The Pokémon Trainer - D&D: Optimized #28
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- In this episode, I give myself one rule: my character cannot harm any enemy directly. Instead, they must depend exclusively on their pets/companions for all damage in combat. I was pretty shocked with the results. I think you might be too :).
/ dndoptimized
/ dnddeepdive
/ colbypoulson
Character Concept:(0:00)
Level 1:(8:10)
Levels 2-6:(15:55)
Levels 7-9:(35:15)
Levels 10-13:(45:55)
Levels 14-17:(59:48)
Final Thoughts:(1:05:12)
Graph for this episode: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Sustained DPR Comparisons (3 Tabs): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Thanks to LudicSavant for the amazing DPR calculator! forums.giantitp.com/showthrea...)
Music Credits:
Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Angevin 120 loop by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Master of the Feast by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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I just loved this build! I would DM a game even for a single player if he wanted to play this character (maybe it would be better, actually). And give him a sidekick, so he could have a 6th pet (a full pokemon party)!
By the way, with Tasha's expanded spell lists, Aid became a bard spell, so you could use the second additional magical secret to get counter spell that would be super useful to protect your pokemon.
Also I really like to use dragon's breath with find familiar (specially on Early games while you can't use you concentration to summon something better), it's a cool way to weaponize you familiar, get access to elemental damage, and it's very pokemonish
Final thoughts: I really like when you add your flavor ideas for the character, it kinda turns the character building experience into something like a story telling and everybody likes story time =D
Congrats for the excellent work!
Thank you, and fantastic ideas! Thanks for the Aid catch :)
@@DnDDeepDive ok the ranger and the rogue build you made earlier needs to be updated and fixed because Tasha changed how booming blade and green flame blade worked. Additionally if you really want a sustained damage rogue go rogue barbarian. I would love to see that build. A strength based rogue with either two weapons or a rapier and a shield works perfectly and taking the mobile feat makes the swashbuckler subclass kind of obsolete as that feat for the most part does what thst subclass does. So scout might actually be better as thsg subclass gives you more movement and an escape option. Taking that and the zealot barbarian along with sentinel works perfectly and can be really good
@@davidmoseley1082 yep - updated the Swashy in the "How Tasha's changes everything part 2" episode, and did a Rogue/Barb in the Rogue/Cleric episode :P. Will probably do another as a tank some day...
You could throw 3 lvls for master mind help action at distance
Everyone knows a full pokemon squad is 6. Take the Urchin background for your cheerleader and dungeon scout, Rattata.
"My Rattata is different from regular Rattata. It’s like my Rattata is in the top percentage of all Rattata."
@@darkblade190 it's unique! It wears a lil tuxedo! A LIL PINK SPARKLY TUXEDOOOO!
5
HM slave
I maintain that the pokemon trainer is a whole party. A bunch of custom lineage genie warlocks and a human to carry them around.
Yeah. I was thinking that you play as a sidekick for non combat stuff and pull out your genasi/custom lineage genie warlocks of the talisman. Then your sidekicks stay out of combat..maybe giving the help action.
One Warlock takes the background for retainers and just has them carry the party?
What about the domestication factor?
I love this idea!
Dm: "and it's your turn to act"
You: *pulls out flowchart*
You know, it's not a bad idea 😂
Haha 🤣 (insert pepe silvia meme here)
Love the idea of a Disney princess with this build, when Song of Rest comes on with Bard you’re singing to a gathering of cute animals, maybe feeding them too. You are peaceful but your pets will defend you fiercely.
Instead of taking a feat for find familiar, Id totally go with pact of the chain warlock...but I'm also just a fan of warlock.
And considering the new invocation. It would be more powerful.
@@dragonhearthx8369 The issue is that the pact of the chain features to have your chain familiar attack it would take either your action or bonus action which in this build you are already using. And unfortunately warlocks don't get summon beast so they'd have to wait till level 8 (ranger 3, warlock 5) to pick up their third summon. (You'd have the land spirit, imp and probably a shadow spirit) Instead of level 6.
Though you could instead of relying on the fiery teleportation pick up magic stone, hand those stones over to your imp and make them do attacks. However I think fiery teleportation has more use cases here. What with the holding an action till your beastial spirit attacks and teleporting them back to refresh their charge. I think would do more damage.
