5e Throwdowns #1: The Gish

[Dork_Forge]

So on the tails of this thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?611855-Is-there-a-reason-we-don-t-do-5e-optimization-contests-like-the-3-x-community-does) I thought, why not just start this up already?

The Concept: The Gish

A Gish is a character that focuses on using melee weapons as their primary method of combat, but with the use of magic to enhance their abilities, give more utility outside of combat and other options in combat.

Your focus must be on melee combat using a weapon/unarmed strikes and your character must be able to cast spells to be eligible.



Some rules for guidance:

-No UA, only officially published materials

-You must include a stat array (Point Buy or Standard Array)

-Build to 20 with insights on how the build hands at levels 5, 11, 17 and 20 (include hp and AC at each point for each of reading)

-Multiclassing and feat optional rules in play

-Variants for races available (V. Human, Dragonmarks, SCAG variants)

-No magic items unless you have a way to create them from a class feature

-Normal starting items and gold, mundane armor upgrades be assumed to happen during tier 2 (so you can mention Plate/Half Plate in your commentary but you can only include it in snapshots for levels 11,17 and the final 20).

-Catchy names and fluff are not a requirement but are always nice to read



Suggested format:

Level 20 level split:

Race:

Stats: Str x Dex x Con x Int x Wis x Cha x

Background:

Starting level:

Any guidance or commentary you want

At 5th level:

Any guidance or commentary you want

At 11th level:

Any guidance or commentary you want

At 17th level:

Any guidance or commentary you want

At 20th level and final thoughts:



Voting:

To sort the wheat from the chaff we'll vote on builds and declare a 'winner' (a concept that will hopefully continue in future threads and put the contest into this), to vote simply make a post quoting the build you want to vote for (snipping the content to keep things getting out of hand) and say something that indicates you're voting e.g. +1, get's my vote etc.

-Each user only gets one vote but you can edit your post at any time before the deadline to change your mind.

-A user can submit more than one build but they must be in separate posts (and not back to back to respect forum rules)

-You cannot vote for yourself

-Each throwdown thread will run for 7 days after which no new builds will be accepted for contention, the voting deadline will be 24 hours after the build deadline, votes will be tallied and the winner announced (any vote edits after the deadline has passed will also not be counted, if the original vote cannot be seen the vote will be null and void).

Gish build deadline: 14/05/2020 @ 11pm BST, 6 EST

Voting deadline: 15/05/2020 @ 11pm BST, 6 EST



I'm looking forward to what all the optimisers around here come up with so without further ado, let's THROWDOWN

[Dork_Forge]

The Contenders:

Ghost Nappa's build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24495945&postcount=12)

Nagog's partial build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496158&postcount=17)

Kane0's "The Classic" (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496189&postcount=18)

Nalgaryyn's critfishing build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496223&postcount=20) 1 Vote

Aaron Underhand's "Lissajous" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496542&postcount=21) 1 Vote

ftafp's build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24497099&postcount=25) 2 Votes

sithlordnergal's "The Fey Knight" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24497392&postcount=26)

sithlordnergal's "The Undying Barbarian" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24497507&postcount=27) 5 Votes

ftafp's "The Horse Whisperer: AKA The Pale Horse" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24499745&postcount=37)

Waazraath's build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24504541&postcount=40)

Brewksy's build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24505489&postcount=47) 1 Vote

AgenderArcee's "Oathbreaker Hexadin: The Unholy Glaive (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24505689&postcount=50)

Bobthewizard's "The Templar of Time" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24506150&postcount=56)

Alpharn_999's "Heavy Weapon Discount Paladin" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24507895&postcount=63)

Daghoulish's "The Blade in the Dark" (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24508018&postcount=65)

Aion's "The True Spellsword" build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24508848&postcount=70) 1 Vote

All in all 16 builds put forth, a great turn out for the first throwdown!

The results are in and the winner is: The Undying Barbarian by Sithlordnergal

Thanks to all for participating and contraulations to the Sith, may his apprentice never grow strong enough to usurp him.

The next throwdown will be posted shortly so stay posted!

[ftafp]

question: does the "with a weapon part" mean no monk gishes?

[Dork_Forge]

question: does the "with a weapon part" mean no monk gishes?

Just when you think you've thought of everything! Unarmed strikes would certainly count and I will update the guidance to reflect that, thanks!

[SociopathFriend]

Couldn't you just make an online poll on a given website and have people vote like that? Seems easier than counting comments.

Also probably a relevant question for a Gish- are you using the Xanathar Counterspell optional rules?

[Man_Over_Game]

Couldn't you just make an online poll on a given website and have people vote like that? Seems easier than counting comments.

Could make it like how we do with our homebrew contests:

Participants are the only people who can vote, so vote submissions are both easier to track and have better overall quality.

Have a separate thread each for discussions, voting, and submissions, to keep things highly organized and easy to refer to.

[Dork_Forge]

Couldn't you just make an online poll on a given website and have people vote like that? Seems easier than counting comments.

Also probably a relevant question for a Gish- are you using the Xanathar Counterspell optional rules?


I'd rather not have people go to an external site for this and a poll necessitates populating the poll with all of the options, I'd rather just count personally.

I don't see any optional Counterspell rules, are you referring to the optional identifying a spell rules? The only optional rules considered for the build are the ones already listed (feats and multiclassing, variant options for races), so flanking, identifying spells etc. aren't in play.


Could make it like how we do with our homebrew contests:

Participants are the only people who can vote, so vote submissions are both easier to track and have better overall quality.

Have a separate thread each for discussions, voting, and submissions, to keep things highly organized and easy to refer to.

I don't see the need to gatekeep voting for this, it'll just reduce the overall number of votes. I can see the benefit when voting on homebrew, a demonstratable knowledge of balance and game design would be nice when voting on homebrewed mechanics, but this is just voting on optimising a concept, anyone should be able to vote for what they think best encapsulates the concept at hand.

In regards to the separate threads thing, people can feel free to make threads regarding their builds before submission, but I think each contest (I was hoping this would become a regular fixture should it prove popular) requiring multiple threads would feel a bit spammy on the homepage and I don't see the ease of tracking votes in a spearate thread, it's convenient to quote the build you're voting for in the same thread.

[Zetakya]

With that Heavy Armour limitation you're going to get a lot of DEX-gish-Elves I think.

[Dork_Forge]

With that Heavy Armour limitation you're going to get a lot of DEX-gish-Elves I think.

What heavy armor limitation? Making top tier mundane armor only come into play in tier 2 makes it more realistic and stops things like taking Plate at 1st level dominating things. I also think it makes the builds more relatable and useable in people's games, ideally these contests can act like a library of builds for each given concept, fun initially and a resource afterwards.

[Zetakya]

What heavy armor limitation? Making top tier mundane armor only come into play in tier 2 makes it more realistic and stops things like taking Plate at 1st level dominating things. I also think it makes the builds more relatable and useable in people's games, ideally these contests can act like a library of builds for each given concept, fun initially and a resource afterwards.

If you want it to be like how the game is played, Plate at 5 is entirely necessary.

[Dork_Forge]

If you want it to be like how the game is played, Plate at 5 is entirely necessary.

What? The only thing that happens at 5th is a power boost in the form of Extra Attack and 3rd level spells. Nothing makes Plate mandatory at 5th level and nothing indicates that it's reasonable for a character to afford 1500GP armor at 5th level whilst actually buying anything else.

Why do you think it's necessary or that getting it in tier 2 is unreasonable?

[Ghost Nappa]

Straight out of Gastronomie's Sorcadin guide, (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?502673-Unlimited-Blade-Works-The-Guide-to-the-Ultimate-Paladin-Sorcerer-Multiclass) is a character I have been playing for almost two years now, from Level 1 to Level 12 (she recently died).

Level 20 level split: Oath of the Crown 6 / Draconic Sorcerer 14

Race: Half-Elf

Stats: Str 14+2 Dex 10 Con 13+1 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 15+1
(DEX and INT are dump stats. You can switch them if you prefer, or even move the 12 from WIS. STR, CON, and CHA are essential: both STR and and CHA must be 13 or higher to multi-class into/out of Paladin).
Background: Folk Hero




Our skill-set includes:

Athletics (Race)
Animal Handling (Background)
Perception (Race)
Persuasion (Class)
Religion (Class)
Survival (Background)


Our first two levels will be taken in Paladin. This gives us all weapons and armor, and above average health. At Level 2, we get Divine Smite. We do not need to declare a smite until we hit, meaning we can fish for criticals. Our Fighting Style is Defense.

At level three, we take a quick detour for a Sorcerer Level: We delay Extra Attack by one level to get access to Shield. We pick up other spells as well, but I recommend Asborb Elements and Green-Flame Blade. Other notable options are Booming Blade, Lightning Lure, Minor Illusion, Mold Earth, Prestidigitation, Mending and Firebolt. Our gold/red ancestor breathed Fire.

Shield is an important defensive option for us.

You fight Sword and Board: the +2 AC from the Buckler has us at 19, which is more than enough for early-game enemies.




5th level is important for several reasons:
#1 - This is when the OP says to expect an Armor Upgrade. Between Full-Plate (18), Defense Fighting Style (19), a Buckler (21), Shield of Faith spell from the Paladin Chassis (23), and Shield from Sorcerer, we can get up to 28 AC with non-magical gear and no other help. Pretty good. I like making Fiends miss 50% of their attacks. Even if you are stuck with Chain Mail still, you have a respectable 19/21/24/26 depending on which of the two spells you are using. The strength requirement is met and the disadvantage on Stealth is generally not an issue: you want to be in the front and the center of attention. Clang on purpose and be the bait.

#2 - This is actually when we get our first ASI/Feat. Resilient(CON), Warcaster, and CHA+2 are the most desirable ones. If you start here, you can manipulate the array a bit to make Resilient (CON) more efficient. For this, I'm going to assume Warcaster.

#3 - Our Cantrip damage goes up. At level 5, Cantrips are better then our standard attack during every round of combat. with Warcaster, They also replace our Opportunity Attacks.

At 6, we get Extra Attack. Making the double-attack is generally better for crit-fishing, but if you're fighting an enemy resistant to mundane weapons, and don't feel like using the Magic Weapon spell for your concentration, you can also just cantrip. We can also now cast Find Steed. Lances look much better for fighting from horse back now.

At 7, we get Aura of Protection, giving ourselves and (our teammates within 10 feet) +3 to all saving throws.
At 8, when our peers are getting their second ASI, we jump ship to Sorcerer. for the rest of our levels. Whatever spell you pick (Expeditious Retreat?), I recommend dropping at Level 9 for Misty Step.

Level 9: Misty Step, Mirror Image. For Metamagic, I recommend Quicken before anything else. Twinned is too expensive for my taste, but Maximize, Heighten, Subtle, and Careful all have purposes.
Level 10: Hold Person. CHA+2 (18)



Taking Sorcerer is going to noticeably start dropping our HP a little bit, but between our Aura boosting all of our saves, our high AC, and already decent HP pool, it shouldn't be an issue so long as we do not deliberately get surrounded.

Level 11: Haste. You should have at least +6 to CON saves and advantage from Warcaster: the detriments of this spell should be happening with frequency. It's Shield of Faith with more drawbacks but also way more advantages. You can also count it on your mount and move at the speed of a modern car for 60 seconds which is hilarious.

Level 12: Fireball. Just in time for your Sorcerer Origin to start buffing your Fire spells with your Charisma modifier.

Level 13: Greater Invisibility. For when you need to fight without armor, or your Rogue wants so stab.

Level 14: CHA+2 (20). I have not gone beyond this. I am fairly confident in the build up to here, but not here or past here. Wall of Fire gives you another control option. You now have +5 to all of your saves, +5 damage on Fire spells, fantastic social skills, you count as a Level 11 caster, can tank, heal, buff, debuff and more. There are a lot of variations that Sorcadin has to offer. I just haven't gotten far enough to try them.

Level 15: Hold Monster lets you paralyze enemies. You might have had a teammate do this before, but you can now do this as a Bonus Action and smite on the guaranteed crits.

Level 16: A new cantrip choice, a new fifth level spell to learn.



I don't really have anything to offer beyond Gastronomie's initial theorycrafting. I'm simply not near this level of play. 17th level is another boost in cantrip damage.

Mass Suggestion, Disintegrate, Reverse Gravity, and Fire Stormlook like winners.

18th level is your last feat/ASI. You can buff your CON, your STR, pick up Mounted Combatant if you like your horse, pick up Elemental Adept if you like burning things... you have options.


By the time you reach level 20, you have two obvious glaring weaknesses: your INT skills are bad, still sitting at -1; and your initiative is bad. That's what you have party members for. You can dish out hundreds of points of damage on a semi-reliable critical hit fishing tool, heal, do AoE damage, control the battle dield, remove single targets efficiently, navigate the map quickly, cheat the action economy and more. If you roll and get more optimized stats, you can pick up Feats earlier or choose a different weapon (DEX Paladin). Even years later, Gastronomie's guide is incredibly handy to me and I recommend you give it a read, even if it is somewhat outdated. It's that good.

[ftafp]

Wow, this contest came at the perfect time. My character just swapped bodies with a dying lab rat and lost the magic item that made it possible in the ocean. The build I post here is going to be my new character

[Amechra]

So, a bit of a dumb question, but... how much spellcasting do we need? I mean, technically a Tiefling Champion Fighter 20 can cast spells...

(I mostly ask because I had a bit of a dumb idea that would only have casting thanks to Magic Initiate.)

[ftafp]

So, a bit of a dumb question, but... how much spellcasting do we need? I mean, technically a Tiefling Champion Fighter 20 can cast spells...

(I mostly ask because I had a bit of a dumb idea that would only have casting thanks to Magic Initiate.)

I would guess it's a "decide with your vote" situation, though I doubt any build that doesn't have 5th level spells by the end of it will place very well.

[Dork_Forge]

So, a bit of a dumb question, but... how much spellcasting do we need? I mean, technically a Tiefling Champion Fighter 20 can cast spells...

(I mostly ask because I had a bit of a dumb idea that would only have casting thanks to Magic Initiate.)

There's no good metric to use for this so just being able to cast any spells seemed like a good minimum. You can be a Champion Tiefling and qualify for the contest, but it'd be a little pointless since I imagine such a build wouldn't win this contest.

[Nagog]

I doubt I'll win because I'm just here to toss a hat in the ring, but my choice would be a Paladin 2/Lore Bard 18. It's got the obvious combos along the same lines as the Sorcadin, but also the skills and support abilities of the Bard.

My case being: Bards can naturally fill any role on the board. The only role they need some extra oomph to fill is tank, hence the Swords and Valor subclasses, and even those lack the real weight to bring to bear on the role. Two levels of paladin to start provide a duo of beefier hit dice and heavy armor, as well as a fighting style to add into the mix. Smites allow them to turn their spell slots to a more directly offensive use without cluttering their spell lists with damage spells. Lore bard's Cutting Words gives them an extra nudge in tanking for both themselves and for allies in combat, and regular (but oh so valuable) inspiration outside of combat.


So without all the embellishments of feats, ASIs, base stats, and the like, I present my optimized Gish build.



If ya'll really care so much, tack on a level of Hexblade instead of the first Bard level. I feel debased just saying it, but it's the only way to give this build a snowball's chance in hell of going anywhere in a contest like this.

[Kane0]

Ugh. I had something lined up but its not melee centric. Guess i’ll chop and change a bit, see what can be done.

The Classic
Eldritch Knight 12 / War Wizard 8
Or EK 7 / WW 13 if you really want to lean on casting more than getting that 2nd extra attack, but thats not my preference in this case.

Githyanki wielding a longsword or greatsword, natually.

With bonus fighter ASIs you shouldnt have a problem getting enough STR and INT with a feat or two of choice left over. Warcaster is the classic choice but theres also magic initiate, spell sniper, weapon/armor feats and even lucky and the like depending on your style.

Arcane deflection will be your bread and butter, so you’ll want at least two of your war wizard levels as soon as you can grab them after getting extra attack at level 5. This is a pretty straightforward multiclass so you can progress in either side according to taste but most of the time you will probably want to aim for the rest of the EK levels once the initial two wizard levels are out of the way to avoid further delaying War Magic, ASIs and Extra Attack II.

