5e Throwdowns #10: Dash Action through the Difficult Terrain

[Dork_Forge]

I hope that this throwdown finds you all well, in good health and keeping safe! Tis the season to fall off your diets and what kind of host would I be if I didn't try and fend off your growing Cyberpunk addiction by giving you some sweet cinnamon D&D to chew over in the festive season?

The concept: IT'S CHRISTMAS BABY!

This is easy and open, make a character that just evokes Christmas in some way to you, of course if you celebrate something else during this season then feel free create a character that represents that to you, but please include what it is meant to represent so that we may share in it!



Some rules for guidance:

-It has to be seasonal!

-Tasha's material is on the table and that includes chopping and changing your stats etc. and custom lineage

-In the interest of promoting creativity and diversity in these builds, Hexblade will be allowed, but requires a minimum of 5 levels as part of your overall build. If you choose any other Warlock patron this restriction is not applicable.

-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.

-If you submit a build, you must vote for someone for your entry to be considered valid

-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, when the build deadline has closed votes will be accepted. The voting deadline will be five days 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).

Christmas build deadline/Voting opens: 23/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET

Voting deadline: 28/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET

PLEASE NOTE THAT VOTING IS NOW ONLY ONCE THE BUILD DEADLINE HAS PASSED.



I'd also like to take a moment to ask you guys to check out our Youtube channel, we focus on mechanics and character builds (our current videos focus on overviewing Tasha's content with added thoughts and notes) and if you enjoy these contests you may very well enjoy our work too. All of our builds comes with a free to access build guides in the description to help follow along or run the characters in your own games. Thank you for sitting through my waffle!



Without further ado, LET'S THROWDOWN!

Previous winners:

Throwdown #1: The Gish - Sithlordnergal's 'The Undying Barbarian' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24497507&postcount=27)

Throwdown #2: The Terminator - Ludic Savant's 'The Regenerator' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24520668&postcount=51)

Throwdown #3: The Solo Tour - Ftafp's 'The Hex Spoon' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24536099&postcount=21)

Throwdown #4: Powergamer's Potluck - BobtheWizard's 'The Shadow Knight' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24549849&postcount=8)

Throwdown #5: The Do-Over (Magus Maximus) - Civis Mundi's 'Pompey Problemsolver' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24596826&postcount=5) and Nix inktongue (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24598011&postcount=10)

Throwdown #6: Hard Mode (An Abserd Difficulty) - JOINT WINNERS: Waazraath's 'Just a sort of regular smiting paladin' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24628334&postcount=11) and ftafp's 'The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24618861&postcount=4)

Throwdown #7: Against the Grain (unusual combinations) - MinotaurWarrior's 'Aziah Parakambahu' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24712757&postcount=11) and kalkyrie's 'The Grand Galactic Inquisitor' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24710879&postcount=9)

Throwdown #8: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - JOINT WINNERS: Waazraath's 'Daemona - the winged fiendish chick with whip' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24743054&postcount=14) & MinotaurWarrior's 'Bob the Builder' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24734458&postcount=5)

[Waazraath]

Just curious: how are the title of the thread "Dash Action through the Difficult Terrain" and the theme "IT'S CHRISTMAS BABY!" connected? Am I missing something obvious, not being a native English speaker?

[Galithar]

Just curious: how are the title of the thread "Dash Action through the Difficult Terrain" and the theme "IT'S CHRISTMAS BABY!" connected? Am I missing something obvious, not being a native English speaker?

It's a play on words of "Dashing through the Snow" a famous opening line to the Christmas Carol "Jingle Bells"

[Waazraath]

It's a play on words of "Dashing through the Snow" a famous opening line to the Christmas Carol "Jingle Bells"

Ah, thanks! English for work or on internet fora is as far as it goes for me, Christmas songs I only know (rather badly) in my own language =P

[ftafp]

this is going to be a rough one.

[Dork_Forge]

Ah, thanks! English for work or on internet fora is as far as it goes for me, Christmas songs I only know (rather badly) in my own language =P

Sorry! I probably should have named it something more straight forward...

[Waazraath]

Sorry! I probably should have named it something more straight forward...

No worries, good for my general knowledge :)

[JediMaster]

Mobility is key to final build.

[Waazraath]

Santa’s little helper


https://cdn0.iconfinder.com/data/icons/merry-christmas-30/60/christmas_elf-512.png

Concept:
Oh jolly joy joy! What captures better The Spirit of Christmas than a sweet Christmas elf, who makes toys, who makes it snow (control weather), hands out presents (like goodberry’s and temporary hitpoints), and summons other elves and reindeers (conjure animals, fey, woodlands beings)?

