Something I failed to discuss: Metal Armor and Druids! I know not every table has a strict prohibition, but I'm sure many will (and many players will restrict themselves in the interest of RP besides), add to that the fact that we don't have the STR to wear Heavy Armor without a move penalty, and I think most of us probably end up with Hide or Studded Leather and a lower AC!
On the Dungeon Dudes' vid regarding the perfect party composition, I suggested a party consisting of a Gloom Stalker Ranger, Shadow Monk, Twilight Cleric, and Starry or Moon Druid; kind of a Conclave of Night. So I approve of this theme. :-)
Can definately get some of those weapon fist spells going like caduces and bo crom critical roll with this type of combo plus pretty much all of them benefit from shadow or dim light so things will get dark ;)
@@chacepassmore6474 I prefer the alternate perspectives represented in the first list to the "common source of power" theme. Both are cool though; in different ways.
I feel that supports are really appealing at least to me, is that I am someone that my friends label me as a person that ONLY plays crazy optimized builds. I love your builds, but I’d never use them out of the fact that my group wouldn’t let me. BUT a support build is a lot more “under the radar” to optimized detection ha. Great videos, seriously :)
One of the greatest hypocrisies of the optimisation stigma. Everyone's complaining a kit your hexadins or coffe locks but nobody complaints about wizard with wall of force and familiar casting additional concentration spell. People accuse of spotlight hogging optimisers while generally what they do themselves is taking this spotlight and cry when someone else enters it
@O K first that does not justify the stigmatisation hypocrisies. And second, the idea of an optimal solution has it in the name: it is the best solution and everything else pales in comparison. So yes, while gwm + Pam does not offer you a choice, it is meant to be that as an optimal solution. The thing is,you don't have to optimise for absolute best. Then we'd be playing the same thing. So not sure how what you said justifies this hypocrisy expands on anything that has been said so far.
@O K I don't think I agree it is that easy. Unless you are playing martial character that is. Then yes, it is pretty straightforward. In other cases it is not so clear cut
@@Anton_Jermakoŭ I don't actually see it that way. I think a lot of the time is just a difference in philosophy causing contention. I have found there's typically 2 core groups of players. Either you develop a build around a concept or a concept around a build. I think min-maxing tends to get a bad rap because if you aren't explicitly building for power it feels like the min-maxer is either 1. intentionally not letting anyone else shine or 2. that you are actively forced to build for optimaztion over flavor/what fits the character or you won't be able to compete. And then as a min-max it can feel hypocritical when someone ends up with a powerful build, even if it was just because they thought it was cool or they just accidentally fumbled into a powerful combo. I don't think either way is wrong, I just think if everyone at the table didn't approach their build from the same axis, it can cause issues. I personally am lucky that everyone in my playgroup builds from a character concept or just thinks a subclass looks neat. I've literally built a character around a name I thought sounded cool. I'm here for the flavor and if a powerful build comes out of that, than that's great.
@@ryansprenkle6356 I, respectfully, disagree. The hypocrisy is not in different philosophy. It's in different attitude towards the same approach of character building with different target in mind. Firstly, in my experience people tend to have problems with optimisation when it is about damage or skills or social situations (yes, you can do that) and have no problem with your chronurgy wizard just saving everyone's ass behind the scenes. I call for people to acknowledge that spotlight hogging problem has nothing to do with optimisation and has everything to do with people. Optimisation is just an easier avenue to fulfill that desire to be center of attention. But I saw people with generic Vhuman McFighterson with flail (of all weapons) being the spotlight hog who wants to do everything by himself. I also want people to acknowledge their hypocrisy and equally condemn optimisation for support or tanking and optimisation for damage because when it is skewed like this it begs the question of: are you really mad at optimisers or do you want to do what they are doing all by yourself? Or they should just acknowledge their biases. They want to be badass, good. I want it too. But why should my desire to be a badass should comply with their imaginary boundaries of what I can do to achieve my goal if I have no business playing with them Secondly, in one of my campaigns I played bloodhunter/barbarian Pam gwm and it was basically a shrooms berserker (it is Norse mythology inspired campaign and we needed a heavy sustained dpr) and I made it very apparent in how much flavour I put into the guy. You can actually have your cake and eat it too. Meaning you can be kickass at roleplay and kick some serious ass in combat as well. And you can think on a story as you thinking concept through without one being introduced strictly after the other
Haven't watched the video yet but just wanted to say I love your content. In an ocean of loud, clickbaiting "personalities", your channel is like an island of sanity.
As soon as you said Custom Lineage I was like "I hope the feat is Chef." It's a nice one for some power and can be nicely fluffy for RP that gets overlooked.
Ikr, it just fits so well for someone who is watching over those at night at the campfire/ hearth. I made the same choice on my twilight cleric for Strahd.
I actually gave my Life Cleric / Lore Bard the Chef feat. He's the only healer/primary caster in the party so he's mostly focused on keeping the party alive through various tactics, and he is meant to be a bit of an epicurean.
I agree, I think too often the actual RP in RPG gets overlooked. It's nice to crunch numbers and optimize and tweak, but I think it's all for naught if the character just doesn't make any sense. If it's just a sum of subclasses and feats that tell us little of the actual character other than "yeah this is a good dpr choice"
@@SuperGrizz91 Colby always includes the background with the 1st level if it is necessary or if it fits the story he is building around the concept for, but if he doesn't mention it, it means PYF (Pick Your Favorite).
@@BLynn thanks for the speedy reply I'm planning on using this build in a campaign I'm joining here soon I went ahead and used faction agent for the extra languages and skill (from a previous build by Colby)
@@BLynn I know this is an older post, but I hope you can respond. What am I missing here? In the lvl 9 report, Colby says the character has lvl 5 spell slots. How?
Just recently found your videos. I have to say this in regards to "op" builds. I got into table top dnd for my son. He was having trouble with grasping the "reality" of his situations and making educated decisions. Dnd, ironically helped with this. I was able to build stories for him that forced him to take in his surroundings and make decisions. After getting killed by traps over and over, he started thinking about those things. After getting frustrated by boss fights being "too hard" he began to start using tactics. So its been good for him... All that being said, builds like this are great for getting new players started, or helping to keep new players "alive" so they can have fun. This is also a great "npc" follower to help small party sessions..... So, this is my scattered way of saying thanks!
@@TheRobversion1 This is exactly what I am doing for my nephews/nieces that I'm playing with (they're all elementary-school age). My character is optimized like crazy... to tank and support and keep everyone else alive so that they can have fun no matter what "bad" choices they make (in terms of optimizing their own characters and gameplay).
Just EASILY earned my subscription ONLY from his attitude towards people having fun in D&D. *I* am one of those weirdos who LOVE healing classes, and I'm pumped to run my first Twilight Cleric. Fortunately, playing with GREAT FOLKS and having reasonable DMs who will work WITH players to balance the game. Bravo!
Also for any DM struggling with the twilight temp HP bubble. Remember stun, paralyze, and petrify, as well as many spells ie. hypnotic pattern; all apply incapacitated without requiring to knock out the player.
Yeah, for most campaigns, TC players will have 1 or 2 uses of Twilight Sanctuary between rests. It's a very limited resource, and fairly easy to disrupt. Even if it does manage to stay up, it's easy to adjust when the only factor that's really changing is people getting temp HP.
So I will look forward to the D4 compendium, where every build is presented in a booklike or homebrewery pdf with suggested items and drawing of each build fitting their stories...
I took the Feat Chef in two different artificers, the extra healing and THP are nice, but the flavor (je) of the feat is just amazing. Been the chef of the group is so much fun, and my Battlesmith already has a famous dish in a Curse of Strahd Campaing, literally raised the moral of the whole town after the city was devastated by giant spiders.
Imo the way that you’re quantifying healing is the right way to go, but in the interest of accuracy, you should call it something like “possible damage negated”, because temp hp negates damage just like healing, but works differently. Just my 2 cents.
This is a really good build. I like this. I think you should make another one using these metrics and looking at a Life Cleric (1-6) and Shepherd Druid (14-19). Unicorn Spirit + Life Cleric's Level 1 and 6 abilities are fantastic.
