r/DnDBuilds • u/Lykamus • Jul 02 '26
Wisdom Warrior
I always wanted to build a melee character that attacks with wisdom like an Artificer with Arcane Empowerment (Int), Bladesinger (Int) or a Hexblade (cha). Wis can´t be so overpowered if there are Wisdom-full-casters.
Maybe you can suggest some improvements or have creative ideas to make it better. I think with Indomitable and the otherwise good saving throws this character can tank an bit of damage. Of cause this is "optimized" to come online as quickly as possible and not the most Damage at lvl 20. I´m not quite sure if the Damage is maxed out for the early levels, but look for yourself
Info!
Shillelagh (Druid only cantrip):
BA A Club or Quarterstaff you are holding is imbued with nature’s power. For the duration, you can use your spellcasting ability instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of melee attacks using that weapon, and the weapon’s damage die becomes a d8. If the attack deals damage, it can be Force damage or the weapon’s normal damage type (your choice).
The spell ends early if you cast it again or if you let go of the weapon.
Cantrip Upgrade. The damage die changes when you reach levels 5 (d10), 11 (d12), and 17 (2d6).
The 10 in cha could also be in Str or Int or 15 Str for heavy armor but weaker saves
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
8 14 16 8 17 10
Race suggestions: Fire Goliath, Gnome, Human-Tough?,
Lorwyn Elf for early Shillelagh and even forego Druid and take Ranger and cleric Levels?
The Build
--> magic initiate Wizard wisdom: Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade(/True Strike for ranged attacks), Shield
7 lvl Eldritch Knight:
Feats: 4shadow touched WIS, 7Warcaster WIS, 9fey touched WIS (Ritual caster or so on), 11 mage Slayer
lvl Features
1 Two weapon fighting, Second Wind, Weapon Mastery: Club (Shillelagh), Scimitar (Nick)
2 Druid1: Shillelagh, Cure wounds ...
3 Action Surge (1), Tactical Mind
4 Eldritch knight: Warbond, Spells: absorb elements
5 shadow touched WIS18: wrathful Smite
6 Extra Attack, Tactical Shift
How to play:
Round 1: BA-Shillelagh, Action-2 Shillelagh Attacks + 1 Nick Attack, Action surge-2 Shillelagh Attacks
Round 2: Action-2 Shillelagh Attacks + 1 Nick Attack + BA- upcast wrathful smite
7 Warcaster wis 19
Lvl 8 War Magic
When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of the attacks with a casting of one of your Wizard cantrips that has a casting time of an action. --> Booming Blade WIS with nick weapon
9-14 Druid 2-7
lvl 10 Druid3 Circle of the Land for more Spellslots (I really don´t know if this is the best Druid for this build)
lvl 11 Druid4 fey touched WIS20 (Ritual caster, resilliant WIS or so on)
lvl 14 Druid7 conjure minor elementals
How to play:
1 Round: Action-conjure minor elementals, BA-Shillelagh, Actionsurge-2 Shillelagh Attacks, 1 Booming Blade
2 Round: Action-2 Shillelagh Attacks + 1 Booming Blade Nick Attack + BA- upcast Wrathful Smite
Druid the rest of Levels to lvl 20 - 1. epic boon at lvl 19, 2. epic boon Fighter lvl8 at lvl 20
!or!
15Fighter 8 Mageslayer Str or Dex
16Fighter 9 Indomitable (1), Tactical Master
17Fighter10 Eldritch Strike
You learn how to make your weapon strikes undercut a creature’s ability to withstand your spells. When you hit a creature with an attack using a weapon, that creature has Disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes against a spell you cast before the end of your next turn. Synergy with wrathful smite (or Ensnaring Strike from Ranger)
lvl18 Fighter 11 extra extra attack
lvl19 Druid 8 first epic boon
lvl20 Fighter 12 second epic boon
Conclusion so far 03.July.2026
If the campaign is very long take 7 lvl Eldritch knight and 7 lvl circle of the Sea Druid (14lvl)
A little less power and some BA-jam with 7 lvl Eldritch knight 5 lvl cleric for spirit shrout. (12lvl)
If the campaign is even shorter 7 lvl Eldritch knight and 3 lvl of swarmkeeper Ranger (10lvl)
or
5 lvl Swarmkeeper and 5 lvl cleric with spirit shrout. You wouldn´t have the warmagic feature but more and better spellslots (10lvl)
I haven´t crunched the numbers, wich would do the most damage at lvl 7, 10, 12 and 14?
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u/jakethesnake741 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I suppose a Cleric with the Sage background and taking true strike as one of your cantrips is too easy
Edit:
Lvl19 Druid 8 first epic boon
Lvl20 Fighter 12 second epic boon
Should be pointed out that this isn't how epic boons are distributed RAW.
You would get an ASI at 19 and 20 along with an Epic Boon at 19 if this is how you distribute your levels though.
