Okay, so to your thing about the iron-dancer (armorer/bladesinger) DO NOT GO 3 ARTIFICER FIRST! It means you aren't getting to the meat of why bladesinger's are cool until you get to 9th level, and you aren't getting to the meat of why armorer's are cool until 7th level so you can pick up dual wielder (unless you're a variant human, or custom lineage, even still). You're basically picking up armorer so you can give disadvantage to one guy once per turn. IT IS NOT FUN. You're gonna be using dex to get your AC up anyway, focus dex>int>con, and play a normal bladesinger till 6th level for that sweet sweet multiattack and ability to use a cantrip as one of them. Grab dual wielder at 4th for bonus action attacks with non light weapons, then focus int>dex>con and you'll get thunder punches at 9th level, but you will have had your rotation activated already since 6th.
By the way, you can still copy a spell into your spellbook to cast it, so as long as you have access to a library or something via the cloistered scholar or sage background, your spellcasting progression isn't even slowed in the slightest on the last build
Very gish character, built similarly to the fifth option (although it requires a specific race). Coincidentally, it kicks off at fifth level: Mark of Warding Dwarf with two levels in _Abjuration_ Wizard, and three levels in Battle Smith. Mark of Warding Dwarf increases your Intelligence by 1, and grants you the ability to cast Armor of Agathys as soon as you're able to cast 1st-level spells (along with a few other useful spells as you level up). Keep in mind that Armor of Agathys is an Abjuration spell that _doesn't_ require Concentration, although it's hard to acquire a version that you can up-cast without multiclassing further, as a different race. This means that, as soon as you take two levels in Abjuration Wizard, you can fuel your Arcane Ward with it, and other spells. Now, here's the fun part, when it comes to Arcane Ward and Armor of Agathys: Arcane Ward does _not_ count as temporary HP. It's more like a force field that acts as a barrier between your temporary hit points and incoming damage. Said force field can be replenished by casting just about any Abjuration spell that has a level (and, well, you're a _Wizard_ ). This means that, not only is there little risk of Arcane Ward overwriting Armor of Agathys, but if you get hit with a melee attack, it's going to eat into your easily-replenished Ward first, then your temporary HP, _then_ your actual health, while the opponent's taking up to 45 cold damage (depending on the spell level of Armor of Agathys when cast) per hit. This, combined with the Medium armor, shield, Enhanced Defense infusion, and the free Shield spell you get from three levels in Battle Smith, means that you're going to be tanky as hell. You might not have the same AC as the Bladesinger, but you're gonna have a replenishable force field between you and the damage. Your tankiness goes up even further as you gain levels in Wizard, due to Arcane Ward gaining hit points equal to _twice_ your Wizard levels. Not only that, but you can also extend some of that tankiness to your allies at Abjuration Wizard's six level, due to Projected Ward. Level 10 Abjuration Wizards get further use out of their Intelligence modifier, by adding their intelligence to the checks of Abjuration spells (such as the all-too-important Counterspell and Dispel Magic), thus giving you a five-point-larger window for successful rolls. At level 14 in Abjuration Wizard, you resist spells, and have advantage on saving throws against spells. This feature, combined with Counterspell, Dispel Magic, etc., means that, if you come across a Bladesinger/Battle Smith build, about the only thing that'll be effective against you is their _sword._ A 9th-level cast of Armor of Agathys, along with a slew of other defensive spells, will tell them why that's a bad idea. Also, since your build _doesn't_ require you to have a one-handed sword and nothing else in hand, only _one_ of you gets to pull out a Repeating Shot hand crossbow, and supplement some of those spells with a bit of sharpshooting at-range. You can then drop the crossbow and pull out whatever melee weapon you want, should the enemy come within stabbing range. And, of course, there's also all the other benefits from going at least three levels in Battle Smith: Attacking with Intelligence, fancy mascot, other infusions, etc. Those were addressed in the video though, so I won't cover those. I'd still recommend going five levels in Battle Smith, for the Extra Attack, but you can always focus on clearing out your Wizard levels first, if you prefer.
So I rolled a double nat 1 on my technology check and my PC crashed during this recording, so I had to use the phone audio for this one. Back to usual, juicy audio quality week after next!
If that's a double nat 1 whats this count as numerically? I tried to move files over and God decided then was a good time to have a blackout in the neighborhood. My files were lost in transition.
A player after my own heart. I love Dru and almost exclusively go moon. Lvl 20 Dru is too good to pass up. The only thing more busted than a full Dru is the Wish spell.
@@eros5420 completely forgot about the cleric's 20. I do think that is beyond busted, but it also depends on the DM and your deity. Still, both Wish and DI can completely turn any situation. So those 2 would have to be #1, followed very closely by our Moon Druids :)
I personally generally dislike Multi-Classing unless it's a "Homebrew" Campaign that you go beyond lvl 20. Anyway, Circle of Moon Druid is great though my Druid player character I created is planning on Circle of Spores herself. Additionally my Cleric player character is: DEATH DOMAIN CLERIC! Also my player character Wizard is planning on School of Necromancy specialization/subclass. I really like being a Master/Creating Undead Army obedient to me. I'm not Evil or anything and will only be doing that with villains & bandits & thieves & other disgusting criminal types turning them into my Undead Minions/Army. So basically DON'T BE A DISGUSTING BANDIT OR CRIMINAL!
One that I've seen quite a few people overlook is combing a Moon Druid with a level or two in Monk. As my DM called it "the Kung Fu Panda" build. Since druids invest in Wisdom anyway, you can buff both AC and spell casting with a single ability score. There's something wonderful about turning into a goddamn polar bear, and then judo throwing the enemies into next week
Time Stamps! Priest of the Wilds (Faewanderer Ranger/War Cleric): 0:06 Shadow Tank (Hexblade Warlock/Barbarian): 2:14 Sneaky Smasher (Rogue/Barbarian): 6:19 Warrior of the Flame (Sorcerer/Paladin) 8:25 Iron Dancer (Battle Smith Artificer/Blade Singer Wizard): 10:34
I would like to call the Barb-Rogue the “Slasher”, more due to having more in common with killers from slasher movies (and because I got to know about this build when I tried a Jason Voorhees build for a Strahd campaign). Raging assassination and raging sneak attack are no joke.
I actually discovered the Battle Smith Bladesinger combo myself a few weeks ago and I'd just like to point out that by the time you get the multiclass going, you are statistically more likely to fall unconscious from damage before you would lose concentration, it's actually ridiculous.
I personally prefer the 5 Battlesmith, 10 War Magic Wizard combo. I was pushing 26 AC before Shield or Reactions in the One-shot I was able to run it in, with my lowest save being a +6 when the Witchknight wasn't in the melee with me (It became +11). It was priceless to have my lanky wizard wade into the melee with the BBEG and go toe to toe with him without taking a hit.
The issue with the battlesmith 3 bladesinger x is that, while there are some great synergies, there are also significant drawbacks. Artificers medium armour proficiency, which is usually one of the main reasons wizards casters take artificer dips, is completely useless on a bladesinger, although the con save proficiency is still useful. At level two mind sharpener is great (especially when you consider that you can put the infusion on a different set of robes from the first one and get 4 more charges instead of d4 more), a repeating shot crossbow is a solid early game option when paired with a shield and the enhanced weapon rapier you'll likely switch to once you're a bladesinger is also useful. However, the enhanced weapon will likely become redundant very soon due to magic items, and for that reason you should choose a backup for your fourth infusion (I would recommend enhanced arcane focus, only because there are no better options. Or take a bag of holding for utility.). It is of course also an option to forgo taking repeating crossbow or to switch it out at third level for a little bit more versatility with your infusions. Mind sharpener is really the premier infusion for us here though. Third level is of course the reason why people are drawn to battlesmith bladesinger characters. You get an okay bonus action attack, disadvantage on one enemy attack per round and your attack and damage rolls for your weapons become intelligence based. This seems fantastic, as bladesinger is a rather MAD subclass, and this seems to make it much less bad. The fundamental issue, however, is that you cannot bladesing while wearing medium armour. This means your AC is still largely based on dexterity, so there's still a large element of MADness. But it gets worse. Your extra attack (a particularly potent feature for bladesingers, due to being able to replace one of the attacks with a cantrip) is now delayed until level 9 and your spell progression is severely stunted. Plus your first ASI is going to be at level 7, really diminishing from the reduction in MADness. One option is to take a fourth level in artificer for the ASI. However, this would delay your extra attack and spell progression even further. It would also not advance your slot progression at all, as artificer slots only advance on odd levels. Plus you'd be almost obligated to take a fifth level for extra attack at that point, which you don't want to do for obvious reasons. It's a nice synergy, in theory. However, the messy reality of it makes it unrealistic. You're much better off either taking a one level dip in fighter or just straight classing bladesinger.
@@alexanderlea7882 I think people forget Bladesingers also get light armor. And if you just use Dex and Int as the main two stats to boost, you could get very good AC. For a lv20 one shot, I ended up able to get my AC to 31 while bladesinging, Haste and Assuming I need to use the Shield. It made me fully realize I should never be allowed to get a Wizard to at least lv18 to get spell mastery of Shield and Mirror Image(Fun flavor for actions and such, and Don't want to be hit is entertaining.)
@@trealosgaming3345 spell mastery shield I've always considered amazing, but mirror image is a great second level spell choice. Honestly I think bladesinger is probably the best straight classed 20th level options.
Shadow monk + gloomstalker ranger is a favorite of mine, the invisibility in dim light/ darkness, ability to teleport using a bonus action in darkness, plus access to the blind fighting fighting style makes this build great for never getting hit.
Antithesis: The Cult of Everlight. An Order of Light and Inquisition (Grim Hollow) Domain clerics that heavily favor spells that produce light and deal fire/radiant damage. They steal wealth and land from those who don't share their ideology by framing the "heretics" and putting them to death by fire. They spare no quarter for those who practice the arcane and other dark arts. The Symbol of their Order is a Black Caged Lantern imposed over a depiction of the White Sun. All acolytes carry a lantern of varying sizes on their person but only priests and above carry lanterns illuminated by the Continuous Flame spell. Altered Spell: Radiance (Darkness) This spell produces the exact effect of the Darkness spell, except the area is filled with a powerful radiance of light that blinds those who are within or attempt to peer into the light. It also dispels magical darkness of the same level or lower.
@@Razdasoldier I just remembered Daylight and tacked it on. Should technically be for a lower level darkness effect for the dispelling. It's mostly to prevent an overlap of effects and conditions.
@@legogsrdi8349 that also works really well. All of the shadow subclasses have really distinct and unique abilities, which makes a) your character really flavorful and thematic and b) no abilities get doubled up and they can work really well together.
Here's one: The armored rogue. Start as a rogue 1 for more skills, then go artificer 3 for armorer. Use infiltrator armor for +5 speed and permanent advantage on stealth checks on a rogue. Additionally, the lightning launcher is technically a ranged weapon you can use for sneak attack. For this build, focus on your intelligence, and just get dex up to 14 for maximum bonus using medium armor, which your proficient in as an artificer. Additionally, lightning launcher does an extra 1d6 once per turn, so your sneak attack only falls one level behind most rogues in exchange for also getting some useful spells like cure wounds. Then, take the homunculus servant as one of your invocations to make extra certain you get your sneak attack by have it hover next to an enemy. It doesn't even have to attack to do this, and it can move without you commanding it. From there, I'd recommend going full rogue to make the most of your all-but invisibility.
I actually have a Totem Barbarian Goliath build whom I was flavouring the rage as an internal one, "steel your resolve" style. Adding that he's a self-conscious massive giant, that tip about sneak attack works out nicely.
I absolutely love playing the sorc-adin. It is so great being able to play a holy casting tank. If you use the divine soul, you can basically be a Shonen protagonist by "believing in yourself"
@@definitelynotat-rex72 My sorc-adin went 2 lvls of paladin and (by campaigns end) 8 or so levels of sorc. Gives you plenty of spell slots for smiting, plus a solid base of hp for lower levels. From there, if you wanna fight more close combat, take another three in paladin. Otherwise, the rest is sorc.
Here's a great combo. Arcane Archer Fighter + Hex Blade Warlock. Get pact of the blade and invocations of improved pact weapon for ranged, ascendent step to cast levitate yourself at will, and eldritch smite, take sharpshooter. Curse your target, levitate out of combat and snipe your enemies with CHR, +improved pact weapon, +archery fighting style, +10 SS, + arcane arrows, + eldritch smite, crit on 19 and 20 + attack twice = wombo damage
Get 3 lv of rouge assassin, pick devil`s sight to see through magical darknes and cast that in the air where you are levitating. Now the party can see the enemy, and you can add sneak attack assassinate from the sky. Bonus action to hide somewhere else in the magical darkness when needed. If you don`t want to use magical darkness, get an invocation or something to become invincible. I have done this build, just with ranger instead of fighter, and it was so much fun
@@rickyzeitler7169 I guess, but at my table we are not so strict at those things when it comes to invocations and similar that let you cast certain spells at will. So haven`t thought much about it.
You're not gaining much from Arcane Archer for this build. Rune Knight or Battlemaster are probably more useful, but pure Hexblade can access most of this on their own anyway.
Great video! One note for all players at all times pretty much is this: if you cast bless, always bless yourself! Adding 1d4 to your own concentration checks on your own bless spell is incredible, it's self sustaining. Some players like to be nice and give bless to their allies and not themselves, but the 1d4 helps way too much. If your con is is +2 and you're proficient, you have +5 + 1d4 to your saves at 5th level, which means you have a 87.5% to keep up bless assuming you take 20dmg or less.
@@Lubraz7 The idea is that the check you make to keep bless up are helped by having bless up. You can't get it with other spells unless an ally helped you at, but all characters are ~12.5% better at maintaining concentration on Bless than on pretty much any other spell.
I've had good success playing as a monk barbarian. The ac is kinda low but easily fixed if you pick a race with natural armor. Build the monk to be strength based. If you pick up grappler you can grapple, run up the wall and slam people. Really potent.
