHos]

"Swords bard gets extra attack which is great. Adding damage and bonus with inspiration is good."

"As Whisper bard you have spellcasting you can be doing. Adding damage with inspiration is bad." \
:smallconfused:

What part of this is confusing? Sword bard gets an extra attack and a fighting style, using inspirations boost both AC and damage (helping them in melee) The correct strategy for a sword bard is to buff turn 1 and then attack action every turn after.

Whisper bard has none of these advantages. Levels 1-5 they can use their insp. to keep up with the rogues in damage, but after that you're better off casting spells (thus the ability is wasted).

[MaxWilson]

Why is it worse than greater invisibility? Contrarily to greater invisibility, it still works against True Sight / See Invisible, and does a free 2d8 damage when hit.

(1) True Sight allows you to see normally in darkness, so it works against Shadow of Moil and Greater Invisibility equally. No advantage there.

(2) Shadow of Moil does not prevent creatures with darkvision from seeing you, so you won't get advantage against them, unlike Greater Invisibility.

(3) Shadow of Moil can block your own vision, so if enemies have darkvision and you do not, enemies in melee with you will gain advantage on attacks against you.

(4) Shadow of Moil isn't very good for hiding during combat, but Greater Invisibility + bonus Hide (on e.g. a Rogue 2/Bladesinger X, or a goblin feylock) can be very strong defensively by making you hard to target. Shadow of Moil will let you hide, but enemies are allowed to just guess your location and target the center of the sphere, and if they do they will always hit you there. And again, you can't hide at all from creatures with darkvision because they can see you in the dark.

(5) That free 2d8 could just as easily come from Fire Shield (wizard's spell, accessible to Fiendlocks), which lasts ten times longer and doesn't require concentration.

TL;DR Shadow of Moil is kind of neat if you have Devil's Sight, since it lets you get the effects of Blur, Fire Shield, and Faerie Fire all at the same time albeit, albeit in a slightly weaker form (esp. against monsters with darkvision). But it's not as good as Greater Invisibility at making you invisible. (Quelle surprise.)

[Merudo]

(1) True Sight allows you to see normally in darkness, so it works against Shadow of Moil and Greater Invisibility equally. No advantage there.

(2) Shadow of Moil does not prevent creatures with darkvision from seeing you, so you won't get advantage against them, unlike Greater Invisibility.

(3) Shadow of Moil can block your own vision, so if enemies have darkvision and you do not, enemies in melee with you will gain advantage on attacks against you.

(4) Shadow of Moil isn't very good for hiding during combat, but Greater Invisibility + bonus Hide (on e.g. a Rogue 2/Bladesinger X, or a goblin feylock) can be very strong defensively by making you hard to target. Shadow of Moil will let you hide, but enemies are allowed to just guess your location and target the center of the sphere, and if they do they will always hit you there. And again, you can't hide at all from creatures with darkvision because they can see you in the dark.

(5) That free 2d8 could just as easily come from Fire Shield (wizard's spell, accessible to Fiendlocks), which lasts ten times longer and doesn't require concentration.

TL;DR Shadow of Moil is kind of neat if you have Devil's Sight, since it lets you get the effects of Blur, Fire Shield, and Faerie Fire all at the same time albeit, albeit in a slightly weaker form (esp. against monsters with darkvision). But it's not as good as Greater Invisibility at making you invisible. (Quelle surprise.)

1) Shadow of Moil doesn't obscure you through darkness, magical or otherwise, but through flame-like shadows ("Flame-like shadows wreath your body until the spell ends, causing you to become heavily obscured to others"). The two are different. Even if a DM rules that Shadow of Moil obscures through magical darkness (which it doesn't), you'd still be protected from See Invisibility.

2. Darkvision doesn't let you see through magical darkness, or other forms of obscurement (Fog Cloud, Sleet Storm, etc) that aren't mundane darkness.

3. Most light sources (torches, light spell, etc) provide bright light in a 20-foot radius, so carrying one is enough to make sure you don't get blinded by your own Shadow of Moil.

4. I agree that Shadow of Moil isn't great for hiding during a fight. A ball of flame-like shadows surrounded by dimmed light isn't hard to locate at all.

5. Shadow of Moil & Fire Shield both stack, for 4d8 on hit. Plus, the fact that Shadow of Moil effectively replicates two level 4 spells (Greater Invisibility & Fire/Shadow Shield) is a huge point in its favor.

[Gnomes2169]

1) Shadow of Moil doesn't obscure you through darkness, magical or otherwise, but through flame-like shadows ("Flame-like shadows wreath your body until the spell ends, causing you to become heavily obscured to others"). The two are different. Even if a DM rules that Shadow of Moil obscures through magical darkness (which it doesn't), you'd still be protected from See Invisibility.

2. Darkvision doesn't let you see through magical darkness, or other forms of obscurement (Fog Cloud, Sleet Storm, etc) that aren't mundane darkness.

Just want to point out that there are two points of flawed logic here.

1. Unless the spell or effect says otherwise, there is no distinction between magical and mundane darkness. The Darkvision rule makes no exception for it, and the Darkness spell has to straight-up call out that darkvision and mundane light sources are unable to illuminate it.

