I said this in the video but edited it out due to length. Should have left it in! For those saying you can't use Eldritch Blast with War Caster because it can potentially target multiple enemies, I offer exhibit A: "The 3rd benefit of War Caster requires you to target only the moving creature. Eldritch blast works as long as all the beams target it." twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/908469121502736384?lang=en Also, Errata: Ranged attacks aren't made with disadvantage if the enemy is incapacitated, so we *would* have advantage still if using Hold Monster, as Paralyze incapacitates :).
Oh that’s great flavoring. Imagine your buddies not hearing that a fireball is being cast and you the target don’t have magic to counter spell it. Ouch.
@@nathanfivecoate5848You could multiclass to get it, or use a similar spell like hunger of hadar. He was giving an example of a cool situation. No need to be so nitpicky.
I always thought a good concept for a Goolock was the idea that "Dwarves always dig too deep", maybe customized origin (for that feat), a dwarven miner that encounters mindflayers in the deep underdark. Bald, with a massive scar around his head from brain removal and his beard ghostly tentacles instead of bristles. What madness has he survived, whose brain now dwells in his cranium?
I've always thought of material component pouches to be a well organized belt with dozens of accessible pockets so a caster can quickly grab what they're looking for by muscle memory
For me is something like Goblin’s Slayer Pouch. Organized with a bunch of little bags with notch codes for tactile ID with all material components for the spell inside.
I really like the preambles on these videos. They help build anticipation, as well as appreciation for your thought process behind the build. Plus, it's more time to enjoy the -ASMR- sound of your voice.
I’ve allowed features that are typically activated on a bonus action to be used as action since for many years. It started after the first 5e Eberron sourcebook was released and I had a shifter barb at my table that wanted to rage and shift in the same turn. Seemed fine to me and I’ve yet to run into any problems all these years later
41:45 Big Hold Monster Buff (and Shadow of moil buff potentially) that you didn't get into... So you know, you do not have disadvantage on ranged attacks with an enemy within 5 feet if they are incapacitated (paralyzed means incapacitated as well) or cannot see you (Heavily obscured/invisible). "Ranged Attacks in Close Combat" Section of PHB is where it is detailed!
For what it’s worth (in reference to your introductions), I really do feel welcome to this channel. Each build has great research and insight, while maintaining the emphasis on “this just A way, not THE way”. I’ve referenced multiple builds from this channel when exploring builds of my own, and I sincerely appreciate what you do here. Thanks Colby!
1:00:32 I love that your reaction was recorded when you realised that you can't take War Caster before you are able to cast spells. Blew my mind as well. Too bad for Paladins and Rangers.
Ordercleric allows you to, at lvl 6 cast an enchsntment spell as a bonus action. This means dissonant whispers, which you can get from fey touched, combined with thornwhip and spiritguardians is pretty cool
alternatively mix it with this build to make this same idea, slightly lower damage perhaps, but way higher reliability. suddenly you get amazing nova and amazing sustain at the same time
I played a warlock built around the war caster and pole arm master feat, with a reach pole arm you can be eldritch blasting anytime someone tries to get close to you and partnered with repelling blast it was based around getting things away from it
I have this "if you build for it" moment every time I think of a new character concept and rewatch your vidéos to get some ideas about how to make it work 😄
@d4: I just wanna say that I appreciate that you are taking into account how "fun" or "good" it feels to play a character between levels 1-10, and especially 5-10. I think that it's a really important part of building an optimized character and I hope you continue to keep this in mind for future builds. I also hate the builds that only really come online at levels 12+ since it's so situational.
Correction: you only have a disadvantage on ranged attacks when an enemy who *isn't incapacitated* is within 5 feet of you. So hold monster eldritch blast for free advantage (and crit) is a working combo
Great video as always! Regarding the Hold Monster and being within 5 feet situation at 41:43, this is what it says in chapter 9 of the PHB: "Aiming a ranged attack is more difficult when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated." So if they are paralyzed, which means they are incapacitated, being within 5 feet of them wouldn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls. I would agree that it still wouldn't be better in this situation, so this is just for future reference.
41:54 actually, if your target is incapacitated, as they would be from hold monster, you don’t have disadvantage on your ranged attacks within 5 feet :)
Hang on... "When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated." - Eureka! Thanks for the reminder :).
[RAW] [reaction] [leveled spell] Hi Coby, RAW leveled spell as reaction is okay (correct me if I am wrong): - Basicly all reaction spells are leveled spells! (shield, counter spell, feather fall, absorb el., ...). - Most of the time (PCs having better initiative than NPCs), reaction "turn" is after your turn, which means, you likely already cast a leveled spell, and you are always allowed to cast shield after your turn if you are attacked and have reaction (and slot). I dont see any doubt this is not RAW, so reaction Scorching Ray is fine.
About the reaction stack for Scorching Ray, I couldn't find anything official on 5e, but on older editions, that would be a reaction STACK that started INSIDE YOUR TURN, thus your turn would only end after the entire stack got resolved, so no non-cantrip cast as reaction if you used bonus action to cast a non-cantrip. Most DM's I spoke with assume the same stance as well (let's be honest, casters are already good enough even with that reading XD)
RE: Scorching Ray as a reaction: I would argue that, as with most things in DnD, Specific beats General. The general rule is that if you cast a spell as a bonus action you may only cast cantrips with a casting time of one action on that turn. Warcaster introduces a specific rule that you may cast a spell that targets only that creature and has a casting time of one action instead of taking you opportunity attack. Since the two conflict with each other and Warcaster is more specific than the general rules for bonus actions, the Warcaster rule takes precedence which means you can indeed cast Eldritch Blast - Eldritch Blast - Dissonant Whispers - Scorching Ray without having to even consider whether or not it's still considered your turn.
@@irwingbrasil incorrect. If that were the case same would be true for eldritch blast. Perhaps you can argue all beams must go to the fleeing creature, but that's about it.
@@irwingbrasil Technically no. You're thinking of the wording for Twinned Spell, the wording for Warcaster is just "and must target only that creature". Which means as long as that creature is the only target getting effected by your spell then you're good. This was further reinforced by a Jeremy Crawford tweet posted in Nov 11th 2020.
I just started working with opportunity attack spell casting when your short for this episode went up. You often hit the same wavelength as my theory crafting and I always love your take on the same subject.
During the time the caster uses to prepare after a long rest, he or she gathers the components for that spell together and bundles then in some object to hold them (a piece of cloth, or parchment). They then place that bundle in their component pouch. The caster uses the focus and draws the arcane symbols in the air as they are holding the bundle of components. Ta Da.
51:39 The bonus action spell rule only applies to actions. If you misty step and someone counter spells, you can counter-counter spell and get away as an example
2:40 a component pouch itself is compartmentalized so each component is kept in its own little pocket. if you're modernizing it, it's actually more like the bat-belt, each component in it's own little thing.
