An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Withershins]

Apologies for the spam, I just recently discovered this sanctuary of awesomeness and it is getting juices flowing...if they are stupid juices or not remains to be seen.

I was looking at the Wood Elf Battlemaster Fighter build and wondering if a 1 level Peace Clerice dip for:

emboldening bond + Bless (yay!! something useful for concentration) + healing word (battle res)

Would make for a useful addition to this build, or just slow it down from what it is trying to do?

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone :D

[Tekrow]

What would be the best way to build something similar to the Blood Hunter(Or something along those lines of a Witch Hunter/Witcher/Demon Hunter) using official material?

[Citadel97501]

What would be the best way to build something similar to the Blood Hunter(Or something along those lines of a Witch Hunter/Witcher/Demon Hunter) using official material?

Gloomstalker Ranger, is the class I think of when I think about this but adding in some minor arcane magic would be helpful for a Witcher perhaps Gloomstalker Ranger + Warlock or Gloomstalker Ranger + Alchemist Artificer? I have nothing good to say about the Alchemist, sadly it is ruined by a single stupid sentence (ie takes an action to drink your potions...)

[Wraith]

Apologies for the spam, I just recently discovered this sanctuary of awesomeness and it is getting juices flowing...if they are stupid juices or not remains to be seen.

I was looking at the Wood Elf Battlemaster Fighter build and wondering if a 1 level Peace Clerice dip for:

emboldening bond + Bless (yay!! something useful for concentration) + healing word (battle res)

Would make for a useful addition to this build, or just slow it down from what it is trying to do?

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone :D

1 level of Cleric is rarely a horrible idea for quite a lot of builds. Ultimately you're trading Extra Attack (x3) at level 20, for Level 1 Cleric spells and cantrips, plus the ability to 'Bless' up to [Prof] people (twice with a spell) for 1-19 levels. That feels like it's worthwhile, especially in a low-level game where a d4 bonus can be a big deal.
Could always swap Duellist for Two-Weapon Fighting I suppose, and if you need it then you have the option to keep Shield of Faith up instead of taking a shield? That way you're making extra attacks even earlier than Fighter 5 and if you should play up to level 20 then you're not missing Extra Attack (x3) so much.

As for slowing the build down? +2d4 to all of your rolls, and those of your party, feels like it's a decent substitute for your manoeuvres for all of 1 level. Again, depends on your campaign and how fast/how far you expect to level up but worst case scenario you can go Fighter 3/Cleric 1 to bring them online ASAP and you're good to go.

I have to say, Peace Cleric plus "brutally stab someone as many times as possible in 6 seconds" might be thematically challenging to put together, but... I've seen worse!

[LudicSavant]

Apologies for the spam, I just recently discovered this sanctuary of awesomeness and it is getting juices flowing...if they are stupid juices or not remains to be seen.

I was looking at the Wood Elf Battlemaster Fighter build and wondering if a 1 level Peace Clerice dip for:

emboldening bond + Bless (yay!! something useful for concentration) + healing word (battle res)

Would make for a useful addition to this build, or just slow it down from what it is trying to do?

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone :D

I concur with Wraith -- 1 level of Peace Cleric is a competitive dip for an awful lot of things. In fact, its stealthiness (and ability to grant the party stealthiness) would make it easier to pre-cast Peace Cleric stuff.

I have to say, Peace Cleric plus "brutally stab someone as many times as possible in 6 seconds" might be thematically challenging to put together, but... I've seen worse!

A thematic challenge you say? Sounds like fun. Here's a way to handle the thematics!

They believe in the philosophy of nuclear peace. Essentially, a nuclear peace results if the costs of war are unacceptably high for both sides.

"You wish to surrender, for war is terrible, especially as we practice."

Basically, such a Peace Cleric would argue that pacifism fails to actually prevent war -- the invaders will still invade, even if you choose not to fight (they would even be happy to cite tragic historical examples of exactly this). They say that in order for true, lasting peace to be attained, there must be strong deterrents. Folk sleep peaceably in their beds because of the rough men on the wall and all that.

Doesn't even contradict the existing Peace Cleric flavor text. Seriously, check it.

The balm of peace thrives at the heart of healthy communities, between friendly nations, and in the souls of the kindhearted. The gods of peace inspire people of all sorts to resolve conflict and to stand up against those forces that try to prevent peace from flourishing. See the Peace Deities table for a list of some of the gods associated with this domain.

Clerics of the Peace Domain preside over the signing of treaties, and they are often asked to arbitrate in disputes. These clerics' blessings draw people together and help them shoulder one another's burdens, and the clerics' magic aids those who are driven to fight for the way of peace.

They protect their allies like so.

Their order is not one that stays neutral as the war rages. They are the order of Hextoran peacekeepers who end the war, oversee the signing of the treaties, and discourage future wars because you wouldn't dare.

In Eberron, they would cite that the Last War ended with a unifying peace treaty because everyone was afraid of the Mourning (basically a magical equivalent of a nuclear weapon in terms of the devastation wrought).

[Tekrow]

I concur with Wraith -- 1 level of Peace Cleric is a competitive dip for an awful lot of things. In fact, its stealthiness (and ability to grant the party stealthiness) would make it easier to pre-cast Peace Cleric stuff.



A thematic challenge you say? Sounds like fun. Here's a way to handle the thematics!

They believe in the philosophy of nuclear peace. Essentially, a nuclear peace results if the costs of war are unacceptably high for both sides.

"You wish to surrender, for war is terrible, especially as we practice."

Basically, such a Peace Cleric would argue that pacifism fails to actually prevent war -- the invaders will still invade, even if you choose not to fight (they would even be happy to cite tragic historical examples of exactly this). They say that in order for true, lasting peace to be attained, there must be strong deterrents. Folk sleep peaceably in their beds because of the rough men on the wall and all that.

Doesn't even contradict the existing Peace Cleric flavor text. Seriously, check it.

Hey Ludic, what would you think would be the best way to build a Blood Hunter using official material, or at least something similar? (Like a Witcher or a Witch Hunter?

[LudicSavant]

I would very much appreciate your more complete analysis on the warlock and cleric builds. Every build posted by you is gold

Here we have a Chain Pact Warlock that is very much a powerhouse generalist. They are first and foremost an extremely capable healer, but they are also durable enough to shrug off most damage, and are a boss-shredding single target damage dealer, and a swarm-killing AoE damage dealer, and a battlefield controller who pinballs people wherever they like, and an excellent scout, and a ranged kiter, and… you get the idea.

And they’re better at some of their secondary schticks than some PCs are at their main. You could legitimately make a party out of 4 of this character and they would synergize with each other and create a very strong, well-rounded party (though not perfectly rounded — it still has a poor Int save, for example).

Like all my builds, it performs from level 1 to level 20, and is prepared to last through long and deadly adventuring days.

