You guys are pulling off the "recording the same video together while not being together" flawlessly. If I was just listening to the video, I would think you guys are in the same room. I haven't seen anyone comment that for the past couple of videos, so I just wanna give you guys props for that. Thanks for the video!
@@momqabt I figured it was something similar to that. Even then, it’s still really impressive that they can speak so well in sync and not come across as awkward
Was looking over stuff for a character and love Necromancers. Noticed something. If you're an Undying Warlock, you can take Gilgeam as your patron. Why is this important? Your patron is a dead demigod. As in, THEY'RE DEAD. Not intelligent undead like a lich. Just DEAD dead and your character has somehow stumbled into connecting with the last remaining vestiges of Gilgeams power. It has no wants. It has terms. It has no conditions. It is merely a husk of a long dead god. Maybe even spin it late game that you are slowly becoming an undead reincarnation of Gilgeam.
well teeeeeeeeeeechnically gilgeam has an alive second incarnation (who calls himself the son of victory, rather than the father of victory) but whether or not hes an imposter or something like that is up in the air
On the topic of Empowered Evocations, Magic Missile gets really good with it since you roll a single damage die for all the bolts so RAW it adds it’s INT mod to each one. While evocation wizard might not be the best blaster, it is the best magic missile user.
@@rylanfitzgerald6085 what if someone else counterspells your counterspell? Counterspelling reaction spells is so funny and stupid xD. It's the magic equivalent of a peasant railgun
Also remember Warlocks get their spells back on a SHORT rest (1 hour), unlike other blasters needing long rests (8 hours) which can help make up for their smaller number of available spells (and allowing them to use their spells a lot more freely than the others)
@@daltonfowler4400 yes, but they have to take a long rest before they can use their short rest recharge again, whereas a warlock is after every short rest (the reason warlock used to be able to be coffeelocks).
Depending on how often your group/dm even does short rests. Lots of groups get stuck in a "long rest after each thing" type mentality. Even though you're supposed to get 2 short rests a day
@@adamkaris Every meal period should be a short rest. So that might be one way to try working a short rest into a game when the DM otherwise ignores them.
In most of the games I've been in, you typically only get 1 short rest per day. Later, as a DM, I've found that the times you'd want more spell slots, such as during a dungeon crawl, are the times that it is the most narratively difficult to say that the party has an uninterrupted hour of rest, with wandering monsters and the like (as well as keeping a feeling of tension going). Generally, a large dungeon would have a room or two for that, but parties tend to want to long rest at that point. Then the times it's easy to give 2, 3, or even 4 short rests, such as traveling, exploring a town, and such, are the times the party doesn't want to take them, since they don't have hit points to heal up. As a result, warlocks end up having much fewer spells cast than they were designed to have.
#1 Best blaster - Divine Soul Sorcerer (or Sorlock if you want to min-max). Seriously though... cherry pick the absolute best spells in the game, diversify damage types, and add Spiritual Weapon to the mix for extra damage. Unbelievable setup if done right.
@Tommaso Grillo Sorcerers who want to do a lot of AoE but spare their allies can get halfway there by taking the Careful Spell metamagic, or all the way by taking two levels of Evocation Wizard.
Maybe it’s because I grew up playing AD&D, but I’ve never thought of different schools of magic as ‘subclasses.’ They seem like very minor variations on the base wizard, and they can all draw from the same list of spells. They seem more like specialties when you compare them to the subclasses of the other classes.
Levitate and Enlarge/Reduce are so much fun. Cast Enlarge on a charatcer tha has the Powerful Build trait, their carrying capacity is now the size of a huge creature even though they are large. If they have a high strength, they could just punt a boulder as a soccer ball
I literally just build this earlier in the week. Warforged Divine Soul Sorcerer (18) Hex'blast' Warlock (2).... Lvl 1 Sorcerer (for the Con+Cha Save throw proficiencies) Lvl 2-3 Hexblade Warlock, and Sorcerer the rest of the way. This fixes the main problem; Squishiness. Warforged get +1 AC, Hexblades get light and medium armour proficiencies so now you can be sporting 14 AC Scale Mail, a +1 AC bonus, and a shield giving you 17 AC + Dex (up to 2). From there, our builds were roughly the same. Two Warlock spells being Hex and Arms of Hadar, Cantrips being EB and Chill Touch. The evocations, like you said, really make EB a force to be reckoned with. The other bonus in mixing these is that, as you've mentioned in a previous video, you can use your warlock spell slots to regain sorcerer points, and then get them back on a short rest. The warforged has another terrific advantage; Specialized equipment. Particularly, the Wand Sheath. In essence, it allows you to store and use a want without having it in your hand. Wearing two of these with Wands of Magic Missile, and you've effectively got yourself a gatling gun on each wrist. (also, the docent item is pretty cool too)
The only "thing" this video could benefit from is 2 lvls of fighter ;) Being able to use action surge to cast "Empowered" 2 fireballs the same turn is always a nice thing.. or even use twin spell to cast 4 disintegrate rays is incredible. (really resource heavy option but.. hey... that's some nova blaster i would not want to fight against)
@@derpycrow5671 That only applies to spells that are cast with a bonus action. So you can cast two fireballs with action surge. Here's the wording from the PHB on spellcasting and the action Cast a Spell PHB 192- Cast a Spell: Spellcasters such as wizards and clerics, as well as many monsters, have access to spells and can use them to great effect in combat. Each spell has a casting time, which specifies whether the caster must use an action, a reaction, minutes, or even hours to cast the spell. Casting a spell is, therefore, not necessarily an action. most spells do have a casting time of 1 action, so a spellcaster often uses his or her action in com bat to cast such a spell. See chapter 10 for the rules on spellcasting. PHB 202- B o n u s A c t i o n A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven’t already taken a bonus action this turn. You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.
@@tassadar7945 So if you cast a spell as your bonus action, you can cast a levelled spell on _neither_ of your 2 actions, the 2nd granted by action surge. But you can use both actions to cast level spells. But if so, you can't use your bonus action to cast any kind of spell
My first long term character was a high elf evocation wizard. Having sculpt spells was definitely a blast. I stood behind the party’s paladin to help with concentration.
I would LOOOOVE to see an in-depth guide to build a good arcane trickster. I have a low-level one and I know Monty himself really likes them, and I'd really like to hear his preferences on the class. Maybe even good multi-classing options. Anyways, keep up the amazing work, gentlemen!
Awesome content again guys! We've just started a new campaign and I started with an Evocation Wizard. So this video is really helpful to even make him better in combat! Thanks, I'll probably rewatch this a dozen times :)!
This is a great video fellas! I watched this with my son who is 9 and playing his first warlock and we both learned a ton of stuff. He took away combos to supplement eldritch blast and I learned more about complimenting wizard spell and spell set up. Thanks from me and my son! Justin.
Something I don’t understand, why do people complain that the Warlock uses Eldritch Blast is repetitive, but those people will never say “fighters should do something other than their melee attack with a sword” or “paladins should do something besides smite”. Nearly every class has something they do over and over again.
The one factor I didn't hear you guys touch on, but I think is a valid argument leaning in favor of the Warlock (any build but blasters, especially), is that they get the majority of their reusable resources back on a short rest as opposed to a long rest, which is typically required to build back up as a caster with more spell slots. It's one of those balancing acts that I think 5e managed to do so well. Big fan of your work, guys. Keep being awesome. :)
I'm actually playing a blast right now. I decided to go warlock sorcerer rout and I just not picked up twin spell and I am really looking forward to bring the hurt!
Here is a fun sniper that comes online pretty quick. Warlock with Eldritch Spear, (Eldritch Blast range is now 300) with Spell Sniper Feat which doubles the range and ignores 1/2 and 3/4 cover.
To expand more on Sunbeam, don't forget on subsequent turns you can quicken spell and cast a leveled spell as a bonus action and continue to use sunbeam (and a few other spells like this) again as an Action.
That sounds awesome! If I were the dm I’d allow it. I’m pretty sure it would work by RAW, but I definitely think it’s too cool of an idea to not let happen at least once.
You guys have an infectious love of the game and I find myself wanting to get back into D&D. I played as a kid and got into MMOs online and have found myself wishing for the teamwork and roleplaying of the original. Video games inevitably devolve into "how much dps you can do?", min/maxing, loot whoring and bickering. It has really gotten away from the best aspects of the original tabletops that spawned them. This doesnt even begin to touch on the pay to win model that is beginning to dominate most MMORPGs.
Currently playing my first character ever, a Storm Sorcerer blaster mage, slinging lightning blasts into anything that looks at me angrily. I'm normally not huge on caster classes in games, but so far I've had lots of fun.
@@lorekeeper685 It is a cool class, I just wish they got some of the Druid's mid-level nature spells. My DM and I actually developed a minor classfix that put in a small list of added spells. Spells like Call Lightning, Control Water, Maelstrom, and Control Weather. The only part that is really defeated is an issue Monty and Kelly bring up; a thematic damage-dealing cantrip. The only regular options are Thunderclap, Lightning Lure, and Shocking Grasp, all of which have really short ranges, and don't do a lot of damage, and don't synergize too well with other players' melee classes. The option I ended up going for is to multiclass two levels into Warlock for Eldritch Blast, just as they suggest. If your DM lets you use UA content, Kraken or Lurker in the Deep patrons synergize well with the overall theme of Storm Sorcerer. All in all, if you get into a run of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, being a Storm Sorcerer will make you a superstar.
TheMalevolentSpoon I’m going to use a similar house rule in my games. Basically, any spell you can justify having thematically I’ll allow you to train it into your spell list. Not necessarily as an additional spell known/ prepared like a cleric’s domain spells. It would work similarly to warlocks were you still have to select it. My inspiration for this rule was playing a tempest domain cleric and being really disappointed that they don’t have storm sphere as a domain spell since elemental evil wasn’t out yet.
