The Master of Shadows: d4 #102

hi everybody how's it going welcome to d4 this is  the show where each week we take a deep dive into   one sometimes two specific character builds for  dungeons and dragons 5e we crunch numbers about   them we theory craft about them not with the  intent to tell you the right way or the best   way to play a character necessarily but to explore  one potential way to build and play a character   with the hopes of creating something that is  both powerful but also really fun to play so   if you enjoy creating characters for d almost as  much as you enjoy playing the actual game itself   or if you're just looking for tips or ideas on a  particular character that you're thinking about   playing then welcome home this is where you  belong and i'm so glad you're here my name is   colby and i'll be your host so some of you know  this the first character that i ever played in   d5e several years ago was a shadow monk her name  was ariana and i loved her with all of my heart   i gave her three levels of assassin rogue so  yes i've been multi-classing since day one   and tried to make her like this amazing stealthy  scouty ninja who could do potentially incredible   burst damage when she got surprise on her enemies  ah i kind of missed the naivete of those days   in some ways before i learned how poorly monks  scale damage wise see in the group of friends   that i play with and i don't think any of them  would necessarily disagree with this statement   here i'm kind of the only one who really tries  to go all in on optimizing a character and so   compared to the rest of my party with maybe the  exception of a friend who was playing a barbarian   that had the legendary greatsword hazeron which  is totally overpowered i did pretty good damage   stunning strike could sometimes be a little  frustrating in that it rarely seemed to work   against the monsters that i really needed it to  work on the most but every once in a while it   still would and that was fun the larger problem or  frustration that i had with the character honestly   was the relative infrequency with which i could  actually surprise my enemies this was partly due   to the aforementioned barbarian constantly going  leroy jenkins in every combat and partly due to   just how combat often unfolds in d without really  much of a chance of getting surprised in the first   place admittedly the few times that i was able  to get surprise i could be fairly devastating and   that was awesome but as our campaign progressed  into late game i became pretty disillusioned with   the shadow monk with three levels of assassin  and convinced corey my dm who you can see   be a dm for us in our tales of an area channel i  convinced him to let me like respect my monk this   was pre tasha's too and make her like a way of the  open hand monk instead it was actually a pretty   cool like redemption story arc that we came up  with to get there and though i did lose a little   like sustained dpr uh by missing out on sneak  attack i was pretty happy with the additional like   defense and control options that open hand gave  me so i had no regrets fast forward a few years   to today i've been thinking a lot about that  character and about everything that i've kind of   learned about 5e mechanics i kind of wish that  i had a time machine and could go back to that   bright-eyed newbie version of myself and lend a  helping hand help me create a character that had   at least maybe the foundation of a shadow monk  which was what i was really going for but whose   power and like sustained damage and versatility  were more in line with what i was kind of hoping   and envisioning my character to be and so that's  my goal for the character that we're doing today   build a high sustained dpr shadow monk or at least  a character who who is in part a shadow monken   has shadow monk as their foundation the character  that i wish ariana could have been and then share   it with you guys since i can't share it  with my past self and so i proudly present   episode 102 the master of shadows i'm really  into shadowy stuff at the moment aren't i   does shadow source for a couple of months ago  shadow blade a couple of weeks ago anyway maybe   it's the summertime heat that's making me long for  darker days big thanks to my good friend randall   hampton for the fantastic artwork that he has  created for this character concept that he creates   for every character concept that i sent him each  week he's a fantastic artist as you can no doubt   tell if you would be interested in following  randall and or potentially reaching out to him   to see if you can commission him for some art  of your own character or party i will as always   put links in the video description on how to  do so thanks randall and also before we jump   into the build really quick i wanted to remind  you guys about hit point press and humble wood   tails whose kickstarter ends next week as of when  this video is released so it ends on august 11th   and of course surprising no one they totally  destroyed their funding goal so this project is   a go it's green lit it's going to be made and you  don't want to miss out on the benefits of backing   it before their kickstarter ends humblewood tails  is a companion book to the humblewood campaign   setting for 5th edition featuring expanded lore  around the mystical tree city of alterheart   the book includes five new humble wood adventures  for levels three through eight where you will   encounter pirate mercenaries face off against  a slime king take on the amaranthine cran in a   nightmarish dreamscape and so much more humblewood  tales is going to be available as a book a box   set and a kickstarter exclusive collector's  edition it has over 200 pages of new content   it's fully compatible with all of your 5e games  including pre-made characters a full beast jerry   tons of new magic items and more so you know  whether you're familiar with humble wood and   have played in the setting before or you're just  looking to jump into the setting for the first   time because it looks fun and cute because it  totally does it's so adorable you would be well   served by backing this kickstarter so please  check them out go to d4.humblewoodtails.com i'm   going to put that link in the video description of  course and i would appreciate it if you use that   link so that they'll know that i sent you like i  said they've already reached their funding goal   but they do have some really fantastic stretch  goals that are still waiting and available so   go back em help them hit those stretch goals and  get all the juicy perks and benefits from doing so   again you won't regret it huge thanks to hitpoint  press congrats on getting your project funded   can't wait to see the results and let's jump  into the build all right a level one for our   starting class we are going to start off this  character as a monk i do want to include like a   little caveat here you