To the viewers: I didn't know how this video would be received, as it's a lot of focus on a single option, but the response has been amazing! Thank you everyone who watched, commented, and provided your words of support. What a fantastic surprise!
O. M. Wow man, again with this arrow stuff? How many threads do you need to post this in? Even Sage Advice says ask the DM, not that it doesn’t work by RAW as you’ve continuously argued.
O. M. I understand RAW to mean exactly that: Rules As Written. Some actions are RAW (legal), some actions are against RAW (illegal), some actions are not described by RAW (DM fiat). Using Crawford’s ruling as an example: Using the spell in that way is up to the DM (DM fiat). Keep in mind, it would take 1 minute per arrow (RAW), assuming you could find each one (DM fiat). Now regardless of the SA ruling, by RAW you can theoretically reconstruct any arrow via Mending no matter how broken if you spend sufficient time on it, repairing one break at a time, as long as each break is under 1ft. The question is 1) can you find it and, 2) how much time are you willing to spend on it. The former is decided by DM fiat, the latter by player agency.
@O. M. Absolutely you have my persmission, this is a place to talk D&D! 1) When I said "explode" I didn't mean like a bomb, I meant shatter (or splinter) under force of impact. What I said was not intended to be a distortion of your claim. 2) I said that arrow loss wasn't necessarily due to arrows breaking in the video you commented on. I then pointed out how environment might impact this. I don't recall the exact wording, but I remember your comment was disputing this, not agreeing with this. 3) Jeremy Crawfords Sage Advice basically comes down to 3 points. Point 1: 100% of broken arrows may not be mendable - check with your DM. Point 2: Not all arrow loss will be due to breakage. Point 3: Spell takes one minute to cast. Can't say I disagree with any of that. In fact, point 2 I made myself in the video. Point 3 is just the rules, and point 1 is just common sense. 4) You're interpreting the point that the DM will determine whether the damage an arrow suffers can be repaired by mending as "RAW, not how the rule interacts with the spell". That's not consistent with the point JC is making. Just because damage to an arrow is normally explained with a tip falling off, or a single break, or it being stuck in someone, does not mean those explinations are universal (which is specifically what the question he's clarifying is asking), and it will be up to the DM to determine. This is the only way to answer a question with some vague possibilities, regardless of what is normally the case.
Hm, what about Thorn Whip? Granted, you'd need good Wisdom and you can only get it from the Druid list, but Goodberry and Guidance are still there. You could use it with a cleric, maybe the same one that took Shillelagh if you like. The appeal is that when you hit a Large or smaller creature with it, you can move that creature up to 10 feet toward you - no save, they just move. This can be used to pull enemies out of position (say, away from an ally who'd really rather not take an attack of opportunity from a ghoul while dashing away) toward danger (for instance, your Spirit Guardians) or even to move an ally if staying where they are is going to hurt more than being thorn whipped.
Variant Mold Earth is available to Priests of Moander - creates mold spores in soil within a 5'radius. What do such mold spores do? Wouldn't *you* like to know. But in the meantime, my vegipygmy minions will show you to the door.
Fun little fact: Goodberry is good for two days of rations, not one. You eat any spares when you make camp at night, and now you're good for the following day as well. Bonus magical survival tip: the necromancer, not the ranger or the cleric, is the best at keeping the party fed.. Gentle repose preserves corpses for ten days per casting, and can be cast as a ritual - without needing it prepared if you have a book to cast from. Animal corpses are otherwise known as "steaks waiting to happen". Tenser's Floating Disk is also a ritual that doesn't take concentration, with which to haul a half-ton of rations around. Behold the wizard etc etc.
tenser's floating disk lasts for an hour, if you're walking for 8 hours that's 8 spell slots so not a good spell for this. so gentle repose is fine but you'll need a bag of holding that'll hold the entirety of the corpse (or else you'll have to cast it on each individual piece) also a second level spell, so really goodberry can't be beat here.
@@debreczeniarpad9956 i was saying, second level spells being generally better than first level spells using a second level spell for doing what a first level does but more cumbersome seems like a bad trade, but yes not having to use a spell slot is nice as long as you're willing to haul a carcass with you or chop it up and do it several times, then put it in a bag of holding. Also keeping a copper piece on the creatures eyes for 10 days? not to mention the pinch of salt? means you can't chop it up, or preserve it if it's head is gone. maybe you can glue the copper and salt onto it? XD
It's also good for getting into town in the first place. Guards may stop you at the gates if you forgot to wash the spreekilling stink off yourself first.
We used prestidigitation on stealth missions where fire was not an option. Fill a kettle or pot with water and make the water boil and voila, instant meal.
you can also take magic initiate for your own spellcasting class or for a class with the same casting stat. for Example, a Wizard can take Magic Initiate (Wizard) to gain 2 more cantrips plus find familiar. for some of the other lists, i had to beg the GM to let me take a 3rd cantrip instead of a 1st level spell.
Prestidigitation can be quite powerful for deception. "You create a nonmagical trinket or an iIlusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn." - So, mr evil NPC, you want the ruby of Akhothan. Well, here it is, and I'll just throw it down this well. Clonk clonk splash. - Hey! Mr warden, I have the key to our cell and now I'm failing to stealthily unlock the door, you better come in to get it! "You create an instantaneous. harmless sensory effect. such as a shower of sparks. a puff of wind. faint musical notes. or an odd odor." - So, mr Town Guard, are you really going to come interrogate us when the table next to us reeks of drugs. - Is that smoke I'm sensing? Fire! Everyone out!
all very good uses but it's a spell, so you still have to cast it possibly giving you away (save any feats that let you do it stealthy) so likely some kind of check will be required either way, and a lot of your examples include the target of the deception looking right at you, as 6 seconds isn't a lot of time between casting and talking to the npc. but yeah for one cantrip it can trigger a lot of different checks that otherwise you might have needed to do various things for.
Example 1) Roll a deception check with advantage Example 2) The guard instinctively checks to see if his key is still in his pocket. He finds it right away. Example 3) The town guard tries to pick some drugs and his hand goes through the illusion Example 4) Roll a deception check with advantage. Some are good deceptions, others need a bit more polish since can be easily deemed as false.
@@AndrusPr8 Those are fair rulings, except you didn't understand what I meant with 3). The PC is not creating an visual illusion, but a _smell_ (odd odor). The smell is not an illusion, but a real smell. If the guard recognizes it as being the smell of an illicit substance, he might go investigate that, giving time to hide/run/disguise self/fireball. --- But my main point is that the cantrip is more than just replacing cheap items like a tinderbox or parchment and paper. Or being nice by making someones food taste better or clean something up. It is more than basic utility, and creative players can get a lot of value out of it. Is it as good as minor illusion, mending, or mage hand? Probably not.
@@japphan it's the best survival cantrip in the game. Warm/cooling for an hour. Cleans/soils a 1 foot cube object (glass of water) Lights a fire (candle on a firebomb)(rope holding a chandelier) (the chair of an oaf in a noisy bar) (dry grass under someone's foot) (lamp oil on the floor) Clear a room with the smell of skunks. Lure a spice trader with the smell of saffron Bet of a cook off and improve you sides food while the opponents tastes like ear wax. Make an illusion of ear wax fall into the soup. Flash platinum coins in a seedy bar to do guilt free murder hobo hijinks. Make a banshee wail come from outside.(it sounds like nails on a chalkboard...they hear it no matter how quite it is) As to its VS properties, yes I imagine anyone within 30 feet in a quiet room would know you are casting a spell. The movement is probably alot like wingguardium leviosa...so make more movements and really talk with your hands. Ask someone to start an argument with you so you can cant in the middle of a triad on beer vs ale vs stout. If your talking ingredients and rare brews and throw in Pre-Sti-dig-it....tation while the barbarian is screaming Grog is best! You should get a deception roll at minimum. Its all about "How would I do this IRL if I could cast just this spell. I could do SO much with just this cantrip.
No mention of the glorious Disguise Self + Friends fun when discussing Friends? Definitely a possible reason to take it. Also personally I find I'm more likely to want Magic Initiate on a character that has a complementary ability score - druid or cleric can get you really interesting things as a Monk, for instance, and as a Monk you're going to want decent Wisdom. So only discussing it in terms of things that don't care about ability score is missing some of the use of this fear. Of course, I've always interpreted (possibly incorrectly) that the feat saying you learn the spell to mean you can cast it with other spell slots, so some of the ways I've used it before are probably wrong...
In modern archery, arrows infrequently break at all. In ancient arcery, the heads would likely come off consistently, but the shaft should be resilient up to a point. Against a stone wall, sure they might break. Against a target, nah.
It occurs to me that recovering an arrow from an armored corpse might be tricky, they aren't really made to come out - but once again, a split in half should solve that problem. The shattering thing seemed weird to me, but again, I'm not an expert. I think any arrows I've used are not wooden, and shot against straw or foam targets.
I shoot some Traditional Archery and wooden arrows do indeed break but I never had one shatter into a trillion pieces and it's way less than half. But then this is a game so I think mending broken arrows is fine.
Treantmonk's Temple I think trying to get too realistic with DnD is a never-ending rabbit hole. Full plate in reality would make blade weapons virtually useless unless you get them in the joints or the seams, and arrows generally can’t even penetrate the armor. Blunt weapons like maces and warhammers on the other hand were specifically designed to be armor killers.
@@TreantmonksTemple If you managed to get a bodkin point into a body (which is presumably what you're using on armored targets) it'll probably come out the same way it went in, having burst the rings of the target's mail and created a nice squared hole. If it's lodged in a bone or somesuch, though, you might manage to break it trying to pull it out. There are anecdotes (which I take with an entire salt mine until further corroborated, but...) that some arrowheads were affixed with beeswax, so that they'd come off if someone tried to extract them. This was alledgedly done to deny the enemy a source of reusable ammunition, but if it did occur, I imagine it made medical care *interesting*
@@M0ebius AC has always been one of the issues i have with DnD, its neither intuitive from a gameplay perspective nor from a storytelling perspective. For gameplay the all or nothing approach to damage is just plain weird unless AC exclusively described dodge actions, for storytelling the lack of information on how damage is prevented also makes it difficult to explain to the player what is happening. That being said a realistic approach to these things would also go into comparing the hardness and flexibility of armor and weapon, localized weakpoints created from previous attacks etc and that just makes the whole system a chore.
Message is also useful for anyone who is a forward scout for their party. As a rogue, I'm regularly 30 feet away from the party, scouting ahead. Without Message, I have to go all the way back to them, or shout (thus breaking stealth) in order to give them information. With Message, I can keep a running commentary going. I can also be further away from them, especially if I'm stationary or nearly so, maybe staking out a particular location. Message is just incredibly useful in a variety of ways... you can use it to screw with NPCs, as well. Whisper to a drunk idiot at the bar that you think his mother is [insert insult]. All he hears is that someone whispered an insult to him about his mom. If he's drunk enough, that's gonna get him to start swinging... useful distraction for a variety of things. You can also whisper things at guards, potentially getting them to leave their post if you're clever enough (or know enough about the guard).
I think you missed two great options: Mage Armor and Thaumaturgy. Mage Armor only needs the single cast of the day and it's better than studded leather. Also good for dex characters that want to wear a specific dress or clothes and don't bother with armor, here's Mage Armor. I find it also cool for VHuman Wizards that already have some access to CON save proficiency or concentration checks like Transmuters or high level Conjurers, or even Bladesingers maybe. Or Sorcerers because they have the proficiency by default. This way you don't spend a slot daily for just playing your character without dying. Expecially useful for non-Draconic Sorcerers. Thaumaturgy is more useful than it seems, you can build a character completely around the cantrip for roleplaying. We have a Cleric in our party that constantly uses it to confirm his authority, he once used it to open a door in a dungeon that was not openable by our side and we didn't have someone with enough strength to force it. Situational but definitively funny, I'd say it's on the same tier of Prestigiditation. If you want to take Bless or Shield of Faith and someone else in the party already has guidance, I'd definitively take Thaumaturgy instead.
Mage Armor is better than studded leather, but once magic armor comes into play that changes. You are correct though, for characters without armor it's a pretty good pick. I should have included it.
@@TreantmonksTemple yep magic armor could be always around the corner but it's not guaranteed, also you get the 13+Dex AC at level 1 which magic armor usually is a rare tier item, usually obtainable by level 10 or somewhere around that tier. It really depends on the DM and the campaign
@@TreantmonksTemple It's also great to cast on companion animals for rangers, druids, etc. Even when it is out stripped for your PC it has value. Situation might occur in which it can be used to protect an NPC or familiar.
