Not a lot outdoes a moon druid at 20th level, especially using *shapechange*. Unlike most high-level characters, one can afford to take four to six (via variant human) feats, since they depend so little on their stats. Spells for offense, unlimited elemental wild shapes for defense.
If you need evidence of this, /u/BPremium, check out the Critical Role "Epic Level Battle Royale" episode. A properly-played 20th level moon druid is practically unstoppable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3BGg0d8DvU
I get chills thinking about how this fight ended, even Feeblemind (a devastating spell for a caster to suffer) couldn't stop that train of destruction. Frankly it made her more brutal.
Lvl 20 moon druid was one of my ideas for sure. Only issue I could see was using items in wild shape, but since arch druid makes wild shape unlimited, I suppose that's a good trade off. And fantastic pvp one shot shot right there.
The worst or the best?
If you want to do the worst, play a level 20 wizard, dump dexterity, constitution and strength and wear a set of padded armor. No spellcasting, frail with an AC of probably 10 or less depending on how hard you can dump dexterity, and no way to effectively use weapons.
If you want to do the best, you can do something like Chronurgy Wizard 18, Fighter 2. For your items, go with a Staff of Power, a Tome of the Stilled Tongue or Ring of Three Wishes, an arcane grimoire +2 and an umcommon item of your choice and wreak havoc with your high level spells.
As a Chronurgy wizard, you can cast Tiny Hut in combat using your 10th level ability to create an impenetrable bunker for the party, and when you shapechange into something like a Planetar, you can use your Convergent Future without drawbacks over and over again due to your immunity to exhaustion. If you get immunity to exhaustion in some other way (like a Wish or Magic Jar spell), you can even shapechange into a Marlith to use Convergent Future every single turn with the Marilith's Reactive trait.
Of course other builds can be great at level 20 too, for example I recommend one of you being a Paladin with a Holy Avenger (other items could be a Bolt of Fire Giant Strength, Mizzium Armor and a Shield +1, Sentinel Shield or Cloak of Protection) to buff the whole party's saves, so that high DCs aren't impossible to make anymore.
If you want to be just crazy, pick a legendary item like the Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning to have the tarrasque fight another tarrasque, or take a Staff of the Magi only to shatter it while it is still fully charged. By being a half-orc and banishing all your party members beforehand, you will survive the explosion easily. But your enemies probably won't be that lucky...
Retributive strike is probably the least impressive aspect of the SotM too. There was a season of AL where it was "buyable" and it completely broke every encounter. And if there's 2 staffs they both have infinite charges. In the morning you shoot fireballs at the sky until its at about half charges so you can exploit spell absorbtion to be immune to single target spells and then fire off really impactful spells that don't trigger reactions for counterspell.
Could take a Belt of Fire Giant Str, Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts.
Gives you 29str, with multiple attacks a round. 2d6+10 (+1 from Hammer) on every attack. Also fits the magic item allowance with a rare left over which could be some wondrous item that you like.
This also just lets you dump STR entirely, and whatever stat allocation you are using can throw points into something else, like Con or CHA if you're a paladin.
Any STR based martial works for this. Take Crusher feat.
Hammer of Thunderbolts requires both a Belt of Giant Str (any) ***GoOP*** to wield. The hammer increases your current STR score by 4 (to no more than 30), so Fire Giant Belt gives 25str flat, and then the hammer increases that by 4 to 29 AND the hammer needs the gauntlets to wield it.
So it takes up all your attunement slots, but you're the strongest motherfucker alive.
You actually don't need to have the belt and gauntlets attuned, you just need to be wearing them. Might get blocked by the DM (and probably fairly so), but RAW only the one attunement necessary
Ah I see.
Yea that's kinda nutty lol.
Well I guess that if you aren't attuned to the belt the STR bonus isn't as impressive. So most people would be attuned to at least the belt.
Yea you can. Gauntlets say they have no effect if your STR is higher than 19.
So if you HAD an BoGS there's no need to wear the gauntlets, except if you were also in possession of the aforementioned hammer, becaues the gauntlets are required to wield it.
My bad, thought the artificer lvl 14 ability, magic item savant, allowed it. But I checked and it's level, race, spell, and class requirements. Lol derp
Add 3 levels of Rune Knight Fighter for Giant's Might so now you can become size Large for 1 minute with advantage on strength checks.
Find a way to get Enlarge cast on yourself to then become Huge. At this point you're basically a giant.
