An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Mercurias]

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.

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

I played the Arcana Cleric Frontliner for a game that was supposed to be a podcast but flopped and became just a regular campaign. I had an absolute blast the character from lv 1-11. Arcana Domain Clerics have an extremely strong start thanks to the bonus cantrips, and while their other features between 1-17 aren't going to win most encounters directly on their own, it builds into a solid and versatile kit. I rolled stupid-lucky for stats, so I ended up being the party brain, utility caster, and crowd control.

One of my favorite moments in the campaign involved me soloing an enemy lieutenant that the DM was worried we weren't going to be able to handle since it could fly and our party was largely melee-focused. Thorn Whip, Spirit Guardians, Booming Blade Reaction attacks, and a well-placed Command spell were all it took to take the thing out in three rounds while the rest of the party handled the other two enemies.

[Mercurias]

I was just wondering if anyone has worked out a build using the Monk Subclass Astral self, and Rune Knight? I didn't spend much time mentally going at it, but I was thinking that it would be interesting and could be very effective. The benefits seem to be mainly gaining good saves making your attacks all focused along wisdom and providing you reach and an a much large aoe blast from summoning your Astral Arms? Grapple checks using Wisdom instead of strength, and basically a lot of other interesting changes to benefit a Single Stat build.

I could see it working, but I wouldn't call it a SAD build. You'll still want to invest heavily in Dex, Con, AND Wis if you're going to be fighting in melee.

I would say that a 3 level dip into fighter for Rune Knight would work just fine for an Astral Self Monk, though. You can scribble runes onto jewelry and trigger them that way. I would personally pick the Cloud and Stone runes.

I might check with your DM before trying to roll with Giant Might giving you beefier Astral Arms for pinning people. I would allow it in my games because I think the idea is cool and that it doesn't break anything, and the way I read the rules, it looks like they support it, but I've had DMs before who would refuse to let that work no matter what the rules say because "It isn't supposed to work like that".

[ftafp]

The Koched-Up Snowflake

Race: Custom Lineage
Class: Life Cleric 1/Celestial Warlock 17
Base Stats: 8 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 13 Wis, 17 Cha
ASI: Strixhaven Initiate(Quandrix, Guidance, Mage Hand, Goodberry)@1, Strixhaven Mascot@5, Fey Touched(+1 Cha, Gift of Alacrity)@9, +2 Cha@13, Resilient(+1 Con)@17, Inspiring Leader@20
Pact Boon: Pact of the Chain
Invocations: Agonizing Blast@3, Repelling Blast@3, Investment of the Chain Master@6, Ghostly Gaze@8, Eldritch Mind@10 Gift of the Everliving Ones@13, Visions of Distant Realms@16, Chains of Carceri@19
Spells of Note: Sacred Flame, Bless, Gift of Alacrity, Goodberry, Flock of Familiars, Guardian of Faith

Flying Mount

The Fractal Mascot familiar from Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos is the star of this build and so absolutely freaking amazing I'm going to need multiple sections just to show how awesome it is, but let's get this detail out of the way first. The fractal familiar can freely assume every single size category in the game except for Gargantuan making it the only familiar option you can use as a mount for the whole party. That alone slaps but with Investment of the Chain Master we can grant it a flying speed, making it a full-party flying mount! Do I need to explain to you how big a deal is? Sure, its carrying capacity is only 720 pounds, but per crawford if it grapples you and your allies with its many self-similar tendrils you shouldn't need to worry about carrying capacity! Oh, is your DM giving you trouble? Well in that case, you can just cast Flock of Familiars from Lost Laboratory of Kwalish and get one fractal for each member of your party for an hour, recharging on a short rest.

Infiltration

You know what else this build can do? No-clip baby! This build takes several different approaches to arrive at the same point, but this is redundancy that pays off in spades. The first use of this is unsurprisingly our fractal again. Being a flying, size-shifting familiar is one thing, but being a flying, size-shifting familiar who can phase through walls is something else entirely. Thanks to it being effectively incorporeal, the fractal can straight up ignore any obstruction, and thanks to your ability from Strixhaven Mascot, you can swap places with it to get through as well. Not only that but when you later grab Fey Touched, misty step will let you do this as a bonus action while seeing through your fractal's eyes. Adding Ghostly Gaze on top of this lets you phase through even if your fractal isn't around. Ghostly gaze also means your fractal can infiltrate without running straight into a guard.

Assassination

Hey, know what else is great about having a familiar the size of an elephant who can fly and phase through walls at will? It works equally well on ceilings! Got someone on the other side of a wall you need to assassinate before they know what hit them? Have your fractal fly 200 feet above their heads and then fall prone, clipping through ceilings to land on a hapless victim for 10d6 damage in a 15x15 area, and the best part? You can use your reaction to give it resistance to the damage! Oh but why stop at one bunker buster? Flock of Familiars from Lost Laboratory of Kwalish lets you summon extra familiars equal to the spell slot you spend. This isn't an assassination, it's a bombing run!

Of course, we don't always need heavy-handed methods like this. Sacred Flame lets us kill enemies through solid walls as long as we can see them with ghostly gaze, and having a flying mount means you also have a flying sniper platform for you and your allies to pick off enemies with eldritch blast or your allies ranged attacks. Also, in the case of enemies with suitably large stomachs, the fractal has another trick up its sleeve! Its selective intangibility means it can phase through enemies as well, take up residence in their stomach and then expand, ripping them apart from the inside! Neat, huh?

Support

But of course, what is a build like this without ways to buff and heal allies as well? Strixhave Mascot forces you to take Strixhaven initiate first so why waste it? Goodberry is a fantastic choice with warlock slots, especially combined with life cleric's Disciple of Life which not only boosts it, but makes the healing scale with spell slots. You can spam it at the start of the day for large amounts of out-of-combat healing. Gift of Alacrity from fey touched lets you hit your allies with a 8-hour +1d8 to initiative rolls, and celestial warlock's pool of healing gives you a bonus action healing word that doesn't compete with your spells for slots or casting. It's a perfect tool for keeping your allies up (including your fractal). finally, at low levels, Bless is a great support spell that will let you easily protect and aid the whole party

Obstruction

Oh you thought I was done? Well joke's on you buddy, because I want to share my favorite part of this build. Being selectively intangible, capable of hovering and anywhere between 2.5 and 15 feet in width, your fractal, or fractals when Flock of Familiars is up can easily serve as a moving wall, blocking off enemies and their attacks and letting you control the battlefield. It's not just that though. You also get Guardian of Faith from the celestial warlock list. this spell, which can be spammed with warlock slots, lasts 8 hours, requires no concentration and allows you to easily barricade doors and hallways as the large guardian occupies its space, giving your party all the time they need to take a long rest in the middle of a dungeon if need be

Spoiler: Variant: The Cheesy Version

Show

This was originally included in the main build but has since been moved here since it's not something likely to be allowed at any table. If you want to use this, apply the following changes:

Class: Divine Soul Sorcerer [Lawful] 3/Celestial Warlock 17
Progression: Divine Soul 1, Celestial Warlock 1-9, Divine Soul 2, Celestial Warlock 10-17, Divine Soul 3
Base Stats: 8 Str, 13 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 12 Wis, 17 Cha
ASI: Strixhaven Initiate(Quandrix, Guidance, Mage Hand, Goodberry)@1, Strixhaven Mascot@5, Fey Touched(+1 Cha, Gift of Alacrity)@9, +2 Cha@14, Moderately Armored(+1 Dex)@19
Invocations: Agonizing Blast@3, Repelling Blast@3, Investment of the Chain Master@6, Ghostly Gaze@8, Eldritch Mind@10 Gift of the Everliving Ones@14, Visions of Distant Realms@17

Koched-Up

This is the fun part. Warlock is nice and all, but 2 spell slots per battle can be kind of lame to play with. Since we'e already going all in on celestial warlock, we might as well grab greater restoration. Who needs sleep when you can inhale diamond dust to magically absolve yourself of exhaustion. You now have 8 extra short rests to either spam spells or convert your warlock slots into sorcery points and then into sorcerer spell slot. Personally, I think having 16 1st level slots per day that roll over to the day after is pretty nifty, don't you?

