The Tasmanian Devil: D&D Build
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2024
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Can a Strength-Based Monk be effective in D&D 5e? I think so. Especially if they're getting 5 attacks every turn...
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Intro:(0:00)
NordVPN (Sponsor):(1:39)
Future Plans:(3:06)
Character Concept:(4:17)
Level 1:(7:24)
Levels 2-6:(13:58)
Levels 7-9:(24:01)
Levels 10-13:(31:26)
Levels 14-17:(39:48)
Final Thoughts:(44:45)
Outtakes:(48:43)
Math/Graph for this episode:
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Master Sustained Damage Comparison (5 tabs):
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Thanks to LudicSavant for the amazing DPR calculator! forums.giantitp.com/showthrea...)
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Errata! I forgot Barbarian Fast movement! +10 more move speed. Vroom vroom. Also! We can make our Monk weapons = to our Martial Arts die so Claws bump up to a d8 eventually. It's a small increase to the damage report at level 17 - fixed the numbers on the spreadsheets :)
Depending on how you consider wielding a shield the Loxodon is a more interesting build (I know not all dm's consider it armor since it does stack where other forms of armor do not)
@@Razdasoldier Unfortunately Monk's Feats specifically prohibit the use of a shield.
Hi Colby, why not do the build in Pathfinder 2e? Look at the Mountain Stance 😉
I'm glad you rose to the Dungeon Dudes challenge. "C" is for Colby!
I want to see Colby make builds for every multiclass option that got a C from the Dudes!
Colby you forgot about Barbarian Fast Movement. Your character has 40 ft movespeed at level 5, 50 ft at 7, and gets faster as you continue to level monk.
Truth!
I was thinking they wouldn't stack but then I read up to double check and unlike unarmoured defence the features have different names so they can.
I was thinking this too, since he decided to go Barbarian at level 5!
It could even go higher on a wood elf / half elf.
(yeah, I won't be making any turtle unless I do the ninja turtle group for fun one day. This build could be a fun Raphael tough.)
A reminder about the Monk's Martial Arts Feature: You can replace your normal damage die with your Martial Arts die for ALL MONK WEAPONS. Which means that when your MA die goes up to d8 at level 11 you would be able to make all your claw attacks at 1d8 anyways. It's not a huge damage bump, but still worth mentioning.
I took advantage of this recently with a high-level monk/fighter using a whip and the dedicated weapon tasha's option. 1d10 reach weapon! Might have even been better off just going 14 monk/6 rogue (for diamond soul) and taking Way of the Kensei (for the proficiency) instead of Way of Mercy for some sneak attack potential. It'd just be a d8, but with added sneak attack you could really crank up the damage (if you had the right conditions for sneak attack).
Duh! /facepalm. Will have to put in an Errata.
@@chrisjacobs4716 Sounds like you played a Belmont
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 Not really, but now I wish I had!
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 I have a version of the Belmonts in my DnD game. Only two brothers remain of the original family, and I built them around Kensei Monk/Ranger Monster Slayer.
Every time you, Chris, and the Dungeon Dudes name drop each other it make me happy.
You guys are the cool kid table at lunch!!
The dudes' challenges should become a series or at least a playlist on this channel 😄 so great to see you three have fun back and forth
Patient defense is really cool with Bonk. You can reckless attack getting advantage on all your attacks and then patient defense to cancel out the advantage you gave the enemy.
I'm gonna use this for my game. I think I'll make him a Tabaxi and call him "The concrete Kahjit"
May your road lead you to warm sands... ;)
If you went for Drunken master monk swap alcohol with skooma. Sweet moon sugar!
Barbarian 5 also boosts your speed, for what that's worth. One heck of a zippy turtle man.
I thought the speed boosts for Barb and Monk didn't stack(?)
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 speed will stack, extra attacks will not
@@johannesstephanusroos4969
It’s not the same named feature so they are separate effects
I can't believe I didn't notice those bonuses stack. Nice!
This makes me wish that they allow monks to choose between strength or dex in OneDnD similar to what they’re doing with warlocks and int, wis, or charisma.
That's.... actually awesome, I will advocate for that in the playtest involving monks if they don't do just that! Or at least a subclass that allows it.
Wisdom as well, for maximum multiclassness
I’m sorry I do t understand you could always choose str or dex
@@TheLegendaryLegacy They are talking about the other class features, not striking
Well, the warlocks are limited by subclass. Given how restrictive the monk abilities are, I don't think there's any problem letting them use any stat to multiclass.
I love how you dnd youtubers have been talking each other up lately. It warms my heart, as I tend to watch videos from all of you
I would love to see you build a single class Tank, Nova, Sustained, and Support character for every single class. Just a single video per class covering each class. Talk about where to put your points, feats, which subclass to take, etc.. 10/10 would watch every one of those.
At 41:06 since your barbarian claws are monk weapons you can use your martial arts die instead of the d6. You don't have to choose between claws and unarmed strikes, because your claws also deal d8s now.
pinned a comment with these fixes a minute ago :).
AAHHH! Just found this and the second DnD character I ever made was this adorable little lightfoot handling that basically turned into the Tasmanian Devil when pissed off. Halflings are described as surviving in a world of larger creatures by basically keeping their head down, not drawing attention, and people pleasing so larger creatures don't take offense and hurt them. As a short person myself this really struck a cord with me because shit like that is why I used to fight in school. So immediately I was like that's a barbarian and imagined him like a tornado of fists and rage like the Tasmanian Devil, but needed more attacks for that and been trying to craft it ever since.
