*Treantmonk*: "I don't take Simulacrum because it breaks the game. *Also Treantmonk*: Thoroughly outlines how to Shapechange into a hydra and obtain infinite attacks and infinite multiattacks. Never change lmao.
What's so brilliant about going Wizard - and you said this yourself - is it rectifies the problem of a being a one-trick-pony (like the more popular gloomstalker build). You have your nova round one, and then you get to be the best class in the game the rest of the rounds. Hard to argue with that.
A small benefit this bugbear has over the weapon attack Bugbears is in encounters where you're stealthing up on enemies and ambushing them. With Scorching Ray and Steel-Wind strike, they have an instantaneous duration and so you make the attacks at the same time. This means that if your stealth check was successful, you can make all attacks from that casting of the spell at advantage. Whereas if you took the attack action with a heavy crossbow or such, the first attack would have advantage, but the second and any subsequent attacks would be made normally. Granted, this probably won't make too big of a difference. Gloomstalker can usually find easy advantage anyways by clever utilization of the enviroment. And if your DM is way stricter on Stealth into advantage, like saying the act of speaking the verbal component for a spell reveals your position->you then make attack rolls, or if they just treat the cast a spell->scorching ray action basically as an attack action where your scorching rays are your attacks and you can do whatever you want between the rays, or any other ruling like that, this benefit would be null and void anyways.
Magic Missile specifies that they strike simultaneously, whereas Scorching Ray (see also Eldritch Blast) and Steel Wind Strike do not. To me, that means applying the first method you described would require house rules and not work RAW. That said, you made great points about how unclear the mechanics for Scorching Ray can be, particularly whether you're able to move between shots. Either ruling seems equally valid to me.
Remember, knowing a creature's presence isn't the same as being able to see them. If they cannot see you and you can see them then you have advantage to attack them, even if they are able to deduce that you must be there from attacks coming from your position. Something would have to make you VISIBLE to them which would actually be caused by the scorching rays as they emit light as all fire does. Shooting an arrow from the darkness does not illuminate you if concealed in darkness.
As soon as you said you need to win initiative and that it works for so spell attacks I knew it would be a wizard build. It makes sense but it really highlights the problem that Arcane tricksters can't add their sneak attack to spell attacks. If it did then war magic 2/Arcane trickster X would be pretty viable.
@@RedK11 Well when you break it down there are 2 sides to this. Cantrips and Leveled Spells. With a cantrip the damage will be higher than a weapon attack at levels 11 and higher, on average. (4.5x3=13.5 vs 3.5+5=8.5) But since you can already sneak attack with booming blade/green-flame blade that's kind of a moot point. On the other hand, assuming only attack roll spells you're pretty safe with few exceptions, as you can only sneak attack once per turn and most single target damage isn't very high. The worst of it is probably disintegrate since it instantly prevents reanimation/revival if it reduces a creature to 0hp. I think you usually find that sneak attack doesn't contribute a lot to optimization or high damage since it builds slowly in small increments on top of being against only 1 creature and once on a turn. The exception being the assassin for double damage and an auto crit.
Yeah, once per turn on one creature, sneak attack is never going to break the game. However, Arcane Trickster is already a stronger subclass than all the other Rogue subclasses IMHO. Sneak attack with spells would widen the gap. But the real issue there is that Rogue is so weak a class. I would definitely let Arcane Tricksters sneak attack with spells, because in a party, they compete with other classes, not with other Rogue subclasses.
A Scorching Ray War Wizard was the first thing I considered when you mentioned making a non Gloomstalker Bugbear! Glad to see the War Wizard get some love.
Re: Longstrider love. So I took this on a glamor bard in a party where our primary front liner is a barbarian. Longstrider plus barbarian movement plus a no opportunity attack movement as a reaction plus the Temps. That barbarian just strolls through enemy lines to tear shit up. The barbarian is still totally backed by a serious support character in the bard as well. Took silvery barbs mostly to stop the barbarian from getting crit all the time as well.
I really liked the time spent discussing the build which didn't work out. It gave a lot more context to why the final build was the one that you went with. Would love to see more of that in future builds that might not be quite as clear cut.
My build was very similar but I went Fighter2/Twilight Cleric1/Stars Druid17, Boros Legionnaire background for Scorching Ray. Take Alert, Fey Touched - Gift of Alacrity and Ambush for all the initiative you'll ever need with your perma advantage from Twilight Cleric (guidance too if you're into that cheese). Much the same but you get the star form for a bonus action attack, bsp resistance at later levels etc. You get so much more than Tactical Wit gives, which honestly seems like the only reason to go Wizard here. Taking a level of Cleric also opens up Amulet of the Devout alongside the Moon Sickle to super boost your spell attack mod/save dc.
If I may ask, in what order did you take these levels and feats? This sounds like such an interesting build and character, I'd love to hear hear more about it.
@@sarjurastormblade953 Fighter1, Druid 3/4, Fighter 2, Cleric 1, Druid X. Fey Touched first at Druid4 to round out 18 Wis, Alert at Druid8, ASI Wis at Druid 12, Elemental Adept/Whatever at Druid16.
oh yeah, thats a good build. One more thing about the Shapechange, since you will keep all your racials, you also get to the extra range for long limbed on every attack as Marelith or Hydra, and also, thanks to the weird wording on 'Sneaky', because in any given second they thought this would be exploitable, you can just easily squeeze through spaces for small creatures to hide or surprise your enemies
I think Slow is particularly good on this build. If you spend your first round on Surprise Attack, then by the time you're looking to cast a debuff the lack of friendly fire will be really useful.
Good morning Chris! Yesterday had a lot of things i had to be listening to for work, so i only made it through the Girlfiend! Here to make more progress on my quest again! Much love, hope today is a great one for you! 💜
A short bit of searching found a Sage Advice that confirms the hydra can only lose one head per turn (i.e. each character can only take out one head on their turn, even if they do over 50 damage), but not one about the HP regen; the forums I came across seem to lean to the 10 per each of the two heads, but you’re still whittling away since it’s only getting back 20 of the 25+ that caused the head loss. Of course, those Scorching Rays become Cauterizing Rays against the hydra. 😈🔥
I took Simulacrum for a character recently but am leaving the Simulacrum at home doing downtime stuff so our Home is well defended, etc. The Wizard Tower pretty much always has a Wizard doing the mundane day to day administration needed and preliminary magic research for when the real wizard gets back.
@@arnijulian6241 I don't. I'm interested in making my characters functional and useful, but not so much in optimising every aspect (and so do the people I play with).
@@arnijulian6241 How? Most people don't spend their time on UA-cam or Reddit. Honestly some people spend their time "adulting" (Such a dirty work) and their only free time is the 4 to 5 hours they carve out for D&D once every two weeks.
The humour in these videos is the equivalent of your players bringing pizza to the table. It’s not the main reason I came, and I wasn’t expecting it, but it always makes my day
If dunamancy spells are aloud, which seems normal, I'd get Gift of Alacrity through Fey Touched. Drop starting Dex to 14 and up Int to 17. Now you'd have better initiative, and can prepare one extra spell. Might not need alert if you don't think you'll be surprised, maybe party has 'of warning' magic item or DM just never does that. Would probably get Metamagic Adapt for Transmuted Spell and Subtle Spell for when you fight a Red Dragon or something fire immune or able to counter your spells.
If Dunamancy is allowed just go Chronurgy Wizard. At 2nd level you add Int to Initiative, can reroll Initiative (or any other d20 roll within 30ft) twice per day, and cast Gift of Alacrity on yourself without waiting to get Fey Touched.
I don't see why Fey Touche would be necessary on this build. If Dunamancy spells are allowed, simply *TAKE* Gift of Alacrity with one of your (many, many) first-level spell choices. Also, though avoiding Surprise is nice, I really don't think it's the point of taking the Alert feat. No, it's that sweet, sweet +5 initiative bonus that's the point. Look, a +8 to initiative is all well and good, but with a cr@p roll you can still end up *LOSING INITIATIVE* against a lucky roll, basically invalidating the point of this build. But with a +13 (+18 on average if GoA is also in use) you're basically guaranteed to go first, or at least beat SOME of the monsters' initiative rolls. In fact, as someone who's rolled *A LOT* of ones on d20s over the years, I might even be willing to sacrifice 9th-level spells in order to grab a couple of Bard lev ... nah, that's going too far ... 😜
@@morganpetros9635 I said you might not need alert because of initiative being higher (and having lucky to reroll already). You'd have minimum of +8/9 max of +15/16 with ability to reroll after seeing final initiatives, and *possibly* reroll twice with Chronurgy wizard (initiative rolls aren't succeeded or failed). Dunamancy spells being allowed (at all) doesn't mean any wizard can prepare them though, they aren't on the wizard spell list.
@@SortKaffe You still need either +1 intelligence from a feat or +2 from ASI. I don't think there's anything better than fey touched. You could start with the 16 dex instead, but two extra spell preparations and more spell slots I think is better. Ya Chronugry to L10 is obviously great or broken if no house rules.
I love playing a Bugbear Monk. That extra 5ft of reach with the Bugbear's long reach adds a unique quality to Monk attacks. One doesn't even need to go Way of the Shadow (Bugbears are born for this subclass).
