Make a Goldilocks build for each category of builds with the following restriction: at each damage report at time of recording, it must land right in the middle of the pack overall.
I think that if I were going to play this from level 1, I would actually start Druid. That makes the first bear at level 2, second bear at level 3 and thus not have the permanent companion until level 6. This would also make the first two levels a little nicer because you can use cantrips from the start thus always relying on wisdom instead of dex.
This is not a lie. Midway through level 5 trying this build. Druid start really helped but it's been a long run to level 6. I got a staff of woodlands as a gift. It's helped assist greatly without mama bear.
I do not know why, but the last 3 levels to me scream going with a bear-totem Barbarian to really lay it on thick with the Bear-tastic theming of this build. 😅 Yet another beaut of a build, papa-bear Colby. 🐻
Can you make the best Book Nerd? I've daydreamed about Scribes wizard and Tome Warlock for awhile, since they're both so book-focused. Toyed with it a couple times and almost went with the Ritual Caster feat to take the place of one or the other classes, but it sacrifices so much to the theme. Could it be good?
I love how you mention you'll do more BG3 videos with some degree of guilt! I am sure your regular fans are very happy to see your channel do so well with the BG3 videos and all the new fans who can get converted to D&D through it, like a gateway drug.
Another great video. I'm surprised that you missed the opportunity to make the base character to be Goldilocks herself. 😉 Goldilocks is the three bears. Monsters come across her, thinking to themselves what a cute, defenseless little blonde child. Then boom! She becomes a bear with her bear friends. So much fun. 😂
Conjure animals could actually work really well for this build, not for the 8 beasts option, but for the 1 or 2 You could summon an additional two brown bears to get 4 bears, or if you wanted to stick with the Goldilocks theme you could summon one cave or polar bear!
I really want the Dungeon Dudes to do a review video after they finish all their multiclass ranking videos where they just give feedback on all of your "inspired by" builds.
So... with custom lineage, couldn't you technically look like a bear to begin with? So, wild shaping into a bear would actually be like a "Frenzy mode" or something. I love this build!
TAKE TELEPATHY FIRST!!! IT IS MANDATORY FOR MOON DRUIDS. Fey Touched is great and all but it can and should wait. I played a moon druid for like a year before taking it, and let me say, there is a special kind of sadness which comes of having to choose between keeping your wildshape, or demorph just to talk. Especially when you're trying to coordinate tactics in combat. Plus, Telepathy has great utility uses for a Wisdom-based character. Having a high Insight makes you a great lie detector -- you can then covertly share your insights with the rest of your party without doing anything outward to reveal it. And high Perception + stealthy wildshape forms makes you a better scout than the Rogue: this is infinitely better when you don't have to unmorph or make any sounds or movements at all to tell others what you saw whilst scouting. And if you have a form with Blindsight, like a bat, you can feed information to your party members to talk them through magical darkness or a fog cloud. If you're in horse form as a mount or something, you can communicate with your rider perfectly. It's just so unbelievably useful for druids, especially Moon Druids, that I had to say something.
Out of curiousity, if we broke from the build slightly at level 8 and start using Conjure Animals to summon more and more bears, would the build do any better? It would still fit the bear theme if we chose to only summon the bear options and I would love to have an army of bears on my side lol.
For your comments in the beginning on the trouble of a druid/ranger, I agree! It's like an inverted version of cleric/paladin where both have very different problems facing a build, even though they should thematically fit.
Personally, as fun as having 3 bears seems, I think I'd go straight beastmaster ranger and have the character be Goldilocks and the companion baby bear with the backstory goal of finding papa and mama bear who were wrapped up in whatever plot the campaign has going on. This would be a great character for a Wild Beyond the Witchlight game either way
How would one go about building a Bill the Butcher esc character..? Thinking DW Cleaver (handaxe) and a mallet/meat tenderizer (mace..? Light hammer?) thinking blood hunter?.. haven’t seen much optimization with 2 different weapons for a STR build… prolly cause it’s sub optimal 😬
I know everyone hates on favored enemy, but you're passing up advantage on tracking bears and knowledge checks about bears for a measly d4 of damage once a turn?
What does everyone think of making this build a Goldilocks + Bears build by going straight beastmaster and using summon beast and then eventually conjure animals for 2 bears at level 9? You could flavour the familiar as a baby bear until then. Obv the 3 bears comes online later and they are weaker than baby bear, but mama will be srronger and you have a full PC ranger to use a spoon shaped 'shortsword' (or a bow... fine).
I love you went from "thinking" about making a bg3 video to pushing back this video for bg3 videos 😂 Also a whole party of this would be fun in game, just a pack of bears ravaging a goblin camp
Can you make a gunslinger build? not the critical role one but like a two weapon or archery fighter with some hexblade or artificer levels, maybe you did it already I’ll check.
37:10 Yes! As someone who plays a Beastmaster for years, this bummed me a lot! That's why I like the OneDND Beastmaster so much, their version of Exceptional Training is actually amazing!
With Dueling, Shillelagh, and Extra Attack, your DPR would ironically increase when you're knocked out of your Cave Bear form (due to an increase in both your chance to hit and the damage dealt if you hit with both attacks). RAW, it wouldn't break your existing grapple even against a Huge creature (RAI, you should at least forego wielding a shield though). With expertise in Athletics, you have a good chance of maintaining the grapple, especially if you allocate the 4 remaining points to start with 12 Strength. Of course, you hope to stay in Papa Bear form for character concept and survivability, but I would double down on the playstyle by starting with Dueling and Resilient (Wisdom) at 1st level instead of Archery and Fey Touched, since bears can't cast Silvery Barbs or Misty Step anyway. Resilient isn't a repeatable feat, so you would then need War Caster instead of Resilient (Constitution), but War Caster is better at protecting your Concentration on Baby Bear and it wouldn't increase your Con mod until picking up Chef at 14th level anyway.
