Optimizing a Flumph

[ftafp]

In a recent interview, Crawford explained that creatures that can only communicate telepathically such as Flumphs and Myconids were in fact qualified to take the Expert or Spellcaster sidekick classes. With that in mind, I was curious if anyone had any thoughts on what kind of build would be optimal for this relatively balanced sidekick monster

[ftafp]

Wow, really? Nobody? Okay, I'll post what I'm thinking


NPC Stat Block: Flumph
Class: Healer X
ASI: WIS +2@4, WIS +2@8, Fey Touched (Dissonant Whispers, WIS +1)@12, DEX +1 WIS +1 @16, Warcaster @19
Useful Spells: Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Faerie Fire, Bless, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word

Thorn whip is your attack cantrip and will get a great deal of use since as a creature with a natural flying speed and few spell slots you can use it to yank enemies into the air and then drop them 10 feet for an extra 1d6 damage that knocks them prone. Toll the dead does good damage for higher AC enemies or those who can fly. Healing Word is a great spell on half casters who don't rely on higher level blasting spells. The rest of the spells are ones you can get a lot of milage out of with a single casting.

[rlc]

I’m not sure how to optimize it, but I’m sure that everybody has at least thought about flumph sidekicks. It’s good to know that there are more options available to them than originally thought.

[Wizard_Lizard]

While the concept is cool, I don't think the npc classes were for optimising per se, but a quicker way to get refined class features on a statblock quicker..

[Unoriginal]

Flumph Warrior sounds nice.

[ftafp]

Figured I might as well post this here to see if anyone has any ideas for how to improve it

The Überflumph


Ever since I learned that Flumphs do in fact qualify for the Spellcaster Sidekick class I've been wanting to write up a build for a flumph spellcaster. This is what I came up with.

Please note that the following is written under the assumption that when Crawford said Flumphs qualify he intended them to be able to cast spells with verbal components using telepathy. This is not RAW but if your DM is letting you play a Flumph Spellcaster it's hard to imagine them ruling against it when there are only a handful of non-verbal spells in the game.

Race: Flumph
Class: Healer Sidekick
ASIs: Wis +2@4, Wis +2@8, Wis +2@12, Magic Initiate (Shield, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade)@16, Resilient (Dex +1)@19
Empowered Spell School: Evocation
Spells:

1. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word
2. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless
3. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Entangle
4. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Entangle
5. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Entangle, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace
6. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace
7. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal
8. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal
9. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal, Conjure Animals
10. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal, Conjure Animals
11. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word
12. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Heat Metal, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word
13. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings
14. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings
15. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings
16. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mage Hand, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings
17. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mage Hand, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings, Contact Other Plane
18. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mage Hand, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings, Contact Other Plane
19. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mage Hand, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings, Contact Other Plane, Maelstrom
20. Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mage Hand, Healing Word, Bless, Command, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Animals, Mass Healing Word, Plant Growth, Wall of Fire, Conjure Woodland Beings, Contact Other Plane, Maelstrom

Tier 1:
Through the early levels of the game, the flumph's options are limited. Spellcasters are pretty much cantrip spammers, so Thorn Whip and Toll the Dead are going to be your bread and butter. Because flumphs have a fly speed, your best option is to stay overhead. Thorn Whip pairs perfectly with this, allowing you to pull enemies 10 feet into the air and drop them, doing and extra 1d6 and knocking them prone which your allies will thank you for. For leveled spells, Healing Word is a good pick since you're not going to be doing much besides spamming cantrips, but Bless, Entangle and Faerie Fire are all fine uses of your concentration.

Tier 2:
At level 5 you get Spiritual Weapon which being a concentration-free constant use of your bonus action is invaluable to your damage output. Command on top of that is a fantastic spell in the hands of a Flumph, as you are casting it telepathically. That mean you can use it for social purposes as well as combat ones. Those combat uses are going to come in particularly handy at level 9 when you get access to Conjure Animals. Surround the enemy in CR 1/4 animals and then command them to flee. Not only will they drop what they're holding but they'll also provoke 8 attacks of opportunity

Tier 3:
Tier 3 starts anticlimactically but at level 13 you get 4th level spells which will include Wall of Fire which with your aerial positioning is going to be an excellent tool for dragging enemies through the flames using thorn whip. Conjure Fey is a fantastic upgrade to conjure animals, adding options such as the infamous Pixies to the mix who can potentially Polymorph the whole party if you so desire them to. 14 will give you your choice of a spell school to enhance, and Evocation is the clear winner as almost all your damage and healing spells are evocations. Note that this boost does not specify it only applies to one roll of the spell, so the ongoing damage Spiritual Weapon, Wall of Fire and so on are all boosted. Finally, level 16 will give you MI for Shield, BB and GFB, the latter two of which will apply your Empowered Cantrip bonus to both rolls of the spell. If that wasn't cool enough, Shillelagh will apply that bonus as well, meaning a booming blade will do 8d8+20 damage on a hit. As a caster you're going to be a bit squishy for close combat, but by this level with your summoning you can afford to ride one Giant Owl you summon in and out of combat without provoking attacks of opportunity

