Brennan advising another person's character design: "Obviously you CAN min/max if you want, although you might find it unsatisfying because the pursuit of total optimisation can lead to challenges feeling like hollow, inevitable victories that aren't as thematically satisfying because the struggle defines and heightens the achievement. Brennan making a character: "So I want to be able to kill God and parade his corpse from on high"
I think his advice is for rpg's, this character was specifically made for a level 20 one shot adventure, no character arcs to happen unless brennan really pushes the issue honestly. His advice still stands and is still correct.
This is where a DM needs to know his players and tailor things accordingly. If you have a highly min/max crew of players, then up the difficulty so the struggles remain real and the victories satisfying. If you know your players are not min/maxxers then ease up the encounters but keep them difficult according to their skills/abilities. The challenge of course is when you have a mix of those types of players but even that can be designed around with some creative encounter designs. Also when you have a mixed crew it's often because you have veterans and newbies mixed together. That's where the DM having a chat with the veterans asking them to "hang back and let the newbies shine" can be a fruitful discussion. And if you are a veteran, it can be a satisfying experience to hang back until the newbies get in over their head and you whip out the can of whoopass to save the day.
Honestly the thought of having a character with min/maxed stats and then making the 'feeling unfulfilled and hollow' bit a part OF the character to explore that and how it affects the character and how they interact with the world and grow as an adventurer and person dosent sound like a bad idea
This isn't really min-maxing, though. Even within the confines of this idea that Brennan built this character with a specific one-shot in mind, this character is suboptimal for a lot of reasons. The ability to blink and use mirror image, which he describes as his primary defense plan, isn't so overpowered that it couldn't be countered or stopped, depending on the circumstances of the encounter. The entire basis of the character is that he succeeds on the first round, because otherwise, he's in danger. The point of min-maxing is minimizing any risk to you while maximizing what you can put out. Under the circumstances, all he really did was maximize his output for one round of combat, which is what he claimed was the goal. There wasn't really much on the minimizing end, so it's possible to feel those heavy downsides if his first attack isn't successful. Which, you know, is where that satisfaction comes from, and exactly how Brennan defines the character.
It feels like Pentival was, at least in part, Brennan reflecting on Brian Murphy's "You are Legolas, not Bugs Bunny." philosophy of D&D and deciding to just utterly blow up his spot.
Just finished watching the stream *spoilers* Brennan did one round of 9 attacks with the character, did around 700 damage, killed two enpyreans and hurt a third, and then decided “this character has done his job” and had him go to sleep for the rest of the encounter. This character was made to do one thing and did it.
why 9? couldn't he do 6 at most? Attack action (2) + Action Surge (+2) + Bonus Gloomstalker att. (+1) + Hasted Extra Attack (+1) = 6? Where did he get 3 more from lol he's a beast
That was actually 820 damage. 2 base, 1 echo knight, 1 dread ambusher for first round, action surge doubles those 4 attacks, then one more from haste. Echo knight was a build change after this stream I believe, and he only realised dread ambusher and action surge stack after this stream. The build was supposed to rely on ludicrous initiative and Assassinate to have advantage on any creature that hasn't moved yet as well as all being critical hits, but stream donations with special stream rules resulted in Brennan having 9 nat 20s available which were all spent on the 9 attack rolls. Also every attack was with the maximum available level spell slot powering a Smite at the time. Damage rolls were 107+110+99+96 killing the first empyrean, then 98+82+85+78 killing the second empyrean, then 74 on the last empyrean causing some wounds.
@@Xenirath haven't done the math for his character but both gloomstalker and haste would give +2 be ause they apply to every "attack action" and he gets to take 2 attack action with action surge
@@adrianke77 OH ECHO KNIGHT! Now it makes sense, although it would only be possible on the first round (dread ambusher), but that's what it was made for anyways so, great! Thanks for the detailed breakdown!
The chat on twitch was craaaazy. They compared Pentival to the killer rabbit in Monty Python. 🤣 Favorite comments: "Good ol' Five, the sorcafighterangerogueadin" "Bugs Bunny on Monster drinks" "Sooo, it's duck season" On the Sword of Zariel: "But does it does it have wifi?" "And as a side benefit, the sword will make Nespresso during a short rest"
"Sooooo, Duck Season" is so flipping funny. Omgs. I'd like to try and add: "Guday, looks like _you_ took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Shoulda gone left, mate. (winks*)" -proceeds to step into the material plane and murder
The convo at 33:36 where Brennan mentions he has enough damage to kill 3 of him, so if he ever found 3 of him, it'd be a quickdraw scenario, reminds me of how one of my first characters died. I had a min maxed warlock, capable of similarly obliterating himself multiple times over. While exploring a dungeon I came across myself staring back at the end of a hallway. My thought process goes, "Oh no that's me. But I can 1 shot me! I need to 1 shot me before I 1 shot me!" So I roll initiative, and when the DM said I went first, I unloaded everything... Turns out, it was a mirror trap designed to reflect any damage directed at it, and I had just blown myself to pieces because I was scared of my own reflection. Was hilarious because the DM was legit taken aback, he had considered it one of the least dangerous traps in the dungeon, and had no idea what to do now that one of the PCs had blown himself to bits.
dunno if brennan reads this, but the gloomstalker attack applies to both attack actions on the first turn, so with a bonus action haste and action surge, this character would do 7 attacks total in the first turn.
I think it’s 8 actually: action (2) + action surge (2) + hasted action (1) + 1 * the number of attack actions taken (3) = 8, or am I misinterpreting what dread ambusher considers an attack action?
Brennan thanks people for pointing this exact interaction out in this here comment section so, king, i think he might've read this (6:35 in the Streaming for Survivors VOD)
honestly, hes the best character builder i have ever seen.. he could literally write books on character creation alone.. as an avid reader, i wish he would.. that would be the first thing id give new players or even veteran players before we start anything..
Mulligan is a gem - fantastic both at running a game and playing. Got to check out Dimension 20 content as it is gold! Can't hype him up enough as he deserves it!
For the phenomenon described at 28:00 (whereby the Sword of Zariel forces a huge change of personality in an evil creature but a relatively small one in a good creature), I would like to coin the phrase "divinishing returns". I will not be issuing apologies at this time.
I love the idea of Pentavul having multiple souls and that's how his parents got around the doomed destiny thing, but I think it would be so fitting for him to have five souls. Like "No no two isn't enough to make sure he has a fair chance, get him five" and that can also represent each of this levels really well
33:45 I love the idea of this character bumping into versions of itself and they all just start rapidly doing hand signs summoning the mirror images before escaping with blink and all of the mirror images just so confused looking at each other like "well what now?"
The Gloomstalker's extra attack is actually any time you take the attack action on your first turn of combat, meaning it would also proc on action surge. -Pentacle- Pentival can actually make 7 attacks on his first turn.
Yup its why ive been enjoying my gloom stalker assassin Champion MC. Large novas I know they could be larger with say BM but I liked the idea of a character have sharp eyes and knowledge for weak sports for the lower crit range.
I love multiclass builds like this as it kind of tells a story of how a character, as time goes on, finds and becomes proficient in multiple jobs. The longterm, makeshift bard.
“I know this is funny to be on the stream doing math.” We are here for you, man. This is what we are here for. Your stream of consciousness, with associated math/tables/spreadsheets is a podcast we would all listen to.
