it's so cool that basically this whole build came from tasha's. the patron, the pact, the summoning. tasha's gets a bad reputation for just being power creep, but i think it's clear that their goal was to give new ways of playing the classes, not just new ways of conceptualizing them.
Ramen Goblin here. I've played a movement reduction build in the past. I was inspired by creation bard / fathomless warlock combos with combined lance of lethargy, the tentacle, and the dancing item to apply 30 ft of movement reduction with no concentration. I wanted to use my concentration on shadow spawn, focus more on damage, keep my bonus action open, and scale better into tiers 3 and 4. Thus, I suggest doing a battlesmith 3 / bladesinger X when doing a movement restriction build for high levels. You can upcast shadowspawn to higher slots, which increase offense as TM has demonstrated, but the shadow spawn has extra good HP scaling. Rather than protecting the spawn with a talisman, I used the sanctuary spell and warding bond from battlesmith, and utility spells like vortex warp which we'll be able to cast more with spell slots than a warlock could with pact slots. Artificer also gives us armor prof (limited for bladesingers), CON saves, mind sharpener, returning weapon, and a fairly durable mount. For the movement reduction portion, you use the shadowspawn for 20 ft, the slasher feat with a returning hand ax for 10 ft, and the frostbolt cantrip for 10 ft. This means you could reduce 2 enemies adjacent to the spawn by 30 ft. It's a unique combination of attacks and cantrips for a bladesinger, and has a great cold/slowing theme. Here's a 11th level snapshot, though I built with some magic items in mind: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/68597815
Well, here a compliment then. These summoning builds make we want to play a summoner! I dislike most of the old Summoning spells, for reasons you addressed well, and the buzz was the Tasha’s spells were inferior options. But seeing the results, and flavor, you can achieve with just a little optimizing using these spells made me excited to use them in game! Thanks for all your work Chris. You are truly an S tier D&D TH-camr (probably too good)
Solid. I especially appreciate that this is a very simple build and strategy. It really only requires one spell, and beyond the limitations you already mentioned, has a high probability of delivering as presented. More complicated strategies rarely deliver as expected, because a teammate will invariably do the one thing that derails the whole plan.
I’m loving these summoner builds! I’ve wanted to build a necromancer for a while but was worried about the slog of Animate Dead. These are perfect solutions to start a character idea to then tailor and change up! Maybe still use animate Dead but specifically to create body guards that just stand around to keep other things from melee’ing me and only act if in such combat, if nothing around then they don’t need to take up time in combat.
Have you considered Death Cleric? In earlier editions usually Clerics were more of a necromancer than necromancers themselves and I think it is again like that. Roleplaying wise I understand why you want to go Wizard - not wanting a god to answer to.
Thank you for showing builds with a variety of spells! I love having themed builds and am always torn on taking “the best spells” vs spells more on theme.
This^ Since this Sorcerer has the ability to summon it multiple times thanks to Psionic Sorcery, I was planning on adding more Damage using Dissonant Whisper / triggering opportunity attacks at the cost of 1 sorcery point. Would love to see what other ideas in mind tho! EDIT: Or perhaps constantly casting Sypnatic Static once you arrive at level 9? At that point you could burn all your slots to cast it… 9 times, perhaps 3 castings per encounters 😂?
I figured out how to advance this build past lvl 13 but it involves an unusual summoning spell, Infernal Calling. If I'm reading it correctly you can actually target the creature you intend to summon which would allow you to twin the spell once you take enough sorcerer levels giving you some pretty decent scaling, eventually being able to summon 2 CR 7 Devil's at once should easily put you over baseline. Thoughts on my read of Infernal Calling?
This is perfect! I literally just made a Fathomless Warlock in a new campaign, and I was looking for what gameplay direction I should take it. Good stuff here, as usual.
I'm actually obsessed with this build. It's thematic, it's optimized, it's unique, and it uses a subclass that needs more love. Basically all of the pillars of a character I enjoy playing.
I think something you haven't considered yet - and something that is DEFINITELY worth considering - is what a full party of summoners would look like. It would take some coordination among the players, but I definitely think that having one wizard focused on battlefield controll and three summoners all pumping out damage would find a lot of synergy between the players.
Even if this build drops off after level 13, most campaigns never reach that level. I think this’ll be my go-to summoner next time I want to play one due to its tier 2 DPS.
I’m so glad you started this series. My table is about to pick back up a campaign where I play a Druid and I was just thinking of all the house rules I was going to ask for regarding Conjure Animals. I, like many others, had dismissed Tasha’s Summon options as not powerful enough based entirely on first impressions of the spell description. I was already dreading the first couple combats for the exact reasons you (and Colby) mentioned in the first video. I was imagining either the chaos of the spell as written or the total steam roller effect I would have if my DM house ruled it to be more efficient. Neither seemed fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to work through these builds. I’m absolutely going to be taking the Summon spells and it’s 100% because of your effort. You’re saving games and protecting fun.
I like when you dont just rely on huntersmark or similar to get the extra damage but conjuring a tentacle as well as a shadowspawn. Now we are talking. This is thematic and useful. I have seen a similar warlock in one of my games and they performed pretty well. The effective crowd control is very powerful.