2. Shadows of Moil explicitly creates darkness, the shadow-like flames are just fluff for the effect ("The shadows turn dim light within 10 feet of you into darkness, and bright light in the same area to dim light.") It also does not in any way call out that normal darkvision cannot see through this darkness and that it cannot be iluminated by mundane means, unlike the spell Darkness, so Darkvision can still see into Shadows of Moil and a torch can still break the total darkness if it is brought too close (and casts you into the bright light). On the plus side, this also means that you do not need Devil's Sight to see out of it, as long as your enemy is illuminated by an external source, you are not within darkness that prevents all normal vision out.

So given that, it's basically a Fire Shield that gives you resistance to an exceptionally rare damage type (radiant) instead of a common one (fire), deals necrotic damage, and has a chance of making creatures without darkvision blind when targeting you at dusk/ night/ in the middle of a dungeon where you are only illuminated by the edge of a torch's light. It's not Greater Invisibility by any means, and it's not as generally protective as Fire Shield, but it's a good in-between.

[EvilAnagram]

Just want to point out that there are two points of flawed logic here.

1. Unless the spell or effect says otherwise, there is no distinction between magical and mundane darkness. The Darkvision rule makes no exception for it, and the Darkness spell has to straight-up call out that darkvision and mundane light sources are unable to illuminate it.

2. Shadows of Moil explicitly creates darkness, the shadow-like flames are just fluff for the effect ("The shadows turn dim light within 10 feet of you into darkness, and bright light in the same area to dim light.") It also does not in any way call out that normal darkvision cannot see through this darkness and that it cannot be iluminated by mundane means, unlike the spell Darkness, so Darkvision can still see into Shadows of Moil and a torch can still break the total darkness if it is brought too close (and casts you into the bright light). On the plus side, this also means that you do not need Devil's Sight to see out of it, as long as your enemy is illuminated by an external source, you are not within darkness that prevents all normal vision out.

So given that, it's basically a Fire Shield that gives you resistance to an exceptionally rare damage type (radiant) instead of a common one (fire), deals necrotic damage, and has a chance of making creatures without darkvision blind when targeting you at dusk/ night/ in the middle of a dungeon where you are only illuminated by the edge of a torch's light. It's not Greater Invisibility by any means, and it's not as generally protective as Fire Shield, but it's a good in-between.

I fundamentally disagree with this reading. The spell description does not say that it creates an area of darkness. It says the light around you dims, and you are heavily obscured. It does not say that you are encased in darkness.

[Gnomes2169]

...

“”Flame like shadows wreath your body until the spell ends, causing you to become heavily obscured to others. The shadows turn dim light within 10 feet of you into darkness, and bright light in the same area into dim light.”

...

So. It creates darkness via shadows if you are in an area of dim light. Darkness as in the lighting stage. Regardless of whether or not it is darkness, the magical spell, what is generated is categorically darkness within dim light. And the darkness generated is not called out as any different from natural darkness.

However, if you are in bright light, then what is generated instead is dim light. The mid-way category between the states of bright light and darkness. This dim light is also special in no other way than it exists specifically within 10 feet of you, and it is not called out to block line of sight or natural illumination (though it does prevent any natural or magical illumination from being bright light, since it is adjusted back down to dim within that 10 foot radius).

How do you read it any other way?

Maybe a better way to put it is that the spell reduces the light category by 1, kinda like a magical light filter. So if Bright is 2, dim is 1 and darkness is 0 or lower, this spell applies a -1 filter to the light stage. Which means it reduces the light state around you to by one stage, potentially reducing it to 0, which can be said to potentially produce an area of darkness around you. Thus this spell can be said to produce darkness, but unlike the spell Darkness, it does not have any special limitations beyond that, and thus things that apply to natural darkness (the phenomina) like darkvision still have their full effect. In addition, the light levels can never go up to 2 (bright) due to the -1 “filter” that the shadows produce.

... better?

[Aett_Thorn]

Well. I think that there's a fairly logical way to read the spell such that the "to others" portion would affect the darkness created by the spell as well. I mean, creating an area around the caster that the caster can't see through would just seem like it's not quite RAI, even if it is RAW.

[Merudo]

So given that, it's basically a Fire Shield that [...] has a chance of making creatures without darkvision blind when targeting you at dusk/ night/ in the middle of a dungeon where you are only illuminated by the edge of a torch's light. It's not Greater Invisibility by any means, and it's not as generally protective as Fire Shield, but it's a good in-between.

Incorrect.

Reading the spell description tells us it has two distinct effects:

1. Flame-like shadows cause the caster to become heavily obscured to others.
2. The shadows also dim the light within 10 feet of the caster

Effect #1 is similar to a Fog Cloud effect (heavily obscuration without mention of darkness or invisibility), in that Darkvision and True Sight can't see through it. The only difference is that the caster can see through the shadows.

Effect #2 is a magical dimming of the light within 10 feet of the caster. It may or may not result in darkness, depending on the light conditions. Carrying a torch or using the Light spell results in dim light. If the dimming does result in darkness, then Darkvision and True Sight can indeed see through the darkness, but NOT through the heavily obscuration described above.