spore druid/barbarian question

[elyktsorb]

So I'm making a Spore Druid/Barbarian for an upcoming game, (it's also a monk 1 for unarmored def and bonus action unarmed strike)

Is is better to go for Totem Barb and pick Bear and get resistance to all damage (except psychic) during rage to protect my spore druid temp hp, or to go with Beast to get the claw attack to do claw, claw, unarmed strike all with spore rider damage? (also yes i am using str, it's at 16)

[Segev]

So I'm making a Spore Druid/Barbarian for an upcoming game, (it's also a monk 1 for unarmored def and bonus action unarmed strike)

Is is better to go for Totem Barb and pick Bear and get resistance to all damage (except psychic) during rage to protect my spore druid temp hp, or to go with Beast to get the claw attack to do claw, claw, unarmed strike all with spore rider damage? (also yes i am using str, it's at 16)

Are you also throwing monk into the build for the extra unarmed strike, or am I missing something?

[elyktsorb]

Are you also throwing monk into the build for the extra unarmed strike, or am I missing something?

The monk is there for 2 reasons. The primary one is the unarmed strike, the second one is so that I can have an unarmored defense that won't split my attention to 4 stats, since I will be increasing str on this character and I also want to increase wisdom. That way I don't have to invest into Con. (The character is a flying race that's limited to only light armor as well)

[Segev]

The monk is there for 2 reasons. The primary one is the unarmed strike, the second one is so that I can have an unarmored defense that won't split my attention to 4 stats, since I will be increasing str on this character and I also want to increase wisdom. That way I don't have to invest into Con. (The character is a flying race that's limited to only light armor as well)

I wasn't criticizing the choice of adding monk; I just didn't see it if you put it in your build list.

Beast will require you to be in melee to truly take advantage of it, which ironically means Bear's durability will be greatly desirable. If you have the Mobility feat, you can get an effective fly-by, though, which should help immensely; in that case, more attacks means more chances to hit and avoid provoking OAs. Drunken Master does similarly if you don't want to spend the feat. So, I think I'd recommend Beast if you're going for Drunken Master or taking Mobility. I think you'd have more fun with Beast, too, even without those, unless you're particularly fragile. But Bear is a solid pick to preserve those spore temp hp, especially if you aren't getting Mobile or Drunken Master.

[elyktsorb]

Beast will require you to be in melee to truly take advantage of it, which ironically means Bear's durability will be greatly desirable. If you have the Mobility feat, you can get an effective fly-by, though, which should help immensely; in that case, more attacks means more chances to hit and avoid provoking OAs. Drunken Master does similarly if you don't want to spend the feat. So, I think I'd recommend Beast if you're going for Drunken Master or taking Mobility. I think you'd have more fun with Beast, too, even without those, unless you're particularly fragile. But Bear is a solid pick to preserve those spore temp hp, especially if you aren't getting Mobile or Drunken Master.

Hmm... If I go with Beast it would behoove me to get it to level 6 so that my claw attacks bypass magical resistance, although since the assumption is that a majority of my attacks will have a d6 of Necrotic riding on them, it isn't essential that I get to that level.

But if I go with Bear I could increase more Monk levels as the totem ability would bolster my temp hp, allowing me to need less druid levels in general, although having druid levels isn't a bad thing, there's a lot of utility there still.

Tho both Beast and Totem have very poor 6th level abilities imo, so if I did go further with Monk, I think 4 would be a good stopping point for them, I find having three rages is generally good enough to last a whole day and I'll definitely need the ASI.

Totem could mean needing less Druid levels, though I'll never have enough monk levels to do higher than a d6 with martial arts, and if that's the case the spore damage rider will always be good, so it's better to get more ways to hit per turn, which Monk levels will do.

Hmm. Would it be more damage to get Beast and have the additional Claw attack every round, or to go for Totem and then be able to pump more levels into monk to have more Flurries of Blows?

[Sorinth]

Seems like a tough multiclass to me. Sure rage will help keep those temp HP up but you still want a decent number of druid levels and the more druid levels you have the more rage's no casting/concentration will feel restrictive as you will have good spells.

Also the spore druids damage applies to melee weapon attacks so the monks unarmed strike might not work (Ask your DM). If they do then a Monk/Druid split might work quite nicely, take Mobile and just hit and run to keep your temp HP up. Hit and Run tactics also work well with the Halo of Spores feature. And flavour wise Mercy+Spore seems like it could be interesting mix. It can still work even if the rider damage doesn't apply to unarmed strikes but you'd want to weigh a little more heavy towards monk so you have enough ki to make use of Ki-Fueled Attack and attack with your weapon as your BA, you'd probably also want a more weapon focused subclass for monk like Kensei.

[elyktsorb]

melee weapon attacks so the monks unarmed strike might not work

The Monk's unarmed strike is a melee weapon attack, it just doesn't use an actual weapon. This is a dumb and confusing ruling that prevents many things from working, and makes me look it up every time I think about it (I certainly did just now) but the Spore Druid rider is not one of them.

Effects that require you to use a melee weapon attack work with unarmed strikes, effects that specifically require a weapon do not, like Divine Smite.

[Khrysaes]

I think its level 5 or 6 monk unarmed strikes are considered magical, so that is an alternative to beast barb.

[Omni-Centrist]

I know this is a sort of long dead thread, but my idea for a Spore Druid/Barb multiclass was to go the Revenant Blade/Double Bladed Scimitar route. That way, you get a +1 AC boost and +1 STR at Level 4 to get +4 STR modifier (if using point buy + Elf race for the initial 17 STR score). And you don't have to dip into a 3rd class. It's really nice being able to first turn rage and wild shape, then next turn unload for 3d4+6d6+16, Starting Level 7.

[elyktsorb]

I know this is a sort of long dead thread, but my idea for a Spore Druid/Barb multiclass was to go the Revenant Blade/Double Bladed Scimitar route. That way, you get a +1 AC boost and +1 STR at Level 4 to get +4 STR modifier (if using point buy + Elf race for the initial 17 STR score). And you don't have to dip into a 3rd class. It's really nice being able to first turn rage and wild shape, then next turn unload for 3d4+6d6+16, Starting Level 7.

That's a bit tricky though. Since activating Rage is a bonus action, and Wild Shape is a standard action, if you do both on one turn you can't attack, if you can't attack during a turn and don't take damage, the rage will end.

My main reason for the dip is mostly that Barbarian is going to end up being the dip in the long run, at earlier levels I think having 3 levels of barb (going totem) to protect your spore temp hp is a good idea, and there really isn't anything good or synergistic in barbarian past level 4, I also maintain that 3 rages a day is good enough for the most part.

I don't know where you're getting that damage output either. Shouldn't it be 5d4 (2d4 attacks plus the bonus action 1d4 attack) and then 3d6 for the spore rider damage per hit, and then it should be plus 18 and not 16 right? (2 for the rage bonus + 4 Str x 3 hits = 18)

The 3 (or 4) levels of Barbarian would allow you to take less Druid levels since Rage will effectively double your temp hp. So at level 5, what would normally be 20 temp hp from Symbiotic Entity will effectively be 40, something you would 5 more druid levels to get to as opposed to the three (or 4) barbarian levels.

Once you get to barb 3(or 4) you then balance between druid and monk since monk is going to give you the most options for attacking in a turn per turn, and the monk abilities better synergize with spore imo. There's also the fact that since your working with a lot of temp hp anyway, having a super high con score isn't needed, so having the monk's unarmored defense is a lot better cutting you down to three ability scores instead of four (since I did plan this with the idea that I would be investing in wisdom for druid stuff)