The Bardic Brawler: d4
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- Our D&D character build this week is, yes, a Bard who grapples. Call them the Luchador, the Meat Grinder, The Triple Dipper; they are a big, brawny, beefcake of a Bard, and they are muy poderoso.
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Intro/Character Concept:(0:00)
Tabletop Candle Company:(5:29)
Level 1:(8:45)
Levels 2-6:(15:59)
Levels 7-9:(37:31)
Levels 10-13:(41:59)
Levels 14-17:(46:21)
Final Thoughts:(51:55)
Outtakes:(55:59)
Math/Graph for this episode: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Sustained DPR Comparisons (5 Tabs): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Thanks to LudicSavant for the amazing DPR calculator! forums.giantitp.com/showthrea...)
Music Credits:
Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Angevin 120 loop by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Master of the Feast by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/ 
Развлечения
I like how every candle scent was his favorite
Lol yeah, definitely on brand!
Wait that is illegal...
Guess I will have to smell which one they lying about
Bard who becomes a grappler to force people to stick around and listen to his jokes.
Hi Mrs. d4! Love when the fam joins, Colby. I never stop smiling when I see a Silvery Barbs mob.
Oh! In a few weeks Dragonlance campaign comes out with major changes to character building
Come end of December or January, do you intend on making any characters based on the changes since it's still 5E (free extra feat at 1 and 4)?
Also, holy jeebus this is following exactly as I thought - Rune Knight + Bard... except it's Valor instead of Lore.
And no, don't ever stop the Princess Bride jokes.
Uhhhh... level 17... simulacrum magical secrets would allow you to grapple 4-6 creatures and cast 2 Clouds of Daggers!
Casting 6th level Cloud of Daggers twice for 4 characters would likely increase damage higher than what you had, but that also gets into Polymorph / Animate Objects / Conjure Animals cheese.
The most she will do is cast Cloud of Daggers behind you, and grapple another enemy...
@@vinspad3 whatever is official 5e rules I’ll likely incorporate :)
@@DnDDeepDive speaking of the silvery barbs mob, can you add them in whenever you bring up silvery barbs in a build, always so funny
Oh I love the Silvery Barbs mob😁
The name Bardic Brawler has me imagining the lead singer of a band who trashes inn rooms and starts drunken bar fights after gigs all while wearing fancy, puffy shirts and a Bycocket hat with a feather in it 😅
So what would you name the band? Also thanks for knowing the proper name of that hat!
@@skeptictank228 A group of elephants is called a herd or parade so something with that.
@@vargaspureblood Pain Parade?
@@skeptictank228 what a fun question! Oh, Pain Parade!? Very nice! What would I call the band? The Thrashing Troubadours 🤘😆🤘
@@BhopOwnz Trembling Troubadours?
Shoutout to the missus's eyebrow flash at 8:15. Perfectly executed ^_^ So glad I watched the sponsor section!
Ha ha! Undoubtedly my favorite part of the whole video 😂
I guffaw'd quite loudly at that. It's good to know that she to has a sense of comedic timing!
That eyebrow raise from Arianne implies that Colby spends a lot of time theorycrafting while in the tub lol
That was the best part, LoL
the princess bride quotes never fail to make me laugh.
But seriously, don't ever stop with The Princess Bride quotes. 👸❤️
I love it! Basically this is the ‘pro wrestler bard’. Really thematic!
The grappling bard build was what first got me into D&D optimization. Thank you Colby, for reminding me of my gateway build.
I've played a Bard Grappler for about 2 years. Insanely fun, with massive spikes in power. I went Paladin 2, Bard 12.
Went Bugbear and it was such a good call: getting to grapple people and walk away from their allies while keeping my attacks with reach.
They can't get to the grapply (if thats a word) but I can keep them at Bay.
Always a joy to watch these videos. Time to keep watching while I have some lunch. Thanks Colby ❤
An FYI, my main spell was Spirit Guardian. Quite a combo.
You went Valor! Let's gooooooo!
3rd day request for the Construction worker: spells and feats built around city production. Move earth, stone shape, crusher feat. I can see them as a reliable 'support' character.
The best defence is a good fortress
That reminds me of a siege master build I was Mulling over.
3 level eldritch knight, bond to 2 siege weapons.
Then 17 levels of wizard for meteor swarm and other object destruction spells.
