double-bladed scimitar's 2d4 damage has another quirk, beyond it having a higher average than a d8. because its two dice, the roll distribution is concentrated towards the middle-most rolls. to get a 5 on a 2d4 (which is 2d4's average value), you can roll 1&4, 2&3, 3&2, or 4&1. whereas for a 6 on a 2d4, you can roll 2&4, 3&3, or 4&2. normally with single dice rolls all possible rolls are equal probability, but the more dice you add the more the probability is pooled towards the average value. its up to you to decide if having consistently okay rolls is a blessing or bane
Surely the chance to get maximum is the same and chance to roll a 1 is 0 for 2 die means that it's not only alot more consistently getting middle rolls but more likely get higher to mid rolls and same chance to get highest rolls therefore just better in every way. As has been said the average is higher and that does consider highest and lowest and all other chances inbetween.
I love to have a familiar as a cleric cuz you can cast cure wounds through the familiar as long as it’s with 100ft of you, essentially making cure wounds a ranged healing spell.
We are using the Rogue + Order-Domain combo in a OneOnOne I'm running with my Girlfriend. The "Battery" is a DM-PC I am running (both for Roleplay and to scale encounters) and works perfect for this, as I can help her deal massive damage without hugging the spotlight. She plays a Swashbuckler+Crossbow-Expert Build that makes trivial to get sneak attacks even without advantage.
OMG...I'm only 4 minutes in but I'm loving the concept of maximizing teams instead of just individual characters. This is taking it to a whole new level!
A bard is a true all rounder, otherwise the cheat code for doing everything with one pc are minion mancers that can ne made via enchanmnts, summoning or rising undead.
I know this is an old video, so someone probably already pointed it out, but your familiar can’t ready both a move and an action on the same turn, which means at a RAW table you might be better off with something like Swashbuckler to increase the chance of getting that second Sneak Attack.
I made this comment on another build but you could use the haste spell to accomplish the 2 sneak attacks. So you could make any haste casting class w/ rouge party combo with the same trick. But I like the battery idea with the order cleric.
I believe haste gives you an extra action on your turn that may be used for one singular attack. I dont see how that would give you an extra instance of sneak attack. Please correct me if I am wrong.
@@andycates7923 you would use the action from haste/ bonus attack to make you 1st sneak attack and then use your regular action for the Ready your action for the 2nd sneak attack after your turn is over.
Btw. Ready action does not let the familiar move and do the help action at the same time. So that makes it way more dangerous to go that route. My DM for example let's the help action effect the next person attacking the target and I think that is the most reasonable solution to be fair. But I'm not going to park my familiar over the target to fulfill the requirement for the help action then. Its just too vulnerable 😬
As per your request for ideas for when you reach 5000 Subs I would really love to see some of these builds In action. Perhaps some sort of gladiator style showdown? As you are always careful to point out Oh, there is no way to just mechanically battle entirely detach from role-playing. So what if you created some sort of scenario Where buy some sort of god king or alien pitts various creatures against one another in varying sceanarios that can be customized. Both in terrain and circumstance. In ways just so happen to correlate to some crunchy questions such as Nova Damage or 2 person teams etc. Though id love to see the actual gameplay, you could also just show spreadsheet breakdowns... This would allow for multiple trial runs of build and sceanarios and could really flesh out somethings that might be hard to anticipate in character creation.
Quick note about Ready an help action with your familiar. RAW, you are not able to move as part of your reaction so your Owl cannot swoop in to do help action and escape. Like you say, it could be house rule pretty easilly like your DM does but RAW the familiar must stay within 5ft. to be able to do that.
@@Samuel_Kabel You could do this but only the next attack against the target will be with advantage. So depending initiative order, it's not necessary the right character that will get advantage.
This is correct. What you could do, however, is at least use the familiar to grant sneak attack by having it hold its action to move into proximity, although not using the help action. The Rogue/barb wouldn't get advantage but would get sneak attack thanks to the proximity of the owl. So on the 'owl's turn' they say "I'm (meaning the owl) going to hold my action for when I see the cleric cast a spell on the rogue/barb, to move in a loop around the baddies head and then fly away". So, cleric casts spell on rogue/barb, that triggers the owl's held action which then uses its reaction to swoop in and stay in range just long enough to allow the rogue/barb to attack using their reaction, and then flies away (assuming they have enough movement to do so). This all feels very game-y though and is one of the reasons I don't value find familiar as much as a lot of people seem to (it's great for a lot of things, just not continually granting advantage). At our tables, this kind of thing seems unrealistic and hard to justify from any perspective other than just min-maxing. I'm not saying you couldn't have your familiar use its action to take the help action to grant you advantage, I'm just saying if you tried that at our table that owl is going to die real quick, since if its taking the help action, its staying in melee range with something that's going to get pissed off and lash out at it.
Don't forget you can cast touch spells through your familiar so being worried about touch spells is moot. Using Holy Weapon on the blender's weapon with your familiar is allowed therefore giving him the bonus damage and extra attack.
@@DnDDeepDive I suppose it could be argued the spell is being cast to benefit the blender. Especially if he has to attune to it. Every GM I've run with in 20 + years would allow it in my experience. Still my main point is the familiar can be used to cast touch spells on the blender without being right next to him or in touch range.
Have you considered a similar idea but using Path to the Grave from the Grave Cleric and Poison Strike from the Treachery Paladin, the effect makes them vulnerable so it bypasses any resistance or immunity to poison the target might usually have which is the main downside of Poison Strike, they can then smite for even more doubled damage. So far me and my friend have killed used it to kill Raz Nsi on the first turn in ToA.
Enjoyed that :) Took me a few sittings to go through it ;) If the party did have another rogue the blender could have taken athletics expertise which would be great for grapples/shoves with high strength and reliable talent... maybe for the tank rogue ;)
Would there be any value in the cleric taking a few levels in rogue to get mastermind, allowing them to give the barogue advantage on attacks within a certain range?
If you want to, sure! The problems for me are: 1-delaying the Cleric levels/spells, and 2-the Blender *should* already be getting advantage every round. Maybe if you wanted to skip the Barbarian levels or were low on health and didn't want to risk giving your enemies advantage it'd be worth considering...
I'll be playing the "battery" portion of this team-up in OotA, adding a bunch of abberant mind sorcerer levels -- à la TreantMonk's "Do it All" mage. Can't wait!
So I am playing Stergar, a Barbarian(14) and rogue(6), just hit level 20. Zealot barbarian, assassin rogue. Took bugbear and uses a whip. 15ft reach, highly mobile (movement 50 by mid game with cunning action), expertise on 4 skills (right at the end, 2 for most of the campaign). Just heaps damage and laughs as the enemy tries to harm him (rage with uncanny dodge). Especially at the end with persistent rage (lvl16) and rage beyond death nicely topping up the character at level 19. My level 20 wasn't that fantastic, took the final level in rogue to get 2 more expertise. Persistent rage is arguably better but expertise I thought was cooler. Had expertise in stealth and perception through most of the game. Expertise in religion and athletics topped off at level 20. The combination along with adamantine breastplate made for a super fun character. Really get to be reckless af. Soon we take on TIAMAT!! She's going down!!! Lol
I am slow watching this and I tried to look through the comments and didn't see this addressed. Two things to help with the weakness of reckless attack: First, you don't need advantage to use your sneak attack if an ally is attacking it and it seems you have the cleric in melee so if he is on the same target as the blender you don't need to be reckless to sneak. Second, I would go swashbuckler instead of phantom, or maybe inquisitive. Especially if you don't have your battery next to you all the time. Swash gives you a sneak attack if you take creatures on one on one and gives you mini mobility to move away from them. Inquis let's you study them as a bonus action and get sneak on them without advantage for 1 min. if you succeed an insight check against them. I think Swashbucker fits the spirit of the character better with fearless charging into battle full of bravado and panache but inquisitive removes removes scenario concerns if fighting hoards.
And if he went Inquisitive the story could be an Order Domain Cleric working in court with a gruntled old undercover detective friend which dug up dirt on the organized criminal orginizations around the land
This is great 👍 you have fun mechanical roles with good out put, and a order cleric would probably be ok with a zealot of a god of natural death, cause natural death is part of an orderly world.
I'm hoping to see an Ultimate Archer build from this channel in the near future. I enjoy your videos and appreciate that you aren't afraid to multi-class to achieve an optimum build.
@@DnDDeepDive I Have watched them and enjoyed them both. I briefly responded on your Ranged fighter video in the comments. Personally I'm not a fan of the Valor Bard as an Archer, due to the lack of personal or weapon buffing spells on its list. The Rune Knight because of the Nerf is no longer a preferred choice of mine either honestly
I really like your vids, especially the duo options. Love this one. My barb friend is ready to go this weekend. I am debating full Order Cleric vs Divine Soul Sorc x/Order Cleric 1. Twinned Haste on the Blender and our Bladesinger wielding Shadow Blade. I'm just not sure what I'd be doing as my main action (Toll the Dead?)---and if the tradeoff is worth it (e.g. can't twin Holy Weapon later on). Advice welcome on that! The best I can come up with is to also go 1 Hexblade for Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast Invocation from the Eldritch Adept Feat--but that may be overkill, and I'm not sure I want to MC into 3 classes. Will probably just go Cleric, but I still like looking at the options. Keep the vids coming!
Thanks, glad you're enjoying! I love the twinned spell idea... re: Holy Weapon - it's true that not being able to twin it is a bummer, but getting Haste on two targets would be more powerful than Holy Weapon on one I think - depending on how hard the two targets hit with their extra attack, of course. As for your action - I like the Eldritch Blast idea if you can stomach the multiclassing. If not, and you're committed to casting vs. melee, I think Toll the Dead is your best bet. Have fun!
@@DnDDeepDive Thanks for the feedback. I'm not committed to casting per se,. For a Divine Soul Sorc, I suppose I could also do Booming Blade dmg with a 1 hander (with no Divine Strike), but I think the dmg without Divine Strike would put it more or less on par with Toll---and there would be higher risk of losing concentration, which would not be great for by 2 hasted buddies. :) Thanks again.
@@warlockiii Quite a bit late, but if you've Twinned Haste there's several great follow up actions at your disposal. Disengage, Hide behind cover, Dash away to cover, or just Dodge if there's no cover. Your main job at that point is to maintain concentration. Your check may high enough, but you're not the ideal target for attrition either. So the second job is to avoid being hurt/targeted at all. Two beefy bois just got 2 extra AC. Concentration also breaks if your hp bottoms out.
I might take mobile on the cleric. Being able to get out of dodge at the cost of potentially no actions you wouldn't otherwise takes could be useful. As always, this is a feat starved build.
