I saw an IG post where they made a Wizard using a combination of Phantom Steed, Darkness, and the feat "Eldritch Adept" with Devil's Sight. The idea is to cast Phantom Steed, then cast Darkness on the saddle. Since you have Devil's Sight, you can still see in the darkness. You then charge up to an enemy and make a melee attack. You can then run away without provoking opportunity attack because the enemy can't see you. Kind of a silly idea, but I thought what if you made that attack more viable by using a Centaur Monk with Way of the Shadow?
You don't need Phantom Steed because you ARE the steed. You get Darkness by way of Way of the Shadow. All you need is the Eldritch Adept feat for Devil's Sight. What I think makes this more viable is that your melee attacks hit harder with hooves. You automatically get the Charger skill which lets you make a melee attack as a bonus action when you move 30 feet towards an enemy.
You don't have to run away after the attack since you are a melee fighter anyway. Now the enemy is shrouded in darkness and you can see him clearly.
Is this workable, or not as good as it looks in my mind?
Monks aren’t really the best choice to stay stuck-in with an enemy, they’re more skirmisher, hit-and-run types. However, the darkness should help with that. Plus, monks can already make an unarmed strike as a bonus action anyway, so the hooves aren’t really adding anything to the build.
Darkness plus Devil's Sight is a combo almost as old as Fifth Edition. It's a fun trick, but it's also a trick that gets a lot of shade from the community as a whole. The main reason is that yes - you can indeed beat on an enemy in a Darkness field more-or-less freely if you have Devil's Sight. But none of the rest of the party can. You're isolating yourself and your target inside the Darkness and ensuring your spellcasters can't see the target to cast spells and that your other martial allies who lack Devil's Sight can't see the target to help you attack it and bring it down. If things start going poorly for you because your target gets lucky or has a way around the lack of sight, the first anyone's going to know about it is when you drop concentration on your spell and need saving. You also block line of sight through the Darkness bubble to anything on the other side of it, which can complicate larger battles a lot.
It's generally considered a very selfish tactic, one that emphasizes personal glory at the expense of the team's overall success. It's something to keep in mind if you have both Darkness and Devil's Sight, but it shouldn't be a go-to tactic you burn right out of the gates every time. If, as a monk with great speed, you can get to an isolated dangerous enemy and lock it down? Then the combo might be good. It's considered especially dangerous against spellcasters, who generally need to be able to see their target or their target point to cast spells, but always remember that you're closing yourself off from your friends whenever you do it. Keep that in mind and balance it against what the rest of the team is doing and you should come out all right.
That makes sense. I did think about the fact that nobody else can do anything either to the enemy or to help me.
So making my way towards the caster in the back could be a good use for this. Eliminating his spellcasting while engaging him in melee could be helpful to the party while they take on the rest. Hit and run is also helpful. Plus the way of shadow monk can use step to the wind to teleport away.
Thanks.
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I saw an IG post where they made a Wizard using a combination of Phantom Steed, Darkness, and the feat "Eldritch Adept" with Devil's Sight. The idea is to cast Phantom Steed, then cast Darkness on the saddle. Since you have Devil's Sight, you can still see in the darkness. You then charge up to an enemy and make a melee attack. You can then run away without provoking opportunity attack because the enemy can't see you. Kind of a silly idea, but I thought what if you made that attack more viable by using a Centaur Monk with Way of the Shadow?
You don't need Phantom Steed because you ARE the steed. You get Darkness by way of Way of the Shadow. All you need is the Eldritch Adept feat for Devil's Sight. What I think makes this more viable is that your melee attacks hit harder with hooves. You automatically get the Charger skill which lets you make a melee attack as a bonus action when you move 30 feet towards an enemy.
You don't have to run away after the attack since you are a melee fighter anyway. Now the enemy is shrouded in darkness and you can see him clearly.
Is this workable, or not as good as it looks in my mind?
Monks aren’t really the best choice to stay stuck-in with an enemy, they’re more skirmisher, hit-and-run types. However, the darkness should help with that. Plus, monks can already make an unarmed strike as a bonus action anyway, so the hooves aren’t really adding anything to the build.
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Darkness plus Devil's Sight is a combo almost as old as Fifth Edition. It's a fun trick, but it's also a trick that gets a lot of shade from the community as a whole. The main reason is that yes - you can indeed beat on an enemy in a Darkness field more-or-less freely if you have Devil's Sight. But none of the rest of the party can. You're isolating yourself and your target inside the Darkness and ensuring your spellcasters can't see the target to cast spells and that your other martial allies who lack Devil's Sight can't see the target to help you attack it and bring it down. If things start going poorly for you because your target gets lucky or has a way around the lack of sight, the first anyone's going to know about it is when you drop concentration on your spell and need saving. You also block line of sight through the Darkness bubble to anything on the other side of it, which can complicate larger battles a lot.
It's generally considered a very selfish tactic, one that emphasizes personal glory at the expense of the team's overall success. It's something to keep in mind if you have both Darkness and Devil's Sight, but it shouldn't be a go-to tactic you burn right out of the gates every time. If, as a monk with great speed, you can get to an isolated dangerous enemy and lock it down? Then the combo might be good. It's considered especially dangerous against spellcasters, who generally need to be able to see their target or their target point to cast spells, but always remember that you're closing yourself off from your friends whenever you do it. Keep that in mind and balance it against what the rest of the team is doing and you should come out all right.
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That’s why it’s a better idea to hit and run, so you can mitigate the downsides of the darkness.
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That makes sense. I did think about the fact that nobody else can do anything either to the enemy or to help me.
So making my way towards the caster in the back could be a good use for this. Eliminating his spellcasting while engaging him in melee could be helpful to the party while they take on the rest. Hit and run is also helpful. Plus the way of shadow monk can use step to the wind to teleport away.
Thanks.