I really like this kind of character tour video for a level 20 one shot character. Level 20 characters have so much going on that this is a great way to see what they've got going on beyond what will get to be featured in the session. Fingers crossed, I hope he gets to pull off a surprise round! The assassinate auto crit is intense
It's so cool how both people are just thrilled to be having such a crunchy D&D conversation. Brennan is a very high enthusiasm person and he definitely knows his stuff, but this interviewer seems like she's right there with him on energy and comprehension.
What a treat it must be to play with Brennan regularly . I can't think of anyone more deserving to be popping up all over the DnD space getting to play crazy and wonderful characters!
I am still sad to not have any more Mossbrow in my life. I fell in love with that character more quickly than almost any other D&D character I've ever come across. I need more Mossbrow content so much. I enjoy so much that B.Dave tells his players to make a broken min/max character and Brennan is fully invested in it. Five's damage potential is insane. I also love that Brennan made Five 100% Bugs Bunny but with real damage and destruction resulting from his violence.
"This is exhausting, even to me" he says while I use this as inspiration to work on maps for my campaign after work. You inspire magnitudes more effort in this world than you put into it you magnificent man.
I've got to say, Harengon are an absolute blast to play. I'm playing a Harengon Glory Paladin with 2 levels in Rogue named Merde, and it's so fun to be able to zip halfway across a battlefield to act as a combat medic.
Love that Brennan and I make characters the same way. I start with what mechanics seem the most fun to me, and work backwards to what kind of person would have those powers!
In the session where he uses five, he deals 826 damage in one round. Also, he threatened asmodeus saying he's gonna kill him. When I was watching this, I was pretty convinced he could probably one shot asmodeus.
I’m having fun with a Fairy. Rune Knights can still cast spells. Like the racial spell Enlarge. And by DMG, the enemies’ weapons have the damage calcs, not the enemy’s attacks, but you have disadvantage on weapons 1 size larger. So by level 5, you can grow to Huge, wield Huge weapons with 3x the regular size damage, and if you want have 4x on Gargantuan weapons. So by level 17, you’ll grow to Huge normally and have access to Gargantuan once a day without disadvantage. I’m thinking of multiclassing War Magic, for access to Silvery Barbs to give yourself advantage (or cancel out weapon disadvantage).
@@DnDBeyond My first character was a Rogue-Ranger. A slippery little guy who could Zephyr Strike, Planar Warrior, have his Tressym Kitten Familiar use Help, and stack Sneak Damage on Booming Blade. Most of the party questioned that multiclass, and how strong it was compared to the Druid, the Sorcerer, the Barbarian… They saw me as a mixed grab bag; Jack of All Trades, master of none. Then I was challenged to a 1v1 cage match against a Chain Devil. A CR 8 monster that grapples with each hit (max 1), before the DM doubled its HP and Hasted it. When I was character level 8-9 (started the session 8). That monster made my party members shudder when the DM explained everything he and it did after the fact. _I wasn’t even bloodied._
My Duergar, Moss Slimerock, also is a runeknight. Was for a one shot, so I made him Shrek. But now it is a campaign and he has made a cousin out of the 2 headed giant god of daily movement of the Sun. And before the God remembered it was a God, Moss had made him into a Valor Bard. Moss's favorite weapon is his Wand of Conducting. Huge + belly button+ Wand of Conducting= DM lets me pick the music to play for the game. Hence why I made him Shrek. Orchestral version of All Stars :p
I haven’t watched a lot of D&D beyond streamed content, and I don’t truly know who Amy is, but I can’t think of anyone more quintessentially “D&D nerd and visibly excited about it” and I love it.
One recommendation I would make to Brennan, see if you can make sure one of the bonus minor properties of the Sword of Zariel is to make it a finesse weapon, then you can add your sneak attack damage to the roll for even more damage!
Guau! Thats really cool. And if it were a finesse wepon he wouldnt need the gauntlets of ogre power. So maybe he could get more damage by taking anther magic item that raises his dex. That would get his armor class and his initiative higher. Meybe even get his dex to 20 since it is so important to this character
So he can kill an ancient red dragon -- on average! -- in the first round of combat, before the dragon even sees him.... but will effectively die to any combat with any enemies standard for a level 20 character to battle if he takes any hits 😂 He's a bunny-shaped glass Aussie cannon.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe action surging as a Gloom Stalker gives you two bonus attacks, one with each attack action. So really, this build gets one more attack than Brennan said.
I'm getting in the comments Brennan! You should have a passive insight of 24. While you have the sword you get advantage on insight (wisdom) checks. Having advantage should give you a +5 on the passive score. May your eyes cleave through any deception.
@@abbyg5794 PG 175 under passive checks: "If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5. The game refers to a passive check total as a score."
I don't know if anyone bothered to look up the Minor Beneficial Properties table for the Sword of Zarial but even some of these are pretty great. 01-20 While attuned to the artifact, you gain proficiency in one skill of the DM’s choice. 21-30 While attuned to the artifact, you are immune to disease. 31-40 While attuned to the artifact, you can’t be charmed or frightened. 41-50 While attuned to the artifact, you have resistance against one damage type of the DM’s choice. 51-60 While attuned to the artifact, you can use an action to cast one cantrip (chosen by the DM) from it. 61-70 While attuned to the artifact, you can use an action to cast one 1st-level spell (chosen by the DM) from it. After you cast the spell, roll a d6. On a roll of 1-5, you can’t cast it again until the next dawn. 71-80 As 61-70 above, except the spell is 2nd level. 81-90 As 61-70 above, except the spell is 3rd level. 91-00 While attuned to the artifact, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class. I'm excited to see his character in action but also interested to see which of these properties he gets (assuming he's rolling for them). I think an extra proficiency would be probably nice, he's already immune to disease, not being able to be charmed or frightened could be very useful depending on the enemies they'll be facing, a third damage resistance would be very nice especially for something more common than Necrotic and Radiant, like fire or poison. Casting extra spells from the sword is ok but I don't know how useful it is to this build, and one more point of AC might be ok but his AC is already so low it wouldn't make much difference. But yea this build is insane and ridiculous and I can't wait to see it.
Oh yeah, I worked with this type of build for 14th level play backup. It's just a nasty piece of work that makes mostly martial a damage machine. Monk dip, gloomstalker, arcane archer or battle master, there are so many variations on super bouncy death rabbit.
I’m currently playing a Harengon paladin/sorcerer in a gladiatorial combat one shot (it’s a short game like 10 sessions) and that’s probably my favorite character and now favorite character race.
assassin rogue + gloomstalker ranger is so good its arguably too powerful i love it so much (you could also take 3 levels of warlock, get devil's sight, and cast darkness, and just never be seen again)
Assassin rogue and gloomstalker is a well known combo, unfortunately it only really shines when you add bugbear sneak attack onto it so this build is already one foot behind the starting line
Be aware that the Sacred Weapon feature from devotion paladin takes an action to activate and makes the weapon shine bright light. So it might be hard to have it active for the assassination round (unless you have some way to get around it).
I had to do a double-take while watching because the homebrew setting he mentioned has the exact same name as the homebrew setting I have been developing for the last 6 months of my life. All that work and I'm gonna have to change the damn name.
