#i play a character with 11 skill proficiencies/expertises and yes it's as great as that sounds.

[utilitycaster]

Skill Proficiencies are the Bedrock on Which the Success of a D&D Party Rests, Monks are  a Utility Class, and Other Correct Opinions

This came up when I was thinking about the Cobalt Soul subclass and the discussion thereof, especially the dismissive way in which people sometimes treat the mystical erudition feature. I am also a bard player, in my longest-running game, and I prefer utility classes in general, so I decided to write a whole essay that maybe like 5 people will appreciate, two of whom are in my inbox (thanks for the encouragement, @ayzenigma and @agigabyte and one of whom is me.

In D&D, on a fundamental level, this is what happens:

A DM describes the world

You decide to interact with the world in some way

The DM decides if you automatically can do what you want, if you automatically can’t do what you want, or if there are a range of possible outcomes. If the last option, roll a d20.

The DM narrates what happens when you act or fail to act, ie, describes the new state of the world; the cycle begins anew.

The vast majority of those d20 rolls will be skill checks. Some will be combat rolls, which are a whole other thing, but most will be skill checks. Some will be incredibly important skill checks. Some will be relatively minor. Sometimes you’ll be aware of how important the roll is; sometimes you will not. Spells can sometimes guarantee or improve the chances of a success, as can some class abilities; but those are finite resources, and in the end a lot of D&D is resource management, and many of the choices you make in interaction are going to be influenced by what resources you have left.

Consider: the party comes upon a door with a single lock. The party is D&D four-person-party classic: a mage archetype, a thief archetype, a healer archetype, and a strength-based battler archetype.

The mage can cast knock to open the door. This does guarantee success, but it’s extremely loud and will not only alert anyone nearby but also uses a second level spell slot. They may be able to get around this if they or the healer also casts silence, depending on how you play it*, but that’s either another spell slot gone, or ten minutes wasted.

The battler can, for free, either kick down the door or attack it. This is also going to be very loud unless silence is employed, they might choose to use a finite resource (a once a day weapon ability, a rage) and even if this itself doesn’t alert anyone on its own, the big hole where a door should have been, or even the smashed keyhole, probably will.

The thief can, for free, pick the lock. Assuming they are specifically a rogue, because of their class build there is a very high chance of success, and specifically a high chance of quick, quiet, secret success even without additional help. And if they fail, well, the other options still exist and only a small amount of time has been lost.

Things like a single rage, or a second level spell slot, don’t seem like much on their own, but that is the other thing about D&D: usually you go to bed with some things left in the tank, but occasionally you do not, and as the resources get into the red line it is not terribly difficult to get into a death spiral of throwing your limited resources at a problem too large to be solved by them. When you’re in a game where, mechanically, there is no difference between having 100 hit points left and having 1 hit point left, but there is a vast chasm between having 1 left and having none, that extra second level slot worth of healing or damage can mean everything.

Or: at levels 5 through 8, with a cleric, the difference between an ally’s life and potentially permanent death is whether the cleric is left standing with one third level spell slot at the end of a battle.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t use spell slots to achieve things, especially if they’re important; just that there’s a balance, and sometimes a single good thieves’ tools check, investigation check, or persuasion check makes just as much of a difference in terms of the party’s success as a high level spell, even though it’s far less flashy.

The game designers realize this. Older versions had the idea of taking ten: if time is not of the essence and there is no significant penalty for failure, you could take ten and guarantee an average job (which does still require some skill proficiency to take that assumed roll of ten to “pretty good”). This still remains in 5e in the form of passive checks. It’s a core element of the rogue and bard classes that they are people who are highly skilled - both have more skills than most classes and access to expertise, which significantly increases their proficiency bonuses and therefore reduces the chance of failure - and both have additional class features that either improve the breadth (jack of all trades for bards granting them partial proficiency in everything) or depth (reliable talent for rogues granting them a guaranteed average job) of those skills. Frequently, and especially for bards, this is not seen as a significant help, possibly because it rarely comes up in combat. This is wrong.

Here’s the thing: combat takes a long time at the table but in terms of what the party is doing, two minutes of combat a day (20 rounds, total) would be considered an incredibly difficult day. The rest of the time, you’re not in combat.

Here’s the other thing: how did that combat happen? Did it happen because someone failed a check - that a better stealth roll or deception check, perhaps made by someone with expertise in one of those two areas, could have prevented? Or if this conflict was inevitable or necessary, was the party able to use that stealth or deception to get a surprise round? Investigation, nature, arcana, or history to know a little bit more in advance about what they’re about to face? Perception or survival to even find the enemy they need to stop? Persuasion to gain an ally? All of these can make the difference between a success and a failure.

When you come to the end of a long-running D&D game, you will probably think back a lot to combat moments and RP moments, and unless it was one of those few clutch ability checks where you knew how momentous it was at the time you probably won’t think back to the dozens of locks picked without issue, or social encounters navigated with relative ease, but they’re going to be there, and you would have felt the strain without them.