@@crunchevo8974 magic stone is still not that good. And the damage different between a d4 and a d6 is by 1-2. (Modifier is the same)
@@dragonhearthx8369 magic stone is ranged and the imp is squishy was my reasoning.
I wanna optimize.. the very best. Like no one ever waaaaas .... To catch hands is my real quest, to optimize them is my cauuuse! Colby-mon gotta catch em aaaallll ~
Lol, I like the idea of ash saying "catch these hands"
@@kaemonbonet4931 lol 😂
My man is over here setting up u-turn combos at level 5 😂
1:01:52
> What? PONYTA is evolving!
> Congratulations! Your PONYTA evolved into RHYHORN!
What? Hold up...
I had a similar idea based on trying to create the entire entourage of The Wizard of Oz with a single character... without multiclassing. It is possible with a College of Creation bard:
- Go halfling for the flavor of a child to represent Dorothy.
- Have the Dancing Item be the Tin Man.
- Pick up find familiar (with one of your suggested feats) to get a reflavored weasel for Toto.
- Use Summon Fey (magical secret 1) for the Scarecrow.
- Use Find Greater Steed (magical secret 2) to get a Cowardly Lion (saber toothed tiger).
Character concepts with constraints like these are what I enjoy most about your channel. The "let's optimize the [insert subclass here]" is less interesting, but watching you try to do as much as possible with only touch spells, or only pets, or only whatever, is really entertaining!
Sorry for trawling through old videos, but I'm *very* late to the party here, it would seem.
Ha ha - nice!
I'm listening over on Spotify, but I've loved the builds you do with self-imposed limits; this episode and the Sorcerer with the magic touch. I look forward to more of these types of builds in the future!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying!
Been loving your videos since I found you a few days ago! Gotta say, Wildfire Druid is some of the most fun I've ever had. Just bouncing around the field, leaving little bursts of fire wherever I go. Just so much hilarity!
Personally, instead of aiming for a feat at level 1, I would just aim to be a Shepherd Druid. With Tasha's now, you can use your wildshape to summon a familiar and you can use your spirit totem to either give temp hp or make you a better healer until you are high enough level to get summoning spells.
Great build! I love the content with "builds that have a theme and restrictions"!!!
Oh, how about a Flair Knight at some point? A warrior that looks to use as many dazzling weapon skills as possible to entertain the crowd while still winning the battles.
Flourishes, maneuvers, etc...
Adolin Kholin at his best!
This is very late. But with pathfinder getting the spotlight.
Check out the swashbuckler.
A good way to weave casting spells like "Entangle" and still keep the "Pokemon trainer that only tells his pokemon what moves to use" flavor is to just pretend that it's your pokemon that are casting the spells. This can easily be done with spells like "Entangle" that only require somatic and vocal components and are not launched from your direction. That way you can just point to your pokemon, shout their name and the name of the spell and cast it, there will be no way to tell that the spell is coming from you, it will just look like your pokemon used their move.
This is my favorite of the builds you have done. Great job.
Thanks - glad you enjoyed!
These are my favorite builds you do my man!
Anyone can take GWM/SS and/or max DPS on a caster class, but it takes more creativity to do stuff like this and your Magic Touch build.
Personally I am always going to vote for more content like this, stuff that mixes your creativity and optimizing brain. I know it was more work but well worth it Sir
Thanks - glad you enjoyed!
Really fun thought experiment! Couple things. You can't wear scale mail as a druid, unless your DM is allowing you to have some made from monster scales. Shouldn't really be an issue, but is something you should keep in mind. That level of cleric also gives you sanctuary as a domain spell, which can go a long way to helping you maintaining your concentration. Or you could use it to help protect your Flareon while it's waiting to teleport. You already get Aid as a Bard as of Tasha's, so can pick up maybe Tiny Servant to add one more pet (I'd go with Klefki (a keyring) or a Bronzong (a bell) and just have them under constant orders to make a bunch of noise if they notice people you don't with their 60ft blindsight), or Life Transference to heal them while your staying out of things. Also, instead of the motivational speech spell, you could have just taken the inspiring leader feat as your beginning bonus feat and be summoning your familiar with the druid wild companion option. You get a little more short rest dependant, but you already are, anyway. By the time your casting Motivational Speech, it's not likely to last more than one hit, and since it ends when the target no longer has any temporary hp left, the potential advantage it would provide won't actually matter. Another option, if you start druid you get your first effective companions at level 2, not 3, and will still have the beast master combo online at level 5. Or just have the Persian/Flareon combo going at level 3 and get Swinub at 6. The only real change is if you get Dex or Wis saves. Considering that if you get stunned or mentally controlled most of your companions either stop doing anything, or potentially turn on your party, the Wis seems more important to me.