A fun way to enter a fight is opening with a ranged cantrip like ray of frost or chill touch and throwing your secondary bonded weapon using War Magic as you move in. Shocking Grasp can similarly let you move away from danger while still getting some hits in if you dont want to burn a slot on a misty step or have used arcane deflection already. With all the cantrips you will know you could easily pick up Green Flame Blade too, just for variety.

Action surge helps get around the pesky bonus action one levelled spell per turn issue when you’re not just using it to pummel fools, or mix and match to make best use of Eldritch Strike on the same turn.

As for spells, you will be going at more or less half caster progression but you will have up to 4th level spells from 6th level slots unless your DM very generously bends the rules to let you scribe 5ths and 6ths. Even if that doesnt happen then not to worry, arcane deflection will alleviate concerns of blowing too many slots on shield and absorb elements plus you still have a solid array of rituals that you wont have to prepare. You will probably get the most use out of buffs and utility spells but that’s not to say you cannot blast or CC, in fact some low level control spells hold up very well into the later tiers.

Its an oldie but a goodie, and I just find it so satisfying.

[Lord Haart]

Well, the theme of "gish" as defined in OP of the contest thread is still incredibly wide, and by its letter includes, say, a straight-classed Moon druid. But it's reasonable to expect that adherence to the classic "weaponmaster that casts lightning bolt in your face, and stabs it" image will win contestants more votes than a very strong shapeshifting druid build, eh?


Are Plane Shift materials legal? It doesn't seem they have "Unearthed Arcana" stamped anywhere.

Is there a list of currently existing non-UA sources available somewhere?


Also, OP specifies:

Build to 20 with insights on how the build hands at levels 5, 11, 17 and 20 (include hp and AC at each point for each of reading)
But also:

Suggested format:
(…)
Starting level:
So does a write-up at level 1 count and matter, or is it only important that it comes together by level 5?

[nalgarryn]

Level 20 level split: Ranger-Hunter 4 / Wizard-Bladesinger 16

We are going to go fishing for crits and add damage dice to our hits, with proficiency on STR/DEX/WIS saving throws (and Concentration) and a very high AC.

Race: High Elf

Stats: Str 8 Dex 15+2 Con 12 Int 15+1 Wis 13 Cha 8

ASIs (take in any order):
Resilient (Wisdom)
Elven Accuracy
War Caster
DEX
INT


Skills: Perception (race), Insight (ranger), Survival (ranger)
Languages: Common, Elvish, and one Other
Background: Pick any background
Pick your favourite cantrip from the Wizard spell list... Green-Flame Blade is a popular one until you get Extra Attack.

The first 4 levels will all be as a Ranger:
For your Fighting Style take Two-Weapon Fighting so you can add your Dex modifier to your offhand weapon.
Take the two ranger spells Hunter's Mark and Cure Wounds. (Hunter's Mark adds 1d6 to every attack and 2d6 on a crit and you can up-cast Cure Wounds later.)
Join the Hunter Conclave at level 3 and take Colossus Slayer (1d8 once per turn to an injured enemy, 2d8 on a crit)

If you take the Gloom Stalker Conclave at level 3 you trade in the 1d8 once per round on an injured enemy for an extra attack in the first round and an extra 1d8 for that attack only. However, much more importantly, you gain the trait that, "While in darkness, you are invisible to any creature that relies on darkvision to see you in that darkness." This means if you're in a party with Darkvision and nobody carries light sources, you're permanently invisible to monsters without Blindsight. Depending on your campaign this is enormously powerful.

At level 4 take your first ASI. If you're consistently getting Advatange, take Elven Accuracy for Tri-vantage. (This allows for many more crits)
If you're having trouble maintaining concentration and want to cast while two-weapon fighting, take War Caster (Allows casting spells while holding weapons and gives CON saving throw proficiency for concentration.)




At 5th level take your first level of Wizard. Now you're like a crappy 1st level Wizard but you have 3d10+10 hp+4 (32 hp) that is dual wielding light weapons and have spell slots as a level 3 caster.
Use Mage Armour to protect your naked self - it's better than Studded Leather.
Get Shield and Absorb Elements if you enjoy playing your character.
Get Hold Person as a level 2 spell - it inflicts Paralyzed which means all attacks are made at advantage and are automatic critical hits if made within 5'.
Get Misty Step to avoid OAs. It also allows you to teleport using a Bonus Action so you can take your Attack Action on someone you know you'll have advantage on.




You should have picked up Shadow Blade, which is only a level 2 spell, but requires Concentration. Up-cast it from a 3rd level slot to have a light weapon that deals 3d8. If you can find a magical weapon that deals bonus die on hit (Flametongue Blade, etc) then continue using Hunter's Mark, whichever does the most damage. See if you can get a friend to cast Holy Weapon on your 'real' weapon if the DM won't allow it to be cast on your Shadow Blade. You want many math rocks to clink together!

At level 6 you get Bladesong:
You get 6/day (2/short rest)... or basically always.
It increases your AC by your INT modifier.
Your AC is now 13+DEX+INT = 17
You also add your INT modifier to Concentration checks.

Take whatever Wizard spells you fancy...
At Wizard6 (CL10) take another ASI... if you don't have Elven Accuracy I highly recommend it. Otherwise DEX/INT/War Caster. If you are running in to a lot of saving throws, you can take Resilient (Wisdom) to even it up to 14 and get a +1 on some skills and savings throws (along with advantage on WIS saves).

You are now Ranger4/Wizard7
Bladesinger gave you Extra Attack at Wizard6. You can now attack twice with the attack action and with your offhand as a bonus action. If that is against a Held Person all the attacks are with Tri-vantage and automatic critical hits.

You might want to pick up a magical AC bonus (bracers or whatnot) for an extra +2 AC. Especially if you're not bumping your DEX or INT with your ASIs, which would make your AC 20.




You should have picked up another ASI to unlock more features.
You can absorb incoming damage with spell slots through your Bladesong.
You should have picked up Hold Monster so you can Paralyze anything.
You should have picked up Shadow Blade, which is only a level 2 spell, but requires Concentration a long time ago. You can up-cast it to a 5d8 weapon now.




At this point you should have had a lot of fun and lee-way to play your wizard anyway you like. Hopefully your spellbook is brimming.

You get your final ASI at 20. You got 5 in total. Three were spent on feats. Without spending any on Ability scores, you have a Dex 18 and Int 16. You can make Dex 20 (highly recommended for the AC) and INT 18, or leave Dex at 18 and go INT 20. Either way the bonus adds to your AC when using Bladesong.

As an alternative you can take the Lucky feat, which is broken and should be banned.

As another fun option, you can take the Dual Wielder feat - this allows you to use non-light weapons. This gets especially fun if you can find some of the magic quarterstaves. Most of them allow you to expend charges to deal extra die of damage, so just spend charges (they regenerate anyway) when you roll a crit and the dice will be doubled. Staff of Power/Striking/Thunder and Lighting are fun for this. Staff of Withering is hilarious at 2d10 necrotic. Staff of Swarming Insects is an awesome way to give yourself permanent advantage, since it blinds everyone except you and it's not because of light/darkness. Depends if you want to be an epic elf dual-wielding staffs, though. The big downside to this is you won't get your DEX bonus to a non-light weapon attack, so this is more for flavour.

[Aaron Underhand]

Lissajous The seamless mix of full melee ranged and spellcasting attacks

Level 20 level split: Hexblade 2/Swords Bard 18

Good melee attacks, eldritch blast for ranged and 9th level spells including wish. Excellent magical resistance

Race: Yuan-Ti: Immune to poison; Adv. on saves vs. magic

Stats: Str 9 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 14 (13+1) Wis 8 Cha 16 (14+2)

Background Far Traveler


ASIs:
5th: War Caster
10th: CHA +2
14th: Resilient (Con) or CHA +2
18th: CHA +2 or resilient (Con)


Hexblade at one is a powerhouse 1st level gish. Medium amour, martial weapons and a short rest spell. At this point Longbow out damages eldritch blast, but you may prefer sword and shield and a one handed ranged attack. WIth hexblade's curse you have extra damage and extra criticals

AC 18 with scale and shield - plus 5 with a shield spell once/short rest
HP 10

Melee (longsword using Cha): +5 to hit damage 13 ... d8+5 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Sometimes booming blade can add more damage
Ranged: (longbow using Dex): +4 to hit, damage 12 ...d8+ 4 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6

Cantrips: Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade plus from Yuan-ti Poison Spray and Animal Friendship on snakes at will (essentially a cantrip).
Spells: Hex and Shield

Skills Arcana, Insight, Investigation, Perception

Saves are not bad, with only strength really lacking. Proficiency in Wis saves, and at least +2 on the others, with advantage on most saves...



Hexblade 1/Swords Bard 4

Your booming blade has scaled, so your single attack remains competitive, and warcaster now means you can use that for an opportunity attack as well - Booming blade will either stop them or do an additional 2d8

Take dueling fighting style from Swords Bard. Also Blade flourish adds a whole set of additional tactical options, including extra move, push and increased AC, but for the moment this is only 3 times per long rest.

AC 25-30: 19 with half-plate and shield - plus 5 with a shield spell - plenty of spell slots. plus 1-6 with Blade flourish 3/LR.
HP 38

Melee (longsword/booming blade using Cha): +6 to hit - damage 18.5 ++: 2d8+6 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Add further 2d8 booming blade if they move.
Melee (Blade flourish 3/LR): +6 to hit, damage 17.5d8+d6+8 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Plus add d6 to AC or push away
Ranged: (Eldritch Blast): +6 to hit, damage 17.5 - 2d10+3 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6

Cantrips: Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Friends, Eldritch Blast, Booming Blade, Poison Spray, Animal Friendship on snakes.
Spells 1st level (4 slots plus 1 SR slot): Hex, Shield, Healing Word, Thunderwave, Dissonant Whispers
Spells 2nd level (3 slots plus one from Yuan-ti: Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Invisibility, Silence, Plus Yuan-Ti Suggestion spell once per long rest.

Skills: Pick up Stealth with bard, Now have expertise in Stealth and Perception. Plus Jack of All trades for half proficiency in everything else!



2nd level of Hexblade comes at 8th level - after swords bard gives second attack - and with it comes agonising blast to improve our ranged attack, and Misty Visions to give at will silent image. Also we boost CHA at level 10 so our bardic inspirations are now 4 times per SR

Note - we have armour and shield, so +1 armour, +1 shield and +1 item of protection can boost AC by 3 - expected at this level:
AC 28-35: 22 with +1 half-plate and +1 shield and +1 item of protection - plus 5 with a shield spell - plenty of spell slots. plus 1-8 with Blade flourish 4/SR.
HP effective 100: 80 + 20 THP from AoA


Melee (Multi-attack plus Blade flourish 4/SR): 2 attacks +8 to hit, total damage (98.5)..or... 40.5 , 2d8+d8(BF)+20 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 2d6. Plus add d8 to AC or push away, and counterstrike 20 from AoA when hit.
Can add 65 points from bonus action attack with Animate Objects, losing the 7 points from Hex which also requires concentration

Melee (Single attack / Opp attack - booming blade): +8 to hit expect damage 40.5 => 3d8+10 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Expect further 3d8 booming blade as they move

Ranged: (Eldritch Blast): +8 to hit, 51: 3d10+24 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 3d6

Spells:
From second level of Hexblade add Armour of Agathys for upcast melee power. Typically from a 4th level slot you get one hour of non concentration 20 THP, plus 20 points of cold damage to anyone who hits you in melee...until the THPs are used up... 5th level slot I'd reserve for Animate Objects
replace Invisibility with Greater Invisibility
3rd: Hypnotic Pattern, Leomunds Tiny Hut
4th: Dimension Door, Polymorph, Greater Invisibility
5th: Animate Objects - bonus action damage to add in :-) (effectively 65 points with 10 silver coins animated)

Skills - two more expertise: Insight and Investigation



All bard - another ASI - so many options, but CHA +2 edges over Res (Con) for me at this point. Spells are becoming more and more powerful (8th level now, and four picks from any spell list), but if we want to remain Gish we have the swords bard features helping (Master's flourish on every attack roll), and spell picks to add to that. Not going for Tough as Armour of Agathys is giving us reliable temp hit points and more melee damage..

Note - we have armour and shield, so assume now +2 armour, +2 shield and +2 item of protection can boost AC by 6 - expected at this level:
AC 31-42: 25 with +2 half-plate and +2 shield and +2 item of protection - plus 5 with a shield spell - plenty of spell slots. plus 1-12 with Blade flourish 4/SR.
HP effective 162: 122 + 40 THP from AoA cast at 8th..

Melee (Multi-attack plus Blade flourish 5/SR): 2 attacks +11 to hit, total damage 106.5 or 48.5, 2d8+d12+26 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 2d6. Plus add d12 to AC or push away. Using AO still from a 5th level slot (higher level slots could increase damage marginally, but better saved for AoA)
OR can use Master's flourish every attack for d6 instead of d12... AoA counterstrike is now 40 points of damage
Melee (Single attack / Opp attack - booming blade): +11 to hit expected damage 52.5 ... 4d8+13 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Add further 4d8 booming blade if they move

Double for our simulacrum joining the fight!

Ranged: (Eldritch Blast): +8 to hit, damage 80... 4d10+44 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 4d6

Spells - including Magical secrets at Bard levels 10th and 14th:
3rd: Counterspell from Magical Secrets
5th: Wall of Force from Magical Secrets, Synaptic Static
6th: Contingency from Magic Secrets, Eyebite, Mass Suggestion and True Seeing
7th: Simulacrum from Magical Secrets, plus Forcecage
8th: Mind Blank

Sooo sad I didn't get Find greater steed in there as well - you have options!

Skills - Jack of all trades is now +3 to all non proficient skills - remember that's initiative as well...



Hexblade 2/Swords Bard 18.

Final ASI I like resilient Con, but you could choose alert, lucky or tough

And now we get wish... so we can get that greater steed... and set up contingency and simulacrum cost free. If I was starting at this level the magical secrets picks would be different, and in some parties you might want healing or summons rather than the steals from the Wizard's list.

At Bard level 16 no new spells
At Bard level 17 I would take Foresight and True Polymorph (swapping out a first level spell)
At Bard level 18 I would take Wish and Demiplane


What I like about this character is how combat effective it remains even with no resource usage. Try working out the damage without hex, or hexblade curse, and just using the constant d6 master's flourish. Plus there is how much it recovers on a short rest (one 1st level slot for shield when needed, all the bardic inspirations, hexblade's curse) , as well as being a 9th level spell caster, and hard as nails with great AC, advantage on saves and well balanced stats.

That sustained no-resource damage can be coupled with any concentration spell - silent image from Misty Visions is free to cast, and you have: wall of force, hypnotic pattern, greater invisibility, polymorph. Also remember the increase crit range from Hexblade's curse...

And lets not forget expertise in Perception, Stealth, Investigation and Insight, and +3 extra to all skills and initiative from Jack of All Trades

BTW - the 9 in strength is just for the carrying capacity for medium amour....



Edited to add: Should acknowledge my debt to Treantmonk's Jack of all trades build, but that build is vHuman Hex3/Swords bard 17, which misses out on Wish, poison immunity and advantage on saves vs. Magic... I prefer this version.

[Damon_Tor]

Can we post two builds?

I'd like to post my god-slayer diviner assassin and my ubertank TSAR-master artificer.

[AgenderArcee]

Why only melee?

[Dork_Forge]

Well, the theme of "gish" as defined in OP of the contest thread is still incredibly wide, and by its letter includes, say, a straight-classed Moon druid. But it's reasonable to expect that adherence to the classic "weaponmaster that casts lightning bolt in your face, and stabs it" image will win contestants more votes than a very strong shapeshifting druid build, eh?


Are Plane Shift materials legal? It doesn't seem they have "Unearthed Arcana" stamped anywhere.

Is there a list of currently existing non-UA sources available somewhere?


Also, OP specifies:

But also:

So does a write-up at level 1 count and matter, or is it only important that it comes together by level 5?

