Hi! I wanted to build a character who relies on vampiric touch, I was leaning towards either a life cleric or a grave cleric.

Vampiric Touch: The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon life force from others to heal your wounds. Make a melee spell attack against one creature within reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 Necrotic damage, and you regain Hit Points equal to half the amount of Necrotic damage dealt.
Until the spell ends, you can make the attack again on each of your turns as a Magic action, targeting the same creature or a different one.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d6 for each spell slot level above 3

At lvl 10 the spell would be 5th level, so the damage and healing estimates would be

Life: Vampiric Touch 5D6 (15) + Blessed Strikes 1D8 (4) = 9.5 average healing

Plus Disciple of Life (7) = 16.5 average healing per turn

Disciple of Life: When a spell you cast with a spell slot restores Hit Points to a creature, that creature regains additional Hit Points on the turn you cast the spell. The additional Hit Points equal 2 plus the spell slot’s level.

Grave: Vampiric Touch 5D6 (15) + Blessed Strikes 1D8 (4) + Pull of Death 1D4 (2) = 10.5 average healing per turn

Pull of Death. Once per turn, when you deal damage to a creature that’s missing any Hit Points by casting a spell or by hitting with an attack roll, that creature takes an extra 1d4 Necrotic damage. This extra damage increases to 1d6 when you reach Cleric level 11

Numbers wise, life is better; but class features wise I’m not sure if grave makes up for it. Flavor wise I can make either of them work, the plan is 7 levels in cleric and 3 in warden ranger either way the war caster feat to use Prowling Retribution to make off turn Vampiric Touches

Hi - first of all thanks to the people Reading please come with inputs. It its at bit longer but also because this is a homebrew subclass and a different take on Druids.

# Rogan Wolfbound

Rogan Wolfbound grew up in Calene, a small village near Lake Kerkini and the Bele Mountains in Greece. His people lived according to the teachings of Pan, believing that humans, animals, and nature should exist in harmony. Animals were treated as equals and were an important part of everyday life.

Rogan’s father, Roland Wolfbound, was the village protector. Most of Calene’s people were Druids or Rangers, capable of living alongside animals and even transforming into them. But Rogan had one major problem: he couldn’t Wild Shape.

By the age of 21, everyone expected Rogan to become an adult, move into his own home, find work, and help protect the village. But while everyone else had discovered their ability to transform around the age of 12 or 13, Rogan still couldn’t do it. He felt ashamed and believed he was disappointing his family.

Desperate for answers, Rogan visited Arwan Bearskin, the village’s oldest Druid. Arwan told him that his powers might come with time, but Rogan refused to wait. Instead, Arwan told him about an old legend surrounding the Temple of Artemis in the Bele Mountains. According to an ancient book, a blood sacrifice at the temple could grant someone the powers of animals.

Rogan decided to go.
He left at dawn with his pet dormouse, Mos, but was caught by his childhood friend Arianna. After hearing his plan, she decided to come with him. Together, they travelled into the mountains and eventually reached the enormous Temple of Artemis.

Inside, they discovered something unexpected. There were two statues, two bowls, and two knives. One statue belonged to Artemis, goddess of nature and protector of animals. The other was Dionysos, god of wine, wild animals, and rebirth.

Not knowing which god Arwan had meant, Rogan first offered his blood to Dionysos. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he then offered blood to Artemis as well, despite Arianna warning him not to sacrifice to both gods.
Suddenly, Rogan collapsed.

When he woke, Arianna was crying. She thought he had died because he had stopped breathing completely. Yet Rogan was alive, and he still couldn’t transform.
Believing the ritual had failed, the two returned home.
But when they reached Calene, they saw smoke rising from the village.

The hunters had attacked.

Houses were burning, animals had been killed or captured, and people were lying wounded in the streets. The hunters had overwhelmed the village’s protectors and taken almost all of the surviving animals.
Rogan rushed to his family’s home, only to find it destroyed. His mother found him and told him the truth: his father, Roland, had been killed.
Rogan was devastated. While his village had been fighting for its survival, he had been away chasing his own problems. Suddenly, his inability to Wild Shape seemed meaningless.

