fr my ranger started as the nice guy and voice of reason in the party but after our defacto leader died so we could escape some vampires his grief is strong enough to beckon the attention of mother night and now hes a warlock
Use bugbear as race too, and you have a near perfect line up with predator traits. Tall. Strong. Stealthy. This is a build I’ve been waiting to play in our group’s next campaign.
Ya, i have been re-reading over the artificer class frequently lately because i just want it to be better than it is somehow, and i came up with a very similar Predator-shoulder-cannon idea, but for the Artillerist. The little-cannon-of-choice=flamethrower/120-range-force-ballista/temp-hp-boost-nearest-squares(r10), that can small/hand-held-if-tiny, with or without legs (move OR climb 15 AND attack if you give it legs) just screamed "mount me on my character like Boba Fett or Predator to me. So i figure why not put the thing on a mechanized magical swivel-type targeting system exactly like in Predator? _The "magical gun" feature the Artillerist also gets certainly doesn't feel like a proper ranged weapon unfortunately- unless your GM rules you can modify the whole thing to maybe add those features to an existing ranged weapon maybe for versatility or something (better yet, swap the basic functionality of the cannon with the +magic damage to your 'arty' staff/wand/rod-thingy maybe?). _ _I guess you could also re-flavor/modify the rod/staff/wand to be an actual weapon as well as the limited spell-thrower that it is written as; making it akin with various other handy-Predator-gear from other media beyond the first movie [like spear and disc throwers etc.]. Like, for example, in addition to the other functions, the rod might be an actual club or mace, staff a quarterstaff/spear/javelin, and wand... i don't know, a wand you happen to have? or your one-handed pistol of some sort (firearm, xbow?), maybe even just your actual bow (any variant that, even if not fired normally, can be carried in one hand, ) used as a focus ... or something?
Most forgotten thing in this video: Shillelagh. It makes a primary Wisdom stat ranger perfectly viable. You can pick it up with a fighting style now, and it works with polearm master. All you need is a 14 in dex to get the most out of your medium armor.
Now i really kinda want to build a Fey Wanderer Ranger/Bard with the College of Swords or College of Eloquence... I think the combo here has great potential.
@@TheJeSTeR7530 I have played it, it's awesome. Damage and defense are mid, but the utility is unmatched by any build in the game. And the flavor was so fun.
While True, Shillelagh falls off rather quickly (IMO) because it HAS to be a nonmagical club or quarterstaff, meaning that when everyone else gets +1 or other, better affects, you're stuck with 1d8+Wis Mod forever
@@mishiara5499depends on Campaign, but for most I would say this is true. I say most because I'm in a campaign where I built a character for super range and actually regularly use it. Currently sniping from just about 1000 ft
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Stars Druid is not only useful for the weaponized bonus action. The Dragon constellation basically lets you ignore concentration checks unless you get hit with something brutal, and gives you Reliable Talent for those survival and nature checks. Any ranger can make good use of that feature. (And you also get Guidance and Guiding Bolt.) If you also do a 6/6 split, you also get a really good buff/debuff option.
Rewatching LOTR for the first time in a while. Looking at Aragorn, it's interesting to me that he was a big inspiration for the Ranger, the elements are there but he rides that fine line between Ranger and Fighter. With that in mind, Ranger Fighter multiclass is now one of my favorites to really embody that concept
I’ve always been firmly of the opinion that Aragorn is a fighter who was smart with his skill proficiencies during character building, while Legolas feels more like what I expect from a Ranger.
@@RS-ry4lp I would say Aragorn does have more of the ranger since we do see him use some nature based healing. Legolas I don't think does anything that a fighter couldn't do. Where Aragorn is doing some magical healing that would be the equivalent of a cure wounds spell. Though he also does it rarely enough you could go magic initiate cleric for that spell if you were building him.
Keep in mind the inspiration is from Aragorn in the books. A lot of specific features make sense coming from those sources. His tracking is highlighted, as well as his knowledge of creatures. His stamina and lack of need for rest. How stealthy he is, and a little bit of magic. The books show the connection a lot stronger.
@@tadious9415 The issue is that in a DnD sense, Aragorn is also a 17+ level Battle Master fighter. He is without peer on the battlefield in LOTR so while he does have tracking and healing abilities, he also can throw down in close combat with the best of them.
The druid/ranger works well on my gloomstalker/wildfire. It gives me a nice teleport every round for mobility. And the wildfire spirit doesn't actually emit light, so you can stay hidden. My plan is to end up 15 druid, so it's a druid build to me, but it's 5/5 right now and I like it
It also makes an OBSCENE level of attacks. Round one with action surge is six attacks, plus you can use the Echo Knight's Unleash Incarnation ability on each attack action adds 2 more to the barrage, that's 8 attacks round one.
ooh i really like the eloquence bard with fey ranger idea. if you use druid cantrips for your ranger fighting style to pick up shillelagh, cranking wisdom doesn't hurt as much. and you can stylishly whack people with a stick.
I made a Halfling Ranger with both Shillelagh and Magic Stone. It's a lot of fun. Plus, when you go with a Wisdom Ranger, both Beast Master and Drakewarden benefit from your Wisdom score and utilize your Bonus Action, which isn't always being taken up by a spell or other action.
If you squeeze Crusher at some point into that kind of High Wisdom Druidic Warrior Fey Wanderer, you can bonk people with Shillelagh or Magic Stone at range and push them into areas of damaging spells like Spike Growth. I'm not super familiar with Bard spell list, do they get spells that would mesh with that playstyle? I think their AoE spells are mostly debuffs and control.
@@rashindus haven't thought that far out yet. maybe bard spells are best here for support and utility so that a higher wisdom doesn't impact spell dcs. but support and utility they definitely excel at: helping word, feather fall, disguise self, aid, that kinda stuff. this doesn't seem like a crazy powerful character but one that can participate in all areas of gameplay. except social, then it's just broken.
Make sure you pick up Counterspell with your Magical Secrets if you get that high level. With a +12 to your roll, you'll never need to upcast it. I could also see going Lore bard instead to get this spell 4 levels sooner.
For the Rogue, you said you probably wouldn’t choose Swashbuckler. Personally, I think there could be some fun synergies with tertiary CHA in a Fey Wanderer build
I'm actually playing a Shifter, Beast master ranger, with a 2 level dip in moon druid. My concept was using summon beast, wildshape, and be a one man stampede. I've been enjoying it a lot. :)
For the Ranger/Druid, I think the 2 level dip in Stars Druid would actually be awesome! Take your pick: you can get an extra ranged attack every turn enhance your healing or help keep your concentration (which Rangers really need). On top of that, you get Druid cantrips along the way like Shilelagh and Guidance. It's a big reward for a small investment.
Plus the wildshape for utility. I feel like everyone thinks of moon druid and discounts wildshape if its not combat effective, but being able to say 'I turn into a mouse' twice per short rest is great for infiltration, ambush, escape, getting through obstacles, or preventing certain traps from working.
@@saltypork101 oh I don't say it isn't. But there are enemies that are outright immediate ne to such effects. As well as enemies that roll with adv. against such effects. So having two players in your party that are build around them can turn out problematic in a situation where you face one of those. It is a bit like keeping alternative damage options around just in case you face an enemy resistant or immune to you go to.
@@GödekeMichels_72 I didn't @ you because I was only really responding to OP, but since you brought it up, these two characters are still a full ranger and a full warlock. There's plenty they can do damage wise against a creature that's immune to frighten. However, if you do build this all into one character rather than dividing it up into two, then you can leave your charisma at 13 instead of needing it high to be an effective warlock. This means more creatures will pass their save against form of dread. Now you get more opportunities to apply Beguiling Twist, which is a stronger effect than form of dread anyway. Because the uses of form of dread scale from your player level (pb pd) and only the temp hp scales from warlock level, all you need is a one level warlock dip to achieve this build. You might choose to take more than one level for extra pact slots, but it's not required. If you do take 2 levels, your pact slots give you practically unlimited goodberries with a little preparation. If you take 3 warlock, you get the unlimited goodberries _and_ effectively always-on pass without trace. 5 levels and you can take eldritch smite for burst damage as needed on your ranged attacks and some anti air potential with the automatic prone effect. This is to say nothing of all the other invocations you can pick up along the way that any ranger would love to have. Ranger/Warlock should really have been A tier.
I played that combo for a decent length campaign, only thing is I never got to truly use the Umbral Sight ability to seem invisible against enemies relying on Darkvision - the one time I tried, the DM gave tremorsense to the Mimics lol
@@rashindus Even in some cases if your wisdom just barely meets the minimum depending on the domain and strategy/chosen utility it could still be very decent. Example of benefits not requiring a good casting stat is order domain (tho is better with sorcerer, but summoners also get good use out of it).
As a DM I wouldn't allow that. Not just because its OP to the point of being broken, but also because the Life Cleric feature says 'Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature...' which doesn't describe goodberry; goodberry summons the berries, its the act of eating the berries as an action that restores hitpoints, not casting the spell. It would be like saying features that increase the damage of spells, like an evocation wizard, also applies to every instance of damage a summoned creature makes; the spell isn't doing the damage, the spell is only summoning.
@@WolfbloodJakeWilliams Jeremy Crawford disagrees with you but anyway, adding Peace Cleric or Twilight Cleric to practically any Ranger also kicks ass. Nature and War Cleric with Ranger is pretty good too. Even after all that, I'd still place the Cleric multiclass behind Rogue and Fighter.
Druid has a lot concentration spells that can be used to help control or slow enemy movement, starting at level 2. Also, the wildshaping for non-combat situations helps for scouting .. it’s also just very thematic as Druid Ranger
Yay!!!! The one in this series I was most looking forward to! For me, I tend to combine rangers most often with rogue, monk, or cleric. It really depends on what I’m trying to get out of the encounter. I did combine bard with feywanderer and it works super well since most others in that campaign don’t have good deescalation methods in their mechanics where as a feywander with a bard dip, very much has options. I’ve also combined fey wander with archfey warlock for a oneshot which went amazing. I tend to main a lot of rangers. One of my recent favorites was combining swarmkeeper with grave cleric as I made my swarm fragmentary souls that my ranger was traveling to help put to rest (as they were unable to do so on their own). I have also used drakewarden combined with only a few levels of light cleric. This was for an astral elf refugee who lost his faith in Corellon. The dragon was basically his service/emotional support pet and the levels on cleric were his slowly renewing faith (and the reciprocal support of his god). Rangers are honestly a lot of fun. Oh! And my recent campaign that wrapped up. I played a gloomstalker ranger with a dip in scout rogue. It worked out exceptionally. He is very good at what he does and it’s kinda a hilarious campaign. Oh, and suggestion on ranger druid. Try a gloomstalker, least 7 levels, add some Druid in, whichever works for your campaign. It’s a hilarious combo. (Even in wild shape, you would be invisible)
Was a Hill dwarf nature domain cleric 1 and then ranger all the way. Was in Heavy armor with a quarterstaff and a shield. took shillelahg as my nature domain free cantrip and took defense as my Fighting style. I was very tanky and only needed wis and con. Was fun and versatile!
I appreciate how you guys have changed your minds on the Sword Bard. You're totally right, a multiclass into Sword Bard is awesome. I played a Battlemaster Fighter/Sword Bard once and that was just so much fun.
While Kelly and Monty were talking about the Sorcerer dip0 to get Misty Step and Haste I kept muttering to myself, "Dip Sorcerer and be a Horizon Walker and you get all of it"
I know you guys were memeing about the dragonborn/draconic sorcerer/drakewarden, but a 1 level dip in draconic sorcerer is actually really great on a ranger. You need 13 charisma, but if you start with the dip you get con save proficiency, extra HP, permanent 13+dex AC (basically mage armor, which is great since your dex based), some utility cantrips, and you can grab Shield.
I've said it on a few of these videos here but Kensei monk makes for a decent 3 level dip for most any martial character. From base monk you get the 3 ki points to use on flurry of blows, step of the wind or patient defense which are all useful ways to utilize your bonus action depending on the circumstance. And you get deflect missiles which, while situational, gives you an additional way to use your reaction. Then from Kensei you get two resource-less abilities in the form of Agile Parry & Kensei Shot to boost either your defense or ranged attacks. Granted none of this is mind-blowing or anything but there's nothing here that you won't be able to use relatively frequently.