I agree with most of the build but the first level I would change one thing. Choosing magic initiate gives you find familiar AND 2 can trips. One of which can be shocking grasp. Shocking grasp can be used by your familiar as an attack, along with utilizing it as a help/aid familiar. The scaling with magic initiate is nice too. Then you can pick another thematic cantrip like magic hand. Which could be a ghost type Pokémon.
Cheers though, I think the build you’ve made is awesome.😊
There is an excelent HB pet class called Soul Binder. It's very flavourful and a lot of my players love it. It could somehow fit with this concept.
Very cool! I’m always a fan of character builds like those by Tulok, but I love how deep you get into the numbers and power builds
Glad you enjoyed! I definitely don't make the "how to play x in D&D" my main thing like Tulok does, but once in awhile it's fun to stretch a bit. :)
I'm enjoying tearing through all these videos! :)
Find steed, wizard familiars, beast master companion, artificer constructs... have we just been playing pocket monsters this whole time?
YUSSSS
Thanks for the new vid Homelander.
I would guess this is a Giovanni build. Also, could one take goodberry and flavor them to be the berry types?
Ha! That would be perfect!
Happy Tuesday Critlander. Much Excite. Very Suspense :)
I love when you optimize around a theme. It shows that any character can still be effective. You helped me a lot with my windrunner character but it would be really fun to see how you’d make the knights radiant work for yourself!
Hopefully soon!
Journey before destination...
@@fuzzysquirrel life before death my friend
Hey there! This is an awesome build. Very creative and flavorful! Keep up the good work :)
Thanks! glad you enjoyed :)
"You had my curiosity.. but now you have my attention"
You were right, I did really like this weeks build.
If nothing else, this makes a very fun DNPC that has the mechanics to back it up, even if it’s just for a few sessions, use all the trainer references!
Love all your builds and i know im late to this one but i love summoners! just joined the channel to get the written build !
Welcome! And thanks!
Action economy, I choose you! It's super effective...
Very fun video! I enjoy optimization along certain themes or with certain contexts in mind, so I really dig the way you place restrictions on your builds and then optimize from there. It helps avoid a robotic, overly number-crunchy approach to the game.
My one question about this build is this: in a party with one or two more melee fighters, are you running the risk of clogging up the available space around the enemy from which to attack?
Character level 5, Eevee is evolving!!! do-DO-do-DO-do-DO! :P Also only 5 pets, but you can have 6 Pokemon... wait was the sixth Pokemon me all along?!?! *mind blown* This looks like a fun build, pretty multiclass mad, but I love all the pets, and the support abilities cleric/bard gets you. I could certainly see doing a much scaled back Ranger/Druid build too though and sticking with just four pets and less buffs. Having the pets potentially die could be disappointing (FAINT no one dies this is a kids video game! :P ) but even if they do I'd try to think of it as 'but I kept my allies alive'. This build could potentially fill a little of the role of a melee/tank while not getting into melee themselves, if your party could use but you don't feel like playing another barb/fighter/pally/ect. Thanks for all your work on this, it's certainly given me things to think about for characters in the future. :)
This video forced me to subscribe. I love me some summoner builds. Thanks for the great content, Colby.
Woo hoo! Thanks and welcome :)
I'll have to say... I am impressed. Didn't think it was possible but this is great!
A friend played it in a one shot once and it was both effective and hilarious :) Thanks!
As I've mentioned in past videos, awhile ago I revised beastmaster and hunter to give them subclass spells. Both Find Familiar and Find Steed were on my added list of Beastmaster magic. One homebrew that would help reduce how MAD this build gets.
Yes!!!!! This is what I’ve been waiting for
Great build, really, really enjoyed this video, up there with the Bladesinger. Man, you would love my table, I let my players get away with everything if it's fun. On the other hand, all my monsters have max hp at least, and are homebrewed a bit, so fairs fair
Thanks! If only I had more time to play more campaigns! Sounds like a blast :)
@@DnDDeepDive 16th century pub, roaring fire, free bar, a DM who has played for 40 years and a bunch of 20 something noobies made of enthusiasm. What's not to love? Oh yeah, corona. Goddammit.