I absolutely love that this build was made! I remember requesting this awhile ago. Now I can make a character that can, in character, shout out the sounds of a machine gun!
that rule for spell casting is only, if you cast a leveled spell as an action, you can't cast any other spell on your turn. But if you cast a spell as a bonus action, you can cast a cantrip as an action. It does speak about any other action uses, so by the RAW AND RAI, you can in fact cast a spell as a reaction on your turn even if you had cast a leveled spell on your turn. Its basically the same reasoning for why action surge works to be able to cast 2 spells in the same turn. :D
It's been confirmed that action surge can allow you to ignore the one leveled spell per turn rule. So, that would allow for a BA blast, Dissonant whisper, Surge, Scorching Ray. But, personally, I'd forgo the whisper and just hit them with BA blast, Scorching Ray, surge Scorching Ray. Assuming, Spirit Shroud and lvl 17, that's 4d10+32d8+24d6+20. So, about ≈300 average just on statistics. Not including the exceptionally fancy math you use for yours.
I have to thank you. Although not copying this build, I made a toll of the dead cleric off of your whip warcaster reaction trick. Eventually I will go spirit guardian, action dodge, and run in and use my whip reaction to toll of the dead. We'll see how it works. Might pick up sentinel as well at lvl 4. Not optimized, but fun!
About you question regarding bonus actions as main actions around 55 minutes in: I personally allow for bonus actions to be taken as a main action. It gives actionable turns an easy to understand hierarchy (free -> bonus -> main) and allows a higher ranking action to be used for a lower one. It hasn’t broken any of my games yet
Work is beating me down today... Really enjoyed listen to this I'm one ear while slogging through the non-sense... Got a bard build I might play with this concept..
Before I watch, I'm guessing that this build is going to be an eldritch blast build that uses warcaster, polearm master, and crossbow expert to great effect! (On thr basis the short this week was about warcaster)
The idea being that polearm master let's you make an attack of opportunity with your reaction when an opponent enters your melee range (note it does not specificy what attack you can make, you just need to hold a quarterstaff), then use warcaster to cast a spell using an attack of opportunity and choose eldritch blast, and with crossbow expert your ranged attack doesn't have disadvantage even if the enemy is in melee range!!! Combine this insanity with repelling blast and every time a nasty brute walks up to you for an attack you can push them back anywhere from 10~40 ft!!! Definitely deserves an episode
I just spent hours yesterday trying to optimize a build almost exactly like this, but couldn't figure out how to put it together. I hadn't considered dissonant whispers. Luckily for me you read my mind xD
As a person who's been playing a mage his entire life of fantasy. I can tell you how the material component pouches work. They're basically Batman's utility belt. A little separate compartment for every single item that he needs to cast a spell with. And though 5E says it's an actual pouch I prefer to think of it as a series of pockets sewn into my robes cloaks hats bracers and boots As well as the affirmation pouch that holds everything I need in a convenient way I need to get to it and whatever just do I need to make is closest to.
At our table, we have a house rule. Provided you are not suprised at the start of combat, we allow players to take an immediate bonus action if they roll initiative at a disadvantage. You are better prepared for your first round at the expense of taking it much later. It has more/less seemed balanced as enemies have the same option. It also has lead to some entertaining moments if you cast a spell as a bonus action, telegraph to the enemies you are a caster, and have to wait forever for your turn as public enemy #1.
Just wanted to drop a balance concern on bonus action as an action. Animate objects is a bonus action. So with action surge you could animate objects attack 3 times in a turn.
Firstly, I got to hear the phrase, “Burst of GOO!”, which is wonderful. Then we discussed the virtues of tentacles. This is maybe the best start to a day since last Tuesday! You’re on a roll, my friend! 😂😊🎉❤
I absolutely advocate reflavoring Darkness on this character as summoning a huge incorporeal slime blob that you hide inside, with moist slurping sounds, of course!
I love 5e theory crafting. And even with One D&D coming, I still appreciate builds that I haven't considered as there is still a bit of varied content out there over the last 6 months. The recent experiment for our group is playing around the DMG's "Long Rest Variant", (basically, Short rests are now sleep/minimal activity over 8 hours and Long Rests are a week of downtime). So that change has been a great motivation for new character crafting limitations. I'm not sure if this channel has ever covered that with over 100 episodes... And yet... Still can't believe how absurdly sexy this guy's voice is to listen to for an entire DnD conversation...
I always flavored my component pouch kind of like premade shot for real world muskets. I have a variety of paper wrapped, pre mixed components for whatever spells I have readied that day.
I knew there was a reason why I loved his characters so much and that's because I also love playing Gish characters so that's why I love this channel LOL
Material components at my tables are not consumed upon spellcasting. The way I imagine it working is that when a spellcaster learns a new spell, they take the components and make a little talisman out of it, and the talisman becomes a part of their adventuring gear. So, a wizard learns Fireball. He may take the gum arabic, sulphur, and bat guano and put them all in a small leather pouch that he wears around his neck, or dangles it from his belt or spellcasting focus, and when he casts the spell, he manipulates the arcane talisman as part of the somatic component. In this way, the players get some control over the way their character organizes all of their stuff, and it gets them thinking about the actual processes behind spellcasting, without all the hassle and downtime work of continually refreshing their consumable components.
For the somatic gestures with the focus, i interpret it (as did 3e spells and in 3.5 if you had somatic weaponry feat) that the somatic components when holding a focus or material are done with the items (the priest swinging the censer or moving the holy symbol around to draw a holy sign, the wizard swinging the wand or staff in the air making glyphs that alter the weave, etc), not as doing air fingering while thumb gripping the object. As for the component pouch, i always saw it as a audio guys wire+mic bag or (one of the really old unsafe) chiefs knife wraps, where its essentially organized easy access pull pockets.
2 роки тому
30:09 ~ This is SO me... Ty Colby... feel "redeemed" somehow... Thank you Master. Regards from Tabasco, México [Land of The Olmecs]!
Your build has inspired me to make a similar build that is a bounty hunter with a whip that uses eldritch blast to move a target and then use a battering shield to knock them prone, and then because of the sentinel feat to also reduce their movement to 0. More of a support character to aid the party, but sometimes that is more important than raw damage. He is also super creepy, he has no tongue and no eyes as his helmet is fused to his face. He uses devils sight to see and telepathy to speak. We use a house rule that a allows a free feat at first level. So, he has war caster, sentinel, and the gunner feat. With the darkness spell he can hit his target and then knock them outside the spell's range, for his party to hit. Although, he can only, on average, knock an opponent prone twice per day, he can still stop them in their tracks, if they try to run away.
