Citadel97501
2018-08-19, 09:19 PM
Hello all,
The Ravnica book is going to be out in November, and we currently have some spoiler race information, and I am really liking the race mechanically and it is based on one of my favorite cards from Visions. I originally started a thread asking for advice on this race, since I didn't get much I have been reading other guides and thinking about it. So to begin with lets figure out what we have from this race, and what I believe it provides to each. Thank you Legimus for the format, and all of your guides.
Color Scheme
Gold – Powerful and important. Ignore this at your own peril.
Sky Blue – Lots of utility, power, or both. You can’t go wrong with this.
Blue – Very useful. This will serve you well in most scenarios.
Black – Has some utility, but unlikely to win you the day. Not bad, but there are better options.
Purple – Can be very useful, but limited to unusual circumstances.
Red – Counterproductive. Don’t waste your time.
Viashino Racial Traits
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
Alignment. Viashino strongly tend toward chaotic alignments. They have no particular inclination toward good or evil.
Size: Viashino are about as tall as humans, but they have lithe, wiry frames. Your size is Medium.
This is black at best, as it should apply no major changes to the base character although it might be difficult to find armor that accommodates their body shape and tail, similar to the issues that some tieflings have.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Bite: Your fanged maw is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Lashing Tail: Your semi-prehensile tail is tipped with a bony blade. Immediately after a creature within 5 feet of you deals damage to you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make an unarmed strike against that creature with your tail. If you hit, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Wiry Frame: You gain proficiency in the Acrobatics or the Stealth skill (your choice).
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.
Best Classes for the Race
Barbarian: This seems to work well on paper, high dexterity and good strength are great stat bonuses for a Barbarian. Also the reaction Counter-attack on hit is going to be very good for Barbarian style tanking, IE block with your face and watch the little manling die due to your tail, then eat him...
Bard: This is kind of Black or meh Blue at best, the race has very little synergy with this class.
Cleric: Odd but not bad and has promise with decent strength since you have attacks that don't take you hands.
Druid: Nope...
Fighter: This looks very good, and likely works great with Eldritch Knight notice that Eldritch Strike would trigger off of the Lashing Tail. Battlemaster, and Champion would both provide a lot of benefit to the class as well, although Battlemaster is going to be able to provide more benefits as I find the Champion a bit to passive, although it also doesn't have any resource costs so there is that.
Monk: Great attribute choices, and as your unarmed attacks get to use dexterity and you get a reaction ability what else do you need? Your hit points might be a bit low to really benefit from the reaction lash tail though.
Paladin: Interesting but not spectacular, although with the errata on unarmed attacks a reaction counter that works with divine smite is terrifying. It also works very well with Heroism or Armor of Agathys (Oath of Conquest) as your going to be focused on tanking hits to trigger the lashing tail.
Ranger: This class is still kind of meh but it is better than nothing, and at least you get a hands free melee attack...
Rogue: This is blue but only due to how good Dexterity is, and High Elves are still MUCH better. The primary benefits of the race are left out since unarmed attacks don't get weapon finesse even with a monk multi-class although that definitely deserves a look for this race, as using dexterity with them is still solid.
Sorcerer: This is definitely meh, no primary attribute bonuses about the only thing that stops this from being red is that you don't need to carry a weapon since you have a meh unarmed attack. Dragon sorcerers are kind of cool with this as its something different than a dragonborn...
Warlock: This is black or maybe blue if your running a hex warrior or for temporary hit points from the invocations. A fiend Warlock might be better than that if your the Fiend Subclass and can get a good Charisma, as Dark One's Blessing will be great here.
Wizard: Very little benefits, perhaps running it as an abjuration specialist but that still leaves it at red...
Notable Multi-classes
First off, note that the extra 1 point to strength makes it a tiny bit cheaper to plan your multi-class to or from Paladin, and the +2 dexterity is also helpful for multi-classing into or out of Monk & Rogue.
Paladin/Sorcerer: This is actually much better than either by themselves with this race and is absolutely fantastic with certain oath's, I might be over hyping this and it may just be a very strong Blue. You are going to want more Sorcerer than Paladin though to fuel the Divine Smites and the Sorcery Points. I am currently playing this with the Oath of Conquest and likely gimping myself a bit but I think it is going to be fun.
Paladin/Warlock: This is a solid blue possibly even Skyblue but your likely going to want higher Charisma, than this race offers. I kind of think this is a bit to MAD although once again if your DM allows you to upgrade your lashing tail with the Hexblade this is Sky Blue. It has also been pointed out that this race really benefits from Temporary Hit points so Armor of Agathys.
Monk/Rogue: This is great especially for a ninja style character that you should be going for. It would be sky blue but the fact that your unarmed attacks can't trigger sneak attack is frustrating.
Monk/Ranger: This doesn't provide much but it could be interesting for an archer due to the attribute bonuses, and letting you still respond with unarmed attacks if someone gets cheeky. All in all, I think solid monk is better.
