An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds 3

**LudicSavant** · 2023-09-10, 03:50 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Telesphoros

I like a bunch of your builds to be honest. The Wood Elf Samurai generalist, the Vengeance Paladin, this one, etc...

I only wish you'd put them all together somewhere I could find them easily lol ;)

Ask and ye shall receive!

So began my humble little collection. A million views, over 1500 posts, and a mountain of builds and build discussions from a whole lot of optimizers later, the thread was finally locked for length. Then I kept you waiting altogether too long for a proper continuation! Well, it's about time I did something about that -- with a fully updated link compendium (adding another 62 builds and counting), and new builds!

Hopefully these help provide people with some ideas for fun and viable builds. Enjoy! And as always, feel free to post your own builds or experiences with builds, too!

As usual, my builds are designed to be strong from 1-20, perform both in and out of combat, and are tested against 6+ Deadly encounters a day.

To kick things off, here's a build exploring some of the things that have changed from one beginning to the next:

The All Natural Space Blender
This build was created for a person asking for advice on creating a Spirit Guardians blender. Folks were recommending my very own Arcana Cleric Frontliner, one of the first build guides I ever posted in the Eclectic Collection. And while that's certainly still an effective and fun choice, new supplements have provided a lot of interesting new opportunities for Cleric blenders.

This build shows off how much Nature Clerics have benefitted from the times. It has an extremely well-rounded defense (which it can also use to tank and protect allies), strong support and control, and considerable combo damage, be it against single target or groups.

The concept is for an astral traveler that got stranded on the material plane and learned to love and defend nature.

Githzerai (MPMM) Nature Cleric 20
Starting Attributes: 17 Wis, at least 15 Con, 14 Dex, rest to taste
ASIs: Telekinetic (+1 Wis), Warcaster, Res:Con (+1 Con), +2 Wis, Metamagic Adept (Subtle & Quicken)
Cantrips: Thorn Whip, Psionic Mage Hand, Toll the Dead, Word of Radiance, Sacred Flame, Guidance, Light
Blessed Strikes or Divine Strike? Blessed Strikes, of course.

Highlights
- With Dodge + SG + Shield (as a Cleric spell known via Githzerai), basic physical attacks are all but harmless.

- With Dampen Elements, Psychic Resistance (from Githzerai), and Poison Resistance or Immunity coming from non-concentration spells like Protection from Poison or Heroes' Feast, elemental attacks bounce right off of you, too. The only common damage type that you don't laugh at is Necrotic, and Clerics tend to be extra strong against things that deal Necrotic damage anyways.

- What's more, you can efficiently protect your allies from elemental damage, too! You can also keep more physical enemies off of them with your many pulls, slows, and so forth.

- You have high Constitution saves (and advantage on the Concentration ones from Warcaster), high Wisdom saves (and advantage on many of them via Githzerai), Resistance to the damage types that usually come from Dex saves, and the usual Cleric features that deal with status effects.

- All of the above not only make you far more durable against a wide variety of threats, but also make it considerably more difficult to interrupt your Concentration. Halving elemental damage makes Concentration DCs much lower (especially when getting hit by dragon breath or the like), and your AC makes it so that you make far fewer concentration saves to begin with. And near-immunity to charms and the like means you're rarely going to lose your Concentration to a Hypnotic Pattern or Dominate, either.

Between Warcaster + Res:Con + Shield + Dampen Elements + more elemental resistances + Cleric Wis saves (further reinforced by Githzerai Advantage) + etc, your SG is not likely to go down. Attacking you is often a futile effort.

- Warcaster cantrips punish any movement away from you for 3d12+1d8 resourceless reaction damage (or more if you're spending spell slots). Blessed Strikes-enhanced Thorn Whip and Telekinetic let you pull multiple creatures at a time into your Spirit Guardians (or make multiple attempts on the same creature), to proc the damage twice (potentially more, if your allies can move enemies too). On top of the fact that Spirit Guardians is already slowing their movement. Escape is Futile.

- You can also create a blender with your 2nd level spell slots, via Spike Growth + Blessed Thorn Whip + Telekinetic. By level 5, you already have 6 blenders a day (3 L2 slots, 2 L3 slots, and an extra from Harness Divine Power). And by level 6, you'll have 8! Basically, you can do this all day (and then some). Like Captain America. If he was into making enemies return to his deathtrap like his shield returns to his hand.

- Your Blessed Strikes-boosted cantrips can target Wis, Dex, Con, or AC, allowing you the freedom to go after enemy weaknesses. Also, being able to target AC means being able to bypass magic resistance, legendary resistance, etc. Also, being cantrip-based means you're SAD -- no shillelagh spam required.

- Plant Growth is a heavy movement debuff that doesn't take Concentration and stacks with Spirit Guardians to make enemy movement virtually zero with no save. Consider carrying around some seeds so that you can cast Plant Growth in more environments -- and for roleplaying purposes, of course!

- Your Channel Divinity is relatively lame, but you can use Harness Divine Power instead.

- You get componentless Detect Thoughts and Mage Hand, which means you can easily use these in discreet social situations, to escape bonds, whatever.

- If you're not averse to necromancy, you can make some fungus-ridden servants out of Animate Dead (I suggest flavoring it the same way a Spore Druid would). These can add even more map control, or it can just give you a squad of archers to harass the enemies stuck in the walking death bog that is you, further boosting your damage. All your control will help keep 'em safe.

- If you're stuck in a very long range engagement, you have tools like Wind Wall or the ability to just summon a Celestial archer or the like.

- At high levels, Metamagic Adept can help you get off that critical spell even when counterspellers are taking aim at you, or quicken can let you lay down extra burst in a critical situation.

Variants:

Some other good races for this include (but are not limited to)...

Spoiler: Alternate Races
Show

- Custom Lineage / VHuman for an extra ASI.
- Shadar-Kai for Necrotic Resistance rather than Psychic (both are in the running for most common monster damage type after Poison), still keeps charm resistance, and gets a prof/day bonus action teleport for some more mobility (and resistance to all damage on the turn you use it).
- Winged Tiefling will let you fly in medium armor, and pulling foes into the air with Thorn Whip will drop them prone!
Of course, being a different race will lose your Shield. However, you can grab Shield 1/short rest from the Aberrant Dragonmark half-feat or (if you have the stats for it) a 1-level dip into something like Divine Soul Sorcerer (which will also boost saves).
One other useful choice for Metamagic Adept is Extended Spell. Clerics have a lot of long-term buffs. Extending an Aura of Vitality essentially doubles its non-combat healing.
You can also pick up Shillelagh + Booming Blade instead of Thorn Whip, if you prefer. If you want to go this route, you'll have to pick up Booming Blade from something like Spell Sniper, Magic Initiate, Aberrant Dragonmark (which can be an alternate way to get Shield for non-Githzerai, by the way!), or a race (like high half-elf or MPMM kobold). This will make your opportunity attacks hit even harder than they already do, but will have less ability to move and blend enemies than Thorn Whip.

**LudicSavant** · 2023-09-10, 03:51 AM (ISO 8601)

Ludic's Builds
Builds 1-4: The Celestial Generalist, Ride of the Valkyries Paladin, Wood Elf Magic Commando, and Arcana Cleric Frontliner.
A jack of all trades highlighting the versatility of the Celestial Warlock, a lightning fast pegasus knight, a versatile wood elf Fighter built for an unusual request, and a potent Arcana Cleric tank

Build 5 and 6: The Lifeguard and the Goblin Hazard Druid
A Land Druid Mini-Guide

Build 7: Hobgoblin Iron Wizard
A straight class Wizard, except the complete opposite of squishy.

