I felt that berserker would be more tenable in a Naval Campaign since you can commonly get multiple days between fights while sailing around. So make this guy a Viking or pirate and it works much better.
There could also be some synergy with Frenzied Berserker for a STRanger build at higher levels of play. Tireless (Tasha's optional Ranger ability at level 10) lets them drop a level of exhaustion on a short rest.
Errata: As several have pointed out, RAW, you don't get to benefit from Extra Attack if you are holding your Action to attack with your reaction, as Extra Attack states that you only benefit from it when you take the attack action "on your turn." My bad! Here's the good news: this means that we'd be leaving Barbarian after level 3 or 4 (if we want the ASI/Feat), and getting our Sneak Attack damage scaling a little quicker. In the end, getting an extra d6 of Sneak Attack damage, when we're getting it twice per round, means that the numbers I've presented that account for Extra Attack will only be a little bit less at each of the Damage Reports - call it ~4 DPR give or take, depending on the enemy AC etc. Definitely not a death blow to the build :). Also! I accidentally said “short rest” instead of “long rest” when discussing when we get our rage uses back.
This makes Magic Initiate/Arcane Trickster quite a bit more valuable for the Owl Familiar's Help action. The build then solves the issue of getting advantage on both the BA Frenzied Reckless attack, and the one Readied Attack with Help. Ask the DM if the Familiar can take its turn right after ours. RAW it's supposed to have its own turn and initiative. So this isn't any big favor if it already shared its turn with ours at the table. Our trigger then can be "I will attack when Bird distracts the enemy." I feel Bird is an apt name for our one-track mind Berserker. "I attack if the enemy moves a muscle" is also a good one. Even if our victim was prone we'd get a Reaction attack in before they could finish standing upright I'd think. Using this trig, we'd also be fine with the conventional "familiar acts on our turn" QoL allowance. Phantom coming online sooner helps make up for the lost damage albeit to a secondary opponent. We could unload all 3 uses in the first two rounds if we like. This would mean taking Magic Initiate at Barb/Rogue 4. Delays the STR bump, but we weren't hurting on what to do with our ASIs in this build. We could get to Phantom 9 a lot faster which is great. Most tables would probably still want Extra Attack sooner than later for combats without Frenzy, but I dunno. Some campaigns might not make it to Phantom 9 if they do that, and Tokens of the Departed is a complete game changer. Shorter campaigns might do well with Trickster and Barb 5. Silvery Barbs could be taken as one of the initial spells. We could potentially get this cast off before our turn comes up on round 1. Distort Value maybe to help fund all the birds we're going to go through at 10gp a pop. Silent Image is another good one often regardless of a low DC. Soulknife is an interesting hybrid. We get the option to attack twice on our turn even when we aren't Frenzied and lacking Extra Attack. Psi-Bolstered Knack helps pad our potentially high Expertise modifiers even more. So Exhaustion imposing disadvantage might still make us relatively decent at skills. Doesn't waste any resources if we do fail. Might want to dip Fighter for Thrown Weapon Fighting. Helps us draw a dagger to apply Sneak Attack on would be OAs, adds a decent damage bump from 60ft thrown range, and could get Action Surge. Then we can actually attack twice on our turn, Surge, and Ready to Attack with a dagger off turn. Battlemaster is of course right there...giving us Trip Attack, Quick Toss, and Brace. Another race selection that I thought would be great when wondering if we'd go to Barb 5 for Extra Attack would be Dragonborn, and bumping Str with the Dragon Fear half feat asap. This gives us an amazing ability to kick off with round 1 replacing one attack. Even with low Cha (start with 13) it'll shut down half of those making a save in Tier 1. Eventually take another Cha feat to stay close to those odds. Fey Touched for Gift of Alacrity makes better use of Trickster slots. Skill Expert for the Soulknife route works well. Even if we keep Cha low, 40% of monsters being frightened until it's their turn to be the prime target is nuts. So even if we don't Frenzy, we still contribute sizable control as we rush in and scare the pants off the opposing monsters. Works nicely from Reach since they can't approach us. Whip out a whip round 1, or eventually make it your main squeeze! Most our damage progression is coming from Sneak Attack and damage modifiers. Validates the Bugbear option a little more too since they couldn't play keep away with off turn attacks. No Reaction Reachin'.They'd need to be within 5ft with any other finesse weapon. Works a lot better for the Dex Battlemaster route though. Much better base initiative and we could snag the Ambush maneuver.
I’d probably do something like sentinel or riposte battlemaster feat to keep my extra attack in there. Reaction attacks are useful but the way you’ve done it here creates more issues with exhaustion than it’s solves with two sneak attack damages per round.
I saw this somewhere, Brogues (also a very cool name) are essentially just slasher movie villains, your Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, the stealthy but strong types, and that's always stuck with me
@@pez1870 I played a 4e Bugbear STR Rogue who could wield shortsword-sized daggers (for the Rogue/dagger benefits) and threw shuriken that were basically blades from a circular saw. Good memories.
@@pez1870 I started during 3.5 and did 4e until my friends turned me onto Pathfinder. Now I'm in a regular 5e group. I've had fun with all of them, despite the rep 4e gets. But yeah, Hellyug was a satisfying character. He was basically a very dangerous Wookiee
i was talking to a buddy about perhaps making a rogue with Sentinel so you can more reliably get your second sneak attack off given that they either try to run away, disengage and run, or attack an ally.
Hiding around your tankier friends would help you do this (aka lightfoot halfling since that's a specific ability they have) so once an enemy targets your hp sponge ally while you're stealthed so you aren't a target would allow you to do this more often, skulker would also provide some good use so you don't reveal yourself when you whiff an attack
this is really achievable with the arcane trickster or three levels in a full spell casting class (really good with draconic sorcerer to sixth level and haste spell) with the mirror image spell, since it is a different target than you and it doesnt need to be a creature, so the image is the target of this and you trigger reaction attack
I feel like you offered too many handicaps to this build. If you don't have a way to offer the character advantage for an attack, then don't put that into the math. I dont understand why you'd just "assume they have advantage from flanking or maybe an ally casting Faerie Fire". You're numbers always rely on you being consistent, and this does not seem consistent at all. You normally don't inflate the numbers by just assuming the character just magically has a way to have advantage without providing a source.
Extra attack says that "you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action ON YOUR TURN." so doesn't that mean your readied action is only one attack?
Extra Attack states you get the extra attack "whenever you take the Attack action on your turn." With this setup you're neither taking the Attack action, nor doing so on your turn.
I was about to type this, but i am assuming that what Colby means is that if you cant get advantage for your reaction you will just be taking an attack action rather than using a readied attack.
Yeah, that's the problem. It won't have a drastic impact on the numbers, it's removing 1d8+Str from the damage pool every round, and taking a bit of damage reliability away because you don't have that second chance at getting your sneak attack off. It doesn't break the build, but it makes the extra Barbarian levels much less appealing. On the flip side, you get another SA die for swapping those 2 to rogue levels.
You *are* taking the Attack action as your readied action, but you are right that it does not happen on your own turn, so Extra Attack does not apply. What this means is that until rogue level 7 or 9, taking the Attack action on your turn would give more than readying it for another creature's, since the damage from the Extra Attack will outpace the extra sneak attack for quite a while (12.5 damage on average vs 14 damage from a 4d6 sneak attack). Add to this sacrificing your reaction for possible AoO or uncanny dodge and the risky business of putting all your eggs in one basket with the reaction attack vs. Having two chances to land a slightly weaker hit.
Actually, he is taking the attack action since the Ready action does "take the action" that you readied when its released (or for the entire duration its readied till released in case of spells). What makes it invalid is it not being on his turn.
Personally, I really love the silent rage archetype instead of the standard run in there in a screaming fury. There's just something so terrifying about a barbarian who just walks in there quietly and then without a word or a scream cuts right through their foes. It's what I do on the Storm Herald I play. She learned her skills from working with giants, so her rage is more of a meditative trance where her intense focus summons the storm around her as she just walks forward ready to pummel those in her way.
I absolutely love this. My version of the story for him is that he's an ex soldier who swears "I do not have spell-shock!" I imagine war in these words having hedge wizards casting fire balls and other hectic spells everywhere. For a standard soldier it's hell, just like real war. So his rage is a PTSD episode, which is why it can cause exaction. After the battle he's coming back to reality. Additionally I would have the death stuff from the Phantom Rogue as the soles of people he killed and friends he lost in battle. I think the roleplay for this character would be amazing and the arch could be awesome
I actually played an arcane trickster/ sorcerer to use quickened spell for double sneak attacks. You get plenty of spell slots which you can convert into points to do this most of the time (unless your DM throws like 4 encounters your way per day)
*Corrected Below* Double sneak attacks? You know you can only apply Sneak Attack once per turn right? You can apply Sneak Attack on your turn and then on somewhere else's turn during opportunity attack. Unless your talking about Magical Ambush. Which technically wouldn't work either. After you cast the first spell your no longer hidden. So wouldn't apply to 2nd spell. So, a little confused.
@@LiqwdE Like in the video, you can make 1 attack as a bonus action (quickened spell booming blade) and then Ready an Action to take the attack action during someone else's turn. Two sneak attacks per round!
@@Ramschat Thats true, thats true. Your wording threw me off. Double sneak attack vs 2 sneak attacks per round. But your totally right. I offer a thumbs up 👍 and an apology lol.
@@LiqwdE Hey, no problem! The reason my comment didn't go into detail is that at one point in the video, Colby mentioned this particular build and explained it there. But yeah, not everyone will have understood what I was referring to
I have also played a arcane trickster/sorc build and it was a ton of fun! Lots of utility cantrips + skill expertise makes you great out of combat, and double sneak attack + booming blade makes you great in combat. A very well rounded character with lots of things to do to keep it interesting.
This might be basic but I'd like to request an optimized build for the theme of the mercurial fey trickster. A character that is hard to pin down, good at enchanting, charming, deceiving. That thrills in causing mischief and causing trouble often for others as well as himself but also being good at getting out of trouble (at least himself). A character which plays into that being of the enchanted forest, that gains power from the moon and has a soothing voice or plays a captivating melody. Basically a super-powered/optimized archfey warlock is what I had in mind. Maybe crossed with a circle of dreams druid (my thinking is control and support vs damage) another class (eloquence bard)? But if you can do a PC in that theme that does good sustainable DPR I'd be thrilled with that too
• Eladrin (roll randomly at the end of every long rest to determine both season and gender) • Genie Warlock: Ask your DM if you can randomly determine your element at the end of each long rest (Efreeti = Summer, Marid = Fall, Dao = Winter, & Djinni = Spring) • Mask of Many Faces and Agonizing Blast eldritch invocations • Pact of the Chain and familiar that changes form each long rest (Imp = Summer, Pseudodragon = Fall, Quasit = Winter, & Sprite = Spring)
Armorer artificer is a great subclass to merge with rogue levels you get the lightning launcher who's first hit deals an extra d6 lightning damage allowing you to make up for some of the lost rogue sneak attack progression and you got yourself a lightning damage based sneak attack additionally you could use medium armor and grab medium armor master for infinite advantage on stealth checks thanks to the infiltrator armor and with Infusions and shield proficiency you get an even more tanky rogue
@@lucasramey6427 None of the Armorer armor models provide a finesse weapon, and I think there's no way of dealing sneak damage without a finesse weapon, so Armorer doesn't work, sadly. Would be cool if it worked tho
Alternatively, (after a talk with your DM), for your second feat/ASI, you could take- hear me out- Keen Mind. "Why would I ever need Keen Mind?!"- I already hear you asking. Well, the feat contains a point stating: "You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month." Ok? How do we use that? Well, the "Whispers of the Dead" ability from the phantom rogue subclass, allows you to gain a skill or tool proficiency of your choice, per short and long rest, as a ghostly presence shares it's knowledge with you. I know, it's a bit cheesy, but that's why you need to discuss with your DM first and foremost. Technically, Keen Mind allows you to recall the knowledge you gained thanks to the Whispers, allowing you to keep the proficiencies? Provided you go through them every month. So, essentially, you can be proficient in every tool and skill, which would make for a fun McGuiver character, with a lot of flavour.
