An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Klorox]

That hobgoblin wizard just keeps intriguing me. I can’t even tell you what it is.

Maybe it’s because I just love wizards anyway, and I’ve done the arcana cleric.

[masterjoda99]

Well, for me the hobgoblin is so fascinating because I love wizards and also the pure invincibility.

[masterjoda99]

Also, does anyone have good "Summoner" builds for here? I'm not entirely sold on summoning in 5e, so I was wondering if anyone could change my mind and sell me on it.

[Citadel97501]

Also, does anyone have good "Summoner" builds for here? I'm not entirely sold on summoning in 5e, so I was wondering if anyone could change my mind and sell me on it.

Well quite simply, the Shepherd Druid is the go to summoning class as the capabilities of their summons are massively improved through the bonus hit points, and that their minions get magic attacks. Some of the more powerful things, I have seen are simply summoning a crap load of wolves, then turning into a shrew or other burrowing small animal and hiding while the wolved dismember everything. We also noted the raptors from one of the monster manuals, however any DM will (and should) say No...

With the Bear Spirit totem, you also get truly ridiculously tough wolves, although the Unicorn one is better for most parties so you can heal but each has their place.

Stats on the Wolves
Minions: 8 wolves summoned for 1 hour.
Health Points: 25 health points per wolf! 11 (+4 more from shepherd) & +10 temporary hit points per wolf...
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. (Magical attacks & Pack Tactics)
Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) piercing damage. (A bit lower but the accuracy and fact that you get 8 of them makes this do more damage than fireballs.)

[Fable Wright]

Also, does anyone have good "Summoner" builds for here? I'm not entirely sold on summoning in 5e, so I was wondering if anyone could change my mind and sell me on it.

Take the terrain/hazard goblin druid and make it a Shepherd Druid instead. At level 6, you can summon Wolves/Velociraptors that deal magic damage, and murderize everything. At level 11, you get Planar Bound Annis Hags and can proceed to murder everything. At level 13, you get Korred (control enemy movement and murder them at range, finally) and Planar Bound Bheur Hags (because all the blasting!). Really, not much more to it.

[masterjoda99]

So it's all about druid for summoning this edition? Are the wizard summoning spells just that lacking in comparison?

[Fable Wright]

So it's all about druid for summoning this edition? Are the wizard summoning spells just that lacking in comparison?

Wizards have Conjure Minor Elementals, Conjure Elemental, Summon Lesser Demons, Summon Greater Demon, and Infernal Calling.

Of those, only demon summoning can be done as a single action, and Summon Lesser Demons has a 33% chance of summoning 8 dretches, 33% chance of summoning 4 dretches, or 33% chance of summoning two quasits. ...Aaaaall of which are really inferior to the options of Conjure Animals. Also, did I mention that all of those summons refuse to take orders and will merely attack the nearest creatures?

Summon Greater Demon is where Wizards can arguably begin to match Druids in summoning, but there's the tiny little issue of the summoned demon making a Charisma save every round to all-but-inevitably attempt to murder your party a few minutes after summoning, as opposed to the Druid's relatively well-behaved summons that can very often get to the end of their full hour duration.

On the other hand, Druids have Conjure Minor Elementals, Conjure Elemental, Conjure Animals, Conjure Woodland Beings, and Conjure Fey.

Conjure Woodland Beings requires several nerfs to be anywhere near playable, because Pixies are busted. And at high levels you can basically straight up summon a high level wizard by conjuring three Sea Hags.

Conjure Animals with Shepherd Druid boosts, along with the variety of senses that they have, the number you summon, the fact that Shepherds can communicate with their summons, the fact that they won't try to kill the party, and the fact that you aren't using a fixed, terrible list like Summon Lesser Demons, makes it far superior to its Wizard equivalent.

And Conjure Fey can get you a Planar Bound Hag Coven. That is 3 extra reactions with counterspell, and a variety of options from the hag on it including some amazing grapplemancy from Annis Hag, awesome blasting from the Bheur Hag, and the undetectability of the Green Hag. Also, Korreds, for an extra 6th level Conjure Elemental and an extra 6th level Irresistible Dance, as well as the best ranged summon damage in the game.