Build 8: The Ancestral Nightmare
A Simic Hybrid Ancestral Guardian tank build.

Build 9: The Nuclear Wizard
A powerful and versatile Evoker build with extremely high damage, great control, and even some retribution tanking.

Build 10: The Jorasco Physician
Or, "How to make a Wizard a top shelf healer."

Build 11: The Ancestral Avenger (Ancestral Barbarian / Echo Knight)
A pseudo-ranged GWM build that protects itself and its allies with a remote Sentinel.

Build 12: The Soulknife (Shadowblade Eldritch Knight)
A punishing lockdown tank Eldritch Knight build that manifests its weapons and armor. Not to be confused with the Rogue subclass that was released afterwards.

Build 13: The Ancient Kyujutsu Master
Just an Elven Accuracy Sharpshooter Samurai

Build 14: The Modern Gun-Kata Master
The Ancient Kyujutsu Master, except using new goodies from Tasha's. And a gun.

Build 15: The Way of the Demonweb Spider (Blindfighting Half-Drow Shadow Monk / Battle Master)
Exploring what the Shadow Monk can do after the Tasha buffs.

Build 16: Swift Death to Evil (A Ninja Assassin/Spymaster Paladin)
A versatile Dex-based Paladin who turns the entire party into a ninja strike team that can kill enemies before they can react.

Build 17: The Celestial Giftlock (aka the Ever-Living Generalist)
A powerhouse generalist using Pact of the Chain. First and foremost a top shelf healer, but also a boss-shredder, AoE blaster, controller, kiter, tank, scout, etc.

Builds posted by others in this thread:

**LudicSavant** · 2023-09-10, 03:51 AM (ISO 8601)

(Reserved)

**Maan** · 2023-09-10, 04:28 AM (ISO 8601)

WO-OOOOHHH!!! Heroes' Feast for everyone!!

Ah-ehm.
Really glad to see this keeping going

**strangebloke** · 2023-09-10, 07:31 AM (ISO 8601)

Glad to see this back in form. I'll have to be sure to cook something up!

**Dualight** · 2023-09-10, 01:44 PM (ISO 8601)

The following is a very detailed write-up I made a while ago and I think I never posted it in the previous iteration of the thread:
(I do not have a good name for the build, unfortunately.)

The following is a build I have been working on for the past few years. It is a heavily-modified version of the first character I came up with. Looking back on it, all that really remains unchanged is the total class levels and 1 subclasss. The core of this build is a Swashbuckler, trading in the rogue capstone for having the benefits of dipping sorcerer early. I have not had the chance to actually play this build, so it might not hold up in actual play. Enough rambling, on to the actual build.

Class and Progression: Rogue 1, Sorcerer 1(Draconic bloodline), Rogue 2-19(Swashbuckler)

Race: Variant Human(Alert) (Harengon from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight/Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is worth mentioning as a particularly interesting alternate option that eventually makes Alert nearly obsolete (especially if you can get a weapon of warning. That said, all of the Initiative bonuses do stack).

Languages/backgrounds: take whatever fits your character, but I suggest going for widely spoken languages, and to not take Draconic. You already gain Draconic from a class feature, and you will want to be able to make yourself understood by as many creatures as possible later on. So if you know a language is likely to be spoken a lot later in the campaign, make sure it is among your choices.

Starting Ability Scores:(Point Buy) 8 Str, 16 Dex, 12 Con, 10 Int, 14 Wis, 14 CHA. These are my personal preferences, as I feel unable to portray <10 Int believably, and I prefer higher Wis whenever possible. That said, only the Dex and Cha are vital to the build, the rest is to taste. Bumping the Cha to 16 could also be very beneficial, as could making the Dex 17 for the Harengon variant, if you are eyeing a specific half-feat.

Skills: you need to take Persuasion before you hit 6th level in rogue if you do not plan on taking Prodigy or Skill Expert as your feat at 8th level, everything else is to personal preference/campaign needs.
Level 1: Standard rogue stuff, Thieves’ Cant is a ribbon, pure fluff that can be fun, but it synergises with nothing else in the build, since it isn’t even an actual language, just a code. Expertise is very nice, I usually prefer Perception and Stealth, but pick whatever suits your (party’s) needs. Sneak Attack will be the core of your damage output throughout your career, just as it would be for a pure rogue. The reason to start Rogue, instead of Sorcerer is due to getting 1 more skill, as well as the better weapon proficiencies (losing out on rapiers sucks, even if it won’t matter at later levels) and slightly better HP(by taking rogue first, you have the exact same max hit points as a pure rogue when taking averages, and cannot fall more than 1 behind a pure rogue would on equal rolls for the shared levels. Also, Int saving throw proficiency is in my eyes more important than Cha even though the saves are rarer, since you will be pumping Cha, and failing an Int save, when it does come up, can hurt a lot more than a Cha save (of course, you might disagree). Con saves versus Dex saves come out to a wash in my eyes, since you will not need concentration often, if at all, and you can take the resilient feat for the one you are missing, if you really want it. Resilient: Wis is a bad choice if you might hit 16th level or up, since rogue 15 gives Wis save proficiency anyway.

Level 2: The sorcerer dip happens here, although it can technically be taken anywhere, but I think that the sooner, the better applies here. The longer you have the benefits, the more you will enjoy them, and taking it now also results in your build coming online bit by bit through the earliest levels. As for why the sorcerer, and the dragon subclass in particular, it comes down to several factors.
First, Draconic Resilience means you can ditch your starting armour for something equivalent to +1 studded leather armour, your scales. This means that you can have an AC equal to that of a Sword-and-Board Dex fighter in starting gear, even while you are wearing nothing of note. Or your finest, flashiest garb, of course. Not needing to spend money on armour, unless you get the chance for magic armour superior to +1 studded leather armour, is a nice side benefit, even if it won’t come into play in all campaigns.(I tend to play with stingy DMs, so I am used to going into tier 2 without any upgrades, equipment-wise.) The added Draconic language is nice, and, if you can convince your DM to convert the pseudo-Expertise on Charisma checks versus dragons into advantage when you have expertise, it gets even better.
The second reason for sorcerer, and the real reason to take it instead of Magic Initiate, is the specifics of the Spellcasting feature: 4 cantrips, 1 of which will be booming blade, another a ranged option, like fire bolt, and 2 utility cantrips, like mold earth, and 2 1st level spells, along with 2 1st level spell slots. It is equivalent to taking the Magic Initiate(sorcerer) feat twice, and you can still switch between which spell you cast, rather than getting only one cast per spell, as this hypothetical double Magic Initiate would have given you. As for the first level spells, Take shield, and 1 other. I would actually advise against taking absorb elements, as it will largely(but not entirely) overlap with Uncanny Dodge, and compete with shield for your limited spell slots. Keep in mind that you will, RAW, be stuck with these spells for the rest of your career. So, unless your DM is lenient, choose very carefully.
To summarise, your spell list will look something like this: cantrips: booming blade, fire bolt(or another ranged cantrip, I just like fire bolt since it can be fluffed as a mini-breath weapon), 2 others. 1st level spells: shield, 1 other(I like disguise self, since it is situational enough to not really compete with shield for spell slots)
Also, becoming a sorcerer means that you are a spellcaster, qualifying you for things like the Eldritch Adept feat, or War Caster. This is not very important, but it gives more options for customisation in response to the requirements of the campaign. You also qualify for a lot of magic items, although the sorcerer-specific bloodwell vial is a poor use of attunement, as you won’t use you spell attack and/or spell save DC often, and you will never have sorcery points as long as you continue as a rogue.
Finally, this is where your fighting style changes irrevocably, as you will from here on default to casting booming blade, rather than taking the Attack action. Booming blade allows you to still deal Sneak Attack damage, making it better than the Attack action in most cases.

