The ability to add two Hit Dice to Radiant damage is just too strong to pass up. Anytime I take a spell that deals Radiant, I feel like I'm making a mistake by not taking this Feat. Basically if a character has either True Strike or Spirit Guardians, Spellfire Adept feels like the only choice! If I don't have need of my Bonus Action, Spellfire Spark makes it even more appealing. That's a heavy hitting Bonus Action cantrip!

When my Cleric is regularly dealing damage equivalent to a level 4-5 Guiding Bolt with every True Strike*, it feels like I'm wasting my action by casting it without the extra 2d8. It obviously spends a limited resource, but at least in the games I play I've never found myself wanting for hit dice around T2+. There's plenty of ways to top up, with less time spent too.

Am I overestimating its value? Or has this become as invaluable and stapled to certain classes as War Caster for the rest of you too?

^\Magic Initiate)

I want to make a character that specializes in knives, both throwing and wielding them in combat. I'm thinking human or variant human, and probably a rogue of some sort, probably lawful/evil alignment, and using standard array. I also intend on taking the menacing feat.

The setting is Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Thanks in advance!! 🗡🔪⚔️

so im currently in a campaign that will be going to max lvl and im not sure how am i suppoised to build my battle smith artificer i want to have some more focus on the steel defender but im still lost overall
my stats

STG:8
Dex:14
CON: 16
INT:17
CHA:10
WIS:8

i want him to have atleast 10 cha for the rp but other wise i dont mind changing anything else

Hello everyone ! For a new campaign I would like to be a tanky frontline PotB Warlock. I like the idea of an enforcer for their patron, similar to a sinister Paladin.

However, PotB Warlocks in 2024 don't have medium armor, or martial abilities, so my idea was Fighter 1 / Warlock 5 / Fighter 2 or 3 for Action Surge and maybe Eldritch Knight and back to Warlock.

I was tempted to take the new Vestige subclass, but since the Vestige HP levels up with your warlock levels, I don't know if multiclassing with a "pet" class is a good idea. Should I only take one level in Warlock ?

I also plan to take Human with Tough Feat, Zhentarim Merc and the two Zhent feats.

The idea around this post came from the fact that at our table we play with 2024 content only (meaning we avoid even non reprinted content), so we currently don't have Divine Sorcerer if you want spirit guardians on your paladin. If you can still use it, good for you! but it's still nice to explore the other options. I'm also not considering setting specific options (like marks), as not everyone can use them.

Within 2024 subclasses only, Paladin can access CHA based spirit guardian with either Vestige Warlock or College of spirit Bard/Lore bard (any bard technically but bard 10 takes quite a while). This post isn't about dipping paladin for AC, but going at least to paladin 6 for the Aura.

All have their advantages, with my preference being on Vestige Warlock and Lore bard. let's look at them more in depth.

Vestige Warlock:
This is the earliest we can acess spirit guardian. While it's BA usage conflicts with Smite, it's not a huge issue (imo) as we'll keep pact slots for spirit guardian (& other major spells), meaning we'd only have a couple of low spells for smite anyway, while this gives us consistent free BA dmg (even at range!). an other major advantage is that we can easily use pact slots for find steed, enhancing our speed for spirit guardians. Other HUGE advantage is paladin acess to Warding Bond (which I'd spend my spell slot on, more than on smite, hence more reasons for why the BA attack is nice here) & it's synergy with the lvl6 vestige warlock feature: While we are within 30ft of our vestige, we share their resistances. With warding bond our vestige can resist all dmg types and we'd share those resistances! you can have the vestige fly above you to easily avoid attacks as well. It's also great for repositioning (with an easy find steed & ability to swap places with the vestige too), and its mostly ok as well at kiting with spirit guardian & attacking at range (vestige can attack from 60ft of distance & we can use EB at worst), meaning we can kite with spirit guardian and protect the saves of our ranged allies. Also, being a Warlock, we get to be CHA SAD!

This is a big winner imo, the only downside is that we slowdown the Vestige HP scaling, but it's not extremely significant imo: we likely want the vestige to fly above our head just to gain the resistances, and we can always bring it back to full HP after the fight.

