The Ashardalon's Strider - D&D: Optimized #76

hello and welcome wilcoman am i saying that right  i don't know how's it going everybody welcome to   d d optimized part of the d4 network this is the  show where each week we take a deep dive into one   sometimes two specific character builds for  dungeons and dragons we theory craft about them   we crunch numbers and basically try to create  a character that is both really fun but also   really powerful to play in-game not necessarily to  tell you the right way to play a character or the   best way to play a character but to explore one  potential way to play a character that is both   hopefully fun and powerful so if you enjoy  creating characters for dungeons and dragons   almost as much as you enjoy playing the game  itself then welcome home this is where you   belong and i'm really really happy that you're  here so thanks for being here my name is colby   and i'll be your host before we jump in really  quick um if you would like to have a written   step-by-step guide to this and my other builds  please consider joining this channel if you would   as a member for two dollars a month you get access  to my library of write-ups which i create for each   episode and then you can have a like level by  level guide to recreate the character yourself   if you would like more importantly i think for  most of my members it's just a nice way to support   the channel help me create more and better content  and so thanks to all of my channel members and for   everybody else thank you two for being here even  if you can't or don't want to join as a member   watching the video liking subscribing commenting  all of those things um are great too and a great   way to support me so thank you all right ever  since we did the um sliding into my dms episode   a few months ago on the draconic options uh  unearthed arcana that was being announced i have   been wanting to do a character build around the  ashardalans stride spell at the time it was called   the flamestride spell i believe but instantly it  got my attention i thought this would be really   cool this would be really fun i can't wait to try  and create a character around this i mean it seems   so cool right you get extra move speed and you get  to do damage to enemies that you run past because   you're just running so fast apparently  you're leaving a trail of flames behind you   and i mean come on that's just awesome  and i've been thinking there's got to be   a way to make this spell not only really  cool but also powerful mechanically right   now it's it's been out for a little while and  i've delayed actually doing this build because   frankly on the surface i think it seems or  seemed anyway not as powerful as i wanted it   to be i mean don't get me wrong extra move speed  that makes you immune to opportunity attacks   just by itself is pretty decent it's just the  whole like 1d6 of damage that a character can only   take no more than once per turn that has taken  me a little while to get over what i was i think   i was kind of hoping to see post unearthed  arcana released version of this spell was   a little more damage maybe or maybe better i think  what i was hoping is to get rid of the they can   only take it once per turn thing and maybe you  could just run circles around a character and do   a lot of damage to a single target if you have  a lot of move speed or something like that just   like a little tornado of fire around somebody or  something probably wishful thinking might have   been too powerful but anyway i think that's what  i was hoping for but this week i decided alright   you know what it's time to just sit down and force  myself to really try to find ways to get the most   out of this spell from a mechanic's perspective  and as i've done so i've come to the conclusion   that there are some neat little tricks that we  can do to really increase the damage we can get   from a charter on stride and if we can couple  that with other things that a character can do   whether that's in our case other kinds of ways to  do damage and or things that you can also bring   to your party utility support functionality  etc etc that you can make a very potent   very powerful and also really fun character  trying to build around this spell more so   than i even would have thought when i first  started writing the script for this episode   when all is said and done the character does a  lot more damage than i would have anticipated and   i think there's a high likelihood that you might  be surprised as much as i was by the time we're   finished but that said yes i do want to make sure  that we're doing things other than just running   around the battlefield because if nothing else  i can see that getting a little repetitive it   would be really cool and fun at first i can see  it like if every single combat all you did was   be like haha isn't that neat and after a  while it might be like i'm just running around   i can see that getting a little repetitive because  right being a speedster is fun and cool but if all   you're doing is just kind of running around really  fast yeah what are you actually doing right so yes   we are going to find other ways to bring utility  support and even some additional single target   damage along for the ride as it were with this  spell and with this build so yeah let me mention   that up front this character is going to be unique  among other builds that i've done in that it's   a little bit of a single target multi-target  damage hybrid most of the characters that i've   built for damage whether sustained or burst  have been focused on single target damage   a few of them have been kind of multi-target  damage this is the first one that's going to be   a little of both now as we've discussed several  times in other videos on this channel most   predominantly i think the evocation blaster wizard  and then also more recently the ascendant dragon   monk videos there is value to multi-target damage  in dnd but more often than not i think tactically   speaking we're probably better off bringing  most or all of our damage to a single target   try and take them out of the fight you know as  quickly as possible then we are chipping away   a little bit at the health of multiple enemies  if doing so is going to leave multiple enemies   still alive and on the battlefield and fighting  right a dead enemy does zero damage but a half   health enemy still can potentially make life  miserable for you and your friends this build   with its focus on charter lawns is going to  be doing some damage to lots of enemies but   most of the damage will be to a single target and  and i hesitated a little bit there because that   sort of shifts a little bit as the build matures  but anyway most of the damage to a single target   and i actually really enjoy having a little bit  of the best of both worlds in that regard because   it's kind of fun to be able to do a little bit of  both but just know that when i crunch the numbers   to figure out like sustained damage per round and  yes we are going for a sustained damage build here   as opposed to burst or nova i think it makes  sense due to the nature of the spell doing a   little bit of damage but every single round  if you maintain concentration on it right   but anyway i'm going to be adding up all of the  total damage that you would potentially be doing   to a hypothetical three enemies in a round  just because i always do three enemies if   i'm focused on multi-target damage even  though most of the damage that you do for   most of your career is going to be to a single  enemy sound good alright that's my preamble   let's jump into episode 76 the ashardalan  strider aka the speedster the roadrunner   the flash nope i've got it aka greased lightning  yeah that's a good one and of course um as always   check out this fantastic art by my friend randall  hampton who creates fantastic characters based on   the character concept that i've been sending  them each week for the last few months now i   love this piece as always just looks so cool it's  just dripping with lots of character and cool   effects that i absolutely love it captures the  image perfectly of how i imagined this character   so thank you randall if you're interested in  following him or reaching out to him for a   commission perhaps i will put links in the  video description as always on how to do so   okay let's jump