The Mammoth Chronicles looks great. I'm no longer in a position to benefit from such a product, but it looks like a great package. We need more "total package" type of products like this. Crowd-funding has been perfect for ambitious products like this.
i never noticed that caveat about spells doubling up on ''find stead''. I'm really tempted to look up bard & see what I can do with it without multiclassing. Armor of agathist is to good & that was clever to use clockwork soul like that for I honestly never look into sorcerer.
@@arnijulian6241 I love the concept of the Sorceror class, and TCoE has finally addressed the relative weaknesses of the class. Clockwork Soul in particular is very good. I hope all Sorcerer subclasses follow the TCoE paradigm in the coming updates. Sorcerers are finally roughly on par with Wizards, enough so at least for the Sorcerer player to not gaze enviously at the Wizard.
@@elementzero3379 Not on par but the noticeable gap has been addressed at least. Bard & paladin are a close 2nd-3rd to wizard. 4th is druid. At least the sorcerer is comparable to a cleric in 5th-6th though arguable over which is more powerful. people put down ranger & hype Warlock though i think the 2 comparable in 7th & 8th. Fighter/artificer at 9th & 10th are my baseline not the warlock like many would claim. Barbarian in 11th needs some up date &rogue since more spells came out in the new books has some how slipped below the fighter excluding arcane trickster. being a 1/3 caster it has got something with up dates. most would argue with me but rogue has had the largest drop in power. base core books it was comparable to warlock in power but damn has it suffered. Monk is the worse class in terms of power even with way of mercy that is at least playable but shadow is only good for very specific dips. monk is so bad. Monk & rogue need updates but non casters/martials are the hardest to give updates as they don't have spells so if the subclass abilities are poor they stay poor. fighter doesn't rely on it's subclasses as the base frame is decent enough so any subclass is playable though not optimal. Sorcerer is above the middle ranking but no where near the top tier classes but sorcerer is a nuker & if that what you like play it. Wizard, druid & bard are likely the hardest classes to manage-optimise especially the wizard as you have a spell book unlike everyone else which is out of game. management. i approve of sorcerer & warlock for RP/ease of use. Compare them to all other full casters & they are fairly stright forward. Charisma casters are also the king of multiclassing which gives them player value points but of course it depend if your DM lets multiclassing. i will say sorcerers are at least better then Warlock now though not Hex blade as that for a dip is big gains for little investment of 1 -3 levels generally.
@@elementzero3379 The sorcerer never gazed enviously at the wizard as a Charisma nuker you shine in few things but you do it well. Wizard is utility controller meaning damage & face is suboptimal but everything else a wizard can do & do it well but control/buff-utility is king. A good wizard makes the fight easy for the rest of the party & you have played a wizard correctly if no one notices your power till you miss a session. wizards are shutdown/divide & conquer tactic in combat but utility out of combat. Wizards are fine being the strongest as optimally you assist the party in all matters. You are more support then the cleric just no one knows it. haste is not damage optimal but the martials at the table will love you for giving more bonks. befriend the paladin, barbarian or the fighter & non will dare upset the wizard. learn to target weak stat saves of other classes if PVP occurs as wizard or facing BBG. Wizards deserve the power gap because they are the most pedantic intensive class to play hands down bar to non!
Pro tip! TCoE added Warding Bond to the paladin spell list, so you can choose a different subclass if you like! I’m going for Redemption; I don’t imagine I’ll be using my reaction much otherwise, and I like free sanctuary.
@@jinxtheunluckypony Doesn't even need to be for long; but if I'm going to give sanctuary to my horse, I may as well share it for a round until I start attacking again.
I love the build. It's thoughtful in its design, not following the typical optimization paths, and is very effective. I particularly enjoy how relatively low-level spells are used to such great effect. Who would expect a summoned war horse to fly through the air, getting into aerial melee with dragons, and hitting back (thanks, Armor of Agathys) when they dare strike him? I love the visuals and mechanics. I also love the hilarious and apropos background graphics. Meg Ryan's reaction to those Clockwork Spells... 😆
Something else to keep in mind about the Shield spell: it targets only you, so if you cast it from one of the redirected attacks, your mount gets the +5 until the start of your next turn as well. If you manage to get some barding on it, that suddenly gets its AC into the low 20s.
Honestly, extended spell might be good here - just 1 point, and you can double the duration of Armor of Agathys, Warding Bond, Freedom of Movement etc. Not always relevant, but extending from 1 hour to 2 hours can come up reasonably often.
You can also cast Aid before taking a Long Rest and still have 8 hours with the benefits so you have that 6th lvl slot available for the day, use it on another Aid for the party or an Armor of Agathys, maybe a Death Ward if you go Divine Soul instead of Clockwork.
@@brunox794extended aid is useful. I don’t think the temp hp from agathys are going you last that long. I start with temp hp from inspiring leader and then cast AoA after those wear out or we hit the big bad. Quickened and you don’t waste an attack to get it up.
"You'll never need to use Divine Sense 4 times a day." *Remembers a campaign where our paladin ran out of divine sense charges and we really wanted more*
A lot of good ideas here. I also appreciate your willingness to let go of the shield when it becomes cumbersome. It's a good example to follow (rather than try to shoehorn things in at great cost to the build's progression -- like a feat). thanks.
It's the fully customizable bonus spell list from really good schools of magic. To a Sorcerer it's absolute gold and let's you have more spells than your wizard companion is going to have.
My immediate thought was go Heavy Armor Master for the Shining Armor as the first feat. You loose some offense (comparatively) but it makes the first 3 levels easy in the same way at the fantasy (aka the great protector of the weak). But each one’s own. Great job though - I loved this build.
After the previous vid I tried making my own mounted character and it ended up largely similar to this character here. I feel like my favorite teacher just told me I did well! Great video as usual
I think were I leveling beyond 14 I'd be tempted to get to Paladin 9 to get Spirit Guardians. Also, I'd be tempted to take HAM first for max benefit. Survivability early on, especially when we'll likely be out of our element (mounted) more often than not, appeals. Great build!
Great video, Chris, again. Got to say though if I was picking a secondary piercing weapon for a horseman I’d have to go with a warpick over a rapier every time. Just seems more appropriate.
This is super cool. I love how the character gets to have a spell for almost any occasion by the end. It’s like Ben 10 turning into whatever her needs to get out of a bind.
After watching this video I finally felt I was able to build one of the members of a slave lords style group which will be the primary antagonist organization in one of the games I'm running. She's a renegade hobgoblin princess who was the commander of Black Sky Squadron, a cadre of War Wyvern riders. With the hobgoblin society's pre-disposition to Law, I made her a Blackguard serving the Vice of Domination and a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer bent on establishing Order through conquest at any cost. I am thrilled with the results. Thanks Chris!
Quick math thing, but looks like the later calculations assumed you'd have piercer rerolls available on every attack (when there's a chance you've already used them on a previous attack, or you might choose not to reroll a 6 just to have your reroll available for the next attack, but then not need your reroll on the next attack). I don't think this changes the calculation much (Instead of 8 expected damage from weapon dice, it's more like 7.7, which lowers the final non-crit weapon damage from 22.4 to 21.9). Still more value than I'm used to seeing out of piercer rerolls (it's like...almost 2 DPR here. I've looked at it in crossbow expert sharpshooter builds and it's like 1 DPR in those builds). Guess the higher accuracy and bigger dice help.
Chef's Kiss! Love this build. It delivers on a fantasy without sacrificing viability, and it's actually really strong... But I can't wait for the next video for muh griffin!!!
MotM Duergar would sacrifice Piercer at level 1 for the ability to cast Enlarge on themselves and the mount for that auto-advantage against medium creatures. Not bad.
7 levels of paladin with conquest, with their fear channel divinity and the fact you use a lance, you could effectively lock down an enemy or more all while they get hurt, and you're safely 10 feet away. It gets armor of agathys, which will apply to your mount, it also has command, hold person, and spiritual weapon for a BA attack as well. For me that's a slam dunk, but that's nothing new, most people probably know how powerful that subclass is.