I've got a Bearbarian 6/Kensei Monk 5 Goliath, with the Brawny feat (oooold UA now, unfortunately), and I was lucky that we got one Uncommon and one Rare magic item when we made characters for that (at the time) one shot. He has both the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, so his unarmed attacks count as magic and get +1 despite just now getting to level 5 monk, plus a Barrier Tattoo to keep his AC at 17 despite his Dex and Wis not being the best. Str 20 plus expertise in Athletics makes for an insane +13 bonus, plus another neat Monkbarian fact: Unarmored Defense you have to chose one to use, but Unarmored Movement stacks! 55 feet of movement is pretty nice.
You don't need levels in barbarian to "grapple, run up the wall and slam people". I feel like the barbarian levels don't add much there. A Str16/Wis16/Dex13 monk has AC 14. Take the Skill expert feat at lvl 4 for athletics expertise and +1 to Dex, raising AC to 15. A race with natural armor isn't that much better. Firbolg gets +2 Wis, +1 Str. Tortle/Centaur would get +2 Str, +1 Wis. And of course, any race that lets you choose your +2+1 would work. If your DM lets you choose for any race, I'd recommend half-orc for that sweet Relentless Endurance. Lower HP means that the feature actually gets to be used occasionally. Just go full monk and get that run up the wall (and the surface of water) and slam on level 9 as you should, instead of the likely-never-to-be-reached 12.
I have a Bladesinger/Artificer build in a campaign and it is awesome. With some of the spells that artificers get like Guidance and Fairy fire along with the Con proficiency, it is actually going really well. I went a different subclass for spice but still loving the build.
Depending on your constitution modifier, you can have a +10 to your concentration save. A +3 should do it. That means you have to take 24 damage just to need to roll.
@@dragonhearthx8369 My character has 16 Con at the moment and the party is level 9 and we were able to roll for basic numbers for ability scores. I already have a maxed intelligence already
The "Iron Dancer" could work with Armorer too, so long as you stick with wearing light armor. And the Arcane Armor offers some interesting options since your Steel Defender's abilities are based off your Artificer level, which stays low. Also, bladesong ends if you grab a shield. Warforged get bonus AC though...
The key is that only Battle Smiths can use INT to attack and damage rolls with magic weapons. Armorer is great; you'll just have to raise INT and STR/DEX.
I'm running this now as a Deep Gnome in Out of the Abyss; super fun at level 9. With Haste + Bladesong, I've got 23 AC, 90' of movement (I picked up Mobile), 3 attacks that proc disadvantage on target's attacks, 1 of those is also either a BBlade or G-FBlade, and no AOs. Good times.
I’ve got a build for you: Soul of the Wild. It’s a Monk/Druid Build. Start out on 2 levels of Druid and go for Moon Druid for the wildshaping upgrade. Then you go into Monk for the rest of the way. According to Wildshape description says you keep class and race abilities. This means Unarmored Defense, Unarmored Movement, and Martial Arts all still apply while you are beastly. From there, you go Astral Self monk to extend your wildshape range by 5ft, use your wisdom (that doesn’t change when wildshaped) to attack and your unarmed strikes are now wisdom attack and damage (since they don’t add and you can use whichever is higher for AC and damage). Your Ki abilities and bonus attacks with Extra Attack and Martial Arts means you have 3 attacks a round with extended range. And to add to the tankiness of it, you can use your spell slots for healing while transformed.
Do it the other way, grab 1 level in monk for the unarmoured defence which uses your spellcasting modifier and will nearly always surpass the beasts base ac and then focus on druid to power up wild shape, at high levels the cr1 wildshape will be almost useless.
I think a gem dragonborn would be a really good race for the "sneaky smasher build". Expesially the amethyst variant, since it would be helarious if the sneakiest person in the party is psychic Barney the dinosaur.
I find it so funny that I am just now watching this video and seeing your comment like a week or so after coming up with a psychic gem Dragonborn Barbarian Rogue. Just rage reckless sneak attack while being resistant to all damage thanks to totem of the bear + the natural Dragonborn psychic resist
For the rogue/barbarian build, the rage/sneak attack combo lets you invest in strength instead of dex, which lets the multiclass more harmonious. Rage bonus requires you to use melee weapons using strength. Sneak attack requires you to use ranged or finesse weapons, but with soulknife you can use strength. But you still would have to attack at melee all the same. Either way nice idea.
A Rogue in my game took initiative by asking if the raw mithril she found could be smithed into a Longsword rather than a set of armour. Because it didn't use as much material she had some left over, to use or sell or whatever. Finesse Longsword
I'm glad you brought attention to the Battle Smith Bladesinger. When I was making a Bladesinger I discovered this synergy and started talking about it on Bladesinger guides because it's objectively just really good, and no one talks about it. Battle Smith fills all the gaps the Bladesinger has with the only draw backs being that you get extra attack later and playing around lvl 3 in a class can be a little awkward with trying to get all the feats you want when you want them. But attacking with Int as a Melee Wizard is god like, Infusions can be nuts if you pick the right ones (looking at your Spell Wrought Tattoo for any useful lvl 1 spell like Find Familiar or Bless, or Bags of Holding, or free magic weapons/armor), better armor, and the companion provides extra support along with a ton of potential flavor text for the character like it being rideable by a small race. I was hyped to play this multiclass until the group I was in fell apart before the game it would've been played in got the be played.
In addition, you can ask another party member to cast darkness on your weapon(if you have such teammate) and take devil's sight to have advantage on attacks and foes have disadvantage against you. This means more hits and crits, less damage taken, and absolutely suiting play style to the name of "shadow tank", because you're truly in shadows.
YES!!! That last Warforged Bladesinger Wizard/Battlesmith Artificer is exactly the one I've been workshopping for a couple months now and I was starting to doubt if it was as good as I thought it was. Thank you for spelling it out here!! I can't wait to try it 🔥
I was working on a multiclass of fighter, paladin and sorcerer oriented for very late game, like a lv20 table. It was a half orc fighter 11, paladin 2, sorcerer 7. The ideia was to use quickened hold person for auto crits and then 6 attacks with action surge, spending all high level slots to divine smite each hit. If my math is correct, using a greataxe it would do: 18d12 + 60d8 + 30
Ok, notes: Booming blade is better than gfb, at least for the sorcadin with warcaster, since it fucks up enemy movement. Green flame blade actually doesn't work with shadow blade RAW, since it has to be cast on a weapon worth at least 1 silver. Barbarian + throwing soul knives interacts a little weird, bcs rage and reckless work on melee weapon attacks and throwing is a ranged attack, made with a melee weapon... Definitely something to discuss with the DM ahead.
Personally, my favorite I've been working on is 11 levels ancestral guardian barbarian and 9 levels phantom rogue for a tribal hunter kind of build. A lot of fun since the aesthetic of spirits of the dead works nicely. The other one I've worked on is 8 twilight or war cleric the rest in psi warrior or samurai fighter, this character is a bugbear who wields a glaive so he has a 15ft reach which he layers with spirit guardians and his channel divinity (if twilight cleric) basically creating a massive kill-zone around the character. The one I'm actually playing is 4 levels divine soul sorcerer the rest in oath of glory paladin with a focus on mounted combat, zipping around the battlefield with a massive area of death with spells like spirit guardians and the capacity to get more spell slots via flexible casting is really nice.
Keep in mind for bladesinger you don't actually need the mage armor spell, you gain proficiency in light armor so if you can get your hands on some studded leather +1 it's got the same effect and doesn't take a prep slot. (If you can't find magic armor, that's still only one AC down, and that shouldn't make too much of a difference with you int bonus and the shield spell.)
Yeah, studded leather is great on a BS. It's like free-cast mage armor. I also like studded leather on a DEX based sword & board eldritch knight. With +5 from dex, you'll only ever be -1AC behind full plate, but you have options like the shield spell, blur, haste, and mirror image. If you use a shield, you're +1 AC over a great weapon fighter, if you use shadow blade upcast one level, you're not missing much in dps either.
Awesome one that I used for a level 9 one shot: Rune Knight 7/Star Druid 2. I maxed wisdom, attacked with shillelagh, but the real awesome sauce was the neverending advantage. Form of the Dragon makes it basically impossible to lose concentration on faerie fire, and the storm rune lets you give advantage or disadvantage on any roll as a reaction.
Consider The Fiend rather than Hexblade for the Barb/Warlock multiclass. You get temp hp every time you defeat an enemy, which gives you great sustain, and the expanded spell list for The Fiend has Fire Shield among many other great spells. Then you take Cloak of Flies, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite. By lv8 (1Barb 7Warl) enemies who dare to stand by you and smack you will be taking 20 cold damage from AoA and 2d8 cold or fire damage from Fire Shield per attack, and Cloak of Flies will be dealing your CHA mod in poison to everyone near you. Meanwhile you have damage resistance from both rage and FS, 20 temp hp, and eldritch Smite incase you get any spicy crits. After lv 8 you could go full Warlock for more spellcasting options, or if you want to level up in Barbarian you have a few good options. Storm Herald for even more passive damage around you, Ancestral Guardians to force enemies to have to hit you and take all that damage, or you can do what I did and go Wild Magic for more chaos and flavor. Enjoy!
Yeah but if you want serious spellcasting you need high charisma and hexblade is the only warlock that gets the ability to attack with charisma, if you roll big numbers then that is also very good but otherwise the hexblade is probably the easiest one. You can also get maddening hex which allows you to deal your cha modifier damage to everything (including the creature) within 5 feet of a creature cursed by your hexblades curse or the hex spell as a bonus action with no cap on how many times you can do it.
I like that Hexblade/Barbarian idea. Might give it a run in a future game. One thing I wanted to mention about it is you can still benefit from Rage damage bonus, you just have to use your strength instead; the feature Hex Warrior says you _can_ use Charisma, not _must_ use Charisma. It might impact how you formulate the build since some features rely on Charisma, but its a thing I wanted to mention regardless
One multiclass that I'm really loving lately is Fighter+Rogue. Specifically, Mastermind+Battlemaster. Cunning Action already tips the action economy in your party's favor, but once you hit level 3 you can also Help as a Cunning Action, from up to 30 feet away, making your teammate's attacks that much more consistent. Battlemasters of course get Action Surge and access to their Maneuvers to manipulate the action economy even further, and you can go all in on the more impactful ones since your Cunning Actions and Uncanny Dodge make certain staples like Parry and Distracting Strike redundant, or you can pick up niche options like Bait and Switch, which also only costs 5 feet of movement rather than your action or bonus action. You can dish out a ton of extra damage while letting your party-mates do everything short of taking an entire extra turn with the right Maneuvers. This class combo is also really useful in roleplay situations, because aside from proficiency in Disguise and Forgery Kits, an extra Language, and the ability to augment most Charisma skill checks with Commanding Presence, both subclasses will let you automatically learn information about someone or something from just 1 minute of social interaction via Know Your Enemy and Insightful Manipulator. The Inquisitive Rogue may be hyped up as the Detective class, but this becomes outright Sherlock level if you pick the right options and make some reasonable inferences, and the DM can also give you extra information outside of those options at their discretion.
Rogue Barbarian has always been one of my favorite builds, and I don't understand why its not super popular. I feel like that's basically what Conan was. Warlock Barb friggin blew my mind. Thanks for that.
That first build might be even better with Swarm Keeper. The swarm does a d6 instead of fey wanderers d4 ability and the swarm can move you or enemies around without provoking opportunity attacks.
I think some DMs (including myself) might rule that you can't combine the rage resistance on the temporary hitpoints (basically the spell describes creating a magical magical armour on top of you so it would take the damage before your raging constitution is hit). For the sorcerer paladin aberrant mind is a good subclass if you multiclass early and use booming blade plus dissonant whispers (quickened) to trigger the extra damage (as it is not forced movement, you are forcing them use their reaction) and move them away from you, burning their reaction. Plus, you hit them with your reaction booming blade again to further add damage and make them take more if moving next turn. So at a combined level of 6 you do: weapon attack + d8 thunder + 3d6 psychic + 2d8 thunder (from them running) + weapon attack + d8 thunder + a potential 2d8 if they move on their turn ( avg total assuming all hit, with a longsword and shield, duelling fighting style and say + 3 strength, avg 19(2*(d8+2+3) slashing, avg 27 (6d8) thunder, avg 10.5 (3d6) psychic, total avg 46.5 damage with the option of adding up to 2 smites (potential + avg 27 (6d8) radiant damage. For Avg of 73.5 damage up to 140 max. Your concentration is also free to be running a smite or buff from a previous turn. This is before crits, so if abjuring the enemy, from vengeance paladin subclass, then both attacks are at advantage increasing the chance of a crit ( which would add avg 13.5 (3d8) radiant, avg 9 (2d8 thunder), avg 4.5 (d8 piercing) total + 27 per crit). Also good positioning and liining this up well with other people in combat can trigger multiple attacks of opportunities on the big bad for them to have a very bad turn.
You missed an important part of Barbarogue (Sneaky Smasher)! Resistance & Uncanny Dodge stack. This means that at lvl 8 you can use your Reaction while raging to quarter damage against you! It’s shocking to me how much rogue & barbarian synergize as a multiclass
One Multi-Class Combo I'm using that has stunned friends and fellow players is going Tortle Barbarian/Artificer, Storm Herald/Artillerist respectively. My DM is allowing me to add my Con Mod to my AC as a Tortle, giving me a base 21 currently with a +4 mod. While I'm low on spell slots, they're usually used for utility like Absorb Elements and Faerie Fire to help the battle field. But the main thing is that Cannon. Just before going into battle, use my main action to create my cannon and charge in with a rage. I'm now halving non-magical damage as I'm charging in, swinging a Maul to smash enemies into powder, and as a bonus, my cannon fires off the ballista or flamethrower if I'm in a large group for close quarters. But if I hold off on my raging and someone breaks my 21 AC, I can cast Shield, bumping it up to 26 for a turn. Not including if/when I get some special items or increase my Con higher to buff it up more. Or tuck into my shell to increase it even more~!!!
Love your Channel, even someone like me that has played DnD since 2nd edition is still learning new stuff and getting new ideas from your videos. Please continue doing awesome videos like this^^
Sneaky smasher sounds like a straight up comedy role. I cant help but think they'd be like. "Sneaking...Im sneaking and... *sneaks behind enemy* SMASH!!!"