Sure, but it also locks you out of wearing armour and ties your AC to wis&dex, your flurry of blows are only ever going to be d4s of damage, and 3 ki per short rest doesn't really go that far- that's only three rounds of combat you get to use those features in between short rests. It seems okay in isolation, but say you're a level 5 Ranger - are you really going to lose out on the features of level 6, your second subclass feature at 7 and an ASI at 8 , as well as your spell progression, to pick up some limited uses of fairly niche abilities that also come down with downsides of their own?
@@anthonynorman7545 it's an extremely niche build where you wear armour and lose Martial Arts so you have to use Str to make your unarmed attacks (which are only 1+Str damage, no Martial Arts dice), you still keep Flurry of Blows, Step of the Wind and Stunning Strike but obviously needing Str makes it an even worse prospect for a Ranger multiclass
Hey! I've been really looking forward to this video. I absolutely love this series, and the ranger is my all-time favorite class, by far. As for your assessment of multiclassing with the druid, I agree with a B: the two classes share a lot of spells, so you don't gain much from the druid. However, when it comes to the cleric, I would have given it an A because their spell lists are quite different, and getting a boost in spell slot levels is perfect for gaining higher-level-casted invocations or spells. I played a multiclass with crossbow expert and shield (the artificer infused my crossbow, so I didn't have to reload), and it was incredibly strong in melee with Spirit Guardians. Congratulations on the video and the channel, thanks for what you guys do!
Y’all should check out Treantmonk’s Undead Warlock/Fey Wanderer Ranger build “Quiver” It drops some insane fear onto the battlefield. One of my favorite builds of his and it deserves some more love.
Thanks Dudes! I’ve been looking forward to the ranger video since you announced the series. While the don’t multi class well together, rangers and wizard are my favorite classes. I would love to see you most powerful Players Handbook builds.
Shillelagh. Dump STR and CHA to 8, slap a 14 in DEX for the best use of medium armor (plus a shield). Put a 15 in CON which you will take to 16. 10 INT so you at least aren't rolling with a negative modifier on nature checks, hah. Put your 15 in WIS to take it to 17. Put ASIs in mobile, +2 WIS, and grab something like Fey or Shadow Touched or whatever you like that gives you that extra 1 WIS, and Polearm Master/Sentinel eventually. Then you'll have decent AC, good HP, dish out great damage, lots of spell utility and a great WIS score for out-of-combat utility. Makes for a very solid character.
I see Ranger/Druid like a hunter that relies on leading enemies into traps like having them run into a spike growth and raining arrows on them from a range. They could avoid it, but that can even give another round attacks on them. Can you pre trap an area with spike growth for example and have them chase after you? If so then you are more of a tactical range character I think. I don't know just throwing out ideas. Have a familiar use attack and run tactics so they chase after it into a disadvantaged area you prepared for them?
This wasn't a multiclassed character but I once played a Hunter Ranger with Heavily Armoured and GWM at lvl 11, and combining Nature's Veil with Whirlwind Attack and GWM (and Horde Breaker) just feels awesome
Totally coulda ignored my comment on the monk video and it wouldn’t have made a difference, but I feel like this discussion did a way better job of looking at more obscure subclass options with the multiclassing and the thematic ideas were awesome. Truly appreciate how you guys had the discussion with me and implemented it. Makes me as a viewer feel heard, and a truly great quality as creators and as people to listen to criticism. It makes sense why this channel has built such a great and respectful community. My respect only goes up with each video, and this was an excellent video as always.
Maybe to sweeten the pot for the Ranger/Artificer multiclass, you can get the infusion that makes it so your bows don't require ammo, and removes the loading property for your crossbows, while also giving that nice +1. (It's repeating shot)
While that's good, with a feat you can remove loading and also turn your crossbow (or a gun with another, but very similar feat) into usable melee weapon. And if that crossbow is a hand crossbow, you get another attack. So, if that's the important part to you, there are easier ways
@@rashindusyes, that is another route for crossbow. There is a small wrinkle to consider thou. Crossbows have both the Loading and Ammo Properties. The feat only removes the Loading part. The Ammo side still requires you have an open hand to load the crossbow. The Infusion would remove both Properties, making crossbows as simple as Point and Shoot. With the Hand Crossbow, you can operate it with just one hand, so you other hand can hold a shield or another weapon. You can go SWAT or Pirates. Also with the second Infusion, you can use it to cover a wide array of utility items.
@@rashindus it's not what's important to me, I don't think it's a good multiclass. That aside you're still getting a decent amount from artificer levels. Infusions like the repeating shot as well as maybe the magic item infusion. Some additional useful spells to prepare. Some additional tool proficiencies. You're not getting nothing. Repeating shot just might be something a ranger wants while doing this multiclass
I know Im late, but i wantrd to talk about potential options for Ranger/Clerics. If you go Twilight Domain Cleric for a couple of levels and then spend the rest on Swarmkeeper, you end up with a surprisingly strong character that you can flavor as a Warrior for the Raven Queen (being able to summon a Raven Swarm that Buffs your Allies with Temp HP and Damage your enemies with Swarmkeeper Features)
37:31 sums up very concisely my biggest problem with so many of the convoluted multiclass ideas out there that self-buff or combine multiple effects from different places-they treat D&D as if it's a solo game. So many of these _broken multiclass combos_ are executed easier, earlier, and often better by planning with your party members rather than doing everything yourself.
Gloom Stalker + Samurai as an elf is insane. Lvl 9 character making 6 attacks on the first round all at super advantage with Elven Accuracy and Sharpshooter to top it off is just disgustingly lethal
I'm playing a Drakewarden Draconic Sorcerer. Rolled stats so I have a good Dex, Charisma, and Wisdom. It also speeds up your spell casting progression so you can upcast.
For Ranger/Cleric the ratio of the multiclass is very important. If you're only taking a 1-2 level dip in Cleric is very good. Take Gloomstalker + Twilight Cleric for example. A 1 level dip in Cleric here massively improves all of your gloomstalker abilities, Dread ambusher? Have advantage in initiative to go earlier in combat, Umbral sight? Now you have 300ft of darkvision, if an enemy has true/blind sight and can still see you in the dark just back up until their sight runs out and snipe away with advantage from the shadows. None of your party has darkvision which limits your effectiveness in combat? Now you can share 150ft of darkvision with your allies so you're in the dark as much as possible
About the monk ranger... I took it up untill 14th level and it was the damage dealer of the party with around 50 60 dmg per round. One of the best combo was focused aim + archer fighting style + sharpshooter+ ki focused attack. It goes like this: Shoot at a target using sharpshooter with your shortbow longbow (dedicated weapon or kensai) , the minus 5 to hit gets compensated by +2 of archer and by a +2 to a +6 of focused aim in case you don't hit right away. Since you spent a ki point in your action you can use your BA make another attack with your monk weapon with ki focused attack. For 1 ki point you are giving yourself a +10%to a +30% chance to hit when needed and another attack that deals 1d8+15 dmg. Whant more? You can make this choice after you rolled and missed so in case it's not necessary you simply don't waste anything. And even if you missed after spending the ki point you get to make another attack... Whith this combo you are going to hit with sharpshooter attacks expecially while in darkness. Whant more? Be a gloomstalker way of the shadow and make four attacks at first turn with advantage while in darkness and consider taking eldritch adept for devil's sight and or Elven Accuracy. You are going to hit with that +15 dmg. This combo also has a good survivability. Try to reach this guy in melee with his mobility.. Do you want to shoot him then? Not so easy with deflect missile. Did you finally reach him? He can teleport away with darkness and shadow step or just by bonus action disengage.. Dex based saving throws spells? Evasion + proficency in dex saving throws..Not enough? Use patient defence for disadvantage to be hit and advantage to Dex saves.. Allright, wisdom saving throws spell then? Gloomstalkers got proficiency with Iron mind. You finally got him in melee and he can't get away... ok he can keep in hand his bow and make 4 unarmed attacks with hunter's mark on. No disadvantage, no need to change weapons... I am not saying it is the best combo ever, but I can tell you it is fun to play this character and hits hard.
I had a Gloomstalker 8 / Barbarian 2 for a one shot. It was exactly the character described (greatweapon master with Alert) and it was pretty strong. I agree with it being a B. It was a bit rough not having spells in combat but I was able to use the slots for exploration.
About the monk ranger... I took it up untill 14th level and it was the damage dealer of the party with around 50 60 dmg per round. One of the best combo was focused aim + archer fighting style + sharpshooter+ ki focused attack. It goes like this: Shoot at a target using sharpshooter with your shortbow longbow (dedicated weapon or kensai) , the minus 5 to hit gets compensated by +2 of archer and by a +2 to a +6 of focused aim in case you don't hit right away. Since you spent a ki point in your action you can use your BA make another attack with your monk weapon with ki focused attack. For 1 ki point you are giving yourself a +10%to a +30% chance to hit when needed and another attack that deals 1d8+15 dmg. Whant more? You can make this choice after you rolled and missed so in case it's not necessary you simply don't waste anything. And even if you missed after spending the ki point you get to make another attack... Whith this combo you are going to hit with sharpshooter attacks expecially while in darkness. Whant more? Be a gloomstalker way of the shadow and make four attacks at first turn with advantage while in darkness and consider taking eldritch adept for devil's sight and or Elven Accuracy. You are going to hit with that +15 dmg. This combo also has a good survivability. Try to reach this guy in melee with his mobility.. Do you want to shoot him then? Not so easy with deflect missile. Did you finally reach him? He can teleport away with darkness and shadow step or just by bonus action disengage.. Dex based saving throws spells? Evasion + proficency in dex saving throws..Not enough? Use patient defence for disadvantage to be hit and advantage to Dex saves.. Allright, wisdom saving throws spell then? Gloomstalkers got proficiency with Iron mind. You finally got him in melee and he can't get away... ok he can keep in hand his bow and make 4 unarmed attacks with hunter's mark on. No disadvantage, no need to change weapons... I am not saying it is the best combo ever, but I can tell you it is fun to play this character and hits hard.
Gloomstalker/Echo Knight can get 8 attacks first round, and is one of my favorite multiclass options to play. So much fun with Spike Growth and an echo that can hit things in it and not take the spike damage, great battlefield control options if you go Polearm Master/Sentinel. Played this in a lot of one-shots, hope to use it in a full campaign someday.
Eloquence Bard + Fey Wanderer is definitely Saint Germain from the Netflix Castlevania. (I haven't seen his original character in the game personally... so might not line up there.) He is ridiculously charismatic, and weaponizes it alongside the power of the great difference between his wisdom and the wisdom of those around him. He is knowledgeable to a fault, and before you understand why, you've already joined in his quest for whatever strange thing it is he wants to find.
A cool DM would let you combine the features of the Steel Defender with The ranger's Companion. Like 1 creature that's like a Frankenstein's monster, but in animal form. Give it the Steel Defender's ability scores, the Primal Companion's skills and saves, and AC. Then stack HP, and features.
I had a fun character at the start of curse of Strahd (spell check) that was level 5 being 4 colossus slayer ranger and 1 genie warlock with 2 weapon fighting (had mapped to lvl 8). Go to spells were hunters mark and cure wounds. Had a couple "monster-house" scenarios that it helped having the returning spells on a short rest. Combat was dropping hunter's mark, make the weapon attack (or attacks if target is already marked), add prof mod damage, and add d8 colossus slayer. Don't know about a 1 to 20 campaign, but was key where it was.
My favoritr Gloomstalker Ranger + Shadow Monk, which I plan to do as my evil char in BG3. Blind Fighting, Darkness spell, considered invisible in darkness which you can also teleport to, extra fast movemet. You are more assassiney than actual assassins.
I'm planning to run a ranger 4 / cleric X soon in an IWD campaign. It's possible to start high Wis with Druidic Warrior fighting style from Tasha's to make a SAD Wis gish using Shilleleigh and a club or staff. Druid would also work, but you already have the best druid cantrips; you'd probably pick a different fighting style for druid.