Instead of using Warcaster on a Two-weapon or sword&board gish, you can also use a Ruby of the War Mage (common magic item in Xanathar's) which will turn any weapon into a spellcasting focus. Unfortunately it does require an attunement slot though.
in the big damage dice example. they are sacrificing AC to have a free hand when not attacking you can do that too if you wield one weapon and no shield.
this build remind me of the force lance build (treatmonk did a video on it). For those who don't know how it work : warcaster + repulsing eldritch blast + echo knight fighter. Enemy moving away from your echo trigger your AoO. So, you place your echo around 15 fts in front of you, that way if a enemy run to you for melee it leave the range from your echo you get a AoO. Bonus point : if UA is allow you can get tunnel fighter fighting style so that you can have multiple AoO in a turn (it don't use your reaction).
3:41 - something that does nerf the “you get to use this as a focus” is the fact that a spell focus hand can only complete somatic components if it is replacing the material component(s) for that spell, so for example, RAW, if you were a Wizard-Cleric with a Holy Symbol Shield-focus plus an Arcane Grimoire in your other hand, you would not be able to cast the Acid Splash Cantrip, as it has no material component to replace via Foci, so you would need the War Caster Feat to be able to cast the spell at all.
Hi Colby, new subscriber to your channel! Playing a GOOlock tiefling with Dendar as a patron for my first DnD character and she's a BLAST (wink wink) to play! I was anxious about the lack of spells, so I went with Pact of the Tome & Book of Ancient Secrets for more options. I'm definitely not consistently the stand-out in combat in terms of damage, but super useful in RP situations using Awakened Mind alllll the time for secret communication, Mask of Many Faces for some GoT Arya-like fun, and, of course, all the RP benefits of having a high charisma stat. Sort of wish I went action surge like your build for more spellcasting in combat rather than taking the ability score cha improvement early on. Overall, I love my little warlock weirdo! Super interesting to hear about these other builds! :)
I always wanted to play a very particular Wizard build I worked up where he was trained as a war mage so his component pouch is actually a bandolier-like string of pouches across his chest and he memorizes which pouch has exactly which components when he organizes it each night as part of his spell preparation.
You can cast scorching ray, quicken eldritch blast, action surge dissonant whispers, reaction eldritch blast. This should work because you can use a main action to cast a leveled spell, action surge a leveled spell and you don't have to take those actions back to back.
Ok so if you action surge(or use a regular action) and cast the dissonant whispers you can reaction cast scorching ray. With this model I'm pretty sure you should still be able to action surge and also quicken a cantrip, provided the quickened cast happens last.
I believe in either TACOE or PB, you can get 5 SP at level 5 for MMA feat. Asking my DM for the ability to get 5 SP as soon as I picked up MMA feat allowed me to do some options for twinning, subtle casting and quickened spells has been helpful. I multi classed in Artificer for being able to get Thorn Whip as a good cantrip going along with my repelling EB, tossing enemies wherever my party had useful spells dropped: web, spike growth, and any hazardous terrain.
After watching this, I started playing with Warlocks, and I think the best race to start with is the bugbear. Based on what I’ve read, you can get the surprise attack on each eldridge beam. The one I built, by level 17 can do a nova round of 16 eldridge beams and each one that hits is able to move the target back 10 ft, and gets a d10 + 2d6 to each one that has not taken a turn. That’s 16d10, 32d6 and a flat + 5 per beam. It does require your concentration on haste, so your nova round is round 2.
Rather than Darkness, I would go with Flock of Familiars as your concentration spell. You get it sooner, plus it has WAY more utility. Assuming you got Find Familiar as a ritual spell to add to your book of shadows that would be up to 4 readied help actions for your burst round advantage, the ability to spread out the advantage to the rest of your team after your burst round is over, you no longer have the potential hindrance of close quarters Darkness messing with your party, frees up your invocation slot, and the best part is you get 4 extra bodies on board for ridiculous amounts of support/combo potential. It is (in my opinion) the chefs kiss of early level utility spells.
I'd go for this: Variant Human (Magic Initiate - Warlock) Spell: Hex Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Minor Illusion Lvl 1 - Fighter Fighting Style: Close Quarters Shooter - No disadvantage when making a ranged attack against a creature at 5 ft - Ignore cover up to 30 ft - +1 to ranged attack rolls I'd equip a shield and my spellcasting focus instead of a weapon, since I can use EB without disadvantage from close quarters. Lvl 2 - Fighter You are here for Action Surge Lvl 3 - Warlock The patron doesn't really matter, nor the spells Lvl 4 - Warlock You are here for the invocations: Take Eldritch Mind and Agonizing Blast Lvl 5 - Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) You gain the darkness + darkvision combo, a pet and some survivability tricks that only a Barbarian can dream of Lvl 6 - Sorcerer Now you get sorcery points and can quicken Eldritch Blast. You can do that reliably since you can convert slots into SP. I'd go Sorcerer all the way down from here.
The house rule for our table is that you can use an action to do anything that requires a bonus action, but not the other way around. The players are happy because they have more options and freedom of choice but the DM is happy because it’s not caused any balance issues. 100% recommend 👍🏼
Posting this about halfway through vid but you could grasp of hadar when they leave your aoo and pull them back in to make sure they are taking the spirit shroud damage. If you have lance of lethargy, they move 10, provoke, pulled back 10, and reduce speed by 10, they end within reach range and took full damage.
Just a random thought about Wizard components: I always viewed it like a bandolier with specific parts for specific spells that they compulsively pack and build muscle memory to grab for in those 6 seconds
I definitely allow “faster” casting time spells to be cast through “longer” time actions and haven’t seen it be abused so far because of the general rule of only 1 leveled spell on your turn, so really it’s generally not easy to abuse in spell casting from my experience but let’s the bonus action heavy characters use a lot of their other features. Not saying it can’t be done but I haven’t seen the abuse at my table
Cantrips are at will magical ability, I usually flavor that cantrip style magical ability is keeping the components separate. Although have also played with the idea that it's all very almost neurotically kept separate with "genius" use of parchment/fabric dividers, or bits of the bag folding over in certain ways, hidden compartments e.t.c. A friend flavored their component pouch as much like if you've seen the battleboxes that people who play warhammer bring to the table. It could be more like a sewing kit, or a purse with a lot of zipper pockets. There's lots of ways to organize a bag.
From a purely optimizational standpoint I would think that taking your 1st level in Sorcerer would be a superior choice. Even even if you went right into warlock after that. The Con Save proficiency, additional cantrips. Not to mention a couple of extra first level spell slots, with the ability to have Shield and Absorb Elements seems worth it in my opinion. As a wise man once said, you can't do damage if you're dead. 😁 This route substantially increases your survivability. Honestly I think I would try a Custom Lineage Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/ Hexblade Combination. I honestly believe it's a superior choice. I will just mention 3 things with regards to this build. Medium armor and shield proficiency as well as Con Save proficiency by level 2. Expanded Sorcerer Spell List. I understand you are building this with one of the expressed goals being to make a optimized GOO Lock. I'm also aware of your well known (& often commented on 😋) proclivity of using Hexblade. But upon hearing your build my Inclination was to think of how to optimize your build without that goal & self imposed limitation.
