An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[bendking]

Build 16: Swift Death to Evil (Oath of the Watchers Assassin/Spymaster)

As always a great build. I love the addition of Revenant Blade.
I know it's only a variant, but to me, the Blind Fighting is mandatory to the build and shouldn't ever be switched for GWF. I would only consider it if, as you said, the DM doesn't go by SAC ruling.

[Gignere]

Wrote this up real quick in response to a thread asking about making Dexadins.



Who says a Paladin is about being a big clanky man who ruins stealth for the party? A Watcher remains hidden in the shadows, ever vigilant for fiends from beyond. And when they appear, their oath demands swift death to evil.

Here we have a Dex-based Paladin that transforms all of their allies into a deadly alpha strike team. A holy ninja strike team leader, if you will.

Build 16: Swift Death to Evil (Oath of the Watchers Assassin/Spymaster)

I think I found my next character. If Tasha’s options is in play, it’s probably optimal to fight with rapier/short sword and board and pick up either dueling or defense, then at level 4 when you pick up revenant blade go blindfighting using the fighting style swap to pick it up.

Also dumping strength is probably suboptimal if medium armor is recommended until 20 dex, especially if encumbrance is tracked.

[Ir0ns0ul]

I think I just reached level 12 and spent my ASI to round-up my INT to 20 after reading this last build from Ludic.

[ftafp]

The Umbral Messiah


He who doubts support clerics can be edgy, let him look upon this build and hear Crawling In My Skin in his head

Race: Half-Drow
Class: Hexblade 2/Peace Cleric 6/Ancients Paladin 7
Stats: 13 STR, (10+2) DEX, 12 CON, 8 INT, 14 WIS, (15+1) CHA
ASI: CHA +2@6, CHA +2@12
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast
Fighting Style: Blind Fighting

Level 1 is the most boring level. Hexblade gives us all the standard benefits: CHA SADness, Hexblade's Curse, Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, Shield, and Armor of Agathys. Hex 2 gives us our invocations and now for something completely different.

Peace Cleric as anyone can tell you is a fantastic dip. Just one level nets you emboldening bond, which is just like bless except concentration-free and you can cast to PB times a day. Most builds stop there but we're taking this to Level 6 and you'll see why soon enough. Now, one of the great things about Clerics is that many of their best spells don't really need wisdom. Bless, Healing Word, Heroism and Aid are fantastic support spells, and while Spirit Guardians is lessened by a bad save dc it's still a half damage mobile AoE with difficult terrain on top. But no, we're not here for that.

What we're here for is level 6 when we get Protective Bond, allowing anyone bonded to teleport to someone's aid as a reaction, taking the damage for them. It's a useful ability, and most players usually slap that on the tank, but your tank only has one reaction a round, and it only has so much hp as well. The simple fact is they can't tank everything, and if an enemy is throwing out massive amounts of damage you might benefit from a disposable tank. Well, as luck would have it, we have a spell for that in Animate Dead, letting you animate zombies with 22 hp and undead fortitude, making them fairly reusable. These zombies can be kept safely within 30 feet of you at all times by stashing them in a bag of holding. Once there they can use their own reactions to sacrifice themselves for you or your allies.remember that your Emboldening Bond will apply the zombie's undead fortitude saving throw, meaning they have a better shot at surviving and tanking another blow

With our Peace cleric peaked, it's time to switch classes, and next on our list is Paladin. Paladin 2 will give us two major benefits, the first being divine smite, allowing us to improve our melee damage, and the second being Blind Fighting, which pairs perfectly with our half-drow ability to cast Darkness, allowing us to blind enemies but not ourselves, meaning more attacks miss us, fewer enemy spells can find their mark and we have advantage on attack rolls against enemies. neat Paladin 5 will get us extra attack (always welcome) and then at 6 we get our Aura

So, quick thing to note here. Remember how your zombies could make a saving throw not to drop to 0 hp? Now, whenever they teleport in to protect you or an ally in 15 feet of you, they can add your CHA bonus to their save on top of the Emboldening Bond, making them even tankier. This only gets better at level 7 when you get Aura of Warding, granting you, your zombies and any other allies resistance to spell damage.

[LudicSavant]

The Umbral Messiah


He who doubts support clerics can be edgy, let him look upon this build and hear Crawling In My Skin in his head

Race: Half-Drow
Class: Hexblade 2/Peace Cleric 6/Ancients Paladin 7
Stats: 13 STR, (10+2) DEX, 12 CON, 8 INT, 14 WIS, (15+1) CHA
ASI: CHA +2@6, CHA +2@12
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast
Fighting Style: Blind Fighting

Level 1 is the most boring level. Hexblade gives us all the standard benefits: CHA SADness, Hexblade's Curse, Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, Shield, and Armor of Agathys. Hex 2 gives us our invocations and now for something completely different.

Peace Cleric as anyone can tell you is a fantastic dip. Just one level nets you emboldening bond, which is just like bless except concentration-free and you can cast to PB times a day. Most builds stop there but we're taking this to Level 6 and you'll see why soon enough. Now, one of the great things about Clerics is that many of their best spells don't really need wisdom. Bless, Healing Word, Heroism and Aid are fantastic support spells, and while Spirit Guardians is lessened by a bad save dc it's still a half damage mobile AoE with difficult terrain on top. But no, we're not here for that.

What we're here for is level 6 when we get Protective Bond, allowing anyone bonded to teleport to someone's aid as a reaction, taking the damage for them. It's a useful ability, and most players usually slap that on the tank, but your tank only has one reaction a round, and it only has so much hp as well. The simple fact is they can't tank everything, and if an enemy is throwing out massive amounts of damage you might benefit from a disposable tank. Well, as luck would have it, we have a spell for that in Animate Dead, letting you animate zombies with 22 hp and undead fortitude, making them fairly reusable. These zombies can be kept safely within 30 feet of you at all times by stashing them in a bag of holding. Once there they can use their own reactions to sacrifice themselves for you or your allies.remember that your Emboldening Bond will apply the zombie's undead fortitude saving throw, meaning they have a better shot at surviving and tanking another blow

With our Peace cleric peaked, it's time to switch classes, and next on our list is Paladin. Paladin 2 will give us two major benefits, the first being divine smite, allowing us to improve our melee damage, and the second being Blind Fighting, which pairs perfectly with our half-drow ability to cast Darkness, allowing us to blind enemies but not ourselves, meaning more attacks miss us, fewer enemy spells can find their mark and we have advantage on attack rolls against enemies. neat Paladin 5 will get us extra attack (always welcome) and then at 6 we get our Aura

So, quick thing to note here. Remember how your zombies could make a saving throw not to drop to 0 hp? Now, whenever they teleport in to protect you or an ally in 15 feet of you, they can add your CHA bonus to their save on top of the Emboldening Bond, making them even tankier. This only gets better at level 7 when you get Aura of Warding, granting you, your zombies and any other allies resistance to spell damage.

This is a really intriguing idea for a support build, using zombies for extra reactions and having them benefit from your ability to pump saving throws, and use saving throws to resist death from smaller attacks. Has decent healing, and EB/Darkness/B-F/Curse or Cha-based smiting for damage options to round out its support kit. Thanks for submitting this!

I notice the build ends at level 15 -- I'm curious how you'd finish it out.

[ftafp]

This is a really intriguing idea for a support build, using zombies for extra reactions and having them benefit from your ability to pump saving throws, and use saving throws to resist death from smaller attacks. Has decent healing, and EB/Darkness/B-F/Curse or Cha-based smiting for damage options to round out its support kit. Thanks for submitting this!

I notice the build ends at level 15 -- I'm curious how you'd finish it out.

Thank you!

In terms of maxing the build out I might take one more level of cleric just for death ward (notably because death ward is a disposable effect you can cast it several times on the same creature and have its effects stack) and take the rest in paladin. Plant growth combined with repelling blast is fantastic control at any level and improved divine smite is decent to have.

I've also run over several other variations in my head for this build. The hexadin aspect of the build was more because I didn't want to post a single-class build. In fact, pure Peace would probably be more optimal and could still pull the same trick off (albeit with less tanky zombies). Depending on your DM, a small race might be better than a half-drow (just replace blind fighting with defense) as you can take Mounted Combatant and stand on a medium ally's back. This would let your stretch your emboldened bond one ally further, as you can take most of the damage for that ally while your zombies take the damage for you.

[Wraith]

Sure, send me a list of short descriptions and if it looks like everything's in order I'll add it.

Had a go while it was quiet at work, I hope I haven't mistaken anyone's theme/intention by too great of a margin...

Spoiler: Summarised Builds from the Thread

Show

1. The Eldritch Blast Knight by Bloodcloud
   V.Human Tomelock that uses Eldritch Knight's War Magic to make the most of a buffed Eldritch Blast.
   
2. The Tiefling Masochist by Story_Optimized
   Tiefling Warlock/Storm Cleric who passively reflects amplified damage back at their aggressors.
   
3. The Fey Knight by SithLordNergal
   Half-Elf Ancients Paladin/Dreams Druid with a tiny splash of Sorcerer. You teleport around like crazy and SMASH people into the dirt with one huge strike. Or even several huge strikes, if you like.
   
4. The Passive Soul by Ritorix
   V.Human Divine Soul Sorcerer that buffs and heals the entire party with all the added benefits of metamagic.
   
