Need your help making a game-breaking build

[Man_Over_Game]

I have this homebrew, my Prestige Options, that allow you to use alternate modifiers for class abilities while tacking on multiclassing restrictions to maintain balance.

So far, I think I've done a good job of maintaining balance, but I want to make sure that there's nothing I missed. I'd really like your help to identify any OP builds that you munchkins can theorycraft.

Below is the brief description of each Prestige Option, as well as any major problems you guys can identify, but you can click on the Prestige Options link in my signature if you need a little bit more detail on how it works.

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Warlock- Great Old One, using Intelligence instead of Charisma
Requirement: Cannot have more Wizard levels than you do Warlock.
Nothing so far

Monk, using Strength instead of Dexterity
Requirement: Can only choose the Open Palm Monk Subclass
Nothing so far

Warlock-Hexblade, using Wisdom instead of Charisma
Requirement: Half of your character levels (rounded down) must be in Hexblade.
Having Arcana Cleric levels to have access to Magic Missile, combining Hexblade's Curse with Magic Missile for insanely high single target burst damage

Druid, using Charisma instead of Wisdom
Requirements: the only Druid subclass available to you is Shephards. Also, you cannot have Sorcerer levels.
Nothing so far

Cleric, using Charisma instead of Wisdom
Requirements: You cannot have Sorcerer or Warlock levels.
Paladin X, Cleric (Nature) X, using Shillelagh to use Charisma-attacking, or Dampen Elements + Paladin Auras.

Warlock-Archfey, using Wisdom instead of Charisma
Requirement: You cannot have more Warlock levels than you do Druid levels.
Nothing so far

Cleric-Knowledge/Arcana, using Intelligence instead of Wisdom
Requirement: You cannot take the War Mage or Bladesinger Wizard subclasses.
Nothing so far

Sorcerer, using Wisdom instead of Charisma
Requirement: You cannot have Cleric or Druid levels. You also must be able to cast Detect Magic.
Nothing so far

Warlock-Undying, using Constitution instead of Charisma
Requirement: Half of your Character Levels (rounded down) must be in Warlock.
Nothing so far

Monk, using Intelligence instead of Wisdom
Requirement: Can only take the Sun Soul, Four Elements, Long Death subclasses. You also cannot have more Wizard levels than you do Monk.
War Mage Wizard will create a high AC, high saving throw melee combatant with Shield and Absorb Elements

Ranger, using Intelligence instead of Wisdom
Requirement: Can only take the Horizon Walker Ranger subclass. Also, the only wizard subclasses available to you are Abjuration and Conjuration.
Nothing so far

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Thank you for your help, guys!

[Perlywhirly]

I suppose I don’t understand the point of this? It looks like you identified dip classes and said “you can’t dip this” for the most part.

I’m probably most interested in playing a Paladin Cleric with this rule. A Nature domain Cleric / Oath of Ancients Paladin is not only crazy thematic, but also gets you SAD off Shillelagh and gives you proper spell slot progression. Not broken, but being able to snag Spirit Guardians easily (without taking a subpar oath to do it) is super appealing.

[Man_Over_Game]

I suppose I don’t understand the point of this? It looks like you identified dip classes and said “you can’t dip this” for the most part.

I’m probably most interested in playing a Paladin Cleric with this rule. A Nature domain Cleric / Oath of Ancients Paladin is not only crazy thematic, but also gets you SAD off Shillelagh and gives you proper spell slot progression. Not broken, but being able to snag Spirit Guardians easily (without taking a subpar oath to do it) is super appealing.

The link in my signature goes into more detail, but basically it's to open up more builds while still maintaining balance.

The goal was that despite having a near-ludicrous number of options, none of the options provided inherently make you better than anything you didn't already have access to. The Cleric/Paladin example is the exact thing I'm referring to. Neither Cleric nor Paladin are classes you want to "splash" into in order to rush to get their higher level features. Additionally, they have a lot of overlapping features (between both having redundant proficiencies and light healing). Yet, being a Cleric/Paladin still makes you "feel" like both.

In other words, this opens up choices to improve narrative rather than mechanical power.

That is a good combo (Paladin X, Nature Cleric 1), and is something I didn't really consider, but it's not much better than what the Paladin could already do, like grabbing Hexblade. Since there are no Cleric builds that have short-rest casting, I'm not too worried about Paladins spamming Divine Smite too often, and it's a lot less abusable than the Sorcerer+SCAG combo. I'll still put it on the list as a worthwhile note.

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Looking forward to see what you guys are capable of!

[Perlywhirly]

I was actually thinking to take Nature Cleric to 5 (Spirit Guardians) or 6 (Absorb Elements for free, stacks super nicely with Oath of Ancients resistance why yes I will choose to take no damage from that fireball). The full caster progression levels are pretty tolerable. You end up with a 7P/6C split. From there decide if you want higher level cleric spells (7th max) or Find Greater Steed basically.