know the reason i didn't  call the video the shadow monk as i've sort of   hinted at is that while shadow monk is where  we're going to start and provides the foundation   for the character by the end of the build they  actually end up with fewer levels in monk than   another class and we'll kind of get into why later  but yes at level one we're starting as a monk so   maybe when we first meet our character they are  perhaps studying in a monastery but maybe it's one   that's a little bit less be at one with yourself  and inner peace and a little more mercy does not   exist in this dojo does it no sensei might be kind  of that kind of place i mean of course it doesn't   have to be like this super mean or aggressive  kind of thing it doesn't have to be kobrakai but   it might at least be a place i think that teaches  their students how to accomplish their goals and   maybe even high-minded goals but using the arts  of sutterfuge stealth and shadow as for our race   all monks are mad multiple ability score dependent  not angry though i suppose you could be an angry   monk but the monk that we're building today is  especially mad for that reason i really wanted   to pick a race that gets super great ability  score bonuses i'm also interested in being   elvish because a ariana was b i love elves  i'm kind of a cliche d d fanboy in that sense   and see because of a certain feat that i'd like to  access later for all of those reasons i'm going to   suggest that we go half elf here now ariana was a  wood elf and i'm partial to wood elves mostly for   story and fantasy lore reasons and a wood elf half  elf could get a little extra move speed which is   nice but since monks already get some additional  move speed that might not be super important on   this character thematically our best option  might be like a drow half elf since they kind   of love like the darkness and the shadow already  right and they get access to some cool additional   spells dancing lights fairy fire and a character  level 5 darkness which would be nice but since i'm   building this character to try and maximize damage  i'm instead going to suggest that we take the high   elf half elf or the high half elf for our subclass  which is actually something that i've never done   in a build before because high half elves can  forego gaining proficiency into skills and instead   take the high elves weapon training feature which  gives us proficiency in the long and short swords   and the long and short bows now monks already have  proficiency in the short bow and short sword but   not the longer versions and we want to use a long  sword on this character as we'll discuss later   using a different weapon instead like a quarter  staff wouldn't be a huge blow to our damage but   i am trying to eke out every last point of damage  possible so we're going for the long sword as for   our ability scores i assume that we're going with  the point by method as always and so i'm going to   recommend going with a 15 dexterity taking our  plus two bonus there a 15 charisma taking our   plus one bonus there a 13 wisdom and taking an our  second plus one bonus that half elves get there   and a 12 constitution like i said we're super mad  but being a half elf does help out quite a bit   now quickly starting with the 16 charisma isn't  strictly necessary but it's nice if you instead   wanted to drop that to a 14 and put more points  into either wisdom or constitution i wouldn't   blame you the way i've done it makes us a little  squishier and as we all know a dead master of   shadows does zero damage so yeah do what you feel  you must i'm prioritizing damage on this character   so we're going to take charisma to a 16. i like  glass cannons what can i say as for our equipment   i'm going to recommend going the gold buy method  as usual and picking up a long sword and that's   really all we need one great thing about being a  monk is you don't really need a lot of equipment   although we're proficient with that long sword  we won't actually be using it until next level   so maybe grab a quarter staff or something as well  to tide you over and then you know whatever other   traveling necessities you might have or feel free  to loan the rest of your money to your favorite   party member at a low interest rate as a monk at  level one we get the unarmored defense feature   which tells us that so long as we're not wearing  armor or using a shield our armor class equals our   dexterity modifier plus our wisdom modifier plus  10 of course which means that we currently have a   15 ac not great but not horrid and we also get  martial arts with martial arts we're told that   again so long as we're not wearing armor or using  a shield and we're wielding only monk weapons   which are short swords and any simple weapon that  doesn't have the two-handed or heavy property more   on that in a second we can use dexterity instead  of strength for our attack and damage roles of our   unarmed strikes and our monk weapon attacks even  if the weapon doesn't have the finesse property   also we can use a d4 for our unarmed strike damage  instead of just one damage plus our modifier and   that scales with monk levels and when we take the  attack action we can make an unarmed strike as a   bonus action so right off the bat we can make two  attacks per turn and add our dexterity modifier   to the damage on both without needing a feat or a  fighting style to do it making the monk a fairly   solid damage dealer for a level one character  doesn't scale particularly well but hey for right   now feels pretty nice at level two we get key the  defining feature of monks that fuels pretty much   everything cool or neat that you want to do we get  one key point per monk level and they reset on a   short rest most people i think would argue that  that's not enough and it's one thing that makes   the monk suffer a little bit in power and potency  but anyway for now we can use those key points   to do three things take the dodge action with a  bonus action and a key point disengage your dash   with a bonus action and a key point or use flurry  of blows which lets us make two unarmed strikes   as a bonus action when we take the attack action  instead of the usual one that we can do by default   now we're talking three attacks in turn using  our dex modifier for damage on all of them   without a feet or a fighting style alas this  might be the pinnacle of our career as a monk   and we only have two key points so it's  not like it's sustainable or anything but   hey we are relatively strong at the moment we  also at monk 2 get the aforementioned increased   monk move speed here with the unarmored movement  feature gives us 10 additional move speed yes so   long as we're not wearing armor or using a shield  and you know 40 feet of move speed nothing to   sneeze at importantly as well thanks to tasha's  cauldron of everything monks get the dedicated   weapon feature at level 2 which tells us that at  