@@tomtomlinson2835 where is this pub? I might have to take a trip once the Pandemic subsides... 😉
@@DnDDeepDive A village called Cranleigh, about halfway between London and the South coast of England. Our pub is The Three Horseshoes, opposite a 12th century church, on one side is the oldest village hospital in the country, on the other is a gas station but the kiosk itself is 16th century too. We have old shit here. Just to whet your appetite further, here's my homebrew "Standard Array", 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. Love your channel man, keep it up.
@@tomtomlinson2835 Holy crap I am *so* coming to visit :P ... one day!
Best D and D instructor ever!
ha ha! Thanks ;)
Fun concept! How to make a walking menagerie...
I think a good challenge is how many can you get while limiting multiclassing.
beastmaster, battlesmith, find familiar (from lots of sources, i prefer druid), wildfire druid, find steed (lore bard, bard), tiny servant (from lots of sources like lore bard), homunuculus (artificer), dancing item (creation bard), hound of ill omen (shadow sorc). I'm probably missing some options.
so for a sheer #s perspective:
beastmaster 3 (beast of the land), battlesmith 3 (steel defender + homunuculus), druid 2 (wild companion familiar, wildfire spirit), lore bard 6 (tiny servant and find steed), shadow sorc 6 (hound of ill omen).
And that's it. 20 levels hahah! 5 companions walking with you + tiny servants based on spells slots. Start of combat add hound of ill omen bonus action and wildfire spirit as your action.
I'd personally drop the 2 druid levels to make this more effective. I'd get find familiar via a feat then replace with 2 fighter levels for action surge. That way, i can actually free up my action to either cc the opponent or buff my pets.
Love it
I think it's kinda cute that you looked up all these pokemon for the video. ^-^
I am fortunate to have friends I can rely on for help :)
Could consider going farther in Druid to pick up the 5th level spell Awaken to recruit many other companions if you develop a bond with the creatures you awaken. Imagine holding on to the branches of your awakened tree while your army of beasts and plants destroy your enemies.
Awaken is also a Bard spell
A bit late but, Swarmkeeper Ranger, eat your heart out. This is the true swarm keeper.
For your consideration:
4 Beast Ranger - Squirtle (Beast of Sea)
2 Wildfire Druid - Charmander (wildfire spirit)
4 Warlock - Pickachu (Investment of chain master invocation)
6 creation bard - honedge (dancing item)
4 Artificer - Abra (homunculus) and Bulbasor (reskinned steel defender)
You get 6 companions, each of which you can command as a bonus action. So you can only attack with one each turn. The only rule bend was for bulbasor as a steel defender. Not nearly as much damage, but maximum flavor.
love it!
Limiting it to 1-2 attacks 1 each per round seems more pokemon tbh
Tuesday, thank God! Hi Colby, let's go.
I love the concept!
There are a few issues I see, but you may have addressed them...
Tasha's ranger beast of the (land) as well as wildfire companion require your bonus action to act.
While the summon beast/fey just requires verbal comands.
Regular Ranger companion also only requires verbal command.
Can you command more than one beast with your bonus action, since you're telling them to do two very different things, run, charge, attack, then move, hold action, teleport...
Possible issue with your fiery teleportation...
Fiery teleportation transports you 15 feet
Charge requires 20 ft of movement.
You can't charge through an allies space.
You would have to have the beast of land run out of the way from the wildfire companions before making it's charge.
Small modification/caveat to mention so it will work.
Or going shepherd druid, and all it's buffs, Including magical attacks for all summoned creatures and also using your wild shape for summon wild companion familiar... 2 familiars to give the aid action!
Fun build. :) I guess you can even hurl insults to give enemies disadvantage on their attacks.
Motivational speech might not be allowed as it's acquisition inc spell. But aid works for this and stacks with inspiring leader.
A small idea that works with this character concept. For a menagerie type character take the background knight. With knight choose variant feature retainers. As written you now have three beings that work for you, attend you and deliver messages. Just the small twist choose three useful animals. A hawk, owl, or any other type of bird would very gladly deliver messages for you. For people taking one of the smaller races, choose a wolf or other animal that will act as a mount. And finally last idea that goes very well with it, take some sort of poisonous animal. There job for you is to be milked if you have the corresponding feats to give you a supply of poison. Dm wise id suggest 5 gold worth a day. just like if they were working for you. Most dms will not have any real problems with this as long as you follow the variant feature. They won't fight for you, follow you into dangerous places, or hang around if abused.