Thanks for another cool build video. The issue I've always run into when working on ideas like this is that it pushes your gm towards strategies that aren't super fun at the table. Every game I've played in does some level of spread damage where enemies attack different members of the party. This is obviously not an optimal play but gms do it to make sure 1 person doesn't feel targeted. With a character like this one present that spread damage goes from suboptimal to functionally useless. Now the gm has to choose between targeting someone down at the risk of hurting their fun or making encounters much easier because all that spread damage isn't doing much.
actually, if a dm isn't pulling their punches, the DM should be focus firing the squishiest party member. the party also can mitigate this easily by playing tactically, playing optimal builds and not doing something stupid in the middle of combat like looting chests or choosing not to participate (we played with a pacifist once who even refuses to heal or cast buff spells). of course the above assumes dms are playing intelligent monsters/npcs. if the monster/npc arent intelligent then they can attack whoever is closest or hit it last. i've never felt bad being targeted alot because usually my party has my back and makes sure it doesn't happen for long. i think it only becomes an issue for tables like yours if the players aren't really working together or playing alot of sub-optimal builds.
The Monsters Know What They Are Doing - everyone should use this resource to control monsters in a reasonable way without meta gaming to pull punches or optimize. Get that book. Read the blog.
I was pondering a Twilight Cleric the other day (needed a backup character) and crazy enough, I thought Chef as a Feat as well! Though it was more because we had a joke at the table that any Darkvision is considered Vegan Vision so I wanted to make the cleric that's a super vegan (since 300 ft. Darkvision) and she'd make vegan lunches and snacks.
As someone who's always forced into the healer of the group (because absolutely no one else ever will even if it's a TPK every time because they demand to fight constantly), this build is something I can get behind. The DM has banned the Twilight Domain so I'll have to make do with the Life Domain.
I don’t know why people ban things. It just shows that the DM can’t handle what’s thrown at them and it’s a huge red flag. It’s a lot easier to just have the “you can do whatever bullshit you want, but just know that whatever you pull on me, I can pull on you.” Mindset. Plus You can stun or incapacitate a Twilight cleric and completely lock them.
I imagine the larger your party is, the more a dedicated healer would get to do and the more relevant they would become. I've heard of old-school parties that were more like 9 fighters, a thief, a mage, and a cleric. Then a heal-happy cleric would be worth it.
One big thing that needs attention is the new Tasha's feature for Druids- Wild Companion. At 2nd level, you can expend a use of Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar. It's a huge boon for a build that makes little use of Wild Shape, but could definitely make use of an owl familiar, both for thematic reasons and so you can spread the Cure Wounds love a bit easier.
Truth - my biggest concern is that it takes a use of Wild Shape and we only get two per short rest, meaning we might be without our starry form unless we’re pretty sure we won’t have another fight before our next rest, and that makes me sad :(.
Take Magic Initiate in Wizard if you want a free usage of Find Familiar without competing with Wild Shape, but using it as an ambulance is great for consistently using cure wounds over healing word.
Something a lot of folks don't think about is the fact that you can cast a touch spell through a familiar. Especially considering most of our spell slots are theoretically being used as cure wounds this really helps us heal from the back row with an owl, very thematic, that flies by briefly alighting on our allies so we can pulse them with cure wounds. The only thing is it will tie down a bonus action to command our familiar to fly by.
@@TheRobversion1 ah, I didn't realize It was a free action, I haven't used a familiar in game yet. All the better. I just assumed it was like a ranger beast that you had to direct with a bonus action.
Made this build with a Centaur Stars Druid 2/Twilight Cleric 18. It was insane. Take Resilient Con and War caster and you will virtually never fail a Concentration check and can never roll below a 16 as long as dragon constellation is up. Also gave him horseshoes of speed for 70ft movement/flight speed. That means I can reposition twilight Sanctuary anywhere within 100 feet EVERY turn.
omg, this is almost exactly what i'm playing right now! my starlight cleric/druid is level 8 currently, and i've got her at 3 druid for healing spirit + 5 cleric for beacon of hope. she's also custom lineage, though i took shadow touched for invisibility and inflict wounds. the build is so much fun. i'm an optimizer playing with a group that runs the gamut from non-optimized to semi-optimized, and playing such a powerful support makes me feel like i'm making the whole party more optimal.
Party: All of our opponents appear to be part of a vast conspiracy. NPC: What evidence do you have? Party: They're all shouting the same battle cry when we fight. NPC: That is a concern. What is it? It might help us figure out who they serve. Party: "Kill the cleric first!"
Yes a healer!!! No idea to what extent this was inspired by an older comment of mine or not but I am thrilled to see this haha My current preferred healer is a Divine Soul Sorcerer 19 / Life Cleric 1. Metamagic healing and control spells are just too good to pass up imo... Play as an Evil Fallen Aasimar who just wants people to buy into his health insurance and life insurance sca-- plans
Aura of vitality outpaces prayer of healing for out of combat healing, 20d6 that can be split up into 2's and taken by anyone who needs it. It generally tops off a bruised party. Also, if combat ends while it is still active you don't lose the remaining charges, you just hand them out every 6 seconds til they're gone. It is insane with extended spell metamagic, bringing it to 40d6.
Someone probably already mentioned this but: On your final damage report; beacon of hope doesn't last 17 rounds so you'll have to cast it twice. Also: your ninth level spell slot should be used for Cure Wounds. It's a whopping 2 points better than Heal. ;)
I’ve been playing a low charisma circle of stars druid for about 6 months now and I have him blabber on about astrology all the time and give people horoscopes they didn’t ask for. Augury is flavoured as my own horoscope. I actually took two levels of Div Wizard for additional flavour (I was feeling a little too optimized for the particular group).
I'm new to D&D, been "chosen" to be my group's primary healer. I love animals, so like most newbies, picking a build that feels like an idealized version of myself. Leveling up to level 2 shortly, decided my half elf (I'm half Swedish, half American, half Jewish, half Lutheran IRL) would join Circle of Shepherd. But your Circle of Stars Druid with the random sharing of horoscopes is TOO FUNNY!! Maybe "next time", lol! That idea makes Circle of Stars much more appealing as a character, I think. I hope you have fun with it!!😁💖😘
I think I like the feel of twilight cleric Shepard Druid. Mass temp hp from cleric. Mass hp from druids unicorn spirit. When people would be using bear. Now you do both. And you can switch up play styles from concentration heal and summoning.
I love Circle of Stars. My current character is a Stars Druid/Bard. You to pass a skill check, attack roll, saving throw? Between Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, and Cosmic Omen, I got you.
Mechanically, there isn't a prohibition. Nothing mechanically happens to them if they do. So if your dm is "enforcing" it, then you should also be able to make a a similar type of armor out of creature parts. Heck, Scale Mail has it in the name and that would put you at potentially an 18 ac
Druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal. So this being a role-playing game means your druid chooses not to wear metal armor. Scale Mail. This armor consists of a coat and leggings (and perhaps a separate skirt) of leather covered with overlapping pieces of metal, much like the scales of a fish.
Good call - I often forget about this little never-ending argument because our DM doesn't tend to stick to this prohibition. Many will have to find a way around it!
I LOVE the concept. As I am planning on playing a twilight cleric I definetly now want to do a 2lvl dip into star druid ! But I think I would rather go cleric 18 - druid 2. As i think the twlight sanctuary upgrade would ultimately bring more to the table. (+2AC and advantage on dex saves might just result in a lot of damage negation wich is another form of healing) Like you mentioned your build is about crunching numbers and its unrealistic to imagine having to heal every single round with EVERYTHING you got.
I like the idea of taking the Fey Touched feat for misty step and silvery barbs just to turbo charge the Twilight domain even more.... And enrage my DM.
Misty Step would no doubt be useful at times, but what would you be using Silvery Barbs for? It's a great spell, but it seems like it's not gonna be particularly amazing for your own stuff on this build. Just a way of trying to make sure other people's spells and features land?
@@dainslatton9877 and something to do with your reaction. Twilight clerics have a total of 0 things that use their reaction, so it’s just free action economy.
eyes of night can also be applied to pet, and mounts (if you're party doesn't need it) I really want this character in a paladin aura, just... because, for thematic reasons, I really want to get into Monk at least 1 level (fairy so it helps with AC any how, because I want to be able to actually use those wings!)
id like to imagine having this character in a campaign, and the DM just getting progressively more insane with his combat encounters in a desperate attempt to actually deal damage to the party
I recently played this build in a Lv 12 one shot and goddamn, once you get all your spells and abilities active nothing around you can die. (I decided bumping Twilight Sanctuary is better overall for protection so I went Twilight 10/Stars 3) 3 unconscious allies? Slap the big tank with 37 health, Chalice gives another one 13 health, third fella has advantage on death saves, and everyone gets around 13.5 temp hp. Total healing done that round: 104, aka 9th level upcast Heal spell for the price of a 4th level slot. Also, Mass Cure Wounds can do 28 healing per person, so if you got 6 people needing healing, you can dump potentially up to 180 hp healed with chalice, with 81 temp on top of that. Even outside if this, you can do standard cleric/druid BS. Primal Familiar to scout, Revivify, Restoration spells, Aid, Spirit Guardians + Thorn Whip + Spiritual Weapon, Bless + Guiding Bolt + Archer Constellation + Steps of Night, etc.
