Errata: I forgot that Longbows are considered Heavy and that Heavy weapons would impose disadvantage for our little kobold! Using a shortbow instead would only lower our DPR by 1-2 per round, depending on enemy AC, so not a huge impact, but worth noting. I have updated the spreadsheet/graphs with the new numbers. Also: I misspoke when I said Summon Beast lasts for 10 minutes - it's an hour.
Slight detail, but you also said that if the drake dies, you can resummon it after a long rest with a 1st level spell slot, which incorrect. After a long rest, you can summon it for free. It only cost you a spell slot if you already expended your daily use.
This is one of the few subclasses that works when it starts at level 3: it was an egg. You spent two levels protecting the drake egg while your Cleric and Warlock and Sorc all started with their subclass.
I imagine starting as a draconic bloodline dragonborn at lvl 1 + ranger mixing at lvl 3 for drake warden. Draconic overload! You can throw in like 3x dmg/ res types from Chromatic/ Gem/ Metallic with some modification including your drakes traits!
But the drake isnt a literal creature, its a manifestation. My drakewarden has a blue dragon scale from a dragon who is a major member of their community, and the drake they have manifests from that.
Man they did the Fizban subclasses dirty. All Paladins get a pegasus at level 13, Lore Bards can get it at level 10. Let me ride a flying lil dragon at level 11 Drakewarden Ranger gosh dangit!
Just so you know, sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I watch the video at 1.5/2 speed (i would rewatch it later at normal speed) BUT the intro I cannot speed up. It's so relaxing, soothing and welcoming, I LOVE IT
A Backstory: You are a cleric of Bahamut. One Faithful Night you receive a vision of a dying massive golden dragon. With only your faith to guide you you set out to find this ancient being of great power. When you finally reach your destination you do indeed find the dragon on its death bed. You use your Emboldening Bond and all the magic you can muster to try and save it. Alas you fail to save it, but it uses your bond to add a sliver of it essence to you and you pass out. When you wake you are now nature and soon to be dragon inclined. You also have a few of it memories and its a jumble, the one thing you do know was that the dragon was guarding a artifact of grave power and danger to the world and you must hunt down what ever did took this artifact and face what ever was strong enough to kill an ancient gold dragon. ...... I want to play this.
So, I built a fun character with this class back when it was originally in UA (I wanna say it was for a level 10 oneshot a buddy of mine ran). He was a 10 year old street urchin, who was blinded by an accident a year earlier. If I remember correctly, I did 3 levels of Arcane Trickster Rogue (just to have a bat Familiar so he can see) and the rest in Drakewarden Ranger. It was amazing to have the drake get in melee range and then be able to do sneak attack anytime I wanted. Plus he was a fun character to play! Might pick him back up again someday now that the Drakewarden is out!
Definitely not nit-picky! Small sized creatures are supposed to have pros and cons and you can't just ignore the cons for a build. That's what makes building fun. lol
I mean, that's a bit of a 5e marshmallow retcon. I'd say by and large kobolds are evil with exceptions, kind of like how Drizzt is an exception to drows being evil.
I just suggested this character to one of the players on the planescape campaign I'm starting up. She loved the idea. And in the process of me sharing your video with her, you got a new fan. She's a statistics professor and a D&D geek. Of course she was going to love your channel!
Emboldening bond is strong but I think RAW protective bond is the overpowered part of Peace domain. Maybe at least. Teleporting and soaking an AoE sounds super strong. But I guess that's up to DM interpretation.
Totally, for me, as a master, peace clerics are much more of a nuisance than OP. I'm used to clerics using blessing, so a blessing in be minor doesn't bother me; it's certainly powerful because now they can have this blessing-- and Spirits Guardian ar the dame time and this is huge, but I can live with that. Protective Bond, on the other hand... continually repositioning the team isn't so much OP as it is annoying for the master and time consuming (everybody has another movement phase as reacción), but, for the most, If players can divide the damage they take between themselves at will, it makes balancing fights a nightmare, only a narrow margin separates a total victory from a TPK in everybsingle fight. It removes an exciting part of the game, that of dying players to save, it undermines the risk, which is the fun part. And if it doesn't work out it just leaves the total failure of the TPK as an alternative, which is the boring part. It's bad class design, not so much for being OP, but for being boring for the players and annoying for the master. But, for a one level dip... it's a powerfull cleric subclass but nothing broken
I think what people find OP is the fact it can stack with Bless, increasing further the advantage provided while reduving the chances for the DM to break their concentration. But that's a 2 rounds set-up, and nothing you can't deal with by slightly increasing the encounters' difficulty.
@@dragondragondragon One thing I would say is that what peace cleric can do is allow for a DM to bump up the difficulty of their encounters without worrying as much about most of the party suffering because of one particular player.
I wouldn’t mind stuff like the peace domain’s abilities if the designers had made the class so damn front-loaded or made the resource-cost of these powerful abilities actually matter. Emboldening bond would be an amazing channel divinity option (even if it overlaps and overshadows the channel divinities of knowledge and grave domain clerics) and balm of peace would be better served if it was a higher level feature with uses tied to an ability score. Protective bond automatically stacking on top of emboldening bond is where the powercreep compared to older cleric subclasses really stands out - the damage absorbing potential combined with the teleportation benefits spread over a massive radius (as good as an 18th level paladin’s aura) makes this ability especially problematic since it considerably unbalances fights in the party’s favor (leading DMs to ramp up monster CRs) without requiring any tactical thinking or sacrifice. You get protective bond at 6th level. Sixth level. Hexblade eldritch-blasters and power build dips into it are annoying because they devalue the narrative power of the subclass. This is different. It makes playing other, weaker subclasses objectively worse options that, because of the existence of eloquence bards and peace domains clerics, require sacrificing potential to play. To put it a different way, monks aren’t an objectively weak class until they are compared to other classes.
Peace Domain can be used as so many interesting ways, (Peace Maker for example) i saw a quote from Megatron that make me laught, it was "I will create desolation and call it peace!" Heh and Gandhi also said something about using violence when there is no other way (when there's no other way then violence, so violence can be the way), it is part of the nature itself and can't be eliminated, but it can be disciplined. A good quote a "pacifist" cleric could use to introduce the party would be "I particularly don't like violence, that been said... you now are in the presence of some violent individuals"
About the Mounted Combat: Specific rules beat general rules, meaning you can still have the drake attack on your turn while controlling it. Cause the feature says you can. Whether you mount the drake or not, it obeys your commands.
A magic item that gets rid of sunlight sensitivity (plus other benefits) is Knave's Eye Patch it's a rare magic item that requires attunement and here's what it does While wearing this eye patch, you gain these benefits: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. If you have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait, you are unaffected by the trait. You are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine whether you are lying. Creatures can communicate telepathically with you only if you allow it.
Congrats on 50k! I just rewatched this episode and I have a suggestion for those who do not like to take the peace cleric subclass. What about taking the tempest cleric instead? You loose Emboldening Bond but still get Bless for those early levels. Instead you get a reaction to push enemues away from your character, which comes handy for a ranged character. Then later on, you replace the Peace Clerics features with Destructive Wrath and Thunderous Strike as well as Storm themed damage and control spells. Then you could grab the 11th lvl Drakewarden Feature for massive Breath Weapon attacks, maximizing Lighting damage with destructive wrath and feuling this ability with more spell slots from the cleric right at cleric lvl 2. I am not sure if Thunderous Strike works RAW with the drakes reaction, since the lightning damage would come from the drake, but if your dm rules this in your favour, you also get a reliable way to push enemies around with attacks. When in doubt, maybe you could get a weapon that deals additional damage instead. Flavourwise I think a tempest cleric would mix very well with a drakewarden. Flavour him like a Stormknight that rides a blue dragon, which are known to be the rulers of storms.
I love this build concept so much! When you first said you were going kobold and starting cleric i assumed you were going to try to use the twilight cleric to eliminate sunlight sensitivity
Last tiem I played a sunlight sensitive character I said to my DM "I'm not going to keep asking about this because that will get annoying, if it's bright sunlight you'll have to tell me" He was fine with it and promptly forgot to ever tell me the weather ever ^_^
A great DM tool is a "good/evil" tool. (I use Fudge Dice, another GM I know uses a coin) Something to answer questions which you do not necessarily know the answer to. So like, if it is a part of the plot that they are in a storm? It's cloudy. If it's a part of the plot that it's sunny? It's sunny. But if I don't as a GM care, then I roll my die and answer it that way. Plus, if your PCs know you do this, it gets past the whole, "Does my DM hate me?" when you ask, "Is it sunny?"
