Damon_Tor
2020-12-15, 06:31 PM
Inspired by this thread here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?622461-quot-Can-grapplers-deal-good-damage-quot-A-Tasha-s-build), I resolved to push grappling damage as far as possible using the new options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. As it turns out, when you want to body slam some poor sucker into next week, you don't ask the Wookie, you ask the freaking Jedi.
So who is this masked Jedi and how does he do what he do?
Our Jedi Luchador is a Fighter/Barbarian/Wizard. Specifically:
Fighter (Psi Warrior) 12
Barbarian (Elk/Bear Totem) 6
Wizard (Bladesinger) 2
Race: Tabaxi
ASI: Mobile, Athlete (+1 Str), Skill Expertise (Athletics, +1 Str), +2 Str, +2 Con
With Longstrider, Bladesong and Rage, we've got a base movement speed of 85. As a Tabaxi we can double that to 170 for a turn. And then as a psi warrior we can perform a Psi-Powered Leap as a bonus action to turn that into a flight speed of 340. With a Dash, that's a total flight speed of of 680 feet.
We'll assume Rage and Bladesong are both active, as is Longstrider. We'll assume we begin our turn adjacent to our target, but not already engaged in a grapple.
As your Action Dash. As a bonus action, use Psi-Powered Leap.
Use Action Surge to take the Attack Action and make your first attack as a Grapple, having a great chance of success due to advantage, high str and expertise.
Leap (it's technically a fly speed, but it's called a leap) 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 280 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air. This splits 20d6 damage evenly between us and the target, but we reduce that damage by half because of our Resistance: they take 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed) via the Athlete feat. We have 270 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap up 130 feet in the air and drop him for 13d6 damage. We have 10 feet of flight remaining
Fall on him, splitting 13d6 damage evenly with him. He takes 6.5d6 damage, we take 3.25d6 damage.
Stand from prone, using our last 5 feet of movement.
Grapple him again for good measure.
So for those of us keeping track, our opponent took 49.5d6, or about 173.25, damage this turn. We took 8.25d6, or about 28.875, damage. Well that's pretty good, but nothing exceptional, right? So where am I going with this?
Taking it Further
The above is an example of how this works with no magic items or external assistance. So how does this look when I allow for a little help? Specifically, I'm adding just two more things, things unlikely to surprise most of you: Haste as cast by an ally (or via potion) and Boots of Speed.
So the boots of speed double our Tabaxi running speed from 170 to 340. Haste doubles it again to 680. Using Haste's extra action as a dash doubles that to a running speed of 1360, and a flying speed of 2720. (For the record, this is 309 miles per hour) Our action surge is now free to make another attack action, so you see where I'm going with this.
As before, we'll assume Rage and Bladesong are both active, as is Longstrider. An ally has already cast Haste on us and our Boots of Speed are active. We'll assume we begin our turn adjacent to our target, but not already engaged in a grapple. However, this time adjacency doesn't actually matter because we've got 260 feet of movement to spare!
Use your Haste Action to Dash. As a bonus action, use Psi-Powered Leap.
Use your action to take the Attack Action and make your first attack as a Grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 2320 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: they take 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 2310 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1910 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1900 feet of flight remaining.
Use your third attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1500 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1490 feet of flight remaining.
Action Surge to perform another Attack Action. Use your first attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1090 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1080 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 680 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 670 feet of flight remaining.
Use your third attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 270 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 260 feet of flight remaining.
Just to be a jerk, Fly up 200 feet again and land on the other guy, so he takes another 10d6 damage and you take 5d6.
You've got just a little movespeed left, and is that guy still twitching? Fly up 60 feet and land on him one last time for 6d6 damage to him and 3d6 to you.
The final score: the other guy took 196d6, or ~686, damage! That would kill literally anything in the game. We took 38d6, or 133 damage. That's quite a beating, but well within our tolerances as a level 20 fighter/barbarian.
Random Thoughts
"But Damon" you say. "The size restrictions on grappling prevent you from killing some stuff with this tactic". And you're right, of course. There are a few ways to mitigate this, naturally. A friendly spellcaster can biggen you up or shrink your foe with Enlarge/Reduce. This allows you to grapple huge targets, but not gargantuan ones, unless you've got two friendly spellcasters willing to both grow you and shrink the other other guy, while a third supplies your haste. Another way: get a friendly spellcaster to Ready Action: Polymorph on you. Then once you've already activated your various class/racial features at the start of your turn, said Spellcaster will cast it, turning you into a Giant Ape. The Ape would only allow you four grapples instead of your normal six, but you would be able to grapple anything at all, up to and including the tarrasque. You know you want to see King Kong suplex Godzilla!
This isn't a maximum speed build: I could have added two levels of monk in place of fighter 12 and Barbarian 6 to squeeze out another 10 feet of base movement. But I didn't care for how MAD that made the build, and I was well past what I needed in the final exercise anyway. I had a version of this build where I had levels in Astral Form Monk and Moon druid: I would Wildshape into a creature with a 60 foot base movement speed, but use the monk's Astral Arms so I still had hands to grapple with! It was a funny mental image.
Would a Jedi take levels in barbarian? Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. So maybe our boy here taps into the dark side a little more than Master Yoda would prefer.
So who is this masked Jedi and how does he do what he do?