The Cleric here is actually not starved for feats. Most ASIs just pumped its Str for higher DPR, but the Battery's accuracy is primarily what we care about. Resilient Con or War Caster arguably should be taken asap, but you do have good AC and decent Con. Mobile helps with concentration too by getting you in and out of the fray. Find Familiar realistically might not line up with your Blender's reaction attack. It's also a sitting duck with the Held Help action. Use it for your Booming Blade instead. Bless and maximized Str should keep the Barbogue quite accurate even without Reckless during reaction attacks. Your BB can land quite reliably with the familiar's Help and/or Bless. Mobile allows to actually milk the secondary damage at times. That'll almost never happen if your feet are planted. There will be times where you probably still want to be up front with your Blender to help share the load of attacks since Reckless does take its toll. Along with enabling reaction Sneak Attacks. You also can't expect BB's secondary damage if you're up on the same target. So there will times to decide on when to dart in and out or back up. Now you're also juicing the blender's sustainability with a semi-shared health pool. Both of you can disengage without using your action too. Sounds like great synergy to me. Another option here as a half Str feat is to take Crusher and try to achieve the same thing. Works even if you and the partner moved up on the enemy provided you've gone after the Blender. May be more painful if you miss at times or against Huge+ creatures which you wouldn't be able to push. Might work better if a third melee PC ally is in the mix too. These factors also lend itself to another really high damage Barbarian Fighter alternative instead of Rogue. Taking GWM and PAM instead of Sneak Attacking. The damage I think for most levels can be a lot higher that way. Rogue may eventually overtake it, or it's similar enough. Allows for potentially staying at reach with a Glaive/Halberd to play with Reckless a little more tactically.
For 5k or 10k Subscribers, maybe, do a crazy, party build. 4 characters who work in perfected tandem for only damage. (Are we looking at a squadron of Pamlocks?)
Ha ha - surely the only thing better than 2 Pamlocks is 4! :) Ok I'll give this one some thought... I'm so hesitant to do a 4 character build because it would be like a 3 hour episode! ha ha. And a lot of potential research... but it would be fun :).
I like the blender build a lot. I think the battery is better as a Order Cleric 1 Hexblade Warlock 1 Lore Bard X. This build would have primary stats of Cha, Con, Wis and dump Str, Dex,Int. It would wear heavy armor with the movement penalty. At low levels it tries to melee with green flame blade and booming blade + hexblade using charisma to attack. If you play in a game with flanking you might want to take elven accuracy as your character creation feat on a custom lineage. Otherwise you take Fey Touched for Misty Step + Hex. For your 2 warlock spells you take shield and armor of agathys. At level 6 (lore bard 4) you get 20 charisma. At level 8 you get eldritch blast from magical secrets (Lore bard 6) along with counterspell. At level 10 you take Eldritch Adept for Agonizing Blast (which works because of your 1 warlock level). At level 14 (bard 12) you take res(CON) raising CON to 16. Your bard 10 magical secrets gets you holy weapon at level 12 which becomes your main concentration spell. You end up a few levels behind at getting most things but you do more damage at range and have more flexibility than the pure cleric. If you end up in melee you do less damage, unless you get something like gunner at level 18 to keep eldritch blasting instead. If your party really needs Mass Heal you can get it at level 20 instead of level 17, but there are a lot of good bard spells you have access to as well, and you've probably picked up something like Simulacrum or other powerful wizard spells from your spare slots in magical secrets. (This build doesn't have a firm choice for the 2nd bard 10 magical secrets, and the remaining 4 magical secrets slots which vary based on taste). A 20 Charisma, 14 Wisdom character with expertise slots makes an excellent party face (Expertise in Persuasion and Insight most likely if you want to do this) and your character offers a lot of damage plus utility healing in combat as well. Outside of combat they have all the bard tools (Invisibility, Suggestion, Identify, Detect Magic, Counterspell, etc. and they can buff allies ability checks since they aren't likely to use many bardic inspiration dice in combat). The 1 warlock slot synergies nicely with the build if you typically have a day of 2 short and 1 long rest, it converts a warlock level into 3 spell slots for healing word. If you're without your typical ally (say they miss a session) you're still a hex + eldritch blast character.
I love this. I literally only think about characters in a team dynamic as the American solo yolo style of thinking is never applicable to dnd 😉🤭. So that makes some things shift in the hierarchy of what's good and useful. Right now we are planing a game with a Bladesinger, Lore Bard (1 lvl dip Hexblade) and a Twilight Cleric (2 lvl dip War Mage) for example. Everyone fights well, have great defense and and amazing utility. So much fun when the pantheon of options and synergies gets explored instead of the usual "This is the most damage you can do at this level if in a vacuum".
I would suggest you do a Bladesinger & Lore Bard (1 level hexblade) duo. I think that's the most amazing one from all aspects. Offense, defense, utility, fluff and such (Traveling band? Musketeers? Soo guud 😄)
@@DnDDeepDive Dont forget to take into account the sheer amount of utility this duo has. It's literally the best duo for all situations I think. Both get booming blade, shield absorb elements, counterspell, reverse gravity/prismatic wall and all the skills and utility one can wish for.
Thanks! And yes! In fact, I'm kind of forcing myself to wait another week or two to do that (though it's probably at the top of my "want to do" list) because I've been so "'sustained damage build" focused lately; but you shouldn't have to wait very long ;).
@@DnDDeepDive a barbarian build similar to the one introduced in this build may be pretty effective. Making use of the claw feature and the revenant blade set up would mean the barbarian can take 4 attacks a round at level 5 from round 2 and onward.
I think a Swashbuckler would make a better rogue for this build. Everything swashbuckler gets screams to be in this build. Fancy Footwork lets you move without provoking AoO form enemies you've attacked. Rakish Audacity adds your Charisma mod to Initiative, AND allows you to use sneak attack without advantage in 1v1 situations! So you wouldn't NEED reckless OR familiar. Panache is a GREAT tank ability, especially if you have decent Charisma for your Rakish Audacity feature. Panache combined with Rage, Uncanny Dodge, Evasion AND a pocket healer make this character a totally viable tank.
Loving it so far! Just wanted to mention that creature must be within 5ft; so you cant flyby help action fly away. That's what makes Mastermind Rogues juicy. However it just looks like this is an additional way to get advantage and not based around it so still good to go really
@@Samuel_Kabel that's interesting because I've had it ruled like in my example at 2 different AL tables; to my knowledge AL is RAW. Is there a sage advice on this to your knowledge?
Honestly it would have taken like 10 seconds to look for it yourself. For some reason i can't post links, so here's the name: Sage Advice - When using the Help Action, do you need to remain within 5′ of the target?
Thanks! Because... I just don't know if I can actually get myself to go quick/punchy/only the basics/highly edited format :). I must listen to too many podcasts... >.>
Well you pretty much hit my barbarian/rogue tank on the head, just gnome (Yuan ti probably better, but my group doesn't allow it) , whip and sentinel for more control. Finally got around to watching this one :) Very nicely done, definitely multiclassing 1 order cleric for my next super support build, I just think that divine soul sorcerer is just too strong for support.
Their is other sources of reaction for the rogue other then law cleric: - commander strike d'un battle master - Sentinel feat (even a mirror image/sentinel combo, where soem people say that if the enemy attack one of the mirror image he attacked an allie 5ft from you so you would technicaly get a reaction?) - Haste, attack normaly with hasted action, then with your regular action, ready an attack for next "turn" - Good old attack of opportunity (easy to trigger with disonant whisper) But I till don't undertand why barbarian. Go fighter (dex) you still get your extra attack battlemaster give you an extra 1d6 damage (better then +2 from rage) if you want advantage, you can use trip attack to put the target prone and get advantage on your attack (and give advantage to your melee friends) etc... Or go Ranger (dex/wis), with hunter mark and collosus slayer and also give you extra attack if you want that one massive hit per turn to abuse your reaction. As for easy advantage, sure reckless is the easy solution, but when it force you to go MAD and be a bad rogue... but their is a thousand way to get advantage in 5e. Prone target give easy advantage to melee fighter, maybe the cleric if he's going to be a "physical" combatant, could use his action to push the target prone. Maybe an other player can cast faery fire? maybe the law cleric can cast bonus action hold person? (auto critical as a bonus) Gogn arcane trickster instead fo phantom can also open new posibility (speciallyif you are not a ranger, arcane trickster allow for an other concentration spell.
Colby, I really want your thoughts (and damage calculations) if you were to change the Blender's subclasses to Beast and Soulknife. At level 8, you could claw attack, additional claw attack, psyblade attack, then BA psyblade for 4 attacks total. 5 attacks per round, 2 with SA sounds awesome, but I can't decide if it's worth it. The only thing that you would have to assume is that the DM would let you summon a psyblade for the reaction attack, even though RAW says it's only when you take the action action. If you add slasher and maybe mobile, there might be potential for a hit-and-run playstyle that could be fun, especially since the psyblades have range to them. Thoughts?
I just saw a video about using the order cleric to magic missile tap your rogue and give them yet another sneak attack, then I remembered your caviler/arcane trickster centaur video..and wondered if this video was like that...regardless... The team dynamic of a lawful good order cleric, a chaotic random arcane trickster, a noble fighter and a charisma caster...or int caster..Colby, what caster would you recommend of your illustrious builds? I'm definitely not building a rival party for my players...
One of the most loved character I had when I was playing the 4th edition of D&D was the Warden. I was trying to recreated that in 5th edition and went with Cleric/Ranger. Could you optimized that class mix. I went Order Cleric/Gloom Stacker (Githzerai). No need to follow those subclass or race.
Hexbalde barbarian (totem) with a hobgoblin cleric (order) Barb casts AoA then rages, cleric casts 2nd level warding bond after bonus action help (the temp hp won’t stack with AoA but spitr would negate one advantage attack) giving the barb a reaction attack and improving the effectiveness of AoA I’d also go mastermind multiclass on cleric just for the limitless bonus action help
On the debate of Cure Wounds/Healing Word, I also prefer Healing Word, but it's nice to remember Cure Wounds can be cast at range through your familiar as well as it has a range of touch, and then you can use a Spiritual Weapon attack as a bonus action. Used this technique a lot as a Cleric. Probably more useful as a Cleric that stays on the backline and not with this build of course! Just a useful little combo though if you have something else to do with your bonus action and still want to heal :)
Two build requests, please! Melee Twilight Cleric build (Thinking a gishy type character on a variant half moon elf chassis w booming blade racial cantrip), and a Psi Warrior/Battle Smith multiclass (have built to Psi 7/BS 3, using steel defender as a reaction deflector and 3rd attack/round, devoting uses of protective field both to protecting myself and the steel defender - the concept being a psionic monster hunter combining innate psionic martial skill w psionic artificing)
Can you do a build that maximizes the number of attacks a character can consistently make on a single turn? The most I’ve managed to get for every turn is six (Beat Barb 3/Samurai 15) and seven a couple of times per short rest (Beast Barb3/Samurai 15/Monk 2). I’m wondering if you can find any way to do more? Perhaps a consistent reactionary attack or something else I overlooked. Cavalier 18 does have infinite technically but that is way too situational.