I think you guys might be discounting Druidic Warrior quite a bit. Even though you still need Dex access to Shilleleigh makes you WIS MAD. Or a fighting style and Nature cleric/druid.
So as far as the "social manipulater" ranger-bard, a good way to make it work as a ranger would be take the druidic warrior (or whatever its called if I got that wrong) fighting style and take the Shillelagh cantrip to use wisdom as your primary weapon. You already need enough dex just to multiclass to almost max out medium armor, so one more point won't hurt, but you can then focus on wisdom for attacking and ranger spells, and simply be a melee ranger with a ton of social abilities and some early bard spells added in for fun.
Fighter 11: Attack 3 times, action surge, attack 3 times again, continue attacking 3 times per turn and pile on Precision Strike to tell that Sharpshooter penalty to eat lead
@@jpjfrey5673 Gloomstalker gets a quasi 4th attack as well at 11. Any miss they get to attack again. Third in subsequent rounds. Plus the gloomstalker gets that extra 1d8 plus advantage if in darkness.. Plus level 7 is a loooot earlier then 11.
@@Hyde_Hill that's not a 4th attack, by all means it's just a reroll on a 3rd attack. That GS only gets on the first turn, after which it's back to 2 effective attacks per turn. If you're planning to fail, you're going to fail. Meanwhile Fighter gets to say "WHAT miss?" by hitting Precision attack 5 times per combat and aren't restricted to first round of combat. Advantage can be achieved in multiple very easy ways, and a properly specced Fighter doesn't even need it to hit consistently. And that extra d8... woooooow, extra less-than-4.5 DPR. When Sharpshooter exists and is available to a Fighter much earlier and at no losses to accuracy because ASI isn't delayed
@@jpjfrey5673 so we're just going to ignore the bonus damage from hunters mark that rangers get, along with being able to turn invisible at level 11 and get advantage on all attacks for an entire round, or hide in the dark for advantage if you're a GS, which pairs amazingly with Sharpshooter? Not to mention that if any of those attacks crit, the hunters mark damage gets multiplied too.
I really felt it when y’all said just mix a bunch of classes. I’m on my first character right now (it’s been a few years of playing but with inconsistent meet ups). Due to us all being new we rolled d20s for our stats instead of the official recommended system. I got the nuts and had an instant 20 Dex and after a few half feats I have a 20 wis as well. I hit level 5 with a ranger and have taken a level of war cleric and a level of monk. After this I plan on going rogue the rest of the way out but am tempted on three levels of fighter. I’m planning on doing more conventional build with a different class if we ever move on to a different story, but my mishmash has been a blast so far.
I was playing an Astral Self/ Swarmkeeper multi for a weebit. So much battlefield control, Wisdom for all strength checks, and really good chip damage with Flurry+Hunters mark. Really was a sick build, dont sleep on this.
Even if you play full on at range shooter and have better uses for your BA, 1 level dip in Monk gives you potentially better AC than studded leather if you have at least 16 in WIS and a way to make, while you have only the bow in your hands, attacks of opportunity that could actually hit, even if just for d4+DEX.
My curiousity is more in the direction of monster slayer (lvl 3 ability to detect resistances, immunities and most importantly vulnerabilities) with dragon monk, which brings more elemental damage variety options.
Monk is ok, it would be my 4th or 5th pick after Rogue, Fighter and Druid. The main issue with Monk MC is the BA conflict with Ranger spells, and the melee vs range conflict. Ranger is most powerful as a ranged character with SS+XbowXpert but a Monk wants to be melee. Ranger has lots of good BA spells like Hunters Mark, Zephyr Strike, Ashardalon's Stride, Ensnaring Strike, but Monk wants to use that BA for an unarmed strike and FoB. Since Tasha's Ranger also has the option of using their BA for 1-2 attacks from their Beast or Drake companion which matches FoB for damage. So you really aren't gaining much from Monk until 5 levels of Monk for Stunning Strike which is a heavy commitment. There are certain character concepts that combine Monk & Ranger and are totally viable, but if you just want to be good in combat there is going to be a more effective build than Monk + Ranger.
I'm currently playing the Ranger/Bard multiclass that's mentioned in the video, it's amazingly fun. The dudes mention that the character is not great in combat, which is totally true. What it is great at though is concentrating on Bless and Faerie Fire while throwing out debuffing Vicious Mockerys and bardic inspirations, which makes it so that you're still absolutely a help to your team in a fight AND still get that incredible buff to your social skills. Something that's a little overlooked about Fey Wanderer as well is that you add your Wis not just to skill checks, but to ALL ability checks including the ones you make for Counterspell and Dispel Magic. For this reason, I actually went College of Lore on my build so I could get those powerhouse defensive spells earlier, and honestly your skills get so ridiculously buffed when you're going this route that the minimum 10, while certainly very nice, is not necessary at all. I absolutely love this character, both mechanically and RP wise, and it's definitely a build you should try out if you haven't.
I like the idea of a Warforged Drake Warden with a Clockwork Drake for flavor and then a few levels of Artificer to pick up a few good abilities and add more flavor to the theme of the build.
"Gloom Stalker Multiclass Tier Ranking" would be a more appropriate title. The reason you find martial classes better for multiclassing than Cleric/Druid is that you don't consider that Tasha's made Wisdom-focused gish builds viable with table-friendly summon spells (using your spell attack modifier) and three subclasses that benefit a lot from high Wisdom (Fey Wanderer and Swarmkeeper rely on your spell save DC, while Beast Master's new Primal Companion uses your spell attack modifier). When building around one of said subclasses, I first consider how to pick up both Shillelagh and the Dueling fighting style. Thus, my S-tier multiclass is Druid or Nature Domain Cleric. Though a 1-level dip suffices, more levels further empowers upcasting of Summon Beast or Summon Fey. Secondary options are the Magic Initiate feat or starting Fighter, which gives you Dueling and Con saves (while Ranger's Druidic Warrior fighting style can grant you Shillelagh and Guidance/Thorn Whip).
i could see a ranger 5 nature cleric 5 with shillelagh being a good melee character, focusing mostly on wisdom. i could also see a ranger 5 spores druid 5 being quite good for summons and ranged attacks
You did it again (and I already told you in recent videos) - Humans do exist! So Ranger/Paladin multiclass can be built as Humant with point-buy and have: 15/14/14/9/14/14 or 16/13/14/9/13/14 or 13/16/14/9/14/13 or similar combinations. This enables quite good builds! Examples: Paladin with 3 levels of Fey Wanderer for Favoured Foe, HM, 2WF FS, + WIS to CHA checks, 3 extra skills, 1 Expertise, 1d4 dmg per turn per enemy. Ranger with 2 levels of Paladin for GWF FS (or just second FS), 10 HPs of healing per day, Heavy Armor prof., Smites,... Add another level of Paladin for subclass. Paladin with 3 levels of Hunter for Favoured Foe, HM, FS, 1 extra skill, Expertise, dmg boosting ability (Colossus Slayer for awesome AoO, or Horde Breaker for third attack per Action).
I like the cavalier mixed with Drakewarden or Beastmaster and using it as a mount because if you have a dm that will kill your mount having the ability to resummon it easily rather than having to keep buying mastiff or horses works
I’ve thought about a fey wanderer/sorcerer (I had in mind a divine soul) who primarily uses their magic to improve their archery, but also improves counterspell, since that’s a charisma check as a sorcerer. Even with neither charisma nor wisdom maxed out, you’d likely end up higher than most counterspell users +5 bonus, but not the abjuration wizards heights. At level 20, I was thinking 12 ranger/8 sorcerer, for the most asi’s and spell slots to max out things like elemental weapon or spirit shroud. Maybe not the biggest spells, but this isn’t focused on magical damage.
One fighter option not mentioned is EK, giving another way to get Shield, and also Find Familiar, as well as the usual fighter abilities. One thing that keeps the Wizard single level dip slightly more competative with the sorcerer is, as the guys mentioned, Find Familiar, but specificly the ability to cast it as a ritual, the EK doesn't give. But unless your going for arcane spells beyond first level, I think EK is the most natural dip to do that.
-The issue with Beastmaster x Barbarian is that the beast's power is based on your Wisdom spellcasting and would be impeded by the Strength and Constitution focus the build would need (either that or you use the shaky 2014 pet rules). Thankfully Drakewarden doesn't have this issue, so you can be an angry dragon keeper. Speaking of unusual Ranger playstyle, you can totally focus on spellcasting and be a battle druid of sorts. All you need to do is fight with a quarterstaff and a shield so you don't mind your Dexterity only being good rather than great. Shillelagh enables you to be exceptionally Wisdom focused (benefiting a Fey Wanderer or Beastmaster) while aggressively progressing your spell slots as a Druid or Cleric. You can get the cantrip easily via the Druid multiclass or even just your Fighting Style selection. To a lesser degree, Eloquence Fey Wanderer could work in a similar way, although to a more limiting degree.
If you choose pact of the blade with the ranger/warlock you can have a bow as your pact weapon. Also you can take the eldritch smite invocation which does work with ranged pact weapons
I love my swarm keeper, and am sad to see it mentioned so rarely in these ranger videos. I love the idea of the fighter/swarm keeper pushing enemies around the board though.
I played a ranger 5 / cleric 2 -> 7, and I can confidently say that the Life cleric Goodberry stacking is absolutely insane for out-of-combat healing for a relatively low opportunity cost (1st-level cast goes from 1x10 to 4x10 and upcasts). Also, you can basically ignore crossbow expert in favor of spiritual weapon after a certain level, and having the "dead" slot levels lets you upcast really fantastic party buffs like Bless or Aid to keep your party going at all levels. It plays as if you're a ranger with spiritual weapon with lots of beginning-of-day and post-fight utility, and I love a good cast of Guidance :)
gloomstalker- twilight cleric-rogue multiclass (with fighter if you have the levels available) DM: "the guild has a quest to eliminate the leader of the orc tribe threatening the area. he's too strong for the militia to handle." player: "i accept!" upon locating the orc camp player proceeds to climb a tree for a good vantage and waits for nightfall. DM: "ok now what? how to you want to approach the camp?" player: "approach the camp? hahaha, silly dm." proceeds to start shoting arrows into the orc camp from 330ft away. assuming 30ft of movement/60 with the dash action itll take 6-11 turns for the orcs to get within melee range assuming they start running in the right direction because of course they can't even see you. DM: "well.. the quest only called for the leaders death... good job on taking out the whole tribe." gloomstalker= invisible in darkness, sharpshooter= no range penalty and +10 damage on hits twilight cleric= +300ft of darkvision rogue= sneak attack on anything that can't see you, which is everything because you're invisible. if you can get fighter for action surge this just adds more pain. hunters mark would be out of range at the start but something like fire arrow would still work, just for added damage. i feel like you could make this more powerful but i think the point has been made at this point.
On monk/ranger: I also like the idea of an archer who can still hold their own in melee. The enemy thinks they've got the upper hand by forcing the archer into melee, and then the archer just unleashes a flurry of blows.
It's called being a DEX martial. You don't need fists when you can just pull out shortswords and show em what's good. Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, any class that can benefit from DEX can do it, Monks do it worse than them all
Also Monk Ranger means you can generally ignore armor if you feel like it, letting you get around the stealth disadvantage most medium armors give, but still easily start with 16 AC. And once you get to Ranger 6 / Monk 2, you're moving an extra 15 ft per round if you take Deft Explorer.
@@voicetest6019 if you're a full DEX Ranger, you're wearing light. No penalties there. Why would you wear medium if your DEX is 18 or higher? Studded Leather is equal AC to Scale Mail at 18 DEX and more at 20. Just why?
@@jpjfrey5673 Monk Unarmored Defence gives you 16 AC if you have 16 Dex/Wis, matching the cap of Scale Mail, Leather and Breastplate. If you get to 18 Dex/16 Wis, it meets Studded Leather's cap as well as Half-Plate If you go above those scores, it beats studded leather and half plate.