Just because that bug(bear) me : The hydra regain 10 hp for "each head regrown in this way", so you're losing only 5 hit point each head you lose as an hydra. Anyway, really nice build, as always.
I'm in the group that watches your channel/subscribed to your Patreon and haven't played since I was 11 (I'm now 48). Thanks for the plug for the new app! Will definitely use it.
I like a lot of your spell combinations. One I like to combine with transmute rock was after you transmit rock to mud and they're stuck in there. then you Dispel Magic and turn back to stone
The hydra actually is only down 5hp when you cut the head. It says it gains 10hp for *each* head regrown this way, and thats 2 heads, so it's actually regaining 20
2 Fighter/11 Hunter Ranger Use Volley to make Attack Rolls against any number of creatures within 10ft of a point we can see. Action Surge and do the same thing with another Volley attack.
I’m playing as a swashbuckler- Rouge/gloomstalker-Ranger bugbear and I get bonus points for both initiative for both charisma and wisdom. It’s a great set up and both classes complement each other rather well. I’m currently a level eight, with four levels in each class. My feats are magic initiate Wizard and Warcaster. Using a whip with a bugbear gets fifteen feet of reach with a finesse weapon. In a single first round combat, I can dish out 5d6 from sneak attack and surprise attack, 5d8 between dread ambusher, zephyr strike (bonus action spell) and booming blade 1d8 initially 2d8 when the creature moves and 1d4 whip. If it’s within 15 feet of me and moves out of my reach, I get an opportunity attack from warcaster for another 1d4 1d8 3d6 (swashbuckler sneak attack) and 2d8 as it continues to flee. A total of 2d4, 8d6 and 8d8 (assuming everything falls into place).
if the new UA barbarian path goes through then we can have a build that gives 25ft reach on attacks and 20ft on reaction attacks (with sentinel that is a pretty decent area of control)
Love this video and the War Magic Wizard is my favourite Wizard subclass. I was thinking take Lucky at level 4 of wizard. And instead of ambush take quick toss as your fighting initiate and throw a net as a bonus action at disadvantage and then use luck or inspiration if needed to make it triple advantage. If the net lands we make all attacks at advantage (assuming the target survives). The net shouldnt ignite as scorching ray doesnt state that it causes the burn property unlike Firebolt etc. Take Gift of Alacrity to boost initiative by 1D8. Having advantage on every attack takes the chance to hit from 60% to 79.8% despite having a +3 to int rather than a +4. You also have extra luck points so you can reroll initiative if needed and also if you miss on scorching ray attack. Additionally you could take a 3rd level in fighter to take battlemaster so you have more superiority die allowing you to do this more than once per day. The funniest thing about it is RAW it looks like the net would cause a superiority die of damage on a hit. These changes should help the burst round significantly but the build wouldnt be as well balanced.
Fantastic vid! I saw one recently where someone did a monk build that could deal upwards of 180 dmg for its nova with 88 the first turn. Course using bugbear
You can only cast one leveled spell (1-9) per turn, unless you provide jeremy crawford saying this ... or Any rule saying this. Because there is a rule saying "You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action." it´s a full sentence and just because it is mentioned under bonus action, doesn´t mean it´s not true in general until stated otherwise.
Metamagic adept would be a good feat on this buid too. Subtle spell obviously, but also transmuted spell, for when your scorching ray goes up against something immune or resistant to fire.
@@godofzombi Quickened spell is good, but I rarely take it with metamagic adept because you only get 2 sorcery points. Still good when you need it though.
@@tomgymer7719 Yeah the whole shtick of this build is to get that one turn before anyone else and save the party and completly wrecking the encounter by killing creatures before they can even move, anyway. (And for the rest of the campaign you're stuck fighting Quiklings and fire elementals.)
Bugbear NOT focused on sneak attack. Level 8/9 Ultra Sprite Fear and Poison Coffeelock. You get your own poison ranger. Read the stat block for Sprite and really focus on the shortbow attack carrier. A full combat familiar with 3 attacks a turn, a nasty poison carrier to those attacks 100 foot flying speed, and good AC supported by a terror inspiring Form of Dread with a Menacing second attack every turn. 4x Attack rolls, 2x Fear effects, and 3x Poison effects each turn. 3 Warlock/Undead/Chain - Dread Form - Investment of the Chain Masters - gets YOUR save DC and triggered attack - "unarmored sprite" -1AC 5 Sorcerer/Shadows(in case you go to 6) - Menacing feat. - Twinned Haste! - Coffeelock Unarmored Sprite with Mage armor = 17AC Sprite takes reaction attack when you use a bonus action and it uses your spell save DCs. With haste this adds another attack and brings AC to 19. Upto three attacks per round. 16sp worth of short rests(4 hours) provide a full combat of resources. Only 2SP needed in the combat, the rest is through bonus slots. With enough bonus slots built up can repeat this combat 3 times without using any other resources. Precast Mage Armor and Longstrider on Sprite.(4sp) Precast Gift of Alacrity and Longstrider on self.(4sp) Consider precasting Flock of Familiars. 1st Round Action - Twin Haste(2+5sp) Bonus - Dread Form Haste Action - Attack w fear effect -or- replace with Menacing Sprite - 2x Attacks w poison 2nd through 10th Round Bonus - command sprite Action - Attack w Fear Haste - Replace with Menacing Sprite - 3x attacks with poison *4 attacks, 2 fear, 3 poison* +2 poison attacks Flock of Familiars. One more level of Sorcerer adds the ability to summon Hounds of Ill Omen with their chance to knock people prone, also via your spell save DC. If entering battle with spell slots to burn these are cheap to summon, have pact tactics advantage, and are self controlling once summoned, adding as many trip attacks to your fights as you want. Thier save is vs Str, so great for weak caster and sneaky types. Giving the Sprite items with which it can cast Hex adds damage and helps lower enemy saving throws. Flock of Familiars says the familiars follow the rules and options of Find Familiar spell, which for you allows the summoning of Sprite, Quasit, Imp and Psuedodragon with other bonuses. It also costs the same SP to store a slot for as summoning a hound and lasts way longer. Can be precast so even as a base level spell you enter combat with two more sprites, so two more poison attacks each turn vs Con. You have 5 slots of that level. Take to Warlock 6 and Sorcerer 14 for flavorful compliments to the build(120ft teleports and an escape death feature) or you can combine it with...(literally anything or...) Bugbear Knight of Solamnia 11 Fighter Cavalier/Tunnel Fighter Weilding a pike Polearm Master Piercer Do first level as a fighter, then the 9 levels of horror inspired villainy above before returning to fighter. Will sacrifice occasional bonus attack from Sprite for tunnel fighter whirling dervish. Any party will quickly recognize buffing the Sprite as the equivalent to buffing a party member, certainly in terms of temp HP and such. Addition feats through training should include Great Weapon Master, Inspiring Leader, Defensive Fighting Style, Med/Heavy Armor Master. There are so many others that would just add to the character at this point. You are a Lu Bu on horse back, with an insane toxic satelite, and you'll be siccing the hounds or sprites on those who run.
@chris Maybe, I have missed it in the video, by why not Jim’s Magic Missile which is a 1st level spell over using Scorching Ray? It’s 2d4 instead of 2d6, but it is Force which means you will miss out on the resistances and immunities your run into with Fire damage. Is that just because of the potential to roll a 1 and have the shots blow up in your face?
Yeah, that critical miss is just so bad. Upcasting it as a 9th and 8th level spell (w/ Action Surge) would give you 21 missiles (2d4 + 2d6 per missile), but your chances of rolling a 1 at least once per spell is pretty high. Less so, if you make sure you have advantage, and maybe Lucky.
Bugbear Astral Monk Gloomstalker has a ton of synergy and can gain Guidance for skill checks, and with its attack bonuses we are looking at 5 strikes by level 8. Compared to the Eldritch Blast ear, at 8th level, you can EB twice per action, so with Action Surge and Metamagic (Fighter 2 Warlock 2 Sorcerer 4) you are looking at six EBs for a lot of dice. Throw in a BA Scorching aray, 7 attacks at 8th level.
Thought of a different route to the Bugbear Nova that also optimizes initiative but adds a level of Hexblade and is still functional in its own way. Fighter 2/Hexblade 1/Lore Bard 17. Stat array 8/15+1/12/8/13/15+2. ASIs are Fey Touched Cha, +2 Cha, Alert, and Resilient Wis. Initiative is +3 Dex +5 Alert +3 Jack of All Trades +1d12 Peerless Skill +1d6 Superior Technique Ambush = +11+1d12+1d6. With the right Magical Secrets (Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Steel Wind Strike, Wall of Force, Contingency, Crown of Stars), this build can do some of what a Wizard can (at a later level), and the Bugbear Nova gets to add Hexblade's Curse. The rest of the time, it's a Bard. Solid support and healing.
