What are your thoughts on the new Monsters of the Multiverse, it butchers your Flamethrower build and I wonder how many other builds will be destroyed and to top it off the new PHB coming out in 2024 is likely to do away with short rests so the Warlock, Fighter and a few other classes will be massively impacted. No longer will the fighter dip be so prevalent, I expect anyway.
I saw someone say it last week, but it needs repeating, you need to do an episode where randal just draws a design, and you do your best to make a character to match the design.
PLEASE DO THIS! That would be so much fun and character driven. I often find the character backstory stuff to be the most fun and roleplaying it in game.
If you’re looking for a game, you might have a look at the various DnD related Discord servers. There are some dedicated to helping people find ongoing online campaigns. There are also some servers called “Westmarches” servers that basically offer pick-up games of DnD with a bunch of different DMs and players in a shared world
Just a thought for your tier lists, if you split it into 4 categories: aoe nova, Single target nova, aoe sustain, and single target sustain; you could significantly reduce the number of caveats you mention comparing build on your current tier lists. Then just mention a single damage number in aoe builds instead of guessing the probable number of victims and extrapolating dmage off of that. Regardless enjoyed the video, thank you.
Divine Intervention Story: We were fighting in an ancient, ruined temple of Athena. My character, Eloia Verdalunda, a member of the Athenai Vanguard (a war priestess of Athena) led the party into a looped hallway between two separate forces of the enemy. We were trapped and tapped out on spells and abilities. One group of the enemy had a fearsome warbeast at the head of their force. In desperation, Eloia called out to her deity in that place of her former power, now desecrated by evil entities. I rolled an 08. The ceiling of the dungeon suddenly lifted away, and the Goddess towered over the scene, larger than any titan. Beside her, sipping from a goblet of wine, was Dionysus, whom the Druid in the party worshipped. They consulted briefly on the worthiness of the party as death loomed imminent. With a benevolent smile, the goddess gestured, bathing the party in warming light, and Dionysus emptied his goblet over the party. We each benefited from a long rest and rejoined the battle with renewed vigor; the taste of wine on our lips.
Divine Intervention was used in my games mostly during downtime, where the cleric tried to do it every day. he was level 12 and helped to make a paralyzed woman walk again and helped a Lizardfolk Warrior to regrow his lost arm.
Don't mind me just watchin'. I would love to see you optimize a Light Cleric. Cauterize the wounds of your friends, and conflagrate your enemies with divine fire!
Remember the opponents that are leaving spirit guardians do so at half movement making it more likely for them to get pulled again on your turn. It'll be hard for them to get away.
Awesome! I played a very similar character in a Nightmare Before Christmas one-shot a few months ago. He was a Harengon nature cleric from Easter Town, and his spirit guardians were a swarm of spectral Marshmallow Peeps. 10/10 would play again. :)
I summoned a Planetar to help fight a vampire lord with Divine Intervention, it was awesome except my DM couldn't hit for shit I and the palandin in the party ended up doing more damage, though it was an awesome HP sponge!
I was planning on using this tactic with my Light Cleric. Took Druid Magic initiate for Thorn Whip and Entangle. There is only one problem with it. . . . The enemies keep dying before I can even start using it. Spirit Guardians is so strong.
Lol, I was surprised he didn't go Light Cleric w/ Druid initiate for optimization. Then again, I think that is the default Cleric build for most optimized builds.
Eh, you'd have to take that feat instead of Telekinetic, all so you can use Warding Flare? I'd rather have Telekinetic personally. (Telekinetic + Spirit Guardians is no joke.)
For level 8 going war caster is probably better since you can thorn whip anyone who leaves your threatened space. That way they essentially take 20 feet movement speed penalty due to spirit guardian.
Personally, I would run a medium armored (dumping the str in favor of dex for a comparable AC and better initiative) twilight cleric w/ magic initiate for thorn whip & magic stone. I'd run the same basic strategy but every bonus action is casting magic stone, and then using animate dead w/ standing orders to throw any magical stone within reach at a hostile creature. Have them stay within the spirit guardians to help keep them safe, and use your twilight shroud to keep the animated dead alive. You're still getting your thorn whip and spirit guardians damage as well as getting an extra 3d6+3wis per turn.
went medium armor myself with my version as initiative is important. went the divine sorc route though. nice on the animate dead + magic stone combo. didn't use that for my build but definitely something i use on other builds it's a great sustained dmg option.
I'm playing in a Midgard setting campaign. And one of the subraces of the bearfolk get a druid cantrip for free. Definitely making this my backup character 😆
I have an interesting challenge: Optimize a 4 man squad, where all members have one class as the majority (or largest number) of levels. Oops all Rangers. Oops all artificers. Etc. But some multiclassing is allowed. And everyone covers each other's gaps.
Not that difficult with bards: Tank: Sword bard + hex/pally/fighter/barbarian DPR: Maybe bow build with valor bard + swift quiver? Or a bard fighter crossbow build? Control: Lore/eloquence Heal/support: Lore bard/life cleric
4 Clerics send by their temples to fight evil. Cleric levels always will be higher than the multi-classed levels. So at lvl 20, everyone is cleric 11 and 9 in multiclass. forge 8th + fighter multiclass (rune knight) twilight 8th + druid multiclass (circle of stars) war 8th + warlock multiclass (hexblade) or Paladin (any subclass really) tempest 8th + sorcerer multiclass (storm sorcery )
My party did this as sorcerers and it worked great. I was the resident tank with armor of agathys and sorcerous fortitude and it works surprisingly well (campaign fizzled out by like 3rd level so there wasn’t much else to use at that point)
Also a similar build with an Loxodon Atrificer yelling " GO GO GADGET, EXTENDO TRUNK!" is the BEST thing ever!! Do you see what you do? These 💡 ideas you inspire? This is all your fault..... Good day, Sir.... See ya next time 👈
I might try a variant of this build that is slightly more focused on support and defense, where I go Twilight Domain and Variant Human to take "Magic Initiate: Druid" at level 1, getting Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and Goodberry; from here the build goes basically as described. We lose out on the Bonus Action to pull a second person into the Spirit Guardians, but in exchange we get all the Twilight Domain goodies. Maybe take Telekinetic at 4, or 8, depending on which level I take Resilient: Con; I think the big loss is I won't be able to get Find Familiar either at all, or until level 12 or so, but that may well be worth all you get from Twilight.
This is a fun build and can be easily attached to any other full caster choice for support after level 5-6. Something like eloquence bard or chronurgy wizard.
I haven't even watched the video yet but i just want to say this: I have been watching you for a long time now, Colby. And i can't even describe how amazing your weekly videos have been for me. I have never been able to find a party and play the game, so all i can do is watch others play and learn&theorycraft about the game. These consistent, high quality videos (which are just getting better and better) are really nice and helpful. You are one of the only RUclipsrs whose videos i click and like even when i dont have the time watch them. Also you talked about characters of Brandon Sanderson in some of your videos which got me to read him. I am currently reading my sixth Cosmere book. Thank you so much for being awesome! (Also this build looks so exciting)
My character just died Sunday and I’m trying to decide what to play. I’m leaning towards healing/ support or tank. This is absolutely going on the short list!
Regarding Divine Intervention, the last big campaign I was in that finished, when my Lizardfolk Forge Cleric gained Divine Intervention we went into a big battle with a lot of demons. Like a lot. It was brutal, it was messy. Banishment was the only way we were reliably dealing with any of them, but they were running us ragged. Our Moon Druid is tanking the big demon (I forget the kind), she is doing an amazing job but she is just about out of every trick she has. As she tries to get back towards safety and away from some poisonous pool, the demon hits her, takes her down to zero. Then hits her again. Two failed death saves. It comes to my turn, I had already decided my character would try Divine Intervention if one of us went down, so stepping up, she called out to her deity, saying that she has witnessed all the terror these demons have committed upon her champions (none of the other party members thought of themselves as champions to the deity), and to repay all of that damage back upon this foe. My character stepped up to claw the demon. We rolled a d20, so I needed a one or a two and I got it. The DM didn't bother doing the calculations, just had me describe how my character ripped its metal clawed hand through the demon, not really touching the body but shearing away part of its soul. Well, the demon exploded. So, third fail save for the Druid. She died. One of the paladins cast Revivify to bring her back. Due to my characters god, when she cast Revivify or similar spells she infected them with metal which slowly gave them attributes similar to a Warforge. The blast also killed another persons animal companion, so we had to use I think a scroll or something to bring it back. At least one other PC dropped to zero, but they just got a Healing Word.
If you have problems creating characters with a lot of sustained DPR, you should explore Arcana clerics with booming blade, triggering "Potent Cantrip" twice with secondary damage and other clerics with Divine strike using Booming blade with maybe Shillelagh that improves Spirit Guardian clerics
Hey Colby! I recently watched your ”one shot” with treeantmonk and dungeon dudes, and seeing what worked there and what didnt work there Id be very interested to see a ”real world optimized build”. And by that I mean a build that doesnt rely on 2+ rounds of setup (most fights arent very long, spending 2+ rounds not being effective should reflect in the dpr calcs etc), isnt a one trick poney that gets shut down with ”less than optimal” terrain/resistances/circunstances etc :) i realize that the builds that would cater to this could be considered boring/less flashy, but they just get the work done. If this ends up being a hexblade sorlock i understand that just curse + magic missile for the real threat of the encounter and then from there goes controll and EB, or hex and EB, or darkness EB, or even searing rays to get around force immunities. As allways very interesting thoughtexperiments presented here :)
he has done this already in the past. enemies with ranged attacks and spells (especially mobility options) were simply a hard counter for the catch 22 (or for any melee build for that matter). simply put if you wanted a "real world build" just check out any of colby's builds that are ranged or casters. range is a big advantage in 5e especially in big maps.
An idea for some series or group of episodes, the optimal non multiclass build for every class! Would be interesting to see how you build each class with the tools they have, obviously builds like this and one of the Bladesinger ones already fit too!
Yesss!!!! I love nature cleric so much, and it really doesn’t get enough love. I built a nature cleric, taking a single level in divine soul sorcerer for shield and the 2d4 to a saving throw. Glad to see you showing people how sweet this subclass is!
Wildfire 2 level dip is pretty good for flame seed/wildfire companion. A 6 level multiclass into it gives you a lot. Take elemental adept fire, along with nature cleric feature 6th level. FIRE DAMAGE EVERYWHERE
I definitely agree that Resilient: Constitution would be good to get early. Considering how reliant this build is on Spirit Guardians and drawing enemies closer, I would likely take it at level 4. I think Hill Dwarf could work too, with 14 Dex, 15 Con, and 15 Wis and +2 Con and +1 Wis. It would be extremely tanky with all the race features and eventual 18 Constitution while still allowing Heavy Armor to be worn.
I wanted to write exactly the same! 14 DEX + medium Armour seems like better pick than 15 + heavy (Same AC before lvl 5, +3 in DEX save, Initiative and Stealth). CON saves are really critical from this character from lvl 5 on - with only 2 spell slots, 2 bad saves and you are done for the whole day...
I planned almost exactly the same build (not a ritual caster though). Aaaaand, that's why I don't agree with the nature cleric rating a lot of people do. This is one of the best cleric subclass out there. One of the best subclass out there I must say.
If the DM allows the Orzhov Representative Background, Spirit Guardians is granted to literally any spellcaster. In this case, is there another class or multiclass that could grant higher damage or better options?
Druids don't get 2 wildshapes per day, but per short rest. The familiar doesn't cost material components which is nice. At druid 2 it would last for only 1 hour but again, you have 2 uses per short rest.
