you need 20 in Dex, Wis and Int and as you said earlier the best you can get is 20-20-18. While this would only reduce your AC by one you would have a con 8 which is likely to cause serious problems.
Thanks for asking guys, I found out a couple days ago that I lost my job to the pandemic so my free time has largely been devoted to job hunting and stress eating.
As DDB is behind the original run, I already have the next throwdown ready for you all, and I'll have the time today to do the coutns and announce the winners. Thanks again, this has proven to be a very welcoming and caring community and it's certainly appreciated :)
Hope things get better sooner rather than later, DorkForge. Congrats to Yurei for the Atlas submission, which I loved! Kudos to all participants for a close competition!
This took a bloody while to compile, but here it is. A bit of feedback on every not-me build entered for voting. Had to skip over the latecomers for sanity, sorry guys.
***
Bugbearian (GoodBovine): I am amused by the thought of Elemental Wildshape forms being different flavors of bear. Good example of using fluff to stick to a theme the mechanics don’t really support anymore. The build leans awfully hard on the Rage-while-Wildshaped mechanic though, which blows your entire first turn to set up and limits you to two relevant fights per rest. Still, elementals do have at least some offensive presence even late into the game, which is a plus. Especially when your elementals are bears.
The Obvious Tank (JacksonTC): Somebody hadda do it. Not much to say here save that a full level 20 Totem barbarian is indeed extremely difficult to put down, especially when they sacrifice all offensive presence for sheer, pig-headed Nope-ism where it comes to damage. Very high Constitution saves mean a lot of uses of Relentless Rage, and 23AC is certainly respectable. Direct, straightforward, and to the point, but still quite good at its job. Would potentially be a good Grappler lockdown build with a few minor tweaks, becoming a literal Iron Ball and Chain – just attach to target enemy and watch them go out of their gourd trying to shake off this unbreakable bastid that just WON’T LET GO(!)
Steven Zealout (LostWhileFishing): The first Zealot of the lineup, and the only one to take it to 20. Primal Champion really is obnoxiously good, I wish more class capstones were like it. This build combines barbarian with an unusual racial selection, using half-elf to partially cover one of the barbarian’s biggest weaknesses and achieve some extra protection. I enjoy the idea that this monastic kid grew up with an unquenchable drive to be a Holy Man, but he sucked at being a cleric and a paladin so they had to turn him into a ragemonkey instead. It’s a different angle than one usually sees. Rage Beyond Death does allow for moments of movie insanity, complete with the Dramatic Sendoff at the end, but even with Fey Ancestry the build is worryingly weak to crowd control effects with only a +1 to Wisdom saves. Excellent against direct attackers, less so against Shifty Shits with illusion magic.
Aeric (Gabriel Rockman): The Celestial Chainlock regen tanks were a surprise to me for this competition, I had not expected to see warlock entries in this round. Aeric is an interesting build, and gets points for actually being a build its creator is playing. It hurts my soul that Shadow of Moil and Shadow Blade are both concentration and thus clash/cancel; if either of those could run without concentration that would be the coolest heckin’ combo. Aeric, ironically, would’ve been a more compelling choice for the Gish throwdown, methinks. The regen-tank maximized healing mechanic is fantastic for short, sharp skirmishes, but with only moderate AC, d8 HP, and no weapon resistance, it’s hard for the regen tanks to really hold up in a battle of Terminators. I do very much like using Shadow of Moil as an oppressive attack-denying cloak, especially assuming one has Devil’s Sight to peer through it themselves, and I think Aeric is an excellent character I’d be happy to adventure alongside. A very good ‘the Light is not nice’ concept.
T-1000 Wolverine (DorkForge): Similar to Aeric, save trading away a couple levels of Healing Light to gain a boosted save, extra spells and cantrips, and an always-valuable Action Surge. I always love the utility of a T.H.I.C.C. cantrip list, and the 2d4 to one save is one of those abilities that munchkins dismiss and real players thank their lucky stars for when those two little caltrops manage to save their ass from a character-deleting Disintegrate. Combined with Shield and Absorb Elements, T-Wolvthousand is probably a skooch more durable than Aeric (if one discounts the Shadow of Moil trick as being too ‘un-Terminator’ for this contest), but it does lose an ASI/feat. Very comparable builds, and both really interesting examples of how to come at Not Dying in a different vein.
Slaab the Immortal, the Swamp that Stalks (Chicken_Champ) I covered most of my thoughts on Slaab in the vote post, but I’ll toss a bit more out here for completeness’ sake. For something that purports to ‘Stalk’, Slaab is intensely quick and mobile, with an unmatched number of Necron Get-Back-Up bird-flipping moments. Even AS-7 will give up the ghost and stay down long before Slaab will, assuming all of Slaab’s ki is reserved for Stooging Death. The adherence to theme is also quite gratifying, CC seems to have a knack for creating characters with the PC rules that would make tremendous villainous characters. Too much fun not to give the nod to.
