Thanks for the points and kind words, Zot (is it okay if I shorten your title to zot? It's quite difficult to type. If you prefer a different shortening, let me know).
Getting Extra Attack twice is definitely a sore spot on my build, but Blood Hunter fit the theme and story. However, it's not a major issue, even if it is a bit disheartening. Though the Artificer capstone is amazing as #$%@, I would say that the ability to just take a short rest to regain hit points through Cure Wounds or get back the Steel Defender at full HP as well as get an additional 1d6 damage on each weapon attack is well worth the multiclass dip.
You also had me on the build being a Blood Hunter without blood, but as the class's mechanics don't outright say that you must have blood to play the class, it's mostly just a quirk that could use some hand waving and minor explaining to justify.
Nice round so far! I'm excited to see if anyone else votes this round and how the numbers swing.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
As for damage calculations involving accuracy that give relevant damage breakdowns, I don’t actually do any math myself. I use a calculator that I highly recommend to anyone who’s interested in that sort of thing. It’s called “LudicSavant and AureusFulgen’s DPR Calculator” I’m using version 2.51. It’s a little outdated now that tashas gives so many different ways to apply damage with unique features, but it’s still incredibly useful and fast when your plotting out build efficiency at various levels and breakpoints. I personally make use of suggested AC values in the DMG for ballparking what a player character can be expected to do as they increase in level.
I broke down my builds damage, to include hit chance at specific ACs several times giving a range of average damage with just a spell slot ranging up to what that would look like with advantage and action surges. Probably another casualty of my wall of text and poor editing.
“not quite sure how a melee fighter wielding a blade literally made out of magic doesn’t represent a idea of a “Gish” well. I imagine it may have to do with predispositions of how ineffective an Eldritch Knight is when bad spell choices are made when there weren’t competitive bonus action spells. The Eldritch Knight has gotten buffed almost every single time the wizard spell list gets updated.“
”Side Note: This is nitpicky, but your last statement is mostly untrue. Eldritch Knights only get buffed when Wizards get more spells if and only if the spells they get are cantrips or level 1-4 spells. Even then, I wouldn't really call it a "buff" to get more options for spells most of the time.”
not sure how the Eldritch knights spell list getting a larger selection that usually have a positive and direct impact on the subclasses play wouldn’t be considered a buff.
SCAG comes out with new cantrip choices for the wizard that directly increases the Eldritch knights offensive capabilities from level 7-10.
elemental evil players companion introduced the absorb elements spell that is a staple for Eldritch Knight builds for defense, as well as the Eldritch Knight being able to make use of the bonus melee damage effect that usually an afterthought for most classes. All of this while only taking up the fighters reaction which only is competitive with the shield spell.
Xanathars introduces shadow blade, a powerful bonus action spell that is exactly what the Eldritch Knight subclass needed to boost its offensive capabilities. Particularly effectively because of it being a bonus action to cast, freeing up the fighters base extra attack feature. It includes somewhat situational accuracy buffs on top of scaling weapon damage.
tashas did a lot of good for many classes and introduced a few spells, but also nerfed the Eldritch Knight as an indirect response to the rebalance that was made specifically for the bladesinger extra attack rework. Previous to tashas, and in my first Eldritch Knight build, booming blade and green flame blade were able to be used with shadowblade and increased level 7-10 damage on an Eldritch Knight substantially. They introduced the spirit shroud spell which is a bonus action to cast, but it doesn’t give any more of a boost to the Eldritch Knight than shadowblade unless you go cookie cutter greatweapon master with a magic weapon.