[Hairfish]

Koched-Up

This is the fun part. Warlock is nice and all, but 2 spell slots per battle can be kind of lame to play with. Since we'e already going all in on celestial warlock, we might as well grab greater restoration. Who needs sleep when you can inhale diamond dust to magically absolve yourself of exhaustion. You now have 8 extra short rests to either spam spells or convert your warlock slots into sorcery points and then into sorcerer spell slot. Personally, I think having 16 1st level slots per day that roll over to the day after is pretty nifty, don't you?

Personally, I think you'd need a very permissive DM to do this. I'd rule any rest period of at least one but less than 8 hours as a single short rest (which I'm pretty sure is both RAW and RAI), unless the rest was interrupted by sufficient rest-breaking activity. If that rest-breaking activity was self/party-inflicted, then I'd just hit them with hourly monster attacks until they quit trying to abuse the rest rules.

[ftafp]

Personally, I think you'd need a very permissive DM to do this. I'd rule any rest period of at least one but less than 8 hours as a single short rest (which I'm pretty sure is both RAW and RAI), unless the rest was interrupted by sufficient rest-breaking activity. If that rest-breaking activity was self/party-inflicted, then I'd just hit them with hourly monster attacks until they quit trying to abuse the rest rules.

fair. that part isn't necessary to the build though. Honestly, the only reason I included it was that I already had the name "koched-up snowflake" in mind for this build and when I remembered the so-called "cocainelock" trick it seemed too perfect to pass up.

I think I'll edit the build to show the more practical version I had planned out

[MachineWraith]

A question for LudicSavant: I noticed that the new Monsters of the Multiverse book made some pretty sweeping changes to player races, including a major rewrite of hobgoblins. How do you think those changes might influence the race choice for your Iron Wizard build? Just curious what you'd see as the best runner up, as most of the things you called out as helpful about the hobgoblin as a choice are no longer applicable if a DM decides to ban OG hobgoblins.

[LudicSavant]

A question for LudicSavant: I noticed that the new Monsters of the Multiverse book made some pretty sweeping changes to player races, including a major rewrite of hobgoblins. How do you think those changes might influence the race choice for your Iron Wizard build? Just curious what you'd see as the best runner up, as most of the things you called out as helpful about the hobgoblin as a choice are no longer applicable if a DM decides to ban OG hobgoblins.

There's a few possibilities, should your DM decide that OG Hobgoblin is no longer available.

- You could take a 1-level multiclass dip into any number of things, like Cleric or Artificer or Hexblade. And be a Warding Dwarf or MPMM Hobgoblin or something.
- You could be a VHuman and take lightly armored -> moderately armored. You'd actually end up with medium armor+shield at the same level the hobgoblin would (and a +2 Dex / +1 Con / +1 Int statline from the two half-feats and race), you'd just lose out on Saving Face and Darkvision (which certainly hurts, but it still works without it). You could do something similar as a Mountain Dwarf, too (getting a +1 Dex / +2 Int / +2 Con statline and dwarf features).

[mw_147]

Presenting my first build for this thread, and hopefully getting some feedback or advice about the order things are taken

The Blade-Master

Concept: As much as I try to enjoy other types of characters, the one that always keeps pulling me back in is the heavy armour, sword and shield warrior. With that in mind I wanted to see what I could do to try and jazz the role up a bit without just being your standard sentinel tank. I wanted them to be the ace hero. Great offence, great defence, skills, cool moves etc. So this is what I've come up with to make a great all-rounder.

Race: Half-Elf. We're going to be MAD, and Half-Elf lets me start with a 16 Strength, 16 Charisma and 14 Constitution, without totally tanking the other ability scores. Spoilers - we're going to be taking some Bard levels so the extra skills from the PHB Half-Elf isn't as useful when you get Jack of All Trades, so I'd be inclined to look at the variants. High Elf for the extra cantrip would be nice, but only really for utility as it is based on INT. Wood Elf is probably my prefered option just for the nice simple boost to our movement speed.

Background: Whatever you want, customising is the best thing you can do here. Personally I've actually just gone for the Soldier background. Two skills we're going to have high attributes for, and some tool proficiencies.

Ability Scores: Point buy or standard array works for us, letting us start with STR-16, DEX-10, CON-14, INT-8, WIS-12, CHA-16

Class: We're going to be going a mixture of Paladin/Bard/Fighter. Paladin is great giving us big boosts to both our attack and defence, while Bard (Swords) and Fighter (Battle Master) will give us our swordplay moves.

Level 1: Paladin 1 - We want heavy armour, so we need to start as either Paladin or Fighter, and since I plan on getting Extra Attack through Paladin it makes sense to get as many levels of this class as early as possible.

Level 2: Bard 1 - I totally get the argument for rushing to get Extra Attack, but I think we're a better all-rounder by taking some Bard levels first. Here we get some bonus proficiencies, and more importantly spells. Vicious Mockery gives a nice ranged attack with a debuff which I prefer to just carrying around a load of javelins.

Level 3: Bard 2 - Jack of All Trades, we just got better at every skill we weren't already good at and our initiative finally gets a bonus.

Level 4: Bard 3 - Taking the College of Swords gives us our flourishes so we can really start showing of our sword mastery. Dueling fighting style adds a little bit of damage. Expertise - I'd take this in Athletics and Intimidation which we got from the Soldier background, we we are going to be the best at these.

Level 5: Paladin 2 - We can smite, which will give us a nice damage boost, plus we have some extra slots to play with from taking Bard earlier. Another fighting style, might as well boost our AC with Defense. Some nice concentration options with Paladin spells too, like the smite spells, Bless or Divine Favour.

Level 6: Paladin 3 - We take our Oath. I'm not convinced there is a best option here, a lot of them bring nice things to the table. Conquest is what I've picked but would be willing to change. The AOE debuff is nice, plus their Oath spells are quite good. Spiritual Weapon will give us a bonus action attack when we get it, which is always handy. Oh and we're immune to disease. Cool.

Level 7: Paladin 4 - Even though we've got some good extras, we still only have one attack and we need to make sure it hits. Bump STR to 18.

Level 8: Paladin 5 - Finally we get extra attack. It hurt waiting this long to get it, but I think we are better all around for it. Plus, we get Spiritual Weapon at this level, so technically we can jump straight to having three attacks per round. Suck it Fighters.

Level 9: Paladin 6 - Bit of a toss up for what to take here, I could totally see switching this and the next level around. For me, we haven't done much to boost our defence yet, so Aura of Protection comes along and makes all those saving throws jump up. Suck it Monks.

Level 10: Bard 4 - We've started getting more things to use our CHA for, but hitting things is still our bread and butter. Bump STR to 20.

Level 11: Bard 5 - 3rd level spells are awesome. Font of Inspiration is nice so we can flourish more often as a blade master should.

Level 12: Fighter 1 - Not a lot for us here, but another fighting style is nice. Blind-Fighting is probably the most useful as we get into higher levels.

Level 13: Fighter 2 - When we need to, we can now go supernova with Action Surge. Suck it bosses.

Level 14: Fighter 3 - I wish we could have got here sooner but I feel the other things were more important. We get our maneuvers now to really show off our sword skills. Personally I like Brace, Riposte and Trip Attack, but there are lots of good options.

Level 15: Fighter 4 - We might as well get the next ASI sooner, so bump our CHA to benefit our spell DC and saves.