Long campaigns, sweet memories. Many years ago, I played a D&D 3.5 campaign from level 1 to 22 or 23, and other from level 4 to 21, they were really long.
Tell us about your most powerful D&D character! ►► Check out Pentival's full character sheet for yourself! dndbeyond.link/yt_MeetPentival ►► Learn more about Streaming for Survivors and donate: twitter.com/wavawrcc/status/1504141069612568578 ►►Catch up with more Character Sheet Tours: ruclips.net/p/PLPjdPog_vKX1BhhRLhg6x4u9hafkwRdsB
Have never felt so proud of myself that I have broken a character more than Brennan, swap a level of paladin for Echo Knight fighter for two more attacks, swap Herangon for Bugbear for an extra 2d6 to a single attack, and taking into account you don't have enough spell slots for max divine smite on all of those, it brings the average damage (assuming everything hits) to 833 for a single round.
Harengon is probably better than bugbear. Yes, bugbear gets more damage, but you lose 6 initiative. There would be a 30% chance you've lost assassinate by picking bugbear over harengon. I wouldn't risk that.
@@justmonica9253 the crit part of assassinate is dependent on the creature being surprised which doesn’t have anything to do with going before them in combat. But I agree bugbear is suboptimal, upon further review half orc is the best because of savage attacks
@@jojokaler2449 Surprised is absolutely dependant on going before them. Surprised is a condition that you lose at the end of your turn. Once their turn has passed they are no longer surprised.
@@justmonica9253 "Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you're surprised, you can't move or take an aclion on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't." I don't see that in the description of surprised in the PHB. In fact its kind of ambiguous as to when surprise is over. I've always played/seen it played that its taken off when the round is over.
Loved the interview and the breakdown of character creation, with a different goal. Can we get more videos of this, please? I may have to browse. THIS video
Just checked your character sheet as at now, and you've pretty much built the same assassin that I built for my mate - save she's doing a campaign up to (I think lvl 12). Interesting note on the Paladin aspect, hadn't stuck that in but she's currently a lvl 9 Harengon (Gloomstalker / Assassin / Echo Knight). Personally I'd say the Gloomstalker / Assassin are the core as Dread Ambusher with Execute is crazy fun. Really enjoying it.
I have a character I like to call “Peak Infiltrator”. I got to play them for a level 20 heist 1 shot at it was amazing. Margot of Sarn The build: Changeling Shadow Monk (6), Inquisitive Rogue (11), Old One Warlock (3). Magic items: Cloak of Many Fashions, Bag of Holding, and Good Luck Stone. Changeling: +1 to STR, DEX, CON, INT, or WIS on top of a +2 to CHA. You can be anyone. There’s no easily identifying you if you’re seen sneaking away from the scene. You can just be someone else and spend some of that newly acquired coin from your heist on some new clothes. Personally, I used “stealth mode”. Considering this build is crafted around being in shadows at all times and leaving no trace, a hairless, average height of about 5 ft. 6 (167 cm), average build of about 145 lbs (66 kg), skin and eyes that are literally black (not dark brown, actually black, as in absence of all light, presence of all color), and an androgynous looking face with slightly pointed ears blends well in shadow and is hard to discern in darkness as there is no contrast. Shadow Monk - increased speed. the ability to cast spells (key ones being darkness and pass without trace) with ki points. The ability to teleport 60 ft. in dim light or darkness. Better armor class with no armor. 2 attacks/action. You don’t need a physical weapon so getting into places that search you is easy. Also doesn’t ruin your ability to do physical damage if you get disarmed. Deflect missiles helps with projectile traps. Slow fall makes escapes easier as you’ll be harder to follow if you just suddenly drop 60 ft. with little to no damage. STUNNING STRIKE. Inquisitive Rogue - RELIABLE TALENT. CUNNING ACTION. EVASION. SNEAK ATTACK. With optimal skill, feat, and expertise selections, you become practically unstoppable at finding and collecting whatever items you want heist. With Ear for Deceit and Detect thoughts (pickup from Warlock), no one can lie to you, so you’ll likely always have the most information (amazing for a note-taker like myself). Between Eye for Detail and Steady Eye, you can make high speed Perception and Investigation checks with advantage and an inability to roll lower than a 10 assuming you did the smart thing an picked those skills for proficiency if not also Expertise. Evasion to help dodge traps. Cunning Action to aid in escape or infiltration. Sneak attack to put down any guards that get a little too close to finding you (make sure you hide the body by Shadow stepping to somewhere innocuous and use prestidigitation to clean up after yourself). Old One Warlock - Pact of the chain to have a magical telepathic lookout with your familiar. Awakened mind is helpful if you’re working with a party and you need silent communication (also a good scare tactic). Eldritch sight (cast detect magic at will) makes finding magic items and magic traps much easier. Devil’s sight allows you to see in magical and non magical darkness to 120 ft. making shadow step teleportation work even in the magical darkness you can cast with your Ki points. Spells: access to prestidigitation to help clean up after yourself in a heist. Also can put out fire and candles to increase you teleportation range with shadow monk. Eldritch blast to have extra ranged attacks without physical weapons. Comprehend Languages for reading anything while on or after the heist. Dissonant Whispers for some instantaneous damage. Detect Thoughts for sensing enemies and gathering intel. Shadow Blade for damage that can pick up sneak attack and gives you advantage in dim light or darkness which you’re likely already in for Shadow Step. It also has thrown range and can be resummoned as a BA so you can be a hexblade for a minute. Feats: Keen Mind - +1 to INT, remembers everything. This means you can always ask your DM if your notes are right. You have a very accurate internal clock. And your spatial awareness is on point. Observant - +1 to WIS or INT (as needed by your rolls). Lip reading which paired with your truth finding skills from rogue and warlock makes life even easier for finding out information from a distance. The bonus to passive perception and investigation is nice too. Telekinetic (Which ever skill needs the bonus) - +1 to INT, WIS, or CHA. MAGE HAND. TELEKINETIC SHOVE. Skilled - Abuses the reliable talent feature by picking up more proficiencies. Magic Items: Cloak of Many Fashions - Helps disguise you on top of your Changeling abilities. All black with no details on stealth mode. Bag of Holding - you’re on a heist. Think about that for two seconds. Good Luck Stone - once again, abusing the reliable talent feature by raising the minimum you can roll by one for every skill. Also helps all of your other skills and initiative.
I’m playing a character named Jesper the Initiaknight in a pirate-themed campaign who has a +26 initiative. He has a 20 in dex, 18 in charisma, and 16 in wisdom. He’s got the alert feat and the subclasses Gunslinger, Gloomstalker, and Swashbucker. He’s also a harengon. He’s only level 13.
Scene: Five standing at the bar, drinking Guy who wants him dead sneaks up behind, swings his axe at the back of Five's head Axe goes right through him, camera cuts to POV from the bar countertop Mirror image fades away, guy looks confused, followed by shock Guy's body falls away in 8 pieces, revealing Five standing behind him Five steps over the pile of body chunks and grabs his drink
He tweeted about making this change! "Small follow-up: I went down one level of Sorcerer and popped up to Level 3 Fighter for Battle Master - The maneuvers more than make up for the lost spell slot! 😬" twitter.com/BrennanLM/status/1504895166162759680
I would like to voffect Brennan on something here. Dread ambusher grants an extra attack when you take the attack action in combat on the first turn. Action surge gives you an extra action. This means if you action surge to use 2 attack actions on the first round, gloomstalker ranger 5 means 6 attacks. Haste would be a 7th.
