Hi everyone, I have been working on a Character Build for some time now, and with the release of the Illrigger on here, I am reconsidering which version of the character will be optimal. For some background, the inspiration for the character is Annatar, Sauron's fair form. Within the upcoming campaign my race will be an Aasimar (similarish to Sauron as a Maiar) and he has come to our world to help 'heal' it. Needless to say, this is an evil aligned character. But the tricky part is the table (other than the DM who is in on this with me being a devil in disguise) cannot know that I am evil aligned. Like Annatar, my goal is to be perceived as good and as a messenger of the gods. There is one specific character in this world I would like to manipulate. Without getting into too much detail, he is a Dragonborn who has incredibly powerful magical items that my character wants for himself and he is essentially a King. And by acting as a force of good to get close to him, I plan on eventually manipulating him under my control or outright defeating and taking the magical items if said manipulations fail.
Our campaigns max out at level 8. And to best re-create what Annatar is meant to be, a manipulative person but also with the ability as Sauron to be a mighty warrior, I did a three headed multi class. Full disclosure, yes I am power gaming here. Part of the entire goal here is to create a very powerful figure, so that by the end of the story when he is revealed to be evil, it strikes fear into the rest of us for future campaigns when we eventually come across him as a villain. But I also wanted him to match the flavor of Annatar.
So my first two levels I took into Paladin. Specifically to get heavy armor, a shield and one handed weapon (dueling fighting style) along with Divine Smite. The third level is for Hexblade Warlock so that I can focus on Charisma, allowing him to be dangerous both in and out of combat with proficiency in both Deception and Persuasion (+8 each and Noble background). The next five levels I took was for Divine Soul Sorcerer. Partly because of the flavor of Annatar as a Divine Soul, partly to gain lots of spell slots to frequently smite, use its extra 2D4 on saving throws and eventually gain access to Haste.
General Combat strategy for this build was to use Booming Blade alongside my Dueling Fighting Style Hexblade and to stack that single hit with smite. Then as I level up use Quickened Spell to add a second booming blade, and finally at the end use Haste to potentially repeat this a third time. Celestial Revelation from the Aasimar and Hexblade's Curse would also fit in here. He would have a base 18 AC + spell Shield reactions and 74 HP by level 8. The spell Suggestion along with high Charisma Skill Checks was how I would fulfill the Annatar the Deceiver side of the character as well as Disguise Self. I would not abuse this Nova damage every fight, but save it for shock and awe moments to somewhat keep my cover within the party.
Here is where I am having a bit of a dilemma. The Illrigger Hellspeaker class looks basically tailor made to be this exact type of character. And when looking at how I would build this version of the same character out using Hellspeaker there are some good options. The idea would be to take five levels into the Oath of Conquest Paladin and three levels into the Illrigger and pick up Hellspeaker. With Duelist fighting style from the Paladin and the Liar fighting style from the Illrigger, the basic attack and damage rolls are equivalent to the prior version. Except now I pick up extra attack and drop booming blade. I can smite on each hit still (thank you 2014 Paladin) and can auto crit one hit with Honey Sweet Blades from the Illrigger. The ability to also make foes attack each other via Turncoat is ripped straight out of Annatar's portrayal in the TV show, which very much fits the flavor here. As well as the ability to use Seals to Charm Enemies without the need of a spell such as Suggestion. His HP would be about 84 by level 8.
Battle Strategy would more or less be to Hit twice, smite twice, honey sweet blades once and burn my seal when this happens. I would still have 18 AC, but no shield reaction spell. The original build had 11 spells slots for Shield / Smite and this newer version has just 6 slots for only Smite and could not cast a 4D8 smite like the original version.
Here is the kicker. Because of my Paladin and Noble background giving me proficiency in Persuasion and Deception, Moloch's Blessing will DOUBLE my proficiency in one of these skills (+16!) and because my extra language taken here is Draconic I will have advantage on Persuasion and Deception checks against the key character I am targeting in this campaign. It does not hurt the flavor here either to know seven languages.
My worry here is that while the new build is still capable of very powerful Nova damage, the original build still has a higher ceiling and can use it multiple times (honey sweet blades is a 1x use). Also, it may be hard to convince my party I'm a good guy if my class is called Hellspeaker from a sublcass built around Hell Warriors. On the flip side, some of the abilities the Hellspeaker gives is just so insanely perfect for this character. In a potential showdown with the Dragonborn character, I do feel as though the original character will be more capable of surviving that fight if it came down to it. And Suggestion, as a written spell, would (if successful) force the Dragonborn into enacting what I want him to. While a +16 Skill Check on Deception or Persuasion may get me somewhere, but still ultimately places fate in the hands of how the DM wants the story to go.
