#warcaster

[ariesgamesandminis]

GI Joe, Transformers, Terminator RPG, CAV Strike Ops, and Warcaster items are now 60% off until sold out!

Swing by and grab what you can while they are still available!

[underleveledjosh]

D&D Beyond is so fucking frustrating to use. I have the prerequisites to put the warcaster feat on my variant human, but it isn't showing for some fucking reason. It's so annoying. I'm going to use the browser version instead.

[adurot]

I’ve eyed Warcaster for some time, and I’ve heard it’s really quite good, but there’s never been much traction for it locally. Decided to try and kick start some interest and picked up two starter sets plus a couple extra solos for each side to run some trial/demo games this weekend at the flgs. Got them all fully built and the warjacks magnetized and ready to go.

[thebaldergatescandal]

literally sitting here planning my next team in terms of party composition, because i like how my current party works but miss having the other origin characters out with me in the world

(I have tavern brawler karlach, war priest shadowheart, and rogue/fighter 2h swords astarion. Tav is a storm sorcerer)

(I am dreaming about lock/bard wyll in shadowheart's role, monk karlach because I hear she makes funny bruce lee sound effects with her mouth, and i-learn-how-to-play-a-mage gale? Ranger Tav? Paladin Lae'zel? IDK. I will feel bad leaving gale in camp for a whole nother run, but I started with a mage Tav and then respecced because I hated it. I want something a little tiny bit lore valid for any origin character respec.)

[wizardnuke]

man it would have been helpful to have another caster her e

[nickmarini]

Ayden’s Build 

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand. 

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived. 

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope. 

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out. 

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so. 

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. 

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything. 

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. 

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age. 

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon. 

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers. 

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all! 

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community. 

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task. 

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day. 

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards. 

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

[lilliejareau]

Emily: Do you have any Washington Shire sauce?

Derek: the what?

Emily: the Westminster Shore sauce.

Derek: are you having a stroke??

Emily: BITCH. THE WARCASTER SHINER SAUCE!!!

Derek: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING????

[becausesure]

Why do Fig and Adaine not have a higher AC

Fig has proficiency with shields and she is wearing medium armor but she isn't using a shield

Adaine has Warcaster which allows you to use a shield and weapon so why is her AC still 15

Adaine AC 15 (10+2 sword+2 dex+1 wrist band)

Fig AC 16 (15 medium armor+ 1 dex)

Fabian AC 19 (12 light armor+5 dex +2 shield)

Riz AC 17 (12 bracers +5 dex)

Kristen AC 20 (18 heavy armor+2 shield)

Gorgug AC 14 (10+1 dex+3 con)

[utilitycaster]

Hi! I really enjoy reading your meta and have always kinda been curious about what a ‘utilitycaster’ is. I love watching cr but am not familiar enough with different casting play-styles or spell mechanics to know what differentiates a utility caster from other types of casters. I’d like to know more whenever you have the time or inclination to get into it. Thanks!

Thank you! I can explain! I will note my original desire when changing my url was warcaster since that's a specific feat, but someone has been sitting on that for years. At this point utilitycaster is my thing, so, idk, they can have it.

Anyway: a utility caster is in my mind indistinguishable from a support caster, and it is any casting class character who focuses not just on damage-dealing with their spells, but rather on some mixture of helping allies (buffs), limiting what foes can do (debuffs), healing, controlling the flow of combat or altering the field, and "stuff that's useful out of combat." This is done through a combination of how the person builds out their character, and how they play them. Crucially, they are a character built to be versatile and able to fill gaps within the party's skill set.

The opposite is what some people call "casters being blasters" - characters who focus primarily on dealing magical damage.

For what it's worth, any full spellcasting class and, to an extent, the hybrids (artificer, paladin, ranger) can be built this way. Artificer, bard, cleric, druid, and wizard all lean towards it; you have to work to not be high utility and even characters of those classes who tend to focus on damage (eg: Jester and Fearne) are formidable in the breadth of their skills.

[askrobouteguilliman40k]

Warcaster done, now to work on the rest of the army.

[ariesgamesandminis]

50% off our final pieces of Warcaster! I'd love to see these go before Christmas so if you have the need…please swing by & pick these up!

Morningstar B Weapon Pack - Iron Star Alliance Pack Sentinel A Weapon Pack - Empyrean Pack Sentinel B Weapon Pack - Empyrean Pack Strike Raptor B Weapon Pack - Marcher Worlds Pack

[incorrect-snkquotes]

Kyo: Can you pass me the Washington Shire Sauce?

