The Kraken! D&D Build #173

who's excited about Kraken week me I am okay even  if you aren't do you think playing a character who   uses the powers of the deep to do massive damage  while simultaneously locking down their enemies   on the battlefield sounds fun either way you are  going to love today's character build welcome to [Music] D4 hey everybody so here at D4  each week I take a deep dive into char   builds for my favorite role playing games  I like to crunch numbers about them Theory   craft about them not so that I can necessarily  tell you like the right way or the best way to   play a character but to explore one potential  way to build something in the hopes of creating   a character that's both fun but also powerful to  play in game so if you enjoy creating characters   for your favorite role playing games almost as  much as you enjoy playing the actual game itself   or if you're just looking for tips or ideas on  how to build something that you are thinking   about playing then welcome home this is where  you belong and I'm so glad you're here so thank   you for watching my name's Colby so you guys know  about Kraken week right for the uninitiated think   shark week but for DN D and other ttrpgs too this  Kraken week is the brainchild of the wonderful   magnanimous jinny D and Antonio from pointy hat  calling on ttrpg content creators to do videos   this week on like underwater ocean kreny themes  and I love it it's just a fun way for us to have   fun and do something together around a central  theme so if you enjoy it let us know and maybe   you'll see more stuff like this in the future also  importantly in the video description you will find   a playlist of other krak and week participants  please please please check that out go watch   a few other vids that catch your eye thanks so  yeah what should I do for Kraken week easy build   a character of course naturally though it needs  to be more than just fun and Powerful but also   needs to lean heavily into the concept of like  water and tentacles and stuff yeah I think I've   got just the thing so no more Preamble than that I  proudly present D and build number 173 the Kraken   huge thanks to my good friend Randall Hampton  for the Fantastic artwork that he put together   for this build he does this every week if you'd  be interested in following him on social media   to see the other things that he does or maybe even  reaching out to commission him to create some art   for your character or even your entire party I'll  put links in the video description as always on   how to do so I love it when magic spoon sponsors  the video because it means I get to have cereal   for lunch and with magic spoon the best part  is I can eat a lot of it and know that I'm not   going to overload on carbs because each serving  only has four to 5 G of net carbs and that I'll   get a lot of protein because each serving has  like 13 to 14 g of protein which in case you   didn't know is a ton for cereal so I'll probably  have two to three servings because it's yummy   and I know I'll feel satiated and they've  got so many great flavors Maple waffle is my   favorite but I also love cocoa and peanut butter  I especially love to mix those blueberry muffin   is also fantastic that's what I'm having today  fruity cinnamon roll frosted they're all great   and yeah they're going to remind you of like some  of your favorite cereals that you used to eat as   a kid but now they've got adult ingredients no  artificial flavors no artificial dyes it's great   oh also in case you didn't know they actually  have these fantastic cereal bar treats as well   if you need some low carb high protein snacking  on the go 1 g of sugar 1 to 2 G of net carbs and   only 130 calories in each serving with the  same great taste as their cereals you've got   chocolatey peanut butter blueberry muffin bunch  of others so go check out magic spoon use this   link here magico D4 that way they know I'll send  you or of course you can just uh scan the QR code   that's been floating above my head this whole time  more importantly make sure to use the code D4 at   checkout and you'll save five bucks off your order  so huge thanks to Magic spoon for sponsoring the   video today I'm going to get back to my bowl  of cereal and you're going to get back to the build all right let's Jump Right In Here at  level one for our starting class you probably   guessed I was going to do this but yes we are  going warlock I feel like I've got to say this   if it were me playing this character in game  yeah sure I probably start fighter I know I   know but seriously you just get so many great  defensive benefits from going fighter at level   one Constitution saving throw proficiency to  help out our concentration checks among other   things armor and shield proficiency a nice  fighting style that said believe it or not   I'm actually just going to go straight warlock  with this character no multiclassing I know I   am surprised as well H but as a result we actually  end up with plenty of Feats eventually that let us   pick up most of those defensive benefits that  starting fighter would have gotten us besides   our damage ends up coming online just a little  bit quicker starting Warlock and since I like   to graph and spreadsheet all of my damage focused  builds and compare them to one another check the   video description for links to those spreadsheets  if you're interested getting damage online sooner   makes my number crunchy brain go ah nice so fine  we'll skip fighter one this time but as for our   race I'm not actually doing anything unexpected  this time but mostly for reasons other than   than what you might think I mean sure being  crack and weak we could go celf or Triton maybe   water jasi I know those would be super on point  thematically very flavorful they can swim they can   breathe underwater they can talk to or influence  sea creatures they have resistance to cold or acid   damage but I don't feel like any of those races  really bring a lot to the table mechanically other   than those fun flavorful things and we're going  to get most of those flavorful things anyways   from our warlock subclass more importantly though  none of these races are actual like