I really like this take on it! Makes it kinda feel like your bardic skill originally came from the Deal. Otherwise, it sets a cool story of THINKING your skill only came from your Deal with the devil, only to find it was mostly your own power all along
My Mantle of Whispers story as was requested: In our campaign, we were tracking down an Evil Wizard from our Paladin's backstory who tormented her and experimented on her for years due to her psionic aptitude. He happens to be effectively a warden of a work camp under the Empire that we are at war with. So we fight and defeat this guy, but as we are preparing to leave we realize we can't just leave all the people there to rot and be worked mostly to death. This led to our spellcasters using polymorph on people and our druid wild shaping to pick people up full LotR eagles style to bring them out of the camp, thinking "yes it's a heavily guarded facility but also no one ever looks up and we have pass without trace and good stealth." Meanwhile, our Whispers bard stole the shadow of the Evil Wizard we killed and began to pose as him while we made our getaway to just make sure no one came looking for him and discovered he was killed and sounded the alarm. The best part and where our Whispers bard came in clutch was, despite all the things we had going for us to sneak a bunch of prisoners out of the camp, we rolled abysmally on stealth. However, because the Whispers Bard was posing as the Wizard and talking with some of the guards as they noticed us and were preparing to fire a ballista at us, he just put his hand on the guard's shoulder and was like "Don't worry. It's all part of The Plan." The guard stutters and is like "B-but are you sure?" To which he replies something to the effect of "Are you questioning me?" Scares the guard into submission and we all get away and then the bard slinks off and drops the persona.
a semi-homebrew rule i like to use with booming blade is...Regarding whether the target KNOWS its sheathed in energy...Their passive arcana score vs the casters save dc, unless the target decides to spend its action to make an arcana check to determine the "properties" of the spell they just witnessed the caster cast. There is absolutely NO reason why an enemy should just automatically KNOW it will take more damage if it moves.
I'm usually all for that view of magic, like illusions and such. But i always imagined Booming Blade's effect as that feeling of needing to crack a joint (not sure this is the correct phrase). You feel stuck and need to move to release that energy. Only with the spell, that release is painful. I'll adopt your way for the next time, i believe
It says “sheathed” in energy, our table’s interpretation has always been that they feel resistance to “unsheathing” … the resistance is painful so they can choose to push through the pain to unsheath themselves
@@MoutainMannPro id still argue in favor of that but you'd have to have a weapon that can do the reach like a whip or polearm or just be a bugbear... Rule of cool is a big factor here
For the multi class being their own class I like Brennan Lee Mulligans Harengon character in the level 20 one shot for dnd beyond being called “Adventurer” there was no other way to describe it lol. So on builds like this I kinda just think about that
I think I’d probably try to get Bard 5 earlier, even if it does delay damage. With all the Warlock spells resetting on a short rest, seems like it’d be worthwhile to have short rest resets for Bardic Inspiration as well. But to each their own.
One of the great things about this 'nova build' is that its routine through low levels only consumes a low level slot and an inspiration- and can be repeated for decent sustained damage without the action surge
Man, I ADORE this kind of character concept. I really wish more of the sticklers would adopt this a bit more, I think it allows for so much flavour and creativity
I watched the first 20 minutes of this video ready to hop in the comments with a "WELL ACKSHUALLY" re: booming blade + dissonant whispers combo, but then Bowtie Errata Colby stole all of my thunder and it was delightful. :)
It's still a pretty good combo. They run away and then have to trigger booming blade to get back to the combat. Worst case (for damage), you hit them for normal damage and they lose their turn. That's pretty good -- maybe better, actually. I don't think you can trigger booming blade twice, even if you houserule it to trigger on fear, because the opportunity resolves before the move. But that is solved when you use path to the grave instead.
@@MrKostrom Well, worst case would be they make their save, and instead of taking 20 damage, moving away, and taking another 100+ from the AoO, they take... 10. Very hit-or-miss, but the hits are impressive.
I think that if I am creating this character, probably I would pick just the first hexblade level and then go bard all the way to 20. With magical secrets you can pick the infamous Conjure Animals spell and make every velociraptor that you summoned attack the enemy that is fleeing from your Dissonant Whispers spell.
In the campaign I am in, I had gone swords bard up to level 13, then out of nessecity I gone warock 1 (for hexblade) as my dex was still 16 and was REALLY dragging me down. Now I am level 18 (17 bard, 1 warlock) it has been amazingly fun.
Conjure animals + Dissonant whispers is sick! Honestly that's a great synergy and a hardy enough gimmick that it would actually be reliable in real play. Good optimisation Yuri!
@@flyingtrixster729 Because without hexblade I was having to use dex for my melee attacks. When I am plying long-form campaigns I generally let my character grow with the story not planning out levels. I started using my blades less and less because it was not as effective as spell casting. But When I took a pact in-game, I saw it as an out to get the warlock level I'd been missing.
@@AwkwardPain spell casting is just better then melee for battle feild control. I tend to plan out my character for long term. Power gaming saved the party tons of time. The support role is heavy look down on for who got the killing blow but not for who made that possable. It is kind of sad
HOLY CRAP IM SO HAPPY FOR THIS VIDEO. I've been watching these videos for about 8 months now and I've been waiting for something like this. I've played a lot of dnd, as both a player and a dm, but by far without a doubt my greatest and most beloved creation is my Whispers Bard/Conquest Paladin Wearbear. I made Blair about 3 years ago and he's still in that same game (we started level 1 and are now level 16). When I first made him I had this idea of a saboteur expert; infiltrating groups, earning their trust, picking them off one by one, and then tearing the whole thing asunder from the inside. It started out that way, I took Warcaster at level one because free feat and then rolled his stats for Cha/Str. With expertise in Stealth I was never worried about sneaking around so I decided to focus more on him using a great axe (it was comedic at the time but irony has its ways (also I know bards don't start with martial weapon proficiency but it's a home game, the rules are meant to be ignored a little). Eventually after some roll play stuff, I got the chance to multiclass him into a paladin at level 7, eventually at level 12 I had used a feat for medium armor master, had the defense fighting style, and used magical secrets for booming blade and shield. Oh my lord have mercy, it might not be optimal for burst or sustained damage but at my role play focused table... Let's just say rolling a nat 20 with this guy makes the whole table scream for a few solid seconds. Thank you thank you thank you for showing the Whispers bard some actual love. I know it wasn't the true focus of this build but I love it too much to not want to see it become more popular. Take the love of my sassy scottish Wearbear PaliBard and sore good sir. Loved this! Please never stop with the wonderful videos!
If I was playing this character, I'd just rush to lvl 5 bard as soon as possible. The bump to 3d6 instead of 2d6 AND recharging the uses of BI in a short rest is so nice
Mantle of Whispers fits in perfectly thematically, beside Words of Terror...the roleplay potential increases tenfold with this combination. Awesome build that I hope I might get to run soon.
I have to say that while I also very much enjoy putting out big damage numbers, when you focus too much on ways to optimize a character’s damage all of your builds start to feel pretty same-y. So I’ve definitely appreciated the shift in focus to creating characters that do other things or taking less common things that are thought to be sub-optimal, and then optimizing the amount of damage they can do. Maybe I could challenge you to pick a race and optimize a build around its special features rather than going variant human/custom lineage?
I've always been cautious relying on dissonant whispers for opportunity attacks as I figured many DMs rule it qualifies as forced movement. The opportunity attacks section you quoted however makes it very clear that the use of a reaction by the enemy means it qualifies. That's a great tidbit which really clarifies the situation! Also I agree fully with your interpretation of booming blade. I don't understand how a *cantrip* could distinguish willing/unwilling movement.
I want to thank you for all your hard work over the past year plus of you doing this channel! I found you early on when I started playing DnD. I’ve gone from a novice player to DMing my own campaign and all the information I’ve gained from you has been invaluable to my ability as a DM. I understand each class inside and out and no build throws me for a loop. Knowing the classes this intimately has given me the opportunity to challenge my very optimized PCs as well as let them truly shine. So thank you again and I look forward to each new build! Oh and this was one of my favorites so far. Really fun!
