Getting into DnD with a group of good friends from Church as an excuse to hang out and keep the group small and focused. I used you as an example to the wife that DND is for clean cut, married with kids guys too. To quote Treant Monk, DnD is for everyone.
I once fiddled with the idea of a fire-immune grappler that could restrain a creature inside a fire. After realizing there was no easy way to get consistent fire immunity, I concluded that the best way was to be a Moon Druid and grapple as a fire elemental. Additionally, one can transform into an air elemental, and perform the grapple + spike growth combo with its hovering speed.
Love this build lol. If doing the Contingency tech at higher levels, you probably want to make the trigger when you activate Chromatic Warding instead of when you grapple someone. Would stop you from accidentally baking yourself in a fight where you don't actually want to Heat Metal.
I can definitely see a good laughing moment with an NPC or a PC just for kicks giving out hugs and the surprise of the receiver when they are suddenly feeling warm. 😂how long can you stand this embrace?
I love the theme of this build using the forge cleric route. It might be slightly worse damage but the RP potential of that subclass with this build is off the chain.
My table has a fun house rule that makes this even more nuts (and makes a better argument for an artificer dip): the resistance ladder, if you get two instances of resistance, it becomes immunity and immunity plus resistance means the damage heals you. So if you get the resistant armor infusion you’ve got permanent immunity with any race that gives you resistance. Throw on fire shield and you can also heal from the heat metal you're throwing on yourself. It's a stupidly easy to break houserule but its crazy fun.
Though picking up elemental adept at our table means you'd have to go full heal from fire damage to stay immune because it also drops immunity to resistance.
Since you mentioned it I want to take this opportunity to remind you of a build I suggested a while back, the Forge Cleric Money Machine! The money machine is a build centered on the gift of the forge ability to make objects based on a set value and how you can use it to infinity craft items with with Fabricate which can create objects based on available materials aka by volume. You use gift of the forge to create a 1000 pound block of iron and then use that to fabricate high value metal items like suits of plate armor or racks of weapons like double blades scimitars. I recommend mixing in a bunch of warlock level 4 spell slots back on a short rest a a couple level of sorcerer and the Eldritch adept feat to get some sorcery point to convert some warlock slots into lvl one spell slots when you have down time (which you will have if you pick a short sleeping race like a warforged or elf)
I have a similar idea about a character made to create as many objects as possible, mainly focused on Creation Bard, but also Forge Cleric dip, and maybe some others like Artificer/Transmutation Wizard etc.
While it would be extremely sub-optimal, I'd have a hard time not picking Investiture of Flame as a Magical Secrets here. Immunity to Fire AND fire damage to all creatures that come within 5 feet of you? That's this character summed up perfectly!
I'd love to see you revisit this concept at some point with three levels in Armourer to get a suit of armour that "expands to fit you", so that you can remain covered in metal armour when you wild shape, then grab Moon Druid, so you can get your fire immunity from wildshaping into a Fire Elemental. Not as strong at low level, but at 13th level it gets pretty great.
that wouldn't work. The armor would meld in your wildshape form. Besides, druids cant wear metal. Finally. you can do pretty much the same with the Fire Elemental alone. Not worth investing 3 levels in an INT class just to get the armor.
@@tomscut7820 So, the line in Armourer you're missing is under Arcane Armour: "It also expands to cover your entire body," which allows the unique interaction that the Armourer can maintain their armour while Wild Shaping. Neat rules subtlety. Jeremy Crawford cleared up that Druids can, in fact, wear metal armour, and the suggestion that they can't is just flavour text. Fire Elemental can do something similar to this, but because it comes from a different source, the effects stack, hence the build suggestion. Thanks for checking the interactions though! I appreciate the time and thought! =]
This build represents why, for as much as we all rightfully love BG3...you can't make as many mechanics in a game as a DM can just make rulings on. I can't imagine BG3 having to take this into consideration (come to think of it, grappiling isn't even a thing in BG3, I only now just realized lol)...but a DM can just say "yeah sure" and that is it.
I wish there was a way to make casting immolation on yourself work on grappled enemies for this build via magical secrets. Wall of fire could TOTALLY work though and be thematically consistent. Could you move enemies out of the wall and then back in for extra damage while grappling them? :)
Perhaps not too viable but you could take metamagic adept and pick up quickened spell. Then on turn one you can activate Chromatic Warding, Action Surge and make grapple checks, then quicken a casting of Heat Metal with your bonus action. You only get 2 sorcery points per long rest but Chromatic Warding is also a once per long rest feature. Pretty fun build!
I'm surprised you didn't mention metamagic adept as an option for feats. You would be able to cast heat metal as a bonus action, possibly speeding up all the setup for this build a little.
Song for this build should be Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. : I fell into a burning ring of fire. I went down, down, down, And the flames went higher. And it burns, burns, burns, The ring of fire, the ring of fire. Yeah...you make a ring with your arms when you grapple enemies and they burn burn burn...in your ring of fire!
