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There is so much talk about how to build the best Gish or Spellsword in D&D. Most people really try to pump the damage up or just go straight bladesinger to have the benefits of those high level wizard spells but still have the option to make sword attacks. I honestly think the Rogue Wizard makes for one of the best *feeling* Spellswords to play. Start Rogue so you get your proficiencies and expertise in some skills. Then right after you get your subclass at level 3, start going Wizard. At level 5, you will have Bladesong to boost your AC, some spell slots for Mage Armor, and Find Familiar to help you get advantage on one attack. It's definitely not the most powerful build out there, but that's okay. You have the dexterity to pick locks, disarm traps, and be stealthy, as well as the intelligence for investigation, history checks, and general arcane knowledge. One thing a lot of Spellswords struggle with is integrating magic into their combat. Bladesingers get a cantrip with that extra attack at level 6, but they are generally squishy targets. Plus Shadow Blade is one of the best melee weapons you can get, but wizards probably want to concentrate on more impactful spells. Eldritch Knights can make a weapon attack as a bonus action when using their action to cast a cantrip after level 7. But by that point it's better to just make 2 weapon attacks with your action 99% of the time. But the Arcane Trickster Bladesinger doesn't need extra attack for a long time. So you can use a rapier to cast Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade, getting that extra damage and dealing sneak attack. They also love having Shadow Blade. Also, who doesn't love being able to rock up to a fight with absolutely nothing and still be about to function. You can conjure all the things you need. You just get a lot of the flavor of being a Spellsword character while also having a ton of utility for the party. The one drawback is damage. But as a Rogue, you probably weren't going to be the primary damage dealer of the party anyways. It's just a very fun and very roleplay conducive character. A rogue that learns or steals a bit of magic in order to enhance their abilities who then becomes fascinated with that power and studies it further.

Boomerang Shield is only an Uncommon item, and it does what Caps shield does in the movies.

cool

My fav class in dnd is the sorlock: I played an AM sorc straight (till 5th level, then died) and a CS sorlock (1-2 level hex, then 3-7 CS, then TPK, then group necrotic resurrection, then death). You can see our campaign pattern and I can´t talk about later tiers experience. Just some basic thoughts to build (and I am very aware of how little I know and played compared to you all) and specialities of sorcs: metamagics and spells are bread and butter (sorry to repeat stuff already mentioned in other comments, but its the core of sorcs) and should always fit to get the most out of a sorc, planning ahead till late tier is king. Quicken in a sorlock build is a must. Like you said, quicken EB with agonizing and repelling blast is good dmg and control (as long as you can land the attacks; my ratio was 1/3). Psionic spells are great but some should be replaced (e.g. Hunger, Evard´s or Summon Abberation), they all use up your Concentration so you will never be able to cast them all during a fight and the (small) number of spells for a sorc is always a concern. Picking from divination and enchantment is not that great; gift of alacrity (when allowed) could increase your ini (instead the alert feat or on top). Beginning at 6th level you can cast psionic spells like a free subtle spell (!) with sorc points and spam more higher level spells during the day than other classes, so choose with care when you replace these slots. IMO this is the best AM feature and you can try to use it heavily and optimize as much as possible with it. At level 7 and 8 you can cast already a 5th level spell with your sorc points (choose a spell you can upcast, you won´t know a 5th level spell yet, same as all other classes, but you can make use of upcasting). Magical Guidance (5th level) gives you a reroll (kind of ADV) on counterspell which is so good when needed (keep a single sorc point for this). Spells targeting INT are great (like @morgan said), but legendary resistance will nullify them when encountered on higher levels. Changing tactics on long terms is not easy, the spell list for sorcerers is short. Planning ahead when and how to swap spells is king (again) or go the route spell attacks from the start. Telekinesis (on your psionic spell list, so possible subtle on top) targets an ability check instead and can be rerolled with magical guidance (=ADV). I just love to create a sorlock and spend time thinking and planning a build, there is so much to pick and finally it boils down to what I call focussing on a core concept due to the nature of a sorcerer (lesser spells) and then build around with supporting spells. 2 more build options to the one you had (which I played as a gish character on my CS sorlock and I had a lot of fun). Generally I like to optimize what I can and then in play stick to a repetitiv sorcerian tactic. I can only concentrate on one spell, therefore I pick my focus spell and build everything around: 1. riding the Beholderkin (Summon Abberation) during battle and spawning EBs. I like this idea a lot, but it needs a small race and an AoE control spell without concentration. As I understood you will build with variant human, so this will not work. 2. the Telekinetic, focusing on forced movement and control: mage hand as cantrip, telekinetic feat (subtle and invisible mage hand (great to play and to have lots of mischief) plus telekinetical shove as BA (shoving enemy into AoE or a free disengage for your allies)), levitate (usable as a kind of vertical misty step, too) then skip this later to telekinesis (ADV ability check with magical guidance as mentioned): shove the bbeg high up in the air, then let him fall prone with falling dmg while you enjoy a snack and a drink. All AoE spells without concentration can work for larger groups of enemys while you on your telekinese: e.g. grease, erupting earth, rime´s (but I don´t like cones), ice storm; you can pile them up on top of each other. Like erupting earth (it scales super well) and grease on top. Or you concentrate on a great AoE spell and skip telekinesis for that fight. These build ideas are heavily inspired if not copied directly from Rob Vera (humble thanks for creating and sharing) who wrote lots of great comments on your channel and is worth reading! Sorry for writing that much, my fav class gets me carried away that easily. ;)