I ruled for players that wanted to use components that 1. They would need to RP collecting certain materials, or at-least talk to a shop keeper/other magicians in the field about where to find certain materials. They don't necessarily have to, but they found it fun. 2. The Reason the Component Pouch itself is so expensive is because it is effectively a minature sized bag of holding. It contains a number of useful pockets inside, but can only fit small mundane items such as watches, gemstones, and maybe some coin if it's really required. They've sometimes tried to hide vast amounts of gold inside, but a little bit of a hint that as they stuff it to the gills, I tell them they start seeing the bag beginning to look fuller and stretching as the seems spread thinner. And Viola, they suddenly stop thinking it's a bag of holding.
I built a G.O.O. Warlock that was unknowingly fooled into a pact with Dendar the Night Serpent. This video GREATLY helped build a truly flavorful warlock that was both powerful and thematic
2:38 I would assume in the preparation of spells you have spots to get at quicker. So when preparing a spell you would rememorise the verbal and somatic aspects of the spell and place the material components in easier to reach spots that you can get at them without having to really even look cause how many different material components could you really need in the preparation of spells at early levels. 2 maybe 4 at most and thats pushing it
Great Old One Warlock was my first ever D&D Character so I'm happy to see you doing a video on it Colby! Should be interesting to see how you've built it compared to me (I went with more of a support and control playstyle with spells like Hypnotic Pattern)
Totally unrelated, but seeing this video got me in the mood to type up some character creation! Been playing around with beast barbarians ever since your video last week. I thought, what is the best way to take advantage of the higher number of attacks with the BIG caveat that I can't use concentration? I settled on ghost slayer blood hunter, which allows for an extra 2d4 (at level 6, 2d6 for level 9, going up to eventually 3d8 for level 17) to our attacks. Starting off with the dual wielder feat to use our claws on a bonus action, at level 6 wed be barbarian 3/ blood hunter 3 that leaves us doing three attacks at advantage per turn, all of which do 1d6+2d4+5 damage. At level 9 wed continue with all blood hunter levels to be doing four attacks per turn doing 3d6+6. After this, pick up two levels in spore druid to get another 1d6 to our attacks, meaning at level 13 we'd be barbarian 3/ blood hunter 8/ druid 2 doing 4d6+7 per attack for four attacks per turn all at advantage. At 10 AC its low tier 1 high tier 2, but at 18 AC this is only outperformed ONLY by the Cheese grater. Finally at level 17 we'd be barbarian 3/ bloodhunter 11/ druid 3 to boost our hemocraft die and get another roll of it due to our subclass. that means were doing 2d6 + 3d8 + 7 for four attacks at advantage. This only gets outperformed by bladesinger and cheesegrater at almost all ACs. Of course you could pick up three levels here instead to get champion and crit fish with all these attacks and extra damage dice, but I didn't crunch the numbers to compare. Of course, there is a big bonus action dependency with this build. First a bonus action to rage. And then, a bonus action to activate crimson rite as we can't do it ahead of time because we have to have the claws out. Depending on your DM, they might make you activate it twice, one for each claw as RAW it only targets one claw. I do love the image of a wolverine type character that hunts ghosts with claws that glow brightly though...
I said this in the video but edited it out due to length. Should have left it in! For those saying you can't use Eldritch Blast with War Caster because it can potentially target multiple enemies, I offer exhibit A: "The 3rd benefit of War Caster requires you to target only the moving creature. Eldritch blast works as long as all the beams target it." twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/908469121502736384?lang=en
Also, Errata: Ranged attacks aren't made with disadvantage if the enemy is incapacitated, so we *would* have advantage still if using Hold Monster, as Paralyze incapacitates :).
Yep. The wording is very specifically different from the wording of Twinned Spell’s requirement of being entirely unable to target multiple creatures
Different kind of question, is hex worth it over darkness at early levels since it could give disadvantage to wisdom for dissonant whispers
@@shorsetheoneandonly2095 Hex gives disadvantage on checks not saves.
Just a thought, u should Pin this comment so it stays at the top of the comment section
@@shorsetheoneandonly2095 alas - it wouldn’t affect Wisdom saves only Ability checks 😢
I love the idea of another character asking the warlock what the whip is for since the warlock never actually attacks with it.
Coolness factor, obviously. Big Indiana Jones fan.
@@DnDDeepDive *pulls out gun and shoots swordsman
Edit: the gun is EB
@@bigaj6901 rofl
'For Role Play'
@@Crestlinger2 oh shit that’s a good one 😂
We have the rule at our table that goo warlocks are allowed to use awakened mind for verbal components, so only your target hears you cast
I love this. It's sooooo sinister
Oh that’s great flavoring. Imagine your buddies not hearing that a fireball is being cast and you the target don’t have magic to counter spell it. Ouch.
@@knightghaleonGOO locks don't get fireball
Sorcerer multiclass@@nathanfivecoate5848
@@nathanfivecoate5848You could multiclass to get it, or use a similar spell like hunger of hadar. He was giving an example of a cool situation. No need to be so nitpicky.
I love Tuesdays because of this
This is literally the highlight of my Tuesdays at work
Theres a schedule!?
@@k0pstl939 Every Tuesday!
Same, Tuesdays are when I start work, so they used to be my mondays, now they’re awesome
I feel ya. I got laid off yesterday and this helped a lot.
I can already tell we'll have a blast with this build.
I shouldn't laugh.. haha
Hehe
Badum, tssss
Several, even.
Ba dum tss!
Spellcasters all have ziplock bags full of the appropriate amount of each spell's materials carefully measured for easy access.
I always thought a good concept for a Goolock was the idea that "Dwarves always dig too deep", maybe customized origin (for that feat), a dwarven miner that encounters mindflayers in the deep underdark. Bald, with a massive scar around his head from brain removal and his beard ghostly tentacles instead of bristles. What madness has he survived, whose brain now dwells in his cranium?
I LOVE this idea!!!!
@@DerrickBarrows chur bro! feel free to use it and add more ideas, how deep can the dwarves go? all the way to the 9 layers of hell?
I love this so much!!!!
@@אלעדמנור chur!
Duergar is definitely the dwarf race to use for this
I've always thought of material component pouches to be a well organized belt with dozens of accessible pockets so a caster can quickly grab what they're looking for by muscle memory
For me is something like Goblin’s Slayer Pouch. Organized with a bunch of little bags with notch codes for tactile ID with all material components for the spell inside.