Our Jedi Luchador is a Fighter/Barbarian/Wizard. Specifically:
Fighter (Psi Warrior) 12
Barbarian (Elk/Bear Totem) 6
Wizard (Bladesinger) 2
Race: Tabaxi
ASI: Mobile, Athlete (+1 Str), Skill Expertise (Athletics, +1 Str), +2 Str, +2 Con
With Longstrider, Bladesong and Rage, we've got a base movement speed of 85. As a Tabaxi we can double that to 170 for a turn. And then as a psi warrior we can perform a Psi-Powered Leap as a bonus action to turn that into a flight speed of 340. With a Dash, that's a total flight speed of of 680 feet.
We'll assume Rage and Bladesong are both active, as is Longstrider. We'll assume we begin our turn adjacent to our target, but not already engaged in a grapple.
As your Action Dash. As a bonus action, use Psi-Powered Leap.
Use Action Surge to take the Attack Action and make your first attack as a Grapple, having a great chance of success due to advantage, high str and expertise.
Leap (it's technically a fly speed, but it's called a leap) 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 280 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air. This splits 20d6 damage evenly between us and the target, but we reduce that damage by half because of our Resistance: they take 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed) via the Athlete feat. We have 270 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap up 130 feet in the air and drop him for 13d6 damage. We have 10 feet of flight remaining
Fall on him, splitting 13d6 damage evenly with him. He takes 6.5d6 damage, we take 3.25d6 damage.
Stand from prone, using our last 5 feet of movement.
Grapple him again for good measure.
So for those of us keeping track, our opponent took 49.5d6, or about 173.25, damage this turn. We took 8.25d6, or about 28.875, damage. Well that's pretty good, but nothing exceptional, right? So where am I going with this?
Taking it Further
The above is an example of how this works with no magic items or external assistance. So how does this look when I allow for a little help? Specifically, I'm adding just two more things, things unlikely to surprise most of you: Haste as cast by an ally (or via potion) and Boots of Speed.
So the boots of speed double our Tabaxi running speed from 170 to 340. Haste doubles it again to 680. Using Haste's extra action as a dash doubles that to a running speed of 1360, and a flying speed of 2720. (For the record, this is 309 miles per hour) Our action surge is now free to make another attack action, so you see where I'm going with this.
As before, we'll assume Rage and Bladesong are both active, as is Longstrider. An ally has already cast Haste on us and our Boots of Speed are active. We'll assume we begin our turn adjacent to our target, but not already engaged in a grapple. However, this time adjacency doesn't actually matter because we've got 260 feet of movement to spare!
Use your Haste Action to Dash. As a bonus action, use Psi-Powered Leap.
Use your action to take the Attack Action and make your first attack as a Grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 2320 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: they take 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 2310 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1910 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1900 feet of flight remaining.
Use your third attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1500 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1490 feet of flight remaining.
Action Surge to perform another Attack Action. Use your first attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 1090 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 1080 feet of flight remaining.
Use your second attack, also as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 680 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 670 feet of flight remaining.
Use your third attack as a grapple.
Leap 200 (using 400 feet of movement due to grappling rules) feet into the air. We have 270 feet of flight remaining.
Drop the other guy. He takes 20d6 damage from the fall.
Fall on him from 200 feet in the air: he takes 10d6 damage, we take 5d6
Stand up from prone using 5 feet of your movement speed (which eats 10 feet of flight speed). We have 260 feet of flight remaining.
Just to be a jerk, Fly up 200 feet again and land on the other guy, so he takes another 10d6 damage and you take 5d6.
You've got just a little movespeed left, and is that guy still twitching? Fly up 60 feet and land on him one last time for 6d6 damage to him and 3d6 to you.
The final score: the other guy took 196d6, or ~686, damage! That would kill literally anything in the game. We took 38d6, or 133 damage. That's quite a beating, but well within our tolerances as a level 20 fighter/barbarian.
Random Thoughts
"But Damon" you say. "The size restrictions on grappling prevent you from killing some stuff with this tactic". And you're right, of course. There are a few ways to mitigate this, naturally. A friendly spellcaster can biggen you up or shrink your foe with Enlarge/Reduce. This allows you to grapple huge targets, but not gargantuan ones, unless you've got two friendly spellcasters willing to both grow you and shrink the other other guy, while a third supplies your haste. Another way: get a friendly spellcaster to Ready Action: Polymorph on you. Then once you've already activated your various class/racial features at the start of your turn, said Spellcaster will cast it, turning you into a Giant Ape. The Ape would only allow you four grapples instead of your normal six, but you would be able to grapple anything at all, up to and including the tarrasque. You know you want to see King Kong suplex Godzilla!
This isn't a maximum speed build: I could have added two levels of monk in place of fighter 12 and Barbarian 6 to squeeze out another 10 feet of base movement. But I didn't care for how MAD that made the build, and I was well past what I needed in the final exercise anyway. I had a version of this build where I had levels in Astral Form Monk and Moon druid: I would Wildshape into a creature with a 60 foot base movement speed, but use the monk's Astral Arms so I still had hands to grapple with! It was a funny mental image.
Would a Jedi take levels in barbarian? Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. So maybe our boy here taps into the dark side a little more than Master Yoda would prefer.