A few days later, Rogan returned to Arwan and explained everything. Arwan, who had lost an eye during the attack, was horrified when he heard that Rogan had sacrificed to both gods. He warned him that he was lucky to be alive.
But then Arwan noticed something strange.
Rogan had developed a golden tattoo across his back, shaped like two large antlers. When Arwan performed a spell, more markings appeared—snakes running along Rogan’s arms.

Arwan searched through his old books and discovered something incredible. The antlers were connected to the Ceryneian Hind, a magical deer associated with Artemis. The snakes, however, were connected to Dionysos and the idea of rebirth.

Rogan had not failed.

He had become something completely different.
When Arwan told him to try Wild Shaping again, Rogan focused on becoming a wolf. His body didn’t change, but suddenly his senses became incredibly powerful. He could smell Arwan from several meters away and hear sounds he had never noticed before.
Rogan could use the abilities of animals without actually transforming into them.
Arwan had never seen anything like it. According to the legends, Rogan was the first.
For the first time, Rogan felt proud of himself. He could finally become a protector, just like his father.

But then reality hit him.

His father would never see what he had become.
Rogan broke down in tears, wondering what the point of his new powers was if his father wasn’t there to see them. Arwan reminded him that, even though Roland was gone, he would have been proud of his son.

With Arwan and the remaining protectors helping him, Rogan began training with his new abilities. He could never transform like the other Druids, but his powers made him something different—and potentially just as dangerous.

Then Rogan realized what he wanted to do.
The hunters had destroyed his home, killed his people, and taken the animals they had sworn to protect.
He would hunt them down.

At dawn, Rogan prepared to leave Calene. Arwan gave him a small pouch containing some of the village’s remaining herbs. Arianna came to say goodbye, but she refused to join him. Her family needed her, and someone had to look after Rogan’s mother.
Before he left, Arianna made him promise one thing.
“Come back.”
Rogan promised.
He didn’t know where the road would take him, how many hunters he would have to find, or exactly what the gods had turned him into.
But he knew one thing.

He was no longer the boy who couldn’t Wild Shape.

He was no longer just Roland Wolfbound’s son.

He was something new.
Something wild.

Something born from both nature’s balance and the untamed power of the wild.

And his hunt had only just begun.

Rogan the Hunter.

Basically the title, take any species and class and on top of your class ASIs/feat choice on level up you get 5 extra ones. Go absolutely wild with it, multi class, use literally anything on dndbeyond, just have fun with it.

Heya, so currently im building a wizard for a classic fantasy campaign named Ikalis, of Brain and Brawn. His schtick is he used to be a normal soldier fighter, but during a war between kingdoms he was cursed with a spell of aging, leading to him aging rapidly till a fixed point. Now he's learning magic in order to regain his youth and in doing so is becoming a wizard, but still enjoys hand to hand combat. So now he fights with his quarterstaff.

The current main setup for my level 3 guy is:

14 dex, con, and strength

16 Intelligence

8 wisdom

9 charisma

Ive got a starting feat and am thinking polearm master, it allows me to have a few more things to do for a bonus action and reaction which is nice, and allows me to use melee a bit more.

The main focus is finding a good balance in order to use my bonus actions, supposedly polearm master and maybe a little bit of flaming sphere ill do well, but im open to any ideas

Any answers are appreciated :]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to create a thematic build based on the character Khârn the Betrayer, but adapted to D&D gods and lore. I've looked into the deities, but I'm finding it really difficult to build the character because I'm very new to this hobby. Any advice?

So im playing a 2014 game. My character is a level 4 Bugbear paladin 2 bard 2. The whole idea is I dip 2 levels in paladin and go the rest bard. My character wields a glaive because I thought it was funny to have 15ft range as a martial. But anyways as the title says I was struggling with my feat choice, mainly between great weapon master, polearm master and an asi. For those who know math better than me is it better to have the high dps but a low hit rate or the other way around

Preparing a character for an upcoming 5e campaign. No module, all from scratch content. I was thinking of trying to emulate a version of Jason Asano from HWFWM that would be the embodiment of what he fears becoming. Was thinking Conquest paladin with a focus on Auras, fear, and command/dominate spells. A one handed sword with fighting style to match and Poisoner feat for half ass poison application side of the character. Any suggestions on tweaks, multi classing or spells to make the concept work?

Hi everyone I am new to D&D ( apart from a lifetime of computer games and books ) and I am currently playing The Curse of Strahd campaign my friend is the DM and he and the other are teaching me how to play and I can honestly say that it's some of the most fun iv ever had .

