I have a home brew setting where the magic is fairly low. I want my players to still be able to level up a lot though, so I think progression can work like this:

Classes cap out at level 5. Once you hit 5 you then multi class to continue.

Once you hit 5 in three classes (lvl15) you can pick one class to continue leveling to 10

Once you are lvl20 the rest of your class features will be given to you as you level using epic boons. Access to high level spells can be gained this way too. At this point the characters will be exploring my version of the outer planes so world breaking magic will be normal anyway.

So what kind of builds would you make? How powerful could be at lvl15 like this?

Hi all!

I will be playing in a level 20 combat focussed one-shot next week and the dm has explicitly said that "no items are off the table"

I would like a build that lets me use the blackstaff http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wondrous-items:blackstaff

and the mizzium apparatus http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wondrous-items:mizzium-apparatus

to make something nutty!!

I think we get 1 legendary, 1 vrare 2 rare and 2 uncommon

I was thinking something along the lines of vedalken 10 enchantment wizard/ 2 stars druid but then I got stuck and don't know what to do with the rest of the levels (minimum arcana check of 29 with starry form)

My general game plan would be psychic scream every round until everything is stunned then start twin PWKilling things

Please hit me with your best suggestions and tips!

Ya legends!

So I’m currently about to end a level 20 campaign (Crazy) spanning 3 years with my friends and we are about to do our last big fight. I’ve only played one other campaign so I’m not really familiar with the druid class

For a side note my character is a 17 Stars Druid 2 Divination Wizards and 1 Life Cleric (yes I hella min maxed) I currently have a 24 in wisdom with a item that gives me a +3 to spellcasting

So my question is what would be good spells/spell combos that I can use against the BBEG (side note this guys is like a psionics aberration dude) I only played to support my group via healing or buffs but since this is gonna be the last big epic fight I was thinking maybe I could use spells that aren’t for healing/buffing/debuffing unless those spells are the best option? Ty for all the help

Hi, so I am getting a character ready for a new campaign set in a desert (Echo and Swarm will both be themed as sand) and have ended with the Echo Knight / Swarmkeeper combo. I plan to use VHuman with the Sentinel feat then sword and shield for weapons.

Originally I was planning to start as a fighter and go to level 5 for extra attack and ASI, then swap to 3 levels of ranger. But now I'm wondering if 5 levels of Ranger might be better as both classes basically get the same things for level 4 and 5 with ranger also getting spells on top of that.

So what do you guys think would be the better choice? EK 5 / Swarm 3? Swarm 5 / EK 3? Maybe start Fighter, go 3 Swarm then back to Fighter? How would you do it and then what would you do post those levels?

Thanks in advance :)

For my next campaign i wanted to play some sort of gunslinger character, i searched a bit and the 3 most promising options are: -gunk build (shadow monk with a gun as the monk weapon) taken from Pack Tactics' video on it

-Matthew Mercer's gunslinger (fighter subclass) though i have heard it is not very good but never tested it.

-Heavyarms' gunslinger (class with subclasses) also never tried.

My DM is ok with all 3, i was wondering which would be the best choice optimisation-wise since our table is pretty min-maxy. The other party members are a Blood hunter(unsure about subclass) a paladin (conquest) and a warlock (genie or the water one)

Thank you! (Btw if there are other options i didn't see feel free to also reccomend them)

What is the worst optimized character you ever played and how did it contribute to good roleplay?
Could be that you rolled for character stats and got terrible rolls.
Maybe you just chose not to take the highest efficiency subclass or feats.
I personally think suboptimal characters can lead to fun and funny RP at times.
What are some memorable moments from your "worst" character.

So plan to fight in darkness. Going to use repelling blast and lance of lethargy to controle mele/proc booming blade

What would your choice at lvl 5 assuming you have quicken metamagic as well.

Gwm, pact of the blade (so two attacks), 2x 2d6 great sword

Or

Elvin accuracy, pact of the chain(or tomb really), 2d8 booming blade (or 3d8 if they move)

Assuming the move they both max out at 24 damage (4d6 vs 3d8), ea makes it more likely to crit/hit and I'm at a 17 cha....+20 damage is .... Pretty good, though bonus action from gwm gums up a quickened eb

Which way do you go?

Would this work as a playable character?