Nice vid! I’d love to see a sort of “dnd unoptimized” character where you just go for the worst dnd character you could possibly make. Weird subclasses and feats and asi’s. I don’t know why I want to see this but it makes me laugh thinking of it
After longer consideration: a Goblin Four Elements Monk 4/ Champion 4/ Bard 1/ Paladin 2/ (Classic) Ranger 2/ Wizard 1/ Fiendlock 1/ Alchemist 5. Point buy + Racial modifier gets us stats of 14 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 13 Int, 13 Wis, 13 Cha. At Monk 4, we take Lucky and buy Plate and a Greatsword to prepare for next level; At Fighter 4, we take Great Weapon Master for "more damage"; at Alchemist 4 we grab Poisoner for a reliable use for our Bonus Action, minor turn one burst damage, and slight cc. We never get extra attack and are wielding a Heavy weapon as a small creature so we get 1 attack per round at disadvantage. We never get heavy armor proficiency so we can't any of our spells. But 3 times per day we can use Lucky to essentially attack with Elven Accuracy dealing bonus damage from Poison and Smites and hoping and praying for a crit. ddb.ac/characters/61745025/Rowe4Q
Drop alchemist and pick up something else. People severely underestimate the power of some of its elixers combined with infused crossbows, the archery fighting style, and the sharpshooter feat on a multiclass with extra attack. It might not be amazing and require some planning, but the same goes for a lot of other classes. Pick up some thing like inquisitive rogue or goolock instead.
Easy work around for the heavy weapon problem is to go a short bow. It is 1d6 instead of 1d8, but still gets archery, sharpshooter, and works with extra attack.
I tend to combine drakewarden with scout rogue so I can add the damage from sneak attack to whatever damage I’m using, usually archery. Also my dragon can just stay close to the enemy so I can effectively use sneak attack almost whenever. Also this just allows me to not need to focus my skills on survival and nature with added bonus of being expertise level. Add to that, the skirmisher feature allows me to be more dodgy and harder to hit. And there is no sneezing at being able to bonus action disengage when if that leaves your dragon to just use the dodge action. I usually combine the feat “gift of the metallic dragon” and, being in close proximity with my dragon allows me to better protect them with the shield like feature baked into the class, not to mention allows me to be supplementary healer. To be honest, I feel this is a very good class that allows a lot of flexibility to design around the make up of the group you play with. I’ve functioned as a tank, as a ranged damage dealer, and even a medic for my group. Usually I just fill the exploration and tracking role but I really love the flexibility of the class and this subclass I feel has a lot to offer regarding it. I’ve actually made several drakewardens due to all this. My most recent drakewarden is a tad new so isn’t close to optimized yet. I started with an astral elf and took the light spell since the game was designed less for combat and more for intrigue and roleplaying. This was also important I felt because the other two players and their characters were of races without darkvision so I took it to optimize the group until the wizard is far enough in to get the darkvision spell. As for the element I chose for my dragon once I had it, I focused on lightning. I’ll be able to change it later of course but lightning is a good general type I felt. Anyway, for initial spells I took absorb elements (since I would be more likely in a position of tanking in such a small group) and entangle. Entangle I feel is always critical to controlling the field and I have already used it very effectively during these early sessions. Once even in combination with the wizard’s sleep spell which allowed us to end the battle more peacefully. Now, normally when I add my third spell I take zephyr strike, a very good spell to stay dodgy and hit harder and move faster. This time I did not. I took Goodberry. This was because I felt a need for this group to keep rations stocked (until the cleric can) and to supplementary heal. So I felt this was the best way to optimize my group over my drakewarden in particular. My plan is for the next spell addition, which will be 2nd level ones, that I can take pass without a trace, which I’m looking forward to. It will allow my group to optimize for stealth missions which are more important in the type of game we are playing, which as I said is more intrigue and roleplay heavy. I quite like this build and see it playing well. I’m still trying to decide which feat I might go for in level 4. Sharpshooter can be great but it’s might serve me better, weirdly enough, to act as translator with linguist. And of course there is many other things available including the elven feat for elven accuracy. I could also optimize my close combat better by taking an additional fighting style for two weapon fighting (my elf has two scimitars). The decisions are difficult but I might just end up going with whatever feels right when we finally get there. After all, my character took sylvan during their level 3 (already knew draconic) due to the fact that they tamed a wynling by accident and now it’s staying with the party (fed it too many sweet buns and rolled a nat 20 for that final animal handling check when trying to release it back to the wild). Anyway, that’s how one of my recent drakewarden’s is playing out. All things considered I might crossover some cleric levels for this one. It’s a good idea and thematic enough I have realized.
I mean even humans have trouble functioning on bright days, especially bright days with snow. Sunglasses are popular for a reason. Maybe kobold could just wear some sunglasses? Got to embrace weaknesses. Being good at everything all the time is boring.
Already recommended this build to a friend and am totally going to be build this but reskinning it as a Summoner from the Taren Matheru summoner series.
I enjoy watching these videos for the multiclassing. I am currently building my first multiclass; a Gloomstalker Ranger/Phantom Rogue multiclass and it's fun to see how you mix and match your classes.
Greetings from Denmark. I feel so much alike you and it’s amazing: - I love the idea of monks needing nothing but their minds resolve and physical control no matter the situation. My first character was also a monk and I am inspired by monks in my own personal aspirations. - I like to crunch numbers and used ludicsavant’s damage calculator before I found your channel - It seems like you try to formulate your thoughts without wasting words. I appreciate that and strive to do the same. You are adept at keeping things on track and creating a nice overview of your videos in the comments as well as during your analyses. - I am a sucker for cliche dragons and Dragonslance was insta-love. I’ve never read so many books in any other series (maybe ASOIAF has as many words. But there are also dragons!). - I also think a small half tabaxi half gnome sounds cute as well as all the other cute things that sometimes present themselves in your videos. I think the Thundeball, Greased Lightning and Drakewarden are my favorite builds of yours. Please keep on coming up with story ideas for your characters. I’m always excited about them. You have no idea who I am but I feel like you’re a kindred spirit who welcomes me home. Thank you so much. I have been a member for a couple of months and hope you can keep the channel going for a long time.
I'm a huge fan of Dragons and the Drakewarden was gonna be my return to 5e character.... You're content has gotten you a new subscriber... Keep making more awesome videos like this one... Now time to watch so I can either edit my comment or post a new one after I finish the video...
Bond of Fang & Scale, don't Mount it, instead have it Grapple you. Sure it's Speed is cut in half but that's fine, you're not moving anyway. Its young and only just got its wings. This way, you can still gain the benefits of flight. Spell Points instead of Spell Slots keep costs to Drake Breath or Summon Drake at a minimal. Order Domain Cleric with Spell Points, who also has a Background in a Strixhaven, can get access to the all-powerful Silvery Barbs OR Featherfall. Some even come with Haste. This means that the Mount would be able to attack for Action, Hasted Action, & Reaction, while it costs you Bonus Action & Reaction, leaving your Action completely free. A feat I would recommend: Chef. The Drake has a BA completely free and having treats every round to buffer damage, it might not sound like much but it really does add up & saves you on Spell Points/Slots. Treats= #Proficiency, providing a number of THP= Proficiency. So at: 2, 4 THP or 2 THP/round. 3, 9 THP or 3 THP/round. 4, 16 THP or 4 THP/round. 5, 25 THP or 5 THP/round. 6, 36 THP or 6 THP/round. And if you really needed to, you can cook several batches of treats for about 6-7 hours as the treats no longer provide THP if they aren't eaten before 8 hours of making them. But if eaten, THP lasts until the end of the next Long Rest.
These draconic classes are great :). Coolest combo I've found so far is ascendant dragon monk + thief + oil flasks to add 5 to the damage of each unarmed strike. Could also add in some genie warlock so you can trigger the fire and sneak attack with the same strike?
sneak attack doesn't work with unarmed strike as those aren't finesse weapons. great idea with oil, fast hands and multiple hit fire attacks. should work awesomely with scorching ray.
It really is such a shame that a Drakewarden doesn't actually start being able to fly on their mount until 15th level. It just feels wrong that the biggest draw of the class comes on later than most campaigns will ever actually see. To that end, I think multiclassing Cleric's the right call and really gives the build some nice niches. Speaking of Cleric, I think you've made me a fan of using Peace's Emboldening Bond for a pet class. That subclass can still slow things down way more than necessary ("Did you guys remember to use your d4 this turn?" and don't even get me started on teleport shenanigans once you reach level 6), but using it on your own li'l dude at least streamlines things a bit. If you were doing a very high level campaign, Peace Cleric 1/Drakewarden 15 or 16 sounds like a lot of fun.
Personally I'd allow the Drake to fly for ten rounds (one minute) or so per day while it's being ridden; it'd give you some fun options and cool story moments where your drake exerts himself to fly and save the day.
I don’t think elemental damage types being resisted more then bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage matters in this case because you will usually be able to choose an elemental damage type that is not resisted by that particular foe. (I.e. Cold for fire elementals, lightning for frost giants, etc.)