Level 20 level split: Shepard Druid 20

Race: Christmas Elf (Tasha’s custom race), +2 wis, feat,
Stats (standard array): Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 (13+1) Int 10 Wis 17 (15+2) Cha 12
Feat: resilience (constitution)
Background: far traveller (obviously, all the way from the North Pole!); trade ‘music instrument’ for ‘artisans tools: woodcarver’s tools’ (in case some toys have to be made).
Skills & tools: insight, perception, nature, animal handling; woodcarver’s tools

Starting level: Druid 1

We have a young and upcoming Christmas elf. Stanta’s little helper is a druid, that can give some Goodberry presents to those who deserve it (or an ice knife to those that hadn’t been good), and make wooden toys. Resilience (con) makes it easier to maintain concentration spells.

At 5th level: Shepard druid 5

The Warcaster feat is added. Santa’s little helper’s main tactics are: cast tons of goodberry’s the day before adventuring (and with available low level spell slots before taking a long rest); use the bear spirit aura first thing in the morning to give every party member X temporary hp, and immediately take a short rest during breakfast. In combat, Santa’s little helper (hereafter: SLH) summons 8 reindeers (elks) for the flavour of it and gives them loads of temporary hp as a bonus action (in addition to the extra hp from the class feature, that also makes their attacks count as magic). Alternatively, he summons giant elk to bog combat not down too much.

With Warcaster and resilience (con), SLH won’t lose concentration too often. And of course, there are plenty of other spells that give versatility, and he can wildshape, for example in a (snow) owl as a panic button if he accidently get cornered. But he can also use wildshape to scout or spy. Other polar animals (polar bears, giant snow owls, whatever) can be used for variety’s sake, as spells related to cold, like sleet storm, for bonus points for stayin in theme.

At 11th level: Shepard Druid 11

Same as before, but with more options. SLH summons other (reflavoured) Christmas elves (with conjure fey and conjure woodland beings). Tasha’s gave Cone of cold to the druid, it fits the theme nicely, as do summoning ice mephitis or casting ice storm. The extra ASI can go in telepathic, raise Wis to 18 while enabling SHL to communicate during wildshape.

At 17th level: Shepard Druid 17

Wis hits 20 due to the lvl 16 ASI. At this point, SLH can shapechange into Santa I guess, if the old fat man needs somebody to substitute him for a while. He’s still a single class shepard druid, with all the goodness that brings: full caster up to 9th level spells at this point, loads of temp hp for himself, the entire party and the summons, and loads of battlefield control and utility spells. At lower levels, druids are hampered a bit by too many concentration spells, but at this level, the ‘conjure’ line is still very good, while there are plenty of interesting non-concentration spells added (cone of cold, heal, fire storm, sunburst, fire shield, etc. – though some are obviously more thematic than others).

At 20th level and final thoughts:

Use the final ASI for tough, and we’ll have one strong Christmas Elf. It has almost 200hp, but much, much more with temporary hp included. It is proficient in the 2 most important saves, wis and con. Absorb elements can take the edge of high damage elemental attacks. It’s offense comes from spells and summons. It has loads and loads of utility for non-combat situations, through spells, wildshape and the telepathic feat. Though a ‘simple’ (single class) build, Santa’s Little Helper is A Very Good Addition To Any Adventuring Party.

[rlc]

I guess I’m not really following the rules here, because I’m not going level by level, but I would probably make a wood elf artificer, replacing the ability score increases with +2 int and +1 dex, and replacing all of the weapon proficiencies with tool proficiencies. I’m not sure if I would go with alchemist or battle smith for the subclass, though, since both make sense.

[Aett_Thorn]

Now Dasher, Now Dancer, Now Prancer and Vixen

Concept:
The legend of the flying reindeer is actually rooted in a tribe of druids who look over the larger herd by taking to the skies. After all, how better to watch out for predators than by having an Eagle-eye view? You know what? That's a lie. But what Christmas is complete without a flying reindeer with a bright red nose leading the way?

Name: Rudolph Rednose
Level 20 Split: Moon Druid 6+/Wizard 5+/Eagle Totem Barbarian 6

Race: Really doesn't matter for this character, but let's say Standard Human, because we're doing an odd multiclass and the +1s will help
Stats (Standard array): Str 12(+1), Dex 10(+1), Con 13(+1), Wis 15(+1), Int 14(+1), Cha 8(+1) (low Cha comes from being an outcast and not allowed to play in any reindeer games)

Background: Hermit, with your secret being that you know where Santa lives

Starting level 1:
We're going to start out Druid, not necessarily because it's optimized, but we want to get to Druid 6 as quickly as possible to be able to turn into a Giant Elk (Reindeer) as soon as possible, so this will help. At this point, we're going to play mainly as a standard Druid, going Circle of the Moon at level 2.