Love it. Yet again an amazing build! You seemed unsure on how to express natural weapons turning Beastclaws. One of my most beloved characters is a Lizardfolk BeastBarb-Battlemaster. I made a deal with the DM. Anytime he enters his rage, i tell him what part of his already beastly form he focuses on, like whipping his tail on the floor in excitement or snarlingly exposing his teeth or expanding his claws ever so slightly more than usual.
I hope i could be some use to the master. 😉
The Eldritch Claw Tattoo from Tasha's is actually _really_ good for this character and all monks honestly. You get magical and +1 unarmed strikes, and get to increase your damage by 1d6 force while also increasing your reach once a day.
This does sound like a fun build, Colby. Personally, I would need to start at a higher level because I am not patient enough to wait for the monk to really come online.
As for the Dungeon Dudes, they are in the middle of a ranking series. Can’t you just see an episode where Monty and Kelly rank some of the character builds we see here? 😮🤓😁
Imho the build comes online level 5
But I did the level different
I started at 3 I did barb 2 monk 1, then barb 3, monk 2, then to barb 5, then monk the rest of the way
38:06 You could also pick up mobile. With your already high movement speed, you could easily get in to battle, make your attacks, and get out of melee range all in one turn. As long as your party has a reliable front liner, to keep that enemy occupied you should be able to avoid being attacked in the first place.
I love the unorthodox and contrarian builds. Thank you
So, a couple things to make clear here. You actually have 10 feet more move speed by the end of the build because Barbarians get Fast Movement at 5th level, getting you to a nice round 60 feet move speed. Also, if you haven't adjusted the numbers already, you don't have to use an unarmed strike with the attack action, because your Claws of the Beast are simple weapons, AKA monk weapons. So both unarmed attacks and beast claws all get boosted up to a d8 on top of Sharpen the Blade. Not sure how much that ups the damage, but there you go.
Aye - pinned a comment with these fixes a minute ago :).
Interesting build idea. Especially keeping just to the classes you picked. Though you could add ech knight for even more attacks in a nova round.
This is a great build! What a super fun way to make a TMNT-style character that makes unarmed strikes better than normal for the monk! I always feel bad that unarmored strikes normally can’t get +1, +2 or otherwise weapons and this is a super awesome way to solve that with Kensei monk that other kensei monks don’t normally get to do!
You can always ask your DM to allow a reskinned Mace as a Monk weapon (call it a fist weapon, could make it any Monk weapon so your unarmed damage increase applies to it)
That’s pretty funny that I came across both yours and D&D Daily’s video on the same build. I believe he actually did 3 Beast Barbarian/17 Monk instead of 5 Beast Barbarian/15 Monk. I love that two of my favorite channels shared the same idea. Keep up the great work Colby, I look forward to more of your DnD and Pathfinder builds, and the Laughing Shadow Magus came out as the perfect time since I was in the process of building one for the Pathfinder side game my group had going on.
Assuming agile parry isn't an option for the tortle, the thri-keen and loxodon are viable alternatives, with only 1 less AC, as you only have to be "holding" a monk weapon. Also, for high levels, you could possibly combine this build with the Spore druid, which could provide an additional 1d6 damage to every attack (with like 3 asterisks). Colby has done a Spore druid combo with Monk and Barbarian individually. They were the Sport Beast and Open Spores Druid.
Here are the links
Spore Druid Monk: ruclips.net/video/GYDTx5NtJMY/видео.html
Spore Druid Barbarian: ruclips.net/video/3zx6JnNf4GE/видео.html
Not everything will be useful, but they might give some ideas.
why would agile parry be restricted for tortle? speaking of, you should use the first attack to make an unarmed strike every turn to get the +2 ac with no damage loss at any level since you dont use other weapons
@@finalfantasy50 The limitations of agile parry are discussed in the video. The monk has to be holding a Kensai weapon in their hand in order for it to work. The very unique extra claw from Path of the Beast barbarian requires both hands be free. These two conditions can't be met at the same time unless you have more than two appendages capable of holding objects (or there's some serious brain-bending on the definition of "holding") Hence, I suggested the two races with a clear rules-based ability to hold something while having both hands free.
I love this type of build, I have one myself, though it doesn't take much Monk. Part of the fun of the build I made is that you are 1st level Fighter, Barbarian and Monk by level 3. In the end you wind up with 4 levels in Monk and Barbarian (or 2 Monk, 6 Barbarian depending on what subclass you want) and the rest in Fighter. You take the Unarmed Fighting Style at 1st level Fighter, and wind up getting a bunch of utility with stuff such as the grappler feat to pin creatures to the ground, and going Battle Master to trip enemies or push them away or whatever you want really. The build is more of a skeleton that you can kinda jump off from and take in whichever way you so please. Me personally I would grab Wild Magic Barbarian and a Dwarf just because that sounds fun. The nice thing about this setup is that don't really *have* to rush to extra attack, because you already have extra attack with your Martial Arts feature. So if you wanted to kind dance your way around the picnic table to cherry pick what you want, you can without losing that much.