They'd make a pretty thematic combo.
It'd be real cool if they got released back to back.
Yours would probably make a better PC than mine though. Building is a little more versatile than destroying large buildings lol.
I'll give it a try, thinking Wild Magic Barbarian with Druid of the Land (Mountain) 🤔🤔
Yes this would be incredible
Imagine candle-minis that you can light as they're fighting a dragon. Seeing the party melt will definitely improve combat pacing. And set the map on fire. And the table. And the house.
Dropping a like during the ad. You combined my two favorite things and I know I'll love it anyways. I shall name mine Terry in honor of Terry Crews. MUSCLE!!!!
Man, what a beast!!!
Did you realize that this build is also top tier 2/ bottom tier 1 for single target DPR? And still brings the full support and utility package of a most bard build.
I love those "great in one thing, good in everything else" builds
Once more, thank you for the amazing job!
You make me feel excited for every tuesday
The Bardic Brawler: d4 #116
Level 1:(see above) [fighter 1, fighting-style & race]
Level 2:(see above) [fighter 2]
Level 3:(@16:32) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@19:47) [bard 1]
Level 5:(@24:07) [bard 2]
Level 6:(@24:51) [bard 3, expertise & sub-class]
Level 7:(see above) [bard 4 & ASI]
Level 8:(@38:22) [bard 5]
Level 9:(@39:23) [bard 6]
Level 10:(@41:37) [bard 7]
Level 11:(@42:11) [bard 8 & ASI]
Level 12:(@42:29) [bard 9]
Level 13:(@43:04) [bard 10, expertise & magical secrets]
Level 14:(see above) [bard 11]
Level 15:(@47:29) [bard 12 & ASI]
Level 16:(@48:19) [bard 13]
Level 17:(@49:37) [bard 14 & magical secrets]
We love your songs, you are a bard in real life lol! Thanks Colby
8:36 this is the best sponsor sell I've ever heard
Having a warlock with hex in the party would be really great. Hex could give one of your targets disadvantage on strength checks!
Edit: For magical secrets, I find counterspell a great choice even though we usually want to use our reaction.
I now have a funny image in my head of Colby's wife just sitting in the bath relaxing, the door swings open and Colby leaps into the tub, splashing water everywhere and yelling, "Time for some sort of Kenku character!"
lol - the things this poor woman has to put up with! :D
I made this character in a space-jammer campaign, his name was Manny Xanadu, based on the science fiction movie Xanadu from the 1980's. It was fun combining it all as a theme together. Imagine a Loxodon using reinforced roller skates grappling people into an unannounced musical number and dance, only to find out it's actually a horror scene as they are forced into a rapidly approaching cloud of daggers... turning them into magical confetti with the help of a little last minute out of combat prestidigitation.
You don't even have to cast the cube over two grid spaces. You can simply move two enemies into the same 5-foot-cube. RAW, the only limit on sharing spaces is that a creature can't willingly end their move in another creature's space.
So there's no 5-foot bubble that inherently prevents creatures from sharing spaces-only a rule that you can't willingly end your move in another creature's space 👍
I picked up Warlock, Druid, and Ranger thanks for the code. Hope I made them some gold back on their investment.
Really great vid man, family joining was charming - actually want to check those candles out, showing the grid was cool, but mostly unique/interesting/powerful build. Just a lot of things to love here!
Because you move at half speed while dragging, it’s going to be very hard to pick up that second target. I would absolutely take Longstrider, and maybe Mobile with your last feat.
Spiritual Weapon might also be a good pick with you’re secrets, because your BA isn’t being used a lot of the time.
"Everybody has Misty Step, how weird."🤣 Yeah I can see that.
Your lack of punching has me thinking of this one Bardic Blender
Just wanna say how your vids make Tuesdays so much better than they would be completely without them and how I love your outtakes in the end ❤️
They brighten my Tuesdays!
Love the build as always!
I am not a huge candle fan personally, but my GF recently moved into a new place, and she loves candles. So I popped over and ordered her a druid (her favorite class) and a warlock (what she's playing in our current campaign) one!
I love the smell of both of them. She will love the thoughtful gift you gave her.
Hi! Happy to help out with the probability and damage number calculations here!