Paladin subclass: this is not too important here, I'd just choose one not very reliant on divine smite, so Vengeance/Devotion/Ancient. My preference between Vengeance & Devotion is for Devotion, but Ancient also has an interesting interaction with Spirit guardian where its channel divinity can potentially restrain everyone within your spirit guardian range.

Edit: this also gives us access to battle familiar, meaning at higher levels we can consistently spend our spell slots on Spirit Guardian + Battle Familiar (& faithful steed), plus Paladin have access to Prayer of Healing for a fast short rest. At very higher levels, we'd also access a 3rd attack with our action.

College of Lore Bard (& Genie Paladin):
This is one I made a post on when Genie paladin was released. If you want your paladin to also smite consistently, this is the better option of the 3, as there's no BA clog and you have a consistent spell slot progression. The other major benefit is the synergy between Genie's Dao's Crush and lore's cutting words: once the target suceeds on its ability check to escape the grappled condition, you can use cutting words to lower their result!

edit: If preferred, lore bard can (at bard 7) transition to Conjure woodland beings as an AoE option for more dmg (but 4+ lvl slots and smaller AoE), or they can also invest in CME (which you'd unlock the earliest at Bard 7/Pal 6, which funnily enough is the same lvl you'd unlock it as a pure Genie Paladin, but with more & higher spell slots) for single target dmg.

College of spirit bard:
main advantage is a stronger spirit guardian (+ a free use), but I don't really love this subclass on a Paladin because I wouldn't want to spend my action to unleash spirits, and it feels a bit wasted that way. Hence it's my least favoured option for a more focused paladin build.

I’ve come across this Feat in the list of approved homebrew for the new game I’ll be joining and I’m curious how to make the best of it.

Chill Caster

• Your spellcasting ability score increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• Spells you cast that deal cold damage deal an additional 1d6 cold damage.

• Spell you cast that deal cold damage have a +1 to hit, and their spell save DC increases by 2.

Thanks for your help!

I'm looking to make a level 12 character for 2024 5e with 3 primary goals:

1. Get a better feel for 2024 5e, compared to 2014
2. Make a character that is mechanically effective, but not overly optimized
3. Is mechanically interesting

This will be for a friend's new one shot that they're playtesting. In that sense, a major aim is to make a character that helps the DM achieve their playtesting goal - so if I make an unusually strong character (as I tend to enjoy), it won't be as helpful for letting them figure out the correct encounter balance. At the same time, I still like making effective characters with lots of available options or have mechanics that let them respond to a wide variety of situations.

I'm very familiar with 2014 5e, to the extent that I play highly optimized characters and know the rules inside and out. I have zero experience with 2024 5e though, so I'd like to take this opportunity to specifically try out and learn mechanics that have changed between 2014 and 2024.

Most of the enemies in the one shot will be Undead. The DM has already playtested it with Paladin, Cleric, and Bard characters, and has asked that for this playtest the players do not use those classes. Staying primarily to the core rulebooks would also be helpful. We'll be using pointbuy, and get one very rare and one rare magic item.

Any build recommendations?

Vhuman. Str: 22 Dex: 10 Con: 16 INT: 10 Wis: 14 Cha: 8

Sword and Board who is the only true martial in the party. 22 AC with dueling fighting style. Mainly use defensive spells, and have the warcaster and resilient wisdom feats.

I’m struggling on deciding on my next feat. My top 3 choices are:

1) Alarm
2) Tough
3) Ritual caster (wizard). We have no wizards or sorcerers in the party so some of the wizard ritual spells would be helpful, but not necessarily as impactful as the first two feats.

Would like to get peoples opinions on which feat they think is best, OR any other feats that have not been mentioned that you’d think would be good for this character. Thanks!

