The Ultimate Crit Fisher - D&D:Optimized #48

hello bonjour mesa me beyonce welcome  to dmd optimized part of the d4   network this show where each week we take a deep  dive into one sometimes two specific character   builds for dungeons and dragons 5e we theory craft  about them we crunch numbers about the character   that we've created and we try to make a character  that is both powerful and also very fun to play   in game so if you enjoy creating characters  for d d almost as much as you enjoy playing   the game or even more maybe for some of you then  welcome home this is where you belong i hope that   you are happy to be here because i am happy to  have you my name's colby and i'll be your host   really quick before we jump into the episode this  week just a quick reminder if you are inclined to   try and support this channel other than viewing  and liking and subscribing which i thank you for   but you want to maybe go a step further you  can join as a member there's a little should   be a little link down there somewhere and  for just a couple bucks a month you do get   a little cheat sheet write-up guide that i post  to the community for all for all members of the   channel each week it's just a little way for me  to kind of say thank you and give you something   really mostly being a member of the channel just  a way for you to support me and us and help us   create more content and better content and so  thank you so much for those who are members   really appreciate you and appreciate having all  of you regardless of whether you are a member   of the channel or not thanks for being here um  today the build that i've created for the week   is motivated by and founded upon um one simple  principle and it is this getting a critical hit   in d d is a lot of fun um everybody cheers high  fives are given snacks were thrown up in the air   dogs are barking ultimately we play this  game i think uh most of us anyway i hope   to have fun and so i wanted to build a character  that looks for ways to make that awesome moment of   getting a critical hit right more frequent and  celebration worthy i want to find ways to make   that crit as powerful as possible right in other  words i want to build a crypt fisher what's a   [ __ ] fisher this is a term that you hear bandied  about on uh you know the dnd forums and the tubes   um and generally speaking you know it when people  talk about [ __ ] fishing or [ __ ] fisher they're   talking about a character that both tries to get  a lot of critical hits um and also hit extra hard   when they do land those critical hits it can be a  pretty fun and powerful way to create a character   and i've actually never done one before in the  almost year that i've been doing this uh youtube   channel now i can't believe it's almost been a  year next month we're coming up on our anniversary   anyway never done one at least intentionally not  in the way that i'm that i'm doing it today so   what are the things to keep in mind when you are  trying to build a crit fisher type character right   um again i think primarily we need two things  one we need ways to get our chance to get a   critical hit as high as possible and there's  a few ways to do that which we'll get into   and two we want ways to do extra damage when we do  land that critical hit we will be focusing on both   of those things with the build today and because  of that i almost see this character and this   concept as kind of akin to like the magic touch  sorcerer uh build that i did a few months ago now   or maybe the thornlock episode for those who have  caught either of those that was a few weeks ago   the the [ __ ] fisher of course is a concept  a little more common a little more frequently   seen in dnd than those two weird things that  i that i made that i had a lot of fun with   um but still we're we're trying to build around  a concept a theme a mechanic right almost   restraining ourselves unnecessarily perhaps in  the name of being true to this theme or mechanic   and from there we want to sort of see how far  we can push it right numbers-wise and uh and get   to a point where we can at least hopefully  be competitive uh with like our damage per   round or whatever whatever metric we're you know  quantifying so yeah that's kind of that's kind   of how i think about this cryptfisher sort of a  almost almost restraining myself intentionally   with sort of a very laser focus on getting my  crit chance as high as possible getting my crit   damage as high as possible even if it means  it might not necessarily you know be the best   uh option for doing the most damage that a  character could possibly do right we're sort   of saying first priority you know cr crit chance  and crit damage everything else comes secondary   to that right and then can we working within those  restraints sort of really make a character that's   still very competitive damage wise spoiler  alert yes we can even though we are fishing   for big almost nova-esque critical hits with this  build i'm not going to consider it to be like   a nova or a burst damage build and here's why i  think for nova damage builds the the burst damage   that you do has to be something that you can like  trigger on demand right um you expend a bunch of   resources whether spells or whatever and you just  unload everything you've got on the enemy when you   want to typically at the beginning of a fight  so as to try and eliminate you know one or even   maybe multiple enemies right off the bat to kind  of tip the scales of the fight in your favor right   that's sort of how burst or nova damage builds  typically work i think and with this character   it doesn't really work that way right when the  character gets a critical hit they are gonna do   a lot of you know burst like damage but it's not  up to you when you get a crit with with this build   anyway um it's up to the dice right so i feel more  comfortable averaging everything out trying to get   our chance as high as possible while adding a lot  of damn extra damage when we do get a critical hit   but ultimately worth the mercy of the dice for our  burst damage and so it feels more like a sustained   dpr damn do you have to just sort of say okay  you know when we add in that extra critical hit   chance and the critical hit damage you know what  does that do to our overall numbers on average how   frequently are we going to be getting those you  know what is our sustained damage per round dpr   look like you know when we really try  and bump those critical hit numbers right   and so we're going to treat it like a  sustained dpr build we're going to compare it   to other sustained dpr builds that i've done and  for those who don't know i i do keep a spreadsheet   if you look in the video description you'll  see graphs in the spreadsheet for this build   and then also a comparison of this build to other  um you know sustained damage per round builds that   i've done thus far so you can kind of see where  they fall how they compare to one another so   that's the preamble without any further  ado i present episode 48 the crit fisher   let's jump in all right a level one for our class  we are going to start off this character's career   as