into the build at level one four  hour starting class i want to start off as a rogue   with this build and there are a lot of reasons  that i want to do so first doing so lets us   bring some nice utility to our party in the form  of scouting trap finding and lock picking and   like i mentioned i want to be able to do things  other than just damage with this character and   every party needs a good scout right that can find  traps and disarm them pick locks and stealth ahead   etc second of all i want to go rogue to help with  the additional damage that i mentioned and third   and actually most importantly for me for some  additional move speed options and even a little   trick that we're going to get to later that's  going to synergize really well with a charter   on stride and since we're taking rogue levels  i actually like starting rogue here for weapon   and armor proficiencies first off more skills  that we get when we start rogue as opposed to   multi-class into it later and just instant utility  from like a stealthy scouty perspective so when we   first meet our hero they are a rogue yes but that  doesn't necessarily mean that you're a thief or an   assassin or even a spy in fact for this character  i see them more as a runner a messenger right   you might be in like an organized military force  whether political or mercenary functioning perhaps   as like a message runner helping to coordinate  troop movements or maybe even better in my   opinion as a scout someone who sneaks behind  enemy lines to gather intelligence maybe you're   part of an adventuring party of course right  hired on as the one to infiltrate follow up on   leeds survey you're particularly prized for your  speed and your stealth and you've developed maybe   a bit of a reputation even for being able to get  into and out of places with no one ever knowing   or on the few occasions when you were discovered  you're so fast that no one could ever catch you so   it hardly mattered you probably ran track in high  school as for our race i am yes going to recommend   custom lineage here indeed there is a feat that  i think is pretty important to the build and it's   just simply going to make our early game stronger  than it would be otherwise but indulge me for a   moment if you will to talk about all of the many  alternatives that i can see working really well   for an eshartellon's stride focused character they  include but are not limited to a wood elf half elf   would be high on my list because you get 35 feet  of move speed you get better ability score bonuses   and access to elven accuracy which i would love to  have on this character a shifter would be awesome   because once per short rest you can shift into  like a feline-esque form and get 40 feet of move   speed for one minute among other things a seder  has 35 feet of move speed magical resistance among   other things really nice centaur has 40 feet of  move speed among other things that's really great   arakokra though i know flying races are banned at  a lot of tables if they're not at yours 50 feet   of flying speed and that's insane and there's no  reason why you couldn't just fly down low next to   your enemies or even right over their heads  or something like that to take advantage of   and do damage with a shardalon stride now you're  more like a jet engine than a roadrunner right   halfling actually i think could work really well  because they get to move through enemy spaces if   the enemy is medium or larger and that actually  could be really really useful here um finally orc   would be fantastic because they get to use their  move speed as a bonus action with some limitations   and if i weren't already going rogue orc is the  route that i would have gone on this character and   coincidentally if you want a version of this build  that uses the orc and leans more heavily into the   caster aspect of this character without taking  rogue levels stay tuned and in the final thoughts   i'm going to discuss like an alternative a  shardalon stride user anyway obviously there are a   lot of races that would work really well here i'm  sure there's others that i haven't even mentioned   that you may be screaming about as you're watching  harengon that could by no means should you feel   obligated to go custom lineage of course but it's  what i'm going to do so as a custom lineage you   get to choose your size among other things medium  or small and i'm going to recommend that we take a   small creature here because for our free feet that  we get by going custom lineage i want to choose   the squat nippleness feet in order to take squat  nimbleness you have to be either a dwarf or a   small race and so taking small with custom lineage  should qualify us so have fun coming up with like   a cool unique custom lineage small character i  think i would come up with some sort of like half   to backseat half gnome character maybe so you'd  be like a cute little kitty cat running around   the battlefield that would be awesome let me know  what your custom lineage character would look like   in the comments but with squat nimbleness we  get a plus 5 to our move speed so now we have   35 feet of move speed as a small creature which  is super fun and awesome we have proficiency   in acrobatics or athletics advantage on either of  those things to escape a grapple which actually   will be really important for this creature  because few things will shut us down   as effectively as reducing our move speed to  zero and we get a plus one to our dexterity or   strength which means we'll get to start with an 18  dexterity and that's just perfect when you add all   of those things together so yes for ability scores  assuming as always that we're starting off with   the point by method i'm going to recommend taking  a 15 in dexterity plus two from custom lineage   plus one from squat nimbleness a 14 constitution  a 13 intelligence and a 13 wisdom so yes we have   pretty lousy spell casting stats for a character  who's supposedly built around a spell i'll discuss   this more later but let me just say that for this  version of the character that we're building even   though most of the levels we are going to be  taking are going to be in a couple of different   caster classes actually in combat we're mainly  going to be focused on moving around and hitting   stuff so spells that rely on saving throws or  a spell attack won't be particularly strong for   us fortunately the ashardalan's stride spell  doesn't rely on us having a particularly good   spell casting stat so we can get by fine with the  13s that we have again if you want a more caster   focused version of the build final thoughts as for  equipment i'm going to recommend that we go with   the gold buy method that we pick up some studded  leather a rapier some thieves tools and any other   basic necessities you may have with  whatever leftover funds you may have   as a rogue at level one we get thieves can't  which is the cool coded language that rogues   can use to send messages to one another basically  and then we get expertise which lets us take two   skills that we're proficient in and double  that proficiency bonus for them or one skill   and our proficiency bonus for thieves tools if it  were me trying to be the best rogue i can be again   i'm probably going to take stealth and thieves  tools here but maybe acrobatics if we really   want to avoid getting grappled we do already  have advantage thanks to squat nimbleness so   that might be enough but your call and then of  course as a rogue at level 1 we get sneak attack   which tells us that if we have advantage on our  attack or an ally is within five feet of the enemy   that we're trying to attack once per turn we can  add 1d6 damage to the attack that we make so long   as we're using a finesse weapon or a ranged weapon  to do so a rapier is a finesse weapon so as long   as we're attacking with advantage or attacking  an enemy who's next to an ally we should be good   to be able to apply that sneak attack damage and  that'll be nice at level two we can't really claim   to be building a character around a charter on  stride if we don't try to get the spell early on   in the character build right i wanted to start  rogue for the reasons that i mentioned but at this   point we need to try and get that spell as soon as  possible unfortunately it is a third level spell   so it's gonna be a minute before we get there  even