[saucerhead]

@LudicSavant
We need an update to this thread.
How about a lizard folk monk? Can you optimize us a Bruce Leezard?

[Genoin]

I'd really love to see a sample build at multiple levels for the summoner druid, and what the best options are at each level.

[Bobthewizard]

I'd really love to see a sample build at multiple levels for the summoner druid, and what the best options are at each level.

Here's a good guide for the shepherd druid. Nhym goes into quite a bit of detail on spell selection and how to use the conjure spells.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...-to-Fuzzy-Fury

[Skylivedk]

Has anyone found a good answer as to whether Baleful Curse works on Wall of Fire, Spiked Growth etc? Especially Spiked Growth can wild if they combo. Some napkin math is telling me stuff like an Aarakocra monk, ranger, fighter, hexblade, being able to go 3 x 80 feet for (2d4+6)*48 dmg = 720 dmg. You can probably go higher by shapeshifting as a druid and dipping hexblade.

As for the Thief challenge, I forgot a character I had built around Thief/Pala/Sorcerer (for twin Enlarge/reduce) as a temp character in my ToA campaign. Lemme know if it's interesting. Main schtick was grappling Greater Basilisk at level 6-7. I've also added some DPR to previous builds.

[Sparky McDibben]

@LudicSavant
We need an update to this thread.
How about a lizard folk monk? Can you optimize us a Bruce Leezard?

And the soulknife build, please! And Hieroneous in your god series.

You didn't need that free time, right? :)

[zinycor]

So, what would be a build to achieve maximum speed? I imagine it involving several monk levels, a tabaxi, and the haste spell.

[NoxMiasma]

So, what would be a build to achieve maximum speed? I imagine it involving several monk levels, a tabaxi, and the haste spell.

A number of people have tried to work that one out, and here is one option!
We go monk and tabaxi, for that sweet, sweet feline agility, allowing this character to double their speed for one turn.

Theoretical Maximum Fast
Tabaxi, Monk 18/ Fighter 2
Stats: actually don't matter for this build, we just gotta go fast, but its a standard monk beyond the nyoom, so raise Dex, then Wis/Con.
Feats: Mobility is a must for another +10 ft movement
Magic Items: Boon of Speed - granting a +30 bonus to movement, Boots of Speed - double that movement speed again for 10 min, borrowing a friend's Transmuter's Stone for a further +10 ft bonus to speed
This build absolutely requires a teammate with Haste, because we Gotta Go Fast, and should also see if that Hasting buddy can cast Longstrider on them, for another +10 ft.
The total speed for the character, as a one-turn burst, is:
Base Speed= 30+30(Boon of Speed)+10(Transmuter's Stone)+30(Unarmoured Movement)+10(Mobility)+10(Longstrider) x2 (Feline Agility) x2 (Boots of Speed) x2 (Haste) = 720ft base speed

Now, the monk moves, and then uses their action, haste action, and bonus action (via Step of the Wind) to Dash. Then they Action Surge, for another action, moving their full speed 4 times, and ending a whopping 3600 ft from their start position. This means, in that one round, the character moved at 600 ft/second, or 409 mph (658 kph, if you use metric like a sensible person). That's over half the speed of sound!

Okay, so I got almost halfway through doing all that maths, and then I remembered the Shapechange spell, and that Quicklings (Volo's Guide to Monsters) are really dang fast.

Theoretical Maximum Fast v2.0
However, this option loses out on bonus action dash, and needs several other friends willing to provide Expeditious Retreat and Haste, because you are busy concentrating on being a very fast fey, but with a bunch of buffing friends, you can get to 120+30(boon)+10(stone)+10(longstrider)+10(mobility ) x2 (Feline Agility) x2 (boots) x2 (haste) = 1440 ft base speed, for an absolutely blistering 5760 feet in one round, using the same action set as the monk, resulting in 654.5 mph, or 1053 km/h. This however relies on your DM ruling that a quickling is physically capable of making use of feline agility, without which the wizard drops to 720ft base movement, matching the monk build.