a barbarian um you know this is going  to be a character who swings for the fences   as it were they throw caution to the wind  and they just try to hit as hard as they can   potentially putting themselves in greater danger  by doing so and nobody really encapsulates that   concept i think quite like the barbarian does  for your race i would suggest taking the half orc   um it's my first half orc how exciting right so if  we're looking for every way possible to add damage   on a critical hit it's hard to go any other route  here for race anyway if we're doing melee damage   which we are because among other things half orcs  get the savage attack uh savage attacks feature   which tells us that when we score a critical hit  with a melee weapon attack importantly we can roll   one of the weapons damage die uh one additional  time and is there anything more quintessential   than a half-orc barbarian in dnd i submit that  there is not um so as for our ability scores   assuming point by as always and assuming that  we get to use tasha's cauldron of everything   as always to put the bonuses where we want um i  would suggest going strength 15 and then taking   your plus two there constitution 15 and taking  your plus one there and actually now that i   think about that isn't that the default for half  works anyway maybe the first time since tasha's   came out that uh i went with the default racial  bonuses if so a 12 dexterity and a 13 charisma um   the question here is going to be do you  want one less on your constitution modifier   uh or your dex modifier right we could get a 14  constitution and a 14 decks total if we wanted to   personally i think i would rather start the game  with a 16 constitution and a 12 dex then a 14 in   each here's why eventually we're going to be using  reckless attacks right meaning that enemies will   have advantage on attacks against us and bumping  our ac by one more by putting another point into   dexterity is nice but our ac is never going to be  amazing with this character because we can't wear   heavy armor as a barbarian and benefit from our  rage fully um and we're not going to be using a   shield we're going to be using a two-handed weapon  so you know when enemies have advantage against us   they're probably going to hit us most of the time  anyway i mean especially at higher levels i guess   so taking one more in one more you know  getting one more bump to our armor class   seems less valuable frankly than getting  one more hit point every level because   since we're raging and we get we'll be  getting resistance to bludgeoning piercing   and slashing damage um you know we'll we'll  be resistant to most of the damage that will   that the character will take throughout their  career so one hit point is closer to like two   hit points for us so i just think i just think  hit points are more valuable if you really want   to do a 14 in each especially because you  know you want a better initiative score and   you know maybe even stealth or whatever dexterity  savings throws etc go for it i'd do 16 and 12.   as for equipment i would recommend doing the gold  buy option here because we really want a couple of   different weapons we want a battle axe and we want  a pike and uh by default if you just take standard   equipment barbarians only get one martial weapon  and those are both martial weapons so the pike is   actually going to be the go-to weapon for this  character once we hit level four um so for all   of you pike lovers out there who keep complaining  to me that i never talk about the pike or use it   uh in in my builds this is for you there's  gotta be at least three of you or four maybe   why battle axe at level one we'd be using a  battle x why a d12 weapon as opposed to like   say a greatsword which is a 2d6 the 2d6 should do  more damage slightly more damage on average right   normally yes but i think in our case thanks to  the half-orc savage attacks if we crit with a 2d6   weapon we'd only get to roll an extra d6 rules as  written because it says one of the weapons damage   dice your dm may rule differently and let you  roll 2d e6 more when you get a critical hit um but   otherwise when you get that critical hit rolling  an extra d12 will be really nice and i mean as   a half work don't we like have to use a grade  axe right i think it's written into the code of   the half works or something somewhere we're crit  fisher we want to max our crits as much as we can   one note barbarians only get 2d four times 10 gold  to start if you take the gold by option that's not   a lot you could if you roll really poorly you  could be in trouble here um if you roll well   you could potentially afford scale male armor and  a battle axe in which case i would say do that um   and then pick up a pike later they're pretty  cheap you just need to get one by the time   you're level four if you don't roll well we just  gotta go naked we're barbarian so it's not that   bad but there it is if you're super concerned  about your level one squishiness uh start with   a level one fighter and then go barbarian but then  you're delaying your extra attacks and things so   anyway just stay alive barbarians at level 1 also  get the rage feature quintessential barbarian   feature we know it we love it as a bonus action  you enter rage you can't be wearing heavy armor   and then you have advantage on your strength  checks and your strength saving throws you have   resistance to bludgeoning piercing and slashing  damage which again is most of the damage that most   monsters do in the game at most tables right your  experience may differ when you make a melee weapon   attack using strength you get an extra plus two  to the damage that you deal if you hit that does   scale with more levels in barbarian you can't cast  spells while you're aging you can't concentrate   on spells while you're raging it lasts one  minute or until you go for a full round without   making an attack or taking damage so make sure  you keep like some javelins with you so you can   still make an attack if somebody's not in melee  range and you can do this two times per long rest   for now then also at level one we get an armored  defense it makes not having armor hurt a little   less uh so if we're not wearing armor our  our armor class is now our constitution   modifier plus our dexterity modifier still not  great for us that puts us at a 14 armor class   but scale male would have only put us at a  16 for now so it's not the end of the world   it's a difference of two still you know grab some  scale mail as soon as you can or maybe even borrow   some gold from a friend if you didn't quite roll  high enough to be able to afford the scale meal   um but anyway stay alive at level two we get  reckless attacks um this plus rage is what   makes barbarians so good at early level so when  you make your first attack on your turn you can   decide to attack recklessly giving you advantage  on all of your melee weapon attacks using strength   this turn at the cost of giving your enemies  advantage against you until your next turn   with with resistance to uh most damage that  you're going to be taking especially early on and   a low-ish armor class to boot that