Battlezoo Bestiary: Elemental Storm is out on Kickstarter! New monsters, spells, PC options, crafting rules, and more for D&D 5e or Pathfinder Await! www.kickstarter.com/projects/rollforcombat/battlezoo-bestiary-elemental-storm-for-5e-and-pathfinder?ref=2nbbib ALSO! Seeing a lot of comments about Eldritch Knight being better here thanks to Booming or Green Flame Blade. And yeah, I think it would be better, generally. I think I kind of wanted to make something that didn't rely on older books here since it's supposed to be the *New* Baseline, but also, I'm absolutely going to be doing a better treatment of the EK soon, and figured this might be my one chance to go Champion :). But I get that I contradict myself by throwing in older book options on other builds so... yeah. If you wanted to go EK (which, as I said, I would totally do over Champion *anyways*), you'd enjoy some additional damage from Booming or Green Flame Blade after character level 5 that would outweight the extra crti chance from Champion on this build!
I dont know if you ever went over it, when you are calculating numbers with the dual wielder bonus action attack are you adding your dex mod to it or just to the nick attack?
@@DnDDeepDive I mean if you want to stick to the new books you could also do true strike which is also a DPR booster for the build just not quite as spicy as the old bladetrips, heck if im not mistaken I think you can truestrike on thrown weapons too. But I get your point it is a good chance to use champion, I imagine Eldritch knight is gonna come up pretty frequently in your future gish builds
@@ryanscanlon2151 but true strike requires the attack be made with our casting ability modifier, so now it gets MAD, unless we pick up shillelagh, which requires a BA to setup…
That's why I think the smartest way to look at DPR is a RESOURCELESS and RESOURCE-SPENDING DPR calculation to show the minimum and maximum DPR to paint a clear picture independent of table.
For a pure Eldritch Knight 2024 on a Dragonborn 2024 with Magic Initiate Wizard Origin Feat for Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade at lv1. Maybe dip lv1 Wizard for more spells but not further because lv19 is where I get my Epic Boon. A Greatsword / Great Ax is still better no matter what, for DPR. Dual Wielding doesn't hit that high and has more probability to roll against. So unless you're a Rogue or a Ranger. EKs still do better DPR with a Greatsword or Great Ax. Especially when the EK 2024 can cast their Cantrip Twice (Greater War Magic, and not normal War Magic) by trading in their 2x Attacks or to trade in 2x Attacks for a leveled Spell Cast of lv1 to lv2 during Extra Attack. (Also... ... ... Dual Wielding doesn't work well with Spell Buffs and it's split damage is worse than a Great Sword.)
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 A worthy point to mention here is that nick adds to your attacks made with the attack action, letting you get even more spell slinging potential. Not sure how it effects dpr but it may allow for more utility or set up in a turn. Something like spending the extra attack for a blade ward or something else.
@samfish2550 Yes and no... Since Nick & Light Property requires the Attack Action and not the Spell Action. (Unless you can argue that spells like True Strike can activate Nick & Light Property.) True Strike Spell uses the Spell Action and not the Attack Action. While Radience Effect applies as a Duration Damage Buff for melee/ranged weapons, which can be used alongside Attack Action or Spell Action. Meaning... Nick works with Radience, but Radience + True Strike + Greatsword or Great Axe will always be better for both Hit Dice and Damage Dice. Even on a Turn 1 Spell Cast... Great Sword + All DPR Buffs Vs. Schimitar & Long Sword (2024) + All Buffs 1x Weapon (choose Long Sword or Schimitar, unless you can argue that Twin Meta Magic can apply True Strike on both weapons.) ... Great Sword outscales in one Hit Dice. While Dual Wielding requires at least 2 Hit Dice and 4x Split Damage being a consideration for Resistance & Immunity. Compared to Sword + Shield (2024), where tactical and defensive options are plentiful. Until a full Casters steps in to shut down the room.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 I am specifically talking about Eldritch knight or valor bard who can replace a attack with a cantrip. You getting plus one attack may be good for utility spells if nothing else. More speculative for combo potential for defense or utility. Or even if you were just planing on prioritizing spells as those subclasses.
This feels like a really compelling character idea. They don't have particularly powerful magic, but they don't complain when there's one combat encounter in a day vs ten.
The main problem with sustained damage martials before was their survivability, for various reasons I'd say this was mostly addressed Fighter especially gets more uses of second wind, feats which improve durability are improved or more accessible, such as tough from backgrounds, and the improvements to stuff like inspiring leader All in all, martials used to run out of hp before casters ran out of spell slots, so casters had more resources, but I think that gap is narrowed enough to where I just want to play martials now Aaand my next PC will still be a pact of the chain warlock xD
It would get pretty old pretty fast just attacking every turn and doing nothing else. Not even weapon mastery is really adding much depth to the strategy here.
@@AdellRedwinters combat is only as interesting as the DM makes it. You could say the same about caster casting the same damaging spell every turn if combat is that simple. DM adds nuance to situations, which makes attacking every turn not always the best option, battlefield control more important and magic less effective
@@nyanbrox5418 Personally... I would pick Human for Magic Initiate Cleric + Healer Origin Feats. Then dip lv1 Fighter first before I dip into lv1 Wizard or Sorcerer. Then go Lv5 to lv6 Fighter. Finally, lv15 to lv14 Wizard or Sorcerer. Effectively, a lv5 or lv6 Fighter + lv14 or lv15 Caster. Pick whatever Subclasses you want. This will give you great healing and be optimal for DPR and Vs Encounters. Unless you're rocking with 6 players + DM where you can get away with weaker or unorthodox builds.
Hell yeah light hammer/handaxe! Everyone talks about dual wielding builds like you need to be dex based, but you don’t! Light hammers are just as good as daggers! And handaxes are like shortswords that you can throw! And the fighting sequence of switching between heavy weapons and light weapons is so cool to me, I’m hype
I have a kobold champion who runs around wielding a lance in two hands. We do have hb lance feat that adds a 1d12 die if you run 20 ft before attacking and prones an enemy if you crit them. With the new champion and fighter upgrades I feel i can run up with the lance, or even throw a dart, hit or miss i still get adv on my next attack, and slam in with the lance before switching to the spear with double hands and stabbing at the enemy. But foavor it all as this tiny 2 ft tall kobold running in with a 20 ft lance and doing all kinds of shenanigans with it
Hey Colby, I think that you have underestimated charger. You do not need to backup and then move forward to get the extra damage. You can instead combine charger with any push weapon to push the enemy back 10 ft so that you can run 10 ft toward them and activate the charger damage. I would consider great weapon master plus charger to be a go-to damage feat combo. You just need to pick a pike as one of your weapons and you can make the first attack with the pike, then switch to a greatsword or maul later. This also allows you to activate the pam reaction attack each turn.
@@tdarassp if you push the target 10 ft away (so 15 ft away from you total), they now have to run back into your reach which triggers the reaction attack.
Also, with this build in particular, you could use charger in this way starting at level 10 without changing anything about the build, since fighters can swap Graze for Push, Sap, or Slow on the fly. So if you miss you can graze, if you hit you can push and then charge!
Yeah now it's like: Using both hands for melee weapons deals the most damage. You can trade that off for: Range or A shield or A grappling or spell casting hand
@@xanter4672As per the book two handed weapons only require two hands to attack, not to hold them. So You can cast spells and grapple with those weapons by simply letting go with one hand. It works really well with spells, but its iffy for grappling because that means You can’t attack as long as You keep it going.
@@cyancybershock original post was, range should do less damage because melee take the risk of being hit. My response was, a dead DPS is a 0 dps. Besides if you wanna screw with ranged combat. Drop a fog on the battlefield and they can't do anything. Ranged characters often do more damage because they don't need the same investment into defenses. Right? Like a melee character needs plate armor if they can wear it, they have to weigh the pros and cons of a shield. Then they gotta find ways to extend their life, temp hp, self heals, AC buffs , resistances/immunities. And you gotta try to get those things into the build from your features, spells and items. A ranged martial just needs to pick up all the damage stuff and they are good. To say ranged combat should do less damage is not entirely accurate. Everything in DND has a trade off.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the Eldritch Knight presents a really appealing subclass for this kind of character, since you can add new True Strike or even a Blade Cantrip into your attack rotation
It's great! Probably better *if* you can use the old Bladetrips. If you can't, True Strike is a little tricky since Reckless attack only benefits from strength based attacks :).
Alternatively with a couple warlock levels you could add in eldritch blast with agonizing blast. With a little finagling of ability scores, wouldn’t that be noticeably stronger than taking the champion subclass?
Use a Maul with an owl, and you basically have unlimited advantage, which, combined with Great Weapon Master and Great Weapon Fighting, will deal massive damage. Especially with Booming Blade,
Since EK's can only true strike on ONE of their attacks, it means that you want to have two offensive stats, which just makes you more spread out than you want to.
Ranged weapon users may be in a bad place damage wise, but they're in an incredible place on the battlefield. Less likely to be targeted by attacks, and they can deliver damage to any target they like most of the time
The other thing about this weapon master I can do this all day build is that you can also turn it into an immovable object tank style. By having so many fighter and a few barb levels you have a big hp pool and you can just keep trucking! Thanks for the build Colby, I still await the Berzerker build!
I want to imagine damage expressed as Bots killed per Round. BPR. I'm a fan of reliable, resource light builds, as you can squeeze more adventuring into a day before this conversation. Player A: "Can we rest yet"? Player B: "We've moved 600 feet and gone through only 42 minutes of in-game time" Player A: "I need a long rest, I'm at 25% resources.":: DM: Moves to deadly level "random" encounters.
I've always been a fan of melee builds being stronger. They should deal more damage, since they also have to deal with whatever harmful aura, effect, or attack that the monster possesses.
Thanks for clarifying the new Bonus Action attack combo! I was definitely in denial about WotC giving everyone access to three attacks with one feat and a weapon mastery property. WOWZA! Excited to see how much dmg the builds will do now.