5. The Battle Valkyrie Life Cleric by Man_Over_Game
   V.Human Life Cleric/Sorcerer, healing from the front-line and taking advantage of Distant, Twinned Warding Bond to reduce incoming damage to multiple members of the party.
   
6. King Leonidas by Tallytrev813
   V.Human Totem Barbarian who stands in the maelstrom of battle and does not take damage.
   
7. The Warlord Halfling by Mjolnirbear
   Battlemaster of many races, but prefers a Halfling to share Bountiful Luck and a variety of buffs with allies.
   
8. Dragonriders by Mjolnirbear
   Kobold Paladin riding a dinosaur. What, you wanted more? WHY!?
   
9. The Undecided Spare by Mjolnirbear
   Stacking multiple low-level dips into a towering threat.
   
10. The Dilettante by Mjolnirbear
    Multiple multiclasses to melee in nearly any way you can think of.
    
11. The Dabbler by Mjolnirbear
    As above, but all the spellcasting classes to be able to cast a little bit of everything.
    
12. The Stab of All Trades by Skylivedk
    Multiclassing the CHA classes to combine into a formidable all-purpose frontliner.
    
13. The Tank of All Trades by Skylivedk
    Tanky Rogue with Proficiency in ALL the saves and some extra spellcasting from Lore Bard.
    
14. The Never-Ending Ward by Skylivedk
    Gnome Abjuration Wizard for racial synergy, splashing into Conquest Paladin to ruin another Wizard's day.
    
15. The Kinetic Blaster and Jedi Tank by AtomicWrath
    Half-Elf Fighter/Warlock that forcibly moves targets wherever they want them to be.
    
16. The Flying Tank by AtomicWrath
    Dragonborn Ancestral Barbarian/Artificer Battlesmith who gets up in the BBEG's face while debuffing the next most dangerous threat remotely.
    
17. Yeti, PhD by AtomicWrath
    Bugbear Fighter/Artificer who combines supreme reach with Polearm Master and some key magical items.
    
18. Jedi Tank by AtomicWrath
    V.Human Battlemaster Fighter/Great Old One Tomelock that frontlines in the fight and masters the minds of others elsewhere.
    
19. Nature is Magical by Mercurias
    V.Human Arcana Cleric/Land Druid, highly melee capable and with multiple spells for every occasion.
    
20. The Advokist Tomb Raider by AtomicWrath
    INTelligent Vedalken Artificer who picks up Forge Cleric and War Wizard to reach a ridiculous AC and then plough into the fight with AoE damage AND skills check bonuses to make a Rogue envious.
    
21. The Shadow Whip by ThatDuckGrant
    V.Human Shadow Sorcerer with a Hexblade dip. Debuff the enemy and then Booming Blad-...Lash them without mercy.
    
22. Whippy the Wonder Goblin by Amechra
    Goblin Sword Bard/Kensei Monk, turning the humble whip into a threat from any space by combining Reach and high mobility.
    
23. The Savage Shield by Amechra
    Lizardfolk Barbarian/Kensei Monk. All your favourite Monk things, but with Natural Armour and custom-built shield to see you through the thickest of fighting.
    
24. Mr. Disintegration Pistol by Amechra
    Shifter Ranger/Kensei Monk. Master the hand-crossbow and hone it to perfection through your mystical bond.
    
25. The ZombieNaught by Skylivedk
    Half-Orc Long Death Monk/Thief/Zealot Barbarian. You Grapple something and then tear it to pieces with your bare hands while soaking up whatever they can throw back at you.
    
26. 4 Arms of Grappling Death by Skylivedk
    Simic Hybrid Battlemaster with a handful of dips into Hexblade, Ranger and Rogue to make the ultimate grappling machine.
    
27. Swift Blade & Bottle by Skylivedk
    Elven Eldritch Knight that picks up Hexblade/Sorcerer/Thief dips to maximize DPS, both from items and direct attacking.
    
28. Spider-Man by Skylivedk
    Wood Elf Battlemaster/Thief/Monk. You can run wherever you want, drop as far as you like, and murder whatever you land on.
    
29. Monsieur DeLafleur, Cook Extraordinaire! by Amechra
    V.Human Bard that turns every short rest into a tasty snack that buffs the entire party.
    
30. The Booming Trickster by BarneyBent
    Wood Elf Trickery Cleric/Arcane Trickster Rogue that Booming Blades from the shadows without ever breaking cover.
    
31. The True Skill Monkey by Amechra
    Half-Elf Charlatan Rogue/Lore Bard. The only thing he doesn't know, is how to not know something.
    
32. Arcie the ridiculously lucky Arcane Trickster by GorogInput
    Halfling Arcane Trickster Rogue that dips into Divination Wizard and both Luck-based feats to make sure everything always goes your way.
    
33. YEET by Trickery
    Halfling Warlock/Sorcerer who uses Eldritch Blasts from unexpected angles to launch enemies in every unexpected direction.
    
34. Tesla Coils by FableWright
    Gnome Tempest Cleric/Evocation Wizard. Abuse Overchannel and Destructive Wrath to maximise the potential of the humble Lightning Bolt.
    
35. The UberMage by Story_Optimized
    Winged Tiefling Tempest Cleric/Hexblade/War Wizard. A strong rival for the Iron/Nuclear Wizards; immense spellcasting twinned with impressive AC.
    
36. The Divine Conduit by RingoBongo
    Wood Elf (or Halfling) Inquisitive Rogue/War Cleric. Pick a target; determine it's weaknesses, then exploit them with pin-point longbow accuracy.
    
37. Vesselyth, the Clockwork Bandit by Mjolnirbear
    A small Artificer masquerading as a non-Rogue Thief. Skills a-plenty, but more locksmith than sneaky infiltrator.
    
38. The God of Lightning by bendking
    V.Human Tempest Cleric/Storm Sorcerer. Another variant on optimised Lightning damage for every occasion.
    
39. Building Iron Man by AgenderAcree
    V.Human Artillerist Artificer, themed around appropriate items and skills to make your very own Avenger in D&D.
    
40. The Feywarden by Justin Sane
    Wood Elf Scout Rogue/Fey Wanderer Ranger. A HUGE list of skills that brings Sneak Attacks and buffed Dual Wielding to the fight.
    
41. The Grease Trap by Citadel97501
    V.Human Sorcerer/Fighter/Rogue, Grease-ing and grappling enemies to make sure they never get up long enough to fight back.
    
42. Celestial Dragonforge Cleric, Master of the Searing Smite, by AgenderAcree
    CHA-based Forge Cleric/Celestial Tomelock/Draconic Sorcerer. Double-down on bonus CHA, Fire and Radiant damage from multiple sources, multiple times per hit.
    
43. Zealot of Death, by Benny89
    Aasimar Hexblade/Zealot Barbarian. You face only the greatest of champions one-on-one and claim their souls for the Dark Powers of Death.
    
44. The Caster's Bane, by Alucard89
    How do you become the bane of spellcasters across the lands? Yuan-Ti Hexblade/Ancients Paladin/Divine Soul Sorcerer is how.
    
45. Plague Stalker, by Alucard89
    V.Human Spore Druid/Gloom Stalker Ranger. Guardian of the Forest who stacks multiple abilities and refines them into raw DPS.
    
46. The Astral Pariah, by ftafp
    Protector Aasimar Paladin/Moon Druid. You turn into a Beast and then rip and tear with added Smiting. Who can fly.
    
47. The Templar of Time, by Bobthewizard
    Half-Elf Hexblade/Echo Knight Fighter. A spectacular melee nova for multiple attacks and incredible stacks of damage.
    
48. The Hex Spoon by ftafp
    Mark of Hospitality Halfling which takes a Tome Hexblade, dips into Life Cleric, Shadow Sorcerer and Alchemist to turn short rests into a feast of super-charged Goodberries.
    
49. The Skill Monkey's Country Cousin by Kvard51
    Tabaxi Scout Rogue with a handful of small runs into skill-heavy subclasses. You get proficiencies in a huge amount of skills, though are (broadly speaking) more wilderness orientated than the previous Skill Monkey.
    
50. The Guardian of Balance by Benny89
    Eberron-themed Mark-of-Sentinel V.Human Druid/Arcana Cleric. A tiny dip and some racial feats stack a massive amount of useful abilities onto and already impressive controller/caster/melee Cleric.
    
51. The Underwater Basket Weaver by ftafp
    Half-Sea-Elf Alchemist with Thief and Conjuror dips. The epitome of the "lethal joke character" that starts out weird and confusing, then blossoms into something truly terrifying.
    
52. Lung Wang by ftafp
    Kobold Artificer/Wizard - the New Pun-Pun™ that stacks spells and buffs to buy Legendary items by rolling 1+ on a d20.
    
53. The Cheese Grater by Skylivedk
    Aarakocra (or alternatives) Hexblade/Moon Druid that Hexes the opponent and then drags them repeatedly through a patch of Spike Growth.
    
54. Grapple Bard: My Shield is Here For You by PancakeMaster80
    V.Human Lore Bard/Hexblade that grapples you in close and then minces you with a bunch of persistent AoE effects.
    
55. The Platinum-Tongued Diplomat by Legospasm
    The basic chassis for a highly charismatic diplomancer, that gets expanded upon in different directions with the next two builds.
    