• Race is Mountain Dwarf with the two +2 in Charisma and Intelligence, bringing them both to a start at 17 (+3).
• Start at level 1 as the Genie Warlock (Djinni)
• Take hex spell
• Get a free feat to start with, so take Eldritch Adept feat for Agonizing Blast
• level 2 go into Artificer
• Take the Enhanced Arcane Focus infusion
• Chose the Artillerist subclass
• At level 5 ability score improvement is +1 for both Intelligence and Charisma, bringing them both to 18 (+4)
• next ability score improvement will be to bring Intelligence to 20 (+5) and the following will do the same for Charisma

Playstyle

• Ranged attacks with eldritch blast, and combine that the attacks from the Eldritch Cannon
• At level 5 (with out hex), this would be 1d10(+4) + 1d10(+4)+2d8+3(Genie's wrath) = 29 average/46 max
• And with hex it would be 1d10(+4)+1d6 + 1d10(+4) +1d6+2d8 +1d6+3(Genie's wrath) = 38 average/74 max
• use the bonuses from the Enhanced Arcane Focus infusion to make up for the lower ability scores for the cantrips.
• save spell slots for the Eldritch Cannon, to resummon if needed.

Downsides

• Unless you have an All Purpose Tool, you don't get the benefit of the Arcane Firearm ability (bonus 1d8 to spell damage when shot from Arcane Firearm)
• Reliant on that free feat in the beginning
• hard to do this with any other race but Mountain Dwarf
• Breakable - your Genie vessel can be destroyed, loosing that bonus damage, and so can your Eldritch Cannon, looking that source of damage until you spend an action to summon it
• need at least 1 round to prepare, unless you always have your cannon out/before the battle starts.
• unsure if this is even viable or fun from a gameplay perspective.
• It takes till level 14 for your main stats to be maxed out
• loose out of the Artificer's level 20 feature.

I’m looking for absolute minimum mechanics to worry about, because I absolutely fumble all over myself if I’m playing online.

This build is the easiest I can think of mechanically. I’m not much of an optimizer anyway, so I don’t care about the power level, but I don’t want to fall too far behind my mates either.

I know I should be using a greataxe for maximum criticals, but what feats should I aim for, and should I pick them before or after hitting a 20 STR?

TIA.

So, I started with a Hexblade Warlock and we’re level 2, however a big story event has had my character have a complete breakdown and question if their pact to the Raven Queen has damned themselves to the control of another monster (backstory shenanigans they were essentially a slave who was saved by the Raven Queen).

Now that they are completely horrified by this pact they’ve made, I’m asking advice for a good Paladin oath to shoot for to multiclass now into reflect this change. I want to state I’m really not trying to powergame and was thinking of going for more of a caster with this character anyways, I honestly never expected my DM to pull story shenanigans like this do early into the campaign and it’s so exciting to see my character develop!

(This is all assuming I even will be allowed to multiclass, they only have 8 STR so I’ll coordinate with my DM on how we wanna do this)

Hello everyone,

I know you folks have a wealth of knowledge in creating characters. Today I come to you, not with a request to help make a character, but one that might save a character.

Picture this, you have run through a dungeon and found yourself in a mysterious room. You know the following things:

-the room has no doors/windows or openings. If another person is able to enter the room then a door will appear. Once this door appears it will disappear when there is only one person left in the room. This seemingly causes one person to be stuck in the room at all time.

-the room interferes with normal travel through the planes. Your last attempt to planes hitting the party resulted in 3/8 folks failing a save and falling back to the temple. Additionally, at one point you placed a bag of holding within another bag of holding and it had no effect.

Assumptions:

-the temple is somewhere in the nine hills or the ethereal plane, it isn't super clear.

-you are a level 14 character. 13 levels have already been put into druid with the spores circle, you have one more level to use.

-you will be long rested and you have the material components to attempt another planeshift (but you assume this will not work).

You have a bag of holding, some unknown potions, a moon sickle, an exhausted tome of understanding, use of a familiar, a tuning fork for the material plane, a shield and breastplate, a crystal ball, some moldy rope, and a book on leshies.

-you are 87 years old, and there is likely magic keeping you from dying of old age.

How would you escape?

Also, if you recognize the name Gwelfnir the all seeing, don't tell the allfather I resorted to contracting out my rescue plans.

We just leveled up to level 4 in our Curse of Strahd campaign and was wondering what multiclass would be cool and viable for a dex and wis based bloodhunter. I was thinking of maybe going to multiclass into a rogue and then dipping into fighter. I also saw the possibility of multiclassing into an cleric cause my character is very fond of the ravenqueen. What are your opinions?