Level 6: 60DPR for enemies with +0, 55DPR for enemies with a +5
Level 9: 91DPR for enemies with +0, 85DPR for enemies with a +6
Level 13: 152DPR for enemies with +0, 145DPR for enemies with a +7
Level 17: 212DPR for enemies with +0, 205DPR for enemies with a +8
I'm assuming one grapple check per enemy per turn, since they need to use an action to make one to escape. The formula for the probability that they stay grappled is simple, if the difference between your Athletics mod and their Athletics/Acrobatics mod is n, then the probability that they escape your grapple is: (20-n)(21-n)(41-2n)/48000
So the probability that they stay grappled is 1- the probability of escape.
I can explain how I calculated this formula in a bit more detail if you're interested, or you can just take my word for it :P
Another option for this grappler, with less utility: Rogue Scout subclass. Boom, you can still take an actual action ("I use Goblin A as an improvised weapon to bash Goblin B!"), and at the end of the grappled enemy's turn, you reaction to move and better yet, _no enemies can make Opportunity Attacks when you do it this way_ which readied action moving has the potential to allow (and if the situation allows OA you can use disengage as a Cunning Action to avoid those during your turn to boot). Personally, I'd build this as Rune Knight 5 (eventually go to 8) / Scout 4 / Talisman Fiendlock 8 (possibly split as two progressions of 3/5 or 4/4) to minimize my potential failed rolls with the bonus of some Temp HP and more overall HP. EDIT: changed the levels to prioritize 2 more ASI's over the 3rd attack.
Honestly my favorite, ideal build that I hope to play one day mixes a bard grappler with Grung with the Re-roller to make the poison land more often. This week's episode is so exciting lol
My first optimized build was a Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee inspired athletics expertise bard with several nature-y skills and spells. Her name was Deedee Dunwin, and I loved flinging her at the biggest beasties and speaking in a bad Australian accent.
As such, I’ve been waiting actual years for a grapple bard on this channel, super excited for this! 🙌🏼
what a fun build (as always), I'd love to see you build a ghostlance some day
Another wonderful build. Thank you and have a most excellent week.
Love your videos. You come across as such a kind, calm person. Great fam as well.
For magical secrets, this may be overkill, but picking up Bigby’s hand seems to fit the build.
Looks like a fun character to play.
in terms of very British elephants, see also: Babar (books and cartoon). Also (speaking of cartoons) every time you build a big strong grappler w/o weapons it puts me in mind of a character from the later season of Primal
If they use their trunk as a musical instrument can it then be considered their magical focus?
I was about to ask this! Maybe if they had some ornate jewelry on their trunk is what my DM friend said he would allow at the table.
I feel warm and cozy every time I hear the 'welcome welcome welcome to dnd deep dive'. Every. Time. Ah. Thank you. Puts a smile on my face. :)
Also. The idea of a buff, hulking loxodon BARD is so cool!
A bard grappler, love it. Was always curious how to best make a caster a grappler!
Really hope episode 117 is a Masterchief themed build. The Halo fan in me shall rejoice 🙏
Grappling is insane. I had a party of level 1 PC's the other day and I put them up against wererats as a Halloween special not remembering that they are immune to non-magic weapons. I felt so bad for the fighter that had to just stand there and take hits until he went "Can I grapple them and drown them in the river?" I had just learned the rules for suffocation and was like "yea that's legal" Dude man-handled the wererat into the water and held him there until he stopped moving with the wererat basically not able to do anything in return.
wouldnt this take like 30 turns? A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 + its Constitution modifier (minimum of 30 seconds). When a creature runs out of breath, it can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying. or have i misunderstood
sure, if the creature is actually holding it's breath and not struggling to be free from an aggressor.@@FeignedEuphoria
Wow DnD candles , now i seen it all
Never stop the Princess Bride quotes.... 😁
Yup...this is going to be my very first bard. Yaaaaasss!
I got a candle from them at a convention a while back. I got the Bards candle and it smelled just like fruit loops!
Dang that’s crazy!
Yes! I mention this in the outtakes 😂
Great build super fun. Always fun to see other race representation. I wish you could stockpile magical secrets for level 11 bard. I would love to get contingency earlier on this build.