Also, I find SB to be less amazing than people make it out to be. Silvery Barbs gives disadvantage on one roll, basically. Mathematically, that's a -3 ish. It gives Advantage on the next roll to someone else. That's +3 ish. A net of +6. Shield does +5 AC and gives it for the entire turn. Given that majority of the creatures you face have multiple attacks, Shield is likely a stronger spell as SB only affects 2 rolls, Shield can affect many more. Additionally, a crit doesn't double damage, it doubles a die. So if you save your SB for crits and you still get hit, you're not reducing damage by half, it's closer to 30-40% reduction Is that better than Absorb Elements which flat out reduces? Maybe - if only because that's only elemental damage. But is it SOOOOO much better to invoke mobs? Doubtful.
And lastly, Bless is just plain better. Multiple players get +2.5 to saves and attacks. Even getting this twice ever means that you're doing nearly as good as SB. Instead, you get it for as many rounds as you hold concentration. If SB is OP, Bless is God-tier.
A straight moon druid could do three bears by level 5, using the spell that you hate. You could conjure two bears with conjure animals right at level five.
Does Colby have any d&d campaigns that he posts online? I swear I remember one being mentioned in a video I watched but I can't find anything on this channel at least... seeing how he approaches character creation, I'd love to watch any adventure that he and like-minded players are running!
finally a build where the Witchlight Hand background makes narrative sense. not that any background couldn't ever go with any build for any reason, but i particularly like when it's not a huge stretch.
Brilliant! Going into this I was wondering if you were going to get to third bear by the level 6 damage report and sure enough you continue to impress. I love it when a plan comes together!
Haven't watch the video yet. My guess is 8 to 10 levels of shepherd Druid with the rest being Beastmaster. Beastmaster primal companion being one bear and the rest coming from 5th level conjure animals and using the Shepherd auras to buff their health and heal them. Edit: After watching he went with Moon druid, Beastmaster, and Summon beast. Personally I think this is not only a weaker version but also isn't a Godilock and the 3 bears build. I know he got a bird Familiar Named Goldilocks but if your character was Goldilocks with 3 Bear summons it would be more accurate. You could have the summons out almost all the Time and with Aid and Bear totem aura you can increase there health by a lot. Also they will all get Magic attacks and you'll do overall more damage. Additionally once you get Planar Binding and just have the Mamma and Papa all the time as long as you have the jewels to caste it. You would get all 3 bears at level 8 instead of 6. 3 levels of ranger and 5 levels of druid. Conjure animals 2 cr1 Brown bears and your Primal Companion.
@DnDDeepDive You could use the 3rd party Barbarian: Path of Primal Spirit from Grimhowl to make both “mama” and “papa” bear do more damage. Link to Dungeon Dudes going over the class: ua-cam.com/video/qJrzxWfaxYc/v-deo.htmlsi=ytx1DI4xW5TpG9Od
No need for a Pre-Video guess from me REALLY, but I did have a fun thought: I don't know the race yet, but I would pick a Summer Eladrin (yes, you can change seasons, but it's the most thematic). Why? You can flavor being surrounded by an air of yarrow and phlox flowers. And since your bears don't really exist without you, you could call the build: Goldie Phlox is the Three Bears.
Depending on your campaign setting, a Kalashtar would be the perfect racial choice. +2 Wisdom, adv on Wis saving throws, but most importantly, telepathy that lets you talk to ANY CREATURE you can see, with the range increasing as you level. So you can stay in bear form, chat to your party members and generally have a great time. Feels like the "bear minimum"!
Hey Colby! I came upon a recent discovery which, I want so desparately to be proven wrong on. Nowhere in the rules does it state than an eldritch invocation cannot be picked more than once. Obviously it makes no sense to pick, say, devils sight twice. However, the wording of agonising blast allows it to stack with itself. Meaning, by 5th level, a warlock that took the eldritch adept feat can fire 2 beams with eldritch blast, each dealing 1d10+4xCHA. Please tell me I'm wrong and why. It would be the death of build diversity if a 17th lv warlock can do 9x their cha modifier+1d10 on each beam of thier 4 beams per eldritch blast. Using their asis to max out cha, that's (45+1d10)*4 force damage without using bonus actions or spell slots.
"...sound fun to you to maul your enemies as a bear while also getting help from your 2 bear companions?" You been looking at my old Diablo 2 build, Colby? Wait... what else did you see on that computer?? I swear, that was all for research purposes! 😅 😂😂 [Okay, D2 only allowed my wearbear Druid to have 1 Bear Companion, but the build concept lines up]
As for the first question, "character inspired by a fairy tale", yes! A Snow White character. Mostly relying on Swarmkeeper ranger (the swarm is made of birds and small forest critters), with the Conjure Woodland Beings spell (satyrs being reflavored as some kind of redcap).
Hey brother!! Just gave u a sub. I know NOTHING about DnD, but your videos have helped me tremendously!!! Im turning into a super nerd as we speak. Can I ask a off topic question? What camera are you using?