I really like the fact that ranged is behind a melee's DPR now. It makes sense, since you put yourself in less danger. Melee characters should be rewarded for taking this risk.
i’m fairly certain that ability depends on rage… which technically disqualifies it. that said, the chances of running out of rage’s with the new rules is much lower so you could build a reliable sustained damage dealer with it that would be SUPER viable
A fun build I wanted to explore was a Sorlock that uses Keen Mind to determine resistances and weaknesses as a bonus action, then has an Agonizing Sorcerous Burst so you always will be avoiding resistance and often hitting weaknesses. I imagine this either as a exploration of how far you can push cantrip casting (more Warlock?) or as a primarily Dragon sorcerer where you can always switch damage types when needed, and if not, you change all of your spells to the damage type of your elemental specialization.
i dont think this is like, a high priority since there are so many new things from the book, but i’d love to see a new street fighter build!! all the new unarmed fighting stuff is so awesome, and id love to see a build based around it
"...and if you don't, I hope you hang in there." @DnDDeepDive , I always appreciate this addition, Colby. You don't need details, but part of the reason I got into DnD was that I've had some really rough times the last few years. It's something fun that brings people together, when circumstances and daily life hasn't always enabled that. You say the "hang in there" part every video so I know its coming, but even my good days, it gets me right in the feels every time. Greetings from Orem. (Incidentally, I used to know someone else named Colbie Paulson. She's probably no relation though)
So glad the Avett Bros made their way into your postshow music! I've long felt they would be up your alley. They are stupendous in concert, I've seen them six times, (even as a West-coaster) and they never disappoint.
If you are doing this, then don't go Fighter the whole way. If you really want the damage at 19 and 20, you go Fighter 15/Barb 3 at then you get a feat at 19 and 20 those feats are both allowed to be epic boons since the only prerequisite for them is 19+.
New to Dnd, coming from bg3, and my first character is a gish fig/wiz/sorc. Strange build i know, but it has been good braincandy to really get to know the rules of 5e and 2024. Got the same idea as you for dmg/r for the 2014 version, and did my math. Im so exited to this video (and also so glad that i get to steal some info from here xd for the 2024 v of the pc). Thanks for the good videos man!
currently swashbuckler 3 hexblade 2 with the new agonizing blast (can apply to booming blade). Rapier means vex, so tons of advantage, swashbuckler fancy footwork means easy to proc booming blade extra damage. Agonizing blast will proc on every hit of the cantrip as it does for eldritch blast
Love that you stop a build at lvl 10! It feels so much more relevant to most of the games we play. It's fun to see lvl 20 potential but lvl 10 builds speak to me/my friends much much more. Keep up the good work!
Even at lv10. If you don't cast weapon damage buff spells, then dual wielding is the go to. Or sword + board for defence. If you do cast weapon buff spells or spells like True Strike, then Greatsword or Great Ax will deal more DPR. Even if you include everything in the Action Economy. Great Swords hit harder with less probability compared to Dual Wielding which will hit lesser And have more probably to succeed on. Not to mention split damage being terrible when dual wielding. And how some weapon buff spells interact.
Consider a monk build with a fighter dip. 1 level in fighter gets you two-weapon style and the nick mastery, then go monk for an unarmed strike bonus action. No need to expend ki for great dpr: you've got three attacks at level two, then four attacks at level 6, totally at-will.
I think a build I've been theory crafting since getting my hands of the new PHB fulfils this super high sustained damage role really well: a mounted champion fighter with a lance. The main reason it works is because a lance wielded in one hand can benefit from both great weapon master and the dueling fighting style at the same time for PB + 2 extra damage on every attack. If you combine this with reliable advantage from mounted combatant, champion's expanded crit range, extra damage on crits from the piercer feat, and 20 Str all by level 8, then you've got a monster of a sustained damage dealer on your hands. This build also comes with the rare added bonus of only needing a weapon in one hand, leaving your other free to still use a shield.
We can't use charger reliably at lvl 8 in the second build, sure, but at lvl 9 we can push our target 10 feet to activate charge if we hit it. The question becomes wether we want to push and charge or to Graze, since to my knowledge you have to declare the mastery trait you're using when you attack, not after you see wether you hit or miss.
Now that i finally have the book myself, theres no other way Dual Wielder can work. It simply gives you a bonus action option, and doesnt modify the existing option granted by the light property. They're entirely seperate. Claiming it does because you think it should is just bad faith. 100% Team Colby
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 even with Dual Wielder you can't Nick+Light because Nick explicitly uses the Light Property trigger and states once per turn, it just removes the bonus action cost. You Nick+Dual Wielder Bonus Action.
I think this kinda shows the importance for more uniform resource expenditure in D&D5E. With so many tables doing 0-2 combats a day, or 0-1 short rests, *big* moves and utility has grown quite a bit (Oof for the rogues in chat)
My favorite ranged attack now is using my sling on my Battlemaster with Crusher. Swap the slowing for pushing with lvl 9 feature and launch people from sling hits 25 ft with the Pushing Maneuver.
Did a similar build but before we knew about the dual wielder feat, so i used great weapon fighting feat which says that you can make a melee weapon attack as a bonus action. So at level 11 I’d do 3 attacks with vex and hopefully crit (first attack with heroic adv), then a bonus action attack with vex and finally a scimitar nick attack. Did use Elven accuracy from 2014 to have a way bigger chance of a critical hit.
Savage Attacker is actually amazing with Barbarian Berserker... The Frenzy ability adds to weapon damage dice, thus Savage lets you reroll the d6's as well.
Great video as always Colby!!! Now let's get that Beast Master 3.0 going!!! 6 attacks at Lv11 thanks to vex!! Double Conjure Woodland Beings at Lv15!!!! Conjure Barrage damage is so good!! Let's goooooo!!!
I love the format of your videos. I just finished mowing the lawn and on god this made it go by like nothing! I’m glad dual wielding / nick works the way it does. I was worried for rogue but three attacks out the gate is sick. The wording on thief straight giving a climb speed was interesting and upon further inspection doesn’t seem too different than 2014 but brings up some interesting rules comparisons I’d be interested to see if the DMG addresses. For example, spider and lizards have climb speeds, seeming to imply that handholds aren’t needed for a climb speed. This is further reinforced by the new thief’s wording only referencing a need for a handhold if you end your turn on the ceiling?! So thief’s can just scurry up the side of a wall, no need for ropes or handholds or anything? Seems sick
As usual, great video. Oddly enough, I started thinking about a very similar build this morning (the dual-wielding). I do think you left damage on the table, though (depends on if wording for things have changed in the new PBH). I’d start out with 3 levels in Rogue taking Soulknife as the subclass. It’s Bonus action attack should work the same as Dual-Wielder except it doesn’t need the Two-Weapon fighting style to add your modifier to the damage. That will free up a feat and a fighting style. Since you can draw or stow a weapon each time you make an attack, you should be able to manage your Scimitar being in your hand for Nick when it needs to be and not be in your hand when you need it to be free for the bonus psi-knife attack. You also get 2d6 for Sneak Attack for a bit of extra damage. When you go to fighter next round, take Duelist instead of Two-Weapon Fighting. Since you’re stowing the scimitar between Nick attacks and because your psi-knifes disappear after attacks, you would never have more than one weapon in hand at a time, so you’ll get +2 damage to all attacks. The Sage Compendium for 2014 states that this bonus applies to thrown weapons as well as long as you aren’t dual-wielding. At level 4 you take Thrown Weapon Fighting, so at level 8 when you get extra attack assuming a modifier of +3, each attack you make besides the Nick attack would give you +7 damage, and you’d have 4 attacks each round with two being d6 and two being d4 and 2d6 Sneak Attack damage.
I messed up some of the wording in my post, so here’s a clarification on what I mean. Levels 1-3 go Rogue taking Soulknife. Level 4 I start Fighter taking Duelist. At level 7 (Fighter 4) take the Fighting Style feat to get Thrown Weapon Fighting. Then at level 8 (Fighter 5) you get multi-attack. At that point its Attack and Extra attack with a d6 Psi-knife with +7 damage (+3 for the modifier, +2 for Duelist and +2 for Thrown), a Nick attack with a dagger for d4+4 (just the styles bonuses), then a bonus action for the extra psi-knife attack for d4+7, and lastly 2d6 for a sneak attack. That’s a total of 4d6+2d4+25 assuming everything hits.
The Avett Brothers just got a new fan! At first I thought you said "Abbott brothers" which brought up old Abbott and Costello clips 😆, but once I found the actual band I was impressed. They owe you for adding a new fan Colby :)
The way to do ranged weapons seems to be gwm with a longbow, with the trick being getting a good bonus action from your class/subclass. One of the more promising builds I'm looking at rn is the classic ranged samurai fighter, which surprisingly only lost damage compared to 2014 once you take elven accuracy into account.
So I’ve actually done some theory crafting on this Champion Thrown Weapon build, and you are missing out on damage by using just Light Hammers and Handaxes, instead of making your last two attacks with thrown Tridents (which are now d8 weapons at base). The Dual Wielder feat lets you make the bonus action attack with any non-Two Handed weapon as long as you’ve attacked with a Light weapon, and the fact that you’re throwing weapons means you don’t have to worry about the “weapon juggling” normally requires to make use of that aspect and the Nick mastery together. The Topple mastery is problematic with a ranged build, but you can always just choose not to use it.
Super straight forward seems like a great first (or relaxing / shenanigans personality character). Yes! HSR scratches a lot of surprises itches, especially for RPG fans! I always recommend it to fantasy / space opera interested folks on storytelling alone (knights of beauty probably inspire a lot of Paladins)...but I love the experimentation with new turn based mechanics~
I think another interesting case in the general options available without resources, or to be more accurate, with one very big and friendly resource, is mounted combat now. A Lance qualifies for Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and Duelist Fighting Style, all at once now. A Paladin with Find Steed, or even a Fighter with a lot of gold to burn, could genuinely do something neat with that information. One of the other neat things about this is I think its one of the few places where Champion Fighter can really shine. The improved critical rate gives you more chances to get that GWM bonus action attack, and the two fighting styles lets you take both Duelist fighting style and Protection fighting style, letting you guard your own mount or other players using that very nice improvement to be all-turn-long that Protection got.