56. All-In Persuasion by Legospasm
    Diplomat chassis with added Samurai, turning your persuasion check into only slightly less than brain-washing.
    
57. Guardian Angel/Party Pleaser by Legospasm
    Diplomat build, but with added Aasimar/Devotion Paladin for more practical uses outside of the ballroom.
    
58. The Lord Marshall by Citadel97501
    V.Human Fighter/Conquest Paladin to control the battlefield with Fear and then reap the enemy as they flee before you.
    
59. The Naked Dragon by jojoskull
    Half-Elf Draconic Sorcerer who needs absolutely nothing but their own wits and inherent powers - no possessions, no components, no problems!
    
60. The Arcane Blade by Bendking
    "The Ultimate Arcane Trickster", pushing the Rogue class to the edge with a hefty dose of Bladesinger to amplify every feature.
    
61. The Holy Avenger by Bendking
    Optimised Vengeance/Divine Soul 'Sorcadin' that makes the most of its divine power both martially and magically.
    
62. The Holy Protector by Bendking
    V.Human Divine Soul Sorcerer with a tiny touch of Life Cleric to make a tanky melee-caster/healer.
    
63. Heroforge 2 models of Eclectic Builds by Draz74
    Not a build, but Draz74 shows off some Hero Forge imaginings of their favourite eclectic builds!
    
64. The Alien Ant Farm by ftafp
    A living hive of metallic ants that combines Swarm Ranger and Forge Cleric to specialise in persistent AoE damage.
    
65. The Hecatoncheires by ftafp
    Did you know that there's no upper limit as to how many arms an Astral Monk can project? ftafp did, and then he made them bigger with Rune Knight for an immense, multi-target grappler.
    
66. The Magnetic Pauldron (AKA: Tech Support) by ftafp
    Kobold Artillerist who stands on the shoulders of giants - or, at least, the other party members - and protects them from incoming harm, like a miniature living turret.
    
67. Illiquar the Tentacular by ftafp
    Simic Hybrid Whisper Bard, masquerading as a brain-eating Mind Flayer who wants nothing better than to grapple a wizard and have them over for... dinner.
    
68. Kermit the Slaad by ftafp
    Grung Barbarian/Samurai who twins their natural Poison with their Natural Weapons to double down on extra damage and conditions with every attack.
    
69. The Level 14 Aristocrat by ftafp
    An NPC Noble build inspired by everyone's favourite Lord of the Sapphire Guard.
    
70. The Crystal-Covered Crusher by Draz74
    Hobgoblin Psi Warrior who dips into Artificer to bump their AC and also become truly SAD by getting the most out of their towering INT.
    
71. The Hobgoblin Steel Sorcerer by Bendking
    Tanky Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, keeping pace with the Iron Wizard through generous abuse of the Wall of Force spell.
    
72. The Rune Knight Bully by Mitchellnotes
    Dwarf Rune Knight, taking advantage of your Large size to add extra threatened squares to the Polearm master's already impressive repertoire.
    
73. The Psychic Master by Bendking
    An expert in mind-manipulation and disguise, through the power of Aberrant Mind Sorcerer.
    
74. The Trunk Tank by Sol0botmate
    Loxodon Rune Knight, self-buffing from Life Cleric to exploit a huge range of reactions and bonus actions.
    
75. The Heavy Artillerist by ftafp
    Warforged Artillarist/Graviturgist (from Wildemount) combining magic with technology to turn the turret into a doubly-fearsome weapon of AoE damage and suppression.
    
76. Bob the Builder by Zaile
    Dwarf Artisan NPC who is always happy to help a Player Character who needs something built or made, whatever they need.
    
77. The Überflumph by ftafp
    Flumph sidekick that handily out-classes some lower-tier subclass options.
    
78. The Aberrant Mind Sorlock: A Renaissance Man by borg286
    Yuan-Ti Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Hexblade who can rejig their spells at a moment's notice to take on any party role they want.
    
79. Smoll Panzer Smith by Sol0botmate
    Kobold Battlesmith who builds his own allies to gain constant pack tactics bonuses, then stacking every bit of extra damage you can find to bring down the toughest of opponents.
    
80. The Necessary Evil by carrdrivesyou
    The creepiest Elven Priest ever; A Grave Cleric that escorts souls into the afterlife by employing their skills as an Assassin to make sure that they get dead in the first place....
    
81. A Peaceful Summoner by Hael
    Goblin Shepherd Druid/Peace Cleric. Bring your own huge party of allies to the fight and then keep them truckin' no matter what the enemy throws at you.
    
82. Cloud Kill by Sol0botmate
    Elven Arcane Trickster that not only strikes from the shadows, but also brings the Darkness with them to ensure that the enemy never sees them coming.
    
83. Misty Holystabber by Sol0botmate
    Fight dirty for a noble cause, with a Goblin Vengeance (or Ancients) Paladin with a splash of Sorcerer to cover their Nimble Escape and prepare for another strike.
    
84. The "Road Rash" Wrestler by Wraith
    A Tasha's-compliant update to the Cheese Grater, making use of a Tabaxi Rune Knight and a selection of dips to rack up a potentially ridiculous number of d4's in damage.
    
85. The KRAKEN! by Sol0botmate
    Tentacle-y, grapple-y build from a Simic Hybrid Glory Paladin who picks up choice buffs from Sorcerer to make it even more effective.
    
86. The Scorpion by Wildstag
    GET OVER HERE! An Elven Sea Sorcerer (UA)/Eldritch Knight getting maximum action efficiency by pulling targets in with Thorn Whip and then beating them down with War Magic.
    
87. The Soloist by Jon talks a lot
    A warrior of many talents, designed to cover all the bases for a solo PC game. Rogue, Fighter, Monk and Paladin? Oh my!
    
88. The Umbral Messiah by ftafp
    A cleric so edgy, that you'll cut yourself. Half-Drow Peace Cleric for buffed and protected animated zombies, and then Ancients Paladin buffs them further to keep them fighting and taking damage in your place.
    
89. Ambulatory Tank by LumenPlacinum
    Grung Battlesmith that rides within their Steel Defender like a reverse-submarine. They add their Poison to Arcane Trickster/Booming Blade to be incredibly tough while dealing an impressive amount of damage in the process.
    
90. The War Princess: Master of Malicious Minionmancy by ftafp
    Ever wanted to play a Disney Princess and drown your opponents in a tidal wave of cutesy minions? Genie Warlock provides the magic, and Creation Bard provides the bodies.
    
91. The Fire Marshal by ftafp
    Human Wildfire Druid with a splash of War Wizard showing off how a supposedly-nerfed blaster subclass can be turned into an impressive counter-and-control with the power of readied actions.
    
92. The Sanguine Bastion by Rerem115
    Tanky War Wizard - thanks to Dwarven aptitude for heavy armour - who sucks the life out of everything with constant Vampiric Touch that has been turbo-charged with a dip into Life Cleric.
    
93. The Whisperer in the Dark by ftafp
    A silent Goblin horror who looms out of the shadows as a Gloomstalker and uses Aberrant Mind powers to slay without a word.
    
94. Thundering Cleric by Lumen Placidum
    (UA) Variant Human Polearm Master that uses Cleric/Sorcerer to force enemies away with boosted Thunderclaps, only to punish them for daring to step forward again.
    
95. The Counterer of Spells by Jon talks a lot
    Stout Halfling Wild Magic Sorcerer that counters enemy spells with barely a glance - assuming that they're able to cast anything in the first place.
    
96. Everyone's Best Friend by Evaar
    Halfling Genie Tomelock who combines charisma and magic to make sure that they always get their own way and provides allies with multiple neat tricks outside of combat.
    
97. Literally Luke Skywalker by Renduaz
    V.Human of many classes that... y'know what, I'll just let you guess what this one does.
    
98. The Oxymoronic Meat-Grinder by Wraith
    Duergar Dwarf that combines the size of a Rune Knight, as well as their innate magic, with the skill of a Hunter Ranger to single-handedly mow through a whole army in one swing.
    
99. The Wagoneer by ftafp
    A different take on the Artificer and Creation Bard combination, this time one who builds high-tech magic-gadgets. Less Disney, more Arifureta.
    
100. The D6 Piercer by Rihno
     Half Orc Barbarian/Swashbuckler/Champion who stacks Savage-, Sneak- and Orcish Futy attacks to throw out a fist full of d6's in damage.
     
101. Soulknife Generalist by LumenPlacidum
     Tabaxi Soul Knife/Rune Knight/Fey Wanderer; Picking up as many skill proficiencies as possible and using Psychic Blades to be as self-sufficient in as many areas as possible even with equipment.
     
102. Arcane Knight by Rihno
     Tanky Mark of the Storm Elf who uses Fog Cloud to disorientate enemies, then gets in amongst them with Battle Smith/Champion to hit them hard.
     
103. The Farfire Visionary by Renduaz
     You have a selection of 'nature' Races and a choice of other spellcaster classes around a core of Wildfire Druid to temporarily gain unlimited spellcasting range.
     
104. The Hunter in the Dark by Droppeddead
     Sniping from - and into - the dark as a Scout/Gloom Stalker. Lots of Skill Monkey-ing for extra usefulness.
     
