On the other hand.... (possibilities for the UA Thri-Kreen race close to release)

[prototype00]

So I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion about the potential for Thri-Kreen dual wielders, where you can have a Two handed Weapon and then stab (and get dual wielder benefits from your Extra attack and light weapons) or dual wield with shield.

It’s a thematically cool, if not totally mechanically superior way to utilize the Many Armed trait. But here’s a couple of my thoughts about two not so commonly brought up possibilities:

GWM + Grapple and Prone: When I was playing a Rune Knight Fighter, one of my gripes was that I couldn’t maintain a grapple while GWM-ing the prone target with my Greatsword. Not a problem for Thri-Kreen, they will always have a hand free while you whale away, so you don’t have to release the grapple or anything.

Multi-foci: So if you are gaming in a system where you can predict what magic items you might get (like AL) you can pick up items like Wands of the Warmage or Rods of the Pact Keeper which both stack for improving the accuracy of your Eldritch Blast… except oopsie, you need a free hand to do the somatic component for EB by RAW. Bad for mere humanoids, but a Thri-Kreen has extra hands for days, they could even attune a third focus and still be fine.

Now assuming there’s not much change to the Kreen until release in a couple of weeks, I’m looking forwards to both but especially the grapple build.

[Damon_Tor]

Shield and rapier in your main hands, light crossbow in one of your little hands, one little hand free to reload the crossbow. Crossbow mastery is your bonus action, rapier attacks as your regular attacks, full shield coverage. Seems pretty wicked to me. Plus the natural armor is mage-armor tier, so the build has an AC of 20 without trying very hard. The little hand is also totally free for spellcasting, so a great ranger or eldritch knight or whatever.

Interestingly, a thri-kreen would need to be wielding FOUR weapons to qualify for the +1 AC benefit of the dual wielder feat.

[prototype00]

Shield and rapier in your main hands, light crossbow in one of your little hands, one little hand free to reload the crossbow. Crossbow mastery is your bonus action, rapier attacks as your regular attacks, full shield coverage. Seems pretty wicked to me. Plus the natural armor is mage-armor tier, so the build has an AC of 20 without trying very hard. The little hand is also totally free for spellcasting, so a great ranger or eldritch knight or whatever.

Yeah, ol’faithful CBE/SS hand crossbow BM does really well as a Kreen, you can use a shield and later a magical shield for top tier AC.


Interestingly, a thri-kreen would need to be wielding FOUR weapons to qualify for the +1 AC benefit of the dual wielder feat.

That is an amusing outcome of the RAW of the Dual wielder feat, yes.

Bards should also do quite well, Swords bards won’t have to decide between a magical instrument foci and stabbing folks anymore.

[Millstone85]

If the thri-kreen are introduced alongside the giff, they could mix crossbow antics with gunslinging.

Let's say a thri-kreen has two pistols (DMG p268) and a hand crossbow. Only the latter is considered a light weapon, so it alone goes in a secondary hand. The free secondary hand is used to reload all three weapons.

If I am correct, we get:



Extra Attack (2 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
2d10 + 1d6 + 3dex damage


Extra Attack (3 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
2d10 + 2d6 + 4dex damage


Extra Attack (4 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
2d10 + 3d6 + 5dex damage


All attacks can be made at gunpoint without disadvantage, since that part of CE doesn't specify crossbows.

Edit: Or would the thri-keen be better off holding a heavy crossbow in their primary hands, plus a hand crossbow in a secondary? The hand crossbow has to be fired once with EA for the CE bonus attack to kick in.




Extra Attack (2 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
1d10 + 2d6 + 3dex damage


Extra Attack (3 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
2d10 + 2d6 + 4dex damage


Extra Attack (4 attacks) + Crossbow Expert
---->
3d10 + 2d6 + 5dex damage


If they never go past the basic Extra Attack, pistols are better. They would also be better for a Small thri-kreen, since that was an option in the UA.

[Phhase]

Personally I find it really strange that Thri-kreen were given a chameleon ability and NOT given Standing Leap. Like, cmon, jumping is way more their thing than camo.