Building a multiclass or custom archetype for a “spellbreaker”

[Spiritchaser]

So: the character concept as presented:

A low magic or at most moderately magical character who attacks primarily with melee or ranged weapons.

Decent skills, possibly with some hunting/tracking features.

No particular arcane utility

No healing

Great strength in resisting spells, and dispelling or countering them by a variety of means

Strong mobility features to counter a magic user’s mobility.

My first thought was to base something off of a 4 elements monk, but switch out the spells for dispel magic, counterspell, detect magic, identity and maybe misty step and dimension door

I’d maybe add a mechanism where a dispel or counterspell attempt against a target in melee range could include a melee attack and would add proficiency to the check.

I don’t see a great MC solution, though maybe I’m not thinking hard enough... but most characters that are good ad breaking spells are themselves strong casters. That’s not what is desired here

Unfortunately this approach doesn’t let the character “do its job” until level 9... which is not ideal

Any thoughts appreciated.

[jaappleton]

Monster Slayer Ranger archetype with the Mage Slayer feat.

[JNAProductions]

Straight Monk probably does what you want.

Be a human or human offshoot to take Prodigy, that gets you skills.

Be a Kensei if you really want good ranged abilities, or any other subclass if that's not as important.

No arcane magic.

No healing (unless you go Open Palm, which does have a self-heal).

Eventually gets ALL THE SAVES. Which, you know, really helps against spells.

Plenty of mobility.

The only thing you can't do is directly counter, but you can shut down any Concentration effect with a Stunning Strike.

[Spiritchaser]

Monster Slayer Ranger archetype with the Mage Slayer feat.

I think magic users nemesis will disappoint badly... its once per short rest and that’s... conceptually cool but mechanically not great.

The idea as presented was to legitimately be able to counter casters in a sustainable way without being one

That said, a variation of this is worth thinking about

[Man_Over_Game]

So: the character concept as presented:

A low magic or at most moderately magical character who attacks primarily with melee or ranged weapons.

Decent skills, possibly with some hunting/tracking features.

No particular arcane utility

No healing

Great strength in resisting spells, and dispelling or countering them by a variety of means

Strong mobility features to counter a magic user’s mobility.

My first thought was to base something off of a 4 elements monk, but switch out the spells for dispel magic, counterspell, detect magic, identity and maybe misty step and dimension door

I’d maybe add a mechanism where a dispel or counterspell attempt against a target in melee range could include a melee attack and would add proficiency to the check.

I don’t see a great MC solution, though maybe I’m not thinking hard enough... but most characters that are good ad breaking spells are themselves strong casters. That’s not what is desired here

Unfortunately this approach doesn’t let the character “do its job” until level 9... which is not ideal

Any thoughts appreciated.

Barbarian Totem Warrior, going Bear (for resisting all damage), and grabbing Mage Slayer. You get additional movement, damage resistance, and damage. You also have advantage on Dexterity saves, which are important for dealing with casters. If you need to kill them quickly, Reckless Attack will help bypass any pesky Shield spell they keep on themselves.

Alternatively, a Bladesinger, grabbing Mage Slayer and War Caster would do rather well, focusing on things like Counterspell, Absorb Element or Shield. You get enhanced AC and mobility, so it all works out rather well.

Lastly, the same thing can be duplicated with an Eldritch Knight, who gets access to all the necessary Abjuration spells. Combine that with the multiple feats (Mage Slayer, Sentinel, Resilience), using your occasional unrestricted spells for mobility (Misty Step, Longstrider), and your Arcane Charge feature, and you'd be well on your way to murdering wizards.

[Spiritchaser]

Straight Monk probably does what you want.

Be a human or human offshoot to take Prodigy, that gets you skills.

Be a Kensei if you really want good ranged abilities, or any other subclass if that's not as important.

No arcane magic.

No healing (unless you go Open Palm, which does have a self-heal).

Eventually gets ALL THE SAVES. Which, you know, really helps against spells.

Plenty of mobility.

The only thing you can't do is directly counter, but you can shut down any Concentration effect with a Stunning Strike.

All the saves is very much in line... but this character would have no way to dispel a magic ward... or as you mentioned counterspell anything.