Flavor is free, sure, but it would be difficult to base the concept of a knight in shining armor on an archetype based on conquest and fear. Not to say that it's impossible, but the build is meant to be easy for viewers to pick up and adapt to their own games.
@@camclemons You can definitely do a Black Knight or Conquistador type character with that, it definitely changes the personality, but it's still a cool archetype. I do struggle to think of ways to make Conquest Paladins good aligned characters to be honest. Aside for some quest to free their homeland from invaders, tho that's definitely something a campaign needs to be based around or it will get completely derailed by the concept.
@@marmato9332 You would have to be very liberal with the flavor and communicate with the DM. The fear status, could be them trembling in awe of you, for example, but that could get tricky in situations if someone is awestruck that you don't want to be. Worth thinking about at the very least.
This is awesome. A couple of months back, I was complaining about how hard it is to have a functional knight with a lance build in 5e. I eventually came up with a build for shield master/mounted combatant combo put into a champion fighter for crit fishing(knock them down or back then lay them out) and hope that if I ever get to play it that I'll have a party that both loves my war horse and has the spells to keep him alive. This build likely does better damage and doesn't require other people making sacrifices for my horse. Awesome. PS Treantmonk, why no love for the War Pick or Morningstar? They do the same 1d8 of piecing damage that a rapier does, and aesthetically those two fit better with plate armor and shield than a rapier. The only thing a rapier has on those two is finesse, but a strength build wouldn't need that.
Good morning Chris! Almost finished this and then got side tracked and can't remember where I left off so well be rewatching this! But first your new upload!
Best Optimization channel on RUclips for fiveE. I learned so much about the game just watching your videos. My group plays kind of it regularly but my understanding of the rules that I gained from a Videos has helped to make me Something of a leader and almost any table I go to and I’m able to help people understand rules better and as such make them more accessible and spread the find of 5E.
Quick note, the material component of Warding bond has a cost associated with it, meaning you have to supply the materials, even when you are using a spell focus. The materials required are two platinum rings, one must be worn by the target the other by you. Players should ask their DM in advance if they can attach the ring to the horse's manes or use a larger ring that fits around the horse's ankle or something. Otherwise the spell won't work on the horse.
A nose or earring on the horse could also work. If My DM said no to this i would say goodbye to my DM. Players should be rewarded for creativity especially in a game like D&D. Not be punished.
I think honestly that's funny. In Out of the Abyss they use giant lizards as mounts so I created one with Find Steed, and you could argue those DO have fingers to put a ring on (that came out wrong). I think as long as you play with it it can add one more element of choice in the selection of your mount, instead of just going warhorse 100% of the time, but if the flavour your player wants is a warhorse, just let him play the damn warhorse and make this work, why not.
My first thought was, can I do most of this single classed with a lore bard? Started looking up the spells. Bards don't get most of the spells mentioned, so. . . Nope!
I'm confused and need clarification on stats for this build. As I understand your starting Strength with the piecer feat is 16. 15+1. The other 2 points from variant human go into constitution and charisma. So you start with 16, 8, 16, 8, 8, 16. Mounted combatant doesn't give a stat increase. So when you take your third feat at sorcery level 4/character level 10 wouldn't your strength be 17 not 18??
@Danny Adams I noticed the character sheet is different than the video. He dumps 3 stats to 8 and brings the other 3 to 15. But when you click on the character sheet it has con at 14 and dex 10. Go back and watch starting around the 7:25 mark in the video. Not a big deal but it definitely left me confused.
Oath of Conquest is the best option in my option. Pretty good Channel Divity, Armor of Agathys at Level 3 and more importantly Spiritual Weapon at Level 5, which covers your bonus action.
With careful reading of chapter 10, spells like dragon’s breath or spirit guardians target a point from which the AoE occurs, so dragon’s breath & spirit guardians can be shared
Fun fact: the last cavalry "sabers" (circa 1900) were really just spikes with a hilt which are best emulated in 5e as the rapier. So not only is it mechanically good, it would totally make sense for this character to use a rapier as their back up weapon.
In regards to another subclass, I highly recommend Oath of Conquest. Assuming you successfully frighten someone, you can force the monster to attack you in place of your mount via Mounted Combat, their attacks will be made at disadvantage. And if you’re willing to invest in an extra level, they also can’t move. Your spells are great as well. Armor of Agathys gives you and your mount temp hp, Spiritual Weapon is free damage and you get fear for AOE at level 7. The only downside is that you want to have a good charisma, but seeing as you’re dipping into Sorc, I don’t see this as a problem. If you can talk to your dm about making a bludgeoning lance, take Crusher and a flail as a backup weapon to beat people into submission. If you’re willing to give up HAM, you can use the extra ASi for Charisma if you didn’t have it start as a 16. AoA can sub for HAM as does the fear affects. Who says all knights in Shining Armor have to be nice?
Definitely a solid build but there is a bunch of untapped power you can grab with some different choices. You would have to rework the stats a bit to make it work but taking 1 level in Order Domain Cleric changes everything (and one level Hexblade so you can cut back on STR). Your mount actually gets to attack. With your mount having offensive issues spells like spirit shroud and even divine favor for a while are going to be great spells. Turn one starts with your mount moving into range followed by a bonus action spell of your choice as you outlined in the video or divine favor early on and spirit shroud later if you want extra raw damage. When you share the spell your mount gets to attack as a reaction, and thanks to the wording of trampling charge if the target is prone (either knocked prone by the charge or already on the ground) your mount can make a bonus action attack followed up by your own attacks. Going Oathbreaker Paladin to 7 and making your mount a fiend type let's the mount also hit with Aura of hate. On following turns in combat any time you cast something like shield or a healing spell for your mount it gets to attack again which is frankly hilarious. I very much like the idea of your DM attacking you and you get to say "No you" and have your mount crack the monster in the face and killing it.
I do absolutely love adding Order domain to a build and the reasons you gave excellent. I would however probably pick Conquest and a 1lvl dip into Undead warlock to make it easier to keep the enemy more than 5 ft away. How would you combine paladin and ranger? As another build idea I quite like the idea of a paladin that uses a spearbow (they existed, were rare, but existed). For paladins struggle at a distance and rangers have quite a number of useful features for fighting from a distance. Can't reach them yet? Keep shooting. Are they trying to rush you because they think you are just an archer? Well that's just perfect right, because that's what a paladin wants, to have enemies come to him. Divine favor could also work quite well for this as it is 1 off the few spells that also works at range and you than don't need to always need to use your bonus action for hunters mark. I probably wouldn't dip more than 3 lvls of gloomstarker though. With normal human getting a +1 to each to handle MADness a bit. I'm curious what you think.
Ideas for mounts builds that sound fun but also fairly worse after watching this video: -Small characters can ride medium mounts wich are cheaper, but those mounts also have worse stats, and they don't sinergize with the advantage given by Mounted Combatant quite as well. They're also not that much cheaper if they die faster and you have to replace them more often. -The Cavalier Martial Archetype works with mounts, but it doesn't get any real buffs to mounts compared to simply...being a paladin. Aura of Protection and the shared spells part of Find Steed on their own buff your mount way more than you ever could by just buying Armors and Saddles, and it doesn't rely on the DM. Mounting and dismounting with less movement and not falling prone is nice but not that necessary. Warding maneuver is a really good Tank feature to ward off damage, but on your mount it's a little redundant with Mounted Combatant. It also doesn't protect against saving throws and AoEs. Aura of Protection and Warding bond work so much better for that, it's unreal. Unwavering Mark it's also slightly annoying with a Lance, but not as much as I thought. Cavalier is a really good subclass IMO. But it really doesn't have much for mounted builds. -Find Greater Steed is not bad, but I could see how it's not optimal to invest 15 levels in Paladin or 10 in Bard for a better mount compared to buffing it with other spells, all of wich have good secondary effects other than increasing the HP of the mount. The mounts you can summon are far better than the ones of Find Steed, some can fly, some have really good stats. But Armor of Agathys, Aid, Fly, Enlarge, Fire Shield, etc. give you a better end result, aka higher HP, a bit of passive damage, a huge mount that works with Mounted Combatant, a faster flying speed or anything else you can come up when picking other buff spells honestly.