Explorers guide to wildemount made gift of alacrity a solid choice for a buff for the Eldritch Knight. Non concentration, 8 hours, only a lvl 1 slot.
i believe the only book released that added wizard spells to the game that didn’t in some way buff the Eldritch Knight was rime of the frost maiden.
by virtue of versatility in choice or actual subclass synergy. it is correct that the Eldritch Knight only gets spell list buffs for cantrips and 1-4th level spells. It is inaccurate to state that the class wasn’t buffed within these parameters when 5 out of the 6 official books released containing new wizard spells met that exact criteria.
thank you all for the constructive criticism. The biggest thing I’m kicking myself over is not taking warcaster. I’ve pretty much known that my builds aren’t going to be competitive since the 2nd throw down with my usual lack of story behind the mechanics. The recurring theme is a lack of theme. I still enjoy these exercises and am awaiting whatever the next challenge may be, so long as it’s not something like “optimize Christmas” again. I enjoy the builds more when there are actual requirements.
Third_Sundering's Urik Zorhav the Steelwarden -> 2 Points! I like the Idea you had, it is a solid build. I think you might have an overreliance on AC as your protective factor. I would try to get some more Con in there. I just have a love for Battlesmiths(as one might have realised by now :D)
Storywise I like it, I love the Idea of changing classes gradually and were I the DM I would allow this! :)
Bobbybaker's Unnamed Eldritch Knight A bit of a minimalist aproach, no flavor sadly. The build seems okay like it is, but sadly no points.
Pantagruel's Bonny John -> 2 Points! I LOVE IT! I love the Idea of someone else than a bard being absolutely focused on the passion they have for music. Having him use a helmet as a drum is really fun. I think the flavor can only work in a not too dark campaign but I will puit this Idea into the back of my head for an NPC should I need one :)
HeironymousZot's Boccob's Beekeeper -> 1 Point! Wow, you wrote a whole novel! I like the story, It focuses a bit less on the bee aspect then I thought, but it adds a lot of flavor. Only thing here I have to say is the names, sometimes less is more here, they often sound a bit letter-jumbly - maybe try deriving those from a real world language and just adapt them a bit?
That said, I only give you this one point, because the custom race you're using isn't balaced at all. You get +3 to Wisdom (fey touched included) - no other race can get a +3, not even with Tashas. Also you get a feat, which would be fine if you'd kept with the +1/+1 from Human Variant, but you also added darkvision and the aforementioned + to Wisdom. I wouldn't allow this to fly. I'm a bit salty that your build qualifies with breaking the explicit rule against using homebrew and my sniper doesn't for breaking a flavor rule. Edit: How do you get Expertise in Animal Handling at level 5? I don't seem to find a way for that? Forget it, found it.
Answers to my feedback: I'll use this to answer to the feedback I got: Yes I realise now the third part of sharpshooter doesn't work with daggers, it is an oversight by me while adapting the crossbow build to bladed weapons. Maybe push it up a buit, but I'd still take it for the ignored cover and greater range. For Archery as a fighting style it is the same story as with sharpshooter, didn't realise thrown weapons don't count as ranged - I'd replace it with thrown weapon fighting style. Darkness and Iron defender: I realise the Iron defender can't see in my darkness spell, but that isn't really the focus of the build. It is just one of the tools to use. plus, when I use it, I'll either shroud myself , not the enemy or will just keep the steel defender close to the enemy anyway - since I direct him, he doesn't need to see, he can take the dodge action for free and I'm free to use the bonus action for hex or something. I didn't explain how all of the stuff comes to be in the same build, because I was focusing more on the whole "we don't know a lot about her" part of the story. I do however think the combination is solid (maybe use it with the crossbow build If you want to really try it out) - the main goal if just to maximise damage and the stealth/trickery factor.
Also BobbyBaker, if you have something you see on one of my builds that might not make sense or something, feel free to just write me, I'd love some help when I can get some ! :) It's hard enough for me to focus on writing something in english so I WILL make mistakes.
Bobbybaker: Getting extra attack late is weird, but Maru is built around boosting green-flame blade and booming blade while controlling spirit guardians. It was never an extra attack build to begin with, and just happened to pick it up because Eldritch Knight provided a bunch of other elements I wanted in the build, including War Magic at level 7.
