Ever since I purchased unlimited character slots I've been playing around with some fun builds. Here are a couple:
A blind halfling warlock (Archfey patron). They would permanently have the Blinded condition (but a free Feat in return). Take the Pact of the Chain to summon a familiar that could serve as a seeing-eye animal; this would allow them to use spells that require you to target a "creature you can see." If they don't have their familiar for whatever reason, though, they'd be shit out of luck and would have to stick with touch and AOE spells. Also their support cane/staff would be their arcane focus.
A kenku bard (College of Lore) who is a healer. From a distance they'd be indistinguishable from a plague doctor, but up close you'd realize that's not a mask, that's his face. The kenku's ability to replicate documents would allow him to transcribe prescriptions for treatment with incredibly accuracy and speed.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Lizardfolk forge cleric. Lizardfolk was adopted by a human blacksmith worshiper of Gond. He always mocked the human's need for weapons and armor in order to match up with him, but was ordered by his god (not Gond, some other god) to make humans as good as lizardfolk. He does this by traveling town to town, making armor for normal citizens, as lizardfolk don't see the point of money besides temporary help.
Triton Lurker in the Deep warlock. You were fighting with some of your brethren against some sahaguin in the ocean when they accidentally swam into the domain of a kraken. The kraken ate all the sahaguin, and one by one ate any triton that refused to serve it. The kraken ate all the other tritons, and you were the last one. You were cowardly, and swore fealty to the kraken. He gave you great power and allows you to summon some of his tentacles anywhere on any of the planes you go to, but with a great cost, you must follow any of the kraken's orders when given the order, otherwise you will be teleported back to the kraken and devoured as you would have if you weren't such a weakling.
Orc of Eberron Diviner Wizard. You were the oracle for your clan until you received a vision of a great catastrophe, perhaps the unleashing of a demon overlord or a daelkyr, that could only be prevented if you left on an adventure, seeking out adventurers that you saw in your vision, knowing you couldn't return home to your family until this great evil was stopped. You travel around with a spellbook bound in Auroch hide, with pages made of papyrus, written with purple dye extracted from a special type of magical shrimp.
Changling Circle of the Moon Druid. You are one of a kind. Not only do your inherited powers give you the ability to turn into other people, but also other animals, only that you've seen though. You were shunned from your community, them believing that you were cursed by the Traveler to permanently turn into a beast in the future. You wander the continent, trying to find someone not afraid of who you really are, but you have to disguise yourself as others if you want to gain a connection with other races.
Kalashtar Celestial warlock. Your pact is with your quori spirit, who allows you to use their spiritual powers to heal others, and blast others with magical power.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I always wanted to make a Bard who was more of an introverted artist-- probably a poet or writer-- and not really a performer, save maybe a few cases of reading her work out loud-- but even then the focus would be more on the words themselves than the delivery. Just someone who was able to find and appreciate the artistic beauty and power of language, to such a degree that it becomes a source of magic for her.
A druid who is very shy so she spends most of her time as a fox that followsthe party around, the party hasn't figured her out yet. During combat she battles as animals only and runs away before she reverts back
- Equipment (Cobblestone,Boulders,Sack to Hold Cobblestones)
- Attack Types, to use said rocks as weapons (with level and Class selection requirements)
- Bonus Action specific to duel wielding Cobblestones
Let me know your thoughts, specially on the rock weapons and attacks. I want to convince my DM to let me roll this character next campaign. I attempted to make it colorful for a "Fezzik", but balanced. Cobblestone attacks are mirrored after War Hammer and Heavy Crossbow for damages(much less range). Boulder attacks can only be used by Barbearians who have selected "Aspect of the Bear" at lvl 6, due to the increased lifting/carrying strength this adds. Also, the Boulder attacks (4d10 + 1 STR) are such high damage due to the use of them negating the Extra Attack he would get at lvl 5. Therefore, I figured the damage needed to have a slightly higher average than 2 Maul attacks, to make it a more risk/reward option over doing two Maul attacks. (4d6+ 2 STR's)
I love the idea of Kenku Bards, can replicate anything perfectly, can sing, dance, paint, whatever art you want to pursue, but can't create their own songs? Imagine how frustrating that would be! There could be a couple loop holes depending on if you consider Kenku lacking imagination or not, but if not, you could have a Kenku Bard who can write music, hire someone else to preform it so they can hear it and then play it themselves. Would be a fun rp-hook!