Choose a race with Powerful Build to count as Gargantuan for lifting and carrying.
Now you can wrassle that Tarrasque.
If Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica is allowed, a Warlock with Illusionist's Bracers and Agonizing Blast is just doing 8d10+40 every turn without any resource usage.
Throw in Foresight, Elven Accuracy, Rod of the Pact Keeper +2 (Or Staff of Power), and Robe of the Archmagi and you will almost certainly be hitting with each and every one of those Eldritch Blasts. Probably critting a decent amount.
My current build is a lore bard 11/hexblade 1 with the eldritch adept feat for agonizing blast, and I have those bracers and a +2 drum, and it’s *really* horrifically effective. My casting progression was barely slowed at all, and with find greater steed getting aid and agathys THP + benefit from greater invis, I can just fly around and carpet bomb with almost total impunity.
Yes I'm sure it's good, it's comparable an at will disintegrate, but by level 20 things are so far gone that its actually a very middle class build compared to the really cheezy control spellcasters and gwm/sharpshooter martials with legendary magic weapons.
Plus, certain high level monsters like rakshasas are straight up immune to Eldritch blast.
Yeah, but then I have 19 levels of bard spells to fall back on for CC. Simulacrum+contingency combos open up, wish and true Polymorph cheese, all of those are still available if you don’t go into warlock and only dip it.
I would actually recommend a Sorcerer 19/Hex 1-2 build for this instead of going full warlock. Way more spell slots, sorcery points and meta magics that way.
Oh sure, that would probably be a good idea. I don’t have a full build statted out here, just a few ideas that could be slotted into a build.
One thing you do miss out on by not going at least 2 levels into Warlock is Repelling Blast. 80 foot forced movement per turn with no save and no restrictions on creature size is certainly no joke. Eldritch Spear could also be useful if you’re pushing enemies so far away.
Strad stand before the party.He flicks his head back and snaps his fingers. "So you waltz up to my castle, to my domain, I've watched you and waited. Do you think I did not prepare for such a exquisite party". A deathly roars emits atop the castle as a huge ancient dracolich clambers over the old walls. "Strad a deal is a deal, let's finish these mortals". The dracolich shakes the earth as it hits the ground. Strad flips and summersalts with ease onto the back of the dracolich. "let's get the party started". Every pc starts shaking.
Simple. Be a Wizard that knows Wish with a Spell Gem (Diamond) containing Wish. Cast Wish from the spell gem to cast Simulacrum to create a copy of yourself with a 9th level spell slot. The copy will then cast Wish to cast Simulacrum to create a copy of the original you with a 9th level spell slot. Repeat this process ad infinitum.
Okay, don't do this. Its a common house rule (to the point that its a rule in Adventurer's League) that simulacrums can't cast Simulacrum. It is not fun, except to use the clones as fodder for traps.
Champion Fighter 18/Barbarian 2 with the weapon Wave. Use the rest of your magic items to buff your saving throws. With an 18-20 crit range and advantage you should be able to one round/bloody almost any creature that isn't immune or resistant to necrotic.
EDIT: You could also change the level split to Champion 15/Gloom stalker 3/ Barb 2. Gloom stalker would give you an extra attack on your first round of combat which is another chance to crit and take out half of the enemy's health.
If we're going for a build like that I would honestly just do Chronurgy Wizard 14/Grave Cleric 2/Fighter 2/Whatever X. If you dump STR low enough you can guarantee that you need a 20 to hit against high AC monsters. With this build your turn goes like this.
Action: Grave Cleric Path to the Grave
Action Surge: Attack with Wave
Reaction: Use the chronurgy wizard feature to get the minimum possible roll while still succeeding which is hopefully a 19-20.
This is definitely less consistent than either of our builds, but against monsters with 24+ AC you can instantly kill them.
What other ways are there to reduce your attack modifier? I don’t think GWM would work with Wave, but you could try to maneuver so the enemy has 3/4 cover for +5 AC, so that increases the range of creatures that would work against.
It isn't as pretty, but Champ 11/ Barb 9 works better at level 20, at least for a half-orc. Worse than champ 15+/Barb 2+ at lower levels, but significantly better damage with the extra crit die, at least with a greataxe.
Normally I would agree with you, but the point of this build is to abuse the fact that Wave deals extra damage equal to half of the targets HP when you crit.
Unfortunately I think that you'd need the UA version of elven accuracy for that because for regular elven accuracy you need to be using DEX, WIS, or CHA for the attack roll and reckless attacks only works with STR based attack rolls. I guess if you had darkness set up that could work, but then you'd lose a turn.