Here are some of my favourite unorthodox builds. 1. Star druid(x)/twilight cleric (2). Thematic masterpiece, my favourite subclass in game(star), youre a god of healing 2. Paladin(2)/arcane trickster. Unique RP idea and you're a nuke champion. Booming blade+smite+sneak attack... 3. Wizard(3), giant fighter (x). This is the titan build. Use both giant transform and enlarge reduce. Unarmed fighting+tavern brawler+grappler 4. Lore Bard(3)/barbarian (x). Grapple champ. This is kinda famous 5. Monk(x)/druid(1). You get shillelagh and a few useful spells. If you go with astral self monk, it's perfectly SAD
@@noblesseoblige319 Mainly find familiar. Abjuration wizard has some synergy with fighter, coz the ward is just extra bulk on your fighter, which is always good to have. A divinition wizard dip is just always useful in any party. Primarily I said wizard coz it's what I played personally There's no reason you couldn't do this with a sorcerer. Artificer could work, but you'd need too many levels to get the spellslots.
Here's one I came up with: Tabaxi Rogue-Bard, AKA The Silver Tongue Tabaxi gives you increased movement, the ability to climb walls, the ability to double your speed, but most importantly it gives you a +2 to Chr and DEX Rogue gives you the backstab but most importantly it gives you expertise, which you'll put into deception and persuasion, you'll want to do 3 levels of rogue and go for Arcane Trickster so you'll gain access to spells. Bard gives you the inspiration dice but if you go three levels into it you can pick College Of Eloquence, which gives you the ability that if you would ever roll less then a 10 on your deception or persuasion checks you instead count the roll as a 10. You essentially have a character thats sneaky, can cast spells, and has a passive deception and persuasion, with it you can get the number to well over 20 for deception or persuasion before rolling any dice.
Two or more levels of war wizard and any good fighter subclass makes for an excellent multiclass. The obvious route is eldritch knight, but battlemaster, rune knight, psi warrior, all make great options. The best though is probably echo knight. An echo knight with the level 2 features from war wizard is the best "summoner class" in the game.
Builds 4, 3, & 2 are all saved characters I have on dnd beyond. I thought I was a genius b/c no other UA-camrs have made them, guess we both are! Love these videos man
if the DM allows you to use Bloodhunter, there are some cool new multiclass builds you can make with the new updates :) BL + Ranger BL Lycan + Monk BL + Bladesinger BL Mutant + Artificer Alchemist for Potion master :D
BH Lycan + Kensei Monk was some of the most fun I've ever had in my 30+ years of playing DnD when multiclassing, thanks to the Monks high Wisdom the DC 9 saving throw, especially past 14+ becomes non-existent. While in the lower level stuffs you're just basically a rapid fire fighter zipping about the battlefield picking off targets. But at high level play with the goodies and powers available to you, especially if you have a DM willing to indulge the crazy with their players--it becomes such an incredibly fun build to mess with and amazingly versatile.
Here are some recommendations for these builds from me. *Priest of the Wilds* You can get both Spiritual Weapon AND Conjure Animals with the Priest of the Wilds build. Just do Ranger 9/Cleric 4. Also, since commanding your animals from Conjure Animals doesn't require an action or bonus action, you can still use all of your attacks and command your animals. *Shadow Tank* I'd recommend taking at least 5 warlock levels and taking Eldritch Smite. Realistically, since Armor of Agathys lasts for 1 hour, you won't need to put very many spell slots into it, especially considering your slots recharge on a short rest. Just convert any spell slots you aren't using into Eldritch Smite for even higher damage. *Sneaky Smasher* Take 7 levels in Rogue for higher Sneak Attack damage, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge, so you can stay alive even longer. *Warrior of Flame* I'd recommend Oath of Conquest for a couple reasons. Your Aura of Conquest stops anyone who is currently within 10 feet of you and frightened of you from moving, and deals bonus psychic damage to them. Since Green Flame Blade and Shield don't require concentration, you can pop the Fear spell to frighten a bunch of enemies, basically turning them into sitting ducks for you to seriously mess up. *Iron Dancer* I'd recommend taking Ashardalon's Stride. That spell is insane on Bladesingers. You can deal fire damage to anyone you run past, and your movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. So, you can deal extra damage by expending some movement to trigger the fire damage from Ashardalon's Stride. Also, if you really need to get away from someone, you can run away without triggering an opportunity attack, and still burn the enemy as you run away.
Tempest Cleric + Sorcerer (Storm Sorcery o Draconic Bloodline/Lightning) It's not particularly powerful, but it's one of the funniest and most thematic multiclasses in my opinion ~
I have a tabaxi that is Tempest Cleric/Storm Sorcerer so I squeal at that. May I also suggest Trickery Cleric/Wild Magic Sorcerer for thematic "ultimate trickster, I even trick myself" theme?
If you take transmuted spell as a meta magic option you can turn inflict wounds into a lightning or thunder damage spell then max damage it with your channel divinity, which would be doubled on a critical hit too. Pretty powerful.
@@adamscammell1446 It's strong, but you can only do it a few times. Most of the time you would be a suboptimal sorcerer. This multiclass is more for the adrenaline rush than for being reliable.
@@GhizTheKobold true that, although if you manage to get your hands on an Amulet of the Devout by level 12 cleric you get 3 uses per short rest which is pretty sweet
I was already thinking about that Hexblade Barbarian multiclass and questioning why nobody's talking about it. It's super cool! Can't wait to role it... Can't wait to role every single one of this awesome multiclasses! You're a well of magnificent ideas!
Small correction on the soul knife rogue. Whilst you get more die with your proficiency bonus, you dont get better die, they stay a d6 without more time in the subclass. That said going for a full 5 levels for an extra sneak attack, d8 psionic energy dice, evasion, and a feat is still awesome, and finally makes the barbarian good out of combat which makes this very well rounded and fun.
@@DnDShorts at one point I was playing an barbarian gnoll in an evil campaign and I had my gnoll constantly worhsip Yeenoghu. I was actually going to go warlock multiclass if it wasn't for the TPK. really nice to see it in a video here
a BBEG for a campaign I run is actually a sorcerer paladin. Using quick spell to blast far away party member and then just using your regular action to attack a close one is really fun
My favorite multiclass that I’ve done is the combination of Tasha’s beastmaster rogue and Peace domain cleric. Yeah you and your companion get the bond benefit, but since I was using it as a controlled mount, I got a free-action dash that combined really well with the Balm of Peace Channel Divinity
Currently I’m playing an artificer 1/ wizard x multi class and it is awesome! I went with War wizard as my subclass, which most people feel is week, but I went with the sole purpose of being able to add int to my initiative rolls. I got the Sentinel Shield, which gives advantage on initiative, and I now have +8 advantage initiative rolls. Not to mention medium armor constitution saving throw proficiencies from artificer. I have flat 19 AC and go first pretty much every combat, so I can AoE without having to worry about hitting allies.
In an upcoming campaign im going to be rocking a wildfire druid swarmkeeper ranger. The damage for the build is insane plus with the swarmkeeper i am out of melee range.
Im doing a tempest cleric, order of the scribes wizard so i can change my spell damage to lightning, then use my channel devinity to max it out. Im still new to dnd so idk if the is used alot but i havent heard anything about it, and i got the idea from your chromatic orb tempest cleric
Shit, that's good. And since you generally roll once for the damage for all of the targets of your AoE... 48 dmg from Fireball, multiplyed by a number of targets 100 dmg from Disintigrate 240 dmg per target from Meteor Swarm
@@malrok5452 In order to change the damage type of a spell, the spellbook must contain a spell that deals that damage type and that is of a level of the spent spell slot. To have Meteor Storm deal 240 lightning or thunder damage (the types that can be channel-divinitied), the spellbook therefore needs to contain a 9th level spell that deals either lightning or thunder damage (or both). Slim pickings. There are not that many Wizard spells that deal those types of damage. In Beyond, the only spell that could be argued qualifies, is the prismatic wall - and if I was the DM, I wouldn't allow it due to the nature of the spell. However, if you do allow Druid/Cleric spells to be added to a Wizard's spellbook, now, that's a completely different story. But RAW, you can only add wizard spells into a spellbook, as per the spellbook feature description.
@@TheRawrnstuff Prismatic Wall is exactly what I had in mind. By RAW: When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell's formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend. APPEARS in another spell of the same level. Prismatic Wall has a bunch of different effects and damage types, and a yellow layer specifically deals lighting damage, which can be channel-divinited. By the way, I would also cast Elemental Bane beforehand, to pump it up to 480 lighting damage. Friendly grave cleric would work too. Sadly, only one target would take that. The rest of the enemies (which you can target a buch) would only take 240, or 120 with good save. Still enough to level down a city though... 😈
Ultimate evil build: druid + mystic, just sit on the wall in the form of a beetle or something and slowly cause all your enemies to die to your psionics, since they are not magic and would therefore work in wild shape.
The barbarian/rouge is absolutly brilliant however i plan on using path of the beast as barbarian as the claws feature for that adds extra attack for free at lvl 3 so by lvl8 (5barb/3rougesoul)you can get 4 atks with claws and 1bounus atk with soul knife
Isn't it 3x attacks w/claws, because it's a once per turn effect? So you would be transformed (probably previous turn) and then do Attack action x2+1 free claw attack +1 soul knife? Total of 4 attacks together
@@Arthas30000 Note that with Beast Barbarian and the claws, you can get 4 attacks per turn without the soul knife subclass because the claws count as a pair of weapons, allowing for two-weapon fighting as the bonus action. Use hand-axes as your weapons and you get range ability (if your DM is nice with magic thrown weapons that come back to you). The things you’re most missing are the psychic damage (but you can take the Slasher feat), the psionics, and the Rogue base abilities, but you get the suped up Barbarian abilities like Brutal Critical and earlier access to doing neat things like climbing along ceilings with lvl 6 in Beast. I’m still torn whether to subclass Rogue on my beast Barbarian or if I do, whether to make it a 1-level dip for expertise or the full 3 or 4 for the subclass.
@@Auricthunder Isn't it still 3x attacks at LVL 3? Because 1 regular claw attack, 1 extra claw attack because of the feature, and then a bonus action 3rd claw attack as a secondary weapon if it's empty? At LVL 5 you could get the extra attack for that 4th attack though, which is fine, and then you are making that choice between rogue with soulknife and the LVL 6 barb features
Already had a sorc/paladin idea thats almost literally what you suggested lol Lady Ardalayne discovering her gold dragon ancestry at lv7 and going flame nova on the enemies of her faith. Good stuff here! Making me think up new possibilities as well as reinforcing old ideas i've had
one thing about the rogue barbarian, personally I think starting as rogue is a massive advantage as is gives you proficiency in Dex saves, combine this with barbarian's danger sense for advantage on Dex saves you can see and later evasion if you go that far in rogue and you will literally be untouchable by Dex saves
The issue with that is that it locks you into Light armor, and you need a heavy DEX investment to make it work, which would be perfect on a normal rogue, but our Slasher here uses primarily STR. Barbarians, on the other hand, can use medium armor. Then again you're probably using Reckless Attack out the wazoo so every attack is hitting you *anyway*
Alot of people of people tend to forget that eldritch blast produces multiple beams and therefore any modifiers or special effects are applied PER BEAM. So with max charisma and 4 beams thats like an extra 20 or 24 damage if they all hit. Not to mention if you have that knockback one you can push people back pretty far.
I personally prefer Fiend Warlock with a Barbarian multiclass. It is less single target focused, but it gives one additional opportunities to gain temp hp during combat, the Fire Shield spell and a free choice of additionsl resistance upon lvl 10.
My personal favorite is hexblade warlock with death domain cleric. You get tons of debuff spells from both classes. You are able able to stack your hexblade curse with channel divinity for major damage, as channel divinity is a free action. In addition, you can do a cool flavoring where your patron is the death scythe wielded by your god!
An addition to the Barbarian+Hexblade multiclass: If you go Path of the Beast Barbarian, you can rage at the end of a long rest to make your natural weapons your hex weapons for the day. Not exactly powerful, but super fun.
*Order of the Scribes Wizard* with two starting levels of *Tempest Domain Cleric.* Besides the usual "Armoured Wizard" benefits of taking two starting levels on a Cleric subclass that includes heavy armour (and martial weapons) proficiency and a bit of healing, you get a nice little synergy trick. Channel Divinity Destructive Wraith gives you *maximum damage* on Thunder and Lighting damage when you use your Channel Divinity. And Order of the Scribes Awakened Spellbook (gained at 2nd level) can change the damage type of spells to any other damage type a spell at that level has. So "I cast fireball" becomes "I cast a fireball that does _maximum lighting (or thunder) damage_ without any dice roll needed". Now if you really want to be mean, once you reach 6th level Wizard (8th level total) you can cast your super lighting/thunder ball remotely via your Awakened Spellbook, which is a sort of flying intangible familiar. *So it's basically a drone strike.*
There is a barbarian/warlock multiclass I do have in mind: Borag the Butcher He is an orc I'm saving for an evil campaign. He is chaotic evil. He is a melee fighter that revels in blood, death and despair and uses necromancy on the corpses of those he has slain to devestate enemy morale. He is also not above cannibalism.
I came up with a build that involves 3 levels in Armorer Artificer and the rest in Abjuration Wizard for a lot of health and tons of debuffs and good damage output. You get heavy armor and with Thunder Gauntlets you can use Booming blade and Greenflame blade since the gauntlets are considered simple weapons. Add on top of that the disadvantage to hit others and you have a wizard tank. 😂
There's a lot of great stuff here, but I'm immediately drawn to the idea that combining thr Abjuration Wizard barrier and the Armorer Artificer powersuit implies that you have a suit of armor with a Halo-style energy shield over it. And that's sick as fuck.