Build 17: The Celestial Giftlock (Or “The Ever-Living Generalist”)

Mark of Healing Halfling Life Cleric 1 / Celestial Chainlock 19 (Note: Doesn't need to be an Eberron halfling to work, see "Variants/Notes")
Starting Stats: 17 Cha / 14 Con / 14 Dex / 13 Wis / 9 Str / 8 Int
ASIs: Fey-Touched (Gift of Alacrity, +1 Cha) @5, +2 Cha @9, Resilient (+1 Con) @13, Metamagic Adept (Subtle, Quicken)@17, Skill Expert (+1 Con) @20
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Mind, Grasp of Hadar, Lance of Lethargy, Witch Sight
Cantrips (x9): Light, Eldritch Blast, Creature Bonfire, Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Guidance, Thaumaturgy, Mending, Sacred Flame
Sample Spells Known (Warlock): Hex, Synaptic Static, Darkness, Wall of Fire, Greater Restoration, Mass Healing Word, Aura of Vitality, Hellish Rebuke, Counterspell, Spirit Shroud, Thunder Step, Dispel Magic, Revivify, Banishment, Cloud of Daggers
Sample Mystic Arcanums: Summon Fiend, Forcecage, Maddening Darkness, Foresight
Spells (Other): 1x Misty Step, 1x Gift of Alacrity, 1x Lesser Restoration, 1x Cure Wounds, 2x Cleric L1 slots

Resources Aplenty
The Life Cleric dip means we can wear armor and shield, so that we are not squish. It also means we supercharge our healing with Disciple of Life (seriously, that bonus adds up a lot) and hands us 4 extra spells prepared, and 2 level 1 spell slots we can spend on Bless or Healing Word or PFG&E or Shield of Faith or Sanctuary or something, or on level 1 Warlock spells (like Hex or Hellish Rebuke). Those spells stay relevant at all levels for you.

Being a Jorasco Halfling gives us key additions to our spell list (Mass Healing Word and Aura of Vitality) which make a Life Giftlock’s healing even more bonkers. It even gives us a racial cast of Lesser Restoration and Cure Wounds (which actually heals a decent chunk for us because of Life Cleric + Gift).

Being a Halfling also gives you Lucky, which improves every single d20 roll we ever make (which is quite a lot, since we’re an Eldritch Blaster). And Advantage against Fear.

We also get a level 1 and 2 cast from Fey-Touched.

So we effectively have a whopping 8 cantrips known, 4x level 1 slots, 2x level 2 slots, 1+Warlock level Healing Light charges, 1/short rest Celestial Resilience, Invocations, and eventually 1/long rest Searing Vengeance and 2 Sorcery points. ON TOP OF all our Warlock slots and Mystic Arcanums. And a lot of our tools have the duration to last multiple encounters. Abundant resources to spread throughout a long adventuring day.

Oh yeah, and since we’re talking about Warlock resources, there’s always the “1-hour ritual.” For example, you can cast Hex in the morning (on a bug or something), short rest, get the slot back, and still have the spell going (yes, you can Concentrate through a short rest). And if you lose Concentration? You can re-cast Hex using a level 1 Cleric slot instead of a full Warlock slot, if you like.

Even though you have a lot of resources, don't just mindlessly spam them -- it often only takes one well-chosen mid-high level spell to swing a fight, supplemented by your low level slots, invocations, etc. And many of your spells have a long enough duration to last multiple encounters!

Ever-Living Healing and Durability


Gift of the Ever-Living Ones is kind of bonkers. It maximizes all healing on you. Healing potions fed by your familiar? Maximized. Short rest hit dice? Maximized. Spells cast by other PCs? Maximized. Your own healing spells and features? Better believe that’s maximized!

The end result is that, combined with our abundant pool of healing abilities, we basically can face-tank more raw damage than a Barbarian.

In fact, we might be able to do that before we even spend any of our Warlock slots on healing or defense.

Seriously, check this out. Let’s say we have a level 12 Barbarian with 14 Con, and therefore 113 hit points. You have 87 hit points (so you’re just 26 behind). It would be… let’s say “optimistic” to think that the Barbarian can have their Rage mitigate every single point of damage incoming to them, but if it does, then they have ~226 effective hp (so you’re just 139 hp behind to start).

Just spending your racial and Cleric slots on Cure Wounds is worth 36 hp. And I’d say Cure Wounds is a minimum valuation of those 2 Cleric slots.

Then you’ve got your racial Lesser Restoration, whatever you evaluate that at (it’s a lovely “seat belt” spell).

Then you’ve got 72 hp of Healing Light, which can be doled out as bonus actions.

Then you’ve got the excellent Celestial Resilience for 16 temp hp per rest, plus handing out 11 hp to each party member (including your familiar). If there’s 2 short rests, that’s worth 48 hp to you alone, plus 33 hp to everyone.

Even just counting the health for you (ignoring the healthy chunk we give to the party and minions) we’re already at 36+72+48= 156 hit points, already exceeding what the Barbarian is gaining over your base hp. And we haven’t even counted your Warlock slots, or Arcanums or maximized potions or hit dice, or ally healing, or anything (all of which are boosted by Gift).

So yeah, you are already one very tough customer, without spending any of your Warlock slots or Arcanums.

And then you realize that you can just restore 190 hit points with a 5th level slot. Or do over 100 total AoE healing as a bonus action. Or burst heal yourself for 78 (or more, if your familiar heals you too) in a turn. (See the section on spells for more details)

Not to mention that you get Searing Vengeance later and it’s just fantastic, cutting off even the vulnerability of “super high burst damage all at once.” Also, your Concentration will be tough to break thanks to Eldritch Mind and Resilient. Aaand you have a ton of really potent defensive abilities like Counterspell, Darkness+Devil’s Sight, Repelling Blast, Synaptic Static, Bless, Sanctuary, Misty Step, Thunder Step, and eventually even Foresight. You have an answer to most things the game can throw at you.

The Ever-Living Ones, indeed.

Chain Familiars Are Great
Pact of the Chain is amazing, and not just because it gives you access to Gift of the Ever-Living Ones. It hands you a bona-fide super familiar.

For example, an Imp is immune to two of the most common damage types (Poison and Fire), and Resistant to Cold and Nonmagical Weapons! Add onto that Magic Resistance, at-will Invisibility, Devil’s Sight, 10 base hp, and the 10-15 extra temp hp it’ll be getting from Celestial Resilience, and you’ve got a familiar that isn’t going to disappear at the first sign of trouble. In fact, it can often eat 20-50 points of damage, depending on damage type and your level. And if it takes that, you can just resummon it.

As an always-invisible flying creature with Stealth proficiency, it makes an excellent scout. You can even throw Guidance on it to make it even stealthier. And the better you are at scouting, the better you (and your party) are at pre-casting buffs and such.

Offense
Okay, so you have more healing than you know what to do with. So how about that offense?

First thing, we have a stellar initiative. We have Gift of Alacrity from Fey-Touched, and can spam Guidance any time we’re not Concentrating on something else, and eventually get Foresight. This means that your initiative ranges from +2+1d8+Halfling Lucky (when your Concentration is taken and you don’t have many levels under your belt) to +2+1d8+1d4+Halfling Lucky+Foresight Advantage. And of course, going first means more actions,which means more damage.

We’re also much more likely to be able to pre-cast spells (improving our action economy, and therefore damage) thanks to our scouting utility.

Your go-to is, of course, Eldritch Blast. Your resourceless output is better than usual not only because you tricked out your EB with Invocations, but also because you have Halfling luck (improving all your d20 rolls) and a super-familiar, which at a minimum can be spamming Help to improve your (or a teammate’s) DPR.

This makes your resourceless output already competitive with martials, before you even start casting spells. And your spells are big damage boosts (slightly bigger thanks to your level 6 ability).

Also, your familiar can also do things like lay down caltrops, ball bearings, or oil squares to combo with your Repelling Blast knockback and such. With Repelling Blast, Agonizing Blast, Lance of Lethargy, and your familiar laying down obstacles, the positioning power of your EB can be as important as its damage. Later on, Witch Sight even means you get to ignore things like Invisibility and Blur when Eldritch Blasting your foes.

Searing Vengeance is yet another ability that combines offense and defense, giving you an action-economy free 2d8+5 (14) auto-hitting damage in a wide, no-friendly-fire AoE, half your health in healing, and a no-save Blind status for enemies. And pops you right up off the death gate, so it’s doing this on top of an entire turn you would have otherwise have lost. Did I mention that this doesn’t even take an action?