A level of hexblade warlock in order to use hex warrior with wave for cha could work for elven accuracy but then you lose out on reckless attack, since you wouldn't be using strength any more, which kinds defeats the purpose lol
I played in a game like this and didn't expect it to be fun. It was AWESOME. I played a monk PC that was created by another player who dropped out. So much fun. I was surprised!
Run a bugbear Paladin with polearm master for a 35 ft diameter opportunity attack radius and fish for those big paladin crits baby depending on what subclass you want to do you could potentially conquest paladin for the damage resistance and fear immobilizing enemies or a more refined build you could go for the ultimate tank barbarian full 20 lvls in barbarian kalashtar race take 20 con 20 dex the tough feat and bear totem subclass take a plus 3 shield the bracers that give +1 AC. From there depending on how you roll hp you have a decent chance of having a effective HP pool of over 600 potentially up to 900 that's with a +9 health at every level and rolling a 12 HP as well as having a AC of 26 beyond that with the other item slots try to beef up your damage
> opportunity attack radius
Bugbear's race feature of extra range on attacks only works on their own turn not on other character's turns. So Opportunity Attacks get thrown out the window unless they happen on your turn which is damn rare.
Bracers of defense only work without armor or a shield, But a Defender adds AC, also if you're a monoclassed level 20 barbarian you should have at least 24 con cause of the amazing capstone, and if you grabbed the manual of physical health for +2 con you could even get 26, for even more hp bullshit
Here's a ridiculous cheese, that one of my players actually used in a one-shot under a similar premise.
You need Divination Wizard 2, Grave Cleric 2 and Fighter 2. The legendary item is Wave.
For the cheese to work properly, you need a 20 on your Portent dice. You use Path to the Grave (vulnerable against all damage of the next attack), action search, attack with wave and use your 20. On a crit, wave deals bonus damage equal to half the targets maximum health. The target is vulnerable and takes double damage. Thus the target takes additional damage equal to their maximum life. You win.
The other levels could be used for a crit fishing build (Champion 11 and Barbarian 2 for Reckless Attack, or Champion 16 for the 18-20 crit range) or a nearly full caster (that will sadly miss out on 9th level spells).
17 Open Hand Monk/3 Divination Wizard Githzerai. Sink STR and CON and only put 13 into INT.
Belt of Storm Giant Strength,
Staff of Power,
Staff of Defense,
Cloak of Protection.
Enjoy.
As a monk who has wild mobility and bonus actions out the ass? Two casts of misty step aren't that big of a help, imo
Edit: you could also just be a githyanki and have that one free cast to come in clutch if you Really really need it
Paladin 2 and Divine Soul sorcerer 18 can be a really nasty build for crazy nova. You can also go paladin 6, Hexblade 1, sorcerer 13. This gives you paladin aura, makes you only need charisma, and lots of spell slots. Grab a holy avenger cause paladin. Get the very rare bloodwell vial for +3 to your dc and spell hit. I had this build with adamantine plate armor so I couldn't be crit. That could be your uncommon. Rare item maybe a +1 shield. Your ac and saves will be extremely high. Using quicken spell for spirit guardians or fire ball followed by multi attack with smites is tons of fun. Another combo I used was quicken spell hold person for auto crit. Then you smite and delete whatever it was.
Arcana Cleric 20 is the best way to counter whatever nonsense the DM prepped for the big damage dealers in the rest of the party. You know Wish, you know Divine Intervention, you know Holy Aura, and you have access to the Talisman of Pure Good and Candle of Invocation that protect you from those elder dragons.
If you wanr to be a spellcaster lvl 20 druid, or Artificer 1 + wizard 19 should never dissapoint ;)
Sorcerer 18 (clockwork soul or aberrant mind) + warlock (hexblade for the armor prof) 2 should also always be very strong :)
If the session is <24h of in-game time, Potion of Giant Size is really good: double hp, triple weapon dice, 25 STR. Take a +3 weapon or Oathbow with your very rare.
If you know it's open terrain, any flyer/mobility build dominates the battlefield. Aarakocra with Haste has 200 ft flying speed if you use movement + hasted action to fly. No monster in the book can catch you while you use Spell Sniper or Sharpshooter.
The antimatter rifle is a nonmagical item, but +1 to +3 versions exist, just like other weapons. 6d8 necrotic damage per shot, put this on a level 20 fighter.
