LordShade
2020-11-25, 02:16 PM
I've been thinking a lot about sidekicks since Tasha's came out and wanted to share some of my thoughts and ideas here. Looking forward to hearing other people's thoughts as well.
I. Why I wrote this guide
I got my start in D&D with 2nd Edition, which had extensive rulesets governing the acquisition and use of hirelings, henchmen, followers, lieutenants, apprentices and various other flunkies. As a DM, I loved awarding goons of various kinds to my players (often using obscure or underpowered kits and races that players would never take themselves) and as a player I loved collecting them. Although 5e is a more streamlined system, the new Sidekick rules offer much the same opportunity for creativity.
I also love minmaxing and theorycrafting, purely as a thought exercise, even though I don’t necessarily play optimized builds myself. I’ve been away from D&D for a very long time, although in the early days of 3e I spent a lot of time on the old WOTC CharOp boards, manufacturing various hilarious and/or obscenely overpowered builds with the other forum regulars that I never intended to play, just for the fun of it. It appears at least one of my old builds is still floating around.
Aside from personal fun and nostalgia, there’s one practical reason I wrote this guide. The new Sidekick rules specify that the DM should treat sidekicks as if they were full player characters for the purposes of determining encounter difficulty. If a DM is strictly following the CR/encounter rules when sidekicks are involved, the party risks being run over if the sidekicks aren’t pulling their weight. I hope this guide will give players and DMs alike some ideas for how to boost their sidekicks’ capability so they are fun to use and have around, rather than a liability for the PCs. Some of the ideas contained in this post might also prove useful that want to play a sidekick class as their main PC as well, for whatever reason.
II. Overarching thoughts on Sidekicks
I think of the sidekick classes as stripped-down versions of regular classes. I’d rate the Warrior as 70% of a Champion, the Expert as 70% of a Mastermind with a bard dip, and the Spellcaster as 40% of an Evoker (I’m looking forward to seeing your ratings of the sidekick classes). However, the rules suggest that the DM treat a sidekick as a full player character for the purposes of setting encounter difficulty, so it’s important to make sure they aren’t dead weight in a party. To get the most out of them, we have to focus on the areas where they aren’t far behind player character classes.
To start with, sidekick classes mostly match PCs in terms of raw ability scores and feats*. Builds that rely on raw stats and feats, rather than class features, will be the most powerful. Where sidekicks can outshine PCs are in their choices of stat blocks, which effectively work as “races” for a sidekick class. Conceptually, I think of the NPC statblocks much like ECL races from 3e or XP-penalty races from 2e. In some cases, these races became very overpowered when put into builds that had good synergy with their unusual abilities. This also holds in 5e, where some CR ½ or ¼ stat blocks are vastly more powerful than a PC-eligible race. Some statblocks—those that say “any humanoid”, and at the DM’s discretion—get to pick racial features on top of the abilities already contained in the stat block (DMG p. 282). Creating truly powerful sidekicks will rely on abusing undercosted CR ½ or ¼ stat blocks.
In general, the strongest statblocks are the ones that have good ability score distributions and unique powers that PCs can’t get. Some notable powers are: Multiattack, Pack Tactics, Innate Spellcasting, extra starting hit dice, and Magic Resistance. Statblocks can also have abilities that do appear in PC classes, like armor proficiencies, Spellcasting, and Expertise (the statblock doesn’t say Expertise explicitly, but calculating the skill modifier manually will show that the proficiency bonus is getting doubled). A statblock that provides armor proficiency is particularly valuable for Experts and Spellcasters.
Finally, a note on the NPC races from DMG p. 282. Although the starred races there explicitly say that their racial features don’t adjust a statblock’s CR, it’s not clear to me whether or not the ability score adjustments do. In some cases, adding +2 Str or +2 Dex to an NPC statblock pushes it over the CR ½ eligibility limit for a sidekick if you were to recalculate the statblock’s CR using the higher stats. I’m assuming that if a racial adjustment pushes a statblock up to CR 1, it’s no longer eligible for use as a sidekick, RAW.
*This guide assumes that the optional feats for ASIs rule is being used, and moreover, that sidekicks can spend their ASIs on feats. I haven’t seen anything in the PHB or in Tasha’s that suggests that sidekicks shouldn’t be able to use feats.
III. Breaking down the classes: The Warrior
In my opinion, the Warrior is the strongest of the 3 sidekick classes. It is basically a stripped down version of the Champion, getting most of its abilities, but on a delayed schedule. The most important abilities it is missing are Action Surge and the 4th attack at level 20. Other than that, it is reasonably close to a pure Champion in terms of damage output and survivability until level 11. With access to feats, it will essentially perform like any other fighter, taking GWM/PAM/Sentinel, Sharpshooter, Shield Master, or any other function you normally want a fighter to perform. It only gets 1 fewer ASI than a Champion (6 in total), so with a good statblock it should easily be able to max its attacking stat and pick up a couple of useful feats on the side. Depending on how OP the underlying stat block is, it can be built to even outperform a Champion in Tier 1 and 2.
Making the most of the Warrior
One thing to note is that instead of a “fighting style” at level 1, the Warrior gets the functional equivalent of one called “Martial Role.” One of the choices grants a flat +2 to all attack rolls, which is vastly better than anything a fighter can get. Not only does this give something like a Warhorse a +8 attack bonus at level 1, when a normal PC should have a +5, it also makes the Warrior a better user of GWM than any PC can be. That extra flat +2 to hit is a gap that a melee PC can never close—in fact, this ability is so powerful that I’d even consider dipping a level of Warrior on a true PC just to get it. Of course, the sidekick rules don’t say that these classes are actually eligible for multiclassing. But if they were, it would be something to think about…
Cheating as a Sharpshooter
One additional cheese here. Tasha’s has a feat that lets a character pick up a fighting style of their choice. Could a Warrior pick up the Archery fighting style, on top of Attacker Martial Role, for a flat +4 to hit, because these abilities have different names and therefore stack? This shouldn’t work, because it would be wrong, in the same way that kicking toddlers or puppies is wrong. But does it work, RAW? If yes, this would make a lowly Warrior the best Sharpshooter in the game, particularly if you can find a stat block that gives Multiattack 2 or more with a longbow. As a DM, I wouldn’t allow it, but YMMV.
IV. Breaking down the classes: The Expert
At first glance, the expert is merely a stripped down version of the Rogue, featuring 4 Expertises, Cunning Action, 6 ASIs, the Mastermind’s level 3 feature, and some of the Rogue’s defensive goodies, but no Sneak Attack. However, it’s more complicated than that. The Expert’s bonus Help action is actually the Mastermind’s Help action combined with Bardic Inspiration, and has unlimited uses to boot—better than anything a PC Mastermind or Bard can do on its own, or essentially a double-strength bonus action. Moreover, this Help bonus action also lets the Expert turn its own attack action into a minor (2d6) sneak attack, and at high levels, has the option to turn its Inspiration dice into damage. This effectively becomes a +4d6 sneak attack, of which only 2d6 depends on its own standard action.
Making the most of the Expert
Taking this set of abilities as a whole, what we see is a class that has decent survivability, super strong at-will bonus actions, but not much to do with the standard action itself. There are a few options here. The first would be to forget about damage-dealing standard actions entirely, and focus on utility actions. The Healer feat would make the Expert a good combat healer, essentially serving the same role as a Fast Hands Thief, but with the action and bonus action flipped to what a Mastermind Rogue would do. Another option is to go for grappling with Athletics expertise, and focus on locking down a single dangerous enemy.
If you want to go for damage, the Expert basically needs to figure out how to get the most out of its single attack action. The first is to use a statblock that gets Multiattack. The second is to take something like the Hobgoblin stat block, which effectively gives +4d6 damage at level 6 between the Hobgoblin’s Martial Advantage ability and the bonus action Help buff, essentially matching the damage output of a level 7 rogue. The single attack damage can be further buffed by Magic Initiate for a blade cantrip. The Darkling also gets something like this.
Finally, you could forget about melee attacks entirely and just pick up a damage cantrip or two with Magic Initiate. Based on my reading, the Expert’s bonus action help rider should trigger on a spell attack roll. If this works, you’re looking at Firebolt damage plus the 2d6 while giving out advantage every round. That’s competitive enough in Tier 2.
V. Breaking down the classes: The Spellcaster
The Spellcaster is the most lackluster of the three sidekicks, in my view. What happened here was probably an overreaction from the designers in response to public commentary on the UA version of the Spellcaster, which was generally seen as overpowered. Unfortunately, that led the designers to nerf this guy into the dumpster.
