Ideas for an optimized build w/ 3 possible feats at lvl 1

[Xaytal]

Hey Everyone,

I'm starting a new campaign as a player in soon, and we rolled some amazing stats that I feel could allow for some interesting build and wanted to see how smart people optimize. Any help / guidance / tip is appreciated!

Setting It's going to be Icewind dale (please no spoiler) so was thinking Con Save Prof could be useful with Cold Res
Level 1 - 15
Base AS 16, 16, 15, 14, 13, 10
Race Custom Lineage is allowed
Starting Feat is allowed
Backgrounds Feat are allowed (Lucky, Tough, etc)
Possible Party Druid?, Fighter, Warlock?, Frontline?, Me

Can potentially start with 3 feats at lvl 1 which could be amazing, and its giving me a hard time making my mind or think of ideas. I'm open to a lot, but I'm feeling less inclined to play warlock or barbarian unless they just make for an amazing build since I just played these recently even though I know tundra storm barbarian would be perfect to get cold res.


Loose Concept

I like the idea being a Gish, as for my role I would be interested in being a controller AND/OR a sustained damager

I have too much I want and can't help narrowing it down so I know and am okay with sacrificing things. We were told it might be a bit more RP heavy (but the I know the DM likes his encounters), so I was thinking of being a eloquence bard, but we also lack INT and I know artificers can get cold res armor at 6 which could be interesting but blade singers also sound really fun.

Also, my partner is in the game and was thinking of being a frontline so maybe a synergy build could be fun. though not really worried about that just thought I threw it out incase someone wanted to make a build for her instead of mine.

To note, My DM was okay with Jester's Tiefling Race from CR, it has cold res instead of fire res which could work instead of Goliath or other weird race with cold res but I feel like just taking con prof with maybe absorb element could be just fine for a more optimized build with 3 feats.


I'm not really fixated on any one thing and open to fun strong build ideas

[RogueJK]

Artificer 1 -> Abjuration Wizard X
Race: Winged Tiefling
Starting Feat: Infernal Constitution
Background Feat: Tough (*Note: I've never seen a background that grants the Lucky feat... That would be quite overpowered. Typically it's your choice of either a setting-specific background with specific feat or otherwise either Skilled or Tough if you go with an older background that doesn't normally confer a feat.)

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 16+1+1 (Infernal Constitution)
INT 15+2
WIS 13
CHA 10

Plan for Warcaster at Wizard 4 and Fey Touched/Telekinetic for 18 INT at 8, followed by 20 INT at 12.

This gets you:
CON save proficiency, which combined with your high CON, Arcane Ward, and eventual Warcaster means your Concentration will be tough to break.
Medium armor/shield proficiency, for a 19ish AC
Fire, Cold, and Poison Resistance (which means you can ignore cold-related environmental effects)
Always-on flight in medium armor, which is great for both combat and exploration
A big pile of HP (12 at level 1, then another 10 per level), plus Arcane Ward for additional bonus HP

You'll be a level behind in Wizard spells known, but will still have full spell slot progression, plus access to 1st level Artificer prepared spells and a few extra cantrips.

Wear medium armor, and wield a shield and a staff (both weapon and arcane focus). You can be a hardy backup frontliner gish when needed, with a 19 AC, a whole slow of HP and Arcane Ward HP, and Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade, while also Concentrating on a control spell. Out of combat, you're the utility caster, flying scout/explorer, and INT skills guy, plus you have Thieves Tools proficiency for picking locks.

Or if you'd rather eventually have Extra Attack, you can do similar with Artificer 1/Bladesinger X, just sticking to Light Armor and skipping the shield, swapping ability scores around to have an 18 DEX and 16 CON instead, and using a Rapier. Compared to the Abjurer you'll have fewer HP with no Arcane Ward, slightly lesser Counterspell capability at higher levels, and a lower AC when not Bladesinging, in exchange for Extra Attack and a higher mobiity/AC/Concentration during those times when you're Bladesinging.


If the Warlock player decides to play something else, you could do a similar build that also covers the Party Face role with an Artificer 1/Eloquence Bard X, or Clockwork Soul Sorcerer 1 -> Cleric 1 -> Sorcerer X. Just swap the scores around to have a 17 CHA instead of INT.

[Xaytal]

Artificer 1 -> Abjuration Wizard X
Race: Winged Tiefling
Starting Feat: Infernal Constitution
Background Feat: Tough (*Note: I've never seen a background that grants the Lucky feat... That would be quite overpowered. Typically it's your choice of either a setting-specific background with specific feat or otherwise either Skilled or Tough if you go with an older background that doesn't normally confer a feat.)


