I'm always so pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome and reception these contests get on D&D Beyond, you've proven yourselves to be a fantastic community :) So what else can I do but keep coming back for more? You may as well give me a key and stock the fridge with Coke Zero at this point...
The concept: Magus Maximus
This theme is a suggestion and focuses on casting, so there will be some additional restrictions in the rules section this time to help guide the concept whilst trying to keep things as open as possible. This time we're looking for mastery of magic, what interesting things can you all come up with that puts focus on casting spells and other magical effects? What interesting spell and class synergies will you find new and interesting ways to exploit? Remeber, Tasha's is out and viable for the contest!
Some rules for guidance:
-The primary schtick of your character should be casting spells, this should describe 80-90% of their actions
-You must have at least 11 levels in a full casting class (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock or Wizard), this minimum requirement doesn't need to be all a single class (e.g. 11 levels of Wizard is just as valid as a Cleric 6/Druid 5). Any builds that don't meet this requirement will not be valid.
-In the interest of promoting creativity and diversity in these builds, Hexblade will be allowed, but requires a minimum of 5 levels as part of your overall build. If you choose any other Warlock patron this restriction is not applicable.
-No UA, only officially published materials
-You must include a stat array (Point Buy or Standard Array)
-Build to 20 with insights on how the build hands at levels 5, 11, 17 and 20 (include hp and AC at each point for each of reading)
-Multiclassing and feat optional rules in play
-Variants for races available (V. Human, Dragonmarks, SCAG variants)
-No magic items unless you have a way to create them from a class feature
-Normal starting items and gold, mundane armor upgrades be assumed to happen during tier 2 (so you can mention Plate/Half Plate in your commentary but you can only include it in snapshots for levels 11,17 and the final 20).
-Catchy names and fluff are not a requirement but are always nice to read
Suggested format:
Level 20 level split:
Race:
Stats: Str x Dex x Con x Int x Wis x Cha x
Background:
Starting level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 5th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 11th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 17th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 20th level and final thoughts:
Voting:
To sort the wheat from the chaff we'll vote on builds and declare a 'winner' (a concept that will hopefully continue in future threads and put the contest into this), to vote simply make a post quoting the build you want to vote for (snipping the content to keep things getting out of hand) and say something that indicates you're voting e.g. +1, get's my vote etc.
-Each user only gets one vote but you can edit your post at any time before the deadline to change your mind.
-If you submit a build, you must vote for someone for your entry to be considered valid
-A user can submit more than one build but they must be in separate posts (and not back to back to respect forum rules)
-You cannot vote for yourself
-Each throwdown thread will run for 7 days after which no new builds will be accepted for contention, when the build deadline has closed votes will be accepted. The voting deadline will be five days after the build deadline, votes will be tallied and the winner announced (any vote edits after the deadline has passed will also not be counted, if the original vote cannot be seen the vote will be null and void).
Magus build deadline/Voting opens: 05/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET
Voting deadline: 10/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET
PLEASE NOTE THAT VOTING IS NOW ONLY ONCE THE BUILD DEADLINE HAS PASSED.
The winner is Third_Sundering's 'Impending Doom,' congratulations to Third_Sundering and thank you to everyone that has submitted a build and voted. It was nice to see a lot of spectator votes this time around!
I'd also like to take a moment to ask you guys to check out our Youtube channel, we focus on mechanics and character builds (our current videos focus on overviewing Tasha's content with added thoughts and notes) and if you enjoy these contests you may very well enjoy our work too. All of our builds comes with a free to access build guides in the description to help follow along or run the characters in your own games. Thank you for sitting through my waffle!
Okay, let me first get my point clear. I do not like the Order of the Scribes, and dislike that this build is legal, but it technically follows RAW. According to Sage Advice, Magic Missile works similarly to AoE spells in the sense that there is one roll for the spell and everyone that is hit by a magic missile takes the damage rolled. That means that features like an Aasimar's Radiant Soul adds to the damage of each individual magic missile. This combined with other features can allow you to abuse that single spell with a multitude of features, as shown in this build. The combo takes a bit to get up, but it is very much worth it once you do.
Impending Doom
Impending Doom is a Fallen Aasimar, a member of a long line of Fallen Aasimar that are descended from Zariel, falling from grace with Zariel becoming an Archdevil. As servitors of the archduchess's will, this group of Zariel's mortal kin have been trained in magic for centuries, honing in their power to accomplish what their mistress desires, in return for a quick promotion through the ranks of the devils upon their deaths. This tradition of magic practicing has carried on for many generations, and is the origin of our character, a Fallen Aasimar named Impending Doom.
Impending Doom
Fallen Aasimar Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 6/Celestial Warlock 6/Order of the Scribes 2/Wildfire Druid 6 Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13 HP: 132 AC: 17 (Half-Plate and a Shield), 22 with shield
Quote from Impending Doom:
"The flames of the furnace of Hell will reshape the world. All it needs is a little spark to ignite it."
Born in the secluded aasimar enclave of Hellfyre's Inferno, Impending Doom was raised in an overly indoctrinated community of devotees towards the Archduchess of Avernus, Mistress Zariel. Their community began centuries ago, after Zariel's fall from grace, being sucked down to her infernal disgrace with the transgression of their ancestral mother, as all aasimar descended from Zariel became fallen aasimar or Zariel tieflings at the moment of her descent from celestial glory.
Molded by his upbringing, the young fallen aasimar named "Impending Doom" was a unique member of his community, with an innate knack for all things magical, with the fiery blessing of Zariel herself. This granted him a strange connection with the vestigial healing powers of his celestial heritage, combined with the fiery magic of Zariel's current form, allowing him to help his small community grow in followers who came to see the so called "Fire-Born Angel".
Level One: A Burning Ember
Fallen Aasimar Druid 1 Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 13 Background: There's not really one that fits that well, so I'll just choose Boros Legionnaire HP: 10 AC: 13 (Leather Armor, Shield) Skills: Athletics +1, Arcana +5, Perception +3, Intimidation +5 Other Proficiencies: Dragonchess, Draconic Spells: Control Flames, Produce Flame, Absorb Elements, Goodberry, Light
You may ask why we're starting out as druid. Most simply, it is for powergaming purposes, as we're going to take Circle of Wildfire later on (which will grant us a lot of nice features), and get armor proficiencies for starting in it, as well as more hit points. We want to survive, and want to start preparing for our combo later on. This will help us do so.
For story purposes, we'll "pull an Eberron". That is, we will explain our features through a way contrary to the way the books explain the classes. For us, we are not a druid that pulls our magical energy from nature. We are a druid that pulls our energy from the infernal fire bestowed upon us by our matron, Zariel. Zariel is the Mistress of Fiendish Fire, and we are her scion, giving us these powers.
The healing and restorative powers granted by being our specific kind of druid is thematically due to our matron's quasicelestial nature and our connection with our angelic heritage, allowing us an easy and thematically appropriate way of explaining the features granted by our future druid circle, the Circle of Wildfire. The quasicelestial nature of Zariel combined with the dormant angelic powers of our aasimar blood grants us many magical powers, including ones unique to a fiendish character.
At this level, we're not doing much in combat. Occasionally we will hit someone with a blast of fire, but are mostly just hanging in the back, trying to survive.
A young, purply-gray skinned man with pointed ears walks alone through the dark night, this one being particularly gloomy due to the newness of the moon. His neck and head covered by a black cloak, smothering the orangish glow of his strange hair to conceal his otherworldly nature. He walks slowly down the old and worn cobbled path of northern Elturgard, holding no torch or lamp to light his way,. He travels slowly his careful steps making nothing but the faint scratch of his new leather boots meeting the grey stones that lead the way through the Forest of Wyrms to roundabout path to the Evermoors. This figure is a fallen aasimar known as Impending Doom, a blood descendent of the fallen angel archdevil, Zariel.
In the distance the small flicker of a torch is barely visible, bobbing up and down with the burdened tread of a lone humanoid figure, with the torch faintly lighting his way back to his hunting lodge. The young man with the pointy ears quietly and carefully follows the figure for over an hour and a half, until the figure bearing the torch stops at a small hunting lodge hidden in the dense woods. This young man approaches close enough to make out features of the figure, who appears to be an old human hunter carrying home his freshly slain deer, wooden bow, and quiver. Suddenly, Impending Doom's hand begins to emit a bright orange flame, which he propels directly into the backside of the lonely hunter, ending his life straightaway.
Impending Doom casually walks forward to enter the lodge. He mutters under his breath, "I'll burn the body in the morning."
Our youngling angel-born has just left his hometown to experience the world, to see what land will eventually be scorched by his infernal fires. All that he comes across he views in its future state, a smoldering pile of ashes and coals surrounded by the charred skeletons of all who dare oppose the might of the Baatezu. He starts out carefully, making absolutely certain that his diabolical acts are undiscovered by his potential rivals, stealthily incinerating dozens of townsfolk as an omen of the inevitable destruction and domination that will come to the unknowing world.
Impending Doom is a ringmaster for Zariel, who toys with the souls of other mortals as a cat would play with a meal. He is an expert at parleying with monsters and frightening them into turning their monstrous fury onto unsuspecting townsfolk, releasing havoc and destruction on innocent commoners to slowly grow their paranoia and increase their superstitions. As the people get more manic and desperate, the more likely they are to turn to darker sources of power to protect themselves.
He has most recently taken up residence in a hunting lodge in northern Elturgard, as a temporary base stolen from the ownership of a now dead hunter. He does not plan to stay there long, merely refreshing his resources and resting for a short time before he continues on his long, treacherous journey through the unknown world.
Level Five: A Scorched Scholar
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 3/Order of Scribes 2 Ability Scores: Same as before HP: 33 AC: 17 (Half-Plate made of a strong wood, Shield), 22 with Shield New Spells: Burning Hands, Guiding Bolt, Magic Missile, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Mage Hand, Toll the Dead, Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Shield
We are now starting to do our calling, which is to burn everything in sight in the name of Zariel. To assist us in this task, we now have two servants, our Fox-shaped Wildfire Spirit named Faux, and a fiendish Winged Monkey named Taboo. Our two companions stick around each other, assisting them in combat (Taboo provides the Help action for Faux, and Faux teleports Taboo around).
Faux is composed entirely out of orange flames, and Taboo appears as a tiny, fiendish angel formed completely out of fire, with an undefined, ever-changing form.
Now we get to the good stuff. Our first action is used for Necrotic Shroud to frighten our enemies, and our next action is used to summon our Wildfire Spirit, burning our newly frightened enemies. On our next turn, we cast Magic Missile at 3rd level, each bolt dealing 1d4+6, having 5 bolts. On average, that is 42.5 force/radiant damage, which we can do for our next two turns. That is 85 damage in two damage, which is automatic, requiring no attack roll or saving throw. During those turns, we also get to command our Wildfire Spirit, which deals an average of 13 (2d6+6) extra fire damage if it hits twice (rolling its attack rolls at advantage).
In four rounds, if our Wildfire Spirit hits twice, we deal on average 98 damage + however much damage we deal when summoning our Wildfire Spirit. On later turns, we can cast Magic Missile with our 3 second level spell slots, and 4 first level spell slots.
It's good. Not crazy impressive, but it gets even better at later levels.
"Do you see 'em, Faux?" Impending Doom asks, "Did the people get away? Wait! I see something over in the corner! Move a bit closer, let me see it better. That's it. Got 'em."
Suddenly a series of seeking bursts of flames erupt out of Impending Doom's, all sending the cowardly commoners back to their maker, their hopeless lives ending with ear-piercing screams. Impending Doom smiles wickedly, slowly walking through the crisp ashes of his incinerated victims.
Impending Doom has now begun to master the art of channeling the inevitable flames of the Archduchess Zariel. He can conjure the infernal flames of his matron in the form of a fox composed completely of fire, which he has named Faux, as well as summoning Taboo to aid Faux in attacking enemies.
With his flames much more potent than before, Zariel's favor with Impending Doom has increased greatly. Now Impending Doom gets indirect orders from an imp sent by Zariel, serving as the mortal hitman for the fallen angel, causing his name to begin being whispered among communities where he travels, spoken of in hushed tones. Impending Doom and his two servants, Faux and Taboo, are seen as infernal boogeymen, following the directions of an Archduchess of Avernus.
Level Eleven: The Hand of Zariel
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 3/Order of Scribes Wizard 2 Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 13 | 13 (Telepathic feat) HP: 75 AC: Same as before New Spells: Plant Growth, Revivify, Hex, Friends, Chill Touch, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Call Lightning, Sacred Flame
Our patron is Zariel, with Hexblade being the closest patron to a fallen angel.
We take the Telepathic feat and Devil's Sight Eldritch Invocation, as Zariel (like other angels) has telepathy and has devil's sight (like other devils). This is flavored as us harnessing the power of our fallen, fiendish ancestor, gaining the ability to learn the thoughts of others and speak with them telepathically. We also take Pact of the Talisman, which we wear, taking the Rebuke of the Talisman invocation to punish those who attack us. The Talisman is shaped like a fiendish angel, as a symbol of Zariel. With Pact Magic, we will regain spell slots on a short rest, allowing us to use our combo more often than before.
As before, we start combat with Necrotic Shroud. As a bonus action in the same turn, we cast hex on our target, which we will unleash our fiery fury later. On our next turn, we summon our Wildfire Spirit, using Hexblade's Curse on our enemy. Then, on our next turn, we will cast Magic Missile, changing its damage type to Fire. Now we get to stack our bonus from Hex, Necrotic Shroud, Hexblade's Curse, and Enhanced Bond onto Magic Missile, dealing 1d4+16+1d6+1d8 damage on each missile, using a 4th level spell slot to do so. With this spell slot, we deal an average of 132.5 damage on a hit, being able to do this 2 rounds in a row. We also add our fire damage from our Wildfire Spirit to this damage, dealing 240 damage in two turns (once we get all our stuff up, of course).
