Fun fact! You can have advantage on ALL SAVES at level 1 with any class by being a Vedalken and drinking a potion of Gaseous Form! Check my insta: instagram.com/dnd_shorts/
This might be one of my favorites. It addresses a common concern Barbarians have, does it really early without a huge investment, and doesn't really change or dictate how you would play your character. Well fricken done!!
Imo at higher levels save dc becomes so absurd that even advantage can't save you without proficiency or having a high stat, and that's when the mental-save effects are the most common.
@@DvirPick That's true. Luckily by those higher levels, you can have access to other ways to boost your ability to defend against those things, such as taking the Resilient feat in an appropriate save. This tactic lets you have a good baseline to work off of for essentially your entire adventuring career. :)
@ Those generally have reduced damage, and if with a two level investment I can make the whole campaign easier for everyone in my party, that's worth it.
plus paladin barbs are just a fun concept, Righeous Fury is a powerful character motivator and reckless attacking for smites would certainly make the enemy regret trying to to target you in the first place.
You could dip for 2 levels into Wizard and take the Arcane Deflection reaction from the School of War Magic to get +4 to any saving throw, without a limit per day.
Only limitation is that you can’t use leveled spells until the end of your next turn, which doesn’t really matter if your main focus is being a barbarian
Dont forget to dip into war magic wizard for that sweet sweet +4 to a save as a reaction. Also, if Vedalken isnt your style, Gnome is also an option! Sure you can't use heavy weapons, but a good old longsword shield combo never hurt anybody.
Yuan-ti pureblood or Satyr gives magic resistance, so ALL saves with adventatge if it's something magical, and it adds some nice spells. And as Yuan-ti you obtain inmunity to poison damage and poisoned condition. Enjoy!
@@arekpetrosian4965 I don't know why that hate of the DMs to the Yuan-ti, I have one player in the one I DM and he didn't annoyed me even one time until now, instead he made that the whole team entered in a poison mist cause to him was like a normal mist as he suffer no damage XD
@@rarego I mainly DM, and VERY rarely play. And I've never had a problem with any races, really. Flight? No problem. Magic Resistance? No problem. So I'm with you, I don't get the hate from a lot of DM's. But this particular time, the way he had crafted the adventure, there were a LOT of spells being thrown at the party, and my character having great saves, PLUS advantage, annoyed him a little. He was cool with it, just...annoyed.
The save is too high. The best option would be to make an athletics check against each of the other members of the group to grapple them and drag them to the session. Another option is persuasion, but that check is ridiculously high
"Against all the evils that hell can conjour all the wickedness that mankind can produce we send onto them, only you... Rip and tear. Untill it is done."
A friend of mine is doing this exact build, only he's being a gnome rather than a vedalken! It was originally a joke character the dm asked him to make but after he and I worked together to make it we realized how stupid powerful it was. The only reason I would say yours is better is that gnomes are small so no big weapons while vedalken can...
Verdan wouldn't be a bad option either, sure 1 less mental save covered, but you can grab small races only feat and then starting at level 5 grab a big weapon.
@@woutvanostaden1299 I realize a Verdan Bard 6/Warlock X could be really powerful. With Song of Rest and Black Blood combined you'd get some really good healing during the short rest and regain all your Warlock stuffs on that same short rest...
I'd love to see kinda of combo of race class and background (maybe feats too) in 5e give the most amount of proficiencies in ability checks (sleigh of hand, animal handling, arcana etc.)
I think a level 1 variant human rogue could have 10 skill proficiencies with expertise in two of them. Rogue (4) + Variant Human (1) + Skilled Feat (3) + Background (2). You could get two more at level 3 by choosing the Scout subclass, and you could get one more at level 4 by taking a level in Bard or taking the Skill Expert feat. 13/18 by level 4 is not bad, hehe.
Fastest way to get all proficiencies(in skills): Variant Human(get Athletics proficiency and Skilled Feat(Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and Survival)), Sage background for Arcana and History, 1st lvl Rogue for Acrobatics, Insight, Intimidation, and Investigation, 1 lvl Cleric for Knowledge Domain(Nature and Religion), and 4 lvls of Bard(Animal Handling, Lore Bard(Medicine, Perception, and Performance)) taking the Eldritch Adept Feat to give you Beguiling Influence(Deception and Persuasion); total of 6 levels Keep in mind, a lot of these are from Any Skill choices, there's a lot of wiggle room with which skills can go where.