The DM and I have talked a lot about this, he is very down for the evil character and is okay with power builds. He is also aware my character will have an infatuation with the Dragonborn. But he has basically told me that the Dragonborn is very powerful and I better be ready for him when that time comes cause he won't take it easy on me here. So Suggestion feels safer. I am basically caught between a more powerful combatant or a more powerful speaker and both are still good at the other side of things. As well as caught between the flavor of the Hellspeaker against the obvious nature of its evil.
Long post, but I'd love any feedback or thoughts here
TLDR ; A Hexsorcadin multi class or a Illrigadin multi class to be Annatar
TL;DR. However, it seems like you are multiclassing a lot of classes; that'll mess you up late game. If the campaign hasn't started yet, I recommend going only one class, maybe 2 tops.
I think Illrigger would make sense, especially that subclass. Maybe just do that and Paladin, because you could be devoted to a Lower demon.
We are stopping at level 8, highest we have ever done is 9, so I'm not very worried about typical late game with the triple multiclass. The only thing I am really losing out on is extra attack , but Booming Blade has me covered for the missing damage from that more or less.
I guess I am just worried about getting into a situation where my eventual breaking bad moment leaves me vulnerable and I can't nova my way out of it with Illrigger. But I do just love the flavor it so much
Basically, the avg damage I can do with the triple class when I combine Quickened Booming Blade with Smite is like 83ish , and I can do that twice. I can pump that up to about 130 with Haste. The Nova potential of the Illrigger is about 82 , and that is a one time use. Otherwise it stays more around 50ish. Flip side, is a potential +16 on Persuasion at Advantage.
Campaign won't start for a few months realistically, so I have a long time to consider this
I like to have my character develop naturally with the campaign. Plan out what you want to do, but see what challenges you face. Build your character's personality with the choices he/she/they make and the party you are playing with.
One thing to keep in mind for your BB-triple build (aside from the fact that you can't BB with a Hasted action), is that BB can be counterspelled. I've DMed for a build almost exactly what you are describing here (except they went Greatsword + GWM too) and it was so fun to Counterspell them and see their massive Nova be turned into nothing.
Hi everyone, I have been working on a Character Build for some time now, and with the release of the Illrigger on here, I am reconsidering which version of the character will be optimal. For some background, the inspiration for the character is Annatar, Sauron's fair form. Within the upcoming campaign my race will be an Aasimar (similarish to Sauron as a Maiar) and he has come to our world to help 'heal' it. Needless to say, this is an evil aligned character. But the tricky part is the table (other than the DM who is in on this with me being a devil in disguise) cannot know that I am evil aligned. Like Annatar, my goal is to be perceived as good and as a messenger of the gods. There is one specific character in this world I would like to manipulate. Without getting into too much detail, he is a Dragonborn who has incredibly powerful magical items that my character wants for himself and he is essentially a King. And by acting as a force of good to get close to him, I plan on eventually manipulating him under my control or outright defeating and taking the magical items if said manipulations fail.
Our campaigns max out at level 8. And to best re-create what Annatar is meant to be, a manipulative person but also with the ability as Sauron to be a mighty warrior, I did a three headed multi class. Full disclosure, yes I am power gaming here. Part of the entire goal here is to create a very powerful figure, so that by the end of the story when he is revealed to be evil, it strikes fear into the rest of us for future campaigns when we eventually come across him as a villain. But I also wanted him to match the flavor of Annatar.
So my first two levels I took into Paladin. Specifically to get heavy armor, a shield and one handed weapon (dueling fighting style) along with Divine Smite. The third level is for Hexblade Warlock so that I can focus on Charisma, allowing him to be dangerous both in and out of combat with proficiency in both Deception and Persuasion (+8 each and Noble background). The next five levels I took was for Divine Soul Sorcerer. Partly because of the flavor of Annatar as a Divine Soul, partly to gain lots of spell slots to frequently smite, use its extra 2D4 on saving throws and eventually gain access to Haste.
General Combat strategy for this build was to use Booming Blade alongside my Dueling Fighting Style Hexblade and to stack that single hit with smite. Then as I level up use Quickened Spell to add a second booming blade, and finally at the end use Haste to potentially repeat this a third time. Celestial Revelation from the Aasimar and Hexblade's Curse would also fit in here. He would have a base 18 AC + spell Shield reactions and 74 HP by level 8. The spell Suggestion along with high Charisma Skill Checks was how I would fulfill the Annatar the Deceiver side of the character as well as Disguise Self. I would not abuse this Nova damage every fight, but save it for shock and awe moments to somewhat keep my cover within the party.