Impending Doom lays sleeping in the ashes of a once thriving village, now burnt to the ground with the help of his companions, Faux and Taboo. A bright orange appears in front of him, blinding him with light. Raising his hand to shield his face, he sits up and readies a deadly spell. Once his eyes register what is causing the glow, Impending Doom quickly stops his spell and stares in awe.
"Zariel,"He says in reverence, "Why have you come?"
The form in front of him is the glowing Archduchess of Avernus, Lady Zariel herself. In her unholy glory, she silently raises her right palm, in which lies a burning, wrapped-up scroll, wreathed in infernal flames.
"Take it," Zariel whispers in his mind, "and you shall forever be my loyal scion, exercising my will on this mortal realm."
"Have I not already done everything your messenger has asked of me?"Impending Doom questions, "What more can I do?"
"Everything." She replies, "You will do . . . everything."
Level Seventeen: The Second Sun
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 4/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 5/Order of Scribes Wizard 2 Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13 HP: 114 AC: Same as before New Spells: Fly, Spirit Shroud, Fear, Blink, Thunder Step
We take Eldritch Mind, granting us advantage on saving throws for Concentration, also taking the Elemental Adept (Fire) feat, so we can do our combo more effectively against creatures that are resistant to fire damage. We also replace Hex with Spirit Shroud, and our subclass is the Draconic Bloodline (Red Dragon). Even though we are not descended from a dragon, this is the closes thing to a fiendish ancestry, which we will use for our purposes later on. Our Metamagic are Quickened Spell and Empowered Spell.
Due to us being a Sorcadin, we can regain sorcery points and a spell slot for Spirit Shroud on a short rest.
We do the same thing we did in combat before, replacing Hex with Spirit Shroud (cast at 5th level), casting magic missile at 6th level. This increases our damage from magic missile to 1d4+3d8+23, having 8 bolts. This deals an average of 312 damage to our target. We can use our 6th, 5th, 4th, and lower level spell slots on later turns to do less (but still a lot of) damage.
Impending Doom stares out at the smoking embers of a raging wildfire, standing in a field across a river from the scorched logs. The profound heat of the colossal flames that erupt from this once thriving forest is evaporating enough of the river's water to cause wisps of steam to slightly block Impending Doom's view of the simmering logs.
He casts fly and begins to float high above the forest, with fiery angelic wings sprouted from his back. He looks down on the burning forest, the clouds of thick smoke neither stinging his eyes, obscuring his vision, nor affecting his breathing. This is his natural environment, where he is meant to be.
The flames are shaped as a radiant angel, scorching the elven settlements that formerly lay inside. For the first time in his life, Impending Doom feels something new; complete and utter bliss.
Level 20: Blazing Angel
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 7/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 5/Order of Scribes Wizard 2 Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13 HP: 132 AC: Same as before New Spells: Fireball, Blight, Sickening Radiance, Wall of Fire
Not much happens at this level, we just max out our Sorcerer levels, granting us more sorcery points and features.
As our arcane potency increases, we have become a master of shooting deadly, impossibly accurate bursts of flames, incinerating all in our path. We becomes an archmage, a casting hitman of Zariel, doing as our matron commands. Our inherent magic, our pact magic, our learned magic, and our siphoned magic all combine to make us become a quintessence of destruction, the impending doom that comes to all that dare to oppose our unholy mistress. As all fear her name, all tremble at the infernal fury of that can be unleashed by a certain aasimar known as Impending Doom.
We do the same as before, but now cast Magic Missile at 8th level, doing Elemental Adept to increase our magic missile damage even more, and Spirit Shroud at 7th level. Here's the breakdown:
We have 10 missiles, each doing 1d4+4d8+31 damage each. This makes our total damage in one round be 515 damage. Against one target. The vast majority of creatures that you target this way instantly die. If you use this combo against a creature immune to fire damage, you still do 1d4+3d8+26 damage, for a total of 420 force and necrotic damage. That still kills almost anything you come across.
In addition to this, we still have our Wildfire Spirit and familiar to help us do some extra damage.
The sun sets over the town of Daggerford, with the crest of the sun is almost under the horizon. The citizens of the populous town hurriedly end their day, making their way into their small homes. On a hill to the east, a young man clad in half-plate approaches the city with two fiery companions, one an elemental fox, the other a fiendish fallen angel. He is wreathed in flames and carries a blackwood shield inscribed with brigtht-red infernal runes.
The guards of the city gate drop was a swarm of impossibly accurate bursts of fire burn straight through their chainmail armor. A watchtower goes up in flames as a fireball erupts from its wooden base, causing it to fall onto and crash through the city's stone wall as the men on the tower attempt to hide beneath the trapdoor. The men inside scream as they are trapped inside the burning building, slowly being asphyxiated by smoke.
Impending Doom readies his hand for another burst of fire, searching with his eyes for the town's other defenses, "One down, three to go."
Impending Doom is now an exemplar of the fiery might of the Nine Legions of Baator, now fully capable of destroying entire towns and cities using solely his mastery of pyromancy, his fiendish ability to magically heal himself and his pets, as well as his spell-shaping ability to turn missiles of magical force into flaming bursts of utter annihilation. He is an exemplar of the power of fire, and uses his incredible power over arcane and infernal magic to complete any task given him by his immensely powerful devilish matron.
Okay, that's the build. We have a decent AC and HP, a great range of spells and healing abilities if we need to heal ourselves or our elemental. We also have our Talisman and Magical Guidance to avoid failing ability checks, and if we roll low damage for Magic Missile we can reroll using Empowered Casting.
I hope you like the build! May the best Mage win!
Edit: Added some cool flavor text! Hopefully this will give him a fighting chance.
Level 20 split: Variant Human Shadow Sorcerer 20 Generic name of the build: Gabriel's Psionic Shadow Sorcerer
Variant Human Shadow Sorcerer - Fey touched feat (+1 Charisma, Misty Step, Bane) Starting Stats from Standard Array: 16 Charisma, 16 Constitution, 13 Wisdom, 12 Dexterity, 10 Intelligence, 8 Strength Abilities: 120ft Darkvision, Strength of the Grave (Charisma save first time you drop to 0 HP each day). AC will be 14 at each level (Mage Armor with 12 Dexterity) unless magic items help out. HP will be whatever a Sorcerer with 16 Constitution gets at each level. Constitution saving throws will be pretty good with 16 Constitution and Proficiency in Constitution saving throws from being a Sorcerer.
Level 2: Gain Sorcery Points Learn Absorb Elements Level 3: Metamagic: Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell Learn Tasha’s Mind Whip and Darkness Can see through Darkness when it's cast using two sorcery points Level 4: +2 Charisma ASI - up to 18 Charisma now Learn Hold Person and Message Level 5: Learn Fly, replace Hold Person with Feather Fall
Levels 1-5 strategy: You’re mostly going to be casting Chill Touch or Mind Sliver. You’ll concentrate on Darkness, Bane or Hold Person, and you’ll also have Mage Armor, Shield, Misty Step, and Absorb Elements for defense. You can throw out a few Tasha’s Mind Whips occasionally, but you don’t really have that many spell slots for level 2+ spells. The fey touched feat gives you a free casting of both Misty Step and Bane each day, and that's a pretty nice bonus early on when you don't have that many spell slots. You have some sorcery points to use for Subtle Spell if you want to avoid being counterspelled, or for Quicken Spell if you want to cast Mind Sliver and then cast Bane or Hold Person as a Bonus Action on the target after they fail the saving throw. You could also just use your sorcery points to cast darkness if you don’t want to be counterspelled and you don’t want enemies to have much luck attacking you. Darkness is a more defensive strategy, whereas Bane and Hold Person are a more offensive strategy. Darkness + Chill Touch with advantage is a decent strategy. You can see through darkness if you cast it with sorcery points, and you can combine 120ft dark vision with the 120ft range on Chill Touch to not even need to use the darkness spell if you’re already fighting in darkness against enemies that have a more normal 60ft range on their dark vision.
Level 6: You can summon a Hound of Ill Omen for 3 Sorcery points using a Bonus Action. It's a medium size monstrosity using the stat block of a Dire Wolf, that can travel through objects and creatures as difficult terrain and automatically moves towards its target each round. When it's within 5 feet of its target, it gives that target disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against one of your spells. It can attack (and do opportunity attacks) only against its target. It cannot be given a new target. It starts out with temporary hit points equal to half your Sorcerer level. Learn Slow Level 7: Learn Counterspell Level 8: +2 Charisma ASI (20 Charisma now) Learn Banishment Level 6-8 strategy: You’ll start off combat by using a Bonus Action to put your Hound of Ill Omen next to a dangerous target, and then you can immediately cast Bane or Slow on that target and a few of its allies with your action. Using the Hound of Ill Omen to give one enemy disadvantage on saving throws against your spells every single round is a key part of this strategy. We're using this to stack multiple debuffs on your Hound's Target. Banishment is also a good option to use on round 2 if your enemies rolled well and your Bane or Slow spell didn’t affect as many enemies as you had hoped that it would, especially if the target of your hound of ill omen succeeded its saving throw despite having disadvantage. After you get your hound out on round 1 with your Bonus Action and cast your concentration debuff with your action also on round 1, you’re free to just pound away with Mind Sliver and Tasha’s Wind Whip for the rest of the combat, using Quicken Spell if you feel like doing extra damage. You’ve also got Fly, Feather Fall, and Counterspell for some utility, but Sorcerers can’t afford to waste too many of their spells known on utility. In my opinion, these three are important enough to include. They're also fairly thematic, and this build has somewhat prioritized being thematic over min-maxing. Level 9: Learn Synaptic Static Level 10: Learn Mage Hand Learn Heightened Spell metamagic Learn Telekinesis Level 9-10 strategy: Now you can add Synaptic Static on top of Bane. That means subtracting both 1D4 and 1D6 from each attack - a minimum of 2, an average of 6, and a maximum of 10 subtracted from every attack roll made by that enemy. If you add in a Mind Sliver and your Hound of Ill Omen, they’re going to be subtracting 2D4 from their saving throw with disadvantage to get rid of Synaptic Static - a minimum of 2, an average of 5, and a maximum of 8. An average of minus 6 to attack rolls is a pretty huge debuff. If you’re facing an enemy that isn’t doing attack rolls but is casting spells instead, you can use Slow on that enemy instead of using Bane. Synaptic Static is going to be a clutch spell against enemy casters that are probably going to be concentrating on a really annoying spell. The enemy will get a saving throw each round against both Slow and Synaptic Static, but your Hound can give them disadvantage on these saving throws, and you can hit them with Mind Sliver to subtract a D6 from the first of those saving throws. Level 11: Learn Eyebite, replace Telekinesis with Disintegrate Level 12: Take Resilient Wisdom Feat (increase from 13 Wisdom to 14 Wisdom) Replace Banishment with Mass Suggestion Level 13: Learn Finger of Death (maybe get a zombie every day)
Level 14: Get the Shadow Walk ability - Bonus Action 120ft teleport at will when in Dim Light or Darkness Level 15: Learn Power Word Stun Level 16: Take War Caster feat Level 17: Learn Wish Learn the Metamagic Twinned Spell Levels 18: Gain Umbral Form ability - can use a bonus action to spend 6 sorcery points to take on a shadowy form with resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage. Can move through creatures and terrain as if they were difficult terrain, lasts for 1 minute. Level 19: One feat or ASI: Maybe Tough or Alert or +2 Constitution? Or maybe multiclass into Bard/Warlock? Help me out here...
Level 20: Gain 4 Sorcery points after a short rest. That's the capstone? Yeah, probably should have multiclassed last level.
Level 11+ strategy:
Now you can add Eyebite to your arsenal of thematic mental debuffs requiring concentration, and you can add mass suggestion, disintegrate, finger of death, and power word stun to your arsenal of non-concentration spells. You also get proficiency in Wisdom Saving throws and advantage on constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell with your feats at levels 12 and 16. You get a nice bonus action at will teleportation at level 14 when in dim light or darkness. Unlike some other ways to teleport, it doesn't have a verbal component, so it can get you out of the vicious Forcecage + silence combination. You also pick up Heightened spell at level 10 to cover for when your hound of ill omen is unable to harass the enemy, which will happen more often now as you’re reaching higher levels. Heightened spell will go well with Disintegrate, Finger of Death, and Power Word Stun. These three spells also go well with Twinned spell, which we pick up at level 17. Lastly, you’ll get access to Wish at level 17, which is really the capstone Sorcerer ability. None of my group's campaigns are even getting past level 15, so I’m not going to bother much with theorycrafting what happens after that point. The level 18 Shadow Sorcerer capstone is pretty cool, though. I know most people love theorycrafting level 20 characters and don’t care about the path to level 20, but that’s not what interests me. I care much more about having fun in levels 1-15 where my group’s campaigns actually take place than I do about having a powerful level 20 character that I’ll never actually get to play. If people want to give some thoughts on what the last two or three levels should be like (which I assume are best with Bard, but Warlock could be interesting, too), I’ll be happy to add those to my build and share credit with those who’ve helped out.
Oh this looks like fun. Not sure if I would participate via submitting a build as I’m not very competent when it comes to optimization, I’m more of a theme and fun gimmicks sort of player. Though I do have a fun thematic idea....
