Come at me Bro

[Quoz]

An idea I'm working up for a backup character is a character who wants to get hit, and is most effective when getting dogpiled by hoards of goblins or zombies.

The basic chassis I want to work off of is Fiend pact warlock, combining high level castings of Armor of Agathys with the fiend pact's constantly replenishing THP. A dip of barbarian for rage damage reduction and reckless attack to encourage more enemies to attack me seems like a solid addition. I would also like to wedge in a level of rogue or two for athletics expertise to be a solid grappler and possibly bonus action dash for closing speed.

Race is still up in the air, but high str, con, and cha are all wanted at decent levels.

What other ways can I add to punish creatures for attacking me, or otherwise make trading blows work better in my favor? Are there better ways to generate the THP/reduce damage to keep Armor of Agathys going for longer? Other ideas you would include to refine the concept?

[Unoriginal]

Issue is that if you reduce the damage you take via the Rage's resistance, you equally diminish how much damage the enemies will take for attacking you.

Regardless, I suggest a Duergar Battlerager. It'll let you do more damage while grappling (as well as in general), give you more temporary HPs, not to mention give you the ability to literally make you a bigger target (with all the advantages and disadvantages of such a position).


EDIT:
Plus it makes sense thematically as Duergars did have dealings with fiends.

CTurbo's suggestion bellow is good, too, but there are such thing as overmulticlassing. You can only have so many levels, and Wizards don't work well with Rage. So choosing one of the options as a path is important.

EDIT EDIT:

Of course the archetypal damage sponge (which is not the same thing as a tank, mind) of 5e is the Moon Druid. Doesn't do much for punishing the attackers, though.


All in all I stick with my Duergar Battlerager suggestion.

[CTurbo]

You could throw in some Abjuration Wizard for the Arcane Ward. Armor of Agathys would helps to replenish it as well.

[Quoz]

Duregar Battlerager does feel like a good fit, the Enlarge option will help with grappling huge targets. I doubt I would take it high enough to get the THP at 6th level unless the game went very high, but that would be a very fun build to play.

Maybe I'm not understanding AoA right. I admit I haven't used it much. But if I cast it as a 4th level spell, I gain 20 THP and any time an enemy hits me in melee while I have those THP, they take 20 cold damage. The damage they take is only dependent on the level the spell was cast at, not what damage I take.

Where I'm a bit fuzzy on it is what happens when you gain THP after casting the spell. AoA is duration 1 hour, no concentration. So if I run out of THP then gain more, does AoA trigger again?

What if I just drop down to a few THP then drop a creature to 0, triggering fiend pact to grant me more THP? I never ran out, but the new THP are not from the same source.

My interpretation, and what I intended this build around, is that AoA has a set time duration of one hour. During the duration of that spell, if I am hit by a melee attack that causes me to lose THP, the attacker takes damage. Where and when the THP were gained doesnt matter so long as the spell duration is still in effect.

[DeTess]

Duregar Battlerager does feel like a good fit, the Enlarge option will help with grappling huge targets. I doubt I would take it high enough to get the THP at 6th level unless the game went very high, but that would be a very fun build to play.

Maybe I'm not understanding AoA right. I admit I haven't used it much. But if I cast it as a 4th level spell, I gain 20 THP and any time an enemy hits me in melee while I have those THP, they take 20 cold damage. The damage they take is only dependent on the level the spell was cast at, not what damage I take.

Where I'm a bit fuzzy on it is what happens when you gain THP after casting the spell. AoA is duration 1 hour, no concentration. So if I run out of THP then gain more, does AoA trigger again?

What if I just drop down to a few THP then drop a creature to 0, triggering fiend pact to grant me more THP? I never ran out, but the new THP are not from the same source.

My interpretation, and what I intended this build around, is that AoA has a set time duration of one hour. During the duration of that spell, if I am hit by a melee attack that causes me to lose THP, the attacker takes damage. Where and when the THP were gained doesnt matter so long as the spell duration is still in effect.