The Spellcaster is basically an evoker wizard or a cantrip cleric, but with half-caster progression, no ritual casting, and the spells known of a sorcerer. It is flat out bad in comparison to any full caster, or even any half-caster like a paladin or ranger. One interesting, but not quite redeeming, feature is that it can choose spells off multiple class lists if it chooses to be a Wisdom or Charisma caster.
That being said, I’m mostly fine with this. People understandably did not like the idea of “sidekicks” casting game-changing Wishes and Meteor Swarms. In order to carry its weight in a party, however, the Spellcaster needs to be built off a good statblock or really squeeze the most out of its limited spellcasting abilities.
One problem when choosing statblocks though is that the Spellcaster’s “Spellcasting” feature overwrites a statblock’s “Spellcasting” feature, if it has one. That creates the unfortunate problem of something like an Acolyte losing much of its power when it takes level 1 in the Spellcaster sidekick class. I’d probably just houserule that it gets some of its spells back later on, because from a thematic standpoint, an Acolyte joining the party and then eventually growing in power as a Spellcaster makes a lot of sense from a roleplaying POV. It’s just bad mechanically. A better option is to look for statblocks that have “Innate Spellcasting,” which doesn’t get overwritten.
Making the most of the Spellcaster
I think the best way to salvage the Spellcaster is to lean heavily into what it can do well, which is cantrip spam, and supplement that with the best bang-for-the-buck options it can get from its spell slots. Let’s start with the latter. First, the Spellcaster gets the evoker’s damage buff ability, which lets it pull off Nuclear Wizard shenanigans, RAW. As a DM I wouldn’t allow the Nuclear Wizard stuff in the first place, but it’s there, if you want to use it. As a Healer, you can use this to boost one roll of a healing spell—perhaps useful for an AOE heal like Prayer of Healing or Mass Healing Word. Second, Tasha’s has a feat that lets a non-sorcerer pick up metamagic. With this feat, the Spellcaster can use the Sorcerer’s strongest trick, which is twinning concentration buffs. Boosting the party’s action economy in this way is tremendously powerful even if you’re a half-caster.
The Budget Warlock
Finally, there’s cantrip spam. Baseline, the Spellcaster can get 4d10+5 spamming firebolts. There aren’t a ton of options to boost this, but there are things like Flames of Phlegethos, the aforementioned Twin, and Spell Sniper.
That said, one unique feature of the Spellcaster is that it is the only class in the game other than the Warlock which can learn Eldritch Blast. Unfortunately, the new Tasha’s feats that give EB-boosting Warlock invocations won’t work here, because those invocations have prerequisites and are therefore ineligible for the feat. However, the Prodigy Spellcaster can learn Hex at level 1, which gives 2/3rds of the Warlock’s EB+AB+Hex spam equation. Then there’s the Spellcaster’s “Potent Cantrips” feature, which has almost the same wording as the Cleric’s “Potent Spellcasting” feature. My understanding is that Potent Spellcasting has been ruled to allow an Arcana cleric to add its Wisdom modifier to both forks of a Greenflame Blade hit. If that same ruling holds with a Spellcaster’s Potent Cantrips, the Prodigy should be able to add its Charisma modifier to each beam of the Eldritch Blast. Congratulations, your idiot henchman is now matching 100% of your EB damage. If he picks up Metamagic Adept, great, he’s now a budget Sorlock too for 2 rounds! (And if PCs could multiclass into Sidekick classes, 6 levels of Spellcaster on top of a Sorlock would give you the ultimate EB spammer.)
This build should more-or-less keep up in combat effectiveness with a PC warlock through most of Tier 2. The PC warlock will be firing off 2-3 mid-level spells per battle and spamming EB in between, while the sidekick Budget Warlock will be matching the EB spam and casting 2-3 slightly lower level spells. Of course, it can’t compare to a full Warlock’s out-of-combat utility thanks to invocations and Pact Boons, and it will get left in the dust once Mystic Arcanums show up. But it’ll never lack for at-will damage.
Last thoughts on the Spellcaster
Overall, I can’t help but feel like the Spellcaster is a missed opportunity. I would have liked to see some of the supportive abilities from PC classes mixed in to the Spellcaster’s progression, like the abjurer’s ward, the war cleric’s guided strike, or even a nerfed, non-spotlight-stealing version of the diviner’s Portent.
VI. Racial abilities for Statblocks with “Humanoid (any race)” as the creature type
From what I can tell, these statblocks can optionally add the NPC racial features from p. 282 of the DMG to the stat block. The ones referenced in the PHB are explicitly called out as not altering the challenge rating, which would otherwise affect the statblock’s eligibility for a sidekick class. The others are less clear, and might bump a stat block out of eligibility if they significantly affect HP, AC or damage. I’m not going to bother with doing the math on all these, but adding a feature like Lucky, Gnome Cunning, Relentless Endurance, Infernal Legacy or a breath weapon onto a sidekick definitely makes it more powerful.
A “cheese/rules lawyering” option with the PHB races is to look for stat adjustments that aren’t enough to affect damage or HP significantly—e.g., adding +1 Con to a statblock that has 14 Con. RAW, this won’t affect the CR since the HP bonus doesn’t change, even though this tactic obviously has value—you can use the level 4 ASI to round off the odd-numbered stat.
A few notes on these, since they don’t map exactly to PHB races:
Dwarf – has a choice of +2 Str or Wis, in addition to +2 Con. The Wis bonus is unlikely to lead to a CR bump and will be a good choice for a Healer. Dwarf resilience alone doesn’t affect CR.
Gnome – Likewise, +2 Int along with a choice of +2 Dex or Con will help a Mage. Gnome cunning alone doesn’t affect CR. I don’t know why the DMG Gnome gets +4 to total stats, but there you go.
Half-Orc - +2 Str, +1 Con, and Relentless Endurance doesn’t influence CR.
Tiefling - +1 Int +2 Cha, tiefling spells don’t affect CR.
Halfling - +2 Dex, +1 Con or Cha. Lucky doesn’t affect CR! The halfling mobility and hiding advantages are also very nice for an Expert, while Bountiful Luck is a fantastic way for a sidekick to use its reaction and support the PCs.
Elf/Drow – both underwhelming compared to other options. The standard elf doesn’t seem to get the High Elf’s free cantrip or the Wood Elf’s wilderness abilities.
Half-elf - +1 Dex, +1 Int and +2 Cha. Might be a good foundation for an aspiring Prodigy Spellcaster.
Non-PHB races:
Deep Gnome - +3 to physical stats, which may affect the CR. Along with a pile of racial features, this might be a good choice for a CR ¼ statblock that will not go above CR ½ with the extra abilities.
Hobgoblin – Martial advantage will increase per-round damage by 7. This is likely to affect the CR, so we’re looking for a CR ¼ statblock to slap this onto.
VII. Notable Statblocks – System Reference Document
Acolyte (SRD) / Apprentice Wizard (Volo’s) / Magewright (Eberron RFTLW) – All of these are conceptually very appropriate as NPCs that will eventually turn into Spellcaster sidekicks. I imagine that these guys are what WOTC had in mind when they put together the sidekick rules. Problem is, from an optimization standpoint, these dudes’ Spellcasting trait gets overwritten by the Spellcaster sidekick’s class ability. From that perspective, they’re actually better off being Experts (who can make good use of a free damage cantrip) or Warriors. As a DM, I’d probably just let them stack their base Spellcasting ability alongside the class feature. It might seem powerful at low level but these guys would rapidly lose steam in Tier 2 and higher.
Magewrights have 28 base point buy stats before racials, 2-3 skills and tools, 3-4 cantrips, and 2-3 rituals. CR 0 since they have no combat abilities. You can safely take a +4 stats race, or a half-dragon template, or many other things.
Acolytes have 18 base point buy stats before racials, 3 1st level spells, 3 cantrips, and 2 skills. As CR ¼ creatures, they can safely add a +2 Wis race without crossing the limit.
The Apprentice Mage is the mirror image of the Acolyte. Take a +2 Int race and go wild.
Hobgoblin (SRD) – Point Buy: 15 (backing out racials). This is a pretty lackluster stat block, but does have two redeeming qualities—proficiency in shields and chainmail, and the “Martial Advantage” ability. Martial Advantage essentially functions like a 2d6 sneak attack on one hit per round. This lends itself fairly well to an Expert build, where that extra 2d6 makes a difference in bringing the one attack per round up to something approaching good DPR.