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Level 20 level split: Warlock of the Archfey(17) Sorcerer(3)
Race: Changeling.
Stats: Str 8 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 15 Stats after Race bonus: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 17
Idea: Do you know that feeling when you see someone somewhere in public and you're sure you know them? You can't place them and you still think you've seen them before. Well your mind might just have rolled a nat20 against this being of no face. Still you can't place them.
Background: Urchin
Starting level: At this level Change basically just woke up in some alleyway, hearing armored footsteps in the distance and a bit of a headache - and basically nothing else. They don't know who they are, what they are, nothing. They realise they are hunted here. But there was this cloaked spectral form, a being they later got to know as 'the Wanderer'. "Stand up and run, change." - so they do.
The first level version of this build can already do a lot of things: Change is never the same person for long, their "Shapechange" ability lets them change with just an action. From his patron - which turns out to be an archfey - they get the "Fey Precense": It allows us to either get away in combat if we find ourselfs too close or gives a momentary scare or charm to overwhelm a NPC for a short time in roleplay situations.
As Skills they already have the full capacity of social skills you might need to make somebody believe you're not the person that just walked out. The Urchin gives us the right tools for secret missions, too: From Warlock: Deception and Intimidation. From Changeling: Persuasion and Insight. From Urchin: Sleight of Hand, Stealth, disguise kit and thieves' tools
The spells you pick are nothing to scoff at: You'll get good old eldritch blast and Minor Illusion as Cantrips. As Spells we take Sleep and Hex - Hex as a classic DMG booster and Sleep as a chance to get everyone to sleep - and then replace one of the bad guys with yourself! Or you know... boring crowd control.
The Starting Equipment isn't really important. I guess you could take whatever floats your boat. I don't know, take a dagger or something. I heared they can come in handy.
At 5th level: Warlock of the Archfey(5) Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Change has now grown up and learned a lot from their Archfey patron. Their disguise and infiltration abilities have enabled them to get into a lot of places they aren't supposed to be. Curiosity kills the cat - as soon as the dogs catch up - but Change is faster.
At fifth level well have taken a BUNCH of cool stuff already: From level 2 we took 2 Eldritch Invocations and at 5th level we got a third one: We took "Mask of many Faces" first. It is an essential piece of our Loadout: We can now be whoever we need to be:Mask of many Faces gives us the right illusory clothes and the shapechange feature will let us BE the person we need to be. Second we took Devil's Sight: It will let us see in ANY darkness and makes it easy to run around without a big light that shows everyone where we are. Also it gives us advantage against anybody not capable to see in the magic darkness of our darkness spell (we take that at lvl 3). Third we take Eldritch Sight: That comes from Changes unerring curiossity. Keeping Detect Magic on all the time will let you see all those magic tricks people might try trowing at you.
From 3rd level Change got his first best friend: A sprite named "Noone". That sprite will keep invisible most of the time. His Hearth Sight ability will help in some social encounters and an invisible flying archer that can spy for you will help us a lot. (Quasit or Imp would be great, too, but we're an archfey warlock, come on now.)
At 4th level we take a half feat to round out our Cha and get some goodies: Change learns the "Telepathic" feat. It gives us untraceable comunication with our group if we need it and lets us cast Detect thoughts which will be great.
As Spells we now have the following Loadout: Cantrips: Eldritch Blast Minor Illusion Prestidigitation: Get yourself clean or dirty anytime you need, kill the lights or leave some signs for the group.
At will: Detect Magic Disguise Self
Once per day: Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled: Gaseus Form(exchanged with Sleep) - you can litterally slip through cracks in the floor now. Hex Darkness - a great spell - gives you cover (You see in magical darkness anyway) - so advantage for you , disadvantage for them. Invisibility - yes, you could act like a guard - but you could also could just not be seen anywhere. Sometimes at least. Misty Step - "Get outa there" Suggestion - "I suggest you cause Mayhem while I slip out."
At 11th level: Warlock of the Archfey(8), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change has found a place in this world. Well a bunch of them. The Wanderer has granted them a bunch of powers and even has changed Changes very being so they are magicall in and of themselfs. They now are in on a lot of shemes of various good and bad meaning people, they have a lot of faces and proofen helpful with a lot of people. They even surprise the friends they made along the way all the time with. "Dude, it's me." is how they introduce the other members of their group to any new person they created.
At level 11 we have 3 more levels in Warlock wich gives us another Patron feature: Misty Escape: Change can now turn invisible and teleport away whenever they get hit - which should never happen, but well it does.
We also got 3 new Spells and 2 more Points in Cha to make that full. Another Infusion is on its way now, too. we allso now take our 3 levels in Sorcerer from the Aberant Mind. There is some nice goodies here: We get some more spells, the ability to keep in touch with a person while within 5 miles of them. Also we get the Meta Magic options: Subtle Spell and Quickened Spell - this allows us to cast spells without anybody noticing or getting an action Spell and a cantrip into one round of combat.
Infusions now: Mask of many Faces Devil's Sight Eldritch Sight Misty Visoins: Silent Image can be very helpful: Create false walls or a diversion so you can't get found out in the wrong spot.
Spells now: Warlock:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast Minor Illusion Prestidigitation
At will: Detect Magic Disguise Self Silent Image
Once per day: Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled: Gaseus Form Hex Darkness Invisibility Misty Step Suggestion Tongues: You now can understand whatever any creature says. That will get you some secrets. Dimension Door: You know, Misty Step but sometimes better. Greater Invisibility: When you're not using Darkness in battle you'll have this bad boy. You can also use it to cast some Social Spells in a crowded room without having everybody being clouded in darkness.
Sorcerer(3): Cantrips: Message Friends Gust Light
First Level: Charm Person Expedicious Retreat Feather Fall Shield arms of hadar dissonant Wispers mind sliver
Second Level: Calm Emotions Detect Thoughts
At 17th level:Warlock of the Archfey(14), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change would now be famous if people would notice what they do. But they don't. thats the point. Change is a myth at best. Some people Change works for know more than one of his hundrets of personalitys and know they could be anybody at any time. And people know whom to ask for information.
From Level 9 to level 14 in Warlock we get some high end features. At level 10 and 14 we get two more of our Archfey features: We're now immune to charms and can turn them back on our enemys. At 14 we also now can also charm or frighten a creature with our Dark Delirium feature.
At 11 and 13 we get our first two mystic arcanums: Our level 6 will be Mass Suggestion - you know why. Our level 7 will be Etherealness - we can now get anywhere. ANYWHERE.
at level 12 we'll take a feat. Lucky comes to mind. An alternative would be Resilient(Con) or War Caster - as you don't want to drop Concentration mid combat. You decide here. I'm not your dad.
We get two more infusions: Agonizing Blast - you know how to use this. Witch Sight - well you know, we wouldn't want to be screwed over by our own tricks!
Infusions now: Mask of many Faces Devil's Sight Eldritch Sight Misty Visoins Agonizing Blast Witch Sight
Spells now: Warlock:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast Minor Illusion Prestidigitation Mage Hand
At will: Detect Magic Disguise Self Silent Image
Once per day: Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled: Gaseus Form Hex Darkness Invisibility Misty Step Suggestion Tongues Dimension Door Greater Invisibility Dominate Person - More Manipulation! Dream - More dirty tricks and communication! Far Step - More teleportation! Scrying - More Information!
Mystic Arcanum: Mass Suggestion Etherealness
Sorcerer(3): Cantrips: Message Friends Gust Light
First Level: Charm Person Expedicious Retreat Feather Fall Shield Arms of Hadar Dissonant Wispers Mind Sliver
Second Level: Calm Emotions Detect Thoughts
At 20th level and final thoughts:Warlock of the Archfey(17), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change is now less of a creature and more of a myth. The person that knows. The person that stands behind you when you feel watched but can't see by whom. The person that replaced loved ones and you won't notice. They are now an information broker and spy on a level never seen before. They don't really have an agenda, but they know how to get to the places they want to be and be whomever they like. Sometimes Change might help you - just because they think it might be the right thing to do, but sometimes just because they can. They have become a true person of the Wanderers whims.
for the last 3 levels we don't really have much more to do, but hey, it finishes the build. Another feat(take another from the mentioned above) two more Arcanus(see below) and two more spells(you guessed it: below). At last our 7th infusion: Visions of Distant Realms
Infusions now: Mask of many Faces Devil's Sight Eldritch Sight Misty Visions Agonizing Blast Witch Sight Visions of Distant Realms - Information? Yea we got that.
Spells now: Warlock:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast Minor Illusion Prestidigitation Mage Hand
At will: Detect Magic Disguise Self Silent Image Arcane Eye
Once per day: Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled: Gaseus Form Hex Darkness Invisibility Misty Step Suggestion Tongues Dimension Door Greater Invisibility Dominate Person Dream Far Step Scrying Contract other Plane - risky, but if you really want to talk to the Wanderer. Hallucinatory Terrain - you know tricks and stuff. Could be fun?
Mystic Arcanum: Mass Suggestion Etherealness Glibness - never nat1 a Charisma check. True Polymorph - you know how to kill a creature, but you know whats more fun: turning it into a potted plant.
Sorcerer(3): Cantrips: Message Friends Gust Light
First Level: Charm Person Expedicious Retreat Feather Fall Shield Arms of Hadar Dissonant Wispers Mind Sliver
In his youth, Gura was drawn to strange sight... the March of the Modrons. He noticed the orderly march had a single empty space... exactly at his stride. Joining the March, Gura witnessed the perfect harmony of Mechanus... a bastion of order in a chaotic multiverse. Remaining in Mechanus for a mere 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 2 seconds, the clockwork rigidity remained with him after returning to the Material Plane.
Gura is focused on making a spellcaster who specializes in taking down other spellcasters. Being a Yuan-Ti Pureblood puts him at an early advantage... aside from starting with some innate spellcasting abilities, his Yuan-Ti heritage gives him advantage on resisting all magical effects, and outright immunity to poison. His Restore Balance feature allows him to cancel advantage for his enemies, and prevent disadvantage for himself and his allies. Gura relies on his racial Poison Spray cantrip to deal damage, and also grabs Shocking Grasp to help him escape from melee. His other cantrips focus on utility, and he learns Mage Armor and Shield to provide more protection for himself. Gura's training as an alchemist also allows him to craft potions, and since he won't really need to invest in weapons or armor, he mostly spends his money and free time preparing potions of healing.
At 5th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (3)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16
HP: 34 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
As Gura learns the true nature of his powers, he makes a pact with Mechanus, a being beyond death itself, to embrace the power of the Undying.
Two levels in Warlock gives Gura access to Invocations... He takes Armor of Shadows, freeing him from needing to spend spell slots to maintain Mage Armor (and freeing Gura to swap Mage Armor for Magic Missile, more to force Concentration Checks than to deal damage), and Eldritch Mind to help him keep concentration on his own spells. He grabs two more attack cantrips... Eldritch Blast for a reliable source of damage, since so many enemies have resistance or immunity to poison, and Mind Sliver to reduce his enemy's ability to make saving throws. This pairs with his Metamagic... less-so Twinned Spell, but it pairs beautifully with Quickened Spell. Gura can cast Mind Sliver with his action, then Quicken a spell like Ray of Sickness (which he gets from his Undying Patron) and make extra certain his target is poisoned. For his remaining Warlock spells, he learns False Life from his Patron to boost his meager health, and Hellish Rebuke to punish those who manage to hurt him. As a sorcerer he learns two more spells... Hold Person to pin down individual enemies (or pairs of enemies if he spends the sorcery points), and Web to stop or slow down groups of enemies. His Undying nature also gives him Spare the Dying to keep his allies alive, and gives him some extra defense against Undead, which could prove invaluable if facing off against necromancers who rely on Undead minions.
At 11th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (9)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
HP: 70 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
Early levels were mostly to prepare, but with his brief dip into Warlock complete, Gura shifts his focus entirely to Clockwork Sorcery
Gura hits two ASIs by now... not surprisingly, he puts two points into CHA, but he also invests in Mage Slayer. Many of the features of Mage Slayer aren't particularly useful... he already has advantage on all magic saving throws, and he'll be avoiding melee combat as much as possible, but giving his opponent disadvantage on Concentration checks for any damage dealt can prove to be devastating. When he wants to break his opponent's concentration, he can spend his turn hitting them with Mind Sliver, forcing them to make a CON saving throw at disadvantage -1d4, and if that doesn't break their concentration he can quicken Magic Missile to force 3+ CON Saving throws... or if he really wants to bring an enemy spellcaster to a screeching halt, he can use his 5th level spell slot to cast Synaptic Static, forcing his opponent so subtract a d6 from all attacks and ability checks, and specifically CON saving throws for maintaining concentration... this puts his victims at Disadvantage, -1d4 and -1d6 when hitting them with Mind Sliver, practically guaranteeing the loss of almost all Concentration Spells his opponents try to put down. He's also certain to grab Counterspell and Dispel Magic, plus non-concentration battlefield control spells, like Blindness/Deafness (and Synaptic Static). His Clockwork Soul also gives him access Bastion of Law, which allows him to convert sorcery points into a pool of d8's he can use to protect himself from damage, which pairs with the extra HP he already gets from False Life.