Pantagruel: Not sure how spirit guardians and shillelagh struggle to be cast in the same turn on my build. Warcaster is taken at cleric level 4. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if I was missing something here, so if I'm wrong please correct me. Fair point about the encumbrance, but I've never played with those rules so they're not on my radar. And again, the extra attack thing just came along for the ride as I was looking for War Magic. Maru was never an extra attack build. He's built to fight with the melee cantrip attacks boosted by gathered swarm, potent spellcasting and war magic.
Third_Sundering: You can absolutely call me Zot. That goes for anyone tired of typing out my name. Just call me Zot. Or whatever other nickname you feel like deriving, I really don't care. I've called you Third before...is that cool? I want to shorten everyone's name that is more than one syllable lol. As for what I said about your build. The whole blood thing doesn't bother me because it's easy to dig deeper into the Crypter story and come up with a reason why this patron enables some different kind of hemocraft. Or even dig into the alchemy itself and come up with a reason. An oddity I was pointing out in case you ever visited this build for a playthrough. The extra attack thing is not great, but it also happens at 19th level, so like whatever. I don't actually give tier 4 much, if any creedence, except this competetion kind of forces it with the 1-20 layout. I absolutely see the benefits from the dip even if I favor artificer 20, and I like that it serves the weapon swinging side of the Gish very much.
Your critisms of my build are completely fair. Maru is...very medium when it comes to battling. I never really stressed it, instead looking for a couple interesting synergies that tickled me to improve the melee attack cantrips and leaving spirit guardians to pick up the slack. Obviously my focus was on the story and character lol, so I'm really happy you enjoyed that part.
Sutlo: If you think my custom race is not balanced, then really your issue is that you think custom lineage from Tasha's is not balanced in general. This isn't homebrew, it's official. Any custom lineage character, whether they use my flavoring or not can start with an 18 in a stat by picking a relevant half-feat. Custom Lineage gets a choice between darkvision and a skill. I actually wanted the skill on this character VERY much, but decided darkvision was more thematically appropriate for the whole Darkling Fey-touched thing. It's a part of official material and I was allowed to use it, so I don't see a problem. The isse with your first build was that it was not in spirit with the theme of the Gish. It had nothing to do with in-game legality
Did you expect more bee related stories? I didn't feel the need to write even more and include excerpts from adventures or battles. I touched on life events and focused on showing how his magic and understanding flowed through his swarm. I'm also not really seeing what you're saying about the names. Maru Kazan is named after a french moroccan guy I met while studying abroad years ago, Maru Kai and is a simple, phonetic name. Hada and Yarro are four and five letters each, so it couldn't be that. Olivestus is based on roman with the "estus" and has an "oliver" based prefix. Alosis Kaan is a bastardization of the real name Aloysius, which in itself is more wordy than my version, and Kaan is "kahn" with two a's. Is it Utskesh? It's probably Utskesh. That was based on a bunch of magic card names starting with U: Uktabi, Utvara, and Unyaro (Unyaro Bees is a magic card and the most direct influence). I guess I just don't see it, but you've given me stuff to think about. Thank you for that. I'm certainly going to take the "less is more approach" in general next time I do one of these. First build submission I've ever done and the details definitely got away from me a bit. I'm glad you enjoyed the story on some levels.
I certainly don't think it's a problem that you wanted to embrace the "we don't know much about her" angle, but I think it's possible to walk that line while still giving us a bit more fat to chew on. Like I said in my voting, I'm intrigued by the threads of the character that are there. I think it's a good character idea.
Overall I just want to say thank you to everyone for participating and taking the time to respond to my build. Whatever the feedback, the fact that you all took the time to do it shows respect and caring and I really appreciate it. This was a super fun experience and I hope to do more in the future.
And thank you Yurei. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this together for us.