Hi everybody, before I go into the sorlock I´ve got a challenge and I am grateful for every input: I will start a Rime of Frostmaiden (as a player) and ONLY players handbook for char creation is allowed! I will share my own thoughts on this, but first I am curious with what you would come up.

Extended armor of agathys before a short rest can be pretty impactful

I had an hysterical time playing in Saltmarsh. That haunted house is nuts but when the pirate boss at the end of that chapter crit failed his Scorching Ray, our DM ruled that he incinerated himself and so that was that. The end of the adventure has some Cthulian monsters that could explain your aberrant origins and maybe the dip into Hexblade. You probably have considered it, but for an Aberrant Mind sorcerer, for me the spells that target INT saves and do psychic damage are your bread and butter. Mind Sliver, Tasha's Mind Whip, Raulothim's Psychic Lance, Synaptic Static...these spells are thematic and target the least resisted save in the game. Plus the ability to quicken a Mind Sliver and then target a big dumb dumb with Psychic Lance can even knock out a Balor. It's phenomenal. You may find that Mind Sliver is so effective for setting up your spells that you use it more than Eldritch Blast, especially for the Save or Sucks and the spells that have repeat saves.

maybe the telekinetic feat for a bonus action shove? and I personally love hypnotic pattern

Looks like it’s been a while, but thought I’d chime in. So I’m playing an artificer who’s got a background in languages and an obsession with understanding magic in stones (specifically questing to learn how the Philosopher’s stone was made), and for unrelated reasons, unfortunately, I think my character is multiclassing into wizard instead (but just 1 level, too many good artificer features later as this campaign goes to 20), but I SERIOUSLY considered a Rune Knight build and there are SO many cool things you could do with 3-4 levels of fighter here! In later game, making the spell-storing item you can give enlarge/reduce to your homunculus, Giant’s might to size large and have it enlarge you again to grapple almost any monster with huge buffs! STR is no prob because by then you can infuse a belt of hill giant strength. Homunculus flies away, can concentrate for you, and you have basically guaranteed massiveness and reach for a full minute, so all of combat usually. Taking Fire rune gives you double proficiency with smith tools, which you can add guidance and enhance ability to to guarantee success in crafting basically anything (depends on your DM’s rules for crafting, but most it seems want at least a check in there somewhere) so you can deck yourself and your team out with magic items throughout. Action surge you pointed out, but also you can enlarge your steel defender instead/in addition and go Paul Bunyan on anyone. Cloud Rune + SD providing disadvantage + a massive AC make you nearly impossible to hit and infuse a repulsion shield with your fighting style either as shield master or take a battle master maneuver and you can move enemies all over the place (bonus tip: take the crusher feat plus the returning weapon infusion on a light hammer to make a Thor hammer you can add to this tactic). Honestly, the synergy is wild ESPECIALLY if your DM lets you lean into the crafting power of artificers and you can just go hog wild prepping elemental gems, necklace of fireball, wands of magic missile (uncommon and so cheaper and faster to craft and can be used by the homunculus, btw, who can fly above most early level enemies and wreck concentration for most spellcasters you encounter for one bonus action on your part), you get the idea. Definitely something I plan to bring to life someday.

Even after looking through so much info on this build on reddit and various forums, your video had tons of great optimization ideas I didn't find elsewhere. And you explained everything very well with a good sense of humor. Thanks for the help.