All proficiencies and all but three expertieses. Build is not mine and I am missing some expertieses, but it's like this: half elf, any background, six levels of scout rogue, 11 levels of lore bard, two levels of knowledge cleric and one level of ranger. For feats take prodigy and skill expert. If you chose wisely you should always have 14/18 expertieses and a few more if the check is related to your favored terrain.
Now, for the penultimate tank to make sure nothing can kill you. Bear Totem. Congrats! You now have advantage and/or proficiency with every save, and are now also resistant to every single damage type except psychic while raging! Meaning that you take a quarter of the damage from all successful saving throws (except psychic damage) while raging!
@@kennysalty6019 for the record, it means "second-to-last." So, like, if a test has 50 questions, 49 is the penultimate question. It has absolutely nothing to do with quality, just "after this there's one more."
If you to improve even more add 6lvls of ancients paladin for resistance too spell damage and adding charisma modifier to all your saves, 2 lvls of war wizard for +4 to saves and 6 lvls of artificer to take the armor of resistance infusion or 9 lvls if you also want flash of genius.
Hey I wanted to tell you about an interesting thing I did with a character. I don't really have a witty name for it, but basically you use the 6th level hexblade feature to pull a person's soul under your control, then you cast animate dead with the invocation that gives it to you to pull out their skeleton, then you cast Summon Undead for the Putrid zombie and flavor it as their skeleton-less body being summoned. You separated soul from the flesh and the flesh from bone. The ultimate necromancer flex.
Stack with Totem Warrior - Bear, to half all damage except Psychic, and watch your DM cry trying to come up with things that can deal with you, but not crush the rest of the party.
Try to convince one of your party to bring a Paladin/Cleric. While they'd be MAD (needing 13s in STR, CHA, and WIS, wanting the highest CHA possible for this combination, and also wanting CON), and they'd take until at least level 8 to come online and only get better with more Cleric levels on top of it, Paladin 6/Twilight Cleric 2+ can use their Aura of Protection to add their CHA on your already great saving throws, and also put 1d6+Cleric level temp HP on top of your existing resistances every round with Channel Divinity, making your DM have to get through that every round to even get to your actual Barbarian-high HP. Even if the DM tries to target the Paladin/Cleric first, that character's still a tank too, with their heavy armor and shield and their own benefits from their Channel Divinity and Aura of Protection, and your Barbarian can focus their attacks on anything going after their buddy. The real downside being, of course, that an insightful DM is going to see that combo coming a mile away and do everything they can to kill one or both of your characters before it really comes online. I've known a party where it happened, at least minus the Vedalken-specific stuff.
*DM:* You trigger a trap *Player:* Ha, regardless of the saving throw I have advantage! Do your worst. *DM:* Give me an acrobatics skill check. *Player:* ...
Monks also get proficiency in all saves after a certain level so you can multiclass monk, also multiclass on war mage wizard for that saving throw buff
The high lvl version of this is being a high lvl monk paladin multiclass having all saving throws proficiences and you max out charisma for the aura for a plus 5 and you could also add bless. Also you can pick a race with magic resistance and pick Lucky.
A Vedalken Barbarian is so antithetical to the idea of Vedalken that I can't help but want to play it Vedalken Monk with a few levels in Barbarian to really emulate the vibe of this calm, cool and collected dude just absolutely losing his shit.
If a player tries to do this, you can always just use magic missile. Or if they’re totem of the bear like an ass, Power word stun and kill exist. Less drastic ideas being Moon Beam, which while resisted and a con save, you get damage at the top of their turns. Assuming you threw a Druid at the party, have them become an animal that can fly and keep their distance. Or just make a spell sniper, Resistance and advantage don’t replace armor class
You can become the master of death with a level 16 Monk/Barbarian Vedalken Because 14 levels in monk you get diamond soul which gives you proficiency in all saves anyway and the 2 levels in barbarian gets you danger sense and then rage for advantage on strength saves combined with unarmored defense you're unable to be killed
Theres another similar combo that you can do at level 3 Kalashtar bear totem barbarian at level 3 has resistance to all damage while raging and advantage on wis and dex saving throws which are the most common ones
Also if you mix this with 14 levels of monk and. Get diamond soul you gain proficiency in ALL saving throws. Rules as written, would mean that Death Saves count as well, so you have proficiency added to those as well. Proficiency mixed with advantage would make this character beefy. Totem Barbarian, and proficiency and advantage on saving throws. The only way to kill him is to one shot him out right.