Level 5:
We're still full Druid at this point, and at level 4, we'll pick up the Observant Feat, going +1 Int to even that score up. Why Observant? Because Rudolph can see through heavy fog, duh. At this point, the main battle tactics are to turn into the biggest creature you can and fight that way, with Druid spells as a backup and for non-combat activities.

Level 11:
We're going to pick up Druid 6, so that we can turn into a Giant Elk, complete with red nose. And just for fun, se if your DM will allow you to cast Produce Flame on yourself before transforming and have it transfer to your nose in Reindeer form. Because why not have 10 minutes of light coming from your nose like it's supposed to, Rudolph.

Now, after Druid 6, we're going to go Wizard 5. Why? Because that allows us to take both the Levitation and Fly spells. Now, sadly we can't cast these while we're in reindeer form, but at least we can cast them ahead of time and fly about for a bit while transformed, and that counts. We're going to go with Conjuration as a School, so that when Produce Flame (or the Light spell at this point) runs out, we can conjure an item (like a nose ring) that radiates dim light to continue our theme. In addition, we can always make a temporary toy for good little boys and girls if need be when Santa runs out.

At Wizard 4, for our ASI, we'll pump up Wis by 2 to get better Perception scores and Druid spellcasting when we need it.

Level 17:[b]
After going Wizard 5, we're going to go Barbarian 6, going Eagle Totem. Not only does this allow us to go faster, even while flying, but also gives us the ability to see far away. Doesn't help in fog, per se, but it's still fun and thematic. Being able to apply rage damage in giant elk form is just a bonus. At this point, we're really not a combat build anyways.

At Barbarian 4, we'll max out our Wisdom for additional perception bonuses. At this point, heavy obscurement like fog should be but a minor hassle.

[b]Level 20:
We're going to finish up by going either more Druid or more Wizard. We're really just trying to get more spell slots for Fly, so it doesn't really matter. Choose whichever class has the spells that you want to take. Either way we go, for our last ASI, we're going to take the Dungeon Delver Feat. Now, most of this will be completely useless, however, it's the last feature that we're getting this for. "Traveling at a fast pace doesn't impose the normal −5 penalty on your passive Wisdom (Perception) score." Boom. Pull that sleigh with all of your might and not lose out on being able to see around you. I figure at this point you've probably got some hooves of flight made for you anyways, so you can continue to fly in reindeer form for quite some time. And now Santa won't get made at you for flying into all of those high voltage wires.

[Waazraath]

Christmas build deadline/Voting opens: 23/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET

Voting deadline: 28/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET

Any other contestants?

[Dork_Forge]

Any other contestants?

Not sure why these dropped off so heavily on this board (I also run this on D&D Beyond), maybe the people have decided the throwdowns have outstayed their welcome?

[Waazraath]

Not sure why these dropped off so heavily on this board (I also run this on D&D Beyond), maybe the people have decided the throwdowns have outstayed their welcome?

I don't know, but I doubt it. It's not like there aren't enough people here interested in optimization discussions, or making builds. Maybe the format is a bit much, quite a lot of work to complete every time a build for 1, 5, 11, 17 and 20? Maybe more people participate if you ask only for a lvl 10 build? Or maybe in general more variety is needed; what the throwdowns are often like is that the 'quest' is a certain theme, and that's the only challenge ('optimize for specific theme') and always in the same format. Maybe you could consider stuff like: including items (to add a new variable); severely limiting what classes/races/spells can be used (forcing people to move outside the beaten tracks); give specific goals ("aim for the highest possible speed at level 8"), or a combination of several of these? But I'm just guessing here.

Personally, the reason I didn't participate in all of them was "time", but it's also true that with less people participating, it gets less interesting. I hope we can get more people participating here, else I'll check out D&D beyond (never visited it before though).

[Civis Mundi]

I'm with Waazrath, that it's more down to lack of time and the snowball effect of lack of participation. I really wanted to participate in this one -- and a lot of previous ones -- but this year has left me pretty skint of time. I'm just beginning to get my head above water, and I'm really looking forward to participating in the next one.

