Seeking help with a Divine Soul Sorcerer for Area Denial.

[Citadel97501]

Hello all,

I have been watching Goblin Slayer, and the idea of a focused character who uses his skills to exterminate villainous races perhaps Kobolds.

I am working on a Divine Soul Sorcerer, and I am interested in doing so with a good amount of armor in a low level game (starting at 3) that will likely escalate to at least up to 14.

My idea is to be focused around dungeons and controlling choke points with Spirit Guardians and similar spells, that create either dangerous or impassable areas, but to do that I am going to need high AC & Constitution saves.

So my primary options and why they could be good are listed below, please provide input.

Races:
Dwarf: Good RP due to hating some monster races, armor but no shields although this works with the high con idea, and gets some weapon proficiency but the stats are MEH...
Dragonborn: Weakish as a choice although the Dragon Hide feat could eliminate some of the issues, and could lead some good RP to hating Kobolds.
Half Elf: GREAT stats, and all around an excellent choice for any sorcerer although it has less rp elements for this than the other 2.

Multi-Classes:
Barbarian: 1, Con to armor is interesting for this build although rage would be avoided...
Fighter: 1 or 2, 1 gets me the feats and fighting style although Action Surge at 2 is also incredible but that heavily cuts into your saves.
Ranger: 1-3, Fighting Styles and Favored Enemy both fit this build concept & RP very well, Gloom Stalker fits so well that it might get me to go up to 3. This is very MAD though.
Cleric: 1+ Forge, Not sure if I want this due to MAD issues though although it does give you Ritual Casting...
Warlock: 1-3 Hex Blade seem solid: Gets you armor, shield, and weapons with primary attribute, but seems to dilute the concept a bit much.

[pygmybatrider]

Hey mate,

I'm unfamiliar with Goblin Slayer but love the idea of a mook-clearing AoE-heavy build, as it's something that rarely gets seen in 5E.

Divine Soul sorcerer + fighter is a great base for this, and I would say your best option out of those you've given. Between Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and Greenflame Blade, you can dish out a lot of hurt to a lot of baddies.

How you start is up to you. 1 Fighter/2 Sorc would be my preference, go Sorc to 5 for 3rd-level spells, then take your 2nd Fighter level for Action Surge. One sweet things you can do there is light up Spirit Guardians, Fireball a patch of enemies, then run over to them to make them eat SG on their turn.

Hexblade of course gets you the proficiencies you need, and Cha to melee attacks, as well as short rest slots, but lacks the Action Surge synergy. I always forget that AS refreshes on a short rest, not a long one - which raises its value significantly.

I'd personally take Variant Human as my #1 race pick for either War Caster for super good Concentration checks as well as cantrip OAs, or Alert to have a greater chance to find a group of bad guys you can Fireball on your first turn. Half-Elf is also ideal.

With point buy, your Variant Human could start 8/16/14/8/10/16, or your Half-Elf 8/16/16/8/10/16.

Important spells (AoEs/area denials from Cleric/Sorcerer - incomplete, just grabbed these from a glance at both lists):
Cantrips - GFB/BB are your bread and butter. Word of Radiance from the Cleric list is also an interesting option. It targets Con and has low damage, but most horde monsters have weak Con saves and low health. Acid Splash is another often-overlooked multi-target cantrip that works at range.

Level 1 - Burning Hands, Guiding Bolt (great to Twin with melee allies) Thunder Wave

Level 2 - Scorching Ray, Spiritual Weapon, Web,

Level 3 - Fear, Fireball, Sleet Storm, Spirit Guardians, Stinking Cloud,

Level 4 - Ice Storm, Guardian of Faith, Wall of Fire

Level 5 - Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Flame Strike, HallowInsect Plague, Wall of Stone

Metamagic: Quicken/Twin work great with SCAG cantrips.

It is worth noting that you could do nearly all of this with a Fighter/Light Cleric build as well. You give up metamagic, but have a higher hit die, some neat defensive features, and a much greater spell selection.

A Druid (especially Circle of Spores from the new Ravnica book)/Fighter build could also work well, with spells like Entangle, Spike Growth, Moonbeam and Flaming Sphere to deal consistent AoE, with a shillelagh'd weapon and potential 3 levels of Fighter into Eldritch Knight for SCAG cantrips.

[Citadel97501]

TY that was very helpful.

[Corran]

My idea is to be focused around dungeons and controlling choke points with Spirit Guardians and similar spells, that create either dangerous or impassable areas, but to do that I am going to need high AC & Constitution saves.

