Disclaimer: What follows is a rough build of a character I want to play at some point but likely won't as I DM more often than not, so if you like what you see, feel free to play it and tweak it. A few things to bear in mind: 1) I don't tend to build up my characters in a min/max sense so you won't see many ability scores maxed out. 2) I use the standard array to generate ability scores, this is mostly just for ease of reference when mulling over a build. 3) There may be some homebrew material mentioned so if you play adventurers league then this may not be a legal build. 4) I've a back catalogue of these so I'll post them as and when i cobble my notes into something that makes sense. 5) I won't be referencing many optional things from Tasha's Cauldron of Whatnot. 6) As always, feel free to post any questions, comments, feedback or general berating of my errors in rules or how abilities work.
Right, now that's out the way, lets start with this one......
Name: Barian Loch.
Basic info:
Race: Triton (using the VGtM version).
Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 13
Background: Acolyte.
Class: Barbarian (Totem Warrior) 4 / Warlock "x" (Hexblade, Pact of Blade)
Bio:
Barian Loch was raised within a temple and trained to serve Persana but the temple was attacked and destroyed by Sahaugin, Barian was driven mad by the destruction and he lost himself for a time. Throughout his madness he heard a voice, faint and indistinct at first but following his senses return it grew louder like the approch of a tidal wave carrying a single order "Find Me!" and the image of a grand trident forced its way into his mind. Barian left the waters of his beloved oceans and now seeks the trident in the dry lands of the world, seeking for the mighty trident known only as Wave.
Building and reasoning:
So this may seem like a wierd one. We're going for 4 levels of Barbarian, I've assumed Totem Warrior just for the defensive buff but use which ever path you like but we're only taking 4 levels of Barbarian so only the first set of abilities is worth looking at, the idea being the madness that consumed the chracter following the destruction of the temple lasted a lot longer than they thought. Thoughout his various barbarian rages he felt the urging to find the artifact known as Wave, this then manifests as a switch to Hexblade Warlock from level 5 onwards. Now you may think "you can't cast spells or concentrate on spells whilst raging so why multiclass to a spellcaster?", the answer is simple; Some spells do not require you to concentrate on them and we're going to go for a range of spells which we can classify as "cast and forget", lets get on with the idea and see what we can do.....
Starting gear:
Trident, Explorer's Pack, 4x Javelins, Shield & Scale Mail (both brought with starting money, rather than using unarmoured defence we're donning some armour and using a shield and trident fighting style, this will let us start on AC18, the trident is for the image but you can switch to whatever melee weapon you prefer.
Starting Languages: Common, Elf, Giant, Primordial. Triton start off with Common and Primordial and for the two languages you get with the Acolyte background I took Elf to reflect some interaction with Sea Elves and Giant due to the legend around the creation of Wave.
Lvl 1-4 Barbarian:
There is really nothing of note here, take whatever barbarian subclass you like and fits your game, the main reason to take 4 levels of barbarian is to get a feat. I think Shield Master is the one to go for here to help with some Dexterity Saving throws and general defense.
Lvl 5-20 Warlock:
We're going Hexblade and Pact of Blade with the Artifact called Wave as a patron because we can use all the Hexblade abilities whilst raging as none of them are spells. Hexblades Curse not only gives us some bonus damage but increases our chance to get Critical Hits and recoup some life when we kill the cursed target which is a nice little boost. Cursed Spectre lets us summon an ally if we kill something, Armour of Hexes gives us a chance to ignore a hit and Master of Hexes lets us move our Hexblades Curse to a new target, so all in all a great little package.
Spell selection for this is very important, do not worry about having 13 Charisma, we're not taking spells that require to hit rolls or saving throws.
To start off with take the cantrips: Mage Hand and Prestidigitation and as we level up we get two more which are largely inconsequential so choose whatever you like.
For spells we've taken ones that give us out of combat utility and are really there to help with our quest to find Wave or that can be cast using an action as we enter combat such as using an Action to cast Armour of Agathys then use a Bonus Action to enter a Rage. I've left in Hex as there may be some circumstances where raging is not the optimal option and this leans into our choice of Invocations.#
As we're using the Volo's Guide to Monsters version of Triton we've also got Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind and Wall of Water each once per long rest as well.
Invocations:
We get 7 in total if we can get to level 16 Warlock and should hopefully end up with: Devils Sight, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Relentless Hex, Thirsting Blade, Tricksters Escape, and Witch Sight.
These give us plenty of ways to see through various impediments as well as give us a way to attack/hit more often and use our spells slots whilst raging to do more damage and move around the battlefield to keep our "Hexed" targets in range.
Feats:
We've got 4 feats to plan for assuming we can get to level 16 Warlock, ASI's are certainly viable but only to boost Strength, Dexterity or Constitution. We do not really need anything that augments our spell casting but feats that give us some sombat tactics would be useful. Alert, Athlete, Mobile and Mage Slayer would probably be the ones I'd go for.