If the Dragonmark race options are allowed one could take the mark of handling human and pick druid first. With mark of handling you get beacon of hope on your spelllist - thus you can get the chalice + beacon of hope combination at level 5 - which would result in you being able to heal like crazy in very low levels I feel like it might be an option to just pick up 2 levels of twilight cleric this way - not getting fly seems bad - but with the dragonform you can fly with twinkling constellations.
As a druid you get access to Absorb Elements anyway, which is gonna do the same thing as succeeding on a DEX save effectively in the majority of cases. It's better to take Warcaster in my opinion. Aside from these options, he's talking about getting more max HP on an OP healer build. Not really super necessary if you are giving yourself temp HP every turn and you have Aid upcast. It's way better to maintain concentration so you can maintain healing efficiently.
What if you did a full party build combo, 3 players support/buff and 1 player does damage- not particularly practical or fun but I really really wanna see the numbers
Just started listening. Will pick up again tomorrow when walking my dog. Why the EF would ANYONE want to be a Heal-Bot?? A FRIGGIN "Heal Vending Machine"? I'm a nurse & Army Medic IRL. A new player, I agreed to play a Shepherd Druid for my group's primary healer....but I need to have fun, too!!!!
@@TheRobversion1 If my DM kills me off (he seems to be going for TPKs with a group of "newbie" players), then I'm coming back as an entirely different Druid build he probably won't like as much, lol. My character is sweet, sheltered, Scandinavian flavored Circle of Shepherd half-elf build, looking to heal as much as she can (I originally considered Circle of Dreams for healing at his request, but God, that's WEAK & BORING, Circle of Shepherd has nearly or more arguable "healing" mechanics). Next up will be a nasty Orc Druid, or something like that!!!🤣🤣🤣
32:39, Aura of Vitality is a bomb of healing outside of combat. The spell lasts 1 minute, or 10 rounds. that 20d6 of healing to hand out to a party of 5th level characters. You can spend one third level spell getting the party to full most of the time in these early levels.
This is my favourite healing spell. This is why I choose usually Halfling mark of healing and get metamagic to extend the spell. And that’s all heals party need. Additionally I can build the character for any purpose I want.
Aura of vitality is great, just wish it was anywhere are good as healing spirit. Also, assuming everyone is the same level when we get to level 8 in this build if you took the healer feat you could heal for 1d6+12 from healer feal and bonus action healing word to either heal more single target then the other level 1 healing spell, or heal two people at once. This point is mute though if you are using aura of vitality, just responding to the other concentration spell that was mentioned we were moving to instead.
After only recently (two days ago) finding this channel, I have to admit, your deep dives into builds is really inspiring me to create more characters and actually have them be a choesive build (usually I'd just go for damage or whatever with no real plan in mind). Between this video and the Abjuration Wizard Tank video (my two favourites so far) my imagination is going crazy, so thanks!
@@DnDDeepDive As I haven't watched all of your videos (yet) was just wondering if you have made a build that utilised the Battlemaster outside of the Damphir one? It's my favourite martial subclass :-)
I'm a fan of these support builds. Have you done a optimized "support only" build for a bard? If not, I'd be really interested in your take on it! EDIT: that's what I get for commenting too quickly. I'll be watching the support lore bard after this, lol
i love this! you are one of my favorite DND content creators also.. aura of vitality doesent poof just because combat end, you can totally stay in it and just heal back up as much as the minute duration allows. Thats 20d6s NICE
1 level Life Cleric and the rest in Shepherd Druid I think has better healing. At Least till you get the height level healing spells. Throw Up Bear Spirit Totem before adventuring for a 5 + druid lvl in Temp HP for the entire party. When Combat starts Throw up Unicorn Spirit Totem and everyone in the aura regains HP equal to you druid level when you cast a healing spell. Then there is also the Improved Good Berries that you use all your spell slots on the previous day.
Great video, but I feel like a really missed opportunity here is the second level spell “warding bond”. If you have a moderate con and thus a sizable hp pool, a mountain of temp hp, and access to some of the best healing spells, then you are going to be giving your frontliner one of the biggest buffs with little downside. Made my twilight cleric and my friends moon Druid the goats of my gauntlet campaign and all it cost me was my amicable relationship with my dm lol.
If you don't pick up the Healer feat I don't even know what to say. 1d6+4+character level hp/short rest, and can basically goodberry allies for free with no spell cost. Party of 5 level 10's, 3 rests during a day, average 270 hp of healing not tied to a spell or resource other than healer's kits. As a druid, does heavy armor actually help you?
Sounds like a really fun build. One possible weakness is that, if your table abides by the druid restriction on metal armors (which most do), your AC is going to be really low and so being in movement rage of most enemies (30ft) can lead to a quick death. Build really sounds great tho. From all your videos this is the one I'm stealing for my next character assuming my DM agrees to at least let me wear medium armor made of animal scales or something.
Really enjoyed the blend of thematically made concept and optimizing with preexisting subclasses combined for sole purposes of supporting allies to such a potent degree. With options too! Makes it an interactive venture than just a 1, 2 combo every encounter
I've never tried anyone else's build ideas other than my very own, but I think I'm going to try this one for an epic boss battle one shot. And I know it's not the most accurate metric but I'll let you know how it goes!
It’s super late, but a strong case could be made for sorc after Druid 2.. twinning that level 6, BoH and star form cure wounds. Blows heal out of the water, plus can do it long before you would get the heal spell. Would also get shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs; divine souls allows all the cleric stuff you want later too. So cleric 6 Druid 2 sorc 9? Can get extend spell if you want to make that aura of vit twice as good. That maxed cure wounds hitting 3 people…
Great build. Had some thoughts. How are you using one concentration spell with a duration of one minute to last 3 combat encounters? You said you're only using one slot for it, but you're including it in every one of those three hypothetical combat encounters in your first damage report. Youre also talking about using two channel divinity uses over three combat encounters. Pretty darn unlikely. Also you mention potentially not being able to change your cleric spells from Guiding Bolt to something else? Why would you ever not be able to? You know all cleric spells and choose which you prepare. It's not one of your subclass spells from cleric. Changing your cantrips is a little more dependent on a couple factors and may not be able to happen depending on whether youre using optional feature and whether you're planning ahead enough (you may have to go without guidance for 2-3 levels), but changing most leveled cleric spells is just a part of the basic rules. Anyway, keep the great multiclass ideas coming!
I think if you are going to Level 20, you could consider the following: Race: Human Variant or Custom Lineage Class: 1st: Cleric 1 (Life Domain) 2nd-20th: Bard 19 (College of Glamour) Feats (in any order): Chef Healer Inspiring Leader You get five Ability Score Improvements + the bonus feat at 1st level, so you can get the three feats by 9th level, and still have three Ability Score Improvements left. At 11th level (10th level Bard) you can get Magical Secrets to grab Aura of Vitality, Beacon of Hope, and/or Healing Spirit; and maybe Goodberry (to top people off after combat, unless you take a feat in Magic Initiate to get it from the Druid spell list). This way you don't need to go down the Druid class. Mantle of Inspiration from College of Glamour gives CHA mod allies temporary hit points within 60 feet as a bonus action by expending a Bardic Inspiration die (which you will have CHA mod amount and will regain them all on a short rest by 7th level (6th level Bard)). With Song of Rest + Chef + Inspiring Leader, you will regain a ton of hit points every short rest and have a nice buffer of temporary hit points going into the first combat. Healer will allow you to 1/short rest per Player Character to heal a bit (a decent amount with Beacon of Hope active), which saves on spell slots. Although if you also have something like Healing Spirit anyways, you will probably be at full health at the end of every combat (just spend ten rounds having everyone walk through the spirit for a lot of hp recovery). You could also probably grab three levels of Druid to grab either Circle of Stars OR Circle of Shepard, and Healing Spirit + Goodberry. That takes away the last Song of Rest, Magical Secrets, and Ability Score Improvements by maxing your Bard level to 16, but I think that is a worthwhile trade. My only concern is whether you can get strong enough defense with non-metal armor (but with all the healing and temp hp you have you should be okay).
healing spirt has been nerfed in the latest errata and nerfed hard. you can't full health heal your party out of combat most of the time anymore. "The spirit can heal a number of times equal to 1 + your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum of twice). After healing that number of times, the spirit disappears." if i wanted goodberry, i'd probably just get it from magic initiate. giving up that magical secrets for wish is painful. you're getting a spare asi anyway at 19.