Great stuff! I like how you always had what you were talking about as a caption on the screen. It makes it really easy to find what I'm looking for if I am going forward and backwards in the video. The color coding was good, too. Some interesting combinations: A level 1 Moon druid takes Magic Initiate to get Mage Armor. Mage Armor usually buffs animal AC. At level 2, on the first turn or beforehand, as an action, cast Mage Armor (AC becomes 13 + Dex modifier). On the same turn, as a bonus action, use the Combat Wild Shape feature to Wild Shape into an animal (with Challenge Rating 1 because of Circle of the Moon's Circle Forms). At character level 2, CR 1 includes a dire wolf that goes from AC 14 to AC 15 (13 Mage Armor AC + 2 Dex mod = 15). A brown bear goes from AC 11 to AC 13 (13 Mage Armor AC + 0 Dex mod = 13). Giant hyena, from 12 to 15. Later, when flying creatures are allowed, giant eagle goes from 13 to 16. A level 1 monk takes Magic Initiate Warlock to get Hex. On turn 1, use a bonus action to set Hex, then use an action to Attack with a monk weapon (add Hex damage). On subsequent turns, use an action to Attack (add Hex damage), use a bonus action to use Martial Arts for an extra unarmed attack (add Hex damage). At level 2 monk, spend a Ki point to use a bonus action for Flurry of Blows (add Hex damage for each of the two bonus action two hits). A level 1 paladin takes Magic Initiate Warlock for Hex and also Eldritch Blast, which uses the same spellcasting modifier. A level 1 warlock takes Magic Initiate Warlock to get an extra single spell long-rest spell slot and double their cantrips.
@@TreantmonksTemple Thanks for the reply! Keep up the great work. I've been following your stuff since Pathfinder 3.5 guides. I'm always happy to see more videos by you, and I hope to see more feat-specific videos from you, including maybe a follow-up for Magic Initiate. Do you have a Patreon?
Nope, currently I'm doing this for fun. I may start a Patreon at some point when I'm willing to invest the time necessary to make investment in my content worthwhile. Question: Do you have a specific feat you would like to see me do a video for?
I do know about archery, and I've never had an arrow explode like that, but it could happen if you have a wooden shaft hit say a stone. Otherwise the most common damage is a crack at the nock, losing the fletching or rarely damage to the arrowhead. A good archer should be flex testing an arrow before shooting it, and discarding any that crack before they can fail spectacularly like that.
a party with presto and dark vision (especially in a rogue) can be great since it actually doesn't have attended restrictions, find a bandit camp, snap the fire out and take advantage of the confusion. guard you need to sneak past has a torch have the rogue snap it out so the party can sneak past easier. want to poison some one disguise the poison by reflavoring the food/drink, if you take find familiar as the level 1 spell you can combine the ability to see through the familiar eyes and presto to create a palm sized live (updated every 6 seconds) map of what the familiar sees,
This gave me an idea for a campaign in the future, where everyone plays martial characters in a war driven culture like Sparta with the magic initiate feat and multiclass options.
Matthew Niemi In my home game every PC is a Hexblade multiclass. But it’s Witcher themed, with everyone belonging to the same order of monster slayers but from different schools with different fighting styles.
I like using this feat as an in between state before multiclassing into a spell casting class. I also like to use it to replace some of the warlock invocations at higher levels. Such as you take the invocation Thief of Five Fates for bane you can replace that invocation with a higher level invocation and take magic initiate bard or cleric (depending on your stats and which cantrips you want) and just take bane with it. Only down side to this method is most of the invocations that give you access to a level 1 spell are at will with the invocation and not just once per day so keep that in mind.
Having played this many times, I feel like the Druid option is really strong for a Fighter or Paladin type, since Thorn Whip is incredible for making the character "sticky" and Produce Flame is an easy way to do some decent ranged damage. Cure Wounds is great for a Fighter, and Healing Word for Paladins, but the better options are control spells like Faerie Fire or Entangle which further enhance your position in combat.
Thanks for the video! I must say, the final statement that all the MI classes are not equally good was Nice to hear. Also, got tips on many cantrips and spells that I’ve never considered. Kinda surprised, since I’ve been pondering about MI for a very long time! Nice again, thanks for the video and keep up the good work!
Thank you, it's why I made the video. I looked at Magic Initiate videos - one by one of my favorite channels, and they presented them as equal, that's when I figured I had something different to say than is already out there.
This was a good video. Depending on DM it can be a very potent utility piece for exploration/non-combat, but DMs need to be a little flexible with how the geometry works out. Example: you get a set of long underwear or feetie pajyamas. Can you roll, fold, or wad them into 1 cubic foot? If yes then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to make heated underclothes that stay warm or cool regardless of weather. Save hundreds of gold on weather prep for traveling in the desert or tundra. Is something frozen solid? Wall of Ice? 1 cubic foot goes from frozen to “warm.” That doesn’t make it melt, the ice sublimates into water vapor instantly. Clean infected wounds to provide advantage on Con saves to resist poisons or disease. Make everyone’s boots smell like cat pee at level 1 so rats and rat swarms avoid them. Make some folks’ upper lip smell like citronella for advantage on saves vs stinking cloud, dretch clouds, etc. It has a 1001 and uses I’m sure.
Gotta criticize Shillelagh though. It's gives a tiny boost below 5. But above 5, any point blank or saving throw cantrip will scale better than Shillelagh. Especially with stuff like Primal Savagery on the table, or the various pbaoe attacks that are usually d6, but can hit multiple targets and scale.
Cantrip damage is poor damage unless you have some boost like potent spellcasting or agonizing blast (neither of which you will be able to take advantaqge of with this feat). However, Shillelagh is weapon damage, so it's damage will scale with your ability score increase, extra attacks, smites, or Divine strikes. So for example, say you are playing a melee cleric that has reached 8th level. Let's say a War Cleric and Wis is 20. With Primal Savagery the cleric will do 11 damage average in a round (on a hit) With Shillelagh the Cleric will do 14 damage in a round (on a hit), but if that Cleric uses War Priest, that becomes 28. If that Cleric is using Divine Favor, damage goes to 33. Consider now a non Divine Strike Cleric like an Arcana Cleric. That Cleric would do 16 with Primal Savagery (on a hit), which is better. However, with Shillelagh and Green Flame Blade, they do 28. Also keep in mind that resistance/immunity to acid is far more common than resitance/immunity to magical weapon attacks. Now I'm not recommmending Shillelagh universally, but if you have a melee character, it often will stack nicely with what you can already do.
Great vid. I recently played a character with the MI feat and it was a BAMF. Guidance: I was Oprah "YOU GET A D4, AAAND YOU GET A D4!". Plus Bane, which succeeded when it needed to, and definitely helped save our squishy lvl 1 party from a tpk. (Also I think Bane is worth a purple, at least. It's such a great spell if you have a decent WIS score. It'll make your DM hate his d4's).
Thank you for the video, good insights. We love prestidigitation (apart from its pronounciation) at our table, just just to clean up to avoid detection but mainly for keeping feet warm! We often have one from warm climates shivering and complaining about cold and if not, then a familiar will step into that role...
Really handy guide! Love your videos! Now I want to start a game where every PC gets Magic Initiate and gets one green/blue cantrip and one purple/orange cantrip, all different.
For the 1st level spell, you can use your other slots to cast it if you have access to that spell on your list. It's very useful to use with a Sorcerer or Wizard to nab Mage Armor as an upgrade to your defenses. It's a good option for classes without armor proficiencies and doesn't rely on anything other than casting it when you wake up...should last through your adventure normally with 1/day so it won't interfere with your normal casting. As a side note, if you're going with Bard, Paladin, or Warlock, the Sorcerer list ends up looking a lot better for you since you're already a Charisma caster, so if it has what you want then it's a better option than Wizard. Find Familiar tends to be better taken with Ritual Caster, mainly because Find Familiar isn't a normally cast spell. Also, if you look at it right, technically, if you're a divine soul sorcerer, you can grab from both Sorcerer and Cleric ones with it...not normally even worth doing then unless you're grabbing it at a later level and want a few more cantrips
@@sharkforce8147 Technically, it becomes a tossup if you go for Magic Initiate Sorcerer while being a Divine Soul Sorcerer because of the interactions between choosing a sorcerer spell and the class ability that lets you select from the cleric list if you are choosing a spell from the sorcerer list. If you choose it for your class as a caster, then the feat is basically choose an extra 1st level spell and 2 cantrips from your class list there (and the extra 1st level slot that a sorcerer can't break down)
Thanks for the video. FYI: modern carbon fiber arrows can shatter when they break... wooden arrows tend to break like a wooden pencil and should be fine for mend as long as the dm will allow the bending/warping that normally happens to be fixed with the spell. You might have wanted to cover Magic Initiate for classes that have high stats in casting ability: i.e. Cleric taking Druid to get access to damage dealing cantrips as Cleric list is deficient Human Life Clerics with shillelagh, thornwip and good berries that heal 4x10/day are very impressive. A charisma high rouge may want to go with Bard, Sorcerer or Warlock because they have a 14 or 16 in that stat. And a great as find familiar is wouldn’t ritual caster(assuming the 13 int)be a more useful way of accessing it than magic initiate?
@O. M. I suppose that, if you are playing with a group full of other pedants, this level of simulationism can contribute to the overall level of fun for all concerned. For my part, allowing someone to recover their arrows through creative use of a cantrip that doesn't otherwise see much action is hardly going to break the game and seems like the better way to go.
@O. M. So, more like 5 minutes, maybe 10 in a bad case, per arrow instead of 1 per arrow due to having to cast Mending multiple times. Might be faster to craft regular arrows, especially if using Xanathar's Guide, but it's still more than worth it for Silvered arrows or Adamantine arrows.
I would love to see some videos that discuss feats (and maybe even magic item) suggestions by class. There are so many videos on UA-cam that are "top 5 feats" or "best magic items," but they don't break it down by class. I think you'd be really good at that. I've enjoyed how you break things down and get thorough about the practical uses of things that sound good on the surface. Thank you for this video! I'm considering taking this feat at some point for my cleric.
"Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know." this is the wording on pact magic multiclassing. I've always saw this Magic Initiate feat as being a spell known, this would mean that a warlock that takes Magic Initiate has access to these spells and can up cast them or cast them using their spell slots. the feat does avoid the word "known spell" but like a lot of things, talk to the dm and ask them how they'd rule it. I've never had one disagree, but I could see one doing so. if they do agree you can use the spell as a warlock spell, this is a near must for warlocks.
thorn whip is a fantastic cantrip. Having 30 feet of range and the ability to pull someone ten feet closer and depending on how lenient the DM is it has a lot of really good roleplaying options also. On top of that, Wisdom is rarely a dump stat for most classes and if it's taken with a cleric for example. So a cleric decides they want goodberry, they already have a nice Wisdom score so they can use that and pull enemies away from squishies or pull enemies into the range of a polearm sentinel or some other kind of unfavorable and nasty trap. Now onto druidcraft another underrated cantrip. most dms really don't think about weather (normally going and assuming it's bright and sunny, using it to "check" aka change the weather will force the dm to think or maybe even roll to decide the weather. Both of these are a little DM dependent but they supplement Wisdom based characters greatly. Monks, Clerics, maybe paladins, etc. Despite that I feel like both of these spells are really thematic and cool for all of them.
While I agree with most of the analysis, I would point out that many people opt to take music initiate in a class that matches their own primary ability score. In cases such as this, ignoring the spells that rely on that ability score isn't really necessary.
In ref to 19:10 in video - D&D 5e errata 2018. In the second paragraph has been changed to “in addition, choose one 1st level spell to learn from that spell list. Using this Feat, you can cast the spell once at it’s lowest level, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again. “ the once a day language has been removed. Also, if you are a spell casting class you can according to rule clarification cast this spell if it is of you identical class as a class spell. (AKA a Wizard spell initiate can also cast it as a wizard spell using their wizard class spell slots. Though as always DM always has to agree with the ruling there). I do disagree with some of your dive. I will finish saying that I see 5 reasons to take this. 1) Background (ex background “I tried to be a cleric of helm and I sucked at it so now I follow the great old one and it just gives me what I need”) 2) Alt Fire - you are a ground and pound fighter but if the bad guys are airborne you WANT to make them burn at range 3) Alt use of a Primary Stat - happens with Sorcer/Bard/Warlock/Paladin where they want to keep getting character focus but to make a minor dip (usually to get Hex and EB) 4)Game World work around which are minor (ex. Wearing armor and a weapon is a issue but the fighter can mage armor and fire bolt and maintain some combat ability ) 5) Expanding abilities - A fighter adding a Bless spell to a combat to free up a Concentration slot for the cleric (as you say) or a Monk wanting to make his nunchucks (clubs in the game) into magic 1D6 weapons in early levels. My 2 cents. Peace ✌️
HipnoSapo For a combat focused Lore Bard, Variant Human War Caster, Lore Bard 18 Hexblade 2, Invocations: Agonizing Blast/Repelling Blast, Magical Secrets: Spiritual Weapon/Spirit Guardians at Bard 6, Counterspell at Bard 10, Wish at Bard 18, and the rest based on party composition.
Noah Linden I actually run Booming Blade instead of GFB for the Dissonant Whispers/War Caster BB combo, as well as to lockdown enemies within the Spirit Guardians field. This is my recommended build, but for what it’s worth my personal character actually starts Divine Sorcerer 1 for CONsave proficiency, 3 spells and 4 cantrips. This is because my party already has someone that can eventually cast Wish, and also my character did not have to start at level 1.