For a STR based rogue, I always liked the idea of a Grung that grapples opponents and is double proficient in athletics. The poisonous skin can cause disadvantage on their attempts to get away, and with enough feats you’re always getting advantage on your attacks while grappling. And I really like the idea of a hidden frog jumping 30 feet out of the shadows onto someone’s face and never letting go.
Also, if you can get Scimitar of Speed, it will let you to take the attack action on your bonus action without having to make an attack with your attack action. Sorry for multi-posts
I think, if I was DMing this character, I would be either grumpy, or begrudging this character. No shame if this is all cool at your table, but the pushing of your attack action into another turn as your primary action, to gain another sneak attack feels like it's stretching the nature of the rule, in order to over-tune sneak attack damage. I'm less mad about, say, rogue/battle master, who abuses riposte to take extra sneak attacks, because it requires you to have been attacked, and been missed. /Shrug. I would also take issue with the killing critters to max out your trinkets, for the same kind of reason. It feels abusive for a minute benefit. Again, not saying DMs shouldn't allow it, just that I might take issue. Still love your work, Colby!
I agree. This one stretches credulity to the point of breakage for me. The idea of a /frenzied/ rager holding an action, being able to stealth, or having the focus necessary to sneak attack in the first place, while not prohibited by the rules, fly in the face of any sort of sense. I mean do words even mean anything? No amount of backstory rationalization can salve this incongruity for me. For that matter, concerning Phantom Steeds, does a "quasi-real" entity even have a soul? Is a soul required to make a "soul trinket"? This is the only problem I had with the Double Phantom build Treant Monk presented. I have no problem with the Rogue/Battle Manster combo. It uses resources (Brace, Riposte) and even if you add in Sentinel Feat you're still only further ensuring that your reaction can be turned into an extra sneak attack once per round. In fact it might be my favorite build to play in the game.
@@Tusitala1967 I think I'm less irked over the "bloodlust fueled barbarian" making precision strikes- you can, as Colby sort of eluded to, RP it as a cold calculating rage, like a red out or something like that. It's just sort of like... Preparing an attack to happen when it's not your turn *only to meet the stipulation of it being not your turn*, feels like a bridge too far for me. /shrug
@@schuepbachr I take your meaning, though I don't believe red out is the appropriate term. Having experienced the phenomenon of seeing red, I can tell you there was no control or volition involved. I was sucker punched in the nose and after seeing the blood the whole world turned red. I was told later that I launched myself at the guy and picked him up over my head by the belt and arm, dropped him on the ground, and straddled him raining down punches; half of which hit the concrete. It took four adult teachers to pull me off of him. This is what I think about when I think of the sort of rage that allows you to shrug off damage, resist pain, and perform otherwise improbable feats of strength. It isn't compatible with patient deliberation (though I have seen rage satisfyingly re-flavored as drunken fighting). I was sent to a psychologist named Dr. Wicker after the incident. After hearing about it she asked about my hobbies. I told her I was into fantasy novels, comic books, and reading history. Then she asked me if I'd ever played D&D. I hadn't, so she started talking about it. Half of our sessions were spent talking about gaming. This is how I got into D&D in the first place. It didn't hurt one bit that she was also beautiful.
Colby: The Steady Aim optional rule for rogues does not require that you use it for Sneak Attack. I think that could provide for some fun multiclass builds, such as a Rogue Caster.
I think the best barb/rogue build is Path of beast 6/soul knife X. When you attack with a claw, you get a free claw attack. Manifest your psychic blade and attack with that. Claw attack as the other attack and get a free claw attack. Bonus action your other psychic blade attack which is a d4. So 3d6+mods, 1d4+mod and then add your sneak attacks. This is basically deemed for a long term campaign or if you start in mid tier. But they both sync very well together.
@@CharalamposKoundourakis I've got it! This character feels like a Marvel character to me, somehow. A skilled assassin, genetically modified in a lab. Shifter would be the perfect race. The idea is that she was given a series of enhancements that included lycanthropy. She can not only fight like a panther, but she can cause her claws to be neurotoxic as well, dealing psychic damage. Overall, it's similar to Wolverine but with mental mutations on top of the claws.
If you really go barbarian 5 for extra attack, there is aso an option for non-frenzy rages (and even after-frenzy non-frenzy rages): you can doff your shield for grappling/shoving. STR+expertise athletics are enough for reliable success in most cases. Some of unescapable embrances of death
Great video, I totally overlooked Sneak Attack with Strength. I usually use Haste to get double Sneak Attack. I use the Haste Action on my turn and hold my normal Action to attack on an Ally's turn. For a Dexterity Build, I would try an Elf with 12 levels of Phantom Rogue, 8 levels of Divine Soul, Meta Magic Adept, and Elven Accuracy. This would give you 2.5 Sneak Attacks per round, 6 Ability Score Options, 4 Meta Magic Options, 10 Sorcery Points, and access to Healing Spells, Mage Armor, Aid, Haste, Death Ward, etc. Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward all have an 8 hour spell duration without Concentration. As an Elf you could cast all of them with Extended Spell before each Trance and get your resources back after 4 hours, while still having 12 hours of spell duration left over after your Trance is complete.
@@knightghaleon Thank you, I'm glad you find it interesting. I like that the Bonus Action is still free for use, a Fireball for instance. Since Phantom Rogue is new to you, I want to point out that the 3rd level Phantom feature Whispers of the Dead and the Feat Keen Mind can get you all skill proficiencies.
Honestly, Berserker could have been way better if it just had an ability to remove levels of exhaustion on a short OR long rest. Rangers are the only class that can do it at base without spells as of late, but Berserkers should have set the example. That has easy potential to reset your levels back to 0 in one day. If you're lucky, you'd only have two instances of combat and going into a frenzy once each time, or going into a frenzy twice in a single combat. Besides, you really should only go up to level 2 since you'll cancel out the problems that come with it.
come on! that advantage assumption at 27:33 is just lazy D: i mean here, there really isnt anything that is similar to your other builds where you dont just assume to suddenly have advantage, you even have the feat slots open to fix this, its half the fun to find ways to have advantage outside your turn is it not? a reaction double sneak rogue build handwaving the advantage requirement for the reaction attack is not really up to your optimization standard i feel like... especially given how drastic the difference is because of the double sneak. Its so easy on this one too! you have the feats open, take ritual caster, take find familiar ready a help action or something like that. more options exist ofc.... dont handwave that
For a build like this, I would probably consider Sentinel. It would give you more opportunity attacks, for more sneak attacks. This would be especially good if you chose to go with fighter levels instead of barbarian
This may be lost in the comments, but I want to make a Jekyll and Hyde character.. I really like your builds and would love to see what you come up with if you deem fit!
It might be an idea to let your DM know you're looking for the "Sun Blade" a radiant damage dealing finesse LONGSWORD. It does radiant damage Not slashing, its also a magic item. Though don't get your hopes up, you may not get this.
One of my favorite level 20 builds is Scout Rogue 18/Barbarian 2 because you get to pair Reckless Attack with Sneak Attack, Elusive, and Sudden Strike for some truly crazy damage in group fights at no cost. Even if you don't go Scout, Reckless Attack pairs so so well with Rogue's level 18 feature Elusive. The one downside is that you can't pair a level 2 feature from Barbarian with a level 18 feature from Rogue until you reach level 20, which means most games will not see you getting to combine those features.
I hope they leave Path of the Giant alone so we can make thrown attacks with ranged weapons when it comes out, I'd love to see a strength based ranged attacker done like this.
@@lexmtaylor yes, but you can't get crossbow expert and sharpshooter and throw your hand crossbow for 3 attacks at level 6 for 2d6+str+10 for each attack, like you can with path of the giant now.
I think Swashbuckler rogue would've been better since it is a way more reliable way to always be able to sneak attack that doesn't need any extra resource (like familiar or party member casting a spell) for out of turn damage, but even so it's quite cool what you did and I like the thematical cohesion
I love the idea. Thinking about It, you could do the same shenanigan with Haste. Using your main action for Ready and the extra one for a normal Attack. This way you'd still have the bonus action available, maybe for steady aim. Just swap the barbarian levels for Wizard/sorcerer. With 5° levels you'd have It twice per day, with 6°, three. Still more than the barbarian option, unless you accept being exhausted for the Better part of the campaign
For a Dexterity Build, I would try an Elf with 12 levels of Phantom Rogue, 8 levels of Divine Soul, Meta Magic Adept, and Elven Accuracy. This would give you 2.5 Sneak Attacks per round, 6 Ability Score Options, 4 Meta Magic Options, 10 Sorcery Points, and access to Healing Spells, Mage Armor, Aid, Haste, Death Ward, etc. Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward all have an 8 hour spell duration without Concentration. As an Elf you could cast all of them with Extended Spell before each Trance and get your resources back after 4 hours, while still having 12 hours of spell duration left over after your Trance is complete.
It's worth noting that your ability to pick locks or disarm traps might still be perfectly fine as a Strength -based Rogue. Tools don't have built in or required ability scores to use, so as long as you flavor it the right way, you could end up making Strength (Thieves' Tools) checks pretty regularly. Plus, I don't know if you covered this (still mid-video), but free Expertise in Athletics is REALLY good, particularly on a high-Strength character. Edit: That becomes extra important if your table allows you to attack twice on a readied attack. First attack: Shove prone, Second attack: Advantage attack.
@@lucasramey6427 “This lockpick, my friend, is a special-made sliver of Dwarven adamantine. Special-ordered from two continents away for 100 GP each. Nothing in this mundane world can break it.” “Okay…but why do you need all that for a lockpick?” “Ah, well! It turns out that if you run a lock through with an invincible metal spike, the lock doesn’t really work anymore”
Wait why are you comparing THIS character assuming other players give you an advantage, but with your other character, you make a duo presentation in order to assume such a thing? advantage on dex save isn't that great if your dex saving throw isn't that high. I mean if you have a +2 dex saving throw. even with advantage, it will be really difficult to succeed a DC 18. If you need to roll 16 on at least one die, even with advantage it not a garantee
My preference for the Rogue subclass would probably be Scout (but you knew that!). Under the right circumstances, the Skirmisher class feature they get at Level 3 is abuse-able. Remembering the Dragonmarked Halfling Support Barbarian build, my take on this build would be a Strongheart Halfling, Path of the Totem Warrior/Scout. It'd be easy to blend those into a theme, and; at my table; we balance Variant Human and Custom Lineage by giving a racial feat from XGTE (EXCLUDING Elven Accuracy, Bountiful Luck and Second Chance) at Level 1. A little bone for flavor for people who like to roll old-school. So my Halfling Totem Scout would get Squat Nimbleness, at Level 1, which is a half-feat giving +1 to either STR or DEX, along with +5' of movement, proficiency in either Athletics or Acrobatics, and Advantage on Acrobatics or Athletics checks to escape grapples. I multiclass a LOT of Rogues (It's kind of my jam), and I always prefer to start Rogue in order to get all of the Skill Proficiencies. I look at it like free money. I always look forward to your videos challenging my theses on theory crafting, and giving a different perspective and way of thinking about theory crafting. Never mind lifting the build, that's what I take away.
I think battlemaster for a regular rogue is great. Between precision, quick toss, riposte and brace you have a bunch of ways to get a second sneak attack or make sure your sneak attack lands. With the manoeuvre fighting style you get 5 dice as well.