A really cool thing with this tactic is the potential for pulling it off as a team up. You could play a straight class Dragonborn Rune Knight Fighter and as long as one person in your party plays a Bard or a Druid (or a forge Cleric) your set. 👍🏼 I feel like this would be a pretty easy to get a friend to do.
Love this build and excited that there's a glossary of your builds in the works! Ive been working on a build thatll work for artificer/blood hunter since they share important stats and haven't found anything I love yet. Hoping theres one you did that I can check out for inspiration!
Love your videos please make a fun and powerful PingPong build if possible by using tempest domain, echo knight and the chromatic feat that allows you to add lightning to your strikes Please!!
Love this so much. This guy is likely a boss killer and a hilarious one at that. It conjures images to me of this draconic humanoid that is holding on for dear life as this massive creature flails around trying to dislodge this burning creature. So good. Chef’s kiss!
I love how much we end up with similar ideas. I made a Grung Battlerager barbarian who licks his spikes before giving out hugs. Also talking about the Immunity thing since Grung are immune to poison, the cloudkill thing could still work (though someone else will need to cast it obviously). Also applicable, the Dragon Masks if your DM is generous enough, since having immunity would bump up to healing.
Worth noting in terms of taking that shield dip that there are a number of sorcerer subclasses that work really well with this build for one reason or another. In fact, almost every one has some sort of justification. The obvious thematic choice of draconic exists, though you only effectively gain 1 hp and no other real benefits from the subclass. The most potent from a numbers standpoint would be Wild Magic, which gives you the ability to on-demand advantage on your grapple check or any other check if need be, and it's worth noting that this is one of the few builds that actually might LIKE the self-fireball roll on the wild magic table. That said, several other classes still provide good benefits. Aberrant Mind gets Arms of Hadar which could be useful for dragging grappled enemies away from other enemies, and the telepathy is a cool, if not necessarily useful for the build, feature. That said, bards already get up to all sorts of shenanigans without telepathy.... Clockwork Soul's level 1 feature is generally good for support, scales with proficiency instead of class, and can situationally negate enemy advantage to break grapple which, while niche, could be clutch. Divine Soul would potentially give you access to a level 1 cleric spell if you wanted and the 2d4 to a saving throw, which would most easily be applied to keeping concentration. While less versatile than Tides of Chaos, it's probably a more consistent buff when you do need it (I'm a sucker for this subclass tho so I'm biased). Lunar potentially gives free shield and would allow you to double-cast the sacred flame pretty consistently if you have 2 enemies grappled, notably a pretty strong buff if you choose to go for a bard subclass that doesn't give extra attack and you also choose not to push for fighter 5. Shadow has the (albeit not great) cheat death feature, and the darkness spell which could potentially serve as a silly disruption spell in the right situation, especially if you are grappling an enemy that simply won't give up on attacking an ally. Worth mentioning that Shadow is significantly more valuable with a Warlock in the party too, as you can hold one or two creatures in the darkness while the Warlock blasts them from safety. And finally (I just went in order on dnd beyond for this second paragraph), but potentially my favorite one, though it relies very heavily on dm interpretation: Storm. This would enable you to fly 10 feet after casting a leveled spell, and if your dm is kind and allows you to bring the grappled target(s) with you, it would become an incredible way to navigate the battlefield while dragging your poor victims along with you. Just wanted to dump all of the ideas here, for anyone who wants to play this and wouldn't mind the variety. Personally I'd take the sorc dip at level 5 if I was playing this, as you have all of your "components" to the build at level 4 so going sorc there isn't sacrificing as much for the value that shield gives. That said, if there is another power spike you want more, then many of these options scale fairly well.
On the subject of setting up at the start of combat, my dnd group is heavily homebrewing and one of the things my dm does is allow barbarians to rage for free when initiative is rolled if they like. It's really nice to have that bonus action handy on round one, even if it's just for an extra weapon attack or something.
If you did pick up Simulation, it would have your statistics, meaning it would have fire resistance and, for a minute per day, fire immunity, meaning you can make the permafrost Olaf snowman.
This is better than my transmutation battle Smith build idea. The idea is that you give a transmutor's stone of fire resistance to your steel watcher, then before or during combat, you cast heat metal on the steel watcher and instruct it to grapple an enemy
Your RAW weapon talk reminded me of when Athrogate met Pwent in The Ghost King book. Athrogate: "Get out yer weapon." Pwent: "I am me weapon, ye dolt!"
I saw the title and it just made me think of my bladesinger wizard. Taught her armor of agathys with the runeshaper feat and the last battle i did with her i literally hugged the enemy to death. She's a shadar kai and agent of the raven queen so, while being accidentally extremely creepy, has a very positive outlook on death and if she must kill she tries to be as peaceful and nurturing as possible to comfort the soon to be deceased. So when a bandit stabbed her my armor of agathys was enough to kill him so she just wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, pat his head, and told him to he at peace and rejoice because soon he would meet her queen. Then as his body froze in her arms the other bandits freaked out, dropped their weapons, and surrendered haha.