LOL. I saw this title and immediately thought of my current character plus a bear comanion of some sort. I'm playing a Bugbear who is also a Werebear. :D It started out as a joke -- "what if I could be a werebear too, so I could be a Bugbear, which is NOT a bug and NOT a bear, but SOMETIMES be a real bear?" -- and led to my DM saying "wait, well, what ARE the rules for being a Werebear?" And we did research and put it together, and we kept it a secret from the rest of the party for the first few weeks of the campaign because Werebear has learned that many people in the world are violently against were-creatures, even good ones. Until the first full moon, when I involuntarily changed, and then had to leave my tent because the party got attacked in the night. If I threw in some sort of bear companion, I'd have 3 bears, although 2 of them would just be me. :D Next level I finally get Arcane Trickster, so I'll be able to have a familiar if I want. Maybe I'll ask if I could re-skin something as some sort of bear. Not anything that would make it more powerful than a typical familiar, of course. Maybe a koala. Koalas are sort of my totem or identity animal. So that would be special to me, plus a big tough Bugbear with a sweet sleepy little baby Koala familiar would be sort of adorable, I think. :) Not the most useful form for a familiar, but it can always change forms occasionally if needed, and also we already have one familiar in the party that's usually a crab (Leonardo da Pinchy) but spends a lot of time lately as a spider, which is SUPER useful for scouting ahead and being effectively invisible. (Who notices a spider on the ceiling or high on the wall? Nobody.). I did Beast Master last campaign (my first time playing). Used the UA version, which was MUCH MUCH better, and I'm sad that they retired that one -- I don't know why they did and I don't think any of the "Fixes" I've seen since have been anywhere near as good (although I don't think I've actually seen the *most* recent, at this point -- I'm not sure). My DM also made one additional change for me -- I had the choice of either using my beast's reaction attack OR using an extra attack myself. For flavor, I much preferred using my beast's attack, of course, but there were SO MANY TIMES that the beast was not in position to make an attack that it was feeling really unfair, because all the other combat players had multiple attacks, while I had one attack and only got another attack via my beast maybe 1 time out of maybe 3, simply because they only got to attack IF they happened to be adjacent to an enemy when I attacked, which NEVER was the case at the start of a fight. It would typically take a dash to get them in position to attack and then they could attack on the third turn, by which point there would only be a few attacks left before the end of the fight. Plus, their attack was much weaker than mine, especially later in the game, since even though the UA ranger let the beast level up SOMEWHAT, its attacks didn't seem to level up as much as everyone else's. So it was feeling for a while there like while everyone else had a solid 2 attacks, I had more like 1.25. It felt MUCH more fait when we made the rule that I could take another attack when my beast didn't. (Which meant in theory I could just choose to always use it myself for the stronger attack, but in practice I preferred to use the beast, because why would I want to HAVE the beast and not use it? No fun in that.) Oh, we also wound up using a feat later on that I think came from a homebrew that let me upgrade my beast into something with a higher CR, which did improve its attack considerably, and improved things a lot. And for flavor, we made it so my panther just grew huge and took on scaled-up stats which my DM figured out by looking at some of the larger creatures that the feat would have allowed and the panther's original stats. I went off for a day and did a ritual, buned some materials, and came back with my panther suddenly huge. That was great. :) Oh, and his name was Puppy. Puppy the Panther.
Video suggestion: Make a "baseline" average character build. I don't think you do yourself justice when you say "meh this build is only mid tier 2." Reliably putting out 100 dpr using almost 0 resources is super impressive.
I don't think this build would work well in actual play, especially in upper levels. The problem is that the Wild Shape not only fails to scale offensively, but it also fails to scale defensively. So even at level 17, you'll be in the front lines with a 12 AC and 42 HP. You're going to get knocked out of bear form fast, and perhaps lose concentration to boot. Given that it takes 1-2 rounds to set up the sustained DPR figures you quote, you may never get a chance to hit those. You may start tanky, but the tankiness falls off very quickly.
@DnDDeepDive Hey Colby, been following your work basically since the days you firmly believed that custom lineage should have access to the racial feats. Yup, looong time. Anyway this is the first time I felt the need to send a build challenge your way, my hope is merely that you would take it into consideration. The build challenge: A pact of the blade warlock focusing primarily on Str and dipping barbarian. Synergy we're looking into is rage damage reduction combined with upcasting armor of agathys, which doesn't require concentration and can reliably be cast outside of combat. Build I came up with is bear totem barbarian 3 for superior damage reduction and X levels of fiend warlock for extra tankiness through extra temporary hp. By no means do you need to take up the same path, in fact I would be shocked if you didn't do more multiclassing ❤
Hello, did this build work on bg3? As a build that can be played on normal difficulty, I'm not looking for an extra optimal build but something that works petty OK. Ty
I used to think Favored Foe was better than Favored Enemy, but I've doubled back on this recently. Given the fact it can't be doubled up with any spells that would increase your damage, the limited uses of it and the relatively small damage it provides, 9 times out of 10 I'd rather have the extra languages and advantages on skill checks. Favored Enemy pretty much gives you actual roleplay benefits over combat benefits you'll rarely ever use as long as you have Hunter's Mark, Hex, or Spirit Shroud. Favored Foe is literally only good at level 1 and immediately becomes obsolete when you hit level 2.
I missed how this build supposed to be "tanky" sure you hold ONE target prone, giving him disavantage on it's attack... but you got the lowest AC in the Game. Your summon beast bear is as solid as your concentration check. Sure you took resilience... but at some point you will roll low and since it's impossible to miss you with that beast AC... you will get a lot of attack Then you are in melee, you are the one holding the enemy down, so I guess you will be the target of many attack, and with that WEAK Cr2 bear HP... you will not remain in bear form often So where is that "tankyness" you are speaking of? Then support, sure you got support spell... that you can cast out of combat or out of wild shape and you cannot cast those concentration support spell, otherwise your summon beast will disapear.
okay, i'm gonna say it. Favored Foe sucks. in combat, it is better than Favored Enemy. i will say that. HOWEVER! you are spending a limited resource, and your concentration, to get pitiful damage value against a single target. i wouldn't mind this at all if you didn't have to use your concentration, but you do, and that's why it sucks.
If i was the DM for this character...i would give them some homebrew items: The Claw Insignia of Fire, the Fang Insignia of Ice and the Life Flow Insignia. Insignia of Fire: Adds 1d8 fire damage to melee attacks and succesful grapples, and immolates the target for 1 minute on such succesful hits/checks. Immolated targets take 1d4 fire damage per round untill it ends or uses an action to put the fire out. The Insignia of fire also adds the user's Wisdom score to all their melee attacks and gives a +2 to hit and damage on such attacks, granting one additional attack each 6 levels of the user when they take the attack action or use multiattack. Insignia of Ice: Adds 1d8 cold damage an frostbites the target for 1 minute on a hit. Frostbitten targets lose half their movement speed untill they use the dash or disingage action. Give also +2 to attacks. An immolated target who gets frostbitten, or vice versa, becomes smoldering, which is a mixture of both conditions, plus 1d4 cold damage when the immolation procs. Life flow Insignia: On a critical hit, the user may choose a creature they can see within 30 feet and restore their hit points by 1d6, if the creature is at full health those become temporary hit points instead. If the target is smoldering, the attack needs only hit to proc the restoration effect. The life flow insignia also causes a creature summoned by a spell to remain without need of concentration on the spell which summoned it and allows the summned creature to remain untill destroyed or dismissed, but the spell slot used to summon them cannot be recovered untill they are dismissed. And thus...with these three items, Papa Bear sets the enemy on fire making them too hot, Mama Bear frostbites the enemy making them too cold, and Baby Bear finds them...juuuuuuust right~ Overpowered...yes, would be fun as heck to help my player realise this build to perfection tho. i would probably add even more power to the insignia of fire to make sure Papa Bear keeps up as we went if it still proved not enough...would have to see how it performs in game to see what else i'd add to it...maybe reduce the damage die values if it proved too much but i think these numbers are okay. Maybe i'll give Papa Bear a fire-based Spirit Shroud spell since the life flow insignia makes baby bear stay without need for concentration...we'd have to see how its performing in game, as long as they don't betray the concept, we'd make it work.