My head canon is now that spell component pouches are basically Batman's utility belt
@@JayskaTeag or a speed rack for a bartender
The Eldritch Whisperer: d4 #113
Level 1:(see above) [warlock 1, patron & race]
Level 2:(see above) [warlock 2 & eldritch invocations]
Level 3:(@19:39) [warlock 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@22:25) [warlock 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@25:58) [fighter 1 & fighting-style]
Level 6:(@28:19) [fighter 2]
Level 7:(see above) [warlock 5]
Level 8:(@36:35) [warlock 6]
Level 9:(@37:10) [warlock 7]
Level 10:(see above) [warlock 8 & ASI]
Level 11:(@40:02) [warlock 9]
Level 12:(@43:53) [sorcerer 1 & sub-class]
Level 13:(@47:36) [sorcerer 2]
Level 14:(see above) [sorcerer 3]
Level 15:(@53:01) [sorcerer 4 & ASI]
Level 16:(@53:16) [sorcerer 5]
Level 17:(@53:34) [sorcerer 6]
I really like the preambles on these videos. They help build anticipation, as well as appreciation for your thought process behind the build.
Plus, it's more time to enjoy the -ASMR- sound of your voice.
If you keep adding to your spreadsheets, they might become a Great Old One due to all the vast forbidden knowledge contained within
Spaghetti Code becomes Flying Spaghetti Monster
I’ve allowed features that are typically activated on a bonus action to be used as action since for many years. It started after the first 5e Eberron sourcebook was released and I had a shifter barb at my table that wanted to rage and shift in the same turn. Seemed fine to me and I’ve yet to run into any problems all these years later
Dissonant whispers is SUCH an amazing spell. Just has so many things going for it.
41:45 Big Hold Monster Buff (and Shadow of moil buff potentially) that you didn't get into... So you know, you do not have disadvantage on ranged attacks with an enemy within 5 feet if they are incapacitated (paralyzed means incapacitated as well) or cannot see you (Heavily obscured/invisible). "Ranged Attacks in Close Combat" Section of PHB is where it is detailed!
truth! pinned an errata comment on this.
Good timing! I'm just about to finish Treantmonks video from today. A solid 1hour 20minutes of D&D content!
saaaame
Literally the same here lol
Another build that uses a whip? The Great Pumpkin has heard my prayer!🎃
For what it’s worth (in reference to your introductions), I really do feel welcome to this channel. Each build has great research and insight, while maintaining the emphasis on “this just A way, not THE way”. I’ve referenced multiple builds from this channel when exploring builds of my own, and I sincerely appreciate what you do here. Thanks Colby!
1:00:32 I love that your reaction was recorded when you realised that you can't take War Caster before you are able to cast spells. Blew my mind as well. Too bad for Paladins and Rangers.
Ordercleric allows you to, at lvl 6 cast an enchsntment spell as a bonus action. This means dissonant whispers, which you can get from fey touched, combined with thornwhip and spiritguardians is pretty cool
alternatively mix it with this build to make this same idea, slightly lower damage perhaps, but way higher reliability. suddenly you get amazing nova and amazing sustain at the same time
Yeah even without Order cleric, fey touched alone to get dissonant whispers seems much better than going into bard for it.
because im nocturnal, episodes always come out like an hour before i end up going to sleep. always nice to listen to while i drift off
I once played a character who encased spell components in glass to preserve them. It's the only time I've used glassblower's tools, but I loved it!
I played a warlock built around the war caster and pole arm master feat, with a reach pole arm you can be eldritch blasting anytime someone tries to get close to you and partnered with repelling blast it was based around getting things away from it
ELDRITCH BLAST IS LIFE, ELDRITCH BLAST IS LOVE.
Absolutely love this build, I would 100% flavor the blasts as being extensions of the whip.
That's a perfect idea. Just a whip that expands hundreds of feet.
I have this "if you build for it" moment every time I think of a new character concept and rewatch your vidéos to get some ideas about how to make it work 😄
Hoping for Episode 117 we get a cool Spartan themed build (Masterchief ftw)
Colby, I need a weapon.
Shield master?
Honestly probably a monk fighter
Thank you Colby; using this build me and my two other party members were able to take out a CR17 Gorisro at level 5.
Thanks for being such an entertaining and wholesome content creator, Colby!
I LOVE the idea of the whip as a magic wand! You crack the whip and an eldritch blast comes flying out.
@d4: I just wanna say that I appreciate that you are taking into account how "fun" or "good" it feels to play a character between levels 1-10, and especially 5-10. I think that it's a really important part of building an optimized character and I hope you continue to keep this in mind for future builds. I also hate the builds that only really come online at levels 12+ since it's so situational.
Correction: you only have a disadvantage on ranged attacks when an enemy who *isn't incapacitated* is within 5 feet of you. So hold monster eldritch blast for free advantage (and crit) is a working combo
Great video as always!
Regarding the Hold Monster and being within 5 feet situation at 41:43, this is what it says in chapter 9 of the PHB:
"Aiming a ranged attack is more difficult when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated." So if they are paralyzed, which means they are incapacitated, being within 5 feet of them wouldn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls. I would agree that it still wouldn't be better in this situation, so this is just for future reference.
I’m really surprised to only start hearing about the wonders of the whip from the DnD UA-camrs now. It’s literally a **one handed** reach weapon!
41:54 actually, if your target is incapacitated, as they would be from hold monster, you don’t have disadvantage on your ranged attacks within 5 feet :)
Hang on... "When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated." - Eureka! Thanks for the reminder :).
[RAW] [reaction] [leveled spell]
Hi Coby, RAW leveled spell as reaction is okay (correct me if I am wrong):
- Basicly all reaction spells are leveled spells! (shield, counter spell, feather fall, absorb el., ...).
- Most of the time (PCs having better initiative than NPCs), reaction "turn" is after your turn, which means, you likely already cast a leveled spell, and you are always allowed to cast shield after your turn if you are attacked and have reaction (and slot).
I dont see any doubt this is not RAW, so reaction Scorching Ray is fine.
I love the preamble! The theorycrafting and the backstory ideas you give are great
About the reaction stack for Scorching Ray, I couldn't find anything official on 5e, but on older editions, that would be a reaction STACK that started INSIDE YOUR TURN, thus your turn would only end after the entire stack got resolved, so no non-cantrip cast as reaction if you used bonus action to cast a non-cantrip. Most DM's I spoke with assume the same stance as well (let's be honest, casters are already good enough even with that reading XD)
RE: Scorching Ray as a reaction:
I would argue that, as with most things in DnD, Specific beats General. The general rule is that if you cast a spell as a bonus action you may only cast cantrips with a casting time of one action on that turn. Warcaster introduces a specific rule that you may cast a spell that targets only that creature and has a casting time of one action instead of taking you opportunity attack.