I got a chance to play a drake warden, sadly game ended before I got past level 5 but it’s a super fun subclass. My drake dragged around small creatures like goblins, which was really useful
for splitting up your graphs, i recommend limiting the info you see- Just the build in question, the lowest damage build in that tier, the highest damage build in that teir, and the average of all builds in that teir
"legend says that when the ground quakes or lava spews from the earth, it's the dragons" Edit: maybe you mentioned it but I have a question about using longbows or heavy crossbows as a small creature cause they're heavy
@@PackTactics Don't be mad! Though I do like the idea - using concentration for it in place of your summoned creature to ensure your own advantage... might not be a net gain, but I'm guessing it would depend on enemy AC and how many attacks your summoned creature was making...
I'm glad you did a vid on this as this was the subclass i was excited about with the new book. sadly, i still think the beastmaster is better though this is still solid. I did build and play a wis based beastmaster and yes i was getting charge off almost every turn (along with an opportunity attack) as i was using primarily dissonant whispers (via feytouched). i agree that the beastmaster's companion is more accurate (especially with the new moon sickle from tasha as it scales off of your spell attack bonus) so i'm on board with your way of boosting the accuracy of the drake. personally though i dislike wasting my action on the 1st round to setup emboldening bond/bless (unless i'm out of range) so personally i would've multiclassed elsewhere like the diviner wizard for portent or war cleric for war god's blessing for free action ways to boost the drake's accuracy as needed. I love multiclassing as well. probably the main reason i enjoy theorycrafting in dnd. I haven't played a drakewarden yet and i'll probably play one once i can get into a game during the holidays. rough theorycrafting now baed on my input above for level 10 i'd probably go with 2 fighter (as usual), 6 drake and 2 diviner wiz similar to my beastmaster setup going wis based and leveraging off of dissonant whispers. i defintely enjoyed the vid as you called out a major weakness of the drakewarden so i'm definitely mixing diviner there for situational accuracy boosts. i may even go battlemaster so i can use distracting strike as reaction attack (off of dissonant whispers) just to give the drake advantage on it's attack.
I looove the idea of this character. When I get home I’m going to fiddle around with trying to squeeze in either Druidic warrior fighting style or magic initiate Druid for magic stone and go full wisdom for a little extra pet buff to hit.
I like this subclass. I did a build with it that was focused about empowering pets damage more then mine. The whole build is lvl 11 drakewarden ranger/ lvl 5 shadow magic sorcerer /lvl4 The Genie ( Dao)( pact of the chain). I went Custom lineage as a point buy i did it as 8 str/14 dex/12 con/14 wisdom/15 Cha. As for racial bonus i added the +2 to to charisma, and for the free feat i went Skill Expert and put that +1 point to cha, so it is at lvl 1 actually 8 str/14 dex/12 con/14 wisdom/18 cha. Unlike colby's build i went with main weapon as Eldritch Blast. The idea of this build is to up cast dragon's breath spell as high as I can use with Twinned spell to give it both to the imp and drake. The imp mostly stays alive because you can trigger dragon's breath spell and it doesn't break its invisibility. Eventually it will be up cast with a lvl 5 slot and twinned with it doing 6d6 damage in a 15 ft cone, but instead of being close to the ground they would fly up 15ft above the target point and then use the breath straight down making it a 15 ft radius. I would take invocations agonizing blast, investment of the chain master, and Gift of the ever living ones from eldritch adept, for metamagic i am thinking Twinned spell, Distance spell, quickened spell, and transmuted spell. Feats / ASI : At our table we get a choice between magic adept, tough or skilled as free feats as we are sort of testing stuff for dnd one, I took tough. For the free feat from race i took skill expert as i said already. then took feats in progression : Eldritch adept , war caster, Metamagic adept, and an ASI for +2 Cha to make it out at 20. I started lvl 1 as sorcerer for the free con saves. ranger at lvl 2 then worked out all 4 lvls of warlock of warlock, then Ranger again for 3 lvls to get to next ASI, then for lvls in sorcerer to finish it out. After that i just went ranger til lvl 20. Ideally I would have done it as tasha's beast master but couldn't do 15 lvls in it to get shared spells feature , so switched it to drake warden. but would have wanted to do it as 15 lvls of ranger, with 3 lvls of both sorcerer, and 3 lvls of warlock , then when i twinned it as beastmaster I would hit imp with dragon's breath then me, and since a spell targeted me, it also buffs beast too so all 3 would have dragon's breath... but can't becaus that would be 21 lvls It would almost have worked as 15 lvls ranger, 3 lvls warlock, and 2 lvls of sorcerer. and get metamagic from metamagic adept, but the thing is sorcerer can get the dragon's breath spell but like that it can't hit lvl 2 spells, and warlock and ranger can't get it. You could do it that way with ashardalon's stride but as the spells says once you hit it with the fire damage it can't take that damage again that turn. So having 2 others with it would be redundant.
Once your drake can fly it can totally just grapple you and fly you around at half speed btw, even if you can't mount it. Maybe not great for combat, but great for exploration and escaping.
Played a Kobold sorcerer ones. RAW sunlight sensitivity hits, when you or your target are in direct sunlight. Although the target part is out of your control, the you part is easily solved: Get a nice hat.
I really like the fact this build ends off on drake warden early and here’s how I’d do it because of that fact! I like the idea the character is a chirpy wannabe dragon rider, stealing an egg from a nest they expect something great by the time it hatch’s, but instead, they get a wyvern, take the poison damage (or acid if you don’t wanna be resisted all the time) and it’s pretty on theme. The creature grows a decent amount, but it’s certainly no immense dragon and doesn’t even have a breath weapon, and you spend much time arguing and struggling to bond with the beast, but eventually in your clerical pursuits you learn to make peace and find peace in this, and use its unique abilities to your advantage.
I think I would prefer going with melee combat and spending my concentration on fog cloud with blindfighting.Then I would have a way to deny the sunlight sensitivity if I needed to and make sure I always have advantage. Plus a sword on a dragon sounds cooler to me. More mounted like combat stuff.
I haven't figured it all out yet but I'm one session into a Str 20 Drakewarden. Flanking every attack is pretty OK. I have thrown weapon specialization for when I'm able to mount up, cast longstrider on it, and dash in and out of combat as needed. A reach weapon will help with that, I think. I rolled as a half elf to pick up either green flame blade or booming blade - I think booming, to dissuade enemies from pursuing me when I ride away to huck javelins, but haven't figured out what's "best." Fog and blindfighting is pretty interesting. Possible drawback, the drake's attacks would always be at disadvantage. There are so many cool things you can do with this it's hard to specialize into one!
@@3nchiridion that’s true but it’s generally more valuable to be at disadvantage as long as your enemy is also at disadvantage, especially when there are more enemies than there are party members. Pack Tactics has some great videos on the subject, like with the Dire Wolf puzzle.
@@3nchiridion not always as remember you can cast fog cloud above ground. if fighting a large+ enemy simply cast fog cloud 5 ft above the ground. enemy can't see you while you and the drake can see the lower body of the enemy so you have advantage and they have disadvantage. the fog cloud also blocks sunlight so you dont get the sunlight sensitivity drawback.
2 years back I actually played a kolbold cleric named kolby lol. I made him a cleric light domain, becuase I liked the thought of him praising the sun, even though it made things harder on him. A bit of the bare you cross mentality maybe? Plus casting daylight to give yourself disadvantage was fun and funny. Only played him for about 3 sessions before my curse of forever DM returned to me.
@@quendi5557 yeah ik, but my DM agreed it was Day light mechincally for the purpose of the character and the fun. Silly build anyways, plus what DM is gonna take your disadvantage away from you lol.
Beast of the land charge bonus DMG will probably happen once per 1-2 rounds of combat before lvl 11, but after that, it will happen 1-2 per round. because beast can attack two times, so it can gain this bonus against that enemy twice per turn. If you share Haste, there is even possibility to do this charge bonus dmg 3 times per round, which is significant bonus!
I love to is build! The only thing I’d change would be to take Order cleric so when we cast bless or other ally targeting spells, our drake can make a melee attack as a reaction :D
Hey Colby I've been obsessed with these videos for the last two weeks and you are a very relaxing vibe to watch! Can I make a very polite request for a Druidic warrior ranger? Keep making nerdy shit!!
My idea for this subclass would you take some points into fighter for the interception fighting style, and fight next to the drake on the front lines. Absorbing some of the damage the Drake takes and holding the front line. Possibly taking the Cavalier subclass, and a small race such as Kobald, or something for increased wisdom. I've not read through all the features yet, so I'm not 100% on how all the skills would interact, or even how good this will be in the end. Was just my initial thoughts
I was building a peace cleric/drakewarden when this video came out. Now I shall steal your build instead. Also doooo a Loxodon barbarian/soulknife grappler build!
@@depecher6s311 Any race with powerful build, rune knight for 3 levels, spellcaster for 3 to get enlarge/reduce. 20 in strength and using Giant's might and then casting enlarge/reduce is a carrying capacity of 1200 lbs
Im playing an Eladrin College of Glamour Bard who is multiclassing into Drakewarden. Im excited to have a character who looks different every day and a drake that matches. Especially because my party is very backline except for a Hexblade, it will be nice to have a frontline pet.