Ok. Lets do the math: Wizard18/Figher2 vs Fiendlock18/Fighter2: Also, I don't take accuracy into account coz we assume they are in the same conditions. Fiendlock: surge scorch 5lvl + quick EB: 238 surge scorch 5lvl + hex: 210 surge EB + quick EB: 210 // 1 time per day surge EB + hex: 168 // every short rest Surgemage: wiz surge 7+8 level + quick firebolt => 8+9 rays + 1: 238 + 29 = 267 wiz surge 5+6 level => 6+7 rays: 182 wiz surge 5+5 level => 6+6 rays: 168 So, as you can see, Fiendlock gives similar amount of damage, but does not burn their high level slots. Also can shapechange with 9lvl mystic arcanum. So, Fiendlock is a valid (better) option if your intention is to exploit bugbears surprise bonus, because as a wizard you either upcast scorch, or use your spellslots on really useful wizardy spells. Whenever fiendlock can do its damage *and* cast 6+ level spells with no real drawbacks. P.S. ranger4/rogue4/fighter12 does 304 avg nova damage with longbow +1 every short rest to a surprised enemy with no sharpshooter feat and before toHit calculations. 384 avg with sharpshooter, but it's not fair comparison, considering -5 to hit. Btw, no ss, no surpise, no crits - still 180 on avg per short rest.
Scorching Ray and Jim's Magic Missiles are the only way to go. Its less optimal for all of the other features, but no one ever played Bugbear for them so what do they matter?
This is the thing about optimization in dnd that I feel is important. When you optimize to such a degree as this you don't make a stronger character. You make weaker party members. Because the dm scales the battles to your power level. But if the power balance between party members is extremely diverse it will mean either you get weak I in counters so your party can keep up. Or you get over powered in counters so that you don't kill everything turn one. Whilst the rest of the party feels useless. It's fine to figure out the numbers and I get the fun in it. But in my opinion it's best to make a character that fits the party
I like this build. Fighter 2 + War Mage has always appealed to me (perhaps the character was training as an Eldritch Knight but excelled in spell casting and thus took the path of wizardry), and this makes it an optimal choice on top being an interesting one. @20:44 While it is true you have medium armour proficiency, you also have _heavy armour_ proficiency, thanks to taking Fighter for level one. Now, you probably still want to go with medium armour, but that's because you dumped Strength and heavy armour would impede movement, not due to a lack of proficiency.
Just starting the video my build for bugbear is artillerist artificer 11th level and with 2 levels of fighter turn 1 that's 3 casts of scorching ray for 9 attack rolls if you have haste up and you use action surge and you'd have 12 rays if you go 3 levels into thief rogue for fast hands for 24d6 extra fire damage Edit oh hey it got noticed lol
I was thinking how to make the most out of Bugbear and had something fairly similar. I chose pure bladesinger bugbear. Thematically I liked how bugbear was more fey now which matched bladesingers better. I do not have as much Nova as yours but my thought is that I really can not see myself using level 4 spells or higher for this nova unless I was betting on only 1 or 2 fights a day. So at level 3 can still do max 12d6 fire damage if all three rays hit. Range certainly helps in targeting the slow initiative enemies. At level 4 I plan on taking fey touched bless/misty step for 18 Int. If we are ambushing, the bless should help everyone's Nova. Level 6 I can make good use of extra attack + long limbs + level 3 shadow blade for sustained damage after the initial scorching ray volley. In that case I only use booming blade/green flame blade if they get within 5 feet of me but otherwise its fun having what is essentially a 3d8 psychic reach weapon. As I get better spell slots goal is to mostly consider the surprise attack a bonus but focus more on control/debuffs/buffs as I get higher level. When planning out I essentially had the same spells you chose.
My thoughts go to Echo Knight. From level 5, we have. 2 attacks, + unleash incarnation + bonus action attack, unleash incarnation is per attack action, so when we action surge that is potentially 7 attacks on turn 1. I say potentially, because unleash incarnation is limited to con modifier times per day, so we can't burn 2 of them every encounter. In addition unleash incarnation is melee attacks from our echo, so we might need to spend a bonus action to spawn our echo close to the enemy. By level 11, this becomes 9 attacks just by virtue of being a fighter. As for winning initiative, there is always the alert feat. We could also mix in some barbarian for reckless attack, to make those attacks land. But we might run in to trouble of a very busy bonus action turn 1.
At 13th level this is potentially 9 attacks with advantage, so that is really sick! Not to mention it keeps up solidly in DPR. This is probably my favourite melee build now, so well fucking done, Bravo!
@@godofzombi The alert feat still gets you a long way. But yeah, this is a case of looking to the party as well. If anyone has a way to boost your initiative, it might help a great deal. Ask for enhance ability, guidance and other ways to help your ability checks. If you have any influence over what magic items you get, you might also be able to search something out. But your point still stands, it is something to find a way to compensate for.
Just one small thing... you need the suprise condition to trigger the bonus 2d6 damage. That doesn`t come from winning iniciative. You need to sneak and atack without being seen, before iniciative is triggered.
As a minor correction, in the hydra section, it’s mentioned you net lose 15 hit points for each extra head regrown. You’d actually only be down a net 5 hit points, as the hydra regains 10 hit points for each head regrown and you’ll be growing back two for each head lost. It won’t change much, but it means you could have a second friend beating you up on their turn, thus doubling the heads grown. Ultimately, it’s not that important, since it’s pretty hard to do exactly 25 damage consistently. You’d be taking a bit more to make sure one head dies.
@@TreantmonksTemple I guess that could make sense. Since it mentioned “each head regrown,” I read that as referring to the total number of newly grown heads.
Just as a note: RAW, Truesight doesn't dismiss the advantage granted by invisibility. See Jeremy Crawford's infamous discussion about this. Only Faerie Fire dismisses the benefits of invisibility because it specifically says it does. The advantage/disadvantage of invisibility is NOT contingent on the creature not seeing you. It's a separate benefit of the condition.
by my count, this build learned 1 spell that wouldnt normally be on your normal wizard build (scorching ray) and one feat (alert) that you wouldnt normally take. This means basically any wizard can do this albeit if you dont choose war wizard you dont get the extra +5 to initiative. Also this only works for one combat per day, and not at all if fighting a single devil or other fire immune enemy, so hope you don't have 8 combats per day in your adventuring day! Scribe wizard would allow you to change damage type at least and you get more out of ritual casting.
Been waiting a while for another Fighter/War Wizard build that incorporates Tasha's after your Gith Gish. Did not disappoint. Still keeping mine a Gith, but I agree with Alert and Action Surge for SWS glory.
A Great items for this bugbear build would be the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar - Tooth of the Mill Road Murders which adds 3d10 slashing damage to any attack on a creature that hasn't taken a turn yet.
Updated build idea: You can do Hexblade 1, Fighter 2 (superior technique, Ambush) , and Sorcerer the rest of the way. ASIs would be Feytouched, char +2, Lucky and Agonizing Blast from Eldritch Adept (should be valid since you have a level of Warlock). This gives you 12d10+24d6+60 on your first round [Quickened EB, EB plus EB action surge], which should be 210 assuming all hits and average dice damage. This does not have Alert but hopefully, advantage with Lucky plus Ambush gives you what you need initiative-wise. If you have gift of alacrity from Fey Touched then D8+D6+(d20 with advantage if needed from lucky) +2 dex should be pretty good. If you want advantage, you can quicken greater invisibility and use action and action surge for 2X beams. Finally once you get wish you can use it to cast contingency with greater invisibility. Now you have 12 beams with advantage. I do agree yours is better :)
Would make a good Mercy monk in particular if you got some proper cantrips on it either by taking Aberrant Dragonmark. With that you'd get booming or green flame blade, you could also take silver barbs to make sure of you're going to grapple it has a chance to flip it. You could also get druid initiate and get thorn whip and primal savagery with either good berry for the early level or snare or ensnare for crowd control. Good thing about this is it launches quick and has heals, extra necrotic damage and can just put the poisoned condition on stuff with lair actions eventually think it's like level 9-11 somewhere in there for that last part. Mercy monk doesn't require the ki points any longer to poison extra necrotic or heal at later levels. You also get up to four attacks with your bonus flurry stunning and other stuff. You throw piercer on this build and yeah you wind up rerolling only 1 of many 6's but if you're using a bow it counts I believe if you're using just a standard attack with a javelin you could reroll there as well daggers darts all that scales up with your martial arts die. As well as getting to roll an additional die on a critical, could also throw crusher on it too and knock them around. The real beauty of it all is stretching out your reach radius to put those flurries and heals where you need them . Thorn whip will pull a 5ft reach enemy from 20 feet into your reach crusher will knock them back five and allow you to move up to five yourself at this point you still have an extra attack, throw a javelin or something or anyway maybe Athens more experienced can help hash all this out. At that I never do a build straight optimizing one thing first anyway I look at the utility and roleplay as well. Figure if I was wanting to roll that many dice and only make attacks i might as well just play Warhammer, nothing against it but it's boring without the roleplay and exploring research and investigation.
I think the silliness of the bonus action spell restriction hadn't fully come home to me until this video. If you cast a Misty Step on that turn, you couldn't cast anything but cantrips with both of your actions when you Action Surge. But if you don't, you can cast high-level spells with both of those actions! Man, that's silly. It would make more sense if it was just a "only one levelled spell per turn" rule. Just confirms my initial instinct -- I just houseruled and allowed bonus action and action levelled spells on the same turn, for simplicity's sake (with my group of new-to-DnD players).
My choice would be either long death monk and a few moon druid, a giant mole that wont be whacked and can spy and burrow up from under to gain surprise. Mercy monk and wildfire Also drunken monk for the 4 to 7 attacks and 3 in moon druid or champ fighter
Jim's Magic Missile, if you're willing to take a small risk. The upcast on this is the same as the traditional Magic Missile, so usually not really worth it. But, as a means if ringing extra d6s out of this feature...