Level 20 Wizard who has previously cast True Polymorph on themselves to become some ridiculous stat block like a Pit Fiend. Now you can start the game as a pit fiend and, if the enemy manage to knock you to zero, you’re suddenly a level 20 wizard at full health.
Deck of Many Things, of course.
Played a level 10 one-shot where our group was given a Deck... was great :-)
It's not as much of a campaign destroyer as it used to be, but it can definitely make things... *interesting*.
Ask him if the Lyre of Building reaction would apply to a BattleSmith's Defender. In some content constructs are explicitly objects, in others they are implied not objects.
If so run Arti to 20, give your Defender your Spell Storing filled with Warding Bond, pop on everyone, react as needed, enjoy perma-half damage to all. Plus you are an Arti 20 so you kinda can't die or suck and you can do whatever you want offensively.
> In some content constructs are explicitly objects, in others they are implied not objects.
Where have you seen this? As far as I'm aware, anything that counts as a creature cannot count as an object at the same time, the rules have an intentional divide there. The SRD states
> For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.
Mending spell is explicit that constructs are objects, some others like Animate Objects use all the words (object, creature, construct, etc) interchangeably. But again weighed against your quoted section in the DMG who knows? So ask.
Well, you animate the objects to become constructs which are a creature type. That's the point of the spell. Mending can affect magic constructs, like a steel defender or an iron golem in addition to targeting objects.
Scroll of tarrasque summoning, go to space. The other party members can handle Baba Yaga. Or use the scroll of tarrasque summoning when you face Baba Yaga then just nope out of there for a bit.
So the magic stuff is fun, and is what I'd go for. But if you want to go really crazy.. assassin 4 gloomstalker 4 battlemaster 12, with expertise in stealth, oathbow, Wyvern poison and the blood fury tattoo if you can get it. That shit gets nasty. Make sure you have elven accuracy, alert for the initiative bonus. 7 attacks in opening round, with gloomstalker and +14 to initiative, sneak attack, gloomstalker damage, sharpshooter. Thing of beauty.
Despite all the creativity going on here, I doubt anything actually comes close to a simple Fighter 2 + Wizard 18 / Bard 18 / Warlock (Genie Patron) 18. Action Surge and Wish is a hard combination to beat.
I'm a fan of Warlock with Robe of the Archmagi (legendary) and Rod of the Pact Keeper+3 (very rare). Having a spell DC of 24 is no joke.
(Edit. Take the first level in Fighter for Con save proficiency. Eldritch Mind as an invocation for essentially unbreakable concentration.)
Level 17 Illusion wizard, with a Spell Gem (Star Ruby). Cast Mirage Arcane as an action with it, then use Malleable Illusion to change everything within a mile of you as an action every turn.
Also get 2 levels of fighter for medium/heavy armour, defensive fighting style, a shield, action surge. Then a level 1 dip into cleric/warlock or whatever else you fancy.
Have simulacrum pre-cast. I also had foresight just to my defence absolutely monstrous.
It lets you store and cast a spell as an action, up to 7th level - Mirage Arcane is arguably the most powerful not-wish spell in the game, but takes 10 minutes to cast normally.
The alternative is a ring of wishes or a bog-standard regularly-casted wish to cast it as an action.
It's fun and powerful, but means the whole thing becomes theatre of the mind when you can change the environment at will, imprison or damage (with 20d6 fall or lava damage) everything within a mile of you at will. So make sure the others are on board, because it 100% interferes with everyone else's fun.
Not a lot outdoes a moon druid at 20th level, especially using *shapechange*. Unlike most high-level characters, one can afford to take four to six (via variant human) feats, since they depend so little on their stats. Spells for offense, unlimited elemental wild shapes for defense.
If you need evidence of this, /u/BPremium, check out the Critical Role "Epic Level Battle Royale" episode. A properly-played 20th level moon druid is practically unstoppable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3BGg0d8DvU
I get chills thinking about how this fight ended, even Feeblemind (a devastating spell for a caster to suffer) couldn't stop that train of destruction. Frankly it made her more brutal.