I was surprised you didn't consider a Sorcerer dip, since is Charisma based, has the shield spell and, most important has metamagic, that would allow you to quicken Heat Metal and reduce your set up time, which is somewhat big with this character IMO
Just for flavour I would consider picking fire shield for my magical secrets. I adds a little bit of damage for every enemie that hits us and besides wearing hot red armor you are literally on fire.
FYI, heat metal gives disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls to any creature that takes the damage while wearing or holding the item, so you would have disadvantage on your grapple checks when trying to pull this off without the fire immunity being active.
What's up cobester? Me and my older brother have been tossing around the idea of doing a board and sword fighter build using the defensive duelist feat. If you use it and the bait and switch tactic from BM your ac could become mid to high 20s. Combo that with doing a Dodge action and the shield master fear and you have a 10 foot wall.
You should think about valor bar at Bard 14 because it is very good at action economy. The bonus action attack is probably only worth grappling with and this is one of the few builds that could use that to grapple.
My guesses: Grappler build focused on dealing the most damage from the fire shield spell. One level of fighter, then Swords or Valor Bard, expertise in athletics. Magical secrets Fire shield and Armor of Agathys
The description of the capabilities of this character at the end sounds awesome. And big plus it's not a one trick pony, but can do a lot of fun things, even trying to seduce those NPCs immune to fire and literally starting the fire in bed (hopefully lasting longer than one minute). ;) "We didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning!" would be my pick.
Before it even hit which spellcaster you were gonna multiclass into I knew it had to be bard. Primarily for the sole image in my head of this character singing Elvis’ burning love while approaching and then grappling the first victim, dancing the whole way there
this is the one build where I would talk with my DM about the climbing on huge creatures rules from the dungeon master. This allows you to forego getting fighter levels, meaning you can actually start Cleric (or start fighter and only take 1 level).
I'm surprised you didn't invest in getting fire shield for some automatic damage when enemies attack you. That's some free 2d8 fire or cold damage upon getting attacked and as you said, you ARE getting attacked by those guys you are grappling and you can potentially set it up before combat breaks out.
As much as I love Contingency, I would be remiss to not mention it can only store 5th level or lower 😔 That said, it is a generally great idea that can be set up a few days in advance!
I think it would be worth talking about the part of heat metal that talks about having disadvantage on attacks and ability checks. It technically says that you have to take damage from spell. So if you are immune, you don't have this effect. But you won't always have your immunity up. So hopefully you won't fail your con save, but if you do, you get disadvantage on your grapple, which would cancel your advantage (if you have it). Overall not too bad, but it might happen.
Usualy I wach your builds and take ideas, learn mechanics, or just adapt them for my preferences. But this I'll play it untoched, the fun of a red dragon hugging enemies is totaly min-maxed xD
I know it's not how the spell is written but I would argue I along with most DMs would allow the whole "disadvantage if you don't let go of the burning thing" granting them disadvantage to escape the grapple as well as to hit you.
Love the build! Thank you for another great video! Just wondering, with the introduction of the book of many things, would you use the cartomancer feature with any of your nova builds? Would you make a build around it? For some reason, I feel like it could play really well, with a bladesinger fighter dip, for one hell of a nova round.
If your DM says you can use blade flourishes with unarmed strikes, it might be worth pitching to allow Dueling to work with unarmed strikes as well, maybe as long as you are wielding a shield in the other hand?
This video gave me an interesting idea that ends up not going along with the Heat Metal hug tactic. If you change lineage from Dragonborn to Thri-Kreen, you can grapple up to two enemies while simultaneously dual-wielding short swords in your secondary arms. Grapple two enemies, shove them prone, and then hold them down while you stab them repeatedly with advantage while they have disadvantage to attack you back.
One of the spells I would take with magical secrets would be Counterspell for if your grappling a spell caster. They most likely won't be able escape your grapple with a skill check so they'll more likely try to teleport away so you can keep the in your very warm embrace lol
Now you’ve got me thinking about a grappling Dragonborn Evoker dropping fireballs on his own head, standing up, shaking off the ashes of whomever he had pinned, then running off to roast the next pair. But really, the Evoker wouldn’t need the immunity since he could just sculpt his way out of it. But in line with this build, going Forge instead of Bard and laying down Wall of Fire on you and your pinned enemies? Cackling right in their faces as they burn…
I'm doesn't watch this video fully, but when Colby descrybes heat metal he doen't adress fact, that if hold or wear heated item, you have disadvantage om attack rolls and ability checks. As a DM, in this situation with fire immunity, I will rule this without penalties, but I think RAW if you wear heated armor - dis applies.
this is correct, I'd hope that any sensible DM would do the same and rule it out but an DM with a " the players vs the DM" play style would screw this build over
@@jugglejunk Nots sure 100% about that, because wording specifies "if a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn." Creature must take con save if it takes damage, but disadvantage part is separate from first and doesn't specify that target needs to take damage. Stil, disadvantage only apers with damage makes more sense. Anyway, I don't like this spell, it has very restrictive usefullness, and when it worked, kinda broken no save debuff for metal-wearing target until concentration is lost. Hope, on next DnD iteration WotC rework this.