enemies are  probably going to hit anyway you should probably   be recklessly attacking almost always right when  i crunch the numbers i i always assume that we are   advantage is so good and it's so important  for this character concept especially um   when you get bonuses to critical hits like  we do a normal character without advantage   just has a five percent chance to get a critical  hit with advantage it almost doubles going up to   9.75 chance to get a critical hit and um of  course your chance to hit goes way up as well   so it's very good very strong also at level two  we get danger sense which just gives us advantage   on dexterity saving throws against things that  you can see like spells or traps etc super nice   great for our survivability at level  three we get three rages per long rest   now um should that should get most of us  through an entire day's worth of combat   on most days based on the feedback you guys  have given me on the number of combats you   typically have at your table and my own anecdotal  evidence so that's really nice and then we get   our primal path our subclass and we are going  to take the berserker what no talk so bad sorry i just went into kind of a frenzied rage  there for a second i know i know calm down and   let me explain here's what we read about the  berserker barbarian for some barbarians rage is a   means to an end that end being violence the path  of the berserker is a path of untrammeled fury   slick with blood as you enter the berserker's  rage you thrill in the chaos of battle heedless   of your own health or well-being so there are  two reasons why i want to go berserker here   first off for story and for fun um  nowhere does the berserker fit better   in my opinion than on a [ __ ] fisher build  this character is always swinging for the fences   right they aren't careful they aren't conservative  they throw caution to the wind they're trying   to hit a home run every single time and the  berserker perfectly encapsulates this i think   second off i have always wanted always wanted  to create a berserker but the problem is   it usually just doesn't make a lot of sense to do  so numbers-wise but i think this build provides a   bit of an exception to that rule so let me explain  as a berserker barbarian at level three we get the   frenzy ability right and this is the thing that  makes a berserker a berserker so we are told that   we can go into a frenzy when we rage when we do  so we can make a single melee weapon attack as   a bonus action on every attack after this one um  because because we used our bonus action to rage   right that is amazing an a full extra attack  right as a bonus action but there is one big   big downside to it and it is this when your  rage ends you suffer one level of exhaustion   that's bad like that's really pretty bad for those  who don't know because exhaustion i don't think   actually comes up at most tables all that often  um i could be wrong but there are six levels of   exhaustion right when you suffer one level  you receive a penalty to how your character   functions until that level of exhaustion is  removed and and they will stack in increasing   the sort of penalties that you get right as you  get more levels of exhaustion there aren't a lot   of ways to reduce or to remove exhaustion  if you take a long rest and eat and drink   you can remove one level of it that's great the  the greater restoration spell which is a fifth   level spell mind you can remove one level of  it and you know you have to spend 100 gold in   material components to cast that spell as well  you know if you die and you're resurrected you   will you can remove one level of exhaustion right  but it's not really easy uh to get rid of now   one level of exhaustion is not that bad in  my opinion um it gives you disadvantage on   all of your ability checks okay i can live  with that it's not great but it's bearable   two levels your speed is halved that's that hurts  but most fights you could suffer through i think   beyond that it gets very bad very quickly at  three levels you have disadvantage on all of your   attacks and your saves just totally decimating  our damage and our survivability at level at four   levels of exhaustion your hit points are halved  uh at five you can't move and at six you die   so realistically if we went berserk or barbarian  we wouldn't want a frenzy more than once per day   most of the time i think you pick what you  think is the most important fight of the day   you frenzy and you get an extra attack every  single turn at the cost of having disadvantage   on your ability checks until you take a long rest  and eat right again for this character i love the   high risk high reward approach now the main reason  i think that people really don't go this route and   say that it's bad that it's a bad subclass and  as many of you are probably thinking right now   and perhaps even typing in the comments is because  most people who want to optimize their barbarian   at least especially will typically take like the  poll arm master feat or find some other way to get   a good weaponized bonus action attack right and so  the benefit from that third attack is very minimal   when compared to the huge downside of suffering  exhaustion we however are not going to take the   polar master feat for very good reason which  i'll explain in a minute and so i think this is   the perfect opportunity for me to finally create  the berserker that i have always dreamed of um of   course you don't have to do this right the reality  is assuming that you only frenzy once per day   that one combat encounter would be amazing and  then the rest of the day would be fairly subpar   for your damage when compared to say for example  the zealot barbarian who actually would fit pretty   well thematically with this character as you'll  see later the zealot would do worse damage than   the frenzied barbarian berserker in that one  you know not one combat encounter but then   a little more otherwise on you know subsequent  subsequent encounters so if you want to be a wuss   sorry i mean if you want to have more reliable  sustained damage numbers go with a zealot or   something else of course if you'd rather but  for me again i just i really love the idea   of like saving that frenzied rage for that really  difficult really important fight once per day and   just unleashing this rabid frenzied uh raging half  work barbarian that's straight up devastating for   one glorious combat encounter and and maybe two  right maybe if you know it's the end of the day   and this is a big fight and it's really important  maybe you might be able to get a couple of days   rest after i mean it's hard to know right  in dnd but you know if you really want to   play it risky or maybe not frenzy on this on the  next day so you can you know get that exhaustion   down or whatever you could do it a couple of  times a day in a really tight pinch but anyway   i love the high risk high reward play style and  this really augments that aspect for us okay at   level four we get our first ability score increase  or feet and we are going to take the piercer feat   this is the point at which i think we really kind  of start to