[Lord Von Becker]

What about Wind Walk? Does Feline Grace count as an action?

[8wGremlin]

What about Wind Walk? Does Feline Grace count as an action?

nope

Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.

so 300' for windwalk, dash as an action, + feline agility
(will haste and longstrider work?)

[Evaar]

Get 2 levels of Wizard-Bladesinger and drop to Monk 16 for a net gain of 5 feet with Bladesong. Cast Longstrider on yourself with those spell slots, too.

[NoxMiasma]

What about Wind Walk? Does Feline Grace count as an action?

Heck I forgot about Wind Walk! Okay this isn’t my maths, full credit to Miniman

If bonuses to your speed do apply to flying speeds then the fastest you can go is:

Wind Walk: 300ft.
Longstrider spell: +10 ft.
Haste spell: Double speed
Expeditious Retreat: Doesn't boost your speed, but allows you to Dash as a bonus action.
Dash action x3 (Bonus, Action, and Haste Action): Quadruple speed
Total: (300 + 10) x 2 x 4 = 2480 ft per round.

And Feline Agility is not an action, you can trigger it when you move, and it applies for the whole turn.

[Lord Von Becker]

Okay. In that case:

Wind Walk, Base Speed 300 ft.
Longstrider +10 ft. (310)
Transmuter's Stone +10 ft. (320)
Wizard 2 (Bladesinger) +10 ft. (330)

Fighter 2 for Action Surge.
Expeditious Retreat, for Dash as a bonus action.

If pre-applied speed bonuses apply to Wind Walk:
Epic Boon of Speed +30 ft. (360)
Mobility +10 (370)
Paladin 3 (Avenger) +10 ft. (380)
Monk 10 +20 ft. (400)

We have either 3 or 16 levels free - any idea what to spend them on? The other ruling that could hurt this is Bladesingers having to be Elves.
(Oh wait, it's obvious. Go Moon Druid and completely abuse Spike Growth.)

Anyway, on to the multipliers. This is a table, because I wanted as definitive an answer as possible.

Unmultiplied Speed	320	330	360	400
Haste	640	660	720	800
Dash	1280	1320	1440	1600
Surge Dash	2560	2640	2880	3200
Expeditious Dash	5120	5280	5760	6400
Haste Dash	10240	10560	11520	12800
Feline Agility	20480	21120	23040	25600
Boots of Haste	40960	42240	46080	51200

Anyone have anything I missed?
EDIT: Oh right, Mobility. I feel silly. Also, I've added another column for if the Epic Boon counts but the other pre-applied speed bonuses don't.

[NoxMiasma]

If pre-applied speed bonuses apply to Wind Walk:
Paladin 3 (Avenger) +10 ft. (340)
Monk 10 +20 ft. (360)
Epic Boon of Speed +30 ft. (390)

Sadly, I don't believe class bonuses to speed apply, so Fast Movement or Unarmoured Movement don't give a benefit.

[Citadel97501]

Does anyone have a build based on flight, I was reading through the new Twilight Unearthed Arcana and it got me interested in what we have available for an effective self powered flying character IE not a mounted character.

[Lord Von Becker]

Off the top of my head? Aarakockra Monk, probably Open Hand because it's powerful. The Monk is somewhat designed for divebombing, so that might be what you're looking for. It's pretty strictly conventional, though.
Things I'm less aware of: Winged Tiefling in any of the Tiefling builds - Sorcadin, Warlock, etcetera - and I think you can just modify the Celestial Generalist for that. I don't know very much about it, though; Variant Tieflings aren't in the free rules.

[Sparky McDibben]

Anybody got anymore cool builds to post?

[Kitsune Inari]

The Passive Soul
[...]
Feast buffer: 2d10 to party members without Aid

Why only members without aid? Unless you have a party of more than twelve members (which is possible if you include familiars, mounts and hirelings), you can give heroes' feast to everyone and stack aid on top of it for your frontline combatants, for 2d10+20/2d10+30 extra Maximum HP.

Keep in mind that they are two different spells, even if their effects affect the same variable, therefore they can stack if the nature of the variable affected allows for it (e.g. two bonuses to ability checks could stack, giving advantage twice can not).