I mostly DM, but I tried this build in a one-shot in between main campaigns:
Basically George of the Jungle with the ape named Ape. Beastmaster Ranger with really--and I mean REALLY--low intelligence. He has a "pet" ape named William. William has a headband of intellect (re-flavored as eye glasses). In actuality, I play William more. The ranger is actually the pet. For clarification, we were allowed one magic item in this one-shot so it was possible.
A half elf bard who was exposed to MTV from our world before it became reality tv and was still all about music. Became obsessed with ALL modern music and now goes around dressed life Bon Jovi or Slash playing rock, country, and pop on the acoustic guitar he custom ordered. Uses magic to simulate lights and pyro in his “shows”
Being an eldritch sniper never felt so good, this build is for when you want to deal nasty ranged damage consistently. Taking a fighter with crossbow expert and sharpshooter, you'll need to cross-class into the hex blade warlock from Xanathar's Guide. From the Warlock class pick the invocations improved pact weapon, thirsting blade, and life drinker. You'll also want the spell hex. At higher levels you'll be dealing 3 attacks per turn at range to the tune of 2d6+cha +prof damage +10 for sharpshooter, all with the added bonus of eldritch smites 1d8 per spell slot burned. This build is both pretty cool and fits well in most settings, definitely worth using, and it's unlikely the DM will ban the character.
This one might cause the DM to ban you at the table. As a Cleric with Life Domain, cross-class to Lore Bard to get the Magical Secrets Ability, now choose from the Druids spell list, Goodberry. Goodberry normally will give you 1 hp per berry and you'll get 10 berries per cast, with life domain and life disciple, you now get +2 + the spell's level per berry.
That's 40HP in a 1st level spell slot that can be divided amongst a party. This creates a healing machine and kinda abuses the mechanics of the game. Your DM may give the stink eye when you pull this.
Spell Sniper is a useful early game feat; it literally doubles the range of attack spells, and even lets you ignore cover. Great if you’re using a battle mat and plan to hide away from the action. Not so great if you have a GM that eschews the battle mat and uses the “eh, everybody is within range of each other at all times” method.
Even in that latter situation, there’s sure to be some utility from pumping range up to ridiculous levels, right? Like the previous setup, this one require multiclassing. You need two levels of Warlock and two levels of Sorcerer. Your sub classes for these don’t matter. You’ll also need to have the Spell Sniper feat.
The things you need: the Eldritch Blast cantrip from Warlock, the Eldritch Spear invocation from Warlock, and the Extended Spell metamagic from Sorcerer, along with the Spell Sniper Feat.
How it fits together: Eldritch Blast, when used with Eldritch Spear, extends the range of Eldritch Blast to 300ft. Spell Sniper doubles the range of a spell, making it 600ft. Extended Spell, doubles the range again for a total of 1,200ft. That’s enough to cover 240 squares on a standard 5ft square grid map.
I’m not sure when somebody would ever need to hit something from that far away, nor if the human eye can actually see at that range. Though if you’re crazy enough to try this, I’m sure these sorts of questions aren’t a major concern; you’ll either find a reason to make use of this range, or find some way around the sight problem.
What you need: Rogue Class, Skilled Feat. Half-Elf Race, Entertainer Background.
How it fits together: The Bard is described as Music and Magic, as well as a jack-of-all trades. In fact, that’s the name of one of one of their class features that grants them half their proficiency bonus to any roll they wouldn’t have proficiency in.
The idea with this setup is to cover as many skills as possible, and just for the sake of it, be better at music and charisma based skills than the Bard. Half-Elf grants 2 skill proficiencies, and the Skilled feat grants an additional 3 later on. Entertainer covers us for being able to make music, and comes with a reputation for doing so, to boot!