Here is where I am having a bit of a dilemma. The Illrigger Hellspeaker class looks basically tailor made to be this exact type of character. And when looking at how I would build this version of the same character out using Hellspeaker there are some good options. The idea would be to take five levels into the Oath of Conquest Paladin and three levels into the Illrigger and pick up Hellspeaker. With Duelist fighting style from the Paladin and the Liar fighting style from the Illrigger, the basic attack and damage rolls are equivalent to the prior version. Except now I pick up extra attack and drop booming blade. I can smite on each hit still (thank you 2014 Paladin) and can auto crit one hit with Honey Sweet Blades from the Illrigger. The ability to also make foes attack each other via Turncoat is ripped straight out of Annatar's portrayal in the TV show, which very much fits the flavor here. As well as the ability to use Seals to Charm Enemies without the need of a spell such as Suggestion. His HP would be about 84 by level 8.
Battle Strategy would more or less be to Hit twice, smite twice, honey sweet blades once and burn my seal when this happens. I would still have 18 AC, but no shield reaction spell. The original build had 11 spells slots for Shield / Smite and this newer version has just 6 slots for only Smite and could not cast a 4D8 smite like the original version.
Here is the kicker. Because of my Paladin and Noble background giving me proficiency in Persuasion and Deception, Moloch's Blessing will DOUBLE my proficiency in one of these skills (+16!) and because my extra language taken here is Draconic I will have advantage on Persuasion and Deception checks against the key character I am targeting in this campaign. It does not hurt the flavor here either to know seven languages.
My worry here is that while the new build is still capable of very powerful Nova damage, the original build still has a higher ceiling and can use it multiple times (honey sweet blades is a 1x use). Also, it may be hard to convince my party I'm a good guy if my class is called Hellspeaker from a sublcass built around Hell Warriors. On the flip side, some of the abilities the Hellspeaker gives is just so insanely perfect for this character. In a potential showdown with the Dragonborn character, I do feel as though the original character will be more capable of surviving that fight if it came down to it. And Suggestion, as a written spell, would (if successful) force the Dragonborn into enacting what I want him to. While a +16 Skill Check on Deception or Persuasion may get me somewhere, but still ultimately places fate in the hands of how the DM wants the story to go.
The DM and I have talked a lot about this, he is very down for the evil character and is okay with power builds. He is also aware my character will have an infatuation with the Dragonborn. But he has basically told me that the Dragonborn is very powerful and I better be ready for him when that time comes cause he won't take it easy on me here. So Suggestion feels safer. I am basically caught between a more powerful combatant or a more powerful speaker and both are still good at the other side of things. As well as caught between the flavor of the Hellspeaker against the obvious nature of its evil.
Long post, but I'd love any feedback or thoughts here
TLDR ; A Hexsorcadin multi class or a Illrigadin multi class to be Annatar
TL;DR. However, it seems like you are multiclassing a lot of classes; that'll mess you up late game. If the campaign hasn't started yet, I recommend going only one class, maybe 2 tops.
I think Illrigger would make sense, especially that subclass. Maybe just do that and Paladin, because you could be devoted to a Lower demon.
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We are stopping at level 8, highest we have ever done is 9, so I'm not very worried about typical late game with the triple multiclass. The only thing I am really losing out on is extra attack , but Booming Blade has me covered for the missing damage from that more or less.
I guess I am just worried about getting into a situation where my eventual breaking bad moment leaves me vulnerable and I can't nova my way out of it with Illrigger. But I do just love the flavor it so much
Basically, the avg damage I can do with the triple class when I combine Quickened Booming Blade with Smite is like 83ish , and I can do that twice. I can pump that up to about 130 with Haste. The Nova potential of the Illrigger is about 82 , and that is a one time use. Otherwise it stays more around 50ish. Flip side, is a potential +16 on Persuasion at Advantage.
Campaign won't start for a few months realistically, so I have a long time to consider this
I like to have my character develop naturally with the campaign. Plan out what you want to do, but see what challenges you face. Build your character's personality with the choices he/she/they make and the party you are playing with.
One thing to keep in mind for your BB-triple build (aside from the fact that you can't BB with a Hasted action), is that BB can be counterspelled. I've DMed for a build almost exactly what you are describing here (except they went Greatsword + GWM too) and it was so fun to Counterspell them and see their massive Nova be turned into nothing.
That is actually a good call out and I will have to consider that