At 17th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (15)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
HP: 115 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
Another ASI is hit, and it's going into CON to boost HP and Concentration checks. Gura gets another Metamagic Option, and he grabs Heightened Spell... it's a 3-point investment every time its used, but by 10th level Gura has enough sorcery points to be able to afford spending the points to make sure some of his more devastating spells, such as Finger of Death, take hold. For his 8th level spell he takes Power Word Stun, which is a great spell for one-on-one duels, especially against other spellcasters, which largely have lower HP than other opponents. He also gains access to Trance of Order from his Clockwork Soul, which prevents his opponents from getting advantage on attacks targeting him, and for 1 minute he can't roll below a 10 on any important roll, except for Death Saves.
At 20th level and final thoughts: Clockwork Sorcerer (18)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
HP: 133 AC: 16 (Mage Armor)
Gura's last ASI goes into CHA. Aside from the general usefulness of increasing his primary stat, it also helps with his final Metamagic: Empowered Spell, allowing him to re-roll up to 5 damage die to maximize damage on spells. Sorcerers probably have one of the worst 20th level abilities, so Gura gets a lot more out of his two-level warlock dip. Getting two first-level Warlock Spell slots to spend each short rest is comparable to 4 sorcery points per short rest, and it comes with Eldritch Invocations and a few key Warlock spells. Gura also gets access to Clockwork Cavalcade, which can be used to heal allies (I believe he can't target himself with the spell), repair objects and, more importantly, end every spell of 6th level or lower he wants in the area of effect. This can be used either to clear allies of debuffs or eliminate dangerous spell effects, or could be used to eliminate an enemy's buffs... and if the positioning is lucky, he can do them all at once. Gura takes Wish as his 9th level spell, because why not? Don't forget that Gura has been brewing potions at every opportunity throughout his adventures... so he's fully loaded on healing potions and whatever utility potions he's able to concoct with the money he's not spending on the equipment other classes need.
Working on something. Hoping to debug the floof and make it more readable, though the mechanics are in place. That said, it's likely top be an ever-so-slightly illegal build, so everybody else ganbatte and make sure that Yurei jerk quits winning. Hueh.
Working on something. Hoping to debug the floof and make it more readable, though the mechanics are in place. That said, it's likely top be an ever-so-slightly illegal build, so everybody else ganbatte and make sure that Yurei jerk quits winning. Hueh.
Illegal you say? The judges shall be watching! Looks like the crown is going to fall further from our previous champion this time around...
((NOTE:: Technically this build is illegal under DF’s rules discluding magic items, as it makes use of a prosthetic limb for story and flavor. And for other, more obvious reasons. I hope DorkForge will see fit to grant dispensation in this case as the limb has absolutely zero impact on mechanical functionality of the build, but if not, please keep this in mind when voting. Thanks, and enjoy.))
AND NOW. In honor of what we're all actually going to be doing when the voting period for this contest comes around...I present to you, a bard for your Spellcasting build. But one who's a little...wilder than the usual lute-playing fops.
Jhanni, the Silver Hand Half-elf Bard/Fighter (College of Glamour) 12 | 14 | 13(14) | 10 | 8 (9)| 15(17) Charlatan (rebel rocker) Background HP: 10 AC: 14 (w/studded leather)
Just a Nameless Punk: Level 1 “The conscription officer came through town. Gave me my chit, said it was time to serve my King. Told me to report to the fairgrounds tomorrow, and if I made him send a soldier to drag me there it’d go bad for me. I told him I’d be there. Told him I’d serve, if it’d please the Kingship. Asked him whether I might be allowed to play my lute for the King, if I served well. He laughed. Told me he’d heard less likely things, and walked off. I’m scared, but this is my chance. This sleepy little town’s nice enough, but if I can play for the King, then maybe I can be a court musician! I just have to get through some soldiering first. That won’t be too bad, right? I’m not a big man, not a muscly sort. There’s jobs in the army for a man with a lute too...right?”
Jhanni begins his tale of rock and vengeance as a first-level bard, with a healthy slew of talents from his half-elven heritage and bardic knack for knowledge. Many of these skills are simply seeds for talents Jhanni will develop later on in a tumultuous life, but they’re there regardless. A simple folk musician from a sleepy town, Jhanni desires nothing more at this point than to play his music and watch the smiles on people’s faces.
It’s a nice dream. Childish, ultimately futile...but a nice one. Too bad nice things don’t last in Night City Faerun, chummer.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion | Charm Person, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
“They took my arm. It’s gone...just gone. They said the arrow wound was gangrenous, but I didn’t smell anything. I asked them how I was supposed to play...how I was supposed to serve and earn the chance to play for the King. The sergeant hit me. He said nameless little shits who can’t even go three campaign seasons without getting maimed get to go home in disgrace, not meet the King. They were taking away my gear, sending me home. Dishonorable discharge, with nothing but the clothes on my back. I fought, I bled, I nearly died. I gave up my arm...so some fat bastard in expensive armor they never gave me could tell me I wasn’t good enough?”
“**** the king. **** this place. **** this country, and all these pointless border wars. I’ll play for the King, someday...right before someone chops his ******* arm off.”
Jhanni’s boyhood dreams are shattered by a grievous war wound, the loss of his left arm ending both his military service and his musical aspirations...for a time. But Jhanni wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. The wound, and the terrible callousness of the officers who treated it as merely an annoying trifle of war, galvanized the fury churning in Jhanni’s gut. Fury he’s always felt, a molten rage against everyone who dismissed him and his dreams simply because of his mongrel blood.
Mechanically, two levels of fighter represent Jhanni’s military service and training, granting him proficiency in medium armor, shields, and any weapon of his choice. Defense is a boring choice of fighting style, but after the war Jhanni eschews armed combat. Action Surge grants Jhanni one double-cast per short rest, which is certainly helpful when one is turning their unexpectedly diverse talents to rebellion.
So far as Bard goes, we carry up to 3, gaining our College of Glamour. Jhanni chases the secrets of his father’s folk, and with chaos in his mind and rebellion in his future, it’s no trouble at all to find a fiery spirit of the Feywild to instruct him. Gaining Expertise in both Performance and Persuasion, Jhanni begins learning secrets for exhorting a crowd. He can enthrall them, dazzling them with his performance...or he can use Mantle of Inspiration to rile up a crowd and get them bangin’, running with the music regardless of anyone’s attempts to stop them. Jhanni’s building a band, and that band is gonna rock the world hard enough to shake all those fancy castles down right on top of all those fat bastard kings’ heads.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion | Bane, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter | Shatter, Suggestion
“The king knows my name now. He’s got a bunch of other names he likes to call me, too. Criminal. Rebel. Anarchist. Madman. But he’s not the only one who knows my name. Not the only one who has a new one for me. When I play, when I turn up in a town and jam, my fans call me something else. They chant a new name, right before they start burning. Right before Official Heads start rolling. Right before the song takes a new town, and the fat man in the crown busts another vein. They call me the Silver Hand. I like it. I ****in’ like it. Jhanni Silverhand. I think I’ll ****in’ keep it.”
By eleventh level, Jhanni has become a well-known rebel presence – and also a famous musician in his own right. No bardic college claims him, and no bardic immunity shields him, but others have begun to play his songs, and whenever he shows up and reveals himself both music and mayhem follow. He’s acquired allies, bandmates and champions who play and fight alongside him and help him spread his violent, anarchic message.
Jhanni grows in power, gaining a boon from the fey creatures who so delight in the chaos that follows in his wake. Fey-Touched grants him a free Misty Step (useful for escaping guardsmen!) and access to the Command spell, even outside his Mantle of Majesty. While rocking his hardest, Jhanni can cast Command as a bonus action spell slot-free, sowing disarray amongst his enemies. With Tongues, his seditious music can reach any ear, regardless of language. With Animate Objects, the weapons of his enemies turn on their tyrannical masters. And with Synaptic Static, he can quite literally blow your mind. Resilient: Wisdom at 8 shores up Jhanni’s weak Wisdom score – hard experience and many a narrow escape have taught him a degree of fey cunning that makes him even more difficult to pin down
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap (DROP THE BEAT) | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics (because what kind of rockerboy doesn’t have stage pyro, huh?), Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static
A City to Burn: Level 17 Bard 15 (College of Glamour) / Fighter 2 Stats: 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 20 HP: 124 AC: 17 w/breastplate (19 w/shield)
“The king is dead. Long live the ****in’ king. Showed up at his ****in’ castle, while his city rioted around him. My band and a few nastier fey at my back. I played for the King, just like I always said I would. I played a rockin’ show, and then I watched Ulrich take the king’s arm off. An arm for an arm. Service rendered, insult avenged. Left him bleeding, and opened the gates. Let all the king’s loyal subjects in. Turns out, with his guard scattered, his armies in disarray, and bleeding from a stump where his sword arm used to be? His subjects weren’t so loyal, after all.”
By seventeenth level, Jhanni has become a master provocateur and a world-renowned anarchist. His music is banned just about everywhere, but that doesn’t stop anyone from playing it. His magics allow him to subvert, deceive, assail his foe’s minds, and move tracelessly across the natrions he works to throw into chaos. His magical secrets allow him to summon agents of the delighted Archfey who trained him, conjure up his signature Silver Hand, burn down cities with a blazing storm of vengeful fire, or speak a note of divine rock so profound it can dazzle or even kill any who hear it. Few kingdoms can withstand the furious chaos of the Silver Hand.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit Spells: Vicious Mockery, Message, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics, Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues, Summon Fey (Secret) | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static, Seeming, Bigby’s Hand (Secret) | Mass Suggestion | Teleport, Firestorm (Secret), Divine Word (Secret) | Feeblemind
“I’ve seen the truth, now. Watched it unfold, when we took the capitol. All these people, all these folk who listen to my songs? They’re just like I used to be. Little sheep, eager to be fleeced because they never learned better. Nobody ever taught them better. That’s gonna be my job, now. My reason, the muse for my songs. The people need to wake the **** up. All these greedy little kings and their endless ******* wars...it’s all so pointless. I’ll show the people that. I’ll wake them up. And when I do, the world will eat its masters alive. And it’ll be truly breathtaking to see.”
By 20 level, Jhanni has achieved the height of his power. His final magics allow him to transform his enemies into new instruments for his collection, conjure a terrifying blade of pure devastation to sunder all that stands before him, or even distort the fabric of reality itself at a whim. He also picks up War Caster, about ten levels too late but that’s just how it goes, with his final ASI. Jhanni has transcended vengeance, seeing anarchy itself as his new mission. He will use the disruptive magics he’s spent his life mastering to awaken the sheep of the world to the wolves preying on them, and in the doing he will watch the world burn. Burn, and burn, and burn, as long as it has to before it learns. Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit Spells: Vicious Mockery, Message, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics, Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues, Summon Fey (Secret) | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static, Seeming, Bigby’s Hand (Secret) | Mass Suggestion | Teleport, Firestorm (Secret), Divine Word (Secret) | Feeblemind | Blade of Disaster (Secret), True Polymorph, Wish (Secret)
Dang it. No matter how powerful he is, Impending Doom doesn't have a chance against Jhanni the Silver Hand. Better luck for next round. Long live Queen Yurei, Champion of the Throwdowns.
Dang it. No matter how powerful he is, Impending Doom doesn't have a chance against Jhanni the Silver Hand. Better luck for next round. Long live Queen Yurei, Champion of the Throwdowns.
Long Live Queen Yurei!
Of course, if Jhanni had his way, Yurei would be quickly losing her crown.
And a few other body parts as well :P
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Seven there shall be/In the halls of the eighth/Eights shall witness/Eight and eight and eight and eight/Blood of the father/Blood of the sun/Endless darkness/Day is done
Quick question... Is the Tasha's stuff available for use? I have a build that makes great use of the ancestry part. (+1 to 2 stats, and a feat instead of the usual racial ASI's).
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'm always so pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome and reception these contests get on D&D Beyond, you've proven yourselves to be a fantastic community :) So what else can I do but keep coming back for more? You may as well give me a key and stock the fridge with Coke Zero at this point...
The concept: Magus Maximus
This theme is a suggestion and focuses on casting, so there will be some additional restrictions in the rules section this time to help guide the concept whilst trying to keep things as open as possible. This time we're looking for mastery of magic, what interesting things can you all come up with that puts focus on casting spells and other magical effects? What interesting spell and class synergies will you find new and interesting ways to exploit? Remeber, Tasha's is out and viable for the contest!
Some rules for guidance:
-The primary schtick of your character should be casting spells, this should describe 80-90% of their actions
-You must have at least 11 levels in a full casting class (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock or Wizard), this minimum requirement doesn't need to be all a single class (e.g. 11 levels of Wizard is just as valid as a Cleric 6/Druid 5). Any builds that don't meet this requirement will not be valid.
-In the interest of promoting creativity and diversity in these builds, Hexblade will be allowed, but requires a minimum of 5 levels as part of your overall build. If you choose any other Warlock patron this restriction is not applicable.
-No UA, only officially published materials
-You must include a stat array (Point Buy or Standard Array)
-Build to 20 with insights on how the build hands at levels 5, 11, 17 and 20 (include hp and AC at each point for each of reading)
-Multiclassing and feat optional rules in play
-Variants for races available (V. Human, Dragonmarks, SCAG variants)
-No magic items unless you have a way to create them from a class feature
-Normal starting items and gold, mundane armor upgrades be assumed to happen during tier 2 (so you can mention Plate/Half Plate in your commentary but you can only include it in snapshots for levels 11,17 and the final 20).
-Catchy names and fluff are not a requirement but are always nice to read
Suggested format:
Level 20 level split:
Race:
Stats: Str x Dex x Con x Int x Wis x Cha x
Background:
Starting level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 5th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 11th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 17th level:
Any guidance or commentary you want
At 20th level and final thoughts:
Voting:
To sort the wheat from the chaff we'll vote on builds and declare a 'winner' (a concept that will hopefully continue in future threads and put the contest into this), to vote simply make a post quoting the build you want to vote for (snipping the content to keep things getting out of hand) and say something that indicates you're voting e.g. +1, get's my vote etc.