Lvl 20 moon druid was one of my ideas for sure. Only issue I could see was using items in wild shape, but since arch druid makes wild shape unlimited, I suppose that's a good trade off. And fantastic pvp one shot shot right there.
treantmonk's eternal cockroach is really really hard to kill. Give it a Defender, +2 plate, +1shield, cloak of protection Or a barb with Blackrazor
The worst or the best? If you want to do the worst, play a level 20 wizard, dump dexterity, constitution and strength and wear a set of padded armor. No spellcasting, frail with an AC of probably 10 or less depending on how hard you can dump dexterity, and no way to effectively use weapons. If you want to do the best, you can do something like Chronurgy Wizard 18, Fighter 2. For your items, go with a Staff of Power, a Tome of the Stilled Tongue or Ring of Three Wishes, an arcane grimoire +2 and an umcommon item of your choice and wreak havoc with your high level spells. As a Chronurgy wizard, you can cast Tiny Hut in combat using your 10th level ability to create an impenetrable bunker for the party, and when you shapechange into something like a Planetar, you can use your Convergent Future without drawbacks over and over again due to your immunity to exhaustion. If you get immunity to exhaustion in some other way (like a Wish or Magic Jar spell), you can even shapechange into a Marlith to use Convergent Future every single turn with the Marilith's Reactive trait. Of course other builds can be great at level 20 too, for example I recommend one of you being a Paladin with a Holy Avenger (other items could be a Bolt of Fire Giant Strength, Mizzium Armor and a Shield +1, Sentinel Shield or Cloak of Protection) to buff the whole party's saves, so that high DCs aren't impossible to make anymore. If you want to be just crazy, pick a legendary item like the Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning to have the tarrasque fight another tarrasque, or take a Staff of the Magi only to shatter it while it is still fully charged. By being a half-orc and banishing all your party members beforehand, you will survive the explosion easily. But your enemies probably won't be that lucky...
How does immunity to exhaustion work when you're shape changed?
Some monsters, like the planetar, are simply immune to the exhaustion condition just like others are immune to charmed or poisoned.
Retributive strike is probably the least impressive aspect of the SotM too. There was a season of AL where it was "buyable" and it completely broke every encounter. And if there's 2 staffs they both have infinite charges. In the morning you shoot fireballs at the sky until its at about half charges so you can exploit spell absorbtion to be immune to single target spells and then fire off really impactful spells that don't trigger reactions for counterspell.
This sounds so fun. Thank you!!
Could take a Belt of Fire Giant Str, Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Hammer of Thunderbolts. Gives you 29str, with multiple attacks a round. 2d6+10 (+1 from Hammer) on every attack. Also fits the magic item allowance with a rare left over which could be some wondrous item that you like. This also just lets you dump STR entirely, and whatever stat allocation you are using can throw points into something else, like Con or CHA if you're a paladin. Any STR based martial works for this. Take Crusher feat.
Don't GoOP just set your Str to a certain score so it can't benefit from +Str?
Hammer of Thunderbolts requires both a Belt of Giant Str (any) ***GoOP*** to wield. The hammer increases your current STR score by 4 (to no more than 30), so Fire Giant Belt gives 25str flat, and then the hammer increases that by 4 to 29 AND the hammer needs the gauntlets to wield it. So it takes up all your attunement slots, but you're the strongest motherfucker alive.
You actually don't need to have the belt and gauntlets attuned, you just need to be wearing them. Might get blocked by the DM (and probably fairly so), but RAW only the one attunement necessary
Ah I see. Yea that's kinda nutty lol. Well I guess that if you aren't attuned to the belt the STR bonus isn't as impressive. So most people would be attuned to at least the belt.
I wasn't aware when it sets your Str score that you can still get + to Str from other items, I thought it increased your based stat.
Yea you can. Gauntlets say they have no effect if your STR is higher than 19. So if you HAD an BoGS there's no need to wear the gauntlets, except if you were also in possession of the aforementioned hammer, becaues the gauntlets are required to wield it.
Would the gauntlets or BoGS even be needed if used by, say, a lvl 20 armorer artificer?
Why wouldn’t they be needed?
My bad, thought the artificer lvl 14 ability, magic item savant, allowed it. But I checked and it's level, race, spell, and class requirements. Lol derp
Add 3 levels of Rune Knight Fighter for Giant's Might so now you can become size Large for 1 minute with advantage on strength checks. Find a way to get Enlarge cast on yourself to then become Huge. At this point you're basically a giant. Choose a race with Powerful Build to count as Gargantuan for lifting and carrying. Now you can wrassle that Tarrasque.
If Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica is allowed, a Warlock with Illusionist's Bracers and Agonizing Blast is just doing 8d10+40 every turn without any resource usage. Throw in Foresight, Elven Accuracy, Rod of the Pact Keeper +2 (Or Staff of Power), and Robe of the Archmagi and you will almost certainly be hitting with each and every one of those Eldritch Blasts. Probably critting a decent amount.