105. Korg the Push by Houster
     Minotaur Battemaster/Swarm Keeper who controls the battlefield by physically shoving enemies about with her horns, ready to charge them down for extra damage in the next round.
     
106. The Eye of Annihilation by Wraith
     V.Human Rune Knight/Divine Soul who super-sizes the range of their spells by casting while Huge sized.

[diplomancer]

This is a really intriguing idea for a support build, using zombies for extra reactions and having them benefit from your ability to pump saving throws, and use saving throws to resist death from smaller attacks. Has decent healing, and EB/Darkness/B-F/Curse or Cha-based smiting for damage options to round out its support kit. Thanks for submitting this!

I notice the build ends at level 15 -- I'm curious how you'd finish it out.

The build looks very good, but AC is fairly low; maybe start with Paladin 1 (or 2 for smites?) Then, at least once you get your Steed, you could switch to Heavy Armor without worrying about the movement penalty (and you could already be wearing Chain Mail before that for reasonable AC)

[LudicSavant]

@ftafp

The build looks very good, but AC is fairly low; maybe start with Paladin 1 (or 2 for smites?) Then, at least once you get your Steed, you could switch to Heavy Armor without worrying about the movement penalty (and you could already be wearing Chain Mail before that for reasonable AC)

Suggestion: You can improve the build's AC by fixing the starting stats. They should be able to start with 13/14/12/9/14/16 instead of 13/12/12/8/14/16. I think ftafp is accidentally using the stat mods for a Drow rather than his listed race (Half-Drow).

Had a go while it was quiet at work, I hope I haven't mistaken anyone's theme/intention by too great of a margin...

*snip*

Thanks for doing this!

[Merudo]

Alright, so this one is gonna be a bit of a rip-off.

Hobgoblin Steel Sorcerer



TCE's ASI rules make Hobgoblin a good pick for Sorcerers now, and the Clockwork Soul gets access to both Armor of Agathys and Bastion of Law which lets him get more use out of his AoA.
On top of that, he gets access to an insane spell list and the ever-powerful (busted) Wall of Force. This is meaningful because (opinion alert), access to Wall of Force usually puts Wizards above Sorcerers in power level, but this Sorcerer lets us remain on par for a few more levels against a Wizard in our party (until they get access to shenanigans like Contingency, Simulacrum, and so on). Overall, this is one hell of a tanky caster, with some great Metamagic shenanigans thrown in to support the tank playstyle like Careful Hypnotic Pattern, Quickened Vampiric Touch, and more.

Stats
Race: Hobgoblin (+1 CON, +2 CHA)
Classes: Clockwork Soul Sorcerer 20
Stats (Point Buy): 8 STR / 15 DEX / 16 CON / 8 INT / 8 WIS / 17 CHA
ASIs: Moderately Armored (+1 DEX), Fey Touched (+1 CHA | Misty Step, Bless), +2 CHA, Warcaster, Resilient (WIS)
Progression: Sorcerer 20

Metamagics: Careful, Quickened, [10th Sorcerer - Transumted Spell)

Spell Progression

Cantrips
Booming Blade, Blade Ward, Mind Sliver, Firebolt [Minor Illusion, Chill Touch]

Spells
1 - Sleep, Shield [Armor of Agathys, Protection from Evil and Good]
2 - Sleep, Shield, Grease [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements]
3 - Sleep, Shield, Grease | Web [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp]
4 - Sleep, Shield, Grease | Web, Blur [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp]
5 - Shield, Grease | Web, Blur | Hypnotic Pattern, Fireball [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp | Counterspell, Dispel Magic]
6 - Shield | Web, Blur | Hypnotic Pattern, Fireball, Vampiric Touch, X [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp | Counterspell, Dispel Magic]
7 - Shield | Web, Blur | Hypnotic Pattern, Fireball, Vampiric Touch | Sickening Radiance, Dimension Door [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp, Counterspell, Dispel Magic | Polymorph, Stone Shape]
8 - Shield (FT: Bane) | Web, Blur, (FT: Misty Step) | Hypnotic Pattern, Fireball, Counterspell, Blink | Sickening Radiance, Dimension Door [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp | Counterspell, Dispel Magic | Polymorph, Stone Shape]
9 - Shield (FT: Bane) | Web, Blur (FT: Misty Step) | Hypnotic Pattern, Fireball, Counterspell | Sickening Radiance, Dimension Door | Telekinesis, [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp | Counterspell, Dispel Magic | Polymorph, Stone Shape | Wall of Force, Animate Objects]
10- Shield (FT: Bane) | Web, Blur (FT: Misty Step) | Hypnotic Pattern, Tidal Wave, Counterspell | Sickening Radiance, Dimension Door | Telekinesis, Synaptic Static [Armor of Agathys, Absorb Elements | Aid, Earthen Grasp | Counterspell, Dispel Magic | Polymorph, Stone Shape | Wall of Force, Animate Objects]

Highlights
1. Armor of Agathys + Bastion of Law lets us deal a lot of damage to whoever dares attack us. Combined with Quickened Blade Ward we can squeeze a lot of value from AoA.
2. Quickened Spell is the bomb on this build. Let me explain. Vampiric Touch is rad - it lets us stay on the battlefield that much longer by stealing the life of our enemies. Quickened takes this spell to a whole other level. If you Quicken it you get two channels in a turn, and on subsequent turns, you can keep channeling it while Quickening other spells (Blade Ward, Armor of Agathys, and Blink are great non-concentration spells for this spot). Other amazing Quickened candidates are Earthen Grasp and Telekinesis.
3. We wouldn't be much of a tank if we didn't have battlefield control. Careful Spell takes care of that. Careful Hypnotic Pattern, Careful Sickening Radiance, and even Careful Web (if your DM isn't a JC fan) all provide unparalleled battlefield control.
4. Synaptic Static + Bane is awesome. Bane helps us keep Synaptic Static on our enemies, causing enemies to potentially reduce 1d6 + 1d4 from their attack rolls. Also, we got Mind Sliver up in this party as well.
5. Fantastic AC. Moderately Armored puts us at a cool 19 AC while wielding a shield. And of course, Shield to put us at 24 AC when needed.

Notes:
1. I would have liked Extended on this list to abuse Aid, but we just don't have enough metamagic known.
2. Blink is a flex spell. It isn't terribly synergistic with AoA, and is a bit counter to the whole point of drawing attention from your allies, but it can still come in handy. Still, feel free to change it to whatever you like.

Variants:
1. You can take a dip of Life Cleric for ultimate hilarity with Vampiric Touch. This would also mean you don't need Hobgoblin or Moderately Armored, and could possibly take V.Human/Custom Lineage for Metamagic Adept, but then the spell list would probably change drastically.
2. You can take Bless instead of Bane, I just found the idea of reducing -1d6-1d4 from attacks and other checks to be funny (and highly effective).

1. I would not take Bless with Fey Touched at level 8 - by then you have better stuff to concentrate on. I would personally recommend either Dissonant Whispers or Command to generate opportunity attacks for cheap.

2. Vampiric Touch + Quicken is awfully inefficient. You are spending a level 3 slot, your concentration, and dumping tons of points into Quicken for an average of 5hp healed per turn - and that's when you manage to land a hit.

3. Careful Sickening Radiance doesn't work - you might be thinking of Sculpted Sickening Radiance, from the Evoker Wizard.

[OBoyd]

The Umbral Messiah


[I]Well, as luck would have it, we have a spell for that in Animate Dead, letting you animate zombies with 22 hp and undead fortitude, making them fairly reusable. These zombies can be kept safely within 30 feet of you at all times by stashing them in a bag of holding. Once there they can use their own reactions to sacrifice themselves for you or your allies.remember that your Emboldening Bond will apply the zombie's undead fortitude saving throw, meaning they have a better shot at surviving and tanking another blow

Since it is an extradimensional space the inside of the Bag of Holding wouldn't be within 30' unless you have a very forgiving DM.

Even without that little truck this looks like s great build.

[ftafp]

Since it is an extradimensional space the inside of the Bag of Holding wouldn't be within 30' unless you have a very forgiving DM.

where do the rules say that?

[Citadel97501]

Has anyone looked at a combination of Djinn: Warlock 6 (any of them) & the Artillerist: Artificer 14. I was thinking that this would give you a powerful and very fun build using a wide variety of different attacks, with a lot of flight and other cool utility tricks.

Heaven's Commando
Race: Protector Aasimar
Feats: Spell Sniper, ASI's x 2 both to Intelligence, Crossbow Expert
Classes: Genie Warlock, Artillerist Artificer
Pact: Pact of the Tome or Talisman depending on party.
Spell Storing Item: Scorching Ray or Shatter depending on module and party.

Pro's:
Accuracy: Ignoring Cover issues, Melee Range disadvantage, while basically always using your Intelligence to attack is great.
High Damage: 1d8+proficiency+level per turn added to any of your spell attacks...
Flight: 10 minutes per proficiency bonus per Long Rest, and the 1 minute flight available through Aasimar.
Tough: Good AC, and OK hit points.
Elemental Resistance: Fire, Ice, or Bludgeoning seem to be best.
Skill Support: Pact of the Talisman is great, as is Pact of the Tome for utility rituals.
Short Rest Slots: Always having a spell slot for a turret, seems very handy to me.
Spell Storing Item: 30 x Scorching Ray shots per day + Turret, so 4 attacks per turn without issue.