[Aidamis]

Hi.
I bet some of your are familiar with a certain channel about video game/movie character builds, and many have tried to draw inspiration from a favorite character of theirs to do a build.
Since I've noticed that OP is ok with folks posting their own ideas, for which I'm thankful, here's a concept I've been considering: the Saber Tribute Fighter/Sorladin.
Saber is the code name for japanese author Kinoko Nasu's own version of king Arthur.
The character appears in the short anime called Fate/Prototype, based on Nasu's drafts for what would later become the famous Fate/Stay Night media mix. [Sorry for the lack of pictures I'm hardly familiar with the rules surrounding them and would prefer to avoid trouble.]

Saber is a sword and sometimes spear-wielding paladin with several canon abilities
- he can resist al but the most powerful magic and "tank" a lot of magic damage,
he can freely move on water, he has weapons and armor he can summon at will and
he's quite good at getting undercover and looking like an ordinary man.
Finally his Trump Card is a devastating area of effect energy blast that bears the name of king Arthur's famous sword.
Since this is a tribute, I'll be partially emulating and partially staying away from the canonical character, all within DnD 5e rules, no homebrew.

So, to make a long research/story short - we'll be playing an Eldritch Knight 6/Paladin7/Sorcerer 5/Divination Wizard 2.
We'll start as Fighter 1 for the solid package and flavor and the immediately move to Divine Soul Sorcerer 1-5. Now we can get a SCAG cantrip and enjoy a lot of spell choice variety (notably Bless from the Cleric spell list). We're also Favored by the Gods and we can pick Disguise self for the "change in and out of armor" at some point. At Sorcerer level 5 we grab Water Walk.
From seventh level to 11th we'll go Eldritch Knight for the weapon bond and extra spells. We can easily bump Charisma to 20 by then.
From level 12 to 18 we'll be taking Paladin levels. Preferably Oath of the Ancients for spell damage resistance but a character based on king Arthur can just as well be an Oath of Devotion, Crown... Find Steed will be a great pick for transportation needs and Divine Smite will emulate Saber's most famous technique in his arsenal.
The Divination Wizard levels will come in last. Portent works well alongside Favored by the Gods and two Wizard levels also add flexibility and spell slots for smiting. Besides with a total spellcaster level of 12 (7/2+6/3+5+2) we can potentially cast Magic Weapon +3.

Overall the "Saber Class" gives a versatile divine champion build that might not dish out the most damage or perform the best healing but one that achieves our Saber Tribute goals. The key weaknesses are obviously a lack of specialization and high-level spellcasting ability as well as only four ASIs or five with Variant Human. And since we'd need high Str/Cha and 13 Int, the other stats will suffer. In all honesty, I've seen other people take on Saber in its more popular version (the Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night Saber) and a case can be made for pure EK, pure Paladin or a mix of the two with some Sorcerer levels thrown in. But this is my take and I stand by it. Thank you for reading, sorry for the long-ish post, feel free to leave feedback.

[bendking]

Tesla Coils
The ideal of the blaster is always the pursuit of maximum damage with minimum risk to the party.

I see your Storm Wizard, and raise you a Storm Sorcerer!
Behold, the God of Lightning!



This one is based on the new Elemental Spell Metamagic in the new Alternate Class Features UA. This new Metamagic makes your whole schtick a whole lot... schtickier?
Maxed Thunder Fireball (Thunderball)? Why, don't mind if I do. You can practically max damage every damaging spell in your list, so have fun.