Level 3: Back to rogue, and you gain Cunning Action. Here, you can start moving in, hitting with booming blade, using Cunning Action to Disengage, and then step just barely far enough out of the enemies reach, that they must move to hit you, and thus trigger the booming blade rider. When you get that bonus thunder damage off, you will actually deal an average of 1 more point of damage than a pure rogue who has an extra Sneak Attack die. This gap only exists on uneven levels. On even levels, you have the same amount of Sneak Attack dice as a pure rogue, so you are only ever ahead, then.

Level 4: Swashbuckler! Rakish Audacity makes it easier to deal Sneak Attack damage, and you boost your Initiative with your Charisma. This means that, at minimum, your Initiative bonus will be +8 if you went V-human with my stats(or +7 with Harengon, who are effectively proficient with Initiative). With this feature, your Initiative bonus can go as high as +15 from just 1 feat, this feature, and 20 Dex/20 Cha.(Harengon get +21 if they hit the same ability scores and take Alert).
Fancy Footwork is also a very important feature to this build, as it frees up the bonus action when you try to get away from a single foe. With a free disengage for trying to hit an opponent, you can use your Cunning Action for something other than Disengage. Like Dash, so you can zip around the battlefield, ramming into an opponent with Sneak Attack booming blade, then run back to your starting point, taunting the opponent to give chase all the while. Play it up in role play. You are a Swashbuckler, you should be the centre of attention on the battlefields. On the rare moments where you draw more heat than you would like, you still have shield to take off some pressure, while your party gets in position. Pure rogues, at this level, get the boring but practical ASI, which, by comparing the Sorcerer features to the Eldritch Adept(Armour of Shadows) and Magic Initiate(sorcerer) feats, is actually worth less than the one level dip, since the dip gives a non-magic (so impossible to dispel) mage armour equivalent, and many more goodies besides.

Level 5: The ASI. Pump DEX for extra AC, better damage output, and more Initiative. If you went with an uneven Dex(like as an Harengon) take a half feat that strikes you fancy. More important that that, though, is that your cantrips and Proficiency Bonus upgrade. Booming blade now adds 1d8 thunder damage on the initial hit, so even if the opponent won’t play along and trigger the bonus, you still outdamage a pure rogue’s attack action. Pure rogues get Uncanny Dodge, which, while good, is of the boring, but practical variety, and so the delay isn’t that bad.

Level 6: Uncanny Dodge is now ours. A resourceless defensive reaction is nice, and largely obsoletes absorb elements, as the damage reduction from both is equal in size, although Uncanny Dodge is harder to circumvent when triggered, as it halves damage, rather than granting resistance. Uncanny Dodge is also more broadly applicable, as it ignores damage type. There are edge-cases where absorb elements is usable when Uncanny Dodge isn’t due to slightly different triggers, but only having one of the two really doesn’t matter in most scenarios. Of course, if your campaign has those edge-cases(such as being hit by absorbable elemental damage multiple times in a single round) come up frequently, ignore my theory-crafting. Pure rogues get Expertise, the delay of which is not likely to be fatal, unless your DM is actively trying to get you killed.(If your DM is, in fact, trying to kill you, why are you still in that campaign? Or at least, why are you planning your build all the way to 20th?)

Level 7: Expertise is ours yet again. Apply it to Persuasion, if you haven’t already. The other is up to your needs at this point. This is more future-proofing than immediately needed, but be creative, it is bound to come in handy even before you can invoke Persuasion checks at-will. Pure rogues get Evasion now. This might be painful to pass up, but it is only for 1 level, and Draconic Resilience + shield have probably preserved you from more damage and deaths by this point than the 1 level with Evasion could have, unless your campaign has Dex saves for half as more common than attack rolls, and you spend at least as much time at 7th level as you did at 1st through 6th combined.

Level 8: You get Evasion. Between this, your high Dex, Dex save proficiency, and Uncanny Dodge. Fireballs and their ilk are no longer something to worry about. Pure rogues get an ASI. Not much to say here, no choices to be made and no trade off to discuss.

Level 9: ASI, pump Cha, you are about to need it to be decent. Last chance to gain Expertise in Persuasion, if you want to make the most of that. Next level is where it will become suddenly very useful. Pure rogues gain a subclass feature, which is a slight bummer to delay.

Level 10: PANACHE! *ahem* This is why I have been hammering on Persuasion proficiency and Expertise. You can now take an action to make use a non-magical variant of compelled duel. You trade in(compared to the 1st level paladin spell, which is the closest comparison) the ability to cut off escape for a doubled range, as well as not needing concentration. You also need to share a language.(Telepathy wonn’t circumvent this language barrier, unless I am missing something.) Most importantly, the mechanism is not a Wisdom saving throw, but a contest of you Charisma(Persuasion)(Expertise!) versus their Wisdom(Insight). This means that stuff like Legendary resistance cannot kick in, but you can benefit from stuff like Bardic Inspiration. Also, proficiency in Insight is a lot rarer among monsters than in Wis saves.
And this is only the combat use, against hostile creatures. It can be used out of combat as a resourceless, concentration-less, at-will 1 minute non-magical charm, which is also a Persuasion-vs-Insight contest, rather than a save, so features like Fey Ancestry, which provide advantage on saves-versus-charm, cannot apply. If you weren’t the face of the party already, you are now. This charm also lacks the usual drawback of magical charms, in that the target does not realise that they were charmed, as you just have that much presence. You can charm anything that isn’t explicitly immune to the charmed condition. You can also charm-lock creatures, since the charmed condition grants advantage on social checks, which this use of Panache should fall under. Since you do not have to end the first use of Panache to try again, you can use it to have advantage on attempts to maintain the effect. If you followed my suggestions, you should by now have a bonus to Charisma(Persuasion) checks of +11, so you cannot have a result of less than 12, and you cap at 31, so only a god of Insight will be guaranteed to be safe without immunity to the charmed condition. Pure rogues get an ASI.

Level 11: ASI, max out DEX, pump CHA, or take a feat. Adjust to your needs. Cantrips upgrade again, which is really nice. Pure rogues get Reliable Talent, a delay which hurts, probably as much as the delay on Cunning Action, but you should by now be able to live. And if you somehow don’t, someone in the party probably has raise dead. Or you have enough treasure to pay your way out of the grave.

