@@talkinggibberish how big is that list, my guy? Because I feel your pain. I made a War Cleric/Gunslinger character that I would love to play, but I have only one game coming up, I've already made my character for it, and a backup character in case he does at some point. Meanwhile, I have 70+ other characters made in DnD Beyond that I'll likely never get to play and it makes me sad.
What I love about the Thri Kreen is that they can do all the things a Valor Bard wants to do at once. Sword in one main hand, shield in the other, and still having two hands free to cast spells. Lovely.
To be fair, the thri-kreen aren't just "a thing now", they've been around since the 90s, notably Dark Sun and the original Spelljammer campaign settings.
The man the myth the legend. Haven't watched a video in a while, real life DnD has kept me very busy 🙃. But I came here for this Thri Kreen build cause OF COURSE I AM. love you Colby ❤️
So, fun quirk of the wording: "Without the assistance of magic, you can't speak the non-thri-kreen languages you know." + "You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear." Is Message enough "magic assistance"? The way I read it, the whisper would go in a thri-kreen language even through the message spell, since one would need to utter the words in a whisper. Not a complaint, btw, just a thing I noticed. I love using whips and doing psychic damage on a thri-kreen character is so on point :D But to be honest I think 14 or 16 strength would be enough on this character, between expertise, frost rune and giants might, you would very rarely fail athletics checks anyway. And have you gone fighter 6/ rogue 11, reliable talent would pretty much have guaranteed that success and with the same amount of ASI's due to rogue10. (edited multiple times because I decided to comment before I finished watching the video, like a dumdum)
Makes me want to make an Evolved form of these beautiful bug-humanoid that's basically Goro/Sheeva/Kintaro from Mortal Kombat. 😱 Lovely video, yet again! The Bardic voice truly is soothe to listen to. 🙂
@@trautsj I'd definitely allow stuff like this at my table. (Then again, I usually allow creative character designs as a DM) e.g. If you want to play a dwarf but see racials from "Mark of Warding" and "Hill" that you really like, I'd allow that (depending on what the player wants of course) and adjust the CR they would face accordingly.
Just wanted to say that your channel is not only so insightful but also makes me feel calm and welcome. You help me though a lot of hard times by getting my mind onto Dungeons and Dragons. Thank you Colby ❤️
I'm building a Fighter Eldritch Knight who will also do allot of grappling. Took Fey Touched for Hex to give big things disadvantage of Athletics and tiny things disadvantage on acrobatics. Also will be taking Skill Expert for expertise in Athletics. Blind fighting fighting style to find those hidden or invisible buggers.
About the sci-fi and fantasy mix, it depends how you go about doing it I feel like. If you create a campaign with a theme akin to the Avatar movie for instance, or maybe the Fifth Element, both of them mix sci-fi and fantasy pretty well, and I think both of those could make kickass campaign ideas.
One thing I would love to see from you for these builds that have intricate step by step setups for combat would be flow charts. Like seeing a simple (BA Giants Might -> A Grapple -> A Shove -> A Light Weapon Attack -> R Light Weapon/Whip Opportunity Attack + Freeze) in like a table with different combinations and order of operations for each subsequent round would be amazing! Anywho, love the build! Again great work and something I am now DYING to play after I get around to playing your blade singer build! 😅
"Little less an half an hour" is my favorite quote from the movie. Yeah, there are other FAR more popular ones...but as a pun-dad, that is the BEST answer to, "How long until....".
Curious if you would ever look into trying to optimize a build around magic missile, I just found out about this myself and I guess it stacks with the hexblades curse and what not. Was interested to see how you would approach it!
Can you make a Plasmoid build? Their Pseudopod might just seem like a weak mage hand, but it’s way more than that. It’s connected to your body, yet can’t be attacked. Magic Touch v2???
I think on this build Enlarge/Reduce is just an infinitely better use of concentration. It also adds 1d4 damage to weapon attacks which offsets the 2d8 of shadow blade. 2d6+2d4 vs 2d8+1d6 being only 0.5 difference in average damage per round.
This so reminds me of both the martians from Jon Carter of Mars and General Grievous from Star Wars Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith. Great observations, Colby.
Rules as written the grapple + shove prone and retain grapple works, but it's one of those scenarios where as a DM I wouldn't allow it unless the player can describe how they're physically retaining the grapple whilst their enemy is on the ground.
Love the channel, been watching it for a couple of weeks now. Definitely enjoyed the builds where you take a weak weapon and do a build around them, though I am surprised that you haven’t done one for the boomerang yet. Would love to see that.