I love the ranger, easily my favourite martial in the game. It is ripe for multiclassing too. I was really looking forward to this video. For barbarian, unfortunately RAW FF says "as if concentrating on a spell" so it doesn't work with rage. I'd still totally allow it and it doesn't change that B tier, though, which I agree with. Special mention goes to greatsword beastmaster wolf totem to even out that lower wisdom score. Great synergy and flavour, if not the most powerful. There's also ancestral guardian with a bow abuse, which can be pretty fun as it is a defensive party-wide buff that lasts an entire encounter if your allies can keep the enemy away from you. I agree with cleric, no complaints at all. However, ranger/cleric has one of my favourite builds to play. Arcana cleric + swarmkeeper. Booming Blade, spirit guardians, druidic warrior for shillelagh + thorn whip. Not to mention the ability to fit crusher in there with your quarterstaff. Extremely fun, if likely somewhat heavier on the cleric levels than the ranger ones because potent spellcasting. Druid I feel you guys underrated. Sure, cleric as a base class gets you more goodies in addition to upcasting Conjure animals, but every subclass except moon gets you something useful. Wildfire druid gives you free teleports, stars helps your concentration and gets you guidance, shepherd does shepherd things, etc. Even weaker combos have their place. Land gives you more spells per day and misty step, dreams give you a separate resource for pseudo healing word yoyo. If you can get the action before combat, spores gets you a boatload of temp HP, a means to weaponise your reaction if you don't have another use for it and animate dead has a surprising amount of utility. All of this goes on top abusing SS/CBE in combat, and wildshape during exploration/infiltration on a class that gets expertise. IMO, it is easily A tier, if not the S-tier pick. Monk is not that great, unfortunately, and I think this is a C at best. There's some upsides, ranger with archery can make excellent use of that movement in a way straight monk can't. Kensei has one fun interaction at monk 6, with focused aim/deft strike/ki-fueled attack. This lets you do CBE BA attack with your longbow as long as you have ki and increases accuracy. Is it worth it? Debatable. Barbarian's rage at least gives you a powerful additional resource that will last an entire encounter in exchange for weakening your spell progression, but monk isn't as frontloaded. I'm mostly on board with the rest of the ratings. I wish paladin and the other casters were easier to work with, though. There's some really cool things that are just ruined by AS. Quickening Conjure Animals and Silvery Barbs on a ranged attacker are just evil. Smiting melee ranger would be super cool. MADness is the bane of some really great combos.
Great video, as always, guys! One minor nitpick. You got the Barbarian/Favored Foe interaction wrong. It was confirmed by Jeremy Crawford that anything that requires "concentration as if it were a spell" counts as concentration meaning it doesn't work with Rage. Then again, Jeremy Crawford is fallible and a DM can decide what they want! This video makes me want to build a Dragonborn Drakewarden/Wildfire Druid. It's not super optimized, but it's a fun idea. You can flavor it as you or your dragon exhales fire which manifests as a wildfire spirit.
Not super important but worth poiting out that with the druid multiclass you get Shillelagh that lets you focus on wisdom instead of dex if you wish to go melee
I can't believe you brought up Shillelagh Spore Druid as a multiclass option in every video, except for the one case where it's actually an S, potentially. x) PAM Shillelagh Ranger either from Fighting Style, Druid, or Nature Cleric can be a quite interesting and powerful SAD build, particularly if you're playing a campaign into the higher levels and more Ranger past 5 doesn't do much for you, while Druid/Cleric past 5 gets you all more powerful spells. War Cleric is also an option on a GWM STRanger for heavy armor and massive bonus action attacks. Monk is B at best. It doesn't really give you much that isn't better by staying single class ranger unless you have some specific build combo in mind. You'd be giving up using weapons/armor/shields for worse damage and AC in most cases.
I think that in all the cases when discussing Druid you miss Wil Shape at all. You discussed it here only as a Moon Druid battle option but the most important thing about Wild Shape isn't actually a combat but exploration and investigation. This is why Druid is so high on this list.
I played a spore Druid Gloomstalker ranger, and it worked phenomenally, I took the 6 levels in ranger so I still had extra attack but I also had great spells to throw out.
Druids can use their Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar as an action (as of Tashas), which I think would pair really well with a Ranger for gaining advantage and for thematic reasons. And on the Shepherd specifically you have even less need of your Wild Shape than other Druids do.
Gloomstalker/Twilight cleric gets portable invisibility for the entirety of the channel divinity that the rest of the party doesn’t get penalized for unlike the Hexblade darkness combo.
You can thank BG3, (which I hope you don't just hate due to it being a very similar E5 CRPG to the table top, but also very different) - for me finding your channel. Liked and subbed.
My favorite low level multiclass is 2 ranger/1 forge cleric. I think this gives you the best archer I can figure. Snag sharpshooter with variant human and get a 16 dex. You can get the archery fighting style, a +1 bow and bless to enhance your ability to off set the sharpshooter penalty. 3 uses of bless a day along with other support abilities from both classes including guidance makes this a well rounded build.
Currently playing a peace domain drake Warden. Jist having emboldened bond and bless with your drake and the rest of your party is pretty solid. Keeps it up for a long time and nearly guarantees damage each turn from the extra 2d4 (referring to Attack rolls) currently 2 lvl peace domain Cleric 9 levels drakewarden ranger. The rp is a solitary priests who believes all dragons can live in harmony with common kind.
Swords Bard, With Fey Wanderer Ranger. Rock a 14 Dex, and wear Medium Armor. 12 in Constitution, then focus Wisdom and Charisma. Fighting Style Druidic Warrior for Shillelagh, and Dueling Fighting Style from Bard. Dump Strength and Intelligence. That will make them pretty great in combat
Ranger cleric works fairly well if you go cleric 5, swarmkeeper X, don't max dex, but prioritize wisdom and use shileighleigh to hit stuff with a stick, this will allow you to hopefully push people in and out of your spirit guardians to proc it multiple times.
I have a Gloomstalker Artillerist, and the idea is to mix the Eldritch Cannons and Ranger spells for field control. Whether that actually works in practice remains to be seen.
I’m playing as a swashbuckler- Rouge/gloomstalker-Ranger bugbear and I get bonus points for both initiative and first round combat. It’s a great set up and both classes complement each other rather well. I’m currently a level eight, with four levels in each class. My feats are magic initiate Wizard and Warcaster. Using a whip with a bugbear gets fifteen feet of reach with a finesse weapon. In a single first round combat, I can dish out 5d6 from sneak attack and surprise attack, 5d8 between dread ambusher, zephyr strike (bonus action spell) and booming blade 1d8 initially 2d8 when the creature moves and 1d4 whip. If it’s within 15 feet of me and moves out of my reach, I get an opportunity attack from warcaster for another 1d4 1d8 3d6 (swashbuckler sneak attack) and 2d8 as it continues to flee. A total of 2d4, 8d6 and 8d8 (assuming everything falls into place).
@@Dack.howaboutyou because I play as a bugbear, I’m able to fit in a small space without squeezing. Last session, I hid in a laundry basket and killed a tabaxie from it with one hit. His dwarf companion tried to investigate the situation but couldn’t see me because he was relying on his dark vision instead of a torch/lantern and I got the combo off again. Roll playing as Bigfoot is simply amazing 😂
@@gatorman5547 Nice. That's hysterical hahah. I knew when i saw that new Bugbear squeeze-into-small-space ability that it was going to be trouble LOL. Fun, but maybe nightmare fuel for DMs ;)
Sleeping on that Ranger/Sorcerer combo Dudes! Quicken Web, quicken Bless (DS) to boost your sharpshooter hit rate, quicken a Fireball. You go 5/5 and by the time you get there you have the spell slots of a 7th level caster and at 6/6 you have 7 quickened fireballs per day. I actually did this with a Fey Wanderer since I already had a decent Charisma and originally it was just for the extra spells slots to cast Enhance Ability, but man was it powerful!
Heck yeah. I've been thinking metamagic points are under-appreciated and not used often enough too. I actually began a complete re-write of the arcane caster classes so that they all get some amount of metamagic ability. This required some modification of things to keep sorc from immediately becoming crap compared to Warlock and Wizard of course, but i think what i came up with makes a lot more sense compared to how they just threw the Warlock class at us and arbitrarily made wizard be forced to cast with int, while the other arcane casters use CHA?!? How about we choose which mental attribute, or we just combine sorc, wiz and warlock into a Mage class and then have those as subclasses... makes more sense to me anyways.
For Cleric War Domain gives you War Priest which lets you attack as a Bonus Action an amount of times equal to your Wisdom Modifier which is great. Also you could get Crusader’s Mantle which is arguably better than Hunter’s Mark.
Swarmkeeper Ranger + Dao Genie Warlock + Telekinetic Feat = 40 ft forced movement across Spike Growth. One of my absolute favorites. If GM has terrain features like chasms, lava, and acid it is tremendously fun to play.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Rangers in 5E have that Zuko level of character development
I'll just type this - best comment
Most accurate statement.
HONOR!
Haven't played a ranger but zuko is pretty bad ass
fr my ranger started as the nice guy and voice of reason in the party but after our defacto leader died so we could escape some vampires his grief is strong enough to beckon the attention of mother night and now hes a warlock
Gloomstalker Armourer is predator! The infiltrator armour has a shoulder mounted lightning cannon and a stealth field.
Use bugbear as race too, and you have a near perfect line up with predator traits. Tall. Strong. Stealthy. This is a build I’ve been waiting to play in our group’s next campaign.
You just described the predator
Lizardfolk can make skull trophies
Ya, i have been re-reading over the artificer class frequently lately because i just want it to be better than it is somehow, and i came up with a very similar Predator-shoulder-cannon idea, but for the Artillerist. The little-cannon-of-choice=flamethrower/120-range-force-ballista/temp-hp-boost-nearest-squares(r10), that can small/hand-held-if-tiny, with or without legs (move OR climb 15 AND attack if you give it legs) just screamed "mount me on my character like Boba Fett or Predator to me.
So i figure why not put the thing on a mechanized magical swivel-type targeting system exactly like in Predator?
_The "magical gun" feature the Artillerist also gets certainly doesn't feel like a proper ranged weapon unfortunately- unless your GM rules you can modify the whole thing to maybe add those features to an existing ranged weapon maybe for versatility or something (better yet, swap the basic functionality of the cannon with the +magic damage to your 'arty' staff/wand/rod-thingy maybe?).
_ _I guess you could also re-flavor/modify the rod/staff/wand to be an actual weapon as well as the limited spell-thrower that it is written as; making it akin with various other handy-Predator-gear from other media beyond the first movie [like spear and disc throwers etc.]. Like, for example, in addition to the other functions, the rod might be an actual club or mace, staff a quarterstaff/spear/javelin, and wand... i don't know, a wand you happen to have? or your one-handed pistol of some sort (firearm, xbow?), maybe even just your actual bow (any variant that, even if not fired normally, can be carried in one hand, ) used as a focus ... or something?
My wife is currently playing a Gloom stalker/Assassin Drow.
Most forgotten thing in this video: Shillelagh. It makes a primary Wisdom stat ranger perfectly viable. You can pick it up with a fighting style now, and it works with polearm master. All you need is a 14 in dex to get the most out of your medium armor.
Now i really kinda want to build a Fey Wanderer Ranger/Bard with the College of Swords or College of Eloquence... I think the combo here has great potential.
@@bob88667 Plus a hell of a lot of damage for little investment. Add on how few of those levels being "dead" and it certainly has me interested.
@@TheJeSTeR7530 I have played it, it's awesome. Damage and defense are mid, but the utility is unmatched by any build in the game. And the flavor was so fun.
Magic Stone is good too, and if you launch it from a sling it even works with Sharpshooter!
While True, Shillelagh falls off rather quickly (IMO) because it HAS to be a nonmagical club or quarterstaff, meaning that when everyone else gets +1 or other, better affects, you're stuck with 1d8+Wis Mod forever
If you play a gloomstalker with 1 level of twilight cleric and sharpshooter, you can snipe enemies from 300 ft in complete darkness
I have a player in my game that did this and it's disgustingly op
330ft if you wait with your 3rd ranger lvl until after your 1st twilight cleric lvl, since gloomstalker extends pre-existing darkvision by 30ft.
