the full area of the room is a invisible cage that contains the virus, inside this area is a trap, the virus is inside a bottle, when you trip the trap, it breaks the bottle and the virus is free to move around the room. normal creatures can move in and out of the room, the virus can not.
alternatively, put a magical force moat around a castle or something, the whole thing is an invisible cage for the virus, no bottle.
it looks like a swarm of black bees, its a big monster made out of bees. does it have hit points? maybe it has... hit points. but its resistant to normal damage, immune to poison and acid and radiant
the virus doesnt have a language and cannot speak. nevertheless it is very intelligent and can understand a person's feelings and intent. the virus wishes only to do harm.
---
move action it will disappear, move up to 30 feet, reappear. it goes to the ethereal plane? its a space virus. celestial.
on its turn it goes into 1 person, it gives them the black bees condition, they get a con save.
the save against the bees is [CON DC15]
on its turn, the bees eat away at your soul energy. (con save) for 2d10 psychic damage, that targets everyone with the black bees condition.
when the virus ends its turn its a good chance its not on the map, its still on the other plane. but if you have the bees condition you can still feel the bees inside you, and you still get the psychic damage
if the virus remains on this plane, as a bonus, it also barfs a bunch of acid on one guy, which is a ranged attack, +7 tohit, 2d10 acid damage, but if it hits it makes the target very big and strong and angry for 1 minute (they are hulked out by the bees' acid beam attack thing). once deployed acid quickly decays into scorch foam on surfaces, and its hard to clean off and its not good for anything in particular.
maybe you can deal with the bees for the pure acid? but the bees will not... grant the acid unless the party does them a favor, what the bees want is to be free and propagate and, always to cause harm.
how are the bees contained? well theres a sort of lantern that draws them, its mystic (theres a 9th level monk who lights this candle every 10 years with a specific ritual). if the fire is snuffed out, they are freed. if the lantern is moved, they move with it.
---
then when you have the black bees in you, you grant advantage to attacks.
end of your turn, con save to not have black bees anymore.
if you leave the swarm containment area (out of the combat, out of the room) you lose the black bees.
Monday, 21 May 2018
Thursday, 10 May 2018
twinned witch bolt
sorcerer 3 can do a twinned witch bolt.
so the lightning mage starts with witch bolt, shocking grasp, lightning lure if he's a bit mental, and some other spells that do something else not lightning.
witch bolts a kind of garbage spell with a great name, and a great core idea. the idea is you might keep it up, as an ongoing attack over several turns, and it'll be like... like the emperor zapping vader, in reality, its easy to break, and its a lot weaker after the first turn, and sort of sits below the curve compared to like, a cantrip every turn.
the base case is 1d10 per target it hits, and 1d10 per target every round you maintain it. so at level one witch bolt seems good but its never really better than other options you get at that level. the beam thing is cool but its easy to break, and the damage is never really good.
if you twin it, at level 3, you hit both targets with improved initial damage and, if you keep it up, both targets with the ongoing damage.
lets say you're a lightning based caster with some static bonus to lightning, cast it with a level 2 spell slot...
2d10 + [your lightning] per target it hits, and 1d10 + [your lightning] per target every round you maintain it.
so the bronze/blue dragon sorcerer, sea sorcerer, storm sorcerer, have various weak iterations of this feature [your lightning]
these subclass feats say something like 'when you cast/hit with a spell that does lightning damage,' and so they dont interact well with witch bolt because they dont improve the damage on the subsequent turn.
you can't do bonus actions spells. the bonus action spells all cost concentration to maintain, except misty step, which breaks your witch bolts probably
so if [your lightning] was d6+cha its maybe be worth doing this thing. generally its just cha... is this, vaguely improved number, worth doing, on two targets for at least one round; and is [your lightning] also on both targets on the later turn... then is it worth maintaining as an action, because it doesnt need to hit again, and the sorcerer can quicken other spells. i think, if you had a real boost to lightning, witch bolt's a viable spell, just for the initial effect, and its sometimes worth maintaining concentration on. you can be the regular lightning guy using just witch bolt. and shocking grasp, you'd also have, as a disengage.
xanathars introduced dragons breath which is another spell you can do at sorcerer 3, which uses your concentration and costs a bonus action to activate, uses the target's action to use each turn, but the target can still take other actions, doesnt have to be you, hits enemies in a cone, and deals better lightning damage than witch bolt. (its actually like one of those pens which does four different colours, solving too much, because it can be fire, acid, lightning, poison, cold) 3d6/round, save half, and potentially hits lots of targets. i think most versions of [your lightning] will give it a boost on the first round but not on subsequent rounds, as with witch bolt. works with twin spell (twice the destructive power as this) or careful spell (hitting only enemies)
other level one lightning spells... well you got chromatic orb, which is another any-color-pen spell, and chaos bolt, which is great, but its another of these that can do any of multiple damage types. and you have lightning lure as a cantrip, which you wouldnt use unless you wanted to be in melee. maybe a lightning sorcerer can use lightning lure with quickened shocking grasp to pull someone into position and disengage? its not great. but its more damage per turn than witch bolt.
so the problem with witch bolt is its really not as good as other spells in its neighborhood, the things that improve it also improve those other spells, which is a shame because its a good thing to yell, 'witch bolt'
compare dragons breath which is not near as specific to the identity of your guy, unless, i guess, youre the dragon sorcerer. and which is a lame thing to yell
so the lightning mage starts with witch bolt, shocking grasp, lightning lure if he's a bit mental, and some other spells that do something else not lightning.
witch bolts a kind of garbage spell with a great name, and a great core idea. the idea is you might keep it up, as an ongoing attack over several turns, and it'll be like... like the emperor zapping vader, in reality, its easy to break, and its a lot weaker after the first turn, and sort of sits below the curve compared to like, a cantrip every turn.
the base case is 1d10 per target it hits, and 1d10 per target every round you maintain it. so at level one witch bolt seems good but its never really better than other options you get at that level. the beam thing is cool but its easy to break, and the damage is never really good.
if you twin it, at level 3, you hit both targets with improved initial damage and, if you keep it up, both targets with the ongoing damage.
lets say you're a lightning based caster with some static bonus to lightning, cast it with a level 2 spell slot...
2d10 + [your lightning] per target it hits, and 1d10 + [your lightning] per target every round you maintain it.
so the bronze/blue dragon sorcerer, sea sorcerer, storm sorcerer, have various weak iterations of this feature [your lightning]
these subclass feats say something like 'when you cast/hit with a spell that does lightning damage,' and so they dont interact well with witch bolt because they dont improve the damage on the subsequent turn.
you can't do bonus actions spells. the bonus action spells all cost concentration to maintain, except misty step, which breaks your witch bolts probably
so if [your lightning] was d6+cha its maybe be worth doing this thing. generally its just cha... is this, vaguely improved number, worth doing, on two targets for at least one round; and is [your lightning] also on both targets on the later turn... then is it worth maintaining as an action, because it doesnt need to hit again, and the sorcerer can quicken other spells. i think, if you had a real boost to lightning, witch bolt's a viable spell, just for the initial effect, and its sometimes worth maintaining concentration on. you can be the regular lightning guy using just witch bolt. and shocking grasp, you'd also have, as a disengage.
xanathars introduced dragons breath which is another spell you can do at sorcerer 3, which uses your concentration and costs a bonus action to activate, uses the target's action to use each turn, but the target can still take other actions, doesnt have to be you, hits enemies in a cone, and deals better lightning damage than witch bolt. (its actually like one of those pens which does four different colours, solving too much, because it can be fire, acid, lightning, poison, cold) 3d6/round, save half, and potentially hits lots of targets. i think most versions of [your lightning] will give it a boost on the first round but not on subsequent rounds, as with witch bolt. works with twin spell (twice the destructive power as this) or careful spell (hitting only enemies)
other level one lightning spells... well you got chromatic orb, which is another any-color-pen spell, and chaos bolt, which is great, but its another of these that can do any of multiple damage types. and you have lightning lure as a cantrip, which you wouldnt use unless you wanted to be in melee. maybe a lightning sorcerer can use lightning lure with quickened shocking grasp to pull someone into position and disengage? its not great. but its more damage per turn than witch bolt.
so the problem with witch bolt is its really not as good as other spells in its neighborhood, the things that improve it also improve those other spells, which is a shame because its a good thing to yell, 'witch bolt'
compare dragons breath which is not near as specific to the identity of your guy, unless, i guess, youre the dragon sorcerer. and which is a lame thing to yell
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
skinchangers
ok, suppose you had rage and wild shape (barbarian 1 and druid 2)
then first round, you want to turn into a bear or something.