had we just started in a caster class but at   this point in our character's career their innate  speed has caught the attention of a practitioner   of the arcane perhaps it's just someone else  in your party or perhaps an npc or some sort   of organization or college of spellcasters  they see something in your speed that they   feel they could harness somehow or train even  that they could enhance either maybe for their own   purposes or perhaps simply to aid you in the quest  that you've undertaken for them or for the safety   and well-being of the other people that they live  amongst whatever your reasons we are going to take   some wizard levels here and so as a wizard1 we get  spells of course cantrips and first level spells i   would make sure to get booming blade as a cantrip  i use it in a lot of builds i know but just in   case you're unfamiliar you cast booming blade  as an action and then as part of the casting of   the spell you make a weapon attack if that attack  hits eventually you're going to do a little extra   damage in the form of thunder damage and then  until your next turn if that enemy that you've hit   moves they will take additional thunder damage for  doing so right now it's just one d8 if they move i   would also be sure as a first level spell to get  the find familiar spell another favorite it of   course lets us summon a familiar even potentially  as a ritual that we can use to scout ahead and see   through its eyes and hear through its ears and  things among other utility that it can provide   but also most importantly for combat purposes  for us it can take an action on its turn and   that action can be among other things taking the  help action meaning that it can give us or another   ally potentially advantage on the next attack that  we make against that enemy that our familiar is   helping us with we get to choose the form that  the familiar takes as usual i recommend going   with the owl because of their really cool flyby  feature that lets them fly in help and then fly   away without taking opportunity attacks so they  can stay relatively safe so we now should have   advantage on the one rapier and or booming blade  attack that we make each round which is going   to be really nice i'd probably also for a first  level spell pick up the shield spell here we don't   currently have any like move away from enemies  without taking opportunity attacks abilities   so improving our own survivability is going to  be especially important early on here with our   mediocre 16 armor class it's not the worst ac for  a level 2 character but it's not amazing and our   fairly subpar hit points alternatively mage armor  would be one ac better than the studded leather   that we're currently wearing so if you think you  would be better off with a plus one tier ac for   eight hours via mage armor as opposed to one more  casting of the shield spell potentially go for   it just know that if you cast a mage armor you  will never just barely miss getting hit by one   and you will wish that you still had a spell slot  for shield and if you don't every single attack   against you is going to barely hit your ac and if  you just would have had one more or is that just   me does that only happen to me what about the long  strider spell it doesn't require concentration it   lasts for an hour and it gives us an extra 10 feet  of move speed among other things now that's nice   right at least for later on when we're making  use of a charter on stride yes it could be the   truth is i think most of the time we're going to  have ample move speed to get to most if not all   of the enemies on the battlefield so i don't  see this as strictly necessary i'd probably   take it for this character eventually once i had  you know more spells that i could learn and put   in my spellbook for those once in a while times  when it might be nice to have but honestly i just   don't think that we would actually need it for  most combat encounters also as a wizard one we   get arcane recovery once per day after a short  rest we get to recover spell slots equal to half   of our wizard level rounded up so yes for us right  now that's just one first level spell slot but   that'll scale nicely as we grow at level 3  we would be a wizard 2 and as such we get our   subclass our arcane tradition and i am going to  recommend that we go with the college of scribes   i'm finally doing a scribes wizard holy cow happy  day okay let's read what the book has to say about   this particular college magic of the book that's  what many folk call wizardry the name is apt given   how much time wizards spend poring over tomes  and penning theories about the nature of magic   it's rare to see wizards traveling without books  and scrolls sprouting from their bags and a wizard   would go to great lengths to plumb an archive  of ancient knowledge among wizards the order   of scribes is the most bookish it takes many forms  in different worlds but its primary mission is the   same everywhere recording magical discoveries so  that wizardry can flourish and while all wizards   value spell books a wizard in the order of scribes  magically awakens their book turning it into a   trusted companion all wizards study books but a  wizardly scribe talks to theirs okay i love this   description by the way and i think it's among the  better subclass descriptions that wizards of the   coast has put out it doesn't necessarily sound  a lot like a super app description of this sort   of like speedy scouty character that i've been  envisioning in my head but i don't know why it   couldn't you know maybe our scout is particularly  bookish why not or maybe more likely the wizard   who is training or recruiting them realizes that  there's maybe a slight gap in their education if   they truly want to grasp all that it means to  be a wizard and so they've set them to studying   in hopes that they'll learn all that they can from  ancient tomes of knowledge and maybe it worked and   you've now discovered a newfound joy in reading  and writing and theory crafting that's exciting   that actually sounds a lot like me so as a scribes  wizard we get a couple of cool features we get   wizardly quill first off this is a fun and mostly  just flavory ribbony feature that gives you a   magic quill that doesn't need ink it lets you copy  spells into your spell book more quickly and erase   things that you wrote with it ooh disappearing  ink that's a neat trick the real reason that we   wanted to go scribes though is for the awakened  spell book feature so we now have awakened an   arcane sentience within our spell book and i just  freaking love like the role play and character   opportunities that is going to present for us with  our somewhat humble 13 intelligence i imagine my   awakened spell book is sort of like a tutor for  this character almost constantly reprimanding them   right good-naturedly for their intellectual  shortcomings maybe something akin to like   merlin or even archimedes uh to wart in the sword  of the stone right no no no that's not how the   incantation goes it's one guardium leviosa not one  guardian leviosa maybe i would name my spellbook   hermione or just miss granger anyway we can now  use our spellbook as a spellcasting focus if we   want we don't have to we can cast a ritual spell  in the spell's normal casting time without using   the extra 10 minutes which is actually really  nice you can only do that once per day but then   most importantly for us when you cast a wizard  spell with a spell slot you can replace the damage   type of that spell with the damage type of another  spell in your spell book so long as it's of the   same level as the spell slot you spend that can  be a little bit confusing but generally it's gonna   let us transform the spell damage from one type  to another which is potentially really useful and   potent it'll be nice to help us like avoid damage  resistances or even immunities from monsters to   a certain damage type from a spell if we really  want to use a certain spell on them that otherwise   wouldn't work or wouldn't work as well say for  example a charter on stride which does fire   damage there are quite a few monsters in d d fifth  edition that have resistance or sometimes even   immunity to fire damage so having a way to alter  the damage type of a spell we're heavily depending   on here will be important more rarely there are  sometimes monsters