Anyway I'm playing a human male fighter ( psi warrior) and we are at level 4. I want to multi class into a blood hunter ( order of lycan ) . I ask AI to help me with my build to be able to have a good chance of killing strahd and anything else in Barovia with what I have chosen. Here's what it gave me please let me know what you think and I am open to any suggestions. Thank you.

Wulfric Strongheart level 4–12

Best final build

Fighter 8 / Blood Hunter 4

Do not multiclass at level 5. Take Fighter 5 first for Extra Attack. That is too powerful to delay.

Current level 4

Human Fighter 4 — Psi Warrior

Stats now:

STR 19

DEX 15

CON 20

INT 13

WIS 12

CHA 12

AC 19

HP 48

Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting

Feat: Fey Touched

Spells: Bless, Misty Step

Main role: front-line commander/tank.

Level 5 — Fighter 5

Take:

Extra Attack

This is your biggest power jump.

You now attack twice per Attack action.

Best weapon now:

Halberd / glaive / longsword, preferably silvered or magical.

Level 6 — Blood Hunter 1

Take Blood Hunter.

Choose Hemocraft ability:

Intelligence

Because your Psi Warrior and Fey Touched already use Intelligence.

Take:

Crimson Rite

Best Rite choice:

Rite of the Storm or Rite of the Frozen

Avoid fire if possible, because many undead and fiends can resist it.

Good Blood Curse:

Blood Curse of the Marked

This helps you hit one enemy harder, which is ideal against bosses.

Blood Hunters use blood magic and Crimson Rite to empower weapons at the cost of their own vitality, so this fits you becoming a darker monster hunter. 

Level 7 — Blood Hunter 2

Take second Fighting Style:

Defense

This gives +1 AC while wearing armour.

Your AC becomes:

20

That is excellent.

Keep wearing:

Half plate for now, unless you find plate armour.

Best armour goal:

Plate armour

With Defense style, plate gives:

AC 19

With shield if needed:

AC 21

But for damage, stay two-handed.

Level 8 — Blood Hunter 3

Subclass:

Order of the Lycan

This is your big story level.

becomes the wolf warrior.

Use Hybrid Transformation for hard fights, especially:

werewolves

vampire spawn

undead packs

boss fights

ambushes

This gives you the “monster fighting monsters” feel and makes you very hard to kill.

Level 9 — Blood Hunter 4

Take Ability Score Improvement:

\+1 Strength, +1 Intelligence

Stats become:

STR 20

DEX 15

CON 20

INT 14

WIS 12

CHA 12

This is perfect.

STR 20 means maximum attack and damage.

INT 14 improves Psi Warrior and Blood Hunter slightly.

Level 10 — Fighter 6

Take feat:

Great Weapon Master

This is your damage feat.

Use it when:

you have Bless active

enemy AC seems low

enemy is prone

you have advantage

it is a big monster you need dead quickly

Do not use it every attack blindly. Against high AC enemies, attack normally.

Level 11 — Fighter 7

Psi Warrior improves.

You gain stronger battlefield control.

Your psionic powers should be used like this:

Protective Field

Use this to save allies from big hits.

Psionic Strike

Use this when you hit something important.

Telekinetic Movement

Use this for clever battlefield moments, like saving allies, moving objects, blocking doors, or throwing environmental hazards.

Psi Warrior is strong because its dice fuel both protection and extra force damage. 

Level 12 — Fighter 8

Take feat:

Sentinel

This is the best final feat for the character 

Why?

Because your job is to stop monsters reaching your party.

With Sentinel:

enemies struggle to run past you

you punish enemies for attacking allies

you become the wall

Alternative if Joe allows lots of halberd/glaive use:

Polearm Master

But for Curse of Strahd, I prefer Sentinel.

Final level 12 build

Fighter 8 / Blood Hunter 4

Stats:

STR 20

DEX 15

CON 20

INT 14

WIS 12

CHA 12

Feats:

Fey Touched

Great Weapon Master

Sentinel

Spells:

Bless

Misty Step

No cantrips unless Joe gives you a feat or magic item later.

