An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[1Pirate]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

I did the Celestial Generalist up through level 12 and it played pretty smooth for most of it(probably all if my DM had been a little more lenient with the component rules).

Anyone else have some experiences with the builds in this thread?

[Khrysaes]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

I did the Celestial Generalist up through level 12 and it played pretty smooth for most of it(probably all if my DM had been a little more lenient with the component rules).

Anyone else have some experiences with the builds in this thread?

Ive played in a few.
Namely the arcane cleric in ludicsavants op. And some others at least similar to some builds listed that i made myself before knowing they were on here.

The arcane cleric was great with its high ac and a focus on spirit guardians. It was my wifes first ever character, and i made it for her because she disnt know what to do. I thought it would be a simple enough supportish character. She ended up melting enemies all the time. We did essentially five her shillelagh permanently, and never actually had her cast the spell. Otherwise her go to was spirit guardians and spiritual weapon, then walk around hitting things. Healing as needed.

[LudicSavant]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

I did the Celestial Generalist up through level 12 and it played pretty smooth for most of it(probably all if my DM had been a little more lenient with the component rules).

Anyone else have some experiences with the builds in this thread?

I test the builds I post at each tier of play, which is part of why it takes me so long to post =P

Notably, I also make sure to test them against 6+ Deadly encounters a day. The highest number of daily encounters I've done in a real game was 14 (with a somewhat scaled down tiefling version of the Nuclear Wizard navigating a deathtrap-filled dimension-hopping dungeon). That was in a game that ran from level 3-20 over the course of a couple of years.

So I could talk about an awful lot of experiences. I'm not really sure where to begin.

I'd say the biggest misconception I occasionally see on the forums, the biggest difference between actual play and what a few people expect when they read a build is that they'll tunnel vision and think the build is just about one thing, when (at least for me) it's actually about versatility and adaptability. It's why you see me put things like Ritual Caster on my Fighters. For example, the Nuclear Wizard build is extremely strong even if Magic Missile isn't used (and indeed, I definitely didn't use it in every encounter, instead reserving it for situations where single target burst was called for). But casual readers sometimes just assume that the NW is about Magic Missile, or the Arcana Cleric is about Booming Blade, or the Drow Monk is about Darkness. But the drow Monk is also about action economy, PWT, stun, and Silence. The Arcana Cleric mostly takes feats that would be good even if you never touched melee and just has that as one of the things it does to support its lockdown spellcasting kit (sometimes without even spending Actions... just threatening it via Warcaster in order to discourage movement). The Nuclear Wizard is an offensive and controlling monster that can easily switch between high resource efficiency and deadly novas, with a Batman toolbelt that's unusually broad even by Wizard standards (because of Sculpt spell control tricks, offtank potential, above-par low-resource output, great AoE and single target damage on top of the usual Wizard utility, etc).

This "thinking about one thing" focus leads to some of the things I personally advise against in building... like when I occasionally see Arcana Cleric builds that dump a ton of feats into their melee attack (like Polearm Master, Crusher, etc). Contrast the Arcana Cleric I gave: Warcaster, Wisdom boosts, Lucky, Res(Con), and 2/3rds of Magic Initiate (Thorn Whip and Absorb Elements) are good even if you never throw a punch during an encounter. It's an adaptable full caster, first and foremost, which played (at least for me) like a sort of walking man-eating-bog that demands enemies deal with it before they can do much to the rest of the party (especially since it can do things like, say, pick up the entire party off the death gate and give them all Dispel... as a bonus action).

The other thing I noticed is that, especially for more complex characters, the person playing it makes a massive difference; this was mostly observed in instances where one player was absent from a session (for whatever IRL reasons) and someone else controlled their character. The difference in performance would be like night and day, just because people were making better or worse choices.

[Nod_Hero]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

Played an Ancestral Avenger up to level 13 in a campaign and it was beastly good.
We rolled stats and I rolled pretty dang good so I went with a different race (Leonin) and was a feat behind for most of it. Overall though, very good stuff and cemented Echo Knight as one of my favorite subclasses.

[Chaos Jackal]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

I did the Celestial Generalist up through level 12 and it played pretty smooth for most of it(probably all if my DM had been a little more lenient with the component rules).

Anyone else have some experiences with the builds in this thread?

I've used the Arcana Cleric Frontliner one (complete with Azorius background), as well as the Soulknife, in high-level oneshots, and they performed quite well. While the EK didn't go through much and I can't vouch for it in tougher scenarios, it just didn't care in simpler encounters and did work as expected there, which was basically steamrolling things.

The cleric however went through multiple deadly encounters (I think it was 4), as part of a 3-person group no less, and with two less than stellar players, and was excellent. Not gonna claim I didn't break a sweat, but damage, durability and support were all high and the resources were enough to last throughout the encounters; I could still do a couple more with what I had left by the end of it. And I'm pretty sure I didn't play the build at its utmost potential.

I am also running the Ride of the Valkyries paladin in a campaign where I knew magic item access would be easy (and indeed, I got my Str item quite fast) and that having a mount wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth (also turned out to be true), but we've only reached lv7 so far there, so I can't comment much here. It's been stellar for the levels we've gone through, although I'm playing a more support-y version due to the group's composition and experience (picked up Inspiring Leader already at lv4 and am using the Blessed Warrior fighting style for guidance); ultimately, however, it's a relatively straightforward build, especially early on, so all I'm really saying here is that Vengeance paladin is nice in tier 1 and tier 2. Haven't had the chance to try the higher level strategies yet, obviously, but I doubt there'll be much issue.

[Ganryu]

Armor of Abs


Rogue 19 {Swashbuckler} / Barbarian 1

Basis: We're taking mostly a rogue setup, but stealing two things from barbarian to make up ungodly bulky. An AC of 22-23, and rage's resistances. We'll end up with 4 resistances, evasion, a ton of hit points, and able to quarter the damage from a lot of hits.


Race: Four main options options:


Goliath: Additional resistance to Cold, and Stone's Endurance is pretty good with this build, this is the default I'm assuming, but it let's you shrug off 1d12+Con damage. If you're already resistant to the source, this means you can basically just nullify one attack.
Warforged: Who doesn't love +1 AC? 23 is preeeetty decent on two classes that apart generally don't have amazing AC. Simic Hybrid's also consideration, but Ravnica is a little more niche. That said, I got into this build to show off my abs as is my right as a crazed adventurer, and this is a different kind of oily abs!
Half-Elf - I'm sure you can manage some reason why this angsty little part elf is part barbarian, but more than that, this is a MAD build, and half elf immediately is great for 3 stat spreads. With this, ignore the resilient feat listed later, and immediately start rogue. You'll lose a saving throw, but gain inspiring leader for your team, more or less.
V.Human - Believe or not, this build is great for Inspiring Leader, even if your charisma isn't your primary stat.