I have 1 final feat to select for my Bard/Paladin I'm tossed up between Magic Initiate, Prodigy, Mounted Combatant, Lucky, and Shield Master. I already have War Caster and Resilient +CON With Magic Initiate, I don't have to use a Magical Secret to take Booming Blade, which combos with Smite and Dissonant Whispers, and I can also take something like Eldritch Blast or Chill Touch to cover my ranged weakness. However, the way the first level spell works means that I can't use it with my real spell slots, making something amazing like shield kind of useless, and Find Familiar limits me to Intelligence, so I can't grab a ranged spell attack. Also, I found that I didn't use all of my Magical Secrets, so I still had one left for Booming Blade. Prodigy can give me the proficiency and expertise and performance that I am missing, taking me from 6 to 17, which might really help me for both Roleplaying and making money on the side. Mounted Combatant is good because I took Find Greater Steed. This would lower the likelihood of my Pegasus dying, give me advantage to hit against unmounted enemies, and make it a more reliable gap closer in combat. Lucky is Lucky. I can prevent crits and crit fails with it. Lastly, Shield Master beefs up my dex save abilities and gives me a shortcut for grapple shove combos with my expertise in athletics. I'm actually least in favor of Magic Initiate at this point, but I'm really uncertain which I will get the most value from long term.
This is my favorite feat! I want to play an Eladrin Swashbuckler Wizard Initiate. Use Misty Step + Find Familiar to get inside anywhere: Dismiss the familiar to a pocket dimension, bring it back on the other side of a barrier, see through its eyes, Misty Step next to it, and continue on your way. I would probably also take Booming Blade to sneak attack and move away, mocking my opponents to get them to follow me and take even more damage. My third cantrip would probably be Mage Hand for utility or Prestidigitation for distractions. Friends might be interesting on this character. It would be fun to Persuasion, Intimidation, and Deception checks. Who cares if they get mad afterwards?
Modern carbon fiber arrows break by shattering into many pieces. Once one part of the arrow shaft breaks, it loses nearly all its structural integrity. Aluminum arrows typically bend or sometimes crack when they fail. Wooden arrows are capable of breaking by the most different means. They can have a single clean break, they can splinter and fall into many pieces, or the arrowhead can fall off because it’s usually tied or glued in place rather than screwed in.
If you're taking druid initiate for Shillelagh, I think there's a strong case for taking Absorb Elements as your level 1. Even if you can only cast it once, it's probably going to save a huge amount of damage, and you'll be in position to take advantage of the extra damage die. The latter part scarcely matters, but it's a nice bonus.
I am not an avid archer but i would think that it is mostly the broad head that breaks or fletching is damaged when a shot is missed. Ive only ever shot aluminum shafts though. Most of the time when you miss the arrow stays at a very flat trajectory and disappears into undergrowth/ dirt and grass. That why most modern arrows have neon colored fletching.
I've gone to a couple archery ranges in my life, never had an arrow break, but as you say, they aren't wooden, and the arrowheads are made to be easy to pull out of a target.
My illusion mage forest gnome took magic initiate and spell sniper They can now cast 10 cantrips and can cast Mage Armor every day without using a spell slot as well as snipe folks from a great distance.
Was watching the video and noticed you were expecting that someone could cast feather fall at a higher level. Just wanted to put a heads up that a single class caster would not necessarily be able to do so. The spell casting class ability only allows for spells of the class you select. It doesn't give you the spell casting class feature of the magic initiate school, therefore in order to do this you would need to multi class(which has alternate spell casting rules) or be selecting spells as if they were the same class as you are.... aka a Wizard selecting Wizard spells for additional spells(and a 1st level spell that's always prepared).
I'd argue that regular Shield is a contender. Yes, it's a reaction that only lasts until your turn. However it keeps you on your feet, hopefully, until your turn giving you and your party at least that long to either heal you or getting an extra turn to do whatever you wouldn't have if you didn't have that +5 ac that round.
17:20 so in the PHB, Shillelagh is worded as fallows. "For the duration, you CAN use your spellcasting ability instead of strength for the attack and damage rolls..." does this mean you don't have to use your spellcasting ability score if your strength is better and you just want that juicey early game d8 magic wep?
I have Shillelagh via a warlock pact of the tome. When I look at the spell details in DnD beyond it has applied my Charisma modifications and proficiency to the attack and damage rolls. Seems to indicate that (at least for pact of tome), the phase "your spell casting ability " refers to my warlock charisma
While I wouldn't necessarily take it over find familiar, silent image is a pretty good choice, there is no save unless someone spends an action to inspect it, which is often just as good as they are spending an action
The friends cantrip is best used in conjunction with Disguise Self. Use the latter the disguise yourself as an enemy or rival, then use Friends on as many people as possible, ideally manipulating them into embarrassing themselves, buying you food or drink, giving you discounts, etc., to make them as hostile as possible toward your enemy or rival.
In the aftermath of this video, I think you can see that the interest your printed guide is still viable. I video doing deep dives on Find Familiar , suggestion and Minor Illusion uses would be well received.
The new cover is sweet! Love the analysis and choices. One thing that I would go out of my way to mention is that DEPENDING ON YOUR DM, they maaaaay contest your illusions a lot with investigation checks. And then it's against your spell save DC. And if you don't have a decent mental-stat with minor illusion, you miiiight get screwed over a bit. That said, not every enemy is going to have good int and what not. And your illusions might not always get checked by the DM. So it is still definitely worth mentioning and even more so worth considering as a magic initiate pick. But, the possibility to get checked on something you might not be good at stat-wise IS present. Basically, I would ask your DM what kinda things you could do with Minor Illusion that might just be passable without a check and what might be the limits to them being like "Okay people are going to investigate this 100%"
"If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC." - if your DM selects this option, then casting Minor Illusion was amazing as it stole your enemies action! If they succeed, I guess I'll be casting another minor illusion on my turn - completely nullify an enemy with a cantrip and no concentration - that's a win in my book.
Treantmonk's Temple I like that answer! That's a good way to look at it. What would you do for out of combat illusions though? Like, kinda free form roleplaying moments where you're maybe trying to distract guards or deceive somebody with an illusion. Those kinda out of combat uses.
That's a difficult question to answer because it is so situational. I will say that the audio option for the spell is something I tend to use a lot more out of combat.
Treantmonk's Temple It is really situational. And also not as quantifiable as say somebody burning up action economy in combat. But thanks for the speedy replies! I'ma try out this advice. I love the Minor Illusion cantrip, so fingers crossed next time I roll up a character learning it via this feat.
@@Aequilix I'm planning to do a vid focusing on illusions in general - been planning on it for awhile, but it's a bit more challenging to put together - should be coming eventually though.
chris makes the point in other vids that identify is really unnecessary in 5e because anyone can take a short rest, attune to an item and find out what it does anyway. identify is just a quick way of doing the same thing
In my current campaign I’m playing a battle master fighter using the polarm master/ sentinel combo. And long story short my dm let me get 1 warlock spell (level 1) that I can cast per day. And I just had to pick hex. I get currently 3 attacks per turn (before action surge) and most turns I get an opportunity attack. So 4 attacks per table rotation.
I would encourage anyone taking Magic Initiate to think through how it works thematically, which can help push you out of just taking the same old obvious choices. I played a melee samurai character with Magic Initiatve for the first half of a now-concluded campaign. Backplot was "my character was from a family of Gold Dragon Sorcerers, but had only a paltry talent in magic and ended up being a fighter instead". I took Firebolt, Control Flame, and Featherfall. Featherfall scales well and saves your bacon at any level. You don't really need it most of the time but when you need it, you really need it. (Find Familiar would have been thematic, too, but it's not on the Sort list.) Firebolt isn't amazing but it helps deal with the big hole in a melee build, namely when you can't get into melee. Control Flame, though, turned out to be super useful. It doubles or halves the radius of light provided by fire, so super (or pathetic) torches. It showed up surprisingly often, and the party started making it show up even more, e.g., by lighting bonfires intentionally. Greenflame Blade would have been nice (and thematic) at low levels but it would have been superseded quickly at level 5, so no. Sadly too many cantrips are pretty bleh, though, though. In my home game, I give Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, or Druidcraft for free to any full spellcaster.
about shillelagh tbh, from a point of view of purely power optimizing (not making original chars), i hardly see a case for taking it with magic initiate. the class that benefits from it is cleric, and cleric can take nature subclass to get shillelagh for free if that's the plan. melee cleric kind of requires booming blade to be optimized and therefore has to keep magic initiate for wizard spells; you get find familiar or shield as a bonus
One thing I have never found is if the Help action can be a fly by type thing of if the creature providing the Help must stay within the required 5' for the action to be completed. One instance the owl would do it's flyby using it's action to Help then fly to safety. Another interpretation would have the familiar go into melee range and stay in danger.
Prestidigitation is great for "creating" darkness. Almost every indoor area is lit by candles or torches and prestidigitation can make such areas dark or dim. Great for making Shadow Blade get its advantage.
Thank you for doing this video, I think I use this feat different than you or many do it seems. Most of the time I take this feat it is with a spellcaster that I want to add options to by picking a class with the same primary stat. I have a bard with magic initiate sorcerer and a cleric with magic initiate druid. I find whenever I start building a character I get excited about I often come across 1 or 2 minor gripes or basically holes I wish I could fill in, I find the Magic Initiate does that excellently. Whereas in this video it seems made out to be totally taboo to take a magic initiate class with another class that uses the same score.
I love the find familiar spell as well but I wouldn't waste magic initiate on it. I have an arcane trickster and my non illusion spell at 3 was shield. I just bought a scroll of find familiar and don't allow my familiar to die. I use an octopus who hides within my armor for absolute total cover even against fireballs, and by raw I can sneak attack anyone in melee because I technically have an ally also within 5. Can he can crawl out, help action, and crawl back into his hole. He can even help me grapple and shove because his size is small not tiny.
I feel like this is good, but I also feel like there are cases where when you take Magic Initiate you might be pretty good with the spellcasting attribute, affecting your selection. If you are a Paladin looking for a few cantrips or a Warlock or Sorcerer looking to get a little bit more versatility, (and you don't want to level dip) something like the Bard or Sorcerer list becomes a lot better. Rangers or Monks getting Cleric or Druid spells is a similarly good combo for Magic Initiate.
I know this may be sacrilege, asking the God Wizard Treatmonk this question in his temple, but would you ever consider doing a build for a blaster caster, or maybe compare the options? I'm fine with control and world-changing spells, but I really want to be able to blast often, and I'd really like to have some solid survival options. Sorcerer + Warlock? Or maybe a variation on your recent Valor Bard? Thanks for all the cool videos!
Sorlock is on my radar for future builds. I will absolutely be doing a blaster build in the not too distant future. It might be a Sorlock, or maybe straight Sorcerer - haven't decided.
So Treantmonk, as a Firbolg Nature Cleric grabbing Magic Initiate Wizard, what cantrip should I take? I'm already taking Booming Blade and Find Familiar, but need the last choice. I can say Minor Illusion or Mage Hand are the premier choices, but am open to other options if necessary
My favourite feat since has the versatilty that both munchkins and roleplayers can benefit from this feat. Personally i let the background dictate the class I'm picking from: Outlanders and hermits usually go for druid spells. Sages pick up wizard spells, criminals and urchins grab some bard spells and acolytes take cleric spells. The last time I used it was for an Eldritch knight with an Elemental theme, geting mold earth by himself, and picking Magic initiate for shape water and control flame.
Some cantrip ponderings: Mage Hand has a somatic component. Can you cast it when you're in manacles? I'd likely say no for a couple of reasons. If an NPC did it, players who had its somatic component in mind could justifiably feel cheated. Also, if it worked, in a wide magic setting, you'd think they'd stick any potential magicky person in restrictive mittens and then manacles. For Minor Illusion, I've always wondered if you can make some 'natural' obscurement by which a wood elf can use Mask of the Wild. My inclination is to say yes. By the by, I find the new image to be too dignified if the point of your name is a goofy race and class combo =D
Friends + Mord's Hound. Perfect for a lawful evil character, or someone who is otherwise trying to provoke an attack. Target becomes hostile, Hound slaughters him. You can realistically say 'they were a victim of their own hostility.' And YOU never laid a hand on them. You have witnesses.
Life clerics often take the magic initiate druid for spells like Goodberry, Shillelagh and Thornwhip. Life Clerics can do a ridiculous amount of healing with 1 Goodberry spell
I'm not sure I consider Goodberry a "healing spell", for the same reason I don't consider the Creation spell a healing spell, even if you use it to create a healers kit.
Why vicious mockery is not part of your list? I think is a great cantrip. Also you don't mention shield or absorb elements for lvl 1spells they are both awesome
He said the once per long rest limit made spells like Shield much less attractive for picks. For vicious mockery, he said Bards don't have great options to go with it and the fact that it is Charisma dependent makes it unappealing for most characters taking MI.