Why was there not a 1 level dip in Life Cleric here? I know the spreadsheet, but you get 10 Goodberry bear treats! They heal 4 HP each also. Oh! Rude comment of the week. I almost forgot. You spent an entire video to recreate one of the lamer nursery rhymes? Great! What has your channel become!?!
Instead of the bear theme you could go with wild canids, and have each size a different one making sense for its abilities. Wolf, coyote, fox, jackal, etc... Or maybe even better, cats: lion/tiger, mountain lion, lynx, domesticated cat familiar...
A three billy goats gruff version of this could work. take Satyr. Or something 'trollish' like half-orc or another flavoured ancestry. Giant goat animal form ain't the best,maybe re-flavour elk?
As usual, I agree with your lax view of the Dungeon Dudes' rules. The reason their rules are important is that they force the analysis to consider a new thing each time. For example, the paladin/warlock is different from the warlock/paladin, despite the fact that they are made by combining the same two classes. This lets them fill out each video completely, but doesn't help your builds at all. So, in short, keep it up!
My concern, in reading the sage advise, is that you don't get expertise with the brown bear. At 25:38, is says "Use your proficiency bonus for anything where you're *both proficient,* but only if yours is higher[...]." To me that reads that the *Brown Bear* needs to be proficent in athletics for you to provide your expetise to that form. I might allow a player to add proficiency to a skill they have expertise in to a creature that is not proficient in that skill, but not expertise without some clarifications on the Sage Advice. Still a really fun vuild idea, even if the grapple might not work as advertised.
Hey Colby, big fan. Been with you from the beginning. Does your wife want you to grow your hair out? You look real sharp with a short haircut man! Anyway, love the content. You are one of my favorite content creators. Would love to see a build that is rp focused We can quantify with a list of goals😅
You could of gone straight beastmaster ranger, and using find familiar as a 'baby bear'. With the ranger being Goldilocks. Drawing from the last wish, drudiic warrior for shillelagh on a quarter staff is a nice play.
Got a build idea: the best sausage master. A BG3 build that dual wields sausages. Maybe one handed. Maybe thrown. All up to you. Whats the strongest build you could make?
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Is this build possible in Baldur's Gate 3? If it is I'll love to see it demonstrated?
@@MOTat18 unfortunately there’s no summon beast spell so… 2 Bears :(
GGS. They made the best acronym
Can't wait for the Goldilocks build!
13s across the board.
Make a Goldilocks build for each category of builds with the following restriction: at each damage report at time of recording, it must land right in the middle of the pack overall.
Thief Rogue?
Low intelligence & wisdom thief.
Elemental resistance specialist
I think that if I were going to play this from level 1, I would actually start Druid. That makes the first bear at level 2, second bear at level 3 and thus not have the permanent companion until level 6. This would also make the first two levels a little nicer because you can use cantrips from the start thus always relying on wisdom instead of dex.
This is not a lie. Midway through level 5 trying this build.
Druid start really helped but it's been a long run to level 6.
I got a staff of woodlands as a gift. It's helped assist greatly without mama bear.
"What's the question, doesn't matter the answer is always BEARS!!" - Colby.
Great video again dude.
TGIT! Thanks Colby!
8:15 Fey Wanderer rangers up 💪🏽
Great build! Hope that BG3 content works out for you, ; )
This week's concept art was one of Randall's best pieces for your videos. Super cool, mad props
My username has never been more relevant
Astarion would love this build
LMAOOOOO
Best comment, can't be topped you have won the internet, trophy 🏆 unlocked!
@@Moleje1337"can't be topped"
Astarion would disagree. He definitely gets topped
I do not know why, but the last 3 levels to me scream going with a bear-totem Barbarian to really lay it on thick with the Bear-tastic theming of this build. 😅 Yet another beaut of a build, papa-bear Colby. 🐻
You could never rage or you would lose Baby Bear though
@@Priestofgoddess Thank Tiamat for the beauty of Homebrewing then. 😅👍🏻
barbian moon druid is great for unarmed defense upgrade
Man I kinda love that Baby Bear scales so well. Momma and Poppa really seeing their little guy flourish ♥
Really proud papa bear!
😂
Baby bear mad abt dat porrige still. Lol
Can you make the best Book Nerd? I've daydreamed about Scribes wizard and Tome Warlock for awhile, since they're both so book-focused. Toyed with it a couple times and almost went with the Ritual Caster feat to take the place of one or the other classes, but it sacrifices so much to the theme. Could it be good?
I love how you mention you'll do more BG3 videos with some degree of guilt! I am sure your regular fans are very happy to see your channel do so well with the BG3 videos and all the new fans who can get converted to D&D through it, like a gateway drug.
😂😂😂😂😂 true
Another great video.
I'm surprised that you missed the opportunity to make the base character to be Goldilocks herself. 😉 Goldilocks is the three bears.