If you're going Oath of the Crown paladin, you may as well go for 7 levels. It gives an ability that helps an ally within five feet. That being your steed.
The build can also benefit from a Cavalier dip. Now you've reduced the risk of falling off your mount in addition to having a weaponized bonus action attack that's keyed off your Strength modifier in uses. You probably would have already used your bonus action on the current turn, so this wouldn't conflict with anything outright as it gives the bonus action attack on your next turn. I can see 2 more levels in Sorcerer to get a 7th level spell slot and up your damage further, and 4 levels in Cavalier. I imagine the damage boost from all of it would be insane!
This could also work quite well with an Elf and Elven Accuracy. Being Mounted with the Mounted Combatant Feat means you're more likely to get advantage on attacks. Getting triple Advantage also means you're more likely to Crit, which you really want with Paladin + Piercer.
I have a lvl 6 Devotion / 11 Shadow Sorcerer Dragonborn build, with Find Greater Steed from scrolls. Usually go Haste because the movility ensures I don't take damage. You can reserve the mount's action to move its full movement out of the way of harmful spells (most have a range of 60 feet) and then zoom in to smite to your heart's content.
Another great example of marrying mechanics with flavor. This build will likely perform better than any "knight" build someone cobbled together as a pure fight or Paladin.
I had actually built a similar build in AL. Went 6 levels Devotion paladin, currently 4 levels of sorcerer. I had originally gone divine soul, but decided to switch to clockwork after your last video. I noticed in my games too that the horses survivability was quite poor and also thought of Armor of Agathys to bolster it
lol, I keep forgetting the Finesse stat allows you to use Str or Dex as your bonus weapon damage. I was going to ask why you would take -1 to dex with a rapier. In defense of Champion Challenge. When shouting your voice is plainly clear enough for everyone to hear you up to 30ft. without an echo. Pro Tip to ask your DM: If you can Combo this with Vicious Mockery making it a nice AoE opener for an added force multiplier. As for casting spells while having your hands full. You can use your symbol as a spell-casting focus. My favorite thing to do while playing as a sorcerer. Use the Crystal Focus. Have it carved into your Pally's symbol. If you are just a sorcerer have it made into a slotted charm bracelet line with diamonds of value allowing you to freely use your spells without having to pluck them from your component pouch. (A better natural way to use Subtle Spell without using Meta spell for it.) Personally, I believe Sorcerers should be naturally to forgo all components to spell except those that cost gems and diamonds.
This build requires your DM be nice and attack you. Intelligent creatures don’t have much incentive once they notice how punishing it is. The channel divinity kinda helps but would be reliant on you not having any melee allies Finding room for sentinel can help with this
Oath of Conquest gets Armor of Agathys as an Oath spell, and decent Channel Divinity options. I think I'd go Divine Soul instead, still offering all those spells, in addition to Healing Word.
When you're playing a character that is extremely similar to the build, where the only differences are thise that came from materials that came out after you made those build decisions (clockwork soul, piercer)
Was just thinking about other resistances for extending the AoA THP on this build. Stone Skin could give you and the mount resistance to non-magical BPS for an hour (or 2 with extended spell). You could also quicken cast blade ward (lasts until the end of your *next* turn) for you and your mount. -Which reminded that the updated Earth Genasi can also quicken blade ward a number of times = to proficiency, so that race could be a contender for this build.
Awesome build! Clockwork soul is the Billy maze flex tape patch to a lot of builds these days and for good reason. The spell selection is just too good.
New guy to the channel here. I have been watching your builds, and I have absolutely loved your out of the box approach. I've watched this video a few times over trying to answer a question. Perhaps I missed it, but before you picked up the heavy armor master feat, you had a 16 strength. Now you have an 18 from the plus one given? Again, my friend, I love your work and amazing builds. Was just curious. Hope is well and stays excellent as you continue your journey to epic levels both in your games and reaching the crazy amount of subscribers I'm sure you will have over the next few years. I will be sharing your builds and strategies with my tables for many years to come.
Amazing build idea, the only thing I'd personally do on such a great build, is go 7 Redemption Paladin 2 Hexblade Warlock and 11 Divine Soul Sorcerer, I know it's the lame approach, but has a similar spell selection and the benefit I really only have to focus on 2 ability scores instead of 3, but the main benefit would be having great sources of range damage with Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast and Magic Missle + Hexblade Curse
Continuing from there do you think warcaster should be the next asi/feat? Concentration will be pretty important on this guy especially if you are using haste or fly.
War Caster also helps with somatic components of spells which allows you to wear a shield. "You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands."
10:46 Why not Protection figthing style? The steed is within 5 feet of you when mounted. So you could increase its survivability further by giving disadvantage to one attack per round against the steed using your shield with your reaction.
In an odd way, this build almost makes a case for oath of glory. Being able to smite an enemy and buff your steed with a fresh pool of temporary hit points would be pretty good. If you took Paladin to level 7, it would even be about the only build that makes use of aura of alacrity, giving your mount an additional 10 feet of movement speed. Still not enough to make it a good set of subclass skills, but at least there’s some synergy.
Have you considered throwing Ashardalon’s Stride into the mix? You can get it through the Sorcerer levels you're already picking, and can share it with your mount. It upcasts okay, and can be a powerful AoE tool, protects you and your mount from OA as you maneuver the battlefield. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that spell on this build.
Mounts can already use disengage with their action unless you need to move more than 60 feet. Plus with AoA an opportunity attack landing isn't the worst thing.
@@marmato9332 We are level 11 now and the build is great, a ton of damage while having the versatility of a full caster. Definitely one of the stronger builds ive played
Thank you for the extremely insightful and informative Find Steed mounted combat build video, Chris! I learned a lot and hope for the opportunity to play a character like this at some point in the future. 8^)
@@andrewmcmillan229 Agreed, didn’t see the Warlock dip coming, and Armor of Agathys doesn’t jive well with this option. However, I still wouldn’t be shocked to see it on next weeks build.
Hey treant monk, could you do a video covering the broken capabilities of the new hadozzee race with its glide feature. I was thinking about it, and a hadozzee with a 0 strength modifier could jump 3 ft in the air as a standing high jump (3+ str mod) then move 15 ft without using movement speed. They can then repeat this 10 times to exhaust all of its movement speed and can move 150ft every turn provided it can jump. I imagine that this has insane implications for a grappling build where you grapple then standing jump (costs 6 ft of movement since you're grappling) then move 15 ft since the glide costs no movement. Assuming the hadozzee only has 30ft of movement, this is still 75ft of movment while grappling. Oh, and this also before taking into account dashing as an action or bonus action 😁 kinda nuts
Paladin steed, mounted combatant, upcast Aid, inspiring leader, barding, a few levels of sorcerer for Shield Spell, of course armor or agathys is great too My mount rarely dies
Can’t believe you missed ‘Sir Mounted’. I just love puns and my friend and I play Knights of the Round Table all the time (you each take turns naming Sur and Cir words until someone loses by not coming up with one).
Chris' other suggestion is pretty good too: "Well met, my name is Viva, and I'm a Knight." "Well met Sir Viva, I'm Bob and this is my fishing shack." "Survivor? Where? Was there a disaster around her?" "No, no, you said your a Knight, so its Sir Viva, no? "Ah, I see, I'm afraid I'm a more familiar with people calling me by my full name." "Oh? May I ask for your surname then?" "Bility"
Lol on the puns Chris! consdering a career change or a totally different shorts channel? haha. the jokes actually put more of a smile on my face than the build but i'll take both. as usual great discussion.
Taking this to 20, I like the idea of finishing out Paladin. At 7th level, you get Divine Allegience, which can make your mount even harder to kill for that not attack damage (AoE non-dex or failed save), at that point you might as well go lvl 8 for the ASI. Then you can go 4 Sorc or 4 Paladin depending on what you want. I like the Hit Points and extra 1d8 dmg on all attacks as well as the nice 3rd level paladin spells. I feel it's worth giving up 4 sorc points, 1 8th level spell slot, and 6th level spells (3rd level paladin spells seem better for this character).