Alternately, the Hobgoblin racial features from the NPC table on p. 282 of the DMG can provide Martial Advantage to a different statblock. Note that these features are different from the ones you get selecting Hobgoblin as a PC race (such as Saving Face).
Noble (SRD) – Point Buy: 32 (before racials). Excellent base stats before racial adjustments, the Noble also offers 3 skills, 2 HD, breastplate and rapier proficiencies, and what is effectively the Defensive Duelist feat for free in the form of the “Parry” ability. With the base 16 charisma, this is probably best played as a budget warlock. You could also go Expert, with Parry being a solid use of the reaction to enhance the Expert’s already powerful suite of survivability features.
The Noble is CR 1/8 so adding Half-elf for a starting 18 Charisma shouldn’t be an issue, nor would adding Hobgoblin for a quick 2d6 extra damage. Go Tiefling for more magic and eventual Flames of Phlegethos as a Mage Firebolt spammer, or take a look at the Half-Dragon template and see if you can keep the Noble at CR ½ or less.
Orc (SRD) – Point Buy: 24 (backing out racials). Although the 16 Str/Con are solid for a Warrior, and Aggressive is a nice gap close, there is nothing exceptional about this stat block. Starting with something like the Thug stat block and adding the orc racial features from a supplement book like Volo’s would give you an overall better character.
Satyr (SRD) – Point Buy: 24 (if you back out Satyr racials). Not exceptional stats, but this guy has 7 base HD, 40’ movement and magic resistance on a CR ½ creature. This means Con ASIs and Tough will scale extremely well and it’ll start with a boatload of HP at level 1. With Satyr’s Pipes (optional item in the MM’s Satyr stat block) potentially providing an AOE fear or charm, Expert looks like a good class. The Satyr also appears to start with expertise in Performance. Dex Warrior (starting Dex 16) is also very viable, especially as a flex archer/S&B tank. Spellcaster is also fine—Satyr’s innate MR and hit dice are so strong that this sidekick will be effective no matter what you do.
Scout (SRD) – Point Buy: 25 (pre-racials). Overall, this is an extremely powerful statblock, grabbing a couple key features from the Warrior and Expert as built-in abilities. You know those bizarre builds like Aerenal elf Knowledge Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Bard 3/whatever where people try to get a zillion skills, and how those characters suck? Well, if you want to play a terrible character like that, you’re better off just being a sidekick Scout-Expert. Although the stats aren’t anything special, the Scout has 3 HD, Multiattack 2 Longbow/Shortsword and appears to start with Expertise in four skills. As an “Any Race Humanoid”, you could still go Aerenal elf (Eberron; trade elf weapon proficiencies for Expertise in one skill) and have Expertise in 9 skills as a Scout-Expert. Add Keen Hearing and Sight and you have an almost unbeatable skill monkey, with Multiattack 2 to boot (which would find use if you wanted to make a Sharpshooter Expert or Spellcaster). As with other Multiattack 2 Expert builds, the Scout-Expert approaches 75% of a vanilla Rogue 20’s expected DPR assuming it can max its attack stat. Go Spellcaster instead, and you have something that feels like a fighter/mage/thief from 2nd Edition. Nifty.
* Note: the Scout is balanced on a knife’s edge at CR 1/2. Any +2 Dexterity race likely pushes it to CR 1. Half-elf’s +1 Dex would be good if building a Warrior or Expert, while Dwarf’s +2 Con +2 Wis would be a better foundation for a Healer.
Sprite (SRD) – Point Buy: 27. An interesting stat block—40’ flight, a poisoned shortbow attack, at-will invisibility, what appears to be Stealth expertise, and a starting 18 Dex. This can be the foundation of a good backline caster or a skill monkey. Attacking or casting a spell breaks the invisibility, but there might be other actions (healing kit?) that an Expert can take that wouldn’t break it. Don’t bother making it a Warrior—a weak poison DC isn’t enough to build around for Extra Attack, unless the DM rules that the Sprite can Sharpshooter power attack using its wimpy bow.
Svirfneblin (SRD) – Point Buy: 26 (backing out racials). Near PC-level stats (counting racials), plus chain shirt proficiency, 3 skills, Gnome Cunning, Innate Spellcasting (equivalent to a free feat, also not overwritten by Spellcaster), and a poisoned weapon make this a solid foundation for any sidekick build. The emphasis on physical stats—particularly the 15 Str—pushes this towards Warrior, but the free spells and poisoned weapon could make this a decent Expert or add some more oomph as a dedicated caster. Given the creature’s small size, the best build is probably a control/support Warrior using shield bashes, Protection and Gnome Cunning to protect the weak saves. The new Thrown Weapon fighting style might be an interesting pickup (via Feat) at high level, to spam poisoned darts all over the place.
Thug (SRD) – Point Buy: 26 (before racials). Another excellent statblock, the Thug has solid-enough base stats, starting 5 HD, Multiattack 2 (mace/heavy crossbow), and Pack Tactics, with the only drawback being poor AC. And it can add racial traits on top. What’s not to like? A Str/Con race will help offense, but be careful—the Thug is tightly balanced at CR 1/2. Taking the Strength attack bonus up to +3 will push this up to CR 1.
The most obvious play here is Warrior, which immediately shores up the weak AC with heavy armor and a shield. The Multiattack 2 mace isn’t wasted, as it will carry the build through Tier 1—in fact, Multiattack 2+Attacker+Pack Tactics while wearing a shield and 4d8+Con extra HP makes the Thug outperform any PC fighter build I can think of in Tier 1. Take a strength ASI at level 4, and then GWM at level 8. Attacker+Pack Tactics completely cancels the power attack penalty of GWM, helping the Thug-Warrior maintain parity with PC fighters until level 11. The build has enough feats to max out Str and take the GWM/PAM/Sentinel trifecta if it wants to, but feats like Tough will also scale extremely well due to the 4 extra HD. Race-wise, the best choice is probably the +2 Con +2 Wis Dwarf since we want to avoid +Str races. As a DM, since I historically like to use non-optimal abilities when awarding followers, I might give it something like the Dwarf’s self-healing feat to use those extra hit dice.
Expert is another interesting option. The Expert’s “sneak attack” feature works with a mace, so the Multiattack 2 will find value throughout the Thug-Expert’s career. What we’re building here is basically a mobile, front-line skirmisher, that picks up a +2 Dex race and Moderately Armored to grant advantage to an ally and come in to focus-fire with 2 maces at 2d6+mod x2 +2d6 +2d6 (31), with self-granted advantage using Pack Tactics. Compare to a vanilla full Rogue 20 doing ~43 raw DPR. If you can get Dex to 14, then the Multiattack heavy crossbow will also find some use.
Warhorse (SRD) – Excellent base stats for an animal companion. Base strength is 18, which means the attack stat is maxed at level 4, and all later ASIs can go to feats or Con. It also starts with 3d10 HD. Since a warhorse with the Warrior class can’t take the Defender style, it has to go Attacker—giving a +8 to hit at level 1.
VIII. Notable Statblocks – Monster Manual
Pixie (MM) – This little girl is either completely OP or totally useless depending on how the DM plays it. The book says that pixies hate fighting and run away from enemies. If that’s how it is gonna work at your table, then the mechanics are irrelevant since the Pixie won’t have any impact on battles. On the other hand, if your DM rules that your Pixie sidekick is going to stand and fight…
…then you have an outright game-breaking situation on your hands. The Pixie comes out of the gate with the casting presence of an 8th-level mage, with Polymorph and Confusion in its arsenal at level 1. It also has a starting 20 Dexterity, +7 Stealth, and an at-will Invisibility that doesn’t appear to break on a spell cast, unless the spell uses concentration. Since the Pixie doesn’t use weapons, Warrior is out. Expert could work, but since the Help bonus damage depends on the Expert landing an attack, that probably isn’t the best choice either.
That leaves Spellcaster, which is the clear winner. Since the Pixie’s magic is Innate Spellcasting, it doesn’t get overwritten. The flavor text suggests that Pixies don’t like to do damage, which is fine, and since they have 10 Int you don’t want the Wizard list anyway. The best strategy here is to go Healer with 14 Wis and focus on buffs, zone control and (gasp!) in-combat healing, which the Healer can do since it mixes the Druid and Cleric lists. Non-concentration buffs like Aid, Death Ward and Longstrider shouldn’t break the Pixie’s invisibility, nor would upcasted heals or Spare the Dying. She can also hand out Goodberries, and if she can find a safe space to hide, maintain a Healing Spirit or a Sleet Storm.