I’d love a plasmoid build soon! I have a warlock old one patron that’s a plasmoid and I flavored them as a mass of bugs. Really cool, and I hope to pull out the character for an upcoming high fantasy campaign. They’re going to be a manifestation of a cosmic parasite on an ancient dreaming entity that needs feet on the prime material to sustain its existence and stop threats to its feeding. I also played a homebrew pugilist plasmoid and he’s been super fun! He’s a lovable himbo who just wants his friends to have a good time. Always grappling and doing weird unarmored infiltration stuff!
Less than 5 minutes in and you've already tugged the Jim Henson heartstrings of nostalgia and quoted the greatest movie of all time. You are one of the few channels I'd keep watching even if you switched to another game.
I’m genuinely always excited when I the shorts teaser. Then I remember it’s Tuesday once I see your video then I’m even more excited XD Thank you for time and effort Colby and I hope you’re having good one
I have an idea for a sort of gunslinger thri-kreen. There is just something about the image of a four armed person with four “guns” in each hand. Unfortunately there isn’t really a light gun in DnD 5e so he’d have to go light crossbows. Is there any way to be creative with multiclassing to get the most out of the concept shooting as much as possible in a round other than just going full fighter?
Very fun build idea. You talked about it around level 15, but since we are so reaction heavy fire rune would be a better early pickup instead of cloud rune. It adds extra control and some slight extra damage.
This build would be really cool as a tank multiclassing in rune knight and guardian armorer artificer using the artificer’s armor of magical strength and flash of genius to make grapple and shove attempts really effective while using your small arms to punch with the soft taunt gauntlets!
Colby, I’ve been lucky enough to have a job that allows the use of headphones. I’ve had a really rough bout of overactive anxiety and some pretty intense depression, but putting on the podcast version of these videos has been a huge boon in overcoming the symptoms in the moment. It gives me the opportunity to look forward to my next session and escape from all the stress. Thank you! I also appreciate the fun forward take on optimization and it meshes perfectly with my playgroup. I couldn’t ask for a better series.
Damn, talk about a crazy sponsor. First Star Wars 5e, then Esper Genesis, and now this? Glad to see more 3rd party companies giving Sci-Fi some love. Would love to see what that has in store, but I'm broke! Sadge. Still, this build looks super fun! Good stuff Colby!
Sentinel reaction attack and uncanny dodge are mutually exclusive reactions. If you’re shoulder to shoulder with a teammate and they are targeted with an attack, sentinel reaction attack with sneak attack already satisfied. If you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with an ally and you’re targeted, your AC is decent and if they actually hit, you halve the damage. If they did this to bait out your reaction because your attack is powerful and then target an ally, they’re splitting their damage and you’re team is tactically superior since they aren’t focusing fire.
Ok I'm going to be honest... since the release of the short on this episode, I was not really excited for this build, as I (like Colby) am insect adverse. But, and to no surprise from Colby, I found myself liking the build more and more and as soon as the idea of grappling a Tarrasque came up, my mind was blown and I was seriously wanting try this craziness out.
Fun fact: on Resident Alien, Harry (played by Alan Tudyk) has the same arrangement of four arms, so if one were so inclined, this build could be pretty easily reskinned (reshelled?) to be a shape-shifting alien...
You always seem to overlook Giant’s Might increases the size of your short swords. “Large-sized’ weapons do 2x damage. (Page 278 DMG) You can repay me by figuring dps for a Battlesmith 5 / Rune Knight 3 with an oversized maul, giants might, enlarge, and great weapon fighting. Use Iron Defender for flanking, to cancel disadvantage. 4 attacks at 8d6+5 at +10 to hit, re-rolling 1s and 2s.
I did a similar build with a Loxodon, but with the UA giant barbarian, with grappler and shield master to knock enemies prone, grapple them, and stab them in the back. If they're grappled, they have to use half movement to stand up, and if they're grappled, their movement speed is 0.
I've been thinking about a Naga grappler build with a 2 level dip into Wizard (Enchantment) for Hypnotic Gaze. That allows for two controlled targets without even using grapple yet. Rune Knight might now be a part of that build. 😁
Not sure if it was mentioned but one of the best things about this build is the AREA of control. Once you reach huge size using a reach weapon you have control over 49 squares on a grid map. That's an incredible portion of the map so I think between sentinel and enemy movements, you'd get opportunity attacks more often than not and be incredibly hard for enemies to get past to engage your allies.