Very cool! I think tortle is the only option for a str monk if you don't want useless AC. I also did the Dudes challenge, but didn't notice the cool synergy with path of the beast. So I went Elk totem barb combined with dragon monk and mobile feat for amazing movement and temporary flight, allowing you to fly for great distances in a single turn. You can close distance from 40 feet, punch and run away to 40 feet without the use of your bonus action. If do use it (step of the wind), you can also fly. The build lends itself really well to grapplying and flying up to amazing heights them droping your enemy. If you have to fall, you will barely take any falling damage with slow fall and rage. Theme-wise i was going for kind of a mini dragon-turtle pirate.
I've wanted this build this for a long time! I was using a Rune knight with unarmed fighting style and tavern brawler, skill expert(expertice in athletics) +mercy monk instead of barbarian, for a grapple battlefeild controller!
I love your build more!
I think holding a kensei weapon in one hand and still make a bunch of unarmed and claw attacks, to get that sweet AC 19 at earlier levels! and at 6th level monk, you can choose the claws instead.
Awesome build! I tried something similar aimed for burst damage and infiltration using mark of shadow elf path of the beast, gloomstalker and good ol action surge
Stopping at Barb 3 and going into Monk seems more optimal in the long run. Yes, delaying Extra Attack to 8 feelsbadman, but getting Flurry 3 levels earlier than the build presented makes up for some of that and eliminates the redundancy of EA.
Another fantastic build! Thanks, Colby!
I've been building this mix for the past few weeks, with some notable differences. First, Dhampir, for bite shenanigans, climb speed, and move speed. Second, I started Monk, and went Mercy 6 before switching to Barbarian, for one reason. No Save Poison. Level 4 Feat Skill Expert Athletics, this character is a MONSTER grappler. First round, Flurry, hand of harm poison, second round, grapple with advantage vs disadvantage, then SHRED THEIR FACE
Bell rang, Colby! great build! by the way, at Barbarian 5 / Monk 2 our tortle (my name for him is Holq Manger) will have 50 ft of movement speed: 30 ft normally, + 10ft for Fast Movement (Barbarian) +10ft for Unarmoured Movement (Monk). Both features stack
Just out of curiosity, why not start Fighter and grab the Unarmed Fighting Style? If you're a Tortle anyway for rhe Shell AC, you can start with a D8 for unarmed combat, and grapple someone to get a free D4 on them every turn in addition to Flurry of blows. Then dip into Monk for Extra Attack and Ki-Empowered Strikes, then you can circle back to get a couple of levels for Barbarian for Reckless Attack.
At Fighter[1] you can even get Dueling to Pair with Monk[2] Dedicated Weapon to really get mileage out of a Rapier/Longsword/Battle Axe/Warhammer.
You have only delayed Extra Attack by 1 level and you never pick it up again.
I did almost this exact build but went for shifter for the species, for more of that beast flavor and additional mobility, if you don't mind sitting at slightly lower scores in a point buy and taking half feats you can get a boatload of utility with a build like this. I went beats barb/open palm monk in a dex build (lion themed)... so freeing to be able to keep up and also not need magic item or gear unless its totally cool.
The Tasmanian Devil: D&D Build #133
Level 1:(see above) [barbarian 1 & race]
Level 2:(see above) [barbarian 2]
Level 3:(@15:25) [barbarian 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@17:52) [barbarian 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@18:06) [barbarian 5]
Level 6:(@19:04) [monk 1]
Level 7:(see above) [monk 2]
Level 8:(@25:54) [monk 3]
Level 9:(@28:17) [monk 4 & ASI]
Level 10:(see above) [monk 5]
Level 11:(@33:20) [monk 6]
Level 12:(@35:45) [monk 7]
Level 13:(@36:50) [monk 8 & ASI]
Level 14:(see above) [monk 9]
Level 15:(@40:30) [monk 10]
Level 16:(@40:52) [monk 11]
Level 17:(@43:24) [monk 12 & ASI]
Champion
I wish this was pinned
A strength based monk was my first ever character in DND so this is a fun trip down memory lane for me! Thanks, Colby!
I love to see you make this build!
I'm currently playing a Earth Genasi Kensi x Beast barb monk that was a human who was infected with this stone beast thing.
Their hands have malachite coming out of them (claws), and after a bad event monks helped teach them to control their barb side.
I'm at lvl 6 atm, but thinking about down the road if it's worthwhile to go monk 11 barb 9 to get the +3 from shapen the blade (and +3 from rage) or go 13 barb 7 monk, for the barb's infectious fury. After running the numbers it looks like the monk has a higher lowest possible damage, but the barb crits much harder (duh)
This is very close to a build I made, but I went for the wildhunt shifter to get the 'protection' from enemy attacks with advantage.
And I decided to use Medium Armor and Shield with Open Hand Monk, since armor only impedes the use of Martial Arts and not Flurry of Blows.
Omg! Finally! I requested this months ago [for optimization purposes] and I've been running this in a campaign and she is absolutely insane especially while raging + eldritch claw tattoo. I picked dhampir over tortle because in case of low HP i can bite [with monk hit die but still con mod] + and the lifesteal rage feature.
However the tortle is a great choice because you can pick d6 slashing or bludgeoning [even leveled]
But yesh. Im so glad you got to this. thank you thank you! Also the art fricking rips man!