I'm tempted to exclude the Moon Druid thing in the rules since you can't actually cast for the most part in Wildshape but I think the voting will take care of that.

You don't need to do a write up at level 1, you just need to indicate what your 1st level class is for profs and starting hp.




Can we post two builds?

I'd like to post my god-slayer diviner assassin and my ubertank TSAR-master artificer.


You can post as many builds as you like, but they must be in separate posts.


Why only melee?

Because that is the stereotypical Gish and allows a narrower scope for the competition to take part in that won't step on the toes of future competitions that would feature range.

[ftafp]

Level 20 level split: Battle Smith 11/Abjurer 9

Race: Dwarf, Mark of Warding

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 14+2 Int 15+1 Wis 12 Cha 8

Background: Guild Artisan



Class: Artificer 1

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 16 Wis 12 Cha 8

Feats: -

HP: 11

AC: 17

Equipment: Scale Mail, Shield, Tinker's Tools

Spells:

Shocking Grasp, Mending
(2 / day) Armor of Agathys, Grease, Absorb Elements, Disguise Self


Description:
Right out the gate, this dwarf has an AC of 17 with a shield and scale mail, 8 hp plus another 5 from armor of Agathys. The AC could be better but with armor of Agathys you want to get hit. This it so happens is the best way to do it. For now your melee attack is shocking grasp, but once you get to level 3 switch to a reach weapon and replace it with magic stone. It won't help you now, but you can use it later




Class: Artificer 5 (Battle Smith)

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 18 Wis 12 Cha 8

Feats: -

HP: 40

AC: 17

Equipment: +1 Half Plate (infusion), +1 Maul (infusion)

Spells:

Magic Stone, Guidance
(4 / day) Armor of Agathys, Grease, Absorb Elements, Heroism, Shield, Cure Wounds, Catapult
(2 / day) Branding Smite, Warding Bond, Heat Metal, Web


Description:
We now have extra attack, a steel defender, ASI, second-level spells and infusions. Armor of agathys now gives 10 temp hp and deals 10 damage to an attacker. With a magic maul, we're going to be doing some serious damage, but it also means we've lost the shield. The upgrade to half plate with Enhanced Defense gives us the same AC as before, but now we have Shield and our Steel Defender, who now is there to protect us from attacks, and fight alongside us when heat metal is down.




Class: Artificer 5 (Battle Smith), Wizard 6 (Abjuration)

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 20 Wis 12 Cha 8

Feats: -

HP: 82 + 17 (Arcane Ward)

AC: 17

Equipment: +1 Half Plate (infusion), +1 Maul (Infusion)

Spells:

Magic Stone, Guidance, Mending, Shape Water, Minor Illusion, Booming Blade
(4 / day) Armor of Agathys, Grease, Absorb Elements, Heroism, Shield, Cure Wounds, Catapult, Sanctuary, Burning Hands, Find Familiar, Feather Fall
(3 / day) Branding Smite, Warding Bond, Heat Metal, Web, Mirror Image, Levitate, Suggestion, Shadow Blade
(3 / day) Tiny Servants, Counterspell, Haste, Fireball
(3 / day)
(1 / day)


Description:
With 6 levels of abjurer we now have 5th level spells, meaning our armor of agathys now deals 25 cold damage on a hit, and has effectively 42 hp thanks to arcane ward. That amount regenerates by 6 when we counterspell. Remember, armor of agathys only requires that you be hit, not that you take damage. your arcane ward can take the damage for you. Mirror image is also a good option at this level, as it doesn't require concentration. Be warned thought that attacks against your illusions will not do armor of Agathys Damage. Around this level, you will want to pick up Tiny Servant. Have three riding your Steel defender at any given time along with your familiar and a big bag of rocks. Give them standing orders to throw the rocks your familiar enchants with magic stone. The damage is going to be significantly better than your steel defender would do. Haste is a great pickup here for obvious reasons.




Class: Artificer 8 (Battle Smith), Wizard 9 (Abjuration)

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 20 Wis 12 Cha 8

Feats: Warcaster, Sentinel

HP: 127 + 23 (Arcane Ward)

AC: 19

Equipment: +1 Half Plate (infusion), Boots of the Winding Path (infusion), Necrotic Resistant Shield (infusion)

Spells:

Magic Stone, Guidance, Mending, Shape Water, Minor Illusion, Booming Blade
(4 / day) Armor of Agathys, Grease, Absorb Elements, Heroism, Shield, Cure Wounds, Catapult, Sanctuary, Burning Hands, Find Familiar, Feather Fall
(3 / day) Branding Smite, Warding Bond, Heat Metal, Web, Mirror Image, Levitate, Suggestion, Shadow Blade, Invisibility, Knock
(3 / day) Tiny Servants, Counterspell, Haste, Fireball
(3 / day) Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Wall Of Fire
(2 / day)
(1 / day)
(1 / day)


Description:
Now we are talking. The combination of Warcaster, Sentinel and Booming Blade mean enemies can't even sneeze near you without getting cut, and it's going to hurt becuase now you have plenty of slots to upcast shadow blade, which by now can do a massive amount of harm in two swings. With fire shield now on your side and 7th level spell slots, along with 23 points of arcane ward, any enemy who attacks you in melee suffers 2d8+35 and has to get through 58 hp of temp hp before they can hurt you.




Class: Artificer 11 (Battle Smith), Wizard 9 (Abjuration)

Stats: Str 10 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 20 Wis 12 Cha 8

Feats: Warcaster, Sentinel

HP: 127 + 23 (Arcane Ward)

AC: 19

Equipment: +1 Half Plate (infusion), Boots of the Winding Path (infusion), Necrotic Resistant Shield (infusion), Spell Storing Item(Warding Bond)

Spells:

Magic Stone, Guidance, Mending, Shape Water, Minor Illusion, Booming Blade
(4 / day) Armor of Agathys, Grease, Absorb Elements, Heroism, Shield, Cure Wounds, Catapult, Sanctuary, Burning Hands, Find Familiar, Feather Fall
(3 / day) Branding Smite, Warding Bond, Heat Metal, Web, Mirror Image, Levitate, Suggestion, Shadow Blade, Invisibility, Knock
(3 / day) Tiny Servants, Counterspell, Haste, Fireball, Aura of Vitality, Conjure Barrage, Blink
(3 / day) Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Wall Of Fire
(2 / day)
(1 / day)
(1 / day)


Description:
Remember those 3 Tiny Servants you had riding around on your defender? Well now, make 13 of them, and keep ten in your armor with your spell-storing device, and give them standing orders to have one of them activate it each time the last one drops dead. Full-damage resistance here we come!

[sithlordnergal]

Note: I am building this under the assumption that Druids are allowed to use metal armor, since there's nothing outside of a little fluff based blurb that says they can't. There's no actual, mechanical reason for them not to. I'll add in the non-metal armor just in cast though. Also, this is an actual character of mine that is level 18. It plays really, really well.


The Fey Knight

Level 20 level split: Paladin: 8 / Druid: 11 / Sorcerer 1

Race: Half-Elf

Stats: Str: 14+1 / Dex: 8 / Con: 14 / Int: 8 / Wis: 15+1 / Cha: 12+2

Background: Faction Agent for the Order of the Gauntlet

ASI:

These can be taken in any order you like, for the most part.

1) Wis +2

2) Pole Arm Mastery

3) War Caster

4) Wis +2


Starting level:

Start out as any normal Paladin. Take any martial weapon and a shield, and a quarterstaff for your starting gear. Remain a Paladin for a while, you'll be taking Druid levels later though. It should be noted that you need to make a choice at level 1, and that's if you want to be a better Paladin or a better Druid. As such, you'll want to focus your ASI's on either Strength and Charisma, or Wisdom. Personally, I focused on the Druid side of things, and maxed out my Wisdom. Make sure you take Oath of the Ancients at level 3, and either the Dueling or Defense Fighting Style.


At 5th level:

Remain a Paladin until at least level 6. Personally I took one level of Druid after level 6, snagged another level of Paladin for the Aura of Protection, then went Druid till level 10. Things do get a bit dicey on the AC front. Every DM I know, including myself, doesn't care if a Druid wears metal armor since there's nothing preventing them from doing so except a forced RP taboo, but it is still an issue to think about.

As for the Druid spells stuff, make sure you take Shillelagh, the Quarterstaff you snagged before is now your primary weapon. Also, go Circle of Dreams. Not only does it fit thematically, but you also gain some nice Bonus Action healing, and will be gaining other benefits much later down the road. Benefits that are really, really good for someone that likes to be in melee.


At 11th level:

Not much to say here...upgrade your armor to plate if you were able to RP past the "restriction" Druids shouldn't have to begin with. Make sure you grab Pole Arm Master, that way you have a nice, at-will bonus action attack with your Quarterstaff that you can use while wielding your shield. Also, snag a single level of Divine Soul Sorcerer. Take Shield, Guidance, and a few other utility cantrips to help round out your Druid ones. Also snag Chill Touch as a nice Hail Mary long range cantrip option. Also, get Paladin up to 8, because you can here, and get War Caster. If you can't use metal armor, Mage Armor is the way to go. Mage Armor and a shield will give you a decent 14 AC, which can be boosted to 19 with the Shield Spell, and 21 with Shield of Faith stacked on top of it.


At 17th level:

At level 17, get to Druid 8 and max out your Wisdom. You're now a heavy hitting machine with your Wisdom mod at a+5. On the casting front you're a 12th level caster with 6th level slots to Smite with. As a Druid you have plenty of Concentration spells too, so you can toss one of those out, and use the rest for Smiting. Thanks to Circle of Dreams and Paladin, you have a whopping 8d6 Bonus Action healing you can do on top of 40 points of Lay on Hands. None of that uses spell slots, so you can be a great healer. Also, speaking of spell slots, as an 8th level Druid you have access to Guardian of Nature. Use this spell, love it, its amazing on a melee fighter like you.


At 20th level and final thoughts:

Here it is, the final capstone, snag the final levels of Druid. So what do you gain with this? First, you gain 6th level spells, second you gain the slots of a 16th level caster, third you now have a pool of 11d6 you can heal with...and finally, you can bonus action teleport up to 60 feet, or bonus action teleport an ally up to 30ft. Yes, you can only do this up to your Wisdom modifier...but that's basically a double Misty Step for free. If you need to get to your target, you can do so pretty easily. Not to mention you have the build of a Soradin, but your HP is much higher because you're using Druid for your casting class.

---

As someone who has this exact build, this is a really fun build to use, its also an unconventional build. Yes, I could get basically the same thing by just going Soradin, or even Cleric/Paladin. But for one thing, those lacks the right flavor. Each subclass chosen has some link towards the Fey. Even the Divine Soul Sorcerer can easily be linked back to the Fey by just saying your Divine Power comes from some divine Fey spirit. Also, Cleric lacks Shillelagh, which really helps to round out this build. It is this build's bread and butter.

Personally, my back story for the character that uses this build is that they're from Chult, was being trained in the way of the Druids when they were saved by some Paladins, and then joined the Paladins. After making their Oath to the ancient spirits of the forest, they felt called back to the forests and picked up their old Druidic ways again. They mixed what they learned as a Paladin with what they had been taught as a Druid to make a very unique fighting style. The Divine Soul came in later after they finished Out of the Abyss, a sort of divine reward for fighting Demon Lords.


Now, some things to note with this build:

- This build is a lot more complicated than other GISH builds. You really need to decide if you wanna be a better Druid or a better Paladin at the start. You can't raise Charisma and Wisdom together equally. Otherwise you stretch yourself too thin and weaken the build. That said, the end result has you equal to a Soradin built with the same classes, but you have higher HP, better mobility, and a lot more flexibility with your spell choices.

- You have to be a Half-Elf for the point buy to work. I tried it with other races, and the only other race that gave you the needed ability scores at level 1 was the bog standard Human. Not the Variant Human mind you, but the Human that gives you +1 in every score. Don't get me wrong, you can do pretty well with other races...but they lack the boosts to Wisdom, Charisma, and Strength.

-Your main weapon is going to be a quarterstaff as soon as Druid comes online. Even if you decide to focus more on being a better Paladin, and let Wisdom fall to the side, a Shillelagh quarterstaff with PAM is your main go-to for weapon attacks. So sadly you won't be changing out your weapon.

-This build has a lot of bonus actions...and I mean a LOT of bonus actions. It has so many bonus actions you'd think it was a Rogue. Shillelagh? Bonus action. Teleport? Bonus Action. 1d6 heal for anyone in 60ft? Bonus Action. PAM? Bonus Action. Guardian of Nature? Bonus Action. Thankfully the only one you really have to worry about at the start of combat is Guardian of Nature and Shillelagh. After that sprinkle in whatever abilities you want to use.

-Finally, the elephant in the room, armor. Again, your DM has the final say on if you can wear metal armor or not. Every DM I've played with doesn't care if Druids use metal armor, because they all think it is a stupid RP related restriction. Heck, even the AL DM's I play with are often confused as to why I don't want Adamantine Armor, until I remind them of the Druid's armor restriction. Personally, I am of the mind that if you can give me some reason, either in your back story or in game, as to why your Druid is willing to break that taboo, I'll let you do it.

However, even if you can't use metal armor, you have a nice trick up your sleeve: Barkskin, or Mage Armor+a shield+Shield of Faith+Shield spell. with Barkskin, your AC is just 16. With Mage Armor and the other things, your AC can be improved to 22

[sithlordnergal]

The Undying Barbarian


Level 20 level split: Pact of the Fiend Warlock: 12 / Bear Totem Barbarian: 8

Race: Half Orc or Variant Human

Stats:

Half-Orc: Str: 14+2 / Dex: 12 / Con: 15+1 / Int: 8 / Wis: 10 / Cha: 13

Human: Str: 14 / Dex: 12 / Con: 15+1 / Int: 8 / Wis: 10 / Cha: 13+1, either Toughness or Great Weapon Master


Background: Outlander

ASI:

1- Con +2
2- Con+2
3- Str +2
4- Cha+2
5- Either Toughness, Cha +2, or Heavy Weapon Master


Starting level:

Start out as a regular Barbarian, and snag Totem Warrior for your subclass. Go Bear totem for the resistances...it'll come in handy later. You'll see why.


At 5th level:

Take one level of Barbarian, then five levels of Warlock. You'll want Pact of the Fiend, Armor of Agathys, Fiendish Vigor, and Pact of the Blade for your Patron, an Invocation, one of your spells, and your Pact. These will all come in very handy later, but I think you can see where this is going.


At 11th level:

Keep leveling in Warlock until you reach level 8. By now you should be level 13 with Barbarian 5 / Warlock 8. Finish off the rest of this Tier as a Barbarian to get to Barbarian 8.


At 17th level:

Go all in as a Warlock. Your spells honestly don't matter that much outside of Armor of Agathys, so take whatever you like. Your Invocations are very important. You will want the following: Fiendish Vigor, Tomb of Levistus, Trickster's Escape, Life Drinker, Eldritch Smite, and Improved Pact Weapon. Also, you should have Fiendish Resistance by now. Just take Psychic Resistance, and you can resist ALL damage when you Rage.


At 20th level and final thoughts:

Again, same as level 17. Finish rounding out your Warlock levels and snag your final ASI. You should probably look into getting a Feat. Take Toughness if you really want to tank more, or take Heavy Weapon Master if you want more damage.



This build is really, really simple, especially compared to my Fey Knight. Your casting is mostly there for utility purposes to be honest. As a Warlock, you can cast a few helpful utility spells like Fly, Invisibility and Greater Invisibility, Mirror Image, Tongues, ect. The real strength of this build lies in its use of Temp HP, Rage, and resistances.

Thanks to Fiendish Vigor, Armor of Agathys, Dark One's Blessing, and Tomb of Levistus, you have a ton of sources for Temp HP. The best part is none of those sources require Concentration, so you can use them all while Raging. And speaking of Raging, because you're a Bear Totem Barbarian, you have resistance to almost all damage, which basically means all the Temp HP you have is doubled while you're Raging. Not only will this let you last longer before your actual HP is hit, but it allows the effects from Armor of Agathys to last longer too. At 5th level, you basically have 50 Temp HP that enemies have to burn through, and if they're using melee attacks then they're taking 25 damage with each and every hit.