The wording of armor of Agathys specifically refers to the positions gained from armor of Agathys (if a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points), so that wouldn't work. Stuff like damage resistance definitely does though, as the amount of damage AoA deals isn't a function of the damage you take.

[DwarfDM]

Duregar Battlerager does feel like a good fit, the Enlarge option will help with grappling huge targets. I doubt I would take it high enough to get the THP at 6th level unless the game went very high, but that would be a very fun build to play.

Maybe I'm not understanding AoA right. I admit I haven't used it much. But if I cast it as a 4th level spell, I gain 20 THP and any time an enemy hits me in melee while I have those THP, they take 20 cold damage. The damage they take is only dependent on the level the spell was cast at, not what damage I take.

Where I'm a bit fuzzy on it is what happens when you gain THP after casting the spell. AoA is duration 1 hour, no concentration. So if I run out of THP then gain more, does AoA trigger again?

What if I just drop down to a few THP then drop a creature to 0, triggering fiend pact to grant me more THP? I never ran out, but the new THP are not from the same source.

My interpretation, and what I intended this build around, is that AoA has a set time duration of one hour. During the duration of that spell, if I am hit by a melee attack that causes me to lose THP, the attacker takes damage. Where and when the THP were gained doesnt matter so long as the spell duration is still in effect.

When you gain THP from a new source you lose the hitpoints from the old one. So if you cast AoA for 20 THP. Take 10 damage and then gain 20 THP. You have 20 THP left with none being part of AoA.

"Healing can't restore temporary hit points, and they can't be added together. If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones. For example, if a spell grants you 12 temporary hit points when you already have 10, you can have 12 or 10, not 22. "

[Quoz]

So if I cast AoA as a 1st level spell and gain 5 THP, then later gain THP from fiend pact which gives 6 or more what happens? My THP goes up to the new amount, but that shouldn't end the spell.

I can definitely understand the point where the spell ends if my THP drops to 0 though.

[DeTess]

So if I cast AoA as a 1st level spell and gain 5 THP, then later gain THP from fiend pact which gives 6 or more what happens? My THP goes up to the new amount, but that shouldn't end the spell.

You're misudnerstanding. Your THP doesn't just go up to the new amount. You get to choose whether to keep the THP from the AoA, or replace them with the THP from the fiend pact (meaning that you lose all the THP from AoA). AoA specifies that it only does something when you lose the THP granted by armor of Agathys, so even if you where to rule that it is somehow still a tive despite you not having any THP granted by the spell, it'd still not do anything for you.

[Unoriginal]

So if I cast AoA as a 1st level spell and gain 5 THP, then later gain THP from fiend pact which gives 6 or more what happens? My THP goes up to the new amount, but that shouldn't end the spell.

I can definitely understand the point where the spell ends if my THP drops to 0 though.

AoA's effect only applies because of the THPs you got from the AoA spell. If you get THPs from a different source, the spells ends because they're not AoA's TPHs. Like, if you get 5 THPs left from AoA, and get 10 TPHs from an other source, you have 10 THPs and AoA is no longer working as you don't have any of its THPs anymore. As far as I recall, at least.

[Tanarii]

Even with the (very commonly accepted) interpetation that only the THP from Armor of Agathys count for the spell's purposes, it's still an effective character, once you have a few levels of warlock under the belt to get free up casting. It only requires a 1 level of multiclass as Barbarian to get Rage for resistance, and 2 if you're going to use Reckless attack regularly for advantage on Str-based me lee weapon attacks. You still don't really 'want' to get hit, but any time you do it will punish.

Just don't multiclass more than one or two levels total or you're losing effectiveness on the spell*.

Other common and effective ways to multiclass around the AoA spell:
- one level of Heavy Armor granting class + Heavy Amror Master. Start Fighter or Paladin and V. human for the feat, or 1 level of a HA-domain Cleric at level 4, then at 5 warlock for your Feat.
- 2 levels of Abjuration Wizard for Arcane Ward.

