Its been a super fun build so far! Im excited to reach later levels when those smites can get so juicy! That 65 top damage tooltip in the video was without at least a few riders i can get going at some point. I cant wait to see what this concept can do in the mid and late game
At the very least, early game this out damages a level 4 paladin. At later levels, paladins with great weapon fighting and extra attack claw back the damage, but they will be a lot more starved for resources so I think its pretty much a wash.
I'm going to have to try this one. I've mixed Spore with Fighter, which was fun, but the Smites really are satisfying. I think this is one of Larian's few misses in this game, that no one in the Underdark even mentions that you're a Spore Druid. It was a perfect opportunity for some interesting RP interactions, but nothing happens. Actually, if you do the Spore Druid's 'Raise Dead', not only does it look just like any other zombie, but everyone in the Myconid Colony does the normal "That's disgusting!" reaction, even though Sovereign is up there doing the 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.
i'm really liking this build with oath of ancients, you get fantastic rp options and since the boots of aid and comfort can restore symbiotic entity hit points healing radiance is surprisingly useful
Finally someone use this multiclass! The first time I complete the game, it was with this build. THANK U, because now, more people can enjoy it. My suggestion, go for 7 paladin, 5 Spore druid. Because, the protection and hatred aura are sooo good; but ur dual welding it’s so good as well. At the end, u are hitting twice, but whit so more powerful smites
I think in the future Im going to try out a 7 paladin setup on an Oathbreaker, but not yet. Im looking forward to all of the cool spore druid features here and the giant smites
5/7 split doesnt really come online until the very end of the game. you wouldn't get symbiotic entity until level 7 and even then you wouldn't be able to take advantage of it since it would only have 8 hp. by the end of the game symbiotic entity would only have 28 hp so you wouldn't really be getting much out of your druid levels. the main benefit would be the extra spell slots, but at that point you're better off multiclassing with something like bard or sorcerer. 2/10 gives you two hits per turn that do 2d6 damage before proficiency bonus each as early as level 4, so you end up able to do about as much damage per turn as any other paladin except for maybe a 5/7 spore paladin for the one single turn their symbiotic entity is active
I talk about it in the video! Dual wielding, and that at the end of the game, Duellist’s Prerogative. This way you can offhand attack which can be used to smite on reaction.
Im going to do my best not to break my oath, but I can definitely see the appeal! When i went to grab footage for the oathbreaker stuff in this video, wooo man did he seem like a badass 😂 If i play more traditional paladin, going for the auras and such, Ill probably play an oathbreaker!
@@CreativeExcusesGaming I just feel like the more Paladin features you take the less juicy Spore Druid stuff you get to add to your kit being able to cast level 5 spells and smite at 6th level are so invaluable as well as the level 10 Spore features like increasing halo of spores damage die and getting almost max temp hp for Symbiotic Entity for extra attack is a true balancing act of whether you want to grind for speed potions or have two native attacks an action. I personally used Shillelagh instead of a finesse weapon since making a 1d6 weapon magical and converting it into a 1d8 plus wisdom weapon with all the amazing riders was so much more attractive and running it with dual crossbows means you’ll maximize your action economy to its max potential. Do you think that’s more viable with a shield and like say Markoheshkir?
@maximillianjayphoenix id run like an oathbreaker warlock! I really like the vengence + spore druid combo. Shillelagh with markoheshkir would be hilarious and feels almost sacrilegious. But it would be plenty viable, I just think the duelist’s prerogative will be the best in slot weapon for a 2 paladin/10 spore druid. Or the flame blade spell. Flame blade at level 6 is a 5d6 fire damage weapon and it works with savage attacker.
@@CreativeExcusesGaming I love flame blade but it your not gonna take 3/4 levels for thief rogue to offhand it better to start battle with shillelagh’d weapon and a shield for tanking especial in solo or honor mode playthrough. I was thinking with more gear that improves dc of spells and spell damage having those modifiers on top of damage rider gear for weapons means your max damage output for quarterstaff would be well worth it to use that level 6 spell slot to smite instead. I’m curious to see how you would build a flame blade character to be viable in all acts!
Yup, unless I reallllllllly want to. A level 5 or 6 spell slot would probably be better spent on a spell, but smiting is more satisfying than most spells so we’ll see what I end up doing at the end of the game!
