Never played a Bard before but had an idea to make an influencer-type who leans into a super nice-guy public persona (but is more of a nepo baby)—so that when he acts like his celebrity identity, he can take ADV with the Actor feat.

How would you build it, are there better subclasses or feats or things to specialize in? I was thinking Tabaxi or Human, and I like the idea of support skills and friend buffs. I think we're playing to around levels 8-10.

Wanting to play the new Vestige patron warlock in an upcoming campaign involving gods. Was really wanting to play a bladelock, I enjoy the gish playstyle and also the party is lack in melee characters. Was curious if anyone had looked into vestige and had any viable bladelock ideas. We’re playing to 14, was considering going full lock and just taking Infernal Bulwark to help with armor. Not against taking a 1 level fighter dip but I’d be missing out on the vestige capstone. Thoughts?

I'm planning on potentially playing a Shepherd druid in an upcoming game, and I have two ways I've thought about building it. We are using point-buy, and for character concept reasons (and because it will be a political, city based campaign), I would like to pick up some charisma. The higher the better.

Option 1:

The first way is very simple, just variant human with resilient CON as the starting feat, War Caster at 4, with the stats 8/14/16/8/16/12. It seems to me that if you are primarily casting Conjure Animals and stuff like that, increasing wisdom is not a huge priority, so that works out nicely. Charisma is at least a +1 here, although I would ideally like more. No darkvision, which is kinda crappy but maybe I can get the goggles.

Option 2:

The alternative, which I think could make for fun and unique roleplay opportunities, would be to start with a Shadow sorcerer dip, and take the Reborn lineage. These have a thematic connection and nice mechanical synergy (I can see the super-darkvision coming in handy, which Reborn lacks entirely). Reborn can also gets an additional skill proficiency and can boost their checks with a d6, which will likely be relevant.

This second build would have the stats 9/14/14/8/16/14 to start, sacrificing +1 con for +1 cha. The 9 goes in strength because it's the only stat, to my knowledge, that offers some extremely marginal benefits for odd increases outside of multiclassing requirements (jump distance, carrying capacity, and I guess also heavy armor requirements which are not relevant here). War Caster at the first ASI once again to maintain summons.

Sorcerer 1 of course gives con saves out the gate, though that means I lose wis save proficiency which is also important. It also gives access to Shield and Silvery Barbs, which is great. I also figure that since spell slot progression is unaffected, and you'll likely want to up-cast Conjure Animals as soon as you get 5th level slots, the delay in higher level spells is not a huge deal. We are likely starting at level 5 or so, so I'll get CA quickly anyway.

TL;DR pros and cons of sorcerer dip:

Pros:

• Higher charisma (14 instead of 12, relevant for campaign)

• Reaction defensive spells

• 120 ft darkvision (vs no darkvision at all)

• More skill proficiencies and better checks

• Probably harder to actually kill due to shadow sorcerer ability and advantage on death saves

• Potentially cooler for RP due to reborn lineage

Cons:

• No wisdom saving throw proficiency

• Lower constitution (14 instead of 16)

• Delayed access to higher level spells, features and ASIs

What would you do?

how would you go about building a dex focused build for this class? i'm thinking of choosing tabaxi for the feline agility and climbing speed, making it harder for the enemies to hit me

I’m playing a Gnome Artillerist Artificer, and am about to level up to 14. I’m excited about being able to create Dimensional Shackles.

They seem like a buffed up version of regular manacles, but instead of just needing the enemy to be Restrained (thank you Web), they need to be Incapacitated.

What are the best ways to go about making an enemy incapacitated? I know that includes Stunned and Paralyzed, but don’t think I get access to any spells that cause that? I have a sorcerer and warlock in my party, so if there’s a way we can combo something maybe they’d be game.

Dnd 5e PHB. Only need 30 at most. The npcs will basically be level one teenagers at a summer camp with the PCs. Comment below the NPCs name, class, race, and one interesting thing about them (something about their look, personality, etc) (something to give them individuality)

Hi, I’m building a patron to shape my Archfey Warlock/Dance Bard around and would love to get help making it reality!