Throw in eldritch adept and get devil's sight and this gets really really stupid
I still think that range is very niche, and is very rare though, maybe once or twice during a whole and long campaign.
@@mishiara5499depends on Campaign, but for most I would say this is true. I say most because I'm in a campaign where I built a character for super range and actually regularly use it. Currently sniping from just about 1000 ft
Stars Druid is not only useful for the weaponized bonus action. The Dragon constellation basically lets you ignore concentration checks unless you get hit with something brutal, and gives you Reliable Talent for those survival and nature checks. Any ranger can make good use of that feature. (And you also get Guidance and Guiding Bolt.)
If you also do a 6/6 split, you also get a really good buff/debuff option.
Rewatching LOTR for the first time in a while. Looking at Aragorn, it's interesting to me that he was a big inspiration for the Ranger, the elements are there but he rides that fine line between Ranger and Fighter. With that in mind, Ranger Fighter multiclass is now one of my favorites to really embody that concept
I’ve always been firmly of the opinion that Aragorn is a fighter who was smart with his skill proficiencies during character building, while Legolas feels more like what I expect from a Ranger.
Ranger doesn't necessarily have to do with ranged weapons, but going over a wide range of terrain which Aragorn is definitely a master with
@@RS-ry4lp I would say Aragorn does have more of the ranger since we do see him use some nature based healing. Legolas I don't think does anything that a fighter couldn't do. Where Aragorn is doing some magical healing that would be the equivalent of a cure wounds spell. Though he also does it rarely enough you could go magic initiate cleric for that spell if you were building him.
Keep in mind the inspiration is from Aragorn in the books. A lot of specific features make sense coming from those sources. His tracking is highlighted, as well as his knowledge of creatures. His stamina and lack of need for rest. How stealthy he is, and a little bit of magic. The books show the connection a lot stronger.
@@tadious9415 The issue is that in a DnD sense, Aragorn is also a 17+ level Battle Master fighter. He is without peer on the battlefield in LOTR so while he does have tracking and healing abilities, he also can throw down in close combat with the best of them.
The druid/ranger works well on my gloomstalker/wildfire. It gives me a nice teleport every round for mobility. And the wildfire spirit doesn't actually emit light, so you can stay hidden.
My plan is to end up 15 druid, so it's a druid build to me, but it's 5/5 right now and I like it
Echo Knight + Gloomstalker = One Man Army. It's the ambusher who can be in multiple places at once
I echo your thoughts 😉
It also makes an OBSCENE level of attacks. Round one with action surge is six attacks, plus you can use the Echo Knight's Unleash Incarnation ability on each attack action adds 2 more to the barrage, that's 8 attacks round one.
I allow Echo Knights but manifest echo a # of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Okay, I'm _definitely_ using that for my multiclass for my Owlin Gloomstalker Ranger character. That seems absolutely terrifying.
I had a player who did this. His turns took YEARS to get through but he did crazy damage 😂😂
Gloomstalker/Soulknife is the ultimate infiltration build, imo. Invisibility, Disguise Self, Psi-bolstered charisma checks, Thrown Weapon fighting style.
It's so, so good.
Not only that, but you never have to be worried about being disarmed lol!
Maybe a bit of druid just so you can go rat mode
ooh i really like the eloquence bard with fey ranger idea. if you use druid cantrips for your ranger fighting style to pick up shillelagh, cranking wisdom doesn't hurt as much. and you can stylishly whack people with a stick.
Polearm master, too!
I made a Halfling Ranger with both Shillelagh and Magic Stone. It's a lot of fun. Plus, when you go with a Wisdom Ranger, both Beast Master and Drakewarden benefit from your Wisdom score and utilize your Bonus Action, which isn't always being taken up by a spell or other action.
If you squeeze Crusher at some point into that kind of High Wisdom Druidic Warrior Fey Wanderer, you can bonk people with Shillelagh or Magic Stone at range and push them into areas of damaging spells like Spike Growth. I'm not super familiar with Bard spell list, do they get spells that would mesh with that playstyle? I think their AoE spells are mostly debuffs and control.
@@rashindus haven't thought that far out yet. maybe bard spells are best here for support and utility so that a higher wisdom doesn't impact spell dcs. but support and utility they definitely excel at: helping word, feather fall, disguise self, aid, that kinda stuff. this doesn't seem like a crazy powerful character but one that can participate in all areas of gameplay. except social, then it's just broken.
Make sure you pick up Counterspell with your Magical Secrets if you get that high level. With a +12 to your roll, you'll never need to upcast it.
I could also see going Lore bard instead to get this spell 4 levels sooner.
For the Rogue, you said you probably wouldn’t choose Swashbuckler. Personally, I think there could be some fun synergies with tertiary CHA in a Fey Wanderer build
I'm actually playing a Shifter, Beast master ranger, with a 2 level dip in moon druid. My concept was using summon beast, wildshape, and be a one man stampede. I've been enjoying it a lot. :)
For the Ranger/Druid, I think the 2 level dip in Stars Druid would actually be awesome! Take your pick: you can get an extra ranged attack every turn enhance your healing or help keep your concentration (which Rangers really need). On top of that, you get Druid cantrips along the way like Shilelagh and Guidance. It's a big reward for a small investment.
Plus the wildshape for utility. I feel like everyone thinks of moon druid and discounts wildshape if its not combat effective, but being able to say 'I turn into a mouse' twice per short rest is great for infiltration, ambush, escape, getting through obstacles, or preventing certain traps from working.
Fey Wanderer Ranger + Undead patron warlock for form of dread is a PB+J combo
That combo works better with two separate characters in the party
The problem with going all in on Fear and Charm effects is that eventually you will hit enemies immune to those. So you need an option B.
Beguiling Twist is very strong if you build around it!
@@saltypork101 oh I don't say it isn't. But there are enemies that are outright immediate ne to such effects. As well as enemies that roll with adv. against such effects.
So having two players in your party that are build around them can turn out problematic in a situation where you face one of those. It is a bit like keeping alternative damage options around just in case you face an enemy resistant or immune to you go to.
@@GödekeMichels_72 I didn't @ you because I was only really responding to OP, but since you brought it up, these two characters are still a full ranger and a full warlock. There's plenty they can do damage wise against a creature that's immune to frighten.
However, if you do build this all into one character rather than dividing it up into two, then you can leave your charisma at 13 instead of needing it high to be an effective warlock. This means more creatures will pass their save against form of dread. Now you get more opportunities to apply Beguiling Twist, which is a stronger effect than form of dread anyway. Because the uses of form of dread scale from your player level (pb pd) and only the temp hp scales from warlock level, all you need is a one level warlock dip to achieve this build. You might choose to take more than one level for extra pact slots, but it's not required.
If you do take 2 levels, your pact slots give you practically unlimited goodberries with a little preparation. If you take 3 warlock, you get the unlimited goodberries _and_ effectively always-on pass without trace. 5 levels and you can take eldritch smite for burst damage as needed on your ranged attacks and some anti air potential with the automatic prone effect.
This is to say nothing of all the other invocations you can pick up along the way that any ranger would love to have. Ranger/Warlock should really have been A tier.
Scout/Gloom Stalker was a great combo! Had that for an exploration game, worked really well.
I played that combo for a decent length campaign, only thing is I never got to truly use the Umbral Sight ability to seem invisible against enemies relying on Darkvision - the one time I tried, the DM gave tremorsense to the Mimics lol
Honestly I kinda feel like Scout is just a Ranger without magic
@@Lightfire398 I prefer Sneak Attack to spells. Personal preference, I s'pose.
@@Lightfire398 The magic is making the enemies disappear
Inquisitor/Gloomstalker is great too. :)
The timing is impeccable! I have been looking for ranger multiclassing options and man oh man you guys came in at the right time!
Goodberry spell from Ranger + Life Cleric is at least an A for me, which would be 1 of my 3 choices alongside Fighter and Rogue.
Clerics are generally so front-loaded and have so many subclasses to choose that anyone with enough Wisdom will get something good out of that dip.
I just came here to say this: one level of life cleric and goodberry: worth it!
@@rashindus Even in some cases if your wisdom just barely meets the minimum depending on the domain and strategy/chosen utility it could still be very decent. Example of benefits not requiring a good casting stat is order domain (tho is better with sorcerer, but summoners also get good use out of it).
As a DM I wouldn't allow that. Not just because its OP to the point of being broken, but also because the Life Cleric feature says 'Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature...' which doesn't describe goodberry; goodberry summons the berries, its the act of eating the berries as an action that restores hitpoints, not casting the spell. It would be like saying features that increase the damage of spells, like an evocation wizard, also applies to every instance of damage a summoned creature makes; the spell isn't doing the damage, the spell is only summoning.
@@WolfbloodJakeWilliams Jeremy Crawford disagrees with you but anyway, adding Peace Cleric or Twilight Cleric to practically any Ranger also kicks ass. Nature and War Cleric with Ranger is pretty good too. Even after all that, I'd still place the Cleric multiclass behind Rogue and Fighter.
Druid has a lot concentration spells that can be used to help control or slow enemy movement, starting at level 2. Also, the wildshaping for non-combat situations helps for scouting .. it’s also just very thematic as Druid Ranger
The Feywander-Eloquence Bard works great with Drudic Warrior - Shillelagh (Medium Armor + Shield) Build
(5 Level / 5 Level)
Yay!!!! The one in this series I was most looking forward to!
For me, I tend to combine rangers most often with rogue, monk, or cleric. It really depends on what I’m trying to get out of the encounter. I did combine bard with feywanderer and it works super well since most others in that campaign don’t have good deescalation methods in their mechanics where as a feywander with a bard dip, very much has options. I’ve also combined fey wander with archfey warlock for a oneshot which went amazing. I tend to main a lot of rangers. One of my recent favorites was combining swarmkeeper with grave cleric as I made my swarm fragmentary souls that my ranger was traveling to help put to rest (as they were unable to do so on their own). I have also used drakewarden combined with only a few levels of light cleric. This was for an astral elf refugee who lost his faith in Corellon. The dragon was basically his service/emotional support pet and the levels on cleric were his slowly renewing faith (and the reciprocal support of his god). Rangers are honestly a lot of fun. Oh! And my recent campaign that wrapped up. I played a gloomstalker ranger with a dip in scout rogue. It worked out exceptionally. He is very good at what he does and it’s kinda a hilarious campaign.
Oh, and suggestion on ranger druid. Try a gloomstalker, least 7 levels, add some Druid in, whichever works for your campaign. It’s a hilarious combo. (Even in wild shape, you would be invisible)
Was a Hill dwarf nature domain cleric 1 and then ranger all the way. Was in Heavy armor with a quarterstaff and a shield. took shillelahg as my nature domain free cantrip and took defense as my Fighting style. I was very tanky and only needed wis and con. Was fun and versatile!
I appreciate how you guys have changed your minds on the Sword Bard. You're totally right, a multiclass into Sword Bard is awesome. I played a Battlemaster Fighter/Sword Bard once and that was just so much fun.
While Kelly and Monty were talking about the Sorcerer dip0 to get Misty Step and Haste I kept muttering to myself, "Dip Sorcerer and be a Horizon Walker and you get all of it"
I know you guys were memeing about the dragonborn/draconic sorcerer/drakewarden, but a 1 level dip in draconic sorcerer is actually really great on a ranger. You need 13 charisma, but if you start with the dip you get con save proficiency, extra HP, permanent 13+dex AC (basically mage armor, which is great since your dex based), some utility cantrips, and you can grab Shield.
I've said it on a few of these videos here but Kensei monk makes for a decent 3 level dip for most any martial character.
From base monk you get the 3 ki points to use on flurry of blows, step of the wind or patient defense which are all useful ways to utilize your bonus action depending on the circumstance. And you get deflect missiles which, while situational, gives you an additional way to use your reaction.
Then from Kensei you get two resource-less abilities in the form of Agile Parry & Kensei Shot to boost either your defense or ranged attacks.
Granted none of this is mind-blowing or anything but there's nothing here that you won't be able to use relatively frequently.