Con's:
Really expensive on Actions: Turrets, and Aasimar transformation both cost actions.
No Double Turrets
No Half Cover Turrets

Discussion Points I see coming up:
Is flight and elemental resistance worth giving up for double turrets, and the half cover turrets. This seems to be a very important distinction that determine if this deep dip into warlock is warranted. I believe it is, but it really is party and DM dependent. If you choose to avoid that deep dip, I would suggest Warlock only up to 2.

[Wildstag]

Just a note on the Scorpion build description, but Lightning Lure really doesn't work with it because it's a fixed-range save-based spell. It already pulls people in to melee range. The saving throw makes it ineligible for a range increase through Spell Sniper and to get the Distant Spell metamagic, you'd need 3 levels in Sorcerer.

The reason I used Thorn Whip in the build is solely because the build came out of optimizing the cantrip, as it is my favorite cantrip (and probably spell, tbh).

P.S. Also it doesn't even really need a build if using Lightning Lure; you can just go base EK and make it work without MC or feats.

[kaervaak]

Has anyone looked at a combination of Djinn: Warlock 6 (any of them) & the Artillerist: Artificer 14. I was thinking that this would give you a powerful and very fun build using a wide variety of different attacks, with a lot of flight and other cool utility tricks.

Heaven's Commando
Race: Protector Aasimar
Feats: Spell Sniper, ASI's x 2 both to Intelligence, Crossbow Expert
Classes: Genie Warlock, Artillerist Artificer
Pact: Pact of the Tome or Talisman depending on party.
Spell Storing Item: Scorching Ray or Shatter depending on module and party.

Pro's:
Accuracy: Ignoring Cover issues, Melee Range disadvantage, while basically always using your Intelligence to attack is great.
High Damage: 1d8+proficiency+level per turn added to any of your spell attacks...
Flight: 10 minutes per proficiency bonus per Long Rest, and the 1 minute flight available through Aasimar.
Tough: Good AC, and OK hit points.
Elemental Resistance: Fire, Ice, or Bludgeoning seem to be best.
Skill Support: Pact of the Talisman is great, as is Pact of the Tome for utility rituals.
Short Rest Slots: Always having a spell slot for a turret, seems very handy to me.
Spell Storing Item: 30 x Scorching Ray shots per day + Turret, so 4 attacks per turn without issue.

Con's:
Really expensive on Actions: Turrets, and Aasimar transformation both cost actions.
No Double Turrets
No Half Cover Turrets

Discussion Points I see coming up:
Is flight and elemental resistance worth giving up for double turrets, and the half cover turrets. This seems to be a very important distinction that determine if this deep dip into warlock is warranted. I believe it is, but it really is party and DM dependent. If you choose to avoid that deep dip, I would suggest Warlock only up to 2.

Frankly, I think this would be better with just a 1 (or 2) level dip in warlock. You get bonus damage to your cantrip, a short rest spell slot to rearm your cannon, and minimal delay to your artificer progression. If you want resistance to 1 damage type, you can just infuse resistant armor. For flight you have winged boots.

Madrid seems like a good choice here for fog cloud which pairs extremely well with tiny servant and animate objects shenanigans at higher levels.

[Wraith]

Thorn Whip

Fixed. Evidently I was thinking "Sea Sorcerer" and immediately jumped to "It must be the Lightning-damage spell, because Sea Sorcerers do stuff with Lightning damage".

[LumenPlacidum]

Ambulatory Tank
Grung Battle Smith / Arcane Trickster

Grungs are an interesting race, although not a technically powerful one. They have a pretty potent offensive ability that peters off in usefulness at higher levels as Constitution saving throws become better and better. Still, while this will never win awards for being uber-powerful, it is certainly an eclectic build.

The build loses a lot of efficacy if you can't use the Tasha's rules for swapping ability scores from race.
Point-Buy Stats: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 8
With Racial mods: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 10, Cha 8

Spoiler: The pre-concept levels

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You start life as an Artificer, with an okay Dexterity bonus. That means that you are going to be best-served by picking up a crossbow and going with your +4 to-hit and 1d8+2 damage. But wait! You are a grung, and a crossbow is a piercing weapon! So, as part of any attack with your crossbow, you get to rub it against your skin and deliver a 2d4 poison damage poison with the attack (Con save DC 12 negates this). The saving throw and complete lack of scaling limit the efficacy of this in higher levels, but at level 1, this is going to add quite a bit to your damage (except against undead or something). When facing a goblin, a typical level 1 foe, you'll have a 50% chance of hitting, and they have a 45% chance of saving against the poison. This makes your light crossbow do an average of 4.85 damage. This doesn't look that sexy, but it's actually pretty solid from a non-heavy-weapon character at level 1. You could do Booming Blade with a rapier instead, if you're willing to risk close combat with your AC of 16 and 11 HP. The Booming Blade would do the same damage on average, with the possibility of the booming damage being added. Hard to figure out an expected value for the enemy behavior, though. Your big battle spell is probably Faerie Fire. Against a target where you have advantage on the attack, your expected damage to the goblin jumps up to 7.38. This is quite respectable damage at level 1! Out of combat, you're an artificer, with Guidance and a pile of tool proficiencies. Your race makes you auto-proficient in Perception, which is excellent.

At level 2, you become significantly more difficult to kill. You just took a level of Artificer again, and you just got a Repeating Crossbow and a magical +1 Shield as a result! This brings your AC up to a very respectable 19, and your pretty-high Constitution is putting your HP up to an average of 16.5. At this point, you're probably one of the tankiest characters in the group! Don't get too used to this. Your defense will be good throughout your career, but not the best. The Repeating infusion lets you use a shield with your crossbow. The damage type is still piercing, despite the fact that you are mechanomagically producing ammunition within the weapon itself, so you can still apply your poison as part of the attack. A goblin is still a pretty likely foe at this level, so let's keep it for damage-prediction necessities. Your chance of hitting has jumped up to 55% thanks to the +1 magical bonus on your weapon, and the goblin still has only a 45% chance to save against the poison. All told, your expected damage for attacking that goblin is now 5.86. With advantage, this jumps to 8.61.

Spoiler: Levels 3 through 6

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At level 3, you take a third level of Artificer and you get your subclass: The Battle Smith! This is a pretty big level, since you are about to become tougher, more damaging, more flexible, and faster. The plan is to build a Steel Defender in a bipedal shape, with a "saddle" built-in, which is really just an open-to-the-air tank of water. The shape of the Defender is up to you, and I recommend that you give it some arms and hands, so that it can manipulate items. It's none-too-smart, but that's okay. You are going to ride the Steel Defender, sitting pretty in your own personal mobile water tank. You should probably switch over to using a melee weapon at this point, since you're still probably the tankiest person in the party. This is especially true now that the Steel Defender, who is always within 5 feet, can use its reaction to apply disadvantage when someone attacks you. Additionally, you can cast Shield with your meager collection of 3 level 1 spell slots. But, against a tough foe, the combination of a shielded AC of 24 and disadvantage on the attack means that you are probably not going to suffer lots of damage. If the enemies choose to attack your mobile oppression Defender instead of you, then great! You can just rebuild it at the cost of a spell slot or a rest. Besides, with 20 HP and 17 AC (you got it a shield, too -- it isn't making attack rolls with strength or dexterity, so it doesn't hurt there, and IT doesn't cast spells), it's no slouch in terms of defense itself. The reason you got more damaging is because now you get to use your better Intelligence bonus on attacks with your magical Rapier (from another infusion). Probably you have defeated the goblins, and you might be off to fight tougher foes at this point. Let's say... Orcs. Your bog-standard orc has lower AC than the goblins you used to fight, but a much higher Constitution save. You have a +6 to-hit, giving you a 70% chance to hit, and the orcs have a 60% chance to save against your poison. You're going to switch over to Booming Blade most of the time, and the orcs are going to want to stop attacking you for the sole reason that they can't hit you. Against these orcs, you have an expected damage of 7.58 with the chance of the booming energy adding on top of that. However! If you're in combat already, you can also let your Steel Defender be an uncontrolled mount. It obeys your verbal commands anyway, so why bother trying to control it with leg-squeezes and such? Spend your bonus action to have it move where you want and attack. It has a +5 to-hit, and adds another 4.45 damage to your turn. Without any Concentration spells up, you're doing 12.03 damage per turn, which is great! Throwing Faerie Fire on orcs is less effective than on harder-to-hit foes, but boosts your damage to 15.92.

You could grab level 4 in Artificer now, but I think it's time to grab some more widespread bonuses by taking a level of Rogue. This grabs you Expertise, another skill, and Sneak Attack (which will be very easy to get with your Steel Defender around). You can withstand the delay to your ability score improvement because of the +1 granted from your magical weapons. Sneak Attack boosts your damage by a little. Let's assume that you've graduated from Orcs to Duergar. It wouldn't be fair to continue to compare against poison-susceptible creatures. So, we move on to a poison-resistant one. You still have a +6 to-hit, and the duergar have a good armor class and solid Constitution, giving you a 55% chance to hit, and they have a 55% chance to save against poison (which they're resistant to in any case). You are hitting them with Booming Blade with a rapier, automatically getting Sneak Attack if you hit, and we'll still calculate the (rather minimal) poison damage contribution from your race. This all comes together to give you an expected damage of 10.75. This is lower than last level because a duergar is a hardier target than an orc! However, compare this against a barbarian who also has solid defense who's fighting that orc. Probably they're also attacking with +6 to-hit and advantage and dealing 1d12+6 damage when they do. They have an expected damage of 10.6. Of course, you can also give yourself advantage with Faerie Fire, boosting your expected damage to 16.07, which beats the barbarian handily.