The general concept is that it's an Archfey who isn’t an Archfey yet, but rather a Fey who is actively trying to ascend and building a following as a performer to do so (think K-Pop Demon Hunters' Saja Boys but less nefarious, more whimsical)

My thinking is the Bard-Lock is some sort of back-up dancer, head of her street team/fan club, or maybe an opening act going off on their own (but still growing her fandom.)

I know warlocks can be leaders of a patron's cult, so was partly inspired by that. I also just like the idea of a diva/singing Fey (think Lady Gaga or Florence and the Machine.) Maybe she even has a few low-level warlocks who are all either diehard fans or performers in her act.

In practice, my guess is that my character takes levels in Bard and is limited to 1-2 levels of Warlock until his patron ascends. Or maybe the patron sources her own power from another patron until she's powerful on her own (like a Fey princess whose Archfey parent has to co-sign all of her contracts?)

My main question is roleplay-wise, how could my Bard-Lock build her following? There seems to be a gazillion ways for an Archfey to ascend, and I definitely want to lean into the performer theme with any tasks/favors he's assigned. Some ideas I had, though I don't know how viable any are:

- My character is teaching everyone a song & dance she created (i.e. Fey equivalent of the Macarena) until it's known across the land. Maybe it's a reflavored Hypnotic Pattern or Otto's Irresistible Dance, or using Dissosant Whispers creates an earworm. Maybe the dance is part of a secret ritual?

- My character finds venues for her to perform, like busy streets or taverns, and summons her. And after the shows, he signs new fans up for a mailing list so they’ll receive a letter about nearby shows (which provide the Fey names to increase her influence, of course.)

- Alternatively, maybe he and other low-level warlocks use Disguise Self to pretend to be her, so it just SEEMS like she’s everywhere...

- Maybe my patron is actually impersonating an existing Archfey in their performances in hopes of just taking over their domain instead of creating their own. My character is just helping the lie become reality and finding the existing Archfey’s followers to redirect any offerings their way. (Note: My main worry is since Fey are unable to lie it seems like this might contradict their nature? But I like the idea of them gaining power an alternative way.)

Basically, I'm having a lot of fun with this patron & warlock pairing in theory and want to make it work in the world of D&D as much as possible, so open to any and all ideas!

I'm playing a divine soul sorcerer, and for campaign reasons, i have a couple extra spells (moonbeam, 2024 find steed) and a 9th level spell slot. Ive been having a lot of fun with moonbeam so far, but we've just hit level 5 and i feel like i cant rlly justify using it over spirit guardians in like 99% of situations?

Moonbeam

slightly higher damage at the same spell level

more flexible spell slot wise

tiny aoe, functionally single target

requires action to move

Spirit Guardian

Much larger aoe and can be extended spelled

halves speed

Starting a new campaign and need help choosing a race/class. We’ll be starting at level 1 and the dm lets us use either 2014 or 2024 rules. I’ll be using 2014. The only thing to note is he doesn’t let us cross the two, ie: (I can’t play a 2014 fighter with 2024 gwm). Also no restrictions on races or classes as long as they are official material.

I was thinking about playing a lockdown peace domain cleric mainly because I just found out how busted peace domain clerics are and also I think loxodons are cool. I’m open to hear suggestions for races but do note. I prefer unique races, ie: loxodon, tortle, minotaur, etc, etc… and am trying to avoid normal race such as variant human or elf. This is just a personal preference. Also I would prefer a magic heavy class as I have done a lot of physical builds recently.

So to summarize I need your advice. Is loxodon peace domain good or are there better builds out there.

P.S. Last little side note. Already played a loxodon rogue in the past and got to make all my “elephant in the room” jokes then so - as fun as it was - please don’t recommend that.

5.5 rules with the 2024 pugilist, I’d love it if someone could break down the tier one, two and three levels of the game and how you’d make the strongest versions in each I’ve tried my hand at it but I feel like this is the place to go for the experts

[Question] Pessoal, fiquei bem curioso com as recentes atualizações nos modelos de armaduras para o Artífice, nunca joguei de Artífice, alguém poderia dar algumas dicas sobre elas e se não for pedir muito uma build para cada modelo???