U should see his character "Lucky" in the Blades of Waterdeep campaign. He's clearly having fun with it but it's also effective. I agree with you both though I'd like to see builds that are fun to play but not necessarily optimized (but also not a "waste of space," to quote some wise man's build guide).
I'm very surprised you didn't talk about Eldritch blast at all. I know your focus was not on attack cantrips (point taken); but with so many Cha based casters in the game; EB is usually the best attack cantrip when it's available. Magic Initiate gives Bards an amazing damage option and just rounds them out amazingly. Also, why didn't you rank the warlock list in the end?
So I've heard online discussion about Magic Initiate adding the 1st level spell to your spells known, sometimes getting around the 1/day casting. Is this just a common misconception?
Azandeer The actual ruling from Sage Advice is that you get it in your spells known, but you can only cast it with spell slots if you have levels in the feat’s chosen class.
I think you are missing a lot of great options by limiting yourself to attribute independent spells. Some examples that could be really useful: Bard: Take "Vicious Mockery" and Healing Word for a cocky Sorcerer or Warlock. Sorcerer: Take Green Flame Blade and Chaos Bolt (unique to Sorcerer) for a Blade Bard. One casting of Chaos Bolt might not seem much, but it fits the theme of a "soldier of fortune" who likes to gamble. With the limited access to combat spells for the bard, this might be a fun one to pick. Rogues tend to have at least one high mental attribute: Either Int for Arcane Trickster, Wisdom for the Scouts or Cha for Infiltrators. Picking Spells or Cantrips that rely on this attribute can be very good. Vicious Mockery comes to mind for a Face character. Sacred Flame + Guidance might be a good cantrip pick for a scout character. He has the stats to cast Sacred Flame and it gives him an option to attack the Dex stat of a heavly armored enemy, not a bad thing to have. The same case could be made for Monks: Usually they have a high Wisdom already, so cantrips and spells from the cleric list that rely on Wisdom are up for grabs. Given that a monk runs out of Ki points fairly quickly, a reliable cantrip like sacred flame might be a useful thing to have (and it has range).
So, where do you put warlock? You left it out of the final analysis. Between hex, minor illusion, mage hand, booming blade and/or green flame blade, and prestidigitation it gives some pretty decent options. I would certainly think it ranks higher than Bard
@@timeweaver I believe this is the current wording, "You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again using this feat."
@@TreantmonksTemple The second paragraph has been changed to “In addition, choose one 1st-level spell to learn from that same list. Using this feat, you can cast the spell once at its lowest level, and you must fnish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.” dis is the exact wording of the erta, to me it seems u learn the spell and can cast it once per long rest. what do u think?
Hey Chris, I have been reading your info for a few years and I appreciate your approach. Can you do one on ritual casting and the ritual caster feat? There are sooooo many issues (like multiclassing w a ritual casting class) and honestly, i’m confused. Can you clear things up?
He specifically said that he was not talking about cantrips that required attack rolls or saving throws. I agree that if you're a CHA prime stat class then Magic Initiate with Eldritch Blast and Hex is a great way to do significant damage in a fight.
I am a first time DM swiitching from 3.5 with my friends to 5 ( SOON ). Is there Any advice you have on running a barb- either totem or storm herald path? Feats? Items? etc etc Id greatly appreciate it. ( running barb personally because I am playing more of a tank for the group, that also does some damage. we only have four in the group including myself. )
Sure. Barbarians can be a lot of fun, though I find the Storm Herald and Berserker paths both lacking. Totem is excellent though, that's the path I would recommend. If you are going with variant human and starting with a Feat - well, there are some great options, but if doing damage is what you're after, I recommend Great Weapon Master - this works very well with Reckless Attack that you will get at level 2. Although the Barb has a no-armor boost, I still recommend Medium Armor when you can get it - eventually Half Plate is your best bet. This means a 14 starting Dex is a good idea. Greatsword is the best weapon IMO - some will tell you Greataxe, but I find that Greatsword is better, even with the Barb crit bonus that comes into play later (of course, if you get a magical 2 handed weapon, that is going to be your best bet obviously). If you want to be more resilient, then you can do 1H and a shield, in which case, Shield Master is a decent option. Bear or Wolf totem are my favorites at level 3 - depending whether durability or party buffing is your focus - Wolf totem works very nicely if someone else takes GWM too - that's a lot of bashing power.
My Bard/Paladin might make good use of Warlock Magic Initiate. My DM was kind enough to give me Shillelagh in exchange for one of my Bard Cantrip slots, so the character is playable before getting Magic Secrets at level 12. However, I have hit level 5, and from here until I get extra attack at level 8, my combat ability is going to be hampered. Taking 1 level into warlock makes my build legitimate but also exacerbates the issue and denies me wish. Instead, at level 6, I am thinking to take Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, and Hex. Booming Blade patches up my melee damage and forces the enemy to fight me, and Eldritch Blast + Hex gives me ranged combat that I'm otherwise lacking. Eventually, Booming Blade will be combined with War Caster to add several extra d8's to opportunity attacks that I make. However, I'm not sure that the ASI is worth the trade since I could get a lot more out of 1 level of Warlock in some ways. The opportunity cost is Wish and delayed access to everything, but I get access to shield and hex multiple times a day, as well as effectively one more ASI to work with and a spell slot that recharges on short rest.
The bard and sorc options probably become more viable if you have decent Charisma. Lots of classes use that these days. Lots of races boost it enough that it's not a dump stat. A Lore Bard wanting to expand his magic options even further might take some Sorc stuff. Or the 'face' of the party, maybe the paladin, might find a few Bard spells useful. A stat doesn't have to be 20 to be effective lol.
Goodberry question. Since it is a meal equal to 1 days worth of rations, if I feed all ten berries to someone for the healing, does the healed character get a stomach ache because they just ate 10 days worth of food? Do they get fat from it if I feed them too many?
I’m a super cooky eccentric wizard in my current campaign, I do a lot of weird stuff with prestidigitation. At lvl 4 I plan on probably taking initiate and choosing cleric for thaumaturgy, and guidance, I like this guide it’ll help me choose the first level spell, thanks.
foolycoolytheband The Magic Initiate feat specifically says that the 1st Level Spell gained can only be cast at its lowest level. This is why utility spells, such as Find Familiar, tend to be a better choice.
Your videos are great. They are incredibly helpful - particularly for beginners like me (though I think your advice is also helpful for those with experience as well). TL;DR - You should do shorter videos focused on class - particularly character creation and the early level choices; AND, you should probably do a video about how you see the roles of each member of a party. I hope this doesn’t seem presumptuous, but I would suggest that you do videos focusing on class rather than level, spells, or on ultimate builds (even though those videos are very interesting). Though there is no correct playing style, I believe that everyone - including you - have certain assumptions about how to play D&D. I believe that your assumptions involve party members assuming certain roles - FACE, SNEAK, TANK, HEALBOT, UTILITY CASTER, COMBAT, etc. This isn’t the ONLY way to play, obviously, but you clearly prefer to play in groups where players fall into these roles (even if players don’t begin with this assumption, many find that their groups will begin to develop into this IMO). This assumption helps drive the choices that you make. A single video on your assumptions that could be referenced in all future videos would help explain why you are making particular recommendations. AND, if players choose to make another choice, they would probably be doing so because they were pursuing another playing style (OR, possibly, trying to make a character fit multiple roles because of their party). Obviously, you do not have to do a video for each class. You could only focus on those that you prefer and do a single video for all that you do not like. (I know from your interview with the Roll Mongers Network that you do not particularly like Monks; it would be interesting to hear you explain why that is the case; I assume that since Monks do not easily fit into the roles that you like in a party, you do not like Monks, but it could be another reason). Videos based upon Class would probably be easier for you to do since they would not be as long as many that you are currently doing. Covering the first five levels of development for many classes - including good race and feat choices - wouldn’t take forty-five minutes or an hour (though I could be wrong). As a beginner, I would find such videos far more helpful than simply knowing what spells in a particular level are good, bad, overrated and underrated. You did focus on class in this video and it was great. At the end, you ranked the types of magic initiates. This is far more helpful than just talking about ALL of them. Your spell videos are great. I loved them. I have watched them all multiple times and taken notes from them. BUT, when I go to create a wizard, it doesn’t help me to know about 12 level 1 spells when MOST of them are not available to me. I hope that my comment is helpful. I hope that you read it. I hope that you do videos focused on classes. Thank you for making this video. Thank you for all that you do.
I see your point, but, longer videos are better for the UA-cam algorithms to generate more views :) Not saying Chris does this specifically for that reason, but, in my opinion, might as well take advantage of it.
Not currently. Right now I just make videos for fun and to generate discussion. Haven't earned any money at it at this point, but I'm getting close to breaking the $100/month barrier (which is the minimum your videos must earn in a month before they pay out advertising revenue), so it may come into play soon. It's fun, but if it can be fun and a few extra $ in pocket I'm good with that!
From what Chris said in his interview, he would LIKE to make money from his hobby, but it isn't necessarily his goal to do so. Thus, he may not be focused on UA-cam algorithms (as you recognize in your response). Further, though I say these videos will be short, that doesn't mean that they will actually be short. My suggestion is more for building content - particularly what I hope would be simple for Chris to make and easy for beginners to watch. It could take Chris over 20 minutes to explain these topics - classes to the fifth level, his ideology behind playing DnD, and the like. He might feel that it is necessary to take the time to explain in great detail the various options. I don't know what he would say and I will not hazard a guess. I hope that my suggestion helps grow his channel, but I don't know if it is best for Chris to follow my advice or focus on the algorithm. I am confident that his channel grows because of his reputation within the DnD community and NOT because of views on UA-cam (at least for now). I actively searched for this channel once I stumbled upon his guide to Wizards. I don't think that I am alone. I am willing to bet that most of his 3,200 subscribers actively sought out this channel just as I did. Thus, I think that when players and DM's find this page it would be best to find a lot of easily digestible content. The more, the better, IMO. Please don't mistake this as me somehow knowing what is best. I am not sure - TBH. I do think that, particularly for newer players, it would be better to have some basic questions answered in relatively short videos.
To the viewers: I didn't know how this video would be received, as it's a lot of focus on a single option, but the response has been amazing! Thank you everyone who watched, commented, and provided your words of support. What a fantastic surprise!
O. M. Wow man, again with this arrow stuff? How many threads do you need to post this in? Even Sage Advice says ask the DM, not that it doesn’t work by RAW as you’ve continuously argued.
O. M. Not being within the scope of RAW does not mean it is illegal by RAW. All it means is the DM gets to decide.
O. M. I understand RAW to mean exactly that: Rules As Written. Some actions are RAW (legal), some actions are against RAW (illegal), some actions are not described by RAW (DM fiat).
Using Crawford’s ruling as an example: Using the spell in that way is up to the DM (DM fiat). Keep in mind, it would take 1 minute per arrow (RAW), assuming you could find each one (DM fiat).
Now regardless of the SA ruling, by RAW you can theoretically reconstruct any arrow via Mending no matter how broken if you spend sufficient time on it, repairing one break at a time, as long as each break is under 1ft. The question is 1) can you find it and, 2) how much time are you willing to spend on it. The former is decided by DM fiat, the latter by player agency.
@O. M. Absolutely you have my persmission, this is a place to talk D&D!
1) When I said "explode" I didn't mean like a bomb, I meant shatter (or splinter) under force of impact. What I said was not intended to be a distortion of your claim.
2) I said that arrow loss wasn't necessarily due to arrows breaking in the video you commented on. I then pointed out how environment might impact this. I don't recall the exact wording, but I remember your comment was disputing this, not agreeing with this.
3) Jeremy Crawfords Sage Advice basically comes down to 3 points. Point 1: 100% of broken arrows may not be mendable - check with your DM. Point 2: Not all arrow loss will be due to breakage. Point 3: Spell takes one minute to cast. Can't say I disagree with any of that. In fact, point 2 I made myself in the video. Point 3 is just the rules, and point 1 is just common sense.
4) You're interpreting the point that the DM will determine whether the damage an arrow suffers can be repaired by mending as "RAW, not how the rule interacts with the spell". That's not consistent with the point JC is making. Just because damage to an arrow is normally explained with a tip falling off, or a single break, or it being stuck in someone, does not mean those explinations are universal (which is specifically what the question he's clarifying is asking), and it will be up to the DM to determine. This is the only way to answer a question with some vague possibilities, regardless of what is normally the case.
Hm, what about Thorn Whip? Granted, you'd need good Wisdom and you can only get it from the Druid list, but Goodberry and Guidance are still there. You could use it with a cleric, maybe the same one that took Shillelagh if you like.
The appeal is that when you hit a Large or smaller creature with it, you can move that creature up to 10 feet toward you - no save, they just move. This can be used to pull enemies out of position (say, away from an ally who'd really rather not take an attack of opportunity from a ghoul while dashing away) toward danger (for instance, your Spirit Guardians) or even to move an ally if staying where they are is going to hurt more than being thorn whipped.
Small correction: Move Earth is a level 6 spell.
The cantrip is called Mold Earth.
