Colby: "We're gonna take a Cleric dip for accuracy improvement" Me: Of course. The inevitable Peace Cleric dip here we go Colby: "Forge Domain" Me: *surprised Pikachu face*
In regards to the rogue damage output conversation, I think that what we must remember is that Colby runs a d&d build channel, dedicated to making playable characters that are fun, that run smoothly, but at the end of the day, he's going to have to put them on a chart, and what do you compare them to if you're going to put them on a chart? Well, mostly, tankiness, and damage output. Doesn't mean that tier 1 are more fun than tier 3, but you gotta rank 'em one way or another. So if you're a slave to the spreadsheet as he likes to say, of course that's going to be a main concern of his. As an example, I'm pretty sure that's why he doesn't like brutal critical, even though it feels super good when you land a critical hit as a level 9 barb. As for the rogue, sneak attack is good, but it can easily be outdamaged by other classes at higher level, and that's when being able to land it twice in the same round is huge. This is a wall of text that nobody's going to read, but I felt like saying it
read it all, twice actually, and while I mostly agree, I think many of us, myself at least, like to take what Colby does to the numbers, and tweak it to my particular spicy flavor, that may not be as optimized, but may take his alternate suggestions, or take it half way, and then take a left turn to Albuquerque there are those who will minmax the power level out of it as Colby builds, but I doubt many people build their character precisely as he descrybz "not so much Rules, more in the way of guidelines"
Excellent work as always Colby! You should do a one shot with your Leader, Medic, Sniper, and Demolition expert builds. All you need now is a communications expert and you have a full Special Forces team!
About goodberry, in my first campaign (which is still going on over a year now) I went to scout a dangerous area but was on 3hp so I hate like 40 good berries and after failing my con save... Soiled myself. Despite my best efforts it has become one of my characters defining moments
Build challenge: Build a better Rogue without taking Rogue levels. Maybe a double build, where you build a Rogue baseline, and then do the actual build.
Hexblade 1/Collage of Swords 19 Use Green-Flame Blade or Blade Flourish with Hex Weapon for damage, take Holy Weapon at Bard 10. All the fun and nearly a full caster.
Fun fact about muskets and snipers (and one of few things I remember from US history class). There were riflemen in the US Revolutionary War that could hit targets up to 300 yards away. I believe their muskets had grooves in the barrel that put a spin on the musket ball to increase range and accuracy. So there is historical precedent for such a character!
They used rifles, rifling is the term for the grooves. Muskets are smoothbore. In that case, both were muzzle loading. The grooves from rifling made reloading slower which is why they were not used for most armies until breechloaders came into play.
Little late, but something worth mentioning: snipers in the military will often have a "Spotter" to do two things. One, help them aim over long distances (namely with math) and two, watch their backs and keep them company. Being alone for days or weeks on end with Zero social contact is bad for your health. An animal companion may not be a one to one for a Spotter, but it can certainly watch the character''s back and be a friend.
I have to express my full appreciation for your min-max nova approaches for educating me well enough to win a pit battle fight of various levels. The most absurd moment was my level 3 Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 1 that was able to Sleep my opponent into Hex, Path to the Grave, critical melee in 5 feet Inflict Wounds for 124 damage.
I was recently in a pirate-like one-shot where my warlock was scouting from the crows nest 99% of the time. I gave him eldritch Spear and spell sniper and was wailing on the enemy ship and it's crew from LONG before they could even attempt to fire back. That was fun.
I've created/played similar builds to this one a couple of times. For a new player, I built a simple Champion 5/Rogue X build using the Longbow and Sharpshooter. Expanded Crit Range + Sneak Attack + Stealth + Assassin= Half the enemies dead before they knew what hit them. To make things even better, the party included an Order Cleric for off turn shenaniganery. To your comment about not needing 600ft of shooting range: This utter newbie rendered an approaching adult red dragon into Swiss cheese by simply rolling high enough perception to notice it coming. DM did tend to put us in caverns after that, but especially at higher levels (where characters are taking part in bigger conflicts, on the scale of armies) the extra range can matter A LOT. Love the theme and flavor. The Forge Cleric dip is incredible for all the reasons you list and is just so on point. I really don't get the Arcane Trickster subclass though. Scout seems more on theme. For example, if you are by-default-invisible and have access to on demand Advantage from Steady Aim, do you need another option? With the range at which you're shooting, not a lot is going to make you move. And, if you were really worried about it, why not go Scout Rogue and pick up their reaction-to-retreat feature, since Steady Aim just says you can't move on your OWN turn. I guess I'm just wondering why you felt that was a better option? Thanks for putting in the work! As an inveterate character creator, I appreciate spring boarding off of your builds week by week. Great to hear your thoughts on the mechanics of rogues as well.
Colby, Chris, Monty and Kelly, the 3 Canadians and 1 US youtubers who are the top D&D content creators out there (added the countries of origin to shout out my fellow Canadians lol)
I am so happy to have found this channel 2 weeks ago. I was tired of all the amazing at lvl 20 builds, and while I love Tulock's videos, I'm not 1 for role-playing my favorite fictional character.
I was running the Tyranny of Dragons and had a Gloomstalker ranger with a long bow and sharpshooter. She stayed at the far end of the arean vs Tiamat and focused on her. The rest of the party focused on the mages. She was out of the range of everything that pretty much anyone could do. By the time the rest of the group had the cultist all under control she single handedly took out Tiamat.
Tip for players trying to convince DM's to let you start with a musket: I've seen some success in asking "can I start with a short bow, flavored as a semi broken musket, it uses bullets, is still loud, but uses the damage and range of a short bow, then when I get the gold, 'fix it' to upgrade it to a normal musket"
Unfortunate, but a necessary evil. I have a WWI-era setting, and I allow all characters that have access to Martial Weapons to add Firearm proficiency. I prefer the Hunting Rifle and Pistol (DMG stats) and employing features from The Gunpower Codex, found on DM's Guild.
Personally I don't like guns cause they feel cheap and don't feel like they have much flavour, so for me the easy fix is make the gun magic in some capacity or reflavour another weapon. Though I don't really see the need for a gun here, it's slightly more damage than a other ranged options but has worse feats, range, possible magic item availability. To me it seems like if you want to use a gun it's because you want to use a gun, so if your dm doesn't like guns you're probably not playing with similarly minded people.
@@griffinmckenzie7203 Melee weapons in general have more flavour because of how you swing a melee weapon. Its hard to make shooting a gun more exciting than just attacking someone. Action scenes feel cooler when the answer isn't press the kill button on your explodey machine. That said this is largely my opinion, but if you're trying to convince someone to allow guns because you like them and they don't you aren't playing with likeminded people.
Loving this build! It’s not too dissimilar to one of my player’s rogue Something I’ve always wondered: would you ever be interested in an encounter building video? Similar to helping players build characters, but helping DMs build encounters. The goal is not to overpower parties, because that’s easy by dropping several high CR enemies. More so if you have building tips/generalizations that could help the other side of the DM screen. Thanks for your consideration! Hope you and your family have safe and enjoyable holidays!
Just made a similar build! I used a fighter base and shadow monk multiclass. It's actually really great since you get better AC, con save prof for spells, pass without a trace, better reliability via ki, faster move speed to run away, can jump off high ground, and deflect missiles for sniper battles >:)
Love it! I'd be curious to see a "Spell Sniper" take on this. Use the generally useless warlock invocation for EB range and perhaps sorcery points for extending the range of applicable spells and such.
My first multi class ever was a hunter ranger arcane trickster rogue, it was very fun and felt super powerful, I nearly did all the stuff you did except I started as a ranger and saw the defensive abilities I had to choose from with my subclass and saw I could get both from base rogue. That was what convinced me to dip out of ranger.
Here's a build challenge that I think most people would shy away from, a mute full caster. No spells with a verbal component unless you have a way to bypass it like with subtle spell.
The thing that people always overlook with rogue DPR is Poison. Getting your hands on some solid poison or even magic ammunition you can significantly ramp up damage and combat control.
I played a sniper type character a while back, it was a blast. Ultimately it was just a pure rogue ranged assassin build with Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter, and some other choice feats. You can one shot a lot of stuff.