Optional Feats along the way: Resilence- Dex, Toughness, Shield Mastery, and Inspiring leader are all great on this build. You can't get all of them though, but a few are nice.


Str 13 (Multiclass minimum, if DM ignores that, drop this like it's hot, and pump charisma, ESPECIALLY if you're a halfelf.)
Dex 17 (+2 - Tasha's)
Con 16 (+1)
Int 8
Wis 8
Cha 12

* Power Spike levels are in bold
Lvl 1 - Barbarian, extra hit points, saving prof in Str and Con.
Unarmored Defense- This is actually our bread and butter, normally useless, now we have as a rogue, a starting AC of 18 with a shield.

Rage - Half damage on slashing/bludgeoning/piercing is good on everyone! We're forgoing rage damage, however.


Lvl 2 - immediately switch to rogue, we're staying here for a while. Grab expertise in persuasion and athletics. Our shield is nice for pumped up AC, but we can also drop it, and just wrastle anything that's in our way.


Lvl 3 - Cunning action, nice


Lvl 4 - Steady aim is amazing, but that's not the big thing. We're here for Swashbuckler. We are the party tank. And that doesn't just mean being immune to damage and saves, it means punishing an enemy for attacking anyone else... and then punishing them for attacking us!


Lvl 5 - Resilient - Dex - Gets dex to 18. This is optional, but if you don't do this, make sure to start out as rogue. If stats don't need raising, shield mastery is also an option. AC is now 19.


Lvl 6 - Cunning action - You know how you are beefy as hell, have high AC, and half 4 different damage types... yeah, now you can half another hit once per turn, more than likely quartering some damage the DM was throwing your way. You're hit points are now more a suggestion than a number.


Lvl 7 - Expertise - more of a ribbon at this level, take what you want. Though, if you want to purely be annoying, grab investigation. Because this build is bulky against most things, why not ruin illusionists day too?


Lvl 8 - Evasion - Well... This is just plain rude, dex saves more than likely will do nothing to you.


Lvl 9 - ASI - Max out Dex, AC is now 20... now go chest pump the armored fighter naked and watch him cry...


Lvl 10 - This is the point of the build. You get Panache from your subclass. THIS is why you grabbed expertise persuasion btw. You weren't meant to be the party face, they were too busy staring at your abs anyways. This is where you become the tank, as you can keep grabbing creatures attention to prevent them doing as much damage to others.

"At 9th level, your charm becomes extraordinarily beguiling. As an action, you can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by a creature's Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to hear you, and the two of you must share a language.


If you succeed on the check and the creature is hostile to you, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you and can't make opportunity attacks against targets other than you. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until one of your companions attacks the target or affects it with a spell, or until you and the target are more than 60 feet apart.


If you succeed on the check and the creature isn't hostile to you, it is charmed by you for 1 minute. While charmed, it regards you as a friendly acquaintance. This effect ends immediately if you or your companions do anything harmful to it."


Btw, nothing says you can't spam this every turn.
-------------------------------
Lvl 11 - ASI, spend it in Con. More HP, and your AC is now 21. Laugh as you're now winning those chest bumps with the fighter.


Lvl 12 - Reliable Talent - This normally is a beautiful ribbon... but for you, it's more. This applies to Panache. And, if you drop the shield, it will affect your grapple checks as well.


Lvl 13 - ASI - Max out Con. Take more hits, laugh more with an AC of 22, while wearing just a shield...


Lvl 14 - Elegant maneuver - Actually kinda useless. Sneak attack goes up?


Lvl 15 - Blindsense - You can now play tag in the dark. Fun, but a bit of a ribbon for you.


Lvl 16 - Slippery Mind - This is the level your DM finds one of your main counters just... disappears. You gain proficiency in wisdom saving throws. Beforehand, they were the bane of this build, able to stop you in your tracks with things like 'hold person'. Now you get to politely ask spell casters for their lunch money. This is your 4th saving throw btw, leaving you vulnerable to intelligence and charisma saving throws... which are pretty rare. Just... just watch out for magic jar. Nobody else gets pecs like yours.


Lvl 17 - ASI - We've officially maxed out our two primary stats, Con and Dex, so we get to have ribbons here. You can either boost Charisma to help with Panache and your initiative, or you can grab feats. I suggest Tough or Inspiring Leader to make yourself even more bulky.


Lvl 18 - Master Duelist - you get advantage once if you miss. Not... the strongest capstone for a subclass


Lvl 19 - Elusive - Nobody gets advantage on you. Pretty good. Not amazing, but good.


Lvl 20 - There's an option here, you can grab a feat here, same as lvl 17, bump your charisma as you are a sexy lil bastard, or you can get advantage on dex saves by leveling barbarian here as well. You technically get reckless attack, which actually does synergize well with Elusive, as there's no penalty for advantage, but you have a dex build, so which is better, +1 with advantage, or +5? It's literally just an option, you're more here for Danger Sense... which is weird, but so is most of the strengths of this build!
Choice is yours. I say grab a feat and stay rogue, as it maxes out your sneak attack damage.


Pros: So, at the end of this, we're still mostly a rogue, but we trade out 1 nat 20 a day for massive boosts in our AC, additional HP, resistance to 3 damage types. In addition, this build gives you your natural right to walk through the battlefield buck naked, showing off those abs, and what's the DM going to do, arrest you? The guard will have to catch you first! You're like a greased pig!

This build looks straight forward, but gets bulk and AC together that really neither class gets by itself. Without focus fire, you can basically just ignore things going your way. Oh, and as you are mostly rogue, despite being so tanky, you do have ranged options.

You get the best of both worlds of tanking from Rogue and Barbarian. You can half damage with cunning action once a turn, AoE's generally don't matter with Evasive, you have high AC, and are proficient in 4 different saving throws by the end.