And she does need to hide. The Pixie’s biggest issue in combat (if it decides to participate at all) is the fact that it has 1 hit point. Another reason it can’t really use offensive spells is that it can’t afford to boost its casting stats (whether Wis or Cha), because every ASI/feat needs to go into improving its survivability. I would probably build towards putting every ASI into Con, maybe taking Tough, and perhaps taking something like the Metamagic feat to get Distant Spell. Distant would let the Pixie stay even farther away from the action. One counterpoint in favor of the Expert is that Evasion helps protect the Pixie’s pitiful HP puddle.
Jackalwere (MM) – Point Buy 25. There’s 4 HD, 3 skills, Keen Senses, a sleep gaze, and Pack Tactics… but that isn’t even the most busted thing. Immunity to nonmagical, nonsilvered weapons is game-breaking. There were a couple of 2e races/kits that had this ability and I never allowed them in play. I wouldn’t allow this either.
IX. Notable Statblocks – Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Changeling (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 25 (after backing out racials). Starting 16 Cha pushes this towards a Prodigy Spellcaster, but the 5 starting skills can make it a great skill monkey too. 4 HD, an impersonation ability, Multiattack 2 with a dagger, and an AOE fear on a short rest round out the toolkit.
Dolgrim (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy 22. Multiattack 3, 3HD, advantage to resist a bunch of statuses, and solid physical stats make this a good statblock for a bruiser. One of its multiattack weapons is a hand crossbow. CBE+SS+Archery FS+Attacker Martial Role? (CBE doesn’t work with Multiattack, but Multiattack carries you until you have Extra Attack 3 and a spare feat to burn on CBE.) If you’re willing to forgo the Attacker Martial Role, you can go Expert for a slightly worse damage dealer who has a huge pile of skills and bonus actions. An Expert still gets 6 ASIs, which is enough to go PAM-Sentinel using a Multiattack 3 spear if the crossbow build doesn’t tickle your fancy. Too bad it’s chaotic evil.
Kalashtar (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 32 (after backing out racials). Bonkers stats, 3 HD, 3 skills (including what looks like Expertise in Persuasion), psychic resistance, short-range telepathy, a pseudo-cantrip attack, and a substitute for Wisdom save proficiency give you a grab bag of useful but not overpowering abilities. I’d actually run this as a sidekick if I was DMing. Both Expert and Spellcaster look good to take advantage of the high Wisdom and Charisma—I might go with Spellcaster here and grab all of the psionic feats and spells in Tasha’s. That might make this guy actually feel like a psionicist and a unique member of the party, but not strong enough to upstage any PC.
Shifter (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 30 (after backing out racials). 4 skill proficiencies, good Dex and Wis, and 3 HD make this a good base statblock for a rangery type of character. It doesn’t strongly lend itself to any specific sidekick class, however.
Valenar Hound (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 41. Incredible base stats for a CR ½ creature. This guy makes a terrific animal companion, with its innate telepathy, bite knockdown, and Keen Senses bonus. The Valenar animals also get an interesting bonus trait, detailed on page 313 of the book. The Hawk and Horse are equally powerful. None of them can speak, so they can’t be Spellcasters or Experts. But you were going to go Warrior anyway with that juicy 17 Str, right?
X. Notable Statblocks – Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica
Frontline Medic (GGTR) – Point Buy: 29 (before racials). This guy is just busted broken strong. Essentially, this is a 3rd-level cleric rolled into a CR ¼ body. It gets 3 HD, plate and shield proficiency, 2 skills (1 expertise), and slots and cantrips as a 3rd-level full spellcaster, before even taking any sidekick class levels. With Str 15 and Con 14, it is ready-made to roll immediately into Warrior. Alternately, you could go Expert and have a very survivable meatshield in the front line, spamming healing kits and help actions. Spellcaster is of course a waste of the statblock’s built-in Spellcasting feature.
Since the Frontline Medic is a humanoid (race any), you should be able to pile racial traits onto this statblock as well. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how this is costed at CR ¼--based on my math it should be at least CR ½. Giving it +2 Con won’t push it over any threshold for HP, and +2 Wis doesn’t push it over any offensive threshold. By that reasoning, you should be able to make this a DMG p. 282 Dwarf and give it +2 Con and +2 Wis without going over the limit. However, Dwarves don’t appear to exist in Ravnica (despite being associated with Red mana in MTG) so you might have to make this a Minotaur (which isn’t on p. 282). Then it’s the DM’s call if +2 Str and +1 Con push this past CR ½.
Regardless, the Frontline Medic-Warrior 20 compares favorably to something like a Champion 17/Life Cleric 3 over a full 20-level career. It will match the 3 APR from the Champion levels and the low-level utility casting of the cleric levels. While it’s probably not as strong as the full-powered PC classes, it comes very close and is in fact more capable at lower levels. Pick up Ritual Caster: Cleric to really make it feel like a fighter-priest. Not bad for a sidekick.
Kraul Warrior (GGTR) – Point Buy: 23. Natural AC 18, 5 HD, and Pack Tactics. Not bad if you are looking for an insect guy that functions similarly to a Thug.
Rubblebelt Stalker (GGTR) – Point Buy: 24 (before racials). Just as overpowered as his Boros brother, the Gruul Rubblebelt Stalker piles a bunch of quality features into a CR ½ chassis. 2 HD and 3 skills are just the beginning. This guy comes out of the gate with Multiattack 3 (shortsword), a faux-approximation of a pure Fighter’s level 11 ability. On top of that, it gets four other features, two of which are quite good (Ambusher and Nimble Escape) and two that are situational. Needless to say, there is no point going Warrior on this guy as the level 15 ability is already achieved at level 1. Better to go Spellcaster, and get something that plays like a fighter/mage or a gish.
Rubblebelt Stalker-Spellcaster compares favorably to something like EK 11/Wizard 9. Both get 3 attacks and access to 5th-level spells. Like the Frontline Medic, it’s not as powerful as a PC using full-power classes, but it’s close. I think the best build here is to go for weapon buffs on top of the shortsword (3) using the Wizard list, but a Prodigy base comes online earlier with Hex and Armor of Agathys. The statblock also starts with 14 Wis if you wanted to go in the Healer direction.
An interesting trick that PC classes can’t easily replicate is stacking the Siege Monster ability with a spell that does structural damage.
*Note: Much like the hilariously undercosted Frontline Medic, the offensive CR of the Rubblebelt Stalker (15 damage, +4 to hit) alone should put this at CR 1. If you’re going to add a race to it, better to go with something that doesn’t boost Dexterity or damage further. Of course, if you’re the DM, it doesn’t matter. But just know that this stat block shouldn’t really qualify to be a sidekick under the spirit of the rules.
Simic Hybrid Spy (GGTR) – Point Buy: 28 (after backing out racials). 4 HD, some movement abilities, a couple skills, starting Dex 17, and Multiattack 2. Good foundation for an Expert.
XI. Notable Statblocks – Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Darkling (VGTM) – Point Buy: 24. 4 skills, Stealth Expertise, 3 HD. The standard dagger attack contains a built-in 2d6 sneak attack. Taking the Expert’s full damage effects into consideration, the Darkling gives you dagger+mod+6d6 potential damage at level 20. 2/3rds of the Rogue’s functionality isn’t too bad.
Vegepygmy (VGTM) – Point Buy: 11. Atrocious stats, but Regeneration 3 and some interesting resistances make this statblock worth looking at. All things considered, having all of Int, Str and Cha as dump stats don’t matter that much—the vegepgymy’s Dex and Con are high enough to be a functional character. There are synergies with both the Warrior and Expert here. Expert’s evasion can help avoid AOE fire and cold effects that would shut down the vegepygmy’s regeneration, while the Warrior’s shield and medium armor proficiency improve the EHP through better armor class and build towards being a Dex control build.
Alternately, you can wear heavy armor as a Warrior, eat the movement penalty, and take Heavy Armor Master, for even more raw damage absorption. In this case, you still pump ASIs into Dexterity and eventually take Sharpshooter—this effectively makes the vegepygmy an immobile, survivable, damage-dealing turret.
Thematically, this would be an appropriate follower for a spore druid.
XII. Notable Statblocks – Others
I’ll write more about these when I get time.
Shadow (many resistances, strength drain)
Flying sword (5 HD, many immunities)
Pseudodragon (not that useful?)