This inspires me to make a full nature squad party. A Nature Cleric, any type of Druid, a Swarm Keeper, and either an Archfey or Dao Genie Warlock. Could have Spike Growth and Spirit Guardians doubled up, the Druid and Cleric standing together in the center. I really like that the Archfey warlock could hang in the back and Repelling Blast things that get too close to the center. If enemies got smart and tried to run from the area, the Archfey could deliberately step on the Spike Growth, trigger Misty Escape, teleport 60 feet to the other side, and then Repelling Blast the enemies from behind and push them back into the kill zone.
Simply incredible! Always knew that spirit guardians was good but never imagined it would be this good! Thanks for all of the great content, I hope you have a great rest of your day :)
I made almost the exact same character a while back! If you want some inspiration, Hero Forge has a spell effect called Summon Flowers which suspiciously looks like a hand. So I like to image a giant vine and flower cover hand as the effect of Thorn Whip and Telekinetic.
I am a little surprised you didn’t go Divine Soul with this build instead of Cleric, but I suppose getting the Familiar, Thorn Whip and Telekinetic does limit your options a bit. Sorcerer 5 with a one level Wizard dip could pull it off by level 6 though I believe and you would have prof in Con, but no armor with is a fairly big deal.
Honestly a Starry Druid can do almost the exact same thing as this build only better. Substitute Moonbeam for Spirit Guardians (3d10 radiant vs 3d8 radiant at 3rd level), Archer Starry form for Spiritual Weapon, plus you get Spike Growth, Thorn Whip and eventually Wall of Fire, Malestrom, and you get the familiar as a class feature.
Divine Soul lacking armor is a big one. It's fixable, and sure, Sor-locks are good characters, but I think it’s great to see someone work through how to do something similar with a Cleric. That opens the build world up a bit more.
@@thebitterfig9903 i think this is easily solved by just dipping into a class with armor prof like fighter 2 for action surge or taking a race that gives armor profs like dwarf or picking hexblade for the warlock subclass.
@@TheRobversion1 I mean, I literally said Sor-Lock. I guess I didn't spell out Hexblade. But that really misses the point. Even though it's a good class combo, it doesn't illuminate anything. Figuring out how to do these kinds of things with a Cleric is new. Doing them with a Sorcerer with some multiclass dips is kinda the meta. I'm much more interested to be seeing a different way to have this sort of forced movement character, and one with a really different vibe and texture, since not everyone is into Sorcerer. It's still good, it's still fine. But having Cleric or Sorcerer options is a big net positive.
I have them for *most* of the older ones. Definitely all the more popular ones. Working on getting the backlog finished but... finding time is difficult :).
This build plus the Ashardalon's Strider plus a Bladesinger would crush combat, add a support bard and Arcane Trickster rogue and you have a crazy 5 man team! I would love to see this in action. model them after the A-team for flavor!
This build is a calling. I was planning on being a tortle nature cleric in wild beyond witchlight. Its a sign! What if you combined war caster and sentinel. Use thorn whip as a reaction to being enemies back after they leave your 30 ft radius. Then you lock them in your guardians for the round.
The use of a cantrip is in place of an opportunity attack. You only get an opportunity attack when someone leaves your melee reach. The range of Thorn Whip may be 30 feet, but using it as an opportunity attack means you're attacking them as they leave your 5-foot reach. So while it keeps them in the Spirit Guardians longer, you only get a 5-foot pull out of it.
I've actually been thinking about this build more than any other I've seen on the channel yet. I believe the best start would be starting as Artificer. Only do the 1 level dip -- very important. Artificer does half levels for spell casting multi class rounded up, so you lose 0 progression. You get Con save proficiency, and you get access to Thorn Whip, and one other cantrip. Then you can be any cleric.
It would be an int-based thorn whip attack roll though, which would not be likely to hit with expected int score. Now if you wanted to be an arty with that and telekinetic and work with a cleric buddy...
For clerics, I definitely believe going straight is the strongest way. Divine intervention once casted mass heal for a group in a very dire situation in a dungeon XD. I also think sorc is the strongest all round caster though. Not as much flexibility as the wiz, but with haste and 2 levels fighter you can cast 3 leveled spells in a turn, which can be nuts as any kinda sorc but especially celestial or shadow ( shadow if you have more time to set up for death doggie. and celestial for cleric spellage.)
Wait, you can't cast more than one leveled spell per turn - and the Hasted action can't be used to cast a spell, so you are at most doing 1 leveled spell, 1 cantrip and 1 weapon attack (or Dash, Disengage, Hide or Object Use).
clockwork souls technically have more flexibility than wizards before 13th level as they have access to all the key wizard spells + metamagic + magical guidance and some good spells wizards don't have access to such as armor of agathys and aid. agreed on sorc being the strongest all around caster. imo casting spells better and more levelled spells>flexibility. wizards are reactive casters adapting to situations. sorcerers are active casters imposing their will and forcing enemies to react. didn't understand how you could cast 3 levelled spells with haste. 3 levelled spells per turn though is definitely possible with action surge and warcaster.
@@TheBlazejumper you can technically cast 3 as long as one of them isn't a bonus action: action, action surge and warcaster. with contingency this can be pushed to 4 for 1 round.
Still can only cast 2, and that's only if you action surged and did not cast a spell as a bonus action. The moment you casted a spell as a bonus action the only spells you can cast that TURN is cantrips
I got a cleric up to level 20. I prayed every single game day for a 9th level everburning flame to be cast on my shield. I got to level 17 and just cast it myself. I never rolled success once. The ability is bad until it is guaranteed to go off
Wildfire druid after cleric 6, will increse your spellslotts and while sumoned you can teleport short range with your spiritguardians basicly moving uou to the enemies instead of the enemies to you and if you use the thornwhip or even the lightning lure and creative positioning, since you can cast spells that dont target you through the wildfire spirit, you can now drag them into the aura from angles and areas you normaly couldnt
i definitely like the wildfire druid for casting thorn whip pulling up into the air then letting them fall through SG and take falling dmg and be knocked prone however it still needs a 3rd piece most of the time to pull it off as the pull needs to be at least 15 ft vs. medium/small. a daolock dip with crusher works or a 3rd level swarmkeeper dip. other than the pull up and then drop back angle, i don't see any other angles the base build cant do that the wildfire spirit can. as far as moving Sg towards the enemies this helps if there's alot of distance between the 2 round 1, otherwise it shouldnt help much unless there's a need to reposition since you cant dmg enemies by bringing SG into their space.
I've seen divine intervention work twice. Once when I was a DM, once as a player. When I was the DM the player asked for a 9th level firestorm but instead of fire damage he asked for it to deal radiant damage. I allowed it. He killed over 30 undead and delt over 500 damage across all of the targets. As a player, I asked for the Shapechange spell and the DM allowed it. I changed into a white dragon and used the breath weapon to cover an escape from a goblin horde and we flew away.
Would you consider a build around Immovable Object from EGtW, utilizing it to lock people in place potentially from 30ft away with metamagic? Could be another powerful build around a low lvl spell
Cool burst dps/sustained dps build: This build would be almost entirely arcane trickster rogue and it is made to optimize the arcane trickster. You take booming blade (or green flame blade but I think it is worse at least for this build), Sentinal and mirror image, maybe dragons breath or another good damage concentration spell (flame sphere works great with booming blade). I think this would be best as sustained damage but there are probably burst options too. I am surprised that (to my knowledge) you have never done a mainly arcane trickster build (unless you count the coyote).
Your subtitles are pretty decent, but I see "brazilian constitution" everytime you say "resilient constitution" and it's so funny to me for some reason
You could use the rule in Tasha's allowing you to move racial ability score increases around to where you want them and give yourself +2 to Wis and +1 to Con. I probably would start with 10 Str, 13 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 15 Wis, 10 Cha. This would start you with a 17 Wis and a 15 Con, so at lvl 4 you take the Telekinetic feat and make Wis 18. Then at lvl 8 Resilient (Con) making it a 16.
Adding the cantrip: Create Bonfire allows you to do your main strategy from level 1 with the Telekinetic Feat. Although not on the Cleric list you could get it via Magic Initiate feat, that Druid dip you considered, or by being an Arcana Cleric instead.
The big problem being they take damage upon entering and then if they *end* their turn there, not when they start. So, unless we can stick them in place, they're unlikely to take the damage twice in a round :).
Thanks for the video! Incredble! Maybe a Divine Soul Sorcerer could also use the same tatics, but with other benefits, like having constitution saving throws proficiency and access to Twinned Spell and Quickened Spell to pull more targets with Torn Whip each round, adding more damage to the DPR. Later on, a 2 level dip into Warlock would allow it to have eldricht blast with Grasp of Hadar, with the same effect of thorn whip but greater damage. This would also give the character access to Armor of Agathys, that would put the enemies in an even more tragic situation in witch they have to choose between staying in the aura to attack you and taking even more damage while doing so, or to run away and be opened to Opportunities Attacks and to being pulled in back again.
I made this same comment basically but you beat me to the punch! I think the one advantage Thorn Whip has is that it can be twinned, whereas eldritch blast cannot after level 4, and even if you quickened EB, you can only pull one creature per turn with Grasp of Hadar. But still the extra damage might make up for it. I didn't think about Armor of Agathys either. That's a great point!
Harengon + Jump spell + Boots of striding and springing = 270 foot jump at high levels and 90 foot jump at level 1....... as a bonus action. And due to the specific phrasing of the Rabbit Hop ability it doesnt consume your movement for that turn AND it doesnt follow the long/high jump rules. Why get past the guards at the gate when you can jump directly to the roof of the castle? Just make sure you have some way of surviving the fall if you miss.......
i'd rather use this insane jump to deal tons of falling dmg to a boss while also inflicting prone. definitely fun though to leap buildings in a single bound.
@@TheRobversion1 The possibilities are endless. One of my favorite ways to use it is to use a longbow with the sharpshooter feat and snipe enemies from 300+ feet away. A dude with a sword tries to stab you? That's cute! Bye bitch! Suddenly you're 300 feet away and the guy needs to move at a dash for 5 rounds under a hail of arrows. And when he gets close? Jump again! Good luck catching this build lol. Or even better jump somewhere high that they can't easily follow and fire away
Nice built something eerily similar in the past but more focused on control. i do think the build could benefit from multiclassing especially at latter levels once you have or can still acquire your 9th level spell slot like you mentioned being able to use con save prof. guardian of faith damages when an enemy moves within in its area which means: 1. they move into the area 2. they move and stay in the area 3. they move out of the area Sharing my own version of this which was themed on Ursula from the little mermaid going through a "Redemption arc." level 10 theorycraft as usual: fighter 2, divine sorc 5, fathomlock 3 shadar-kai asi: shadowtouc5ed-invisibility and false life (feytouched or gift of the gem dragon are worthy alternatives but i wanted to stick with the theme here) fighting style: superior technique-ambush metamagic: subtle spell, seeking spell invocations: lance of lethargy, grasp of hadar pact: chain (quasit flavored as an eel named flotsam) key spells: guidance, spirit guardians (spirits flavored as spectral tentacles), eldritch blast, aid tactics: pre-combat: coffeelock the remaining 4 hours of your party's long rest into additional spell slots after your trance. cast false life on self. cast aid on your entire party. walk around continuous casting guidance for initiative or invisibility for advantage on your 1st attack. flotsam walks around invisible. 1st round: bonus action: tentacle of the deep bbeg. speed is reduced by 10 ft. action: spirit guardians move to within 25 ft of the bbeg action surge: grasp of hadar enemy into your spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft. flotsam: help if the enemy has a move speed of 40 ft or lower they will not be able to move out of the outer rim of the spirit guardians (their speed is halved to 20 then reduced to 0) and unless they have a reach of 15ft won't be able to melee attack you either. should they have ranged attacks or spells, use shield, absorb elements or counterspell. on the start of their turn they also take spirit guardians dmg. 2nd round+: bonus action: tentacle of the deep. speed is reduced by 10 ft. reposition so the enemy is outside the spirit guardians aura action: grasp of hadar the enemy back into spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft. flotsam: help the sustained dmg is close to your version but the control of this is one is much better as it locks 1 enemy in place. when i played this until level 16 i just went straight up divine sorc as i wanted heroes feast and higher spell slots for spirit guardians.