IF you're spending 3 level dip for Genie's Vessel, I think you're sleeping on Hunter Ranger 3, Hoard Breaker. For 3 levels of Hunter Ranger you get a TON, including hunters mark (which is more dmg from a bonus action than PAM assuming you have Hoard Breaker and Cleave), another fighting style (if you don't need a style take Druidic Warrior and get Guidance for utility and PYF), Hunter's Lore which lets you know any resists/immunities/vulnerabilities on the target of hunters mark, and the Hoard Breaker attack (which also adds PB damage from GWM, AND also works with ranged attacks and thrown weapons).
I appreciate that with two weapon fighting, Rogues can now guarantee they get Sneak Attack every round. With a Short Sword in one hand and Dagger in the other, they've got Vex and Nick in a perfect combo. Add Dual Wielder on top of that, and you could swap to something silly like a Rapier & Scimitar pairing. Very Swashbuckler-y.
Another bonus to Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter changes is that the extra damage from Great Weapon Master works with Longbows and Heavy Crossbows so you can get the extra damage on ranged attacks and melee attacks from the same feature.
Thanks for the video, always great content. (Martials need more love for sure.. scaling masteries, scaling fighting styles or double weapon damage die at higher level would be nice).
I've done a couple videos about damage comparisons between weapon types - one for melee, one for ranged weapons - though I prefer to just strip it down to its bare necessities just so I can see what each weapon style is doing agnostic of any special class/subclass features. If we're not worried about comparing ourselves to 2014, melee playstyles in 2024 I think are all pretty well balanced with each other and like you said martial classes in general just have so much more utility that they're just going to feel better to play than their 2014 counterparts.
19:00 and being a halfling is still a slight boost to crit chance. If I recall right ... Halfling improves crit chance by 0.25% per crit range. So, if you crit on 20 every other race has a crit chance of 5% (1 in 20 chance of getting a 20). The halfling has a 5.25% chance (5% chance of rolling a 1, and a 5 percent of that 5% chance to turn that 1 into a 20). That continues to scale (which matters more in a game like Baldur's Gate 3 where you can really stack crit range) so when the champion fighter gets a crit on 19 or 20 instead of having a 10% crit chance the halfling champion fighter will have a 10.5% crit chance. That doesn't sound like much ... but, other characters have a 5% crit chance and you have a 210% larger crit range than other characters (and halfling is worth 10% out of that 210% increase). I believe at higher level the crit range increases further to 18, 19 and 20. That means this character ends up with a 15.75% crit chance. At this point being a halfling is worth 15% of the crit chance any other character would have (5% vs 0.75%). And, obviously, more of those rerolls will just turn a miss into a hit rather than a crit ... which is still amazing and only gets better as you have more and more attacks per round. Think about how many attacks you have per turn and how many turns are in a standard combat. This is why halflings are also amazing for warlock eldritch blast (assuming 2024 eldritch blast is similar to 2014).
First time commenting. Love your builds and am gearing up to play a Moonsinger in a campaign soon. Just wanted to say don’t feel guilty about playing Honkai Star Rail, I’ve been playing since launch and it’s a great game! Also once you get past the story, it’s great for busy people, as you can play it for like twenty minutes a day, have some fun, then go get other things done!
As you mentioned, the other things martials bring to the table nowadays is pretty incredible. I mean, just take this build and make a slight tweak: Battle Master instead of Champion, and then Zealot. Lets say eventually Fighter 11/Barbarian 6. You have all of those Weapon Masteries, Tactical Master, and Battle Master Maneuvers for control options, you have both Second Wind and Warrior of the Gods for self-sustaining, you have Fanatical Focus and Indomitable for brute forcing through saves, if you took Tough you probably have the most HP in the party and you have Rage to help spread it out even farther, you have the BM Maneuvers and Divine Fury for damage boosts.... oh and you have multiple ways to be more helpful skill wise outside of combat than in 2014. All of that, and its still a very basic build without a trace of spells. And we haven't even touched on Feats that push the build further like Mage Slayer or maybe Shield Master. Can probably throw in Skill Expert if you grabbed some of the Maneuvers that let you use the Superiority Die on some skills because you wanted to make sure you were particularly reliable out of combat, particularly if you went Human and also grabbed Skilled on top of Tough. That is a very reliable, self-sustaining package. Loads of HP, breezing through physical saves and can brute force a few mental saves, surprisingly able to chip in with skills outside of combat (if not leading the party in them at the start until the Rogue and Bard really take off), an absolute barrage of in combat control options, with only two resources to have to keep track of. Any new player should be able to keep up with it pretty easily, at most need a few reminders early on. And because of the Superiority Die + Divine Fury a new player can use any melee weapon they want and they're probably not falling behind much if at all damage wise when not going TWF/GWM routes compared to this baseline. Still have room for at least one of those feats as well.
I actually am a giant fan of Champion Fighter now, at least on paper. I’ve been wanting to do a character that is a very savage fighter, but not mindless or stupid, and I love the thought of this unrelenting offense that is just a pain to put down. Take mastery in the Pike and the Glaive, you now have the reliable damage weapon in the Glaive, but also a repositioning tool in the Pike. (Additionally, being able to move up to half your speed when critting or using Second Wind means that you can move with the target you’re repositioning) Then, if I use this character at higher levels, taking feats like Durable and Heavy Armor Master give them Massive staying power. I also feel like Heavy Armor Master will have fantastic Utility in mitigating if any monsters have an ability akin to the Graze mastery. Then, if you get to level 20 or play it in a One-Shot, the Boon of Fortitude kicks both your Healing from Durable and from your Champion capstone “Survivor” up a notch.
An interesting thing with epic boons is you don’t need to be level 19 in any one class to get them. You just need to be level 19 total and get a feat class feature. So if you multi class just right, you can get an epic boon at level 19 and 20.
I hadn’t thought about weapon masteries stacking when you multiclass. Now I want to see a build where the character gains access to every weapon mastery. Like what people would do with getting proficiency in every skill. It even has an easy name. “The Weapon Master”
I think the magic initiate(druid) is a better origin feat so you can get shillelagh and use a club(light weapon) with a scimitar offhand. Shillelagh, unlike true strike, says you CAN use your spellcasting modifier for attack and damage, meaning you could forgo this and stick with strength, then the damage die will be better, and force damage is highly unresisted.
In my humble opinion, Warlock also offers some interesting options. First level Fighter (of course) because you need heavy armor and fighting styles. I'd go with a polearm build, since Warlock revolves around its pact weapon, and unfortunately you can only have one. Maybe Blindfighting, so you don't need Devil's Sight? Starting stats, 17,8,14,8,12,16. First feat, Polearm Master, second Great Weapon Master, third, Heavy Armor Master(?). Obviously Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. It is resourceless. Genie Warlock, as you say, Dao, most likely. Also obviously: Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Devouring Blade. You will be waiting till level 13 for Devouring Blade, but you get there eventually. You're rolling three attacks, plus a bonus action attack, each turn, the three attacks doing d10+5+d6+5(prof), and the bonus action doing d4+5+d6. Plus a +5 from Dao Genie's Wrath. This is at level 13. So that's 73 average damage a round. 77 once you get the +6 proficiency modifier. If you're able to use the Improved Pact Weapon feat from Xanathar's that's a bit more, both to hit and wound. Of course, you're still a Warlock with access to Spirit Shroud, which can add 2d8 damage per hit with a fifth level slot, so the build can ramp itself up to an average of 109/113 per round. You could add two levels of Barbarian for Recklass Attack.
I want to point out that while ranged characters seem like they might be getting the short end of the stick, GWM's damage bonus actually works on ranged attacks, so it might be worth picking up for your ranger or folks using longbows or heavy crossbows
Hey Mr.Colby of D4 deep dive. My friend and I were real interested in a warlock video, about the strongest warlock you can make without a pact boon within the new rules, as well as the strongest you could make with each pact boon.
Double hand axe is such a perfect Barbarian theme, and in the old rules it felt so busted because there were so many ways your bonus action got eaten. Barbarians less so, but you still couldn't use two weapons on your first turn when you enter rage, and some subclasses had other things that competed too.
I got the new phb physical book today. There's a typo on lance, they put it as 2h and 1d10 but on DND beyond it's still showing 1d12 and special. They also didn't add the double bladed scimitar to the new PHB
@@Keith_catlong Vex, Graze or Cleave all work conceptually. In addition I would add wording to the Special quality where if you have Weapon Mastery with this weapon the extra attack can be made as part of the Attack action instead of as a bonus action. It's like Nick, but it can't actually be Nick because you aren't attacking with a light weapon. If you think that giving one weapon (effectively) two masteries is problematic, bear in mind that if you were wielding two weapons you would probably have a different mastery on each weapon anyway, and one of them would probably be Nick. Thoughts?
Colby you mentioned on stream today you’re in Utah! I’d absolutely love to get my PHB or something signed, so please post if you’re ever doing meet-and-greets or any local Convention!! Stay blessed bro🙏
If you're going all the way to 20, or doing a level 20 one-shot, I'd suggest fighter 16/barbarian 4, with two epic boons (combat prowess and irresistible offense). If you're going straight fighter, you'd have the champion capstone (the regeneration while bloodied thing, whatever it's called), so you might be tempted to take the boon of fortitude instead (increasing your regen to 5 + 2 per CON mod). Frankly, I'd love to pair that with the remarkable recovery feat from the Tal'Dorei campaign setting (5 HP per round, plus 3 HP per CON mod? Not bad!).
I might be wrong, but it you grabbed the Magic Initiate: Wizard origin feat you could grab Find Familiar, pick Owl (it has Flyby which means it doesn't provoke AoO, and a 60ft fly speed) and you can just have it fly in, give you a Help Action every turn then fly away (I always like to explain how my character "helps" to trigger the advantage, for the Owl I tend to say it whizzed by the enemy's ear and that moment of distraction is the cause of the advantage). Advantage on the first attack is probably worth more than what little damage you may or may not get from savage attacker, in addition a familiar has a ton of out of combat uses (the cantrips can add a bunch of utility in and out of combat too, Blade Ward is pretty useful for a frontline character, especially one that doesn't really have anything else to use their Concentration on).
I use this tactic a lot, but didn't feel comfortable relying on it for this particular build - familiar's often get deleted by an AOE or an enemy targeting them, and didn't want to have to rely on something that may or may not last. But also, on every build we end up with advantage thanks to Reckless Attack anyways.