Good call! I guess got confused because of how the cantrip is used.
Variant Mold Earth is available to Priests of Moander - creates mold spores in soil within a 5'radius.
What do such mold spores do? Wouldn't *you* like to know.
But in the meantime, my vegipygmy minions will show you to the door.
Fun little fact: Goodberry is good for two days of rations, not one. You eat any spares when you make camp at night, and now you're good for the following day as well.
Bonus magical survival tip: the necromancer, not the ranger or the cleric, is the best at keeping the party fed.. Gentle repose preserves corpses for ten days per casting, and can be cast as a ritual - without needing it prepared if you have a book to cast from. Animal corpses are otherwise known as "steaks waiting to happen".
Tenser's Floating Disk is also a ritual that doesn't take concentration, with which to haul a half-ton of rations around.
Behold the wizard etc etc.
Ama Yad I like that Gentle Repose use!
gruesome!
tenser's floating disk lasts for an hour, if you're walking for 8 hours that's 8 spell slots so not a good spell for this. so gentle repose is fine but you'll need a bag of holding that'll hold the entirety of the corpse (or else you'll have to cast it on each individual piece) also a second level spell, so really goodberry can't be beat here.
@@friggin149 Ritual means free casting.
@@debreczeniarpad9956 i was saying, second level spells being generally better than first level spells using a second level spell for doing what a first level does but more cumbersome seems like a bad trade, but yes not having to use a spell slot is nice as long as you're willing to haul a carcass with you or chop it up and do it several times, then put it in a bag of holding. Also keeping a copper piece on the creatures eyes for 10 days? not to mention the pinch of salt? means you can't chop it up, or preserve it if it's head is gone. maybe you can glue the copper and salt onto it? XD
Prestidigitation is good to destroy the evidence of combat, blood splatter tends to alert the guards.
Good call. I know a few characters that generate plenty of splatter!
It's also good for getting into town in the first place. Guards may stop you at the gates if you forgot to wash the spreekilling stink off yourself first.
Prestidigitation is good for almost everything!
@@alanschaub147 and you can make a compass, astrolabe, or sundial with a bubble level and use them to be able to navigate without any struggles
We used prestidigitation on stealth missions where fire was not an option. Fill a kettle or pot with water and make the water boil and voila, instant meal.
you can also take magic initiate for your own spellcasting class or for a class with the same casting stat. for Example, a Wizard can take Magic Initiate (Wizard) to gain 2 more cantrips plus find familiar. for some of the other lists, i had to beg the GM to let me take a 3rd cantrip instead of a 1st level spell.
Prestidigitation can be quite powerful for deception.
"You create a nonmagical trinket or an iIlusory image
that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn."
- So, mr evil NPC, you want the ruby of Akhothan. Well, here it is, and I'll just throw it down this well. Clonk clonk splash.
- Hey! Mr warden, I have the key to our cell and now I'm failing to stealthily unlock the door, you better come in to get it!
"You create an instantaneous. harmless sensory effect.
such as a shower of sparks. a puff of wind. faint musical notes. or an odd odor."
- So, mr Town Guard, are you really going to come interrogate us when the table next to us reeks of drugs.
- Is that smoke I'm sensing? Fire! Everyone out!
all very good uses but it's a spell, so you still have to cast it possibly giving you away (save any feats that let you do it stealthy) so likely some kind of check will be required either way, and a lot of your examples include the target of the deception looking right at you, as 6 seconds isn't a lot of time between casting and talking to the npc. but yeah for one cantrip it can trigger a lot of different checks that otherwise you might have needed to do various things for.
Example 1) Roll a deception check with advantage
Example 2) The guard instinctively checks to see if his key is still in his pocket. He finds it right away.
Example 3) The town guard tries to pick some drugs and his hand goes through the illusion
Example 4) Roll a deception check with advantage.
Some are good deceptions, others need a bit more polish since can be easily deemed as false.
@@AndrusPr8
Those are fair rulings, except you didn't understand what I meant with 3).
The PC is not creating an visual illusion, but a _smell_ (odd odor). The smell is not an illusion, but a real smell. If the guard recognizes it as being the smell of an illicit substance, he might go investigate that, giving time to hide/run/disguise self/fireball.
---
But my main point is that the cantrip is more than just replacing cheap items like a tinderbox or parchment and paper. Or being nice by making someones food taste better or clean something up.
It is more than basic utility, and creative players can get a lot of value out of it.
Is it as good as minor illusion, mending, or mage hand? Probably not.
@@japphan it's the best survival cantrip in the game.
Warm/cooling for an hour.
Cleans/soils a 1 foot cube object (glass of water)
Lights a fire (candle on a firebomb)(rope holding a chandelier) (the chair of an oaf in a noisy bar) (dry grass under someone's foot) (lamp oil on the floor)
Clear a room with the smell of skunks.
Lure a spice trader with the smell of saffron
Bet of a cook off and improve you sides food while the opponents tastes like ear wax. Make an illusion of ear wax fall into the soup.
Flash platinum coins in a seedy bar to do guilt free murder hobo hijinks.
Make a banshee wail come from outside.(it sounds like nails on a chalkboard...they hear it no matter how quite it is)
As to its VS properties, yes I imagine anyone within 30 feet in a quiet room would know you are casting a spell. The movement is probably alot like wingguardium leviosa...so make more movements and really talk with your hands. Ask someone to start an argument with you so you can cant in the middle of a triad on beer vs ale vs stout. If your talking ingredients and rare brews and throw in Pre-Sti-dig-it....tation while the barbarian is screaming Grog is best! You should get a deception roll at minimum. Its all about "How would I do this IRL if I could cast just this spell. I could do SO much with just this cantrip.
No mention of the glorious Disguise Self + Friends fun when discussing Friends? Definitely a possible reason to take it.
Also personally I find I'm more likely to want Magic Initiate on a character that has a complementary ability score - druid or cleric can get you really interesting things as a Monk, for instance, and as a Monk you're going to want decent Wisdom. So only discussing it in terms of things that don't care about ability score is missing some of the use of this fear.
Of course, I've always interpreted (possibly incorrectly) that the feat saying you learn the spell to mean you can cast it with other spell slots, so some of the ways I've used it before are probably wrong...
In modern archery, arrows infrequently break at all. In ancient arcery, the heads would likely come off consistently, but the shaft should be resilient up to a point. Against a stone wall, sure they might break. Against a target, nah.
It occurs to me that recovering an arrow from an armored corpse might be tricky, they aren't really made to come out - but once again, a split in half should solve that problem. The shattering thing seemed weird to me, but again, I'm not an expert. I think any arrows I've used are not wooden, and shot against straw or foam targets.
I shoot some Traditional Archery and wooden arrows do indeed break but I never had one shatter into a trillion pieces and it's way less than half. But then this is a game so I think mending broken arrows is fine.
Treantmonk's Temple I think trying to get too realistic with DnD is a never-ending rabbit hole. Full plate in reality would make blade weapons virtually useless unless you get them in the joints or the seams, and arrows generally can’t even penetrate the armor. Blunt weapons like maces and warhammers on the other hand were specifically designed to be armor killers.
@@TreantmonksTemple If you managed to get a bodkin point into a body (which is presumably what you're using on armored targets) it'll probably come out the same way it went in, having burst the rings of the target's mail and created a nice squared hole. If it's lodged in a bone or somesuch, though, you might manage to break it trying to pull it out.
There are anecdotes (which I take with an entire salt mine until further corroborated, but...) that some arrowheads were affixed with beeswax, so that they'd come off if someone tried to extract them. This was alledgedly done to deny the enemy a source of reusable ammunition, but if it did occur, I imagine it made medical care *interesting*
@@M0ebius AC has always been one of the issues i have with DnD, its neither intuitive from a gameplay perspective nor from a storytelling perspective. For gameplay the all or nothing approach to damage is just plain weird unless AC exclusively described dodge actions, for storytelling the lack of information on how damage is prevented also makes it difficult to explain to the player what is happening. That being said a realistic approach to these things would also go into comparing the hardness and flexibility of armor and weapon, localized weakpoints created from previous attacks etc and that just makes the whole system a chore.
Message is also useful for anyone who is a forward scout for their party. As a rogue, I'm regularly 30 feet away from the party, scouting ahead. Without Message, I have to go all the way back to them, or shout (thus breaking stealth) in order to give them information.
With Message, I can keep a running commentary going. I can also be further away from them, especially if I'm stationary or nearly so, maybe staking out a particular location.
Message is just incredibly useful in a variety of ways... you can use it to screw with NPCs, as well. Whisper to a drunk idiot at the bar that you think his mother is [insert insult]. All he hears is that someone whispered an insult to him about his mom. If he's drunk enough, that's gonna get him to start swinging... useful distraction for a variety of things.
You can also whisper things at guards, potentially getting them to leave their post if you're clever enough (or know enough about the guard).
I think you missed two great options: Mage Armor and Thaumaturgy. Mage Armor only needs the single cast of the day and it's better than studded leather. Also good for dex characters that want to wear a specific dress or clothes and don't bother with armor, here's Mage Armor. I find it also cool for VHuman Wizards that already have some access to CON save proficiency or concentration checks like Transmuters or high level Conjurers, or even Bladesingers maybe. Or Sorcerers because they have the proficiency by default. This way you don't spend a slot daily for just playing your character without dying. Expecially useful for non-Draconic Sorcerers.
Thaumaturgy is more useful than it seems, you can build a character completely around the cantrip for roleplaying. We have a Cleric in our party that constantly uses it to confirm his authority, he once used it to open a door in a dungeon that was not openable by our side and we didn't have someone with enough strength to force it. Situational but definitively funny, I'd say it's on the same tier of Prestigiditation. If you want to take Bless or Shield of Faith and someone else in the party already has guidance, I'd definitively take Thaumaturgy instead.
Mage Armor is better than studded leather, but once magic armor comes into play that changes. You are correct though, for characters without armor it's a pretty good pick. I should have included it.
@@TreantmonksTemple yep magic armor could be always around the corner but it's not guaranteed, also you get the 13+Dex AC at level 1 which magic armor usually is a rare tier item, usually obtainable by level 10 or somewhere around that tier. It really depends on the DM and the campaign
Definitely. The word is definitely.
@@TreantmonksTemple It's also great to cast on companion animals for rangers, druids, etc. Even when it is out stripped for your PC it has value. Situation might occur in which it can be used to protect an NPC or familiar.
Great stuff!
I like how you always had what you were talking about as a caption on the screen. It makes it really easy to find what I'm looking for if I am going forward and backwards in the video. The color coding was good, too.
Some interesting combinations:
A level 1 Moon druid takes Magic Initiate to get Mage Armor. Mage Armor usually buffs animal AC. At level 2, on the first turn or beforehand, as an action, cast Mage Armor (AC becomes 13 + Dex modifier). On the same turn, as a bonus action, use the Combat Wild Shape feature to Wild Shape into an animal (with Challenge Rating 1 because of Circle of the Moon's Circle Forms). At character level 2, CR 1 includes a dire wolf that goes from AC 14 to AC 15 (13 Mage Armor AC + 2 Dex mod = 15). A brown bear goes from AC 11 to AC 13 (13 Mage Armor AC + 0 Dex mod = 13). Giant hyena, from 12 to 15. Later, when flying creatures are allowed, giant eagle goes from 13 to 16.
A level 1 monk takes Magic Initiate Warlock to get Hex. On turn 1, use a bonus action to set Hex, then use an action to Attack with a monk weapon (add Hex damage). On subsequent turns, use an action to Attack (add Hex damage), use a bonus action to use Martial Arts for an extra unarmed attack (add Hex damage). At level 2 monk, spend a Ki point to use a bonus action for Flurry of Blows (add Hex damage for each of the two bonus action two hits).
A level 1 paladin takes Magic Initiate Warlock for Hex and also Eldritch Blast, which uses the same spellcasting modifier.
A level 1 warlock takes Magic Initiate Warlock to get an extra single spell long-rest spell slot and double their cantrips.
Yeah, I should have brought up Mage Armor for the synergy with Moon Druid - my oversight.
@@TreantmonksTemple Thanks for the reply! Keep up the great work. I've been following your stuff since Pathfinder 3.5 guides.
I'm always happy to see more videos by you, and I hope to see more feat-specific videos from you, including maybe a follow-up for Magic Initiate.
Do you have a Patreon?
Nope, currently I'm doing this for fun. I may start a Patreon at some point when I'm willing to invest the time necessary to make investment in my content worthwhile. Question: Do you have a specific feat you would like to see me do a video for?
Really loving the content as a novice player and DM. Your videos have been instrumental in my education of the magic system in d&d. thanks!
I do know about archery, and I've never had an arrow explode like that, but it could happen if you have a wooden shaft hit say a stone. Otherwise the most common damage is a crack at the nock, losing the fletching or rarely damage to the arrowhead. A good archer should be flex testing an arrow before shooting it, and discarding any that crack before they can fail spectacularly like that.