Tier 4:
Tier 4 is sadly pretty unexciting but we still get some use out of it. For 5th level spells we get Maelstrom which happens to be a fine AoE that can prove quite difficult to escape. The real winner here though is Contact Other Plane. Unlike Commune, its more well known cousin, Contact Other Plane doesn't have a cumulative 25% chance of going wrong, meaning you can use it as often as you like. There is the pesky problem of having to pass an Int save or else you take psychic damage or go insane but as luck would have it this is a divination spell and so your Telepathic Shroud makes you immune to both drawbacks.

[LordShade]

My take (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...k-Optimization) is that the Spellcaster is an inherently bad class compared to the Warrior and Expert. From an optimization standpoint, Spellcaster only makes sense in a few cases: high Charisma (making a budget Warlock), a strong built-in Multiattack that can be buffed with Concentration spells, or significant innate spellcasting that already keys off a mental stat. Warrior is similar, in that the use cases are obvious: 16+ starting Str or Dex, humanoid (able to use armor and weapons), or some inherent, strong attack rider like the Shadow's strength drain. Or, being unable to qualify for Spellcaster or Expert. In other cases, my go-to is Expert.

Looking at the Flumph, I don't see a lot that makes this statblock actually good. Telepathy is nice from an RP standpoint, flight is definitely good, but the HP are low and the AC is terrible. For survivability the Flumph has to figure out something to help its AC and poor HP (will have 70 HP total at level 20). The ability scores are okay, but not great. One thing that mediocre stat blocks can do is use good feats that don't rely on stats, like Healer. In cases like this I would be looking for the best "bang for the buck" feats I could find.

Since a non-humanoid aberration may not be able to use equipment, and Str/Dex are unremarkable, Warrior is basically out--the acid tentacle (2d4+2) isn't enough to really be scary as a fighter. If the DM rules that the Flumph can use gear, a back-line crossbow spammer might be the best build from a damage standpoint.

As a Spellcaster, I think your build is creative and probably makes good use out the Flumph's flight. However, the flying+Thorn Whip shenanigans will only work if the enemy has no missile weapons. At level 4 the Flumph will have 17 HP and an AC of 12. At that level you may be fighting enemies with Longbow Multiattack 2, +5 to hit, 1d8+3 damage. One enemy attacking the Flumph will have (2d8+6 * 70% = 11 DPR), meaning you die in two rounds. I think a bigger weakness of the build is that you are spending 3 of your ASIs to get the Wisdom up to 20, just so you can take your cantrip damage up from 4d8+2 to 4d8+5, and Spiritual Weapon up from 1d8+2 to 1d8+5. If you had a full array of good spells to use pumping 20 Wis might make sense, but I don't think it does just for cantrips. I also don't think that BB+Shillelagh is a good play when your AC is so low--it seems like a heavy investment of build resources just to do mediocre damage. Essentially, with the cantrip+Spiritual weapon play you're going from (20*45%+6.5*45%=12 DPR) to (23*60%+9.5*60%=19.5 DPR) at the cost of 3 feats while burning your limited slots on Spiritual Weapon. I think you're better off going all-in on buffing the party and getting as much damage from your teammates as possible. If going Spellcaster (which I think is a reasonable choice), I'd probably go all-in on half-feats. Pick Mage or Healer, and get all of Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, and Telekinetic. Pick up Tough somewhere for +40 HP, and round out with another Int/Wis half-feat. Telekinetic gives you a spammable bonus action and is thematically appropriate, while the other two give you more spells known and some extra slots to maintain buffs.

Alternately, consider Expert. Picking up Magic Initiate for Firebolt or another attack roll cantrip gives you (4d10+2d6 *45% = 13 dpr) spammable DPR at the cost of 1 feat and no resources. You then have the bonus action Inspiring Help which can add +2d6 damage or hit chance to an ally's attack--very good if you have GWM or Sharpshooter fighters in the party, or an optimized Rogue. Inspiring Help is a really good ability--it combines the Mastermind's 3rd level feature with the Bard's Inspiration d6, as a single bonus action, with unlimited uses. If you think Mastermind help and Bardic Inspiration are worthwhile, this ability is those on steroids. It's easily worth more than 7 additional DPR. You still have 5 feats left, for Tough, Resilient Dex, Healer, Inspring Leader, Gourmand, Fey Touched: Bless or whatever else support you want your sidekick to provide. Bonus action flying dash will allow the Flumph to quickly get into position to heal dying teammates, while Evasion will help protect its weak HP pool. The bonus action dash is also better for kiting, and could be combined with Spell Sniper or a cantrip that reduces movespeed. Athletics expertise and grappling might even be a play against isolated opponents--tackle them and then slowly melt them with acid.