@@DnDDeepDive Of course, it's just the pure Fighter builds don't get Reckless, plus the Owl gives Advantage for the first attack before you get Vex online. The 60 movement flyby is sometimes good enough to get the owl out of a room or into cover but that is a good point (At the very least, you get a free cast of familiar for every long rest). I think Eldritch Knight might be a solid option for a sustain build too (assuming your DM lets you use Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade, I honestly can't imagine they wouldn't but some tables are weird). GFB adds some very fun synergy with the Cleave mastery, and Booming Blade used on a Push mastery weapon is pretty strong on a melee enemy (forcing it to stand still and waste it's turn or move and pop the BB). The only thing you need to take note of is you need to move within 5ft to use either so something to keep in mind when using polearms. Sorry for rambling hah.
I was thinking of a champion build like this, but my idea was to take elven accuracy and piercer with a vex weapon (shortsword) and a dagger. You would have a ~27% chance to crit with each advantaged attack (~39% at 15) and do the extra damage from piercer. You would also have a really low chance to miss. Idk I don't really know how to calculate DPR the same way Colby does
I wish some of the weapon mastery features where adaptable. I really like dual wielding the same weapons and the new system really makes that sub optimal
Well now I want to see a bow build just for comparisons sake... It's not resourceless and probably not particularly good but a valor bard for true strike in place of an attack combined with 1 or 3 levels of ranger to pick up hail of thorns/ensnaring strike sounds to me like a fun start to a character
ON the 2d6 two handed weapons Great weapon fighting style is actually pretty good - the mean average damage doesn't go up that much sure, but your actual damage through some rounds of combat goes up dramatically more than that small change in mean average suggests as the distribution of the possible damage rolls shifts hugely in your favour. So unless you are attacking a number times that approaches infinity so the mean average is really representative... With the 2D6 weapons without the 'any 1 and 2 rolled is actually a 3' you can and will still roll substantially under that average damage, often, where when you can't roll less than 3... Sure you can still roll under the mean average, but the worst possible result is now 6 on the die - much much closer to the mean and by number of possible ways to roll even the higher damage results like 9 have increased as now that 1,6 or 2,6 on the dice is now actually a total of 9. And once you factor in that 5% (or higher) chance to critically hit double 6 is a huge gulf on doubling 2 (as it seems to me most tables don't roll extra die they double the numbers on the die rolled).
I'm with you on feeling Weapon Mastery should have done something to increase the damage done by Mastered Weapons. My house rules say the following: From character levels 1 - 10, the critical range of all Mastered weapons becomes 18 - 20 if the attack hits. An 18 or 19 simply means you roll the weapon's damage dice twice and add them together, while a nat 20 means you get the max weapon die damage plus 1 roll of the dice (so a bit better than simply 2 rolls). From Character levels 11 - 20, all Mastered weapons' damage dice are doubled, so a normal hit rolls 2 x weapon damage dice, an 18 or 19 rolls 4 x damage dice, and a 20 does 2 x damage rolled plus 2 x max damage dice. Note that these are only the weapon's own damage dice that are increased, so any dice from sneak attack, smites, magic bonuses or spells, etc are not automatically doubled here and are still treated by the game's rules as normal (so only a 20 would double them). Those above rules affect all characters that get Weapon Mastery, but the Champion Fighter is a special case because they also get expanded critical ranges. So at 3rd level, their critical range expands by 1 for all weapons, so 19 - 20 for regular weapons and 17 - 20 for Mastered Weapons. At 15th level, their critical threat range expands again, to 18 - 20 for regular weapons, and to 16 - 20 for Mastered weapons. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on these rules. The idea came from looking back at DnD 4e where higher level abilities often did 2x, 3x, or even 4x the weapon's damage dice plus other effects and abilities, so I figured 5.24 should be able to handle 2x damage dice after 11th level and an increased critical range for Mastered weapons. I'm sorry that something like this wasn't printed in the book as a way to help bridge the Martial / Caster gap that only expands at the higher character levels. I put a version of this in my earliest responses to the play test, but sadly nothing ever came from that.
If you allow the elven accuracy feat - it would be awesome on a dual weapon weilding champion dex-based champion fighter. You'll be critting left and right at level 15.
You content is really inspiring 💚 just a thought I've been having about how weapons can't really grow beyond the damage dice associated, I'd thought about an ability that essentially changes the bottom numbers on the weapons damage dice, so the affected weapon wouldn't roll for 1-12 for example but would roll for 3-14 by making the 1&2 count as 13&14. I'm curious how such a rule would affect overall damage, I'm looking to add a buff without it being overpowered
Enjoy the anime girls! Anime art is so cute and beautiful. Personally, I like all the stats I can get. Covering sustained-no resource, burst-long rest, and burst-short rest would be interesting for builds. The build in this video doesn't account for resource use, but knowing its potential burst if using resources like buffs, rage, etc, would be cool. I appreciate you and what you do. Thanks, Colby 🙂
Note you can get Epic Boon without straight classing, just make sure you have a feat level at 19 or 20! If you want to use this build, PYF 18 then Warlock 4 at 19 fits well
If the requirement for an epic boon feat is level 19+ and not level 19 in a class, which it seems to be, then couldn't you get an epic boon feat at both 19 and 20? Class 1: 15 levels Class 2: 3 levels 19: class 1 16th level feat 20: class 2 4th level feat Or do the same with more than two classes, if you wish. Some good epic boons to choose from! More the merrier 😂
Iirc correctly the new heroic inspiration lets you reroll ANY die roll, not just of a d20 test. Not that that will come up very often on this build (except if you wanna reroll your damage). This means you could even reroll a Wild Magic Surge or a Portent roll. But someone correct me if Im wrong on this
I assume you have most of your videos planned for the next while. But I'd love to see a baseline for ranged characters, with the knowledge that they've been nerfed significantly
The way that second build was ended makes me wonder about a more fully fleshed out Fighter Warlock multiclass. Getting to replace one weapon attack with 2 eldritch blasts seems interesting. Granted it couldn't be done until level 8. But the build could come online a little earlier by starting fighter and then dipping one level into Warlock for Pact of the Blade making us both happy and SAD. And then picking up Hex. So the level 6 damage report could still be a fighter 5 warlock 1. Level 9 would be Fighter 7 Warlock 2 in order to get that bladesinger's extra attack, and the Warlock invocation agonizing blast. I guess this is just kind of an updated version of your HexBladeSinger, haha. At level 13 You would have the fighter's extra extra attack, replacing one of them with 3 eldritch blasts. Adding Hex on top of all of that would be pretty nice. Edit: Although this is proof as to why you have the youtube channel and I don't. I forgot you still need 3 levels in Warlock to allow your pact weapon to be a greatsword. So you'd need to be using a longsword and giving up a fair bit of damage in the long run. Ah well. And Interesting thought experiment to make an Eldritch Knight feel truly eldritch in power
Battlezoo Bestiary: Elemental Storm is out on Kickstarter! New monsters, spells, PC options, crafting rules, and more for D&D 5e or Pathfinder Await! www.kickstarter.com/projects/rollforcombat/battlezoo-bestiary-elemental-storm-for-5e-and-pathfinder?ref=2nbbib ALSO! Seeing a lot of comments about Eldritch Knight being better here thanks to Booming or Green Flame Blade. And yeah, I think it would be better, generally. I think I kind of wanted to make something that didn't rely on older books here since it's supposed to be the *New* Baseline, but also, I'm absolutely going to be doing a better treatment of the EK soon, and figured this might be my one chance to go Champion :). But I get that I contradict myself by throwing in older book options on other builds so... yeah. If you wanted to go EK (which, as I said, I would totally do over Champion *anyways*), you'd enjoy some additional damage from Booming or Green Flame Blade after character level 5 that would outweight the extra crti chance from Champion on this build!
I dont know if you ever went over it, when you are calculating numbers with the dual wielder bonus action attack are you adding your dex mod to it or just to the nick attack?
@@DnDDeepDive I mean if you want to stick to the new books you could also do true strike which is also a DPR booster for the build just not quite as spicy as the old bladetrips, heck if im not mistaken I think you can truestrike on thrown weapons too. But I get your point it is a good chance to use champion, I imagine Eldritch knight is gonna come up pretty frequently in your future gish builds
@@ryanscanlon2151 but true strike requires the attack be made with our casting ability modifier, so now it gets MAD, unless we pick up shillelagh, which requires a BA to setup…
@@DnDDeepDive oh yeah lol my bad
@@DnDDeepDive How do the old blade cantrips on Eldritch Knight fare against extra fighting styles and improved crit change from Champion?
The savage halfling warrior is at his most brutal when someone interrupts his second breakfast!
“What about elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper?!”
“I don’t think he’s heard of those Pip.”
*”RRRRAAAAWWWWWRRRRGGGGHH!!!!!!!”*
you wouldn't like him when he's hangry
Lol
That's why I think the smartest way to look at DPR is a RESOURCELESS and RESOURCE-SPENDING DPR calculation to show the minimum and maximum DPR to paint a clear picture independent of table.
This would be fantastic
For a pure Eldritch Knight 2024 on a Dragonborn 2024 with Magic Initiate Wizard Origin Feat for Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade at lv1. Maybe dip lv1 Wizard for more spells but not further because lv19 is where I get my Epic Boon.
A Greatsword / Great Ax is still better no matter what, for DPR. Dual Wielding doesn't hit that high and has more probability to roll against.
So unless you're a Rogue or a Ranger. EKs still do better DPR with a Greatsword or Great Ax.
Especially when the EK 2024 can cast their Cantrip Twice (Greater War Magic, and not normal War Magic) by trading in their 2x Attacks or to trade in 2x Attacks for a leveled Spell Cast of lv1 to lv2 during Extra Attack.
(Also... ... ... Dual Wielding doesn't work well with Spell Buffs and it's split damage is worse than a Great Sword.)
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 A worthy point to mention here is that nick adds to your attacks made with the attack action, letting you get even more spell slinging potential. Not sure how it effects dpr but it may allow for more utility or set up in a turn. Something like spending the extra attack for a blade ward or something else.
@samfish2550
Yes and no... Since Nick & Light Property requires the Attack Action and not the Spell Action. (Unless you can argue that spells like True Strike can activate Nick & Light Property.)