I’ve been wanting to try out Ranger again and I’m curious how strong a more wisdom based Ranger can be? I want to play Swarmkeeper with the new Druidic Warrior fighting style to grab some cantrips like Shillelagh and or Create Bonfire. I thought of a neat combo where I can set up a Spike Growth spell and then use the Swarm feature to keep pushing goes back into it. I was also gonna try a half-elf Drow to gain a couple free spells. Just wondering what y’all think? Any advice?

Hey, I'm needing some assistance. In the upcoming campaign I'm running I want there to be a college of wizards that makes the party question magic at its core. For instance a question that will be asked is "why did we change from rune magic to verbal magic?" And eventually if the players dive into the subject enough I want them to be able to use 3 different types of "magic". Circle magic,rune magic,or verbal magic. And I want there to be a benefit and "curse" with using it. For instance rune magic could be used instantly under any conditions as long as you can touch it, but you get decreased spell effect, -1 damage dice/-2 turns effect. And for circle magic you can upcast the spell 1 level for each turn you "hold" it so turn 1 you start to cast healing word at 2nd lvl, by turn 4 you are at a lvl 6 healing word. The trade off is you are "concentrating" on a spell and using that to power up your spell on each of your turns.

That is all, I would love some feedback if this is balanced or not!

Hello all! I’m midway through a campaign, and I’m playing a Var Human Dex-Based fighter that uses twin chakrams. Recently, I’ve felt like my role in the party has been somewhat edged out.

We just hit level 6, and I’d like something that would help set me apart. I’m using Thrown Weapon fighting style with Martial Adept as my feat. My DM is letting me use a homebrewed battle dancer subclass that’s mostly roleplay oriented.

The rest of the party consists of an Eldritch Knight, a Way of Tranquility Monk, and an Order Cleric/Circle of Stars Druid.

We don’t have much roleplay, so subclass is suboptimal.

Hello! I will be joining a party as a level 6 Oath of Conquest Paladin. Now while the party isn't a lawful good party (which is a good thing), the way I read the tenets of this oath would conflict and be steered more towards evil. Am I just supposed to play this class as Batman?

For a little context, my character is, as far as he knows, the last known believer in a deity. The memories of and prayers to this deity have been burned down or erased across the world. Still in the conceptual stage here, but I'd like the relationship between deity and paladin to be more akin to a warlock patron than a cleric's divine conduit. I'm looking for some advice here so I can bring this to my DM. Thanks!

Here are the tenets the subclass starts from:

Douse the Flame of Hope. - It is not enough to merely defeat an enemy in battle. Your victory must be so overwhelming that your enemies' will to fight is shattered forever. A blade can end a life. Fear can end an empire.

Rule with an Iron Fist. - Once you have conquered, tolerate no dissent. Your word is law. Those who obey it shall be favored. Those who defy it shall be punished as an example to all who might follow.

Strength Above All. - You shall rule until a stronger one arises. Then you must grow mightier and meet the challenge, or fall to your own ruin.

I know familiars are fine because they can be summoned from their own pocket dimension, but say I was a multiclassed Artificer/Genielock, could my steel defender and homunculus come? What about a beastmaster's brown bear?

Would this work out? Any build tips? Or is there too much overlap for me to benefit from doing this. I haven’t selected my pact boon yet as I am level 1.

Hello! I have an existing character who is a level 5 Shepard Druid, and I am deciding for narrative reasons to multi-class into Cleric for at least 2 levels. Given the option, which would you think to pick between Grave and Tempest Cleric?

My party has a fighter, rouge, Wizard and Cleric, and I tend to either cast a con spell like summon or moonbeam or heal along with the cleric, or cantrip from the rear. I’d like to have a class that either helps my party more or gives me some fun damage options.

I am thinking that using unicorn spirit with Grave and Graves vulnerable ability would be an good combo to give my allies better hits and keeping them from dying, but Tempest seems like it could be fun to play a Druid channeling the storms to do massive damage or get people off me. What are your thoughts?

Anybody have any recommendations for Classes, Feats, or general advice for Builds?

We play in a fairly balanced RP and Combat campaign so I'm looking to put together a character that can fill in some lacking stats in the party. Currently we have a Str/Cha OB Paladin, a Wis/Cha Twilight Cleric, and a Cha Glamour Bard.

Banned races are: Tabaxi, Yuan-Ti, Warforged, & Flying Races

We are Level 5 currently, and Multiclass is available after Level 5.