Level 12: Reliable Talent, another of the rogue’s practical features. This one isn’t boring though. Any ability check you add your (full) proficiency bonus to cannot have a result of less than 10 + your relevant bonus. Just like that, the floor for Panache(that is, all Charisma(Persuasion) checks) is now 10(Reliable talent)+3(Charisma, assuming you pumped once)+8(Expertise)=21. It is now impossible for a typical commoner, with their Wisdom(Insight) bonus of +0 to resist your (entirely natural) charms. The Harengon also leaves the V-human in the dust in Initiative, too, as Reliable Talent applies to the Harengon’s Initiative checks, as well. A minimum initiative of 19 without Alert, is ridiculous. Pure rogues get an ASI.

Level 13: Proficiency bonus goes up, Panache now floors at 23, and you gain an ASI. If put into Charisma for an 18, Panache floors at 24, and V-human initiative is 1d20+14. Harengon Initiative is 10+(0~10)+5+4, for a minimum of 19. Pure rogues get a subclass feature.

Level 14: the level where you miss the least. You get Elegant Manoeuvrer, so you can guarantee a source of advantage on any attempts to escape a grapple. Expertise in Acrobatics could be nice if you want to synergise with this to never have to worry about being grappled. Pure rogues get Blindsense, which is nearly a ribbon.

Level 15: You get Blindsense: creatures within 10 feet of you cannot hide from you when you are not deaf. Combo with Blind Fighting through the Fighting Initiate to fake 10ft. truesight? Fighting Invisible enemies will become slightly less annoying, I guess. Pure rogues get Slippery Mind, which is a lot nicer than Blindsense.

Level 16: Slippery Mind, now we have proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. Pair this with Resilient: Con, and enjoy having all major saves covered. Pure rogues get an ASI. Not much to say here.

Level 17: PB goes up again, so enjoy the even better Panache. You gain an ASI that can be used to max out your Charisma, or take a feat. Pure rogues get the subclass capstone

Level 18: Master Duellist, the Swashbuckler capstone, is nice. Once per rest, you can turn a miss on an attack roll into a reroll with advantage, which could mean that a miss ends up giving you Sneak Attack when you otherwise wouldn’t have. Plus, it makes your damage output slightly more stable. It is a mini-Stroke of Luck. Pure rogues get Elusive. Delaying this is annoying, but at this point you should be used to the feeling.

Level 19: You gain Elusive. Immunity to advantage is actually nice. Enemy rogues(if they are a factor in your campaign) will hate that. Practical. I do not have more to say about that. Pure rogues get their final ASI.

Level 20:You have made it to the pinnacle: take your ASI instead of Stroke of Luck. Now you are the one who ends on the more practical note, with equal Sneak Attack, 3d8 thunder on hit, and with a rider for 4d8 thunder if they move. If you have gotten to this point, you know the character better than I do, so take whatever strikes your fancy. If you need a goal to work towards, may I suggest trying to Persuade a god to give you all the perks of divinity without the boring bits? You should be persuasive enough that DC 35 is doable under the right circumstances.

Variations: Any Elf could work with the Tasha’s Cauldron rules. Elven Accuracy might pay dividends. Taking Prodigy(if V-human) or Skill Expert(any race) could be another way to gain the Expertises you want. Any feat that can raise Dexterity or Charisma can be worthwhile, with Fey-Touched(gift of alacrity) deserving mention for allowing for an even more ridiculous, if more variable, Initiative. I suppose you could multiclass further, especially since you have one more ASI than most characters, but I have spent an entire evening on writing this. My wrists are starting to hurt from overuse. Stuff that expands your languages, like Linguist, or your senses, like goggles of night, are worthwhile, too. Fighting Initiate for Blind Fighting could be fun. Of course, if you rolled ridiculous stats, or the DM gives out bonus feats, you do not have to choose between boosting the Ability Scores and fun feats as much as this build does.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on this. I haven’t actually played this build, as other characters kept fitting the campaigns more.
I wish the essays I have to write for university flowed as easily from my fingers as this.

**strangebloke** · 2023-09-10, 03:34 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by LudicSavant

Build 18: The All Natural Space Blender

These hyper durable clerics are great in that they do actually play nicely with weaker builds. You deal good damage, but not enough to make more damage irrelevant, and you're very good at support and defense. And yes, you're hyper durable, but that's not going to make other people feel weak - you're just reliably the last one standing / the one bringing the party back into the fight.

**KyleG** · 2023-09-13, 05:15 AM (ISO 8601)

Amazing builds. One day i hope to see a character build that could be a demonologist.

**Unoriginal** · 2023-09-13, 05:20 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by KyleG

Amazing builds. One day i hope to see a character build that could be a demonologist.

I may have one fitting that description. Which criteria do you have, beside using Demons?

**KyleG** · 2023-09-13, 02:16 PM (ISO 8601)

Nothing specific. He might be ranger like hunting down demons, or more wizard like researching them first. Maybe they are more like an exorcist or a banisher in the way of characters like Constantine.

**Dualight** · 2023-09-13, 03:02 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by KyleG

Nothing specific. He might be ranger like hunting down demons, or more wizard like researching them first. Maybe they are more like an exorcist or a banisher in the way of characters like Constantine.

Ah, so a demon-slayer, not a summoner or the like. If I understand correctly, you seek a build specialised in fighting against demons. That is very different from a build that specialises in using demons (as disposable minions).

**DarknessEternal** · 2023-09-13, 03:15 PM (ISO 8601)

Before linking or posting builds, you should probably verify they aren't founded on rule breaking. Many of these are.

**Amnestic** · 2023-09-13, 04:16 PM (ISO 8601)

Starlight☆Duelist

Someone who takes centre stage, always clamouring for the spotlight...and also stabs people.

Race: Any really, though half-elf is preferred for it's 4x stat boosts and double skills.
Ability Scores preference: Dex>Cha>Con>Wis>Strength>Int.
If you're a half elf you should be able to start with 10/16/14/8/12/16 as your stats, which works out just fine.

Weapon of Choice: Rapier or scimitar, maybe a Longsword if you can get your DM to agree to it being Finesse when one-handed.

With Half-Elf, Bard, and Backgrounds we're flushed for choice, but Athletics+Acrobatics+Performance are all key to the narrative of the build, along with one or all of the other 'face' skills. Taking another racial option will knock two of them out, but if you've got any left over, grab Insight and/or Sleight of Hand.

We are neither intelligent nor particularly wise, and you're going to be relying on other people for spotting monsters, but that's fine! Once you do see them you'll be sure to take centre stage.

Level Progression:
Levels 1-6: Bard. We're going Swords at 3rd, our ASI is spent in Dex. We go to 6th for Extra Attack, but nabbing the short rest refresh on BI is also important.
For spells, we're ideally not using stuff that takes up our Action (which we're using to stab people), so Healing Word/Silvery Barbs/Heat Metal/Kinetic Jaunt/Mass Healing Word are great choices, with some longer duration buffs (eg. Aid) to throw up outside of combat. We're not spelllcasting as a general rule, so stuff that relies on your save DC to be really effective? Give it a miss, if you can.

Bard Expertise goes into Performance and Acrobatics.

Levels 7-9: Rogue 1-3, into Swashbuckler. Gets us Cha to Initiative, helps us fight our enemies duelist-style, nets us a total of 2d6 Sneak Attack per turn, and gives us more stuff to use our Bonus Action on when we're burning all our BI on flourishes.

Rogue Expertise goes into Athletics and a face skill (Intimidation is probably most narratively appropriate, but deception works too).