Not sure if they mention this, but after a 500 damage surprise turn.. he then gets his normal turn at an average of 27.5 initiative- most likely taking another full turn immediately after! No action surge, gloomstalker, or auto crit, but still 3 more attacks (if hasted) at advantage.
How to go first: Harengon. Chronurgist lvl2 with Gift of Alacrity (+Int, +1d8), Swashbucler Rogue lvl3 (+Char), Twilight Cleric lvl1 (Advantage), Battle Master lvl3 with Ambush (+1d8), Watcher Paladin lvl8 (+ proficiency), Gloomstalker lvl3 (+Wis). Alert Feat (+5), 13,14,8,14,14,14 stats from 2 paladin feats & access to those classes. Total: 2d8+25 (2+2+2+2+5+6+6) with advantage. *this assumes Herangon & watcher paladin can stack, which maybe it can't? Please correct me or add suggestions on this thought experiment.
you can actually do more damage by setting up a prismatic wall in spherical shape, then you can use gravitational based magic to pull the person through and then dropping the effectively doing 700 damage on average and you can technically with certain items even double that by having the prismatic wall do double damage, making the total outcome 1400 damage on average.
Even assuming you have two people to set this up with reverse gravity and prismatic wall, plus an exactly 100ft ceiling to set this up with, you're unlikely to deal 700 damage. If a creature fails every single save against all 20 times they would be falling through the prismatic wall, which is already a big assumption at the level you have these spells, the damage enemies are going to be taking is 50d6+20d6 twice. The average damage for that total trip is 506, again assuming total failure on each save and a 100 foot ceiling. Now what is nice about that strategy is there's not a limit besides space on how many enemies you can do this to.
If all three of the ‘other Harengon’ have the same abilities and weapon then Mirror Image won’t make a difference as True Sight negates the Mirror Image as you can see through illusions with True Sight.
@@lejandario7779 lol he knew what I was doin when I was doin it. Luckily it was for a one shot tie in to our campaign and not the main story. I do love that I can kill a tarrasque in one turn tho
I tried out rogue for the first time... it was a swashbuckler Harengon named Randalph. He did NOT survive the oneshot. apparently 20 thugs and 20 ruffian goons were too much for this level 5 Peter Rabbit.
So I crunched the numbers myself with the updated (as of now) character sheet on DDB. Breakdown- Sword does 4d10+4. DS at level 4 and up does 5D8, GS extra attack on 1st round does an addition d8. Assuming double the dice's damage for critical hits. Attack action- 2 attacks with 4th level DS 4d10+5d8 averages 58 doubled to 116 for crit + 4 strength= 120. This kind of attack happens 3 times (attack, extra attack, and Unleash Incarnation attack) for a total of 360. The GS extra attack with a 5th level DS (he's out of 4th levels)is 4d10+6d8 averaging to 62.5 doubled to 125 for crit +4 = 129. Total is now 489. Action surge! He's now only got 3rd level spell slots left. So 4d10+4d8 averages to 40 doubled to 80 for crit +4= 84. This attacks happens twice, so 168 damage. GS extra attack is 4d10+5d8 for another 120 total. 7 attacks, 3x 4th level DS, 1x5th level DS (5d8), 3x3rd level DS (4d8) will total 777 damage on average for this nova. He's out of 3-5 level spell slots and used his only Unleash Incarnation, but not too shabby.
Brennan advising another person's character design: "Obviously you CAN min/max if you want, although you might find it unsatisfying because the pursuit of total optimisation can lead to challenges feeling like hollow, inevitable victories that aren't as thematically satisfying because the struggle defines and heightens the achievement.
Brennan making a character: "So I want to be able to kill God and parade his corpse from on high"
I think his advice is for rpg's, this character was specifically made for a level 20 one shot adventure, no character arcs to happen unless brennan really pushes the issue honestly. His advice still stands and is still correct.
This is where a DM needs to know his players and tailor things accordingly. If you have a highly min/max crew of players, then up the difficulty so the struggles remain real and the victories satisfying. If you know your players are not min/maxxers then ease up the encounters but keep them difficult according to their skills/abilities.
The challenge of course is when you have a mix of those types of players but even that can be designed around with some creative encounter designs. Also when you have a mixed crew it's often because you have veterans and newbies mixed together. That's where the DM having a chat with the veterans asking them to "hang back and let the newbies shine" can be a fruitful discussion. And if you are a veteran, it can be a satisfying experience to hang back until the newbies get in over their head and you whip out the can of whoopass to save the day.
Honestly the thought of having a character with min/maxed stats and then making the 'feeling unfulfilled and hollow' bit a part OF the character to explore that and how it affects the character and how they interact with the world and grow as an adventurer and person dosent sound like a bad idea
This isn't really min-maxing, though. Even within the confines of this idea that Brennan built this character with a specific one-shot in mind, this character is suboptimal for a lot of reasons.
The ability to blink and use mirror image, which he describes as his primary defense plan, isn't so overpowered that it couldn't be countered or stopped, depending on the circumstances of the encounter. The entire basis of the character is that he succeeds on the first round, because otherwise, he's in danger. The point of min-maxing is minimizing any risk to you while maximizing what you can put out. Under the circumstances, all he really did was maximize his output for one round of combat, which is what he claimed was the goal. There wasn't really much on the minimizing end, so it's possible to feel those heavy downsides if his first attack isn't successful.
Which, you know, is where that satisfaction comes from, and exactly how Brennan defines the character.
If you didn't like the joke you can just not say anything my guys
It feels like Pentival was, at least in part, Brennan reflecting on Brian Murphy's "You are Legolas, not Bugs Bunny." philosophy of D&D and deciding to just utterly blow up his spot.
Actually he’s a mix, Legolas bunny
I read this IN Mulligan's voice! You captured his tone perfectly!
Actually pentival is the rabbit from Monty Pythons the holy Grail
Just finished watching the stream
*spoilers*
Brennan did one round of 9 attacks with the character, did around 700 damage, killed two enpyreans and hurt a third, and then decided “this character has done his job” and had him go to sleep for the rest of the encounter.
This character was made to do one thing and did it.
why 9? couldn't he do 6 at most? Attack action (2) + Action Surge (+2) + Bonus Gloomstalker att. (+1) + Hasted Extra Attack (+1) = 6?
Where did he get 3 more from lol he's a beast
Where is the stream?
That was actually 820 damage. 2 base, 1 echo knight, 1 dread ambusher for first round, action surge doubles those 4 attacks, then one more from haste. Echo knight was a build change after this stream I believe, and he only realised dread ambusher and action surge stack after this stream.
The build was supposed to rely on ludicrous initiative and Assassinate to have advantage on any creature that hasn't moved yet as well as all being critical hits, but stream donations with special stream rules resulted in Brennan having 9 nat 20s available which were all spent on the 9 attack rolls.
Also every attack was with the maximum available level spell slot powering a Smite at the time.
Damage rolls were 107+110+99+96 killing the first empyrean, then 98+82+85+78 killing the second empyrean, then 74 on the last empyrean causing some wounds.
