Zene
2017-11-15, 04:18 PM
Hi folks,
Now that my brain is recovering from the shocks of Hexblade, Prodigy, Elven Accuracy, and Divine Soul –which immediately had me focused on max dpr builds, grappling builds, and cleric spell metamagic fun—I’m starting to take a look at what opportunities there are in XGE for my true 5e passion: Battlefield Control.
By battlefield control, I mean things like repositioning enemies, halting their movement, breaking lines of effect, etc. Layering on effects like prone, frightened and paralyzed are also in that category, but since they typically require failed saves to take effect, my preference is (like Treantmonk’s God Wizard style) to pick things that affect the environment instead of enemies directly.
One of my favorite battlefield control spells has always been Plant Growth. Non-concentration, configurable enemy movement reduction / path creation is such a powerful tool. 4x speed reduction is effectively a lockdown for many enemies, especially when combined with spirit guardians or knockback effects. But getting it required taking druid, nature cleric, or feylock; using a bard magical secrets choice on it; or dumping a lot of levels into ancients paladin or ranger. None of which offered great options besides that for battlefield control.
But the Divine Soul Sorcerer in XGE opens up some new options. First, of course, it’s got the Sorcerer battlefield control spells (earth tremor, tidal wave, darkness, wall spells, and so on) open to it. It’s also got the whole Cleric spell list open to it as well, allowing cherry-picking of the best control spells from both lists (spirit guardians, silence... probably lots of others). And metamagic (like Quicken, Subtle, Extended) can help as well with battlefield control. Plus, while it’s not battlefield control, having Spiritual Weapon as an option means it can dish out the damage when necessary, without having to burn lots of sorcery points on Quicken.
But also, it’s a Charisma-SAD class, which means easy multiclassing. In this case, going Fey pact Warlock opens up Plant Growth at L5, requires no additional attribute dependency, allows Spirit Guardians and Plant Growth on the same build without requiring Nature Cleric or Lore Bard. Additionally, it’s got repelling blast, which when combo’d with quickened Plant Growth and possibly also Spirit Guardians or other stacking effects, can really lock down a battle field.
So here’s what I’m thinking: A Fey Patron Warlock 5 / Divine Soul 5; probably progressing in Sorcerer from there. It’s got all the control options and synergies mentioned above; it’s also got great survivability with Shield, Absorb Elements, Armor of Agathys, Favored by the Gods, and eventually Death Ward.
With that in mind, a few questions for the build optimizer folks out there:
-What pact makes the most sense? Is there anything in Blade/Tome/Chain that’s good for control or survivability, or just neat/fun synergies, before level 5? If not, I’ll probably just go with Tome for the increased utility.
-Are there any particular spells, combos, or metamagic uses I’ve missed, that would be great for battlefield control? I’m pulling from 3 spell lists here, and I’m not too familiar with Cleric, so there’s probably a lot I haven’t thought of.
-For race, I’m thinking half-elf for the Cha boost and because Elven Accuracy is too good to pass up. But is there a better option from a battlefield control perspective? Dragonborn for the new Dragon Fear feat was tempting, but seems strictly worse, and I have no use for Dragonborn’s str boost. VHuman is an option too, but it seems like the half-elf package is worth more than just eking out an extra feat from the build.
-After Lock 5 / Sorc 5 (or maybe even Lock 5 / Sorc 3), is there any other progression path I should be thinking about? Action surge would be killer, but I’m not sure it’s worth detouring from higher-level Sorc or Lock spells. And if I make it all the way to Divine Soul 14, I can get dragonfly wings! :D Seriously though, concentration-free, non-magic-item dependent flight would be great for a battlefield controller build.
If you have any other thoughts, I’m happy to hear them.
Note: I play AL, so it’s point buy, no houserules. And since I’m using XGE I can’t use anything that’s only printed in Volo’s, EE, or SCAG --only PHB and XGE. On the plus side, though, builds that take advantage of specific magic items, or specific adventure runs (like the Amber Temple’s +4 Cha gift) are likely doable.