feel like a crit fisher piercer is new   to tasha's can i stop saying that now i feel like  tasha's has been out for like eight months right i   can stop saying that it typically doesn't really  add a lot of damage for most builds but for us   we love this feat so first off we get a plus one  to our strength or dexterity um so now we're at   an 18 strength super awesome second off once  per turn when you hit with a piercing attack   you can reroll one of the attacks damage dice and  must use the new roll super awesome actually this   is pretty crap but it's better with a high damage  weapon than with a low one so anyway we'll take it   third off and most importantly for us when you  score a critical hit that deals piercing damage   you can roll one additional damage die so now  it's time for us to switch to the pike this is   my first time using the pike the pike is kind of  a frustrating weapon and so i think there's good   reason why i haven't used it thus far as far as  i know it's the only melee weapon in game that is   both heavy and does piercing damage um correct  me if i'm wrong there i'm sure you will but   i'll talk about why heavy is important later  but that's the main reason why we're using a   pike now instead of a lance which is a d12 but  that also has reach and does piercing damage   but it's not considered heavy oddly and also the  other reason we wouldn't go lance here is because   with a lance you actually have disadvantage  to hit an enemy if they're within five feet   of you so reach is nice but if they get up close  to you like you either got to move away and take   an opportunity attack and then a tag is just  it's weird it's kind of really meant to be used   on a mount i think you could do it if you're  confident that you know you're not going to   have a trouble keeping enemies at bay but it  was just a little too awkward so i'm taking   the d10 pike as opposed to the d12 lance  here the d10 pike is heavy so eventually   we'd switch to it regardless the frustrating thing  about the pike is that you can't use it to benefit   from the polar master bonus action attack right  if we took the polar master feet we could get the   you get to make an opportunity attack when an  enemy enters your reach bit from that feat but   not the you can use your bonus action to attack  with the opposite end of the weapon right that   bit the the butt action bit which is really  the best bit the spear can the albert can uh   isn't a pike just basically a spear but like  as long as a halberd maybe not i read somewhere   that pikes were like nine feet long so anyway a  tweet from jeremy crawford says they considered   the pike too unwieldy to include in the butt  action bit of the of the pull arm master feet so   the poor pike just kind of gets the shaft no pun  intended uh for reach weapons but that's okay   we are not here to just take the default polar  master great weapon master feet like every other   melee user in the world does right we are here to  stick to our [ __ ] fisher concept and so we're   going to figure out a way to make this awesome  regardless and again this gives me the perfect   excuse to go berserker here so i'm actually  kind of grateful for the weirdness of the pike   we are embracing the challenge we are embracing  the frenzy at level five we get extra attack um   thank you very much so now when we take the  attack action on our turn we can attack twice   instead of once all right at level six we're  going to make a change here so at this point   our frenzied barbarian has for some reason  decided to strive to take their ferocity   and channel it a little bit focus it somewhat to  add discipline to add training to their previously   unchecked savagery and to become thus an even more  effective fighting machine perhaps a party member   is rubbing off on you perhaps you are impressed by  an enemy or an npc ally perhaps you lost control   during one of your frenzies and you hurt someone  that you care about and you now seek to sort of   exert control over that beast within almost  whatever the reason we're going to take some   fighter levels now so as a fighter level one you  get second wind which is a nice little self-heal   once per short rest as a bonus action you can heal  yourself for 1d10 plus your fighter levels that's   that's nice especially early on and especially  for us who you know our hit points are maybe more   valuable than they are for other characters  and then we get to choose a fighting style   i'm going to recommend it it's a soft  recommendation a great weapon fighting style   when you make an attack with a melee weapon that  you use two hands with you can re-roll ones and   twos and you must use the new roll um the truth  is the great weapon fighting style isn't amazing   it doesn't add a ton of damage especially since  we already have the piercer feet that lets us   re-roll once per turn you know one of the damage  dice that we do on an attack that does piercing   damage so it might even be less desirable than it  otherwise would be unless you can convince your   dungeon master that these two features great  weapon fighting style and the piercer feet you   could use them on the same roll right we discussed  this in one of my sliding into my dms episodes um   a while back the consensus seems to be that that  the two don't stack right that you could use one   or the other but not both the piercer feet you  could reroll any number a three or four or five   even if you wanted to the great weapon fighting  style is ones and twos only but both of them say   you know when you re-roll you must use the  new rule so your dm may feel differently   if so congratulations again this fighting style  is really only about one more damage per attack   on average so it's not huge um justifiably you  might want to take you know superior technique   for a single battle master maneuver per short rest  or even defense fighting style or something else   but in the name of trying to push our dpr as much  as we can we'll go this route and you know it will   feel really nice when you get a crit and you roll  3d tens and you turn a like a one two and a three   into a seven eight and a nine or something right  but again feel free to take a different option   here if you want to so let's do a damage report  for level six it's pretty straightforward our   technique here i'm going to crunch the numbers  assuming that we are using frenzy and yes i know   it's not particularly sustainable and i said  this was a sustained damage per round build   but as i discussed at length last week in the  sorlock cheese grater build i might be out of   cards already but if i'm not um there's a link  there for our purposes for my purposes sustainable   dpr means damage that you can do for at least  one entire combat encounter so under those rules   this qualifies obviously outside of that frenzied  combat encounter your damage is going to go down   we will get a way to help combat  that in a couple of levels here   but for now anyway i'm assuming three attacks with  your d10 pike uh with a plus seven to hit thanks   to our 18 strength and three proficiency bonus uh  plus six to damage thanks to our strength bonus   and uh rage damage