The two kickers, though, are the Rogue Class Features Expertise and Reliable Talent. Expertise, by level 6, gives a Rogue four skills they have proficiency in DOUBLE their proficiency bonus, and Reliable Talent treats any roll they make with a skill or tool they’re proficient in count as a 10. (Which, as a Half-Elf with Skilled, you’ll have many of.)
To take this a step further, you could also pick Arcane Trickster as your archetype. This, combined with numerous feats that grant additional spells, leaves the Rogue in a good position to fashion themselves as “like a Bard, but better.”
I mean, there’s the horribly named ‘Trail of Tears.’ (Though it is usually called Tear: To rip or split)
Step one. Be a Druid of the Moon Circle. (Like all other busted things.)
Step two. Reach a level where you can become an Air Elemental. This is 10. Till then, you are a druid, and pretty great anyway. Full caster, and you turn into horrific beasts with greats and piles of extra health. It’s disgustingly useful.
Step three. Use a round or two, to cast Longstrider, and Spike Growth. Spike Growth is Concentration, so remember to be careful. You could lose your main damage source, as you cannot cast spells while an elemental.
Step four. Become the air elemental. Go in and grab some poor dumb creature or attacker who is large or less size. Whilst flying, drag them through the spike growth. They take 2d4 per 5 ft of movement. Air Elementals cannot be grappled in return, do not take damage for moving through, and their speed is 90 ft. With Longstrider that’s 100. Half their speed which is what you move when dragging something, with longstrider is 50 ft. That’s 20d4 on anything that failed an opposed athletics check.
Want to make this far more effective? Take 2 levels of Rogue. One free skill from the list, and now your Athletics check has Expertise, which is a great way of making up for the 14 Str. It also gives you cunning action, so you can DASH as a bonus action. Now they can take 20d4 AGAIN.
Don’t want Rogue? The brawny feat also gives expertise in Athletics and doubles your carrying capacity as if you were a size larger. Which effectively makes you huge, now Medium creatures (With some DM ruling) Don’t halve your movement when you grapple them.
Still want more, but not rogue? Barbarian level 3 gives you rage, which you can do while wild shaped, and you can still hold concentration. It adds to your AC because unarmored defense as an Elemental, all while giving advantage on your strength check to grapple. And Totem Warrior lets you Dash as a bonus action if you take eagle. Take it barbarian level 5 and you get bonus movement as well.
Still not enough? Do you have you a friend? Enlarge makes it possible to grab even bigger things and force them into your spikes. HASTE just doubles your speed for no reason, and gives you an extra action, which can explicitly be used to Dash. AGAIN.
It’s still janky, and it doesn’t work on lots of things. But, then you are still a druid, basically full of HP, and a full caster. Nothing wrong with that, even if you multiclassed.
I'm currently in the process of writing a backstory for a concept that I've been dying to play.
I want to play a stunted and mutated Yuan-Ti Anathema (Pureblood reskinned) Psionic (Not sure on class yet) that was once either a normal human or pureblood that spent most of her life being experimented on and warped by magic and psionic powers for some purpose that she never found the answer to. One day, when the final rituals were being cast to transform her into her current form, the psionic and magical feedback of the ritual amplified her budding psionic power and created a cataclysmic explosion fueled by her raw anguish and pain. She awoke with little memory of what happened, now a monstrosity that would be shunned by others either due to her appearance or her strange power. She hid away, learning to disguise herself and wanting nothing more then to find a place to belong. She is distrusting of most, and yet she holds on to a seemingly impossible hope that she can be better then what the world would see her as, that she isn't some evil monster, but someone capable of being good. She is prone to lash out, her psionics still new and her mental scars deep, yet she can't help but reach out to those who seem to need a helping hand even if they would shun her out of fear.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Ever since I purchased unlimited character slots I've been playing around with some fun builds. Here are a couple:
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Lizardfolk forge cleric. Lizardfolk was adopted by a human blacksmith worshiper of Gond. He always mocked the human's need for weapons and armor in order to match up with him, but was ordered by his god (not Gond, some other god) to make humans as good as lizardfolk. He does this by traveling town to town, making armor for normal citizens, as lizardfolk don't see the point of money besides temporary help.