Aaaah! How I remember the days when I could be a Fighter or Paladin on a warhorse with chain boarding... In fact the old Paladin could get a special warhorse (like the Lone Ranger's trusty mount Silver) that was above and beyond the standard warhorse. I also long for the days when the PCs would simply get hirelings to look after the horse/s during the adventure times or when stabled.
Would you consider making a video (or series) where you talk about what you think makes good subclass options for each class? I write homebrew and would love to know your thoughts on what makes the game tick
@@TreantmonksTemple I've watched those. What I'm wondering is if you can approach it from a more theoretical perspective. Like if you needed to design 3 subclasses for each class, what would the broad strokes be? How many uses would features have, etc.
Would love to see your take on actaul tank character, not some mounted abomination that would be used once in a life time campaign when for some reason I can ride a horse in every encounter ;-)
24:10 I've just now stopped in this part of the video, and frequenting this channel almost every time a video comes out, and the build thus far... I know already how these spells will be so much more effective, considering that now almost all of them have self as a possible range of the spell... I see many great things coming along. Absorb elements helps with enormous damage saving throws, Armor of Agathys is extra temp hp for player and mount, darkvision helps a lot, enlarge reduce helps with the mounted combatant advantage, fly is fly, you have twinned haste basically, polymorph is magnificent, freedom of movement helps in one of the possible worst scenarios. Mister Treantmonk I couldn't have chosen better.
Only issue I see with it is that while polymorph is a great spell, it's not so great to share with your mount, since it can only take 1/2 CR beast forms. I guess Giant Dragonfly from Wild Beyond the Witchlight is the best, with 16 AC and 22 HP.
@@andrewmcmillan229 I'd say that polymorph has other uses other than being put on yourself, but still having more hp is useful when it doubles the amount of creatures polymorphed, and still, with armor of Agathys on you'd be wrecking stuff even more.
RAW crowd, do you think the Aura of Warding from Ancients Paladin would halve the incoming damage from Warding Bond? (since the damage to you is delivered by a spell)
I mean... RAW it does work and I do applaude you for thinking of that. Would I run it like that? Probably not, seems a little too strong if you ask me.
Probably worth mentioning that warding bond requires both parties to wear a ring for the duration of the spell. Can a horse wear a ring? That's gonna be up to your DM (maybe convince them that it's a nose ring on the mount).
Great video as always. I just wondered why you can get to str 18 with HAM when you said you started with a 16 in str, con and cha. So I'm assuming you started with a 16 +1racial +1piercer in str and just go with a 14 in con?
@@raltus669 Indeed. There are lots of clever methods - base of the tail, wear it like a "bracelet", weave it into the mane, etc... I'd definitely allow any reasonable approach to an item like this that resizes to fit any wearer.
Yeah, I was thinking some kinda blingy platinum neck torc or armor, but those are all good ideas too. Knew it was a solvable, was just curious to hear how Chris and others would solve it.
Is it worth a one level hexblade dip to allow us to focus on just our Charisma score while only needing the 15 strength for the heavy armor proficiency? Would also give us armor of agathys and potentially allow us to pick another sorcerer subclass if we wanted. I was trying to build this before you released this video and after you'd released your last one telling us that this was coming. Mine ended up inferior to this :D
Re: Warding Bond - requires two platinum rings which you both wear. Horses don't have fingers. I assume you need to hash that out with your DM and hope they aren't two rigid, haha
I took interception as my fighting style. It lets me block some damage targeted at my mount. Is it better than dueling? probably not but it makes a shield feel useful rather than a stat bump.
If you have the mounted combat style you don't need your reaction to save your mount from damage caused by attacks, but if you don't have it, then interception certainly helps. So on this build it's the wrong choice, but on some mounted builds it works.
@@TreantmonksTemple If you were letting attacks go through against your mount it would be a good way of extending the damage done by armor of agathys though. I doubt it would be worth giving up 2 damage per attack but it is a thought.
Here's a warding bond strategy that increases your durability. Go oath of the ancients pally, since you get warding bond with expanded spell options, you still have the option. Now at level 7+ when mounted and your mount takes damage with warding bond, you take 1/4th the damage instead of 1/2 since the damage is taken from the spell and you have resistance to spell damage.
Depending on what the Thrikreen looks like in Spelljammer, I wonder if you could wield a scimitar in your secondary arms to overcome the disadvantage at close range? Ua allowed your secondary arms to wield a light weapon.
oh ya btw, does ashardalons stride work with find steed. itd be really fun, take that and transmuted spell Meta Magic and you can have a thunder, acid, lightning horse.
How would you plan on getting around people closing in and getting within 5 feet, giving you disadvantage? Mount movement in, hit them then mount movement out?
Some confusion. At the beginning of the video you set Str, Con, and Chr to 15, then use race bonus on Con and Chr. Then you take the Piercer feat to raise Str to 16. Fast forward to Sorc 4 you take Heavy Armor Master to raise Str to 18. I had to look at the character sheet to figure out you reduced Con to 14 and put the race bonus on Str. Otherwise a good video.
When setting up ability scores, you have strength of 16, *including* your +1 for the variant human feat (piercer). When you take Heavy Armor Master at 10 (6 Pal, 4 Sorc) you say you use the +1 to get strength of 18... where did the extra +1 come from? Answer: In the description you note you changed your race ability modifiers but the video still says 3*16 & 3*8, rather than the 17,16,14,10,8,8 (after mods) - this matches the sheet if you follow the link
FYI, the updated Beast Master Ranger from Tasha's can start using mounted combat by level 3 using the Beast of the Land and it's hp also scales so long as you remain a ranger.
The link for the Mammoth Chronicles: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mammothfactory/mammoth-chronicles-vol1-8-epic-miniatures-and-adventures?ref=8z3w8e
The Mammoth Chronicles looks great. I'm no longer in a position to benefit from such a product, but it looks like a great package. We need more "total package" type of products like this. Crowd-funding has been perfect for ambitious products like this.
i never noticed that caveat about spells doubling up on ''find stead''.
I'm really tempted to look up bard & see what I can do with it without multiclassing.
Armor of agathist is to good & that was clever to use clockwork soul like that for I honestly never look into sorcerer.
@@arnijulian6241 I love the concept of the Sorceror class, and TCoE has finally addressed the relative weaknesses of the class.
Clockwork Soul in particular is very good. I hope all Sorcerer subclasses follow the TCoE paradigm in the coming updates. Sorcerers are finally roughly on par with Wizards, enough so at least for the Sorcerer player to not gaze enviously at the Wizard.
@@elementzero3379 Not on par but the noticeable gap has been addressed at least.
Bard & paladin are a close 2nd-3rd to wizard. 4th is druid.
At least the sorcerer is comparable to a cleric in 5th-6th though arguable over which is more powerful.
people put down ranger & hype Warlock though i think the 2 comparable in 7th & 8th.
Fighter/artificer at 9th & 10th are my baseline not the warlock like many would claim.
Barbarian in 11th needs some up date &rogue since more spells came out in the new books has some how slipped below the fighter excluding arcane trickster.
being a 1/3 caster it has got something with up dates.
most would argue with me but rogue has had the largest drop in power.
base core books it was comparable to warlock in power but damn has it suffered.
Monk is the worse class in terms of power even with way of mercy that is at least playable but shadow is only good for very specific dips.
monk is so bad.
Monk & rogue need updates but non casters/martials are the hardest to give updates as they don't have spells so if the subclass abilities are poor they stay poor.
fighter doesn't rely on it's subclasses as the base frame is decent enough so any subclass is playable though not optimal.
Sorcerer is above the middle ranking but no where near the top tier classes but sorcerer is a nuker & if that what you like play it.
Wizard, druid & bard are likely the hardest classes to manage-optimise especially the wizard as you have a spell book unlike everyone else which is out of game. management.
i approve of sorcerer & warlock for RP/ease of use.