Cons: For most of this builds life, it is pretty vulnerable to spell casters. Your rogue levels are delayed, and your reaction is always spoken for to reduce damage, so the general use of sentinel on a rogue isn't possible here. Multihits do far more damage to you than swing and a miss strikes, meaning focus fire can take you down. That, and if your DM homebrews half as much as mine, int and charisma saves will still take you down. This class is also MAD, with your AC slowly rising til lvl 13. It's not bad at all, but by the time you have 22 AC, creatures will have a lot higher to hit. Most attacks will miss you, but you will take damage. This build is bulky, but not invincible, there are ways to eventually take you down.

[ftafp]

Is the high-op consensus really that artificers are weaker than rangers?

Yes and no. A lot of it depends on what the DM will allow and what the player knows how to do, but generally ranger's favored due to its spell list and access to the archery fighting style. In particular, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Plant Growth and Conjure Woodland Beings are some of the best spells at their levels, and being long-duration spells they're well suited to half-casters who are working with limited spell slots. Artificer in contrast gets some good ones like Shield, Web, Fireball and Tiny Servants, but due to limited slots Web is the only one they're going to get a significant amount of use out of. Compounding this, artificers other than the battle smith fall behind in damage due to their reliance on cantrips (or in armorer's case, bad weapons), and in the battle smith's case there's still a gap. Archery offers twice the bonus to attack rolls that a repeating weapon does, and unlike repeating weapon it will stack with any magical weapons the ranger picks up along the way. The simple fact is, artificer falls behind in damage and control hard without resorting to cheesy tricks, and this is all before you factor in ranger's subclass features, particularly those of Gloomstalker.

[Dayn]

Armor of Abs

Right after swashbuckler came out in SCAG, I made a very similar type of build and have since played it all the way up to 20. I found it to be extremely effective. Two suggestions I would make: first, take more barb levels. I found danger sense, bear totem resistance (or ancestral protectors, which didn't exist at the time), and extra attack much more valuable than the high level rogue features.

The other big thing: for this build, the sentinel feat is practically mandatory. The DM will get sick of trying to kill you and try to attack other people instead, so you will get lots of opportunities for powerful reaction attacks. I took it as a variant human so as not to slow down the dex/con progression.

One thing that's a little tricky: you have to be careful using panache with rage active. If you haven't attacked or taken damage since your last turn, your rage will drop. I eventually got a scimitar of speed that solved this problem.

[stoutstien]

Yes and no. A lot of it depends on what the DM will allow and what the player knows how to do, but generally ranger's favored due to its spell list and access to the archery fighting style. In particular, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Plant Growth and Conjure Woodland Beings are some of the best spells at their levels, and being long-duration spells they're well suited to half-casters who are working with limited spell slots. Artificer in contrast gets some good ones like Shield, Web, Fireball and Tiny Servants, but due to limited slots Web is the only one they're going to get a significant amount of use out of. Compounding this, artificers other than the battle smith fall behind in damage due to their reliance on cantrips (or in armorer's case, bad weapons), and in the battle smith's case there's still a gap. Archery offers twice the bonus to attack rolls that a repeating weapon does, and unlike repeating weapon it will stack with any magical weapons the ranger picks up along the way. The simple fact is, artificer falls behind in damage and control hard without resorting to cheesy tricks, and this is all before you factor in ranger's subclass features, particularly those of Gloomstalker.

What's stopping any artificer who want to deal damage to grab Archer with a feat? They are much SaD by in nature than rangers and will have the space to spare. Even then the damage gap you are talking about is like 4% even if you give them both a magical weapon which doesn't weaken infusions because that's a deep list to features to shift that resource around in.

[Citadel97501]

Frankly, the only time a ranger can compare is if you compare a level 3 or so Artificer: Armorer, to either the Ranger: Monster Hunter, or Ranger: Gloom Stalker. As those two subclasses are the most powerful ranger subclasses, compared to the worst Artificer Subclass.

[Evaar]

I've been wondering, with all the builds now here, who's played through a campaign with one? I'm curious how they play "out in the field" so to speak.

I did the Celestial Generalist up through level 12 and it played pretty smooth for most of it(probably all if my DM had been a little more lenient with the component rules).

Anyone else have some experiences with the builds in this thread?

I did the Celestial Generalist for a few levels before that particular campaign fell apart. It felt good but that crew was so inexperienced and unoptimized that it was difficult to really assess- like obviously it was the most powerful character in the party, our Paladin didn't understand how Smite works much less how to optimize a build.

I'm working on the Soulknife (meaning Eldritch Knight) right now, though doing it with my own Tiefling twist just for preferred flavor. I take Infernal Constitution, trading the offense of Elven Accuracy for more defense. So far I love it, but we're only 5 and it's just pure Dex based EK. But looking at the road ahead, it's only going to get better from here. Every level is going to bring me something really valuable.

[ftafp]

What's stopping any artificer who want to deal damage to grab Archer with a feat?

The fact that you first need to spend your ASIs on crossbow expert, sharpshooter, and getting your Int up to 20. A fighter dip would get it quicker, that said it's a moot point. Archery alone doesn't make or break the difference. It's not even you main source of damage after level 9. That's coming from Conjure Animals which vastly outpaces both classes damage-dealing potential. Artificers can get Conjure Animals with Mark of Handling but even with both Ranger still has the better spell list

[stoutstien]

The fact that you first need to spend your ASIs on crossbow expert, sharpshooter, and getting your Int up to 20. A fighter dip would get it quicker, that said it's a moot point. Archery alone doesn't make or break the difference. It's not even you main source of damage after level 9. That's coming from Conjure Animals which vastly outpaces both classes damage-dealing potential. Artificers can get Conjure Animals with Mark of Handling but even with both Ranger still has the better spell list

Eh. Not without putting serious resources into making sure your concentration checks are better than what most rangers settle for. even then I don't think their spell list saves them. I do think rangers generally get too much flack and are perfectly serviceable but being both a memorized caster and having a fixed spells known problem hurts. I'd take the artificer's prepared/ritual casting any day and if I really want one of those spells there are ways to get them.

[Quietus]

Eh. Not without putting serious resources into making sure your concentration checks are better than what most rangers settle for. even then I don't think their spell list saves them. I do think rangers generally get too much flack and are perfectly serviceable but being both a memorized caster and having a fixed spells known problem hurts. I'd take the artificer's prepared/ritual casting any day and if I really want one of those spells there are ways to get them.