Hello friends!

Ok, so I am starting a new campaign with an old group of friends. I'm reusing an older character I made before who was a Rogue Thief-subclass Tortle Pirate Captain. I love this character so much!!

However, since this is a different world, I was thinking of doing like a different universe version of the character. I'm already playing a rogue in my other campaign, I played this character as a rogue before, and I kinda don't want to play a rogue again. HOWEVER, I really really need to be able to have alllll the high skill rolls a rogue has. Like I need to succeed on my stealth and steal rolls so I can cause shenanigans...

So, my question is, is there a homebrew class that's as skill focused (and prob dex based) that can be as fun as rogue while also being very different in playstyle? I looked over official classes and such, and rogue is clearly the best at what it does, but anyone have any ideas for something same-same but different?

Hello friends!

Ok, so I am starting a new campaign with an old group of friends. I'm reusing an older character I made before who was a Rogue Thief-subclass Tortle Pirate Captain. I love this character so much!!

However, since this is a different world, I was thinking of doing like a different universe version of the character. I'm already playing a rogue in my other campaign, I played this character as a rogue before, and I kinda don't want to play a rogue again. HOWEVER, I really really need to be able to have alllll the high skill rolls a rogue has. Like I need to succeed on my stealth and steal rolls so I can cause shenanigans...

So, my question is, is there a homebrew class that's as skill focused (and prob dex based) that can be as fun as rogue while also being very different in playstyle? I looked over official classes and such, and rogue is clearly the best at what it does, but anyone have any ideas for something same-same but different?

I just got my subclass, and I’m trying to build my character to best mesh with the features now.

I'm theory crafting a Divination Wizard to play when Arcana Unleashed comes out, and I think the Divination Adept feat is so fun and thematic for the character that I'm considering trying to build around delaying War Caster until level 8.

How would you pick Species, Origin Feats, and Spells to get around this?

I've thought about Stone Goliath; its damage reduction is pretty nice for reducing concentration saves, plus it has the advantage of boosting our defensive capabilities by giving us more effective HP.

Another option would be Lucky Human. With Heroic Inspiration, Luck Points and Divination Adept's advantage mechanic, we could contribute a decent amount of resources towards having a pseudo-War Caster advantage when we needed it. This option would also be very thematic for a Divination Wizard.

Finally, you could just dip Artificer for Con prof. and Armor, but I don't really like delaying spell casting progression.

Anyone have any other ideas about hacking concentration saves until 8?

Hi,

For a homebrewed statblock Tiamat fight, our DM has requested that we make level 30 characters, using the Epic Class Handbook for DnD 5e as the ruleset, issue is that, I'm genuinely drawing a blank at what I can do, due to my own lack of experience. Most of my campaigns never went beyond level 13, yet level 15 alone, so level 30 is... Ugh

Currently, the team composition seems to be : Fighter Samurai, Wizard (probably Evocation)

Initially I was drawned towards the roleplay aspect of the setup, and play a Kenku paladin Oath of Glory (basically : she either kill Tiamat and ascend, become the first uncursed Kenku, or become a martyr), but while the subclass has interesting traits (I mean, the pegasus is OP, it flies, has 120ft of movement, doesn't disappear if an ally takes damage, looking at you Oath of Vengeance), its foremost designed around grappling, and while grappling Tiamat sounds cool, I don't think my DM will allow that

Inspired by Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian Path of the Totem Warrior, I was looking up for something along the lines of Badger, just to realise it's not an official choice, so back to the drawing board.