Ever-Living Regen Tank #3 (BobbyBaker): The third Chainlock regen tank in the competition, and if I’m remembering right also the only entry in the whole mess to have exactly zero levels in a martial class. A bold choice in the damage sponge contest. This version of the Regen Tank has boosted Cure Wounds from Life cleric and access to some handy cleric tech, but I’m not sure if a single level of Life cleric is better than the fighter or sorcerer levels on the other two. Disciple of Life is an extra seven hit points on a Pact slot-cast Cure Wounds, which is certainly good but not really astonishing given the maximized dice. Shield of Faith is certainly helpful though, and this build does get its final ASI. Not a bad stab at the concept.
Gnome Champion of the Gods (HeroZero): I quite like this mix. It dips from all over the place, with advantage on mental saves from gnome, resistance to magic damage from the drastically underrated Ancient Ward off of Green Knight, gets just enough Warlock to get up to more regen tank shenanery (if not to nearly the degree of the other three), and has Bulky Phat Saves from paladin. Probably the only build on the list to be more tankish against magical bad guys than physical ones; Master Boomfizzle here can basically ignore most mages given his saves, mental advantage, and magic resistance, but a dragon, pit fiend, or other physical powerhouse will show him a rough time. I’m a little sorry I overlooked this build in the voting period, it’s a pretty potent combination of traits. Nice work, Hero.
Prince Alpha (Transmorpher): Heh. He-Man. Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Bear damage resistance bolted onto a core of Paladin, using Crown for theme more than mechanics – though advantage against Incapacitating conditions that knock you out of your Rage is pretty slick. The usual Paladin Charisma boost to saves is unfortunately weak here, and Shield Master can only do so much. I don’t think this one quite holds up to Terminator standards as well as Hero’s gnome, but I do like how well it fits the He-Man/Prince Alpha theme.
Jank the Tank (Brewsky): Hmm. A curious concept, and if everything works an extremely powerful one. Enemies can’t approach, they can’t flee, they can’t target you properly, and so long as everything holds the character can just whack everything to death one hit at a time. Ideally with Green Flame/Booming Blade somehow, since otherwise it only gets a single mundane attack. But man...the Rube Goldberg chain is long with this one. If any given piece fails, the build’s durability suffers significantly. If Dragon Fear misses most of the Fear saves, or if Champion Challenge can’t catch enough enemies, or if...yikes. A multitude of failure points means this one can’t really be considered for the top spot. If everything does fall into place though, then watching this guy walk around wiffle-batting a bunch of paralyzed goons to death would absolutely ba an awesome character moment.
Redemption Paladin (JegPeg): I’m setting aside my seething, virulent, unquenchable hatred for yuan-ti PCs for this one, but know that it is there, always lurking in the background. DX
NEVERTHELESS.
Redemption paladins are always an odd choice of PC, given the overall emphasis of 5e in general on racking up the sort of body count that would normally incite a war crimes tribunal. In this case I can see it though, considering the capstone. Resistance to everything regardless of source is a big boon. Bare paladin is a sturdy core, and the yuan-ti’s utter bullshit magic resistance definitely thickens it up until Emissary of Redemption comes online. Lots of absorption here, and potentially an incredibly resilient build. I’m not sure I’m vibing on it as a ‘Terminator’, though.
While I understand the rules speak to “hard to kill/absorbs damage” without any mention of what one does with that ability, a Terminator is sort of exactly the opposite of an Emissary of Peace, and many of this build’s ways of nullifying or resisting damage comes from making enemies unable to attack...at the cost of the Redeemer itself being unable to attack them. Sturdy, but too weak to move well in its armor and unable to really fight back without heavily compromising its defenses.
Heqanakthi, Priestess of Osiris (Song_of_Blues): Heqanakthi is probably my favorite character in this contest. She puts the zealot in Zealot barbarian, and Path to the Grave combines quite well with a GWM-boosted Zealous Swordblast. Fast and Jedi-jumpy, with tons of mobility and cool utility to go with a tale of divine anger and fanatical drive. Sadly, she’s one of the more fragile characters in this particular showdown, relying more on the ability to be easily resurrected than the ability to not die in the first place. Still quite tough by typical 5e standards, and unlike many of the entires in this throwdown Heqanakthi can actually hit people and make them care about it. Proficiency in Wisdom saves is a cool touch, helping partially mitigate a barbarian’s typical crippling weakness to control effects.
I normally don’t care for gith as a PC race, their default lore annoys the hell out of me and most people who want to run a gith are doing it for cheap lulz or because they want to do something stupid and busted, but Heqanakthi is welcome to a place at my theoretical e-table. Excellent work Song, even if Glyph of Warding doesn’t quite work that way. In my case at least, she’d likely end up with a keystone boon letting her use her gith species spells while raging, so there’s that at least.