After the short yesterday, my prediction was shepherd druid and life cleric but this sounds way more fun to play, i’ve even got ideas for what that custom lineage would be. Hello moon aasimar 🌚🌝
forgot to mention that the biggest difference between custom linage from "Tasha's" and variant human is the fact that instead of a 2point increase in one ability (custom) you get 1point increase in two abilities (variant)
the chef feat is so fun and i feel cool using it. i got the chef feat for one of the characters i have. me and the rest of my table was playing squishy ranged characters, so we decided that our support should be pretty balanced between everyone. our ranger is our skill monkey and scout, our artificer often uses artillerist's shield cannon and tinkering/infusions, and i make use of support spells and focus fire (this focus fire actually being from a version of the tempest cleric/storm sorcerer build, actually!). the chef feat also is part of my contribution to the team's support.
Minor thing, but when you use Starry Form, you shed bright light in a 10 foot radius, which I would assume means you are in bright light. This would mean that while in your Starry Form, you can't use Steps of Night, maybe making the enhanced form of the dragon constellation a bit more appealing. Love this character idea, btw!
I am sorry, I haven't watched the whole video yet. I like it so far! I just wanted to point out that without 13str or dwarf, you do get a speed penalty with chain armor. Might better off with medium armor or switch dex to str.
I took a similar build to this into an encounter against a CR 13 creature, with backup with a party of Level 9s and we ended combat higher than full HP.
Literally what I am playing right now, but Peace Cleric. Oh my god I freaking ADORE the character. Playing a character in a (blessedly willing) party who wants less fighting and more rehabilitating... At least before the inevitable radicalization that I keep giving in to lol
I think you forgot something crunching numbers. You would use your highest spell slot to cast aid each time adventure day. If you count all hit points as "healing" with a party of 4.. that's a huge boost on each damage report. For the feat I would go a little different and grab ritual caster to get summon familiar for delivering touch spells (cure wounds) and the ritual book to add some great utility options. Possibly I would grab lucky just to make the enemy reroll crits 3 times per day as that would save a lot of damage.
Assuming you are wearing heavy armor, not limited by the Druid class, Heavy armor master might be the Druid 8 feat I would choose. Taking three less damage from every attack, especially at higher levels when multi attacking enemies are common, makes those temp hit points from Twilight Sanctuary all the better!
Love the idea, would it not make sense for calculating numbers to not just focus on healing, but instead total damage mitigated per round? So healing, resistance, temp hp, all of the ways that damage could be nullified and then use that in your calculations instead of total healing
Starting a campaign this weekend (hopefully) playing a character based off this concept. Starting at level 2. He’s a Feylost Tortle who’s parents died very shortly after his birth. Unable to fend for himself he was lured to the Feywild by a pixie named Glimmer who befriended/kind of raised him. He eventually returned from the Feywild to learn about his origins, but feels a call back to the Feywild that continues to grow as his adventuring life continues on. I thought the Tortle (with their beliefs about the sun and moon) was a good fit for this concept.
Admit it Colby, you stuck with stars druid primarily for the names of the features and the pun opportunities. Very interesting build as always my man, would definitely be fun to run and endurance-based combat encounter for a party with this character. I'm thinking something like the defence of Redcliffe Village in OG Dragon Age.
Its a bit unfortunate that the star druid makes you emit light, which would cancel out the twilight cleric emitting darkness that enables you to fly. Whenever you use the chalice form it would block flight. This isn't the end of the world but is a situational consideration you have to make while running this character.
You just start flying first then activate it. The aspect of continual flight is not dependent on remaining in the dim light, only the initial start of flight. With how the wording is at least of twilight.
You know, everyone always talks about Goodberry healing, but they don’t talk about the sustenance. If it provides enough sustenance for a day of hard adventuring, that’s gotta be st LEAST 2000 calories. So if you’re mowing down on 15 of those things….
I like the idea of not taking chef and taking ritual caster instead so you can use find familiar. I think an owl just fits with the personality of this build so well.
Still watching the video and don't know if it'll come up but I have a character on the backburner which among other stuff is 1 level dip in life cleric and the rest is divine soul sorcerer with a metamagic option that is often regarded as "kinda meh": extended spell. It means outside of combat (or during combat and after the fight just resume) you can cast a 2 minute Aura of Vitality that heals 2d6+5 in 20 nice, little instances for a 3rd lvl slot and 1 sorcery point.
Obviously now with Tasha's it would be possible to just go Life Cleric and take the Metamagic Adept feat and you can do the same twice per long rest without multiclassing.
![OsamaSon - ik what you did last summer [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4DIQDnu3mr4/mqdefault.jpg)
Something I failed to discuss: Metal Armor and Druids! I know not every table has a strict prohibition, but I'm sure many will (and many players will restrict themselves in the interest of RP besides), add to that the fact that we don't have the STR to wear Heavy Armor without a move penalty, and I think most of us probably end up with Hide or Studded Leather and a lower AC!
@@skymanta1222 Spiked armor is a rare type of medium armor made by dwarves.
Enchanted dragon scale mail. No metal and no disadvantage!
Or you can just pick Tortle as your race and get that 19 armor class with a shield.
I made this character for the new campaign I'm playing in, its that exact reason I swapped from druid and went twilight cleric/spirit bard instead
@@yurirobin Definitely an option. Would set us back a bit on our Wisdom progression, but might be worth it.
On the Dungeon Dudes' vid regarding the perfect party composition, I suggested a party consisting of a Gloom Stalker Ranger, Shadow Monk, Twilight Cleric, and Starry or Moon Druid; kind of a Conclave of Night. So I approve of this theme. :-)
Can definately get some of those weapon fist spells going like caduces and bo crom critical roll with this type of combo plus pretty much all of them benefit from shadow or dim light so things will get dark ;)
Sounds like they belong in Curse of Strahd :)
I suggested a similar party composition. It's nice to find someone like minded 👍
I'd say shadow sorcerer or Hexblade warlock (their power also comes from the shadow fell) before I'd say shadow monk. Otherwise, heck yeah
@@chacepassmore6474 I prefer the alternate perspectives represented in the first list to the "common source of power" theme. Both are cool though; in different ways.
This preamble is his slow descent into being the BBEG of real life D&D.
ROFL
I feel that supports are really appealing at least to me, is that I am someone that my friends label me as a person that ONLY plays crazy optimized builds. I love your builds, but I’d never use them out of the fact that my group wouldn’t let me. BUT a support build is a lot more “under the radar” to optimized detection ha. Great videos, seriously :)
One of the greatest hypocrisies of the optimisation stigma. Everyone's complaining a kit your hexadins or coffe locks but nobody complaints about wizard with wall of force and familiar casting additional concentration spell.
People accuse of spotlight hogging optimisers while generally what they do themselves is taking this spotlight and cry when someone else enters it
@O K first that does not justify the stigmatisation hypocrisies. And second, the idea of an optimal solution has it in the name: it is the best solution and everything else pales in comparison. So yes, while gwm + Pam does not offer you a choice, it is meant to be that as an optimal solution.
The thing is,you don't have to optimise for absolute best. Then we'd be playing the same thing.
So not sure how what you said justifies this hypocrisy expands on anything that has been said so far.
@O K I don't think I agree it is that easy. Unless you are playing martial character that is. Then yes, it is pretty straightforward. In other cases it is not so clear cut
@@Anton_Jermakoŭ I don't actually see it that way. I think a lot of the time is just a difference in philosophy causing contention.
I have found there's typically 2 core groups of players. Either you develop a build around a concept or a concept around a build.
I think min-maxing tends to get a bad rap because if you aren't explicitly building for power it feels like the min-maxer is either 1. intentionally not letting anyone else shine or 2. that you are actively forced to build for optimaztion over flavor/what fits the character or you won't be able to compete.
And then as a min-max it can feel hypocritical when someone ends up with a powerful build, even if it was just because they thought it was cool or they just accidentally fumbled into a powerful combo.
I don't think either way is wrong, I just think if everyone at the table didn't approach their build from the same axis, it can cause issues. I personally am lucky that everyone in my playgroup builds from a character concept or just thinks a subclass looks neat. I've literally built a character around a name I thought sounded cool. I'm here for the flavor and if a powerful build comes out of that, than that's great.