Edit: Biggest problem here is we are limited to Default Origins for Races so no Tasha Adjustments or MotM

Hello! Was wondering what to build with this stat array: 18,17, 15, 14, 12, 9 (before any racial modifiers). I get one free feat and one uncommon magic item. Thanks!
For my personal preference, I prefer martials over casters. Magic is fun, but not as fun as using your body and technique to prevail over foes. But still open to fullcaster offers. Multiclasses are welcome and allat.

After our last session our DM told us we will be leveling up to level 4 in our next session. I’m playing a human Swashbuckling rogue charlatan who typically is the face of our party. At the end of our last session I also happen to be unconscious at 0 HP, dragged onto horseback with my two gnome friends by our big half orc barbarian.

This means that from my characters point of view, I almost died (twice) and now I wake up feeling… stronger than ever?

This was one of my first campaigns so I might have an odd ability score spread: Str: 11, Dex: 16, Con: 14, Int: 13, Wis: 9, Cha: 15

From looking around, it seems most people recommend just upping that Dex to 18, and I’m fine with that, but it does seem odd to almost die from a big fall only to get up more dexterous the next day.

Would the lucky or inspiring leader feats make more sense to take here? Or will I be rendering the character worthless in the upcoming sessions without the Dex increase?

Hello it’s me again this time another player plans on running a Wild West Version of Curse of Strahd and I want help fleshing out a character build.

First my DM is allowing all Offical Content and Critical Roll content and we are Starting at Level 3 and ending at Level 20 as my dm is going to extend the life of the campaign.

For Stats we are using a custom Point Buy were all stats start at 10 and we have 14 points to allocate, 16 if we lower one stat by 2, and we can’t exceed 16 with points.

Now for my Concept itself I want to use Drakewarden and wielding a Rifle but I’m not opposed to multiclassing, and we are given a free feat which I will use for Gunner.

For Race I would prefer Variant Human for the extra Feat.

My main thing is I want to know if I should do full Drakewarden or dip in another class for some extra damage with my gun, and if I do Multiclass when should I get it.

So, for a new Campaign starting soon, I planned on playing a Ninja Character, and I wanted to get as historical accurate as possible, which means:
No Naruto Style one man army, but an infiltration expert, who is mainly build for distraction and staying unseen, and hzas combat only as a last resort.

My Inspiration came very heavily from "Mark of the Ninja", one of the best Ninja game ever made (if not the best).

So I planned on a Rogue build with a 1 level dip in Wizard, for reasons explained below.

For my race, after some thought I came to the conclusion that the Deep Gnome is maybe the best pick for me. I wanted a small race, so I can use minor Illusion as a spell to create a suitable cover, and the Deep Gnome comes with the perfect setup for me, not only getting Darkvision on steroids, Advantage on Stealth for difficult Situation and a free cast of Disguise self for quickly disapearing into a crowd, and "nondetection", making the character impossible to track by magic.

As a Background, I chose the Charlatan. I was also thinking about the criminal Background, but a big part of a Ninja was to blend in with the crowd and the Charlatan gets Disguise Kits which helps to Disguise the whole team, and Forgery Kits, which can be used to make official looking Documents, like Entry Slips.

With the game starting Level 3, I wanted to start with 2 Levels in Rogue and 1 in Wizard.

The first two Levels are Rogue, making the best of the 4 starting Proficiencies starting with Proficency in Athletics (Because even if Strength is not my Main stat, only set to 10, Ninjas always moved at the high Ground, so solid climbing checks are important); Deception; Investigation; Perception; Slight of Hand, Stealth and Thieves' Tools.
The Expertise going into Stealth and Thieves' Tools.

Then a Wizard Level. I dont go deep here, its just that one level for 3 reasons: Cantrips, Spells, and most importantly: Ritual Casting. I plan to make alot of use of Ritual Spells like Alarm, Find Familiar and Detect Magic. In fact, from the 6 starting spells the Wizard knows, 5 are Rituals: Alarm, Comprehend Language, Detect Magic, Find Familiar and Identify. The only active Spell I use is Fog Cloud, which is used as a Smoke Bomb.

As Cantrips, I pick Booming Blade, Control Flames and Minor Illusion.
Booming Blade is an emergency use if I am forced into Melee combat, discouraging an enemy from chasing me. I would flavor it as a poison on my Shortsword.
Control Flames is a very good spell to manipulate enemies, and its totaly silent with only S components. With an awesome 60 feet range it can be used to make any flame provide less light, which means more Darkness to sneak in, or make a Distraction by causing a Campfire to jump over to a nearby flamable object, or make shapes apprear in the flames, distracting people. In Situations where I really need Darkness, I can just extinguish light sources.
I would flavor this spell as my Ninja using a Blow-Gun to launch different powders that afflict flames.