Wow you're right there are a lot of these builds :D I love the Ursula theming! One of the best Disney villains. The only thing I think you're missing is another companion that you can name Jetsam.
@@egod555 yeah i had to rewatch little mermaid before as research for the character as basically I RP'd Ursula being transported to a dnd world where she sees a version of Ariel she wants to take revenge on but stumbles upon the party which sets her on a different course with a sort of a "redemption arc." Yeah i wish there was a way i could've gotten 2 familiars so i could name the other jetsam. overall though was happy with the build's performance as it shutdown melee bbegs while dealing good sustained dpr while having the defensive suite sorcs have that clerics don't get. oh and yes agreed on Ursula. one of the best indeed!
@@dungeondojo yeah and the great part is this scales well into the higher tiers unlike save or suck forms of control. spirit guardians is no save, grasp of hadar and tentacle of the deep are attacks. they arent affected by immunity, magic resistance or legendary resistance. slight errata on the build. it's supposed to be distant spell there instead of subtle spell (i still took subtle spell but that was towards the end of the campaign when i hit level 10 divine sorc). distant spell was used in conjunction with earth tremor in case i needed to lockdown multiple enemies. I'll use it instead of grasp of hadar. distant earth tremor creates a 20 ft radius of difficult terrain around me (1 perimeter square bigger than spirit guardians) no save. which means someone with 40 ft of movement would only be able to move 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. someone with 30 ft of movement is locked down at the outer rim of spirit guardians. but this is just 1 part. if they fail the dex save, they'll take 1d6 dmg and are knocked prone. if they are knocked prone, things get interesting. spirit guardians will reduce the speed by half. tentacle of the deep will subtract 10 ft from the remaining movement. now they wont have half of their remaining movement to stand up. if they have 40 ft speed or less they can't even crawl as crawling 5 ft into difficult terrain will cost them 15 ft of movement. at minimum they will need 50 ft base speed to crawl 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. should the bbeg decide to burn a legendary resistance to not get knocked prone then that's a win for me as i still get difficult terrain in (not a total waste of the action/spell slot) and i just used a 1st level slot. anyway glad you liked it. it was fun to play and RP. the party members liked me as i was doing all those cleric support stuff like casting death ward, heroes feast, upcasted aid, etc pre-combat on everyone as i had lots of spare slots doing the semi-coffeelocking and the build isn't spell slot intensive as it's built around a sustainable 3rd level spell, a 1st level spell and cantrips.
Story time. I have played in a campaign for years as a cleric and ran Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon primarily. Otherwise played this character (Tempest) until level 9, then multi classed into Paladin (Vengeance) for 5 levels before taking more Cleric levels. The Spirit Guardians on a Paladin is absolutely amazing and the burst damage skyrockets. Great video. Loved it and thank you kindly
Question with telekinesis movement. If I move an opponent 5' I do not get an attack of opportunity because it is not willing movement. But if I move an ally do they receive an AoO? Does the act of them accepting my telekinesis make it willing and open to reactions? My interpretation would be that they are not moving, I am moving them, so they would not be attackable but I can see the other side. Thoughts....
RAW they have to have used there movement or an action/bonus/reaction to move at there speed, as it is still forced movement it doesn’t provoke. Some people think forcing your enemy to flee away is forced movement as they don’t get a choice but the fact it costs them there actions/movement means it does provoke instead.
I knew it'll be a nature cleric! And you can go to the teaser and see I was talking about a similar build I made. I think doing Shillelagh + 1 level dip into sorcerer for the CON proficiency and Booming Blade works very well too. AND, I used the new Earth Genasi from Monsters of the Multiverse that gains a Bonus Action Blade Ward to protect yourself (you are very close to enemies still lol). I called it Sandstorm, and the spirits are Locust! I'm happy more people will see how powerful nature clerics can be!
lvl 14 Clerics also get dmg boost from their Divine Strikes - but they would need to be doing weapon attacks. Most DMs would probably have no problem with increasing dmg of Blessed Strikes the same way , you can always ask...
This character mechanically how i might make Megumi Fushiguro from Jujustu Kaisen. *Spoilers for season 1 of JJK* if you want to be totally blind don't read below: * * * * * There are two ways I'd go about making the 10 Shadows Shikigami technique and Domain that Megumi has. 1. Straight summoner, for this probably straight Shepherd Druid would do better, though I think you'd want to establish more CQC options with that build considering Megumi is noted by certain powerful characters to be surprisingly strong at CQC for Shikigami users who tend to let their summons do all the fighting and stay out of melee themselves. I do think this is a viable option and the spirit totems emulate the individuality of his shadow summons a lot better, though Megumi can have Ten and unfortunately we only get the 3. This route probably feels like Megumi's day to day base level as a jujutsu sorcerer the most simply and relying on the least flavor, (Though for any option re-flavoring from Nature/Divine/Arcane magic etc to shadow cursed techniques is gonna be necessary,) 2. The spirit guardians build presented by Colby is an amazing reference point for Megumi. I think the ranged aura of spirit guardians is a super fun way to give a player the option to flavor their damage as CQC Shikigami use, and isn't restricted by the form of your summons (always remember kids, flavor is free.) This along with Megumi's used of cursed weapons i think goes perfect with the thornwhip/telekinetic use fits well. Id probably use both options as a mix of "cursed weapons" and his Toad Shikigami. Adding find familiar to the list, we can give my favorite Shikigami Nue (the electric bird) some love! I think the thematic of electricity plays in to the familiar giving you advantage on attacks really well. Unfortunately Nue for this character is to small to fly us around like the real one. Can't have it all. It also presents the opportunity at higher levels to use the spirit guardians as Megumi's Domain *_Chimera Shadow Garden_* given it will be much stronger, harder to resist, and still lets the player flavor how the damage is being dealt and appearing. The scene where Megumi first attempts his domain expansion vs the special grade curse is exactly how I'd imagine a powerful spirit guardian spell. ruclips.net/video/WFE9NUWAEec/видео.html Though since the enemy just has to save and leave the aura obviously we can't say its perfect. For a perfect Domain that you cant escape without overpowering we'd need like Forcecage or something, even then that isnt a perfect emulation. Join us next week where we make Aoi Todo and his Boogie Woogie technique as a Echo Knight Fighter lol
Very interesting. Thematically, nature cleric is great. Given that you don't get spirit guardians until level 5 though, waiting until level 4 to get thorn whip via feat isn't a huge deal. As for other cleric domains to make this work with, death cleric has a big synergy. Using your massive smite-like channel divinity helps to boost damage, and it can be used with thorn whip. Furthermore, in situations where you don't want to throw out spirit guardians, telekinetic can help you put enemies adjacent to one another for a double-target toll the dead.
About spirit guardians: I ALWAYS forget the "Enter for the first time on a turn" also means you could take a step back, or juke up, down, left right, so they all exit, then re-enter each turn too, without the whip/TK things as well. Thanks for the reminder.
You could do some pretty sweet stuff with the same idea on a BARD. i'm thinking of Grabbing a Tortle Bard, and magic secreting my way to spirit guardians and thorn whip, maybe using some mirror image on myself, and that sweet 17 AC, mirror image, and silvery barbs to just make it to where they can't hit you at all while, you just pull them back again and again.
Only just discovered this build, but I'm building a similar character for an upcoming Curse of Strahd campaign, but instead of Telekinetic at level 1 I'm taking Chef, and instead of Thorn Whip I'm taking Shillelagh...basically I'm making Gordon Ramsey, with a rolling pin for a weapon, a frying pan for a shield, a meat cleaver for my Spiritual Weapon and onions making bad guys cry for my Spirit Guardians! At level 4, I wonder if it might be worth taking Magic Initiate Wizard and picking up Booming Blade, since I'm using Shillelagh instead of Thorn Whip, alongside Find Familiar, that would also partly make up for the lack of Extra Attack at level 5
To be fair, I've only ever witnessed Divine Intervention work on Critical Role. I've never seen it personally work in my games. It's just too low of a percentage. It should be double your cleric level, minimum. Level 10 to 19, you have a 10-19% chance of your deity coming to help. At 20th? 100%. What? How come I was chopped liver at 19th, but suddenly at 20th NOW you'll help? I've done a lot of campaigns where I've faced off against golems and other creatures who are either resistant to all magic or straight up immune, and had to slog it out. I would have taken a 1-2 level dip into druid for at least shillelagh and faerie fire or absorb elements. I have to applaud you for making this build. Nature cleric is considered one of, if not the, worst subclass that cleric has. Even I had trouble justifying its existence. That 17th level feature is real bad, and the 2nd level Channel Divinity is so circumstantial it could make one cry. I will say though that I feel that WotC really missed their shot at bringing back the old AD&D spells: sticks to snakes, oars to snakes, and sticks to crocodiles. That'd have been way cooler for a Channel Divinity. Regarding Eric from the D&D cartoon, at least his shield could bash people and it created forcefields. Literally protected the kids from "rocks fall, everyone dies" in one episode. Never used a 9th level spell slot in 5e, but did a lot during my 3.5 days, and really miss clerics having access to the miracle spell (ie. cleric's version of wish).
Divine Intervention Story The party is me (a half-orc eldritch knight/great weapon fighter), a human celestial warlock/cleric, and a gnome druid/barbarian. The party is level 12, and we are on a quest to kill a lich in his tower (there is a great war brewing and the lich allied with the bad guys). We used up 75% of our party resources just making our way to the top of the tower where the lich waits. Boss battle ensues, and it does NOT go well. The lich casts spirit guardians at level 5 to start the fight, so the barbearian and I are just getting hammered by 5d8 necrotic damage every turn. we all use pretty optimized characters so we did around 150 damage in the first round (the DM always homebrews boss fights for us to increase the difficulty, so its not the MM version of lich) Second round, the lich casts Disintegrate at 8th level (thats 16d6+40 force damage btw), perma-killing the barbearian. Keep in mind disintegrate totally destroys the body; AFAIK negating almost all forms of resurrection magic except True Resurrection. I do another round of attacks, the lock/cleric does his support/healing thing, and we know he cant have much hp left. The lich uses its 9th level spell to cast witchbolt at me. WITCHBOLT OF ALL THINGS. 9d12 lightning damage + 5d8 necrotic is enough to drop me and force 2 death saves. Now it is just the lock/cleric 1 on 1 with the very badly wounded lich. He makes a tough decision (after a 15 minute long discussion amongst the group) to try and go for the kill instead of healing me, but misses everything. Now its the liches turn, 1 of us is perma dead, i'm on my last death save, and the lock/cleric is almost completely out of resources. The lich does another witchbolt at the lock/cleric leaving him on single digit HP, and at this point we all know its a TPK, i fail my last death save to the lich's spirit guardians and the lock/cleric is just reading over his character sheet for ANY thing that might get us out. he calls out the divine intervention ability (At this point i believe he is 2 warlock/10 cleric) and he ROLLS A NAT 1 ON THE D100!!! The DM scrambles for a few minutes trying to figure out how he wants to play it, eventually deciding that his deity would manifest as a resurrection spell. Im back at 1 hp, but wait; the spirit guardians will just kill me at the start of my turn. Enter stage left, Relentless Endurance, my orcish tenacity lets me shrug off the damage and go for one final round of attacks, which finally destroys the lich's body and sends it back into its phylactery. Everyone at the table went absolutely nuts, to this day one of my fondest memories of d&d TLDR: Nat 1 on Divine Intervention roll + Relentless Endurance turns a certain TPK into a lifelong d&d memory
food for thought: take the new kobold in MotM and pick booming blade. at 4th, pick mobile feat. now, you can cast spirit g and spiritual hammer, then run up and boom them. back away so you cant be hit. if they move to get out of spirit, they take 2nd boom damage. once they do, youll have 40ft movement so you can run em down (in which they take spirit g damage again), then boom them and back away. hit em with spir weapon again. at 17, they are taking 1d8 weapon, 2d8 cleric bonus, 3d8 boom, 9d8 spirit g, 4d8+wis spiritual weapon every round and possibly a 2nd dose of 4d8 boom...19d8+wis (+4d8 if they move) and you only cast 1 cantrip each round. 1 9th, 1 8th and a cantrip. plus, you can give yourself advantage with your roar. =) avg 100ish dpr or 189 max if they move. all with just boom. at the end of the turn, you still have all but 2 spells. i didnt count the times they step out of the AOE and you bring em back in so thats 9d8 x2 per round. so like 260ish max rolls.