As I understand them, Vedalkens are usually skinny blue dudes with no hair. I'm pretty sure they are better known for brains over brawn. I'm imagining a blue version of Saitama with glasses and tribal tats.
If you really want to be evil, at level 3 pick bear Totem Barbarian to give you resistance to every damage type except psychic. Meaning attack rolls aren't gonna be too effective AND saving throws are even WORSE. Of course a dip into paladin for a Charisma boost also helps aswell
This is actually beat out by both Sartyr and yuan-ti which gives you advantage on all magical saving throws. Do the rest as normal. Worthwhile going to paladin 6 for adding cha to all saves
Add 2 levels of War Wizard to that. Deflecting Shroud gives you +4 to a single save on a reaction (very helpful if even advantage makes saving on a low modifier unlikely) and since you can't cast spells anyways, the drawback is negligible. Furthermore, you have ritual casting to help out of Combat and Shield as a reaction if you get attacked before having a chance to rage. Turns out this meme combo has more synergy than it looks at first glance. PS: Please get Extra Attack before taking the Wizard levels, your damage will suffer if you don't.
Ooo! I just figure out how to fix the flavor fail of the Dothan Barbarian! Your vedalkan is an alchemist and mixes up a special injection that he can take X times per long rest (X = rages per long rest based on Barbarian level). Ala, Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde. Plus, a barbarian with one of the scientific/researcher-type background is a really unique concept! (Sage, Hermit, Cloistered Scholar, Guild Artisan (Alchemist), etc. Or if your game is set in Ravnica: Simic, or Izzet backgrounds.)
I tried something like this a long while ago, but I couldn’t because the vedalken didn’t exist, I got halfway through the saves using a similar technique, anything beyond that required higher levels.
Also make it a totem bear Barbarian, so while raging psychic damage is your only weakness, and by that I don't mean taking double damage from it, but half from literally everything else.
Weird thing you can do in DnD: unescapable sphere of doom Be lvl 15 Warlock and take Maddening Darkness as an 8th level arcanum Take Devil's Sight, Lance of Lethargy, Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar invocations Cast Maddening Darkness, centered on the target They are effectively blinded, even with darkvision, unless they have blindsight or truesight Shoot them with eldritch blast. They are in the darkness, and you can see through it thanks to Devil's Sight invocation, so you make attack rolls with advantage. Also, at lvl 15 you shoot three beams Using Lance of Lethargy, Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar, you decrease their speed by 10 ft. while making sure they stay in the center and can't run away (LoL and RB don't exclude each other, RAW, you can activate either) So, it's 4d8 (or 8d8 on failed Wis save) psychic damage + potentially 3d10 force damage (+ 3*Cha if you have Agonizing Blast) and no way to escape imminent death Enjoy!
Alternatively, you can go CL Vedalkin and pick Resistance to gain proficiency in Dex saves at level 1. Meaning you now either have advantage or proficiency in all saving throws. Then level 4 Lucky to be even better
Party this lvl 4 barbarian up with a lvl 3 alchemist artificer, multiclassed into a lvl 1 peace cleric, who can feed the barbarian a potion of boldness, use emboldening bond on you and use bless, for a potential 3d4 bonus to you saving throws each round!
This gives me an idea to go Barb 13/Hexblade 1/Paladin 6. Low STR 13 Barb is not a big deal because your attacks are using CHA. Paladin Aura is letting you add this CHA to your saves. On top of that, take Yuan-Ti or Satyr to gain Advantage against every saving throw as long as it isn't from a trap. (If you pick Yuan-Ti you gain a pseudo resistance to traps because Danger Sense will give you advantage on DEX while CON based Poison Traps, you can shrug off due to poison immunity)
and if you are also reborn subrace you have advantage on death saves. and as a bonus you dont need to eat, drink, breath or sleep and magic cant put you to sleep. you just get more ways to just say nah im staying up. down side to being reborn is you loose all your memory but considering your a barbarian i suspect you dont have many of those anyway.