I used the same idea to beat Honormode back when it came out at its a bulid im most proud about comming up with but my setup was diferent in that I ran 5 lvl of paladin and 7 lvl of spore druid focusing on summons and leter of spore druid armor from act 3 as I hat self inposed rule to limit longresting so I wanted to be more spellslot eficient
That makes sense! I definitely plan on mostly smiting as I dont want to mess with having too many summons, but i also dont have an issue with long resting. Generally I like to do 3-4 fights per day. Like 2 bosses or bigger fights, and 2 smaller encounters. In act 3, if a fight goes poorly and i have to use up everything I have, then Ill long rest early but I definitely dont limit myself to like 8 long rests per run
Heck yea! The lefty spellblade + spore druid would probably slap lol. An extra 3d6 necrotic and possibly 3d6 sneak attack on top of your 3 attacks is very solid damage every turn. Or 2 attacks and a big druid spell? Very good
@CreativeExcusesGaming it was very unique to play. I've been trying to figure out a gith build that would follow a similar concept, but with two-handed weapons.
@tboom3240 all I can think of is 4 battlemaster fighter + any spell caster that can cast mirror image for nutty armor class. That way you can use your reaction with the Riposte maneuver to attack when enemies miss you, and then cast spells on your turn with your action. Add in polearm master for more options to use your reaction to attack. Add in 2 paladin levels and you can smite with your reactions while casting spells with your main turn. Use elixirs for weapon accuracy, ASIs for spell attack and save dcs. Bonus is that you still get action surge for an extra action. Use a sorcerer as your 6 levels of caster and you can cast 3 spells/cantrips in one turn, then still smite on reaction possibly. Its resource intense, but a cool idea that comes online at the end of act 2. Edit: warlock! If you use warlock as your caster, you get these features, but can go bladelock so that you free up your elixirs for something like arcane acuity. 4 battlemaster, 2 paladin, 6 bladelock. Build for eldritch blasting like a standard warlock and just drop react bomb smites as level 3 spells.
@CreativeExcusesGaming I like that a lot, actually. Didn't really consider using my reaction as a resource in my concepts. The 2 levels of paladin would also let me use compelled dual to really soak up damage for a team.
He did if Im not mistaken. His was more caster and summon focused by the end game while mine will definitely still be a smite machine focused on melee combat.
Dual wielding = 2 attacks anyway so Im not super fussed about it. And there are a few items in the game that will let you add your modifier to your offhand or give you an interesting bonus action attack so its not much of a loss honestly.
You can apply a smite via the Paladin reactions! This means you can smite by making an offhand attack and then choosing from the reactions youve turned on which level of smite spell you want to us. This also means funky thinks like you can use a thunderous smite and then react to the hit with a divine smite for a single very large hit.
Because swords bard is brokenly overpowered in the mid and late game. But also why would I play a melee swords bard when I can play a ranged swords bard. And the swords bard + paladin doesnt get to smite until level 8 and has flourishes at level 3, or doesnt get extra attack until level 8 and only gets its flourishes at level 5. I much prefer to have the core gameplay style of a build functional by level 4 for the big and long fights in Act 1.
I knew that spore druids were amazing at melee, but I would have never thought to mix that with paladin. You are a genius my friend!
Its been a super fun build so far! Im excited to reach later levels when those smites can get so juicy! That 65 top damage tooltip in the video was without at least a few riders i can get going at some point. I cant wait to see what this concept can do in the mid and late game
Honestly I don’t think the spore Druid is so stein in melee, paladin is just what you need imho
At the very least, early game this out damages a level 4 paladin. At later levels, paladins with great weapon fighting and extra attack claw back the damage, but they will be a lot more starved for resources so I think its pretty much a wash.
I'm going to have to try this one. I've mixed Spore with Fighter, which was fun, but the Smites really are satisfying. I think this is one of Larian's few misses in this game, that no one in the Underdark even mentions that you're a Spore Druid. It was a perfect opportunity for some interesting RP interactions, but nothing happens. Actually, if you do the Spore Druid's 'Raise Dead', not only does it look just like any other zombie, but everyone in the Myconid Colony does the normal "That's disgusting!" reaction, even though Sovereign is up there doing the 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.
