Prose's Guide to Xanathar's Guide to Everything

[mephnick]

Once you get Extra Attack with Kensai you can use your new special weapon and still get the AC bonus as long as your second attack is an unarmed strike.

[Dudewithknives]

Once you get Extra Attack with Kensai you can use your new special weapon and still get the AC bonus as long as your second attack is an unarmed strike.

I never liked the idea of:

Here is a special subclass all about being a mystical weapon master so you can use weapons with your monk abilities.
By the way we know that monks have AC problems so we are also giving you an ability that adds +2 AC.
But to get the ac bonus, you have to not actually use your own weapon your subclass is based on.

It should have just said if you attack with an unarmed strike on your turn. That way it only works in melee range, but can activate with martial arts attack that could not be weapon attacks anyway.

[mephnick]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

[Dudewithknives]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

I still just want my damn Duelist subclass, for fighters preferably.

Unarmored Defense, Good AC without a shield, and precision type abilities.

Every edition I want to play 3 things at least once. (actually I like those types in any type of game, NWOD, D&D, OWOD, ect)

1. The Subtle Manipulator type, which is solid gold with subtle spell sorcerers.
2. The bloodhound tracker archer.
and the most liked
3. A single weapon duelist type (fighter/duelist/champion of corian in 3.5, Swashbuckler in PF, ect)

So far, nothing really does it right in 5e.

[mephnick]

I still just want my damn Duelist subclass, for fighters preferably.

Unarmored Defense, Good AC without a shield, and precision type abilities.

Rogue 2/ Monk/ 1 Fighter X gets you unarmoured defence, unarmoured movement, bonus action dodges/dashes/disengages, sneak attack and maneuvers. Ignore the Ki fluff.

It's not perfect but it hits all your boxes.

[thepsyker]

I never liked the idea of:

Here is a special subclass all about being a mystical weapon master so you can use weapons with your monk abilities.
By the way we know that monks have AC problems so we are also giving you an ability that adds +2 AC.
But to get the ac bonus, you have to not actually use your own weapon your subclass is based on.

See, I don't think the designers were looking at it as a way to address any AC problem of the monk. I think they viewed it more as giving flexibility in letting the monk choose between a more offensive or defensive style depending on the situation. Basicaly, you can pick between the additional damage of a larger weapon die (at least for most of the characters life) and eventually deft strike, sharpen blade and/or the accuracy ability thats name is escaping me on one attack or you can get +2 AC. Of course the question then becomes if they correctly estimated the value of the two sides of that scale.

[Spiritchaser]

Rogue 2/ Monk/ 1 Fighter X gets you unarmoured defence, unarmoured movement, bonus action dodges/dashes/disengages, sneak attack and maneuvers. Ignore the Ki fluff.

It's not perfect but it hits all your boxes.

Fair enough but...

It was possible to make a Fighter/Bladelock MC that worked before XGTE, but they were still kind enough to give us a single class build that ticked all the boxes... so why not ask

[Easy_Lee]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

I think they're going for a sort of Wushu image. Use your weapon to bind your opponent's while you kick or otherwise strike him. That said, it's not like knights or samurai never did this, but whatever - not a reality simulator.

[Nargrakhan]

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

I think they're going for a sort of Wushu image. Use your weapon to bind your opponent's while you kick or otherwise strike him. That said, it's not like knights or samurai never did this, but whatever - not a reality simulator.

*rant mode*

Not to go too off topic, but doesn't the Battlemaster already capture the thematic feel of a Kensai?

For example Assassin from FATE screams Battlemaster to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZG15BaK9r8


All those fancy moves remind me of Maneuvers. For example at the 0:24 mark I see Parry and then Push being used. Hell... even his ultimate technique Tsubame Gaeshi at the end (bending space-time to attack multiple times in a single strike) is what an Action Surge can be described as.

If you feel anime action scenes don't equate well with DnD, then there's Hattori from the Zatoich reboot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lme7A_WR5VQ

I see him using Riposte, Parry, Disarming, and Menacing in that fight.

I've never supported the idea of using "cultural specific" terminology for subclass names. The features in the Samurai martial archetype don't just apply to anime/theater style samurai... nor are those features the only abilities attributed to anime/theater samurai. I recall watching a South African movie about a heroic Zulu warrior who's abilities in the film would perfectly match the Samurai if I wanted to recreate him in the game. It feels wrong having the word Samurai on such a character sheet...