Whaddya gonna do, Colby? LOL. Every time Jeremy Crawford hits SEND on a tweet; trying to clarify something; he a.) makes things 10x more confusing, b.) contradicts himself, or c.) makes things 10x more confusing by contradicting himself. I commented under the short teaser that I had two tables discussing this distinction. There was unanimous agreement that 1.) the frustration that, after D&D has been around for almost fifty years, the developers still can't select the correct words so that RAW = RAI. They should have this figured out by now. And 2.) RAW, Dissonant Whispers doesn't remove the target's free will or presence of mind, therefore Booming Blade works. Dissonant Whispers just states the target must use it's reaction to "Move as far as its speed allows away from you." They can still choose which direction. Left, right, diagonal, or turn their back and go that way. Depending on terrain, "as far as its speed allows" may not be in the direction right behind them. If their choice of direction provokes an opportunity attack, that's just a consequence of their choice, freely made. They also still have the mental wherewithal to not "move into obviously dangerous ground, such as fire or a pit." Shorter: That's their own movement.
I agree. It's like... the spell isn't giving them a choice to run away, but it's not completely controlling them and their movement either. Definitely something I think a *lot* of tables still allow.
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, for me there's definitely a difference between forced movement and compelled movement. Since the rules specifically say "You also don't provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction", I'd say that second tweet is just wrong and something Jeremy Crawford probably didnt think through before posting.
This is a definite 'have a conversation with your DM' thing. I would work with the player, but the rules regarding forced movement would need to be consistent. If partial choice = free will, then we are going down an interesting path. And what goes around will certainly come around. Get tough, Player One, cause I'm about to give you a LOT of "free" will.
@@caster- Not gonna make too much of a judgement. But there's always a conversation--some conversations need to be avoided, some encouraged. Again, I'd let it happen. Maybe have a conversation, maybe not. With Colby? Oh, we're having a conversation, 😉
You're channel is dope. Thanks for the hard work- I listen while at work and appreciate the thoughtfulness and balanced use of creativity and pseudo-exploit (it works RaW). Just wanted to drop some positivity to lift up a member of the community that is a paragon of the inclusivity we need. Much love, Colby.
For such a SAD character, the MADness if of the charts! So, to go for a paladin dip you could do a few things: Option 1 would be to go custom lineage with 13, 12, 12, 8, 13, 17 after modifiers and still get War Caster at level 1 to then grab any half feat for charisma. Or to go variant human with War Caster and 13, 12, 12, 8, 14, 16. In both cases you end up with a melee character with low hit points and a final AC of 18, which is tough but not entirely back breaking. Option 2 would be to go half-elf or non-variant human. Then you could start with 13, 14, 14, 8, 13, 16 (or 13, 14, 14, 9, 13, 16 for the human) as stats efter modifiers. You wouldn't get War Caster at level 1, and you'd probably want to delay the fighter levels by one level to get War Caster at level 5. You'd then be stuck at 16 charisma until level 10 and not max it out until level 17, provided you go for cleric 4 to get there while getting the largest spell slot progression. Option 3 would be to start with a level of fighter to get heavy armor proficiency and start with 15, 8, 12, 8, 14, 16 which would delay your combo until level 3, make you less sneaky, cut into your hit points and gut your initiative rolls - 13, 8, 14, 8, 14, 16 to trade two points of AC for a bit more hit points. The rest of the build would be unharmed though. So it is doable, but you'd have to sacrifice alot of your support capabilities for a very heavy nova focus. Option 2 seems by far the least enticing and I think option 1 might be the best route if you'd want to do it. But really, where did we lose the support idea along the way here? :P
The camera angle in this video is hypnotic. The chairs perfectly frame your shoulders. It’s not quite as perfect with the bow tie. Anyway, nice video as always.
I may have missed something but if at 11th level you are still concentrating on darkness I would swap that for summon fey. You can use the one that creates darkness so still get that combo as well as getting 2 fey attacks because of opportunity attacks.
Wonderful build as usual! Request for a future build? Take a look at Shadow Blade and Illusionist Wizard Malleable Illusions. Maybe Shadow Blade could be turned into a polearm (a glaive is still a blade). Might be some interesting synergy there with a finesse polearm
Polearm Master states no material cost, nor that the weapon needs to be mundane. So is a Shadow glaive or shadow spear any less of a glaive or spear than a normal one?
@@gamecavalier3230 It is a specific weapon though. The spell says "You weave together threads of shadow to create a sword of solidified gloom in your hand. This magic sword lasts until the spell ends." This makes me think you should be able to classify it as something besides a sword, assuming you are able to form it differently.
@@gamecavalier3230 And therein lies one of the questions. Is a sword specific enough? Or is it not? I think it is, but I understand not everyone, or even many, will. I hope others will, but I don't really know.I really hope this can make it into a build episode or into a Slidin into my DMs episode!
@@gamecavalier3230 That's a wierd question. Because by my line of thinking, if sword is specific enough, then would a switch to 'polearm' more generally be such a stretch? It could still be a simple weapon.
I enjoy some of the storytelling elements about _why_ a character changes classes, but with this build I would like to point out the following: a warlock pact really shouldn't be a "sign on the dotted line at level 1 and done" thing. A patron makes constant demands of the warlock in exchange for increasing power. Those requests may not make sense from a mortal perspective, but they should be there. (Much like Mab treats Dresden in Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" books. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend them.) Thus, this character's story doesn't need to be an "it's a unique character class" thing, but that it's the story of a bard who made an agreement with a powerful being, and that being is now helping shape their destiny. With this character starting warlock at level 1, I imagine the character asking its patron for the power to have their performances "inspire my allies and strike fear into the hearts of my foes". Then, acquiring level 1 of the bard class is a kind of fulfillment of that request. But then, the patron keeps coming back and asking for more "small favors" as the game progresses. (Work with your DM on this. If the DM is lazy, perhaps the patron just shows up and says "Good work clearing out those heathen orcs for me. Now that I have claimed their souls, I can teach them not to break their pacts with me!" after an adventure.) Merry gaming!
I love seeing Eldritch Smite on a build. Also, remember, with it being “once per turn” and not “once on each of your turns”… if you can actually make opportunity attacks outside of your turn, you can stack that Booming Blade with an Eldritch Smite too! It’s even better to get that little bit of flexibility for those moments when you need it.
So, I submit for consideration picking up summon fey at Warlock 5 as one of the "pick your favorites" - tricksy fey can shroud the PC in a 5' cube of darkness as a bonus action every turn and add a little sustain damage or at least another target while it's around. I'm aiming for this on a similar character since it will give me the darkness my inner edgelord craves without making the party extra angry. You will have to hold your attack action until the fey obscures you in darkness in order to get the advantage but i think it'll be worth.
I’ve been watching Dungeon Dudes for years. A few months back, I started watching Treantmonk’s Temple, which quickly led me to you. Now, your videos are the ones I wait for most excitedly, each week. So, what I’m trying to say is you’re making me feel like a bad Canadian. I hope you’re happy. Seriously though, I hope you’re happy because you make me happy for an hour each week. Enjoy your week off, but hurry back. :)
I've been working on my Kenku Divine Soul Hexblade and I'm planning on using Warcaster to get extra Booming Blades using a quarterstaff and Polearm master. I'll rely on armor of agathys and backing up to try baiting the enemy into moving so if I take an AoO the enemy takes damage, they'll move to blow up, and trigger another booming blade (eventually with crusher if i make it that far) and it should do some good work. Really can't wait to see this guy take off. It's in the Curse of Strahd campaign and the Kenku aspect is going to be fun seeing people's reaction to a humanoid raven knowing the significance of ravens in the story, AND when we run into the wereravens little Dak's going to finally find something to bring back to his people to restore their ability to fly. I just imagine the wereraven's like snatching him up and yelling at him for being out of uniform lmao.
I created a similar character based on the whispers bard ability. if you took 9 levels of swashbuckler rogue you also get the ability to charm ppl as your action for 1 minute. meaning. you could spend 1 minute speaking to someone to both charm and frighten them. giving you advantage on all cha rolls and they have disadvantage. you also are a bard rogue so you have expertise in all the cha skills. the character was very useful in negotiations and social settings. held its own as a swashbuckler rogue.