@@Xenirath haven't done the math for his character but both gloomstalker and haste would give +2 be ause they apply to every "attack action" and he gets to take 2 attack action with action surge
@@adrianke77 OH ECHO KNIGHT! Now it makes sense, although it would only be possible on the first round (dread ambusher), but that's what it was made for anyways so, great! Thanks for the detailed breakdown!
The chat on twitch was craaaazy. They compared Pentival to the killer rabbit in Monty Python. 🤣
Favorite comments:
"Good ol' Five, the sorcafighterangerogueadin"
"Bugs Bunny on Monster drinks"
"Sooo, it's duck season"
On the Sword of Zariel:
"But does it does it have wifi?"
"And as a side benefit, the sword will make Nespresso during a short rest"
I love a good sorcafighterangerogueadin. Classic power-gamer multiclass. 😜
So sad I missed that level of punnery/fuckery!
"Sooooo, Duck Season" is so flipping funny. Omgs.
I'd like to try and add:
"Guday, looks like _you_ took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Shoulda gone left, mate. (winks*)"
-proceeds to step into the material plane and murder
The convo at 33:36 where Brennan mentions he has enough damage to kill 3 of him, so if he ever found 3 of him, it'd be a quickdraw scenario, reminds me of how one of my first characters died. I had a min maxed warlock, capable of similarly obliterating himself multiple times over. While exploring a dungeon I came across myself staring back at the end of a hallway. My thought process goes, "Oh no that's me. But I can 1 shot me! I need to 1 shot me before I 1 shot me!" So I roll initiative, and when the DM said I went first, I unloaded everything... Turns out, it was a mirror trap designed to reflect any damage directed at it, and I had just blown myself to pieces because I was scared of my own reflection. Was hilarious because the DM was legit taken aback, he had considered it one of the least dangerous traps in the dungeon, and had no idea what to do now that one of the PCs had blown himself to bits.
Can I save this as a Fable for Min-Maxing? It's literally perfect.
this is sooo funny to me
@@VivaLaDnDLogs for sure
dunno if brennan reads this, but the gloomstalker attack applies to both attack actions on the first turn, so with a bonus action haste and action surge, this character would do 7 attacks total in the first turn.
I think it’s 8 actually: action (2) + action surge (2) + hasted action (1) + 1 * the number of attack actions taken (3) = 8, or am I misinterpreting what dread ambusher considers an attack action?
@@ronald1416 since dread ambusher is "as part of that action", haste spells "one attack only" clause still applies to it.
I think you do better skipping haste, instead summoning his Echo from Echo Knight and doing Unleash Incarnation twice to get eight.
Brennan thanks people for pointing this exact interaction out in this here comment section so, king, i think he might've read this (6:35 in the Streaming for Survivors VOD)
@@wassermanlouis Pretty sure he said he wasn't high enough level in fighter for a subclass.
I could listen to Brennan talk character creation for hours
Just a ton of great insight
honestly, hes the best character builder i have ever seen.. he could literally write books on character creation alone.. as an avid reader, i wish he would.. that would be the first thing id give new players or even veteran players before we start anything..
Mulligan is a gem - fantastic both at running a game and playing.
Got to check out Dimension 20 content as it is gold! Can't hype him up enough as he deserves it!
We can all agree he’s a very good boy
@@DnDBeyond at least until his devilish smile graces his face...
For the phenomenon described at 28:00 (whereby the Sword of Zariel forces a huge change of personality in an evil creature but a relatively small one in a good creature), I would like to coin the phrase "divinishing returns". I will not be issuing apologies at this time.
underrATED COMMENT
Nor should you
Reminds me of numbers that approach infinity. You can approach pure divinity but never quite attain it.
13:00 this is why i love Brennan Lee Mulligan.. he made a rabbit navy seal..
A RABBIT SEAL
I love the idea of Pentavul having multiple souls and that's how his parents got around the doomed destiny thing, but I think it would be so fitting for him to have five souls. Like "No no two isn't enough to make sure he has a fair chance, get him five" and that can also represent each of this levels really well
33:45 I love the idea of this character bumping into versions of itself and they all just start rapidly doing hand signs summoning the mirror images before escaping with blink and all of the mirror images just so confused looking at each other like "well what now?"
The Gloomstalker's extra attack is actually any time you take the attack action on your first turn of combat, meaning it would also proc on action surge. -Pentacle- Pentival can actually make 7 attacks on his first turn.
Yup its why ive been enjoying my gloom stalker assassin Champion MC. Large novas I know they could be larger with say BM but I liked the idea of a character have sharp eyes and knowledge for weak sports for the lower crit range.
Petition to make Brennan change his character’s name from Pentival to Pentacle 😂
@@Wretchrot oh lmao my bad
@@pacingandmuttering5106 I can’t stop picturing a rabbit with five tentacles instead of paws. Where would the fifth be? 🤔
So also on the haste attack ?
I love multiclass builds like this as it kind of tells a story of how a character, as time goes on, finds and becomes proficient in multiple jobs. The longterm, makeshift bard.
Love how Amy asks a question and instantly starts grinning because she already knows the answer ^^
That smile is to kill for.
“I know this is funny to be on the stream doing math.” We are here for you, man. This is what we are here for. Your stream of consciousness, with associated math/tables/spreadsheets is a podcast we would all listen to.
I really like this kind of character tour video for a level 20 one shot character. Level 20 characters have so much going on that this is a great way to see what they've got going on beyond what will get to be featured in the session. Fingers crossed, I hope he gets to pull off a surprise round! The assassinate auto crit is intense
It's so cool how both people are just thrilled to be having such a crunchy D&D conversation. Brennan is a very high enthusiasm person and he definitely knows his stuff, but this interviewer seems like she's right there with him on energy and comprehension.
You seem unaware of Internet Sensation Amy Dallen. Glad you got to experience her for the first time so late in the "game," so to speak.
What a treat it must be to play with Brennan regularly . I can't think of anyone more deserving to be popping up all over the DnD space getting to play crazy and wonderful characters!
I am still sad to not have any more Mossbrow in my life. I fell in love with that character more quickly than almost any other D&D character I've ever come across. I need more Mossbrow content so much.
I enjoy so much that B.Dave tells his players to make a broken min/max character and Brennan is fully invested in it. Five's damage potential is insane. I also love that Brennan made Five 100% Bugs Bunny but with real damage and destruction resulting from his violence.
It actually makes me very happy that Brennan is using a Matt Mercer item with this build :)
It is funny that he chose it explicitly bc it's so broken
"This is exhausting, even to me" he says while I use this as inspiration to work on maps for my campaign after work. You inspire magnitudes more effort in this world than you put into it you magnificent man.
Brennan saw Zac absolutely crushing it in aCoC and thought to himself "next time I get to play, I'm playing a rabbit."
I love how Pentival's voice really sounds like Brennan is channeling AJ Picket. (Or maybe more like The Sniper from TF2, either or.)
I love videos with Amy Dallen because the Death bookend to the right and the Strangers In Paradise books on the left make me smile every time.
I've got to say, Harengon are an absolute blast to play. I'm playing a Harengon Glory Paladin with 2 levels in Rogue named Merde, and it's so fun to be able to zip halfway across a battlefield to act as a combat medic.
"Merde", just as "shit" in french? XD
^^^ exactly what I was going to ask lol, did you mean it that way?
