I am literally watching this video while my infant son is sleeping in my arms. He jumped when you yelled "No!" About the race. And I promptly lost my shit when you apologized for waking the baby.
This is why I like the Mobility feat on Thief characters. Dash action upto 80ft -> Fast hands (slight of hand) as a bonus action -> poke with pointy bit of metal on following rounds. Mage Slayer is great, but Mobility is more useful in general.
Honestly an "anti mage" seems like a good subclass design for an artificer, use "tech" to combat magic have artificers get things like absorb elements, misty step, counter spell, and some subclass features that would be great against magical effects but could also have some use against mundane stuff like maybe a bonus action attack that deals a little extra damage but also nullifies sound around an area like a concussion grenade that deals a d8 of thunder damage or something.
better idea: barbarian who hits fireballs like baseballs (basically monk's deflect missiles, but against magic 'ballistics'; bullets, balls, and bolts, except lightning bolt, but LB would charge your weapon almost like having absorb elements)
Agreed. I suggest this to a couple of my dnd friends now and then. Wholesome powerbuilding is a niche I didn't expect to find myself in, but I'm most definitely happy that I'm here now :)
Still watching, but, imo the bladesinger could be something of a mage killer - it doesnt need to use its spell slot to damage the other spellcaster and reserve it to counterspell everything all day long while causing a good amount of dpr with your melee attacks.
Yeah, I agree. My group did a Dresden Files setting game, and I made a Bladesinger. The character was a Warden of the White council of Wizards, and it was his job to hunt down evil mages. An interesting thing about the setting is that it’s illegal to kill with magic, but this character does exactly what you suggest here. It also helps that we homebrewed the Wardens’ Silver Sword into the game, which has charges for counterspell, dispel magic, absorb elements, and has spell absorption.
In terms of strictly optimizing as an anti-mage, I'd honestly go for the satyr over the yuan-ti. Counting as a Fey rather than a humanoid (Although it can be bad if Protection from Evil & Good/Magic Circle/Hallow is in play) makes you immune to Charm Person, Dominate Person, Hold Person, etc which is a nice bump to your resilience against spellcasters, particularly at lower levels where enemy spellcasters lack slots of a high enough level for Charm Monster, Dominate Monster, and Hold Monster spells to use on you. Admittedly the poison immunity and innate spellcasting are good features, but I feel they're less applicable than being immune to humanoid targeting spells for an anti-mage.
This with the Ancient's Paladin mentioned at the end would be awesome. Drop in 5+ levels of Hexblade for Counterspell and maybe the Devil's Sight/Darkness combo. I'd probably go to level 8 Paladin out the gate, starting with 16s in both STR and CHA, grabbing Shield Master at level 4 and CHA at 8. Then I'd make the swap to Hexblade from there. It's a long slog toward your Warlock powers, but picking up the Paladin defenses first seems like the smarter move to me.
Also MOTM updates the Yuan-ti so that they're only resistant, rather then immune to poison, so you'd have to convince your DM to let you go off the older version
I think Oath of the Ancients Paladin 7 or 8 -> Hexblade works even better than pure Pal here since you get Counterspell on Short Rest and you can max your Cha for them Saving Throws easier.
Sorry for the Necro, but yeah was really expecting a discount evasion (shield master) pally as the go-to. Possibly a conquest pally to lock down movement with fear or hold person for blocking spellcasting and auto crits.
Came to RUclips for some art tutorials, then i see that charming mischievous grin of yours and the tittle: the anti mage And now Im like welp this is what im doing now.
@@joaquinrodera3472 Agreed with this. I don't play long campaigns anymore and I find it more rewarding as i can try new character concepts more. So it's usually short campaigns or one-shots. And our DM never starts campaigns anymore at tier 1. We usually play tier 2-tier 3 if its a short campaign with milestone levelling (no xp hunting). That way we get to enjoy our character concepts for the bulk of the adventure (without trudging through the lower levels). Starting out at tier 2 also helps flesh out backstories, how the party members met and helps us enjoy multiclassing (which most of us do).
@@5h4d0wBG There are circumstances where Fireball is better than attacking, but generally you are right. But that was not the point of my comment. I just remembered that there actually is a creature that can cast fireball at will and thus could be the endless fireball machine. (Although it has a different DC than the ones used in the video.)
@@captainkiwi77 With signature spell you can only cast the spell once per short rest without spending a spell slot (and you always have the spell prepared). You cannot cast it infinitely!
"If the DM is having the pit fiend cast fireball they're using it wrong" hmm, interesting, because I think what a pit fiend would realistically do, is send a swarm of weaker devils In first to bog down the Party in melee for a few rounds, while they fly overhead, and shoot fireballs at the party to soften them up, especially since devils are fire immune so it can blast you without hurting its allies. THEN after you've killed its minions and lost some hit points it'll fly in to finish you off, in true hell general fashion
As others have said, a bladesinger makes for an amazing mage slayer with many spell slots unused for counterspelling. My group did a Dresden Files setting game, and I made a Bladesinger. The character was a Warden of the White council of Wizards, and it was his job to hunt down evil mages. An interesting thing about the setting is that it’s illegal to kill with magic, but this character does exactly what you suggest here. It also helps that we homebrewed the Wardens’ Silver Sword into the game, which has charges for counterspell, dispel magic, absorb elements, and has spell absorption.
The whole time you were setting it all up in the preamble I was saying, "Oh... he's going yuan-ti, right? It's yuan-ti. It's got to be yuan-ti. Colby! Just say it! Say Yuan-ti!" And you did. lol
@@DnDDeepDive Ha! I also am one who loves a feat at character creation and did a lot of variant humans early on. My group recently did what you brought up on the last "Sliding" and everyone gets a starting feat and it's opened up so many races. :) YOu do this a lot but when you mention the race you might pick besides v human and custom lineage, that's really helpful to those of us blessed with starting feats no matter what. Thanks man!
I actually really like the checklist approach; that seems more interesting for me than a raw numbers comparison on one matrix. Would love to see more checklists going forward.
Have to say, I admire your commitment to Monks. I have that love for Rangers - a melee ranger is high on my list of what I would love to see you build.
If your DM wants to stick to the PHB for races and yuan-ti pure blood isn’t an option, choose a gnome. They get advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws (which is insane) and those usually only come from spells and magical effects
Small Suggestion: Could you add the Class you are taking levels of in the timeline of the video not just he level range? would help a lot in getting a quick idea of the builds and going back to certain parts of it!
@@flash1face1 it helps to get an overview and to understand the core strategy / interaction. There are many reasons why that is useful: - In many cases there is one interaction that is central to the character. this interaction may or may not be allowed at your table. - You may or may not like that interaction and can already think about whether or not u want to play that character. - you already have a reference point to similar builds - you probably have a much better understanding of the choices if you know where a build is going. - he would no longer have to say in the video: "dont worry it will make sense later" because it would make sense right away. - It is the more logical structure than level by level. a character isnt optimized by going through it level by level but starting at a core strategy and optimizing around it. - it makes adaptations to your specific table and rules much much easier. sufficient reasons?
Had a similar idea for a mage hunter, before I knew yuanti was an option, I went shadow monk tabaxi, the feline swiftness is great on a monk for closing the distance on those backline casters.
I love your videos, I just realized I wasn't subscribed and immediately fixed it. Currently my favorite content on youtube, thank you for all your effort.
Pg 183 of the PHB defines Dim Light as being synonymous with shadows. "Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area." So even on the brightest of days, you should find plenty of shadowed areas that you can dart into and out of. And as long as the target themselves is casting a long enough shadow (ie: into an adjacent square), you could immerge from their own shadow to strike them.
First of all, thanks for the video, i can't believe i didn't discover you sooner (subbed), i'm known as the "munchkin" of the group, so these kind of specialized and min/maxy builds are right up my alley! here my comments for future reference/consideration: satyr is considered "Fey" so a lot of spells that work only on humanoid wouldn't work on them, that's to consider as well, for example, an enemy spell caster the higher variant of the "person" spells (charm person, hold person, and dominate person) which is a considerable higher spell slot to use, although i would take yuan-ti for that poison dmg immunity the sneak attack also worth mentioning that you can't have disadvantage, it also works on other characters/npcs/monsters turns (reaction attacks on other turns) lvl 1 enchantment spell that incapacitates the enemy: Tasha's Hideous Laughter, although the effects ends when the target takes dmg, but you broke their concentration, and you also made them prone and incapacitated Also, only using DEX save dmg spells is a bit disingenuous, as there are a lot of spells that target other saves that could potentially destroy this build :/
Bladesinger is a great way to get Counterspell, and with Tasha's changes they have some great Monk synergy (aside from a bit of MADness that can be managed by spell choice.) With their Extra Attack feature at lvl6, you can cast Booming Blade, make a rapier attack (proficiency courtesy of Bladesong, monk weapon courtesy of Tasha's) and then also make a bonus action martial arts attack (or another rapier attack with Ki-fueled Attack if you used Stunning Strike during the attack action.) Also prevents doubling up on Evasion (though you may still want 2-3 levels of Rogue for all the roguishness.)
The problem with Darkness and Shadow Step is Darkvision can’t see into the Darkness spell so you can’t cast Darkness and then Shadow Step into or out of it.
As someone who played Shadow Monk for a long time, I can confirm that this was the worst oversight in its design. Especially playing alongside a Shadow Sorcerer who specifically has a clause sidestepping this issue (They can see in the Darkness they cast.)
That's why I multiclass it with the Gloomstalker Ranger. In addition to superior Darkvision, you also have access to the Blind Fighting style. It's only 10 feet but it will still help with adding mobility to your advantage.
The Shield spell would also be a nice inclusion. Not only helps against spell attacks a little but it also shuts down any attempts at magic missile, one of the only instances in which a spell allows you to take no damage from another specified spell.
This channel is ridiculous. This is awesome... Looking forward to watching this channel grow. How do I give this guy my money? This is definitely one of my new favorites.
Ha ha thanks! You know, I haven't even really looked into Patreon or RUclips membership things or whatever. Maybe I should... if it could help me quit my day job and just focus full time here... hmmmm ;)
I like the idea of the mageslayer and how it can be done on many different ways in 5e since there aren’t super specific mechanics that pull directly in that direction. My mageslayer standby is a paladin multiclass with sorcerer. 6-7 paladin depending on the paladin subclass, the rest sorcerer. Extra attack with smites seems like a wonderful way to make use of slots in a way that can’t be counterspelled. Divine soul gives the ability to quicken a silence spell leaving the action available to grapple in place, can really shutdown most casters. Tashas mind whip is now a powerful option to potentially inhibit multiple casters over a larger area too if quickened.