And if things get really bad, you can just use Tomb of Levistus to give yourself Temp HP equal to 10 times your Warlock level in order to avoid some of the more damaging effects...like an Ancient Dragon's breath attack. A special mention to Trickster's Escape goes here by the way. Trickster's Escape lets you cast Freedom of Movement without spending a spell slot to do so. Its not concentration, and pevents your speed from being reduced. Due to the wording of Tomb of Levistus, you can use it while under the effects of Freedom of Movement and still move around the battlefield. Sure you can't hit anyone...but you can proc an opportunity attack or take some enviromental/spell damage to keep your Rage going. Plus the idea of some Raging Half-Orc encased in ice sliding around is just too funny not to do.

As for resistances, with Bear Totem you have Resistance to everything except Psychic damage...at level 10 a Pact of the Fiend can choose to have one Resistance to any damage type. Take Psychic resistance, and now you resist all damage whenever you Rage. And on the topic of HP, you have a ton of it. Even if the enemies manage to whittle away your Temp HP, which comes back really, really easily, you still have 221 HP at level 20, or 261 with the Toughness feat.

Last but not least is damage. Thanks to Life Drinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Rage, and Strength, each of your strikes will deal an additional 9-10 points of damage. If you take Heavy Weapon Master, you have take the -5 penalty for an additional +20 on each strike while you're raging.

[SociopathFriend]

The Undying Barbarian


Level 20 level split: Pact of the Fiend Warlock: 12 / Bear Totem Barbarian: 8

Race: Half Orc

Stats: Str: 14+2 / Dex: 12 / Con: 15+1 / Int: 8 Wis: 10 / Cha: 13

Background: Outlander

ASI:

1- Con +2
2- Con+2
3- Str +2
4- Cha+2
5- Either Toughness, Cha +2, or Heavy Weapon Master


Starting level:

Start out as a regular Barbarian, and snag Totem Warrior for your subclass. Go Bear totem for the resistances...it'll come in handy later. You'll see why.


At 5th level:

Take one level of Barbarian, then five levels of Warlock. You'll want Pact of the Fiend, Armor of Agathys, Fiendish Vigor, and Pact of the Blade for your Patron, an Invocation, one of your spells, and your Pact. These will all come in very handy later, but I think you can see where this is going.


At 11th level:

Keep leveling in Warlock until you reach level 8. By now you should be level 13 with Barbarian 5 / Warlock 8. Finish off the rest of this Tier as a Barbarian to get to Barbarian 8.


At 17th level:

Go all in as a Warlock. Your spells honestly don't matter that much outside of Armor of Agathys, so take whatever you like. Your Invocations are very important. You will want the following: Fiendish Vigor, Tomb of Levistus, Trickster's Escape, Life Drinker, Eldritch Smite, and Improved Pact Weapon. Also, you should have Fiendish Resistance by now. Just take Psychic Resistance, and you can resist ALL damage when you Rage.


At 20th level and final thoughts:

Again, same as level 17. Finish rounding out your Warlock levels and snag your final ASI. You should probably look into getting a Feat. Take Toughness if you really want to tank more, or take Heavy Weapon Master if you want more damage.



This build is really, really simple, especially compared to my Fey Knight. Your casting is mostly there for utility purposes to be honest. As a Warlock, you can cast a few helpful utility spells like Fly, Invisibility and Greater Invisibility, Mirror Image, Tongues, ect. The real strength of this build lies in its use of Temp HP, Rage, and resistances.

Thanks to Fiendish Vigor, Armor of Agathys, Dark One's Blessing, and Tomb of Levistus, you have a ton of sources for Temp HP. The best part is none of those sources require Concentration, so you can use them all while Raging. And speaking of Raging, because you're a Bear Totem Barbarian, you have resistance to almost all damage, which basically means all the Temp HP you have is doubled while you're Raging. Not only will this let you last longer before your actual HP is hit, but it allows the effects from Armor of Agathys to last longer too. At 5th level, you basically have 50 Temp HP that enemies have to burn through, and if they're using melee attacks then they're taking 25 damage with each and every hit.

And if things get really bad, you can just use Tomb of Levistus to give yourself Temp HP equal to 10 times your Warlock level in order to avoid some of the more damaging effects...like an Ancient Dragon's breath attack. A special mention to Trickster's Escape goes here by the way. Trickster's Escape lets you cast Freedom of Movement without spending a spell slot to do so. Its not concentration, and pevents your speed from being reduced. Due to the wording of Tomb of Levistus, you can use it while under the effects of Freedom of Movement and still move around the battlefield. Sure you can't hit anyone...but you can proc an opportunity attack or take some enviromental/spell damage to keep your Rage going. Plus the idea of some Raging Half-Orc encased in ice sliding around is just too funny not to do.

As for resistances, with Bear Totem you have Resistance to everything except Psychic damage...at level 10 a Pact of the Fiend can choose to have one Resistance to any damage type. Take Psychic resistance, and now you resist all damage whenever you Rage. And on the topic of HP, you have a ton of it. Even if the enemies manage to whittle away your Temp HP, which comes back really, really easily, you still have 221 HP at level 20, or 261 with the Toughness feat.

Last but not least is damage. Thanks to Life Drinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Rage, and Strength, each of your strikes will deal an additional 9-10 points of damage. If you take Heavy Weapon Master, you have take the -5 penalty for an additional +20 on each strike while you're raging.

...
I'm stealing this- that sounds awesome. The closest I got to making one of my DM's cry was playing a Hill Dwarf Barbarian and this sounds like that but with magic.

[sithlordnergal]

...
I'm stealing this- that sounds awesome. The closest I got to making one of my DM's cry was playing a Hill Dwarf Barbarian and this sounds like that but with magic.

So, a small thing, if you want you can go Human with this build. You lose the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance, but you can get a Feat. Your starting stats would be:

Str: 14 / Dex: 12 / Con: 16 / Int: 8 / Cha: 14

In fact...thinking about it, that might be a better setup...let me change that a bit.

[Corran]

@sithlordnergal: You could make a mention to the fire shield spell for the undying barbarian (it has a good enough duration -not as good as AoA- so that it will not mess too much with your action economy). Or did you intentionally skip it because you want the slots for more AoA goodness? Also, grappling (good strength, extra attack) can combine well with wall of fire, that is if you are out of rages but still have spell slots (or if the situation calls for it, eg lots of enemy archers and few tough enemy melees at the same time).

[sithlordnergal]

@sithlordnergal: You could make a mention to the fire shield spell for the undying barbarian (it has a good enough duration -not as good as AoA- so that it will not mess too much with your action economy). Or did you intentionally skip it because you want the slots for more AoA goodness? Also, grappling (good strength, extra attack) can combine well with wall of fire, that is if you are out of rages but still have spell slots (or if the situation calls for it, eg lots of enemy archers and few tough enemy melees at the same time).

I didn't mention it mostly because I didn't know Fiend Warlocks get it. It is another excellent buff spell, and stacks really nicely with AoA, especially since it doesn't go away. If you get into someone who's foolish enough to hit you that can take 2d8+25 damage, which is really, really nice.

[nalgarryn]

If you get into someone who's foolish enough to hit you that can take 2d8+25 damage, which is really, really nice.

Unfortunately a lot of effects like that are bypassed with reach. =/

Not AoA, it just says hit by melee attack, but the spell granted by the Fiend says, 'hit from 5' away'. I've seen that kind of phrasing a lot in 5e instead of just 'hit with a melee attack', It seems impossible to synergize reach in 5e.

[sithlordnergal]

Unfortunately a lot of effects like that are bypassed with reach. =/

Not AoA, it just says hit by melee attack, but the spell granted by the Fiend says, 'hit from 5' away'. I've seen that kind of phrasing a lot in 5e instead of just 'hit with a melee attack', It seems impossible to synergize reach in 5e.

Oh yeah, there's always going to be that weakness. The main trick is to try and get within 5 feet of an enemy.Most DMs won't think to move away until they already take the damage

[elyktsorb]

The Undying Barbarian



I vote this one

[nalgarryn]

...
I'm stealing this- that sounds awesome. The closest I got to making one of my DM's cry was playing a Hill Dwarf Barbarian and this sounds like that but with magic.

Looks like you don't have resistance to Force damage. Barbarian has Proficiency on Str and Con saves. With only 10 Wisdom and no proficiency to that save you're going to be susceptible to all sorts of Enchantment magic at high levels. Every dragon has a fear aura that is a Wis DC, the Aboleth (CR 10) can enslave, and many undead (Banshee, Ghost, Vampire, Lich, Mummy Lord) have Wis save DCs. Hags, harpies, Stone Golems, and even the CR 1 Scarecrow have it.

And that's assuming the DM doesn't throw something with PC class levels at you that can cast the level 4 spell Polymorph. *poof* Could be wrong here, just thinking about how I'd handle it as a DM.

[sithlordnergal]

Looks like you don't have resistance to Force damage. Barbarian has Proficiency on Str and Con saves. With only 10 Wisdom and no proficiency to that save you're going to be susceptible to all sorts of Enchantment magic at high levels. Every dragon has a fear aura that is a Wis DC, the Aboleth (CR 10) can enslave, and many undead (Banshee, Ghost, Vampire, Lich, Mummy Lord) have Wis save DCs. Hags, harpies, Stone Golems, and even the CR 1 Scarecrow have it.

And that's assuming the DM doesn't throw something with PC class levels at you that can cast the level 4 spell Polymorph. *poof* Could be wrong here, just thinking about how I'd handle it as a DM.

Eh? You have resistance to Force via Bear Totem, which specifically states you have resistance to all damage except Psychic. Now, the saves are the biggest weakness of this build. But I figure that's a fair trade for being able to take so many hits.

[ftafp]

The Horse Whisperer: AKA The Pale Horse
https://i.imgur.com/rOBnyov.jpg

In this world, death is held to be a sacred thing, and in most cases those who tamper with it will swiftly dealt with. However, there are those among the cruelest kind who are untouchable to the watchful eye of the law: men of powerful blood, blood-slick wealth and corrupt means. Noblemen, merchants, high priests most chattle humans cannot be expected to deal these beings their just deserts, but neither too can a beast be charged with their annihhilation. Therefore, the Knights of the Pale Horse were created from willing acolytes and their steeds. neither man nor beast these ultimate assassins were designed to infiltrate the courts of the untouchable, gain the trust of their target as steeds, soldiers or lovers and slay them with psychic blades that sear the mind without leaving a mark upon the body

Level 20 level split: Grave Cleric 2/Assassin 3/Whispers Bard 15

Race: Centaur

Stats: Str 15+2 Dex 13 Con 10 Int x Wis 12+1 Cha 14

Notes: As this is essentially a Soulknife build, I encourage you to use the Spell Points variant in place of spell slots.

Background: Spy

Starting level:
Level: Grave Cleric 1
Stats: Str 17 Dex 13 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 14
AC: 17
HP: 8
Attack: Hand Axe, +5 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing

Grave Cleric 1 gives you medium armor and shield proficiency which will improve your defense. Shield of faith will bump that up to a respectable 19 AC. Cure Wounds will do well to ensure your and the rest of the party's survival

At this level, a hand axe is definitely the deadliest, sexiest and stealthiest weapon available to you. I suggest you take it.

At 5th level:
Level: Grave Cleric 1/Whispers Bard 4
Stats: Str 17 Dex 13 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 16
AC: 18
HP: 25
Attack: Hand Axe, +6 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing + 2d6 psychic (psychic blades)

At level 5 you get your first ASI. Invest that in CHA since right now your Spell DC is lousy. Granted, at 14 it will still be behind the rest of the party, as will be your attack bonus/damage, your spell-casting and your HP. You may be wondering at this point why we chose Centaur as our race instead of one that would give us bonuses to dexterity and charisma like half-elf. That way our stat spread would look more like this:

Level: Grave Cleric 1/Whispers Bard 4
Stats: Str 10 Dex 18 Con 13 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 16
AC: 17
HP: 30
Attack: Light Crossbow, +7 to hit, 1d8+4 slashing + 2d6 psychic (psychic blades)

Rest assured fellow player: there is a method to this madness. That method is your proud back, shapely hindquarters, and muscles gleaming in the moonlight.


At 11th level:
Level: Grave Cleric 1/Whispers Bard 10
Stats: Str 19 Dex 13 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 16
AC: 18
HP: 55
Attack: Shadow Blade, +8 to hit, 3d8+4 psychic + 5d6 psychic (psychic blades)

Whispers Bard 10 is where this build really comes online. Shadow Blade from magical secrets plus your own Psychic blades mean your melee prowess has skyrocketed.

At 17th level:
Level: Grave Cleric 2/Whispers Bard 15
Stats: Str 19 Dex 13 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 18
AC: 18
HP: 85
Attack: Shadow Blade, +10 to hit, 5d8+4 psychic + 8d6 psychic (psychic blades)

You're now doing an absurd amount of damage on single attacks. your channel divinity lets you double that damage once per day, which can be terrifying to behold. Use that power wisely

At 20th level and final thoughts:
Level: Grave Cleric 2/Whispers Bard 15/Assassin 3
Stats: Str 19 Dex 13 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 18
AC: 18
HP: 85
Attack: Shadow Blade, +10 to hit, 5d8+2d6+4 psychic + 8d6 psychic (psychic blades)

Assassin 2 lets you auto-crit when you have advantage. With shadow blade, that's going to be almost always. thats 54 damage most rounds, 104 damage if you get a surprise round, and 208 damage if you use channel divinity. all in all, not bad


In all seriousness, don't play this with a centaur. It's hilarious, but centuars make terrible soulknifes. You're better off just being a half-elf, using a dex build, going Bard 10 to start with and then dipping into rogue. Cleric can come at the end.

[Dork_Forge]

Assassin 2 lets you auto-crit when you have advantage. With shadow blade, that's going to be almost always. thats 54 damage most rounds, 104 damage if you get a surprise round, and 208 damage if you use channel divinity. all in all, not bad


In all seriousness, don't play this with a centaur. It's hilarious, but centuars make terrible soulknifes. You're better off just being a half-elf, using a dex build, going Bard 10 to start with and then dipping into rogue. Cleric can come at the end.

To clarify Assassin gives you autocrits when you hit a surprised creature, not when you have advantage.

[ftafp]

To clarify Assassin gives you autocrits when you hit a surprised creature, not when you have advantage.


whoops, my bad, that was a typo. you can see I said the correct thing a sentence later

[Waazraath]

Level 20 level split: Fighter 1 / Gloom Stalker Ranger 5 / Fighter +2 / War Cleric 12

Race: Firbolg

Stats: str 15 + 1, dex 13, con 14, int 8, wis 14 +2 , cha 8 (16 13 14 8 16 8)

Background: Folk Hero.

This is Gallamize Grun. He’s not smart, nor pretty. He protects the weak from rampaging beasts and monsters. He loves hunting and fighting, especially hitting big evil crtters in the face with the largest axe, sword or hammer he can find. He started out as a simple fighter / ranger, but despite his dim wits, he saw early in his career that magic helped with smashing face, and staying alive. Early in his career, he focussed on fighting / hunting with some relative minor magical enhancements. Seeing the effectiveness of this, he went all in, and started to worship a God of Smack, promising to smite his/her enemies in return for simple, brutal, power. In addition to the ability to hit harder, there were many other boons…

The idea behind the build is simple. ‘Gish’ means many different things for different people, but here it is operationalized as ‘a character that focuses on using melee weapons as their primary method of combat, but with the use of magic to enhance their abilities, give more utility outside of combat and other options in combat.’ That is a bit broader than many older definitions, with a requirement for arcane magic or at least 9th level spells. So lets work with that!

Starting level:

1: Fighter 1, fighting style: great weapon fighting, skills: perception, athletics, animal handling, stealth.
The idea is to have the character to be a melee fighter from level 1 onwards, and to have magical enhancement of offense or defence as soon as possible. At level 1, a level of fighter takes care of all melee needs. The magical enhancements come from race: Firbolg. Especially hidden step, because it effectively is 1/rest advantage on your attack, OR 1/rest disadvantages on attacks. It also has the requested magic to get more utility outside of combat, with access to detect magic and disguise self.