Yeeeees I love the fire spirit teleport + charge combo!
Same! I was pretty excited to share it :)
"Pikachu, use headbutt!"
[chucks a kakuna at the enemy]
I have an evil campaign coming up and this inspired me to make a group of Kobolds using a build very close to this. It will require some altering to your build, but I love the thought of reskinning some of these beasts into just more Kobolds. My thought is to go level 5 ranger beastmaster first (My character will be attacking too). Then wildfire druid 3. Then, I was thinking of going rogue for sneak attack, as I'd have an attack still with second attack going to my ranger beast, bonus action going to wildfire druid, and concentration to my summoned dood. Plus, (barring sunlight) I would have a reliable source of advantage for my sneak attacks as Kobolds get pack tactics.
Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, and videos!
This is the best thing ever
No, *you* are.
I wanna be a dragon-type trainer...eh, this'll do! Great optimizing as always, and this could make for a very fun character to roleplay!
if you want dragons you should try the unearthed arcana ranger subclass the drake warden.
@@PaoloMurphy21 I saw that! Looking forward to it when it finally releases as well.
I was in the middle of building something similar when I found this video. So far I got Ranger 3 for the drake, Druid 2 for the Wildfire spirit (you get to choose appearance... so dragon), Warlock 3 for pact of the chain (lets you choose pseudodragon) and Artificer 3 for Homunculus and Steel Defender (you choose appearance for both). With Paladin 5 or Bard 6, Find Steed has the text "Your GM might allow other animals to be summoned as steeds" so a lenient DM might let you choose a wyvern or wyrmling. And at lvl 16-17, that's not too outrageous. Not sure about the rest of the levels, and I havent looked at action economy yet. I've just been looking at getting dragon friends so far.
You can buy either a mastiff or elephant as a mount too gain an additional creature. It takes its own action like the fire spirit.
While a lot a creatures, this is a great build for 1-3 player campaigns. If your DM allows you to combine it with a TCoE Sidekick pet, you can have a full 6 monster squad! It can even be a fellow player if they want to.
Love the videos! I had an idea for another team build I was hoping you could crunch the numbers on. Dual Rogue: Scouts. Caveat being that there are at least two enemies they are fighting because of their level 17 archetype feature. I just would like to see what the DPR spike would be at that level. Anyways, thanks for the content!
Edit: Meant to include that their level 13 archetype feature would provide advantage for the other, which would be a consistent way to get sneak attacks off.
thanks! added to the list!
Want to poimt out that Summon Beast lets you chose from 3 diferent types every time you cast it, so you could have that mitical 6th Pokemon Squirtle that only comes out of they Pokeball when a water body is near~
I once played a druid and got to start with a magic item. I chose a Bag of Tricks. Very much felt like I was playing pokemon.
What I love most about this, is that you can do a whole party of Pokémon trainers and have no duplicates.
Find Familiar can summon many different animals. You could even take a few levels of warlock to get an imp or pseudodragon instead (also Investment of the Chainmaster to buff them).
Primal Companions come in 3 flavors, and each can be in many forms. You could also go drakewarden instead to get a Charmander (or whatever element you want).
Summon Beast can be pretty much any medium animal. You could take two more levels of druid to get Summon Fey. Or instead 5 levels of Warlock/Wizard, giving up the Wildfire Elemental to get Summon Shadowspawn (or, later, Aberration/Construct/Elemental).
For Find Steed/Greater Steed, you can go Bard, but you could go Paladin instead, to get a bit more heal, a heavy armour and an aura (plenty of Oaths that support the build too). Or you could go 6 levels of Shadow Sorcerer to get a shadow hound.
There are so many ways to expand/flavor this build.
Im sure im wrong but with a murciful DM, you might be able to get away with starting druid, take magic stone cantrip, and have the owl drop the stones for some measure of damage for the first two leves. Doubt a DM would let if happen if they interprets it as a attack action, but a idea
I love the flavor of this build! I don't get why you ask the DM to not attack the pets though. From the npcs perspective those are dangerous beasts, no matter how cute they look, so trying to spare them doesn't make much sense. And since they are easier to revive than any PC it shouldn't be that much of a problem for you...