Only problem I can see is your shadow step requires you to be able to see where you are going to, but the darkness spell you can cast blocks darkvision so you would need devils sight or something like that to shadow step next to a mage you put in darkness. Unless I missed something, I was doing stuff around the house while listening, lol Great build, by the way. My next character is probably going to be a monk so it’s good to get ideas.
Thanks! You know, I thought about that, but I think you could still get there: we're told we can teleport to "an unoccupied space you can see..." I don't know that the magical darkness necessarily prevents you from seeing the space, if that makes sense. No, I couldn't see inside it once I got there, but I can still see the place I want to go - it's that big blob of darkness right there... I'm sure some DMs would say no, but I think you've got an argument at the very least... hopefully with Prestidigitation you won't need to depend on that little trick too often either way. Try to avoid fighting outside in the middle of the day if at all possible! :P
I really enjoyed that one, as usual. I've been trying to come up with a decent Rogue / Monk multi-class but hadn't thought of something with such a specific concept. I'm enjoying these concept first builds, they remind me of the Rogue Specialists in 2nd and 3rd edition, after the Thieves Handbook came out, designed as NPCs really. Someone you hire for a specific task. 5e could use more of the follower mechanics, I know we got sidekicks in Tasha's but I haven't read that yet, maybe that fixes it. Nonetheless, great vid Colby, great build. Thank you.
I recently made a character who was a Satyr Oath of the Ancients Dexadin. They have advantage on saving throws against spells, resistance to spell damage, Resilient Con to benefit their own concentration, and High Charisma which benefits all of their saving throws. They're a very effective magic damage sponge, but I couldn't really find room for the Mage Slayer feat with how MAD they already were.
Currently playing the same build except I took reslient Dex instead. It gives me an insane dex save of +11 at level 6 although I rolled really good stats
I think whispers bard instead of arcane trickster could be interesting for still getting expertise, still getting great sneak attack style damage, and gaining access to a lot more utility/debuff as well as counterspell
I really like all the bits in this build, I had curse of Strahd on the brain lately, this would be a cool as an assassin sent to destroy the evils there or be from the valley as an member of an order to destroy their enemies and take over themselves.
This build concept completely turned the vigilante character concept I had spinning wheels in the back of my brain into the character I am definitely playing the next chance I get. P'o the White Using the Rakdos Cultist background from Ravnica reskinned and rededicated to whatever abyssal Ophidian nightmare holds the contract on his soul that he signed away in order to undermine and destroy powerful practitioners of the arcane arts.
Hi Colby. It's great the you're doing the community polls! keep it up. :) Now as for the build, IMO you're making it too complicated. You don't need to tick off all those boxes. I do appreciate though that you wanted to veer away from just going the dmg route and eliminating the mage outright (so easy to do this at range with a high initiative archer/blaster). if i were to take a crack at this and not focus on dmg, the only things needed really are: 1. high initiative 2. a control spell that renders the mage incapable of casting spells (silence, hold, etc) 3. a way to cirvumvent the possibility of counterspell (subtle spell metamagic or aberrant mind sorc) 4. a way to ensure the control measure sticks like grappling the mage inside the silence area or save penalties to hold (like via eloquence bard) 5. action surge from fighter of course to swing action economy your way bonus: teleportation/flight options so you can get to enemy mages hiding behind environment stuff or other allies 6. counterspell of course to counter contingency effects. There's no need to really focus on saves, tankiness or even dmg to break concentration. The best mage-killer is actually another mage with higher initiative.
So happy you chose Yuan-ti. I actually saw this video while looking for more Yuan-ti lore. They have whole sections of their society that hunt down mages that get a little too liberal with digging into foreign affairs and colonizing/adventuring. Perfect!
The parts where you go on a little tangent on how cool Monks are are very relatable. The class lets you get away with the dumbest shenanigans ever devised and that's what I love about them. Crawling in the rafters of a tavern while invisible (powder) and tossing bottles into corners to sneak away after we caused some ruckus, jumping on enemies from great heights to do Assassin's Creed -style aerial attacks, that one time when I'd been captured and I taunted my jailor into shooting me, or any of the million times I jumped off of rooftops for no other reason than because I could. Monks are just the coolest and no amount of reddit posts saying they're underpowered can change that.
I built a character with this concept that was a Satyr sword bard/swashbuckler 7. Takes a while to come online and you need to use magical secrets for counterspell, It gets you in close to take advantage of mage slayer, and lets you use Jack of All Trades for the counterspell buff. It also gets you silence, and other spells that could help either increase damage or interfere with a mage (blindness for instance so they can't target some spells). The rogue gets you evasion, and swashbuckler lets you be off on your own to get the sneak attack damage once you close in. plus there is charisma synergy between the two. Satyr's have the magic resistance and increased movement speed to close distance, and it doesn't matter as much if your party can keep up due to swashbuckler. In addition satyr's are fey and are immune to some common disabling spells that enemies are likely to have. I couldn't decide if i wanted to take sword bard all the way up to 13 or if i maybe wanted another dip, like maybe paladin or warlock. I'm not sure quite how to quantify this build. Perhaps damage mitigated per round. Since it focuses on stopping spells from being cast and it saves that damage from party members as well. Maybe some combination of that with damage per round as a secondary measure to quantify how much damage you can do while shutting them down. There would be a balance required because some characters could shut down enemy mages but not deal damage at the same time to take them down while they are shut down.
I was thinking about this earlier and decided it would be best to go crusher feat custom lineage/variant human and go barbarian/rune knight fighter with the unarmed fighting style
I haven't watched all of your episodes yet, but this build is my favorite so far. If I were to play it I'd go with Satyr, pushing wisdom before dex, and maybe choose a different rogue archetype (something more int or cha themed)... definitely not as dominating as your anti-mage build, but more up my ally for what I'd be interested in playing. Great job, keep it up.
Thanks - glad you enjoyed! Yeah, upon reflection, the Satyr definitely has some strong advantages being fey, and thus making them immune to all the "person" spells (charm, hold, etc.)
Before looking at the video, if I was making an anti-mage character, I would want several things: -Target access. Mages tend to be in backline, protected, with misty step, etc. -Good damage to atually kill the mage once getting at it, not using bonus action (probably bonus action can be used to follow that bugger wherever it might want to run). -Good saving throws. To avoid the mage doing to you something horrible. -Counterspell. Hence, I'd probably be looking at a multiclass of paladin, rogue and maybe wizard or sorcerer. Paladin (maybe vengeance?) for the target access of misty step, buffing saving throws and the damage, rogue for cunning action, evasion, sneak attack, target access, then sorcerer or wizard for counterspell, dispel magic, mity step, absorb elements, shield and similar, probably sorcerer due to sharing charisma with the paladin. Lets see if I nail it! Either way, thanks for the videos :) Edit: Forgot about the saving throws of the paladin selection.
I like the counter spell,but the wizard will run you out of spells before he runs out,if not casting higher spells than you got slots for,but your party should have him dead before you run out of spells,my game store mixes up players & it’s hard to know you’ll have a healer or decent spell casters to buff or counter spell,so I tend to go self sufficient.thats why I’m working on a gnome,bear barbarian/rogue phantom.first game at the store,I made up the whole front line in a group of 7 players lol,end of the game I had 2HP with no help.taking 85percent of the enemy’s attacks,luckily I had 1 potion of healing I didn’t need to use & they did have a total of 4 slots to use cure wounds if we needed it.
@@johngallant1629 I am also used to now knowing if there will be healing or not. My idea with going 5 levels in say sorcerer, 3 in rogue (arcane trickster maybe?) and rest in paladin is that I can use misty step to get to the mage, dispel magic to remove pesky defense buffs like mirror image and the likes, my own mirror image to avoid getting hit in this process, and counterspell to, well, avoid him doing nasty stuff to me. Then using the levels of paladin and rogue to stick to it and kill it fast. The idea is to kill it before I run out of counterspells, but using sneak attack, smites, etc. The idea would be the following: -Turn 1: misty step in or cunning action dash in, if I suspect buffs cast dispel magic, if not wail on it with sneak attack + paladin smite. Hopefully between the reaction counterspell and paladin buffs to saving throws I can avoid him controlling me. -Turns 2 and onward: Use bonus action (cunning action, misty step, whatever) to stick to it, then smite/sneak attack its ass until it dies. Hopefully with sneak attack + paladin smite I can get enough damage burst to make concentration checks really hard, using my familiar to give me advantage. The mage should not be able to tank my damage before I run out of ways to get to it or stop its control magic.
I like that action economy you got going on,& plenty of options,not just sheer move with bonus action dash,but the misty step will allow you to ignore any other enemy’s opportunity attack you,instead of my idea of health & resistances with ok damage,you just upright force him to stay still near his allies,or just run away lol
I always write these before I watch.. so lets see how close we are. Pure blood, (adv vs spells) Lv 5 War Wizard (+4 saves, counter spell, Hold person, ) Lv 13 Rogue Trickster Lv 2 Fighter (Cast 2 spells as needed) Trickster gives disadvantage on spell saves and a advantage to hit
If I were DM, I would (sadly) disallow Minor Illusion for the shadow step. Illusion, by its very name, would only give the appearance of dim light, not actual dim light. And as you briefly mentioned, a Shadow Sorcerer could make a very good back-line anti-mage. Darkness is already there without burning a known spell, Distant metamagic to offset the added distance from staying on the back line, and Hound of Ill Omen is flat out amazing against opposing spellcasters. Go with Yuan-Ti like you mentioned, but if the DM doesn't allow it, a humble gnome would do well with its Gnome Cunning - advantage to Int, Wis, Cha, and Con (from class) saves.
I'm 12 minutes in and wooo dota! Just wanted to say that the concept reminded me of something else. In the tabletop wargame Warmachine there is an entire faction called the Retribution of Scyrah that is composed of fanatical Elves devoted to saving their race by wiping out human magic users. There are a lot of variations on the mage hunter idea inside their army and they have a fantastic aesthetic. I also remember that setting (Iron Kingdoms) having an rpg using d&d 3.5 including rules for mage hunters.