What about Arcana Vhuman Magic Initiate? I'm into this shillelagh build. I'm trying to convince the DM to change on of my cantrips on my Tomelock because I'm getting BB and GFB through the sorcerer multiclass. For the Nature Cleric I would go High Elf for BB, 15 str seems a bit wasted but since to me this seems like a tank build. War caster, PAM (quarter staff) and crusher or elven accuracy.
A very nice build as always. When I saw the short video on Monday I thought another warlock (because of eldritch blast) build was on the way. So I tried to find something before the video was up. So I found undead lock build who uses EB for cantrip and spirit shroud for concentration spell. That build reached as high as 5d10+23d8+20 damage (158.8 average damage over all ACs 10 through 25 for single target or can be divided among up to 4 targets as per the EB cantrip) at level 17. Maybe you could look at it some time.
I’m thinking of reflavoring nature cleric to a Gandalf type character. His staff could be his holy symbol. Gandalf used light, animals, and thaumaturgy to accomplish his goals. Thanks Colby this is going to be fun
Aasimar Light Domain 6-8 / Stars Druid 12-14 It's thematic with starlight. It has great concentration saves with the Dragon constellation. It has Fireball. Radiant Consumption is another source of AOE damage that only uses a bonus action and no concentration. They take damage when you end your turn within 10ft of them, and once per turn when you deal damage with a spell.
Oh I got a great one, Divine Intervention story. We were in a boss fight and was getting hammered by an assortment of giants, Fire, Frost, Ogre, and Storm. Plus they had pets like giant polar bears and winter wolves. One of our party had an item that did the cube of force effects. So he put up the cube around us and we backed into a tight area where the giants could only attack from two directions, hoping that we could use the choke point to thin the heard. I think I was cleric 12 with only like the low level spells left. These would only be good if someone goes down to get them back up. But then there were so many enemies it was almost a TPK. I mean if we were able to back in to the choke point and we got lucky hits along with the enemies getting unlucky we might have avoided a full TPK. I thought, "Why not roll the dice and take the chance." Rolled 11 BOOM Mass Heal spell!
I'm playing a similar concept right now, but it's a Tempest Cleric with Booming Blade (from Magic Initiate) and Crusher abusing Spirit Guardians. I thought about going Nature domain for magic Shilly-stick to be less MAD, but I couldn't pass up the Tempest features and spells for a seafaring/pirate setting... also couldn't pass up having an octopus familiar sit on my shoulder and hold my pipe. It's a nasty combo, especially on a ship where Spirit Guardians covers most of it.
Nice video. I did something similar with a Hill Dwarf War Cleric/Spore Druid. Shillelagh to make two attacks with my wisdom at level two because War Cleric. Spirit Guardians, my spores for bonus damage, mushroom shaped hammer floating about due to spiritual weapon, thorn whip enemies into my fungusy vortex of doom, and have Entangle as a backup in case something happens which would allow my collection of victims to run away. High AC, lots of temporary hit points. Guided Strike is really good when you cast Chill Touch to ensure that a stronger enemy is guaranteed to have disadvantage on their attacks. Crusader's Mantle my zombie helper, use Aid to buff it's HP max, bless, etc. This is good to give enemies a different target to attack instead of me or the party. I chose to go a more controller/tanky route with it. AFAIC, dwarven druids can wear metal armor because they are dwarves and druids care about upholding tradition. No druid is going to tell a dwarf what he can and cannot wear.
I also take pleasure in efficiency, and a year+ later it is exactly why I haven't subscribe to this channel. I'm a player and a DM. I don't have a desk job. As pleasant as your camera presence may be, it's excruciating painful to have to go through a 1h video that could be done in 5-10minutes. Under normal circumstances, I simply don't have that kind of spare time.
Custom lineage cannot be taken with a customized origin for a +2 to wisdom and +2 to *. Lineage gives you a singular +2 to allocate and a feat / dark vision plus 30 ft of movement. But origin allows you to place the TWO +2 you get from being a mountaintop dwarf and do what you want with them. Origin is also a lot more confusing when it comes to the armor and weapon proficiencies since being proficient in heavy armor implies you have medium and light armor proficiencies that can also be swapped out? Readjusting some stats isn’t hard since it is point buy. But don’t expect DM that has read pages 7 and 8 of Tasha’s to let this fly.
Divine Intervention success, as requested: This is, funny enough, as the DM. On the road, my players passed a traveling group of Shaundakul worshippers. Shaundakul's domain included travel, trade, and protection (with a thematic of wind). This religious group travels major dangerous roads and provides a safe haven for travelers they pass on the road, while also making sure those they pass are not going to be a danger to other travelers. After a night of food, drink, sparring, and conversation, the party left a very good impression and the leader wanted to help them on their way. (At this point one of the players was searching for a person that caused the death of his village as a youngster and the area they were searching included a mountain range and an extremely dangerous forest of incredible size.) In farewells, the lead cleric said something akin to "May the winds find you your path" to that player - using Divine Intervention at the same time. I rolled exactly the Cleric's level and that player was given a vision following the winds from above to the exact location of the targets hideout. (This likely saved them many sessions of trying to survive the forest and locate clues to its location as well as confirming they were going the right way, which they were uncertain of) - It might be a weird example, since I was DMing it, but I was so happy my players were blessed by the dice gods that day.
You’ve gotta change up your thumbnails, man. Look at your video library. It’s like a super amateur model’s headshot catalog or something. Keep yourself in the thumbnail if you want. I don’t think you need to be the foundation of every thumbnail. A little variation would be good. You could do a custom heroforge asset for each build. Maybe do a community outreach thing where people can submit and vote for options. You could could do something similar for painted or drawn figures. Though, with heroforge assets you’d be able to make model adjustments yourself to match a specific weapon or whether else.
Divine Intervention... fails everytime. Every. Time. Why do I even devote myself to these gods?!?!?!?! Clerics are always fun though, even when this is just the tease of a godly interjection of holy goodness
I see this less of a ‘nature’ cleric build and more of a general cleric build. I’ve used very similar setups on a tempest/life/light/grave clerics. All of them pretty effective. Really, the only thing holding the build back in this case is the nature domain part, which is more of a wizards of the coast problem. I’m right now playing a nature heavy life cleric due to how underpowered the nature domain is.
Ironically I made a gnome nature cleric.. who's a weebit crazy. For flavor, I took a small 2 lvl dip into fire djinni warlock. Heavy armor, shield and a free hand. So much fun with fire!
Ok something I've been really wanting to see someone who actually knows how to run the math see if sentinel (maybe bludgeoner) plus sheileileh..... I probably spelled that wrong but still. Basically set up a bonus action aoe or spike growth for real fuckshit if you go bludgeoner, especially on like a bugbear for better reach. Combine all of these and either the enemy has to walk around your bubble, taking damage from the movement and blocking off allies, or eats a stat efficient plus 5+prof to hit aoo, stopping them, and pushing them back into the spike growth for more damage. Like this needs 2 rounds of basically nothing but then afterwards in longer fights you just become a nightmare, and you only really need wis and con on the build. Im aware that something like spirit guardian requires less set up round wise, a lower level spell, and less feats to optimize, and is probably the actual way to build this but the spike growth bludgeoner version would be really stupid to see in action.
Cant spiritual weapon trigger the extra bludgeoning damage from the Dao genie warlock? +crusher feat and you’ve got another forced movement option. Anything that increases your size would also increase the area covered by spirit guardians!
A reason for taking Warcaster earlier than Resilient Constitution could be if we are playing without Tasha's and therefore we don't get blessed strikes, we could consider taking Magic Initiate earlier in place of Ritual Caster and with it grab Booming Blade, this would give us a weapon attack that is better than just an attack and therefore something to use Divine Strike on, also if we do this as an attack of opportunity with Warcaster it would make the enemy receive OK extra damage if they run away so we'd be doing reliable damage even regardless of which move the enemy makes (Exiting or staying in Spirit Guardians), this would also make that other Warcaster feature of being able to cast while holding a weapon and a shield really useful. I don't think what I'm saying is necessarily ideal but it's reasonable enough.
Errata: Wild Shape resets on a short rest, not long!
I had just come to comments to correct that lol
What are your thoughts on the new Monsters of the Multiverse, it butchers your Flamethrower build and I wonder how many other builds will be destroyed and to top it off the new PHB coming out in 2024 is likely to do away with short rests so the Warlock, Fighter and a few other classes will be massively impacted. No longer will the fighter dip be so prevalent, I expect anyway.
@@O-D-X What are the changes that butchers the builds? Did something happen to short rests?
A jedi build would be awesome
Iv never seen a optimization of the psi warrior
@@O-D-X I'll wait until it's available to the masses to do a show on it, I think :).
I saw someone say it last week, but it needs repeating, you need to do an episode where randal just draws a design, and you do your best to make a character to match the design.
Oh this would be fun to see!
I second this.
PLEASE DO THIS! That would be so much fun and character driven. I often find the character backstory stuff to be the most fun and roleplaying it in game.
@DnDDeepDive have you gotten to this request yet?
Don't worry about the lack of a clickbait title. Your content is good enough that I watch all the vids anyway, my dude
Will be interesting to see if it effects views with the thumbnail, I like the video title (:
Hell yeah ! Always and forever here !
Haha yeh!
If you’re looking for a game, you might have a look at the various DnD related Discord servers. There are some dedicated to helping people find ongoing online campaigns. There are also some servers called “Westmarches” servers that basically offer pick-up games of DnD with a bunch of different DMs and players in a shared world
@@nevadamac8608 Thanks for the tip! Luckily I've been blessed by RNGsus to have two groups that meet weekly, one on Saturdays and one on Mondays!
Just a thought for your tier lists, if you split it into 4 categories: aoe nova, Single target nova, aoe sustain, and single target sustain; you could significantly reduce the number of caveats you mention comparing build on your current tier lists. Then just mention a single damage number in aoe builds instead of guessing the probable number of victims and extrapolating dmage off of that. Regardless enjoyed the video, thank you.
agreed here. made this same suggestion before. it's kind of unfair to compate single-target vs aoe dmg. less clutter on the graphs too.
That would be soooo good !
Very good advice
Divine Intervention Story: We were fighting in an ancient, ruined temple of Athena. My character, Eloia Verdalunda, a member of the Athenai Vanguard (a war priestess of Athena) led the party into a looped hallway between two separate forces of the enemy. We were trapped and tapped out on spells and abilities. One group of the enemy had a fearsome warbeast at the head of their force. In desperation, Eloia called out to her deity in that place of her former power, now desecrated by evil entities. I rolled an 08. The ceiling of the dungeon suddenly lifted away, and the Goddess towered over the scene, larger than any titan. Beside her, sipping from a goblet of wine, was Dionysus, whom the Druid in the party worshipped. They consulted briefly on the worthiness of the party as death loomed imminent. With a benevolent smile, the goddess gestured, bathing the party in warming light, and Dionysus emptied his goblet over the party. We each benefited from a long rest and rejoined the battle with renewed vigor; the taste of wine on our lips.