Level 16: Paladin 7 - We get out Aura of Conquest. TBH I don't love this, but it does make our AOE debuff a bit better and adds a little damage.

Level 17: Paladin 8 - Max our CHA, again boosting our spell DC and saves.

Level 18: Paladin 9 - 3rd level Paladin spells come online. Spirit Shroud is a good option for adding damage.

Level 19: Paladin 10 - We're immune to fear. Which would have been great about 10-15 levels ago.

Level 20: Paladin 11 - Improved Divine Smite is another nice little damage boost, but again something I wish we could have got earlier.

So, I think this build path gets us where we want for being a good all-rounder being able to show off our sword skills. The higher level Paladin levels admittedly don't do THAT much for us, but there's nothing else I could think of that would help us more, plus in most games we wouldn't get there anyway. I think this is solid at early levels and really comes to life in the mid-tiers.

[zariel_paladin]

Presenting my first build for this thread, and hopefully getting some feedback or advice about the order things are taken

The Blade-Master

Concept: As much as I try to enjoy other types of characters, the one that always keeps pulling me back in is the heavy armour, sword and shield warrior. With that in mind I wanted to see what I could do to try and jazz the role up a bit without just being your standard sentinel tank. I wanted them to be the ace hero. Great offence, great defence, skills, cool moves etc. So this is what I've come up with to make a great all-rounder.

Race: Half-Elf. We're going to be MAD, and Half-Elf lets me start with a 16 Strength, 16 Charisma and 14 Constitution, without totally tanking the other ability scores. Spoilers - we're going to be taking some Bard levels so the extra skills from the PHB Half-Elf isn't as useful when you get Jack of All Trades, so I'd be inclined to look at the variants. High Elf for the extra cantrip would be nice, but only really for utility as it is based on INT. Wood Elf is probably my prefered option just for the nice simple boost to our movement speed.

Background: Whatever you want, customising is the best thing you can do here. Personally I've actually just gone for the Soldier background. Two skills we're going to have high attributes for, and some tool proficiencies.

Ability Scores: Point buy or standard array works for us, letting us start with STR-16, DEX-10, CON-14, INT-8, WIS-12, CHA-16

Class: We're going to be going a mixture of Paladin/Bard/Fighter. Paladin is great giving us big boosts to both our attack and defence, while Bard (Swords) and Fighter (Battle Master) will give us our swordplay moves.

Level 1: Paladin 1 - We want heavy armour, so we need to start as either Paladin or Fighter, and since I plan on getting Extra Attack through Paladin it makes sense to get as many levels of this class as early as possible.

Level 2: Bard 1 - I totally get the argument for rushing to get Extra Attack, but I think we're a better all-rounder by taking some Bard levels first. Here we get some bonus proficiencies, and more importantly spells. Vicious Mockery gives a nice ranged attack with a debuff which I prefer to just carrying around a load of javelins.

Level 3: Bard 2 - Jack of All Trades, we just got better at every skill we weren't already good at and our initiative finally gets a bonus.

Level 4: Bard 3 - Taking the College of Swords gives us our flourishes so we can really start showing of our sword mastery. Dueling fighting style adds a little bit of damage. Expertise - I'd take this in Athletics and Intimidation which we got from the Soldier background, we we are going to be the best at these.

Level 5: Paladin 2 - We can smite, which will give us a nice damage boost, plus we have some extra slots to play with from taking Bard earlier. Another fighting style, might as well boost our AC with Defense. Some nice concentration options with Paladin spells too, like the smite spells, Bless or Divine Favour.

Level 6: Paladin 3 - We take our Oath. I'm not convinced there is a best option here, a lot of them bring nice things to the table. Conquest is what I've picked but would be willing to change. The AOE debuff is nice, plus their Oath spells are quite good. Spiritual Weapon will give us a bonus action attack when we get it, which is always handy. Oh and we're immune to disease. Cool.

Level 7: Paladin 4 - Even though we've got some good extras, we still only have one attack and we need to make sure it hits. Bump STR to 18.

Level 8: Paladin 5 - Finally we get extra attack. It hurt waiting this long to get it, but I think we are better all around for it. Plus, we get Spiritual Weapon at this level, so technically we can jump straight to having three attacks per round. Suck it Fighters.

Level 9: Paladin 6 - Bit of a toss up for what to take here, I could totally see switching this and the next level around. For me, we haven't done much to boost our defence yet, so Aura of Protection comes along and makes all those saving throws jump up. Suck it Monks.

Level 10: Bard 4 - We've started getting more things to use our CHA for, but hitting things is still our bread and butter. Bump STR to 20.

Level 11: Bard 5 - 3rd level spells are awesome. Font of Inspiration is nice so we can flourish more often as a blade master should.

Level 12: Fighter 1 - Not a lot for us here, but another fighting style is nice. Blind-Fighting is probably the most useful as we get into higher levels.

Level 13: Fighter 2 - When we need to, we can now go supernova with Action Surge. Suck it bosses.

Level 14: Fighter 3 - I wish we could have got here sooner but I feel the other things were more important. We get our maneuvers now to really show off our sword skills. Personally I like Brace, Riposte and Trip Attack, but there are lots of good options.

Level 15: Fighter 4 - We might as well get the next ASI sooner, so bump our CHA to benefit our spell DC and saves.

Level 16: Paladin 7 - We get out Aura of Conquest. TBH I don't love this, but it does make our AOE debuff a bit better and adds a little damage.

Level 17: Paladin 8 - Max our CHA, again boosting our spell DC and saves.

Level 18: Paladin 9 - 3rd level Paladin spells come online. Spirit Shroud is a good option for adding damage.

Level 19: Paladin 10 - We're immune to fear. Which would have been great about 10-15 levels ago.

Level 20: Paladin 11 - Improved Divine Smite is another nice little damage boost, but again something I wish we could have got earlier.

So, I think this build path gets us where we want for being a good all-rounder being able to show off our sword skills. The higher level Paladin levels admittedly don't do THAT much for us, but there's nothing else I could think of that would help us more, plus in most games we wouldn't get there anyway. I think this is solid at early levels and really comes to life in the mid-tiers.

if you were able to start this character with a free feat, what would you go for?

[Khrysaes]

There's a few possibilities, should your DM decide that OG Hobgoblin is no longer available.

- You could take a 1-level multiclass dip into any number of things, like Cleric or Artificer or Hexblade. And be a Warding Dwarf or MPMM Hobgoblin or something.
- You could be a VHuman and take lightly armored -> moderately armored. You'd actually end up with medium armor+shield at the same level the hobgoblin would (and a +2 Dex / +1 Con / +1 Int statline from the two half-feats and race), you'd just lose out on Saving Face and Darkvision (which certainly hurts, but it still works without it). You could do something similar as a Mountain Dwarf, too (getting a +1 Dex / +2 Int / +2 Con statline and dwarf features).

Im not actually looking at the books right now but you could do custom lineage(i mean darkvision Human) instead of vhuman and get darkvision.