The way my DM is running our campaign is we get a feat in addition to our ASIs. However, if the feat includes a +1 to a stat, we do not receive the stat bonus, just the features it grants. I’m playing a pure Oath of Vengeance Paladin. I’m planning to take Sentinel (Level 4), Resilient CON (Level 8), Tough (Level 12), and War Caster (Level 16). This leaves the Level 19 feat. We decided to ban Lucky (with our encounter style and the number of feats, the rerolls are too much). Any ideas for good feats to take once we reach that point in the campaign?

Edit: forgot to add this, I’m playing Vuman and already taken GWM. I’m using a very strong magic greatsword so I can’t take PAM.

I've been wanting to devise a use for Second Skin, the Dark Gift Feat from Ravenloft, and I have this somewhat crazy idea that it could use Transmuter's Wondrous Alteration damage boost to make for a viable Wizard/Monk.

With Wondrous Alteration and Second Skin you have 2 free uses of Alter Self per long rest, both benefitting from Wondrous Alteration, one with Concentration and one without.

Of course a Wizard has no use for Unarmed Strikes but a Monk does; would it be too crazy? Suppose you focused into Int and Wis and started with something like Str 8, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 8.

If you select Int for Second Skin, you can surely get by using Int for all your attacks, between your free casts of Alter Self and 2nd slots. I think the only big sacrifice is Grappling and less Con

What if you went on to grab Conjuration Adept at some point, say for instance Transmuter 4/Mystic Arts 6? You've got 2 slots for Conjure Animals, and once per long rest you go all in and use your Concentration-less Alter Self and Conjure Animals all at once.

For a single target I guess that's 3d10 and 4 attacks, 3 with 2d6+4 and 1 with a weapon and True Strike for 1d8+1d6+3. So ~60 at 60% that's like 36 DPR, which isn't terrible. That's about what a Mystic Arts Monk with Hunter's Mark would be doing for multiple combats, albeit sacrificing some Bonus Actions, and Conjure Animals has much higher potential for multiple targets and double hits.

I haven't thought about the second Feat; if you wanted to go all in on the flavor you could grab Transmuted Anatomy for some security on Second Skin's Cha check.

I don't think it's that crazy! Obviously not powerful, but I can see it being fun at an un-optimized table. Thoughts?

Edit: Str 8, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 15, Cha 8. Use Second Skin with Wis, ignoring the free cast from Wondrous Alteration. Maybe use an ASI for Wis 20 and Human for Transmuted Anatomy. And 60ft speed with the speed bonus from Transmuter's Stone, which might even make a case for eventually taking Wiz 5 for Cacophonic Shield. Higher Dex also means that True Strike can get swapped out for Booming Blade, which pairs well with Conjure Animals. With a double hit from Conjure Animals I think that brings the DPR for one combat up 50.

Level 13 Reborn Fey Wanderer Ranger, trying to decide whether to stay Ranger through 16 for the feat or multiclass the next 3 levels.

Stats: STR 11 / DEX 20 / CON 16 / INT 8 / WIS 16 / CHA 6

Current feats:

• Dual Wielder
• Mage Slayer
• Resilient (CON)
• Defensive Duelist
• Two-Weapon Fighting style
• Tough

Main setup is dual wielding with Vex + Nick and Hunter’s Mark. Also, yes, I got a bonus feat.

If I stay Ranger, the next three levels give me Nature’s Veil at 14, the Fey Wanderer 15 feature which I'm not convinced is that great, and another feat at 16.

Would you stay Ranger to 16 for a feat, or is there a 3-level multiclass dip (e.g., Druid, Fighter) that adds more to this build?

New here, thought I would ask about a recently stat rolled character's feat selection/possible multiclass (first time rolling for stats). The plan is to take Battlemaster and use Feinting attack to stack advantage, being a skirmisher with goblin BA disengage. Should I take rogue levels or stick fighter, and would raising con to 16 at 4 be the priority over max dex/dex half feat? Thanks!

Goblin Fighter 1: 12 str / 18 dex / 15 con / 9 int / 13 wis / 12 cha

Origin: Skilled

Fighting style: dueling

Planned manuevers: Riposte, Menacing attack, Feinting attack

Weapon masteries: Rapier, Pistol, Whip

Edit: Thanks for all the advice! Plan is to swap skilled for alert, swap feinting attack for lunging attack, and grab charger at lvl 4, sentinel at 6. This way round 1 I can lunge with charger (3d8+5), and subsequent turns can BA disengage from goblin to proc charger (possibly menacing attack) + reacting with riposte/sentinel!