The problem with Multiclassing this much is as you get to mid to high tier 3, you start running into creatures that have some serious resistances, some as you hit Tier 4, can't be damaged by low level spells which is what this class ends with. This build makes me want to build one of 2 Characters, first would be a Hexblade 5/Whispers Bard 15 (or 7/13 if you want Thirsting Blade) with flight (Owlin or Winged Tiefling) That uses longbow to Devastating effect. With Bard at level 10 you can pilfer swift quiver, which gives you 2 Attacks on your attack action, and 2 attacks as a Bonus action. The fuckery of Darkness with your party is mitigated because you fly away from them and rain death on them from afar, and because Eldritch Smite and Psychic blades can be Delivered at Range Crits become very deadly. Because you are bathed in the Darkness of your Patron, you get advantage to hit, while your enemies get disadvantage to hit you back. The Advantage gained from darkness is a mitigating factor for the -5 from sharpshooter. This could be done to similar effect and maybe even more damaging as a Gloomstalker 5, and Rogue (Thief, Mastermind, Inquisitive and Scout all work here) 15, though the warlock/whisper bard brings a fun to play dark element. Second would be all out Attack and Reaction attack (from Pole Arm Master) murder hobo. VHuman or Custom Lineage to Start with Pole Arm Master, Go 5 levels Hexblade (Take Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Improved Patch Weapon for 4th level Feat take Warcaster). Be a Lorehold Bard or Orzhov Rep for Background so at 5th level you can get Spirit Guardians. Then the rest of your levels you start your combat with Action Spirit Guardians, Bonus action Hexblades curse and Melt their Faces, while beating them to a pulp. You'll get your reaction attack as they try to leave your Threat range. Multiclass 2 Paladin and then the rest whisper bard. You get 3 "Smites" in a hit if you Crit (Psychic Whispers, Smite, and Eldritch Smite). Your Next ASI is GWM (Which happens at Level 11 Warlock 5/Pally 2/Whisper Bard 4). At this level you use a Bard Spell slot to do the Spirit Guardians, So you are doing 3d8 (Save for Half), 1d10+10+Chr Bonus on your Attack + Extra Attack. Bonus action of either 1d10+10+Chr or 1d4+10+Chr with Nova Damage being Eldritch Smite 4d8 Force + Smite of 4d8 Radiant + 2d6 Psychic. With all Remaining Levels going to Bard you end at Warlock 5/Pally 2/Bard 13. Even if you don't go with the Cheesy Stixhaven or Ravnica Backgrounds, you still can pilfer spirit guardians at level 10 bard. But either way your Damage gets nothing but Better the higher you go with Spirit Guardians Upcast to higher level slots and Psychic Blades getting as high as 5d6 (drop pally levels and it can go to 8d6 at 20t, and Pally Smites using your highest level spell slot up to 5th. Lastly I want you to think about Taking Hexblade to 6 on any Whisper Bard Build. It means that when both classes are at 6th level, you can Take the form of the being you just killed, then enslave it's soul for 24 hrs as a spectre to serve you as you systematically destroy its ally's....That's Dark ;-)
@@rytyrocks518 That is kinda irreverent. Could easily play in a campaign that doesn't have this issue. Could just be played in a campaign that is more like Rav. Could just be for a tailored one shot. Could make the video just to show the potential. Lots of options. A little asterisk saying sometimes this doesn't work doesn't necessarily need to kill the whole video.
@@lloydlineske2642that is true, if your dm is willing to remove the poison immunity from most of the monsters than yea that’s fine but d4 normally runs rules as written I don’t think he’d make a build totally reliant on the DM removing a common immunity it’s just not his style
@@rytyrocks518 thats not really what I'm saying. I'm saying there are a lot of ways around it. Like in the Rav plane there isn't a lot of poison immunity. If you are in a city there isn't a lot of it. If you are doing a one shot in a certain place that doesn't have a lot of it it could be useful, etc. I'm not entirely saying to have the DM take a certain aspect away. Like this build here. He had the stipulation that it's not great against casters and ranged units. That probably makes it ineffective against more than just poison immunity.
I love this idea as a temperary character. A cheerful traditional bard shows up entertaining party but slowly over time their morbid and creepy habits and abilities begin to show up. Soon the party begins to unravel the characters secret goals and the powerful entities they serve Edit: Also I agree with the end of the video. There's a million ways to get alot of damage but theme and utility matters just as much
One of my players ran a changeling whispers bard with glamoured leather armor. They would assassinate people, get their basic memories, use that hour to collect more information on them, wrote it down in their journal and build a lexicon of people they could impersonate at will. It was a brilliant minigame the group played in every town they visited. Though explaining why people that were "disappearing" kept reappearing was an additional minigame that resulted in more problems for them. They killed a lot of NPC's. Edit: Spelling and Grammar
I'd rule the "willingly moves" part of the booming blade spell the same as you do, because I doesn't make sense to me that the booming energy would somehow recognize wether the target's movement is 100% it's own will or wether it has been mentally influenced. One may say that by this logic forced movement also should cause booming blade to deal additional damage, but it has much further mechanical implications and I think there is a clear enough distinction between being pushed and actually moving your body that it makes sense a spell would work differently in those scenarios.
I was so convinced when you started Warlock that you’d be using the Undead’s Form of Dread for frightening/forced movement. Incredible build nonetheless!
My friend, their psychic smites are SO good. I play a character that uses the same concept of this but Im mostly bard dipped into swashbuckler rogue and its incredibly fun
@@Mr911superstar Yeah, I loved the physic blade as well but I think the mistake I made was I level dipped each time and found I had other, more powerful options to hit and wasn't using them all that often. Also, I found that Words of Terror was so cool but only limited to humanoids, which I found frustrating especially because subclasses like eloquence and lore, two other verbal-based subclasses don't have this limitation. Like I mentioned, flavor wise, I'm a big fan of the Whispers Bard and these multi-class options sound super fun.
52:25 Gimme a couple weeks, and I'm sure to have one. I built the Charlatan Changeling Bardlocker. My little Penchant has been glorious to play, but through a heavy session fighting a false hydra, and some weird RP, he's placated himself to his patron entity -- Mask -- and is having a new change in his little changeling body. My DM is letting me rewrite him from a Swords Bard to a Whispers Bard. I'm swapping out spells and the bard class, but nothing else. Seriously looking forward to this week.
OH...and as for that Insight check against my Deception? At level 15 Bardlocker, I'm at +14. Adding that +5 to it, I could literally roll a 1 on the die and still get a dirty 20.
I've always loved the booming blade war caster trick, but a lot of DMs I've had simply finagle some wat for enemies to magically not take the extra damage.
"Think of this character as its own custom class" I mean, it's so cool that i see no reason not to do that every time i come up with builds. It's also quite easy to reflavor the majority of the features and concepts to suit the needs. It also allows to avoid tropes. For example, let's say I'm playing lockadin or sorlock and instead of dealing with a patron and trying to outmaneuver and get rid of the pact, let's say that hexblade part is just a guardian angel who was sent by a deity to pull your lazy ass out of misery and help you achieve great things, while at the same time secretly and ambiguously rearrange certain "chess pieces" on a grand board of power struggle. Because why the hell not? Also 5 minutes of reflavoring per spell and you have hand of god subclass. God, i love dnd.
Huh, fun fact I never put together... Eldritch Smite (the invocation) requires L5 Warlock and Pact of the Blade, but Thirsting Blade only requires Pact of the Blade and LEVEL 5. Makes a 3 level dip in hex'lock a lot more palatable when multiclassing.
I'm thinking it would be hilarious to make a bard like this who is outwardly super sweet, and it's only the enemies who ever understand how scary they are. Everyone else is wondering why enemies run away from them all the time.
While I don’t think all builds necessitate a story justification for multiclassing, and sometimes the justification is easier thinking of it as a custom class, I’m never upset to hear them. If nothing else, it can be amusing going through the justification for a weird turn mid-build.
Wouldn't Quickened Spell be beneficial for this build? Say you pick up Meta Magic Adept. Couldn't you run up, Make a booming Blade attack as an action, then quicken Dissonant Whispers, then Reaction attack with another Booming Blade attack?
... God, I love this. Although if I were going to play this character in-game I'd probably trade the fighter dip and Warlock 5 for three levels of phantom rogue, just because I've always wanted to be the creepiest broad at the table *while* laughing in the face of high skill check DCs.
The "Muy buenos días" got me by surprise, I thought you were going to do all the video in spanish. PD: Please make a HexBuckler cursed pirate I need it Colby, I just long for the day I can watch a cool only Char character, have fun at your vacation!
I have been trying really hard to build a sling character recently. Of course magic stone is quite helpful, but I think it would be an interesting build idea. I feel very stumped on improving damage for sling specifically though.