and then when you crit you get  to roll not two d10s but four d10s thanks to our   half work savage attacks and uh the piercer feed  and by the way there is a 27 chance right now that   at least one of our attacks will crit per turn  so it's pretty good we want to get it better but   for now against an enemy with a 10 armor class  you will do on average 42 damage per round   and against an enemy with a 15 armor class it  will be 38 damage per round um not bad at all   in fact it's it's near the top of the charts for  this level when compared to other sustained damage   per round characters that i've created again  with the understanding that it will go down   when you don't have frenzy when you don't want  to give yourself another level of exhaustion i   should say at level seven we are a fighter two and  we get action surge once per short rest you get to   an entire action extra action to do with as you  please so at this point we're making two attacks   one per turn when we take the attack action  and when we action surge we get four attacks   and if we are you know frenzying it would be five  attacks because again that extra attack that we're   getting from frenzy is a part of our bonus action  right so we we're not making three attacks as our   action right so it would be two action search  two more frenzied bonus action for a fifth   one of the best if not the best burst damage  abilities in the game right pretty straightforward   at level eight we're a fighter three and we get  to choose our subclass our martial archetype   and we are going champion oh that most boring  and vanilla of fighter archetypes the champion   you know what this is my first ever  champion it's just a day of firsts   okay here's here's our description the archetypal  champion focuses on the development of raw   physical power honed to deadly perfection those  who model themselves on this archetype combine   rigorous training with physical excellence to  deal devastating blows it sounds like a very   fitting description of the character that we are  trying to create we're really only here for one   reason and that is the improved critical feature  that champions get at level three so our weapon   attacks crit on a 19 or a 20 now instead of just a  20. honestly if you are building a character whose   entire purpose in life is to crit as frequently  and as hard as possible it's hard to imagine   going any other route frankly the champion it  doesn't get enough love sure it's a little bland   but this will take our already very good critical  hit chance of 9.75 all the way up to an amazing 19   chance to crit on every single attack for those  of us who love reliable good numbers like moi this   is anything but bland yes hex blade warlocks can  do this as well they can create on a 19 on their   hex blade cursed target but they only get to do  that on one enemy once per short rest right this   is just always on all the time forever and we are  going to get a lot of mileage out of it at level 9   we are a fighter four and we get an ability score  increase or feet um i felt like i had to take one   more level in fighter here even though there  are other places to go and classes to see but   i've delayed great weapon master uh for too long  and it's just such an amazing feat for our damage   um and yes this is why we wanted to use a heavy  weapon in the pike no it doesn't actually benefit   us benefit us when we crit any more than when  we hit normally because now if we use a heavy   weapon we can do an extra 10 flat damage on a hit  and we don't get to double that flat damage right   when we get a critical hit but still 10 flat  damage is just a lot of damage to add to every   single attack it's almost like having another  2d 10 almost now of course it comes at the cost   of a minus 5 to hit and that hurts but because  we have advantage it hurts a lot less for us   than it would for for other characters what's  also amazing though about this feat that that   that really encouraged me to take it beyond  just the damage increase of that 10 flat damage   is is the part that i usually actually  just gloss over when i talk about this feat   if we crit with a great weapon master feat if  we crit or reduce an enemy to zero hit points   with our melee weapon we can make a bonus action  attack with a melee weapon normally with these   heavy weapon using marshall builds we have a good  use of our bonus action especially if we took the   polar master feet right and so this is just a  very minor bump to our damage but for us sitting   on a 19 chance to crit and as a character who's  probably often you know killing other characters   or reducing them to zero hit points it means  that this is actually a pretty nice bump to our   sustained damage per round when we're not frenzied  right on those on those encounters where we don't   have frenzy still every time we crit or reduce  an enemy to zero hit points we'll still get that   bonus action attack and we have a 34 chance that  at least one attack each turn will crit so that   means you know every three rounds or so on average  we should be getting that bonus action attack off   anyway this makes me feel a lot less bad about  going berserker so damage report for level nine   um tactics here have not changed much obviously  but our crit rate has gone way up in fact when   you're frenzied your chance of getting a critical  hit at least once per turn is almost 50 percent   that's amazing and of course we've added a ton  of damage via the great weapon master feat so   against an enemy with a 10 armor class on  average we will be doing 72 damage per round   during our frenzy round anyway a little bit  less otherwise not as bad as it used to be   and against an enemy with a 16 armor class we  will be doing 54 damage per round on average   that's still in the upper half of like tier  one for sustained uh damage per round builds   and that's great let's see if we can keep  it going also one thing to keep in mind   now that we're level nine several classes  will actually have access to the crater   restoration spell it might be asking a lot to see  if they can wipe a level of exhaustion for you   using a fifth level spell and 100 gold in material  components i i get that but maybe if you're really   nice to them all right a level 10 it turns out  that our berserker barbarian who's been working   on focusing their rage has found religion it's  possible that the one who's been training you   uh to discipline yourself right and embrace a  more formal training is a paladin themselves   or at the very least is maybe strongly strongly  religious and the more structured our barbarian   gets the more strict they get with themselves the  more interested and influenced they become by the   deity that drives their trainer maybe whatever the  reason may be for you we are taking some paladin   levels here i think um an important part of any [  __ ] fisher build as i mentioned at the beginning   is to have some nice ability or abilities to  add even more damage on demand when they land   a critical hit and for a melee weapon user there's  really no better way to do that i think than via   some paladin levels so as a paladin level one  we get divine