@@Drekromancer god damn I never made that connection!!! My character is basically Master Chief, but without a gun. Although the best part about it is certainly that you have a super powerful gravity hammer fist if you use booming blade. At higher lvls I’ll be doing 4d8 thunder damage with a single smack plus all the other good stuff.😂
A few days ago, I was thinking of a combo with the Bear Totem Barbarian and Hexblade Warlock (of course Armor of Agathys being the main reason). I had also thrown Abjuration Wizard on that for the ward .Then go Kalashtar to gain psychic resistance, Wisdom saving throw, and the ability to scream inside your opponent's mind (which hopefully will make it harder for them to concentrate on spells if they are doing so). Though not how good the combo really is, just a concept, and probably out there somewhere on the internet already. The end concept (lv20) would be wizard primary. 15 Wiz / 3 Barb / 2 Warlock. Contingency with Armor of Agathys to be casted when an instance of Armor of Agathys you casted on yourself drops, and have the ward at 30+Int mod HP. Between the two instances of AoA and the Ward, that would be an extra 105 HP. Then bonus action to Curse someone. And if you aren't the first to be hit (or use shield if you are), then you can rage on the next turn to have effectively an extra 210hp while dealing cold damage to melee attackers. You could use a shield for extra AC, or a second weapon to make an off-hand attack. You also have eldritch blast, and of course plenty of spells. Or if you don't do wiz, there is doing the coffeelock thing with bear barbarian. Go Clockwork for Bastion of Law and Trance of Order.
To add to the Fey Wanderer/War Cleric build, if you use your Fighting Style for Druidic Warrior or whatever it's called, you can use a sling and a staff/club and grab Magic Stone and Shillelagh. Makes you completely Wis based, and since you have heavy armor, you don't need Dex. You can then also, keep STR at 15 or lower depending on what kind of armor you want. So at level 6, you'll have Wis + Prof to his, -5 if you use sharpshooter, but +10 if you use guided strike. You can have Chain Mail and Shield for 18 AC, better spell attacks and stuff cause of your high WIS, and you can alternate between Melee and Range without having to super invest in STR or WIS.
Just wanna add that on that lvl 9 Barbarian/Soul Knife, the size of your psionic dice would still be a d6. The *amount* of Psionic Energy Dice is determined by your PB, but the dice size is determined by your Rogue level
I like the idea that the barbarian-Warlock multiclass is just your average 7 INT 13 CHA barbarian who just found a funny looking longsword one day. The sword talks to him, trying to get him into magic but the barbarian keeps asking for the 'cold shield' and the 'funny curse' and doesn't really try anything else. Sometimes the sword gets through to him and gets him to try new things like the pact of the blade so the enemies can't magically resist his big damage, combat invocations or non-concentration long-lasting spells other than armor of agathys like longstrider but the barbarian draws the line at anything that would be wasted when he rages. Then the sword tells him how to use eldritch smites and he is just so happy with it.
I really love the Beast Barbarian/Gloomstalker Ranger/Assassin Rogue 3-way multiclass for the ultimate ambush assassin. You get about 5 attacks during round 1 including bonus action off hand attack, all at advantage in the darkness, so you can easily get sneak attack off. If you want to dip into Fighter as well for action surge then you become a true force to be reckoned with on the first round.
On the second one, be a gnome to get advantage on saves against spells, and level 2 in Barbarian gives advantage on dec saves you can see. In the end you have either proficiency or advantage on saves, sometimes both
so i had two i had made throughout my games. both are bard multiclasses cause we basically replayed the same characters later just with different classes, so one of them is Bard-Spirits with Samurai Fighter. basically a old ronin who uses the spirits of past allies to fuel his magic and music. the other one and one i used and loved in my Curse of Strahd game was Bard-Lore and Ranger-Monster Hunter, basically become Monster Hunter who uses music to hunt the wicked undead (or what ever your favored enemy/ hunter prey is)
For barbarian/hexblade multiclass, this is my level and invocation guide: Warlock (12), barbarian (8) You can also go warlock (15) and barbarian (5), but you won't get that advantage on initiative rolls from feral instinct, or the second primal path feature. The invocations I'd use are: Improved pact weapon Lifedrinker Eldritch smite Agonizing blast Grasp of hadar Any 1 invocation of your choice (my recommendation is Devil's Sight) Extra attack and fast movement from barbarian, and the primal path's 3rd level feature (I'd recommend bear totem to make yourself tankier, or wild magic barbarian for the increased offensive capabilities) Armor of hexes makes you even tankier in one v one fights, as your opponent now has a 50/50 chance when they succeed on an attack roll (which is rather unlikely) to just straight up fail For spells, eldritch blast is a must. Grasp of hadar is to bring the enemy into optimal unaliving range, and your chosen levelled spells should be spells with good durations that don't use concentration (i.e blur, blink, armor of agathys) You shouldn't be focused on eliminating crowds yourself. Instead, make yourself as much of a nuisance as possible, and as hard to kill as you can
I played a very niche multiclass: at level 15 I had a 13 Rogue Arcane Trickster - 2 Fighter. In one turn when hidden: magical ambush with Hold Person, Action Surge, melee with green flame blade and flame tongue rapier: auto-crit for 18d6+6d8+stats
Bro, I saw the War priest option when thinkin of multiclassing my Hunter Ranger and was immediately on board. I'm glad someone else had this idea and I'm not just huddled in my lil corner like a goober.
I watched this video and realized I have already made most of these my best one was my L3 Wild Magic Barbarian / L2 Hexblade Warlock who would fight with a greatsword enhanced by various Hexblade spells and was addicted to arcane energy. he was this skinny academic guy who seemed really timid, would prefer to spend his time reading than actually talking to people. that however, was a mask. this guy had a +8 to intimidation, and I managed to make him really terrifying as a character by never actually having him drop the fake personality, instead just making people scared of the fake personality. for example, we found a powerful magic item (I don't remember what it was), but we knew it was cursed. my character, being addicted to arcane energy, didn't care. the party tried to stop him. this cursed item was from the shadowfell, so natrually it was scary, so when the party said "Don't use that item," my character simply looked at the item, allowed its power to flow through him briefly, as he looked up and said in a "I'm not thinking about what I'm doing" tone of voice "well, why shouldn't I?" and rolled a 27 on intimidation.
Hmm. I'm actually curious to anyone willing to explore the pros and cons. What's the best way to do a vengeance paladin with a hex dip, shadowsorc dip, and swashbuckler dip. Charisma to saves. Charisma to initiative. Darkness spell. Invocations, most likely devils sight. Throw in a variant of elf for elven accuracy. Get illusionists bracers. Twin booming blade action and BA, Maybe get some of the classes to level 4 to get more feats. Like warcaster to opportunity attack twin booming blade as well (can an OA be twinned or effect more than one target at all?)
I've actually got a half-orc Barbarian/Rouge. He was a personal bodyguard to a crime boss, so I went with Ancestral Guardian/Swashbuckler and the sentinel feat, so he gets up in an opponents face, hits them hard, and doesn't let them hit his employer.
If you’re a player excited about using green flame blade and war caster just make sure you talk to you DM. GFB does not work with war caster because , RAW, the cantrip technically doesn’t target a creature. It targets yourself and allows you to make an attack. A small distinction, which I personally as a DM don’t hold players to, but some DMs will enforce that and not allow it to be cast as an opportunity attack
I’ve got an Alchemist/Barbarian who is quite effective. Firebolt gives me ranged options as does the Infusion Returning Weapon. On down time he spends a lot of spell slots making potions so he can through out heals and buffs even while raging. His spells and effects get better at higher levels because he can make the Headband of Intellect to give him a 19 INT which can help with things like Flash of Genius and spell attack/DC. If you really want to make him party focused go with Wolf Totem to give allies Advantage on attacks near you as well.
It's funny that the video started with a Ranger/Cleric because I actually made one for a one-shot. Different subclasses though... I guess you could call it: Twilight Stalker (not very imaginative but honestly the subclass names sound badass together) The build goes: -Make a Wood Elf (or any elf if you are using custom origins and prefer other elf features). -Go Ranger first, up to level 3 for Gloom Stalker and its Umbral Sight and Dread Ambusher. Get a fourth level if you want to pick up Elven accuracy, which is already kind of nuts with the permanent pseudo-invisibility, then a fifth for the oh-so-precious extra attack. Elven accuracy was my pick to pair with sharpshooter later and bump Dex to 18 but you can go sharp immediately, or whatever feat build you can think of, as both subclasses are very potent on their own. -Take one level in Twilight Cleric for the awesome Eyes of Night feature, which give you a 300 base darkvision range, for an over-the-top 330 after Umbral Sight. You can also now share these 300ft of darkvision with your allies. You can also give advantage to yourself or an ally on every initiative roll, giving even more Dread Ambushing capability. The second Cleric level gives you Twilight Sanctuary, giving you an edge in wars of attrition if you didn't manage to dispatch your foes quickly enough or if you can't force fights to happen in darkness -From that point, enjoy your insane ambushes
Currently going through one of my very first games in Dragon Heist and playing a Zealot Barbarian Aasimar. After watching this, I need to multi class into Hexblade and wield a holy weapon as my patron (luckily I already have a god like charisma because rolling stats is fun and my DM is a maniac who let me rock up with a level 1 character with all but one stat higher than 14). And yes we do plan to go straight into DotMM
a character I made by mistake; i was trying to make a BBEG who was a support to his minions and a debuff to his enemies so I made him a divination wizard (also lore reasons there). While doing this I was into eldritch adept so I gave him Eldritch mind, advantage on concentration saving throws. I also added an amulet of health cuz he HP was like 50, i figured the barbarian would one shot him. I later learned about star druid and gave him 2 levels of that for the dragon form, cannot roll less than 10 on concentration saves. Now while doing these things I never actually conidered they work together, so by the end i accidentially had a guy who cannot roll lower than a 14 on that concentration save and has advantage on it. Plus if its a divination spell he can regain a spell slot cuz divinaton wizard. so to even have an actual chance of breaking his concentration the players need to do 28 damage in one attack, which the barbarian can do. if he ever gets close enough, which he might not.
I set up the same barb rogue idea myself. Have you considered that you can also use strength with martial arts? Welcome to the ultimate tank build: bear totem barb 3/long death monk X. Proficiency on all saves, evasion and danger sense, half damage to everything but psychic, and when you hit zero HP you stay at one until they hit you more times than you have ki points. You can also reckless attack while dodging so they don't have advantage. And you can use a heavy weapon unless you need your martial arts bonus action attack, but dodge and flurry work fine with a non monk weapon. Use free stow/draw action as needed.
Fist Domain Cleric: Trickery, Tempest, Peace, or Twilight Cleric + Astral Monk --- Trickery - Self boosts to damage and remote casting --- Tempest - Retaliate against attackers for additional damage --- Peace - Free additional d4 to hit every turn for you and your team --- Twilight - Heavy group support and flight - High AC - 4 attacks per turn (level 6) using wisdom to hit and damage (2d8 to all opponents with 10 ft when activated) and proficient with spells - Impressive passive wisdom and insight. (I DM heavy puzzle solving, so good vs me) - Loads of support and boosting spells. - No need for War Caster feat as you use no weapons and almost no one can out run you.
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Okay, so to your thing about the iron-dancer (armorer/bladesinger) DO NOT GO 3 ARTIFICER FIRST! It means you aren't getting to the meat of why bladesinger's are cool until you get to 9th level, and you aren't getting to the meat of why armorer's are cool until 7th level so you can pick up dual wielder (unless you're a variant human, or custom lineage, even still). You're basically picking up armorer so you can give disadvantage to one guy once per turn. IT IS NOT FUN. You're gonna be using dex to get your AC up anyway, focus dex>int>con, and play a normal bladesinger till 6th level for that sweet sweet multiattack and ability to use a cantrip as one of them.
Grab dual wielder at 4th for bonus action attacks with non light weapons, then focus int>dex>con and you'll get thunder punches at 9th level, but you will have had your rotation activated already since 6th.
By the way, you can still copy a spell into your spellbook to cast it, so as long as you have access to a library or something via the cloistered scholar or sage background, your spellcasting progression isn't even slowed in the slightest on the last build
Very gish character, built similarly to the fifth option (although it requires a specific race). Coincidentally, it kicks off at fifth level:
Mark of Warding Dwarf with two levels in _Abjuration_ Wizard, and three levels in Battle Smith.
Mark of Warding Dwarf increases your Intelligence by 1, and grants you the ability to cast Armor of Agathys as soon as you're able to cast 1st-level spells (along with a few other useful spells as you level up). Keep in mind that Armor of Agathys is an Abjuration spell that _doesn't_ require Concentration, although it's hard to acquire a version that you can up-cast without multiclassing further, as a different race. This means that, as soon as you take two levels in Abjuration Wizard, you can fuel your Arcane Ward with it, and other spells.
Now, here's the fun part, when it comes to Arcane Ward and Armor of Agathys: Arcane Ward does _not_ count as temporary HP. It's more like a force field that acts as a barrier between your temporary hit points and incoming damage. Said force field can be replenished by casting just about any Abjuration spell that has a level (and, well, you're a _Wizard_ ).
This means that, not only is there little risk of Arcane Ward overwriting Armor of Agathys, but if you get hit with a melee attack, it's going to eat into your easily-replenished Ward first, then your temporary HP, _then_ your actual health, while the opponent's taking up to 45 cold damage (depending on the spell level of Armor of Agathys when cast) per hit. This, combined with the Medium armor, shield, Enhanced Defense infusion, and the free Shield spell you get from three levels in Battle Smith, means that you're going to be tanky as hell. You might not have the same AC as the Bladesinger, but you're gonna have a replenishable force field between you and the damage.
Your tankiness goes up even further as you gain levels in Wizard, due to Arcane Ward gaining hit points equal to _twice_ your Wizard levels. Not only that, but you can also extend some of that tankiness to your allies at Abjuration Wizard's six level, due to Projected Ward. Level 10 Abjuration Wizards get further use out of their Intelligence modifier, by adding their intelligence to the checks of Abjuration spells (such as the all-too-important Counterspell and Dispel Magic), thus giving you a five-point-larger window for successful rolls. At level 14 in Abjuration Wizard, you resist spells, and have advantage on saving throws against spells. This feature, combined with Counterspell, Dispel Magic, etc., means that, if you come across a Bladesinger/Battle Smith build, about the only thing that'll be effective against you is their _sword._ A 9th-level cast of Armor of Agathys, along with a slew of other defensive spells, will tell them why that's a bad idea.
