As the title says Im looking for a unique centaur build. The reason I say unique is because I can use customize your origin to move around my stat bonuses so basically any class is a viable option but because of some homebrew things happening in my campaign I do want to focus on a couple of things. In my campaign all of us are undead and as such most magical healing options instead do damage to us, however necrotic damage can heal us in return. My current character is taking advantage of this by using the toll of the dead cantrip to basically just have a free heal whenever. Because of multiple horrible choices my character is very liable to dying soon so I wanna get started on making a new character and I thought a centaur would be neat. Our current party is just me and two paladins. I would like some ranged option however I dislike the limitations of spells as any extended fight can leave you very weak. We are all level 4 and also in this campaign there are many, many cursed and magical items. The main reason my current character might die is because I got cursed to where If i dont kill someone once a day I simply die. This campaign definitively is very hard so OP min/maxed builds are perfectly fine. If you can think of any other cool, powerful or unique build please feel free to describe them as while I am looking to build a centaur Im fine with looking at other options. Who knows, maybe a spellcaster kobold could be cool (now that I say that it sounds pretty damn cool)
Edit: forgot to put this in but its also point buy
You might consider using a Bow. I know many items are cursed, but it seems the most direct way to solve the problem even so. You don't need the Bow itself to be magical, and I would expect cursed magical arrows to be rather rare. Who uses a powerful curse on a consumable? You cannot currently play as a Centaur, I seem to remember a homebrew version but it had to be a scaled down version, because Centaurs are Large creatures and there are no rules really that cover that for player characters. Another problem with Centaurs is that people into min/maxing will want to ride on you. If you are willing to be ridden, and the DM is willing to allow it, Great! Imagine a Centaur Ranger, with a Paladin using a Lance riding him into battle.
You say that a Kobold spellcaster would be fun. There is a Feral Kobold that has wings. That's very powerful at level 4. I think Warlocks make great ranged blasters, but any sort will do well. A highly intelligent Kobold Wizard would be good, Kobolds are somehow related to Dragons, so a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer flying around on little Dragon wings and throwing spells around would be just about awesome.
Actually about the bow there are even cursed bows. The one that I saw would sap your own health to make magical arrows so you would never run out as long as you had health (that was the downside basically), and what's this about not being able to play a centaur? They still count as medium creatures i'm pretty sure, they're basically tall humans If I remember correctly. Also I had the same thought process that maybe a kobold warlock would be pretty nice so im trying to make one right now just to see how I like it.
The Centaur racial "charge" means they're much better leaning into melee than range. When you say "some ranged option", does that mean you're fine with a melee build that can resort to range? Or do you want an actual ranged build? And how badly do you need to be an actual Centaur? I'm asking if Hexblood, Dhampir, Reborn, and Tasha's Custom Lineage - the four races that can have the body shape of any other race - are on the table, which will let you appear to be a Centaur without engaging in the Centaur racials.
In terms of the Centaur racials, Charge by itself is basically the bonus action attack from PAM, with modifications - you need 30 feet of straight movement, and you don't need to take the Attack action. The attack is made with your hooves, not your weapon, crippling your ability to deal magical damage or otherwise benefit from a magic weapon. You gain no benefit whatsoever from Charge or Hooves if you're a Monk, so in a big way the "most optimal" Centaur is to take a GWM/PAM build and drop PAM, grabbing a Maul or Greatsword instead. Since your hooves are Strength based and Monk is a poor choice for you, we're talking about a Strength-based build, and you need mobility - 40 feet of walking speed is not going to cut it. One example build you could embrace would be a traditional Battle Master Fighter, grabbing the non-traditional maneuver Maneuvering Strike, which would let you, under optimal conditions, perform a 30 foot charge and a 30 foot retreat. That's a razor thin margin of error, so you'd want to embrace getting your hands on even more mobility, like the Crusher feat for another 5 feet of space.
Bear in mind that regardless of race, a DM who's paying attention is going to make you pay quadruple for your armor, since you need armor for a pony (a Centaur body shape is something like 80% equine, 20% humanoid).