True Strike Spell uses the Spell Action and not the Attack Action.
While Radience Effect applies as a Duration Damage Buff for melee/ranged weapons, which can be used alongside Attack Action or Spell Action.
Meaning... Nick works with Radience, but Radience + True Strike + Greatsword or Great Axe will always be better for both Hit Dice and Damage Dice.
Even on a Turn 1 Spell Cast...
Great Sword + All DPR Buffs
Vs.
Schimitar & Long Sword (2024) + All Buffs 1x Weapon (choose Long Sword or Schimitar, unless you can argue that Twin Meta Magic can apply True Strike on both weapons.)
... Great Sword outscales in one Hit Dice. While Dual Wielding requires at least 2 Hit Dice and 4x Split Damage being a consideration for Resistance & Immunity.
Compared to Sword + Shield (2024), where tactical and defensive options are plentiful. Until a full Casters steps in to shut down the room.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 I am specifically talking about Eldritch knight or valor bard who can replace a attack with a cantrip. You getting plus one attack may be good for utility spells if nothing else. More speculative for combo potential for defense or utility. Or even if you were just planing on prioritizing spells as those subclasses.
This feels like a really compelling character idea. They don't have particularly powerful magic, but they don't complain when there's one combat encounter in a day vs ten.
The main problem with sustained damage martials before was their survivability, for various reasons I'd say this was mostly addressed
Fighter especially gets more uses of second wind, feats which improve durability are improved or more accessible, such as tough from backgrounds, and the improvements to stuff like inspiring leader
All in all, martials used to run out of hp before casters ran out of spell slots, so casters had more resources, but I think that gap is narrowed enough to where I just want to play martials now
Aaand my next PC will still be a pact of the chain warlock xD
It would get pretty old pretty fast just attacking every turn and doing nothing else. Not even weapon mastery is really adding much depth to the strategy here.
@@nyanbrox5418 especially since you can chug healing pots as a bonus action now. Better stock up
@@AdellRedwinters combat is only as interesting as the DM makes it. You could say the same about caster casting the same damaging spell every turn if combat is that simple. DM adds nuance to situations, which makes attacking every turn not always the best option, battlefield control more important and magic less effective
@@nyanbrox5418
Personally... I would pick Human for Magic Initiate Cleric + Healer Origin Feats. Then dip lv1 Fighter first before I dip into lv1 Wizard or Sorcerer. Then go Lv5 to lv6 Fighter. Finally, lv15 to lv14 Wizard or Sorcerer.
Effectively, a lv5 or lv6 Fighter + lv14 or lv15 Caster. Pick whatever Subclasses you want.
This will give you great healing and be optimal for DPR and Vs Encounters. Unless you're rocking with 6 players + DM where you can get away with weaker or unorthodox builds.
Hell yeah light hammer/handaxe! Everyone talks about dual wielding builds like you need to be dex based, but you don’t! Light hammers are just as good as daggers! And handaxes are like shortswords that you can throw! And the fighting sequence of switching between heavy weapons and light weapons is so cool to me, I’m hype
I run a dual wielding paladin with hand axes. It is a sea going adventure so the cool factor is there
I have a kobold champion who runs around wielding a lance in two hands. We do have hb lance feat that adds a 1d12 die if you run 20 ft before attacking and prones an enemy if you crit them. With the new champion and fighter upgrades I feel i can run up with the lance, or even throw a dart, hit or miss i still get adv on my next attack, and slam in with the lance before switching to the spear with double hands and stabbing at the enemy. But foavor it all as this tiny 2 ft tall kobold running in with a 20 ft lance and doing all kinds of shenanigans with it
Hey Colby, I think that you have underestimated charger.
You do not need to backup and then move forward to get the extra damage. You can instead combine charger with any push weapon to push the enemy back 10 ft so that you can run 10 ft toward them and activate the charger damage.
I would consider great weapon master plus charger to be a go-to damage feat combo. You just need to pick a pike as one of your weapons and you can make the first attack with the pike, then switch to a greatsword or maul later.
This also allows you to activate the pam reaction attack each turn.
cool idea
How does this trigger PAM reaction attack?
@@tdarassp if you push the target 10 ft away (so 15 ft away from you total), they now have to run back into your reach which triggers the reaction attack.
Also, with this build in particular, you could use charger in this way starting at level 10 without changing anything about the build, since fighters can swap Graze for Push, Sap, or Slow on the fly. So if you miss you can graze, if you hit you can push and then charge!
@@urbanassassin26
Sadly, you do burn the Reaction so another player will have to protect you after your turn ends. Unless this is a 1v1.
Imo Ranged SHOULD do less damage than melee, its a give and take of putting yourself more in harms way vs staying in the back
Yeah now it's like:
Using both hands for melee weapons deals the most damage.
You can trade that off for:
Range or
A shield or
A grappling or spell casting hand
@@xanter4672As per the book two handed weapons only require two hands to attack, not to hold them. So You can cast spells and grapple with those weapons by simply letting go with one hand. It works really well with spells, but its iffy for grappling because that means You can’t attack as long as You keep it going.
A dead DPS is a 0 dps
@@LoreFoundry what is the point you are trying to make here?
@@cyancybershock original post was, range should do less damage because melee take the risk of being hit.
My response was, a dead DPS is a 0 dps.
Besides if you wanna screw with ranged combat. Drop a fog on the battlefield and they can't do anything. Ranged characters often do more damage because they don't need the same investment into defenses. Right? Like a melee character needs plate armor if they can wear it, they have to weigh the pros and cons of a shield. Then they gotta find ways to extend their life, temp hp, self heals, AC buffs , resistances/immunities. And you gotta try to get those things into the build from your features, spells and items. A ranged martial just needs to pick up all the damage stuff and they are good. To say ranged combat should do less damage is not entirely accurate. Everything in DND has a trade off.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the Eldritch Knight presents a really appealing subclass for this kind of character, since you can add new True Strike or even a Blade Cantrip into your attack rotation
It's great! Probably better *if* you can use the old Bladetrips. If you can't, True Strike is a little tricky since Reckless attack only benefits from strength based attacks :).
Alternatively with a couple warlock levels you could add in eldritch blast with agonizing blast. With a little finagling of ability scores, wouldn’t that be noticeably stronger than taking the champion subclass?
Use a Maul with an owl, and you basically have unlimited advantage, which, combined with Great Weapon Master and Great Weapon Fighting, will deal massive damage. Especially with Booming Blade,
Since EK's can only true strike on ONE of their attacks, it means that you want to have two offensive stats, which just makes you more spread out than you want to.
@@RobThePrincess only a Problem if you can‘t use the old Bladetrips, if you have those you can Play it very strong
Ranged weapon users may be in a bad place damage wise, but they're in an incredible place on the battlefield. Less likely to be targeted by attacks, and they can deliver damage to any target they like most of the time
They also don't take up useful space on the battlefield.
Bots are how you know you made the big time!
The other thing about this weapon master I can do this all day build is that you can also turn it into an immovable object tank style. By having so many fighter and a few barb levels you have a big hp pool and you can just keep trucking!
Thanks for the build Colby, I still await the Berzerker build!
I want to imagine damage expressed as Bots killed per Round. BPR. I'm a fan of reliable, resource light builds, as you can squeeze more adventuring into a day before this conversation. Player A: "Can we rest yet"? Player B: "We've moved 600 feet and gone through only 42 minutes of in-game time" Player A: "I need a long rest, I'm at 25% resources.":: DM: Moves to deadly level "random" encounters.
The New (2024) Baseline: D&D Ep. #181
Build 1 - (see above)
Level 01 (@9:42) [fighter 1, background, species & fighting-style]
Level 02 (@16:11) [fighter 2]
Level 03 (@17:52) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 04 (@19:03) [fighter 4 & feat]
Level 05 (@20:40) [fighter 5]
Level 06 (@21:14) [fighter 6 & feat]
Level 07 (@24:16) [barbarian 1]
Level 08 (@25:56) [barbarian 2]
Level 09 (@26:42) [fighter 7 & fighting-style]
Level 10 (@29:51) [rogue 1]
}|{
Build 2 - (see above)
Level 01 (@31:29) [fighter 1, background, species & fighting-style]
Level 04 (@33:21) [fighter 4 & feat]
Level 06 (@34:02) [fighter 6 & feat]
Level 07 (@34:52) [fighter 7 & fighting-style]
Level 08 (@35:02) [fighter 8 & feat]
Level 09 (@37:04) [fighter 9]
Level 10 (@37:53) [fighter 10 & feat]
Level 11 (@38:25) [fighter 11]
Level 12 (@40:15) [barbarian 1]
Level 13 (@40:32) [barbarian 2]
Level 14 (@41:58) [warlock 1 & eldritch invocation
Level 15 (@43:39) [warlock 2 & eldritch invocations]
Level 16 (@43:58) [warlock 3 & subclass]
Level 17 (@45:14) [talks about the 3 options]
I've always been a fan of melee builds being stronger. They should deal more damage, since they also have to deal with whatever harmful aura, effect, or attack that the monster possesses.
Then physical resistances arrive with stronger creatures. Martials have no real way of dealing non physical damage.
Thanks for clarifying the new Bonus Action attack combo! I was definitely in denial about WotC giving everyone access to three attacks with one feat and a weapon mastery property. WOWZA! Excited to see how much dmg the builds will do now.
I really like the fact that ranged is behind a melee's DPR now. It makes sense, since you put yourself in less danger. Melee characters should be rewarded for taking this risk.
Hmm my gut feeling says that berserker barbarian is a solid pick for I can do this all day build:)
All Barbs in the PHB are good at it, Berserkers are just the ones that get through the day quicker
i’m fairly certain that ability depends on rage… which technically disqualifies it. that said, the chances of running out of rage’s with the new rules is much lower so you could build a reliable sustained damage dealer with it that would be SUPER viable
So many new fun builds. I need to see that new Nightcrawler warlock build asap!
A fun build I wanted to explore was a Sorlock that uses Keen Mind to determine resistances and weaknesses as a bonus action, then has an Agonizing Sorcerous Burst so you always will be avoiding resistance and often hitting weaknesses.
