Top 5 Most POWERFUL New Things From Strixhaven
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2024
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The new Dungeons and Dragons Book Strixhaven is out, and it's got some AMAZING stuff for all classes and builds! Let's break down some cool options, combos, tutorials, abilities and the new Owlin race!
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0:00 - Silvery Barbs
3:29 - Owlin
7:02 - Student Backgrounds
8:36 - Strixhaven Initiate
9:41 - Strixhaven Mascot - เกม
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I wonder how the new feats mix with chain warlock?
Silvery barbs completely invalidates the cronoturgy wizard subclass ability
does it come with a bra?
So in short bruh moment?
Bruh dungeon dog sucks
>Be variant human sorcerer
>pick up silvery barbs
>Pick up the lucky feat at level 1 cuz variant humans are/can be op at level 1
>Later on pick up heightened spell just to make sure you are as annoying you can be
>multiclass to divination wizard on further levels
>watch your DM hate you to death
Instead play halfling, for rerolling ones
and go wild magic sorcerer to give advantage on chosen rolls
@@mahe4 you could also go chronurgist instead of Divination if you’d rather roll more dice. Plus their level 10 ability is kinda OP
Trouble with this spell is that it is widely available to wizards, sorcerers, bards, arcane trickster rogues, Eldritch Knights, everyone with the Silverquill background. That is likely at some point to include some opponents. If they roll higher initiative their save or suck spell Will suck. So basically it makes most encounters trivial and the rest impossible. As soon as your DM gets pissed off with you spamming it you get polymorphed, banished or feebleminded. Have fun with that.
@@nicka3697 I feel like an opponent just having good bonuses to checks and saves, like most do is the easy solution, along with counterspell and owning minions, since dnd wasn’t balanced for boss fights where it’s one guy vs the party.
...you know, since the Fractal Mascot can turn Large, that means that you can use it as a mount.
I can imagine something happening when you are on it and it somehow running through a wall with you on it and then just WHAM
Wall
That would replace the Phantom Steed ritual
@@zankou5611 not even close IMO, phantom steed has 100ft move speed just in combat, you can summon multiple at the same time, cost nothing and only die a minute after they are hit (hp seems to be irrelevant)
As a Sorcerer Main I enjoy the idea of freeing up one of my Meta Magic options
Go aberrant mind and you can put Silvery barbs on your psionic spell list and you can effectively cast heightened spell with bells on when needed for 1 sourcery point.
Makes sense man heightened spell burns through a lot of sorcery points at early levels. And you get the defensive bonus.
@@nicka3697 yup already haggling with my DM to respec it in hehe as I am aberrant mind. I have a one level warlock dip and had hex and dissonant whispers as my psionics. So have to haggle to move hex to warlock spell instead of psionic without taking a second level in warlock that I do not want.
@@Hyde_Hill Keep in mind hex sucks and doesn't hold up after level 3 since by then you have way better options than concentration for slightly more damage it's good if you can get it on a rogue because that's what would be two more levels in rogue (another d6 to their pool) and whatever target of the spell can have disadvantage on Wisdom checks so now they have a -5 to their passive perception when you hide and if they use their action to make a perception check they're have disadvantage making you a rogue who boggles the mind with a curse before going in for the kill
@@lucasramey6427 With multiple combats in a day Hex remains good for your low level concentration, as you don't want to waste your strongest spells on the non boss fights, plus I did a warlock dip for Eldritch blasts. Plus before this strixhaven spell once level 6 sorcerer being able to subtly give disadvantage on ability checks can be handy outside combat as well.
Silvery barbs being able to usually negate crits is probably it's most powerful application defensively. Otherwise it's a great offensive tool.
As written, the most powerful use of SB is forcing enemies to burn Legendary Resistance (2 casters with the spell could feasibly force an enemy to waste 3 resists to avoid an effect). Whiiiich is why I'm nerfing the spell to have no effect on Legendary Resistance
@@haerdalis84 I just make it so you can't use reactions on your own turn. Solves issues like this 75% of the time.