Little late to the vid but on emboldening bond you said "can't be used for every saving throw". It basically can- it's once per *turn* not once per *round*.
i feel like it would be pretty interesting if classes capped at 10, then a level 20 could have 2 full classes and you could get capstones in normal campaigns. also maybe you could multiclass into the same class to get another subclass. Just spitballing ideas tho
Is it daylight? If yes see below Is the source of the light being provided by the daylight? If yes see below You suffer from sunlight sensitivity Overcast does not stop sunlight sensitivity. Curse of Strahd mentions this specifically.
My nephew is playing a Ranger as his first ever D&D character, and I just ordered the dragon book, expected to arrive next week. I'm planning on begging our DM to allow him to play a Drakewarden, assuming he likes the idea (which part of me thinks he would, but I could be wrong).
So... you have a great ranger, but one that will never sing "Diggin' the snow and rain and bright sunshine. Dragons in line...." (Apologies to Tommy James) I suggest Jack Sparrow-style eyeshadow/eyeliner to cut the glare if you ever want to fly your dragon in the sunnyt, sunny sky. .. see if your DM will let you buy (magical?) magic eyeliner to counter the disadvantage of bright sunshine.
Looking at the summon fey statblock while I would allow them to use a magic weapon I'm not sure if I would still include the +1d6 force damage as you could say that is coming from their special weapon. You could also argue by RAW that they wouldn't add the spells level to the piercing damage. Not 100% sure how I'd rule it until it comes up.
RAW you simply remove that shortsword entry in summon fey and replace with the dmg of the magic weapon. let's say it was a shortsword +2 then it would deal 1d6 + 2 + fey's dex.
Keep in mind if your drake hasn't used its reaction yet. You should always have them use it when you hit on your turn as they will regain it immediately after
@@regaleagle6533 Yes! However in my opinion it is best to hold it with this build, so your drake will have its reaction available for protective bond when needed, and you will still be able to reliably get the damage on your own turn if he ends up not using it in the round :)
I like to think that this kobold is still evil, just a very rare emissary chosen by tiamat to negotiate border disputes, mating arrangements, and alliance negotiating between her chromatic children to keep them strong and prosperous in spite of the lesser races rebelling against their rightful rule and hunting them for trophy or hides. I love the idea of a tiny kobold deemed sacrosanct as a matter of religious dogma by these much more massive and powerful dragons. Also, dragon custody battles.
So why would this character need ranger levels? Because getting from dragon den to dragon den is super dangerous and difficult, duh. And the dragon pet is a sign of tiamats favor to all, and a divine spirit from her. And therefore the dm should let you ride it.
I love this build!! Thanks! I have a human ranger that just graduated to level 3 drakenwarden... Im this case, without the pack tactics of the kobold, wouldn't be better to just use Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter and use the drake for meat-shield + attacks of opportunity?
Potion of growth makes the level 15 drake as big as an adult dragon. They don't cost a ton and don't use your concentration and add a bit more to the damage.
Been watching a lot of your vids this week. And there's something I think would be a big improvement. You've already done an amazing job with time stamps. If you added one more "starting setup" at the level 1 section it'd be great. So many of these are varient human or elf and I get why I'm not mad at that. But when I click level 1 and there's another 3 minutes explaining why a Feat at level 1 is a good thing... And I'm listening to 10 of these at work I'd just love it if another chapter was added to the time stamp
Next build idea, you should try to build the "dragon lancer cavalier" idea that we all have in mind, heavy armor, great sword, pike, mounted lance, bit of fire dmg etc
I think you overlooked something: You have cleric 1 in your build, which means your spell slots are the same as a 1+half your Ranger level. This means that at level 9, you get level 3 spell slots
So my next character is either going to be an astral self monk (based off the grappler monk build you made with my own tweaks) or a drake warden but I didn't know what build to go. So this is perfect timing!
I’ve made an Astral Self monk that focuses on knocking people prone and holding (grappling) them prone using my astral arms to attack with Elven advantage flurry of blows on the first turn and all attacks thereafter (assuming they don’t break the grapple and stand up on their next turn).
oh forgot to mention ideally the damage as i I built the character the idea is the imp and drake are both using the draong's breath spell , each doing 15 ft radius damage of 6d6 ( element of your choice) and i will be doing eldrithch blast that is empowered by genie's wrath and agonizing blast on out eldritch blast, at lvl 17 it should be doing between both pets doing 12d6 damage and 4d10+6+20 with eldritch blast. every turn. I was thinking maybe giving imp barding of full plate at some point so its AC will be 18 , also don't see why they can't carry a shield getting it to AC 20. as far as the drake they should be able to use Bracers of defense.
The problem with pack tactics on the drakewarden is that the pet acts after your turn. You can command it to move next to an enemy to gain pack tactics, but you won't gain the benefit until the following turn.
Truth. The nice thing about being a ranged character, of course, is that the likelihood of you being able to find at least *one* target that's standing close to one of your allies (whether your pets or another PC) is pretty high. At least after round 1 (and with this build, you're probably not making weapon attacks round 1 anyway)
27:30 i do this but i also have a familiar (dm gave us a free feat at lvl 1, i took magic initiate) familiar uses the help action for drake, me and beast have pack tactics. All three of us essentially always have advantage
I was theory crafting my own Drake Warden. Fae-Dragonborn with a Fae Dragon as a Dragon companion. I was thinking about how I can then scale a Fae Dragon as a Dragoncompanion, since they dont have a breathweapon like other drakes/dragons. But they have the euphoria breath of course.
Errata: I forgot that Longbows are considered Heavy and that Heavy weapons would impose disadvantage for our little kobold! Using a shortbow instead would only lower our DPR by 1-2 per round, depending on enemy AC, so not a huge impact, but worth noting. I have updated the spreadsheet/graphs with the new numbers. Also: I misspoke when I said Summon Beast lasts for 10 minutes - it's an hour.
Doesnt matter if we're in sunlight though right?!
Slight detail, but you also said that if the drake dies, you can resummon it after a long rest with a 1st level spell slot, which incorrect. After a long rest, you can summon it for free. It only cost you a spell slot if you already expended your daily use.
@@bouboulroz fn hnhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn n no nnnnnnnn BB by nn my mmnnhnn my n no n
900 p9lplpllpll
@@bouboulroz to00lp0p0pppl
This is one of the few subclasses that works when it starts at level 3: it was an egg. You spent two levels protecting the drake egg while your Cleric and Warlock and Sorc all started with their subclass.
Bards...they have to wait :(
I imagine starting as a draconic bloodline dragonborn at lvl 1 + ranger mixing at lvl 3 for drake warden. Draconic overload! You can throw in like 3x dmg/ res types from Chromatic/ Gem/ Metallic with some modification including your drakes traits!
But the drake isnt a literal creature, its a manifestation. My drakewarden has a blue dragon scale from a dragon who is a major member of their community, and the drake they have manifests from that.
@@Valentine011it actually pretended so it can be anything you want!😮
Level 1:(see above) [cleric 1, sub-class & race]
Level 2:(see above) [ranger 1]
Level 3:(@16:28) [ranger 2 & fighting-style]
Level 4:(@17:42) [ranger 3 & sub-class]
Level 5:(@23:52) [ranger 4 & ASI]
Level 6:(@24:43) [ranger 5]
Level 7:(@29:22) [ranger 6]
Level 8:(@29:50) [ranger 7]
Level 9:(@33:56) [ranger 8 & ASI]
Level 10:(see above) [ranger 9]
Level 11:(@40:59) [cleric 2]
Level 12:(@42:23) [cleric 3]
Level 13:(@43:57) [cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 14:(see above) [cleric 5]
Level 15:(@46:00) [cleric 6]
Level 16:(@47:25) [cleric 7]
Level 17:(@47:56) [cleric 8 & ASI]
Man they did the Fizban subclasses dirty. All Paladins get a pegasus at level 13, Lore Bards can get it at level 10. Let me ride a flying lil dragon at level 11 Drakewarden Ranger gosh dangit!
100%
Also with the new Dragonnel Fizban added to the Greater Steed list, all Paladins can get a flying dragon mount at 13.
Ehh, I think the Ranger is solid, but the Ascendant Dragon Monk got a HARD nerf. As a lover of Monks, this greatly saddened me.
Is it weird that I prefer to use a saber toothed cat for find greater steed?
@@quendi5557 it's weird but that's fine
Just so you know, sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I watch the video at 1.5/2 speed (i would rewatch it later at normal speed) BUT the intro I cannot speed up. It's so relaxing, soothing and welcoming, I LOVE IT
A Backstory:
You are a cleric of Bahamut. One Faithful Night you receive a vision of a dying massive golden dragon. With only your faith to guide you you set out to find this ancient being of great power. When you finally reach your destination you do indeed find the dragon on its death bed. You use your Emboldening Bond and all the magic you can muster to try and save it.
Alas you fail to save it, but it uses your bond to add a sliver of it essence to you and you pass out. When you wake you are now nature and soon to be dragon inclined. You also have a few of it memories and its a jumble, the one thing you do know was that the dragon was guarding a artifact of grave power and danger to the world and you must hunt down what ever did took this artifact and face what ever was strong enough to kill an ancient gold dragon.