I have been noodling around with a very similar build, though I agree it has issues in the mid to late game. I was going to use Human/CustomLinage for Fighting Style:Unarmed (under the assumption that the claws are weapons, but aren't really "wielded") for a d8 unarmed from level 1, but the Tortle approach is probably better. That 17 AC is certainly nice.
However, I think your early levels could be a little further optimized. Specifically by taking your first monk level at 2 instead of 6. Your version has 1 attack at level 1, 2 at level 3 (when rage), 3 at level 5 (when raging) and 4 at level 6 (1 monk, 5 barb). By taking the monk level at 2 you get:
Level 1: 1 attack
level 2 (1B, 1M): 2 attacks (because of martial arts)
level 4 (3B, 1M): 3 attacks (2 claws, 1 martial arts)
level 6: (5B, 1M): 4 attacks (just like your version)
This version would even allow you to stop at 3 barbarian if you were willing to wait until 8 to get Extra attack (3B, 5M). I don't think I'd do that, but it lets you avoid getting 2 "extra attack" features which is painful as you point out.
If your DM says no to the whole claws being unarmed strikes idea, another idea i've theorized on is using the unarmed fighting fighting style from Tasha's. To quote: "Unarmed Fighting. Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier on a hit. If you aren't wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8.
At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you."
So you could use a melee weapon until Barb 4 and then pick up the fighting style feat, and then go into monk, or throw in a level or two of fighter for action surge? Plus if we're attacking open handed we're using a d8 instead of a d6 for the strikes instead.
TGIT! Thanks Colby! Your videos are the highlight of my RUclips week!
Solid build!
Love the singing at the end.
Sharpen the blade is an interesting question. Generally speaking you add 0.1* the base damage of the claws (11.5) * the number of claw attacks +~3*number of claw attacks.
If you make 2 attacks and preserve the kensei agile parry that’s 8.3 per round. If you make 3 attacks and lose the +2ac from agile parry, you get 12.4 damage per round.
By taking a bonus action to sharpen, you miss out in flurry of blows and lose 19.32 damage assuming 0.84 to hit with advantage. That gives us a net loss on turn 2 of 7 dpr. On turn 3 we’re back to adding damage, wrrr now around 5 damage in the positive direction. Turn 4 we’ve added 17, and turn 5 we’ve added 29 damage.
If we’d stuck to two attacks the progression goes -11 -> -3 -> +6 -> +14.
So we definitely do add damage by sharpening, but that damage gets delayed quite a bit, even more so if we don’t give up on agile parry. It’s also highly ki inefficient.
It’s really good if you can pre-buff though.
I am playing a very similar build except as a centaur and way of the ascendant dragon (flavored as half nightmare with flaming hooves) at 7th (Monk 6 Barb 1) I can grapple using rage and then dash twice straight into the air the following turn using the 6th level subclass feature and drop two creatures from 150 ft in the air and then slow fall to reduce the damage followed by rage damage resistance to take very little fall damage in return. At my table, we rule powerful build affects grappling but I realize this is a house rule so it would only be 75 ft if the creature was also medium. If it's large it would still be 75ft either way. My party sorcerer likes to make me a target of twinned haste as well so it is commonly 300 ft (caps at 200 for 20d6) falls if outdoors.
I made something similar a little while ago. I called it "Beserker Barrage" (a homage to Wolverine from the old Marvel vs Capcom games).
I think Loxodons work the best considering their natural armor uses Constitution instead of Dex. Meaning, you'll have a higher AC just by investing in Con as you normally would as a Barbarian, thus doubly dipping into your tanky aspects. Just play an elephant that's a were mammoth and flavor your beast claw or beast bite attacks as using your tusks instead (sharp or pointed tusks), and flavor your beast tail attack as trunk attacks.
Dungeon Dudes: "C+, maybe B-."
Colby: "Bet."
Oh, dammit, now I need to make another Duergar Rune Knight/Barbarian build but with Beast Barbarian for those claw attacks. I'll call them 'Garzilla.
I haven’t watched this video till today but last night I made a build similar to this for a high level campaign I’m jumping into. It’s a 6beast barb,10 battle master. With the unarmed fighting style so rules as written the claws are a D8 and then grabbed the grappler feat. Wanted a tiger that fights like a tiger lol using the bite of the beast form as the “grapple” attack
I'd offer up Thri-Kreen for honorable mention for this build. Decent natural armor that scales with Dex, and an extra pair of arms makes for nutty shenanigans with RAW grappling rules. You could restrain up to four targets, or hold two and still beat them to death.
Also, in the early game, the moment you obtain your barbarian claws, you can crank out 3 attacks per turn via the two-weapon fighting rules. They are simple, light, and adorn each hand so no feat is required to dual wield them. It's a fun little trick I abused when I made a hill dwarf Wolverine (Wild Spacer for Tough and Dwarven Toughness!) attain 3 attacks per turn by level three.
Love your builds! I use them as inspiration for new PC's!
Another barbarian/monk multiclass is a Barbarian 1/Monk 1/Battlemaster Fighter 17 idea I came up with in reaction to D&D Daily advising to simply play a Battlemaster Fighter with the _Unarmed Attack_ fighting style if you want a good monk-style character.