gets you two strength based melee attacks. you do those.
second round, you go in a rage, your do your same two attacks but now with +2 damage on each...
raging brown bear, does a bite (+5, d8+6) lets call that 10 damage, and a claws, (+5, 2d6+6) lets say 13 damage.
resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage.
and advantage on strength checks (grappling?)
if you stick the first level of monk on there, you can add a monk unarmed strike using strength (+6/d4+6) as a bonus action every round. at monk two, flurry of blows, do two monk unarmed strikes as a bonus action, spending 1 ki. so you got to 4 attacks total at level 5, like the monk gets.
your ac is the beasts ac, or your monk or barbarian ac. since the barbarian ac is based on the con, and we assume youre a brown bear, thats +3. so you only want monk ac if you wis is gonna be better than +3, which... we dont need it.
your str, dex, and wis are at least 13, because those are the prereqs for your classes. but we dont actually need these, its perhaps more useful + interesting to stick those points in cha, int, or con.
but you dont get the thing where your melee attacks become magic at level 6, which both the druid and monk get, and you want it.
so this suggests you could do a subclass that gets this, which integrates better into one of the classes. but we already got monks and druids and barbarians that can pull this stuff off, we dont need armor or weapons, and we want it to work at level one.
so the subclasses that come online at level one are warlock, cleric, sorcerer - sorcerer's definitely the guy.
plus, what if we gave you a way to transform your guy and still cast spells? that seems like a thing we want, as the skinchanger.
we'll give him primal savagery as a bonus sorcerer cantrip. level 3 lets you twin that, so you can use it on two guys in melee range.
so, level one. before or after you cast a spell, you can activate this as a bonus action, turn into the guy. (2 per short rest, duration 1hr)
the guy gets
-resistance to a damage type, that you'd choose each time.
-replace your con with 18 (+4), if that's better.
-your ac can be 10 + your dex + your con if you're not using armor or a shield.
-no disadvantage on ranged attacks in melee.
we'll also give him 1 hp per level like the dragon sorcerer. and, whenever you hit a creature with a cantrip that does damage, add your charisma to the damage, same type.
then at sixth, we'll let your attacks ignore resistance to a damage type you choose at this level. let enemies immune to that treat it like resistant, and resistant enemies take full damage. something like this. primal savagery wants acid but we dont force you to be an acid guy forever.
so does that solve the puzzle? if you want to get him up to four attacks, you can still stick two monk levels on him. if you need all those attacks to be magic, you can build towards sorcerer 3/monk 5 or whatever, but you have other magic, because youre the sorcerer.
if thats the skinchanger sorcerer subclass... would it work as a dragon sorceror with the magic initiate (druid) feat... i guess but then youre stuck with dragons again and the way you get resistance seems garbage and theres no incentive to try to do spells in melee. i suppose you could get... two levels of ranger to get to close quarters shooting.
then first round, you want to turn into a bear or something.
gets you two strength based melee attacks. you do those.
second round, you go in a rage, your do your same two attacks but now with +2 damage on each...
raging brown bear, does a bite (+5, d8+6) lets call that 10 damage, and a claws, (+5, 2d6+6) lets say 13 damage.
resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage.
and advantage on strength checks (grappling?)
if you stick the first level of monk on there, you can add a monk unarmed strike using strength (+6/d4+6) as a bonus action every round. at monk two, flurry of blows, do two monk unarmed strikes as a bonus action, spending 1 ki. so you got to 4 attacks total at level 5, like the monk gets.
your ac is the beasts ac, or your monk or barbarian ac. since the barbarian ac is based on the con, and we assume youre a brown bear, thats +3. so you only want monk ac if you wis is gonna be better than +3, which... we dont need it.
your str, dex, and wis are at least 13, because those are the prereqs for your classes. but we dont actually need these, its perhaps more useful + interesting to stick those points in cha, int, or con.
but you dont get the thing where your melee attacks become magic at level 6, which both the druid and monk get, and you want it.
so this suggests you could do a subclass that gets this, which integrates better into one of the classes. but we already got monks and druids and barbarians that can pull this stuff off, we dont need armor or weapons, and we want it to work at level one.
so the subclasses that come online at level one are warlock, cleric, sorcerer - sorcerer's definitely the guy.
plus, what if we gave you a way to transform your guy and still cast spells? that seems like a thing we want, as the skinchanger.
we'll give him primal savagery as a bonus sorcerer cantrip. level 3 lets you twin that, so you can use it on two guys in melee range.
so, level one. before or after you cast a spell, you can activate this as a bonus action, turn into the guy. (2 per short rest, duration 1hr)
the guy gets
-resistance to a damage type, that you'd choose each time.
-replace your con with 18 (+4), if that's better.
-your ac can be 10 + your dex + your con if you're not using armor or a shield.
-no disadvantage on ranged attacks in melee.
we'll also give him 1 hp per level like the dragon sorcerer. and, whenever you hit a creature with a cantrip that does damage, add your charisma to the damage, same type.
then at sixth, we'll let your attacks ignore resistance to a damage type you choose at this level. let enemies immune to that treat it like resistant, and resistant enemies take full damage. something like this. primal savagery wants acid but we dont force you to be an acid guy forever.
so does that solve the puzzle? if you want to get him up to four attacks, you can still stick two monk levels on him. if you need all those attacks to be magic, you can build towards sorcerer 3/monk 5 or whatever, but you have other magic, because youre the sorcerer.
if thats the skinchanger sorcerer subclass... would it work as a dragon sorceror with the magic initiate (druid) feat... i guess but then youre stuck with dragons again and the way you get resistance seems garbage and theres no incentive to try to do spells in melee. i suppose you could get... two levels of ranger to get to close quarters shooting.
Monday, 7 May 2018
find familiar, is it good, can we make it good
so im trying to cobble 5th edition stuff from various sources into a guy that can do certain stuff...
so start with warlock 3 (fiend patron unlocks scorching ray, and also choose pact of the chain), my goals for this guy, hes a minion warlock, he has an ok defense for melee, he uses spell blasts instead of weapon attacks, and he can do spell attacks in melee without penalty.
---------------
the multiclass prereq table is the same as
[cha]: bard, sorceror, warlock
[str]: barbarian, fighter
[str][wis]: paladin
[wis]: cleric, druid
[dex][wis]: monk, ranger
[dex]: rogue, fighter
[int]: wizard
(where [cha] means you have cha 13)
our warlock, grimbert has [cha] and [dex] so, levels can be warlock, bard, sorcerer, fighter, rogue, hes not wise enough to be a monk or ranger or strong enough to be a barbarian. without [wis] he cant be a divine caster at all (which makes sense) and, if we throw away bard and sorcerer...
warlock, fighter, rogue in some combination; i think i like warrior before rogue so itd be good to do rogue stuff inside the warrior class... 3 classes is pretty hefty, because i also gotta maintain warlock level, i cant get level 3 spells until warlock 5, theres not gonna be a shorter way than taking warlock levels
this is gonna be, a mix of things that are general about characters of this type and bits of me talking to myself about the specific character, their stats
pact of the chain
find familiar as a ritual (1hr 10min, 10 gold)
find familiar says ... telepathic bond, gets its own turn, gets an action but not an attack.
the warlock familiar can attack when the warlock uses the 'make an attack' action, eating one of the warlock's attacks, ie no spellcasting that turn. if you want the minion to attack you're not using the spell action at all, and all your blasts are on the spell action, so you're limited to weapon attacks and minion attacks.
when you get this power, in order to use this and still have the warlock attack at all, it needs to be a weapon attack that uses the bonus action (dagger etc) if you were a rogue, this where youd put sneak attacks - or, getting any attack that uses the reaction - an opportunity weapon attack, or warlock 4 (war caster), using opportunity eldritch blast - but usually the warlock attacks or the minion does.
if you had fighter 5, youd have multiattack, so you can do like... one weapon attack, one minion attack, and a bonus weapon attack. but more than this youd have... multiattack and second wind together, can be a spell as well. but remembering that your eldritch blast is better than a weapon.
invocations
agonising eldritch blast
+cha to damage. a lot of things already care about your cha: your spellcasting dc, your spell attacks, and the friends cantrip - but this is the main thing that adds cha to damage, cha is your best score. so this one makes the eldritch blast slightly better than a melee weapon, like a dagger or a rapier or something. it's just sharpens your main attack, most warlocks take this cantrip with this evocation, its a completely neutral, boring decision.
mask of many faces
dark one's blessing
then eldritch blast +hex; or scorching ray + hex; does your damage.
what levels can you put on this guy?