I found that the Thri-Kreen can also be great for artillerist as their sub-arms are able to hold your arcane firearm spell focus and still use your main arms to attack with. I ended up using it for my Predator Build.
Certainly rethinking my Thri-Keeen build for next weeks 5th level Spelljammer one shot! (With a free feat) Super thrilled that we view the arms similarly, I felt that finding the true potential for these arms required some lateral thinking, as the interactions aren’t immediately obvious. I went Psi-Warrior for some additional psionic flavour, with a few pros and cons compared to Rune Knight: - Not as bonus action intensive, giving more opportunity for light weapon attacks. - Less reliable at grapples/shoves when compared with rune knight, but I’m less concerned with grapples and shoves. Hopefully will get advantages via flanking. - Minor DPR buff from Psionic strike dice over giants might, and more regular light weapon attacks from not having to set any abilities up. - Took sentinel too. With whip, shield, two short swords. - Protective field enables some long distance reactionary shenanigans if we’re not able to cover our allies with sentinel. - Was also carrying a maul for fun, IMO, not enough people use bludgeoning weapons.
I love the thri-kreen, definitely one of my favorite races. Played a Soulknife a couple months ago (used thri-kreen mainly just for thematic purposes) and it felt great. RAW you can't use the psychic blades with the secondary arms since they don't have the light property. However, that's dumb considering they're manifestations of psionic power, which in theory would have no weight.
Thank you for these videos. Not only are they intriguing and interesting in terms of D&D. They also help lull me to sleep. Then next night, I start where I fell asleep to repeat the process. ❤
With Arcane Trickster 7 (39:52) You can swap a spell known whenever gaining a level, so you can swap you 1st level non-enchantment/illusion spell for a 2nd level one.
Re Level 14 feat (42:14) Consider Fighting Initiate and getting Grappling Strike basically giving back one attack we'd use instead to make a grapple each short rest.
The highlight of my week, thanks again Colby! Always look forward to Your builds… it’s like kicking back and having a beer with a great friend and just spitballing character build ideas. Very relaxing 🍻
Loved this build! But somewhere in my mind ... I don't know... Maybe four short swords... Two wepon fighting times 2. Maybe aiming to close to the sun.
Psi warrior ‘Keens are pretty good. If you grab the telekinetic feat. Just max Str, Con, and int. You can take 3 levels of Soul knife, and get your knives, and grapple and knife away.
I love the Giant's Might + Enlarge trick! I am currently playing a Bugbear Fighter/Sorcerer with a polearm, so I can be Size Huge with a 15 ft reach, lol.
I've actually made a build before that relied on extra attack not requiring the use of both attacks being with the same weapon. You use a lance and a 1 handed weapon. The lance for enemies at 10' away, and the other weapon for 5' since a lance has disadvantage on attacks at 5'.
Been watching since the Pamlock and you're stuff is still great. Keep up the great stuff and don't be scared of doing more stuff like this. Just watched the Pokemon episode again I was happily surprised.
On the level 6 Rogue expertise (39:29)L Cinsider Sleight of Hand given Mage Hand Legerdemain. I also think the character could be called "Five Handed Hugs".
Important note, at lvl 15 you can take storm rune and just put it on an item that a different party member is wearing. This is a very powerful option and I love that the rune knight has built in team play like this.
@@frosty5047 Yes in the class feature it specifically says "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch a number of objects..." this is further confirmed as each rune says "While wearing or carrying an object inscribed with this rune,...." meaning that any creature with the object has the passive bonus and can activate your ability using your modifiers. It's pretty amazing and in the case of my own rune knight I made three sashes that he wears as part of his vestments (holy knight of a church) So that I can pass off any of the runes that would be good for that.
*technically* the whip is not the only non-2 handed weapon that has reach. The lance does too. It has the reach and special properties The special property (in part) means they require 2 hands while not mounted, but they lack the 2 handed property!
A friend played a similar build without the thri kreen part. it seemed fun at first but he experienced a lot of problems with his actions stepping on each other he wasnt having fun because he had more abilities he couldn't use than he could on a given turn. Just food for thought if you plan to play it in a live game. Consider if this would bother you.
The thri kreen would be an insane bloodhunter. Give yourself salaraty from mutant and your dex gets an additional +3 and it gets better as you level. Ac and attacks go up
My Thri-Kreen build: Battle Master 3 / Arcane Trickster X Dagger, Shield, Dagger, Wand You will be using a lot of Quick Toss to get Sneak Attack despite using your action for spells. For instance, at level 12 your turn 1 could look like this: Bless (from Fey Touched), Action Surge, Mirror Image, Quick Toss Manuver. Draw a dagger. Turn 2: Ready your action to Toss a Dagger, Quick Toss manuver. Draw dagger. All these buffing spells for you and you're not losing a single turn of sneak attack. On top of that you can x2 sneak attack past round 1 as long as you can spend a Battle Master die.