Levels 10-17: Back into Bard 7-14, going all the way up to 14th for 'free' Flourishes every turn, letting us dump our Bardic Inspiration back into other people. ASIs go into Dex (maxing it out) and then Con. 16 Cha is going to be what we started with, and what we finish with for the rest of our career.
Though I said we want to mostly be using non-action battle spells, I will shout out Otto's Irresistible Dance here: For the concept, it's mandatory.

For Magical Secrets, Spirit Guardians, Holy Weapon (only if there's no paladin in the party - don't steal their thunder before they get a chance to use it!), Armour of Agathys and Flame Shield are all choices to consider, since you're on the frontline. Guardian of Nature (Great Tree Form) is also pretty good since it nets you con-save advantage and advantage on your finesse weapon attacks...but being all bark-y and leaf-y isn't very thematically appropriate, so probably skill this one!

Levels 18-20: Rogue 4-6. ASI into Con again for a bit more resilience, since we're on the frontline.

Expertise batch #3 goes into either other face-skills, or Insight, or Thieves Tools in the unusual event that you're in tier 4 and still need to pick locks (or disarm traps that other people have spotted for you).

Feats: None
Final stat breakdown (on a half-elf): 10/20/18/8/12/16
Final level breakdown: Bard (Swords) 14/Rogue (Swashbuckler) 6.

With a 7th level spell, two attacks a turn, flourishes, 3d6 sneak attack, and six skills with expertise in them you're a pretty solid all-rounder. You won't dominate at dealing damage or casting spells or even being a skill monkey, but you do a pretty good job of all three of those all the same. The build also works at every level. It never needs a moment to 'come together'.

If you want to play a more Duet-y character, Swashbuckler can be exchanged for Mastermind instead. Both fit the concept in different ways, but my preference is Swashbuckler since there can be only one who stands at Position Zero.

Addendum: You can take a Hexblade level at basically any point in this build (though I'd usually advise you do so at 1st, 2nd, or 7th) in exchange for a rogue level, which lets you stack charisma instead of dex, and stick with medium armour. This is marginally better for your spellcasting, bardic inspiration, and nets you shield proficiency, though worse in other ways (dex saves/skills, mostly, since you still get cha to initiative from swashbuckler). I don't like hexblade dips though, so I say go away to them!

**KyleG** · 2023-09-13, 10:46 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Dualight

Ah, so a demon-slayer, not a summoner or the like. If I understand correctly, you seek a build specialised in fighting against demons. That is very different from a build that specialises in using demons (as disposable minions).

Very much so.

**LudicSavant** · 2023-09-13, 10:50 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by DarknessEternal

Before linking or posting builds

I can only give a guarantee of quality and thorough testing for my own builds. For builds posted by others, my role is to compile links to what people have posted; I don't intend to serve as a gatekeeper for builds (and wouldn't have the time to, in any event).

**Psyren** · 2023-09-14, 10:16 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by LudicSavant

I can only give a guarantee of quality and thorough testing for my own builds. For builds posted by others, my role is to compile links to what people have posted; I don't intend to serve as a gatekeeper for builds (and wouldn't have the time to, in any event).

On that note, feel free to pull in the build links from the thread I started as well since you're compiling an index. I can ask the mods to merge the two as well.

**Hiro Quester** · 2023-09-14, 10:53 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by LudicSavant

The All Natural Space Blender

Excellent build. I never thought of using Githzerai on a Nature Cleric, but it fits very well.

Another way to shore up your defenses and give some fun extra options is to take 2 levels of Stars Druid, perhaps after level 8 or so. All of this is very thematically appropriate for a Nature Cleric. And perhaps Stars Druid is even more appropriate for a Githzerai Space Blender.

Adding Guiding Bolt as an always-prepared spell you can cast PBTPD without using a spell slot, gives a useful ranged attack option to help your friends with advantage on their attacks. Plus wildshape utility. And a few useful druid cantrips and spells like Infestation (that might cause enemies to enter your SG on their turn with no effort from you), Mold Earth, Shape Water, Shillelagh, Animal Friendship, Earth Tremor (knock enemies prone in SG), Speak With Animals, etc.

You might also use Nature Cleric to puck up Shillelagh for lower levels, and then use Starts Druid to pick up Thorn Whip for pulling enemies closer after you get SG.

the real advantage, though, is that in your Starry form, take the Constellation of Dragon and every concentration save you make is automatically at least 10.

It also keeps your spell slot progression for upcasting Spirit Guardians.

It does involve giving up the ASI and automatic Divine Intervention capstone. But trading off these abilities you use for just a few game sessions at highest level, ffor these benefits your PC will use most of their career, many would judge the tradeoff to be worth it.

**LudicSavant** · 2023-09-16, 02:24 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Hiro Quester

Excellent build. I never thought of using Githzerai on a Nature Cleric, but it fits very well.

The MPMM Githzerai is a very good Cleric race in general.

- Picks up the Shield spell and componentless Detect Thoughts, and extra slots for them. Componentless mage hand, too. When you've already got an armor and shield, the Shield spell not only makes you extremely hard to hit, it also tends to use up fewer spell slots (since you get hit less often to begin with).
- Mental Discipline + high wisdom + wisdom proficiency to saves = you're nearly immune to fear and charms.
- Resistance to one of the most common monster damage types in the game (psychic).

When combined with the Nature Cleric, who already has broad elemental resistances, it leads to a character who can shrug off just about anything.

**Amnestic** · 2023-09-21, 04:58 PM (ISO 8601)

Stockimageofvampirehalloweencostume.jpeg

Definitely a Real Vampire

Bloodsuckers of the night are a favoured character concept for a variety of sexy reasons and occasionally some non-sexy ones too, but there is a surprising lack of vampirically themed subclasses, save for the 'Undead' warlock, which is a bit generic, sharing its area with the marginally less cool mummy lords and liches. We'll make do instead with a minor refluff on our favourite creepy decay druid, with a bit of ranger sprinkled in.

Race: Dhampir. Accept nothing less.
Ability Scores (pre-racials) 10/14/14/8/14/12
And post-racial: 10/14/16/8/15/12

Weapon of Choice: Vampiric Bite, of course.

Level Progression:
Levels 1-5: Ranger (Gloomstalker). We stalk the night, get Expertise in a useful skill (Stealth or Perception), and Dread Stalker lets us chomp people a bit faster while we make our way up to Extra Attack.

Fighting Style we're fairly limited - though we do get immunity to Blinded, Blind Fighting can still find use for dealing with Fog Clouds or magical darkness. Defense is always useful. Your VampBite doesn't naturally benefit from Dueling, but a DM may rule otherwise - worth double checking!

Our ASI goes into +2 Con (18).

Levels 6-19: Druid (Spore).
The absolute core of the build in advancing our vampiric-ness. With a Halo of ~~Spores~~ Blood, ~~Fungal Infestation~~ Vampiric Reanimation, ~~Spreading Spores~~ Whirling Blood, and ~~Fungal~~ Vampiric Body our subclass features are perfectly geared to being our best vampiric self. Wild Shape lets us turn into a wolf or a bat (eventually) - classic vampire things, our spell list is full of necrotic evilness, turning into mist, and diseasing others, and other such dark powers.

Just stay away from Sunbeam.