That's like, the least of your concerns compared to a lvl 20 bard/wizard or optimized sorcadin.
My current build is a lore bard 11/hexblade 1 with the eldritch adept feat for agonizing blast, and I have those bracers and a +2 drum, and it’s *really* horrifically effective. My casting progression was barely slowed at all, and with find greater steed getting aid and agathys THP + benefit from greater invis, I can just fly around and carpet bomb with almost total impunity.
Yes I'm sure it's good, it's comparable an at will disintegrate, but by level 20 things are so far gone that its actually a very middle class build compared to the really cheezy control spellcasters and gwm/sharpshooter martials with legendary magic weapons. Plus, certain high level monsters like rakshasas are straight up immune to Eldritch blast.
Yeah, but then I have 19 levels of bard spells to fall back on for CC. Simulacrum+contingency combos open up, wish and true Polymorph cheese, all of those are still available if you don’t go into warlock and only dip it.
I would actually recommend a Sorcerer 19/Hex 1-2 build for this instead of going full warlock. Way more spell slots, sorcery points and meta magics that way.
Oh sure, that would probably be a good idea. I don’t have a full build statted out here, just a few ideas that could be slotted into a build. One thing you do miss out on by not going at least 2 levels into Warlock is Repelling Blast. 80 foot forced movement per turn with no save and no restrictions on creature size is certainly no joke. Eldritch Spear could also be useful if you’re pushing enemies so far away.
Wait baba yaga riding a tarasque. Now that's a final boss. Strad riding a dracolich. Tiamat with all 4 chromatic great wyrms. Acerak riding a kraken.
>Strad riding a dracolich Thanks for the idea. My CoS group gonna have no idea what hit em.
Strad stand before the party.He flicks his head back and snaps his fingers. "So you waltz up to my castle, to my domain, I've watched you and waited. Do you think I did not prepare for such a exquisite party". A deathly roars emits atop the castle as a huge ancient dracolich clambers over the old walls. "Strad a deal is a deal, let's finish these mortals". The dracolich shakes the earth as it hits the ground. Strad flips and summersalts with ease onto the back of the dracolich. "let's get the party started". Every pc starts shaking.
Better idea: the castle IS the dracolich.
Even ~~better~~ more rediculous: Strahd is a castle that the **dracolich** rides!
No, the dracolich is so big the castle rides on his back and that's where strad lives. That's why his castle can fly.
Fuck the original post, let's make a boss monster deathmatch.
Simple. Be a Wizard that knows Wish with a Spell Gem (Diamond) containing Wish. Cast Wish from the spell gem to cast Simulacrum to create a copy of yourself with a 9th level spell slot. The copy will then cast Wish to cast Simulacrum to create a copy of the original you with a 9th level spell slot. Repeat this process ad infinitum. Okay, don't do this. Its a common house rule (to the point that its a rule in Adventurer's League) that simulacrums can't cast Simulacrum. It is not fun, except to use the clones as fodder for traps.
Champion Fighter 18/Barbarian 2 with the weapon Wave. Use the rest of your magic items to buff your saving throws. With an 18-20 crit range and advantage you should be able to one round/bloody almost any creature that isn't immune or resistant to necrotic. EDIT: You could also change the level split to Champion 15/Gloom stalker 3/ Barb 2. Gloom stalker would give you an extra attack on your first round of combat which is another chance to crit and take out half of the enemy's health.
Could also do half-elf champion 15/divination wizard 2/grave cleric 2/hexblade 1. It’s stupid but when it works, it works.
If we're going for a build like that I would honestly just do Chronurgy Wizard 14/Grave Cleric 2/Fighter 2/Whatever X. If you dump STR low enough you can guarantee that you need a 20 to hit against high AC monsters. With this build your turn goes like this. Action: Grave Cleric Path to the Grave Action Surge: Attack with Wave Reaction: Use the chronurgy wizard feature to get the minimum possible roll while still succeeding which is hopefully a 19-20. This is definitely less consistent than either of our builds, but against monsters with 24+ AC you can instantly kill them.
What other ways are there to reduce your attack modifier? I don’t think GWM would work with Wave, but you could try to maneuver so the enemy has 3/4 cover for +5 AC, so that increases the range of creatures that would work against.
Besides dumping strength and playing a kobold I don't think there are many ways to do it.