[ftafp]

The Spellstitched Tailor

Race: Custom Lineage
Class: Battle Smith 6/Graviturgist X
Base Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 18 Int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha
ASI: Fey Touched(Silvery Barbs, +1 Int)@1, Sharpshooter@4, +2 Int@10, Warcaster@14, Alert@18
Infusions: Bag of Holding, Spellwrought Tattoo, Repeating Weapon, Pipes of Haunting
Skills: Perception, Stealth, Arcana, Investigation
Tools: Disguise Kit, Weaver's Tools, Wind Instruments
Spells of Note: Magic Stone, Guidance, Mending, Find Familiar, Disguise Self, Immovable Object, Magic Mouth, Rope Trick, Tiny Servant, Glyph of Warding, Fabricate, Summon Greater Demon, Animate Objects, Planar Binding, Seeming

Cliff Notes:

• Disguise kits are used with xanathar's rules to disguise the whole party as guards, cultists, brigands or what have you on infiltration missions, and craft ghillie suits for use outdoors
• Spellwrought tattoo (or should I say Spellstitched Suture) offers all the usual uses as well as being useful to disguise party members with difficult anatomy or summon a spider familiar which in addition to being on theme can more easily scout indoors without being noticed and can do recon on cult uniforms and the like, and Bag of Holding lets you keep a large number of disguises
• Battle Smith at 3 might seem an odd choice for a tailor when Armorer is right there, but it has some advantages. Steel defenders don't disappear when they die, so you can make them in the shape of animated armor, and then create a new one at the end of a long rest to kill the old one without damaging it. This can be worn by allies or sold for a profit, or alternatively you can use a spell slot to immediately revive it and so you have two steel defenders
• Magic mouth can be cast on patches of fabric and sewn into scarfs, cowls, helmets or earmuffs to alert you when it hears an unseen creature or sees someone show the visible tells of a liar
• Rope trick can be cast inside a bag of holding to vastly increase the bag's storage space, allowing you to hide the whole party inside and then make the bag invisible with disguise self. RAW rope trick in a bag of holding does not create a portal to the astral plane, because that only happens with items that create spaces, not spells
• Level 6 of artificer gives you expertise with your disguise kit, which is just nice to have, and (bag)pipes of haunting, which are just nice
• Immovable object is on brand, allowing you to make enemy clothing immovable, locking them in place with no save. Cast on spools of thread, you can make hang immovable garrotes in the air or tie enemies up with immovable strings. At higher levels you can make immovable boots so allies can fly and resist falling, forced movment or being knocked prone
• In addition to throwing your magic stones (sewing chalk) tiny servants made out of spools of thread with immovable object on them can arrange themselves for you
• Glyphs of warding stiched inside your bag of holding can be useful for storing buffs. just stick your hand in the bag and make a hand sign to activate it
• Fabricate with weaver's tools is a great way to make money. Craft large volumes of linen and resell for twice the price of the flax
• Animate Objects offers the same advantages as tiny servant spools, but a greater number of them all of whom have fly speed
• Summon Greater Demon when enhanced by planar binding is great for summoning Dybbuks to possessing corpses you sewed up to look presentable. These corpses have insane stats and can use dimension door at will, letting them even ready the spell to teleport you out of danger. They can also use dimension door with their incorporeality to break into magic item stores and teleport away with the loot
• Seeming is great for instant disguises but it's also perfect for weaving bags over enemy heads that they can't remove, blinding them. RAW just because they know it's illusory doesn't mean they can see through it, and it targets charisma saves which is neat

[Citadel97501]

I like this entire thing except for the Dybuuk as that seems to be out of character for someone like this, although I can definitely see your 19th level being Wizard 13, to get you simulacram which could be a sewn up doll that you have given a semblance of your own power and life. I also love the idea of little raggedy anne dolls destroying your foes (tiny servants).

The Spellstitched Tailor

Race: Custom Lineage
Class: Battle Smith 6/Graviturgist X
Base Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 18 Int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha
ASI: Fey Touched(Silvery Barbs, +1 Int)@1, Sharpshooter@4, +2 Int@10, Warcaster@14, Alert@18
Infusions: Bag of Holding, Spellwrought Tattoo, Repeating Weapon, Pipes of Haunting
Skills: Perception, Stealth, Arcana, Investigation
Tools: Disguise Kit, Weaver's Tools, Wind Instruments
Spells of Note: Magic Stone, Guidance, Mending, Find Familiar, Disguise Self, Immovable Object, Magic Mouth, Rope Trick, Tiny Servant, Glyph of Warding, Fabricate, Summon Greater Demon, Animate Objects, Planar Binding, Seeming

Cliff Notes:

• Disguise kits are used with xanathar's rules to disguise the whole party as guards, cultists, brigands or what have you on infiltration missions, and craft ghillie suits for use outdoors
• Spellwrought tattoo (or should I say Spellstitched Suture) offers all the usual uses as well as being useful to disguise party members with difficult anatomy or summon a spider familiar which in addition to being on theme can more easily scout indoors without being noticed and can do recon on cult uniforms and the like, and Bag of Holding lets you keep a large number of disguises
• Battle Smith at 3 might seem an odd choice for a tailor when Armorer is right there, but it has some advantages. Steel defenders don't disappear when they die, so you can make them in the shape of animated armor, and then create a new one at the end of a long rest to kill the old one without damaging it. This can be worn by allies or sold for a profit, or alternatively you can use a spell slot to immediately revive it and so you have two steel defenders
• Magic mouth can be cast on patches of fabric and sewn into scarfs, cowls, helmets or earmuffs to alert you when it hears an unseen creature or sees someone show the visible tells of a liar
• Rope trick can be cast inside a bag of holding to vastly increase the bag's storage space, allowing you to hide the whole party inside and then make the bag invisible with disguise self. RAW rope trick in a bag of holding does not create a portal to the astral plane, because that only happens with items that create spaces, not spells
• Level 6 of artificer gives you expertise with your disguise kit, which is just nice to have, and (bag)pipes of haunting, which are just nice
• Immovable object is on brand, allowing you to make enemy clothing immovable, locking them in place with no save. Cast on spools of thread, you can make hang immovable garrotes in the air or tie enemies up with immovable strings. At higher levels you can make immovable boots so allies can fly and resist falling, forced movment or being knocked prone
• In addition to throwing your magic stones (sewing chalk) tiny servants made out of spools of thread with immovable object on them can arrange themselves for you
• Glyphs of warding stiched inside your bag of holding can be useful for storing buffs. just stick your hand in the bag and make a hand sign to activate it
• Fabricate with weaver's tools is a great way to make money. Craft large volumes of linen and resell for twice the price of the flax
• Animate Objects offers the same advantages as tiny servant spools, but a greater number of them all of whom have fly speed
• Summon Greater Demon when enhanced by planar binding is great for summoning Dybbuks to possessing corpses you sewed up to look presentable. These corpses have insane stats and can use dimension door at will, letting them even ready the spell to teleport you out of danger. They can also use dimension door with their incorporeality to break into magic item stores and teleport away with the loot
• Seeming is great for instant disguises but it's also perfect for weaving bags over enemy heads that they can't remove, blinding them. RAW just because they know it's illusory doesn't mean they can see through it, and it targets charisma saves which is neat

[ftafp]

I like this entire thing except for the Dybuuk as that seems to be out of character for someone like this, although I can definitely see your 19th level being Wizard 13, to get you simulacram which could be a sewn up doll that you have given a semblance of your own power and life. I also love the idea of little raggedy anne dolls destroying your foes (tiny servants).

thanks you! yeah, the dybbuk was admittedly a last-second addition. i've had the idea lying around for a week or two but didn't want to post the whole build its attached to because i just did a stealy wizard not too long ag

[mw_147]

if you were able to start this character with a free feat, what would you go for?

Probably War Caster to help get around the problem of casting while your hands are full, as well as its other benefits. My DM doesn't really care about that though, so my preferred option would be Fey Touched to get Misty Step and another spell like Hex or something.

[RogueJK]

The Goblin Grim Reaper

Goblin Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Divine Soul Sorcerer 5
Starting Divine Soul Sorcerer 1, then taking Grave Cleric 2, then Sorcerer to 3+, dipping Hexblade for 1 level, then straight Sorcerer from there.