[ftafp]

Not sure why these dropped off so heavily on this board (I also run this on D&D Beyond), maybe the people have decided the throwdowns have outstayed their welcome?

I think a lot of it comes down to demographic. People who use this forum have mostly been playing since 3.X and are much more jaded to 5e's lack of build variety, hence why the 3.x build contests are still going strong. In contrast, I think most people on the DnDBeyond forums started on 5e, so they see something like Tasha's being dropped as an explosion of new possibilities rather than a slightly larger drip than usual

That said, I think this specific challenge was probably too hard. The Icebreaker round was by my own admission a poor suggestion because of how little possible variety there was, and the many of the people who did participate were mostly forced to pick holiday-themed build concepts to distinguish themselves which couldn't be re-used in this specific contest

[Civis Mundi]

That said, I think this specific challenge was probably too hard. The Icebreaker round was by my own admission a poor suggestion because of how little possible variety there was, and the many of the people who did participate were mostly forced to pick holiday-themed build concepts to distinguish themselves which couldn't be re-used in this specific contest

I admit, I did consider an ice-themed build for this one before I remembered I already did that! Still glad that challenge happened, I was pretty fond of what came out of it.

In general, I think more specific requirements might make it easier for people to generate ideas. I think of the many cooking shows that have gotten me through these last several stressful years. Challenges often include incorporating one particular ingredient, sometimes in some particular way (a cake that features chili peppers, for instance). We might look to that for inspiration -- here's my best crack at some examples:


A contest for builds that combine the Barbarian and at least one spellcasting class, utilizing both (or all) to the greatest possible degree.
A contest for builds that revolve around using the warding bond spell.
A contest for the best summoner build, using the new spells from Tasha's.
A contest to build the absolute best critfisher, extra fun with the new feats.
A contest to build the ultimate grappler.
A contest to build the ultimate support with no spell slots (or potentially no spellcasting at all).
A contest to approximate a specific monster of your choice using PC races and classes.
A contest for builds that use one class to impersonate another -- the best build is both optimal and could reasonably pull off the ruse at the average table without provoking too much suspicion.


EDIT: All this said, I reviewed the past contests, and #7 and #8 both seem like great examples of what I'm talking about too (really wish I was around to participate in those at the time). So I'm stumped, and will put it down to 2020 exhaustion. Again, really looking forward to the next one.

[ftafp]

I admit, I did consider an ice-themed build for this one before I remembered I already did that! Still glad that challenge happened, I was pretty fond of what came out of it.

In general, I think more specific requirements might make it easier for people to generate ideas. I think of the many cooking shows that have gotten me through these last several stressful years. Challenges often include incorporating one particular ingredient, sometimes in some particular way (a cake that features chili peppers, for instance). We might look to that for inspiration -- here's my best crack at some examples:


A contest for builds that combine the Barbarian and at least one spellcasting class, utilizing both (or all) to the greatest possible degree.
A contest for builds that revolve around using the warding bond spell.
A contest for the best summoner build, using the new spells from Tasha's.
A contest to build the absolute best critfisher, extra fun with the new feats.
A contest to build the ultimate grappler.
A contest to build the ultimate support with no spell slots (or potentially no spellcasting at all).
A contest to approximate a specific monster of your choice using PC races and classes.
A contest for builds that use one class to impersonate another -- the best build is both optimal and could reasonably pull off the ruse at the average table without provoking too much suspicion.


EDIT: All this said, I reviewed the past contests, and #7 and #8 both seem like great examples of what I'm talking about too (really wish I was around to participate in those at the time). So I'm stumped, and will put it down to 2020 exhaustion. Again, really looking forward to the next one.

With a lot of those you're going to be radically narrowing down what kind of final builds are possible, which with 5e's limited options is going to limit participation.

It might be easier if we mimicked 3.X's highly successful Iron Chef challenges, using certain subclasses as a key ingredient. It might also make it easier to navigate around the tough rounds since the subclasses that are known for rewarding only a single, highly specialized build (e.g. Tempest Cleric) can be easily avoided

[Civis Mundi]

With a lot of those you're going to be radically narrowing down what kind of final builds are possible, which with 5e's limited options is going to limit participation.

It might be easier if we mimicked 3.X's highly successful Iron Chef challenges, using certain subclasses as a key ingredient. It might also make it easier to navigate around the tough rounds since the subclasses that are known for rewarding only a single, highly specialized build (e.g. Tempest Cleric) can be easily avoided

Yeah, I think the "key ingredient" thing is right on the money -- I was just trying to brainstorm a number of possibilities, to avoid making a broad suggestion without any actual examples.