At level 5, you'll be facing stiffer competition from that barbarian, since they're getting Extra Attack, and you aren't. You're taking another level of Rogue, which gives you Cunning Action. Also, because you're level 5 now, your Booming Blade graduates to the next level of awesome. If you spend your bonus action commanding your Steel Defender to attack, then you're going to be doing 14.55 expected damage against that duergar. If you spend your bonus action Hiding to give yourself advantage on your attack, then you'll get 15.08 damage. The reason things swing in favor of advantage is that you're getting a bunch more dice of damage than you had before. Don't forget that, if the duergar moves, they eat another 2d8 damage from the booming thingie. Heck, go ahead and move in and out of combat. Your AC of 19 and the disadvantage to attack you (from Steel Defender) means that you only have a 9% chance of being hit. Of course, if you're willing to spend a slot on Faerie Fire, then you get both the advantage on attack and the ability to tell your Defender to attack with you! This comes out to a much happier 21.92 average damage. This is now better than the barbarian, even with the barbarian getting two swings.

With level 6, you still haven't had an ASI, because you're taking a third level of Rogue, and picking up the Arcane Trickster subclass. Arcane Trickster is going to let you be less hampered when you're sitting comfortably in your mobile tank, because now you don't even have to get out to USE those skills that you've been picking up. You can just do everything from inside the tank with Mage Hand! You'll grab some other utility cantrips, like Shape Water and Mold Earth, for all the reasons why those are amazing. Did I mention that you're carrying around a tank of water everywhere you go? There are a lot of good options for the use of Shape Water here, and not the least of which is the ability to simply seal yourself away from the annoying bickering of your party by just sealing the hatch that you used to get into the tank with an ice plug. It's ok, you can still communicate if you want to. You have that level 1 Artificer ability that lets you touch something and have it play back your own voice. Just have a piton sit there through the ice and let it be your speaker system. The third level of rogue gives you better sneak attack, which is good. At this point, you've started to fight wave after wave of poison-immune ogre zombies. Oh no! You no longer get your poison damage. Might as well still apply it to your strikes. It costs you nothing to do so. So, when you do fight something that can be affected, at least you won't miss out because you lost faith in that option. Ogre Zombies are a soft target AC-wise, which is going to make advantage do relatively little. So, you mostly opt to attack with your Steel Defender. You have a whopping 95% chance to hit, and the Defender is at 90%. So, you throw down with Booming Blade, doing 26.78 expected damage as a team. Advantage boosts this to 29.37. The Sharpshooter Fighter is, now, in his element against a low-AC foe. In fact, he's beating you in terms of damage. But, not by as much as you'd expect. See, he's hitting an expected damage per attack action of 31.9. However, you are every bit his equal and more in terms of defense, and you're far more mobile and versatile.

Spoiler: Concept achieved, now advance! Levels 7-12

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Now that you're level 7, you have some hard decisions. Either a level of Artificer or a level of Rogue would give you an ASI, which is good because we've literally gone as long as it's possible to go in two classes without one. Since the features of either class are pretty much identical at this level, we should make our plan based on what we want in the bigger picture. Ultimately, what you want is the ability to cast Haste and to use that to get multiple Sneak Attacks using readied actions. There are two ways to get that. One, you could up to level 14 in Rogue, when Arcane Trickster will let you select the spell from the wizard list. This would net you a lot of stuff, like Magical Ambush (excellent), Versatile Trickster (less good since Steady Aim became a thing), Reliable Talent (good), more Expertise (good), Evasion (okay), Uncanny Dodge (excellent), an extra 5d6 Sneak Attack, and three ASIs. But... I just described taking eleven more levels in Rogue. That's practically a whole build right there. Or, you could take Artificer up to level 9, which would net you more infusion choices, extra infusions, Extra Attack (normally excellent, but only okay here), Arcane Jolt (mini-smite!), Tool Expertise (okay), Flash of Genius (excellent!), and two ASIs. That's for six more levels. I'm going to recommend that. We're going to take the next six levels, from level 7 to level 12, in Artificer. If you know that your campaign isn't going to get to Tier 3 or Tier 4, then you probably want to just go Rogue the rest of the way. After all, there's little point in getting Haste to leverage Sneak Attack... and not have Sneak Attack to leverage!

Level 7 gets you an ASI from Artificer. This would be an excellent place to take a feat. You have the attack and damage bonus of a character who has maxed out their main stat thanks to the magical bonus, so getting an INT of 20 isn't that big of a deal. You are a combatant and a caster, and that means Concentration is a thing. You could support that with one of the avenues available (although just waiting until you can get advantage with one of your Infusions is perfectly reasonable). Personally, I think the in-combat stuff is already pretty solid. I would opt to go with Ritual Caster (Wizard). This grants you the ability to gain some excellent rituals for overall coverage of handy tools. And, essentially, what this character does is have a solid presence in combat while at the same time being Batman, and having a tool that can be applied to practically any situation. You might point out that none of the class things or rituals provide the mobility that is commonly a way around many obstacles, and that's true. However, you'd be surprised at what you can clear with the grung racial 25 ft longjump and 15 ft highjump when combined with the Artificer's any-day access to the Jump spell! Starting to collect rituals before Tier 3 makes it so that you'll actually have access to some of the high level ritual spells when they become available level-wise. You get a Familiar this way (on top of your Steel Defender and Homunculus), if you should want one. Unseen servant has a lot of utility regarding being able to be an assistant for your mage hands, carrying equipment and providing a push/pull weight of 60 pounds, which is higher than Mage Hand's 10 pound capacity. You also can get Leomund's Tiny Hut, which is always great, and Augury and Divination, which are both nice to have. Nothing about your combat ability changed at level 7 except that you can now upcast your spells and you have more spell slots.

At level 8, when you take a level in Artificer, you get Extra Attack from the Battle Smith subclass. You are attacking with a +8 to-hit and your Steel Defender is attacking at +7. Here, you have a choice to make most rounds: Booming Blade or Extra Attack? From here, I'm going to assume that the foe you face has an AC of 18 with saving throws equal to our own Proficiency bonus. I'd say you actually have more options than that, even; each is listed with the expected damage:

Cast Booming Blade and use your Bonus action to command your Steel Defender to attack? 17.43 expected damage plus potential booming blade damage from movement
Take the Attack action and use your Bonus action to command your Steel Defender to attack? 23.34 expected damage
Use your Bonus action to Hide or use Steady Aim to provide advantage and then cast Booming Blade? 19.90 expected damage plus potential booming blade damage from movement
Use your Bonus action to Hide or use Steady Aim to provide advantage and then use the Attack action? 22.86 expected damage
Use Booming Blade when you have advantage from some other source, with Bonus action for Steel Defender (i.e. maybe Faerie Fire)? 25.97 expected damage
Use Extra Attack and Steel Defender while you have advantage from some other source? 33.30 expected damage

That's pretty indicative that you should be using Extra Attack. This is going to hold true at least until Booming Blade upgrades at level 11. It is also interesting to point out just how marginal your Steel Defender is at providing you with damage at this level. This is a pretty solid indication that you could drop back to the back lines and go back to using ranged options, while using your bonus action to support the Attack action that you take.

At level 9, you take your sixth level in Artificer, which gives you access to more and different infusions, as well as expertise when using a tool with which you're proficient. Of these, the Repelling Shield seems like a good upgrade for your Enhanced Defense shield. A proficiency bump increases your damage expectation from 23.34 to 24.96.

Level 10, which is level 7 in Artificer, grants you the Flash of Genius ability, which is a superb ability that should probably be reserved for saving throws. It's not as good as the Paladin's aura because this is limited use and requires a reaction, but that doesn't stop it from being a superb support ability!

Level 11 gets you another ASI from Artificer. Given that you now have Flash of Genius, and that you're starting to have difficulty hitting typical enemies, it's probably time to boost your Intelligence by 2 up to its maximum. This is also the level at which Booming Blade becomes a big deal again. In fact, all of this comes together to phase out the importance of your Steel Defender's attack completely! You can expect to do almost 14% by spending your bonus action on providing advantage for your Booming Blade cantrip as opposed to having your Steel Defender attack with you. At this point, you have 3rd level spell slots, but no actual third level spells to use. Still, upcasting Aid is a good party buff, and helps to make your Steel Defender retain its relevance and ability to help defend you. Longstrider becomes a party buff when cast at a higher level, which most people in the party will appreciate. So, don't think that you won't be able to spend those slots effectively!