...... I want to play this.
Sounds awesome but where does the companion come from?
@egbboy1 from the essence the dragon gave us before it's death, I'd assume 😁
This concept is SO GOOD!
So, I built a fun character with this class back when it was originally in UA (I wanna say it was for a level 10 oneshot a buddy of mine ran). He was a 10 year old street urchin, who was blinded by an accident a year earlier. If I remember correctly, I did 3 levels of Arcane Trickster Rogue (just to have a bat Familiar so he can see) and the rest in Drakewarden Ranger. It was amazing to have the drake get in melee range and then be able to do sneak attack anytime I wanted. Plus he was a fun character to play! Might pick him back up again someday now that the Drakewarden is out!
Fun build! Nit picky mechanics, though: don't small size creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls using heavy weapons?
Came to the comments to post this exactly.
Definitely not nit-picky! Small sized creatures are supposed to have pros and cons and you can't just ignore the cons for a build. That's what makes building fun. lol
good call! Will pin an errata post :)
You should really read the Kobold section in Volo’s. They’re really not evil at all. I kind of love the lore.
True, they aren't good though. They are just neutral while swinging to the side of whatever dragon finds them.
I mean, that's a bit of a 5e marshmallow retcon. I'd say by and large kobolds are evil with exceptions, kind of like how Drizzt is an exception to drows being evil.
I just suggested this character to one of the players on the planescape campaign I'm starting up. She loved the idea. And in the process of me sharing your video with her, you got a new fan. She's a statistics professor and a D&D geek. Of course she was going to love your channel!
woo hoo! Thanks :)
Emboldening bond is strong but I think RAW protective bond is the overpowered part of Peace domain. Maybe at least. Teleporting and soaking an AoE sounds super strong. But I guess that's up to DM interpretation.
Totally, for me, as a master, peace clerics are much more of a nuisance than OP. I'm used to clerics using blessing, so a blessing in be minor doesn't bother me; it's certainly powerful because now they can have this blessing-- and Spirits Guardian ar the dame time and this is huge, but I can live with that.
Protective Bond, on the other hand... continually repositioning the team isn't so much OP as it is annoying for the master and time consuming (everybody has another movement phase as reacción), but, for the most, If players can divide the damage they take between themselves at will, it makes balancing fights a nightmare, only a narrow margin separates a total victory from a TPK in everybsingle fight.
It removes an exciting part of the game, that of dying players to save, it undermines the risk, which is the fun part. And if it doesn't work out it just leaves the total failure of the TPK as an alternative, which is the boring part.
It's bad class design, not so much for being OP, but for being boring for the players and annoying for the master.
But, for a one level dip... it's a powerfull cleric subclass but nothing broken
I think what people find OP is the fact it can stack with Bless, increasing further the advantage provided while reduving the chances for the DM to break their concentration. But that's a 2 rounds set-up, and nothing you can't deal with by slightly increasing the encounters' difficulty.
I personally as a DM find it annoying but not over powered. It’s just so slow if you you have Mathy characters
@@dragondragondragon One thing I would say is that what peace cleric can do is allow for a DM to bump up the difficulty of their encounters without worrying as much about most of the party suffering because of one particular player.
I wouldn’t mind stuff like the peace domain’s abilities if the designers had made the class so damn front-loaded or made the resource-cost of these powerful abilities actually matter. Emboldening bond would be an amazing channel divinity option (even if it overlaps and overshadows the channel divinities of knowledge and grave domain clerics) and balm of peace would be better served if it was a higher level feature with uses tied to an ability score. Protective bond automatically stacking on top of emboldening bond is where the powercreep compared to older cleric subclasses really stands out - the damage absorbing potential combined with the teleportation benefits spread over a massive radius (as good as an 18th level paladin’s aura) makes this ability especially problematic since it considerably unbalances fights in the party’s favor (leading DMs to ramp up monster CRs) without requiring any tactical thinking or sacrifice. You get protective bond at 6th level. Sixth level.
Hexblade eldritch-blasters and power build dips into it are annoying because they devalue the narrative power of the subclass. This is different. It makes playing other, weaker subclasses objectively worse options that, because of the existence of eloquence bards and peace domains clerics, require sacrificing potential to play.
To put it a different way, monks aren’t an objectively weak class until they are compared to other classes.
Regarding sunlight sensitivity you could pick up fog cloud and cast it above you to block out the sun.
"hey gm, can my character have a dragon"
"what type of dragon"
DRAGON DESE NUTS
"roll for initiative"
Really? I had to deal with that on a different youtube channel.
Is the GM & player in-fighting? Cause that's brilliant.
Peace Domain can be used as so many interesting ways, (Peace Maker for example) i saw a quote from Megatron that make me laught, it was "I will create desolation and call it peace!" Heh and Gandhi also said something about using violence when there is no other way (when there's no other way then violence, so violence can be the way), it is part of the nature itself and can't be eliminated, but it can be disciplined.
A good quote a "pacifist" cleric could use to introduce the party would be "I particularly don't like violence, that been said... you now are in the presence of some violent individuals"
About the Mounted Combat: Specific rules beat general rules, meaning you can still have the drake attack on your turn while controlling it. Cause the feature says you can. Whether you mount the drake or not, it obeys your commands.
agreed. as long as the drake hasn't taken an action yet.
A magic item that gets rid of sunlight sensitivity (plus other benefits) is Knave's Eye Patch it's a rare magic item that requires attunement and here's what it does
While wearing this eye patch, you gain these benefits:
You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
If you have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait, you are unaffected by the trait.
You are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine whether you are lying. Creatures can communicate telepathically with you only if you allow it.
Congrats on 50k!
I just rewatched this episode and I have a suggestion for those who do not like to take the peace cleric subclass.
What about taking the tempest cleric instead? You loose Emboldening Bond but still get Bless for those early levels. Instead you get a reaction to push enemues away from your character, which comes handy for a ranged character. Then later on, you replace the Peace Clerics features with Destructive Wrath and Thunderous Strike as well as Storm themed damage and control spells. Then you could grab the 11th lvl Drakewarden Feature for massive Breath Weapon attacks, maximizing Lighting damage with destructive wrath and feuling this ability with more spell slots from the cleric right at cleric lvl 2. I am not sure if Thunderous Strike works RAW with the drakes reaction, since the lightning damage would come from the drake, but if your dm rules this in your favour, you also get a reliable way to push enemies around with attacks. When in doubt, maybe you could get a weapon that deals additional damage instead.
Flavourwise I think a tempest cleric would mix very well with a drakewarden. Flavour him like a Stormknight that rides a blue dragon, which are known to be the rulers of storms.
I love this build concept so much! When you first said you were going kobold and starting cleric i assumed you were going to try to use the twilight cleric to eliminate sunlight sensitivity
Definitely worth considering. I think if I were playing in, say, Storm King's Thunder or something that is mostly outside, I might go that route :).
Clever
Last tiem I played a sunlight sensitive character I said to my DM "I'm not going to keep asking about this because that will get annoying, if it's bright sunlight you'll have to tell me" He was fine with it and promptly forgot to ever tell me the weather ever ^_^
Most DMs never think about weather.
They do have a lot more important t stuff to think about than the weather so it's understandable.
I just ask for dark goggles If I play drow that's been living on the surface. Of the character would solve the problem at this point
Tanis is the reason why half elf rangers are my favorite class, because of the books and how cool Elmore made him look on the covers
A great DM tool is a "good/evil" tool. (I use Fudge Dice, another GM I know uses a coin) Something to answer questions which you do not necessarily know the answer to.
So like, if it is a part of the plot that they are in a storm? It's cloudy. If it's a part of the plot that it's sunny? It's sunny. But if I don't as a GM care, then I roll my die and answer it that way.
Plus, if your PCs know you do this, it gets past the whole, "Does my DM hate me?" when you ask, "Is it sunny?"
Nice vid! I’d love to see a sort of “dnd unoptimized” character where you just go for the worst dnd character you could possibly make. Weird subclasses and feats and asi’s. I don’t know why I want to see this but it makes me laugh thinking of it
(Any) Genasi, Purple Dragon Knight 4/ Sun Soul 4/ Alchemist 12 would be my quick hazarded guess.
After longer consideration: a Goblin Four Elements Monk 4/ Champion 4/ Bard 1/ Paladin 2/ (Classic) Ranger 2/ Wizard 1/ Fiendlock 1/ Alchemist 5.
Point buy + Racial modifier gets us stats of 14 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 13 Int, 13 Wis, 13 Cha. At Monk 4, we take Lucky and buy Plate and a Greatsword to prepare for next level; At Fighter 4, we take Great Weapon Master for "more damage"; at Alchemist 4 we grab Poisoner for a reliable use for our Bonus Action, minor turn one burst damage, and slight cc.