Krakens what   is the only official race that could get us a  humanoid Kraken a kenid if you will that's right   custom lineage all right now haters come on I am  seriously wanting to go custom lineage primarily   here for the concept no lies I want this character  to look and feel kreny and no other official race   option in 5e can get me there sure it doesn't  hurt that we get a free feat from Custom lineage   but that's just gravy for this build as as far  as I'm concerned I swear as for that free feet   that we get as a custom lineage race I want  something that will let us bump our Charisma   by one my favorites for this build are going  to either be Fay touched or telekinetic and I   think telekinetic might Edge out Fay touched ever  so slightly but either is great or sure Shadow   touched or something else that bumps our Charisma  if you want with telekinetic we not only get to   bump our Charisma by one or our intelligence or  wisdom but of course we want Charisma right but   we also learned the Mage hand cantrip can cast it  without verbal or sematic components and can make   it invisible though I think if it were me I would  make it look like a tentacle or like a tentacle of   water like in that movie The Abyss that was a good  show more importantly this feat lets us use our   bonus action to move a creature 5T towards or away  from us if they fail their strength saving throw   and this is kind of always useful right willing  creatures could even fail their save automatically   and just be moved if it's good for them I think  this enemy movement will be especially useful   for this build as we will see in a few minutes as  for our ability scores I'm going to assume that   we're starting with the point by Method as always  and say let's go with a 15 Charisma take our plus   two from Custom lineage there plus one from the  feet so we start with an 18 right and then let's   go 15 Constitution and 15 dexterity and yeah that  means we'd be dumping strength intelligence and   most painfully I think wisdom which you might not  want to do feel free to lower those Constitution   and deex scores to a 14 so that you can get your  wisdom a bit higher especially we will make those   even ability scores eventually but it's not going  to be for quite some time so yeah maybe especially   if you're only going to be playing this character  to like level 8 9 10 you might want to just start   with even numbers on con inexs and put those  points somewhere else as for equipment um let's go   with the gold bu option and just grab some studded  leather uh and then like whatever whatever other   necessities you may need it's it always feels  funny to me that studded leather exists lists in   the game and has a better armor class Than Leather  right but no class just automatically starts with   it it's not listed as one of the options that you  can just take if you just take equipment right   anyways we are not going to really need weapons  on this character so don't worry about grabbing it   because for our subass we're not going hex plate  of course not we're going with you guessed it the   fathomless let's read what Wizards of the Coast  has to say about the subclass to help us get into   character you have plunged into a pacted with the  deeps an entity of the ocean the elemental plane   of water or another otherworldly sea now allows  you to draw on its thec power is it merely using   you to learn about terrestrial Realms or does it  want you to open Cosmic floodgates and drown the   World perhaps you were born into a generational  cult that venerates the fathomless and its spawn   or you might have been Shipwrecked and on the  brink of drowning when your Patron's grasp   offered you a chance at life whatever the reason  for you're packed the sea and its unknown depths   call to you and of the deep that might Empower  a warlock include Krakens and we're done no need   to read about what else might be empowering us  we've got our Patron and in fact I think for me   yeah my character might be like some sort of  Spawn of my cracken Patron don't really know   how that works biologically I'm not going to  get into it maybe there's just a race of Kraken   likee humanoids who worship Krakens I don't know  I would love to hear what your backstory would be   for this character but I do love how the writing  team at Wizards of the Coast here kind of gave   you some good hooks to start off with anyways  feel free to let me know in the comments what   your backstory for this character would be as  a fathomless warlock though we get a couple of   features first up gift of the sea tells us that  we gain a swim speed of 40 ft and can breathe   underwater see I told you we didn't need to be  a Triton my favorite feature we get here though   is tentacle of the deeps as a bonus action we  create a 10t long tentacle within 60 ft of us   that lasts for a minute and can be used when we  summon it and thereafter with a bonus action to   make a melee spell attack against an enemy within  10 ft of it if we hit we deal a d8 of cold damage   and importantly for us the target's move speed is  reduced by 10 ft until our next turn we can even   move our tentacle which for me is either going to  look like a kraken tentacle right or maybe like   that aforementioned water whip uh we can move it  30 ft as part of the same bonus action we use to   attack with it we can do this proficiency B times  per day and I love it as for what spells to take   at warlock 1 I'll just highlight my favorites ELD  blast is a must-have and something we'll be using   all the time though for whatever it's worth I  happen to agree with Jenny when she says it's   okay not to take elrich blast on your warlock  that was a good video um watch it here if you   haven't seen it anyways we will be using eldrich  blast and I also think we should pick up armor of   agius because it's a great way to give ourselves  some temporary hit points and also return damage   to melee attackers cold damage in fact that feels  thematically appropriate and sure for now let's   grab hex for concentration maybe to add a D6 of  damage to our attacks though it is questionable   at best for this build since we already have a  consistent use for our bonus