Building a Character around a Magic Item

[Edgerunner]

We are building 10th Lvl characters and our DM had us roll for two random magic items. I roll Staff of Thunder and Lightning and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Campaign starts in the desert and involves a Death Cult as the main protagonist.

What would You build using Standard Array for Stats and any Class/Race from official books only?

Personally, I think these items call for a Tempest Cleric and I am curious what abilities really mesh with the staff. Would adding in a Booming Blade cantrip benefit the build and how would you suggest to get that cantrip?

[KnotaGuru]

Dragonborn (blue or bronze for lightning flavor) Vengeance Paladin
STR: 11 (19 w/gauntlets)
DEX: 10
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 16

Dueling fighting style
Feats: PAM, Resilient (CON)

Use the staff with a shield and beat the crap out of things with 3 attacks/round (2 regular, 1 bonus from PAM) for 1d6+8 x2, +1d4+8 (25.5 avg). Use your staff abilities to shore up your ranged attacks and melee burst. At level 11 get divine strike for +1d8 radiant to each melee hit (increase avg to 39). Increase CHA with future ASIs.

[Edgerunner]

Dragonborn (blue or bronze for lightning flavor) Vengeance Paladin

Yea already thought of that but someone else called Pali so...

[KnotaGuru]

Yea already thought of that but someone else called Pali so...

Go halfelf fighter 1/hexblade warlock 9. Similar concept. Fighter gets you CON saves, fighting style. Hexblade gets you extra attack (with invocation), Eldritch smite, and other goodies.

Stats:
STR: 10 (19 with gauntlets)
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 18

Feats: elven accuracy, PAM


The staff has cool abilities, but only 1/day uses. It's still a +2 quarterstaff and you've got a 19 STR with the gauntlets. That screams melee with multiple attacks to me.

[Crucius]

The staff gives you two things you can leverage; its +2 on attack rolls and damage and the stunned condition you can dish out once per day.

-For the damage you'll want to maximize the number of attacks you make; level 10 is close to fighter's third attack, and/or you could pick up polearm master.

-For the stunned condition you could play a spellcaster that forces DEX saves that the target automatically fails due to being stunned. However, the staff has a built-in combo, in that the target is stunned until the end of your next turn, therefore you can hit him with the lightning strike action, which is as good as anything (a 4th level fireball to be exact), therefore I don't think you need to play a spellcaster.

You expressed wanting to pick up booming blade somehow. That could work, it's a fun and tactical spell, however due to the sheer power of the staff extra attacks will be more useful if damage is your concern. If crowd control is what you are after, then definitely go for it. It does fit well thematically.

The gauntlets allow you play a class that is normally MAD, such as the barbarian. While it doesn't have the sheer number of attacks the fighter has, it gets advantage on attacks which help with reliably hitting with the staff using polearm master.

For flavor I could suggest an Air Genasi Zealot Barbarian for massive massive damage in the name of Thor. Air Genasi boosts defensive stats in DEX and CON giving you decent AC en HP out of the ass, while zealot gives you insane damage with +5 on each attack (2 from staff, 3 from rage) which meshes well with polearm master since you'll be making 3-4 attacks per round.

STR 8 (19 with gloves)
DEX 15 +1
CON 14 +2
INT, WIS, CHA your choice depending on roleplay

This with shield gives you 18 AC without wearing armor, advantage on all attacks in your turn, physical damage resistance, bonus radiance damage once per turn and sheer survivability that scares DMs.

You could probably do some even weirder multiclass thing, but this is my advice; a balance between flavor and power.

[Merudo]

Dragonborn (blue or bronze for lightning flavor) Vengeance Paladin


Dragonborn is a pretty mediocre choice given that the +2 strength doesn't do anything.

[Merudo]

Let's be real here: the high damage of the staff means you'll want to have as many attacks as possible in a round.

As such you'll want to be Fighter to get a third attack at level 11, and you'll want to pick the PAM feat too. Either Battlemaster or Eldritch Knight would work fine.

The gauntlets means you don't have to worry about stats much. As such you'll want a race that give you nice non-stats bonuses.

Personally I would go for a Quarterstaff & Shield Kobold Battlemaster, with PAM & either Mobile or Sentinel.

[KnotaGuru]

Dragonborn is a pretty mediocre choice given that the +2 strength doesn't do anything.

Agreed. I was thinking more for flavor than mechanical advantage.