I kinda guessed you’d have been able to do something like this but at level 2? You can still fine tune your build, though let’s be honest you’ll probably be the tank.
I do similar build but forest gnome bear totem barbarian and you sack str for dex. Now you have either proficiency or advantage to all saves and resistance to all damage except psy
See if your DM will allow you to buy a Cloak of Protection to gain a +1 bonus on armor class and saving throws ... stack as many little bonuses as you can muster
Fun fact! You can have advantage on ALL SAVES at level 1 with any class by being a Vedalken and drinking a potion of Gaseous Form! Check my insta: instagram.com/dnd_shorts/
True. Not much else you can do though! Can't attack, can't interact, heck all for movement speed.
also if the DM uses the bag of holding into a bag of holding trick against you
Where's the vedalken barbarian located
Quick question what is a vadalken? What book is that in?
@@adamwitt8160 ravnica if I'm not mistaken. They're semi aquatic humanoids.
This might be one of my favorites. It addresses a common concern Barbarians have, does it really early without a huge investment, and doesn't really change or dictate how you would play your character. Well fricken done!!
I can tell you from experience that it is amazing as that was my latest played character
Imo at higher levels save dc becomes so absurd that even advantage can't save you without proficiency or having a high stat, and that's when the mental-save effects are the most common.
@@DvirPick That's true. Luckily by those higher levels, you can have access to other ways to boost your ability to defend against those things, such as taking the Resilient feat in an appropriate save. This tactic lets you have a good baseline to work off of for essentially your entire adventuring career. :)
@@natashasurvivallady8021 resilient is basically mandatory which is why I don't like this saving throw system and prefer to play at lower levels.
@@DvirPick that's an entirely valid opinion, and frankly just a good idea if lower levels are more fun for you
Now imagine you’ve got a Paladin in your party with a maxed out Charisma.
Imagine you're a monk with proficiency in all saves standing next to that paladin.
Or your next seven levels are in oath of ancients paladin.
Now imagine DM that uses brain and stops using save or suck abilites on you, switching to guarnteed effects instead :D
Or an artificer with Flash of Genius
@ Those generally have reduced damage, and if with a two level investment I can make the whole campaign easier for everyone in my party, that's worth it.
As a Magic fan, Vedalken barbarian was something I never expected to see in my life.
Yea, not something you tend to see a lot
Definitely gonna have to think of how tf to play that character
Do math problems while smashing peoples head in at the exact optimum angle
Same, Vedalken are not the kind of person a Magic player would describe has "Barbarian"
@@Fateherald Nerd Rage the character.
Me: Vedalken, what's a Vedalken???
>online research<
Also me: Well, I guess I know what my Barbarian race is going to be!
The first time I watched one of these and audibly said, “Holy shit that is broken!” 😅
That's literally what i said... Now I'm scared.
Afterwards, spec into Paladin to add your Charisma mod to all your saves.
plus paladin barbs are just a fun concept, Righeous Fury is a powerful character motivator and reckless attacking for smites would certainly make the enemy regret trying to to target you in the first place.
@@allthenamesartaken For flavor, take Zealot Barbarian so the Paladin multiclass fits.
@@Lrbearclaw or you could throw flavor to the wind and go bear totem, just to boost tankiness that much more.
@@daggeranddoctor and ancients paladin
You could dip for 2 levels into Wizard and take the Arcane Deflection reaction from the School of War Magic to get +4 to any saving throw, without a limit per day.
Only limitation is that you can’t use leveled spells until the end of your next turn, which doesn’t really matter if your main focus is being a barbarian
@@theaspie3121 exactly! Just take some rituals and out of combat spells with your 13 int wizard dip.
@@theaspie3121 that's why you go barbarian. The reaction is not a spell and you can't cast spells anyway, so there's no draw back.
Now all you need is the resilient feat and you’re all set
Dont forget to dip into war magic wizard for that sweet sweet +4 to a save as a reaction. Also, if Vedalken isnt your style, Gnome is also an option! Sure you can't use heavy weapons, but a good old longsword shield combo never hurt anybody.
"never hurt anybody"
Wrong choice of words, since hurting stuff is your main occupation, especially as a Barbarian.