Since the two conflict with each other and Warcaster is more specific than the general rules for bonus actions, the Warcaster rule takes precedence which means you can indeed cast Eldritch Blast - Eldritch Blast - Dissonant Whispers - Scorching Ray without having to even consider whether or not it's still considered your turn.
Correct. This is why the specific rule of counterspell allows you to counterspell someone counterspelling your fireball. Specific beats general.
scorching ray can target multiple enemies so can't be used with warcaster
@@irwingbrasil incorrect. If that were the case same would be true for eldritch blast. Perhaps you can argue all beams must go to the fleeing creature, but that's about it.
@@irwingbrasil Technically no. You're thinking of the wording for Twinned Spell, the wording for Warcaster is just "and must target only that creature". Which means as long as that creature is the only target getting effected by your spell then you're good. This was further reinforced by a Jeremy Crawford tweet posted in Nov 11th 2020.
@@irwingbrasil twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/908469121502736384?lang=en
I just started working with opportunity attack spell casting when your short for this episode went up. You often hit the same wavelength as my theory crafting and I always love your take on the same subject.
During the time the caster uses to prepare after a long rest, he or she gathers the components for that spell together and bundles then in some object to hold them (a piece of cloth, or parchment). They then place that bundle in their component pouch. The caster uses the focus and draws the arcane symbols in the air as they are holding the bundle of components. Ta Da.
Glad to be here Colby, thanks!
Always love your allusions and references. Can't stop, don't stop.
51:39 The bonus action spell rule only applies to actions. If you misty step and someone counter spells, you can counter-counter spell and get away as an example
2:40 a component pouch itself is compartmentalized so each component is kept in its own little pocket. if you're modernizing it, it's actually more like the bat-belt, each component in it's own little thing.
I absolutely love that this build was made! I remember requesting this awhile ago. Now I can make a character that can, in character, shout out the sounds of a machine gun!
that rule for spell casting is only, if you cast a leveled spell as an action, you can't cast any other spell on your turn. But if you cast a spell as a bonus action, you can cast a cantrip as an action. It does speak about any other action uses, so by the RAW AND RAI, you can in fact cast a spell as a reaction on your turn even if you had cast a leveled spell on your turn. Its basically the same reasoning for why action surge works to be able to cast 2 spells in the same turn. :D
It's been confirmed that action surge can allow you to ignore the one leveled spell per turn rule. So, that would allow for a BA blast, Dissonant whisper, Surge, Scorching Ray. But, personally, I'd forgo the whisper and just hit them with BA blast, Scorching Ray, surge Scorching Ray. Assuming, Spirit Shroud and lvl 17, that's 4d10+32d8+24d6+20. So, about ≈300 average just on statistics. Not including the exceptionally fancy math you use for yours.
I have to thank you. Although not copying this build, I made a toll of the dead cleric off of your whip warcaster reaction trick. Eventually I will go spirit guardian, action dodge, and run in and use my whip reaction to toll of the dead. We'll see how it works. Might pick up sentinel as well at lvl 4. Not optimized, but fun!
About you question regarding bonus actions as main actions around 55 minutes in: I personally allow for bonus actions to be taken as a main action. It gives actionable turns an easy to understand hierarchy (free -> bonus -> main) and allows a higher ranking action to be used for a lower one. It hasn’t broken any of my games yet
Watching your vids during my lunch brake on Wednesday is one one of the best moment of the week.
Thanks Cory
I have a cleric that I made that has his holy symbol tattooed on him so the focus is literally part of him. No warcaster feat necessary. Thanks DM!
Work is beating me down today... Really enjoyed listen to this I'm one ear while slogging through the non-sense... Got a bard build I might play with this concept..
I’d like to see you what you can pull off building a character around the catapult spell. Throwing nets or throwing vials of acid etc.
Before I watch, I'm guessing that this build is going to be an eldritch blast build that uses warcaster, polearm master, and crossbow expert to great effect! (On thr basis the short this week was about warcaster)
The idea being that polearm master let's you make an attack of opportunity with your reaction when an opponent enters your melee range (note it does not specificy what attack you can make, you just need to hold a quarterstaff), then use warcaster to cast a spell using an attack of opportunity and choose eldritch blast, and with crossbow expert your ranged attack doesn't have disadvantage even if the enemy is in melee range!!! Combine this insanity with repelling blast and every time a nasty brute walks up to you for an attack you can push them back anywhere from 10~40 ft!!! Definitely deserves an episode
@@JFKwentAFK_ But so many more feats required! And you still only have one reaction per round :(.
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah it's definitely worse in the Nova damage comparison... bested again by Colby, your too smart!!!
I just spent hours yesterday trying to optimize a build almost exactly like this, but couldn't figure out how to put it together. I hadn't considered dissonant whispers. Luckily for me you read my mind xD
As a person who's been playing a mage his entire life of fantasy. I can tell you how the material component pouches work. They're basically Batman's utility belt. A little separate compartment for every single item that he needs to cast a spell with. And though 5E says it's an actual pouch I prefer to think of it as a series of pockets sewn into my robes cloaks hats bracers and boots As well as the affirmation pouch that holds everything I need in a convenient way I need to get to it and whatever just do I need to make is closest to.
At our table, we have a house rule. Provided you are not suprised at the start of combat, we allow players to take an immediate bonus action if they roll initiative at a disadvantage.
You are better prepared for your first round at the expense of taking it much later. It has more/less seemed balanced as enemies have the same option.
It also has lead to some entertaining moments if you cast a spell as a bonus action, telegraph to the enemies you are a caster, and have to wait forever for your turn as public enemy #1.
Just wanted to drop a balance concern on bonus action as an action. Animate objects is a bonus action. So with action surge you could animate objects attack 3 times in a turn.
Firstly, I got to hear the phrase, “Burst of GOO!”, which is wonderful. Then we discussed the virtues of tentacles. This is maybe the best start to a day since last Tuesday!
You’re on a roll, my friend! 😂😊🎉❤
I absolutely advocate reflavoring Darkness on this character as summoning a huge incorporeal slime blob that you hide inside, with moist slurping sounds, of course!
I love 5e theory crafting. And even with One D&D coming, I still appreciate builds that I haven't considered as there is still a bit of varied content out there over the last 6 months. The recent experiment for our group is playing around the DMG's "Long Rest Variant", (basically, Short rests are now sleep/minimal activity over 8 hours and Long Rests are a week of downtime). So that change has been a great motivation for new character crafting limitations. I'm not sure if this channel has ever covered that with over 100 episodes... And yet... Still can't believe how absurdly sexy this guy's voice is to listen to for an entire DnD conversation...
I always flavored my component pouch kind of like premade shot for real world muskets. I have a variety of paper wrapped, pre mixed components for whatever spells I have readied that day.