Beautifully told
Nice
Let's go, this is awesome
In my (joke character) He-Man build, which unfortunately requires 20th level to work, Divine Intervention is how he transforms.
Divine Intervention was used in my games mostly during downtime, where the cleric tried to do it every day. he was level 12 and helped to make a paralyzed woman walk again and helped a Lizardfolk Warrior to regrow his lost arm.
Awesome!
Man, this player and this character both officially have my full respect. Now that's proper use of miracles.
Level 1:(see above) [cleric 1, race, feat & sub-class]
Level 2:(see above) [cleric 2]
Level 3:(@16:49) [cleric 3]
Level 4:(@18:10) [cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@20:59) [cleric 5]
Level 6:(@24:20) [cleric 6]
Level 7:(see above) [cleric 7]
Level 8:(@36:19) [cleric 8 & ASI]
Level 9:(@9:10) [cleric 9]
Level 10:(see above) [cleric 10]
Level 11:(@42:55) [cleric 11] (Colby says, "At Level 10")
Level 12:(@45:20) [cleric 12 & ASI]
Level 13:(@45:50) [cleric 13]
Level 14:(see above) [cleric 14]
Level 15:(@48:11) [cleric 15]
Level 16:(@48:25) [cleric 16]
Level 17:(@50:26) [cleric 17]
Don't mind me just watchin'. I would love to see you optimize a Light Cleric. Cauterize the wounds of your friends, and conflagrate your enemies with divine fire!
please
There's an error at 19:00... wild shape is 2 uses per SHORT or LONG rest. So, you can summon your familiar more often than you think.
even so, its still weaker than the ritual. it having a duration is just uncomfortable.
The emotional support in your videos is incredible. It’s subtle, authentic, and appreciated. Thanks for the wonderful content.
*Forever Subbed*
Yay! Thanks! :)
Remember the opponents that are leaving spirit guardians do so at half movement making it more likely for them to get pulled again on your turn. It'll be hard for them to get away.
Awesome! I played a very similar character in a Nightmare Before Christmas one-shot a few months ago. He was a Harengon nature cleric from Easter Town, and his spirit guardians were a swarm of spectral Marshmallow Peeps. 10/10 would play again. :)
Haha
I summoned a Planetar to help fight a vampire lord with Divine Intervention, it was awesome except my DM couldn't hit for shit I and the palandin in the party ended up doing more damage, though it was an awesome HP sponge!
I was planning on using this tactic with my Light Cleric. Took Druid Magic initiate for Thorn Whip and Entangle. There is only one problem with it. . . . The enemies keep dying before I can even start using it. Spirit Guardians is so strong.
Lol, I was surprised he didn't go Light Cleric w/ Druid initiate for optimization. Then again, I think that is the default Cleric build for most optimized builds.
Eh, you'd have to take that feat instead of Telekinetic, all so you can use Warding Flare? I'd rather have Telekinetic personally. (Telekinetic + Spirit Guardians is no joke.)
For level 8 going war caster is probably better since you can thorn whip anyone who leaves your threatened space. That way they essentially take 20 feet movement speed penalty due to spirit guardian.
Personally, I would run a medium armored (dumping the str in favor of dex for a comparable AC and better initiative) twilight cleric w/ magic initiate for thorn whip & magic stone. I'd run the same basic strategy but every bonus action is casting magic stone, and then using animate dead w/ standing orders to throw any magical stone within reach at a hostile creature. Have them stay within the spirit guardians to help keep them safe, and use your twilight shroud to keep the animated dead alive.
You're still getting your thorn whip and spirit guardians damage as well as getting an extra 3d6+3wis per turn.
went medium armor myself with my version as initiative is important. went the divine sorc route though. nice on the animate dead + magic stone combo. didn't use that for my build but definitely something i use on other builds it's a great sustained dmg option.
I'm playing in a Midgard setting campaign. And one of the subraces of the bearfolk get a druid cantrip for free. Definitely making this my backup character 😆
I have an interesting challenge:
Optimize a 4 man squad, where all members have one class as the majority (or largest number) of levels.
Oops all Rangers. Oops all artificers. Etc. But some multiclassing is allowed. And everyone covers each other's gaps.
I did something similar with a city I built, where the entire army are artificers.
The city has a dwarf gnome elf founding.
Not that difficult with bards:
Tank: Sword bard + hex/pally/fighter/barbarian
DPR: Maybe bow build with valor bard + swift quiver? Or a bard fighter crossbow build?
Control: Lore/eloquence
Heal/support: Lore bard/life cleric
Nb4 oops all monks
4 Clerics send by their temples to fight evil.
Cleric levels always will be higher than the multi-classed levels. So at lvl 20, everyone is cleric 11 and 9 in multiclass.
forge 8th + fighter multiclass (rune knight)
twilight 8th + druid multiclass (circle of stars)
war 8th + warlock multiclass (hexblade) or Paladin (any subclass really)
tempest 8th + sorcerer multiclass (storm sorcery
)
My party did this as sorcerers and it worked great. I was the resident tank with armor of agathys and sorcerous fortitude and it works surprisingly well (campaign fizzled out by like 3rd level so there wasn’t much else to use at that point)
Also a similar build with an Loxodon Atrificer yelling " GO GO GADGET, EXTENDO TRUNK!" is the BEST thing ever!! Do you see what you do? These 💡 ideas you inspire? This is all your fault.....
Good day, Sir....
See ya next time 👈
lol
Swarmkeeper would be a cool add I think, since it would let you move people with your spiritual weapon
I might try a variant of this build that is slightly more focused on support and defense, where I go Twilight Domain and Variant Human to take "Magic Initiate: Druid" at level 1, getting Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and Goodberry; from here the build goes basically as described. We lose out on the Bonus Action to pull a second person into the Spirit Guardians, but in exchange we get all the Twilight Domain goodies. Maybe take Telekinetic at 4, or 8, depending on which level I take Resilient: Con; I think the big loss is I won't be able to get Find Familiar either at all, or until level 12 or so, but that may well be worth all you get from Twilight.
This is a fun build and can be easily attached to any other full caster choice for support after level 5-6. Something like eloquence bard or chronurgy wizard.
Colby: 20:05 "...and that would make me really sad"
RUclips, a fraction of a second later: upbeat Shopify ad with happy music
lol
I haven't even watched the video yet but i just want to say this:
I have been watching you for a long time now, Colby. And i can't even describe how amazing your weekly videos have been for me. I have never been able to find a party and play the game, so all i can do is watch others play and learn&theorycraft about the game. These consistent, high quality videos (which are just getting better and better) are really nice and helpful. You are one of the only RUclipsrs whose videos i click and like even when i dont have the time watch them. Also you talked about characters of Brandon Sanderson in some of your videos which got me to read him. I am currently reading my sixth Cosmere book. Thank you so much for being awesome! (Also this build looks so exciting)
Sanderson's Mistborn is also pretty great! The good parts are really good! The not so good parts are.... eh; but do check out Mistborn if you can!
Thanks so much! This warms my heart, and I'm glad you've discovered Brandon - so good! I hope you find a group to play with soon!
My character just died Sunday and I’m trying to decide what to play. I’m leaning towards healing/ support or tank. This is absolutely going on the short list!
Regarding Divine Intervention, the last big campaign I was in that finished, when my Lizardfolk Forge Cleric gained Divine Intervention we went into a big battle with a lot of demons. Like a lot. It was brutal, it was messy. Banishment was the only way we were reliably dealing with any of them, but they were running us ragged. Our Moon Druid is tanking the big demon (I forget the kind), she is doing an amazing job but she is just about out of every trick she has. As she tries to get back towards safety and away from some poisonous pool, the demon hits her, takes her down to zero. Then hits her again. Two failed death saves.
It comes to my turn, I had already decided my character would try Divine Intervention if one of us went down, so stepping up, she called out to her deity, saying that she has witnessed all the terror these demons have committed upon her champions (none of the other party members thought of themselves as champions to the deity), and to repay all of that damage back upon this foe. My character stepped up to claw the demon. We rolled a d20, so I needed a one or a two and I got it. The DM didn't bother doing the calculations, just had me describe how my character ripped its metal clawed hand through the demon, not really touching the body but shearing away part of its soul.
Well, the demon exploded. So, third fail save for the Druid. She died. One of the paladins cast Revivify to bring her back. Due to my characters god, when she cast Revivify or similar spells she infected them with metal which slowly gave them attributes similar to a Warforge. The blast also killed another persons animal companion, so we had to use I think a scroll or something to bring it back. At least one other PC dropped to zero, but they just got a Healing Word.
You never fail us. A hero doesnt always wear a cape.
yeah, sometimes a hero wears a Mickey mouse shirt :D
If you have problems creating characters with a lot of sustained DPR, you should explore Arcana clerics with booming blade, triggering "Potent Cantrip" twice with secondary damage and other clerics with Divine strike using Booming blade with maybe Shillelagh that improves Spirit Guardian clerics
Hey Colby! I recently watched your ”one shot” with treeantmonk and dungeon dudes, and seeing what worked there and what didnt work there Id be very interested to see a ”real world optimized build”. And by that I mean a build that doesnt rely on 2+ rounds of setup (most fights arent very long, spending 2+ rounds not being effective should reflect in the dpr calcs etc), isnt a one trick poney that gets shut down with ”less than optimal” terrain/resistances/circunstances etc :) i realize that the builds that would cater to this could be considered boring/less flashy, but they just get the work done. If this ends up being a hexblade sorlock i understand that just curse + magic missile for the real threat of the encounter and then from there goes controll and EB, or hex and EB, or darkness EB, or even searing rays to get around force immunities. As allways very interesting thoughtexperiments presented here :)
he has done this already in the past. enemies with ranged attacks and spells (especially mobility options) were simply a hard counter for the catch 22 (or for any melee build for that matter). simply put if you wanted a "real world build" just check out any of colby's builds that are ranged or casters. range is a big advantage in 5e especially in big maps.
An idea for some series or group of episodes, the optimal non multiclass build for every class! Would be interesting to see how you build each class with the tools they have, obviously builds like this and one of the Bladesinger ones already fit too!
Yesss!!!! I love nature cleric so much, and it really doesn’t get enough love. I built a nature cleric, taking a single level in divine soul sorcerer for shield and the 2d4 to a saving throw. Glad to see you showing people how sweet this subclass is!
Wildfire 2 level dip is pretty good for flame seed/wildfire companion. A 6 level multiclass into it gives you a lot. Take elemental adept fire, along with nature cleric feature 6th level. FIRE DAMAGE EVERYWHERE
A straight cleric build? Amazing! This build has captured my imagination with the potential of Telekinetic.
I definitely agree that Resilient: Constitution would be good to get early. Considering how reliant this build is on Spirit Guardians and drawing enemies closer, I would likely take it at level 4. I think Hill Dwarf could work too, with 14 Dex, 15 Con, and 15 Wis and +2 Con and +1 Wis. It would be extremely tanky with all the race features and eventual 18 Constitution while still allowing Heavy Armor to be worn.
I wanted to write exactly the same!
14 DEX + medium Armour seems like better pick than 15 + heavy (Same AC before lvl 5, +3 in DEX save, Initiative and Stealth).
CON saves are really critical from this character from lvl 5 on - with only 2 spell slots, 2 bad saves and you are done for the whole day...
I planned almost exactly the same build (not a ritual caster though).
Aaaaand, that's why I don't agree with the nature cleric rating a lot of people do.
This is one of the best cleric subclass out there. One of the best subclass out there I must say.
If the DM allows the Orzhov Representative Background, Spirit Guardians is granted to literally any spellcaster. In this case, is there another class or multiclass that could grant higher damage or better options?
Druids don't get 2 wildshapes per day, but per short rest. The familiar doesn't cost material components which is nice. At druid 2 it would last for only 1 hour but again, you have 2 uses per short rest.