Sure, but it also locks you out of wearing armour and ties your AC to wis&dex, your flurry of blows are only ever going to be d4s of damage, and 3 ki per short rest doesn't really go that far- that's only three rounds of combat you get to use those features in between short rests. It seems okay in isolation, but say you're a level 5 Ranger - are you really going to lose out on the features of level 6, your second subclass feature at 7 and an ASI at 8 , as well as your spell progression, to pick up some limited uses of fairly niche abilities that also come down with downsides of their own?
@@Autonamatonamatonyou can still wear armour but there are downsides to it.
@@abcrasshadow9341what monk feature(s) is still available while wearing armor?
@@anthonynorman7545 it's an extremely niche build where you wear armour and lose Martial Arts so you have to use Str to make your unarmed attacks (which are only 1+Str damage, no Martial Arts dice), you still keep Flurry of Blows, Step of the Wind and Stunning Strike but obviously needing Str makes it an even worse prospect for a Ranger multiclass
@@Autonamatonamaton strange that ki doesn't require unarmed...but why bother when it loses so much...
Hey! I've been really looking forward to this video. I absolutely love this series, and the ranger is my all-time favorite class, by far. As for your assessment of multiclassing with the druid, I agree with a B: the two classes share a lot of spells, so you don't gain much from the druid. However, when it comes to the cleric, I would have given it an A because their spell lists are quite different, and getting a boost in spell slot levels is perfect for gaining higher-level-casted invocations or spells. I played a multiclass with crossbow expert and shield (the artificer infused my crossbow, so I didn't have to reload), and it was incredibly strong in melee with Spirit Guardians. Congratulations on the video and the channel, thanks for what you guys do!
Y’all should check out Treantmonk’s Undead Warlock/Fey Wanderer Ranger build “Quiver”
It drops some insane fear onto the battlefield.
One of my favorite builds of his and it deserves some more love.
Thanks Dudes! I’ve been looking forward to the ranger video since you announced the series. While the don’t multi class well together, rangers and wizard are my favorite classes. I would love to see you most powerful Players Handbook builds.
I think what y’all missed about druid/ranger is circle of spores plus hunter’s mark with the mobile feat
Shillelagh. Dump STR and CHA to 8, slap a 14 in DEX for the best use of medium armor (plus a shield). Put a 15 in CON which you will take to 16. 10 INT so you at least aren't rolling with a negative modifier on nature checks, hah. Put your 15 in WIS to take it to 17. Put ASIs in mobile, +2 WIS, and grab something like Fey or Shadow Touched or whatever you like that gives you that extra 1 WIS, and Polearm Master/Sentinel eventually. Then you'll have decent AC, good HP, dish out great damage, lots of spell utility and a great WIS score for out-of-combat utility. Makes for a very solid character.
@@_bats_ true, though you can do the exact same thing with nature cleric and get access to spirit guardians/spiritual weapon
I see Ranger/Druid like a hunter that relies on leading enemies into traps like having them run into a spike growth and raining arrows on them from a range.
They could avoid it, but that can even give another round attacks on them.
Can you pre trap an area with spike growth for example and have them chase after you? If so then you are more of a tactical range character I think. I don't know just throwing out ideas.
Have a familiar use attack and run tactics so they chase after it into a disadvantaged area you prepared for them?
This wasn't a multiclassed character but I once played a Hunter Ranger with Heavily Armoured and GWM at lvl 11, and combining Nature's Veil with Whirlwind Attack and GWM (and Horde Breaker) just feels awesome
I'm having so much fun at the moment playing a Dhampir, Echo Knight assassin that is soon to go Gloomstalker. Can't wait to really own the dark :)
Totally coulda ignored my comment on the monk video and it wouldn’t have made a difference, but I feel like this discussion did a way better job of looking at more obscure subclass options with the multiclassing and the thematic ideas were awesome. Truly appreciate how you guys had the discussion with me and implemented it. Makes me as a viewer feel heard, and a truly great quality as creators and as people to listen to criticism. It makes sense why this channel has built such a great and respectful community. My respect only goes up with each video, and this was an excellent video as always.
Maybe to sweeten the pot for the Ranger/Artificer multiclass, you can get the infusion that makes it so your bows don't require ammo, and removes the loading property for your crossbows, while also giving that nice +1. (It's repeating shot)
While that's good, with a feat you can remove loading and also turn your crossbow (or a gun with another, but very similar feat) into usable melee weapon. And if that crossbow is a hand crossbow, you get another attack. So, if that's the important part to you, there are easier ways
@@rashindusyes, that is another route for crossbow. There is a small wrinkle to consider thou. Crossbows have both the Loading and Ammo Properties. The feat only removes the Loading part. The Ammo side still requires you have an open hand to load the crossbow. The Infusion would remove both Properties, making crossbows as simple as Point and Shoot. With the Hand Crossbow, you can operate it with just one hand, so you other hand can hold a shield or another weapon. You can go SWAT or Pirates. Also with the second Infusion, you can use it to cover a wide array of utility items.
@@rashindus it's not what's important to me, I don't think it's a good multiclass.
That aside you're still getting a decent amount from artificer levels. Infusions like the repeating shot as well as maybe the magic item infusion. Some additional useful spells to prepare. Some additional tool proficiencies. You're not getting nothing.
Repeating shot just might be something a ranger wants while doing this multiclass
I know Im late, but i wantrd to talk about potential options for Ranger/Clerics.
If you go Twilight Domain Cleric for a couple of levels and then spend the rest on Swarmkeeper, you end up with a surprisingly strong character that you can flavor as a Warrior for the Raven Queen (being able to summon a Raven Swarm that Buffs your Allies with Temp HP and Damage your enemies with Swarmkeeper Features)
37:31 sums up very concisely my biggest problem with so many of the convoluted multiclass ideas out there that self-buff or combine multiple effects from different places-they treat D&D as if it's a solo game. So many of these _broken multiclass combos_ are executed easier, earlier, and often better by planning with your party members rather than doing everything yourself.
Great observation
I lately wonder on arcane trickster bladesinger multiclass, so I can't wait for your rogue video. Great work as always!
Gloom Stalker + Samurai as an elf is insane. Lvl 9 character making 6 attacks on the first round all at super advantage with Elven Accuracy and Sharpshooter to top it off is just disgustingly lethal
I'm playing a Drakewarden Draconic Sorcerer. Rolled stats so I have a good Dex, Charisma, and Wisdom. It also speeds up your spell casting progression so you can upcast.
For Ranger/Cleric the ratio of the multiclass is very important. If you're only taking a 1-2 level dip in Cleric is very good. Take Gloomstalker + Twilight Cleric for example. A 1 level dip in Cleric here massively improves all of your gloomstalker abilities, Dread ambusher? Have advantage in initiative to go earlier in combat, Umbral sight? Now you have 300ft of darkvision, if an enemy has true/blind sight and can still see you in the dark just back up until their sight runs out and snipe away with advantage from the shadows. None of your party has darkvision which limits your effectiveness in combat? Now you can share 150ft of darkvision with your allies so you're in the dark as much as possible
Perhaps, reconsider when you take which lvls. If you first get twilight before 3rd lvl ranger it'll get extended by 30ft.
About the monk ranger... I took it up untill 14th level and it was the damage dealer of the party with around 50 60 dmg per round. One of the best combo was focused aim + archer fighting style + sharpshooter+ ki focused attack.
It goes like this:
Shoot at a target using sharpshooter with your shortbow longbow (dedicated weapon or kensai) , the minus 5 to hit gets compensated by +2 of archer and by a +2 to a +6 of focused aim in case you don't hit right away. Since you spent a ki point in your action you can use your BA make another attack with your monk weapon with ki focused attack. For 1 ki point you are giving yourself a +10%to a +30% chance to hit when needed and another attack that deals 1d8+15 dmg. Whant more? You can make this choice after you rolled and missed so in case it's not necessary you simply don't waste anything. And even if you missed after spending the ki point you get to make another attack... Whith this combo you are going to hit with sharpshooter attacks expecially while in darkness.
Whant more? Be a gloomstalker way of the shadow and make four attacks at first turn with advantage while in darkness and consider taking eldritch adept for devil's sight and or Elven Accuracy. You are going to hit with that +15 dmg.
This combo also has a good survivability.
Try to reach this guy in melee with his mobility.. Do you want to shoot him then? Not so easy with deflect missile. Did you finally reach him? He can teleport away with darkness and shadow step or just by bonus action disengage.. Dex based saving throws spells? Evasion + proficency in dex saving throws..Not enough? Use patient defence for disadvantage to be hit and advantage to Dex saves.. Allright, wisdom saving throws spell then? Gloomstalkers got proficiency with Iron mind. You finally got him in melee and he can't get away... ok he can keep in hand his bow and make 4 unarmed attacks with hunter's mark on. No disadvantage, no need to change weapons...
I am not saying it is the best combo ever, but I can tell you it is fun to play this character and hits hard.
Yeah, you may have to work for it each combat, but that build is strong as heck especially if you are a combat-heavy group.
I had a Gloomstalker 8 / Barbarian 2 for a one shot. It was exactly the character described (greatweapon master with Alert) and it was pretty strong. I agree with it being a B. It was a bit rough not having spells in combat but I was able to use the slots for exploration.
The Ranger Bard, playing with the high Wisdom and Charisma, you can play heavy into your spellcasting to supplement your damage with Cantrip 🤔
Don't forget about Monk's dedicated weapon feature from Tasha's. Now any weapon counts as a Monk weapon if you're proficient with it.
About the monk ranger... I took it up untill 14th level and it was the damage dealer of the party with around 50 60 dmg per round. One of the best combo was focused aim + archer fighting style + sharpshooter+ ki focused attack.
It goes like this:
Shoot at a target using sharpshooter with your shortbow longbow (dedicated weapon or kensai) , the minus 5 to hit gets compensated by +2 of archer and by a +2 to a +6 of focused aim in case you don't hit right away. Since you spent a ki point in your action you can use your BA make another attack with your monk weapon with ki focused attack. For 1 ki point you are giving yourself a +10%to a +30% chance to hit when needed and another attack that deals 1d8+15 dmg. Whant more? You can make this choice after you rolled and missed so in case it's not necessary you simply don't waste anything. And even if you missed after spending the ki point you get to make another attack... Whith this combo you are going to hit with sharpshooter attacks expecially while in darkness.
Whant more? Be a gloomstalker way of the shadow and make four attacks at first turn with advantage while in darkness and consider taking eldritch adept for devil's sight and or Elven Accuracy. You are going to hit with that +15 dmg.
This combo also has a good survivability.
Try to reach this guy in melee with his mobility.. Do you want to shoot him then? Not so easy with deflect missile. Did you finally reach him? He can teleport away with darkness and shadow step or just by bonus action disengage.. Dex based saving throws spells? Evasion + proficency in dex saving throws..Not enough? Use patient defence for disadvantage to be hit and advantage to Dex saves.. Allright, wisdom saving throws spell then? Gloomstalkers got proficiency with Iron mind. You finally got him in melee and he can't get away... ok he can keep in hand his bow and make 4 unarmed attacks with hunter's mark on. No disadvantage, no need to change weapons...
I am not saying it is the best combo ever, but I can tell you it is fun to play this character and hits hard.
Colby did a melee Wildfire/Fey wanderer that looks like loads of fun!
I'm playing a Way of Mercy/Swarmkeeper right now and it's fantastic
Gloomstalker/Echo Knight can get 8 attacks first round, and is one of my favorite multiclass options to play. So much fun with Spike Growth and an echo that can hit things in it and not take the spike damage, great battlefield control options if you go Polearm Master/Sentinel. Played this in a lot of one-shots, hope to use it in a full campaign someday.
I'm playing a Ranger/Fighter and its going pretty well. I'm looking to take a quick dip in Cleric as well.
Eloquence Bard + Fey Wanderer is definitely Saint Germain from the Netflix Castlevania. (I haven't seen his original character in the game personally... so might not line up there.) He is ridiculously charismatic, and weaponizes it alongside the power of the great difference between his wisdom and the wisdom of those around him. He is knowledgeable to a fault, and before you understand why, you've already joined in his quest for whatever strange thing it is he wants to find.