action right our   tentacle but maybe in a fight against High hit  point enemies that are going to take a while to   kill sure you know what else takes a while to kill  though my love for my channel members how's that   for a segue just a quick shout out to my channel  members you guys are are amazing I could not do   this without you thank you for your support  everybody else I'd appreciate it if you would   consider at least joining the channel as a member  there's a little button down there it says join   it's kind of like patreon but it all just kind of  stays within YouTube right for not very much money   you can get access to my library of writeups that  I create for all of my builds to help you recreate   the character more easily yourself and or access  to the community Discord server and or access to   the live monthly Q&A hangout sessions that we do  I really love interacting with my channel members   but if you don't want to be a channel member you  don't even want to consider it that's totally fine   just being here liking watching subscribing  commenting maybe clicking the notifications   Bell are also great ways to support the channel so  thanks for doing any and all of those right so at   level two as a warlock we get eldrich invocations  right and there are so many invocations that we   want on this build but the two most important  are probably going to be agonizing blast to add   our Charisma modifier in damage to each blast of  eldrich blast once it starts firing multiple beams   this will be especially nice and then repelling  blast this tells us that each beam of our eldrich   blast can push a Target up to 10 ft away from us  that's going to be super important for what I want   to do here at level three we get our packed Boon  and I'm going to say let's go packed to the chain   not because I think having a familiar like we get  from pack to the chain is incredibly important   to the build necessarily but I just like it more  than the other options if you feel strongly about   taking Packa of the Talisman or Tome or even blade  I guess go for it for us pack of the chain lets us   summon a familiar like via the fine familiar spell  but ours gets to be a cool like warlock familiar   like an imp or a pseudo Dragon right I'd probably  take the Imp the quasit or the Sprite because all   three of them can go invisible and while there are  lots of things that break invisibility taking the   help action is not one of them and I just love the  idea of an invisible familiar who torments your   enemies by buzzing in their ear or tickling their  bum thus helping you and giving you advantage on   your first attack against them all while remaining  safe from opportunity attack since they can't be   seen right so they can go in tickle the bum  Fly Away generally without being at risk we   also get second level warlock spells here and my  favorites are going to be misty step so that we   can teleport 30 ft with a bonus action when need  be and I bet some of you predicted this cloud of   daggers this little spell has become a favorite  of mine as many of you know though it does have   its limitations it summons a 5ft cube of whirling  spinning blades though for me for this character   I would definitely be flavoring this as like a  Whirlpool of piranhas but each time a creature   enters the area on a turn or starts their turn  in the area they automatically take 4 D4 slashing   damage with that damage increasing by 2 D4 more  for every level you upcast the spell and yes this   means that an enemy can potentially take damage  from the spell multiple times around if you can   move them into the Spells area on your turn for  example and then they would take the damage at the   beginning of their turn too if you don't believe  me just look it up in the sage advice compendium   search for the word moon beam and you'll be  golden the spell takes an action to cast requires   a concentration and last for 1 minute the big  drawback of course is that you can't move the   thing once you've cast it and it's a pretty small  area of effect right don't worry though I think   we will still be able to take great advantage of  it but I'll explain in more detail in a minute   at level four we get an ability score increase or  feat and I think bumping our Charisma to 20 here   is kind of a no-brainer it's the best thing we  can do for our damage anyways and I love having a   Capp ability score this early in our career it is  Juicy and Delicious at level five we get our third   invocation and as much as I'd love to take some  others I think we've got to take Lance of lethargy   here for our main tactic to work like I want it  to this says that once per turn when we hit an   enemy with eldrich blast we can reduce their move  speed by 10 ft until the end of our next turn and   yes this would stack with the move speed reduction  from our tentacle of the deeps so we're getting   some really nice snaring ability now which is  going to be awesome speaking of snaring at fifth   level we also get third level warlock spells and  while there are a ton of fantastic ones you should   consider using fear hypnotic pattern counter spell  fly and more the one I want to highlight here is   unique to warlocks hunger of Hadar like cloud of  daggers this spell also requires our concentration   cost an action and last for 1 minute but instead  of a 5T Cube it fills a 20ft radius sphere with   Blackness bitter cold slurping noises and milky  tentacles why are they milky uh now no light can   penetrate the area and creatures within are  blinded also the area is difficult to rain   meaning that creatures inside move at half speed  anyone who starts their turn in the area takes 2d6   cold damage automatically and anyone who ends  their turn inside has to suceed on a dexterity   saving throw or take 2d6 acid damage so 4 D6 total  so here's what we could do on our return if we   wanted once we've got this spell going right use  our bonus action to slow a Target 10 ft with our   tentacle and then use our action to eldrich blast  that same Target slowing them thanks to Lance of   lethargy and pushing them into the area of hunger  of Hadar thanks to repelling blast now that we're   fifth level eldrich blast