with vulnerability to other   types of damage so once in a while it's going  to be nice to be able to alter a spell to that   damage type right so that we can take advantage of  that vulnerability we also will find a really fun   way to play with this feature much later in the  build so stay tuned to see how we have some fun   there but anyway keep in mind that you have to  have a spell of the spell slot that you're casting   in order to take advantage of this right so it's  a good idea to try to get a lot of variety in your   spell book of different damage types you think  you might need or want and you don't have to have   those spells prepared they just have to be in your  spell book and yes we could accomplish something   similar with the sorcerer meta magic transmute  spell option again stay tuned for the build that   i go over in the final thoughts to explore that  a little bit more at level four we would be a   wizard three we get second level wizard spells  and i'm going to say a phrase throughout this   build quite a lot that you're probably going to  get sick of and it is pick your favorites similar   to the build that i did for will wheaton actually  um a couple of weeks ago i'm running out of cards   already and coincidentally a charter on stride  just works as well so i could totally see us   trying to fit this into that will wheaton build  we would have to get rid of cloud of daggers but   hmm anyway like in that build most of the spells  that you want to get here are going to be things   that don't require like a spell attack roll or  like even a saving throw because you know we   only have a 13 intelligence so yes i would focus  on rituals and like out of combat utility and or   support type stuff for this build primarily blur  could be really nice though for defensive purposes   for us darkness could be handy enlarge on yourself  or an ally but then you know invisibility knock   magic weapon levitate misty step mirror image  rope trick c invisibility spider climb vortex warp   fantastic spell as i've recently seen firsthand  there are lots of great options for the wizard of   questionable intelligence maybe that's what i  should name this build the wizard of questionable   intelligence at level five we would be a wizard  four and we get our first ability score increase   or feat dexterity is going to be the thing that  will add the most to our damage not to mention to   our survivability our initiative and most of the  things that we need to be doing as a good roguish   scout dexterity op so yeah i'm gonna say let's  bump that and take it to a 20. so we're already   capped in our most important ability score which  feels awesome keep in mind too at level five now   our booming blade can't trip does an extra 1d8 of  damage on hit and the damage if they move goes to   2d8 and then at level 6 we're a wizard 5 and  we get 3rd level wizard spells which means   we finally get a shardalon's stride now of course  so many third level spells are amazing everything   from fireball to hypnotic pattern to counterspell  again most of these aren't going to be great for   you so pick your favorites of course but then i am  going to say yes we do need to make sure we get a   shardalon stride so let's dig into this spell it  requires your concentration and you can cast it   as a bonus action which makes me super happy it  lasts for one minute and then while we are under   the effects of it our move speed is increased by  20 feet that's a lot we don't provoke opportunity   attacks fantastic and when we move within five  feet of a creature or an object not being worn   or carried so be careful that you don't burn the  house down it takes 1d6 fire damage from our trail   of heat that we leave behind there's no save they  just take the damage this is so so cool you're   just and again because we're a scribes wizard  depending on what you have in your spell book you   could change the damage type of this to something  else for me i think i would go with lightning just   because i love the image of lightning and i think  it works really well for like leaving this cool   lightning trail behind it's super flash-esque but  anyway all sorts of potential options here for us   we are only limited by the spells that we have in  our spellbook now 1d6 isn't a ton of damage but   it does scale by 1d6 for every spell level that  we upcast it not to mention that we do also get an   extra five feet of move speed per additional spell  level as well and we're going to make good use of   that fact so at level six it is time for our first  damage report and let's talk about tactics right   now combat starts on round one we're going to cast  a shardalon stride on ourselves as a bonus action   and then we will run up to ideally a melee enemy  who is not standing next to one of our allies   where they will take 1d6 damage from a chardelon  stride right as we move up next to them but then   we will use our action to make a booming blade  attack against them adding 1d8 for our rapier 1d8   for our booming blade and 1d6 for our sneak attack  plus 5 for our dexterity with advantage thanks to   our familiar and then we will run away without  taking an opportunity attack now we currently   with this spell on us will have 55 feet of move  speed so i'm assuming that that's going to be   enough to at least run by two more enemies on  our turn potentially more but let's assume two   for now dealing 1d6 damage to each be careful  unfortunately this spell will do damage to your   friends too so you're gonna have to perhaps take  a circuitous route in order to avoid harming them   then on that enemy's turn who we attacked with our  booming blade they will ideally move up to attack   someone taking 2d8 booming blade damage for doing  so now i appreciate that it's not always gonna go   perfectly like this on our turn every time as  always we're assuming best case scenarios here and   of course maybe not best case scenario because  there are gonna be plenty of times where there   will be more than three enemies for you to run  around and do damage to right but assuming that   it does go as we've described above that would be  a total of four d6 plus four d8 plus five damage   spread out amongst three enemies but most of  that is gonna be two one and thus against an   enemy with a 10 armor class we would do on average  39 damage per round and against an enemy with a 15   armor class it would be 37 damage per round and i  love how like flat the arc of the damages as the   enemy armor class increases on the graph for those  who don't know check the video description i post   numbers and graphs and compare builds to each  other and all those things links in the video   description but the reason that that arc is so  flat is because a we have advantage on our attack   but more importantly b because a charter on stride  damage just happens without any save regardless of   enemy armor class and you know what this is pretty  great damage for this level it puts us pretty   firmly in the middle of like tier one compared to  other sustained dpr builds that i've done to date   even though um about seven of it is going to  be dealt to secondary targets but still most   of it to that single target and again if there  are more than three targets on the battlefield   there's a pretty high likelihood that you're going  to be able to run past all of them with 55 feet of   move speed right and so that's pretty fantastic  let's see how much further we can push it spoiler   alert pretty far at level seven now that we have  a chardon stride i want to go back to rogue for a   minute i'm a little bit loathe to do so because  i really want to start scaling the damage that   we get from a charter on stride but there are  some really important things we need from rogue   that will synergize really well with what we're  trying to do with this character here first up   as a rogue two we get cunning action fantastic  ability especially for us because it lets us   disengage hide or dash as a bonus action now a  charter on stride costs a bonus action to cast   yes but if we really wanted to on that first round  we could cast it as a bonus action and then just   dash with our action instead of making an attack  if we really wanted to maximize our move speed in   that single round it would give us 110 feet of  move speed in a single round now to just let us   get truly all over the battlefield and hit as many  