This inspires me to make a full nature squad party. A Nature Cleric, any type of Druid, a Swarm Keeper, and either an Archfey or Dao Genie Warlock. Could have Spike Growth and Spirit Guardians doubled up, the Druid and Cleric standing together in the center. I really like that the Archfey warlock could hang in the back and Repelling Blast things that get too close to the center. If enemies got smart and tried to run from the area, the Archfey could deliberately step on the Spike Growth, trigger Misty Escape, teleport 60 feet to the other side, and then Repelling Blast the enemies from behind and push them back into the kill zone.
I love anything cleric!! More clerics!! :)
Simply incredible! Always knew that spirit guardians was good but never imagined it would be this good! Thanks for all of the great content, I hope you have a great rest of your day :)
Spirit Guardians for the win!
I made almost the exact same character a while back! If you want some inspiration, Hero Forge has a spell effect called Summon Flowers which suspiciously looks like a hand. So I like to image a giant vine and flower cover hand as the effect of Thorn Whip and Telekinetic.
Is the DPR based on two enemies per round? It doesn't say on the graph but I think I heard it in the video?
I am a little surprised you didn’t go Divine Soul with this build instead of Cleric, but I suppose getting the Familiar, Thorn Whip and Telekinetic does limit your options a bit.
Sorcerer 5 with a one level Wizard dip could pull it off by level 6 though I believe and you would have prof in Con, but no armor with is a fairly big deal.
i personally went divine soul as well then dipped into fathomlock and started with fighter.
Honestly a Starry Druid can do almost the exact same thing as this build only better. Substitute Moonbeam for Spirit Guardians (3d10 radiant vs 3d8 radiant at 3rd level), Archer Starry form for Spiritual Weapon, plus you get Spike Growth, Thorn Whip and eventually Wall of Fire, Malestrom, and you get the familiar as a class feature.
Divine Soul lacking armor is a big one. It's fixable, and sure, Sor-locks are good characters, but I think it’s great to see someone work through how to do something similar with a Cleric. That opens the build world up a bit more.
@@thebitterfig9903 i think this is easily solved by just dipping into a class with armor prof like fighter 2 for action surge or taking a race that gives armor profs like dwarf or picking hexblade for the warlock subclass.
@@TheRobversion1 I mean, I literally said Sor-Lock. I guess I didn't spell out Hexblade.
But that really misses the point. Even though it's a good class combo, it doesn't illuminate anything. Figuring out how to do these kinds of things with a Cleric is new. Doing them with a Sorcerer with some multiclass dips is kinda the meta. I'm much more interested to be seeing a different way to have this sort of forced movement character, and one with a really different vibe and texture, since not everyone is into Sorcerer.
It's still good, it's still fine. But having Cleric or Sorcerer options is a big net positive.
Do you have the written guides for the older builds or only for the new ones?
I have them for *most* of the older ones. Definitely all the more popular ones. Working on getting the backlog finished but... finding time is difficult :).
This build plus the Ashardalon's Strider plus a Bladesinger would crush combat, add a support bard and Arcane Trickster rogue and you have a crazy 5 man team! I would love to see this in action. model them after the A-team for flavor!
oooooo miiiiii goshers , ths iz perfecto 4 helping Clerical-Druid relations
This build is a calling. I was planning on being a tortle nature cleric in wild beyond witchlight. Its a sign!
What if you combined war caster and sentinel. Use thorn whip as a reaction to being enemies back after they leave your 30 ft radius. Then you lock them in your guardians for the round.
The use of a cantrip is in place of an opportunity attack. You only get an opportunity attack when someone leaves your melee reach. The range of Thorn Whip may be 30 feet, but using it as an opportunity attack means you're attacking them as they leave your 5-foot reach. So while it keeps them in the Spirit Guardians longer, you only get a 5-foot pull out of it.
@@Treebohr ohh. Ok. I thought if they left thorn whips range. Ok. Thanks for the clear up!
Also the warcaster spell isn’t an opportunity attack and doesn’t trigger sentinel anyway
@@matttownsend8406 it allows you to use a spell as a reaction. It’s why ppl combine it with booming blade
@@ridgecabernet1933 yes but it’s no longer an opportunity attack it’s a spell, it replaces the attack so it cannot trigger sentinel.
I've actually been thinking about this build more than any other I've seen on the channel yet. I believe the best start would be starting as Artificer. Only do the 1 level dip -- very important. Artificer does half levels for spell casting multi class rounded up, so you lose 0 progression. You get Con save proficiency, and you get access to Thorn Whip, and one other cantrip. Then you can be any cleric.
It would be an int-based thorn whip attack roll though, which would not be likely to hit with expected int score. Now if you wanted to be an arty with that and telekinetic and work with a cleric buddy...
For clerics, I definitely believe going straight is the strongest way. Divine intervention once casted mass heal for a group in a very dire situation in a dungeon XD. I also think sorc is the strongest all round caster though. Not as much flexibility as the wiz, but with haste and 2 levels fighter you can cast 3 leveled spells in a turn, which can be nuts as any kinda sorc but especially celestial or shadow ( shadow if you have more time to set up for death doggie. and celestial for cleric spellage.)
Wait, you can't cast more than one leveled spell per turn - and the Hasted action can't be used to cast a spell, so you are at most doing 1 leveled spell, 1 cantrip and 1 weapon attack (or Dash, Disengage, Hide or Object Use).
@@TheBlazejumper no, the hasted action cant cast a spell but action surge you can
clockwork souls technically have more flexibility than wizards before 13th level as they have access to all the key wizard spells + metamagic + magical guidance and some good spells wizards don't have access to such as armor of agathys and aid. agreed on sorc being the strongest all around caster. imo casting spells better and more levelled spells>flexibility. wizards are reactive casters adapting to situations. sorcerers are active casters imposing their will and forcing enemies to react.
didn't understand how you could cast 3 levelled spells with haste. 3 levelled spells per turn though is definitely possible with action surge and warcaster.
@@TheBlazejumper you can technically cast 3 as long as one of them isn't a bonus action: action, action surge and warcaster. with contingency this can be pushed to 4 for 1 round.
Still can only cast 2, and that's only if you action surged and did not cast a spell as a bonus action. The moment you casted a spell as a bonus action the only spells you can cast that TURN is cantrips
I got a cleric up to level 20. I prayed every single game day for a 9th level everburning flame to be cast on my shield. I got to level 17 and just cast it myself. I never rolled success once. The ability is bad until it is guaranteed to go off
agreed. before the time it gets guaranteed you can already do it yourself.
Wildfire druid after cleric 6, will increse your spellslotts and while sumoned you can teleport short range with your spiritguardians basicly moving uou to the enemies instead of the enemies to you and if you use the thornwhip or even the lightning lure and creative positioning, since you can cast spells that dont target you through the wildfire spirit, you can now drag them into the aura from angles and areas you normaly couldnt
i definitely like the wildfire druid for casting thorn whip pulling up into the air then letting them fall through SG and take falling dmg and be knocked prone however it still needs a 3rd piece most of the time to pull it off as the pull needs to be at least 15 ft vs. medium/small. a daolock dip with crusher works or a 3rd level swarmkeeper dip.
other than the pull up and then drop back angle, i don't see any other angles the base build cant do that the wildfire spirit can.
as far as moving Sg towards the enemies this helps if there's alot of distance between the 2 round 1, otherwise it shouldnt help much unless there's a need to reposition since you cant dmg enemies by bringing SG into their space.
I've seen divine intervention work twice. Once when I was a DM, once as a player. When I was the DM the player asked for a 9th level firestorm but instead of fire damage he asked for it to deal radiant damage. I allowed it. He killed over 30 undead and delt over 500 damage across all of the targets.
As a player, I asked for the Shapechange spell and the DM allowed it. I changed into a white dragon and used the breath weapon to cover an escape from a goblin horde and we flew away.
thanks for the uploads u made my day
#D4 #wajackoyahband why do we need to recycle leaders when there are other Kenyans who can lead Kenya
Would you consider a build around Immovable Object from EGtW, utilizing it to lock people in place potentially from 30ft away with metamagic? Could be another powerful build around a low lvl spell
will put it on the to do list :)
Cool burst dps/sustained dps build: This build would be almost entirely arcane trickster rogue and it is made to optimize the arcane trickster. You take booming blade (or green flame blade but I think it is worse at least for this build), Sentinal and mirror image, maybe dragons breath or another good damage concentration spell (flame sphere works great with booming blade). I think this would be best as sustained damage but there are probably burst options too. I am surprised that (to my knowledge) you have never done a mainly arcane trickster build (unless you count the coyote).
Your subtitles are pretty decent, but I see "brazilian constitution" everytime you say "resilient constitution" and it's so funny to me for some reason
😂 I just let RUclips auto-generate them. Funny to see what they come up with sometimes :).
I'm surprised you didnt consider Tortle for this build. They have the natural armor from their shell so no need to invest in Str for the heavy armor
You could use the rule in Tasha's allowing you to move racial ability score increases around to where you want them and give yourself +2 to Wis and +1 to Con. I probably would start with 10 Str, 13 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 15 Wis, 10 Cha. This would start you with a 17 Wis and a 15 Con, so at lvl 4 you take the Telekinetic feat and make Wis 18. Then at lvl 8 Resilient (Con) making it a 16.
Adding the cantrip: Create Bonfire allows you to do your main strategy from level 1 with the Telekinetic Feat. Although not on the Cleric list you could get it via Magic Initiate feat, that Druid dip you considered, or by being an Arcana Cleric instead.
The big problem being they take damage upon entering and then if they *end* their turn there, not when they start. So, unless we can stick them in place, they're unlikely to take the damage twice in a round :).
Thanks for the video! Incredble!
Maybe a Divine Soul Sorcerer could also use the same tatics, but with other benefits, like having constitution saving throws proficiency and access to Twinned Spell and Quickened Spell to pull more targets with Torn Whip each round, adding more damage to the DPR. Later on, a 2 level dip into Warlock would allow it to have eldricht blast with Grasp of Hadar, with the same effect of thorn whip but greater damage. This would also give the character access to Armor of Agathys, that would put the enemies in an even more tragic situation in witch they have to choose between staying in the aura to attack you and taking even more damage while doing so, or to run away and be opened to Opportunities Attacks and to being pulled in back again.
I made this same comment basically but you beat me to the punch! I think the one advantage Thorn Whip has is that it can be twinned, whereas eldritch blast cannot after level 4, and even if you quickened EB, you can only pull one creature per turn with Grasp of Hadar. But still the extra damage might make up for it. I didn't think about Armor of Agathys either. That's a great point!
agreed on the divine sorc fathomlock route. posted my build somewhere in the comments here as well.
Harengon + Jump spell + Boots of striding and springing = 270 foot jump at high levels and 90 foot jump at level 1....... as a bonus action. And due to the specific phrasing of the Rabbit Hop ability it doesnt consume your movement for that turn AND it doesnt follow the long/high jump rules. Why get past the guards at the gate when you can jump directly to the roof of the castle? Just make sure you have some way of surviving the fall if you miss.......
i'd rather use this insane jump to deal tons of falling dmg to a boss while also inflicting prone. definitely fun though to leap buildings in a single bound.