Also, since your build _doesn't_ require you to have a one-handed sword and nothing else in hand, only _one_ of you gets to pull out a Repeating Shot hand crossbow, and supplement some of those spells with a bit of sharpshooting at-range. You can then drop the crossbow and pull out whatever melee weapon you want, should the enemy come within stabbing range.
And, of course, there's also all the other benefits from going at least three levels in Battle Smith: Attacking with Intelligence, fancy mascot, other infusions, etc. Those were addressed in the video though, so I won't cover those. I'd still recommend going five levels in Battle Smith, for the Extra Attack, but you can always focus on clearing out your Wizard levels first, if you prefer.
@@LoudAngryJerk Since when could you use multiple weapons, along with medium or heavy armor, whilst Bladesinging?
So I rolled a double nat 1 on my technology check and my PC crashed during this recording, so I had to use the phone audio for this one. Back to usual, juicy audio quality week after next!
My all time fav DnD channel
Keep em coming
Even your phone audio works well and is very understandable, hopefully your pc behaves better for you in future, thank you for these videos.
I honestly didnt notice
HAVE YOU TRIED UNPLUGGING IT AND PLUGGING IT BACK IN THO?!?!
If that's a double nat 1 whats this count as numerically?
I tried to move files over and God decided then was a good time to have a blackout in the neighborhood.
My files were lost in transition.
Ice always liked 12 levels of Moon Druid with another 8 levles of moon druid.
A player after my own heart. I love Dru and almost exclusively go moon. Lvl 20 Dru is too good to pass up. The only thing more busted than a full Dru is the Wish spell.
@@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011 I think there is also an argument for lvl 20 clerics divine intervention... But yeah moon druid 20 is ridiculous :D
@@eros5420 completely forgot about the cleric's 20. I do think that is beyond busted, but it also depends on the DM and your deity. Still, both Wish and DI can completely turn any situation. So those 2 would have to be #1, followed very closely by our Moon Druids :)
Taking every level from any class to do extra actions and become a minigun
I personally generally dislike Multi-Classing unless it's a "Homebrew" Campaign that you go beyond lvl 20.
Anyway, Circle of Moon Druid is great though my Druid player character I created is planning on Circle of Spores herself.
Additionally my Cleric player character is: DEATH DOMAIN CLERIC!
Also my player character Wizard is planning on School of Necromancy specialization/subclass.
I really like being a Master/Creating Undead Army obedient to me. I'm not Evil or anything and will only be doing that with villains & bandits & thieves & other disgusting criminal types turning them into my Undead Minions/Army. So basically DON'T BE A DISGUSTING BANDIT OR CRIMINAL!
One that I've seen quite a few people overlook is combing a Moon Druid with a level or two in Monk. As my DM called it "the Kung Fu Panda" build. Since druids invest in Wisdom anyway, you can buff both AC and spell casting with a single ability score. There's something wonderful about turning into a goddamn polar bear, and then judo throwing the enemies into next week
I thought about doing that but I decided to show my GM mercy.
Toss in volo's kobold for free advantage without having to worry about sunlight sensitivity
ua-cam.com/video/0qpD94vs06U/v-deo.html he did cover an example of the build
I absolutely love this setup because of the funny name everyone gives it
You can use your unarmored defense, fighting technique, and ki points in wild shape, just putting that out there
Time Stamps!
Priest of the Wilds (Faewanderer Ranger/War Cleric): 0:06
Shadow Tank (Hexblade Warlock/Barbarian): 2:14
Sneaky Smasher (Rogue/Barbarian): 6:19
Warrior of the Flame (Sorcerer/Paladin) 8:25
Iron Dancer (Battle Smith Artificer/Blade Singer Wizard): 10:34
I would like to call the Barb-Rogue the “Slasher”, more due to having more in common with killers from slasher movies (and because I got to know about this build when I tried a Jason Voorhees build for a Strahd campaign). Raging assassination and raging sneak attack are no joke.
or just john wick alternatively
The Owlbear...
I imagine when this dude rages his eye just starts twitching and a vein pops every time
Yup, it's how Tulok made Michael Myers and Jason
@@ponchopower this is exactly why I had the character Brock Samson in mind when I made my rogue barbarian combo.
I actually discovered the Battle Smith Bladesinger combo myself a few weeks ago and I'd just like to point out that by the time you get the multiclass going, you are statistically more likely to fall unconscious from damage before you would lose concentration, it's actually ridiculous.
I personally prefer the 5 Battlesmith, 10 War Magic Wizard combo. I was pushing 26 AC before Shield or Reactions in the One-shot I was able to run it in, with my lowest save being a +6 when the Witchknight wasn't in the melee with me (It became +11). It was priceless to have my lanky wizard wade into the melee with the BBEG and go toe to toe with him without taking a hit.
The issue with the battlesmith 3 bladesinger x is that, while there are some great synergies, there are also significant drawbacks. Artificers medium armour proficiency, which is usually one of the main reasons wizards casters take artificer dips, is completely useless on a bladesinger, although the con save proficiency is still useful.
At level two mind sharpener is great (especially when you consider that you can put the infusion on a different set of robes from the first one and get 4 more charges instead of d4 more), a repeating shot crossbow is a solid early game option when paired with a shield and the enhanced weapon rapier you'll likely switch to once you're a bladesinger is also useful. However, the enhanced weapon will likely become redundant very soon due to magic items, and for that reason you should choose a backup for your fourth infusion (I would recommend enhanced arcane focus, only because there are no better options. Or take a bag of holding for utility.). It is of course also an option to forgo taking repeating crossbow or to switch it out at third level for a little bit more versatility with your infusions. Mind sharpener is really the premier infusion for us here though.
Third level is of course the reason why people are drawn to battlesmith bladesinger characters. You get an okay bonus action attack, disadvantage on one enemy attack per round and your attack and damage rolls for your weapons become intelligence based.
This seems fantastic, as bladesinger is a rather MAD subclass, and this seems to make it much less bad. The fundamental issue, however, is that you cannot bladesing while wearing medium armour. This means your AC is still largely based on dexterity, so there's still a large element of MADness. But it gets worse. Your extra attack (a particularly potent feature for bladesingers, due to being able to replace one of the attacks with a cantrip) is now delayed until level 9 and your spell progression is severely stunted. Plus your first ASI is going to be at level 7, really diminishing from the reduction in MADness.
One option is to take a fourth level in artificer for the ASI. However, this would delay your extra attack and spell progression even further. It would also not advance your slot progression at all, as artificer slots only advance on odd levels. Plus you'd be almost obligated to take a fifth level for extra attack at that point, which you don't want to do for obvious reasons. It's a nice synergy, in theory. However, the messy reality of it makes it unrealistic. You're much better off either taking a one level dip in fighter or just straight classing bladesinger.
@@alexanderlea7882 I think people forget Bladesingers also get light armor. And if you just use Dex and Int as the main two stats to boost, you could get very good AC. For a lv20 one shot, I ended up able to get my AC to 31 while bladesinging, Haste and Assuming I need to use the Shield. It made me fully realize I should never be allowed to get a Wizard to at least lv18 to get spell mastery of Shield and Mirror Image(Fun flavor for actions and such, and Don't want to be hit is entertaining.)
@@trealosgaming3345 spell mastery shield I've always considered amazing, but mirror image is a great second level spell choice. Honestly I think bladesinger is probably the best straight classed 20th level options.
no reason to ever dip artificer other than rp. stop griefing players with this noob trap
I loved seeing the Rogue/Barbarian build on that CR one-shot, styled as, "the Owlbear".
You mean Owlbear Man?
@@Micsma He's not real; nothing but a myth to frighten children and superstitious criminals.
Ow bear?
The Owlbear doesn't exist. He's a myth!
You know what they say, NPC's are superstitious
Shadow monk + gloomstalker ranger is a favorite of mine, the invisibility in dim light/ darkness, ability to teleport using a bonus action in darkness, plus access to the blind fighting fighting style makes this build great for never getting hit.
Antithesis: The Cult of Everlight.
An Order of Light and Inquisition (Grim Hollow) Domain clerics that heavily favor spells that produce light and deal fire/radiant damage.
They steal wealth and land from those who don't share their ideology by framing the "heretics" and putting them to death by fire. They spare no quarter for those who practice the arcane and other dark arts.
The Symbol of their Order is a Black Caged Lantern imposed over a depiction of the White Sun. All acolytes carry a lantern of varying sizes on their person but only priests and above carry lanterns illuminated by the Continuous Flame spell.
Altered Spell: Radiance (Darkness)
This spell produces the exact effect of the Darkness spell, except the area is filled with a powerful radiance of light that blinds those who are within or attempt to peer into the light. It also dispels magical darkness of the same level or lower.
@@Battleguild Radiance should have the effect that both it and darkness at equal levels are ended instead of it just winning. Yin and yang
@@Razdasoldier
I just remembered Daylight and tacked it on. Should technically be for a lower level darkness effect for the dispelling.
It's mostly to prevent an overlap of effects and conditions.
I've been playing shadow monk + twilight cleric multiclass. Highly recommend.
@@legogsrdi8349 that also works really well. All of the shadow subclasses have really distinct and unique abilities, which makes a) your character really flavorful and thematic and b) no abilities get doubled up and they can work really well together.
One thing missed in the Paladin/Sorcerer is Quicken Spell, bonus action Hold Person followed by two auto-crit melee attacks with smite.
Sorcadin critlander
Aaaaand that's how you 1-turn kill the bbeg, kids.
Here's one: The armored rogue.
Start as a rogue 1 for more skills, then go artificer 3 for armorer. Use infiltrator armor for +5 speed and permanent advantage on stealth checks on a rogue. Additionally, the lightning launcher is technically a ranged weapon you can use for sneak attack. For this build, focus on your intelligence, and just get dex up to 14 for maximum bonus using medium armor, which your proficient in as an artificer. Additionally, lightning launcher does an extra 1d6 once per turn, so your sneak attack only falls one level behind most rogues in exchange for also getting some useful spells like cure wounds. Then, take the homunculus servant as one of your invocations to make extra certain you get your sneak attack by have it hover next to an enemy. It doesn't even have to attack to do this, and it can move without you commanding it.
From there, I'd recommend going full rogue to make the most of your all-but invisibility.
I actually have a Totem Barbarian Goliath build whom I was flavouring the rage as an internal one, "steel your resolve" style. Adding that he's a self-conscious massive giant, that tip about sneak attack works out nicely.
I absolutely love playing the sorc-adin. It is so great being able to play a holy casting tank. If you use the divine soul, you can basically be a Shonen protagonist by "believing in yourself"
I am quite new to dnd and have a level 2 paladin,how would I distribute this for my character future progress
@@definitelynotat-rex72 My sorc-adin went 2 lvls of paladin and (by campaigns end) 8 or so levels of sorc. Gives you plenty of spell slots for smiting, plus a solid base of hp for lower levels. From there, if you wanna fight more close combat, take another three in paladin. Otherwise, the rest is sorc.
@@28doodler Or just use booming blade and green flame blade to outmatch the damage output of a paladins multiattack anyway.
Here's a great combo.
Arcane Archer Fighter + Hex Blade Warlock. Get pact of the blade and invocations of improved pact weapon for ranged, ascendent step to cast levitate yourself at will, and eldritch smite, take sharpshooter.
Curse your target, levitate out of combat and snipe your enemies with CHR, +improved pact weapon, +archery fighting style, +10 SS, + arcane arrows, + eldritch smite, crit on 19 and 20 + attack twice = wombo damage
Get 3 lv of rouge assassin, pick devil`s sight to see through magical darknes and cast that in the air where you are levitating. Now the party can see the enemy, and you can add sneak attack assassinate from the sky. Bonus action to hide somewhere else in the magical darkness when needed.
If you don`t want to use magical darkness, get an invocation or something to become invincible.
I have done this build, just with ranger instead of fighter, and it was so much fun
@@rineraanakiir aren't darkness and levitation both concentration?
@@rickyzeitler7169 I guess, but at my table we are not so strict at those things when it comes to invocations and similar that let you cast certain spells at will. So haven`t thought much about it.
You're not gaining much from Arcane Archer for this build. Rune Knight or Battlemaster are probably more useful, but pure Hexblade can access most of this on their own anyway.
The combo takes way too long to even become active. Ascendant step is a level 9 invocation.
Great video! One note for all players at all times pretty much is this: if you cast bless, always bless yourself! Adding 1d4 to your own concentration checks on your own bless spell is incredible, it's self sustaining. Some players like to be nice and give bless to their allies and not themselves, but the 1d4 helps way too much. If your con is is +2 and you're proficient, you have +5 + 1d4 to your saves at 5th level, which means you have a 87.5% to keep up bless assuming you take 20dmg or less.
Power of math
Good idea, but kind of useless since bless itself requires concentration
@@Lubraz7 The idea is that the check you make to keep bless up are helped by having bless up. You can't get it with other spells unless an ally helped you at, but all characters are ~12.5% better at maintaining concentration on Bless than on pretty much any other spell.
@@Lubraz7 You completely missed his point...
I've had good success playing as a monk barbarian. The ac is kinda low but easily fixed if you pick a race with natural armor. Build the monk to be strength based. If you pick up grappler you can grapple, run up the wall and slam people. Really potent.
When a power-bomb is not good enough, you naruto-run up the wall with your grappled enemy for an atomic-bomb.
I'm going to steal this idea and add in the Gladiator background so I can play as a pro wrestler.
PSA: You don't need grappler to grapple as it is part of the basic rules so anybody can do it.
I've got a Bearbarian 6/Kensei Monk 5 Goliath, with the Brawny feat (oooold UA now, unfortunately), and I was lucky that we got one Uncommon and one Rare magic item when we made characters for that (at the time) one shot. He has both the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, so his unarmed attacks count as magic and get +1 despite just now getting to level 5 monk, plus a Barrier Tattoo to keep his AC at 17 despite his Dex and Wis not being the best. Str 20 plus expertise in Athletics makes for an insane +13 bonus, plus another neat Monkbarian fact: Unarmored Defense you have to chose one to use, but Unarmored Movement stacks! 55 feet of movement is pretty nice.