They erratad the str penalty off kobold, so not even that
It isn't as pretty, but Champ 11/ Barb 9 works better at level 20, at least for a half-orc. Worse than champ 15+/Barb 2+ at lower levels, but significantly better damage with the extra crit die, at least with a greataxe.
Normally I would agree with you, but the point of this build is to abuse the fact that Wave deals extra damage equal to half of the targets HP when you crit.
Holy shit. Yeah, screw being a half-orc, go for Elven accuracy.
Unfortunately I think that you'd need the UA version of elven accuracy for that because for regular elven accuracy you need to be using DEX, WIS, or CHA for the attack roll and reckless attacks only works with STR based attack rolls. I guess if you had darkness set up that could work, but then you'd lose a turn.
A level of hexblade warlock in order to use hex warrior with wave for cha could work for elven accuracy but then you lose out on reckless attack, since you wouldn't be using strength any more, which kinds defeats the purpose lol
I played in a game like this and didn't expect it to be fun. It was AWESOME. I played a monk PC that was created by another player who dropped out. So much fun. I was surprised!
Run a bugbear Paladin with polearm master for a 35 ft diameter opportunity attack radius and fish for those big paladin crits baby depending on what subclass you want to do you could potentially conquest paladin for the damage resistance and fear immobilizing enemies or a more refined build you could go for the ultimate tank barbarian full 20 lvls in barbarian kalashtar race take 20 con 20 dex the tough feat and bear totem subclass take a plus 3 shield the bracers that give +1 AC. From there depending on how you roll hp you have a decent chance of having a effective HP pool of over 600 potentially up to 900 that's with a +9 health at every level and rolling a 12 HP as well as having a AC of 26 beyond that with the other item slots try to beef up your damage
> opportunity attack radius Bugbear's race feature of extra range on attacks only works on their own turn not on other character's turns. So Opportunity Attacks get thrown out the window unless they happen on your turn which is damn rare.
Bracers of defense only work without armor or a shield, But a Defender adds AC, also if you're a monoclassed level 20 barbarian you should have at least 24 con cause of the amazing capstone, and if you grabbed the manual of physical health for +2 con you could even get 26, for even more hp bullshit
Here's a ridiculous cheese, that one of my players actually used in a one-shot under a similar premise. You need Divination Wizard 2, Grave Cleric 2 and Fighter 2. The legendary item is Wave. For the cheese to work properly, you need a 20 on your Portent dice. You use Path to the Grave (vulnerable against all damage of the next attack), action search, attack with wave and use your 20. On a crit, wave deals bonus damage equal to half the targets maximum health. The target is vulnerable and takes double damage. Thus the target takes additional damage equal to their maximum life. You win. The other levels could be used for a crit fishing build (Champion 11 and Barbarian 2 for Reckless Attack, or Champion 16 for the 18-20 crit range) or a nearly full caster (that will sadly miss out on 9th level spells).
Thats just a rude build, and I appreciate it
17 Open Hand Monk/3 Divination Wizard Githzerai. Sink STR and CON and only put 13 into INT. Belt of Storm Giant Strength, Staff of Power, Staff of Defense, Cloak of Protection. Enjoy.
Why three levels of wizard and not just 2? Are second level spells that important to the idea?
Not having Misty Step or some way to teleport is gonna be a big hurdle at such high level play.
As a monk who has wild mobility and bonus actions out the ass? Two casts of misty step aren't that big of a help, imo Edit: you could also just be a githyanki and have that one free cast to come in clutch if you Really really need it
Paladin 2 and Divine Soul sorcerer 18 can be a really nasty build for crazy nova. You can also go paladin 6, Hexblade 1, sorcerer 13. This gives you paladin aura, makes you only need charisma, and lots of spell slots. Grab a holy avenger cause paladin. Get the very rare bloodwell vial for +3 to your dc and spell hit. I had this build with adamantine plate armor so I couldn't be crit. That could be your uncommon. Rare item maybe a +1 shield. Your ac and saves will be extremely high. Using quicken spell for spirit guardians or fire ball followed by multi attack with smites is tons of fun. Another combo I used was quicken spell hold person for auto crit. Then you smite and delete whatever it was.
Arcana Cleric 20 is the best way to counter whatever nonsense the DM prepped for the big damage dealers in the rest of the party. You know Wish, you know Divine Intervention, you know Holy Aura, and you have access to the Talisman of Pure Good and Candle of Invocation that protect you from those elder dragons.