I love this style of character! Primarily a bard for support (at least for a while) while also having the option to throw out damage! I've toyed around with a similar build that uses glamour bard's mantle of majesty to provoke the opportunity attacks for booming blade, pushing my action free to booking blade again. Not quite as much damage, and not really as nova focused, more like a sustained dpr for one combat a day while being a supportive bard the rest of the combats. Also, gotta say I appreciated the Music and the Spoken Word reference
Last week i requested the college of whispers bard and you did not disappoint! Gave me some interesting ideas to play with and i love the booming blade and eldricht smite parts of the build.
yay! i led the outcry. Thanks Colby! I would take the Entertainer background so that you have your Bard levels prepared in advance and on your performer's journey, you were rewarded by a mysterious admirer with a even more mysterious sword... Edit - don't you need to be a 5th lvl warlock to get the Thirsting Blade invocation which would give you 2 attacks a round, but not 2 Booming Blades a round? so your 3rd invocation should be Eldritch Smite. the video sort of said that when you reached your 3rd lvl of warlock you could get Thirsting Blade with your Pact of the Blade feature?
Warcaster IS a tax placed on gishs, but that seems like smart design. Full-casters are balanced around being sort of wet noodles when you put them on the front-lines, so compensating their key weaknesses shouldn't be cheap and easy. Right?
Hey D4, I just came back after trying to build and rebuild my character and honestly I have only ran into bad rep for my character's subclass: The way of the Drunken Master Monk. I can't think of a better person than you who could look at it and really build it up and make it go absolutely bonkers. So there's my suggested challenge for you: lets see the most epic Drunken Master you could build!
Ooh this is another concept I tried to build around recently. My idea was to use Conquest Paladin to smite people that left my range and punish those who don't with fear + Divine Sorcerer to pick up spirit guardians and acquire cantrips Have you made a paladin that revolves around spell casting? The ancient paladin capstone seems extremely fun to build around but I know your video-builds don't get that high. However, the concept of Spelladin seems super cool to me. Have a nice spring break :)
Since you are coverd by magical darkness, enemies cannot see you, so you could after you made your attacks with advantage just casually walk away from the enemies and then on your turn go back there or just support your allies from range. Note: OA's have the prerequisites of seeing, so you can just walk and not take the OA if they cannot see you
Ok, I'm just gonna say that the suit and bowtie need to come back. Maybe if you do a "nobleman" or "preacher" build? I don't care, you look fabulous and I want more of it 🤩
Yo Colby, you gave me a neat idea for a character that I might actually get to play (forever dm). So myself and a friend are gonna do a variation the wolf/coyote builds you showcased a while back but in that video you asked the question of what does the wolfs rage look like? Well as it happens in the first episode of tales of aneria you describe your character Seradan as having a polearm that is fluted and it sort of plays music. So now my wolf's glaive 'howls' when he rages. Thanks for the inspiration!
I would love to see an overview at the start of the video on what classes are going to be used maybe even by level to help anchor what you are about to speak about. I also really like your subclass introduction and storyline you do for the character around level 3-4 usually and I think that would be valuable to hear earlier during creation before you start the level by level. Great work though so don't feel like you have to take all my advice it's just something that would help me personally become invested in the video sooner and it's possible that other people waiting for that info helps your metrics.
I thought the whole idea of a wisdom save was that you are magically manipulating their will. So in my opinion I would say if they fail the save then you are magically changing their will, so even if they did not want to run away before now they do. I would be curious to know if Jeremy Crawford would rule it this way for the suggestion spell. It's a stronger spell and even says in the wording that you magically influence a creature. So again in my opinion I think both spells would trigger booming blade since it should proc based on the creatures current state of will, that is now magically influence, and not based on their previous state of will before you cast booming blade.
Came here to second Eloquence Bard. Level 6 Eloquence Bard with expertise in Persuasion and Deception can't roll below a 20 assuming you have at least 18 Charisma by that point, and if you DM uses crit fails on ability checks just play a Halfling so you can reroll 1's. Now you essentially can persuade or deceive almost anyone with close to no chance to fail. Want to go unnecessarily further? Multiclass warlock for the Mask of Many Faces Invocation and take the Actor feat at Warlock 4 so you can always be pretending to be someone else and have advantage on those rolls. Cap Charisma next ASI/feat and if you went Hexblade warlock you now also have a powerful damage dealer, or if you want to go back to bard you have a strong Support/Controller build as well.
Just putting a build idea out there, “the duplicator”, an echo knight and an ancestral guardian barbarian with mirror image or something🤓 Someone who focuses on controlling the battlefield with as many duplicates at possible🤓
18:56 if this Is true, dissonant whispers and comand spells doesnt provoke opportunity Attack, because opportunity attacks effect only willingly movement
So, in William Shakespeare's Othello, does this mean Iago is a Whisper Bard? I like this. Also, consider a Bugbear Whisperer. Sneaking through the shadows while uttering horrors of horrors, warping the minds of the city guard...
Really happy to see the stories are going to stay. They really add a lot to the build as opposed to similar channels.
Aberrant Mind Sorcerer's also get dissonant whispers
You can also get Dissonant Whispers from Fey Touched!
I prefer sorcerer too
And the sorcerer can metamagic heightened spell to ensure the dissonant whispers lands
From the first few minutes it sounds like a good build for a blues bard who made a deal with a devil at the crossroads.
I really like this take on it! Makes it kinda feel like your bardic skill originally came from the Deal. Otherwise, it sets a cool story of THINKING your skill only came from your Deal with the devil, only to find it was mostly your own power all along
🎵🎶Devil went down to Georgia 🎶
Can I use this concept?
Tenacious D
My Mantle of Whispers story as was requested:
In our campaign, we were tracking down an Evil Wizard from our Paladin's backstory who tormented her and experimented on her for years due to her psionic aptitude. He happens to be effectively a warden of a work camp under the Empire that we are at war with. So we fight and defeat this guy, but as we are preparing to leave we realize we can't just leave all the people there to rot and be worked mostly to death. This led to our spellcasters using polymorph on people and our druid wild shaping to pick people up full LotR eagles style to bring them out of the camp, thinking "yes it's a heavily guarded facility but also no one ever looks up and we have pass without trace and good stealth." Meanwhile, our Whispers bard stole the shadow of the Evil Wizard we killed and began to pose as him while we made our getaway to just make sure no one came looking for him and discovered he was killed and sounded the alarm. The best part and where our Whispers bard came in clutch was, despite all the things we had going for us to sneak a bunch of prisoners out of the camp, we rolled abysmally on stealth. However, because the Whispers Bard was posing as the Wizard and talking with some of the guards as they noticed us and were preparing to fire a ballista at us, he just put his hand on the guard's shoulder and was like "Don't worry. It's all part of The Plan." The guard stutters and is like "B-but are you sure?" To which he replies something to the effect of "Are you questioning me?" Scares the guard into submission and we all get away and then the bard slinks off and drops the persona.
Ha ha! So awesome!
a semi-homebrew rule i like to use with booming blade is...Regarding whether the target KNOWS its sheathed in energy...Their passive arcana score vs the casters save dc, unless the target decides to spend its action to make an arcana check to determine the "properties" of the spell they just witnessed the caster cast.
There is absolutely NO reason why an enemy should just automatically KNOW it will take more damage if it moves.
I'm usually all for that view of magic, like illusions and such. But i always imagined Booming Blade's effect as that feeling of needing to crack a joint (not sure this is the correct phrase).
You feel stuck and need to move to release that energy. Only with the spell, that release is painful.
I'll adopt your way for the next time, i believe
It says “sheathed” in energy, our table’s interpretation has always been that they feel resistance to “unsheathing” … the resistance is painful so they can choose to push through the pain to unsheath themselves
The ONLY thing the “change” to booming blade says to me is “no you can’t twin this, because you’re casting it on yourself to affect someone in melee”
Also you cant use spell sniper to double the range
@@MoutainMannPro id still argue in favor of that but you'd have to have a weapon that can do the reach like a whip or polearm or just be a bugbear... Rule of cool is a big factor here
@@torunsmok5890 it's also common sense. Booming blade should have the reach of whatever weapon used in the casting.
