Beat Up My Character

[SociopathFriend]

No it's not some optimized uber-build I want to test or anything.
I just haven't been able to play D&D with either of my groups and am missing the experience- in particular a certain constant-weighing of impending backstabs and whether I could survive them or not.
I'm not asking for a roll-by-roll encounter nor am I intending this to be a thread where I sit there and try to counter what you bring up. Just a general open-season thread to roll/design someone to beat him up. Assume ya'll are plopped down 30 feet apart in a pure white room if that's your desire. Or pick your own arena and distance.

So I present Ser'Ro'Shi, a Lizardfolk that I played through the 5e Chult campaign (and yes I mean through it including the jungle slog) and a Bard that enjoys stories.
Beat him up and give him some stories to tell. If you want to roll a character instead of simply coming up with one then we went max hp/level and you roll 4d6 and reroll 1's and 2's (IIRC- the stat one I'm iffy on but I have nothing to lose).

You can have equal items in the sense of for any Very Rare item Ro'Shi has you can have a single Very Rare item and so on.
Bump yourself to Level 12 and give the Lizardfolk a tale to tell eh?


Level 12 - 10 Lore Bard / 2 Fighter
Str - 14 (athl)
Dex - 14 (save, sleight, stealth)
Con - 20
Int - 14 (nat)
Wis - 14 (ani, perc, surv)
Cha - 18 (save, int, perf, pers)
Expertise in athletics, stealth, perception, performance

HP - 184 (Tough feat for campaign end reward)
HD - 10d8/2d10
AC - 18/22 (Defensive Fighting Style)



Staff of Striking (10 charges)
Adamantine Machete

Breastplate +1
Shield +2
Cloak of Displacement
Ring of Free Action
Goggles of Night Vision
Not bothering with consumables



Remember Lore Bard and he has Magic Initiate as well
IIRC Magic Initiate gave Lightning Lure, Prestidigitation, and Shield
Magical Secrets (also IIRC) gave Counterspell, Conjure Barrage, Death Ward, and Destructive Wave

Cantrips -
Mending, Light, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery, Lightning Lure, Prestidigitation

1st Level -
Heroism, Faerie Fire, Thunder Wave, Shield, Identify

2nd Level -
Knock, Hold Person, Silence, Lesser Restoration, See Invisibility

3rd Level -
Counterspell, Conjure Barrage, Nondetection

4th Level -
Greater Invisibility, Death Ward

5th Level -
Destructive Wave, Animate Objects

[Droppeddead]

No it's not some optimized uber-build I want to test or anything.
I just haven't been able to play D&D with either of my groups and am missing the experience- in particular a certain constant-weighing of impending backstabs and whether I could survive them or not.
I'm not asking for a roll-by-roll encounter nor am I intending this to be a thread where I sit there and try to counter what you bring up. Just a general open-season thread to roll/design someone to beat him up. Assume ya'll are plopped down 30 feet apart in a pure white room if that's your desire. Or pick your own arena and distance.

So I present Ser'Ro'Shi, a Lizardfolk that I played through the 5e Chult campaign (and yes I mean through it including the jungle slog) and a Bard that enjoys stories.
Beat him up and give him some stories to tell. If you want to roll a character instead of simply coming up with one then we went max hp/level and you roll 4d6 and reroll 1's and 2's (IIRC- the stat one I'm iffy on but I have nothing to lose).

You can have equal items in the sense of for any Very Rare item Ro'Shi has you can have a single Very Rare item and so on.
Bump yourself to Level 12 and give the Lizardfolk a tale to tell eh?