Thank you so much for posting! I haven't gotten to in detail put the builds you've said on sheet and look into yet but to answer this, it's from the new Source: The Book of Many Things, it added few things the feat "rewarded" being the one that gives you the ability to choose from either Lucky, Magic Initiate, or Skilled! :)

[Dork_Forge]

Goliath Artificer (Armorer)
Str 10 Dex 14 Con 16 Int 18 Wis 14 Cha 16
Feats: Tough, Fey Touched/Telekinetic (Int for both)

Goliath: It fits as a race for the adventure thematically, gives you cold resistance and let's you deal with cold/high alt better. Stone's Endurance and your massive amount (relatively speaking) of HP and AC makes you a very good tank. Recommend going with the reprint that gives Stone's Endurance Prof per day. Assigned stats based on three +1s.

Stats: I threw +3 at Cha since you mentioned a RP bias, probably doesn't need to be that high, could easily flip it with Wis.

Tough: HP is the best catch-all defense, period. With Tough, a +3 Con, Stone's Endurance, and Temp HP you can take a disproportionate amount of beating for a 1st level character which scales very well as you level.

Fey Touched/Telekinetic: Takes your Int to 18, I think you get more out of Telekinetic overall, especially control, but having more casting as a Gish is always valuable and Misty Step is a fantastic spell. Can't really go wrong with either.

Artificer: Con save prof, spell list with a good mix of control, support, and healing. Make your own magic items, you can even give your frontline partner a magic weapon.

Armorer: You want to be a Gish and do control, the Thunder Gauntlets check that box solidly, whilst being able to switch types means you can switch up your play style as you feel like/need. You can comfortably sit in the roll of a tank or Rogue/scout, especially with the strong backing of your stats.

Progression: Just keep being an Artificer, they arguably have the best overall level progression in the game.

This should cover what you want to do and be robust and well-rounded enough that you can handle some extreme situations that may crop up.

[Xaytal]

Artificer 1 -> Abjuration Wizard X
Race: Winged Tiefling
Starting Feat: Infernal Constitution
Background Feat: Tough (*Note: I've never seen a background that grants the Lucky feat... That would be quite overpowered. Typically it's your choice of either a setting-specific background with specific feat or otherwise either Skilled or Tough if you go with an older background that doesn't normally confer a feat.)

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 16+1+1 (Infernal Constitution)
INT 15+2
WIS 13
CHA 10

Plan for Warcaster at Wizard 4 and Fey Touched/Telekinetic for 18 INT at 8, followed by 20 INT at 12.

This gets you:
CON save proficiency, which combined with your high CON, Arcane Ward, and eventual Warcaster means your Concentration will be tough to break.
Medium armor/shield proficiency, for a 19ish AC
Fire, Cold, and Poison Resistance (which means you can ignore cold-related environmental effects)
Always-on flight in medium armor, which is great for both combat and exploration
A big pile of HP (12 at level 1, then another 10 per level), plus Arcane Ward for additional bonus HP

You'll be a level behind in Wizard spells known, but will still have full spell slot progression, plus access to 1st level Artificer prepared spells and a few extra cantrips.

Wear medium armor, and wield a shield and a staff (both weapon and arcane focus). You can be a hardy backup frontliner gish when needed, with a 19 AC, a whole slow of HP and Arcane Ward HP, and Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade, while also Concentrating on a control spell. Out of combat, you're the utility caster, flying scout/explorer, and INT skills guy, plus you have Thieves Tools proficiency for picking locks.

Or if you'd rather eventually have Extra Attack, you can do similar with Artificer 1/Bladesinger X, just sticking to Light Armor and skipping the shield, swapping ability scores around to have an 18 DEX and 16 CON instead, and using a Rapier. Compared to the Abjurer you'll have fewer HP with no Arcane Ward, slightly lesser Counterspell capability at higher levels, and a lower AC when not Bladesinging, in exchange for Extra Attack and a higher mobiity/AC/Concentration during those times when you're Bladesinging.


If the Warlock player decides to play something else, you could do a similar build that also covers the Party Face role with an Artificer 1/Eloquence Bard X, or Clockwork Soul Sorcerer 1 -> Cleric 1 -> Sorcerer X. Just swap the scores around to have a 17 CHA instead of INT.

Thanks again for posting! Lets say winged Tiefling wasn't something DM was too fond of, and could instead switch to a homebrew Tiefling (basically just has cold res instead of fire res) what would you prioritize for level 1 starting feat?