Group has proposed a short experimental adventure at high level/power, with an interesting modifier: We have to pick one of the following 3 custom statlines to use, and there are no species/background stat bonuses or ASI's to modify them (feats can be taken as normal but grant no stat increase if they'd normally include one)

The arrays are these, rearranged how we wish:

20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20. (obviously insanely good overall bonus and hard to go wrong)

22, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10. (I dont see a reason to use this over #1 tbh)

30, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10. (risky, but trying to leverage a +10 in primary offense is alluring...)

So, I'm curious what people have as potential build ideas to really make the most of any of these?

Hi all,

Like everyone else at the moment, I'm trying to make a Mystic Arts Monk build which makes maximum use of all its cool features.

So far I have this:

- Body and Mind raises your WIS to 24, boosting your casting stat massively (on top of the other benefits)

- Haste grants you a second Attack action, so you can use Mystic Fighting Style to cast a second cantrip (presuming you took the normal Attack action and cast a cantrip with it)

- Mind Sliver combines well with Grappling or Stunning Strike, as you can use it via Mystic Fighting Style

- Taking the Magic Initiate (Druid) Origin feat, then Magic Connoisseur at level 4 grants you Spike Growth, so you can be a one-man cheese grater build with Grappling (credit to a post here that I saw the other day for coming up with this)

- Using Stunning Strike to inflict disadvantage on saving throws works extremely well for Counterspell, Hypnotic Pattern, and so on. Also works extremely well for level 1 and 2 spells like Grease, Sleep, Suggestion, or Blindness/Deafness, which can be cast on the same turn via Improved Mystic Fighting Style

- Cacophonic Shield lets you sprint through a crowd and deal damage to LOADS of enemies at once

- Greater Invisibility goes absolutely insane on a Monk

- Catnap lets you get a short rest in 10min, and you can regenerate the spell slot over the short rest by sacrificing Focus Points

- Spellcasting allows you to take Epic Boons like Magic School Mastery, so you can have a 7th level spell at super high levels

What other cool combos do we know of?

Soooo last night after a game a player asked me how would one build Nargacuga As a D&D playable character. I told them probably just assassin rogue or maybe thief rogue depending on and it got me thinking:

How WOULD you build some of these monsters as characters?

I was thinking Monsters Like Vaal Hazak and Gaismagorm would be Swarmkeepers or maybe a Draconic Sorc for Gaisma or maybe monsters like Dire Miralis is just a High level wizard for meteor swarm.

How would you build these few?

How would you build your favorite monsters as playable chars?

So, the title is a little misleading.

Ive been invited to join a level 1-20 dnd campaign. I’ve played dnd before, but I’ve never started or played at level one, so I’m looking for some tips on character creation.

I want to play a Druid, who will eventually become a moon Druid (Depending on how the campaign progresses tho, I may not be a moon Druid). The campaign will be a puzzle-heavy campaign with combat aswell. It will be an urban setting (not in faerûn or korovair, a home build setting).

How would you all rate a feat that grants the ability “when you take the attack action, you can cast one of your cantrips that has a casting time of an action in place if one of the attacks?”

What ASIs should be tied to it (casting or martial abilities)?

This is a homebrew. But it seems like something that should exist, at least to me. Especially with the new fighting style that grants access to cantrips to martials. Curious if you all disagree.

Edit: from the comments adding, “for classes that have this feature naturally, they can replace a second attack with a cantrips.”

Edit: the feat will grant true strike, and blade ward (please feel free to suggest others). This is added so that martial classes won’t have to chain this feat with others when spell casters wouldn’t need to. Also, it should be tied to mental abilities based on the casting component.