Disclaimer: What follows is a rough build of a character I want to play at some point but likely won't as I DM more often than not, so if you like what you see, feel free to play it and tweak it. A few things to bear in mind: 1) I don't tend to build up my characters in a min/max sense so you won't see many ability scores maxed out. 2) I use the standard array to generate ability scores, this is mostly just for ease of reference when mulling over a build. 3) There may be some homebrew material mentioned so if you play adventurers league then this may not be a legal build. 4) I've a back catalogue of these so I'll post them as and when i cobble my notes into something that makes sense. 5) I won't be referencing many optional things from Tasha's Cauldron of Whatnot. 6) As always, feel free to post any questions, comments, feedback or general berating of my errors in rules or how abilities work.
Right, now that's out the way, lets start with this one......
Name: Barian Loch.
Basic info:
Race: Triton (using the VGtM version).
Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 13
Background: Acolyte.
Class: Barbarian (Totem Warrior) 4 / Warlock "x" (Hexblade, Pact of Blade)
Bio:
Barian Loch was raised within a temple and trained to serve Persana but the temple was attacked and destroyed by Sahaugin, Barian was driven mad by the destruction and he lost himself for a time. Throughout his madness he heard a voice, faint and indistinct at first but following his senses return it grew louder like the approch of a tidal wave carrying a single order "Find Me!" and the image of a grand trident forced its way into his mind. Barian left the waters of his beloved oceans and now seeks the trident in the dry lands of the world, seeking for the mighty trident known only as Wave.
Building and reasoning:
So this may seem like a wierd one. We're going for 4 levels of Barbarian, I've assumed Totem Warrior just for the defensive buff but use which ever path you like but we're only taking 4 levels of Barbarian so only the first set of abilities is worth looking at, the idea being the madness that consumed the chracter following the destruction of the temple lasted a lot longer than they thought. Thoughout his various barbarian rages he felt the urging to find the artifact known as Wave, this then manifests as a switch to Hexblade Warlock from level 5 onwards. Now you may think "you can't cast spells or concentrate on spells whilst raging so why multiclass to a spellcaster?", the answer is simple; Some spells do not require you to concentrate on them and we're going to go for a range of spells which we can classify as "cast and forget", lets get on with the idea and see what we can do.....
Starting gear:
Trident, Explorer's Pack, 4x Javelins, Shield & Scale Mail (both brought with starting money, rather than using unarmoured defence we're donning some armour and using a shield and trident fighting style, this will let us start on AC18, the trident is for the image but you can switch to whatever melee weapon you prefer.
Starting Languages: Common, Elf, Giant, Primordial. Triton start off with Common and Primordial and for the two languages you get with the Acolyte background I took Elf to reflect some interaction with Sea Elves and Giant due to the legend around the creation of Wave.
Lvl 1-4 Barbarian:
There is really nothing of note here, take whatever barbarian subclass you like and fits your game, the main reason to take 4 levels of barbarian is to get a feat. I think Shield Master is the one to go for here to help with some Dexterity Saving throws and general defense.
Lvl 5-20 Warlock:
We're going Hexblade and Pact of Blade with the Artifact called Wave as a patron because we can use all the Hexblade abilities whilst raging as none of them are spells. Hexblades Curse not only gives us some bonus damage but increases our chance to get Critical Hits and recoup some life when we kill the cursed target which is a nice little boost. Cursed Spectre lets us summon an ally if we kill something, Armour of Hexes gives us a chance to ignore a hit and Master of Hexes lets us move our Hexblades Curse to a new target, so all in all a great little package.
Spell selection for this is very important, do not worry about having 13 Charisma, we're not taking spells that require to hit rolls or saving throws.
To start off with take the cantrips: Mage Hand and Prestidigitation and as we level up we get two more which are largely inconsequential so choose whatever you like.
Level 1 Spells: Armour of Agathys, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Hex, Illusory Script,
Level 2 Spells: Enthrall, Mirror Image
Level 3 Spells: Blink, Magic Circle, Tongues
Level 4 Spells: Hallucinatory Terrain
Level 5 Spells: Contact Other Plane, Dream
Mystic Arcanum:
Lvl 6: True Seeing
Lvl 7: Crown of Stars or Etherealness
Lvl 8: Demiplane or Glibness
Lvl 9: Sadly we miss out on this one.....
For spells we've taken ones that give us out of combat utility and are really there to help with our quest to find Wave or that can be cast using an action as we enter combat such as using an Action to cast Armour of Agathys then use a Bonus Action to enter a Rage. I've left in Hex as there may be some circumstances where raging is not the optimal option and this leans into our choice of Invocations.#
As we're using the Volo's Guide to Monsters version of Triton we've also got Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind and Wall of Water each once per long rest as well.
Invocations:
We get 7 in total if we can get to level 16 Warlock and should hopefully end up with: Devils Sight, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Relentless Hex, Thirsting Blade, Tricksters Escape, and Witch Sight.
These give us plenty of ways to see through various impediments as well as give us a way to attack/hit more often and use our spells slots whilst raging to do more damage and move around the battlefield to keep our "Hexed" targets in range.
Feats:
We've got 4 feats to plan for assuming we can get to level 16 Warlock, ASI's are certainly viable but only to boost Strength, Dexterity or Constitution. We do not really need anything that augments our spell casting but feats that give us some sombat tactics would be useful. Alert, Athlete, Mobile and Mage Slayer would probably be the ones I'd go for.