The Boss (Bramblefoot Druid): Lots of Zealots in this one. Heh, Rage Beyond Death really is such an excellent, evocative ability. Four levels of Conquest paladin bolted onto Zealot gives some handy spells and a few Divine Smites, bolstering the Boss’ offense, but doesn’t go far enough into Paladin to get any of the palladalldingdong’s defensive benefits. Boss suffers from the same issue as Heqanakthi, sadly – reliant on mostly just raw Barbarian for defensive abilities and leaning on Rage Beyond Death and Warrior of the Gods. Sturdy by 5e standards, but not by Terminator Throwdown standards, especially without the proficiency in Wisdom saves Heq gained from her Cleric start. A plenty solid build, and something that can also hit people hard enough to make them actually care about dropping him, but unfortunately not quite Terminator.
The Holy Redeemer (Bramblefoot Druid): Regen tank #6. Wow, lots of these this round. This variation starts with Paladin and does go deep enough to get some of those paladin defensive benefits. It is, however, the only Celestial regen tank to not bother with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which means it only gets about half the effective healing of the other regen tanks in the list. I would definitely trade out Fiendish Vigor for GotELO at higher levels on this one. Holy Redeemer here is also one of the punchier builds in the contest, with triple Smite capacity alongside being the only other character in the whole mess (outside of Atlas) with access to a magic item. Admittedly, a +1 sword isn’t a huge benefit, but it does mean HoDeemer gets full damage against weapon-resistant enemies where most of the other martial characters in the contest don’t. Assuming that the lack of GofELO was an oversight and easily corrected, HoDeemer is probably the most offensively dangerous character in the lineup. Easier to knock down than stuff like Slaab, Atlas, or GnomeChamp, but once he gets to your face, you’re gonna wish he hadn’t. Not bad, Bramble.
This took a bloody while to compile, but here it is. A bit of feedback on every not-me build entered for voting. Had to skip over the latecomers for sanity, sorry guys.
***
Steven Zealout (LostWhileFishing): The first Zealot of the lineup, and the only one to take it to 20. Primal Champion really is obnoxiously good, I wish more class capstones were like it. This build combines barbarian with an unusual racial selection, using half-elf to partially cover one of the barbarian’s biggest weaknesses and achieve some extra protection. I enjoy the idea that this monastic kid grew up with an unquenchable drive to be a Holy Man, but he sucked at being a cleric and a paladin so they had to turn him into a ragemonkey instead. It’s a different angle than one usually sees. Rage Beyond Death does allow for moments of movie insanity, complete with the Dramatic Sendoff at the end, but even with Fey Ancestry the build is worryingly weak to crowd control effects with only a +1 to Wisdom saves. Excellent against direct attackers, less so against Shifty Shits with illusion magic.
The highlighted is very true. This build focused on the main stated purpose, absorb ridonkalous amounts of damage without dying. If someone sends you to another dimension or sucks your sould away, they haven't really damaged you per se (even if the result is still the same), though. :P
This took a bloody while to compile, but here it is. A bit of feedback on every not-me build entered for voting. Had to skip over the latecomers for sanity, sorry guys.
***
Bugbearian (GoodBovine): I am amused by the thought of Elemental Wildshape forms being different flavors of bear. Good example of using fluff to stick to a theme the mechanics don’t really support anymore. The build leans awfully hard on the Rage-while-Wildshaped mechanic though, which blows your entire first turn to set up and limits you to two relevant fights per rest. Still, elementals do have at least some offensive presence even late into the game, which is a plus. Especially when your elementals are bears.
The Obvious Tank (JacksonTC): Somebody hadda do it. Not much to say here save that a full level 20 Totem barbarian is indeed extremely difficult to put down, especially when they sacrifice all offensive presence for sheer, pig-headed Nope-ism where it comes to damage. Very high Constitution saves mean a lot of uses of Relentless Rage, and 23AC is certainly respectable. Direct, straightforward, and to the point, but still quite good at its job. Would potentially be a good Grappler lockdown build with a few minor tweaks, becoming a literal Iron Ball and Chain – just attach to target enemy and watch them go out of their gourd trying to shake off this unbreakable bastid that just WON’T LET GO(!)
Steven Zealout (LostWhileFishing): The first Zealot of the lineup, and the only one to take it to 20. Primal Champion really is obnoxiously good, I wish more class capstones were like it. This build combines barbarian with an unusual racial selection, using half-elf to partially cover one of the barbarian’s biggest weaknesses and achieve some extra protection. I enjoy the idea that this monastic kid grew up with an unquenchable drive to be a Holy Man, but he sucked at being a cleric and a paladin so they had to turn him into a ragemonkey instead. It’s a different angle than one usually sees. Rage Beyond Death does allow for moments of movie insanity, complete with the Dramatic Sendoff at the end, but even with Fey Ancestry the build is worryingly weak to crowd control effects with only a +1 to Wisdom saves. Excellent against direct attackers, less so against Shifty Shits with illusion magic.