[Xaytal]

Goliath Artificer (Armorer)
Str 10 Dex 14 Con 16 Int 18 Wis 14 Cha 16
Feats: Tough, Fey Touched/Telekinetic (Int for both)

Goliath: It fits as a race for the adventure thematically, gives you cold resistance and let's you deal with cold/high alt better. Stone's Endurance and your massive amount (relatively speaking) of HP and AC makes you a very good tank. Recommend going with the reprint that gives Stone's Endurance Prof per day. Assigned stats based on three +1s.

Stats: I threw +3 at Cha since you mentioned a RP bias, probably doesn't need to be that high, could easily flip it with Wis.

Tough: HP is the best catch-all defense, period. With Tough, a +3 Con, Stone's Endurance, and Temp HP you can take a disproportionate amount of beating for a 1st level character which scales very well as you level.

Fey Touched/Telekinetic: Takes your Int to 18, I think you get more out of Telekinetic overall, especially control, but having more casting as a Gish is always valuable and Misty Step is a fantastic spell. Can't really go wrong with either.

Artificer: Con save prof, spell list with a good mix of control, support, and healing. Make your own magic items, you can even give your frontline partner a magic weapon.

Armorer: You want to be a Gish and do control, the Thunder Gauntlets check that box solidly, whilst being able to switch types means you can switch up your play style as you feel like/need. You can comfortably sit in the roll of a tank or Rogue/scout, especially with the strong backing of your stats.

Progression: Just keep being an Artificer, they arguably have the best overall level progression in the game.

This should cover what you want to do and be robust and well-rounded enough that you can handle some extreme situations that may crop up.

Thanks! I was thinkin of something similar with maybe echo knight 3 to be able to potentially be a more tactical controller with being in two place at once or applying debuff from a safer distance? That being said yeah I might flip +3 to wis just wis saves and keep cha at 13 as to not have it be a +0 if it ever comes up

[RogueJK]

Thanks again for posting! Lets say winged Tiefling wasn't something DM was too fond of, and could instead switch to a homebrew Tiefling (basically just has cold res instead of fire res) what would you prioritize for level 1 starting feat?

I'd probably still do it the same way, just going with something like Glasya Tiefling instead of Winged. Spending your free feat on Infernal Constitution to have +1 CON and three elemental resistances (against the 3 most common elemental damage types in the game) is quite strong. And the combination of Artificer's armor/shield proficiency (without delaying spell slot scaling) and Artificer's Arcane Ward makes for a very sturdy, gishy Wizard.


Otherwise, if you don't care about the extra elemental resistances just do a straight Bladesinger.
Modified Tiefling or Goliath race for Cold resistance.
Resilient CON for starting feat to boost Concentration.
Tough or Lucky for background feat, depending on whether you want to prioritize HP or saves. Consider a background that grants Thieves Tools.
STR 10
DEX 16+2
CON 15+1 (Resilient CON)
INT 16+1
WIS 13
CHA 14
Fey Touched/Telekinetic for 18 INT at 4. 20 DEX at 8. 20 INT at 12.


The above Armorer Artificer suggestion is also solid, if you want to prioritize melee frontlining over casting.

[Dork_Forge]

Thanks! I was thinkin of something similar with maybe echo knight 3 to be able to potentially be a more tactical controller with being in two place at once or applying debuff from a safer distance? That being said yeah I might flip +3 to wis just wis saves and keep cha at 13 as to not have it be a +0 if it ever comes up

I wouldn't dip 3 levels on Artificer personally, especially not for a while, you'd cannibalize your progression very heavily. Ancestral Guardian Barbarian would be a better source of disadvantage if you wanted to mix in the Echo Knight.

As for the safe distance thing, I look at it like this, depending on the rest of your party you're probably going to be the most durable character in basically all ways. You don't need to be at a safer distance, you are the one who knocks, so to speak.

[Mastikator]

A goliath echoknight with PAM and Sentinel is optimized to the level of being disgusting. Defense fighting style reduces the likelihood of being hit which gives more value to stone. Another option is duelist with spear and shield.

At level 1 you'll attack twice per round, +6 to hit, 1d6+6 / 1d4+6 per hit. Plus reaction when someone attacks a friend or approaches you, possible number of off-turn attacks is 1-2 per combat which has lockdown rider.
Your AC is 18 (chainmail + shield, both starting equipment). Starting HP is 13, twice you can also reduce damage by 1d12+3, and once per short rest you can recover 1d10+1. Assuming one short rest per adventuring day your effective HP is 35.5 (not including stone's endurance overkill, second wind overkill, short rest hit dice healing)

At level 3 grab echo knight.