[Man_Over_Game]

I was actually thinking to take Nature Cleric to 5 (Spirit Guardians) or 6 (Absorb Elements for free, stacks super nicely with Oath of Ancients resistance why yes I will choose to take no damage from that fireball). The full caster progression levels are pretty tolerable. You end up with a 7P/6C split. From there decide if you want higher level cleric spells (7th max) or Find Greater Steed basically.

Unfortunately, x2 Resistance doesn't equal Immune. The damage would only ever be halved from the normal amount, since resistance doesn't stack. Now, the Paladin Aura would mean you'd never need to use Dampen Elements on yourself or nearby allies, and making practically your entire team take half damage from elemental magic is really solid, but I think that's a valid reward for only having level 3 spells by level 13.

[solidork]

I don't know about broken, but these are the builds that would interest me:

Cha Cleric/Paladin (My War Cleric would 100% want to multiclass into Paladin for his last six levels)
Wis Sorcerer with Shillelagh via Magic Initiate
Wis Hexblade/Arcana Cleric - Spirit Guardians + Magic Missile Cheese
Int Tomelock/Eldritch Knight with Shillelagh (I'm currently playing a build similar to this)
Int Ranger 5/Abjurer X

[Vorpalchicken]

When you say "half your character levels (rounded down) must be in X class" do you mean the character must be a 50/50 split? If that is the case then you just set off the klaxon for munchkin meltdown. 50/50 multi classing generally makes for horrible builds.
From this list, the only thing that jumps out at me as gouda goodness would be the Int monk with two levels of either bladesinger or war wizard.

[Man_Over_Game]

I don't know about broken, but these are the builds that would interest me:


Cha Cleric/Paladin (My War Cleric would 100% want to multiclass into Paladin for his last six levels)
Wis Sorcerer with Shillelagh via Magic Initiate
Wis Hexblade/Arcana Cleric - Spirit Guardians + Magic Missile Cheese
Int Tomelock/Eldritch Knight with Shillelagh (I'm currently playing a build similar to this)
Int Ranger 5/Abjurer X



Thanks for the contributions!

Looking into some of these:


It's pretty cool, but beyond something like Vengeance (to attack with advantage at level 17), I can't think of anything alarmingly bad about it.
Not much different than just dipping a level into Hexblade, just with lower AC.
Balls, forgot about friggin' Magic Missile. I guess I could exclude Cleric as an option? Either way, it's not much better than just going Hexblade and dipping a single level into Wizard/Arcana Cleric in the first place. Not too worried about Spirit Guardians, since the restrictions means the earliest you'd get it would be level 9, level 10 if you wanted Warlock slots to fuel it. Still, I'll mark that down.
I thought the same thing about Ranger+Abjurer, but Horizon Walker is still considered one of the weaker Xan's Rangers and its level 3 feature requires a weapon attack and consumes your Bonus Action, so beyond just having a more esoteric spell selection (using Ranger spells), it doesn't seem to be much different than anything Eldritch Knight doesn't already have. More Tank Rangers, cool.


So far, the only one that really stands out as a major problem is the Proficiency damage on Magic Missile (which can be duplicated with a single level into Wizard or Cleric with the normal rules).

[Man_Over_Game]

When you say "half your character levels (rounded down) must be in X class" do you mean the character must be a 50/50 split? If that is the case then you just set off the klaxon for munchkin meltdown. 50/50 multi classing generally makes for horrible builds.
From this list, the only thing that jumps out at me as gouda goodness would be the Int monk with two levels of either bladesinger or war wizard.

Only with that specific class.

For example, if you want to use Constitution for your spellcasting modifier as an Undying Warlock, at least half of your levels must be in Warlock. You can spend the other half however you want, whether that's into more Warlock, in Barbarian, in Eldritch Knight, or any combination you want.

Now, this is only with the specific options that require half of a specified list of levels. Not all of them (like the Strength Monk) have a requirement like that.

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That's a valid point on the Bladesinger/War Mage. I wanted to avoid granting Wizards easy AC by just splashing a lazy level into Monk, but I didn't consider the opposite (players going Monk and splashing Wizard). It still requires two levels of Wizard to get those features, and the options those Wizard subclass provide either:
Grant higher AC, increased Concentration saves (useless with level 1 casting), higher mobility (redundant with Monk)
Increase saving throws (redundant with many Monk features) or AC.

Considering the SCAG usage that best works with Bladesingers isn't applicable with unarmed strike, and the fact that dual wielding is also not effective as a Monk, I mostly just see Bladesinger adding a bunch of AC. Sure, the Monk can stack Intelligence for double AC, but his attacking would be rather poor.

War Mage + Monk seems especially good, definitely making a note of it. But just based off of how friggin' cool that would be in combat and how reaction-dependent Monks already can be, I don't see this being a massive problem. Deflect a spell just to get shot in the face with an arrow.