Aeric (Gabriel Rockman): The Celestial Chainlock regen tanks were a surprise to me for this competition, I had not expected to see warlock entries in this round. Aeric is an interesting build, and gets points for actually being a build its creator is playing. It hurts my soul that Shadow of Moil and Shadow Blade are both concentration and thus clash/cancel; if either of those could run without concentration that would be the coolest heckin’ combo. Aeric, ironically, would’ve been a more compelling choice for the Gish throwdown, methinks. The regen-tank maximized healing mechanic is fantastic for short, sharp skirmishes, but with only moderate AC, d8 HP, and no weapon resistance, it’s hard for the regen tanks to really hold up in a battle of Terminators. I do very much like using Shadow of Moil as an oppressive attack-denying cloak, especially assuming one has Devil’s Sight to peer through it themselves, and I think Aeric is an excellent character I’d be happy to adventure alongside. A very good ‘the Light is not nice’ concept.
T-1000 Wolverine (DorkForge): Similar to Aeric, save trading away a couple levels of Healing Light to gain a boosted save, extra spells and cantrips, and an always-valuable Action Surge. I always love the utility of a T.H.I.C.C. cantrip list, and the 2d4 to one save is one of those abilities that munchkins dismiss and real players thank their lucky stars for when those two little caltrops manage to save their ass from a character-deleting Disintegrate. Combined with Shield and Absorb Elements, T-Wolvthousand is probably a skooch more durable than Aeric (if one discounts the Shadow of Moil trick as being too ‘un-Terminator’ for this contest), but it does lose an ASI/feat. Very comparable builds, and both really interesting examples of how to come at Not Dying in a different vein.
Slaab the Immortal, the Swamp that Stalks (Chicken_Champ) I covered most of my thoughts on Slaab in the vote post, but I’ll toss a bit more out here for completeness’ sake. For something that purports to ‘Stalk’, Slaab is intensely quick and mobile, with an unmatched number of Necron Get-Back-Up bird-flipping moments. Even AS-7 will give up the ghost and stay down long before Slaab will, assuming all of Slaab’s ki is reserved for Stooging Death. The adherence to theme is also quite gratifying, CC seems to have a knack for creating characters with the PC rules that would make tremendous villainous characters. Too much fun not to give the nod to.
Ever-Living Regen Tank #3 (BobbyBaker): The third Chainlock regen tank in the competition, and if I’m remembering right also the only entry in the whole mess to have exactly zero levels in a martial class. A bold choice in the damage sponge contest. This version of the Regen Tank has boosted Cure Wounds from Life cleric and access to some handy cleric tech, but I’m not sure if a single level of Life cleric is better than the fighter or sorcerer levels on the other two. Disciple of Life is an extra seven hit points on a Pact slot-cast Cure Wounds, which is certainly good but not really astonishing given the maximized dice. Shield of Faith is certainly helpful though, and this build does get its final ASI. Not a bad stab at the concept.
Gnome Champion of the Gods (HeroZero): I quite like this mix. It dips from all over the place, with advantage on mental saves from gnome, resistance to magic damage from the drastically underrated Ancient Ward off of Green Knight, gets just enough Warlock to get up to more regen tank shenanery (if not to nearly the degree of the other three), and has Bulky Phat Saves from paladin. Probably the only build on the list to be more tankish against magical bad guys than physical ones; Master Boomfizzle here can basically ignore most mages given his saves, mental advantage, and magic resistance, but a dragon, pit fiend, or other physical powerhouse will show him a rough time. I’m a little sorry I overlooked this build in the voting period, it’s a pretty potent combination of traits. Nice work, Hero.
Prince Alpha (Transmorpher): Heh. He-Man. Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Bear damage resistance bolted onto a core of Paladin, using Crown for theme more than mechanics – though advantage against Incapacitating conditions that knock you out of your Rage is pretty slick. The usual Paladin Charisma boost to saves is unfortunately weak here, and Shield Master can only do so much. I don’t think this one quite holds up to Terminator standards as well as Hero’s gnome, but I do like how well it fits the He-Man/Prince Alpha theme.
Jank the Tank (Brewsky): Hmm. A curious concept, and if everything works an extremely powerful one. Enemies can’t approach, they can’t flee, they can’t target you properly, and so long as everything holds the character can just whack everything to death one hit at a time. Ideally with Green Flame/Booming Blade somehow, since otherwise it only gets a single mundane attack. But man...the Rube Goldberg chain is long with this one. If any given piece fails, the build’s durability suffers significantly. If Dragon Fear misses most of the Fear saves, or if Champion Challenge can’t catch enough enemies, or if...yikes. A multitude of failure points means this one can’t really be considered for the top spot. If everything does fall into place though, then watching this guy walk around wiffle-batting a bunch of paralyzed goons to death would absolutely ba an awesome character moment.