fires twice meaning we  could push them 20 ft if both blasts hit so now   consider the enemy we hit is maybe 10 to 20 ft  inside a 40t diameter sphere of Darkness right   they've had their move speed reduced by 20 fet  they can't see and they move at half speed thanks   to difficult terrain most creatures in D and D 5  have 20 to 40 ft of move speed let's say they have   30 if you've reduced it to 10 and they move at  half speed even if they Dash they're only moving   10 ft on their turn and you've push them this deep  into this Blackness they're probably not getting   out on their turn meaning they'll hopefully be  taking Dam damage both at the start and at the end   of their turn it maybe they escape by their second  turn but by then you've effectively neutralized   them for a couple of rounds while also dealing  damage and yeah with as big as this area of effect   is and with multiple eldrich blasts you could  pretty easily keep at least a couple of enemies   inside taking damage from milky tentacles and  being worthless in combat now I don't know that   I would necessarily always use this over cloud of  daggers but I think more often than not I would   I'll discuss more once we get to our first damage  report at level six speaking of at level six as a   fathomless warlock we get the oceanic Soul feature  and this is really nice it gives us resistance to   Coal damage and says that whenever we're fully  submerged any creature humanoid or not that is   also fully submerged can understand our speech  and we can understand theirs once again no real   need to be like a sea elf we also get Guardian  coil as a fathomless here and this is a nice like   defensive support feature it tells us that when  we or an ally take damage within 10 ft of our   tentacle of the deeps we can use our reaction to  reduce the damage by a d8 it's not a ton but it   might be an important Difference Maker on occasion  and I don't know that we'll be using our reaction   very often for other stuff so go ahead and make  use of this liberally maybe try to stay within 10   ft of your tentacle if and when you can at level  six yes it is time for our first damage report   here's what combat looks like for us us right now  on round one we are tentacle whipping our Target   with our bonus action and then casting either  cloud of piranhas daggers or hunger of Hadar   on top of our Target right at the beginning of  their turn they'll take some damage and probably   try to move out now which of these spells should  we be using cloud of daggers is nice for three   reasons one its damage scales hunger of Hadar  unfortunately does not two the damage that the   enemy takes happens both when they enter the area  and when they start their turn there with cloud of   daggers right hunger of haar only does full damage  when the enemy ends and starts their turn there   and three the enemy only takes the second bit of  damage from Hunger of Hadar if they fail a saving   throw against it and it's not even half damage  on a save for that part of the damage right cloud   of daggers just does damage no matter the enemy  Armor class no matter their saving throw that said   hunger of Hadar does offer better control which  when you get this build out of the vacuum lab that   we creating them in and onto an actual imaginary  uh Battlefield in D and D controlling enemies   will often be better for you and your friends than  doing a little more damage to them would be right   what's more because of the vastly bigger area of  effect it'll be a lot easier to get two or even   more enemies trapped inside the tentacles taking  damage and being made ineffective for a round or   two each all of that said because I am beholden to  the spreadsheet and we're building this character   for sustained damage I'm going to assume that  we're using cloud of daggers and here's the really   great thing about this I've been guilty in the  past of just kind of assuming we'd be able to push   a Target back into cloud of daggers every round  even though if I'm being honest that might not   have been as reliable a tactic as I was pretending  I will admit that but with this build the way we   are slowing an enemy by 20 ft every round most  of them are going to move 10 to 20 ft out of the   Spells area on their turn talking cloud of daggers  right and then like use their action for something   else right well we can push up to 20t every turn  with two eldrich blasts so getting them back into   that piranha Whirlpool is going to be fairly easy  to do if they run away from us instead of towards   we can always Misty step over to get into position  and then just push them back from that angle right   at least once per combat encounter anyways get on  with it already one note if you can get Advantage   from your familiar give it to your first eldrich  blast attack if you can so much of our damage   comes from pushing them into cloud of dagger is  that as important as the slow from that tentacle   attack is will slow them with eldrid blast too  and more importantly push them so let's prioritize   that and I mean if both of those eldrich blast  attacks miss or we can't quite push them as far as   we need to to get them into the cloud we do have  our telekinetic feet that we can use our bonus   action for to hopefully get them five more feet  and get them inside the Spell's area of effect   right anyways assuming that everything works like  we want every round we would be doing 2d1 plus 10   damage from eldrich blast 1 d8 from our tentacle  then a total of 12 D4 from two applications of a   third level cloud of dagger spell every single  round and so against enemies with a 10 Armor   class here we would on average do 56 damage per  round and against a 15 Armor class it would be   50 DPR and when compared to other sustained  damage builds that I've done to date that's I   mean that's very near the top of tier one in fact  at middling enemy armor classes it's better than   anything I've done to date at this level jeez  Kraken you were supposed to be like kind of a   gimmick not the hardest hitting character I've  ever built and not that I'm complaining I'm just   scared let's see if they simmer down a little  bit as we keep going shall we at level