the end of a rest we can touch a weapon focus our   key and make that weapon a monk weapon so long  as we are proficient with it and it doesn't have   the heavy or special properties thus since we're  proficient with long swords and they are neither   heavy nor special just versatile we can use a long  sword as a monk weapon and since it is versatile   we can use two hands to make an attack with it  letting our damage die for that attack be a d10   there's no prohibition against using two hands  to make an attack it just can't be listed as a   two-handed weapon admittedly for me whenever i  play a monk i really like to pretend that all of   my attacks are made with my hands and feet knees  and elbow etc my body is a weapon so i always ask   my dm if i can just like re-flavor the long sword  or a quarter staff or whatever i'm using as like   some brass knuckles or something but that's  my flavor and fantasy am i alone here do   you guys like to envision your monks using actual  weapons in combat or is it just me at level three   we get deflect missiles which tells us that when  we're hit by a ranged weapon attack we can use our   reaction to deflect or catch the missile reducing  the damage by a d10 plus our dex modifier plus   our monk level which should reduce most ranged  weapon attacks to nothing at this level and that's   both super cool and really cinematic and pretty  situationally strong if you do reduce the damage   to zero you can spend a key point to redirect  the missile to another creature essentially   making a ranged weapon attack with it as though  it were a monk weapon and then at level three we   also of course get our monk subclass our monastic  tradition and we as i've said are going with the   way of shadow i really really love the flavor and  feel of this subclass and since i've actually only   ever used them in one build before the anti-mage  and i didn't do this then i'm to read what   wizards of the coast has to say about the shadow  monk monks of the way of shadow follow a tradition   that values stealth and sutterfuge these  monks might be called ninjas or shadow dancers   and they serve as spies and assassins sometimes  the members of a ninja monastery are family   members forming a clan sworn to secrecy about  their arts and missions other monasteries are more   like thieves guilds hiring out their services to  nobles rich merchants or anyone else who can pay   their fees regardless of their methods the heads  of these monasteries expect the unquestioning   obedience of their students hmm that sets a good  tone so as a shadow monk we get the shadow arts   feature which tells us that as an action we can  spend two of our very precious three currently   key points to cast a few spells dark vision pass  without trace silence and darkness these are   all pretty good spells situationally anyway and  since we get our key points back on a short rest   not a horrible use of our key if the situation  calls for it we also do learn the minor illusion   can trip here as well at level four we get  one of my very favorite monkish abilities for   the coolness and flavor factor anyway slow fall  this tells us that when we fall we can reduce   the damage we take which is normally a d6 for  every 10 feet that we fall right by five times   our monk level or 20 damage at this level which  should let us fall from 50 or 60 feet on average   before taking any damage and that's just cool go  jump off some five story buildings yes for fun   we also get our first ability score increase or  feet and yeah you saw this coming i want elven   accuracy it lets us bump in our case our dexterity  by one giving us an 18 now which feels great but   also tells us that if we have advantage when we  make an attack with dexterity or intelligence   or wisdom or charisma we essentially get to roll  three d20s instead of two now we don't currently   have anything that gives us reliable advantage  i'm seriously seriously hoping that you have a   party member who's regularly casting ferry fire  or knocking enemies prone or doing something else   to give you advantage but there will be things  that we do later on with this character to give   ourselves advantage at least some of the time and  since it's a half feet and i kinda wanted to go   half elf anyway for the ability score increases  it really feels to me like a perfect fit here   at level five we get extra attack and so that  means yeah we now get two attacks with our action   and two more attacks with our bonus action so  long as we have the key for it and four attacks   on a turn at level five is really quite good  more attacks than any character can do outside   of a level 11 fighter who has a weaponized bonus  action or action surge up i suppose i might have   lied when i said that level 2 was the pinnacle of  our career might be level 5. especially because we   also get the sometimes awesome sometimes really  disappointing stunning strike here this tells us   that if we hit with a melee weapon attack and yes  on arm strikes can count for this purpose look it   up in the sage advice compendium if you need to  you can spend a key point to try and stun your   target forcing them to make a constitution saving  throw against your wisdom-based dc and that's a   fairly humble 13 dc right now or they are stunned  until the end of your next turn i've tried to   build a character specifically to try and take  as much advantage of this potentially powerful   feature here the the re-roller or fate weaver but  on this character where we're not prioritizing   wisdom and considering that constitution  saves are typically the strongest saves for   most enemies in dnd 5e i just don't think i would  really plan on using this feature all that often   unless you felt really confident that your  enemy had a low plus to con save or maybe   you prioritized wisdom over charisma or you had  a friend with the silvery barb spell available or   bane active or something right importantly as well  at level 5 here our unarmed strikes scale up to a   1d6 but at level 6 with our extra attack secured  and a little scaling on our arm strike as well and   a few key points under our belt i think it's time  to take levels in a different class see our shadow   monk has come upon an artifact maybe a ring or an  urn or a statue or perhaps even yes a magic lamp   was this artifact in the halls of your monastery  revered by those who follow the way of shadow   the legendary urn of whispering warriors someone  broke that did you stumble upon it during   one of your adventures was it given to you by  a friend or family member perhaps even passed   down to you as an heirloom and you've been  carrying it with you all this time i don't   know but there is an otherworldly being tied to  this artifact and at this point in our character's   career that otherworldly being has reached out  to us or perhaps we reached out to them with an   offer of additional power to help us complete  whatever great