Redemption Paladin (JegPeg): I’m setting aside my seething, virulent, unquenchable hatred for yuan-ti PCs for this one, but know that it is there, always lurking in the background. DX
NEVERTHELESS.
Redemption paladins are always an odd choice of PC, given the overall emphasis of 5e in general on racking up the sort of body count that would normally incite a war crimes tribunal. In this case I can see it though, considering the capstone. Resistance to everything regardless of source is a big boon. Bare paladin is a sturdy core, and the yuan-ti’s utter bullshit magic resistance definitely thickens it up until Emissary of Redemption comes online. Lots of absorption here, and potentially an incredibly resilient build. I’m not sure I’m vibing on it as a ‘Terminator’, though.
While I understand the rules speak to “hard to kill/absorbs damage” without any mention of what one does with that ability, a Terminator is sort of exactly the opposite of an Emissary of Peace, and many of this build’s ways of nullifying or resisting damage comes from making enemies unable to attack...at the cost of the Redeemer itself being unable to attack them. Sturdy, but too weak to move well in its armor and unable to really fight back without heavily compromising its defenses.
Heqanakthi, Priestess of Osiris (Song_of_Blues): Heqanakthi is probably my favorite character in this contest. She puts the zealot in Zealot barbarian, and Path to the Grave combines quite well with a GWM-boosted Zealous Swordblast. Fast and Jedi-jumpy, with tons of mobility and cool utility to go with a tale of divine anger and fanatical drive. Sadly, she’s one of the more fragile characters in this particular showdown, relying more on the ability to be easily resurrected than the ability to not die in the first place. Still quite tough by typical 5e standards, and unlike many of the entires in this throwdown Heqanakthi can actually hit people and make them care about it. Proficiency in Wisdom saves is a cool touch, helping partially mitigate a barbarian’s typical crippling weakness to control effects.
I normally don’t care for gith as a PC race, their default lore annoys the hell out of me and most people who want to run a gith are doing it for cheap lulz or because they want to do something stupid and busted, but Heqanakthi is welcome to a place at my theoretical e-table. Excellent work Song, even if Glyph of Warding doesn’t quite work that way. In my case at least, she’d likely end up with a keystone boon letting her use her gith species spells while raging, so there’s that at least.
The Boss (Bramblefoot Druid): Lots of Zealots in this one. Heh, Rage Beyond Death really is such an excellent, evocative ability. Four levels of Conquest paladin bolted onto Zealot gives some handy spells and a few Divine Smites, bolstering the Boss’ offense, but doesn’t go far enough into Paladin to get any of the palladalldingdong’s defensive benefits. Boss suffers from the same issue as Heqanakthi, sadly – reliant on mostly just raw Barbarian for defensive abilities and leaning on Rage Beyond Death and Warrior of the Gods. Sturdy by 5e standards, but not by Terminator Throwdown standards, especially without the proficiency in Wisdom saves Heq gained from her Cleric start. A plenty solid build, and something that can also hit people hard enough to make them actually care about dropping him, but unfortunately not quite Terminator.
The Holy Redeemer (Bramblefoot Druid): Regen tank #6. Wow, lots of these this round. This variation starts with Paladin and does go deep enough to get some of those paladin defensive benefits. It is, however, the only Celestial regen tank to not bother with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which means it only gets about half the effective healing of the other regen tanks in the list. I would definitely trade out Fiendish Vigor for GotELO at higher levels on this one. Holy Redeemer here is also one of the punchier builds in the contest, with triple Smite capacity alongside being the only other character in the whole mess (outside of Atlas) with access to a magic item. Admittedly, a +1 sword isn’t a huge benefit, but it does mean HoDeemer gets full damage against weapon-resistant enemies where most of the other martial characters in the contest don’t. Assuming that the lack of GofELO was an oversight and easily corrected, HoDeemer is probably the most offensively dangerous character in the lineup. Easier to knock down than stuff like Slaab, Atlas, or GnomeChamp, but once he gets to your face, you’re gonna wish he hadn’t. Not bad, Bramble.
Yeah, oversight. Realised it after the deadline passed. Thanks (though I'm super annoyed you won again)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
The disciple of life feature would give 7 hitpoints bonus restoration for 5 level slot for cure wounds.
it would potentially proc a bonus 7 hitpoints restored on every instance of damage from the spells enervation or vampiric touch.
vampiric touch would restore roughly 15.75 hitpoints in AVG per successful hit, 24.5 hitpoints restored on a lucky crit. This would be a little less unreliable due to miss chance, but heals moderately while attacking.