Monsters come across her, thinking to themselves what a cute, defenseless little blonde child. Then boom! She becomes a bear with her bear friends. So much fun. 😂
Found you cause of baldurs gate 3, but im sticking around its really calming to listening to your build videos haha
Conjure animals could actually work really well for this build, not for the 8 beasts option, but for the 1 or 2
You could summon an additional two brown bears to get 4 bears, or if you wanted to stick with the Goldilocks theme you could summon one cave or polar bear!
I really want the Dungeon Dudes to do a review video after they finish all their multiclass ranking videos where they just give feedback on all of your "inspired by" builds.
So... with custom lineage, couldn't you technically look like a bear to begin with? So, wild shaping into a bear would actually be like a "Frenzy mode" or something.
I love this build!
Wow, Randall knocked it out of the park this week!
You kind of lost the opportunity of making a bugbear
As a kobold moon druid, all my wild shapes are dinosaurs, sure it uses the stats of a dire wolf, but its a large ancient postosuchus. Flavour is free.
As a lizardfolk spores Druid, I went in a zombie dinosaur direction, but basically same
Excited for the eventually Baulders Gate video. Might not get as many views though. XD
The 3 Bears: D&D Build #144
Level 1:(see above) [ranger 1 & race]
Silvery Barbs Mob (@8:35)
Level 2:(see above) [ranger 2 & fighting-style]
Level 3:(@14:08) [ranger 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@17:27) [druid 1]
Level 5:(@18:49) [druid 2 & sub-class]
Level 6:(@21:54) [druid 3]
Level 7:(see above) [druid 4 & ASI]
Level 8:(@29:42) [druid 5]
Level 9:(@20:13) [druid 6]
Level 10:(see above) [ranger 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@34:10) [ranger 5]
Level 12:(@35:44) [ranger 6]
Level 13:(@36:24) [ranger 7]
Level 14:(see above) [ranger 8 & ASI]
Level 15:(@40:50) [ranger 9]
Level 16:(@41:38) [ranger 10]
Level 17:(@43:24) [ranger 11]
TAKE TELEPATHY FIRST!!! IT IS MANDATORY FOR MOON DRUIDS. Fey Touched is great and all but it can and should wait. I played a moon druid for like a year before taking it, and let me say, there is a special kind of sadness which comes of having to choose between keeping your wildshape, or demorph just to talk. Especially when you're trying to coordinate tactics in combat.
Plus, Telepathy has great utility uses for a Wisdom-based character. Having a high Insight makes you a great lie detector -- you can then covertly share your insights with the rest of your party without doing anything outward to reveal it. And high Perception + stealthy wildshape forms makes you a better scout than the Rogue: this is infinitely better when you don't have to unmorph or make any sounds or movements at all to tell others what you saw whilst scouting.
And if you have a form with Blindsight, like a bat, you can feed information to your party members to talk them through magical darkness or a fog cloud. If you're in horse form as a mount or something, you can communicate with your rider perfectly. It's just so unbelievably useful for druids, especially Moon Druids, that I had to say something.
The real question of this build is, should this character name be Berenstain or Berenstein though?
Out of curiousity, if we broke from the build slightly at level 8 and start using Conjure Animals to summon more and more bears, would the build do any better? It would still fit the bear theme if we chose to only summon the bear options and I would love to have an army of bears on my side lol.
One of my favorite novel is the three-body problem so everytime you said the class name I wanted it so badly to be called “the three-bear problem”
Perfect timing! I was just working on a goblin wolf tamer (beastmaster/shepherd druid), love your advice on leveling up
For your comments in the beginning on the trouble of a druid/ranger, I agree! It's like an inverted version of cleric/paladin where both have very different problems facing a build, even though they should thematically fit.
Personally, as fun as having 3 bears seems, I think I'd go straight beastmaster ranger and have the character be Goldilocks and the companion baby bear with the backstory goal of finding papa and mama bear who were wrapped up in whatever plot the campaign has going on. This would be a great character for a Wild Beyond the Witchlight game either way
How would one go about building a Bill the Butcher esc character..? Thinking DW Cleaver (handaxe) and a mallet/meat tenderizer (mace..? Light hammer?) thinking blood hunter?.. haven’t seen much optimization with 2 different weapons for a STR build… prolly cause it’s sub optimal 😬
I know everyone hates on favored enemy, but you're passing up advantage on tracking bears and knowledge checks about bears for a measly d4 of damage once a turn?
lol
I would 100% play this character. Been wanting to play a character with multiple pets for awhile.
this comment is dedicated to the algorithm god ; accept this offering and may you never stop this channel’s growth
What does everyone think of making this build a Goldilocks + Bears build by going straight beastmaster and using summon beast and then eventually conjure animals for 2 bears at level 9? You could flavour the familiar as a baby bear until then.
Obv the 3 bears comes online later and they are weaker than baby bear, but mama will be srronger and you have a full PC ranger to use a spoon shaped 'shortsword' (or a bow... fine).
I love you went from "thinking" about making a bg3 video to pushing back this video for bg3 videos 😂
Also a whole party of this would be fun in game, just a pack of bears ravaging a goblin camp
Bring on the Bear Cav.
Gingerbread cookies!?!? Sir, I am certain you meant honey glazed salmon!
Can you make a gunslinger build? not the critical role one but like a two weapon or archery fighter with some hexblade or artificer levels, maybe you did it already I’ll check.
I decided to take Mage Armor with a feat. Worked out great while in animal forms. haha
Telepathy also allows for the no-talking thing haha
Bears swim just fine, they just don't dive very much or deeply.
One day could you do a build with the lizardfolck race? Its one of the coolest raves un the game
37:10
Yes! As someone who plays a Beastmaster for years, this bummed me a lot! That's why I like the OneDND Beastmaster so much, their version of Exceptional Training is actually amazing!