(*Edit: early on that is. Once you have 11 levels of warlock for level 3x level 5 spells per SR, you can decide if you are going to push on up as a warlock or want to multiclass like crazy. Personally I suspect by then you'll feel like a primary caster and push on if you're been soaking up the play experience, and multiclass like crazy if you have internalized a 'build' as a view of your character.)

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I find orcish resiliance to be a big deal for my 1/2 Orc players in games I DM.

Don't think its better than your other choice, just another option.

[Zanthy1]

The problem is that there aren't really any features or abilities in this game that actually benefit being at lower HP. Yes there are spells and effects that make it disadvantageous to attack you (AoA) and ways to make the effects hit people getting close like grappling, but what there needs to be is a way to like, hit harder the more damage you've taken.

A feat, a class, even some spells. Things that say "when you are less than half your maximum hitpoints, you gain this temporary buff'

[DrKerosene]

Scourge Aasimar.

Hurts everyone at the end of your turn without any further actions (so you can charge into a mob and end your turn there), adds some damage to the first successful hit you land on your turn, and adds two energy resistances to help with your Rage.

The abiility to hurt yourself with no further actions, to keep rage going, synergizes with you replenishing your Temp HP with Fiendish Vigor.

It’s a really high-level magic weapon, but try to get a Sword Of Answering (when you get hit, you can use an Opportunity Attack to hit them back).

[Man_Over_Game]

Issue is that if you reduce the damage you take via the Rage's resistance, you equally diminish how much damage the enemies will take for attacking you.

That's not true, though. Armor of Agathys deals a flat amount of damage, it just happens to equal the same value as the THP you get from it.

So if you get 10 THP, AoA does 10 damage per hit (even if the triggering hit only dealt 1 damage).

I'd recommend Hexblade over Fiend. The THP from Fiend would remove the AoA THP, and nullify the entire build. Not only that, but you're probably not going to have much Charisma.

Hexblade offers Shield for when you're not Raging, and a feature that you can use while your Raging that also works well with your critical features and can regenerate your HP. There's a lot of synergy there.

[tieren]

Here is my suggestion:

Tiefling, hellish rebuke as a racial ability, resistance to fire, take infernal constitution as a racial feat for resistance to cold and poison.

Tempest cleric 5, lightning damage on hit, spirit guardians,

Warlock 5, armor of agathys, Hexblade patron (attack with charisma), invocations cloak of flies (passive damage field), tomb of levistus (survive super strong hits)

Bard 10, lots of goodies here, but main goal is to pick up fire shield with magical secrets, also get the expertise you can put in athletics like the OP wanted.

If an enemy comes into melee and hits this RC would take:

5d8 - fire damage (fire shield in 7th level slot)
2d8 - necrotic damage (shadow of moil, concentration)
2d8 - lightning damage (wrath of the storm, tempest cleric)
5d8 - radiant damage (spirit guardians in 6th level slot)
9d10 - fire damage (hellish rebuke in 8th level slot, reaction)
5 - poison damage (cloak of flies)
25 - cold (armor of agathys in 5th level slot)

Total thats 14d8 + 9d10 + 30 = 154 avg damage

[Crgaston]

Here is my suggestion:

Tiefling, hellish rebuke as a racial ability, resistance to fire, take infernal constitution as a racial feat for resistance to cold and poison.

Tempest cleric 5, lightning damage on hit, spirit guardians,

Warlock 5, armor of agathys, Hexblade patron (attack with charisma), invocations cloak of flies (passive damage field), tomb of levistus (survive super strong hits)

Bard 10, lots of goodies here, but main goal is to pick up fire shield with magical secrets, also get the expertise you can put in athletics like the OP wanted.

If an enemy comes into melee and hits this RC would take:

5d8 - fire damage (fire shield in 7th level slot)
2d8 - necrotic damage (shadow of moil, concentration)
2d8 - lightning damage (wrath of the storm, tempest cleric)
5d8 - radiant damage (spirit guardians in 6th level slot)
9d10 - fire damage (hellish rebuke in 8th level slot, reaction)
5 - poison damage (cloak of flies)
25 - cold (armor of agathys in 5th level slot)

Total thats 14d8 + 9d10 + 30 = 154 avg damage
Spiit Guardiand and Shadow of Moil are both Concentration. Otherwise that's legit.