Race: Variant Human
Classes: Tempest Cleric 2/Storm Sorcerer 18
Stats (Point Buy): 8 STR / 14 DEX / 14 CON / 9 INT / 13 WIS / 16 CHA
ASIs: Warcaster (V.Human), 20 CHA, X
Progression: Sorcerer 1 --> Cleric 1 -- > Sorcerer 5 --> Cleric 2 --> Sorcerer 18

Metamagics: Elemental, Twin, [10th Sorcerer - Empowered)

Spoiler: Spell Selection

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I went up to 11 in Sorcerer, because you only get one pick out of each new spell level from there on out. It's also a matter of personal taste at this point.
Cleric Spells:
Cantrips: Guidance, Toll the Dead/Sacred Flame, Light/Thaumaturgy
1 - Healing Word, Bless
2 - Healing Word, Bless, Shield of Faith/Sanctuary
Domain - Fog Cloud, Thunderwave

Sorcerer Spells:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Lightning Lure, Thunderclap, Ray of Frost, Chill Touch
1 - Shield, Sleep
2 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Sleep
3 - Shield, Absorb Elements | Web, Shatter
4 - Shield, Absorb Elements | Web, Shatter, Warding Wind
5 - Shield, Absorb Elements | Web, Shatter | Fireball, Counterspell
6 - Shield, Absorb Elements | Web, Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell
7 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease | Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell | Wall of Fire
8 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease | Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell | Wall of Fire, Greater Invisibility
9 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease | Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell | Wall of Fire, Greater Invisibility | Cone of Cold
10 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease | Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell | Wall of Fire, Greater Invisibility | Cone of Cold, Telekinesis
11 - Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease | Shatter | Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell | Wall of Fire, Greater Invisibility | Cone of Cold, Telekinesis | Chain Lightning

This list is a work in progress, and of course you can and should change the list to fit your party composition if needed.
Overall, the flexible spells here are Shatter, Lightning Bolt, Greater Invisibility and Telekinesis.
Suggestions to the list are welcome :)

Note - In the case of Vitriolic Sphere, only the 10d4 gets maximized, which makes it 52 damage, so you'd be better off maxing Fireball for damage, which is why I didn't include it in the list. However, it's still more powerful than Fireball if you don't maximize either, so it might be worth considering.

Here's some of the damage we can do ('/' is for upcast):
3rd level: Maxed Thunderwave - 16/24 damage. Maxed Chromatic Orb - 24/32 damage.
5th level: Maxed Shatter - 24/32 damage.
7th level : Maxed Fireball - 48/56 damage.
9th level: Maxed Wall of Fire - depends on which roll you max.
11th level: Maxed Cone of Cold - 64/72 damage.
13th level: Maxed Chain Lightning - 80x4 damage.
Note - I didn't calculate in the save chance on these spells. These are the numbers if the enemy didn't save.

Spoiler: Wall of Fire HYPE

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Wall of Fire damage depends on whether you max the initial roll for enemies caught in the wall, or max the guaranteed damage roll for one enemy that passes through it. Of course, if you can get him to move through the wall again, he would take 40 damage TWICE. This works very well with Repelling Blast Warlocks/Sorlocks and the like. You could also potentially Thunderwave (which is always prepared for you) the poor guy back into the ring/beind the wall. Did someone say "boss killer"? The damage for a single bloke would be 5d8 + 40, which is about 56 damage on average, and 96 from a single spell if you manage to Thunderwave/Repelling Blast him back in.

So, what can you do other than blasting the ever living crap out of everyone you see you see?
Well, you're also a tank, with a monumental 20 AC, that becomes 25 AC with Shield, and Absorb Elements, and you have the ever wonderful Warcaster feat to get you some sweet, sweet Booming Blade OA, making sure your enemies will either regret moving away from you, or stay close right where you want them with Heart of the Storm.
Also, since Booming Blade is a spell, it means that it triggers Heart of the Storm (but only when upcast!). That's right, extra half-your-sorcerer damage in 10ft. AoE to whoever you wish on an OA. You're officially sticky, baby.
There's also the great synergy between Web and Thunderball, since your Thunderball wouldn't burn away your Web, allowing it to keep applying disadvantage on your colossal booms.

We can also Twin a bunch of stuff: Booming Blade, Lightning Lure, Ray of Frost, Toll the Dead, Chill Touch | Healing Word, Sanctuary/Shield of Faith | Greater Invisibility.
Twin Booming Blade is especially good for a poor man's Extra Attack as long as you're near two enemies (which you want to be). Upcast it and you get 2d8 + 2 (DEX) + 3 (HotS) [+ 2d8 if they move] on two enemies. Not too shabby.
Twin Greater Invisibility is especially appealing for us because Sorcerers can find it a bit difficult to get off on account of its Touch range, but for us it's actually a good call to Twin it on ourselves and someone else, since we are going to tank anyway!

