Though the thowdown is over, I'll toss here some ideas I had because this seems like the most suitable place for gish builds.
Eldritch knight multiclassed to Enchanter seems great fun. While enchantment school pretty heavy on spells that offer saves (and are therefore hard for EK use because of MADness), it has some interesting melee oriented abilities. You need to go Dex oriented in order to meet multiclass requirements and still have enough points for decent Int.
Roaring shadow:
Variant human with warcaster, level 1 stats:
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 8.
Studded leather, Rapier and shield. Start with Fighter for the Con saves and shield profiency. 4th and 6th level ASI to Dex, maxing it. Go EK to 7th level until you get War magic. Then multiclass into wizard. 9th level you get hypnotic gaze, which you can use to lock down enemies when needed. 11th level ASI boosts Int to 18. 13th level you get instinctive charm that you use to redirect opponents attacks. Take 1 more EK level and bump your Int to 20. The rest into enchanter. Take Mobile and bump Con to 16.
Final stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 8. AC 20 and 160 HP. Mage armor, Mirror image, Blur and Shield for defence. You have 7th level spell slots and 6th level known spells. If you want 7th level spells (simulacrum and force cage), you can do EK7/Enchanter13 instead at the cost of 22 hp and +1 to Con saves.
Your weapon is 7th level shadow blade, 5d8+7 psychic damage. Your normal attack routine is Booming blade + bonus action attack (10d8+14 +3d8). Mobile lets you disengage easily, and enemies take more thunder damage if they follow you. Position yourself to take advantage of the instinctive charm and redirect enemy attacks to other enemies. Misty step gives you mobility. For a coolness factor you have Steel wind strike. You can also setup contingency for something neat.
Though the thowdown is over, I'll toss here some ideas I had because this seems like the most suitable place for gish builds.
Eldritch knight multiclassed to Enchanter seems great fun. While enchantment school pretty heavy on spells that offer saves (and are therefore hard for EK use because of MADness), it has some interesting melee oriented abilities. You need to go Dex oriented in order to meet multiclass requirements and still have enough points for decent Int.
Roaring shadow:
Variant human with warcaster, level 1 stats:
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 8.
Studded leather, Rapier and shield. Start with Fighter for the Con saves and shield profiency. 4th and 6th level ASI to Dex, maxing it. Go EK to 7th level until you get War magic. Then multiclass into wizard. 9th level you get hypnotic gaze, which you can use to lock down enemies when needed. 11th level ASI boosts Int to 18. 13th level you get instinctive charm that you use to redirect opponents attacks. Take 1 more EK level and bump your Int to 20. The rest into enchanter. Take Mobile and bump Con to 16.
Final stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 8. AC 20 and 160 HP. Mage armor, Mirror image, Blur and Shield for defence. You have 7th level spell slots and 6th level known spells. If you want 7th level spells (simulacrum and force cage), you can do EK7/Enchanter13 instead at the cost of 22 hp and +1 to Con saves.
Your weapon is 7th level shadow blade, 5d8+7 psychic damage. Your normal attack routine is Booming blade + bonus action attack (10d8+14 +3d8). Mobile lets you disengage easily, and enemies take more thunder damage if they follow you. Position yourself to take advantage of the instinctive charm and redirect enemy attacks to other enemies. Misty step gives you mobility. For a coolness factor you have Steel wind strike. You can also setup contingency for something neat.
I like that build, but you'll have to choose a different feat at level 1, because you don't meet the requirements for the warcaster feat. Maybe defensive duelist would be the best choice?
Abjurer or war wizard is undoubtedly a more powerful choice. And you don't even need high Int with them because you can just avoid the stuff that gives saves. But I chose Enchanter specifically because I wanted a melee build that could actively use Instinctive charm in combat.
You are right about the warcaster feat. Defensive duelist would be nice, but it competes with instinctive charm for your reaction, and you already have Shield to fill the same niche. So, it might better to just use High elf for this and pick up Warcaster at fourth level.
Sneak attack 8d6, two attacks, possibility of off turn sneak attack with riposte or sentinel. Opportunity attacks with Booming blade.
Booming shadow blade for 3d8+4d8+8d6+5 (average 64,5, and another similar blow on the opponents turn with a reaction), but missing your only attack really sucks. Pact of the Chain familiar and the Shadow blade help you to get advantage. If all else fails, there is Darkness+devil's sight, but that is not your first choice.
