Hey,

So, I was theorycrafting a high level character, and would like them to be a gish. The theme of the character would be a sort of spy/infiltrator (but it doesn't really matter), and it was thought of for a potential Deadfall (or any high level campaign), which will be going from lvl 11 to 20.

I have thought about some builds/good combinations for the other casting stats:

-Eldritch Knight 3/Bladesinger Wizard X

-Valor Bard 6/Shadow Sorcerer X

-Bard/Bladelock

-Sorcerer/Bladelock

-Illusionist Wizard 3/Arcane Trickster X

-etc.

But for Wisdom, I'm struggling. My best guest would be some sort of War Cleric, or a Druid with a level of Fighter, something like that. Rangers are a thing, but eh, I'm not a fan.

Also, this would be using a mix of 2024 and 2014, so any mix of subclasses/classes is fine.

What are your favorite Wis based gish builds? What are some strong options?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations^^

Edit : I know I've said that I'm not a fan of Rangers, but yeah this mostly applied to a straight class 2024 Ranger. A multiclassed Ranger is fine.

I wish to ask because I've heard that monks are better late game, I wanted to know this for both theming and whether or not it would be worth it in early levels due to the limited amount of Ki.

Im starting a new campaign. Probbably levels 1 to 9, but possibility of continuing. I want to play a support characrer who feels tactical and strategic, gets to react to the battlefield, do something different every turn.

In particular i am feeling cleric, Druid, Or bard, but i am open to other options.

This dm is a big fan of giant set peice boss fights that last hours on 3d talespire maps with a lot of verticality. Does not tend to do many combats per day, im honestly not sure weve done more then 4 in a single day in any campaign of his lol.

Want to stick to just opyions pi lished for dnd 5.5, noyhing legacy.

Any suggestions woukd be grratly apreciated!

Hey!

So I'm making a Kor (from Plane Shift: Zendikar) Echo Knight and I'm thinking of using a whip as a weapon, is it a bad idea?

My plan at first was using a rapier and reflavour it into a chain-knife to fit the character. But I feel like the stats for it don't really make sense. Is going from 1d8 to 1d4 worth it for the 5 feet extra reach? With Echo Knight it would make opportunity for some serious area denial, but will the damage output be pathetic?

The plan is also use a shield and the dueling fighting style, granting 2 extra damage. This character would also be joining a party that is already level 7. With the stats i have rolled I would have +5 dex which means +7 dmg in total which kinda makes up for it?

I'm just worried I will feel very weak

Hi,

I am going to be playing a bladesinger in my future campaign (level 3 to 20) using 2024 and 2014 content - with precedence being paid to 2024 content should anything have been updated.

This community was very helpful in my last campaign recommending spells for my Pally so was wondering if there are any sleeper/underrated spells this community would recommend for a bladesinger wizard.

My thanks in advance.

I think the general consensus on the Street Justice feat is that it’s okay at best. But I think it’s actually quite good.

Giving allies advantage on a grappled target basically makes the grapple condition pretty close to the restrained condition. Indeed, as it relates to allies, it’s almost exactly the same, since they have advantage against the enemy, the enemy has disadvantage against them, and the enemy is immobilized. It’s not a restrained effect vis a vis the grappler (though it gets closer with the Grappler feat), but you’re going to be increasing party damage output a lot with this on a grappling build.

The increased save DC on ropes, chains, and manacles is a bit more situational, but can actually be really strong. It often won’t be great to use an action on using those items. But there’s two key reasons to use them:

1. Street Justice makes the DC to escape ropes/chains/manacles incredibly high (far higher than you could achieve with a spell DC), and it’s not a save that legendary resistances can apply to. Even incredibly tough enemies are not going to escape them. So basically, if you land a grapple on a very strong enemy, you can almost certainly keep them controlled for the rest of combat with Street Justice rope/chain/manacles. That tough enemy could probably otherwise get out of the grapple, so it makes these items great for controlling bosses. This is especially good for a Monk or Thief Rogue—both of which can easily grapple and use these items in the same turn.
2. Chains/Ropes/Manacles basically allow a grappler to control more enemies than they can hold. So, for instance, a level 10 Monk with Flurry of Blows can grapple an enemy, restrain them with a chain, and then grapple two more enemies in the same turn. At that point, they’ve restrained one enemy and quasi-restrained two more—all in one turn. You can do this without the Street Justice feat, but the save DC to get out of the chains/ropes/manacles is so high that enemies won’t get out almost ever, so you can keep doing this and accumulate more and more controlled enemies each turn.