I had a bardbarian grappler once. Being a charismatic grappler, he was a luchador obviously
Since you asked for our choices for magical secrets here are mine:
-Armor of Agithis (the synergy with Heavy armor Master is strong and survivability seems like a potential weakness)
-Wall of Force
As always, the content was unequivocally valuable. My wife is currently playing a bard and I'm so trying to encourage her to stick with it. But the outro... Humming along to Billy Joel... Priceless! Stay Classy!
Might also be good to take the Mobile feat at some point here to increase your grapple-dragging range.
Great quality video and presenting! 😎 You've come on leaps and bounds.. not to say I wasn't hooked after your very first optimised build 🤓
Seldom comment but watch most of your videos. Always enjoy them!
Playing this build as strictly non-weapon hero-wannabe. Cloud of daggers is flavored as two giant elephant head dueling with their tusks. Ancestors' spirits' stuff. So much fun!
Can we appreciate the fiddle-leaf fig in the back? That's some druid tier greenthumb
I have literally never wondered if a bard could grapple. Should be a great episode.
No, definitely do not stop with the Princess Bride quotes. 🤣
The underappreciated part of this build is that very, VERY few creatures in 5e have proficiency in athletics OR acrobatics, and none that I know of have expertise in either. Moreover, legendary resistances can only be used on saving throws, NOT ability checks (correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly confident). There is no instant-escape scenario for the monsters, and escaping your grasp will be very hard.
Really loved this build, and I was really impressed by how strong it was.
I feel like this might be my most underrated build ever, honestly :). Glad you enjoyed!
I would love to see the face of the DM when you finally reach lvl 20 and you replace cloud of dagger with prismatic wall. Grab a third enemy and run lap trough the wall to vaporise them
And this is why I limit these spells to once per round damage. Moonbeam is already good enough damage on its own, adding the "once per turn" clause to it and similar spells just blows away the competition.
‘Healing word to… bring our enemies back in a pinch.’ That’s an… interesting use of the spell. /s
yeah lol - second week in a row I've screwed that up! /facepalm
Ok. This is hilarious. This is almost(!) a perfect clone of a character from one of my campaigns. Except he went for a WWE-theme half orc bard, with only two levels of Fighter and without Cloud of Daggers. Or rarely casting spells at all, for that matter. So he's basically just really good at getting hold of enemies, and then get pummeled by them. So 90% of fights end up with the rest of us saving his ass from getting eaten. And here you made TWO small additions and turned him into "the strongest character I ever made". Seriously, I almost burst from laughter xD
(Truth be told, our teammate is not the most rule or build savvy... One time he refused to understand why the DM ruled that "a Minor Illusion of a paper bag over the BBEGs head does not make him blind". In other words, didn't understand why he didn't get a free Blindness spell with no saves allowed for the cost of a centrip.)
A possible weakness about the build/concept though: what about things that simply cannot (or absolutely should not) be grappled? I'm talking ghosts, oozes, many Elementals, Bodaks, Chasmes and other things whose MO is to kill you just by being close to you? Sure, most fights will probably not be against such foes, it would just be interesting to hear if you gave this any thought.
I guess "you're still a bard" applies.
Love the build!
Here’s hoping there’s a drunken brawler monk dip for flavor. Bard gets drunk and wants to hug people alot
A grappling Bard? The jokes write themselves.
Can’t keep my hands to my elf?
You know when you really start to think about it this build is insanely gruesome. Just pushing and pulling someone's face repeatedly in and out of a giant flying Swarm of blades.
Super Valorous... >.>
I just realized D&D Deep Dive is acronymized as DDDD or D4. Nice
Oh man, so I don't normally comment, but I have to here. I LOVE making DnD builds. Now most of my ideas come from multiple sources, but it took me years the encounter your videos, and MAN do I wish I found them earlier. Your videos are not only informative and often riddled with humor, but incredibly calming and relaxing. It's a joy to watch you work! Keep it up! Now I'm off to build some more characters!
Hey thanks! Glad you're enjoying :)
BTw good build on the classic grapple + drag + entry spell. had my own version of this but used rune knight + clock sorc. got my expertise via skill expert. but same core tactic. grapple drag enemies through create bonfire->cloud of daggers->wall of fire/sickening radiance. main difference i think from your build is i had armor of agathys because as you said it gets hit alot. picked clock sorc for access to all these spells, magical guidance (for grapple checks) along with the ability to quicken spell to fill up my bonus action economy after giant's might.