Enervation targets a saves. trades maximum damage potential and crit possibilities for more reliable sustainability. Still heals slightly if the creature makes its save. Roughly 16 AVG healing per action while also dealing roughly 18 damage with that same action.
resilient: Constitution increases the likelihood of sustaining concentration from damage. Heavy armor master Potentially reduces incoming damage needing to be healed while also potentially reducing the concentration save DC.
the healing numbers I cited in the build reflect the minimum amount of health regen possible without short resting to refresh abilities. I also did not take into account the complicated maths of trying to compare vampiric touch/enervations incoming and outgoing damage ratios per action/slot used. The math is beyond me but I suspect it’s better than most people give it credit for, at least with boosts from other class features like disciple of life and grim harvest.
thank you for you for taking the time to review all of these builds and provide feedback on them, and congratulations.
Aegis either I've missunderstood something or your bladesinger would need some tweaking: To get
10 + 5 (Dex) + 5 (Wis) + 5 (Int) + 2 (Haste) + 2 (Kensai Agile Parry) = 29 Base AC
you need 20 in Dex, Wis and Int and as you said earlier the best you can get is 20-20-18. While this would only reduce your AC by one you would have a con 8 which is likely to cause serious problems.
Thanks for asking guys, I found out a couple days ago that I lost my job to the pandemic so my free time has largely been devoted to job hunting and stress eating.
As DDB is behind the original run, I already have the next throwdown ready for you all, and I'll have the time today to do the coutns and announce the winners. Thanks again, this has proven to be a very welcoming and caring community and it's certainly appreciated :)
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I am so sorry. please focus on your livelihood before the throw downs. we can deal with a few days off, and we will eagerly await your return...
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Yeah, this. I love the build competitions, but you come first.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
Yes, please prioritize your economic and physical health. Recreation is recreation.
Sorry to hear, DorkForge. I hope things work out alright for you.
Thank you for the kind words everyone, it means a lot and I really appreciate it
So with the belated counting of DDB's second Throwdown is the establishment of a streak!
The winner is: Yurei's Atlas
Congratulations Yurei!
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Interested in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything? Check out our playlist on Youtube
Please feel free to message us with any requests or build challenges!
Hope things get better sooner rather than later, DorkForge. Congrats to Yurei for the Atlas submission, which I loved! Kudos to all participants for a close competition!
Hope things pick up for you, DF. 2020 really needs to sit in a corner and think about what it's done.
Please do not contact or message me.
HOOOO.
This took a bloody while to compile, but here it is. A bit of feedback on every not-me build entered for voting. Had to skip over the latecomers for sanity, sorry guys.
***
Bugbearian (GoodBovine):
I am amused by the thought of Elemental Wildshape forms being different flavors of bear. Good example of using fluff to stick to a theme the mechanics don’t really support anymore. The build leans awfully hard on the Rage-while-Wildshaped mechanic though, which blows your entire first turn to set up and limits you to two relevant fights per rest. Still, elementals do have at least some offensive presence even late into the game, which is a plus. Especially when your elementals are bears.
The Obvious Tank (JacksonTC):
Somebody hadda do it. Not much to say here save that a full level 20 Totem barbarian is indeed extremely difficult to put down, especially when they sacrifice all offensive presence for sheer, pig-headed Nope-ism where it comes to damage. Very high Constitution saves mean a lot of uses of Relentless Rage, and 23AC is certainly respectable. Direct, straightforward, and to the point, but still quite good at its job. Would potentially be a good Grappler lockdown build with a few minor tweaks, becoming a literal Iron Ball and Chain – just attach to target enemy and watch them go out of their gourd trying to shake off this unbreakable bastid that just WON’T LET GO(!)
Steven Zealout (LostWhileFishing):
The first Zealot of the lineup, and the only one to take it to 20. Primal Champion really is obnoxiously good, I wish more class capstones were like it. This build combines barbarian with an unusual racial selection, using half-elf to partially cover one of the barbarian’s biggest weaknesses and achieve some extra protection. I enjoy the idea that this monastic kid grew up with an unquenchable drive to be a Holy Man, but he sucked at being a cleric and a paladin so they had to turn him into a ragemonkey instead. It’s a different angle than one usually sees. Rage Beyond Death does allow for moments of movie insanity, complete with the Dramatic Sendoff at the end, but even with Fey Ancestry the build is worryingly weak to crowd control effects with only a +1 to Wisdom saves. Excellent against direct attackers, less so against Shifty Shits with illusion magic.
Aeric (Gabriel Rockman):
The Celestial Chainlock regen tanks were a surprise to me for this competition, I had not expected to see warlock entries in this round. Aeric is an interesting build, and gets points for actually being a build its creator is playing. It hurts my soul that Shadow of Moil and Shadow Blade are both concentration and thus clash/cancel; if either of those could run without concentration that would be the coolest heckin’ combo. Aeric, ironically, would’ve been a more compelling choice for the Gish throwdown, methinks. The regen-tank maximized healing mechanic is fantastic for short, sharp skirmishes, but with only moderate AC, d8 HP, and no weapon resistance, it’s hard for the regen tanks to really hold up in a battle of Terminators. I do very much like using Shadow of Moil as an oppressive attack-denying cloak, especially assuming one has Devil’s Sight to peer through it themselves, and I think Aeric is an excellent character I’d be happy to adventure alongside. A very good ‘the Light is not nice’ concept.