Now that my brain is recovering from the shocks of Hexblade, Prodigy, Elven Accuracy, and Divine Soul –which immediately had me focused on max dpr builds, grappling builds, and cleric spell metamagic fun—I’m starting to take a look at what opportunities there are in XGE for my true 5e passion: Battlefield Control.
By battlefield control, I mean things like repositioning enemies, halting their movement, breaking lines of effect, etc. Layering on effects like prone, frightened and paralyzed are also in that category, but since they typically require failed saves to take effect, my preference is (like Treantmonk’s God Wizard style) to pick things that affect the environment instead of enemies directly.
One of my favorite battlefield control spells has always been Plant Growth. Non-concentration, configurable enemy movement reduction / path creation is such a powerful tool. 4x speed reduction is effectively a lockdown for many enemies, especially when combined with spirit guardians or knockback effects. But getting it required taking druid, nature cleric, or feylock; using a bard magical secrets choice on it; or dumping a lot of levels into ancients paladin or ranger. None of which offered great options besides that for battlefield control.
But the Divine Soul Sorcerer in XGE opens up some new options. First, of course, it’s got the Sorcerer battlefield control spells (earth tremor, tidal wave, darkness, wall spells, and so on) open to it. It’s also got the whole Cleric spell list open to it as well, allowing cherry-picking of the best control spells from both lists (spirit guardians, silence... probably lots of others). And metamagic (like Quicken, Subtle, Extended) can help as well with battlefield control. Plus, while it’s not battlefield control, having Spiritual Weapon as an option means it can dish out the damage when necessary, without having to burn lots of sorcery points on Quicken.
But also, it’s a Charisma-SAD class, which means easy multiclassing. In this case, going Fey pact Warlock opens up Plant Growth at L5, requires no additional attribute dependency, allows Spirit Guardians and Plant Growth on the same build without requiring Nature Cleric or Lore Bard. Additionally, it’s got repelling blast, which when combo’d with quickened Plant Growth and possibly also Spirit Guardians or other stacking effects, can really lock down a battle field.
So here’s what I’m thinking: A Fey Patron Warlock 5 / Divine Soul 5; probably progressing in Sorcerer from there. It’s got all the control options and synergies mentioned above; it’s also got great survivability with Shield, Absorb Elements, Armor of Agathys, Favored by the Gods, and eventually Death Ward.
With that in mind, a few questions for the build optimizer folks out there:
-What pact makes the most sense? Is there anything in Blade/Tome/Chain that’s good for control or survivability, or just neat/fun synergies, before level 5? If not, I’ll probably just go with Tome for the increased utility.
-Are there any particular spells, combos, or metamagic uses I’ve missed, that would be great for battlefield control? I’m pulling from 3 spell lists here, and I’m not too familiar with Cleric, so there’s probably a lot I haven’t thought of.
-For race, I’m thinking half-elf for the Cha boost and because Elven Accuracy is too good to pass up. But is there a better option from a battlefield control perspective? Dragonborn for the new Dragon Fear feat was tempting, but seems strictly worse, and I have no use for Dragonborn’s str boost. VHuman is an option too, but it seems like the half-elf package is worth more than just eking out an extra feat from the build.
-After Lock 5 / Sorc 5 (or maybe even Lock 5 / Sorc 3), is there any other progression path I should be thinking about? Action surge would be killer, but I’m not sure it’s worth detouring from higher-level Sorc or Lock spells. And if I make it all the way to Divine Soul 14, I can get dragonfly wings! :D Seriously though, concentration-free, non-magic-item dependent flight would be great for a battlefield controller build.
If you have any other thoughts, I’m happy to hear them.
Note: I play AL, so it’s point buy, no houserules. And since I’m using XGE I can’t use anything that’s only printed in Volo’s, EE, or SCAG --only PHB and XGE. On the plus side, though, builds that take advantage of specific magic items, or specific adventure runs (like the Amber Temple’s +4 Cha gift) are likely doable.