@@GoodMan639To my understanding it's like a logic train, if A (take damage), then B (CON save or drop if possible) and C (disadvantage on attacks and checks). This has been talked about by other people with good understanding of the rules as well.
Interesting question for the DMs in the comments. Let’s say you were doing this concept, what if I tried to grapple a huge or bigger creature without giants growth. Obviously I can’t actually grapple them but could I just sort of… hang on? No movement impeding no other benefits of grapple but if I can hang onto them they are taking that damage lol.
You missed this aspect of Heat Metal: "If a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn." Since a grappled creature cannot drop the hot object (YOU, sorry to objectify you), they now have disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls until the start of your next turn, including checks to escape your grapple! Unfortunately, RAW, this would also give you disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks (matters less for attack rolls since its till the start of your next turn, so you can make attacks before using the bonus action to apply Heat Metal damage), which means you have disadvantage on checks to keep the creature grappled. As a DM, I would just rule that creatures immune to fire damage don't suffer disadvantage, but this of course depends from table to table. Anyway, just a neat bonus to the spell debuffing your enemies (and you but only slightly).
Getting into DnD with a group of good friends from Church as an excuse to hang out and keep the group small and focused. I used you as an example to the wife that DND is for clean cut, married with kids guys too. To quote Treant Monk, DnD is for everyone.
I have the same it is great.
Welcome to the hobby!
Yeah! Welcome! And Colby probably won't see this but I played one of his videos for my wife and she goes.. "He's got such a smooth, calming voice.." 😅
We all love sleeping to Cody's smooth voice
Our church group is always the most lively. 👍🏼
I once fiddled with the idea of a fire-immune grappler that could restrain a creature inside a fire. After realizing there was no easy way to get consistent fire immunity, I concluded that the best way was to be a Moon Druid and grapple as a fire elemental.
Additionally, one can transform into an air elemental, and perform the grapple + spike growth combo with its hovering speed.
Mentions "Mass Suggestion" like you would only tell the entire opposition to walk away instead of telling them "free hugs 😊, come over here".
That does sound like a reasonable suggestion
The intro alone makes this sound like a wonderfully silly and also fairly grim build. I love it.
Love this build lol. If doing the Contingency tech at higher levels, you probably want to make the trigger when you activate Chromatic Warding instead of when you grapple someone. Would stop you from accidentally baking yourself in a fight where you don't actually want to Heat Metal.
One of my DMs likes to do a round where everybody sets up as long as surprise wasn't there. Meaning the bad guy also got to buff himself up lol
I can definitely see a good laughing moment with an NPC or a PC just for kicks giving out hugs and the surprise of the receiver when they are suddenly feeling warm. 😂how long can you stand this embrace?
Now THAT is The Karlach! 😊 🔥 🫂
I have faith that one day you’ll make an echo fighter build! Great video as always!
Next week 😉
I love the theme of this build using the forge cleric route. It might be slightly worse damage but the RP potential of that subclass with this build is off the chain.
I love the idea of a Forge Cleric where your armor itself is somehow a forge, and Heat Metal is activating it.
My table has a fun house rule that makes this even more nuts (and makes a better argument for an artificer dip): the resistance ladder, if you get two instances of resistance, it becomes immunity and immunity plus resistance means the damage heals you.
So if you get the resistant armor infusion you’ve got permanent immunity with any race that gives you resistance. Throw on fire shield and you can also heal from the heat metal you're throwing on yourself.
It's a stupidly easy to break houserule but its crazy fun.
Though picking up elemental adept at our table means you'd have to go full heal from fire damage to stay immune because it also drops immunity to resistance.
The Warm Hug: D&D Build #161
Level 01: (see above) [fighter 1, fighting-style & race]
Level 02: (see above) [bard 1]
Silvery barbarian mob (@16:31)
Level 03: (@17:37) [bard 2]
Level 04: (@18:04) [bard 3 & subclass]
Level 05: (@24:05) [fighter 2]
Level 06: (@25:05) [fighter 3 & subclass]
Level 07: (see above) [bard 4 & ASI]
Level 08: (@33:54) [bard 5]
Level 09: (@36:22) [bard 6]
Level 10: (see above) [bard 7]
Level 11: (@39:20) [bard 8 & ASI]
Level 12: (@40:29) [bard 9]
Level 13: (@41:19) [bard 10]
Level 14: (see above) [bard 11]
Level 15: (@44:45) [bard 12 & ASI]
Level 16: (@45:38) [bard 13]
Level 17: (@45:55) [bard 14]
Magical Secrets: Armor of Agathys
Metamagic Adept: Transmuted Spell
Alchemy Jug: Oil
Add some fire retaliation to those grappled guys hitting you!!!