We stop taking Artificer levels for a while at level 12, ending with Artificer 9 / Rogue 3. We now have access to the 3rd level Artificer spells, and that includes the amazing Haste effect. Haste is especially awesome for a rogue because you get to apply those Sneak Attack dice in an off-turn attack. Not only that, but as a level 9 Battle Smith, we get Arcane Jolt. Arcane Jolt is a very welcome addition of some force damage dice on hits. This is something we should wait to apply when we roll a critical hit! All told, a character portrait at this point is that we have +10 to-hit, we typically cast Booming Blade whenever we can, dealing (1d8+6 piercing plus 2d8 thunder plus 2d4 poison (Con DC 12 negates)) with an additional possibility of 3d8 more thunder damage if the target moves. We have +2d6 Sneak attack, and we have five uses of +2d6 force damage "smite" per long rest. We have half-plate at least at this point, which we are going to start infusing with the Mind-Sharpener infusion. We have +7 on our Constitution saves for concentration, and we get 4 charges to turn a failure into a success. With our +1 Rapier and a Repelling Shield, and with Haste up, we're sitting on 22 AC. Our Steel Defender can impose disadvantage to an attack every round against us, and we can even shield some near-hits into misses. We should almost never lose concentration on Haste! We get to use a haste-granted Attack action on our turn to attack with that rapier, dealing our AC 18 target an expected damage of 38.5 per round. More than 3x your level is really very solid damage, and when it's sitting on a chassis that is as durable as this (average of 98.5 hitpoints with Aid) and as versatile as this (mage hand shenanigans, ritual caster, artificer tool stuff, expertise in some stuff, utility cantrips), you have the picture of a very well-rounded character, mechanically.

Spoiler: The Roguinating - Levels 13 through 20

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At this point, the rest of your career is Arcane Trickster. We start off strong with an ASI. We have almost everything we could want stats-wise, but we're starting to really value our ability to cast Booming Blade and move away. So, I think the Mobility feat is a good plan. When we're moving around on our own, we have a speed of 45 feet with longstrider, which gets doubled to 90 feet because of Haste! It's probably time for us to hatch from our Steel Defender water tank "egg". Level 13 provides a +1 proficiency bump, which brings your damage up to 39.19 per round.

At level 14 (Rogue 5), we get Uncanny Dodge (the perfect tool for those pesky critical hits that get through all our other defenses to challenge concentration). This also gives us level 2 Wizard spells from which to select an option. Mirror Image is the obvious choice, just to make us even more difficult to pin down and hit. The extra d6 of sneak attack boosts our offense to 46.22.

Level 15 (Rogue 6) gives us some more Expertises to pass around.

Level 16 (Rogue 7) gives us another d6 of sneak attack, as well as Evasion. Evasion isn't that big of a deal. However, the die boosts our offense to 52.37!

Level 17 (Rogue 8) is another Feat for us (probably Lucky!). This lets us be pretty aggressive at getting super-advantage when we need it. All we need do is close our eyes and listen for Obi-Wan to say "Let go! Trust your instinct!" Then, you get to roll 3 dice for any particular attack roll and pick which one you want! My general goal with a damaging build is to ensure that I can get past 50 damage expected sustainably round after round. And, since we did that last level, everything from here is gravy. However, Booming Blade just went up...

Level 18 (Rogue 9) gives us another die of sneak attack and Magical Ambush! Now we can debuff very well! Although, it does come online pretty late...

Levels 19 (ASI/feat) and level 20 (Reliable Talent) are good, but just cherries on top.

At level 20, this character is at +12 to-hit. In a hasted round, it uses bonus action for advantage on the haste-attack. Then, in the off-round, it closes its eyes and uses Lucky for triple advantage and Booming Blade. It has +6d6 Sneak attack, and uses Arcane Jolt for +2d6 for crits. Its poison damage still has some relevance and is still included in the calculation!
Expected damage per round? 85.32 per round. You've got not as many skills as a rogue/bard, but you're very reliable with the ones you have. You have utility spells out the wazoo!

[ftafp]

The War Princess: Master of Malicious Minionmancy
Race: Human, Mark of Handling
Class: Genie Warlock (Dao) 2/Creation Bard 18
Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, (13+1) Con, 10 Int, 12 Wis, (15+2) Cha
Asi: Fey Touched (Cha +1, Gift of Alacrity)@6, Cha +2@10, Resilient (Con +1)@14, Warcaster@18
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast
Spells of Note: Eldritch Blast, Magic Stone, Dissonant Whispers, Conjure Animals, Glyph of Warding, Tiny Servants, Conjure Woodland Beings, Summon Greater Demon, Animate Objects, Awaken, Planar Binding, Heroes' Feast

Ever wanted to play a Disney Princess? Me neither, but when I accidentally mixed a bunch of minionmancy techniques together with some glyph of warding abuse this popped out. It's like the Powerpuff Girls if Professor Utonium started with the Chemical X and poured in the little girl mix by mistake

Spoiler: Levels 1-5:

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Let's start as Jasmine. Tier 1 is the most boring section of this build. For now you're a Bard but with Eldritch Blast to make up for your normally lousy offense. Magic Stone may seem an odd choice (though it will be your go-to cantrip at level 1), but fittingly for a disney princess build this is going to be your first example of "it's a surprise tool that will help us later". Same thing goes for bottled respite

Spoiler: Levels 6-11:

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Tier 2 is where things start to get interesting. When we hit level 7 we get access to our first big minionmancy spell that will let us go Snow White on people's asses: Conjure Animals from the Mark of Handling spell list. If your DM doesn't allow Mark of Handling, you can also ask to switch to Lore Bard temporarily and get it at 8 with Magical Secrets. If you do take Tiny Servant as your other spell for your Belle impression. Three of them can be given standing orders to throw the rocks you touch at enemies at the start of your day. That will give you a use for your bonus action that will net you 3 free ranged attacks. If not, at level 8 you get Animating Performance, letting you animate a large carpet to fly over the battle.
Your other 3rd level spell goodie is Glyph of Warding. I don't think Luz counts as a disney princess but this spell will be a big deal for you as the inside of your Bottled Respite is an extradimensional space meaning no matter where you bring it the inside isn't technically moving. That makes your lamp a perfect place to store spells, though it can be pricy so don't get carried away.

Level 11 will give us more minionmancy with Animate Objects and Awaken. If your DM gimped Conjure Animals then Animate Objects will make up for it. Tiny is usually best, but if your enemy is resistant or immune to nonmagic attacks you can instead use Small or larger objects and have them fly over the enemy then fall out of the air. The falling damage rules from Tasha's get around most resistance by virtue of not being attacks. Awaken is another surprise tool.

Spoiler: Levels 12-17:

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Tier 3 is where you see a big leap in power. You're going to want to switch into Creation Bard if you weren't already. You get magical secrets at this level so you can just re-take the spells from before. Otherwise, take Conjure Woodland beings and Summon Greater Demon. We're now veering into Disney Queen territory which is an entirely different can of worms but I digress. Conjure Woodland beings has more uses than I can name here, and Summon Greater Demon is another surprise tool. For now let my draw your attention to why we need to be College of Creation now an that reason is that your Performance of Creation can now make something worth 200gp. That includes the material components for Glyph of Warding, and unlike similar abilities and spells there's nothing preventing you from using your creations as material components, meaning you can now make spell glyphs every night

Things only get better at 16 when your animating performance no longer has a maximum cost. Now you can use it to cast Heroes' Feast, Awaken, and Planar Binding for free. You also get multiple items per use so you'll get a lot of milage out of this. The first two spells are good exactly what they sound like: lavish feasts and animated tree servants (just like the queen from Snow White, we really are in Disney Queen territory), but Planar Binding requires special mention because it requires both the binding and the summoning spell to be stored in glyphs of warding to use it correctly as you can't concentrate on Summon Greater Demon when casting it, and if you just put the Planar Binding in a spell Glyph you'll have to concentrate on Summon Greater Demon for the rest of the binding's duration (WotC didn't think this spell through). Dybbuks are the best demons to bind as they can possess any humanoid corpse and immediately assume their stats regardless of CR. This means now you're also a master necromancer

Spoiler: Levels 18-20:

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Tier 4 is where the rules of the game start to break down, and I have nothing much left to say on this matter. I hope you enjoyed this build and I hope the next one will be even better.

[abar22]

Ludic, I've been in a play by post game for almost two years where the Arcana Cleric was at lower levels. We recently had a story arc circumstance that brought all the characters to level 10. In the first, large scale fight we've had, against 20ish guards/militia, I've been able to tank hits, green flame guys, booming blade guys, hit em with my guardians and spiritual weapon, counterspell, and drop an insect plague on 8 guards with my staff. Over 400 damage in 3 rounds on top of the tank and counterspell utility. It's an amazing build, thanks for bringing it into this world.

[Hairfish]

Yeah, I ran it at lower levels with a less than optimal race (Tabaxi, though I did get a lot of mileage out of the racial double move) and it was still pretty great.

[ftafp]

The Fire Marshal
Race: Human, Mark of Sentinel
Class: Wildfire Druid 7 / War Wizard 2
Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, (12+1) Con, 13 Int, (15+2) Wis, 10 Cha
ASI: Fey Touched (Dissonant Whispers, +1 Wis)@4, Resilient (+1 Con)@10, +2 Wis@14, Warcaster@18

After the release of TCE, many saw wildfire druid as a blaster nerfed into oblivion. This is true, but not the whole truth. With a little bit of strategy, a wildfire druid can control and counter better than any general


Let's take a look at your arsenal. At level 1 you can cast shield once per day and have thorn whip for control. At 2 you gain access to the Wildfire Spirit. Many have noted that the spirit's Fiery Teleportation ability is already seriously useful for moving allies around and blasting foes, but as an optimizer I need to inform you that if you're ordering your spirit to use that ability on your turn, you're doing things wrong

What you should be doing is ordering your spirit to ready an action, and only activate that ability when an enemy targets it or your allies with something nasty, allowing you and your allies to teleport out of harms way. In other words, it's an at-will shield and counterspell at level 2 that doesn't use your reaction, and deals a small amount of aoe damage as well. Your spirit is small so it can ride an ally if you want but don't forget that it has a fly speed.