Later on, Metamagic Adept will give you a shot of Quicken Spell once a day, which means you can do things like combo Wall of Fire or Cloud of Daggers with Eldritch Blast on the same round.

But the biggest guns are of course your spells. Darkness + Devil’s Sight. Wall of Fire + Eldritch Blast + movement Invocations. Spirit Shroud. Hellish Rebuke. Synaptic Static (which is also a potent defense, too). Summon Fiend. Forcecage. Maddening Darkness. Foresight. You’ve got something for every kind of foe.

Mobility and Control
With Misty Step, Thunder Step, initiative boosts out the wazoo, and all the Eldritch Blast movement invocations, you have a great deal of ability to position yourself and reposition your enemy, and the hazard spells to take advantage of it (and further control space). You also have a great deal of ability to control vision with Darkness, Maddening Darkness, and Wall of Fire. And you can screw over enemy attack rolls with Synaptic Static, or trap them with Forcecage or Banishment. You can also completely hose ability checks with Hex and/or Synaptic Static.

Note that Repelling Blast is always optional — thanks to the “can” and “up to” lines in the ability, you have exacting control over how much it knocks people back and can place them in exactly the square you want to.

Notable Spells:
I’m just gonna talk about what these do in an L5 slot since that’s how you’ll be casting them for more levels than not. But they’re at least as good in their “normal” slot level, too.

Wall of Fire: This is an exclusive spell on the Celestial list, and it’s awesome for smart Warlock players. Why? Because this spell offers no saving throw on the “enters” and “ends turn” clauses, which means it’s a boss shredder (and swarm shredder, and vision blocker).

Basically, Wall of Fire doesn’t care about Magic Resistance, Legendary Resistance, any of that. And you can easily ping-pong people through it using Repelling Blast, causing it to tick multiple times per round.

And from a level 5 slot, it does 27 average auto-hitting damage per tick (plus an extra 5 on the first one, from your level 6 feature). No save, nothing. That’s about about as much damage as a failed save against a Fireball every tick! Basically, for you, it’s a combination Legendary boss shredder, mook control, and vision blocker that works against things that can see through Darkness.

Vision blockers are incredibly potent tools in the right situations, even if you can’t see through them! For example, they’ll stop Counterspells (just cast it from out of line sight, then everyone in the party is good to go). It also means creatures can’t Misty Step through it like a Wall of Force.

The only limitation, really. is that it’s fire-type damage, so you won’t be able to use it against some enemies. But that’s fine, you have other spells for them, and it actually helps that your Imp can fly through it unharmed.

As always with hazard spells, they get even better if your party is in on the action, so let ‘em know about the opportunity to take Telekinetic (the feat) or grappling or Thunderwave or anything that restricts or causes movement.

(If you want a non-fire type hazard, Cloud of Daggers has no save and upcasts pretty well, dealing 25 no-save damage per tick that will shred Fiends and Red Dragons and the like. Sickening Radiance is good too, but it offers an all-or-nothing Con save, so it’s less of a boss shredder).

Synaptic Static is like a Fireball, except with a much better damage type, targeting a better save (Int), and coming with a great, no-Concentration status effect attached that gives -1d6 to attack rolls and ability checks for all enemies. It’s even particularly well-suited because the kinds of enemies who are attack reliant are extra likely to have poor Int saves.

That penalty to attack rolls is pretty hefty, it’s almost like a +3.5 AC Shield for all your allies. The penalty to ability checks will also totally affect stuff like counterspells, dispels, grapples, whatever. And you can hose ability checks even further with Hex if you want.

Synaptic Static makes you very good at dealing with large groups of foes. Not only is it good to have solid AoE damage against such foes, they also tend to have their damage dramatically reduced by Disadvantage to hit (like from Darkness) and a -1d6 to hit, reducing their damage output per mook to virtually zero.

Darkness is useful to give yourself Advantage on all attacks with Devil’s Sight, as well as grant enemies Disadvantage as well as protect yourself and your party from stuff that needs to see the target (like beholder rays). And it should be effortless to keep it from getting in the way of your party thanks to your range, as well as all of the techniques I described in the Shadow Monk post (seriously, if Darkness is a burden to your party rather than a boon, you’re almost certainly doing something horribly wrong and should go read that post. Fog Cloud is a great spell, and Darkness is significantly easier to avoid interfering with your own party than Fog Cloud is).

Spirit Shroud: +2d8 Radiant damage on all your many Eldritch Blast rays. It’s limited to short range, but that’s okay — sometimes you just need to get a buff up as a bonus action and burn something down. Even comes with a bit of a control effect, and a situationally potent ability to disable healing (such as for assassinating a rival Giftlock that has more healing than they know what to do with).

This will also give you an extra +5 damage on the first hit thanks to Radiant Soul, since it deals Radiant damage.

Cure Wounds: For most characters, this spell sucks. But since you can combine it with Disciple of Life, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, and Healing Light in the same turn, it’s a very respectable burst heal.

With your features, Cure Wounds 5 heals 5d8+8 (30.5, or a whopping 48 on yourself), and you can toss in another 5d6 (17.5, or 30 on yourself) from Healing Light. That’s a 78 hit point burst heal. That’s better than the Heal spell.

Like you can very easily go from “on the ground with 0 hit points” to “full health” in a round. Even at high levels (because of Searing Vengeance).

(Note: If you know Cure Wounds as a Warlock spell, it heals an additional 4 hit points, whether it’s cast with your Warlock or Cleric slots).

Thunder Step is like a shorter range (still 90 feet) Dimension Door that does about as much AoE damage as Synaptic Static on the side (albeit in a smaller area). Great for rescuing an ally, dealing AoE damage, and kiting at the same time.

Mass Healing Word: Disciple of Life makes this heal 3d4+12 (19.5, or 24 on yourself) per target as a bonus action (so, if you have a 5 person party plus your familiar, that’s 121.5 hp total). It’s like undoing a whole-party Fireball as a bonus action.

Hellish Rebuke: Synergizes with your level 6 feature for 6d10+5 (38)/save for half damage, which is quite good for a Reaction. Way more than, say, a Battle Master Riposte. Also much easier to trigger — it activates on any instance of damage. Doesn’t have to be an attack or anything, you can Rebuke a Fireball or whatever.

The thing that makes this spell good is its Action economy. Basically, if you’re using a spell that takes an Action, it’s effectively worth (whatever it does) MINUS whatever your Invocation-tricked-out Eldritch Blast would have done with that Action. Whereas Hellish Rebuke is effectively worth (whatever it does) PLUS your Invocation-tricked-out Eldritch Blast.

Thanks to Radiant Soul, Hellish Rebuke is also a good use of your level 1 Cleric slots, dishing out 2d10+5 (16.5) / save for half as a Reaction, and getting to use your Charisma save DC (per PHB pg164).

Aura of Vitality: From an L5 slot, this heals a Giftlock for 19 hit points per round (for up to 190 hit points), which is a bloody lot. It heals non-Giftlock targets for 14 per round (for up to 140 hit points) which is also a lot.

Revivify: It cures the “dead” status effect. It also technically heals 1 hp, so it benefits from Disciple of Life to pop someone up to 8. In fact, you can Revivify and use Healing Light in the same turn, so that your newly resurrected doesn't just go back down in 1 hit.

Mystic Arcanums:
The key when choosing Mystic Arcanums is to make sure you’re choosing one that you’ll want to cast every day. After all, you will use that exact same spell, every day.