*rant mode off*

[Sception]

Not sure that I agree hexblades /must/ go blade pact. Non-melee, shadow-themed warlock is a strong thematic choice, and the hexblade's curse works just as well, if not better, with eldritch blast as it does w melee attacks, and with less invocation overhead.

Plus, ranged fighting tends to work better with the warlock's easiest form of advantage - darkness/devil's sight - to crit fish off the expanded range on a cursed target

As you mention, even with all the buffs to blade pact, a melee hexblade is still weaker than a normal blastibg fiendlock. Well, that applies to a blasting hexlock as well.

if you're going for blade pact, you absolutely need to go hexblade, but the reverse is not at all true. The writers stapled a fix to blade pact to tge patron, but underneath that fix hexblade is still a fully functional curse themed patron that works just fine with other pact boons.

[mgshamster]

Well, it seems my own trend is unbroken. The abilities that these guides rate as red or "the worst" are usually the things I look at and think, "That is really cool! I want to play that!"

Frenzy? Check.
Champion? Check.
Beast Master? Check.
Elemental Monk? Check.
Thief? Check.
Wild mage? Check.
Transmutation? Check.

And so far, I've had a blast with all of those classes, despite them being "the worst." And amazingly, I'm able to contribute and keep up with "the best" classes in all those cases.

And now the XGE version!

Desert barb? That was the very first thing I fell in love with in XGE. Check!
Whisper bard? Check!
Kensai? Oh yeah!
Celestial Warlock? Yup!

Surprisingly, the Horizon Walker, bar non my new favorite ranger, wasn't rated as horrible! Of course, the reason I love it isn't for anything that was rated blue - I love it because it's literally a Planewalker! And those who know me know my love of Planescape.

Despite all that, I'm willing to bet that everything in this book, from the worst to the best, still fall within the usual Tier 3 range that the other books falls into. Nothing is outlandishly good or bad, and nothing is so good as to get up to tier 2 or so bad as to fall to tier 4.

[Nargrakhan]

Well, it seems my own trend is unbroken. The abilities that these guides rate as red or "the worst" are usually the things I look at and think, "That is really cool! I want to play that!"

Optimization does not equate into fun. Fun does not equate into optimization.

I'm 100% with you that not being the absolute best can be a memorable experience. My favorite 5e character of all time was a 16th level Fighter Battlemaster with 20 in Strength AND Dexterity, but only 14 in Constitution (optimization says pick STR or DEX, have the one not chosen a dump stat, and at least 16 CON).

However the purpose of this thread is rating things based on the meta. I also like knowing about these things. While I don't play a totally optimized character, I also don't want to be a burden on my party. I could play a fighter with 8 in all three attributes of STR, DEX, and CON -- and I'm sure it would be hilarious -- but what about the other players depending on me to pull some weight to success. It's kinda selfish to completely focus on what I purely want.

I don't entirely abandon optimization biased choices, so I can make sincere contributions to successfully finishing the campaign. Threads like these help me do that. I will still cling to the non-meta character concept I want to roleplay, but still take the the time to seriously consider a few optimal choices so I won't be entirely useless for most of the adventure.

[Spiritchaser]

As you mention, even with all the buffs to blade pact, a melee hexblade is still weaker than a normal blastibg fiendlock. Well, that applies to a blasting hexlock as well.

I'm not really sure that I agree with this.

With CHA to attack, you have room in your build for a great many feats, and you can still preserve a decent CON. Accordingly, GWM and PAM are solid.

Combine this with darkness from 3-6, or with shadow of moil at 7 to 16, or foresight if you live to 17, and you'll be able to outperform a blastlock for DPR for much of your journey. This can be especially true if you happen to be a half elf, where elven accuracy gives you a stunning absence of penalty for using that -5/+10.

For example, using no slots for eldritch smite you could be hitting for 58 points of damage on average per round at level 8 with a half elf with point buy. Considerably more at 12 when PAM becomes available and you don't have to worry about a crit proc of your GWM bonus attack.


That damage at that level is not something an eldritch blaster can do.

And you can still blast.

Don't get me wrong, I think when all things are considered the fiend patron is still very strong, and probably a hair stronger than hexblade overall, but melee warlocks now have a solid place where they surpass their blaster bretheren:

Bringing the pain, at will, round in, round out.

And you're a warlock. You owe everyone pain.