I, also, make it so Legendary resistances just... make them resist. They don't roll to make it work... they just choose not to be effected. Can't make me reroll something I didn't roll. :D
@@haerdalis84 The spell effects rolls. As written legendary resistance ignores rolls. Sure you can use it if they use a legendary resistance, but it accomplishes nothing besides the inspiration half.
@@CRFIDJ9K The only problem with being unable to use reactions on your turn is that means you can't use counter spell to protect your own spells. Which RAW allows you to cast fireball, have opposing caster use counter spell and then you can use counter spell on theirs.. Which is still on your turn.
@@haerdalis84 No that is not how Silvery Barbs interacts with Legendary Resistance.
That simply says "if the creature failed on a roll it can treat the SAVE as a success" its not giving another roll, its saying regardless of the rolls they treat the save as a success.
However, to use up legendary resistance they do need to actually fail so this can use up the LR quite quicker.
I just started a divination wizard, and I'm absolutely gonna take Silvery Barbs to have even MORE control over the dice, thank you very much 😁
A divination wizard in Silverquill sounds like a nightmare to come across. Good job.
Just be prepared that ABSOLUTELY EVERY sane DM and i mean that, is going to ban Silvery Barbs the way it is right now.
It cannot be understated how insanely busted that spell is in its current form.
@@Hyperdragon1701 agreed. I day one banned this spell at my table.
Just be prepared to face silvery barbs if you start spamming it. When every spell the lich casts always lands because they have 6 cultist followers who can cast a first level spell your play experience is going to get tough quick.
@@Hyperdragon1701 i did something different - changed it to being a level 3 spell with the addendum that it has no effect on Legendary Resistance. In other words - not an outright ban but a reasonable nerf
Strichaven backgrounds aren’t actually the only ones with expanded spell lists
Guildmasters guild to Ravnica introduced a bunch of backgrounds that give some pretty good spells, the best (in my opinion) has to be the GRUUL ANARCH, which gives any caster access to conjure animals, which is amazing, not to mention some other spells you get are thunderwave, shatter, dominate beast, and Destructive wave. Another really good background from Ravnica is the Izzet engineer, which, apart from giving you spells like chaos bolt, animate objects and Heat metal, gives you a background gray that allows you to, I kid you not, notice alterations in infrastructure and where an area of a building might have anything behind its surface. An izzet engineer just walks into a dungeon and automatically knows where all the trapdoors, hidden doors, and secret passageways are, no perception roll required. That’s insane
I feel like people forget about the extra setting books sometimes XD The dragonmarks in Ebberon add additional subraces to the base PHB races and each mark provides an expanded spell list. My favorite being the Mark of Hospitality Halfling adding goodberry to any spell list.
@@Magic-nx2fb I was literally making a character sheet for a hospitality halfling when I read this.
Both are from originally from MTG as well. Coincidence?
@@immortalstar0138 yea magic the gathering doesn't DND well, wow that's odd. Aside from theros you can stay.
@@Magic-nx2fb goodberry is great using it and mark of hospitality halfling I made Blueberry the halfling chef who after unknowingly impressed a life god with their cooking was made into a cleric and roleplay wise any spell they cast is the god protecting them, keep in mind each berry is affected by life cleric's ability and you can cook all the berries you produce into a small pie or make a smoothie and have them all take effect at once or you can just do it the normal way and distribute the berries among your allies the magic from the berries last 24 hours so you could cast the spell before a long rest since I doubt you're going to spend more than 16 hours doing something before resting, for feat take the chef feat for flavor and temp hp
silvery barbs fits so well with clockwork soul sorcerer being able to manipulate outcomes in reality in the name of order and balance
I love Vortex Warp. Oh the shenanigans that you can do with this spell.
Granted, the Con saving throw can make using this spell on enemies somewhat dicey, but even if you focus on using it only on your friends, you can do so many tricks.
Get your allies out of trouble! Get your allies into trouble!
Buddy falling behind? Now he’s in the lead!
Buddy fail his athletics check to climb the wall? No problem!
Need to capture an NPC? Teleport him into a cage!
Have a ranged-heavy party? Send the biggest melee threat three turns away!
It is SUCH a good spell.