-Each user only gets one vote but you can edit your post at any time before the deadline to change your mind.
-If you submit a build, you must vote for someone for your entry to be considered valid
-A user can submit more than one build but they must be in separate posts (and not back to back to respect forum rules)
-You cannot vote for yourself
-Each throwdown thread will run for 7 days after which no new builds will be accepted for contention, when the build deadline has closed votes will be accepted. The voting deadline will be five days after the build deadline, votes will be tallied and the winner announced (any vote edits after the deadline has passed will also not be counted, if the original vote cannot be seen the vote will be null and void).
Magus build deadline/Voting opens: 05/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET
Voting deadline: 10/12/2020 @ 9pm BST/4pm ET
PLEASE NOTE THAT VOTING IS NOW ONLY ONCE THE BUILD DEADLINE HAS PASSED.
The Contestants:
Third_Sundering's 'Impending Doom' 5 Votes WINNER
gabrielrockman's 'Psionic Shadow Sorcerer'
Sulto's 'Change-they who have amny faces and none'
TransmorpherDDS' 'Gura D Bombac' 2 votes
Yurei1453's 'Jhanni, the Silver Hand' 4 votes
Necromas' 'Red Mage' 1 Vote **INVALID ENTRY, NO POSTER VOTE**
Bramblefootdruid's 'Ryze, The Rune Mage' 1 vote
GoodBovine's 'Mage Sovereign'
Everett_D's 'Elrin Bronzehammer'
The winner is Third_Sundering's 'Impending Doom,' congratulations to Third_Sundering and thank you to everyone that has submitted a build and voted. It was nice to see a lot of spectator votes this time around!
Previous winners:
Throwdown #1: The Gish - Yurei1453's 'Aine, Avandra's Blade'
Throwdown #2: The Terminator - Yurei's 'ATLAS'
Throwdown #3: The Solo Tour- GoodBovine's 'The Dark Angel'
Throwdown #4: Powergamer's Potluck- Yurei1453's 'Yferna the Feywarden'
Throwdown #5: Spooky Circumstances-Archaeolexi's 'Arissa, the Dark Princess'
I'd also like to take a moment to ask you guys to check out our Youtube channel, we focus on mechanics and character builds (our current videos focus on overviewing Tasha's content with added thoughts and notes) and if you enjoy these contests you may very well enjoy our work too. All of our builds comes with a free to access build guides in the description to help follow along or run the characters in your own games. Thank you for sitting through my waffle!
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Explanation:
Okay, let me first get my point clear. I do not like the Order of the Scribes, and dislike that this build is legal, but it technically follows RAW. According to Sage Advice, Magic Missile works similarly to AoE spells in the sense that there is one roll for the spell and everyone that is hit by a magic missile takes the damage rolled. That means that features like an Aasimar's Radiant Soul adds to the damage of each individual magic missile. This combined with other features can allow you to abuse that single spell with a multitude of features, as shown in this build. The combo takes a bit to get up, but it is very much worth it once you do.
Impending Doom
Impending Doom is a Fallen Aasimar, a member of a long line of Fallen Aasimar that are descended from Zariel, falling from grace with Zariel becoming an Archdevil. As servitors of the archduchess's will, this group of Zariel's mortal kin have been trained in magic for centuries, honing in their power to accomplish what their mistress desires, in return for a quick promotion through the ranks of the devils upon their deaths. This tradition of magic practicing has carried on for many generations, and is the origin of our character, a Fallen Aasimar named Impending Doom.
Impending Doom
Fallen Aasimar Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 6/Celestial Warlock 6/Order of the Scribes 2/Wildfire Druid 6
Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13
HP: 132
AC: 17 (Half-Plate and a Shield), 22 with shield
Quote from Impending Doom:
Born in the secluded aasimar enclave of Hellfyre's Inferno, Impending Doom was raised in an overly indoctrinated community of devotees towards the Archduchess of Avernus, Mistress Zariel. Their community began centuries ago, after Zariel's fall from grace, being sucked down to her infernal disgrace with the transgression of their ancestral mother, as all aasimar descended from Zariel became fallen aasimar or Zariel tieflings at the moment of her descent from celestial glory.
Molded by his upbringing, the young fallen aasimar named "Impending Doom" was a unique member of his community, with an innate knack for all things magical, with the fiery blessing of Zariel herself. This granted him a strange connection with the vestigial healing powers of his celestial heritage, combined with the fiery magic of Zariel's current form, allowing him to help his small community grow in followers who came to see the so called "Fire-Born Angel".
Level One: A Burning Ember
Fallen Aasimar Druid 1
Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 13
Background: There's not really one that fits that well, so I'll just choose Boros Legionnaire
HP: 10
AC: 13 (Leather Armor, Shield)
Skills: Athletics +1, Arcana +5, Perception +3, Intimidation +5
Other Proficiencies: Dragonchess, Draconic
Spells: Control Flames, Produce Flame, Absorb Elements, Goodberry, Light
You may ask why we're starting out as druid. Most simply, it is for powergaming purposes, as we're going to take Circle of Wildfire later on (which will grant us a lot of nice features), and get armor proficiencies for starting in it, as well as more hit points. We want to survive, and want to start preparing for our combo later on. This will help us do so.
For story purposes, we'll "pull an Eberron". That is, we will explain our features through a way contrary to the way the books explain the classes. For us, we are not a druid that pulls our magical energy from nature. We are a druid that pulls our energy from the infernal fire bestowed upon us by our matron, Zariel. Zariel is the Mistress of Fiendish Fire, and we are her scion, giving us these powers.
The healing and restorative powers granted by being our specific kind of druid is thematically due to our matron's quasicelestial nature and our connection with our angelic heritage, allowing us an easy and thematically appropriate way of explaining the features granted by our future druid circle, the Circle of Wildfire. The quasicelestial nature of Zariel combined with the dormant angelic powers of our aasimar blood grants us many magical powers, including ones unique to a fiendish character.
At this level, we're not doing much in combat. Occasionally we will hit someone with a blast of fire, but are mostly just hanging in the back, trying to survive.
A young, purply-gray skinned man with pointed ears walks alone through the dark night, this one being particularly gloomy due to the newness of the moon. His neck and head covered by a black cloak, smothering the orangish glow of his strange hair to conceal his otherworldly nature. He walks slowly down the old and worn cobbled path of northern Elturgard, holding no torch or lamp to light his way,. He travels slowly his careful steps making nothing but the faint scratch of his new leather boots meeting the grey stones that lead the way through the Forest of Wyrms to roundabout path to the Evermoors. This figure is a fallen aasimar known as Impending Doom, a blood descendent of the fallen angel archdevil, Zariel.
In the distance the small flicker of a torch is barely visible, bobbing up and down with the burdened tread of a lone humanoid figure, with the torch faintly lighting his way back to his hunting lodge. The young man with the pointy ears quietly and carefully follows the figure for over an hour and a half, until the figure bearing the torch stops at a small hunting lodge hidden in the dense woods. This young man approaches close enough to make out features of the figure, who appears to be an old human hunter carrying home his freshly slain deer, wooden bow, and quiver. Suddenly, Impending Doom's hand begins to emit a bright orange flame, which he propels directly into the backside of the lonely hunter, ending his life straightaway.
Impending Doom casually walks forward to enter the lodge. He mutters under his breath, "I'll burn the body in the morning."
Our youngling angel-born has just left his hometown to experience the world, to see what land will eventually be scorched by his infernal fires. All that he comes across he views in its future state, a smoldering pile of ashes and coals surrounded by the charred skeletons of all who dare oppose the might of the Baatezu. He starts out carefully, making absolutely certain that his diabolical acts are undiscovered by his potential rivals, stealthily incinerating dozens of townsfolk as an omen of the inevitable destruction and domination that will come to the unknowing world.
Impending Doom is a ringmaster for Zariel, who toys with the souls of other mortals as a cat would play with a meal. He is an expert at parleying with monsters and frightening them into turning their monstrous fury onto unsuspecting townsfolk, releasing havoc and destruction on innocent commoners to slowly grow their paranoia and increase their superstitions. As the people get more manic and desperate, the more likely they are to turn to darker sources of power to protect themselves.
He has most recently taken up residence in a hunting lodge in northern Elturgard, as a temporary base stolen from the ownership of a now dead hunter. He does not plan to stay there long, merely refreshing his resources and resting for a short time before he continues on his long, treacherous journey through the unknown world.
Level Five: A Scorched Scholar
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 3/Order of Scribes 2
Ability Scores: Same as before
HP: 33
AC: 17 (Half-Plate made of a strong wood, Shield), 22 with Shield
New Spells: Burning Hands, Guiding Bolt, Magic Missile, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Mage Hand, Toll the Dead, Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Shield
We are now starting to do our calling, which is to burn everything in sight in the name of Zariel. To assist us in this task, we now have two servants, our Fox-shaped Wildfire Spirit named Faux, and a fiendish Winged Monkey named Taboo. Our two companions stick around each other, assisting them in combat (Taboo provides the Help action for Faux, and Faux teleports Taboo around).
Faux is composed entirely out of orange flames, and Taboo appears as a tiny, fiendish angel formed completely out of fire, with an undefined, ever-changing form.
Now we get to the good stuff. Our first action is used for Necrotic Shroud to frighten our enemies, and our next action is used to summon our Wildfire Spirit, burning our newly frightened enemies. On our next turn, we cast Magic Missile at 3rd level, each bolt dealing 1d4+6, having 5 bolts. On average, that is 42.5 force/radiant damage, which we can do for our next two turns. That is 85 damage in two damage, which is automatic, requiring no attack roll or saving throw. During those turns, we also get to command our Wildfire Spirit, which deals an average of 13 (2d6+6) extra fire damage if it hits twice (rolling its attack rolls at advantage).
In four rounds, if our Wildfire Spirit hits twice, we deal on average 98 damage + however much damage we deal when summoning our Wildfire Spirit. On later turns, we can cast Magic Missile with our 3 second level spell slots, and 4 first level spell slots.
It's good. Not crazy impressive, but it gets even better at later levels.
"Do you see 'em, Faux?" Impending Doom asks, "Did the people get away? Wait! I see something over in the corner! Move a bit closer, let me see it better. That's it. Got 'em."
Suddenly a series of seeking bursts of flames erupt out of Impending Doom's, all sending the cowardly commoners back to their maker, their hopeless lives ending with ear-piercing screams. Impending Doom smiles wickedly, slowly walking through the crisp ashes of his incinerated victims.
Impending Doom has now begun to master the art of channeling the inevitable flames of the Archduchess Zariel. He can conjure the infernal flames of his matron in the form of a fox composed completely of fire, which he has named Faux, as well as summoning Taboo to aid Faux in attacking enemies.
With his flames much more potent than before, Zariel's favor with Impending Doom has increased greatly. Now Impending Doom gets indirect orders from an imp sent by Zariel, serving as the mortal hitman for the fallen angel, causing his name to begin being whispered among communities where he travels, spoken of in hushed tones. Impending Doom and his two servants, Faux and Taboo, are seen as infernal boogeymen, following the directions of an Archduchess of Avernus.
Level Eleven: The Hand of Zariel
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 3/Order of Scribes Wizard 2
Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 13 | 13 (Telepathic feat)
HP: 75
AC: Same as before
New Spells: Plant Growth, Revivify, Hex, Friends, Chill Touch, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Call Lightning, Sacred Flame
Our patron is Zariel, with Hexblade being the closest patron to a fallen angel.
We take the Telepathic feat and Devil's Sight Eldritch Invocation, as Zariel (like other angels) has telepathy and has devil's sight (like other devils). This is flavored as us harnessing the power of our fallen, fiendish ancestor, gaining the ability to learn the thoughts of others and speak with them telepathically. We also take Pact of the Talisman, which we wear, taking the Rebuke of the Talisman invocation to punish those who attack us. The Talisman is shaped like a fiendish angel, as a symbol of Zariel. With Pact Magic, we will regain spell slots on a short rest, allowing us to use our combo more often than before.
As before, we start combat with Necrotic Shroud. As a bonus action in the same turn, we cast hex on our target, which we will unleash our fiery fury later. On our next turn, we summon our Wildfire Spirit, using Hexblade's Curse on our enemy. Then, on our next turn, we will cast Magic Missile, changing its damage type to Fire. Now we get to stack our bonus from Hex, Necrotic Shroud, Hexblade's Curse, and Enhanced Bond onto Magic Missile, dealing 1d4+16+1d6+1d8 damage on each missile, using a 4th level spell slot to do so. With this spell slot, we deal an average of 132.5 damage on a hit, being able to do this 2 rounds in a row. We also add our fire damage from our Wildfire Spirit to this damage, dealing 240 damage in two turns (once we get all our stuff up, of course).
Impending Doom lays sleeping in the ashes of a once thriving village, now burnt to the ground with the help of his companions, Faux and Taboo. A bright orange appears in front of him, blinding him with light. Raising his hand to shield his face, he sits up and readies a deadly spell. Once his eyes register what is causing the glow, Impending Doom quickly stops his spell and stares in awe.
"Zariel," He says in reverence, "Why have you come?"
The form in front of him is the glowing Archduchess of Avernus, Lady Zariel herself. In her unholy glory, she silently raises her right palm, in which lies a burning, wrapped-up scroll, wreathed in infernal flames.