I knew there was a reason why I loved his characters so much and that's because I also love playing Gish characters so that's why I love this channel LOL
Material components at my tables are not consumed upon spellcasting. The way I imagine it working is that when a spellcaster learns a new spell, they take the components and make a little talisman out of it, and the talisman becomes a part of their adventuring gear. So, a wizard learns Fireball. He may take the gum arabic, sulphur, and bat guano and put them all in a small leather pouch that he wears around his neck, or dangles it from his belt or spellcasting focus, and when he casts the spell, he manipulates the arcane talisman as part of the somatic component. In this way, the players get some control over the way their character organizes all of their stuff, and it gets them thinking about the actual processes behind spellcasting, without all the hassle and downtime work of continually refreshing their consumable components.
For the somatic gestures with the focus, i interpret it (as did 3e spells and in 3.5 if you had somatic weaponry feat) that the somatic components when holding a focus or material are done with the items (the priest swinging the censer or moving the holy symbol around to draw a holy sign, the wizard swinging the wand or staff in the air making glyphs that alter the weave, etc), not as doing air fingering while thumb gripping the object.
As for the component pouch, i always saw it as a audio guys wire+mic bag or (one of the really old unsafe) chiefs knife wraps, where its essentially organized easy access pull pockets.
30:09 ~ This is SO me... Ty Colby... feel "redeemed" somehow... Thank you Master.
Regards from Tabasco, México [Land of The Olmecs]!
Your build has inspired me to make a similar build that is a bounty hunter with a whip that uses eldritch blast to move a target and then use a battering shield to knock them prone, and then because of the sentinel feat to also reduce their movement to 0. More of a support character to aid the party, but sometimes that is more important than raw damage. He is also super creepy, he has no tongue and no eyes as his helmet is fused to his face. He uses devils sight to see and telepathy to speak. We use a house rule that a allows a free feat at first level. So, he has war caster, sentinel, and the gunner feat. With the darkness spell he can hit his target and then knock them outside the spell's range, for his party to hit. Although, he can only, on average, knock an opponent prone twice per day, he can still stop them in their tracks, if they try to run away.
Instead of using Warcaster on a Two-weapon or sword&board gish, you can also use a Ruby of the War Mage (common magic item in Xanathar's) which will turn any weapon into a spellcasting focus. Unfortunately it does require an attunement slot though.
in the big damage dice example. they are sacrificing AC to have a free hand when not attacking you can do that too if you wield one weapon and no shield.
this build remind me of the force lance build (treatmonk did a video on it).
For those who don't know how it work : warcaster + repulsing eldritch blast + echo knight fighter. Enemy moving away from your echo trigger your AoO.
So, you place your echo around 15 fts in front of you, that way if a enemy run to you for melee it leave the range from your echo you get a AoO.
Bonus point : if UA is allow you can get tunnel fighter fighting style so that you can have multiple AoO in a turn (it don't use your reaction).
3:41 - something that does nerf the “you get to use this as a focus” is the fact that a spell focus hand can only complete somatic components if it is replacing the material component(s) for that spell, so for example, RAW, if you were a Wizard-Cleric with a Holy Symbol Shield-focus plus an Arcane Grimoire in your other hand, you would not be able to cast the Acid Splash Cantrip, as it has no material component to replace via Foci, so you would need the War Caster Feat to be able to cast the spell at all.
Hi Colby, new subscriber to your channel! Playing a GOOlock tiefling with Dendar as a patron for my first DnD character and she's a BLAST (wink wink) to play! I was anxious about the lack of spells, so I went with Pact of the Tome & Book of Ancient Secrets for more options. I'm definitely not consistently the stand-out in combat in terms of damage, but super useful in RP situations using Awakened Mind alllll the time for secret communication, Mask of Many Faces for some GoT Arya-like fun, and, of course, all the RP benefits of having a high charisma stat. Sort of wish I went action surge like your build for more spellcasting in combat rather than taking the ability score cha improvement early on. Overall, I love my little warlock weirdo! Super interesting to hear about these other builds! :)
I liked when I heard 'blast of goo' and saw the art. This is going to be one of my favorites, I can tell.
I was already enjoying this and then you started referencing Princess Bride. You have done this before and it always makes me happy.
I always wanted to play a very particular Wizard build I worked up where he was trained as a war mage so his component pouch is actually a bandolier-like string of pouches across his chest and he memorizes which pouch has exactly which components when he organizes it each night as part of his spell preparation.
You can cast scorching ray, quicken eldritch blast, action surge dissonant whispers, reaction eldritch blast. This should work because you can use a main action to cast a leveled spell, action surge a leveled spell and you don't have to take those actions back to back.
"if you're one those people who always skips the preamble"
oof man, shots fired
Day 1 hoping to see a DPR Arcane Trickster/Bladesinger
Btw great job man, love your videos thanks for all the content ❤
Thanks - on the to do list!
Are counting the actual number of days or the number of videos? So will next Tuesday be day 8 or day 2?
@@HSuper_Lee day 2 I think
Ah yes the DDR build. The Death Dance Revolution build. Passion is definitely an intelligence skill.
Ok so if you action surge(or use a regular action) and cast the dissonant whispers you can reaction cast scorching ray.
With this model I'm pretty sure you should still be able to action surge and also quicken a cantrip, provided the quickened cast happens last.
I believe in either TACOE or PB, you can get 5 SP at level 5 for MMA feat. Asking my DM for the ability to get 5 SP as soon as I picked up MMA feat allowed me to do some options for twinning, subtle casting and quickened spells has been helpful. I multi classed in Artificer for being able to get Thorn Whip as a good cantrip going along with my repelling EB, tossing enemies wherever my party had useful spells dropped: web, spike growth, and any hazardous terrain.
After watching this, I started playing with Warlocks, and I think the best race to start with is the bugbear. Based on what I’ve read, you can get the surprise attack on each eldridge beam. The one I built, by level 17 can do a nova round of 16 eldridge beams and each one that hits is able to move the target back 10 ft, and gets a d10 + 2d6 to each one that has not taken a turn. That’s 16d10, 32d6 and a flat + 5 per beam. It does require your concentration on haste, so your nova round is round 2.
I new it was going to be a whip once you started talking abought warcaster+ eldritch blast in the title.
Thank you for the optimizing brain.
Rather than Darkness, I would go with Flock of Familiars as your concentration spell. You get it sooner, plus it has WAY more utility. Assuming you got Find Familiar as a ritual spell to add to your book of shadows that would be up to 4 readied help actions for your burst round advantage, the ability to spread out the advantage to the rest of your team after your burst round is over, you no longer have the potential hindrance of close quarters Darkness messing with your party, frees up your invocation slot, and the best part is you get 4 extra bodies on board for ridiculous amounts of support/combo potential. It is (in my opinion) the chefs kiss of early level utility spells.