At level 4 you could either grab GWM and swap out your duelist fighting style for defense (as per tasha's), or up your strength to 20 and keep the spear and shield for now.

At level 6 you can either grab GWM if you didn't already, or up your constitution for increased HP, increased stone's endurance power and one extra unleash incarnation.

18 strength (16 +2 from goliath => 18)
13 dexterity
16 constitution (15 +1 from goliath => 16)
14 wisdom
10 intelligence
16 charisma


You can continue down the path of fighter up until 11 for the second extra attack, however I'd argue that at the 7th level you pivot into bard, specifically lore bard. If you do then going GWM would've been the right choice at 4 or 6, since you can hold a halberd in one hand as an item, letting you cast spells with somatic components in the free hand. If not then warcaster is a fine option at level 10 (fighter 6/bard 4), allowing you to turn opportunity attacks into spells while also holding a shield and a spear. (but you'll need an instrument as a spellcasting focus if the spell has a material component). However, consider the coolness factor of this: an enemy approaches your echo triggering an opportunity attack, you then cast dissonant whispers on them forcing them to flee. Though that's not until level 10 in this scenario.

[KorvinStarmast]

A goliath echoknight with PAM and Sentinel is optimized to the level of being disgusting. Defense fighting style reduces the likelihood of being hit which gives more value to stone. Another option is duelist with spear and shield. I did that with a Battle Master. Surprisingly effective. :smallsmile:


18 strength (16 +2 from goliath => 18)
13 dexterity
16 constitution (15 +1 from goliath => 16)
14 wisdom
10 intelligence
16 charisma


I like Inspiring Leader at 6 for this approach.

[da newt]

"However, consider the coolness factor of this: an enemy approaches your echo triggering an opportunity attack, you then cast dissonant whispers on them forcing them to flee."

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the PAM and Sent opp att triggers only apply to you, not your shadowy object echo (it is not 'you'). Your Echo can trigger an opp att but only if you can see it and something leaves it's 5' perimeter, then if you are within range you could cast a spell targeting the creature.

[RogueJK]

"However, consider the coolness factor of this: an enemy approaches your echo triggering an opportunity attack, you then cast dissonant whispers on them forcing them to flee."

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the PAM and Sent opp att triggers only apply to you, not your shadowy object echo (it is not 'you'). Your Echo can trigger an opp att but only if you can see it and something leaves it's 5' perimeter, then if you are within range you could cast a spell targeting the creature.

The only piece of Sentienl/PAM that applies to OAs made from the Echo's space is the first bullet point in Sentinel: When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.

Because Manifest Echo specifically says you are making the OA as if from the OA's space, that part applies. You are still hitting the creature with an OA, just through nontraditional means.

But even though there are various Echo Knight abilities that allow you to make attacks from the Echo's space in certain circumstances, the Echo is still not "you". Therefore PAM's OA is not triggered when an enemy approaches the Echo, because it relies on an enemy entering your reach. Same with the second bullet point of Sentinel, while applies to an enemy Disengaging and leaving your reach.

[da newt]

Yup - you said the same thing I did but much more clearly.

[Xaytal]

I'm learning so much about how some of these features function this is amazing thank you all for contributing!

RogueJK, one of my friends I was talking to about the build said thanks for the build idea for another one of his one shot as he's going to be taking the Artificer > Abjuration Wizard from me haha

[Clause]

Waeforged dragonblood sorcerer, yess you are a power ranger!!!!

Id like the mountain dwarf abjurer thing for medium armor plus axe plus barrier. Tortle can be used too.

And, if you want to be a one strike guy,
Psionic knight.
Feats: giant rune( the one who causes the same damage as the weapon) solamnic knight( from the bachground) and war adept(racial)

Tahe an battle axe, actve your rune as bonus action, strike the bad guy. This cause=1d12 slash(axe)+1d6 slash(rune) +1d8 untiped (from the solamnic atack) +1d6 plus int bonus(psionic) + 1d6( battle master feat) + str.

Make sure you have cons 20, cause this atack generates 3 saves cons baseds, or the enemy fall prone, stuned and or frightened.

Im pretty sure that the feat names are wrong, but i dont have the books hight here, so i use the most similar names as i can remember.




Or, can manke a half orc assassin, taking the piercer feat, shadowtoutched, and some other. First strike at 3rd level will be 4d12(with battle axe) or 4d8+2d6 wth longbow or spear.