I started with Barbarian to get their better _Unarmored Defence_ (Dexterity & Constitution instead of Wisdom), with _Rage_ being a nice defensive bonus. Then went Monk to get _Martial Arts,_ letting us attack with Dexterity and with a bonus action. Then went Battlemaster Fighter, picking up the _Unarmed Attack_ fighting style as mentioned, as well as all the Battlemaster _Maneauvers_ you can pick up.
Thus you have a Battlemaster Fighter who wields no weapons and wears no armor, who can focus on Dexterity and Constitution and dump the rest (though you do need a 13 Wisdom to multiclass into monk). I'd also pick up the _Mobile, Athlete, Crusher_ and _Tough_ feats for that sweet sweet monk flavour. Enjoy! I certainly will.
Love these builds and the outtakes!
My player character Dwarven Drunken Fighter, Kegs, was 6 Bear Totem, 7 Open Hand Monk, strength based, with Rage reskinned as drunken fighting. I also have a Shifter Barbarian, Mercy Monk with the Shifter race as an NPC in one of my home games. Basically he's a very religious character trying to come to grips with this savagery inside him. Strength Monk is not optimal, but very fun; which is kind of the main point of Monk, I think.
Kegs was a high Con Hill Dwarf with Dwarven Fortitude and Tough. He had a buttload of hit points, and when he dodged with Patient Defense he could heal a d12+5 hit points. After he found a Periapt of Wound Closure he never went down in that game.
I'm planning to try a somewhat similar build. Shifter (Wildhunt). Fighter 1 (unarmed combat for that sweet d8), Barb 1, Monk 1, Beast Barb 2-5, Mercy Monk the rest of the way (possibly pick up Fighter 2 at some point for action surge).
This is pretty dope! I've made something similar by multiclassing Beast Barbarian with Echo Knight Fighter. *"The Shadow Beast"* as I like to call it. (Barbarian to level 5, Fighter the rest of the way.)
Custom Lineage or Variant Human to start with the Dual Wielder feat. Because your beast claws count as Simple Weapons and not Unarmed Strikes they work with Dual Wielder + Two Weapon Fighting.
One thing that occurs to me: This build actually has an alternate playstyle baked into it. You’ve described an “offensive” stance, but the character is capable of entirely flipping the script and becoming an absolute wall.
Say you’ve run out of Ki points and there’s a second combat encounter before the short rest. Instead of manifesting your claws, manifest your tail instead. Then, use Agile Parry for +2 AC. You aren’t getting the benefit of your Beast Barbarian Claws, so at level 9 you’ve gone down from five attacks, or four without Flurry of Blows, to just three unarmed strikes (or you could carry, like, a Quarterstaff for these moments if you want, for a d8 attack and two unarmed strikes), but your AC becomes 17+2+1d8. That’s….that’s pretty nuts, and is almost certainly going to be higher than the +4 you’d get for pulling into your shell and being able to do nothing at all. You’re still attacking three times a round, but you’re also incredibly hard to hit-your limbs, tail, and possibly staff whirling and intercepting a hail of incoming blows, your reflexes reducing the damage of any incoming arrows or bolts, and your shell negating most of anything that manages to slip through.
If you *do* still have ki points, but want to be defensive anyways, you can take Patient Defense. Now not only is your AC 17+2+1d8, but your opponents have Disadvantage to attack you. Block a doorway and no one is getting past you, and with 20 strength anyone who comes in for a grapple to try to move you is going to fail.
It’s hardly built for the optimized damage dealer thing you go for on the channel, but it is *super* thematic as an anti-rage, the Tortle drawing on his Monk training for a moment and entering a state of absolute, untouchable tranquility.
And given his poor Dexterity, he’s not really *dodging* the blows, either. It’s more that any time a blow comes in, his limbs are simply *there,* blocking the strike-his old, gnarled wrist slapping against the flat of an opponent’s blade, his tail lashing out and deflecting an incoming spearpoint, the tip of his quarterstaff pushing against an opponent’s chest to knock him ever-so-slightly off balance, so that his attack misses by a hair.
My tortle's lycanthropy would be some sort of were-hare, grows bunny ears when he takes on his beast form and also explains why this tortle keeps getting speedier as he levels up 😂
Love the content, bro. Keep it up. This did make me think tho; In my current party, my Mercy Monk just got bit by a werewolf at lvl 5, so I started lookin online what that would be like. I've yet to see a Mercy Monk/Lycan Blood Hunter build... EVER! I can't find it on YT or reddit or anywhere else. I did find a Shadow Monk/Lycan Blood Hunter tho. But I'm still intrigued to see what a Mercy/Lycan build would look like. And since you're like me; loving those monks, I think this a build you'd like aswell.
in regards to path of the beast, In a game I played, we had a look at the subclass and rules around raging. Apparently there is no reason why you can't rage if you are already raging. Only specifies that you manifest a weapon when ENTERING a rage. If you have the time and a spare rage, adding the beast tail option is incredible for defense and reach. currently writing a book that has an almost identical character albiet shes a dragonborn and not a tortle.
Gotta love monk builds. Not necessarily my favorite class, but the flavor and uniqueness of them is incredibly fun in game! A strength based monk is interesting, I don't see that too often.