At 5th level:
2: Ranger 1: extra skill: knowledge (nature)
3: Ranger 2: spells known: hunter’s mark, goodberry; defense fighting style +1 AC
4: Ranger 3: Darkvision 60ft, invisible for darkvision, extra attack 1st round of combat, wis mod to 5: initiative (+3); spell known: fog cloud.
5: Ranger 4: ASI +2 strength

Level 5 is the weakest level for this build, cause with 1 level behind the curve, it misses out on extra attack – bread and butter for melee builds. But it’s not all bad. Level 2 is an extra skill (stealth). From level 3 onwards, mr. Gallamize Grun does the gishy thing (next to hidden stap) by adding 1d6 damage as a bonus action with Hunter’s Mark, and it adds a flat +1 AC. Ranger 3 adds another spell (fog cloud for a little battle field control if needed), and all the goodness of Gloomstalker, including extra attack lite and +3 initiative. At 5 the delays ASI isn’t as hot as extra attack that single class martials get, but 2 3d6 + 4 attacks the first round of combat will leave their mark (and hey – at 6 we catch up again, an then our 3 x 3d6 + 4 attacks at first turns are mighty impressive.)

At 11th level:

6: Ranger 5: extra attack, lvl 2 spells (pass without trace!)
7: fighter 2: action surge
8: fighter 3: battlemaster subclass, most important maneuvers: riposte & precision attack
9: cleric 1: first level of war cleric, spells, bonus action extra attack wis mod/day (3 at this level)
10: cleric 2: more spells, and channel divinity a missed attack into a successful one once per short rest
11: cleric 3: more spells, e.g. extra hp with Aid or more bonus action attacks with spiritual weapon

Yeah! Between the mighty impressive level 6, that is already described ‘at level 5’ because it is more impressive (wink), we move to 11. At this point, Gallamize Grun has 5 levels in gloomstalker ranger, 3 fighter (getting the subclass battlemaster) and 4 levels in War cleric. Concentration can still be used for an upcast hunter’s mark, but if the situation requires spells like bless and shield of faith can be used as well. Magic enhances melee, as is intended for the gish. All this results in an impressive number of attacks per round: 2 from extra attack, reaction attacks from battlemaster, bonus action attacks from warcleric 1 or with spiritual weapon (of the former are all used up), 2 extra attacks possible with action surge, and an extra attack the first round of combat: maximum of 6 attacks per round is optimal. When using the bonus action for hunter’s mark, attacks are 3d6 + 3, upgradable with maneuver damage, and with 2 options to turn a hit into a miss. Also, skills are improving over the levels: at this point, access to guidance and pass without trace make it a decent sneak/scout, even with heavy armor.

At 17th level:

12: cleric 4: more spells, and +2 wisdom
13: cleric 5
14: cleric 6
15: cleric 7
16: cleric 8: Warcaster, +1d8 damage 1/round
17: cleric 9

The build concept actually is done at level 10 – from there, it’s just adding (a lot) more, through spells. More offense (pre-cast holy weapon buff for 2d8 radiant damage per attack, lasts one hour!, upcast spiritual weapon), defense (upcast aid, death ward) and the whole lot off utilty (and buff, debuff, healing, bfc) that the cleric list offers.

At 20th level and final thoughts:
18: cleric 10
19: cleric 11
20: cleric 12: great weapon master

Cherry on the pie is the Great Weapon Master feat. Using all your resources, you can get over 200 damage in a nova round – using GWM and holy weapon to full effect with action surge in the first round of combat, and by using manuvers and channel divinity to turn misses into hits.

I feal this pretty much hits the concept asked for: melee warrior, with lots of extra oomph from spells, and using them for utility as well.
Thank you for reading the entire wall of text :)

[Dork_Forge]

Thank you for writing the text and participating, just to let you know you declare the Ranger subclass as Hunter but it look slike you mean Gloom Stalker. :)

REMINDER There's only two days left to submit your builds and vote on which builds you like!

[Waazraath]

Thank you for writing the text and participating, just to let you know you declare the Ranger subclass as Hunter but it look slike you mean Gloom Stalker. :)


Totally correct, was a vestige of an earlier version :) Thnx for noticing has been corrected!

[Heavenblade]

Ill edit stuff in here later - but the idea is to create a capable and versatile-ish (combat wise) gish caracter, capable of dishing out damage, stand on their own in battle, while combing melee and spells - using a purely martial class with no casting!

Details soon to come (:

[Warlush]

Lissajous The seamless mix of full melee ranged and spellcasting attacks

Level 20 level split: Hexblade 2/Swords Bard 18

Good melee attacks, eldritch blast for ranged and 9th level spells including wish. Excellent magical resistance

Race: Yuan-Ti: Immune to poison; Adv. on saves vs. magic

Stats: Str 9 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 14 (13+1) Wis 8 Cha 16 (14+2)

Background Far Traveler


ASIs:
5th: War Caster
10th: CHA +2
14th: Resilient (Con) or CHA +2
18th: CHA +2 or resilient (Con)


Hexblade at one is a powerhouse 1st level gish. Medium amour, martial weapons and a short rest spell. At this point Longbow out damages eldritch blast, but you may prefer sword and shield and a one handed ranged attack. WIth hexblade's curse you have extra damage and extra criticals

AC 18 with scale and shield - plus 5 with a shield spell once/short rest

Melee (longsword using Cha): +5 to hit d8+5 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Sometimes booming blade can add more damage
Ranged: (longbow using Dex): +4 to hit, d8+ 4 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6

Cantrips: Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade plus from Yuan-ti Poison Spray and Animal Friendship on snakes at will (essentially a cantrip).
Spells: Hex and Shield

Skills Arcana, Insight, Investigation, Perception

Saves are not bad, with only strength really lacking. Proficiency in Wis saves, and at least +2 on the others, with advantage on most saves...



Hexblade 1/Swords Bard 4

Your booming blade has scaled, so your single attack remains competitive, and warcaster now means you can use that for an opportunity attack as well - Booming blade will either stop them or do an additional 2d8

Take dueling fighting style from Swords Bard. Also Blade flourish adds a whole set of additional tactical options, including extra move, push and increased AC, but for the moment this is only 3 times per long rest.

AC 19 with half-plate and shield - plus 5 with a shield spell once/short rest

Melee (longsword/booming blade using Cha): +6 to hit 2d8+8 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Add further 2d8 booming blade if they move
Melee (Blade flourish 3/LR): +6 to hit, d8+d6+8 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Plus add d6 to AC or push away
Ranged: Eldritch Blast): +6 to hit, 2d10+3 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6

Cantrips: Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Friends, Eldritch Blast, Booming Blade, Poison Spray, Animal Friendship on snakes.
Spells 1st level (4 slots plus 1 SR slot): Hex, Shield, Healing Word, Thunderwave, Dissonant Whispers
Spells 2nd level (3 slots plus one from Yuan-ti: Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Invisibility, Silence, Plus Yuan-Ti Suggestion spell once per long rest.

Skills: Pick up Stealth with bard, Now have expertise in Stealth and Perception. Plus Jack of All trades for half proficiency in everything else!



2nd level of Hexblade comes at 8th level - after swords bard gives second attack - and with it comes agonising blast to improve our ranged attack, and Misty Visions to give at will silent image. Also we boost CHA at level 10 so our bardic inspirations are now 4 times per SR

Melee (Multi-attack plus Blade flourish 4/SR): 2 attacks +8 to hit, total, 2d8+d8(BI)+20 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 2d6. Plus add d8 to AC or push away
Melee (Single attack / Opp attack - booming blade): +8 to hit 3d8+10 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Add further 3d8 booming blade if they move

Ranged: Eldritch Blast): +8 to hit, 3d10+24 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 3d6

Spells:
From second level of Hexblade add Armour of Agathys for upcast melee power. Typically from a 4th level slot you get one hour of non concentration 20 THP, plus 20 points of cold damage to anyone who hits you in melee...until the THPs are used up... 5th level slot I'd reserve for Animate Objects
replace Invisibility with Greater Invisibility
3rd: Hypnotic Pattern, Leomunds Tiny Hut
4th: Dimension Door, Polymorph, Greater Invisibility
5th: Animate Objects - bonus action damage to add in :-) (effectively 65 points with 10 silver coins animated)

Skills - two more expertise: Insight and Investigation



All bard - another ASI - so many options, but CHA +2 edges over Res (Con) for me at this point. Spells are becoming more and more powerful (8th level now, and four picks from any spell list), but if we want to remain Gish we have the swords bard features helping (Master's flourish on every attack roll), and spell picks to add to that. Not going for Tough as Armour of Agathys is giving us reliable temp hit points and more melee damage..


Melee (Multi-attack plus Blade flourish 5/SR): 2 attacks +11 to hit, total, 2d8+d12+26 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 2d6. Plus add d12 to AC or push away
OR can use Master's flourish every attack for d6 instead of d12...
Melee (Single attack / Opp attack - booming blade): +11 to hit 4d8+13 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another d6. Add further 4d8 booming blade if they move

Ranged: Eldritch Blast): +8 to hit, 4d10+44 with hexblade curse criting on 19-20, add Hex for another 4d6

Spells - including Magical secrets at Bard levels 10th and 14th:
3rd: Counterspell from Magical Secrets
5th: Wall of Force from Magical Secrets, Synaptic Static
6th: Contingency from Magic Secrets, Eyebite, Mass Suggestion and True Seeing
7th: Simulacrum from Magical Secrets, plus Forcecage
8th: Mind Blank

Sooo sad I didn't get Find greater steed in there as well - you have options!

Skills - Jack of all trades is now +3 to all non proficient skills - remember that's initiative as well...



Hexblade 2/Swords Bard 18.

Final ASI I like resilient Con, but you could choose alert, lucky or tough

And now we get wish... so we can get that greater steed... and set up contingency and simulacrum cost free. If I was starting at this level the magical secrets picks would be different, and in some parties you might want healing or summons rather than the steals from the Wizard's list.

At Bard level 16 no new spells
At Bard level 17 I would take Foresight and True Polymorph (swapping out a first level spell)
At Bard level 18 I would take Wish and Demiplane


What I like about this character is how combat effective it remains even with no resource usage, and how much it recovers on a short rest, as well as being a 9th level spell caster, and hard as nails.

BTW - the 9 in strength is just for the carrying capacity for medium amour....



Edited to add: Should acknowledge my debt to Treantmonk's Jack of all trades build, but that build is Hex3/Swords bard 17, which misses out on Wish... I prefer this version.

This one is #1!!!

[Aaron Underhand]

Level 20 level split: Ranger-Hunter 4 / Wizard-Bladesinger 16

We are going to go fishing for crits and add damage dice to our hits, with proficiency on STR/DEX/WIS saving throws (and Concentration) and a very high AC.

Race: High Elf

Stats: Str 8 Dex 15+2 Con 12 Int 15+1 Wis 13 Cha 8

ASIs (take in any order):
Resilient (Wisdom)
Elven Accuracy
War Caster
DEX



This gets my vote.


Note: you pretty much have to take warcaster first or else you can't use the shield spell while two weapon fighting. Not to mention that in melee you will get hit so need to make those concentration saves. Up till 7th level you are concentrating on hunter's mark, after that on shadow blade, so I would forget the hold spells and look at non concentration options like blindness/deafness and mirror image.

Oh and I'd take goodberry over cure wounds every time. More healing, more spread out, and rations...

[Kane0]

Level 20 level split: Battle Smith 11/Abjurer 9

Gets my vote.

[Brewksy]

Level 20 level split:
Wizard 19, Fighter 1 (Wizard 1st class)

Race:
Half-Orc

Starting Stats: Str 15 Dex 10 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 8

Background:
Outlander

Starting level:
Wizard 1

At 5th level:
Wizard 4, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Half Plate, Shield
War Magic Arcane Tradition
Defense Fighting Style
War Caster Feat
Athletics Proficiency
AC: 18

At 11th level:
Wizard 10, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Heavily Armor Feat
AC: 21

This is where the build shines. Cast Tenser’s Transformation and here are the stats (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +9 (+13 w/ AD), Dex +2 (+6 w/ AD), Con +9 (+13 w/ AD), Int +8 (+12 w/ AD), Wis +7 (+11 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is +7, but you get Advantage on Every attack, 2 attacks per round, doing 1d6+3+2d12 each. Average is 39.

At 17th level:
Wizard 16, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Polearm Master
Resilient Dexterity
AC: 21

Improved Saves and Damage in Tenser’s Transformation (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +11 (+15 w/ AD), Dex +8 (+12 w/ AD), Con +11 (+15 w/ AD), Int +10 (+14 w/ AD), Wis +9 (+13 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is now +9, you get Advantage on Every attack, 3 attacks per round (PAM), doing 1d6+3+2d12 twice and 1d4+3+2d12 once. Average is 57.5. With a peak dmg (all crits) of 185. Also, technically if you disengage every round you get another PAM attack when they enter range. So that’s another 18.5 dmg per round up to an even 76.

At 20th level and final thoughts:

Wizard 16, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Shield Master
AC: 21

Improved Saves and Damage in Tenser’s Transformation (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +11 (+15 w/ AD), Dex +8 (+12 w/ AD, also SM evasion), Con +11 (+15 w/ AD), Int +10 (+14 w/ AD), Wis +9 (+13 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is still +9, you get Advantage on Every attack, 3 attacks per round (PAM), doing 1d6+3+2d12 twice and 1d4+3+2d12 once. Average is 57.5. With a peak dmg (all crits) of 185. Also, technically if you disengage every round you get another PAM attack when they enter range. So that’s another 18.5 dmg per round up to an even 76.

Some initial thoughts:
“What are your Spell Mastery choices?”
You could take Shield but wouldn’t that be overkill? Get Magic Missile for 1, and Misty Step for 2 in case someone Forcecages you.

“OMG low inteligence means low saves!”
Of course it is. That’s why you use spells like PWK, Foresight, Maze, Magic Missile, and Buffs instead of attacking. Because when you’re doing upwards of 60 damage a round, you don’t need attack spells. And you’re a Gish, sacrifices had to be made.

“Yeah but what about if you lose concentration on Tenser’s Transformation!”
Not with those saves you won’t. A Meteor Swarm does an average of 140 damage. Your Dex save is 12 with Arcane Deflection and you take 0 damage if you save. Even then, with a Con save of 15 with Arcane Deflection and War Caster you have to do MORE than 41 damage in a single attack to even have a 4% chance of losing concentration on Tenser’s.

“Yeah but what happens when you run out of Tenser’s Transformation spell slots?”
Well, you’ve used one spell and now you have 19 levels-worth of other Wizard slots. Use Buffs and Magic Missile relentlessly.

“Why not Fighter at 1st level for Heavy Armor?”
Because then TT’s saves would overlap. I thought of that too!

“A straight Wizard class could just Dispel it!”
Sure they could. But then don’t use it on them. Just be a regular wizard and help your team while using Counterspell as best you can. Just save ONE Level 6 slot for when he’s dead and mop up all of the minions by yourself. Mind you, if you do use TT and he doesn’t Dispel or Counter it, he’ll be dead in 2-3 rounds.

“Sorcadins are better!”
That’s alright, this build deals 58 damage per round, reliably, and crits a LOT because every single attack is at advantage. That means that you will rarely miss and doubles your chances of critical hits. It’s also mostly Force damage. Also, 23 AC is very difficult to hit. For ****s and giggles use Shield for your Spell Mastery and have 28 AC consistently.

“So what kills this build?”
Exhaustion. You have +5 Con save vs 15, so it’s 50/50 each time. And you can handle one level at least.

Have fun!

PS. it’s also AL legal.

[LudicSavant]

If you're taking Fighter 1 just for the Defense style, and you're keen on avoiding an overlapping Str/Con save at level 1, maybe Forge Cleric would be more attractive for level 1?

[Brewksy]

If you're taking Fighter 1 just for the Defense style, and you're keen on avoiding an overlapping Str/Con save at level 1, maybe Forge Cleric would be more attractive for level 1?

The only problem was that Forge Cleric made it too easy 🙂, but otherwise that’s the better choice other than the issues with spreading yourself too thin to do that Multiclass.