This isn’t limited to skill checks, honestly; it’s a problem with almost all so-called fluff/flavor abilities. It’s interesting, in that the words we use to describe a well-built character are themselves quite neutral in terms of the specific build (min-maxed, optimized) but in practice many people assume these fit into one of two categories: the tank, or the glass cannon. Of course, those are combat-specific abilities, and see above with regards to combat. And maybe you are in a D&D game that is very much about combat and combat only, but if you’re not, that so-called fluff is far too dismissive of utility.

And monks, in particular, are more of a utility class than one would expect. Sure, they get a lot of attacks and they’re sort of tanks of the ‘too fast to hit’ variety and they can stun, but monks are utility in a negative-space sort of way.They don’t need your buffs, and a monk in your party, like a rogue who can pick locks or a bard who can talk their way out of trouble, saves your resources. They are incredibly fast, and don’t need longstrider or jump cast on them. They don’t need feather fall or fly because they run up walls and avoid falling damage. They don’t need to be healed, if they just catch the arrows that were shot and evade the area of effect spell; they don’t need a magic weapon (or any weapon); they don’t need a restoration to end effects, they don’t need protection from poison or disease, they save you the need to cast comprehend languages or tongues, they’re less likely to need a buff to help them save against other effects, eventually they don’t even need food or water. A monk, like a skill check, helps the party by saving finite resources. The Cobalt Soul build merely makes it a little more literal by granting the monk themselves the ability to make those skill checks.

In conclusion: skill checks are cantrips that everyone gets, and if a class got 8 cantrips when most others got 4, and they had an extra bonus to hit, you’d absolutely notice.

*per a quick search it’s up for debate based on the ranges of the respective spells and whether the lock needs to ‘hear’ the spell or not and anyway if this is what you choose to fixate on in this essay I cannot stress this enough: you have the reading comprehension of a slime mold and the sense of relevance of a Republican congressperson.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #156

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the clown prince of crime himself, the Archer of Shinjuku! Like the Caster of the Timeless Temple, a lot of pseudosingularity servants have their true names hidden. Personally I think it’s a dumb mechanic, but for the interests of keeping up appearances we’ll hide their names in the opening posts as well. That being said, it’s hard to go in-depth on a character and their abilities without revealing their identity, so expect spoilers below the cut.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: Introducing the most problematic design since Literally Every Child Servant!

 James Moriarty is a Mastermind Rogue for perfection in deception, as well as a Divination Wizard because some things you just can’t plan for. But you can take credit after the fact, and you’ll look super smart for doing so!

Race and Background

Despite your reputation, you are a Human, giving you +1 Dexterity and Wisdom. You also get Sleight of Hand proficiency for better burgling, and the Keen Mind feat for +1 Intelligence and a bevvy of brain bonuses that will make your DM’s life harder.

You started your life as a professor, but tbh it’s a lot easier to just grab the Criminal background. It’s also a lot more useful, giving you Deception and Stealth proficiency.

Ability Scores

No surprise here, but your highest score is going to be Intelligence. Your best crimes are basically “I wonder what this would do”, you’re like the mathematics version of a mad scientist. Aside from that, your Charisma is also pretty good, manipulating others is your go-to method of crime. After that is Wisdom, because playing people only works as long as you know you’re not being played. Your Dexterity isn’t amazing, but we can fix that later with magical nonsense. Your Constitution is bad, but your Strength is worse. You’re an old man, andyou definitely feel like one.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: First level rogues get a ton of proficiencies, like Dexterity and Intelligence saves, Perception, Insight, Performance, and Persuasion. The first one lets you hunt a bit easier in the dark streets of Shinjuku, while the other three make your manipulations more magnificent. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Deception and Persuasion.

You also learn Thieves’ Cant. It’s a language. More usefully, you can make a Sneak Attack once per turn by using a ranged or finesse weapon on a creature you either have advantage on or you have an ally next to. Right now this adds 1d6 to your attack damage, but it’ll grow as you level up.

As far as your weapon goes, a hand crossbow might be an understatement for your coffin, but you’re nothing if not practical.

2. Wizard 1: Going over to wizard right away gives you Arcane Recovery, letting you regain a little bit of magic over a short rest once per long rest.

To make that more useful, you also get Spells that you can cast and prepare with your Intelligence. Message will carry your schemes to your minion’s ears, Prestidigitation is simple sleight of hand tricks to wow yokels. True Strike actually kind of has a purpose since the advantage matters for your sneak attacks but not really because there’s like eight other ways to get a sneak attack that aren’t as bad. Cause Fear strikes at the heart of foes and allies alike. Mage Armor lets you wear a suit into combat like a nerd. Magic Missile gives you a plethora of magical bullets that can’t miss. Disguise Self gives you a magical disguise kit. Feather Fall lets you catch Guda and land without breaking a hip, and Unseen Servant lets you expand your criminal empire with a lackey of your very own!

3. Rogue 2: Last level was a lot. Let’s calm down a bit with a simple bit of roguery. Cunning Action lets you dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action, freeing up your main action for attacks or spells.