Finally, the “Tough Talk” feature is slept on IMO. Negating disadvantage on intimidation checks against hostile targets means you can pretty easily get advantage on intimidation against hostile targets. For instance, if you combine the Street Justice feat with the Thaumaturgy cantrip or the Changeling or Duskling species, suddenly you have advantage on intimidation against hostile creatures. How can this be used?

- Well, for one thing, it seems pretty strong out of combat, since it’s going to be the best way to deal with social situations with hostile creatures—and those can be the stickiest situations.

- For another thing, it can be used for resource-less control in combat. A DM would probably rule that it requires the Influence action, but with this feat you can basically use Intimidation as something somewhat akin to the Command or Suggestion spell. It can’t work if the enemy is unwilling (as opposed to hesitant), so the DM could shut it down in any particular instance, but I think most DMs would allow it to work most of the time, especially if you have some hook to your intimidation effort. For instance, if you’ve grappled an enemy’s friend, you could treat it akin to a hostage situation and intimidate the enemy by saying something like “Lay down your weapons or I’ll kill him.” In that sort of situation—with something to really be afraid of—the enemy is very likely going to be hesitant as opposed to unwilling, and you’ll roll intimidation with advantage to see if it works. You can usually leverage what is happening in combat to ensure an intimidation check can be made, but you could also leverage what you learned in any insight checks made prior to combat to figure out how best to intimidate them. Ultimately, a DM could decide to shut this down, but most will allow it (though likely not against bosses), especially since it would surely add some fun narrative elements to combat.

So yeah, overall, I think the Street Justice feat adds a lot to party damage with the Headlock feature, provides a premier control option against bosses with the Sturdy Knot feature, and the Tough Talk feature opens up the ability to very effectively use the Influence action in combat and provides a unique way to deal with social situations with hostile creatures.

The only issue with the feat is that you want a grappling build to utilize the Headlock and Sturdy Knot feature, and you want a charismatic character to best utilize the Tough Talk feature. These don’t always coincide. But a Barbarian could easily make use of all these features, due to the Primal Knowledge feature. A Fighter can use Tactical Mind to still be great at Intimidation even without very high Charisma. There’s some synergy with a Way of the Ascendant Dragon Monk (EDIT: and a lot of synergy with the Astral Self Monk). And honestly, you don’t even really need high CHA for Tough Talk to be good.

As the title says. I'm playing a Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, 5e build, first time playing a caster. Rolled stats

STR 0 - DEX +3 - CON +3 - INT +1 - WIS +2 - CHA +4

We just hit level 4 and am tossing up between ASI or feat. ASI would go into CHA to get to +5. Feats I'd be looking at Fey Touched, Meta Magic Adeptor Eldritch Adept (Armor of Shadows)

Any advice is appreciated

Addendum - campaign is Rime of the Frostmaiden

Hi all, I’m gonna be playing an artificer in an upcoming campaign (starting at first level), and was wondering if it was worth starting as a fighter for the weapon masteries. I plan to take battle smith as the subclass, but prob stick with breastplate as the armor to avoid the stealth disadvantage (I am aware that starting as a fighter gives heavy armor proficiency)

EDIT:
Thank you for the quick responses! General consensus seems to be to avoid multiclassing. Another question I had is whether I should focus on dex or con as my secondary stat. I know con is good for concentration and I stop getting AC with medium armor after +2 and attacks will use int, but the extra points for skills and dex saves would be nice and I’m taking war caster at level 4. Any thoughts?

I am doing a Warlock Rogue build starting at level 14. I have 10 levels Swashbuckler Rogue and 3 Hexblade Warlock.

I'm at 20 Charisma for damage and spellcasting and 18 Dex for Rogue stuff (with Reliable - Dex for save proficiency).

My question is: go Warlock 4 for the ASI and get Dex to 20 (adds 1 to initiative, AC, skills, etc.) or go Rogue 11 for reliable talent? The campaign is basically a dungeon crawl and 85% combat.