-------------------
WARLOCK
warlock level 4
ability score increase or feat, so take this level either to get a feat or to get closer to warlock 5 and level 3 spells. feat options...
[war caster] melee opportunity attack spells, lets you spell with a shield, and con saves (concentration)
i think having the shield work makes this worth it, the rest of these features are free gifts, but you do want them, this is the basis of a melee guy.
if you want to round out all your saves, so that you have at least dex, con, wis saves by the end of the game, to do this you'd take two feats, take [war caster] and later get [resilient dex], but feats are very expensive especially for a multiclass, how important is it to round out your saves?
[+2 cha] gives (+1 tohit, +1 eldritch blast damage, +1 to your spell save dc)
[elemental adept:fire] to enhance your scorching ray. gets you three rays of fire that deal 2d6 each, reroll ones, and ignore resistance.
[+2 dex] for a rogue multiclass, get some ac, makes you more spry, but on my guy i only really need... +1 to dex to get it to be even, so feats that grat +1 to dex, that gets you the boost and also...
[resilient] gives +1 dex, proficiency with dex saves
[fast hands] the stealing one, one of the best feat options. also gives you the +1 to dex.
so the safe plan is to take fighter 1 (gets +2ac) and then take warlock 4 for [war caster] for another (+2 ac), this lets you be a spell and shield guy... if i get another feat around level 8 itd be good for this to be [resilient] to get those dex saves. wis, dex, con is the full set of saves that you need to not die in most situations. but dex is mostly useful before level 8 so idk. has to be war caster first, i dont want to delay having a shield.
but suppose you took the stealing one. then you get the best feature of a thief. your ac improves but not as much as with war caster, where you can use a shield. then youre weighing steal as a bonus action vs an improved opportunity attack, is what war caster gets you. fast hands is the stealy fighter, the best way to gets some rogue in your fighter. bonus action is (hex, heal, or steal).
you also gain a spell at this level, i'd choose [invisibility]
warlock level 5
this gets you level 3 spells which are probably good idk, ... i'll take this level maybe around character level 7. this also gets another warlock invocation, maybe 'gift of the everliving ones' if i havent swapped it in already...
you can get healing at level 5 from like vampiric touch, 'gift of the everliving ones', which is the best minion invocation, maximises your healing. its a shame there arent... minion invocations that make the minion better
warlock level 6
dark ones own luck - like 'lucky' feat but its the roll+d10, 1 per short rest. i could get 'lucky' at 4th level if i was super jazzed about being the lucky guy, and this is a more boring power, but you do get it. level 6 to get to higher level spells, later warlock powers, which are...
7th through 10th, level 4 and 5 spells, another feat at 8th, at 10th resistance to a damage type that i can choose each day. with multiclassing i'll get this ability maybe around character level 12-15 (ages)
FIGHTER
fighter level 1
+4 ac with breastplate and shield
fighting style:(short range shooting) +1 ranged atk, is the fighting style for blasting spells, or you can get another +1 ac (armor fighter)
second wind (bonus action heal, heals +d8+1 hp once each short rest)
my plan is to take this at character level 4. i need the ac. this lets grimbert be a rapier/shortsword/scimitar guy, but eldritch blast is better, when you get to warlock 4 (war caster) - close quarters shooting and war caster each depend on the other for the most effective melee caster. probably fight with an orb in one hand and a shield in the other, but not until both levels.
fighter level 2
action surge gives you a second action (once each short rest) probably... best cast is probably two eldritch blasts or one spell and an eldritch blast. eldritch blast is two beams by this point so 1 every short rest you can go to 4 beams.
you can do, a spell, a minion attack, and a bonus rapier or dagger, gets you the most varied three things.
fighter level 3
fighter specialisation
[eldritch knight] needs int. the sword thing kinda replicates a blade-style warlock, which i already didnt choose... looks like 3 wizard spells/day and 2 wizard cantrips... can get out a lot of burning handses. im not sure what are the best spells for the eldritch knight, and this warlock doesnt do weapons much so theres not much there, true strike for instance is not as good as superiority dice guy's feint. id probably take minor illusion and shocking grasp, as cantrips.
[superiority dice guy] is kinda a rogue with a 4 sneaks per short rest, and the battle master has a bunch of options... the attack can usually be an eldritch blast which is nice, we like those... battle master, the old ua cavalier, scout, monster hunter are superiority guy... scout is the best variant probably. its not gonna be more than +4d8 per short rest but that seems like a good... thing to have... battle master maneuvers are disarm, distract(grants advantage on enemy), move ac, feint (costs two actions make one attack with advantage and +d8 damage, a marginally good thing to do) goad (tank mark, gives disadvantage to not hit me) lunge (+1range, gets the damage) maneuver(attack gets the damage and a friend moves half speed no oppy) frighten, parry(-d8 damage on an attack on you). he also gets proficiency with some tools, i'd say alchemy. lets say maneuver, disarm, lunge. we already care about short rests, might as well pile more stuff on.
[scout] puts superiority on skill checks (the ranger skills) attack rolls (not damage) and ac as a reaction. its a shame to not be able to put them on damage, but this puts the dice in some nice places, these are good rolls to not fail. but yeah, another luck bending mechanic, thinly themed, we dont really need it. choose this option to be a skillier guy and gain some ranger steez.
[champion] wants to make weapon attacks so he can get his crits. remarkable athlete at 7th is +2 on strength, dex and constitution checks.. not saves... but it helps inits and grapples and climbs.. 10th [second fighting style] probably protection which lets you apply disadvantage against attacks on friends who are next to you.
[samurai] gets a skill. three per long rest, grant yourself advantage on weapon attack rolls. and 5temp hp. so you can have that extra health be always on, in addition to the dark ones blessing hit points. but weapon attack rolls, you dont want to make them. the seventh level thing, which gives you +wis to persuasion, is +0, and the int save... youll never get this far, and you dont want this feature at all. its the long rest, which we currently dont care about.
it looks like superiority dice guy wins.
fighter 4 through 9
fighter/warlock rather than warlock/fighter... probably the shortest route to a third feat at 12th (ages) ... fighter 5 gets extra attack every attack action. what this means is you can make a weapon attack and a minion attack, and a bonus action (attack, hex, or heal). want to pile rogue levels on that. indomitable rerolls saves 1/day, but you wont get this high with fighter.
ROGUE
rogue level 1
-persuasion.
-[expertise] probably in stealth (+6/+8 at 5th) and persuasion (+7/+9 at 5th) or maybe thieves tools or insight.
-[sneak attack] sadly it needs to be weapons not spells... even a good weapon, and improved dex, 1d8+1d6+3 damage cant keep up with eldritch blast(2d10+6 at 5th)
best case is probably a familiar attack + a bonus melee attack (dagger) with sneak attack; thats d4+d6+3 + the familiars thing (scare sleep etc) - this is maybe as good as an eldritch. if you choose rogue then you want to do this thing. but, seems liek soemthing youd do on an offtempo round, to get a status effect, so its an option but its not great
-[thieves cant] doesnt come up much, but its good rp
not a great choice but you want expertise. adding the bonus sneak attack dagger makes minion attacks good, maybe.
rogue level 2
[cunning action] gets you out of combat every turn as a bonus action. gets you ready to sneak attack. its good to be able to get out if need. dash, disengage, or hide. this is a good feature. but remember that you want to hex or maybe heal with that bonus action.
rogue level 3
rogue specialisation.
-[assassin]. that gives you advantage vs creatures who havent acted yet, crits against surprised creatures, wigs and makeup, and poisons. with warlock 4, get the spell invisibility, if you use it to crit with scorching ray, invisibility becomes better than a hex. at warlock 5, makes a buddy invisible as well.
-[thief]. your bonus is now (hex, sleight of hand, unlock, disarm trap, disengage, dash, hide) - so you can steal and put stuff in guys inventories in combat. you want to do this. if not this subclass you want the feat that does it.
-[swashbuckler]. +CHA to initiative, this is huge, but its only initiative, so who cares really
-melee attack against creature, that creature cant opportunity attack you. means that you can bonus action sneak attack, minion attack, and you still (mostly) disengage.
-also the duel thing, you get sneak attack when you fight 1 creature, at 5ft, and noone else is in 5 feet of you.