[Unoriginal]

If an enemy comes into melee and hits this RC would take:

5d8 - fire damage (fire shield in 7th level slot)
2d8 - necrotic damage (shadow of moil, concentration)
2d8 - lightning damage (wrath of the storm, tempest cleric)
5d8 - radiant damage (spirit guardians in 6th level slot)
9d10 - fire damage (hellish rebuke in 8th level slot, reaction)
5 - poison damage (cloak of flies)
25 - cold (armor of agathys in 5th level slot)

Total thats 14d8 + 9d10 + 30 = 154 avg damage

Pretty sure several of those would require a separate Reaction to trigger (at least Hellish Rebuke and Wrath of the Storm). Not sure, though.

[tieren]

I missed concentration on spirit guardians and reaction on wrath of the storm, drop shadow of moil to keep spirit guardians and drop wrath of the storm to keep hellish rebuke.

Everything else should work.

Thats still 9d8 + 9d10

[Bloodcloud]

So as others explained, your baci plan does not work. Can't keep recharging AoA.

The easiest way to gain resistance to all damage is a cleric friend casting warding bond. If at all possible, going this way will reduce multiclass strain considerably.

Heavy armor master stacks with that, so a level of fighter as a vhuman for HAM followed by straight hexblade would probably be the best way, IMO, to maximize AoA potential (and still get plenty of options). Goliath race also has a damage reducing ability, but at once per short rest, I feel it is not worth the suboptimal stat spread and delaying HAM.

Tieren's suggestion requires double concentration and reaction, but it is otherwise a fine list of "thorn damage" abilities. You might want to select a few though, as having more than one trick in your bag is actually rather valuable.

[Quoxis]

If i had to build from your character idea, i'd go the weird route of Fighter 1/warlock (any patron) 1/wizard (abjuration) X, and the heavy armor master feat.
Needs 13 cha and Str, but that should be manageable.
This build focuses on avoiding any actual HP damage - you upcast AoA with your highest level spell slot (after lvl 12 better than any warlock could, because wizard gets slots higher than level 5), which triggers arcane ward, so you get two layers of additional hp on top of yours (AoA for temp hp, AW for NON-temp hp), and when you get attacked the damage is first dealt to the ward before your temp hp are reduced, so AoA stays up longer while still dealing damage the whole time through, aaaand even longer as soon as you got heavy armor master cut down all the weapon damage you take by 3 points each.

I feel like that's only half of the build though, because you basically want to "taunt" your opponents into focusing on you instead of the squishy next to you. For that i'd go lower on the wizard levels, putting in 5 levels of fighter instead of the original 1, and go for Xanathar's Cavalier subclass, ideally while dual wielding.
This way, you get 3 weapon attacks per turn which you can use to "mark" up to 3 opponents, so they get disadvantage on any attacks on creatures other than you - basically the same thing you'd achieve with reckless attack, but with less benefit for the opponent.

I'd probably go fighter 1, warlock 1, wizard 4 or 5 (for higher level spell slots and the feat, in case you don't choose vhuman as your race), fighter 5, wizard X, but i never played this character so you might wanna invest in more wizard sooner to get both higher AoA and AW hp.

[Damon_Tor]

I'd build an Oath of Conquest Paladin and multiclass with an Abjuration Wizard.

As others have noted, you can't "replenish" the THP of AoA with THP from other sources. However, the abjurer's Ward feature will protect the THP while still letting attackers take the damage, and the Ward can be replenished just by casting abjuration spells, including several reaction spells. So you would have two layers of protection, the THP from AoA and the Ward's bizarro hitpoints on top of that, and hits against you would trigger AoA's damage regardless.

The paladin gives you a mount which gets himself a whole separate instance of AoA when you cast it on yourself. Mounts are also great for tanking because they take up so much space.