Great video, surprised not to see the paladin build for this off the bat, with maybe a few levels of Bard. Happy to see a very unique take that would differ from what I've played and a nice mention for the more typical build at the end
Love the creativity in this Colby! Honestly I'm trying to avoid custom lineage entirely in my characters bc I feel like if you have a good multiclass concept it can be a trap with the +2/feat vs a +2/+1 or +2/+2 set race. Another concept for a mageslayer I've seen is a combination Oath of Ancients or Watcher's Paladin with a Horizon Walker. The Mage-slaying capability of a dex-based half caster w/ access to counterspell, studded leather armor, and the ability to turn all damage into force/radiant damage (both of which cannot be absorbed) has proved deadly in a Horror 1-shot I ran.
I've tried changing the rogue class in this build for a monster slayer ranger. It has a lot of synergy, more defenses and almost the same offensive potential.
I played in a 5e 20th Level PvP game about a year and a half ago. I expected most players to choose spellcasters, so I specifically built to crush that. I chose Oath of Ancients Paladin, giving me +5 to all saves and *half damage against spells*. This was back when old warforged existed, which gave an incredible proficiency scaling AC bonus. +6 at 20th level iirc? I chose 12 levels of hexblade so I could get to 20th charisma without worrying about strength, and then invested deep into resilient feats / mage slayer / sentinel to lock down mages and prevent them from running. I used darkness and devil sight as well -- MANY spells require sight. Spells that require saves were basically pointless. Spells that targeted AC bounced off. Both paladin and hexblade give spell slots for smiting, which made them a fantastic burst damage dealer. I won that PvP game :) though in retrospect I think I am lucky no one chose and spell caster combos that were too crazy.
Cool, was wanting to see a build like this, fun setup with the monk/rogue. Well done! As you highlighted in your epilogue, my first thought was Pally, though I waffle between Vengeance and Redemption instead of Ancients. On thinking on it more, I got stuck in my head how to get Antimagic Field as a capstone. And to thematically fit a Yuan-Ti, I thought go with 5 levels of Vengeance Pally for the attack and mobility items, then run Trickery domain cleric 15 levels. Sadly you miss the Pally lv 6 bonus to saves, but you get lots of cleric to make up for it and if you throw the poisoner feat in there and the poison damage from Trickery, you just get some snake lovin’ fun. A variant on it if not running for Antimagic Field is grab Redemption to at least 9th for Counterspell, then switch to Trickery cleric for some extra channel divinity and cleric spell flexibility. Only main drawback for Pally/cleric multi is the stats, end up with up to four needed (Str, con, wis, Cha). Slight mitigation can be done by shorting Cha if you don’t lean on any Pally powers that have a enemy save.
I know a LOT of DM's do NOT allow the particular race that you went with for this build because they are SOOO vastly superior to other races... and that was before Tasha's release. I may attempt an anti-caster build and see what I can come up with and send it your way. Love your content so far... well done!
Little late to this game but you just gave me a great idea for a Nightcrawler build; presuming your DM is unreasonable (no minor illusion/prestidigitation cheese) or you just happen to be outside at high noon, you can still pull off the build with a 2 dip in Twilight Cleric; for 1 minute you're in dim light. Personally I would dip 2 Fighter as well to get the Action Surge, but that's just because I like the idea, on Round 1, of Move 30ft, Action Surge - Darkness (on arrow), Attack (60 foot opponent), Bonus - Shadow Step 60ft, retrieve arrow and fire it at caster w/in 60 feet... presuming your caster is at the back and less than 150 feet away (most DMs I know don't build battle maps that big). Many spells have "that you can see" targets, so mage May be locked down until they ditch the arrow sticking out of them, ;p
Magic missile is super strong for breaking concentration until high levels especially when upcast due to the multiple con saves might be worth consideration for future builds like this
Added a comment to the bladesinger Video, but wanted to comment here for visibility. "Have you thought about blending the Bladesinger and the Armorer Artificer? 3 levels of Armorer gets you two melee weapons that use Int to hit and damage, and while the class gives you proficiency with heavy armor, you can make even light armor your arcane armor. This would let you start bladedancing at level 5 with a weapon that 1) costs more than one gold piece and 2) uses your Int to hit and damage, as well as applying disadvantage to the opponent against everyone but you. by level 9 you can now be swinging 2 times splicing in the booming blade cantrip for 1d8+6+1d8/1d8+6 (because we can infuse our gauntlet to be +1), while also maintaining our concentration spells, with the artificer Con proficiency, which saved us a Feat slot. Oh, and when we get to level 17 we add 2x our int to our damage rolls. You can start 18 Int this way, and just ride out the early levels in infused medium or heavy armor until you get Bladedancing at 5. Dex need not be as extremely high because we are using it for fewer things. Only downside to the build is losing 9th level spells, though at 18th you get 9thlvl spell slots thanks to multiclassing rules, which still lets Animate objects shred things."
Lol posted a comment while I was watching and you described mostly my build idea at the end of the video. Missing sentinel, mage Slayer, blindsight fighting style, and fog cloud/darkness/silence from sorcerer multiclass. (Probably divine soul sorcerer for roleplay reasons). Warcaster might also be a good option after multiclassing into sorcerer.
I made an antimage character, I used to love casting Darkness on a dagger, and throwing it at the enemy's foot. If it hits, i have a 1d4 headstart. (Multiclassed with warlock and had devils sight. this was before the eldritch adept feat.)
Here's an idea for an anti mage: hexblade with mage slayer Another idea: assassin gloomstalker no extra feat needed Another idea: tabaxi charger build just get mage slayer again and arcane initiate for zephyr strike Another idea: open hand with mage slayer Tldr any build that's fast and/or disruptive and/or has mobility and/or has burst. Taking one of the above examples: ass stalker drow just ambush the caster at night so you have 150dv you can get sharpshooter for the -5+10 you'll be rolling with advantage and crit if you hit anyway, first round you do 3 attacks with the first doing extra d8+SA and since it's dark due to you picking the ambush you're also invisible for DV plus nothing can see 150 away in DV and you just lay into the target. You can also take elven accuracy for 3d20 rolls for extra reliability. Addendum: the best anti mage is the one that doesn't let the caster cast any spells. On that note: hexblade bladelock with relentless hex, counterspell, darkness+devils sight, improved pact weapon so they can do ranged attacks as well. Getting the mage slayer feat is just a bonus so you can really be a dick to the casters if your burst isn't enough. Hbc, mirror image or another defensive spell, move up ready to counterspell, next turn move up, bamf and lay into the target and ready to cancel casting with your reactions. Also taking sentinel will lock the caster in place. Really the only thing making you an "anti mage" is the feat, everything else is just normal.
i agree the best anti-mages are alpha strikers but this philosophy isn't really about anti-maging as it's more about how to build pcs for combat effectively, regardless if it's a mage target or something else. btw for gloomstalker, you don't need to attack at night. you just need to be in darkness. meaning as long as you're in shadow. daytime in a dark room on the 2nd floor of an inn works. in the alleyway covered by the shadow of a building works. any dark area inside a dungeon, cavern, mountain, castle, etc works. if i were to build an anti-mage i'd follow this checklist: 1. have a high chance to go 1st 2. have something that prevents opponent from casting spells (like silence + grapple, an incapacitating spell, killing them). action surge helps alot here too. 3. have counterspell
Overall I love the build! This is definitely a very ninja anti-mage character. There are 2 sticking points for me that make me question how effective it would be in play. Tier 1 and 2 I think it's pretty solid. In tier 3 (and 4 if you make it that far) it may not be as effective. I feel there is a little bit of an oversight basing your build off of nothing but fireball. Dex saves are definitely important against a lot of spells and effects, but I would argue that shoring up your other saves is just as important, especially when facing CR 11+ creatures. A lot of effects from high CR creatures target wisdom saves and they are debilitating if your save fails. Also, while stunning strike is a very effective option for ending concentration, it relies on the same type of save as concentration saves. Many higher CR opponents are going to have good con saves, and this build seems to rely heavily on enemy casters failing Con saves for wither stun or concentration. From your ending points, I agree that the abjurer would make a great spellcaster anti-mage. I also think the Lore Bard and Diviner make good anti-mages as well. Jack of all trades makes bards the second best counterspeller and dispeller in the game (second only to Abjurer), and Portent is just amazing for making a caster fail concentration. I still love the build, mostly because I share your love of the monk cool factor. Love all your videos so far.
I would have guessed Oath of the Ancients Paladin to be the first choice, but I totally understand your sentiments! Another fun concept. :D I'm waiting for that Kaladin Paladin build. ;)
Oath of Ancients Paladin is pretty good at tanking spell damage thanks to the aura at 7. Thus people close to the ancients Paladin get bonus to saves and resistance to the damage. Also darkness is a great way to shut down casters as well. Lots of spells require sight to target. Slap on the eldritch invocation on a pure shadow monk and you’re able to handle casters relatively well. My favorite build that kind of falls in line with this was Bear barb/5 with Scout Rogue 15. Bear allows resistance to almost all damage types. Rogue allows you to uncanny dodge for particularly nasty hits. Evasion and danger sense works well together. Also reckless attacks works with sneak if using a finesse weapon. Thus focus is maxing strength and Con and then have a decent Dex. Also lots of utility with expertise in athletics. You can knock enemies prone or away from you and you can grapple. All of these are useful options.
Question: what does anyone think about an adjustment to this build? Just sounds to me that Monk 7:Shadow, Wizard 7:Abjuration, Bard 3:Eloquence. The last 3 levels are whatever you want. Yuanti is still great here. The cool thing here is the ability to counterspell and gain the ward. Eloquence bard can use bardic die to reduce concentration checks.
This is just me but the monk doesnt add anything to the anti-mage concept. Bard and abjurer is a solid chassis though. I'd switch out monk for fighter 2 for action surge.