Add a fire shield in there and watch them burn
With that Alchemy Jug, id be tempted to name my character Denethor
@@P10NE3R1111 U gotta take fly too.
But not feather fall
@@GentleBreeze-72might as well call yourself Icarus
@@kikikillian1208 true. On second thought i mistook the spell. Jump was enough XD
Since you mentioned it I want to take this opportunity to remind you of a build I suggested a while back, the Forge Cleric Money Machine! The money machine is a build centered on the gift of the forge ability to make objects based on a set value and how you can use it to infinity craft items with with Fabricate which can create objects based on available materials aka by volume.
You use gift of the forge to create a 1000 pound block of iron and then use that to fabricate high value metal items like suits of plate armor or racks of weapons like double blades scimitars. I recommend mixing in a bunch of warlock level 4 spell slots back on a short rest a a couple level of sorcerer and the Eldritch adept feat to get some sorcery point to convert some warlock slots into lvl one spell slots when you have down time (which you will have if you pick a short sleeping race like a warforged or elf)
I have a similar idea about a character made to create as many objects as possible, mainly focused on Creation Bard, but also Forge Cleric dip, and maybe some others like Artificer/Transmutation Wizard etc.
While it would be extremely sub-optimal, I'd have a hard time not picking Investiture of Flame as a Magical Secrets here. Immunity to Fire AND fire damage to all creatures that come within 5 feet of you? That's this character summed up perfectly!
RPing this guy as a larger than life wrestler type is def the way to go right
I'd love to see you revisit this concept at some point with three levels in Armourer to get a suit of armour that "expands to fit you", so that you can remain covered in metal armour when you wild shape, then grab Moon Druid, so you can get your fire immunity from wildshaping into a Fire Elemental. Not as strong at low level, but at 13th level it gets pretty great.
that wouldn't work. The armor would meld in your wildshape form. Besides, druids cant wear metal. Finally. you can do pretty much the same with the Fire Elemental alone. Not worth investing 3 levels in an INT class just to get the armor.
@@tomscut7820 So, the line in Armourer you're missing is under Arcane Armour: "It also expands to cover your entire body," which allows the unique interaction that the Armourer can maintain their armour while Wild Shaping. Neat rules subtlety.
Jeremy Crawford cleared up that Druids can, in fact, wear metal armour, and the suggestion that they can't is just flavour text.
Fire Elemental can do something similar to this, but because it comes from a different source, the effects stack, hence the build suggestion.
Thanks for checking the interactions though! I appreciate the time and thought! =]
Such a cool concept!
This time I disagree on the name. Whoever suggested "The Panini Press" deserves a medal. xD
A heat medal
I often prefer one of the suggestions more than the final name for the build. Just one of those things
Love it when you do builds with an interesting concept and novel way of fighting. Fun to see what you did with this
This build represents why, for as much as we all rightfully love BG3...you can't make as many mechanics in a game as a DM can just make rulings on. I can't imagine BG3 having to take this into consideration (come to think of it, grappiling isn't even a thing in BG3, I only now just realized lol)...but a DM can just say "yeah sure" and that is it.
Again, you hit this out of the park! A great Larger than Life character that'd be a BLAST to play!!!
I wish there was a way to make casting immolation on yourself work on grappled enemies for this build via magical secrets. Wall of fire could TOTALLY work though and be thematically consistent. Could you move enemies out of the wall and then back in for extra damage while grappling them? :)
Perhaps not too viable but you could take metamagic adept and pick up quickened spell. Then on turn one you can activate Chromatic Warding, Action Surge and make grapple checks, then quicken a casting of Heat Metal with your bonus action. You only get 2 sorcery points per long rest but Chromatic Warding is also a once per long rest feature. Pretty fun build!
Thanks Colbs!
I'm surprised you didn't mention metamagic adept as an option for feats. You would be able to cast heat metal as a bonus action, possibly speeding up all the setup for this build a little.
Song for this build should be Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. :
I fell into a burning ring of fire.
I went down, down, down,
And the flames went higher.
And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.
Yeah...you make a ring with your arms when you grapple enemies and they burn burn burn...in your ring of fire!
He must have really been regretting eating a spicy meal when he wrote that.
A really cool thing with this tactic is the potential for pulling it off as a team up. You could play a straight class Dragonborn Rune Knight Fighter and as long as one person in your party plays a Bard or a Druid (or a forge Cleric) your set. 👍🏼 I feel like this would be a pretty easy to get a friend to do.