Chizuru: The what?

Kyo: The Westminster Shore Sauce

Iori: Are you having a stroke?

Kyo: The Warcaster Shiner Sauce

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #335: Hephaistion

today on Grailfinder we’re making Hephaistion, who just kind of showed up one day. it honestly feels really weird to have a new character introduced in an event rerun, but she came, so we’ll make her. that’s how that saying goes, right?

she’s a Crown Paladin to protect her king physically and an Arcana Cleric to protect him magically as well. you have a party with a barbarian who constantly gets charmed? this is the build for you.

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

next up: I’ve had three years to figure out how to make counterattacks good in D&D, and didn’t. now the reckoning has arrived.

Ancestry & Background

fun fact, Faker is a Human! unless she was lying about that too. still, we’ll just hope she isn’t and give her +1 Wisdom and Charisma, as well as proficiency with Arcana and the Mounted Combatant feat. while mounted, you get advantage to hit anything smaller than your mount, and you can redirect attacks from your mount to you. also, your mount has evasion, which is nice. you’re a rider sometimes, kind of, so be nice to your rides.

Faker’s technically nameless, but we’re going to call her Faceless instead, so she gets proficiency in Deception and Intimidation. I don’t think deception’s needed for magical stuff, but it’s good to have regardless.

Ability Scores

Faker’s highest score is Wisdom- you need to ask the gods for help with making magic happen, plus you need to not die from the curses aimed at your boss. both of those are wisdom. second is Strength. you hit stuff a lot when you’re fighting, and you use heavy armor. third is Charisma. we need it for multiclassing, and it’ll also help you imitate a man twice your size well enough to pass for him. I wish your Constitution could be higher, but we needed everything before this for multiclassing. besides, while you can take hits for people, you’re kept around to block curses. this means your Intelligence is pretty low, but we’re dumping Dexterity. with your armor, it’s our safest dump stat to pick.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: we need to start off as a paladin if you want gold armor at third ascension, but while you’re here you’ll also get proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Athletics and Insight. you’re not quite as beefy as Iskandar, but you’ve to be able to keep up with the guy.

at level one you can use your Divine Sense to detect extraplanar being nearby, or you can use Lay on Hands to heal yourself or an ally. what is healing but retroactive protection?

2. Paladin 2: second level paladins get a Fighting Style. you use daggers and shortswords, so Dueling is more your speed, giving you +2 damage on one-armed weapon attacks. your fighting style actually works out really well for us, since it keeps a hand open, we don’t need to pick up warcaster for your spells later.

or now, really, since you can cast Spells this turn using your Charisma. Faker is an accomplished spellcaster, so your ability to prepare spells each day gives the whole build some much needed flexibility. we’ll bring up some particularly useful spells to stay in-character, but feel free to pick what you like.

for example, at first level you can pick up Protection from Evil & Good, Shield of Faith, and Heroism, each one protecting your charge from a magical malady. the first protects from possession and divine/unholy interference, the second gives a creature +2 AC, and the last grants immunity to fear, as well as some extra temporary HP.

if you’d rather, you can also use your spell slots on Divine Smites instead, adding radiant damage to your weapon attacks so even a dagger can hit like a greatsword. the stronger the spell slot, the stronger the damage dealt, though this only works up until level 5 spells.

3. Paladin 3: at third level you gain Divine Health, granting you immunity to disease. you also take up your oath of the Crown, which here grants you the start of your Mystic Eyes of Compulsion- your class spells Command and Compelled Duel. the former lets you give a one word command, which a target must follow on their next turn if they fail a wisdom save. this spell doesn’t work if the command is impossible or would cause them harm, but that’s what the second spell is for! if they fail a wisdom save for Compelled Duel, the target gets disadvantage to hit anyone but you, and needs to make another wisdom save to move away from you each turn. the spell lasts a minute, or until you attack another creature or another creature attacks it.

but we’re not done taunting just yet. once a short rest you can Channel Divinity in one of two ways. the Champion Challenge forces every creature you choose within 30’ of you to make a wisdom save as a bonus action. if they fail, they can’t move more than 30’ away from you unless you get knocked out or move 30’ away from them. alternatively, you can Turn the Tide as a bonus action, healing bloodied creatures near you for 1d6 plus your charisma modifier. Faker doesn’t really have healing, but again, this is just retroactive protection. that’s my justification, at least.