@@ryansprenkle6356 I, respectfully, disagree. The hypocrisy is not in different philosophy. It's in different attitude towards the same approach of character building with different target in mind. Firstly, in my experience people tend to have problems with optimisation when it is about damage or skills or social situations (yes, you can do that) and have no problem with your chronurgy wizard just saving everyone's ass behind the scenes. I call for people to acknowledge that spotlight hogging problem has nothing to do with optimisation and has everything to do with people. Optimisation is just an easier avenue to fulfill that desire to be center of attention. But I saw people with generic Vhuman McFighterson with flail (of all weapons) being the spotlight hog who wants to do everything by himself. I also want people to acknowledge their hypocrisy and equally condemn optimisation for support or tanking and optimisation for damage because when it is skewed like this it begs the question of: are you really mad at optimisers or do you want to do what they are doing all by yourself? Or they should just acknowledge their biases. They want to be badass, good. I want it too. But why should my desire to be a badass should comply with their imaginary boundaries of what I can do to achieve my goal if I have no business playing with them
Secondly, in one of my campaigns I played bloodhunter/barbarian Pam gwm and it was basically a shrooms berserker (it is Norse mythology inspired campaign and we needed a heavy sustained dpr) and I made it very apparent in how much flavour I put into the guy. You can actually have your cake and eat it too. Meaning you can be kickass at roleplay and kick some serious ass in combat as well. And you can think on a story as you thinking concept through without one being introduced strictly after the other
Haven't watched the video yet but just wanted to say I love your content. In an ocean of loud, clickbaiting "personalities", your channel is like an island of sanity.
Thank you!
As soon as you said Custom Lineage I was like "I hope the feat is Chef." It's a nice one for some power and can be nicely fluffy for RP that gets overlooked.
Ikr, it just fits so well for someone who is watching over those at night at the campfire/ hearth. I made the same choice on my twilight cleric for Strahd.
Speaking fluffy RP, your party wakes up every day to Hot 'n' Ready Krispy Kreme 🍩.
I actually gave my Life Cleric / Lore Bard the Chef feat. He's the only healer/primary caster in the party so he's mostly focused on keeping the party alive through various tactics, and he is meant to be a bit of an epicurean.
I agree, I think too often the actual RP in RPG gets overlooked. It's nice to crunch numbers and optimize and tweak, but I think it's all for naught if the character just doesn't make any sense. If it's just a sum of subclasses and feats that tell us little of the actual character other than "yeah this is a good dpr choice"
Level 1:(see above) [cleric 1, sub-class & race]
Level 2:(see above) [cleric 2]
Level 3:(@29:26) [cleric 3]
Level 4:(@30:52) [cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@31:05) [cleric 5]
Level 6:(@34:59) [cleric 6]
Level 7:(see above) [druid 1]
Level 8:(@42:08) [druid 2 & sub-class]
Level 9:(@48:54) [druid 3]
Level 10:(see above) [druid 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@54:18) [druid 5]
Level 12:(@54:58) [druid 6]
Level 13:(@56:12) [druid 7]
Level 14:(see above) [druid 8 & ASI]
Level 15:(@58:40) [druid 9]
Level 16:(@1:01:18) [druid 10]
Level 17:(@1:02:50) [druid 11]
Ty B
What background do we choose..
@@SuperGrizz91 Colby always includes the background with the 1st level if it is necessary or if it fits the story he is building around the concept for, but if he doesn't mention it, it means PYF (Pick Your Favorite).
@@BLynn thanks for the speedy reply I'm planning on using this build in a campaign I'm joining here soon I went ahead and used faction agent for the extra languages and skill (from a previous build by Colby)
@@BLynn I know this is an older post, but I hope you can respond. What am I missing here? In the lvl 9 report, Colby says the character has lvl 5 spell slots. How?
Just recently found your videos. I have to say this in regards to "op" builds. I got into table top dnd for my son. He was having trouble with grasping the "reality" of his situations and making educated decisions. Dnd, ironically helped with this. I was able to build stories for him that forced him to take in his surroundings and make decisions. After getting killed by traps over and over, he started thinking about those things. After getting frustrated by boss fights being "too hard" he began to start using tactics. So its been good for him... All that being said, builds like this are great for getting new players started, or helping to keep new players "alive" so they can have fun. This is also a great "npc" follower to help small party sessions..... So, this is my scattered way of saying thanks!
this is very fresh take on optimization. i applaud this POV.
@@TheRobversion1 This is exactly what I am doing for my nephews/nieces that I'm playing with (they're all elementary-school age). My character is optimized like crazy... to tank and support and keep everyone else alive so that they can have fun no matter what "bad" choices they make (in terms of optimizing their own characters and gameplay).
Just EASILY earned my subscription ONLY from his attitude towards people having fun in D&D. *I* am one of those weirdos who LOVE healing classes, and I'm pumped to run my first Twilight Cleric. Fortunately, playing with GREAT FOLKS and having reasonable DMs who will work WITH players to balance the game. Bravo!
Awesome - thanks and welcome :)
Also for any DM struggling with the twilight temp HP bubble. Remember stun, paralyze, and petrify, as well as many spells ie. hypnotic pattern; all apply incapacitated without requiring to knock out the player.
Yeah, for most campaigns, TC players will have 1 or 2 uses of Twilight Sanctuary between rests. It's a very limited resource, and fairly easy to disrupt. Even if it does manage to stay up, it's easy to adjust when the only factor that's really changing is people getting temp HP.
As a DM i really love clerics maling support
Doesn't hypnotic pattern charm? Probably won't work on a twilight cleric
"match made in heaven" is an underrated pun here.
Blast! Missed opportunity :)
I believe the next level after Overkill is Killtacular.
4 in a row, 4 seconds between
@@RavarSeer Elite at this s*it since Marathon!
So I will look forward to the D4 compendium, where every build is presented in a booklike or homebrewery pdf with suggested items and drawing of each build fitting their stories...
I took the Feat Chef in two different artificers, the extra healing and THP are nice, but the flavor (je) of the feat is just amazing. Been the chef of the group is so much fun, and my Battlesmith already has a famous dish in a Curse of Strahd Campaing, literally raised the moral of the whole town after the city was devastated by giant spiders.
When every other character in the party is a barbarian. XD
My goodness...your comment is so on point. I can totally imagine it and it would totally work.
Circle of stars is a genuinely cool idea. Depending on the stats this character lends itself so nice for friendly role-play opportunities!
My favorite subclass!
I've been playing it with a 1 level dip in Life Cleric and it's great 😁
Imo the way that you’re quantifying healing is the right way to go, but in the interest of accuracy, you should call it something like “possible damage negated”, because temp hp negates damage just like healing, but works differently. Just my 2 cents.
This is a really good build. I like this. I think you should make another one using these metrics and looking at a Life Cleric (1-6) and Shepherd Druid (14-19). Unicorn Spirit + Life Cleric's Level 1 and 6 abilities are fantastic.
[FINALLY 😁] Playing this build in a Strahd campagn! We're only going to level 9-10 according to the DM but still excited!! 😁
How is this going?
Thanks for another cool build video. The issue I've always run into when working on ideas like this is that it pushes your gm towards strategies that aren't super fun at the table.
Every game I've played in does some level of spread damage where enemies attack different members of the party. This is obviously not an optimal play but gms do it to make sure 1 person doesn't feel targeted. With a character like this one present that spread damage goes from suboptimal to functionally useless. Now the gm has to choose between targeting someone down at the risk of hurting their fun or making encounters much easier because all that spread damage isn't doing much.
actually, if a dm isn't pulling their punches, the DM should be focus firing the squishiest party member. the party also can mitigate this easily by playing tactically, playing optimal builds and not doing something stupid in the middle of combat like looting chests or choosing not to participate (we played with a pacifist once who even refuses to heal or cast buff spells). of course the above assumes dms are playing intelligent monsters/npcs. if the monster/npc arent intelligent then they can attack whoever is closest or hit it last.
i've never felt bad being targeted alot because usually my party has my back and makes sure it doesn't happen for long. i think it only becomes an issue for tables like yours if the players aren't really working together or playing alot of sub-optimal builds.
The Monsters Know What They Are Doing - everyone should use this resource to control monsters in a reasonable way without meta gaming to pull punches or optimize.
Get that book. Read the blog.
still don't get why twilight is problematic.
Because the Paladin said so.
I was pondering a Twilight Cleric the other day (needed a backup character) and crazy enough, I thought Chef as a Feat as well!
Though it was more because we had a joke at the table that any Darkvision is considered Vegan Vision so I wanted to make the cleric that's a super vegan (since 300 ft. Darkvision) and she'd make vegan lunches and snacks.
ha!