Level 12 - 10 Lore Bard / 2 Fighter
Str - 14 (athl)
Dex - 14 (save, sleight, stealth)
Con - 20
Int - 14 (nat)
Wis - 14 (ani, perc, surv)
Cha - 18 (save, int, perf, pers)
Expertise in athletics, stealth, perception, performance

HP - 184 (Tough feat for campaign end reward)
HD - 10d8/2d10
AC - 19/23 (Defensive Fighting Style)



Staff of Striking (10 charges)
Adamantine Machete

Breastplate +1
Shield +2
Cloak of Displacement
Ring of Free Action
Goggles of Night Vision
Not bothering with consumables



Remember Lore Bard and he has Magic Initiate as well

Cantrips -
Mending, Light, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery, Lightning Lure, Prestidigitation

1st Level -
Heroism, Faerie Fire, Thunder Wave, Shield, Identify

2nd Level -
Knock, Hold Person, Silence, Lesser Restoration, See Invisibility

3rd Level -
Counterspell, Conjure Barrage, Nondetection

4th Level -
Greater Invisibility, Death Ward

5th Level -
Destructive Wave, Animate Objects


Well, considering the ridiculously high stats and high level gear of this character I would probably do something like a Yuan-Ti pureblood Moon Druid monk 11/Monk 1. For magic items I'd go with Amulet of Health, Insignia of Claws, Cloak of Displacement and maybe an Animated Shield or a Ring of Protection. For feats I'd probably go with Lucky and Mage slayer (which isn't optimal considering it's a pureblood character). So the stats would look something like (I'm just using the same amount of points you had):
Str - 14
Dex - 16
Con - 14 (19 with AoH)
Int - 14
Wis - 20
Cha - 16

While wild-shaped they would have a base AC of 20 (21 with RoP, 23 with Animated Shield), 168 hit points. In a white room scenario they would would grapple their victim, punch them to make them drop any concentration spells and then just fly them high enough so that the fall would kill them, Whirlwinding them on the way up. :)

I'm a bit curious on your AC btw. A breastplate +1 gives you a base AC of 15 plus 2 for Dex. Defensive makes that 18. A Shield +2 would top that of at 22. Did I miss something? And would you mind listing which spells you get from Magical Secrets and which are from Magic Initiate?

[SociopathFriend]

I'm a bit curious on your AC btw. A breastplate +1 gives you a base AC of 15 plus 2 for Dex. Defensive makes that 18. A Shield +2 would top that of at 22. Did I miss something? And would you mind listing which spells you get from Magical Secrets and which are from Magic Initiate?

Probably just a typo from previous armors/curses on the sheet. I'll fix it.

IIRC Magic Initiate gave Lightning Lure, Prestidigitation, and Shield
Magical Secrets (also IIRC) gave Counterspell, Conjure Barrage, Death Ward, and Destructive Wave

[RogueJK]

Ro'Shi Spells:
1st Level - Heroism, Faerie Fire, Thunder Wave, Shield, Identify
...
IIRC Magic Initiate gave Lightning Lure, Prestidigitation, and Shield

In that case, by RAW, Shield is only usable 1/day, not a known spell on your spell list that you can also cast using spell slots.

Magic Initiate only grants the 1st level spell as a Spell Known if you pick your own class' spell list, like a Bard choosing Magic Initiate: Bard (though this does also allows for stuff like an Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster choosing Magic Initiate: Wizard since they use the Wizard spell list). But Bards don't get Shield, so I assume you took Magic Initiate: Sorcerer. Thus it's not a Bard Spell Known.

Whereas some of the newer similar spell-granting feats, like Fey/Shadow Touched, are specifically worded to allow the spells granted to be Spells Known, castable 1/day for free and then again using any spell slots you may have.

From the Sage Advice Compendium:
If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1st level spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat? Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare.


Your DM may allow otherwise.

[ByzantiumBhuka]

It looks like other than Animate Objects, your character has no way to attack someone more than 60 feet from them, and no way to fly either. One build that might beat your character would be a Artificer 2/Rogue 10 with Winged Boots and a Repeating Shot longbow; the build could rain down magic arrows from 90 feet above and retreat up high when objects are animated...

[Droppeddead]

It looks like other than Animate Objects, your character has no way to attack someone more than 60 feet from them, and no way to fly either. One build that might beat your character would be a Artificer 2/Rogue 10 with Winged Boots and a Repeating Shot longbow; the build could rain down magic arrows from 90 feet above and retreat up high when objects are animated...