"Take it," Zariel whispers in his mind, "and you shall forever be my loyal scion, exercising my will on this mortal realm."
"Have I not already done everything your messenger has asked of me?" Impending Doom questions, "What more can I do?"
"Everything." She replies, "You will do . . . everything."
Level Seventeen: The Second Sun
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 4/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 5/Order of Scribes Wizard 2
Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13
HP: 114
AC: Same as before
New Spells: Fly, Spirit Shroud, Fear, Blink, Thunder Step
We take Eldritch Mind, granting us advantage on saving throws for Concentration, also taking the Elemental Adept (Fire) feat, so we can do our combo more effectively against creatures that are resistant to fire damage. We also replace Hex with Spirit Shroud, and our subclass is the Draconic Bloodline (Red Dragon). Even though we are not descended from a dragon, this is the closes thing to a fiendish ancestry, which we will use for our purposes later on. Our Metamagic are Quickened Spell and Empowered Spell.
Due to us being a Sorcadin, we can regain sorcery points and a spell slot for Spirit Shroud on a short rest.
We do the same thing we did in combat before, replacing Hex with Spirit Shroud (cast at 5th level), casting magic missile at 6th level. This increases our damage from magic missile to 1d4+3d8+23, having 8 bolts. This deals an average of 312 damage to our target. We can use our 6th, 5th, 4th, and lower level spell slots on later turns to do less (but still a lot of) damage.
Impending Doom stares out at the smoking embers of a raging wildfire, standing in a field across a river from the scorched logs. The profound heat of the colossal flames that erupt from this once thriving forest is evaporating enough of the river's water to cause wisps of steam to slightly block Impending Doom's view of the simmering logs.
He casts fly and begins to float high above the forest, with fiery angelic wings sprouted from his back. He looks down on the burning forest, the clouds of thick smoke neither stinging his eyes, obscuring his vision, nor affecting his breathing. This is his natural environment, where he is meant to be.
The flames are shaped as a radiant angel, scorching the elven settlements that formerly lay inside. For the first time in his life, Impending Doom feels something new; complete and utter bliss.
Level 20: Blazing Angel
Fallen Aasimar Wildfire Druid 6/Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 7/Hexblade Pact of the Talisman Warlock 5/Order of Scribes Wizard 2
Ability Scores: 8 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 13
HP: 132
AC: Same as before
New Spells: Fireball, Blight, Sickening Radiance, Wall of Fire
Not much happens at this level, we just max out our Sorcerer levels, granting us more sorcery points and features.
As our arcane potency increases, we have become a master of shooting deadly, impossibly accurate bursts of flames, incinerating all in our path. We becomes an archmage, a casting hitman of Zariel, doing as our matron commands. Our inherent magic, our pact magic, our learned magic, and our siphoned magic all combine to make us become a quintessence of destruction, the impending doom that comes to all that dare to oppose our unholy mistress. As all fear her name, all tremble at the infernal fury of that can be unleashed by a certain aasimar known as Impending Doom.
We do the same as before, but now cast Magic Missile at 8th level, doing Elemental Adept to increase our magic missile damage even more, and Spirit Shroud at 7th level. Here's the breakdown:
We have 10 missiles, each doing 1d4+4d8+31 damage each. This makes our total damage in one round be 515 damage. Against one target. The vast majority of creatures that you target this way instantly die. If you use this combo against a creature immune to fire damage, you still do 1d4+3d8+26 damage, for a total of 420 force and necrotic damage. That still kills almost anything you come across.
In addition to this, we still have our Wildfire Spirit and familiar to help us do some extra damage.
The sun sets over the town of Daggerford, with the crest of the sun is almost under the horizon. The citizens of the populous town hurriedly end their day, making their way into their small homes. On a hill to the east, a young man clad in half-plate approaches the city with two fiery companions, one an elemental fox, the other a fiendish fallen angel. He is wreathed in flames and carries a blackwood shield inscribed with brigtht-red infernal runes.
The guards of the city gate drop was a swarm of impossibly accurate bursts of fire burn straight through their chainmail armor. A watchtower goes up in flames as a fireball erupts from its wooden base, causing it to fall onto and crash through the city's stone wall as the men on the tower attempt to hide beneath the trapdoor. The men inside scream as they are trapped inside the burning building, slowly being asphyxiated by smoke.
Impending Doom readies his hand for another burst of fire, searching with his eyes for the town's other defenses, "One down, three to go."
Impending Doom is now an exemplar of the fiery might of the Nine Legions of Baator, now fully capable of destroying entire towns and cities using solely his mastery of pyromancy, his fiendish ability to magically heal himself and his pets, as well as his spell-shaping ability to turn missiles of magical force into flaming bursts of utter annihilation. He is an exemplar of the power of fire, and uses his incredible power over arcane and infernal magic to complete any task given him by his immensely powerful devilish matron.
Okay, that's the build. We have a decent AC and HP, a great range of spells and healing abilities if we need to heal ourselves or our elemental. We also have our Talisman and Magical Guidance to avoid failing ability checks, and if we roll low damage for Magic Missile we can reroll using Empowered Casting.
I hope you like the build! May the best Mage win!
Edit: Added some cool flavor text! Hopefully this will give him a fighting chance.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Woop! You're back, and I predicted the theme! I think I've got an idea up my magic sleevies...
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I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
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Level 20 split: Variant Human Shadow Sorcerer 20
Generic name of the build: Gabriel's Psionic Shadow Sorcerer
Variant Human Shadow Sorcerer - Fey touched feat (+1 Charisma, Misty Step, Bane)
Starting Stats from Standard Array: 16 Charisma, 16 Constitution, 13 Wisdom, 12 Dexterity, 10 Intelligence, 8 Strength
Abilities: 120ft Darkvision, Strength of the Grave (Charisma save first time you drop to 0 HP each day).
AC will be 14 at each level (Mage Armor with 12 Dexterity) unless magic items help out. HP will be whatever a Sorcerer with 16 Constitution gets at each level. Constitution saving throws will be pretty good with 16 Constitution and Proficiency in Constitution saving throws from being a Sorcerer.
Starting spell list:
Chill Touch, Mind Sliver, Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion
Mage Armor, Shield, Bane, Misty Step
Level 2:
Gain Sorcery Points
Learn Absorb Elements
Level 3:
Metamagic: Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell
Learn Tasha’s Mind Whip and Darkness
Can see through Darkness when it's cast using two sorcery points
Level 4:
+2 Charisma ASI - up to 18 Charisma now
Learn Hold Person and Message
Level 5:
Learn Fly, replace Hold Person with Feather Fall
Levels 1-5 strategy:
You’re mostly going to be casting Chill Touch or Mind Sliver. You’ll concentrate on Darkness, Bane or Hold Person, and you’ll also have Mage Armor, Shield, Misty Step, and Absorb Elements for defense. You can throw out a few Tasha’s Mind Whips occasionally, but you don’t really have that many spell slots for level 2+ spells. The fey touched feat gives you a free casting of both Misty Step and Bane each day, and that's a pretty nice bonus early on when you don't have that many spell slots.
You have some sorcery points to use for Subtle Spell if you want to avoid being counterspelled, or for Quicken Spell if you want to cast Mind Sliver and then cast Bane or Hold Person as a Bonus Action on the target after they fail the saving throw. You could also just use your sorcery points to cast darkness if you don’t want to be counterspelled and you don’t want enemies to have much luck attacking you. Darkness is a more defensive strategy, whereas Bane and Hold Person are a more offensive strategy.
Darkness + Chill Touch with advantage is a decent strategy. You can see through darkness if you cast it with sorcery points, and you can combine 120ft dark vision with the 120ft range on Chill Touch to not even need to use the darkness spell if you’re already fighting in darkness against enemies that have a more normal 60ft range on their dark vision.
Level 6:
You can summon a Hound of Ill Omen for 3 Sorcery points using a Bonus Action. It's a medium size monstrosity using the stat block of a Dire Wolf, that can travel through objects and creatures as difficult terrain and automatically moves towards its target each round. When it's within 5 feet of its target, it gives that target disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against one of your spells. It can attack (and do opportunity attacks) only against its target. It cannot be given a new target. It starts out with temporary hit points equal to half your Sorcerer level.
Learn Slow
Level 7:
Learn Counterspell
Level 8:
+2 Charisma ASI (20 Charisma now)
Learn Banishment
Level 6-8 strategy:
You’ll start off combat by using a Bonus Action to put your Hound of Ill Omen next to a dangerous target, and then you can immediately cast Bane or Slow on that target and a few of its allies with your action. Using the Hound of Ill Omen to give one enemy disadvantage on saving throws against your spells every single round is a key part of this strategy. We're using this to stack multiple debuffs on your Hound's Target.
Banishment is also a good option to use on round 2 if your enemies rolled well and your Bane or Slow spell didn’t affect as many enemies as you had hoped that it would, especially if the target of your hound of ill omen succeeded its saving throw despite having disadvantage.
After you get your hound out on round 1 with your Bonus Action and cast your concentration debuff with your action also on round 1, you’re free to just pound away with Mind Sliver and Tasha’s Wind Whip for the rest of the combat, using Quicken Spell if you feel like doing extra damage.
You’ve also got Fly, Feather Fall, and Counterspell for some utility, but Sorcerers can’t afford to waste too many of their spells known on utility. In my opinion, these three are important enough to include. They're also fairly thematic, and this build has somewhat prioritized being thematic over min-maxing.
Level 9:
Learn Synaptic Static
Level 10:
Learn Mage Hand
Learn Heightened Spell metamagic
Learn Telekinesis
Level 9-10 strategy:
Now you can add Synaptic Static on top of Bane. That means subtracting both 1D4 and 1D6 from each attack - a minimum of 2, an average of 6, and a maximum of 10 subtracted from every attack roll made by that enemy. If you add in a Mind Sliver and your Hound of Ill Omen, they’re going to be subtracting 2D4 from their saving throw with disadvantage to get rid of Synaptic Static - a minimum of 2, an average of 5, and a maximum of 8. An average of minus 6 to attack rolls is a pretty huge debuff.
If you’re facing an enemy that isn’t doing attack rolls but is casting spells instead, you can use Slow on that enemy instead of using Bane. Synaptic Static is going to be a clutch spell against enemy casters that are probably going to be concentrating on a really annoying spell. The enemy will get a saving throw each round against both Slow and Synaptic Static, but your Hound can give them disadvantage on these saving throws, and you can hit them with Mind Sliver to subtract a D6 from the first of those saving throws.
Level 11:
Learn Eyebite, replace Telekinesis with Disintegrate
Level 12:
Take Resilient Wisdom Feat (increase from 13 Wisdom to 14 Wisdom)
Replace Banishment with Mass Suggestion
Level 13:
Learn Finger of Death (maybe get a zombie every day)
Level 14:
Get the Shadow Walk ability - Bonus Action 120ft teleport at will when in Dim Light or Darkness
Level 15:
Learn Power Word Stun
Level 16:
Take War Caster feat
Level 17:
Learn Wish
Learn the Metamagic Twinned Spell
Levels 18:
Gain Umbral Form ability - can use a bonus action to spend 6 sorcery points to take on a shadowy form with resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage. Can move through creatures and terrain as if they were difficult terrain, lasts for 1 minute.
Level 19:
One feat or ASI: Maybe Tough or Alert or +2 Constitution? Or maybe multiclass into Bard/Warlock? Help me out here...
Level 20:
Gain 4 Sorcery points after a short rest. That's the capstone? Yeah, probably should have multiclassed last level.
Level 11+ strategy:
Now you can add Eyebite to your arsenal of thematic mental debuffs requiring concentration, and you can add mass suggestion, disintegrate, finger of death, and power word stun to your arsenal of non-concentration spells. You also get proficiency in Wisdom Saving throws and advantage on constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell with your feats at levels 12 and 16. You get a nice bonus action at will teleportation at level 14 when in dim light or darkness. Unlike some other ways to teleport, it doesn't have a verbal component, so it can get you out of the vicious Forcecage + silence combination.
You also pick up Heightened spell at level 10 to cover for when your hound of ill omen is unable to harass the enemy, which will happen more often now as you’re reaching higher levels. Heightened spell will go well with Disintegrate, Finger of Death, and Power Word Stun. These three spells also go well with Twinned spell, which we pick up at level 17.
Lastly, you’ll get access to Wish at level 17, which is really the capstone Sorcerer ability. None of my group's campaigns are even getting past level 15, so I’m not going to bother much with theorycrafting what happens after that point. The level 18 Shadow Sorcerer capstone is pretty cool, though.
I know most people love theorycrafting level 20 characters and don’t care about the path to level 20, but that’s not what interests me. I care much more about having fun in levels 1-15 where my group’s campaigns actually take place than I do about having a powerful level 20 character that I’ll never actually get to play.
If people want to give some thoughts on what the last two or three levels should be like (which I assume are best with Bard, but Warlock could be interesting, too), I’ll be happy to add those to my build and share credit with those who’ve helped out.
Placeholder for my Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer better known as the Freezing Iron Wizard.
Ooh....I have a couple of ideas.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Oh this looks like fun. Not sure if I would participate via submitting a build as I’m not very competent when it comes to optimization, I’m more of a theme and fun gimmicks sort of player. Though I do have a fun thematic idea....
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Homebrew - Circle of the Living Machines Druid, Path of the Dragon Soul Barbarian
My hombrew Great Wyrm Dragons
Ah, I see what you're gonna do. . .
armor of agathys
P.S. You should multiclass into Clockwork Sorcerer, too.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Change - they who have many faces and none.