Okay, I see I once again have overseen a detail in the rules. I didn't realise the "Custom lineage" box. While I see that it's in the rules, I'm still not a fan of this one particular. It seems to me like an oversight, since all other options explicitly don't allow you to stack racial bonuses in a way that let's you get a +3 in a stat - I would place my bet on "that will get a NO in sage advice or errata in the future" since JC has said in a dragontalk, that it is intentional that you can't get a +3 (also I think the whole concept is made a bit boring mechanically, I'd rather play a "real" homebrew class that has some unique skill or ability rather than a race that just gives a bunch of standard things everyone could use). But I stand corrected ruleswise. I withdraw my concerns.
The whole thing with the names might be a thing of just taste, I don't know what exactly (beyond falthwain) got me stumbling but if you have derivations for those names, my feedback doesn't seem to apply.
About my build: Yes I might not have explained a lot of stuff by going that route, I think that is a bit of time constraint damage here. I just build the Char, tried to get a bunch of damage aditions - then had to change the whole thing to using another weapon - hardly the way it should have gone.
Edit: spirit guardians and shillelagh - the rule is "if you're casting a spell as a bonus action you can't cast a non cantrip spell as an action this turn" it isn't "one leveled spell per turn max" it's a bit nitpicky
Ahhhh. I see what you're saying about Shillelagh and Spirit Guardians Sutlo. I was working under the assumption that if one of the spells was a cantrip it was kosher. But the way it's written, yes, casting shillelagh as a bonus action stops spirit guardians from being castable. That's really silly though. If the spirit guardians had a casting time of a bonus action (which would make it way stronger spell) it would work with a one action cast shillelagh. I don't like that at all from a logic standpoint, but it is the rules. Thanks for the rules knowledge, always appreciated.
The whole name thing may be personal taste, but I'm definitely taking your feedback into consideration. Your perspective is valuable.
I mean, purely from a perspective of opportunity cost: The only thing you'll lose when not casting Shillelagh turn one will probably be an opportunity attack or whatever else you wanted to do with the bonus action on turn 2 - since the action will probably be either a blade cantrip or normal attacks - neither of which will stop you from casting Shillelagh first.
thank you all for the constructive criticism. The biggest thing I’m kicking myself over is not taking warcaster. I’ve pretty much known that my builds aren’t going to be competitive since the 2nd throw down with my usual lack of story behind the mechanics. The recurring theme is a lack of theme. I still enjoy these exercises and am awaiting whatever the next challenge may be, so long as it’s not something like “optimize Christmas” again. I enjoy the builds more when there are actual requirements.
There hasn't really been an optimization challenge (as opposed to a theme challenge) since #4; #5 was halloween-theme, #6 was 'design a spellcaster', #7 was christmas-theme. On the other hand, pure mechanical effectiveness builds are often fairly dull.
Votes are in, points are tallied, feedback bonuses have been assigned. We have...
Third’s Urik Zorhav, the Steelwarden: 11
Pantagruel’s Bonny John: 9
Heironymous Zot’s Boccob’s Beekeeper: 8
Bobbybaker’s Unnamed Eldritch Knight: 1
Sutlo’s Unseen Death (Dagger Edition): 1
The victor is Third_Sundering's Urik Zorhav, the Steelwarden, with 11 total points! Pantagruel's Bonny John takes second place, beating out Herionymous Zot's Boccob's Beekeeper by only a single point. Interesting to note that the running winner changed almost every time I totaled a new vote post, the competition was fierce right up until the final points were cast.
Thanks for helping me with this experiment, everyone. I hope everybody had fun working on their novel build ideas and characters, and that the contest helped tide you over until DorkForge's return. Happy building in the future, and remember - stabbings are always better when the sword is on lightning.
Congratulations everyone. I’m surprised I got a point somehow with the build as it stands. It was fun.
also my apologies to everyone if I may have stepped out of line at any point. I’m competitive, argumentative, and am working continuously on my communication though it may not seem like it.
It's all good Bobbybaker. Constructive critism and growth should be what this is all about. Coming from an art school background where we were critiqued (often quite mercilessly) every week, I can say only positive things about being open and honest about creative work you put into the world. Even something as silly and light-hearted as a forum build contest.