I can concur with this. I'm playing a Wis-forward Beastmaster ranger, using crossbow expert to fire a heavy crossbow as his main attack (underwater campaign). My concentration checks are *awful*. We have enough of a front line between my beast, a summon (I usually use summon beast/summon fey over conjure animals), and our melee party members that I don't get hit terribly often, but when I do, any concentration I'm keeping is a coin flip at best. Even with Tasha's option for Primeval Awareness, my spells known list is like... 5 spells, at Ranger9?

I'm enjoying the character, but if this was not an underwater campaign, I'd be dropping crossbow expert for resilient con so fast your head would spin.

[ftafp]

The Ghallanda Innkeeper: A Fun and Effective Chef Build

Race: Halfling, Mark of Hospitality
Class: Divine Soul 1, Life Cleric 1, Dao Warlock 18
Progression: Divine Soul 1, Life Cleric 1, Dao Warlock 1 -> 18
Base Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 9 Int, 13 Wis, 17 Cha
ASI: Fey Touched(Gift of Alacrity, +1 Cha)@6, +2 Cha@10, Inspiring Leader@14, Resilient(+1 Wisdom)@18
Pact Boon: Pact of the Tome
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, Book of Ancient Secrets, Aspect of the Moon, Eldritch Mind, Grasp of Hadar
Spells of Note: Catapult, Ceremony, Gift of Alacrity, Goodberry, Aid, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Creation, Wall of Stone
Tools: Chef's Utensils
Important Background Details: Must have seen Primal Fruits and Magic Mushrooms from TCE as part of backstory

Cliff Notes:

• The core of this build revolves around using as many short rests as you can get away with to buff your allies and then recover the slots. At low levels this will mostly be Gift of Alacrity and Aid (you can refluff these spells as being in the food) and Goodberries (which are further buffed by upcasting with Disciple of Life), but at higher levels, Creation replaces goodberry
• Creation is normally a useless spell, but RAW Creation can replicate magic items you've seen as long as they're a single object are made only of the materials in the spell's description. Magic Mushrooms and Primal Fruits, being vegetable matter, last 24 hours and have some awesome effects. I suggest making a whole uprooted shrub of Primal fruits for 6 fruits with each casting, and making liberal use of the Death Ward fruit, as this spell can be stacked. For instantaneous effects, cook them into dishes, as RAW it's only an action if you eat the raw fruit. If it's cooked into food you can use your item interaction
• Aspect of the moon lets you stay awake your whole long rest, allowing you divide up your free hour of spellcasting to take short rests during the night. Now you get 8 full sessions out of one long rest
• Ceremony offers a lot of one-time buffs that you can refluff as foods with fancy edible silver garnish, but you might want to make a habit of cooking up wedding cake. Just leave one humanoid enemy alive after the battle to shotgun-marry them to every humanoid memeber of the party before finishing them off. Being widowed, your allies can now benefit from Wedding Cakes of +2 AC whenever they want.
• Ceremony and many other divination rituals can be copied to your Cookbook of Shadows and be refluffed as more magic food, while Leomund's Tiny Hut can serve as a temporary inn for your allies
• Make your genie vessel a House Ghallanda Manor Key since they basically do the same thing anyway. Inside is a staging site for your own personal restaurant that you can retreat into in combat after casting a concentration spell
• While inside you can set up a real restaurant/hotel (I advise a maze like the one from the Shining) with Wall of Stone which you get back on a short rest. You can later catapult your Manor key to have it summon Hotel California into the real world around your enemies to trap them inside
• Limited Wish and Wish are great for giving your whole party a free Heroes Feast, though you can really use it for whatever
• Last but not least, when flying in combat, remember to go prone in mid air at the end of your turn so attacks against you have disadvantage. You can stand up at the start of your next turn to EB then lie down again. It's just good sense.

Variant: The Ghallanda Barkeeper

Class: Alchemist 3, Dao Warlock 17
Progression: Artificer 1, Dao Warlock 1, Alchemist 2 -> 3, Dao Warlock 2 -> 17
Base Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 13 Int, 9 Wis, 17 Cha
ASI: Fey Touched(Gift of Alacrity, +1 Cha)@7, +2 Cha@11, Inspiring Leader@15, Resilient(+1 Wisdom)@19
Infusions: Spellwrought Tattoo(1st level)x2, Homunculus Servant
Equipment: A sled dog (listed in Icewind Dale), or failing that a Mastiff, a Chest of Preserving, and a Chest of Preserving

Cliff Notes:

• This variant trades spell progression and raw healing for a few neat artificer tricks, the first of which is using warlock rest slots to brew drinks. A canine mount is recommended for this build, both because a mount can use its action to drink some fizzy lifting drink with their action (just give it one of those barrels of brandy they put on Saint Bernards to drink from), and because most people like dogs and won't have an issue with you bringing them into a castle, tavern, or store. In addition, a dog can easily grapple allies with its mouth once you get flight of your own. Just remember you can't get on until its drank its fill or else it can't use its action to do so. Either way it's good to have a mount, flying or otherwise
• Homunculus Servant may seem like an odd choice, but RAW it's capable of speaking. The text may be vague, but all other instances of of creatures who can understand but not speak a language specify explicitly that they cannot speak), which means it can say the command word for your spellwrought tattoo and concentrate on it for you. In addition, being intelligent and being able to have hands means you can sleep in the saddle and tell your homunculus to wake you and feed you an coffee of boldness if it looks like the party is about to get into a fight. Both of these work since both taking its own action and administering experimental elixirs are allowed if you are incapacitated, such as from being asleep. Finally, the homunculs can carry a small party member (including yourself) into the air which is allowed according to Crawford's twitter
• If your DM doesn't allow any of the tricks with homunculus servant, see if you can double up on spellwrought tattoos. RAW this is actually allowed as long as you take replicate magic item for the same item multiple times (you have to know it twice, not just use it twice). If this is allowed, a Gift of Alacrity tattoo can be used to buff the whole party (the tattoo doesn't disappear until the spell you cast with it ends) so you can choose a different spell like Command for your spellwrought tattoo
• You can get a chest of preserving as an infusion but it's a common magic item so it's best to just put down the money for it. Keep your beverages and berries in here for long-term storage. It's just nice to have around

[ftafp]

Eh. Not without putting serious resources into making sure your concentration checks are better than what most rangers settle for. even then I don't think their spell list saves them. I do think rangers generally get too much flack and are perfectly serviceable but being both a memorized caster and having a fixed spells known problem hurts. I'd take the artificer's prepared/ritual casting any day and if I really want one of those spells there are ways to get them.