Been devouring your content lately and I know you are enjoying BG3 as much as the rest of us. If looking for more video ideas revisiting these builds (this one especially got a VERY nice bump with no stat requirements for multiclass) and testing them in BG3 would be a lot of fun and easy to do thanks to old man Withers :)
The same video from the dungeon dudes had me test out a build with barbarian and warlock. Using a shifter to negate the effects of reckless. Subclasses were totem war. and undead warlock.
Another thing to consider is money. Most characters have a lot of demands on their money-either weapons and armor, or a wizard’s spells and casters’ magical components, in addition to things like magic items.
But you don’t use armor, and unless you go for a simple weapon of some kind to supplement your claw attacks and unarmed strikes, you won’t be using a weapon, either. So what will you spend your cash on?
It may go against the humble hermit aesthetic a bit, but with all that cash not going to weapons or armor, you’re free to spend it on magic items. A Cloak and/or Ring of Protection or a Cloak of Displacement will bump your AC higher or give enemies disadvantage to hit you, respectively-mitigating or canceling the penalty of using Reckless Attack. Bracers of Defense aren’t armor, and require that you’re not wearing armor, so there’s another AC bump.
Or, if your DM is hesitant to allow you to acquire those things, go a bit more niche. A Ring of Jumping triples your jump distance since it allows you to use the Jump spell on yourself at will. In combat, this is kind of meh, but out of combat, you could use this and Step of the Wind, which doubles jump distance, to jump six times further, carrying a rope, and then use your incredible Strength to pull the rest of your party over to you. Boots of Striding and Springing also give three times jump distance, though they specify that it “can’t be higher than your remaining movement would allow.” Not sure what that means, out of combat, but given you’re a Barbarian/Monk, your movement speed is pretty high anyways. Get someone to cast Haste on you beforehand if that becomes an issue.
Speaking of Haste, how about a ring that Hastes you X times a Day? That’s probably homebrew or something, though.
Anyways, yeah. All those items that sounded really cool, but you passed up because you always had other things to spend your gold or attunement slots on, now they’re really good options.
I love your monk builds, Colby!
Lolol, this was almost the exact same build i did when the beast barb came out😂. I went with a half elf for the stat aray and 3 beast barb 17 kensai monk. Actually had the chance to play it in a level 20 one shot, it was the most fun i have ever had playing a monk or a barbarian ever
Dont forget that you work with a party. This is the build/character were you cast enlarge on.
1d4 extra for each attack. Thats around lvl 3 already scaling nicely.
A fun and strong build in a party :D
I can't wait for real psionics and then multi-class monk.
You could use the times that you're like "There's a good idea for a different build that I'd like to do later" to plug the notification bell. Like "Make sure you have notifications turned on so you can see right away when that comes out!" Keep up the great work!
Homelander loves coming up with fun dnd builds. I will not argue.
Question: Would you also be able to do 2 weapon fighting with the claws if you picked up the Dual Wielder feat? They're not light, but they're still simple melee weapons, so if you get the feat you should be able to use your bonus action for an additional attack since the beast claws do not explicitly state that the extra attack you make as part of the action replaces what you would normally get as a dual wielder.
You aren't holding them, so you can't use TWF with them
Another great gem! Thanks Colby!
I would love to see a poll of whether your viewers are mostly players or DMs. Speaking as the latter, I use your builds as adversaries to challenge my players. A poll may help tailor your videos to those watching. I’d watch anything that will help me build cool bad guys and challenging encounters with synergy among the group of enemies.
As a side note, love the build. My longest standing character is essentially this but with grappler. You don’t play a monk in 5e for the damage, it’s all about the roleplay.
Kensei monk level 6 gives you an additional kensei weapon, which means you can benifit from Agile Parry by making one of the 2 normal attacks an unarmed attack and simply just holding that new kensei weapon in one hand, meeting the conditions for Agile Parry, and still be able to use the other normal attach with the beast-claws, meeting the condition for the additional beast-claw attack. Bad for the flavor to be holding a weapon obviously, but you can technically do everything the same, but also benifit from the +2 AC.
A strunk? Who woulda thunk a strong strunk stunk? Not I, this build is awesome! Thanks Colby, youre a gentleman and a scholar
I always wanted to play as a Tortle. Good stuff as usual, Colby
If you want a pf2e version of a barb/claw user, there's ancestry feat for changelings (slag may) that gives cold iron non-agile claws (the only non-agile ones in the game afaik) which can be used for full rage dmg. Also have the grapple trait if you want to throw a bit of that and thrashing in. Shred em while you bash them into everything and everyone nearby.
One of my favorite builds so far! With barbarian and monk not scaling particularly well towards the end, im surprised that you didnt take 3 levels of fighter (or ranger) towards the end.
Fix that math! Monk weapons scale with martial arts dice so when you hit monk 11 your claws would also be a d8. It's probably only +2 dpr, but that's not nothing
Yup - check the pinned comment :)
So, funny enough, Tulok the Barbrarian did this build last year (Minus the Tortle race), for the Ejiro Kirishima build for My Hero Academia.
And I loved the concept, but really wanted it flushed out a little bit more.
So thanks for this video Colby.
Tortle allows for some great str based builds because of the lack of reliance on Dex! I used one for a Barbarian Rogue to great effect. ya love to see it
You should give Monk Battlemaster a try for an optimized build. Lots of control options, lots of burst damage.