Fungal infestation zombies look different! I dont plan on using the animate dead spell honestly
i'm really liking this build with oath of ancients, you get fantastic rp options and since the boots of aid and comfort can restore symbiotic entity hit points healing radiance is surprisingly useful
Finally someone use this multiclass! The first time I complete the game, it was with this build.
THANK U, because now, more people can enjoy it.
My suggestion, go for 7 paladin, 5 Spore druid. Because, the protection and hatred aura are sooo good; but ur dual welding it’s so good as well. At the end, u are hitting twice, but whit so more powerful smites
I think in the future Im going to try out a 7 paladin setup on an Oathbreaker, but not yet. Im looking forward to all of the cool spore druid features here and the giant smites
If you're going for the 2/10 split you gotta get that mod that grants spore druid extra attack outside of wildshape. Otherwise a 5/7 split is better.
5/7 split doesnt really come online until the very end of the game. you wouldn't get symbiotic entity until level 7 and even then you wouldn't be able to take advantage of it since it would only have 8 hp. by the end of the game symbiotic entity would only have 28 hp so you wouldn't really be getting much out of your druid levels. the main benefit would be the extra spell slots, but at that point you're better off multiclassing with something like bard or sorcerer. 2/10 gives you two hits per turn that do 2d6 damage before proficiency bonus each as early as level 4, so you end up able to do about as much damage per turn as any other paladin except for maybe a 5/7 spore paladin for the one single turn their symbiotic entity is active
@@rehabghost I was following right up until you claim to get 2 attacks per turn as a 2/10 at lvl 4. How do you manage that?
I talk about it in the video! Dual wielding, and that at the end of the game, Duellist’s Prerogative. This way you can offhand attack which can be used to smite on reaction.
I am running 2 Oathbreaker/10 Spore Druid and I’m going crazy rn I love the class fantasy and I played it in tabletop
Im going to do my best not to break my oath, but I can definitely see the appeal! When i went to grab footage for the oathbreaker stuff in this video, wooo man did he seem like a badass 😂 If i play more traditional paladin, going for the auras and such, Ill probably play an oathbreaker!
@@CreativeExcusesGaming I just feel like the more Paladin features you take the less juicy Spore Druid stuff you get to add to your kit being able to cast level 5 spells and smite at 6th level are so invaluable as well as the level 10 Spore features like increasing halo of spores damage die and getting almost max temp hp for Symbiotic Entity for extra attack is a true balancing act of whether you want to grind for speed potions or have two native attacks an action. I personally used Shillelagh instead of a finesse weapon since making a 1d6 weapon magical and converting it into a 1d8 plus wisdom weapon with all the amazing riders was so much more attractive and running it with dual crossbows means you’ll maximize your action economy to its max potential. Do you think that’s more viable with a shield and like say Markoheshkir?
@maximillianjayphoenix id run like an oathbreaker warlock! I really like the vengence + spore druid combo.
Shillelagh with markoheshkir would be hilarious and feels almost sacrilegious. But it would be plenty viable, I just think the duelist’s prerogative will be the best in slot weapon for a 2 paladin/10 spore druid. Or the flame blade spell. Flame blade at level 6 is a 5d6 fire damage weapon and it works with savage attacker.
@@CreativeExcusesGaming I love flame blade but it your not gonna take 3/4 levels for thief rogue to offhand it better to start battle with shillelagh’d weapon and a shield for tanking especial in solo or honor mode playthrough. I was thinking with more gear that improves dc of spells and spell damage having those modifiers on top of damage rider gear for weapons means your max damage output for quarterstaff would be well worth it to use that level 6 spell slot to smite instead. I’m curious to see how you would build a flame blade character to be viable in all acts!
@maximillianjayphoenix the challenge is that at least the regular divine smite stops scaling at level 4 spell slots
Interesting idea.. can't wait to see how it turns out
Ill be playing it tonight in just over two hours from now! We’re taking on the goblin camp!
Pro-tip: Smites can only be upcasted to level 4 as of patch 3. Dont waste your level 5 or 6 spell slots on smites! Use them to cast actual spells.
Yup, unless I reallllllllly want to. A level 5 or 6 spell slot would probably be better spent on a spell, but smiting is more satisfying than most spells so we’ll see what I end up doing at the end of the game!