enemies as possible if they're super spread out   but then yeah even better after that first round  right we've got a shardalon stride activated we   could still make our booming blade attack and then  just using our bonus action 110 feet of move speed   all over the map to just fire up as many enemies  as possible 110 feet every turn that's fantastic   and this is kind of why i feel like like i said  earlier you know long strider or maybe even the   mobile feet for example just aren't really all  that necessary for this character in my opinion   sometimes you know we in the dnd community  i think like to get really excited about   ooh let's stack all this move speed on a character  and see how fast we could move in a single round a   billion feet of move speed if we build it right  i always kind of look at those builds and go   why i mean it's cool and it's fun i guess theory  crafting but like doesn't seem to have a lot of   practical application for most builds including  this one really it gets to a point where it's   like you don't need 500 feet of move speed or 10  000 feet of move speed right admittedly mobile   would be nice arguably since it also lets  you ignore difficult terrain when we dash   so that will be useful once in a while but again  i just don't really see it as a must-have for this   build personally at level 8 though we would be a  rogue three so first up our sneak attack damage   jumps up to a 2d6 and that's fantastic but then  most importantly then the primary reason why i   wanted to go rogue is we get our roguish archetype  our subclass and i'm gonna recommend taking scout another first time subclass two in one build  i love it and i am really actually excited   to have a great reason to take a previously  unused subclass in the scout and it's just   the best thing ever for this build so let's read  about it you are skilled in stealth and surviving   far from the streets of a city allowing you to  scout ahead of your companions during expeditions   rogues who embrace this archetype are at home in  the wilderness and among barbarians and rangers   and many scouts serve as the eyes and ears of war  bands ambusher spy bounty hunter these are just a   few of the roles that scouts assume as they range  the world yes 100 on point for this character as   i envision them in my head so as a scout we get  a couple of great features first up survivalist   survivalist is kind of the utility ribbony feature  but it gives us proficiency in nature and survival   skills so make sure you leave those unproficient  at character creation and then we basically get   expertise in those skills as well now granted  these skills aren't necessarily the most common of   skill checks i think at most tables but i mean hey  as far as ribbon features go this is a pretty nice   one but skirmisher this this is the real deal for  us so with skirmisher we're told that we can move   up to half of our move speed as a reaction when  an enemy ends their turn within five feet of us   so here's the thing about a chardelon stride  that i've just been giggling inside about this   whole time the spell description tells us that  a creature can take damage from a charterlon   stride only once on a turn not on your turn on a  turn and similar to sneak attack and other things   in d5e there's a big difference between on a  turn and on your turn because of course when   you do something using your reaction you are very  often doing that thing on another creature's turn   right in this case your movement opportunity  would trigger after your enemy's turn is over   and presumably not then on yours unless  you're next in the turn order i guess thus   if and when an enemy ends their turn within five  feet of you you could now as a reaction cruise   around the battlefield again now it's only for  half of your move speed but that's 27.5 feet of   move speed for us currently and that's without say  the long strider spell active ideally letting you   hit a bunch more bad guys with your chardon stride  damage and that's just like pillsbury doughboy oh that's good that's awesome and it really helps  us to stretch the damage that we're getting out of   the spell all right so at level nine i think  it might be time for a change of direction   with this character now there are a lot of ways  that you could go here on the one hand you could   of course stick with rogue you would get more  sneak attack damage as well as you know all of   the nice utility and defensive features that  additional rogue levels would get us the thing   is i really wanted to make this character based on  a chardelon stride and so for me i want to try to   stick with a full caster so that we can upcast  this spell as high as possible as we continue   to progress obviously you could just go back to  wizard right you'd get some fun abilities from   more scribe levels and of course higher level  wizard spells and there are plenty of great ones   that don't necessarily require a high intelligence  modifier to be effective for me though i think   i would have the most fun with this character by  taking wait for it cleric levels so yeah something   has happened in our hero's career at this point  that makes us get religion i don't know what it is   i'm not even going to pretend to speculate here  i'm fresh out of ideas i am curious to know   how you think you would craft a cleric multi-class  shift into your character's story here so let me   know in the comments maybe all of the lightning  spell damage that you've been doing has   has attracted the notice of the god of thunder i  don't know but anyway as a cleric at level one we   get spells of course can trips first level spells  i would get the usual suspects you know guidance   which you could cast on yourself for an extra  d4 on your ability checks making you that much   more sneaky and block picky of course cure wounds  and more importantly i think healing word saved   probably exclusively for bringing allies back up  from when they go down to zero hit points nothing   really here at level one i think that we would  use to improve our combat prowess so pick your   favorites and then at level one of course we do  get our cleric subclass our divine domain and i'm   going to suggest that we take the tempest domain  and i'm sure many of you have predicted this   already tempest cleric might be my favorite cleric  subclass because it can potentially bring both a   lot of power and a lot of fun plus like i've said  i really love lightning as a tempest cleric and a   cleric one we get some bonus proficiencies we get  martial and heavy weapon proficiencies that we're   not going to make much use out of but keep in  mind that we do when we multi-class and cleric   get shield proficiency as well and you know  what that's actually really nice and comes at   perfect timing for this character as i'll explain  shortly one downside about using a shield of   course is that it would mean that our hands are  now full with a rapier and shield and so it would   be difficult to cast spells in combat that have  somatic and or material components without taking   the warcaster feat that said i don't really see  us needing to do too much spell casting in combat   i mean at the beginning of combat we could cast a  charter on stride then draw our rapier right and   proceed as normal healing word is verbal component  only the shield spell could potentially be   problematic if our dm won't let us drop our weapon  as part of the reaction that is required to cast a   shield spell that's allowed at our table but  i appreciate that it might not necessarily   be at yours but even then i think i take a  permanent plus two to armor class over a once   in a while and at the cost of my spell slot and my  reaction plus five but you make the call we also   then as a tempest cleric get wrath of the storm  which tells us that wisdom modifier times per day   we can force a creature within five feet of us  who hits us with an attack to make a dexterity   save or take 2d8 lightning damage i don't imagine  us using this all that often our dc isn't going   to be great with the 13 wisdom and i mean it's  not a ton of damage especially at this level   and we have more important uses for our reaction  as we've already discussed and so for our level   9 damage report then we have added a d6 to our  sneak attack but most importantly damage wise   we've added another d6 of damage per round to  