If you want to lean into ranged, at level 6 an Undead Warlock can deal necrotic damage with any attack once per turn, meaning you can heal yourself and your party with anything - Eldritch Blast, a crossbow, whatever you like (and if you crit, you'll deal double healing). At level 9 a Phantom Rogue has infinite access to dealing necrotic damage equal to half their sneak attack pool, rounded up (at level 3+ they have it pb/long rest, which is nearly 0). Those are the best two options I know of for ranged necrotic damage, outside of a Death Cleric spamming twinned Toll the Dead (or a Divine Soul Sorcerer burning sorcery points to do the same). Of course, there are some seriously compelling other options potentially on the table, due to how your "healing" works. An example shenanigan is using Spirit Guardians and not exempting the party, so the spell heals the party up.
Undead campaign you say? Necrotic damage heals you, you say? Centaur build too...hmm
How about an Undead Warlock?
Weild a greataxe and use it to attack with the cantrip Booming Blade. Grab the feat Mobile at level 4. Now you can hack into an enemy and use your excellent 50 foot movement speed to GTFO without triggering an opportunity attack, mixing in a hoof attack for a little extra damage when it works out. This tactic puts the enemy in an awkward position of taking extra damage or not being able to pursue you.
Undead Warlock lacks martial weapons and good armor though. Light armor and stats spread too thin to boost dex is a no go. So I would start with a dip for heavy and martials. Maybe Fighter 1 with the idea of picking up fighter 2 for action surge down the road. Maybe Paladin 2 for smites. Maybe sacrifice some charisma for wisdom to make a cleric 1 dip work. Not sure. What level this character will be joining the campaign has a lot to do with it.
Why Undead? Well at level 6 you get the ability to change 1 attack per turn into necrotic damage thanks to the Grave Touched ability. Now you can heal your friends by hacking them to bits! ** no trust me, this will help.**
In combat, using Grave Touched while you have the Form of Dread activated means you can have the necrotic attack deal one extra weapon die of damage. Thanks to wielding a greataxe, that's an extra d12. Combined with Booming Blade you're attacking for 2d12+1d8+3 and will deal another 2d8 if the enemy moves on their next turn. Taking the Pact of the Chain will give you an amazing familiar that can provide the help action in combat to give you advantage on hitting from the relative safety of invisibity (take imp or sprite), which is important on a build based on making one attack a round. Alternatively you could go Pact of the Tome and pick up the invocation Book of Many Secrets to access the find familiar spell. This route offers more spellcasting utility in the form of cantrips and rituals, but the familiar is a much less powerful one.
After level 4 I would focus on maximizing strength with ASIs as this is oddly still a strength build despite being a warlock. You can use custom origin to move the +1 wis to cha and start with a solid 16 charisma that will serve you well, although 14 is perfectly workable. Focusing spellcasting on utility and other options that don't rely on charisma will help. I highly recommend spider climb and/or fly. They're excellent for anybody, but the centaur's horse body is pretty bad at climbing so they're more necessary than usual from an exploration perspective.
Personally I really like the sound of Paladin 2/ Undead Warlock 8 and taking the build from there if you get that far.
I second Zot's suggestions - Undead 'Lock is great, and Eldritch Blast turns you into a powerful ranged attacker. I'd suggest pact of the blade or pact of the tome, depending on how you want to go... but blade is how I would do it.
I second Zot's suggestions - Undead 'Lock is great, and Eldritch Blast turns you into a powerful ranged attacker. I'd suggest pact of the blade or pact of the tome, depending on how you want to go... but blade is how I would do it.
I suggest it first, and Zot gets all the credit? Now I'm salty.
I second Zot's suggestions - Undead 'Lock is great, and Eldritch Blast turns you into a powerful ranged attacker. I'd suggest pact of the blade or pact of the tome, depending on how you want to go... but blade is how I would do it.
I suggest it first, and Zot gets all the credit? Now I'm salty.
😅😅😅😅
Quin, I completely missed that you wrote about Undead locks. Admittedly, I hit where you mention monk and just glazed over and started mashing away at my own post.
Quin, I completely missed that you wrote about Undead locks. Admittedly, I hit where you mention monk and just glazed over and started mashing away at my own post.
No worries, I don't get upset when other people agree with me. :-P
Thanks for all the replies, an undead warlock does seem pretty cool. Also quindraco I don't actually need to be a centaur at all. That was just the first thought that popped in my head for making a cool new character. I'm completely open to any suggestions on what kind of build I should make with this campaign I'm in. Also about the hooves not being too useful... we're able to (and already have) curse our bodies. For example, my character that might die soon has a cursed fist. The muscle and skin had dissolved off of it leaving only skeleton and now I can do 1d4 necrotic damage on a hit with it. So even natural weapons can actually play a part here as I can get them cursed. So a minotaur's horns or a tortle's claws, It opens up quite a number of options.