One thing you touched is sorc's quickened spell but you didn't take it far enough. granted it does take a 5 level sorc investment but the route to go is to quicken haste. use your haste action to make your sneak attack and use your normal action to ready an off-turn sneak attack. on a ranged build this works very well as it'll be hard to break that haste when you're kiting. props on the phantom pick. imo it's quite underrated and imo is the best rogue at 9+ or the best main class rogue.
Honestly, I'm impressed with how consistent your builds are uploaded. Some of them are obvious ones like your first video (hexblade) but a lot are very interesting, fun, and clever. You've also helped me learn about optimizing and I've applied some of what I've learned to my own characters. Thank you and keep up the good stuff! Also this music into is the best one and I love it.
You can as a cavalier make a special bonus attack against a target who is marked by Unwavering Mark at lvl 3. It is situational but you can do it. Rogue cavalier would be pretty cool, lots of oppertunity attacks
There is an unofficial setting for dnd, called “fateforge” or “dragon” (the French version) which has a feat with which you can ignore 1st level of exhaustion. It’s a really nice setting with many modular things like madness or corruption. You definitely should check this if you want to add some stuff to vanilla dnd ❤️
You know, I've been thinking about a feature to replace Brutal Critical. I call it Death Blow. In essence, it's a guaranteed critical hit once per long rest, requiring an entire action to use. The upgrade levels for this feature will give it an extra use per long rest. Thoughts? Advice on scaling and viability?
Unfortunately I don't think you can use Extra Attack with a Readied action. Extra Attack is applied when you take the Attack action on your turn. Since you are taking the Attack action on someone else's turn, I don't believe you can make more than one attack. It's still a great strat to get multiple sneak attacks, but you'll just have one reaction attack in that damage calculation.
My girlfriend and I always wait for these videos to come out! Excited for this one. I'm actually playing the Blade part of your recent Mount & Blade build with a friend of mine who's playing a Strength-based Phantom Rogue who's focusing on Grappling to increase our tanking ability. DM allowed me to play a Small Warforged because it fit my original Custom Lineage justification and I've been having a blast!
You cannot use extra attack on your reaction. The wording of extra attack is ""Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn."
One of the best ways to get an optimized rogue is to duo with a party member. A shadow sorcerer with one level of order cleric is so fun to play. Cast things like command, or blindness/deafness, and target both the enemy and the rogue. Whenever you target the friend, they get a reaction attack (every round). The enemy gets a disadvantage on the save, and the rogue gets an opportunity attack out of it. For example, "command"ing (upcast or twinned spell to target both) your rogue to "throw" might be something they were already going to do. On the other hand, the enemy might not want to throw his axe. Same goes for things like "hide" or "move" or "disengage". As to upcasting blind/deafen, the enemy won't like being blinded, but your friend might not mind being deafened. If you are feeling risky, you can target the enemies and friendly with "slow" and just drop concentration if your rogue fails the save.
Holy frick, you've made me realize I can apply Sneak Attack through throwing Soulknife Rogue's Psychic Blades using Strength! This makes my Barbarogue WAY better!
That's a pretty strong build, I was thinking of making a similar build, but instead of going berserker I'd go ancestral guardian and having all my other party members essentially be barbarians. I'd be losing my extra sneak attack per round, so in your dpr calculations, do you know how much damage I'd be losing?
I watched this video awhile back and loved it. And as I have been making my own characters, I actually discovered something today that I'm not sure on, but it would achieve the same goal as this character without needing Berserker Barbarian. Technically, you can make an attack roll using the "Use an Object" action: Use an object: You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn. The description is circular by my understanding, meaning that you can take the attack action to use an object, or take the use an object action to make an attack. The intent was *likely* meant for interacting with something like a poison or an Acid Vial, the ladder of which states: As an action, you can splash the contents of this vial onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw the vial up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. In either case, make a ranged attack against a creature or object, treating the acid as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 acid damage. So, if you can use the Use an object action to make a ranged attack with a vial of acid as an improvised weapon, you should also be able to use it to make an attack with a pocket knife, or a rapier you so happen to be holding. SO, the thief rogue can actually take an attack with its bonus action, hold its action, and then use its reaction to make an attack. Edit: I hope you check your comments on old videos because I'd love to see the deep dive thief rogue build!
Colby my take on this: high STR swashbuckler 3 / ancestral guardians 3 / battlemaster 3 is tactical base to get reaction sneak attacks without holding back on your turn: swashbuckler walks up and uses rage and reckless attack with dual wielding shortswords, then walks away free w no opportunity attack off to the side away from others; the enemy can now either attack w. Disadvantage &resistance against your allies, or he can come fight you w. Advantage but resistance. Once he comes into range Brace manuever kicks in for reaction attack at 1d8 extra, and swashbuckler's Audacity allows sneak attack off turn....also i went with forest gnome for Cunning so between race and classes I have advantage of some sort on STR, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA + proficiency in CON
Greetings, we're playing with your centaur & custom lineage tank duo. I just want to specify that playing strength based rogue for the centaur in this build is absolutely ok and in my opinion it's even more effective then dex based.
My favorite Multiclass Build is the Divine Bladesinger Paladin; 8 Bladesinger, 8 Divine Soul, 4 any Paladin. Race - any elf is best. I use Aereni Wood Elf for Expertise in Arcana, because there is an Arcana Ability Check to learn higher level spells from Scrolls. Point Buy - 13 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 11 Constitution, 13 Intelligence, 8 Wisdom 13 Charisma. Racial Bonus - +2 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence. Suggested Build Order; 6 Bladesinger (Elven Accuracy at level 4), 4 Divine Soul (Quicken Spell/Extended Spell at level 9 and +2 Dexterity at level 10), 2 Paladin, 4 Divine Soul (+2 Intelligence at level 16), 2 Bladesinger (+2 Intelligence at level 18), and 2 Paladin (Resilient Constitution or maybe Tough at level 20). Concept - Stack Bestow Curse upcasted to level 5 (Non-Concentration) and Spirit Shroud up cast to what ever. With Bladesinger extra attack you can substitute one of your attacks with a Cantrip, like Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade. Divine Soul among other things gives you Meta Magic. If you take Quicken Spell you can quicken Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade for a third attack, all of which you can Smite. I use Extended Spell primarily on; Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward. These spells when Extended last 16 hours with no Concentration. I cast them before I Trance, after 4 hours I have my Spell Slots and Sorcery Points back, as well as 12 hours of Spell Duration on all 3 spells. For spell casting I focused on Utility, Control, and Extending long duration non- concentration Spells. I used very few, 7 I believe, spells other than cantrips that required an attack roll or used a Spell DC.
Barb/Rogue is a surprisingly well-rounded, "badass normal" playstyle. Had the good fortune to play a grapple-focused Barb 5 (Ancestral Guardian) / Rogue (Phantom) X from level 12 to 18, and while it didn't focus on damage as much as this particular build, the team support, survivability, flexibility, and RP fuel were remarkable for a pure martial character. Even found a good use case for Mage Slayer in this mage-heavy campaign: a grappled+proned mage would either need to use up a spell and/or action to cast a teleport to get away, or risk casting another spell (that I'd resist with advantage 'cause within 5') and likely eating an off-turn Sneak Attack with a decent chance of failing Concentration checks at disadvantage. And once you hit level 13 in Phantom for Ghost Walk (particularly with Mobile and Barbarian 5 move bonus), you really do become a slasher genre villain, able to bypass most layers of security to show up behind (or above, or below) victims for a lethal jump scare and shrug off most damage.
I solved the armor problem with being a Dwarf Mountain so I could take Rog at first for the extra skills. Mine is Rog Thief 15/Barbarian Totem Bear 5. Inheritor Background so I can get Aracana. Feats Skill Expert x3, Mobile, Ability score. not in those orders. Ends with having 20str, 16dex, 16con. 9 Skills 7 have Expertise. Min 27 Athelete skill check without magic. Can use any magic item in game due to Thief. Lock picking is min 30 with Gloves of Thievery. I'd be using Half-Plate if you can get Adamantine get it, otherwise try for Mithril.
You SAY that a strength based rogue can't be good at ALL the things rogues are supposed to be good at. And you're probably right about some of that. But if you max out strength, you have alternatives for some tasks. Can't open a locked door? Just walk through it, without opening it. Locked chest giving you trouble? Just yeet it at a wall until it breaks. Not good at sneaking? Give yourself advantage by knocking out the guard or intimidating him into "not" seeing you ("YOU DO NOT SEE GROG!!!"). Can't disarm those traps? Reinforced doors make pretty handy improvised shields. No good at pickpocketing? Play to your strengths with a good old fashioned mugging.
Request: Red Mage (Final Fantasy) "Three Ways" (or more) This isn't a "do this build for me" request. It's a "show the process" request. The Final Fantasy Red Mage can Heal, Buff, Debuff, Damage, and fight with weapons and armor fairly average but have a niche of effectively meta magic as well. I think there are multiple ways to hit these various notes so seeing a video where you weigh out the options and/or hit those notes in different ways would be really cool. Sword Bardbvs Valor Bard vs Swashbuckler vs Fighter vs Hexblade vs War Cleric for the melee and armor facets. Divine Soul Sorceror vs Arcana Cleric vs Light Cleric vs Paladin for the White/Black Magic. What feats to take and when to sub for Metamagic or melee/armor rather than multiclass and why one is more efficient than the other but may not deliver on the vision as well as a multi-class, etc.. It's a fun puzzle imo.
RAW, you cannot have two attacks on your reaction, as the Extra attack feature states : "...whenever you take the Attack action on your turn". Otherwise, its a really cool build!
Ok this is a crazy coincidence. I just made a character with almost the same build. My level progression plan is 6 levels in Barbarian (because I have been blessed with the opportunity to play Path of the Giant from the latest UA), 4 levels in Fighter for Echo Knight and Thrown Weapon Fighting Style (plus another ASI), the rest in Rogue, either Assassin or Phantom. Probably would pick up the Fighting Initiate feat for Dueling as well.
I'm curious as to how a Drizzt-esque build would work... New UA wood elf Berserker barbarian 3 / champion fighter 3/ the new expert hunter ranger 10...
The most ridiculous way to use Sneak Attack every single turn: Cavalier 18 can Opportunity Attack once per turn _in addition to a normal reaction_ (technically it's either any reaction or OA on any given turn, but still), which triggers when an enemy moves 5 ft while within your reach, regardless of weapon. Combine with a whip and at least one level of Rogue, and poof that's theoretically as many Sneak Attacks as you can get enemies to enter and move through your reach during any given turn. Utterly ridiculous and only adds 1d6, but still lol technically an option. Personally, my thoughts on Rogue/Barbarian tend to trend towards either the "enemy emasculator" (Ancestral Guardian with a whip and Cunning Action and probably at least one speed increase beyond Barbarian; use hit and run and now one enemy per turn is pulling a Bugs Bunny impression when they try to flex and their bicep falls down) or a grappler (advantage + Expertise in Athletics, albeit grappler is probably a dip if not substituting for one of the feats that grant Expertise and might even be better as a Fighter Rune Knight / Barbarian either Totem or Beast, and if I went Beast I would _totally_ get a mini prop that looks like Rita Repulsa's staff and go "MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!" when I used both abilities).
Not relevant to this build, but one reliable way to get an extra attack as a BA every turn, that I haven't seen you mention before is the Longtooth Shifter. Combined with Beast Barbarian - Claws (natural fit), at level 5 you can get up to 4 attacks per turn on at least 3 full encounters per day. I'm planning to use that build for a future campaign and I'm curious as to how you'd optimise it, though admittedly I don't think the damage output would be that amazing, with only a 1d6 per attack + bonuses. I'd probably go Barb 6/Battle Master 11, or Barb 3/Gloomstalker 3/Battle Master 11 if I could get an Eldritch Claw Tattoo.
simic hybrid - Science project gone wrong. escaped from a facility and only recently getting control over the bloodrage of whatever mutation is was they gave you. Level 5 your appendages are a set of clawlike fingers sprouting from the top of your hand. As you level up the fingers begin to rise up revealing another set of hands. End game speak with the DM about having your character killed. When he dies a second body rips from the corpse. The fully awakened Simic Beast.
In terms of Feats I'd suggest, I'd probably go with Fighting Initiate(reasons why depending on your choice), Telepathic(to keep up the silent), Defensive Duelist or the Feat that allows you to take 2 battle master maneuvers and gain a superiority dice. Skilled and Skill Expert could also be useful. (I'd also be using a Scimitar and Slasher because I like the idea of that better and probably would've picked up Swashbuckler to have more ways to trigger sneak attack. But that's me and my focus.)
Hi, could you please do an Elven (or Half-Elf) Samurai Archer build for Nova Damage. I think by my calculations it gets into low tier 1 or high tier 2 from how I would build it. I'd like to see where you go when the core of that build (Level 6) is done. Do you stay fighter for a 3rd Attack? Or do you multiclass somewhere for some abilities that synergize well?
Colby. After some recent excursions into "weird build strategizing" land, I really wonder how you'd go about attacking a non-monk, unarmed attack focused, sustained or nova build... you enjoy the homework so much more than I. hahhahah.
Can you do a “transporter“ character? One who maximizes the ability to get both themselves and their party members from one place to another, both in and out of combat, as efficiently/sustainably as possible?
Genie warlock with pact of the chain would probably be one of the better ones for this. The main thing it's going to be missing is Teleport. They can still use teleportation circle via limited wish, although they get access to it rather late. The main reason I love this class for transportation is the ability at 10th level to bring the entire party inside the vessel. With an Imp familiar from pact of the chain, you can instruct them to polymorph into a raven with 60ft fly speed, turn invisible, and carry the vessel to where you want to go. Then the entire party hops inside and the invisible raven carry's the vessel with the party inside. For short journeys, the entire party can benefit from a short rest during the jounrey (with added healing). For longer journeys, the party can take a full long rest while inside. This means you can safely travel nearly 50 miles during your sleep. At earlier levels warlocks also have access to Fly, and as they always cast at the highest level available they will quickly be able to benefit the entire party. As the warlock can retreat inside their vessel, they can cast fly on the rest of the party, have a party member carry the vessel, and then short rest inside to get back the spell slot used casting fly. Having to cast fly on one less party member means they can get the entire party airborn 2 levels earlier.
I like Longtooth Shifter Beast Barbarian 6/Rogue X. Stab 'em with a blade, if it lands then sneak attack, claw, claw, bite. If it doesn't, second attack with blade, then bite. Guarantees you an additional attack, and B/A if shifted, and the spider-climb is ludicrous for stealth.
You never really did anything for 50k subs, so here's a suggestion for 60k (or one of those milestones): you DM a game, either for the Aneria group or the other TH-camrs, and at the end put them up against one of your optimized builds. I don't have a ton of experience DMing (all of 3 sessions so far), but it's been at least as much fun coming up with creative NPCs and enemies for the players to fight and interact with as it has been creating the characters I've played.
Hey Colby, I'm rolling a new character in our campaign and it will be a level 8 7/1 Oath Of Conquest/ Undead Patron ~ Astral Elf. I love the idea of being able to teleport up to 30 feet as a bonus action and really put that terrifying presence to use, how would you do it?
So two things. 1. I know this doesn't directly do anything for your damage, but going 6 into Barbarian gives you mindless rage. Being immune to Charms and fears while raging can come in clutch. 2. I'd say Swashbuckler is the best bet for guaranteeing that your reaction held attack gets sneak attack. Alternatively, going Inquisitive can also achieve this (but this relies on an ability check, which may be an issue).
Idea: instead of Phantom, if you go Arcane Trickster, there are two cool spells you can use: 1. Jump- if you cast this right before combat starts, or turn 1 cast Jump and then rage, your essentially have a pseudo fly speed for that fight. And jump in non-concentration, so raging won’t interfere. 2. Find Familiar- your familiar can use the help action to give you the second instance of advantage you need for double sneak attack, and you can declare “the trigger for my held action will be when my familiar finishes using the help action”.
I get a strong Jason from Friday the 13 vibe, unrelenting and supernatural psychopath killer, crazy strong and lumbering but sneaky. I kind of like it!
Hey Fam, i watching the videos from d4 for a month and obviously had not enough time to watch everything haha, but im looking for all the builds from d4 which could be a good face of my party or of a party. Just found the fey wanderer so far and wondering if their is anything else. Thanks for help. And D4, you are doing a nice work explaining everything etc, i like your work very much, keep going (:
I have a character concept I've been working on called ALADDIN. It's still a work in progress and would love some feedback. Aereni Wood Elf; Swashbuckler Rogue 10 / Fey Wanderer Ranger 5 / College of Eloquence Bard 4 / The Genie Warlock 1. I picked Aereni Wood Elf for the Free Expertise (this build has 7 Expertise and all Charisma Checks add the Wisdom Modifier as well; Aladdin had Skills, Persuasion, Deception, Performance, Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, etc. Rather than damage, my focus is on Persuasion. This in my opinion is Aladdin's greatest skill (he received 4 Wishes from a 3 Wish Genie, he convinced a Kingdom he was a foreign Prince, etc.). The idea is to pick up Expertise in Persuasion and Unsettling Words while enhancing Panache with Silver Tongue and Other Worldly Glamour. Without a bonus like Bless, Guidance. etc. you could still have a possible +22 to Persuasion Checks, while trading a roll below 10 for a 10 instead. This would give you a possible minimum roll of 32 in Persuasion, when 30 is often considered "God Level". Any thoughts on my build, or ideas you think might improve it, without compromising the concept, would be appreciated.
So, like i said in the short, i am playing a rogue/barbarian tortle since may, the cool thing about that is, i don't really care about armor, have an ac of 19 with a shield, don't have disadvantage on stealth and got the skill proficiencies of the rogue, he is like this urban who grew up on the streets and became a street wrestler that has the title of lethal grab, having expertise in stealth and athletics. Still, now being Level 3 (1rogue/2barbarian) i will go more into the barbarian route to be honest. Just for anyone wondering his stats are 18str, 13dex, 14con, 10int, 12wis, 8cha; Have a nice day/evening/night everyone.
Given Rogue's freakishly powerful survival features, I just can't find many reasons other than strong theme to not take Bear Totem to reliably stand toe to toe with anything normal thrown at your party, Rogue can be whatever the heck you want. This degree of survivability lets you stack damage-related Feats such as Two Weapon Style and Dual Wielder to also be a consistently high DPR member of the team. Sentinel is also another good choice if you're occupying your hands with weapons / a shield and aren't or unable to grapple the enemy to keep them locked onto you, and badly punish if they target someone else.
A strength rogue is the character I was playing when I had my greatest moment in D&D so far; I dropped the troll back down the hole in the Yawning Portal during a Dragon Heist campaign with a well timed lariat {high strength, expertise in Athletics}, and some phenomenal dice luck. One day I will complete Phuge's {Assassin/Totem} story.
If you don't want to go Berserker, you could go Zealot and take Shifter Longtooth for your bonus action attacks. You'd push back Piercer and ST 20, but you'd get to burst more often and without exhaustion.
Some definite problems with this build, if we're at a table that's a stickler for the rules. Beyond not having a reliable way to get advantage on our held-action attack - an inordinately generous assumption, I think - held attacks cannot benefit from Extra Attack. You only make one attack with your reaction, regardless how many you could make with your action. I don't think those two problems completely kill this build, but I do think they would knock it down a peg or two.
Swap race to Bugbear and Primal Path to Totem or Guardian and this makes for a very cool sneaky tank / Bruiser! My brother did this build with totem, it was a very cool tank build!
At 30 minutes you asked if you had used a phantom rogue before.. iirc, wasn't the blender from the battery and the blender a phantom rogue/zealot barbarian? Might be misremembering.
God I love this build. I used a flat STR based assassin rogue Half-Orc as my very first 5e character and I loved it. Wish I had thought of this because it looks like so much fun.
I know it would take quite a long time to get it set up, but how much experimentation could you do with a rogue 2 Cavalier Fighter 18 so you can potentially get sneak attacks on every character's turn? I think they wouldn't be super great, and it might just be better to get the fourth attack from fighter 20, but I was just curious.
I felt that berserker would be more tenable in a Naval Campaign since you can commonly get multiple days between fights while sailing around. So make this guy a Viking or pirate and it works much better.
That gives me Vinland Saga vibes XD
There could also be some synergy with Frenzied Berserker for a STRanger build at higher levels of play. Tireless (Tasha's optional Ranger ability at level 10) lets them drop a level of exhaustion on a short rest.
Thematically would surprisingly fit as a Viking due to being similar to one of the four berserker tribes. :o
Errata: As several have pointed out, RAW, you don't get to benefit from Extra Attack if you are holding your Action to attack with your reaction, as Extra Attack states that you only benefit from it when you take the attack action "on your turn." My bad! Here's the good news: this means that we'd be leaving Barbarian after level 3 or 4 (if we want the ASI/Feat), and getting our Sneak Attack damage scaling a little quicker. In the end, getting an extra d6 of Sneak Attack damage, when we're getting it twice per round, means that the numbers I've presented that account for Extra Attack will only be a little bit less at each of the Damage Reports - call it ~4 DPR give or take, depending on the enemy AC etc. Definitely not a death blow to the build :).
Also! I accidentally said “short rest” instead of “long rest” when discussing when we get our rage uses back.
This makes Magic Initiate/Arcane Trickster quite a bit more valuable for the Owl Familiar's Help action. The build then solves the issue of getting advantage on both the BA Frenzied Reckless attack, and the one Readied Attack with Help. Ask the DM if the Familiar can take its turn right after ours. RAW it's supposed to have its own turn and initiative. So this isn't any big favor if it already shared its turn with ours at the table. Our trigger then can be "I will attack when Bird distracts the enemy." I feel Bird is an apt name for our one-track mind Berserker. "I attack if the enemy moves a muscle" is also a good one. Even if our victim was prone we'd get a Reaction attack in before they could finish standing upright I'd think. Using this trig, we'd also be fine with the conventional "familiar acts on our turn" QoL allowance.
Phantom coming online sooner helps make up for the lost damage albeit to a secondary opponent. We could unload all 3 uses in the first two rounds if we like. This would mean taking Magic Initiate at Barb/Rogue 4. Delays the STR bump, but we weren't hurting on what to do with our ASIs in this build. We could get to Phantom 9 a lot faster which is great. Most tables would probably still want Extra Attack sooner than later for combats without Frenzy, but I dunno. Some campaigns might not make it to Phantom 9 if they do that, and Tokens of the Departed is a complete game changer. Shorter campaigns might do well with Trickster and Barb 5. Silvery Barbs could be taken as one of the initial spells. We could potentially get this cast off before our turn comes up on round 1. Distort Value maybe to help fund all the birds we're going to go through at 10gp a pop. Silent Image is another good one often regardless of a low DC.
Soulknife is an interesting hybrid. We get the option to attack twice on our turn even when we aren't Frenzied and lacking Extra Attack. Psi-Bolstered Knack helps pad our potentially high Expertise modifiers even more. So Exhaustion imposing disadvantage might still make us relatively decent at skills. Doesn't waste any resources if we do fail. Might want to dip Fighter for Thrown Weapon Fighting. Helps us draw a dagger to apply Sneak Attack on would be OAs, adds a decent damage bump from 60ft thrown range, and could get Action Surge. Then we can actually attack twice on our turn, Surge, and Ready to Attack with a dagger off turn. Battlemaster is of course right there...giving us Trip Attack, Quick Toss, and Brace.
Another race selection that I thought would be great when wondering if we'd go to Barb 5 for Extra Attack would be Dragonborn, and bumping Str with the Dragon Fear half feat asap. This gives us an amazing ability to kick off with round 1 replacing one attack. Even with low Cha (start with 13) it'll shut down half of those making a save in Tier 1. Eventually take another Cha feat to stay close to those odds. Fey Touched for Gift of Alacrity makes better use of Trickster slots. Skill Expert for the Soulknife route works well. Even if we keep Cha low, 40% of monsters being frightened until it's their turn to be the prime target is nuts. So even if we don't Frenzy, we still contribute sizable control as we rush in and scare the pants off the opposing monsters. Works nicely from Reach since they can't approach us. Whip out a whip round 1, or eventually make it your main squeeze! Most our damage progression is coming from Sneak Attack and damage modifiers. Validates the Bugbear option a little more too since they couldn't play keep away with off turn attacks. No Reaction Reachin'.They'd need to be within 5ft with any other finesse weapon. Works a lot better for the Dex Battlemaster route though. Much better base initiative and we could snag the Ambush maneuver.
Since you won't be using multi attack, would it make sense to try and get a melee cantrip?
@@joshholmes1372 can’t cast whilst raging so not likely to be used a lot.
I’d probably do something like sentinel or riposte battlemaster feat to keep my extra attack in there. Reaction attacks are useful but the way you’ve done it here creates more issues with exhaustion than it’s solves with two sneak attack damages per round.
@@jameswebb4545 hmmm. Yeah
I saw this somewhere, Brogues (also a very cool name) are essentially just slasher movie villains, your Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, the stealthy but strong types, and that's always stuck with me
Honestly, I was looking for a way to play a Slasher villain in DnD the other month and that's pretty much where I ended up, so that's accurate.
basically bugbears (the monster not race)
@@pez1870 I played a 4e Bugbear STR Rogue who could wield shortsword-sized daggers (for the Rogue/dagger benefits) and threw shuriken that were basically blades from a circular saw. Good memories.
@@JoelCSabo you actually played 4e? poor thing:(
jokes aside, that does sound really fun!
@@pez1870 I started during 3.5 and did 4e until my friends turned me onto Pathfinder. Now I'm in a regular 5e group. I've had fun with all of them, despite the rep 4e gets. But yeah, Hellyug was a satisfying character. He was basically a very dangerous Wookiee
i was talking to a buddy about perhaps making a rogue with Sentinel so you can more reliably get your second sneak attack off given that they either try to run away, disengage and run, or attack an ally.
Hiding around your tankier friends would help you do this (aka lightfoot halfling since that's a specific ability they have) so once an enemy targets your hp sponge ally while you're stealthed so you aren't a target would allow you to do this more often, skulker would also provide some good use so you don't reveal yourself when you whiff an attack
this is really achievable with the arcane trickster or three levels in a full spell casting class (really good with draconic sorcerer to sixth level and haste spell) with the mirror image spell, since it is a different target than you and it doesnt need to be a creature, so the image is the target of this and you trigger reaction attack
Level 1:(see above) [barbarian 1 & race]
Level 2:(see above) [barbarian 2]
Level 3:(@15:10) [barbarian 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@21:34) [rogue 1]
Level 5:(@24:09) [barbarian 4 & ASI]
Level 6:(@24:41) [barbarian 5]
Level 7:(see above) [rogue 2]
Level 8:(@30:45) [rogue 3 & sub-class]
Level 9:(@33:43) [rogue 4 & ASI]
Level 10:(see above) [rogue 5]
Level 11:(@35:48) [rogue 6]
Level 12:(@36:15) [rogue 7]
Level 13:(@36:41) [rogue 8 & ASI]
Level 14:(see above) [rogue 9]
Level 15:(@41:34) [rogue 10 & ASI]
Level 16:(@41:54) [rogue 11]
Level 17:(@42:34) [rogue 12 & ASI].
I feel like you offered too many handicaps to this build. If you don't have a way to offer the character advantage for an attack, then don't put that into the math. I dont understand why you'd just "assume they have advantage from flanking or maybe an ally casting Faerie Fire". You're numbers always rely on you being consistent, and this does not seem consistent at all. You normally don't inflate the numbers by just assuming the character just magically has a way to have advantage without providing a source.
Extra attack says that "you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action ON YOUR TURN." so doesn't that mean your readied action is only one attack?
Correct, a Reaction Attack does NOT benefit from Extra Attack.
Aye, going to pin a comment on this.
@@DnDDeepDive love listening to all of your builds, it's the highlight of my Tuesdays
Extra Attack states you get the extra attack "whenever you take the Attack action on your turn." With this setup you're neither taking the Attack action, nor doing so on your turn.
I was about to type this, but i am assuming that what Colby means is that if you cant get advantage for your reaction you will just be taking an attack action rather than using a readied attack.
Yeah, that's the problem. It won't have a drastic impact on the numbers, it's removing 1d8+Str from the damage pool every round, and taking a bit of damage reliability away because you don't have that second chance at getting your sneak attack off. It doesn't break the build, but it makes the extra Barbarian levels much less appealing. On the flip side, you get another SA die for swapping those 2 to rogue levels.
You *are* taking the Attack action as your readied action, but you are right that it does not happen on your own turn, so Extra Attack does not apply.
What this means is that until rogue level 7 or 9, taking the Attack action on your turn would give more than readying it for another creature's, since the damage from the Extra Attack will outpace the extra sneak attack for quite a while (12.5 damage on average vs 14 damage from a 4d6 sneak attack). Add to this sacrificing your reaction for possible AoO or uncanny dodge and the risky business of putting all your eggs in one basket with the reaction attack vs. Having two chances to land a slightly weaker hit.
Yeap he fucked it up... but the phantom rogue feat also works on both sneak attacks and that makes up for it
Actually, he is taking the attack action since the Ready action does "take the action" that you readied when its released (or for the entire duration its readied till released in case of spells).
What makes it invalid is it not being on his turn.
Personally, I really love the silent rage archetype instead of the standard run in there in a screaming fury. There's just something so terrifying about a barbarian who just walks in there quietly and then without a word or a scream cuts right through their foes. It's what I do on the Storm Herald I play. She learned her skills from working with giants, so her rage is more of a meditative trance where her intense focus summons the storm around her as she just walks forward ready to pummel those in her way.
silent Rage Barbarian = John Wick
I absolutely love this.
My version of the story for him is that he's an ex soldier who swears "I do not have spell-shock!" I imagine war in these words having hedge wizards casting fire balls and other hectic spells everywhere. For a standard soldier it's hell, just like real war.
So his rage is a PTSD episode, which is why it can cause exaction. After the battle he's coming back to reality. Additionally I would have the death stuff from the Phantom Rogue as the soles of people he killed and friends he lost in battle.
I think the roleplay for this character would be amazing and the arch could be awesome
I actually played an arcane trickster/ sorcerer to use quickened spell for double sneak attacks. You get plenty of spell slots which you can convert into points to do this most of the time (unless your DM throws like 4 encounters your way per day)
*Corrected Below*
Double sneak attacks? You know you can only apply Sneak Attack once per turn right? You can apply Sneak Attack on your turn and then on somewhere else's turn during opportunity attack.
Unless your talking about Magical Ambush. Which technically wouldn't work either. After you cast the first spell your no longer hidden. So wouldn't apply to 2nd spell. So, a little confused.
@@LiqwdE Like in the video, you can make 1 attack as a bonus action (quickened spell booming blade) and then Ready an Action to take the attack action during someone else's turn. Two sneak attacks per round!
@@Ramschat Thats true, thats true. Your wording threw me off. Double sneak attack vs 2 sneak attacks per round. But your totally right. I offer a thumbs up 👍 and an apology lol.
@@LiqwdE Hey, no problem! The reason my comment didn't go into detail is that at one point in the video, Colby mentioned this particular build and explained it there. But yeah, not everyone will have understood what I was referring to
I have also played a arcane trickster/sorc build and it was a ton of fun! Lots of utility cantrips + skill expertise makes you great out of combat, and double sneak attack + booming blade makes you great in combat. A very well rounded character with lots of things to do to keep it interesting.
This might be basic but I'd like to request an optimized build for the theme of the mercurial fey trickster.
A character that is hard to pin down, good at enchanting, charming, deceiving. That thrills in causing mischief and causing trouble often for others as well as himself but also being good at getting out of trouble (at least himself).
A character which plays into that being of the enchanted forest, that gains power from the moon and has a soothing voice or plays a captivating melody.
Basically a super-powered/optimized archfey warlock is what I had in mind. Maybe crossed with a circle of dreams druid (my thinking is control and support vs damage) another class (eloquence bard)?
But if you can do a PC in that theme that does good sustainable DPR I'd be thrilled with that too
• Eladrin (roll randomly at the end of every long rest to determine both season and gender)
• Genie Warlock: Ask your DM if you can randomly determine your element at the end of each long rest (Efreeti = Summer, Marid = Fall, Dao = Winter, & Djinni = Spring)
• Mask of Many Faces and Agonizing Blast eldritch invocations
• Pact of the Chain and familiar that changes form each long rest (Imp = Summer, Pseudodragon = Fall, Quasit = Winter, & Sprite = Spring)
Point of Clarity: Reckless attack only gives advantage on Melee Attacks.
Melee weapon attacks yes
I played an intelligence based rogue with an artificer dip once 😄 great fun to turn a class around like this
Armorer artificer is a great subclass to merge with rogue levels you get the lightning launcher who's first hit deals an extra d6 lightning damage allowing you to make up for some of the lost rogue sneak attack progression and you got yourself a lightning damage based sneak attack additionally you could use medium armor and grab medium armor master for infinite advantage on stealth checks thanks to the infiltrator armor and with Infusions and shield proficiency you get an even more tanky rogue
@@lucasramey6427 None of the Armorer armor models provide a finesse weapon, and I think there's no way of dealing sneak damage without a finesse weapon, so Armorer doesn't work, sadly. Would be cool if it worked tho
@@TheTrueAnarchel The lightning launcher is ranged, and you can sneak attack with ranged weapons.
Aah, of course, forgot about that. Although I'm still wondering how you're supposed to do that using lightning, but I guess RAW it works
@@TheTrueAnarchel *sneakiest thunder noises in the background*
Alternatively, (after a talk with your DM), for your second feat/ASI, you could take- hear me out- Keen Mind.
"Why would I ever need Keen Mind?!"- I already hear you asking. Well, the feat contains a point stating: "You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month."
Ok? How do we use that? Well, the "Whispers of the Dead" ability from the phantom rogue subclass, allows you to gain a skill or tool proficiency of your choice, per short and long rest, as a ghostly presence shares it's knowledge with you.
I know, it's a bit cheesy, but that's why you need to discuss with your DM first and foremost. Technically, Keen Mind allows you to recall the knowledge you gained thanks to the Whispers, allowing you to keep the proficiencies? Provided you go through them every month.
So, essentially, you can be proficient in every tool and skill, which would make for a fun McGuiver character, with a lot of flavour.
Full marks for creativity :)
For a STR based rogue, I always liked the idea of a Grung that grapples opponents and is double proficient in athletics. The poisonous skin can cause disadvantage on their attempts to get away, and with enough feats you’re always getting advantage on your attacks while grappling. And I really like the idea of a hidden frog jumping 30 feet out of the shadows onto someone’s face and never letting go.