Except those celestials I guess...

[Temperjoke]

My only complaint, which is the same complaint I have about most of the class guides on here, is that it's centered purely on combat. I mean, I understand that when you're looking for optimization that's the information you need, but at the same time it also causes a lot of abilities that are good out of combat to get tossed in the trash, and deters people from trying the class.

[mgshamster]

Optimization does not equate into fun. Fun does not equate into optimization.

That certainly true!

Some people forget that, though. :)

Take, for example, the current thread complaining about weapons in 5e, and how the OP can't play the PC he wants to play because it's not optimized.

So I feel it's good to remind people that in 5e, even the most unoptimized character can still contribute to the group in a meaningful manner, and can still be fun. The PC won't be grossly outshined by even the most optimized character. A little outshined, maybe, but not overly so.

It's hard to make a PC that truly sucks; you really have to try to do it. Like making a melee PC with 8 in all your physical stats. And even then it's doable (for example, with a hexblade or Shillelagh cantrip w/ magic initiate or a moon druid).

And still, I think it's funny that whenever I look at a class and think "this is awesome," it's almost inevitably going to be rated poor in the guides. That's just funny. :)

[Danielqueue1]

I bought Xanathar's guide, but it still doesn't ship for a while. Does empowered healing from Divine soul only affect a single instance of healing? or could it be used on the Druid's Healing spirit for a bonus each tic?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Spirit Shield: -2d6 damage as a reaction? Pretty damn nice, especially since barbarians are not usually very efficient in their action economy, and this gives you a good use for your reaction that you should be able to make use of almost every turn. The only downside is that doesn't scale particularly well, 2d6 at lvl 6 is a lot more impressive than 4d6 at level 14.

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

[Talamare]

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

Only works when ANOTHER creature takes damage...
Unless your plan is that the entire team is Ancestral Barbarians
... Which honestly would probably work...


Edit - Oh, tho the level 3 feature works by whatever the barb hits, gets debuffed for a turn. So that if they hit anyone but the barb, the have disadvantage on the attack AND disadvantage on the damage

ffs this subclass is broken...
It's like the designers have a hardon for barbarian considering bearbarian also exist...

It's like the designer said, people are saying bearbarian is the most broken subclass in the game? HOLD MY BEER!

[Talamare]

Ancestral Guardian
The "tankbarian" option. Good at protecting allies and forcing others to attack you, which with your resistances and HP pool is just gravy.

Ancestral Protectors: 'Mark' a target while raging and apply disadvantage as well as resistance to it's attacks to your allies. An insanely powerful defensive tool. That cripples the offensive potential of any enemy you hit. They are now given the choice of having Disadvantage and Resistance vs someone that they can kill OR likely hit someone with Resistance against the biggest meat bag on the team. Remember that the condition for this is easy to achieve since you always have the option of getting advantage on your attacks by using Reckless Strike.

Spirit Shield: If giving an enemy Disadvantaged on Attack AND Damage wasn't enough, you're able to screw over another attack once per turn by massively reducing the damage. Ideal for either massive hits on an ally, or a target you weren't able to mark. This even stacks with Ancestral Protectors, but since flat damage is done before Resistance it's not as insane. If your ally is being hit by 30 damage, and you reduce it by 15 with this feature. Resistance will then reduce it to 7.

Consult the Spirits: Incredibly Useful Flavor

Vengeful Ancestors: Free damage is always good, this has the added bonus of being a spit on the face of the enemy.

[Klorox]

Great job.

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.

I’m going to hold judgement until I see a few in action.

Is that zealot barbarian on par with the bear totem barbarian? It looks really, really good.

Thank you for your hard work putting this together!

[Talamare]

Great job.

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.

I’m going to hold judgement until I see a few in action.

Is that zealot barbarian on par with the bear totem barbarian? It looks really, really good.

Thank you for your hard work putting this together!

Yes, and no

Bearbarian is still #1 in personal survivability
Ancestral is #1 in party survivability
Zealot is #1 in damage dealing

So... different broken strokes for different folks

[Kuulvheysoon]

I think this ability scales better than you think. Remember, barbarians have in-built resistance to the most common damage types, so 2d6 is really more like 4d6, and 4d6 is more like 8d6, because of resistance. When you mitigate 14 damage with Spirit Shield, it’s 28 damage off the attack, and then only half beyond that is taken. A Challenge 16 Iron Golem does 23 damage with its sword (mitigated to 11.5 due to resistance, mitigated to 0 with most Spirit Shield roll). A Challenge 13 Storm Giant does 30 damage with its great sword (mitigated to 15 with resistance, mitigated to 1 on average with Spirit Shield). The Challenge 30 Tarrasque has four attack options, the strongest of which is its bite, with which it does 36 damage (mitigated to 18 due to resistance, mitigated to 4 on average with Spirit Shield). It would mitigate all damage from the Tarrasque’s horns and tail, if the player chose.