Thanks for all the replies, an undead warlock does seem pretty cool. Also quindraco I don't actually need to be a centaur at all. That was just the first thought that popped in my head for making a cool new character. I'm completely open to any suggestions on what kind of build I should make with this campaign I'm in. Also about the hooves not being too useful... we're able to (and already have) curse our bodies. For example, my character that might die soon has a cursed fist. The muscle and skin had dissolved off of it leaving only skeleton and now I can do 1d4 necrotic damage on a hit with it. So even natural weapons can actually play a part here as I can get them cursed. So a minotaur's horns or a tortle's claws, It opens up quite a number of options.
Only downside to it is that your L10 benefit gives you resistance or immunity to healing, effectively. Might want to discuss with your DM homebrewing it slightly.
I suggest a lizardfolk dhampir - it's a normal dhampir (2 skill proficiencies included!) with a 30 foot swim speed, and it's just incredibly thematic. Also thematic are an aarakocra (ideally a vulture) dhampir or a winged tiefling dhampir, but in both cases you'll need a ruling from your DM on whether Dhampir inherit speed restrictions along with speeds, as the RAW is silent on the topic. Both options get you a flying speed but sacrifice 2 skill proficiencies to do it.
Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it." Near as I can tell, that would allow you to fly, and it says the same thing for Dhampir, Hexbloods, and Reborn.
In the part about character creation:
"Alternatively, you can choose one of the following lineages. If you choose a lineage, you might have once been a member of another race, but you aren’t any longer. You now possess only your lineage’s racial traits." This is where people get the idea that you lose things like your wings or other movement abilities. It's not really that. What it covers is anything that your race might have had that isn't on the list, so for example, if you were a Drow that hand been Dhampired
Superior Darkvision.
Sunlight Sensitivity (Maybe. Check with the DM)
Inate spells
Drow Weapon Training.
Are all lost, but you gain
Speed 35
Darkvision (the normal kind)
Deathless Nature
Spider Climb
Vampiric Bite
A Lizardfolk who had been Dhampired
Lose their Age limitations
Gain a 35 land speed
Retain their 30 swim speed
Lose their Bite
Lose their Cunning Artisan ability
Lose their ability to hold their Breath
Lose their Hunter's Lore
Lose their Natural Armor
Lose their Hungry Jaws
Gain Darkvison
Gain Deathless Nature
Gain Spider Climb
Gain Vampirc Bite
Kind of odd that they lose so many skills. Doesn't make logical sense at first, but they are things specific to the race, and you aren't one anymore.
Centaur base race. 40ft if movement with a slight detriment to climbing. Charge gives you the ability to weaponize your bonus action so long as you move 30ft straight forward your enemy first, and allows you to hit with your natural weapon hoofs for 1d4+mod. Fey creature type protects you from quite a few debilitating low level spell, since it makes you an invalid target to spells that specify humanoid.
barbarian class, ancestral guardian subclass. Your rage severely limits the offensive capabilities of the first creature you hit on your turn, and this stays in effect regardless of your proximity to that creature. Mobile feat at level 4 to increase your move speed to 50, and allows you to move out of attack range of melee fighters while your Paladins are in the fray. This allows you to recklessly attack a bit more often as the creatures your fighting will have to choose between Opportunity attacks from your Paladins to get to you. Your Paladins in their armor with decent AC getting attacked at disadvantage and who gain resistance to those attacks will be incredibly tanky.
at 5th level you get an additional 10ft movement speed so long as you’re not wearing heavy armor, and extra attack. This brings you to a total of 60ft, which is enough to effectively allow you to reset your move distance to allow for your racial charge almost every turn. This increases your offense a bit, and highly increases your chance of hitting at least once a turn for your subclass feature.