Level 20 level split: Warlock of the Archfey(17) Sorcerer(3)
Race: Changeling.
Stats: Str 8 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 15
Stats after Race bonus: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 17
Idea: Do you know that feeling when you see someone somewhere in public and you're sure you know them? You can't place them and you still think you've seen them before. Well your mind might just have rolled a nat20 against this being of no face. Still you can't place them.
Background: Urchin
Starting level: At this level Change basically just woke up in some alleyway, hearing armored footsteps in the distance and a bit of a headache - and basically nothing else. They don't know who they are, what they are, nothing. They realise they are hunted here. But there was this cloaked spectral form, a being they later got to know as 'the Wanderer'. "Stand up and run, change." - so they do.
The first level version of this build can already do a lot of things:
Change is never the same person for long, their "Shapechange" ability lets them change with just an action.
From his patron - which turns out to be an archfey - they get the "Fey Precense": It allows us to either get away in combat if we find ourselfs too close or gives a momentary scare or charm to overwhelm a NPC for a short time in roleplay situations.
As Skills they already have the full capacity of social skills you might need to make somebody believe you're not the person that just walked out. The Urchin gives us the right tools for secret missions, too:
From Warlock: Deception and Intimidation.
From Changeling: Persuasion and Insight.
From Urchin: Sleight of Hand, Stealth, disguise kit and thieves' tools
The spells you pick are nothing to scoff at: You'll get good old eldritch blast and Minor Illusion as Cantrips. As Spells we take Sleep and Hex - Hex as a classic DMG booster and Sleep as a chance to get everyone to sleep - and then replace one of the bad guys with yourself! Or you know... boring crowd control.
The Starting Equipment isn't really important. I guess you could take whatever floats your boat. I don't know, take a dagger or something. I heared they can come in handy.
At 5th level: Warlock of the Archfey(5)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
Change has now grown up and learned a lot from their Archfey patron. Their disguise and infiltration abilities have enabled them to get into a lot of places they aren't supposed to be. Curiosity kills the cat - as soon as the dogs catch up - but Change is faster.
At fifth level well have taken a BUNCH of cool stuff already: From level 2 we took 2 Eldritch Invocations and at 5th level we got a third one:
We took "Mask of many Faces" first. It is an essential piece of our Loadout: We can now be whoever we need to be:Mask of many Faces gives us the right illusory clothes and the shapechange feature will let us BE the person we need to be.
Second we took Devil's Sight: It will let us see in ANY darkness and makes it easy to run around without a big light that shows everyone where we are. Also it gives us advantage against anybody not capable to see in the magic darkness of our darkness spell (we take that at lvl 3).
Third we take Eldritch Sight: That comes from Changes unerring curiossity. Keeping Detect Magic on all the time will let you see all those magic tricks people might try trowing at you.
From 3rd level Change got his first best friend: A sprite named "Noone". That sprite will keep invisible most of the time. His Hearth Sight ability will help in some social encounters and an invisible flying archer that can spy for you will help us a lot. (Quasit or Imp would be great, too, but we're an archfey warlock, come on now.)
At 4th level we take a half feat to round out our Cha and get some goodies: Change learns the "Telepathic" feat. It gives us untraceable comunication with our group if we need it and lets us cast Detect thoughts which will be great.
As Spells we now have the following Loadout:
Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation: Get yourself clean or dirty anytime you need, kill the lights or leave some signs for the group.
At will:
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Once per day:
Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled:
Gaseus Form(exchanged with Sleep) - you can litterally slip through cracks in the floor now.
Hex
Darkness - a great spell - gives you cover (You see in magical darkness anyway) - so advantage for you , disadvantage for them.
Invisibility - yes, you could act like a guard - but you could also could just not be seen anywhere. Sometimes at least.
Misty Step - "Get outa there"
Suggestion - "I suggest you cause Mayhem while I slip out."
At 11th level: Warlock of the Archfey(8), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change has found a place in this world. Well a bunch of them. The Wanderer has granted them a bunch of powers and even has changed Changes very being so they are magicall in and of themselfs. They now are in on a lot of shemes of various good and bad meaning people, they have a lot of faces and proofen helpful with a lot of people. They even surprise the friends they made along the way all the time with. "Dude, it's me." is how they introduce the other members of their group to any new person they created.
At level 11 we have 3 more levels in Warlock wich gives us another Patron feature:
Misty Escape: Change can now turn invisible and teleport away whenever they get hit - which should never happen, but well it does.
We also got 3 new Spells and 2 more Points in Cha to make that full. Another Infusion is on its way now, too.
we allso now take our 3 levels in Sorcerer from the Aberant Mind. There is some nice goodies here:
We get some more spells, the ability to keep in touch with a person while within 5 miles of them. Also we get the Meta Magic options: Subtle Spell and Quickened Spell - this allows us to cast spells without anybody noticing or getting an action Spell and a cantrip into one round of combat.
Infusions now:
Mask of many Faces
Devil's Sight
Eldritch Sight
Misty Visoins: Silent Image can be very helpful: Create false walls or a diversion so you can't get found out in the wrong spot.
Spells now:
Warlock:
Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation
At will:
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Once per day:
Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled:
Gaseus Form
Hex
Darkness
Invisibility
Misty Step
Suggestion
Tongues: You now can understand whatever any creature says. That will get you some secrets.
Dimension Door: You know, Misty Step but sometimes better.
Greater Invisibility: When you're not using Darkness in battle you'll have this bad boy. You can also use it to cast some Social Spells in a crowded room without having everybody being clouded in darkness.
Sorcerer(3):
Cantrips:
Message
Friends
Gust
Light
First Level:
Charm Person
Expedicious Retreat
Feather Fall
Shield
arms of hadar
dissonant Wispers
mind sliver
Second Level:
Calm Emotions
Detect Thoughts
At 17th level:Warlock of the Archfey(14), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change would now be famous if people would notice what they do. But they don't. thats the point. Change is a myth at best. Some people Change works for know more than one of his hundrets of personalitys and know they could be anybody at any time. And people know whom to ask for information.
From Level 9 to level 14 in Warlock we get some high end features.
At level 10 and 14 we get two more of our Archfey features: We're now immune to charms and can turn them back on our enemys. At 14 we also now can also charm or frighten a creature with our Dark Delirium feature.
At 11 and 13 we get our first two mystic arcanums:
Our level 6 will be Mass Suggestion - you know why.
Our level 7 will be Etherealness - we can now get anywhere. ANYWHERE.
at level 12 we'll take a feat. Lucky comes to mind. An alternative would be Resilient(Con) or War Caster - as you don't want to drop Concentration mid combat. You decide here. I'm not your dad.
We get two more infusions:
Agonizing Blast - you know how to use this.
Witch Sight - well you know, we wouldn't want to be screwed over by our own tricks!
Infusions now:
Mask of many Faces
Devil's Sight
Eldritch Sight
Misty Visoins
Agonizing Blast
Witch Sight
Spells now:
Warlock:
Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation
Mage Hand
At will:
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Once per day:
Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled:
Gaseus Form
Hex
Darkness
Invisibility
Misty Step
Suggestion
Tongues
Dimension Door
Greater Invisibility
Dominate Person - More Manipulation!
Dream - More dirty tricks and communication!
Far Step - More teleportation!
Scrying - More Information!
Mystic Arcanum:
Mass Suggestion
Etherealness
Sorcerer(3):
Cantrips:
Message
Friends
Gust
Light
First Level:
Charm Person
Expedicious Retreat
Feather Fall
Shield
Arms of Hadar
Dissonant Wispers
Mind Sliver
Second Level:
Calm Emotions
Detect Thoughts
At 20th level and final thoughts:Warlock of the Archfey(17), Aberrant Mind Sorcerer(3)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Change is now less of a creature and more of a myth. The person that knows. The person that stands behind you when you feel watched but can't see by whom. The person that replaced loved ones and you won't notice. They are now an information broker and spy on a level never seen before. They don't really have an agenda, but they know how to get to the places they want to be and be whomever they like. Sometimes Change might help you - just because they think it might be the right thing to do, but sometimes just because they can. They have become a true person of the Wanderers whims.
for the last 3 levels we don't really have much more to do, but hey, it finishes the build. Another feat(take another from the mentioned above) two more Arcanus(see below) and two more spells(you guessed it: below). At last our 7th infusion: Visions of Distant Realms
Infusions now:
Mask of many Faces
Devil's Sight
Eldritch Sight
Misty Visions
Agonizing Blast
Witch Sight
Visions of Distant Realms - Information? Yea we got that.
Spells now:
Warlock:
Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation
Mage Hand
At will:
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Arcane Eye
Once per day:
Detect Thoughts (also castable with slots)
Leveled:
Gaseus Form
Hex
Darkness
Invisibility
Misty Step
Suggestion
Tongues
Dimension Door
Greater Invisibility
Dominate Person
Dream
Far Step
Scrying
Contract other Plane - risky, but if you really want to talk to the Wanderer.
Hallucinatory Terrain - you know tricks and stuff. Could be fun?
Mystic Arcanum:
Mass Suggestion
Etherealness
Glibness - never nat1 a Charisma check.
True Polymorph - you know how to kill a creature, but you know whats more fun: turning it into a potted plant.
Sorcerer(3):
Cantrips:
Message
Friends
Gust
Light
First Level:
Charm Person
Expedicious Retreat
Feather Fall
Shield
Arms of Hadar
Dissonant Wispers
Mind Sliver
Second Level:
Calm Emotions
Detect Thoughts
Okay! Just finished my build (Magic Missile-spammer that can deal a buttload of damage). I can't wait to see more builds!
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Gura D. Bumbac - The Anti-Magic specialist
Level 20 level split: Level 18 Sorcerer (Clockwork) Level 2 Warlock (Undying)
Race: Yuan-Ti Pureblood
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16
Background: Guild Artisan (Alchemist)
Starting level: Clockwork Sorcerer (1)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16
HP: 8 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
In his youth, Gura was drawn to strange sight... the March of the Modrons. He noticed the orderly march had a single empty space... exactly at his stride. Joining the March, Gura witnessed the perfect harmony of Mechanus... a bastion of order in a chaotic multiverse. Remaining in Mechanus for a mere 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 2 seconds, the clockwork rigidity remained with him after returning to the Material Plane.
Gura is focused on making a spellcaster who specializes in taking down other spellcasters. Being a Yuan-Ti Pureblood puts him at an early advantage... aside from starting with some innate spellcasting abilities, his Yuan-Ti heritage gives him advantage on resisting all magical effects, and outright immunity to poison. His Restore Balance feature allows him to cancel advantage for his enemies, and prevent disadvantage for himself and his allies. Gura relies on his racial Poison Spray cantrip to deal damage, and also grabs Shocking Grasp to help him escape from melee. His other cantrips focus on utility, and he learns Mage Armor and Shield to provide more protection for himself. Gura's training as an alchemist also allows him to craft potions, and since he won't really need to invest in weapons or armor, he mostly spends his money and free time preparing potions of healing.
At 5th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (3)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16
HP: 34 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
As Gura learns the true nature of his powers, he makes a pact with Mechanus, a being beyond death itself, to embrace the power of the Undying.
Two levels in Warlock gives Gura access to Invocations... He takes Armor of Shadows, freeing him from needing to spend spell slots to maintain Mage Armor (and freeing Gura to swap Mage Armor for Magic Missile, more to force Concentration Checks than to deal damage), and Eldritch Mind to help him keep concentration on his own spells. He grabs two more attack cantrips... Eldritch Blast for a reliable source of damage, since so many enemies have resistance or immunity to poison, and Mind Sliver to reduce his enemy's ability to make saving throws. This pairs with his Metamagic... less-so Twinned Spell, but it pairs beautifully with Quickened Spell. Gura can cast Mind Sliver with his action, then Quicken a spell like Ray of Sickness (which he gets from his Undying Patron) and make extra certain his target is poisoned. For his remaining Warlock spells, he learns False Life from his Patron to boost his meager health, and Hellish Rebuke to punish those who manage to hurt him. As a sorcerer he learns two more spells... Hold Person to pin down individual enemies (or pairs of enemies if he spends the sorcery points), and Web to stop or slow down groups of enemies. His Undying nature also gives him Spare the Dying to keep his allies alive, and gives him some extra defense against Undead, which could prove invaluable if facing off against necromancers who rely on Undead minions.
At 11th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (9)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
HP: 70 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
Early levels were mostly to prepare, but with his brief dip into Warlock complete, Gura shifts his focus entirely to Clockwork Sorcery
Gura hits two ASIs by now... not surprisingly, he puts two points into CHA, but he also invests in Mage Slayer. Many of the features of Mage Slayer aren't particularly useful... he already has advantage on all magic saving throws, and he'll be avoiding melee combat as much as possible, but giving his opponent disadvantage on Concentration checks for any damage dealt can prove to be devastating. When he wants to break his opponent's concentration, he can spend his turn hitting them with Mind Sliver, forcing them to make a CON saving throw at disadvantage -1d4, and if that doesn't break their concentration he can quicken Magic Missile to force 3+ CON Saving throws... or if he really wants to bring an enemy spellcaster to a screeching halt, he can use his 5th level spell slot to cast Synaptic Static, forcing his opponent so subtract a d6 from all attacks and ability checks, and specifically CON saving throws for maintaining concentration... this puts his victims at Disadvantage, -1d4 and -1d6 when hitting them with Mind Sliver, practically guaranteeing the loss of almost all Concentration Spells his opponents try to put down. He's also certain to grab Counterspell and Dispel Magic, plus non-concentration battlefield control spells, like Blindness/Deafness (and Synaptic Static). His Clockwork Soul also gives him access Bastion of Law, which allows him to convert sorcery points into a pool of d8's he can use to protect himself from damage, which pairs with the extra HP he already gets from False Life.