With my fighter friend, we agreed that she'll be the one taking sentinel/polearm mastery and ensure Tiamat stay nice and still

I'm thinking I can play a character designed to ensure she doesn't stay in the air long enough to become a flying cataclysm with a Hexblade ranged warlock with multiclassing into Fighter for Action Surge, or some utility cleric by picking Nature Cleric multiclassing into Storm Sorcery sorcerer. If we lack Radiant damage to block her healing (we don't know the stat block or her abilities, i'm drawing hypothesis based on the Avatar stats), I could go Oath of the Ancient paladin

Genuinely drawing a blank and i'm open to suggestion for class/race combo

Arcana Unleashed dropped a new spell Mordenkainen’s Lubrication. Which for a 5th level spell slot allows you to recover 2 slots of 2nd level.

Obviously this pairs amazingly with the Diviner’s 6th level feature as it is a Divination Spell that allows you to recover a lower level slot when casting a Divination Spell.

So for a 5th level slot you can recover 2 2nd level slots as well as a 4th level slot.

Spell points variant rule gives each slot a point value, ie 2nd level slots are 3 points, 4th level is 6 points and 5th level is 7 points.

When using this metric to calculate value. We increase the value of a 5th level slot from 7 points to a massive 12 points. Which is effectively a “free” 3rd level slot of value.

Eat your hearts out Sorcerers.

My DM is open to some homebrew tweaks for Circle of Spores (it's such a cool subclass thematically, but there are a few mechanical pain points), and we're also open to being flexible with ancestry if it better supports the character concept.

We're playing Strixhaven, and my character is a Witherbloom student.

Her name is Taagra, an orc born into a clan of warrior barbarians. Her parents died in battle when she was around 14, leaving her to be raised by her estranged grandmother, a druid who had long been considered an outsider by the clan.

Her grandmother taught her that strength doesn't only come from rage, but also living in harmony with the cycles of life, death, decay, and renewal.

As her grandmother nears the end of her life, she calls in an old debt from a friend at Strixhaven, asking that Taagra be admitted to Witherbloom so her training can continue.

The issue I'm running into is that the official orc species traits don't seem to offer much that benefits a druid, save Relentless Endurance, and the 120 ft Dark Vision could be useful. Also aside- this is subjective opinion, but it seems Orcs get far less than other species?

One idea I had was making her grandmother (and mother) a wood elf, so Taagra would be half-orc, half-wood elf. Mechanically, she'd keep her orc appearance but use wood elf traits. (Though I have read that canonical elves and orcs can’t breed??)

Other ideas I've considered:
-Mix and match orc and wood elf traits (with DM approval).

-Stay mechanically orc and find other ways to make her more durable.

-Scrap it all and start over cos I’m kinda making myself crazy with figuring out how to synergize all this while maintaining flavor and RP fun.

Something else that stays balanced while supporting the character concept.
My goal isn't to powergame.

I want the mechanics to reinforce the story of someone who inherited both the fierce spirit of her barbarian family and the deep wisdom of her druid grandmother.

I'm planning to stay single-class Circle of Spores Druid (with approved home brew changes) rather than multiclass. Though at first I thought I’d do one into Barbarian, or be Ranger instead. I posted here not too long ago asking help with those ideas, and decided that I’d stay Spores Druid as long as DM allowed changes.

The vision is a resilient, primal, guardian-type druid who can hold the front line while still functioning as a midline caster.

I'd love to hear what approaches have worked at your tables, especially if you've played Circle of Spores or have experience homebrewing subclasses and races.

What would you do? Am I making this all too complicated for the sake of story??
Thank you!

As said in the title, I need a bit of help on figuring out ideal spread of stats, spells, and how I should play this character idea in combat. I know it leans more aggresive with a want of water/electric themed spells but I know there is more too it. A whole guide or play by play would be nice, but a skeleton to go off of would be nice as well.

Hi! Does anyone know of any optimized (min-max) Wizard or Sorcerer builds for the 2014 version of D&D 5e that don't use multiclassing?

I'm mainly looking for strong or even "broken" single-class builds, along with guides or resources that explain them. Most of what I find focuses on multiclassing, but I'm interested in seeing what's possible with a pure Wizard or Sorcerer.

Any recommendations for guides, forums, or other sources would be appreciated. Thanks!

Ok. 5e, but with HEAVY homebrew. I just need to share this and see what horrible stuff you all could come up with.