Owlin also have 120 ft of Darkvision vs the 60 ft most races have which means they are slightly better with bigger maps 😄
Especially if you go Gloomstalker Ranger and get a bonus 30 feet to that range
Just break darkvision entirely and go with Twilight Cleric. 300 ft range!
Something really useful for non-Dwarf Sorcerers: the spell from this book called "Wither and Bloom", when paired with a Bloodwell Vial, lets you spend a 2nd level spell slot to heal and regain 5 sorcery points
Silvery barbs with voice of authority on a rogue = auto sneak attack on the enemies turn after forcing a reroll on a save or suck spell. So good.
I imagine that the backgrounds would be campaign specific for most games.
Setting agonistic backgrounds with feats just dropped. Rewarded and Ruined.
So I had a very long and rambling explanation of what I think went on with Silvery Barbs that I had to cut because honestly that section is already way too long. But here's my theory as to how it ended up so clearly broken.
I believe it started out as a spell that let you reroll an enemies attack roll or ability check only. This was then playtested, and the designers felt it was too weak. In an attempt to patch it up late in development, they slapped on the saving throw effect as well, and didn't have time to thoroughly check it in practice before the book was sent out.
I think that's how the oversight happened. Personally, I'll be giving players an option to cast Silver Barbs at 3rd level or higher to get the Saving Throw effect, and if they cast it at 1st or 2nd level, it only effects an enemy attack roll and saving throw!
Check out the Strixhaven UA from earlier this year. Silvery Barbs was a subclass feature.
I outright moved the spell to 3rd level because a level 18 wizard feature is a thing. Added a clause that makes it impossible for this spell to negate Legendary Resistance as well.
I personally just make it so you can't use reactions on your own turn. Keeps them from turning their own spells into suck-save and makes it more team-work oriented.
@@CRFIDJ9K I really hope they remove reactions on your own turn in next edition.
For Silvery Barbs I defo would remove it being able to negate crits (neg play experience imo)
Even the attack roll bit is broken, because basically crits can't land on the party if the spellcasters have their reaction. I'll hombrew this as triggering before you know the result of the roll. Even then it is very strong.
Vortex Warp is pretty strong too. It allows you to reposition an ally within 90 feet towards anywhere within 90 feet of you, potentially moving them up to 180 feet. Unlike Thunder Step or Dimension Door, you don't even have to be next to them and it works if you're smaller than your ally, too.
Either way it paints a clear picture of how WotC feels about martials.
Vortex Warp is even more broken than that! What is one liquid surface that can support a creature? Lava. You see where I'm going with this, don't you?
I agree but this is a book for a magical university. It isn't really built for martial classes. Half casters like Paladins or Rangers can get more spells through the background/feat and possibly their race too. I don't think this is a game for a straight martial. Outside of Strixhaven I think I'd reduce the range of vortex warp and ban silvery barbs. Even if I was running Strixhaven I'd be tempted to reduce the range of vortex warp and make Silvery Barbs a third level spell.
Friendly reminder to like the video so TH-cam doesn't sneak into my house and steal my kidneys!
also this video was written, recorded, edited and uploaded in one 24 hour coke zero fuelled fever dream by me. Never let it be said I don't suffer needlessly for this children's roleplaying game
Lol wtf man 😆🤦🏻♂️
@@DnDShorts any chance that you could do a video on the Fallen Necro Blood Hunter Shadow Sorcerer build
I actually love the new background, but I am one of those weird DMs that likes it when my players succeed lol. Seriously though my only complaint, we need some martial love and badly. I am considering hombrewing martial backgrounds and some feets that give martial players some things a la Baldur's Gate III weapon abilities.
I love most of this, though I feel like the pest is missing a spell to complement it. In the book, they say that the school uses the pests' regeneration ability for magic. So a spell that absorbs life points like vampiric touch would be perfect to give this guy a use.
A Blood Hunter/Sorcerer build that uses the pest's blood as a mana pool...I'm loving this.....
You know, despite my lack of ever having played DnD 5e, I would totally play an Owlin just for the face on the cover alone. He looks like he just stole a cookie, and I love it.