-that wants close quarters shooting again. so requires fighter 1, so the attack is a blast, minion or weapon attack, bonus action is like (hex, heal, dash, hide, or weapon attack). what the swashbucker wants to do is move from one guys threat, attack him, into another guys threat, attack him, and move out, like a monk might, but we already have a monk and this situation is pretty uncommon, and the monk does it better. you can attack with melee, weak disengage, and enter stealth or heal or something. i guess it works with a hex+a melee attack+weak disengage. but you want to blast and it has no synergy.
-[scout]. reaction move half your speed when a monster moves on you. no oppy. nature and survival expertise (+7 and +6 respectively)
-[mastermind] - gets disguise, forgery, gaming set, two languages, and unerring mimicry. good bunch of background stuff, but none of it really neccessary. help as a bonus action, i think bonus granting someone advantage on their best attack, is a poor ranged option, versus just making your own bonus weapon attack, the possibility of making both the good and bad attacks is better than their making one good attack with advantage, so help, you could take or leave it, then in melee you want to disengage, not help.
[inquisitive] - ok, suppose you took insight as a specialisation so you have +6 as insight. then you cant roll worse than a 14 to see if someone's lying. 14s not quite good enough, you still need to roll better than this. this is a subclass intended for a rogue with a positive WIS modifier, which you don't have. suppose you also took perception as a specialisation, then you can (spot a creature or item) as a bonus action at +6. if you took investigation (detect or decipher a clue) at +7. these are not options you normally want in combat. if you were able to do it, is it useful? would it be cool?
-but insightful fighting makes sneak attack guaranteed on a guy, so its a sort of rogue hex. so you can basically treat it as a given extra dice like a ranger thing, thats worth having. but this also wants the insight specialisation. so this is obvious choice if you go insight at rogue 1st level, choose this build to be the insight guy.
assassin, thief, swashbuckler, or maybe inquisitive.
rogue level 4 - 10
get a feat or ability score increase. though, might as well be +2 cha or some feat granting +1 dex, or +2 wis to make the inquisitive work at level 8 thereabouts. 5th level [uncanny dodge] is half all damage from attacks you can see? very nice. 7th [evasion] makes improved dex saves (dmg/half) -> (half/none) - basically you could always take rogue and never take another warlock fighter level, and it'd be fine.
feats that grant the +1 to dex are...
[resilient dex], which also gives you the dex save
[quick fingered] which gives you steal as a bonus action like the thief, and also gives you expertise sleight of hand (+9) so that you can pull it off. if youre gonna be in melee you might as well steal as a bonus action.
DONT CHOOSE [moderately armored] has no synergy with your new +3 dex. medium and shields, but not the effect of [war caster], so you want that, its really no bonus to ac unless you can get the shield in there. if you want a shield, choose fighter 1, also gets healing and fighting style, still needs war caster.
so i think warlock4/fighter3 with war caster is a good option, thats a spelly fighter with shield in one hand and and a hellorb in the other, who can take a hit but also shoots 4 eldritch blast beams at point blank
... it might be nice to proceed to assassin or whatever from there... which i guess is pact of the fiend battle master chain assassin
but yeah,,, i previously threw away these other classes that are good options...
BARD
bard 1 gets spellcasting, including cure wounds which you can do as a touch through the familiar.
inspiration as a bonus action, because youre a warlock bard and not a warlock fighter rogue, your bonus action is like, hex, weapon attack, or inspire - and you just got new spell slots that make hex more viable. inspires not the best of these.
if you have healing you can maximise it with gift of the everliving ones. so cure wounds and vampiric touch are good options for like, a warlock 5/bard 1. or warlock 5/sorcerer 1.
bard 2 gets jack of all trades, song of rest.
bard 3 is bard specialisation.
SORCERER
sorcerer gets spellcasting and sorcerous origin. you want metamagic for twinned spell, distant spell, and etc but those are sorcerer 3.
[divine soul] gets the cleric spells. cure wounds and more importantly inflict wounds, if you get these, it pays out the idea of the minion delivering touch spells.
[pheonix sorcery] is the obvious fire guy. bonus action to turn it on, overloads hex. (but its not a spell, you can scorch on the first turn.) charisma bonus to your fire damage, and charisma fire damage to targets that hit you. your charisma bonus, if it was 4, the bonus damage would be better than a hex. but being a fire tank is cool, the retributive damage is what tips it over to good. so its a good option. 1 min per long rest.
[sea sorcery] is good with the eldritch blast that pushes or pulls. but i already used sea on the other tiefling.
[shadow] gets the darkness you can see through, but not until sorcerer 3. but it makes you hard to kill, so bonus points for that. not as good as these others.
[stone] gets smite spells, shields (but not close quarters shooting), ac17 with no armor, but you have to turn it on, as an action.
[storm] fly 10feet when you cast a spell of 1st or better. as a bonus action. this a great thing. consider hellish rebuke (eldritch blast. leave threat to provoke oppy, absorb that somehow. reaction hellish rebuke is another blast. and disengage-fly 10 feet) the storm sorcerer perk is so generally good it sucks to not take it and use it every turn. this is a disengage that 's reliable (every turn) arcane (cares about spellcasting) and potent (controls the wind).
so start with warlock 3 (fiend patron unlocks scorching ray, and also choose pact of the chain), my goals for this guy, hes a minion warlock, he has an ok defense for melee, he uses spell blasts instead of weapon attacks, and he can do spell attacks in melee without penalty.
---------------
the multiclass prereq table is the same as
[cha]: bard, sorceror, warlock
[str]: barbarian, fighter
[str][wis]: paladin
[wis]: cleric, druid
[dex][wis]: monk, ranger
[dex]: rogue, fighter
[int]: wizard
(where [cha] means you have cha 13)
our warlock, grimbert has [cha] and [dex] so, levels can be warlock, bard, sorcerer, fighter, rogue, hes not wise enough to be a monk or ranger or strong enough to be a barbarian. without [wis] he cant be a divine caster at all (which makes sense) and, if we throw away bard and sorcerer...
warlock, fighter, rogue in some combination; i think i like warrior before rogue so itd be good to do rogue stuff inside the warrior class... 3 classes is pretty hefty, because i also gotta maintain warlock level, i cant get level 3 spells until warlock 5, theres not gonna be a shorter way than taking warlock levels
this is gonna be, a mix of things that are general about characters of this type and bits of me talking to myself about the specific character, their stats
pact of the chain
find familiar as a ritual (1hr 10min, 10 gold)
find familiar says ... telepathic bond, gets its own turn, gets an action but not an attack.
the warlock familiar can attack when the warlock uses the 'make an attack' action, eating one of the warlock's attacks, ie no spellcasting that turn. if you want the minion to attack you're not using the spell action at all, and all your blasts are on the spell action, so you're limited to weapon attacks and minion attacks.
when you get this power, in order to use this and still have the warlock attack at all, it needs to be a weapon attack that uses the bonus action (dagger etc) if you were a rogue, this where youd put sneak attacks - or, getting any attack that uses the reaction - an opportunity weapon attack, or warlock 4 (war caster), using opportunity eldritch blast - but usually the warlock attacks or the minion does.
if you had fighter 5, youd have multiattack, so you can do like... one weapon attack, one minion attack, and a bonus weapon attack. but more than this youd have... multiattack and second wind together, can be a spell as well. but remembering that your eldritch blast is better than a weapon.
invocations
agonising eldritch blast
+cha to damage. a lot of things already care about your cha: your spellcasting dc, your spell attacks, and the friends cantrip - but this is the main thing that adds cha to damage, cha is your best score. so this one makes the eldritch blast slightly better than a melee weapon, like a dagger or a rapier or something. it's just sharpens your main attack, most warlocks take this cantrip with this evocation, its a completely neutral, boring decision.
mask of many faces
dark one's blessing
then eldritch blast +hex; or scorching ray + hex; does your damage.
what levels can you put on this guy?
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WARLOCK
warlock level 4
ability score increase or feat, so take this level either to get a feat or to get closer to warlock 5 and level 3 spells. feat options...
[war caster] melee opportunity attack spells, lets you spell with a shield, and con saves (concentration)
i think having the shield work makes this worth it, the rest of these features are free gifts, but you do want them, this is the basis of a melee guy.
if you want to round out all your saves, so that you have at least dex, con, wis saves by the end of the game, to do this you'd take two feats, take [war caster] and later get [resilient dex], but feats are very expensive especially for a multiclass, how important is it to round out your saves?
[+2 cha] gives (+1 tohit, +1 eldritch blast damage, +1 to your spell save dc)
[elemental adept:fire] to enhance your scorching ray. gets you three rays of fire that deal 2d6 each, reroll ones, and ignore resistance.