Eh. Not without putting serious resources into making sure your concentration checks are better than what most rangers settle for. even then I don't think their spell list saves them. I do think rangers generally get too much flack and are perfectly serviceable but being both a memorized caster and having a fixed spells known problem hurts. I'd take the artificer's prepared/ritual casting any day and if I really want one of those spells there are ways to get them.

This is why Tabletop Builds recommends starting with a 1-level dip in Divine Soul. It gets you con saves, shield, bless and a free 2d4 to a save once per short rest

[stoutstien]

This is why Tabletop Builds recommends starting with a 1-level dip in Divine Soul. It gets you con saves, shield, bless and a free 2d4 to a save once per short rest

So further increasing MaDness, pushing back those big spells even more, and losing dex save prof? Colour me sceptical in regards of using rangers in that sense within the parameters of this thread. Not to say there isn't a few fun build with using ranger but if it's the spells you are after then why not use druid or bard? I mean there is probably a build there using divine soul and fey wander but takes too long to get it's feet under it.

[ftafp]

So further increasing MaDness, pushing back those big spells even more, and losing dex save prof? Colour me sceptical in regards of using rangers in that sense within the parameters of this thread. Not to say there isn't a few fun build with using ranger but if it's the spells you are after then why not use druid or bard? I mean there is probably a build there using divine soul and fey wander but takes too long to get it's feet under it.

you're hardly increasing MaDness. With the standard array you can easily have 8 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 14 Wis and 13 Cha. Other than the swarmkeeper, Rangers don't even really need their Wisdom as none of their good spells use it. Delaying spells with a one level dip is pretty standard, especially if this one level dip ensures you can keep concentrating on those spells later on. Losing dex saves isn't much of a loss either. Aside from the fact that most effects that use dex saves only deal flat damage with no dangerous riders that's easily reduced by Absorb Elements, optimal play assumes that you're using the terrain to give yourself cover, which gives you a large bonus to your dex saving throws. In contrast, con saves buff your concentration, protect you from necrotic and poison damage which are both common and not reduced by absorb elements, and con saves tend to be used for crippling status conditions like being poisoned, blinded, stunned or paralyzed. It's well worth the tradeoff

[stoutstien]

you're hardly increasing MaDness. With the standard array you can easily have 8 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 14 Wis and 13 Cha. Other than the swarmkeeper, Rangers don't even really need their Wisdom as none of their good spells use it. Delaying spells with a one level dip is pretty standard, especially if this one level dip ensures you can keep concentrating on those spells later on. Losing dex saves isn't much of a loss either. Aside from the fact that most effects that use dex saves only deal flat damage with no dangerous riders that's easily reduced by Absorb Elements, optimal play assumes that you're using the terrain to give yourself cover, which gives you a large bonus to your dex saving throws. In contrast, con saves buff your concentration, protect you from necrotic and poison damage which are both common and not reduced by absorb elements, and con saves tend to be used for crippling status conditions like being poisoned, blinded, stunned or paralyzed. It's well worth the tradeoff

If only there was a SaD class that had Con saves, AE/shield, spot save boosting, extra attack, permanent pet with damage type that bypasses most resistance/immunity issues, summon spells, and the same half casting chassis that doesn't require such a delay.

[Ganryu]

Guys, knock it off with Ranger vs Artificer, go put that somewhere else, I actually like this thread, keep it on topic.

[Ganryu]

The Medic
"I'm not a doctor, I'm a medic."
"What's the difference?"
"Well, a doctor cures people. A medic just makes them more comfortable...while they die."

Thief Rogue {20}
Feats: Healer, Sentinel
Aasimar -Protector


Fun build to run, you don't need magic to keep people up. I've actually run this as someone posing as a cleric, and it worked... surprisingly well. Grab expertise in deception, religion, and medicine to make it extra potent if you want that route!


STR 8
DEX 17 (+2 Tasha's rule)
CON 16 (+1)
INT 8
WIS 14
CHA 10






Important lvls

Lvl 1 - We're not really a healer til lvl 4, but healing hands will work in a bind.

Lvl 3 - this is where the first major part of this build comes online. Fast hands is a criminally underrated ability, and we get to see why next level. :D


Lvl 4 - Grab the healer feat. You now gain the following, and can do so as either an action, or a bonus action, or both, due to fast hands:


"You are an able physician, allowing you to mend wounds quickly and get your allies back in the fight. You gain the following benefits:


When you use a healer's kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.
As an action. you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest."


This is the crux of the entire build, basically they heal 1d6+4+ their level, which means this gets stronger as your party levels up. You can only use it once per creature, but is a decent amount of healing. Ontop of this, you can bring someone to 1 hit point as long as you use a healer's kit. And even if you use the basic heal, healing hands can heal for a decent amount a second time. Everything in the build just becomes slightly better per level after this, no real new tools. Healing someone for 50 in a single turn with no magic isn't bad.


Lvl 8 - Dex up, half feat would work, moderately armored is a decent choice here for more AC.
Lvl 10 - Dex up
Lvl 12 - Sentinel is nice, you are a front line healer, whenever someone hits a party member you are protecting, you have a reaction to shank them for the attempt.
Lvl 13 - You can use Magic devices not meant for you. Prayer beads are nice to keep up with the healing theme, though you are using magic... kind of. This is a sometimes snack and us cheating on our non magic diet, but technically, we're not using the spell, the item is.
Lvl 16 - Choice of Mobile or Telekenetic. This will help you shove a downed party member away from an enemy, or grab and run with them, taking them to safety.
Lvl 19 - Tough or Con.

[stoutstien]

Guys, knock it off with Ranger vs Artificer, go put that somewhere else, I actually like this thread, keep it on topic.

Think it's important to keep things in perspective when it comes to these type of PC concepts. It doesn't have to be a overly complicated or take extensive multi-classing to have a fun and effective build. Where fun is subjective one of the best build on here is the celestial general list is an amazing example of this. Your bog standard artillerist isn't that different from it.
Having seen them both in play at the same table together they are up in top tiers of encounter destroying duos with enough steam to plow through deadly encounters with incredible resource conservation. I'd consider them both anvils in that they form the base in which others can smash challenges against with reckless abandonment. It's rare for them to break before the hammers or the object being struck.

There's some truly outstanding and creative builds in this thread but we can't lose sight of those that work just as well even of they are simplistic.

[Wraith]

There are a lot of really fun and interesting builds listed in his thread, but I haven't seen much from people who have tried to play as them - would be great to see if any of them live up to the 'hype' that comes from the theory.