As someone who's always forced into the healer of the group (because absolutely no one else ever will even if it's a TPK every time because they demand to fight constantly), this build is something I can get behind. The DM has banned the Twilight Domain so I'll have to make do with the Life Domain.
I don’t know why people ban things. It just shows that the DM can’t handle what’s thrown at them and it’s a huge red flag.
It’s a lot easier to just have the “you can do whatever bullshit you want, but just know that whatever you pull on me, I can pull on you.” Mindset.
Plus You can stun or incapacitate a Twilight cleric and completely lock them.
I imagine the larger your party is, the more a dedicated healer would get to do and the more relevant they would become. I've heard of old-school parties that were more like 9 fighters, a thief, a mage, and a cleric. Then a heal-happy cleric would be worth it.
One big thing that needs attention is the new Tasha's feature for Druids- Wild Companion. At 2nd level, you can expend a use of Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar. It's a huge boon for a build that makes little use of Wild Shape, but could definitely make use of an owl familiar, both for thematic reasons and so you can spread the Cure Wounds love a bit easier.
Truth - my biggest concern is that it takes a use of Wild Shape and we only get two per short rest, meaning we might be without our starry form unless we’re pretty sure we won’t have another fight before our next rest, and that makes me sad :(.
Take Magic Initiate in Wizard if you want a free usage of Find Familiar without competing with Wild Shape, but using it as an ambulance is great for consistently using cure wounds over healing word.
Something to think about with this one: Try again from the perspective of self-healing as a Divine sorcerer twin casting Warding Bond.
Something a lot of folks don't think about is the fact that you can cast a touch spell through a familiar. Especially considering most of our spell slots are theoretically being used as cure wounds this really helps us heal from the back row with an owl, very thematic, that flies by briefly alighting on our allies so we can pulse them with cure wounds. The only thing is it will tie down a bonus action to command our familiar to fly by.
*great* idea
why would it tie your owl's bonus action? commanding familiars are free actions.
@@TheRobversion1 ah, I didn't realize It was a free action, I haven't used a familiar in game yet. All the better. I just assumed it was like a ranger beast that you had to direct with a bonus action.
@@davidpritchett855 it's free like the summon/conjure spells and find steed/greater steed.
Made this build with a Centaur Stars Druid 2/Twilight Cleric 18.
It was insane. Take Resilient Con and War caster and you will virtually never fail a Concentration check and can never roll below a 16 as long as dragon constellation is up.
Also gave him horseshoes of speed for 70ft movement/flight speed. That means I can reposition twilight Sanctuary anywhere within 100 feet EVERY turn.
omg, this is almost exactly what i'm playing right now! my starlight cleric/druid is level 8 currently, and i've got her at 3 druid for healing spirit + 5 cleric for beacon of hope. she's also custom lineage, though i took shadow touched for invisibility and inflict wounds. the build is so much fun. i'm an optimizer playing with a group that runs the gamut from non-optimized to semi-optimized, and playing such a powerful support makes me feel like i'm making the whole party more optimal.
Party: All of our opponents appear to be part of a vast conspiracy.
NPC: What evidence do you have?
Party: They're all shouting the same battle cry when we fight.
NPC: That is a concern. What is it? It might help us figure out who they serve.
Party: "Kill the cleric first!"
I cant stop laughing
Yes a healer!!! No idea to what extent this was inspired by an older comment of mine or not but I am thrilled to see this haha
My current preferred healer is a Divine Soul Sorcerer 19 / Life Cleric 1. Metamagic healing and control spells are just too good to pass up imo... Play as an Evil Fallen Aasimar who just wants people to buy into his health insurance and life insurance sca-- plans
Aura of vitality outpaces prayer of healing for out of combat healing, 20d6 that can be split up into 2's and taken by anyone who needs it. It generally tops off a bruised party. Also, if combat ends while it is still active you don't lose the remaining charges, you just hand them out every 6 seconds til they're gone. It is insane with extended spell metamagic, bringing it to 40d6.
I was thinking about taking metamagic instead of cooking, didn't realize you can extend concentration spells, thanks!
As a dm i dont think i would buff the encounters so much as make sure that the adventuring day is longer since they can go longer and faster.
Oh nice, pausing the Preview-video at the right frame was worth it!
Someone probably already mentioned this but:
On your final damage report; beacon of hope doesn't last 17 rounds so you'll have to cast it twice.
Also: your ninth level spell slot should be used for Cure Wounds. It's a whopping 2 points better than Heal. ;)
... assuming the Beacon is up.
I’ve been playing a low charisma circle of stars druid for about 6 months now and I have him blabber on about astrology all the time and give people horoscopes they didn’t ask for. Augury is flavoured as my own horoscope. I actually took two levels of Div Wizard for additional flavour (I was feeling a little too optimized for the particular group).
I'm new to D&D, been "chosen" to be my group's primary healer. I love animals, so like most newbies, picking a build that feels like an idealized version of myself. Leveling up to level 2 shortly, decided my half elf (I'm half Swedish, half American, half Jewish, half Lutheran IRL) would join Circle of Shepherd. But your Circle of Stars Druid with the random sharing of horoscopes is TOO FUNNY!! Maybe "next time", lol! That idea makes Circle of Stars much more appealing as a character, I think. I hope you have fun with it!!😁💖😘
@@Karina-Loves-Andreas man is two people
I think I like the feel of twilight cleric Shepard Druid.
Mass temp hp from cleric.
Mass hp from druids unicorn spirit. When people would be using bear. Now you do both. And you can switch up play styles from concentration heal and summoning.
I love Circle of Stars. My current character is a Stars Druid/Bard. You to pass a skill check, attack roll, saving throw? Between Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, and Cosmic Omen, I got you.
As a druid you have a prohibition against wearing armor or shields that are made of metal. Unless DM fiat your AC probably won't be as high.
Mechanically, there isn't a prohibition. Nothing mechanically happens to them if they do.
So if your dm is "enforcing" it, then you should also be able to make a a similar type of armor out of creature parts.
Heck, Scale Mail has it in the name and that would put you at potentially an 18 ac
@@adamkaris agreed. But once again up to how much the DM is going to enforce.
Druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal. So this being a role-playing game means your druid chooses not to wear metal armor.
Scale Mail. This armor consists of a coat and leggings (and perhaps a separate skirt) of leather covered with overlapping pieces of metal, much like the scales of a fish.
Good call - I often forget about this little never-ending argument because our DM doesn't tend to stick to this prohibition. Many will have to find a way around it!
@Remy B LOL, no punitive action need if you are role-playing your druid.
I LOVE the concept. As I am planning on playing a twilight cleric I definetly now want to do a 2lvl dip into star druid !
But I think I would rather go cleric 18 - druid 2.
As i think the twlight sanctuary upgrade would ultimately bring more to the table.
(+2AC and advantage on dex saves might just result in a lot of damage negation wich is another form of healing)
Like you mentioned your build is about crunching numbers and its unrealistic to imagine having to heal every single round with EVERYTHING you got.
What's beyond 'Over-kill'? 'Ludacris-kill'. My friend, you've gone the plaid...
I like the idea of taking the Fey Touched feat for misty step and silvery barbs just to turbo charge the Twilight domain even more.... And enrage my DM.
Misty Step would no doubt be useful at times, but what would you be using Silvery Barbs for? It's a great spell, but it seems like it's not gonna be particularly amazing for your own stuff on this build. Just a way of trying to make sure other people's spells and features land?
@@dainslatton9877 and something to do with your reaction. Twilight clerics have a total of 0 things that use their reaction, so it’s just free action economy.
At level 14, I would take the interception FS to allow us to use our reaction to also block some damage aimed at an ally near us. adds extra support!
eyes of night can also be applied to pet, and mounts (if you're party doesn't need it) I really want this character in a paladin aura, just... because, for thematic reasons, I really want to get into Monk at least 1 level (fairy so it helps with AC any how, because I want to be able to actually use those wings!)
US military says that the best medicine is overwhelming firepower. No need to heal any damage if you don't receive any
I like this philosophy more NGL
ditto. no need to tank/heal if enemies are dead or controlled on round 1.
@@TheRobversion1 Death is the most powerful status condition in the game. And I plan to inflict it often, and consistently.
True overwhelming firepower is good medicine but the us military also have its own doctors as well
id like to imagine having this character in a campaign, and the DM just getting progressively more insane with his combat encounters in a desperate attempt to actually deal damage to the party
I recently played this build in a Lv 12 one shot and goddamn, once you get all your spells and abilities active nothing around you can die. (I decided bumping Twilight Sanctuary is better overall for protection so I went Twilight 10/Stars 3)
3 unconscious allies? Slap the big tank with 37 health, Chalice gives another one 13 health, third fella has advantage on death saves, and everyone gets around 13.5 temp hp.