[AgenderArcee]

Oathbreaker Hexadin: The Unholy Glaive


This is an edgelord-y damage-focused build, a paladin corrupted by the dark power of their cursed weapon.

Level 20 level split: Paladin (Oathbreaker) 8 / Warlock (Hexblade) 12

Race: Variant Human (Polearm Master)

Stats: Str 15 (14+1) Dex 8 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 16 (15+1)

Background: Probably Soldier or Knight


Paladin 1/Hexblade 1

We start with Paladin, giving us access to heavy armor, along with Wis save proficiency which is nice to have. Our weapon will be a spear, which will give us a bonus action second attack from Polearm Master plus an opening opportunity attack. We have the versatility of either using it two-handed or with a shield. Our attack stat is Str, which is not ideal, but we'll only have to deal with that for one level. Second level will be Hexblade 1, making us completely Cha-SAD, in addition to benefits such as Hexblade's Curse, Eldritch Blast, GFB/BB (used situationally since Polearm Master's bonus attack requires the Attack action), Armor of Agathys, and Shield.




Paladin 4/Hexblade 1

By this level we'll have taken (or rather broken) our Sacred Oath. We get some cool Channel Divinity options (fear AOE or controlling undead), a Fighting Style (Defense), and a nice damaging reaction spell in the form of Hellish Rebuke always prepared. We get an ASI which we'll spend to increase our Cha. We're a level behind on Extra Attack, but Polearm Master will help make up for that. We also get some Paladin spells - Divine Favor in particular goes well with our multiple attacks, particularly when we're out of Hexblade's Curse.




The next three levels will be Paladin, getting us Extra Attack (our third attack) and second level spell slots, Aura of Protection, and Aura of Hate, which adds our Cha bonus to damage (again!). That will be followed by two levels in Hexblade, giving us Invocations such as Agonizing Blast and then Pact of the Blade. At this point we'll transform our spear into a glaive or other heavy polearm, and probably take Improved Pact Weapon. For level 11 we can either take Hexblade 4 and max out our Charisma. Hex Warrior, Agonizing Blast, Aura of Protection and Aura of Hate are all at their best possible for this level. Our Eldritch Blast is now also three beams, making us almost as formidable at range as we are in melee, though Aura of Hate tips the scale in melee's favor.




We leave behind Paladin and continue to deepen our pact with the Hexblade. At Warlock 5 we get 3rd level spell slots and the opportunity to take Eldritch Smite if we're feeling force damage over radiant, and more damage once we get our 5th level slots. Hexblade 6 gives us Accursed Specter (which I think should get a damage bonus from Aura of Hate), and 7 gives us 4th level spells - namely Shadow of Moil, giving us advantage on attacks, resistance to radiant damage, disadvantage against us, and a nice 2d8 necrotic reaction that doesn't actually cost our reaction. At Hexblade 8 (level 15 overall) we get an ASI, which we'll use on War Caster, helping us keep concentration on Shadow of Moil and make Booming Blade opportunity attacks. The next level will give us 5th level short rest slots, and level 17 will give us Armor of Hexes, an additional powerful defensive move.




For level 18 let's dip quickly back into Paladin for an ASI, which we'll use to get Sentinel. Level 19 gets us our third 5th level short rest slot, allowing for even more Eldritch Smiting and Shadow of Moil-ing. We also get our 6th level Mystic Arcanum, for which I recommend Create Undead, finally letting us take advantage of the extra damage effect on undead from Aura of Hate. Ghouls are frail and have a low hit rate but three sources of 2d4+7 damage with a chance of paralysis is pretty nice for one bonus action, even if they have +4 to hit and a save DC of 10. As long as they stay within 5-10 feet of you, you'll be able to protect them - this is why we took Sentinel instead of going to Warlock 13 for another Mystic Arcanum. Lastly, at level 20 (Paladin 8/Warlock 12), we can take the Lifedrinker invocation to add our Cha modifier to damage again, and Great Weapon Master for an ASI. With the advantage from Shadow of Moil, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, adding another +10 damage to our attacks. For those keeping score at home, that's +20 per hit on top of the normal damage done by a Polearm Master Hexblade. Against enemies with good defenses or who just need an extra hard push, we'll elect to use our bonus action for a third attack rather than command our ghouls. That means 78 flat damage even if we roll all 1s on our damage dice, not counting Smites.

The result is a hate-filled warrior cloaked in darkness, doing huge amounts of damage with their cursed glaive, while surrounded by an entourage of ravening ghouls and accursed specters. What more could any self-respecting edgelord want?

(And yes, it does hurt to lose out on Master of Hexes, but Aura of Hate feels worth it.)

[Kane0]

So many CHA class gishes...

[ftafp]

The Undying Barbarian


Level 20 level split: Pact of the Fiend Warlock: 12 / Bear Totem Barbarian: 8

Race: Half Orc or Variant Human

Stats:

Half-Orc: Str: 14+2 / Dex: 12 / Con: 15+1 / Int: 8 / Wis: 10 / Cha: 13

Human: Str: 14 / Dex: 12 / Con: 15+1 / Int: 8 / Wis: 10 / Cha: 13+1, either Toughness or Great Weapon Master


Background: Outlander

ASI:

1- Con +2
2- Con+2
3- Str +2
4- Cha+2
5- Either Toughness, Cha +2, or Heavy Weapon Master


Starting level:

Start out as a regular Barbarian, and snag Totem Warrior for your subclass. Go Bear totem for the resistances...it'll come in handy later. You'll see why.


At 5th level:

Take one level of Barbarian, then five levels of Warlock. You'll want Pact of the Fiend, Armor of Agathys, Fiendish Vigor, and Pact of the Blade for your Patron, an Invocation, one of your spells, and your Pact. These will all come in very handy later, but I think you can see where this is going.


At 11th level:

Keep leveling in Warlock until you reach level 8. By now you should be level 13 with Barbarian 5 / Warlock 8. Finish off the rest of this Tier as a Barbarian to get to Barbarian 8.


At 17th level:

Go all in as a Warlock. Your spells honestly don't matter that much outside of Armor of Agathys, so take whatever you like. Your Invocations are very important. You will want the following: Fiendish Vigor, Tomb of Levistus, Trickster's Escape, Life Drinker, Eldritch Smite, and Improved Pact Weapon. Also, you should have Fiendish Resistance by now. Just take Psychic Resistance, and you can resist ALL damage when you Rage.


At 20th level and final thoughts:

Again, same as level 17. Finish rounding out your Warlock levels and snag your final ASI. You should probably look into getting a Feat. Take Toughness if you really want to tank more, or take Heavy Weapon Master if you want more damage.



This build is really, really simple, especially compared to my Fey Knight. Your casting is mostly there for utility purposes to be honest. As a Warlock, you can cast a few helpful utility spells like Fly, Invisibility and Greater Invisibility, Mirror Image, Tongues, ect. The real strength of this build lies in its use of Temp HP, Rage, and resistances.

Thanks to Fiendish Vigor, Armor of Agathys, Dark One's Blessing, and Tomb of Levistus, you have a ton of sources for Temp HP. The best part is none of those sources require Concentration, so you can use them all while Raging. And speaking of Raging, because you're a Bear Totem Barbarian, you have resistance to almost all damage, which basically means all the Temp HP you have is doubled while you're Raging. Not only will this let you last longer before your actual HP is hit, but it allows the effects from Armor of Agathys to last longer too. At 5th level, you basically have 50 Temp HP that enemies have to burn through, and if they're using melee attacks then they're taking 25 damage with each and every hit.

And if things get really bad, you can just use Tomb of Levistus to give yourself Temp HP equal to 10 times your Warlock level in order to avoid some of the more damaging effects...like an Ancient Dragon's breath attack. A special mention to Trickster's Escape goes here by the way. Trickster's Escape lets you cast Freedom of Movement without spending a spell slot to do so. Its not concentration, and pevents your speed from being reduced. Due to the wording of Tomb of Levistus, you can use it while under the effects of Freedom of Movement and still move around the battlefield. Sure you can't hit anyone...but you can proc an opportunity attack or take some enviromental/spell damage to keep your Rage going. Plus the idea of some Raging Half-Orc encased in ice sliding around is just too funny not to do.

As for resistances, with Bear Totem you have Resistance to everything except Psychic damage...at level 10 a Pact of the Fiend can choose to have one Resistance to any damage type. Take Psychic resistance, and now you resist all damage whenever you Rage. And on the topic of HP, you have a ton of it. Even if the enemies manage to whittle away your Temp HP, which comes back really, really easily, you still have 221 HP at level 20, or 261 with the Toughness feat.

Last but not least is damage. Thanks to Life Drinker, Improved Pact Weapon, Rage, and Strength, each of your strikes will deal an additional 9-10 points of damage. If you take Heavy Weapon Master, you have take the -5 penalty for an additional +20 on each strike while you're raging.

My vote's going to this one.

Also, my sincere apologies sithlordnergal, but I am physically incapable of reading your username correctly



So many CHA class gishes...

That's to be expected, CHA casters are well known for being exploitable. The key here is that sorcadin, sorlock and hexadin builds are often so fungible no single one of them will dominate the polls. The real winners are going to be competitors who do something unexpected

[AgenderArcee]

Brewsky, I really like the build but why not start Fighter? That way you get heavy armor right from the start and, probably more importantly, Con save proficiency, which would help with your exhaustion problem as well as concentration.


If you're taking Fighter 1 just for the Defense style, and you're keen on avoiding an overlapping Str/Con save at level 1, maybe Forge Cleric would be more attractive for level 1?

They'd need to invest more in Wis, though, I don't know if that's worth it.

[Brewksy]

Brewsky, I really like the build but why not start Fighter? That way you get heavy armor right from the start and, probably more importantly, Con save proficiency, which would help with your exhaustion problem as well as concentration.



They'd need to invest more in Wis, though, I don't know if that's worth it.

I answered at the bottom of the original post 🙂. TT gives save proficiency in Str and Con, so going Wizard first allows you to get proficiency in all saves except Charisma.

The real point of the build is the ridiculous saves, after all. Being able to shrug off any maledictions you throw it’s way makes sure it’s a multifaceted tank.

Concentration isn’t an issue - I indicated below as well, you need to take 43 damage just to have a 4% chance of losing concentration. The only issue is exhaustion, but with Arcane Defense giving you +9 Con saves you’re going to succeed a lot more than fail those ones anyway.

[Corran]

I like your build, so take it under consideration while reading through my criticism.
First of all, wouldn't sacrificing one ASI be worth having forcecage at level 20? I'd say yes. I might be tempted to say that master of hexes would be worth ditching aura of hate if it was not for the already overloaded action economy of the build, but as is, a passive bonus that does not take up actions is clearly the winner. Which brings me to my main issue with the build. The action economy is terribly overloaded for what you want it to do. No action surge or quickened spell to help you there, lots of actions (and a few bonus actions) need to go to spellcasting or to stuff like lay on hands and channel divinities, etc. Even your reactions are incredibly busy, between all of shield, sentinel, PAM, potentially counterspell, and BB OA's, and naturally my suggestion would be to drop sentinel, but given the synergy it can have with your buffed dpr (at least if fighting next to melee allies; will make a mention about zombies later too), and the synergy it can also have with dreadful aspect (try to minimize the number of saves that a strong frightened target can take), I'd probably just give up on BB (your OA's will still hurt even without it) for a utility cantrip. Though this is not much of a problem, but I wanted to emphasize how busy your reactions can be and how careful you must be when deciding how to use them (or at the very least what you might be giving up, given you invest significantly into warlock -so more than 2 levels, if you plan on using your reaction -mostly- for dpr purposes). I'd definitely want warcaster taken sooner (ideally just before I get access to the shield spell; changing to a two hander is not really worth it, which reminds me...). Even with advantage (which you cannot get easily without bugging down your action economy; a mount might help here, though a mount will be useful in other ways too), your flat damage bonuses are high enough to be significantly anti-synergistic with GWM. Not to mention that stuff like dueling and shield (also disadvantage to enemy attacks via fear) combine better with a S&B set up. Granted, you included it as a high level pick, but I would entirely skip it on such a build). One more thing. However much pressed for feats your build may be, I consider paladin 8 to be a bad stopping point. Paladin 6 or 9 are generally better (especially if you plan to mc to a full caster), and in some cases 7 (eg conquest, devotion) and 10 (if you need protection against fear because of group comp, eg several melee specialists with poor wis saves). For the oathbreaker particularly, paladin 9 is very appealing (thanks to animate dead that you'll get on top of other useful paladin spells -revivify, dispel magic, aura of vitality; will expand on AD shortly), and more particularly in your case (dpr focus) paladin 11 could be too (at the very least it frees you from having to commit to the lackluster pact of the blade from your warlock side). You don't want animate dead for skeletons and increased dpr. You want it for zombies and cheap battlefield control when combined with your CD (zombies will try to keep frightened enemies inside your DA radius so that they wont et extra saves by grappling them -enemies roll with disadvantage, and they will also provide melee allies which when hit will proc your sentinel reaction attacks -though do save your reaction for OA's if you want to try and keep an important frightened target adjacent to you), and considerable damage absorption in some cases too, as zombies buffed by AoP can be extra tanky. Personally, and unless we aimed to play this build at high levels -as some of the mystic arcana are quite good, I'd probably just aim for a small warlock dip, most likely a 2 level one. Tripple classing could be appealing, but for a dpr focused build, going paladin all the remaining way would probably be the best option (not that it wouldn't be a strong option anyway).

[Bobthewizard]

The Templar of Time

Mixing elven accuracy with GWM and the extra attacks from Echo knight combined with a 17th level caster is what makes me like this build.

Echo Knight 3 / Hexblade 17

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/97/0e/15/970e15eeaaafb9d3deea47afd62b7498.jpg

He was one of the best slave soldiers in Mulhorand. Anhur, the great god of war, looked upon him favorably and made him a Templar of Time. Even though he was a slave, he was respected and had a good life, leading armies for his priest-king. When slavery was abolished recently, he was offered a great sum of money by his former owner to stay and continue to fight, but he declined, thanked his former master, and left his homeland to explore the world. Since then, he has been wandering the world, looking for his own adventure on his own terms.

Half-elf starting stats of 8,13,15,10,10,15 become 8,14,16,10,10,17

First take 3 levels of echo knight for Manifest Echo and Unleash Incarnation
At level 5 (Warlock 2), you use eldritch blast with agonizing blast or a greatsword.
At level 8, (Warlock 5), thirsting blade gives you second attack

Like many multiclass builds, this build is a little behind from levels 5-7. But unleash incarnation and action surge let you keep up somewhat and at level 8, thirsting blade gets you your second attack. It might level better as Fighter 1, Warlock 5, Fighter 3, Warlock X, but I like the flavor of getting Echo knight earlier.

Feats/ASIs at warlock level (you can take these in any order you want)
4. Elven Accuracy
8. GWM
12. +2 Cha
16. Sentinel

Invocations
Agonizing Blast
Thirsting Blade
Eldritch Smite
One with the Shadows -> Shroud of Shadow
Whispers of the Grave
Lifedrinker
Visions of Distant Realms

Spells
Reflavor spells and invocations as manipulating time. Have your character summon versions of himself, allies and former enemies from alternate doomed timelines to help him in battle (Manifest Echo, Accursed Specter, Summon Greater Demon). He can see brief glimpses of the future (Arcane Eye, Scrying, and Foresight), can stop time to rearrange a battlefield (Fly, Scatter), or just stop time for others (Hold Person/Monster, Hypnotic Pattern, Feeblemind), and can send others to alternate timelines (Banishment, Banishing Smite) or talk to their past selves (Speak with Dead). He can also disappear from this timeline (Invisibility, Shadow of Moil and Etherealness), and sometimes change the past (Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Remove Curse).

Final Build
At level 20, you can nova for 5 attacks (thirsting blade, action surge 1/SR, and unleash incarnation 3/LR) all with elven accuracy, lifedrinker and great weapon master and all from your echo while you are 30’ away. Add banishing smite and an eldritch smite on if needed, hex and hexblade's curse if you have time to set up.