Overall at least two SP a day should go to Elemental Spell to maximize blast spells, or occasionally to proc Heart of the Storm (you'd have to be near at least 3 enemies IMO), while the rest of your SP should go toward Twinning spells.

In regards to magic items, you only really want Gauntlets/Belt of Ogre Power. It gets you better attacks and more movement speed.

There's probably way more combos to specify, but that's the gist of it. Obviously, in higher levels things get ridiculous, as they often do. Maxed Thunder Meteor Swarm, anybody? Yeah.
Now, go! Channel the power of Thor and collapse mortals under the power of your devastating hammer and lightning.

P.S. I'm super open to suggestions and improvements for this, so feel free everyone :)

Spoiler: Variants

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- You could replace the stat array to 15 STR / 8 DEX / 13 CON / 9 INT / 13 WIS / 16 CHA, if you really don't want to lose 10ft. of movement, and are willing to sacrifice +1 CON for it (and the Initiative, and DEX save rolls...). However, it's worth mentioning you get +10ft. movement as a bonus action from Storm Sorcerer anyway, which makes up for the loss.
- An alternative progression would be [Sorcerer 5 --> Cleric 2 --> Sorcerer 18] if you don't want to delay 2nd tier abilities (Fireball), but then you won't be able to tank and Bless up until levels 6.
- If you play with GGtR, the Orhzov Background is amazing due to Spirit Guardians.

Spoiler: Alternative Races

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Levistus Tiefling/Scourge Aasimar (DEX-build): 8 STR / 14 DEX / 13+1 CON / 9 INT / 14 WIS / 14+2 CHA
Levistus Tiefling would give you some synergistic spells: Hellish Rebuke, Armor of Agathys, and Darkness. Scourge Aasimar gives you a powerful AoE and damage rider every round, but requires you to have some sort of way to boost your CON save to 9+ so you won't break your own concentration each round with the damage over time.
Triton (STR-build): STR 14+1 / DEX 9 / CON 13+1 / INT 8 / WIS 13 / CHA 15+1
The STR build can be done with a Triton (STR+1, CON+1, CHA+1), that is usually a paladin race, but works well here. That way there's no loss to CON, we get amphibious breathing & swimming, resistance to Cold damage, and three free spells: Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Wall of Water. We already have Fog Cloud as Domain spell, but it's good to get 1 cast per day for free. For some absolutely ridiculous reason the Tritons don't have Darkvision though…

Yuan-Ti (DEX-build): STR 8 / DEX 14 / CON 14 / INT 9+1 / WIS 13 / CHA 14+2
The Yuan-Ti (CHA+2, INT+1) give us the powerful Magic Resistance buff to all of our saving throws against magic. They also round up INT 10, add absolute Poison immunity, grant us Darkvision (yay!), and add a few spells (Poison Spray, Animal Friendship on snakes, Suggestion) based on CHA - which makes Suggestion a very nice & welcome addition to our out-of-combat skill set!

Kalashtar (DEX-build): STR 8 / DEX 14 / CON 14 / INT 8 / WIS 12+2 / CHA 15+1
The Kalashtar (WIS+2, CHA+1) grant us advantage on all of our WIS saves, which is super sweet & not even limited to magic. They also grant resistance to Psychic damage, which strongly mitigates our low INT saves, as INT-save-spells always deal Psychic damage. The immunity to dream is pretty useless, but they have one of the strongest Telepathy abilities next to an Elder Brain: Two-way telepathy established with one creature via a simple action, smashing all language-barriers to pieces, at an incredible 10ft per level range (i.e. longer than Familiar communication past level 10) – and unlimited creature one-way communication at this range! It's limited to sight, but still an extremely powerful addition to our social skill set and making us the perfect party face.

[Aidamis]

The Flying Saucer:

Conquest Paladin 6/Divine Soul Sorcerer 14
Feat/Asi priorities: Charisma, Warcaster. 15 or 16 Str should be minimum in order to qualify for heavy armor.