Level 6 gives you the ability to use your reaction to reduce damage to an ally within 30 ft if you, which your Paladins will almost always be if making Use of the close range hit and run tactics. The disadvantage you impose makes it less likely you will have to use it vs your party but it’s still valuable. The resistance you give to your ally also makes the 2d6 more effective than it seems at first glance. The spirit shield reaction also isn’t limited to reducing damage from attacks, but any source of damage against an ally so long as your raging.
the tashas level 7 barbarian feature gives you an additional half move speed when you rage, putting you at 90ft with your speed bonuses at this point.
your ability to very reliably make bonus action attacks mitigates your need for feats somewhat, so you can switch to using a shield if needed to give you more defenses vs ranged attacks. You can use a lance, glaive or whip if slightly more movement and range are necessary. Since your main impact isn’t outright damage, you have quite a bit of versatility within your gear choice.
vengeful ancestors at level 14 is awesome since it adds damage to the reaction you were hoping to use anyways. It’s 14 average force damage prevented(or effectively more if resistance is in play) and also that same damage done to the creature causing the damage.on average. Firstly, the damage can’t miss, it just happens. Secondly, even though the reaction this augments is limited to an ally within 30ft, the damage it deals out to the attacking has no range limit. As such, an archer 150ft away could hit your ally with an arrow, you can react to reduce the damage by roughly 14 potentially reducing the entire damage amount, and the archer takes that same roll in force damage 150ft away. It’s also force damage, so it very unlikely to be resisted or prevented.
the crusher feat may work well if you want to make use of the crit feature and gain an additional str or con point. You already get a more reliable and better version of the slasher feats crit feature. Perhaps using a warhammer or maul with your hooves. You will be criting 14-24% of your turns with the number of attacks and situational advantage with reckless attack. Giving your Paladins advantage for their attacks and smites would be pretty sweet.
this build makes great use of the racial, class, and subclass features to be more of a support barbarian that still contributes to offense.
Warlock 2 for Mask of Many Faces, Disguise Self should be sufficient to conceal yourself as a horse. From there, you're only a Deception check away from passing yourself off as a level 20 Druid who can cast while Wild Shaped.
More seriously... I'm not seeing anyone above mentioning Mounted Combatant. Not for you, of course... for the party member riding you! There don't appear to be any hard restrictions in 5E, or any rules whatsoever, that would discourage you from letting another (small sized) party member ride you, since you'll have the proper quadruped anatomy. As soon as you saddle up a halfling/gnome/kobold/vorigin rider with Mounted Combatant, you can no longer be attacked, ever, unless the rider allows it. And you the mount automatically get Evasion. It doesn't take the rider's reaction, either, they can just freely redirect all attacks that go towards you towards themselves.
This opens up three exploits: the spurned tank, the melee weenie, or the HP battery.
The Ancestral Guardian Barbarian is very difficult for enemies to ignore... and if they're forced to, they're gonna have a bad time (disadvantage on all of those attacks that are forced towards the rider, rider has resistance to those attacks, and eventually retaliation damage to the attacker when they attack the rider). Combine also with the Sentinel feat, to give yourself reaction attacks every time an enemy is forced to attack your rider against their will.
If you've ever wanted to play a melee caster who doesn't need Constitution or high AC... this is your chance! Not any real advantage to it, other than it saving you room to specialize elsewhere....
Warding Bond is not a very high level spell, available to Clerics, and some Paladins and Artificers. Usually, it's hard to see how it offers much net benefit to the party... but when your HP are as effectively shielded as they are while being ridden, it makes a lot more sense to grant your rider resistance against all damage types and +1 AC for the low-low cost of a 1 hour duration spell with no concentration! Funnily enough, if you give yourself resistance to the incoming damage, you should be able to still halve your half of it... so Warding Bond on an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian isn't a bad idea, as long as you cast the (1 hour long) spell before you Rage. Life Transference is theoretically usable by a defended HP Battery too, but really, while 8d8 healing as a third level spell is nice, it's still probably not good enough to justify not just casting a Cure Wounds or Healing Spirit or something.
Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it." Near as I can tell, that would allow you to fly, and it says the same thing for Dhampir, Hexbloods, and Reborn.
In the part about character creation:
"Alternatively, you can choose one of the following lineages. If you choose a lineage, you might have once been a member of another race, but you aren’t any longer. You now possess only your lineage’s racial traits." This is where people get the idea that you lose things like your wings or other movement abilities. It's not really that. What it covers is anything that your race might have had that isn't on the list, so for example, if you were a Drow that hand been Dhampired
Superior Darkvision.
Sunlight Sensitivity (Maybe. Check with the DM)
Inate spells
Drow Weapon Training.