T-1000 Wolverine (DorkForge):
Similar to Aeric, save trading away a couple levels of Healing Light to gain a boosted save, extra spells and cantrips, and an always-valuable Action Surge. I always love the utility of a T.H.I.C.C. cantrip list, and the 2d4 to one save is one of those abilities that munchkins dismiss and real players thank their lucky stars for when those two little caltrops manage to save their ass from a character-deleting Disintegrate. Combined with Shield and Absorb Elements, T-Wolvthousand is probably a skooch more durable than Aeric (if one discounts the Shadow of Moil trick as being too ‘un-Terminator’ for this contest), but it does lose an ASI/feat. Very comparable builds, and both really interesting examples of how to come at Not Dying in a different vein.
Slaab the Immortal, the Swamp that Stalks (Chicken_Champ)
I covered most of my thoughts on Slaab in the vote post, but I’ll toss a bit more out here for completeness’ sake. For something that purports to ‘Stalk’, Slaab is intensely quick and mobile, with an unmatched number of Necron Get-Back-Up bird-flipping moments. Even AS-7 will give up the ghost and stay down long before Slaab will, assuming all of Slaab’s ki is reserved for Stooging Death. The adherence to theme is also quite gratifying, CC seems to have a knack for creating characters with the PC rules that would make tremendous villainous characters. Too much fun not to give the nod to.
Ever-Living Regen Tank #3 (BobbyBaker):
The third Chainlock regen tank in the competition, and if I’m remembering right also the only entry in the whole mess to have exactly zero levels in a martial class. A bold choice in the damage sponge contest. This version of the Regen Tank has boosted Cure Wounds from Life cleric and access to some handy cleric tech, but I’m not sure if a single level of Life cleric is better than the fighter or sorcerer levels on the other two. Disciple of Life is an extra seven hit points on a Pact slot-cast Cure Wounds, which is certainly good but not really astonishing given the maximized dice. Shield of Faith is certainly helpful though, and this build does get its final ASI. Not a bad stab at the concept.
Gnome Champion of the Gods (HeroZero):
I quite like this mix. It dips from all over the place, with advantage on mental saves from gnome, resistance to magic damage from the drastically underrated Ancient Ward off of Green Knight, gets just enough Warlock to get up to more regen tank shenanery (if not to nearly the degree of the other three), and has Bulky Phat Saves from paladin. Probably the only build on the list to be more tankish against magical bad guys than physical ones; Master Boomfizzle here can basically ignore most mages given his saves, mental advantage, and magic resistance, but a dragon, pit fiend, or other physical powerhouse will show him a rough time. I’m a little sorry I overlooked this build in the voting period, it’s a pretty potent combination of traits. Nice work, Hero.
Prince Alpha (Transmorpher):
Heh. He-Man. Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Bear damage resistance bolted onto a core of Paladin, using Crown for theme more than mechanics – though advantage against Incapacitating conditions that knock you out of your Rage is pretty slick. The usual Paladin Charisma boost to saves is unfortunately weak here, and Shield Master can only do so much. I don’t think this one quite holds up to Terminator standards as well as Hero’s gnome, but I do like how well it fits the He-Man/Prince Alpha theme.
Jank the Tank (Brewsky):
Hmm. A curious concept, and if everything works an extremely powerful one. Enemies can’t approach, they can’t flee, they can’t target you properly, and so long as everything holds the character can just whack everything to death one hit at a time. Ideally with Green Flame/Booming Blade somehow, since otherwise it only gets a single mundane attack. But man...the Rube Goldberg chain is long with this one. If any given piece fails, the build’s durability suffers significantly. If Dragon Fear misses most of the Fear saves, or if Champion Challenge can’t catch enough enemies, or if...yikes. A multitude of failure points means this one can’t really be considered for the top spot. If everything does fall into place though, then watching this guy walk around wiffle-batting a bunch of paralyzed goons to death would absolutely ba an awesome character moment.
Redemption Paladin (JegPeg):
I’m setting aside my seething, virulent, unquenchable hatred for yuan-ti PCs for this one, but know that it is there, always lurking in the background. DX
NEVERTHELESS.
Redemption paladins are always an odd choice of PC, given the overall emphasis of 5e in general on racking up the sort of body count that would normally incite a war crimes tribunal. In this case I can see it though, considering the capstone. Resistance to everything regardless of source is a big boon. Bare paladin is a sturdy core, and the yuan-ti’s
utter bullshitmagic resistance definitely thickens it up until Emissary of Redemption comes online. Lots of absorption here, and potentially an incredibly resilient build. I’m not sure I’m vibing on it as a ‘Terminator’, though.While I understand the rules speak to “hard to kill/absorbs damage” without any mention of what one does with that ability, a Terminator is sort of exactly the opposite of an Emissary of Peace, and many of this build’s ways of nullifying or resisting damage comes from making enemies unable to attack...at the cost of the Redeemer itself being unable to attack them. Sturdy, but too weak to move well in its armor and unable to really fight back without heavily compromising its defenses.