4. Rogue 3: Third level rogues can pick their specialty, and as a Mastermind yours lies in manipulating others for your own gain. You’re a Master of Intrigue giving you proficiency with disguises and forgery. You can also mimic the accent of a creature you’ve heard for at least one minute, well enough to pass yourself off as a native

You’re also a Master of Tactics, letting you help as a bonus action and with a range of 30 feet.

On top of that, your Steady Aim makes True Strike useless, giving you advantage on one attack as a bonus action, plus you have to use up your movement.

5. Rogue 4: Use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity so you can actually shoot people. Also, while you only get one attack per turn, you can always flavor your sneak attack as a burst of gunfire. You’re certainly going to do enough damage to qualify as multiple shots.

6. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge as a reaction, halving the damage of an incoming attack. You fight berserkers in Armani, you’ll need it.

7. Rogue 6: Your second round of Expertise will double up on your Thieves’ Tools and Performance for extra manipulation and safe cracking.

8. Rogue 7: Evasion is a good skill. I don’t think I say that enough,but it is. It turns your failed dexterity saves into successes and your successes into no-sells. If your big plan is dropping a meteor on the world, you’d better be ready for the splash damage.

9. Wizard 2: Second level wizards get their specialty, and Divination wizards are the masters of planning. And from a player’s standpoint they make planning so much easier. You could meticulously plan your enemy’s downfall over the course of days or weeks, or you could just slap a 1 to their wisdom save with six seconds of preparation thanks to Portents. You get two d20s each day that you can use in place of a d20 roll near you. Ruin someone’s skill check, guarantee your critical hit, whatever.

You also get more magic! Alarm is our go-to for low magic builds, but it’s also super useful for traps You can also Comprehend Languages because you’re pretty well-learned.

10. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells, like Enhance Ability to make your disguises even more perfect and Magic Weapon to make your Noble Phantasm a bit more noble.

11. Rogue 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for more gooder shooting.

12. Rogue 9: Your next bout of Mastermind goodies makes you an Insightful Manipulator, letting you spend 1 minute to observe a creature in two of four ways; their intelligence, wisdom, charisma, or class levels. You might also learn some backstory, which’ll make your DM’s life even harder! Or easier, depending on how you use it.

13. Rogue 10: Use this ASI to bring your Intelligence up for better spellcasting. Most of your spells don’t actually need your intelligence, but it also helps you show up Holmes, so it’s rewarding in its own right.

14. Rogue 11: You now have Reliable Talent, so every skill check you’re proficient in will always come up at least a 10 on the die. Yes, this does mean you’re scary good at making people do what you want.

15. Rogue 12: Another ASI! Bump your Dexterity up one more time for even gooderer shooting and AC.

16. Rogue 13: Thirteenth level masterminds are masters of Misdirection, using your reaction to shift an attack to another nearby creature instead of you. Let the brutes fight it out, you’ve got schemes to hatch!

17. Rogue 14: Your Blindsense lets you sense invisible creatures within 10 feet of you. That’s not a great range to work with a ranged weapon, but at least you’ll know when an assassin sneaks up on you.

18. Rogue 15: Your Slippery Mind gives you proficiency with Wisdom saves. That feature name sounds really weird though, it sounds like it should help with lying or something. Oh well.

19. Rogue 16: Use this last ASI to bump up your Charisma for slightly better manipulation.

20. Rogue 17: Your capstone level is also the level you get the last mastermind goodie! Your Soul of Deceit lets you rewrite any attempts to read your mind, matching your deception check versus the reader’s insight check. On top of that, magic will always say you’re telling the truth, no matter what you’re really saying.

Pros:

Soul of Deceit is super useful for you, as it basically makes it impossible to tell if you’re lying. Without magic, people have to be your deception check, and when they’re facing off against a roll with +15 and advantage they’re going to have a bad time. Basically, unless you’re going up against another rogue with expertise in insight, you’re pretty set. What’d’ya mean we already made one like that?

Portent is just really good. Especially for classes where every hit counts. That’s it, it’s just busted.

Beyond simply lying, you’re good at manipulating people, reading into their wants and needs, then stringing them along for your own gain. Insightful Manipulator lets you read people at a glance, and your Keen Mind means you’ll remember what you learned long after the people you learned it from forget you.

Cons:

You are super squishy, with exactly 100 HP at level 20. Try not to go over any waterfalls, it won’t end well for you.

Despite hitting hard enough to count as a barrage, you still technically get only one attack per turn. Missing your shot is a huge letdown, so just... don’t do that?

Your limited spell slots mean you need to be careful with how you use them. The guaranteed damage of Magic Missile is tempting, but you should probably pace yourself.

[raeynbowboi]

How to play as Star Butterfly in DnD 5e

It’s going to get a little weird and a little wild. For my last build before I take a break, I’m making Star Butterfly from Disney’s Star Vs the Forces of Evil. And before you start rioting, yes, she’s going to cast with Intelligence, and I’ll explain why in just a second.

The Mewman Race

Mewmans really are just humans that have been exposed to radioactive magic for too long, but Variant Humans don’t grow wings. So, we’ll be making her a Protector Aasmiar. She gets +2 CHA and +1 WIS, and the ability to sprout wings for 1 minute. However, if you want to ignore her Butterfly Form, go with Variant Human, give +1 to INT and DEX or CON as you see necessary. You could pick up Magic Initiate and steal the Eldritch Blast cantrip and use your Lore Mastery to turn it into your Narwhal Blast.