I am seeing a very big lack of lore bard in the video and comments. paired with the oath of ancients you had it can get counterspell and also adds half proficiency to the counterspell meaning its significantly easier to pull off. Plus adding silence, darkness, blind/deafness ect to the paladin is a fantastic way to up the control side of the build. Also side note that expertise athletics, even with a bad strength score, helps dramatically with dealing with common caster tactics. They for instance cannot fly away, if you grapple and drag them under water or something they lose verbal castings
Some thoughts: => Instead of Arcane Trickster, I would take 1 level in Wizard. - Pick up the following spells: Absorb Elements, Shield, Magic Missile, Detect Magic (it’s not always about damage with spellcasters), and 2 other spells of your choice. I like Grease, Hideous Laughter, Color Spray or Sleep. Some people interpret Grease as being able to set on fire, but others don’t. - You can prepare spells = Wizard Level plus intelligence, so it may behoove you to get INT to level 14, so you can prepare 3: Magic Missile, Shield, and Absorb Elements. Detect Magic can be a ritual. - You also get 3 cantrips: Prestidigitation is good; I would also pick Mage Hand and Mold Earth (which can create cover or shade) but play around with these; I think Prestidigitation and Mage Hand have the best utility with this build. - You only need to invest this one level in Wizard. Shield gives a worthy +5 to AC as a reaction, Absorb Elements stores elemental energy for an attack, and I like Shadow Monk. That’s exactly the class I was thinking of dumping levels into. I would use a rapier and a short bow with this build, plus the sharpshooter feat. Cast Darkness on an arrow, and you can get a lot of utility such as annihilating the spellcaster’s vision for a turn, creating an area where you can teleport even in daylight, etc. Since we took Wizard 1, we have other Rogue archetypes to choose from. Mastermind, Phantom, or Soulknife are attractive options.
Love the build, I've actually built out a Yuan-Ti Oath of the Ancients Paladin & Lore Bard for this specific purpose. With the additional magic secrets my intent was to take counterspell since bards get to add their Jack of All Trades bonus to it.
My idea on a Anti Mage would have been a Yaun-Ti with 7 levels of Oath of Ancients Paladin. Coupled with Rogue for lots of sneak and smite damage, and the dodge and evasion, you would be a monster to mages. Add mage slayer for extra options. Also forgot to mention shield master. Just really double down on it. Edit number two: What do ya know, Greta minds think alike. Love the Vid man!
I like the build. I think a lot of people underestimate the monk, but I think we can all agree that if there's one aspect of the Monk that does NOT need buffing, it's Stunning Strike.
I know nature cleric is considered a weak cleric subclass, but did you consider trying to work in the dampen elements feature to help protect your allies? It is a bit of an investment, but you would get the addad bonus of dispel magic, and you already have the prerequisite wisdom score.
yeah, Minor Illusion says "The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect." which personally, I'd interpret as it can't dim light either. You can create the illusion of shadows, but you'll still be in the same light levels. I feel like the shadow magics are about there not being light, not about if people can tell if there's light or not. Personally, I feel like a Ranger (Fey Wanderer or Gloom Stalker) or Warlock (Talisman, Archfey or Genie) are good mage-hunter classes too. Fey Wanderer can misty step a lot and has dimension door, while gloomstalker can ambush real good and if you're in darkness you're invisible. Warlock can counterspell and dispell magic, etc, Talisman can take an invocation to add 1d4 to saves prof timers per long rest, and Genie/Archfey grant access to Greater Invisibility and some extra defense against magic (either permanent resistance to an element, or to charms and gain a misty step on taking damage). Also, if your DM allows you to improvise or grapple your Talisman to be worn by the mage, if they teleport anywhere on the same plane of existence Bond of the Talisman can teleport you straight to them. There's also Relentless Hex, which lets you teleport 30ft as a bonus action while they're hex'd. Oh yeah, hex is really good for giving them disadvantage in case you want to Dominate them too, and for dealing some extra damage.
So I studied up on the Mage and the Archmage NPCs in the Monster Manual, and it seems to me that the efficacy of this build would have to be tested against cone of cold (con save) and suggestion (wisdom save) with DCs of 14 and 17 Also, given the encounter ending potential of the archmage's 6th to 9th level spells, I will be considering the efficacy of a similar build where counterspell is a priority.
@@TheRobversion1 I thought so too, but you can get a lot of other useful mage busting things if you build it like colby said. And you need atleast two other people in the party with counterspell to make a real mage busting team. Someone has to counterspell the enemy's counterspell to your counterspell.
@@jamesmullen3068 not necessarily. Playing with a sorc, especially an aberrant mind can easily take out the enemies counterspellers. For example, if an aberrant mind twins dissonant whispers or tashas mind whip its cast subtley (immune to counterspell) and removes their reaction. or go straight for subtle hold person/hideous laughter/hypnotic pattern and just remove them from the fight. If that same aberrant mind has 2 levels of fighter they can action surge and do some combination of the above to hit more casters. The counterspell on the sorcs end is not because they want to counterspell a counterspell but to handle any other casters that go 1st over your sorc and casts a control spell on your sorc. Of course you cast your counterspell with subtle spell so your counterspells cant be counterspelled.
I have a build if you're interested, that I call the 'Warrior of the Gods' that's entirely built to dumptruck as much damage as possible into one swing: Scourge Aasimar, Path of the Zealot Barbarian 13, Oath of Conquest Paladin 7...I needed a spreadsheet to track the damage at each level as it grew.
I liked the idea of building characters around stories and limits, like you did witth the magic touch sorcerer. How could you powerbuild a spiderman-themed character?
Try: Simic hybrid. Take dex and int for ability bumps with nimble climber and manta glide as animal enhancements. Rogue Scout and Artificer Aromorer split (I'd go 12/8 respectively). Artificer gives you infiltrator armor and extra attack, rogue gives you cunning action, skirmisher, uncanny dodge, evasion, superior mobility. Throw in spells like Expeditious Retreat, Snare, Longstrider, Spiderclimb, Web. You should be able to skin that as your friendly neighborhood webcrawler pretty well!
To bad that you can´t see through the darkness spell with darkvision. You would need devilsight or truesight, or maybe detect magic with blind fighting style
I just recently built an Anti-mage, and I also didn't take Mage slayer. However, I have a very different strategy when shutting down enemy casters, it's hard to cast while you HP is zero. Pamlock with Fey Touched for extra misty steps and Shadow magic Sorcerer for better Darkness and of course lots of Counterspell slots.
Why should the DM allow a monk to not spend a ki point if the stun stunt doesn't stick? May as well ask if the Wizard can get back a spell slot if his spell don't stick. What a ridiculous thing to say.
Oath of the ancients paladin, with mage Slayer, sentinel and blind sight fighting style. Done. Best way to play an anti spellcaster. Bonus points for being a serpent blood or Satyr. Multiclassing into sorcerer after 8th level to get access to font of magic and more smites. Oath of the ancients paladin has resistance to all damage from spells. Paladins add your charisma score to all your savings throws. Paladin also has smite which is amazing. Satyrs and serpent blood have magic resistance = advantage on saving throws. Mage Slayer allows you to attack as a reaction when a creature tries to cast a spell within 5ft of you, sentinel allows you to get an attack of opertunity if they try to run, if you hit they are stuck there and can't reposition, then any ranged spell attacks against other targets have disadvantage. They can still misty step but that is a spell so you will still get an attack. Blind sight fighting is to prevent spells from giving you disadvantage, sorcerer can get fog cloud, instant advantage for you. As far as movement goes if you identify the caster at the start of combat just dash up to their face, sorcerers also now have access to Ashardalon's stride for the bonus movement speed and damage. If you have high stats from rolls you can also work towards shield master for the bonus action shove to knock the target prone so allies get advantage, and added your shield to your dexterity save against single target dex saves. Otherwise I would stick with just sentinel and mage Slayer.
I am literally watching this video while my infant son is sleeping in my arms. He jumped when you yelled "No!" About the race. And I promptly lost my shit when you apologized for waking the baby.
Awesome
Ha ha! That is awesome :). And also, sorry >.>
Ty for the heads up!
@@DnDDeepDive it's alright! It was totally worth the laugh.
Lol I was reading this comment right as he said NO
Rogue: Thief subclass (steal spell component pouch) as a bonus action. Damage done (not HP damage).
This is why I like the Mobility feat on Thief characters. Dash action upto 80ft -> Fast hands (slight of hand) as a bonus action -> poke with pointy bit of metal on following rounds. Mage Slayer is great, but Mobility is more useful in general.
Honestly an "anti mage" seems like a good subclass design for an artificer, use "tech" to combat magic have artificers get things like absorb elements, misty step, counter spell, and some subclass features that would be great against magical effects but could also have some use against mundane stuff like maybe a bonus action attack that deals a little extra damage but also nullifies sound around an area like a concussion grenade that deals a d8 of thunder damage or something.
I made a mandalorian themed artificer battlesmith themed that way, sorta to mirror the mandalorian vs jedi thing
better idea: barbarian who hits fireballs like baseballs (basically monk's deflect missiles, but against magic 'ballistics'; bullets, balls, and bolts, except lightning bolt, but LB would charge your weapon almost like having absorb elements)
What War Mage should have been
I wish there was a better spellthief subclass for rogue I think it would make a great anti-mage
The capstone for artificers is also amazing to combat spell saves, it gives you a +1 to all saving throws for every attuned item, up to 6
You are criminal under subbed, my man. Keep up the great content.
Thank you! :)
Agreed. I suggest this to a couple of my dnd friends now and then. Wholesome powerbuilding is a niche I didn't expect to find myself in, but I'm most definitely happy that I'm here now :)
Level 1 see above [rogue 1 (race)]
Level 2 see above [monk 1]
Level 3 @21:41 [monk 2]
Level 4 @24:29 [monk 3 (sub-class)]
Level 5 @27:41 [monk 4 (ASI)
Level 6 @28:51 [monk 5]
Level 7 see above [monk 6]
Level 8 @35:47 [monk 7]
Level 9 @37:28 [monk 8 (ASI)]
Level 10 see above [rogue 2]
Level 11 @39:46 [rogue 3 (sub-class)]
Level 12 @45:24 [rogue 4 (ASI)]
Level 13 @46:09 [rogue 5]
Level 14 see above [rogue 6]
Level 15 @48:32 [rogue 7]
Level 16 @51:46 [rogue 8 (ASI)]
Level 17 @52:22 [monk 9]
A good way to get the use of counterspell could be through magic items like the Ring of Spell Storing
Still watching, but, imo the bladesinger could be something of a mage killer - it doesnt need to use its spell slot to damage the other spellcaster and reserve it to counterspell everything all day long while causing a good amount of dpr with your melee attacks.
Strong AC, great damage, counter spell, misty step to close the distance.
@@shajirislamuddin-caycho6659 with 40ft movement, misty step (possibly Spell slot free from tasha's fey feat), elven accuracy, counterspell - most wizards wouldnt be standing after 3 rounds...
Yeah, I agree.
My group did a Dresden Files setting game, and I made a Bladesinger.
The character was a Warden of the White council of Wizards, and it was his job to hunt down evil mages.