I imagine this either as a exploration of how far you can push cantrip casting (more Warlock?) or as a primarily Dragon sorcerer where you can always switch damage types when needed, and if not, you change all of your spells to the damage type of your elemental specialization.
i dont think this is like, a high priority since there are so many new things from the book, but i’d love to see a new street fighter build!! all the new unarmed fighting stuff is so awesome, and id love to see a build based around it
"...and if you don't, I hope you hang in there." @DnDDeepDive , I always appreciate this addition, Colby. You don't need details, but part of the reason I got into DnD was that I've had some really rough times the last few years. It's something fun that brings people together, when circumstances and daily life hasn't always enabled that. You say the "hang in there" part every video so I know its coming, but even my good days, it gets me right in the feels every time. Greetings from Orem.
(Incidentally, I used to know someone else named Colbie Paulson. She's probably no relation though)
Seconded. This addition is hugely appreciated.
Hey thanks, friend. This warms my heart :). And I'm amazed that a Colbie Paulson exists!
Hey Orem homie! Utah nerds unite :) if you need a group I’d totally link up at dragon’s keep sometime
@@the.dirt.man. Cool, I'll keep you in mind when my schedule opens up. Huzzah Magic Powers!
@@gavinmcgraw huzzah magic powers!🫡
The farmer background for Tough is great for actually doing it all day lol
Its wild to me that the soldier background doesn’t grant You the same feat
Long A on Avett - they are awesome, was not expecting the reference when I started your very fun video
So glad the Avett Bros made their way into your postshow music! I've long felt they would be up your alley. They are stupendous in concert, I've seen them six times, (even as a West-coaster) and they never disappoint.
If you are doing this, then don't go Fighter the whole way. If you really want the damage at 19 and 20, you go Fighter 15/Barb 3 at then you get a feat at 19 and 20 those feats are both allowed to be epic boons since the only prerequisite for them is 19+.
Thanks Colby- psyched about martials! ❤
New to Dnd, coming from bg3, and my first character is a gish fig/wiz/sorc. Strange build i know, but it has been good braincandy to really get to know the rules of 5e and 2024.
Got the same idea as you for dmg/r for the 2014 version, and did my math. Im so exited to this video (and also so glad that i get to steal some info from here xd for the 2024 v of the pc). Thanks for the good videos man!
currently swashbuckler 3 hexblade 2 with the new agonizing blast (can apply to booming blade). Rapier means vex, so tons of advantage, swashbuckler fancy footwork means easy to proc booming blade extra damage. Agonizing blast will proc on every hit of the cantrip as it does for eldritch blast
Thanks!
@@brianwest6316 thank you!
Love that you stop a build at lvl 10! It feels so much more relevant to most of the games we play. It's fun to see lvl 20 potential but lvl 10 builds speak to me/my friends much much more.
Keep up the good work!
Even at lv10. If you don't cast weapon damage buff spells, then dual wielding is the go to. Or sword + board for defence.
If you do cast weapon buff spells or spells like True Strike, then Greatsword or Great Ax will deal more DPR.
Even if you include everything in the Action Economy. Great Swords hit harder with less probability compared to Dual Wielding which will hit lesser And have more probably to succeed on.
Not to mention split damage being terrible when dual wielding. And how some weapon buff spells interact.
Consider a monk build with a fighter dip. 1 level in fighter gets you two-weapon style and the nick mastery, then go monk for an unarmed strike bonus action. No need to expend ki for great dpr: you've got three attacks at level two, then four attacks at level 6, totally at-will.
I think a build I've been theory crafting since getting my hands of the new PHB fulfils this super high sustained damage role really well: a mounted champion fighter with a lance. The main reason it works is because a lance wielded in one hand can benefit from both great weapon master and the dueling fighting style at the same time for PB + 2 extra damage on every attack. If you combine this with reliable advantage from mounted combatant, champion's expanded crit range, extra damage on crits from the piercer feat, and 20 Str all by level 8, then you've got a monster of a sustained damage dealer on your hands. This build also comes with the rare added bonus of only needing a weapon in one hand, leaving your other free to still use a shield.
We can't use charger reliably at lvl 8 in the second build, sure, but at lvl 9 we can push our target 10 feet to activate charge if we hit it.
The question becomes wether we want to push and charge or to Graze, since to my knowledge you have to declare the mastery trait you're using when you attack, not after you see wether you hit or miss.
I was about to ask whether you need to choose the mastery trait upfront.
hey a channel veteran here, I never get tired of you breaking down the explanation lol
Acording Treantmonk, if u go fighter or warlock at lv 20, that feat can be an epic boon, those unlock at character lv 19, not class lv.
Now that i finally have the book myself, theres no other way Dual Wielder can work. It simply gives you a bonus action option, and doesnt modify the existing option granted by the light property. They're entirely seperate. Claiming it does because you think it should is just bad faith.
100% Team Colby
As Jeremy Crawford has stated before... You can Attack + Nick + BA DW feat... But you can not Nick + Light Weapon Property without DW Feat.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 even with Dual Wielder you can't Nick+Light because Nick explicitly uses the Light Property trigger and states once per turn, it just removes the bonus action cost. You Nick+Dual Wielder Bonus Action.
@michaelpenner6053
True, as stated under Nick last Note. While Dual Wielder Feat gives you a New BA.
I think this kinda shows the importance for more uniform resource expenditure in D&D5E. With so many tables doing 0-2 combats a day, or 0-1 short rests, *big* moves and utility has grown quite a bit
(Oof for the rogues in chat)
My favorite ranged attack now is using my sling on my Battlemaster with Crusher. Swap the slowing for pushing with lvl 9 feature and launch people from sling hits 25 ft with the Pushing Maneuver.
Did a similar build but before we knew about the dual wielder feat, so i used great weapon fighting feat which says that you can make a melee weapon attack as a bonus action. So at level 11 I’d do 3 attacks with vex and hopefully crit (first attack with heroic adv), then a bonus action attack with vex and finally a scimitar nick attack. Did use Elven accuracy from 2014 to have a way bigger chance of a critical hit.
Congratulations, the first build was interesting enough that it made me actually want to play a champion fighter.
Savage Attacker is actually amazing with Barbarian Berserker... The Frenzy ability adds to weapon damage dice, thus Savage lets you reroll the d6's as well.
It's still only once per turn, so I wouldn't call it amazing. But nice job noticing that synergy regardless!
I'm here for this math. Thanks Colby!
Great video as always Colby!!! Now let's get that Beast Master 3.0 going!!! 6 attacks at Lv11 thanks to vex!! Double Conjure Woodland Beings at Lv15!!!! Conjure Barrage damage is so good!! Let's goooooo!!!
Love the video! Putting in my weekly request for a Goliath War or Light Cleric with the new players handbook! ❤
I love the format of your videos. I just finished mowing the lawn and on god this made it go by like nothing! I’m glad dual wielding / nick works the way it does. I was worried for rogue but three attacks out the gate is sick. The wording on thief straight giving a climb speed was interesting and upon further inspection doesn’t seem too different than 2014 but brings up some interesting rules comparisons I’d be interested to see if the DMG addresses. For example, spider and lizards have climb speeds, seeming to imply that handholds aren’t needed for a climb speed. This is further reinforced by the new thief’s wording only referencing a need for a handhold if you end your turn on the ceiling?! So thief’s can just scurry up the side of a wall, no need for ropes or handholds or anything? Seems sick
As usual, great video. Oddly enough, I started thinking about a very similar build this morning (the dual-wielding). I do think you left damage on the table, though (depends on if wording for things have changed in the new PBH).
I’d start out with 3 levels in Rogue taking Soulknife as the subclass. It’s Bonus action attack should work the same as Dual-Wielder except it doesn’t need the Two-Weapon fighting style to add your modifier to the damage. That will free up a feat and a fighting style. Since you can draw or stow a weapon each time you make an attack, you should be able to manage your Scimitar being in your hand for Nick when it needs to be and not be in your hand when you need it to be free for the bonus psi-knife attack. You also get 2d6 for Sneak Attack for a bit of extra damage.
When you go to fighter next round, take Duelist instead of Two-Weapon Fighting. Since you’re stowing the scimitar between Nick attacks and because your psi-knifes disappear after attacks, you would never have more than one weapon in hand at a time, so you’ll get +2 damage to all attacks. The Sage Compendium for 2014 states that this bonus applies to thrown weapons as well as long as you aren’t dual-wielding. At level 4 you take Thrown Weapon Fighting, so at level 8 when you get extra attack assuming a modifier of +3, each attack you make besides the Nick attack would give you +7 damage, and you’d have 4 attacks each round with two being d6 and two being d4 and 2d6 Sneak Attack damage.
I messed up some of the wording in my post, so here’s a clarification on what I mean. Levels 1-3 go Rogue taking Soulknife. Level 4 I start Fighter taking Duelist. At level 7 (Fighter 4) take the Fighting Style feat to get Thrown Weapon Fighting. Then at level 8 (Fighter 5) you get multi-attack.
At that point its Attack and Extra attack with a d6 Psi-knife with +7 damage (+3 for the modifier, +2 for Duelist and +2 for Thrown), a Nick attack with a dagger for d4+4 (just the styles bonuses), then a bonus action for the extra psi-knife attack for d4+7, and lastly 2d6 for a sneak attack. That’s a total of 4d6+2d4+25 assuming everything hits.
The Avett Brothers just got a new fan! At first I thought you said "Abbott brothers" which brought up old Abbott and Costello clips 😆, but once I found the actual band I was impressed. They owe you for adding a new fan Colby :)
Love the new builds. Miss your pathfinder content though. I was looking forward to seeing all the combos you could make with the weapons.
The way to do ranged weapons seems to be gwm with a longbow, with the trick being getting a good bonus action from your class/subclass. One of the more promising builds I'm looking at rn is the classic ranged samurai fighter, which surprisingly only lost damage compared to 2014 once you take elven accuracy into account.
So I’ve actually done some theory crafting on this Champion Thrown Weapon build, and you are missing out on damage by using just Light Hammers and Handaxes, instead of making your last two attacks with thrown Tridents (which are now d8 weapons at base). The Dual Wielder feat lets you make the bonus action attack with any non-Two Handed weapon as long as you’ve attacked with a Light weapon, and the fact that you’re throwing weapons means you don’t have to worry about the “weapon juggling” normally requires to make use of that aspect and the Nick mastery together. The Topple mastery is problematic with a ranged build, but you can always just choose not to use it.