I've been reading your guides for years. It's so awesome to have you make videos now - Keep up the good work! :D
Nice! A delightful feat to cover.
a party with presto and dark vision (especially in a rogue) can be great since it actually doesn't have attended restrictions, find a bandit camp, snap the fire out and take advantage of the confusion. guard you need to sneak past has a torch have the rogue snap it out so the party can sneak past easier. want to poison some one disguise the poison by reflavoring the food/drink, if you take find familiar as the level 1 spell you can combine the ability to see through the familiar eyes and presto to create a palm sized live (updated every 6 seconds) map of what the familiar sees,
This gave me an idea for a campaign in the future, where everyone plays martial characters in a war driven culture like Sparta with the magic initiate feat and multiclass options.
Matthew Niemi In my home game every PC is a Hexblade multiclass. But it’s Witcher themed, with everyone belonging to the same order of monster slayers but from different schools with different fighting styles.
A wonderful video guide to a great feat. I would suggest as a control cantrip Thorn Whip.
I like using this feat as an in between state before multiclassing into a spell casting class. I also like to use it to replace some of the warlock invocations at higher levels. Such as you take the invocation Thief of Five Fates for bane you can replace that invocation with a higher level invocation and take magic initiate bard or cleric (depending on your stats and which cantrips you want) and just take bane with it. Only down side to this method is most of the invocations that give you access to a level 1 spell are at will with the invocation and not just once per day so keep that in mind.
Having played this many times, I feel like the Druid option is really strong for a Fighter or Paladin type, since Thorn Whip is incredible for making the character "sticky" and Produce Flame is an easy way to do some decent ranged damage. Cure Wounds is great for a Fighter, and Healing Word for Paladins, but the better options are control spells like Faerie Fire or Entangle which further enhance your position in combat.
Thank you for another great video. I really enjoy and look forward to your content. Insightful and entertaining.
Thanks for the video! I must say, the final statement that all the MI classes are not equally good was Nice to hear.
Also, got tips on many cantrips and spells that I’ve never considered. Kinda surprised, since I’ve been pondering about MI for a very long time!
Nice again, thanks for the video and keep up the good work!
Thank you, it's why I made the video. I looked at Magic Initiate videos - one by one of my favorite channels, and they presented them as equal, that's when I figured I had something different to say than is already out there.
This was a good video.
Depending on DM it can be a very potent utility piece for exploration/non-combat, but DMs need to be a little flexible with how the geometry works out.
Example: you get a set of long underwear or feetie pajyamas. Can you roll, fold, or wad them into 1 cubic foot? If yes then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to make heated underclothes that stay warm or cool regardless of weather. Save hundreds of gold on weather prep for traveling in the desert or tundra.
Is something frozen solid? Wall of Ice? 1 cubic foot goes from frozen to “warm.” That doesn’t make it melt, the ice sublimates into water vapor instantly.
Clean infected wounds to provide advantage on Con saves to resist poisons or disease.
Make everyone’s boots smell like cat pee at level 1 so rats and rat swarms avoid them.
Make some folks’ upper lip smell like citronella for advantage on saves vs stinking cloud, dretch clouds, etc.
It has a 1001 and uses I’m sure.
Good choice. It's one of those feats that has so much potential!
Gotta criticize Shillelagh though. It's gives a tiny boost below 5. But above 5, any point blank or saving throw cantrip will scale better than Shillelagh. Especially with stuff like Primal Savagery on the table, or the various pbaoe attacks that are usually d6, but can hit multiple targets and scale.
Cantrip damage is poor damage unless you have some boost like potent spellcasting or agonizing blast (neither of which you will be able to take advantaqge of with this feat). However, Shillelagh is weapon damage, so it's damage will scale with your ability score increase, extra attacks, smites, or Divine strikes.
So for example, say you are playing a melee cleric that has reached 8th level. Let's say a War Cleric and Wis is 20.
With Primal Savagery the cleric will do 11 damage average in a round (on a hit)
With Shillelagh the Cleric will do 14 damage in a round (on a hit), but if that Cleric uses War Priest, that becomes 28. If that Cleric is using Divine Favor, damage goes to 33.
Consider now a non Divine Strike Cleric like an Arcana Cleric. That Cleric would do 16 with Primal Savagery (on a hit), which is better.
However, with Shillelagh and Green Flame Blade, they do 28.
Also keep in mind that resistance/immunity to acid is far more common than resitance/immunity to magical weapon attacks.
Now I'm not recommmending Shillelagh universally, but if you have a melee character, it often will stack nicely with what you can already do.
Great vid. I recently played a character with the MI feat and it was a BAMF.
Guidance: I was Oprah "YOU GET A D4, AAAND YOU GET A D4!". Plus Bane, which succeeded when it needed to, and definitely helped save our squishy lvl 1 party from a tpk. (Also I think Bane is worth a purple, at least. It's such a great spell if you have a decent WIS score. It'll make your DM hate his d4's).
Thank you for the video, good insights. We love prestidigitation (apart from its pronounciation) at our table, just just to clean up to avoid detection but mainly for keeping feet warm! We often have one from warm climates shivering and complaining about cold and if not, then a familiar will step into that role...
Really handy guide! Love your videos! Now I want to start a game where every PC gets Magic Initiate and gets one green/blue cantrip and one purple/orange cantrip, all different.
For the 1st level spell, you can use your other slots to cast it if you have access to that spell on your list. It's very useful to use with a Sorcerer or Wizard to nab Mage Armor as an upgrade to your defenses. It's a good option for classes without armor proficiencies and doesn't rely on anything other than casting it when you wake up...should last through your adventure normally with 1/day so it won't interfere with your normal casting.
As a side note, if you're going with Bard, Paladin, or Warlock, the Sorcerer list ends up looking a lot better for you since you're already a Charisma caster, so if it has what you want then it's a better option than Wizard.
Find Familiar tends to be better taken with Ritual Caster, mainly because Find Familiar isn't a normally cast spell.
Also, if you look at it right, technically, if you're a divine soul sorcerer, you can grab from both Sorcerer and Cleric ones with it...not normally even worth doing then unless you're grabbing it at a later level and want a few more cantrips
@@sharkforce8147 Technically, it becomes a tossup if you go for Magic Initiate Sorcerer while being a Divine Soul Sorcerer because of the interactions between choosing a sorcerer spell and the class ability that lets you select from the cleric list if you are choosing a spell from the sorcerer list.
If you choose it for your class as a caster, then the feat is basically choose an extra 1st level spell and 2 cantrips from your class list there (and the extra 1st level slot that a sorcerer can't break down)
Woo! Keep it up Chris! Loving your content so far :)
Thanks for the video.
FYI: modern carbon fiber arrows can shatter when they break... wooden arrows tend to break like a wooden pencil and should be fine for mend as long as the dm will allow the bending/warping that normally happens to be fixed with the spell.
You might have wanted to cover Magic Initiate for classes that have high stats in casting ability:
i.e. Cleric taking Druid to get access to damage dealing cantrips as Cleric list is deficient Human Life Clerics with shillelagh, thornwip and good berries that heal 4x10/day are very impressive.
A charisma high rouge may want to go with Bard, Sorcerer or Warlock because they have a 14 or 16 in that stat.
And a great as find familiar is wouldn’t ritual caster(assuming the 13 int)be a more useful way of accessing it than magic initiate?
As an archer in real life, I concur with Sean's FYI about carbon fiber and wooden arrows.
Nice, I was hoping if I brought it up someone educated in the subject would let me know the reality. Thanks to both of you!
@O. M. I suppose that, if you are playing with a group full of other pedants, this level of simulationism can contribute to the overall level of fun for all concerned. For my part, allowing someone to recover their arrows through creative use of a cantrip that doesn't otherwise see much action is hardly going to break the game and seems like the better way to go.
@O. M. So, more like 5 minutes, maybe 10 in a bad case, per arrow instead of 1 per arrow due to having to cast Mending multiple times. Might be faster to craft regular arrows, especially if using Xanathar's Guide, but it's still more than worth it for Silvered arrows or Adamantine arrows.
I think you forgot to rank warlock initiate at the end. Where does it fall with hex? #2 to the wizard?
I would love to see some videos that discuss feats (and maybe even magic item) suggestions by class. There are so many videos on UA-cam that are "top 5 feats" or "best magic items," but they don't break it down by class. I think you'd be really good at that. I've enjoyed how you break things down and get thorough about the practical uses of things that sound good on the surface.
Thank you for this video! I'm considering taking this feat at some point for my cleric.
"Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know." this is the wording on pact magic multiclassing. I've always saw this Magic Initiate feat as being a spell known, this would mean that a warlock that takes Magic Initiate has access to these spells and can up cast them or cast them using their spell slots. the feat does avoid the word "known spell" but like a lot of things, talk to the dm and ask them how they'd rule it. I've never had one disagree, but I could see one doing so. if they do agree you can use the spell as a warlock spell, this is a near must for warlocks.
thorn whip is a fantastic cantrip. Having 30 feet of range and the ability to pull someone ten feet closer and depending on how lenient the DM is it has a lot of really good roleplaying options also. On top of that, Wisdom is rarely a dump stat for most classes and if it's taken with a cleric for example. So a cleric decides they want goodberry, they already have a nice Wisdom score so they can use that and pull enemies away from squishies or pull enemies into the range of a polearm sentinel or some other kind of unfavorable and nasty trap.
Now onto druidcraft another underrated cantrip. most dms really don't think about weather (normally going and assuming it's bright and sunny, using it to "check" aka change the weather will force the dm to think or maybe even roll to decide the weather. Both of these are a little DM dependent but they supplement Wisdom based characters greatly. Monks, Clerics, maybe paladins, etc. Despite that I feel like both of these spells are really thematic and cool for all of them.
While I agree with most of the analysis, I would point out that many people opt to take music initiate in a class that matches their own primary ability score. In cases such as this, ignoring the spells that rely on that ability score isn't really necessary.
YAY its the colour rating system, I feel vindicated. One of the only times i've commented on anything and its paid off! nice one Treant
It seemed appropriate for this video, and I did remember your comment.
In ref to 19:10 in video - D&D 5e errata 2018. In the second paragraph has been changed to “in addition, choose one 1st level spell to learn from that spell list. Using this Feat, you can cast the spell once at it’s lowest level, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again. “ the once a day language has been removed. Also, if you are a spell casting class you can according to rule clarification cast this spell if it is of you identical class as a class spell. (AKA a Wizard spell initiate can also cast it as a wizard spell using their wizard class spell slots. Though as always DM always has to agree with the ruling there).
I do disagree with some of your dive. I will finish saying that I see 5 reasons to take this.
1) Background (ex background “I tried to be a cleric of helm and I sucked at it so now I follow the great old one and it just gives me what I need”)
2) Alt Fire - you are a ground and pound fighter but if the bad guys are airborne you WANT to make them burn at range
3) Alt use of a Primary Stat - happens with Sorcer/Bard/Warlock/Paladin where they want to keep getting character focus but to make a minor dip (usually to get Hex and EB)
4)Game World work around which are minor (ex. Wearing armor and a weapon is a issue but the fighter can mage armor and fire bolt and maintain some combat ability )
5) Expanding abilities - A fighter adding a Bless spell to a combat to free up a Concentration slot for the cleric (as you say) or a Monk wanting to make his nunchucks (clubs in the game) into magic 1D6 weapons in early levels.
My 2 cents. Peace ✌️
I found this channel in your wizard 5e guide! :D It was awesome to recognize your name on a modern guide, given that I used to use your older ones :3
Can we get your best Lore Bard build?
Probably at some point, but I have quite a number of builds I want to tackle right now.
HipnoSapo For a combat focused Lore Bard, Variant Human War Caster, Lore Bard 18 Hexblade 2, Invocations: Agonizing Blast/Repelling Blast, Magical Secrets: Spiritual Weapon/Spirit Guardians at Bard 6, Counterspell at Bard 10, Wish at Bard 18, and the rest based on party composition.
Noah Linden I actually run Booming Blade instead of GFB for the Dissonant Whispers/War Caster BB combo, as well as to lockdown enemies within the Spirit Guardians field.
This is my recommended build, but for what it’s worth my personal character actually starts Divine Sorcerer 1 for CONsave proficiency, 3 spells and 4 cantrips. This is because my party already has someone that can eventually cast Wish, and also my character did not have to start at level 1.
I have 1 final feat to select for my Bard/Paladin
I'm tossed up between Magic Initiate, Prodigy, Mounted Combatant, Lucky, and Shield Master. I already have War Caster and Resilient +CON
With Magic Initiate, I don't have to use a Magical Secret to take Booming Blade, which combos with Smite and Dissonant Whispers, and I can also take something like Eldritch Blast or Chill Touch to cover my ranged weakness. However, the way the first level spell works means that I can't use it with my real spell slots, making something amazing like shield kind of useless, and Find Familiar limits me to Intelligence, so I can't grab a ranged spell attack. Also, I found that I didn't use all of my Magical Secrets, so I still had one left for Booming Blade. Prodigy can give me the proficiency and expertise and performance that I am missing, taking me from 6 to 17, which might really help me for both Roleplaying and making money on the side. Mounted Combatant is good because I took Find Greater Steed. This would lower the likelihood of my Pegasus dying, give me advantage to hit against unmounted enemies, and make it a more reliable gap closer in combat.