YAAAAAS this concept was my first character! I was a Valor bard with expertise in Athletics and I also had the shield master feat.
TGIT! Thank goodness it's Tuesday! Thanks Colby!
love the concept!! and i too have been thinking of the unique synergy between the fire rune passive and jack of all trades..tools can play a big part in your char's story in any campaign especially with additional info from resources like XGTE, etc...
here is what is said about the fire rune: "Fire Rune. While wearing or carrying an object inscribed with this rune, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses your proficiency with a tool."
I LOVE GRAPPLING! Best dnd mechanic don't tell me otherwise.
With the Druid candle, can you smell the horde of summoned raptors devouring your foes in a glorious, OP, Shepard kinda way? 😂😂😂
lol
This is awesome!
This whole time I'm getting flashes of "Will it blend videos" lol
I played a grapple valor bard, went Minotaur so i could grapple 2 people and make unarmed attacks with horns. Also I would first attack shove knock prone for athletics check instead off attack roll then grapple with adv. Love that you covered bard grappler and your innovative ideas. Also Used animate objects for damage since my targets were grappled and prone. And you can get counterspell.... grappeling the mage... so good
For Magical secrets I think Armor of Agathys is a consideration. You're in melee and are gonna be getting hit a lot though you don't have resistance which mitigates its usefulness. Since our bonus action isn't constantly spoken for Earth Genassi could be an option for ba blade ward raspberry shenanigans. Would make this front line fighter significantly more tanky. Going this route might even be worth picking up a lvl of warlock just to get aoa earlier. Of course you'd be loosing out on the trunk and other great features of the loxodon but perhaps the tankyness would make this char a bit more well rounded. Earth Geanassi also gives you the option of starting with a 16 in 3 ability scores.
I think I'd forego the 20str and rather start with a 15 for heavy armor and later pick up heavy armor master for +1 str and dmg reduction. 16 con and 16 cha. You don't really need to get your str that high when you've got expertise, advantage, and even frost rune on top. I'm liking warcaster for this build because of all the conc checks we'll be making and if you're not going with loxodon you'll need to use your second hand to grapple making the casting part of the feat quite attractive. I'd probably pick up fighter 4 after bard 4 to get them both by lvl 8 and then focus pumping cha with the rest of the asi. Might even find some oger strength gauntlets.
As always thanks for your videos. I enjoy thinking about what you came up with and roll it around in my head during the week to see how I would do it. Always look forward to Tuesdays!
I am loving this! About 3 months ago I made a character named Hope "Crusher!" The hero forge art came out amazing! She wasn't really built for damage as much as performance. She's an Acrobatic Loxodon Wrestler from a Circus that was level 10 Path of the Beast Barbarian, 6 Eloquence Bard and 4 Rune Knight Fighter. In her picture she's strumming her lyre with her trunk while posing to the crowd. I wish there was a way to share it here. Still, I like what you did with yours, I really wasn't thinking about grappling three creatures at a time.
This inspired me. Now I want to do a character that punches people in and out of cloud of daggers.
call Lightning is always a favorite of mine to get with magical secrets. its doesn't really work if you are doing a lot of caves or dungeons but in fields, air battles and ship battles especially you can get so much damage and roleplay out of it, I love it!
Very excited about this build! My first 5e character was a Bard-Barian Tavern Brawler grappler styled as a Macho-Man-Randy-Savage-esque Pro Wrestler! I flavored my somatic and verbal spell components as flexes and trash talking. Planned on trying to get ascending giant-strength belts as "championship belts" but the campaign never got that far.
Bestow Curse would be awesome on this build
Loved it as always
Not gonna lie, I have some difficulty imagining the peaceful serene Jungle Book elephant dragging enemies into what very clearly is a horror-style meatgrinder :)
I would totally go for Bigby's Trun... errr, Hand for the first Magical Secret! It's inferior to Wall of Force for control purposes, but slightly more versatile and apart from the Clenched Fist, it doesn't rely on your charisma. Plus, you *can* make it look like a trunk ;)
this is an interesting grapple build! Might have to use it myself.
when I did a grapple build, I used monk + beast barbarian
MO is just to grab a fool and suplex them to the moon
monk's step of the wind doubles your movement, and
rage gets you advantage on grappling, beast form gives you plenty of options for survivability, and when you get the level 6 feature, you can jump even higher
rage's damage reduction, combined with slow fall means you can grab someone, jump about 80 feet into the air with them, slam dunk them for all that fall damage, while you take a fraction of that damage, if any. With only your movement.
not perfect but its fun if youre into the over the top wrestler type.