You don't need levels in barbarian to "grapple, run up the wall and slam people". I feel like the barbarian levels don't add much there.
A Str16/Wis16/Dex13 monk has AC 14. Take the Skill expert feat at lvl 4 for athletics expertise and +1 to Dex, raising AC to 15. A race with natural armor isn't that much better.
Firbolg gets +2 Wis, +1 Str.
Tortle/Centaur would get +2 Str, +1 Wis.
And of course, any race that lets you choose your +2+1 would work. If your DM lets you choose for any race, I'd recommend half-orc for that sweet Relentless Endurance. Lower HP means that the feature actually gets to be used occasionally.
Just go full monk and get that run up the wall (and the surface of water) and slam on level 9 as you should, instead of the likely-never-to-be-reached 12.
I have a Bladesinger/Artificer build in a campaign and it is awesome. With some of the spells that artificers get like Guidance and Fairy fire along with the Con proficiency, it is actually going really well. I went a different subclass for spice but still loving the build.
Depending on your constitution modifier, you can have a +10 to your concentration save. A +3 should do it.
That means you have to take 24 damage just to need to roll.
@@dragonhearthx8369 My character has 16 Con at the moment and the party is level 9 and we were able to roll for basic numbers for ability scores. I already have a maxed intelligence already
In my memory the Artificer-Armorer could Atack with his Inteligence-Stat is this true or a trick of my mind?
@@rogerjolly1358 It is true. I am not an Armorer. Not all Artificers have access to that ability of using Intelligence instead of Strength or Dex.
@@rogerjolly1358 with only his gauntlets.
I appreciate channels like this because I have ZERO ability to see these combos without being led to them with big neon signs.
The "Iron Dancer" could work with Armorer too, so long as you stick with wearing light armor. And the Arcane Armor offers some interesting options since your Steel Defender's abilities are based off your Artificer level, which stays low. Also, bladesong ends if you grab a shield. Warforged get bonus AC though...
The key is that only Battle Smiths can use INT to attack and damage rolls with magic weapons. Armorer is great; you'll just have to raise INT and STR/DEX.
I'm running this now as a Deep Gnome in Out of the Abyss; super fun at level 9. With Haste + Bladesong, I've got 23 AC, 90' of movement (I picked up Mobile), 3 attacks that proc disadvantage on target's attacks, 1 of those is also either a BBlade or G-FBlade, and no AOs. Good times.
If the DM authorizes Keith Baker's Mastermaker homebrew, you can also be a wizard who punches motherfuckers with a prosthetic arm.
A channel on youtube (called d4 d&d deep dive) made a "tank" class with a bladesinger and armorer and the idea is super cool
@@PhillipDunn Armourer gets weapons built into the armour that use int to attack with.
I’ve got a build for you: Soul of the Wild. It’s a Monk/Druid Build. Start out on 2 levels of Druid and go for Moon Druid for the wildshaping upgrade. Then you go into Monk for the rest of the way. According to Wildshape description says you keep class and race abilities. This means Unarmored Defense, Unarmored Movement, and Martial Arts all still apply while you are beastly. From there, you go Astral Self monk to extend your wildshape range by 5ft, use your wisdom (that doesn’t change when wildshaped) to attack and your unarmed strikes are now wisdom attack and damage (since they don’t add and you can use whichever is higher for AC and damage). Your Ki abilities and bonus attacks with Extra Attack and Martial Arts means you have 3 attacks a round with extended range. And to add to the tankiness of it, you can use your spell slots for healing while transformed.
nice
Do it the other way, grab 1 level in monk for the unarmoured defence which uses your spellcasting modifier and will nearly always surpass the beasts base ac and then focus on druid to power up wild shape, at high levels the cr1 wildshape will be almost useless.
Solidly the most entertaining ad break on the web. The extra effort is worth it man!
I think a gem dragonborn would be a really good race for the "sneaky smasher build". Expesially the amethyst variant, since it would be helarious if the sneakiest person in the party is psychic Barney the dinosaur.
I find it so funny that I am just now watching this video and seeing your comment like a week or so after coming up with a psychic gem Dragonborn Barbarian Rogue. Just rage reckless sneak attack while being resistant to all damage thanks to totem of the bear + the natural Dragonborn psychic resist
I like the idea of a rogue/barbarian dragonborn, who when he rages, goes silent but starts puffing flame or frost from their nostrils
For the rogue/barbarian build, the rage/sneak attack combo lets you invest in strength instead of dex, which lets the multiclass more harmonious.
Rage bonus requires you to use melee weapons using strength.
Sneak attack requires you to use ranged or finesse weapons, but with soulknife you can use strength. But you still would have to attack at melee all the same. Either way nice idea.
A Rogue in my game took initiative by asking if the raw mithril she found could be smithed into a Longsword rather than a set of armour. Because it didn't use as much material she had some left over, to use or sell or whatever.
Finesse Longsword
I'm glad you brought attention to the Battle Smith Bladesinger. When I was making a Bladesinger I discovered this synergy and started talking about it on Bladesinger guides because it's objectively just really good, and no one talks about it. Battle Smith fills all the gaps the Bladesinger has with the only draw backs being that you get extra attack later and playing around lvl 3 in a class can be a little awkward with trying to get all the feats you want when you want them. But attacking with Int as a Melee Wizard is god like, Infusions can be nuts if you pick the right ones (looking at your Spell Wrought Tattoo for any useful lvl 1 spell like Find Familiar or Bless, or Bags of Holding, or free magic weapons/armor), better armor, and the companion provides extra support along with a ton of potential flavor text for the character like it being rideable by a small race. I was hyped to play this multiclass until the group I was in fell apart before the game it would've been played in got the be played.
In addition, you can ask another party member to cast darkness on your weapon(if you have such teammate) and take devil's sight to have advantage on attacks and foes have disadvantage against you. This means more hits and crits, less damage taken, and absolutely suiting play style to the name of "shadow tank", because you're truly in shadows.
YES!!! That last Warforged Bladesinger Wizard/Battlesmith Artificer is exactly the one I've been workshopping for a couple months now and I was starting to doubt if it was as good as I thought it was. Thank you for spelling it out here!! I can't wait to try it 🔥
I was working on a multiclass of fighter, paladin and sorcerer oriented for very late game, like a lv20 table.
It was a half orc fighter 11, paladin 2, sorcerer 7.
The ideia was to use quickened hold person for auto crits and then 6 attacks with action surge, spending all high level slots to divine smite each hit. If my math is correct, using a greataxe it would do: 18d12 + 60d8 + 30
God I love these videos. You might be the only creator who's ads I actually look forward to instead of skipping.
Paladin Sorcerer is probably my favorite multiclass in 5e. I usually go for Divine Origin, giving me access to cleric spells
Ok, notes:
Booming blade is better than gfb, at least for the sorcadin with warcaster, since it fucks up enemy movement.
Green flame blade actually doesn't work with shadow blade RAW, since it has to be cast on a weapon worth at least 1 silver.
Barbarian + throwing soul knives interacts a little weird, bcs rage and reckless work on melee weapon attacks and throwing is a ranged attack, made with a melee weapon... Definitely something to discuss with the DM ahead.
Personally, my favorite I've been working on is 11 levels ancestral guardian barbarian and 9 levels phantom rogue for a tribal hunter kind of build. A lot of fun since the aesthetic of spirits of the dead works nicely.
The other one I've worked on is 8 twilight or war cleric the rest in psi warrior or samurai fighter, this character is a bugbear who wields a glaive so he has a 15ft reach which he layers with spirit guardians and his channel divinity (if twilight cleric) basically creating a massive kill-zone around the character.
The one I'm actually playing is 4 levels divine soul sorcerer the rest in oath of glory paladin with a focus on mounted combat, zipping around the battlefield with a massive area of death with spells like spirit guardians and the capacity to get more spell slots via flexible casting is really nice.
Keep in mind for bladesinger you don't actually need the mage armor spell, you gain proficiency in light armor so if you can get your hands on some studded leather +1 it's got the same effect and doesn't take a prep slot. (If you can't find magic armor, that's still only one AC down, and that shouldn't make too much of a difference with you int bonus and the shield spell.)
Yeah, studded leather is great on a BS. It's like free-cast mage armor.
I also like studded leather on a DEX based sword & board eldritch knight. With +5 from dex, you'll only ever be -1AC behind full plate, but you have options like the shield spell, blur, haste, and mirror image. If you use a shield, you're +1 AC over a great weapon fighter, if you use shadow blade upcast one level, you're not missing much in dps either.
Awesome one that I used for a level 9 one shot: Rune Knight 7/Star Druid 2. I maxed wisdom, attacked with shillelagh, but the real awesome sauce was the neverending advantage. Form of the Dragon makes it basically impossible to lose concentration on faerie fire, and the storm rune lets you give advantage or disadvantage on any roll as a reaction.
Consider The Fiend rather than Hexblade for the Barb/Warlock multiclass. You get temp hp every time you defeat an enemy, which gives you great sustain, and the expanded spell list for The Fiend has Fire Shield among many other great spells. Then you take Cloak of Flies, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite.
By lv8 (1Barb 7Warl) enemies who dare to stand by you and smack you will be taking 20 cold damage from AoA and 2d8 cold or fire damage from Fire Shield per attack, and Cloak of Flies will be dealing your CHA mod in poison to everyone near you. Meanwhile you have damage resistance from both rage and FS, 20 temp hp, and eldritch Smite incase you get any spicy crits.
After lv 8 you could go full Warlock for more spellcasting options, or if you want to level up in Barbarian you have a few good options. Storm Herald for even more passive damage around you, Ancestral Guardians to force enemies to have to hit you and take all that damage, or you can do what I did and go Wild Magic for more chaos and flavor. Enjoy!
Yeah but if you want serious spellcasting you need high charisma and hexblade is the only warlock that gets the ability to attack with charisma, if you roll big numbers then that is also very good but otherwise the hexblade is probably the easiest one. You can also get maddening hex which allows you to deal your cha modifier damage to everything (including the creature) within 5 feet of a creature cursed by your hexblades curse or the hex spell as a bonus action with no cap on how many times you can do it.
I like that Hexblade/Barbarian idea. Might give it a run in a future game. One thing I wanted to mention about it is you can still benefit from Rage damage bonus, you just have to use your strength instead; the feature Hex Warrior says you _can_ use Charisma, not _must_ use Charisma. It might impact how you formulate the build since some features rely on Charisma, but its a thing I wanted to mention regardless
You have the most creative sponsorship bits I've ever seen. Actually makes them worth watching
One multiclass that I'm really loving lately is Fighter+Rogue. Specifically, Mastermind+Battlemaster.
Cunning Action already tips the action economy in your party's favor, but once you hit level 3 you can also Help as a Cunning Action, from up to 30 feet away, making your teammate's attacks that much more consistent. Battlemasters of course get Action Surge and access to their Maneuvers to manipulate the action economy even further, and you can go all in on the more impactful ones since your Cunning Actions and Uncanny Dodge make certain staples like Parry and Distracting Strike redundant, or you can pick up niche options like Bait and Switch, which also only costs 5 feet of movement rather than your action or bonus action. You can dish out a ton of extra damage while letting your party-mates do everything short of taking an entire extra turn with the right Maneuvers.
This class combo is also really useful in roleplay situations, because aside from proficiency in Disguise and Forgery Kits, an extra Language, and the ability to augment most Charisma skill checks with Commanding Presence, both subclasses will let you automatically learn information about someone or something from just 1 minute of social interaction via Know Your Enemy and Insightful Manipulator. The Inquisitive Rogue may be hyped up as the Detective class, but this becomes outright Sherlock level if you pick the right options and make some reasonable inferences, and the DM can also give you extra information outside of those options at their discretion.
I've played this combo and it works great. You are a battlefield controller without the use of spells. It's great
Rogue Barbarian has always been one of my favorite builds, and I don't understand why its not super popular. I feel like that's basically what Conan was. Warlock Barb friggin blew my mind. Thanks for that.
That first build might be even better with Swarm Keeper. The swarm does a d6 instead of fey wanderers d4 ability and the swarm can move you or enemies around without provoking opportunity attacks.
The swarm only works once per round while the fey works once per creature hit. Making it much more potent vs multiple targets.
I think some DMs (including myself) might rule that you can't combine the rage resistance on the temporary hitpoints (basically the spell describes creating a magical magical armour on top of you so it would take the damage before your raging constitution is hit).
For the sorcerer paladin aberrant mind is a good subclass if you multiclass early and use booming blade plus dissonant whispers (quickened) to trigger the extra damage (as it is not forced movement, you are forcing them use their reaction) and move them away from you, burning their reaction. Plus, you hit them with your reaction booming blade again to further add damage and make them take more if moving next turn. So at a combined level of 6 you do: weapon attack + d8 thunder + 3d6 psychic + 2d8 thunder (from them running) + weapon attack + d8 thunder + a potential 2d8 if they move on their turn ( avg total assuming all hit, with a longsword and shield, duelling fighting style and say + 3 strength, avg 19(2*(d8+2+3) slashing, avg 27 (6d8) thunder, avg 10.5 (3d6) psychic, total avg 46.5 damage with the option of adding up to 2 smites (potential + avg 27 (6d8) radiant damage. For Avg of 73.5 damage up to 140 max.
Your concentration is also free to be running a smite or buff from a previous turn. This is before crits, so if abjuring the enemy, from vengeance paladin subclass, then both attacks are at advantage increasing the chance of a crit ( which would add avg 13.5 (3d8) radiant, avg 9 (2d8 thunder), avg 4.5 (d8 piercing) total + 27 per crit). Also good positioning and liining this up well with other people in combat can trigger multiple attacks of opportunities on the big bad for them to have a very bad turn.
Very clever. Thanks for sharing.
You missed an important part of Barbarogue (Sneaky Smasher)!
Resistance & Uncanny Dodge stack. This means that at lvl 8 you can use your Reaction while raging to quarter damage against you!
It’s shocking to me how much rogue & barbarian synergize as a multiclass
Also, if you get seven levels of rogue, you get Evasion, which works really well with Danger Sense.