This build is a trickster and a master duelist. In combat you manouver to get as many sneak attacks as possible, both on your own and other characters. Out of combat, panache gives you at will nonmagical charm person that does not make enemies. Mask of many faces+Friends cantrip let's you easily make enemies for someone else. Minor illusion let's you pull off other kinds of interesting stunts. Mirror image combines with sentinel to give you an extra sneak attack if the opponent hits one of your dublicates.
No idea what would be a good level progression for this character.
If magical items are available, Armor of Shadows is not that hot, but since they are not, it is an extra point of AC over half plate and combines visually well with shadow blade.
Now you may think: is this just a weaker Charisma based arcane trickster? Maybe, but you get shield profiency, more mobility and are better with Charisma based shenanigans.
Level 20 level split: 1 forge cleric 2 figher 17 war magic wizard Race: varian human Stats: Str x Dex x Con x Int x Wis x Cha x
15 9 14 15 13 8 At 20th level and final thoughts:1 forge cleric/2 figther/10 war magic wizard
Start from cleric for war caster from variant human. Also you have access to +1 heavy armor, spells: bless, sanctuary, healing word and shield of fate, protection from evil + cleric rituals. Awfull start stats make you to improve them on 5 lvl to 16 str and 16 int.
Than wizard 10.
On 11 lvl you will have access to 6 lvl spellslot, but you can't pick up 6 lvl spell on lvlup, coz of multiclass. But master can allow you to learn spells from scrolls. Before dip into fighter you can try "tenser transformation" as a replace of haste. But remember you can't use shileld as reaction and don't have +2 ac from haste/ You still have +2 ac from saving concentration from war magic (and additional +2 from reaction from war magic).
On 13 lvl after 2 lvl dip into fighter you will have 26 armor under haste. (21 on 1 lvl, 23 on 6 lvl). Also you can increase it to 28-31 by reaction (spell shieldor war magic bonus). Usual items like cloack/ring of protection and shiled+1 will increase that values to 28-29 base armor ander haste and 30-34 by reaction.
You will have +2 to saving throw from war caster (additional +4 by reaction), advantage on wis and cha throws from cleric's start, advantage on dex aoe throws from haste, advantage on con concentration throws from war caster. You can be hurt only by crits or failed saving throw spells, so i recommend to take on 9 lvl feat "lucky". On 15-19 lvl you can take +2 str/int, +1 wis+1 dex, or prof CON/DEX. Build is supposed as tanky, so i recommend to take at least prof DEX.
Also you can use mirror image or blur (instead of haste), shadow blade, but in my exp it does not worth usually.
Don't forget to pick absorb elements, false life (!), fire shield (situational) and cantrips, - booming blade/green fire. With false life you can spend for example one slot 2 lvl for 10-13 hp. So you will have hp as a fighter on 6 lvl.
I can say that our GM give up to hurt me. It is useless. So i don't even need CON prof, - master can't hit me. And as result ... he starting try to hit my group.
Your worst side is aggro/provoke. But no tank in dnd can say, that he is good at it, coz we don't have aggro/provoke mechanic in game.
You can use sanctuary as a bonus action, resurrect from healing word by bonus action, booming blade for binding, polymorph, walls and that's all. Or take protection instead of defence as fighter battle style. These opportunities are not impressive but, anyway, are better, than many other classes have.
On other way with action surge and tenser transformation you can make HUGE damage.
Also you have impressive utility like all other wizards/clerics (with access to 9 lvl spell), and average aoe potential. You can prepare haste before fight (if avaible) and start from fireball like all other wizards.
I don't recommend to use any target spell like charm/hold and etc. Your int will be low (14-16), so you can't land it. I prefer to fight in melee with green fire/booming blade cantrips. Your melee weapon will be probably staff (coz it can be used as focus), it is ok. Many staffs can be used as quaterstaffs. After receiving +1 armor, you can spend forge cleric ability on your staff to make it +1, if it is staff with spells, but without bonus to accuracy.
English is not my native language, so sorry.
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Excellent show, everyone. It was super gratifying to see such a diverse range of cool ideas beyond just Hexadins. Happy to have contributed.
Now let's see what this next one's parameters are.
Please do not contact or message me.
Though the thowdown is over, I'll toss here some ideas I had because this seems like the most suitable place for gish builds.