At the start of the series, Star was more on the side of Chaotic Good, but by season 3, Star was becoming far more responsible and mature, shifting to be more Neutral Good or even Lawful Good.

While the Noble background is tempting as she is a princess, we’ll go with the Inheritor background. Mostly because I can never find a character that would actually use this background. As an Inheritor, you’ve inherited the Butterfly Family Wand. You get proficiency with Survival and your choice of Arcana, History, or Religion. We’ll choose Arcana.

There Goes a Shining Star

Fighter     Eldritch Knight

Before she got her wand, Star was trained in melee combat by the royal guards, and Star frequently uses her wand like a sword or a morningstar. Eldritch Knights can use their sword as their arcane focus.

Wizard     Lore Mastery

Magic in Star Vs the Forces of Evil is somewhat inherent, but it’s more akin to being exposed to magical nuclear waste. Actually using magic however is much more of an intellectual endeavor. Magic needs to be studied. However, magic is also extremely malleable, with people being able to make up new spells on the fly. To best work with this into her character, Star will be a Lore Mastery Wizard, able to take existing spells and tweak them to best serve her needs, allowing her to turn Fireball into radiant damage, or forcing enemies to make a Strength saving throw against being charmed.

Stats

While Star isn’t the brightest light in the night sky, she does grow and mature over the course of the series, and by the end, you could argue that she’s developed a more scholarly mind geared and ready for the discipline needed to cast magic. So, we’ll make Intelligence her highest stat. Star’s wand looks more like a morningstar, but her stats need to balance, so we’ll treat her wand like a Shortsword so she can swing with Dexterity. She’s also pretty tough, so we’ll need a decent Constitution modifier. I wish I could give her a higher Charisma score, but it’s going to be about neutral, along with her Strength and Wisdom.

Name: Star Butterfly Race: Protector Aasimar Background: Inheritor Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Eldritch Knight Fighter (6)             Lore Mastery Wizard (14) Base Stats: Strength: 10 (0) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 16 (+3) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 10 (0) Saving Throws: Strength: +6 Dexterity: +3 Constitution: +9 Intelligence: +5 Wisdom: +1 Charisma: 0 Combat Stats: HP: 156 AC: 14 Speed: 30 Initiative: +5 Number of Attacks: 2 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 11 Dark Vision: 60 feet Proficiencies:    Arcana    Athletics    Insight    Survival Skills: Acrobatics: +3                       Medicine: +1 Animal Handling: +1              Nature: +5 Arcana: +11                           Perception: +1 Athletics: +6                          Performance: 0 Deception: 0                         Persuasion: 0 History: +11                          Religion: +11 Insight: +7                            Sleight of Hand: +3 Intimidation: 0                      Stealth: +3 Investigation:+5                   Survival: +7

Damage Resistances    Necrotic, Radiant

Fighter Feature: Fighting Style     Dueling: deal +2 damage with melee one-handed weapon damage. 

Spell Slots

1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (2) 6th (1) 7th (1) 8th (1)

Star’s spellbook is entirely up to the player. Aside from a few spells like flying on Cloudy or turning Arcane Hand into her Rainbow Fist, there’s actually very few DnD spells that match up to Star’s magic. But almost all of her spells are damaging spells, which is great for a Lore Wizard because it lets you change the kind of damage your spell does. So, do as you see fit.

Bonus Actions:

Action Surge: Get an extra action once per rest.

Bonus Actions:

Second Wind: Regain 1d6 + 6 HP once per rest.

Features:

Alchemical Casting: Use a spell slot to increase spell damage, range, or DC. Arcane Recovery: Recover 7 or fewer level 5 or lower spells on a short rest. Healing Hands: Restore 20 HP with your touch. Lore Mastery: Expertise in Arcana, roll Initiative with either DEX or INT. Master of Magic: Cast a non-wizard spell with an available spell slot. Prodigious Magic: Replace a prepared spell with one you’ve learned. Radiant Soul: Gain flying speed 30 for 1 minute, and deal +20 radiant damage once per turn during your transformation. Spell Secrets: Change an elemental spell’s damage type or saving throw DC. Weapon Bond: You can summon your weapon from anywhere on the same plane.

This will be my last build for a while, but I think I’m going out with a banger. This build came out really well, and I think it’d do well in a campaign. Let me know if you end up using it, as well as any changes you made to the build. And although I’m taking a break, I’m always taking requests, so let me know if there’s someone you would like for me to build.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #130: Marie Antoinette (Caster)

The encores keep coming on Fate and Phantasms with today’s build, Marie Antoinette! A volleyball player in D&D is probably one of the weirder things we’ve done so far, but I’m sure we can set up something good for y’all. Charm everyone you can, and smash those you can’t in the face with your beachballs!

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet here!

Next up: Met a girl(s), crazy for me!