Total healing done that round: 104, aka 9th level upcast Heal spell for the price of a 4th level slot. Also, Mass Cure Wounds can do 28 healing per person, so if you got 6 people needing healing, you can dump potentially up to 180 hp healed with chalice, with 81 temp on top of that.
Even outside if this, you can do standard cleric/druid BS. Primal Familiar to scout, Revivify, Restoration spells, Aid, Spirit Guardians + Thorn Whip + Spiritual Weapon, Bless + Guiding Bolt + Archer Constellation + Steps of Night, etc.
If the Dragonmark race options are allowed one could take the mark of handling human and pick druid first. With mark of handling you get beacon of hope on your spelllist - thus you can get the chalice + beacon of hope combination at level 5 - which would result in you being able to heal like crazy in very low levels
I feel like it might be an option to just pick up 2 levels of twilight cleric this way - not getting fly seems bad - but with the dragonform you can fly with twinkling constellations.
Dude, im gonna flavor this cleric as a follower of artemis, using a small bow as their holy symbol. This is so awesome!!!
You can’t choose the Resilient feat twice. I know it feels like one of those where you could choose each option once, but it doesn’t allow that.
As a druid you get access to Absorb Elements anyway, which is gonna do the same thing as succeeding on a DEX save effectively in the majority of cases. It's better to take Warcaster in my opinion. Aside from these options, he's talking about getting more max HP on an OP healer build. Not really super necessary if you are giving yourself temp HP every turn and you have Aid upcast. It's way better to maintain concentration so you can maintain healing efficiently.
What if you did a full party build combo, 3 players support/buff and 1 player does damage- not particularly practical or fun but I really really wanna see the numbers
Just started listening. Will pick up again tomorrow when walking my dog. Why the EF would ANYONE want to be a Heal-Bot?? A FRIGGIN "Heal Vending Machine"? I'm a nurse & Army Medic IRL. A new player, I agreed to play a Shepherd Druid for my group's primary healer....but I need to have fun, too!!!!
ikr but some players do. plus healing is a suboptimal archetype. better to be a controller, support, burst striker, summoner or tank to mitigate dmg.
@@TheRobversion1 If my DM kills me off (he seems to be going for TPKs with a group of "newbie" players), then I'm coming back as an entirely different Druid build he probably won't like as much, lol. My character is sweet, sheltered, Scandinavian flavored Circle of Shepherd half-elf build, looking to heal as much as she can (I originally considered Circle of Dreams for healing at his request, but God, that's WEAK & BORING, Circle of Shepherd has nearly or more arguable "healing" mechanics). Next up will be a nasty Orc Druid, or something like that!!!🤣🤣🤣
i agree the shepherd has more healing than dreams. circle of dreams pretty much sucks as a druid subclass.
32:39, Aura of Vitality is a bomb of healing outside of combat. The spell lasts 1 minute, or 10 rounds. that 20d6 of healing to hand out to a party of 5th level characters. You can spend one third level spell getting the party to full most of the time in these early levels.
This is my favourite healing spell. This is why I choose usually Halfling mark of healing and get metamagic to extend the spell. And that’s all heals party need. Additionally I can build the character for any purpose I want.
Aura of vitality is great, just wish it was anywhere are good as healing spirit.
Also, assuming everyone is the same level when we get to level 8 in this build if you took the healer feat you could heal for 1d6+12 from healer feal and bonus action healing word to either heal more single target then the other level 1 healing spell, or heal two people at once.
This point is mute though if you are using aura of vitality, just responding to the other concentration spell that was mentioned we were moving to instead.
After only recently (two days ago) finding this channel, I have to admit, your deep dives into builds is really inspiring me to create more characters and actually have them be a choesive build (usually I'd just go for damage or whatever with no real plan in mind).
Between this video and the Abjuration Wizard Tank video (my two favourites so far) my imagination is going crazy, so thanks!
Woo hoo! Glad you're enjoying, and welcome :)
@@DnDDeepDive As I haven't watched all of your videos (yet) was just wondering if you have made a build that utilised the Battlemaster outside of the Damphir one?
It's my favourite martial subclass :-)
@@OzPsych0 I'd say it's probably the most commonly used :). Here was the first... ruclips.net/video/oFN0lgnuEto/видео.html
@@DnDDeepDive Holy hell, that's an amazing build! Thank you for linking it to me, I now know what my next character is!
Oh BTW, you can fly while wildshaped with this build if you're in dim light or darkness. Don't even have to wait for the flying speed haha
so you could in theory wildshape into a member of the Suidae family and use this ability at night. you could easily say "pigs can fly"
I think that as lvl 1 feat it would be better to get fey touched, still a +1 wis, you can get silvery barbs and have a free use of it every day.
I'm a fan of these support builds. Have you done a optimized "support only" build for a bard? If not, I'd be really interested in your take on it!
EDIT: that's what I get for commenting too quickly. I'll be watching the support lore bard after this, lol
He did kinda with only 1 level for cleric multi class and it’s pretty good
i love this! you are one of my favorite DND content creators also.. aura of vitality doesent poof just because combat end, you can totally stay in it and just heal back up as much as the minute duration allows. Thats 20d6s NICE
1 level Life Cleric and the rest in Shepherd Druid I think has better healing. At Least till you get the height level healing spells. Throw Up Bear Spirit Totem before adventuring for a 5 + druid lvl in Temp HP for the entire party. When Combat starts Throw up Unicorn Spirit Totem and everyone in the aura regains HP equal to you druid level when you cast a healing spell. Then there is also the Improved Good Berries that you use all your spell slots on the previous day.
Great video, but I feel like a really missed opportunity here is the second level spell “warding bond”. If you have a moderate con and thus a sizable hp pool, a mountain of temp hp, and access to some of the best healing spells, then you are going to be giving your frontliner one of the biggest buffs with little downside. Made my twilight cleric and my friends moon Druid the goats of my gauntlet campaign and all it cost me was my amicable relationship with my dm lol.
I would love to see you make a "Path of the Battlerager" OP
If you don't pick up the Healer feat I don't even know what to say. 1d6+4+character level hp/short rest, and can basically goodberry allies for free with no spell cost. Party of 5 level 10's, 3 rests during a day, average 270 hp of healing not tied to a spell or resource other than healer's kits.
As a druid, does heavy armor actually help you?
Just pinned a comment on this :)
Great job!
I am a little curious of how another cleric/druid combos would compare to this, especially a Shepherd druid with a Life cleric dip.
I'll probably do an episode on that one day :)
Imaging a twilight/star druid and life cleric/shepard druid in the same party.
Could use warding bond to help keep the damage spread around as it is not concentration i dont think
Sounds like a really fun build. One possible weakness is that, if your table abides by the druid restriction on metal armors (which most do), your AC is going to be really low and so being in movement rage of most enemies (30ft) can lead to a quick death.
Build really sounds great tho. From all your videos this is the one I'm stealing for my next character assuming my DM agrees to at least let me wear medium armor made of animal scales or something.
Thanks! Pinned a comment on this :)
Really enjoyed the blend of thematically made concept and optimizing with preexisting subclasses combined for sole purposes of supporting allies to such a potent degree. With options too! Makes it an interactive venture than just a 1, 2 combo every encounter
I've never tried anyone else's build ideas other than my very own, but I think I'm going to try this one for an epic boss battle one shot. And I know it's not the most accurate metric but I'll let you know how it goes!
How did it go?
Played the lvl 10 version of this (as a Firbog though) was a blast. Heals for everyone!
It’s super late, but a strong case could be made for sorc after Druid 2.. twinning that level 6, BoH and star form cure wounds. Blows heal out of the water, plus can do it long before you would get the heal spell. Would also get shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs; divine souls allows all the cleric stuff you want later too. So cleric 6 Druid 2 sorc 9? Can get extend spell if you want to make that aura of vit twice as good.
That maxed cure wounds hitting 3 people…
Great build. Had some thoughts. How are you using one concentration spell with a duration of one minute to last 3 combat encounters? You said you're only using one slot for it, but you're including it in every one of those three hypothetical combat encounters in your first damage report. Youre also talking about using two channel divinity uses over three combat encounters. Pretty darn unlikely. Also you mention potentially not being able to change your cleric spells from Guiding Bolt to something else? Why would you ever not be able to? You know all cleric spells and choose which you prepare. It's not one of your subclass spells from cleric. Changing your cantrips is a little more dependent on a couple factors and may not be able to happen depending on whether youre using optional feature and whether you're planning ahead enough (you may have to go without guidance for 2-3 levels), but changing most leveled cleric spells is just a part of the basic rules. Anyway, keep the great multiclass ideas coming!