Are all lost, but you gain
Speed 35
Darkvision (the normal kind)
Deathless Nature
Spider Climb
Vampiric Bite
A Lizardfolk who had been Dhampired
Lose their Age limitations
Gain a 35 land speed
Retain their 30 swim speed
Lose their Bite
Lose their Cunning Artisan ability
Lose their ability to hold their Breath
Lose their Hunter's Lore
Lose their Natural Armor
Lose their Hungry Jaws
Gain Darkvison
Gain Deathless Nature
Gain Spider Climb
Gain Vampirc Bite
Kind of odd that they lose so many skills. Doesn't make logical sense at first, but they are things specific to the race, and you aren't one anymore.
No, that's incorrect. Dhampirs retain all racial skills. An ex-Lizardfolk Dhampir retains Hunter's Lore.
What's unclear is what constitutes a flying speed: whether an ex-Aarakocra Dhampir retains the medium/heavy armor restriction on the fly speed, whether an ex-Winged Tiefling retains the heavy armor restriction on the fly speed, whether an ex-Owlfolk Dhampir can use a dex save as a reaction to halt a fall, and whether an ex-Fairy Dhampir's flight is still magical (i.e. it can hover but it can't fly in an AMF).
Dhampirs retain all racial skills? That seems pretty powerful mechanically. So a Dhampir tortle would retain all their racial bonuses but also get darkvision and the vampiric bite?
Ok. You're right. They keep their Hunter's Lore. It really doesn't matter. The ability just lets them pick two skills from the list at character creation and they get to keep those.
Dhampirs retain all racial skills? That seems pretty powerful mechanically. So a Dhampir tortle would retain all their racial bonuses but also get darkvision and the vampiric bite?
A Dhampir tortle gets one racial skill, but yes, it gets to keep it. It doesn't get to keep any other racial abilities from the tortle, especially the AC 17, which is the primary reason most people pick tortle.
The best Dhampirs have the most of what they get to keep: climb, fly, and/or swim speeds (all other speeds are lost - I don't know of any playable races with a burrow speed yet, but that would be lost, and other exotic forms of movement, such as racially improved jumping or teleportation, are lost), racial skills, and languages. Because Dhampirs get Spider Climb, there's a disincentive to pick a fly speed race, and languages are generally not very useful, so the "best" Dhampirs are generally Lizardfolk and Locathah, both of which are supersets of standard Dhampir (i.e. you're a Dhampir with a swim speed and no downsides).
As the title says Im looking for a unique centaur build. The reason I say unique is because I can use customize your origin to move around my stat bonuses so basically any class is a viable option but because of some homebrew things happening in my campaign I do want to focus on a couple of things. In my campaign all of us are undead and as such most magical healing options instead do damage to us, however necrotic damage can heal us in return. My current character is taking advantage of this by using the toll of the dead cantrip to basically just have a free heal whenever. Because of multiple horrible choices my character is very liable to dying soon so I wanna get started on making a new character and I thought a centaur would be neat. Our current party is just me and two paladins. I would like some ranged option however I dislike the limitations of spells as any extended fight can leave you very weak. We are all level 4 and also in this campaign there are many, many cursed and magical items. The main reason my current character might die is because I got cursed to where If i dont kill someone once a day I simply die. This campaign definitively is very hard so OP min/maxed builds are perfectly fine. If you can think of any other cool, powerful or unique build please feel free to describe them as while I am looking to build a centaur Im fine with looking at other options. Who knows, maybe a spellcaster kobold could be cool (now that I say that it sounds pretty damn cool)
Edit: forgot to put this in but its also point buy
You might consider using a Bow. I know many items are cursed, but it seems the most direct way to solve the problem even so. You don't need the Bow itself to be magical, and I would expect cursed magical arrows to be rather rare. Who uses a powerful curse on a consumable? You cannot currently play as a Centaur, I seem to remember a homebrew version but it had to be a scaled down version, because Centaurs are Large creatures and there are no rules really that cover that for player characters. Another problem with Centaurs is that people into min/maxing will want to ride on you. If you are willing to be ridden, and the DM is willing to allow it, Great! Imagine a Centaur Ranger, with a Paladin using a Lance riding him into battle.
You say that a Kobold spellcaster would be fun. There is a Feral Kobold that has wings. That's very powerful at level 4. I think Warlocks make great ranged blasters, but any sort will do well. A highly intelligent Kobold Wizard would be good, Kobolds are somehow related to Dragons, so a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer flying around on little Dragon wings and throwing spells around would be just about awesome.