Interesting idea. Ran across the older Needler video and was curious if you had considered the Artificer (battle smith) using a dart infused with returning weapon multiclassed with fighter (battle master) for the thrown weapon fighting style and the quick toss maneuver. The Battle Smith let’s you prioritize Intelligence over Str or Dex and let it be your attack stat when using a magical weapon. You’d just need to pick up sharpshooter feat at some point and your set for crazy dart damage. Setup is pretty straight forward. First round cast faerie fire to achieve advantage on multiple targets and after that just dart them down. I’d start out Artificer and go all the way to 5th lvl then swap over for 3 levels in fighter then swap back to artificer to finish out.
Back the Waystar kickstarter after seeing your sponsor section, although ended up doing so from another PC, so not sure if that's a negative for you. I was already running a few oneshots that were basically 5e reflavoured (no mechanics changes specifically) as sci-fi, so happened to be just at the right time. I'm also looking back into Starfinder, so only backed at the one hardback level, depends if I think I could sell my group on learning a new system or if it's going to be 5e or nothing for some of them
Silly question but I don't see a reason the secondary arms can't act as the seccond hand for two handed weapons. They just can't weild anything but light on their own. So I'm thinking dual heavy crossbows with the extra arms as the "free hands" to reload and as the seccond hand to hold them. Same concept if you want dual greatswords I guess. It might look odd but 2 right hands is still 2 handing
You call it the Praying Mantis, but I don't see any Cleric levels. What's the deal?! 😁
Adding "Way of Mercy Thri-Kreen Monk" to my list of charcters ill build but never play
@@talkinggibberish how big is that list, my guy? Because I feel your pain. I made a War Cleric/Gunslinger character that I would love to play, but I have only one game coming up, I've already made my character for it, and a backup character in case he does at some point. Meanwhile, I have 70+ other characters made in DnD Beyond that I'll likely never get to play and it makes me sad.
*rimshot*
"let me explain..that is too much, let me sum up" this is my reminder that Colby clearly deserves a like.
So do you
This is basically the only channel that can keep my attention for an hour at a time. Thank you for being here!
It's also the only I listen to the intro for hearing "welcome home it's here that you belong" 🥰
This is ASMR and D&D all rolled into one...lol
@@ddrew1973 ASMR + DND = Awesomerdend?
What I love about the Thri Kreen is that they can do all the things a Valor Bard wants to do at once.
Sword in one main hand, shield in the other, and still having two hands free to cast spells. Lovely.
Or playing an instrument
@@laoxep Its a bard, its the same thing for them.
To be fair, the thri-kreen aren't just "a thing now", they've been around since the 90s, notably Dark Sun and the original Spelljammer campaign settings.
Thought that were older than 90s but yea big in dark son
Thri-Kreen were created by Gary Gygax, and debuted in AD&D 1st edition in 1983
BUT NOW WE NEED TO KNOW HOW THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN BUTTERCUP AND HUMPERDINK WENT!
Watch the movie
Ha ha - let's just say: "Not well."
@@dragonhearthx8369 Aww and here I thought it would be something different from Princess Bride XD
If only we had a holocaust cloak, that would be something.
"A point-blank crossbow expert that grapples their targets"
Holding on to your enemy like "stand still for gods' sake I need to shoot you" xD
I love it
The Praying Mantis: d4 #108
Level 1:(see above) [fighter 1, race & fighting-style]
Level 2:(see above) [fighter 2]
Level 3:(@16:41) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@20:10) [fighter 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@23:59) [fighter 5]
Level 6:(@24:18) [fighter 6 & ASI]
Level 7:(see above) [rogue 1]
Level 8:(@33:15) [rogue 2]
Level 9:(@33:49) [rogue 3 & sub-class]
Level 10:(see above) [rogue 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@38:19) [rogue 5]
Level 12:(@39:02) [rogue 6]
Level 13:(@39:29) [rogue 7]
Level 14:(see above) [rogue 8 & ASI]
Level 15:(@45:31) [fighter 7]
Level 16:(@48:38) [fighter 8 & ASI]
Level 17:(@49:00) [rogue 9]
The man the myth the legend. Haven't watched a video in a while, real life DnD has kept me very busy 🙃. But I came here for this Thri Kreen build cause OF COURSE I AM. love you Colby ❤️
So, fun quirk of the wording: "Without the assistance of magic, you can't speak the non-thri-kreen languages you know." + "You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear." Is Message enough "magic assistance"? The way I read it, the whisper would go in a thri-kreen language even through the message spell, since one would need to utter the words in a whisper.