An interesting thing about the setting is that it’s illegal to kill with magic, but this character does exactly what you suggest here.
It also helps that we homebrewed the Wardens’ Silver Sword into the game, which has charges for counterspell, dispel magic, absorb elements, and has spell absorption.
@@-Lindol- an awesome mage killing machine - btw, nice setting! I love campaings where magic is kinda against the law!
Yea Colby! just make every build a Bladesinger lol
In terms of strictly optimizing as an anti-mage, I'd honestly go for the satyr over the yuan-ti. Counting as a Fey rather than a humanoid (Although it can be bad if Protection from Evil & Good/Magic Circle/Hallow is in play) makes you immune to Charm Person, Dominate Person, Hold Person, etc which is a nice bump to your resilience against spellcasters, particularly at lower levels where enemy spellcasters lack slots of a high enough level for Charm Monster, Dominate Monster, and Hold Monster spells to use on you.
Admittedly the poison immunity and innate spellcasting are good features, but I feel they're less applicable than being immune to humanoid targeting spells for an anti-mage.
Hm... great points! I didn't think about the fact that you're not a humanoid...
Personally I’d rather be a cute goat person than a snake person
This with the Ancient's Paladin mentioned at the end would be awesome. Drop in 5+ levels of Hexblade for Counterspell and maybe the Devil's Sight/Darkness combo. I'd probably go to level 8 Paladin out the gate, starting with 16s in both STR and CHA, grabbing Shield Master at level 4 and CHA at 8. Then I'd make the swap to Hexblade from there. It's a long slog toward your Warlock powers, but picking up the Paladin defenses first seems like the smarter move to me.
Also MOTM updates the Yuan-ti so that they're only resistant, rather then immune to poison, so you'd have to convince your DM to let you go off the older version
I think Oath of the Ancients Paladin 7 or 8 -> Hexblade works even better than pure Pal here since you get Counterspell on Short Rest and you can max your Cha for them Saving Throws easier.
Sorry for the Necro, but yeah was really expecting a discount evasion (shield master) pally as the go-to. Possibly a conquest pally to lock down movement with fear or hold person for blocking spellcasting and auto crits.
Came to RUclips for some art tutorials, then i see that charming mischievous grin of yours and the tittle: the anti mage
And now Im like welp this is what im doing now.
Ha ha - horray!
The only downside to this channel: being unable to play all of the cool characters Colby creates.
Ha ha! I feel like a Dad with 20 children who only gets to spend time with 2 of them :P.
It's possible if you find a one-shot server
@@joaquinrodera3472 Agreed with this. I don't play long campaigns anymore and I find it more rewarding as i can try new character concepts more. So it's usually short campaigns or one-shots. And our DM never starts campaigns anymore at tier 1. We usually play tier 2-tier 3 if its a short campaign with milestone levelling (no xp hunting). That way we get to enjoy our character concepts for the bulk of the adventure (without trudging through the lower levels). Starting out at tier 2 also helps flesh out backstories, how the party members met and helps us enjoy multiclassing (which most of us do).
Time will tell
Solution: be more aggressive with your characters, so they die, and you can build a new stronger one.
"Endless Fireball Machine" also known as Pit Fiend
If the Pit Fiend is fireballing instead of attacking someone for 120 damage the DM is using it wrong.
@@5h4d0wBG There are circumstances where Fireball is better than attacking, but generally you are right. But that was not the point of my comment. I just remembered that there actually is a creature that can cast fireball at will and thus could be the endless fireball machine. (Although it has a different DC than the ones used in the video.)
@@dragondrummer3257 another option is just a mage who took fireball as a signature spell
@@captainkiwi77 With signature spell you can only cast the spell once per short rest without spending a spell slot (and you always have the spell prepared). You cannot cast it infinitely!
"If the DM is having the pit fiend cast fireball they're using it wrong" hmm, interesting, because I think what a pit fiend would realistically do, is send a swarm of weaker devils In first to bog down the Party in melee for a few rounds, while they fly overhead, and shoot fireballs at the party to soften them up, especially since devils are fire immune so it can blast you without hurting its allies. THEN after you've killed its minions and lost some hit points it'll fly in to finish you off, in true hell general fashion
As others have said, a bladesinger makes for an amazing mage slayer with many spell slots unused for counterspelling.
My group did a Dresden Files setting game, and I made a Bladesinger.
The character was a Warden of the White council of Wizards, and it was his job to hunt down evil mages.
An interesting thing about the setting is that it’s illegal to kill with magic, but this character does exactly what you suggest here.
It also helps that we homebrewed the Wardens’ Silver Sword into the game, which has charges for counterspell, dispel magic, absorb elements, and has spell absorption.
The whole time you were setting it all up in the preamble I was saying, "Oh... he's going yuan-ti, right? It's yuan-ti. It's got to be yuan-ti. Colby! Just say it! Say Yuan-ti!" And you did. lol
Like I said, "ever one to try and please his audience!" ;)
@@DnDDeepDive Ha! I also am one who loves a feat at character creation and did a lot of variant humans early on. My group recently did what you brought up on the last "Sliding" and everyone gets a starting feat and it's opened up so many races. :) YOu do this a lot but when you mention the race you might pick besides v human and custom lineage, that's really helpful to those of us blessed with starting feats no matter what. Thanks man!
@@dungeondojo Yes have tried to do that every episode lately and will try to continue :).
I actually really like the checklist approach; that seems more interesting for me than a raw numbers comparison on one matrix. Would love to see more checklists going forward.
Ok, be sure to check out the Wind Runner then! :P
Have to say, I admire your commitment to Monks. I have that love for Rangers - a melee ranger is high on my list of what I would love to see you build.
Thanks ;) - On the list!
If your DM wants to stick to the PHB for races and yuan-ti pure blood isn’t an option, choose a gnome. They get advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws (which is insane) and those usually only come from spells and magical effects
Just clicked on the video, but i'm going to make a guess
this is a sustained DPR build because the best way to shut down a mage is to kill them
You perfectly illustrate the problem I had when trying to create the character as I outline in the "Character Concept" :) - how to make this unique?
dont forget! it is a Custom lineage and uses PAM+GWM
and there is a high chance that EAcc and hexblade are also involved
@@geniumme2502 Hm... wrong on all counts :P
@@DnDDeepDive Indeed ;D
Small Suggestion: Could you add the Class you are taking levels of in the timeline of the video not just he level range? would help a lot in getting a quick idea of the builds and going back to certain parts of it!
@@flash1face1 it helps to get an overview and to understand the core strategy / interaction.
There are many reasons why that is useful:
- In many cases there is one interaction that is central to the character. this interaction may or may not be allowed at your table.
- You may or may not like that interaction and can already think about whether or not u want to play that character.
- you already have a reference point to similar builds
- you probably have a much better understanding of the choices if you know where a build is going.
- he would no longer have to say in the video: "dont worry it will make sense later" because it would make sense right away.
- It is the more logical structure than level by level. a character isnt optimized by going through it level by level but starting at a core strategy and optimizing around it.
- it makes adaptations to your specific table and rules much much easier.
sufficient reasons?
I think that the write ups he does are reserved for his patrons on patreon
Had a similar idea for a mage hunter, before I knew yuanti was an option, I went shadow monk tabaxi, the feline swiftness is great on a monk for closing the distance on those backline casters.
Love your channel and all the optimization you do. Thanks for the content
I love your videos, I just realized I wasn't subscribed and immediately fixed it. Currently my favorite content on youtube, thank you for all your effort.
Thanks so much! Glad you're enjoying!
Pg 183 of the PHB defines Dim Light as being synonymous with shadows. "Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area."
So even on the brightest of days, you should find plenty of shadowed areas that you can dart into and out of. And as long as the target themselves is casting a long enough shadow (ie: into an adjacent square), you could immerge from their own shadow to strike them.
Couldn’t stop at one. I’m going back to re watch all of your videos
First of all, thanks for the video, i can't believe i didn't discover you sooner (subbed), i'm known as the "munchkin" of the group, so these kind of specialized and min/maxy builds are right up my alley!
here my comments for future reference/consideration:
satyr is considered "Fey" so a lot of spells that work only on humanoid wouldn't work on them, that's to consider as well, for example, an enemy spell caster the higher variant of the "person" spells (charm person, hold person, and dominate person) which is a considerable higher spell slot to use, although i would take yuan-ti for that poison dmg immunity
the sneak attack also worth mentioning that you can't have disadvantage, it also works on other characters/npcs/monsters turns (reaction attacks on other turns)
lvl 1 enchantment spell that incapacitates the enemy: Tasha's Hideous Laughter, although the effects ends when the target takes dmg, but you broke their concentration, and you also made them prone and incapacitated
Also, only using DEX save dmg spells is a bit disingenuous, as there are a lot of spells that target other saves that could potentially destroy this build :/
I love watching a video years later. Hearing the creator talking about looking forward to 5k subs and you see they now have 155K is such warm fuzzies.
The pinnacle two spells for Anti-Mage: Counterspell and Circle of Power.
If you can get those two, all else is absolute gravy.
So a watchers paladin then
@@tylergoerlich9494 Absolutely. A caster's nightmare, right there.
@@tylergoerlich9494Bard might be better for quicker Circle of power
Bladesinger is a great way to get Counterspell, and with Tasha's changes they have some great Monk synergy (aside from a bit of MADness that can be managed by spell choice.) With their Extra Attack feature at lvl6, you can cast Booming Blade, make a rapier attack (proficiency courtesy of Bladesong, monk weapon courtesy of Tasha's) and then also make a bonus action martial arts attack (or another rapier attack with Ki-fueled Attack if you used Stunning Strike during the attack action.) Also prevents doubling up on Evasion (though you may still want 2-3 levels of Rogue for all the roguishness.)
Keep up the great work. Love that I found your channel early on!
Thanks!
The problem with Darkness and Shadow Step is Darkvision can’t see into the Darkness spell so you can’t cast Darkness and then Shadow Step into or out of it.
As someone who played Shadow Monk for a long time, I can confirm that this was the worst oversight in its design. Especially playing alongside a Shadow Sorcerer who specifically has a clause sidestepping this issue (They can see in the Darkness they cast.)
That's why I multiclass it with the Gloomstalker Ranger. In addition to superior Darkvision, you also have access to the Blind Fighting style. It's only 10 feet but it will still help with adding mobility to your advantage.