Lizardfolk MM (4 HD, multiattack, natural armor, 15 str, AC 15 shield prof)
Scorchbringer guard –
Chitine – (multiattack 3 daggers, web movement)
Firenewt warrior (multiattack 2, 4 HD, fire immunity,
Gnoll hunter (st/dex 14, multiattack 2,
Grung – VGTM (poison skin, leap, use as grappler)
Kobold inventor VGTM (excellent as caster or expert)
I. Why I wrote this guide
I got my start in D&D with 2nd Edition, which had extensive rulesets governing the acquisition and use of hirelings, henchmen, followers, lieutenants, apprentices and various other flunkies. As a DM, I loved awarding goons of various kinds to my players (often using obscure or underpowered kits and races that players would never take themselves) and as a player I loved collecting them. Although 5e is a more streamlined system, the new Sidekick rules offer much the same opportunity for creativity.
I also love minmaxing and theorycrafting, purely as a thought exercise, even though I don’t necessarily play optimized builds myself. I’ve been away from D&D for a very long time, although in the early days of 3e I spent a lot of time on the old WOTC CharOp boards, manufacturing various hilarious and/or obscenely overpowered builds with the other forum regulars that I never intended to play, just for the fun of it. It appears at least one of my old builds is still floating around.
Aside from personal fun and nostalgia, there’s one practical reason I wrote this guide. The new Sidekick rules specify that the DM should treat sidekicks as if they were full player characters for the purposes of determining encounter difficulty. If a DM is strictly following the CR/encounter rules when sidekicks are involved, the party risks being run over if the sidekicks aren’t pulling their weight. I hope this guide will give players and DMs alike some ideas for how to boost their sidekicks’ capability so they are fun to use and have around, rather than a liability for the PCs. Some of the ideas contained in this post might also prove useful that want to play a sidekick class as their main PC as well, for whatever reason.
II. Overarching thoughts on Sidekicks
I think of the sidekick classes as stripped-down versions of regular classes. I’d rate the Warrior as 70% of a Champion, the Expert as 70% of a Mastermind with a bard dip, and the Spellcaster as 40% of an Evoker (I’m looking forward to seeing your ratings of the sidekick classes). However, the rules suggest that the DM treat a sidekick as a full player character for the purposes of setting encounter difficulty, so it’s important to make sure they aren’t dead weight in a party. To get the most out of them, we have to focus on the areas where they aren’t far behind player character classes.
To start with, sidekick classes mostly match PCs in terms of raw ability scores and feats*. Builds that rely on raw stats and feats, rather than class features, will be the most powerful. Where sidekicks can outshine PCs are in their choices of stat blocks, which effectively work as “races” for a sidekick class. Conceptually, I think of the NPC statblocks much like ECL races from 3e or XP-penalty races from 2e. In some cases, these races became very overpowered when put into builds that had good synergy with their unusual abilities. This also holds in 5e, where some CR ½ or ¼ stat blocks are vastly more powerful than a PC-eligible race. Some statblocks—those that say “any humanoid”, and at the DM’s discretion—get to pick racial features on top of the abilities already contained in the stat block (DMG p. 282). Creating truly powerful sidekicks will rely on abusing undercosted CR ½ or ¼ stat blocks.
In general, the strongest statblocks are the ones that have good ability score distributions and unique powers that PCs can’t get. Some notable powers are: Multiattack, Pack Tactics, Innate Spellcasting, extra starting hit dice, and Magic Resistance. Statblocks can also have abilities that do appear in PC classes, like armor proficiencies, Spellcasting, and Expertise (the statblock doesn’t say Expertise explicitly, but calculating the skill modifier manually will show that the proficiency bonus is getting doubled). A statblock that provides armor proficiency is particularly valuable for Experts and Spellcasters.
Finally, a note on the NPC races from DMG p. 282. Although the starred races there explicitly say that their racial features don’t adjust a statblock’s CR, it’s not clear to me whether or not the ability score adjustments do. In some cases, adding +2 Str or +2 Dex to an NPC statblock pushes it over the CR ½ eligibility limit for a sidekick if you were to recalculate the statblock’s CR using the higher stats. I’m assuming that if a racial adjustment pushes a statblock up to CR 1, it’s no longer eligible for use as a sidekick, RAW.
*This guide assumes that the optional feats for ASIs rule is being used, and moreover, that sidekicks can spend their ASIs on feats. I haven’t seen anything in the PHB or in Tasha’s that suggests that sidekicks shouldn’t be able to use feats.
III. Breaking down the classes: The Warrior
In my opinion, the Warrior is the strongest of the 3 sidekick classes. It is basically a stripped down version of the Champion, getting most of its abilities, but on a delayed schedule. The most important abilities it is missing are Action Surge and the 4th attack at level 20. Other than that, it is reasonably close to a pure Champion in terms of damage output and survivability until level 11. With access to feats, it will essentially perform like any other fighter, taking GWM/PAM/Sentinel, Sharpshooter, Shield Master, or any other function you normally want a fighter to perform. It only gets 1 fewer ASI than a Champion (6 in total), so with a good statblock it should easily be able to max its attacking stat and pick up a couple of useful feats on the side. Depending on how OP the underlying stat block is, it can be built to even outperform a Champion in Tier 1 and 2.
Making the most of the Warrior
One thing to note is that instead of a “fighting style” at level 1, the Warrior gets the functional equivalent of one called “Martial Role.” One of the choices grants a flat +2 to all attack rolls, which is vastly better than anything a fighter can get. Not only does this give something like a Warhorse a +8 attack bonus at level 1, when a normal PC should have a +5, it also makes the Warrior a better user of GWM than any PC can be. That extra flat +2 to hit is a gap that a melee PC can never close—in fact, this ability is so powerful that I’d even consider dipping a level of Warrior on a true PC just to get it. Of course, the sidekick rules don’t say that these classes are actually eligible for multiclassing. But if they were, it would be something to think about…
Cheating as a Sharpshooter
One additional cheese here. Tasha’s has a feat that lets a character pick up a fighting style of their choice. Could a Warrior pick up the Archery fighting style, on top of Attacker Martial Role, for a flat +4 to hit, because these abilities have different names and therefore stack? This shouldn’t work, because it would be wrong, in the same way that kicking toddlers or puppies is wrong. But does it work, RAW? If yes, this would make a lowly Warrior the best Sharpshooter in the game, particularly if you can find a stat block that gives Multiattack 2 or more with a longbow. As a DM, I wouldn’t allow it, but YMMV.
IV. Breaking down the classes: The Expert
At first glance, the expert is merely a stripped down version of the Rogue, featuring 4 Expertises, Cunning Action, 6 ASIs, the Mastermind’s level 3 feature, and some of the Rogue’s defensive goodies, but no Sneak Attack. However, it’s more complicated than that. The Expert’s bonus Help action is actually the Mastermind’s Help action combined with Bardic Inspiration, and has unlimited uses to boot—better than anything a PC Mastermind or Bard can do on its own, or essentially a double-strength bonus action. Moreover, this Help bonus action also lets the Expert turn its own attack action into a minor (2d6) sneak attack, and at high levels, has the option to turn its Inspiration dice into damage. This effectively becomes a +4d6 sneak attack, of which only 2d6 depends on its own standard action.
Making the most of the Expert
Taking this set of abilities as a whole, what we see is a class that has decent survivability, super strong at-will bonus actions, but not much to do with the standard action itself. There are a few options here. The first would be to forget about damage-dealing standard actions entirely, and focus on utility actions. The Healer feat would make the Expert a good combat healer, essentially serving the same role as a Fast Hands Thief, but with the action and bonus action flipped to what a Mastermind Rogue would do. Another option is to go for grappling with Athletics expertise, and focus on locking down a single dangerous enemy.
If you want to go for damage, the Expert basically needs to figure out how to get the most out of its single attack action. The first is to use a statblock that gets Multiattack. The second is to take something like the Hobgoblin stat block, which effectively gives +4d6 damage at level 6 between the Hobgoblin’s Martial Advantage ability and the bonus action Help buff, essentially matching the damage output of a level 7 rogue. The single attack damage can be further buffed by Magic Initiate for a blade cantrip. The Darkling also gets something like this.
Finally, you could forget about melee attacks entirely and just pick up a damage cantrip or two with Magic Initiate. Based on my reading, the Expert’s bonus action help rider should trigger on a spell attack roll. If this works, you’re looking at Firebolt damage plus the 2d6 while giving out advantage every round. That’s competitive enough in Tier 2.
V. Breaking down the classes: The Spellcaster
The Spellcaster is the most lackluster of the three sidekicks, in my view. What happened here was probably an overreaction from the designers in response to public commentary on the UA version of the Spellcaster, which was generally seen as overpowered. Unfortunately, that led the designers to nerf this guy into the dumpster.