Summon Fiend can outdamage some entire martial characters, for an entire hour, without even taking up your Actions. They also have Devil’s Sight, which means that if someone else in the party casts Darkness or Maddening Darkness, they have Advantage on all their attacks, and you have Advantage on all your Eldritch Blasts. They're even harder to kill thanks to you casting supercharged Mass Healing Words and the like anyways.

Forcecage just straight up isolates an area, no save. Heck, even if they can teleport, they need to make a saving throw to exit!

Doesn’t even take Concentration. You can lock someone inside a hazard or something and just watch ‘em melt.

Maddening Darkness is a massive (120-foot diameter) AoE of repeating Psychic damage and Darkness that you can see through.

A fun trick is that if someone in the party is using Mind Blank (often a good idea at high levels), they can make a party member immune to Maddening Darkness’s psychic damage, and walk through it like it’s Sculpted. Also, an ally who wants to see inside it in a pinch can use an upcast Continual Flame item (if you’ve got a Wizard or Cleric or something in your party).

Foresight: Advantage on all the things (attacks, initiative, saves, etc), no Concentration, 8 hours. Need I say more?

Progression
Early levels: It doesn’t matter to your long term progression whether you begin life as a Cleric or a Warlock, so you might as well take Warlock as your level 1 so you can immediately start utilizing your Charisma. Then take your Cleric dip at 2, then Warlock from then on out.

You’ll want spells like Bless, Hex, Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys (you can switch it out later when you get Celestial Resilience, if you want).

Level 6: We already have a 1x Lesser Restoration, 1x racial Cure Wounds, 1x Gift of Alacrity, 1x Misty Step, 2 Warlock slots per short rest, 2 Cleric slots per day, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, Agonizing Blast, and Repelling Blast.

It’s tough for you to run out of resources already. You can use the “1 hour ritual” to get your Hex up, then replace it with Cleric slots if it goes down. Or you can use those Cleric slots for efficient Radiant-Soul-enhanced Hellish Rebukes. Or Bless. And you’ve got 6 level 3 Warlock slots on top of that in 2-short-rest adventuring day.

Hypnotic Pattern is a good level 3 spell — I swapped it out as I leveled up further.

Tier 3 and 4: Here’s me running a whole challenge dungeon created by MaxWilson with 4 Giftlocks at level 12. Should give a decent idea of how I play ‘em.

By now, all of your Warlock spells are 5th level and work as described in the “notable spells” section. The rest of your progression is mostly picking up your lovely high level spells (Mystic Arcanums) and invocations that enhance what you already do. Metamagic Adept gives us an extra bit of burst from Quicken, or the ability to get that crucial spell out through Silence or Counterspell. Skill Expert caps us off with a little extra burst-resistance for the final boss and an extra +6 bonus in whatever skill you fancy (say, Persuasion for leading your kingdom at Level 20).

You could easily swap these last 2 feats out for whatever — Spell Sniper, Alert, Lucky, Warcaster, that sort of thing. See Variants/Notes.

Variants/Notes:

• This build can already tank and protect teammates. But want to make this even more frontliner-y? Take Warcaster at some point in your progression (trading out the Eldritch Mind invocation for something else when you do so), and hit people with Eldritch Blast when they leave your reach for a devastating OA. After your first hit of Repelling Blast, the other rays won’t have Disadvantage. And you might not even have Disadvantage in the first place if you’re using Darkness or Shadow of Moil, or receiving Help from a familiar.
• Remember how I laid out just how great your healing was before you even count your spell slots? Well, that means this build totally works even if you’re not a Jorasco Halfling. The main thing the race is doing is adding Aura of Vitality and Mass Healing Word to your list. So feel free to pick any good Warlock race!
• Fey-Touched can be swapped out for any other Cha-based half-feat (like Telepathic if you want to make GOOlocks jealous, or Elven Accuracy if you changed your race). Any of the other feats can be swapped out for other nice things, like Spell Sniper, Alert, Lucky, Warcaster, Ritual Caster, or (if you changed your race) Aberrant Dragonmark or Flames of Phlegethos.
• You have a lot of flexibility in which invocations you take, I’d say the only “core” ones are Agonizing, Repelling, and Gift of the Ever-Living Ones. There’s a whole lot of good Invocations out there (like Mask of Many Faces, Whispers of the Grave, or Maddening Hex), but I’d recommend categorically avoiding all of the Invocations that give a 1/day spell that use a Warlock spell slot (like Mire the Mind). The ones that give a 1/day spell that don’t use a Warlock slot (like Undying Servitude and Trickster’s Escape) are fine. I’d also be cautious of (but not necessarily write off) any Invocations that compete for your Concentration.
• For Metamagic Adept, Transmute Spell, Subtle Spell, Quicken Spell, and Empower Spell are all useful choices. (If you take Transmute Spell, the main use is to turn Wall of Fire into a fiend-killing damage type).
• Likewise, you don’t need to stick to this exact spell list; you should feel free to tailor it based on your party composition and the like.
• I haven’t messed around with the new Investment of the Chain Master invocation much yet. I’m a little wary of low attack bonuses, but there’s probably some cool stuff you can do with it.
• As always with caster builds, you can twink out with Ravnica backgrounds if you want to. Orzhov is particularly good here since Spirit Guardians combos exceptionally well with your repositioning Eldritch Blasts, and gets bonus damage on the first hit from Radiant Soul.

[Chaos Jackal]

I've already seen the build "in action" in the spell damage thread. Goes to show what capabilities even what is often considered to be a poor man's full caster can have. Truly self-sustaining.

[javianhalt]

Here we have a Chain Pact Warlock that is very much a powerhouse generalist. They are first and foremost an extremely capable healer, but they are also durable enough to shrug off most damage, and are a boss-shredding single target damage dealer, and a swarm-killing AoE damage dealer, and a battlefield controller who pinballs people wherever they like, and an excellent scout, and a ranged kiter, and… you get the idea.

And they’re better at some of their secondary schticks than some PCs are at their main. You could legitimately make a party out of 4 of this character and they would synergize with each other and create a very strong, well-rounded party (though not perfectly rounded — it still has a poor Int save, for example).

Like all my builds, it performs from level 1 to level 20, and is prepared to last through long and deadly adventuring days.

I think it's only predictable to compare this one with the celestial generalist OG build.

Do you think it's fair to do a Pros and Cons between them? For example, this one gets absurd healing but don't have the same melee capabilities of the page 1 build (since he does not have shillelagh)

EDIT: Also, as I suggested before (and you seem to agree that it is generally a good idea) the dip in Peace Cleric seems very tempting for me, even replacing the Life Cleric in this case. If Disciple of Life worked with Healing Light, life Cleric would be more appealing IMHO.

[Evaar]

Build 17: The Celestial Giftlock (Or “The Ever-Living Generalist”)

Thanks for linking to my Whispers of the Grave thread!

Great build. Some similarity to my Ring Leader build posted above, but wayyy more self sufficient and a better generalist. Mine was intended to leave more gaps for a team to fill and instead specialize more as a damage/debuffer.

I concur with all your spell selections. Cloud of Daggers is a good call out; I like that spell a lot but have trouble making it work. Repelling Blast is a good way to do that.

I’m still confident Investment will be worthwhile in tiers 1 and 2, but I haven’t had a chance to really get hands on with it yet. It’s looking like our next campaign will be Avernus so I’m hesitant to try it for that. I’d love to hear from anyone who has gotten to try it though.

[Withershins]

Next will probably be a frontliner Bard or a Warlock archer. Or something from Tasha's depending on how long I take

Both of these build options sound AMAZING, and I would love to read them if you ever get the chance to do the work-up on them :D

Thanks for what you do!!