At that point you're legitimately a slasher movie villain
One Multi-Class Combo I'm using that has stunned friends and fellow players is going Tortle Barbarian/Artificer, Storm Herald/Artillerist respectively.
My DM is allowing me to add my Con Mod to my AC as a Tortle, giving me a base 21 currently with a +4 mod. While I'm low on spell slots, they're usually used for utility like Absorb Elements and Faerie Fire to help the battle field. But the main thing is that Cannon. Just before going into battle, use my main action to create my cannon and charge in with a rage. I'm now halving non-magical damage as I'm charging in, swinging a Maul to smash enemies into powder, and as a bonus, my cannon fires off the ballista or flamethrower if I'm in a large group for close quarters.
But if I hold off on my raging and someone breaks my 21 AC, I can cast Shield, bumping it up to 26 for a turn. Not including if/when I get some special items or increase my Con higher to buff it up more. Or tuck into my shell to increase it even more~!!!
Love your Channel, even someone like me that has played DnD since 2nd edition is still learning new stuff and getting new ideas from your videos.
Please continue doing awesome videos like this^^
Sneaky smasher sounds like a straight up comedy role. I cant help but think they'd be like. "Sneaking...Im sneaking and... *sneaks behind enemy* SMASH!!!"
Here are some of my favourite unorthodox builds.
1. Star druid(x)/twilight cleric (2). Thematic masterpiece, my favourite subclass in game(star), youre a god of healing
2. Paladin(2)/arcane trickster. Unique RP idea and you're a nuke champion. Booming blade+smite+sneak attack...
3. Wizard(3), giant fighter (x). This is the titan build. Use both giant transform and enlarge reduce. Unarmed fighting+tavern brawler+grappler
4. Lore Bard(3)/barbarian (x). Grapple champ. This is kinda famous
5. Monk(x)/druid(1). You get shillelagh and a few useful spells. If you go with astral self monk, it's perfectly SAD
For number three, why wizard specifically?
@@noblesseoblige319 Mainly find familiar.
Abjuration wizard has some synergy with fighter, coz the ward is just extra bulk on your fighter, which is always good to have. A divinition wizard dip is just always useful in any party. Primarily I said wizard coz it's what I played personally
There's no reason you couldn't do this with a sorcerer. Artificer could work, but you'd need too many levels to get the spellslots.
Here's one I came up with:
Tabaxi Rogue-Bard, AKA The Silver Tongue
Tabaxi gives you increased movement, the ability to climb walls, the ability to double your speed, but most importantly it gives you a +2 to Chr and DEX
Rogue gives you the backstab but most importantly it gives you expertise, which you'll put into deception and persuasion, you'll want to do 3 levels of rogue and go for Arcane Trickster so you'll gain access to spells.
Bard gives you the inspiration dice but if you go three levels into it you can pick College Of Eloquence, which gives you the ability that if you would ever roll less then a 10 on your deception or persuasion checks you instead count the roll as a 10.
You essentially have a character thats sneaky, can cast spells, and has a passive deception and persuasion, with it you can get the number to well over 20 for deception or persuasion before rolling any dice.
Two or more levels of war wizard and any good fighter subclass makes for an excellent multiclass.
The obvious route is eldritch knight, but battlemaster, rune knight, psi warrior, all make great options. The best though is probably echo knight. An echo knight with the level 2 features from war wizard is the best "summoner class" in the game.
Builds 4, 3, & 2 are all saved characters I have on dnd beyond. I thought I was a genius b/c no other UA-camrs have made them, guess we both are! Love these videos man
if the DM allows you to use Bloodhunter, there are some cool new multiclass builds you can make with the new updates :)
BL + Ranger
BL Lycan + Monk
BL + Bladesinger
BL Mutant + Artificer Alchemist for Potion master :D
BH Lycan + Kensei Monk was some of the most fun I've ever had in my 30+ years of playing DnD when multiclassing, thanks to the Monks high Wisdom the DC 9 saving throw, especially past 14+ becomes non-existent. While in the lower level stuffs you're just basically a rapid fire fighter zipping about the battlefield picking off targets. But at high level play with the goodies and powers available to you, especially if you have a DM willing to indulge the crazy with their players--it becomes such an incredibly fun build to mess with and amazingly versatile.
Here are some recommendations for these builds from me.
*Priest of the Wilds*
You can get both Spiritual Weapon AND Conjure Animals with the Priest of the Wilds build. Just do Ranger 9/Cleric 4. Also, since commanding your animals from Conjure Animals doesn't require an action or bonus action, you can still use all of your attacks and command your animals.
*Shadow Tank*
I'd recommend taking at least 5 warlock levels and taking Eldritch Smite. Realistically, since Armor of Agathys lasts for 1 hour, you won't need to put very many spell slots into it, especially considering your slots recharge on a short rest. Just convert any spell slots you aren't using into Eldritch Smite for even higher damage.
*Sneaky Smasher*
Take 7 levels in Rogue for higher Sneak Attack damage, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge, so you can stay alive even longer.
*Warrior of Flame*
I'd recommend Oath of Conquest for a couple reasons. Your Aura of Conquest stops anyone who is currently within 10 feet of you and frightened of you from moving, and deals bonus psychic damage to them. Since Green Flame Blade and Shield don't require concentration, you can pop the Fear spell to frighten a bunch of enemies, basically turning them into sitting ducks for you to seriously mess up.
*Iron Dancer*
I'd recommend taking Ashardalon's Stride. That spell is insane on Bladesingers. You can deal fire damage to anyone you run past, and your movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. So, you can deal extra damage by expending some movement to trigger the fire damage from Ashardalon's Stride. Also, if you really need to get away from someone, you can run away without triggering an opportunity attack, and still burn the enemy as you run away.
Tempest Cleric + Sorcerer (Storm Sorcery o Draconic Bloodline/Lightning)
It's not particularly powerful, but it's one of the funniest and most thematic multiclasses in my opinion ~
I have a tabaxi that is Tempest Cleric/Storm Sorcerer so I squeal at that.
May I also suggest Trickery Cleric/Wild Magic Sorcerer for thematic "ultimate trickster, I even trick myself" theme?
If you take transmuted spell as a meta magic option you can turn inflict wounds into a lightning or thunder damage spell then max damage it with your channel divinity, which would be doubled on a critical hit too. Pretty powerful.
@@adamscammell1446 It's strong, but you can only do it a few times. Most of the time you would be a suboptimal sorcerer.
This multiclass is more for the adrenaline rush than for being reliable.
@@GhizTheKobold true that, although if you manage to get your hands on an Amulet of the Devout by level 12 cleric you get 3 uses per short rest which is pretty sweet
I was already thinking about that Hexblade Barbarian multiclass and questioning why nobody's talking about it. It's super cool! Can't wait to role it... Can't wait to role every single one of this awesome multiclasses! You're a well of magnificent ideas!
Small correction on the soul knife rogue. Whilst you get more die with your proficiency bonus, you dont get better die, they stay a d6 without more time in the subclass. That said going for a full 5 levels for an extra sneak attack, d8 psionic energy dice, evasion, and a feat is still awesome, and finally makes the barbarian good out of combat which makes this very well rounded and fun.
That was hands down, the best sponsor advertisment I've seen in years.
Now I kinda want to play a Barbexblade
They called me a madman when I mentioned it in my Barbarian tricks video, but I stand as a proud apostle of the Barbexblade!
@@DnDShorts at one point I was playing an barbarian gnoll in an evil campaign and I had my gnoll constantly worhsip Yeenoghu. I was actually going to go warlock multiclass if it wasn't for the TPK. really nice to see it in a video here
@@DnDShorts YESSSS
@@DnDShorts annndddd I’m building one now…
a BBEG for a campaign I run is actually a sorcerer paladin. Using quick spell to blast far away party member and then just using your regular action to attack a close one is really fun
My favorite multiclass that I’ve done is the combination of Tasha’s beastmaster rogue and Peace domain cleric. Yeah you and your companion get the bond benefit, but since I was using it as a controlled mount, I got a free-action dash that combined really well with the Balm of Peace Channel Divinity
Do you mean ranger?
@@noblesseoblige319 yeah I did
Currently I’m playing an artificer 1/ wizard x multi class and it is awesome! I went with War wizard as my subclass, which most people feel is week, but I went with the sole purpose of being able to add int to my initiative rolls. I got the Sentinel Shield, which gives advantage on initiative, and I now have +8 advantage initiative rolls. Not to mention medium armor constitution saving throw proficiencies from artificer. I have flat 19 AC and go first pretty much every combat, so I can AoE without having to worry about hitting allies.
In an upcoming campaign im going to be rocking a wildfire druid swarmkeeper ranger. The damage for the build is insane plus with the swarmkeeper i am out of melee range.
Do you have a guide for it?
Yea i would like guide/build too
Dude, this NordPass plug was great.
Im doing a tempest cleric, order of the scribes wizard so i can change my spell damage to lightning, then use my channel devinity to max it out.
Im still new to dnd so idk if the is used alot but i havent heard anything about it, and i got the idea from your chromatic orb tempest cleric
Shit, that's good. And since you generally roll once for the damage for all of the targets of your AoE...
48 dmg from Fireball, multiplyed by a number of targets
100 dmg from Disintigrate
240 dmg per target from Meteor Swarm
@@malrok5452 Holy shit. This build is cracked. You sure you're a beginner?
@@malrok5452 In order to change the damage type of a spell, the spellbook must contain a spell that deals that damage type and that is of a level of the spent spell slot.
To have Meteor Storm deal 240 lightning or thunder damage (the types that can be channel-divinitied), the spellbook therefore needs to contain a 9th level spell that deals either lightning or thunder damage (or both). Slim pickings.
There are not that many Wizard spells that deal those types of damage.
In Beyond, the only spell that could be argued qualifies, is the prismatic wall - and if I was the DM, I wouldn't allow it due to the nature of the spell.
However, if you do allow Druid/Cleric spells to be added to a Wizard's spellbook, now, that's a completely different story. But RAW, you can only add wizard spells into a spellbook, as per the spellbook feature description.
@@TheRawrnstuff Prismatic Wall is exactly what I had in mind. By RAW:
When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell's formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend.
APPEARS in another spell of the same level. Prismatic Wall has a bunch of different effects and damage types, and a yellow layer specifically deals lighting damage, which can be channel-divinited.
By the way, I would also cast Elemental Bane beforehand, to pump it up to 480 lighting damage. Friendly grave cleric would work too. Sadly, only one target would take that. The rest of the enemies (which you can target a buch) would only take 240, or 120 with good save. Still enough to level down a city though... 😈
Ultimate evil build: druid + mystic, just sit on the wall in the form of a beetle or something and slowly cause all your enemies to die to your psionics, since they are not magic and would therefore work in wild shape.
The barbarian/rouge is absolutly brilliant however i plan on using path of the beast as barbarian as the claws feature for that adds extra attack for free at lvl 3 so by lvl8 (5barb/3rougesoul)you can get 4 atks with claws and 1bounus atk with soul knife
Isn't it 3x attacks w/claws, because it's a once per turn effect?
So you would be transformed (probably previous turn) and then do Attack action x2+1 free claw attack +1 soul knife? Total of 4 attacks together
@@Arthas30000if it does i missed it and im sorry
Went back and read and hes right sorry about that thanks for telling me still gonna have fun with it
@@yokowolf4563 No for sure! It's all aboot having fun 😁 and it's okay - misreads happen. The build is still cool AF imo xD
@@Arthas30000 Note that with Beast Barbarian and the claws, you can get 4 attacks per turn without the soul knife subclass because the claws count as a pair of weapons, allowing for two-weapon fighting as the bonus action. Use hand-axes as your weapons and you get range ability (if your DM is nice with magic thrown weapons that come back to you). The things you’re most missing are the psychic damage (but you can take the Slasher feat), the psionics, and the Rogue base abilities, but you get the suped up Barbarian abilities like Brutal Critical and earlier access to doing neat things like climbing along ceilings with lvl 6 in Beast.
I’m still torn whether to subclass Rogue on my beast Barbarian or if I do, whether to make it a 1-level dip for expertise or the full 3 or 4 for the subclass.
@@Auricthunder Isn't it still 3x attacks at LVL 3? Because 1 regular claw attack, 1 extra claw attack because of the feature, and then a bonus action 3rd claw attack as a secondary weapon if it's empty? At LVL 5 you could get the extra attack for that 4th attack though, which is fine, and then you are making that choice between rogue with soulknife and the LVL 6 barb features
Already had a sorc/paladin idea thats almost literally what you suggested lol Lady Ardalayne discovering her gold dragon ancestry at lv7 and going flame nova on the enemies of her faith. Good stuff here! Making me think up new possibilities as well as reinforcing old ideas i've had
one thing about the rogue barbarian, personally I think starting as rogue is a massive advantage as is gives you proficiency in Dex saves, combine this with barbarian's danger sense for advantage on Dex saves you can see and later evasion if you go that far in rogue and you will literally be untouchable by Dex saves
The issue with that is that it locks you into Light armor, and you need a heavy DEX investment to make it work, which would be perfect on a normal rogue, but our Slasher here uses primarily STR. Barbarians, on the other hand, can use medium armor.
Then again you're probably using Reckless Attack out the wazoo so every attack is hitting you *anyway*
Alot of people of people tend to forget that eldritch blast produces multiple beams and therefore any modifiers or special effects are applied PER BEAM. So with max charisma and 4 beams thats like an extra 20 or 24 damage if they all hit. Not to mention if you have that knockback one you can push people back pretty far.
I personally prefer Fiend Warlock with a Barbarian multiclass. It is less single target focused, but it gives one additional opportunities to gain temp hp during combat, the Fire Shield spell and a free choice of additionsl resistance upon lvl 10.
My personal favorite is hexblade warlock with death domain cleric. You get tons of debuff spells from both classes. You are able able to stack your hexblade curse with channel divinity for major damage, as channel divinity is a free action. In addition, you can do a cool flavoring where your patron is the death scythe wielded by your god!
Bro, that's actually sick. Imagine a gaunt, weathered man who dedicated his life to service after he stumbled upon a scythe of the Raven Queen.