Also, if you can get Scimitar of Speed, it will let you to take the attack action on your bonus action without having to make an attack with your attack action. Sorry for multi-posts
I think, if I was DMing this character, I would be either grumpy, or begrudging this character. No shame if this is all cool at your table, but the pushing of your attack action into another turn as your primary action, to gain another sneak attack feels like it's stretching the nature of the rule, in order to over-tune sneak attack damage. I'm less mad about, say, rogue/battle master, who abuses riposte to take extra sneak attacks, because it requires you to have been attacked, and been missed. /Shrug.
I would also take issue with the killing critters to max out your trinkets, for the same kind of reason. It feels abusive for a minute benefit. Again, not saying DMs shouldn't allow it, just that I might take issue.
Still love your work, Colby!
I agree. This one stretches credulity to the point of breakage for me. The idea of a /frenzied/ rager holding an action, being able to stealth, or having the focus necessary to sneak attack in the first place, while not prohibited by the rules, fly in the face of any sort of sense. I mean do words even mean anything? No amount of backstory rationalization can salve this incongruity for me.
For that matter, concerning Phantom Steeds, does a "quasi-real" entity even have a soul? Is a soul required to make a "soul trinket"? This is the only problem I had with the Double Phantom build Treant Monk presented.
I have no problem with the Rogue/Battle Manster combo. It uses resources (Brace, Riposte) and even if you add in Sentinel Feat you're still only further ensuring that your reaction can be turned into an extra sneak attack once per round. In fact it might be my favorite build to play in the game.
@@Tusitala1967 I think I'm less irked over the "bloodlust fueled barbarian" making precision strikes- you can, as Colby sort of eluded to, RP it as a cold calculating rage, like a red out or something like that. It's just sort of like... Preparing an attack to happen when it's not your turn *only to meet the stipulation of it being not your turn*, feels like a bridge too far for me. /shrug
@@schuepbachr I take your meaning, though I don't believe red out is the appropriate term. Having experienced the phenomenon of seeing red, I can tell you there was no control or volition involved.
I was sucker punched in the nose and after seeing the blood the whole world turned red. I was told later that I launched myself at the guy and picked him up over my head by the belt and arm, dropped him on the ground, and straddled him raining down punches; half of which hit the concrete. It took four adult teachers to pull me off of him. This is what I think about when I think of the sort of rage that allows you to shrug off damage, resist pain, and perform otherwise improbable feats of strength. It isn't compatible with patient deliberation (though I have seen rage satisfyingly re-flavored as drunken fighting).
I was sent to a psychologist named Dr. Wicker after the incident. After hearing about it she asked about my hobbies. I told her I was into fantasy novels, comic books, and reading history. Then she asked me if I'd ever played D&D. I hadn't, so she started talking about it. Half of our sessions were spent talking about gaming. This is how I got into D&D in the first place. It didn't hurt one bit that she was also beautiful.
Colby: The Steady Aim optional rule for rogues does not require that you use it for Sneak Attack. I think that could provide for some fun multiclass builds, such as a Rogue Caster.
I think the best barb/rogue build is Path of beast 6/soul knife X. When you attack with a claw, you get a free claw attack. Manifest your psychic blade and attack with that. Claw attack as the other attack and get a free claw attack. Bonus action your other psychic blade attack which is a d4. So 3d6+mods, 1d4+mod and then add your sneak attacks. This is basically deemed for a long term campaign or if you start in mid tier. But they both sync very well together.
I'd love it normally but how to fix such contrasting flavour!
@@CharalamposKoundourakis I've got it! This character feels like a Marvel character to me, somehow. A skilled assassin, genetically modified in a lab. Shifter would be the perfect race. The idea is that she was given a series of enhancements that included lycanthropy. She can not only fight like a panther, but she can cause her claws to be neurotoxic as well, dealing psychic damage. Overall, it's similar to Wolverine but with mental mutations on top of the claws.
@@oathboundhero1782 Niiiiice
Our table ditched the Exhaustion from Berserker. Making it a much more tenable Archetype (and even still, almost everyone just goes Bear Totem :'D )
If you really go barbarian 5 for extra attack, there is aso an option for non-frenzy rages (and even after-frenzy non-frenzy rages): you can doff your shield for grappling/shoving. STR+expertise athletics are enough for reliable success in most cases. Some of unescapable embrances of death
If your DM doesnt let you use a rapier and STR, you can use a shortsword :D it's a finesse and looks more... strenghtened?
Great video, I totally overlooked Sneak Attack with Strength. I usually use Haste to get double Sneak Attack. I use the Haste Action on my turn and hold my normal Action to attack on an Ally's turn. For a Dexterity Build, I would try an Elf with 12 levels of Phantom Rogue, 8 levels of Divine Soul, Meta Magic Adept, and Elven Accuracy. This would give you 2.5 Sneak Attacks per round, 6 Ability Score Options, 4 Meta Magic Options, 10 Sorcery Points, and access to Healing Spells, Mage Armor, Aid, Haste, Death Ward, etc. Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward all have an 8 hour spell duration without Concentration. As an Elf you could cast all of them with Extended Spell before each Trance and get your resources back after 4 hours, while still having 12 hours of spell duration left over after your Trance is complete.
Ooh I like this build, might do some number crunching to see how good it can be
@@benjaminwalker9369 I'm glad you find it interesting. I like that the Bonus Action is still free for use, a Fireball for instance.
This build sounds like fun. Haven’t really touched the phantom rogue so this could be a fun build.
@@knightghaleon Thank you, I'm glad you find it interesting. I like that the Bonus Action is still free for use, a Fireball for instance. Since Phantom Rogue is new to you, I want to point out that the 3rd level Phantom feature Whispers of the Dead and the Feat Keen Mind can get you all skill proficiencies.
The Double-Bladed scimitar would have been perfect if you didn't need to take the attack action first, to get the bonus action attack
Honestly, Berserker could have been way better if it just had an ability to remove levels of exhaustion on a short OR long rest. Rangers are the only class that can do it at base without spells as of late, but Berserkers should have set the example. That has easy potential to reset your levels back to 0 in one day. If you're lucky, you'd only have two instances of combat and going into a frenzy once each time, or going into a frenzy twice in a single combat. Besides, you really should only go up to level 2 since you'll cancel out the problems that come with it.
come on! that advantage assumption at 27:33 is just lazy D: i mean here, there really isnt anything that is similar to your other builds where you dont just assume to suddenly have advantage, you even have the feat slots open to fix this, its half the fun to find ways to have advantage outside your turn is it not? a reaction double sneak rogue build handwaving the advantage requirement for the reaction attack is not really up to your optimization standard i feel like... especially given how drastic the difference is because of the double sneak.
Its so easy on this one too! you have the feats open, take ritual caster, take find familiar ready a help action or something like that. more options exist ofc....
dont handwave that
For a build like this, I would probably consider Sentinel. It would give you more opportunity attacks, for more sneak attacks. This would be especially good if you chose to go with fighter levels instead of barbarian
Arcane gunslinger next?
This may be lost in the comments, but I want to make a Jekyll and Hyde character.. I really like your builds and would love to see what you come up with if you deem fit!
It might be an idea to let your DM know you're looking for the "Sun Blade" a radiant damage dealing finesse LONGSWORD. It does radiant damage Not slashing, its also a magic item. Though don't get your hopes up, you may not get this.
IS Weezer the original nerd rock? Wouldn't that crown go to Led Zeppelin?
One of my favorite level 20 builds is Scout Rogue 18/Barbarian 2 because you get to pair Reckless Attack with Sneak Attack, Elusive, and Sudden Strike for some truly crazy damage in group fights at no cost. Even if you don't go Scout, Reckless Attack pairs so so well with Rogue's level 18 feature Elusive. The one downside is that you can't pair a level 2 feature from Barbarian with a level 18 feature from Rogue until you reach level 20, which means most games will not see you getting to combine those features.
I would love to see another STR Rogue build without the Berserker subclass!
I hope they leave Path of the Giant alone so we can make thrown attacks with ranged weapons when it comes out, I'd love to see a strength based ranged attacker done like this.
You can ranged attack with Strength with some weapons. I think Darts, Throwing Axe, Javelins.
@@lexmtaylor yes, but you can't get crossbow expert and sharpshooter and throw your hand crossbow for 3 attacks at level 6 for 2d6+str+10 for each attack, like you can with path of the giant now.
@@chiepah2 that is neat what book is Giant?
@@lexmtaylor UA unfortunately, that why I'm hoping they leave it.
@@chiepah2 it took me several minutes for my smoothbrain to understand your 2000 iq build there, but holy shit that's hilarious.
I think Swashbuckler rogue would've been better since it is a way more reliable way to always be able to sneak attack that doesn't need any extra resource (like familiar or party member casting a spell) for out of turn damage, but even so it's quite cool what you did and I like the thematical cohesion
Can you do a “grey mage” build someone who can do the most damage (nova or sustainable) with divine magic and necromancy mix
Alternative: beg/bribe your DM into giving your rogue a scimitar of speed. ;)
I love the idea. Thinking about It, you could do the same shenanigan with Haste. Using your main action for Ready and the extra one for a normal Attack. This way you'd still have the bonus action available, maybe for steady aim. Just swap the barbarian levels for Wizard/sorcerer. With 5° levels you'd have It twice per day, with 6°, three. Still more than the barbarian option, unless you accept being exhausted for the Better part of the campaign
For a Dexterity Build, I would try an Elf with 12 levels of Phantom Rogue, 8 levels of Divine Soul, Meta Magic Adept, and Elven Accuracy. This would give you 2.5 Sneak Attacks per round, 6 Ability Score Options, 4 Meta Magic Options, 10 Sorcery Points, and access to Healing Spells, Mage Armor, Aid, Haste, Death Ward, etc. Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward all have an 8 hour spell duration without Concentration. As an Elf you could cast all of them with Extended Spell before each Trance and get your resources back after 4 hours, while still having 12 hours of spell duration left over after your Trance is complete.
It's worth noting that your ability to pick locks or disarm traps might still be perfectly fine as a Strength -based Rogue. Tools don't have built in or required ability scores to use, so as long as you flavor it the right way, you could end up making Strength (Thieves' Tools) checks pretty regularly. Plus, I don't know if you covered this (still mid-video), but free Expertise in Athletics is REALLY good, particularly on a high-Strength character.
Edit: That becomes extra important if your table allows you to attack twice on a readied attack. First attack: Shove prone, Second attack: Advantage attack.
why use thieves tools when you can use a crowbar. Be that kind of rogue.
Attacking twise on a readied attack would be preety non RAW
@@CharalamposKoundourakis Hence the "if"
@@GrrumpyPants *how you would argue str for a thieves tools check lol
@@lucasramey6427 “This lockpick, my friend, is a special-made sliver of Dwarven adamantine. Special-ordered from two continents away for 100 GP each. Nothing in this mundane world can break it.”
“Okay…but why do you need all that for a lockpick?”
“Ah, well! It turns out that if you run a lock through with an invincible metal spike, the lock doesn’t really work anymore”
Wait why are you comparing THIS character assuming other players give you an advantage, but with your other character, you make a duo presentation in order to assume such a thing?
advantage on dex save isn't that great if your dex saving throw isn't that high. I mean if you have a +2 dex saving throw. even with advantage, it will be really difficult to succeed a DC 18. If you need to roll 16 on at least one die, even with advantage it not a garantee
He is doing so for the ease of crunching numbers. He said so, himself lol
My preference for the Rogue subclass would probably be Scout (but you knew that!). Under the right circumstances, the Skirmisher class feature they get at Level 3 is abuse-able. Remembering the Dragonmarked Halfling Support Barbarian build, my take on this build would be a Strongheart Halfling, Path of the Totem Warrior/Scout. It'd be easy to blend those into a theme, and; at my table; we balance Variant Human and Custom Lineage by giving a racial feat from XGTE (EXCLUDING Elven Accuracy, Bountiful Luck and Second Chance) at Level 1. A little bone for flavor for people who like to roll old-school. So my Halfling Totem Scout would get Squat Nimbleness, at Level 1, which is a half-feat giving +1 to either STR or DEX, along with +5' of movement, proficiency in either Athletics or Acrobatics, and Advantage on Acrobatics or Athletics checks to escape grapples. I multiclass a LOT of Rogues (It's kind of my jam), and I always prefer to start Rogue in order to get all of the Skill Proficiencies. I look at it like free money.
I always look forward to your videos challenging my theses on theory crafting, and giving a different perspective and way of thinking about theory crafting. Never mind lifting the build, that's what I take away.
I think battlemaster for a regular rogue is great. Between precision, quick toss, riposte and brace you have a bunch of ways to get a second sneak attack or make sure your sneak attack lands. With the manoeuvre fighting style you get 5 dice as well.
One thing you touched is sorc's quickened spell but you didn't take it far enough. granted it does take a 5 level sorc investment but the route to go is to quicken haste. use your haste action to make your sneak attack and use your normal action to ready an off-turn sneak attack. on a ranged build this works very well as it'll be hard to break that haste when you're kiting.
props on the phantom pick. imo it's quite underrated and imo is the best rogue at 9+ or the best main class rogue.
I can tell by the title of this video alone that this'll be a GOOD one
Honestly, I'm impressed with how consistent your builds are uploaded. Some of them are obvious ones like your first video (hexblade) but a lot are very interesting, fun, and clever. You've also helped me learn about optimizing and I've applied some of what I've learned to my own characters. Thank you and keep up the good stuff! Also this music into is the best one and I love it.
This seems more like an exercise in rule bending, or just testing your DMs patience. Anyway still liked the video.
You can as a cavalier make a special bonus attack against a target who is marked by Unwavering Mark at lvl 3. It is situational but you can do it. Rogue cavalier would be pretty cool, lots of oppertunity attacks
Another benefit of starting with barbarian is the d12 hit dice. The extra HP is especially important for the first 2 levels.
22hp vs 18hp. Plus rage half damage? Ya. That's essentially 26 more hit points in the first 2 hit levels. GREAT POINT!
@@vinspad3 Once you add Uncanny Dodge to the half rage damage, your HP will last a long time.
There is an unofficial setting for dnd, called “fateforge” or “dragon” (the French version) which has a feat with which you can ignore 1st level of exhaustion.
It’s a really nice setting with many modular things like madness or corruption. You definitely should check this if you want to add some stuff to vanilla dnd ❤️
You know, I've been thinking about a feature to replace Brutal Critical. I call it Death Blow. In essence, it's a guaranteed critical hit once per long rest, requiring an entire action to use. The upgrade levels for this feature will give it an extra use per long rest. Thoughts? Advice on scaling and viability?
costing an action is harsh when it is once per long rest, it would be more acceptable to use a whole action if it scaled proficiency per day imo
@@finalfantasy50 thanks for the tip!
Unfortunately I don't think you can use Extra Attack with a Readied action. Extra Attack is applied when you take the Attack action on your turn. Since you are taking the Attack action on someone else's turn, I don't believe you can make more than one attack.
It's still a great strat to get multiple sneak attacks, but you'll just have one reaction attack in that damage calculation.
Truth - will pin a comment.
I played a Beast Barbarian/Scout Rogue. Very fun combo. I’m going to be interested in what Colby does this video!
That sounds super fun. Did you go barb 6 and then rogue?
@@CharalamposKoundourakis yeah that’s exactly what I did
I think Scout level 3 ability can be used to drag a grappled enemy on other peoples turns.
The battlemaster route would work pretty slick with the soulknife.
My girlfriend and I always wait for these videos to come out! Excited for this one.
I'm actually playing the Blade part of your recent Mount & Blade build with a friend of mine who's playing a Strength-based Phantom Rogue who's focusing on Grappling to increase our tanking ability. DM allowed me to play a Small Warforged because it fit my original Custom Lineage justification and I've been having a blast!
You cannot use extra attack on your reaction. The wording of extra attack is ""Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn."
Indeed. Going to pin a comment on this.
One of the best ways to get an optimized rogue is to duo with a party member.
A shadow sorcerer with one level of order cleric is so fun to play. Cast things like command, or blindness/deafness, and target both the enemy and the rogue. Whenever you target the friend, they get a reaction attack (every round).
The enemy gets a disadvantage on the save, and the rogue gets an opportunity attack out of it.
For example, "command"ing (upcast or twinned spell to target both) your rogue to "throw" might be something they were already going to do. On the other hand, the enemy might not want to throw his axe. Same goes for things like "hide" or "move" or "disengage".
As to upcasting blind/deafen, the enemy won't like being blinded, but your friend might not mind being deafened. If you are feeling risky, you can target the enemies and friendly with "slow" and just drop concentration if your rogue fails the save.
Holy frick, you've made me realize I can apply Sneak Attack through throwing Soulknife Rogue's Psychic Blades using Strength! This makes my Barbarogue WAY better!
That's a pretty strong build, I was thinking of making a similar build, but instead of going berserker I'd go ancestral guardian and having all my other party members essentially be barbarians.
I'd be losing my extra sneak attack per round, so in your dpr calculations, do you know how much damage I'd be losing?
Amazing idea as always. Super pumped for the build! Bring on the Lurkserker!
I watched this video awhile back and loved it. And as I have been making my own characters, I actually discovered something today that I'm not sure on, but it would achieve the same goal as this character without needing Berserker Barbarian. Technically, you can make an attack roll using the "Use an Object" action:
Use an object: You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
The description is circular by my understanding, meaning that you can take the attack action to use an object, or take the use an object action to make an attack. The intent was *likely* meant for interacting with something like a poison or an Acid Vial, the ladder of which states:
As an action, you can splash the contents of this vial onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw the vial up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. In either case, make a ranged attack against a creature or object, treating the acid as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 acid damage.
So, if you can use the Use an object action to make a ranged attack with a vial of acid as an improvised weapon, you should also be able to use it to make an attack with a pocket knife, or a rapier you so happen to be holding. SO, the thief rogue can actually take an attack with its bonus action, hold its action, and then use its reaction to make an attack.
Edit: I hope you check your comments on old videos because I'd love to see the deep dive thief rogue build!
Berlurker is so funny to me
Colby my take on this: high STR swashbuckler 3 / ancestral guardians 3 / battlemaster 3 is tactical base to get reaction sneak attacks without holding back on your turn: swashbuckler walks up and uses rage and reckless attack with dual wielding shortswords, then walks away free w no opportunity attack off to the side away from others; the enemy can now either attack w. Disadvantage &resistance against your allies, or he can come fight you w. Advantage but resistance. Once he comes into range Brace manuever kicks in for reaction attack at 1d8 extra, and swashbuckler's Audacity allows sneak attack off turn....also i went with forest gnome for Cunning so between race and classes I have advantage of some sort on STR, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA + proficiency in CON
Greetings, we're playing with your centaur & custom lineage tank duo. I just want to specify that playing strength based rogue for the centaur in this build is absolutely ok and in my opinion it's even more effective then dex based.
Can you do a low intelligence wizard? Please.
My favorite Multiclass Build is the Divine Bladesinger Paladin; 8 Bladesinger, 8 Divine Soul, 4 any Paladin. Race - any elf is best. I use Aereni Wood Elf for Expertise in Arcana, because there is an Arcana Ability Check to learn higher level spells from Scrolls. Point Buy - 13 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 11 Constitution, 13 Intelligence, 8 Wisdom 13 Charisma. Racial Bonus - +2 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence. Suggested Build Order; 6 Bladesinger (Elven Accuracy at level 4), 4 Divine Soul (Quicken Spell/Extended Spell at level 9 and +2 Dexterity at level 10), 2 Paladin, 4 Divine Soul (+2 Intelligence at level 16), 2 Bladesinger (+2 Intelligence at level 18), and 2 Paladin (Resilient Constitution or maybe Tough at level 20). Concept - Stack Bestow Curse upcasted to level 5 (Non-Concentration) and Spirit Shroud up cast to what ever. With Bladesinger extra attack you can substitute one of your attacks with a Cantrip, like Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade. Divine Soul among other things gives you Meta Magic. If you take Quicken Spell you can quicken Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade for a third attack, all of which you can Smite. I use Extended Spell primarily on; Mage Armor, Aid, and Death Ward. These spells when Extended last 16 hours with no Concentration. I cast them before I Trance, after 4 hours I have my Spell Slots and Sorcery Points back, as well as 12 hours of Spell Duration on all 3 spells. For spell casting I focused on Utility, Control, and Extending long duration non- concentration Spells. I used very few, 7 I believe, spells other than cantrips that required an attack roll or used a Spell DC.
Barb/Rogue is a surprisingly well-rounded, "badass normal" playstyle. Had the good fortune to play a grapple-focused Barb 5 (Ancestral Guardian) / Rogue (Phantom) X from level 12 to 18, and while it didn't focus on damage as much as this particular build, the team support, survivability, flexibility, and RP fuel were remarkable for a pure martial character. Even found a good use case for Mage Slayer in this mage-heavy campaign: a grappled+proned mage would either need to use up a spell and/or action to cast a teleport to get away, or risk casting another spell (that I'd resist with advantage 'cause within 5') and likely eating an off-turn Sneak Attack with a decent chance of failing Concentration checks at disadvantage. And once you hit level 13 in Phantom for Ghost Walk (particularly with Mobile and Barbarian 5 move bonus), you really do become a slasher genre villain, able to bypass most layers of security to show up behind (or above, or below) victims for a lethal jump scare and shrug off most damage.
I solved the armor problem with being a Dwarf Mountain so I could take Rog at first for the extra skills. Mine is Rog Thief 15/Barbarian Totem Bear 5. Inheritor Background so I can get Aracana. Feats Skill Expert x3, Mobile, Ability score. not in those orders. Ends with having 20str, 16dex, 16con. 9 Skills 7 have Expertise. Min 27 Athelete skill check without magic. Can use any magic item in game due to Thief. Lock picking is min 30 with Gloves of Thievery. I'd be using Half-Plate if you can get Adamantine get it, otherwise try for Mithril.
You SAY that a strength based rogue can't be good at ALL the things rogues are supposed to be good at. And you're probably right about some of that. But if you max out strength, you have alternatives for some tasks. Can't open a locked door? Just walk through it, without opening it. Locked chest giving you trouble? Just yeet it at a wall until it breaks. Not good at sneaking? Give yourself advantage by knocking out the guard or intimidating him into "not" seeing you ("YOU DO NOT SEE GROG!!!"). Can't disarm those traps? Reinforced doors make pretty handy improvised shields. No good at pickpocketing? Play to your strengths with a good old fashioned mugging.
Request:
Red Mage (Final Fantasy) "Three Ways" (or more)
This isn't a "do this build for me" request. It's a "show the process" request.
The Final Fantasy Red Mage can Heal, Buff, Debuff, Damage, and fight with weapons and armor fairly average but have a niche of effectively meta magic as well.
I think there are multiple ways to hit these various notes so seeing a video where you weigh out the options and/or hit those notes in different ways would be really cool.
Sword Bardbvs Valor Bard vs Swashbuckler vs Fighter vs Hexblade vs War Cleric for the melee and armor facets.
Divine Soul Sorceror vs Arcana Cleric vs Light Cleric vs Paladin for the White/Black Magic.
What feats to take and when to sub for Metamagic or melee/armor rather than multiclass and why one is more efficient than the other but may not deliver on the vision as well as a multi-class, etc..
It's a fun puzzle imo.
RAW, you cannot have two attacks on your reaction, as the Extra attack feature states : "...whenever you take the Attack action on your turn".
Otherwise, its a really cool build!
Indeed - pinning a comment.
Ok this is a crazy coincidence. I just made a character with almost the same build. My level progression plan is 6 levels in Barbarian (because I have been blessed with the opportunity to play Path of the Giant from the latest UA), 4 levels in Fighter for Echo Knight and Thrown Weapon Fighting Style (plus another ASI), the rest in Rogue, either Assassin or Phantom. Probably would pick up the Fighting Initiate feat for Dueling as well.
I'm curious as to how a Drizzt-esque build would work...
New UA wood elf Berserker barbarian 3 / champion fighter 3/ the new expert hunter ranger 10...
The most ridiculous way to use Sneak Attack every single turn: Cavalier 18 can Opportunity Attack once per turn _in addition to a normal reaction_ (technically it's either any reaction or OA on any given turn, but still), which triggers when an enemy moves 5 ft while within your reach, regardless of weapon. Combine with a whip and at least one level of Rogue, and poof that's theoretically as many Sneak Attacks as you can get enemies to enter and move through your reach during any given turn. Utterly ridiculous and only adds 1d6, but still lol technically an option.
Personally, my thoughts on Rogue/Barbarian tend to trend towards either the "enemy emasculator" (Ancestral Guardian with a whip and Cunning Action and probably at least one speed increase beyond Barbarian; use hit and run and now one enemy per turn is pulling a Bugs Bunny impression when they try to flex and their bicep falls down) or a grappler (advantage + Expertise in Athletics, albeit grappler is probably a dip if not substituting for one of the feats that grant Expertise and might even be better as a Fighter Rune Knight / Barbarian either Totem or Beast, and if I went Beast I would _totally_ get a mini prop that looks like Rita Repulsa's staff and go "MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!" when I used both abilities).
Not relevant to this build, but one reliable way to get an extra attack as a BA every turn, that I haven't seen you mention before is the Longtooth Shifter. Combined with Beast Barbarian - Claws (natural fit), at level 5 you can get up to 4 attacks per turn on at least 3 full encounters per day. I'm planning to use that build for a future campaign and I'm curious as to how you'd optimise it, though admittedly I don't think the damage output would be that amazing, with only a 1d6 per attack + bonuses. I'd probably go Barb 6/Battle Master 11, or Barb 3/Gloomstalker 3/Battle Master 11 if I could get an Eldritch Claw Tattoo.
simic hybrid - Science project gone wrong. escaped from a facility and only recently getting control over the bloodrage of whatever mutation is was they gave you. Level 5 your appendages are a set of clawlike fingers sprouting from the top of your hand. As you level up the fingers begin to rise up revealing another set of hands. End game speak with the DM about having your character killed. When he dies a second body rips from the corpse. The fully awakened Simic Beast.
In terms of Feats I'd suggest, I'd probably go with Fighting Initiate(reasons why depending on your choice), Telepathic(to keep up the silent), Defensive Duelist or the Feat that allows you to take 2 battle master maneuvers and gain a superiority dice. Skilled and Skill Expert could also be useful.
(I'd also be using a Scimitar and Slasher because I like the idea of that better and probably would've picked up Swashbuckler to have more ways to trigger sneak attack. But that's me and my focus.)
Hi, could you please do an Elven (or Half-Elf) Samurai Archer build for Nova Damage. I think by my calculations it gets into low tier 1 or high tier 2 from how I would build it. I'd like to see where you go when the core of that build (Level 6) is done. Do you stay fighter for a 3rd Attack? Or do you multiclass somewhere for some abilities that synergize well?
Colby. After some recent excursions into "weird build strategizing" land, I really wonder how you'd go about attacking a non-monk, unarmed attack focused, sustained or nova build... you enjoy the homework so much more than I. hahhahah.
Can you do a “transporter“ character? One who maximizes the ability to get both themselves and their party members from one place to another, both in and out of combat, as efficiently/sustainably as possible?
Genie warlock with pact of the chain would probably be one of the better ones for this. The main thing it's going to be missing is Teleport. They can still use teleportation circle via limited wish, although they get access to it rather late. The main reason I love this class for transportation is the ability at 10th level to bring the entire party inside the vessel. With an Imp familiar from pact of the chain, you can instruct them to polymorph into a raven with 60ft fly speed, turn invisible, and carry the vessel to where you want to go. Then the entire party hops inside and the invisible raven carry's the vessel with the party inside. For short journeys, the entire party can benefit from a short rest during the jounrey (with added healing). For longer journeys, the party can take a full long rest while inside. This means you can safely travel nearly 50 miles during your sleep.
At earlier levels warlocks also have access to Fly, and as they always cast at the highest level available they will quickly be able to benefit the entire party. As the warlock can retreat inside their vessel, they can cast fly on the rest of the party, have a party member carry the vessel, and then short rest inside to get back the spell slot used casting fly. Having to cast fly on one less party member means they can get the entire party airborn 2 levels earlier.
Neat Idea!
Maybe also add a 2lvl dip into wildfire druid for unlimited mini-thunderstep with the help of a wildfire spirit.
I like Longtooth Shifter Beast Barbarian 6/Rogue X. Stab 'em with a blade, if it lands then sneak attack, claw, claw, bite. If it doesn't, second attack with blade, then bite. Guarantees you an additional attack, and B/A if shifted, and the spider-climb is ludicrous for stealth.
You never really did anything for 50k subs, so here's a suggestion for 60k (or one of those milestones): you DM a game, either for the Aneria group or the other TH-camrs, and at the end put them up against one of your optimized builds.
I don't have a ton of experience DMing (all of 3 sessions so far), but it's been at least as much fun coming up with creative NPCs and enemies for the players to fight and interact with as it has been creating the characters I've played.
you can pick skeleton as an (npc) race (DMG282), they are immune to exhaustion. needs the DM to allow it though, since they are "reserved" for NPCs
Hey Colby, I'm rolling a new character in our campaign and it will be a level 8 7/1 Oath Of Conquest/ Undead Patron ~ Astral Elf. I love the idea of being able to teleport up to 30 feet as a bonus action and really put that terrifying presence to use, how would you do it?
So two things.
1. I know this doesn't directly do anything for your damage, but going 6 into Barbarian gives you mindless rage. Being immune to Charms and fears while raging can come in clutch.
2. I'd say Swashbuckler is the best bet for guaranteeing that your reaction held attack gets sneak attack. Alternatively, going Inquisitive can also achieve this (but this relies on an ability check, which may be an issue).
Idea: instead of Phantom, if you go Arcane Trickster, there are two cool spells you can use:
1. Jump- if you cast this right before combat starts, or turn 1 cast Jump and then rage, your essentially have a pseudo fly speed for that fight. And jump in non-concentration, so raging won’t interfere.
2. Find Familiar- your familiar can use the help action to give you the second instance of advantage you need for double sneak attack, and you can declare “the trigger for my held action will be when my familiar finishes using the help action”.
Dear Colby, do you think you could make a Stealthy Dex Barb work? 😅 or is this strictly better?
I get a strong Jason from Friday the 13 vibe, unrelenting and supernatural psychopath killer, crazy strong and lumbering but sneaky. I kind of like it!
Hey Fam,
i watching the videos from d4 for a month and obviously had not enough time to watch everything haha, but im looking for all the builds from d4 which could be a good face of my party or of a party. Just found the fey wanderer so far and wondering if their is anything else. Thanks for help.
And D4, you are doing a nice work explaining everything etc, i like your work very much, keep going (:
Best party face is going to be a Bard. He has a lot of builds that go into Bard.
Closest I've done... th-cam.com/video/9AnwvG3Wff4/w-d-xo.html
I have a character concept I've been working on called ALADDIN. It's still a work in progress and would love some feedback. Aereni Wood Elf; Swashbuckler Rogue 10 / Fey Wanderer Ranger 5 / College of Eloquence Bard 4 / The Genie Warlock 1. I picked Aereni Wood Elf for the Free Expertise (this build has 7 Expertise and all Charisma Checks add the Wisdom Modifier as well; Aladdin had Skills, Persuasion, Deception, Performance, Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, etc. Rather than damage, my focus is on Persuasion. This in my opinion is Aladdin's greatest skill (he received 4 Wishes from a 3 Wish Genie, he convinced a Kingdom he was a foreign Prince, etc.). The idea is to pick up Expertise in Persuasion and Unsettling Words while enhancing Panache with Silver Tongue and Other Worldly Glamour. Without a bonus like Bless, Guidance. etc. you could still have a possible +22 to Persuasion Checks, while trading a roll below 10 for a 10 instead. This would give you a possible minimum roll of 32 in Persuasion, when 30 is often considered "God Level". Any thoughts on my build, or ideas you think might improve it, without compromising the concept, would be appreciated.
Burgalazerker
So, like i said in the short, i am playing a rogue/barbarian tortle since may, the cool thing about that is, i don't really care about armor, have an ac of 19 with a shield, don't have disadvantage on stealth and got the skill proficiencies of the rogue, he is like this urban who grew up on the streets and became a street wrestler that has the title of lethal grab, having expertise in stealth and athletics. Still, now being Level 3 (1rogue/2barbarian) i will go more into the barbarian route to be honest.
Just for anyone wondering his stats are 18str, 13dex, 14con, 10int, 12wis, 8cha; Have a nice day/evening/night everyone.
Given Rogue's freakishly powerful survival features, I just can't find many reasons other than strong theme to not take Bear Totem to reliably stand toe to toe with anything normal thrown at your party, Rogue can be whatever the heck you want.
This degree of survivability lets you stack damage-related Feats such as Two Weapon Style and Dual Wielder to also be a consistently high DPR member of the team. Sentinel is also another good choice if you're occupying your hands with weapons / a shield and aren't or unable to grapple the enemy to keep them locked onto you, and badly punish if they target someone else.
A strength rogue is the character I was playing when I had my greatest moment in D&D so far; I dropped the troll back down the hole in the Yawning Portal during a Dragon Heist campaign with a well timed lariat {high strength, expertise in Athletics}, and some phenomenal dice luck. One day I will complete Phuge's {Assassin/Totem} story.
If you don't want to go Berserker, you could go Zealot and take Shifter Longtooth for your bonus action attacks. You'd push back Piercer and ST 20, but you'd get to burst more often and without exhaustion.
Some definite problems with this build, if we're at a table that's a stickler for the rules.
Beyond not having a reliable way to get advantage on our held-action attack - an inordinately generous assumption, I think - held attacks cannot benefit from Extra Attack. You only make one attack with your reaction, regardless how many you could make with your action.
I don't think those two problems completely kill this build, but I do think they would knock it down a peg or two.
Swap race to Bugbear and Primal Path to Totem or Guardian and this makes for a very cool sneaky tank / Bruiser! My brother did this build with totem, it was a very cool tank build!
At 30 minutes you asked if you had used a phantom rogue before.. iirc, wasn't the blender from the battery and the blender a phantom rogue/zealot barbarian? Might be misremembering.
God I love this build. I used a flat STR based assassin rogue Half-Orc as my very first 5e character and I loved it. Wish I had thought of this because it looks like so much fun.
I was looking for dual wield Barb/Rogue and replace the word RAGE in the ability description with Battle Trance/Dance
Oh my god, this is straight up Fitzchivalry, just needs a ranger dip for animal companion. If only you could sneak attack with an axe
I know it would take quite a long time to get it set up, but how much experimentation could you do with a rogue 2 Cavalier Fighter 18 so you can potentially get sneak attacks on every character's turn? I think they wouldn't be super great, and it might just be better to get the fourth attack from fighter 20, but I was just curious.