We get three ASIs from druid - our first goes into maxxing our Constitution, our second into Resilient: Wisdom, to give us a slight wis-save boost and to get us up to 16, and our third is honestly dealer's choice. +2 Wis wouldn't hurt anyone, but Alert, Lucky, Warcaster, and Observant are all perfectly valid too. Pick whatever you feel you need the most for your party. If you're consistently getting Surprise (and not being Surprised) then Lucky or Warcaster are likely to serve better than Alert/Observant.

Level 20: Our capstone, such as it is: Ranger 6. Gets us a 9th level spell slot (though we cap out at 7th level spells on Druid), +5ft move speed, and a climbing/swim speed (though climb speed is less noticeable, since we're a dhampir). The alternative is Fighter 1, if you want a fighting Style and Second Wind. Personally I'd lean more to that tasty upcast slot, but there's merit to an additional fighting style.

While, ideally, you would find a magic item that turns your vampiric bite magical (Eldritch Claw Tattoo, Insignia of Claws) to deal with resistances/immunities, if worst comes to worst you can drop Elemental Weapon on yourself, or just rely briefly on casting spells instead of chomping down, but come on, vampires bite people, that's their thing. We wanna be doing that as much as possible.

Final Stats: 10/14/20/8/16/12
Feats: 1, of choice (or +2 Wis, to end on 18 instead).
Final Class Breakdown: Ranger (Gloomstalker) 6/Druid (Spores) 14

For your general combat, Druids are often all about the concentration spells, so it's perfectly fine to just drop one big one (suitably refluffed to be vampiric, of course!) and then run around biting people. You won't be dealing fighter-level damage, but two attacks at 1d4+5+1d6 (from Symbiotic Entity) is...you know, not so bad. It's fine, and you're going to be pretty resilient with all the temp HP on top of a very hefty health pool. +5 Conmod means you'll be surpassing most others for total health, and you've got a bunch of condition immunities to boot.

**Wraith** · 2023-09-22, 12:08 PM (ISO 8601)

I originally posted this in the proto-thread before this one was established as the 'main' one. I've tinkered to tidy it up and add a key feature that makes way more sense for doing what I wanted it to do.

The Death Darter

Progression: Ranger 4 / Artificer 2 / Rogue 4 / Ranger or Rogue+
Starting stats: DEX 15 (+2 from race), WIS & INT 13 for multiclassing

Race: Grung
Fighting Style: Thrown Weapon Style
Recommended Feats: Piercer; Sharpshooter; Mobile;

Grung have a wonderful little ability called “Poison Skin” which allows them to add 2d4 Poison damage (on a failed DC12 save) to each of their attack rolls, so we make as many attacks as we can to invoke this ability as often as possible, and later on improve it with a more favorable damage type which then gets pumped by Sneak Attack. We're also doing it from range, because as well as being small and not-too-tough, we have a natural climb speed so we can sit somewhere out of everyones' reach and still use our other abilities.

The Build

Spoiler

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Start with Ranger. At first level we take Thrown Weapon Style which lets us reload darts and daggers for free - this essentially gives us 2 attacks every turn by using our bonus action to off-hand attack, which hardly suffers at all for not having Two Weapon Fighting because we have poisoned weapons (+2d4) instead of the +3 we’d otherwise get from our DEX stat.

At level 3 we will choose Horizon Walker as our Conclave. This is important because it lets us swap our damage type to Force rather than Poison, which is literally a swap from the most easily resisted/ignored damage type in the game to the most difficult. It does take up our bonus action to do so, but at worst this is only for one turn to use the ability and even then we’re swapping an off-hand attack for a free hand to start using a shield if we want to, continuing to throw two darts if we’re sure that the enemy is susceptible to venom thereafter.

At level 4, Piercer is a good feat to take. It rounds our DEX up to 18 and makes our damage dice more consistent - we’re rolling plenty with each attack, so chances are we can always make use of a reroll.

Ranger at level 5 could potentially be left for a little later in the build, but I think that Extra Attack is worth having as turning 1d4+2d4+1d8+4 into 2d4+4d4+2d8+8 will carry us pretty well for the next few levels while things even out.

At some point around here, we bring in two levels of Artificer. When do you take the Artificer dip? Probably right after Ranger 1 because we’re not so hung up on getting extra attack from Ranger 5, but after Ranger 4 is probably fine so you can combine Returning Weapon with Planar Warrior and your first feat/stat up and enjoy your extra everything just as you start fighting Tier 2 enemies.

Whenever you choose it, for relatively small investment of INT13 you get a lot of general improvements; increase your AC, a Bag of Holding to store a nigh-infinite number of knives or darts, cantrips, healing spells, and Magical Tinkering gives you a bunch of utility things that can always turn out to be useful. Just lots of fun and gives you a lot of things to do besides just killing stuff quickly.
The really important part of this dip is the Infusion called Returning Weapon - it gives +1 to hit and damage, and it boomerangs the weapon back to your hand. It doesn’t work on already magical weapons unfortunately - so no Returning Axe of the Dwarfish Lords for you - but you can add it to non-magical buffs like Silver, Adamantine (from XGtE), or spell effects like Elemental Weapon to make yourself an elite, multi-purpose ranged weapon that you can’t lose.

At level 7 and up we start taking Rogue levels, primarily for Sneak Attack dice (which become Force Damage along with everything else) but also for maneuverability. While at this point we’re not much worse in melee than we are ranged if we’re forced into it, Cunning Action will allow us to cover more of the battlefield and strike whoever we want with precision, rather than being stuck face-to-face with just one unlucky goon.

At level 9 we have a choice between Scout and Assassin as our Rogue subclass. Personally I prefer Scout as being able to move faster is more gooderer and (at Rogue 9) becomes funnier because Grung have a natural climbing speed so we can run up a wall and snipe with impunity if we want to.
Assassin is a worthwhile alternative as it’s a reliable way to get disadvantage on someone every turn, but the trade off is that you’ll probably end up taking more Horizon Walker levels to become as mobile as the Scouts. Similarly, you don’t gain much from extra identities and disguises - there’s only so much you can do to hide the fact that you’re a 3 foot frog and not the Firbolg that was expected….

Further progression

Spoiler

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More Ranger/Less Rogue - You can teleport about the battlefield, picking and choosing our victims and ruining their day. You’re likely an Assassin, so that you can consistently get venomous Sneak Attacks rather than just bigger and bigger numbers.

Less Ranger/More Rogue - You’re primarily a Scout, running about the place to get into good Sneak Attack positions for *lots* of damage. It’s slightly less consistent than the Assassin, but more flexible (especially against enemies like Constructs and Undead, who tend to ignore Poison).

Less Ranger (4) /Less Rogue (4) /More Fighter (X) - The third path means taking 3 levels of Fighter/Battlemaster because who doesn’t want Action Surge? Similarly, there are several maneuvers which can be interesting - particularly Distracting Strike (to give yourself Advantage for Sneak Attacking) and Pushing Attack (to give you space to use your ranged attacks without worry). Samurai could also work as a way of giving yourself consistent Advantage for Sneak Attacks, even though thematically you’re more Ninja than Ronin.