I think if you are going to Level 20, you could consider the following:
Race:
Human Variant or Custom Lineage
Class:
1st: Cleric 1 (Life Domain)
2nd-20th: Bard 19 (College of Glamour)
Feats (in any order):
Chef
Healer
Inspiring Leader
You get five Ability Score Improvements + the bonus feat at 1st level, so you can get the three feats by 9th level, and still have three Ability Score Improvements left.
At 11th level (10th level Bard) you can get Magical Secrets to grab Aura of Vitality, Beacon of Hope, and/or Healing Spirit; and maybe Goodberry (to top people off after combat, unless you take a feat in Magic Initiate to get it from the Druid spell list). This way you don't need to go down the Druid class.
Mantle of Inspiration from College of Glamour gives CHA mod allies temporary hit points within 60 feet as a bonus action by expending a Bardic Inspiration die (which you will have CHA mod amount and will regain them all on a short rest by 7th level (6th level Bard)).
With Song of Rest + Chef + Inspiring Leader, you will regain a ton of hit points every short rest and have a nice buffer of temporary hit points going into the first combat.
Healer will allow you to 1/short rest per Player Character to heal a bit (a decent amount with Beacon of Hope active), which saves on spell slots. Although if you also have something like Healing Spirit anyways, you will probably be at full health at the end of every combat (just spend ten rounds having everyone walk through the spirit for a lot of hp recovery).
You could also probably grab three levels of Druid to grab either Circle of Stars OR Circle of Shepard, and Healing Spirit + Goodberry. That takes away the last Song of Rest, Magical Secrets, and Ability Score Improvements by maxing your Bard level to 16, but I think that is a worthwhile trade. My only concern is whether you can get strong enough defense with non-metal armor (but with all the healing and temp hp you have you should be okay).
healing spirt has been nerfed in the latest errata and nerfed hard. you can't full health heal your party out of combat most of the time anymore.
"The spirit can heal a number of times equal to 1 + your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum of twice). After healing that number of times, the spirit disappears."
if i wanted goodberry, i'd probably just get it from magic initiate. giving up that magical secrets for wish is painful. you're getting a spare asi anyway at 19.
@@TheRobversion1 Oh really? Thanks for the information. Sounds like I don't need Druid then.
@@AzureIV yup. Plus since you arent a druid, you can wear better armor.
You say worry about rest intervals ? I say I select an elf race for my twilight cleric lol
After the short yesterday, my prediction was shepherd druid and life cleric but this sounds way more fun to play, i’ve even got ideas for what that custom lineage would be. Hello moon aasimar 🌚🌝
forgot to mention that the biggest difference between custom linage from "Tasha's" and variant human is the fact that instead of a 2point increase in one ability (custom) you get 1point increase in two abilities (variant)
I like this build with a Tortle, keeps ac high, and still allows to use animal shape if you need it!
the chef feat is so fun and i feel cool using it. i got the chef feat for one of the characters i have. me and the rest of my table was playing squishy ranged characters, so we decided that our support should be pretty balanced between everyone. our ranger is our skill monkey and scout, our artificer often uses artillerist's shield cannon and tinkering/infusions, and i make use of support spells and focus fire (this focus fire actually being from a version of the tempest cleric/storm sorcerer build, actually!). the chef feat also is part of my contribution to the team's support.
Minor thing, but when you use Starry Form, you shed bright light in a 10 foot radius, which I would assume means you are in bright light. This would mean that while in your Starry Form, you can't use Steps of Night, maybe making the enhanced form of the dragon constellation a bit more appealing. Love this character idea, btw!
Steps of night only requires you start in darkness or dim light. Afterwards you can fly into the sun if you want
I am sorry, I haven't watched the whole video yet. I like it so far! I just wanted to point out that without 13str or dwarf, you do get a speed penalty with chain armor. Might better off with medium armor or switch dex to str.
Truth! Just pinned a comment on this :)
I took a similar build to this into an encounter against a CR 13 creature, with backup with a party of Level 9s and we ended combat higher than full HP.
Twilight Cleric / Gloom Stalker / Echo Knight...Go...!
Let me know if you want some celebs to play a one shot....
Literally what I am playing right now, but Peace Cleric. Oh my god I freaking ADORE the character. Playing a character in a (blessedly willing) party who wants less fighting and more rehabilitating... At least before the inevitable radicalization that I keep giving in to lol
Peace domain plus chrono or divination Wizard.
You can just stack the deck in your favour always.
My circle of stars Druid just started to multiclass into a twilight domain cleric literally two days ago
I think you forgot something crunching numbers. You would use your highest spell slot to cast aid each time adventure day. If you count all hit points as "healing" with a party of 4.. that's a huge boost on each damage report.
For the feat I would go a little different and grab ritual caster to get summon familiar for delivering touch spells (cure wounds) and the ritual book to add some great utility options. Possibly I would grab lucky just to make the enemy reroll crits 3 times per day as that would save a lot of damage.
I didn't count Aid at all, though yes, you'd very likely be using it, and potentially at a high level slot for maximum benefit.
This is basically my character except he is two levels of Spore Druid.
Nice, playing a twilight cleric in my next game. Character is built already but sure there are tweaks to improve.
You are the most powerful level 1 in the game AND a cleric, you should be fine...
Wonderful video! The long-form format of your videos lends itself to such high-quality content.
Thanks! Definitely not for everyone I've realized but I have a hard time recommending something without talking for an hour about why :P.
damn that Randall Hampton art for this build is so good im excited for the collab
Assuming you are wearing heavy armor, not limited by the Druid class, Heavy armor master might be the Druid 8 feat I would choose. Taking three less damage from every attack, especially at higher levels when multi attacking enemies are common, makes those temp hit points from Twilight Sanctuary all the better!
Love the idea, would it not make sense for calculating numbers to not just focus on healing, but instead total damage mitigated per round? So healing, resistance, temp hp, all of the ways that damage could be nullified and then use that in your calculations instead of total healing
I've been playing a twilight cleric for a few sessions now and after some experimenting, I've discovered that this subclass is soooo good lol.
Starting a campaign this weekend (hopefully) playing a character based off this concept. Starting at level 2. He’s a Feylost Tortle who’s parents died very shortly after his birth. Unable to fend for himself he was lured to the Feywild by a pixie named Glimmer who befriended/kind of raised him. He eventually returned from the Feywild to learn about his origins, but feels a call back to the Feywild that continues to grow as his adventuring life continues on. I thought the Tortle (with their beliefs about the sun and moon) was a good fit for this concept.
Admit it Colby, you stuck with stars druid primarily for the names of the features and the pun opportunities.
Very interesting build as always my man, would definitely be fun to run and endurance-based combat encounter for a party with this character. I'm thinking something like the defence of Redcliffe Village in OG Dragon Age.
ha ha
Its a bit unfortunate that the star druid makes you emit light, which would cancel out the twilight cleric emitting darkness that enables you to fly. Whenever you use the chalice form it would block flight. This isn't the end of the world but is a situational consideration you have to make while running this character.
You just start flying first then activate it. The aspect of continual flight is not dependent on remaining in the dim light, only the initial start of flight. With how the wording is at least of twilight.
@@rodneydavis9172 wow, nice catch!
@@PeriodicallyRational thank you!
Yet another awesome build! Thanks so much!
Before I watch. Twilight cleric and celestial warlock.
You know, everyone always talks about Goodberry healing, but they don’t talk about the sustenance. If it provides enough sustenance for a day of hard adventuring, that’s gotta be st LEAST 2000 calories. So if you’re mowing down on 15 of those things….
So bloated.
Twilight cleric is just beautiful
I like the idea of not taking chef and taking ritual caster instead so you can use find familiar. I think an owl just fits with the personality of this build so well.
he got find familiar from druid already.
@@TheRobversion1 How does druid give find familiar?
edit: Oh, I see the optional feature
Still watching the video and don't know if it'll come up but I have a character on the backburner which among other stuff is 1 level dip in life cleric and the rest is divine soul sorcerer with a metamagic option that is often regarded as "kinda meh": extended spell. It means outside of combat (or during combat and after the fight just resume) you can cast a 2 minute Aura of Vitality that heals 2d6+5 in 20 nice, little instances for a 3rd lvl slot and 1 sorcery point.
Obviously now with Tasha's it would be possible to just go Life Cleric and take the Metamagic Adept feat and you can do the same twice per long rest without multiclassing.