The Ravnica book is going to be out in November, and we currently have some spoiler race information, and I am really liking the race mechanically and it is based on one of my favorite cards from Visions. I originally started a thread asking for advice on this race, since I didn't get much I have been reading other guides and thinking about it. So to begin with lets figure out what we have from this race, and what I believe it provides to each. Thank you Legimus for the format, and all of your guides.
Color Scheme
Gold – Powerful and important. Ignore this at your own peril.
Sky Blue – Lots of utility, power, or both. You can’t go wrong with this.
Blue – Very useful. This will serve you well in most scenarios.
Black – Has some utility, but unlikely to win you the day. Not bad, but there are better options.
Purple – Can be very useful, but limited to unusual circumstances.
Red – Counterproductive. Don’t waste your time.
Viashino Racial Traits
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
Alignment. Viashino strongly tend toward chaotic alignments. They have no particular inclination toward good or evil.
Size: Viashino are about as tall as humans, but they have lithe, wiry frames. Your size is Medium.
This is black at best, as it should apply no major changes to the base character although it might be difficult to find armor that accommodates their body shape and tail, similar to the issues that some tieflings have.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Bite: Your fanged maw is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Lashing Tail: Your semi-prehensile tail is tipped with a bony blade. Immediately after a creature within 5 feet of you deals damage to you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make an unarmed strike against that creature with your tail. If you hit, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Wiry Frame: You gain proficiency in the Acrobatics or the Stealth skill (your choice).
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.
Best Classes for the Race
Barbarian: This seems to work well on paper, high dexterity and good strength are great stat bonuses for a Barbarian. Also the reaction Counter-attack on hit is going to be very good for Barbarian style tanking, IE block with your face and watch the little manling die due to your tail, then eat him...
Bard: This is kind of Black or meh Blue at best, the race has very little synergy with this class.
Cleric: Odd but not bad and has promise with decent strength since you have attacks that don't take you hands.
Druid: Nope...
Fighter: This looks very good, and likely works great with Eldritch Knight notice that Eldritch Strike would trigger off of the Lashing Tail. Battlemaster, and Champion would both provide a lot of benefit to the class as well, although Battlemaster is going to be able to provide more benefits as I find the Champion a bit to passive, although it also doesn't have any resource costs so there is that.
Monk: Great attribute choices, and as your unarmed attacks get to use dexterity and you get a reaction ability what else do you need? Your hit points might be a bit low to really benefit from the reaction lash tail though.
Paladin: Interesting but not spectacular, although with the errata on unarmed attacks a reaction counter that works with divine smite is terrifying. It also works very well with Heroism or Armor of Agathys (Oath of Conquest) as your going to be focused on tanking hits to trigger the lashing tail.
Ranger: This class is still kind of meh but it is better than nothing, and at least you get a hands free melee attack...
Rogue: This is blue but only due to how good Dexterity is, and High Elves are still MUCH better. The primary benefits of the race are left out since unarmed attacks don't get weapon finesse even with a monk multi-class although that definitely deserves a look for this race, as using dexterity with them is still solid.
Sorcerer: This is definitely meh, no primary attribute bonuses about the only thing that stops this from being red is that you don't need to carry a weapon since you have a meh unarmed attack. Dragon sorcerers are kind of cool with this as its something different than a dragonborn...
Warlock: This is black or maybe blue if your running a hex warrior or for temporary hit points from the invocations. A fiend Warlock might be better than that if your the Fiend Subclass and can get a good Charisma, as Dark One's Blessing will be great here.
Wizard: Very little benefits, perhaps running it as an abjuration specialist but that still leaves it at red...
Notable Multi-classes
First off, note that the extra 1 point to strength makes it a tiny bit cheaper to plan your multi-class to or from Paladin, and the +2 dexterity is also helpful for multi-classing into or out of Monk & Rogue.
Paladin/Sorcerer: This is actually much better than either by themselves with this race and is absolutely fantastic with certain oath's, I might be over hyping this and it may just be a very strong Blue. You are going to want more Sorcerer than Paladin though to fuel the Divine Smites and the Sorcery Points. I am currently playing this with the Oath of Conquest and likely gimping myself a bit but I think it is going to be fun.
Paladin/Warlock: This is a solid blue possibly even Skyblue but your likely going to want higher Charisma, than this race offers. I kind of think this is a bit to MAD although once again if your DM allows you to upgrade your lashing tail with the Hexblade this is Sky Blue. It has also been pointed out that this race really benefits from Temporary Hit points so Armor of Agathys.
Monk/Rogue: This is great especially for a ninja style character that you should be going for. It would be sky blue but the fact that your unarmed attacks can't trigger sneak attack is frustrating.
Monk/Ranger: This doesn't provide much but it could be interesting for an archer due to the attribute bonuses, and letting you still respond with unarmed attacks if someone gets cheeky. All in all, I think solid monk is better.