build idea, close range goblin mage, any crique?

[Rfkannen]

I had the idea of playing a spellcaster who didn't multiclass, and spent most of their time in melee range, but was not a proper gish, they primarily are in melee range to be in good poisition for cones and touch spells, but also use booming blade with their staff (it has to be a staff, i don't want this character using weapons), I then had the idea that a goblin would be good for avoiding getting hit, and i love the flavor of a terrible little wild magic gremlin goblin who tells everyone they are a wizard.

So here is my build, I was wondering, what do you think of it? is it playable?

Goblin wild magic sorcerer
charlatan background
start with (after racial asi) 15 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 8 int, 8 wisdom, 15 charisma.
level 4 take +1 str, +1 charisma
after that boost charisma than strengths

for spells:
cantrips are booming blade, lightning lure, prestidigitation, green flambe blade, and shocking grasp

lv 1: mage armor and burning hands
lv 2: shield
lv 3: misty step
lv 4: absorb elements
lv 5: lightning bolt
lv 6: counterspell
lv 7: polymorph
lv 8: cone of cold.

metamagics take twin and quicken

Main stratagy is to wack people with your quarterstaff and then run away, using spells to buff yourself, for more range, and for utility. Being in melee also really benifits spells that are cones. This build REALLY likes magic staffs, if you can get your hand on a staff of the archmage or a staff of power this suddenly becomes way more useful.

What do you think? Would you change it?

[Heavenblade]

I did something similar with a bladesinger, but sorcerer might actually be better...if you dont particularly need the wild magic thing, take storm sorcerer for more blastiness/skirmishing or draconic heritage to be tougher and be able to actually take a hit in melee

[nickl_2000]

Are you allowed UA? Because if you are, you could go Giant Soul (hill giant) to pick up shelaleigh and then you don't need strength at all.

[CTurbo]

It's going to be tough to successfully play any Sorcerer that likes to stick in or near melee. Wild Magic might be the worst choice. Draconic would be a bit better. Stone Sorcerer would be interesting. You could dump Dex.

Have you considered Land Druid? Shillelagh allows you to dump Str and not particular care for anything other than Wis.

[LudicSavant]

I had the idea of playing a spellcaster who didn't multiclass, and spent most of their time in melee range, but was not a proper gish, they primarily are in melee range to be in good poisition for cones and touch spells, but also use booming blade with their staff (it has to be a staff, i don't want this character using weapons), I then had the idea that a goblin would be good for avoiding getting hit, and i love the flavor of a terrible little wild magic gremlin goblin who tells everyone they are a wizard.

So here is my build, I was wondering, what do you think of it? is it playable?

Goblin wild magic sorcerer
charlatan background
start with (after racial asi) 15 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 8 int, 8 wisdom, 15 charisma.
level 4 take +1 str, +1 charisma
after that boost charisma than strengths

for spells:
cantrips are booming blade, lightning lure, prestidigitation, green flambe blade, and shocking grasp

lv 1: mage armor and burning hands
lv 2: shield
lv 3: misty step
lv 4: absorb elements
lv 5: lightning bolt
lv 6: counterspell
lv 7: polymorph
lv 8: cone of cold.

metamagics take twin and quicken

Main stratagy is to wack people with your quarterstaff and then run away, using spells to buff yourself, for more range, and for utility. Being in melee also really benifits spells that are cones. This build REALLY likes magic staffs, if you can get your hand on a staff of the archmage or a staff of power this suddenly becomes way more useful.

What do you think? Would you change it?

For what you want to do mechanically, a hobgoblin wizard is better than a goblin sorcerer. Goblins are a good caster race, but they're good specifically for kite'n'hide tactics, not hanging out around melee. Whereas a Hobgoblin can just face-tank things while casting spells at point-blank range.

Not sure how you feel about the fluff of that, though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Everyone's proficient with a dagger, which has finesse. Go Str 8, Dex 15+2, Con 15+1, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 15, and pick draconic bloodline to skip mage armor.