The Giant Spider (CR1) is also good in some situations, if you have 16 Wisdom it has 16 AC (instead of 14, which compensates for its lower hp) and you can cast Fog Cloud before you Wild Shape, in which you have advantage thanks to the 10' Blindsight while enemies have disadvantage(disadvantage vs AC16 reduces hits), same if an ally or an enemy casts magical Darkness, plus the Spider Climb ability can allow you to climb over a fortress wall or hide on the roof a building and sneak back down on another side with its +7 Stealth. If your party faces a single giant monster and you play before the others, you can shoot a web which Restrains the enemy on a hit (no saves) giving advantage to hit for the rest of the party until the monster breaks free (which wastes an action that is not used to pulverize you) and while restrained it has NO Dexterity saving throws vs your Wizard/Sorcerer's Fireball. :)

Divine Strike is made on a "melee weapon attack" (p.85 player's handbook), despite it's name an Unarmed Strike IS a "Melee Weapon Attack" and is listed under Simple Melee Weapon (p.149 player's handbook) , you can use Divine Strike with an Unarmed Strike or a Natural Weapon (Claw) for that matter. A "Natural Weapon" like Claws also uses a "Melee Weapon Attack" but is NOT an Unarmed Strike (both Natural Weapon and Unarmed Strike use a Melee Weapon Attack, see below), however, any beast CAN always if they so choose make an Unarmed Strike which deals 1 + Strength bonus , the low damage makes it pointless alternative in most situations, but if a Monk Wild Shape's into a Beast that damage can be the Monk's Martial Arts die plus the Beast's Strength or Dexterity bonus. So as a Monk in Wild Shape, you cannot use your Bonus Action to do an Unarmed Strike when you used a Claw attack (Natural Weapon) but can use Flurry of Blows and Stunning Strike with a Claw attack , and you CAN however use your Bonus Action to perform an Unarmed Strike if the Beast's prior attack action was also an Unarmed Strike instead of a Natural Weapon attack. Attack - Ranged Weapon Attack - Melee Weapon Attack > Natural Weapon >> Claw >> Bite > Unarmed Strike > Sword > Mace

Panache + Maneuver: Commanding Presence. I'd grab Linguist over Alert, to grab either as many generic OR exotic languages as possible, depending on setting.

As close as 5e can approximate an Ironman-like character by using the armorer artificer, its even easier to make a Hawkeye-like character with hero level power in D&D. Every party I've been in would have appreciated a powerful archer like this one. Playing such a competent damage dealer is pretty edifying when you can get away with it without overshadowing other players. I got to play one in party filled with optimizers in the Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth one-shot, and it was a lot of fun to soften up the enemies so the melee fighters could run in and finish them off without having to survive going toe-to-toe with them for countless rounds because I'd already brought them down to half-health.

Hi, Rob! I've really appreciated the builds you've made at my request in the past. The Oathbreaker one really came in handy! Would you consider making high level builds for Minsc and Drizzt? I'm adding them in as NPCs at the finale of the Icewind Dale and Spelljammer campaigns I am running, and I'd love to see your take on these icons. In particular, I'm thinking about how they can have a moment to wow the players for storytelling purposes and yet not steal the thunder when it comes time to face the BBEG. Thanks for considering!

Loved this series. Didnt know you were into KDrama too. Let me know if you need recommendations. Cant wait for season 2 of this.

Drunken Monk 9, Moon Druid 11. While Water Walk is an option, running on walls or liquids is fun~ With this combination, you have all but one bullet point of Athlete feat, shorter running jumping, which will rarely come up since you've a huge bump to speed. I mean, Jump Spell and Step of the Wind on an Earth Elemental. 3 + 5 STR MOD = 8 * 3 (Jump Spell) *2 (Step of the Wind) = up to 48-ft jump. 30-ft + 15 (Unarmored Movement) =45-ft *2 (Step of the Wind: Dash) =90-ft Jump onto some foes, and you're large so you might jump onto more than one creature. Run 10-ft, jump 40-ft. 4d6 split fall damage on DC15 DEX Save. Instead of spending 22-ft to get up, spend 5-ft. 35-ft remaining. Run 10-ft, jump 20-ft. 2d6 split fall damage (DC15 DEX Save.) Get up 5-ft. But because the DC doesn't change, multiple attempts are better. High jump ((3+5/2)=4*6)=24-ft) for Jump Spell & Step of the Wind. Standing High Jump with 10-ft (up to 24-ft/2), spend 5-ft to get up. (15-ft cost & repeat six times = 90-ft) That's 6 attempts to knock Prone with a static DC15 Dex Save. Then beat'm up. with a one-two, one-two punch, hopefully at advantage. This doesn't even include Mobile, Squat Nimbleness, & Longstrider. 25-ft + 45-ft = 70 * 2 (Step of the Wind) = 140-ft. That's one fast boy.

Interesting idea for a DnD character. I can see Remarkable Athlete, with its boost to initiative rolls, being an additional reason to multiclass in Champion fighter, but 7 or 8 levels is probably too big of an investment.

The closest thing I could think of for the fantasy of playing like Captain America was an Armorer Artificer. Get the platemail, and you can punch with your fists and do reasonable damage with the electric gauntlets. Sadly though in practice you're basically playing Iron Man by doing that.