task lies in front of us if we   will but pledge our service to them because yes  whatever your reasons we are going to become a   genie warlock at this level and yeah right at  level one warlocks get their subclass their   otherworldly patron we're going genie but to  be honest i don't feel super strong about the   otherworldly patron here that you take at warlock  level one for your subclass i think it's the best   i think it's the most powerful it's going to  do a lot for us there's some really fantastic   features but you could totally go fiend or  undead or arch faye if you prefer i think we'd   get a little less damage and i don't think the  abilities that those subclasses get are as good   but i'm more here for the spells than anything and  genie is probably my favorite warlock subclass i   think personally despite the fact that i might  have used hex blade a tad bit more just a tad   but yeah the additional damage that genie warlock  provides isn't anything monumental so first up as   a genie warlock we have to choose our genie kind  and yeah i'm going to recommend as i usually do   going with the dao which is affiliated with the  element of earth again this i don't think is   super important necessarily so if you'd rather go  with a genie or a friday or married married marie go ahead you do get access to some additional  spells based on which kind you choose but i'm   not actually planning on making use of any of them  in combat really what i do care a little bit more   about here comes from the genies vessel feature  which tells us that once per turn when you hit   with an attack roll you can deal additional damage  equal to your proficiency bonus and the damage   type is associated with our genie kind dao gets to  do bludgeoning damage here and magical bludgeoning   damage is much less often resisted by enemies  than thunder fire or cold damage and there's less   immunity to it as well also with geni's vessel  we can magically vanish into our vessel once per   long rest for a number of hours equal to twice  our proficiency bonus it's a 20 by 20 cylinder   inside meaning you can store all kinds of stuff  in there sort of like a free bag of holding but   that you can only access once per day and  it's a nice place for a short rest for us   currently as well as just cool we also get spells  at warlock 1 of course and while yeah i'd probably   take eldritch blast because dear warlock and it's  a decent ranged attack option when we need it   and maybe armor of agathis because you're a  warlock and it's a nice defensive option that   doesn't require concentration the one that i'd for  sure pick up here and use in combat would be hex   hex can be a really great spell and the more  attacks you make with it the stronger it becomes   so it's really pretty good for a monk who can be  potentially making four attacks on a turn it does   require a concentration it takes a bonus action  to cast and then transfer to another target when   your existing hexed target dies right that's  a bit of a bummer but we cast on an enemy and   thereafter all attacks we make against them do an  extra d6 of damage you can also with hex choose   an ability score that your hex target is going  to then have disadvantage on ability checks with   alas it's not saving throws if it were the spell  would be overpowered but this can help your allies   make grapple or shove attacks against them if  you choose strength right or make their counter   spells less effective if they're a spellcaster  and you choose their spellcasting ability   etc all right at level six it's time for our first  damage report and let's discuss what combat looks   for us right now it's pretty straightforward i'm  assuming that on round one we'd cast hex on our   enemy with our bonus action then make a couple of  long sword attacks if the enemy is likely to die   before your next turn don't bother with hex but  assuming that they're a tougher target this means   that on round two we'd make two long sword attacks  and then two unarmed strikes against them with a   key point meaning that we would do 2d 10 plus 6 d6  plus 19 thanks to our dex modifier and our genie's   wrath that we get once per turn that's of course  the total if all four of our attacks were to land   and that's pretty nice when your target dies use  a bonus action to transfer hex to the next target   unless they're all super squishy right and  just continue pummeling yeah it's a bummer to   constantly be using your bonus action to transfer  that hex but considering that we only have five   key points at the moment anyway we're unlikely  to be able to use flurry of blows every single   turn for combat regardless unless you tend to get  a short rest after every combat encounter at your   table so i don't feel too bad about giving up that  bonus action the best thing in the world right now   for this character would be to have advantage  somehow especially since we have elven accuracy   so we're gonna work on that later here's hoping  that one of your allies is doing something to   give you advantage assuming that we don't but then  attacking as per everything that i've just said   against an enemy with a 10 armor class we would  on average do 48 damage per round and against an   enemy with a 15 armor class it would be 36 dpr and  that's pretty solid damage it puts us like middle   of the pack of tier 1 compared to other sustained  dpr builds that i've done to date check the video   description to see those graphs and spreadsheets  now granted this damage comes with a couple of   grains of salt in that you only have one warlock  spell slot currently even though it also resets   on a short rest you're often giving up your bonus  action to transfer hex and you only have five key   points i feel confident that you could do this  damage for say an entire combat encounter versus   like a big bad a boss fight and that has been like  my minimum requirement for other sustained dpr   builds but yeah it is a little less sustainable  than other builds no question but also that said   to be fair plenty of my sustained dpr builds come  with grains of salt so i'm not going to lose a lot   of sleep over this when i haven't lost much sleep  for others that function similarly right at level   seven we would be a warlock ii and we get first  up our second spell slot per short rest that's   really nice and of course warlock invocations  and i love warlock invocations we get two for now   and i think i'd probably take eldritch mind which  gives us advantage on our concentration checks and   you know since we don't have constitution saving  throw proficiency this is going to be a nice help   when we are concentrating on spells which will  probably be most of the time so long as we have   the spell slots for it i'd also grab devil's  sight here which lets us see even in magical   darkness and as a master of shadows being able to  see in any kind of darkness felt super important   to me but also we will make use