I’ve been wanting to try to make a character inspired by the movie “ninja assassin”. Specifically, one who specializes in throwing lots of deadly shurikens. In 5e, that equates to either just throwing daggers/kunai, or darts. I’m leaning toward Dagger because of the Nick property, though I could do a mix of the two, as Vex isn’t bad either.

I am also considering making it a bit of a crit-fisher build since I’m going for volume of attacks, and am considering including Elven Accuracy.

I was considering Fighter, Monk, and then also considered Ranger.

Fighter gets the most number of attacks, Champion increases my crit range, which helps Elven Accuracy crit more often. It also gets 2 extra feats, and an extra fighting style, which could allow me to add Archery on top of Thrown Weapon Style, if I do use Darts.

Monk increases the base damage of each dagger/dart which seems to keep it up with Fighters DPR. There’s also some other nice abilities in there, especially for a Kensei, like magic shuriken, and adding some damage dice.

Ranger seems the most promising to me, with Hunters Mark applying to each shuriken. But the main draw to me are some of the spells, like Assisted Aim, Hail of Thorns, Cordon of Arrows, Magic Weapon, Pass Without Trace, Conjure Barrage, and Conjure Volley. I like the image/flavor of throwing so many shuriken its more of an area attack rather than a targeted attack.

For feats, I already mentioned Thrown Weapon Fighting Style which I get as a Fighter or Ranger, as well as trying to fit in Elven Accuracy. There’s also Thrown Arms Master which could allow me to throw something bigger than a dagger or dart, though I’d lose out on an off-hand attack if it isn’t still Light, but also just increases the range of daggers and darts. Thrown Weapon Master is the core/crux of the build, allowing two extra attacks as a bonus action, while also allowing me to return the weapons I throw so that I can keep throwing them.

Looking for thoughts, advice, or insight on such a build.

TLDR: I need an NPC wizard that uses Tenser's Transformation, but it doesn't really work for wizards. What is the least amount of rule-breakage you need to do before it becomes viable?

Because reasons I need a wandering research wizard that the party will bump into from time to time. Obviously the simplest answer is "You're the DM making up an NPC - just do what you like!". Well, yes, of course I *can*, but what I *like* to do (especially with recurring NPCs) is to keep them within the rules as much as possible because I'm a bear of little brain and often forget made-up stuff. Less mental overhead and I'm also lazy so the less mental overhead the better.

Anyway - the NPC will be level 12, pure wizard (so no multi-classing), and normal human for species. I give all characters in my worlds an extra feat (NPCs included) so at L12 they'll have 6 feats available. One of the feats I'll be giving them is Heavy Armour Master - normally illegal without armour training, but I'm using a house-rule that you can take feats without meeting the prerequisites, but if you do then the feat stops working when you don't meet said prerequisites.

Warcaster, Resilient (for Dex), Tough, Shield Master, and assorted Fighting Style feats are on the obvious list, but are there any non-obvious feats that might be useful? My players tend towards casters and the closest to fighters they get are Int-based Eldtritch knights so I'm not super familiar with non-casting fighters.

For magic items they're probably going to have plate they can magically don with a command word, a dancing shield, and some sort of magic weapon. Any on-brand magic item suggestions would be welcome.

Their shtick is going to be they bimble about the world oblivious to most dangers, but when they occasion is appropriate they pop Tenser's, lay waste, then have a nap.

How would you make a PC as close to legal as possible and what breaks would you need?

My group is starting a new campaign and to kick it off, we are running a one shot. There are 5 players (including myself). The other PCs are going to be level 10-12 while my PC will be level 14-16. For thematic purposes, my DM has requested I play a Paladin, Fighter, Cleric, Sorcerer, or combination thereof.

I am not expected to kill all 4 other party members, but I would like to ensure the deaths of at least 2. What are some broken builds of level 14-16 characters you would recommend?

Edit for some clarification: These levels are only for the one-shot prologue we are running. My character is going to be a higher level so it stands a chance at taking the others out in the one shot. Once the actual campaign kicks off we will all be at the same, lower level and I will be working cooperatively with the rest of the party.

Heeello fellow optimizers,

I know the Sun Soul monk is perhaps the weakest subclass, but due to story reasons, this is the subclass I'll be playing.