Could you imagine playing D&D with this guy
Become a bear totem barbarian and be the DM's nightmare player
Or if playing high level campaign being a zealot barbarian to actually become the devil to them with never dying
I love the idea of a Vedalken, someone supposedly smart, studious and wise just going "You know what? I am angry now"
Dat synergy. Dat thematic cohesion. *Chef's kiss*
That, plus the aura of protection of a friendly paladin and that's how you get your dm asking if a 28 hits you.
I have just played that type of character before, sadly the campaign I used him in was canceled a few days ago but it was fun while it lasted
Yuan-ti pureblood or Satyr gives magic resistance, so ALL saves with adventatge if it's something magical, and it adds some nice spells. And as Yuan-ti you obtain inmunity to poison damage and poisoned condition.
Enjoy!
I recently played a Yuan-ti, and the DM was ever so slightly annoyed by that very thing.
@@arekpetrosian4965 I don't know why that hate of the DMs to the Yuan-ti, I have one player in the one I DM and he didn't annoyed me even one time until now, instead he made that the whole team entered in a poison mist cause to him was like a normal mist as he suffer no damage XD
@@rarego I mainly DM, and VERY rarely play. And I've never had a problem with any races, really. Flight? No problem. Magic Resistance? No problem. So I'm with you, I don't get the hate from a lot of DM's. But this particular time, the way he had crafted the adventure, there were a LOT of spells being thrown at the party, and my character having great saves, PLUS advantage, annoyed him a little. He was cool with it, just...annoyed.
@@rarego Oh, and that poison mist thing would be HILARIOUS to me, as a DM or as a player who suffered from it.
@@arekpetrosian4965 well hope you had fun then ^^
and you can use the poison mist trap if you want, and yes it was so funny XD
Glad to see Mr. Saving Throw's triumphant return!
That's pretty frickin brilliant.
What's the save DC to avoid cancelling the session for the 3rd week in a row?
unfortunatly, it's 2000000. we all know the pain
@@Zankyo137 With a DC of -2000000, it's a guaranteed success. If the DC is 2000000, however.........................
@@draghettis6524 that "-" wasn't supposed to be there
The save is too high. The best option would be to make an athletics check against each of the other members of the group to grapple them and drag them to the session. Another option is persuasion, but that check is ridiculously high
@@theaspie3121 you know that poisoner set we have and barely nobody use? there is still the option to drug them
When I saw the picture, I went like: waaait, what's a Vedalken then!?
"Against all the evils that hell can conjour all the wickedness that mankind can produce
we send onto them, only you...
Rip and tear. Untill it is done."
"why wont you die?" "Saving throws, son!"
That image of a vedalken barbarian just looks like an apocalyptic papa smurf
"The enemy casts Silvery Barbs."
A friend of mine is doing this exact build, only he's being a gnome rather than a vedalken! It was originally a joke character the dm asked him to make but after he and I worked together to make it we realized how stupid powerful it was.
The only reason I would say yours is better is that gnomes are small so no big weapons while vedalken can...
Verdan wouldn't be a bad option either, sure 1 less mental save covered, but you can grab small races only feat and then starting at level 5 grab a big weapon.
@@woutvanostaden1299 I realize a Verdan Bard 6/Warlock X could be really powerful. With Song of Rest and Black Blood combined you'd get some really good healing during the short rest and regain all your Warlock stuffs on that same short rest...
Gnomes only get advantage on those saves against magical effects, Vedalken get advantage on them all the time
@@Psychomaniac14 Fair, but most mental saving throws are gonna be magical. But good catch on your part.
I wanna combo this with the "Resistant to everything" Meme.
Juggernaut combo
Now you just have to Multi-Class 6 Levels in Paladin to add your Charisma Modifier to all of your saving throws.
I'd love to see kinda of combo of race class and background (maybe feats too) in 5e give the most amount of proficiencies in ability checks (sleigh of hand, animal handling, arcana etc.)
ua-cam.com/video/eCODo85S1cM/v-deo.html
I think a level 1 variant human rogue could have 10 skill proficiencies with expertise in two of them. Rogue (4) + Variant Human (1) + Skilled Feat (3) + Background (2). You could get two more at level 3 by choosing the Scout subclass, and you could get one more at level 4 by taking a level in Bard or taking the Skill Expert feat. 13/18 by level 4 is not bad, hehe.