of this tactically  because yes at level eight we'd be a warlock three   and that means we get second level warlock spells  and while i'd be sure to grab like misty step   and maybe hold person the one that i would plan  on using in combat sometimes is going to be the   darkness spell now yes we did have access to this  spell as a shadow monk at level three with use of   our key points and so we could have started  using this tactic that i'm about to discuss   last level once we got double sight if we had the  key points to spend anyway you're familiar with   this tactic and it's not without its drawbacks but  yes with darkness you cast the spell as an action   and then magical darkness radiates 15 feet in  every direction from the point that you cast it   on i typically like to cast it on my person or  something that i'm wearing and then so long as   enemies can't see in that magical darkness most of  them won't be able to and since we can thanks to   devil's sight we'd have advantage on our attacks  against them and they'd have disadvantage on   attacks against us now this of course can present  problems for not only your enemies but also your   allies in combat so you're definitely going to  want to use this tactic with caution talk about it   with your party members because yeah anything that  your friends are trying to do that require them to   see their target most commonly spells but there  are plenty of other things as well they won't   be able to do if the target is in your bubble of  darkness and they don't also have devil sight or   something else that would let them see right this  might even include healing you or buffing you now   the good news is if your ally tries to attack an  enemy in the darkness they should be able to do   so without disadvantage since the enemy can't see  them either and thus they'd have advantage on the   attack but since they can't see the enemy they'd  have disadvantage those things cancel each other   out and they would just make the attack as normal  still i don't really love relying on this tactic   a lot having played a character in game who did  for several levels you know after a few levels i   started getting really hungry for a different way  to get advantage every turn it's effective but   it can be annoying both for your allies but also  for your dm and also here's the thing the damage   that we get from using hex as our concentration  actually makes hex a better spell at least at   lower to middling enemy armor classes so when i  crunch numbers going forward i'm actually going   to assume that we are using hex at lower acs and  then switching to darkness at higher enemy acs   for advantage once the benefit from advantage  outweighs the extra damage from hex and i'm going   to indicate on the spreadsheet with a purple  shaded cell at which point you'd want to swap   of course i fully appreciate that you're very  often not going to know what the enemy ac is   when a fight breaks out but i feel like we often  have a decent idea especially if you've been   playing d d for a while but you know if you're  not really sure i might play it safe and go the   darkness route since that does nice things for  our own survivability as well so long as that's   not going to cause too much groaning from everyone  else at our table and of course if it does just   sticking with hex will be fine also at warlock  3 we get our packed boon and i'm gonna recommend   that we go packed of the chain here it's really  nice in that it lets you learn the wizard's fine   familiar spell and then cast it as a ritual even  letting the familiar you summon take an improved   form that of an imp pseudo-dragon closet or sprite  i would probably go with any but the pseudo-dragon   as the rest of them can turn invisible until  they attack and yes the familiar tactic with   familiars is to have them take the help action and  thereby give you advantage on one of your attacks   against your enemy and if you're familiar can be  invisible and stay invisible since they're just   helping not attacking it greatly increases their  chances of staying alive even against mean dms and   yeah it's gonna be really nice to have advantage  on at least one attack now making hex sort of that   much more valuable versus darkness right at level  nine we would be a warlock four and that means   another ability score increase for feet and yeah  i'm going to bump decks cap it at 20. it improves   our attacks our armor class our initiative  our saving throws and a bunch of great skills   to me it's a no-brainer but for our level 9 damage  report then things have changed a little bit   since last check we're now using either our  familiar on one of our attacks per turn or   darkness on every turn for elven accuracy  super advantage against higher enemy armor   classes anyway with darkness and we've kept our  dexterity score to make us as agile as we can   possibly be and thus against an enemy with a 10  armor class we would do 57 damage per round and   against an enemy with a 16 armor class it would be  47 dpr compared to other dpr builds that i've done   to date at this level we've slipped a little  bit now we're more kind of in the range of lower   tier one upper tier two and to be honest with you  that's a little better than i thought we'd be so   i'm feeling pretty good we are still mostly a monk  after all just in case you're curious you would be   better off with darkness versus hex at an enemy  ac of 19 and higher so yeah do your best to size   up your enemy at the beginning of combat and make  an educated guess as to which spell you should be   using at level 10 i really want to grab just one  more level of monk here we'd be among six for this   character i think and i think now is probably  that time to grab it the biggest problem that   monks have is just their poor scaling past level  five i think they're kind of like barbarians in   this regard but unfortunately because so much  of what they do relies on key and you only get   one key point per monk level you sort of feel  chained to the class if you want to reliably   use your features with this character since  we're really only using key for flurry of blows   and because they reset on a short rest i don't  feel too terrible about only winding up with six   of them because we're going to stop monk levels  here but obviously you might want to adjust that   especially if you tend to have a lot of combat  encounters between short rests at your table   but anyway as a monk six we get key empowered  strikes this makes our unarmed strikes magical   for the purpose of overcoming enemy resistance  to non-magical attacks right and yeah if you need   this sooner because you're running into this at  your table a lot go ahead and grab it earlier i am   really hoping that you can find a magic item that  will make your unarmed strikes both magical and   more powerful but yeah do what you got to do  we also at level 6 get shadow step and i just   really