Excellent build. great combos with summon despairspawn which imo is the best summon from tashas. i did something similar but mine was a pure creation bard. since we typically start at level 6-10 at our table, i wasn't forced to play warlock like your build. i picked up summon despairspawn via magical secrets. then i combined it with animated performance and ray of frost to achieve what you did with your build: -40 speed. i didn't want to play with a warlock as i wanted the capability to upcast despairspawn to 3-4 attacks if i wanted to. our difference in tech though is instead of using rebuke of the talisman, i used the animated item to shove the enemy prone (essentially having the enemy being "grappled+prone" for disadvantage to attacks and advantage to being attacked if they have 40 or less move speed).
Good morning Chris! Making more progress on my quest! I also noticed i commented on this video a year ago when it came out and i think that's my first comment on, at least, your build videos! What a throwback! I hope your weekend is going great! Much love, until the next one! 💜
Very nice. I will always appreciate any build that can simultaneously deal damage and exert control. This does both while also managing to stay true to an in-game flavor or theme. 👍🏻
I'm playing with a "Ghost" (CoD) build using this as a template. I'm taking the Marine background, while reframing the tentacles as shadowy strings that move geometrically from a black portal. The Eldrich Blast is a series of ghostly throwing knives that spins almost disc-like towards its target. The Talisman is a set of Dog Tags with an ever-shifting name whispering across its surface, while the Shadow Summon looks like a WWII soldier which crawls out of the shadows of the floor as if under negative planar barb wire.
I love this build idea cause it slots nicely into a warlock idea I had of a plasmoid warlock who's spells are just it using its oozey form. So like it's eldritch blasts are just it lashing out with its tendrils. And I love the idea of just mitosising out a summon to slow down and hold in place.
This is fantastic thank you! Very creative. I feel like warlocks are often a common punching bag to make fun of their mechanics. But I am seeing them all the time on optimized builds and not just as dips. There are alot of lovely synergies in the class if you know what you are doing.
I think this is probably my favorite build I've seen on this channel. It's so thematic which I value almost as much as mechanics. It's also not overly complicated which is great.
Fear sounds like it works extra well on this build, reducing creatures speed even by 20ft plus fear means it'll basically be impossible to get out of sight of the fear source to save again.
Thanks for the build idea. It inspired me to make a slightly different version of this build that I think will be equally or almost as effective. The idea will be to take the Undead patron to fear creatures on a hit, then use the Fury form of the shadowspawn. The shadowspawn will still receive the talisman to repulse an attacking creature. If the target is feared and the shadowspawn is between the target and the warlock, then the same movement strategy effectively applies. The only major difference in the build beyond being Wisdom save dependent is that the shadowspawn now has advantage to hit its targets, increasing DPR slightly.
I hadn’t given much thought to talisman builds, preferring the other options typically, so I loved seeing how that options works with this build. Looking forward to seeing even more summoners.
Loving these builds, I love summoning as well but always felt like I was missing the mark. These are great and it spurs more ideas in myself and what I should be aware of if I tweak these what I need have to still be successful. I'd be really excited if you build a summoning character that could also wade into battle with their summon.
I played a build a lot like this in a one shot and it was a (party friendly) blast! On a related note though, I never thought of combining the talisman with my summon. That is so cool!
really appreciate you optimizing summoners both in terms of number and table fun! Definitely my favorite class concept but always struggled finding ways to make it work without hurting the table
I like the build a lot. I've always wanted to play a summoner, but never wanted to deal with the issues around conjure animals. I've really appreciated you pointing out how feasible summoner are with the Tasha spells. This build is awesome. I love the single target lock down. I might play this one at some point.
I played a build very similar to this in a short pirate themed campaign! I ran pact of the chain with the pixie stat block for invisible scouting, utility, and invisible help action. The control summoner build was a lot of fun!
Great video again! I got inspired by your vids and made a Goblin Trickery Cleric with the Tasha's optional stuff. Bonus action disengage or hide really help not being targeted so we maintain our concentration. Their access to Pass Without Trace makes them useful to get surprise on the enemies. Once they get Summon Celestial, they have a bunch of spells and options to heal and buff the Celestial Spirit.
Another great video, Chris! I love your channel and really appreciate all your hard your work! I’ve been thinking of a build that’s Inquisitive Rogue X/ Moon Druid 2 and I’d love your take on it. I’m sure you’ve got lots of great videos coming up, but if it crosses your mind I’d love to see what you think!
Oceanic Soul is a funny ability. Find an NPC who only speaks a language nobody knows? Nobody has comprehend languages? Grapple them and dunk them in the river so you can have a conversation, and you can even use your shadow spawn to keep them from running away.
This is super cool! I know you didn't list it due to it being a higher level spell, but if you were willing, I'd LOVE seeing a higher level build around Summon Celestial! I've got a high level one shot in a few months and some ideas for optimizing your guardian angel would be super appreciated! Fantastic video regardless, and I'm very happy to see the Summon Spells get more love!