sense twice per day for us it's   one plus your charisma modifier and we only have a  13 charisma right as an action you can detect the   location of celestials fiends are undead within  60 feet so a nice little utility to have in some   specific situations and then we also get lay on  hands which you know gives us a pool of points   that we can use to sort of heal or cure disease  or poison you get five times your poly level in   points for lay on hands between this and second  wind actually we've got a couple of nice little   healing options to use in a pinch especially if  we're needing to heal ourselves it's too bad that   we can't heal exhaustion that would be awesome if  we could use this like maybe for 10 points he'll   exhaustion come on that's well that would probably  be overpowered but anyway that would be nice   um at level 11 we are a paladin ii and we get  to pick a fighting style assuming that you   took great weapon master uh fighting style with  the fighter i'd probably go for either defense   um for a plus one tour armor class or a superior  technique for your favorite battlemaster maneuver   but then we do get some spells for paladins as  well here i would you know you can't concentrate   or on spells or cast spells as a raging barbarian  while you're raging anyway right so you probably   want to take stuff that's useful out of combat um  hard to go wrong with like cure wounds for a nice   little extra healing probably you know detect  magic uh that that's definitely a nice utility   to have when you need it but we of course as a  paladin ii will also be getting divine smite and   that's the main reason that we're here of course  so when you hit a creature with a melee attack   melee weapon attack i should say um you can  expend a spell slot to deal an extra 2d8 of   radiant damage and that goes up by 1d8 for every  spell slot higher than first that you that you   spend right there's no reason why barring  a mean dm uh that you couldn't wait to see   if you crit and then decide that you would also  like to smite that's how it's how it works at 99   of tables um and rules as written for that  matter as far as i can tell i've heard rumors of   some dm's not allowing that because i think  it's too cheesy but anyway so at this point when   you crit you're adding an extra 2d 10 for your  half work savage attacks and your piercer feed   and then an extra 2d8 which if you only do it  when you smite that damage doubles for 4d8 um   that's amazing that's a lot of extra damage  on a critical hit at level 12. um here's where   the build takes a little turn that's probably  unexpected for for most of you i would think um   it turns out there was a reason that our berserker  was so drawn to this deity that they were drawn to   um one of their ancestors it turns out was an  angel of this deity they were transformed into   a mortal and they were sent to fight in our  god's name and and happened to birth a child   while they were here so you have a divine spark of  magic in you it turns out and you have been marked   by this deity to be a vessel of their  divine magic and accomplish some great task   that they have for you to accomplish so we're  going to take some sorcerer levels here the the   biggest problem i think that we have at this point  is that we don't have enough spell slots to keep   up with all of the critical hits that you're going  to be making and therefore smiting every time you   get a critical hit right to solve that problem  we could continue putting levels in paladin   but their spell slot progression is just a  little slow for my taste as a sort of half   caster half marshall type character right  there they get fewer spell slots you know   per level essentially they progress more  slowly so i think the best route to go to   solve that problem is to go divine soul sorcerer  um for a few reasons a i really like the story b   sorcerers can give us the most spell slots per  level that we can use for smites of all of the   charisma-based spellcasters i think definitely  there's an argument to go warlock here instead   um warlock could be really nice and their spell  slots refresh on a short rest but after a few   levels you don't have nearly as many of them  you know you only get two forever with a warlock   you could even potentially go barred i just of all  of those options i liked source for best i think   divine soul sourcer especially just really works  thematically they'll help us sort of continue   on this path that we've started of of having some  nice kind of support and utility outside of combat   if you'd rather go something else or even continue  palatine here that's totally fine it wouldn't make   a huge difference but for us we're going towards  her and at level one we get to choose our you know   our sorceress origin our subclass like i said  we're going divine soul and uh as a divine soul   sorcerer we get access to both the sorcerer and  the cleric spell lists which is frankly fantastic   we get a favored by the gods feature which tells  us that once per short rest if we miss an attack   or fail with a saving throw we can add 2d4 to the  roll potentially changing the outcome right that's   really nice to have in a pinch i would probably  save this for like a really important saving throw   unless you just really need an enemy to die  as soon as possible and you miss them with it   with an attack that might otherwise have  finished them off or something like that   of course we also get spells  as a source for level one and   you know i'm not going to really  recommend or talk about any of them   i i love how like our pious champion berserker  can now suddenly become a pretty well-rounded   character between the paladin levels and the and  the sorcerer divine soul sorcerer levels you know   out of combat with these additional spells and  features and things that we're getting you know so   we get some cantrips now some first level spells  pick your favorite or you know the most fun or   most useful that you think you would want to use  outside of combat there are some great choices   you know guidance minor illusion prestigitation  mending message feather fall comprehend languages   pick your favorite all right at level 13 we are  a sorcerer two and we get font of magic so we   get our sorcery points right um we use these  sorcery points to fuel our metamagic options   that we get at sorcerer 3 but for now we can  just use them to create additional spell slots   which honestly for us is primarily what we want  them for anyway so now at this level we have   because we've multi-classed you  know with a couple levels of paladin   we have the spell slots of a third level caster  essentially right four first level spell slots   and two second level spell slots plus a couple of  sorcery points that we could convert into one more   first level spell slot so five first level  spell slots total plus two second level spell   slots let's do a damage report um since  we checked in last time in addition to   some utility and support features that we've  picked up we've got divine smite now and a good   number of spell slots with which to be smiting  again in case i hadn't mentioned this already   for those who