I like fighter first because the fighting style and access to all martial weapons but my idea is a two rapier build

Maybe I missed it, but you don't have to sacrifice animate dead by going with more warlock levels. Just take the Undying Servitude invocation.

Two levels of Wizard for Bladesinger is awesome, you get that AC boost and 10’ of movement. The fact that you get two Wizard levels of magic shenanigans is amazing.

So they are falling into a pattern of creating stereotypes rather than individuals.

Got your channel for the first time, pretty good analysis of the situation. Although i am not american i really enjoy videogames and movies. Your way of looking at things is pretty similar to mine as in the pendulum will eventually swing back, and as a whole i believr it has begun its motion already! Great vid!

Rob, I enjoyed your analysis.

Captain America, Batman, Spidey...

Next captain america?

I have a soft spot for the optimism of Star Trek. So I recently did a campaign where an alien race of Orcs called Hollow Orcs descended onto the planet. The governments united but it left the door open for a small group to seize control. Overall it was a fun campaign and the players seemed really engaged to the story, so overall it was a win.

The thing is, my barbarian already has -1 in charisma, and I don't plan to use the paladin spellslots for something otherwise than smite. But what she does have is +2 in charisma, so I will totally go the warcleric route.

I'm thinking of using a twilight/shepherd build for the combined every turn d6+cleric in temp hp mixed with the unicorn or using the bear cause I don't have to use the unicorn now to make some incredibly tough to take down allies. I'm working a bugbear spear user with sentinel to have lots of other fun. It's not optimized I don't think. It's very neat though. Oh, you're not dumb. You gave yourself grief at some point. I'm glad you have the courage to do these videos. so long as you're having fun it's all good. you're awesome.

Aid upcast for steel defender and PC to make up for lack in Art lvls.

I am currently playing a battle master fighter 8/ peace domain cleric lvl1. Went with the custom lineage from Tasha's to get pole arm master for free at lvl 1, at lvl 4 ASI was used for strength to get to 18 then picked sentinel at lvl 6 and Great weapon master at lvl 8. This character feels like a big overpowered Dad who makes everyone stronger due to the fact that bless and emboldening bond stack (effectively giving you and almost everyone in your party a 2d4 bous on attacks and saves). When you combine thise 2d4 whit your superiority dice and use precision attack you are effectively adding 2d4 and 1d8 to your attack rolls. So abusing Great weapon master is not off limits. 😊. If your DM allows flanking and you position yourself well this character feels impressively strong. I have been playing him 2 times a month for almost 2 years now. I love my character.

Hey Rob, I real enjoyed your Video, thx

I forget the full name, but there's a Korean super hero style movie called the Witch that's really good. You might like that as well.

i can only agree. just playing a one-shot level5 and all our chars are straight leveled. Normally my sorcs always have at least a one level dip hexblade or a cleric dip, but this time level 3 spells were more important. Sharing my latest kind of build and its a lot of fun to play: Focusing on forced movement, core: custom lineage for feat (telekinetic) + mage hand as a CSsorc gives me an invisible mage hand (no V,S,M) plus forced movement for allies (free disengage) or for enemies; levitate for further forced movement (or a vertical kind of misty step for me). Second feat maxes CHA. Filling up the rest of spells for defence, debuff and control. I watched a lot of your vids e.g. focusing on sorcs, multiclassing and battle tactics and read a lot of greats comments (special thanks for rob verra sharing his build ideas) and all I can say it was time well spent. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your experience play the series of games. Hopefully they do it again. It was interesting to hear more details on your comparison of piercer + longbow vs crossbow expert + hand crossbow. Thanks for the insights on how each actually performed in play.

Ranged attack on enemy MU, active Fire Rune.

1984.....

Cid the Thunder God was from Final Fantasy Tactics. He was OP as hell.

i dig the few levels into tempest cleric

That empower healing should allow you to maximize the healing granted.

Druid is great for a multi because you can expend a wild shape to cast wild companion instead, that way you always have an animal companion regardless of subclass

Did you consider Gloomstalker-Scout as a possible build?

Right on, that's a pretty good build that fits the concept. For a build idea, how about Thunder God Cid from Final Fantasy Tactics?

Entertaining video topic! Even without the warlock dip, armorer artificer makes a great, and powerful, Ironman PC. For the past year I've been playing in a game with a guy who plays Anthony "CopperGnome" Starker. He's an incredible tank, and the way he's reflavored and renamed all his spells and abilities to be devices and features of his armor are really fun to observe in play.

Love the vids, but did you go back to the old mic? Otherwise love the content, keep up the good work!

Barb 3 totem / Pally 2 / Bard Sword 14 / Warlock 1 - crit master

Happy New Year bro :D

very cool thank you

Happy New Year Rob!