Not a complaint, btw, just a thing I noticed. I love using whips and doing psychic damage on a thri-kreen character is so on point :D
But to be honest I think 14 or 16 strength would be enough on this character, between expertise, frost rune and giants might, you would very rarely fail athletics checks anyway. And have you gone fighter 6/ rogue 11, reliable talent would pretty much have guaranteed that success and with the same amount of ASI's due to rogue10. (edited multiple times because I decided to comment before I finished watching the video, like a dumdum)
Muppet Treasure Island was my favorite!
Makes me want to make an Evolved form of these beautiful bug-humanoid that's basically Goro/Sheeva/Kintaro from Mortal Kombat. 😱
Lovely video, yet again! The Bardic voice truly is soothe to listen to. 🙂
Lol I remember the first time I heard of them and I immediately thought "Hmmm, how can I make General Grievous or Goro out of this bad boy" lol
@@trautsj I'd definitely allow stuff like this at my table. (Then again, I usually allow creative character designs as a DM)
e.g. If you want to play a dwarf but see racials from "Mark of Warding" and "Hill" that you really like, I'd allow that (depending on what the player wants of course) and adjust the CR they would face accordingly.
Jeremy Crawford: D4 Nemesis !!!
Just wanted to say that your channel is not only so insightful but also makes me feel calm and welcome. You help me though a lot of hard times by getting my mind onto Dungeons and Dragons. Thank you Colby ❤️
The comedy in this video is just spot on. I spat out my tea with the t-rex arms bit 😂.
😂😂😉
In the old rule 2e if in right they can do 4 attacks unarmed plus bite
I'm building a Fighter Eldritch Knight who will also do allot of grappling. Took Fey Touched for Hex to give big things disadvantage of Athletics and tiny things disadvantage on acrobatics. Also will be taking Skill Expert for expertise in Athletics. Blind fighting fighting style to find those hidden or invisible buggers.
About the sci-fi and fantasy mix, it depends how you go about doing it I feel like. If you create a campaign with a theme akin to the Avatar movie for instance, or maybe the Fifth Element, both of them mix sci-fi and fantasy pretty well, and I think both of those could make kickass campaign ideas.
I was just thinking about making a Thri-kreen character!
One thing I would love to see from you for these builds that have intricate step by step setups for combat would be flow charts. Like seeing a simple
(BA Giants Might -> A Grapple -> A Shove -> A Light Weapon Attack -> R Light Weapon/Whip Opportunity Attack + Freeze) in like a table with different combinations and order of operations for each subsequent round would be amazing! Anywho, love the build! Again great work and something I am now DYING to play after I get around to playing your blade singer build! 😅
Love the little musical interludes. Your channel is so wholesome. Hope you have a great day!
ThriKreen, finally I can RP General Greivous.
you got me at trex arms xD
"Little less an half an hour" is my favorite quote from the movie. Yeah, there are other FAR more popular ones...but as a pun-dad, that is the BEST answer to, "How long until....".
😂😂
You crack me up and make me smile every time, as well as being awesome! Thank you 😊 💓
Your onomatope for pbtpd always cracks me up. I love it.
Curious if you would ever look into trying to optimize a build around magic missile, I just found out about this myself and I guess it stacks with the hexblades curse and what not. Was interested to see how you would approach it!
Can you make a Plasmoid build? Their Pseudopod might just seem like a weak mage hand, but it’s way more than that. It’s connected to your body, yet can’t be attacked. Magic Touch v2???
Also should point out that there is no limit on the arms you can have.
Circle of the moon. Done. You are now a gummy bear.
@@austins7376 yes....but can you squeeze into one inch wide cracks as a bear?
@@austins7376 I was talking about that with my group the other day! I wanna do this so bad!!
Thanks for always making my day better.
I think on this build Enlarge/Reduce is just an infinitely better use of concentration. It also adds 1d4 damage to weapon attacks which offsets the 2d8 of shadow blade. 2d6+2d4 vs 2d8+1d6 being only 0.5 difference in average damage per round.
This so reminds me of both the martians from Jon Carter of Mars and General Grievous from Star Wars Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith.
Great observations, Colby.
Did anyone else catch the second Princess Bride reference? "How marvelous!"