So, money-where-my-mouth-is time; I started a new campaign recently and decided to use a Eclectic, Fun & Effective Build™ for my character. My GM is running us through a tweaked version of Rime of the Frost Maiden - I say 'tweaked' because I thought that I had played it before, but I don't remember anything that has happened so far, but that might just be on me.

My first choice was the Eye of Annihilation, primarily because it was one of my ideas and I really, really want to blow stuff up. The alternative was the Soulknife by LudicSavant because I haven't played as a Fighter since before 3rd Edition, I haven't played a Dex-build since ever, and also I like the idea of being very self-sufficient in terms of not needing equipment, armour, or anything else - just me and my spells slots against the world.

Unsure of which to go with, I asked my GM to decide which would be the most suitable for his campaign and he said he preferred the Soulknife, with a caveat - please don't be an elf. The campaign exists within his pre-existing world which we explored in a prior campaign, and elves have... problems. Specifically, they met the previous PC party and there aren't a lot of them left who are willing to step foot outside of their own country. Which is entirely deserved, by the way. Jerks.

I'm okay with that. I've instead taken Variant Human with Fey-Touched as my feat - I still get the one-per-day teleport that I would have from being Shadar-Kai, but instead of the one round of Resistance I got an additional level 1 spell instead (I took Command, because I'm a firm believer that characters with Wizard spellcasting should pick up Cleric or Druid spells wherever possible), so after tweaking my stats a little (Dex 16 is as good as Dex 17, it just means my first ASI will be +2DEX instead of Elven Accuracy) it's basically the same.

And I have to say, it's working pretty well. We're still low levels so I don't have the eponymous Soulknife (the Shadow Blade spell) yet, but it's not far off and in the meantime it turns out that being able to use spells instead of needing to buy armour, decent weapons and the rest? REALLY handy when you're travelling through a frozen wasteland and basic equipment is price-gouged to heck and back.

The only thing I'm struggling with is getting Booming Blade to proc. I've only used it a few times so far, but in each case I've hit the enemy, sheathed them in thunderous power...And then they just stand there and try to hit me back. It'll be great at level 5 when it starts to do extra on-contact damage, but until then I don't know if there's a reliable way I can get my opponents to move themselves that I haven't noticed, or if it's just part-and-parcel of the wonderful, hellish existence that is "being level 3".

All in all - the build isn't 'pure' due to the requirements of the campaign and the series of unfortunate personal choices that led me to this point, BUT apart from that I like it a lot. Lots of different things to do, plenty of points to build a personality around (Wult is a hard-bitten, determined Bounty Hunter that uses magic and a variety of tricks to make sure that nothing stands between him and his quarry - see the 'teleports through a Wall of Force' gif in Ludic's original post) and I have a pretty solid role in the party as Magic Tank without overshadowing anyone. Neat.

[LudicSavant]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! You can actually find quite a few testimonials / stories about using the builds in games on here by now (including a few on just the last page of the thread)... it's just sort of scattered all over the place. But it's always nice to see more =)

The only thing I'm struggling with is getting Booming Blade to proc. I've only used it a few times so far, but in each case I've hit the enemy, sheathed them in thunderous power...And then they just stand there and try to hit me back. It'll be great at level 5 when it starts to do extra on-contact damage, but until then I don't know if there's a reliable way I can get my opponents to move themselves that I haven't noticed, or if it's just part-and-parcel of the wonderful, hellish existence that is "being level 3".

My advice here would be to reverse your thinking a bit. Instead of thinking "how can I force my enemy to move," think "how can Team PCs capitalize on an enemy standing still?" Think of it less like a pure damage bonus at this point and more like Sentinel. Encouraging the enemy to stay still is the point, the threat of damage is the means by which you accomplish it. Positioning is king in tactical groups, and you deny the enemy's ability to position (or at the very least, tax them for it).

Your allies now can line up cover easily, lay down hazards, control who's in reach of the enemy easily, and more. Hazards can be as simple and accessible as an Unseen Servant or Familiar starting an oil flask fire, a caster using Create Bonfire, etc. Or they can be much deadlier abilities. Even just the situation of "the enemy stops moving and starts attacking the Tank build Fighter instead of, say, that squishy caster" is a nice thing for you.

There's stuff that'll force an enemy to move too, of course. You'll synergize with teammates who use things like Dissonant Whispers or Command. But again, the Booming Blade OAs are there for control/tanking first. If they're encouraging an enemy to stay still, then it's doing its job.

But really, you don't have to force them. Just take advantage of them not moving, and you'll either benefit from that, or they'll decide that the damage they take isn't as bad as whatever the consequences of not moving are (and then you'll get your procs).

[Dalinar]

Less a full build, more of a spell combo I'd like to highlight:

When you move within 5 feet of a creature or an object that isn’t being worn or carried, it takes 1d6 fire damage from your trail of heat.

While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed.

It sure is a shame those two things don't appear on the same spell list, right?

Enter:

Spoiler

Show

The Lorerunner

This character was likely some sort of courier who learned secrets and stories from across the land in the course of their deliveries.

Class: Lore Bard 6, into full caster levels of choice after*
Race: Tons of good choices here, but my first instinct is High Elf to get Booming Blade, which will serve you well later. You can also grab it with something like a Sorcerer dip or Magic Initiate if you prefer something else.
Equipment and stats aren't super important here. If you have a neat multiclass idea, make sure you have the stats for it, but otherwise just max CON and CHA like any typical CHA caster.
Useful feats: Metamagic Adept. Transmuted Spell will help you circumvent fire-resistant enemies with your combo. You'll want stuff like War Caster and Mounted Combatant to protect your combo once you get it.

Your goal from levels 1-5 is to survive and just be generally useful--nothing too unusual to note here. At level 6, you'll use your Additional Magical Secrets to pick up Ashardalon's Stride and Find Steed. At level 7, you can start upcasting Ashardalon's Stride to multiply the damage the combo does.

Warhorse has a speed of 60 feet. Ashardalon's Stride bumps that to 80. Cast it on you and your steed as a bonus action, dodge or Booming Blade with your action depending on how much danger you find yourself in. Deal 2d6=7 damage to basically every nearby target. Double that when you hit 7. Set things on fire. Sow chaos. Cackle maniacally.