Love this build and excited that there's a glossary of your builds in the works! Ive been working on a build thatll work for artificer/blood hunter since they share important stats and haven't found anything I love yet. Hoping theres one you did that I can check out for inspiration!
Not yet!
Such a fun build! I really like this more niche ideas brought to life!
Cool, early bird gets the warm hug!
Love your videos please make a fun and powerful PingPong build if possible by using tempest domain, echo knight and the chromatic feat that allows you to add lightning to your strikes Please!!
Thank you for your videos! I was so excited to see this build since yesterday
You know, you could even argue that unarmed strikes/natural weapons could also trigger the heat netal damage like how some monster work
Love the buids.
Love this so much. This guy is likely a boss killer and a hilarious one at that. It conjures images to me of this draconic humanoid that is holding on for dear life as this massive creature flails around trying to dislodge this burning creature. So good. Chef’s kiss!
Any engagement is good engagement! Love ya!
Awesome concept build! I will try this in AL and have some very unorthodox fun!
yesSss nothing like a warm cup of dnd build in the morning!
I love how much we end up with similar ideas. I made a Grung Battlerager barbarian who licks his spikes before giving out hugs. Also talking about the Immunity thing since Grung are immune to poison, the cloudkill thing could still work (though someone else will need to cast it obviously). Also applicable, the Dragon Masks if your DM is generous enough, since having immunity would bump up to healing.
Worth noting in terms of taking that shield dip that there are a number of sorcerer subclasses that work really well with this build for one reason or another. In fact, almost every one has some sort of justification. The obvious thematic choice of draconic exists, though you only effectively gain 1 hp and no other real benefits from the subclass. The most potent from a numbers standpoint would be Wild Magic, which gives you the ability to on-demand advantage on your grapple check or any other check if need be, and it's worth noting that this is one of the few builds that actually might LIKE the self-fireball roll on the wild magic table.
That said, several other classes still provide good benefits. Aberrant Mind gets Arms of Hadar which could be useful for dragging grappled enemies away from other enemies, and the telepathy is a cool, if not necessarily useful for the build, feature. That said, bards already get up to all sorts of shenanigans without telepathy.... Clockwork Soul's level 1 feature is generally good for support, scales with proficiency instead of class, and can situationally negate enemy advantage to break grapple which, while niche, could be clutch. Divine Soul would potentially give you access to a level 1 cleric spell if you wanted and the 2d4 to a saving throw, which would most easily be applied to keeping concentration. While less versatile than Tides of Chaos, it's probably a more consistent buff when you do need it (I'm a sucker for this subclass tho so I'm biased). Lunar potentially gives free shield and would allow you to double-cast the sacred flame pretty consistently if you have 2 enemies grappled, notably a pretty strong buff if you choose to go for a bard subclass that doesn't give extra attack and you also choose not to push for fighter 5. Shadow has the (albeit not great) cheat death feature, and the darkness spell which could potentially serve as a silly disruption spell in the right situation, especially if you are grappling an enemy that simply won't give up on attacking an ally. Worth mentioning that Shadow is significantly more valuable with a Warlock in the party too, as you can hold one or two creatures in the darkness while the Warlock blasts them from safety. And finally (I just went in order on dnd beyond for this second paragraph), but potentially my favorite one, though it relies very heavily on dm interpretation: Storm. This would enable you to fly 10 feet after casting a leveled spell, and if your dm is kind and allows you to bring the grappled target(s) with you, it would become an incredible way to navigate the battlefield while dragging your poor victims along with you.
Just wanted to dump all of the ideas here, for anyone who wants to play this and wouldn't mind the variety. Personally I'd take the sorc dip at level 5 if I was playing this, as you have all of your "components" to the build at level 4 so going sorc there isn't sacrificing as much for the value that shield gives. That said, if there is another power spike you want more, then many of these options scale fairly well.
love you too Colby! Your videos always brighten my day, keep it up and thanks for all the work you put into this
Fire Shield is an obvious magical secrets choice IMO
YES, also I could see a dip here to get hexblade and picking it up. (I think warlocks can get fire shield, idk)
On the subject of setting up at the start of combat, my dnd group is heavily homebrewing and one of the things my dm does is allow barbarians to rage for free when initiative is rolled if they like. It's really nice to have that bonus action handy on round one, even if it's just for an extra weapon attack or something.
If you did pick up Simulation, it would have your statistics, meaning it would have fire resistance and, for a minute per day, fire immunity, meaning you can make the permafrost Olaf snowman.
This is better than my transmutation battle Smith build idea. The idea is that you give a transmutor's stone of fire resistance to your steel watcher, then before or during combat, you cast heat metal on the steel watcher and instruct it to grapple an enemy
Magical secrets for fire shield!!!!
In spanish we will call this build el abrazador abrasador and I think it's beautiful.