s we   get fourth level spells and my favorites here are  dimension door to give us an even bigger range on   our teleport if we need to maneuver into place  to keep pushing our enemies where we want them   right and we can even bring a friend if we want  to with dimension door which is cool I also really   like Rim's psychic Lance this is just a fun spell  that I might not use all that often honestly but   for a little burst damage and control it's nice  it calls for an intelligence save usually not a   very strong save for most enemies in 5e and if  they fail that save they take both 7 D6 psychic   damage not bad and are then incapacitated until  our next turn very nice something I really like   about this spell for this build is that if we're  using hunger of Hadar we probably can't see the   Enemy Inside right it's an area of Blackness that  no light can penetrate and just in case you're   thinking if we took the devil sight invocation we  could see inside Jeremy Crawford has said no if   that matters to you but this spell Ram's psychic  glance works even if we can't see our Target so   long as we can speak their name to be fair there's  a high likelihood that what we're fighting won't   even have a name or none that we know anyways Mamu  I've come to bargain but hey if we can learn it   then I love the combo of incapacitating an enemy  in inside the black tentacle area of the spell   where they just continue to take damage and do  nothing anyways yeah at this level we also get a   fourth invocation and I'm going to say let's get  grasp of Hadar really wish I could have gotten   this sooner but better late than never it's like  repelling blast but pulls an enemy 10 ft towards   us with eldrich blast instead of pushing them it's  kind of a bummer that this can only work once per   turn unlike repelling blast but hey sometimes  you'll have an enemy 5 or 10 ft outside of the   area of effect of your spell but the Spell's area  of effect is between you and them right you need   to pull them back in it's going to be a lot more  efficient than teleporting around and pushing them   yeah so this is super nice at level eight we get  another ability score increase or feat and like   I said at the beginning if I were playing this  character in game I think I probably start fighter   one but since we've already got our Charisma  capped at 20 it feels a lot less bad since we   can take for example the resilient Constitution  feed here letting us bump our constit tion to   16 and then have Proficiency in Constitution  saves greatly benefiting our concentration   checks as well and honestly with so much of our  damage coming from our whirl pool of piranhas   we probably should have taken this right at level  four but speaking of concentration checks at level   9 we get a fifth invocation so many invocations  I love it uh this means we can take eldrich mind   which gives us advantage on our concentration  checks so now we don't have to get warcaster I   hate that feat I even made a video about it  I hate it so much it's illogical how much I   hate this feed to be fair I actually wouldn't mind  having it so that we could cast eldrich blast as   an opportunity attack too and that would free up  an invocation for us so sure go ahead and consider   taking warcaster at some point but not me suck  at warcaster we also get fifth level spells here   and fathomless locks get access to Big be's hand  though we're told specifically that it appears as   a tentacle and I love that so we should totally  take it for that reason alone even though it   requires concentration and I probably wouldn't use  it that much the other ones I think I'd be sure to   grab here would be synaptic static for some nice  Fireball level burst damage that also puts a nasty   debuff on enemies and targets their intelligence  saves again and then probably hold monster since   it can let you potentially paralyze anything that  isn't Undead for when you really just need to like   put a hard lock down on a single enemy right  okay it is time for our level 9 damage report since last check we have seen lots of nice utility  Mobility defensive burst damage and control Buffs   to our character the only real increase we've  gotten to our sustain damage is the ability to   upcast cloud of daggers at the fifth level that's  not nothing another 8 D4 damage per round if an   enemy gets pushed into it but yeah that's pretty  much it so here against an enemy with a 10 Armor   class we would on average do 76 damage per round  and against a 16 AC it would be 70 DPR which is   still kind of in the same place upper half of  tier one and better than anything I've done at   those middling AC's like 15 to 20 or so compared  to other DPR builds at this level all right little   Kraken you're killing it I'm impressed and  you know I also feel more confident about this   character's ability to just pretty reliably get  this kind of damage every round will consistently   be snaring our enemies so they can't run too far  from our piranhas and we have lots of ways to both   push and pull them back into the world pool if  and when they do leave our concentration is super   protected and we get our spell slots back on a  short rest so as long as we're getting a short   rest every couple of combat Encounters this is  pretty dang sustainable I mean it's not quite   I can do this all day bub level like this one but  it's pretty dang close I love it now at level 10 I   think there is a decent argument for multiclassing  or maybe better yet there's a decent argument for   multiclassing because of what happens at level  10 you see warlock spell slots stop scaling now   right it's a bit of a bummer but when we get six  level spells they are mystic arcum not spell slots   right we can still cast those once per day as  though we had a six level spell slot but we have   no six level spell slot with which to potentially  upcast say cloud of daggers to do more damage for   that reason I think you could consider making this  character a Sor lock for example right you start   sorcerer for constitution saving throw proficiency  take just maybe a couple levels of Warlock   to get most of what you need from fathomless and  your alrich blast owering invocations