The Spellcaster is basically an evoker wizard or a cantrip cleric, but with half-caster progression, no ritual casting, and the spells known of a sorcerer. It is flat out bad in comparison to any full caster, or even any half-caster like a paladin or ranger. One interesting, but not quite redeeming, feature is that it can choose spells off multiple class lists if it chooses to be a Wisdom or Charisma caster.
That being said, I’m mostly fine with this. People understandably did not like the idea of “sidekicks” casting game-changing Wishes and Meteor Swarms. In order to carry its weight in a party, however, the Spellcaster needs to be built off a good statblock or really squeeze the most out of its limited spellcasting abilities.
One problem when choosing statblocks though is that the Spellcaster’s “Spellcasting” feature overwrites a statblock’s “Spellcasting” feature, if it has one. That creates the unfortunate problem of something like an Acolyte losing much of its power when it takes level 1 in the Spellcaster sidekick class. I’d probably just houserule that it gets some of its spells back later on, because from a thematic standpoint, an Acolyte joining the party and then eventually growing in power as a Spellcaster makes a lot of sense from a roleplaying POV. It’s just bad mechanically. A better option is to look for statblocks that have “Innate Spellcasting,” which doesn’t get overwritten.
Making the most of the Spellcaster
I think the best way to salvage the Spellcaster is to lean heavily into what it can do well, which is cantrip spam, and supplement that with the best bang-for-the-buck options it can get from its spell slots. Let’s start with the latter. First, the Spellcaster gets the evoker’s damage buff ability, which lets it pull off Nuclear Wizard shenanigans, RAW. As a DM I wouldn’t allow the Nuclear Wizard stuff in the first place, but it’s there, if you want to use it. As a Healer, you can use this to boost one roll of a healing spell—perhaps useful for an AOE heal like Prayer of Healing or Mass Healing Word. Second, Tasha’s has a feat that lets a non-sorcerer pick up metamagic. With this feat, the Spellcaster can use the Sorcerer’s strongest trick, which is twinning concentration buffs. Boosting the party’s action economy in this way is tremendously powerful even if you’re a half-caster.
The Budget Warlock
Finally, there’s cantrip spam. Baseline, the Spellcaster can get 4d10+5 spamming firebolts. There aren’t a ton of options to boost this, but there are things like Flames of Phlegethos, the aforementioned Twin, and Spell Sniper.
That said, one unique feature of the Spellcaster is that it is the only class in the game other than the Warlock which can learn Eldritch Blast. Unfortunately, the new Tasha’s feats that give EB-boosting Warlock invocations won’t work here, because those invocations have prerequisites and are therefore ineligible for the feat. However, the Prodigy Spellcaster can learn Hex at level 1, which gives 2/3rds of the Warlock’s EB+AB+Hex spam equation. Then there’s the Spellcaster’s “Potent Cantrips” feature, which has almost the same wording as the Cleric’s “Potent Spellcasting” feature. My understanding is that Potent Spellcasting has been ruled to allow an Arcana cleric to add its Wisdom modifier to both forks of a Greenflame Blade hit. If that same ruling holds with a Spellcaster’s Potent Cantrips, the Prodigy should be able to add its Charisma modifier to each beam of the Eldritch Blast. Congratulations, your idiot henchman is now matching 100% of your EB damage. If he picks up Metamagic Adept, great, he’s now a budget Sorlock too for 2 rounds! (And if PCs could multiclass into Sidekick classes, 6 levels of Spellcaster on top of a Sorlock would give you the ultimate EB spammer.)
This build should more-or-less keep up in combat effectiveness with a PC warlock through most of Tier 2. The PC warlock will be firing off 2-3 mid-level spells per battle and spamming EB in between, while the sidekick Budget Warlock will be matching the EB spam and casting 2-3 slightly lower level spells. Of course, it can’t compare to a full Warlock’s out-of-combat utility thanks to invocations and Pact Boons, and it will get left in the dust once Mystic Arcanums show up. But it’ll never lack for at-will damage.
Last thoughts on the Spellcaster
Overall, I can’t help but feel like the Spellcaster is a missed opportunity. I would have liked to see some of the supportive abilities from PC classes mixed in to the Spellcaster’s progression, like the abjurer’s ward, the war cleric’s guided strike, or even a nerfed, non-spotlight-stealing version of the diviner’s Portent.
VI. Racial abilities for Statblocks with “Humanoid (any race)” as the creature type
From what I can tell, these statblocks can optionally add the NPC racial features from p. 282 of the DMG to the stat block. The ones referenced in the PHB are explicitly called out as not altering the challenge rating, which would otherwise affect the statblock’s eligibility for a sidekick class. The others are less clear, and might bump a stat block out of eligibility if they significantly affect HP, AC or damage. I’m not going to bother with doing the math on all these, but adding a feature like Lucky, Gnome Cunning, Relentless Endurance, Infernal Legacy or a breath weapon onto a sidekick definitely makes it more powerful.
A “cheese/rules lawyering” option with the PHB races is to look for stat adjustments that aren’t enough to affect damage or HP significantly—e.g., adding +1 Con to a statblock that has 14 Con. RAW, this won’t affect the CR since the HP bonus doesn’t change, even though this tactic obviously has value—you can use the level 4 ASI to round off the odd-numbered stat.
A few notes on these, since they don’t map exactly to PHB races:
Dwarf – has a choice of +2 Str or Wis, in addition to +2 Con. The Wis bonus is unlikely to lead to a CR bump and will be a good choice for a Healer. Dwarf resilience alone doesn’t affect CR.
Gnome – Likewise, +2 Int along with a choice of +2 Dex or Con will help a Mage. Gnome cunning alone doesn’t affect CR. I don’t know why the DMG Gnome gets +4 to total stats, but there you go.
Half-Orc - +2 Str, +1 Con, and Relentless Endurance doesn’t influence CR.
Tiefling - +1 Int +2 Cha, tiefling spells don’t affect CR.
Halfling - +2 Dex, +1 Con or Cha. Lucky doesn’t affect CR! The halfling mobility and hiding advantages are also very nice for an Expert, while Bountiful Luck is a fantastic way for a sidekick to use its reaction and support the PCs.
Elf/Drow – both underwhelming compared to other options. The standard elf doesn’t seem to get the High Elf’s free cantrip or the Wood Elf’s wilderness abilities.
Half-elf - +1 Dex, +1 Int and +2 Cha. Might be a good foundation for an aspiring Prodigy Spellcaster.
Non-PHB races:
Deep Gnome - +3 to physical stats, which may affect the CR. Along with a pile of racial features, this might be a good choice for a CR ¼ statblock that will not go above CR ½ with the extra abilities.
Hobgoblin – Martial advantage will increase per-round damage by 7. This is likely to affect the CR, so we’re looking for a CR ¼ statblock to slap this onto.
VII. Notable Statblocks – System Reference Document
Acolyte (SRD) / Apprentice Wizard (Volo’s) / Magewright (Eberron RFTLW) – All of these are conceptually very appropriate as NPCs that will eventually turn into Spellcaster sidekicks. I imagine that these guys are what WOTC had in mind when they put together the sidekick rules. Problem is, from an optimization standpoint, these dudes’ Spellcasting trait gets overwritten by the Spellcaster sidekick’s class ability. From that perspective, they’re actually better off being Experts (who can make good use of a free damage cantrip) or Warriors. As a DM, I’d probably just let them stack their base Spellcasting ability alongside the class feature. It might seem powerful at low level but these guys would rapidly lose steam in Tier 2 and higher.
Magewrights have 28 base point buy stats before racials, 2-3 skills and tools, 3-4 cantrips, and 2-3 rituals. CR 0 since they have no combat abilities. You can safely take a +4 stats race, or a half-dragon template, or many other things.
Acolytes have 18 base point buy stats before racials, 3 1st level spells, 3 cantrips, and 2 skills. As CR ¼ creatures, they can safely add a +2 Wis race without crossing the limit.
The Apprentice Mage is the mirror image of the Acolyte. Take a +2 Int race and go wild.
Hobgoblin (SRD) – Point Buy: 15 (backing out racials). This is a pretty lackluster stat block, but does have two redeeming qualities—proficiency in shields and chainmail, and the “Martial Advantage” ability. Martial Advantage essentially functions like a 2d6 sneak attack on one hit per round. This lends itself fairly well to an Expert build, where that extra 2d6 makes a difference in bringing the one attack per round up to something approaching good DPR.
Alternately, the Hobgoblin racial features from the NPC table on p. 282 of the DMG can provide Martial Advantage to a different statblock. Note that these features are different from the ones you get selecting Hobgoblin as a PC race (such as Saving Face).