Glad to see you remembered this is a D&D channel, Colby. Maybe some builds for other games too, sometimes? I was a couple pathfinder builds away from dropping my $2 a month donation. I Don't care or worry about the TTRPG community all my gaming money is in D&D products. Love how your mind works and love when you sing in the outro.
Tasmanian Devils are actually know for their bite. Perhaps a beast barb build opportunity?
I have been working on a "bonk" build for a while, except I was thinking goliath. Love the insights and guidance here, thanks!
four elements monk is one of the most powerful subclasses in most situations, when built right. Let me explain.
Race: Variant Tiefling (winged). Take +2 Wis, +1 Dex
Attributes: Point buy=8 str, 15 dex, 15 con, 8 int, 15 wis, 8 cha.
Class: Monk
BACKGROUND: Clan Crafter, Choose Alchemy Tools (any background truly works though)
Op for rolling for starting gold. Buy a quarterstaff, and Alchemists Fire (more the better). Pay to have a leather strap with a "button" attached to your "sturdy belt" that comes with your background. Attach an Alchemists Fire to said strap. When said button is pressed, the strap releases and drops whats strapped to it.
Environment: This build works BEST in open sky or high ceiling environments. Damage will fall off while indoors or in low ceiling environments.
Note, At early levels, this is a high risk, high reward build.
-Level 1: Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts
-Level 2: Ki, Unarmored Movement
-Level 3: Way of the Four Elements (Elemental Attunement and Water Whip), Deflect Missiles
-Level 4: ASI/Feat (Crusher, +1 Con, 16 total), Slow Fall
-Level 5: Extra Attack, Stunning Strike
*Quarter Level Summary (assuming open air/80+ foot ceiling). Your AC will be 16, your walking/flying movement speeds will be 40ft, your save dc is 14. You have 5 Ki points.
On your turn: Fly 30 feet + creatures height above your target (if creature is 6ft tall, fly 36feet up.) Size up your target, if it looks strong, dont blow all ur Ki on one attack, if it is a ranged enemy then use all your ki except for 1. For the purposes of this, im going to assume its against a ranged enemy (this includes casters/archers/etc). If you dont have a ceiling higher than 30ft, then put all of your ki into the water whip, as you wont be bonus actioning. This is also technically counterable by a featherfall reaction cast or a flying creature, but only partially, as you are still going to land on them, causing the impact damage from YOUR fall.
Turn 1
Action: Water Whip (2+2 Ki points) for 5d10 MAGICAL bludgeoning damage and target is pulled 25 UP into the air towards you (dc 14 str save)
Crusher Feat: +5 more feet up. Target is now directly below you in the air. They then fall 30ft straight down, taking 3d6 NON-MAGICAL bludgeoning.
Free item interaction: Press the button on your sturdy belt to release the Alchemists Fire. YOU ARE NOT MAKING AN ATTACK RAW. The Fire will fall due to gravity. It will shatter after 20ft of falling and ignite the target that is likely prone (dex save from that height to land on your feet, RAW) on the ground directly below you. Target takes 1d4 Fire damage at the start of its next turn.
Bonus Action: Step of the Wind DASH. Fly straight up into the air with your remaining 50 movement speed. You are now up to 80 feet off the ground directly above the burning enemy below.
Go prone. Yep, you heard me, GO PRONE. You fall and land on him. You take 8d6 bludgeoning damage, which is SPLIT evenly between you and the target you landed on (RAW). So you take 4d6, and the enemy takes 4d6.
REACTION SLOW FALL: You reduce your 4d6 damage by 25 points (monk level x 5), aka all of it.
Oh, and you landed on a burning target, so its only fair to say you are now on fire.
The ONLY DM Fiat here is the alchemists fire, which the dm can rule misses due to wind or whatever they make up.
Total Damage: 5d10+7d6+1d4
Self damage:1d4 fire, which you have resistance to.
Min damage done: 13
Average damage done: 54.5
Max damage done: 96 damage.
Not bad for a level 5.
The remaining levels, you just rinse and repeat. Water whip with +18 ki points does a total of 21d10 at level 20, if you land it, which you can improve your odds of doing by maxing out wisdom, picking up silvery barbs with a feat (so no seismic slamming/slowfall if you use silvery barbs), etc. Also, you can upgrade alchemists fire to something else if you wish, i just chose it cause its hard to say no to a flask of fire that ignites on contact with air, that shatters after 20 ft NOT affecting the target it hits or lands next to (in the same 5ft square), or you can stunning strike fish until its a success, then water whip next turn. They auto fail strength saves when stunned.
NOTE: Before anyone says "You can only use x amount of ki points per spell, RAW" or "Water whip isnt magical damage"
1: "Per spell", water whip isn't a spell. 2: Water whip is magical, according to the wording of "Disciple of the Elements" which says: "When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn *magical* disciplines..." thus, water whip is a magical, NON SPELL, ability.
I’ve been thinking of this build for months, only difference is the race would be a beasthide shifter. Was planning on making the guy a Were-Polar Bear. You’ve read my mind once more Colby
I am pretty much playing this character right now. Vincent Van-Slow. So much fun.