The Shield spell would also be a nice inclusion. Not only helps against spell attacks a little but it also shuts down any attempts at magic missile, one of the only instances in which a spell allows you to take no damage from another specified spell.
This channel is ridiculous. This is awesome... Looking forward to watching this channel grow. How do I give this guy my money? This is definitely one of my new favorites.
Ha ha thanks! You know, I haven't even really looked into Patreon or RUclips membership things or whatever. Maybe I should... if it could help me quit my day job and just focus full time here... hmmmm ;)
I like the idea of the mageslayer and how it can be done on many different ways in 5e since there aren’t super specific mechanics that pull directly in that direction.
My mageslayer standby is a paladin multiclass with sorcerer. 6-7 paladin depending on the paladin subclass, the rest sorcerer. Extra attack with smites seems like a wonderful way to make use of slots in a way that can’t be counterspelled. Divine soul gives the ability to quicken a silence spell leaving the action available to grapple in place, can really shutdown most casters.
Tashas mind whip is now a powerful option to potentially inhibit multiple casters over a larger area too if quickened.
Only problem I can see is your shadow step requires you to be able to see where you are going to, but the darkness spell you can cast blocks darkvision so you would need devils sight or something like that to shadow step next to a mage you put in darkness.
Unless I missed something, I was doing stuff around the house while listening, lol
Great build, by the way. My next character is probably going to be a monk so it’s good to get ideas.
Thanks! You know, I thought about that, but I think you could still get there: we're told we can teleport to "an unoccupied space you can see..." I don't know that the magical darkness necessarily prevents you from seeing the space, if that makes sense. No, I couldn't see inside it once I got there, but I can still see the place I want to go - it's that big blob of darkness right there... I'm sure some DMs would say no, but I think you've got an argument at the very least... hopefully with Prestidigitation you won't need to depend on that little trick too often either way. Try to avoid fighting outside in the middle of the day if at all possible! :P
I really enjoyed that one, as usual. I've been trying to come up with a decent Rogue / Monk multi-class but hadn't thought of something with such a specific concept. I'm enjoying these concept first builds, they remind me of the Rogue Specialists in 2nd and 3rd edition, after the Thieves Handbook came out, designed as NPCs really. Someone you hire for a specific task. 5e could use more of the follower mechanics, I know we got sidekicks in Tasha's but I haven't read that yet, maybe that fixes it. Nonetheless, great vid Colby, great build. Thank you.
I recently made a character who was a Satyr Oath of the Ancients Dexadin. They have advantage on saving throws against spells, resistance to spell damage, Resilient Con to benefit their own concentration, and High Charisma which benefits all of their saving throws. They're a very effective magic damage sponge, but I couldn't really find room for the Mage Slayer feat with how MAD they already were.
Currently playing the same build except I took reslient Dex instead. It gives me an insane dex save of +11 at level 6 although I rolled really good stats
I think whispers bard instead of arcane trickster could be interesting for still getting expertise, still getting great sneak attack style damage, and gaining access to a lot more utility/debuff as well as counterspell
I really like all the bits in this build, I had curse of Strahd on the brain lately, this would be a cool as an assassin sent to destroy the evils there or be from the valley as an member of an order to destroy their enemies and take over themselves.
This build concept completely turned the vigilante character concept I had spinning wheels in the back of my brain into the character I am definitely playing the next chance I get.
P'o the White
Using the Rakdos Cultist background from Ravnica reskinned and rededicated to whatever abyssal Ophidian nightmare holds the contract on his soul that he signed away in order to undermine and destroy powerful practitioners of the arcane arts.
Hi Colby. It's great the you're doing the community polls! keep it up. :)
Now as for the build, IMO you're making it too complicated. You don't need to tick off all those boxes. I do appreciate though that you wanted to veer away from just going the dmg route and eliminating the mage outright (so easy to do this at range with a high initiative archer/blaster).
if i were to take a crack at this and not focus on dmg, the only things needed really are:
1. high initiative
2. a control spell that renders the mage incapable of casting spells (silence, hold, etc)
3. a way to cirvumvent the possibility of counterspell (subtle spell metamagic or aberrant mind sorc)
4. a way to ensure the control measure sticks like grappling the mage inside the silence area or save penalties to hold (like via eloquence bard)
5. action surge from fighter of course to swing action economy your way
bonus: teleportation/flight options so you can get to enemy mages hiding behind environment stuff or other allies
6. counterspell of course to counter contingency effects.
There's no need to really focus on saves, tankiness or even dmg to break concentration. The best mage-killer is actually another mage with higher initiative.
Thanks for making a home for all these nerds Colby!
The intro fits me exactly! It feels good to be home!
Welcome home!
So happy you chose Yuan-ti. I actually saw this video while looking for more Yuan-ti lore. They have whole sections of their society that hunt down mages that get a little too liberal with digging into foreign affairs and colonizing/adventuring. Perfect!
The parts where you go on a little tangent on how cool Monks are are very relatable. The class lets you get away with the dumbest shenanigans ever devised and that's what I love about them. Crawling in the rafters of a tavern while invisible (powder) and tossing bottles into corners to sneak away after we caused some ruckus, jumping on enemies from great heights to do Assassin's Creed -style aerial attacks, that one time when I'd been captured and I taunted my jailor into shooting me, or any of the million times I jumped off of rooftops for no other reason than because I could. Monks are just the coolest and no amount of reddit posts saying they're underpowered can change that.
#preach
I built a character with this concept that was a Satyr sword bard/swashbuckler 7. Takes a while to come online and you need to use magical secrets for counterspell, It gets you in close to take advantage of mage slayer, and lets you use Jack of All Trades for the counterspell buff. It also gets you silence, and other spells that could help either increase damage or interfere with a mage (blindness for instance so they can't target some spells). The rogue gets you evasion, and swashbuckler lets you be off on your own to get the sneak attack damage once you close in. plus there is charisma synergy between the two. Satyr's have the magic resistance and increased movement speed to close distance, and it doesn't matter as much if your party can keep up due to swashbuckler. In addition satyr's are fey and are immune to some common disabling spells that enemies are likely to have. I couldn't decide if i wanted to take sword bard all the way up to 13 or if i maybe wanted another dip, like maybe paladin or warlock.
I'm not sure quite how to quantify this build. Perhaps damage mitigated per round. Since it focuses on stopping spells from being cast and it saves that damage from party members as well. Maybe some combination of that with damage per round as a secondary measure to quantify how much damage you can do while shutting them down. There would be a balance required because some characters could shut down enemy mages but not deal damage at the same time to take them down while they are shut down.
Wheee! I'm mixing it up. Hi Colby, I'm looking forward to this one.
you should do a build with unarmed attacks based on strength.
I was thinking about this earlier and decided it would be best to go crusher feat custom lineage/variant human and go barbarian/rune knight fighter with the unarmed fighting style
Haven’t watched yet but very hyped. Down with the Mages!!!
I haven't watched all of your episodes yet, but this build is my favorite so far. If I were to play it I'd go with Satyr, pushing wisdom before dex, and maybe choose a different rogue archetype (something more int or cha themed)... definitely not as dominating as your anti-mage build, but more up my ally for what I'd be interested in playing. Great job, keep it up.
Thanks - glad you enjoyed! Yeah, upon reflection, the Satyr definitely has some strong advantages being fey, and thus making them immune to all the "person" spells (charm, hold, etc.)
Before looking at the video, if I was making an anti-mage character, I would want several things:
-Target access. Mages tend to be in backline, protected, with misty step, etc.
-Good damage to atually kill the mage once getting at it, not using bonus action (probably bonus action can be used to follow that bugger wherever it might want to run).
-Good saving throws. To avoid the mage doing to you something horrible.
-Counterspell.
Hence, I'd probably be looking at a multiclass of paladin, rogue and maybe wizard or sorcerer. Paladin (maybe vengeance?) for the target access of misty step, buffing saving throws and the damage, rogue for cunning action, evasion, sneak attack, target access, then sorcerer or wizard for counterspell, dispel magic, mity step, absorb elements, shield and similar, probably sorcerer due to sharing charisma with the paladin.
Lets see if I nail it!
Either way, thanks for the videos :)
Edit: Forgot about the saving throws of the paladin selection.
I like the counter spell,but the wizard will run you out of spells before he runs out,if not casting higher spells than you got slots for,but your party should have him dead before you run out of spells,my game store mixes up players & it’s hard to know you’ll have a healer or decent spell casters to buff or counter spell,so I tend to go self sufficient.thats why I’m working on a gnome,bear barbarian/rogue phantom.first game at the store,I made up the whole front line in a group of 7 players lol,end of the game I had 2HP with no help.taking 85percent of the enemy’s attacks,luckily I had 1 potion of healing I didn’t need to use & they did have a total of 4 slots to use cure wounds if we needed it.
@@johngallant1629 I am also used to now knowing if there will be healing or not. My idea with going 5 levels in say sorcerer, 3 in rogue (arcane trickster maybe?) and rest in paladin is that I can use misty step to get to the mage, dispel magic to remove pesky defense buffs like mirror image and the likes, my own mirror image to avoid getting hit in this process, and counterspell to, well, avoid him doing nasty stuff to me. Then using the levels of paladin and rogue to stick to it and kill it fast. The idea is to kill it before I run out of counterspells, but using sneak attack, smites, etc. The idea would be the following:
-Turn 1: misty step in or cunning action dash in, if I suspect buffs cast dispel magic, if not wail on it with sneak attack + paladin smite. Hopefully between the reaction counterspell and paladin buffs to saving throws I can avoid him controlling me.
-Turns 2 and onward: Use bonus action (cunning action, misty step, whatever) to stick to it, then smite/sneak attack its ass until it dies. Hopefully with sneak attack + paladin smite I can get enough damage burst to make concentration checks really hard, using my familiar to give me advantage. The mage should not be able to tank my damage before I run out of ways to get to it or stop its control magic.
I like that action economy you got going on,& plenty of options,not just sheer move with bonus action dash,but the misty step will allow you to ignore any other enemy’s opportunity attack you,instead of my idea of health & resistances with ok damage,you just upright force him to stay still near his allies,or just run away lol
Thank you so much for the amazing content. Your channel is phenomenal. 😃
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying :)
I always write these before I watch.. so lets see how close we are.
Pure blood, (adv vs spells) Lv 5 War Wizard (+4 saves, counter spell, Hold person, ) Lv 13 Rogue Trickster Lv 2 Fighter (Cast 2 spells as needed) Trickster gives disadvantage on spell saves and a advantage to hit
While I think this would be viable, you were about half right! :)
A Neverending fireball machine you say? You sir have given me an idea for a dungeon deathtrap.