An addition to the Barbarian+Hexblade multiclass: If you go Path of the Beast Barbarian, you can rage at the end of a long rest to make your natural weapons your hex weapons for the day.
Not exactly powerful, but super fun.
*Order of the Scribes Wizard* with two starting levels of *Tempest Domain Cleric.*
Besides the usual "Armoured Wizard" benefits of taking two starting levels on a Cleric subclass that includes heavy armour (and martial weapons) proficiency and a bit of healing, you get a nice little synergy trick.
Channel Divinity Destructive Wraith gives you *maximum damage* on Thunder and Lighting damage when you use your Channel Divinity.
And Order of the Scribes Awakened Spellbook (gained at 2nd level) can change the damage type of spells to any other damage type a spell at that level has.
So "I cast fireball" becomes "I cast a fireball that does _maximum lighting (or thunder) damage_ without any dice roll needed".
Now if you really want to be mean, once you reach 6th level Wizard (8th level total) you can cast your super lighting/thunder ball remotely via your Awakened Spellbook, which is a sort of flying intangible familiar.
*So it's basically a drone strike.*
There is a barbarian/warlock multiclass I do have in mind:
Borag the Butcher
He is an orc I'm saving for an evil campaign. He is chaotic evil. He is a melee fighter that revels in blood, death and despair and uses necromancy on the corpses of those he has slain to devestate enemy morale. He is also not above cannibalism.
been using that shadow tank and its becoming one of my favorites to play. just a walking dread knight and i love it
I came up with a build that involves 3 levels in Armorer Artificer and the rest in Abjuration Wizard for a lot of health and tons of debuffs and good damage output. You get heavy armor and with Thunder Gauntlets you can use Booming blade and Greenflame blade since the gauntlets are considered simple weapons. Add on top of that the disadvantage to hit others and you have a wizard tank. 😂
There's a lot of great stuff here, but I'm immediately drawn to the idea that combining thr Abjuration Wizard barrier and the Armorer Artificer powersuit implies that you have a suit of armor with a Halo-style energy shield over it. And that's sick as fuck.
@@Drekromancer god damn I never made that connection!!! My character is basically Master Chief, but without a gun. Although the best part about it is certainly that you have a super powerful gravity hammer fist if you use booming blade. At higher lvls I’ll be doing 4d8 thunder damage with a single smack plus all the other good stuff.😂
A few days ago, I was thinking of a combo with the Bear Totem Barbarian and Hexblade Warlock (of course Armor of Agathys being the main reason). I had also thrown Abjuration Wizard on that for the ward .Then go Kalashtar to gain psychic resistance, Wisdom saving throw, and the ability to scream inside your opponent's mind (which hopefully will make it harder for them to concentrate on spells if they are doing so). Though not how good the combo really is, just a concept, and probably out there somewhere on the internet already.
The end concept (lv20) would be wizard primary. 15 Wiz / 3 Barb / 2 Warlock. Contingency with Armor of Agathys to be casted when an instance of Armor of Agathys you casted on yourself drops, and have the ward at 30+Int mod HP. Between the two instances of AoA and the Ward, that would be an extra 105 HP. Then bonus action to Curse someone. And if you aren't the first to be hit (or use shield if you are), then you can rage on the next turn to have effectively an extra 210hp while dealing cold damage to melee attackers.
You could use a shield for extra AC, or a second weapon to make an off-hand attack. You also have eldritch blast, and of course plenty of spells.
Or if you don't do wiz, there is doing the coffeelock thing with bear barbarian. Go Clockwork for Bastion of Law and Trance of Order.
To add to the Fey Wanderer/War Cleric build, if you use your Fighting Style for Druidic Warrior or whatever it's called, you can use a sling and a staff/club and grab Magic Stone and Shillelagh. Makes you completely Wis based, and since you have heavy armor, you don't need Dex. You can then also, keep STR at 15 or lower depending on what kind of armor you want. So at level 6, you'll have Wis + Prof to his, -5 if you use sharpshooter, but +10 if you use guided strike. You can have Chain Mail and Shield for 18 AC, better spell attacks and stuff cause of your high WIS, and you can alternate between Melee and Range without having to super invest in STR or WIS.
Just wanna add that on that lvl 9 Barbarian/Soul Knife, the size of your psionic dice would still be a d6. The *amount* of Psionic Energy Dice is determined by your PB, but the dice size is determined by your Rogue level
I like the idea that the barbarian-Warlock multiclass is just your average 7 INT 13 CHA barbarian who just found a funny looking longsword one day. The sword talks to him, trying to get him into magic but the barbarian keeps asking for the 'cold shield' and the 'funny curse' and doesn't really try anything else. Sometimes the sword gets through to him and gets him to try new things like the pact of the blade so the enemies can't magically resist his big damage, combat invocations or non-concentration long-lasting spells other than armor of agathys like longstrider but the barbarian draws the line at anything that would be wasted when he rages. Then the sword tells him how to use eldritch smites and he is just so happy with it.
This is the most fun D&D channel around.
I really love the Beast Barbarian/Gloomstalker Ranger/Assassin Rogue 3-way multiclass for the ultimate ambush assassin. You get about 5 attacks during round 1 including bonus action off hand attack, all at advantage in the darkness, so you can easily get sneak attack off. If you want to dip into Fighter as well for action surge then you become a true force to be reckoned with on the first round.
On the second one, be a gnome to get advantage on saves against spells, and level 2 in Barbarian gives advantage on dec saves you can see. In the end you have either proficiency or advantage on saves, sometimes both
so i had two i had made throughout my games. both are bard multiclasses cause we basically replayed the same characters later just with different classes, so one of them is Bard-Spirits with Samurai Fighter. basically a old ronin who uses the spirits of past allies to fuel his magic and music. the other one and one i used and loved in my Curse of Strahd game was Bard-Lore and Ranger-Monster Hunter, basically become Monster Hunter who uses music to hunt the wicked undead (or what ever your favored enemy/ hunter prey is)
For barbarian/hexblade multiclass, this is my level and invocation guide:
Warlock (12), barbarian (8)
You can also go warlock (15) and barbarian (5), but you won't get that advantage on initiative rolls from feral instinct, or the second primal path feature.
The invocations I'd use are:
Improved pact weapon
Lifedrinker
Eldritch smite
Agonizing blast
Grasp of hadar
Any 1 invocation of your choice (my recommendation is Devil's Sight)
Extra attack and fast movement from barbarian, and the primal path's 3rd level feature (I'd recommend bear totem to make yourself tankier, or wild magic barbarian for the increased offensive capabilities)
Armor of hexes makes you even tankier in one v one fights, as your opponent now has a 50/50 chance when they succeed on an attack roll (which is rather unlikely) to just straight up fail
For spells, eldritch blast is a must. Grasp of hadar is to bring the enemy into optimal unaliving range, and your chosen levelled spells should be spells with good durations that don't use concentration (i.e blur, blink, armor of agathys)
You shouldn't be focused on eliminating crowds yourself. Instead, make yourself as much of a nuisance as possible, and as hard to kill as you can
I played a very niche multiclass: at level 15 I had a 13 Rogue Arcane Trickster - 2 Fighter. In one turn when hidden: magical ambush with Hold Person, Action Surge, melee with green flame blade and flame tongue rapier: auto-crit for 18d6+6d8+stats
Bro, I saw the War priest option when thinkin of multiclassing my Hunter Ranger and was immediately on board. I'm glad someone else had this idea and I'm not just huddled in my lil corner like a goober.
I watched this video and realized I have already made most of these
my best one was my L3 Wild Magic Barbarian / L2 Hexblade Warlock who would fight with a greatsword enhanced by various Hexblade spells and was addicted to arcane energy.
he was this skinny academic guy who seemed really timid, would prefer to spend his time reading than actually talking to people. that however, was a mask. this guy had a +8 to intimidation, and I managed to make him really terrifying as a character by never actually having him drop the fake personality, instead just making people scared of the fake personality. for example, we found a powerful magic item (I don't remember what it was), but we knew it was cursed. my character, being addicted to arcane energy, didn't care. the party tried to stop him. this cursed item was from the shadowfell, so natrually it was scary, so when the party said "Don't use that item," my character simply looked at the item, allowed its power to flow through him briefly, as he looked up and said in a "I'm not thinking about what I'm doing" tone of voice "well, why shouldn't I?" and rolled a 27 on intimidation.
9:46 I like how this is the part you mention divine smite while also using a picture of a smite skin in the background lol
You can actually still have a hexblade dip for your sorcadin to make it absolutely terrifying. Even just 1 level makes a massive difference.
Hmm.
I'm actually curious to anyone willing to explore the pros and cons.
What's the best way to do a vengeance paladin with a hex dip, shadowsorc dip, and swashbuckler dip.
Charisma to saves.
Charisma to initiative.
Darkness spell.
Invocations, most likely devils sight.
Throw in a variant of elf for elven accuracy.
Get illusionists bracers.
Twin booming blade action and BA,
Maybe get some of the classes to level 4 to get more feats.
Like warcaster to opportunity attack twin booming blade as well (can an OA be twinned or effect more than one target at all?)
I've actually got a half-orc Barbarian/Rouge. He was a personal bodyguard to a crime boss, so I went with Ancestral Guardian/Swashbuckler and the sentinel feat, so he gets up in an opponents face, hits them hard, and doesn't let them hit his employer.
If you’re a player excited about using green flame blade and war caster just make sure you talk to you DM. GFB does not work with war caster because , RAW, the cantrip technically doesn’t target a creature. It targets yourself and allows you to make an attack. A small distinction, which I personally as a DM don’t hold players to, but some DMs will enforce that and not allow it to be cast as an opportunity attack
I’ve got an Alchemist/Barbarian who is quite effective. Firebolt gives me ranged options as does the Infusion Returning Weapon. On down time he spends a lot of spell slots making potions so he can through out heals and buffs even while raging. His spells and effects get better at higher levels because he can make the Headband of Intellect to give him a 19 INT which can help with things like Flash of Genius and spell attack/DC. If you really want to make him party focused go with Wolf Totem to give allies Advantage on attacks near you as well.
It's funny that the video started with a Ranger/Cleric because I actually made one for a one-shot. Different subclasses though... I guess you could call it: Twilight Stalker (not very imaginative but honestly the subclass names sound badass together)
The build goes:
-Make a Wood Elf (or any elf if you are using custom origins and prefer other elf features).
-Go Ranger first, up to level 3 for Gloom Stalker and its Umbral Sight and Dread Ambusher. Get a fourth level if you want to pick up Elven accuracy, which is already kind of nuts with the permanent pseudo-invisibility, then a fifth for the oh-so-precious extra attack.
Elven accuracy was my pick to pair with sharpshooter later and bump Dex to 18 but you can go sharp immediately, or whatever feat build you can think of, as both subclasses are very potent on their own.
-Take one level in Twilight Cleric for the awesome Eyes of Night feature, which give you a 300 base darkvision range, for an over-the-top 330 after Umbral Sight. You can also now share these 300ft of darkvision with your allies. You can also give advantage to yourself or an ally on every initiative roll, giving even more Dread Ambushing capability. The second Cleric level gives you Twilight Sanctuary, giving you an edge in wars of attrition if you didn't manage to dispatch your foes quickly enough or if you can't force fights to happen in darkness
-From that point, enjoy your insane ambushes
I am currently playing a Oath of Conquest Paladin/Wild Magic Sorc multiclass. It's the greatest thing ever.
I really like the Armorer/Bladesinger, who capitalizes on that minimum 25 AC and the gauntlets taunt mechanic to tank.
Currently going through one of my very first games in Dragon Heist and playing a Zealot Barbarian Aasimar. After watching this, I need to multi class into Hexblade and wield a holy weapon as my patron (luckily I already have a god like charisma because rolling stats is fun and my DM is a maniac who let me rock up with a level 1 character with all but one stat higher than 14). And yes we do plan to go straight into DotMM
a character I made by mistake; i was trying to make a BBEG who was a support to his minions and a debuff to his enemies so I made him a divination wizard (also lore reasons there). While doing this I was into eldritch adept so I gave him Eldritch mind, advantage on concentration saving throws. I also added an amulet of health cuz he HP was like 50, i figured the barbarian would one shot him. I later learned about star druid and gave him 2 levels of that for the dragon form, cannot roll less than 10 on concentration saves.
Now while doing these things I never actually conidered they work together, so by the end i accidentially had a guy who cannot roll lower than a 14 on that concentration save and has advantage on it. Plus if its a divination spell he can regain a spell slot cuz divinaton wizard. so to even have an actual chance of breaking his concentration the players need to do 28 damage in one attack, which the barbarian can do. if he ever gets close enough, which he might not.
I set up the same barb rogue idea myself. Have you considered that you can also use strength with martial arts? Welcome to the ultimate tank build: bear totem barb 3/long death monk X. Proficiency on all saves, evasion and danger sense, half damage to everything but psychic, and when you hit zero HP you stay at one until they hit you more times than you have ki points. You can also reckless attack while dodging so they don't have advantage. And you can use a heavy weapon unless you need your martial arts bonus action attack, but dodge and flurry work fine with a non monk weapon. Use free stow/draw action as needed.
I've never heard anyone ever mention these, and they're incredible (In theory)
Barbarian + Artillerist Artificer
Stars Druid + Twilight Domain (Or any other cleric + druid)
Bard + Sorcerer
Bard + Paladin
Fighter + Warlock
Fist Domain Cleric:
Trickery, Tempest, Peace, or Twilight Cleric + Astral Monk
--- Trickery - Self boosts to damage and remote casting
--- Tempest - Retaliate against attackers for additional damage
--- Peace - Free additional d4 to hit every turn for you and your team
--- Twilight - Heavy group support and flight
- High AC
- 4 attacks per turn (level 6) using wisdom to hit and damage (2d8 to all opponents with 10 ft when activated) and proficient with spells
- Impressive passive wisdom and insight. (I DM heavy puzzle solving, so good vs me)
- Loads of support and boosting spells.
- No need for War Caster feat as you use no weapons and almost no one can out run you.
Any druid mixed with one level in monk is pretty sick too, because of how unarmored defense and martial arts meshes with your wild shape.