Sick build idea
I have to ask
Does spore druids fungal zombie ability break your oath even if it was a companion that summoned it
I dont think it breaks oath of vengence, but I am not 100% sure. Companion actions cant break your oath as far as i am aware though
I used the same idea to beat Honormode back when it came out at its a bulid im most proud about comming up with but my setup was diferent in that I ran 5 lvl of paladin and 7 lvl of spore druid focusing on summons and leter of spore druid armor from act 3 as I hat self inposed rule to limit longresting so I wanted to be more spellslot eficient
That makes sense! I definitely plan on mostly smiting as I dont want to mess with having too many summons, but i also dont have an issue with long resting. Generally I like to do 3-4 fights per day. Like 2 bosses or bigger fights, and 2 smaller encounters. In act 3, if a fight goes poorly and i have to use up everything I have, then Ill long rest early but I definitely dont limit myself to like 8 long rests per run
I just beat honor with the leftie spellblade idea and spore druid as the caster. Both are very underrated and fun.
Heck yea! The lefty spellblade + spore druid would probably slap lol. An extra 3d6 necrotic and possibly 3d6 sneak attack on top of your 3 attacks is very solid damage every turn. Or 2 attacks and a big druid spell? Very good
@CreativeExcusesGaming it was very unique to play. I've been trying to figure out a gith build that would follow a similar concept, but with two-handed weapons.
@tboom3240 all I can think of is 4 battlemaster fighter + any spell caster that can cast mirror image for nutty armor class. That way you can use your reaction with the Riposte maneuver to attack when enemies miss you, and then cast spells on your turn with your action. Add in polearm master for more options to use your reaction to attack. Add in 2 paladin levels and you can smite with your reactions while casting spells with your main turn. Use elixirs for weapon accuracy, ASIs for spell attack and save dcs.
Bonus is that you still get action surge for an extra action. Use a sorcerer as your 6 levels of caster and you can cast 3 spells/cantrips in one turn, then still smite on reaction possibly. Its resource intense, but a cool idea that comes online at the end of act 2. Edit: warlock! If you use warlock as your caster, you get these features, but can go bladelock so that you free up your elixirs for something like arcane acuity. 4 battlemaster, 2 paladin, 6 bladelock. Build for eldritch blasting like a standard warlock and just drop react bomb smites as level 3 spells.
@CreativeExcusesGaming I like that a lot, actually. Didn't really consider using my reaction as a resource in my concepts. The 2 levels of paladin would also let me use compelled dual to really soak up damage for a team.
@tboom3240 Compelled duel would also be a way to ensure enemies attack you even if your armor class is sky high with mirror image!
I believe that Purge Evil did this build but a little different
He did if Im not mistaken. His was more caster and summon focused by the end game while mine will definitely still be a smite machine focused on melee combat.
Wouldn't Palid work as a multiclass name? Close to Thallid. Or pale.
I would love if it there were real, in-game names for multi classing options.
Absolutely, as long as they arent “Sorcadin,” “Bardadin,” and “Lockadin” which all make my skin crawl 😂😂
@@CreativeExcusesGaming Its all fun and games till you multiclass into each class for one level
@jacktokisaki9113 Bardbaradinicterlockmangarderer.
Nailed it. Next question
There would be thousands of possible combinations to write names for
Sucks you don’t get an extra attack though
Dual wielding = 2 attacks anyway so Im not super fussed about it. And there are a few items in the game that will let you add your modifier to your offhand or give you an interesting bonus action attack so its not much of a loss honestly.
Are you able to apply smite to the bonus action off-hand attack? I think it's only available for a main action attack.
It's available for any melee weapon attack
You can apply a smite via the Paladin reactions! This means you can smite by making an offhand attack and then choosing from the reactions youve turned on which level of smite spell you want to us.
This also means funky thinks like you can use a thunderous smite and then react to the hit with a divine smite for a single very large hit.
@@CreativeExcusesGaming Great to know, thank you!
Do you get extra attack on this build?
You do not, but you can dual wield or use the duellist’s prerogative to still attack and smite twice per turn.
Why would you choose anything other than sword bard who gets extra attack?
Because swords bard is brokenly overpowered in the mid and late game. But also why would I play a melee swords bard when I can play a ranged swords bard.
And the swords bard + paladin doesnt get to smite until level 8 and has flourishes at level 3, or doesnt get extra attack until level 8 and only gets its flourishes at level 5. I much prefer to have the core gameplay style of a build functional by level 4 for the big and long fights in Act 1.