Noble (SRD) – Point Buy: 32 (before racials). Excellent base stats before racial adjustments, the Noble also offers 3 skills, 2 HD, breastplate and rapier proficiencies, and what is effectively the Defensive Duelist feat for free in the form of the “Parry” ability. With the base 16 charisma, this is probably best played as a budget warlock. You could also go Expert, with Parry being a solid use of the reaction to enhance the Expert’s already powerful suite of survivability features.
The Noble is CR 1/8 so adding Half-elf for a starting 18 Charisma shouldn’t be an issue, nor would adding Hobgoblin for a quick 2d6 extra damage. Go Tiefling for more magic and eventual Flames of Phlegethos as a Mage Firebolt spammer, or take a look at the Half-Dragon template and see if you can keep the Noble at CR ½ or less.
Orc (SRD) – Point Buy: 24 (backing out racials). Although the 16 Str/Con are solid for a Warrior, and Aggressive is a nice gap close, there is nothing exceptional about this stat block. Starting with something like the Thug stat block and adding the orc racial features from a supplement book like Volo’s would give you an overall better character.
Satyr (SRD) – Point Buy: 24 (if you back out Satyr racials). Not exceptional stats, but this guy has 7 base HD, 40’ movement and magic resistance on a CR ½ creature. This means Con ASIs and Tough will scale extremely well and it’ll start with a boatload of HP at level 1. With Satyr’s Pipes (optional item in the MM’s Satyr stat block) potentially providing an AOE fear or charm, Expert looks like a good class. The Satyr also appears to start with expertise in Performance. Dex Warrior (starting Dex 16) is also very viable, especially as a flex archer/S&B tank. Spellcaster is also fine—Satyr’s innate MR and hit dice are so strong that this sidekick will be effective no matter what you do.
Scout (SRD) – Point Buy: 25 (pre-racials). Overall, this is an extremely powerful statblock, grabbing a couple key features from the Warrior and Expert as built-in abilities. You know those bizarre builds like Aerenal elf Knowledge Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Bard 3/whatever where people try to get a zillion skills, and how those characters suck? Well, if you want to play a terrible character like that, you’re better off just being a sidekick Scout-Expert. Although the stats aren’t anything special, the Scout has 3 HD, Multiattack 2 Longbow/Shortsword and appears to start with Expertise in four skills. As an “Any Race Humanoid”, you could still go Aerenal elf (Eberron; trade elf weapon proficiencies for Expertise in one skill) and have Expertise in 9 skills as a Scout-Expert. Add Keen Hearing and Sight and you have an almost unbeatable skill monkey, with Multiattack 2 to boot (which would find use if you wanted to make a Sharpshooter Expert or Spellcaster). As with other Multiattack 2 Expert builds, the Scout-Expert approaches 75% of a vanilla Rogue 20’s expected DPR assuming it can max its attack stat. Go Spellcaster instead, and you have something that feels like a fighter/mage/thief from 2nd Edition. Nifty.
* Note: the Scout is balanced on a knife’s edge at CR 1/2. Any +2 Dexterity race likely pushes it to CR 1. Half-elf’s +1 Dex would be good if building a Warrior or Expert, while Dwarf’s +2 Con +2 Wis would be a better foundation for a Healer.
Sprite (SRD) – Point Buy: 27. An interesting stat block—40’ flight, a poisoned shortbow attack, at-will invisibility, what appears to be Stealth expertise, and a starting 18 Dex. This can be the foundation of a good backline caster or a skill monkey. Attacking or casting a spell breaks the invisibility, but there might be other actions (healing kit?) that an Expert can take that wouldn’t break it. Don’t bother making it a Warrior—a weak poison DC isn’t enough to build around for Extra Attack, unless the DM rules that the Sprite can Sharpshooter power attack using its wimpy bow.
Svirfneblin (SRD) – Point Buy: 26 (backing out racials). Near PC-level stats (counting racials), plus chain shirt proficiency, 3 skills, Gnome Cunning, Innate Spellcasting (equivalent to a free feat, also not overwritten by Spellcaster), and a poisoned weapon make this a solid foundation for any sidekick build. The emphasis on physical stats—particularly the 15 Str—pushes this towards Warrior, but the free spells and poisoned weapon could make this a decent Expert or add some more oomph as a dedicated caster. Given the creature’s small size, the best build is probably a control/support Warrior using shield bashes, Protection and Gnome Cunning to protect the weak saves. The new Thrown Weapon fighting style might be an interesting pickup (via Feat) at high level, to spam poisoned darts all over the place.
Thug (SRD) – Point Buy: 26 (before racials). Another excellent statblock, the Thug has solid-enough base stats, starting 5 HD, Multiattack 2 (mace/heavy crossbow), and Pack Tactics, with the only drawback being poor AC. And it can add racial traits on top. What’s not to like? A Str/Con race will help offense, but be careful—the Thug is tightly balanced at CR 1/2. Taking the Strength attack bonus up to +3 will push this up to CR 1.
The most obvious play here is Warrior, which immediately shores up the weak AC with heavy armor and a shield. The Multiattack 2 mace isn’t wasted, as it will carry the build through Tier 1—in fact, Multiattack 2+Attacker+Pack Tactics while wearing a shield and 4d8+Con extra HP makes the Thug outperform any PC fighter build I can think of in Tier 1. Take a strength ASI at level 4, and then GWM at level 8. Attacker+Pack Tactics completely cancels the power attack penalty of GWM, helping the Thug-Warrior maintain parity with PC fighters until level 11. The build has enough feats to max out Str and take the GWM/PAM/Sentinel trifecta if it wants to, but feats like Tough will also scale extremely well due to the 4 extra HD. Race-wise, the best choice is probably the +2 Con +2 Wis Dwarf since we want to avoid +Str races. As a DM, since I historically like to use non-optimal abilities when awarding followers, I might give it something like the Dwarf’s self-healing feat to use those extra hit dice.
Expert is another interesting option. The Expert’s “sneak attack” feature works with a mace, so the Multiattack 2 will find value throughout the Thug-Expert’s career. What we’re building here is basically a mobile, front-line skirmisher, that picks up a +2 Dex race and Moderately Armored to grant advantage to an ally and come in to focus-fire with 2 maces at 2d6+mod x2 +2d6 +2d6 (31), with self-granted advantage using Pack Tactics. Compare to a vanilla full Rogue 20 doing ~43 raw DPR. If you can get Dex to 14, then the Multiattack heavy crossbow will also find some use.
Warhorse (SRD) – Excellent base stats for an animal companion. Base strength is 18, which means the attack stat is maxed at level 4, and all later ASIs can go to feats or Con. It also starts with 3d10 HD. Since a warhorse with the Warrior class can’t take the Defender style, it has to go Attacker—giving a +8 to hit at level 1.
VIII. Notable Statblocks – Monster Manual
Pixie (MM) – This little girl is either completely OP or totally useless depending on how the DM plays it. The book says that pixies hate fighting and run away from enemies. If that’s how it is gonna work at your table, then the mechanics are irrelevant since the Pixie won’t have any impact on battles. On the other hand, if your DM rules that your Pixie sidekick is going to stand and fight…
…then you have an outright game-breaking situation on your hands. The Pixie comes out of the gate with the casting presence of an 8th-level mage, with Polymorph and Confusion in its arsenal at level 1. It also has a starting 20 Dexterity, +7 Stealth, and an at-will Invisibility that doesn’t appear to break on a spell cast, unless the spell uses concentration. Since the Pixie doesn’t use weapons, Warrior is out. Expert could work, but since the Help bonus damage depends on the Expert landing an attack, that probably isn’t the best choice either.
That leaves Spellcaster, which is the clear winner. Since the Pixie’s magic is Innate Spellcasting, it doesn’t get overwritten. The flavor text suggests that Pixies don’t like to do damage, which is fine, and since they have 10 Int you don’t want the Wizard list anyway. The best strategy here is to go Healer with 14 Wis and focus on buffs, zone control and (gasp!) in-combat healing, which the Healer can do since it mixes the Druid and Cleric lists. Non-concentration buffs like Aid, Death Ward and Longstrider shouldn’t break the Pixie’s invisibility, nor would upcasted heals or Spare the Dying. She can also hand out Goodberries, and if she can find a safe space to hide, maintain a Healing Spirit or a Sleet Storm.