[+2 dex] for a rogue multiclass, get some ac, makes you more spry, but on my guy i only really need... +1 to dex to get it to be even, so feats that grat +1 to dex, that gets you the boost and also...
[resilient] gives +1 dex, proficiency with dex saves
[fast hands] the stealing one, one of the best feat options. also gives you the +1 to dex.
so the safe plan is to take fighter 1 (gets +2ac) and then take warlock 4 for [war caster] for another (+2 ac), this lets you be a spell and shield guy... if i get another feat around level 8 itd be good for this to be [resilient] to get those dex saves. wis, dex, con is the full set of saves that you need to not die in most situations. but dex is mostly useful before level 8 so idk. has to be war caster first, i dont want to delay having a shield.
but suppose you took the stealing one. then you get the best feature of a thief. your ac improves but not as much as with war caster, where you can use a shield. then youre weighing steal as a bonus action vs an improved opportunity attack, is what war caster gets you. fast hands is the stealy fighter, the best way to gets some rogue in your fighter. bonus action is (hex, heal, or steal).
you also gain a spell at this level, i'd choose [invisibility]
warlock level 5
this gets you level 3 spells which are probably good idk, ... i'll take this level maybe around character level 7. this also gets another warlock invocation, maybe 'gift of the everliving ones' if i havent swapped it in already...
you can get healing at level 5 from like vampiric touch, 'gift of the everliving ones', which is the best minion invocation, maximises your healing. its a shame there arent... minion invocations that make the minion better
warlock level 6
dark ones own luck - like 'lucky' feat but its the roll+d10, 1 per short rest. i could get 'lucky' at 4th level if i was super jazzed about being the lucky guy, and this is a more boring power, but you do get it. level 6 to get to higher level spells, later warlock powers, which are...
7th through 10th, level 4 and 5 spells, another feat at 8th, at 10th resistance to a damage type that i can choose each day. with multiclassing i'll get this ability maybe around character level 12-15 (ages)
FIGHTER
fighter level 1
+4 ac with breastplate and shield
fighting style:(short range shooting) +1 ranged atk, is the fighting style for blasting spells, or you can get another +1 ac (armor fighter)
second wind (bonus action heal, heals +d8+1 hp once each short rest)
my plan is to take this at character level 4. i need the ac. this lets grimbert be a rapier/shortsword/scimitar guy, but eldritch blast is better, when you get to warlock 4 (war caster) - close quarters shooting and war caster each depend on the other for the most effective melee caster. probably fight with an orb in one hand and a shield in the other, but not until both levels.
fighter level 2
action surge gives you a second action (once each short rest) probably... best cast is probably two eldritch blasts or one spell and an eldritch blast. eldritch blast is two beams by this point so 1 every short rest you can go to 4 beams.
you can do, a spell, a minion attack, and a bonus rapier or dagger, gets you the most varied three things.
fighter level 3
fighter specialisation
[eldritch knight] needs int. the sword thing kinda replicates a blade-style warlock, which i already didnt choose... looks like 3 wizard spells/day and 2 wizard cantrips... can get out a lot of burning handses. im not sure what are the best spells for the eldritch knight, and this warlock doesnt do weapons much so theres not much there, true strike for instance is not as good as superiority dice guy's feint. id probably take minor illusion and shocking grasp, as cantrips.
[superiority dice guy] is kinda a rogue with a 4 sneaks per short rest, and the battle master has a bunch of options... the attack can usually be an eldritch blast which is nice, we like those... battle master, the old ua cavalier, scout, monster hunter are superiority guy... scout is the best variant probably. its not gonna be more than +4d8 per short rest but that seems like a good... thing to have... battle master maneuvers are disarm, distract(grants advantage on enemy), move ac, feint (costs two actions make one attack with advantage and +d8 damage, a marginally good thing to do) goad (tank mark, gives disadvantage to not hit me) lunge (+1range, gets the damage) maneuver(attack gets the damage and a friend moves half speed no oppy) frighten, parry(-d8 damage on an attack on you). he also gets proficiency with some tools, i'd say alchemy. lets say maneuver, disarm, lunge. we already care about short rests, might as well pile more stuff on.
[scout] puts superiority on skill checks (the ranger skills) attack rolls (not damage) and ac as a reaction. its a shame to not be able to put them on damage, but this puts the dice in some nice places, these are good rolls to not fail. but yeah, another luck bending mechanic, thinly themed, we dont really need it. choose this option to be a skillier guy and gain some ranger steez.
[champion] wants to make weapon attacks so he can get his crits. remarkable athlete at 7th is +2 on strength, dex and constitution checks.. not saves... but it helps inits and grapples and climbs.. 10th [second fighting style] probably protection which lets you apply disadvantage against attacks on friends who are next to you.
[samurai] gets a skill. three per long rest, grant yourself advantage on weapon attack rolls. and 5temp hp. so you can have that extra health be always on, in addition to the dark ones blessing hit points. but weapon attack rolls, you dont want to make them. the seventh level thing, which gives you +wis to persuasion, is +0, and the int save... youll never get this far, and you dont want this feature at all. its the long rest, which we currently dont care about.
it looks like superiority dice guy wins.
fighter 4 through 9
fighter/warlock rather than warlock/fighter... probably the shortest route to a third feat at 12th (ages) ... fighter 5 gets extra attack every attack action. what this means is you can make a weapon attack and a minion attack, and a bonus action (attack, hex, or heal). want to pile rogue levels on that. indomitable rerolls saves 1/day, but you wont get this high with fighter.
ROGUE
rogue level 1
-persuasion.
-[expertise] probably in stealth (+6/+8 at 5th) and persuasion (+7/+9 at 5th) or maybe thieves tools or insight.
-[sneak attack] sadly it needs to be weapons not spells... even a good weapon, and improved dex, 1d8+1d6+3 damage cant keep up with eldritch blast(2d10+6 at 5th)
best case is probably a familiar attack + a bonus melee attack (dagger) with sneak attack; thats d4+d6+3 + the familiars thing (scare sleep etc) - this is maybe as good as an eldritch. if you choose rogue then you want to do this thing. but, seems liek soemthing youd do on an offtempo round, to get a status effect, so its an option but its not great
-[thieves cant] doesnt come up much, but its good rp
not a great choice but you want expertise. adding the bonus sneak attack dagger makes minion attacks good, maybe.
rogue level 2
[cunning action] gets you out of combat every turn as a bonus action. gets you ready to sneak attack. its good to be able to get out if need. dash, disengage, or hide. this is a good feature. but remember that you want to hex or maybe heal with that bonus action.
rogue level 3
rogue specialisation.
-[assassin]. that gives you advantage vs creatures who havent acted yet, crits against surprised creatures, wigs and makeup, and poisons. with warlock 4, get the spell invisibility, if you use it to crit with scorching ray, invisibility becomes better than a hex. at warlock 5, makes a buddy invisible as well.
-[thief]. your bonus is now (hex, sleight of hand, unlock, disarm trap, disengage, dash, hide) - so you can steal and put stuff in guys inventories in combat. you want to do this. if not this subclass you want the feat that does it.
-[swashbuckler]. +CHA to initiative, this is huge, but its only initiative, so who cares really
-melee attack against creature, that creature cant opportunity attack you. means that you can bonus action sneak attack, minion attack, and you still (mostly) disengage.
-also the duel thing, you get sneak attack when you fight 1 creature, at 5ft, and noone else is in 5 feet of you.
-that wants close quarters shooting again. so requires fighter 1, so the attack is a blast, minion or weapon attack, bonus action is like (hex, heal, dash, hide, or weapon attack). what the swashbucker wants to do is move from one guys threat, attack him, into another guys threat, attack him, and move out, like a monk might, but we already have a monk and this situation is pretty uncommon, and the monk does it better. you can attack with melee, weak disengage, and enter stealth or heal or something. i guess it works with a hex+a melee attack+weak disengage. but you want to blast and it has no synergy.
-[scout]. reaction move half your speed when a monster moves on you. no oppy. nature and survival expertise (+7 and +6 respectively)
-[mastermind] - gets disguise, forgery, gaming set, two languages, and unerring mimicry. good bunch of background stuff, but none of it really neccessary. help as a bonus action, i think bonus granting someone advantage on their best attack, is a poor ranged option, versus just making your own bonus weapon attack, the possibility of making both the good and bad attacks is better than their making one good attack with advantage, so help, you could take or leave it, then in melee you want to disengage, not help.