I think it needs to have that

[ATHATH]

Oath of Redemption Paladins get Counterspell and +CHA to all saves... but they also get access to magical healing as well. Also, their non-spell subclass features aren't really very anti-spellcaster focused. If you're okay with losing access to Counterspell, you can go Oath of Ancients Paladin 7/Something Else 13 instead to get resistance to magical damage.

[Spiritchaser]

Barbarian Totem Warrior, going Bear (for resisting all damage), and grabbing Mage Slayer. You get additional movement, damage resistance, and damage. You also have advantage on Dexterity saves, which are important for dealing with casters. If you need to kill them quickly, Reckless Attack will help bypass any pesky Shield spell they keep on themselves.

Alternatively, a Bladesinger, grabbing Mage Slayer and War Caster would do rather well, focusing on things like Counterspell, Absorb Element or Shield. You get enhanced AC and mobility, so it all works out rather well.

Lastly, the same thing can be duplicated with an Eldritch Knight, who gets access to all the necessary Abjuration spells. Combine that with the multiple feats (Mage Slayer, Sentinel, Resilience), using your occasional unrestricted spells for mobility (Misty Step, Longstrider), and your Arcane Charge feature, and you'd be well on your way to murdering wizards.

Barb has survival... and a lot more of it than has been requested... but without detect or dispel magic, and without counterspell I don’t think this will cover the bases.

Bladesinger is good... all the tools and early... but it IS a full caster. This character would use only a small fraction of what a bladesinger can do. It’s definitely worth suggesting, and a bladesinger (or fighter-abjureer) could be made to work even with a tiny fraction of the spells allowed... but again that’s not the desire

Eldritch knight has all it needs, but it can’t actually dispel or counterspell anything until level 13... Not ideal for a campaign that’ll likely wrap up before 17.

Eldritch knight also has much more martial power than has been proposed...

Some manner of bladesinger Ek or Abjurer EK might get close.

[Spiritchaser]

Oath of Redemption Paladins get Counterspell and +CHA to all saves... but they also get access to magical healing as well. Also, their non-spell subclass features aren't really very anti-spellcaster focused. If you're okay with losing access to Counterspell, you can go Oath of Ancients Paladin 7/Something Else 13 instead to get resistance to magical damage.

As proposed, counterspell, dispel magic, dispel magic and decent saves are required. Multiclass IS fine, and a Dex sorcadin starting sorcerer wouldn’t be crazy, but it does have a lot of extra features (healing and smite) that haven’t been requested or required.

[Spiritchaser]

Just a note: I’m coming back with negative comments about these suggestions, but I very much do appreciate them. I’m sure I’ll come up with some sort of compromise that will work, and it will probably be some amalgam of the suggestions above.

I don’t think there IS a by the book way to build this concept, which makes any MC a compromise.

Thanks

[Wildarm]

So: the character concept as presented:

A low magic or at most moderately magical character who attacks primarily with melee or ranged weapons.

Decent skills, possibly with some hunting/tracking features.

No particular arcane utility

No healing

Great strength in resisting spells, and dispelling or countering them by a variety of means

Strong mobility features to counter a magic user’s mobility.

My first thought was to base something off of a 4 elements monk, but switch out the spells for dispel magic, counterspell, detect magic, identity and maybe misty step and dimension door

I’d maybe add a mechanism where a dispel or counterspell attempt against a target in melee range could include a melee attack and would add proficiency to the check.

I don’t see a great MC solution, though maybe I’m not thinking hard enough... but most characters that are good ad breaking spells are themselves strong casters. That’s not what is desired here

Unfortunately this approach doesn’t let the character “do its job” until level 9... which is not ideal

Any thoughts appreciated.

Oath of Ancients Paladin - Reflavored as an arcane inquisitor. Natures wrath lets you lock down spellcasters(somewhat). Your 6th and 7th level abilities basically let you be an anti-mage on their own with a huge boost to saves and resistance to spell damage. Mobility is your main issue with this build. You need to be able to close to melee range quickly with a caster.

