Good options for an explosion-based character?

[Afgncaap5]

If you wanted a character who was really good at explosions, how would you do that? I've currently got a character who knows how to acquire (and, in a pinch, make) some of the things in the DMG like dynamite gunpowder kegs and such, but actually using them in combat has always felt a little... clunky? And that's fine. But I was about to start DMing a villainous character in an Eberron game, and I thought a sort of "mad bomber" approach might work.

I think the ideal "feel" of the character would be somewhere in a Venn Diagram that showed the intersection of Tavish "Demoman" DeGroot from Team Fortress 2, Megumin from Konosuba, the Sapper goblins from Warcraft 3, and any caster in Order of the Stick who's ever written "I Prepared Explosive Runes".

I've been looking around and think I've found most of the good options, but you never know when someone at these forums happens to have just the perfect answer.

If it matters, the character is an unusually intelligent urd (winged kobold) in an Eberron setting game who serves Kethelrax the Cunning (who's trying to waylay passing elemental vehicles to get intact khyber shards in the hopes of activating a warforged colossus.) She's kind of his Boba Fett. You know. Technically good at the job, but you've really, really gotta remind her to go easy on the disintegrations. Er, explosions.

[stoutstien]

What levels you looking at?

[samcifer]

Puffinforrest had a dynamite-based character in his Deadlands video on youtube…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwVvErZKNX4

[Sorinth]

For a villain it's pretty simple, don't worry about class levels just use the standard custom monster creator to compute the CR.

Your main questions is how many attacks do they get and how much damage/radius the explosions do. I'd probably make it saving throw based where PCs in a given range/radius make a Dex save vs the Int based DC of the villain.

As a PC one of the problems is always supplies, how many "grenades" do you have, and what do you do when you run out. For a Villain it's not really an issue, give them 3-5 rounds of combat worth of them and call it a day.

[Crucius]

I find glyph of warding works wonders on villainous NPC's. Have a story arch where the villain threatens a town to give into his or her demands, or else explosive glyphs of warding go off, killing innocent citizens. It is then up to the party to find and defuse these runes before the Joker-esque mad plan goes off.

Beyond that, any AoE can be refluffed into explosions. Concussive explosions with Erupting Earth, or flash explosions with Sunburst.

[Corran]

If you wanted a character who was really good at explosions, how would you do that? I've currently got a character who knows how to acquire (and, in a pinch, make) some of the things in the DMG like dynamite gunpowder kegs and such, but actually using them in combat has always felt a little... clunky? And that's fine. But I was about to start DMing a villainous character in an Eberron game, and I thought a sort of "mad bomber" approach might work.
Give this villain a glass eye, and make them a reoccurring villain. The goal is to make the players really hate this character, and to want badly to get them. So badly, that when they eventually kill them, they'll want a trophy. And what better trophy than the villain's glass eye? Maybe hint it's a magic item, or have the villain wink at them, just make sure to draw enough attention to the glass eye, but do that from early on. And when the pc's eventually defeat this villain, and try to claim their trophy that they deserve so much, have the eye explode and roll the dice mercilessly.:smallamused:
Idea shamelessly stolen from the movie 'last action hero'.

[Segev]

If it matters, the character is an unusually intelligent urd (winged kobold) in an Eberron setting game who serves Kethelrax the Cunning (who's trying to waylay passing elemental vehicles to get intact khyber shards in the hopes of activating a warforged colossus.) She's kind of his Boba Fett. You know. Technically good at the job, but you've really, really gotta remind her to go easy on the disintegrations. Er, explosions.

Have you looked at the Kobold Inventor in Volo's Guide to Monsters? It might be just what you're looking for.

[Bobthewizard]

I made a goblin sapper as a Stone Sorcerer. He kept pulling fireworks out of his clothes like Rico from Penguins of Madagascar. The great part of it was you didn't need to keep track of the explosives. He was a blast. :smallsmile:

firebolt, scorching ray, magic missile = bottle rocket/Roman candle
create bonfire = Molatov cocktail
shatter = bomb
fireball/ melf's minute meteors = dynamite
thunder step = accidentally blowing himself up and getting thrown up to 120'
fog cloud = smoke bomb
pyrotechnics = smoke bomb or flash grenade
knock = c4
slow = stun grenade
stinking cloud/cloudkill = mustard gas
mold earth = digging fast
passwall = digging really fast

[Afgncaap5]

Many, many good suggestions here! I'll probably incorporate a combination of a lotta these. Thanks!

[MaxWilson]

Give this villain a glass eye, and make them a reoccurring villain. The goal is to make the players really hate this character, and to want badly to get them. So badly, that when they eventually kill them, they'll want a trophy. And what better trophy than the villain's glass eye? Maybe hint it's a magic item, or have the villain wink at them, just make sure to draw enough attention to the glass eye, but do that from early on. And when the pc's eventually defeat this villain, and try to claim their trophy that they deserve so much, have the eye explode and roll the dice mercilessly.:smallamused:
Idea shamelessly stolen from the movie 'last action hero'.

5E goes out of this way to make Glyph of Warding useless for this scenario, so make sure it's a variant spell. (Note also that House Kundarak Dwarves in Eberron are often hired to use Glyph of Warding to protect packages, according to Rising From the Last War, so it must be possible at least in Eberron to overcome the "cannot move the object" clause of Glyph of Warding. But at least by RAW this is illegal.)

[LudicSavant]

If Megumin played D&D, she'd play a Nuclear Wizard build that grinds up all its resources as fast as possible and always Overchannels until knocking herself out.

Nothing says "EXPUULOOOOOOSHUN!" like killing Tiamat twice over in one round. Then falling over with 0 HP from your own attack.