Compare them to all other full casters & they are fairly stright forward.
Charisma casters are also the king of multiclassing which gives them player value points but of course it depend if your DM lets multiclassing.
i will say sorcerers are at least better then Warlock now though not Hex blade as that for a dip is big gains for little investment of 1 -3 levels generally.
@@elementzero3379 The sorcerer never gazed enviously at the wizard as a Charisma nuker you shine in few things but you do it well.
Wizard is utility controller meaning damage & face is suboptimal but everything else a wizard can do & do it well but control/buff-utility is king.
A good wizard makes the fight easy for the rest of the party & you have played a wizard correctly if no one notices your power till you miss a session.
wizards are shutdown/divide & conquer tactic in combat but utility out of combat.
Wizards are fine being the strongest as optimally you assist the party in all matters.
You are more support then the cleric just no one knows it.
haste is not damage optimal but the martials at the table will love you for giving more bonks.
befriend the paladin, barbarian or the fighter & non will dare upset the wizard.
learn to target weak stat saves of other classes if PVP occurs as wizard or facing BBG.
Wizards deserve the power gap because they are the most pedantic intensive class to play hands down bar to non!
Pro tip! TCoE added Warding Bond to the paladin spell list, so you can choose a different subclass if you like! I’m going for Redemption; I don’t imagine I’ll be using my reaction much otherwise, and I like free sanctuary.
The ultimate Horse girl build!
Sharing a Sanctuary with your mount sounds amazing!
@@jinxtheunluckypony Doesn't even need to be for long; but if I'm going to give sanctuary to my horse, I may as well share it for a round until I start attacking again.
was just about to mention warding bond in the expanded pally list. really opens up the oath options for the build.
Warding bond says the creature needs to wear a platinum ring. Horses don't have fingers.
I love the build. It's thoughtful in its design, not following the typical optimization paths, and is very effective. I particularly enjoy how relatively low-level spells are used to such great effect. Who would expect a summoned war horse to fly through the air, getting into aerial melee with dragons, and hitting back (thanks, Armor of Agathys) when they dare strike him? I love the visuals and mechanics.
I also love the hilarious and apropos background graphics. Meg Ryan's reaction to those Clockwork Spells... 😆
I think the Oath of the Crown actually fits the flavor of a Knight in Shining Armor really well.
In addition, if you take Crown Paladin to level 9, it will give you another spell that upcasts beautifully: Spirit Guardians.
Something else to keep in mind about the Shield spell: it targets only you, so if you cast it from one of the redirected attacks, your mount gets the +5 until the start of your next turn as well. If you manage to get some barding on it, that suddenly gets its AC into the low 20s.
Honestly, extended spell might be good here - just 1 point, and you can double the duration of Armor of Agathys, Warding Bond, Freedom of Movement etc. Not always relevant, but extending from 1 hour to 2 hours can come up reasonably often.
You can also cast Aid before taking a Long Rest and still have 8 hours with the benefits so you have that 6th lvl slot available for the day, use it on another Aid for the party or an Armor of Agathys, maybe a Death Ward if you go Divine Soul instead of Clockwork.
@@brunox794extended aid is useful. I don’t think the temp hp from agathys are going you last that long.
I start with temp hp from inspiring leader and then cast AoA after those wear out or we hit the big bad. Quickened and you don’t waste an attack to get it up.
Heavy Armor Master potentially makes Armor of Agathys do even more damage since they might need to hit you more times to end the spell.
"You'll never need to use Divine Sense 4 times a day." *Remembers a campaign where our paladin ran out of divine sense charges and we really wanted more*
Curse of Strahd :D
A lot of good ideas here. I also appreciate your willingness to let go of the shield when it becomes cumbersome. It's a good example to follow (rather than try to shoehorn things in at great cost to the build's progression -- like a feat). thanks.
Clockwork Soul is quickly becoming the Hexblade of sorcerers, though it requires more than a dip.
Very cool implementation and idea. I enjoyed this.
At least on this channel! I still don’t see many clocksouls among the general playerbase
no the hexblade of sorcerers is divine soul. a first level feature that lets you add 2d4 to a check/save per short rest to amazing
It's the fully customizable bonus spell list from really good schools of magic. To a Sorcerer it's absolute gold and let's you have more spells than your wizard companion is going to have.
My immediate thought was go Heavy Armor Master for the Shining Armor as the first feat. You loose some offense (comparatively) but it makes the first 3 levels easy in the same way at the fantasy (aka the great protector of the weak). But each one’s own.
Great job though - I loved this build.
Sir Rounded really envelops the enemy. Solid build excited to try something like it.
After the previous vid I tried making my own mounted character and it ended up largely similar to this character here. I feel like my favorite teacher just told me I did well!
Great video as usual
I think were I leveling beyond 14 I'd be tempted to get to Paladin 9 to get Spirit Guardians. Also, I'd be tempted to take HAM first for max benefit. Survivability early on, especially when we'll likely be out of our element (mounted) more often than not, appeals.
Great build!
Great video, Chris, again. Got to say though if I was picking a secondary piercing weapon for a horseman I’d have to go with a warpick over a rapier every time. Just seems more appropriate.
My first instinct was a morning star, but the visual OOMPH! is about the same.
This is super cool. I love how the character gets to have a spell for almost any occasion by the end. It’s like Ben 10 turning into whatever her needs to get out of a bind.
After watching this video I finally felt I was able to build one of the members of a slave lords style group which will be the primary antagonist organization in one of the games I'm running. She's a renegade hobgoblin princess who was the commander of Black Sky Squadron, a cadre of War Wyvern riders. With the hobgoblin society's pre-disposition to Law, I made her a Blackguard serving the Vice of Domination and a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer bent on establishing Order through conquest at any cost. I am thrilled with the results. Thanks Chris!
Quick math thing, but looks like the later calculations assumed you'd have piercer rerolls available on every attack (when there's a chance you've already used them on a previous attack, or you might choose not to reroll a 6 just to have your reroll available for the next attack, but then not need your reroll on the next attack).
I don't think this changes the calculation much (Instead of 8 expected damage from weapon dice, it's more like 7.7, which lowers the final non-crit weapon damage from 22.4 to 21.9).
Still more value than I'm used to seeing out of piercer rerolls (it's like...almost 2 DPR here. I've looked at it in crossbow expert sharpshooter builds and it's like 1 DPR in those builds). Guess the higher accuracy and bigger dice help.
Chef's Kiss! Love this build. It delivers on a fantasy without sacrificing viability, and it's actually really strong...
But I can't wait for the next video for muh griffin!!!
MotM Duergar would sacrifice Piercer at level 1 for the ability to cast Enlarge on themselves and the mount for that auto-advantage against medium creatures. Not bad.
You mean large?
@@jamesbaker2092 yep
7 levels of paladin with conquest, with their fear channel divinity and the fact you use a lance, you could effectively lock down an enemy or more all while they get hurt, and you're safely 10 feet away. It gets armor of agathys, which will apply to your mount, it also has command, hold person, and spiritual weapon for a BA attack as well. For me that's a slam dunk, but that's nothing new, most people probably know how powerful that subclass is.
Flavor is free, sure, but it would be difficult to base the concept of a knight in shining armor on an archetype based on conquest and fear. Not to say that it's impossible, but the build is meant to be easy for viewers to pick up and adapt to their own games.
@@camclemons You can definitely do a Black Knight or Conquistador type character with that, it definitely changes the personality, but it's still a cool archetype.
I do struggle to think of ways to make Conquest Paladins good aligned characters to be honest.
Aside for some quest to free their homeland from invaders, tho that's definitely something a campaign needs to be based around or it will get completely derailed by the concept.
@@marmato9332 You would have to be very liberal with the flavor and communicate with the DM. The fear status, could be them trembling in awe of you, for example, but that could get tricky in situations if someone is awestruck that you don't want to be. Worth thinking about at the very least.