[Man_Over_Game]

Oath of Ancients Paladin - Reflavored as an arcane inquisitor. Natures wrath lets you lock down spellcasters(somewhat). Your 6th and 7th level abilities basically let you be an anti-mage on their own with a huge boost to saves and resistance to spell damage. Mobility is your main issue with this build. You need to be able to close to melee range quickly with a caster.

Find Steed + Mounted Combatant. Mounted Combatant makes your steed take half damage from Dex saves when they fail, and no damage when they succeed, and you can also redirect all attacks to your mount at you. Also, advantage to attack. That's all very difficult for most mages to deal with, as a single Misty Step or Teleport isn't going to get you far enough to make a difference against a Warhorse.

You want to be an "Inquisitor", you better look the part and have the height needed to look down at people. A horse helps with that.

[Nhorianscum]

Arcane trickster 17 or AT 12/Caster (wiz, or sorc) 5

With 5 asi's we can max dex and still grab up to 3 1/2 feats.

Mark of shadows is fun in ebberon, wood elf is an elf with 35 move, if better saves are needed go gnome or Yaun Ti and have them from level 1.

Cut a level of AT it the caster 6 ability is better than a feat.

Pack a longbow or light Xbow and go nuts. Your casting is as good or as bad as you want it to be based on investment and goes to level 3 (you can push to 4 for greater invis and DDoor if you like at the cost of reliable talent and a sneak die) expertise arcana and reliable talent with counterspell dispel magic, forced disadvantage and the rouge package let you shut off any mage you like. Sneak attack booming blade (ideally with poison or shadow blade) is a concentration killer. Mobility for days with respectable damage output thanks to shadow blade, and all the skills you could ever want.

Comes online as early as x3. Use expertised slight of hand with your invisible hand to replace their spell components or focus with contact poison and drop a fog cloud on their head. Useless mage is useless. Workhorse spells come up at whatever pace you like, between xl6 (rouge1 caster 5) and xl13 (at13).

[Wildarm]

Another option:

Yuan-Ti Pure Blood Lore Bard

Expertise in Arcana
Magic Secrets for Counterspell
Advantage on Saves vs Spells and Magical Effects

An arcane researcher who tracks down other casters to steals their secrets.

Not really the get up in your grill type spell breaker but will give any caster a bad day.

[stoutstien]

So a barbarian with mage Slayer?

[Man_Over_Game]

Just a note: I’m coming back with negative comments about these suggestions, but I very much do appreciate them. I’m sure I’ll come up with some sort of compromise that will work, and it will probably be some amalgam of the suggestions above.

I don’t think there IS a by the book way to build this concept, which makes any MC a compromise.

Thanks

For a full, fleshed out build, I'd probably go:

1: Fighter 1 (for the weapon/armor proficiencies + higher starting hit die),
2-7: War Mage Wizard to 6 (for Counterspell and Dispel Magic, Power Surge feature, and Arcane Recovery to regain level 3 spell slots on a short rest)
8-20: Fighter, going into Eldritch Knight.
Feats: Mobile, Mage Slayer, Tough.

This build allows you to wear heavy armor, resist magical effects, and even incentivizes you fighting mages. This build also gets you a +4 to your saving throws and gets you Counterspell and Dispel Magic faster than almost any other build. Mobile with cantrips (like Booming Blade) is a very versatile and powerful early game combo that will keep enemies from pursuing you while you chase down casters.


Alternatively:
1: Fighter 1 (higher hit die, Second Wind, Fighting Style)
2-6: Bladesinger Wizard 5 (for same reasons)
7-20: Fighter into Eldritch Knight.
Feats: Tough, Mage Slayer, War Caster

This version sells saving throws for mobility, and otherwise is almost identical. More emphasis on TWF means you'll be in range for Mage Slayer more often.

[Spiritchaser]

For a full, fleshed out build, I'd probably go:

1: Fighter 1 (for the weapon/armor proficiencies + higher starting hit die),
2-7: War Mage Wizard to 6 (for Counterspell and Dispel Magic, Power Surge feature, and Arcane Recovery to regain level 3 spell slots on a short rest)
8-20: Fighter, going into Eldritch Knight.
Feats: Mobile, Mage Slayer, Tough.

This might be the best that can be done... thanks all!