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alright votes are up. Sutlo looks like the last one.
Had a blast doing this. Thanks for the points everyone, and Third, thank you for the kind words. Excited to see how this ends.
Thanks for the points and kind words, Zot (is it okay if I shorten your title to zot? It's quite difficult to type. If you prefer a different shortening, let me know).
Getting Extra Attack twice is definitely a sore spot on my build, but Blood Hunter fit the theme and story. However, it's not a major issue, even if it is a bit disheartening. Though the Artificer capstone is amazing as #$%@, I would say that the ability to just take a short rest to regain hit points through Cure Wounds or get back the Steel Defender at full HP as well as get an additional 1d6 damage on each weapon attack is well worth the multiclass dip.
You also had me on the build being a Blood Hunter without blood, but as the class's mechanics don't outright say that you must have blood to play the class, it's mostly just a quirk that could use some hand waving and minor explaining to justify.
Nice round so far! I'm excited to see if anyone else votes this round and how the numbers swing.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
As for damage calculations involving accuracy that give relevant damage breakdowns, I don’t actually do any math myself. I use a calculator that I highly recommend to anyone who’s interested in that sort of thing. It’s called “LudicSavant and AureusFulgen’s DPR Calculator” I’m using version 2.51. It’s a little outdated now that tashas gives so many different ways to apply damage with unique features, but it’s still incredibly useful and fast when your plotting out build efficiency at various levels and breakpoints. I personally make use of suggested AC values in the DMG for ballparking what a player character can be expected to do as they increase in level.
I broke down my builds damage, to include hit chance at specific ACs several times giving a range of average damage with just a spell slot ranging up to what that would look like with advantage and action surges. Probably another casualty of my wall of text and poor editing.
“not quite sure how a melee fighter wielding a blade literally made out of magic doesn’t represent a idea of a “Gish” well. I imagine it may have to do with predispositions of how ineffective an Eldritch Knight is when bad spell choices are made when there weren’t competitive bonus action spells. The Eldritch Knight has gotten buffed almost every single time the wizard spell list gets updated.“
”Side Note: This is nitpicky, but your last statement is mostly untrue. Eldritch Knights only get buffed when Wizards get more spells if and only if the spells they get are cantrips or level 1-4 spells. Even then, I wouldn't really call it a "buff" to get more options for spells most of the time.”
not sure how the Eldritch knights spell list getting a larger selection that usually have a positive and direct impact on the subclasses play wouldn’t be considered a buff.
SCAG comes out with new cantrip choices for the wizard that directly increases the Eldritch knights offensive capabilities from level 7-10.
elemental evil players companion introduced the absorb elements spell that is a staple for Eldritch Knight builds for defense, as well as the Eldritch Knight being able to make use of the bonus melee damage effect that usually an afterthought for most classes. All of this while only taking up the fighters reaction which only is competitive with the shield spell.
Xanathars introduces shadow blade, a powerful bonus action spell that is exactly what the Eldritch Knight subclass needed to boost its offensive capabilities. Particularly effectively because of it being a bonus action to cast, freeing up the fighters base extra attack feature. It includes somewhat situational accuracy buffs on top of scaling weapon damage.
tashas did a lot of good for many classes and introduced a few spells, but also nerfed the Eldritch Knight as an indirect response to the rebalance that was made specifically for the bladesinger extra attack rework. Previous to tashas, and in my first Eldritch Knight build, booming blade and green flame blade were able to be used with shadowblade and increased level 7-10 damage on an Eldritch Knight substantially. They introduced the spirit shroud spell which is a bonus action to cast, but it doesn’t give any more of a boost to the Eldritch Knight than shadowblade unless you go cookie cutter greatweapon master with a magic weapon.