What platform do you make your characters on? Most of my friends use dnd beyond, but I prefer PDF'S and my books. I understand the ease for dnd beyond, but I prefer writing/typing in my characters abilities as it forces me to read and understand my abilities
I would recommend that the other cantrip the Battery takes from his feat be Chill Touch, while it doesn't do as much damage as Fire Bolt, it keeps the enemy from healing, which could prove more important than any damage he could do (think Trolls). Did You ever give the stats you chose for the Battery? If you did, I missed it. I don't like the Warding Bond spell; it gives him half damage even if the Blender resists the damage. That would lead to both of them taking half damage from stuff he could resist anyway. I think I would prefer for the Blender to take Totem Barbarian and get resistance to most anything by himself rather than use this spell. You realize that you can use your familiar to deliver Cure Wounds, right. Also, don't forget that you can cast Find Familiar with a normal spell slot. If you cast Revivify on your Blender, does he get to make the reaction attack? If so, what a reaction! The hard part is getting the whales into the grave in the first place - those critters are enormous! So uncanny dodge halves the resisted damage? Cool! Your average roll goes to 12.7 for your reliable talent. Not much better than the 10.5 over all, but if you have a high enough base + proficiency bonus, it could be amazing. I can't wait for the Necro/Oathbreaker!
To be cool I would give you the Double blade Scimitar, and then I would throw a bunch of elf at you to take away the weapon. Enjoy your side mission for the campaign 😄
I just don't know how to fit it all in to an hour :). Also, part of me wants to say... take the Wizard Tank episode, the Support Bard episode, and the Yin-Yang epsiode :P. But that would be snarky and I would never say that!
Unfortunately, RAW I don't think the Double Bladed Scimitar would qualify for Dueling (as it specifies that you're wielding the weapon "in one hand"), but GWF could be an interesting option - this character seemed to kind of have some ASI/Feats to spare (that I was bumping my Con with) so I might rather consider taking the Fighting Initiate Feat to pick up that fighting style - it would give us a slight bump to our DPR, for sure.
Is there a way to get a self sufficient Rogue that can reliably use reaction to sneak attack without Haste, Action Surge, Superiority Die, Concentration, or Sentinel?
What do you think about taking the arcane trickster and your own familiar on the rogue so the cleric can take resilient at level one. I think this would especially work out if the blender starts taking levels in rogue earlier. Also i would consider using hold person especially if the enemy has a low wisdom safe so the rogue can crit on some attacks and double all these sneak attack dice :)
Definitely viable options - for me, I wanted my Cleric to have Booming or Green Flame Blade anyway, so it didn't feel like I was sacrificing much to have *them* get the familiar. Also, one downside of going Arcane Trickster is, if I'm sticking with Barbarian to 3, I can't cast or concentrate on spells while raging, so a *lot* of what I could otherwise get out of the Trickster doesn't jive really well with Barbarian (unless you're primarily looking for out of combat spells, etc.)
What's the most damage you can deal in one turn at each level? And which build has the highest damage on average over certain periods of their lifespan?
I believe a human variant/custom lineage that takes great weapon master might take the level 1 damage output. Using an action and a bonus action to ensure two attacks with a greatsword/maul with greatweapon master at level one is pretty crazy. Potential for (2d6+13)x2 Edit: I’m super dense and didn’t realize you were probably talking about the video...
If you push someone off of a cliff, full height and max rolls, then the most at level one is 120. Your question's wording is basically pointless, but if you want max average damage for characters i recommend going to rpg.stackexchange and searching for 5e there. There are too many variables and niche things to list 20 levels worth of builds in a YT comment.
The only way I'm going to be able to play all of these... will be to DM and use them as NPCs. Switch the Blender to your tank rogue, add in the Evoker build, and send the trio out as a Charlie's Angels team of muscle for a big bad. Sister of Order (Cleric), Sister of Sacrifice (Rogue), Sister of Cleansing Fire (Evoker). Because you know who DOESN'T have to be balanced to make it through multiple combats per day? The bad guys... When my players send me hate mail, I'll forward it to you ;)
For rp the blender could be a a psychotic serial killer and the cleric is a cleric of a deity like bane who found the blender to teach him how to focus his rage and give his violence purpose
Holy weapon is impressive in this team much as I don't like many of the order cleric abilities beyond the level 1 slot it does seem to be what you want to use your concentration on at higher levels in this team. You might also consider cleric 1 bard X variants where you use magical secrets to get (among others) holy weapon and eldritch blast. You can get 20 charisma and the eldritch feat to pick up agonizing blast once you've learnt eldritch blast. That lets you do 42 average damage on hit instead of the 31 average damage on hit the cleric does while providing similar support. Downside is you get holy weapon at bard 10 which is 2 levels behind when pure clerics get it. But you can make the cleric character into a good healer/DPS/face this way so depending on what the party needs it could be worth it. Depends a lot what levels you want the combination to be most effective at. You get a last magical secrets at bard 18 that you can use to flesh out whatever high level magics the party is missing. But that high level lore bard can do a lot of things the cleric can't, while still being a similar battery with healing word (at +5 since charisma is your primary stat for both spells and damage). If you need a utility caster in a pinch you have one as you have maxed your save DC. You even have the powerful option of combining amulet of the devout and rhythm makers drum to stack save DC's and spell attack roll bonuses from multiple magic items which basically breaks bounded accuracy in much the same way as stacking a magical weapon with magical ammunition does (but this way doesn't use consumables!).
I tried to capture the actual choices below. I missed a lot of the attributes, perhaps more attentive people can fill in the gaps: Idea: Sneak attack triggers "once per turn", make that once on blenders turn and once per Batteries turn (word of authority reaction attack). Batteries familiar gives advantage on this. Battery: Variant Human, Cleric Attr: I missed that... Equipment: Shield Feat: Magic Initiate (Wizard: Find Familiar, Booming Blade, X) Domain: Order (Word of Authority) CLvl 4 ASI: +1 STR, +1 CON CLvl 8 ASI: I missed that... CLvl 12 ASI: +2 STR (Fighting style intercept/Wisdom bumb/war caster) Clvl 16 +2 STR ->20 (or some feat) Spells: SLvl 1: Bless, Healing Word SLvl 2: Aid, Warding Bond SLvl 3: Beacon of Hope, Mass healing word, revivify SLvl 4: Death ward, Freedom of Movement SLvl 5: Holy weapon SLvl 6: Heal Slvl 7: have fun Blender: Custom Origin (Elf), Barbarian 1-5, Rogue 6- Attr: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, ... Equipment: Double-bladed Scimitar Feat: Revenant Blade CLvl 3: Primal path: Zealot CLvl 4: ASI +2 Str -> 20 (I guess, but actually missed it) CLvl 8: (Rogue 3) Phantom CLvl 9: (Rogue 4) ASI: Tough Feat Clvl 13 (Rogue 8) +2 CON ->16 Clvl 15 (Rogue 10) +2 CON ->18 Clvl 17 (Rogue 10) +2 CON ->20
First thing, Love the team up videos. Could you make a playlist? When I first saw order cleric my thought was I would play this ASAP if there is a rogue. A few notes: 1) For RP as battery i would play almost as a summoner, the blender is my minion and his spot light is there because I want a meat shield. 2) In first round of combat blender burns bonus for rage. 3) not of big importance but as rogue subclass for sustainable damage I would reccomend swashbuckler. The Swashbuckler gets access to SA damage more reliabiliy than any other class and this should be factored for when A) you don't want ro burn rage (IE a minor encounter to not burn resources) B) for all the times the familiar got caught in an AOE and is dead to have SA more frequently on the reaction attack.
Sorry I'm late to the party 😅 Just a quick note on the combination of resistance and the interception fighting style: resistance gets applied after the reduction from interception. So for example if the Blender gets hit for 20dmg and you roll a 6 on interception, it gets reduced to 14dmg. Resistance reduces it to 7dmg. Without interception, it would have been 10dmg. So the effect of interception gets halved, not doubled in this case. Because of this interaction you would probably be better off taking the protection fighting style for this combination to impose disadvantage and thus balancing out the advantage the enemy gets because of reckless attack. Still a great build, as always, I would love to try it out on a one-shot as the battery 😁
Small point about Interception damage reduction and resistances. [Jeremy Crawford](mobile.twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/832047490404798464?lang=en) says damage reduction is applied first, then resistance. In that case Interception will be effectively 5 (being the difference to total net damage taken) not 10 or 20.
You should consider a ranged smite build - something to help out Arcane Archer, or show it up! There are a few tried and true formulas by now, but I don’t know if it’s been re-examined with the latest material.
On the discussion of Spiritual Weapon: I generally agree about the assertion that spending spell slots on Voice of Authority is better, but if you ever go into a fight with very few spell slots, spending one 2nd level spell slot allows you bonus action attacks throughout the fight at the cost of only that one slot, compared to spending a spell slot every round to get the blender to attack. I really like this combo! I play a zealot with a double-bladed scimitar myself, and when you tack on as much damage onto every attack as a barbarian can, the lack of that d4 on the third attack compared to the main attacks starts looking really insignificant. It also gives you one more chance at the precious Divine Fury damage.
As a martial artist who has trained in tai chi and eskrima, I would consider myself roughly equivalent to a first level player character in terms of weapon proficiency, and I can tell you that the double bladed scimitar is tactically inferior to almost any other choice you would reasonably make for real world combat. BUT it is super fun to play with and I am deeply pleased that you found a way to make it numerically superior in this fantasy setting.
Divine intervention story: My player's Cleric who had Just gotten the ability (first try) successfully teleported their father out of an anti-magic prison cage a hundred or so miles away. (It was probably on the generous side for me to allow but it was Divine Intervention after all). - there were some mitigating factors but still. also I know I'm late to the party but I hope the story entertains
I've had the request a couple of times - the problem for me is time :). It wouldn't be too difficult to make, say, a level 20 character sheet, but I also am not sure how useful that would be, and would instead think it better to create one at, say, every level, or at least at 6, 9, 13, and 17. As soon as I quit my day job or can afford to hire someone... :)
We love you too, Colby! Quick Note: In Spanish, we don’t use the pronoun “les” unless you are in certain part of Spain that utilizes it as a form of referring to an indirect object. The RAE (the organization that makes the Spanish dictionary) states that the correct form of the pronoun would be “los” (in other words, “Los amo mucho”).
all of the above is correct but also there is a increase of spanish speakers who are beginning to incorporate more gender neutral pronouns such as les or even lxs (pronounced les) so that’s also ok!