Big burly buffy beefcake brave bard brawler brute bashes bastard badguys in a blender of brilliant blades. Beautiful build boy! Bicentennial barrier broken, blessings and buffs, brings back the befallen too, aBsolutely bestial and bonkers bard build. Bellissimo! :3
👏👏👏
Thanks for all the great content! Do wonder if Lore Bards Cutting Words to foil escape checks would be better? Have to go fighter 5 but get the asi on the way!
Yeah, but if you go fighter 5 for EA, you're gonna wanna go fighter 6 for the tasty extra ASI, and then you're gonna want 7 for your next subclass feature, and then you'll want 8 for the next ASI, and that point you're just a fighter
Even if it wasn't intended, I'm choosing to interpret this as Kephya's episode.
I'd left a comment in the Moon Guardian video extolling the power of the Triple Dip, a tactic I discovered (and use) with my Loxodon Moon Druid, Kephya. (Full kudos to YOU for opening my eyes to the power of grappling in wildshape with your FIRST Moon Druid build!)
And now I see that you've not only built a character around the tactic, but you even made them a Loxodon. Kephya would be so happy. I sure am :)
At 34:12 I find myself laughing menacingly as I realize how this is all going to work lol. Honestly genius build and I love having a good reason to be an elephant!
Lore Bard with a 2 level Hexblade dip allows you to pick up spike growth and eldritch blast. At level 8, you can deal 47 damage to an enemy every round while only using 2 level 2 slots.
That's eery. I was planning to look this up today but it was at the top of my feed
The Algorithm knows. It knows all.
Me to my Luxodon artificer: "write that down, write that down"
"We will be the focus of a lot of attacks"
*Edit: calculated tanking score*
13th level
Boss RTD 11
Average RTD 14
17th level
Boss RTD 9
Average RTD 7
If you drop a level of bard and pick up a level in Divine Soul Sorcerer for Shield, you have to do the 13th tank rating at 14 but the numbers are
14th level
Boss RTD 18
Average RTD 44 (I know)
17th level
Boss RTD 13
Average RTD 16
From the changes below:
This got me thinking about picking up Armor of Agathys, for the defensive buff but also at least some offense when they hit us.
You can use magical secrets to get Armor of Agathys (maybe drop Wall of Force), and swap the Cloud Rune for the Hill Rune for resistance to non-magical physical types for an entire minute.
Magical secrets is at 10th level, so 13th character level. But you have 2 5th level spell slots at Bard 10. An upcast Cloud of Daggers and an upcast Armor of Agathys, with resistance. Assume both creatures you're grappling attack you, AoA deals 25 damage to one, and 25 to the other if the first does less than 53 points of damage.
At 17th character level, they can use a 7th level Cloud of Daggers and a 6th level Armor of Agathys, dealing 30 damage until 60 points goes away with -3 damage per hit.
With a 20 AC, and likely drawing fire from 2 enemies constantly, this makes you a better tank than many tanks *and* increases the burst damage at the cost of some control.
I had to ask my wife if she gives me the same look your wife gave you as you talked about D&D… she confirmed that she does. I thought that look was familiar. 😂😅
Alternate name: The Slow Dance of Death
The combat tactic of just grabbing an enemy or two and walking 5 feet forward and back repeatedly reminds me of dancing and it has a musical vibe for the bard. Given the strength focus, I imagine any actual dancing they do might involve a lot of lifts or something…
Hello Colby, it's good to be home.
I'm pretty sure "put a gargantuan creature in a headlock" is an end unto itself.
Wow, those are some absurd numbers. That's more than some of the nova builds and it's (theoretically) sustainable. Fun stuff. Nice to see Valor get some love but sad to see it's features be mostly irrelevant. Idk if I said this already but would love a dedicated Echo Knight build and/or an Echo Knight/Spores Druid combo (may or may not be relevant to a character idea of mine :P) Thanks for the great content as always, my new favorite trend is the end of video singing :)
"Bah gawd, that man has a family!"
I am a simple person... I hear an emporers new groove quote and I hit like