Suggestions on a Dragonborn Rune Knight?

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I was wondering how you all feel about a Dragonborn Rune knight? By Dragonborn, I mean any of the 3 main variants, IE the PHB version, and the 2 variation in the Guide to Wildemount. I personally was thinking that a Ravenite could be a lot of fun for a Rune Knight, as a large person is one thing, while a large Dragon sounds considerably more dangerous :)

[ftafp]

Hello all, I was wondering how you all feel about a Dragonborn Rune knight? By Dragonborn, I mean any of the 3 main variants, IE the PHB version, and the 2 variation in the Guide to Wildemount. I personally was thinking that a Ravenite could be a lot of fun for a Rune Knight, as a large person is one thing, while a large Dragon sounds considerably more dangerous :)

Dragonborn is a good fit for Rune Knight since its breath weapon scales with the same stat Rune Knights use for their save DCs. Ravenite's ASIs make it a good racial pick if your DM is one of those no-fun types who prefers to punish players for their choice in race by banning customized origins. Beast Barbarian might be nice to add on top for attacking with claws, fangs and tail, but remember that you're going to need at least 6 levels of barbarian if you want your natural weapons to get around damage resistance, and your Giant's Might and Rage are going to be competing bonus actions

As a side note, although it might not have been the intention, the Rune Knight makes an absolutely perfect Attack on Titan build. I know it's not to a lot of other people's tastes but were I considering a Rune Knight I might play up the more horrific, monstrous aspects of the transformation

[Citadel97501]

Dragonborn is a good fit for Rune Knight since its breath weapon scales with the same stat Rune Knights use for their save DCs. Ravenite's ASIs make it a good racial pick if your DM is one of those no-fun types who prefers to punish players for their choice in race by banning customized origins. Beast Barbarian might be nice to add on top for attacking with claws, fangs and tail, but remember that you're going to need at least 6 levels of barbarian if you want your natural weapons to get around damage resistance, and your Giant's Might and Rage are going to be competing bonus actions

As a side note, although it might not have been the intention, the Rune Knight makes an absolutely perfect Attack on Titan build. I know it's not to a lot of other people's tastes but were I considering a Rune Knight I might play up the more horrific, monstrous aspects of the transformation

That actually sounds great :)

[Sol0botmate]

Rune Knight is awesome class (I am biased cause I love him) and it excells at several things:

1. Grappling. Size increase, advantage on Strength checks makes him wrestle dragons and tarasques and believe me when I say this - Wish is awesome spell. But there is nothing more Awesome than Huge Rune Knight wrestling, shoving and grappling a Tarrasque, hurling him into city buildings like you are freaking Jegger in Pacific Rim :D.
2. Multi CC - Fire Rune on enemy casters almost guarantee restrain on them every turn. Stone Rune - Charm on melee enemies, WIS without damage breaking charm. Grapple.
3. Debuff + Support- Storm rune disadvantage/advantage on save throws, skill checks or attacks.
4. Critical damage prevention/transfer - Runic Shield + Cloud Rune
5. Tanking - multi CC + Shove Grapple on enemies/boss + Hill Rune resistances + High AC + High HP makes you superb tank.

So with that in mind what do we want is a way to grapple as many targets as possible. In your case that's only two because you want to play Dragonborn. That's fine too. Look at your party if you have a caster that you can combo with. Wizards and Druids are best at it but Cleric will also do. You can hold grappled enemies inside Bonfire, Cloud of Daggers, Wall of Fire, move them through Spike Growth, move them in and out + hold in Spirit Guardians, hold them inside Silence spell etc.

If you have those then what I suggest is:

1. In first 4 levels focus on normal gameplay as Fighter. Attack. Grapple + Shove them with Action Surge only "bosses" and try to combo it with your Wizard Create Bonfire or Cloud of Daggers.
2. On level 5 + when you have 2 attacks + 2 attacks from Action Surge I would evaluate how powerful can be your combos with party. If you have Wizard + another caster to combo with grapple - you will do way more damage by keeping 2 enemies inside hazard spells than with your attacks. In this case I would stack on Plate Armor + Defense Style and dip 1 level of Cleric (Peace) for Shield of Faith + Emb. Bond (d4 to attacks/grapples/saves is so good). This way even with 2 hands free you would have 21 AC, which is enough for tanking shoved enemies that you hold (they have disadvantage on attacks). Pair that later with Hill Rune and you can tank them forever, especially with Cleric behind. I would keep couple throwing weapons for fire rune proc on enemy caster (throw as one of your attacks)
3. Then as reaction you still have charm. So you can on level 5- grapple + shove one enemy, grapple one enemy, restrain one caster, charm one enemy. That is 4 man CC in just one turn.
4. Bonus: As Dragonborn you can still use your breat weapon, although I have to be honest: it will only be good at early levels. Sadly breath weapon does not scale very well later. But it's nice to have.
5. If it's possible: take a look at Dragonborn subraces from Guide to Wildemount book. They are imo better than vanilla Dragonborn, especially one that gives you reaction attacks.
6. You can also try to get your hands on Tasha's new tattoo that makes your unarmed attacks magical with bonus damage. Then you could change your Fighting Style from Defense to Unarmed Fighting style and kick your grappled enemies for additional damage :)

Of course if you prefer to still swing your weapon then I would keep one hand free for wielding weapon and grapple shove on enemy to still smack him on your turns, however Rune Knight just works best as party combo setup, tank and CC machine.

Hope that helps!