At 17th level: Clockwork Sorcerer (15)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 18
HP: 115 AC: 15 (Mage Armor)
Another ASI is hit, and it's going into CON to boost HP and Concentration checks. Gura gets another Metamagic Option, and he grabs Heightened Spell... it's a 3-point investment every time its used, but by 10th level Gura has enough sorcery points to be able to afford spending the points to make sure some of his more devastating spells, such as Finger of Death, take hold. For his 8th level spell he takes Power Word Stun, which is a great spell for one-on-one duels, especially against other spellcasters, which largely have lower HP than other opponents. He also gains access to Trance of Order from his Clockwork Soul, which prevents his opponents from getting advantage on attacks targeting him, and for 1 minute he can't roll below a 10 on any important roll, except for Death Saves.
At 20th level and final thoughts: Clockwork Sorcerer (18)/Undying Warlock (2)
Stats: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
HP: 133 AC: 16 (Mage Armor)
Gura's last ASI goes into CHA. Aside from the general usefulness of increasing his primary stat, it also helps with his final Metamagic: Empowered Spell, allowing him to re-roll up to 5 damage die to maximize damage on spells. Sorcerers probably have one of the worst 20th level abilities, so Gura gets a lot more out of his two-level warlock dip. Getting two first-level Warlock Spell slots to spend each short rest is comparable to 4 sorcery points per short rest, and it comes with Eldritch Invocations and a few key Warlock spells. Gura also gets access to Clockwork Cavalcade, which can be used to heal allies (I believe he can't target himself with the spell), repair objects and, more importantly, end every spell of 6th level or lower he wants in the area of effect. This can be used either to clear allies of debuffs or eliminate dangerous spell effects, or could be used to eliminate an enemy's buffs... and if the positioning is lucky, he can do them all at once. Gura takes Wish as his 9th level spell, because why not? Don't forget that Gura has been brewing potions at every opportunity throughout his adventures... so he's fully loaded on healing potions and whatever utility potions he's able to concoct with the money he's not spending on the equipment other classes need.
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Working on something. Hoping to debug the floof and make it more readable, though the mechanics are in place. That said, it's likely top be an ever-so-slightly illegal build, so everybody else ganbatte and make sure that Yurei jerk quits winning. Hueh.
Why you shouldn't start ANOTHER thread about DDB not giving away free redeems on your hardcopy book purchases.
Thinking of starting ANOTHER thread asking why Epic Boons haven't been implemented? Read this first to learn why you shouldn't!
Illegal you say? The judges shall be watching! Looks like the crown is going to fall further from our previous champion this time around...
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Please feel free to message us with any requests or build challenges!
((NOTE:: Technically this build is illegal under DF’s rules discluding magic items, as it makes use of a prosthetic limb for story and flavor. And for other, more obvious reasons. I hope DorkForge will see fit to grant dispensation in this case as the limb has absolutely zero impact on mechanical functionality of the build, but if not, please keep this in mind when voting. Thanks, and enjoy.))
AND NOW. In honor of what we're all actually going to be doing when the voting period for this contest comes around...I present to you, a bard for your Spellcasting build. But one who's a little...wilder than the usual lute-playing fops.
Jhanni, the Silver Hand
Half-elf Bard/Fighter (College of Glamour)
12 | 14 | 13(14) | 10 | 8 (9)| 15(17)
Charlatan (rebel rocker) Background
HP: 10
AC: 14 (w/studded leather)
Just a Nameless Punk: Level 1
“The conscription officer came through town. Gave me my chit, said it was time to serve my King. Told me to report to the fairgrounds tomorrow, and if I made him send a soldier to drag me there it’d go bad for me. I told him I’d be there. Told him I’d serve, if it’d please the Kingship. Asked him whether I might be allowed to play my lute for the King, if I served well. He laughed. Told me he’d heard less likely things, and walked off. I’m scared, but this is my chance. This sleepy little town’s nice enough, but if I can play for the King, then maybe I can be a court musician! I just have to get through some soldiering first. That won’t be too bad, right? I’m not a big man, not a muscly sort. There’s jobs in the army for a man with a lute too...right?”
Jhanni begins his tale of rock and vengeance as a first-level bard, with a healthy slew of talents from his half-elven heritage and bardic knack for knowledge. Many of these skills are simply seeds for talents Jhanni will develop later on in a tumultuous life, but they’re there regardless. A simple folk musician from a sleepy town, Jhanni desires nothing more at this point than to play his music and watch the smiles on people’s faces.
It’s a nice dream. Childish, ultimately futile...but a nice one. Too bad nice things don’t last in Night City Faerun, chummer.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion | Charm Person, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Broken Dreams: Level 5
Bard 3 (College of Glamour) / Fighter 2
Stats: Unchanged
HP: 40
AC: 17 w/Scale Mail (19 w/shield)
“They took my arm. It’s gone...just gone. They said the arrow wound was gangrenous, but I didn’t smell anything. I asked them how I was supposed to play...how I was supposed to serve and earn the chance to play for the King. The sergeant hit me. He said nameless little shits who can’t even go three campaign seasons without getting maimed get to go home in disgrace, not meet the King. They were taking away my gear, sending me home. Dishonorable discharge, with nothing but the clothes on my back. I fought, I bled, I nearly died. I gave up my arm...so some fat bastard in expensive armor they never gave me could tell me I wasn’t good enough?”
“**** the king. **** this place. **** this country, and all these pointless border wars. I’ll play for the King, someday...right before someone chops his ******* arm off.”
Jhanni’s boyhood dreams are shattered by a grievous war wound, the loss of his left arm ending both his military service and his musical aspirations...for a time. But Jhanni wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. The wound, and the terrible callousness of the officers who treated it as merely an annoying trifle of war, galvanized the fury churning in Jhanni’s gut. Fury he’s always felt, a molten rage against everyone who dismissed him and his dreams simply because of his mongrel blood.
Mechanically, two levels of fighter represent Jhanni’s military service and training, granting him proficiency in medium armor, shields, and any weapon of his choice. Defense is a boring choice of fighting style, but after the war Jhanni eschews armed combat. Action Surge grants Jhanni one double-cast per short rest, which is certainly helpful when one is turning their unexpectedly diverse talents to rebellion.
So far as Bard goes, we carry up to 3, gaining our College of Glamour. Jhanni chases the secrets of his father’s folk, and with chaos in his mind and rebellion in his future, it’s no trouble at all to find a fiery spirit of the Feywild to instruct him. Gaining Expertise in both Performance and Persuasion, Jhanni begins learning secrets for exhorting a crowd. He can enthrall them, dazzling them with his performance...or he can use Mantle of Inspiration to rile up a crowd and get them bangin’, running with the music regardless of anyone’s attempts to stop them. Jhanni’s building a band, and that band is gonna rock the world hard enough to shake all those fancy castles down right on top of all those fat bastard kings’ heads.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion | Bane, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter | Shatter, Suggestion
Wake Up, Samurai: Level 11
Bard 9 (College of Glamour) / Fighter 2
Stats: 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 18
HP: 82
AC: 17 w/breastplate (19 w/shield)
“The king knows my name now. He’s got a bunch of other names he likes to call me, too. Criminal. Rebel. Anarchist. Madman. But he’s not the only one who knows my name. Not the only one who has a new one for me. When I play, when I turn up in a town and jam, my fans call me something else. They chant a new name, right before they start burning. Right before Official Heads start rolling. Right before the song takes a new town, and the fat man in the crown busts another vein. They call me the Silver Hand. I like it. I ****in’ like it. Jhanni Silverhand. I think I’ll ****in’ keep it.”
By eleventh level, Jhanni has become a well-known rebel presence – and also a famous musician in his own right. No bardic college claims him, and no bardic immunity shields him, but others have begun to play his songs, and whenever he shows up and reveals himself both music and mayhem follow. He’s acquired allies, bandmates and champions who play and fight alongside him and help him spread his violent, anarchic message.
Jhanni grows in power, gaining a boon from the fey creatures who so delight in the chaos that follows in his wake. Fey-Touched grants him a free Misty Step (useful for escaping guardsmen!) and access to the Command spell, even outside his Mantle of Majesty. While rocking his hardest, Jhanni can cast Command as a bonus action spell slot-free, sowing disarray amongst his enemies. With Tongues, his seditious music can reach any ear, regardless of language. With Animate Objects, the weapons of his enemies turn on their tyrannical masters. And with Synaptic Static, he can quite literally blow your mind. Resilient: Wisdom at 8 shores up Jhanni’s weak Wisdom score – hard experience and many a narrow escape have taught him a degree of fey cunning that makes him even more difficult to pin down
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Spells: Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap (DROP THE BEAT) | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics (because what kind of rockerboy doesn’t have stage pyro, huh?), Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static
A City to Burn: Level 17
Bard 15 (College of Glamour) / Fighter 2
Stats: 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 20
HP: 124
AC: 17 w/breastplate (19 w/shield)
“The king is dead. Long live the ****in’ king. Showed up at his ****in’ castle, while his city rioted around him. My band and a few nastier fey at my back. I played for the King, just like I always said I would. I played a rockin’ show, and then I watched Ulrich take the king’s arm off. An arm for an arm. Service rendered, insult avenged. Left him bleeding, and opened the gates. Let all the king’s loyal subjects in. Turns out, with his guard scattered, his armies in disarray, and bleeding from a stump where his sword arm used to be? His subjects weren’t so loyal, after all.”
By seventeenth level, Jhanni has become a master provocateur and a world-renowned anarchist. His music is banned just about everywhere, but that doesn’t stop anyone from playing it. His magics allow him to subvert, deceive, assail his foe’s minds, and move tracelessly across the natrions he works to throw into chaos. His magical secrets allow him to summon agents of the delighted Archfey who trained him, conjure up his signature Silver Hand, burn down cities with a blazing storm of vengeful fire, or speak a note of divine rock so profound it can dazzle or even kill any who hear it. Few kingdoms can withstand the furious chaos of the Silver Hand.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Spells: Vicious Mockery, Message, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics, Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues, Summon Fey (Secret) | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static, Seeming, Bigby’s Hand (Secret) | Mass Suggestion | Teleport, Firestorm (Secret), Divine Word (Secret) | Feeblemind
Breathtaking: Level 20
Bard 18 (College of Glamour) / Fighter 2
Stats: 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 20
HP: 145
AC: 17 w/breastplate (19 w/shield)
“I’ve seen the truth, now. Watched it unfold, when we took the capitol. All these people, all these folk who listen to my songs? They’re just like I used to be. Little sheep, eager to be fleeced because they never learned better. Nobody ever taught them better. That’s gonna be my job, now. My reason, the muse for my songs. The people need to wake the **** up. All these greedy little kings and their endless ******* wars...it’s all so pointless. I’ll show the people that. I’ll wake them up. And when I do, the world will eat its masters alive. And it’ll be truly breathtaking to see.”
By 20 level, Jhanni has achieved the height of his power. His final magics allow him to transform his enemies into new instruments for his collection, conjure a terrifying blade of pure devastation to sunder all that stands before him, or even distort the fabric of reality itself at a whim. He also picks up War Caster, about ten levels too late but that’s just how it goes, with his final ASI. Jhanni has transcended vengeance, seeing anarchy itself as his new mission. He will use the disruptive magics he’s spent his life mastering to awaken the sheep of the world to the wolves preying on them, and in the doing he will watch the world burn. Burn, and burn, and burn, as long as it has to before it learns.
Skills: Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tools: Lute, Lyre, Drum, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Spells: Vicious Mockery, Message, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap | Bane, Command (via Fey-Touched), Faerie Fire, Healing Word | Pyrotechnics, Shatter, Suggestion | Hypnotic Pattern, Tongues, Summon Fey (Secret) | Charm Monster, Confusion | Animate Objects, Synaptic Static, Seeming, Bigby’s Hand (Secret) | Mass Suggestion | Teleport, Firestorm (Secret), Divine Word (Secret) | Feeblemind | Blade of Disaster (Secret), True Polymorph, Wish (Secret)
Why you shouldn't start ANOTHER thread about DDB not giving away free redeems on your hardcopy book purchases.
Thinking of starting ANOTHER thread asking why Epic Boons haven't been implemented? Read this first to learn why you shouldn't!
Dang it. No matter how powerful he is, Impending Doom doesn't have a chance against Jhanni the Silver Hand. Better luck for next round. Long live Queen Yurei, Champion of the Throwdowns.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Long Live Queen Yurei!
Of course, if Jhanni had his way, Yurei would be quickly losing her crown.
And a few other body parts as well :P
Seven there shall be/In the halls of the eighth/Eights shall witness/Eight and eight and eight and eight/Blood of the father/Blood of the sun/Endless darkness/Day is done
Savior/Sovereign/Saint Foresworn/Traitor/Trusted/Tortured Truthborn/Chosen/Cursed
Created by deities/Created by mortals/Created by powers unseen/Unheard of
Fate speaks of one/Fate speaks to none/Eternal shadows/Day is Done.
I think someone will be playing Cyberpunk on December tenth...
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
Quick question... Is the Tasha's stuff available for use? I have a build that makes great use of the ancestry part. (+1 to 2 stats, and a feat instead of the usual racial ASI's).
'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 as the first post says it is available.
Ah thanks, didn't see. You can't vote till the time said in the op.
'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!