I can't believe this doesnt have more views. This is super funny
With Dueling, Shillelagh, and Extra Attack, your DPR would ironically increase when you're knocked out of your Cave Bear form (due to an increase in both your chance to hit and the damage dealt if you hit with both attacks). RAW, it wouldn't break your existing grapple even against a Huge creature (RAI, you should at least forego wielding a shield though). With expertise in Athletics, you have a good chance of maintaining the grapple, especially if you allocate the 4 remaining points to start with 12 Strength. Of course, you hope to stay in Papa Bear form for character concept and survivability, but I would double down on the playstyle by starting with Dueling and Resilient (Wisdom) at 1st level instead of Archery and Fey Touched, since bears can't cast Silvery Barbs or Misty Step anyway. Resilient isn't a repeatable feat, so you would then need War Caster instead of Resilient (Constitution), but War Caster is better at protecting your Concentration on Baby Bear and it wouldn't increase your Con mod until picking up Chef at 14th level anyway.
I've wanted to play fairy tale/ folklore characters in DnD ever since watching The 10th Kingdom.
oof. This is going to be a grizzly vid. I'm not sure I can bear to watch it.
Who am I kidding, Colby's video are always juuuuuuuuust right.
Mob in the first 10 minutes? Welcome back!
Also, I find SB to be less amazing than people make it out to be.
Silvery Barbs gives disadvantage on one roll, basically. Mathematically, that's a -3 ish. It gives Advantage on the next roll to someone else. That's +3 ish. A net of +6.
Shield does +5 AC and gives it for the entire turn. Given that majority of the creatures you face have multiple attacks, Shield is likely a stronger spell as SB only affects 2 rolls, Shield can affect many more.
Additionally, a crit doesn't double damage, it doubles a die. So if you save your SB for crits and you still get hit, you're not reducing damage by half, it's closer to 30-40% reduction
Is that better than Absorb Elements which flat out reduces? Maybe - if only because that's only elemental damage. But is it SOOOOO much better to invoke mobs? Doubtful.
And lastly, Bless is just plain better. Multiple players get +2.5 to saves and attacks. Even getting this twice ever means that you're doing nearly as good as SB. Instead, you get it for as many rounds as you hold concentration. If SB is OP, Bless is God-tier.
Treats!!!
I think you might be Goldilocks in this analogy, sir, and this one is juuuuuust right
So a party of this build, bear barbarian, archfey warlock with beast speech, and perhaps a Glamour Bard as our Goldilocks.
A straight moon druid could do three bears by level 5, using the spell that you hate. You could conjure two bears with conjure animals right at level five.
I wonder if this would work in BG3?
Ooh, do another one -- 3 pigs and a wolf!
Next do 3 rats in a trenchcoat build
Does Colby have any d&d campaigns that he posts online? I swear I remember one being mentioned in a video I watched but I can't find anything on this channel at least... seeing how he approaches character creation, I'd love to watch any adventure that he and like-minded players are running!
Goldilocks is great, but I see this build more like We Bare Bears 😂
Ice Bear is best bear 🫥
That is one angry baby
finally a build where the Witchlight Hand background makes narrative sense. not that any background couldn't ever go with any build for any reason, but i particularly like when it's not a huge stretch.
The right to bear arms?
Jesse is ABSOLUTELY momma bear and an all-around great guy.
Sounds like fun. Not into table top but i might see if this could be done in BG3 to some degree.
Another benefit of this build over the Shadow Balde or EK/BS builds is that you get to make exponentially more bear puns! Da Bears!
Cool build! I always loved your Pokémon master, and this feels like a new version of that
Brilliant! Going into this I was wondering if you were going to get to third bear by the level 6 damage report and sure enough you continue to impress. I love it when a plan comes together!
Haven't watch the video yet. My guess is 8 to 10 levels of shepherd Druid with the rest being Beastmaster. Beastmaster primal companion being one bear and the rest coming from 5th level conjure animals and using the Shepherd auras to buff their health and heal them.
Edit: After watching he went with Moon druid, Beastmaster, and Summon beast. Personally I think this is not only a weaker version but also isn't a Godilock and the 3 bears build. I know he got a bird Familiar Named Goldilocks but if your character was Goldilocks with 3 Bear summons it would be more accurate. You could have the summons out almost all the Time and with Aid and Bear totem aura you can increase there health by a lot. Also they will all get Magic attacks and you'll do overall more damage. Additionally once you get Planar Binding and just have the Mamma and Papa all the time as long as you have the jewels to caste it. You would get all 3 bears at level 8 instead of 6. 3 levels of ranger and 5 levels of druid. Conjure animals 2 cr1 Brown bears and your Primal Companion.
@DnDDeepDive
You could use the 3rd party Barbarian: Path of Primal Spirit from Grimhowl to make both “mama” and “papa” bear do more damage. Link to Dungeon Dudes going over the class: ua-cam.com/video/qJrzxWfaxYc/v-deo.htmlsi=ytx1DI4xW5TpG9Od
No need for a Pre-Video guess from me REALLY, but I did have a fun thought: I don't know the race yet, but I would pick a Summer Eladrin (yes, you can change seasons, but it's the most thematic). Why? You can flavor being surrounded by an air of yarrow and phlox flowers. And since your bears don't really exist without you, you could call the build: Goldie Phlox is the Three Bears.
Depending on your campaign setting, a Kalashtar would be the perfect racial choice. +2 Wisdom, adv on Wis saving throws, but most importantly, telepathy that lets you talk to ANY CREATURE you can see, with the range increasing as you level. So you can stay in bear form, chat to your party members and generally have a great time. Feels like the "bear minimum"!
Hey Colby! I came upon a recent discovery which, I want so desparately to be proven wrong on.
Nowhere in the rules does it state than an eldritch invocation cannot be picked more than once. Obviously it makes no sense to pick, say, devils sight twice.
However, the wording of agonising blast allows it to stack with itself. Meaning, by 5th level, a warlock that took the eldritch adept feat can fire 2 beams with eldritch blast, each dealing 1d10+4xCHA. Please tell me I'm wrong and why. It would be the death of build diversity if a 17th lv warlock can do 9x their cha modifier+1d10 on each beam of thier 4 beams per eldritch blast. Using their asis to max out cha, that's (45+1d10)*4 force damage without using bonus actions or spell slots.
"...sound fun to you to maul your enemies as a bear while also getting help from your 2 bear companions?"
You been looking at my old Diablo 2 build, Colby?