STR 9
DEX 13+1
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 13
CHA 15+2
ASIs: Shadow Touched +1 CHA (or alternately +1 WIS/+1 CHA). Plan for +2 CHA next, then Lucky.
Skills: Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth

Sorcerer Cantrips: Toll the Dead, Message, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion
Cleric Cantrips: Spare the Dying*, Guidance, Mending, Thaumaturgy
Warlock Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Booming Blade

Sorcerer Spells: Inflict Wounds*, Disguise Self*, Invisibility*, Absorb Elements, Healing Word, Spiritual Weapon, Suggestion, Spirit Guardians, Fireball
Cleric Spells: Bane*, False Life*, Bless, Detect Magic (R), Protection from Good and Evil
Warlock Spells: Shield, Armor of Agathys

Sorcerer Metamagic: Quickened and Subtle


The main feature is your Touch of Death, which is sort of like the Inflict Wounds version of the "Nuclear Wizard" concept... It goes like this:

Action: Channel Divinity Path to the Grave, giving the enemy vulnerability to the damage of the next attack that hits.
Bonus Action: Quickened upcast Inflict Wounds + Fury of the Small. All this damage is doubled, thanks to the vulnerability from Path to the Grave. (And the dice would be effectively quadrupled on a critical hit.)
And if you happen to miss with the Inflict Wounds attack roll, you can utilize Favored by the Gods to add +2d4 and potentially turn it into a hit.

For example, a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 3 would be doing 2*(5d10+6) damage - 67 average - on a hit with a 3rd level Inflict Wounds. Or a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 5 would be doing 2*(6d10+8) damage - 82 average - on a hit with a 4th level Inflict Wounds. Or a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 7 would be doing 2*(7d10+10) damage - 97 average - with a 5th level Inflict Wounds.


You can utilize the Touch of Death by itself like that, and this Touch of Death option comes online at Grave Cleric 2/Divine Soul Sorcerer 3, but by dipping Hexblade 1 at the next level it gets even a bit more bonkers. If you Hexblade's Curse the target beforehand, this allows you to also add an additional 2*Proficiency to these Inflict Wounds damage totals, plus more importantly extends your Crit range to 19-20, giving you twice as many chances at rolling that sweet "quadruple crit".

This addition requires one round of setup, but that gives you the chance to get a Concentration spell up and running anyway, with Bless as a good option to further help ensure your Touch of Death lands (giving you an effective +3d4 to the attack roll if needed, between Bless and Favored by the Gods). This would look like:
Round 1: Bless + BA Hexblade's Curse
Round 2: Channel Divinity + BA Quickened Inflict Wounds

With Hexblade's Curse, this bumps the non-crit damage total for a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 3 up to 2*(5d10+9) damage - 73 average - on a hit with a 3rd level Inflict Wounds with Hexblade's Curse. Or a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 5 would be doing 2*(6d10+11) damage - 88 average - on a hit with a 4th level Inflict Wounds and Hexblade's Curse. Or a Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 7 would be doing 2*(7d10+14) damage - 105 average - with a 5th level Inflict Wounds with Hexblade's Curse.

And since Hexblade's Curse, Fury of the Small, Channel Divinity, Favored by the Gods, and the 1st level Pact Magic slot used to cast Bless all recharge on a short rest, you can do this Touch of Death multiple times per day, provided you still have remaining spell slots for upcasting Inflict Wounds and enough spell points to Quicken it.


On rounds when you're not setting up or executing the Touch of Death, you can do the standard Tier 2 Cleric-style routine of Cantrip/Attack/Dodge + BA Spiritual Weapon + Passive Spirit Guardians. And with CHA-based melee weapon attacks, Booming Blade, and racial Nimble Escape, you can also utilize the hit-and-run routine of Booming Blade+BA Disengage. Plus you have a couple solid ranged damage options with Eldritch Blast and Toll the Dead, along with a number of utility spells and cantrips for out of combat use.


As far as further progression goes, from Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Divine Soul Sorcerer 5, you'd simply be taking more Divine Soul Sorcerer levels for the remainder of the adventuring career, picking up additional Sorcerer and Cleric spells along the way. However, it might be worth eventually dipping a 2nd level into Warlock for some Invocations and the additional short rest recharging Pact Magic slot for spell point generation or Shield/Absorb Elements use. Once you've maxed CHA, you'd then take the Lucky feat to be able to reroll clear misses on your Touch of Death attack rolls (like Natural 1s), to ensure you're even less likely to waste the spell slot and the Channel Divinity.

[togapika]

Ludic, can you perhaps mention whether the new Bugbear's Surprise Attack would be worth more than Elven Accuracy on the ranged samurai build?

Does that change based on the type of ranged weapon used in the build?

[CMCC]

Ludic, can you perhaps mention whether the new Bugbear's Surprise Attack would be worth more than Elven Accuracy on a samurai build?

Does that change based on the type of ranged weapon used in the build?

"a" samurai build or "the" samurai build?

[stoutstien]

Ludic, can you perhaps mention whether the new Bugbear's Surprise Attack would be worth more than Elven Accuracy on a samurai build?

Does that change based on the type of ranged weapon used in the build?

As far as maximizing the fighting spirit+action surge combo bugbear hits harder than an elf with EA facing most realistic ACs but you'd need to invest in alert (not a bad thing) to make sure RNG doesn't bite you at the wrong time. Though the BM Archer might be a better pick for the bugbear thanks to getting off a ba attack with a hand crossbow. Toss on a gloom stalker dip and it gets silly.

[togapika]

facing most realistic ACs

So would the Tarrasque be a realistic AC or non-realistic?

[stoutstien]

So would the Tarrasque be a realistic AC or non-realistic?

That's on the top end but still realistic. I consider sustained AC above 27 to be fairly unrealistic to see often enough to worry about. The additional damage is applicable on higher ACs because it applies even if you don't want to utilize the damage portion of sharpshooter.

[strangebloke]

The Veteran: An Aggressive Martial Who Commands Respect On and Off the Battlefield

tl;dr we're abusing BM features to get lots of reaction attacks and double up on sneak attack for massive damage, while also having phenomenal out of combat capability and a lot of hardiness.

Race: Metallic Dragonborn
Class: Battlemaster 7/Swashbuckler 13
Base Stats: 10 str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, 16 Cha
ASIs: Sentinel@4, +2 Dex@6, +2 Dex@10, Lucky@15, Alert@17
Maneuvers: Riposte, Brace, Commanding Presence
Fighting Style: Superior Technique(Ambush)
Expertise: Stealth, Intimidation, Persuasion, Deception

Progression:

Spoiler

Show

From Levels 1-5 You're a solid Battlemaster with rapier and shield and buckets of charisma. At these levels +1d8 to intimidation or persuasion is much better than expertise, so you're an effective party face. You might feel that using something like commanding presence 'wastes' your superiority dice, but in practice the way campaigns are often paced means that you'll be able to slip in a short rest between non-combat and combat encounters. Ambush won't always get used, but when it does it will let you steal initiative/surprise and potentially take down enemies before they ever draw a weapon. But the real fun here is the combo of riposte, brace, and sentinel. The enemy approached you? Opportunity attack. They ran away? Opportunity attack. They missed your 18 (Shield + Breastplate + Dex) AC? Opportunity attack. They attacked your friend? Actually, you get an Opportunity Attack then too. On top of all this, you're also a Fizban's dragonborn, which lets you mix breath attacks with other attacks for lots of extra damage, especially against large groups. .

But the build isn't even off the ground yet.

When you start taking Rogue levels (personally I would take rogue 1 at level 7, but a lot of different splits work), your stealth and party face utility is kicked into overdrive. That's sort of obvious, right? This is the level where expertise really starts pay dividends. There's no magic, no trickery, but when you talk, people listen. Your stealth averages out at +14.5 at level 7, and you can add PWT on top of that.