In single target fights, you won't get as much mileage out of Ashardalon's Stride, but Bards do get the new Kinetic Jaunt spell from Strixhaven (DM permitting, of course), so if you took that you can save your higher level spell slots and do sort of the same thing, diving in and out with Booming Blade.

*There is one other fun interaction with the Ashardalon's Stride spell I've recently been made aware of: like Sneak Attack, you can proc the damage offturn if you find a way to move with your reaction. Scout Rogue is the only way I'm familiar with, but if there are any others, let me know! Personally I think delaying full casting levels doesn't justify it offensively until relatively late, but it could be a good escape option nevertheless.

[Wraith]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! You can actually find quite a few testimonials / stories about using the builds in games on here by now (including a few on just the last page of the thread)... it's just sort of scattered all over the place. But it's always nice to see more =)

I knew they were there, that's what brought it to mind. I was thinking more like, one or two per build. All 120 of them. I realise that this is a tall order, but it's worth a shot

But really, you don't have to force them. Just take advantage of them not moving, and you'll either benefit from that, or they'll decide that the damage they take isn't as bad as whatever the consequences of not moving are (and then you'll get your procs).

I get it, thank you.That makes a lot more sense, and I can see how I've been approaching it from the wrong angle.

Unfortunately I may have to call this a draw and not worry about it, by sheer coincidence the rest of the party is entirely unsuited to this sort of setup - there's two ranged artificers, a fighter with a rifle, a ranger with a longbow, and an Undead/Chain Warlock. Did I mention that my unarmoured human is tanking because I'm also the only melee-capable build? That may have been important. Still, it'll be fine until the point that it isn't, and when that happens I'll be too dead to worry about it

*There is one other fun interaction with the Ashardalon's Stride spell I've recently been made aware of: like Sneak Attack, you can proc the damage offturn if you find a way to move with your reaction. Scout Rogue is the only way I'm familiar with, but if there are any others, let me know! Personally I think delaying full casting levels doesn't justify it offensively until relatively late, but it could be a good escape option nevertheless.

Any class can use the Ready action to prep a Move, and then trigger it as a Reaction. Might not always be worth giving up your main action, but if you have a reliable way to function using only Bonus actions it might work. Not much springs to mind though, apart from just exclusively dispensing Healing Words and Bardic Inspiration, but I suppose it could be done?

[Evaar]

Unfortunately I may have to call this a draw and not worry about it, by sheer coincidence the rest of the party is entirely unsuited to this sort of setup - there's two ranged artificers, a fighter with a rifle, a ranger with a longbow, and an Undead/Chain Warlock.

So 3 characters who could be casting Create Bonfire, one who probably has Repelling Blast, one who could be casting Cloud of Daggers...

I see plenty of opportunity to abuse Booming Blade here. You might poke them and point that out.

[BerzerkerUnit]

This build can come on line as early as 3rd level but targets are generally limited to small/tiny creatures. It's fully effective at level 5 and specialization agnostic at 6th. There are some general equipment requirements readily met with gold and infusions.

Bring'em back alive bounty hunter build

Battlesmith Artificer 3
Skills: Athletics
Feat: Skill Expert-Athletics (not strictly necessary but certainly makes things easier)
Stats: I prefer an Int heavy build but can get by with a strength build if you prefer.
Equipment: 1 ft^3 Steel chest with lock. Bag of Holding and Armor of Magical Strength (infusions available @ 2nd)

Action: you grab a creature, you stuff it in the bag of holding, bonus action direct Steel Defender to put the bag in the chest and lock it.

This is definitely a YMMV build with your DM. My reading of Bag of Holding doesn't seem to indicate a creature in the bag can get out on its own and the 10 minutes of breathing is also an indicator it can't just stick its head out. The extradimensional nature of the bag's interior calls into question whether it can be cut, pierced, or torn from the inside. Assuming a creature can climb out on its own, it would find itself in a steel chest. Unable to properly brace itself, bursting out of the chest might be altogether impossible and destroying the bag (perhaps by cutting it when you've stuck a hand out) could be a grotesque and deadly affair (depending of the construction of the chest).

At 5th level you get Enlarge/Reduce allowing you to shrink a target before starting the grapple, making it possible to fit even medium targets in the bag.
At 6th level you could take a Homunculus servant infusion and have it stuff the bag in the chest and lock it making it possible to be an Armorer etc.

If your DM does not approve of "instakill" shenanigans, I offer the following: most Teleport effects that result in a creature being dumped in a space they can't fit shunt them to the nearest available space and sometimes deal a few d10s of force damage for the trouble. At the least you'll have wasted that foes turn (turns).

[ftafp]

The Heist Meister

Equipment is important. In a world where magic items are plentiful, there will never be a shortage of demand for items of great power, hence why many stores rise up to meet the demand. Of course, when these items come at such a high price, it's no surprise that there would be those who seek to steal them. The same magic that rewards a successful thief also guards those wares, but a successful thief is rarely one who cannot use magic themselves

Race: Changeling
Class: Artificer 2/Abjurer X
Base Stats: 8 str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 17 Int, 12 Wis, 10 Cha
ASIs: Skill Expert (Deception, +1 Int)@6, +2 Int@10, Alert@14, Warcaster@18
Spells of Note: Friends, Guidance, Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Find Familiar, Invisibility, Knock, Locate Object, Misty Step, Rope Trick, Shatter, Suggestion, Dispel Magic, Phantom Steed, Counterspell, Dimension Door, Fabricate, Animate Objects, Disintegrate, Magnificent Mansion, Demiplane
Infusions: Bag of Holding
Proficiencies: Disguise Kit, Smith's Tools, Mason's Tools, Thieve's Tools, Deception, Perception, Investigation


Cliff Notes:

• changeling, disguise self, disguise kit, and invisibility are all taken to provide multiple layers to protection against identification, both magical and non-magical
• bag of holding makes it easy to store loot, and it being extradimensional means goods inside can't be located with magic. disguise self will let you make hide your bag while you're carrying it, so don't lose it
• find familiar can be combined with misty step to teleport through walls. dismiss your familiar then have it reappear on the other side of the wall. see through its eyes and then misty step to clip past the wall. Dimension door later replaces this
• mage hand is just good for dealing with traps
• thieve's tools combined with guidance and knock can be used to easily pick locks and disarm mechanical traps
• locate object and phantom steed allow you to find places to rob. You can cover an entire city in a few hours with just a few castings
• detect and dispel magic allow you to check for magical traps and disarm them. as an abjurer you have a bonus to these checks
• deception expertise is taken to cover for a poor Cha modifier. It can be used in place of performance when impersonating someone or persuasion when using Suggestion to probe marks information. In a pinch you can switch this out for expertise in perception to better avoid traps, or take observant
• friends combined with disguises make it easy to pin the blame on someone else
• shatter and fabricate can make it absurdly easy to break through walls or disassemble them into raw materials. Mason's tools makes these spells do double damage against structures, and combined with smith's tools you can disassemble anything, even adamantine For getting through magical force there's Disintegrate.
• rope trick, demiplane and magnificent mansion give you places to lay low after a robbery
• animate objects is a good form of self-defense if your mark has both guards and protections against teleporation/interplanar travel
• counterspell naturally is there to prevent others from counterspelling your escape plans

[Dalinar]

What if your very personality was a weapon?