PC: *picks bugbear wizard* DM: Somehow every monster you encounter is immune to fire and physical damage, and resistant to force. As you start arguing, "Don't f with DM, wizard" you hear from the skies above.
Not sure if its mentioned but a 1 lvl dip in Hexblade would get you Hexblade's curse. If you did that at the beginning and then Scorching Ray even 5th lvl x2 (Action Surge) for 12 rays, thats a potential extra 60 dmg for a lvl 13 build. You wouldn't get to 6th lvl spells but your first round would be quite a bit more dmg.
I love scorching ray! Glad to see some love on it. 2 Fighter/War Wizard is very fun, but I can't help but go into strength and heavy armor immediately with it, and just wade into combat with booming blades. Not the most optimal, but a 21-30 AC without magic items is super fun to run (the extra 2 coming from haste, Tasha's Transformation, or Platinum Shield)
They scale remarkably similarly 14d4+14d6, avg 84 force for Jim's vs 24d6 avg 84 fire for S-Ray. Crits and the more reliable damage type might give Jim's the edge barely, but it might be restricted and there is the gold tax on Jim's.
@@dustinhotz6665 Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Jim's Magic Missile stop working and not deal damage if you miss a single attack with it. Seems like Scorching Ray is always gonna be a better choice even if you're stuck with it dealing fire damage.
i plan to play a monk bugbear for the 10ft stunning strike, and with attacking 10ft away im not triggering opertunity attacks. Is it optimized? no. Does it help the monk extrem? yes.
One of the reasons I've been leaning toward Sorlock for this build is because with Invisibility, I don't HAVE to win the Initiative order - I can get a surprise round. If at later levels I can increase my initiative, then there's another huge opportunity - if I gain surprise AND win initiative, you can get TWO rounds of Surprise Attack.
Not to be a jerk, but you misunderstood how surprise works in 5e. 'surprised' is a condition, like 'incapacitated'. They are 'surprised' until the end of their first turn. They can't take any actions or reactions while surprised. But since they cease to be surprised after their first turn, they can take reactions on any turn after theirs. The reason all of this matters is because Assassin can only auto crit creatures that haven't taken a turn in combat yet, and are thus still surprised. Similarly, getting 'surprise' doesn't mean bugbear can surprise attack anyone. Only creatures who haven't taken a turn yet. Even if during that turn a creature couldn't do anything, by the time its the bugbears turn, they will have taken a turn in combat. Similarly, the assassin won't be able to auto crit them. This is why treantmonk emphasized winning initiative so much. All that said, thats only the nitty gritty of the 5e rules, and ive played at tables where 'surprise rounds' functioned exactly as you described. But itr essentially a house rule, however intended that way
Sorlock is another option for getting a ton of attacks on the first turn, and is obviously good after turn one. Just a two level warlock dip(hexblade for hexblade reasons) gets you all you need.
there is a weird SUPER SPECIFIC build that can capitalize on all the things: hexblade warlock 2, assassin rogue 3, gloomstalker 3, fighter 2, and bladesinger 6, with alert and the metamagic feat, allowing for a nova round doing attack action: one cantrip (eldrich blast) and two weapon attacks, action surge to duplicate and bonus action eldrich blast. 16 attacks each with +2d6 damage critting for +4d6, making bugbear bonus damage equal to +64d6. The build is MAD as hell, and probably weak outside of nova round. I would personally stick with the build presented in the video.
Excellent video! You have me wondering how good an evocation wizard 17/Assassin 3 would fare with both jim's magic missiles (if allowed) and scorching ray by default. This is mostly to get the greatest damage output with those spell. Finding a way to add hex or hunter's mark would be worth it to maybe avoid a second multiclass in fighter that would spread too thin the wizard.
This is an awesome video for me because I’m playing a war wizard with a fighter dip. I’m not a bugbear but there are a ton of great recommendations in this video That will work well for my character nonetheless
Wish there was an easy way to squeeze in a meta magic adept feat. It solves the fire damage issue too thanks to transmute spell. You only want to cast scorching ray on turn 1 anyway, so its not an issue you can only Transmute spell twice. Then you can pick up another fun lil metamagic like subtle spell. But its such a bummer you cant get it early. Boosting intelligence is obviously required, and the Alert feat is top tier for the build. (Not gonna mention lucky) Probably would still take it eventually but obviously as you say the scorching ray nova becomes less exciting at a certain point
I’ve been a little curious. Obviously the chosen spells are the only definite options you get for a spell books but iirc I rarely if ever hear you mention acquiring additional spells to transpose throughout a game. Is this just something you don’t bring up in builds? Or are they not generally given out in games you play?
@@TreantmonksTemple that’s what I figured just wanted to double check. My DM left my wizard a decently powerful enemy’s spell book that I’ve been reaping the benefits of for awhile
Would be really funny to go scribes wizard instead of war wizard and basically just drone strike people with your slashing rays while you're drinking in the tavern
I ended up, for an 11th level one shot, running an 8 Beast Barb/3 Gloom Stalker fitting in GWM, PAM. Advantage on initiative from Barb, cant be surprised, two reckless GWM attacks with Gloomstalker and two from claws. Not the end all be all optimal build but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun
I vaguely remember chris mentioning when he would take that second fighter level but I can’t seem to remember when it was. Anyone able to help me out? I feel like it’s a tough choice before level 5 wizard so maybe then?
One more level of Fighter to get the Samurai Fighting Spirit could guarantee advantage. This might even be better if your character won't reach 13th level or if Contingency won't cut it for another reason
I made this build with the Chronurgy subclass. Both the Gift of Alacrity spell and the Chronal Shift, which gives my character a reroll on a low initiative roll, are perfect for this build. Of course that is only if your DM allows it.
Also, Spirit Shroud is great for this build if you know a combat is about to happen (and you have to assume that you can get close enough for Spirit Shroud to work).
Man I spent so long thinking "why doesn't he just go Harengon if he wants to win initiative that bad?" serious case of Friday brain.
Love it!
Harebear?
More like a case of being harebrained, right?
Broooooo i actually spat my drink after reading this LOL
We need halfbreed rules so we can combine two character races.
*Treantmonk*: "I don't take Simulacrum because it breaks the game.
*Also Treantmonk*: Thoroughly outlines how to Shapechange into a hydra and obtain infinite attacks and infinite multiattacks.
Never change lmao.
Where do you find that video? 😂
@@blakepfeifer7419 this one?
Thanks for the plug, Chris - a true friend indeed :). Looking forward to diving into your take on the Bugbear :).
The cross channel love is real. Utah and Alberta showing that Canada and America ain't so different!
@@McTacoDelight …..accept for the level of sensibility shown on virtually any political issue.
@@WildVii So, replace members of government with DMs/Theorycrafters? Yes. Let's!
Oh you guys are the best 😁👍
@@McTacoDelight 'im gonna have some fun, free healthcare is for everyone'
What's so brilliant about going Wizard - and you said this yourself - is it rectifies the problem of a being a one-trick-pony (like the more popular gloomstalker build). You have your nova round one, and then you get to be the best class in the game the rest of the rounds. Hard to argue with that.
Best class?
But… he didn’t take any Monk levels!!
Why didn't I think of that?!
@@TreantmonksTemple We all know why
*laugh-cries in Monk main*
@@TreantmonksTemple best Bugbear would be five class mix of echo knight 5, Assassin 3, Gloomstalker 3, paladin 2 and lastly divine soul 7.
A small benefit this bugbear has over the weapon attack Bugbears is in encounters where you're stealthing up on enemies and ambushing them. With Scorching Ray and Steel-Wind strike, they have an instantaneous duration and so you make the attacks at the same time. This means that if your stealth check was successful, you can make all attacks from that casting of the spell at advantage. Whereas if you took the attack action with a heavy crossbow or such, the first attack would have advantage, but the second and any subsequent attacks would be made normally.
Granted, this probably won't make too big of a difference. Gloomstalker can usually find easy advantage anyways by clever utilization of the enviroment. And if your DM is way stricter on Stealth into advantage, like saying the act of speaking the verbal component for a spell reveals your position->you then make attack rolls, or if they just treat the cast a spell->scorching ray action basically as an attack action where your scorching rays are your attacks and you can do whatever you want between the rays, or any other ruling like that, this benefit would be null and void anyways.
Magic Missile specifies that they strike simultaneously, whereas Scorching Ray (see also Eldritch Blast) and Steel Wind Strike do not. To me, that means applying the first method you described would require house rules and not work RAW. That said, you made great points about how unclear the mechanics for Scorching Ray can be, particularly whether you're able to move between shots. Either ruling seems equally valid to me.
Remember, knowing a creature's presence isn't the same as being able to see them.
If they cannot see you and you can see them then you have advantage to attack them, even if they are able to deduce that you must be there from attacks coming from your position. Something would have to make you VISIBLE to them which would actually be caused by the scorching rays as they emit light as all fire does.
Shooting an arrow from the darkness does not illuminate you if concealed in darkness.
As soon as you said you need to win initiative and that it works for so spell attacks I knew it would be a wizard build.
It makes sense but it really highlights the problem that Arcane tricksters can't add their sneak attack to spell attacks. If it did then war magic 2/Arcane trickster X would be pretty viable.