Fastest way to get all proficiencies(in skills): Variant Human(get Athletics proficiency and Skilled Feat(Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and Survival)), Sage background for Arcana and History, 1st lvl Rogue for Acrobatics, Insight, Intimidation, and Investigation, 1 lvl Cleric for Knowledge Domain(Nature and Religion), and 4 lvls of Bard(Animal Handling, Lore Bard(Medicine, Perception, and Performance)) taking the Eldritch Adept Feat to give you Beguiling Influence(Deception and Persuasion); total of 6 levels
Keep in mind, a lot of these are from Any Skill choices, there's a lot of wiggle room with which skills can go where.
All proficiencies and all but three expertieses. Build is not mine and I am missing some expertieses, but it's like this: half elf, any background, six levels of scout rogue, 11 levels of lore bard, two levels of knowledge cleric and one level of ranger. For feats take prodigy and skill expert. If you chose wisely you should always have 14/18 expertieses and a few more if the check is related to your favored terrain.
@@ancoron8257 if you drop a level of lore bard and knowledge cleric you can get two more expertise from scout.
DM: you walked aaaand into a spikepit trap.
That sounds hideously broken & I love it!
Papa Smurf got ANGRY
"Is damage, so good luck with that." Magic Missile does force and completely ignores AC so that can be problematic. XD
Grab six levels of paladin and you will probably never fail a saving throw in the whole campaign.
I would love to see you put a bunch of your tips into a full fledge level 20 character and show us what we should do every level!
You could also cop resilient for an extra saving throw proficiency as well as a plus one to that ability.
In the words of goofy ah robot shield man: "IM EFFING INVINCIBLE!"
Oh, I think you definitely pick up Dodge later on!
That char looks like very angry papa smurf.
Omg im gonna try this out asap.
The ultimate tank build.
I have to say that you paired an ability called "dispassion" with a class who's ability entirely come from Being unhealthily passionate.
I never thought of this
Now, for the penultimate tank to make sure nothing can kill you. Bear Totem. Congrats! You now have advantage and/or proficiency with every save, and are now also resistant to every single damage type except psychic while raging! Meaning that you take a quarter of the damage from all successful saving throws (except psychic damage) while raging!
penultimate? I don't think that means what you think it means
@@McBehrer probably, but I'm not editing this
@@kennysalty6019
for the record, it means "second-to-last."
So, like, if a test has 50 questions, 49 is the penultimate question.
It has absolutely nothing to do with quality, just "after this there's one more."
If you to improve even more add 6lvls of ancients paladin for resistance too spell damage and adding charisma modifier to all your saves, 2 lvls of war wizard for +4 to saves and 6 lvls of artificer to take the armor of resistance infusion or 9 lvls if you also want flash of genius.
Yeah, now my disadvantage with dice rolling will finally be balanced out.
Hey I wanted to tell you about an interesting thing I did with a character. I don't really have a witty name for it, but basically you use the 6th level hexblade feature to pull a person's soul under your control, then you cast animate dead with the invocation that gives it to you to pull out their skeleton, then you cast Summon Undead for the Putrid zombie and flavor it as their skeleton-less body being summoned. You separated soul from the flesh and the flesh from bone. The ultimate necromancer flex.
10 mindflayers emerge roll for initiative
Can’t forget the totem warrior bear spirit barbarian to add to this build
I think I know what my dnd character is going to be
Stack with Totem Warrior - Bear, to half all damage except Psychic, and watch your DM cry trying to come up with things that can deal with you, but not crush the rest of the party.
Try to convince one of your party to bring a Paladin/Cleric. While they'd be MAD (needing 13s in STR, CHA, and WIS, wanting the highest CHA possible for this combination, and also wanting CON), and they'd take until at least level 8 to come online and only get better with more Cleric levels on top of it, Paladin 6/Twilight Cleric 2+ can use their Aura of Protection to add their CHA on your already great saving throws, and also put 1d6+Cleric level temp HP on top of your existing resistances every round with Channel Divinity, making your DM have to get through that every round to even get to your actual Barbarian-high HP. Even if the DM tries to target the Paladin/Cleric first, that character's still a tank too, with their heavy armor and shield and their own benefits from their Channel Divinity and Aura of Protection, and your Barbarian can focus their attacks on anything going after their buddy. The real downside being, of course, that an insightful DM is going to see that combo coming a mile away and do everything they can to kill one or both of your characters before it really comes online. I've known a party where it happened, at least minus the Vedalken-specific stuff.