You can swap places with the Fractal mask after a running start as they are going through walls to ambush and vibe check an enemy
I just like that strixhaven initiate can give you healing word on a wizard and it uses your int bonus. That’s my favorite thing, DM is letting me have it as a variant human feat instead of magic initiate and I am pumped. Backgrounds are understandably banned since they don’t fit the setting.
IMO if your banning the background the feat is banned too, as are the mascots, unless your character actually has a backstory that accommodates it in a nice way and you aren't literally powergaming, most of my players would be taking Magic Initiate as normal.
those things were all designed for the module and not outside of it.
@@jake120007 Do what is best for your setting and players but it definitely isn't overpowered compared to any of the other feats like fey touched that add spells and let you select the casting ability score. Without the background it gives you 2 cantrips and a level 1 spell and that's it.
@@jake120007 the feat can be taken normally, it's just the background gives it for free.
@@summermermaidstar756 in your game, thats fine, but as the feat is literally named after the school, and references the school itself as the reason for the feat, if the school is not in my world, the feat is not in my world.
@@jake120007 Reflavoring is a thing. Wizards and Bards both reference magic schools anyways, and the name of the feat doesn't affect anything.
i was amazed by the owlin's darkvision out to 120 feet!
In silvery barbs I'm glad you mentioned crits because as soon as you read it my first thought was "oh so noone is going to crit anymore?"
Also pact of the chain with a fractal mascot sounds like fun shenanigans
To be fair, both adamantaine armor and grave clerics can also cancel crits! It's rare, but not a totally unheard of ability
They Owlin would also make some awesome gloomstalker rangers, especially in places that are dark but not underground. I actually considered it as a race to use for my Icewind Dale campaign I am participating in but decided instead on drow because there was a type of story I wanted to tell. Even so, I might just use it another time.
If WOTC really wants to make books set in the MTG multiverse, I really wish they would make a book(s) set in Dominaria. Being a fan forever, and reading the novels set in the MTG multiverse until they stopped writing them, Dominaria is such a cool setting. With SO much to go on. Phyrexians, metathran, slivers, thallid, wurms, viashino etc. And all the iconic locations, Llanowar, Benalia, Urborg, Tolaria, even Rath. With so many legendary characters to make into legendary NPCs/monsters, Urza, Volrath, Tefferi, Gerrard and the crew of the Weatherlight, Tsabo Tavoc. It just has so much to lend.
stixhaven mascot would be pretty cool for a chain warlock
in your opinion, which mascots are the superior ones?
well my Necromancer would love to use the new Wither and Bloom spell :D
he is a mark of healing halfling and a Doctor, so necrotic damage plus healing is really nice :D
Variant human with student background: my time has come
My favorite thing is that they kinda allow to buff the old stuff now more. Compared to some other backgrounds for example, on wich you could just slap a feat on top. I always thaught about doing that and now I feel definitely more freedom to do that. They are increasing player power lately thogh this means that you can't really compare old rules with new ones it gives you security to buff the old stuff
It speaks levels that I didn’t realize how old this video is until silvery barbs was named it became a staple so fucking fast
Power creep in DND is very fucking real
Doesn't Silvery Barbs force a reroll ? This would actually take place after a successful roll, even with disadvantage. So if even with disadvantage your target succeeds, you can force them to reroll once again. It's basically a double disadvantage, and it doesn't count as a disadvantage, just mechanically is close to one.
For a save or suck spell that fails it is mechanically identical to recasting the same spell against the opponent. Oh and giving inspiration to a colleague because just landing feeblemind is not enough for a first level spell and your reaction.
And if they save the second roll your companion can cast the spell again force another saving throw an give you inspiration.
Someone could have triple advantage and you could just say no
Silvery Barbs is a reaction spell, so if you're only relying on a spell cast, then you can only force the re roll once
@@stars1941 silvery barb's is in reaction to a successful saving throw. A successful reroll of a saving throw is a successful saving throw.
I love the fact that silvery barbs is an option. Theres only one caster with access to this spell in my party and them having to decide if their reaction should be a shield, counter spell or silvery barbs sounds like a tense moment for those final fights.
Anyone who takes the Fey Touched feat gets access to this too...
just like anything from Ravnica, Plane Shift, Wildemount, to a lesser extent Theros, and a even lesser extent Eberron... everything from those worlds are BANNED as long as I'm not playing ON THOSE WORLDS... and the players don't have a very good argument to using it... unless it's basically "harmless", fun or not that unbalanced... like, Ravnica also had crazy backgrounds that give extra spells... I think it's because the world of MTG is way more 'high magic' than Toril... so it kinda make sense...
"Silverquill get an Inkling mascot"
I can't wait to go adventuring with my squid kid familiar! :D
Imagine flock of familiars with the mascots
You only mentioned the first half of Silvery Barbs. There's a whole other part of the spell that allows you to give another creature advantage on their next roll.
Silvery Barbs tech that I don't often see people bring up:
As an Enchantment Spell on the Sorcerer and Wizard List, this means that an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer can replace either of the 1st level Psionic Spells with it so they can basically learn it for free AND from 6th level on they'd get to cast it for the low low cost of a single Sorcery Point. That's 1/3 the cost of the Heightened Spell Metamagic and 1/2 the cost of a single 1st level spell slot.
"Just look at this guy on the cover. He's knows he's good. Look at that fuckin face!" 🤣
"Because it's comfortable!"
I'm REALLY hoping the revisions of "5.5" or "Advanced 5th Edition" or whatever will bring Magic Initiate in line with the recent trends. I'd like to officially use any spellcasting ability with the spells granted by this feat, so I don't have to ask my DM if I can take one of the other Initiate feats. I feel dirty taking something "setting specific" outside of its intended setting, you know?
To be fair, the Strixhaven student backgrounds are specifically balanced around the adventures in the book and not for any kind of standard home campaign. By no means should you allow this in your home games unless you're balancing your encounters and adventures in the same manner as what's in the book.
EDIT: I do not like the official stats for the owlin. It lacks the originality of the UA version. I'm fine with the DC 10 "Nimble" aspect of the flight removed, but the ritual spell detect magic should have stayed.
To be equally fair, people can use this in what ever game they want. It's up to them as DM to make sure they can handle it and keep things fun and challenging.
This is a useful piece of info. Knowing WoTC’s intentions for a supplement makes it easier to use the way they intended. In my case, I will not be allowing my Players take that background in any of my games, but the feats are okay, I think.
thats what I was thinking also, getting a free background feat is made for the game setting this is not something you can take as a "background" in a world were strixhaven doesnt exist, same reason you cant have a waterdeep background in a worlded without waterdeep.
Exactly. The people talking like they should be able to roll up to any group with anything just because it has a published source and the DM should just deal with it are the same people who think you have to be OP to have fun
Favorite use of silvery barbs was my friend making someone’s nat 20 save against phantasmal force into a nat 1.
The only "errata" they've made on Silvery Barbs so far was to clarify that it doesn't override Legendary Resistance. I don't know that this is really an errata, but a lot of people seem to be calling it that. It's what I'd've already assumed based on the original wording, personally. Still, it can force a legendary creature to burn through their Legendary Resistances more quickly, and therefore open themselves up to the harsher spells more quickly, so it's still pretty powerful against them.
Erratum. Only 1 corrected error is Erratum. Errata is plural.
"Look at that fuckin' face" absolutely killed me hahahaha
“People don’t like it when a new thing comes along that makes an old thing effectively pointless.” Fucking god tier quote
Idk why but I lost it when he said “look at his fucking face” 😂
"Lookit that fuckin face" I'm dyiinnn lolol I'm a fan of this guy
Last time we got backgrounds this good, it was the Ravinca Backgrounds that gave spells as well
The skype call scared the crap out of me thinking my boss was calling me or something. lol
I have a player who ever since strixhaven came out only takes those backgrounds for spells and the feat. I just started doing setting appropriate stuff and told my group they have to have a really REALLY good reason to go to school, and not the, I came from the astral plane and got accepted because I did and took one year and left to explore, which was literally his last character to explain why a blood hunter thri keen not only went to strixhaven but also wound up in faerun outside waterdeep for the witchlight carnival.
I wouldn't ban Silvery Barbs... yet. I think it deserves testing.
As for the backgrounds, unless I am running a very specific campaing themed with wizardly, I would ban all of them. Everyone, including the battlemaster fighter in my group being a magic student doesn't make any sense.
Battlemaster no, Eldritch Knight? Totally. That even sounds kind of amazing. Being the dude at wizard college that isn't a very good wizard, but is an amazing fighter.
@@LupineShadowOmega Love this. Gonna use this for an NPC later. Thank you.
I can see why you said the backgrounds were so good
They really do blow all of the other ones out of the water
Ok wait what wow lol oO. Honestly background and all that it comeswith is like a subclass.... I hear the sound of pitchforks!
I'm once again impressed by your sponsorships
Cartman voice: Mooo-om, they are doing the power-creep agaaain! :D
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Even if the reroll forced by silvery barbs is still a good roll, you STILL give advantage to another creature of your choice. The spell doesn't stipulate that the additional advantage requires that the creature's lowest roll be a failure. Still a pretty good spell if you're wanting to play things a little bit support-y, and great as a reaction if you want a lower level, slightly less effective alternative to counter spell.
What really puts silvery barbs over the top is the almost overlooked advantage part... As if it was not good enough without that there's one more boon on top. That's really the cherry on top of the cream of the delicious cake that you bought for a nickel.
Excellent breakdown! You’re awesome. Thanks for doing this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have a character that’s perfect for the Strixhaven Student background. Thanks for the info!
Love the Big Blue theme and other video game themes in ur vids
I feel like you missed the greatest significance of the introduction of the Owlin...
Being able to choose the Bear Totem as a Barbarian.
Well, beyond the Winnie the Pooh reference…that is still a cool combo.
(I just found this video, my bad for being a year late) Funnily enough, I'm playing an Owlin in a campaign, as a Blood Hunter (mutagen) and Artificer (Alchemist)
my background is Witherbloom Student. I can fly around dropping poisonous chemicals on people (that's how I flavored my spellcasting) while my little pest grapples them and does piercing damage. absolutely amazing.
I will just ask my players: "Do we play in Strixhaven?" And that'll be the end of the discussion.
As always another banger of a video
Silvery barbs is meant to combat boss resistance or lair actions.
V.Humans get a free feat at lvl1 as well
Time to troll with silvery barbs, make the kobold minion fail his saving throw while giving his dragon overlord advantage
You could also use silvery barbs against legendary resistance. Either for a double burn or to give it the chance of failing
You forgot the fact that you get to choose your spellcasting ability score your spells use.
You can now get Cure Wounds as a Wizard without taking a dip into Artificer. Or as a sorcerer or Warlock without picking divine soul or celestial. It opens up sooo many different spells
I'm really fortunate as I'm about to run this for some new players and they haven't discovered any of this stuff yet. I'm dreading the day they really research it all...
excellent production. excellent speed. great performance. good information. nice beardshape.
+inspiration
thanks for the work.
Seems like Strixhaven got the Fire design treatment despite being a post Fire design set 😂
I get that joke, but I say FIRE still is in effect, it's just that they know how to handle it.
What is FIRE design?
Moments before the Strixhaven Background Tasha's Custom Lineage Pact of the Tome Undying Warlock comes rocking up with Magic Initiate and Strixhaven mascot. Bloody *All the cantrip.*
go a step further by getting Ritual Caster your next ASI and choose wizard or cleric to unlock even more brokenness.
Fly at lv3: the alchemist artificer can create up to 3 flight elixirs, chosen using spellslots, they are only for 10 ft for 10 minutes, but hey, it works for small partys getting over lava pitts or a cannyon without bridges
Favorite thing in Strixhaven?
Decanter of Endless Coffee.
I keep thinking that tag on the beeni is your eyebrow looping up. I love it. It is just the look for a mega-DM like you. Unique, but innocent. Or is it?!
i'll note, the guild guide to ravnica backgrounds also give spells.