each of our ashardalan stride victims using our   scouts reaction right and so yeah our tactics have  actually changed a little bit here at this point   i think it really important that we try to end  our turn relatively close to some enemy because   we want them to end their turn within five feet of  us so we can get that reaction movement and this   is why i said it was perfect that we got shield  proficiency now as before we would probably have   ended our turn like far away from the battlefield  hiding behind our barbarian friend or something   now we kind of need to make ourselves an available  target for someone and so against an enemy with   a 10 armor class we would do on average 53 damage  per round now in total and against an enemy with a   10 armor class we would do 51 damage per round in  total on average now other tier 1 builds tended to   do a little better than we did over the last few  levels here putting us kind of like at the bottom   of tier 1 maybe top of tier 2 by comparison  but that's still very strong and it's still   really cool and really fun and we're about  to take some really nice leaps at level 10   we would be a cleric 2. all clerics at level 2  get channel divinity which resets on a short rest   and we can use to either turn undead forcing  undead within 30 feet of us to make a wisdom   saving throw or spend the next minute running  away from us or we can use channel divinity for   something else based on our subclass for tempest  clerics that means we get the destructive wrath   feature and that tells us that when we roll  lightning or thunder damage we can just deal   max damage instead of rolling okay so most of  the time for us this is probably going to mean   throwing out say like a fireball using our scribes  wizard feature to change that to a lightning ball   and then doing max damage with that lightning ball  because we we just roll the dice once and then the   lightning ball is going to do that much damage  to all the creatures it hits right that's how   spell damage works for spells that do their damage  to multiple enemies simultaneously and sure a   lot of those creatures are going to make their  savings throw versus our pretty low spell save dc   but hey at max damage even those who make their  save will still take a decent amount of damage   so that's really fun and awesome but what about a  charter on stride you might be asking what if we   changed that from fire to lightning or thunder  and then did max damage from that i'm gonna say   it kind of depends but we're probably not gonna  get a lot of mileage out of that while yes running   around for 110 feet of move speed trailing an arc  of lightning behind us is fantastic and i think i   would probably just do that all the time anyway  because it's wicked awesome but mechanically   speaking i mean the question is right would  causing a chardolone stride to deal max damage   make it deal max damage to every single character  that it hits for the duration of the spell   i think unfortunately probably not we're told in  the player's handbook that if a spell or other   effect deals damage to more than one target at  the same time roll the damage once for all of them   like for example with fireball like i said now at  your table for ease of play your dm may just have   you roll the charter on stride damage once and  say every creature that takes damage from this   spell on this round is just going to take this  much damage so we don't have to keep rolling   and rolling and rolling if so great but even then  that doesn't necessarily mean that every creature   you hit with a chardelon stride for as long as the  spell lasts is going to receive max damage i would   think at most tables it's just going to be on the  first character that the spell hits if i'm wrong   and your dm says yeah sure a charter on stride is  just going to do max damage for the duration of   the spell to every creature that it hits then  congratulations you've won the sharda lottery   and you should absolutely do the non-rogue full  caster version of this build that i'm going to   talk about in the final thoughts i keep talking  about this final thoughts build i mean it's not   that amazing it's just a full caster alternative  i feel like i'm i'm i'm overselling it here anyway   for the rest of us who bought a lottery ticket but  did not get our number called it's probably just   going to mean that a chardelon stride would do six  damage to the first character that you hit with   it as opposed to three and a half on average so  i'd probably save destructive wrath for something   cooler i mean booming blade is thunder damage  you'd probably get more mileage out of that if   you don't want to get too fancy with a lightning  ball on the other hand you might just want to save   your channel divinity for harness divine power  that's an optional feature for clerics that we   were given in tasha's cauldron of everything that  lets us once per day for now regain expended spell   slots equal to half our proficiency bonus rounded  up more spell slots are always a fantastic thing   and between this and arcane recovery now we've  got a lot of spell slots to potentially play   with which is super cool speaking of spell slots  keep in mind that thanks to our multi-classing   that we've been doing we do have fourth level  spell slots now even though we don't have any   fourth level spells to cast them with this means  that we can now up cast a charter on stride to do   2d6 damage to each creature on a turn and that  our move speed would jump up to 60 ft now giddy up   at level 11 we would be a cleric 3 which means  we get second level cleric spells and i'm going   to say pick your favorites aid of course is going  to give you and or your allies some nice extra hit   points and it lasts for eight hours without  concentration prayer of healing is a fairly   efficient group heal that really you'd only use  out of combat with because it's a 10 minute cast   time so if like multiple people in your party are  running low on hit dice need some extra healing   zone of truth find object can offer some nice  occasional utility lesser restoration is great to   have when you need it nothing that i would plan on  using in our combat at level 11 remember too that   our booming blade jumps up to 2d8 on a hit now and  3d8 if they move at level 12 we would be a cleric   4 and we get another ability score increase or  feat finally this is a little bit of a tough   decision for me i'm sorely tempted to take  a plus one to wisdom and intelligence just   to round off those odd numbered spell casting  stats but honestly if we've made it this far   with just a 13 in each we're probably fine to  just continue on that way we're just not a big   in combat spellcaster frankly and and that's not  going to change much by getting a 14 in each of   our spellcasting stats so other options you know  elemental adept is worth considering since it   allows us to ignore damage resistance that enemies  would have to for us i guess fire damage and makes   it so each time we do fire damage and we roll  a one we can make it a two on a d6 that's like   an average bump of 0.17 why not just let us  re-roll ones like almost every other feat   that has similar functionality i don't know i  mean even doing that isn't very strong anyway   since we're a scribes wizard we can change that  fire to other things like we've talked about   and the damage bump is almost non-existent so i  probably wouldn't worry about that feet unless you   maybe wanted to take it and make the resistance  you ignore lightning instead of fire if we're   always transmuting to lightning so that you can  better ensure that your cool new lightning powers   work more regularly i think for me i'm probably  going to do something to protect my concentration   checks here resilient constitution is nice in that  it would give us a plus one to our constitution yet another odd-numbered ability score the stuff  of nightmares but then it would also let us add   our proficiency bonus to our constitution  saves including our concentration checks so   that would be really nice warcaster though i think  ultimately is what i would probably go with here   it gives us advantage on our concentration checks  and lets us stop worrying about casting spells   with our hands full so even though we arguably  would get more mileage out of having proficiency   on all of our constitution saving