Triton Lurker in the Deep warlock. You were fighting with some of your brethren against some sahaguin in the ocean when they accidentally swam into the domain of a kraken. The kraken ate all the sahaguin, and one by one ate any triton that refused to serve it. The kraken ate all the other tritons, and you were the last one. You were cowardly, and swore fealty to the kraken. He gave you great power and allows you to summon some of his tentacles anywhere on any of the planes you go to, but with a great cost, you must follow any of the kraken's orders when given the order, otherwise you will be teleported back to the kraken and devoured as you would have if you weren't such a weakling.
Orc of Eberron Diviner Wizard. You were the oracle for your clan until you received a vision of a great catastrophe, perhaps the unleashing of a demon overlord or a daelkyr, that could only be prevented if you left on an adventure, seeking out adventurers that you saw in your vision, knowing you couldn't return home to your family until this great evil was stopped. You travel around with a spellbook bound in Auroch hide, with pages made of papyrus, written with purple dye extracted from a special type of magical shrimp.
Changling Circle of the Moon Druid. You are one of a kind. Not only do your inherited powers give you the ability to turn into other people, but also other animals, only that you've seen though. You were shunned from your community, them believing that you were cursed by the Traveler to permanently turn into a beast in the future. You wander the continent, trying to find someone not afraid of who you really are, but you have to disguise yourself as others if you want to gain a connection with other races.
Kalashtar Celestial warlock. Your pact is with your quori spirit, who allows you to use their spiritual powers to heal others, and blast others with magical power.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I always wanted to make a Bard who was more of an introverted artist-- probably a poet or writer-- and not really a performer, save maybe a few cases of reading her work out loud-- but even then the focus would be more on the words themselves than the delivery. Just someone who was able to find and appreciate the artistic beauty and power of language, to such a degree that it becomes a source of magic for her.
Callybon Raulnor (alias: Mardnab Nopenstallen): Rock Gnome, Level 4 Transmutation Wizard
A druid who is very shy so she spends most of her time as a fox that followsthe party around, the party hasn't figured her out yet. During combat she battles as animals only and runs away before she reverts back
A character that has been reborn with all his memories who goes around searching for the meaning of life.
Begone foul troglodytes for if not, I Rorsch the Dwarf will eat you instead.
Fezzik Homebrew, just for fun - https://ddb.ac/characters/20615011/zfcGsz
Homebrewed:
- Equipment (Cobblestone,Boulders,Sack to Hold Cobblestones)
- Attack Types, to use said rocks as weapons (with level and Class selection requirements)
- Bonus Action specific to duel wielding Cobblestones
Let me know your thoughts, specially on the rock weapons and attacks. I want to convince my DM to let me roll this character next campaign. I attempted to make it colorful for a "Fezzik", but balanced. Cobblestone attacks are mirrored after War Hammer and Heavy Crossbow for damages(much less range). Boulder attacks can only be used by Barbearians who have selected "Aspect of the Bear" at lvl 6, due to the increased lifting/carrying strength this adds. Also, the Boulder attacks (4d10 + 1 STR) are such high damage due to the use of them negating the Extra Attack he would get at lvl 5. Therefore, I figured the damage needed to have a slightly higher average than 2 Maul attacks, to make it a more risk/reward option over doing two Maul attacks. (4d6+ 2 STR's)
Tiefling draconic sorcerer, father is a bard, mother is tiamat
I love the idea of Kenku Bards, can replicate anything perfectly, can sing, dance, paint, whatever art you want to pursue, but can't create their own songs? Imagine how frustrating that would be! There could be a couple loop holes depending on if you consider Kenku lacking imagination or not, but if not, you could have a Kenku Bard who can write music, hire someone else to preform it so they can hear it and then play it themselves. Would be a fun rp-hook!
I mostly DM, but I tried this build in a one-shot in between main campaigns:
Basically George of the Jungle with the ape named Ape. Beastmaster Ranger with really--and I mean REALLY--low intelligence. He has a "pet" ape named William. William has a headband of intellect (re-flavored as eye glasses). In actuality, I play William more. The ranger is actually the pet. For clarification, we were allowed one magic item in this one-shot so it was possible.