Somebody probably already said this but you can't hold you action to move and take the help action, only one or the other. So the familiar would not be able to use it's reaction to move and take the help action. Unless your DM has mercy on you and house rules otherwise.
As soon as I can find more time. The biggest problem is: I don’t know that having a level 17 or 20 character sheet would be particularly useful, because it doesn’t demonstrate what you did at each level to get there... so now I’m probably needing to create a sheet at, what, 6, 9, 13, and 17 at least? That makes me sad ;)
@@DnDDeepDive that's fair. I was thinking of just including a note of "barbarian 5, rogue5, barbarian 2, rogue 8" would be enough but that's definitely idealizing it as things can change retroactively (especially with Tasha's) Thanks regardless!
Love the team up builds! especially this one with a STR rogue (what?! hehe) and the Order cleric - never seen those in action. Awesome work :D John Stockton with the assist and Karl Malone with the monster slam!
The fact that these 2 characters can deal 165 damage in a round is nuts. But not for this team but for the Bladesinger 2.0. Because that class by itself can do 165 DPR. Granted it was a lower AC but that is still nuts and shows how excellent the Bladesinger is.
You ever look into builds that optimize the rogues use of sneak attacks for more than twice in a round? There are a few features in the game that allow for reaction attacks to me made that synergize well with rogues, but a few also combine well with specific rogue subclass features. Haste on a rogue allows the rogue to use their “regular” action to take the ready action, leaving their “haste” action to attack with a weapon, possibly letting the bonus action be used for two weapon fighting if that attack misses for another chance at sneak on that turn. The rogues turn ends, and they use their reaction to make another attack when the readied action trigger happens. The scimitar of speed is a +2 scimitar that allows for a bonus action weapon attack that doesn’t rely on any other features, and so it’s like a slightly less effective but always on haste spell in regard to the above haste description. The order domain feature your taking advantage of in this video is another great way to do this with another players help. There’s also builds utilizing the sentinel feat, mage slayer, and possibly warcaster if an ally casts a spell like dissonant whispers for force opportunity attacks. The 17th level scout feature sudden strike and the 17th level thief feature give even more opportunities for sneak attack with deviations. Scout would allow for 3 somewhat reliable chances for sneak attack a round using some of the tactics above, with a possible 4 sneak attacks on the first round if the scout loses initiative to a creature but somehow also gets an opportunity attack or reaction attack on that creatures turn against that creature. Scouts turn happens, potential two sneak attacks so long as they are against different creatures, and then another possible reaction attack on the immediate next turn since the rogue got their reaction back. Similar story with the thief, except it’s limited to the first round of combat. The difference is that though the thief can only go nova on the first round, they can potentially get 5 sneak attacks on that first round since it actually gets an entirely different but extra turn on the first round of combat. There are probably more features, but that’s all I can remember from the last time I looked into it.
Just to let ya know, you can only use opportunity attacks once per round. All the feats you are talking about use your reaction. I think at most you can get is 3 with either scout or thief.
@@dachoken6308 It’s not just about opportunity attacks or reaction attacks. The reason thief subclass potentially gets a higher number of sneak attacks on the first round is that its 17 level ability gives it an entire additional turn on the first round of every combat. This gives the benefits of an additional action and a refreshed reaction. ***HIGHLY UNLIKELY*** Thief first turn maximum •Initiative rolled, thief rolls but loses to a creature, but also beats several others. •creature that won initiative takes turn, potentially provoking an attack of opportunity or reaction attack from thief •thief’s first turn happens, thief has action, bonus action, and a refreshed reaction. Thief makes use of features to grant ready action or relies on reaction feat to set up next reaction attack. Makes one attack on their turn using action or bonus action depending on strategy and features available through buffs or magic items. Thief’s turn ends. •another creatures turn begins, thief makes use of reaction attack if trigger happens. That creatures turn ends. • -10 initiative later the thief gets second turn in first round of combat, makes use of same tactic as before. Makes use of features, buffs, or magic item to make a single attack on this turn. Sets up for the third and final reaction possible on the next creatures turns, still all technically on the first round of combat. 5 chances of sneak attack. ***HIGHLY UNLIKELY*** The reason the scout class gets higher number chances of sneak attack is its 17th level feature that allows an additional sneak attack on their turn so long as the second one granted by that feature is against a different creature.
@@binolombardi Hmm I definitely see what you are saying. As far as that being sustained, I still really only see maybe 4 outside of first round. That would be with scout, haste and a opportunity attack. And this is if your dm is nice. According the the PHB readying a turn takes the reaction economy. It seems that likely 3, maybe under good circumstances 4, is the max rules as written that you can get sustainably. However that first thief could get 5 within rules as written as it would basically go: reaction, action, reaction, action, reaction. Assuming ideal circumstances
@@dachoken6308 yea it’s incredibly rules intensive and was honestly difficult for me to plot out without bullets. Interestingly enough even with all of that resource investment and getting the luckiest set of circumstances to proc all those reaction attacks, the thief’s maximum damage potential on the first round with those 5 attacks is roughly 151 damage or 209 damage with constant advantage. Since it’s a single turn that is unreliable to unfold the way it needs to, it’s barely even a nova. There are quite a few builds that equal or even beat that damage output for nova comparisons under much easier circumstances. The scout can potentially pump out about 90-125 damage a round depending on advantage with the 3 sneak attacks. This is much more reliable, easier to pull off, and can be used every round of combat. Seems like sustained damage depending on how you wanna define that.
So... not sure if this has been suggested... but have the battery take fey touched instead of magic initiate. As your 1st level spell take Silvery Barbs (I know.. I know..) But what this does is let you target the blender with a spell WITH YOUR REACTION. This is amazing because now the battery can give two party members bonus attacks per round (granted you'll run out of spell pretty quickly).
@@DnDDeepDive I actually have a druid I'm playing that dipped one level of order domain, when I turn a party member into a t Rex they can reaction bite attack when I cast polymorph! Its so much fun!
OK, so I am back with one more post... Just wanted to say how much these vids have inspired me. I have one friend has just started playing Blender--and another playing Bladesinger 2.0. And instead of going Battery, I'm going Aberrant Mind Sorc partly somewhat inspired by your Yin and Yang to go Sorc for double haste--with the BladeSinger getting the second haste. Meanwhile, I'll be tossing so much Dissonant Whispers from the new sorc subclass (at level 6, the Psionic Sorcery will allow me converted high level slots to points back to low level spells at a 1:1 ratio)--which on failed saves should allow both companions, who already are doing good dmg with haste to get that Opportunity Attacks (including sneak attack on the Blender). I think this is as good as if not better than the Battery VOA. Anyway, I look forward to your future content :).
@@DnDDeepDive Really? Nice to know! Me and a friend are trying to figure out the best path. I will be the halfling and will probably take a couple of hexblade levels, but mostly ancient paladin. He suggested Wolf barb + Cavalier for his centaur.
Alternate team name suggestion: Assault and Battery
Where were you yesterday!!?? 😂😂
@@DnDDeepDive double alternate: thoughts and prayers
@@DesignatedHealer thugs and prayers
@@DesignatedHealer ha ha
And here I thought it was Order and Chaos... one being a former judge the other a criminal, and where did they meet, in Court...lol
double-bladed scimitar's 2d4 damage has another quirk, beyond it having a higher average than a d8. because its two dice, the roll distribution is concentrated towards the middle-most rolls. to get a 5 on a 2d4 (which is 2d4's average value), you can roll 1&4, 2&3, 3&2, or 4&1. whereas for a 6 on a 2d4, you can roll 2&4, 3&3, or 4&2. normally with single dice rolls all possible rolls are equal probability, but the more dice you add the more the probability is pooled towards the average value. its up to you to decide if having consistently okay rolls is a blessing or bane
Surely the chance to get maximum is the same and chance to roll a 1 is 0 for 2 die means that it's not only alot more consistently getting middle rolls but more likely get higher to mid rolls and same chance to get highest rolls therefore just better in every way. As has been said the average is higher and that does consider highest and lowest and all other chances inbetween.
I love to have a familiar as a cleric cuz you can cast cure wounds through the familiar as long as it’s with 100ft of you, essentially making cure wounds a ranged healing spell.
We are using the Rogue + Order-Domain combo in a OneOnOne I'm running with my Girlfriend. The "Battery" is a DM-PC I am running (both for Roleplay and to scale encounters) and works perfect for this, as I can help her deal massive damage without hugging the spotlight. She plays a Swashbuckler+Crossbow-Expert Build that makes trivial to get sneak attacks even without advantage.
OMG...I'm only 4 minutes in but I'm loving the concept of maximizing teams instead of just individual characters. This is taking it to a whole new level!
Can you make your ultimate all rounder? Decent damage, skills etc. A one person party if you will
Will put it on the list!
Thats a war cleric!
@@thor498 don’t have enough skills for my liking
A bard is a true all rounder, otherwise the cheat code for doing everything with one pc are minion mancers that can ne made via enchanmnts, summoning or rising undead.
The Battery & the Blender - D&D: Optimized #26
Level 01:(see above) [barbarian 1 & race (ignore: custom lineage mention) + cleric 1, subclass & race]
Level 02:(see above) [barbarian 2 + cleric 2]
Level 03:(@28:08) [barbarian 3 + cleric 3]
Level 04:(@34:26) [barbarian 4 & ASI + cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 05:(@37:37) [barbarian 5 + cleric 5]
Level 06:(@42:02) [rogue 1 + cleric 6]
Level 07:(see above) [rogue 2 + cleric 7]
Level 08:(@52:05) [rogue 3 & subclass + cleric 8 & ASI]
Level 09:(@56:15) [rogue 4 & ASI + cleric 9]
Level 10:(see above) [rogue 5 + cleric 10]
Level 11:(@1:06:36) [rogue 6 + cleric 11]
Level 12:(@1:08:07) [rogue 7 + cleric 12 & ASI]
Level 13:(@1:12:00) [rogue 8 & ASI + cleric 13]
Level 14:(see above) [rogue 9 + cleric 14]
Level 15:(@1:14:50) [rogue 10 & ASI + cleric 15]
Level 16:(@1:15:23) [rogue 11 + cleric 16 & ASI]
Level 17:(@1:16:31) [rogue 12 & ASI + cleric 17]
Watching this video, I'm starting to understand the outcry for an ASMR xD
ha ha!
My gf suggested smthing similar after hearing this voice... After finding me having fallen asleep to it. X)
@@peterruesler258 ha ha!
Love rogues they are such an awesome class! Glad to see another combo.