@@marmato9332makes me think of Cortés from Road to El Dorado
This is awesome. A couple of months back, I was complaining about how hard it is to have a functional knight with a lance build in 5e. I eventually came up with a build for shield master/mounted combatant combo put into a champion fighter for crit fishing(knock them down or back then lay them out) and hope that if I ever get to play it that I'll have a party that both loves my war horse and has the spells to keep him alive. This build likely does better damage and doesn't require other people making sacrifices for my horse. Awesome.
PS Treantmonk, why no love for the War Pick or Morningstar? They do the same 1d8 of piecing damage that a rapier does, and aesthetically those two fit better with plate armor and shield than a rapier. The only thing a rapier has on those two is finesse, but a strength build wouldn't need that.
If you have a mount the Pike as a backup weapon in my opinion isn't all that crazy.
Good morning Chris! Almost finished this and then got side tracked and can't remember where I left off so well be rewatching this! But first your new upload!
Best Optimization channel on RUclips for fiveE. I learned so much about the game just watching your videos. My group plays kind of it regularly but my understanding of the rules that I gained from a Videos has helped to make me Something of a leader and almost any table I go to and I’m able to help people understand rules better and as such make them more accessible and spread the find of 5E.
Quick note, the material component of Warding bond has a cost associated with it, meaning you have to supply the materials, even when you are using a spell focus.
The materials required are two platinum rings, one must be worn by the target the other by you. Players should ask their DM in advance if they can attach the ring to the horse's manes or use a larger ring that fits around the horse's ankle or something. Otherwise the spell won't work on the horse.
A nose or earring on the horse could also work. If My DM said no to this i would say goodbye to my DM. Players should be rewarded for creativity especially in a game like D&D. Not be punished.
I think honestly that's funny.
In Out of the Abyss they use giant lizards as mounts so I created one with Find Steed, and you could argue those DO have fingers to put a ring on (that came out wrong).
I think as long as you play with it it can add one more element of choice in the selection of your mount, instead of just going warhorse 100% of the time, but if the flavour your player wants is a warhorse, just let him play the damn warhorse and make this work, why not.
Wow this came out beautifully!!!!!! I didn't expect you'd find so many great combos. I loved this build
My first thought was, can I do most of this single classed with a lore bard? Started looking up the spells. Bards don't get most of the spells mentioned, so. . . Nope!
You also don't get Extra Attack which is the main reason to build this character in the first place.
@@monohybridstudios you could good swords or valor bard but the spell selection I guess is still an issue
I'm confused and need clarification on stats for this build. As I understand your starting Strength with the piecer feat is 16. 15+1. The other 2 points from variant human go into constitution and charisma.
So you start with 16, 8, 16, 8, 8, 16.
Mounted combatant doesn't give a stat increase. So when you take your third feat at sorcery level 4/character level 10 wouldn't your strength be 17 not 18??
@@Fairburne69 Con is 14. He never brings it to 16. Making starting STR 17 (after race feats) and CHA 16.
@Danny Adams I noticed the character sheet is different than the video. He dumps 3 stats to 8 and brings the other 3 to 15. But when you click on the character sheet it has con at 14 and dex 10.
Go back and watch starting around the 7:25 mark in the video. Not a big deal but it definitely left me confused.
Oath of Conquest is the best option in my option. Pretty good Channel Divity, Armor of Agathys at Level 3 and more importantly Spiritual Weapon at Level 5, which covers your bonus action.
I think this is my favorite build from you.
With careful reading of chapter 10, spells like dragon’s breath or spirit guardians target a point from which the AoE occurs, so dragon’s breath & spirit guardians can be shared
this build is based. Finally someone acknowledged heavy armor master. If anyone is reading this, just try it, it reduces so much damage.
The feat is underrated.
Fun fact: the last cavalry "sabers" (circa 1900) were really just spikes with a hilt which are best emulated in 5e as the rapier. So not only is it mechanically good, it would totally make sense for this character to use a rapier as their back up weapon.
Okay, the warding bond option is BRILLIANT - absolutely love this build!
In regards to another subclass, I highly recommend Oath of Conquest.
Assuming you successfully frighten someone, you can force the monster to attack you in place of your mount via Mounted Combat, their attacks will be made at disadvantage. And if you’re willing to invest in an extra level, they also can’t move.
Your spells are great as well. Armor of Agathys gives you and your mount temp hp, Spiritual Weapon is free damage and you get fear for AOE at level 7. The only downside is that you want to have a good charisma, but seeing as you’re dipping into Sorc, I don’t see this as a problem.
If you can talk to your dm about making a bludgeoning lance, take Crusher and a flail as a backup weapon to beat people into submission. If you’re willing to give up HAM, you can use the extra ASi for Charisma if you didn’t have it start as a 16. AoA can sub for HAM as does the fear affects.
Who says all knights in Shining Armor have to be nice?
Definitely a solid build but there is a bunch of untapped power you can grab with some different choices. You would have to rework the stats a bit to make it work but taking 1 level in Order Domain Cleric changes everything (and one level Hexblade so you can cut back on STR). Your mount actually gets to attack.
With your mount having offensive issues spells like spirit shroud and even divine favor for a while are going to be great spells. Turn one starts with your mount moving into range followed by a bonus action spell of your choice as you outlined in the video or divine favor early on and spirit shroud later if you want extra raw damage. When you share the spell your mount gets to attack as a reaction, and thanks to the wording of trampling charge if the target is prone (either knocked prone by the charge or already on the ground) your mount can make a bonus action attack followed up by your own attacks.
Going Oathbreaker Paladin to 7 and making your mount a fiend type let's the mount also hit with Aura of hate. On following turns in combat any time you cast something like shield or a healing spell for your mount it gets to attack again which is frankly hilarious. I very much like the idea of your DM attacking you and you get to say "No you" and have your mount crack the monster in the face and killing it.
I do absolutely love adding Order domain to a build and the reasons you gave excellent. I would however probably pick Conquest and a 1lvl dip into Undead warlock to make it easier to keep the enemy more than 5 ft away.
How would you combine paladin and ranger? As another build idea I quite like the idea of a paladin that uses a spearbow (they existed, were rare, but existed). For paladins struggle at a distance and rangers have quite a number of useful features for fighting from a distance.
Can't reach them yet? Keep shooting. Are they trying to rush you because they think you are just an archer? Well that's just perfect right, because that's what a paladin wants, to have enemies come to him. Divine favor could also work quite well for this as it is 1 off the few spells that also works at range and you than don't need to always need to use your bonus action for hunters mark.
I probably wouldn't dip more than 3 lvls of gloomstarker though. With normal human getting a +1 to each to handle MADness a bit.
I'm curious what you think.
Ideas for mounts builds that sound fun but also fairly worse after watching this video:
-Small characters can ride medium mounts wich are cheaper, but those mounts also have worse stats, and they don't sinergize with the advantage given by Mounted Combatant quite as well. They're also not that much cheaper if they die faster and you have to replace them more often.
-The Cavalier Martial Archetype works with mounts, but it doesn't get any real buffs to mounts compared to simply...being a paladin. Aura of Protection and the shared spells part of Find Steed on their own buff your mount way more than you ever could by just buying Armors and Saddles, and it doesn't rely on the DM. Mounting and dismounting with less movement and not falling prone is nice but not that necessary.
Warding maneuver is a really good Tank feature to ward off damage, but on your mount it's a little redundant with Mounted Combatant. It also doesn't protect against saving throws and AoEs. Aura of Protection and Warding bond work so much better for that, it's unreal.
Unwavering Mark it's also slightly annoying with a Lance, but not as much as I thought.
Cavalier is a really good subclass IMO.
But it really doesn't have much for mounted builds.
-Find Greater Steed is not bad, but I could see how it's not optimal to invest 15 levels in Paladin or 10 in Bard for a better mount compared to buffing it with other spells, all of wich have good secondary effects other than increasing the HP of the mount.
The mounts you can summon are far better than the ones of Find Steed, some can fly, some have really good stats. But Armor of Agathys, Aid, Fly, Enlarge, Fire Shield, etc. give you a better end result, aka higher HP, a bit of passive damage, a huge mount that works with Mounted Combatant, a faster flying speed or anything else you can come up when picking other buff spells honestly.