We never get extra attack and are wielding a Heavy weapon as a small creature so we get 1 attack per round at disadvantage. We never get heavy armor proficiency so we can't any of our spells. But 3 times per day we can use Lucky to essentially attack with Elven Accuracy dealing bonus damage from Poison and Smites and hoping and praying for a crit.
ddb.ac/characters/61745025/Rowe4Q
@@jsamue12 I have issues with Alchemist and Champion.
Drop alchemist and pick up something else. People severely underestimate the power of some of its elixers combined with infused crossbows, the archery fighting style, and the sharpshooter feat on a multiclass with extra attack.
It might not be amazing and require some planning, but the same goes for a lot of other classes. Pick up some thing like inquisitive rogue or goolock instead.
@@alexandrudorries3307 goolock. Inquisitive while not great does have some useful and generally applicable features.
Easy work around for the heavy weapon problem is to go a short bow. It is 1d6 instead of 1d8, but still gets archery, sharpshooter, and works with extra attack.
Yup!
I tend to combine drakewarden with scout rogue so I can add the damage from sneak attack to whatever damage I’m using, usually archery. Also my dragon can just stay close to the enemy so I can effectively use sneak attack almost whenever. Also this just allows me to not need to focus my skills on survival and nature with added bonus of being expertise level. Add to that, the skirmisher feature allows me to be more dodgy and harder to hit. And there is no sneezing at being able to bonus action disengage when if that leaves your dragon to just use the dodge action. I usually combine the feat “gift of the metallic dragon” and, being in close proximity with my dragon allows me to better protect them with the shield like feature baked into the class, not to mention allows me to be supplementary healer. To be honest, I feel this is a very good class that allows a lot of flexibility to design around the make up of the group you play with. I’ve functioned as a tank, as a ranged damage dealer, and even a medic for my group. Usually I just fill the exploration and tracking role but I really love the flexibility of the class and this subclass I feel has a lot to offer regarding it. I’ve actually made several drakewardens due to all this.
My most recent drakewarden is a tad new so isn’t close to optimized yet. I started with an astral elf and took the light spell since the game was designed less for combat and more for intrigue and roleplaying. This was also important I felt because the other two players and their characters were of races without darkvision so I took it to optimize the group until the wizard is far enough in to get the darkvision spell. As for the element I chose for my dragon once I had it, I focused on lightning. I’ll be able to change it later of course but lightning is a good general type I felt. Anyway, for initial spells I took absorb elements (since I would be more likely in a position of tanking in such a small group) and entangle. Entangle I feel is always critical to controlling the field and I have already used it very effectively during these early sessions. Once even in combination with the wizard’s sleep spell which allowed us to end the battle more peacefully. Now, normally when I add my third spell I take zephyr strike, a very good spell to stay dodgy and hit harder and move faster. This time I did not. I took Goodberry. This was because I felt a need for this group to keep rations stocked (until the cleric can) and to supplementary heal. So I felt this was the best way to optimize my group over my drakewarden in particular. My plan is for the next spell addition, which will be 2nd level ones, that I can take pass without a trace, which I’m looking forward to. It will allow my group to optimize for stealth missions which are more important in the type of game we are playing, which as I said is more intrigue and roleplay heavy. I quite like this build and see it playing well. I’m still trying to decide which feat I might go for in level 4. Sharpshooter can be great but it’s might serve me better, weirdly enough, to act as translator with linguist. And of course there is many other things available including the elven feat for elven accuracy. I could also optimize my close combat better by taking an additional fighting style for two weapon fighting (my elf has two scimitars). The decisions are difficult but I might just end up going with whatever feels right when we finally get there. After all, my character took sylvan during their level 3 (already knew draconic) due to the fact that they tamed a wynling by accident and now it’s staying with the party (fed it too many sweet buns and rolled a nat 20 for that final animal handling check when trying to release it back to the wild). Anyway, that’s how one of my recent drakewarden’s is playing out.
All things considered I might crossover some cleric levels for this one. It’s a good idea and thematic enough I have realized.
As a native New Yorker, I find that I have to listen to this at either 1.25x or 1.5x speed to feel conversational.
I mean even humans have trouble functioning on bright days, especially bright days with snow. Sunglasses are popular for a reason. Maybe kobold could just wear some sunglasses? Got to embrace weaknesses. Being good at everything all the time is boring.
Already recommended this build to a friend and am totally going to be build this but reskinning it as a Summoner from the Taren Matheru summoner series.
I enjoy watching these videos for the multiclassing. I am currently building my first multiclass; a Gloomstalker Ranger/Phantom Rogue multiclass and it's fun to see how you mix and match your classes.
You have such a soothing voice, a great storyteller!
Greetings from Denmark.
I feel so much alike you and it’s amazing:
- I love the idea of monks needing nothing but their minds resolve and physical control no matter the situation. My first character was also a monk and I am inspired by monks in my own personal aspirations.
- I like to crunch numbers and used ludicsavant’s damage calculator before I found your channel
- It seems like you try to formulate your thoughts without wasting words. I appreciate that and strive to do the same. You are adept at keeping things on track and creating a nice overview of your videos in the comments as well as during your analyses.
- I am a sucker for cliche dragons and Dragonslance was insta-love. I’ve never read so many books in any other series (maybe ASOIAF has as many words. But there are also dragons!).
- I also think a small half tabaxi half gnome sounds cute as well as all the other cute things that sometimes present themselves in your videos.
I think the Thundeball, Greased Lightning and Drakewarden are my favorite builds of yours.
Please keep on coming up with story ideas for your characters. I’m always excited about them.
You have no idea who I am but I feel like you’re a kindred spirit who welcomes me home. Thank you so much. I have been a member for a couple of months and hope you can keep the channel going for a long time.
I'm a huge fan of Dragons and the Drakewarden was gonna be my return to 5e character.... You're content has gotten you a new subscriber... Keep making more awesome videos like this one... Now time to watch so I can either edit my comment or post a new one after I finish the video...
Cleric/ranger is such a good combo. Glad to see you playing with it!
Bond of Fang & Scale, don't Mount it, instead have it Grapple you. Sure it's Speed is cut in half but that's fine, you're not moving anyway. Its young and only just got its wings. This way, you can still gain the benefits of flight.
Spell Points instead of Spell Slots keep costs to Drake Breath or Summon Drake at a minimal. Order Domain Cleric with Spell Points, who also has a Background in a Strixhaven, can get access to the all-powerful Silvery Barbs OR Featherfall. Some even come with Haste. This means that the Mount would be able to attack for Action, Hasted Action, & Reaction, while it costs you Bonus Action & Reaction, leaving your Action completely free.
A feat I would recommend: Chef. The Drake has a BA completely free and having treats every round to buffer damage, it might not sound like much but it really does add up & saves you on Spell Points/Slots.
Treats= #Proficiency, providing a number of THP= Proficiency. So at:
2, 4 THP or 2 THP/round.
3, 9 THP or 3 THP/round.
4, 16 THP or 4 THP/round.
5, 25 THP or 5 THP/round.
6, 36 THP or 6 THP/round.
And if you really needed to, you can cook several batches of treats for about 6-7 hours as the treats no longer provide THP if they aren't eaten before 8 hours of making them. But if eaten, THP lasts until the end of the next Long Rest.
These draconic classes are great :). Coolest combo I've found so far is ascendant dragon monk + thief + oil flasks to add 5 to the damage of each unarmed strike. Could also add in some genie warlock so you can trigger the fire and sneak attack with the same strike?
sneak attack doesn't work with unarmed strike as those aren't finesse weapons. great idea with oil, fast hands and multiple hit fire attacks. should work awesomely with scorching ray.
@@TheRobversion1 just use a dagger or something, that’s what genie is for
@@keonprs5800 fair enough.
Thanks for being good company while I do the dishes!
It really is such a shame that a Drakewarden doesn't actually start being able to fly on their mount until 15th level. It just feels wrong that the biggest draw of the class comes on later than most campaigns will ever actually see. To that end, I think multiclassing Cleric's the right call and really gives the build some nice niches.
Speaking of Cleric, I think you've made me a fan of using Peace's Emboldening Bond for a pet class. That subclass can still slow things down way more than necessary ("Did you guys remember to use your d4 this turn?" and don't even get me started on teleport shenanigans once you reach level 6), but using it on your own li'l dude at least streamlines things a bit. If you were doing a very high level campaign, Peace Cleric 1/Drakewarden 15 or 16 sounds like a lot of fun.
Personally I'd allow the Drake to fly for ten rounds (one minute) or so per day while it's being ridden; it'd give you some fun options and cool story moments where your drake exerts himself to fly and save the day.
I don’t think elemental damage types being resisted more then bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage matters in this case because you will usually be able to choose an elemental damage type that is not resisted by that particular foe. (I.e. Cold for fire elementals, lightning for frost giants, etc.)
This is the best build you’ve done in a while.