<Insert clever signature here>
Actually about the bow there are even cursed bows. The one that I saw would sap your own health to make magical arrows so you would never run out as long as you had health (that was the downside basically), and what's this about not being able to play a centaur? They still count as medium creatures i'm pretty sure, they're basically tall humans If I remember correctly. Also I had the same thought process that maybe a kobold warlock would be pretty nice so im trying to make one right now just to see how I like it.
The Centaur racial "charge" means they're much better leaning into melee than range. When you say "some ranged option", does that mean you're fine with a melee build that can resort to range? Or do you want an actual ranged build? And how badly do you need to be an actual Centaur? I'm asking if Hexblood, Dhampir, Reborn, and Tasha's Custom Lineage - the four races that can have the body shape of any other race - are on the table, which will let you appear to be a Centaur without engaging in the Centaur racials.
In terms of the Centaur racials, Charge by itself is basically the bonus action attack from PAM, with modifications - you need 30 feet of straight movement, and you don't need to take the Attack action. The attack is made with your hooves, not your weapon, crippling your ability to deal magical damage or otherwise benefit from a magic weapon. You gain no benefit whatsoever from Charge or Hooves if you're a Monk, so in a big way the "most optimal" Centaur is to take a GWM/PAM build and drop PAM, grabbing a Maul or Greatsword instead. Since your hooves are Strength based and Monk is a poor choice for you, we're talking about a Strength-based build, and you need mobility - 40 feet of walking speed is not going to cut it. One example build you could embrace would be a traditional Battle Master Fighter, grabbing the non-traditional maneuver Maneuvering Strike, which would let you, under optimal conditions, perform a 30 foot charge and a 30 foot retreat. That's a razor thin margin of error, so you'd want to embrace getting your hands on even more mobility, like the Crusher feat for another 5 feet of space.
Bear in mind that regardless of race, a DM who's paying attention is going to make you pay quadruple for your armor, since you need armor for a pony (a Centaur body shape is something like 80% equine, 20% humanoid).
If you want to lean into ranged, at level 6 an Undead Warlock can deal necrotic damage with any attack once per turn, meaning you can heal yourself and your party with anything - Eldritch Blast, a crossbow, whatever you like (and if you crit, you'll deal double healing). At level 9 a Phantom Rogue has infinite access to dealing necrotic damage equal to half their sneak attack pool, rounded up (at level 3+ they have it pb/long rest, which is nearly 0). Those are the best two options I know of for ranged necrotic damage, outside of a Death Cleric spamming twinned Toll the Dead (or a Divine Soul Sorcerer burning sorcery points to do the same). Of course, there are some seriously compelling other options potentially on the table, due to how your "healing" works. An example shenanigan is using Spirit Guardians and not exempting the party, so the spell heals the party up.
Undead campaign you say? Necrotic damage heals you, you say? Centaur build too...hmm
How about an Undead Warlock?
Weild a greataxe and use it to attack with the cantrip Booming Blade. Grab the feat Mobile at level 4. Now you can hack into an enemy and use your excellent 50 foot movement speed to GTFO without triggering an opportunity attack, mixing in a hoof attack for a little extra damage when it works out. This tactic puts the enemy in an awkward position of taking extra damage or not being able to pursue you.
Undead Warlock lacks martial weapons and good armor though. Light armor and stats spread too thin to boost dex is a no go. So I would start with a dip for heavy and martials. Maybe Fighter 1 with the idea of picking up fighter 2 for action surge down the road. Maybe Paladin 2 for smites. Maybe sacrifice some charisma for wisdom to make a cleric 1 dip work. Not sure. What level this character will be joining the campaign has a lot to do with it.
Why Undead? Well at level 6 you get the ability to change 1 attack per turn into necrotic damage thanks to the Grave Touched ability. Now you can heal your friends by hacking them to bits! ** no trust me, this will help.**
In combat, using Grave Touched while you have the Form of Dread activated means you can have the necrotic attack deal one extra weapon die of damage. Thanks to wielding a greataxe, that's an extra d12. Combined with Booming Blade you're attacking for 2d12+1d8+3 and will deal another 2d8 if the enemy moves on their next turn. Taking the Pact of the Chain will give you an amazing familiar that can provide the help action in combat to give you advantage on hitting from the relative safety of invisibity (take imp or sprite), which is important on a build based on making one attack a round. Alternatively you could go Pact of the Tome and pick up the invocation Book of Many Secrets to access the find familiar spell. This route offers more spellcasting utility in the form of cantrips and rituals, but the familiar is a much less powerful one.