/hide
Just found your channel. Your content is solid and well thought out. I hope your channel is able to grow
Also your presentation on-screen presence has been getting stronger as well.
Thanks!
@@radicalcentrist5219 ha thanks - I do watch those early vids and feel slightly cringe at my rigidity. I was a little nervous :).
I loved the reference to dota, the flavor for storybuilding is not even forced for this character.
Variant Human with Fey Touched (Misty Step, Hex) Path of the Ancients Paladin as your Mage Slayer.
Hex gives Disadvantage on ability checks, not saving throws. There are no Constitution ability checks of which I am aware.
If I were DM, I would (sadly) disallow Minor Illusion for the shadow step. Illusion, by its very name, would only give the appearance of dim light, not actual dim light.
And as you briefly mentioned, a Shadow Sorcerer could make a very good back-line anti-mage. Darkness is already there without burning a known spell, Distant metamagic to offset the added distance from staying on the back line, and Hound of Ill Omen is flat out amazing against opposing spellcasters. Go with Yuan-Ti like you mentioned, but if the DM doesn't allow it, a humble gnome would do well with its Gnome Cunning - advantage to Int, Wis, Cha, and Con (from class) saves.
I'm 12 minutes in and wooo dota! Just wanted to say that the concept reminded me of something else. In the tabletop wargame Warmachine there is an entire faction called the Retribution of Scyrah that is composed of fanatical Elves devoted to saving their race by wiping out human magic users. There are a lot of variations on the mage hunter idea inside their army and they have a fantastic aesthetic. I also remember that setting (Iron Kingdoms) having an rpg using d&d 3.5 including rules for mage hunters.
Great video, surprised not to see the paladin build for this off the bat, with maybe a few levels of Bard. Happy to see a very unique take that would differ from what I've played and a nice mention for the more typical build at the end
Did you see the alternative in the "Final Thoughts?" Pally is definitely a good option, no doubt.
Love the creativity in this Colby!
Honestly I'm trying to avoid custom lineage entirely in my characters bc I feel like if you have a good multiclass concept it can be a trap with the +2/feat vs a +2/+1 or +2/+2 set race.
Another concept for a mageslayer I've seen is a combination Oath of Ancients or Watcher's Paladin with a Horizon Walker. The Mage-slaying capability of a dex-based half caster w/ access to counterspell, studded leather armor, and the ability to turn all damage into force/radiant damage (both of which cannot be absorbed) has proved deadly in a Horror 1-shot I ran.
Thanks! And I like this combo!
53:30 that Dash sound was so accurate hahaha
I've tried changing the rogue class in this build for a monster slayer ranger. It has a lot of synergy, more defenses and almost the same offensive potential.
Haven’t watched it yet, I’m just excited
I played in a 5e 20th Level PvP game about a year and a half ago. I expected most players to choose spellcasters, so I specifically built to crush that.
I chose Oath of Ancients Paladin, giving me +5 to all saves and *half damage against spells*. This was back when old warforged existed, which gave an incredible proficiency scaling AC bonus. +6 at 20th level iirc?
I chose 12 levels of hexblade so I could get to 20th charisma without worrying about strength, and then invested deep into resilient feats / mage slayer / sentinel to lock down mages and prevent them from running.
I used darkness and devil sight as well -- MANY spells require sight. Spells that require saves were basically pointless. Spells that targeted AC bounced off.
Both paladin and hexblade give spell slots for smiting, which made them a fantastic burst damage dealer.
I won that PvP game :) though in retrospect I think I am lucky no one chose and spell caster combos that were too crazy.
I loved the custom lineage bit
I like this build and may actually play it one day
I would rate how “good” your mage slayer is based on which casters you can solo by CR, then compare that to your other builds.
Cool, was wanting to see a build like this, fun setup with the monk/rogue. Well done!
As you highlighted in your epilogue, my first thought was Pally, though I waffle between Vengeance and Redemption instead of Ancients. On thinking on it more, I got stuck in my head how to get Antimagic Field as a capstone. And to thematically fit a Yuan-Ti, I thought go with 5 levels of Vengeance Pally for the attack and mobility items, then run Trickery domain cleric 15 levels. Sadly you miss the Pally lv 6 bonus to saves, but you get lots of cleric to make up for it and if you throw the poisoner feat in there and the poison damage from Trickery, you just get some snake lovin’ fun. A variant on it if not running for Antimagic Field is grab Redemption to at least 9th for Counterspell, then switch to Trickery cleric for some extra channel divinity and cleric spell flexibility. Only main drawback for Pally/cleric multi is the stats, end up with up to four needed (Str, con, wis, Cha). Slight mitigation can be done by shorting Cha if you don’t lean on any Pally powers that have a enemy save.
I know a LOT of DM's do NOT allow the particular race that you went with for this build because they are SOOO vastly superior to other races... and that was before Tasha's release.
I may attempt an anti-caster build and see what I can come up with and send it your way.
Love your content so far... well done!
I assumed gnome Oath of Ancients paladin with bard for counterspell / dispel magic and shield master feat. Cool to see your version!
Little late to this game but you just gave me a great idea for a Nightcrawler build; presuming your DM is unreasonable (no minor illusion/prestidigitation cheese) or you just happen to be outside at high noon, you can still pull off the build with a 2 dip in Twilight Cleric; for 1 minute you're in dim light. Personally I would dip 2 Fighter as well to get the Action Surge, but that's just because I like the idea, on Round 1, of Move 30ft, Action Surge - Darkness (on arrow), Attack (60 foot opponent), Bonus - Shadow Step 60ft, retrieve arrow and fire it at caster w/in 60 feet... presuming your caster is at the back and less than 150 feet away (most DMs I know don't build battle maps that big). Many spells have "that you can see" targets, so mage May be locked down until they ditch the arrow sticking out of them, ;p
Magic missile is super strong for breaking concentration until high levels especially when upcast due to the multiple con saves might be worth consideration for future builds like this
Added a comment to the bladesinger Video, but wanted to comment here for visibility.
"Have you thought about blending the Bladesinger and the Armorer Artificer? 3 levels of Armorer gets you two melee weapons that use Int to hit and damage, and while the class gives you proficiency with heavy armor, you can make even light armor your arcane armor.
This would let you start bladedancing at level 5 with a weapon that 1) costs more than one gold piece and 2) uses your Int to hit and damage, as well as applying disadvantage to the opponent against everyone but you. by level 9 you can now be swinging 2 times splicing in the booming blade cantrip for 1d8+6+1d8/1d8+6 (because we can infuse our gauntlet to be +1), while also maintaining our concentration spells, with the artificer Con proficiency, which saved us a Feat slot. Oh, and when we get to level 17 we add 2x our int to our damage rolls.
You can start 18 Int this way, and just ride out the early levels in infused medium or heavy armor until you get Bladedancing at 5. Dex need not be as extremely high because we are using it for fewer things.
Only downside to the build is losing 9th level spells, though at 18th you get 9thlvl spell slots thanks to multiclassing rules, which still lets Animate objects shred things."
9 months later this is still my favorite d4 build and I consider yuan ti for almost everything
Lol posted a comment while I was watching and you described mostly my build idea at the end of the video. Missing sentinel, mage Slayer, blindsight fighting style, and fog cloud/darkness/silence from sorcerer multiclass. (Probably divine soul sorcerer for roleplay reasons). Warcaster might also be a good option after multiclassing into sorcerer.
I made an antimage character, I used to love casting Darkness on a dagger, and throwing it at the enemy's foot. If it hits, i have a 1d4 headstart. (Multiclassed with warlock and had devils sight. this was before the eldritch adept feat.)
I would love to see a full video on the oath of the ancients build you mentioned!
Here's an idea for an anti mage: hexblade with mage slayer
Another idea: assassin gloomstalker no extra feat needed
Another idea: tabaxi charger build just get mage slayer again and arcane initiate for zephyr strike
Another idea: open hand with mage slayer
Tldr any build that's fast and/or disruptive and/or has mobility and/or has burst.
Taking one of the above examples: ass stalker drow just ambush the caster at night so you have 150dv you can get sharpshooter for the -5+10 you'll be rolling with advantage and crit if you hit anyway, first round you do 3 attacks with the first doing extra d8+SA and since it's dark due to you picking the ambush you're also invisible for DV plus nothing can see 150 away in DV and you just lay into the target.
You can also take elven accuracy for 3d20 rolls for extra reliability.
Addendum: the best anti mage is the one that doesn't let the caster cast any spells.
On that note: hexblade bladelock with relentless hex, counterspell, darkness+devils sight, improved pact weapon so they can do ranged attacks as well. Getting the mage slayer feat is just a bonus so you can really be a dick to the casters if your burst isn't enough.
Hbc, mirror image or another defensive spell, move up ready to counterspell, next turn move up, bamf and lay into the target and ready to cancel casting with your reactions. Also taking sentinel will lock the caster in place.
Really the only thing making you an "anti mage" is the feat, everything else is just normal.
i agree the best anti-mages are alpha strikers but this philosophy isn't really about anti-maging as it's more about how to build pcs for combat effectively, regardless if it's a mage target or something else.
btw for gloomstalker, you don't need to attack at night. you just need to be in darkness. meaning as long as you're in shadow. daytime in a dark room on the 2nd floor of an inn works. in the alleyway covered by the shadow of a building works. any dark area inside a dungeon, cavern, mountain, castle, etc works.
if i were to build an anti-mage i'd follow this checklist:
1. have a high chance to go 1st
2. have something that prevents opponent from casting spells (like silence + grapple, an incapacitating spell, killing them). action surge helps alot here too.
3. have counterspell
Overall I love the build! This is definitely a very ninja anti-mage character.
There are 2 sticking points for me that make me question how effective it would be in play. Tier 1 and 2 I think it's pretty solid. In tier 3 (and 4 if you make it that far) it may not be as effective.
I feel there is a little bit of an oversight basing your build off of nothing but fireball. Dex saves are definitely important against a lot of spells and effects, but I would argue that shoring up your other saves is just as important, especially when facing CR 11+ creatures. A lot of effects from high CR creatures target wisdom saves and they are debilitating if your save fails.
Also, while stunning strike is a very effective option for ending concentration, it relies on the same type of save as concentration saves. Many higher CR opponents are going to have good con saves, and this build seems to rely heavily on enemy casters failing Con saves for wither stun or concentration.