4. Paladin 4: we’re not really getting many magical attacks this time around, so make sure you use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Strength. your sword arm’s gonna get quite the workout by the time we’re done here.

5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each attack action, so. two per action. speaking of two, you get second level spells! Warding Bond is the best shielding spell we can get for a while, adding +1 to your charge’s AC and halving all damage they take for an hour. the downside is you also take whatever damage they do, so try to keep them alive. you also get another mystic eye spell, Zone of Truth. it’s a zone, that you tell truth in.

while it’s not a dragon, Find Steed can help you get a horse so your rider abilities won’t go to waste in the meantime. summoning dragons is a bit of a long-term goal.

6. Paladin 6: sixth level paladins have an Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to every save made by friendly creatures near you, including yourself. boom, that’s instant curse protection right there. it’s only a +2 bonus atm, but a bonus is a bonus! plus, it works on any other saves too, like say, Dexterity saves. but I mean really, when would Iskandar ever need to make dex saves?

7. Paladin 7: seventh level crown paladins get a Divine Allegiance, letting you take the hit for another ally as a reaction. you can’t reduce the damage to you if you take a hit this way, just like the warding bond.

8. Cleric 1: we’ve got all the taunts we need, so let’s crank up that magical protection now. as a first level Arcana cleric you become an Arcane Initiate, giving you two cantrip from the wizard spell list like Message for the chaldea-standard holophone, and True Strike, the sign that you’re not sure what other cantrips to give someone. speaking of, you get cleric cantrips too like Guidance and Resistance to protect people better than most, and Spare the Dying. I consider mortality a curse, so I’m counting this as an in-character spell. you can cast these or your other Spells from the cleric spell list using your Wisdom, and again this is a group of spells you can prepare each day. Clerics have some of the strongest spells in the game, and we have to go in deep to grab a dragon, so have fun with it! get the spells you want.

but also get Sanctuary, it’ll force a wisdom save on anyone trying to mess with your charge, whether that’s attacking or by using a spell. if they fail a wisdom save, the attacker will have to change targets or waste the action entirely. this only works for a minute, or until the warded creature attacks someone themselves, but it’s a potent defense while it’s up.

9. Cleric 2: second level clerics get their own flavors of Channel Divinity, and I’m pretty sure this is the first time it’s come up, but doubling down on CD doesn’t double the number of uses per short rest, it just gives you more options. options like Turn Undead to scare off zombies and skeletons, and Arcane Abjuration to turn a celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend. it can also gets upgrades like Destroy Undead later, banishing creatures of the same CR. I don’t think this comes up that often, but both of these options would protect Iskandar, so they’re technically in-character.

10. Cleric 3: third level of cleric is literally where the magic happens, as getting second level cleric spells opens up a lot of opportunities. Magic Weapon is nice, but we’re here for Arcana Cleric’s other class spell, Nystul’s Magic Aura. with this, you can make nonmagical items seem magical to spells like Detect Magic, but more importantly you can make yourself appear to be a different creature as far as spells go. technically this could only change your creature type, but I’m sure you can work something out with your DM. it’s also a useful defensive spell against magic, as a lot of weaker spells only work on humanoids, and you can make your king look unhumanoid to spells, shutting them down completely. it’s also super economical, lasting a full 24 hours.

you also get what is probably your most powerful use of your mystic eyes yet, Hold Person. when a target falls under the effect of hold person, all melee attacks against them crit automatically. paladins love crits because it makes your smites twice as effective. being able to command someone to hold still in the middle of a fight is good, actually.

11. Cleric 4: fourth level clerics get another ASI, so bump up that Strength again. you can also cast Light now, which is always going to be useful since you have dumb human eyes.

12. Cleric 5: fifth level clerics can Destroy Undead of CR ½ or lower using their channel divinity. ghosts suck, Iskandar hates ghosts, so just get rid of them. you also get third level spells like Dispel Magic to retroactively protect your king from magic, and Magic Circle to lock ghosts in place while you work to get rid of them. you can also reverse it to give you and your party a safe space away from ghosts and the like.

as far as spells we can choose go, Remove Curse is basically what you were born to do, and Life Transference is more of that retroactive protection we were talking about earlier. it’s healing, but it also hurts you in the process. I don’t know why they put this in the spell list of the most powerful healer in the game, but I’m glad they did.

13. Cleric 6: sixth level clerics can channel divinity twice per rest, and you become a Spell Breaker as well. whenever you heal an ally, you can end a spell’s effect on them for free. you know, like. curses. for instance.