After level 4 I would focus on maximizing strength with ASIs as this is oddly still a strength build despite being a warlock. You can use custom origin to move the +1 wis to cha and start with a solid 16 charisma that will serve you well, although 14 is perfectly workable. Focusing spellcasting on utility and other options that don't rely on charisma will help. I highly recommend spider climb and/or fly. They're excellent for anybody, but the centaur's horse body is pretty bad at climbing so they're more necessary than usual from an exploration perspective.
Personally I really like the sound of Paladin 2/ Undead Warlock 8 and taking the build from there if you get that far.
I second Zot's suggestions - Undead 'Lock is great, and Eldritch Blast turns you into a powerful ranged attacker. I'd suggest pact of the blade or pact of the tome, depending on how you want to go... but blade is how I would do it.
Oh, and you can absolutely play as a centaur - you just need access to the Ravnica book.
I suggest it first, and Zot gets all the credit? Now I'm salty.
😅😅😅😅
Quin, I completely missed that you wrote about Undead locks. Admittedly, I hit where you mention monk and just glazed over and started mashing away at my own post.
No worries, I don't get upset when other people agree with me. :-P
Thanks for all the replies, an undead warlock does seem pretty cool. Also quindraco I don't actually need to be a centaur at all. That was just the first thought that popped in my head for making a cool new character. I'm completely open to any suggestions on what kind of build I should make with this campaign I'm in. Also about the hooves not being too useful... we're able to (and already have) curse our bodies. For example, my character that might die soon has a cursed fist. The muscle and skin had dissolved off of it leaving only skeleton and now I can do 1d4 necrotic damage on a hit with it. So even natural weapons can actually play a part here as I can get them cursed. So a minotaur's horns or a tortle's claws, It opens up quite a number of options.
Only downside to it is that your L10 benefit gives you resistance or immunity to healing, effectively. Might want to discuss with your DM homebrewing it slightly.
I suggest a lizardfolk dhampir - it's a normal dhampir (2 skill proficiencies included!) with a 30 foot swim speed, and it's just incredibly thematic. Also thematic are an aarakocra (ideally a vulture) dhampir or a winged tiefling dhampir, but in both cases you'll need a ruling from your DM on whether Dhampir inherit speed restrictions along with speeds, as the RAW is silent on the topic. Both options get you a flying speed but sacrifice 2 skill proficiencies to do it.
Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it." Near as I can tell, that would allow you to fly, and it says the same thing for Dhampir, Hexbloods, and Reborn.
In the part about character creation:
"Alternatively, you can choose one of the following lineages. If you choose a lineage, you might have once been a member of another race, but you aren’t any longer. You now possess only your lineage’s racial traits." This is where people get the idea that you lose things like your wings or other movement abilities. It's not really that. What it covers is anything that your race might have had that isn't on the list, so for example, if you were a Drow that hand been Dhampired
Are all lost, but you gain
A Lizardfolk who had been Dhampired
Kind of odd that they lose so many skills. Doesn't make logical sense at first, but they are things specific to the race, and you aren't one anymore.
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Centaur base race. 40ft if movement with a slight detriment to climbing. Charge gives you the ability to weaponize your bonus action so long as you move 30ft straight forward your enemy first, and allows you to hit with your natural weapon hoofs for 1d4+mod. Fey creature type protects you from quite a few debilitating low level spell, since it makes you an invalid target to spells that specify humanoid.
barbarian class, ancestral guardian subclass. Your rage severely limits the offensive capabilities of the first creature you hit on your turn, and this stays in effect regardless of your proximity to that creature. Mobile feat at level 4 to increase your move speed to 50, and allows you to move out of attack range of melee fighters while your Paladins are in the fray. This allows you to recklessly attack a bit more often as the creatures your fighting will have to choose between Opportunity attacks from your Paladins to get to you. Your Paladins in their armor with decent AC getting attacked at disadvantage and who gain resistance to those attacks will be incredibly tanky.
at 5th level you get an additional 10ft movement speed so long as you’re not wearing heavy armor, and extra attack. This brings you to a total of 60ft, which is enough to effectively allow you to reset your move distance to allow for your racial charge almost every turn. This increases your offense a bit, and highly increases your chance of hitting at least once a turn for your subclass feature.