Level 1:(see above) [warlock 1, patron, race & feat]
Level 2:(@14:38) [bard 1]
Level 3:(@21:27) [bard 2]
Level 4:(@21:54) [bard 3 & sub-class]
Level 5:(@24:46) [fighter 1 & fighting-style]
Level 6:(@26:46) [fighter 2]
Level 7:(see above) [bard 4 & ASI]
Level 8:(@33:07) [warlock 2 & eldritch invocation]
Level 9:(@33:53) [warlock 3 & sub-class]
Level 10:(see above) [warlock 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@40:23) [warlock 5 & eldritch invocation]
Level 12:(@41:39) [cleric 1 & sub-class]
Level 13:(@44:28) [cleric 2 & channel divinity]
Level 14:(see above) [bard 5]
Level 15:(@51:31) [bard 6]
Level 16:(@52:56) [bard 7]
Level 17:(@53:55) [bard 8 & ASI]
Thank you so much
The fact you went for a tux for errata just made my evening
Gotta make an impression!
For the multi class being their own class I like Brennan Lee Mulligans Harengon character in the level 20 one shot for dnd beyond being called “Adventurer” there was no other way to describe it lol. So on builds like this I kinda just think about that
I also love the grave whisperer for this videos name
@@porcupotomus that is something I would very much be interested in reading about
I think I’d probably try to get Bard 5 earlier, even if it does delay damage. With all the Warlock spells resetting on a short rest, seems like it’d be worthwhile to have short rest resets for Bardic Inspiration as well. But to each their own.
One of the great things about this 'nova build' is that its routine through low levels only consumes a low level slot and an inspiration- and can be repeated for decent sustained damage without the action surge
Gish characters must pay the War Caster tax. It's a small price to pay to be both a caster and a martial.
Man, I ADORE this kind of character concept. I really wish more of the sticklers would adopt this a bit more, I think it allows for so much flavour and creativity
I watched the first 20 minutes of this video ready to hop in the comments with a "WELL ACKSHUALLY" re: booming blade + dissonant whispers combo, but then Bowtie Errata Colby stole all of my thunder and it was delightful. :)
It's still a pretty good combo. They run away and then have to trigger booming blade to get back to the combat. Worst case (for damage), you hit them for normal damage and they lose their turn. That's pretty good -- maybe better, actually.
I don't think you can trigger booming blade twice, even if you houserule it to trigger on fear, because the opportunity resolves before the move. But that is solved when you use path to the grave instead.
@@MrKostrom Well, worst case would be they make their save, and instead of taking 20 damage, moving away, and taking another 100+ from the AoO, they take... 10. Very hit-or-miss, but the hits are impressive.
I think that if I am creating this character, probably I would pick just the first hexblade level and then go bard all the way to 20. With magical secrets you can pick the infamous Conjure Animals spell and make every velociraptor that you summoned attack the enemy that is fleeing from your Dissonant Whispers spell.
In the campaign I am in, I had gone swords bard up to level 13, then out of nessecity I gone warock 1 (for hexblade) as my dex was still 16 and was REALLY dragging me down. Now I am level 18 (17 bard, 1 warlock) it has been amazingly fun.
Conjure animals + Dissonant whispers is sick! Honestly that's a great synergy and a hardy enough gimmick that it would actually be reliable in real play. Good optimisation Yuri!
@@AwkwardPain why do you need high dex?
@@flyingtrixster729 Because without hexblade I was having to use dex for my melee attacks.
When I am plying long-form campaigns I generally let my character grow with the story not planning out levels.
I started using my blades less and less because it was not as effective as spell casting. But When I took a pact in-game, I saw it as an out to get the warlock level I'd been missing.
@@AwkwardPain spell casting is just better then melee for battle feild control. I tend to plan out my character for long term. Power gaming saved the party tons of time. The support role is heavy look down on for who got the killing blow but not for who made that possable. It is kind of sad
HOLY CRAP IM SO HAPPY FOR THIS VIDEO. I've been watching these videos for about 8 months now and I've been waiting for something like this. I've played a lot of dnd, as both a player and a dm, but by far without a doubt my greatest and most beloved creation is my Whispers Bard/Conquest Paladin Wearbear. I made Blair about 3 years ago and he's still in that same game (we started level 1 and are now level 16). When I first made him I had this idea of a saboteur expert; infiltrating groups, earning their trust, picking them off one by one, and then tearing the whole thing asunder from the inside. It started out that way, I took Warcaster at level one because free feat and then rolled his stats for Cha/Str. With expertise in Stealth I was never worried about sneaking around so I decided to focus more on him using a great axe (it was comedic at the time but irony has its ways (also I know bards don't start with martial weapon proficiency but it's a home game, the rules are meant to be ignored a little). Eventually after some roll play stuff, I got the chance to multiclass him into a paladin at level 7, eventually at level 12 I had used a feat for medium armor master, had the defense fighting style, and used magical secrets for booming blade and shield. Oh my lord have mercy, it might not be optimal for burst or sustained damage but at my role play focused table... Let's just say rolling a nat 20 with this guy makes the whole table scream for a few solid seconds. Thank you thank you thank you for showing the Whispers bard some actual love. I know it wasn't the true focus of this build but I love it too much to not want to see it become more popular. Take the love of my sassy scottish Wearbear PaliBard and sore good sir. Loved this! Please never stop with the wonderful videos!
Love your builds, as i love background you create around them ! Keep up the good work !!
If I was playing this character, I'd just rush to lvl 5 bard as soon as possible. The bump to 3d6 instead of 2d6 AND recharging the uses of BI in a short rest is so nice
Mantle of Whispers fits in perfectly thematically, beside Words of Terror...the roleplay potential increases tenfold with this combination. Awesome build that I hope I might get to run soon.
I have to say that while I also very much enjoy putting out big damage numbers, when you focus too much on ways to optimize a character’s damage all of your builds start to feel pretty same-y.
So I’ve definitely appreciated the shift in focus to creating characters that do other things or taking less common things that are thought to be sub-optimal, and then optimizing the amount of damage they can do.
Maybe I could challenge you to pick a race and optimize a build around its special features rather than going variant human/custom lineage?
Thank you for keeping the story backstories. It's appreciated to be able to listen to your characters develop as they level.
Hey, internet outrage works! We should do this more often, there’s no way it backfires lol. Love the video as always!
I've always been cautious relying on dissonant whispers for opportunity attacks as I figured many DMs rule it qualifies as forced movement. The opportunity attacks section you quoted however makes it very clear that the use of a reaction by the enemy means it qualifies. That's a great tidbit which really clarifies the situation!
Also I agree fully with your interpretation of booming blade. I don't understand how a *cantrip* could distinguish willing/unwilling movement.
I love music and the spoken word. So uplifting.
I want to thank you for all your hard work over the past year plus of you doing this channel! I found you early on when I started playing DnD. I’ve gone from a novice player to DMing my own campaign and all the information I’ve gained from you has been invaluable to my ability as a DM. I understand each class inside and out and no build throws me for a loop. Knowing the classes this intimately has given me the opportunity to challenge my very optimized PCs as well as let them truly shine. So thank you again and I look forward to each new build!
Oh and this was one of my favorites so far. Really fun!
Hey thanks! :) Glad you're enjoying!
Whaddya gonna do, Colby? LOL. Every time Jeremy Crawford hits SEND on a tweet; trying to clarify something; he a.) makes things 10x more confusing, b.) contradicts himself, or c.) makes things 10x more confusing by contradicting himself.
I commented under the short teaser that I had two tables discussing this distinction. There was unanimous agreement that 1.) the frustration that, after D&D has been around for almost fifty years, the developers still can't select the correct words so that RAW = RAI. They should have this figured out by now. And 2.) RAW, Dissonant Whispers doesn't remove the target's free will or presence of mind, therefore Booming Blade works. Dissonant Whispers just states the target must use it's reaction to "Move as far as its speed allows away from you." They can still choose which direction. Left, right, diagonal, or turn their back and go that way. Depending on terrain, "as far as its speed allows" may not be in the direction right behind them. If their choice of direction provokes an opportunity attack, that's just a consequence of their choice, freely made. They also still have the mental wherewithal to not "move into obviously dangerous ground, such as fire or a pit." Shorter: That's their own movement.
I agree. It's like... the spell isn't giving them a choice to run away, but it's not completely controlling them and their movement either. Definitely something I think a *lot* of tables still allow.
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, for me there's definitely a difference between forced movement and compelled movement. Since the rules specifically say "You also don't provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction", I'd say that second tweet is just wrong and something Jeremy Crawford probably didnt think through before posting.