Would allowing sneak attack dmg to apply to spell attacks lead to any other broken builds?
@@RedK11 Well when you break it down there are 2 sides to this. Cantrips and Leveled Spells.
With a cantrip the damage will be higher than a weapon attack at levels 11 and higher, on average. (4.5x3=13.5 vs 3.5+5=8.5) But since you can already sneak attack with booming blade/green-flame blade that's kind of a moot point.
On the other hand, assuming only attack roll spells you're pretty safe with few exceptions, as you can only sneak attack once per turn and most single target damage isn't very high.
The worst of it is probably disintegrate since it instantly prevents reanimation/revival if it reduces a creature to 0hp.
I think you usually find that sneak attack doesn't contribute a lot to optimization or high damage since it builds slowly in small increments on top of being against only 1 creature and once on a turn. The exception being the assassin for double damage and an auto crit.
Yeah, once per turn on one creature, sneak attack is never going to break the game.
However, Arcane Trickster is already a stronger subclass than all the other Rogue subclasses IMHO. Sneak attack with spells would widen the gap.
But the real issue there is that Rogue is so weak a class. I would definitely let Arcane Tricksters sneak attack with spells, because in a party, they compete with other classes, not with other Rogue subclasses.
@@Andvare I'd say the psiknife rogue is better than AT. But AT is very good.
A Scorching Ray War Wizard was the first thing I considered when you mentioned making a non Gloomstalker Bugbear! Glad to see the War Wizard get some love.
Re: Longstrider love. So I took this on a glamor bard in a party where our primary front liner is a barbarian. Longstrider plus barbarian movement plus a no opportunity attack movement as a reaction plus the Temps. That barbarian just strolls through enemy lines to tear shit up. The barbarian is still totally backed by a serious support character in the bard as well. Took silvery barbs mostly to stop the barbarian from getting crit all the time as well.
I really liked the time spent discussing the build which didn't work out. It gave a lot more context to why the final build was the one that you went with. Would love to see more of that in future builds that might not be quite as clear cut.
My build was very similar but I went Fighter2/Twilight Cleric1/Stars Druid17, Boros Legionnaire background for Scorching Ray. Take Alert, Fey Touched - Gift of Alacrity and Ambush for all the initiative you'll ever need with your perma advantage from Twilight Cleric (guidance too if you're into that cheese). Much the same but you get the star form for a bonus action attack, bsp resistance at later levels etc. You get so much more than Tactical Wit gives, which honestly seems like the only reason to go Wizard here. Taking a level of Cleric also opens up Amulet of the Devout alongside the Moon Sickle to super boost your spell attack mod/save dc.
If I may ask, in what order did you take these levels and feats? This sounds like such an interesting build and character, I'd love to hear hear more about it.
@@sarjurastormblade953 Fighter1, Druid 3/4, Fighter 2, Cleric 1, Druid X. Fey Touched first at Druid4 to round out 18 Wis, Alert at Druid8, ASI Wis at Druid 12, Elemental Adept/Whatever at Druid16.
oh yeah, thats a good build. One more thing about the Shapechange, since you will keep all your racials, you also get to the extra range for long limbed on every attack as Marelith or Hydra, and also, thanks to the weird wording on 'Sneaky', because in any given second they thought this would be exploitable, you can just easily squeeze through spaces for small creatures to hide or surprise your enemies
Terrific build!
No matter how much we theorize and plan Wizard is always the best answer.
I think Slow is particularly good on this build. If you spend your first round on Surprise Attack, then by the time you're looking to cast a debuff the lack of friendly fire will be really useful.
That's a good point.
Good morning Chris! Yesterday had a lot of things i had to be listening to for work, so i only made it through the Girlfiend! Here to make more progress on my quest again!
Much love, hope today is a great one for you! 💜
The hydra would actually get 20 hitpoints back at the end of it's turn since it grew back two heads and gains 10 per head.
I read "heads regrown" as the number of heads replaced, not the extra head grown.
A short bit of searching found a Sage Advice that confirms the hydra can only lose one head per turn (i.e. each character can only take out one head on their turn, even if they do over 50 damage), but not one about the HP regen; the forums I came across seem to lean to the 10 per each of the two heads, but you’re still whittling away since it’s only getting back 20 of the 25+ that caused the head loss.
Of course, those Scorching Rays become Cauterizing Rays against the hydra. 😈🔥
I took Simulacrum for a character recently but am leaving the Simulacrum at home doing downtime stuff so our Home is well defended, etc. The Wizard Tower pretty much always has a Wizard doing the mundane day to day administration needed and preliminary magic research for when the real wizard gets back.
Nice. That's a good way to use the spell :)
Awesome build! I was working on a non-gloomstalker bugbear build, but this is so much better than what I had come up with. Thanks for the video! :)
I've been playing 5e for like seven years and I had no idea you could cast two leveled spells with action surge.
It's why so many optimizers dip 2 levels of Fighter.
The bonus action spellcasting rule is probably the most misunderstood rule in the game.
How?
It's a common dip!
I assume you don't play at an optimised table often or ever.
@@arnijulian6241 I don't. I'm interested in making my characters functional and useful, but not so much in optimising every aspect (and so do the people I play with).
@@arnijulian6241
How? Most people don't spend their time on UA-cam or Reddit. Honestly some people spend their time "adulting" (Such a dirty work) and their only free time is the 4 to 5 hours they carve out for D&D once every two weeks.
The humour in these videos is the equivalent of your players bringing pizza to the table.
It’s not the main reason I came, and I wasn’t expecting it, but it always makes my day
Haha! "Boy I wish I was a gold dragon instead of a lousy monk."
You're in top form in this video.
If dunamancy spells are aloud, which seems normal, I'd get Gift of Alacrity through Fey Touched. Drop starting Dex to 14 and up Int to 17. Now you'd have better initiative, and can prepare one extra spell. Might not need alert if you don't think you'll be surprised, maybe party has 'of warning' magic item or DM just never does that. Would probably get Metamagic Adapt for Transmuted Spell and Subtle Spell for when you fight a Red Dragon or something fire immune or able to counter your spells.
If Dunamancy is allowed just go Chronurgy Wizard. At 2nd level you add Int to Initiative, can reroll Initiative (or any other d20 roll within 30ft) twice per day, and cast Gift of Alacrity on yourself without waiting to get Fey Touched.
I don't see why Fey Touche would be necessary on this build. If Dunamancy spells are allowed, simply *TAKE* Gift of Alacrity with one of your (many, many) first-level spell choices.
Also, though avoiding Surprise is nice, I really don't think it's the point of taking the Alert feat. No, it's that sweet, sweet +5 initiative bonus that's the point. Look, a +8 to initiative is all well and good, but with a cr@p roll you can still end up *LOSING INITIATIVE* against a lucky roll, basically invalidating the point of this build. But with a +13 (+18 on average if GoA is also in use) you're basically guaranteed to go first, or at least beat SOME of the monsters' initiative rolls.
In fact, as someone who's rolled *A LOT* of ones on d20s over the years, I might even be willing to sacrifice 9th-level spells in order to grab a couple of Bard lev ... nah, that's going too far ... 😜
@@morganpetros9635 I said you might not need alert because of initiative being higher (and having lucky to reroll already). You'd have minimum of +8/9 max of +15/16 with ability to reroll after seeing final initiatives, and *possibly* reroll twice with Chronurgy wizard (initiative rolls aren't succeeded or failed).
Dunamancy spells being allowed (at all) doesn't mean any wizard can prepare them though, they aren't on the wizard spell list.
@@SortKaffe You still need either +1 intelligence from a feat or +2 from ASI. I don't think there's anything better than fey touched. You could start with the 16 dex instead, but two extra spell preparations and more spell slots I think is better. Ya Chronugry to L10 is obviously great or broken if no house rules.
Sorlock w/ gift of alacrity seems good. Scorching Rey + quicken eldrich blast
I think getting your initiative to the highest potential "+X" value seems to be the main goal. So alert + subclass ability is their main goal.
I love playing a Bugbear Monk. That extra 5ft of reach with the Bugbear's long reach adds a unique quality to Monk attacks. One doesn't even need to go Way of the Shadow (Bugbears are born for this subclass).
Just because that bug(bear) me : The hydra regain 10 hp for "each head regrown in this way", so you're losing only 5 hit point each head you lose as an hydra.
Anyway, really nice build, as always.
I figured head "regrown" means the head that is replaced, not the extra head that grows.
@@TreantmonksTemple Then wouldn't it read "for A head regrown this way" instead of "for EACH head regrown this way"?
I'm in the group that watches your channel/subscribed to your Patreon and haven't played since I was 11 (I'm now 48). Thanks for the plug for the new app! Will definitely use it.
I like a lot of your spell combinations. One I like to combine with transmute rock was after you transmit rock to mud and they're stuck in there. then you Dispel Magic and turn back to stone
The gloomstalker Bugbear build everyone talks about should be called the boogieman build
The hydra actually is only down 5hp when you cut the head. It says it gains 10hp for *each* head regrown this way, and thats 2 heads, so it's actually regaining 20
17:37 thank you for settling the argument on multiple usages of leveled spells in a turn!
2 Fighter/11 Hunter Ranger
Use Volley to make Attack Rolls against any number of creatures within 10ft of a point we can see. Action Surge and do the same thing with another Volley attack.