Heqanakthi, Priestess of Osiris (Song_of_Blues):
Heqanakthi is probably my favorite character in this contest. She puts the zealot in Zealot barbarian, and Path to the Grave combines quite well with a GWM-boosted Zealous Swordblast. Fast and Jedi-jumpy, with tons of mobility and cool utility to go with a tale of divine anger and fanatical drive. Sadly, she’s one of the more fragile characters in this particular showdown, relying more on the ability to be easily resurrected than the ability to not die in the first place. Still quite tough by typical 5e standards, and unlike many of the entires in this throwdown Heqanakthi can actually hit people and make them care about it. Proficiency in Wisdom saves is a cool touch, helping partially mitigate a barbarian’s typical crippling weakness to control effects.
I normally don’t care for gith as a PC race, their default lore annoys the hell out of me and most people who want to run a gith are doing it for cheap lulz or because they want to do something stupid and busted, but Heqanakthi is welcome to a place at my theoretical e-table. Excellent work Song, even if Glyph of Warding doesn’t quite work that way. In my case at least, she’d likely end up with a keystone boon letting her use her gith species spells while raging, so there’s that at least.
The Boss (Bramblefoot Druid):
Lots of Zealots in this one. Heh, Rage Beyond Death really is such an excellent, evocative ability. Four levels of Conquest paladin bolted onto Zealot gives some handy spells and a few Divine Smites, bolstering the Boss’ offense, but doesn’t go far enough into Paladin to get any of the palladalldingdong’s defensive benefits. Boss suffers from the same issue as Heqanakthi, sadly – reliant on mostly just raw Barbarian for defensive abilities and leaning on Rage Beyond Death and Warrior of the Gods. Sturdy by 5e standards, but not by Terminator Throwdown standards, especially without the proficiency in Wisdom saves Heq gained from her Cleric start. A plenty solid build, and something that can also hit people hard enough to make them actually care about dropping him, but unfortunately not quite Terminator.
The Holy Redeemer (Bramblefoot Druid):
Regen tank #6. Wow, lots of these this round. This variation starts with Paladin and does go deep enough to get some of those paladin defensive benefits. It is, however, the only Celestial regen tank to not bother with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which means it only gets about half the effective healing of the other regen tanks in the list. I would definitely trade out Fiendish Vigor for GotELO at higher levels on this one. Holy Redeemer here is also one of the punchier builds in the contest, with triple Smite capacity alongside being the only other character in the whole mess (outside of Atlas) with access to a magic item. Admittedly, a +1 sword isn’t a huge benefit, but it does mean HoDeemer gets full damage against weapon-resistant enemies where most of the other martial characters in the contest don’t. Assuming that the lack of GofELO was an oversight and easily corrected, HoDeemer is probably the most offensively dangerous character in the lineup. Easier to knock down than stuff like Slaab, Atlas, or GnomeChamp, but once he gets to your face, you’re gonna wish he hadn’t. Not bad, Bramble.
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The highlighted is very true. This build focused on the main stated purpose, absorb ridonkalous amounts of damage without dying. If someone sends you to another dimension or sucks your sould away, they haven't really damaged you per se (even if the result is still the same), though. :P
Well done, and love the feedback. :)
Yeah, oversight. Realised it after the deadline passed. Thanks (though I'm super annoyed you won again)
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The disciple of life feature would give 7 hitpoints bonus restoration for 5 level slot for cure wounds.
it would potentially proc a bonus 7 hitpoints restored on every instance of damage from the spells enervation or vampiric touch.
vampiric touch would restore roughly 15.75 hitpoints in AVG per successful hit, 24.5 hitpoints restored on a lucky crit. This would be a little less unreliable due to miss chance, but heals moderately while attacking.
Enervation targets a saves. trades maximum damage potential and crit possibilities for more reliable sustainability. Still heals slightly if the creature makes its save. Roughly 16 AVG healing per action while also dealing roughly 18 damage with that same action.
resilient: Constitution increases the likelihood of sustaining concentration from damage. Heavy armor master Potentially reduces incoming damage needing to be healed while also potentially reducing the concentration save DC.
the healing numbers I cited in the build reflect the minimum amount of health regen possible without short resting to refresh abilities. I also did not take into account the complicated maths of trying to compare vampiric touch/enervations incoming and outgoing damage ratios per action/slot used. The math is beyond me but I suspect it’s better than most people give it credit for, at least with boosts from other class features like disciple of life and grim harvest.
thank you for you for taking the time to review all of these builds and provide feedback on them, and congratulations.