Wither

[NCat]

Another Build that could be fun to play is what ill call the 'One Punch'

Essentially, the main idea of the build is to stack a large number of damage dice onto a single punch/attack, from things like smites and such.

So, the build

the main part of the build is 11 levels in (undead) warlock, and 2 levels in paladin. So this build essentially 'comes (fully) online' at level 13. Oh, and the race is goblin.


In essence, you are mostly a normal warlock (with better armor and a tiny bit of healing), but, when you find that one guy that just deserves to get hit, you walk up to them and then:

1. Bonus action cast searing smite at 5th level
2. Cast booming blade, making a melee attack against your foe
3. Apply a max level divine smite
4. Apply a max level eldritch smite
5. Fury of the small
6. Add an extra d8 from being an undead warlock


So, what kind of damage is this?
17d8 + 5d6 + 18 (Assuming a str/dex of 20)

And this is mostly done with little cost, and essentially is just a fun add on to a warlock build


And, outside of punching people, you are still an effective character, since you are when you arent blowing all your spell slots on a Nova attack, you can still deal pretty good damage with eldritch blast (2d10+5 if you took agonizing blast, since you're an undead warlock and can add an extra damage die), and are quite nimble too with goblins bonus action disengage / hide



After level 13, progressing is really up to you. If you wanted to continue developing your 1 punch combat style, id recommed taking the next level of paladin, either for vengeance's channel divinity, which grants advantage for a minute, if you want to further hone your eldritch blast, or conquest, if you'd prefer a +10 to hit on that punch. Level 12 in warlock is also alright for the ASI, which isnt neccessary but is a nice touch.

Levels in bard(whispers) is nice since you can get some more spell slots and such, aswell as the psychics blades for even more damage (2d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 5). Rogue assassin features similiar damage, at the cost of not being a spell caster and requiring stealth to perform (aswell as doubling up on features you already have from goblin), but the assassinate feature for a free crit on suprised creatures is pretty cool, even if it does come at the cost of being more difficult to pull off in a fight. Or one could go sorcerer rest to get the loveliness of quickened casting


Is it much more effective than a normal warlock?
Probably not

Does this idea amuse me?
Yes

Im not good at formatting, so if someone wants to build off of this and make their own version of this go ahead.

[Maan]

Both of these build options sound AMAZING, and I would love to read them if you ever get the chance to do the work-up on them :D

I'd love to see a Bard Frontliner build; never really thought about it and I'm curious!

[KyleG]

I'd love to see a Bard Frontliner build; never really thought about it and I'm curious!

I have this image of a bikie, white singlet underneath, tough guy but he's a bard. Perhaps a drummer or something hard rock or metal.

[Stattick]

I have this image of a bikie, white singlet underneath, tough guy but he's a bard. Perhaps a drummer or something hard rock or metal.

Bard. Soldier background. He was the guy with the drum, next to a formation, drumming away to keep everyone in the column in-step. In battle, his job was to drum the commands coming from the commanders in the rear: attack, retreat, etc. His only weapons were the drumsticks. And he got his start as a drummer long before he ever grew his first whisker. He might only be sixteen, but his eyes are hard as steel. He doesn't flinch in combat. And he's seen a thousand men die.

[Corran]

Why Fiend?
Fiend has so much great stuff, it's really nuts when you take inventory of it all. When you look at it and compare to Archfey or Great Old One, it's like Fiend is the only one that really understands how to make Warlocks work.

Spoiler: In defense of the archfey patron

Show

This is not very relevant to your build, but I get the exact same impression when I am looking at the archfey warlock instead. (Typical) Warlocks are very squishy and can really suffer when engaged by the enemy. And unlike squishy characters of another class, they dont have the option to mitigate this drawback by dipping in hexblade (which is the usual practice). They do have options to make up for this drawback on their own, and these options are always worth considering and often worth explroring, but they dont come as cheaply as it would be for say, a lore bard (another very squishy chassis) who can dip a (few) level(s) in hexblade to solve several issues at the same time (survivability included). For warlocks it's a little trickier and/or more constly to deal with this, which is why I am particularly fond of the archfey's mechanics as I view them somewhat essential (but not enough on their own) to all ranged warlocks who aim for a single class progression. The ideal minimum for me, would be having the 2 relevant archfey features along with a free (as in it wont consume any of my precious slots) per rest teleport (most likely coming from race), and after that I can just have the option to further optimize if needed by picking up stuff like alert, tomb of Levistus, etc.

That's not to say that I think you overlooked the importance of positioning, because you clearly didn't (you mention allies helping out, you mention positioning and cover while taking into account for the character's small size). It's just a playstyle difference, which makes me think that the archfey patron is closer to what I'd want out of every singleclass EB warlock in terms of (sub)class design. I still like the overall feel (and mechanics play their part here as well, meaning it's not only because of flavour) of the goolock and the fiendlock more, and this is why I've played both while I haven't played a feylock, but there have been many times where I told myself that the next warlock I am playing is going to be a fey one (also why my mind immediately jumps to eladrin, and less often to goblin, when thinking of warlock-appropriate races).

Ending this with a noob question. Do you have to be a halfling in order to get the mark of hospitality feature?

The Ring Leader

Back on topic now, I think you are a little too harsh on your build regarding skill/ability checks. Yes, your base skill selection is limited (and I am guessing that beguiling influence was hard to squeeze in), but the d10 from dark one's own luck can help with ability checks (in fact that's how I was mostly using it when playing a fiendlock). It's surely not enough to make you a skill monkey, but when you have to make an important check, that d10 might come in very handy, and I think that's worth mentioning.

One spell I dont love on warlocks is crown of stars. Partly is because it competes with forcecage, though this is true for every other 7th level spell that I generally like but wouldn't love on warlocks for that exact same reason. But it's not only that. Another reason I dont love it is because it makes you more of a target, but also because it can light up your position and thus make you a target when you might not have been in the first place. The former ties with what I was saying in the beginning about warlock defenses. An edge case scenario is being targeted by dispel magic, which could be particularly annoying if you are concentrating on some other buff at the same time, eg spirit shroud. The latter does not restrict itself to combat, but it can also be hindering you as you move from one encounter to another. But even during combat, lighting up your position (which is probably at a considerable distance especially if you dont invest in cheap maneuverability and escape options) is a big disadvantage for obvious reasons. With a side drawback being that it can negate potential advantage on your attacks (including and not limited only to those granted by crown of stars itself).

The synergy between scorching ray and spirit shroud is a very nasty one, and it's an even better combo if you include hurl through hell (all of which you mention of course). But it has two drawbacks on which I think you should have expanded a little more. First one being that it takes some prep time (which also needs to be timed correctly) to set yourself up for this move (minimum of one round; more if you need to close the distance significantly). The second one is that it has a very short range. Now, each one of these disaadvnatages on its own is imporatant but not what I'd call a deal breaker. But both of them combined makes me doubt the usefullness of this move. If we were to keep the range short but we could somehow compress it to be a one round move, I could see it as a pretty good panic button which I'd use to vaporize an enemy who got in my face and is threatening to down me, or to step forward and save an ally by dealing very good damage on an enemy who is trying to kill them, etc. So the combo has its place in my list of options. Meaning that I now roughly when it would be a good time to use it, and I would be able to use it the way I need it to work, ie in the way that serves one of my build's needs/functions. Similarly, if we were to keep the action economy clog, but we were to increase the range, this is something I could be using when facing tough enemies who are unaware of me but of whom I am aware of (as this would give me the necessary time to prep; possibly I would have to invest in some metamagic feat but they are generally good feats so I dont consider this a huge deal). So again, the move has a place in my arsenal, as I know when I'll be using it and for what purpose, and it can work well enough to fullfill its purpose. With both disadvantages on I dont think this move is going to work, except maybe under exceptional circumstances. I hope I am wrong about it, cause the damage potential is very appealing, so if you have any ideas I missed please detail them. I can this working decently enough if we were to replace spirit shroud with hex (edit: or if we replace scorching ray with EB), but this lowers the nova potential significantly (still, a good move to have on a fiendlock).