don't know even though you can't  cast or concentrate on spells while you're   raging you absolutely can use spell slots for  divine smite right that's not casting a spell   um so here's the question can we count divine  smite as part of our sustainable damage again   if we're just looking at damage over a single  combat encounter and if we only smite when we crit   yes we can you absolutely might not want to do  that right saving your spells for other things   like healing and utility and that's fine but if  a combat encounter if a typical combat encounter   lasts four to six rounds and we're creating  on roughly half of those which we should be   i think it's safe to assume that we will have  the spell slot for a smite on every crit here   over you know an entire combat encounter  likely with some left over obviously   lower your expectations for you know your damage  outside of your frenzy round and when and or   when you're out of spell slots to be smiting  but during that one glorious encounter right   we're attacking three times per turn for  1d10 plus four strength plus two rage plus   10 from great weapon master critting 19 of  the time adding 2d 10 and 4d8 when we do   because we're smiting right i'm just assuming  that we're using a first level spell slot for   smite we only have two second level spell  slots that's definitely not sustainable and   you might want to use those second level spell  slots for something else i don't know anyway   against an enemy with a 10 armor class we would be  doing on average 85 damage per round and against   an enemy with a 17 armor class it would be 66  damage per round so we've pulled back a little   bit more towards the middle of the pack at this  level when compared to other sustained dpr builds   but we've picked up a lot of great you  know nice utility and support features   when when you do catch that juicy critical hit  fish you'll be critting you'll be hitting for   about 51 damage on average on on a single attack  right and you get multiple attacks per turn   and and you should be doing that roughly once  every other turn so that's fun okay if we're still   playing this character beyond level 13 um i think  we have a little bit of a fork in the road here   on the one hand you could go back to barbarian  you've picked up some nice additional damage   on critical hit and and you want to get  back to you know those great survivability   features that you'd get from berserker barbarian  from this point out um including a d12 of hit   points every level compared to the d6 sorcerer  right that's actually a pretty big deal you   would eventually get immunity to being feared and  charmed while you're raging that's um potentially   a massive benefit depending on your table and  the adventure you're playing you'd get um an   advantage on initiative and basically immunity to  being surprised um you'd get more rages you'd get   more rage damage and eventually um brutal critical  which would let us add yet another d10 when we   crit that's a pretty nice suite of features and  honestly if i were playing this character in game   i'm pretty sure that's the direction  i'd end up going but on the other hand   this character so far has been built to do as  much damage as possible we've been throwing   caution to the wind so far um i don't really  know why we have to stop now the truth is   we would get just a little bit more damage out  of our crits by sticking with sorcerer here   thanks to the higher level spell slots that  would let us smite a lot harder right not to   mention um some additional utility and support  features that those higher level spells could   potentially provide in addition there is one  thing that happens to this character at level   20 if we stick with sorcerer the rest of the  way and even though i don't really talk about   level 20 that much in my builds it was  just it was too appealing to pass up so   you do what you want for us we're gonna stick with  the sorcerer path at level 14 we are a sorcerer   three then so we get second level spells um i  would probably focus mostly on uh like support and   utility type spells here of course uh aid would  definitely be a go-to it lets you raise a player's   maximum hit points uh and total hit points by five  it doesn't require concentration lasts eight hours   and so it's definitely something that you could  sort of cast at the beginning of a combat day   right and enjoy a little buff again keeping in  mind how important hit points are for you and of   course helping your friends in addition is is  is a nice little benefit that your party will   appreciate do keep in mind that this is raising  your maximum hit points it's not giving you   temporary hit points so you could potentially have  both if you had a reliable source of temporary hit   points lesser restoration is a great go-to it can  cure blind deaf paralyzed poison prayer of healing   is another great sort of very efficient group  heal it costs or it takes 10 minutes to cast   so it definitely would just be using it  out of combat most clerics and divine   soul sorcerers even i think would probably  want to take spiritual weapon at this level   you'd think it would be a good sort of go-to  for the non-frenzied combat encounters because   it doesn't require concentration but uh the attack  it makes would be based on our charisma which is   garbage so i would probably pass personally  as a sorcerer level 3 we also get metamagic   my plan is to convert most of my sorcery points  into additional spell slots for more smites and   so you know we use these sorcery points for these  metamagic things that improve our spells right   typically most sorcerers again i think i would be  converting most of them into spell slots but you   know one that i could see getting some mileage out  of would be like twin spell if you wanted to for   example uh twin cure wounds um and cast it on two  players for you know a couple of sorcery points   that could be nice and and make a not super  efficient heel a lot more efficient i'd love to   know what uh what you guys would use for for other  metamagic options let me know in the comments   at level 15 we are a sorcerer four we get an abu  and we get another ability score increase or feet   finally finally we get to cap our strength uh  so we'd bump our strength here cap it at 20 and   i mean i can't believe it took us to level 15  to cap our strength the thing that bothers me   the most about this build actually is is  this that it took us that long obviously   you could multi-class less to get here sooner  um or even take a strength bump instead of great   weapon master for that matter but it but that  would actually be worse for your damage outside of   you know very high enemy armor class but anyway  yeah happy to finally get our strength up all   right at level 16 you are a sorcerer five and  that means you get third level sorcery spells   or cleric spells there are a lot of good support  out of combat spells here i have two favorites   catnap is fantastic lets your party take a  short rest in just 10 minutes once per day   which everyone will love you for especially if  you're in like a dungeon crawl or something and   motivational speech