Wait... what else did you see on that computer??
I swear, that was all for research purposes! 😅
😂😂
[Okay, D2 only allowed my wearbear Druid to have 1 Bear Companion, but the build concept lines up]
"Let's hope they [fix Moon Druid's scaling] in OneDnD"
Oh no... who's gonna tell him?
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As for the first question, "character inspired by a fairy tale", yes!
A Snow White character. Mostly relying on Swarmkeeper ranger (the swarm is made of birds and small forest critters), with the Conjure Woodland Beings spell (satyrs being reflavored as some kind of redcap).
Hey brother!! Just gave u a sub. I know NOTHING about DnD, but your videos have helped me tremendously!!! Im turning into a super nerd as we speak. Can I ask a off topic question? What camera are you using?
LOL. I saw this title and immediately thought of my current character plus a bear comanion of some sort. I'm playing a Bugbear who is also a Werebear. :D It started out as a joke -- "what if I could be a werebear too, so I could be a Bugbear, which is NOT a bug and NOT a bear, but SOMETIMES be a real bear?" -- and led to my DM saying "wait, well, what ARE the rules for being a Werebear?" And we did research and put it together, and we kept it a secret from the rest of the party for the first few weeks of the campaign because Werebear has learned that many people in the world are violently against were-creatures, even good ones. Until the first full moon, when I involuntarily changed, and then had to leave my tent because the party got attacked in the night.
If I threw in some sort of bear companion, I'd have 3 bears, although 2 of them would just be me. :D Next level I finally get Arcane Trickster, so I'll be able to have a familiar if I want. Maybe I'll ask if I could re-skin something as some sort of bear. Not anything that would make it more powerful than a typical familiar, of course. Maybe a koala. Koalas are sort of my totem or identity animal. So that would be special to me, plus a big tough Bugbear with a sweet sleepy little baby Koala familiar would be sort of adorable, I think. :) Not the most useful form for a familiar, but it can always change forms occasionally if needed, and also we already have one familiar in the party that's usually a crab (Leonardo da Pinchy) but spends a lot of time lately as a spider, which is SUPER useful for scouting ahead and being effectively invisible. (Who notices a spider on the ceiling or high on the wall? Nobody.).
I did Beast Master last campaign (my first time playing). Used the UA version, which was MUCH MUCH better, and I'm sad that they retired that one -- I don't know why they did and I don't think any of the "Fixes" I've seen since have been anywhere near as good (although I don't think I've actually seen the *most* recent, at this point -- I'm not sure). My DM also made one additional change for me -- I had the choice of either using my beast's reaction attack OR using an extra attack myself. For flavor, I much preferred using my beast's attack, of course, but there were SO MANY TIMES that the beast was not in position to make an attack that it was feeling really unfair, because all the other combat players had multiple attacks, while I had one attack and only got another attack via my beast maybe 1 time out of maybe 3, simply because they only got to attack IF they happened to be adjacent to an enemy when I attacked, which NEVER was the case at the start of a fight. It would typically take a dash to get them in position to attack and then they could attack on the third turn, by which point there would only be a few attacks left before the end of the fight. Plus, their attack was much weaker than mine, especially later in the game, since even though the UA ranger let the beast level up SOMEWHAT, its attacks didn't seem to level up as much as everyone else's. So it was feeling for a while there like while everyone else had a solid 2 attacks, I had more like 1.25. It felt MUCH more fait when we made the rule that I could take another attack when my beast didn't. (Which meant in theory I could just choose to always use it myself for the stronger attack, but in practice I preferred to use the beast, because why would I want to HAVE the beast and not use it? No fun in that.)
Oh, we also wound up using a feat later on that I think came from a homebrew that let me upgrade my beast into something with a higher CR, which did improve its attack considerably, and improved things a lot. And for flavor, we made it so my panther just grew huge and took on scaled-up stats which my DM figured out by looking at some of the larger creatures that the feat would have allowed and the panther's original stats. I went off for a day and did a ritual, buned some materials, and came back with my panther suddenly huge. That was great. :) Oh, and his name was Puppy. Puppy the Panther.
I do like bears
Only just through the intro...but i'm already SO excited... LOL
Video suggestion: Make a "baseline" average character build. I don't think you do yourself justice when you say "meh this build is only mid tier 2." Reliably putting out 100 dpr using almost 0 resources is super impressive.
I don't think this build would work well in actual play, especially in upper levels. The problem is that the Wild Shape not only fails to scale offensively, but it also fails to scale defensively. So even at level 17, you'll be in the front lines with a 12 AC and 42 HP. You're going to get knocked out of bear form fast, and perhaps lose concentration to boot. Given that it takes 1-2 rounds to set up the sustained DPR figures you quote, you may never get a chance to hit those. You may start tanky, but the tankiness falls off very quickly.
@DnDDeepDive Hey Colby, been following your work basically since the days you firmly believed that custom lineage should have access to the racial feats. Yup, looong time. Anyway this is the first time I felt the need to send a build challenge your way, my hope is merely that you would take it into consideration.
The build challenge: A pact of the blade warlock focusing primarily on Str and dipping barbarian. Synergy we're looking into is rage damage reduction combined with upcasting armor of agathys, which doesn't require concentration and can reliably be cast outside of combat.
Build I came up with is bear totem barbarian 3 for superior damage reduction and X levels of fiend warlock for extra tankiness through extra temporary hp. By no means do you need to take up the same path, in fact I would be shocked if you didn't do more multiclassing ❤
Hello, did this build work on bg3? As a build that can be played on normal difficulty, I'm not looking for an extra optimal build but something that works petty OK.
Ty
I used to think Favored Foe was better than Favored Enemy, but I've doubled back on this recently. Given the fact it can't be doubled up with any spells that would increase your damage, the limited uses of it and the relatively small damage it provides, 9 times out of 10 I'd rather have the extra languages and advantages on skill checks. Favored Enemy pretty much gives you actual roleplay benefits over combat benefits you'll rarely ever use as long as you have Hunter's Mark, Hex, or Spirit Shroud. Favored Foe is literally only good at level 1 and immediately becomes obsolete when you hit level 2.