Or go Hexblade Warlock instead, reduce your starting Dex to 14 because medium armor, and boost your Wis to 12. You can bonus action hide to get advantage on your first EB shot, or do your bonus action disengage after you booming blade because you picked Pact of the Tome.

[pr4wn]

Have you considered Land Druid? Shillelagh allows you to dump Str and not particular care for anything other than Wis.

I have to second looking at Druid, Circle of the Land or Circle of Wildfire...

What's better than hitting them with a stick? Hitting them with a magic stick!

-pr4wn

[DMJosh]

Bonus points if you RP him like Rafiki...

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/11/116f724fd1a53ebc9710a3d955c27d9ea2803010f3cbce00a4 a3c5112e8c41ae.jpg

[clash]

Divine soul sorcerer works really good for this as clerics get a few really fun spells for melee range. Inflict wounds does great single target damage right at level 1. Shield of faith is great for survivability. And spirit guardians is the holy grail of melee casting.

[ThatoneGuy84]

I like it.
Thematically if it fits your charactor and what you want, it is 100% playable.

From an optimization standpoint there are oviously some "better options"
Picking up Magic Initiate to scoop shillelagh, and effectively allowing you to dump Str, and focus on your Cha more, Dex and con for survivablilty.
Alternately you can dump Str if you know later you will have access to stuff like Gauntlets of Oger str.
And earily game, just be bad at hitting stuff since low tier not alot you will fight will have super high AC anyways.
I'm not the biggest fan of wild magic, I think there are a tonne of better Sorc subclasses, but if it has the feel you want do it!

[Spectrulus]

I had the idea of playing a spellcaster who didn't multi-class, and spent most of their time in melee range, but was not a proper gish, they primarily are in melee range to be in good position for cones and touch spells, but also use booming blade with their staff (it has to be a staff, i don't want this character using weapons), I then had the idea that a goblin would be good for avoiding getting hit, and i love the flavor of a terrible little wild magic gremlin goblin who tells everyone they are a wizard.

So here is my build, I was wondering, what do you think of it? is it playable?

Goblin wild magic sorcerer
charlatan background
start with (after racial asi) 15 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 8 int, 8 wisdom, 15 charisma.
level 4 take +1 str, +1 charisma
after that boost charisma than strengths

I love the idea you have, of trying to pair the Goblin Retreat Tactics with a traditionally frailer class. Kind of a shame that we lost the club and heavy crossbow from D&D 3.5...




for spells:
cantrips are booming blade, lightning lure, prestidigitation, green flambe blade, and shocking grasp

lv 1: mage armor and burning hands
lv 2: shield
lv 3: misty step
lv 4: absorb elements
lv 5: lightning bolt
lv 6: counterspell
lv 7: polymorph
lv 8: cone of cold.

metamagics take twin and quicken

Simple but effective for sure, keeping the bonus action free for your disengagement tactics makes perfect sense. Consider Longstrider as well, sometimes being able to move forward 20 feet and then back 20 feet will come in handy when 15 feet isn't enough.

Misty step may not do you any good, it costs a spell slot, and you can already run 30 feet disengaged, granted it could help when completely locked down. Not as necessary as other fun things could be like


Main strategy is to wack people with your quarterstaff and then run away, using spells to buff yourself, for more range, and for utility. Being in melee also really benefits spells that are cones. This build REALLY likes magic staffs, if you can get your hand on a Staff of the Archmage or a staff of power this suddenly becomes way more useful.

What do you think? Would you change it?

As the others mentioned, when it comes to mechanical optimization, it has a few issues. For flavour and intent, I absolutely adore this and am stealing the concept away for myself for later. Well thought out!

I loathe multi-classing, and I'm sure someone will state some better way to take a dip into hexblade or paladin or blah blah blah.

If the idea of this build is to strike, and hide behind teammates with the bonus disengaging constantly, survival points don't matter a whole lot.

Putting points into strength isn't critical, as most of the damage comes from spells, but it does help out with our attack per round.

As others mentioned, there are other archetypes that COULD player better with this idea, but that's basically independent. IF you care about mechanical things, here's a breakdown

Aberrant Mind:Unearthed Arcana: Bonus to Armor class, quiet casting to potentially not appear to be a caster depending on how Dungeon Master metagames the opponents in combat.