Ok, so ranking aside, I like the sniper build with the versatility. Makes a lot of sense to me and the forge dip was awesome. I will say the arcane trickster was a surprise, still on the fence with that one. But overall, the class does all those snipy things us marksmen would love, so I love it. Well done Colby!
Go warlock, choose the staff as a spell focus and flavor it as an arcane firearm, attach a spyglass to it, then snipe with EB. Get Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear, and some levels in Sorc for Distant Spell and enjoy terrorizing your enemies from far away. Play a flying race or go Genie for additional flying fun. Go Hexblade and use Haste from Sorc to use a weapon to shoot doing Eldritch Smite for that headshot/sniping feel, then you have your action & bonus action (Quicken) for the EB gatling gun. Add in 2 levels of Fighter for more gatling gun fun.
Hi Colby, great work as usual! I went a slightly different route on the same theme but with an archer build - my custom lineage was Elf/Orc, an Exandrian inspired combination I particularly like! I chose wood elf, so gave myself Fleet of Foot for extra movement, and from my orcish heritage I gave myself Adrenaline Rush, allowing a Bonus action dash from 1st level. I gave myself the Criminal background as a hired killer, but as my inspiration was partly the devoutly Christian sniper from Saving Private Ryan, perhaps I should take the Acolyte background for flavour, as well as take your Cleric dip. As I am fundamentally an archer build (buying or obtaining a firearm might not be possible until 4th or 5th level depending on the generosity of your DM) my 1st level feat was Sharpshooter. Once I got to 4th level in ranger, I took Elven Accuracy, taking advantage of my partly Elven heritage and ensuring super advantage to maximise my crit potential. After 5 levels of ranger, I returned to rogue levels and at 4th level in Rogue, I got the Piercer feat. This got my dexterity up to 20 by 9th level, and with expertise giving me +13 in Stealth and Acrobatics, and a +10 in Perception. At this level, I was an Assassin Rogue 4 / Hunter Ranger 5 and very pleased how it was going! With Assassinate and Steady Aim, the chances of gaining advantage are huge and we can maximise our chances of critting by Elven Accuracy
Support/Damage concept I've been working on that could make a good video: Character with the best odds for the Putrid Undead's Paralyze to go off. Essentially, find multiple ways to poison a creature sustainably: Grung and Chain Pact Sprite with investment of the chain master are a good starting point.
This helped me get insight on another character i want to do. Saw a picture of a gunslinging nun and thought that be cool concept of a character. She can be sent as a spy, and while on the mission working at the temple, it was attacked and destroyed. Upon waking up hearing about what was left she seeks to hunt and kill who attacked. Whether the DM allows guns or not doesn't change since any bow will work just as well. Then got me to create another character as well along side it. Best for of dnd is character creation stories. Don't even need to play them just thinking of them is the fun for me. A goblin or halfing rogue who is somewhat bad at his craft (rogue being sneaky) dabbles in tinkering.
Nice, I am eager to see what you came for us in this week, since i am planning to play a sniper character in my next campaign. Maybe it is finallya Horizon Walker build? I almost can not imagine a more uncatcheable sniper by lvl 11.
I will always remember the character a friend of mine played that was like this. We were playing Phandelver and my friend joined the campaign, he and the DM talked about how to introduce him. So his introduction happened when the party was confronted in the town square by the redbrands, they had taken one of the party’s friends at sword point and were trying to get the party to surrender (not exactly how it was in the book, but it was a cool change) and in the middle of the encounter as the party is talking to the bad guys and realizing they are gonna have to fight, there’s no talking the enemies down our like 25 pp cleric sees the glint of sunlight on glass (the scope of a gun) from atop a building a hundred or so feet away then there is a bang and the redbrand with the sword to our friend’s throat has his hand shot and mangled and drops his weapon as the player rolled a Nat 20 and used a disarming shot. The enemies immediately panicked and we wiped the floor with them and met our new artificer/gunslinger teammate. It was an awesome moment and the description at the beginning of this video really reminded me of it.
I think for this concept, I would go the Artificer way for the flavor of my spells: my "spells" are not magic, but gadgets I built or trinkets and tools I bought or collected.
I use the Magical Ambush relatively effectively by using bonus action hide, then tossing in a fireball/hypnotic pattern. The disadvantage on the save makes up for a lower INT score (I have a 14). I didn't build around the feature but still find it helpful situationally.
I really like the idea at low levels of taking Zephyr Strike (1st Level) for Ranger (Concentration 1 minute). "You move like the wind. Until the spell ends, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. Once before the spell ends, you can give yourself advantage on one weapon attack roll on your turn. That attack deals an extra 1d8 force damage on a hit. Whether you hit or miss, your walking speed increases by 30 feet until the end of that turn." Since you aren't getting multiattack until much later and most combat doesn't run for more than ten rounds, I think there is a lot of advantage to using this over Hunter's Mark, until you get the ability to attack multiple times per turn and you get an extra point of damage on average over Hunter's Mark until higher levels. Also, you can use it to roll with advantage if you are at standard range, or negate the disadvantage for attacks from long range, and the extra 30ft of movement per turn means you are much better and tactically repositioning yourself on the battlefield.
As a Spellsniper Warlock who can shoot 6 EB with genie Dao damage bonus I can tell you: in a theater of the mind game it might work, otherwise TTRPG maps typically are big enough that if I were at the opposite side of an open map I would snipe enemies out anyway. If we play with miniatures the distance of my shots go up to 4 real life feet. A typical game has 2 real life feet per side of space or 3 at max. So before taking the long distance hero make sure to tell the DM in session 0 that you would like to build the character this way and make sure it's at least a renaissance style of game. You will need not only firearms but optics too. Otherwise you might not be able to spot them even if you got Legolas' elven eyes.
Reminds me of a campaign I was in. DM did a "Army Rangers" style campaign where everyone had to have ranger levels and I was showing off that popping heads from the middle of no where was DEADLY AS FUCK. He was using some special homebrew rules and weapons. I used Find Familiar and the blindfighting fightingstyle to use "drone targeting"
Currently rocking a halfling swarm keeper ranger (7) / scout rogue (3) in a side bar quest to our main campaign and am having a ball. Crazy cat lady for flavor. Utility, damage and just fun. Kicking up kitty litter web entanglements and gathered swarms of stray cats for extra damage , effects is super entertaining.
I put in a request for a forge cleric gun user a long time ago. You made it better than I could have imagined. I'm sure it was just an idea on a rather long spreadsheet, but I'm so happy to see it!
A point which might be relevant for a sniper build. Favored Foe has no maximum range (as opposed with Hunter's Mark). So if you are further than 90 feet from your target, it's a viable option. Also, and this is a little weird, you can mark an enemy with Favored Foe that you hit but you can't see.
Thanks for your builds they are creative. I'm glad to see the thumbnails of the videos you point to because I don't see the "cards" you're talking about.
I have a home rule for rogues to promote sticking with straight rogue to higher levels: “you can apply your sneak attack damage to a number of attacks per turn equal to 1/8 your rogue level rounded up”. This gives a nice damage bump at levels 9 & 17, which feels about right for the extra mileage you get out of it
Built a sniper concept myself using a Hexblood (goblin) warlock. With the right invocation and spell sniper you can be popping off shots from 600ft lol my frustration was anything I could find to help the damage needed me to be MUCH closer lol. Thought about the invisible familiar helping for advantage on a shot but thought that might be a pain to keep track of. Some of the mechanics I'm struggling with aside though I absolutely love the flavor I've given her.She's an undieing warlock cause she knows how short lived goblins are and decided she wanted something different after losing her right arm (which she uses mage hand to compensate). Tried getting power by joining a coven of hags and became a Hexblood but realized that this path wasn't much different so she wound up in league with a lich who became her patron. She agreed to give up an eye to serve him and in return he gave her a prosthetic eye which is the conduit for their connection and it's her spellcasting focus so when she snipes people from her mini trench she makes with mold earth it's just a lazor blast from her glowing eye. I toyed around with her focus maybe being a staff that she held like a gun but when I stumbled across the concept I'm using it was no contest.
LOVE IT! I literally just built this character to join my buddy live game, but I started as a fighter and took 4 levels, then was going gloom stalker. Keep up the great content!
The Whitworth Sniper rifle from 1860(ish) was a black powder rifle that fired hexagonal bullets, and it was capable of reliably making hits out beyond a kilometer (≈1100 yards/0.625 miles) Not a musket, but it was a muzzle loading firearm and I think it would fit the bill perfectly 😁
Gen. John Sedgewick Fell At Spotsvainia, Durning The Civil War, From A Confederate Sniper At A Range Of 500yds... The Rifle Used Was A Witworth & He Was Hit Under The Left Eye... Also, Gen. John Reynolds Was Killed At Gettysburg, By A Confederate Sniper, Using A Witworth Rifle...
I recently played a lvl9 oneshot as a melee Gloomstalker 5/ EchoKnight 3/ War Cleric 1. You get to do 10 ATTACKS on the first turn once per long rest (3 from gloom, 1 from echo, 1 from Warcleric, then Action surge and do it again), assuming you get the echo out of combat, you can get Hunter's Mark on the target for 10d6 extra damage, +2 from dueling, all with a Rapier with +7 to hit. On turn 2, since I took the dual wielder feat, and the Fighting Style, I switched to 2 rapiers and used that... just not to be useless. I think there's potential here for a nova build.
Just some technical stuff in case anyone cares to know so it can be taken to your table. A "Sniper" is a job, a "sniper rifle" is a rifle that a sniper would use, usually but not necessarily with a mounted scope, and a rifle is a long barreled gun that has rifling which is a set of spiral paterns inside the barrel that twist the round while inside the barrel, making said round more accurate at longer ranges. Rifled barrels were invented in the 15th century and for further reference, the Colonial Revolutionary Army used formations containing both rifles and muskets as muskets could be reloaded faster but rifles were more accurate and the revolutionaries were in fact trying to kill enemy officers as quickly as possible to send the enemy force into disarray.
I have a build suggestion based on the spell Mind Spike and the Magic Item-Eversmoking Bottle and fight style-blind fighting. Essentially land a Mind Spike one round and keep concentration once landed then activate eversmoking bottle. The smoke is 60 foot radius of heavy obscured smoke(blinded with no save) that blindsense and tremor sense would be only options to see you. Then use various attacks that you you have advantage to hi due to you know where they are and they have disadvantage to attack to see you. If you have a flight speed cancels tremor sense and ancient Red Dragon has only 60 ft blind sight. add the blink spell should help also. problem is all your party members would be blinded also. Perhaps tabaxi with 2 levels fighter for action surge, 6 levels warlock (genie) for flight, eldritch blast etc. Have fun hope you like.
My first 5e character was a hunter 5 assassin 15 with a longbow. 1st character I have ever taken to level 20. I had an arcane trickster in my party and that was fun. This may be the best of both builds
As far as having an owl familiar with this hunter/sniper character I think it fits the flavor really really well with just a little reflavoring into a hunting bird like a falcon or a hawk
Hello there! Last night i thought of a tank build that can potentially break your tank comparison methods. Psi warrior / artillerist. If built right i think it would break the fireball calculation (absorb elements halve dmg, then TH from cannon + psi warrior protective field would turn the damage to zero). It could also stretch the numbers on the martial encounters to ridiculous values since ac would be pretty high on this thing. And you can argue it is very good at protecting allies since TH apply to them as well (as does the PSI protective field). Plus you could give him a shield and protection fighting style for a half taunt... I hope i got you hooked Colby :) Keep up the good work. Love the channel.
I just did a sniper build the other day! Did drow half elf, champion fighter 3/war domain cleric 2/assassin rogue x. Really leant into the idea of the "I never miss" sniper. Took sharpshooter and skulker feat so I can bip targets from miles away and not be detected. The only thing letting it down is the lack of extra attack.
Did anyone else sing along at 54:00? I definitely prefer the original version ☠️ but the Weezer cover is a good vibe ❤ P.S. I’ve been playing this build (combined with the gloomstalker) for a Strahd campaign I’m in and it’s just marvellous. Thanks for all the great content, I’ve probably watched each of these optimized videos once, and some a lot more than once Keep up the great work 🫡
For the level 14 ASI (45:55) you might consider Telekinetic. A half feat which doubles the range of your Mage Hand Legerdemain. Invisibly disarm traps, pick pockets etc at 60 feet range? Check!
10 Bard: College of Valor (Magical Secrets: Swiftquiver) + Built in Extra Attack at level 6 + Full might of a Bard's spell list for support and inspiration. 2+X Fighter: Fighting Style + Action Surge, these can be taken anywhere really if only dipping for 2 levels. Either after 6 or 10. 3+X Rogue: Bonus Action usage, ideally Assassin to secure Crits. 3+X Ranger: Just to get the Gloomstalker to buff initiative if assassin + early covert buffs and vision or even the Hunter's. + all necessary feats (Sharpshooter, Alert if Assassin, so on and so forth) Mixmatching any of those brackets is where I thought you were headed with a video called "The Sniper". I feel like the embodiment of your choices for a sniper went a bit off when it was decided "support" was a major thing to consider. Atleast you'd get to tell the tales of how your victims had fallen :)
Rifles existed since the late 1500s. They just werent used on the battlefield due to how much harder they were to load and they prefered volume of fire rather than slow but precise shots. The reason why its harder is because the ball used in a musket would grip onto the rifling for the spin. For this it had to be the same size as the bore but that also meant the ball had trouble going down. Even harder than smooth bore. The solution would be a smaller ball but that wont grip the rifling. Thus the minié ball, which expands during travel, was what made them practical. Another solution would be to use a breech loader.
Just for the record, I have a growing Bromance with you, plurely platonic. One married, straight man to another. D&D, 23 created characters waiting and ready to play, hiking, Toto, Weezer, A-ha... you speak to my soul Sir! ❤️
An interesting alternative to a firearm, if you're willing to build your character a bit weird, is the Oversized Longbow from Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Same range as a Longbow, but it does 2d6+STR for damage. The weird build part? You have to have 18 Strength just to wield it.
When the rifled musket came out around the time of the American Revolution, General Washington made use of it by equipping and deploying sharpshooter units. The Union did so again in the Civil War. "Sniper Muskets" were absolutely a thing.
Started SKT in 2018 off and on campaign with a similar build, but a burst build. I went 1-9 Hunter Ranger Heavy Crossbow / Human Variant (Crossbow Expert), 4th level Sharpshooter, and Currently 10-11 Rogue one away from taking Assassin archetype. Other spells I utilize Zephyr Strike to dip out of hairy situation and add advantage with damage, Hail of Thorns to upcast spell levels to damage the target as well any other enemy in the radius. At Level 12 (Ranger 9 / Rogue 3) I surprise attack with advantage at +12 (+7 Sharpshooter) I get 1d10 Heavy Crossbow, 2d6 Sneak Attack, 3d10 Hail of Thorns (previous turn 3rd lvl) doubled from auto crit assassin. Add +5 Dex \ +10 Sharpshooter to max 119 dmg . 2nd Attack with advantage at +12 (+7 Sharpshooter) I get 1d10 Heavy Crossbow, 1d8 Colossus Slayer, 3d10 Hail of Thorns (BA hail of thorns 3rd lvl) doubled from auto crit assassin. Add +5 Dex \ +10 Sharpshooter to max 111 dmg.
Great build as always me I may try out giff race since if I'm allowed to use firearms they have the firearms mastery already to ignore reloading and shooting far away doesn't imposed disadvantage with your attack rolls and if no firearms allowed use owlin with bow or crossbows
the proficiency, long range use, and ignoring loading are all nice, but the problem is, I can't imagine doing a firearms build without getting sharp shooter, and Gunner is just so nice in that it gives you a +1 to Dex and keeps you from having disadvantage at close range, so all the Giff features end up being redundant. Maybe on a low level character? Or if you rolled stats and your highest stat was an even score so you didn't need the +1?
@@DnDDeepDive probably right only figured giff be great to pick since of the benefits and maybe save you a feat right away and could use it on different one and since your using firearms giff was first thing came to mind to be great at it since don't see any new build with new races or species whatever the lingo is
I’d love to see another artificer/rogue from you with a similar place style to this. Probably with battle smith so you can have your dog take some attacks for your party even if you are across the map, sniping. Ps My favorite 80s cover albums are the under the cover series from Ninja Sex Party, but I’ll check out the Weezer version.
When I imagine the sniper architype I immediately think about Simo Häyhä, who was so unbelievably lethal that in a generation or two you'd have trouble convincing people that he was real.
I'll be honest. Just listening to the videos wile working and being new to your channel the singing at the end is always a nice surprise 👏👏 loving the content and still peaking around looking for anything on the order of scribes wizard because rollplay wise i love the idea of them so the search continues
I made a build like this that was a DM Approved Coffee-lock! Elf (by raw they sleep for only 4 hours then will be able to chain 4 short rests) Warlock 2, Eldritch Spear (300’ range to Eldritch Blast) Sorcerer 2+, take utility spells Feat at Level 4 - Spell Sniper (doubles the range of spells) Feat at Level 8 - Elven Accuracy It uses spells to replicate rogue abilities and uses Eldritch Blast at 600’, with advantage, ignoring half cover, while behind cover yourself.
my idea for build like that would be rogue scout with one level of twilight cleric. Twilight cleric provides 300ft of dark vision. When you get sharp shooter, you can snipe enemy from outside their darkvision range since most creatures and monsters don't go over 120ft. Since you shoot from outside their darkvision, you are invisible to them so you get advantage, and since you have sharp shooter, you don't have disadvantage and ignore cover. that leaves your movement and bonus action to reposition.
Colby! Love the channel, love following your builds. Some match up really close to some of mind which is always fun to see, and I always get some sweet new ideas as well! I have a similar build to this one, but my idea was to try to build a character that only took one attack a round. I would play it as a archer who becomes prideful to the point that if you ended up missing a shot in your later character levels it could be a character moment, because you just never miss. I'd start Wood Elf for the extra movement, and potential to get Elven Accuracy. I went Scout Rogue 5/Ranger 2/War Cleric 2/Rogue X. Scout Rogue because like you talked about, proficiencies are something we'd be bringing to the party and we get more this way. Plus, Skirmisher could be a life saver for us and I think is thematic for a trainer Sniper. Ranger only to 2, to get the Fighting Style and access to the spells. I actually think Zephyr Strike is the most important to pick up. Really good repositioning/disengage tool, plus gives us advantage when we're on the go and we can't use Steady Aim. War Cleric I think its great, and I would have used it in your build as well. With War Priest, we can cast Bless AND make a weapon attack on the first round of combat (I guess my build would be lacking Advantage on that attack, but with yours their a chance that your familiar could have gone first). Plus, getting the Channel Divinity could make something hit on that off chance we roll super poorly (maybe on the first round of combat when we don't have advantage) and more spell slots are nice. After that, Rogue the rest of the way. More Sneak Attack, more movement speed (which I think is great, again repositioning well is super important so that we can go back to using Steady Aim the next turn and aren't constantly on the move). And finally, at level 17 for me, Ambush Master is thematic and potentially really strong if we go early and attack an important target first. For ASI's, we'd get 4, and I'd take Elven Accuracy, SS, +2 Dex, then Wood Elf Magic. Wood Elf Magic could maybe be taken earlier than Dex if you really want to get mileage out of Pass Without Trace, but it's hard to not take everything you can for Accuracy as early as possible. I don't know how this would stack up with your damage numbers by comparison, losing extra attack is rough, but I think the roleplay of being that one-shot one-hit character would be super fun and rewarding, especially with all the mechanics to back it up. Lastly.. for yours, would you take Hunter over Swarmkeeper? Your swarm could be Crows or something, foreshadowing or interplaying with your Find Familiar. The damage is so close to being the same, and applies even if the target hasn't been damaged already. Then going to ranger 5, you'd get SO much more from the Swarmkeeper spell list and abilities than you would out of the Hunter subclass. Just a thought! Always a fan, thanks again for another great vid.
I like a special ops sniper character that is a Rogue/Artificer. Arcane Trickster/Armorer. The lightning launcher can add an extra d6 once a turn, can be used for sneak attack, and qualifies for sharpshooter. 90/300 range. Flavor it to look like a gun or bolt launcher that forms from the armor. Flavor Find Familiar to be like a spotter drone that comes from the armor. You will miss out on a little bit of damage but will make up for it with extra utility spells.
Probably a little late for this but I'd love to see you do a deep dive on a true jack of all trades meaning that you have proficiency in all skills. I was able to make this class and honestly I had a lot of fun with it but I'd love to see your takes on the character
I think fighters and barbarians also bring a lot of frontline presence not just damage, it sounds like the issue isn’t with nerfing rogue damage(since the archetype is typically glass canon) but rather making strength more meaningful
Snipers: "ONE shot. ONE kill."
Colby: "Hold my spreadsheet."
Charlie Company rules the hill! Ft. Benning, GA 2005, airborne!
@@Pacific-NW-Native
Bravo Company Own's Sand
Hill & Harmony Church...
RLTW / AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY !!! *2000-2016*
Shooting a fleeing dragon out of the sky with a gun is peak fantasy.
basically it's called Shadow Run 😃
@@bernhardglitzner4985 No you not going to kill a shadow run dragon ever
a MAGICAL gun :D
@@thor498 Shadowrun dragons solo entire armies, and they're not even at their strongest in a straight fight
Dnd sniper can one shot a dragon but still a dnd dragon can destroy a whole army
The fact that mirror image AC is built directly on your DeX makes it feel like that spell was *made* for the arcane trickster.
Colby: "We're gonna take a Cleric dip for accuracy improvement"
Me: Of course. The inevitable Peace Cleric dip here we go
Colby: "Forge Domain"
Me: *surprised Pikachu face*
ha ha - the Silvery Barbs mob had already attacked. I couldn't take an attack from the Peace Cleric mob as well.
@@DnDDeepDive you should make a build that makes every mob mad. Lets see a hexblade/peace cleric that uses silvery barbs and gets surprise rounds!
@@dumbwaki5877 they must be named Salt. Just one name like Cher.
@@dumbwaki5877 twilight cleric mob would be stronger
@@dumbwaki5877You might be able to do something with that to actually use the specter feature on hexblade for once
In regards to the rogue damage output conversation, I think that what we must remember is that Colby runs a d&d build channel, dedicated to making playable characters that are fun, that run smoothly, but at the end of the day, he's going to have to put them on a chart, and what do you compare them to if you're going to put them on a chart? Well, mostly, tankiness, and damage output. Doesn't mean that tier 1 are more fun than tier 3, but you gotta rank 'em one way or another. So if you're a slave to the spreadsheet as he likes to say, of course that's going to be a main concern of his. As an example, I'm pretty sure that's why he doesn't like brutal critical, even though it feels super good when you land a critical hit as a level 9 barb. As for the rogue, sneak attack is good, but it can easily be outdamaged by other classes at higher level, and that's when being able to land it twice in the same round is huge. This is a wall of text that nobody's going to read, but I felt like saying it
Last week's One Hit Wonder Supreme multiclass was one of my favorites, but did not score super high.
I have read your wall of text and concur.
Read it.
@@estherclawson6876 same
read it all, twice actually, and while I mostly agree, I think many of us, myself at least, like to take what Colby does to the numbers, and tweak it to my particular spicy flavor, that may not be as optimized, but may take his alternate suggestions, or take it half way, and then take a left turn to Albuquerque
there are those who will minmax the power level out of it as Colby builds, but I doubt many people build their character precisely as he descrybz
"not so much Rules, more in the way of guidelines"
Excellent work as always Colby! You should do a one shot with your Leader, Medic, Sniper, and Demolition expert builds. All you need now is a communications expert and you have a full Special Forces team!
OOH! Maybe you can do a transportation/ Communications build… Maybe a teleport specialist or a pilot? That way your SF team can deploy easier!
Which is the demolition expert build?
@@locusofintenti second this. Which one is the demolitions expert?
Thunderball?
The Sniper: d4 #122
Level 1:(see above) [rogue 1, race+feat & expertise]
Level 2:(see above) [ranger 1 & deft explorer]
Level 3:(@19:36) [ranger 2]
Level 4:(@22:27) [ranger 3 & sub-class]
Level 5:(@24:15) [ranger 4 & ASI]
Level 6:(@26:31) [ranger 5]
Level 7:(see above) [rogue 2]
Level 8:(@32:14) [rogue 3 & sub-class]
(@35:43) [Silvery Barbarian mob]
Level 9:(@36:58) [cleric 1 & sub-class]
Level 10:(see above) [rogue 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@42:28) [rogue 5]
Level 12:(@43:25) [rogue 6 & expertise]
Level 13:(@43:53) [rogie 7]
Level 14:(see above) [rogue 8 & ASI]
Level 15:(@46:43) [rogue 9]
Level 16:(@47:43) [rogue 10 & ASI]
Level 17:(@47:59) [rogue 11]
The Hero we need.. That Mob Attack tho!
About goodberry, in my first campaign (which is still going on over a year now) I went to scout a dangerous area but was on 3hp so I hate like 40 good berries and after failing my con save... Soiled myself. Despite my best efforts it has become one of my characters defining moments
Replying instead of editing so I don't lose the heart. Ate, not hate
Build challenge: Build a better Rogue without taking Rogue levels. Maybe a double build, where you build a Rogue baseline, and then do the actual build.
Ooooo Ranger / Bard build here we come!
Hexblade 1/Collage of Swords 19
Use Green-Flame Blade or Blade Flourish with Hex Weapon for damage, take Holy Weapon at Bard 10.
All the fun and nearly a full caster.
@@larstollefsen1236 and of course take pass without trace
oh, so 20 levels of gloomstalker ranger?
5th Level Hexblade Warlock with Pact of the Blade and Eldritch Smite. 15th Level College of Whispers Bard.
Fun fact about muskets and snipers (and one of few things I remember from US history class). There were riflemen in the US Revolutionary War that could hit targets up to 300 yards away. I believe their muskets had grooves in the barrel that put a spin on the musket ball to increase range and accuracy.
So there is historical precedent for such a character!
They used rifles, rifling is the term for the grooves. Muskets are smoothbore. In that case, both were muzzle loading. The grooves from rifling made reloading slower which is why they were not used for most armies until breechloaders came into play.
His Name Was Tim Murphy...
Little late, but something worth mentioning: snipers in the military will often have a "Spotter" to do two things. One, help them aim over long distances (namely with math) and two, watch their backs and keep them company.
Being alone for days or weeks on end with Zero social contact is bad for your health. An animal companion may not be a one to one for a Spotter, but it can certainly watch the character''s back and be a friend.
I have to express my full appreciation for your min-max nova approaches for educating me well enough to win a pit battle fight of various levels. The most absurd moment was my level 3 Grave Cleric 2/Sorcerer 1 that was able to Sleep my opponent into Hex, Path to the Grave, critical melee in 5 feet Inflict Wounds for 124 damage.
You need to make a build that leans on the Lorehold background. Adding spirit guardians to any class spell list opens up some crazy builds.
My favorite content creator of the week :)
Sameee
Same
The truest words ive read all week
I was recently in a pirate-like one-shot where my warlock was scouting from the crows nest 99% of the time. I gave him eldritch Spear and spell sniper and was wailing on the enemy ship and it's crew from LONG before they could even attempt to fire back. That was fun.
I've created/played similar builds to this one a couple of times. For a new player, I built a simple Champion 5/Rogue X build using the Longbow and Sharpshooter. Expanded Crit Range + Sneak Attack + Stealth + Assassin= Half the enemies dead before they knew what hit them. To make things even better, the party included an Order Cleric for off turn shenaniganery.
To your comment about not needing 600ft of shooting range: This utter newbie rendered an approaching adult red dragon into Swiss cheese by simply rolling high enough perception to notice it coming. DM did tend to put us in caverns after that, but especially at higher levels (where characters are taking part in bigger conflicts, on the scale of armies) the extra range can matter A LOT.
Love the theme and flavor. The Forge Cleric dip is incredible for all the reasons you list and is just so on point. I really don't get the Arcane Trickster subclass though. Scout seems more on theme. For example, if you are by-default-invisible and have access to on demand Advantage from Steady Aim, do you need another option? With the range at which you're shooting, not a lot is going to make you move. And, if you were really worried about it, why not go Scout Rogue and pick up their reaction-to-retreat feature, since Steady Aim just says you can't move on your OWN turn. I guess I'm just wondering why you felt that was a better option?
Thanks for putting in the work! As an inveterate character creator, I appreciate spring boarding off of your builds week by week. Great to hear your thoughts on the mechanics of rogues as well.
Colby, Chris, Monty and Kelly, the 3 Canadians and 1 US youtubers who are the top D&D content creators out there (added the countries of origin to shout out my fellow Canadians lol)
Ooh, snazzy new badge! Bout time I started supporting one of my fav creators more directly 😁
Hey thanks!
I am so happy to have found this channel 2 weeks ago. I was tired of all the amazing at lvl 20 builds, and while I love Tulock's videos, I'm not 1 for role-playing my favorite fictional character.
I was running the Tyranny of Dragons and had a Gloomstalker ranger with a long bow and sharpshooter. She stayed at the far end of the arean vs Tiamat and focused on her. The rest of the party focused on the mages. She was out of the range of everything that pretty much anyone could do. By the time the rest of the group had the cultist all under control she single handedly took out Tiamat.
Lol, that's Epic
Tip for players trying to convince DM's to let you start with a musket: I've seen some success in asking "can I start with a short bow, flavored as a semi broken musket, it uses bullets, is still loud, but uses the damage and range of a short bow, then when I get the gold, 'fix it' to upgrade it to a normal musket"
Unfortunate, but a necessary evil. I have a WWI-era setting, and I allow all characters that have access to Martial Weapons to add Firearm proficiency. I prefer the Hunting Rifle and Pistol (DMG stats) and employing features from The Gunpower Codex, found on DM's Guild.
Personally I don't like guns cause they feel cheap and don't feel like they have much flavour, so for me the easy fix is make the gun magic in some capacity or reflavour another weapon.
Though I don't really see the need for a gun here, it's slightly more damage than a other ranged options but has worse feats, range, possible magic item availability.
To me it seems like if you want to use a gun it's because you want to use a gun, so if your dm doesn't like guns you're probably not playing with similarly minded people.
@@deathtoexistance Mate, how much flavor does a sharpened piece of metal have? lmfao
@@griffinmckenzie7203 Melee weapons in general have more flavour because of how you swing a melee weapon. Its hard to make shooting a gun more exciting than just attacking someone. Action scenes feel cooler when the answer isn't press the kill button on your explodey machine. That said this is largely my opinion, but if you're trying to convince someone to allow guns because you like them and they don't you aren't playing with likeminded people.
@@deathtoexistance Huh. It must suck to have such a lacking imagination.
Loving this build! It’s not too dissimilar to one of my player’s rogue
Something I’ve always wondered: would you ever be interested in an encounter building video? Similar to helping players build characters, but helping DMs build encounters. The goal is not to overpower parties, because that’s easy by dropping several high CR enemies. More so if you have building tips/generalizations that could help the other side of the DM screen.
Thanks for your consideration! Hope you and your family have safe and enjoyable holidays!
Commenting because: absolutely
Ha ha, but as a never DM, I think this would go poorly :P
@@DnDDeepDive That just means you have a different perspective than us Forever DMs.
NGL that forge domain took me by surprise! I really like the spirit of the build and where it ends up. Also ❤️
I've been working on a Giff sniper, I love the idea of this huge bulky dude spider-climbing up somewhere and melting into the background.
Same but like a cowboy giff
Just made a similar build! I used a fighter base and shadow monk multiclass. It's actually really great since you get better AC, con save prof for spells, pass without a trace, better reliability via ki, faster move speed to run away, can jump off high ground, and deflect missiles for sniper battles >:)
Love it! I'd be curious to see a "Spell Sniper" take on this. Use the generally useless warlock invocation for EB range and perhaps sorcery points for extending the range of applicable spells and such.
My first multi class ever was a hunter ranger arcane trickster rogue, it was very fun and felt super powerful, I nearly did all the stuff you did except I started as a ranger and saw the defensive abilities I had to choose from with my subclass and saw I could get both from base rogue. That was what convinced me to dip out of ranger.
Here's a build challenge that I think most people would shy away from, a mute full caster. No spells with a verbal component unless you have a way to bypass it like with subtle spell.
Tricky as after third level spells as hypnotic pattern caps out the list. After that someone has to say Something.
Look at my surprise as I'm finishing my homebrew adaptation of the 3.5e Deep Dood Sniper. Auspicious.
Not me actively building a parasocial relationship with colby where we're friends because of these fantastic thoughtful outtros
The thing that people always overlook with rogue DPR is Poison. Getting your hands on some solid poison or even magic ammunition you can significantly ramp up damage and combat control.
I played a sniper type character a while back, it was a blast. Ultimately it was just a pure rogue ranged assassin build with Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter, and some other choice feats. You can one shot a lot of stuff.
Thanks Colby, I look forward to your builds every week! Happy holidays to you and your family 🎉
Ok, so ranking aside, I like the sniper build with the versatility. Makes a lot of sense to me and the forge dip was awesome. I will say the arcane trickster was a surprise, still on the fence with that one. But overall, the class does all those snipy things us marksmen would love, so I love it. Well done Colby!
Go warlock, choose the staff as a spell focus and flavor it as an arcane firearm, attach a spyglass to it, then snipe with EB. Get Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear, and some levels in Sorc for Distant Spell and enjoy terrorizing your enemies from far away. Play a flying race or go Genie for additional flying fun. Go Hexblade and use Haste from Sorc to use a weapon to shoot doing Eldritch Smite for that headshot/sniping feel, then you have your action & bonus action (Quicken) for the EB gatling gun. Add in 2 levels of Fighter for more gatling gun fun.
Hi Colby, great work as usual! I went a slightly different route on the same theme but with an archer build - my custom lineage was Elf/Orc, an Exandrian inspired combination I particularly like! I chose wood elf, so gave myself Fleet of Foot for extra movement, and from my orcish heritage I gave myself Adrenaline Rush, allowing a Bonus action dash from 1st level. I gave myself the Criminal background as a hired killer, but as my inspiration was partly the devoutly Christian sniper from Saving Private Ryan, perhaps I should take the Acolyte background for flavour, as well as take your Cleric dip. As I am fundamentally an archer build (buying or obtaining a firearm might not be possible until 4th or 5th level depending on the generosity of your DM) my 1st level feat was Sharpshooter. Once I got to 4th level in ranger, I took Elven Accuracy, taking advantage of my partly Elven heritage and ensuring super advantage to maximise my crit potential. After 5 levels of ranger, I returned to rogue levels and at 4th level in Rogue, I got the Piercer feat. This got my dexterity up to 20 by 9th level, and with expertise giving me +13 in Stealth and Acrobatics, and a +10 in Perception. At this level, I was an Assassin Rogue 4 / Hunter Ranger 5 and very pleased how it was going! With Assassinate and Steady Aim, the chances of gaining advantage are huge and we can maximise our chances of critting by Elven Accuracy
Support/Damage concept I've been working on that could make a good video: Character with the best odds for the Putrid Undead's Paralyze to go off. Essentially, find multiple ways to poison a creature sustainably: Grung and Chain Pact Sprite with investment of the chain master are a good starting point.
This helped me get insight on another character i want to do. Saw a picture of a gunslinging nun and thought that be cool concept of a character. She can be sent as a spy, and while on the mission working at the temple, it was attacked and destroyed. Upon waking up hearing about what was left she seeks to hunt and kill who attacked. Whether the DM allows guns or not doesn't change since any bow will work just as well.
Then got me to create another character as well along side it. Best for of dnd is character creation stories. Don't even need to play them just thinking of them is the fun for me.
A goblin or halfing rogue who is somewhat bad at his craft (rogue being sneaky) dabbles in tinkering.
Nice, I am eager to see what you came for us in this week, since i am planning to play a sniper character in my next campaign. Maybe it is finallya Horizon Walker build? I almost can not imagine a more uncatcheable sniper by lvl 11.
Yea that 11th lvl feature with teleporting is awesome,
Sniper muskets did exist. They were extremely expensive to make and were used during the Civil War.
Had hexagonal twisted barrels.
That Would Be The WITWORTH
Target Rifle, Which Were Made
In England...
I will always remember the character a friend of mine played that was like this. We were playing Phandelver and my friend joined the campaign, he and the DM talked about how to introduce him. So his introduction happened when the party was confronted in the town square by the redbrands, they had taken one of the party’s friends at sword point and were trying to get the party to surrender (not exactly how it was in the book, but it was a cool change) and in the middle of the encounter as the party is talking to the bad guys and realizing they are gonna have to fight, there’s no talking the enemies down our like 25 pp cleric sees the glint of sunlight on glass (the scope of a gun) from atop a building a hundred or so feet away then there is a bang and the redbrand with the sword to our friend’s throat has his hand shot and mangled and drops his weapon as the player rolled a Nat 20 and used a disarming shot. The enemies immediately panicked and we wiped the floor with them and met our new artificer/gunslinger teammate. It was an awesome moment and the description at the beginning of this video really reminded me of it.
Hey Colby.
I am not that interested in a sniper, but I do like you with your humble expertise and kindness.
I think for this concept, I would go the Artificer way for the flavor of my spells: my "spells" are not magic, but gadgets I built or trinkets and tools I bought or collected.
I use the Magical Ambush relatively effectively by using bonus action hide, then tossing in a fireball/hypnotic pattern. The disadvantage on the save makes up for a lower INT score (I have a 14). I didn't build around the feature but still find it helpful situationally.
I really like the idea at low levels of taking Zephyr Strike (1st Level) for Ranger (Concentration 1 minute).
"You move like the wind. Until the spell ends, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
Once before the spell ends, you can give yourself advantage on one weapon attack roll on your turn. That attack deals an extra 1d8 force damage on a hit. Whether you hit or miss, your walking speed increases by 30 feet until the end of that turn."
Since you aren't getting multiattack until much later and most combat doesn't run for more than ten rounds, I think there is a lot of advantage to using this over Hunter's Mark, until you get the ability to attack multiple times per turn and you get an extra point of damage on average over Hunter's Mark until higher levels.
Also, you can use it to roll with advantage if you are at standard range, or negate the disadvantage for attacks from long range, and the extra 30ft of movement per turn means you are much better and tactically repositioning yourself on the battlefield.
Fun thing you could do along the lines of an animal companion is some form of flying familiar. Scouting and getting an eye on a target. Very handy.
Ah, didn’t finish the video
As a Spellsniper Warlock who can shoot 6 EB with genie Dao damage bonus I can tell you: in a theater of the mind game it might work, otherwise TTRPG maps typically are big enough that if I were at the opposite side of an open map I would snipe enemies out anyway. If we play with miniatures the distance of my shots go up to 4 real life feet. A typical game has 2 real life feet per side of space or 3 at max. So before taking the long distance hero make sure to tell the DM in session 0 that you would like to build the character this way and make sure it's at least a renaissance style of game. You will need not only firearms but optics too. Otherwise you might not be able to spot them even if you got Legolas' elven eyes.
Reminds me of a campaign I was in. DM did a "Army Rangers" style campaign where everyone had to have ranger levels and I was showing off that popping heads from the middle of no where was DEADLY AS FUCK.
He was using some special homebrew rules and weapons. I used Find Familiar and the blindfighting fightingstyle to use "drone targeting"
We had to be mostly Ranger for the build so I took the hunter subclass (So I could take the second attack in 5ft and pop 2 heads for one attack)
At Ranger 11 I could pop the heads of a whole room thanks to the multiattack
HAHA he is going hunter too but I still think horde breaker was the best call.
A level of Twilight Cleric would be an amazing level pick up for a Cleric dip. Advantage on initiative, and 300 ft of dark vision.
Currently rocking a halfling swarm keeper ranger (7) / scout rogue (3) in a side bar quest to our main campaign and am having a ball. Crazy cat lady for flavor. Utility, damage and just fun. Kicking up kitty litter web entanglements and gathered swarms of stray cats for extra damage , effects is super entertaining.
Thanks for the build!
As Christmas is around the corner: hopefully we will get a wonderful Christmas song 😊 Merry Christmas!
I put in a request for a forge cleric gun user a long time ago. You made it better than I could have imagined. I'm sure it was just an idea on a rather long spreadsheet, but I'm so happy to see it!
Perception also has the added benefit of DMs probably using it to see if you can see your target if they're far away.
A point which might be relevant for a sniper build. Favored Foe has no maximum range (as opposed with Hunter's Mark). So if you are further than 90 feet from your target, it's a viable option. Also, and this is a little weird, you can mark an enemy with Favored Foe that you hit but you can't see.
Thanks for your builds they are creative. I'm glad to see the thumbnails of the videos you point to because I don't see the "cards" you're talking about.
I have a home rule for rogues to promote sticking with straight rogue to higher levels: “you can apply your sneak attack damage to a number of attacks per turn equal to 1/8 your rogue level rounded up”. This gives a nice damage bump at levels 9 & 17, which feels about right for the extra mileage you get out of it
Built a sniper concept myself using a Hexblood (goblin) warlock. With the right invocation and spell sniper you can be popping off shots from 600ft lol my frustration was anything I could find to help the damage needed me to be MUCH closer lol. Thought about the invisible familiar helping for advantage on a shot but thought that might be a pain to keep track of. Some of the mechanics I'm struggling with aside though I absolutely love the flavor I've given her.She's an undieing warlock cause she knows how short lived goblins are and decided she wanted something different after losing her right arm (which she uses mage hand to compensate). Tried getting power by joining a coven of hags and became a Hexblood but realized that this path wasn't much different so she wound up in league with a lich who became her patron. She agreed to give up an eye to serve him and in return he gave her a prosthetic eye which is the conduit for their connection and it's her spellcasting focus so when she snipes people from her mini trench she makes with mold earth it's just a lazor blast from her glowing eye. I toyed around with her focus maybe being a staff that she held like a gun but when I stumbled across the concept I'm using it was no contest.
LOVE IT! I literally just built this character to join my buddy live game, but I started as a fighter and took 4 levels, then was going gloom stalker. Keep up the great content!
Sniper: It's all about perspective, from across the map is just one of many.
The Whitworth Sniper rifle from 1860(ish) was a black powder rifle that fired hexagonal bullets, and it was capable of reliably making hits out beyond a kilometer (≈1100 yards/0.625 miles)
Not a musket, but it was a muzzle loading firearm and I think it would fit the bill perfectly 😁
Gen. John Sedgewick Fell
At Spotsvainia, Durning The Civil War, From A Confederate Sniper
At A Range Of 500yds...
The Rifle Used Was A Witworth
& He Was Hit Under The Left Eye...
Also, Gen. John Reynolds Was Killed At Gettysburg, By A Confederate Sniper, Using A Witworth Rifle...
I recently played a lvl9 oneshot as a melee Gloomstalker 5/ EchoKnight 3/ War Cleric 1.
You get to do 10 ATTACKS on the first turn once per long rest (3 from gloom, 1 from echo, 1 from Warcleric, then Action surge and do it again), assuming you get the echo out of combat, you can get Hunter's Mark on the target for 10d6 extra damage, +2 from dueling, all with a Rapier with +7 to hit.
On turn 2, since I took the dual wielder feat, and the Fighting Style, I switched to 2 rapiers and used that... just not to be useless.
I think there's potential here for a nova build.
That should only be 9 attacks, the war cleric attack requires your bonus action.
@@codymarshall587 you're right...I got a little carried away and misremembered.
"only" 9 attacks
Just some technical stuff in case anyone cares to know so it can be taken to your table. A "Sniper" is a job, a "sniper rifle" is a rifle that a sniper would use, usually but not necessarily with a mounted scope, and a rifle is a long barreled gun that has rifling which is a set of spiral paterns inside the barrel that twist the round while inside the barrel, making said round more accurate at longer ranges. Rifled barrels were invented in the 15th century and for further reference, the Colonial Revolutionary Army used formations containing both rifles and muskets as muskets could be reloaded faster but rifles were more accurate and the revolutionaries were in fact trying to kill enemy officers as quickly as possible to send the enemy force into disarray.
I have a build suggestion based on the spell Mind Spike and the Magic Item-Eversmoking Bottle and fight style-blind fighting. Essentially land a Mind Spike one round and keep concentration once landed then activate eversmoking bottle. The smoke is 60 foot radius of heavy obscured smoke(blinded with no save) that blindsense and tremor sense would be only options to see you. Then use various attacks that you you have advantage to hi due to you know where they are and they have disadvantage to attack to see you. If you have a flight speed cancels tremor sense and ancient Red Dragon has only 60 ft blind sight. add the blink spell should help also. problem is all your party members would be blinded also. Perhaps tabaxi with 2 levels fighter for action surge, 6 levels warlock (genie) for flight, eldritch blast etc. Have fun hope you like.
These get uploaded one day before my weekly irl session and i always get some nice inspiration :p
My first 5e character was a hunter 5 assassin 15 with a longbow. 1st character I have ever taken to level 20. I had an arcane trickster in my party and that was fun. This may be the best of both builds
As far as having an owl familiar with this hunter/sniper character I think it fits the flavor really really well with just a little reflavoring into a hunting bird like a falcon or a hawk
Hello there! Last night i thought of a tank build that can potentially break your tank comparison methods. Psi warrior / artillerist. If built right i think it would break the fireball calculation (absorb elements halve dmg, then TH from cannon + psi warrior protective field would turn the damage to zero). It could also stretch the numbers on the martial encounters to ridiculous values since ac would be pretty high on this thing. And you can argue it is very good at protecting allies since TH apply to them as well (as does the PSI protective field). Plus you could give him a shield and protection fighting style for a half taunt... I hope i got you hooked Colby :) Keep up the good work. Love the channel.
Summon Beast is awesome for a Sniper. A great example is the sniper Mordecai in Borderlands 1. He has a hawk called Bloodwing.
very fun channel, it is helping very much with my Baldur's Gate 3 early access character creation.😎
I just did a sniper build the other day! Did drow half elf, champion fighter 3/war domain cleric 2/assassin rogue x. Really leant into the idea of the "I never miss" sniper. Took sharpshooter and skulker feat so I can bip targets from miles away and not be detected. The only thing letting it down is the lack of extra attack.
If you go with an animal summon, it definitely needs to be some kind of bird of prey, like an eagle or a hawk, a la Mordekai
Was going to comment this! Glad I checked
Did anyone else sing along at 54:00? I definitely prefer the original version ☠️ but the Weezer cover is a good vibe ❤
P.S.
I’ve been playing this build (combined with the gloomstalker) for a Strahd campaign I’m in and it’s just marvellous. Thanks for all the great content, I’ve probably watched each of these optimized videos once, and some a lot more than once
Keep up the great work 🫡
D&D ASMR, wasn't expecting to run into that, but I am all for it :D
❤ same man....same.... also the song being about werewolves is funny to think about too.
❤️ Weezer live is incredible. You have great taste in music as well as D&D characters!
Been watching for a while and wanted to say I appreciate your content. Thank you Colby!
As a DM, I'd allow Blessing of the Forge to work on a magical weapon or armor as long as that item didn't already give a bonus.
For the level 14 ASI (45:55) you might consider Telekinetic. A half feat which doubles the range of your Mage Hand Legerdemain. Invisibly disarm traps, pick pockets etc at 60 feet range? Check!
10 Bard: College of Valor (Magical Secrets: Swiftquiver) + Built in Extra Attack at level 6 + Full might of a Bard's spell list for support and inspiration.
2+X Fighter: Fighting Style + Action Surge, these can be taken anywhere really if only dipping for 2 levels. Either after 6 or 10.
3+X Rogue: Bonus Action usage, ideally Assassin to secure Crits.
3+X Ranger: Just to get the Gloomstalker to buff initiative if assassin + early covert buffs and vision or even the Hunter's.
+ all necessary feats (Sharpshooter, Alert if Assassin, so on and so forth)
Mixmatching any of those brackets is where I thought you were headed with a video called "The Sniper".
I feel like the embodiment of your choices for a sniper went a bit off when it was decided "support" was a major thing to consider.
Atleast you'd get to tell the tales of how your victims had fallen :)
Rifles existed since the late 1500s. They just werent used on the battlefield due to how much harder they were to load and they prefered volume of fire rather than slow but precise shots. The reason why its harder is because the ball used in a musket would grip onto the rifling for the spin. For this it had to be the same size as the bore but that also meant the ball had trouble going down. Even harder than smooth bore.
The solution would be a smaller ball but that wont grip the rifling.
Thus the minié ball, which expands during travel, was what made them practical.
Another solution would be to use a breech loader.
Just for the record, I have a growing Bromance with you, plurely platonic. One married, straight man to another. D&D, 23 created characters waiting and ready to play, hiking, Toto, Weezer, A-ha... you speak to my soul Sir! ❤️
Snipers have spotters IRL so a hawk companion that can point out enemies would be some excellent flavor and utility
An interesting alternative to a firearm, if you're willing to build your character a bit weird, is the Oversized Longbow from Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Same range as a Longbow, but it does 2d6+STR for damage. The weird build part? You have to have 18 Strength just to wield it.
When the rifled musket came out around the time of the American Revolution, General Washington made use of it by equipping and deploying sharpshooter units. The Union did so again in the Civil War. "Sniper Muskets" were absolutely a thing.
Started SKT in 2018 off and on campaign with a similar build, but a burst build. I went 1-9 Hunter Ranger Heavy Crossbow / Human Variant (Crossbow Expert), 4th level Sharpshooter, and Currently 10-11 Rogue one away from taking Assassin archetype. Other spells I utilize Zephyr Strike to dip out of hairy situation and add advantage with damage, Hail of Thorns to upcast spell levels to damage the target as well any other enemy in the radius. At Level 12 (Ranger 9 / Rogue 3) I surprise attack with advantage at +12 (+7 Sharpshooter) I get 1d10 Heavy Crossbow, 2d6 Sneak Attack, 3d10 Hail of Thorns (previous turn 3rd lvl) doubled from auto crit assassin. Add +5 Dex \ +10 Sharpshooter to max 119 dmg . 2nd Attack with advantage at +12 (+7 Sharpshooter) I get 1d10 Heavy Crossbow, 1d8 Colossus Slayer, 3d10 Hail of Thorns (BA hail of thorns 3rd lvl) doubled from auto crit assassin. Add +5 Dex \ +10 Sharpshooter to max 111 dmg.
Great build as always me I may try out giff race since if I'm allowed to use firearms they have the firearms mastery already to ignore reloading and shooting far away doesn't imposed disadvantage with your attack rolls and if no firearms allowed use owlin with bow or crossbows
the proficiency, long range use, and ignoring loading are all nice, but the problem is, I can't imagine doing a firearms build without getting sharp shooter, and Gunner is just so nice in that it gives you a +1 to Dex and keeps you from having disadvantage at close range, so all the Giff features end up being redundant. Maybe on a low level character? Or if you rolled stats and your highest stat was an even score so you didn't need the +1?
@@DnDDeepDive probably right only figured giff be great to pick since of the benefits and maybe save you a feat right away and could use it on different one and since your using firearms giff was first thing came to mind to be great at it since don't see any new build with new races or species whatever the lingo is
Nice build that is a bit of damage with support features. Reminds me of the dungeon dudes "commando" video for similar flavor.
I’d love to see another artificer/rogue from you with a similar place style to this. Probably with battle smith so you can have your dog take some attacks for your party even if you are across the map, sniping.
Ps My favorite 80s cover albums are the under the cover series from Ninja Sex Party, but I’ll check out the Weezer version.
❤️☠️ both versions are good for different reasons to me.
When I imagine the sniper architype I immediately think about Simo Häyhä, who was so unbelievably lethal that in a generation or two you'd have trouble convincing people that he was real.
I'll be honest. Just listening to the videos wile working and being new to your channel the singing at the end is always a nice surprise 👏👏 loving the content and still peaking around looking for anything on the order of scribes wizard because rollplay wise i love the idea of them so the search continues
Thanks! Have only used scribes once and it was for a weird build… the Ashardalon’s Strider :)
I made a build like this that was a DM Approved Coffee-lock!
Elf (by raw they sleep for only 4 hours then will be able to chain 4 short rests)
Warlock 2, Eldritch Spear (300’ range to Eldritch Blast)
Sorcerer 2+, take utility spells
Feat at Level 4 - Spell Sniper (doubles the range of spells)
Feat at Level 8 - Elven Accuracy
It uses spells to replicate rogue abilities and uses Eldritch Blast at 600’, with advantage, ignoring half cover, while behind cover yourself.
my idea for build like that would be rogue scout with one level of twilight cleric. Twilight cleric provides 300ft of dark vision. When you get sharp shooter, you can snipe enemy from outside their darkvision range since most creatures and monsters don't go over 120ft. Since you shoot from outside their darkvision, you are invisible to them so you get advantage, and since you have sharp shooter, you don't have disadvantage and ignore cover. that leaves your movement and bonus action to reposition.
Colby! Love the channel, love following your builds. Some match up really close to some of mind which is always fun to see, and I always get some sweet new ideas as well!
I have a similar build to this one, but my idea was to try to build a character that only took one attack a round.
I would play it as a archer who becomes prideful to the point that if you ended up missing a shot in your later character levels it could be a character moment, because you just never miss.
I'd start Wood Elf for the extra movement, and potential to get Elven Accuracy.
I went Scout Rogue 5/Ranger 2/War Cleric 2/Rogue X.
Scout Rogue because like you talked about, proficiencies are something we'd be bringing to the party and we get more this way. Plus, Skirmisher could be a life saver for us and I think is thematic for a trainer Sniper.
Ranger only to 2, to get the Fighting Style and access to the spells. I actually think Zephyr Strike is the most important to pick up. Really good repositioning/disengage tool, plus gives us advantage when we're on the go and we can't use Steady Aim.
War Cleric I think its great, and I would have used it in your build as well. With War Priest, we can cast Bless AND make a weapon attack on the first round of combat (I guess my build would be lacking Advantage on that attack, but with yours their a chance that your familiar could have gone first). Plus, getting the Channel Divinity could make something hit on that off chance we roll super poorly (maybe on the first round of combat when we don't have advantage) and more spell slots are nice.
After that, Rogue the rest of the way. More Sneak Attack, more movement speed (which I think is great, again repositioning well is super important so that we can go back to using Steady Aim the next turn and aren't constantly on the move). And finally, at level 17 for me, Ambush Master is thematic and potentially really strong if we go early and attack an important target first.
For ASI's, we'd get 4, and I'd take Elven Accuracy, SS, +2 Dex, then Wood Elf Magic. Wood Elf Magic could maybe be taken earlier than Dex if you really want to get mileage out of Pass Without Trace, but it's hard to not take everything you can for Accuracy as early as possible.
I don't know how this would stack up with your damage numbers by comparison, losing extra attack is rough, but I think the roleplay of being that one-shot one-hit character would be super fun and rewarding, especially with all the mechanics to back it up.
Lastly.. for yours, would you take Hunter over Swarmkeeper? Your swarm could be Crows or something, foreshadowing or interplaying with your Find Familiar. The damage is so close to being the same, and applies even if the target hasn't been damaged already. Then going to ranger 5, you'd get SO much more from the Swarmkeeper spell list and abilities than you would out of the Hunter subclass. Just a thought!
Always a fan, thanks again for another great vid.
I like a special ops sniper character that is a Rogue/Artificer. Arcane Trickster/Armorer. The lightning launcher can add an extra d6 once a turn, can be used for sneak attack, and qualifies for sharpshooter. 90/300 range. Flavor it to look like a gun or bolt launcher that forms from the armor. Flavor Find Familiar to be like a spotter drone that comes from the armor. You will miss out on a little bit of damage but will make up for it with extra utility spells.
I always start to smile when the "pun intended" clip shows up ♥
Probably a little late for this but I'd love to see you do a deep dive on a true jack of all trades meaning that you have proficiency in all skills. I was able to make this class and honestly I had a lot of fun with it but I'd love to see your takes on the character
He has a skill monkey build on his channel already. If I remember correctly it’s proficiency in all skills by level 7
Cool build Colby! 😄👍
This is an Insta-Classic, Colby - Merry Christmas!!
I think fighters and barbarians also bring a lot of frontline presence not just damage, it sounds like the issue isn’t with nerfing rogue damage(since the archetype is typically glass canon) but rather making strength more meaningful