14. Cleric 7: seventh level clerics get fourth level spells, and there’s not much we really need here. this build’s a bit awkward in that Faker is generally a low-level caster in execution, but her NP is a high-level spell, so the middle levels don’t have a lot for us magic-wise. still, that just means you have plenty of space to figure out what spells your Faker needs, so it’s not all bad. we only need Death Ward to block instant death spells, but the freebie spells, Arcane Eye and Leomund’s Secret Chest, aren’t bad either.

15. Cleric 8: eighth level clerics get another ASI, so bump up your Charisma for a stronger aura. you also get a stronger Destroy Undead this level, as well as Potent Spellcasting, adding your wisdom modifier to the damage dealt by cleric cantrips.

we do not have any damaging cleric cantrips.

16. Cleric 9: ninth level cleric, fifth level spells. again, Planar Binding and Teleportation Circle are nice, you’ll get use out of them, but if you want magical eyes that compel people to do what you say, you need to put a Geas on them. it lasts 30 days, and you can force it to either do something you want, or not do something you don’t, if it fails a wisdom save. once a day, if it works against your command, it will take 5d10 psychic damage. you can issue a harmful command, but certain death is off the table.

17. Cleric 10: tenth level clerics get Divine Intervention- once a day (or once a week if you succeed), you can ask the gods for help. you have a Your Level in 100 chance of success, so right now it’s 1/10. if you succeed, your DM will decide what the gods think is appropriate aid.

you also get one last cantrip, so Thaumaturgy. Iskandar is loud, so you need to be too.

18. Cleric 11: it’s an odd level, so you know what that means, more spells! there’s a few sixth-level spells we want, actually, like Fizban’s Platinum Shield to protect your king as best we can, giving him half cover, resistance to most elemental damage, and evasion. you can also swap it between people, but we really just care about the king.

while Mass Suggestion might not seem like the most powerful use of your mystic eyes, since its commands come with more restrictions than Geas, it can force a whole crowd to help you for up to a month by the time this build is done, so it’s not one to be underestimated. that being said, this will force every creature in the crowd to make their own wisdom save, so your DM might not be too happy about it.

19. Cleric 12: with our penultimate level, you receive your ultimate ASI, the Tough feat. it’s a whole 38 extra HP now, plus another two next level. we’re spending our HP on a lot in this build, we need all the stuff we can get.

20. Cleric 13: thirteenth level clerics get seventh level spells. the one spell we definitely need from this list is Conjure Celestial, letting you summon a celestial of CR 4 or lower. the important thing here is that includes Winged Lions, our stand-in for a dragon chariot. though if you wanted to just run people over, winged bulls are certainly an option as well. this spell takes a minute to cast, but after that you have your flying buddy for an hour, which is a lot of trampling time in D&D. plus you can ride on a flying lion, which is cool.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

you are very good at protecting people. you can lock down individuals or crowds, block off curses, disguise yourself or your king from magic, and just being around you improves everyone’s saving throws. and of course, worst comes to worst you can put your life on the line to shield others from attacks.

speaking of attacks, you’re a paladin that knows hold person. you can deal stupid amounts of damage if you pull that spell off you can just delete someone pretty easily.

also, while protecting people from physical attacks is pretty trivial, you specialize in protecting them from magical effects, which can be a lot more devastating as a whole. think about it. how many berserker builds get dinged for being easily charmed? and of course curses can be just about anything your DM okays, so being able to block those from ever hitting a party member can be huge.

Cons:

we need three stats for multiclassing, which really stretches how strong you can be in any one of them. don’t get me wrong, you’re okay, but there’s quite a few stats I wish could be higher for this build to really shine. also worth noting, both paladins and clerics have super strong level 20 bonuses, so by multiclassing you miss out on both.

speaking of stats I wish were higher, your HP isn’t bad, per se, but if you’re running a build all about taking damage for others you’d probably want something past 200 HP, not 170. thankfully you’re a palacleric, so you have a shitton of ways to refill that HP bar.

we don’t get your mount until level 20, and before that your best replacement is a regular horse. even with Mounted Combatant your steed will probably get shot out from under you within the first few rounds of combat. riding a flying lion looks cool, but falling from 10 stories up because they just got sniped does not.

[mercy-misrule]

Got accepted into the DnD campaign I applied to, lads.

Heheh.

So this is the character I will be playing

Yes, it's based on my own cat. No its not a tabaxi or leonin.