My favorite build! I love the idea of giving them a speech with speak with animal so your companions don’t understand. Like Kronk talking to the squirrels in Emperors New Groove.
What a fun theme! Great job bringing it home! I wonder why you didn't discuss artificer here...maybe just for thematic reasosn?
Didn’t have the bonus action for steel defender/homunculus :)
Me seeing the name of the vid: yesssssss
Me 3 min into the vid: YESSSSSSSSSS
Let's see where this takes me. :)
With Ritual Caster Feat, once you are a 5th level character you could (DM allowing) find a scroll of Phantom Steed to add another creature to your menagerie. This would be better than using Find Steed as a mount, and you could instead use it as a combatant while you ride your Phantom Steed. Also, I think taking Unseen Servant at level 1 could be thematic as well. This could be a non-combatant ghost type pokemon that you summon to help you out with non-combat challenges.
Overall I love your build! Even if the pets are squishy, they're easy to bring back, and you really feel like a pokemon trainer when you have 6 different creatures at your disposal to fight with.
Ooh that sounds spicy
Thanks! And nice tip :)
NGL, in 5e the pets mechanics are so gimped that if I was gonna go Pokemon Trainer I'd build to make the party my "Pokemon" as a Halfling, take Bountiful Luck, and multiclass with Clockwork Soul Sorcerer 1 / Order (or Peace) Cleric 1 / Mastermind Rogue 3 / Divination Wizard 2 / Lore Bard X so he can grant his allies attack advantage ever round as a bonus action while your owl grants another advantage, use reactions to either nerf enemy rolls, shift the balance of advantage and disadvantage in the party's favor, or rescue allies from critical fails as needed, grant allies bonus reaction attacks while Blessing or healing them (or give a semi-permanent quasi-Bless), and of course regular Vicious Mockery. Downside is this is insanely MAD especially when considering survivability to get the whole 9 yards, and the sheer impact on probability might get a DM to throw a DMG at you if you're not a fair hand at God-Wizard levels of impact underestimation.
Kinda sad that adding Ancestral Guardian rage with a Whip to emasculate an enemy every turn would destroy all spell advantage and spellcasting, oh well the Vicious Mockery and Cutting Words combo is almost as good.
Yeah! I waited for this one )
Love this build. So much fun. One thing that you could do to get find steed also is to take ritual caster and add that to your ritual spells at some point since it is a ritual spell. For anyone who doesn’t want to take the bard levels. And I believe this build included that feet from the start so it’s not too much of a sacrifice
find steed isn't a ritual spell.
Nice, great idea
Someone else probably Pointed it out already but find familiar can deliver touch spells so magic igniciate with shocking grasp gets that damage for lvs 1 and 2
This is very cool. Well done. Id love to see what you could do to optimise an open hand monk in the later levels. Monk is usually considered a bad choice for multiclassing, but I reckon you'd be able to come up with something.
Sounds like a good "shorts" episode :)
Just found your videos today and I just had to subscribe! great work. I would love to see you optimize the classic re-roller type, ya know, lucky feat, diviner portents, halfling luck. I don't know how many other abilities let you re-roll but Itd be cool to see how many you can work in
Thanks, glad you're enjoying! I'll add this to the list!
Love this build. I *might* have run Druid 4 before going Bard to get the Resilient Con then jump over. Keeps your spell slots up higher than Ranger does.
You're a level late on getting Magical Secrets, but having that concentration earlier is helpful like you said. I would definitely do it through Druid instead of Ranger though, but that keeps you from getting Find Greater Steed. I don't typically get campaigns above 15 so I'm less worried about it.
Love this!
Personally I love the idea of a gnome or halfling running around with this build
This raises the question:How would you powerbuild a Fiend-Summoning character?
/low whistle - I haven't dug in much, but will add the idea to the list of potential future episodes!
Step 1: summon demons cause devils are too much to deal with most times.
Summon greater demon is awesome
For going deeper in cleric for the undead, ghost Pokemon are a thing. A cute little duskull should be awesome.
I think this is a singleplayer only character.
I just imagine being someone else in this party and having this character take up two thirds of the entire round and I dont think its fun to watch.