Love that Brennan and I make characters the same way. I start with what mechanics seem the most fun to me, and work backwards to what kind of person would have those powers!
In the session where he uses five, he deals 826 damage in one round. Also, he threatened asmodeus saying he's gonna kill him. When I was watching this, I was pretty convinced he could probably one shot asmodeus.
I’m having fun with a Fairy.
Rune Knights can still cast spells. Like the racial spell Enlarge. And by DMG, the enemies’ weapons have the damage calcs, not the enemy’s attacks, but you have disadvantage on weapons 1 size larger.
So by level 5, you can grow to Huge, wield Huge weapons with 3x the regular size damage, and if you want have 4x on Gargantuan weapons. So by level 17, you’ll grow to Huge normally and have access to Gargantuan once a day without disadvantage.
I’m thinking of multiclassing War Magic, for access to Silvery Barbs to give yourself advantage (or cancel out weapon disadvantage).
Love this!
@@DnDBeyond My first character was a Rogue-Ranger. A slippery little guy who could Zephyr Strike, Planar Warrior, have his Tressym Kitten Familiar use Help, and stack Sneak Damage on Booming Blade.
Most of the party questioned that multiclass, and how strong it was compared to the Druid, the Sorcerer, the Barbarian… They saw me as a mixed grab bag; Jack of All Trades, master of none.
Then I was challenged to a 1v1 cage match against a Chain Devil. A CR 8 monster that grapples with each hit (max 1), before the DM doubled its HP and Hasted it. When I was character level 8-9 (started the session 8). That monster made my party members shudder when the DM explained everything he and it did after the fact.
_I wasn’t even bloodied._
My Duergar, Moss Slimerock, also is a runeknight.
Was for a one shot, so I made him Shrek. But now it is a campaign and he has made a cousin out of the 2 headed giant god of daily movement of the Sun. And before the God remembered it was a God, Moss had made him into a Valor Bard.
Moss's favorite weapon is his Wand of Conducting.
Huge + belly button+ Wand of Conducting= DM lets me pick the music to play for the game.
Hence why I made him Shrek.
Orchestral version of All Stars :p
I haven’t watched a lot of D&D beyond streamed content, and I don’t truly know who Amy is, but I can’t think of anyone more quintessentially “D&D nerd and visibly excited about it” and I love it.
One recommendation I would make to Brennan, see if you can make sure one of the bonus minor properties of the Sword of Zariel is to make it a finesse weapon, then you can add your sneak attack damage to the roll for even more damage!
Guau! Thats really cool. And if it were a finesse wepon he wouldnt need the gauntlets of ogre power. So maybe he could get more damage by taking anther magic item that raises his dex. That would get his armor class and his initiative higher. Meybe even get his dex to 20 since it is so important to this character
I don't think that's one of the minor properties described in the sword of zariel minor properties unfortunately
That's a property of the moonblade not the sword of Zariel unfortunately.
So he can kill an ancient red dragon -- on average! -- in the first round of combat, before the dragon even sees him.... but will effectively die to any combat with any enemies standard for a level 20 character to battle if he takes any hits 😂 He's a bunny-shaped glass Aussie cannon.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe action surging as a Gloom Stalker gives you two bonus attacks, one with each attack action. So really, this build gets one more attack than Brennan said.
yes, and depending on the interaction of gloomstalker and haste, a potential 8th attack.
If it wasn't for D&D, I think Brennan could have become a real life Lex Luthor.
Except he hates capitalism 😂
I’m very new to the dnd scene but just imagining a 13 year long campaign going on and still not being level 20 is mind blowing
I'm getting in the comments Brennan! You should have a passive insight of 24. While you have the sword you get advantage on insight (wisdom) checks. Having advantage should give you a +5 on the passive score. May your eyes cleave through any deception.
is that true? i've never heard that before! that is awesome if so
@@abbyg5794 PG 175 under passive checks: "If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5. The game refers to a passive check total as a score."
I loved the energy of this dive into the character. Amy is a great host, and Brennen is great in everything
Super happy to see Brennan with DnD Beyond. It is about time.
Well done everyone.
Wait Robbie is gonna be there. Lord let's go!!
Check Brennan out in our miniseries Battle for Beyond!
I don't know if anyone bothered to look up the Minor Beneficial Properties table for the Sword of Zarial but even some of these are pretty great.
01-20 While attuned to the artifact, you gain proficiency in one skill of the DM’s choice.
21-30 While attuned to the artifact, you are immune to disease.
31-40 While attuned to the artifact, you can’t be charmed or frightened.
41-50 While attuned to the artifact, you have resistance against one damage type of the DM’s choice.
51-60 While attuned to the artifact, you can use an action to cast one cantrip (chosen by the DM) from it.
61-70 While attuned to the artifact, you can use an action to cast one 1st-level spell (chosen by the DM) from it. After you cast the spell, roll a d6. On a roll of 1-5, you can’t cast it again until the next dawn.
71-80 As 61-70 above, except the spell is 2nd level.
81-90 As 61-70 above, except the spell is 3rd level.
91-00 While attuned to the artifact, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
I'm excited to see his character in action but also interested to see which of these properties he gets (assuming he's rolling for them).
I think an extra proficiency would be probably nice, he's already immune to disease, not being able to be charmed or frightened could be very useful depending on the enemies they'll be facing, a third damage resistance would be very nice especially for something more common than Necrotic and Radiant, like fire or poison. Casting extra spells from the sword is ok but I don't know how useful it is to this build, and one more point of AC might be ok but his AC is already so low it wouldn't make much difference.
But yea this build is insane and ridiculous and I can't wait to see it.
Oh yeah, I worked with this type of build for 14th level play backup. It's just a nasty piece of work that makes mostly martial a damage machine. Monk dip, gloomstalker, arcane archer or battle master, there are so many variations on super bouncy death rabbit.
brennan talks, everyone listens
We absolutely do
I’m currently playing a Harengon paladin/sorcerer in a gladiatorial combat one shot (it’s a short game like 10 sessions) and that’s probably my favorite character and now favorite character race.
assassin rogue + gloomstalker ranger is so good its arguably too powerful i love it so much
(you could also take 3 levels of warlock, get devil's sight, and cast darkness, and just never be seen again)
I think this might have been inspired by Ally Beardsley’s Liam Whilemina, who was this exact build and did so much damage
Assassin rogue and gloomstalker is a well known combo, unfortunately it only really shines when you add bugbear sneak attack onto it so this build is already one foot behind the starting line
Five's voice is very much giving Rhys Darby vibes. I can see him in a Taika Watiti D&D movie 😆
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was thinking!
Amy's smile of joy as Brennan describes the absolute broken build is dealing radiant damage.
Love Pentivals Backstory. Cannot wait for the stream!
i've watched this all the way through twice now, just so informative and also engaging.
gloomstalker ranger ability is connected to the attack action, so it should be 7 attacks with action surge, still only 1 attack with haste though.
I'm glad someone else is also into mechanics first character building! I've felt so alone :P
I would like to point out that if Amy did her math the quickly without a calculator she is super impressive. Also, I hope she has a nice day.
Be aware that the Sacred Weapon feature from devotion paladin takes an action to activate and makes the weapon shine bright light. So it might be hard to have it active for the assassination round (unless you have some way to get around it).