And she does need to hide. The Pixie’s biggest issue in combat (if it decides to participate at all) is the fact that it has 1 hit point. Another reason it can’t really use offensive spells is that it can’t afford to boost its casting stats (whether Wis or Cha), because every ASI/feat needs to go into improving its survivability. I would probably build towards putting every ASI into Con, maybe taking Tough, and perhaps taking something like the Metamagic feat to get Distant Spell. Distant would let the Pixie stay even farther away from the action. One counterpoint in favor of the Expert is that Evasion helps protect the Pixie’s pitiful HP puddle.
Jackalwere (MM) – Point Buy 25. There’s 4 HD, 3 skills, Keen Senses, a sleep gaze, and Pack Tactics… but that isn’t even the most busted thing. Immunity to nonmagical, nonsilvered weapons is game-breaking. There were a couple of 2e races/kits that had this ability and I never allowed them in play. I wouldn’t allow this either.
IX. Notable Statblocks – Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Changeling (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 25 (after backing out racials). Starting 16 Cha pushes this towards a Prodigy Spellcaster, but the 5 starting skills can make it a great skill monkey too. 4 HD, an impersonation ability, Multiattack 2 with a dagger, and an AOE fear on a short rest round out the toolkit.
Dolgrim (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy 22. Multiattack 3, 3HD, advantage to resist a bunch of statuses, and solid physical stats make this a good statblock for a bruiser. One of its multiattack weapons is a hand crossbow. CBE+SS+Archery FS+Attacker Martial Role? (CBE doesn’t work with Multiattack, but Multiattack carries you until you have Extra Attack 3 and a spare feat to burn on CBE.) If you’re willing to forgo the Attacker Martial Role, you can go Expert for a slightly worse damage dealer who has a huge pile of skills and bonus actions. An Expert still gets 6 ASIs, which is enough to go PAM-Sentinel using a Multiattack 3 spear if the crossbow build doesn’t tickle your fancy. Too bad it’s chaotic evil.
Kalashtar (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 32 (after backing out racials). Bonkers stats, 3 HD, 3 skills (including what looks like Expertise in Persuasion), psychic resistance, short-range telepathy, a pseudo-cantrip attack, and a substitute for Wisdom save proficiency give you a grab bag of useful but not overpowering abilities. I’d actually run this as a sidekick if I was DMing. Both Expert and Spellcaster look good to take advantage of the high Wisdom and Charisma—I might go with Spellcaster here and grab all of the psionic feats and spells in Tasha’s. That might make this guy actually feel like a psionicist and a unique member of the party, but not strong enough to upstage any PC.
Shifter (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 30 (after backing out racials). 4 skill proficiencies, good Dex and Wis, and 3 HD make this a good base statblock for a rangery type of character. It doesn’t strongly lend itself to any specific sidekick class, however.
Valenar Hound (Eberron RFTLW) – Point Buy: 41. Incredible base stats for a CR ½ creature. This guy makes a terrific animal companion, with its innate telepathy, bite knockdown, and Keen Senses bonus. The Valenar animals also get an interesting bonus trait, detailed on page 313 of the book. The Hawk and Horse are equally powerful. None of them can speak, so they can’t be Spellcasters or Experts. But you were going to go Warrior anyway with that juicy 17 Str, right?
X. Notable Statblocks – Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica
Frontline Medic (GGTR) – Point Buy: 29 (before racials). This guy is just busted broken strong. Essentially, this is a 3rd-level cleric rolled into a CR ¼ body. It gets 3 HD, plate and shield proficiency, 2 skills (1 expertise), and slots and cantrips as a 3rd-level full spellcaster, before even taking any sidekick class levels. With Str 15 and Con 14, it is ready-made to roll immediately into Warrior. Alternately, you could go Expert and have a very survivable meatshield in the front line, spamming healing kits and help actions. Spellcaster is of course a waste of the statblock’s built-in Spellcasting feature.
Since the Frontline Medic is a humanoid (race any), you should be able to pile racial traits onto this statblock as well. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how this is costed at CR ¼--based on my math it should be at least CR ½. Giving it +2 Con won’t push it over any threshold for HP, and +2 Wis doesn’t push it over any offensive threshold. By that reasoning, you should be able to make this a DMG p. 282 Dwarf and give it +2 Con and +2 Wis without going over the limit. However, Dwarves don’t appear to exist in Ravnica (despite being associated with Red mana in MTG) so you might have to make this a Minotaur (which isn’t on p. 282). Then it’s the DM’s call if +2 Str and +1 Con push this past CR ½.
Regardless, the Frontline Medic-Warrior 20 compares favorably to something like a Champion 17/Life Cleric 3 over a full 20-level career. It will match the 3 APR from the Champion levels and the low-level utility casting of the cleric levels. While it’s probably not as strong as the full-powered PC classes, it comes very close and is in fact more capable at lower levels. Pick up Ritual Caster: Cleric to really make it feel like a fighter-priest. Not bad for a sidekick.
Kraul Warrior (GGTR) – Point Buy: 23. Natural AC 18, 5 HD, and Pack Tactics. Not bad if you are looking for an insect guy that functions similarly to a Thug.
Rubblebelt Stalker (GGTR) – Point Buy: 24 (before racials). Just as overpowered as his Boros brother, the Gruul Rubblebelt Stalker piles a bunch of quality features into a CR ½ chassis. 2 HD and 3 skills are just the beginning. This guy comes out of the gate with Multiattack 3 (shortsword), a faux-approximation of a pure Fighter’s level 11 ability. On top of that, it gets four other features, two of which are quite good (Ambusher and Nimble Escape) and two that are situational. Needless to say, there is no point going Warrior on this guy as the level 15 ability is already achieved at level 1. Better to go Spellcaster, and get something that plays like a fighter/mage or a gish.
Rubblebelt Stalker-Spellcaster compares favorably to something like EK 11/Wizard 9. Both get 3 attacks and access to 5th-level spells. Like the Frontline Medic, it’s not as powerful as a PC using full-power classes, but it’s close. I think the best build here is to go for weapon buffs on top of the shortsword (3) using the Wizard list, but a Prodigy base comes online earlier with Hex and Armor of Agathys. The statblock also starts with 14 Wis if you wanted to go in the Healer direction.
An interesting trick that PC classes can’t easily replicate is stacking the Siege Monster ability with a spell that does structural damage.
*Note: Much like the hilariously undercosted Frontline Medic, the offensive CR of the Rubblebelt Stalker (15 damage, +4 to hit) alone should put this at CR 1. If you’re going to add a race to it, better to go with something that doesn’t boost Dexterity or damage further. Of course, if you’re the DM, it doesn’t matter. But just know that this stat block shouldn’t really qualify to be a sidekick under the spirit of the rules.
Simic Hybrid Spy (GGTR) – Point Buy: 28 (after backing out racials). 4 HD, some movement abilities, a couple skills, starting Dex 17, and Multiattack 2. Good foundation for an Expert.
XI. Notable Statblocks – Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Darkling (VGTM) – Point Buy: 24. 4 skills, Stealth Expertise, 3 HD. The standard dagger attack contains a built-in 2d6 sneak attack. Taking the Expert’s full damage effects into consideration, the Darkling gives you dagger+mod+6d6 potential damage at level 20. 2/3rds of the Rogue’s functionality isn’t too bad.
Vegepygmy (VGTM) – Point Buy: 11. Atrocious stats, but Regeneration 3 and some interesting resistances make this statblock worth looking at. All things considered, having all of Int, Str and Cha as dump stats don’t matter that much—the vegepgymy’s Dex and Con are high enough to be a functional character. There are synergies with both the Warrior and Expert here. Expert’s evasion can help avoid AOE fire and cold effects that would shut down the vegepygmy’s regeneration, while the Warrior’s shield and medium armor proficiency improve the EHP through better armor class and build towards being a Dex control build.
Alternately, you can wear heavy armor as a Warrior, eat the movement penalty, and take Heavy Armor Master, for even more raw damage absorption. In this case, you still pump ASIs into Dexterity and eventually take Sharpshooter—this effectively makes the vegepygmy an immobile, survivable, damage-dealing turret.
Thematically, this would be an appropriate follower for a spore druid.
XII. Notable Statblocks – Others
I’ll write more about these when I get time.
Shadow (many resistances, strength drain)
Flying sword (5 HD, many immunities)
Pseudodragon (not that useful?)
Lizardfolk MM (4 HD, multiattack, natural armor, 15 str, AC 15 shield prof)
Scorchbringer guard –
Chitine – (multiattack 3 daggers, web movement)
Firenewt warrior (multiattack 2, 4 HD, fire immunity,
Gnoll hunter (st/dex 14, multiattack 2,
Grung – VGTM (poison skin, leap, use as grappler)
Kobold inventor VGTM (excellent as caster or expert)