It sure is fun as hell to play though. I'm gonna keep this in mind if I ever feel a need to really piss off my table. :D
Those pokemon are gonna be dragon bbq. love the theme for the build though.
like other have says maybe take a few level of warlock for pact of the chain for a better familiar but this require 3 level. So instead you could take just 1 level of warlock whit the pact of the Raven Queen ( Unearthed Arcana 30) for the Sentinel Raven ( i like to imagine having a Murkrow on my shoulder) you get. this use the stat block of a raven alway obey your command (no action in combat) and can talk telepathically with it at a range of 100 ft. whaen the raven is on your sholder you get darkvision 30 ft + a bonus to perception equal to your Cha mod and the raven cannot die or take damage.
if the raven is slain in battle you get advantage on every attack for 24h again the killer and to recall the raven you just need a short or long rest (no cost/spell).
ps sorry for my english it is not my first language and i dont write it very often.
Familiar Enhancer I - VIII. Definitely sooooo good for this build. From the Compediums of Magic I - IV❤
As a DM I was brainstorming on beast master builds for one of my PCs, and noticed some redundancy with the 7th level Exceptional training if you are using the Primal Companion option feature, so I came up with a small replacement homebrew version for Exceptional training and I am curious to hear your thoughts :) I think what is really cool about it is that it really plays into the fantasy of training your pet, but your pet only being able to remember so much. But also into the fantasy of being the master of your pet, shouting trained commands at it in RP.
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Beginning at 7th level, your beast companion can use its bonus action to take the Dash, Dodge, Hide or Search action.
Furthermore you can spend one hour during a long rest to teach your beast companion a verbal command that orders it to use its action and bonus action with the same command in a specific order that you choose. The beast companion needs to succeed a DC 10 intelligence check for it to successfully learn the command. The maximum amount of commands you can teach your beast companion is 2, after that, if a new command is learned another must be forgotten. This amount increases by one at 12th and once more at 17th level.
Once upon your turn, as a bonus action, or by replacing one of your attacks when you take the attack action, you can issue such a trained command to your pet, this command is executed by the beast companion in the exact order that you specified during the training. You can use its movement in between actions if necessary to accomplish the command.
In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
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Basically, this allows you to make interesting commands like "Search and Destroy" which is search as BA and attack as action, or "Pounce": Hide as BA + attack, or "Retreat": Disengage + Dash as BA. or "Cautious" Attack + Dodge as BA.
What do you think, could it be too strong to allow this as a DM?
thanks for the shadow sorlock bard Idea.
I love the collecting concept. Unfortunately, for both Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster, Speak with Animals isn't on the wizard's spell list but no matter, but that may leave space for other collecting.
With urchin background, as others have said, you already get one pet rat.
Find Familiar can give a second. (I personally think the help action of creatures like owls could require their prolonged presence).
With Magic Initiate, Mage Hand could be a third collectible and one that could let the familiar, fly (in addition to a rat familiar's superior ability to get to the other side of things). Magic Initiate could also give the potentially urchin-themed infestation cantrip.
Ritual caster, alternatively, could cast for collectibles unseen servant or tenser's disk. Though unseen, perhaps the servants could be flavoured as Snow White style, helpful animals. The disk could be great perhaps when the small (custom lineage) urchin is riding that ranger stead, 5-6 ritual-produced disks might be produced on rotation as mounts for other characters or to carry treasure (as in more collecting).
Anyone that ever needs to argue getting Find familiar in Feytouched should argue, that Bless is so strong anyways regarding DPR comparable to the Help action that a familiar can take. Familiars are more flavor than power compared to Bless. Hot take: if your DM doesn't understand how good Feytouched Bless and it's numbers are, and how many headaches they are saving themself by giving you FF, critique that and run. :D
Great video :)
Been trying to adapt this to a bg3 build, was thinking lvl 5 beast master ranger(find familiar+buffed companion), lvl 1 wizard(access to any wiz spell you have slots and can find scrolls for, notably conjure elemental/minor elemental), and then either lvl 6 lore bard(all the reasons you mentioned, albeit a smaller magical secrets list) or lvl 6 war cleric(aid, crusader's mantle). You could also try druid to 7 after ranger for conjure woodland being/minor elemental, but you'd be losing out on the support potential of cleric/bard. In bg3 conjured elementals don't require concentration in bg3 and last until long rest, plus your ranger companion scales with proficiency+ranger lvl instead of wis AND benefits from hunter's mark.