The issue there is we need to count on a lot of enemies being clumped together.
I’m playing as a swashbuckler- Rouge/gloomstalker-Ranger bugbear and I get bonus points for both initiative for both charisma and wisdom. It’s a great set up and both classes complement each other rather well. I’m currently a level eight, with four levels in each class. My feats are magic initiate Wizard and Warcaster. Using a whip with a bugbear gets fifteen feet of reach with a finesse weapon. In a single first round combat, I can dish out 5d6 from sneak attack and surprise attack, 5d8 between dread ambusher, zephyr strike (bonus action spell) and booming blade 1d8 initially 2d8 when the creature moves and 1d4 whip. If it’s within 15 feet of me and moves out of my reach, I get an opportunity attack from warcaster for another 1d4 1d8 3d6 (swashbuckler sneak attack) and 2d8 as it continues to flee. A total of 2d4, 8d6 and 8d8 (assuming everything falls into place).
Was waiting for this, was theorizing my own builds, great vid!
if the new UA barbarian path goes through then we can have a build that gives 25ft reach on attacks and 20ft on reaction attacks (with sentinel that is a pretty decent area of control)
First thing I thought
Love this video and the War Magic Wizard is my favourite Wizard subclass. I was thinking take Lucky at level 4 of wizard. And instead of ambush take quick toss as your fighting initiate and throw a net as a bonus action at disadvantage and then use luck or inspiration if needed to make it triple advantage. If the net lands we make all attacks at advantage (assuming the target survives). The net shouldnt ignite as scorching ray doesnt state that it causes the burn property unlike Firebolt etc.
Take Gift of Alacrity to boost initiative by 1D8. Having advantage on every attack takes the chance to hit from 60% to 79.8% despite having a +3 to int rather than a +4. You also have extra luck points so you can reroll initiative if needed and also if you miss on scorching ray attack. Additionally you could take a 3rd level in fighter to take battlemaster so you have more superiority die allowing you to do this more than once per day. The funniest thing about it is RAW it looks like the net would cause a superiority die of damage on a hit. These changes should help the burst round significantly but the build wouldnt be as well balanced.
"It's almost unbugbearable!" XD
I loved getting to see some of your optimization process and why you excluded some choices.
Fantastic vid! I saw one recently where someone did a monk build that could deal upwards of 180 dmg for its nova with 88 the first turn. Course using bugbear
You can only cast one leveled spell (1-9) per turn, unless you provide jeremy crawford saying this ... or Any rule saying this.
Because there is a rule saying "You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action." it´s a full sentence and just because it is mentioned under bonus action, doesn´t mean it´s not true in general until stated otherwise.
Metamagic adept would be a good feat on this buid too. Subtle spell obviously, but also transmuted spell, for when your scorching ray goes up against something immune or resistant to fire.
It's what I'll be playing, but I went with quikened spell, just so I could stick in fire bolt for another 1d10+2d6.
@@godofzombi Quickened spell is good, but I rarely take it with metamagic adept because you only get 2 sorcery points. Still good when you need it though.
@@tomgymer7719 Yeah the whole shtick of this build is to get that one turn before anyone else and save the party and completly wrecking the encounter by killing creatures before they can even move, anyway. (And for the rest of the campaign you're stuck fighting Quiklings and fire elementals.)
Bugbear NOT focused on sneak attack.
Level 8/9 Ultra Sprite Fear and Poison Coffeelock. You get your own poison ranger. Read the stat block for Sprite and really focus on the shortbow attack carrier.
A full combat familiar with 3 attacks a turn, a nasty poison carrier to those attacks 100 foot flying speed, and good AC supported by a terror inspiring Form of Dread with a Menacing second attack every turn.
4x Attack rolls, 2x Fear effects, and 3x Poison effects each turn.
3 Warlock/Undead/Chain
- Dread Form
- Investment of the Chain Masters
- gets YOUR save DC and triggered attack
- "unarmored sprite" -1AC
5 Sorcerer/Shadows(in case you go to 6)
- Menacing feat.
- Twinned Haste!
- Coffeelock
Unarmored Sprite with Mage armor = 17AC
Sprite takes reaction attack when you use a bonus action and it uses your spell save DCs. With haste this adds another attack and brings AC to 19. Upto three attacks per round.
16sp worth of short rests(4 hours) provide a full combat of resources. Only 2SP needed in the combat, the rest is through bonus slots. With enough bonus slots built up can repeat this combat 3 times without using any other resources.
Precast Mage Armor and Longstrider on Sprite.(4sp)
Precast Gift of Alacrity and Longstrider on self.(4sp) Consider precasting Flock of Familiars.
1st Round
Action - Twin Haste(2+5sp)
Bonus - Dread Form
Haste Action - Attack w fear effect -or- replace with Menacing
Sprite - 2x Attacks w poison
2nd through 10th Round
Bonus - command sprite
Action - Attack w Fear
Haste - Replace with Menacing
Sprite - 3x attacks with poison
*4 attacks, 2 fear, 3 poison*
+2 poison attacks Flock of Familiars.
One more level of Sorcerer adds the ability to summon Hounds of Ill Omen with their chance to knock people prone, also via your spell save DC. If entering battle with spell slots to burn these are cheap to summon, have pact tactics advantage, and are self controlling once summoned, adding as many trip attacks to your fights as you want. Thier save is vs Str, so great for weak caster and sneaky types.
Giving the Sprite items with which it can cast Hex adds damage and helps lower enemy saving throws.
Flock of Familiars says the familiars follow the rules and options of Find Familiar spell, which for you allows the summoning of Sprite, Quasit, Imp and Psuedodragon with other bonuses. It also costs the same SP to store a slot for as summoning a hound and lasts way longer. Can be precast so even as a base level spell you enter combat with two more sprites, so two more poison attacks each turn vs Con. You have 5 slots of that level.
Take to Warlock 6 and Sorcerer 14 for flavorful compliments to the build(120ft teleports and an escape death feature) or you can combine it with...(literally anything or...)
Bugbear
Knight of Solamnia
11 Fighter Cavalier/Tunnel Fighter
Weilding a pike
Polearm Master
Piercer
Do first level as a fighter, then the 9 levels of horror inspired villainy above before returning to fighter.
Will sacrifice occasional bonus attack from Sprite for tunnel fighter whirling dervish.
Any party will quickly recognize buffing the Sprite as the equivalent to buffing a party member, certainly in terms of temp HP and such.
Addition feats through training should include Great Weapon Master, Inspiring Leader, Defensive Fighting Style, Med/Heavy Armor Master. There are so many others that would just add to the character at this point.
You are a Lu Bu on horse back, with an insane toxic satelite, and you'll be siccing the hounds or sprites on those who run.
Free plug for your friend?
You sir are a gem.
@chris Maybe, I have missed it in the video, by why not Jim’s Magic Missile which is a 1st level spell over using Scorching Ray? It’s 2d4 instead of 2d6, but it is Force which means you will miss out on the resistances and immunities your run into with Fire damage.
Is that just because of the potential to roll a 1 and have the shots blow up in your face?
That spell is in the book that shall not be named...
Yeah, that critical miss is just so bad. Upcasting it as a 9th and 8th level spell (w/ Action Surge) would give you 21 missiles (2d4 + 2d6 per missile), but your chances of rolling a 1 at least once per spell is pretty high. Less so, if you make sure you have advantage, and maybe Lucky.
@@indigoblacksteel1176 that’s what I was thinking. At high levels you use Foresight and have ADV on every attack.
@@TreantmonksTemple Yeah our DM said he'd sooner alow homebrew content based on the FATAL RPG than let us use something from that book.
Bugbear Astral Monk Gloomstalker has a ton of synergy and can gain Guidance for skill checks, and with its attack bonuses we are looking at 5 strikes by level 8.
Compared to the Eldritch Blast ear, at 8th level, you can EB twice per action, so with Action Surge and Metamagic (Fighter 2 Warlock 2 Sorcerer 4) you are looking at six EBs for a lot of dice. Throw in a BA Scorching aray, 7 attacks at 8th level.
Thought of a different route to the Bugbear Nova that also optimizes initiative but adds a level of Hexblade and is still functional in its own way. Fighter 2/Hexblade 1/Lore Bard 17. Stat array 8/15+1/12/8/13/15+2.
ASIs are Fey Touched Cha, +2 Cha, Alert, and Resilient Wis.
Initiative is +3 Dex +5 Alert +3 Jack of All Trades +1d12 Peerless Skill +1d6 Superior Technique Ambush = +11+1d12+1d6.
With the right Magical Secrets (Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Steel Wind Strike, Wall of Force, Contingency, Crown of Stars), this build can do some of what a Wizard can (at a later level), and the Bugbear Nova gets to add Hexblade's Curse. The rest of the time, it's a Bard. Solid support and healing.
Wow. Heck of a deep dive. Appreciate the time, effort and content you put into the video.
Ok. Lets do the math: Wizard18/Figher2 vs Fiendlock18/Fighter2:
Also, I don't take accuracy into account coz we assume they are in the same conditions.