Use foresight or shadow of moil to get advantage which turns into triple advantage. Earlier you could use darkness/devil’s sight for the advantage.

Note: I added this to LudicSavant's build post before I saw this one.

[AgenderArcee]

I answered at the bottom of the original post 🙂. TT gives save proficiency in Str and Con, so going Wizard first allows you to get proficiency in all saves except Charisma.

The real point of the build is the ridiculous saves, after all. Being able to shrug off any maledictions you throw it’s way makes sure it’s a multifaceted tank.

Concentration isn’t an issue - I indicated below as well, you need to take 43 damage just to have a 4% chance of losing concentration. The only issue is exhaustion, but with Arcane Defense giving you +9 Con saves you’re going to succeed a lot more than fail those ones anyway.

Oh I see, I missed that about TT and Arcane Defense helping your Con saves after it ends. Looks like a great build!

[AvatarVecna]

I like your build, so take it under consideration while reading through my criticism.
First of all, wouldn't sacrificing one ASI be worth having forcecage at level 20? I'd say yes. I might be tempted to say that master of hexes would be worth ditching aura of hate if it was not for the already overloaded action economy of the build, but as is, a passive bonus that does not take up actions is clearly the winner. Which brings me to my main issue with the build. The action economy is terribly overloaded for what you want it to do. No action surge or quickened spell to help you there, lots of actions (and a few bonus actions) need to go to spellcasting or to stuff like lay on hands and channel divinities, etc. Even your reactions are incredibly busy, between all of shield, sentinel, PAM, potentially counterspell, and BB OA's, and naturally my suggestion would be to drop sentinel, but given the synergy it can have with your buffed dpr (at least if fighting next to melee allies; will make a mention about zombies later too), and the synergy it can also have with dreadful aspect (try to minimize the number of saves that a strong frightened target can take), I'd probably just give up on BB (your OA's will still hurt even without it) for a utility cantrip. Though this is not much of a problem, but I wanted to emphasize how busy your reactions can be and how careful you must be when deciding how to use them (or at the very least what you might be giving up, given you invest significantly into warlock -so more than 2 levels, if you plan on using your reaction -mostly- for dpr purposes). I'd definitely want warcaster taken sooner (ideally just before I get access to the shield spell; changing to a two hander is not really worth it, which reminds me...). Even with advantage (which you cannot get easily without bugging down your action economy; a mount might help here, though a mount will be useful in other ways too), your flat damage bonuses are high enough to be significantly anti-synergistic with GWM. Not to mention that stuff like dueling and shield (also disadvantage to enemy attacks via fear) combine better with a S&B set up. Granted, you included it as a high level pick, but I would entirely skip it on such a build). One more thing. However much pressed for feats your build may be, I consider paladin 8 to be a bad stopping point. Paladin 6 or 9 are generally better (especially if you plan to mc to a full caster), and in some cases 7 (eg conquest, devotion) and 10 (if you need protection against fear because of group comp, eg several melee specialists with poor wis saves). For the oathbreaker particularly, paladin 9 is very appealing (thanks to animate dead that you'll get on top of other useful paladin spells -revivify, dispel magic, aura of vitality; will expand on AD shortly), and more particularly in your case (dpr focus) paladin 11 could be too (at the very least it frees you from having to commit to the lackluster pact of the blade from your warlock side). You don't want animate dead for skeletons and increased dpr. You want it for zombies and cheap battlefield control when combined with your CD (zombies will try to keep frightened enemies inside your DA radius so that they wont et extra saves by grappling them -enemies roll with disadvantage, and they will also provide melee allies which when hit will proc your sentinel reaction attacks -though do save your reaction for OA's if you want to try and keep an important frightened target adjacent to you), and considerable damage absorption in some cases too, as zombies buffed by AoP can be extra tanky. Personally, and unless we aimed to play this build at high levels -as some of the mystic arcana are quite good, I'd probably just aim for a small warlock dip, most likely a 2 level one. Tripple classing could be appealing, but for a dpr focused build, going paladin all the remaining way would probably be the best option (not that it wouldn't be a strong option anyway).

owowowow my eyes

[AgenderArcee]

Level 20 level split:
Wizard 19, Fighter 1 (Wizard 1st class)

Race:
Half-Orc

Starting Stats: Str 15 Dex 10 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 8

Background:
Outlander

Starting level:
Wizard 1

At 5th level:
Wizard 4, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Half Plate, Shield
War Magic Arcane Tradition
Defense Fighting Style
War Caster Feat
Athletics Proficiency
AC: 18

At 11th level:
Wizard 10, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Heavily Armor Feat
AC: 21

This is where the build shines. Cast Tenser’s Transformation and here are the stats (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +9 (+13 w/ AD), Dex +2 (+6 w/ AD), Con +9 (+13 w/ AD), Int +8 (+12 w/ AD), Wis +7 (+11 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is +7, but you get Advantage on Every attack, 2 attacks per round, doing 1d6+3+2d12 each. Average is 39.

At 17th level:
Wizard 16, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Polearm Master
Resilient Dexterity
AC: 21

Improved Saves and Damage in Tenser’s Transformation (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +11 (+15 w/ AD), Dex +8 (+12 w/ AD), Con +11 (+15 w/ AD), Int +10 (+14 w/ AD), Wis +9 (+13 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is now +9, you get Advantage on Every attack, 3 attacks per round (PAM), doing 1d6+3+2d12 twice and 1d4+3+2d12 once. Average is 57.5. With a peak dmg (all crits) of 185. Also, technically if you disengage every round you get another PAM attack when they enter range. So that’s another 18.5 dmg per round up to an even 76.

At 20th level and final thoughts:

Wizard 16, Fighter 1
Quarterstaff, Plate, Shield
Shield Master
AC: 21

Improved Saves and Damage in Tenser’s Transformation (includes Durable Magic):
AC: 23 (25 with Arcane Deflection - AD)
Saves: Str +11 (+15 w/ AD), Dex +8 (+12 w/ AD, also SM evasion), Con +11 (+15 w/ AD), Int +10 (+14 w/ AD), Wis +9 (+13 w/ AD), Cha +1 (+5 w/ AD)

Attack Bonus is still +9, you get Advantage on Every attack, 3 attacks per round (PAM), doing 1d6+3+2d12 twice and 1d4+3+2d12 once. Average is 57.5. With a peak dmg (all crits) of 185. Also, technically if you disengage every round you get another PAM attack when they enter range. So that’s another 18.5 dmg per round up to an even 76.

Some initial thoughts:
“What are your Spell Mastery choices?”
You could take Shield but wouldn’t that be overkill? Get Magic Missile for 1, and Misty Step for 2 in case someone Forcecages you.

“OMG low inteligence means low saves!”
Of course it is. That’s why you use spells like PWK, Foresight, Maze, Magic Missile, and Buffs instead of attacking. Because when you’re doing upwards of 60 damage a round, you don’t need attack spells. And you’re a Gish, sacrifices had to be made.

“Yeah but what about if you lose concentration on Tenser’s Transformation!”
Not with those saves you won’t. A Meteor Swarm does an average of 140 damage. Your Dex save is 12 with Arcane Deflection and you take 0 damage if you save. Even then, with a Con save of 15 with Arcane Deflection and War Caster you have to do MORE than 41 damage in a single attack to even have a 4% chance of losing concentration on Tenser’s.

“Yeah but what happens when you run out of Tenser’s Transformation spell slots?”
Well, you’ve used one spell and now you have 19 levels-worth of other Wizard slots. Use Buffs and Magic Missile relentlessly.

“Why not Fighter at 1st level for Heavy Armor?”
Because then TT’s saves would overlap. I thought of that too!

“A straight Wizard class could just Dispel it!”
Sure they could. But then don’t use it on them. Just be a regular wizard and help your team while using Counterspell as best you can. Just save ONE Level 6 slot for when he’s dead and mop up all of the minions by yourself. Mind you, if you do use TT and he doesn’t Dispel or Counter it, he’ll be dead in 2-3 rounds.

“Sorcadins are better!”
That’s alright, this build deals 58 damage per round, reliably, and crits a LOT because every single attack is at advantage. That means that you will rarely miss and doubles your chances of critical hits. It’s also mostly Force damage. Also, 23 AC is very difficult to hit. For ****s and giggles use Shield for your Spell Mastery and have 28 AC consistently.

“So what kills this build?”
Exhaustion. You have +5 Con save vs 15, so it’s 50/50 each time. And you can handle one level at least.

Have fun!

PS. it’s also AL legal.


This gets my vote, gotta love a classic wizard gish that makes good use of Tenser's Transformation. Really tough to hit, dishes out some mean damage. Would like it even more with a githyanki though, personally.

[SociopathFriend]

Are we voting for favorites or which Gish we think would win most often?
Cause my favorite thus far is the Undying One in terms of what it does and how it does it.

[Dork_Forge]

Are we voting for favorites or which Gish we think would win most often?
Cause my favorite thus far is the Undying One in terms of what it does and how it does it.

Vote for which build you think deserves to win, this should be the build that you like the most, the build that you think best encompasses the Gish concept to you. With that in mind please quote the build you want to vote for (snipping it for length).

[Tes]

+1 for the Undying Barbarian.

Barbarian Caster Multiclass - check
Not using Hexblade - check
Pact of the Blade without Hexblade (yes that counts extra) - check
Low CHA Warlock build - check
Coincidentially providing the Resistance + AoA frontline build I was musing about a week ago - check

Personally I'd max STR to be more of a threat with the otherwise same build. Should be "tanky enough" with as little as 14 Con thanks to Barbarian levels, total Resistance on demand and Temp HP as it is.
Any suggestions how to get around the massive WIS vulnerability other than picking up Resilience as a Feat somehow?

[Alpharn_999]

Heavy Weapon Discount Paladin

This is a slightly more aggressive take on the holy warrior archetype than the Paladin, blending the Fighter's volume of attacks and the War Cleric's offensive support.

Level 20 level split: Battle Master Fighter 11/War Cleric 9

Race: Variant Human, for Great Weapon Master.

Stats: Str 15(+1) Dex 10 Con 15(+1) Int 8 Wis 14 Cha 8, the 10 can be placed in your taste of Dex, Int or Cha, really.

Background: Soldier or Acolyte would be thematic.

Starting level: Fighter 1 - 13 HP, 17 AC

Your first level would be Fighter, for Con save proficiency for Concentration, as this relies on War Cleric's fairly potent suite of concentration effects when you get Cleric levels. Defense is preferred over Great Weapon Fighting due to reliability and Riposte later on.

At 5th level: Battle Master 5 - 49 HP, 17 AC

The next 4 levels are all Fighter levels, to get Extra Attack ASAP.
At 3rd level, Battle Master is picked for Precision Attack, Riposte and Tripping Attack. Precision and Tripping to increase accuracy, Riposte to get more reaction-based attacks.
At 4th level, +2 Str is taken for increased accuracy with melee weapon attacks.

At 11th level: Battle Master 5/War Cleric 6 - 97 HP, 19 AC

Once you get Extra Attack, 6 levels of War Cleric are now the priority.
At 6th level, the 1st level of War Cleric gives access to 2 War Priest uses, and 1st level Cleric spells.
At 7th level, you get your Channel Divinity, Guided Strike, helping with accuracy.
At 8th level, 2nd level Cleric spells are acquired, and doubling the total number of spell slots.
At 9th level, +2 Str is taken again, for the same reasons at previous levels.
At 10th level, 3rd level Cleric spells are obtained, notably Spirit Guardians, increasing stickiness.
At 11th level, you get 2 uses of your CD, increasing potential accuracy, as well as War God's Blessing, providing support to your party.

At 17th level: Battle Master 8/War Cleric 9 - 148 HP, 19 AC

3 more Cleric levels are taken, up to 9th level. 3 Fighter levels are then taken.
At 12th level, 4th level Cleric spells, mostly utility spells.
At 13th level, +2 Wis is taken, allowing for 1 additional use of War Priest, as well as a slight bump in average DPR with Divine Strike.
At 14th level, 5th level Cleric spells, notably Holy Weapon.
At 15th level, +2 Wis, for more War Priest uses.
At 16th level, Menacing Attack and Distracting Strike are chosen.
At 17th level, +2 Wis, for more War Priest uses.

At 20th level and final thoughts: Battle Master 11/War Cleric 9 - 175 HP, 19 AC

3 more Fighter levels are taken, for Extra Attack (2).
At 18th level, you get 1 use of Indomitable, not that exciting in the grand scheme of things.
At 19th level, Goading Attack and Pushing Attack are taken.
At 20th level, you can make 3 GWM attacks per Attack action, improved by Holy Weapon, 5 guaranteed bonus action attacks per day, with more from GWM if lucky, and Action Surge, as well as providing some Clerical healing and support.

[Dork_Forge]

Last day for submissions and voting! Remember to get your votes in for any builds that caught your eye and put forward any builds that you think will fit the bill.

The winner will be announced at 12am UK/7pm EST, there's rumors about a WWE style championship belt, but those rumors are unsubstantiated and entirely false, fun to think about though!

[Daghoulish]

The Blade in the Dark

I'm going for a bigger focus on shadow magic and fighting in the dark. Being a stealthy character with a focus on magic of the subtler type. Taking the time to understand magic while also being inherently gifted in it. This is a less frontline version of a gish with an emphasis on getting in a out of combat, more of a hit and run style with some small ways to fight one on one's unfairly.

Level 20 level split: Shadow Sorcerer 8/ Arcane trickster 12

Race: Tabaxi

Stats: Str 8, Dex 17(15+2), Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 14(13+1)

Background: Criminal(Spy), possibly Urchin

Starting level: Shadow Sorcerer 1 - 8 HP, 13 AC (16 with Mage Armor)

First level is with Sorcerer, getting you Con saves. This does reduce your damage from a 1d8 to a 1d4, rapier to dagger, but in the long run this won't matter too much. You also start with 120 darkvision, although with your 14 in Charisma you might want to pick spells that can't fail like Sleep and Magic Missile.

At 5th level: Shadow Sorcerer 2/Arcane Trickster 3 - 35 HP, 14(16) AC

This is probably the worst part of the build, although not terrible. You have 1d6 less Sneak attack but have 3 more slots than a straight Arcane Trickster, one first level slot and two second level slots. You also don't need to use your free pick from Arcane Trickster on shield. You should be using Cunning action to get out of combat after your big hit. You don't have your big tricks yet so your mostly going to be Booming Blade with sneak attack, with a few illusion spells to help you with your alright face ability's. Next level would be the big one with Sorcerer 3 which gets you some big tricks.

At 11th level: Shadow Sorcerer 4/Arcane Trickster 7 - 73 HP, 16(17) AC
ASI/Feats Resilent Dexterity, +2 Charisma

You've made it past the worse part. Now you have some tricks to help your fighting capabilitys, such as Darkness you can see through and Shadow Blade. Shadow Blade is a great spell when you have no chance of a magic weapon, in that it gives you a magic finesse weapon that does 2d8 psychic damage and gives advantage in dim light/darkness. It also changes your entire sneak attack to psychic meaning you can now effectivly fight monsters with resistance to non-magical attacks. That stacked with Booming Blade makes you do some respectable damage when needed. You only know second level spells but you do have third level slots to cast from.

At 17th level: Shadow Sorcerer 6/Arcane Trickster 11 - 119 HP, 16(17) AC
ASI/Feats Warcaster, +2 Charisma

Disclaimer: I've never played high tier Dnd so I don't actually know what's super great at these levels.
Now then, You've got reliable talent to help with your face skills and anything else your proficient in. You have a fifth level slot but only third level spells, unfortunate but there is always upcasting. Your melee attack is now dealing 5d8+4+6d6 a not insignificant amount.(This is assuming Shadow Blade + Booming Blade) You have enough charisma to make your spell DC's not terrible and while you don't have the high level slots when you need to you can bust out a decently effective spell. You can also use Hounds of Ill Omen to give yourself advantage(If you use flanking) and give them disadvantage on saving throws against your spells. Making any disabling spell more likely to hit, even if your only negating magic resistance.