More Artificer - It's lots of fun to mix gadgets with fast moving antics, but somewhat difficult to make use of in our build. We’re already a semi-caster in Ranger so it's already far from ideal to run two semi-caster classes into Tier 3 without also diluting it further with Rogue, and the early levels of Artificer aren’t great unless you’re desperate for those ‘skill proficiencies’ from Right Tool For The Job.
There’s some argument that could be made to pick up just one more level and get your subclass, but none of them really do anything to help the build mechanically. Armourer’s Infiltrator mode is okay, but the lightning launcher is wasted because our thrown weapon is so good; for the same reason, Artillerist doesn’t help much because we’re almost always using our Bonus action on off-hand attacks and moving faster than the cannon can keep up with.

Battlesmith is probably your best bet as our robot friend is one more body between us and the stick-wielding apes that ruin our ranged potential, and if we really, really want to lean into it then we can alter our stat line to make the most of Battle Ready, letting us attack with INT instead of DEX. If you do this though, you’re committing to more Artificer as it's the only way to scale the Steel Defender and keep it useful into higher level.
Unless you really, REALLY want some more Infusions for a particular gimmick, stopping at Artificer 2 is likely the best plan of action.

**Hairfish** · 2023-09-22, 10:47 PM (ISO 8601)

Plus artificers get GFB and BB for those times when you've got no alternative to melee fighting.

Not really sure Grung is a good race choice, though. A DC 12 Con save is quite easy to make for many baddies, which entirely negates the extra damage.

**Wraith** · 2023-09-23, 06:56 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Hairfish

Not really sure Grung is a good race choice, though. A DC 12 Con save is quite easy to make for many baddies, which entirely negates the extra damage.

Undoubtedly something like Halfling or Fairy would be better simply because they have similar stats but even better movement and magic options. Kobold would also be interesting for on-demand Advantage to guarantee Sneak Attack damage, too.

Just for flavour and the fun of being a psychotic frog-man, I think it's good enough for levels 1-5 when the extra damage really makes a difference, and after that when Horizon Walker turns it into Force damage, it's a nice bonus when it does go off. If nothing else, it's enough to one-shot several minions per turn, even if the BBEG ignores it most of the time. That's still a useful role.

**strangebloke** · 2023-09-23, 06:49 PM (ISO 8601)

look, this isn't your equip loadout but you try finding a beekeeper with a shield and ax. Credit to Matt Hiker on Twitter

The Mad Woodsman
Ahhhhh No! Not the Bees!
Axe-Throwing Swarmkeeper Who Ragdolls the Enemy

Spoiler: summary

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All the BG3 throwing goodness had me thinking about throwing builds in 5e and, well I realized that throwing axes are the only way to get ranged slashing and went from there. This ends up working a bit like a normal cheesegrater, but with a different loadout than usual and a focus on disabling the enemy in general rather than just using cheesegrating for damage.

Race: Variant Human(Slasher)
Abilities @ lvl 1 : 16 / 14 / 13 / 8 / 14 / 8
Classes: Swarmkeeper Ranger 5 -> Battlemaster 3
Fighting Style: Thrown, Dueling
Spells of Note: Entangle, Web, Spike Growth, zephyr strike, Longstrider, Plant Growth
ASIs/Feats: Slasher (vhuman), resilient:constitution, Crusher
Maneuvers: trip attack, quick toss, pushing attack

ACFS: Deft Explorer (expertise: stealth). Favored Enemy is probably better here since you'll generally be using concentration.

Spoiler: progression

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Levels 1-2: You're already quite effective at these levels. Using thrown handaxes deals pretty mediocre damage, but you can have a shield in the offhand and you are reducing enemy move speed, which allows you to lock down a lot of slower enemies.

Levels 3-4: Once you get spells, more specifically entangle, you can create difficult terrain that slows enemies down further. A 30 foot move speed becomes 20, and then gets halved to 10 because it has to cross difficult entangled terrain. Level three gives you swarmkeeper, which lets you punt one enemy a turn 15 feet back, and level four improves your HP and concentration. Longstrider is a bit expensive at this level, but both it and Zephyr Strike help you to avoid getting tied down in melee.

Level 5: Needless to say, you get a lot stronger here. Your damage improves significantly. You get access to web and spike growth, which are both excellent area denial spells. Spike Growth in particular gives you a LOT of damage potential, whereas web just destroys a significant number of types of enemies.

Level 6-8: NOW we are talking. You can cast spike growth then action surge + quick toss to attack three times, with each axe dealing +4 damage from the stacking fighting styles. On a hit you can push them either with the swarm or with pushing attack, and you can make them drop prone at the end as well with trip attack. That is potentially 12d4 damage from spike growth, 31.5 damage from the axes themselves, and 9 damage from the maneuvers. You do all this while having solid (~19) AC and good all-round saves and not sacrificing accuracy at all. And remember, the damage is great, but you're also laying down big AOE control spells and also screwing over enemy movement. 30 feet of forced movement + 10 foot reduction in speed + potentially forced to drop prone + difficult terrain all around.

But what about fliers? What about 'em? If you can hit them (more on this later) you can send them skyward and then drop them prone with trip attack.

A great thing here too is how nicely you're playing with allies. You're really enabling sharpshooters and wizards to stay way, way away from the enemy, and a lot of your techniques create advantage for your allies in various ways (entangle, fairy fire, trip attack)

Level 9+: From here its more or less up to you. Ranger levels let you do the same things but better. The core strat of disabling enemies gets better with conjure animals and plant growth. And a flight speed. (Note: longstrider improves your 'speed' and thus applies to all movement, including flight.) Daolock and crusher give you more forced movement.

Spoiler: customization

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Ambush is the best maneuver in the game by a pretty good margin, and you can sub and of your three maneuvers for it, or take a fighting style that gives you an extra SD and maneuver.

Other races have a lot to offer. Bugbear synergizes really well with surprise and winning inititiative, both things that this build can be really good at. Bugbear also gives you a 15' whip attack on your turn, which achieves a slightly worse but similar effect as the throwing axes. Dragonborn with dragon fear can prevent enemies from approaching and truly create a zone of forbiddance. Various races like fairy and centaur give you a lot of movement.

Spoiler: limitations

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Needless to say, this is somewhat a gimmick. A LOT of the key spells here target strength saves, which monsters tend to be pretty good at. You're locked into throwing axes to take advantage of slasher, and this limits your range dramatically. The notion of going within 20 feet to 'kite' enemies is inherently contradictory. Just kite them from 100+ feet away, dummy! Moreover, the kinds of enemies that tend to be easy to disable in this fashion tend to be the least dangerous enemies in general because of how badly spells like spirit guardians or features like sharpshooter counter them. Pushing attack and quick toss rely on your limited stock of superiority dice, meaning that you're a bit of a one-hit wonder. At the very least this is a 1/SR nova though, so its hardly that bad.

As one more questionable trait, this build also lacks good magical weapon support, since you're lazer focused on throwing axes. An artificer can infuse your ax but that's about the only way you're going to be able to function against nonmagical BSP immune enemies. (though spike growth pretty much works as normal)

What I do like though is that the basic structure here makes you pretty functional in a lot of scenarios. Melee is nearly as good as ranged play for you, and you have good stealth, and you genuinely have a lot of utility courtesy of your ranger abilities, while also being hardier than most rangers. I also like that the basic concept of throwing enemies back and lowering their speed works starting at level 3, and the high damage afforded by throwing/dueling combo is pretty sweet.