A+!!!
Rules as written the grapple + shove prone and retain grapple works, but it's one of those scenarios where as a DM I wouldn't allow it unless the player can describe how they're physically retaining the grapple whilst their enemy is on the ground.
Love the channel, been watching it for a couple of weeks now. Definitely enjoyed the builds where you take a weak weapon and do a build around them, though I am surprised that you haven’t done one for the boomerang yet. Would love to see that.
I’d love a plasmoid build soon! I have a warlock old one patron that’s a plasmoid and I flavored them as a mass of bugs. Really cool, and I hope to pull out the character for an upcoming high fantasy campaign. They’re going to be a manifestation of a cosmic parasite on an ancient dreaming entity that needs feet on the prime material to sustain its existence and stop threats to its feeding. I also played a homebrew pugilist plasmoid and he’s been super fun! He’s a lovable himbo who just wants his friends to have a good time. Always grappling and doing weird unarmored infiltration stuff!
With the plasmoids, I can now run my Osmoses Jones one shot 😂😂
Less than 5 minutes in and you've already tugged the Jim Henson heartstrings of nostalgia and quoted the greatest movie of all time.
You are one of the few channels I'd keep watching even if you switched to another game.
I’m genuinely always excited when I the shorts teaser.
Then I remember it’s Tuesday once I see your video then I’m even more excited XD
Thank you for time and effort Colby and I hope you’re having good one
I have an idea for a sort of gunslinger thri-kreen. There is just something about the image of a four armed person with four “guns” in each hand. Unfortunately there isn’t really a light gun in DnD 5e so he’d have to go light crossbows. Is there any way to be creative with multiclassing to get the most out of the concept shooting as much as possible in a round other than just going full fighter?
Very fun build idea. You talked about it around level 15, but since we are so reaction heavy fire rune would be a better early pickup instead of cloud rune.
It adds extra control and some slight extra damage.
This build would be really cool as a tank multiclassing in rune knight and guardian armorer artificer using the artificer’s armor of magical strength and flash of genius to make grapple and shove attempts really effective while using your small arms to punch with the soft taunt gauntlets!
Such amazing creativity for this build!
Thank you so much for all the amazing videos!
Colby, I’ve been lucky enough to have a job that allows the use of headphones. I’ve had a really rough bout of overactive anxiety and some pretty intense depression, but putting on the podcast version of these videos has been a huge boon in overcoming the symptoms in the moment. It gives me the opportunity to look forward to my next session and escape from all the stress. Thank you! I also appreciate the fun forward take on optimization and it meshes perfectly with my playgroup. I couldn’t ask for a better series.
it's always good to hear your voice, your videos make my day better :)
I click for the D&D, I stay for the ASMR. ;)
Damn, talk about a crazy sponsor. First Star Wars 5e, then Esper Genesis, and now this? Glad to see more 3rd party companies giving Sci-Fi some love. Would love to see what that has in store, but I'm broke! Sadge. Still, this build looks super fun! Good stuff Colby!
Sentinel reaction attack and uncanny dodge are mutually exclusive reactions.
If you’re shoulder to shoulder with a teammate and they are targeted with an attack, sentinel reaction attack with sneak attack already satisfied.
If you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with an ally and you’re targeted, your AC is decent and if they actually hit, you halve the damage. If they did this to bait out your reaction because your attack is powerful and then target an ally, they’re splitting their damage and you’re team is tactically superior since they aren’t focusing fire.
Thank you Colby! I didn't know you'd already be working on a build for my bug PC fantasy :)
Ok I'm going to be honest... since the release of the short on this episode, I was not really excited for this build, as I (like Colby) am insect adverse.
But, and to no surprise from Colby, I found myself liking the build more and more and as soon as the idea of grappling a Tarrasque came up, my mind was blown and I was seriously wanting try this craziness out.
Do it! :)
absolutely fell in love with this build starting at 5:24 it just keeps getting better
Fun fact: on Resident Alien, Harry (played by Alan Tudyk) has the same arrangement of four arms, so if one were so inclined, this build could be pretty easily reskinned (reshelled?) to be a shape-shifting alien...
You always seem to overlook Giant’s Might increases the size of your short swords. “Large-sized’ weapons do 2x damage. (Page 278 DMG) You can repay me by figuring dps for a Battlesmith 5 / Rune Knight 3 with an oversized maul, giants might, enlarge, and great weapon fighting. Use Iron Defender for flanking, to cancel disadvantage. 4 attacks at 8d6+5 at +10 to hit, re-rolling 1s and 2s.