Your RAW weapon talk reminded me of when Athrogate met Pwent in The Ghost King book. Athrogate: "Get out yer weapon." Pwent: "I am me weapon, ye dolt!"
I know this reference!
Thibbledorf Pwent hasn't been represented or emulated decently in D&D yet
I saw the title and it just made me think of my bladesinger wizard. Taught her armor of agathys with the runeshaper feat and the last battle i did with her i literally hugged the enemy to death. She's a shadar kai and agent of the raven queen so, while being accidentally extremely creepy, has a very positive outlook on death and if she must kill she tries to be as peaceful and nurturing as possible to comfort the soon to be deceased.
So when a bandit stabbed her my armor of agathys was enough to kill him so she just wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, pat his head, and told him to he at peace and rejoice because soon he would meet her queen. Then as his body froze in her arms the other bandits freaked out, dropped their weapons, and surrendered haha.
“Looong and slow, baby~” - Colby
Song theme for this build “I am the fire” Halestorm or that Buster Poindexter jam from the ‘80s “Hot hot hot” a dependable classic 😂
I was surprised you didn't consider a Sorcerer dip, since is Charisma based, has the shield spell and, most important has metamagic, that would allow you to quicken Heat Metal and reduce your set up time, which is somewhat big with this character IMO
16:40 man this is wholesome!
I liked Hot Blooded for the Outtakes song, also Light my Fire by the Doors :-) Great build!!!
this is one of my favorite builds it makes me smile.
In my group the party ranger had heat Metal cast on them, they then grappled the caster forcing both to take damage.
Indeed very unique build, thanks!
The song at the end should have come from Ed Sheeran 😊
Just for flavour I would consider picking fire shield for my magical secrets. I adds a little bit of damage for every enemie that hits us and besides wearing hot red armor you are literally on fire.
I’ve bought candles from them before! I found them from one of your older videos!!! They are so good 😭😭 On my way to buy some more
As a bard, needs to sing “Burn Baby Burn Disco Inferno” while hugging.
MARVELOUS! I wanna play it so, so badly now. I've got a character name already: Kraig'Nar.
Dude, your hair is great. I wish I still had hair that good. Fun build this week 🤘
FYI, heat metal gives disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls to any creature that takes the damage while wearing or holding the item, so you would have disadvantage on your grapple checks when trying to pull this off without the fire immunity being active.
What's up cobester? Me and my older brother have been tossing around the idea of doing a board and sword fighter build using the defensive duelist feat. If you use it and the bait and switch tactic from BM your ac could become mid to high 20s. Combo that with doing a Dodge action and the shield master fear and you have a 10 foot wall.
You should think about valor bar at Bard 14 because it is very good at action economy. The bonus action attack is probably only worth grappling with and this is one of the few builds that could use that to grapple.
My guesses:
Grappler build focused on dealing the most damage from the fire shield spell.
One level of fighter, then Swords or Valor Bard, expertise in athletics.
Magical secrets Fire shield and Armor of Agathys
The description of the capabilities of this character at the end sounds awesome. And big plus it's not a one trick pony, but can do a lot of fun things, even trying to seduce those NPCs immune to fire and literally starting the fire in bed (hopefully lasting longer than one minute). ;) "We didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning!" would be my pick.
Could see this as an artificer and psi warrior build as well. Love the channel.
Before it even hit which spellcaster you were gonna multiclass into I knew it had to be bard.
Primarily for the sole image in my head of this character singing Elvis’ burning love while approaching and then grappling the first victim, dancing the whole way there
Thanks Colby.
What a crazy fun idea!
this is the one build where I would talk with my DM about the climbing on huge creatures rules from the dungeon master. This allows you to forego getting fighter levels, meaning you can actually start Cleric (or start fighter and only take 1 level).
Don’t feel bad. Bard is soooo good!
Maybe Wall of Fire for magical secrets lvl 10, just for those moments you want to add some battlefield control and possibly get other targets as well.
Also since you are immune to fire you could hold them inside the wall of fire, that would look sick
I'm surprised you didn't invest in getting fire shield for some automatic damage when enemies attack you. That's some free 2d8 fire or cold damage upon getting attacked and as you said, you ARE getting attacked by those guys you are grappling and you can potentially set it up before combat breaks out.
This is just silly enough for me to want to do this for a one shot! Great vid
As much as I love Contingency, I would be remiss to not mention it can only store 5th level or lower 😔
That said, it is a generally great idea that can be set up a few days in advance!
This build should be called the brazen bull, they’re literally the torture machine
I think it would be worth talking about the part of heat metal that talks about having disadvantage on attacks and ability checks. It technically says that you have to take damage from spell. So if you are immune, you don't have this effect. But you won't always have your immunity up. So hopefully you won't fail your con save, but if you do, you get disadvantage on your grapple, which would cancel your advantage (if you have it). Overall not too bad, but it might happen.