This is a definite 'have a conversation with your DM' thing.
I would work with the player, but the rules regarding forced movement would need to be consistent. If partial choice = free will, then we are going down an interesting path. And what goes around will certainly come around.
Get tough, Player One, cause I'm about to give you a LOT of "free" will.
@@VvDOPAMEANvV i think the rules are clear about not spending any actions. So there's only a conversation if you ignore that, i think.
@@caster-
Not gonna make too much of a judgement. But there's always a conversation--some conversations need to be avoided, some encouraged.
Again, I'd let it happen. Maybe have a conversation, maybe not. With Colby? Oh, we're having a conversation, 😉
I was soooo ready to post an "Uhm... akshtually...." comment but then you DID explain the booming blade situation :D
You're channel is dope. Thanks for the hard work- I listen while at work and appreciate the thoughtfulness and balanced use of creativity and pseudo-exploit (it works RaW). Just wanted to drop some positivity to lift up a member of the community that is a paragon of the inclusivity we need. Much love, Colby.
Thanks Rudy!
oh was really hoping to hear a "Bem vindos" in portuguese br at the start there. Awesome build!
Nice build and nice tux 🙂 Thanks for the episode! And DScrybe really did a good job with their description 👍
Music and the spoken word had me cracking up 🤣
For such a SAD character, the MADness if of the charts!
So, to go for a paladin dip you could do a few things:
Option 1 would be to go custom lineage with 13, 12, 12, 8, 13, 17 after modifiers and still get War Caster at level 1 to then grab any half feat for charisma. Or to go variant human with War Caster and 13, 12, 12, 8, 14, 16. In both cases you end up with a melee character with low hit points and a final AC of 18, which is tough but not entirely back breaking.
Option 2 would be to go half-elf or non-variant human. Then you could start with 13, 14, 14, 8, 13, 16 (or 13, 14, 14, 9, 13, 16 for the human) as stats efter modifiers.
You wouldn't get War Caster at level 1, and you'd probably want to delay the fighter levels by one level to get War Caster at level 5.
You'd then be stuck at 16 charisma until level 10 and not max it out until level 17, provided you go for cleric 4 to get there while getting the largest spell slot progression.
Option 3 would be to start with a level of fighter to get heavy armor proficiency and start with 15, 8, 12, 8, 14, 16 which would delay your combo until level 3, make you less sneaky, cut into your hit points and gut your initiative rolls - 13, 8, 14, 8, 14, 16 to trade two points of AC for a bit more hit points. The rest of the build would be unharmed though.
So it is doable, but you'd have to sacrifice alot of your support capabilities for a very heavy nova focus. Option 2 seems by far the least enticing and I think option 1 might be the best route if you'd want to do it. But really, where did we lose the support idea along the way here? :P
The camera angle in this video is hypnotic. The chairs perfectly frame your shoulders. It’s not quite as perfect with the bow tie. Anyway, nice video as always.
I may have missed something but if at 11th level you are still concentrating on darkness I would swap that for summon fey. You can use the one that creates darkness so still get that combo as well as getting 2 fey attacks because of opportunity attacks.
7:22 I love the thematic stories!
Wonderful build as usual! Request for a future build?
Take a look at Shadow Blade and Illusionist Wizard Malleable Illusions. Maybe Shadow Blade could be turned into a polearm (a glaive is still a blade). Might be some interesting synergy there with a finesse polearm
Hm... will have to take a look...
Polearm Master states no material cost, nor that the weapon needs to be mundane. So is a Shadow glaive or shadow spear any less of a glaive or spear than a normal one?
@@gamecavalier3230 It is a specific weapon though. The spell says "You weave together threads of shadow to create a sword of solidified gloom in your hand. This magic sword lasts until the spell ends."
This makes me think you should be able to classify it as something besides a sword, assuming you are able to form it differently.
@@gamecavalier3230 And therein lies one of the questions. Is a sword specific enough? Or is it not? I think it is, but I understand not everyone, or even many, will. I hope others will, but I don't really know.I really hope this can make it into a build episode or into a Slidin into my DMs episode!
@@gamecavalier3230 That's a wierd question. Because by my line of thinking, if sword is specific enough, then would a switch to 'polearm' more generally be such a stretch? It could still be a simple weapon.
I enjoy some of the storytelling elements about _why_ a character changes classes, but with this build I would like to point out the following: a warlock pact really shouldn't be a "sign on the dotted line at level 1 and done" thing. A patron makes constant demands of the warlock in exchange for increasing power. Those requests may not make sense from a mortal perspective, but they should be there. (Much like Mab treats Dresden in Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" books. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend them.)
Thus, this character's story doesn't need to be an "it's a unique character class" thing, but that it's the story of a bard who made an agreement with a powerful being, and that being is now helping shape their destiny.
With this character starting warlock at level 1, I imagine the character asking its patron for the power to have their performances "inspire my allies and strike fear into the hearts of my foes". Then, acquiring level 1 of the bard class is a kind of fulfillment of that request. But then, the patron keeps coming back and asking for more "small favors" as the game progresses. (Work with your DM on this. If the DM is lazy, perhaps the patron just shows up and says "Good work clearing out those heathen orcs for me. Now that I have claimed their souls, I can teach them not to break their pacts with me!" after an adventure.)
Merry gaming!
So excited for the new video ^^ have a nice trip !
Lol, deep cut music and the spoken word reference 😂 hope you enjoyed your spring break! We went to capitol reef national park, it was great
Thank you! Definitely going to use some of the concepts in my character as they level up.
Thanks for the heads up about the video schedule. Always take time for your family and vacations. Never apologize.
Love the sapient sound that decides whether the movement was willing or not. Sure that spell isn't Far Realms related?
I love seeing Eldritch Smite on a build. Also, remember, with it being “once per turn” and not “once on each of your turns”… if you can actually make opportunity attacks outside of your turn, you can stack that Booming Blade with an Eldritch Smite too!
It’s even better to get that little bit of flexibility for those moments when you need it.
This is an amazing build, definately gonna try it
So, I submit for consideration picking up summon fey at Warlock 5 as one of the "pick your favorites" - tricksy fey can shroud the PC in a 5' cube of darkness as a bonus action every turn and add a little sustain damage or at least another target while it's around. I'm aiming for this on a similar character since it will give me the darkness my inner edgelord craves without making the party extra angry. You will have to hold your attack action until the fey obscures you in darkness in order to get the advantage but i think it'll be worth.
I’ve been watching Dungeon Dudes for years. A few months back, I started watching Treantmonk’s Temple, which quickly led me to you. Now, your videos are the ones I wait for most excitedly, each week.
So, what I’m trying to say is you’re making me feel like a bad Canadian. I hope you’re happy.
Seriously though, I hope you’re happy because you make me happy for an hour each week. Enjoy your week off, but hurry back. :)
Ha ha ha! Thanks :).
Then you realize Dungeon Dudes, Treatmonk and Colby did a 2part scenario together and your mind blows.
@@iamscottbowdown I do. It actually aired about two days after I found Colby’s channel. :)
it's not a nova round. It's a single, HUGE, nova reaction!
I've been working on my Kenku Divine Soul Hexblade and I'm planning on using Warcaster to get extra Booming Blades using a quarterstaff and Polearm master. I'll rely on armor of agathys and backing up to try baiting the enemy into moving so if I take an AoO the enemy takes damage, they'll move to blow up, and trigger another booming blade (eventually with crusher if i make it that far) and it should do some good work. Really can't wait to see this guy take off. It's in the Curse of Strahd campaign and the Kenku aspect is going to be fun seeing people's reaction to a humanoid raven knowing the significance of ravens in the story, AND when we run into the wereravens little Dak's going to finally find something to bring back to his people to restore their ability to fly. I just imagine the wereraven's like snatching him up and yelling at him for being out of uniform lmao.
I created a similar character based on the whispers bard ability.
if you took 9 levels of swashbuckler rogue you also get the ability to charm
ppl as your action for 1 minute.
meaning. you could spend 1 minute speaking to someone to both charm and frighten them. giving you advantage on all cha rolls and they have disadvantage. you also are a bard rogue so you have expertise in all the cha skills.
the character was very useful in negotiations and social settings.
held its own as a swashbuckler rogue.