Explorers guide to wildemount made gift of alacrity a solid choice for a buff for the Eldritch Knight. Non concentration, 8 hours, only a lvl 1 slot.
i believe the only book released that added wizard spells to the game that didn’t in some way buff the Eldritch Knight was rime of the frost maiden.
by virtue of versatility in choice or actual subclass synergy. it is correct that the Eldritch Knight only gets spell list buffs for cantrips and 1-4th level spells. It is inaccurate to state that the class wasn’t buffed within these parameters when 5 out of the 6 official books released containing new wizard spells met that exact criteria.
thank you all for the constructive criticism. The biggest thing I’m kicking myself over is not taking warcaster. I’ve pretty much known that my builds aren’t going to be competitive since the 2nd throw down with my usual lack of story behind the mechanics. The recurring theme is a lack of theme. I still enjoy these exercises and am awaiting whatever the next challenge may be, so long as it’s not something like “optimize Christmas” again. I enjoy the builds more when there are actual requirements.
VOTING POST
Third_Sundering's Urik Zorhav the Steelwarden -> 2 Points!
I like the Idea you had, it is a solid build. I think you might have an overreliance on AC as your protective factor. I would try to get some more Con in there.
I just have a love for Battlesmiths(as one might have realised by now :D)
Storywise I like it, I love the Idea of changing classes gradually and were I the DM I would allow this! :)
Bobbybaker's Unnamed Eldritch Knight
A bit of a minimalist aproach, no flavor sadly. The build seems okay like it is, but sadly no points.
Pantagruel's Bonny John -> 2 Points!
I LOVE IT! I love the Idea of someone else than a bard being absolutely focused on the passion they have for music. Having him use a helmet as a drum is really fun.
I think the flavor can only work in a not too dark campaign but I will puit this Idea into the back of my head for an NPC should I need one :)
HeironymousZot's Boccob's Beekeeper -> 1 Point!
Wow, you wrote a whole novel! I like the story, It focuses a bit less on the bee aspect then I thought, but it adds a lot of flavor. Only thing here I have to say is the names, sometimes less is more here, they often sound a bit letter-jumbly - maybe try deriving those from a real world language and just adapt them a bit?
That said, I only give you this one point, because the custom race you're using isn't balaced at all. You get +3 to Wisdom (fey touched included) - no other race can get a +3, not even with Tashas. Also you get a feat, which would be fine if you'd kept with the +1/+1 from Human Variant, but you also added darkvision and the aforementioned + to Wisdom. I wouldn't allow this to fly. I'm a bit salty that your build qualifies with breaking the explicit rule against using homebrew and my sniper doesn't for breaking a flavor rule.
Edit: How do you get Expertise in Animal Handling at level 5? I don't seem to find a way for that?Forget it, found it.Answers to my feedback:
I'll use this to answer to the feedback I got: Yes I realise now the third part of sharpshooter doesn't work with daggers, it is an oversight by me while adapting the crossbow build to bladed weapons. Maybe push it up a buit, but I'd still take it for the ignored cover and greater range.
For Archery as a fighting style it is the same story as with sharpshooter, didn't realise thrown weapons don't count as ranged - I'd replace it with thrown weapon fighting style.
Darkness and Iron defender: I realise the Iron defender can't see in my darkness spell, but that isn't really the focus of the build. It is just one of the tools to use. plus, when I use it, I'll either shroud myself , not the enemy or will just keep the steel defender close to the enemy anyway - since I direct him, he doesn't need to see, he can take the dodge action for free and I'm free to use the bonus action for hex or something.
I didn't explain how all of the stuff comes to be in the same build, because I was focusing more on the whole "we don't know a lot about her" part of the story. I do however think the combination is solid (maybe use it with the crossbow build If you want to really try it out) - the main goal if just to maximise damage and the stealth/trickery factor.
Also BobbyBaker, if you have something you see on one of my builds that might not make sense or something, feel free to just write me, I'd love some help when I can get some ! :) It's hard enough for me to focus on writing something in english so I WILL make mistakes.