Papa Smurf after his village was razed by Azrael.
Be a Wizard with Resilient Cha Feat.
Magic Jar a Gladiator.
Proficient in all saves.
*DM:* You trigger a trap
*Player:* Ha, regardless of the saving throw I have advantage! Do your worst.
*DM:* Give me an acrobatics skill check.
*Player:* ...
My dad something similar and named him Throwsave
Monks also get proficiency in all saves after a certain level so you can multiclass monk, also multiclass on war mage wizard for that saving throw buff
Oh lord papa Smurf is commin'
when you want your dm to use magic missile and only magic missile
You can also do this with a gnome to similar effect
This plus totem of the Bear and Holy shit, what CAN bring you down?
The high lvl version of this is being a high lvl monk paladin multiclass having all saving throws proficiences and you max out charisma for the aura for a plus 5 and you could also add bless. Also you can pick a race with magic resistance and pick Lucky.
A Vedalken Barbarian is so antithetical to the idea of Vedalken that I can't help but want to play it
Vedalken Monk with a few levels in Barbarian to really emulate the vibe of this calm, cool and collected dude just absolutely losing his shit.
If a player tries to do this, you can always just use magic missile. Or if they’re totem of the bear like an ass, Power word stun and kill exist. Less drastic ideas being Moon Beam, which while resisted and a con save, you get damage at the top of their turns. Assuming you threw a Druid at the party, have them become an animal that can fly and keep their distance. Or just make a spell sniper, Resistance and advantage don’t replace armor class
Advantage only does so much for you when you've got low modifiers. Yuan-Ti ancients paladin ftw
The true anti-magic champion.
This as a bear totem barb feels ridiculously broken.
I don't want to die
THE GAME!
Yeah my players first character was a Rock Gnome Bear Totem Barbarian...it's been fun
Talk about Power Gaming! 😂
You can become the master of death with a level 16 Monk/Barbarian Vedalken Because 14 levels in monk you get diamond soul which gives you proficiency in all saves anyway and the 2 levels in barbarian gets you danger sense and then rage for advantage on strength saves combined with unarmored defense you're unable to be killed
Another, albeit less optimized build, is 14 monk 6 paladin to have proficiency in all saves and add charisma to all saves
Theres another similar combo that you can do at level 3
Kalashtar bear totem barbarian at level 3 has resistance to all damage while raging and advantage on wis and dex saving throws which are the most common ones
Also if you mix this with 14 levels of monk and. Get diamond soul you gain proficiency in ALL saving throws. Rules as written, would mean that Death Saves count as well, so you have proficiency added to those as well. Proficiency mixed with advantage would make this character beefy. Totem Barbarian, and proficiency and advantage on saving throws. The only way to kill him is to one shot him out right.
_I will strike one down with magic missle instead out of sheer spite at this point_
Been playing since 2014 and my response was "what the hell is a Vedalken..."
I can't keep up.
Go play magic 🤷
@@dustinsisco9534 no
As I understand them, Vedalkens are usually skinny blue dudes with no hair. I'm pretty sure they are better known for brains over brawn.
I'm imagining a blue version of Saitama with glasses and tribal tats.
God, that's so simple yet must be infuriating for a DM
Angry papa Smurf.
If you really want to be evil, at level 3 pick bear Totem Barbarian to give you resistance to every damage type except psychic. Meaning attack rolls aren't gonna be too effective AND saving throws are even WORSE. Of course a dip into paladin for a Charisma boost also helps aswell
This is actually beat out by both Sartyr and yuan-ti which gives you advantage on all magical saving throws. Do the rest as normal. Worthwhile going to paladin 6 for adding cha to all saves
This build idea left me slack-jawed and breathless. Sounds crazy fun to play!
Add 2 levels of War Wizard to that. Deflecting Shroud gives you +4 to a single save on a reaction (very helpful if even advantage makes saving on a low modifier unlikely) and since you can't cast spells anyways, the drawback is negligible. Furthermore, you have ritual casting to help out of Combat and Shield as a reaction if you get attacked before having a chance to rage. Turns out this meme combo has more synergy than it looks at first glance.