Lucky is Lucky. I can prevent crits and crit fails with it.
Lastly, Shield Master beefs up my dex save abilities and gives me a shortcut for grapple shove combos with my expertise in athletics.
I'm actually least in favor of Magic Initiate at this point, but I'm really uncertain which I will get the most value from long term.
Here's my rule - when in doubt, you will never be sorry to take Lucky.
This is my favorite feat! I want to play an Eladrin Swashbuckler Wizard Initiate. Use Misty Step + Find Familiar to get inside anywhere: Dismiss the familiar to a pocket dimension, bring it back on the other side of a barrier, see through its eyes, Misty Step next to it, and continue on your way.
I would probably also take Booming Blade to sneak attack and move away, mocking my opponents to get them to follow me and take even more damage.
My third cantrip would probably be Mage Hand for utility or Prestidigitation for distractions.
Friends might be interesting on this character. It would be fun to Persuasion, Intimidation, and Deception checks. Who cares if they get mad afterwards?
Modern carbon fiber arrows break by shattering into many pieces. Once one part of the arrow shaft breaks, it loses nearly all its structural integrity.
Aluminum arrows typically bend or sometimes crack when they fail. Wooden arrows are capable of breaking by the most different means. They can have a single clean break, they can splinter and fall into many pieces, or the arrowhead can fall off because it’s usually tied or glued in place rather than screwed in.
If you're taking druid initiate for Shillelagh, I think there's a strong case for taking Absorb Elements as your level 1. Even if you can only cast it once, it's probably going to save a huge amount of damage, and you'll be in position to take advantage of the extra damage die. The latter part scarcely matters, but it's a nice bonus.
I am not an avid archer but i would think that it is mostly the broad head that breaks or fletching is damaged when a shot is missed. Ive only ever shot aluminum shafts though. Most of the time when you miss the arrow stays at a very flat trajectory and disappears into undergrowth/ dirt and grass. That why most modern arrows have neon colored fletching.
I've gone to a couple archery ranges in my life, never had an arrow break, but as you say, they aren't wooden, and the arrowheads are made to be easy to pull out of a target.
My illusion mage forest gnome took magic initiate and spell sniper They can now cast 10 cantrips and can cast Mage Armor every day without using a spell slot as well as snipe folks from a great distance.
Was watching the video and noticed you were expecting that someone could cast feather fall at a higher level. Just wanted to put a heads up that a single class caster would not necessarily be able to do so. The spell casting class ability only allows for spells of the class you select. It doesn't give you the spell casting class feature of the magic initiate school, therefore in order to do this you would need to multi class(which has alternate spell casting rules) or be selecting spells as if they were the same class as you are.... aka a Wizard selecting Wizard spells for additional spells(and a 1st level spell that's always prepared).
I'd argue that regular Shield is a contender. Yes, it's a reaction that only lasts until your turn. However it keeps you on your feet, hopefully, until your turn giving you and your party at least that long to either heal you or getting an extra turn to do whatever you wouldn't have if you didn't have that +5 ac that round.
Great video! However, I would argue that hex for rogues is great since it can give disadvantage on perception checks/ -5 to the passive.
Good point, especially when you consider the synergy with cunning action.
Do ritual caster next please
Maybe a guide on rituals in general.
I love the idea of a sorcerer taking magic initiate and grabbing eldritch blast and hex along with some other extra cantrip to pad their options.
This is just what my Bard did... Hex someone at a party, select Wisdom as the skill check penalty and then Lie lie lie lie lie...
17:20 so in the PHB, Shillelagh is worded as fallows. "For the duration, you CAN use your spellcasting ability instead of strength for the attack and damage rolls..." does this mean you don't have to use your spellcasting ability score if your strength is better and you just want that juicey early game d8 magic wep?
I think you're right. Not sure that you have all that much need of Magic Weapons before you start finding the real thing though...
I have Shillelagh via a warlock pact of the tome. When I look at the spell details in DnD beyond it has applied my Charisma modifications and proficiency to the attack and damage rolls. Seems to indicate that (at least for pact of tome), the phase "your spell casting ability " refers to my warlock charisma
While I wouldn't necessarily take it over find familiar, silent image is a pretty good choice, there is no save unless someone spends an action to inspect it, which is often just as good as they are spending an action
The friends cantrip is best used in conjunction with Disguise Self. Use the latter the disguise yourself as an enemy or rival, then use Friends on as many people as possible, ideally manipulating them into embarrassing themselves, buying you food or drink, giving you discounts, etc., to make them as hostile as possible toward your enemy or rival.
In the aftermath of this video, I think you can see that the interest your printed guide is still viable. I video doing deep dives on Find Familiar , suggestion and Minor Illusion uses would be well received.
I do know about archery, and have had maybe 1 out of 10 arrows shot break. so we play that you can recover most arrows when shot.
The new cover is sweet! Love the analysis and choices.
One thing that I would go out of my way to mention is that DEPENDING ON YOUR DM, they maaaaay contest your illusions a lot with investigation checks. And then it's against your spell save DC. And if you don't have a decent mental-stat with minor illusion, you miiiight get screwed over a bit. That said, not every enemy is going to have good int and what not. And your illusions might not always get checked by the DM. So it is still definitely worth mentioning and even more so worth considering as a magic initiate pick. But, the possibility to get checked on something you might not be good at stat-wise IS present.
Basically, I would ask your DM what kinda things you could do with Minor Illusion that might just be passable without a check and what might be the limits to them being like "Okay people are going to investigate this 100%"
"If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC." - if your DM selects this option, then casting Minor Illusion was amazing as it stole your enemies action! If they succeed, I guess I'll be casting another minor illusion on my turn - completely nullify an enemy with a cantrip and no concentration - that's a win in my book.
Treantmonk's Temple I like that answer! That's a good way to look at it. What would you do for out of combat illusions though? Like, kinda free form roleplaying moments where you're maybe trying to distract guards or deceive somebody with an illusion. Those kinda out of combat uses.
That's a difficult question to answer because it is so situational. I will say that the audio option for the spell is something I tend to use a lot more out of combat.
Treantmonk's Temple It is really situational. And also not as quantifiable as say somebody burning up action economy in combat. But thanks for the speedy replies! I'ma try out this advice. I love the Minor Illusion cantrip, so fingers crossed next time I roll up a character learning it via this feat.
@@Aequilix I'm planning to do a vid focusing on illusions in general - been planning on it for awhile, but it's a bit more challenging to put together - should be coming eventually though.
I am surprised you didn't include Identify in the list, always good spell to have if nobody else in the party does.
chris makes the point in other vids that identify is really unnecessary in 5e because anyone can take a short rest, attune to an item and find out what it does anyway. identify is just a quick way of doing the same thing
In my current campaign I’m playing a battle master fighter using the polarm master/ sentinel combo. And long story short my dm let me get 1 warlock spell (level 1) that I can cast per day. And I just had to pick hex. I get currently 3 attacks per turn (before action surge) and most turns I get an opportunity attack. So 4 attacks per table rotation.
Only watched a few of your vids but super impressive and insightful thank you!
I would encourage anyone taking Magic Initiate to think through how it works thematically, which can help push you out of just taking the same old obvious choices.
I played a melee samurai character with Magic Initiatve for the first half of a now-concluded campaign. Backplot was "my character was from a family of Gold Dragon Sorcerers, but had only a paltry talent in magic and ended up being a fighter instead". I took Firebolt, Control Flame, and Featherfall. Featherfall scales well and saves your bacon at any level. You don't really need it most of the time but when you need it, you really need it. (Find Familiar would have been thematic, too, but it's not on the Sort list.) Firebolt isn't amazing but it helps deal with the big hole in a melee build, namely when you can't get into melee. Control Flame, though, turned out to be super useful. It doubles or halves the radius of light provided by fire, so super (or pathetic) torches. It showed up surprisingly often, and the party started making it show up even more, e.g., by lighting bonfires intentionally. Greenflame Blade would have been nice (and thematic) at low levels but it would have been superseded quickly at level 5, so no.
Sadly too many cantrips are pretty bleh, though, though. In my home game, I give Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, or Druidcraft for free to any full spellcaster.
about shillelagh tbh, from a point of view of purely power optimizing (not making original chars), i hardly see a case for taking it with magic initiate. the class that benefits from it is cleric, and cleric can take nature subclass to get shillelagh for free if that's the plan. melee cleric kind of requires booming blade to be optimized and therefore has to keep magic initiate for wizard spells; you get find familiar or shield as a bonus
One thing I have never found is if the Help action can be a fly by type thing of if the creature providing the Help must stay within the required 5' for the action to be completed. One instance the owl would do it's flyby using it's action to Help then fly to safety. Another interpretation would have the familiar go into melee range and stay in danger.
I never noticed that. That's a significant limitation - I'll keep that in mind in the future. I'm inclined to agree with the latter interpretation.
I agree with the latter. Otherwise how could the familiar be helping if it's not in melée range of the enemy on your turn?
Prestidigitation is great for "creating" darkness. Almost every indoor area is lit by candles or torches and prestidigitation can make such areas dark or dim. Great for making Shadow Blade get its advantage.
Would something been good to take from warlock? you didn't include that as your listings at the end.
PnP I was just about to make the same comment!
Thank you for doing this video, I think I use this feat different than you or many do it seems. Most of the time I take this feat it is with a spellcaster that I want to add options to by picking a class with the same primary stat. I have a bard with magic initiate sorcerer and a cleric with magic initiate druid. I find whenever I start building a character I get excited about I often come across 1 or 2 minor gripes or basically holes I wish I could fill in, I find the Magic Initiate does that excellently. Whereas in this video it seems made out to be totally taboo to take a magic initiate class with another class that uses the same score.
I use both Shillelagh and Magic Stone for my Fey Wanderer/Scribes Wizard to make my ranger less M.A.D. (INT/WIS/CON, focused on WIS)
Can we change purple to yellow so colors progress into each other?
I love the find familiar spell as well but I wouldn't waste magic initiate on it. I have an arcane trickster and my non illusion spell at 3 was shield. I just bought a scroll of find familiar and don't allow my familiar to die. I use an octopus who hides within my armor for absolute total cover even against fireballs, and by raw I can sneak attack anyone in melee because I technically have an ally also within 5. Can he can crawl out, help action, and crawl back into his hole. He can even help me grapple and shove because his size is small not tiny.
I feel like this is good, but I also feel like there are cases where when you take Magic Initiate you might be pretty good with the spellcasting attribute, affecting your selection. If you are a Paladin looking for a few cantrips or a Warlock or Sorcerer looking to get a little bit more versatility, (and you don't want to level dip) something like the Bard or Sorcerer list becomes a lot better. Rangers or Monks getting Cleric or Druid spells is a similarly good combo for Magic Initiate.
Correction: You can cast the spell with spell slots, but only if it's on your spelllist. That might be useful for preparing classes
I know this may be sacrilege, asking the God Wizard Treatmonk this question in his temple, but would you ever consider doing a build for a blaster caster, or maybe compare the options? I'm fine with control and world-changing spells, but I really want to be able to blast often, and I'd really like to have some solid survival options. Sorcerer + Warlock? Or maybe a variation on your recent Valor Bard?
Thanks for all the cool videos!
Sorlock is on my radar for future builds. I will absolutely be doing a blaster build in the not too distant future. It might be a Sorlock, or maybe straight Sorcerer - haven't decided.
Awesome!
Treantmonk's Temple Sorclock would be dope. So many possibilities.
So Treantmonk, as a Firbolg Nature Cleric grabbing Magic Initiate Wizard, what cantrip should I take? I'm already taking Booming Blade and Find Familiar, but need the last choice. I can say Minor Illusion or Mage Hand are the premier choices, but am open to other options if necessary
Yeah, those 2 are going to be great options. Personally of course I would lean towards Minor Illusion.
Thanks! Looking forward to this upcoming game. You definitely helped
My favourite feat since has the versatilty that both munchkins and roleplayers can benefit from this feat.
Personally i let the background dictate the class I'm picking from: Outlanders and hermits usually go for druid spells. Sages pick up wizard spells, criminals and urchins grab some bard spells and acolytes take cleric spells.
The last time I used it was for an Eldritch knight with an Elemental theme, geting mold earth by himself, and picking Magic initiate for shape water and control flame.
Some cantrip ponderings:
Mage Hand has a somatic component. Can you cast it when you're in manacles? I'd likely say no for a couple of reasons. If an NPC did it, players who had its somatic component in mind could justifiably feel cheated. Also, if it worked, in a wide magic setting, you'd think they'd stick any potential magicky person in restrictive mittens and then manacles.
For Minor Illusion, I've always wondered if you can make some 'natural' obscurement by which a wood elf can use Mask of the Wild. My inclination is to say yes.