Spoiler: image is really big sorry

Show

Awestriker

tl;dr Conquest Paladin, Undead Warlock, and Glamour Bard with Dragon Fear

Race: Fizban's Dragonborn of choice. I think Metallic makes the most sense mechanically with an extra control option at 5, and Gold matches the flavor pretty well. We're aiming to be downright majestic. Gem Flight also fits.
Stats: make sure you start with a 17 CHA (or better if you're rolling). We're in heavy armor, so grab 16 STR. Put most of the rest in CON.
Class split: Conquest 6/Undead 2/Glamour X, probably in that order. Notably we actually don't want Conquest 7, even though that ability is really good on paper.
Feats: the reason we don't want Conquest 7 is we're picking up Dragon Fear at 4. Things in the Conquest 7 aura take psychic damage every turn, which allows them all to repeat their saves against Dragon Fear. This also bumps our CHA to 18. We won't be getting another ASI until 12, at which point you'll want to max CHA, and another at 16, which I'd give to Alert since our initiative sucks.
Equipment: sword and board, and the best heavy armor you can get your hands on.

Progression:

From 1-6, we're a pretty bog standard control Paladin. Every level after the first gets you something delicious: take Defense for your fighting style to be hard to kill and your favorite first-level Paladin spells. 3 gets us our first fear bomb with the Channel Divinity, as well as two of my personal favorite spells, Command and Armor of Agathys. 4 gives us more fear bombs and a CHA bump via Dragon Fear. 5 gives us Extra Attack, which is definitely nice to have although this is not a damage-focused build, as well as access to 2nd-level paladin spells. 6 gives us and our nearby buddies amazing saves.

I explained above why we're not taking Conquest 7 and jumping right to Undead 1. I think that when Undead Warlock came out, everyone and their mother noted the synergy with Conquest Paladin, and this build leans into it even more. A short-rest spell slot gives us some much needed rest flexibility, and we'll get access to the Cause Fear spell for yet another source of the frightened condition on top of Form of Dread. I think the second level of Warlock is probably worth it as well; grab Agonizing Blast if you're worried about a lack of damage, or just pick your favorite invocations. I'm less sure about Undead 3+; there are some neat non-frightened control spells there, such as Crown of Madness and Suggestion, as well as Invisibility and Misty Step. However, I don't want to delay our third class for too long, and we can pick up most of those in a few levels anyway.

At this point we are Conquest 6/Undead 2. Sorcerer seems like the obvious pairing for a Paladin/Warlock looking to branch out further, but I think Glamour Bard fits the character we're going for way more than anything Sorcerer can offer. Admittedly, Bard 1 is not a very powerful level for us on its own, although Dissonant Whispers is likely a nice spell pickup, as is Silvery Barbs if your table allows Strixhaven content. However, our proficiency bonus increases to 4.

Let's take stock of what we have now: we have an AOE fear on a short rest, another four AOE fears on a long rest (and thanks to the wording of Fizban's breath weapon, we can use them alongside Extra Attack to deal a little damage), four uses of Form of Dread per long rest for more fear spam, and two short-rest spell slots which will probably be spent on Command, Cause Fear, Dissonant Whispers, or Silvery Barbs if I had to guess. In addition to that we have the equivalent long rest spell slots of a fourth-level caster, and we'll spend the rest of our career improving that. Sure, we don't get any actual third-level or higher spells known for a while, but Armor of Agathys, Cause Fear, and Command in particular all upcast excellently, so don't think you won't have any use for those slots!

Bard 2 gets us third-level spell slots as well as some utility that we aren't too worried about. Bard 3 gets us our sublcass, the College of Glamour, which has some pretty wild applications I overlooked for a long time. As a bonus action, you can spend Bardic Inspiration (of which you have four right now, soon to be five) to let your allies move with their reaction without provoking opportunity attacks as well as grant them temp HP. Provided you can target yourself with the ability (I don't see why not, but it's not explicitly stated), this is an excellent way to get into position to use your AOE fears. We also get Enthralling Performance, which is a cool out of combat utility that basically makes people your fans. Love it! We also get access to second-level Bard spells.

Bard 4 lets us finally cap our Charisma, giving us another Bardic Inspiration, the best possible spell save DC, and better saving throws due to being a sixth-level Paladin. Bard 5 makes those Bardic dice come back on a short rest and also gives us access to third-level spells (we are an 8th-level caster by this point). Our proficiency bonus is now 5, giving us yet another Dragon Fear and Form of Dread use.

The last level I particularly want to highlight is Glamour 6. Once per long rest, we can concentrate on an ability called Mantle of Majesty, which lets us cast Command as a bonus action for a full minute. The action economy here is rather incredible, since many of your best control actions aren't actually leveled spells (Dragon Fear, Channel Divinity, Form of Dread). This lets you double up on things that waste or at least limit actions for your enemies! IMO this is basically the height of our relative power.

At this point we are Conquest 6/Undead 2/Glamour 6, total character level 14. We have, without resting or spending our fairly deep spell resources: six AOE fears, five Form of Dread uses, one Mantle of Majesty use, five Bardic Inspiration which can be used for Mantle of Inspiration, and possibly some at-will spells depending on which invocations you took back at level 8. We have the equivalent spell slots of a ninth level caster as well as two first level Pact Magic slots. We have third-level spells known thanks to our Bard levels, and plenty of the best upcasting options for using those fourth- and fifth-level slots even if we don't actually know spells of that level.

From here, I'd just continue taking Bard levels. I don't see much reason to branch out further; higher level spells known and spell slots will be more valuable than anything you can get from a fourth class here.

And that's all I've got!