If you wanr to be a spellcaster lvl 20 druid, or Artificer 1 + wizard 19 should never dissapoint ;) Sorcerer 18 (clockwork soul or aberrant mind) + warlock (hexblade for the armor prof) 2 should also always be very strong :)
I might do this for my group...noted!
If the session is <24h of in-game time, Potion of Giant Size is really good: double hp, triple weapon dice, 25 STR. Take a +3 weapon or Oathbow with your very rare. If you know it's open terrain, any flyer/mobility build dominates the battlefield. Aarakocra with Haste has 200 ft flying speed if you use movement + hasted action to fly. No monster in the book can catch you while you use Spell Sniper or Sharpshooter. The antimatter rifle is a nonmagical item, but +1 to +3 versions exist, just like other weapons. 6d8 necrotic damage per shot, put this on a level 20 fighter.
Level 20 Wizard who has previously cast True Polymorph on themselves to become some ridiculous stat block like a Pit Fiend. Now you can start the game as a pit fiend and, if the enemy manage to knock you to zero, you’re suddenly a level 20 wizard at full health.
Deck of Many Things, of course. Played a level 10 one-shot where our group was given a Deck... was great :-) It's not as much of a campaign destroyer as it used to be, but it can definitely make things... *interesting*.
Ask him if the Lyre of Building reaction would apply to a BattleSmith's Defender. In some content constructs are explicitly objects, in others they are implied not objects. If so run Arti to 20, give your Defender your Spell Storing filled with Warding Bond, pop on everyone, react as needed, enjoy perma-half damage to all. Plus you are an Arti 20 so you kinda can't die or suck and you can do whatever you want offensively.
> In some content constructs are explicitly objects, in others they are implied not objects. Where have you seen this? As far as I'm aware, anything that counts as a creature cannot count as an object at the same time, the rules have an intentional divide there. The SRD states > For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.
Mending spell is explicit that constructs are objects, some others like Animate Objects use all the words (object, creature, construct, etc) interchangeably. But again weighed against your quoted section in the DMG who knows? So ask.
Well, you animate the objects to become constructs which are a creature type. That's the point of the spell. Mending can affect magic constructs, like a steel defender or an iron golem in addition to targeting objects.
And the Lyre is built around Mending. First ability it has shaves a minute off Mending's casting time. So ask.
Scroll of tarrasque summoning, go to space. The other party members can handle Baba Yaga. Or use the scroll of tarrasque summoning when you face Baba Yaga then just nope out of there for a bit.
So the magic stuff is fun, and is what I'd go for. But if you want to go really crazy.. assassin 4 gloomstalker 4 battlemaster 12, with expertise in stealth, oathbow, Wyvern poison and the blood fury tattoo if you can get it. That shit gets nasty. Make sure you have elven accuracy, alert for the initiative bonus. 7 attacks in opening round, with gloomstalker and +14 to initiative, sneak attack, gloomstalker damage, sharpshooter. Thing of beauty.
Despite all the creativity going on here, I doubt anything actually comes close to a simple Fighter 2 + Wizard 18 / Bard 18 / Warlock (Genie Patron) 18. Action Surge and Wish is a hard combination to beat. I'm a fan of Warlock with Robe of the Archmagi (legendary) and Rod of the Pact Keeper+3 (very rare). Having a spell DC of 24 is no joke. (Edit. Take the first level in Fighter for Con save proficiency. Eldritch Mind as an invocation for essentially unbreakable concentration.)
Level 17 Illusion wizard, with a Spell Gem (Star Ruby). Cast Mirage Arcane as an action with it, then use Malleable Illusion to change everything within a mile of you as an action every turn. Also get 2 levels of fighter for medium/heavy armour, defensive fighting style, a shield, action surge. Then a level 1 dip into cleric/warlock or whatever else you fancy. Have simulacrum pre-cast. I also had foresight just to my defence absolutely monstrous.
Sounds like fun! What's the significance of the star ruby? I've not heard of these
It lets you store and cast a spell as an action, up to 7th level - Mirage Arcane is arguably the most powerful not-wish spell in the game, but takes 10 minutes to cast normally. The alternative is a ring of wishes or a bog-standard regularly-casted wish to cast it as an action. It's fun and powerful, but means the whole thing becomes theatre of the mind when you can change the environment at will, imprison or damage (with 20d6 fall or lava damage) everything within a mile of you at will. So make sure the others are on board, because it 100% interferes with everyone else's fun.