Spirit Guardians & Forced Movement

[Khrysaes]

So, I recently found the youtube channel Pack Tactics, specifically the video on Spirit Guardians spell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GokMLVE6qWU

I love spirit guardians, and it is essentially my go to cleric spell.

Now, in the video Pack Tactics mentions using shove from the Telekinetic feat & the Thorn whip cantrip to drag enemies into the range of spirit guadians so they are affected, as the spell states that they are subjected to a save/damage when they enter it for the first time on a turn. Ergo, ways to move enemies in and out of the area can be beneficial.

So I was thinking of how other classes could get and/or optimize the spell.

Essentially, I want someone who can cast spirit guardians, stay alive, and mess around with enemies in an area.

Ways to get spirit guardians
Cleric
Divine Soul Sorcerer
Paladin Variant rules additional spells in unearthed arcana, didn't make it to Tasha's.
Orzhov representative Background in Guild Master's Guide To Ravnica

At first I was thinking Divine Soul Sorc + Warlock, as warlock can get Eldritch blast, Repelling blast, Grasp of Hadar (unless I misremember the invocation to add a pull), As well as additional cantrips such as Thorn Whip through the Pact of the Tome.

Then, once I remembered the Background, a whole new realm of possibilities opened, and I have been getting overwhelmed.

Full caster classes
Bard
Cleric
Druid
Sorcerer
Wizard

Warlock???? Im not sure you can upcast past a 5th level slot with them, but they do get 9th level spells.

Some forced movement options I was considering:
Telekinetic Feat, 5ft shove as a bonus action.
Eldritch Blast + repelling/grasp. 10ft away per ray for repelling, 10 ft towards once per cast with grasp
Thorn whip, 10 feet towards
Lightning lure, 15ft towards, but only a 15ft range so thorn whip is better
Gravity Sinkhole: 20ft radius save or be pulled towards the center of the sphere
Others...

Then I was thinking about how to use them:
1 action, thorn whip/EB/etc
1 bonus action, telekinetic shove
1 reaction, thorn whip/EB with warcaster feat.

The beauty of EB instead of the others is with the two invocations you can push and pull no save, both with one cast, so if you push it out of range then pull it back in, the creature is entering for the first time on that turn, with warcaster it can be used as a reaction for an opportunity attack *Maybe?). Alternatively there may be another way to push then use thornwhip or something to pull.

Finally,
I was looking at Order of the Scribe wizard.
Their level 2 feature would allow the wizard Orhzov representative to cast Spirit Guardians doing damage types OTHER than radiant or necrotic, depending on the 3rd level spells in the spell book, i.e. have fire ball in the spell book? Fire Spirit Guardians. Lightning bolt? Lighting Guardians. Sleet storm -> cold, erupting earth -> bludgeoning, thunderstep -> thunder, etc.

Additionally, at level 6, the scribe wizard says "Whenever you cast a wizard spell on your turn, you can cast it as if you were in the spectral mind’s space, instead of your own, using its senses." I may be misreading this, as to me it would imply that spirit guardians, which is a wizard spell through the orzhov background, can be cast centered on the manifested mind. Alternatively it's meant as a line of sight thing, allowing people to see around corners and wouldn't work.

But if it does, then the Spirit guardians just became mobile and ranged because:
"As a bonus action, you can cause the spectral mind to hover up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you or it can see. It can pass through creatures but not objects."
and
"The spectral mind stops manifesting if it is ever more than 300 feet away from you"

Again, I may be misreading manifest mind.


But what are some other ways people can come up with to use spirit guardians other than on a cleric, and take advantage of forced movement to trigger the damage?

[RogueJK]

Ways to get spirit guardians
Cleric
Divine Soul Sorcerer
Paladin Variant rules additional spells in unearthed arcana, didn't make it to Tasha's.
Orzhov representative Background in Guild Master's Guide To Ravnica


Bards can grab Spirit Guardians as a Magical Secret.

Oath of the Crown Paladins also get Spirit Guardians (although it's relatively late at 9th level).



Warlock???? Im not sure you can upcast past a 5th level slot with them, but they do get 9th level spells.

They cannot. Their spell slots top out at 5th level. Past that, they get daily Mystic Arcanum castings of 6th/7th/8th/9th level spells, but they're not spell slots, and you cannot upcast a spell as a Mystic Arcanum.



