I was toying around with certain character concepts the other day and started thinking. What classes have the best "hulk out" abailities, especially if reflavouring is involved? By that I mean powers like the Lycan Blood Hunter's Hybrid Transformation, Rune Knights' Giant Might and, at higher levels, Paladins' capstone abilities. Barbarian Rage also kind of fits into this. Things that give a significant increase of power over a relaitively short period of time.
Spells like Tenser's Transformation and Tasha's Otherwordly Guise also fits but I'm more interested in things accessable to lower level characters. Anyone got any cool ideas?
Hmm. What about Spores Druid? Loads of temp hp and a boost to melee weapon attacks. The struggle is always to get the melee boost to matter on a spores.
I was tinkering around with a build a bit ago that I think fits this pretty damn well, and was designed with low levels in mind.
Species: Thri-Kreen
Class: Spores Druid
Stats: 8/16/17/10/14/8
ASI(s): Resilient (Con) @4, probably war caster next
Strategy:
Thri-Kreen allows you to use a shield, two light weapons for two-weapon fighting and still have an open hand for somatic components. In tier 1, makes two attacks with the 1d6 boost is solid for a character that is also providing key healing support. Natural Armor, 16 dex, and a shield add up to 18 AC right away, which is quite solid, especially when combined with all that temp hp.
In tier 2, conjure animals and woodland beings are the good and obvious options to avoid that mediocre wisdom.
I think the Hulking Out aspect of this build shines best in tier 1, where twf puts you on par for number of attacks with most martials. It then graduates to focus on more of the summoner and healer roles while still being completely fine sponging hits for the team.
A kind of unconventional "hulk out" is the Undead Warlock, with their Form of Dread. D10+Level Temp HP, outputs the Frightened condition at no additional resource cost, and at higher levels it even increases the damage you deal. I remember recommending this once for someone who wanted to play a Venom-inspired character, with the symbiote as their patron.
Paladin kind of has a few, but it's a stretch. Oath of Glory has Peerless Athlete... gives advantage on Athletics/Acrobatics checks, increases carry capacity and jump distance, but no direct impact on damage output, AC, or even temp HP. Mostly useful for out-of-combat "hulking out" to pull off feats of strength. Vengeance Paladin has Vow of Enmity, which just gives advantage against a single target but could be reflavored somewhat... still, it's a pretty big stretch.
Monk has the Astral Self, which requires a bit of reflavoring as well... really only a boost in damage if you have higher WIS than DEX. But it does get gradually more powerful the longer you stick with the class and eventually has a full-body transformation of sorts.
Fighter has Rune Knight, as has been pointed out. Not much more to add to that discussion.
Druid is interesting because you could easily reflavor Wild Shape in general as some form of Hulking Out... turn into a bear or something with a similar bipedal posture and you could reflavor it as just become large and monstrous. Moon Druid could pull this off more easily, but it kind of forces you to severely limit your wild shape options just for flavor. Spores Druid is a more obvious Hulk Out, since you remain yourself, but just get more HP and deal more damage. Stars is less "Hulking Out" and more like... I dunno, a magical girl transformation, but there is a transformation element you can take advantage of.
Cleric doesn't really have anything that sticks out to me. Bard doesn't either...
Barbarian... now at this point you can pick literally any subclass and call it Hulking Out and no one will question you. Beast includes an actual physical transformation, and gives you options to fight totally unarmed to really sell the idea of hulking out. Totem Warrior is another solid choice... Bear Totem really does make you feel invulnerable.
Artificer has kind of a weird way to pull this off... taking the Alchemist Subclass, if you take the right Experimental Elixirs, it basically allows you to Hulk Out, but you obviously need time to prepare ahead of time, since most DMs won't let you pre-mix all your Elixirs into a single potion you can chug at the start of combat. But if you can time it right, you can chug the Resilience, Boldness, and Transformation elixirs, and now you've got +1 AC, a d4 added to every attack roll and saving throw, and you have an unarmed attack that counts as a +1 Magic Natural Weapon that deals 1d6+STR damage. Still... it takes 3 actions to set this up, and although the Resilience and Transformation potions last for 10 minutes, Boldness only lasts one.
I was toying around with certain character concepts the other day and started thinking. What classes have the best "hulk out" abailities, especially if reflavouring is involved? By that I mean powers like the Lycan Blood Hunter's Hybrid Transformation, Rune Knights' Giant Might and, at higher levels, Paladins' capstone abilities. Barbarian Rage also kind of fits into this. Things that give a significant increase of power over a relaitively short period of time.