Super straight forward seems like a great first (or relaxing / shenanigans personality character).
Yes! HSR scratches a lot of surprises itches, especially for RPG fans! I always recommend it to fantasy / space opera interested folks on storytelling alone (knights of beauty probably inspire a lot of Paladins)...but I love the experimentation with new turn based mechanics~
I think another interesting case in the general options available without resources, or to be more accurate, with one very big and friendly resource, is mounted combat now. A Lance qualifies for Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and Duelist Fighting Style, all at once now. A Paladin with Find Steed, or even a Fighter with a lot of gold to burn, could genuinely do something neat with that information. One of the other neat things about this is I think its one of the few places where Champion Fighter can really shine. The improved critical rate gives you more chances to get that GWM bonus action attack, and the two fighting styles lets you take both Duelist fighting style and Protection fighting style, letting you guard your own mount or other players using that very nice improvement to be all-turn-long that Protection got.
IF you're spending 3 level dip for Genie's Vessel, I think you're sleeping on Hunter Ranger 3, Hoard Breaker. For 3 levels of Hunter Ranger you get a TON, including hunters mark (which is more dmg from a bonus action than PAM assuming you have Hoard Breaker and Cleave), another fighting style (if you don't need a style take Druidic Warrior and get Guidance for utility and PYF), Hunter's Lore which lets you know any resists/immunities/vulnerabilities on the target of hunters mark, and the Hoard Breaker attack (which also adds PB damage from GWM, AND also works with ranged attacks and thrown weapons).
I appreciate that with two weapon fighting, Rogues can now guarantee they get Sneak Attack every round. With a Short Sword in one hand and Dagger in the other, they've got Vex and Nick in a perfect combo. Add Dual Wielder on top of that, and you could swap to something silly like a Rapier & Scimitar pairing. Very Swashbuckler-y.
Another bonus to Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter changes is that the extra damage from Great Weapon Master works with Longbows and Heavy Crossbows so you can get the extra damage on ranged attacks and melee attacks from the same feature.
Thanks for the video, always great content. (Martials need more love for sure.. scaling masteries, scaling fighting styles or double weapon damage die at higher level would be nice).
I've done a couple videos about damage comparisons between weapon types - one for melee, one for ranged weapons - though I prefer to just strip it down to its bare necessities just so I can see what each weapon style is doing agnostic of any special class/subclass features.
If we're not worried about comparing ourselves to 2014, melee playstyles in 2024 I think are all pretty well balanced with each other and like you said martial classes in general just have so much more utility that they're just going to feel better to play than their 2014 counterparts.
4 months later just seeing this and I still had to comment that I laughed out loud at "Arid: Extra-Dry!".
A perfect use for a baseline character like this is... monsters!
I love the idea of monsters built as PC's, as simplifying often nerfs them a lot.
19:00 and being a halfling is still a slight boost to crit chance. If I recall right ...
Halfling improves crit chance by 0.25% per crit range. So, if you crit on 20 every other race has a crit chance of 5% (1 in 20 chance of getting a 20). The halfling has a 5.25% chance (5% chance of rolling a 1, and a 5 percent of that 5% chance to turn that 1 into a 20).
That continues to scale (which matters more in a game like Baldur's Gate 3 where you can really stack crit range) so when the champion fighter gets a crit on 19 or 20 instead of having a 10% crit chance the halfling champion fighter will have a 10.5% crit chance. That doesn't sound like much ... but, other characters have a 5% crit chance and you have a 210% larger crit range than other characters (and halfling is worth 10% out of that 210% increase).
I believe at higher level the crit range increases further to 18, 19 and 20. That means this character ends up with a 15.75% crit chance. At this point being a halfling is worth 15% of the crit chance any other character would have (5% vs 0.75%). And, obviously, more of those rerolls will just turn a miss into a hit rather than a crit ... which is still amazing and only gets better as you have more and more attacks per round. Think about how many attacks you have per turn and how many turns are in a standard combat.
This is why halflings are also amazing for warlock eldritch blast (assuming 2024 eldritch blast is similar to 2014).
First time commenting. Love your builds and am gearing up to play a Moonsinger in a campaign soon. Just wanted to say don’t feel guilty about playing Honkai Star Rail, I’ve been playing since launch and it’s a great game! Also once you get past the story, it’s great for busy people, as you can play it for like twenty minutes a day, have some fun, then go get other things done!
On a champion fighter focused on great weapon fighting, take archery, so you're good wirh a longbow if the enemies are not in range
Love your vids!! Hello from Brazil!
As you mentioned, the other things martials bring to the table nowadays is pretty incredible. I mean, just take this build and make a slight tweak: Battle Master instead of Champion, and then Zealot. Lets say eventually Fighter 11/Barbarian 6. You have all of those Weapon Masteries, Tactical Master, and Battle Master Maneuvers for control options, you have both Second Wind and Warrior of the Gods for self-sustaining, you have Fanatical Focus and Indomitable for brute forcing through saves, if you took Tough you probably have the most HP in the party and you have Rage to help spread it out even farther, you have the BM Maneuvers and Divine Fury for damage boosts.... oh and you have multiple ways to be more helpful skill wise outside of combat than in 2014.
All of that, and its still a very basic build without a trace of spells. And we haven't even touched on Feats that push the build further like Mage Slayer or maybe Shield Master. Can probably throw in Skill Expert if you grabbed some of the Maneuvers that let you use the Superiority Die on some skills because you wanted to make sure you were particularly reliable out of combat, particularly if you went Human and also grabbed Skilled on top of Tough.
That is a very reliable, self-sustaining package. Loads of HP, breezing through physical saves and can brute force a few mental saves, surprisingly able to chip in with skills outside of combat (if not leading the party in them at the start until the Rogue and Bard really take off), an absolute barrage of in combat control options, with only two resources to have to keep track of. Any new player should be able to keep up with it pretty easily, at most need a few reminders early on. And because of the Superiority Die + Divine Fury a new player can use any melee weapon they want and they're probably not falling behind much if at all damage wise when not going TWF/GWM routes compared to this baseline. Still have room for at least one of those feats as well.
The moment you said "Great weapon or Two Weapon Fighting: Both" I was thinking GWM + Dual Weilder with Lances and not two different builds. xD
I would love to see a war domain cleric build!
❤ great work as usual!
I actually am a giant fan of Champion Fighter now, at least on paper. I’ve been wanting to do a character that is a very savage fighter, but not mindless or stupid, and I love the thought of this unrelenting offense that is just a pain to put down.
Take mastery in the Pike and the Glaive, you now have the reliable damage weapon in the Glaive, but also a repositioning tool in the Pike. (Additionally, being able to move up to half your speed when critting or using Second Wind means that you can move with the target you’re repositioning)
Then, if I use this character at higher levels, taking feats like Durable and Heavy Armor Master give them Massive staying power. I also feel like Heavy Armor Master will have fantastic Utility in mitigating if any monsters have an ability akin to the Graze mastery.
Then, if you get to level 20 or play it in a One-Shot, the Boon of Fortitude kicks both your Healing from Durable and from your Champion capstone “Survivor” up a notch.
An interesting thing with epic boons is you don’t need to be level 19 in any one class to get them. You just need to be level 19 total and get a feat class feature. So if you multi class just right, you can get an epic boon at level 19 and 20.
Is this true?
I hadn’t thought about weapon masteries stacking when you multiclass. Now I want to see a build where the character gains access to every weapon mastery. Like what people would do with getting proficiency in every skill. It even has an easy name. “The Weapon Master”
I think the magic initiate(druid) is a better origin feat so you can get shillelagh and use a club(light weapon) with a scimitar offhand. Shillelagh, unlike true strike, says you CAN use your spellcasting modifier for attack and damage, meaning you could forgo this and stick with strength, then the damage die will be better, and force damage is highly unresisted.
@@flamester41 it’s good. Only downside is the BA setup which I was trying to avoid on this one.
In my humble opinion, Warlock also offers some interesting options.
First level Fighter (of course) because you need heavy armor and fighting styles. I'd go with a polearm build, since Warlock revolves around its pact weapon, and unfortunately you can only have one. Maybe Blindfighting, so you don't need Devil's Sight?
Starting stats, 17,8,14,8,12,16.
First feat, Polearm Master, second Great Weapon Master, third, Heavy Armor Master(?).
Obviously Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. It is resourceless. Genie Warlock, as you say, Dao, most likely.
Also obviously: Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Devouring Blade. You will be waiting till level 13 for Devouring Blade, but you get there eventually.
You're rolling three attacks, plus a bonus action attack, each turn, the three attacks doing d10+5+d6+5(prof), and the bonus action doing d4+5+d6. Plus a +5 from Dao Genie's Wrath. This is at level 13.
So that's 73 average damage a round. 77 once you get the +6 proficiency modifier.
If you're able to use the Improved Pact Weapon feat from Xanathar's that's a bit more, both to hit and wound.
Of course, you're still a Warlock with access to Spirit Shroud, which can add 2d8 damage per hit with a fifth level slot, so the build can ramp itself up to an average of 109/113 per round.
You could add two levels of Barbarian for Recklass Attack.
Nice to know that even guys like Homelander love playing D&D
I want to point out that while ranged characters seem like they might be getting the short end of the stick, GWM's damage bonus actually works on ranged attacks, so it might be worth picking up for your ranger or folks using longbows or heavy crossbows
Hey Mr.Colby of D4 deep dive. My friend and I were real interested in a warlock video, about the strongest warlock you can make without a pact boon within the new rules, as well as the strongest you could make with each pact boon.
I actually really love the concept of throwing two returning weapons twice each round, all with Advantage. Make me feel like a Terraria character.
Double hand axe is such a perfect Barbarian theme, and in the old rules it felt so busted because there were so many ways your bonus action got eaten. Barbarians less so, but you still couldn't use two weapons on your first turn when you enter rage, and some subclasses had other things that competed too.
In my recent campaign, our entire party gold by level 9 was 300gp. And trust me, there was no expenditure except of any note.