Thanks for the build! And nice trick with the whip ☺️ Oh and yes, Tuesdays rock because there's a new build from Colby 😊
I'd go for this:
Variant Human (Magic Initiate - Warlock)
Spell: Hex
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Minor Illusion
Lvl 1 - Fighter
Fighting Style: Close Quarters Shooter
- No disadvantage when making a ranged attack against a creature at 5 ft
- Ignore cover up to 30 ft
- +1 to ranged attack rolls
I'd equip a shield and my spellcasting focus instead of a weapon, since I can use EB without disadvantage from close quarters.
Lvl 2 - Fighter
You are here for Action Surge
Lvl 3 - Warlock
The patron doesn't really matter, nor the spells
Lvl 4 - Warlock
You are here for the invocations:
Take Eldritch Mind and Agonizing Blast
Lvl 5 - Sorcerer (Shadow Magic)
You gain the darkness + darkvision combo, a pet and some survivability tricks that only a Barbarian can dream of
Lvl 6 - Sorcerer
Now you get sorcery points and can quicken Eldritch Blast. You can do that reliably since you can convert slots into SP. I'd go Sorcerer all the way down from here.
"eldritch machine gun" and this is why i love this channel
I don't know how it took me so long to find this channel. Will definitely binge your other videos.
Finally, a new video to watch inbetween studying 🥳
The house rule for our table is that you can use an action to do anything that requires a bonus action, but not the other way around.
The players are happy because they have more options and freedom of choice but the DM is happy because it’s not caused any balance issues. 100% recommend 👍🏼
Posting this about halfway through vid but you could grasp of hadar when they leave your aoo and pull them back in to make sure they are taking the spirit shroud damage. If you have lance of lethargy, they move 10, provoke, pulled back 10, and reduce speed by 10, they end within reach range and took full damage.
Great flavor and good build, thanks again for this gooey build
Just a random thought about Wizard components: I always viewed it like a bandolier with specific parts for specific spells that they compulsively pack and build muscle memory to grab for in those 6 seconds
I definitely allow “faster” casting time spells to be cast through “longer” time actions and haven’t seen it be abused so far because of the general rule of only 1 leveled spell on your turn, so really it’s generally not easy to abuse in spell casting from my experience but let’s the bonus action heavy characters use a lot of their other features. Not saying it can’t be done but I haven’t seen the abuse at my table
Cantrips are at will magical ability, I usually flavor that cantrip style magical ability is keeping the components separate. Although have also played with the idea that it's all very almost neurotically kept separate with "genius" use of parchment/fabric dividers, or bits of the bag folding over in certain ways, hidden compartments e.t.c.
A friend flavored their component pouch as much like if you've seen the battleboxes that people who play warhammer bring to the table.
It could be more like a sewing kit, or a purse with a lot of zipper pockets.
There's lots of ways to organize a bag.
What’s your optimized build for building muscle? Choose custom lineage and take the Athlete feat to start with an 18 strength? 😃
From a purely optimizational standpoint I would think that taking your 1st level in Sorcerer would be a superior choice. Even even if you went right into warlock after that. The Con Save proficiency, additional cantrips. Not to mention a couple of extra first level spell slots, with the ability to have Shield and Absorb Elements seems worth it in my opinion. As a wise man once said, you can't do damage if you're dead. 😁 This route substantially increases your survivability.
Honestly I think I would try a Custom Lineage Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/ Hexblade Combination. I honestly believe it's a superior choice. I will just mention 3 things with regards to this build. Medium armor and shield proficiency as well as Con Save proficiency by level 2. Expanded Sorcerer Spell List.
I understand you are building this with one of the expressed goals being to make a optimized GOO Lock. I'm also aware of your well known (& often commented on 😋) proclivity of using Hexblade. But upon hearing your build my Inclination was to think of how to optimize your build without that goal & self imposed limitation.
I ruled for players that wanted to use components that
1. They would need to RP collecting certain materials, or at-least talk to a shop keeper/other magicians in the field about where to find certain materials. They don't necessarily have to, but they found it fun.
2. The Reason the Component Pouch itself is so expensive is because it is effectively a minature sized bag of holding. It contains a number of useful pockets inside, but can only fit small mundane items such as watches, gemstones, and maybe some coin if it's really required. They've sometimes tried to hide vast amounts of gold inside, but a little bit of a hint that as they stuff it to the gills, I tell them they start seeing the bag beginning to look fuller and stretching as the seems spread thinner. And Viola, they suddenly stop thinking it's a bag of holding.
I built a G.O.O. Warlock that was unknowingly fooled into a pact with Dendar the Night Serpent. This video GREATLY helped build a truly flavorful warlock that was both powerful and thematic
2:38 I would assume in the preparation of spells you have spots to get at quicker. So when preparing a spell you would rememorise the verbal and somatic aspects of the spell and place the material components in easier to reach spots that you can get at them without having to really even look cause how many different material components could you really need in the preparation of spells at early levels. 2 maybe 4 at most and thats pushing it
Great Old One Warlock was my first ever D&D Character so I'm happy to see you doing a video on it Colby! Should be interesting to see how you've built it compared to me (I went with more of a support and control playstyle with spells like Hypnotic Pattern)
Totally unrelated, but seeing this video got me in the mood to type up some character creation! Been playing around with beast barbarians ever since your video last week. I thought, what is the best way to take advantage of the higher number of attacks with the BIG caveat that I can't use concentration? I settled on ghost slayer blood hunter, which allows for an extra 2d4 (at level 6, 2d6 for level 9, going up to eventually 3d8 for level 17) to our attacks.
Starting off with the dual wielder feat to use our claws on a bonus action, at level 6 wed be barbarian 3/ blood hunter 3 that leaves us doing three attacks at advantage per turn, all of which do 1d6+2d4+5 damage. At level 9 wed continue with all blood hunter levels to be doing four attacks per turn doing 3d6+6. After this, pick up two levels in spore druid to get another 1d6 to our attacks, meaning at level 13 we'd be barbarian 3/ blood hunter 8/ druid 2 doing 4d6+7 per attack for four attacks per turn all at advantage. At 10 AC its low tier 1 high tier 2, but at 18 AC this is only outperformed ONLY by the Cheese grater.
Finally at level 17 we'd be barbarian 3/ bloodhunter 11/ druid 3 to boost our hemocraft die and get another roll of it due to our subclass. that means were doing 2d6 + 3d8 + 7 for four attacks at advantage. This only gets outperformed by bladesinger and cheesegrater at almost all ACs. Of course you could pick up three levels here instead to get champion and crit fish with all these attacks and extra damage dice, but I didn't crunch the numbers to compare.
Of course, there is a big bonus action dependency with this build. First a bonus action to rage. And then, a bonus action to activate crimson rite as we can't do it ahead of time because we have to have the claws out. Depending on your DM, they might make you activate it twice, one for each claw as RAW it only targets one claw.
I do love the image of a wolverine type character that hunts ghosts with claws that glow brightly though...