Ive been really wanting to get into summoners in this game and I love warlocks so this is probably going to be the inspiration for my next build that I play
One interesting thing to note is that if you don’t like the summoning play style at high revels, you’ve spent no levels/resources on it. The spell known, pact boon, and invocations can all be swapped out for a more standard warlock package.
Flavouring your bigbys tentacle and fathomless tentacle as your warlock opening a portal to the far realms that is big enough for those tentacles to fit through (but not big enough for whatever eldritch horror they’re attached to to fit through) is non optional when playing this build
Extremely cool build, I think past level 10 of Warlock Repelling Blast might be worth thinking about, we're still going to reduce movement speed with our tentacle and Lance of Lethargy, so once we no longer need to keep enemies next to our summoned creature pushing them away starts to be more powerful (plus it pairs nicely with Evard's Black Tentacles, which we do get for free), at level 11 we can reasonably expect to push a creature once or twice every round, which, when paired with the movement speed reduction from LoL and our tentacle means we can kind of keep enemies out of reach quite often.
I think a 1 level dip into Order Domain Cleric shouldn't be slept on particularly if your summon has some worth while on hit effects. The ability to bonus action healing word your summon or an ally to give them a free attack can be pretty strong. Spells like vortex warp and dimension door can give your summon a free attack while positioning them for thier upcoming turn and making a spell like silvery barbs even sharper instantly giving them an attack with advantage against a creature attacking them.
I'm absolutely loving these builds and the lead up video about the Tasha's summons. Really excellent stuff, and I can feel your excitement about it. That's important. I've been really impressed with a lot of the ideas you're presenting, but I think you missed the boat on Rebuke of the Talisman pretty hard. That 30 foot distance is a killer. You don't want to be 30 feet from your melee summon even if you take moderately armored. Not every enemy is going to be so conveniently grouped so as to be locked down by the summon. This felt like a decision very much in the effort of boosting build synergy to make a more interesting video without taking into account the practicality of the trick. This is a habit that I think build video content creators fall into WAY too much, and is mostly refreshingly absent from what you've done with the summoner builds so far. Looking forward to what I'm assuming will be a look into a non-shepherd summoning druid. Hoping for Wildfire/Stars or even Dreams with a 1 level Forge dip to give that Summon Fey a magic weapon. The series has gotten my juices flowing unlike any build videos I've seen in quite some time. Thanks for the awesome content!
It’s nice to see non Shepherd summoners! I thought the summon spells from Tasha’s were so cool. Nice to see the math behind it and builds built around it!
This is a great build concept and a very thorough video, I did want to mention that during the demonstration you pushed the Otyugh 20ft back with the Rebuke of the talisman when it should have only been pushed back 10ft. This would kind of invalidate the example. The Otyugh is a creature with a 10ft reach attack so it would have been able to hit the Shadow Summon. Regardless the point was made and the video is good. The feature is still useful just not against a reaching creature specifically.
Funilly enough, I came up with almost the exact same build about a couple weeks ago after a oneshot I played. In it I was an undead warlock who happened to have Summon Shadowspawn. One of the types gets advantage against frightened enemies, so there's a synergy there Anyway, I liked certain aspects of your build much more than what I had in mind. I would probably still go with a tortle and begin with a sorcerer dip, but that's purely due to thematic reasons and being tired of using variant human
I played a similar build in Wild Beyond the Witchlight focused on the same combo and I loved it. I really like the use of Pact of the Talisman, I hadn't thought of that. Personally, I don't love using e. blast because I just don't like being a ranged character that much though I think it is probably the optimal choice for this build. Instead, I started with 1 level of fighter, took dueling fighting style, and went blade pact. I used a whip (another tentacle) and took the slasher feat so I could reduce speed by up to 40' or reduce speed of 2 creatures by up to 30'. I used eldritch mind, thirsting blade, and took eldritch smite in case there was a a tough enemy that we'd want to see trapped prone. Also took improved pact weapon to have a +1 whip and have it be my spellcasting focus. If the character had gotten high enough level, was thinking I'd leave warlock after 13th (forcecage & lifedrinker) and then focus more on martial side by taking 1 more fighter level for action surge and then maybe rogue levels (undecided on that). Also went harengon because (1) Witchlight, (2) bunny hop gets a melee character out of trouble and (3) warlock invocation to cast jump at will + bunny hop is hilarious. I love the build and it was fun to see what choices you made building around the same base combo.
This is awesome! Saw your wizard summoner and was hoping there would a warlock build too! Looking forward to playing something similar in my next game.
Always loved the Summon Shadowspawn spell. I'd like to play a Conjuration Wizard focused on the new summon spells, and maybe if I'm lucky there are other players to combo it with spells like spike growth and spirit guardians.
While it would require some shuffling of initial stat points, dipping cleric instead of Sorcerer, gives access to medium or heavy armor, without the cost of a feat. Order cleric also has Voice of Authority, so you could cast spells targeting your summon to give it extra attacks. Tempest gives a rebuke to punish creatures that attack you instead of your summon. My personal top cleric for this build would be Peace domain, while only medium armor would allow you to use the Emboldening bond ability to bond with your summon, allowing d4s to be added to both your own and your summon's attack or saving throws, while lower then the divine sorcerer, the 1d4 bonus can be used 1/round by each creature involved, for 10min x prof bonus, I feel like the raw volume of uses outweighs the sorcerer version. (the performance and persuasion skills are nice icing on the cake for the builds high CHA bonus). The only real downside I see in replacing the sorc dip with a cleric dip is you would want to do it at an earlier level (probably at level 2) since pre dip your AC will be very low. Since you are in medium armor anyway, the 16 Dex doesn't do anything over a 14 dex for the build moving some of those points to WIS easily opens Cleric
I've done a variant of this build as a 1st level warlock, but then going abjuration wizard the rest of the way, combining it with the classical armor of agathys abjurer Also mentioning again that the insignia of claws is a nice magic item for summoner, and it's uncommon so it should be reasonable to craft or acquire somehow, and would make more of the summon spells viable
Inspiring leader would work well to provide additonal temp hp to the shadowspawn at higher levels so it can keep up with higher damage dealing monsters
Great Job Treantmonk! I’ve been looking for a way to make Pact of the Talisman shine and this is perfect! This also makes me want to revisit your nautical videos and make a seafaring campaign.
I can't believe you actually made me want to play a Talisman character :D Great build, i would absolutely hate playing against this as a DM :D (i'm exaggerating, it's undoubtedly a completely fair and fun approach of using a summon to tank and i love it)
Another Feat that I think would be good for this build would be the Inspiring Leader Feat. Since you can't upcast your spells past 5th level, the summon will have a harder time sticking around against stronger enemies, and Inspiring Leader can help compensate for that. It's also a good Feat in general for Charisma based characters.
Hi, Chris! I just wanted to say that I really love all your content! And I would like to see some more Dnd gameplay like the one dnd playtest (The curse of the usurper). I find it more enjoyable, more "real" than the voice actors' dnd videos. (just my opinion) Anyway, I can't wait to watch your videos about Dragonlance and the next One dnd PDF. You are awesome! (Hello from Romania!)
I imagine this character as less _Call of Cthulhu_ and more _Shadow Over Insmouth._ Reskin the summon as your fish-man husband, the talisman as the ring, and your patron as the only entity in the multiverse unspeakable enough to ordain such an unholy union. Your spells are a mixture of the strength of your love for each other, and your patron's oath to defend this strange couple from the curses of both heaven and hell. We're putting the "love" back in Lovecraft, people!
Creative for sure. I feel like the artillerist temp hp spam on a summoning build would be cool too. I like the idea of summoning something and then spamming it with temp hp every round. Would love to see what Chris would do with such a summoner.
Amazing! I am almost playing this exact build in Curse of Strahd right now. However, I took pact of the chain and repelling blast, so my invisible familiar can drop caltrops, and I can blast my enemies on top of them, reducing movement even further. Your way is probably better, as my shadowspawn tends to die pretty fast.
it's so cool that basically this whole build came from tasha's. the patron, the pact, the summoning. tasha's gets a bad reputation for just being power creep, but i think it's clear that their goal was to give new ways of playing the classes, not just new ways of conceptualizing them.
Tasha's clerics are broken though other subclasses seem ok. Not sure what happened on the clerics. The fix on the ranger is also good.
@@skidmoda I really have to wonder what the hell they were thinking when they came up with Twilight domain because good god
@@NotRealAkira You haven't seen peace domain yet. A new hexblade dip.
@@FallenFromGlory How is it better than Twilight?
@@NotRealAkira Emboldening Bond and Bless stack. And if that alone wasn't enough, Warding Bond.
Ramen Goblin here. I've played a movement reduction build in the past. I was inspired by creation bard / fathomless warlock combos with combined lance of lethargy, the tentacle, and the dancing item to apply 30 ft of movement reduction with no concentration. I wanted to use my concentration on shadow spawn, focus more on damage, keep my bonus action open, and scale better into tiers 3 and 4.
Thus, I suggest doing a battlesmith 3 / bladesinger X when doing a movement restriction build for high levels. You can upcast shadowspawn to higher slots, which increase offense as TM has demonstrated, but the shadow spawn has extra good HP scaling. Rather than protecting the spawn with a talisman, I used the sanctuary spell and warding bond from battlesmith, and utility spells like vortex warp which we'll be able to cast more with spell slots than a warlock could with pact slots. Artificer also gives us armor prof (limited for bladesingers), CON saves, mind sharpener, returning weapon, and a fairly durable mount. For the movement reduction portion, you use the shadowspawn for 20 ft, the slasher feat with a returning hand ax for 10 ft, and the frostbolt cantrip for 10 ft. This means you could reduce 2 enemies adjacent to the spawn by 30 ft. It's a unique combination of attacks and cantrips for a bladesinger, and has a great cold/slowing theme.
Here's a 11th level snapshot, though I built with some magic items in mind: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/68597815
Well, here a compliment then. These summoning builds make we want to play a summoner!
I dislike most of the old Summoning spells, for reasons you addressed well, and the buzz was the
Tasha’s spells were inferior options. But seeing the results, and flavor, you can achieve with just a little optimizing using these spells made me excited to use them in game!
Thanks for all your work Chris. You are truly an S tier D&D TH-camr (probably too good)
Thanks!
Solid. I especially appreciate that this is a very simple build and strategy. It really only requires one spell, and beyond the limitations you already mentioned, has a high probability of delivering as presented.
More complicated strategies rarely deliver as expected, because a teammate will invariably do the one thing that derails the whole plan.
I’m loving these summoner builds! I’ve wanted to build a necromancer for a while but was worried about the slog of Animate Dead. These are perfect solutions to start a character idea to then tailor and change up!
Maybe still use animate Dead but specifically to create body guards that just stand around to keep other things from melee’ing me and only act if in such combat, if nothing around then they don’t need to take up time in combat.
Have you considered Death Cleric? In earlier editions usually Clerics were more of a necromancer than necromancers themselves and I think it is again like that. Roleplaying wise I understand why you want to go Wizard - not wanting a god to answer to.
Thank you for showing builds with a variety of spells! I love having themed builds and am always torn on taking “the best spells” vs spells more on theme.
Very creative. Nicely done. Next I am hoping for an aberrant mind sorcerer build with summon aberration. Hope it is on the list.
This^
Since this Sorcerer has the ability to summon it multiple times thanks to Psionic Sorcery, I was planning on adding more Damage using Dissonant Whisper / triggering opportunity attacks at the cost of 1 sorcery point.
Would love to see what other ideas in mind tho!
EDIT:
Or perhaps constantly casting Sypnatic Static once you arrive at level 9? At that point you could burn all your slots to cast it…
9 times, perhaps 3 castings per encounters 😂?
Coming soon!
I figured out how to advance this build past lvl 13 but it involves an unusual summoning spell, Infernal Calling. If I'm reading it correctly you can actually target the creature you intend to summon which would allow you to twin the spell once you take enough sorcerer levels giving you some pretty decent scaling, eventually being able to summon 2 CR 7 Devil's at once should easily put you over baseline. Thoughts on my read of Infernal Calling?
This is perfect! I literally just made a Fathomless Warlock in a new campaign, and I was looking for what gameplay direction I should take it. Good stuff here, as usual.
Warlocks are my favorite class in dnd. I'm glad to see this build. Great work, as always
I'm actually obsessed with this build. It's thematic, it's optimized, it's unique, and it uses a subclass that needs more love. Basically all of the pillars of a character I enjoy playing.
I think something you haven't considered yet - and something that is DEFINITELY worth considering - is what a full party of summoners would look like. It would take some coordination among the players, but I definitely think that having one wizard focused on battlefield controll and three summoners all pumping out damage would find a lot of synergy between the players.
If you needed a Summon with 3 attacks per round you could pick up Summon Fiend as your first Mystic Arcanum.
Even if this build drops off after level 13, most campaigns never reach that level. I think this’ll be my go-to summoner next time I want to play one due to its tier 2 DPS.
I’m so glad you started this series. My table is about to pick back up a campaign where I play a Druid and I was just thinking of all the house rules I was going to ask for regarding Conjure Animals. I, like many others, had dismissed Tasha’s Summon options as not powerful enough based entirely on first impressions of the spell description. I was already dreading the first couple combats for the exact reasons you (and Colby) mentioned in the first video. I was imagining either the chaos of the spell as written or the total steam roller effect I would have if my DM house ruled it to be more efficient. Neither seemed fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to work through these builds. I’m absolutely going to be taking the Summon spells and it’s 100% because of your effort. You’re saving games and protecting fun.
I’ve never seen a talislock build I liked before, but this looks really good!
Nice choice of word around 9:45..."is going to be concentrating on eldritch blast'... 😀
lol, I should have said focused on eldritch blast.
I really like the table friendly tag, a great term to have as we realize that not all powerful design decisions are healthy.
I like when you dont just rely on huntersmark or similar to get the extra damage but conjuring a tentacle as well as a shadowspawn. Now we are talking. This is thematic and useful. I have seen a similar warlock in one of my games and they performed pretty well. The effective crowd control is very powerful.
Excellent build. great combos with summon despairspawn which imo is the best summon from tashas.
i did something similar but mine was a pure creation bard. since we typically start at level 6-10 at our table, i wasn't forced to play warlock like your build. i picked up summon despairspawn via magical secrets. then i combined it with animated performance and ray of frost to achieve what you did with your build: -40 speed. i didn't want to play with a warlock as i wanted the capability to upcast despairspawn to 3-4 attacks if i wanted to.
our difference in tech though is instead of using rebuke of the talisman, i used the animated item to shove the enemy prone (essentially having the enemy being "grappled+prone" for disadvantage to attacks and advantage to being attacked if they have 40 or less move speed).
Good morning Chris! Making more progress on my quest! I also noticed i commented on this video a year ago when it came out and i think that's my first comment on, at least, your build videos! What a throwback!
I hope your weekend is going great! Much love, until the next one! 💜
Very nice. I will always appreciate any build that can simultaneously deal damage and exert control. This does both while also managing to stay true to an in-game flavor or theme. 👍🏻
Now THIS is interesting...can't wait!