Eldritch knight multiclassed to Enchanter seems great fun. While enchantment school pretty heavy on spells that offer saves (and are therefore hard for EK use because of MADness), it has some interesting melee oriented abilities. You need to go Dex oriented in order to meet multiclass requirements and still have enough points for decent Int.
Roaring shadow:
Variant human with warcaster, level 1 stats:
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 8.
Studded leather, Rapier and shield. Start with Fighter for the Con saves and shield profiency. 4th and 6th level ASI to Dex, maxing it. Go EK to 7th level until you get War magic. Then multiclass into wizard. 9th level you get hypnotic gaze, which you can use to lock down enemies when needed. 11th level ASI boosts Int to 18. 13th level you get instinctive charm that you use to redirect opponents attacks. Take 1 more EK level and bump your Int to 20. The rest into enchanter. Take Mobile and bump Con to 16.
Final stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 8. AC 20 and 160 HP. Mage armor, Mirror image, Blur and Shield for defence. You have 7th level spell slots and 6th level known spells. If you want 7th level spells (simulacrum and force cage), you can do EK7/Enchanter13 instead at the cost of 22 hp and +1 to Con saves.
Your weapon is 7th level shadow blade, 5d8+7 psychic damage. Your normal attack routine is Booming blade + bonus action attack (10d8+14 +3d8). Mobile lets you disengage easily, and enemies take more thunder damage if they follow you. Position yourself to take advantage of the instinctive charm and redirect enemy attacks to other enemies. Misty step gives you mobility. For a coolness factor you have Steel wind strike. You can also setup contingency for something neat.
I like that build, but you'll have to choose a different feat at level 1, because you don't meet the requirements for the warcaster feat. Maybe defensive duelist would be the best choice?
I do love upcasting Shadow Blade combined with a cantrip like Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade- that's what my Fighter 1 Warlock 7 in SKT has been doing.
I'm not sure if Enchantment is the school that works best for this. Because you're so tanky, maybe Abjuration or War Magic would make more sense?
Abjurer or war wizard is undoubtedly a more powerful choice. And you don't even need high Int with them because you can just avoid the stuff that gives saves. But I chose Enchanter specifically because I wanted a melee build that could actively use Instinctive charm in combat.
You are right about the warcaster feat. Defensive duelist would be nice, but it competes with instinctive charm for your reaction, and you already have Shield to fill the same niche. So, it might better to just use High elf for this and pick up Warcaster at fourth level.
Hexbuckler/Seductive shadow:
Half-Elf, starting stats: Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 16.
Stats at level 20: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 16. (or Cha 20 instead of Dex 20) AC 20.
Classes: Swashbuckler 5, Hexblade 15.
Feats: Mobile, Martial adept, sentinel, war caster
Invocations: Mask of many faces, Armor of shadows, Devils sight
Spells: Booming blade, Friends, minor illusion, Shadow blade, darkness, shield, mirror image
Gear: Mage armor, rapier, shield.
Sneak attack 8d6, two attacks, possibility of off turn sneak attack with riposte or sentinel. Opportunity attacks with Booming blade.
Booming shadow blade for 3d8+4d8+8d6+5 (average 64,5, and another similar blow on the opponents turn with a reaction), but missing your only attack really sucks. Pact of the Chain familiar and the Shadow blade help you to get advantage. If all else fails, there is Darkness+devil's sight, but that is not your first choice.
This build is a trickster and a master duelist. In combat you manouver to get as many sneak attacks as possible, both on your own and other characters. Out of combat, panache gives you at will nonmagical charm person that does not make enemies. Mask of many faces+Friends cantrip let's you easily make enemies for someone else. Minor illusion let's you pull off other kinds of interesting stunts. Mirror image combines with sentinel to give you an extra sneak attack if the opponent hits one of your dublicates.
No idea what would be a good level progression for this character.
If magical items are available, Armor of Shadows is not that hot, but since they are not, it is an extra point of AC over half plate and combines visually well with shadow blade.
Now you may think: is this just a weaker Charisma based arcane trickster? Maybe, but you get shield profiency, more mobility and are better with Charisma based shenanigans.
Race: varian human
Stats: Str x Dex x Con x Int x Wis x Cha x
At 20th level and final thoughts:1 forge cleric/2 figther/10 war magic wizard