Race and Background

As a variant of Marie, you’re also a variant human, giving you +1 wisdom and charisma. You’re a bit more active than your rider counterpart, so you also get Athletics proficiency and the Fighting Initiate feat, which nets you the Thrown Weapon Fighting fighting style. Now you can grab and throw weapons in the same move, and you deal +2 damage with thrown weapons! Sadly, WoTC forgot to weaponize balls in D&D, but light hammers are the closest thing we have to work with. Yes, that does mean Tortle Antoinette is dangerously close to being a Hammer Bro.

Like always, you’re a Noble, giving you History and Persuasion proficiencies.

Ability Scores

If you know anything about Marie, you know her Charisma is pretty high. If we want to be good a sports we’ll need some Dexterity though, make that second. Your Wisdom isn’t half bad, you were a queen once. Your Constitution isn’t amazing, but hey that just gives you an excuse to order one of those umbrella drinks and relax. Your Intelligence is rather low by elimination, (again, no one wants to think in the summer,) but you’re not stupid so we’re still dumping your Strength. Surprisingly, beach balls aren’t heavy lifting.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Remember when I said not all of the summer servants were going to be beach ready? I’m starting to think that might not be true. As a monk, you get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as two monk skills. I’d grab Acrobatics for more volleyball skills and Insight for better rulings.

You also get Unarmored Defense, making your AC based on your wisdom as well as your dexterity, and Martial Arts. Now you can use dexterity instead of strength when attacking with monk weapons (light hammers are simple, so they count), and you can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action after attacking. Also, all your monk attacks do a minimum of 1d4 damage, which scales as you level up. The good news is it only gets better from here.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks get a number of Ki points each short rest equal to their monk level. They can use these to make two attacks, dodge, disengage, or dash as a bonus action. You also get Unarmored Movement, helping you get across the court thanks to an extra 10′ of movement speed that also increases as you level up.

3. Monk 3: They probably wouldn’t tell you this, but it turns out Way of the Kensei monks are super into beach volleyball. That’s why at third level you learn the Path of the Kensei, a totally not confusingly named feature that’s really four features in one. You get Kensei Weapons, a melee (Light Hammer) and ranged (Darts? It doesn’t really matter much) weapon that will be used by later features. One of those is an Agile Parry, giving you a bonus to your AC for a round when you make an unarmed attack with a kensei weapon in hand. Use the volleyballs for ranged attacks, hands for melee attacks, they’re pretty mutually exclusive. Another way to use your deadly weapons is a Kensei’s Shot, which normally doesn’t come up in these builds. Using your bonus action you can deal an extra 1d4 of damage each time you make a ranged attack that turn, effectively doubling your output. You also learn the Way of the Brush, which will be super useful when you’re stuck making manga over and over again in summer 3.

Finally, you volleyball skills come in handy by teaching you how to Deflect Missiles. Using your reaction you can set a ranged attack to deal less damage to you, and if you mitigate it entirely you can spike it back at the attacker.

4. Monk 4: Your very first Ability Score Improvement will go towards Dexterity. Being able to aim your shots helps. You can Slow Fall to reduce sandburn from those dives, and you get some Quickened Healing for a bit of that sunflower power, spending ki and an action to heal yourself.

5. Bard 1: Despite everything, you’re still you. And You is still a bard! This means you get Performance proficiency to get the crowd on your side, as well as some Spells you can cast using your Charisma. You can also give Bardic Inspiration to your allies a number of times per long rest equal to your charisma modifier. This lets them add a d6 to one of their attack rolls, saving throws, or ability checks.

Speaking of spells, Light will make you the center of attention, either creating a light source out of thin air of turning an object into a free torch. You also get Friends, Charm Person, and Animal Friendship to wrap the world around your finger, because some things never change. If you have to get a bit forceful, you can also use Command, or Cure Wounds if you’re in a more merciful mood.

6. Bard 2: Second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to checks that don’t already use it. As a queen, you have to be well-versed in just about everything. You also get a Song of Rest, adding 1d6 to healing done over short rests. Finally, your Magical Inspiration augments your bardic inspiration. It can now be added to spell damage and healing. 

Speaking of spell damage and healing, Bane does neither of those things. However, it does force a charisma save (DC 8 + proficiency + charisma modifier) on a couple creatures, and the ones that fail subtract 1d4 from all attacks and saves they make for the duration. You’re pretty distracting.

7. Bard 3: Your bard levels aren’t changing things up much from your original setup- yes, you’re still going to the College of Glamour. As a glamour bard, your Mantle of Inspiration can be built using just a use of Inspiration and your bonus action, giving a couple of friendly creatures 5 temporary hp, and the ability to react to move without causing opportunity attacks. 

You can also put on an Enthralling Performance. After you play for at least a minute, you can try to charm a couple people who saw the entire thing, basically turning them into your groupies if they fail a wisdom save. You can use this once per short rest.

Finally, you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Acrobatics and Performance. You’re good at what you do, and even better at making it look good while you do it.

You can also cast Calm Emotions to soothe enemies or friends alike. Like Guda always says, “An enemy is just a friend that’s still trying to kill you.”