Some responses to feedback and stuff:
Bobbybaker: Getting extra attack late is weird, but Maru is built around boosting green-flame blade and booming blade while controlling spirit guardians. It was never an extra attack build to begin with, and just happened to pick it up because Eldritch Knight provided a bunch of other elements I wanted in the build, including War Magic at level 7.
Pantagruel: Not sure how spirit guardians and shillelagh struggle to be cast in the same turn on my build. Warcaster is taken at cleric level 4. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if I was missing something here, so if I'm wrong please correct me. Fair point about the encumbrance, but I've never played with those rules so they're not on my radar. And again, the extra attack thing just came along for the ride as I was looking for War Magic. Maru was never an extra attack build. He's built to fight with the melee cantrip attacks boosted by gathered swarm, potent spellcasting and war magic.
Third_Sundering: You can absolutely call me Zot. That goes for anyone tired of typing out my name. Just call me Zot. Or whatever other nickname you feel like deriving, I really don't care. I've called you Third before...is that cool? I want to shorten everyone's name that is more than one syllable lol. As for what I said about your build. The whole blood thing doesn't bother me because it's easy to dig deeper into the Crypter story and come up with a reason why this patron enables some different kind of hemocraft. Or even dig into the alchemy itself and come up with a reason. An oddity I was pointing out in case you ever visited this build for a playthrough. The extra attack thing is not great, but it also happens at 19th level, so like whatever. I don't actually give tier 4 much, if any creedence, except this competetion kind of forces it with the 1-20 layout. I absolutely see the benefits from the dip even if I favor artificer 20, and I like that it serves the weapon swinging side of the Gish very much.
Your critisms of my build are completely fair. Maru is...very medium when it comes to battling. I never really stressed it, instead looking for a couple interesting synergies that tickled me to improve the melee attack cantrips and leaving spirit guardians to pick up the slack. Obviously my focus was on the story and character lol, so I'm really happy you enjoyed that part.
Sutlo: If you think my custom race is not balanced, then really your issue is that you think custom lineage from Tasha's is not balanced in general. This isn't homebrew, it's official. Any custom lineage character, whether they use my flavoring or not can start with an 18 in a stat by picking a relevant half-feat. Custom Lineage gets a choice between darkvision and a skill. I actually wanted the skill on this character VERY much, but decided darkvision was more thematically appropriate for the whole Darkling Fey-touched thing. It's a part of official material and I was allowed to use it, so I don't see a problem. The isse with your first build was that it was not in spirit with the theme of the Gish. It had nothing to do with in-game legality
Did you expect more bee related stories? I didn't feel the need to write even more and include excerpts from adventures or battles. I touched on life events and focused on showing how his magic and understanding flowed through his swarm. I'm also not really seeing what you're saying about the names. Maru Kazan is named after a french moroccan guy I met while studying abroad years ago, Maru Kai and is a simple, phonetic name. Hada and Yarro are four and five letters each, so it couldn't be that. Olivestus is based on roman with the "estus" and has an "oliver" based prefix. Alosis Kaan is a bastardization of the real name Aloysius, which in itself is more wordy than my version, and Kaan is "kahn" with two a's. Is it Utskesh? It's probably Utskesh. That was based on a bunch of magic card names starting with U: Uktabi, Utvara, and Unyaro (Unyaro Bees is a magic card and the most direct influence). I guess I just don't see it, but you've given me stuff to think about. Thank you for that. I'm certainly going to take the "less is more approach" in general next time I do one of these. First build submission I've ever done and the details definitely got away from me a bit. I'm glad you enjoyed the story on some levels.
I certainly don't think it's a problem that you wanted to embrace the "we don't know much about her" angle, but I think it's possible to walk that line while still giving us a bit more fat to chew on. Like I said in my voting, I'm intrigued by the threads of the character that are there. I think it's a good character idea.
Overall I just want to say thank you to everyone for participating and taking the time to respond to my build. Whatever the feedback, the fact that you all took the time to do it shows respect and caring and I really appreciate it. This was a super fun experience and I hope to do more in the future.
And thank you Yurei. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this together for us.