At 20th level and final thoughts: Shadow Sorcerer 8/Arcane Trickster 12 - 158 HP, 17(18) AC
ASI/Feats +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution
End Stats Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18
Saving Throws - Dex,Con,Cha
Skills - 7(for Reliable Talent)
Tools - Thieves(Possibly 2 more from Background)

While you have a 6th level slots, you only have 4th level spells. With a sixth level slot your Basic Combo can deal 7d8+5+6d6 psychic/thunder damage with the possibility of another 4d8 from the rider(With upcast Shadow Blade). This build would have up to 4th level Sorcerer spells and up to 3rd level Arcane Trickster spells. Reliable talent makes you a reliable face and alongside disguise self and any other illusion spells make you pretty great at vanishing into a crowd.

Not sure about this, just had the idea on an unusual gish after seeing everyone make strength gishs. Arcane Tricksters can make it without a huge Int and Sorcerer seemed like a fun mashup. Mixing magical talent(sorc) with hard work(Wiz) magic was fun too. I might not have the right balance but you get six asi's thanks to rogues second which gives you plenty to work with. Having a weakness to wis saves is bad but everyone needs a weakness. You also have 9 cantrips to play around with, so you can have a lot of fun with at will magics.

My Vote goes toward sithlordnergal's The undying Barbarian. It's a fun build with a cool theme.

[Lavaeolus]

Last day for submissions and voting! Remember to get your votes in for any builds that caught your eye and put forward any builds that you think will fit the bill.

The winner will be announced at 12am UK/7pm EST, there's rumors about a WWE style championship belt, but those rumors are unsubstantiated and entirely false, fun to think about though!

As a suggestion, for the next throwdown maybe we could set an initial deadline for builds, then have an extra day or two solely for voting. Hopefully it would give last-minute entries a better shot.

[Ghost Nappa]

Vote for which build you think deserves to win, this should be the build that you like the most, the build that you think best encompasses the Gish concept to you. With that in mind please quote the build you want to vote for (snipping it for length).

Making a list of all of the submitted builds would also be helpful, as at the moment they are spread out over three pages.

[Dork_Forge]

As a suggestion, for the next throwdown maybe we could set an initial deadline for builds, then have an extra day or two solely for voting. Hopefully it would give last-minute entries a better shot.

That's a good idea, builds will be closed today as planned then and another day for voting


Making a list of all of the submitted builds would also be helpful, as at the moment they are spread out over three pages.

That sounds like a good idea (and would look neater) but clicking each link seems like more work then just scrolling through the builds, I'll throw it together later though when I have more time and submissions are closed.


BUILD DEADLINE TODAY, VOTING WILL BE EXTENDED UNTIL 15/05/2020 @ 11pm BST, 6 EST

[SociopathFriend]

Vote for which build you think deserves to win, this should be the build that you like the most, the build that you think best encompasses the Gish concept to you. With that in mind please quote the build you want to vote for (snipping it for length).

I mean I've never really used the term Gish.
All Gish means to me is, "Use magic in melee".
All of these concepts to some degree use magic so they're all equally Gish to me.

I couldn't tell you which one 'deserves' to win if that's based on numbers. I'm not good at that sort of long-term math.
I like the Undying Barbarian the most because I greatly enjoy the concept of turning being hurt into enemy damage. I've even made threads in the past about trying to create a 'Drain Tank' concept in 5e.

[Aion]

The True Spellsword

Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 / Hexblade Warlock 1 / Sorcerer X

Race: Variant Human (Scourge Aasimar can also be fun)

Stats: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16 (15+1) Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 16(15+1)

ASIs/Feats: Start with Warcaster, max Cha then Con. Could add Ritual Caster at some point for utility.

Background: Acolyte

I haven't posted something like this before, and haven't thought about it much at higher levels, but would love to get some feedback!

Starting Level: Divine Soul 1 - HP 8, AC 12
For the first 5 levels you're basically a straight sorcerer, doing Twinned cleric buffs and cantrips.
Warcaster, Con save proficiency, and Favored by the Gods make your concentration as close to unbreakable as possible.

Level 5: Divine Soul 5 - HP 38, AC 12
Take Cha for ASI, Twinned and Quickened for Metamagic.
You're still a sorcerer here; big moves include Bless and Twinned Guiding Bolt, Hold Person, or Haste.

Level 6: Divine Soul 5 / Hexblade 1 - HP 45, AC 18
This is where you become a gish - AC is 18 with scale mail and a shield, and you have +4 to hit with a Longsword.
Two big modes, but focusing more on frontline:
Backline support: Twin Haste, then use Eldritch Blast/Firebolt/Guiding Bolt (possibly twinned) from backline

Frontline DPR: Cast Spirit Guardians, Hexblade's Curse turn 1, Twin an offensive spell and Spiritual Weapon turn 2. Assuming the expected # enemies per spell radius in the DMG, you can do upwards of 66 DPR with Spirit Guardians, Twinned Inflict Wounds, and Spiritual Weapon along with Hexblade's Curse. You can also swap Inflict Wounds for Twinned Booming Blade to do nearly as much damage without a spell slot and punish people for trying to leave your AoE.

Additional Stuff: Your bonus action is available for Quickening any other useful spells (Mirror Image, etc). Reaction can be Booming Blade to prevent escaping your AoE, or Shield or Hellish Rebuke.

This is the meat of the build, later levels only add fun extras.

Level 11: HP 78, AC 19
Bump to half-plate, new Metamagic.
Distant lets you do ranged Inflict Wounds or bigger AoE on Word of Radiance every turn, (ie, 50 weak enemies). Eventually can give you things like Distant Plane Shift.
Heightened is useful for clutch save-or-sucks.
Can now Twin Polymorph, and have a few more useful tools like Fireball, Counterspell, Blindness/Deafness, Healing Word.

Polymorph at 4th is the last core pick for this build; I think options at 5/6 are not incredible but Tier 4 will be great again.

Level 17: HP 154, AC 19
Plane Shift becomes a great offensive spell here, since you're good at delivering it in melee. Can even Twin it.
Crown of Stars might beat out Spiritual Weapon for your bonus action here. Divine Word is also a cool bonus action.

Still have some room for utility or backline Sorcerer stuff - Synaptic Static, Chain Lightning, Holy Aura, etc.

Level 20: HP 183, AC 19
I haven't thought too much about this high of a level, but Wish is great! Also grab whichever of Distant and Heightened you didn't get before.

Final thoughts: The key idea is that Divine Soul's ability to Twin both Sorcerer and Cleric spells is useful for support, but also for DPS. This comes online by Level 6 with Spirit Guardians and I think it remains quite good for a while, though I haven't had much play at high levels.

[Dork_Forge]

no more builds will be considered, please now cast your votes

For convenience I have compiled all the entries into the second post of the thread.

[Aaron Underhand]

The candidates are here:

List of candidate builds (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24495636&postcount=2)

My vote is still with this:

Nalgaryyn's critfishing build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496223&postcount=20)

even though it just misses out on 9th level wizard spells...

[SociopathFriend]

The candidates are here:

List of candidate builds (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496223&postcount=2)

My vote is still with this:

Nalgaryyn's critfishing build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24496223&postcount=20)

even though it just misses out on 9th level wizard spells...


Uhhhh either I'm missing something or there's only one candidate in that list.

[Aaron Underhand]

Uhhhh either I'm missing something or there's only one candidate in that list.

Sorry - you caught the first post while I was fixing the link - it should work now...

[BDS`]

Was between the undying barb and brewsky's build for me but going to go with the undying barb. I think I'd be more likely to play that build.

Also thanks for making this, was fun to look through all the builds.

[Skylivedk]

My vote goes to the Heavy Weapon Discount. Rare for me to see that exact combo!

Anyway, I know it is too late for me to participate, but I was struck by Boardic Inspiration, and hence, I hereby present to you...


The Cheese Grater

How to Play
Your job is to abuse the cheese (Hexblade's Curse) and grate your enemies to a fine rotten milk smelling dust with Spiked Growth.

You don't really care about stats much, since you don't force saving throws and staying in shape is so last year. That also means that you use your spells mostly on 2 things: Armour of Agathys and Spiked Growth.

You are extremely 2-dimensional, so anyone with any kind of depth or height are supposed to be brought and ground to your level.

Now, cheese is supposed to go around the table, so the build combos surprisingly well with a lot of other classes.

Level 20 Level Split: Hexblade 3 / Moon Druid 10 / Fighter 2 / Scout 3 / Paladin 2

You can up Hexblade to 5 and become an anti-air missile when you are not shapeshifted or drop to 1 and lose your Healer's Pet Status and Spiked Growth Short Rest slots. If you do I recommend Scout 5 for Uncanny Dodge or Fighter 4 and Scout 4 for 2 ASIs and subclass (Battlemaster with the UA manoeuvres is a great great choice).

Race: Aarakocra / Simic Hybrid (if you want more grappling when you are last year) / Wood Elf (if you want the speed, but can't be fly).

Stats
Birdman: Str: 14 / Dex: 14 / Con: 14 / Int: 8 / Wis: 13 / Cha: 13

Simic Hybrid: Str: 13 / Dex: 14 / Con: 14 / Int: 8 / Wis: 13 / Cha: 13
Manta Glide / Nimble Climber at level 1, Grappling Appendages


Background: Anything that doesn't grant Survival and Nature.

ASIs

1- Mobile
2- Warcaster/Tavern Brawler (if DM let's you use it with your forms... Otherwise, move along)
3- Tavern Brawler/Warcaster or +1 WIS / +1 CHA

Starting level
We want the cheese, so we might as well get it right away. Hexblade level 1.
Grab Shield, Armor of Agathys and Booming Blade. I also like to have Minor Illusion. Shape Water can be fun as well.

5th level
Maybe the low point on the power curve.

After your first level of Hexblade, you are suddenly struck by remorse after having bargained your soul away for Primadona and to atone for your ways (not), you seek the Mercy of Nature and become a Moon Druid. Or you are lactose intolerant and your rash makes you look like a bear. Whatever.

Grab 4 level of Moon Druid. At level 3 it means you can laugh at Martials and their puny 1 attack. Armour of Agathys lasts an hour, you have Shield and Absorb Elements and you can self-heal when getting smacked. At level 4 you are officially online. You now have Hexblade's Curse (the Cheese) and Spiked Growth (the Grater).

Also you get CR2 forms. You like the ones with Grapple on hit: Giant Frog, Constrictor Snake, Giant Octopus, Giant Toad and the Rocking Crocodile.

Grab Mobile as your ASI. Each 5 feet of movement speed is currently worth 7 point of damage, but later we are looking at up to 11 dmg/5 ft at Tier 4.

Your movement speed in day-to-day Birdman loadout is 60 ft before longstrider. 70 ft with Longstrider. You are incredibly fast.

11th level
Hexblade 1
Scout 3
Moon Druid 7

Oooh boy, so many things have happened since last!

So after from level 5, you go 3 levels into Scout. This nets you 3 new skills and 4 x Expertise. You are forced to take Survival and Nature, but you have 2 free. One of them you want to use on Athletics. The other can be whatever. Stealth or Perception are popular.

You might notice that a lot of your forms are not so Sneak Attack friendly. Doesn't matter. We grabbed Scout for the Skirmisher feature, Bonus Action goody bag and Expertise(s).

With longstrider, BA dash, action dash and reaction movement, you reach 245 movement speed in a round. That translates to (2,5*2+4)*120/5 = 216 hp worth of damage when you go all out grapple and grate style (presuming you grappled earlier).

After Scout, you continue until you are Moon Druid 10.

Post Moon Druid, you have graduated Hippie High School and can take whichever path in life you want, m'kay? You'd be at 14th level. I'd probably go for the 2 Fighter levels for Action Surge and 1 more Hexblade for the Invocations (you really want Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, but it requires Hexblade 3, you can rush it if you need more tankiness - it works with your self-healing).

17th level
Moon Druid 10
Scout 3
Fighter 2
Hexblade 2 (last level in Hexblade is optional - can also be more Ftr, Scout or Pala)

Invocations: Devil's Sight and whatever you feel like. I'd probably pick Misty Visions or Armor of Shadows if your DM is giving you a hard time with metallic armour. Fiendish Vigor is solid as well.

With level 10 Moon Druid you reached your Elemental Forms. Earth is more solid, but Air is faster.
If you spend a round to setup Spiked Growth and Hexblade's curse, you have a very solid 2nd round:

Base speed with Mobile and Longstrider: 110
Action Surge: 110
Bonus Action: 110
Reaction: 55

Total movement speed in a round: 385. Half while grappling = 190
Great grating damage: 11*190/5 = 418
If your team mate used haste on you, double up. That's one dead Tiamat -

If you are not killing Tiamat, I recommend the Giant Scorpion. It only has 60 movement speed, but it can grapple to targets and AFAIK, it does so without losing speed.

20th level and final thoughts
The last levels in Hexblade (everything past 1) are not crucial. Gift of the Ever-Living Ones and 2 level 2 slots on a short rests are the draws. Gift of the Ever-Living Ones boosts your self-heal to something acceptable. Besides that, grab the pally slots and nuke away.

I originally thought of the build with 5 levels in Hexblade, because I find flying up and Eldritch Smiting a dragon so your team mates can gang up on the grounded lizard to be beautiful. But it is also beautiful to smite with your Druid slots while wildshaped, have more ASIs, or Uncanny Dodge on top of your Armour of Agathys (or level 6 and 7 spells), so I fully understand if you don't from Hexblade 1-5. The current format is with Pala 2, Hexblade 3 to have smite in wildshape, Mirror Image, Darkness, Gifts of the Everliving Ones and Spiked Growth recharging on a Short Rest. If you find that you really miss the ASI, you can grab 2 from ditching the SR Slots.

The build combos very well with a lot of popular builds:

Sorlocks with Repelling (and might also Grasping) EBs will almost cackle with glee once the Spiked Growth increase each of their hits with 10 dmg (you just gave them Sharpshooter with no accuracy penalty - filth!)

Any grappler loves you. Doubly so for the Barbarian.

You can tank reasonably well with Armour of Agathys and the HP pools from your wildshapes. With Gift of the Ever-Living Ones you are also easy to heal. You remain a threat with smites and even without them, your sheer amount of physical control is hard to deal with.

You love sorcerers who use twinned Enlarge/Reduce on you and a baddie (you grow up, he smurfs out). Haste is also crazy good on you. Arguably better than on almost anyone else if you don't have another high-speed grappler in your team. If you do: great!

For the rogue, you can provide Pass Without Trace and often sneak along.

[sithlordnergal]

I rather like the True Spell Sword from Aion, so that gets my vote

[ftafp]

My vote still goes to the undying barbarian

[Aion]

I love all the Armor of Agathys builds, I think ftafp's Battle Smith 11/Abjurer 9 wins for me.

[Dork_Forge]

voting is now closed

[Dork_Forge]

Votes counted and the winner is the Undying Barbarian by Sithlordnergal, please see post #2 for a breakdown of all votes and see you all in the next throwdown!

[sithlordnergal]

Heh, I'm glad people really liked the Undying Barbarian build

[PancakeMaster80]

The Cheese Grater


Did some major reworking of my build and wound up with this level split

1 Fighter
6 Lore Bard
3 Hexblade/Pact of the Chain Warlock -
10 Lore Bard

I'm really happy with how accurate and fast this build is, grabbing spike growth and find steed to provide tons of free movement. Use mounted combatant to keep the mount safe while you drag nerds all over the place.

[Skylivedk]

Did some major reworking of my build and wound up with this level split

1 Fighter
6 Lore Bard
3 Hexblade/Pact of the Chain Warlock -
10 Lore Bard

I'm really happy with how accurate and fast this build is, grabbing spike growth and find steed to provide tons of free movement. Use mounted combatant to keep the mount safe while you drag nerds all over the place.
That could definitely work. Why the fighter level though? And mind if we do the discussion in the Eclectic Builds thread? It's more likely to be kept alive.

Only downside is that you still don't have a solution for the size issues in tier 3+4. You are lot less mad though! I might 2 Pala instead, drop Fighter and take lore from 16 to 15. I wonder how Find Steed/Phantom Steed and grapple interact

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds&p=24692988#post24692988

[truemane]

Metamagic Mods: Not even the Cheese Grater can defeat the 45-day Necromancy limit.