8. Bard 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger spells and more inspiration.

You can also cast True Strike this level for more accurate strikes, or Enhance Ability to inspire greatness in an ally, giving them advantage on one kind of skill check for the duration.

9. Bard 5: At fifth level your bardic inspiration grows to a d8, and you become a Font of Inspiration. That means your inspiration pops back up on short rests and long ones!

Being a queen isn’t easy. Even if you’re nice you still gotta punish people sometimes. Sometimes that punishment is curses. Bestow Curse can help with that. This is one of those open-ended spells- if your DM’s cool with creativity, you can probably do some nasty stuff with this spell.

10. Bard 6: Sixth level bards can waste an action on Countercharm, giving allies advantage against being charmed or frightened for the round. Alternatively, you can use your Mantle of Majesty as a bonus action, allowing you to cast command for free each bonus action and upon use. Any creature charmed by you automatically fails the save, but this feature uses your concentration, so it’s only really useful with teamwork or your Enthralling Performance. You can use this once per long rest.

We can duplicate the effects of your noble phantasm easy, but none of these really make you a giant glass jellyfish, do they? Major Image can help with that. This creates an illusion that fits within a 20′ square, and you can move it with you too!

11. Monk 5: Bouncing back to monk for an Extra Attack each attack action. You can also make a Stunning Strike, forcing a constitution save (DC 8+proficiency+wisdom modifier) or they’re stunned for the round. (This only works on melee attacks tho, boo hiss.) 

For something more useful, Focused Aim lets you spend 1-3 ki points to add 2-6 to an attack roll. Volleyball is all about that aim.

12. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get Ki Empowered Strikes, making your unarmed attacks magical against resistances. You also become One with the Blade, which makes your kensei weapons magical against resistances, and you can use a Deft Strike to add your martial arts die to your damage once per turn.

You also get another kensei weapon, but it doesn’t really matter what you pick bc we’re still volleyballing here.

13. Monk 7: Once again, you get the super useful Evasion, halving damage from failed dex saves and removing damage from successes. You also get a Stillness of Mind, letting you spend an action to shut down frightening and charming effects.

14. Bard 7: Bouncing back to bard again for some fourth level spells, like Charm Monster. Fish love you, women love you, basically everyone loves you.

15. Bard 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for more AC and better attacks. Turns out, monks like dexterity! Who’da thunk it. Your glass dress also gets a bit scarier at this level, turning it into a Phantasmal Killer. If your target fails a Wisdom save, they become frightened, and at the end of each turn they have to make another save or take psychic damage. Technically this makes one of their worst fears, but I bet glass chafes something awful, so I’d count it.

16. Bard 9: Ninth level bards get a stronger song of rest, and you can cast fifth level spells! Dominate Person forces a wisdom save on a creature or they get charmed. While charmed, you can issue commands to the target or take total control of them. You’re a celebrity, you do what you want. And other people do what you want too.

17. Bard 10: Tenth level bards get a d10 for their inspiration, and they get Magical Secrets, two spells from any spell list. Also a cantrip, which makes introducing the spells succinctly a pain in the ass. You get a Thunderclap if you spike the ball hard enough, but the stars of the show are Conjure Volley (yes we got it entirely for the pun) and Find Greater Steed. Horses aren’t practical on a beach, but glass horses aren’t about practicality.

You also get Expertise in athletics and persuasion to truly master volleyball and the popularity that comes with it.

18. Monk 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Constitution for 18 free hit points.

19. Monk 9: Your unarmored movement improvement lets you literally walk on water, for those dramatic Baywatch-style shots.

20. Monk 10: Your final level gives you a Purity of Body, making you immune to disease and poison. Not the flashiest way to end a build, but I def wouldn’t complain about that right now.

Pros:

Throwing hammers around gives you a range advantage on most melee enemies, and your monk mobility gives you plenty of speed to abuse it with.

Your high dex and kensei features make your shots accurate, and your damage consistent. 

Despite trading half your bard levels for monk, you’re still charming as all hell- literally. Fighting still isn’t your strong suit, but you’ve got plenty of ways to avoid them where possible.

Cons:

YOU ARE USING LIGHT HAMMERS. There isn’t even a stereotype about them in those “what does you favorite weapon say about you” videos because NO ONE USES THEM. Even with being a monk, you still won’t be doing much damage with them. Pulling out all the stops nets you 2d6+1d4+6 Bludgeoning damage at level 20. Let the fighters take care of the fighting, you’ll be a lot happier for it.

A lot of your abilities are tied to inspiration and ki, both of which are limited resources. 

Unless you’ve got an artificer in your group or a generous dm, throwing weapons are a pain to use. You’ve either got to carry around a lot of them (which might be an issue with your dumped strength) or get used to picking them up between attacks.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #44: The Phantom of the Opera

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re starting with the Man in the Mirror, a.k.a. the Phantom of The Opera! The role of the phantom will tonight be played by a Phantom Rogue/Whispers Bard mix with some dramatic cantrips and plenty of psychic damage to keep him inside your mind.

You can check out the level-by-level breakdown below the cut, or the summary spreadsheet. Either way, enjoy the show.