@@jaredpuwalski8545 yeah but beware, there are spells that are restricted to certain classes for a reason, some combos can really break balance when you don't need to multiclass for them
A long time ago I thought about making a D&D channel to do stuff like this, but every week when the new dungeon dudes episode comes out, I remember that these guys are basically everything I would want in a channel. You guys are killing it. Keep it up. And if you ever need another player for Drakenheim, let me know. 😆
No war wizard love? That subclass has been so effective for me in play. Power surge is like empowered meta magic mixed with empowered evocation. While resource intensive, it can be used once per turn, not once a round. The damage, while single target, does actually increase the min and max damage since it’s a bonus. Dex+Int for initiative usually lets you cast big spells before the enemy can move around, and before your teammates become collateral damage. Reaction to give a bonus of +4 to any save you already know you failed can help immensely to keep damage dealing AOEs up, especially from features that cause conditions that end your concentration immediately that may not be constitution saves. Being able to cause static force damage at level 14 for using this feature supplements damage immensely. Both of those features can really single out a specific foe to focus damage, which can be done while killing a mob at the same time. Fire shield is a great spell to use for procing power surge uses, melee creature that hits you takes 2d8 damage plus a surge damage (7 damage at 14) if you choose, and you can use your arcane deflection to do another 7 force damage to that creature, and a potential 7 additional damage to 2 other nearby creatures.
War Wizards have good survivability and relatively high AC, but their damage is lower than those of Evocator. Arcane Deflection forbids you to cast spells (and cantrips don't do so much damage), Power Surge has a really limited number of uses (one per short rest unless you are fighting casters) and its damage isn't that high, and 14th lvl feature is tied to Arcane Deflection.
This video is so great, I’ve been trying to figure out blaster mages and this hits all of the bullseyes! Can you do a video on how to build a deceptive illusionist or a deceptive character in general, any class?? ♥️♥️♥️
This is all some great information and I like how you break down the pros and cons of the various caster classes. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
I'm liking my Half-Elf Tempest Cleric. I used the variant half-elf to get the sun&moon elf Racial feature and used that to pickup Booming Blade. Booming blade works with the clerics 8th level ability divine strike which adds 1d8 thunder damage. R1 cast spirit guardians at 3rd R2 cast spiritual weapon at 2nd and booming blade. Each round I'm potentially dealing 7d8+Strength+Wisdom without up casting spells. If that's not enough the Destructive Wrath channel divinity lets you roll max when you hit with thunder or lightning which means if booming blade crits it could deal 2d8+strength from my war hammer plus a flat 32 thunder damage.
The UA Circle of Wildfire Druid can occupy a blaster-controller roll, similar to the Wizard you mentioned. They auto-prepare fireball and plant growth at level 5, and the combinations of these spells alone are amazing.
Hexblade (Pact of the Tome) 3/ Shadow Sorcerer 17. I would take Devil's Sight and Agonizing Blast as my evocations. Then I would select the new metamagic from unearthed arcana that lets you change the damage type, as well as Silent Spell, & Quicken (or Twin) spell metamagic options. This way you have a sorcerer with a maxed out Eldritch Blast, the Hex spell and class ability, medium armor and shield proficiency. A version of the Heighten Spell metamagic. Con save proficiency as well as being the best ritual caster in the game. If going to wizard route I would go Battlesmith (Armorer) 3/ Evoker 17. This way you get all the goodies of an evocation wizard in addition to some pimped out heavy armor & Con save proficiency.
Twin Dragon's Breath on two different allies is amazing. GIVING them the ability of a breath weapon is amazing. Especially if you have a warlock or wizard in the the party who can have a flying familiar breath from above. Even Better with an Imp that is invisible breathing fire.
Again, I already knew all this stuff but I still enjoyed the video :P I just want to say that I dislike the blasters in the mega dungeons thinking "well I will burn all my spells in 18 seconds and then I can go to bed in my tiny hut"
I had a fighter/sorcerer cast fireball action surge fireball again the quickened a sleep spell. I was stunned. What i thought was gonna be a good fight ended up with the whole camp asleep and all brought to justice. RAW told me this was the right action. RAI told ehjhhh. I went with RAW/rule of cool on this one I have never been prouder of my players for coming up with something like this.
For reference i give my players some alone time to plan. If they are about to assault an enemy camp or castle i leave the room. Give them 10-15 minutes to devise a plan/discuss the plan they have worked over the week. I have my stuff planned that they don't know why should i know what they have planned
This is why I love to play Divine Soul Sorcerers... Even at low levels there are so many options, but you do have to choose and play wisely as you are the proverbial glass cannon. Luckily you can swap out a spell every level if you chose something that's doesn't fit your style. Twinned Chromatic Orb or Web with a quickened Firebolt are good options at low level, and Spiritual Weapon is the best spell in the game. You simply must take it. Sorcerers are also excellent for social situations when combined with the subtle metamagic option. Simple cantrips like Message and Minor Illusion can be used in all sorts of interesting ways.
Sorry, but you can't do that; you got it the other way around. If you use your bonus action to cast any spell, you can't use your action to cast any spell except for a cantrip
Tip for any spellcaster specializing in poison/acid damage types. Grab the spell catapult and then buy (or otherwise acquire) various vials of poison/acid and crossbow bolts. Talk to your dm and ask if you could use catapult while holding a few of these bolts and dip them in your chosen vial. Now, whirl em using catapult to chuck them at once. Each will do a decent amount of damage on their own, but the poison/acid makes it all the more potent and can drop enemies quickly. Im talking i was doing an average of 30ish damage without the poison even working since it was a one shot and the enemy was a construct. Bonus points if you get alchemist supplies or poisoners kit and are able to make your own poisons. Itd be really fun if your dm likes to make custom enemy drops and unique flora and fauna that may provide interesting poisons to use. Like a paralysis poison, or a magical cold poison that adds a d4 of cold damage on top of the poison or something. Or, if your dm likes to become a backdrop, soak ball bearings in a poison. Open the bag, scoop some out, and catapult. Oopsie
The sorcerer can also go with dragon sorcery which allows them to add Cha to any magic of a certain element which is a HUGE and constant boost. Pairing this with the elemental adept feat for that same element is AMAZING. No need to pick multiple elements with your limited spell choices.. simply ignore resistances. Cantrip/utility vs immune enemies.. or just get one good single target for foes immune to your adept. One of my players did this with fire magic to devastating effectiveness.. even against red dragons and Tiamat. He played that character all the way to 20 after the Tia campaign in supplemental homebrew content.
In one campaign i actually play an evoker wizard. The DM is very generous with homebrewed magic items and other bonuses, preferring to buff us as well as the enemies to ludicrous power. For instance: i have a magic item that boosts elemental adept to not only nullify resistance to fire, but also turn immunity into resistance. I can actually kill fire elementals with fire spells. More recently ive been granted some metamagic, with 3 sorcery points and 2 options that i decided to make quickened and extended spell. Thanks for the tip on sunbeam! Ill be sure to try it out.
I love dipping into sorcerer so I have the versatility of exchanging severely lower spell slots for higher ones, or a large one for several smaller ones, especially when your running low on those precious absorb elements or sheild. or if you really need misty step but you used all of your second levels on scorching ray.
Empowered spell is not only efficient for being able to choose to use it at the most opportune time, it can be used multiple times on the same spell as long as it’s a new damage roll. Rerolling dice on an ongoing spell effect usually bumps up the average damage enough to be comparable to upcasting by roughly 2 spell levels.
economy combo : divine soul dragon's breath+spiritual weapon. 2 slots for many rounds of action+bonus action. Takes 2 turn to come online because both are cast as a bonus action, but it saves you the need to use your sorcery points with quickened (so more of those empowered). If you add a magic initiate : wizard with it, twin dragon's breath so that your familiar can lay waste with you : -2 breaths+spriritual weapon // or without twinning, 1 breath weaponized familiar+spritiual weapon+ your casting action. Best is, because you choose the energy type of the breath when you cast it, and spriritual weapon is force, you should be able to pull it off no matter what is in front of you.
Also important to recall with metamagic if you have spells from say a staff, a sorcerer can still use their metamagic on those as long as they meet the criteria.
Gotta love blaster mages. I play one in my Out of the Abyss campaign, as a rogue scout/Phoenix soul sorcerer (from unearthed arcana). My DM allows me to add sneak attack to cantrips (a little house rule weve got). So I'm able to deal massive amounts of damage with quickening meta magic. So my main combo at this level is sneak attack firebolt and some good ol' scorching rays.
Great video guys. I do think you're underselling the wizards damage capability though, especially single target damage at tier 3. They can add their intelligence modifier mutiple times to magic missile (moreso when upcasting) which can increase their effectivity in taking down any single target at any range. This can be pumped further by multiclassing either/both into fighter (for action surge) and warlock (hexblade's curse). They'd still get access to 9th level spells eventually as a 2 fighter/1 hexblade/17 evoker.
@UCGjD6Nj742K8tuAuPas45gQ As per Jeremy crawford, it DOES work for each dart as because the way magic missile is worded (unlike lets say scorching ray) you roll 1d4 + 1 and apply it to ALL darts, regardless if all those darts hit the same target or multiple targets (the same way when you roll damage dice for fireball, you roll the dice once and apply it to all affected). so yes for let's say a level 10 evoker/1 hexblade upcasting a magic missile to a 5th level slot each dart gets 1d4 + 1 + int mod + 4 (prof bonus from hexblade's curse) and applies this to 7 darts if you select your cursed target. More fun on round 2 as you can now add hex to the mix for an additional 1d6 to each dart if you select the same target. Throw in a couple levels of fighter and at level 13 you can action surge this on round 1. Magic missile deals force and has no atk roll or saving throw. Just a shield spell counter, which as a wizard you did select counterspell right?
It's also worth noting that you can take 2 levels of Fighter for Action Surge if you want that 1 turn super burst. It is a 2 level investment for 1 turn of damage but each to their own. (A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn. You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action. - Phb 202) You can cast 2 spells if they are both actions and then quicken an effect like sunbeam
You can't quicken an effect of a spell, only the spell itself. If you want to shoot two sunbeams - you should cast it as a bonus action, and then use an action to attack with it.
Dungeon Dudes! Do you think you could do a video on the Divine Soul subclass next? Paying special attention to how metamagic might be used on the cleric spell list. I've just built one myself and in doing the research I've seen a lot of confusion around the internet on how they work and what strategies/builds work best. You mentioned how powerful they could be in this video multiple times and I absolutely agree! A quick example you talked about, having access to Spiritual Weapon almost completely negates the need to take the quickened spell metamagic at least until very high levels. Changes like this seem to be really confusing to people so it would be amazing if you could help every gamers figure out how to leverage this incredibly versatile subclass. Thanks for another great video!
Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, and Lance of Lethargy are the only things you need to work with your AoE. You can also just not take concentration spells apart from Hex and use Maddening Hex instead of Repel and Lance. In this way, you save your extra Spell Slot for something instantaneous(like Fireball). The damage is quite respectable and more sustainable. At higher levels your Hex will stick around even past short rests and you'll have two Spell Slots to play with.
One thing that I've been toying with is that while you can't cast 2 spells one must be a cantrip, I've asked and been told you can cast 2 cantrips with quickened spell...if this is true then when you cast 2 firebolts at level 5 you end up rolling 4d10 damage for the cost of 2 sorcery points...sure it's not a fireball's levels of damage but 4d10 is still nice, especially if you end up using empowered with it Also if you go with Warlock/Sorc Multiclass you should probably start as a sorc to get Con proficiency
Not really for a blaster mage, but when playing a Bard, I find taking Guiding Bolt to be a fantastic choice for any Bard. 1) because Bards don't really get many spell attack roll options, 2) not many things resist radiant and it does a lot of damage for a 1st level spell, and 3) it pairs pretty well with applying Bardic Inspiration. Cast Guiding Bolt at an enemy with your Action, then give Bardic Inspiration to the next damage dealer in the party's initiative order. Dealing damage, giving advantage AND inspiration in the same turn means you'll became a front-liner's new best friend.
Also, I love Heroforge. It's free to create an account, design characters and save them to your profile. Being as I have Dungeon Master's Vault full with 20+ characters, it's super nice having Heroforge to pair with that, letting me fully visualize them. And their customization options are surprisingly inclusive.
Yeah I definitely light clerics are a great idea but I like the divine soul sorcerer also imagine a spiritual weapon trapped in a wall of force with an enemy 🙏
We avoided this one specifically. Crawford's ruling here is really controversial and somewhat contradictory when compared to other spells such as Scorching Ray. In general, we are trying to steer away from using Crawford's Twitter as any kind of rules authority. Instead we rely on the official errata and the official Sage Advice Compendium.
@@lockskelington314 We believe the intent behind features like Empowered Evocation is that the extra damage is meant to be applied once per spell. Magic Missile has a bit of an awkward wording around how it's damage rolls work in 5e (i.e. do you make one damage roll and apply it to each missile? or does each missile make it's own damage roll?). Regardless of how you interpret the spell, it still seems that the precedent is that Empowered Evocation wasn't meant to be applied multiple times (see the case of Scorching Ray), so why should it apply here?
@@DungeonDudes The intention was, to my understanding, that Empowered Evocation applies to one damage role of the dice. And the reason it applies to Magic Missile only and Not Something Like Scorching Ray or Melf's Minute Meteors is because it is the only spell in the game where it hits automatically and all the damage is applied at once while being able to hit multiple enemies.
@@lockskelington314 Yes, I understand the reasoning based on the wording. I'm just not entirely sure that because it's the only spell in the game that works this way means that it should be possible for it to create a multiplicative effect with Empowered Evocation. We're talking getting an extra 15+ damage (or much more) here, it's a pretty significant difference.
I'm not really playing a blaster mage, but holy hell, playing a melee mage is fun. (It does usually require multi-classing though) Packing a concentration spell like Hex, then heading in swinging is quite powerful. And the combo really relieves those situations where either the mage runs out of gas or the melee can't reach. I'm doing Fighter/Sorcerer, but really any class that can lay down a concentration/self-augmenting spell and pack a ranged cantrip and push in swinging should be a ton of fun.
For me, the best blasters were Light Cleric, Divine Sorcerer and Celestial Warlock mainly because of their versatility they get in their kit. Light Cleric is the best at *heal or kill* being able to throw a fireball as well as keep some buffs or healing up. Same does the Divine Sorcerer but it also adds the metamagic on top of Clerics versatility. While Celestial Warlock seems a bit odd, he has full access to Eldrich Blast Kit and also adds a few supportive percs. It is also nice to have a bunch of d6 *healing words* for free.
Chaos Bolt! 2d8+1d6 per spell slot level. Uses Spell Attack rolls, not saves. You get to chose the damage type based on one of the d8 rolls after the d8 rolls are made. If they are doubles you get to jump the spell to another enemy within 30 and roll attack and damage again, which could jump again on more doubles. A little less control of the damage type, but 3 dice from a first level spell slot with the potential to chain is amazing.
In my current campaign, my tiefling, draconic sorcerer likes using twin spell combined with illusionist bracers, to twin cast twice in one turn. Holding 4 undead in place with chill touch, or simply casting firebolt 4 times in a row before your turn is done. Is pretty cool.
I personally think that Eldritch Blast is best used by Warlocks. I have had several players take it via Magic Initiate/Spell Sniper/Magical Secrets who felt disappointed when they were still doing regular cantrip damage since they weren't warlocks, especially characters like Wizards who then have to use Charisma for Eldritch Blast and Intelligence for everything else (Empowered Evocation doesn't help since it's not a Wizard spell). What I have done is just make Eldritch Blast a Warlock class feature, and then modified it a bit (you can choose special damage types for it based off of your patron, and I built Agonizing Blast into it since almost all Warlocks take it anyway. I also made it scale based off of Warlock Level to avoid potential high level Sorlock shenanigans. It can still work, but requires more levels in Warlock than Sorcerer rather than the other way around, which is how it usually is). I personally love the Evoker, and Divine Soul sorcerer is one of my favorite subclasses. I do feel a little sad that the Evoker doesn't get a good 6th level ability (only works for Frostbite, rather than with more cantrips that the Evoker will likely actually have). I love Light Clerics, though I do feel that maybe their blasting could get a buff (they get no major damage boosts outside of expanded spell list and Potent Cantrip, which are still good, but come on). Love the video guys!
I don't know if you guys normally used Unearthed Arcana stuff, but I have a question regarding the Order of Scribes Wizard. One of the features they get at 2nd level reads "When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with the damage type of another spell in your spellbook." Two questions associated with this. 1: If you have Chromatic Orb in your spellbook, can you use all the options in that one spell as the source for damage types? 2: While the feature does specify that you can only alter the damage type of spells that use slots, can you use cantrips as sources for damage types? (Example: If I have Chill Touch, can I make Burning Hands deal necrotic damage?)
The "Mobile Landmine"/ "Buster Bunker" Combo. Life Cleric Lvl 7/8 Minimum for the following muckery: -Have a fighter buddy, or better yet, a Paladin buddy with Auras and their own buffs up (at ninth level they get Aura of Vitality, just to add insult to injury here). -Cast following spells before a major fight (if given time to prepare) -Aid(2)-Upcast to 3rd/4th level for a 15 point increase to 3 people's max HP. (subsequent heals fill to the new max) -Warding Bond(2) on fighter buddy and meat shield. Gives full resistances, +1 AC and to saving throws. -Spirit Guardians(3-C) on way in does it really need an intro? -Spiritual Weapon(2) on combat Start, same as SG above. IF given more time to prepare (1 hour) like in a oncoming siege or raid scenario. -Glyph of Warding(3) with Spirit Guardians in it to Proc on combat start/command, removing need to concentrate, maxing the duration AND allowing one of the following: -Bane, Bless, Shield of Faith, Protection from Evil and Good (all 1's) OR Beacon of Hope (3) for that sweet MAX heals and bonus to Saves on you, battle buddy and anyone near you. You and your battle buddy become a nearly unstoppable mobile landmine. IF instead you use a Tempest Cleric, you now have the Sherman Firefly combination. Where you use your remaining spell slots to cast Shatter and Guiding bolt and other blasting spells, saving your concentration for Call lightning or something similar. HOWEVER, if you want to be a "Mage", DIVINE SOUL sorcerer with a double dip in CELESTIAL or HEXBLADE Warlock, you can pull the same shenanigans with MOAR DAKKA!! Free healing or Hexes of all types, different if not better Buffs (HASTE), Metamagics and infinite False Life's (if you lean that way) and the Eldritch Gatling Gun . You are just a little bit squishier. So spam those heals if needed, or just wait and Twin cast Heal with Beacon of Hope up for maximum Nose Thumbing and Tongue Sticking. Best part, both builds only snowball from there. BE the NOVA!! Only thing to be wary of is Dispel Magic, so make sure you either have someone ready to spam Counterspell, or save a few slots yourself.
I'd give an honorable mention to scribes wizard as a blaster. It doesn't have the highest damage, but, you can almost always ignore resistances and capitalize on vulnerability in a way no other casters can. You can have a bludgeoning fireball, or a thunder toll the dead.
With Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Sorcerer's got the transmute spell metamagic which lets them change the elemental damage types of their spells. Tempest Clerics at second level can max out the damage of their thunder and lightning spells once per short rest. This means at level 7 you can cast fireball (upcast to 4th lvl, make it deal thunder damage, then max its damage to a total of 54 damage. Instead of playing a sorcerer you could go wizard and take the Metamagic adept feat on an ASI or as a var human/custom lineage in order to get the transmute spell metamagic and one other metamagic if you wanted to play an evoker wizard too in order to get Empowered Evocation and Sculpt Spell. An order of scribes wizard can do something similar to the transmute spell metamagic but it requires them to have certain spells in their spellbook to allow this damage type changing.
Artificer Artillerist - Eldritch Cannon (2D8) + Firebolt (1D10) to start. Eldritch Cannon (2D8) + Firebolt (2D10) + Arcane Firearm (D8) at 5th LV. Go Variant Human and take Magic Initiate to get Eldritch Blast and Hex to add even more damage.
Aasimar divine soul sorcerer with a three-level dip into hexblade. Take Pact of the Tome & Book of Ancient Secrets along with Agonizing Blast to get insane, and sustainable out of combat utility. Ultimate blaster, Done. Best of all worlds. Decent AC. Awesome damage output. Never run out of blasting ability due to Eldritch Blast. Choice of great cleric spells like Spirit Guardians & Spiritual Weapon. Can regain metamagic from a short rest by converting unused warlock spell slots. Can fill the role of party healer if needed while also being a blaster mage.
Loved the video and it does give me a big idea on how to build my phoenix sorc in the future, thanks!! Will you guys consider doing a vid on the Eldritch Knight?
Wizard Evoker deals most damage with Magic Missile. When you cast Magic Missile, you roll 1d4 only once and every missile deals the same damage. And it means that High Level Wizard can deal: Number of Missiles * (1d4+1+5) So using 1st lvl spell slot you can deal minimum 21 and maximum 30 damage Using 9th lvl slot you can deal 77-110 If you multiclass into Hexblade Warlock, you can Curse main target and add Prof bonus to the roll So now it's: Number of Missiles * (1d4+1+5+6) 1st lvl slot: 39-48 damage 9th lvl slot: 143-176 damage If you have a book that increase Int by 2, and Ioun stone that increases Prof bonus, you can have even more damage. Imagine more than 50 Force damage with just 1st level spell slot
Just going to say, a Divination Wizard's Portent ability is a hidden gem for a spellcaster. "I got a natural 1 on one of my Portent dice? That's one very disintegrated foe coming up." By the end of a campaign while playing my favourite Wizard, though, I found pretty much every single combat encounter I went into was Sunbeam from the onset. One spell slot for the entire fight's worth of damage, almost always hitting two enemies at the same time, free to save so many lower level spell slots for the Misty Steps and Shields. I preach Sunbeam to anyone who has access to it.
2 level of warlock on your sorcerer and all the problems from both classes disapear. Especially for dragon sorcerer because if someone resist fire you just use eldritch blast
Spell sniper feat allows you to pick up Eldritch blast (but not agonizing) without taking levels of warlock. This can be important if all you want is a safety cantrip and don't want to wait extra levels to get new spells.
Sorlock with Agonizing Blast, and Repelling Blast, and the Hex spell Quickened Spell. so cast eldritch Blast then quicken another eldritch Blast. or that Agonizing Blast, and eldritch Spear, and take the distant spell meta magic, and take the spell sniper feat. not sure what the range on your eldritch Blast is at that point but it should be high enough that you have at least 3 rounds of combat before your opponent makes it to you even if they are taking the dash action.
Taking Pact of the Tome & Magic Initiate Feat can also really benefit a Blaster Warlock. Taking Pact of the Tome grants you 3 cantrips from ANY CLASS SPELL LIST & Magic Initiate grants you a 1st level spell & 2 cantrips from a class spell list of your choosing. I am a Clesetial Patron Warlock. At level 6, I will gain the Radiant Soul feature which will allow you to add your CHA modifier to 1 radiant or fire damaging spell per turn. Taking the Celestial grants you access to the Sacred Flame cantrip & Magic Intitiate OR Pact of the Tome can give you access to the Firebolt & Sacred Flame cantrips. The only downside to Sacred Flame is that it is a DEX save. Dexterity is used calculate Armor Class & many skill checks. This spell will be more effective @ low levels, but once you're in the higher levels, this spell will not be as effective so bear that in mind. Now, pair these w/ Eldritch Blast & the Agonizing Blast Invocation & you can really dish out A LOT of damage also because SF, EB, & FB all scale up in dice as you level. Force & Radiant damage are 2 of the 3 "least resisted" damage types in 5e. If your DM allows Unearthed Arcana content to be used in games, the Psionic Cantrip, Mind Sliver is also available to Warlocks which does Psychic damage. Psychic is the 3rd least resisted damage type in 5e & also scales in damage as you level. So, don't count out the Warlock as a Blaster Mage. Definitely the most challenging spellcaster because of a limited spell list & slots, but not impossible.
Only thing I don't like about tempest clerics. They have a really shallow lightning/ thunder spell pool to take advantage of the perks of being tempest.
From personal experience, there is another type of blaster mage that you might want to consider--the Necromancy Wizard. When I finally found a GM that would let me play one my plan was originally to go all-in on the whole army of the dead thing, but the longer I played the character, the more I realized how much more useful my direct damage spells were. The self-healing REALLY added up, and our cleric never even had to touch me (much to his relief.) Hell, there were even times when *I* was the one healing *HIM* instead. And with a little finagling, I was able to pull off being both a blaster mage AND leading an army of the dead.
Well, besides healing, Necromancy wizards don't get any features that boost their blaster potential, unlike Evocation that is totally built around this idea.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That is true. But the one thing they get is something they get right away, while the really good Evocation stuff happens a bit later. So it really depends on the level for your campaign.
Currently only level 8, Exio the Excellent is a tabaxi wild magic sorcerer. He doesn't use the traditional Metamagics for a blaster. Instead he uses the Unearth Arcana Elemental Spell and Subtle Spell. His main form of combat is casting greater invisibility on himself and laying down scorching rays, fireballs, chaos bolts, and burning hands. He has Wild Talent: Charisma and Telekinesis: Charisma. He uses his bonus action to pull people closer together so he can get those nice AOE hits.
One of my favorite spell combos is: Eldritch Blast + Spell Sniper + Eldritch Spear + Quickened Spell I love how you become a long-range turret that can hit literally anything. Is it dumb and only good in incredibly specific situations? Yes. Does that matter to me? Nope :)
Use Distant Spell instead of Quicken to double its range again. 1200 ft range is good! Also Lore Master Wizard to give it a range of ONE MILE, or I think 5000 feet
Overchannel doesn't say first round. You can overchannel a 40dmg per round cloudkill or sickening radiance, wall of fire, bigbys hand etc. Or a 60 dmg errupting earth. Also the lvl 10 feat let's you cast 21 to 30 dmg lvl1 magic missiles. Pretty sick.
There is really only one best option to build a Blaster Battlemage: (Half-Elf) Warlock2/Sorcerer18 (or 3/17). Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast+Quickened Spell+Hex (+Hexblade's Curse/+Elven Accuracy) is just too good to ignore and you can throw that Workhorse Combo all day without even touching any of your higher level spell slots which remain available for other shenanigans. Starting with sorcerer gives you ConSaves and Hexblade Patron gives you Medium Armor+Shield for a standard 18AC (+Shield Spell=23+). And you haven't overspecialized at all. You can build the entire rest of the Char for utility and still be very effective in Combat. Stats would be S8 D15 C13 I8 W12 C15 -> S8 D16 C14 I8 W12 C17 by Half Elf -> C18 + Elven Accuracy -> C20 by ASI.
For wizards I think people sleep on Storm Sphere. It allows a wizard to also do damage in it's bonus action while casting. It allows you to pull lightning out of the storm but it doesn't say you are casting. That spell really is great.
You guys are pulling off the "recording the same video together while not being together" flawlessly. If I was just listening to the video, I would think you guys are in the same room. I haven't seen anyone comment that for the past couple of videos, so I just wanna give you guys props for that. Thanks for the video!
Thank you 🙏
Right it's so well edited! I started the video and opened messenger and was genuinely surprised that they were recording separately. Well done y'all!
@@momqabt I figured it was something similar to that. Even then, it’s still really impressive that they can speak so well in sync and not come across as awkward
Indeed! The ability to roll with the punches (such as the COVID restrictions and other things) will take you guys far!!
I did listen to this and I thought they were
Ah the Danny Devito of Wizards.
"So anyways I started blasting"
Dean Weir Danny devito is without a doubt a warlock
I can’t stop thinking of that whenever I hear the term ‘blaster’
@@dittmar104 That supposes there's such a being higher than the mighty trash man, which is obviously false.
"That's why I'm glad I had 2 spell slots, because I don't think just one would've done it"
Literally my agonizing blast lifesteal warlock's catchphrase. More interesting than "I cast eldritch blast again"
Was looking over stuff for a character and love Necromancers. Noticed something. If you're an Undying Warlock, you can take Gilgeam as your patron. Why is this important? Your patron is a dead demigod. As in, THEY'RE DEAD. Not intelligent undead like a lich. Just DEAD dead and your character has somehow stumbled into connecting with the last remaining vestiges of Gilgeams power. It has no wants. It has terms. It has no conditions. It is merely a husk of a long dead god.
Maybe even spin it late game that you are slowly becoming an undead reincarnation of Gilgeam.
Yoink. *Proceeds to use this as the plot twist for my cleric's God in my current campaign*
well teeeeeeeeeeechnically gilgeam has an alive second incarnation (who calls himself the son of victory, rather than the father of victory) but whether or not hes an imposter or something like that is up in the air
I didn't ask how big the room is... I said "I CAST FIREBALL!"
I see another fan of BigDickWizard6969
Imagine a party of characters spec'd specifically so that the party could recklessly cast Fireball wherever.
Evocation wizard sculpted spell saves lives.
@Nospam Spamisham correct I usually only play in 4 pc tables plus Dm. So I've never encountered this problem.
@@demi-femme4821 A party of tieflings and/or brass, gold, or red dragonborns?
I think you mean a MASTER BLASTER CASTER
I feel shame for not thinking of that.
with Quicken Metamagic he could be FASTER?
With an •enlarge• spell he could be VASTER...
This comment thread is a DISASTER
So then, in conclusion...
The Faster Vaster Master Blaster Caster, Bringer of Disaster?
On the topic of Empowered Evocations, Magic Missile gets really good with it since you roll a single damage die for all the bolts so RAW it adds it’s INT mod to each one. While evocation wizard might not be the best blaster, it is the best magic missile user.
unless someone has shield spell
@@einkar4219 counterspell
@@rylanfitzgerald6085 what if someone else counterspells your counterspell?
Counterspelling reaction spells is so funny and stupid xD. It's the magic equivalent of a peasant railgun
Most DM's will just say no to that in my experience
You can tell that Monty has all the video gear at his house! That being said thanks so much guys for releasing material during these tough times!!!
I'm a simple man
I see fireball
I prepare fireball
Play Light Cleric. It will be always prepared for you.
Sadly running a descend into avernus game so fireball is not an insta prepare anymore
Also remember Warlocks get their spells back on a SHORT rest (1 hour), unlike other blasters needing long rests (8 hours) which can help make up for their smaller number of available spells (and allowing them to use their spells a lot more freely than the others)
im pretty sure wizards can get a certain amount after a short rest too
@@daltonfowler4400 yes, but they have to take a long rest before they can use their short rest recharge again, whereas a warlock is after every short rest (the reason warlock used to be able to be coffeelocks).
Depending on how often your group/dm even does short rests. Lots of groups get stuck in a "long rest after each thing" type mentality.
Even though you're supposed to get 2 short rests a day
@@adamkaris Every meal period should be a short rest. So that might be one way to try working a short rest into a game when the DM otherwise ignores them.
In most of the games I've been in, you typically only get 1 short rest per day. Later, as a DM, I've found that the times you'd want more spell slots, such as during a dungeon crawl, are the times that it is the most narratively difficult to say that the party has an uninterrupted hour of rest, with wandering monsters and the like (as well as keeping a feeling of tension going). Generally, a large dungeon would have a room or two for that, but parties tend to want to long rest at that point. Then the times it's easy to give 2, 3, or even 4 short rests, such as traveling, exploring a town, and such, are the times the party doesn't want to take them, since they don't have hit points to heal up. As a result, warlocks end up having much fewer spells cast than they were designed to have.
#1 Best blaster - Divine Soul Sorcerer (or Sorlock if you want to min-max).
Seriously though... cherry pick the absolute best spells in the game, diversify damage types, and add Spiritual Weapon to the mix for extra damage. Unbelievable setup if done right.
Agreed!
Twinned spell is great on guiding bolt.
@Tommaso Grillo Sorcerers who want to do a lot of AoE but spare their allies can get halfway there by taking the Careful Spell metamagic, or all the way by taking two levels of Evocation Wizard.
I immediately thought of a Cleric of Light!
Fun class, but it's probabaly one of the most broken classes in the game.
I have a light cleric-Apollo-just made lvl 10, he’s an all around killer
Maybe it’s because I grew up playing AD&D, but I’ve never thought of different schools of magic as ‘subclasses.’ They seem like very minor variations on the base wizard, and they can all draw from the same list of spells. They seem more like specialties when you compare them to the subclasses of the other classes.
Toolbox mage next! Having all the answers is fun!
Levitate and Enlarge/Reduce are so much fun. Cast Enlarge on a charatcer tha has the Powerful Build trait, their carrying capacity is now the size of a huge creature even though they are large. If they have a high strength, they could just punt a boulder as a soccer ball
20 levels of Wizard. Probably either Theurgy or Divination.
what about transmutation its great fun for utilities.
Yeah, where's this video?
@@seandarbe2521 that's me. Transmutation
Gronk The Gourmet has cousin, Gartok, that is starting to learn the magics. Gronk will tell Gartok to watch.
I literally just build this earlier in the week. Warforged Divine Soul Sorcerer (18) Hex'blast' Warlock (2).... Lvl 1 Sorcerer (for the Con+Cha Save throw proficiencies) Lvl 2-3 Hexblade Warlock, and Sorcerer the rest of the way. This fixes the main problem; Squishiness. Warforged get +1 AC, Hexblades get light and medium armour proficiencies so now you can be sporting 14 AC Scale Mail, a +1 AC bonus, and a shield giving you 17 AC + Dex (up to 2). From there, our builds were roughly the same. Two Warlock spells being Hex and Arms of Hadar, Cantrips being EB and Chill Touch. The evocations, like you said, really make EB a force to be reckoned with. The other bonus in mixing these is that, as you've mentioned in a previous video, you can use your warlock spell slots to regain sorcerer points, and then get them back on a short rest.
The warforged has another terrific advantage; Specialized equipment. Particularly, the Wand Sheath. In essence, it allows you to store and use a want without having it in your hand. Wearing two of these with Wands of Magic Missile, and you've effectively got yourself a gatling gun on each wrist. (also, the docent item is pretty cool too)
With the spell sniper feat, elemental adapt feat (fire), arcane firearm and enhanced arcane focus, the Artillerist Artificer is an amazing blaster.
I love how the terminology from 4e kinda snuck into this video. Nailed it again, guys. Cheers
Like what?
The only "thing" this video could benefit from is 2 lvls of fighter ;)
Being able to use action surge to cast "Empowered" 2 fireballs the same turn is always a nice thing.. or even use twin spell to cast 4 disintegrate rays is incredible. (really resource heavy option but.. hey... that's some nova blaster i would not want to fight against)
Elias Vernieri You cant cast two spells in one turn unless the second spell is a cantrip
@@derpycrow5671 That only applies to spells that are cast with a bonus action. So you can cast two fireballs with action surge. Here's the wording from the PHB on spellcasting and the action Cast a Spell
PHB 192- Cast a Spell: Spellcasters such as wizards and clerics, as well as
many monsters, have access to spells and can use them to great effect in combat. Each spell has a casting time, which specifies whether the caster must use an action, a reaction, minutes, or even hours to cast the spell. Casting a spell is, therefore, not necessarily an action. most spells do have a casting time of 1 action, so a spellcaster often uses his or her action in com bat to cast such a spell. See chapter 10 for the rules on spellcasting.
PHB 202- B o n u s A c t i o n
A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You
must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell,
provided that you haven’t already taken a bonus action
this turn. You can’t cast another spell during the same
turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.
@@tassadar7945 So if you cast a spell as your bonus action, you can cast a levelled spell on _neither_ of your 2 actions, the 2nd granted by action surge.
But you can use both actions to cast level spells. But if so, you can't use your bonus action to cast any kind of spell
@@thehiddenninja3428 No, you were correct. It says it under Spellcasting that only 1 leveled spell can be cast during a turn.
@@WinterPains ?
You can cast 2 levelled spells in 1 turn if you use action surge. But you then cannot use your bonus action to cast a spell
During the heroforge ad: “so I made a miniature that wielded two d20’s...”
So, a Divination Wizard?
@@badsamaritan8223 A halfling divination wizard with the lucky feat
A nat 1 and a nat 20, of course, LOL
My first long term character was a high elf evocation wizard. Having sculpt spells was definitely a blast. I stood behind the party’s paladin to help with concentration.
I would LOOOOVE to see an in-depth guide to build a good arcane trickster. I have a low-level one and I know Monty himself really likes them, and I'd really like to hear his preferences on the class. Maybe even good multi-classing options. Anyways, keep up the amazing work, gentlemen!
Played an arcane trickster for ToH. So much fun
My kink is watching the face of whoever isn't talking during the intro.
Jacob Branchflower annnnnnndddd now I can’t stop doing this.
Oh No 🤦♂️
Dungeon Dudes oh yes! Lol. Quick question for y’all. Is there a way to magically teleport an explosive into someone pocket?
LA Claypool arcane trickster rogue should be able to do that using mage hand if I remember right
@@evand6268 Oh no, not again. *Has vivid flashbacks of suddenly exploding pants*
Awesome content again guys! We've just started a new campaign and I started with an Evocation Wizard. So this video is really helpful to even make him better in combat! Thanks, I'll probably rewatch this a dozen times :)!
Speaking as a necromancer: bah, wizards shouldn't be blasters. Let the others do a few points of damage, we should be changing the universe. :-)
Neck-romancer? I barely even know her!
*ba dum, tss*
All blasters do is tear down families. Necromancers RAISE them to be stronger!
I did both, I gave skeletons magic missile wands and used lightning bolt wands myself
This is a great video fellas! I watched this with my son who is 9 and playing his first warlock and we both learned a ton of stuff.
He took away combos to supplement eldritch blast and I learned more about complimenting wizard spell and spell set up.
Thanks from me and my son! Justin.
Something I don’t understand, why do people complain that the Warlock uses Eldritch Blast is repetitive, but those people will never say “fighters should do something other than their melee attack with a sword” or “paladins should do something besides smite”. Nearly every class has something they do over and over again.
I'd like to see you guys cover a "gish" character build. That sword and spell though 😍
The one factor I didn't hear you guys touch on, but I think is a valid argument leaning in favor of the Warlock (any build but blasters, especially), is that they get the majority of their reusable resources back on a short rest as opposed to a long rest, which is typically required to build back up as a caster with more spell slots. It's one of those balancing acts that I think 5e managed to do so well.
Big fan of your work, guys. Keep being awesome. :)
I'm actually playing a blast right now. I decided to go warlock sorcerer rout and I just not picked up twin spell and I am really looking forward to bring the hurt!
Here is a fun sniper that comes online pretty quick. Warlock with Eldritch Spear, (Eldritch Blast range is now 300) with Spell Sniper Feat which doubles the range and ignores 1/2 and 3/4 cover.
To expand more on Sunbeam, don't forget on subsequent turns you can quicken spell and cast a leveled spell as a bonus action and continue to use sunbeam (and a few other spells like this) again as an Action.
Idea: a creature killed by Cone of Cold becomes a frozen statue. So what if I cast animate objects on something frozen by cone of cold.
That sounds awesome! If I were the dm I’d allow it. I’m pretty sure it would work by RAW, but I definitely think it’s too cool of an idea to not let happen at least once.
Once dead a creature is considered an object by the game. So by RAW that should work. 👍
@@karpmageddon4155 Shouldn't that just apply to corpses as well then? Is this a way to be a necromancer with better zombies?
You guys have an infectious love of the game and I find myself wanting to get back into D&D. I played as a kid and got into MMOs online and have found myself wishing for the teamwork and roleplaying of the original. Video games inevitably devolve into "how much dps you can do?", min/maxing, loot whoring and bickering. It has really gotten away from the best aspects of the original tabletops that spawned them. This doesnt even begin to touch on the pay to win model that is beginning to dominate most MMORPGs.
Currently playing my first character ever, a Storm Sorcerer blaster mage, slinging lightning blasts into anything that looks at me angrily. I'm normally not huge on caster classes in games, but so far I've had lots of fun.
Tempest sorcerers look fun
Give him a few levels in tempest cleric, letting you deal MAX DAMAGE on any electric/thunder base spell damage
@@lorekeeper685 It is a cool class, I just wish they got some of the Druid's mid-level nature spells. My DM and I actually developed a minor classfix that put in a small list of added spells.