I'm going custom lineage for that free feat (Warcaster) and thus I will be a 3 ft tall housecat.

Class? hexblade1 /collage of swords bard 19.

This campaign is going from 1-20, which I've never done before. I'm playing Strahd rn, which is 1-10, (we're level 3), and just recently finished off a different Ravenloft campaign that was also 1-10.

And the game I'm dm-ing should end around 14/15. (One player got a level boost from the deck of many things).

But actually playing from 1-20??? Fuck yeaaaah.

In Chult. Dealing with dinosaurs, the undead and like 12 different cults.

[illarian-rambling]

🐹 for the OC ask game?

Confession: I've never played a Pokémon game in my life. I just had the cards as a kid cause I thought the art looked pretty, so I'm not really sure how to answer this one.

In lieu of that, I'm gonna answer about a game I know way too much about: dnd!

🎲 If your OC played a pen and paper RPG, what class would they pick? Warrior, mage, thief, ranger, cleric, paladin, druid, necromancer, bard (or other, if that’s not enough).

Izjik would be a gloomstalker ranger with a 3 level dip into battlemaster fighter to help facilitate that melee build. She'd have good strength, dex, and con, but abysmal everything else. Her maneuvers would be tripping attack, goading attack, and ambush.

Sepo would be a swashbuckler rogue with expertise in stealth and intimidation. His charisma would be high just for that intimidation, and his panache ability would just be him giving people a death glare. He'd duel wield daggers.

Twenari - despite being in Illari terms, a sorcerer who gets magic from her blood - acts much more like a wizard in the practical sense. She'd be an evocation wizard with the warcaster feat. Later on, she'd probably take a dip into artificer.

Djek would be a thief rogue/shadow sorcerer multiclass with high dex and charisma, but low strength and con. I thought about making him an arcane trickster, but he does damage with his magic that would fit closer to a sorcerer. He'd definitely be higher into rogue than sorcerer.

Astra would be an artillerist artificer, despite fighting like a full caster, rather than a hald caster. The arcane cannon ability could be reflavored as her ribbon coat, while her infusions are all the gadgets she makes. She'd probably take the skilled feat.

Mashal is pure battlemaster fighter. He has high strength and con, but utterly terrible wisdom. His maneuvers would be bait and switch, disarming attack, and riposte. He'd also have the mage slayer feat.

Ivander would have one level of celestial warlock for flavor, then the rest would be in inquisitive rogue, as he doesn't really use magic all that much, but he is one hell of a detective. He'd abuse tf out of steady aim and probably take the gunner feat.

Elsind's main battle strength is being slippery and they fight without weapons, so I guess that makes them a monk? I'd say way of long death monk because they're pretty tanky, but he's too nervous to do much fighting.

Avymere, as much as I love making fighters, fits way too well to be anything but an oath of devotion paladin, even if they have no divine magic in the actual story. I feel like they'd have the sentinel feat as well.

Thanks for the question, and forgive me for derailing it, I just love talking about dnd :)

[dungeonmalcontent]

Randomly saw a post about a reaction wizard build for 5e. Went to check sources to respond, but then Tumblr decided that that post no longer exists for me.

So now everyone gets some notes on reaction builds for wizards.

Shield, counter spell, and silvery barbs are, of course, your bread and butter. But depending on your archetype, there are some other fun things you might want to try.

Divination wizard gets portent. And portent and silvery barbs is really strong. Stack the lucky feat on there and play a halfling for halfling luck. It's not exactly a reaction build so much as it is a "no one does anything unless I say so" build.

Bladesinger (loathed by many) is actually really fun as a melee punisher. Warcaster and sentinel make bladesinger with shocking grasp able to suck opponents into combat with them. Try to leave? Nope. Kill their reactions while you're at it. With haste, this bladesinger is nearly unstoppable in a "balanced" fight.

This one... this is a multiclass, and it may well be a little cheaty. Take two levels in artificer. You get two infusions. Replicate magic item is great, and I usually take one of those. But homunculus servant is... it's the best damn companion in the game. As long as it's within 120 feet of you, it can use its reaction and one of your spell slots (if required) to cast a spell you know and have prepared. That includes things like shocking grasp, haste, cure wounds, mage armor, bestow curse, etc. You can cast those spells as a reaction. Put a magic initiate feat on that build for even more free spells. Hell, play a scribe wizard with find familiar; that puts you at three semi-permanent summons/companions. Screw it, also get a simulacrum. There's a lot of reaction potential when you control 4 creatures and your character in combat.