is awesome if no one else in  your party is giving temporary hit points anyway   it's a nice way to give everyone a five you know  five temporary hit points and advantage on wisdom   saving throws for an hour plus if they're hit by  an attack they have advantage on their next attack   now once the temporary hit points are gone the  other benefits go away as well but you know   assuming we're using this and aid on ourselves  that's you know an extra 10 hit points for us we   we get a lot of mileage out of those 10 extra  hit points and i mean the fact that we get to   give them to the rest of our party as well is is  great also of course if no one else in your party   can resurrect revivify is available at this level  at level 17 we are a sorcerer six and we get the   divine soul feature empowered healing it's just a  little bump to healing that you or an ally receive   if they're within five feet of you when you roll  the dice to heal you can spend a sorcery point   to re-roll any number of them once per turn it's  kind of like the great weapon fighting style but   for healing in a way anyway final damage report  at level 17. so we have spell slots as though we   were a seventh level full caster thanks to six  of sorcery and two sorcerer and two of paladin   so that means we have one fourth level spell slot  three third level spell slots uh three second   level spell slots and four first level spell slots  just sort of in the interest of exploring what's   possible here let's assume that you're you  are using a you know a third level spell slot   uh on average anytime that you crit in a fight  right sometimes it might be a fourth sometimes   it might be a second you could create more with  source free points but anyway we'll we'll assume   that 4d8 for a third level smite right which of  course you would double on a critical hit for 88.   so every time we get a critical hit i'm going to  assume that extra 88 of damage otherwise you know   not a lot has changed for the character since our  last damage report at 13 other than our strength   bumped uh got bumped up by one and our  proficiency bonus got bumped up by one so   against an enemy with a 10 armor glass we  would be doing on average 103 damage per   round and against an enemy with a 17 armor  class we would be doing 83 damage per round   on average um all right we broke the centennial  barrier uh just barely but we broke it which i'm   happy about and so you know at this level compared  to other to other builds we're still we're still   in tier one we're kind of the lower half of of  tier one of my other sustained damage built so   it's it's pretty strong right um now at level 20  as most of you know i don't usually go that far in   my builds because so few of us actually play  the game at that level but i couldn't resist   talking about it with this character because if  you stick with sorcerer all the way to 20 you   will be a sorcerer 9 which means you get 5th level  spell slots and since we are a divine soul sourcer   that means we have access to greater restoration  and since you have the spell slots of a 10th level   caster we actually have two fifth level spell  slots at level 20. and i mean you could even   create more with sorcery points i guess if you  needed to which means that you no longer have to   beg your allies to relieve you of your exhaustion  when you frenzy as long as you have the gold to   buy the material components and you're a level  20 character so i can't imagine that you wouldn't   now you can just wipe away your fatigue all by  yourself or i guess with the help of your deity   um two or even three times a day and i just love  this so much it just makes me want to play like   a level 20 one shot campaign with this character  so badly because now you can just be frenzied all   the time all right time for final thoughts so  um the the tier score for this character uh   to decide kind of where they fit when compared  to other builds over all tier one tier two they   got a 60 that puts them firmly into tier one  and i am surprised to be honest with you that   they did that well for sustained dpr now i  know there are asterisks all over the place   with this one and you don't have to tell me  you're probably going to anyway and that's okay   i still love you this is kind of i think the first  time that i've really almost intentionally created   what feels to me like a nova sustained damage  hybrid build right where instead of like picking   one turn for big massive damage you pick one  combat round for really nice sustained damage   the cheese grater from last week did that a little  bit a couple of others that i've done in the past   but arguably those were a little more sustainable  than even this one usually getting like a couple   combat encounters per day uh for that level of  damage i might have to create like a separate   spreadsheet if i keep doing this um for these like  this character can do this level of damage but   only one or two combat encounters per day you know  type thing to kind of keep them separate from the   truly sustained you know damage builds or whatever  at the end of the day i really i really enjoyed   this this character we we do pretty pretty good  you know sustained reliable damage per round with   some nice utility and support features at least  by kind of mid to late game but then when you   really need to pull out the big guns for like the  super important fight for the big boss fight right   you can do so and and hit as hard as just about  any sustained damage per round character that i've   that i've ever built some people might find  a build like this to be a little boring   a little vanilla and i can see that at the end  of the day you know in combat you're pretty   much just hitting stuff right not me i mean for  those who have like played craps with a bunch   of friends right and you're all standing around  the table and everyone's yelling and screaming   when the shooter you know hits the number that  you all want that's not boring that's a lot of   fun and that is what this build feels like to  me i mean sure everyone crits once in a while   but you are critting all the time and when you  do it's like a freight train rolling through   your enemy so i hope that you will laugh  and shout and pound the table every time   you do because it's going to be happening  a lot so that's the build for the week i   love you guys so much thank you for watching um  please do check out the other uh content on the   channel you know our live play games um the slide  into my dms kind of talk show thing d d university   for those who are wanting to learn the basics of  the game i hope you'll check it out but i really   appreciate you thanks for watching hope you have  a fantastic day and we will see you very soon

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 77,684

Keywords: D&D Optimized, Critical Hit, Crit Fishing, D&D, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, 5e, guide, how to, Berserker, Barbarian, Champion, Fighter, Pike, Piercer, Half Orc, Paladin, Smite, Divine Soul, Sorcerer, Character creation, min max

Id: PHQKpV7X_T8

Length: 61min 7sec (3667 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021