and then go   sorcerer the rest of the way so that your cloud of  daggers can keep scaling into the late game I mean   going that route you do give up more of those  really useful invocations that make this build   work even better and you're giving up you know  getting back those high level spell slots back   on a short rest among other things but you gain  some useful sorcerer perks like subclass benefits   metam magic of course and a ton more spell slots  for both lower and higher level casting I was   tempted to go that route and I think if I were  like starting this character at level 10 or so   I just might do that but since most of us play  in campaigns that end by level 10 or so it just   made more sense to me to start Warlock and kind  of stay warlock so that we could get everything   we needed and see nice damage scaling at least up  to this point and now that we're here it doesn't   make a ton of sense to try going sorcerer or Bard  or something for highle spell slots later because   I mean we wouldn't get six level spell slots  until character level 20 if we started now I   think I'd just as soon stay warlock so that we  can continue getting more and better invocations   get to higher level spells quicker get more cool  fathomless features etc etc so yes unlike what you   usually see out of me like I've said we're just  going straight warlock today even though it means   we're going to see the damage Plateau a little bit  on this character it's okay there will still be   some increases and we get lots of cool non damage  focused things to make up for it arguably Chief   among those is the grasping tentacles feat Fe that  we get as a fathomless at level 10 this tells us   that now we know the evard's black tentacles  spell which might surprise some of you to know   is not available to anyone other than Wizards and  great old one warlocks and I think aberant mind   Sorcerers get it too isn't that kind of weird all  the other grasping tentacle stuff locks get access   to but this one is strangely not in our spell  list but fathomless locks learn it now and we   can cast it once per day without spending a spell  slot even what's more when we cast it we gain   temporary hit points equal to our warlock level  and damage can't break our concentration on it   that's pretty awesome so okay what is the spell is  it worth casting I think so situationally at the   very least it fills a 20ft square on the ground  with difficult terrain tentacles lot smaller than   hunger of Hadar but still way bigger than cloud  of daggers it has a similar language to cloud of   daggers though in that stuff happens both when  a creature enters the area on a turn or starts   their turn there right okay what happens they have  to make a dexterity save or take 3d6 bludgeoning   damage and be restrained oh and if they start  their turn in the area and are already restrained   they just automatically take the damage they can  use their action to try and break the restraint   making a strength or dexterity save but even if  they succeed there's nothing saying they can't   be restrained again if you just push them back in  right I love this spell both for how conceptually   on point it is for our Kraken but also for the  improved control it can offer the damage is   better than hunger of haar so if you were using  that regularly switching to this is almost a   no-brainer you could potentially have a bunch of  medium-sized enemies just restrained and taking   damage every single round in this thing while you  just run around the perimeter shoving enemies back   in who have managed to escape it's totally awesome  totally also since the 3d6 non-scaling damage per   instance of the spell that enemies get to make  a save against is significantly less than the 10   D4 from cloud of daggers yeah I'm still going to  assume that we're using the whirlpool of piranhas   when I crunch numbers but you should seriously  consider using this instead most of the time I   mean the potential total damage you could be doing  across multiple enemies does outweigh cloud of   daggers here 6 D6 around around times like four  enemies is 24 D6 right sure it might be rare that   you can pack that many in but not impossible and  when coupled with the control there's a lot of   fun and potent potential here don't forget that  the damage from our tentacle of the deeps and and   the Damage reduced by the deflection from Guardian  coil both go up to 2 d8 now at this level at level   11 we get our first Mystic arcum right six level  spell like I've said while we get access to six   level spells now they're not spell slots kind  of bums me out I wish we could use it to either   cast a sixth level spell or upcast a packed magic  spell but so be it as for which sixth level spell   we should take here might be boring but I feel  like it kind of has to be Mass suggestion I mean   of course it doesn't have to be but that's what  I'd take it can potentially end an encounter all   by itself just suggesting that enemies leave the  battlefield for whatever good reason you can come   up with or maybe even like start fighting each  other depending on the enemy and if your DM would   allow that it doesn't even require concentration  it is so good we also get a third spell slot here   and this is like a favorite warlock feature of  mine yeah it's sad that we don't get to upcast   our lower level spells past fifth level but having  the ability to cast three three fifth level spells   every short rest is a pretty decent consolation  price finally remember that eldrich blast at level   11 now fires three beams whenever we cast it at  level 12 we get a sixth invocation and I'm just   going to say PF pick your favorite here I think if  it were me I'd probably go tomb of listus I like   it both for the watery icy aspect that feels  conceptually appropriate for this character   but it's also a nice like break glass in case of  emergency invocation that lets you encase yourself   in ice once per short rest as a reaction when  you take damage granting you 10 temporary hit   points per warlock level so 120 right now that's  a lot it incapacitates you until your next turn   and at that point the temporary hit points go  away so yeah use