That background is so op that it almost makes me mad. WotC will have to rework and add background, or people are only going to use this one.
Sorcerers....look how they massacred my boy
Barbs,: second level
Birds: counter balance
Background: this will probably be the only thing I ban at my table
You could take the new feat and the feat that gives you a familiar. Get the fractal and use it as a mount
i expect my DM to let me grab Silvery Barb because it fits my manipulative, talkative, Charms and illusions sorcerer. Then complain regularly when I'm using it after 2-3 sessions. xD
Needs a feat to take a feat, I'm having 3.5 flashbacks.
can i just say i love the use of all the MTG art in your videos? Because i do xD
As Written, Silvery Barbs can CHUNK legendary resistance, that's insane
Wild Magic sorcerer with Mind Sliver, Silvery Barbs, Bend Luck and Heightened Spell and multiclassed into Divination wizard: "Trust me: this is going to suck."
damn now i wanna make a moody owlin bard dressed up like a mariachi singer
You can now have literal Bendy as a familiar. Have fun with that.
got to give some love for the f-zero bgm
The biggest advantage of silvery Barbs is that YOU KNOW WHEN SOMEONE SUCCEDES ON A CHECK. Let that sink in. You know if someone rolls a check (like insight, deception etc) and than YOU KNOW IF THAT PERSON SUCCEDES, AND THAN YOU CAN TRY TO MAKE THEM FAIL. Combine that with a Reborn chronurgy wizard with lucky feat and few lvls in soulknife rogue: you'll never fail on any check.
owl barb sounds just so fun..
So custom origin + student background, starting level 1 with 2 feats, EYYYYYYYYYYYY!
I never ban spells or backgrounds or anything like that. I simply make it work which I feel is my job as DM. I'm excited to run Strixhaven and see my players do all sorts of cool things :)
An Owlin’s Darkvision is 120 feet. 🦉
If you start as an Owlin and then become a Dhampir later in the campaign (with your DM’s permission) you end up with a 35 feet flying speed, a 35 feet climbing speed, and always on Spider Climb (a 2nd Level spell) with no Concentration needed to maintain it.
Silvery barbs is kind of fine. Yes, it steps on sorcerers' toes a little, but it also gives a good template for how to improve/replace Goolock's Entropic Ward ability, and I kind of already buffed all the sorcerers that don't have an official expanded spell list by brewing them a nice thematic expanded spell list.
I was fully prepared to defend whatever you were going to say was an insta-ban, but that's fair. Two feats at level 1 and two expanded spell lists is overkill.
That being said, if we hand out under-loved feats to other backgrounds, we might be getting somewhere. Keen Mind might be an absolutely tragic feat, but as a freebie add-on to the Sage background, suddenly it doesn't seem like such a complete waste of text.
The expanded spell list from a background though is indefensible madness. The whole office was high when they cleared that.
The thing is that you can only silvery barb other caster's spells, and your own cantrips. You can only cast 1 non cantrip spell a round, and when a creature saves against your spell, its still your round, so no silvery barbs as a reaction.
RAW on PHB pg.202 says "[If you cast a spell as a BONUS action], you can only cast another spell on your TURN if it is a cantrip and has a casting time of 1 action."
The key points here are that this rule only applies when casting a spell as a bonus action, and it is only talking about what can be done on your TURN, not the whole ROUND of combat (which includes other characters' turns, during each of which reactions from any other character -including you may be triggered)
This means:
1) That if you cast a spell as an ACTION, you are still free to use a spell as a reaction on your turn, but may not ALSO cast a bonus action spell.
2) That you can cast a spell as a bonus action, a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action, AND a reaction spell in the same round of combat, as long as the reaction occurs on another character's turn.
Basically, you CAN silvery barb any of your own spells that aren't a bonus action spell.
Get the Fractal familiar, get it to Huge with its ability, use Enlarge, get surrounded by enemies, switch places, (?!)
Some glorious things to play with
Veriant Tieflings are my go to race
You missed something on Silvery Barbs: It doesn't impose disadvantage. Nowhere is that word used. So you can hit a creature with it that *already had disadvantage*.