I know this is an old video, so someone probably already pointed it out, but your familiar can’t ready both a move and an action on the same turn, which means at a RAW table you might be better off with something like Swashbuckler to increase the chance of getting that second Sneak Attack.
Perhaps you should use the Community Polling Glitch to get promoted by RUclips and grow the channel.
I made this comment on another build but you could use the haste spell to accomplish the 2 sneak attacks. So you could make any haste casting class w/ rouge party combo with the same trick. But I like the battery idea with the order cleric.
I believe haste gives you an extra action on your turn that may be used for one singular attack. I dont see how that would give you an extra instance of sneak attack. Please correct me if I am wrong.
@@andycates7923 you would use the action from haste/ bonus attack to make you 1st sneak attack and then use your regular action for the Ready your action for the 2nd sneak attack after your turn is over.
@@davidjohnson4657 gotcha! Thanks for explaining that to me.
Btw. Ready action does not let the familiar move and do the help action at the same time. So that makes it way more dangerous to go that route. My DM for example let's the help action effect the next person attacking the target and I think that is the most reasonable solution to be fair. But I'm not going to park my familiar over the target to fulfill the requirement for the help action then. Its just too vulnerable 😬
As per your request for ideas for when you reach 5000 Subs
I would really love to see some of these builds In action.
Perhaps some sort of gladiator style showdown?
As you are always careful to point out Oh, there is no way to just mechanically battle entirely detach from role-playing. So what if you created some sort of scenario Where buy some sort of god king or alien pitts various creatures against one another in varying sceanarios that can be customized. Both in terrain and circumstance. In ways just so happen to correlate to some crunchy questions such as Nova Damage or 2 person teams etc.
Though id love to see the actual gameplay, you could also just show spreadsheet breakdowns...
This would allow for multiple trial runs of build and sceanarios and could really flesh out somethings that might be hard to anticipate in character creation.
Great idea!
Anyone else try wiping the dot off of their screen and then realize it's just a lonely nail on the wall? Just me? Cool.... great combo, Colby!
Quick note about Ready an help action with your familiar. RAW, you are not able to move as part of your reaction so your Owl cannot swoop in to do help action and escape. Like you say, it could be house rule pretty easilly like your DM does but RAW the familiar must stay within 5ft. to be able to do that.
good point!
This doesn't even need a house rule. The help action doesn't require the helper to stay within 5 feet after the action. Swoop in, help, gtfo.
@@Samuel_Kabel You could do this but only the next attack against the target will be with advantage. So depending initiative order, it's not necessary the right character that will get advantage.
@@Nyarlathoteps1 Ah you're right. I was considering these characters in a vacuum.
This is correct. What you could do, however, is at least use the familiar to grant sneak attack by having it hold its action to move into proximity, although not using the help action. The Rogue/barb wouldn't get advantage but would get sneak attack thanks to the proximity of the owl. So on the 'owl's turn' they say "I'm (meaning the owl) going to hold my action for when I see the cleric cast a spell on the rogue/barb, to move in a loop around the baddies head and then fly away". So, cleric casts spell on rogue/barb, that triggers the owl's held action which then uses its reaction to swoop in and stay in range just long enough to allow the rogue/barb to attack using their reaction, and then flies away (assuming they have enough movement to do so). This all feels very game-y though and is one of the reasons I don't value find familiar as much as a lot of people seem to (it's great for a lot of things, just not continually granting advantage). At our tables, this kind of thing seems unrealistic and hard to justify from any perspective other than just min-maxing. I'm not saying you couldn't have your familiar use its action to take the help action to grant you advantage, I'm just saying if you tried that at our table that owl is going to die real quick, since if its taking the help action, its staying in melee range with something that's going to get pissed off and lash out at it.
Don't forget you can cast touch spells through your familiar so being worried about touch spells is moot. Using Holy Weapon on the blender's weapon with your familiar is allowed therefore giving him the bonus damage and extra attack.
But I think for the extra attack the spell needs to target the blender... not their weapon....
@@DnDDeepDive I suppose it could be argued the spell is being cast to benefit the blender. Especially if he has to attune to it. Every GM I've run with in 20 + years would allow it in my experience.
Still my main point is the familiar can be used to cast touch spells on the blender without being right next to him or in touch range.
Have you considered a similar idea but using Path to the Grave from the Grave Cleric and Poison Strike from the Treachery Paladin, the effect makes them vulnerable so it bypasses any resistance or immunity to poison the target might usually have which is the main downside of Poison Strike, they can then smite for even more doubled damage. So far me and my friend have killed used it to kill Raz Nsi on the first turn in ToA.
nice!
Enjoyed that :) Took me a few sittings to go through it ;) If the party did have another rogue the blender could have taken athletics expertise which would be great for grapples/shoves with high strength and reliable talent... maybe for the tank rogue ;)
Smart adaption, I like that.
Would there be any value in the cleric taking a few levels in rogue to get mastermind, allowing them to give the barogue advantage on attacks within a certain range?
If you want to, sure! The problems for me are: 1-delaying the Cleric levels/spells, and 2-the Blender *should* already be getting advantage every round. Maybe if you wanted to skip the Barbarian levels or were low on health and didn't want to risk giving your enemies advantage it'd be worth considering...
I'll be playing the "battery" portion of this team-up in OotA, adding a bunch of abberant mind sorcerer levels -- à la TreantMonk's "Do it All" mage. Can't wait!
So I am playing Stergar, a Barbarian(14) and rogue(6), just hit level 20. Zealot barbarian, assassin rogue. Took bugbear and uses a whip. 15ft reach, highly mobile (movement 50 by mid game with cunning action), expertise on 4 skills (right at the end, 2 for most of the campaign). Just heaps damage and laughs as the enemy tries to harm him (rage with uncanny dodge). Especially at the end with persistent rage (lvl16) and rage beyond death nicely topping up the character at level 19. My level 20 wasn't that fantastic, took the final level in rogue to get 2 more expertise. Persistent rage is arguably better but expertise I thought was cooler. Had expertise in stealth and perception through most of the game. Expertise in religion and athletics topped off at level 20. The combination along with adamantine breastplate made for a super fun character. Really get to be reckless af. Soon we take on TIAMAT!! She's going down!!! Lol
I am slow watching this and I tried to look through the comments and didn't see this addressed. Two things to help with the weakness of reckless attack:
First, you don't need advantage to use your sneak attack if an ally is attacking it and it seems you have the cleric in melee so if he is on the same target as the blender you don't need to be reckless to sneak.
Second, I would go swashbuckler instead of phantom, or maybe inquisitive. Especially if you don't have your battery next to you all the time. Swash gives you a sneak attack if you take creatures on one on one and gives you mini mobility to move away from them. Inquis let's you study them as a bonus action and get sneak on them without advantage for 1 min. if you succeed an insight check against them.
I think Swashbucker fits the spirit of the character better with fearless charging into battle full of bravado and panache but inquisitive removes removes scenario concerns if fighting hoards.
And if he went Inquisitive the story could be an Order Domain Cleric working in court with a gruntled old undercover detective friend which dug up dirt on the organized criminal orginizations around the land
This is great 👍 you have fun mechanical roles with good out put, and a order cleric would probably be ok with a zealot of a god of natural death, cause natural death is part of an orderly world.
I'm hoping to see an Ultimate Archer build from this channel in the near future. I enjoy your videos and appreciate that you aren't afraid to multi-class to achieve an optimum build.
Thanks - glad you're enjoying! I think the Ranged Fighter and the Bard Locker episodes might be a good place to start if you haven't seen them yet...
@@DnDDeepDive I Have watched them and enjoyed them both. I briefly responded on your Ranged fighter video in the comments. Personally I'm not a fan of the Valor Bard as an Archer, due to the lack of personal or weapon buffing spells on its list. The Rune Knight because of the Nerf is no longer a preferred choice of mine either honestly
You can't even roll enough to buy a double-bladed scimitar since barbarians only get 2d4 x 10 gold so at most you would get 80gp
In order to get mine I took the Inheritor with the Feature: Inheritance as my Background. It was great for backstory as well.
15 AC at level one with your blender build. +2 con +2 dex and +1 from your revenant blade feat when wielding that weapon.
Truth! Thanks for the catch :)
I really like your vids, especially the duo options. Love this one. My barb friend is ready to go this weekend. I am debating full Order Cleric vs Divine Soul Sorc x/Order Cleric 1. Twinned Haste on the Blender and our Bladesinger wielding Shadow Blade. I'm just not sure what I'd be doing as my main action (Toll the Dead?)---and if the tradeoff is worth it (e.g. can't twin Holy Weapon later on). Advice welcome on that! The best I can come up with is to also go 1 Hexblade for Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast Invocation from the Eldritch Adept Feat--but that may be overkill, and I'm not sure I want to MC into 3 classes. Will probably just go Cleric, but I still like looking at the options. Keep the vids coming!
Thanks, glad you're enjoying! I love the twinned spell idea... re: Holy Weapon - it's true that not being able to twin it is a bummer, but getting Haste on two targets would be more powerful than Holy Weapon on one I think - depending on how hard the two targets hit with their extra attack, of course. As for your action - I like the Eldritch Blast idea if you can stomach the multiclassing. If not, and you're committed to casting vs. melee, I think Toll the Dead is your best bet. Have fun!
@@DnDDeepDive Thanks for the feedback. I'm not committed to casting per se,. For a Divine Soul Sorc, I suppose I could also do Booming Blade dmg with a 1 hander (with no Divine Strike), but I think the dmg without Divine Strike would put it more or less on par with Toll---and there would be higher risk of losing concentration, which would not be great for by 2 hasted buddies. :) Thanks again.
@@warlockiii Quite a bit late, but if you've Twinned Haste there's several great follow up actions at your disposal. Disengage, Hide behind cover, Dash away to cover, or just Dodge if there's no cover. Your main job at that point is to maintain concentration. Your check may high enough, but you're not the ideal target for attrition either. So the second job is to avoid being hurt/targeted at all. Two beefy bois just got 2 extra AC. Concentration also breaks if your hp bottoms out.
I might take mobile on the cleric. Being able to get out of dodge at the cost of potentially no actions you wouldn't otherwise takes could be useful. As always, this is a feat starved build.
The Cleric here is actually not starved for feats. Most ASIs just pumped its Str for higher DPR, but the Battery's accuracy is primarily what we care about. Resilient Con or War Caster arguably should be taken asap, but you do have good AC and decent Con. Mobile helps with concentration too by getting you in and out of the fray. Find Familiar realistically might not line up with your Blender's reaction attack. It's also a sitting duck with the Held Help action. Use it for your Booming Blade instead. Bless and maximized Str should keep the Barbogue quite accurate even without Reckless during reaction attacks. Your BB can land quite reliably with the familiar's Help and/or Bless. Mobile allows to actually milk the secondary damage at times. That'll almost never happen if your feet are planted.