throws including  our concentration checks i really like being able   to both use a shield and being able to cast the  shield spell among other spells that we might   want to cast in combat in a pinch so i think i'd  take warcaster we also now do have fifth level   spell slots thanks to multi-classing so we can  now up cast a charter on stride to 3d6 damage and   30 feet of move speed at level 13 we would be a  cleric five and we get third level cleric spells   as usual pick your favorites um fantastic options  here revivify of course to bring an ally back from   the dead mass healing word for that terrible  situation where you have multiple allies that   have gone unconscious motivational speech is a  really nice way to like buff your party with both   temporary hit points and advantage on wisdom  saving throws for an hour before a fight no   concentration required so yeah lots of great  options for utility and support as usual   for clerics also we do get the destroy and  dead feature here so on the off chance that   we run into undead creatures that have a  challenge rating of one half or less when we   use turn undead if they fail their saving throw  they're just destroyed instead of forced to flee   and so at level 13 it's time for another damage  report since we last checked we've seen some nice   increases to our chardon stride damage thanks  to spell level scaling and an increase to our   booming blade damage as well and thus against  an enemy with a 10 armor class we would do   on average in total 105 damage per round and  against an enemy with a 17 armor class it would be   102 dpr we have broken the centennial barrier  we've broken the sound barrier oh the sonic boom   that's another potential name for this character  there's a lot of good ones but yes i am really   happy to see our damage doing so well a quick note  even though most of our damage is being done to a   single target still as a charter on stride  scales that is becoming less and less true   we're doing 63 armor-class irrelevant  damage now to three targets that i'm   calculating for and then 30 to 40 armor-class  dependent damage on the target that we're hitting   with our rapier attack who is also taking some of  that charter on stride damage too right still you   know doing 50 to 60 damage to a single target  pretty reliably and then a bunch more to their   friends that are scattered around the battlefield  is pretty awesome i mean at the higher enemy armor   classes this level of damage that we're doing  in total here is beating every other sustained   dpr build that i've done to date again in total  damage i realize that some of that is spread out   amongst multiple enemies and compared to most of  the other sustained dpr builds that i've done it's   not even close at those mid to high enemy armor  classes i'm getting a little nervous at level 14   we would be a cleric six and we now get to use our  channel divinity twice per short rest uh that's   actually a really nice bump allowing us to like  either do some nice burst damage a couple of times   per short rest or recover spell slots twice per  day with harness divine power but the real reason   that i wanted to even go tempest cleric in the  first place is for the feature that we get here   as tempest cleric 6 thunderbolt strike i don't  see this feature as strictly necessary or even   foundational to this character by any means but it  definitely takes the fun level of the character to   eleven no question and it's my my greatest regret  is that it's taken us as long as it has to get to   this point but okay yes with thunderbolt strike  when you deal lightning damage to a large or   smaller creature you can push it 10 feet away  from you and now i have this glorious image in   my head of this character who pauses for a moment  before the fight straps on their safety goggles   perhaps and just tears around the battlefield  and behind them in their wake is not only a trail   of lightning arcing out to damage enemies but an  actual like slow motion trail of bodies just being   flung to the wayside the camera is centered on  you and you have this just ridiculous grin on   your face and behind you we just see this  trail of dirt and debris and bad guys just in slow motion just pinwheeling through the air  out of the frame there is no save for either the   damage you do with the chardon stride here or  the forced movement and what really makes this   potentially powerful in addition to just  hilarious and awesome is that it could let you   act as a sort of almost like a sheepdog or  a cattle herder right imagine that there's   this group of enemies they're somewhat spread out  around the battlefield and you need to let's say   group them together so that they can fit inside  of your friend's wall of force no problem you just   around them in a circle bumping each of them 10  feet closer to one another and voila you now have   a perfectly grouped bunch of enemies just ready  for an invisible wall to be placed around them   neatly or maybe you have a friend who can throw  down the spike growth spell and there's a bunch   of enemies sort of positioned at the edges of the  briar patch right you can just around the area   bumping several of them into and even through  that spike growth causing some extra damage   for doing so or i mean even if you don't have an  ally to synergize this with no problem just round   up all of the enemies and just blast them with a  max damage lightning ball i mean the possibilities   for taking advantage of this are just endless  and so cool and fun to think about we also do   get six level spell slots now at this level so we  can up cast a shardolon stride to do 4d6 damage   to each target and 35 feet of move speed which  would give us 70 total feet of move speed and 35   on our reaction with our scout feature at level 15  we would be a cleric seven and we get fourth level   cleric spells there's some good ones here death  ward is a favorite it lasts for eight hours it   doesn't require concentration and makes it so that  if you or an ally that you casted on would drop   to zero hit points instead you just drop to one  hit point the one that i'm going to say that we   really ought to take for this build is freedom of  movement it lasts for an hour also doesn't require   concentration and would essentially make us immune  to difficult terrain or other magical effects that   impair movement including paralyzed or restrained  that's amazing and plus we can spend a simple   five feet of move speed to escape non-magical  restraint such as manacles or being grappled we   can even move underwater without suffering any  move speed penalty and man we are truly like   greased lightning now we are not only fast  and not only throwing out lightning damage but   slippery as an eel at level 16 we would be  a cleric eight we get another ability score   increase or feat again i i do think there are  plenty of options here but assuming that we   took warcaster last time i would probably go with  either resilient constitution or maybe more likely   resilient wisdom here you know failing a  wisdom saving throw can be devastating and   taking resilient wisdom here would at least make  one of our odd-numbered ability scores an even   number right because we get to bump our wisdom by  one and you know that's going to be helpful even   for like the little bit of healing that we'll do  on occasion and stuff like that so i probably go   resilient wisdom our destroy undead feature now  works on undead that are challenge rating 1 or   lower we do also get the divine strike feature  here from tempest cleric another nice little   damage bump because it lets us add 1d8 damage  to our weapon attack once per turn we do also   now have a seventh level spell slot meaning the  shardolon stride could do 5d6 damage per target   on a turn and we'd have 40 extra move speed from  it and then finally for us at level 17 we would   be a cleric nine we would get fifth level cleric  spells i'm gonna say pick your favorites there's   lots of great ones for utility and support here  greater restoration and raised dead feel like   must-haves to me but there's probably also a place  for the communes and hallow spells of the world   here i think and um we do get our final bump to  booming blade now here to uh on a hit it will do   3d8 damage and if they move for d8 and so for our  final damage report we have again seen some nice   