I would go so far as to say this makes getting surprise against enemies nearly impossible unless you're going in invisible.
Like Brennan, this … Sorogunerfigadin(??) is a grab bag of chaotic talents
For as intelligent and well-spoken as Amy is, I'd hate to reduce her to physical appearances, but she really has a brilliant smile.
I deeply love that Brennan plays dnd for a job and then has a home game for 13 years he dosent stream im happy he does what he love to do
Brennan always handles himself so well.
I hope that the charity stream mentioned for this Sunday (March 20th) will be recorded/posted, because my Sunday is going to be pretty busy.
I had to do a double-take while watching because the homebrew setting he mentioned has the exact same name as the homebrew setting I have been developing for the last 6 months of my life.
All that work and I'm gonna have to change the damn name.
Is Five Australian? This is such a hilarious character and can’t wait to see this in action
Long campaigns, sweet memories.
Many years ago, I played a D&D 3.5 campaign from level 1 to 22 or 23, and other from level 4 to 21, they were really long.
If he had taken Swashbuckler for the Rogue subclass, the bonus to initiative would've been even higher 🤣🤣 wild
... and lost the reason for doing it. The assassinate ability is the purpose of the high Initiative.
Tell us about your most powerful D&D character!
►► Check out Pentival's full character sheet for yourself! dndbeyond.link/yt_MeetPentival
►► Learn more about Streaming for Survivors and donate: twitter.com/wavawrcc/status/1504141069612568578
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Hallo...
I like using the great weapon master feature with samurai subclass from unearthed arcana for advantage to cancel out the -10 to hit
i recently stumbled into the dnd side of youtube and i absolutely love the energy in this video
Have never felt so proud of myself that I have broken a character more than Brennan, swap a level of paladin for Echo Knight fighter for two more attacks, swap Herangon for Bugbear for an extra 2d6 to a single attack, and taking into account you don't have enough spell slots for max divine smite on all of those, it brings the average damage (assuming everything hits) to 833 for a single round.
Harengon is probably better than bugbear. Yes, bugbear gets more damage, but you lose 6 initiative. There would be a 30% chance you've lost assassinate by picking bugbear over harengon. I wouldn't risk that.
@@justmonica9253 the crit part of assassinate is dependent on the creature being surprised which doesn’t have anything to do with going before them in combat. But I agree bugbear is suboptimal, upon further review half orc is the best because of savage attacks
@@jojokaler2449 Surprised is absolutely dependant on going before them. Surprised is a condition that you lose at the end of your turn. Once their turn has passed they are no longer surprised.
@@justmonica9253 "Any character or monster that doesn't
notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an aclion
on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a
reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can
be surprised even if the other members aren't." I don't see that in the description of surprised in the PHB. In fact its kind of ambiguous as to when surprise is over. I've always played/seen it played that its taken off when the round is over.
@@jojokaler2449 It's been covered in Sage Advice, you are no longer surprised when your turn ends.
'Rules answers: November 2015' specifically.
Amy has the kind of smile that adds years to your life
I could listen to that man talk about D&D all day long...
Brainiang... I love you!
If you fight yourself, mirror image won't trick you since you have true sight.
Perfect Rendition of Glass Cannon.
Never thought I’d see this, but I clicked immediately
Welcome to it!
Loved the interview and the breakdown of character creation, with a different goal. Can we get more videos of this, please? I may have to browse. THIS video
Aimee good to see you hosting again. Big fan.
I have made 2 harengon characters, and I love them both!
Treachery paladin would've been a good choice to get the advantage during combat
Just checked your character sheet as at now, and you've pretty much built the same assassin that I built for my mate - save she's doing a campaign up to (I think lvl 12). Interesting note on the Paladin aspect, hadn't stuck that in but she's currently a lvl 9 Harengon (Gloomstalker / Assassin / Echo Knight). Personally I'd say the Gloomstalker / Assassin are the core as Dread Ambusher with Execute is crazy fun. Really enjoying it.
I have a character I like to call “Peak Infiltrator”. I got to play them for a level 20 heist 1 shot at it was amazing.
Margot of Sarn
The build: Changeling Shadow Monk (6), Inquisitive Rogue (11), Old One Warlock (3).
Magic items: Cloak of Many Fashions, Bag of Holding, and Good Luck Stone.
Changeling: +1 to STR, DEX, CON, INT, or WIS on top of a +2 to CHA. You can be anyone. There’s no easily identifying you if you’re seen sneaking away from the scene. You can just be someone else and spend some of that newly acquired coin from your heist on some new clothes. Personally, I used “stealth mode”. Considering this build is crafted around being in shadows at all times and leaving no trace, a hairless, average height of about 5 ft. 6 (167 cm), average build of about 145 lbs (66 kg), skin and eyes that are literally black (not dark brown, actually black, as in absence of all light, presence of all color), and an androgynous looking face with slightly pointed ears blends well in shadow and is hard to discern in darkness as there is no contrast.
Shadow Monk - increased speed. the ability to cast spells (key ones being darkness and pass without trace) with ki points. The ability to teleport 60 ft. in dim light or darkness. Better armor class with no armor. 2 attacks/action. You don’t need a physical weapon so getting into places that search you is easy. Also doesn’t ruin your ability to do physical damage if you get disarmed. Deflect missiles helps with projectile traps. Slow fall makes escapes easier as you’ll be harder to follow if you just suddenly drop 60 ft. with little to no damage. STUNNING STRIKE.
Inquisitive Rogue - RELIABLE TALENT. CUNNING ACTION. EVASION. SNEAK ATTACK. With optimal skill, feat, and expertise selections, you become practically unstoppable at finding and collecting whatever items you want heist. With Ear for Deceit and Detect thoughts (pickup from Warlock), no one can lie to you, so you’ll likely always have the most information (amazing for a note-taker like myself). Between Eye for Detail and Steady Eye, you can make high speed Perception and Investigation checks with advantage and an inability to roll lower than a 10 assuming you did the smart thing an picked those skills for proficiency if not also Expertise. Evasion to help dodge traps. Cunning Action to aid in escape or infiltration. Sneak attack to put down any guards that get a little too close to finding you (make sure you hide the body by Shadow stepping to somewhere innocuous and use prestidigitation to clean up after yourself).
Old One Warlock - Pact of the chain to have a magical telepathic lookout with your familiar. Awakened mind is helpful if you’re working with a party and you need silent communication (also a good scare tactic). Eldritch sight (cast detect magic at will) makes finding magic items and magic traps much easier. Devil’s sight allows you to see in magical and non magical darkness to 120 ft. making shadow step teleportation work even in the magical darkness you can cast with your Ki points. Spells: access to prestidigitation to help clean up after yourself in a heist. Also can put out fire and candles to increase you teleportation range with shadow monk. Eldritch blast to have extra ranged attacks without physical weapons. Comprehend Languages for reading anything while on or after the heist. Dissonant Whispers for some instantaneous damage. Detect Thoughts for sensing enemies and gathering intel. Shadow Blade for damage that can pick up sneak attack and gives you advantage in dim light or darkness which you’re likely already in for Shadow Step. It also has thrown range and can be resummoned as a BA so you can be a hexblade for a minute.
Feats:
Keen Mind - +1 to INT, remembers everything. This means you can always ask your DM if your notes are right. You have a very accurate internal clock. And your spatial awareness is on point.