couldn't imagine being like a master of  shadows without this ability it's my favorite   shadow monk ability i think so with shadow step  when you're in dim light or darkness as a bonus   action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an  unoccupied space you can see that's also in dim   lighter darkness after that the next attack that  you make on this turn is made with advantage now   admittedly this doesn't do a ton for our sustained  dpr or at least it's not going to show up on the   spreadsheet but it's just so cool and flavorful  it makes me feel like nightcrawler just bamfing   all over the battlefield right especially because  we probably have misty step now too now there's   no limit to how often you can use shadowstep which  is awesome you're just limited by the lighting and   yeah there is some nice synergy here with darkness  and devil sight too right i mean maybe there's a   patch of dim light close to where you're standing  but the area that you want to get to is covered   in bright light or vice versa just cast darkness  on the brightly lit area and bamf away and yeah   if you have misty step and a spell slot you could  use that instead but it only has a 30 foot range   and you might want to be casting darkness anyway  to give yourself advantage on your attacks etc   right so this could be a more spell slot efficient  way to accomplish that and it's just so fun and   cool and just makes me feel like a true master  of shadows but yeah at level 11 i think i'm going   back to warlock and just staying there for the  rest of this character's career i'm mostly doing   it for the better spells and spell slots as we'll  get into but there are some other nice warlocky   benefits that we get along the way too so as a  warlock 5 we get our third invocation there are a   lot of good ones things to buff your familiar ways  to buff yourself thematically one with shadows   is definitely worth considering if for no other  reason than it says shadows in the name but it   would just let you go invisible if you're in dim  light or darkness but then it cancels as soon as   you move take an action or a reaction so it's  not super useful i think if it were me i would   actually take cloak of flies here i kind of love  this invocation and especially for this build   actually as a bonus action you surround yourself  with a magical aura that looks like a swarm of   flies it feels pretty dark and thematic and i  don't know why you couldn't just like flavor it as   swirling shadows or something instead of flies  as long as your dm's okay with it it would then   give you advantage on intimidation checks but then  disadvantage on other charisma checks and then if   any creature including allies so be careful starts  their turn within five feet of you they take   poison damage equal to your charisma modifier it  lasts until you're incapacitated or you dismiss   it but you can only use it once per short or long  rest so don't dismiss it unless you're confident   that you're not going to need it for combat  encounters so yes this will give us an extra three   damage per turn and more if there are multiple  enemies close to us right but of course less if   those enemies are resistant or immune to poison  damage so yeah not a huge damage increase but   not nothing and like i say i just think it's super  cool and flavorful for this character we also get   third level spells here and yeah counterspell  dispel magic fear fly hypnotic pattern etc etc   lots of good ones but there are two that i want  to highlight here that i would plan on using going   forward to replace the other two spells that we've  potentially been using our concentration for hex   and darkness right and they are spirit shroud  and summon fae spirit shroud is easy it's sort   of a souped-up hex right you cast it again with  a bonus action use your concentration but then   going forward any attack you make against a target  within 10 feet of you takes an extra d8 of damage   it's cold necrotic or radiant you choose when you  cast the spell that's really nice but then you get   the added benefits too of a creature you hit not  being able to heal until your next turn and any   creature within 10 feet of you of your choice has  their move speed reduced by 10 feet best of all   the spell scales by another d8 of damage for every  two levels higher you up cast it so you know not   until a fifth level spell currently there's a nice  little damage bump it brings some added debuffing   and best of all is cast on ourselves not our  target meaning we just do that extra damage to   anything we hit without needing to use a bonus  action to transfer it to another target right i   love love love this spell but okay what's  the deal with summon fae to replace darkness   well with summon fae my very favorite summoning  spell you get a small face spirit that obeys your   verbal commands no action required by you that can  make a decently damaging weapon attack it's 2d6   plus 6 currently not bad now their plus to hit is  unfortunately based on your spell casting ability   not your dex modifier or anything which is kind  of a bummer but at least our charisma is a 16 so   it's not horrible but best of all when you summon  the fae you choose their mood fuming mirthful or   trixie and then as a bonus action your fee can  teleport 30 feet and then if you pick trixie for   the mood at least they can fill a five-foot cube  within five feet of them with yep magical darkness   which lasts until the end of their next turn  now there is some potential complexity to   the timing of how this all might work rules as  written unfortunately the fae spirit shares your   initiative but they take their turn immediately  after yours meaning that the enemy they covered in   magical darkness might simply just move out of it  before you get a chance to attack them with your   super advantage thanks to double sight and elven  accuracy if you can convince your dm to let the   fae you know share your initiative but go right  before you if you want that's the easiest and   best solution to this potential problem if you can  convince them to let your fae use the ready action   to ready a bonus action instead of their action  then you know they could make an attack and like   ready their face step darkness combo to be used  like right before your next turn or something   neither of these work rules is written so for the  rest of us we just need to have the fae spirit   put the darkness on our current target that we're  standing next to right and hope that the target   decides to stay put rather than move away from us  you know triggering a super advantage opportunity   attack from us if they did regardless of how  it ends up working it's pretty good for us   but yeah ideally you'd get a full round of  combat against that creature in the darkness   that's what i'm going to assume going forward  when i crunch numbers appreciating that that's   a best case scenario that might not always