@@IgnavumFortuna that’s a stingy DM!
I got the new phb physical book today. There's a typo on lance, they put it as 2h and 1d10 but on DND beyond it's still showing 1d12 and special.
They also didn't add the double bladed scimitar to the new PHB
Beyond has a ton of missed implementations still alas.
Double bladed scimitar is technically eberron exclusive because it’s tied to a specific elven culture in khorvaire.
@@Keith_catlong What weapon mastery would the double bladed scimitar have?
@@lionheart8503 oooh that’s a fun idea to entertain. I think I visual the vex property, or maybe even cleave. What do you think?
@@Keith_catlong Vex, Graze or Cleave all work conceptually. In addition I would add wording to the Special quality where if you have Weapon Mastery with this weapon the extra attack can be made as part of the Attack action instead of as a bonus action. It's like Nick, but it can't actually be Nick because you aren't attacking with a light weapon. If you think that giving one weapon (effectively) two masteries is problematic, bear in mind that if you were wielding two weapons you would probably have a different mastery on each weapon anyway, and one of them would probably be Nick.
Thoughts?
Colby you mentioned on stream today you’re in Utah! I’d absolutely love to get my PHB or something signed, so please post if you’re ever doing meet-and-greets or any local Convention!! Stay blessed bro🙏
I'm considering going to FanX this month, but haven't committed yet! :)
@@DnDDeepDive yes please! I’ll buy tickets immediately once you give the word
If you're going all the way to 20, or doing a level 20 one-shot, I'd suggest fighter 16/barbarian 4, with two epic boons (combat prowess and irresistible offense). If you're going straight fighter, you'd have the champion capstone (the regeneration while bloodied thing, whatever it's called), so you might be tempted to take the boon of fortitude instead (increasing your regen to 5 + 2 per CON mod). Frankly, I'd love to pair that with the remarkable recovery feat from the Tal'Dorei campaign setting (5 HP per round, plus 3 HP per CON mod? Not bad!).
I might be wrong, but it you grabbed the Magic Initiate: Wizard origin feat you could grab Find Familiar, pick Owl (it has Flyby which means it doesn't provoke AoO, and a 60ft fly speed) and you can just have it fly in, give you a Help Action every turn then fly away (I always like to explain how my character "helps" to trigger the advantage, for the Owl I tend to say it whizzed by the enemy's ear and that moment of distraction is the cause of the advantage). Advantage on the first attack is probably worth more than what little damage you may or may not get from savage attacker, in addition a familiar has a ton of out of combat uses (the cantrips can add a bunch of utility in and out of combat too, Blade Ward is pretty useful for a frontline character, especially one that doesn't really have anything else to use their Concentration on).
I use this tactic a lot, but didn't feel comfortable relying on it for this particular build - familiar's often get deleted by an AOE or an enemy targeting them, and didn't want to have to rely on something that may or may not last. But also, on every build we end up with advantage thanks to Reckless Attack anyways.
@@DnDDeepDive Of course, it's just the pure Fighter builds don't get Reckless, plus the Owl gives Advantage for the first attack before you get Vex online. The 60 movement flyby is sometimes good enough to get the owl out of a room or into cover but that is a good point (At the very least, you get a free cast of familiar for every long rest). I think Eldritch Knight might be a solid option for a sustain build too (assuming your DM lets you use Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade, I honestly can't imagine they wouldn't but some tables are weird). GFB adds some very fun synergy with the Cleave mastery, and Booming Blade used on a Push mastery weapon is pretty strong on a melee enemy (forcing it to stand still and waste it's turn or move and pop the BB). The only thing you need to take note of is you need to move within 5ft to use either so something to keep in mind when using polearms. Sorry for rambling hah.
Love that you're playing HSR and losing sleep lol
I was thinking of a champion build like this, but my idea was to take elven accuracy and piercer with a vex weapon (shortsword) and a dagger. You would have a ~27% chance to crit with each advantaged attack (~39% at 15) and do the extra damage from piercer. You would also have a really low chance to miss. Idk I don't really know how to calculate DPR the same way Colby does
Hey Colby.
I would love if you made a Moon druid build next..
Just to show that it can still be strong and viable..
I wish some of the weapon mastery features where adaptable. I really like dual wielding the same weapons and the new system really makes that sub optimal
Can't wait for you Feixaio style build! haha
Well now I want to see a bow build just for comparisons sake... It's not resourceless and probably not particularly good but a valor bard for true strike in place of an attack combined with 1 or 3 levels of ranger to pick up hail of thorns/ensnaring strike sounds to me like a fun start to a character
ON the 2d6 two handed weapons Great weapon fighting style is actually pretty good - the mean average damage doesn't go up that much sure, but your actual damage through some rounds of combat goes up dramatically more than that small change in mean average suggests as the distribution of the possible damage rolls shifts hugely in your favour. So unless you are attacking a number times that approaches infinity so the mean average is really representative...
With the 2D6 weapons without the 'any 1 and 2 rolled is actually a 3' you can and will still roll substantially under that average damage, often, where when you can't roll less than 3... Sure you can still roll under the mean average, but the worst possible result is now 6 on the die - much much closer to the mean and by number of possible ways to roll even the higher damage results like 9 have increased as now that 1,6 or 2,6 on the dice is now actually a total of 9. And once you factor in that 5% (or higher) chance to critically hit double 6 is a huge gulf on doubling 2 (as it seems to me most tables don't roll extra die they double the numbers on the die rolled).
on the second build, I'd say more likely 50 %, to 75% of the time you'll get a reaction attack.
I'm with you on feeling Weapon Mastery should have done something to increase the damage done by Mastered Weapons. My house rules say the following: From character levels 1 - 10, the critical range of all Mastered weapons becomes 18 - 20 if the attack hits. An 18 or 19 simply means you roll the weapon's damage dice twice and add them together, while a nat 20 means you get the max weapon die damage plus 1 roll of the dice (so a bit better than simply 2 rolls).
From Character levels 11 - 20, all Mastered weapons' damage dice are doubled, so a normal hit rolls 2 x weapon damage dice, an 18 or 19 rolls 4 x damage dice, and a 20 does 2 x damage rolled plus 2 x max damage dice. Note that these are only the weapon's own damage dice that are increased, so any dice from sneak attack, smites, magic bonuses or spells, etc are not automatically doubled here and are still treated by the game's rules as normal (so only a 20 would double them).
Those above rules affect all characters that get Weapon Mastery, but the Champion Fighter is a special case because they also get expanded critical ranges. So at 3rd level, their critical range expands by 1 for all weapons, so 19 - 20 for regular weapons and 17 - 20 for Mastered Weapons. At 15th level, their critical threat range expands again, to 18 - 20 for regular weapons, and to 16 - 20 for Mastered weapons.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on these rules. The idea came from looking back at DnD 4e where higher level abilities often did 2x, 3x, or even 4x the weapon's damage dice plus other effects and abilities, so I figured 5.24 should be able to handle 2x damage dice after 11th level and an increased critical range for Mastered weapons. I'm sorry that something like this wasn't printed in the book as a way to help bridge the Martial / Caster gap that only expands at the higher character levels. I put a version of this in my earliest responses to the play test, but sadly nothing ever came from that.
38:14 heroic inspiration allows you to reroll any die, not just d20 tests
If you allow the elven accuracy feat - it would be awesome on a dual weapon weilding champion dex-based champion fighter. You'll be critting left and right at level 15.
You content is really inspiring 💚 just a thought I've been having about how weapons can't really grow beyond the damage dice associated, I'd thought about an ability that essentially changes the bottom numbers on the weapons damage dice, so the affected weapon wouldn't roll for 1-12 for example but would roll for 3-14 by making the 1&2 count as 13&14. I'm curious how such a rule would affect overall damage, I'm looking to add a buff without it being overpowered
Enjoy the anime girls! Anime art is so cute and beautiful.
Personally, I like all the stats I can get. Covering sustained-no resource, burst-long rest, and burst-short rest would be interesting for builds. The build in this video doesn't account for resource use, but knowing its potential burst if using resources like buffs, rage, etc, would be cool.
I appreciate you and what you do. Thanks, Colby 🙂
13:00 I wish that feat functioned like the Lancer rpg crit (roll double dice and keep highest).
Note you can get Epic Boon without straight classing, just make sure you have a feat level at 19 or 20! If you want to use this build, PYF 18 then Warlock 4 at 19 fits well
If the requirement for an epic boon feat is level 19+ and not level 19 in a class, which it seems to be, then couldn't you get an epic boon feat at both 19 and 20?
Class 1: 15 levels
Class 2: 3 levels
19: class 1 16th level feat
20: class 2 4th level feat
Or do the same with more than two classes, if you wish. Some good epic boons to choose from! More the merrier 😂
This was a dope video
Iirc correctly the new heroic inspiration lets you reroll ANY die roll, not just of a d20 test. Not that that will come up very often on this build (except if you wanna reroll your damage). This means you could even reroll a Wild Magic Surge or a Portent roll. But someone correct me if Im wrong on this
I assume you have most of your videos planned for the next while. But I'd love to see a baseline for ranged characters, with the knowledge that they've been nerfed significantly
The way that second build was ended makes me wonder about a more fully fleshed out Fighter Warlock multiclass. Getting to replace one weapon attack with 2 eldritch blasts seems interesting. Granted it couldn't be done until level 8. But the build could come online a little earlier by starting fighter and then dipping one level into Warlock for Pact of the Blade making us both happy and SAD. And then picking up Hex. So the level 6 damage report could still be a fighter 5 warlock 1. Level 9 would be Fighter 7 Warlock 2 in order to get that bladesinger's extra attack, and the Warlock invocation agonizing blast. I guess this is just kind of an updated version of your HexBladeSinger, haha. At level 13 You would have the fighter's extra extra attack, replacing one of them with 3 eldritch blasts. Adding Hex on top of all of that would be pretty nice.
Edit: Although this is proof as to why you have the youtube channel and I don't. I forgot you still need 3 levels in Warlock to allow your pact weapon to be a greatsword. So you'd need to be using a longsword and giving up a fair bit of damage in the long run. Ah well. And Interesting thought experiment to make an Eldritch Knight feel truly eldritch in power