I got a chance to play a drake warden, sadly game ended before I got past level 5 but it’s a super fun subclass. My drake dragged around small creatures like goblins, which was really useful
Been looking for a good drakewarden build for a while now, thanks for doing one!
for splitting up your graphs, i recommend limiting the info you see-
Just the build in question, the lowest damage build in that tier, the highest damage build in that teir, and the average of all builds in that teir
Love your opening since chapter 1. Really makes me feel we share a hobby.
"legend says that when the ground quakes or lava spews from the earth, it's the dragons"
Edit: maybe you mentioned it but I have a question about using longbows or heavy crossbows as a small creature cause they're heavy
yep! Check pinned post.
PACK TACTICS!!!!!!!!!!! You better pick Fog cloud now and casting it above you or else I'm going to be mad!
And you didn't.
@@PackTactics Don't be mad! Though I do like the idea - using concentration for it in place of your summoned creature to ensure your own advantage... might not be a net gain, but I'm guessing it would depend on enemy AC and how many attacks your summoned creature was making...
@@DnDDeepDive ANGRY!!!!!
@@PackTactics
I loved the Jane Yolen Pit Dragon series. Highly recommended.
Colby: *Says anything*
Me: *simping* "Yes, that is amazing how smart"
lol
I'm glad you did a vid on this as this was the subclass i was excited about with the new book. sadly, i still think the beastmaster is better though this is still solid.
I did build and play a wis based beastmaster and yes i was getting charge off almost every turn (along with an opportunity attack) as i was using primarily dissonant whispers (via feytouched). i agree that the beastmaster's companion is more accurate (especially with the new moon sickle from tasha as it scales off of your spell attack bonus) so i'm on board with your way of boosting the accuracy of the drake. personally though i dislike wasting my action on the 1st round to setup emboldening bond/bless (unless i'm out of range) so personally i would've multiclassed elsewhere like the diviner wizard for portent or war cleric for war god's blessing for free action ways to boost the drake's accuracy as needed.
I love multiclassing as well. probably the main reason i enjoy theorycrafting in dnd.
I haven't played a drakewarden yet and i'll probably play one once i can get into a game during the holidays. rough theorycrafting now baed on my input above for level 10 i'd probably go with 2 fighter (as usual), 6 drake and 2 diviner wiz similar to my beastmaster setup going wis based and leveraging off of dissonant whispers. i defintely enjoyed the vid as you called out a major weakness of the drakewarden so i'm definitely mixing diviner there for situational accuracy boosts. i may even go battlemaster so i can use distracting strike as reaction attack (off of dissonant whispers) just to give the drake advantage on it's attack.
I looove the idea of this character. When I get home I’m going to fiddle around with trying to squeeze in either Druidic warrior fighting style or magic initiate Druid for magic stone and go full wisdom for a little extra pet buff to hit.
drakewardens arent wis dependent. that's the beastmaster you're thinking of.
I like this subclass. I did a build with it that was focused about empowering pets damage more then mine. The whole build is lvl 11 drakewarden ranger/ lvl 5 shadow magic sorcerer /lvl4 The Genie ( Dao)( pact of the chain). I went Custom lineage as a point buy i did it as 8 str/14 dex/12 con/14 wisdom/15 Cha. As for racial bonus i added the +2 to to charisma, and for the free feat i went Skill Expert and put that +1 point to cha, so it is at lvl 1 actually 8 str/14 dex/12 con/14 wisdom/18 cha. Unlike colby's build i went with main weapon as Eldritch Blast. The idea of this build is to up cast dragon's breath spell as high as I can use with Twinned spell to give it both to the imp and drake. The imp mostly stays alive because you can trigger dragon's breath spell and it doesn't break its invisibility. Eventually it will be up cast with a lvl 5 slot and twinned with it doing 6d6 damage in a 15 ft cone, but instead of being close to the ground they would fly up 15ft above the target point and then use the breath straight down making it a 15 ft radius. I would take invocations agonizing blast, investment of the chain master, and Gift of the ever living ones from eldritch adept, for metamagic i am thinking Twinned spell, Distance spell, quickened spell, and transmuted spell. Feats / ASI : At our table we get a choice between magic adept, tough or skilled as free feats as we are sort of testing stuff for dnd one, I took tough. For the free feat from race i took skill expert as i said already. then took feats in progression : Eldritch adept , war caster, Metamagic adept, and an ASI for +2 Cha to make it out at 20. I started lvl 1 as sorcerer for the free con saves. ranger at lvl 2 then worked out all 4 lvls of warlock of warlock, then Ranger again for 3 lvls to get to next ASI, then for lvls in sorcerer to finish it out. After that i just went ranger til lvl 20.
Ideally I would have done it as tasha's beast master but couldn't do 15 lvls in it to get shared spells feature , so switched it to drake warden. but would have wanted to do it as 15 lvls of ranger, with 3 lvls of both sorcerer, and 3 lvls of warlock , then when i twinned it as beastmaster I would hit imp with dragon's breath then me, and since a spell targeted me, it also buffs beast too so all 3 would have dragon's breath... but can't becaus that would be 21 lvls It would almost have worked as 15 lvls ranger, 3 lvls warlock, and 2 lvls of sorcerer. and get metamagic from metamagic adept, but the thing is sorcerer can get the dragon's breath spell but like that it can't hit lvl 2 spells, and warlock and ranger can't get it. You could do it that way with ashardalon's stride but as the spells says once you hit it with the fire damage it can't take that damage again that turn. So having 2 others with it would be redundant.
Once your drake can fly it can totally just grapple you and fly you around at half speed btw, even if you can't mount it. Maybe not great for combat, but great for exploration and escaping.
Played a Kobold sorcerer ones. RAW sunlight sensitivity hits, when you or your target are in direct sunlight. Although the target part is out of your control, the you part is easily solved: Get a nice hat.
I'm going to be running a goliath drakwarden in a buddys game. Using the sling and magic stone combo with a dip into rune knight
I really like the fact this build ends off on drake warden early and here’s how I’d do it because of that fact!
I like the idea the character is a chirpy wannabe dragon rider, stealing an egg from a nest they expect something great by the time it hatch’s, but instead, they get a wyvern, take the poison damage (or acid if you don’t wanna be resisted all the time) and it’s pretty on theme.
The creature grows a decent amount, but it’s certainly no immense dragon and doesn’t even have a breath weapon, and you spend much time arguing and struggling to bond with the beast, but eventually in your clerical pursuits you learn to make peace and find peace in this, and use its unique abilities to your advantage.
I think I would prefer going with melee combat and spending my concentration on fog cloud with blindfighting.Then I would have a way to deny the sunlight sensitivity if I needed to and make sure I always have advantage. Plus a sword on a dragon sounds cooler to me. More mounted like combat stuff.
I haven't figured it all out yet but I'm one session into a Str 20 Drakewarden. Flanking every attack is pretty OK. I have thrown weapon specialization for when I'm able to mount up, cast longstrider on it, and dash in and out of combat as needed. A reach weapon will help with that, I think. I rolled as a half elf to pick up either green flame blade or booming blade - I think booming, to dissuade enemies from pursuing me when I ride away to huck javelins, but haven't figured out what's "best."
Fog and blindfighting is pretty interesting. Possible drawback, the drake's attacks would always be at disadvantage.
There are so many cool things you can do with this it's hard to specialize into one!
@@3nchiridion that’s true but it’s generally more valuable to be at disadvantage as long as your enemy is also at disadvantage, especially when there are more enemies than there are party members. Pack Tactics has some great videos on the subject, like with the Dire Wolf puzzle.
@@daltondavidson7997 Neat, I'll have to check it out.
@@3nchiridion not always as remember you can cast fog cloud above ground. if fighting a large+ enemy simply cast fog cloud 5 ft above the ground. enemy can't see you while you and the drake can see the lower body of the enemy so you have advantage and they have disadvantage. the fog cloud also blocks sunlight so you dont get the sunlight sensitivity drawback.
My day is always made when you upload. My new fav channel so keep up the amazing work.
You could also ready an action for after your drake takes its turn. Helpful if you want to use sharpshooter and ask your drake to give the help action
2 years back I actually played a kolbold cleric named kolby lol. I made him a cleric light domain, becuase I liked the thought of him praising the sun, even though it made things harder on him. A bit of the bare you cross mentality maybe? Plus casting daylight to give yourself disadvantage was fun and funny. Only played him for about 3 sessions before my curse of forever DM returned to me.
Ha!
That moment when Daylight doesn't count as Daylight mechanically, which sucks balls but is true.
@@quendi5557 yeah ik, but my DM agreed it was Day light mechincally for the purpose of the character and the fun. Silly build anyways, plus what DM is gonna take your disadvantage away from you lol.
@@reesebenson3215 Oh yeah, but it's just a thing I have against the spell, not against you for using it that way.
Beast of the land charge bonus DMG will probably happen once per 1-2 rounds of combat before lvl 11, but after that, it will happen 1-2 per round. because beast can attack two times, so it can gain this bonus against that enemy twice per turn.
If you share Haste, there is even possibility to do this charge bonus dmg 3 times per round, which is significant bonus!