I think the basic problem with the Flumph is that its core statblock is just weak. It has no real strengths other than flight (and can't easily abuse flight with kiting shenanigans) and has too many weaknesses to repair. It would certainly make a fun and thematic sidekick, but it certainly can't be called powerful.

Edited: clarifying the feasibility of an aberration with a strange, non-humanoid body shape using weapons and armor
Edit 2: The Flumph might have a niche as a superior stealth user, thanks to Telepathic Shroud protecting it from all divination spells. Combined with flight and innate telepathy, the Flumph might make for an excellent scout. You could go Spellcaster or Expert for this, but I'd probably go Expert for Stealth+Investigation+Perception+Arcana+Thieves' Tools Expertise to have it fly around and scout and disarm traps. Take Shadow Touched and it can cast its own Invisibility.

[Unoriginal]

What do you mean by "an aberration can't use equipment"?

[LordShade]

Can a jellyfish use armor? I suppose a jellyfish could use a sword or a bow with its tentacles, but I doubt it could put on a suit of leather armor.

As DM, I might allow a set of barding or armor to be created that could fit the Flumph's body shape.

Regardless, I meant to say non-humanoid aberrations. Aberrations with a humanoid shape, like Dolgrims, clearly can use weapons and shields.

[da newt]

Flumph cannot speak, so spells with verbal components are a NO GO.

Flumph have no hands so they cannot wield weapons and are not even able to complete somatic components or use material components or hold a forecasting focus.

Certainly a DM may choose to hand wave these restrictions, but RAW the flumph can't do much of anything.

And then you have to figure out how to keep one fed ...

[ftafp]

Flumph cannot speak, so spells with verbal components are a NO GO.

Flumph have no hands so they cannot wield weapons and are not even able to complete somatic components or use material components or hold a forecasting focus.

Certainly a DM may choose to hand wave these restrictions, but RAW the flumph can't do much of anything.

And then you have to figure out how to keep one fed ...

This build was made under the assumption that given Crawford stated he intended Flumphs to function as spellcasters they must be able perform the basic functions necessary to cast cast spells

As it stands there are many instances of creatures who can perform somatic components despite lacking any apparent limbs capable of such a thing. The Ki-Rin is one example. As for verbal components these are scarcer, but examples do exist. The Retriever from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes can cast Plane Shift and Web as innate spells despite lacking the ability to speak. Its stat block specifies that it ignores material components, but not verbal or somatic ones.

The simple fact of the matter is, the rules around creatures with stat blocks are generally looser. These rules continue to extend to the sidekick classes, who are officially recommended as classes for new players still learning the rules. This suggests that these rules questions are in fact intended to be handwaved.

That said, while I disagree with your presumptions you do raise an important point: Flumph spellcasters are not proficient in quarterstaffs unlike every other PC

[LordShade]

Feeding a Flumph should be easy. Doesn't it just siphon a small amount of emotional energy from creatures around it, without hurting them?

[da newt]

Yes - flumphs feed by siphoning mental energy from psionic creatures like mind flayers, aboleths, and gith. If none of those or other psionic creatures are around, they have no source of nourishment.

[LordShade]

Yes - flumphs feed by siphoning mental energy from psionic creatures like mind flayers, aboleths, and gith. If none of those or other psionic creatures are around, they have no source of nourishment.

A player character psionicist should work, right? Mystic, Soulknife, Psi Warrior, Aberrant Mind, GOOlock, any Ghostwise Halfling, Gith, or Kalashtar, or anyone with the Telekinetic/Telepathic feats?

[Unoriginal]

You know, this thread makes me think we need a Martial Artist Sidekick class. Hope we'll see one in the future.

A player character psionicist should work, right? Mystic, Soulknife, Psi Warrior, Aberrant Mind, GOOlock, any Ghostwise Halfling, Gith, or Kalashtar, or anyone with the Telekinetic/Telepathic feats?

I don't think it would work with the Great Old One Warlock (they have mind magic, but not psionic powers) and am not sure it'd work with the Ghostwise Halfling, but otherwise yes.

[LordShade]

You know, this thread makes me think we need a Martial Artist Sidekick class. Hope we'll see one in the future.

A stripped-down Monk, or something different? What niche are you looking to fill with an MA sidekick?