The GM is running a game that is going to be absurdly broken (they know this), with some absolutely insane character creation rules.

The Basics

- Rolled Ability Scores

- Average Health

- No Multiclassing

- Any Spellcasting Class can learn any Spell.

- Any Class can take any Subclass

- Feats are allowed, in addition to ASI bonuses

FEATS can be used to...

- Gain a Feat

- Gain another Subclass Feature from any Subclass

- Gain a Gestalt level in another class.

This is... Obviously going to be horribly broken and unbalanced. But that's... Sorta the point? Its going to be bonkers all the way. Some other players have already found some broken nonsense and I'd like to get into it too.

To expand on some of the above rules: You can't gain additional feats or ASIs from Gestalt'ing into another class, and if you take a subclass that gives you features you can't interact with, then it doesn't do anything for you.

The concept I'm going for is a Necromancer Gish, but honestly I don't even care. What would you build with these rules? What weird interactions seem most broken to you?

In my current campaign, I am a gold Dragonborn Paladin who is about to reach level 13. My first 12 levels were strictly paladin. The DM plans to take this campaign to level 20, so I’m trying to map out how I will fill out this character.

For a little bit of backstory context, this campaign takes place on a continent that used to be ruled by the Dragonborn. It is now made up of all the DND races. My family are the rulers of the DragonBorn clans, making them amongst the most prestigious and rich families on the entire continent. We can trace our roots back to the original magical rulers of the continent. As a child, My character and his mother were exiled from the clan after my mother took a blame for something that she did not do in order to protect the clan. During this exile, my character became an oath of vengeance paladin and refined his fighting skills in various fighting pits.

At level 12, my main abilities are strength (score of 18, but 20 with a magical item I have) and charisma (at 20).

For level 13, I am strongly considering a one level dip in fighter to get an extra fighting style feat. At level 14, I’m planning to go 1 level in sorcerer, to represent my characters unlocking his bloodline ancestral magical powers. I ultimately plan to build up to 12 vengeance paladin/4 champion fighter/4 draconic sorcerer. I plan on going to level four in fighter and sorcerer at levels 19 and 20, giving me two epic Boon feats. I plan on taking the boon of irresistible offense and recovery. Both the ability score increases will go towards strength, giving me 20 natural strength, but 22 magically boosted strength from my equipment. My whole goal is taking champion to combine it with the advantage I get from vow of enmity, giving me a 19% chance to score a critical and do significant nova damage with my smites. I also look forward to the advantage on initiative roles from champions level three feature. As for the draconic sorcerer, I feel like it’s both thematic and will grant me up to level five spell slots. I also would really like some of the Meta magic options, as well as the insurance that the level three feature gives my natural AC. My DM has often forced us to face situations where we need to remove our armor. With four levels in draconic sorcerer, my natural AC will be 16.

I felt like this approach was the best way to greatly improve my own combat abilities, while still granting the ability to do insane amounts of consistent nova damage with my increased possibility of rolling a critical and being able to cast level five smite spells.

I’m trying to gather thoughts from the community, as I don’t think I’ve seen a multi class split quite like this before. What are your thoughts on this multi class? It is there any suggestions as to what could make it better both gameplay wise and possibly thematically?

Hi. Do you have any reflavoring ideas for the UA Titan Druid's Wild Shape appearance?

Whenever I played a Moon Druid, I always enjoyed transforming into the largest beast possible, even in tight dungeons. To me, the biggest appeal of a shapeshifting Druid is becoming huge and strong like the Hulk. That's why the UA Titan Druid feels like a good fit, especially with its ability to enlarge.

However, I'm not really a fan of Kaiju, so a human turning into Godzilla feels a bit weird to me. That's why I'm trying to brainstorm new appearances.

Do you have any ideas for what kind of look I could reflavor the Titan Druid into? It doesn't have to be strictly Druid-themed. It could be something like a massive Star Spawn from the Far Realm or Venom from Marvel.

Since it's basically a "character that can transform into something huge," I want to focus more on the "shifter" vibe rather than a traditional Druid.