[inquisitive] - ok, suppose you took insight as a specialisation so you have +6 as insight. then you cant roll worse than a 14 to see if someone's lying. 14s not quite good enough, you still need to roll better than this. this is a subclass intended for a rogue with a positive WIS modifier, which you don't have. suppose you also took perception as a specialisation, then you can (spot a creature or item) as a bonus action at +6. if you took investigation (detect or decipher a clue) at +7. these are not options you normally want in combat. if you were able to do it, is it useful? would it be cool?
-but insightful fighting makes sneak attack guaranteed on a guy, so its a sort of rogue hex. so you can basically treat it as a given extra dice like a ranger thing, thats worth having. but this also wants the insight specialisation. so this is obvious choice if you go insight at rogue 1st level, choose this build to be the insight guy.
assassin, thief, swashbuckler, or maybe inquisitive.
rogue level 4 - 10
get a feat or ability score increase. though, might as well be +2 cha or some feat granting +1 dex, or +2 wis to make the inquisitive work at level 8 thereabouts. 5th level [uncanny dodge] is half all damage from attacks you can see? very nice. 7th [evasion] makes improved dex saves (dmg/half) -> (half/none) - basically you could always take rogue and never take another warlock fighter level, and it'd be fine.
feats that grant the +1 to dex are...
[resilient dex], which also gives you the dex save
[quick fingered] which gives you steal as a bonus action like the thief, and also gives you expertise sleight of hand (+9) so that you can pull it off. if youre gonna be in melee you might as well steal as a bonus action.
DONT CHOOSE [moderately armored] has no synergy with your new +3 dex. medium and shields, but not the effect of [war caster], so you want that, its really no bonus to ac unless you can get the shield in there. if you want a shield, choose fighter 1, also gets healing and fighting style, still needs war caster.
so i think warlock4/fighter3 with war caster is a good option, thats a spelly fighter with shield in one hand and and a hellorb in the other, who can take a hit but also shoots 4 eldritch blast beams at point blank
... it might be nice to proceed to assassin or whatever from there... which i guess is pact of the fiend battle master chain assassin
but yeah,,, i previously threw away these other classes that are good options...
BARD
bard 1 gets spellcasting, including cure wounds which you can do as a touch through the familiar.
inspiration as a bonus action, because youre a warlock bard and not a warlock fighter rogue, your bonus action is like, hex, weapon attack, or inspire - and you just got new spell slots that make hex more viable. inspires not the best of these.
if you have healing you can maximise it with gift of the everliving ones. so cure wounds and vampiric touch are good options for like, a warlock 5/bard 1. or warlock 5/sorcerer 1.
bard 2 gets jack of all trades, song of rest.
bard 3 is bard specialisation.
SORCERER
sorcerer gets spellcasting and sorcerous origin. you want metamagic for twinned spell, distant spell, and etc but those are sorcerer 3.
[divine soul] gets the cleric spells. cure wounds and more importantly inflict wounds, if you get these, it pays out the idea of the minion delivering touch spells.
[pheonix sorcery] is the obvious fire guy. bonus action to turn it on, overloads hex. (but its not a spell, you can scorch on the first turn.) charisma bonus to your fire damage, and charisma fire damage to targets that hit you. your charisma bonus, if it was 4, the bonus damage would be better than a hex. but being a fire tank is cool, the retributive damage is what tips it over to good. so its a good option. 1 min per long rest.
[sea sorcery] is good with the eldritch blast that pushes or pulls. but i already used sea on the other tiefling.
[shadow] gets the darkness you can see through, but not until sorcerer 3. but it makes you hard to kill, so bonus points for that. not as good as these others.
[stone] gets smite spells, shields (but not close quarters shooting), ac17 with no armor, but you have to turn it on, as an action.
[storm] fly 10feet when you cast a spell of 1st or better. as a bonus action. this a great thing. consider hellish rebuke (eldritch blast. leave threat to provoke oppy, absorb that somehow. reaction hellish rebuke is another blast. and disengage-fly 10 feet) the storm sorcerer perk is so generally good it sucks to not take it and use it every turn. this is a disengage that 's reliable (every turn) arcane (cares about spellcasting) and potent (controls the wind).
Friday, 4 May 2018
other ways to be a fucked up beast man in 5e
i talked about the spores druid and the moon druid who are like, ways to be or turn into a fucked up beast guy, but theres other ways to be a mutant creature boy in fifth, and im wondering if theyre good, compared to wild shape, or combined with it
so the idea is .... whether youre a space warlock or a dragon demon or a wolf sorcerer or whatever, youre gonna want your guy to get big and wild sometimes
the thing with 5th is like... theres a medicine skill and a healers kit which, used together, dont heal, you need the spell 'cure wounds' or 'healing word' or better to heal, these are better than cantrip effects like 'spare the dying' which is garbage but still better than medicine and a healers kit. they expect, if you want to heal, you'll take cleric 1 (or bard or druid), and youll do these spells at worst, is healing.
the game wants you to work for small gains.
if you play in a 5th environment where levels are scarce, the question becomes like, how many levels of this can i afford to take, will i get to level 3 of this, is it worth this ability.
so the way 5th wants you to transform into animals is wild shape, which is druid 2, and although the idea is to present not-druid ways to be a beast warrior, you should consider wild shape, the druid gets it for free, the druid spell list will also serve you well in general for this character concept. druid 2 is a very inexpensive way to do this
backgrounds
the most important thing about backgrounds is they suck some of the useful abilities out of classes and make them generally available, so if you have a thing you want that another class would get you, see if you can start with a background that does it, or replace a similar background ability with the thing you want, for instance the criminal background gets thief tools, the most useful tools, so if there's a set of tools you can get it for free with some background, same with all skills, and the players handbook invites you to make up your own background, so just pick two skills and a steez and make up a background to match, taking concepts that you like from various backgrounds
the outlander background
sucks all the good hunting/tracking/foraging abilities out of the ranger class, so if you take this you can get those abilities.
as a high level concept, these abilities ask if you want survival to be present and important in the game, if you always succeed at survival stuff, it wont be.
the old school way is to have survival as like a pillar of the game, if the dm wants to do survival stuff youll do it and it will be as hard as the dm wants, if you bring these newschool abilities that mitigate survival completely, the dm might allow it, but you might cheat yourself out of having to play the game, so its a mixed bag
lycanthropy
this the kind of thing most dms would want to play out in game, over the course of an adventure where the player becomes a werewolf or soemthing. so the player doesnt have a lot of control over when or if theyll become a lycanthrope. but if its available you could pursue it, potentially getting cool shit like regeneration or being able to turn other people into lycanthropes. i think this is more powerful than the druid option generally but its not usually offered to players.
vampirism is the same, but theyre not scruffy. life drain is harder to replicate with character abilities, you can get vampiric touch around caster level 5...
anyway its not somethign you can assume your character has access to
races
the monster races are described in volos guide so like goblins and bugbears, tabaxi and whatever are options, id go with the yuanti pureblood for like a mileena feel, just in the players handbook, dragonborn and tiefling are good, halforcs as a bonus are hard to kill, gnomes and dwarves make sense, or you can do just like a scruffy human or elf
having a pet
havign a pet is a bunch of logical overhead, youll forget to do the pet stuff if you're not very excited about it, but you can always have the pet show up when you need it and give you an extra saving throw or something.
if you dont care about the abilities of your pet, soem dms will give you one for free, if you want it to be good for combat, you should consider the players handbook/dmg pet options
somethign to consider is being small, if youre small, you have more room to play with size, its a bigger deal when you transform into a big guy. also if you're small and you take a medium beast (or medium with a large beast) as a pet, you can ride around on it.
find familiar
wizard 1 or warlock 3 or magic initiate
1st level ritual, so 1hr 10 mins, 10 gold of stuff
if you get the magic initiate feat you can add this and some other wizard shit to your guy.
this is the cheap pet, the wizard ones are all basically animals, so its basically, choose a small animal, you have that.
it mostly doesnt attack in combat.
the owl one always gets special mention because it can fly in and give you advantage to hit (the help action) and fly out without granting an attack.
the familiar gets the fey, celestial, or fiend keyword instead of the beast one - this seems like a step away from what we want
the warlock chooses from an expanded list of familiars, with imp, sprite, quasit, and pseudodragon - these have more stuff, they're better in most ways. but theyre not beasts really. one disadvantage with the familiar is it has this arcane theme hardcoded.