with caution but if it's the   difference between life and death it's nice to  have we also get another ability score increase or   feat here and I think at this level I'd probably  go with the metamagic Adept feet I would love to   have at least a few levels of sorcerer instead  like I've mentioned but this feat will let us   learn two metamagic options from the sorcerer's  metamagic list and gives us two sorcery points   to spend on them per long rest I really wish we  could sacrifice spell slots to get sorcery points   back but that might be too strong on a warlock  especially no coffee lock Shenanigans here as for   the metamagic options we would pick yes I want  quick and spell take whatever you want for the   second probably subtle spell I'd think but quick  and spell would let us get our full rotation going   right on round one at least once per day and in a  tough fight that could be a pretty big Difference   Maker you cast cloud of daggers or black tentacles  as a bonus action and start firing eldrich blasts   with your action which yes you can do remember  the rules are if you cast any spell at all with   a bonus action then the only other spells you  can cast on your turn are cantrips right alrich   blast is a cantrip anyways doing this is going to  feel really nice even though it means we won't be   snaring with our tentacle on that opening round  it might especially be good then if if we're using   black tentacles instead of cloud of dagger since  that spell will slow and maybe even restrain them   anyways so the slow from our bonus action tentacle  whip won't matter as much or sure if we have quick   and spell alternatively we could just use it to  do some massive burst damage quickening eldrich   blast with our bonus action then using our action  to cast it again that's six eldrich blast beans   we might be pushing a whole host of enemies into  black tentacles in one single turn right at level   13 we get our seventh level Mr arcum and again  I feel like there's a standout best option here   Force cage take something else if you'd like  but an invisible cage that just automatically   succeeds on trapping an enemy or maybe several  and also makes it hard to even teleport out of   that doesn't even require concentration is just  so very strong okay at level 13 it is time for   our next damage report since last check the  only thing we've really gotten that increases   our damage aside from A Small Bump to our tentacle  is that third Blast from eldrich blast and that's   nice but be prepared for a little plateauing on  the damage of course the amount of control that   we've gained since last check is super strong  but against enemies with a 10 Armor class now   we would on average do 91 damage per round and  against a 17 AC it would be 82 DPR and that's   still really solid but it is more like middle of  tier one instead of at or near the top compared to   other DPR builds that I've done to date at this  level and I mean considering all that control   potential we've added since last check I would  argue that we are a lot more powerful than we   would be had we just found a way to add a bunch  of damage right okay at level 14 as a fathomless   warlock we get the fathomless Capstone if you  will a fathomless plunge this is some really   nice utility it says that once per short rest as  an action we can teleport ourselves and up to five   other willing creatures amid a whirl of kraky  tentacles very important an to anywhere within   a mile so long as it is in or within 30 ft of a  body of water that you've seen that's Pond size or   larger okay that's fairly specific and I mean you  know useless in a desert right here's hoping that   if there's not like a known body of water that  has actually come up for you in your adventures   recently that you know is fairly close to wherever  you're adventuring that day uh that your DM will   still let you cast this if you can generally  assume that you've walked past a pond or a lake   or something recently just to be safe you might  want to be constantly pestering your DM do I see   any pawns or like I don't know carry a decanter  of endless water with you everywhere you go and   someone with the mold Earth spell so you can  always like excavate some ground fill it up make   yourself a little pool and now you've always got  a nearby teleport option right at level 15 we get   our eighth level Mystic arcum and I think I would  probably take maddening Darkness here dominate   monster is super powerful but Madden ing darkness  really kind of sticks with the theme that we've   had going of making scary dark painful patches and  pushing our enemies into them it covers a massive   area a 60t radius sphere and again light can't  penetrate it nor can creatures with dark vision   see in when a creature starts their turn inside  they have to make a wisdom save or take 8 d8   psychic damage half on a save so it's definitely  less damage than you know cloud of dagger still   since it only does the damage once per round  and it's not difficult to rain or anything but   seeing as how the area is so massive it could  still be an effective way to damage and remove   several enemies from the fight for a round or two  definitely worth considering using we also get a   seventh warlock invocation here and I'm going  to kind of say pyf here pick your favorite but   I think I probably go with shroud of Shadow it  hasn't been available until this level and lets   us cast invisibility at will without spending  a spell slot hard to imagine that not being   handy like all of the time let me know if there's  something else you rather have uh in the comments   at level 16 we get another ability score increase  or feat and yeah I think again since I never took   any fighter levels I probably just go moderately  armored here it bumps our strength or decks by one   so that's why we started with a 15 dexterity right  letting it be 16 now this is a very long time to   wait for that bump so you're a call anyways  this just gives us medium armor and shield   proficiency which will be a massive bump to our  Armor class and that's pretty dang nice feel free   to go another route if you feel strongly about it  or especially if you took a fighter