Observant - +1 to WIS or INT (as needed by your rolls). Lip reading which paired with your truth finding skills from rogue and warlock makes life even easier for finding out information from a distance. The bonus to passive perception and investigation is nice too.
Telekinetic (Which ever skill needs the bonus) - +1 to INT, WIS, or CHA. MAGE HAND. TELEKINETIC SHOVE.
Skilled - Abuses the reliable talent feature by picking up more proficiencies.
Magic Items:
Cloak of Many Fashions - Helps disguise you on top of your Changeling abilities. All black with no details on stealth mode.
Bag of Holding - you’re on a heist. Think about that for two seconds.
Good Luck Stone - once again, abusing the reliable talent feature by raising the minimum you can roll by one for every skill. Also helps all of your other skills and initiative.
I love how bonkers Harengon are with their initiative bonuses. I built one named Quik Asa Bunny that had a +30 because, why not?
How the hell did you get it that high lol
@@RJM1410 Harengon (Plus PB), Rogue Swashbuckler (+CHA), Ranger Gloom Stalker (+WIS), War Wizard (+INT), Battle Master Fighter (+1d8), Alert Feat (+5).
@@AtomikaBlerd dear god what an abomination lol
@@RJM1410 I’m so proud of this monster.
@@AtomikaBlerd There's a Paladin that also gives you your proficiency bonus worth of a bonus to you and your allies as an aura. So 36.
The undisputed baron of level 20 one-shots.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾😅
I love hearing Alister Ash come to life again in this new character!!!
I've loved Amy since her Shield of Tomorrow days and I love her in this role, too.
I’m playing a character named Jesper the Initiaknight in a pirate-themed campaign who has a +26 initiative. He has a 20 in dex, 18 in charisma, and 16 in wisdom. He’s got the alert feat and the subclasses Gunslinger, Gloomstalker, and Swashbucker. He’s also a harengon. He’s only level 13.
Incredible! Crack Bunny is the best Bunny!
Also don't worry Brennan I'm here in the comments
watching this makes me think that this must’ve been what it felt like for ancient societies to see math being invented
Scene:
Five standing at the bar, drinking
Guy who wants him dead sneaks up behind, swings his axe at the back of Five's head
Axe goes right through him, camera cuts to POV from the bar countertop
Mirror image fades away, guy looks confused, followed by shock
Guy's body falls away in 8 pieces, revealing Five standing behind him
Five steps over the pile of body chunks and grabs his drink
Oh, he tweaked it (not sure if link is older, or stream is) but Sorceror went from 7 to 6, and Fighter went to 3 for Battlemaster. Manuever dice.
He tweeted about making this change!
"Small follow-up: I went down one level of Sorcerer and popped up to Level 3 Fighter for Battle Master - The maneuvers more than make up for the lost spell slot! 😬"
twitter.com/BrennanLM/status/1504895166162759680
Five is the hare in The Tortoise and the Hare. Now we need a tanky Tortle that focuses everthing on damage over time to be Fives opposite!!!
I would like to voffect Brennan on something here. Dread ambusher grants an extra attack when you take the attack action in combat on the first turn. Action surge gives you an extra action. This means if you action surge to use 2 attack actions on the first round, gloomstalker ranger 5 means 6 attacks. Haste would be a 7th.
Not sure if they mention this, but after a 500 damage surprise turn.. he then gets his normal turn at an average of 27.5 initiative- most likely taking another full turn immediately after! No action surge, gloomstalker, or auto crit, but still 3 more attacks (if hasted) at advantage.
How to go first: Harengon. Chronurgist lvl2 with Gift of Alacrity (+Int, +1d8), Swashbucler Rogue lvl3 (+Char), Twilight Cleric lvl1 (Advantage), Battle Master lvl3 with Ambush (+1d8), Watcher Paladin lvl8 (+ proficiency), Gloomstalker lvl3 (+Wis). Alert Feat (+5), 13,14,8,14,14,14 stats from 2 paladin feats & access to those classes.
Total: 2d8+25 (2+2+2+2+5+6+6) with advantage.
*this assumes Herangon & watcher paladin can stack, which maybe it can't? Please correct me or add suggestions on this thought experiment.
you can actually do more damage by setting up a prismatic wall in spherical shape, then you can use gravitational based magic to pull the person through and then dropping the effectively doing 700 damage on average and you can technically with certain items even double that by having the prismatic wall do double damage, making the total outcome 1400 damage on average.
Even assuming you have two people to set this up with reverse gravity and prismatic wall, plus an exactly 100ft ceiling to set this up with, you're unlikely to deal 700 damage. If a creature fails every single save against all 20 times they would be falling through the prismatic wall, which is already a big assumption at the level you have these spells, the damage enemies are going to be taking is 50d6+20d6 twice. The average damage for that total trip is 506, again assuming total failure on each save and a 100 foot ceiling. Now what is nice about that strategy is there's not a limit besides space on how many enemies you can do this to.
I cannot WAIT to see this one shot
If all three of the ‘other Harengon’ have the same abilities and weapon then Mirror Image won’t make a difference as True Sight negates the Mirror Image as you can see through illusions with True Sight.
omfg i love the "worse or better" zim reference
Feels like his Rightous Indignation is just getting warmed up.
I have a level 20 wood elf fighter/rogue/ranger that can do a little over 850 damage on his first turn and over 400 every round after that
Your poor DM
@@lejandario7779 lol he knew what I was doin when I was doin it. Luckily it was for a one shot tie in to our campaign and not the main story. I do love that I can kill a tarrasque in one turn tho
I can't believe my biological dad is in DndBeyond
Blessed reunion
Sup hustler lmao
lol, man that big ol' goofy grin on her face is exactly how I look listening to him right now. I love that she is geeking out with him on this.
Glad I’m not the only one who voices my Harengon like that
I tried out rogue for the first time... it was a swashbuckler Harengon named Randalph. He did NOT survive the oneshot. apparently 20 thugs and 20 ruffian goons were too much for this level 5 Peter Rabbit.
Amy's smile is relentlessly infectious.
All I can think hearing of this character is a goated moment in Hellsing abridged "Gods assassin! saint guillotine! The purest priest!" 🤣♥️
So I crunched the numbers myself with the updated (as of now) character sheet on DDB. Breakdown- Sword does 4d10+4. DS at level 4 and up does 5D8, GS extra attack on 1st round does an addition d8. Assuming double the dice's damage for critical hits.
Attack action- 2 attacks with 4th level DS 4d10+5d8 averages 58 doubled to 116 for crit + 4 strength= 120. This kind of attack happens 3 times (attack, extra attack, and Unleash Incarnation attack) for a total of 360. The GS extra attack with a 5th level DS (he's out of 4th levels)is 4d10+6d8 averaging to 62.5 doubled to 125 for crit +4 = 129. Total is now 489.
Action surge!
He's now only got 3rd level spell slots left. So
4d10+4d8 averages to 40 doubled to 80 for crit +4= 84. This attacks happens twice, so 168 damage. GS extra attack is 4d10+5d8 for another 120 total.
7 attacks, 3x 4th level DS, 1x5th level DS (5d8), 3x3rd level DS (4d8) will total 777 damage on average for this nova. He's out of 3-5 level spell slots and used his only Unleash Incarnation, but not too shabby.