The Saucer flies around supporting allies and/or smiting foes that aren't yet terrified of them.
Not only can they strike with accuracy when it matters, they're useful both at range and in melee.

It's also possible to do a "pocket" version of the Saucer by simply playing a Protector Aasimar. Then you can even go Conquest Paladin 7/Divine Soul Sorcerer 13, use flight more sparingly but gain full benefits granted by Aura of Conquest.

[YoFizz]

I see your Storm Wizard, and raise you a Storm Sorcerer!
Behold, the God of Lightning!



Race: Variant Human
Classes: Tempest Cleric 2/Storm Sorcerer 18
Stats (Point Buy): 16 STR / 8 DEX / 14 CON / 8 INT / 10 WIS / 16 CHA
ASIs: Warcaster (V.Human), 20 CHA, X

I like where your head is at but you can't multiclass into or out of cleric without 13 wis

[Aidamis]

I like where your head is at but you can't multiclass into or out of cleric without 13 wis

Well-noticed! Maybe the starting race could be Protector Aasimar or Kalashtar, then while one "loses" the extra feat, one gains the possibility to start with something like
15 in Str, 8 in Dex, 14 in Con, 8 in Int, 12 in Wis and 14 in Cha
(9+0+7+4+7=27)
which gives 15 8 14 8 13 16 after racial bonuses for Protector Aasimar.

VHuman is possible, but at the cost of a risky 16 8 12 8 13 16 for starting stats.

[Theaitetos]

Well, you're also a tank, with a monumental 20 AC, that becomes 25 AC with Shield, and Absorb Elements, and you have the ever wonderful Warcaster feat to get you some sweet, sweet Booming Blade OA, making sure your enemies will either regret moving away from you, or stay close right where you want them with Heart of the Storm.
Also, since Booming Blade is a spell, it means that it triggers Heart of the Storm. That's right, extra half-your-sorcerer damage in 10ft. AoE to whoever you wish on an OA.

Heart of the Storm only triggers on spells level 1 and higher, not on cantrips.

However, it might be possible (not sure) that Absorb Elements triggers Heart of the Storm, after all it's a spell that deals lightning or thunder damage (if you use it against lightning/thunder damage). So in other words: When you trigger Heart of the Storm with a spell (for example Thunderball), you could include yourself in the creatures damaged by it, which would then allow you to cast Absorb Elements and trigger Heart of the Storm a second time this round. Ofc Warcaster and Shield might not be that useful anymore, rather go with Elemental Adept and Dragon's Breath?

Edit:
You are free to upcast the cantrip Booming Blade however and use a 1st-level spell-slot to trigger Heart of the Storm. This would definitely be worth it at higher levels; spending a 1st-level spell-slot on 3 damage for a level 6 sorcerer is just not worth it imo.

I'm not very comfortable with so much STR on a sorcerer. I'd say dump STR 8 and put it into DEX (maybe CON or WIS for cleric multiclass). STR & DEX are interchangeable for finesse weapons (so just pick a finesse weapon) and grapple checks (but grappling a storm sorcerer is probably not a good idea…). The movement penalty of heavy armor for low STR is no biggie: 10ft speed reduction. DEX saves and skills are more important than STR saves and skills.

If you want to go melee, then spend your concentration on Flame Blade (meta → lightning/thunder) and deal 3d6 thunder damage per hit! It's a 2nd-level spell and adds +1d6 damage per two spell-levels (e.g. 4d6 @4th-level spell-slot, 5d6 @6th…). Works well since beginning at level 7 you have a 4th level spell-slot but no native 4th-level spells, and as the Thunderblade is a scimitar (light, finesse), you could use DEX instead of STR for opportunity attacks (even with Booming Blade!) and deal a stunning 4d6 (Thunderblade base) +1d8 (Booming Blade level 5-10) +3 (Heart of the Storm @ sorc level 5) and potentially +2d8 (Booming Blade triggered) damage (average: 21.5, or 30.5 triggered) per opportunity attack.