@@TheRobversion1 The possibilities are endless. One of my favorite ways to use it is to use a longbow with the sharpshooter feat and snipe enemies from 300+ feet away. A dude with a sword tries to stab you? That's cute! Bye bitch! Suddenly you're 300 feet away and the guy needs to move at a dash for 5 rounds under a hail of arrows. And when he gets close? Jump again! Good luck catching this build lol. Or even better jump somewhere high that they can't easily follow and fire away
Nice built something eerily similar in the past but more focused on control. i do think the build could benefit from multiclassing especially at latter levels once you have or can still acquire your 9th level spell slot like you mentioned being able to use con save prof.
guardian of faith damages when an enemy moves within in its area which means:
1. they move into the area
2. they move and stay in the area
3. they move out of the area
Sharing my own version of this which was themed on Ursula from the little mermaid going through a "Redemption arc." level 10 theorycraft as usual:
fighter 2, divine sorc 5, fathomlock 3
shadar-kai
asi: shadowtouc5ed-invisibility and false life (feytouched or gift of the gem dragon are worthy alternatives but i wanted to stick with the theme here)
fighting style: superior technique-ambush
metamagic: subtle spell, seeking spell
invocations: lance of lethargy, grasp of hadar
pact: chain (quasit flavored as an eel named flotsam)
key spells: guidance, spirit guardians (spirits flavored as spectral tentacles), eldritch blast, aid
tactics:
pre-combat:
coffeelock the remaining 4 hours of your party's long rest into additional spell slots after your trance. cast false life on self. cast aid on your entire party. walk around continuous casting guidance for initiative or invisibility for advantage on your 1st attack. flotsam walks around invisible.
1st round:
bonus action: tentacle of the deep bbeg. speed is reduced by 10 ft.
action: spirit guardians
move to within 25 ft of the bbeg
action surge: grasp of hadar enemy into your spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft.
flotsam: help
if the enemy has a move speed of 40 ft or lower they will not be able to move out of the outer rim of the spirit guardians (their speed is halved to 20 then reduced to 0) and unless they have a reach of 15ft won't be able to melee attack you either. should they have ranged attacks or spells, use shield, absorb elements or counterspell. on the start of their turn they also take spirit guardians dmg.
2nd round+:
bonus action: tentacle of the deep. speed is reduced by 10 ft.
reposition so the enemy is outside the spirit guardians aura
action: grasp of hadar the enemy back into spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft.
flotsam: help
the sustained dmg is close to your version but the control of this is one is much better as it locks 1 enemy in place. when i played this until level 16 i just went straight up divine sorc as i wanted heroes feast and higher spell slots for spirit guardians.
Wow you're right there are a lot of these builds :D
I love the Ursula theming! One of the best Disney villains. The only thing I think you're missing is another companion that you can name Jetsam.
@@egod555 yeah i had to rewatch little mermaid before as research for the character as basically I RP'd Ursula being transported to a dnd world where she sees a version of Ariel she wants to take revenge on but stumbles upon the party which sets her on a different course with a sort of a "redemption arc." Yeah i wish there was a way i could've gotten 2 familiars so i could name the other jetsam.
overall though was happy with the build's performance as it shutdown melee bbegs while dealing good sustained dpr while having the defensive suite sorcs have that clerics don't get.
oh and yes agreed on Ursula. one of the best indeed!
Really good Rob. The extra twist of totally bombing an enemy's movement is a nice add to a build like this. Well done.
@@dungeondojo yeah and the great part is this scales well into the higher tiers unlike save or suck forms of control. spirit guardians is no save, grasp of hadar and tentacle of the deep are attacks. they arent affected by immunity, magic resistance or legendary resistance.
slight errata on the build. it's supposed to be distant spell there instead of subtle spell (i still took subtle spell but that was towards the end of the campaign when i hit level 10 divine sorc).
distant spell was used in conjunction with earth tremor in case i needed to lockdown multiple enemies. I'll use it instead of grasp of hadar. distant earth tremor creates a 20 ft radius of difficult terrain around me (1 perimeter square bigger than spirit guardians) no save. which means someone with 40 ft of movement would only be able to move 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. someone with 30 ft of movement is locked down at the outer rim of spirit guardians. but this is just 1 part. if they fail the dex save, they'll take 1d6 dmg and are knocked prone. if they are knocked prone, things get interesting. spirit guardians will reduce the speed by half. tentacle of the deep will subtract 10 ft from the remaining movement. now they wont have half of their remaining movement to stand up. if they have 40 ft speed or less they can't even crawl as crawling 5 ft into difficult terrain will cost them 15 ft of movement. at minimum they will need 50 ft base speed to crawl 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. should the bbeg decide to burn a legendary resistance to not get knocked prone then that's a win for me as i still get difficult terrain in (not a total waste of the action/spell slot) and i just used a 1st level slot.
anyway glad you liked it. it was fun to play and RP. the party members liked me as i was doing all those cleric support stuff like casting death ward, heroes feast, upcasted aid, etc pre-combat on everyone as i had lots of spare slots doing the semi-coffeelocking and the build isn't spell slot intensive as it's built around a sustainable 3rd level spell, a 1st level spell and cantrips.
Note that Thorn Whip is "UP TO" 10ft closer. You don't have to pull the target closer if you don't want to, or you can stop at 5ft.
Episode 82: Nature's Boogaloo
Story time. I have played in a campaign for years as a cleric and ran Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon primarily. Otherwise played this character (Tempest) until level 9, then multi classed into Paladin (Vengeance) for 5 levels before taking more Cleric levels. The Spirit Guardians on a Paladin is absolutely amazing and the burst damage skyrockets.
Great video. Loved it and thank you kindly
Question with telekinesis movement. If I move an opponent 5' I do not get an attack of opportunity because it is not willing movement. But if I move an ally do they receive an AoO? Does the act of them accepting my telekinesis make it willing and open to reactions? My interpretation would be that they are not moving, I am moving them, so they would not be attackable but I can see the other side.
Thoughts....
I don't believe so, RAW. Regardless of whether they *accept* the movement or not, they're still not technically using *their* movement, I'd say.
RAW they have to have used there movement or an action/bonus/reaction to move at there speed, as it is still forced movement it doesn’t provoke. Some people think forcing your enemy to flee away is forced movement as they don’t get a choice but the fact it costs them there actions/movement means it does provoke instead.
I knew it'll be a nature cleric! And you can go to the teaser and see I was talking about a similar build I made. I think doing Shillelagh + 1 level dip into sorcerer for the CON proficiency and Booming Blade works very well too. AND, I used the new Earth Genasi from Monsters of the Multiverse that gains a Bonus Action Blade Ward to protect yourself (you are very close to enemies still lol). I called it Sandstorm, and the spirits are Locust! I'm happy more people will see how powerful nature clerics can be!
lvl 14 Clerics also get dmg boost from their Divine Strikes - but they would need to be doing weapon attacks.
Most DMs would probably have no problem with increasing dmg of Blessed Strikes the same way , you can always ask...
Doesn't wildshape uses reset on short and long rest? So you could potentially use it more than twice a day. Or am I misinterpreting?
Correct! Pinned an Errata post :)
This character mechanically how i might make Megumi Fushiguro from Jujustu Kaisen.
*Spoilers for season 1 of JJK* if you want to be totally blind don't read below:
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There are two ways I'd go about making the 10 Shadows Shikigami technique and Domain that Megumi has.
1. Straight summoner, for this probably straight Shepherd Druid would do better, though I think you'd want to establish more CQC options with that build considering Megumi is noted by certain powerful characters to be surprisingly strong at CQC for Shikigami users who tend to let their summons do all the fighting and stay out of melee themselves. I do think this is a viable option and the spirit totems emulate the individuality of his shadow summons a lot better, though Megumi can have Ten and unfortunately we only get the 3.
This route probably feels like Megumi's day to day base level as a jujutsu sorcerer the most simply and relying on the least flavor, (Though for any option re-flavoring from Nature/Divine/Arcane magic etc to shadow cursed techniques is gonna be necessary,)
2. The spirit guardians build presented by Colby is an amazing reference point for Megumi. I think the ranged aura of spirit guardians is a super fun way to give a player the option to flavor their damage as CQC Shikigami use, and isn't restricted by the form of your summons (always remember kids, flavor is free.) This along with Megumi's used of cursed weapons i think goes perfect with the thornwhip/telekinetic use fits well. Id probably use both options as a mix of "cursed weapons" and his Toad Shikigami. Adding find familiar to the list, we can give my favorite Shikigami Nue (the electric bird) some love! I think the thematic of electricity plays in to the familiar giving you advantage on attacks really well. Unfortunately Nue for this character is to small to fly us around like the real one. Can't have it all. It also presents the opportunity at higher levels to use the spirit guardians as Megumi's Domain *_Chimera Shadow Garden_* given it will be much stronger, harder to resist, and still lets the player flavor how the damage is being dealt and appearing. The scene where Megumi first attempts his domain expansion vs the special grade curse is exactly how I'd imagine a powerful spirit guardian spell. ruclips.net/video/WFE9NUWAEec/видео.html
Though since the enemy just has to save and leave the aura obviously we can't say its perfect. For a perfect Domain that you cant escape without overpowering we'd need like Forcecage or something, even then that isnt a perfect emulation.
Join us next week where we make Aoi Todo and his Boogie Woogie technique as a Echo Knight Fighter lol
Very interesting. Thematically, nature cleric is great. Given that you don't get spirit guardians until level 5 though, waiting until level 4 to get thorn whip via feat isn't a huge deal. As for other cleric domains to make this work with, death cleric has a big synergy. Using your massive smite-like channel divinity helps to boost damage, and it can be used with thorn whip. Furthermore, in situations where you don't want to throw out spirit guardians, telekinetic can help you put enemies adjacent to one another for a double-target toll the dead.
About spirit guardians: I ALWAYS forget the "Enter for the first time on a turn" also means you could take a step back, or juke up, down, left right, so they all exit, then re-enter each turn too, without the whip/TK things as well. Thanks for the reminder.
Lunchtime on Tuesdays is my favorite part of the week!
Playing a loxodon nature cleric in our current campaign. I'm having a lot of fun!
You could do some pretty sweet stuff with the same idea on a BARD. i'm thinking of Grabbing a Tortle Bard, and magic secreting my way to spirit guardians and thorn whip, maybe using some mirror image on myself, and that sweet 17 AC, mirror image, and silvery barbs to just make it to where they can't hit you at all while, you just pull them back again and again.
>no weapon attacks
>spiritual weapon
UNSUBBED! UNLIKE! UNCOMMENTING! I HAVE BEEN LIED TO BY RUclips MAN!!
Great build! Keep them coming!
Because, you know … Peace ✌️
Only just discovered this build, but I'm building a similar character for an upcoming Curse of Strahd campaign, but instead of Telekinetic at level 1 I'm taking Chef, and instead of Thorn Whip I'm taking Shillelagh...basically I'm making Gordon Ramsey, with a rolling pin for a weapon, a frying pan for a shield, a meat cleaver for my Spiritual Weapon and onions making bad guys cry for my Spirit Guardians!
At level 4, I wonder if it might be worth taking Magic Initiate Wizard and picking up Booming Blade, since I'm using Shillelagh instead of Thorn Whip, alongside Find Familiar, that would also partly make up for the lack of Extra Attack at level 5
To be fair, I've only ever witnessed Divine Intervention work on Critical Role. I've never seen it personally work in my games. It's just too low of a percentage. It should be double your cleric level, minimum. Level 10 to 19, you have a 10-19% chance of your deity coming to help. At 20th? 100%. What? How come I was chopped liver at 19th, but suddenly at 20th NOW you'll help?
I've done a lot of campaigns where I've faced off against golems and other creatures who are either resistant to all magic or straight up immune, and had to slog it out. I would have taken a 1-2 level dip into druid for at least shillelagh and faerie fire or absorb elements.
I have to applaud you for making this build. Nature cleric is considered one of, if not the, worst subclass that cleric has. Even I had trouble justifying its existence. That 17th level feature is real bad, and the 2nd level Channel Divinity is so circumstantial it could make one cry.
I will say though that I feel that WotC really missed their shot at bringing back the old AD&D spells: sticks to snakes, oars to snakes, and sticks to crocodiles. That'd have been way cooler for a Channel Divinity.
Regarding Eric from the D&D cartoon, at least his shield could bash people and it created forcefields. Literally protected the kids from "rocks fall, everyone dies" in one episode.