beastmaster ranger
this is the more expensive pet. if you take three levels of ranger you should consider the cool shit the hunter gets. colossus slayer (extra damage against enemies that are already hit) and horde breaker (extra attack when fighting more guys) are very good options. the beastmaster instead chooses a beast off the basic druids list of wild shapes, so that (if you can convince your dm of this) both the ranger and the beast take turns and make attacks. the moon druid can transform into better animals for combat at level 2. but! the ranger and beast is two guys, and you can do flying, and maybe? you can do swarms. the best beasts are swarms, theres errata somewhere that says you cant do swarms, but swarms are good, talk to your dm about swarms. the guy with a swarm of rats or insects or ravens is a strong character concept
primal savagery
druid cantrip, xanathars guide
you get these big sharp teeth or claws for the duration of 1 attack
melee attack, normal reach, uses wisdom to hit, d10 acid damage
this is good, good melee cantrip, the druid doesnt need strength or dex or like, a sword, the druid can be a fucked up acid biter guy, this is also good to extend the racial traits of your dragonborn or goblin or whatever, importantly, it makes the druid still a beast when hes a guy, sadly not available to non-druids
if you have a feat and no druid levels, maybe magic initiate to get this, some healing, and a thing. but that precludes magic initiate(wizard) to get a familiar.
disguise self
1st level wizard or sorcerer, 2nd level warlock
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this lets you look like whatever guy you want, so long as theyre about the same height as you. youre not actually turn into the guy, though, its an illusion, people can challenge it with an intelligence/investigation check. some nerds and wizards can see through illusions. but theres a warlock level 2 invocation 'mask of many faces' that makes disguise self be at will, so that its effectively always on, this is a very good buy if you want your guy to be some kinda shapeshifting at will, but only does humanoid shapes
alter self
3rd level wizard or sorcerer
this is an improvement to disguise self that lets you be really a different guy rather than just as an illusion, again the warlock can get it at-will as 'master of myriad forms' but not until level 15, if youre a mask of many faces and you get to this level you would want this. alter self lets you turn into a fish guy and breathe underwater, or grow a bunch of sharp bits and deal a measly d6+1 magic damage with them like a single lv6 monk unarmed strike, thats ok but not better than primal savagery + some other method of getting water breathing. the main advantage is solidly turning into guys as like an infiltrator spy unit, which is not actually the thing were trying to do with it.
wizard (or sorcerer or warlock)
so this sort of suggests as an alternative, an illusionist/transmuter wizard that casts spells to shape himself into the forms of janked up creatures, but of course it doesnt really give you animals, and wants to be transforming into people, so its not quite what we want. if you do this it maybe gets you access to the wizard spell list, i think the spells available for this character concept are sort of thin though, the druid spell list will probably serve you better as a melee beast man. you could combine wizard and druid though, gets spells like a full caster, and maybe you want to. theres sort of an absence in 5th where the summoner guy would be
if you did take 2-3 levels of wizard, int and wis is a pretty versatile smart guy character, theres lots of options there but it pulls you away from the core concept. wizard and druid or maybe ranger is a good basis of spells and themed abilities, but you're going to also want probably con and perhaps dex or str, so its sorta diluted, because it needs wis and int
if you take a charisma caster instead, better access to the charisma skills which are more useful in most games than the knowledge ones - but the spell lists are more limited, and the warlock's pact magic doesnt stack with other casters' magic. ask yourself which feature you want, take the levels that gets you there.
barbarian
the basics of barbarian are rage, savage attack (gives you advantage to hit, grants advantage to hit you), unarmored defense. the barbarian wants to be a strength guy, wild shapes are strength. you want that damage resistance. savage attack its supposed to be really good? im not jazzed about it.
i think in general its hard to make a guy who hulks up into a better version of himself, and the game wants to model that with wild shape and rage as two examples. the problem is, on some level, dnd guys are supposed to be as good as each other, so your wild shape is modeled to be comparable to a druid who doesnt transform, or a barbarian who rages on the greatsword, or so on, and so theyre limited to like 'no better than this', transform abilities are no better than wild shape, and wild shape is no better than a dnd guy, just keep in mind that you have to work for small gains, and consider where you want to end up at level 5, at level 7 etc.
so stacking rage and wild shape (barbarian 1 and druid 2) makes you strictly better than either the druid or the barbarian, at making yourself a big guy. stacking either rage or wild shape with spellcasting is not an option, so this is pretty good synergy if youre not really spells, though you still get spells, from being a druid and all
barbarian 3
this is expensive but theres a bunch of cool options here.
monk
if the monk defense is higher than a wild shape defense, i think you can keep the monk one. this is als o true for the barbarian but the monk defense is based on your wisdom, so this is better, theres probably some interaction between monk unarmed strikes and wild shape melee attacks that you want, seems like something you have to argue with the dm about, is the flavor good (idk). if you can get it to put out more attacks or more damage on attacks it might be worth it, the controlly effects are probably worth getting especially if you want more mobility. it doesnt seem especially beasty. you get magic hands at monk 6 or druid 6, so the monk druid probably doesnt get magic hands
Thursday, 3 May 2018
circle of spores druid analysis
circle of spores druid is a playtest subclass from this unearthed arcana
i want to compare it to the circle of the moon druid over the levels 2-5 thereabouts, thats where the most game is
this is the circle of the moon guy. he has a good CON, WIS and CHA, he has no DEX and no STR, doesnt need them because he's gonna be a bear. so one bonus with this guy is he can have a charisma bonus (that i dropped, as the spores druid, to have a dex bonus.) for melee, as a guy, you can do thorn whip. but the point of being a moon druid is you want to turn into a bear.
circle of the moon druid gets combat wild shape, which lets you become a bigger creature than do other druids, challenge 1 or worse, usually the bear, and also makes challenge 1/2 or worse not really worth doing. the moon druid can waste spell slots to heal as a beast, thats ok but a pretty hefty opportunity cost. you cant cast spells as a beast, though, only heal, so if youre a beast focus guy you maybe want this. the other benefit is wild shape as a bonus action, which, if it wasnt a feature of the moon druid, i suspect it would be a feature of all druids, its good, you want this
the bear thing, the bear is the best option.... other options are situationally useful (climbing hunting stealth poison etc) but the bear is just, better damage, better hit points, stronger option generally
circle of spores though...
so as a not-moon druid, you have access to challenge 1/4 or worse. usually have an attack like +3/d6 damage with an option to do more damage gated by a situation or a save or something. you have more options in your top tier and more varied options in general than does the moon druid, who wont even touch the guys on your tier, your options are strictly worse than the moon druid's guys.
i made a one-page of all the beasts you can do that are 1/4 or worse: BEASTS
so the question here is how to make all these dudes see play? you can have... you know... roleplaying where you just choose the worse option and play it straight, but we dont really want that. then, you can have the bear problem where one guy gets out an extra dice of good damage and so its hard to not choose it, it seems better to be a guy who sometimes turns into a spider, sometimes a swarm of rats, sometimes a horse, sometimes a giant centipede, than to be a guy who always turns into a bear. (if not for this druid wild shape feature that lets you turn into any beast youve seen, turning into a bear would be cool, but with wild shape its an opportunity cost to main bear, and we dont like those)
so in the first game i was run this guy as a moon druid, he did a panther for a stealth bit then switched to bear for more damage halfway through the boss fight. in the second game, changing him to be the spores druid, i used giant wolf spider and swarm of rats. so im average about 2 wild shapes a game, really the game is between two rests or with one rest in the middle, so get two or perhaps four uses of wild shape. i think thats a pretty normal use case
SO WHAT THE SPORE GUY GETS
HALO OF SPORES: 3 damage per round, as a reaction, to one guy in 10 feet whose not immune to poison, no save. this is sort of like a hex, adding about d6 damage per round. its one use, so not as good as hex in that respect, but you dont have to hit with an attack to get the benefit, you can do it on a turn where you take all weird actions and dont attack. and nothing says you cant do it in beast form. probably better to do this than hope for a opportunity attack, if the beast's oppy is like d6+3 but has to roll to hit, just dealing 3 every turn is comparable, or better for enemies with a high armor class. though by spending your reaction this way all the time, youre gifting the enemy some maneuverability, they dont ever have to worry about your opportunity attack.
SYMBIOTIC ENTITY:
there are two reads on this, if you can do it in beast form or not. reading the class over and over im not sure whats intended, but i want to to be the beast one, and i'll tell you why.
if youre a humanoid and you use it, you can still cast spells, so its sort of a good option. the hit points you get are not as good as youd get from wild shape. the damage boost is like, if youre dual wielding,
[d20+att+proficiency] to hit for [weapon die +d6 +att] on the attack,
[d20+att] to hit for [weapon die +d6 +att] on the bonus.