Fiendlock:
surge scorch 5lvl + quick EB: 238
surge scorch 5lvl + hex: 210
surge EB + quick EB: 210 // 1 time per day
surge EB + hex: 168 // every short rest
Surgemage:
wiz surge 7+8 level + quick firebolt => 8+9 rays + 1: 238 + 29 = 267
wiz surge 5+6 level => 6+7 rays: 182
wiz surge 5+5 level => 6+6 rays: 168
So, as you can see, Fiendlock gives similar amount of damage, but does not burn their high level slots. Also can shapechange with 9lvl mystic arcanum.
So, Fiendlock is a valid (better) option if your intention is to exploit bugbears surprise bonus, because as a wizard you either upcast scorch, or use your spellslots on really useful wizardy spells.
Whenever fiendlock can do its damage *and* cast 6+ level spells with no real drawbacks.
P.S. ranger4/rogue4/fighter12 does 304 avg nova damage with longbow +1 every short rest to a surprised enemy with no sharpshooter feat and before toHit calculations. 384 avg with sharpshooter, but it's not fair comparison, considering -5 to hit. Btw, no ss, no surpise, no crits - still 180 on avg per short rest.
Scorching Ray and Jim's Magic Missiles are the only way to go. Its less optimal for all of the other features, but no one ever played Bugbear for them so what do they matter?
This is the thing about optimization in dnd that I feel is important. When you optimize to such a degree as this you don't make a stronger character. You make weaker party members. Because the dm scales the battles to your power level. But if the power balance between party members is extremely diverse it will mean either you get weak I in counters so your party can keep up. Or you get over powered in counters so that you don't kill everything turn one. Whilst the rest of the party feels useless. It's fine to figure out the numbers and I get the fun in it. But in my opinion it's best to make a character that fits the party
If all your characters optimize it is not a problem, but I had a party where that is the case and it is true that it is not fun
I like this build. Fighter 2 + War Mage has always appealed to me (perhaps the character was training as an Eldritch Knight but excelled in spell casting and thus took the path of wizardry), and this makes it an optimal choice on top being an interesting one.
@20:44 While it is true you have medium armour proficiency, you also have _heavy armour_ proficiency, thanks to taking Fighter for level one. Now, you probably still want to go with medium armour, but that's because you dumped Strength and heavy armour would impede movement, not due to a lack of proficiency.
And we have Longstrider...
Just starting the video my build for bugbear is artillerist artificer 11th level and with 2 levels of fighter turn 1 that's 3 casts of scorching ray for 9 attack rolls if you have haste up and you use action surge and you'd have 12 rays if you go 3 levels into thief rogue for fast hands for 24d6 extra fire damage
Edit oh hey it got noticed lol
I was thinking how to make the most out of Bugbear and had something fairly similar. I chose pure bladesinger bugbear. Thematically I liked how bugbear was more fey now which matched bladesingers better. I do not have as much Nova as yours but my thought is that I really can not see myself using level 4 spells or higher for this nova unless I was betting on only 1 or 2 fights a day. So at level 3 can still do max 12d6 fire damage if all three rays hit. Range certainly helps in targeting the slow initiative enemies. At level 4 I plan on taking fey touched bless/misty step for 18 Int. If we are ambushing, the bless should help everyone's Nova. Level 6 I can make good use of extra attack + long limbs + level 3 shadow blade for sustained damage after the initial scorching ray volley. In that case I only use booming blade/green flame blade if they get within 5 feet of me but otherwise its fun having what is essentially a 3d8 psychic reach weapon. As I get better spell slots goal is to mostly consider the surprise attack a bonus but focus more on control/debuffs/buffs as I get higher level. When planning out I essentially had the same spells you chose.
My thoughts go to Echo Knight. From level 5, we have. 2 attacks, + unleash incarnation + bonus action attack, unleash incarnation is per attack action, so when we action surge that is potentially 7 attacks on turn 1. I say potentially, because unleash incarnation is limited to con modifier times per day, so we can't burn 2 of them every encounter. In addition unleash incarnation is melee attacks from our echo, so we might need to spend a bonus action to spawn our echo close to the enemy.
By level 11, this becomes 9 attacks just by virtue of being a fighter.
As for winning initiative, there is always the alert feat.
We could also mix in some barbarian for reckless attack, to make those attacks land. But we might run in to trouble of a very busy bonus action turn 1.
At 13th level this is potentially 9 attacks with advantage, so that is really sick! Not to mention it keeps up solidly in DPR. This is probably my favourite melee build now, so well fucking done, Bravo!
To incarnate it requires your bonus action however to manifest the echo. So Action surge is only 6 attacks at level 5, 8 at level 11.
@@archmagemc3561 theres nothing stopping you from having your echo out all the time, it has no limit on time or uses
The downside is you're not getting much boost to you initiative.
@@godofzombi The alert feat still gets you a long way. But yeah, this is a case of looking to the party as well. If anyone has a way to boost your initiative, it might help a great deal. Ask for enhance ability, guidance and other ways to help your ability checks.
If you have any influence over what magic items you get, you might also be able to search something out.
But your point still stands, it is something to find a way to compensate for.
Just one small thing... you need the suprise condition to trigger the bonus 2d6 damage. That doesn`t come from winning iniciative. You need to sneak and atack without being seen, before iniciative is triggered.
I was drawn to the bugbear because you can reach out and touch someone... with a polearm you can reach a 15 foot reach, though it's only on your turn.
Make him a Rune knight: When he becomes large he takes up 4 5t squares, giving him an extra 5ft.
As a minor correction, in the hydra section, it’s mentioned you net lose 15 hit points for each extra head regrown. You’d actually only be down a net 5 hit points, as the hydra regains 10 hit points for each head regrown and you’ll be growing back two for each head lost. It won’t change much, but it means you could have a second friend beating you up on their turn, thus doubling the heads grown.
Ultimately, it’s not that important, since it’s pretty hard to do exactly 25 damage consistently. You’d be taking a bit more to make sure one head dies.
I read "head regrown" as the head must be lost and grown again, so the extra head wouldn't count, but I could see reading it the other way
@@TreantmonksTemple I guess that could make sense. Since it mentioned “each head regrown,” I read that as referring to the total number of newly grown heads.
Just as a note: RAW, Truesight doesn't dismiss the advantage granted by invisibility. See Jeremy Crawford's infamous discussion about this. Only Faerie Fire dismisses the benefits of invisibility because it specifically says it does.
The advantage/disadvantage of invisibility is NOT contingent on the creature not seeing you. It's a separate benefit of the condition.
Fun build, kind of a share that the 10ft reach is not used more though.
by my count, this build learned 1 spell that wouldnt normally be on your normal wizard build (scorching ray) and one feat (alert) that you wouldnt normally take. This means basically any wizard can do this albeit if you dont choose war wizard you dont get the extra +5 to initiative. Also this only works for one combat per day, and not at all if fighting a single devil or other fire immune enemy, so hope you don't have 8 combats per day in your adventuring day! Scribe wizard would allow you to change damage type at least and you get more out of ritual casting.
Been waiting a while for another Fighter/War Wizard build that incorporates Tasha's after your Gith Gish. Did not disappoint.
Still keeping mine a Gith, but I agree with Alert and Action Surge for SWS glory.
A Great items for this bugbear build would be the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar - Tooth of the Mill Road Murders which adds 3d10 slashing damage to any attack on a creature that hasn't taken a turn yet.
My favorite character right now is a Bugbear Echoknight :) So so good
Updated build idea: You can do Hexblade 1, Fighter 2 (superior technique, Ambush) , and Sorcerer the rest of the way. ASIs would be Feytouched, char +2, Lucky and Agonizing Blast from Eldritch Adept (should be valid since you have a level of Warlock). This gives you 12d10+24d6+60 on your first round [Quickened EB, EB plus EB action surge], which should be 210 assuming all hits and average dice damage. This does not have Alert but hopefully, advantage with Lucky plus Ambush gives you what you need initiative-wise. If you have gift of alacrity from Fey Touched then D8+D6+(d20 with advantage if needed from lucky) +2 dex should be pretty good.
If you want advantage, you can quicken greater invisibility and use action and action surge for 2X beams. Finally once you get wish you can use it to cast contingency with greater invisibility. Now you have 12 beams with advantage. I do agree yours is better :)
Would make a good Mercy monk in particular if you got some proper cantrips on it either by taking Aberrant Dragonmark. With that you'd get booming or green flame blade, you could also take silver barbs to make sure of you're going to grapple it has a chance to flip it.
You could also get druid initiate and get thorn whip and primal savagery with either good berry for the early level or snare or ensnare for crowd control. Good thing about this is it launches quick and has heals, extra necrotic damage and can just put the poisoned condition on stuff with lair actions eventually think it's like level 9-11 somewhere in there for that last part. Mercy monk doesn't require the ki points any longer to poison extra necrotic or heal at later levels. You also get up to four attacks with your bonus flurry stunning and other stuff. You throw piercer on this build and yeah you wind up rerolling only 1 of many 6's but if you're using a bow it counts I believe if you're using just a standard attack with a javelin you could reroll there as well daggers darts all that scales up with your martial arts die. As well as getting to roll an additional die on a critical, could also throw crusher on it too and knock them around.
The real beauty of it all is stretching out your reach radius to put those flurries and heals where you need them .
Thorn whip will pull a 5ft reach enemy from 20 feet into your reach crusher will knock them back five and allow you to move up to five yourself at this point you still have an extra attack, throw a javelin or something or anyway maybe Athens more experienced can help hash all this out.