Level 6 gives you the ability to use your reaction to reduce damage to an ally within 30 ft if you, which your Paladins will almost always be if making Use of the close range hit and run tactics. The disadvantage you impose makes it less likely you will have to use it vs your party but it’s still valuable. The resistance you give to your ally also makes the 2d6 more effective than it seems at first glance. The spirit shield reaction also isn’t limited to reducing damage from attacks, but any source of damage against an ally so long as your raging.
the tashas level 7 barbarian feature gives you an additional half move speed when you rage, putting you at 90ft with your speed bonuses at this point.
your ability to very reliably make bonus action attacks mitigates your need for feats somewhat, so you can switch to using a shield if needed to give you more defenses vs ranged attacks. You can use a lance, glaive or whip if slightly more movement and range are necessary. Since your main impact isn’t outright damage, you have quite a bit of versatility within your gear choice.
vengeful ancestors at level 14 is awesome since it adds damage to the reaction you were hoping to use anyways. It’s 14 average force damage prevented(or effectively more if resistance is in play) and also that same damage done to the creature causing the damage.on average. Firstly, the damage can’t miss, it just happens. Secondly, even though the reaction this augments is limited to an ally within 30ft, the damage it deals out to the attacking has no range limit. As such, an archer 150ft away could hit your ally with an arrow, you can react to reduce the damage by roughly 14 potentially reducing the entire damage amount, and the archer takes that same roll in force damage 150ft away. It’s also force damage, so it very unlikely to be resisted or prevented.
the crusher feat may work well if you want to make use of the crit feature and gain an additional str or con point. You already get a more reliable and better version of the slasher feats crit feature. Perhaps using a warhammer or maul with your hooves. You will be criting 14-24% of your turns with the number of attacks and situational advantage with reckless attack. Giving your Paladins advantage for their attacks and smites would be pretty sweet.
this build makes great use of the racial, class, and subclass features to be more of a support barbarian that still contributes to offense.
Warlock 2 for Mask of Many Faces, Disguise Self should be sufficient to conceal yourself as a horse. From there, you're only a Deception check away from passing yourself off as a level 20 Druid who can cast while Wild Shaped.
More seriously... I'm not seeing anyone above mentioning Mounted Combatant. Not for you, of course... for the party member riding you! There don't appear to be any hard restrictions in 5E, or any rules whatsoever, that would discourage you from letting another (small sized) party member ride you, since you'll have the proper quadruped anatomy. As soon as you saddle up a halfling/gnome/kobold/vorigin rider with Mounted Combatant, you can no longer be attacked, ever, unless the rider allows it. And you the mount automatically get Evasion. It doesn't take the rider's reaction, either, they can just freely redirect all attacks that go towards you towards themselves.
This opens up three exploits: the spurned tank, the melee weenie, or the HP battery.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
No, that's incorrect. Dhampirs retain all racial skills. An ex-Lizardfolk Dhampir retains Hunter's Lore.
What's unclear is what constitutes a flying speed: whether an ex-Aarakocra Dhampir retains the medium/heavy armor restriction on the fly speed, whether an ex-Winged Tiefling retains the heavy armor restriction on the fly speed, whether an ex-Owlfolk Dhampir can use a dex save as a reaction to halt a fall, and whether an ex-Fairy Dhampir's flight is still magical (i.e. it can hover but it can't fly in an AMF).
Dhampirs retain all racial skills? That seems pretty powerful mechanically. So a Dhampir tortle would retain all their racial bonuses but also get darkvision and the vampiric bite?
Ok. You're right. They keep their Hunter's Lore. It really doesn't matter. The ability just lets them pick two skills from the list at character creation and they get to keep those.
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A Dhampir tortle gets one racial skill, but yes, it gets to keep it. It doesn't get to keep any other racial abilities from the tortle, especially the AC 17, which is the primary reason most people pick tortle.
The best Dhampirs have the most of what they get to keep: climb, fly, and/or swim speeds (all other speeds are lost - I don't know of any playable races with a burrow speed yet, but that would be lost, and other exotic forms of movement, such as racially improved jumping or teleportation, are lost), racial skills, and languages. Because Dhampirs get Spider Climb, there's a disincentive to pick a fly speed race, and languages are generally not very useful, so the "best" Dhampirs are generally Lizardfolk and Locathah, both of which are supersets of standard Dhampir (i.e. you're a Dhampir with a swim speed and no downsides).
ew now all I can think about is a bloodthirsty tortle with an exposed, squishy body.