level at some   point right but then finally for us at level 17 we  get our ninth level Mystic Arcanum and man I could   probably count on one maybe two hands the number  of times over the almost four years now of doing   this that I've gotten to ninth level spells seems  crazy I know but foresight is such a strong spell   especially for this build where we weren't getting  reliable Advantage outside of our first familiar   enhanced attack that it really motivated me to get  here for this build so here we are and yeah true   polymorph is amazing turn yourself into a dragon  but for just straight damage sticking with our   tactics foresight is better in that it lasts  for 8 hours though it takes a minute to cast   so you can't just like cast it in combat right but  then for the duration it gives us or another party   member I suppose if you don't want to be selfish  advantage on all attack rolls all ability checks   all saving throws and gives enemies disadvantage  on attacks against us and even prevents us from   ever being surprised no concentration required  amazing speaking of amazing we also get our   fourth spell slot now so many fifth level spells  synaptic static Galore and we get a fourth eldrich   beam blast whenever we cast it now at level 17  so good this was a fantastic level for us for   our final damage report then since last check we  have increased our damage by gaining a fourth Beam   on our eldrich blast and by giving ourselves  advantage on every one of our attacks thanks   to foresight super nice and we've also continued  to add boatloads of utility control and defensive   options as well and so against enemies with a  10 Armor class we would here on average do 104   damage per round and against an 18 AC it would be  99 DPR we broke that century mark almost at an 18   AC even which is awesome though compared to other  sustained damage builds that I've done to date   at this level we haven't scaled quite as strongly  still thanks mostly to the fact that our cloud of   daggers damage stopped scaling right aside from  damage from eldr blast I guess but that's fine   I mean we're still kind of bottom of tier one so  yeah we still pack a mean punch and bring way more   to the table than just damage so let's wrap it up  here with some final thoughts the tier score for   this build if you take the damage that they do at  all of the armor classes that we calculate for at   each of the four damage reports and just average  them all into one big number we end up with a 70   putting them very comfortably not surprisingly  in the upper half of Tier 1 right between the   Stars Druid and hexblade 2.0 which also used  cloud of daggers but I think if I'm being fair   this build would be able to use the spell a  lot more reliably and effectively so should   it be objectively considered as like one of my  best builds to date honestly I wasn't expecting   that to be the case when I first set out to make  the character my main goal was to do something   fun and cool for Kraken week I wanted solid damage  and solid control instead I got amazing damage and   incredible control though to be fair I think you  only get one or the other right aside from high   level Mass suggestion and force cage stuff like  the damage is amazing if you're concentrating on   Whirlpool of piranhas but control- wise you're  just snaring a single enemy most of the time if   you concentrate on Hunger of Hadar or black  tentacles your control goes up to an eight   or a 9 out of 10 but with reduced damage right of  course let's not forget that we have multi-target   burst damage potential here even more potent  control spell options if we want to use them   some really fun and flavorful utility and even  decent survivability especially in the later game   this Kraken ended up being much more versatile  and potent than I ever dreamed and man I love   when that happens so I certainly hope you enjoyed  it too and I hope you enjoy Kraken week from other   content creators as well don't forget to check out  the stuff my other friends are doing by Looking In   in the video description down below but yeah  that's the build for the week so I hope you   enjoyed it I hope you guys know that I love you  I do thank you so much for all that you do for me   for the channel I hope you have a fantastic day  and a great week and if you don't I hope you'll   hang in there please hang on I hope that you do  good and that you be kind and that I see you again   very soon but until then take care bye [Music]  all right let's see what color to use not pink I   did that last time oh let's go with a nice like  aquamarine yeah that feels appropriate then the   next question is what song to sing while I set up  my lights needs to be like a sea monster song Ooh shiny oh shoot like a treasure from a sunken  pirate wreck scrub the deck and make it look shiny   I will Sparkle like a wealthy woman's neck  just a sec actually no it needs to be like   more tentacle right Kraken duh Ursula is right  there Poor Unfortunate Souls it's sad but true   this one Longing To Be thinner this one wants  to get the girl and do I help them yes I do   all right looks too Orange let's go yeah that's  good oh okay shoot hav put on the tele problem   yet okay I think we are ready for the Kraken  I think we are ready to Fil A Kraken I've been   wanting to say that all day just a SC no stay  me stay I'm watch it you're going to stay still   it just needs to be just and let's get back  to my bowl of cereal and then get back to the build I kind of missed I don't need to say each month cuz I just  said monthly speaking of Hadar what's with   all the Hadar stuff anyways who's haar  guess I could always look it up oh a   dying star from the Forgotten Realms  who fed on living creatures in order   to stay alive that warlocks often made  a packed with okay cool know your lore

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 46,281

Keywords: dnd, dungeons & dragons, D&D, kraken, week, warlock, fathomless, damage, control, best, dpr, burst, sustained, nova, tentacle, optimize, min max, character, build, creation, tips, tricks, how to, guide

Id: QZsAj3zXu7o

Length: 46min 47sec (2807 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 02 2024