By the by, I find the new image to be too dignified if the point of your name is a goofy race and class combo =D
Friends + Mord's Hound. Perfect for a lawful evil character, or someone who is otherwise trying to provoke an attack. Target becomes hostile, Hound slaughters him. You can realistically say 'they were a victim of their own hostility.'
And YOU never laid a hand on them. You have witnesses.
You didn't talk about Warlock at the end Tmonk!
Life clerics often take the magic initiate druid for spells like Goodberry, Shillelagh and Thornwhip. Life Clerics can do a ridiculous amount of healing with 1 Goodberry spell
I'm not sure I consider Goodberry a "healing spell", for the same reason I don't consider the Creation spell a healing spell, even if you use it to create a healers kit.
Why vicious mockery is not part of your list? I think is a great cantrip. Also you don't mention shield or absorb elements for lvl 1spells they are both awesome
He said the once per long rest limit made spells like Shield much less attractive for picks. For vicious mockery, he said Bards don't have great options to go with it and the fact that it is Charisma dependent makes it unappealing for most characters taking MI.
This was great for a new player! Thank you!
hey man, i think it would be nice if you make a video about the funniest characters for you, ir do not have to ve strong, but very fun to play
Some sort of bard or rogue for me
U should see his character "Lucky" in the Blades of Waterdeep campaign. He's clearly having fun with it but it's also effective.
I agree with you both though I'd like to see builds that are fun to play but not necessarily optimized (but also not a "waste of space," to quote some wise man's build guide).
I'm very surprised you didn't talk about Eldritch blast at all. I know your focus was not on attack cantrips (point taken); but with so many Cha based casters in the game; EB is usually the best attack cantrip when it's available. Magic Initiate gives Bards an amazing damage option and just rounds them out amazingly. Also, why didn't you rank the warlock list in the end?
A fun follow up to this might be going into all the pairings of magic initiate. You said fighters benefit more from hex. What other pairs are there?
So I've heard online discussion about Magic Initiate adding the 1st level spell to your spells known, sometimes getting around the 1/day casting. Is this just a common misconception?
Maybe not. The 1/day is how I read the feat.
Azandeer The actual ruling from Sage Advice is that you get it in your spells known, but you can only cast it with spell slots if you have levels in the feat’s chosen class.
I think you are missing a lot of great options by limiting yourself to attribute independent spells. Some examples that could be really useful:
Bard: Take "Vicious Mockery" and Healing Word for a cocky Sorcerer or Warlock.
Sorcerer: Take Green Flame Blade and Chaos Bolt (unique to Sorcerer) for a Blade Bard. One casting of Chaos Bolt might not seem much, but it fits the theme of a "soldier of fortune" who likes to gamble. With the limited access to combat spells for the bard, this might be a fun one to pick.
Rogues tend to have at least one high mental attribute: Either Int for Arcane Trickster, Wisdom for the Scouts or Cha for Infiltrators. Picking Spells or Cantrips that rely on this attribute can be very good. Vicious Mockery comes to mind for a Face character. Sacred Flame + Guidance might be a good cantrip pick for a scout character. He has the stats to cast Sacred Flame and it gives him an option to attack the Dex stat of a heavly armored enemy, not a bad thing to have.
The same case could be made for Monks: Usually they have a high Wisdom already, so cantrips and spells from the cleric list that rely on Wisdom are up for grabs. Given that a monk runs out of Ki points fairly quickly, a reliable cantrip like sacred flame might be a useful thing to have (and it has range).
A monk using hex to turn all their many little attacks into more deadly ones.
So, where do you put warlock? You left it out of the final analysis. Between hex, minor illusion, mage hand, booming blade and/or green flame blade, and prestidigitation it gives some pretty decent options. I would certainly think it ranks higher than Bard
I did miss it. It was intended to be before Cleric (purple rating), as Hex is a nice fit for a number of characters (particularly fighters). Ooops!
@@TreantmonksTemple Thanks! That's pretty much where I'd have rated it. I appreciate the response. Great video, as usual. Keep up the excellent work
@@1217BC Thank you!
did the erata not chage it , so u learn the spell and can use the feat to cast it 1/long rest?
This is what I'm told. I guess I missed that.
i could be wrong but that's how i interpreted it, if u want i can post the exact wording of it and i could get your opinion on it@@TreantmonksTemple
@@timeweaver I believe this is the current wording, "You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again using this feat."
@@TreantmonksTemple
The second paragraph has been changed to “In addition,
choose one 1st-level spell to learn from that
same list. Using this feat, you can cast the
spell once at its lowest level, and you must
fnish a long rest before you can cast it in
this way again.”
dis is the exact wording of the erta, to me it seems u learn the spell and can cast it once per long rest.
what do u think?
Hey Chris, I have been reading your info for a few years and I appreciate your approach. Can you do one on ritual casting and the ritual caster feat? There are sooooo many issues (like multiclassing w a ritual casting class) and honestly, i’m confused. Can you clear things up?
You missed eldritch blast, a must have attack cantrip. Removes the need to carry a ranged weapon and/or ammo.
He specifically said that he was not talking about cantrips that required attack rolls or saving throws.
I agree that if you're a CHA prime stat class then Magic Initiate with Eldritch Blast and Hex is a great way to do significant damage in a fight.
@@actingkeith It was dry enough I skipped half the vid and just went to where a new spell started to see what it was.
3:17 Booming blade has a casting time of an action so it cannot be an AOA attack.
You can with the warcaster feat. It requires a spell with the casting time of one action and allows you to use your reaction to cast it.
@@mattf5935 ooooh you're right, I'd forgotten about that bullet point...
why no warlock spellist colloration at the end???
i hear if you treat them well during the spell friends they dont always turn on you.
Did I miss read greenflame blade I thought it goes off the attack not spell attack
The secondary damage is ability score dependant.
Ok I didn't see that
I am a first time DM swiitching from 3.5 with my friends to 5 ( SOON ).
Is there Any advice you have on running a barb- either totem or storm herald path?
Feats? Items? etc etc Id greatly appreciate it. ( running barb personally because I am playing more of a tank for the group, that also does some damage. we only have four in the group including myself. )
Sure. Barbarians can be a lot of fun, though I find the Storm Herald and Berserker paths both lacking. Totem is excellent though, that's the path I would recommend. If you are going with variant human and starting with a Feat - well, there are some great options, but if doing damage is what you're after, I recommend Great Weapon Master - this works very well with Reckless Attack that you will get at level 2. Although the Barb has a no-armor boost, I still recommend Medium Armor when you can get it - eventually Half Plate is your best bet. This means a 14 starting Dex is a good idea. Greatsword is the best weapon IMO - some will tell you Greataxe, but I find that Greatsword is better, even with the Barb crit bonus that comes into play later (of course, if you get a magical 2 handed weapon, that is going to be your best bet obviously). If you want to be more resilient, then you can do 1H and a shield, in which case, Shield Master is a decent option. Bear or Wolf totem are my favorites at level 3 - depending whether durability or party buffing is your focus - Wolf totem works very nicely if someone else takes GWM too - that's a lot of bashing power.
My Bard/Paladin might make good use of Warlock Magic Initiate. My DM was kind enough to give me Shillelagh in exchange for one of my Bard Cantrip slots, so the character is playable before getting Magic Secrets at level 12. However, I have hit level 5, and from here until I get extra attack at level 8, my combat ability is going to be hampered. Taking 1 level into warlock makes my build legitimate but also exacerbates the issue and denies me wish.
Instead, at level 6, I am thinking to take Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, and Hex.
Booming Blade patches up my melee damage and forces the enemy to fight me, and Eldritch Blast + Hex gives me ranged combat that I'm otherwise lacking.
Eventually, Booming Blade will be combined with War Caster to add several extra d8's to opportunity attacks that I make.
However, I'm not sure that the ASI is worth the trade since I could get a lot more out of 1 level of Warlock in some ways. The opportunity cost is Wish and delayed access to everything, but I get access to shield and hex multiple times a day, as well as effectively one more ASI to work with and a spell slot that recharges on short rest.
The bard and sorc options probably become more viable if you have decent Charisma. Lots of classes use that these days. Lots of races boost it enough that it's not a dump stat.
A Lore Bard wanting to expand his magic options even further might take some Sorc stuff.
Or the 'face' of the party, maybe the paladin, might find a few Bard spells useful.
A stat doesn't have to be 20 to be effective lol.
Goodberry question. Since it is a meal equal to 1 days worth of rations, if I feed all ten berries to someone for the healing, does the healed character get a stomach ache because they just ate 10 days worth of food? Do they get fat from it if I feed them too many?
Up to your DM. I already have a "berry belly"
I’m a super cooky eccentric wizard in my current campaign, I do a lot of weird stuff with prestidigitation. At lvl 4 I plan on probably taking initiate and choosing cleric for thaumaturgy, and guidance, I like this guide it’ll help me choose the first level spell, thanks.
With hex would you be able to upcast it if you take it through this feat for say a Paladin or a bladesong wizard?
foolycoolytheband The Magic Initiate feat specifically says that the 1st Level Spell gained can only be cast at its lowest level.
This is why utility spells, such as Find Familiar, tend to be a better choice.
Your videos are great. They are incredibly helpful - particularly for beginners like me (though I think your advice is also helpful for those with experience as well).
TL;DR - You should do shorter videos focused on class - particularly character creation and the early level choices; AND, you should probably do a video about how you see the roles of each member of a party.
I hope this doesn’t seem presumptuous, but I would suggest that you do videos focusing on class rather than level, spells, or on ultimate builds (even though those videos are very interesting). Though there is no correct playing style, I believe that everyone - including you - have certain assumptions about how to play D&D.
I believe that your assumptions involve party members assuming certain roles - FACE, SNEAK, TANK, HEALBOT, UTILITY CASTER, COMBAT, etc. This isn’t the ONLY way to play, obviously, but you clearly prefer to play in groups where players fall into these roles (even if players don’t begin with this assumption, many find that their groups will begin to develop into this IMO).
This assumption helps drive the choices that you make. A single video on your assumptions that could be referenced in all future videos would help explain why you are making particular recommendations. AND, if players choose to make another choice, they would probably be doing so because they were pursuing another playing style (OR, possibly, trying to make a character fit multiple roles because of their party).
Obviously, you do not have to do a video for each class. You could only focus on those that you prefer and do a single video for all that you do not like. (I know from your interview with the Roll Mongers Network that you do not particularly like Monks; it would be interesting to hear you explain why that is the case; I assume that since Monks do not easily fit into the roles that you like in a party, you do not like Monks, but it could be another reason).
Videos based upon Class would probably be easier for you to do since they would not be as long as many that you are currently doing. Covering the first five levels of development for many classes - including good race and feat choices - wouldn’t take forty-five minutes or an hour (though I could be wrong).
As a beginner, I would find such videos far more helpful than simply knowing what spells in a particular level are good, bad, overrated and underrated.
You did focus on class in this video and it was great. At the end, you ranked the types of magic initiates. This is far more helpful than just talking about ALL of them. Your spell videos are great. I loved them. I have watched them all multiple times and taken notes from them. BUT, when I go to create a wizard, it doesn’t help me to know about 12 level 1 spells when MOST of them are not available to me.
I hope that my comment is helpful. I hope that you read it. I hope that you do videos focused on classes.
Thank you for making this video. Thank you for all that you do.
I see your point, but, longer videos are better for the UA-cam algorithms to generate more views :)
Not saying Chris does this specifically for that reason, but, in my opinion, might as well take advantage of it.
Not currently. Right now I just make videos for fun and to generate discussion. Haven't earned any money at it at this point, but I'm getting close to breaking the $100/month barrier (which is the minimum your videos must earn in a month before they pay out advertising revenue), so it may come into play soon. It's fun, but if it can be fun and a few extra $ in pocket I'm good with that!
From what Chris said in his interview, he would LIKE to make money from his hobby, but it isn't necessarily his goal to do so. Thus, he may not be focused on UA-cam algorithms (as you recognize in your response).
Further, though I say these videos will be short, that doesn't mean that they will actually be short. My suggestion is more for building content - particularly what I hope would be simple for Chris to make and easy for beginners to watch.
It could take Chris over 20 minutes to explain these topics - classes to the fifth level, his ideology behind playing DnD, and the like. He might feel that it is necessary to take the time to explain in great detail the various options. I don't know what he would say and I will not hazard a guess.
I hope that my suggestion helps grow his channel, but I don't know if it is best for Chris to follow my advice or focus on the algorithm. I am confident that his channel grows because of his reputation within the DnD community and NOT because of views on UA-cam (at least for now).
I actively searched for this channel once I stumbled upon his guide to Wizards. I don't think that I am alone. I am willing to bet that most of his 3,200 subscribers actively sought out this channel just as I did.
Thus, I think that when players and DM's find this page it would be best to find a lot of easily digestible content. The more, the better, IMO.
Please don't mistake this as me somehow knowing what is best. I am not sure - TBH. I do think that, particularly for newer players, it would be better to have some basic questions answered in relatively short videos.
(I was working on my reply when Chris made his).
Glad to hear that your channel is doing so well.