Race and Background

He may be the Angel of Music, but he’s definitely not an Aasimar. I mean, probably? The DnD universe has a lot more sentient races than ours, you can get funky with it if you want; maybe a siren? But for canon’s sake, he’s clearly a Human, giving him +1 to all stats. He’s also a Hermit, but we’re going to change it up a bit from the usual. He lived alone, yes, but under and Opera House, so he’ll be proficient in Performance and Religion instead. He also might get a terrible secret of the multiverse if you want to talk to your DM about it. Why the multiverse always gives its secrets to dangerously unstable people, I don’t know. But maybe you do!

Stats

If you’re using the standard array like we are, put your highest score in Charisma; you’re a good enough singer to tutor professionals despite never being taught yourself, so that’s all raw talent. You were also able to build a concerning number of secret passages into an opera house without anyone noticing, so your Intelligence is probably pretty high as well. You’re clearly not powerfully build, but can handle yourself pretty well in a fight: all signs point to your Dexterity being next. Your Constitution and Strength are decent enough; I’d even consider them pretty high considering you’ve spent an indeterminable amount of time living in a sewer maze. Finally, dump Wisdom. The phrases “Mental Pollution” and “High Wisdom” do not go together.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: We’re starting off as a rogue, they get relevant proficiencies and lots of them, and you’ll need a lot to fuel all the expertise you’re getting. Specifically, you’re proficient in Dexterity and Intelligence saves and four rogue skills. Acrobatics and Stealth will help you worm your way through secret passages without getting caught. Your powers of Persuasion can convince people that you’re some kind of angel (though that might just be grooming), and when that falls through you always have Intimidation as well.

At first level, you double your proficiency in two skills thanks to your Expertise. We’ll start with your Performance and Stealth: you have the most beautiful voice in the world, and are weirdly good at creeping through old opera houses without creaking any floorboards. You can add more damage to your attacks with a Sneak Attack, and you know Thieves’ Cant, a secret language of rogues. Nobody understands what happens in operas anyway, so it’ll be easy to slip some hidden messages in.

As far as weapons go, dual-wielding daggers are probably your best bet as stand-ins for your claw hands. It will also use up your bonus action, but having a back-up attack is always useful.

2. Rogue 2: Vanishing from the scene becomes much easier with your Cunning Action, allowing you to dodge, disengage or hide as a bonus action. Disappearing in the nick of time is kind of your thing, and this will make it much easier.

3. Rogue 3: Third level rogues get a sneak attack boost as well as their archetype, and yours is the appropriately named Phantom archetype from Tasha’s Cauldron. When you take this archetype, you gain Wails from the Grave, meaning the dramatic music stings that accompany your attacks can actually do damage now. When you attack someone with your sneak attack, you can deal half your sneak attack dice in psychic damage to another creature nearby. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. You also can hear Whispers of the Dead, giving you proficiency in one skill of your choice that you can swap out each short rest. Erik’s a multitalented man, but being proficient in every skill takes up way more ASIs than we have, so this is a happy medium.

4. Bard 1: Bard pull people under their sway with the power of music, and that’s literally your entire MO, so this is a no-brainer.  At first level, you get a free skill of your choice. Operas cover a lot of subjects, but I think History is the most consistent. Sure, it’s fictionalized history, but you’re fictional too, so it all works out.

First level bards gain Spellcasting using charisma as your casting stat, as well as some Bardic Inspiration dice, a couple D6 you can throw at people to encourage their best performances.

For spells, grab Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion for some stage magic, Charm Person and Unearthly Chorus to charm your way out of any situation, and Dissonant Whispers and Puppet to really worm your way into people’s minds.

5. Bard 2: You’re now a Jack of All Trades, adding half your proficiency to any check you’re not already proficient with. Seriously, Erik’s a stage magician, skilled architect, and a world class singer, all while being shunned by polite society. How does he do it?

You also learn a Song of Rest, letting you ease your party’s worries during short rests with your skillful performance. I’d think hearing the phantom sing would put someone even more on edge, but that’s why I’m not a dnd character.

For your spell, grab Feather Fall. It’s great for when you need to jump off a balcony to escape, or if you forget about the time limit on a late-game feature.

6. Bard 3: Being a bard also gives you some Expertise, this time enhance your Persuasion and Intimidation to perfect your “people skills”. You also graduate from the College of Whispers at this level, giving you a couple extra features as well. 

Psychic Blades lets you burn through inspiration dice to add 2d6 Psychic Damage to your attack once per round. You also learn Words of Terror, so if you talk to someone for a while you can try and make them afraid of you or someone else for up to an hour. That can be done once per short rest.

Grab Suggestion to politely remind people why they always do all you ask of them.

7. Rogue 4: Use your first ASI to increase your dexterity for more AC and more stabbage.

8. Rogue 5: Your sneak attack is boosted to 3d6, and you gain an Uncanny Dodge, letting you react to avoid half the damage from an attack. Sometimes your flair for the dramatic means escapes aren’t quite as easy as they should be. This will help you avoid dying while still being the center of attention.

9. Rogue 6: Your third round of expertise will help you remember more about the subjects of operas you’ve watched, doubling your proficiency in History and Religion. 