But the real star is, your sneak attack gets activated on your actions and reactions. Sneak attack specifies once per turn but not once per round. And since you're almost always getting a reaction, you get to make two sneak attacks almost every single turn. Your damage scaling from this point is insane. And yes, this is why you're a swashbuckler. Rakish Audacity makes it a lot easier to proc SA in melee even if you've won initiative and charged in ahead.

And oh yeah, you're going to be doing that a lot. +CHA to initiative on top of everything else for a whopping +7 (without Ambush) at level 9. You can be more judicious with Ambush now, since you'll normally just win initiative without trying and you only need Ambush when you want to push it over the top. Plus, you're fast. This build hasn't really used bonus actions much up till now, so dashing/disengaging/hiding every turn is definitely on the table.

By level 11, the build has really come together. Your base resourceless damage is solid (1d8+5)*2+3d6=30.5, But whenever you get a reaction attack your damage spikes by 1d8+1d8+5+3d6=25.5. That's 5 times per SR plus however many times Sentinel procs. Your nova potential is also silly. Did you know you can use the draconic breath weapon twice in a turn if you use action surge? Yep. Oh yeah, and you can also ready an attack action to get sneak attack twice even without superiority dice or any action on your enemy's part.

Conclusion

Spoiler

Show

Like, picture this. You win initiative, win surprise, charge 60 feet out of cover to beat on the enemy. You attack, you get sneak attack. You action surge, ready the attack action for just after your turn, you get sneak attack again. Surprise wears off, it's your turn again. You hit someone again, get sneak attack again, but this time you replace one of your attacks with enervating breath. Several of the enemies still standing lose their turn again, but you park next to one of the remaining non-incapacitated non-dead enemies, because almost no matter what they do, they're going to give you another sneak attack. At this point, unless this was a super-deadly encounter or your party was sitting with their fingers up their bums the encounter is basically over.

Obviously the above is really idealized. But the point is that you're really good against everything. You can park next to an enemy and punish them heavily for doing almost anything. Your damage is better and more consistent than a rogues, and you're competitive with a straight battlemaster. You can fight effectively at range. You can roast groups of enemies with breath weapons. You will almost always win initiative. You're highly mobile. You have 19 AC. You can play party face better than almost anyone. You are a master of stealth. You can heal yourself with second wind. You're a catalina wine mixer of utility and damage, able to keep pace with most other martials in their niche without suffering their shortcomings.

It's... it's almost like being a caster.

Alteration/Personalization

Spoiler

Show

What's fun about this combo is that it works with a lot of different formulations. You can go as high as 7 in battlemaster without wasting any levels. The extra die at 7 is worthwhile, albeit perhaps a little lacking compared to what you get from rogue. I didn't spell it out here but imo BM 7 is something you save for extremely high levels, possibly even until level 20 since its (imo) better than blindsense. But getting off after fighter 1 or BM 3 is valid too, since you can start your scaling earlier and pump your damage up with Booming Blade. You can also stop taking rogue levels whenever if you want to go monk or ranger or paladin for a bit. The core of this build is basically the first three levels of BM and the first 2 levels of rogue, and everything else is up for grabs.

The only thing I'll say strongly is that starting with rogue levels as opposed to BM levels is probably a mistake. The shield and second wind and the bm dice are all really strong in T1, whereas expertise isn't amazing until T2. Additionally, Uncanny dodge, which is the main 'welcome to t2' feature for rogue is actually not going to be super useful to you because you have so many other reactions.

You can also use whatever rogue subclass or race suits your fancy. If MPMM bugbear is on the table, that particular monstrous race can push your first round damage through the roof, since if you win initiative, which you should, you get +2d6 damage on every attack, which with action surge is a fireball's worth of damage. Vhuman allows you to get an early Sentinel and max dex quicker. Variant half-elf can get you booming blade quickly if that's your preferred route, or it can get you mask of the wild to boost the number of places you can hide. Lightheart Halflings can also hide in weird places, as can (obviously) wood elves, though wood elves also have access to Wood Elf Magic and by extension, Pass Without Trace. Or go Changeling, to play more with the party face angle. I didn't do this with my build here, but dragon hide is a pretty good feat since it lets you go into combat naked gives you +1 AC for a half-feat. EDIT: in hindsight I somehow missed the MPMM Earth Genasi. What a great race for this build! I daresay its probably the best. You don't have something to use your bonus action on every turn, so blade ward is basically free damage resistance, and Earth Genasi get PWT on top of this, which makes your stealth a truly insane +24.5 at level 7. Wow! Shadar-kai is arguably even better here.

And yeah it goes without saying but you can substitute swashbuckler for soulknife or arcane trickster. They are also very good here, since they're good for everything.

And... yeah! You can build this all as a strength character too. Your stealth and surprise won't be as effective, but your AC will be better to start with, and you can focus more heavily on other areas (forgoing superior technique and ambush in favor of just grabbing dueling, as an example.)This build isn't really the best for grappling, since you have enough tools for lockdown and wouldn't really want to sacrifice your shield in any case, but it is a direction you can go if you like. One small note is, there's better magic item access for str characters.

[Citadel97501]

The Veteran: An Aggressive Martial Who Commands Respect On and Off the Battlefieldtl;dr we're abusing BM features to get lots of reaction attacks and double up on sneak attack for massive damage, while also having phenomenal out of combat capability and a lot of hardiness.

Damn fine build that is a very fun sounding martial character, it also makes me think of a Jedi who specializes in Shien style...Everything done against me or those I protect is a mistake, and I punish all mistakes.

[strangebloke]

Damn fine build that is a very fun sounding martial character, it also makes me think of a Jedi who specializes in Shien style...Everything done against me or those I protect is a mistake, and I punish all mistakes.

Yup. The reason I called this the "veteran" is that they have the hallmarks of real experience. Predicting the enemy's movement, choosing the field of battle, surprising the enemy, and taking them out before they have a chance to react. Really I do think Bugbear is probably the most on-brand here, but frankly its hard to find good art of bugbears and also they're not suitable for every campaign.

The one caveat here is that this character is a little fragile. Uncanny dodge can't be used if you're doubling on sneak attack, and you don't have any defensive features besides high(ish) AC, which won't scale amazingly into the late game. You can heal with second wind which helps more than most people think, but still isn't enough to keep you alive if you get dogpiled. So you do need to be aggressive and/or have support to keep you alive while you're taking the enemy out, and sometimes you'll want to hang back and shoot people with a shortbow.

The Strength version of this build does a lot better on defense. You can have 21 AC pretty fast via plate and defense (no need for superior technique if you don't get ambush) and you can easily work in a couple barbarian levels for rage damage reduction.

[KyleG]

The Veteran: An Aggressive Martial Who Commands Respect On and Off the Battlefield

tl;dr we're abusing BM features to get lots of reaction attacks and double up on sneak attack for massive damage, while also having phenomenal out of combat capability and a lot of hardiness.

Race: Metallic Dragonborn
Class: Battlemaster 7/Swashbuckler 13
Base Stats: 10 str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, 16 Cha
ASIs: Sentinel@4, +2 Dex@6, +2 Dex@10, Lucky@15, Alert@17
Maneuvers: Riposte, Brace, Commanding Presence
Fighting Style: Superior Technique(Ambush)
Expertise: Stealth, Intimidation, Persuasion, Deception

Progression:

Spoiler

Show

From Levels 1-5 You're a solid Battlemaster with rapier and shield and buckets of charisma. At these levels +1d8 to intimidation or persuasion is much better than expertise, so you're an effective party face. You might feel that using something like commanding presence 'wastes' your superiority dice, but in practice the way campaigns are often paced means that you'll be able to slip in a short rest between non-combat and combat encounters. Ambush won't always get used, but when it does it will let you steal initiative/surprise and potentially take down enemies before they ever draw a weapon. But the real fun here is the combo of riposte, brace, and sentinel. The enemy approached you? Opportunity attack. They ran away? Opportunity attack. They missed your 18 (Shield + Breastplate + Dex) AC? Opportunity attack. They attacked your friend? Actually, you get an Opportunity Attack then too. On top of all this, you're also a Fizban's dragonborn, which lets you mix breath attacks with other attacks for lots of extra damage, especially against large groups. .