At that I never do a build straight optimizing one thing first anyway I look at the utility and roleplay as well. Figure if I was wanting to roll that many dice and only make attacks i might as well just play Warhammer, nothing against it but it's boring without the roleplay and exploring research and investigation.
Surprised you didnt take forsight as a 9th level spell. advantage all day on all attacks without more setup required seems really good here.
Woo! War Mage. My Favourite Wizard! Shine you beautiful TANK MAGE!
"bugbear with me" made me snort my drink out of my nose, thanks ahaha
That was probably your only chance to actually pick elemental bane in a build to action-surge it on the first round using silvery to make it stick
Once you’re a hydra, have an ally give you an Eldritch Claw Tattoo +3.
I think the silliness of the bonus action spell restriction hadn't fully come home to me until this video. If you cast a Misty Step on that turn, you couldn't cast anything but cantrips with both of your actions when you Action Surge. But if you don't, you can cast high-level spells with both of those actions! Man, that's silly. It would make more sense if it was just a "only one levelled spell per turn" rule.
Just confirms my initial instinct -- I just houseruled and allowed bonus action and action levelled spells on the same turn, for simplicity's sake (with my group of new-to-DnD players).
5th level contingent spirit shroud is an alternative to greater invisibility to get 2d8 extra damage for each hit.
Awesome. Just realized it applies to spell attacks too (within 10 ft only so it's dangerous to use besides Steel Wind Strike).
@@SortKaffe you can always get within 10 feet, cast the spell, then run away.
My choice would be either long death monk and a few moon druid, a giant mole that wont be whacked and can spy and burrow up from under to gain surprise.
Mercy monk and wildfire
Also drunken monk for the 4 to 7 attacks and 3 in moon druid or champ fighter
Jim's Magic Missile, if you're willing to take a small risk. The upcast on this is the same as the traditional Magic Missile, so usually not really worth it. But, as a means if ringing extra d6s out of this feature...
(sniffs air)
Does anyone else smell Evocation Wizard Tears?
What a missed opportunity to call the app Fightr.
JIM'S MAGIC MISSILE (just dont roll a nat 1) a better level 1 spell, upcasts better too
PC: *picks bugbear wizard*
DM: Somehow every monster you encounter is immune to fire and physical damage, and resistant to force. As you start arguing, "Don't f with DM, wizard" you hear from the skies above.
I tried this build with Invisibility and Jim's Magic missile it was a blast!
Not sure if its mentioned but a 1 lvl dip in Hexblade would get you Hexblade's curse. If you did that at the beginning and then Scorching Ray even 5th lvl x2 (Action Surge) for 12 rays, thats a potential extra 60 dmg for a lvl 13 build. You wouldn't get to 6th lvl spells but your first round would be quite a bit more dmg.
I love scorching ray! Glad to see some love on it. 2 Fighter/War Wizard is very fun, but I can't help but go into strength and heavy armor immediately with it, and just wade into combat with booming blades. Not the most optimal, but a 21-30 AC without magic items is super fun to run (the extra 2 coming from haste, Tasha's Transformation, or Platinum Shield)
Un-bug-bearable had me rollin lol
If your dm allows Jim's magic missile is also incredible for this build, though I don't know when/if scorching ray outscales it
They scale remarkably similarly 14d4+14d6, avg 84 force for Jim's vs 24d6 avg 84 fire for S-Ray. Crits and the more reliable damage type might give Jim's the edge barely, but it might be restricted and there is the gold tax on Jim's.
@@dustinhotz6665 Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Jim's Magic Missile stop working and not deal damage if you miss a single attack with it. Seems like Scorching Ray is always gonna be a better choice even if you're stuck with it dealing fire damage.
Take the metamagic feat and choose transmute spell
@@whiskeyhound If you roll a 1 with any missile, but that's a valid point to be sure
@@dustinhotz6665 Yeah, seems like a really bad spell to consider for any sort of optimal build, might be fun in a regular game but never tried it out.
I spit my drink when you said custom lineage.
i plan to play a monk bugbear for the 10ft stunning strike, and with attacking 10ft away im not triggering opertunity attacks. Is it optimized? no. Does it help the monk extrem? yes.
One of the reasons I've been leaning toward Sorlock for this build is because with Invisibility, I don't HAVE to win the Initiative order - I can get a surprise round. If at later levels I can increase my initiative, then there's another huge opportunity - if I gain surprise AND win initiative, you can get TWO rounds of Surprise Attack.
Not to be a jerk, but you misunderstood how surprise works in 5e.
'surprised' is a condition, like 'incapacitated'. They are 'surprised' until the end of their first turn. They can't take any actions or reactions while surprised. But since they cease to be surprised after their first turn, they can take reactions on any turn after theirs.
The reason all of this matters is because Assassin can only auto crit creatures that haven't taken a turn in combat yet, and are thus still surprised. Similarly, getting 'surprise' doesn't mean bugbear can surprise attack anyone. Only creatures who haven't taken a turn yet. Even if during that turn a creature couldn't do anything, by the time its the bugbears turn, they will have taken a turn in combat. Similarly, the assassin won't be able to auto crit them.
This is why treantmonk emphasized winning initiative so much.
All that said, thats only the nitty gritty of the 5e rules, and ive played at tables where 'surprise rounds' functioned exactly as you described. But itr essentially a house rule, however intended that way
I had a Bugbear monk that was fun. Optimization is cool, but just playing an interesting character is fun.
Sorlock is another option for getting a ton of attacks on the first turn, and is obviously good after turn one. Just a two level warlock dip(hexblade for hexblade reasons) gets you all you need.
there is a weird SUPER SPECIFIC build that can capitalize on all the things: hexblade warlock 2, assassin rogue 3, gloomstalker 3, fighter 2, and bladesinger 6, with alert and the metamagic feat, allowing for a nova round doing attack action: one cantrip (eldrich blast) and two weapon attacks, action surge to duplicate and bonus action eldrich blast. 16 attacks each with +2d6 damage critting for +4d6, making bugbear bonus damage equal to +64d6. The build is MAD as hell, and probably weak outside of nova round. I would personally stick with the build presented in the video.
Excellent video! You have me wondering how good an evocation wizard 17/Assassin 3 would fare with both jim's magic missiles (if allowed) and scorching ray by default. This is mostly to get the greatest damage output with those spell. Finding a way to add hex or hunter's mark would be worth it to maybe avoid a second multiclass in fighter that would spread too thin the wizard.
Fey touched feat?
At level 17, Fighter 2, Warlock 2, Sorcerer X would be another way to give you 12 attacks using Eldritch Blast with Quicken Spell + Action Surge.
This is an awesome video for me because I’m playing a war wizard with a fighter dip. I’m not a bugbear but there are a ton of great recommendations in this video That will work well for my character nonetheless
I like this build. Maybe I'll try it some day.
Wish there was an easy way to squeeze in a meta magic adept feat. It solves the fire damage issue too thanks to transmute spell. You only want to cast scorching ray on turn 1 anyway, so its not an issue you can only Transmute spell twice. Then you can pick up another fun lil metamagic like subtle spell. But its such a bummer you cant get it early. Boosting intelligence is obviously required, and the Alert feat is top tier for the build. (Not gonna mention lucky) Probably would still take it eventually but obviously as you say the scorching ray nova becomes less exciting at a certain point
0:51 "so, if you'll bugbear with me"
the world: "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
dads everywhere: *nods of approval*
I’ve been a little curious. Obviously the chosen spells are the only definite options you get for a spell books but iirc I rarely if ever hear you mention acquiring additional spells to transpose throughout a game. Is this just something you don’t bring up in builds? Or are they not generally given out in games you play?
Ask Mila Kunis. I heard she's a bad chick.
@@DeeperWithDiego was this comment meant for me? Cause I’m thoroughly confused
Sometimes they come up, and sometimes they don't. I tend not to bring them up in builds because they aren't something you can really plan ahead for.
@@TreantmonksTemple that’s what I figured just wanted to double check. My DM left my wizard a decently powerful enemy’s spell book that I’ve been reaping the benefits of for awhile
@@sportsnut1473 Yes. Sports Nut is a meme from another youtube channel. I thought your name was a play on that meme :)
Would be really funny to go scribes wizard instead of war wizard and basically just drone strike people with your slashing rays while you're drinking in the tavern
I know that a feat is quite the toll, but couls metamagic adept - transmuted spell help?
I ended up, for an 11th level one shot, running an 8 Beast Barb/3 Gloom Stalker fitting in GWM, PAM. Advantage on initiative from Barb, cant be surprised, two reckless GWM attacks with Gloomstalker and two from claws. Not the end all be all optimal build but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun
I vaguely remember chris mentioning when he would take that second fighter level but I can’t seem to remember when it was. Anyone able to help me out? I feel like it’s a tough choice before level 5 wizard so maybe then?
One more level of Fighter to get the Samurai Fighting Spirit could guarantee advantage. This might even be better if your character won't reach 13th level or if Contingency won't cut it for another reason
here we go knew this was coming
I made this build with the Chronurgy subclass. Both the Gift of Alacrity spell and the Chronal Shift, which gives my character a reroll on a low initiative roll, are perfect for this build. Of course that is only if your DM allows it.
Also, Spirit Shroud is great for this build if you know a combat is about to happen (and you have to assume that you can get close enough for Spirit Shroud to work).