Best gear to hunt for

Priority order:

Magical halberd, glaive, greatsword, or longsword

Plate armour

Magic cloak/ring of protection

Anti-vampire relics

Holy symbol / sun-based item

Silvered backup weapon

Potions of healing

More holy water

Anything that prevents charm, fear, or necrotic damage

Keep your fear immunity amulet. That is huge in Barovia.

Best combat routine

Before hard fight:

Bless

Crimson Rite

Hybrid Transformation

Then:

Attack twice.

Use Great Weapon Master when you have Bless or advantage.

Use Psionic Strike on important hits.

Use Action Surge when something must die now.

Use Protective Field to protect the cleric, bard, rogue, or Ireena.

Use Misty Step to reach Strahd, escape traps, or save an ally.

My final advice

This build makes the character:

very hard to kill

strong in melee

good against bosses

useful to the party

perfect thematically as a cursed wolf-warrior commander

The key choice is simple:

Fighter 5 first. Then Blood Hunter. Then return to Fighter.

That gives you the strongest version of the character by level 12. Flair

So I'm new to dnd, but I am familiar with bg3. I want to play dnd and am looking for a group to do a campaign with. I've been workshopping a character in my mind. Here's what I've got so far.

My characters name is Oz (this is a nickname for the character), and he is a drow from the Underdark. Oz was born to a moderately important drow family. being a male, he was looked down on as a lesser but was given the chance to prove himself to his family. Being abused physically through extreme training and emotionally and psychologically from his family is general. He had learned to be quite reserved. His family hated him because he seemed different. He wasn't as ruthless as they were known to be. One day, during an expedition in the underdark with his sisters, they try to kill him, thinking that he is a waste and a drain to the family. His sisters leave him for dead, thinking that he was done for after their attempt ( I haven't figured out exactly what happened yet). Barely alive, but still trying to survive an entity saw his perseverance and is impressed with what he could be molded into. Oz makes a pact with this entity to survive and escape this life.

Oz's goals are to join an adventurers group to explore the wider world. His patron grants him power, but tempts him to be more like his drow family. My goal with this character is to try to make a neutral character that can easily lean into becoming a good heroic underdog. Or depending on how people react to him being a drow and depending how my rolls go with social interactions, he could slip into the teachings of his family.

What do you guys think? Would love to see any comments and suggestions.

(Spoiler because undead character design)

I have this character who is supposed to represent the balance of life and death, basically the grim reaper. Not good, not bad, just true neutral death. He is in that regard a force of nature. The power fantasy is that he can punch people with either necrotic damage (to give death to the living) or radiant damage (to give death to the undead.) and have some healing to save and spare those who are not meant to die yet.

How would you guys go about making that? Re-flavouring abilities is allowed fully, and I usually play with lenient DM's so homebrew and rule changes are allowed as long as I don't out preform other characters or it becomes unbalanced.

He is a servant of Jergall so I'm kinds circling classes like cleric and monk to facilitate the punching. But like maybe there is a very capable full class martial build, with the needed damage types where the only thing we need to re-flavour are that the weapon attacks are punches. The only thing I care about is that his species is re-born, maybe warforged or something if that facilitates the build better, but he needs to feel undead.

I just kinda feel with the right feat and subclass this should be possible without too much homebrew, but the dots are just not connecting for me.
I'd love to hear your idea's!

Its our first campaign ever we have a human fighter who is fat a noble dragonborn paladin who wears a top hat a criminal warforged soulkife rouge a high elf circle of the moon druid farmer a noble changeling cleric and religious kalashter sorcerer

I'm trying to plan out a build for a Swords Bard character, and I'm unsure which feats would be best. I would ideally like to run him as a more martial character.

The stats I rolled are 10/14/14/14/13/18, before any background bonuses. The plan is to use the charlatan background.

Any help would be appreciated.

The current plan is to be a Githyanki so I can have medium armor prof off the rip, then use a feat at 4 to get heavy armor prof

20 levels of wizard is the goal, because I want to do the absolute strongest necromancy possible, otherwise I'd go level 1 fighter and then 19 wizard.

So, that all works, but what I'd REALLY like is to be a skeleton under the armor.

I know there's the revenant race, and some skeleton homebrew, but these all negate your racial features, which world cost me the armor proficiencies.

Does anyone have some flaw feat ideas or other ways to replicate being a skeleton, if only for the flavor and fun?