A warforged bard that's wearing a stuffed elephant whose around 2.5 ft tall
a great old one diguised as a common seagull, but possesses cosmic powers
A half elf bard who was exposed to MTV from our world before it became reality tv and was still all about music. Became obsessed with ALL modern music and now goes around dressed life Bon Jovi or Slash playing rock, country, and pop on the acoustic guitar he custom ordered. Uses magic to simulate lights and pyro in his “shows”
i did the first one and his name is phalimar the betrayed but he's the nicest in the party. its great.
Infinite Spell Warlock/Sorcerer (The Infamous Coffeelock)
Step one: Be warlock, get moon invocation so you never have to sleep.
Step two: Cross-class to Divine Soul Sorceror, use greater restoration to stop exhaustion
Step Three: During short rests, transform two Warlock spell slots into Sorcery Points, then two Sorcery Points into Sorcerer spell slots.
Step Four: NEVER SLEEP (*Long Rest) EVER AGAIN AND STACK SORCERER SPELL SLOTS INDEFINITELY.
Step Five: Apply spells liberally as needed.
Step Six: Watch DM's face turn red and ban character, forever.
Fighter/Hexblade Crossbow Specialist
Being an eldritch sniper never felt so good, this build is for when you want to deal nasty ranged damage consistently. Taking a fighter with crossbow expert and sharpshooter, you'll need to cross-class into the hex blade warlock from Xanathar's Guide. From the Warlock class pick the invocations improved pact weapon, thirsting blade, and life drinker. You'll also want the spell hex. At higher levels you'll be dealing 3 attacks per turn at range to the tune of 2d6+cha +prof damage +10 for sharpshooter, all with the added bonus of eldritch smites 1d8 per spell slot burned. This build is both pretty cool and fits well in most settings, definitely worth using, and it's unlikely the DM will ban the character.
The Life Berry Bard/Cleric
This one might cause the DM to ban you at the table. As a Cleric with Life Domain, cross-class to Lore Bard to get the Magical Secrets Ability, now choose from the Druids spell list, Goodberry. Goodberry normally will give you 1 hp per berry and you'll get 10 berries per cast, with life domain and life disciple, you now get +2 + the spell's level per berry.
That's 40HP in a 1st level spell slot that can be divided amongst a party. This creates a healing machine and kinda abuses the mechanics of the game. Your DM may give the stink eye when you pull this.
Literal Spell Sniper
Spell Sniper is a useful early game feat; it literally doubles the range of attack spells, and even lets you ignore cover. Great if you’re using a battle mat and plan to hide away from the action. Not so great if you have a GM that eschews the battle mat and uses the “eh, everybody is within range of each other at all times” method.
Even in that latter situation, there’s sure to be some utility from pumping range up to ridiculous levels, right? Like the previous setup, this one require multiclassing. You need two levels of Warlock and two levels of Sorcerer. Your sub classes for these don’t matter. You’ll also need to have the Spell Sniper feat.
The things you need: the Eldritch Blast cantrip from Warlock, the Eldritch Spear invocation from Warlock, and the Extended Spell metamagic from Sorcerer, along with the Spell Sniper Feat.
How it fits together: Eldritch Blast, when used with Eldritch Spear, extends the range of Eldritch Blast to 300ft. Spell Sniper doubles the range of a spell, making it 600ft. Extended Spell, doubles the range again for a total of 1,200ft. That’s enough to cover 240 squares on a standard 5ft square grid map.
I’m not sure when somebody would ever need to hit something from that far away, nor if the human eye can actually see at that range. Though if you’re crazy enough to try this, I’m sure these sorts of questions aren’t a major concern; you’ll either find a reason to make use of this range, or find some way around the sight problem.
The Rogue That Stole The Bard’s Role
What you need: Rogue Class, Skilled Feat. Half-Elf Race, Entertainer Background.
How it fits together: The Bard is described as Music and Magic, as well as a jack-of-all trades. In fact, that’s the name of one of one of their class features that grants them half their proficiency bonus to any roll they wouldn’t have proficiency in.