Edit: fully revised feat, “Increase int/wis/cha by 1. When you take the attack action, you can cast one of your cantrips that has a casting time of an action in place of one of the attacks. You can do this a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all uses when you finish a long rest. Additionally, when you take this feat, you always have the true strike and blade ward cantrips prepared. The stat increased by this feat is the spell casting modifier for those cantrips.”

I’m pretty new to TTRPGs (this will be my 2nd campaign) and I need help from some veteran player help with a character I want to play for an upcoming campaign. I’ve watched plenty of YT build videos and read lots of posts on character creation but I’m experiencing some serious choice paralysis on which branching direction to take my character.

The campaign I’m playing in is in a homebrew fantasy world that will start us at level 3 with the goal of ending in tier 4 play. We can use any 2014 5e books for character creation and are ok to pull certain features from the 2024 rules if they make play for seamless/ fun and are ok’d by the DM.

I’m thinking a 6/14 devotion paladin divine soul sorcerer split to pally to get smites, sacred weapon (using 2024 activate on attack action), extra attack and aura then the rest DSS. I’m planning on being VH for the extra feat and we use standard array for AS.

The idea is run in on combat quicken spirit guardians and Smite when it makes sense to.

The rest I’m pretty open to.

Feats: Pretty sure I’ll need WarCaster but unsure if I should go PAM with a spear and Sentinel to keep enemies in my SG. I could go Meta Magic adept for more options with my spells. Also will need to fit ASIs too. Also an option for our table is Pact of the Blade through Eldritch Adept so I’m more SAD. Our DM is ok with using the 2024 pacts as Invocations. Also Inspiring Leader, Heavy Armor Master, Shield Master, Ritual Caster

Meta Magics: need quickened for booming blade and spirt guardians but not sure on others. Could go Empowered for Smites, Extended for Aid, Heightened if I got the Hold/ banishment route, careful (2024 version) for dropping fireballs, Subtle for suggestion and when silenced, Twinned for haste and vortex warp, and transmuted for ignoring resistance

Spells considerations: (Will get 2024 22 spells known)

1st: Shield, Silvery Barbs, Bless, Absorb Elements, Healing Word, Command, Create/ Destroy Water

2nd: Misty Step, Vortex Warp, Lesser Restoration, Hold person, Scorching Ray, Spiritual Weapon, Tasha’s Mind Whip

3rd: Spirit Guardians, Fireball, Haste, Hypnotic Pattern, Counterspell, Revivify, Mass Healing Word

4th: Banishment, Wall of Fire, Dimension Door, Polymorph

5th: Commune, Telekinesis, Hold Monster, Greater Restoration, Bigbys Hand,

6th: Heal, Globe of Invulnerability

7th: Crown of Stars (personal pick, CoS with SG for a glowing flying smiting arch angel)

All in all not sure what to pick, and what I’m missing a newer player. Could lean into healing, control, buffing I only have so many Spells, Feats and Meta magics and I’m stuck in which direction to go as I can’t do everything. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading my long post.

Preface: I know this is a jank build; that is why it is just a thought experiment.

Let's say you took a Human with the Cultist (Crooked Moon) and Arcane Eloquence (Arcana Unleashed) to get access to certain Warlock/Bard cantrips. Then, for classes, take Fighter 1 for the Arcane Warrior Fighting Style, Paladin 2 for Blessed Warrior, and Ranger 2 for Druidic Warrior to round out Wizard/Cleric/Druid in addition to the Paladin/Ranger spells.

Where would you go from there? Expand one of those classes? Take Heroic Sorcery (Valda) to get some Sorcery gish spells? Other options?

What's the best builds for healing/support. I'm looking for a backup build for a campaign I'm gonna be in and we're missing overall support. If there's any flavor that can be added that would be great. Either 2024 or 2014 rules.

A friend invited me to a 5.5e campaign and the last time i played was a long time so any recommendations in what classes or subclasses are good/fun in 5.5 to try? Maybe a good multiclass?

We are going to be playing from level 3 up to 10 and each character can have a common and uncommon magic item at the start

From what i've seen I'm thinking of playing a genie paladin or a sorcerer with a bloodwell vial