As always, it's an amazing video! Thank you, Dungeon dudes!
A cool DM would let you combine the features of the Steel Defender with The ranger's Companion. Like 1 creature that's like a Frankenstein's monster, but in animal form. Give it the Steel Defender's ability scores, the Primal Companion's skills and saves, and AC. Then stack HP, and features.
Make your companion animal a cyborg
I had a fun character at the start of curse of Strahd (spell check) that was level 5 being 4 colossus slayer ranger and 1 genie warlock with 2 weapon fighting (had mapped to lvl 8). Go to spells were hunters mark and cure wounds. Had a couple "monster-house" scenarios that it helped having the returning spells on a short rest. Combat was dropping hunter's mark, make the weapon attack (or attacks if target is already marked), add prof mod damage, and add d8 colossus slayer. Don't know about a 1 to 20 campaign, but was key where it was.
My favoritr Gloomstalker Ranger + Shadow Monk, which I plan to do as my evil char in BG3. Blind Fighting, Darkness spell, considered invisible in darkness which you can also teleport to, extra fast movemet. You are more assassiney than actual assassins.
I'm planning to run a ranger 4 / cleric X soon in an IWD campaign. It's possible to start high Wis with Druidic Warrior fighting style from Tasha's to make a SAD Wis gish using Shilleleigh and a club or staff. Druid would also work, but you already have the best druid cantrips; you'd probably pick a different fighting style for druid.
I think you guys might be discounting Druidic Warrior quite a bit. Even though you still need Dex access to Shilleleigh makes you WIS MAD. Or a fighting style and Nature cleric/druid.
1 would be SAD because the S is for Single
So as far as the "social manipulater" ranger-bard, a good way to make it work as a ranger would be take the druidic warrior (or whatever its called if I got that wrong) fighting style and take the Shillelagh cantrip to use wisdom as your primary weapon. You already need enough dex just to multiclass to almost max out medium armor, so one more point won't hurt, but you can then focus on wisdom for attacking and ranger spells, and simply be a melee ranger with a ton of social abilities and some early bard spells added in for fun.
Gotta love the Gloomstalker 5 / Fighter 2 MC.
First turn: attack 3 times, action surge, attack 3 times again.
Fighter 11:
Attack 3 times, action surge, attack 3 times again, continue attacking 3 times per turn and pile on Precision Strike to tell that Sharpshooter penalty to eat lead
Actually playing a gloom 5 fighter 2 and it’s a blast, the amount of damage I can lay down is insane
@@jpjfrey5673 Gloomstalker gets a quasi 4th attack as well at 11. Any miss they get to attack again. Third in subsequent rounds. Plus the gloomstalker gets that extra 1d8 plus advantage if in darkness.. Plus level 7 is a loooot earlier then 11.
@@Hyde_Hill that's not a 4th attack, by all means it's just a reroll on a 3rd attack. That GS only gets on the first turn, after which it's back to 2 effective attacks per turn. If you're planning to fail, you're going to fail. Meanwhile Fighter gets to say "WHAT miss?" by hitting Precision attack 5 times per combat and aren't restricted to first round of combat.
Advantage can be achieved in multiple very easy ways, and a properly specced Fighter doesn't even need it to hit consistently. And that extra d8... woooooow, extra less-than-4.5 DPR. When Sharpshooter exists and is available to a Fighter much earlier and at no losses to accuracy because ASI isn't delayed
@@jpjfrey5673 so we're just going to ignore the bonus damage from hunters mark that rangers get, along with being able to turn invisible at level 11 and get advantage on all attacks for an entire round, or hide in the dark for advantage if you're a GS, which pairs amazingly with Sharpshooter? Not to mention that if any of those attacks crit, the hunters mark damage gets multiplied too.
I really felt it when y’all said just mix a bunch of classes. I’m on my first character right now (it’s been a few years of playing but with inconsistent meet ups). Due to us all being new we rolled d20s for our stats instead of the official recommended system. I got the nuts and had an instant 20 Dex and after a few half feats I have a 20 wis as well. I hit level 5 with a ranger and have taken a level of war cleric and a level of monk. After this I plan on going rogue the rest of the way out but am tempted on three levels of fighter. I’m planning on doing more conventional build with a different class if we ever move on to a different story, but my mishmash has been a blast so far.
I do like your assessment of the Monk as a solid pairing. The community may be sleeping on it.
I was playing an Astral Self/ Swarmkeeper multi for a weebit. So much battlefield control, Wisdom for all strength checks, and really good chip damage with Flurry+Hunters mark. Really was a sick build, dont sleep on this.
Even if you play full on at range shooter and have better uses for your BA, 1 level dip in Monk gives you potentially better AC than studded leather if you have at least 16 in WIS and a way to make, while you have only the bow in your hands, attacks of opportunity that could actually hit, even if just for d4+DEX.
My curiousity is more in the direction of monster slayer (lvl 3 ability to detect resistances, immunities and most importantly vulnerabilities) with dragon monk, which brings more elemental damage variety options.
Monk is ok, it would be my 4th or 5th pick after Rogue, Fighter and Druid. The main issue with Monk MC is the BA conflict with Ranger spells, and the melee vs range conflict. Ranger is most powerful as a ranged character with SS+XbowXpert but a Monk wants to be melee. Ranger has lots of good BA spells like Hunters Mark, Zephyr Strike, Ashardalon's Stride, Ensnaring Strike, but Monk wants to use that BA for an unarmed strike and FoB. Since Tasha's Ranger also has the option of using their BA for 1-2 attacks from their Beast or Drake companion which matches FoB for damage. So you really aren't gaining much from Monk until 5 levels of Monk for Stunning Strike which is a heavy commitment.
There are certain character concepts that combine Monk & Ranger and are totally viable, but if you just want to be good in combat there is going to be a more effective build than Monk + Ranger.
I'm currently playing the Ranger/Bard multiclass that's mentioned in the video, it's amazingly fun. The dudes mention that the character is not great in combat, which is totally true. What it is great at though is concentrating on Bless and Faerie Fire while throwing out debuffing Vicious Mockerys and bardic inspirations, which makes it so that you're still absolutely a help to your team in a fight AND still get that incredible buff to your social skills. Something that's a little overlooked about Fey Wanderer as well is that you add your Wis not just to skill checks, but to ALL ability checks including the ones you make for Counterspell and Dispel Magic. For this reason, I actually went College of Lore on my build so I could get those powerhouse defensive spells earlier, and honestly your skills get so ridiculously buffed when you're going this route that the minimum 10, while certainly very nice, is not necessary at all. I absolutely love this character, both mechanically and RP wise, and it's definitely a build you should try out if you haven't.
That sounds... pretty dang boss actually.
I like the idea of a Warforged Drake Warden with a Clockwork Drake for flavor and then a few levels of Artificer to pick up a few good abilities and add more flavor to the theme of the build.
This multiclass combination can also work for playing Hick-up from How to train your Dragon/drake.
"Gloom Stalker Multiclass Tier Ranking" would be a more appropriate title. The reason you find martial classes better for multiclassing than Cleric/Druid is that you don't consider that Tasha's made Wisdom-focused gish builds viable with table-friendly summon spells (using your spell attack modifier) and three subclasses that benefit a lot from high Wisdom (Fey Wanderer and Swarmkeeper rely on your spell save DC, while Beast Master's new Primal Companion uses your spell attack modifier).
When building around one of said subclasses, I first consider how to pick up both Shillelagh and the Dueling fighting style. Thus, my S-tier multiclass is Druid or Nature Domain Cleric. Though a 1-level dip suffices, more levels further empowers upcasting of Summon Beast or Summon Fey. Secondary options are the Magic Initiate feat or starting Fighter, which gives you Dueling and Con saves (while Ranger's Druidic Warrior fighting style can grant you Shillelagh and Guidance/Thorn Whip).
i could see a ranger 5 nature cleric 5 with shillelagh being a good melee character, focusing mostly on wisdom.
i could also see a ranger 5 spores druid 5 being quite good for summons and ranged attacks
You did it again (and I already told you in recent videos) - Humans do exist!
So Ranger/Paladin multiclass can be built as Humant with point-buy and have:
15/14/14/9/14/14 or 16/13/14/9/13/14 or 13/16/14/9/14/13 or similar combinations.
This enables quite good builds! Examples:
Paladin with 3 levels of Fey Wanderer for Favoured Foe, HM, 2WF FS, + WIS to CHA checks, 3 extra skills, 1 Expertise, 1d4 dmg per turn per enemy.
Ranger with 2 levels of Paladin for GWF FS (or just second FS), 10 HPs of healing per day, Heavy Armor prof., Smites,... Add another level of Paladin for subclass.
Paladin with 3 levels of Hunter for Favoured Foe, HM, FS, 1 extra skill, Expertise, dmg boosting ability (Colossus Slayer for awesome AoO, or Horde Breaker for third attack per Action).
I will say played a Drow Gloomstalker ranger with a dip in twilight cleric and it was a ton of fun
You guys tossed out some great build ideas in here
I like the cavalier mixed with Drakewarden or Beastmaster and using it as a mount because if you have a dm that will kill your mount having the ability to resummon it easily rather than having to keep buying mastiff or horses works
I’ve thought about a fey wanderer/sorcerer (I had in mind a divine soul) who primarily uses their magic to improve their archery, but also improves counterspell, since that’s a charisma check as a sorcerer. Even with neither charisma nor wisdom maxed out, you’d likely end up higher than most counterspell users +5 bonus, but not the abjuration wizards heights. At level 20, I was thinking 12 ranger/8 sorcerer, for the most asi’s and spell slots to max out things like elemental weapon or spirit shroud. Maybe not the biggest spells, but this isn’t focused on magical damage.
Quickened conjure animals is very good. 😊
I love all these multiclass their videos.
One fighter option not mentioned is EK, giving another way to get Shield, and also Find Familiar, as well as the usual fighter abilities. One thing that keeps the Wizard single level dip slightly more competative with the sorcerer is, as the guys mentioned, Find Familiar, but specificly the ability to cast it as a ritual, the EK doesn't give. But unless your going for arcane spells beyond first level, I think EK is the most natural dip to do that.
When i heard ranger artificer, while i respect the mad max reference, i lean a bit more towards Horizon Zero Dawn, which would be super cool
Same! When Monty described it my first thought was, "Wait, so Aloy is a Ranger/Artificer?"
-The issue with Beastmaster x Barbarian is that the beast's power is based on your Wisdom spellcasting and would be impeded by the Strength and Constitution focus the build would need (either that or you use the shaky 2014 pet rules). Thankfully Drakewarden doesn't have this issue, so you can be an angry dragon keeper.
Speaking of unusual Ranger playstyle, you can totally focus on spellcasting and be a battle druid of sorts. All you need to do is fight with a quarterstaff and a shield so you don't mind your Dexterity only being good rather than great. Shillelagh enables you to be exceptionally Wisdom focused (benefiting a Fey Wanderer or Beastmaster) while aggressively progressing your spell slots as a Druid or Cleric. You can get the cantrip easily via the Druid multiclass or even just your Fighting Style selection. To a lesser degree, Eloquence Fey Wanderer could work in a similar way, although to a more limiting degree.
Today i tought of making a gloom stalker multi class, now i get this vid... I think youtube loves me
If you choose pact of the blade with the ranger/warlock you can have a bow as your pact weapon. Also you can take the eldritch smite invocation which does work with ranged pact weapons
I love my swarm keeper, and am sad to see it mentioned so rarely in these ranger videos. I love the idea of the fighter/swarm keeper pushing enemies around the board though.
I played a ranger 5 / cleric 2 -> 7, and I can confidently say that the Life cleric Goodberry stacking is absolutely insane for out-of-combat healing for a relatively low opportunity cost (1st-level cast goes from 1x10 to 4x10 and upcasts). Also, you can basically ignore crossbow expert in favor of spiritual weapon after a certain level, and having the "dead" slot levels lets you upcast really fantastic party buffs like Bless or Aid to keep your party going at all levels. It plays as if you're a ranger with spiritual weapon with lots of beginning-of-day and post-fight utility, and I love a good cast of Guidance :)
If you take enough Swashbuckler Rogue levels to get your enemy pull option, the Fey Wanderer will make it work more.
gloomstalker- twilight cleric-rogue multiclass (with fighter if you have the levels available)
DM: "the guild has a quest to eliminate the leader of the orc tribe threatening the area. he's too strong for the militia to handle."
player: "i accept!"
upon locating the orc camp player proceeds to climb a tree for a good vantage and waits for nightfall.