Better then to just go Artificer 12 for some cantrip damage. Especially if you go Artillerist you could blast it away quite easily.

[ByzantiumBhuka]

Better then to just go Artificer 12 for some cantrip damage. Especially if you go Artillerist you could blast it away quite easily.

Good point with the Artillerist; arcane firearms are pretty great. (Though I thought that an Artificer 2/Rogue 10 could normally do just as much cantrip damage as a Artificer 12.)

[JellyPooga]

I present my own Lizardfolk, Shakkar; Pirate, Bounty Killer and Bandit.

Stats: Largely irrelevant. Strong, Tough, Cunning.
Class: Rogue/Barbarian
Personality: Bawdy, rough and tumble, honest to a fault.

Round 1: Shakkar opens by pulling a tankard from his belt loop and smashing open the keg of barrel of he had handy. Scooping forth a pint of foaming beer he downs it in one and cups another pint, raising it in invitation.

"Hah! Shakkar invite brother to drink! Come. Drink and share story with kin!"

Merriment ensues. Friendship Wins!

[SociopathFriend]

It looks like other than Animate Objects, your character has no way to attack someone more than 60 feet from them, and no way to fly either. One build that might beat your character would be a Artificer 2/Rogue 10 with Winged Boots and a Repeating Shot longbow; the build could rain down magic arrows from 90 feet above and retreat up high when objects are animated...

The last leg of Chult is a massive dungeon so flight rarely came up. Ro'Shi was very much an element of, "My DM is a hostile expletive (older brother) that is definitely trying to screw me over" and so much emphasis was placed on spells that denied him those opportunities. We're talking I would tell him I cautiously walked down a hallway with my senses stretched and eyeing up every surface and upon entering a room he'd point I didn't say it again about the room and so dropped me in an acid pit with no save or check. That sort of mentality.

Animate Objects did work pretty well the one time we fought an enemy that flew and I came up with a bunch of tiny ones using rations. I would imagine you could semi-fly using a bigger one?



I present my own Lizardfolk, Shakkar; Pirate, Bounty Killer and Bandit.

Stats: Largely irrelevant. Strong, Tough, Cunning.
Class: Rogue/Barbarian
Personality: Bawdy, rough and tumble, honest to a fault.

Round 1: Shakkar opens by pulling a tankard from his belt loop and smashing open the keg of barrel of he had handy. Scooping forth a pint of foaming beer he downs it in one and cups another pint, raising it in invitation.

"Hah! Shakkar invite brother to drink! Come. Drink and share story with kin!"

Merriment ensues. Friendship Wins!

This would absolutely work for the record.

[da newt]

Just for fun:

Lothar : Half Elf Bear Totem Barb (4), Battlemaster Fighter (8)

ST 18 (25), DX 20, CO 20, IN 18, WI 16, CH 16

ASI +2 CO, Res Wiz, Elvin Accuracy, GWM

Magic Stuff: Belt of Fire Giant (25 ST), Cloak of Protection, Bracers of Def, +2 Great Sword, Mantel of Spell Resistance, Ring of Protection

AC: 24, HP: 188, Save Prof: ST, CO, WI, ADV vs all spells and all DX saves, +2 to all saves

Resistant to all Dam except Psychic while raging

Very simple build but with 4d6 reroll 1 & 2, any 1 VR, 4 R, 1 U magic items, and max HP it's easy to build a OP PC.

[Droppeddead]

Good point with the Artillerist; arcane firearms are pretty great. (Though I thought that an Artificer 2/Rogue 10 could normally do just as much cantrip damage as a Artificer 12.)

True, but you get more spell slots and more Artificer goodness at 12 levels. Plus the extra feat/ASI. I'd say you don't really need the two levels of rogue. Did you have something in particular in mind with the rogue levels?

[ByzantiumBhuka]

True, but you get more spell slots and more Artificer goodness at 12 levels. Plus the extra feat/ASI. I'd say you don't really need the two levels of rogue. Did you have something in particular in mind with the rogue levels?

I was initially planning to use the Cunning Action for faster flight, but now that I think about it, that really isn’t necessary.