Okay, I see I once again have overseen a detail in the rules. I didn't realise the "Custom lineage" box. While I see that it's in the rules, I'm still not a fan of this one particular. It seems to me like an oversight, since all other options explicitly don't allow you to stack racial bonuses in a way that let's you get a +3 in a stat - I would place my bet on "that will get a NO in sage advice or errata in the future" since JC has said in a dragontalk, that it is intentional that you can't get a +3 (also I think the whole concept is made a bit boring mechanically, I'd rather play a "real" homebrew class that has some unique skill or ability rather than a race that just gives a bunch of standard things everyone could use). But I stand corrected ruleswise. I withdraw my concerns.
The whole thing with the names might be a thing of just taste, I don't know what exactly (beyond falthwain) got me stumbling but if you have derivations for those names, my feedback doesn't seem to apply.
About my build: Yes I might not have explained a lot of stuff by going that route, I think that is a bit of time constraint damage here. I just build the Char, tried to get a bunch of damage aditions - then had to change the whole thing to using another weapon - hardly the way it should have gone.
Edit: spirit guardians and shillelagh - the rule is "if you're casting a spell as a bonus action you can't cast a non cantrip spell as an action this turn" it isn't "one leveled spell per turn max" it's a bit nitpicky
Ahhhh. I see what you're saying about Shillelagh and Spirit Guardians Sutlo. I was working under the assumption that if one of the spells was a cantrip it was kosher. But the way it's written, yes, casting shillelagh as a bonus action stops spirit guardians from being castable. That's really silly though. If the spirit guardians had a casting time of a bonus action (which would make it way stronger spell) it would work with a one action cast shillelagh. I don't like that at all from a logic standpoint, but it is the rules. Thanks for the rules knowledge, always appreciated.
The whole name thing may be personal taste, but I'm definitely taking your feedback into consideration. Your perspective is valuable.
I mean, purely from a perspective of opportunity cost: The only thing you'll lose when not casting Shillelagh turn one will probably be an opportunity attack or whatever else you wanted to do with the bonus action on turn 2 - since the action will probably be either a blade cantrip or normal attacks - neither of which will stop you from casting Shillelagh first.
There hasn't really been an optimization challenge (as opposed to a theme challenge) since #4; #5 was halloween-theme, #6 was 'design a spellcaster', #7 was christmas-theme. On the other hand, pure mechanical effectiveness builds are often fairly dull.
Votes are in, points are tallied, feedback bonuses have been assigned. We have...
Third’s Urik Zorhav, the Steelwarden: 11
Pantagruel’s Bonny John: 9
Heironymous Zot’s Boccob’s Beekeeper: 8
Bobbybaker’s Unnamed Eldritch Knight: 1
Sutlo’s Unseen Death (Dagger Edition): 1
The victor is Third_Sundering's Urik Zorhav, the Steelwarden, with 11 total points! Pantagruel's Bonny John takes second place, beating out Herionymous Zot's Boccob's Beekeeper by only a single point. Interesting to note that the running winner changed almost every time I totaled a new vote post, the competition was fierce right up until the final points were cast.
Thanks for helping me with this experiment, everyone. I hope everybody had fun working on their novel build ideas and characters, and that the contest helped tide you over until DorkForge's return. Happy building in the future, and remember - stabbings are always better when the sword is on lightning.
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!
Congratulations Third_Sundering!
Thanks for this opportunity Yurei. Was a blast. And thanks to everyone that participated. Y'all made this really fun.
Congratulations everyone. I’m surprised I got a point somehow with the build as it stands. It was fun.
also my apologies to everyone if I may have stepped out of line at any point. I’m competitive, argumentative, and am working continuously on my communication though it may not seem like it.
It's all good Bobbybaker. Constructive critism and growth should be what this is all about. Coming from an art school background where we were critiqued (often quite mercilessly) every week, I can say only positive things about being open and honest about creative work you put into the world. Even something as silly and light-hearted as a forum build contest.