I'd throw in sanctuary, as it has good tanking value when you want to put yourself in a choke point between the enemies and the rest of your party.
For race I would aim for variant human, cause I would want both resilient con and warcaster eventually, and a fast feat makes that easier.
Out of the multiclass options you are considering, I would probably go with warlock. More specifically I would start as a warlock at level 1 (to get wisdom save proficiency that way), and then I would go sorcerer all the way. There are benefits in going fighter or cleric over warlock, but I would choose warlock (most likely hexblade) because it would give me one 1st level slot that recharges on short rests (that means a few extra castings of shield per day; don't underestimate that) and it would also give me armor of agathys which I would be able to make good use of given how fast my spell slot progression would be since I would be picking sorcerer levels after my first level in warlock. I would also include blade ward as a cantrip (perhaps as a later pick, once I have high enough spell slots to make good use of AoA), and I would consider stoneskin as well (but not sure if I would actually take it), planning to be able to become an HP tank (particularly against melee enemies; without magical weapons if stoneskin was included) should that need arises. I'd probably be tempted to include a second warlock level for repelling blast (and one more 1st level slot that recharges on a short rest) at character level 9 (after I get wall of fire) or 11 (when EB has 3 attacks), so that I can add an at-will ranged control which has nice potential with concentration effects that create harmful zones (like wall of fire and the like), at which point I would probably start playing more like a backrow EB turret and I would keep any melee capabilities as a tactic to fall back on.

[Galithar]

EDIT: Just remembered you said likely only to 14. This build hits it's peak (at least in my opinion) right around then, but it means you'll be 'behind' for a lot of the campaign. Levels 7-10 in particular I think will feel 'weak' plus it would mean your concept doesn't take shape until the end. Maybe take Sorcerer levels, with a Paladin dip for the armor proficiency, first until 5 or so to get up to at least Spirit Guardians before switching Paladin for the melee capabilities and Aura support?


Something I've been looking at doing myself was a support/control Divine Soul Sorcadin. It can be slow to take off though. I'm planning 1 level Divine Soul then Paladin to 6 then Sorcerer for everything after.

Pros: Awesome Con saves for concentration, especially if you take Warcaster. Prof+Con mod+Cha mod+advantage = near untouchable concentration +10 with advantage with my build at level 7 when the Aura kicks on.
You're pretty resilient. With Heavy armor and a shield you have good AC and saves come online high at level 7, even for your dump stat you'll have a decent save for those occasions your Int gets targeted.
You can switch between support and area denial for what's appropriate in combat. Lots of mooks, keep the AoE denials going. Down to a single bad guy? Switch to buff up the party with a Twinned haste, or other favored buff.
Good spell slot choices for Smiting when you need to add damage yourself.
Your early levels as an almost straight paladin you have a decent ranged option from your Sorcerer cantrips that Paladins often lack.

Cons: Your control abilities don't come online until a later level. (Level 11 for third level Sorcerer/Cleric spells) but you at least have higher level slots to upcast/burn for SP/smite with.
You are basically a one level behind Paladin that can take a few level one spells like shield in the beginning.



May not be exactly what you're look for but hopefully it'll give you some ideas and things to think about.

[XmonkTad]

Out of curiosity how open are you to the idea of a War Cleric instead of a DS sorc?

[Citadel97501]

Out of curiosity how open are you to the idea of a War Cleric instead of a DS sorc?

Not at all, but I do understand that can do this role a bit more directly it just doesn't seem to fit.

[XmonkTad]

Not at all, but I do understand that can do this role a bit more directly it just doesn't seem to fit.
That's fair. In that case I like the idea of adding in some ranger to it. Are you planning on playing up the "awkward loner" aspect of the goblin slayer at all? If so, dwarf makes a doubly great race to choose.

[Zene]

In my opinion, the absolute best way to do this is by layering spirit guardians (concentration, cuts movement speed in half) and plant growth ( on-concentration, makes extra-difficult terrain). It will basically freeze non-flying creatures in place, and you can lay out plant growth so there are paths for your melee teammates to pass through.

Nature clerics do this naturally at L5. Lore bards can do this via magical secrets at 6. If you want the sorcerer feel, it is very easy to combine Sorc levels with Lore bard.

Another way to do this is to combine divine soul 5 (for spirit guardians) with archfey warlock 5 (for plant growth). The full lockdown won’t come online til L10 unfortunately, but on the plus side, Sorc/lock happens to also be an amazingly synergistic combo for lots of other reasons.

[EvilAnagram]

One of the best spells in the genre you're exploring is Sickening Radiance. 4d10 radiant damage in a large area at the end of every turn is nice. It has won me multiple battles by wearing down larger creatures even as it decimates the smaller ones. As a bonus, the longer something stays in the area (and you can take spells and abilities that let you push them in or reduce their movement, or even just encourage your allies to grapple creatures and hold them in) the less able they are to escape.