I missed how this build supposed to be "tanky" sure you hold ONE target prone, giving him disavantage on it's attack... but you got the lowest AC in the Game.
Your summon beast bear is as solid as your concentration check. Sure you took resilience... but at some point you will roll low and since it's impossible to miss you with that beast AC... you will get a lot of attack
Then you are in melee, you are the one holding the enemy down, so I guess you will be the target of many attack, and with that WEAK Cr2 bear HP... you will not remain in bear form often
So where is that "tankyness" you are speaking of?
Then support, sure you got support spell... that you can cast out of combat or out of wild shape and you cannot cast those concentration support spell, otherwise your summon beast will disapear.
okay, i'm gonna say it. Favored Foe sucks. in combat, it is better than Favored Enemy. i will say that. HOWEVER! you are spending a limited resource, and your concentration, to get pitiful damage value against a single target. i wouldn't mind this at all if you didn't have to use your concentration, but you do, and that's why it sucks.
If i was the DM for this character...i would give them some homebrew items: The Claw Insignia of Fire, the Fang Insignia of Ice and the Life Flow Insignia.
Insignia of Fire: Adds 1d8 fire damage to melee attacks and succesful grapples, and immolates the target for 1 minute on such succesful hits/checks. Immolated targets take 1d4 fire damage per round untill it ends or uses an action to put the fire out. The Insignia of fire also adds the user's Wisdom score to all their melee attacks and gives a +2 to hit and damage on such attacks, granting one additional attack each 6 levels of the user when they take the attack action or use multiattack.
Insignia of Ice: Adds 1d8 cold damage an frostbites the target for 1 minute on a hit. Frostbitten targets lose half their movement speed untill they use the dash or disingage action. Give also +2 to attacks.
An immolated target who gets frostbitten, or vice versa, becomes smoldering, which is a mixture of both conditions, plus 1d4 cold damage when the immolation procs.
Life flow Insignia: On a critical hit, the user may choose a creature they can see within 30 feet and restore their hit points by 1d6, if the creature is at full health those become temporary hit points instead. If the target is smoldering, the attack needs only hit to proc the restoration effect.
The life flow insignia also causes a creature summoned by a spell to remain without need of concentration on the spell which summoned it and allows the summned creature to remain untill destroyed or dismissed, but the spell slot used to summon them cannot be recovered untill they are dismissed.
And thus...with these three items, Papa Bear sets the enemy on fire making them too hot, Mama Bear frostbites the enemy making them too cold, and Baby Bear finds them...juuuuuuust right~
Overpowered...yes, would be fun as heck to help my player realise this build to perfection tho. i would probably add even more power to the insignia of fire to make sure Papa Bear keeps up as we went if it still proved not enough...would have to see how it performs in game to see what else i'd add to it...maybe reduce the damage die values if it proved too much but i think these numbers are okay.
Maybe i'll give Papa Bear a fire-based Spirit Shroud spell since the life flow insignia makes baby bear stay without need for concentration...we'd have to see how its performing in game, as long as they don't betray the concept, we'd make it work.
Why was there not a 1 level dip in Life Cleric here? I know the spreadsheet, but you get 10 Goodberry bear treats! They heal 4 HP each also.
Oh! Rude comment of the week. I almost forgot. You spent an entire video to recreate one of the lamer nursery rhymes? Great! What has your channel become!?!
Instead of the bear theme you could go with wild canids, and have each size a different one making sense for its abilities. Wolf, coyote, fox, jackal, etc... Or maybe even better, cats: lion/tiger, mountain lion, lynx, domesticated cat familiar...
A three billy goats gruff version of this could work. take Satyr. Or something 'trollish' like half-orc or another flavoured ancestry. Giant goat animal form ain't the best,maybe re-flavour elk?
As usual, I agree with your lax view of the Dungeon Dudes' rules. The reason their rules are important is that they force the analysis to consider a new thing each time. For example, the paladin/warlock is different from the warlock/paladin, despite the fact that they are made by combining the same two classes. This lets them fill out each video completely, but doesn't help your builds at all.
So, in short, keep it up!
Video 9(?) Of asking for a Bonk build. A fun, optimized, bludgeoning build focused on the Great club
My concern, in reading the sage advise, is that you don't get expertise with the brown bear. At 25:38, is says "Use your proficiency bonus for anything where you're *both proficient,* but only if yours is higher[...]." To me that reads that the *Brown Bear* needs to be proficent in athletics for you to provide your expetise to that form. I might allow a player to add proficiency to a skill they have expertise in to a creature that is not proficient in that skill, but not expertise without some clarifications on the Sage Advice. Still a really fun vuild idea, even if the grapple might not work as advertised.
Kineticist just came out for Pathfinder 2e. Please make a video for a build for one! I am playing a Wood/Water Kineticist and it's a blast.
Can this be combined with Fighter/Druid / Babarian (Rage)/ Druid?
This build is unBEARable and a ROARing good time. I love seeing more ranger builds with different subclasses
omg colby 100k! congrats (: also amazing video (as always, though I especially loved this one haha)
Hey Colby, big fan. Been with you from the beginning. Does your wife want you to grow your hair out? You look real sharp with a short haircut man! Anyway, love the content. You are one of my favorite content creators. Would love to see a build that is rp focused
We can quantify with a list of goals😅
You could of gone straight beastmaster ranger, and using find familiar as a 'baby bear'. With the ranger being Goldilocks.
Drawing from the last wish, drudiic warrior for shillelagh on a quarter staff is a nice play.
papa bear’s scaling was too dependent on druid levels. mama bear’s scaling was too dependent on ranger levels. baby bear’s scaling was just right
Goldilocks ! En français, Boucles d'Or chez nous 😉😉😉
I miss my BG2 Werewolf-Druid with wolf companions/summons. 😢
Got a build idea: the best sausage master. A BG3 build that dual wields sausages. Maybe one handed. Maybe thrown. All up to you. Whats the strongest build you could make?