In a real game where we're not focusing on the damage reports, I think the initial core levels should be flipped. Get the Dex saves to combo with Danger Sense and Evasion. Slip Barb 1 in at level 2 for the huge durability boost. Have way more Ki and unarmed strikes which in Tier 1 will do better than normal Monk progression with Tortle Claws' d6 damage die. It also helps us bypass resistance on all our attacks a lot sooner. That's pivotal if we aren't getting Insignia Claws. If we can get them, I'd go Drunken Master. Stopping at Beast 3 allows us to reach Monk 14 for proficiency in all saves, and another bump to speed. So we're down 5 speed overall, but now our mostly Monk character doesn't end with horrible Wis saves.
Typically, sporting a +3-5 Wis mod goes a long way to keeping Monks afloat throughout their career. We don't have that until this point unless we take Resilient. Which isn't a bad idea for this build either. Mobile could replace Tough if we can kite on demand. Even works when we're grappling/shoving. If going to Beast 5, fitting in Beast 6 I think is potentially better than the final ASI too. Maybe after Monk 6 or 8. Get them huge hops so that we can Grapple, Jump straight up, and Prone our target for free. Slow Fall to not suffer the same fate. Now we've got advantage without having to use Reckless at times. Having it always on is dangerous realistically. Especially when the enemies aren't dealing B/P/S damage. It can also lead to great platforming having huge leaps while ignoring gravity on vertical surfaces and water during our move. Parkour to the max.
I’ve been theory crafting STR monk builds for ages now; it’s what got me into making d&d builds in the first place. Just wanted to point something out that I seldom see anyone mention:
With a STR based monk it is actually possible to use a heavy weapon in conjunction with the GWM feat.
What we lose for doing so is:
1. We can’t use our Dex in place of Str for our attacks- great, we don’t do that anyway as a Str monk.
2. We can’t make a bonus action attack with an unarmed strike because we didn’t attack with a monk weapon or an unarmed strike, and because we’re wielding something other than a monk weapon- fine, as a barbarian we use our bonus action to rage on the first turn of combat anyway, and then every turn after that we can still use flurry of blows, which DOESN’T require us to use our action to attack with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon, and doesn’t have any restrictions about what we’re wielding, it only requires that we take the attack action.
3. We can’t use our marital arts die in place of our unarmed strike damage (1+modifiers by default), - no problem, just take a race that gives a d6 unarmed strike (like Tortle, but there’s loads of others) and you’re still doing the same damage with your unarmed strikes up until 11 levels of monk. Even after that point, when our unarmed strikes would be doing a d8 and eventually a d10 at 17th level, the extra damage from GWM more than makes up for it.
For the GWM master variant, I would take only as many Barb levels as we need to get rage, reckless attack, and maybe our subclass, so 2-3 levels of barb depending on what level the campaign is. I would then take as many monk levels as possible to ensure we have enough ki points to flurry every round (if an avg. combat is 3 rounds, then it only costs us 2 ki points per combat to flurry every bonus action we have available, and remember they come back on a short rest.) If we crit or reduce an enemy to 0 hp with our action we can also conserve ki points by using our BA to make another GWM attack rather than flurry.
Also worth mentioning the value of spending ki points to get a bonus to our attack roll (I forget what the feature is called) is much better when we are attacking with GWM.
Cheers!
If you go ranger 3 and get the Hunter subclass then you could pick up the "Hunter's Prey" ability and either get a free attack against a creature adjacent and within your reach to a creature you attack (Horde Breaker) or an extra 1d8 damage per turn against any creature below max health (Colossus Slayer). And you also get some neat Ranger abilities, like Favored Enemy (or Foe), Natural Explorer (or Deft Explorer), Fighting Style, some spellcasting, and Primeval Awareness (or primal awareness for more spellcasting)
Nice build!
But why not go Zealot Barbarian?
You would do one less claw attack, but you are always adding 1d6+5 once on each of your turns.
This way, you can go for a nice longsword or rapier and do either the same damage or slightly more?
Like, 2 attacks with a weapon and 2 unarmed for 1d8+8 each [or more if you go for the fighting style duelist feat or using the versatile property].
Avg. 58.5 per turn [that you hit all 4 attacks, 60.5 with versatile] vs. Avg. 62.5 with 5 attacks, but with space for extra magical damage twice, rather than once.
Just a thought. :)
You could use the shifter race to get a bite attack and still get claw attacks when raging. Your ac would be less - but at high level if your ac isn’t absurd you’re getting hit either way
Fun, completely unrelated fact. Tasmania is finally getting a football team in our Aussie Rules football league - it's a long time coming and good for the small state.
Warner Brothers is trying to stop them using the team name Tasmanian Devils, claiming they have trademarked the name....
Insanity! It's the actual name of the animal!
That aside, great build Colby!
This was very much a fun and useful build!
I think with minor buy in from your DM you can also take a feat to get the Dueling fighting style and get +2 damage on melee weapons you are wielding. While you aren't "wielding" your claws I'm pretty sure most DMs would be fine with this addition since its minor semantics.
Because the Beast claws are weapons, you can have your magic casters imbue them with all kinds of spells to help bump up the damage quite a bit.
If you want to go for lots of attacks on a nova round, a level 11 horizon Walker/ level 3 echo knight with a weaponized bonus action can do 12 attacks in one round.
That "Buenos días, amigos" was perfect. I'm, as a mexican, can ensure that.
you forgot the 10 feet of movement you get with "Fast Movement" at barb 5
A versatile weapon like a quarter staff would allow you to make the unarmed attacks as well as use the kensei weapon