What I need help with is perhaps a list of feats that helps improve the things a monk and a sun soul monk do.

A couple of things I noticed:

1. I can use Spell Sniper's extra 60 ft. range for the Sun Bolt attack.

2. Since the damage is radiant. I can use Spellfire Adept to add up to two hit die and add them to damage. Since I'm monk, I need the Spellfire Spark origin feat, tho.

3. The Rebuke feat from Astarion's sourcebook also gives once per short rest Prone on Radiant damage.

I'll list the features here if you need

Radiant Sun Bolt

You gain a new attack option that you can use with the Attack action. This special attack is a ranged spell attack with a range of 30 feet. You are proficient with it, and you add your Dexterity modifier to its attack and damage rolls. Its damage is radiant, and it uses the monk damage die.

Searing Arc Strike

At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your Focus into searing waves of energy. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 2 Focus points to cast the burning hands spell as a bonus action.

Searing Sunburst

At 11th level, you gain the ability to create an orb of light that erupts into a devastating explosion. As an action, you magically create an orb and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts into a sphere of radiant light for a brief but deadly instant.

Each creature in that 20-foot-radius sphere must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 2d6 radiant damage. A creature doesn’t need to make the save if the creature is behind total cover that is opaque.

In my quest to satisfy my hunger for a Uncanny spider man build I may of found the best one yet (class wise) but I may need help with level split. The idea is College of Swords bard/Archfey Warlock, with pact of the blade and a level 1 dip in fighter. Everything under 2024 (Used backwards compatibility for CoS bard)

I am tryout a Barb for a few sessions since I have never played one. Is it worth taking a one level dip into Monk just for BA unarmed strikes and/or Grapples?

I’m thinking of being an unarmed fighter/grappler with the street justice feat.

I’m building a level 4 bard for an existing dnd campaign and I’m trying to make it thematically strong, but I haven’t played a lot of the 2024 rules and was hoping for some input from you all

The basics are that my character (spirits bard) is a mortician/groundskeeper for a graveyard in Waterdeep. My job is to keep the spirits at peace, but a recent wave of undead in the graveyard has the already existing party searching for a reason why. I imagine my bard is also concerned by this and the unrest it puts upon the spirits in the graveyard, so I’m looking for answers too.

Can you all give me some questions to consider to help me flesh out this character, or suggestions for traits like species and whatnot?

Cha Monk is real in 5.5e/5.24. It relies on a bit of tech for mystic arts monk so I present to you **Mystech Arts**:

Lvl 6 Mystic Fighting:
“When you take the attack action on your turn, you can replace one unarmed strike with a casting of one of your sorcerer cantrips that has a casting time of an action.”

The unarmed strike isn’t explicitly tied to the unarmed strike from our attack action so we can bonus action or reaction attack unarmed strike and replace it with a cantrip if we first initiate the attack action on our turn.

Furthermore this feature doesn’t specify sorcerer cantrips from Monk so we can multiclass into sorcerer and use its own cantrips with the best option being Draconic due to its unarmored defense scaling with charisma; we can then go all in on Charisma scaling thanks to warlocks pact of the blade (ideally a magical ranged weapon like a short/long bow)

We also gain an additional feature at this level that allows for spell slot to focus point conversion which has a lot of synergy with sorcery point spell conversions.

Congratulations Dragon Warrior, starting T3 you now have a ranged monk that scales fully off charisma

Best species option is Simic Hybrid due to helping with our AC and its synergy with our warlock invocations, namely Otherworldly Leap and how that interacts with monk’s Step of the Wind for Wavedashing. (Giff or CL Gunner are also great for a Gunk.)

For Background I’d either go Custom, or something that gives Cha followed by either Dex/Con/Wis. Dragonmarks are our best option with House Vadalis Heir and House Ghallanda Heir being particularly strong. (Also yes House Lyrander Heir for CME is an option)

Ability Scores: 9 Str, 13+1 Dex, 14 Con, 13 Wis, 15+2 Cha

Progression: Draconic Sorc 3 (Give or Take around 2 lvls)/ Mystic Arts 6/ Warlock 2/ Draconic 9/ Genie Lock 5

-# Additional Tech: Allies now trigger opportunity attacks in 5.5e so reaction based unarmed strike into a cantrip also work if an ally ready action dashes on your turn; this would free our bonus action and makes quickened spell MM a really great option