Clockwork Soul:Unearthed Arcana: 6th level damage reduction for sorcery points, but doesn't really vibe.

Draconic Bloodline:Player's Handbook Bonus: to Armor class, bonus health, extra damage on certain damage type, wings. Flying disengages are an option after level 14, which is interesting.

Divine Soul: Xanathar's Guide to Everything: Cleric spells tend to work well in melee, things like Spiritual Guardians, etc. also wings.

Giant Soul:Unearthed Arcana Basically built to encourage gishing, lots of viable choices

Phoenix:Unearthed Arcana: bonus action to burn enemies that hit you, but you're not getting hit. Explode on going down... doesn't really help.

Psionic Soul:Unearthed Arcana Quiet casting again, but that's basically it.

Sea:Unearthed Arcana: reaction watery escape at level 6, but doesn't really mesh.

Shadow: Xanathar's Guide to Everything: the classic darkvision through Darkness combo, resist unconsciousness once per long rest, Shadow hound as a battle pet, teleporting in darkness, and capstone is damage mitigation, it has a good synergy.

Stone:Unearthed Arcana: Basically built to encourage gishing, option to pour into that constitution for AC.

Storm: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide & Xanathar's Guide to Everything: the 10 foot hover after spellcasting also competes with your bonus action, but has potential, bonus area of effect damage on casting spells near enemies, reaction lightning punishment, and situational flying.

Wild Magic: Player's Handbook: doesn't have any benefits, but no drawbacks either.

If feats are allowed, mobile could be pretty decent to sneak in at 8th level for the movement, using your bonus action for other things, etc.

Goblin Whack-a-Druid(Land) could also work, giving a lot of those blasty spells you wanted, short rest recovery, Shillelagh for more of a:
8 STR 16 DEX 14 CON 10 INT 15 WIS 12 CHA spread, but would have to lean more on things like:

Cantrips
Magic Stone (Smack the rock with the staff for flavour), Primal Savagery (Acid Staff) Shillelagh, Thorn Whip, Thunderclap

Level 1 Spells
Absorb Elements, Earth Tremor, Healing Word, Longstrider, Thunderwave

Level 2 Spells
Flame Blade (Flaming Staff), Spider Climb

I'll admit, it doesn't have nearly the same offensive oomph that a sorcerer does, but it could work.

I guess I kind of talked myself out of it, sorcerer goblin like this sounds like quite the Arcane Trickster

[Man_Over_Game]

It's going to be tough to successfully play any Sorcerer that likes to stick in or near melee. Wild Magic might be the worst choice. Draconic would be a bit better. Stone Sorcerer would be interesting. You could dump Dex.

Have you considered Land Druid? Shillelagh allows you to dump Str and not particular care for anything other than Wis.

I like the Hill Dwarf, going Draconic, as the choice for this build.

It gives you extra +2 HP per level (+1 from Con bonus, +1 from Hill Dwarf), which means you're a Sorcerer with a 1d12 Hit Die, 13+ AC, on top of your +3 to Constitution Saves. That's pretty damn intense.

[Quietus]

I like the Hill Dwarf, going Draconic, as the choice for this build.

It gives you extra +2 HP per level (+1 from Con bonus, +1 from Hill Dwarf), which means you're a Sorcerer with a 1d12 Hit Die, 13+ AC, on top of your +3 to Constitution Saves. That's pretty damn intense.

This is something I've been considering for a while, and I think I'd do it with Mountain Dwarf. Yes you lose the 1 HP per level, but in exchange you get +2 Str (for those weapon attacks) and medium armor. Buy a 17 str to start with, at level 4 get that new UA shield half-feat for +1 str, shield proficiency and the ability to use it as a focus, and laugh all the way to the end. Pure Sorcerer all the way. Either dump Cha, or just leave it fairly low, either's fine - maybe raise it at later levels, as you "grow into" your magic.

None of this helps with the Goblin-specific question in the OP though. :smalltongue: