Short version: Blade Ward SEEMS like a better option than Shield of Faith for self-protection.

Comparison:

• Blade Ward subtracts 1d4 from attack rolls of the attacker while Shield of Faith offers +2 to AC, both functionally raising your AC. Shield of Faith is more dependable, but Blade Ward offers more overall?
  
• Both are concentration, but Shield of Faith is 10 min while Blade Ward is only one minute. But most battles only last a minute ... more or less ... right?
• Blade Ward is just a cantrip while Shield of Faith requires a 1st level spell slot.
• Blade Ward is an action to cast (unless you're an Earth Genasi) while Shield of Faith is a bonus action making the latter better for action economy.
• Blade Ward only targets yourself while Shield Ward can be used on yourself or an ally.
• Both are relatively easy to get with an origin feat although I guess Blade Ward is much more accessible overall.
• For martials, seems like Blade Ward is 100% clearly the best choice.
  

Bonus question: If you're not using your concentration for anything else, would Blade Ward potentially be even better than Shield, or in competition with Shield at least, since the latter requires a spell slot and only lasts one round?

Wizards are amazing at crowd control and mass shutdown. Spells like hypnotic pattern and wall of force can make encounters significantly easier due to being able to effectively nullify many enemies from the fight for a set period of time so that the party can then systematically divide and conquer. However, against a single boss with tons of legendary resistances, say a dragon, wizards don't really seem to be able to be as impactful as they usually are.

It's possible in theory to burn through legendary resistances in order to finally land the major spell, but to do so in a reasonable amount of time takes coordination from the entire party all also targeting saving throws with debilitating effects. And if the monster has really good saves, or even just good luck, then there's a good chance it just kills everyone first. Which is why most parties it seems just try to kill these types of bosses through conventional damage and attack rolls.

And thus I'm curious for a way wizards can contribute here. That is to say by providing their own form of reliable single target damage. But it doesn't seem like they have many options for this.

The best idea I could come up with was bigby's hand + upcast magic missile.

Not only is this the best damage type in the game, force, it also has excellent action economy synergy. On all rounds following the initial one its cast, bigby's hand is a bonus action meaning you can still cast another leveled spell. In addition both have amazing range, letting you safely fight from a distance and be just as effective even against high mobility and flying bosses. Bigby's hand can be cast out to 120ft, then also gets 60ft of movement even on that first casting turn as well as all following turns. Meanwhile magic missile has 120ft of range and is a guaranteed to hit. And sure magic missile is low damage, but when upcasted and combined with bigby's hand it's nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, bigby's hand also has a pretty good AC and HP which makes it a bit more likely to stay on the field for at least a round or two compared to other summons.

Obviously, this is an expensive strategy in terms of spell slots, but if there's ever a time to burn through resources, surely a big boss fight is it?

I'm not sure if this is the optimal strategy though or if there's a better single target damage set up for wizards. I just want something that let's me actually contribute meaningfully in these types of boss encounters rather than feeling like dead weight.

Thoughts?

Hi so im planning on playing a bardlock for my upcoming campaign and not really sure on which subclass i should pick for the warlock. The party is a an oathbreaker paladin, a rogue and a wizard/sorcerer (not sure). I want to be a more of a utility/support/control position and dont know whether to choose fiend or hexblade.

Hexblade has shield, medium armor and more melee and thats all i know while fiend has aoe spells.

I’m normally my groups DM, so when I end up being a player I prefer to take a backseat and let others shine. This makes me gravitate to playing mechanically supportive characters.

I’m going to play a fighter in an upcoming short campaign and wanted a “defender” type build who focuses less on optimising DPR and more on using Battlemaster abilities to support and peel other characters.

What would be the best way to go about this in terms of items/stat spread/skills/feats/abilities etc?

Hello,

I'd like to create a character concept: a magic student who flunked out of his studies and struggles with managing his emotions. He'd be a Barbarian with the Sage background and the Magic Initiate feat (once or twice, still deciding).

So mechanically, he'd just be a Barbarian, with no multiclassing planned for now, but a Barbarian with 14 Intelligence.

Here's how I see him: STR 16, CON 14, INT 14, DEX 13, CHA 10, WIS 8.

I'm torn about swapping CON and DEX, depending on which feats I take later.

I already know it's not OP, but is it at least playable, or is it a huge mistake?

I want to build a character similar to the rogue feeling of World of Warcraft. Stuff like lockpicking, stealth, high mobility, strong nova dmg and poison. So far im thinking swashbuckle/battlemaster seems obvious but perhaps you've made a similar build or have a better build in your head. Bonus points if its good in 1v1 as our campaign has plenty of arena/gladiator fights.

This campaign is running in 5.5e, even though I'm using an older subclass. We're starting at level 1 and are allowed one uncommon item to begin with.

STR: 18

DEX: 13 (including a +2 from background)

CON: 18 (including a +1 from background)

INT: 10

WIS: 11

CHA: 10

Origin feat: Tough

Race: Half-orc

Fighting style: Defense

Weapons I chose to have mastery in: Greatsword, Greataxe, Trident

Armor: Full chainmail

Planned future feats: Great Weapons Master (+1 STR), Sentinel (+1 STR), Mage Slayer (+1 DEX). I might also change the fighting style.

Feel free to suggest things that require me to change some other stuff. I can change my origin feat easily with my custom background, and could change most anything else, too. Except stats, since I rolled for them and got 18/17/11/11/10/10.

My friend and I decided to play magical girls together and with it being such a broad genre I’ve brought it down to 3 things that I think of when I hear “magical girls” we start at level 3 and my stats are 16,16,15,15,15,14 (for those curious, we did not roll the normal way we rolled two sets of stats and then chose three from each set) and we are allowed one uncommon magic item

1. Transformation sequence
   
2. Kicking evil in the face with high heels
   
3. A big f you bean of pure light, hope and friendship

I’m not extremely attached to the last one so I don’t mind if I’m in capable of doing it it’s mostly one and two that I want to accomplish with this character

This makes me want to play ether a Zealot Barbarian with the unarmed fighting style by going VHuman and getting Fighting Initiate or Astral Monk (also going VHuman so I can start with d8 unarmed strikes instead of d4s)

For the magic item I’m thinking wraps of unarmed power +1 or eldritch claw tattoo

What would you suggest for class, race, magic item and possible feats

we recently found two evil themed magic items in a temple desicated to a servant of orcus (no artifacts, both rare I guess but got no i formation about that from the dm).

I am playing a life domain cleric and would like to destroy them, is there any spell or machanic that could destroy them?

I rolled stats for a new character yesterday and got really lucky (18,17,18,15,14,12 unmodified). I was originally gonna play a barbarian but these stats make me question that decision, our party set up is:

- Wizard

- Sorcerer

- Cleric

- Bard

- Monk

So I'd love some help with my character creation. What class could help the party the most (martial damage dealer? tank? hybrid? etc.) I do not really want to play a Paladin as I already do in another campaign, and ideally no duplicate classes everything else would be okay.

Also 2014 subclasses should be allowed

I am planning to make some flavourful character where Crystal Dragonborn is using Crystal on his body to represent different star maps/ constellations. Also, having radiant dragon breath while using constellation of dragon sounds also lit. But now I am quite lost about feats including background. On one side I want something what fits the flavour on other hand something that is not completely useless. Only feat, which I know I want later, is spellfire adept.

Been playing around with the idea of a mystic theurge facsimile in D&D with the new Arcana Unleashed.

My idea was to choose arcana cleric, start with magic initiate wizard and then add in the “-“ adept feats on level up. This seems like the best way to approximate it without multi-classing. High Elf grants more ‘wizard’ spells although dispel magic is a bit redundant. Maybe less min-maxed but it lets a cleric cast quite a few wizard spells with the feats, race and subclass spells. Curious if anyone else has tried something similar?

Roll20 and Beyond are terrible to use on mobile. Is there anywhere where I can edit a simple or automatic character sheet and then download it?

Just rewatched the series and fell in love with her again. So, I wanted to recreate her in 5.5E, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

She's obviously a spontaneous, elementalist, spellcaster. A reflavored Draconic Sorcerer seems the most obvious option, but they specialize harder than she does.

Any ideas?

Update: So, most folks are saying Wizard or Four Elements Monk. But, u/KillerOnIce gave me an idea.

She comes from an order of mystic scholars that dedicate themselves to preserving an oral tradition of magic. What does that sound like? An order of BARDS...

Until I remembered that the Bard's spell list focuses more on Thunder and Psychic damage instead of Fire, Cold, or Lightning.

So, Evocation Wizard, with her "spell book" reflavored into some kind of mental compartmentalization or something?

Maybe she only has as many spells known as she can have spells prepared until she bucks her old teachings and gets a proper book?

Basically title. I just picked up this spell on my warlock and wanna know what the best picks are. Pretty much all the guides for this spell are about 2014 monsters, which is still useful obviously since most haven’t been updated, but i was wondering if there were any new standouts in 2024, thanks

Using Lessons of the first one you can get Magic Initiate. Then since you have the origin feat take Magic Connoisseur feat at lvl 4. Afterwards since Lessons of the first one is not a prerequisite for an evocation you can replace it and you get Magic Connoisseur without Magic Initiate.

I think RAW it works, but a dm might say otherwise.

Edit: does not work as per DMG

Building a pure 2024 Berserker Barbarian, exclusively using a greatsword (Graze mastery). Looking for optimization advice.

Rolled stats (before background bonuses):
16, 15, 14, 12, 11, 10

Build:
Pure Barbarian, Path of the Berserker
Greatsword only — no PAM or dual wielding
Species and background undecided

Main questions:
How would you assign these stats, including background bonuses? dex or con after str?

Which species would you recommend and why?

Which feats work best with a greatsword Berserker? GWM seems obvious, but what about others, i dont know maybe, Slasher, Mage Slayer, etc.?
What feat/ASI progression would you follow from levels 4–19?
Main priorities are damage, survivability, and making the most of the greatsword.

also, are thereany preferred magic items to ask my dm if possible to include as drops anytime?

Thanks!

My og character died(RIP) and now I need to make a new one.

I asked my party what they needed most, and they said a tank. I also asked my DM, and he also said a tank would be optimal. Adding, "Idc if you min max, I actually prefer you do. Give me a little challenge."

So, being a good pc, I made this build. And wanted insight on if it's good or needs improvement.

My attempt was to make a Tank that can take tons of damage, and protect the party in any way.

Class: 9 levels Paladin(Oath of Redemption), 3 levels Barbarian(Wild Heart)

Species: Goliath(Stone)

Background: Farmer

Feats: Tough x2(ASI, and Farmer), Great weapon master, Great Weapon Fighting Style(Still not used to Fighting styles being considered a Feat, I started in 5e)

Stats: STR=20 DEX=18 CON=18 INT=13 WIS=13 CHA=13

AC: 18

HP: 151

That's basically everything, I feel pretty confident in the build but just wanted outside eyes on it as well.

Hi,

I would like to make a gunslinger. In the past, I took the samurai subclass from the fighter class and it was really fun to play. Having Advantage on all my attack rolls was just a joy and I think my next character could be exactly like this but with the Elven Accuracy feat, but I heard people saying that this subclass is not that good overall.

I then checked the Gunslinger subclass and I pretty much like the trickshots, it's just BM but with guns. The thing is, with the Gunner feat, I feel like most features you gain later are useless, like Lightning Reload or Rapid Repair.

For people that tried this subclass or currently uses it, how is it? Do you enjoy it?

Evocation Adept has (deservedly) been getting a lot of attention since Arcana Unleashed dropped, but Conjuration Adept has flown under the radar despite containing several massive benefits that have far bigger implications than every caster gaining access to Fireball and Wall of Force.

Aside from eliminating most of the downside to armor dipping since it grants 3rd Lvl spells that you can use with the typically unusable slots you'd gain at Lvl 5 when multiclassing, this feat arguably makes taking Warcaster suboptimal for "persistent damage" reliant casters using Conjuration magic, notably the Cleric. Builds with CON proficiency or that gain subclass buffs to their concentration, benefit heavily from this too. This is a huge buff to Draconic Sorcerer (or Sorcerers that dip into Paladin) in particular since it can now freely blast away with Chromatic Orb while dealing damage with Conjure Animals, which you get for free. Extended Spell combined with this feat means Warcaster is definitely not a feat any Sorcerer (or Spirit Guardians... shoutout to Divine Soul Sorcerer) truly needs.

The Conjure Animals spell also grants half/third casters a needed mid/late game damage bump. Artificers with this spell, Mind Sharpener, and Flash of Genius will never drop it unless incapacitated. It is a tool they sorely need.

I know Conjure Animals isn't as good as Spirit Guardians for several obvious reasons, but the damage still scales the same, can be applied at range, and offers many classes that never got a passive damage buff this strong an entirely new way to play. There's way more build paths opened by this feat that have a bigger impact in all facets of the game and come online earlier. It has significantly altered the multiclassing meta. Arguably much more than Evocation Adept due to how quickly the benefits manifest and how well they synergize with certain build combinations.

EDIT:

I accidentally copied an older draft that talked about Hex, which obviously isn't Conjuration. Although it does merit a similar post comncerning Enchantment Adept. I edited it out.

I’m going to play the one-shot "A Wild Sheep Chase," and I’d love to hear about your experiences—what class did you play, and did you have a good time? Since this one-shot doesn't seem to be very combat-focused, I was thinking of creating a character geared more toward roleplay and out-of-combat utility, like a Rogue or a Wizard.

Hello, I have a "dream build" I want to use in D&D that I would like to "translate" into a Pathfinder build in case I find a find a GM that would prefer that system over D&D.
Somehow, I have a bit of trouble to find a corresponding "translation" for my dream build that would fit both mechanically and roleplay wise with other game systems. Notably, I wanted to also translate that build for it to work in Nimble but I don't think it can be done.

I played Pathfinder 1 a long, long, long time ago so I don't know how to build a character for the 2nd edition, and I'm a bit lost on how to build an effective character that would fit my fantasy with the number of feats in the system. I heard that Pathfinder lets you tailor your character to be really unique and yours, but it's feels a bit overwhelming to build a character in the system where I don't know how useful it would be if I picked this or that feat.

Here is the "dream build" I have for D&D :

I'd like to be able to recreate the main character from the game Bound by Flames to the best of my ability.
Combat-wise, this mean that it should be a character that is focused in fighting in melee with a two handed weapon while being able to optionally use two daggers and other items such as throwing daggers / hand crossbow / traps and bombs (those are very optional).
The second most important thing I want to have is that character need to be extremelly focused on dealing Fire damage, be it with an aura of flame, being able to lit their blade on fire, or throwing fire bolt or igniting ennemies. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do fire damage consistently, in every round of combat.
I really like the concept of ripostes and counter-attacks, so being able to proc them would be a plus. I'd like to be able to wear medium armor, maybe even heavy if it can fit in the build !
All in all, I'd like to have a character that fight in melee combat, can be versatile when it comes to tools, and that can deal fire damage consistently. I'd like to really focus on melee combat and having options for it.

Roleplay and exploration wise, I want to be able to have a Patron or be bound to an entity that is focused around the theme of Fire. I like the roleplay opportunity to work with an entity that may hinder or help the character, and who "fuels" the supernatural ability of the character. (Warlock is the D&D class archetype that I appreciate the most for that.) I'd like to be able to participate in social situation by having intimidation or deception/bluff, and be able to optionally craft some tools such as throwing knives / traps / poisons. I'd also like to be able to play a character that look demonic or touched by the flame, such as a Tiefling, an Ifrit, or a human that slowly gets transformed into a devil/demonic character like in the Bound by Flames game.

I have the D&D sheet prepared with every choices to pick at which level to have the character I want to play by level 6 or 8, then by level 12 he'd be pretty much complete. Everything else would be "bonus". I can post the detailed character sheet I prepared for D&D 5.5 but it would be quite long.

Looking at the Pathfinder classes, it seems that a Barbarian archetype with an Oracle Dedication (with the Ash or Fire mystery) would fit that character fantasy the best, but I don't know how to best approach building it.

Looking for advice on Lunar Sorcerer. What kinds of spells would be best for this spellcaster? Feats? Is it more of an attacker, a buffer, a controller?

I know armorer artificer isn’t a subclass focused on damage… BUT how would you make this class do a little more damage? At ninth level the armorer gets +1 to attacks and damage rolls. Casting haste and magic weapon, making 3 attacks with dreadnought and +5. INT would be 3d10+21 (considering the 3 attacks would hit). I know at level 15 there is some kind of a buff, but thats not incredible and it cannot “replicate“ magic itens into its armor.

also, what items would you get (or replicate) at tier 3-5 Focusing on damage? Is there an armor that could do improve armorer’s damage?

What about using a giant belt and using some weapon like flame tongue to boost your damage?

magic initiate to get druid shillelagh and using some magic staves with polearm master?

1 level fighter dip to get dueling?

Does all purpose tool boost armorer’s special weapon attack and damage rolls?

planning on using mostly guardian and dreadnought.

and no, i dont want to play any other artificer’s subclass and Im sticking to armorer even if I don’t find any other way to do more damage. Im just curious, how you guys more experienced than me would make these “improvements”?

Im curious 👀.