PS: Please get Extra Attack before taking the Wizard levels, your damage will suffer if you don't.
Got one for ya. Tempest Cleric, some level in sorcerer, transmuted spell, and use Hallow to make them fail to be vulnerable to lightning damage!
Actually playing tempest cleric/storm sorcerer build in one of my campaigns. A lot of fun and keeps the dm on his toes
Ooo! I just figure out how to fix the flavor fail of the Dothan Barbarian!
Your vedalkan is an alchemist and mixes up a special injection that he can take X times per long rest (X = rages per long rest based on Barbarian level).
Ala, Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde.
Plus, a barbarian with one of the scientific/researcher-type background is a really unique concept! (Sage, Hermit, Cloistered Scholar, Guild Artisan (Alchemist), etc. Or if your game is set in Ravnica: Simic, or Izzet backgrounds.)
I tried something like this a long while ago, but I couldn’t because the vedalken didn’t exist, I got halfway through the saves using a similar technique, anything beyond that required higher levels.
The vedalken have existed a long long time my guy. They just weren't started in dnd yet lol
Also make it a totem bear Barbarian, so while raging psychic damage is your only weakness, and by that I don't mean taking double damage from it, but half from literally everything else.
Weird thing you can do in DnD: unescapable sphere of doom
Be lvl 15 Warlock and take Maddening Darkness as an 8th level arcanum
Take Devil's Sight, Lance of Lethargy, Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar invocations
Cast Maddening Darkness, centered on the target
They are effectively blinded, even with darkvision, unless they have blindsight or truesight
Shoot them with eldritch blast. They are in the darkness, and you can see through it thanks to Devil's Sight invocation, so you make attack rolls with advantage. Also, at lvl 15 you shoot three beams
Using Lance of Lethargy, Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar, you decrease their speed by 10 ft. while making sure they stay in the center and can't run away (LoL and RB don't exclude each other, RAW, you can activate either)
So, it's 4d8 (or 8d8 on failed Wis save) psychic damage + potentially 3d10 force damage (+ 3*Cha if you have Agonizing Blast) and no way to escape imminent death
Enjoy!
Alternatively, you can go CL Vedalkin and pick Resistance to gain proficiency in Dex saves at level 1. Meaning you now either have advantage or proficiency in all saving throws. Then level 4 Lucky to be even better
Remember to take levels in paladin after this.
Also take totem warrior bear, now you half hald damage to all but psychic
Party this lvl 4 barbarian up with a lvl 3 alchemist artificer, multiclassed into a lvl 1 peace cleric, who can feed the barbarian a potion of boldness, use emboldening bond on you and use bless, for a potential 3d4 bonus to you saving throws each round!
This gives me an idea to go Barb 13/Hexblade 1/Paladin 6. Low STR 13 Barb is not a big deal because your attacks are using CHA. Paladin Aura is letting you add this CHA to your saves. On top of that, take Yuan-Ti or Satyr to gain Advantage against every saving throw as long as it isn't from a trap. (If you pick Yuan-Ti you gain a pseudo resistance to traps because Danger Sense will give you advantage on DEX while CON based Poison Traps, you can shrug off due to poison immunity)
now become a level 6 paladin
I know what I'm playing next
and if you are also reborn subrace you have advantage on death saves. and as a bonus you dont need to eat, drink, breath or sleep and magic cant put you to sleep. you just get more ways to just say nah im staying up. down side to being reborn is you loose all your memory but considering your a barbarian i suspect you dont have many of those anyway.
Jack of all trades
I kinda guessed you’d have been able to do something like this but at level 2? You can still fine tune your build, though let’s be honest you’ll probably be the tank.
Might as well be a bear totem barbarian since the subclass doesn't matter just to make sure damage means even less.
I do similar build but forest gnome bear totem barbarian and you sack str for dex. Now you have either proficiency or advantage to all saves and resistance to all damage except psy
From there light urself on fire with an alchemist pot (depending on how strict ur dm is on rage rules) and take the dodge action every turn
See if your DM will allow you to buy a Cloak of Protection to gain a +1 bonus on armor class and saving throws ... stack as many little bonuses as you can muster
HAH! Imagine a Barbarian Warlock...
you can get a similar effect with a gnome barbarian.