But the build isn't even off the ground yet.

When you start taking Rogue levels (personally I would take rogue 1 at level 7, but a lot of different splits work), your stealth and party face utility is kicked into overdrive. That's sort of obvious, right? This is the level where expertise really starts pay dividends. There's no magic, no trickery, but when you talk, people listen. Your stealth averages out at +14.5 at level 7, and you can add PWT on top of that.

But the real star is, your sneak attack gets activated on your actions and reactions. Sneak attack specifies once per turn but not once per round. And since you're almost always getting a reaction, you get to make two sneak attacks almost every single turn. Your damage scaling from this point is insane. And yes, this is why you're a swashbuckler. Rakish Audacity makes it a lot easier to proc SA in melee even if you've won initiative and charged in ahead.

And oh yeah, you're going to be doing that a lot. +CHA to initiative on top of everything else for a whopping +7 (without Ambush) at level 9. You can be more judicious with Ambush now, since you'll normally just win initiative without trying and you only need Ambush when you want to push it over the top. Plus, you're fast. This build hasn't really used bonus actions much up till now, so dashing/disengaging/hiding every turn is definitely on the table.

By level 11, the build has really come together. Your base resourceless damage is solid (1d8+5)*2+3d6=30.5, But whenever you get a reaction attack your damage spikes by 1d8+1d8+5+3d6=25.5. That's 5 times per SR plus however many times Sentinel procs. Your nova potential is also silly. Did you know you can use the draconic breath weapon twice in a turn if you use action surge? Yep. Oh yeah, and you can also ready an attack action to get sneak attack twice even without superiority dice or any action on your enemy's part.

Conclusion

Spoiler

Show

Like, picture this. You win initiative, win surprise, charge 60 feet out of cover to beat on the enemy. You attack, you get sneak attack. You action surge, ready the attack action for just after your turn, you get sneak attack again. Surprise wears off, it's your turn again. You hit someone again, get sneak attack again, but this time you replace one of your attacks with enervating breath. Several of the enemies still standing lose their turn again, but you park next to one of the remaining non-incapacitated non-dead enemies, because almost no matter what they do, they're going to give you another sneak attack. At this point, unless this was a super-deadly encounter or your party was sitting with their fingers up their bums the encounter is basically over.

Obviously the above is really idealized. But the point is that you're really good against everything. You can park next to an enemy and punish them heavily for doing almost anything. Your damage is better and more consistent than a rogues, and you're competitive with a straight battlemaster. You can fight effectively at range. You can roast groups of enemies with breath weapons. You will almost always win initiative. You're highly mobile. You have 19 AC. You can play party face better than almost anyone. You are a master of stealth. You can heal yourself with second wind. You're a catalina wine mixer of utility and damage, able to keep pace with most other martials in their niche without suffering their shortcomings.

It's... it's almost like being a caster.

Alteration/Personalization

Spoiler

Show

What's fun about this combo is that it works with a lot of different formulations. You can go as high as 7 in battlemaster without wasting any levels. The extra die at 7 is worthwhile, albeit perhaps a little lacking compared to what you get from rogue. I didn't spell it out here but imo BM 7 is something you save for extremely high levels, possibly even until level 20 since its (imo) better than blindsense. But getting off after fighter 1 or BM 3 is valid too, since you can start your scaling earlier and pump your damage up with Booming Blade. You can also stop taking rogue levels whenever if you want to go monk or ranger or paladin for a bit. The core of this build is basically the first three levels of BM and the first 2 levels of rogue, and everything else is up for grabs.

The only thing I'll say strongly is that starting with rogue levels as opposed to BM levels is probably a mistake. The shield and second wind and the bm dice are all really strong in T1, whereas expertise isn't amazing until T2. Additionally, Uncanny dodge, which is the main 'welcome to t2' feature for rogue is actually not going to be super useful to you because you have so many other reactions.

You can also use whatever rogue subclass or race suits your fancy. If MPMM bugbear is on the table, that particular monstrous race can push your surprise round damage through the roof. Vhuman allows you to get an early Sentinel and max dex quicker. Variant half-elf can get you booming blade quickly if that's your preferred route, or it can get you mask of the wild to boost the number of places you can hide. Lightheart Halflings can also hide in weird places, as can (obviously) wood elves, though wood elves also have access to Wood Elf Magic and by extension, Pass Without Trace. Or go Changeling, to play more with the party face angle. I didn't do this with my build here, but dragon hide is a pretty good feat since it lets you go into combat naked gives you +1 AC for a half-feat.

And yeah it goes without saying but soulknife and arcane trickster are also very good here, since they're good for everything.

And... yeah! You can build this all as a strength character too. Your stealth and surprise won't be as effective, but your AC will be better to start with, and you can focus more heavily on other areas (forgoing superior technique and ambush in favor of just grabbing dueling, as an example.)This build isn't really the best for grappling, since you half enough tools for lockdown and wouldn't really want to sacrifice your shield in any case, but it is a direction you can go if you like. One small note is, there's better magic item access for str characters.

I'm thinking of changing my warforged as a narrative opportunity has arisen and this looks very cool (and they art is amazing). i was leaning into battlemaster with a warhammer+2 the party has but doesn't use but now seriously considering a different tact and going rogue not necessarily swashbuckling thou. inquisitive 9 perhaps, bm 11, although I'll be level 12 at time of switch, so maybe bm7/inq5. It's a little weaker but could be fun looking at this.

[strangebloke]

I'm thinking of changing my warforged as a narrative opportunity has arisen and this looks very cool (and they art is amazing). i was leaning into battlemaster with a warhammer+2 the party has but doesn't use but now seriously considering a different tact and going rogue not necessarily swashbuckling thou. inquisitive 9 perhaps, bm 11, although I'll be level 12 at time of switch, so maybe bm7/inq5. It's a little weaker but could be fun looking at this.

Basically any rogue works for this yeah. The main thing that gets weakened is your first-round potential, since you'll win initiative less, and because you'll need to spend your BA on insightful fighting rather than dashing. But its not a serious problem, and arguably just as flavorful.

Remember, you can't use a warhammer for this, you need a finesse weapon. Even if you're using strength.

Final note is that I wouldn't recommend going to BM 11. A lot of the features here are going to be overkill/redundant, and fighter 9 in particular is pretty weak. The damage scaling from more rogue is almost always better.

[KyleG]

Basically any rogue works for this yeah. The main thing that gets weakened is your first-round potential, since you'll win initiative less, and because you'll need to spend your BA on insightful fighting rather than dashing. But its not a serious problem, and arguably just as flavorful.

Remember, you can't use a warhammer for this, you need a finesse weapon. Even if you're using strength.

Final note is that I wouldn't recommend going to BM 11. A lot of the features here are going to be overkill/redundant, and fighter 9 in particular is pretty weak. The damage scaling from more rogue is almost always better.

Yeah its a downside cos the hammer is very cool. As to damage at fighter 11 you'd get that extra attack. 1d8+5. If youd taken rogue its an extra 2d6 instead. Similar. The kicker is your opportunity attack.

[strangebloke]

Yeah its a downside cos the hammer is very cool. As to damage at fighter 11 you'd get that extra attack. 1d8+5. If youd taken rogue its an extra 2d6 instead. Similar. The kicker is your opportunity attack.