Spells like Call Lightning, Control Water, Maelstrom, and Control Weather.
The only part that is really defeated is an issue Monty and Kelly bring up; a thematic damage-dealing cantrip. The only regular options are Thunderclap, Lightning Lure, and Shocking Grasp, all of which have really short ranges, and don't do a lot of damage, and don't synergize too well with other players' melee classes.
The option I ended up going for is to multiclass two levels into Warlock for Eldritch Blast, just as they suggest. If your DM lets you use UA content, Kraken or Lurker in the Deep patrons synergize well with the overall theme of Storm Sorcerer.
All in all, if you get into a run of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, being a Storm Sorcerer will make you a superstar.
TheMalevolentSpoon I’m going to use a similar house rule in my games. Basically, any spell you can justify having thematically I’ll allow you to train it into your spell list. Not necessarily as an additional spell known/ prepared like a cleric’s domain spells. It would work similarly to warlocks were you still have to select it. My inspiration for this rule was playing a tempest domain cleric and being really disappointed that they don’t have storm sphere as a domain spell since elemental evil wasn’t out yet.
@@jaredpuwalski8545 yeah but beware, there are spells that are restricted to certain classes for a reason, some combos can really break balance when you don't need to multiclass for them
A long time ago I thought about making a D&D channel to do stuff like this, but every week when the new dungeon dudes episode comes out, I remember that these guys are basically everything I would want in a channel. You guys are killing it. Keep it up. And if you ever need another player for Drakenheim, let me know. 😆
No war wizard love? That subclass has been so effective for me in play.
Power surge is like empowered meta magic mixed with empowered evocation. While resource intensive, it can be used once per turn, not once a round. The damage, while single target, does actually increase the min and max damage since it’s a bonus.
Dex+Int for initiative usually lets you cast big spells before the enemy can move around, and before your teammates become collateral damage.
Reaction to give a bonus of +4 to any save you already know you failed can help immensely to keep damage dealing AOEs up, especially from features that cause conditions that end your concentration immediately that may not be constitution saves. Being able to cause static force damage at level 14 for using this feature supplements damage immensely.
Both of those features can really single out a specific foe to focus damage, which can be done while killing a mob at the same time.
Fire shield is a great spell to use for procing power surge uses, melee creature that hits you takes 2d8 damage plus a surge damage (7 damage at 14) if you choose, and you can use your arcane deflection to do another 7 force damage to that creature, and a potential 7 additional damage to 2 other nearby creatures.
War Wizards have good survivability and relatively high AC, but their damage is lower than those of Evocator. Arcane Deflection forbids you to cast spells (and cantrips don't do so much damage), Power Surge has a really limited number of uses (one per short rest unless you are fighting casters) and its damage isn't that high, and 14th lvl feature is tied to Arcane Deflection.
This video is so great, I’ve been trying to figure out blaster mages and this hits all of the bullseyes! Can you do a video on how to build a deceptive illusionist or a deceptive character in general, any class?? ♥️♥️♥️
This is all some great information and I like how you break down the pros and cons of the various caster classes. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm liking my Half-Elf Tempest Cleric. I used the variant half-elf to get the sun&moon elf Racial feature and used that to pickup Booming Blade. Booming blade works with the clerics 8th level ability divine strike which adds 1d8 thunder damage.
R1 cast spirit guardians at 3rd
R2 cast spiritual weapon at 2nd and booming blade.
Each round I'm potentially dealing 7d8+Strength+Wisdom without up casting spells. If that's not enough the Destructive Wrath channel divinity lets you roll max when you hit with thunder or lightning which means if booming blade crits it could deal 2d8+strength from my war hammer plus a flat 32 thunder damage.
The UA Circle of Wildfire Druid can occupy a blaster-controller roll, similar to the Wizard you mentioned. They auto-prepare fireball and plant growth at level 5, and the combinations of these spells alone are amazing.
Hexblade (Pact of the Tome) 3/ Shadow Sorcerer 17. I would take Devil's Sight and Agonizing Blast as my evocations. Then I would select the new metamagic from unearthed arcana that lets you change the damage type, as well as Silent Spell, & Quicken (or Twin) spell metamagic options. This way you have a sorcerer with a maxed out Eldritch Blast, the Hex spell and class ability, medium armor and shield proficiency. A version of the Heighten Spell metamagic. Con save proficiency as well as being the best ritual caster in the game.
If going to wizard route I would go Battlesmith (Armorer) 3/ Evoker 17. This way you get all the goodies of an evocation wizard in addition to some pimped out heavy armor & Con save proficiency.
Twin Dragon's Breath on two different allies is amazing. GIVING them the ability of a breath weapon is amazing. Especially if you have a warlock or wizard in the the party who can have a flying familiar breath from above. Even Better with an Imp that is invisible breathing fire.
Again, I already knew all this stuff but I still enjoyed the video :P
I just want to say that I dislike the blasters in the mega dungeons thinking "well I will burn all my spells in 18 seconds and then I can go to bed in my tiny hut"
The arcane cleric is an amazing blaster especially at end levels.
@sum body Light cleric gets fireball so that alone qualifies them
I had a fighter/sorcerer cast fireball action surge fireball again the quickened a sleep spell. I was stunned. What i thought was gonna be a good fight ended up with the whole camp asleep and all brought to justice. RAW told me this was the right action. RAI told ehjhhh. I went with RAW/rule of cool on this one
I have never been prouder of my players for coming up with something like this.
For reference i give my players some alone time to plan. If they are about to assault an enemy camp or castle i leave the room. Give them 10-15 minutes to devise a plan/discuss the plan they have worked over the week.
I have my stuff planned that they don't know why should i know what they have planned
This is why I love to play Divine Soul Sorcerers... Even at low levels there are so many options, but you do have to choose and play wisely as you are the proverbial glass cannon. Luckily you can swap out a spell every level if you chose something that's doesn't fit your style. Twinned Chromatic Orb or Web with a quickened Firebolt are good options at low level, and Spiritual Weapon is the best spell in the game. You simply must take it. Sorcerers are also excellent for social situations when combined with the subtle metamagic option. Simple cantrips like Message and Minor Illusion can be used in all sorts of interesting ways.
Sorry, but you can't do that; you got it the other way around.
If you use your bonus action to cast any spell, you can't use your action to cast any spell except for a cantrip
The video immediately after this one in my subscriptions was XP to Level 3's magic missile video. Coincidence? I think not!
Tip for any spellcaster specializing in poison/acid damage types. Grab the spell catapult and then buy (or otherwise acquire) various vials of poison/acid and crossbow bolts. Talk to your dm and ask if you could use catapult while holding a few of these bolts and dip them in your chosen vial. Now, whirl em using catapult to chuck them at once. Each will do a decent amount of damage on their own, but the poison/acid makes it all the more potent and can drop enemies quickly. Im talking i was doing an average of 30ish damage without the poison even working since it was a one shot and the enemy was a construct. Bonus points if you get alchemist supplies or poisoners kit and are able to make your own poisons.
Itd be really fun if your dm likes to make custom enemy drops and unique flora and fauna that may provide interesting poisons to use. Like a paralysis poison, or a magical cold poison that adds a d4 of cold damage on top of the poison or something.
Or, if your dm likes to become a backdrop, soak ball bearings in a poison. Open the bag, scoop some out, and catapult. Oopsie
The sorcerer can also go with dragon sorcery which allows them to add Cha to any magic of a certain element which is a HUGE and constant boost. Pairing this with the elemental adept feat for that same element is AMAZING. No need to pick multiple elements with your limited spell choices.. simply ignore resistances. Cantrip/utility vs immune enemies.. or just get one good single target for foes immune to your adept.
One of my players did this with fire magic to devastating effectiveness.. even against red dragons and Tiamat. He played that character all the way to 20 after the Tia campaign in supplemental homebrew content.
In one campaign i actually play an evoker wizard. The DM is very generous with homebrewed magic items and other bonuses, preferring to buff us as well as the enemies to ludicrous power. For instance: i have a magic item that boosts elemental adept to not only nullify resistance to fire, but also turn immunity into resistance. I can actually kill fire elementals with fire spells. More recently ive been granted some metamagic, with 3 sorcery points and 2 options that i decided to make quickened and extended spell. Thanks for the tip on sunbeam! Ill be sure to try it out.
I love dipping into sorcerer so I have the versatility of exchanging severely lower spell slots for higher ones, or a large one for several smaller ones, especially when your running low on those precious absorb elements or sheild. or if you really need misty step but you used all of your second levels on scorching ray.
9:13 YES! Dear god yes! TWIN HASTE is the most broken play I've ever done as my sorcerer
Empowered spell is not only efficient for being able to choose to use it at the most opportune time, it can be used multiple times on the same spell as long as it’s a new damage roll.
Rerolling dice on an ongoing spell effect usually bumps up the average damage enough to be comparable to upcasting by roughly 2 spell levels.
economy combo : divine soul dragon's breath+spiritual weapon. 2 slots for many rounds of action+bonus action. Takes 2 turn to come online because both are cast as a bonus action, but it saves you the need to use your sorcery points with quickened (so more of those empowered).
If you add a magic initiate : wizard with it, twin dragon's breath so that your familiar can lay waste with you :
-2 breaths+spriritual weapon // or without twinning, 1 breath weaponized familiar+spritiual weapon+ your casting action.
Best is, because you choose the energy type of the breath when you cast it, and spriritual weapon is force, you should be able to pull it off no matter what is in front of you.
Also important to recall with metamagic if you have spells from say a staff, a sorcerer can still use their metamagic on those as long as they meet the criteria.
Gotta love blaster mages. I play one in my Out of the Abyss campaign, as a rogue scout/Phoenix soul sorcerer (from unearthed arcana). My DM allows me to add sneak attack to cantrips (a little house rule weve got). So I'm able to deal massive amounts of damage with quickening meta magic. So my main combo at this level is sneak attack firebolt and some good ol' scorching rays.
Great video guys. I do think you're underselling the wizards damage capability though, especially single target damage at tier 3. They can add their intelligence modifier mutiple times to magic missile (moreso when upcasting) which can increase their effectivity in taking down any single target at any range. This can be pumped further by multiclassing either/both into fighter (for action surge) and warlock (hexblade's curse). They'd still get access to 9th level spells eventually as a 2 fighter/1 hexblade/17 evoker.
@UCGjD6Nj742K8tuAuPas45gQ As per Jeremy crawford, it DOES work for each dart as because the way magic missile is worded (unlike lets say scorching ray) you roll 1d4 + 1 and apply it to ALL darts, regardless if all those darts hit the same target or multiple targets (the same way when you roll damage dice for fireball, you roll the dice once and apply it to all affected). so yes for let's say a level 10 evoker/1 hexblade upcasting a magic missile to a 5th level slot each dart gets 1d4 + 1 + int mod + 4 (prof bonus from hexblade's curse) and applies this to 7 darts if you select your cursed target. More fun on round 2 as you can now add hex to the mix for an additional 1d6 to each dart if you select the same target. Throw in a couple levels of fighter and at level 13 you can action surge this on round 1. Magic missile deals force and has no atk roll or saving throw. Just a shield spell counter, which as a wizard you did select counterspell right?
It's also worth noting that you can take 2 levels of Fighter for Action Surge if you want that 1 turn super burst. It is a 2 level investment for 1 turn of damage but each to their own.
(A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn. You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action. - Phb 202) You can cast 2 spells if they are both actions and then quicken an effect like sunbeam
You can't quicken an effect of a spell, only the spell itself. If you want to shoot two sunbeams - you should cast it as a bonus action, and then use an action to attack with it.
Dungeon Dudes! Do you think you could do a video on the Divine Soul subclass next? Paying special attention to how metamagic might be used on the cleric spell list. I've just built one myself and in doing the research I've seen a lot of confusion around the internet on how they work and what strategies/builds work best. You mentioned how powerful they could be in this video multiple times and I absolutely agree! A quick example you talked about, having access to Spiritual Weapon almost completely negates the need to take the quickened spell metamagic at least until very high levels. Changes like this seem to be really confusing to people so it would be amazing if you could help every gamers figure out how to leverage this incredibly versatile subclass. Thanks for another great video!
Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, and Lance of Lethargy are the only things you need to work with your AoE. You can also just not take concentration spells apart from Hex and use Maddening Hex instead of Repel and Lance. In this way, you save your extra Spell Slot for something instantaneous(like Fireball). The damage is quite respectable and more sustainable. At higher levels your Hex will stick around even past short rests and you'll have two Spell Slots to play with.
One thing that I've been toying with is that while you can't cast 2 spells one must be a cantrip, I've asked and been told you can cast 2 cantrips with quickened spell...if this is true then when you cast 2 firebolts at level 5 you end up rolling 4d10 damage for the cost of 2 sorcery points...sure it's not a fireball's levels of damage but 4d10 is still nice, especially if you end up using empowered with it
Also if you go with Warlock/Sorc Multiclass you should probably start as a sorc to get Con proficiency
Not really for a blaster mage, but when playing a Bard, I find taking Guiding Bolt to be a fantastic choice for any Bard. 1) because Bards don't really get many spell attack roll options, 2) not many things resist radiant and it does a lot of damage for a 1st level spell, and 3) it pairs pretty well with applying Bardic Inspiration. Cast Guiding Bolt at an enemy with your Action, then give Bardic Inspiration to the next damage dealer in the party's initiative order. Dealing damage, giving advantage AND inspiration in the same turn means you'll became a front-liner's new best friend.
The Hexblade Warlock is actually always the first patron I go to when playing a Warlock
love guiding bolt which is my fav 1st level "blasting" spell. great for divine soul or, how I use it, celestial warlock
It really drives home the emotional cost of quarantine that you guys can't be together anymore.
Also, I love Heroforge. It's free to create an account, design characters and save them to your profile. Being as I have Dungeon Master's Vault full with 20+ characters, it's super nice having Heroforge to pair with that, letting me fully visualize them. And their customization options are surprisingly inclusive.
Screenshots are your friend, rofl. :)
bald lady Psykers
Yeah I definitely light clerics are a great idea but I like the divine soul sorcerer also imagine a spiritual weapon trapped in a wall of force with an enemy 🙏
You Forgot to mention Empowered Evocation + Magic Missile. Jeremy Crawford has gone on Record to say it applies to each missile.
We avoided this one specifically. Crawford's ruling here is really controversial and somewhat contradictory when compared to other spells such as Scorching Ray. In general, we are trying to steer away from using Crawford's Twitter as any kind of rules authority. Instead we rely on the official errata and the official Sage Advice Compendium.
@@DungeonDudes So are you against this combo?
@@lockskelington314 We believe the intent behind features like Empowered Evocation is that the extra damage is meant to be applied once per spell. Magic Missile has a bit of an awkward wording around how it's damage rolls work in 5e (i.e. do you make one damage roll and apply it to each missile? or does each missile make it's own damage roll?). Regardless of how you interpret the spell, it still seems that the precedent is that Empowered Evocation wasn't meant to be applied multiple times (see the case of Scorching Ray), so why should it apply here?
@@DungeonDudes The intention was, to my understanding, that Empowered Evocation applies to one damage role of the dice. And the reason it applies to Magic Missile only and Not Something Like Scorching Ray or Melf's Minute Meteors is because it is the only spell in the game where it hits automatically and all the damage is applied at once while being able to hit multiple enemies.
@@lockskelington314 Yes, I understand the reasoning based on the wording. I'm just not entirely sure that because it's the only spell in the game that works this way means that it should be possible for it to create a multiplicative effect with Empowered Evocation. We're talking getting an extra 15+ damage (or much more) here, it's a pretty significant difference.
I'm not really playing a blaster mage, but holy hell, playing a melee mage is fun. (It does usually require multi-classing though) Packing a concentration spell like Hex, then heading in swinging is quite powerful. And the combo really relieves those situations where either the mage runs out of gas or the melee can't reach. I'm doing Fighter/Sorcerer, but really any class that can lay down a concentration/self-augmenting spell and pack a ranged cantrip and push in swinging should be a ton of fun.
For me, the best blasters were Light Cleric, Divine Sorcerer and Celestial Warlock mainly because of their versatility they get in their kit. Light Cleric is the best at *heal or kill* being able to throw a fireball as well as keep some buffs or healing up. Same does the Divine Sorcerer but it also adds the metamagic on top of Clerics versatility.
While Celestial Warlock seems a bit odd, he has full access to Eldrich Blast Kit and also adds a few supportive percs. It is also nice to have a bunch of d6 *healing words* for free.
Chaos Bolt! 2d8+1d6 per spell slot level. Uses Spell Attack rolls, not saves. You get to chose the damage type based on one of the d8 rolls after the d8 rolls are made. If they are doubles you get to jump the spell to another enemy within 30 and roll attack and damage again, which could jump again on more doubles. A little less control of the damage type, but 3 dice from a first level spell slot with the potential to chain is amazing.
In my current campaign, my tiefling, draconic sorcerer likes using twin spell combined with illusionist bracers, to twin cast twice in one turn.
Holding 4 undead in place with chill touch, or simply casting firebolt 4 times in a row before your turn is done. Is pretty cool.
I went Ray of Frost / Erupting Earth. Erupting Earth scales so nicely when upcasting and give you some battlefield control. Just great.
I personally think that Eldritch Blast is best used by Warlocks. I have had several players take it via Magic Initiate/Spell Sniper/Magical Secrets who felt disappointed when they were still doing regular cantrip damage since they weren't warlocks, especially characters like Wizards who then have to use Charisma for Eldritch Blast and Intelligence for everything else (Empowered Evocation doesn't help since it's not a Wizard spell). What I have done is just make Eldritch Blast a Warlock class feature, and then modified it a bit (you can choose special damage types for it based off of your patron, and I built Agonizing Blast into it since almost all Warlocks take it anyway. I also made it scale based off of Warlock Level to avoid potential high level Sorlock shenanigans. It can still work, but requires more levels in Warlock than Sorcerer rather than the other way around, which is how it usually is).
I personally love the Evoker, and Divine Soul sorcerer is one of my favorite subclasses. I do feel a little sad that the Evoker doesn't get a good 6th level ability (only works for Frostbite, rather than with more cantrips that the Evoker will likely actually have). I love Light Clerics, though I do feel that maybe their blasting could get a buff (they get no major damage boosts outside of expanded spell list and Potent Cantrip, which are still good, but come on).
Love the video guys!
**Puts down Game Fuel**
"Nnnnnnhhh... I guess Fireball is the best option after all! I cast Fireball!"
I'm a simple dude, I see a familiar reference, I like.
Jacob! No!
Hero Forge is pretty awesome, great to visualize NPCs too (the amount of content there is pretty amazing).
I don't know if you guys normally used Unearthed Arcana stuff, but I have a question regarding the Order of Scribes Wizard. One of the features they get at 2nd level reads "When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with the damage type of another spell in your spellbook." Two questions associated with this.
1: If you have Chromatic Orb in your spellbook, can you use all the options in that one spell as the source for damage types?
2: While the feature does specify that you can only alter the damage type of spells that use slots, can you use cantrips as sources for damage types? (Example: If I have Chill Touch, can I make Burning Hands deal necrotic damage?)
Just mix tempest cleric with a blaster class with Lightning bolt and watch it easily deal 50 damage
The "Mobile Landmine"/ "Buster Bunker" Combo.
Life Cleric Lvl 7/8 Minimum for the following muckery:
-Have a fighter buddy, or better yet, a Paladin buddy with Auras and their own buffs up (at ninth level they get Aura of Vitality, just to add insult to injury here).
-Cast following spells before a major fight (if given time to prepare)
-Aid(2)-Upcast to 3rd/4th level for a 15 point increase to 3 people's max HP. (subsequent heals fill to the new max)
-Warding Bond(2) on fighter buddy and meat shield. Gives full resistances, +1 AC and to saving throws.
-Spirit Guardians(3-C) on way in does it really need an intro?
-Spiritual Weapon(2) on combat Start, same as SG above.
IF given more time to prepare (1 hour) like in a oncoming siege or raid scenario.
-Glyph of Warding(3) with Spirit Guardians in it to Proc on combat start/command, removing need to concentrate, maxing the duration AND allowing one of the following:
-Bane, Bless, Shield of Faith, Protection from Evil and Good (all 1's) OR Beacon of Hope (3) for that sweet MAX heals and bonus to Saves on you, battle buddy and anyone near you.
You and your battle buddy become a nearly unstoppable mobile landmine.
IF instead you use a Tempest Cleric, you now have the Sherman Firefly combination. Where you use your remaining spell slots to cast Shatter and Guiding bolt and other blasting spells, saving your concentration for Call lightning or something similar.
HOWEVER, if you want to be a "Mage", DIVINE SOUL sorcerer with a double dip in CELESTIAL or HEXBLADE Warlock, you can pull the same shenanigans with MOAR DAKKA!! Free healing or Hexes of all types, different if not better Buffs (HASTE), Metamagics and infinite False Life's (if you lean that way) and the Eldritch Gatling Gun . You are just a little bit squishier. So spam those heals if needed, or just wait and Twin cast Heal with Beacon of Hope up for maximum Nose Thumbing and Tongue Sticking.
Best part, both builds only snowball from there. BE the NOVA!! Only thing to be wary of is Dispel Magic, so make sure you either have someone ready to spam Counterspell, or save a few slots yourself.
Thank you for this. I am getting ready to play a blaster Mage!
I'd give an honorable mention to scribes wizard as a blaster.
It doesn't have the highest damage, but, you can almost always ignore resistances and capitalize on vulnerability in a way no other casters can. You can have a bludgeoning fireball, or a thunder toll the dead.
With Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Sorcerer's got the transmute spell metamagic which lets them change the elemental damage types of their spells. Tempest Clerics at second level can max out the damage of their thunder and lightning spells once per short rest.
This means at level 7 you can cast fireball (upcast to 4th lvl, make it deal thunder damage, then max its damage to a total of 54 damage.
Instead of playing a sorcerer you could go wizard and take the Metamagic adept feat on an ASI or as a var human/custom lineage in order to get the transmute spell metamagic and one other metamagic if you wanted to play an evoker wizard too in order to get Empowered Evocation and Sculpt Spell.
An order of scribes wizard can do something similar to the transmute spell metamagic but it requires them to have certain spells in their spellbook to allow this damage type changing.
Artificer Artillerist - Eldritch Cannon (2D8) + Firebolt (1D10) to start. Eldritch Cannon (2D8) + Firebolt (2D10) + Arcane Firearm (D8) at 5th LV. Go Variant Human and take Magic Initiate to get Eldritch Blast and Hex to add even more damage.
Aasimar divine soul sorcerer with a three-level dip into hexblade. Take Pact of the Tome & Book of Ancient Secrets along with Agonizing Blast to get insane, and sustainable out of combat utility. Ultimate blaster, Done. Best of all worlds. Decent AC. Awesome damage output. Never run out of blasting ability due to Eldritch Blast. Choice of great cleric spells like Spirit Guardians & Spiritual Weapon. Can regain metamagic from a short rest by converting unused warlock spell slots. Can fill the role of party healer if needed while also being a blaster mage.
Loved the video and it does give me a big idea on how to build my phoenix sorc in the future, thanks!! Will you guys consider doing a vid on the Eldritch Knight?
Thank you for making these guides, Dudes :D
I always skip over the sponsored parts of videos, but not on this one. Custom minis sounds absolutely awesome.
Wizard Evoker deals most damage with Magic Missile. When you cast Magic Missile, you roll 1d4 only once and every missile deals the same damage.
And it means that High Level Wizard can deal: Number of Missiles * (1d4+1+5)
So using 1st lvl spell slot you can deal minimum 21 and maximum 30 damage
Using 9th lvl slot you can deal 77-110
If you multiclass into Hexblade Warlock, you can Curse main target and add Prof bonus to the roll
So now it's: Number of Missiles * (1d4+1+5+6)
1st lvl slot: 39-48 damage
9th lvl slot: 143-176 damage
If you have a book that increase Int by 2, and Ioun stone that increases Prof bonus, you can have even more damage.
Imagine more than 50 Force damage with just 1st level spell slot
Just going to say, a Divination Wizard's Portent ability is a hidden gem for a spellcaster. "I got a natural 1 on one of my Portent dice? That's one very disintegrated foe coming up."
By the end of a campaign while playing my favourite Wizard, though, I found pretty much every single combat encounter I went into was Sunbeam from the onset. One spell slot for the entire fight's worth of damage, almost always hitting two enemies at the same time, free to save so many lower level spell slots for the Misty Steps and Shields. I preach Sunbeam to anyone who has access to it.
"and that is because they are specific to the Cleric or Divine soul sorcerer..."
*Bard casts spiritual weapon*
2 level of warlock on your sorcerer and all the problems from both classes disapear. Especially for dragon sorcerer because if someone resist fire you just use eldritch blast
Spell sniper feat allows you to pick up Eldritch blast (but not agonizing) without taking levels of warlock. This can be important if all you want is a safety cantrip and don't want to wait extra levels to get new spells.
Sorlock with Agonizing Blast, and Repelling Blast, and the Hex spell Quickened Spell. so cast eldritch Blast then quicken another eldritch Blast. or that Agonizing Blast, and eldritch Spear, and take the distant spell meta magic, and take the spell sniper feat. not sure what the range on your eldritch Blast is at that point but it should be high enough that you have at least 3 rounds of combat before your opponent makes it to you even if they are taking the dash action.
Taking Pact of the Tome & Magic Initiate Feat can also really benefit a Blaster Warlock. Taking Pact of the Tome grants you 3 cantrips from ANY CLASS SPELL LIST & Magic Initiate grants you a 1st level spell & 2 cantrips from a class spell list of your choosing. I am a Clesetial Patron Warlock. At level 6, I will gain the Radiant Soul feature which will allow you to add your CHA modifier to 1 radiant or fire damaging spell per turn. Taking the Celestial grants you access to the Sacred Flame cantrip & Magic Intitiate OR Pact of the Tome can give you access to the Firebolt & Sacred Flame cantrips. The only downside to Sacred Flame is that it is a DEX save. Dexterity is used calculate Armor Class & many skill checks. This spell will be more effective @ low levels, but once you're in the higher levels, this spell will not be as effective so bear that in mind. Now, pair these w/ Eldritch Blast & the Agonizing Blast Invocation & you can really dish out A LOT of damage also because SF, EB, & FB all scale up in dice as you level. Force & Radiant damage are 2 of the 3 "least resisted" damage types in 5e. If your DM allows Unearthed Arcana content to be used in games, the Psionic Cantrip, Mind Sliver is also available to Warlocks which does Psychic damage. Psychic is the 3rd least resisted damage type in 5e & also scales in damage as you level. So, don't count out the Warlock as a Blaster Mage. Definitely the most challenging spellcaster because of a limited spell list & slots, but not impossible.
Prediction: Sorcerer, Warlock, Sorlock, Light Cleric, Tempest Cleric, and Evocation Wizard.
MadSwedishGamer pretty good, just not in that order
Only thing I don't like about tempest clerics. They have a really shallow lightning/ thunder spell pool to take advantage of the perks of being tempest.
@@rakka3747 dip into wizard for chain lightning and lightning bolt.
@@nicholasfotou2980 then you are using another casting stat. And with a 9 int. That won't work haha.
@@nicholasfotou2980 just dip into cleric. Works better
From personal experience, there is another type of blaster mage that you might want to consider--the Necromancy Wizard. When I finally found a GM that would let me play one my plan was originally to go all-in on the whole army of the dead thing, but the longer I played the character, the more I realized how much more useful my direct damage spells were. The self-healing REALLY added up, and our cleric never even had to touch me (much to his relief.) Hell, there were even times when *I* was the one healing *HIM* instead. And with a little finagling, I was able to pull off being both a blaster mage AND leading an army of the dead.
Well, besides healing, Necromancy wizards don't get any features that boost their blaster potential, unlike Evocation that is totally built around this idea.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That is true. But the one thing they get is something they get right away, while the really good Evocation stuff happens a bit later. So it really depends on the level for your campaign.
Currently only level 8, Exio the Excellent is a tabaxi wild magic sorcerer. He doesn't use the traditional Metamagics for a blaster. Instead he uses the Unearth Arcana Elemental Spell and Subtle Spell. His main form of combat is casting greater invisibility on himself and laying down scorching rays, fireballs, chaos bolts, and burning hands. He has Wild Talent: Charisma and Telekinesis: Charisma. He uses his bonus action to pull people closer together so he can get those nice AOE hits.
One of my favorite spell combos is:
Eldritch Blast + Spell Sniper + Eldritch Spear + Quickened Spell
I love how you become a long-range turret that can hit literally anything. Is it dumb and only good in incredibly specific situations? Yes. Does that matter to me? Nope :)
Use Distant Spell instead of Quicken to double its range again.
1200 ft range is good!
Also Lore Master Wizard to give it a range of ONE MILE, or I think 5000 feet
Overchannel doesn't say first round. You can overchannel a 40dmg per round cloudkill or sickening radiance, wall of fire, bigbys hand etc. Or a 60 dmg errupting earth. Also the lvl 10 feat let's you cast 21 to 30 dmg lvl1 magic missiles. Pretty sick.
There is really only one best option to build a Blaster Battlemage: (Half-Elf) Warlock2/Sorcerer18 (or 3/17). Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast+Quickened Spell+Hex (+Hexblade's Curse/+Elven Accuracy) is just too good to ignore and you can throw that Workhorse Combo all day without even touching any of your higher level spell slots which remain available for other shenanigans. Starting with sorcerer gives you ConSaves and Hexblade Patron gives you Medium Armor+Shield for a standard 18AC (+Shield Spell=23+). And you haven't overspecialized at all. You can build the entire rest of the Char for utility and still be very effective in Combat. Stats would be S8 D15 C13 I8 W12 C15 -> S8 D16 C14 I8 W12 C17 by Half Elf -> C18 + Elven Accuracy -> C20 by ASI.
For wizards I think people sleep on Storm Sphere. It allows a wizard to also do damage in it's bonus action while casting. It allows you to pull lightning out of the storm but it doesn't say you are casting. That spell really is great.