The problem with Multiclassing this much is as you get to mid to high tier 3, you start running into creatures that have some serious resistances, some as you hit Tier 4, can't be damaged by low level spells which is what this class ends with. This build makes me want to build one of 2 Characters, first would be a Hexblade 5/Whispers Bard 15 (or 7/13 if you want Thirsting Blade) with flight (Owlin or Winged Tiefling) That uses longbow to Devastating effect. With Bard at level 10 you can pilfer swift quiver, which gives you 2 Attacks on your attack action, and 2 attacks as a Bonus action. The fuckery of Darkness with your party is mitigated because you fly away from them and rain death on them from afar, and because Eldritch Smite and Psychic blades can be Delivered at Range Crits become very deadly. Because you are bathed in the Darkness of your Patron, you get advantage to hit, while your enemies get disadvantage to hit you back. The Advantage gained from darkness is a mitigating factor for the -5 from sharpshooter. This could be done to similar effect and maybe even more damaging as a Gloomstalker 5, and Rogue (Thief, Mastermind, Inquisitive and Scout all work here) 15, though the warlock/whisper bard brings a fun to play dark element.
Second would be all out Attack and Reaction attack (from Pole Arm Master) murder hobo. VHuman or Custom Lineage to Start with Pole Arm Master, Go 5 levels Hexblade (Take Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Improved Patch Weapon for 4th level Feat take Warcaster). Be a Lorehold Bard or Orzhov Rep for Background so at 5th level you can get Spirit Guardians. Then the rest of your levels you start your combat with Action Spirit Guardians, Bonus action Hexblades curse and Melt their Faces, while beating them to a pulp. You'll get your reaction attack as they try to leave your Threat range. Multiclass 2 Paladin and then the rest whisper bard. You get 3 "Smites" in a hit if you Crit (Psychic Whispers, Smite, and Eldritch Smite). Your Next ASI is GWM (Which happens at Level 11 Warlock 5/Pally 2/Whisper Bard 4). At this level you use a Bard Spell slot to do the Spirit Guardians, So you are doing 3d8 (Save for Half), 1d10+10+Chr Bonus on your Attack + Extra Attack. Bonus action of either 1d10+10+Chr or 1d4+10+Chr with Nova Damage being Eldritch Smite 4d8 Force + Smite of 4d8 Radiant + 2d6 Psychic. With all Remaining Levels going to Bard you end at Warlock 5/Pally 2/Bard 13. Even if you don't go with the Cheesy Stixhaven or Ravnica Backgrounds, you still can pilfer spirit guardians at level 10 bard. But either way your Damage gets nothing but Better the higher you go with Spirit Guardians Upcast to higher level slots and Psychic Blades getting as high as 5d6 (drop pally levels and it can go to 8d6 at 20t, and Pally Smites using your highest level spell slot up to 5th.
Lastly I want you to think about Taking Hexblade to 6 on any Whisper Bard Build. It means that when both classes are at 6th level, you can Take the form of the being you just killed, then enslave it's soul for 24 hrs as a spectre to serve you as you systematically destroy its ally's....That's Dark ;-)
Came for the D&D character build but stayed for the unintentional ASMR. Thank you, kind sir!
Really looking forward to a poison build. Maybe using the grung race?
Poison just really doesnt work, most things late game just become immune
@@rytyrocks518 That is kinda irreverent. Could easily play in a campaign that doesn't have this issue. Could just be played in a campaign that is more like Rav. Could just be for a tailored one shot. Could make the video just to show the potential. Lots of options. A little asterisk saying sometimes this doesn't work doesn't necessarily need to kill the whole video.
@@lloydlineske2642that is true, if your dm is willing to remove the poison immunity from most of the monsters than yea that’s fine but d4 normally runs rules as written I don’t think he’d make a build totally reliant on the DM removing a common immunity it’s just not his style
@@rytyrocks518 thats not really what I'm saying. I'm saying there are a lot of ways around it. Like in the Rav plane there isn't a lot of poison immunity. If you are in a city there isn't a lot of it. If you are doing a one shot in a certain place that doesn't have a lot of it it could be useful, etc. I'm not entirely saying to have the DM take a certain aspect away. Like this build here. He had the stipulation that it's not great against casters and ranged units. That probably makes it ineffective against more than just poison immunity.
We clearly need moar bow tie. You don’t have to wear the suit, but the bow tie is a must! 😎
I love this idea as a temperary character. A cheerful traditional bard shows up entertaining party but slowly over time their morbid and creepy habits and abilities begin to show up. Soon the party begins to unravel the characters secret goals and the powerful entities they serve
Edit: Also I agree with the end of the video. There's a million ways to get alot of damage but theme and utility matters just as much
Take a spring break break and enjoy time with your family ❤️
One of my players ran a changeling whispers bard with glamoured leather armor. They would assassinate people, get their basic memories, use that hour to collect more information on them, wrote it down in their journal and build a lexicon of people they could impersonate at will. It was a brilliant minigame the group played in every town they visited. Though explaining why people that were "disappearing" kept reappearing was an additional minigame that resulted in more problems for them. They killed a lot of NPC's.
Edit: Spelling and Grammar
The “welcome home” portion of every video is my favorite, so wholesome
I'd rule the "willingly moves" part of the booming blade spell the same as you do, because I doesn't make sense to me that the booming energy would somehow recognize wether the target's movement is 100% it's own will or wether it has been mentally influenced. One may say that by this logic forced movement also should cause booming blade to deal additional damage, but it has much further mechanical implications and I think there is a clear enough distinction between being pushed and actually moving your body that it makes sense a spell would work differently in those scenarios.
I was so convinced when you started Warlock that you’d be using the Undead’s Form of Dread for frightening/forced movement. Incredible build nonetheless!
I want to love the Whispers Bard. I've played the subclass a couple times and always felt underwhelmed so I am amped to hear your take.
My friend, their psychic smites are SO good. I play a character that uses the same concept of this but Im mostly bard dipped into swashbuckler rogue and its incredibly fun
@@Mr911superstar Yeah, I loved the physic blade as well but I think the mistake I made was I level dipped each time and found I had other, more powerful options to hit and wasn't using them all that often. Also, I found that Words of Terror was so cool but only limited to humanoids, which I found frustrating especially because subclasses like eloquence and lore, two other verbal-based subclasses don't have this limitation. Like I mentioned, flavor wise, I'm a big fan of the Whispers Bard and these multi-class options sound super fun.
Yesss, The George Michael Bard (Careless Whisper? No? Well, fine!)
*flouts off, stage left*
lol!
anyone have some magic items too look for early im about to run this pc though a game
52:25 Gimme a couple weeks, and I'm sure to have one. I built the Charlatan Changeling Bardlocker. My little Penchant has been glorious to play, but through a heavy session fighting a false hydra, and some weird RP, he's placated himself to his patron entity -- Mask -- and is having a new change in his little changeling body. My DM is letting me rewrite him from a Swords Bard to a Whispers Bard. I'm swapping out spells and the bard class, but nothing else. Seriously looking forward to this week.
OH...and as for that Insight check against my Deception? At level 15 Bardlocker, I'm at +14. Adding that +5 to it, I could literally roll a 1 on the die and still get a dirty 20.
I've always loved the booming blade war caster trick, but a lot of DMs I've had simply finagle some wat for enemies to magically not take the extra damage.
"Think of this character as its own custom class"
I mean, it's so cool that i see no reason not to do that every time i come up with builds.
It's also quite easy to reflavor the majority of the features and concepts to suit the needs.
It also allows to avoid tropes. For example, let's say I'm playing lockadin or sorlock and instead of dealing with a patron and trying to outmaneuver and get rid of the pact, let's say that hexblade part is just a guardian angel who was sent by a deity to pull your lazy ass out of misery and help you achieve great things, while at the same time secretly and ambiguously rearrange certain "chess pieces" on a grand board of power struggle. Because why the hell not? Also 5 minutes of reflavoring per spell and you have hand of god subclass.
God, i love dnd.
Right!? /high five
@@DnDDeepDive /high five
Huh, fun fact I never put together... Eldritch Smite (the invocation) requires L5 Warlock and Pact of the Blade, but Thirsting Blade only requires Pact of the Blade and LEVEL 5. Makes a 3 level dip in hex'lock a lot more palatable when multiclassing.
I'm thinking it would be hilarious to make a bard like this who is outwardly super sweet, and it's only the enemies who ever understand how scary they are. Everyone else is wondering why enemies run away from them all the time.