From your ending points, I agree that the abjurer would make a great spellcaster anti-mage. I also think the Lore Bard and Diviner make good anti-mages as well. Jack of all trades makes bards the second best counterspeller and dispeller in the game (second only to Abjurer), and Portent is just amazing for making a caster fail concentration.
I still love the build, mostly because I share your love of the monk cool factor.
Love all your videos so far.
Build start 12:20
I would have guessed Oath of the Ancients Paladin to be the first choice, but I totally understand your sentiments! Another fun concept. :D
I'm waiting for that Kaladin Paladin build. ;)
Oath of Ancients Paladin is pretty good at tanking spell damage thanks to the aura at 7. Thus people close to the ancients Paladin get bonus to saves and resistance to the damage.
Also darkness is a great way to shut down casters as well. Lots of spells require sight to target. Slap on the eldritch invocation on a pure shadow monk and you’re able to handle casters relatively well.
My favorite build that kind of falls in line with this was Bear barb/5 with Scout Rogue 15. Bear allows resistance to almost all damage types. Rogue allows you to uncanny dodge for particularly nasty hits. Evasion and danger sense works well together. Also reckless attacks works with sneak if using a finesse weapon. Thus focus is maxing strength and Con and then have a decent Dex. Also lots of utility with expertise in athletics. You can knock enemies prone or away from you and you can grapple. All of these are useful options.
I like it! Yes, I mentioned O of A. Pally in the Final Thoughts section :). Good point about darkness!
Question: what does anyone think about an adjustment to this build? Just sounds to me that Monk 7:Shadow, Wizard 7:Abjuration, Bard 3:Eloquence. The last 3 levels are whatever you want. Yuanti is still great here. The cool thing here is the ability to counterspell and gain the ward. Eloquence bard can use bardic die to reduce concentration checks.
This is just me but the monk doesnt add anything to the anti-mage concept. Bard and abjurer is a solid chassis though. I'd switch out monk for fighter 2 for action surge.
I am seeing a very big lack of lore bard in the video and comments. paired with the oath of ancients you had it can get counterspell and also adds half proficiency to the counterspell meaning its significantly easier to pull off. Plus adding silence, darkness, blind/deafness ect to the paladin is a fantastic way to up the control side of the build.
Also side note that expertise athletics, even with a bad strength score, helps dramatically with dealing with common caster tactics. They for instance cannot fly away, if you grapple and drag them under water or something they lose verbal castings
Ah man the image of dramatically fighting and drowning a caster is so cool
Some thoughts:
=> Instead of Arcane Trickster, I would take 1 level in Wizard.
- Pick up the following spells: Absorb Elements, Shield, Magic Missile, Detect Magic (it’s not always about damage with spellcasters), and 2 other spells of your choice. I like Grease, Hideous Laughter, Color Spray or Sleep. Some people interpret Grease as being able to set on fire, but others don’t.
- You can prepare spells = Wizard Level plus intelligence, so it may behoove you to get INT to level 14, so you can prepare 3: Magic Missile, Shield, and Absorb Elements. Detect Magic can be a ritual.
- You also get 3 cantrips: Prestidigitation is good; I would also pick Mage Hand and Mold Earth (which can create cover or shade) but play around with these; I think Prestidigitation and Mage Hand have the best utility with this build.
- You only need to invest this one level in Wizard. Shield gives a worthy +5 to AC as a reaction, Absorb Elements stores elemental energy for an attack, and
I like Shadow Monk. That’s exactly the class I was thinking of dumping levels into. I would use a rapier and a short bow with this build, plus the sharpshooter feat. Cast Darkness on an arrow, and you can get a lot of utility such as annihilating the spellcaster’s vision for a turn, creating an area where you can teleport even in daylight, etc.
Since we took Wizard 1, we have other Rogue archetypes to choose from. Mastermind, Phantom, or Soulknife are attractive options.
I like it. I get a little nervous about being too MAD, but I *almost* took a 1 level caster dip for these very reasons :).
Love the build, I've actually built out a Yuan-Ti Oath of the Ancients Paladin & Lore Bard for this specific purpose. With the additional magic secrets my intent was to take counterspell since bards get to add their Jack of All Trades bonus to it.
Thanks! ooo... I like that!
While stunned you are Incapacitated and thus no consecration
My idea on a Anti Mage would have been a Yaun-Ti with 7 levels of Oath of Ancients Paladin. Coupled with Rogue for lots of sneak and smite damage, and the dodge and evasion, you would be a monster to mages. Add mage slayer for extra options.
Also forgot to mention shield master. Just really double down on it.
Edit number two: What do ya know, Greta minds think alike. Love the Vid man!
Ha ha thanks!
I like the build. I think a lot of people underestimate the monk, but I think we can all agree that if there's one aspect of the Monk that does NOT need buffing, it's Stunning Strike.
I know nature cleric is considered a weak cleric subclass, but did you consider trying to work in the dampen elements feature to help protect your allies? It is a bit of an investment, but you would get the addad bonus of dispel magic, and you already have the prerequisite wisdom score.
yeah, Minor Illusion says "The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect." which personally, I'd interpret as it can't dim light either. You can create the illusion of shadows, but you'll still be in the same light levels. I feel like the shadow magics are about there not being light, not about if people can tell if there's light or not.
Personally, I feel like a Ranger (Fey Wanderer or Gloom Stalker) or Warlock (Talisman, Archfey or Genie) are good mage-hunter classes too. Fey Wanderer can misty step a lot and has dimension door, while gloomstalker can ambush real good and if you're in darkness you're invisible. Warlock can counterspell and dispell magic, etc, Talisman can take an invocation to add 1d4 to saves prof timers per long rest, and Genie/Archfey grant access to Greater Invisibility and some extra defense against magic (either permanent resistance to an element, or to charms and gain a misty step on taking damage). Also, if your DM allows you to improvise or grapple your Talisman to be worn by the mage, if they teleport anywhere on the same plane of existence Bond of the Talisman can teleport you straight to them. There's also Relentless Hex, which lets you teleport 30ft as a bonus action while they're hex'd. Oh yeah, hex is really good for giving them disadvantage in case you want to Dominate them too, and for dealing some extra damage.
So I studied up on the Mage and the Archmage NPCs in the Monster Manual, and it seems to me that the efficacy of this build would have to be tested against cone of cold (con save) and suggestion (wisdom save) with DCs of 14 and 17
Also, given the encounter ending potential of the archmage's 6th to 9th level spells, I will be considering the efficacy of a similar build where counterspell is a priority.
Counterspell is a priority for any anti-mage build.
@@TheRobversion1 I thought so too, but you can get a lot of other useful mage busting things if you build it like colby said. And you need atleast two other people in the party with counterspell to make a real mage busting team. Someone has to counterspell the enemy's counterspell to your counterspell.
@@jamesmullen3068 not necessarily. Playing with a sorc, especially an aberrant mind can easily take out the enemies counterspellers. For example, if an aberrant mind twins dissonant whispers or tashas mind whip its cast subtley (immune to counterspell) and removes their reaction. or go straight for subtle hold person/hideous laughter/hypnotic pattern and just remove them from the fight. If that same aberrant mind has 2 levels of fighter they can action surge and do some combination of the above to hit more casters. The counterspell on the sorcs end is not because they want to counterspell a counterspell but to handle any other casters that go 1st over your sorc
and casts a control spell on your sorc. Of course you cast your counterspell with subtle spell so your counterspells cant be counterspelled.
I have a build if you're interested, that I call the 'Warrior of the Gods' that's entirely built to dumptruck as much damage as possible into one swing: Scourge Aasimar, Path of the Zealot Barbarian 13, Oath of Conquest Paladin 7...I needed a spreadsheet to track the damage at each level as it grew.
Sounds fun!
I liked the idea of building characters around stories and limits, like you did witth the magic touch sorcerer. How could you powerbuild a spiderman-themed character?
I haven't thought of a spiderman type character, but I played a Yondu-type character.
Try: Simic hybrid. Take dex and int for ability bumps with nimble climber and manta glide as animal enhancements. Rogue Scout and Artificer Aromorer split (I'd go 12/8 respectively). Artificer gives you infiltrator armor and extra attack, rogue gives you cunning action, skirmisher, uncanny dodge, evasion, superior mobility. Throw in spells like Expeditious Retreat, Snare, Longstrider, Spiderclimb, Web. You should be able to skin that as your friendly neighborhood webcrawler pretty well!
Loving it! Another gem.
To bad that you can´t see through the darkness spell with darkvision.
You would need devilsight or truesight, or maybe detect magic with blind fighting style
I just recently built an Anti-mage, and I also didn't take Mage slayer. However, I have a very different strategy when shutting down enemy casters, it's hard to cast while you HP is zero. Pamlock with Fey Touched for extra misty steps and Shadow magic Sorcerer for better Darkness and of course lots of Counterspell slots.
I just made an anti-wizard wizard last week. Decided to go blade singer human variant with mobile feat,
Why should the DM allow a monk to not spend a ki point if the stun stunt doesn't stick? May as well ask if the Wizard can get back a spell slot if his spell don't stick.
What a ridiculous thing to say.
Oath of the ancients paladin, with mage Slayer, sentinel and blind sight fighting style. Done. Best way to play an anti spellcaster. Bonus points for being a serpent blood or Satyr. Multiclassing into sorcerer after 8th level to get access to font of magic and more smites.
Oath of the ancients paladin has resistance to all damage from spells. Paladins add your charisma score to all your savings throws. Paladin also has smite which is amazing.
Satyrs and serpent blood have magic resistance = advantage on saving throws.
Mage Slayer allows you to attack as a reaction when a creature tries to cast a spell within 5ft of you, sentinel allows you to get an attack of opertunity if they try to run, if you hit they are stuck there and can't reposition, then any ranged spell attacks against other targets have disadvantage. They can still misty step but that is a spell so you will still get an attack. Blind sight fighting is to prevent spells from giving you disadvantage, sorcerer can get fog cloud, instant advantage for you.
As far as movement goes if you identify the caster at the start of combat just dash up to their face, sorcerers also now have access to Ashardalon's stride for the bonus movement speed and damage.
If you have high stats from rolls you can also work towards shield master for the bonus action shove to knock the target prone so allies get advantage, and added your shield to your dexterity save against single target dex saves. Otherwise I would stick with just sentinel and mage Slayer.