Never used a 9th level spell slot in 5e, but did a lot during my 3.5 days, and really miss clerics having access to the miracle spell (ie. cleric's version of wish).
Divine Intervention Story
The party is me (a half-orc eldritch knight/great weapon fighter), a human celestial warlock/cleric, and a gnome druid/barbarian. The party is level 12, and we are on a quest to kill a lich in his tower (there is a great war brewing and the lich allied with the bad guys). We used up 75% of our party resources just making our way to the top of the tower where the lich waits. Boss battle ensues, and it does NOT go well. The lich casts spirit guardians at level 5 to start the fight, so the barbearian and I are just getting hammered by 5d8 necrotic damage every turn. we all use pretty optimized characters so we did around 150 damage in the first round (the DM always homebrews boss fights for us to increase the difficulty, so its not the MM version of lich) Second round, the lich casts Disintegrate at 8th level (thats 16d6+40 force damage btw), perma-killing the barbearian. Keep in mind disintegrate totally destroys the body; AFAIK negating almost all forms of resurrection magic except True Resurrection. I do another round of attacks, the lock/cleric does his support/healing thing, and we know he cant have much hp left. The lich uses its 9th level spell to cast witchbolt at me. WITCHBOLT OF ALL THINGS. 9d12 lightning damage + 5d8 necrotic is enough to drop me and force 2 death saves. Now it is just the lock/cleric 1 on 1 with the very badly wounded lich. He makes a tough decision (after a 15 minute long discussion amongst the group) to try and go for the kill instead of healing me, but misses everything. Now its the liches turn, 1 of us is perma dead, i'm on my last death save, and the lock/cleric is almost completely out of resources. The lich does another witchbolt at the lock/cleric leaving him on single digit HP, and at this point we all know its a TPK, i fail my last death save to the lich's spirit guardians and the lock/cleric is just reading over his character sheet for ANY thing that might get us out. he calls out the divine intervention ability (At this point i believe he is 2 warlock/10 cleric) and he ROLLS A NAT 1 ON THE D100!!! The DM scrambles for a few minutes trying to figure out how he wants to play it, eventually deciding that his deity would manifest as a resurrection spell. Im back at 1 hp, but wait; the spirit guardians will just kill me at the start of my turn. Enter stage left, Relentless Endurance, my orcish tenacity lets me shrug off the damage and go for one final round of attacks, which finally destroys the lich's body and sends it back into its phylactery. Everyone at the table went absolutely nuts, to this day one of my fondest memories of d&d
TLDR:
Nat 1 on Divine Intervention roll + Relentless Endurance turns a certain TPK into a lifelong d&d memory
food for thought: take the new kobold in MotM and pick booming blade. at 4th, pick mobile feat. now, you can cast spirit g and spiritual hammer, then run up and boom them. back away so you cant be hit. if they move to get out of spirit, they take 2nd boom damage. once they do, youll have 40ft movement so you can run em down (in which they take spirit g damage again), then boom them and back away. hit em with spir weapon again. at 17, they are taking 1d8 weapon, 2d8 cleric bonus, 3d8 boom, 9d8 spirit g, 4d8+wis spiritual weapon every round and possibly a 2nd dose of 4d8 boom...19d8+wis (+4d8 if they move) and you only cast 1 cantrip each round. 1 9th, 1 8th and a cantrip. plus, you can give yourself advantage with your roar. =)
avg 100ish dpr or 189 max if they move. all with just boom. at the end of the turn, you still have all but 2 spells.
i didnt count the times they step out of the AOE and you bring em back in so thats 9d8 x2 per round. so like 260ish max rolls.
What about Arcana Vhuman Magic Initiate? I'm into this shillelagh build. I'm trying to convince the DM to change on of my cantrips on my Tomelock because I'm getting BB and GFB through the sorcerer multiclass.
For the Nature Cleric I would go High Elf for BB, 15 str seems a bit wasted but since to me this seems like a tank build. War caster, PAM (quarter staff) and crusher or elven accuracy.
A very nice build as always. When I saw the short video on Monday I thought another warlock (because of eldritch blast) build was on the way. So I tried to find something before the video was up. So I found undead lock build who uses EB for cantrip and spirit shroud for concentration spell. That build reached as high as 5d10+23d8+20 damage (158.8 average damage over all ACs 10 through 25 for single target or can be divided among up to 4 targets as per the EB cantrip) at level 17. Maybe you could look at it some time.
I’m thinking of reflavoring nature cleric to a Gandalf type character. His staff could be his holy symbol. Gandalf used light, animals, and thaumaturgy to accomplish his goals. Thanks Colby this is going to be fun
Aasimar Light Domain 6-8 / Stars Druid 12-14
It's thematic with starlight. It has great concentration saves with the Dragon constellation. It has Fireball. Radiant Consumption is another source of AOE damage that only uses a bonus action and no concentration. They take damage when you end your turn within 10ft of them, and once per turn when you deal damage with a spell.
Oh I got a great one, Divine Intervention story. We were in a boss fight and was getting hammered by an assortment of giants, Fire, Frost, Ogre, and Storm. Plus they had pets like giant polar bears and winter wolves. One of our party had an item that did the cube of force effects. So he put up the cube around us and we backed into a tight area where the giants could only attack from two directions, hoping that we could use the choke point to thin the heard. I think I was cleric 12 with only like the low level spells left. These would only be good if someone goes down to get them back up. But then there were so many enemies it was almost a TPK. I mean if we were able to back in to the choke point and we got lucky hits along with the enemies getting unlucky we might have avoided a full TPK.
I thought, "Why not roll the dice and take the chance." Rolled 11
BOOM
Mass Heal spell!
Awesome!
I'm playing a similar concept right now, but it's a Tempest Cleric with Booming Blade (from Magic Initiate) and Crusher abusing Spirit Guardians. I thought about going Nature domain for magic Shilly-stick to be less MAD, but I couldn't pass up the Tempest features and spells for a seafaring/pirate setting... also couldn't pass up having an octopus familiar sit on my shoulder and hold my pipe. It's a nasty combo, especially on a ship where Spirit Guardians covers most of it.
Nice video. I did something similar with a Hill Dwarf War Cleric/Spore Druid.
Shillelagh to make two attacks with my wisdom at level two because War Cleric.
Spirit Guardians, my spores for bonus damage, mushroom shaped hammer floating about due to spiritual weapon, thorn whip enemies into my fungusy vortex of doom, and have Entangle as a backup in case something happens which would allow my collection of victims to run away.
High AC, lots of temporary hit points. Guided Strike is really good when you cast Chill Touch to ensure that a stronger enemy is guaranteed to have disadvantage on their attacks.
Crusader's Mantle my zombie helper, use Aid to buff it's HP max, bless, etc. This is good to give enemies a different target to attack instead of me or the party.
I chose to go a more controller/tanky route with it.
AFAIC, dwarven druids can wear metal armor because they are dwarves and druids care about upholding tradition. No druid is going to tell a dwarf what he can and cannot wear.
I also take pleasure in efficiency, and a year+ later it is exactly why I haven't subscribe to this channel. I'm a player and a DM. I don't have a desk job. As pleasant as your camera presence may be, it's excruciating painful to have to go through a 1h video that could be done in 5-10minutes. Under normal circumstances, I simply don't have that kind of spare time.
Custom lineage cannot be taken with a customized origin for a +2 to wisdom and +2 to *.
Lineage gives you a singular +2 to allocate and a feat / dark vision plus 30 ft of movement. But origin allows you to place the TWO +2 you get from being a mountaintop dwarf and do what you want with them.
Origin is also a lot more confusing when it comes to the armor and weapon proficiencies since being proficient in heavy armor implies you have medium and light armor proficiencies that can also be swapped out?
Readjusting some stats isn’t hard since it is point buy. But don’t expect DM that has read pages 7 and 8 of Tasha’s to let this fly.
"RIDICULOUS DAMAGE!... Nature cleric? 🤔🤔🤔"
I don't know if you're allowed emojis though ha
Divine Intervention success, as requested:
This is, funny enough, as the DM.
On the road, my players passed a traveling group of Shaundakul worshippers. Shaundakul's domain included travel, trade, and protection (with a thematic of wind). This religious group travels major dangerous roads and provides a safe haven for travelers they pass on the road, while also making sure those they pass are not going to be a danger to other travelers.
After a night of food, drink, sparring, and conversation, the party left a very good impression and the leader wanted to help them on their way.
(At this point one of the players was searching for a person that caused the death of his village as a youngster and the area they were searching included a mountain range and an extremely dangerous forest of incredible size.)
In farewells, the lead cleric said something akin to "May the winds find you your path" to that player - using Divine Intervention at the same time.
I rolled exactly the Cleric's level and that player was given a vision following the winds from above to the exact location of the targets hideout. (This likely saved them many sessions of trying to survive the forest and locate clues to its location as well as confirming they were going the right way, which they were uncertain of)
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It might be a weird example, since I was DMing it, but I was so happy my players were blessed by the dice gods that day.
You’ve gotta change up your thumbnails, man. Look at your video library. It’s like a super amateur model’s headshot catalog or something.
Keep yourself in the thumbnail if you want. I don’t think you need to be the foundation of every thumbnail. A little variation would be good.
You could do a custom heroforge asset for each build. Maybe do a community outreach thing where people can submit and vote for options.
You could could do something similar for painted or drawn figures. Though, with heroforge assets you’d be able to make model adjustments yourself to match a specific weapon or whether else.
Divine Intervention... fails everytime. Every. Time. Why do I even devote myself to these gods?!?!?!?! Clerics are always fun though, even when this is just the tease of a godly interjection of holy goodness
Yayyyy my first campaign character was a stout halfling nature cleric of Sheela Peryroyl!
I see this less of a ‘nature’ cleric build and more of a general cleric build. I’ve used very similar setups on a tempest/life/light/grave clerics. All of them pretty effective.
Really, the only thing holding the build back in this case is the nature domain part, which is more of a wizards of the coast problem. I’m right now playing a nature heavy life cleric due to how underpowered the nature domain is.
Ironically I made a gnome nature cleric.. who's a weebit crazy. For flavor, I took a small 2 lvl dip into fire djinni warlock. Heavy armor, shield and a free hand. So much fun with fire!
Ok something I've been really wanting to see someone who actually knows how to run the math see if sentinel (maybe bludgeoner) plus sheileileh..... I probably spelled that wrong but still. Basically set up a bonus action aoe or spike growth for real fuckshit if you go bludgeoner, especially on like a bugbear for better reach.
Combine all of these and either the enemy has to walk around your bubble, taking damage from the movement and blocking off allies, or eats a stat efficient plus 5+prof to hit aoo, stopping them, and pushing them back into the spike growth for more damage.
Like this needs 2 rounds of basically nothing but then afterwards in longer fights you just become a nightmare, and you only really need wis and con on the build.
Im aware that something like spirit guardian requires less set up round wise, a lower level spell, and less feats to optimize, and is probably the actual way to build this but the spike growth bludgeoner version would be really stupid to see in action.
Cant spiritual weapon trigger the extra bludgeoning damage from the Dao genie warlock? +crusher feat and you’ve got another forced movement option.
Anything that increases your size would also increase the area covered by spirit guardians!
A reason for taking Warcaster earlier than Resilient Constitution could be if we are playing without Tasha's and therefore we don't get blessed strikes, we could consider taking Magic Initiate earlier in place of Ritual Caster and with it grab Booming Blade, this would give us a weapon attack that is better than just an attack and therefore something to use Divine Strike on, also if we do this as an attack of opportunity with Warcaster it would make the enemy receive OK extra damage if they run away so we'd be doing reliable damage even regardless of which move the enemy makes (Exiting or staying in Spirit Guardians), this would also make that other Warcaster feature of being able to cast while holding a weapon and a shield really useful.
I don't think what I'm saying is necessarily ideal but it's reasonable enough.