Thematically for a Pokémon trainer, I love conjure animals for elk (heard of Tauros) even in this build, you can use it as more of a niche tactic when you're out of wild shale and don't have time to set up. Though you're definitely right its way better with shepherd
I really love this, I think it would be cool if you did this again and maybe use another class you dive into more maybe not use a class you've used here and replace it with something else. Maybe you was like a wizard and try to get the pets a wizard can get like find familiar like you did in this build but you can have it delivered touch spells so you don't have to physically attack Target, you can use the homunculus spell the wizard has, a similacrum, the create Magen, and maybe try to find a way of throwing in another pet or two from other classes. Something I've looked at and from what I can find you can use a necromancer and cast create magent without the negative effects and more or less haven't infinite number of them. Another idea that I had along with that is you can create an infinite number of them when you get your 9th level spells you can true polymorph them into something else they keep their personality which the personality of the Magen is to protect its master so you can have all kinds of fun with that. Or maybe you could find another way of doing something like that and add another class in to give it another pet from something else that would be cool. I know you could use wish to mimic a a spell so maybe you could use wish to wish for a greater steed. But you could possibly find another way of doing something like this and make it better and I would really be excited about that. I know this is really long message and I'm sorry, I posted a message on another video I watched of yours and somebody directing me to this video and I loved it but I also had my own ideas for something like this but different. I like to call this guy the minion master, I've never actually had a chance to play this character but it'd be cool if you built something using this idea and did the number crunching and just see what you think of it and maybe what other people think of it
You could also sacrifice your attack to let your boar charge and attack, and use your bonus action to control the wildfire spirit.
if we wanted to use the druid's find familiar from their wildshape, we could free up that first feat for something else. inspiring leader, maybe? you'll still have the attacking issue at level 1 but you can get the wildfire spirit and familiar at level 2 instead of the beast at level 3 with the current path. it also gets you the summoned beast earlier and it can scale the first time when you get your beast companion.
Lot's of great inspiration from this video, ty as always
Playing a spores Druid w/Fey Touched (hunter's mark)... took Summon Beast. TcoE-heavy melee build.
1 minor critique: You can't gain Ritual Casting from taking Fey Touched. So you're asking for a _double-stretch_ from the DM, there...
He's not asking for Ritual Casting, he's asking to be able to pick Find Familiar as the other 1st-level spell. This needs DM permission as it's not from divination or enchantment school. At least I think that's what was being said.
@@dustinhurl1004 oh okay I thought he'd mentioned both. Thanks 👍
Or you can try your luck at hustling a Pokesquad of beasts using Animal Friendship, thus becoming a true pokemon master.
The Shadow Sorcerer gets Houndoom so it's really up to which Pokemon you like(although I feel like the shapeshifting abilities of an Imp or Quasit familiar give you flexibility to Choose different Pokemon for each form and the Familiar is able to do more and feels more like an extra Pokemon than a random Helper).
Artificer is another alternative, they get a metal familiar of sorts that could easily be a Magneton or whatever Metal Pokemon you like(you bring the object to life so you could literally make a sculpture in the exact form of the intended Pokemon). Can also choose appearance of Battle Smiths' Steel Defender or Artillerist's Eldritch Cannon.
In terms of depending on your Dm's cooperation, going deeper into Peace Cleric(lvl6) will let you distribute damage so the pets can all stay alive, especially if you have a cooperative Barbarian or other meatshield on your side.
little thing about the ritual caster bit in the first level choices. what class are you choosing for the ritual caster that gives both find familiar and speak with animals. unless you go 3 deep in warlock and have pact of tome with the book of ancient secrets choice of invocation where you can have ANY class rituals
A rather fun and impressive build. My biggest concern though would be dealing with damage resistance. Does this have a reliable way of overcoming it? I know the Shepherd subclass at lvl 6 is granted the ability for their summons attacks to be magical for this reason.
Thanks! A definite potential weakness. I think it'd be something you'd want to discuss with your DM and, if it looked like most monsters were going to be showing up with Magic resistance, either find a way to homebrew a solution, or change plans and "respec" to Shepherd or take more levels in Ranger to get your pet magical attacks etc.
With this build, the spell aid is actually needed for survivability
Awesome! Was interested in how a build like this could work. As for weapon, I’d say be the master of the Net. Then all the animals dogpile on them. :)
Great idea! A very under-appreciated item!
And totally missed that the net would lean into the character’s ethos “gotta catchem all”. So on the nose.