There will be times where you probably still want to be up front with your Blender to help share the load of attacks since Reckless does take its toll. Along with enabling reaction Sneak Attacks. You also can't expect BB's secondary damage if you're up on the same target. So there will times to decide on when to dart in and out or back up. Now you're also juicing the blender's sustainability with a semi-shared health pool. Both of you can disengage without using your action too. Sounds like great synergy to me. Another option here as a half Str feat is to take Crusher and try to achieve the same thing. Works even if you and the partner moved up on the enemy provided you've gone after the Blender. May be more painful if you miss at times or against Huge+ creatures which you wouldn't be able to push. Might work better if a third melee PC ally is in the mix too.
These factors also lend itself to another really high damage Barbarian Fighter alternative instead of Rogue. Taking GWM and PAM instead of Sneak Attacking. The damage I think for most levels can be a lot higher that way. Rogue may eventually overtake it, or it's similar enough. Allows for potentially staying at reach with a Glaive/Halberd to play with Reckless a little more tactically.
For 5k or 10k Subscribers, maybe, do a crazy, party build. 4 characters who work in perfected tandem for only damage. (Are we looking at a squadron of Pamlocks?)
Ha ha - surely the only thing better than 2 Pamlocks is 4! :) Ok I'll give this one some thought... I'm so hesitant to do a 4 character build because it would be like a 3 hour episode! ha ha. And a lot of potential research... but it would be fun :).
@@DnDDeepDive yeah I thought about that, so maybe huge mile-markers depending on how well the channel does. I personally love the content.
@@dachoken6308 Thanks!
What a better way to celebrate 5K subs than with a 5 member party build I say!
I like the blender build a lot. I think the battery is better as a Order Cleric 1 Hexblade Warlock 1 Lore Bard X. This build would have primary stats of Cha, Con, Wis and dump Str, Dex,Int. It would wear heavy armor with the movement penalty. At low levels it tries to melee with green flame blade and booming blade + hexblade using charisma to attack. If you play in a game with flanking you might want to take elven accuracy as your character creation feat on a custom lineage. Otherwise you take Fey Touched for Misty Step + Hex. For your 2 warlock spells you take shield and armor of agathys. At level 6 (lore bard 4) you get 20 charisma. At level 8 you get eldritch blast from magical secrets (Lore bard 6) along with counterspell. At level 10 you take Eldritch Adept for Agonizing Blast (which works because of your 1 warlock level). At level 14 (bard 12) you take res(CON) raising CON to 16. Your bard 10 magical secrets gets you holy weapon at level 12 which becomes your main concentration spell. You end up a few levels behind at getting most things but you do more damage at range and have more flexibility than the pure cleric. If you end up in melee you do less damage, unless you get something like gunner at level 18 to keep eldritch blasting instead. If your party really needs Mass Heal you can get it at level 20 instead of level 17, but there are a lot of good bard spells you have access to as well, and you've probably picked up something like Simulacrum or other powerful wizard spells from your spare slots in magical secrets. (This build doesn't have a firm choice for the 2nd bard 10 magical secrets, and the remaining 4 magical secrets slots which vary based on taste). A 20 Charisma, 14 Wisdom character with expertise slots makes an excellent party face (Expertise in Persuasion and Insight most likely if you want to do this) and your character offers a lot of damage plus utility healing in combat as well. Outside of combat they have all the bard tools (Invisibility, Suggestion, Identify, Detect Magic, Counterspell, etc. and they can buff allies ability checks since they aren't likely to use many bardic inspiration dice in combat). The 1 warlock slot synergies nicely with the build if you typically have a day of 2 short and 1 long rest, it converts a warlock level into 3 spell slots for healing word. If you're without your typical ally (say they miss a session) you're still a hex + eldritch blast character.
If you don't like the melee cantrips ritual caster could be a fun alternative but is a net loss in the terms of dps
The fact that you just had a burst in is kinda hilarious, are those guys from work? Did you used to film these at work?
I love this. I literally only think about characters in a team dynamic as the American solo yolo style of thinking is never applicable to dnd 😉🤭.
So that makes some things shift in the hierarchy of what's good and useful.
Right now we are planing a game with a Bladesinger, Lore Bard (1 lvl dip Hexblade) and a Twilight Cleric (2 lvl dip War Mage) for example. Everyone fights well, have great defense and and amazing utility. So much fun when the pantheon of options and synergies gets explored instead of the usual "This is the most damage you can do at this level if in a vacuum".
I would suggest you do a Bladesinger & Lore Bard (1 level hexblade) duo. I think that's the most amazing one from all aspects. Offense, defense, utility, fluff and such (Traveling band? Musketeers? Soo guud 😄)
@@Viryn will put it on the list!
@@DnDDeepDive Dont forget to take into account the sheer amount of utility this duo has. It's literally the best duo for all situations I think. Both get booming blade, shield absorb elements, counterspell, reverse gravity/prismatic wall and all the skills and utility one can wish for.
Any ideas on an optimized build for an unarmed/path of the beast barbarian? Loving the theory crafting and in depth commentary from you, Colby!
Thanks! And yes! In fact, I'm kind of forcing myself to wait another week or two to do that (though it's probably at the top of my "want to do" list) because I've been so "'sustained damage build" focused lately; but you shouldn't have to wait very long ;).
@@DnDDeepDive a barbarian build similar to the one introduced in this build may be pretty effective. Making use of the claw feature and the revenant blade set up would mean the barbarian can take 4 attacks a round at level 5 from round 2 and onward.
I think a Swashbuckler would make a better rogue for this build. Everything swashbuckler gets screams to be in this build. Fancy Footwork lets you move without provoking AoO form enemies you've attacked. Rakish Audacity adds your Charisma mod to Initiative, AND allows you to use sneak attack without advantage in 1v1 situations! So you wouldn't NEED reckless OR familiar. Panache is a GREAT tank ability, especially if you have decent Charisma for your Rakish Audacity feature. Panache combined with Rage, Uncanny Dodge, Evasion AND a pocket healer make this character a totally viable tank.
Let’s go 💪🏻
Loving it so far! Just wanted to mention that creature must be within 5ft; so you cant flyby help action fly away. That's what makes Mastermind Rogues juicy. However it just looks like this is an additional way to get advantage and not based around it so still good to go really
you don't need to stay within range. the attack (or ability check) just needs to happen before the start of the helper's next turn.
@@Samuel_Kabel that's interesting because I've had it ruled like in my example at 2 different AL tables; to my knowledge AL is RAW. Is there a sage advice on this to your knowledge?
Honestly it would have taken like 10 seconds to look for it yourself. For some reason i can't post links, so here's the name: Sage Advice - When using the Help Action, do you need to remain within 5′ of the target?
@@Samuel_Kabel I did just look it up, but thanks
That double bladed scimitar is my favorite, I have a rogue/ battlemaster and it is a lot of fun
I'm in the pro long-form video camp.
Thanks! Because... I just don't know if I can actually get myself to go quick/punchy/only the basics/highly edited format :). I must listen to too many podcasts... >.>
Well you pretty much hit my barbarian/rogue tank on the head, just gnome (Yuan ti probably better, but my group doesn't allow it) , whip and sentinel for more control. Finally got around to watching this one :) Very nicely done, definitely multiclassing 1 order cleric for my next super support build, I just think that divine soul sorcerer is just too strong for support.
Their is other sources of reaction for the rogue other then law cleric:
- commander strike d'un battle master
- Sentinel feat (even a mirror image/sentinel combo, where soem people say that if the enemy attack one of the mirror image he attacked an allie 5ft from you so you would technicaly get a reaction?)
- Haste, attack normaly with hasted action, then with your regular action, ready an attack for next "turn"
- Good old attack of opportunity (easy to trigger with disonant whisper)
But I till don't undertand why barbarian.
Go fighter (dex) you still get your extra attack battlemaster give you an extra 1d6 damage (better then +2 from rage) if you want advantage, you can use trip attack to put the target prone and get advantage on your attack (and give advantage to your melee friends) etc...
Or go Ranger (dex/wis), with hunter mark and collosus slayer and also give you extra attack if you want that one massive hit per turn to abuse your reaction.
As for easy advantage, sure reckless is the easy solution, but when it force you to go MAD and be a bad rogue... but their is a thousand way to get advantage in 5e. Prone target give easy advantage to melee fighter, maybe the cleric if he's going to be a "physical" combatant, could use his action to push the target prone. Maybe an other player can cast faery fire? maybe the law cleric can cast bonus action hold person? (auto critical as a bonus)
Gogn arcane trickster instead fo phantom can also open new posibility (speciallyif you are not a ranger, arcane trickster allow for an other concentration spell.
Colby, I really want your thoughts (and damage calculations) if you were to change the Blender's subclasses to Beast and Soulknife. At level 8, you could claw attack, additional claw attack, psyblade attack, then BA psyblade for 4 attacks total.
5 attacks per round, 2 with SA sounds awesome, but I can't decide if it's worth it. The only thing that you would have to assume is that the DM would let you summon a psyblade for the reaction attack, even though RAW says it's only when you take the action action.
If you add slasher and maybe mobile, there might be potential for a hit-and-run playstyle that could be fun, especially since the psyblades have range to them. Thoughts?
I just saw a video about using the order cleric to magic missile tap your rogue and give them yet another sneak attack, then I remembered your caviler/arcane trickster centaur video..and wondered if this video was like that...regardless... The team dynamic of a lawful good order cleric, a chaotic random arcane trickster, a noble fighter and a charisma caster...or int caster..Colby, what caster would you recommend of your illustrious builds? I'm definitely not building a rival party for my players...
One of the most loved character I had when I was playing the 4th edition of D&D was the Warden. I was trying to recreated that in 5th edition and went with Cleric/Ranger. Could you optimized that class mix. I went Order Cleric/Gloom Stacker (Githzerai). No need to follow those subclass or race.
Will add to the list!
I loved the Warden too! I've been trying to recreate it in 5E as much as possible. Nice Tanky Druid.
In my 4th game, we were 3 player I had to fill the role of tank and main healer.
Hexbalde barbarian (totem) with a hobgoblin cleric (order)
Barb casts AoA then rages, cleric casts 2nd level warding bond after bonus action help (the temp hp won’t stack with AoA but spitr would negate one advantage attack) giving the barb a reaction attack and improving the effectiveness of AoA
I’d also go mastermind multiclass on cleric just for the limitless bonus action help
On the debate of Cure Wounds/Healing Word, I also prefer Healing Word, but it's nice to remember Cure Wounds can be cast at range through your familiar as well as it has a range of touch, and then you can use a Spiritual Weapon attack as a bonus action. Used this technique a lot as a Cleric. Probably more useful as a Cleric that stays on the backline and not with this build of course! Just a useful little combo though if you have something else to do with your bonus action and still want to heal :)
Truth!