I am talking about things I would do or think of differently, because these are what I am interested in discussing. All in all I think your build is great, and mechanics aside I like both the flavour and the way you broke it down.

[Lavaeolus]

Ending this with a noob question. Do you have to be a halfling in order to get the mark of hospitality feature?

Yep. So, all the traditional Dragonmarks but the Mark of Finding are tied to one specific race. (Finding is available to both humans and half-orcs.) But this is where it gets a little more complex. The Dragonmarks aren't one specific feature, but what they exactly are depends on what race the Mark is tied to:

* For humans and half-orcs, the Dragonmarks are variant races that replace most of your usual racial features wholesale.
* For half-elves, the Dragonmarks are more traditional variant races, replacing specific racial features (your ASIs and Skill Versatility) with new features.
* For everyone else, including halflings, the Dragonmark replaces your subrace.

[Corran]

Yep. So, all the traditional Dragonmarks but the Mark of Finding are tied to one specific race. (Finding is available to both humans and half-orcs.) But this is where it gets a little more complex. The Dragonmarks aren't one specific feature, but what they exactly are depends on what race the Mark is tied to:

* For humans and half-orcs, the Dragonmarks are variant races that replace most of your usual racial features wholesale.
* For half-elves, the Dragonmarks are more traditional variant races, replacing specific racial features (your ASIs and Skill Versatility) with new features.
* For everyone else, including halflings, the Dragonmark replaces your subrace.

Ah, thank you for the breakdown. I had looked at them a long time ago but I didn't remember anything about them (not even that they were tied to race!).

[Evaar]

I am talking about things I would do or think of differently, because these are what I am interested in discussing. All in all I think your build is great, and mechanics aside I like both the flavour and the way you broke it down.

I think every one of your points is valid. I should've highlighted more that the ultimate nova calculation there is strictly a "potential" and not really intended as practical. You could do it, but it's not going to be the optimal choice in most cases. I also didn't spell out the possibility of missing for that reason, and because I'm not a math guy.

Hex & EB is intended to be the standard, low/no resource combo here. Spirit Shroud is for when you need and can effectively apply the damage - be it in a tight battlemap or if your allies have tools to position you appropriately. Your go-to move for reliable damage would be Wall of Fire plus Repelling Blast (obviously presuming the damage type isn't a problem).

I think all your points about Crown of Stars are good ones, but just haven't encountered myself. The only issue I had with it was bonus action clogging. Forcecage is just such an obvious powerhouse that I feel obligated to point out a different option, plus it contributes to the multi-hit synergy as noted.

[NCat]

Heres well, its not really a 'build', its more, I guess Ill call it 'Class DLC'? Since its not really a single build but a specific race-feat-dip combo that works on pretty much most classes



So uh, what to name this
Ah

The Hobgoblin Battle Commander






A.K.A actually using your bonus action for something worth a damn

Right, so, build requirements are well, dex 13. Thats about it.

The specific build is
-Hobgoblin (Feywild)
-Rogue (Mastermind) 3
-Feat: Tandem Tactician

So, what does this allow us to do?
Well, this all combines together to increase the potency of the help action dramatically
Lets go bit by bit
1. Hobgoblin Feywild. The hobgoblin feywild variant. While the thing that comes to mind at first is its prof uses per day bonus action help, this is pretty much redundant (twice over). No, what we want this race for is its ability to grant extra features ontop of the help action. For those who havent read it, from player level 3 up, whenever a Fey-HGoblin takes the help action, it can chose between:
- Granting themself and the person they are helping 1d6+prof mod temp HP
- Increasing the movement speed of themselves and the person they're helping by 10 feet
- The next creature hit by either the Fey-Hobgoblin or the person they helped has disadvantage on its next attack roll

The fun thing about this, is that it has no limit to its use amount. Its just the bonus action helping that is limited.

Oh yeah, and the adding the number of allies you have to your saving throws prof uses per day (max 5 allies) is another fun feature that really adds to the flavor of this class-dlc

2. Rogue, mastermind, 3

So, lets see what we get at each level
level 1, expertise and sneak attack. Its pretty neat.
If you're playing a melee character, or a gish like a bladesinger or one of those bards, or I guess just using booming blade, then this is a good bit extra damage too.
also, expertise is always helpful, even if it is much easier to get nowadays than in comparison to when the game came out

Level 2, Cunning action
Pretty helpful for most classes. The ability to disengage is a fine tool for spell castors, especially your squishier wizards. And a dash always helps out when you need to close the gap between you and an enemy, or increase the distance between you.

Level 3. Now heres the spicy level
Sure, you can chose a number of rogue subclasses. But, the one we want is mastermind, for 1 reason: "Starting at 3rd level, you can use the Help action as a bonus action. Additionally, when you use the Help action to aid an ally in attacking a creature, the target of that attack can be within 30 feet of you, rather than 5 feet of you". Boom, now you dont need to be in hugging distance to screw an enemy over, and we dont need to worry about the limited use nature of our bonus action help.


3. Tandem Tactician

So, introuced back in Unearthed Arcana 73 - Feats, this was a little feat that didnt get as much attention as its peers, but is super good for this little add on

It grants 3 main features, but since 1 of them is using the help action as a bonus action, its kinda only 2

- Increase the help action range by 10 feet. Normally, this would make it 15 feet, with the normal range being 5. but for us, with a range of 30 feet, this gives us a range of 40 feet.

- When you take the help action in combat, you can grant the advantage to 2 creatures instead of just 1. Now this is pretty good. All that helping we were doing before? Double it. Now you can give two of your friends advantage instead of just 1. Oh yeah, and now that you help action 2 creatures at once, you get to add your fey-hobgoblin features to them aswell




So yeah, with just 3 levels, a race and a feat, you get to do a lot more with your bonus action. This works on pretty much every single class, with the key exceptions of the rogue, the monk and probably the bard, since those already have a pretty full bonus action. This also doesnt work with a number of multiclasses like the sorlock and sorcadin, but then again, those two really dont need it. Maybe some warlock builds that use pact of the blade and the teleporting invocation wont be able to use it, but..
Yeah, Fighter, wizard, cleric, barbarian, druid, ranger, etc etc.


This is also pretty flavorful, I mean, hobgoblins in lore would be the leaders of a group of goblins, so for them to basically just by being there heavilly increase the effectiveness of their troops.


The only cons are well, it costs a feat, you have to play a hobgoblin feywild, and you have to take 3 levels in rogue. But I mean, compared to other builds here which are pretty strict in how they work, this ones pretty open to how you wanna play it. If you want to be a bladesinging wizard that gives allies useful information on weaknesses and positioning in a fight, or a cleric granting divine guidance, or a fighter captain pushing their allies forwards in battle. Its fairly customizable, and fairly easy to reflavor




Oh, and you can chose to skip on bits and pieces of this if you want a bit more flexibility, at the cost of effectiveness. Dropping the feat gives more feat flexibility, but less range and amount of helping. Dropping hobgoblin Feywild means you can chose a different race, but less bonus things for helping an ally out. Dropping the 3 levels of rogue means no cunning action, and a major drop in range, but gives back 3 player levels to put into other things. But for best effectiveness, I recommend keeping those 3 pieces together



So yeah, The Hobgoblin Battle Commander. A fun little thing to add to any single class so that you can basically play a straightclass, but with a bit more extra support anf fun to it

:))

[Jon talks a lot]

I've been working on this build for a while, and I think I've finally worked out the kinks.