Some forced movement options I was considering:
Telekinetic Feat, 5ft shove as a bonus action.
Eldritch Blast + repelling/grasp. 10ft away per ray for repelling, 10 ft towards once per cast with grasp
Thorn whip, 10 feet towards
Lightning lure, 15ft towards, but only a 15ft range so thorn whip is better
Gravity Sinkhole: 20ft radius save or be pulled towards the center of the sphere


The Crusher feat also allows 5' forced movement upon a hit with a bludgeoning weapon.

3 levels of Swarmkeeper Ranger gets you Gathered Swarm, which lets you attempt to force an enemy 15' in any horizontal direction upon hitting them with an attack. And because it keys off hitting them with an attack and not specifically a weapon, you can stack Gathered Swarm's forced movement alongside the forced movement from something like Eldritch Blast or Thorn Whip (but not save-based movement effects like Lightning Lure or Telekinetic).

[Eldariel]

This works superbly with grapple. Especially non-Concentration minion grapplers like Zombies from Animate Dead; they have power in numbers and if you have a Lore Bard Cutting Wordsing the enemy check, they can do it well enough. They only need 10' of movement, 5' to get target away and another 5' to make the target enter again (up to a max of 1/turn of course). This of course works with Spike Growth and such too. Readied actions could also help though you should probably just leave the target outside the SG radius and then have an attack with Crusher or such readied to knock them back in out of turn (this way you could use your party's turns and other enemies' turns in addition to the target's turn).

[solidork]

A character that is on my "to play" list is a Stars Druid 2/Cleric X - your starry form will make it extremely easy to keep concentration on Spirit Guardians and you'll have both Thornwhip and Shillelagh.

[RogueJK]

A character that is on my "to play" list is a Stars Druid 2/Cleric X - your starry form will make it extremely easy to keep concentration on Spirit Guardians and you'll have both Thornwhip and Shillelagh.

Can confirm. A Stars Druid 2/Arcana Cleric X is a fun take on the "Arcana Cleric Frontliner" concept from https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds

Booming Shillelagh or Thorn Whip + Upcast Spirit Guardians + Dragon Form + Spiritual Weapon for melee, and Sacred Flame/Chill Touch or Guiding Bolt + Archer Form for ranged.

[Khrysaes]

Can confirm. A Stars Druid 2/Arcana Cleric X is a fun take on the "Arcana Cleric Frontliner" concept from https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds

Booming Shillelagh or Thorn Whip + Upcast Spirit Guardians + Dragon Form + Spiritual Weapon for melee, and Sacred Flame/Chill Touch or Guiding Bolt + Archer Form for ranged.

I was actually thinking of this.

Although. I was thinking of stars druid / twilight cleric to fully embrace the star theme. The optional level 8 feature that changes the bonus to melee or cantrips to 1d8 may work.

[Khrysaes]

Holy crud!.

I just found out.

Blessed Strikes optional cleric feature from Tasha's doesn't specify cleric cantrips, unlike potent spellcasting.

This means that cantrips from other classes get that bonus 1d8 radiant damage.

Notably, It is once per round though. It implies that it only affects one creature, but it may be per damage roll, so it would affect one ray of eldritch blast, but multiple creatures from acid splash/word of radiance.

[RogueJK]

I was actually thinking of this.

Although. I was thinking of stars druid / twilight cleric to fully embrace the star theme. The optional level 8 feature that changes the bonus to melee or cantrips to 1d8 may work.

Twilight could work, provided you have some other way of getting Booming Blade, which is pretty key to that concept (both for scaling the damage of your Shillelagh attacks and especially for punishing Warcaster attacks on enemies who try to move out of your reach to escape Spirit Guardians).

You could get Booming Blade from the High Elf/High Half Elf race, or from the Magic Initiate Wizard feat.

Just note that Blessed Strikes only applies once per round. (Once you add the +1d8 to an attack/cantrip, you can't do so again until your next turn.) Whereas Potent Spellcasting would let you add +WISMOD to all cantrips attacks with no limit, which would include both a Booming Shillelagh Action as well as a potential Warcaster Booming Shillelagh OA (twice per round). So you'd do slightly less damage overall with Blessed Strikes compared to the standard Arcana Cleric build with Potent Spellcasting.