This is a really cool build! Can’t wait to play it in game!
If you're going Oath of the Crown paladin, you may as well go for 7 levels. It gives an ability that helps an ally within five feet. That being your steed.
The build can also benefit from a Cavalier dip. Now you've reduced the risk of falling off your mount in addition to having a weaponized bonus action attack that's keyed off your Strength modifier in uses. You probably would have already used your bonus action on the current turn, so this wouldn't conflict with anything outright as it gives the bonus action attack on your next turn. I can see 2 more levels in Sorcerer to get a 7th level spell slot and up your damage further, and 4 levels in Cavalier. I imagine the damage boost from all of it would be insane!
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This could also work quite well with an Elf and Elven Accuracy. Being Mounted with the Mounted Combatant Feat means you're more likely to get advantage on attacks. Getting triple Advantage also means you're more likely to Crit, which you really want with Paladin + Piercer.
you would need to dip into Hexblade but sure.
This is amazing and creative well done!
I have a lvl 6 Devotion / 11 Shadow Sorcerer Dragonborn build, with Find Greater Steed from scrolls. Usually go Haste because the movility ensures I don't take damage. You can reserve the mount's action to move its full movement out of the way of harmful spells (most have a range of 60 feet) and then zoom in to smite to your heart's content.
Another great example of marrying mechanics with flavor. This build will likely perform better than any "knight" build someone cobbled together as a pure fight or Paladin.
How about at the end of each build, how about a little dm advise on how to both challenge and spotlight your builds?
This is a cool idea :)
"Sir Vivability," I like it
I had actually built a similar build in AL. Went 6 levels Devotion paladin, currently 4 levels of sorcerer. I had originally gone divine soul, but decided to switch to clockwork after your last video. I noticed in my games too that the horses survivability was quite poor and also thought of Armor of Agathys to bolster it
lol, I keep forgetting the Finesse stat allows you to use Str or Dex as your bonus weapon damage. I was going to ask why you would take -1 to dex with a rapier.
In defense of Champion Challenge. When shouting your voice is plainly clear enough for everyone to hear you up to 30ft. without an echo. Pro Tip to ask your DM: If you can Combo this with Vicious Mockery making it a nice AoE opener for an added force multiplier.
As for casting spells while having your hands full. You can use your symbol as a spell-casting focus. My favorite thing to do while playing as a sorcerer. Use the Crystal Focus. Have it carved into your Pally's symbol. If you are just a sorcerer have it made into a slotted charm bracelet line with diamonds of value allowing you to freely use your spells without having to pluck them from your component pouch. (A better natural way to use Subtle Spell without using Meta spell for it.) Personally, I believe Sorcerers should be naturally to forgo all components to spell except those that cost gems and diamonds.
Wouldn't the heavy armor master feat put you at only 17 STR?
(Edit) nvm I just saw the description.
This build requires your DM be nice and attack you. Intelligent creatures don’t have much incentive once they notice how punishing it is.
The channel divinity kinda helps but would be reliant on you not having any melee allies
Finding room for sentinel can help with this
Oath of Conquest gets Armor of Agathys as an Oath spell, and decent Channel Divinity options. I think I'd go Divine Soul instead, still offering all those spells, in addition to Healing Word.
When you're playing a character that is extremely similar to the build, where the only differences are thise that came from materials that came out after you made those build decisions (clockwork soul, piercer)
Was just thinking about other resistances for extending the AoA THP on this build. Stone Skin could give you and the mount resistance to non-magical BPS for an hour (or 2 with extended spell). You could also quicken cast blade ward (lasts until the end of your *next* turn) for you and your mount. -Which reminded that the updated Earth Genasi can also quicken blade ward a number of times = to proficiency, so that race could be a contender for this build.
Awesome build! Clockwork soul is the Billy maze flex tape patch to a lot of builds these days and for good reason. The spell selection is just too good.
New guy to the channel here. I have been watching your builds, and I have absolutely loved your out of the box approach. I've watched this video a few times over trying to answer a question. Perhaps I missed it, but before you picked up the heavy armor master feat, you had a 16 strength. Now you have an 18 from the plus one given? Again, my friend, I love your work and amazing builds. Was just curious. Hope is well and stays excellent as you continue your journey to epic levels both in your games and reaching the crazy amount of subscribers I'm sure you will have over the next few years. I will be sharing your builds and strategies with my tables for many years to come.
Amazing build idea, the only thing I'd personally do on such a great build, is go 7 Redemption Paladin 2 Hexblade Warlock and 11 Divine Soul Sorcerer, I know it's the lame approach, but has a similar spell selection and the benefit I really only have to focus on 2 ability scores instead of 3, but the main benefit would be having great sources of range damage with Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast and Magic Missle + Hexblade Curse
I liked this build well enough, but i loved it the moment you took heavy armor master.
I have a soft spot for feats that are seldom used.
Continuing from there do you think warcaster should be the next asi/feat? Concentration will be pretty important on this guy especially if you are using haste or fly.
War Caster also helps with somatic components of spells which allows you to wear a shield.
"You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands."
That old joke about marrying one’s horse comes to mind 😂
Spider climb on this build might be a good idea. Practically, it lasts longer and costs less than fly. Thematically: horse on the ceiling
Hey Treantmonk, can you make a video on a Pathfinder 1e Wizard?
Aye, my mates and I are getting back into Pathfinder, so I can support this request.
10:46 Why not Protection figthing style? The steed is within 5 feet of you when mounted. So you could increase its survivability further by giving disadvantage to one attack per round against the steed using your shield with your reaction.
In an odd way, this build almost makes a case for oath of glory. Being able to smite an enemy and buff your steed with a fresh pool of temporary hit points would be pretty good. If you took Paladin to level 7, it would even be about the only build that makes use of aura of alacrity, giving your mount an additional 10 feet of movement speed. Still not enough to make it a good set of subclass skills, but at least there’s some synergy.
Have you considered throwing Ashardalon’s Stride into the mix? You can get it through the Sorcerer levels you're already picking, and can share it with your mount. It upcasts okay, and can be a powerful AoE tool, protects you and your mount from OA as you maneuver the battlefield. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that spell on this build.
Mounts can already use disengage with their action unless you need to move more than 60 feet. Plus with AoA an opportunity attack landing isn't the worst thing.
Oh man, I am currently playing a 6 glory pally/2 clockwork soul with a very similar spell selection. I think I’m going to do this
How did it turn out?
@@marmato9332 We are level 11 now and the build is great, a ton of damage while having the versatility of a full caster. Definitely one of the stronger builds ive played
@@robt9790 sick!
Thank you for the extremely insightful and informative Find Steed mounted combat build video, Chris! I learned a lot and hope for the opportunity to play a character like this at some point in the future. 8^)
If you use the new Drsgona lance backgrounds You can get find steed on any character. Could a hexblade be a good option for this type of build?
Wondering if you are going to pick up Inspiring Leader to bolster your mount, since your mount has the ability to understand you telepathically.
Wouldn’t stack with armor of Agathys so it would be an expensive feat you might not get a lot of use from
@@andrewmcmillan229 Agreed, didn’t see the Warlock dip coming, and Armor of Agathys doesn’t jive well with this option. However, I still wouldn’t be shocked to see it on next weeks build.
Hey treant monk, could you do a video covering the broken capabilities of the new hadozzee race with its glide feature. I was thinking about it, and a hadozzee with a 0 strength modifier could jump 3 ft in the air as a standing high jump (3+ str mod) then move 15 ft without using movement speed. They can then repeat this 10 times to exhaust all of its movement speed and can move 150ft every turn provided it can jump. I imagine that this has insane implications for a grappling build where you grapple then standing jump (costs 6 ft of movement since you're grappling) then move 15 ft since the glide costs no movement. Assuming the hadozzee only has 30ft of movement, this is still 75ft of movment while grappling. Oh, and this also before taking into account dashing as an action or bonus action 😁 kinda nuts
Paladin steed, mounted combatant, upcast Aid, inspiring leader, barding, a few levels of sorcerer for Shield Spell, of course armor or agathys is great too
My mount rarely dies
I’d rather have sentinel or heavy armor master as a starting feat
Both are great forever
Can’t believe you missed ‘Sir Mounted’. I just love puns and my friend and I play Knights of the Round Table all the time (you each take turns naming Sur and Cir words until someone loses by not coming up with one).