I did a similar build with a Loxodon, but with the UA giant barbarian, with grappler and shield master to knock enemies prone, grapple them, and stab them in the back. If they're grappled, they have to use half movement to stand up, and if they're grappled, their movement speed is 0.
The moment I saw the art I was like 'YES! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING!'
I've been thinking about a Naga grappler build with a 2 level dip into Wizard (Enchantment) for Hypnotic Gaze. That allows for two controlled targets without even using grapple yet. Rune Knight might now be a part of that build. 😁
Not sure if it was mentioned but one of the best things about this build is the AREA of control. Once you reach huge size using a reach weapon you have control over 49 squares on a grid map. That's an incredible portion of the map so I think between sentinel and enemy movements, you'd get opportunity attacks more often than not and be incredibly hard for enemies to get past to engage your allies.
I found that the Thri-Kreen can also be great for artillerist as their sub-arms are able to hold your arcane firearm spell focus and still use your main arms to attack with. I ended up using it for my Predator Build.
Certainly rethinking my Thri-Keeen build for next weeks 5th level Spelljammer one shot! (With a free feat)
Super thrilled that we view the arms similarly, I felt that finding the true potential for these arms required some lateral thinking, as the interactions aren’t immediately obvious.
I went Psi-Warrior for some additional psionic flavour, with a few pros and cons compared to Rune Knight:
- Not as bonus action intensive, giving more opportunity for light weapon attacks.
- Less reliable at grapples/shoves when compared with rune knight, but I’m less concerned with grapples and shoves. Hopefully will get advantages via flanking.
- Minor DPR buff from Psionic strike dice over giants might, and more regular light weapon attacks from not having to set any abilities up.
- Took sentinel too. With whip, shield, two short swords.
- Protective field enables some long distance reactionary shenanigans if we’re not able to cover our allies with sentinel.
- Was also carrying a maul for fun, IMO, not enough people use bludgeoning weapons.
Thank you!
I love the thri-kreen, definitely one of my favorite races. Played a Soulknife a couple months ago (used thri-kreen mainly just for thematic purposes) and it felt great. RAW you can't use the psychic blades with the secondary arms since they don't have the light property. However, that's dumb considering they're manifestations of psionic power, which in theory would have no weight.
39:03 seamless Hot Shots reference and now-canonical name for level-6 Expertise
Thank you for these videos. Not only are they intriguing and interesting in terms of D&D. They also help lull me to sleep. Then next night, I start where I fell asleep to repeat the process. ❤
With Arcane Trickster 7 (39:52) You can swap a spell known whenever gaining a level, so you can swap you 1st level non-enchantment/illusion spell for a 2nd level one.
Great job as always Colby! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Absolutely love this build! 😍😍 And your channel, for that matter ❤
Just need an updated Dark Sun sourcebook to go with this.
This sounds like a blast to play! I kinda want to try it out... I love the creativity ❤️
So...straight into a Princess Bride reference?
The Jury approves
Re Level 14 feat (42:14) Consider Fighting Initiate and getting Grappling Strike basically giving back one attack we'd use instead to make a grapple each short rest.
The highlight of my week, thanks again Colby! Always look forward to Your builds… it’s like kicking back and having a beer with a great friend and just spitballing character build ideas. Very relaxing 🍻
A Thri-Kreen Bard sounds super interesting after hearing its description! its on the wishlist !
I am glad I am not the only one that made that connection.
*echo
Pigs in space!
I always loved Pigs in Space. "Tune in next time when we'll hear Cory say... pbtpd"
Totally got an idea to run a general grievous type character now. Dual wielder feat with two longswords and two shortswords.
Loved this build! But somewhere in my mind ... I don't know... Maybe four short swords... Two wepon fighting times 2. Maybe aiming to close to the sun.
Psi warrior ‘Keens are pretty good. If you grab the telekinetic feat. Just max Str, Con, and int. You can take 3 levels of Soul knife, and get your knives, and grapple and knife away.
This felt like Godzilla with a Swiss Army knife - love it
I believe that the Plasmoid can do a some similar weapon shenanigans. Maybe? It can for sure sploich out a pair of extra arms.
Name him Austin because he has 3 16's. Lmao
44:28 holy shit it's ant man 😂
Did not expect the shadow blade route - really thought I had it all figured out with the rune knight guess
this channel is such a nice staple of my week. keep up the good work colby!
I love the Giant's Might + Enlarge trick! I am currently playing a Bugbear Fighter/Sorcerer with a polearm, so I can be Size Huge with a 15 ft reach, lol.