Playing a young girl with this concept 😂
I really like the added fear-like effects for the hexblade spooky warrior feel. Nice build with fun melee support.
Something I like to do for warlock bards is to say that they sold their soul for the music.
Oh, I see you also watch Dungeon Dudes. A man of taste.
Yet another great build...but I can't get the Tracey Chapman song out of my head now hahaha 😅
I'm just glad someone recognized it!
@@DnDDeepDive I'm of an age to remember it haha
While I don’t think all builds necessitate a story justification for multiclassing, and sometimes the justification is easier thinking of it as a custom class, I’m never upset to hear them. If nothing else, it can be amusing going through the justification for a weird turn mid-build.
Wouldn't Quickened Spell be beneficial for this build? Say you pick up Meta Magic Adept. Couldn't you run up, Make a booming Blade attack as an action, then quicken Dissonant Whispers, then Reaction attack with another Booming Blade attack?
Yeaaay!! Backstorie ❤
I've played an incredibly close build to this for quite some time, and it's easily the most fun build I've played. Highly recommend it.
Same, I have a whispers bard/swashbuckler that uses the same tactic 🥰
... God, I love this. Although if I were going to play this character in-game I'd probably trade the fighter dip and Warlock 5 for three levels of phantom rogue, just because I've always wanted to be the creepiest broad at the table *while* laughing in the face of high skill check DCs.
The "Muy buenos días" got me by surprise, I thought you were going to do all the video in spanish. PD: Please make a HexBuckler cursed pirate I need it Colby, I just long for the day I can watch a cool only Char character, have fun at your vacation!
:) - ok on the to do list!
Huzzah! A new bard build! Can’t wait to listen to this on my drive home!
I have been trying really hard to build a sling character recently. Of course magic stone is quite helpful, but I think it would be an interesting build idea. I feel very stumped on improving damage for sling specifically though.
How about this... ruclips.net/video/6P1jzyxpzgA/видео.html
Thank you for the amazing video
I love this style of character! Primarily a bard for support (at least for a while) while also having the option to throw out damage! I've toyed around with a similar build that uses glamour bard's mantle of majesty to provoke the opportunity attacks for booming blade, pushing my action free to booking blade again. Not quite as much damage, and not really as nova focused, more like a sustained dpr for one combat a day while being a supportive bard the rest of the combats. Also, gotta say I appreciated the Music and the Spoken Word reference
Last week i requested the college of whispers bard and you did not disappoint! Gave me some interesting ideas to play with and i love the booming blade and eldricht smite parts of the build.
yay! i led the outcry. Thanks Colby! I would take the Entertainer background so that you have your Bard levels prepared in advance and on your performer's journey, you were rewarded by a mysterious admirer with a even more mysterious sword... Edit - don't you need to be a 5th lvl warlock to get the Thirsting Blade invocation which would give you 2 attacks a round, but not 2 Booming Blades a round? so your 3rd invocation should be Eldritch Smite. the video sort of said that when you reached your 3rd lvl of warlock you could get Thirsting Blade with your Pact of the Blade feature?
I’m 100% here for a Tracy Chapman cover album!!
Warcaster IS a tax placed on gishs, but that seems like smart design.
Full-casters are balanced around being sort of wet noodles when you put them on the front-lines, so compensating their key weaknesses shouldn't be cheap and easy. Right?
Warcaster seems a smaller tax than pure martial have, since CBE/SS or PAM/GWM are typically needed to do good sustain damage.
Hey D4, I just came back after trying to build and rebuild my character and honestly I have only ran into bad rep for my character's subclass: The way of the Drunken Master Monk. I can't think of a better person than you who could look at it and really build it up and make it go absolutely bonkers. So there's my suggested challenge for you: lets see the most epic Drunken Master you could build!
On the to do list!
@@DnDDeepDive I cant wait! Thank you and love your content!
Ooh this is another concept I tried to build around recently. My idea was to use Conquest Paladin to smite people that left my range and punish those who don't with fear + Divine Sorcerer to pick up spirit guardians and acquire cantrips
Have you made a paladin that revolves around spell casting? The ancient paladin capstone seems extremely fun to build around but I know your video-builds don't get that high. However, the concept of Spelladin seems super cool to me.
Have a nice spring break :)
Thanks! Will have to put "Pally Caster" on the to do list :)
My ADHD brain prefers to watch videos sped up, and going from 1.75x to normal speed makes it seem like Colby is on quaaludes
Since you are coverd by magical darkness, enemies cannot see you, so you could after you made your attacks with advantage just casually walk away from the enemies and then on your turn go back there or just support your allies from range.
Note: OA's have the prerequisites of seeing, so you can just walk and not take the OA if they cannot see you
Ok, I'm just gonna say that the suit and bowtie need to come back. Maybe if you do a "nobleman" or "preacher" build? I don't care, you look fabulous and I want more of it 🤩
Yo Colby, you gave me a neat idea for a character that I might actually get to play (forever dm).
So myself and a friend are gonna do a variation the wolf/coyote builds you showcased a while back but in that video you asked the question of what does the wolfs rage look like?
Well as it happens in the first episode of tales of aneria you describe your character Seradan as having a polearm that is fluted and it sort of plays music. So now my wolf's glaive 'howls' when he rages. Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome!
I would love to see an overview at the start of the video on what classes are going to be used maybe even by level to help anchor what you are about to speak about. I also really like your subclass introduction and storyline you do for the character around level 3-4 usually and I think that would be valuable to hear earlier during creation before you start the level by level.
Great work though so don't feel like you have to take all my advice it's just something that would help me personally become invested in the video sooner and it's possible that other people waiting for that info helps your metrics.
I thought the whole idea of a wisdom save was that you are magically manipulating their will. So in my opinion I would say if they fail the save then you are magically changing their will, so even if they did not want to run away before now they do. I would be curious to know if Jeremy Crawford would rule it this way for the suggestion spell. It's a stronger spell and even says in the wording that you magically influence a creature. So again in my opinion I think both spells would trigger booming blade since it should proc based on the creatures current state of will, that is now magically influence, and not based on their previous state of will before you cast booming blade.
Have you thought of making a gunlock (firearm wielding warlock) build? I’ve been fiddling with it and there’s some very good combos to be made
Will have to add to the to do list!
This is a weird question, but have you ever made an optimized character who is optimized for social setting and rp instead of combat?
Just play eloquence bard, it’s op in that aspect
Came here to second Eloquence Bard. Level 6 Eloquence Bard with expertise in Persuasion and Deception can't roll below a 20 assuming you have at least 18 Charisma by that point, and if you DM uses crit fails on ability checks just play a Halfling so you can reroll 1's. Now you essentially can persuade or deceive almost anyone with close to no chance to fail. Want to go unnecessarily further? Multiclass warlock for the Mask of Many Faces Invocation and take the Actor feat at Warlock 4 so you can always be pretending to be someone else and have advantage on those rolls. Cap Charisma next ASI/feat and if you went Hexblade warlock you now also have a powerful damage dealer, or if you want to go back to bard you have a strong Support/Controller build as well.
@@Onethirdless true, but I mean every single rp setting, history arcana, stealth, insight, religion ect
@@gabeempey1041 oh, check out Colby's Skill Monkey build. He gets proficiency in every skill and expertise in many of them.
He did a build that is profficient in everything by lvl 7 (and still do decent damage)
Just putting a build idea out there, “the duplicator”, an echo knight and an ancestral guardian barbarian with mirror image or something🤓 Someone who focuses on controlling the battlefield with as many duplicates at possible🤓
You should check out this build by Treantmonk for sure then: ruclips.net/video/lbk9-NVWJ3Y/видео.html
@@gamina8674 Oh! Thank you! I subscribe to him and hadn’t ever seen this so I really appreciate it😁
Omg!! "Muy buenos dias", as a spanish speaker following your chanel I have to say that I loved that
First! Let’s goooooooo Colby!
NO COME ON I WAS SO CLOSE
Congrats
18:56 if this Is true, dissonant whispers and comand spells doesnt provoke opportunity Attack, because opportunity attacks effect only willingly movement
So, in William Shakespeare's Othello, does this mean Iago is a Whisper Bard? I like this.
Also, consider a Bugbear Whisperer. Sneaking through the shadows while uttering horrors of horrors, warping the minds of the city guard...