bumps to both our chardolone's damage and our  booming blade damage we've also gained a little   bump in the form of divine strike not to mention  picked up the insanely awesome ability to toss an   enemy that we run past and some fantastic support  and utility options to boot for what it's worth   as far as the dice go if we up cast a shardellon's  stride to seventh level we would theoretically now   like i said be doing 5d6 damage per enemy twice  per round right if we hit three enemies with   it that is 30d6 of total damage from a charter  on stride alone and we can do that every round   potentially so long as we don't lose concentration  add to that our booming blade attack made with   divine strike now and if the enemy moves on their  turn that would be 2d6 for sneak attack plus 98   plus 5 for our dexterity to that single target for  a grand total of 32 d6 plus 98 plus 5 damage that   we would be doing spread out amongst three targets  and of course if we can run past more enemies   the damage goes way up and so against an enemy  with a 10 armor class we would on average do   162 total damage per round here and against  an enemy with an 18 armor class it would be   157 my goodness that's more damage than any other  sustained dpr build that i've done to date at this   level even at low enemy armor class and again  at like middle enemy ac and up it just destroys   everything and so final thoughts you guys  you want to know the final tier score of this   character if we take their average damage across  all enemies acs and at each damage report it's 89.   that beats out the next best by over 10  percent and that next best was the blade singer and now i'm having an existential crisis i mean so  yeah of course the blade singer is is my baby and   it's my darling and so i'm immediately scrambling  to make excuses well this damage is spread out   amongst multiple enemies so it's not as valuable  well this requires that an enemy end their turn   within five feet of you and that won't always  work well i mean that tier score thing it it gives   equal weight to all acs and all levels and that's  not particularly accurate or helpful and yeah sure   those things are all true my little tier ranking  system is super oversimplified and flawed but   still despite its flaws and oversimplification  it's still meaningful to me anyway   and so now i guess we have a new front-runner  for sustained dpr and it's the greased lightning   so what are my final thoughts on this build i mean  i had actually already decided that it was at the   very top of my i want to play this character  next list even before i had crunched the numbers   now it's definitely there i mean how can you not  love how cool and fun this character would be to   play first you get to bring a ton of utility to  your team with your roguish skills next you get to   zoom around the battlefield striking one enemy and  then peppering the rest of the battlefield with   your fire or lightning or heck bludgeoning  or psychic damage or almost whatever you want   eventually you get to be tossing those enemies  left and right as you run past them and on top   of it all you bring a pretty nice suite of support  and utility spells with you to boot this i think   would be so much fun to play and i am going to  do it at the earliest possible opportunity now   i have been promising a caster focused alternative  to this build so let me go over that briefly i   i think we're going long so i'll try and keep it  brief here's what you do you take the orc race   as i mentioned because orcs can move as a bonus  action so long as they end their turn closer to an   enemy of their choosing before they started moving  so you don't have as much need now for cunning   action from rogue right you start as sorcerer  i think and you take it to level five maybe six   i think i would go draconic bloodline for a little  extra defense and for their elemental affinity   ability that lets you do bonus damage of one  specific elemental damage type based on the dragon   you're ancestrally affiliated with make sure you  pick up the transmute spell meta magic option so   you can turn your fire into lightning later on or  another elemental damage type if you want and then   instead of making booming blade attacks you  simply get a shardalon stride going and then   you move on your turn using your bonus action for  extra move speed if you need it after round one   of course but then for your action you actually  just ready your action when you're ready in action   you know you state what the thing is that's going  to trigger it and then when that trigger happens   you can use your reaction to do the thing that  you said you were going to do including using   your move speed so maybe you say you know i ready  my action to move as soon as another creature i   can see moves or takes an action or even just i  ready my action to move as soon as my turn is over   or whatever then you can use your reaction to  deal more a charter on stride damage to everyone   without needing to be a scout rogue right now  early on you're actually going to do less overall   damage going this route and of course there's no  single target taking the brunt of it everything   is just equally distributed to multiple targets  now if at your table you're simply rolling the   die one time to determine damage and your overly  generous dm decides that you can apply both your   elemental affinity damage from draconic bloodline  and later your destructive wrath damage from   tempest cleric to that single roll and it applies  to all enemies for the duration of the spell then   that is overpowered and you should feel really  bad as you giggle yourself to sleep every night   anyway after sorcerer five or maybe six if you  want that elemental affinity you start taking   cleric levels as we've already done obviously you  focus here on charisma and wisdom for your primary   ability scores and the nice thing about this is  that it lets us get a shardalon's stride damage   scaling a little bit quicker and we're also going  to have a much higher you know spell save dc and   or spell to hit if we need it for whatever reason  to throw out a really important spell and not to   mention that it will you know bump the healing  that we do if we have a higher wisdom score   things like that you do lose out of course on the  rogue utility it's less damage on a single enemy   but there are definitely some pros to going that  route and so that's the build for the week it is   getting dark outside as you might be able to  tell i hope you guys had as much fun watching   it as i did creating it i cannot wait to play  this character in game but regardless i love you   i hope that you are happy and that you  have a fantastic day and a fantastic week   and that you check out all the other content  on the channel if you feel so inclined and that   you like and subscribe and click the bell  and do all of those things but regardless   thanks for watching and i'll see you very  soon i hope and until then take care bye   hmm all right we're ready we're ready go  grease lightning you're burning through   the heat lab trials grease landing go  grease landing go grease lightening you   something something quarter mile i'm not rushing  i don't know the words actually pinwheeling pinwheeling out of the camera i don't know what to say i'm i'm i'm  speechless pinwheeling off camera or or   out of the frame just pinwheeling out of the frame  no don't even don't even talk about that thanks   to multi-clock multi-cat oh no we're we're  readying our action no don't say any of that   a spell a why can't i say that right a um  okay time to open up these blinds a little bit   because it's getting darker the main difference really is divine strike does  thunder damage blessed strike does divine damage   you are supreme that jigsaw   you know if you really pay attention to the words  of that song it is not very child appropriate   i learned this when i was performing the  song for like a church musical review   we had to change some words

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 73,121

Keywords: D&D Optimized, dnd, dungeons & dragons, scribes wizard, scout rogue, tempest cleric, ashardalon's stride, dpr, guide, 5e, character creation, character build, move speed, greased lightning, flash

Id: 5aMgB7FTBgs

Length: 66min 43sec (4003 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 25 2022