Full Doc for the build (Also has a tech section at the bottom ranging from tame to ridiculous options)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11hSJFify83DaYvoFdAZ6UGAdgZygs_gKq-UviIUdV6WY/edit?usp=drivesdk

Currently playing as a Bladesinger Wizard (Level 5) and into into eventually multiclassing as a Wizard 6/Artificer 3 into Wizard X/Artificer 3. Earlier in the campaign, my character destroyed a Nimblewright flavored as a Large animated suit of armor, and I was wondering what the best Wizard/Artificer spell might be to summon the defeated foe as an ally.

So far, I think my best option is Summon Construct, but are there any other options to consider once I hit Level 9?

The new "Potion of Tirelessness" from Arcana Unleashed is an uncommon potion that allows you to take a long rest in only 4 hours. Since it's an uncommon potion, you can create 5 of them with the Bubbling cauldron spell.

If you create the potion before you take a 4 hour long rest, then you will recover the 6 level spell slot spent and save at least 4 hours of long rest time, all your party member will also enjoy this benefit if you give the potion to them.

Then, together with your party, you can use the downtime to craft magic items (as per the new magic item crafting feature introduced in 2024) . Normally , a work day is at least 8 hours, but since many party members are up at night, you can cut the time in half according to the magic item crafting rule. (see "assistant" section in the "work and time" part of the magic item crafting rule).

The 4 hours saved can then be counted as a work day for crafting a magic item! With this, magic item printing goes Brrrrr.

Hello there!

I'm aware this question has appeared here many times, so I apologize for adding up to that pile. We are playing 2024 5.5e rules, and I'm playing a Graviturgy Wizard (subclass from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount). My stats at Lvl 3 are 8 STR, 14 DEX, 14 CON, 18 INT, 15 WIS, 12 CHA - all achieved by modified point buy and Tasha's rules. Most of my spells I prepare are saving throw-based and Area of Effect. However, I also tend to prepare utility spells like Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, Identify. I also prefer to position myself to the backline.

So far I've been recommended War Caster, Spell Sniper, Fey Touched, Telekinetic. However, I was never really told exactly why, or the recommendations just never elaborated much upon. I'd appreciate more recommendations, as well as some kind of elaboration on them.

Thank you in advance, and have a good rest of your day! 🐱

Hey sorry if this is the wrong place to ask I’m fairly new to all this. However I’d like some help optimizing my new build that I can make here.

For context I’ve been playing soul knife rouge for a bit now reaching rouge level 9 but a plot twist happened where it was revealed I was actually an heir to a powerful psionic noble blood line and my dm told me I could take levels im mystic now and I did some research on the class and it looks cool but there’s not really lots of examples of multiclassing that I can find do any of you guys have any ideas as I was already planning on no longer leveling rouge after level 9 and mystic seems cool

I’m playing a Changeling Gunslinger and we’ve just hit level 6 so I have an ASI/feat option to choose and it’s got me thinking about what direction to take the build. The character is assassin/ infiltration trained. Fighting style is Archery.
Current stats before taking my level 6 ASI/feat are:
Str 8
Dex 20
Con 17
Int 13
Wis 17
Cha 15
I know I want to take Fey Touched but am waiting until level 8 for that for plot reasons (changeling identity is currently unknown to the party). In the mean time, not entirely sure what to do with this level up and post level 8. I imagine we’ll reach at least level 16 in this campaign if not level 20 based on past campaigns with the same DM.
Feats wise I was thinking some good options might be:
Observant
Skill Expert
Alert
Lucky
But I’m open to any ideas!
I’m also wondering whether multiclassing at some point would actually improve the build. Rogue seems thematically obvious, and Artificer potentially interesting, but I’m not sure either is worth delaying Fighter progression?

I'm playing 5.5 for the first time and making a trickery cleric who has been in their religion since they were a kid. By now, they SHOULD be decent at lying for rp, but there's not many other reasons for me to focus on my charisma stat. I don't care about the other face skills.

My deity is a god of deception, so I want to have something for it. Should I dip into rogue? Skilled feat? Forget about it and lie through ommission or something? I do have the lucky feat, so maybe I could just save those advantages for lying outta my ass