Spells like Tenser's Transformation and Tasha's Otherwordly Guise also fits but I'm more interested in things accessable to lower level characters. Anyone got any cool ideas?
Hmm. What about Spores Druid? Loads of temp hp and a boost to melee weapon attacks. The struggle is always to get the melee boost to matter on a spores.
I was tinkering around with a build a bit ago that I think fits this pretty damn well, and was designed with low levels in mind.
Species: Thri-Kreen
Class: Spores Druid
Stats: 8/16/17/10/14/8
ASI(s): Resilient (Con) @4, probably war caster next
Strategy:
Thri-Kreen allows you to use a shield, two light weapons for two-weapon fighting and still have an open hand for somatic components. In tier 1, makes two attacks with the 1d6 boost is solid for a character that is also providing key healing support. Natural Armor, 16 dex, and a shield add up to 18 AC right away, which is quite solid, especially when combined with all that temp hp.
In tier 2, conjure animals and woodland beings are the good and obvious options to avoid that mediocre wisdom.
I think the Hulking Out aspect of this build shines best in tier 1, where twf puts you on par for number of attacks with most martials. It then graduates to focus on more of the summoner and healer roles while still being completely fine sponging hits for the team.
Not really a class but the Enlarge spell kinda "Hulks" somebody out.
A kind of unconventional "hulk out" is the Undead Warlock, with their Form of Dread. D10+Level Temp HP, outputs the Frightened condition at no additional resource cost, and at higher levels it even increases the damage you deal. I remember recommending this once for someone who wanted to play a Venom-inspired character, with the symbiote as their patron.
Paladin kind of has a few, but it's a stretch. Oath of Glory has Peerless Athlete... gives advantage on Athletics/Acrobatics checks, increases carry capacity and jump distance, but no direct impact on damage output, AC, or even temp HP. Mostly useful for out-of-combat "hulking out" to pull off feats of strength. Vengeance Paladin has Vow of Enmity, which just gives advantage against a single target but could be reflavored somewhat... still, it's a pretty big stretch.
Monk has the Astral Self, which requires a bit of reflavoring as well... really only a boost in damage if you have higher WIS than DEX. But it does get gradually more powerful the longer you stick with the class and eventually has a full-body transformation of sorts.
Fighter has Rune Knight, as has been pointed out. Not much more to add to that discussion.
Druid is interesting because you could easily reflavor Wild Shape in general as some form of Hulking Out... turn into a bear or something with a similar bipedal posture and you could reflavor it as just become large and monstrous. Moon Druid could pull this off more easily, but it kind of forces you to severely limit your wild shape options just for flavor. Spores Druid is a more obvious Hulk Out, since you remain yourself, but just get more HP and deal more damage. Stars is less "Hulking Out" and more like... I dunno, a magical girl transformation, but there is a transformation element you can take advantage of.
Cleric doesn't really have anything that sticks out to me. Bard doesn't either...
Barbarian... now at this point you can pick literally any subclass and call it Hulking Out and no one will question you. Beast includes an actual physical transformation, and gives you options to fight totally unarmed to really sell the idea of hulking out. Totem Warrior is another solid choice... Bear Totem really does make you feel invulnerable.
Artificer has kind of a weird way to pull this off... taking the Alchemist Subclass, if you take the right Experimental Elixirs, it basically allows you to Hulk Out, but you obviously need time to prepare ahead of time, since most DMs won't let you pre-mix all your Elixirs into a single potion you can chug at the start of combat. But if you can time it right, you can chug the Resilience, Boldness, and Transformation elixirs, and now you've got +1 AC, a d4 added to every attack roll and saving throw, and you have an unarmed attack that counts as a +1 Magic Natural Weapon that deals 1d6+STR damage. Still... it takes 3 actions to set this up, and although the Resilience and Transformation potions last for 10 minutes, Boldness only lasts one.
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I can't see playing a hulk out bard at low levels, but I could see making something work at level 9+
Valor Bard 6/ Clockwork 3
The hulking out is Quicken Enlarge and then grapple with expertise + advantage.
The Goliath in the latest UA does it. No matter what class.
So many good suggestions! Thanks and keep'em coming.
Sailor Moon transformation variants are also more than welcome! :D