The Hex Grappler

Race: Tabaxi
Class: Fighter 16, Warlock 4
Subclass: Psi Warrior, The Genie (Dao) / Pact of the Talisman
Ability Scores: 15+2 STR, 8 DEX, 15 CON, 8 INT, 8WIS, 15+1 CHA
Progression: Fighter 8, Warlock 4, Fighter 8.
ASI’s: +2 STR @4, Skill Expert (STR / Athletics Expertise) @6, Sentinel @8, War Caster @12, Fey Touched (CHA / Hex) @16, +1 CON, +1 CHA @18, +2 CHA @20
Fighting Styles: Unarmed Fighting First, then Defense at Fighter 10
Eldritch Invocations: Devil's Sight, Rebuke of the Talisman

Warlock Spells Known:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Eldritch Blast
1st Level: Hex, Armor of Agathys
2nd Level: Spike Growth, Hold Person, Suggestion

How good of a grapple do we have?:
5(STR mod) + 12(Proficiency / expertise) + 1d4(Pact of the Talisman) + Opponent has Disadvantage(Hex)

Burning all our resources in a few turns, here's what we can do:
T1(Turn 1): Action Grapple
T2: Action Cast Spike Growth. Then use feline agility, doubling your movement speed. Bonus Action Empowered Leap, doubling your movement speed to 120. Then drag your grappled foe through the spike growth at half speed, (60 feet), dealing 24d4 damage.
T3: Action Cast Booming Blade, so they don't dare attempt to escape your grapple while you fire up your next decimation.
T4: Use feline agility. Bonus Action spend a PSI die to Empowered Leap again. Use full movement. Action Dash. Action Surge Dash dealing 33d4 damage to the boss, and only 9d4 to yourself.

[NCat]

I've been working on this build for a while, and I think I've finally worked out the kinks.

The Hex Grappler

Race: Tabaxi
Class: Fighter 16, Warlock 4
Subclass: Psi Warrior, The Genie (Dao) / Pact of the Talisman
Ability Scores: 15+2 STR, 8 DEX, 15 CON, 8 INT, 8WIS, 15+1 CHA
Progression: Fighter 8, Warlock 4, Fighter 8.
ASI’s: +2 STR @4, Skill Expert (STR / Athletics Expertise) @6, Grappler @8, War Caster @12, Fey Touched (CHA / Hex) @16, +1 CON, +1 CHA @18, +2 CHA @20
Fighting Styles: Unarmed Fighting First, then Defense at Fighter 10
Eldritch Invocations: Devil's Sight, Rebuke of the Talisman

Warlock Spells Known:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Eldritch Blast
1st Level: Hex, Armor of Agathys
2nd Level: Spike Growth, Hold Person, Suggestion

How good of a grapple do we have?:
5(STR mod) + 12(Proficiency / expertise) + 1d4(Pact of the Talisman) + Advantage (Grappler Feat) + Opponent has Disadvantage(Hex)

Burning all our resources in a few turns, here's what we can do:
T1(Turn 1): Action Grapple
T2: Action Cast Spike Growth. Then use feline agility, doubling your movement speed. Bonus Action Empowered Leap, doubling your movement speed to 120. Then drag your grappled foe through the spike growth at half speed, (60 feet), dealing 24d4 damage.
T3: Action Cast Booming Blade, so they don't dare attempt to escape your grapple while you fire up your next decimation.
T4: Use feline agility. Bonus Action spend a PSI die to Empowered Leap again. Use full movement. Action Dash. Action Surge Dash dealing 33d4 damage to the boss, and only 9d4 to yourself.

(drop the grappler feat, its terrible. its a non feat)

I actually thought out a build similiar to this a while back, the only difference was my build was something like, druid (moon) 10, fighter 2, rogue 2, then monk or something for the last few levels? You could probably throw in 2 levels of grave cleric for the damage vulnerability

I also took the mobile feat,

in essence, my version was designed around using the moon druid abilities to turn into an air elemental, which has a fly speed of 90. Because of this, we can add mobile for a fly speed of 100. Now, the kinda game plan of my version, was essentially to max out speed? Also rogue lets us turn athletics into an expertise, and a third level into fighter lets us become a rune knight, which lets us use a bonus action to give ourselves advantage on str checks, aswell as the frost rune for a +2 to our str ability checks.

The idea is, with the right set up youve, grappled them, given them damage vulnerability, and placed them in the middle of a spike growth, and you're an air elemental, which lets us, with rogue2/druid10/fighter 3/cleric2 (level 14), move 100 + action dash 100 + bonus action dash 100 + action surge dash 100, t/hen double all that from tabaxi for 800 feet of movement, or about 320d4 damage * 2 from vulnerability


min/max/av-ing that its like

min 320
av 800
max 1280


:))


Oh, and if an ally has haste, you get an extra **** off amount of damage

move 100 + action dash 100 + bonus action dash 100 + action surge 100, then double all that from tabaxi for 800 feet of movement,


Right, so we have an extra action and doubled movement speed, so

move 200, haste 200, action dash 200, bonus action dash 200, action surge 200, tabaxi double that for 2000 feet of movement, or 800 d4 * 2

min 8600
average 2000
maximum 3200






TLDR
Tabaxi
moon druid 10 /Fighter 3/ rogue 2 / cleric 2 /
Mobile
Expertise grapple, turn into a air elemental and blend your enemies


Edit: aw **** I just remembered that when I originally made this I swore to tell no one about it, and i ended up just posting this to a forum

edit: forgot to add action surge to damage math

Sorry DM's everywhere, my bad


Honestly I should delete this nobody should know about this build

EDit 2: forgot about grappling creature halfing your movement speed, numbers halved accordingly


Edit 3:

Regarding size, since you're large, small creatures dont have a movement penalty on you. so killing halflings and gnomes is twice as effective. Also, since you are a large creature, you can grapple a huge creature too. With the help of a local wizard ally, you can further increase your size to huge, allowing you to grapple gargantuan creatures. Which means... That you can grapple the terrasque.






If you asked me to name this, call it the 'Gnome Blender', because it does more damage against them and they deserve to be blended

[Jon talks a lot]

(drop the grappler feat, its terrible. its a non feat)

I actually thought out a build similiar to this a while back, the only difference was my build was something like, druid (moon) 10, fighter 2, rogue 2, then monk or something for the last few levels? You could probably throw in 2 levels of grave cleric for the damage vulnerability

I also took the mobile feat,

in essence, my version was designed around using the moon druid abilities to turn into an air elemental, which has a fly speed of 90. Because of this, we can add mobile for a fly speed of 100. Now, the kinda game plan of my version, was essentially to max out speed? Also rogue lets us turn athletics into an expertise, and a third level into fighter lets us become a rune knight, which lets us use a bonus action to give ourselves advantage on str checks, aswell as the frost rune for a +2 to our str ability checks.