And Minor Illusion is the best Utility spell ever. being a small creature, I can literally use it to create cover for myself, blending into any surrounding right away, basically a Version of the "Uzura Gakure no Jutsu" where a Ninja would make himself very small and crouch into a ball form, while pressing against small cover, that would normaly not be enough to hide him, and for infiltration, I can create sounds.

After that, I go full Rogue. The game is supposed to go up to Level 12.

I have not quite decided on my Subclass yet, Arcane Trickster is of course always nice and gives me additional smoke Bombs (Fog cloud) each day, plus an invisible mage hand and more Cantrips, which would allow me to also get Prestidigitation and Message, always a useful spell, and over time Spells like Invisibility, in case I really need to be unseen and pure Sneaking wont cut it...

If the Campaign turns out to be more outdoor focused, maybe Scout is a good idea, to become the teams tracker, plus more proficiencies and Expertise never hurts, maybe I can craft some Poisons with the Nature skill...

Thief is also a good option, making me a better climber and jumper...

What do you guys think, after the base setup for the first 3 Level, what would be a good way to make the build?

So I'm trying to think about a cool undead warlock build focusing on maximum fear output and combat control. Can't decide if I stay single class and just blast things from behind or try to do a multiclass melee build. The melee build sounds more interesting but I think I would have to dip 1st-level in either fighter or paladin and probably go bladelock.

I'm also toying with the idea of trying a melee blast build, getting gunner as a vuman and war caster on level 4 I could be either on the frontline or on the back blasting everything with fear and having tons of fun. Problem is losing the asi and having low charisma for it to work in the beginning, and probably would have to do the 1st-level dip as well anyway.

The adventure starts at level 5 and is slow on level progression since it is quite focused on investigation(fear will be useful here as well I'm sure), there is a cleric, druid and wizard on the party as well so I could either stay behind with the wizard or on the frontline and leave the others to protect him.

The Imbued Wook Focus gives you a +1 to one damage roll of spells dealing the damage matching the focus's subtype (I'll include a table).

If you had to pick one for a Scribe Wizard, my thinking is that you'd want a damage type that, in order of importance,

• Less likely to be resisted
• Appears in 1st level to be used with Magic Missile
• Skips as few levels as possible
• At least 1 viable wizard cantrip
• Compatible with Elemental Adept (maybe?)

I’m joining an already in progress game (level 6) and I’m excited to finally have the chance to play an INT based character. I generally have to DM or face, so virtually every character I’ve played has been a bard, sorcerer, or Paladin. The party I’m joining has three melee characters (paladin, ranger/rogue, fighter) and a blaster cleric. One player is new, one is a serious player, and the other two are casual but experienced.

I mention this because my first thought was to punch up a tanky Artificer 1/War Wizard 5 Shadar Kai. It’s a character I’ve wanted to play for a while. Lots of ritual/utility spells, focus on buff/debuff, get bless through Fey touched at 4, and really let the party do the damage and support them. But in your experience, is Shadar Kai cringe in a casual game because it’s just too powerful? I know it’s subjective but I’d love to hear your opinions. If yes, is there another race you like for war wizards? Eladrin for mobility? Custom Lineage for a feat? Deep Gnome for saves? I’ve seen builds with Hobgoblin but I don’t think it’s the vibe. I really want to be a shield toting defensive caster with an open hand.

Any suggestions are incredibly appreciated. Thank you.

PS what’s your favorite/most used utility cantrip? Leaning guidance, light, mage hand, and minor illusion.

I want a build that can take on 5 LV 17s that have all the boons and 7 more feats than the should have. (They also have unlimited magic items) I need a build that can possibly tpk these optimised PCs

We hit level 8 in our last session, and I'm stuck on what to do/take.

Tabaxi Arcane Trickster Rogue. Playing mostly as a thief. We are playing Call of the Netherdeep.

STR -1(8) DEX+5(20) CON+1(12)
INT+0(10) WIS+2(14) CHA+2(14)

I am a ranged attacker but have a booming blade rapier for up close. What few spells I use are purely utility (find familiar, minor illusion, shield, misty step, identify, invisibility)

Our party is me, an Echo Knight Fighter, an Alchemist Artificer and our Cleric. I'm unsure whether to

A. Stay Rouge and take a feat or ASI

B. Go Fighter, maybe Battle Master or Echo Knight aswell, if the fighter is ok with it

C. Go Ranger, more than likely Gloomstalker