Sure, this resistance doesn’t mitigate rider damage, which becomes more common at later levels (to varying degrees), but it still mitigates all the non-rider stuff, which doubles the effectiveness of the mitigation otherwise. For example, the Challenge 14 Fire Giant Dreadnaught does 22 bluegeoning plus 7 piercing plus 7 fire damage with its fireshield. Resistance won’t mitigate the 7 fire damage, but the rest is resisted, which allows you to mitigate basically all of the shield damage except the 2d6 fire damage, which makes this feature better than Bearbarian 3 for all the core physical damage types, but worse for riders.

So I don't have the book (yet), but is Spirit Shield applied before or after Resistance?

[Danielqueue1]

So I don't have the book (yet), but is Spirit Shield applied before or after Resistance?

In the PHB all modifiers to damage happen before resistance. but the wording on this ability might be different. (I don't have xanathar's yet either.

[SaurOps]

I can see what they're going for. They want Monk to stay in a certain iconic image, even weapon using monks in popular media mix those weapon strikes in with unarmed strikes. Allowing the weapon to substitute for everything would have made it "not a Monk" in the eyes of the pop archetype WotC is trying to promote.

Having said that you could argue that Monk was not the class to wrap a Kensai into in the first place and I would agree with that.

Especially since it was originally a fighter sub-class when it first appeared. And the monk should arguably not exist as a class in 5e, since monastic folk fall under Acolytes and Hermits, in Backgrounds. With the folding of so much OA material into one class (the samurai is an outlier among fighters), 5e has royally botched the conceptualization of ki and turned it into the Asian Power Source.

[mephnick]

I’m on the fence with that arcane archer. Those two shots are great, but after they’re spent you don’t have much.
!

Let's be honest, when you're out of shots you're still probably a Sharpshooter dpr buzzsaw who can take free shots. I think everyone will survive the "lack" of arcane shots.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Only works when ANOTHER creature takes damage...
Unless your plan is that the entire team is Ancestral Barbarians
... Which honestly would probably work...

Ah, I just assumed “you are your own ally” applies here. The new feature is different from the old (UA transferred your resistance), so I don’t actually know the new text—but the only reason this was useless for defending yourself before is because you already had the reduction.

In the PHB all modifiers to damage happen before resistance. but the wording on this ability might be different. (I don't have xanathar's yet either.

Is that a Heavy Armor Master ruling? Unfortunate if true here, but, resisting the remaining damage means uou’re Still cutting more than expected at face value (though not based on the feature’s merits).

[Warwick]

The zealot seems really cool. Actually makes me consider playing a barbarian, which is unusual (nothing against it, but normally not my thing). The range limit on the Horizon Walker's bonus damage is a little disappointing (and a little inexplicable, to be honest), but I like the concept there as well.

Let's be honest, when you're out of shots you're still probably a Sharpshooter dpr buzzsaw who can take free shots. I think everyone will survive the "lack" of arcane shots.

It sort of undermines the magical archer archetype if 95% of the time you're just a regular archer and a couple of times a day you get a piece of magic ammo. It may or may not be weak, but it's definitely lame. I'd rather have a couple of cantripesque arrows than the +1 attack/damage magic arrows (which is the epitome of 'solid but boring')

[Draco4472]

Awesome guide. Hexblade seems a really strong dip for a college of sword Bard or Swashbuckler rogue.

[Lolzyking]

I think you are underselling the kensei, its not as limiting as it was in the ua.

Kensei weapons are treated monk weapons, this means weapons like the whip, or darts if chosen scale with martial arts die.

you only need to make one of your attacks with your unarmed strike to gain benefit of agile parry.

sharpened blade can work well with magical weapons that don't give +1s such as flame tongue or a lightning javelin. (this is useful in adventures league where such weapons are considered trash items due to harsh optimization)

[Ralanr]

Did the book get leaked early and I missed the link?