Love your videos! Currently sick at home and this will help me take my mind off that
I love to is build! The only thing I’d change would be to take Order cleric so when we cast bless or other ally targeting spells, our drake can make a melee attack as a reaction :D
the drakewarden has always been flying under my radar but this seems like a lot of fun
Hey Colby I've been obsessed with these videos for the last two weeks and you are a very relaxing vibe to watch! Can I make a very polite request for a Druidic warrior ranger? Keep making nerdy shit!!
he has done this already with his swarmkeeper slingshot iirc.
My idea for this subclass would you take some points into fighter for the interception fighting style, and fight next to the drake on the front lines. Absorbing some of the damage the Drake takes and holding the front line. Possibly taking the Cavalier subclass, and a small race such as Kobald, or something for increased wisdom.
I've not read through all the features yet, so I'm not 100% on how all the skills would interact, or even how good this will be in the end. Was just my initial thoughts
Also the eldritch sorcerer you did is one of my favorites and this is on par damagewise so job well done as far as I'm concerned 👏👏👏
I was building a peace cleric/drakewarden when this video came out. Now I shall steal your build instead. Also doooo a Loxodon barbarian/soulknife grappler build!
Weird idea....what about a "Living Wagon" character? Optimize a character to have the greatest carrying capacity.
I love this idea I hope it happens
@@depecher6s311 Any race with powerful build, rune knight for 3 levels, spellcaster for 3 to get enlarge/reduce. 20 in strength and using Giant's might and then casting enlarge/reduce is a carrying capacity of 1200 lbs
Im playing an Eladrin College of Glamour Bard who is multiclassing into Drakewarden. Im excited to have a character who looks different every day and a drake that matches. Especially because my party is very backline except for a Hexblade, it will be nice to have a frontline pet.
Again, these bloopers are just great.
Thanks!
Love the outtakes this week! Lol
I spit out my water when you said Draconic essenccccccce the third time 😂
Apologies to your keyboard!
Little late to the vid but on emboldening bond you said "can't be used for every saving throw".
It basically can- it's once per *turn* not once per *round*.
i feel like it would be pretty interesting if classes capped at 10, then a level 20 could have 2 full classes and you could get capstones in normal campaigns. also maybe you could multiclass into the same class to get another subclass. Just spitballing ideas tho
I would say that the roving feature really synergizes with the Balm of Healing ability you got for 2 levels in peace cleric.
Is it daylight?
If yes see below
Is the source of the light being provided by the daylight?
If yes see below
You suffer from sunlight sensitivity
Overcast does not stop sunlight sensitivity.
Curse of Strahd mentions this specifically.
Hooray for Knave's Eyepatch magic item!
@@adamkaris Theres a reason it exists, and it'll probably wind up in my players inventory at some point if they suffer from SS
My nephew is playing a Ranger as his first ever D&D character, and I just ordered the dragon book, expected to arrive next week. I'm planning on begging our DM to allow him to play a Drakewarden, assuming he likes the idea (which part of me thinks he would, but I could be wrong).
So... you have a great ranger, but one that will never sing "Diggin' the snow and rain and bright sunshine. Dragons in line...." (Apologies to Tommy James) I suggest Jack Sparrow-style eyeshadow/eyeliner to cut the glare if you ever want to fly your dragon in the sunnyt, sunny sky. .. see if your DM will let you buy (magical?) magic eyeliner to counter the disadvantage of bright sunshine.
better have 3 level warlock dip for a pseudodragon to go with your drake dragon, or riot!
Use druid for primal familiar!
Fey type faerie dragon!
Looking at the summon fey statblock while I would allow them to use a magic weapon I'm not sure if I would still include the +1d6 force damage as you could say that is coming from their special weapon. You could also argue by RAW that they wouldn't add the spells level to the piercing damage. Not 100% sure how I'd rule it until it comes up.
RAW you simply remove that shortsword entry in summon fey and replace with the dmg of the magic weapon. let's say it was a shortsword +2 then it would deal 1d6 + 2 + fey's dex.
Nice. I think I will go with a gem dragon bourn built for strength. Think charging lances and pole arm, plus all those wonderful breath weapons!
Keep in mind if your drake hasn't used its reaction yet. You should always have them use it when you hit on your turn as they will regain it immediately after
Don't forget you can throw that damage on your friends as well. Gotta watch for those crits.
@@regaleagle6533 Yes! However in my opinion it is best to hold it with this build, so your drake will have its reaction available for protective bond when needed, and you will still be able to reliably get the damage on your own turn if he ends up not using it in the round :)
I like to think that this kobold is still evil, just a very rare emissary chosen by tiamat to negotiate border disputes, mating arrangements, and alliance negotiating between her chromatic children to keep them strong and prosperous in spite of the lesser races rebelling against their rightful rule and hunting them for trophy or hides. I love the idea of a tiny kobold deemed sacrosanct as a matter of religious dogma by these much more massive and powerful dragons. Also, dragon custody battles.
So why would this character need ranger levels? Because getting from dragon den to dragon den is super dangerous and difficult, duh. And the dragon pet is a sign of tiamats favor to all, and a divine spirit from her. And therefore the dm should let you ride it.
fabulous.
I would take favorite enemy dragons, only to have extra knowledge about them
I love this build!! Thanks! I have a human ranger that just graduated to level 3 drakenwarden... Im this case, without the pack tactics of the kobold, wouldn't be better to just use Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter and use the drake for meat-shield + attacks of opportunity?
What race would you use for this build with the MOM changes and how does this effect the power of the build.
Great build! Sad that we couldn’t get the full dragon, but dps is dps. I love the idea of a little kobold making friends with dragons and fey alike!
Potion of growth makes the level 15 drake as big as an adult dragon. They don't cost a ton and don't use your concentration and add a bit more to the damage.
I loved Dragonlance as a kid too
YOU KNOW I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR A HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON BUILD SINCE FIZBANS!
I just found this channel and so far I love it! Feels like home!
@@TheAirhead99 Yay! Welcome!
Been watching a lot of your vids this week. And there's something I think would be a big improvement. You've already done an amazing job with time stamps. If you added one more "starting setup" at the level 1 section it'd be great. So many of these are varient human or elf and I get why I'm not mad at that. But when I click level 1 and there's another 3 minutes explaining why a Feat at level 1 is a good thing... And I'm listening to 10 of these at work I'd just love it if another chapter was added to the time stamp
Next build idea, you should try to build the "dragon lancer cavalier" idea that we all have in mind, heavy armor, great sword, pike, mounted lance, bit of fire dmg etc
I think you overlooked something:
You have cleric 1 in your build, which means your spell slots are the same as a 1+half your Ranger level. This means that at level 9, you get level 3 spell slots
I dub this episode 6d6... lol. My buddy is playing a Drake Ranger soon, I'm sending him this video for reference. Thanks Colby!
So my next character is either going to be an astral self monk (based off the grappler monk build you made with my own tweaks) or a drake warden but I didn't know what build to go. So this is perfect timing!
I’ve made an Astral Self monk that focuses on knocking people prone and holding (grappling) them prone using my astral arms to attack with Elven advantage flurry of blows on the first turn and all attacks thereafter (assuming they don’t break the grapple and stand up on their next turn).
loving the dragon themed builds
oh forgot to mention ideally the damage as i I built the character the idea is the imp and drake are both using the draong's breath spell , each doing 15 ft radius damage of 6d6 ( element of your choice) and i will be doing eldrithch blast that is empowered by genie's wrath and agonizing blast on out eldritch blast, at lvl 17 it should be doing between both pets doing 12d6 damage and 4d10+6+20 with eldritch blast. every turn. I was thinking maybe giving imp barding of full plate at some point so its AC will be 18 , also don't see why they can't carry a shield getting it to AC 20. as far as the drake they should be able to use Bracers of defense.
Why take a heavy crossbow or longbow on a Kobold? You will always be rolling disadvantage.
Indeed - just pinned an errata post.
@@DnDDeepDive Well you could add in 3lvls of rune knight to remedy it a little.
The problem with pack tactics on the drakewarden is that the pet acts after your turn. You can command it to move next to an enemy to gain pack tactics, but you won't gain the benefit until the following turn.
Truth. The nice thing about being a ranged character, of course, is that the likelihood of you being able to find at least *one* target that's standing close to one of your allies (whether your pets or another PC) is pretty high. At least after round 1 (and with this build, you're probably not making weapon attacks round 1 anyway)
27:30 i do this but i also have a familiar (dm gave us a free feat at lvl 1, i took magic initiate) familiar uses the help action for drake, me and beast have pack tactics. All three of us essentially always have advantage
I was theory crafting my own Drake Warden.
Fae-Dragonborn with a Fae Dragon as a Dragon companion.
I was thinking about how I can then scale a Fae Dragon as a Dragoncompanion, since they dont have a breathweapon like other drakes/dragons. But they have the euphoria breath of course.
"Draconic Essence." I love it!
How would you change this build with the removal of Pack Tactics for Kobold in MoM?