6 damage on the reaction, because you double the halo of spores effect as a spore man.
my guy is a dwarf druid so i considered hammer and sickle style but i couldnt work the numbers on it, he needs to be a dex guy if anything, i resolved to two scimitars. two scimitars isnt on the list of dwarf proficiencies or the list of druid proficiencies, but hes a gardener so i figure its... not totally weird, depending on the amount of hacking and slashing you have to do to garden effectively in that particular setting, its a dnd world, so like, sometimes the gardens fight back. if you have a long list of proficiencies and none of them do the thing you want, just trade them in for the thing you want, dont take the weapon master feat ever, its garbage.
so thats 4d6 +6 +4 for my +2 dex guy, about 22 damage, every round, for 10 minutes.
then he drops back to 2d6+4+3 is about 13 damage
so youd compare that to the bear, hes d8+2d6+8 is about 18 damage, every round, for an hour, plus a bunch of extra hit points. so sadly its probably not better than the bear. also its another bear. if you can't do symbiotic entity as beast form -> fungus beast form, you're gonna want to be a fungus man all the time, because the fungus man can cast spells and it's your subclass, presumably you took the subclass because youre jazzed about being a fungus man. so it cuts back on the list of forms you can be, because it spends your wild shape, its another bear, not the thing we want.
BUT!
if youre a beast and you can use it. then it becomes, really actually good, and so it should be this interpretation and not that one. youre spending both your wild shapes. so you're really trying to boost the damage and hit points of your existing beast, youre commited to this beast for the short rest, no other transforms, but this is actually good, its like a boss monster thing. your attacks are melee weapons so we can apply the +d6 poison to all attacks. the main reason i like this is it extends the utility of every beast on your list! and we get the fungus man as an extra option for when you want to buff your guy and still cast spells. the disadvantages are spending two standard actions and two charges of wild shape to make yourself real big for one encounter. (note that you can still chuck out spores as a reaction on those turns) and its a way to heal as a beast that uses your wild shape instead of the moon druid's style, using your spell slots. so when you turn back into a guy you still have stuff you can do. as a fungus beast, after 10 minutes you revert to normal beast form, then once your original hour is up, back to a guy.
the giant badger has a multiattack so, for comparison, the damage is
d6+2d4+2d6+2+6 is about 21 damage, for 10 minutes, then it drops back to d6+2d4+2+3 is about 12
so i think this is intended, i think this is the correct interpretation, if its not, it should be.
i want to compare it to the circle of the moon druid over the levels 2-5 thereabouts, thats where the most game is
this is the circle of the moon guy. he has a good CON, WIS and CHA, he has no DEX and no STR, doesnt need them because he's gonna be a bear. so one bonus with this guy is he can have a charisma bonus (that i dropped, as the spores druid, to have a dex bonus.) for melee, as a guy, you can do thorn whip. but the point of being a moon druid is you want to turn into a bear.
circle of the moon druid gets combat wild shape, which lets you become a bigger creature than do other druids, challenge 1 or worse, usually the bear, and also makes challenge 1/2 or worse not really worth doing. the moon druid can waste spell slots to heal as a beast, thats ok but a pretty hefty opportunity cost. you cant cast spells as a beast, though, only heal, so if youre a beast focus guy you maybe want this. the other benefit is wild shape as a bonus action, which, if it wasnt a feature of the moon druid, i suspect it would be a feature of all druids, its good, you want this
the bear thing, the bear is the best option.... other options are situationally useful (climbing hunting stealth poison etc) but the bear is just, better damage, better hit points, stronger option generally
circle of spores though...
so as a not-moon druid, you have access to challenge 1/4 or worse. usually have an attack like +3/d6 damage with an option to do more damage gated by a situation or a save or something. you have more options in your top tier and more varied options in general than does the moon druid, who wont even touch the guys on your tier, your options are strictly worse than the moon druid's guys.
i made a one-page of all the beasts you can do that are 1/4 or worse: BEASTS
so the question here is how to make all these dudes see play? you can have... you know... roleplaying where you just choose the worse option and play it straight, but we dont really want that. then, you can have the bear problem where one guy gets out an extra dice of good damage and so its hard to not choose it, it seems better to be a guy who sometimes turns into a spider, sometimes a swarm of rats, sometimes a horse, sometimes a giant centipede, than to be a guy who always turns into a bear. (if not for this druid wild shape feature that lets you turn into any beast youve seen, turning into a bear would be cool, but with wild shape its an opportunity cost to main bear, and we dont like those)
so in the first game i was run this guy as a moon druid, he did a panther for a stealth bit then switched to bear for more damage halfway through the boss fight. in the second game, changing him to be the spores druid, i used giant wolf spider and swarm of rats. so im average about 2 wild shapes a game, really the game is between two rests or with one rest in the middle, so get two or perhaps four uses of wild shape. i think thats a pretty normal use case
SO WHAT THE SPORE GUY GETS
HALO OF SPORES: 3 damage per round, as a reaction, to one guy in 10 feet whose not immune to poison, no save. this is sort of like a hex, adding about d6 damage per round. its one use, so not as good as hex in that respect, but you dont have to hit with an attack to get the benefit, you can do it on a turn where you take all weird actions and dont attack. and nothing says you cant do it in beast form. probably better to do this than hope for a opportunity attack, if the beast's oppy is like d6+3 but has to roll to hit, just dealing 3 every turn is comparable, or better for enemies with a high armor class. though by spending your reaction this way all the time, youre gifting the enemy some maneuverability, they dont ever have to worry about your opportunity attack.
SYMBIOTIC ENTITY:
there are two reads on this, if you can do it in beast form or not. reading the class over and over im not sure whats intended, but i want to to be the beast one, and i'll tell you why.
if youre a humanoid and you use it, you can still cast spells, so its sort of a good option. the hit points you get are not as good as youd get from wild shape. the damage boost is like, if youre dual wielding,
[d20+att+proficiency] to hit for [weapon die +d6 +att] on the attack,
[d20+att] to hit for [weapon die +d6 +att] on the bonus.
6 damage on the reaction, because you double the halo of spores effect as a spore man.
my guy is a dwarf druid so i considered hammer and sickle style but i couldnt work the numbers on it, he needs to be a dex guy if anything, i resolved to two scimitars. two scimitars isnt on the list of dwarf proficiencies or the list of druid proficiencies, but hes a gardener so i figure its... not totally weird, depending on the amount of hacking and slashing you have to do to garden effectively in that particular setting, its a dnd world, so like, sometimes the gardens fight back. if you have a long list of proficiencies and none of them do the thing you want, just trade them in for the thing you want, dont take the weapon master feat ever, its garbage.
so thats 4d6 +6 +4 for my +2 dex guy, about 22 damage, every round, for 10 minutes.
then he drops back to 2d6+4+3 is about 13 damage
so youd compare that to the bear, hes d8+2d6+8 is about 18 damage, every round, for an hour, plus a bunch of extra hit points. so sadly its probably not better than the bear. also its another bear. if you can't do symbiotic entity as beast form -> fungus beast form, you're gonna want to be a fungus man all the time, because the fungus man can cast spells and it's your subclass, presumably you took the subclass because youre jazzed about being a fungus man. so it cuts back on the list of forms you can be, because it spends your wild shape, its another bear, not the thing we want.
BUT!
if youre a beast and you can use it. then it becomes, really actually good, and so it should be this interpretation and not that one. youre spending both your wild shapes. so you're really trying to boost the damage and hit points of your existing beast, youre commited to this beast for the short rest, no other transforms, but this is actually good, its like a boss monster thing. your attacks are melee weapons so we can apply the +d6 poison to all attacks. the main reason i like this is it extends the utility of every beast on your list! and we get the fungus man as an extra option for when you want to buff your guy and still cast spells. the disadvantages are spending two standard actions and two charges of wild shape to make yourself real big for one encounter. (note that you can still chuck out spores as a reaction on those turns) and its a way to heal as a beast that uses your wild shape instead of the moon druid's style, using your spell slots. so when you turn back into a guy you still have stuff you can do. as a fungus beast, after 10 minutes you revert to normal beast form, then once your original hour is up, back to a guy.
the giant badger has a multiattack so, for comparison, the damage is
d6+2d4+2d6+2+6 is about 21 damage, for 10 minutes, then it drops back to d6+2d4+2+3 is about 12
so i think this is intended, i think this is the correct interpretation, if its not, it should be.
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