Two build requests, please! Melee Twilight Cleric build (Thinking a gishy type character on a variant half moon elf chassis w booming blade racial cantrip), and a Psi Warrior/Battle Smith multiclass (have built to Psi 7/BS 3, using steel defender as a reaction deflector and 3rd attack/round, devoting uses of protective field both to protecting myself and the steel defender - the concept being a psionic monster hunter combining innate psionic martial skill w psionic artificing)
added to the list!
Can you do a build that maximizes the number of attacks a character can consistently make on a single turn? The most I’ve managed to get for every turn is six (Beat Barb 3/Samurai 15) and seven a couple of times per short rest (Beast Barb3/Samurai 15/Monk 2). I’m wondering if you can find any way to do more? Perhaps a consistent reactionary attack or something else I overlooked. Cavalier 18 does have infinite technically but that is way too situational.
will add it to the list!
I have a friend who loves playing rogues, and I love playing clerics, this is one I might have to recommend.
Question on battery, would ritual caster feat be a viable alternative to magic initiate here?
It would, but you’d be giving up some significant damage by missing booming/green flame blade.
I would love to see someone do a Swords Bard/Hexblade multiclass
will add to the list!
Thank you for your excellent work.
What platform do you make your characters on? Most of my friends use dnd beyond, but I prefer PDF'S and my books. I understand the ease for dnd beyond, but I prefer writing/typing in my characters abilities as it forces me to read and understand my abilities
I've been using dndbeyond for a couple of years now - it's just so easy, I can't help myself :).
MPMB is an awesome PDF option
Dicecloud is great too
Yo, I love you too Coby
I would recommend that the other cantrip the Battery takes from his feat be Chill Touch, while it doesn't do as much damage as Fire Bolt, it keeps the enemy from healing, which could prove more important than any damage he could do (think Trolls).
Did You ever give the stats you chose for the Battery? If you did, I missed it.
I don't like the Warding Bond spell; it gives him half damage even if the Blender resists the damage. That would lead to both of them taking half damage from stuff he could resist anyway. I think I would prefer for the Blender to take Totem Barbarian and get resistance to most anything by himself rather than use this spell.
You realize that you can use your familiar to deliver Cure Wounds, right. Also, don't forget that you can cast Find Familiar with a normal spell slot.
If you cast Revivify on your Blender, does he get to make the reaction attack? If so, what a reaction!
The hard part is getting the whales into the grave in the first place - those critters are enormous!
So uncanny dodge halves the resisted damage? Cool!
Your average roll goes to 12.7 for your reliable talent. Not much better than the 10.5 over all, but if you have a high enough base + proficiency bonus, it could be amazing.
I can't wait for the Necro/Oathbreaker!
To be cool I would give you the Double blade Scimitar, and then I would throw a bunch of elf at you to take away the weapon. Enjoy your side mission for the campaign 😄
Love it!
Any chance you would try to build and optimize the whole 4 man party? Please? :)
I just don't know how to fit it all in to an hour :). Also, part of me wants to say... take the Wizard Tank episode, the Support Bard episode, and the Yin-Yang epsiode :P. But that would be snarky and I would never say that!
can you add 1 level fighter for dueling (+2 to dmg) or GWF since you're actually using a two-handed weapon? Would that be worth it?
Unfortunately, RAW I don't think the Double Bladed Scimitar would qualify for Dueling (as it specifies that you're wielding the weapon "in one hand"), but GWF could be an interesting option - this character seemed to kind of have some ASI/Feats to spare (that I was bumping my Con with) so I might rather consider taking the Fighting Initiate Feat to pick up that fighting style - it would give us a slight bump to our DPR, for sure.
Is there a way to get a self sufficient Rogue that can reliably use reaction to sneak attack without Haste, Action Surge, Superiority Die, Concentration, or Sentinel?
What do you think about taking the arcane trickster and your own familiar on the rogue so the cleric can take resilient at level one. I think this would especially work out if the blender starts taking levels in rogue earlier.
Also i would consider using hold person especially if the enemy has a low wisdom safe so the rogue can crit on some attacks and double all these sneak attack dice :)
Definitely viable options - for me, I wanted my Cleric to have Booming or Green Flame Blade anyway, so it didn't feel like I was sacrificing much to have *them* get the familiar. Also, one downside of going Arcane Trickster is, if I'm sticking with Barbarian to 3, I can't cast or concentrate on spells while raging, so a *lot* of what I could otherwise get out of the Trickster doesn't jive really well with Barbarian (unless you're primarily looking for out of combat spells, etc.)
What's the most damage you can deal in one turn at each level? And which build has the highest damage on average over certain periods of their lifespan?
I believe a human variant/custom lineage that takes great weapon master might take the level 1 damage output.
Using an action and a bonus action to ensure two attacks with a greatsword/maul with greatweapon master at level one is pretty crazy. Potential for (2d6+13)x2
Edit: I’m super dense and didn’t realize you were probably talking about the video...
@@binolombardi I'm talking about theoretical builds, yeah. Not the video.
If you push someone off of a cliff, full height and max rolls, then the most at level one is 120. Your question's wording is basically pointless, but if you want max average damage for characters i recommend going to rpg.stackexchange and searching for 5e there. There are too many variables and niche things to list 20 levels worth of builds in a YT comment.
Awsome video. Would love to see character sheet for your builts in all your builts, maybe using something like dndbeyond
The only way I'm going to be able to play all of these... will be to DM and use them as NPCs. Switch the Blender to your tank rogue, add in the Evoker build, and send the trio out as a Charlie's Angels team of muscle for a big bad. Sister of Order (Cleric), Sister of Sacrifice (Rogue), Sister of Cleansing Fire (Evoker). Because you know who DOESN'T have to be balanced to make it through multiple combats per day? The bad guys... When my players send me hate mail, I'll forward it to you ;)
Ha ha - sorry Tim's players!
For rp the blender could be a a psychotic serial killer and the cleric is a cleric of a deity like bane who found the blender to teach him how to focus his rage and give his violence purpose
love it!
Holy weapon is impressive in this team much as I don't like many of the order cleric abilities beyond the level 1 slot it does seem to be what you want to use your concentration on at higher levels in this team. You might also consider cleric 1 bard X variants where you use magical secrets to get (among others) holy weapon and eldritch blast. You can get 20 charisma and the eldritch feat to pick up agonizing blast once you've learnt eldritch blast. That lets you do 42 average damage on hit instead of the 31 average damage on hit the cleric does while providing similar support. Downside is you get holy weapon at bard 10 which is 2 levels behind when pure clerics get it. But you can make the cleric character into a good healer/DPS/face this way so depending on what the party needs it could be worth it. Depends a lot what levels you want the combination to be most effective at. You get a last magical secrets at bard 18 that you can use to flesh out whatever high level magics the party is missing. But that high level lore bard can do a lot of things the cleric can't, while still being a similar battery with healing word (at +5 since charisma is your primary stat for both spells and damage). If you need a utility caster in a pinch you have one as you have maxed your save DC. You even have the powerful option of combining amulet of the devout and rhythm makers drum to stack save DC's and spell attack roll bonuses from multiple magic items which basically breaks bounded accuracy in much the same way as stacking a magical weapon with magical ammunition does (but this way doesn't use consumables!).
Can’t get agonizing blast on a bard because it has a prerequisite and is thus not available to people who aren’t warlocks
@@ethangarr2138 Thanks for correcting this. Good to know this doesn't work.
Fun note. Revivify should trigger the extra attack 😂
ha! Like being brought back with defibrillators! :)
I tried to capture the actual choices below. I missed a lot of the attributes, perhaps more attentive people can fill in the gaps:
Idea: Sneak attack triggers "once per turn", make that once on blenders turn and
once per Batteries turn (word of authority reaction attack). Batteries familiar gives advantage on this.
Battery:
Variant Human, Cleric
Attr: I missed that...
Equipment: Shield
Feat: Magic Initiate (Wizard: Find Familiar, Booming Blade, X)
Domain: Order (Word of Authority)
CLvl 4 ASI: +1 STR, +1 CON
CLvl 8 ASI: I missed that...
CLvl 12 ASI: +2 STR (Fighting style intercept/Wisdom bumb/war caster)
Clvl 16 +2 STR ->20 (or some feat)
Spells:
SLvl 1: Bless, Healing Word
SLvl 2: Aid, Warding Bond
SLvl 3: Beacon of Hope, Mass healing word, revivify
SLvl 4: Death ward, Freedom of Movement
SLvl 5: Holy weapon
SLvl 6: Heal
Slvl 7: have fun
Blender:
Custom Origin (Elf), Barbarian 1-5, Rogue 6-
Attr: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, ...
Equipment: Double-bladed Scimitar
Feat: Revenant Blade
CLvl 3: Primal path: Zealot
CLvl 4: ASI +2 Str -> 20 (I guess, but actually missed it)
CLvl 8: (Rogue 3) Phantom
CLvl 9: (Rogue 4) ASI: Tough Feat
Clvl 13 (Rogue 8) +2 CON ->16
Clvl 15 (Rogue 10) +2 CON ->18
Clvl 17 (Rogue 10) +2 CON ->20
First thing, Love the team up videos. Could you make a playlist?
When I first saw order cleric my thought was I would play this ASAP if there is a rogue.
A few notes:
1) For RP as battery i would play almost as a summoner, the blender is my minion and his spot light is there because I want a meat shield.
2) In first round of combat blender burns bonus for rage.
3) not of big importance but as rogue subclass for sustainable damage I would reccomend swashbuckler. The Swashbuckler gets access to SA damage more reliabiliy than any other class and this should be factored for when
A) you don't want ro burn rage (IE a minor encounter to not burn resources)
B) for all the times the familiar got caught in an AOE and is dead to have SA more frequently on the reaction attack.
Sorry I'm late to the party 😅
Just a quick note on the combination of resistance and the interception fighting style:
resistance gets applied after the reduction from interception.
So for example if the Blender gets hit for 20dmg and you roll a 6 on interception, it gets reduced to 14dmg. Resistance reduces it to 7dmg.
Without interception, it would have been 10dmg.
So the effect of interception gets halved, not doubled in this case.
Because of this interaction you would probably be better off taking the protection fighting style for this combination to impose disadvantage and thus balancing out the advantage the enemy gets because of reckless attack.
Still a great build, as always, I would love to try it out on a one-shot as the battery 😁
Small point about Interception damage reduction and resistances. [Jeremy Crawford](mobile.twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/832047490404798464?lang=en) says damage reduction is applied first, then resistance. In that case Interception will be effectively 5 (being the difference to total net damage taken) not 10 or 20.