At level 5 you get counterspell from the Mark of Sentinel spell list, giving you more negation power, as well as plant growth for locking enemies in place and conjure animals for summoning an army of 8 velociraptors. Dissonant Whispers will see to it that those feisty therapods get a mess of opportunity attacks, and at level 6 you gain the ability to cast thorn whip from your spirit's place. Remember how I told you to remember your spirit's fly speed? Well now it can fly over your enemies before you cast it, dealing 1d6 fall damage and knocking targets prone, allowing your velociraptors to go to town. Level 7 is when you get a big-name AoE spell in Wall of Fire. Your spirit is immune to this so it can flit in and out of a wall, protecting your allies with its reaction and dragging enemies back into the fire by just being in the right place. You also get Conjure Woodland Beings, Polymorph and plenty of other great spells

Your wizard levels are the last part of this build I really want to show off. The War wizard dip will add Shield and Arcane Deflection which will give you negation ability every turn. Remember that Arcane Deflection works on concentration saves. As almost all of your best leveled spells are concentration spells that only need one casting having to stick to cantrips until the end of your next turn will be a small price to pay

Variants:

• Wildfire Druid 20: the default. At the cost of some powerful reactions of your own, you can get your higher level spells on time. However, Druids get their best spells at level 7 most of which upcast spectacularly, and their higher level spells tend to be utilities with large price tags you can only expect to cast once per campaign. In my mind, having defensive options ever battle is worth the stunted progression
• Divine Sorcerer 1: Replacing your Wizard levels with DSS at level 1 will give you most of the important features of war wizard as well as Con save proficiency and bless. This means you can skip Resilient, switch your racial +1 to Cha (along with your starting Int score), and you'll be able to function fairly decently at level 1, provided you rely on Mind Sliver as your cantrip of choice to offset your subpar charisma. However, bear in mind that your negation abilities aren't going to be more limited than the War Wizard's,
• Peace Cleric 1: Emboldening bond is a fantastic ability, and may be well worth the dip even in addtion to your wizard levels. In addition you get Bless, which is always nice to have
• Twilight Cleric 2: Twilight Sanctuary grants an extra layer to your protections. It costing an action to set up might be a small downside on other builds, but because of how valuable your bonus action is, it may actually be better this way.

[OBoyd]

where do the rules say that?

The official ruling1 from Sage Advice Compendium

Are extradimensional spaces, such as a demiplane or the space created by rope trick, considered to be on a different plane of existence?

An extradimensional space (aka an extraplanar space) is outside other planes. Therefore, if you’re on the Material Plane and your foe is in an extradimensional space, the two of you aren’t on the same plane of existence.

The unofficial tweet from the rules designer Jeremy Crawford

If two people are on different planes of existence, they are infinitely far away from each other. For example, if I'm on the Material Plane and you're on the Ethereal Plane, we're not within 30 feet of each other.

Because you are in an extradimensional space, you and your familiar is not on the same plane of existence. Therefore, you are infinitely far away from each other. The find familiar spell says that

While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.

Because you're not 'within 100 feet' - you're infinitely far away by being in different plane - you cannot communicate with it telepathically and see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears2.

1 It is an official ruling how to interpret the rules as they were designed to be. However, it is only a ruling. The DM has the final say and can choose whether to use the official ruling or not.

2 'Additionally' can mean that the ability to use your familiar senses is a separate ability from the ability to communicate with your familiar, which is restricted to 100 ft. However, both abilities are within one paragraph, so 'additionally' must mean that the first ability restriction applies to the second.

[SleepThief]

If I might ask @LudicSavant, I'm not sure how to search if someone's already asked this, but if you were going to play the Celestial Generalist from level 1 how would you progress them up to 12? I'm playing a slight variant of it as a feral tiefling, as my DM lets us take a feat at lvl 1 to kinda nerf variant human in his games.

[LudicSavant]

If I might ask @LudicSavant, I'm not sure how to search if someone's already asked this, but if you were going to play the Celestial Generalist from level 1 how would you progress them up to 12? I'm playing a slight variant of it as a feral tiefling, as my DM lets us take a feat at lvl 1 to kinda nerf variant human in his games.

Get the armor first, then the rest in whichever order your prefer (I like Cha before Warcaster usually, unless you're expecting to be the main frontliner). Get Book of Ancient Secrets ASAP. Get Agonizing/Repelling Blast, then Maddening Hex. Utility cantrips can be taken early or late depending on your playstyle / campaign / priorities (damage vs utility).

Direct damage spells should be swapped out as you progress as a Warlock. For example, Shatter is useful early, but has little place on your list once you know Synaptic Static.

[1Pirate]

If I might ask @LudicSavant, I'm not sure how to search if someone's already asked this, but if you were going to play the Celestial Generalist from level 1 how would you progress them up to 12? I'm playing a slight variant of it as a feral tiefling, as my DM lets us take a feat at lvl 1 to kinda nerf variant human in his games.

Well, I’m not Ludic, but I played this build from 1-11th level and have extensive experience simping for it on the forum.

As stated, you’ll want Moderately Armored as your level 1 feat. Your 4th level feat is going to depend on how your DM handles V, S component rules. My DM enforced them so I needed Warcaster before I could use V, S spells with a shield and a weapon(remember even if your weapon is your focus, that only works with V, S, M spells). If your DM doesn’t care, then I’d take +2 Cha.

How you progress is actually pretty campaign dependent(but one of the strengths of the build is just how damn flexible it is). Mine was a heavy Underdark dungeon crawl, so I needed Devil’s Sight above all else and I wound up holding off on the Hex based Invocations until later. Find Familiar put in a lot of work, so dropping Agonizing blast for Book of Ancient secrets at 3 wasn’t a big deal.

Party composition also matters. If you’re not frontlining, Armor of Agathys is a little underwhelming. If there’s another party member with access to an ongoing area damage effect like Spike Growth or Moonbeam, Repelling Blast is going to be more useful than Agonizing Blast.

My most often used (leveled) spells were(in no particular order): Thunderstep, Cure Wounds, Counterspell, Find Familiar, Hellish Rebuke, Synaptic Static, and Hypnotic Pattern(honorable mention to Sickening Radiance, which only got used 3 times, but absolutely wrecked the encounters). Hex might’ve been more useful but my DM ruled I always had to have it on a creature and couldn’t switch until the creature died. I worked around this by swapping to my familiar between combats, but I had to get it killed to switch it for the next encounter, so it’s use dropped off and I never took the Hex invocations.

Hands down, Guidance was the most useful cantrip, particularly with the familiar, since the Rogue could stow it in his pack/perch on his shoulder and then take it out if he needed to make another skill check while still in telepathy range. The combat cantrips were next, with EB as range, and GFB as melee(went nice with Radiant Soul). Light saw a lot of use as well because of the familiar being able to create distractions with it.

[Hairfish]

The Fire Marshal

I like this. Trying to think of a way to combine this w/ Echo Knight instead of War Wizard and come up with a real battlefield terror.

[ftafp]

I like this. Trying to think of a way to combine this w/ Echo Knight instead of War Wizard and come up with a real battlefield terror.

Thank you. With regards to echo knight, what are you trying to get out of it specifically?

[Citadel97501]

I assume he is intending to use the shadow clone abilities of the Echo-knight for another square that he can do most of his abilities from, I think it would work well but not being able to use Thorn Whip from the echo-location (pun not intended) would be slightly disappointing. Polearm Mastery might also be interesting as you could use your wildfire spirit to cast from, while continually stabbing anyone that gets near any of the three.

[ftafp]

I assume he is intending to use the shadow clone abilities of the Echo-knight for another square that he can do most of his abilities from, I think it would work well but not being able to use Thorn Whip from the echo-location (pun not intended) would be slightly disappointing. Polearm Mastery might also be interesting as you could use your wildfire spirit to cast from, while continually stabbing anyone that gets near any of the three.

Your echo wouldn't really be able to do any of the things you do in combat. You're a spellcaster. Your spells are being cast from you or your wildfire spirit, they don't work with echo knight. you can teleport with echo knight, but that takes your bonus action and this entire build is predicate on using your bonus action to order your spirit to ready an action to negate enemy attacks (which expires at the end of its next turn). Polearm Master is a bad idea for the same reason

[Hairfish]

Thank you. With regards to echo knight, what are you trying to get out of it specifically?

Not really sure. I'm just toying with the idea that there's some way to combine a creature you can cast through and an object you can attack through, both of which can fly and don't require your action or bonus action to move (and you can summon them both on the same turn, if you're cool with not doing anything else or using Action Surge).

I suppose you could drag an enemy to your echo with Thorn Whip, then keep them there with the Sentinel feat, but that seems lackluster given that you could just move the echo. Or opportunity attack with Crusher/Slasher if their normal move is 30' and you're whipping them diagonally into the air.