DM: "ok now what? how to you want to approach the camp?"
player: "approach the camp? hahaha, silly dm."
proceeds to start shoting arrows into the orc camp from 330ft away.
assuming 30ft of movement/60 with the dash action itll take 6-11 turns for the orcs to get within melee range assuming they start running in the right direction because of course they can't even see you.
DM: "well.. the quest only called for the leaders death... good job on taking out the whole tribe."
gloomstalker= invisible in darkness,
sharpshooter= no range penalty and +10 damage on hits
twilight cleric= +300ft of darkvision
rogue= sneak attack on anything that can't see you, which is everything because you're invisible.
if you can get fighter for action surge this just adds more pain. hunters mark would be out of range at the start but something like fire arrow would still work, just for added damage.
i feel like you could make this more powerful but i think the point has been made at this point.
On monk/ranger: I also like the idea of an archer who can still hold their own in melee. The enemy thinks they've got the upper hand by forcing the archer into melee, and then the archer just unleashes a flurry of blows.
It's called being a DEX martial. You don't need fists when you can just pull out shortswords and show em what's good. Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, any class that can benefit from DEX can do it, Monks do it worse than them all
Also Monk Ranger means you can generally ignore armor if you feel like it, letting you get around the stealth disadvantage most medium armors give, but still easily start with 16 AC. And once you get to Ranger 6 / Monk 2, you're moving an extra 15 ft per round if you take Deft Explorer.
@voicetest6019 most Rangers I play have a maxed dex so they use light armor anyway
My druid/ranger uses dragon scale mail, so I'm sitting at a 17 AC.
@@voicetest6019 if you're a full DEX Ranger, you're wearing light. No penalties there. Why would you wear medium if your DEX is 18 or higher? Studded Leather is equal AC to Scale Mail at 18 DEX and more at 20. Just why?
@@jpjfrey5673
Monk Unarmored Defence gives you 16 AC if you have 16 Dex/Wis, matching the cap of Scale Mail, Leather and Breastplate.
If you get to 18 Dex/16 Wis, it meets Studded Leather's cap as well as Half-Plate
If you go above those scores, it beats studded leather and half plate.
I love the ranger, easily my favourite martial in the game. It is ripe for multiclassing too. I was really looking forward to this video.
For barbarian, unfortunately RAW FF says "as if concentrating on a spell" so it doesn't work with rage. I'd still totally allow it and it doesn't change that B tier, though, which I agree with. Special mention goes to greatsword beastmaster wolf totem to even out that lower wisdom score. Great synergy and flavour, if not the most powerful. There's also ancestral guardian with a bow abuse, which can be pretty fun as it is a defensive party-wide buff that lasts an entire encounter if your allies can keep the enemy away from you.
I agree with cleric, no complaints at all. However, ranger/cleric has one of my favourite builds to play. Arcana cleric + swarmkeeper. Booming Blade, spirit guardians, druidic warrior for shillelagh + thorn whip. Not to mention the ability to fit crusher in there with your quarterstaff. Extremely fun, if likely somewhat heavier on the cleric levels than the ranger ones because potent spellcasting.
Druid I feel you guys underrated. Sure, cleric as a base class gets you more goodies in addition to upcasting Conjure animals, but every subclass except moon gets you something useful. Wildfire druid gives you free teleports, stars helps your concentration and gets you guidance, shepherd does shepherd things, etc. Even weaker combos have their place. Land gives you more spells per day and misty step, dreams give you a separate resource for pseudo healing word yoyo. If you can get the action before combat, spores gets you a boatload of temp HP, a means to weaponise your reaction if you don't have another use for it and animate dead has a surprising amount of utility. All of this goes on top abusing SS/CBE in combat, and wildshape during exploration/infiltration on a class that gets expertise. IMO, it is easily A tier, if not the S-tier pick.
Monk is not that great, unfortunately, and I think this is a C at best. There's some upsides, ranger with archery can make excellent use of that movement in a way straight monk can't. Kensei has one fun interaction at monk 6, with focused aim/deft strike/ki-fueled attack. This lets you do CBE BA attack with your longbow as long as you have ki and increases accuracy. Is it worth it? Debatable. Barbarian's rage at least gives you a powerful additional resource that will last an entire encounter in exchange for weakening your spell progression, but monk isn't as frontloaded.
I'm mostly on board with the rest of the ratings. I wish paladin and the other casters were easier to work with, though. There's some really cool things that are just ruined by AS. Quickening Conjure Animals and Silvery Barbs on a ranged attacker are just evil. Smiting melee ranger would be super cool. MADness is the bane of some really great combos.
Bladesinger horde breaker hunter using greenflame blade is quite fun at higher levels.
Great video, as always, guys! One minor nitpick. You got the Barbarian/Favored Foe interaction wrong. It was confirmed by Jeremy Crawford that anything that requires "concentration as if it were a spell" counts as concentration meaning it doesn't work with Rage. Then again, Jeremy Crawford is fallible and a DM can decide what they want!
This video makes me want to build a Dragonborn Drakewarden/Wildfire Druid. It's not super optimized, but it's a fun idea. You can flavor it as you or your dragon exhales fire which manifests as a wildfire spirit.
Not super important but worth poiting out that with the druid multiclass you get Shillelagh that lets you focus on wisdom instead of dex if you wish to go melee
Well , now there is Druidic Warrior for Shillelagh
I can't believe you brought up Shillelagh Spore Druid as a multiclass option in every video, except for the one case where it's actually an S, potentially. x) PAM Shillelagh Ranger either from Fighting Style, Druid, or Nature Cleric can be a quite interesting and powerful SAD build, particularly if you're playing a campaign into the higher levels and more Ranger past 5 doesn't do much for you, while Druid/Cleric past 5 gets you all more powerful spells.
War Cleric is also an option on a GWM STRanger for heavy armor and massive bonus action attacks.
Monk is B at best. It doesn't really give you much that isn't better by staying single class ranger unless you have some specific build combo in mind. You'd be giving up using weapons/armor/shields for worse damage and AC in most cases.
I think that in all the cases when discussing Druid you miss Wil Shape at all. You discussed it here only as a Moon Druid battle option but the most important thing about Wild Shape isn't actually a combat but exploration and investigation. This is why Druid is so high on this list.
I played a spore Druid Gloomstalker ranger, and it worked phenomenally, I took the 6 levels in ranger so I still had extra attack but I also had great spells to throw out.
When it comes to the Ranger/Fighter, can the Fey Wanderer/Samurai add their wisdom twice to their Persuasion checks?
Yes
Druids can use their Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar as an action (as of Tashas), which I think would pair really well with a Ranger for gaining advantage and for thematic reasons. And on the Shepherd specifically you have even less need of your Wild Shape than other Druids do.
Gloomstalker/Twilight cleric gets portable invisibility for the entirety of the channel divinity that the rest of the party doesn’t get penalized for unlike the Hexblade darkness combo.
Doesn't work, the channel divinity creates dim light, gloomstalker needs darkness
You can thank BG3, (which I hope you don't just hate due to it being a very similar E5 CRPG to the table top, but also very different) - for me finding your channel. Liked and subbed.
Shepherd druid and beast master could be cool. Like your beast master pet is the alpha. RTA guys
My favorite low level multiclass is 2 ranger/1 forge cleric. I think this gives you the best archer I can figure. Snag sharpshooter with variant human and get a 16 dex. You can get the archery fighting style, a +1 bow and bless to enhance your ability to off set the sharpshooter penalty. 3 uses of bless a day along with other support abilities from both classes including guidance makes this a well rounded build.
Currently playing a peace domain drake Warden. Jist having emboldened bond and bless with your drake and the rest of your party is pretty solid. Keeps it up for a long time and nearly guarantees damage each turn from the extra 2d4 (referring to Attack rolls) currently 2 lvl peace domain Cleric 9 levels drakewarden ranger. The rp is a solitary priests who believes all dragons can live in harmony with common kind.
Swords Bard, With Fey Wanderer Ranger. Rock a 14 Dex, and wear Medium Armor. 12 in Constitution, then focus Wisdom and Charisma. Fighting Style Druidic Warrior for Shillelagh, and Dueling Fighting Style from Bard. Dump Strength and Intelligence. That will make them pretty great in combat
Ranger cleric works fairly well if you go cleric 5, swarmkeeper X, don't max dex, but prioritize wisdom and use shileighleigh to hit stuff with a stick, this will allow you to hopefully push people in and out of your spirit guardians to proc it multiple times.
I have a Gloomstalker Artillerist, and the idea is to mix the Eldritch Cannons and Ranger spells for field control. Whether that actually works in practice remains to be seen.
I’m playing as a swashbuckler- Rouge/gloomstalker-Ranger bugbear and I get bonus points for both initiative and first round combat. It’s a great set up and both classes complement each other rather well. I’m currently a level eight, with four levels in each class. My feats are magic initiate Wizard and Warcaster. Using a whip with a bugbear gets fifteen feet of reach with a finesse weapon. In a single first round combat, I can dish out 5d6 from sneak attack and surprise attack, 5d8 between dread ambusher, zephyr strike (bonus action spell) and booming blade 1d8 initially 2d8 when the creature moves and 1d4 whip. If it’s within 15 feet of me and moves out of my reach, I get an opportunity attack from warcaster for another 1d4 1d8 3d6 (swashbuckler sneak attack) and 2d8 as it continues to flee. A total of 2d4, 8d6 and 8d8 (assuming everything falls into place).
This. Is. The. Problem. With. Gloomstalker. Hahahah. Sick build though bro. Love it.
@@Dack.howaboutyou because I play as a bugbear, I’m able to fit in a small space without squeezing. Last session, I hid in a laundry basket and killed a tabaxie from it with one hit. His dwarf companion tried to investigate the situation but couldn’t see me because he
was relying on his dark vision instead of a torch/lantern and I got the combo off again. Roll playing as Bigfoot is simply amazing 😂
@@gatorman5547 Nice. That's hysterical hahah. I knew when i saw that new Bugbear squeeze-into-small-space ability that it was going to be trouble LOL. Fun, but maybe nightmare fuel for DMs ;)
I've played a Swashbuckler/Gloom Stalker and I have to say the character was phenomenal
Sleeping on that Ranger/Sorcerer combo Dudes!
Quicken Web, quicken Bless (DS) to boost your sharpshooter hit rate, quicken a Fireball. You go 5/5 and by the time you get there you have the spell slots of a 7th level caster and at 6/6 you have 7 quickened fireballs per day.
I actually did this with a Fey Wanderer since I already had a decent Charisma and originally it was just for the extra spells slots to cast Enhance Ability, but man was it powerful!
Heck yeah. I've been thinking metamagic points are under-appreciated and not used often enough too. I actually began a complete re-write of the arcane caster classes so that they all get some amount of metamagic ability. This required some modification of things to keep sorc from immediately becoming crap compared to Warlock and Wizard of course, but i think what i came up with makes a lot more sense compared to how they just threw the Warlock class at us and arbitrarily made wizard be forced to cast with int, while the other arcane casters use CHA?!? How about we choose which mental attribute, or we just combine sorc, wiz and warlock into a Mage class and then have those as subclasses... makes more sense to me anyways.
I didn't need to remember I can quicken fireball.
For Cleric War Domain gives you War Priest which lets you attack as a Bonus Action an amount of times equal to your Wisdom Modifier which is great. Also you could get Crusader’s Mantle which is arguably better than Hunter’s Mark.
And heavy armor…
Swarmkeeper Ranger + Dao Genie Warlock + Telekinetic Feat = 40 ft forced movement across Spike Growth. One of my absolute favorites. If GM has terrain features like chasms, lava, and acid it is tremendously fun to play.