You should consider a ranged smite build - something to help out Arcane Archer, or show it up! There are a few tried and true formulas by now, but I don’t know if it’s been re-examined with the latest material.
On the discussion of Spiritual Weapon: I generally agree about the assertion that spending spell slots on Voice of Authority is better, but if you ever go into a fight with very few spell slots, spending one 2nd level spell slot allows you bonus action attacks throughout the fight at the cost of only that one slot, compared to spending a spell slot every round to get the blender to attack.
I really like this combo! I play a zealot with a double-bladed scimitar myself, and when you tack on as much damage onto every attack as a barbarian can, the lack of that d4 on the third attack compared to the main attacks starts looking really insignificant. It also gives you one more chance at the precious Divine Fury damage.
So, "Total Level 6" means that the PCs are both at level 3, right?
Nope, the total when the characters are level 6.
Have you done a Rogue Arcane Trickster? If so what would you multiclass it with?
Why not assassin for assasinate?
TIL I went to the same college as Colby. Go Utes.
? . Recreating Now from the old She-ra cartoon. Conflicted !How would you do it? Thanx
As a martial artist who has trained in tai chi and eskrima, I would consider myself roughly equivalent to a first level player character in terms of weapon proficiency, and I can tell you that the double bladed scimitar is tactically inferior to almost any other choice you would reasonably make for real world combat. BUT it is super fun to play with and I am deeply pleased that you found a way to make it numerically superior in this fantasy setting.
I describe this show to other's as DnD ASMR
Divine intervention story: My player's Cleric who had Just gotten the ability (first try) successfully teleported their father out of an anti-magic prison cage a hundred or so miles away. (It was probably on the generous side for me to allow but it was Divine Intervention after all). - there were some mitigating factors but still. also I know I'm late to the party but I hope the story entertains
Since you use DnD beyond...could you link the character sheets for your builds?
I've had the request a couple of times - the problem for me is time :). It wouldn't be too difficult to make, say, a level 20 character sheet, but I also am not sure how useful that would be, and would instead think it better to create one at, say, every level, or at least at 6, 9, 13, and 17. As soon as I quit my day job or can afford to hire someone... :)
We love you too, Colby!
Quick Note: In Spanish, we don’t use the pronoun “les” unless you are in certain part of Spain that utilizes it as a form of referring to an indirect object. The RAE (the organization that makes the Spanish dictionary) states that the correct form of the pronoun would be “los” (in other words, “Los amo mucho”).
Ha ha - I'm fairly fluent in Spanish, but apparently my French lessons have been interfering with the Spanish part of my brain! :P
@@DnDDeepDive The Daily Struggles of the Multilingual: Colby Edition
@@victordj8695 lol ;)
all of the above is correct but also there is a increase of spanish speakers who are beginning to incorporate more gender neutral pronouns such as les or even lxs (pronounced les) so that’s also ok!
@@letskatedawg I assumed that the lxs was the sole gender neutral option. It seems you learn something everyday. Thanks!
You could show the characters sheets on your videos
Somebody probably already said this but you can't hold you action to move and take the help action, only one or the other. So the familiar would not be able to use it's reaction to move and take the help action. Unless your DM has mercy on you and house rules otherwise.
Any interest in using DnDBeyond so we can follow along and then have a handout at the end? I think it would bring you to a greater audience
As soon as I can find more time. The biggest problem is: I don’t know that having a level 17 or 20 character sheet would be particularly useful, because it doesn’t demonstrate what you did at each level to get there... so now I’m probably needing to create a sheet at, what, 6, 9, 13, and 17 at least? That makes me sad ;)
@@DnDDeepDive that's fair.
I was thinking of just including a note of "barbarian 5, rogue5, barbarian 2, rogue 8" would be enough but that's definitely idealizing it as things can change retroactively (especially with Tasha's)
Thanks regardless!
Put you on 2x just cause you mentioned it... it was great. lol
Love the team up builds! especially this one with a STR rogue (what?! hehe) and the Order cleric - never seen those in action. Awesome work :D John Stockton with the assist and Karl Malone with the monster slam!
Awesome. More team combos please!
Hey wait. I posted an essay on a build for a barbarian rogue multiclass on your last video.
Right! That's why I said "it's very rarely done" and not "never" ;)
XD
The mighty nein, divine intervention worked spectacularly
The fact that these 2 characters can deal 165 damage in a round is nuts. But not for this team but for the Bladesinger 2.0. Because that class by itself can do 165 DPR. Granted it was a lower AC but that is still nuts and shows how excellent the Bladesinger is.
You ever look into builds that optimize the rogues use of sneak attacks for more than twice in a round?
There are a few features in the game that allow for reaction attacks to me made that synergize well with rogues, but a few also combine well with specific rogue subclass features.
Haste on a rogue allows the rogue to use their “regular” action to take the ready action, leaving their “haste” action to attack with a weapon, possibly letting the bonus action be used for two weapon fighting if that attack misses for another chance at sneak on that turn. The rogues turn ends, and they use their reaction to make another attack when the readied action trigger happens.
The scimitar of speed is a +2 scimitar that allows for a bonus action weapon attack that doesn’t rely on any other features, and so it’s like a slightly less effective but always on haste spell in regard to the above haste description.
The order domain feature your taking advantage of in this video is another great way to do this with another players help.
There’s also builds utilizing the sentinel feat, mage slayer, and possibly warcaster if an ally casts a spell like dissonant whispers for force opportunity attacks.
The 17th level scout feature sudden strike and the 17th level thief feature give even more opportunities for sneak attack with deviations.
Scout would allow for 3 somewhat reliable chances for sneak attack a round using some of the tactics above, with a possible 4 sneak attacks on the first round if the scout loses initiative to a creature but somehow also gets an opportunity attack or reaction attack on that creatures turn against that creature. Scouts turn happens, potential two sneak attacks so long as they are against different creatures, and then another possible reaction attack on the immediate next turn since the rogue got their reaction back.
Similar story with the thief, except it’s limited to the first round of combat. The difference is that though the thief can only go nova on the first round, they can potentially get 5 sneak attacks on that first round since it actually gets an entirely different but extra turn on the first round of combat.
There are probably more features, but that’s all I can remember from the last time I looked into it.
Just to let ya know, you can only use opportunity attacks once per round. All the feats you are talking about use your reaction. I think at most you can get is 3 with either scout or thief.
@@dachoken6308
It’s not just about opportunity attacks or reaction attacks.
The reason thief subclass potentially gets a higher number of sneak attacks on the first round is that its 17 level ability gives it an entire additional turn on the first round of every combat.
This gives the benefits of an additional action and a refreshed reaction.
***HIGHLY UNLIKELY***
Thief first turn maximum
•Initiative rolled, thief rolls but loses to a creature, but also beats several others.
•creature that won initiative takes turn, potentially provoking an attack of opportunity or reaction attack from thief
•thief’s first turn happens, thief has action, bonus action, and a refreshed reaction. Thief makes use of features to grant ready action or relies on reaction feat to set up next reaction attack. Makes one attack on their turn using action or bonus action depending on strategy and features available through buffs or magic items. Thief’s turn ends.
•another creatures turn begins, thief makes use of reaction attack if trigger happens. That creatures turn ends.
• -10 initiative later the thief gets second turn in first round of combat, makes use of same tactic as before. Makes use of features, buffs, or magic item to make a single attack on this turn. Sets up for the third and final reaction possible on the next creatures turns, still all technically on the first round of combat.
5 chances of sneak attack.
***HIGHLY UNLIKELY***
The reason the scout class gets higher number chances of sneak attack is its 17th level feature that allows an additional sneak attack on their turn so long as the second one granted by that feature is against a different creature.
@@binolombardi
Hmm I definitely see what you are saying. As far as that being sustained, I still really only see maybe 4 outside of first round. That would be with scout, haste and a opportunity attack. And this is if your dm is nice. According the the PHB readying a turn takes the reaction economy.
It seems that likely 3, maybe under good circumstances 4, is the max rules as written that you can get sustainably. However that first thief could get 5 within rules as written as it would basically go: reaction, action, reaction, action, reaction. Assuming ideal circumstances
@@dachoken6308 yea it’s incredibly rules intensive and was honestly difficult for me to plot out without bullets. Interestingly enough even with all of that resource investment and getting the luckiest set of circumstances to proc all those reaction attacks, the thief’s maximum damage potential on the first round with those 5 attacks is roughly 151 damage or 209 damage with constant advantage. Since it’s a single turn that is unreliable to unfold the way it needs to, it’s barely even a nova.
There are quite a few builds that equal or even beat that damage output for nova comparisons under much easier circumstances.
The scout can potentially pump out about 90-125 damage a round depending on advantage with the 3 sneak attacks. This is much more reliable, easier to pull off, and can be used every round of combat. Seems like sustained damage depending on how you wanna define that.
Make them husband and wife. Remarry after zealot dies 🤪
So... not sure if this has been suggested... but have the battery take fey touched instead of magic initiate. As your 1st level spell take Silvery Barbs (I know.. I know..) But what this does is let you target the blender with a spell WITH YOUR REACTION. This is amazing because now the battery can give two party members bonus attacks per round (granted you'll run out of spell pretty quickly).
Great idea! I will hide you from the mob!
@@DnDDeepDive hahah
@@DnDDeepDive I actually have a druid I'm playing that dipped one level of order domain, when I turn a party member into a t Rex they can reaction bite attack when I cast polymorph! Its so much fun!
Would love a character sheet or a sumarry showing both character and levels
OK, so I am back with one more post... Just wanted to say how much these vids have inspired me. I have one friend has just started playing Blender--and another playing Bladesinger 2.0. And instead of going Battery, I'm going Aberrant Mind Sorc partly somewhat inspired by your Yin and Yang to go Sorc for double haste--with the BladeSinger getting the second haste. Meanwhile, I'll be tossing so much Dissonant Whispers from the new sorc subclass (at level 6, the Psionic Sorcery will allow me converted high level slots to points back to low level spells at a 1:1 ratio)--which on failed saves should allow both companions, who already are doing good dmg with haste to get that Opportunity Attacks (including sneak attack on the Blender). I think this is as good as if not better than the Battery VOA. Anyway, I look forward to your future content :).
Sounds awesome!
How about a Wolf totem barbarian centaur with a paladin halfling riding his back?
On my to do list :)
@@DnDDeepDive Really? Nice to know!
Me and a friend are trying to figure out the best path.
I will be the halfling and will probably take a couple of hexblade levels, but mostly ancient paladin.
He suggested Wolf barb + Cavalier for his centaur.
Darth Maul and Obi Wan.