Chris' other suggestion is pretty good too:
"Well met, my name is Viva, and I'm a Knight."
"Well met Sir Viva, I'm Bob and this is my fishing shack."
"Survivor? Where? Was there a disaster around her?"
"No, no, you said your a Knight, so its Sir Viva, no?
"Ah, I see, I'm afraid I'm a more familiar with people calling me by my full name."
"Oh? May I ask for your surname then?"
"Bility"
Totally forgot Clockwork sorcerers got could get armor of Agathys
Lol on the puns Chris! consdering a career change or a totally different shorts channel? haha. the jokes actually put more of a smile on my face than the build but i'll take both. as usual great discussion.
Taking this to 20, I like the idea of finishing out Paladin. At 7th level, you get Divine Allegience, which can make your mount even harder to kill for that not attack damage (AoE non-dex or failed save), at that point you might as well go lvl 8 for the ASI. Then you can go 4 Sorc or 4 Paladin depending on what you want. I like the Hit Points and extra 1d8 dmg on all attacks as well as the nice 3rd level paladin spells. I feel it's worth giving up 4 sorc points, 1 8th level spell slot, and 6th level spells (3rd level paladin spells seem better for this character).
Aaaah! How I remember the days when I could be a Fighter or Paladin on a warhorse with chain boarding...
In fact the old Paladin could get a special warhorse (like the Lone Ranger's trusty mount Silver) that was above and beyond the standard warhorse.
I also long for the days when the PCs would simply get hirelings to look after the horse/s during the adventure times or when stabled.
Would you consider making a video (or series) where you talk about what you think makes good subclass options for each class? I write homebrew and would love to know your thoughts on what makes the game tick
If you check my channel, you'll see I did detailed tier videos for subclasses by class.
@@TreantmonksTemple I've watched those.
What I'm wondering is if you can approach it from a more theoretical perspective. Like if you needed to design 3 subclasses for each class, what would the broad strokes be? How many uses would features have, etc.
It would be awesome.
yeah this is a cool build. Clock work soul is so good
Would love to see your take on actaul tank character, not some mounted abomination that would be used once in a life time campaign when for some reason I can ride a horse in every encounter ;-)
24:10 I've just now stopped in this part of the video, and frequenting this channel almost every time a video comes out, and the build thus far... I know already how these spells will be so much more effective, considering that now almost all of them have self as a possible range of the spell... I see many great things coming along. Absorb elements helps with enormous damage saving throws, Armor of Agathys is extra temp hp for player and mount, darkvision helps a lot, enlarge reduce helps with the mounted combatant advantage, fly is fly, you have twinned haste basically, polymorph is magnificent, freedom of movement helps in one of the possible worst scenarios.
Mister Treantmonk I couldn't have chosen better.
Only issue I see with it is that while polymorph is a great spell, it's not so great to share with your mount, since it can only take 1/2 CR beast forms. I guess Giant Dragonfly from Wild Beyond the Witchlight is the best, with 16 AC and 22 HP.
@@andrewmcmillan229 I'd say that polymorph has other uses other than being put on yourself, but still having more hp is useful when it doubles the amount of creatures polymorphed, and still, with armor of Agathys on you'd be wrecking stuff even more.
RAW crowd, do you think the Aura of Warding from Ancients Paladin would halve the incoming damage from Warding Bond? (since the damage to you is delivered by a spell)
I mean... RAW it does work and I do applaude you for thinking of that.
Would I run it like that?
Probably not, seems a little too strong if you ask me.
Probably worth mentioning that warding bond requires both parties to wear a ring for the duration of the spell. Can a horse wear a ring? That's gonna be up to your DM (maybe convince them that it's a nose ring on the mount).
Great video as always.
I just wondered why you can get to str 18 with HAM when you said you started with a 16 in str, con and cha.
So I'm assuming you started with a 16 +1racial +1piercer in str and just go with a 14 in con?
I know this is totally handwaveable, but how do you imagine putting the platinum ring required for Warding Bond on your warhorse?
Base of the tail could work. Alternatively integrating it into barding seems reasonable
@@raltus669 Indeed. There are lots of clever methods - base of the tail, wear it like a "bracelet", weave it into the mane, etc... I'd definitely allow any reasonable approach to an item like this that resizes to fit any wearer.
Nose ring?
Yeah, I was thinking some kinda blingy platinum neck torc or armor, but those are all good ideas too. Knew it was a solvable, was just curious to hear how Chris and others would solve it.
One of the rings on the bit & bridle?
Maybe you should consider blade ward. You can quicken it to give resistance to both yourself and your mount for a round
Is it worth a one level hexblade dip to allow us to focus on just our Charisma score while only needing the 15 strength for the heavy armor proficiency? Would also give us armor of agathys and potentially allow us to pick another sorcerer subclass if we wanted. I was trying to build this before you released this video and after you'd released your last one telling us that this was coming. Mine ended up inferior to this :D
Re: Warding Bond - requires two platinum rings which you both wear. Horses don't have fingers. I assume you need to hash that out with your DM and hope they aren't two rigid, haha
Such an excellent build
It's a good thing Armor of Agathys is so shiny.
I took interception as my fighting style. It lets me block some damage targeted at my mount. Is it better than dueling? probably not but it makes a shield feel useful rather than a stat bump.
If you have the mounted combat style you don't need your reaction to save your mount from damage caused by attacks, but if you don't have it, then interception certainly helps. So on this build it's the wrong choice, but on some mounted builds it works.
@@TreantmonksTemple If you were letting attacks go through against your mount it would be a good way of extending the damage done by armor of agathys though.
I doubt it would be worth giving up 2 damage per attack but it is a thought.
Here's a warding bond strategy that increases your durability. Go oath of the ancients pally, since you get warding bond with expanded spell options, you still have the option. Now at level 7+ when mounted and your mount takes damage with warding bond, you take 1/4th the damage instead of 1/2 since the damage is taken from the spell and you have resistance to spell damage.
I never see these builds choosing the War Pick for a piercing weapon? It would eb also more flavoursome for a Knight character.
Depending on what the Thrikreen looks like in Spelljammer, I wonder if you could wield a scimitar in your secondary arms to overcome the disadvantage at close range? Ua allowed your secondary arms to wield a light weapon.
I would probably use a shortsword instead to keep the piercer feat advantages
Sounds like something I would play ;)
oh ya btw, does ashardalons stride work with find steed. itd be really fun, take that and transmuted spell Meta Magic and you can have a thunder, acid, lightning horse.
How would you plan on getting around people closing in and getting within 5 feet, giving you disadvantage? Mount movement in, hit them then mount movement out?
Mount can use action to disengage every turn.
The "When Harry Met Sally" reference was uncomfortably funny.
Did anyone else just watch Chris take oath of the crown and leave spirit guardians three levels away?
Some confusion. At the beginning of the video you set Str, Con, and Chr to 15, then use race bonus on Con and Chr. Then you take the Piercer feat to raise Str to 16. Fast forward to Sorc 4 you take Heavy Armor Master to raise Str to 18. I had to look at the character sheet to figure out you reduced Con to 14 and put the race bonus on Str. Otherwise a good video.
When setting up ability scores, you have strength of 16, *including* your +1 for the variant human feat (piercer). When you take Heavy Armor Master at 10 (6 Pal, 4 Sorc) you say you use the +1 to get strength of 18... where did the extra +1 come from?
Answer: In the description you note you changed your race ability modifiers but the video still says 3*16 & 3*8, rather than the 17,16,14,10,8,8 (after mods) - this matches the sheet if you follow the link
FYI, the updated Beast Master Ranger from Tasha's can start using mounted combat by level 3 using the Beast of the Land and it's hp also scales so long as you remain a ranger.