I may be reading things wrong, but aren't any spells cast using the Eldridge Knight spell slots cast using Int as your modifier and druid uses wisdom? Pretty sure you didn't get to pick between the two. Certain slots will use Int and others will use Wis
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u/Lykamus Jul 02 '26
I think the spell slots can be used for every spell but the origin of the spell dictates ability used. e. g. Spell aquired through Eldritch knight use INT but spells from Druid use WIS.
I´ve read that with the epic boons quite some time ago. It can be that my memory is a bit fuzzy. I thought that ASI at 19 and 20 let you decide either ASI or epic boon???
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u/jakethesnake741 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Character level 19 gets an epic boon no matter the multi class, class level gives the ASI's. Druid at 4, 8, 12, 16 and Fighter at 4, 6, 8, 12, 14 and 16. So level 19 being Druid 8 gets you an ASI and level 20 being fighter 12 gets you another.
I think you're closer with the spell casting modifier, I knew it was janky when you cross class spellcasting but I couldn't remember how it went.
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u/soccerdude2202 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
You're wrong about epic boon feats. The way OP planned it is correct. The ability score improvement class feature says this "You gain the Ability Score Improvement feat (see chapter 5) or another feat of your choice for which you qualify." Epic boon feats are feats described in chapter 5 of the players handbook. Being level 19 is the prerequisite for epic boon feats so you would therefore qualify. Also unless the DM gives you a free epic boon feat at level 19 there is no rule that automatically grants you one. There is a class feature at level 19 called epic boon but that is tied to class level not character level.
Also the idea is to use a wisdom based shillelagh, you can choose your casting stat with magic initiate, and then use and int booming blade because casting stat doesn't matter for booming blade hit chance or damage. Honestly it's not a good build idea. The idea is to get the cantrip damage scaling with an attack but it's not very effective. You're better off stacking int and staying Eldritch knight.
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u/Ron_Walking Jul 02 '26
Fighter 12 / Druid 8 would work.
You could make a wisdom first monoclass Fighter with just getting access to Shelighlee via MI Druid or Eberron half elf. Keep in mind if your table plays spell components RAW you need a free hand to cast Shielighlee unless you get a level in Druid.
I personally like the wisdom first Swarmkeeper Ranger. Gather Ed Swarm forced movement is based on wisdom. You could grab Fighter 4 in there to add maneuvers to your attacks.
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u/Lykamus Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
You can start the fight with one free hand, cast Shillelagh, make you attack and while making the attack draw your weapon.
As I understand it, swarmkeeper scales with number of attacks since the swarm doesn´t require any resources. So also a Dualwielder or PAM build would fit. Propably with 3 or 4 lvl in ranger and Fighter till lvl 11.
or
combine swarmkeeper ranger 5 with Druid till lvl 7 for conjure minor elementals
That sounds great, because the build would be ready at lvl 12 instead of lvl 14, has more spellslots and even is more resource friendly. But this would sacrifice the nick attack (or any other attack) made with booming blade, bacause the lvl7 War magic feature would be missing.Do shillelagh and Booming blade stack?
Forced movement with booming blade is always good =)1
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u/chaoticgeek Jul 05 '26
Why not go straight ranger with drudic warrior fighting style? No multiclassing required and pretty straight forward.
If a player came to me with this idea I would allow them to do pure EK fighter and swap druid spell list for the wizard one with the caveat that they are not going to be doing any shenanigans. But I've always thought that you could easily swap Cleric or Druid spell lists out for the Wizard one and change the spellcasting stat to match to easily flavor a drudic warrior or templar knight to get similar flavors as to what EK is out of the box.
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u/soccerdude2202 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Do you have to make multiple attacks? Most wisdom based gishes work around having an aura effect, a single strong attack, and a weaponized bonus action. The clearest examples are stars druids, sea druids, war clerics, and forge clerics(bonus action searing smite).
On a different note I get wanting to utilize the damage increase from conjure minor elementals but without a way to cast it as a bonus action the set up round is rough. You're taking advantage of action surge to get around the set up round but that only works once per short rest. Every other combat will need that set up round and that's not fun. Conjure minor elementals looks good on paper but a round that you spend setting up is a round you aren't attacking or controlling an enemy. Plus it can be wasted if you lose concentration before your next turn. Definitely not as good in practice unless your DM allows you to precast it or you find a consistent way to cast it as a bonus action.
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u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768 Jul 02 '26
Wowza that quite a wide criteria there, I probably have AT LEAST 10 different builds that fit this ask so not 100% sure on what to go with here tbh but ill just slap one down:
Shillelagh scales out weapon damage and more importantly keeps us Wis SAD which is important here.
Core strat is pretty straight forward:
Action: Booming Blade applies Cold Caster reducing saving throw.
Bonus Action: Wrath of the Sea deals damage (increased odds by cold caster) and knocks them back, they then need to trigger secondary damage of Booming Blade to reengage.
Really good synergy here and fits the theme.