The idea with this setup is to cover as many skills as possible, and just for the sake of it, be better at music and charisma based skills than the Bard. Half-Elf grants 2 skill proficiencies, and the Skilled feat grants an additional 3 later on. Entertainer covers us for being able to make music, and comes with a reputation for doing so, to boot!
The two kickers, though, are the Rogue Class Features Expertise and Reliable Talent. Expertise, by level 6, gives a Rogue four skills they have proficiency in DOUBLE their proficiency bonus, and Reliable Talent treats any roll they make with a skill or tool they’re proficient in count as a 10. (Which, as a Half-Elf with Skilled, you’ll have many of.)
To take this a step further, you could also pick Arcane Trickster as your archetype. This, combined with numerous feats that grant additional spells, leaves the Rogue in a good position to fashion themselves as “like a Bard, but better.”
I mean, there’s the horribly named ‘Trail of Tears.’ (Though it is usually called Tear: To rip or split)
Step one. Be a Druid of the Moon Circle. (Like all other busted things.)
Step two. Reach a level where you can become an Air Elemental. This is 10. Till then, you are a druid, and pretty great anyway. Full caster, and you turn into horrific beasts with greats and piles of extra health. It’s disgustingly useful.
Step three. Use a round or two, to cast Longstrider, and Spike Growth. Spike Growth is Concentration, so remember to be careful. You could lose your main damage source, as you cannot cast spells while an elemental.
Step four. Become the air elemental. Go in and grab some poor dumb creature or attacker who is large or less size. Whilst flying, drag them through the spike growth. They take 2d4 per 5 ft of movement. Air Elementals cannot be grappled in return, do not take damage for moving through, and their speed is 90 ft. With Longstrider that’s 100. Half their speed which is what you move when dragging something, with longstrider is 50 ft. That’s 20d4 on anything that failed an opposed athletics check.
Want to make this far more effective? Take 2 levels of Rogue. One free skill from the list, and now your Athletics check has Expertise, which is a great way of making up for the 14 Str. It also gives you cunning action, so you can DASH as a bonus action. Now they can take 20d4 AGAIN.
Don’t want Rogue? The brawny feat also gives expertise in Athletics and doubles your carrying capacity as if you were a size larger. Which effectively makes you huge, now Medium creatures (With some DM ruling) Don’t halve your movement when you grapple them.
Still want more, but not rogue? Barbarian level 3 gives you rage, which you can do while wild shaped, and you can still hold concentration. It adds to your AC because unarmored defense as an Elemental, all while giving advantage on your strength check to grapple. And Totem Warrior lets you Dash as a bonus action if you take eagle. Take it barbarian level 5 and you get bonus movement as well.
Still not enough? Do you have you a friend? Enlarge makes it possible to grab even bigger things and force them into your spikes. HASTE just doubles your speed for no reason, and gives you an extra action, which can explicitly be used to Dash. AGAIN.
It’s still janky, and it doesn’t work on lots of things. But, then you are still a druid, basically full of HP, and a full caster. Nothing wrong with that, even if you multiclassed.
I'm currently in the process of writing a backstory for a concept that I've been dying to play.
I want to play a stunted and mutated Yuan-Ti Anathema (Pureblood reskinned) Psionic (Not sure on class yet) that was once either a normal human or pureblood that spent most of her life being experimented on and warped by magic and psionic powers for some purpose that she never found the answer to. One day, when the final rituals were being cast to transform her into her current form, the psionic and magical feedback of the ritual amplified her budding psionic power and created a cataclysmic explosion fueled by her raw anguish and pain. She awoke with little memory of what happened, now a monstrosity that would be shunned by others either due to her appearance or her strange power. She hid away, learning to disguise herself and wanting nothing more then to find a place to belong. She is distrusting of most, and yet she holds on to a seemingly impossible hope that she can be better then what the world would see her as, that she isn't some evil monster, but someone capable of being good. She is prone to lash out, her psionics still new and her mental scars deep, yet she can't help but reach out to those who seem to need a helping hand even if they would shun her out of fear.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills