Ward hp is actually calculated using twice your wizard level, not just your base wizard level. Also you mentioned that spell resistance gives advantage on saves against spells, but you didn’t mention how it also gives resistance to spell damage. Cool build regardless
@@ConstructedChaos there is one thing I'd like to add, and that is the fact that if you get the armor of shadows invocation you can regain 2hp on your ward every turn at no cost, this is perfect to regenerate the ward out of combat or to keep that armor of agathys going for a bit longer.
What about the option in the eldritch evocations "Armor of Shadows" let's you cast Mage Armor at will for free without expending a spellslot, giving you the option to refill you ward out of combat as much as you want ... "UNLIMITED ... Protection!!!"
I made one of these, but instead of tortle and multiclassing I used Dwarf with mark of warding, since they have Armor of Agathys on their spell list and I took the feat Eldritch Adept for the Armor of shadows evocation.
Yep!! Someone else mentioned mark of warding dwarf earlier I think! Very smart! I just really liked the AC boost and flavor of a turtle without a shell!
Actually, arcane ward would take the damage first leaving your armor of Agathys in tact, and as Jeremy Crawford has stated, the damage armor of Agathys deals happens as long as the temp hp is there. So they'd essentially take all the damage it takes to reach your true HP.
@@zamba136 he's right. ward goes away 1st unaffected by anything aside from your ac and any advantage/disadvantage to being hit. then temp hp comes in and any dmg reduction (heavy armor master, bastion of law), dmg resistance, etc factor in here.
@@zamba136 States it specifically in the feature: "Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If this damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage." Because Temp HP is considered as part OF your HP, and the Ward states so, it takes the damage first, before any remaining goes to you, and then because Temp HP states it goes down before your HP, that firmly plants it right in the middle of Ward and HP.
It's worth noting that if you do take a Warlock dip, choosing Hexblade gives you proficiency with Shields which you can use in addition to the Tortle natural armor. You can also use this opportunity to pick up the Shield spell as one of your Warlock spells known which will let you pick up some other useful Level 1 Wizard spell instead, especially a ritual since Wizard rituals specifically need to be in their spellbook and not just "known". You might consider starting as a Warlock at level 1 (2 at the latest) to get both Shield and shield proficiency ASAP, plus you'll have higher starting HP if you start at level 1.
One cool thing you can do is take the Eldritch Adept feat. Where you can constantly recharge your Arcane Ward through Armour of Shadows "Mage Armour" invocation.
Yep!! I love this suggestion and a few other people have made it too but we aren’t really concerned with mage armor since we already have a 17 AC and we have plenty of abjuration spells to keep our ward strong! This would probably be good to take on a non-tortle race with a decent dex score, though!
Love the build just made 4 Tortles who are brothers looking for their father as a NPC group my players could win over as allies as they had a choice of 9 adventures that were super fun but they went to the sewers. Lol so now they have some awesome allies to aid in the main boss at the end.
@@ConstructedChaos yeah we have some fun with our games. Last one I ran was an idea I got online for animal companions saving their druid masters that had been taken. Lol
@@laithamekir5778 hahaha I love stuff like this!! We recently ran a kobolds only one shot with randomly generated lvl 1 kobolds. When you’d die (and you would inevitably die) you’d roll a d12 and be handed a new random kobold character to play. Only one original kobold out of 5 made it to the end haha.
@@ConstructedChaos That sounds like my exploding Goblin Campaign back in 3.5 when Gonlins werent played often. Lol thats awesome though sounds like the Mound Oh Bard lol
@@laithamekir5778 haha nice! Stuff like that really just serves to reduce the game to pure fun with no concerns about making the best character or following RAW so precisely!
Recently a new feat came out called Rune Shaper and one of the options is Frost which gives Armor of Agathys without needing warlock dip. I’m taking 1 or 2 levels of artificer instead so I don’t need a 13 CHA but I still get medium armor, shields, and infusions if my team could use them.
Okay but, Tortle (natural 17), shield spell (+5), max constitution and resilient con (prof in con saves) not to mention when you enter your shell, you get +4 AC AND advantage on con saves, even without the ward and agathys that's 26 AC and (if already holding a spell marked by concentration) proficient in and advantage on con saves to keep concentration (which your con save at level 20 will be +11, or higher if you have a charismatic paladin; also advantage to hold it, lowest is 12, highest is 31, or 17 and 36 with the paladin)
Hey Chaos. good vid which reinforces that wizards can pretty much do everything. anyway i'll share my version of this in case someone reading wants an alternative to playing an abjurer or wants a more damaging version. level 10 theorycraft: "the spirit of vengeance" fighter 2, clockwork 7, hexblade 1 winged tiefling (or any other tiefling) asi: flames of phlegethos fighting style: superior technique-ambush metamagic: transmute spell, quicken spell key spells: aid, chill shield, armor of agathys, hellish rebuke, blade ward tactics: pre-combat: upcasted armor of agathys (transmute to fire if you want) and bastion of law yourself. aid yourself and the party. make a tiny servant if you want someone to feed you potions, drop inhaled poisons and throw oil. 1st round: move towards bbeg bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg action: chill shield. activates flames. action surge: do anything that either discourages the enemy from moving (booming blade, mind whip) or locks them in place without incapacitating them (web, grapple). if all your other party members are ranged or far away, blade ward or stoneskin are options here too. once bbeg hits you: reaction: upcasted hellish rebuke so with a hit, the bbeg wil take: armor of agathys: 20 chill shield: 2d6 + 4 flames: 1d4 + 4. rerolls all 1s for fire dmg hellish rebuke (3rd): 4d10 + 4. 2d10 + 4 average: 54 dmg if they make their dex save. 65 dmg if they dont. if the enemy is oiled before hand, then we add 5 to that average dmg. a typical CR 10 monster would die after hitting you 3-4 times. defenses to reduce dmg are fire and cold resistance, 5d8 bastion of law, 20 temp hp and aid. 2nd round: bonus action: quicken fire transmute armor of agathys if needed to reactivate flames. if not needed just cast any fire cantrip like green flame blade action: blade ward anyway that's it. I RP'd this character before as a variant of ghost rider.
@@ConstructedChaos Glad you liked it! :) The RP though when i played it though was a bit one note (hunting down evil doers, brooding character, tormented past, orphaned, with a very aggressive tone and liked to challenge people, stick to the mission type of guy). still it was fun to play a frontline caster and watch enemies die because they hit him too much.
I like the idea of a high lvl wizard / barbarian build that focuses on this type of build. You can’t cast spells but with a high lvl casting of Armor of Agathys and with the arcane ward and Bastion of Law AND with rage you’d be hacking away for hours before they even bloody you.
If I’m not mistaken, you’d still also need the dip into warlock for armor of agathys and I wonder how effective something like this could be with so many stats need attention. Actually, I guess you could opt to go with mark of warding dwarf for your race so we can get the spell without the dip…. Sounds like fun!! 😊🤘🏼
@@ConstructedChaos I was thinking of using Mark of Warding Dwarf for that reason. We roll for stats in this campaign re-rolling if we get less than 72 so good stats are nearly guaranteed so I’m not concerned. I’d pump my CON and INT the highest and have passable STR and CHA for multiclassing needs. Rage is there for protection and I’d flavour each miss as not an attack against the enemy but my flail whipping back at myself.
Usually the tank conundrum of “Why should they hit me if I’m so tough?” gets me down on the playstyle but this certainly seems promising being a full caster still.
Isn’t it!!! In my Universities West Marches campaign that just wrapped up, I played a grappling Moon Druid with Resilient (CON) and Expertise in Athletics. So I pop a Fire Shield and good concentration spell and just grab whatever’s in the way in wild shape.
That connundrum is why this is the best tank build to me. The enemies have the choice to either attack the super tanky bubble wizard OR leave one of the most powerful casters compleately unoppossed when they are concentrating on a powerful ability.
this is one of the reasons, tanking is a suboptimal archetype. if the party needs to be protected, just get another controller and disable all the enemies.
@@joefloyd5766 agreed. it's ike combat tactic 101 to always go and kill the caster 1st. so with the caster being the tank they are now put in a catch-22. As a DM, if i was presented the option to fight a tanky barbarian or an unhittable armorer in plate, i'd ignore both of them and go after the casters.
And don't forget to take the 8th level spell _Clone,_ as you only have a 50 year lifespan as a Tortle. So the Tortle Wizard has now overcome the greatest racial weakness of the Tortles … and will get the revenge of turning up as a young adult Tortle Clone of himself (assuming a Death at some point) and visit his former bullies as they are nearing the end of their lives. He could even have kids and then come back as a Clone after he dies a year later. Being able to short circuit death due to old age (as well as by being killed) is pretty meh for a elf, but for something with such a short lifespan it is a massive boon.
Any reason why taking resilience over war caster? Both grant advantage on concentration, but warcaster grants reaction to cast spell, (for more options perhaps).
That’s a good question. War Caster is certainly viable but I think resilient is a better fit for this build for a couple reasons. For one, this build is made for more of a support role so I don’t think we’d have many attacking spells outside of a few AOE options that would also probably damage us if we were to use them as AOO. Second, Resilient allows us to boost our con to 20 for a +5 modifier. So it’ll help even more with con saves while also effectively granting us more hit points equal to our character level. So, it’s not that I didn’t consider war caster. And I don’t think that’s a bad option. I just think it gives us solutions for problems we don’t have, while resilient gives us more of what we want to be good at. Again, just my preference!
Now, i play with a tiny bit of homebrew that make feats and ASI more accessible, but this build is possible with some luck or by just accepting that your Con and Int will be stuck at 18. I have a similar build, but a Hill Dwarf. Ancients Barbarian 3 / Abjuration Wizard 17. Background Wanderer. Feats to take include Chef, Shield Master, & Tough. Stat priority is Int > Con > 13 Str > Dex > Dump Wis & Cha Buy a Shield, that is your primary "weapon" Important magical items to get include. Belt of (any) Giant Strength, Shield +1-3, Ring/Cloak of Protection, and my personal choise of Berserker's Battleaxe. Characterization is up to you, but i chose him to be a Stereotypically Mexican Macho Man who is also a Chef. I chose any spell that has a food item as a spell component. And he is a Macho man that takes all attacks head on without dodging. Between Danger Sense, Shield Master, and eventually Spell resistence, you will be able to block most things. The belt of Giant Strength is there to make your moments of rage better. After Ritual casting Alarm in the morning, Rage in your first combat to double your Ward HP. I flavored my rage as a concentration spell. Also, between Ancients and donating your arcane shield to others, your allies are hard to damage.
@@rantdmc you treat it like any other concentration spell? Same idea applies, you can't concentrate on 2 spells at once, and you can't concentrate and Rage at the same time. When i did this build, my group didn't know that resistences didn't apply to the Ward, and i always felt strong with it. This build has several ways of dealing with combat though. Counterspell specialist, casting defensive magic, being a tank yourself, making party members tankier if they don't focus you and a few good utility spells among the spells that require Food for a casting component. Often times in practice, i used Rage as a Side arm, and was very liberal with my spellcasting because i had such a useful side-arm to fall back on. But there were times that it became better than any other concentration spell, especially when i got higher rarity Giant's Belts.
@@zamba136 thanks for the explanation, but part of the wizards toolkit is concentration spells. but I appreciate there are ways of making a raging barbarian abjuration wizard work
@@rantdmc the main draw of Barbarian was Danger Sense, shield proficiency, Unarmored Defense, 1d12 hit die, and Constitution Proficiency. I actually still debate whether the 3rd level for the subclass is worth it. I saw it as a buff to the "concentration spell."
I have a similar build but it was a level of cleric and mark of warding dwarf (so no warlock) and it makes you one of the most effective tanks in the game, cause the enemies get to decide if they attack the super tanky wizard with 20 ac, shield master feat, tanky hp and can reflect damage OR Leave one of the most potent casters on the field with powerful spells completely unoppossed. Like i can polymorph an ally, banish an enemy ect and they often just have to deal with it
@@ConstructedChaos i have tinkered with the idea and think a few levels in artillerist artificer would also be really benificial in place of cleric and you can use the pop up bubble shield to offset damage your allies take and when you dont want to use armor of agathys
Recommendation for this build would be running 2 levels of Warlock to gain access to mage armor for free. Cast it on other party members or yourself over and over to heal your ward.
Thanks for the rec! You're not the first to mention this option and I honestly do love it--so long as we aren't losing access to our spell mastery at 18th level with wizard! The main reason I didn't run it on this build was that I didn't think we'd have much trouble keeping our ward up with so many other abjuration spells we'd be throwing out most turns. Additionally, short of the HP for our ward, Mage Armor wouldn't give us an AC any higher than that of our Tortle's.
The Armor of Shadows trick is well-known, but even a 2-level dip into another class is a pretty steep cost for full casters; especially into a class that isn't a full-caster as it sets you back on both spell slot and spell level progression. Just play paranoid and pick up Alarm. Cast it every morning as a ritual. Ritual cast it again any time you have 10 minutes of downtime and you want to replenish your ward.
I mean, I don’t think we miss TOO much with a second level in Warlock. But I agree that I’d probably prefer the single level dip. As long as we aren’t missing our spell mastery at 18th level (at least for this build) I’m cool with it!
i disagree that its a steep cost for full casters. maybe if it was a 3-4 level dip. being 1 spell level/slot behind isn't a big deal. it's not like he doesn't have worthy lower level alternatives or there's a higher level spell that he needs to get asap. this is a common misconception about multiclassing. it's all about the tradeoff. he traded 1 spell level for a core piece of the build (his whole tactic was armor of agathys + arcane ward and using support/control spells). that's a worthy tradeoff. for example: a level 5 abjurer can cast hypnotic pattern or fear or slow. a level 2 warlock, 3 abjurer has the core parts all in place and can cast web, hold person or phantasmal force or suggestion. the power level between web and hypnotic pattern is not a big gap. web is considered one of the best spells in the game and used even at high tier play (charm and frightened immunity is more common than restrained immunity) over hypnotic pattern and fear. for single target, the 2nd level spells exceed the level 3 spells in power.
@@ConstructedChaos imo this is a common auto-response of people who are averse to multiclassing or dont know how to optimize multiclasses without really considering what's the core tactic of the build, what are the tradeoffs, what levels the campaign will typically play in, etc. a common comment is: "a full caster class should never multiclass otherwise they wont get wish/other 9th level spells!" i'm like are you sure they are even going to reach tier 4? or for the 9th level spells miss out, i'm like if it's a 2-3 level dip they won't miss out if the campaign goes 19-20 levels and tbh for clerics, missing out on 8th-9th level spells are fine as they don't have as good a list as the arcane casters (with most of them being concentration too!).
@@TheRobversion1 The 1-level dip isn't terrible, but this was more about taking 2 levels in warlock just to get Armor of Shadows to cheese your Arcane Ward. A Wizard's power comes from their spells, so delaying access to those spells by 2 whole levels is significant. Getting Mage Armor at will is not the same power spike as getting access to 3rd+ level spells and those spell slots on curve.
@@PiroMunkie huh? didn't he say he was doing it for armor of agathys?. it's about armor of agathys and 2 levels if he wants armor of shadows (though he could keep it a level 1 dip if he can spare the feat and just get eldritch adept). we'll have to agree to disagree here. imo there's not much difference between a 1 and a 2 level dip (that's 1 spell level progression). a level 3-4 dip is significant as that's 2 spell levels behind. plus there's a power spike in the tradeoff here. he's getting armor of agathys which is the core tactic of the build. while i agree that the wizard's power is their spells, whether that's significant or not depends on what the spells you need (and which ones arent banned) are and until what levels your campaign is playing. and again what's the tradeoff? like for example, for him the wizard spell list isn't really a core part of the build. if you put arcane ward on a bard, he'd go there instead. put it on a cleric? he'll go there. the tactic with the wizard spell list is just icing. it's all about what is the build meant to do? this is not a typical wizard controller. it's meant to be a frontline wizard that makes itself the primary target while being able to cast control/utility/support spells. being 1 level behind as in demonstrated earlier is not a significant difference if there's no spell he "needs" on the wizard spell list. as long as he picks good spells, he'll perform well enough. perhaps it'll be clearer if i give another example. the well known captain magic missile build that deals shit tons of nova dmg. the core is typically fighter 2, hexblade 1, evoker x. the build is built around magic missile. that's what the build will be doing at least 60-80% of the time. and it's an effective main tactic as it has no save, no attack roll, high force dmg. after that build gets magic missile, it won't feel bad dipping out after wizard 1 to get the other core pieces of the build (action surge, hexblade's curse) as the tradeoff is good and while it does delay his spell progression by 2 levels there's nothing he really needs for the build until level 13 wizard (simulacrum which is commonly banned at most tables). i'll contrast that with another popular wizard build: "the microwave." the microwave relies on the wall of force + phantom hound combo, both high level wizard spells. with that build, multiclassing at any level before level 9 would be a significant delay and something i wouldn't recommend unless the player knows what he's doing or is starting at higher tiers.
I personally wouldn’t look into Blur as a high priority spell choice. I would rather hit up Mirrior Image to layer up that way. This would keep concentration out of the picture and let you use haste while having a way to divert attacks. Great build though!
Dude, get a second level of Warlock and the Armor of Shadows invocation. This allows you to pump up your Arcane Ward once per turn. Then pick up the Metamagic Adept feat to cast either that or a damage dealing cantrip as a bonus action... granted you can only do this once before you need a long rest, but if you cast it at a high enough level, once is all you need.
Mage Armour competes for the same function as Tortles Natural Armour. As they both :"set" your AC to a specific number, it would end up lowering the AC from 17 to 13, all for just 2 points of arcane ward. So wouldnt even consider this unless youve got at least a +3 Dex mod for 16.
Rather than a level in warlock which slows spell level progression, consider picking up the Eldritch Adept feat and take Armour of Shadows which lets you cast Mage Armour at will. You can now infinitely recharge your arcane ward while out of combat. AoA is a great spell, but we can already take False Life for temp hp to accomplish something similar so I'm not certain it's worth slowing down spell progression for. Granted it's not an abjuration spell, but I'm not sure that matters in this context since we'll start every combat with a fully charged ward.
You’re not the first to suggest armor of shadows but I think you’re missing the point of AoA. We aren’t taking it for the temp hp. We’re taking it so that enemies take up to 10 damage every time they damage us (including when they only hit the ward). We’re basically daring them to come after us while we buff our allies and hit them with AOE spells.
slowing down spell progression only matters alot if you slow it down alot and there's an actual higher level spell critical to the build (not just a good to have) you're missing out on. with his build the core is really the arcane ward and armor of agathys. slowing down spell progression to actually get a core piece is the objective. there's nothing he's missing out on because all the other spells he gets at higher levels have competitive lower level alternatives. it's not like he'll be missing out on wish either and his campaign he plays this in may not even reach those levels. this is one of the big misconceptions when multiclassing. the tradeoff is what determines whether that delay in spell progression matters alot or is a minor inconvenience.
This is very similar to a DnD Deep Dive build, though it started with three lvls of armorer artificer before going 2 lvls of warlock for the pact invocation that gives them mage armour at will to repair the arcane ward in between combats when they finally get there - and the race is warforged not tortle.
Is it? Sounds like a cool build! I have a great respect for that channel but haven’t watched many of the videos as they tend to have a pretty long runtime typically. And several others have mentioned the invocation for mage armor-definitely a neat idea!
@@ConstructedChaos it is, but with your Tortle build I wonder if Clockwork Soul sorcerer would be a good fit. It would be a heeeaaavy investment of levels but the Bastion of Law feature at 6th gives you the ability to use Sorcery Points to give you a pool of d8s to use to reduce incoming damage. Add that to your arcane ward and temp hp from Armor of Agathys and you have even more tanking potential. You will miss out on higher level spells though. Not spell slots because of adding the multi class levels but the spells themselves won’t be as high.
@@jbw065 you’re not the first to mention that as an option either! Check out the lovely Rob Vera’s build somewhere in the comments if you’re curious as to what that might have looked like! He went pretty in depth!
@@ConstructedChaos I’m fairly certain Rob’s done a build for Colby or Chris on their channels but I do love what he has done here with his ghost rider type build. I’m thinking of a similar build but the character will be an acolyte of Bane, the god of pain. The cold damage they take will be the icy fingers of pain that they share with my character as he is struck by their weapons.
@@jbw065 oh I had no idea but I don’t doubt that at all! Rob is very knowledgeable and easy to chat with-as are you! Love your flavor for that build as well! It comes across as something that would spark a lot of intrigue around the game table as far as what sort of backstory the character might have!
Hear me out. What if you instead take Magic Initiate for warlock and take AoA as your first level spell? That could give you some space to pick up a level or two of a regular tank class like fighter or paladin for extra attacks to stack on top of Haste.
I love that but it only allows us to cast AoA once per long rest. On the off chance we lose the hit points to something or we have multiple encounters spanning beyond the spells duration, we would be missing a big part of what I like for this build. Totally a viable option though!
@@ConstructedChaos You can cast it using your Wizard slots if I'm not mistaken. That gives you access to AoAs that are bigger than level 5. Edit: I have now learned that you have to have multiclassed into the same class you took the feat for to cast using spell slots. My apologies, the one level dip is required.
A Tortle is the equivalent of an 18 Dexterity wizard but can do with an 8 in Dex & Absorb Elements to soften Dexterity Saving Throws. +2/1 in Strength/Wisdom doesn't do much but better to have more ASIs than none. Start point buy 8+2, 8, 14, 14, 15+1, 12 for a 10/8/14/14/16/12 (Low Intelligence, I know, but just bear with me). At 4, 8 & 12, run a +2 on Intelligence to cap at 20. Magic Missile & utility spells run just fine until levels 4 & 16 Intelligence can work until level 8. Also, using point buy the highest you can get Intelligence is a 15, which is effectively a 14, anyway. Levels 16 & 19 are rare but run Resilient: Constitution & Durable for 16 Constitution & full heal on your Hit Die. You have 142 average HP & effectively 187 with a quarter of it regenerating via spell casting & 2 spells that you can spam at will. Ending with 10/8/16/20/14/12 is pretty solid for a 2-feat tank wizard that has a barrier that can be restored between every. single. fight & both good Spell Modifiers & Con/Int/Wis saves Saves Edit: As a reminder, this is point buy. Theory crafting rolled numbers is not the best idea IMO & I don't like restrictions of the array but do what you will. 8+2/10/14/15/13+1/12 for SA, though.
@@ConstructedChaos As mentioned in my comment, with point-buy (the system my build is based on) you can't get to 20 Int until 12, anyway. If you started at 15, you'd have 17 at 4, 19 at 8 & 20 at 12--just like my build. Starting at 15 is no different than 14 ITLR & gives you 2 points to put in other stats that won't be increased until 16 at the earliest.
@@ConstructedChaos Sadly, my DM doesn't allow that. Bit of a stick up his butt. But I did use a REBORN Tortle on a druid once. Kellit Whi'Fyre. Sadly if I did a regular Tortle Wizard I'd be boned.
@@gaelofariandel6747 All good! I can see now that you were just thinking out loud haha. I got a bit defensive at first after I thought you were criticizing what I did haha.
The issue i find is that, for some reason, with a decent AC of 17, the possibility of bringing a shield to up it further, all this tankiness, and that Agathys must be a melee hit to function.... i see this as a melee build, but with trash strength or dexterity, it doesnt fit that bill, so i think an alternative would be to make those Con ASIs STR or DEX, and maybe swap the WIS and CHA stats around with them aswell to help that end. Obviously not as good as a Bladesinger could be, but still could work out. Say the CHA is an 8 (or lower if rolled lower), because after all the abuse he received over being "deformed", hes become incredibly shy and non talkative, also worried that while he has great ideas (High INT) hes afraid of speaking up and being ridiculed, which could also open up more RP paths. Or, if you go with Hexblade as the Warlock level, you could put the ASIs into CHA, to represent their growth of confidence through their interactions with the party. (Also still REALLY bothers me that a race based off freaking Tortoises live less years than a human....)
it can be a "melee" build with trash strength and dexterity. it's a tank + caster build. it's job is not to attack but to get hit and cast spells as it's primary form of attack. in fact the build benefits more from grappling than attacking as it wants to get hit.
@@TheRobversion1 bingo! It wants to present itself as a threat by supporting allies, debuffing enemies, and throwing in the occasional bit of damage where necessary. The idea is to give your adversaries the hard choice of trying to take down the tanky tortle (and get punished while doing it) or trying to take down the tortle’s friends while he zaps them with spells and powers up his allies.
Additionally we need our CHA at be at least 13 for our warlock multiclass dip but I do agree that Tortles should live longer than humans. It’s like WOTC has been afraid to do anything outside of the typical human lifespan for some reason…
@@ConstructedChaos agreed. this is why i say casters make the best tanks. not paladins, barbarians or fighters. those classes would have to find ways to encourage enemies to attack them and discourage enemies from attacking allies from the get go as they look beefy and sturdy visually. basic combat tactics 101 for DMs for intelligent monsters/npcs is "always target the caster" so unlike the classes above, the enemy will go after the caster by default (they aren't beefy looking and in heavy armor) and get punished for it while your 1st action can be dedicated to launching a good spell before the enemy realizes you are the wrong player to target unlike the classes above. the classes above will have to maintain this threat redirection/taunt mechanism the whole fight to protect their allies. the caster can just do normally what they're doing and the enemy will keep targeting them because everybody knows that you ignore a caster at your own peril.
@@ConstructedChaos we use point buy as well or a variation of it (more points, allowing points to be bought until 17). it reinforces equality and fairness at the table.
What kind of warlock? If you went hexblade you could grab medium armour to end up with a 19AC, which would mean you wouldn't need Tortle and could grab Res:Con at level 1, but then you'd need a 14 Dex (not a bad thing for initiative). Idk what subclass you're taking here
I honestly hadn’t given that a ton of thought since the main thing we wanted was armor of agathys but maybe it’d be a good idea to go celestial or archfey. Hexblade is always good too but might not quite fit the theme of the character!
@@ConstructedChaos hexblade is a great pick if you're using fire shield/shadow of moil/flames of phlegethos/hellish rebuke. if not, i think no warlock subclass has an advantage and you may actually want to consider clockwork soul instead to keep your spell slot progression while getting armor of agathys.
hahaha I don't know why I do that and I actually didn't notice until someone else pointed it out! You'll find that I've made an effort to correct it in all my videos published after this one! Thanks for letting me know! haha
It’s a good option if you only go for one level as it adds to spell slot progression and gives you additional spells. If you’re going two lvls then warlock is better as you can get the invocation that allows you to cast mage armour at will to replenish the arcane ward.
A good way to recharge ur war is by taking 2 levels in warlock or take the feat Eldritch Adept to get the Eldritch Invocation Armor of Shadows for unlimited recharge of ur arcane ward
@@ConstructedChaos yea it all so allows you to maintain armor of agithist longer and it can be a real life saver sometimes I multi class into artificer armourer to incentives them to attack me 😂😈
@@rexs4245 my only real issue with it is that it wouldn’t actually do anything for our AC since we already have a 17. Still, endless refresh on arcane ward is pretty fantastic!
Haha you are right that many comments suggest this. But I chose not to simply because our AC is already fine enough and most of the time we're casting abjuration spells anyway. It didn't feel like it was worth delaying our access to things like Spell Mastery.
That’s a good question. War Caster is certainly viable but I think resilient is a better fit for this build for a couple reasons. For one, this build is made for more of a support role so I don’t think we’d have many attacking spells outside of a few AOE options that would also probably damage us if we were to use them as AOO. Second, Resilient allows us to boost our con to 20 for a +5 modifier. So it’ll help even more with con saves while also effectively granting us more hit points equal to our character level. So, it’s not that I didn’t consider war caster. And I don’t think that’s a bad option. I just think it gives us solutions for problems we don’t have, while resilient gives us more of what we want to be good at. Again, just my preference!
Iv been toying with the idea of a tortle abjuration wizard who's ward takes the form of blue/silvery full body armor with the helm pauldrons gauntlets and boots of plate metal armor and the rest appearing as a seamless piece of leather armor oh and the helm having a turtle theme ....yeah that's right, ITS MORPHIN TIME! DRAGON TORTLE POWER!
@@ConstructedChaos I already have a Barbarian Monk with chunin background who's actually a Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortle (Slash from TMNT) and he's part of a team that has no healer so I'm thinking about having him take 2 lvls in wizard to become the Mighty Morphin Ninja Tortle learning healing elixir but flavor-wise he's not a magic user so I gotta figure out what spells he can pull off with the reflavor of his ninja training, his mutations, or his new ranger powers. (For example right now his magic initiate feat gives him True strike which is his ninja training and silvery barbs which is his mutations allowing a blood curdling screech of a roar that momentarily startles enemies)
Why am I picturing Luke's shell more like a soft shell turtle than the normal shell for his race. It's more of a stiff bone/cartilage carapace than a actual shell. Just like a soft shell turtle the shell is pliable and more flexible. Just my 2 cents if someone ever asked "since he doesn't have a shell, what does he have then?" Wonder if elemental Adept would work with armor of Agathys for a bit more cold damage.. What's funny is I'm rattling around the concept of a tribe of tortles living in the swamps. Well a build for this guy. From the swamps. Thinking Beast Barbarian 8/Fighter 4 Rune Knight or Battle Master/ Spore Druid 8 Think a alligator snapping turtle on 2 legs. Lol take the unarmed fighting style , lunging attacks. For that 5 ft reach. And the bite from Beast. Kinda waiting for that new book to come out. From the leaks it seems to give the tortles a little boost. Really like the flavor of your build my guy.
@@ConstructedChaos yea I've been thinking of a build that would kinda show different turtles. Other than what's given with the tortle. And a bayou "ragin' cajun" (talks like Jusin Wilson the cajun cook) seems fitting with the alligator snapper concept. Lol with a chef feat somewhere. Lmao
@@user-mu8ok5xf8d yeah it was meant with jest. i just see so many trying to pump ac instead of worrying about saves (which are more dangerous to get hit because it's not just dmg like stuff that target ac). or you know the better idea is just to prevent the enemy from doing anything (control/burst strike dmg).
@@TheRobversion1 that’s fair. The issue with any wizard build is you will be squishy unless you use your ASI to bump con and get though feat. Plus the classes that get that wisdom save bonus are great as wisdom is the save for some of the more dangerous effect spells
Sure! It’s also a great option! However, the goal of this build was to create barriers to being hit and/or losing concentration. We want that armor of agathys up as long as possible and we want to encourage people to hit us with melee attacks and not spells since that doesn’t trigger the armor.
as chaos said, this build is about layers and preserving the temp hp and not simply adding more hp. something that reduces dmg like heavy armor master or picking up fighting initiate: superior technique/martial adept-parry would actually work better with what the build wants to do.
@@ConstructedChaos I think is like: Forge Domain Cleric. Uses Ability on Shield (So Shield +1), then uses "Shield of Faith" Spell (Another +2) and uses the "Shell Defense" feature. So, to sum up: 17 AC +2 Shield +1 Forge Domain on Shield +2 Shield of Faith +4 Shell Defense 26 AC... Ok buddy, you are a hard rock
Step 1: Select the Hexblade patron Step 2: Cast hexblade's curse as a bonus action Step 3: Magic missile their asses off while being tanky af Step 4: Profit
For a good warlock subclass is fathomless, since now you no longer need to hold breath, but breath underwater and can swim. Meaning, you are not a weapon submarine!
Fathomless would definitely be a good pick! The Fiend would also be a decent pick to give us more chances to keep a certain amount of temp hp. Although, I don't guess we'd be felling too many opponents ourselves haha.
@@ConstructedChaos agreed here with coconutty. hexblade was also my choice in my spirit of vengeance version of this. i wouldn't like fiend as dark one's blessing would interfere with armor of agathys. the others are all decent choices (well maybe not GOO too as wizards should have rary's telepathic bond anyway).
@@TheRobversion1 I don’t know why but I was thinking temp hp was our ward hp. I’m sleep deprived and working on a music video this week so my brain isn’t firing right lmao
I know developers have said Arcane Ward doesn’t benefit from your resistances or immunities, but by RAW it absolutely does. Wording says it prevents the damage “whenever you take damage, the Ward takes it instead”, if you’re immune to fire, you would take 0 damage. I won’t argue with DM preferences, It takes a mountain of optimization to make it viable for tanking even with the RAW interpretation I use, but it’s goes from cool to bad if you don’t allow it to stack in that way.
new player, so please feel free to correct me! but isn't that saying that while you are resistant to the damage type -- the ward is not. and therefore the ward still takes the full dmg amount?? any damage you would subsequently take (after the ward has been reduced to 0hp) would then be at half damage
@@madisonmayo I see both arguments I guess, I think the suggestion is that arcane ward's wording says that it takes the damage that you would take instead, so in that RAW suggested way the DM would roll to see what the damage you would take would be after modifiers etc, and then if there is any damage the ward would then take that. But i'd not be mad at either ruling tbh
@@Vikingeek so I was able to find the answer, and I'm gonna disagree. That's not RAW. You apply full dmg total to the ward first, then what's left over gets halved bc of resistance. Source, PHB description of resistance: "Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage."
@@madisonmayo I guess the question for 100% clarity comes down to what Arcane Ward counts as…? You’re correct that resistances are applied before modifiers, however Arcane Ward isn’t modifying the damage, it is just taking the damage instead. I would argue it’s closer to Temporary Hit Points, which are reduced after resistances are applied - Arcane Ward probably would in fact be temporary hit points in the rules, except because temporary hit point effects don’t stack it would make Arcane Ward objectively weaker. As I said, I definitely see it both ways, I’ve yet to play a game as such a wizard, or DM one with a player as one, so I can’t really say which version is more or less balanced. Experiencing it in game (as player or DM) would sway me to which way I’d rule it at my table - especially as I tweak and home brew a lot of abilities and rules like that in my games.
@@TheRobversion1 as long as you do it right and have a DM who understands that when you "don't need to sleep" means you no longer suffer exhaustion from not sleeping. I mean warfoges.dont sleep. Do you actually need to write down "this races does not suffer exhaustion from not sleeoing"?
@@Gashnaw Weeeeelllll it has been clarified in Xanathar's that, sleep or not, a long rest needs to be taken every 24hrs. I'm actually posting a video today that covers it pretty well haha.
@@ConstructedChaos nice yup. this is why the trance/semi-coffeelock version is simply more feasible at the table. they still "sleep/long rest." and no infinite spell slots means they don't get banned.
Just right yesterday started my tankzard campain, just for my DM's suffering) 1st level monk, 2nd level wizard bladesong, very stupid and strayforward build, 16 int, 15 dex and wis (could be more, but who cares?). 14 AC in stock, 17 with Mages armour, 20 for 1 minute 'cause of bladesong, 25 for 1 round 'cause of mages shield reaction. Plate armour users could cry. Change monk to barbarian, throw away some stats, grab more HP, get banned by DM and all your friends(
I have long hated the abjuration wizard build as it's just so underwhelming. This build makes me want to play it now as the tortle idea is just fantastic fun. I've been toying around with an abjuration cleric build based of the Discipline priest from WoW.....balance is an issue sadly
I felt the same way until I challenged myself to toy around with it! An abjuration cleric definitely sounds fun to me-balance aside, I always aim for flavor first! 😊
Intriguing. I like the tortle. I dislike the warlock dip. I understand why, I just don't like it. Narratively, a dip into a class like warlock seems like a stretch. Mechanically, it gives you a lot of stuff, but it reveals the metagame when you attempt to justify a single level dip. Is your patron is going to be satisfied with you dipping into a pact for a single (or maybe a couple) of spells? The real question is can you make this build viable without it?
Thanks!! I do agree that, narratively, it might not work. It’s why I mention that the level in warlock is totally optional and also cite an example of what might trigger the dip for the character. I’d imagine that the patron would constantly be temping Lupe with more power. Maybe Lupe struggles with that temptation quite a lot but knows now that relying on such things isn’t the right way forward. As for making the build viable without it, you’d be looking at straight Abjuration Wizard, which is notably still a wizard with some fantastic extra defensive abilities. So, yea, very effective and definitely very viable!
@@juliusheart2667 hmmm that’s a good point but we lose a lot of the fancy AC stuff the Tortle gives us in that case. Plus I’m not sure every DM would allow that race outside of an Eberron setting.
Real talk, I had no idea I wasn’t pronouncing the ‘g’ lmao! Thank you for letting me know! I also was apparently saying “lenth” instead of “length” I guess it’s just a product of my upbringing! Good to know the problem exists so I can try to correct it now!
What do you mean 'not actual size'? Which one? There's no way to tell whether or not the ship or the turtle is big or tiny in that picture. Next time, please use a banana for scale.
‘I’m going to say this character was born without a shell for RP reasons but the shell is good mechanically so screw RP.’ The amount of cognitive dissonance in this video alone is staggering.
did you mean armor of agathys? if yes, then eldritch adept doesn't let you cast that at will as there's no invocation that gives access to armor of agathys. he'd really need to dip into warlock or clockwork soul for it.
Sure I can! I could easily say that, though he was born without a shell, lupe learned to create his own permanent shell with a combination of magic runes and a hollowed out tree trunk. :)
@@hermanmunster1054 yes, so I said it! Lol. I’ll stop trolling here. My point here is that you’re being a bit nit-picky. I suppose I should have mentioned some flavor reason for doing what I did but I think the idea was clear enough. Sorry if that confused you at all!
You want the "no shell" backstory, you don't get the shell AC or abilities. You can't have it both ways. I call BS. Commit to your backstory, or don't use it.
Lupe created a permanent magic shell to replace the one he wasn't born with and discovered an innate talent for such magics as a result. Boom! I got both. :)
i call bs here as well. yes he should commit to his backstory but it doesn't mean his backstory cant evolve as the campaign evolves. moreover, backstories arent tied to classes or abilities. those are simply tools/skills he picked up along the way. he has those regardless of whatever backstory he has for the simple fact that he made that build.
i think it's not reliance but favoring it. that option has widespread use by the community (much like feats and multiclassing) and has been well-received. i use it as well with all of my builds. it's not a handicap at this point either as wOTC has come out and said that this is the direction that the game is going (like check the ability score allocation of races since tashas) and to expect it as a baseline when the new revision to 5E comes out.
I mean, I could use races with the ability scores where I want them instead. I don’t find it as much of a handicap as it is an opportunity for stronger builds and/or better flavor!
@@ConstructedChaos My point is that it makes it to where it almost becomes too easy. That's why many DMs (mine included) actually ban it. That being said, how would you go about setting up this tactic without using that particular advantage?
@@Xani13 off the top of my head, variant human with moderately armored feat would probably work well enough. Might also consider doing something with a mark of warding dwarf as others have suggested to avoid dipping warlock and open up the chance to take a level or two in artificer instead for better proficiencies and whatnot. Again, that’s just off the top of my head. There may be better alternatives but I think a Tortle with a magic shell is way more fun. Flexibility doesn’t inherently make the game easier but I totally support your stance if that’s what you like! As a DM, I allow it and scale my combats to whatever challenges my players.
@@ConstructedChaos I want to be clear: I'm not saying it's wrong to do. I'm simply looking for a way around it since my DMs ban it. Personally, I wish they wouldn't. But I'm not the one in charge in their group. So I have to find ways to deal with it. Lol. That's why I asked your opinion on the matter. My apologies if I came off as harsh or insinuative.
Ward hp is actually calculated using twice your wizard level, not just your base wizard level. Also you mentioned that spell resistance gives advantage on saves against spells, but you didn’t mention how it also gives resistance to spell damage. Cool build regardless
Wow! How the heck did I miss that? I’ll pin your comment so others watching the video know about it!
@@ConstructedChaos there is one thing I'd like to add, and that is the fact that if you get the armor of shadows invocation you can regain 2hp on your ward every turn at no cost, this is perfect to regenerate the ward out of combat or to keep that armor of agathys going for a bit longer.
@@AliceEverglade yep!! You’re not the first to mention that either! And I think it’s certainly a great addition to this build!
What about the option in the eldritch evocations "Armor of Shadows" let's you cast Mage Armor at will for free without expending a spellslot, giving you the option to refill you ward out of combat as much as you want ... "UNLIMITED ... Protection!!!"
another way to replenish the ward out of combat within the wizard's resources is the alarm ritual.
I made one of these, but instead of tortle and multiclassing I used Dwarf with mark of warding, since they have Armor of Agathys on their spell list and I took the feat Eldritch Adept for the Armor of shadows evocation.
Yep!! Someone else mentioned mark of warding dwarf earlier I think! Very smart! I just really liked the AC boost and flavor of a turtle without a shell!
Actually, arcane ward would take the damage first leaving your armor of Agathys in tact, and as Jeremy Crawford has stated, the damage armor of Agathys deals happens as long as the temp hp is there. So they'd essentially take all the damage it takes to reach your true HP.
Yep! That’s the point! It just doesn’t take into account any resistances we have. I don’t think I stated otherwise!
@@ConstructedChaos Arcane ward doesn't take resistance into account, but Armor of Agathys sure does!
Getting resistance is a high priority.
Really? I always assumed that Temp HP went away before the Ward...i might need to think about that in the future for my own Abjuration Tank.
@@zamba136 he's right. ward goes away 1st unaffected by anything aside from your ac and any advantage/disadvantage to being hit. then temp hp comes in and any dmg reduction (heavy armor master, bastion of law), dmg resistance, etc factor in here.
@@zamba136 States it specifically in the feature:
"Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If this damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage."
Because Temp HP is considered as part OF your HP, and the Ward states so, it takes the damage first, before any remaining goes to you, and then because Temp HP states it goes down before your HP, that firmly plants it right in the middle of Ward and HP.
It's worth noting that if you do take a Warlock dip, choosing Hexblade gives you proficiency with Shields which you can use in addition to the Tortle natural armor. You can also use this opportunity to pick up the Shield spell as one of your Warlock spells known which will let you pick up some other useful Level 1 Wizard spell instead, especially a ritual since Wizard rituals specifically need to be in their spellbook and not just "known".
You might consider starting as a Warlock at level 1 (2 at the latest) to get both Shield and shield proficiency ASAP, plus you'll have higher starting HP if you start at level 1.
Hmmm you raise a valid point about taking this earlier rather than later…
Oh neat, I didn't realize Armor of Agathys had such nice synergy with with Arcane ward!
It is quite the wombo combo! 😜
One cool thing you can do is take the Eldritch Adept feat. Where you can constantly recharge your Arcane Ward through Armour of Shadows "Mage Armour" invocation.
Yep!! I love this suggestion and a few other people have made it too but we aren’t really concerned with mage armor since we already have a 17 AC and we have plenty of abjuration spells to keep our ward strong!
This would probably be good to take on a non-tortle race with a decent dex score, though!
Love the build just made 4 Tortles who are brothers looking for their father as a NPC group my players could win over as allies as they had a choice of 9 adventures that were super fun but they went to the sewers. Lol so now they have some awesome allies to aid in the main boss at the end.
Hahahah TMNT!!!! Sounds like a fun group! 😊
@@ConstructedChaos yeah we have some fun with our games. Last one I ran was an idea I got online for animal companions saving their druid masters that had been taken. Lol
@@laithamekir5778 hahaha I love stuff like this!! We recently ran a kobolds only one shot with randomly generated lvl 1 kobolds. When you’d die (and you would inevitably die) you’d roll a d12 and be handed a new random kobold character to play.
Only one original kobold out of 5 made it to the end haha.
@@ConstructedChaos That sounds like my exploding Goblin Campaign back in 3.5 when Gonlins werent played often. Lol thats awesome though sounds like the Mound Oh Bard lol
@@laithamekir5778 haha nice! Stuff like that really just serves to reduce the game to pure fun with no concerns about making the best character or following RAW so precisely!
Recently a new feat came out called Rune Shaper and one of the options is Frost which gives Armor of Agathys without needing warlock dip. I’m taking 1 or 2 levels of artificer instead so I don’t need a 13 CHA but I still get medium armor, shields, and infusions if my team could use them.
Oooh nice observation and a really cool thematic change as well!
Also forgot to mention you could have a similar AC while being a different race (I’m a Gold Metallic Dragon for the breath attacks)
@@porygon-z1 totally!! I really just love Tortles haha
Okay but, Tortle (natural 17), shield spell (+5), max constitution and resilient con (prof in con saves)
not to mention when you enter your shell, you get +4 AC AND advantage on con saves, even without the ward and agathys that's
26 AC and (if already holding a spell marked by concentration) proficient in and advantage on con saves to keep concentration (which your con save at level 20 will be +11, or higher if you have a charismatic paladin; also advantage to hold it, lowest is 12, highest is 31, or 17 and 36 with the paladin)
& If Your A BLADESINGER,
You'll Get Another +4 / +5 To
AC For Ur Blade Song...
Mark of Warding Dwarf can add Armor of Agathys to your spell options.
Yep! You aren’t the first person to suggest this. But I chose the tortle for the AC bonus and for flavor reasons.
Hey Chaos. good vid which reinforces that wizards can pretty much do everything. anyway i'll share my version of this in case someone reading wants an alternative to playing an abjurer or wants a more damaging version. level 10 theorycraft:
"the spirit of vengeance"
fighter 2, clockwork 7, hexblade 1
winged tiefling (or any other tiefling)
asi: flames of phlegethos
fighting style: superior technique-ambush
metamagic: transmute spell, quicken spell
key spells: aid, chill shield, armor of agathys, hellish rebuke, blade ward
tactics:
pre-combat: upcasted armor of agathys (transmute to fire if you want) and bastion of law yourself. aid yourself and the party. make a tiny servant if you want someone to feed you potions, drop inhaled poisons and throw oil.
1st round:
move towards bbeg
bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg
action: chill shield. activates flames.
action surge: do anything that either discourages the enemy from moving (booming blade, mind whip) or locks them in place without incapacitating them (web, grapple). if all your other party members are ranged or far away, blade ward or stoneskin are options here too.
once bbeg hits you:
reaction: upcasted hellish rebuke
so with a hit, the bbeg wil take:
armor of agathys: 20
chill shield: 2d6 + 4
flames: 1d4 + 4. rerolls all 1s for fire dmg
hellish rebuke (3rd): 4d10 + 4. 2d10 + 4
average: 54 dmg if they make their dex save. 65 dmg if they dont. if the enemy is oiled before hand, then we add 5 to that average dmg. a typical CR 10 monster would die after hitting you 3-4 times. defenses to reduce dmg are fire and cold resistance, 5d8 bastion of law, 20 temp hp and aid.
2nd round:
bonus action: quicken fire transmute armor of agathys if needed to reactivate flames. if not needed just cast any fire cantrip like green flame blade
action: blade ward
anyway that's it. I RP'd this character before as a variant of ghost rider.
Holy CRAP! I just had a second to read over this and it's freaking amazing hahaha!
@@ConstructedChaos Glad you liked it! :)
The RP though when i played it though was a bit one note (hunting down evil doers, brooding character, tormented past, orphaned, with a very aggressive tone and liked to challenge people, stick to the mission type of guy). still it was fun to play a frontline caster and watch enemies die because they hit him too much.
Love this idea !
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!!
I like the idea of a high lvl wizard / barbarian build that focuses on this type of build. You can’t cast spells but with a high lvl casting of Armor of Agathys and with the arcane ward and Bastion of Law AND with rage you’d be hacking away for hours before they even bloody you.
If I’m not mistaken, you’d still also need the dip into warlock for armor of agathys and I wonder how effective something like this could be with so many stats need attention.
Actually, I guess you could opt to go with mark of warding dwarf for your race so we can get the spell without the dip…. Sounds like fun!! 😊🤘🏼
@@ConstructedChaos I was thinking of using Mark of Warding Dwarf for that reason. We roll for stats in this campaign re-rolling if we get less than 72 so good stats are nearly guaranteed so I’m not concerned. I’d pump my CON and INT the highest and have passable STR and CHA for multiclassing needs. Rage is there for protection and I’d flavour each miss as not an attack against the enemy but my flail whipping back at myself.
Usually the tank conundrum of “Why should they hit me if I’m so tough?” gets me down on the playstyle but this certainly seems promising being a full caster still.
It’s so much fun just wanting to get hit so the enemy takes damage while you buff your allies and avoid any concentration saves 😂
Isn’t it!!! In my Universities West Marches campaign that just wrapped up, I played a grappling Moon Druid with Resilient (CON) and Expertise in Athletics. So I pop a Fire Shield and good concentration spell and just grab whatever’s in the way in wild shape.
That connundrum is why this is the best tank build to me. The enemies have the choice to either attack the super tanky bubble wizard OR leave one of the most powerful casters compleately unoppossed when they are concentrating on a powerful ability.
this is one of the reasons, tanking is a suboptimal archetype. if the party needs to be protected, just get another controller and disable all the enemies.
@@joefloyd5766 agreed. it's ike combat tactic 101 to always go and kill the caster 1st. so with the caster being the tank they are now put in a catch-22. As a DM, if i was presented the option to fight a tanky barbarian or an unhittable armorer in plate, i'd ignore both of them and go after the casters.
And don't forget to take the 8th level spell _Clone,_ as you only have a 50 year lifespan as a Tortle.
So the Tortle Wizard has now overcome the greatest racial weakness of the Tortles … and will get the revenge of turning up as a young adult Tortle Clone of himself (assuming a Death at some point) and visit his former bullies as they
are nearing the end of their lives.
He could even have kids and then come back as a Clone after he dies a year later.
Being able to short circuit death due to old age (as well as by being killed) is pretty meh for a elf, but for something with such a short lifespan it is a massive boon.
You’re not wrong at all! Even time is nothing against the great tortle abjurer!!
Any reason why taking resilience over war caster? Both grant advantage on concentration, but warcaster grants reaction to cast spell, (for more options perhaps).
That’s a good question. War Caster is certainly viable but I think resilient is a better fit for this build for a couple reasons. For one, this build is made for more of a support role so I don’t think we’d have many attacking spells outside of a few AOE options that would also probably damage us if we were to use them as AOO. Second, Resilient allows us to boost our con to 20 for a +5 modifier. So it’ll help even more with con saves while also effectively granting us more hit points equal to our character level.
So, it’s not that I didn’t consider war caster. And I don’t think that’s a bad option. I just think it gives us solutions for problems we don’t have, while resilient gives us more of what we want to be good at. Again, just my preference!
Now, i play with a tiny bit of homebrew that make feats and ASI more accessible, but this build is possible with some luck or by just accepting that your Con and Int will be stuck at 18.
I have a similar build, but a Hill Dwarf. Ancients Barbarian 3 / Abjuration Wizard 17. Background Wanderer. Feats to take include Chef, Shield Master, & Tough. Stat priority is Int > Con > 13 Str > Dex > Dump Wis & Cha
Buy a Shield, that is your primary "weapon"
Important magical items to get include. Belt of (any) Giant Strength, Shield +1-3, Ring/Cloak of Protection, and my personal choise of Berserker's Battleaxe.
Characterization is up to you, but i chose him to be a Stereotypically Mexican Macho Man who is also a Chef. I chose any spell that has a food item as a spell component. And he is a Macho man that takes all attacks head on without dodging. Between Danger Sense, Shield Master, and eventually Spell resistence, you will be able to block most things.
The belt of Giant Strength is there to make your moments of rage better. After Ritual casting Alarm in the morning, Rage in your first combat to double your Ward HP. I flavored my rage as a concentration spell. Also, between Ancients and donating your arcane shield to others, your allies are hard to damage.
Great idea for flavour, but as you can't concentrate on a spell while raging, what do you do in combat?
@@rantdmc you treat it like any other concentration spell? Same idea applies, you can't concentrate on 2 spells at once, and you can't concentrate and Rage at the same time. When i did this build, my group didn't know that resistences didn't apply to the Ward, and i always felt strong with it.
This build has several ways of dealing with combat though. Counterspell specialist, casting defensive magic, being a tank yourself, making party members tankier if they don't focus you and a few good utility spells among the spells that require Food for a casting component.
Often times in practice, i used Rage as a Side arm, and was very liberal with my spellcasting because i had such a useful side-arm to fall back on. But there were times that it became better than any other concentration spell, especially when i got higher rarity Giant's Belts.
@@zamba136 thanks for the explanation, but part of the wizards toolkit is concentration spells. but I appreciate there are ways of making a raging barbarian abjuration wizard work
@@rantdmc the main draw of Barbarian was Danger Sense, shield proficiency, Unarmored Defense, 1d12 hit die, and Constitution Proficiency. I actually still debate whether the 3rd level for the subclass is worth it. I saw it as a buff to the "concentration spell."
I have a similar build but it was a level of cleric and mark of warding dwarf (so no warlock)
and it makes you one of the most effective tanks in the game, cause the enemies get to decide if they attack the super tanky wizard with 20 ac, shield master feat, tanky hp and can reflect damage
OR
Leave one of the most potent casters on the field with powerful spells completely unoppossed. Like i can polymorph an ally, banish an enemy ect and they often just have to deal with it
Bingo! I like the level of cleric/warding dwarf combo. I just chose the tortle for flavor, really haha.
@@ConstructedChaos i have tinkered with the idea and think a few levels in artillerist artificer would also be really benificial in place of cleric and you can use the pop up bubble shield to offset damage your allies take and when you dont want to use armor of agathys
@@joefloyd5766 not a bad adjustment! I’ve also been toying around with some artillerist builds so maybe I’ll factor something similar into that!
Recommendation for this build would be running 2 levels of Warlock to gain access to mage armor for free. Cast it on other party members or yourself over and over to heal your ward.
Thanks for the rec! You're not the first to mention this option and I honestly do love it--so long as we aren't losing access to our spell mastery at 18th level with wizard! The main reason I didn't run it on this build was that I didn't think we'd have much trouble keeping our ward up with so many other abjuration spells we'd be throwing out most turns. Additionally, short of the HP for our ward, Mage Armor wouldn't give us an AC any higher than that of our Tortle's.
The Armor of Shadows trick is well-known, but even a 2-level dip into another class is a pretty steep cost for full casters; especially into a class that isn't a full-caster as it sets you back on both spell slot and spell level progression. Just play paranoid and pick up Alarm. Cast it every morning as a ritual. Ritual cast it again any time you have 10 minutes of downtime and you want to replenish your ward.
I mean, I don’t think we miss TOO much with a second level in Warlock. But I agree that I’d probably prefer the single level dip. As long as we aren’t missing our spell mastery at 18th level (at least for this build) I’m cool with it!
i disagree that its a steep cost for full casters. maybe if it was a 3-4 level dip. being 1 spell level/slot behind isn't a big deal. it's not like he doesn't have worthy lower level alternatives or there's a higher level spell that he needs to get asap. this is a common misconception about multiclassing. it's all about the tradeoff. he traded 1 spell level for a core piece of the build (his whole tactic was armor of agathys + arcane ward and using support/control spells). that's a worthy tradeoff. for example:
a level 5 abjurer can cast hypnotic pattern or fear or slow.
a level 2 warlock, 3 abjurer has the core parts all in place and can cast web, hold person or phantasmal force or suggestion.
the power level between web and hypnotic pattern is not a big gap. web is considered one of the best spells in the game and used even at high tier play (charm and frightened immunity is more common than restrained immunity) over hypnotic pattern and fear. for single target, the 2nd level spells exceed the level 3 spells in power.
@@ConstructedChaos imo this is a common auto-response of people who are averse to multiclassing or dont know how to optimize multiclasses without really considering what's the core tactic of the build, what are the tradeoffs, what levels the campaign will typically play in, etc. a common comment is: "a full caster class should never multiclass otherwise they wont get wish/other 9th level spells!" i'm like are you sure they are even going to reach tier 4? or for the 9th level spells miss out, i'm like if it's a 2-3 level dip they won't miss out if the campaign goes 19-20 levels and tbh for clerics, missing out on 8th-9th level spells are fine as they don't have as good a list as the arcane casters (with most of them being concentration too!).
@@TheRobversion1 The 1-level dip isn't terrible, but this was more about taking 2 levels in warlock just to get Armor of Shadows to cheese your Arcane Ward.
A Wizard's power comes from their spells, so delaying access to those spells by 2 whole levels is significant. Getting Mage Armor at will is not the same power spike as getting access to 3rd+ level spells and those spell slots on curve.
@@PiroMunkie huh? didn't he say he was doing it for armor of agathys?. it's about armor of agathys and 2 levels if he wants armor of shadows (though he could keep it a level 1 dip if he can spare the feat and just get eldritch adept).
we'll have to agree to disagree here. imo there's not much difference between a 1 and a 2 level dip (that's 1 spell level progression). a level 3-4 dip is significant as that's 2 spell levels behind. plus there's a power spike in the tradeoff here. he's getting armor of agathys which is the core tactic of the build.
while i agree that the wizard's power is their spells, whether that's significant or not depends on what the spells you need (and which ones arent banned) are and until what levels your campaign is playing. and again what's the tradeoff? like for example, for him the wizard spell list isn't really a core part of the build. if you put arcane ward on a bard, he'd go there instead. put it on a cleric? he'll go there. the tactic with the wizard spell list is just icing. it's all about what is the build meant to do? this is not a typical wizard controller. it's meant to be a frontline wizard that makes itself the primary target while being able to cast control/utility/support spells. being 1 level behind as in demonstrated earlier is not a significant difference if there's no spell he "needs" on the wizard spell list. as long as he picks good spells, he'll perform well enough.
perhaps it'll be clearer if i give another example. the well known captain magic missile build that deals shit tons of nova dmg. the core is typically fighter 2, hexblade 1, evoker x. the build is built around magic missile. that's what the build will be doing at least 60-80% of the time. and it's an effective main tactic as it has no save, no attack roll, high force dmg. after that build gets magic missile, it won't feel bad dipping out after wizard 1 to get the other core pieces of the build (action surge, hexblade's curse) as the tradeoff is good and while it does delay his spell progression by 2 levels there's nothing he really needs for the build until level 13 wizard (simulacrum which is commonly banned at most tables).
i'll contrast that with another popular wizard build: "the microwave." the microwave relies on the wall of force + phantom hound combo, both high level wizard spells. with that build, multiclassing at any level before level 9 would be a significant delay and something i wouldn't recommend unless the player knows what he's doing or is starting at higher tiers.
I personally wouldn’t look into Blur as a high priority spell choice. I would rather hit up Mirrior Image to layer up that way. This would keep concentration out of the picture and let you use haste while having a way to divert attacks. Great build though!
Ohhhh that is a good improvement! Thank you!
mirror image isnty abjuration though
@@mitsu9314 true, but it doesn’t really need to be I don’t think. We have enough abjuration spells to keep our ward going just fine I feel!
Why not go a step further and try find a Cloak of Displacement? Blurs effect, plus Haste up, plus Mirror Images, best of three worlds! :D
I love that your builds don’t just dump stats and optimise, you also pay extra attention to the story and roleplay element.
Thanks so much! The stories are my favorite parts!
Love him! 🐢
Haha thanks!! Definitely one of my favorite builds so far! :)
Dude, get a second level of Warlock and the Armor of Shadows invocation. This allows you to pump up your Arcane Ward once per turn. Then pick up the Metamagic Adept feat to cast either that or a damage dealing cantrip as a bonus action... granted you can only do this once before you need a long rest, but if you cast it at a high enough level, once is all you need.
I kinda like the idea but I don’t think pumping the ward is going to be that much of a problem for us. Again, cool idea, though!
Mage Armour competes for the same function as Tortles Natural Armour. As they both :"set" your AC to a specific number, it would end up lowering the AC from 17 to 13, all for just 2 points of arcane ward. So wouldnt even consider this unless youve got at least a +3 Dex mod for 16.
@@cyanide7270 you dismiss mage armor and cast it again until your ward is filled, then dismiss it again
Rather than a level in warlock which slows spell level progression, consider picking up the Eldritch Adept feat and take Armour of Shadows which lets you cast Mage Armour at will. You can now infinitely recharge your arcane ward while out of combat. AoA is a great spell, but we can already take False Life for temp hp to accomplish something similar so I'm not certain it's worth slowing down spell progression for. Granted it's not an abjuration spell, but I'm not sure that matters in this context since we'll start every combat with a fully charged ward.
You’re not the first to suggest armor of shadows but I think you’re missing the point of AoA. We aren’t taking it for the temp hp. We’re taking it so that enemies take up to 10 damage every time they damage us (including when they only hit the ward). We’re basically daring them to come after us while we buff our allies and hit them with AOE spells.
@@ConstructedChaos I think I did miss that point, yes. Sorry about that and thanks for the clarification :)
@@MrSpeakerCone No sweat! But your idea is great as well!! Don’t get me wrong there!
slowing down spell progression only matters alot if you slow it down alot and there's an actual higher level spell critical to the build (not just a good to have) you're missing out on. with his build the core is really the arcane ward and armor of agathys. slowing down spell progression to actually get a core piece is the objective. there's nothing he's missing out on because all the other spells he gets at higher levels have competitive lower level alternatives. it's not like he'll be missing out on wish either and his campaign he plays this in may not even reach those levels.
this is one of the big misconceptions when multiclassing. the tradeoff is what determines whether that delay in spell progression matters alot or is a minor inconvenience.
This is very similar to a DnD Deep Dive build, though it started with three lvls of armorer artificer before going 2 lvls of warlock for the pact invocation that gives them mage armour at will to repair the arcane ward in between combats when they finally get there - and the race is warforged not tortle.
Is it? Sounds like a cool build! I have a great respect for that channel but haven’t watched many of the videos as they tend to have a pretty long runtime typically. And several others have mentioned the invocation for mage armor-definitely a neat idea!
@@ConstructedChaos it is, but with your Tortle build I wonder if Clockwork Soul sorcerer would be a good fit. It would be a heeeaaavy investment of levels but the Bastion of Law feature at 6th gives you the ability to use Sorcery Points to give you a pool of d8s to use to reduce incoming damage. Add that to your arcane ward and temp hp from Armor of Agathys and you have even more tanking potential. You will miss out on higher level spells though. Not spell slots because of adding the multi class levels but the spells themselves won’t be as high.
@@jbw065 you’re not the first to mention that as an option either! Check out the lovely Rob Vera’s build somewhere in the comments if you’re curious as to what that might have looked like! He went pretty in depth!
@@ConstructedChaos I’m fairly certain Rob’s done a build for Colby or Chris on their channels but I do love what he has done here with his ghost rider type build. I’m thinking of a similar build but the character will be an acolyte of Bane, the god of pain. The cold damage they take will be the icy fingers of pain that they share with my character as he is struck by their weapons.
@@jbw065 oh I had no idea but I don’t doubt that at all! Rob is very knowledgeable and easy to chat with-as are you!
Love your flavor for that build as well! It comes across as something that would spark a lot of intrigue around the game table as far as what sort of backstory the character might have!
Hear me out. What if you instead take Magic Initiate for warlock and take AoA as your first level spell? That could give you some space to pick up a level or two of a regular tank class like fighter or paladin for extra attacks to stack on top of Haste.
I love that but it only allows us to cast AoA once per long rest. On the off chance we lose the hit points to something or we have multiple encounters spanning beyond the spells duration, we would be missing a big part of what I like for this build.
Totally a viable option though!
@@ConstructedChaos You can cast it using your Wizard slots if I'm not mistaken. That gives you access to AoAs that are bigger than level 5.
Edit: I have now learned that you have to have multiclassed into the same class you took the feat for to cast using spell slots. My apologies, the one level dip is required.
@@TryingExtraHard No sweat at all! That’s a really tricky one! I had to double check it myself before posting my response 😊
A Tortle is the equivalent of an 18 Dexterity wizard but can do with an 8 in Dex & Absorb Elements to soften Dexterity Saving Throws. +2/1 in Strength/Wisdom doesn't do much but better to have more ASIs than none.
Start point buy 8+2, 8, 14, 14, 15+1, 12 for a 10/8/14/14/16/12 (Low Intelligence, I know, but just bear with me).
At 4, 8 & 12, run a +2 on Intelligence to cap at 20. Magic Missile & utility spells run just fine until levels 4 & 16 Intelligence can work until level 8. Also, using point buy the highest you can get Intelligence is a 15, which is effectively a 14, anyway.
Levels 16 & 19 are rare but run Resilient: Constitution & Durable for 16 Constitution & full heal on your Hit Die.
You have 142 average HP & effectively 187 with a quarter of it regenerating via spell casting & 2 spells that you can spam at will.
Ending with 10/8/16/20/14/12 is pretty solid for a 2-feat tank wizard that has a barrier that can be restored between every. single. fight & both good Spell Modifiers & Con/Int/Wis saves Saves
Edit: As a reminder, this is point buy. Theory crafting rolled numbers is not the best idea IMO & I don't like restrictions of the array but do what you will.
8+2/10/14/15/13+1/12 for SA, though.
Personal preference but that just seems like a long time to wait before getting a really high INT score. I'd rather what we've got going here.
@@ConstructedChaos As mentioned in my comment, with point-buy (the system my build is based on) you can't get to 20 Int until 12, anyway.
If you started at 15, you'd have 17 at 4, 19 at 8 & 20 at 12--just like my build. Starting at 15 is no different than 14 ITLR & gives you 2 points to put in other stats that won't be increased until 16 at the earliest.
@@gaelofariandel6747 unless you use the custom origin rule from Tasha’s to get a 16/17 starting out.
@@ConstructedChaos Sadly, my DM doesn't allow that. Bit of a stick up his butt. But I did use a REBORN Tortle on a druid once. Kellit Whi'Fyre. Sadly if I did a regular Tortle Wizard I'd be boned.
@@gaelofariandel6747 All good! I can see now that you were just thinking out loud haha. I got a bit defensive at first after I thought you were criticizing what I did haha.
Does Mage Armor stack with Natural Armor?
It does not, sadly.
The issue i find is that, for some reason, with a decent AC of 17, the possibility of bringing a shield to up it further, all this tankiness, and that Agathys must be a melee hit to function.... i see this as a melee build, but with trash strength or dexterity, it doesnt fit that bill, so i think an alternative would be to make those Con ASIs STR or DEX, and maybe swap the WIS and CHA stats around with them aswell to help that end. Obviously not as good as a Bladesinger could be, but still could work out. Say the CHA is an 8 (or lower if rolled lower), because after all the abuse he received over being "deformed", hes become incredibly shy and non talkative, also worried that while he has great ideas (High INT) hes afraid of speaking up and being ridiculed, which could also open up more RP paths.
Or, if you go with Hexblade as the Warlock level, you could put the ASIs into CHA, to represent their growth of confidence through their interactions with the party.
(Also still REALLY bothers me that a race based off freaking Tortoises live less years than a human....)
it can be a "melee" build with trash strength and dexterity. it's a tank + caster build. it's job is not to attack but to get hit and cast spells as it's primary form of attack. in fact the build benefits more from grappling than attacking as it wants to get hit.
@@TheRobversion1 bingo! It wants to present itself as a threat by supporting allies, debuffing enemies, and throwing in the occasional bit of damage where necessary.
The idea is to give your adversaries the hard choice of trying to take down the tanky tortle (and get punished while doing it) or trying to take down the tortle’s friends while he zaps them with spells and powers up his allies.
Additionally we need our CHA at be at least 13 for our warlock multiclass dip but I do agree that Tortles should live longer than humans. It’s like WOTC has been afraid to do anything outside of the typical human lifespan for some reason…
@@ConstructedChaos agreed. this is why i say casters make the best tanks. not paladins, barbarians or fighters. those classes would have to find ways to encourage enemies to attack them and discourage enemies from attacking allies from the get go as they look beefy and sturdy visually.
basic combat tactics 101 for DMs for intelligent monsters/npcs is "always target the caster" so unlike the classes above, the enemy will go after the caster by default (they aren't beefy looking and in heavy armor) and get punished for it while your 1st action can be dedicated to launching a good spell before the enemy realizes you are the wrong player to target unlike the classes above. the classes above will have to maintain this threat redirection/taunt mechanism the whole fight to protect their allies. the caster can just do normally what they're doing and the enemy will keep targeting them because everybody knows that you ignore a caster at your own peril.
I've actually been playing a Tortle Abjuration Wizard for almost a year now
Nice!! How’ve you been liking it?
We love a Point Buy
I still like rolling dice in most of my home games but sometimes point buy just makes it easier if there’s no time for a session 0.
@@ConstructedChaos we use point buy as well or a variation of it (more points, allowing points to be bought until 17). it reinforces equality and fairness at the table.
9:20 Dispel Magic?
What kind of warlock? If you went hexblade you could grab medium armour to end up with a 19AC, which would mean you wouldn't need Tortle and could grab Res:Con at level 1, but then you'd need a 14 Dex (not a bad thing for initiative). Idk what subclass you're taking here
I honestly hadn’t given that a ton of thought since the main thing we wanted was armor of agathys but maybe it’d be a good idea to go celestial or archfey. Hexblade is always good too but might not quite fit the theme of the character!
@@ConstructedChaos hexblade is a great pick if you're using fire shield/shadow of moil/flames of phlegethos/hellish rebuke. if not, i think no warlock subclass has an advantage and you may actually want to consider clockwork soul instead to keep your spell slot progression while getting armor of agathys.
@@TheRobversion1 ohhhh I like that suggestion, actually. That may have been the way to go initially!
Couldn't you just take Magic Initiate for that armor spell without a dip in warlock? you get eldritch blast from it cantrip wise too
With magic initiate, we’d only be able to cast that spell once per long rest, sadly. The dip is definitely necessary.
as chaos said, a dip is necessary. it's just a question of whether you dip warlock or dip clockwork sorc.
Strenth? Is that like the Strength stat?
hahaha I don't know why I do that and I actually didn't notice until someone else pointed it out! You'll find that I've made an effort to correct it in all my videos published after this one! Thanks for letting me know! haha
Personally i think going with clockwork soul sorc might be more fitting than warlock plus if you take it at lvl1 youd have the con save proficiency.
Not a bad idea at all!!
haha. i just posted my clockwork soul hexblade version of this build in the comments. definitely a good alternative with the abjurer base.
It’s a good option if you only go for one level as it adds to spell slot progression and gives you additional spells. If you’re going two lvls then warlock is better as you can get the invocation that allows you to cast mage armour at will to replenish the arcane ward.
A good way to recharge ur war is by taking 2 levels in warlock or take the feat Eldritch Adept to get the Eldritch Invocation Armor of Shadows for unlimited recharge of ur arcane ward
That is a fantastic suggestion!!
@@ConstructedChaos yea it all so allows you to maintain armor of agithist longer and it can be a real life saver sometimes I multi class into artificer armourer to incentives them to attack me 😂😈
@@rexs4245 my only real issue with it is that it wouldn’t actually do anything for our AC since we already have a 17. Still, endless refresh on arcane ward is pretty fantastic!
@@ConstructedChaos i take the armourer not for the ac but for the Thunder Gauntlets and the Lightning Launcherand and for the Infusions
I assume 285 of the other 286 comments are suggesting a 2nd level dip in warlock for the armor of shadows invocation. ... I concur.
well mine was about going clock sorc 1 dip for AOA. imo ritual casting alarm is enough for recharging the ward out of combat.
Haha you are right that many comments suggest this. But I chose not to simply because our AC is already fine enough and most of the time we're casting abjuration spells anyway. It didn't feel like it was worth delaying our access to things like Spell Mastery.
why not warcaster instead?
That’s a good question. War Caster is certainly viable but I think resilient is a better fit for this build for a couple reasons. For one, this build is made for more of a support role so I don’t think we’d have many attacking spells outside of a few AOE options that would also probably damage us if we were to use them as AOO. Second, Resilient allows us to boost our con to 20 for a +5 modifier. So it’ll help even more with con saves while also effectively granting us more hit points equal to our character level.
So, it’s not that I didn’t consider war caster. And I don’t think that’s a bad option. I just think it gives us solutions for problems we don’t have, while resilient gives us more of what we want to be good at. Again, just my preference!
Iv been toying with the idea of a tortle abjuration wizard who's ward takes the form of blue/silvery full body armor with the helm pauldrons gauntlets and boots of plate metal armor and the rest appearing as a seamless piece of leather armor oh and the helm having a turtle theme ....yeah that's right, ITS MORPHIN TIME! DRAGON TORTLE POWER!
Hahahah that sounds epic!! Let me know how it goes!
@@ConstructedChaos I already have a Barbarian Monk with chunin background who's actually a Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortle (Slash from TMNT) and he's part of a team that has no healer so I'm thinking about having him take 2 lvls in wizard to become the Mighty Morphin Ninja Tortle learning healing elixir but flavor-wise he's not a magic user so I gotta figure out what spells he can pull off with the reflavor of his ninja training, his mutations, or his new ranger powers. (For example right now his magic initiate feat gives him True strike which is his ninja training and silvery barbs which is his mutations allowing a blood curdling screech of a roar that momentarily startles enemies)
@@matihughes1345 hahaha Tortles ftw!!
What program do you use for editing?
I use Davinci Resolve!
Why am I picturing Luke's shell more like a soft shell turtle than the normal shell for his race. It's more of a stiff bone/cartilage carapace than a actual shell. Just like a soft shell turtle the shell is pliable and more flexible.
Just my 2 cents if someone ever asked "since he doesn't have a shell, what does he have then?"
Wonder if elemental Adept would work with armor of Agathys for a bit more cold damage..
What's funny is I'm rattling around the concept of a tribe of tortles living in the swamps. Well a build for this guy. From the swamps. Thinking Beast Barbarian 8/Fighter 4 Rune Knight or Battle Master/ Spore Druid 8
Think a alligator snapping turtle on 2 legs. Lol take the unarmed fighting style , lunging attacks. For that 5 ft reach. And the bite from Beast.
Kinda waiting for that new book to come out. From the leaks it seems to give the tortles a little boost.
Really like the flavor of your build my guy.
Thanks so much!! Yes! I can’t wait for the new book too!
And that build sounds perfect for Tortle with a +2 in strength!
@@ConstructedChaos yea I've been thinking of a build that would kinda show different turtles. Other than what's given with the tortle.
And a bayou "ragin' cajun" (talks like Jusin Wilson the cajun cook) seems fitting with the alligator snapper concept.
Lol with a chef feat somewhere. Lmao
@@DracosDiabolis Did you know I’m Cajun or are is this an amazing coincidence?
Seriously, graduated from UL and everything.
@@ConstructedChaos ah sweet dude. I've spent most of live in middle Tennessee. Lol middle of nowhere, but a stones threw to everything. Lol
@@DracosDiabolis haha small world! Just thought it was funny because, as a Cajun, I do actually identify as a turtle. 🌶
Do a bladesinger tortle, base 17 ac, with blade song with max int gives it +5, haste gives plus 2, caste shield for another plus 5. 29 AC
Haha not too bad at all!
enemy targets your saves or uses no save spells. ;)
@@TheRobversion1 everything has a weakness my guy. But as a wizard you got good int and wisdom saves so you at least have that covered
@@user-mu8ok5xf8d yeah it was meant with jest. i just see so many trying to pump ac instead of worrying about saves (which are more dangerous to get hit because it's not just dmg like stuff that target ac). or you know the better idea is just to prevent the enemy from doing anything (control/burst strike dmg).
@@TheRobversion1 that’s fair. The issue with any wizard build is you will be squishy unless you use your ASI to bump con and get though feat. Plus the classes that get that wisdom save bonus are great as wisdom is the save for some of the more dangerous effect spells
Wouldn't the tough feat be suitable for this build considering it doubles your health?
Sure! It’s also a great option! However, the goal of this build was to create barriers to being hit and/or losing concentration. We want that armor of agathys up as long as possible and we want to encourage people to hit us with melee attacks and not spells since that doesn’t trigger the armor.
as chaos said, this build is about layers and preserving the temp hp and not simply adding more hp. something that reduces dmg like heavy armor master or picking up fighting initiate: superior technique/martial adept-parry would actually work better with what the build wants to do.
If the ward hits 0 you don't need to recreate it though, right?
That’s correct! The ward is basically there until you finish a long rest-whether it has 0 hit points or not.
I found that at first level, a tortle cleric can have a 26 AC
I’d love to know how you did that one!
@@ConstructedChaos I think is like: Forge Domain Cleric. Uses Ability on Shield (So Shield +1), then uses "Shield of Faith" Spell (Another +2) and uses the "Shell Defense" feature. So, to sum up:
17 AC
+2 Shield
+1 Forge Domain on Shield
+2 Shield of Faith
+4 Shell Defense
26 AC... Ok buddy, you are a hard rock
@@gukusama hahaha nice!
Step 1: Select the Hexblade patron
Step 2: Cast hexblade's curse as a bonus action
Step 3: Magic missile their asses off while being tanky af
Step 4: Profit
"Is it me, or do those magic missiles look extra pointy?"
I think you forgot to add the racial bonus to Int and con
Nice
Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed!
For a good warlock subclass is fathomless, since now you no longer need to hold breath, but breath underwater and can swim. Meaning, you are not a weapon submarine!
Fathomless would definitely be a good pick! The Fiend would also be a decent pick to give us more chances to keep a certain amount of temp hp. Although, I don't guess we'd be felling too many opponents ourselves haha.
@@ConstructedChaos Indeed good chap, but hexblade is the ideal as it would give access to medium armor, but more important, shields.
@@ConstructedChaos agreed here with coconutty. hexblade was also my choice in my spirit of vengeance version of this.
i wouldn't like fiend as dark one's blessing would interfere with armor of agathys. the others are all decent choices (well maybe not GOO too as wizards should have rary's telepathic bond anyway).
@@TheRobversion1 I don’t know why but I was thinking temp hp was our ward hp. I’m sleep deprived and working on a music video this week so my brain isn’t firing right lmao
@@ConstructedChaos no worries. it happens. have a good weekend!
Nice video, but now for some reason, I want ice cream. 🍦
Hmmm so weird 🤔🤔🤔😅
Clever
Thanks!!
I know developers have said Arcane Ward doesn’t benefit from your resistances or immunities, but by RAW it absolutely does. Wording says it prevents the damage “whenever you take damage, the Ward takes it instead”, if you’re immune to fire, you would take 0 damage.
I won’t argue with DM preferences, It takes a mountain of optimization to make it viable for tanking even with the RAW interpretation I use, but it’s goes from cool to bad if you don’t allow it to stack in that way.
new player, so please feel free to correct me! but isn't that saying that while you are resistant to the damage type -- the ward is not. and therefore the ward still takes the full dmg amount?? any damage you would subsequently take (after the ward has been reduced to 0hp) would then be at half damage
@@madisonmayo I see both arguments I guess, I think the suggestion is that arcane ward's wording says that it takes the damage that you would take instead, so in that RAW suggested way the DM would roll to see what the damage you would take would be after modifiers etc, and then if there is any damage the ward would then take that. But i'd not be mad at either ruling tbh
@@Vikingeek so I was able to find the answer, and I'm gonna disagree. That's not RAW. You apply full dmg total to the ward first, then what's left over gets halved bc of resistance.
Source, PHB description of resistance: "Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage."
@@madisonmayo I guess the question for 100% clarity comes down to what Arcane Ward counts as…?
You’re correct that resistances are applied before modifiers, however Arcane Ward isn’t modifying the damage, it is just taking the damage instead.
I would argue it’s closer to Temporary Hit Points, which are reduced after resistances are applied - Arcane Ward probably would in fact be temporary hit points in the rules, except because temporary hit point effects don’t stack it would make Arcane Ward objectively weaker.
As I said, I definitely see it both ways, I’ve yet to play a game as such a wizard, or DM one with a player as one, so I can’t really say which version is more or less balanced. Experiencing it in game (as player or DM) would sway me to which way I’d rule it at my table - especially as I tweak and home brew a lot of abilities and rules like that in my games.
@@Vikingeek thanks for your perspective!
Every time i hear a Wiza/Sorc looking for a warlock spell, i say screw, lets go full on coffee-lock
Going coffee/trancelock is almost always the right decision.
@@TheRobversion1 as long as you do it right and have a DM who understands that when you "don't need to sleep" means you no longer suffer exhaustion from not sleeping.
I mean warfoges.dont sleep. Do you actually need to write down "this races does not suffer exhaustion from not sleeoing"?
@@Gashnaw Weeeeelllll it has been clarified in Xanathar's that, sleep or not, a long rest needs to be taken every 24hrs. I'm actually posting a video today that covers it pretty well haha.
@@ConstructedChaos nice yup. this is why the trance/semi-coffeelock version is simply more feasible at the table. they still "sleep/long rest." and no infinite spell slots means they don't get banned.
Just right yesterday started my tankzard campain, just for my DM's suffering) 1st level monk, 2nd level wizard bladesong, very stupid and strayforward build, 16 int, 15 dex and wis (could be more, but who cares?). 14 AC in stock, 17 with Mages armour, 20 for 1 minute 'cause of bladesong, 25 for 1 round 'cause of mages shield reaction. Plate armour users could cry.
Change monk to barbarian, throw away some stats, grab more HP, get banned by DM and all your friends(
Lol nice setup! Sorry your friends couldn't hang!
Abj is my favorite wizard
bladesinger and scribe are mine.
Abjuration is one of my favorites too! Between that and bladesinger!
I have long hated the abjuration wizard build as it's just so underwhelming. This build makes me want to play it now as the tortle idea is just fantastic fun. I've been toying around with an abjuration cleric build based of the Discipline priest from WoW.....balance is an issue sadly
I felt the same way until I challenged myself to toy around with it! An abjuration cleric definitely sounds fun to me-balance aside, I always aim for flavor first! 😊
Tortle blade singer.
Am I the only one who stopped the moment he said no shell and was like, “Bruh does realize that a turtle without a shell dies immediately…..”
Did you know that turtles can’t speak or do magic either? Crazy.
@@ConstructedChaos touche sir, but you know full well what I was meaning. No disrespect.
@@KZBluCaesar3 No disrespect here either haha.
Intriguing. I like the tortle. I dislike the warlock dip. I understand why, I just don't like it. Narratively, a dip into a class like warlock seems like a stretch. Mechanically, it gives you a lot of stuff, but it reveals the metagame when you attempt to justify a single level dip. Is your patron is going to be satisfied with you dipping into a pact for a single (or maybe a couple) of spells? The real question is can you make this build viable without it?
Thanks!! I do agree that, narratively, it might not work. It’s why I mention that the level in warlock is totally optional and also cite an example of what might trigger the dip for the character.
I’d imagine that the patron would constantly be temping Lupe with more power. Maybe Lupe struggles with that temptation quite a lot but knows now that relying on such things isn’t the right way forward.
As for making the build viable without it, you’d be looking at straight Abjuration Wizard, which is notably still a wizard with some fantastic extra defensive abilities. So, yea, very effective and definitely very viable!
You could change out the race to Mark of Warding dwarf which gets it as a racial...
@@juliusheart2667 hmmm that’s a good point but we lose a lot of the fancy AC stuff the Tortle gives us in that case. Plus I’m not sure every DM would allow that race outside of an Eberron setting.
@@ConstructedChaos just giving Eric an option. I don't mind a dip myself 😀
@@juliusheart2667 Oh, I see! Good on ya either way! I honestly didn’t even think to do that!
Strenth is not a goddamn word.
I know. I said Strength. 😜
Real talk, I had no idea I wasn’t pronouncing the ‘g’ lmao! Thank you for letting me know! I also was apparently saying “lenth” instead of “length”
I guess it’s just a product of my upbringing! Good to know the problem exists so I can try to correct it now!
It’s a real pet peeve, but not a real problem brother.
What do you mean 'not actual size'? Which one? There's no way to tell whether or not the ship or the turtle is big or tiny in that picture. Next time, please use a banana for scale.
‘I’m going to say this character was born without a shell for RP reasons but the shell is good mechanically so screw RP.’
The amount of cognitive dissonance in this video alone is staggering.
“I hate this video so much that I’m going to comment on it”
Welcome to the party, friend 😂🫠
Also worth noting that I mentioned he created himself a shell out of magic instead. I wasn’t just referring to the abjuration ward!
Eldritch adept feat can give you that without spell slots
I don’t believe that’s true. You cannot get armor of agathys from eldritch adept to my knowledge.
@@ConstructedChaos it's one of the adepts I believe l George I may be wrong I'll double check here in a minute
@@hydrexseal9173 please do let me know!
did you mean armor of agathys? if yes, then eldritch adept doesn't let you cast that at will as there's no invocation that gives access to armor of agathys. he'd really need to dip into warlock or clockwork soul for it.
You can't make his back story that he doesn't have a shell and still use the withdrawal into shell mechanic!!!
Sure I can! I could easily say that, though he was born without a shell, lupe learned to create his own permanent shell with a combination of magic runes and a hollowed out tree trunk. :)
@@ConstructedChaos you could, but you didn't say that
@@hermanmunster1054 see above comment 😜😂
That's what I was responding to???
@@hermanmunster1054 yes, so I said it! Lol. I’ll stop trolling here. My point here is that you’re being a bit nit-picky. I suppose I should have mentioned some flavor reason for doing what I did but I think the idea was clear enough. Sorry if that confused you at all!
Saying "evil and good" puts the terms in alphabetical order though. :)
Hahah perhaps I was just raised to be chaotic 😂
You want the "no shell" backstory, you don't get the shell AC or abilities. You can't have it both ways. I call BS. Commit to your backstory, or don't use it.
Lupe created a permanent magic shell to replace the one he wasn't born with and discovered an innate talent for such magics as a result. Boom! I got both. :)
i call bs here as well. yes he should commit to his backstory but it doesn't mean his backstory cant evolve as the campaign evolves. moreover, backstories arent tied to classes or abilities. those are simply tools/skills he picked up along the way. he has those regardless of whatever backstory he has for the simple fact that he made that build.
You rely on the TCE rule too much. Try making something that doesn't rely on handicaps.
i think it's not reliance but favoring it. that option has widespread use by the community (much like feats and multiclassing) and has been well-received. i use it as well with all of my builds. it's not a handicap at this point either as wOTC has come out and said that this is the direction that the game is going (like check the ability score allocation of races since tashas) and to expect it as a baseline when the new revision to 5E comes out.
I mean, I could use races with the ability scores where I want them instead. I don’t find it as much of a handicap as it is an opportunity for stronger builds and/or better flavor!
@@ConstructedChaos My point is that it makes it to where it almost becomes too easy. That's why many DMs (mine included) actually ban it. That being said, how would you go about setting up this tactic without using that particular advantage?
@@Xani13 off the top of my head, variant human with moderately armored feat would probably work well enough. Might also consider doing something with a mark of warding dwarf as others have suggested to avoid dipping warlock and open up the chance to take a level or two in artificer instead for better proficiencies and whatnot.
Again, that’s just off the top of my head. There may be better alternatives but I think a Tortle with a magic shell is way more fun.
Flexibility doesn’t inherently make the game easier but I totally support your stance if that’s what you like! As a DM, I allow it and scale my combats to whatever challenges my players.
@@ConstructedChaos I want to be clear: I'm not saying it's wrong to do. I'm simply looking for a way around it since my DMs ban it. Personally, I wish they wouldn't. But I'm not the one in charge in their group. So I have to find ways to deal with it. Lol. That's why I asked your opinion on the matter. My apologies if I came off as harsh or insinuative.