Extra attack is nice, but with the OAs gives you less damage. You also get bigger BM dice, but that's barely worth anything for this build. Beyond that you get one more ASI and indomitable, which is pretty anemic compared to Lucky, which you can get anyway.

Ultimately it doesn't super matter.

[LudicSavant]

Ludic, can you perhaps mention whether the new Bugbear's Surprise Attack would be worth more than Elven Accuracy on the ranged samurai build?

Does that change based on the type of ranged weapon used in the build?

Well, it's not quite as simple as "Surprise Attack vs Elven Accuracy" because you're not trading a half-feat for a half-feat, but a half-feat and a race for a half-feat and a race.

Being a Shadar-Kai offers more mobility and defenses -- even moreso than it used to, since it got buffed. It will also hit extremely consistently when you need it to, not just with its base damage but anything you buff it with (like if someone casts Holy Weapon on you, for instance). But that mobility and defense is just something a Bugbear doesn't offer -- if you're in a Wall of Force as a Bugbear, someone needs to bust you out.

Bugbear will generally hit harder with Surprise Attack, when you get to use it (so, turn 1 against any creatures you beat in initiative). Bonus points if you have teammates who can mess with initiative (like a Lore Bard who can Cutting Words a key foe's initiative roll, or a Watchers Paladin who boosts yours). It makes for a devastating (or even combat-winning) opening turn, provided the target you want to go all in on is available for you to hit on turn 1, and that you beat them in initiative. Bugbear will also be able to take a new half-feat, like Skill Expert or Piercer or Gunner, and tack that on to your repertoire in place of Elven Accuracy.

Altogether I'd say that both are very strong choices, just in different ways.

You can modify this program that I put together for the Samurai build post to represent the Bugbear's Surprise Attack. Just switch the Samurai figures to "highest of 2d20" instead of "highest of 3d20" and have it add 2d6 extra damage. You can also set the target AC to whatever you want, add in any buffs or modifiers you like, etc as needed.

[Miele]

The Goblin Grim Reaper

Goblin Hexblade 1/Grave Cleric 2/Divine Soul Sorcerer 5
Starting Divine Soul Sorcerer 1, then taking Grave Cleric 2, then Sorcerer to 3+, dipping Hexblade for 1 level, then straight Sorcerer from there.

STR 9
DEX 13+1
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 13
CHA 15+2
ASIs: Shadow Touched +1 CHA (or alternately +1 WIS/+1 CHA). Plan for +2 CHA next, then Lucky.
Skills: Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth

Sorcerer Cantrips: Toll the Dead, Message, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion
Cleric Cantrips: Spare the Dying*, Guidance, Mending, Thaumaturgy
Warlock Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Booming Blade

Sorcerer Spells: Inflict Wounds*, Disguise Self*, Invisibility*, Absorb Elements, Healing Word, Spiritual Weapon, Suggestion, Spirit Guardians, Fireball
Cleric Spells: Bane*, False Life*, Bless, Detect Magic (R), Protection from Good and Evil
Warlock Spells: Shield, Armor of Agathys

Sorcerer Metamagic: Quickened and Subtle

This is PERFECT!

In our current campaign my rogue will soon abandon the party (stealing something and becoming an NPC). We just managed to save a goblin from slavery (of sorts), he had been used by some evil guy and his lackeys as entertainment, yet he managed to survive.
I told my DM that I'm willing to play this character as goblin, considering he saved himself from excessive abuse due to Subtle Metamagic Suggestion casts.

I'd just need to flesh out the story, how he got in service of a Grave Domain deity, his transformation to a Sorcerer and the eventual dip into Warlock. I was thinking that since he's not too smart, he may be prone to follow anyone offering him some sort of power to stay alive, so first a deity, eventually a second one (must be evil to pick Inflict Wounds as a DS Sorcerer) and finally a patron. Since we play in the FR setting I'll have to go through my SCAG book to find something that makes sense.

I thought some background with Deception should be mandatory, considering what he did to stay alive.

Stat wise I'm raising CON over DEX for concentration saves (Custom stats for goblin with +1 CON and +2 CHA), because he may have to use Bless, Spirit Guardians, etc. and eventually planning to use my first ASI at Sorcerer 4 for Fey Touched maybe to round up CHA to 18 and when I'll get a 2nd ASI maybe Warcaster (or CHA 20? I'm partial to stat increases).

If you have any further ideas on how to develop the character, I'm quite interested.
Thank you for the concept, it sounds really cool!

[RogueJK]

I'd just need to flesh out the story, how he got in service of a Grave Domain deity, his transformation to a Sorcerer and the eventual dip into Warlock. I was thinking that since he's not too smart, he may be prone to follow anyone offering him some sort of power to stay alive, so first a deity, eventually a second one (must be evil to pick Inflict Wounds as a DS Sorcerer) and finally a patron. Since we play in the FR setting I'll have to go through my SCAG book to find something that makes sense.

A few thoughts:

1) Divine Soul Sorcerer doesn't require adherence to a deity, or even any connection to a specific deity. You can just have a distant Celestial/Fiendish/Deific connection in your bloodline. Or you may have just been marked by a divine prophecy, or blessed by a divine source, or had your magical abilities awakened through the application (or misapplication) of divine magic.

2) You don't necessary have to get Inflict Wounds as a Evil Divine Magic ability spell. You can go with Lawful (Bless) or Neutral (Protection from Good/Evil) and build it almost the exact same way I did above. You'd just take Inflict Wounds as a Sorcerer spell pick in place of Healing Word, and then take Healing Word as a Cleric spell pick in place of either Bless or Protection. So you aren't pidgeonholed into just an Evil source for your Divine Soul abilities, unless that's what you want.

3) In Forgotten Realms setting, Kelemvor - the Lawful Neutral God of Death - would be the classic Grave Domain deity. Perhaps your goblin prayed to the God of Death in his despair and torment, asking for the release of death to end his misery, and instead received divine comfort and rejuvenation from Kelemvor, along with gaining a plethora of martial/clerical/caster abilities that would empower him to survive, make his escape, and exact justice against his captors. (One aspect of Kelemvor's faith is that people should be protected from monsters and disease so that they do not die before their appointed time.)

Stat wise I'm raising CON over DEX for concentration saves (Custom stats for goblin with +1 CON and +2 CHA), because he may have to use Bless, Spirit Guardians, etc. and eventually planning to use my first ASI at Sorcerer 4 for Fey Touched maybe to round up CHA to 18 and when I'll get a 2nd ASI maybe Warcaster (or CHA 20? I'm partial to stat increases).

Warcaster won't be as necessary on this character, provided you start as a Sorcerer at Level 1 as I suggested in my build. Sorcerers get CON save proficiency, so paired with a decent CON score, you'll already have a hefty Concentration bonus. You have a further potential boost to your Concentration checks with Favored of the Gods if you happen to fail the roll, and/or Bless also boosts your Concentration checks. (So you can have potentially CON Bonus + Proficiency bonus + 3d4 on a Concentration check.)

You can use your Action to Dodge while utilizing the Spiritual Weapon + Spirit Guardians combo, making yourself both tougher to hit and less likely to take damage from DEX-save effects (and therefore less likely to need Concentration checks in the first place) while still putting out solid damage numbers with just SW + SG, especially if upcasting one or both of those. Or when not using SG and not needing to stick close to the front lines, you can utilize the hit-and-run combo of Booming Blade + BA Disengage, or hang back and use ranged cantrips like EB or TtD so that you're not hanging out on the frontlines, thus possibly reducing the need to Concentration checks.

And your have Shield and Absorb Elements too, to avoid/reduce damage and therefore avoid/reduce the need for Concentration checks.

So Warcaster's Concentration Advantage really isn't needed, and while Booming Blade OAs from Warcaster could be nice at times, I'd definitely suggest +2 CHA as the much better choice there instead of Warcaster.