work  perfectly every time and partly of course because   the enemy might be large sized or greater right  in which case a 5 foot cube of darkness might   not effectively blind them unless the fae can  just like cast it on their around their head   or something like that but then maybe they could  just i don't know regardless i love this spell   because we get an adorable trixie spirit that  does damage and can still potentially let us use   the darkness devil sight tactic without screwing  up the battlefield for everyone else if you're   fighting a large creature with a super high armor  class we could always still pull out just the   darkness spell if need be and so yeah it's nice to  have options at level 12 we would be a warlock six   and and that means as a genie warlock we get  elemental gift and man genie warlocks truly are   amazing elemental gift such a fantastic feature  first of all it gives you permanent resistance   to a damage type based on your genie kind  and this is the other main reason that i   wanted to go dow because dao patrons give  us resistance to bludgeoning damage and   in case you didn't know bludgeoning damage  is the most frequent damage type of official   monsters in d5e that alone is fantastic  but wait there's more you also get to fly   why the heck didn't we beeline for warlock six  i guess you could have actually in that case i   would have maybe taken back to the blade  so that you could get the thirsting blade   invocation and still get extra attack at level  five i do think that starting monk is stronger   overall but yeah free flight proficiency bonus  times per day as a bonus action you can give   yourself a flying speed of 30 feet that lasts  for 10 minutes incredible at level 13 we would   be a warlock 7 and we get our fourth invocation  nothing i'd plan on using to improve our damage   necessarily so pyf pick your favorite i mean  tomb of lavista's gift of the ever living ones   fiendish vigor one with the shadows lots of good  options we also do get fourth level spells and   also lots of good options i think for sure i'd  pick up dimension door for a big teleport that   also lets you bring a friend but i would also make  sure to pick up shadow of moil here shadow of moil   lets you with your concentration cover yourself  in flame like shadows very thematically fitting   but these shadows caused you to become heavily  obscured which means that you effectively cannot   be seen by anything that doesn't have a way to see  into heavily obscured areas meaning we no longer   need the darkness spell ever really unless we're  using it to shadow step right also with shadow   of moil you have resistance to radiant damage so  now resistance to radiant and bludgeoning if we're   using the spell and anything within 10 feet of  you that hits you with an attack gets to take 2d8   necrotic damage for their trouble as your shadows  lash out at that enemy totally awesome perhaps   most importantly for us at this level our summoned  fey now gets to make two attacks per turn since   they get to make a number of attacks equal to half  the spell level at which we cast the spell and   as a warlock we only have fourth level spell  slots right this means that we are always going   to use our summon fae even over spirit shroud  at least if the enemy is medium size or smaller   and we can take advantage of that darkness devil  sight tactic for our level 13 damage report then   we've picked up a little extra damage in the  form of either spirit shroud versus larger and   lower enemy armor class targets or summon fae if  the enemy is like medium size or smaller i'm going   to assume that they are here of course we also  got a little bump from cloak of flies and then   just a lot of fun utility mobility and defensive  options as well so against an enemy with a 10   armor class here we would do 74 dpr and against  an enemy with a 17 armor class it would be 71   damage per round and just in case you're curious  if you were fighting large creatures or larger and   the trixie phase darkness wouldn't necessarily  give you advantage the point at which you would   use shadow of moil instead of spirit shroud is an  enemy ac of 21 or higher so almost never really   although i mean we are level 13 now so maybe it'd  be more than i think compared to other sustained   dpr builds at this level we're pretty just  kind of solidly upper tier 2 now which is still   super good and we are chock full of flavor and  mobility at level 14 we would be a warlock 8 and   we get another ability score increase for feet and  i think i would bump charisma and take it to an 18   but this is far from a no-brainer decision it's  definitely the best way to increase our damage   since it helps both our cloak of flies and our  summon phase hit chance but it's a pretty small   bump and we could definitely benefit from say more  wisdom for a better armor class among other things   or more constitution for more hit points and  better saving throws of course or for that matter   even resilient constitution for saving throw  proficiency and thus better concentration checks   right since i'm focused on damage i'm gonna go  charisma but feel free to shore up your defenses   if you prefer at level 15 we'd be a warlock nine  and we get a fifth invocation i'm again gonna say   pick your favorite i think i might take a sentence  step at this level which has a prerequisite of   being a ninth level warlock it lets you cast  levitate on yourself at will without spending   a spell slot and that's not necessarily amazing  but it's pretty cool and will be super useful when   you need it or even when you don't just levitate  around the battlefield all the time to strike fear   into your enemy's heart to give you an added aura  of mystery we also get fifth level spells now and   also pyf are some really great ones including hold  monster and synaptic static but i'm probably using   my spell slots in combat here for either summon  fae or of course to cast spirit shroud because now   spirit shroud would bump up to 2d8 damage on every  single attack and yeah when you're making four   attacks in a turn that's a lot of extra damage i  love it at level 16. there is an argument to be   made here for going back to monk first off you'd  get more key points we could always use more key   points second we'd get evasion which is pretty  useful against fireballs and the like and finally   we'd get another ability score increase our feet  when we hit level 17 which is where my build ends   which means a better charisma score for me and  that means more damage that would actually be a   better way to increase our damage than sticking  with warlock but the damage increase would be so   slight that giving up the really amazing things  we get by sticking with warlock just made it   too much to sacrifice even for me a slave to the  spreadsheet go ahead go back to monk if you really   just have to have as much damage as possible  and get a couple more key