The idea is, with the right set up youve, grappled them, given them damage vulnerability, and placed them in the middle of a spike growth, and you're an air elemental, which lets us, with rogue2/druid10/fighter 3/cleric2 (level 14), move 100 + action dash 100 + bonus action dash 100 + action surge dash 100, t/hen double all that from tabaxi for 800 feet of movement, or about 320d4 damage * 2 from vulnerability


min/max/av-ing that its like

min 320
av 800
max 1280


:))


Oh, and if an ally has haste, you get an extra **** off amount of damage

move 100 + action dash 100 + bonus action dash 100 + action surge 100, then double all that from tabaxi for 800 feet of movement,


Right, so we have an extra action and doubled movement speed, so

move 200, haste 200, action dash 200, bonus action dash 200, action surge 200, tabaxi double that for 2000 feet of movement, or 800 d4 * 2

min 8600
average 2000
maximum 3200






TLDR
Tabaxi
moon druid 10 /Fighter 3/ rogue 2 / cleric 2 /
Mobile
Expertise grapple, turn into a air elemental and blend your enemies


Edit: aw **** I just remembered that when I originally made this I swore to tell no one about it, and i ended up just posting this to a forum

edit: forgot to add action surge to damage math

Sorry DM's everywhere, my bad


Honestly I should delete this nobody should know about this build

EDit 2: forgot about grappling creature halfing your movement speed, numbers halved accordingly


Edit 3:

Regarding size, since you're large, small creatures dont have a movement penalty on you. so killing halflings and gnomes is twice as effective. Also, since you are a large creature, you can grapple a huge creature too. With the help of a local wizard ally, you can further increase your size to huge, allowing you to grapple gargantuan creatures. Which means... That you can grapple the terrasque.






If you asked me to name this, call it the 'Gnome Blender', because it does more damage against them and they deserve to be blended

I disagree, grappler is decent for my build. Getting Advantage on my grapples makes me damn near impossible to fail.

Also, your build requires 13 WIS, 13 DEX for multiclassing and 20 STR or you will never be able to grapple. And you only get 2 ASI's. Saying you can grapple the tarrasque and actually doing it are two very different things. It has a STR score of 30.

Additionally, your build doesn't work at all until level 20.


Out of all of this, only having 2 ASI's is the worst part of it all. You might be able to get 20 STR, but if you are using point buy then that means you have to dump CON, which makes your grappler way too fragile. And if you are rolling stats, there is no way to get meaningful commentary out of random luck.

[Daghoulish]

I disagree, grappler is decent for my build. Getting Advantage on my grapples makes me damn near impossible to fail.

Grappler doesn't give advantage on grapples, it gives you advantage on attack rolls against a creature you have grappled and the ability to put the restrained condition on both your grappled target and yourself.

[Jon talks a lot]

Grappler doesn't give advantage on grapples, it gives you advantage on attack rolls against a creature you have grappled and the ability to put the restrained condition on both your grappled target and yourself.

It's funny how one's brain can read one thing and just decide it read something else. My apologies.

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all,

I really liked Ludic's awesome Way of the Demonweb Pits Monk build from a while ago, so I wanted to take a stab at making it a monk subclass! Ludic's given me permission to post it into this thread, so hopefully that's not an issue. [Mods - if that is a problem, please let me know and I'll just delete this reply]

Monk Tradition: Way of the Demonweb Pits

The devoted servants of Lolth, these monks patrol the Underdark to protect drow settlements from the monsters in the Deeps. These monks take on titles from their particular patrolled territory. One of them might be called the Master of the Precipice, for example, but the common folk would simply refer to him as "the Edgelord."

Drow Arts
At 3rd level, you can use your ki to duplicate the effects of certain spells. As an action, you can spend 2 ki points to cast darkness, faerie fire, levitate, and web, without providing material components. You also learn the dancing lights cantrip, or the minor illusion cantrip if you already knew dancing lights. In addition, hand crossbows, rapiers, shortswords, and whips are all considered monk weapons for you.

See With Eyes Black As Night
At 6th level, when you cast one of your Drow Arts spells, you can spend any number of ki points and select a number of creatures you can see, including yourself, up to the number of ki points spent. These creatures ignore the effect of that spell. Additionally, you gain proficiency with the poisoner's kit, gain resistance to poison damage, and may apply poison to a monk weapon as a bonus action.

Welcome to the Underdark
At 11th level, when an enemy misses you with an attack, you may use your reaction to make an attack of opportunity. In addition, you may spend 1 ki point to make an attack of opportunity when a creature enters your reach.

Two Legs? That's Cute
At 17th level, you can briefly channel Lolth's divine will. As a bonus action, you may spend 6 ki points to take on the shape of a drider for a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier. While in this shape, you gain several benefits:

• You add 20 feet to your movement speed
• You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check
• You may cast web as a bonus action on your turn every round without needing concentration
• Any attacks which use your Martial Arts die for damage also deal another Martial Arts die as poison damage. This poison damage ignores poison resistance, and treats poison immunity as poison resistance.

After you transform back, you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to your ki saving throw DC or suffer one level of exhaustion.

Let me know what you think!

[Wraith]

The Hex Grappler

Kind of similar to the build that I suggested a while ago, although I suggested Rune Knight over Psi Warrior as getting access to being Large sized and Advantage to STR-checks at level 3 is a hugely beneficial.

I did the build with Nature Cleric, but I also suggested Dao Genie Warlock, Lore Bard and Land Druid as other possible avenues to get Spike Growth, with various options available depending on what else you wanted to do aside from cantrips like Booming Blade.

[NCat]

Also, your build requires 13 WIS, 13 DEX for multiclassing and 20 STR or you will never be able to grapple. And you only get 2 ASI's. Saying you can grapple the tarrasque and actually doing it are two very different things. It has a STR score of 30.

Additionally, your build doesn't work at all until level 20.


Out of all of this, only having 2 ASI's is the worst part of it all. You might be able to get 20 STR, but if you are using point buy then that means you have to dump CON, which makes your grappler way too fragile. And if you are rolling stats, there is no way to get meaningful commentary out of random luck.

Well, technically, we're an air elemental while grappling, so we actually could have a str score of 2, or 20. it wouldnt affect the build at all since we will always be using the air elementals str of 12. So, maxxing con or wis is not a problem at all if you want to do that

The build technically comes online at level 10, with that being the minimum level to begin grappling, but really it begins at level 12, with rogue expertise. Since, we dont have a high str as an air elemental, we use expertise to compensate. Our next levels into fighter give us the frost rune for str +2, aswell as advantage on grappling from the rune knight fighter archetype

As for feats, yeah it does kinda suck with that. since you only get your 2 druid ones, and one of them will end up being mobile



Funnilly, literally the night of making my post, we had a no show from 4/6 out of our players (1 always is a little late because of work, so as usual. 1 had university, but joined in at 6 aswell. 2 fat bastards.) so for the first 3 hours we had a one shot, and yeah, this build is what I went with. Its very viable. But it does suffer from the classic nova issue of 'ah crap we walked into another room, i cant really do as much'

So last night I went druid 11, fighter 3, rogue 2, monk 1, cleric 2. Its pretty alright

[Malaketh]

Kermit the Slaad

In battle, Kermit is a beast who stacks poison effects with auto-healing abilities and extra attacks. His claws (which can use Claw or Bite stats)

Hi There, So I will be starting a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign next week and I am stoked to play this build. However, and forgive my ignorance, but how do you manage the bolded part in your quote? I cannot seem to either find the relevant information, or am misinterpreting it?

Thank you for any answer you can give and thanks for the great builds!

[ftafp]

Hi There, So I will be starting a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign next week and I am stoked to play this build. However, and forgive my ignorance, but how do you manage the bolded part in your quote? I cannot seem to either find the relevant information, or am misinterpreting it?

Thank you for any answer you can give and thanks for the great builds!

I'm glad you like it. The claw and bite attacks come from the Way of the Beast Barbarian subclass in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. When you rage you can choose to manifest either claws or fangs. for most characters claws are the stronger option but grungs can get some extra poison damage when they deal piercing damage with a weapon attack. It doesn't scale very well though so at higher levels the claws go back to being the best option