I've actually made a build before that relied on extra attack not requiring the use of both attacks being with the same weapon. You use a lance and a 1 handed weapon. The lance for enemies at 10' away, and the other weapon for 5' since a lance has disadvantage on attacks at 5'.
Been watching since the Pamlock and you're stuff is still great. Keep up the great stuff and don't be scared of doing more stuff like this. Just watched the Pokemon episode again I was happily surprised.
Next suggestion: ooze actor/infiltrator/impersonator. Call it... Ditto
On the level 6 Rogue expertise (39:29)L Cinsider Sleight of Hand given Mage Hand Legerdemain.
I also think the character could be called "Five Handed Hugs".
Important note, at lvl 15 you can take storm rune and just put it on an item that a different party member is wearing. This is a very powerful option and I love that the rune knight has built in team play like this.
great point!
can you actually share your rune knight runes? I never thought of that
@@frosty5047 Yes in the class feature it specifically says "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch a number of objects..." this is further confirmed as each rune says "While wearing or carrying an object inscribed with this rune,...." meaning that any creature with the object has the passive bonus and can activate your ability using your modifiers. It's pretty amazing and in the case of my own rune knight I made three sashes that he wears as part of his vestments (holy knight of a church) So that I can pass off any of the runes that would be good for that.
Nice Muppet Show reference! My friend who DMs our group purchased Spell Jammer and found it disappointing. Great video, as always.
*technically* the whip is not the only non-2 handed weapon that has reach. The lance does too. It has the reach and special properties
The special property (in part) means they require 2 hands while not mounted, but they lack the 2 handed property!
A friend played a similar build without the thri kreen part. it seemed fun at first but he experienced a lot of problems with his actions stepping on each other he wasnt having fun because he had more abilities he couldn't use than he could on a given turn. Just food for thought if you plan to play it in a live game. Consider if this would bother you.
You could roleplay the thri-kreen to be a Warforge instead of a insect. It fits perfectly to create General Grievous!
The thri kreen would be an insane bloodhunter. Give yourself salaraty from mutant and your dex gets an additional +3 and it gets better as you level. Ac and attacks go up
The Princess Bride quote got a chuckle
My Thri-Kreen build:
Battle Master 3 / Arcane Trickster X
Dagger, Shield, Dagger, Wand
You will be using a lot of Quick Toss to get Sneak Attack despite using your action for spells.
For instance, at level 12 your turn 1 could look like this:
Bless (from Fey Touched), Action Surge, Mirror Image, Quick Toss Manuver. Draw a dagger.
Turn 2:
Ready your action to Toss a Dagger, Quick Toss manuver. Draw dagger.
All these buffing spells for you and you're not losing a single turn of sneak attack. On top of that you can x2 sneak attack past round 1 as long as you can spend a Battle Master die.
Interesting idea. Ran across the older Needler video and was curious if you had considered the Artificer (battle smith) using a dart infused with returning weapon multiclassed with fighter (battle master) for the thrown weapon fighting style and the quick toss maneuver. The Battle Smith let’s you prioritize Intelligence over Str or Dex and let it be your attack stat when using a magical weapon. You’d just need to pick up sharpshooter feat at some point and your set for crazy dart damage. Setup is pretty straight forward. First round cast faerie fire to achieve advantage on multiple targets and after that just dart them down. I’d start out Artificer and go all the way to 5th lvl then swap over for 3 levels in fighter then swap back to artificer to finish out.
YOU KEEP MAKING SUCH GOOD BUILDS!!!
22:26 Are we sure thats how having 2 reaches works? That would apply to many monsters to I never used it for.
I remember grappling a Black Dragon in a campaign and my party being absolutely amazed. Great moment that lol
This is the race that can have a dual wielding Bladesinger!
Back the Waystar kickstarter after seeing your sponsor section, although ended up doing so from another PC, so not sure if that's a negative for you.
I was already running a few oneshots that were basically 5e reflavoured (no mechanics changes specifically) as sci-fi, so happened to be just at the right time.
I'm also looking back into Starfinder, so only backed at the one hardback level, depends if I think I could sell my group on learning a new system or if it's going to be 5e or nothing for some of them
Silly question but I don't see a reason the secondary arms can't act as the seccond hand for two handed weapons. They just can't weild anything but light on their own. So I'm thinking dual heavy crossbows with the extra arms as the "free hands" to reload and as the seccond hand to hold them. Same concept if you want dual greatswords I guess. It might look odd but 2 right hands is still 2 handing
Better check with your DM ;)