10. Rogue 7: Seventh level rogues get another sneak attack bonus, and they learn about Evasion, meaning dexterity based attacks deal a lot less damage to you. I don’t know exactly what kind of save a falling chandelier requires, but dexterity is a pretty safe bet.

11. Rogue 8: For your next ASI, we’re taking the Dual Wielder feat. This gives you a bit of extra AC and you can trade up for larger claws for some extra damage. If you really want to powergame though, you could switch this out for the mobile feat instead, as we’ll be getting a feature later on that makes ignoring difficult terrain very useful.

12. Rogue 9: Ninth level rogues get another sneak attack bonus, bringing you up to 5d6. Ninth level phantoms learn how to make Tokens of the Departed. You can react when a creature dies within 30′ of you to turn part of their soul into a random trinket from the trinket table. While you have at least one trinket on your person, you have advantage on death and constitution saves. You can only keep a small number on you, and can destroy a trinket to ask the dead one question. You can also destroy a trinket to use Wails from the Grave for free. Admittedly this has very little to do with being the phantom of the opera, but the advantage is really nice if you’re trying to keep someone charmed while in combat, and we’ll get a better use for the trinkets later.

13. Bard 4: Back in bardsville, you’ve got another ASI waiting for you. Boost your Charisma for more powerful spells and more uses of your Psychic Blades and inspiration.

For spells, pick up Vicious Mockery for even more psychic damage, and Blindness/Deafness to make tracking you down even harder via a quick blast of organ playing.

14. Bard 5: With our last level in bard, your inspiration dice increase to a d8, and your psychic blades now add 3d6 damage to attacks. You also become a Font of Inspiration, regaining inspiration uses on short rests rather than long ones.

For your last spell, grab Fear. This hardly should even count as magic for you, you just have that kind of effect on people.

15. Rogue 10: Switching back to rogue, you get one more ASI, which we’re putting into Dexterity. You hit harder and are harder to hit, what’s not to love?

16. Rogue 11: Your sneak attack goes up again, and you now have Reliable Talent. This means any skill check you make that you’re proficient in will always have a roll of at least 10. Basically, whatever you’re good at, you’re really good. And you’re good at whatever you need to be, which is great for you.

17. Rogue 12: With your last ASI, we’re maxing your Charisma. Maximizing dexterity would be nice, but we only have so much space and the extra inspiration is too useful to pass up. Don’t worry though, we’ll get something to guarantee our attacks hit in two levels.

18. Rogue 13: You know the drill: sneak attack goes up to 7d6, and you get your last Phantom ability. Ghost Walk lets you turn into, let’s say a “specter”, for ten minutes as a bonus action. You gain 10′ of flying speed and can hover in midair, attacks against you are made with disadvantage, and you can move through objects as difficult terrain. If you stay inside an object at the end of your turn though, you take 1d10 force damage. Honestly though, that’s a lot less damage than anything else that’s happening at 18th level. Why would you stay outside? There’s fighters out there. You can use this feature once per long rest, or by burning a soul trinket for this feature. I know that all the ghostly things you do in the musical are thanks to secret passages in your opera house, but most adventures don’t take place in your opera house. This is a good way to still dramatically pop out of mirrors without needing several years of prep time and a zoning permit.

One important thing to note: There’s no rules regarding what happens if you become tangible inside a wall, so try not to find out.

19. Rogue 14: You now gain a Blindsense, making you aware of hidden creatures within 10′ of you as long as you can hear. This combined with Ghost Walk means you’re now the master of the ambush. Why bother being in a fight when you can just stick your hands out of the floorboards and remove someone’s ankles? This gives you advantage on your attack because your opponent can’t see you, and makes you immune to any counterattacks unless they feel like tearing up the entire dungeon around them.

20. Rogue 15: With your capstone level, your sneak attack becomes an extra 8d6, and your fraying sanity becomes so obtuse it goes right back around to being good. Your Slippery Mind gives you proficiency in wisdom saves, making you harder to charm and fool with illusions.

Pros: A majority of your saves are pretty good, with only strength really being a weakness thanks to your features covering your constitution and wisdom saves. The only thing with a wider range than your save proficiencies is your skill proficiencies: anything you’re good at, you’re really good at. Anything you’re not good at, you’re still pretty good at. And Whispers of the Grave can even give you tool proficiencies. Your party needs a boat captain? You’ve watched Riders to the Sea once, it’ll probably be fine. Finally, specializing in one type of damage is usually a bad idea. Unless it’s psychic damage, in which case it’s generally a great idea. Very few creatures resist or are immune to it, and it’s pretty easy to argue that it’s magical damage.

Cons: Outside of Wails from the Grave and one or two bard spells, you don’t have many ranged attacks. Also, the psychic damage effects from your Psychic Blades are a significant part of your damage early on, and they eat into your inspiration stores very quickly until you get Font of Inspiration. Finally, we weren’t able to pick up War Caster in this build, so trying to dual wield your claws and cast spells at the same time might be a bit cumbersome, depending on your DM.

Next up: ...Sorry, I got distracted. What were we talking about?