**LudicSavant** · 2023-10-08, 06:58 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Psyren

On that note, feel free to pull in the build links from the thread I started as well since you're compiling an index. I can ask the mods to merge the two as well.

Done and done! Updated with another 17 builds, from that thread and this one.

**Sparky McDibben** · 2023-10-08, 08:16 PM (ISO 8601)

Oh wow! I've heard of one apparently really cool build called "The Sorcerer King." Can you do that one?

Just kidding! Glad to see this coming back up; always excited to read your work, Ludic!

**strangebloke** · 2023-10-09, 07:51 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by LudicSavant

Done and done! Updated with another 17 builds, from that thread and this one.

thank you

Should really go through the backlog someday

**Dalinar** · 2023-10-10, 09:13 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Dualight

*snip*

I played "Harengon Swashbuckler with Alert" for a 3-5 adventure not too long ago (it was pretty lighthearted, and so I wanted to lean into our group's running gag in which my initiative rolls are always bad by playing a character who had like a +14 by the end). The main struggle I ran into was that, while I went first almost every combat, I very rarely had anything incredibly powerful to do on my turn--just run in at lightspeed, stab somebody, run back out. Your sorcerer dip probably helps a lot with that thanks to Booming Blade, which makes it much more threatening against targets that are just big enough to survive one sneak attack but small enough to care about the extra thunder damage.

So my thoughts turned to "what can I do to have a high initiative AND something explosive to start off a dangerous encounter with?" For my own purposes I settled on War Wizard, but for the purposes of this post I want to stick a little closer to what you intended, which is mostly Swashbuckler with a dip. Level 1 rarely gives a character anything super potent on that front. So I wanted to brainstorm for a different idea for the caster level, something that could give you a way to assert more control over the flow of combat to leverage the fact that you're probably going first.

So the thing I landed on was Fathomless Warlock, actually. There's a fair amount of cost going this route compared to Draconic Sorcerer: you are squishier without the Draconic level 1 or access to Shield, and the tentacle competes with your Cunning Action. You only get two cantrips (thankfully Booming Blade is still among them), a weaker spell list, and one slot per short rest which is often going to be worse than 2/LR. There's also very different flavor baggage, though in cases where the Fathomless flavor makes sense, you're at least probably going to get mileage out of the swim speed and water breathing at some point.

The thing Fathomless does that even brings me to mention it is, of course, the tentacle. A d8 of cold damage is paltry, but still better than zero. The main reason to take it is that, since it applies a 10ft slow, there will likely be cases where you can position such that a scary melee target cannot get into range without dashing because you used the tentacle on it.

If you went this route, I'd also take a look at species alternatives such as Githzerai for replacing some of your lost spellcasting, particularly Shield. The usefulness of extra initiative from level 1 Alert or Harengon gets to be overkill when you already have a really high initiative from Swashbuckler; you can grab Alert later if it's an issue.

**Psyren** · 2023-10-10, 08:28 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by LudicSavant

Done and done! Updated with another 17 builds, from that thread and this one.

Much appreciated! *salutes*

Originally Posted by Dalinar

I played "Harengon Swashbuckler with Alert" for a 3-5 adventure not too long ago (it was pretty lighthearted, and so I wanted to lean into our group's running gag in which my initiative rolls are always bad by playing a character who had like a +14 by the end). The main struggle I ran into was that, while I went first almost every combat, I very rarely had anything incredibly powerful to do on my turn--just run in at lightspeed, stab somebody, run back out.

Yeah the upside there seems minimal - at best you'd just be doing regular sneak attack damage and therefore no better off than any other rogue. Have you considered dropping Swashbuckler/Rakish Audacity and going Assassin instead?

**Dalinar** · 2023-10-11, 12:07 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Psyren

Yeah the upside there seems minimal - at best you'd just be doing regular sneak attack damage and therefore no better off than any other rogue. Have you considered dropping Swashbuckler/Rakish Audacity and going Assassin instead?

The adventure's over, so not much point now :) I think the way I built him fit the way I roleplayed him, so if I had to relive those sessions I probably wouldn't change on those grounds, but in the future? Well, now I definitely have an idea of how much is too much.

Ultimately when it comes to "I want to win initiative constantly and also do something worthwhile with that initiative," I keep coming back to War Magic. Inbuilt concentration defense and extra initiative right at level 2 combined with the crazy wizard spell list seems too good to pass up. I was also a big fan of the Watchers Dexadin that Ludic has in the OP ("Swift Death to Evil"), which sort of operates on similar "win before the monsters do stuff" principles, but wasn't really sure how to make it work in the context of my table (no Eberron for instance, and we have only just recently had characters start to break past level 6 or so).

**Bobthewizard** · 2023-10-18, 12:03 PM (ISO 8601)

Monster Under the Bed

As a thought experiment, I wanted to maximize the number of first round attacks for a MMOTM bugbear. Maybe this has been done already, but I didn't see it. But I also want it to be playable and have a theme of sneaking through the dark.

Race MMOTM Bugbear +2 Dex, +1 Wis

using two shortswords

Start 10,14,14,8,15,10 -> 10,16,14,8,16,10

1 Ranger 1, expertise stealth, favored enemy (humans and halflings)
2 Ranger 2 – blind fighting
3 Ranger 3 – Gloomstalker – extra attack 1st round (+6 init)
4 Ranger 4 Alert (+11 init)
5 Ranger 5 extra attack, PWOT, Silence – 4 attacks first round

All gloom stalker so far, but they're a lot of fun.

6 Fighter 1 – Superior technique (Ambush d6), second wind
7 Fighter 2 – action surge – 7 attacks first round
8 Fighter 3 – echo knight fluffed as his shadow. 9 attacks first round
9 Fighter 4 - +2 Dex (d6+12 Init)
10 Cleric 1 - twilight 300' darkvision and advantage on initiative
11 Monk 1 - Unarmored defense, Martial Arts
12 Monk 2 - Ki, Flurry of blows – 10 attacks first round

We have all of our first round attacks now. Some have limited resources of course.
(Attack, Extra Attack, Dread Ambusher, Unleash Incarnation) x2 with Action Surge
+ 2 attacks for flurry of blows = 10 attacks once per day, 8 attacks once per short rest otherwise

13 Monk 3 - Astral self for +5’ reach (could go Shadow for darkness then take devil’s sight next level, but I like the idea of his shadows reaching out and attacking.
14 Monk 4 - +2 Dex (d6+13 Init with advantage)
15 Rogue 1 - Expertise perception and intimidation
16 Rogue 2 - Cunning Action
17 Rogue 3 - Assassinate (advantage on all of those first round attacks)
18 Rogue 4 - Fey Touched (Gift of Alacrity) (+13+1d8+1d6 init with advantage)
19 Ranger 6 – climb, swim speeds
20 Ranger 7 – WIS saves

If I went shadow monk, I'd consider taking monk to 10 at the end to get shadow step and more Ki, skipping Rogue and the last two ranger levels. Yes, you are doubling up Extra Attack, but level 5 isn't a dead level for monks since you get stunning strike.

Fighter 11, Ranger 3, Monk 6 would get you 12 attacks the first round 1x/day, but only at level 17 and above, and I liked starting gloom stalker, so then it made more sense to get to level 5 in that first.

Thread: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds 3

An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds 3

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Volume 2!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds: Volume 2!

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds 3

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds (Continued!)

Re: An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds 3

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