Right - I wouldn’t plan on using the technique if we didn’t have immunity available but I suppose there might sometimes be reason to risk it
Usualy I wach your builds and take ideas, learn mechanics, or just adapt them for my preferences. But this I'll play it untoched, the fun of a red dragon hugging enemies is totaly min-maxed xD
I know it's not how the spell is written but I would argue I along with most DMs would allow the whole "disadvantage if you don't let go of the burning thing" granting them disadvantage to escape the grapple as well as to hit you.
Welcome Home!!!
Love the build! Thank you for another great video!
Just wondering, with the introduction of the book of many things, would you use the cartomancer feature with any of your nova builds? Would you make a build around it? For some reason, I feel like it could play really well, with a bladesinger fighter dip, for one hell of a nova round.
If your DM says you can use blade flourishes with unarmed strikes, it might be worth pitching to allow Dueling to work with unarmed strikes as well, maybe as long as you are wielding a shield in the other hand?
This video gave me an interesting idea that ends up not going along with the Heat Metal hug tactic. If you change lineage from Dragonborn to Thri-Kreen, you can grapple up to two enemies while simultaneously dual-wielding short swords in your secondary arms. Grapple two enemies, shove them prone, and then hold them down while you stab them repeatedly with advantage while they have disadvantage to attack you back.
Yep! The Praying Mantis: d4 #108
ruclips.net/video/rlq5Z1Cmbl4/видео.html
Olaf: *This is fine.*
bahaha
One of the spells I would take with magical secrets would be Counterspell for if your grappling a spell caster. They most likely won't be able escape your grapple with a skill check so they'll more likely try to teleport away so you can keep the in your very warm embrace lol
Fire Shield for Magical secrets perhaps?
Wow this I a weird concept. Have you tried implementing oil into it? Oil would help alot
You could have another player always have oil on them as their job would be to oil you down before your turn.
Damn, that may be too sexy of a build.
Now you’ve got me thinking about a grappling Dragonborn Evoker dropping fireballs on his own head, standing up, shaking off the ashes of whomever he had pinned, then running off to roast the next pair. But really, the Evoker wouldn’t need the immunity since he could just sculpt his way out of it.
But in line with this build, going Forge instead of Bard and laying down Wall of Fire on you and your pinned enemies? Cackling right in their faces as they burn…
@ 46:40 an unarmed slashing flourish kinda sounds like.....a three stooges slap!
That sounds so fun!
I'm doesn't watch this video fully, but when Colby descrybes heat metal he doen't adress fact, that if hold or wear heated item, you have disadvantage om attack rolls and ability checks. As a DM, in this situation with fire immunity, I will rule this without penalties, but I think RAW if you wear heated armor - dis applies.
this is correct, I'd hope that any sensible DM would do the same and rule it out but an DM with a " the players vs the DM" play style would screw this build over
That disadvantage is only if you take damage, but since you're immune, you're fine.
@@jugglejunk Nots sure 100% about that, because wording specifies "if a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn." Creature must take con save if it takes damage, but disadvantage part is separate from first and doesn't specify that target needs to take damage. Stil, disadvantage only apers with damage makes more sense. Anyway, I don't like this spell, it has very restrictive usefullness, and when it worked, kinda broken no save debuff for metal-wearing target until concentration is lost. Hope, on next DnD iteration WotC rework this.
@@GoodMan639To my understanding it's like a logic train, if A (take damage), then B (CON save or drop if possible) and C (disadvantage on attacks and checks). This has been talked about by other people with good understanding of the rules as well.
Flameo, hotman!
Nice of you to name a build after what watching one of your videos is like lol
On your setup round idea, Martian’s could take defensive stances or make intimidation checks
I've had some of my DMs give time for pre casting before challenging encounters...when it didn't interfere with the narrative
I liked the Vice and Fire
Greater Find Steed for a gryphon. just sayin
Also worth mentioning that you can grapple as a bonus action with tavern brawler.
Interesting question for the DMs in the comments. Let’s say you were doing this concept, what if I tried to grapple a huge or bigger creature without giants growth. Obviously I can’t actually grapple them but could I just sort of… hang on? No movement impeding no other benefits of grapple but if I can hang onto them they are taking that damage lol.
You missed this aspect of Heat Metal: "If a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn."
Since a grappled creature cannot drop the hot object (YOU, sorry to objectify you), they now have disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls until the start of your next turn, including checks to escape your grapple!
Unfortunately, RAW, this would also give you disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks (matters less for attack rolls since its till the start of your next turn, so you can make attacks before using the bonus action to apply Heat Metal damage), which means you have disadvantage on checks to keep the creature grappled. As a DM, I would just rule that creatures immune to fire damage don't suffer disadvantage, but this of course depends from table to table.
Anyway, just a neat bonus to the spell debuffing your enemies (and you but only slightly).