points but for the   rest of us yeah we're gonna be a warlock 10 and  genie warlock level 10 gives us sanctuary vessel   and it's just such a fantastic utility and support  feature now when you enter your magic lamp or ring   you can take five more friends with you and if  you all stay in there for simply 10 minutes you   all get to enjoy the benefit of a short rest and  recover additional hit points if you spend hit   dice equal to your proficiency bonus i mean  for a character who depends so much on short   rests having like a souped-up cat-nap spell once  per day for free for your entire party is just   so good and finally for us at level 17 we'd be  a warlock 11 and that means we get a third spell   slot three fifth level spell slots every short  rest that alone is incredible but then we also get   our first mystic arcanum which means we can cast a  six level warlock spell once per day keep in mind   there's no spell slot that we're using for this  so we can't use it to like up cast summon fae or   anything which actually bums me out because then  arfay would get three attacks on a turn but anyway   while there are plenty of great options to choose  from here for the mystic arcanum i have a hard   time imagining taking anything other than mass  suggestion since it doesn't require concentration   but when we cast the spell any enemy within 60  feet of us who fails their wisdom save against   it has to basically do what you tell them to for  24 hours so long as it sounds reasonable and won't   obviously harm them having access to this another  spell slot and the sanctuary vessel feature   just seems so much more powerful to me than a  slightly higher charisma score and a couple of key   points you know for our final damage report then  our spirit shroud has scaled nicely to 2d8 making   it a little more competitive versus summon fae  against even medium-sized creatures and smaller   but that's going to depend on the enemy ac and  i'll indicate in the spreadsheet where you would   switch that up beyond that we have increased our  charisma just a little bit for more damage but   mostly we've picked up a lot of really great  utility and control options since our last check   and so against an enemy ac of 10 at this level we  would do 85 dpr and against an 18 armor class we   would do 74 damage per round on average and even  with 2d8 per hit you would still only be using   spirit shroud here only against enemies with an ac  of 15 or lower after that you're gonna be better   off with your summon fae thanks to the advantage  that they give of course if the darkness tactic   isn't going to work against your target because  of their size or whatever else then yeah i would   just use spirit shroud and wouldn't even plan on  going like shadow of moil even getting advantage   on all of your attacks is never going to compete  with an extra 2d8 damage per attack according to   the numbers and compared to all other sustained  dpr builds that i've done to date at this level   we've slipped a skosh again finding ourselves kind  of in the middle to bottom half even of tier two   and so final thoughts our tier score if you take  the damage at every enemy armor class that we   calculate for at each of the four damage reports  and average them all together we get a tier score   of 57 putting them like in the upper half of  tier 2 just ahead of the blade singer monk   and behind the infiltrator so super solid damage  throughout the character's career and a chance   to live our best shadow monk-ish genie life  sign me up i will say this if you can have   one of your allies again doing something to give  this character advantage on every single attack   whether via fairy fire knocking them prone or  maybe if you play with flanking rules at your   table that would be a dream come true and would  really send your damage consistently into the tier   1 range meaning you wouldn't have to worry about  using darkness or whether or not you're summoned   fake and put your enemy into darkness etc etc you  just have advantage on every single attack and   get to add hex or spirit shout damage to all  of the many attacks that you make every turn   and it would be fabulous but regardless playing a  character who is super slippery and mobile is just   so much fun to me anyway in game and add to that  all the fantastic flavor of shrouding yourself   and your enemies in darkness and being able to  use that darkness to move all over the battlefield   it just adds a fantastic like batmany flavor to  this character and would make them so dang fun to   play in game i know it because i've done it just  wasn't as good a version of this character that i   did it with this version of the character is a  lot closer to what i imagined playing a shadow   monk would feel like not only thematically  but mechanically and like power wise i wish   i could go back and teach newbie colby what i've  learned but maybe i'll just have to settle instead   for starting a new campaign with ariana 2.0 but  anyway that's the build for the week and i hope   you guys enjoyed it i know i did i also hope you  know how much i love you because i do you guys are   awesome thank you so much for all that you do  for liking and subscribing and commenting huge   thanks to my channel members for your support  especially i hope that you will check out the   other content in the channel if you're not in  the habit of doing so i'd like to think there's   a lot of great stuff to see but more importantly  i hope you have a great week and a great day and   that you be safe and kind and good and that i  see you again very soon so until then take care i think we are in business it's business time i can't say i was never wrong  but some blame rests on you   work and play they're never okay  to mix the way we do all i can say i shouldn't say can we take a ride get  out of this place while we still have   time i love jimmy eat world  and i'm not sorry about it hi as i mentioned a few weeks  ago humble woodtails is a compel   well don't even say that humble wood tails okay okay can you stomp less please somebody want to get the door oh one day children will be  back in school that'll be nice well i'm trying to remember a line from it that  i'm trying to that i'm going to be quoting it's   the urn of like something the legendary urn  of whispering warriors that's what it is   i love jack black okay now i need to talk again  so um oh boy what's it called uh and concentration   checks right oh snow say don't say that well  don't say that well don't say that yeah i need to   say that differently well don't say that um well  don't say that don't say that well don't say that

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 68,278

Keywords: D&D Optimized, dnd, dungeons & dragons, shadow monk, genie warlock, dpr, damage, character creation, character build, guide, how to, darkness

Id: vuuWn92DYPk

Length: 53min 49sec (3229 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2022