🎵 Rendezvous with you under the sea,
my tentacles deliver my love. 🎵
Always a blast to watch your videos. An eldritch blast, I suppose. :)
Are you saying watching my videos is an AGONIZING blast? ;)
@@TreantmonksTemple I'm not repelled is all I'm saying. :)
I'm playing with a "Ghost" (CoD) build using this as a template. I'm taking the Marine background, while reframing the tentacles as shadowy strings that move geometrically from a black portal. The Eldrich Blast is a series of ghostly throwing knives that spins almost disc-like towards its target. The Talisman is a set of Dog Tags with an ever-shifting name whispering across its surface, while the Shadow Summon looks like a WWII soldier which crawls out of the shadows of the floor as if under negative planar barb wire.
Loved this build. Taking a mediocre sub-class and then using various synergies to make a great build is what it's all about.
I love this build idea cause it slots nicely into a warlock idea I had of a plasmoid warlock who's spells are just it using its oozey form. So like it's eldritch blasts are just it lashing out with its tendrils. And I love the idea of just mitosising out a summon to slow down and hold in place.
Loving the summoning builds! Keep it up
Yep this was a very thematic build. I appreciate the "don't move" concept, too. Looking forward to more!
Awesome, thank you!
This is fantastic thank you! Very creative. I feel like warlocks are often a common punching bag to make fun of their mechanics. But I am seeing them all the time on optimized builds and not just as dips. There are alot of lovely synergies in the class if you know what you are doing.
Great, fun build. Thanks Chris!
One of the best control builds I’ve seen.
I think this is probably my favorite build I've seen on this channel. It's so thematic which I value almost as much as mechanics. It's also not overly complicated which is great.
I have really been living this series. It speaks to my personal favorite play style. Thank You so much for your efforts.
Fear sounds like it works extra well on this build, reducing creatures speed even by 20ft plus fear means it'll basically be impossible to get out of sight of the fear source to save again.
Thanks for the build idea. It inspired me to make a slightly different version of this build that I think will be equally or almost as effective. The idea will be to take the Undead patron to fear creatures on a hit, then use the Fury form of the shadowspawn. The shadowspawn will still receive the talisman to repulse an attacking creature. If the target is feared and the shadowspawn is between the target and the warlock, then the same movement strategy effectively applies. The only major difference in the build beyond being Wisdom save dependent is that the shadowspawn now has advantage to hit its targets, increasing DPR slightly.
Sick build Chris, I've been waiting for a fathomless warlock
I hadn’t given much thought to talisman builds, preferring the other options typically, so I loved seeing how that options works with this build. Looking forward to seeing even more summoners.
Loving these builds, I love summoning as well but always felt like I was missing the mark. These are great and it spurs more ideas in myself and what I should be aware of if I tweak these what I need have to still be successful. I'd be really excited if you build a summoning character that could also wade into battle with their summon.
Yay more optimized flavor! I love that summoners get to make a pair of characters, for more role playing possibilities
Appreciate all your hard work.
Wow, I had totally forgotten that Mod armored asis a half feat...kinda makes me want to use starting dips in Genie or warlock now!
I played a build a lot like this in a one shot and it was a (party friendly) blast!
On a related note though, I never thought of combining the talisman with my summon. That is so cool!
I was just thinking of a summoner warlock after watching your table friendly necromancer. You are a mind reader!
really appreciate you optimizing summoners both in terms of number and table fun! Definitely my favorite class concept but always struggled finding ways to make it work without hurting the table
I love your summoner series of builds! The use of talisman on this build was eye opening, I never thought of giving to the summon!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very cool build, we love warlocks at my table and shadow spawn are some of the most creative and unique creatures I’ve ran in dnd.
Love the optimized thematic builds.
Variant Human Eldritch blast based Warlock. Thank you!
I'll never cast boring Conjure Animals again.
These last 3 videos have made me really appreciate the new summoning spells and my next character will almost certainly focus on one of them
I like the build a lot. I've always wanted to play a summoner, but never wanted to deal with the issues around conjure animals. I've really appreciated you pointing out how feasible summoner are with the Tasha spells. This build is awesome. I love the single target lock down. I might play this one at some point.
Bravo. Was wondering how best to use the fathomless and this is a great answer. Looks fun to play.
I played a build very similar to this in a short pirate themed campaign! I ran pact of the chain with the pixie stat block for invisible scouting, utility, and invisible help action. The control summoner build was a lot of fun!
Summoners are one of my favorite archetypes, and I love the attention they're getting on this channel recently.
Yes! Fathomless Warlock! Not enough love for this Subclass.
Great video again! I got inspired by your vids and made a Goblin Trickery Cleric with the Tasha's optional stuff.
Bonus action disengage or hide really help not being targeted so we maintain our concentration.
Their access to Pass Without Trace makes them useful to get surprise on the enemies.
Once they get Summon Celestial, they have a bunch of spells and options to heal and buff the Celestial Spirit.
This is a cool build! Most campaigns cut off at 10 or 15 anyway. I might have to try this in my next game!
Another great video, Chris! I love your channel and really appreciate all your hard your work!
I’ve been thinking of a build that’s Inquisitive Rogue X/ Moon Druid 2 and I’d love your take on it. I’m sure you’ve got lots of great videos coming up, but if it crosses your mind I’d love to see what you think!
Another nice build, Chris. I really like the fantastic control aspect.
Great build, thank you for your time
Oceanic Soul is a funny ability. Find an NPC who only speaks a language nobody knows? Nobody has comprehend languages? Grapple them and dunk them in the river so you can have a conversation, and you can even use your shadow spawn to keep them from running away.
Well done!
This is super cool!
I know you didn't list it due to it being a higher level spell, but if you were willing, I'd LOVE seeing a higher level build around Summon Celestial! I've got a high level one shot in a few months and some ideas for optimizing your guardian angel would be super appreciated!
Fantastic video regardless, and I'm very happy to see the Summon Spells get more love!
Ive been really wanting to get into summoners in this game and I love warlocks so this is probably going to be the inspiration for my next build that I play
This might be the first build I've ever seen make actual use of pact of the talisman
Looks like a fun build. I've never really played a summoner because of how cumbersome it usually is...but this doesn't look bad at all.
One interesting thing to note is that if you don’t like the summoning play style at high revels, you’ve spent no levels/resources on it.
The spell known, pact boon, and invocations can all be swapped out for a more standard warlock package.
Good Video!
I like this build. I think I like the necromancer a little more. I'm happy to see the focus on good summoners. thanks man.
I liked this build. It's nice to see an actual warlock build, not just 1-3 levels.
You're advanced when you take tongues to be able to cast Command, Suggestion, Mass Suggestion to almost EVERY creature.
Might use this vs my players as an interesting mini boss. I enjoyed this different CC style build. Especially with the newer invocations
Flavouring your bigbys tentacle and fathomless tentacle as your warlock opening a portal to the far realms that is big enough for those tentacles to fit through (but not big enough for whatever eldritch horror they’re attached to to fit through) is non optional when playing this build
Extremely cool build, I think past level 10 of Warlock Repelling Blast might be worth thinking about, we're still going to reduce movement speed with our tentacle and Lance of Lethargy, so once we no longer need to keep enemies next to our summoned creature pushing them away starts to be more powerful (plus it pairs nicely with Evard's Black Tentacles, which we do get for free), at level 11 we can reasonably expect to push a creature once or twice every round, which, when paired with the movement speed reduction from LoL and our tentacle means we can kind of keep enemies out of reach quite often.
I think a 1 level dip into Order Domain Cleric shouldn't be slept on particularly if your summon has some worth while on hit effects. The ability to bonus action healing word your summon or an ally to give them a free attack can be pretty strong. Spells like vortex warp and dimension door can give your summon a free attack while positioning them for thier upcoming turn and making a spell like silvery barbs even sharper instantly giving them an attack with advantage against a creature attacking them.
You did a good job on this video.
Love this build! I really enjoy getting a bit of a different invocation pick for eldritch blast than the classic and how much control you could offer.
I'm absolutely loving these builds and the lead up video about the Tasha's summons. Really excellent stuff, and I can feel your excitement about it. That's important.
I've been really impressed with a lot of the ideas you're presenting, but I think you missed the boat on Rebuke of the Talisman pretty hard. That 30 foot distance is a killer. You don't want to be 30 feet from your melee summon even if you take moderately armored. Not every enemy is going to be so conveniently grouped so as to be locked down by the summon. This felt like a decision very much in the effort of boosting build synergy to make a more interesting video without taking into account the practicality of the trick. This is a habit that I think build video content creators fall into WAY too much, and is mostly refreshingly absent from what you've done with the summoner builds so far.
Looking forward to what I'm assuming will be a look into a non-shepherd summoning druid. Hoping for Wildfire/Stars or even Dreams with a 1 level Forge dip to give that Summon Fey a magic weapon. The series has gotten my juices flowing unlike any build videos I've seen in quite some time. Thanks for the awesome content!
It’s nice to see non Shepherd summoners! I thought the summon spells from Tasha’s were so cool. Nice to see the math behind it and builds built around it!
This is a great build concept and a very thorough video, I did want to mention that during the demonstration you pushed the Otyugh 20ft back with the Rebuke of the talisman when it should have only been pushed back 10ft. This would kind of invalidate the example. The Otyugh is a creature with a 10ft reach attack so it would have been able to hit the Shadow Summon. Regardless the point was made and the video is good. The feature is still useful just not against a reaching creature specifically.
Very nicely done.. now I must decide between this or the previous necro build you did!
Funilly enough, I came up with almost the exact same build about a couple weeks ago after a oneshot I played. In it I was an undead warlock who happened to have Summon Shadowspawn. One of the types gets advantage against frightened enemies, so there's a synergy there
Anyway, I liked certain aspects of your build much more than what I had in mind. I would probably still go with a tortle and begin with a sorcerer dip, but that's purely due to thematic reasons and being tired of using variant human
This is my next one shot character! Thanks Chris!
I played a similar build in Wild Beyond the Witchlight focused on the same combo and I loved it.
I really like the use of Pact of the Talisman, I hadn't thought of that.
Personally, I don't love using e. blast because I just don't like being a ranged character that much though I think it is probably the optimal choice for this build.
Instead, I started with 1 level of fighter, took dueling fighting style, and went blade pact. I used a whip (another tentacle) and took the slasher feat so I could reduce speed by up to 40' or reduce speed of 2 creatures by up to 30'.
I used eldritch mind, thirsting blade, and took eldritch smite in case there was a a tough enemy that we'd want to see trapped prone. Also took improved pact weapon to have a +1 whip and have it be my spellcasting focus. If the character had gotten high enough level, was thinking I'd leave warlock after 13th (forcecage & lifedrinker) and then focus more on martial side by taking 1 more fighter level for action surge and then maybe rogue levels (undecided on that).
Also went harengon because (1) Witchlight, (2) bunny hop gets a melee character out of trouble and (3) warlock invocation to cast jump at will + bunny hop is hilarious.
I love the build and it was fun to see what choices you made building around the same base combo.
Sorry for the necro, but I love this idea. How did you lay out your stats? Was it a bit MAD to keep DEX high enough to be effective?
wow... this might be the first controller that doesn't care for grapple size or condition immunities. nice work chris!
This is awesome! Saw your wizard summoner and was hoping there would a warlock build too! Looking forward to playing something similar in my next game.
Always loved the Summon Shadowspawn spell. I'd like to play a Conjuration Wizard focused on the new summon spells, and maybe if I'm lucky there are other players to combo it with spells like spike growth and spirit guardians.
While it would require some shuffling of initial stat points, dipping cleric instead of Sorcerer, gives access to medium or heavy armor, without the cost of a feat. Order cleric also has Voice of Authority, so you could cast spells targeting your summon to give it extra attacks. Tempest gives a rebuke to punish creatures that attack you instead of your summon.
My personal top cleric for this build would be Peace domain, while only medium armor would allow you to use the Emboldening bond ability to bond with your summon, allowing d4s to be added to both your own and your summon's attack or saving throws, while lower then the divine sorcerer, the 1d4 bonus can be used 1/round by each creature involved, for 10min x prof bonus, I feel like the raw volume of uses outweighs the sorcerer version. (the performance and persuasion skills are nice icing on the cake for the builds high CHA bonus).
The only real downside I see in replacing the sorc dip with a cleric dip is you would want to do it at an earlier level (probably at level 2) since pre dip your AC will be very low.
Since you are in medium armor anyway, the 16 Dex doesn't do anything over a 14 dex for the build moving some of those points to WIS easily opens Cleric
I've done a variant of this build as a 1st level warlock, but then going abjuration wizard the rest of the way, combining it with the classical armor of agathys abjurer
Also mentioning again that the insignia of claws is a nice magic item for summoner, and it's uncommon so it should be reasonable to craft or acquire somehow, and would make more of the summon spells viable
Inspiring leader would work well to provide additonal temp hp to the shadowspawn at higher levels so it can keep up with higher damage dealing monsters
Super interesting shadow spawn build I usually use the fury summon but the dread one is very flavorful.
Great Job Treantmonk! I’ve been looking for a way to make Pact of the Talisman shine and this is perfect! This also makes me want to revisit your nautical videos and make a seafaring campaign.
I can't believe you actually made me want to play a Talisman character :D
Great build, i would absolutely hate playing against this as a DM :D (i'm exaggerating, it's undoubtedly a completely fair and fun approach of using a summon to tank and i love it)
I love these builds. Thank you very much for making them.
Glad you like them!
Another Feat that I think would be good for this build would be the Inspiring Leader Feat. Since you can't upcast your spells past 5th level, the summon will have a harder time sticking around against stronger enemies, and Inspiring Leader can help compensate for that. It's also a good Feat in general for Charisma based characters.
Hi, Chris!
I just wanted to say that I really love all your content!
And I would like to see some more Dnd gameplay like the one dnd playtest (The curse of the usurper). I find it more enjoyable, more "real" than the voice actors' dnd videos. (just my opinion)
Anyway, I can't wait to watch your videos about Dragonlance and the next One dnd PDF.
You are awesome!
(Hello from Romania!)
I imagine this character as less _Call of Cthulhu_ and more _Shadow Over Insmouth._
Reskin the summon as your fish-man husband, the talisman as the ring, and your patron as the only entity in the multiverse unspeakable enough to ordain such an unholy union. Your spells are a mixture of the strength of your love for each other, and your patron's oath to defend this strange couple from the curses of both heaven and hell.
We're putting the "love" back in Lovecraft, people!
Creative for sure. I feel like the artillerist temp hp spam on a summoning build would be cool too. I like the idea of summoning something and then spamming it with temp hp every round. Would love to see what Chris would do with such a summoner.
I'm hoping for a shepherd druid at some point in this series. Even though the Tasha's summons don't have hit dice...
Same but I will say that Druids kind of got boned on the summon spells from Tasha's. A lot of the best ones that came with Tasha's druids did not get.
Amazing! I am almost playing this exact build in Curse of Strahd right now. However, I took pact of the chain and repelling blast, so my invisible familiar can drop caltrops, and I can blast my enemies on top of them, reducing movement even further. Your way is probably better, as my shadowspawn tends to die pretty fast.