The Moon Singer: D&D Build
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- Today is the last video I'm doing inspired by the @DungeonDudes multiclassing Tier-Ranking series. Here's a spoiler warning: we go out with a BANG!
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Intro:(0:00)
Table Top Candle Company:(5:37)
Level 1:(8:42)
Level 2 - 6:(12:51)
Level 7 - 9:(29:36)
Level 10 - 13:(37:01)
Level 14 - 17:(44:41)
Final Thoughts:(50:01)
Outtakes:(56:25)
Math/Graph for this episode: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Master Sustained Damage Comparison (5 tabs):
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Thanks to LudicSavant for the amazing DPR calculator! forums.giantitp.com/showthrea...)
Music Credits:
Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Angevin 120 loop by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
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Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Master of the Feast by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/ - Zábava
Errata: I had an error in my calculations at levels 13 and 17 - I accidentally added 10 damage to Cloud of Daggers for some reason - this lowers the damage numbers at those levels, but still keeps them at the top of the class overall. I'll adjust the spreadsheets accordingly.
Also! Contingency only works on 5th level spells and lower and the spell only affects you - no Force Cage or Wall of Force or Crown of Stars! :)
Also! I'm seeing people talk about Mage Armor - I'll admit, while I was working the build I was just thinking "Natural Armor and Mage Armor don't stack" and, while that's true, I don't believe there's any reason why you couldn't cast Mage Armor (which lasts for 8 hours without concentration), and benefit from it while wild shaped *instead* of your Natural Armor, since the PHB states "If you have multiple features that give you different ways to calculate your AC, you choose which one to use." So yeah, that's a 13 instead of an 11 (Alas, Brown Bears have a 10 Dex or it'd be higher). I'll take a +2 bump. Especially since it'll eventually be at an 18 when bladesinging... not bad at all.
And they only target you...
Just synaptic-static yourself and everyone around you pays the price. I think thats kind of a worthwhile risk at your bladesong ac.... iv never done it yet but if you have held your reaction you should be able to just shield out of it and flavor a moon burst effect
They said there will be a three class multiclassing video, but now they started Spell Tier-Ranking, so we'll have to wait, sadly...
Still, it was supposed to be about powerful builds, so it might be scary when You optimize them :D
does mage armor count as a feature here? thought its only for monk and barbs with nat. armor
@@michelol8288 that’s unarmored defense ;)
The 'Oops all Bladesingers' party really coming along
Please and thank you
Oh nooo how could this happen 😂
Sign me up, I’ll play in that game!
Thay would be so cool!
[Edit: I'm gonna leave that typo in because it seems oddly appropriate.....or inappropriate]
@@Gavo172 what monsters would bet they all have silvery barbs too!
Moon Druid bladesinger elves are literally canon in my setting and I am glad this combo is getting a shine here in d4
That sounds like a wild setting 😅
Well bladesingers should be elves...so yeah... and personally I add the few twist of accepting elven armor and weapons for bladesingers... so nothing better than a double-bladed scimitar and bladesong...dancing through the enemies of orcs and similar
I love how you’ve taken several elements that individually people hate on and combined them into a great build. A druid/bladesinger multiclass is a challenge, but you made it work with cloud of daggers, no one’s first choice for 2nd level spells, and giff, no one’s first choice of ancestry.
You announce you’re a giff druid/bladesinger and they start laughing, you up-cast cloud of daggers and they start laughing harder, then you wildshape into bear, drag them into cloud of daggers and hold them there until they die and suddenly they’re not laughing anymore.
This build seems like the kind of thing that a DM would start building encounters specifically to counter after seeing more than twice.
If that's the case it will make things easier for the rest of the party. The monsters can't counter the whole party's tactics simultaneously.
so just have a caster and use crowd control
As a wizard, this character won’t be a one-trick pony (make that bear). If conditions don’t look right for grapple and daggers, drop a nasty control spell and Wildshape to hide.
Bear only has 34 HP and 15 AC. Bear form is pretty easy to drop once character is in tier 2 by just attacking it.
@@orangeflame568that's by far the biggest weakness of this build. If the enemy also doesn't care about hurting his ally, he can also just explode the bear using an AoE spell.
Colby I got a suggestion, Dungeon Dudes are doing a Spells tier list series as well, you can look for quirky or unique spells and try to make builds around using them, that could be really fun
Excellent idea for shorter vids!
I'd also like to see character combos. What two builds work together well on the battlefield?
Yeah, I've been trying to think of a way to make vampiric touch work (seems great thematically), but just can't
I came for the BG3, stayed for the fun DnD builds!
Next step is playing some tabletop ;)
BG3 has bought in table top curious players far better than crpgs of the past!
That's great, love seeing new folsk streaming in@@coreytaylor3633
I came for the fun DnD builds, stayed for the BG3 builds as well.
@@20storiesunder I want to say thank you! I've played my fair share of dnd with friends but haven't had the chance to join a campaign (run by a friend) in the past year. Your comment inspired me to say "fck it, I'll DM" and after talking with several friends who were interested I can officially say that now I'll be the one taking people to the mines. Again, thanks for the little push and wish me luck!
I like the idea of taking two more druid for giant octopus. Flavor it with a piraty curved sword or rapier as the singer blade and sea shanties out of wild shape. Almost same str, more hp, and you now have a single 15' reach 2d6 tentacle attack that initates grapple to hold the poor soul in your piratey cloud of daggers. And that's just on land.
Relying on a +5 to hit to grapple will be very rough, especially later on. Similarly, the 10 speed will make it near impossible to drag enemies into the cloud of dagger. So unless you're playing an underwater or pirate-style campaign, I'd advice against it.
I want the Paladin Bladesinger now!
7:14 "they actually have a new candle, and they SCENT it to me" 😂
Re: Song of Defense and Concentration:
I know the bear has a higher than typical chance of getting hit, but if you get hit by something big, you can use your reaction to drop the damage to a point where your concentration check is more manageable.
"He gets hit for 30." (That's a 15 to save concentration)
Second level spell to prevent ten damage? Now it's a ten.
Love the synergy between you and the Dungeon Dudes. I don’t know that “is it better than…” is the best question here. But certainly you can answer “yes!” to “is this a fun and powerful build.” Bonus points: super distinctive.
You can cheese the heck out of Contingency. "When I go 'rowr, rowr, rowr,' it casts fireball." Get a free action fireball (or whatever) while in bear form.
The more time passes the more I'm getting convinced Cloud of Daggers is the strongest damage spell at 2nd level, potentially period. No save, magical slashing damage, enter-and-start-of-turn clause, insane scaling, this spell is the best spellblade spell in the game.
Cloud of Daggers is definitely an underrated spell. Pushing/ pulling/ grappling opponents in it is devastating!
It's either Cloud of Daggers or Spike Growth
You win the internet man. Your videos are amazing, your break downs so thorough and interesting. And you're such a nice guy. Kudos to you and all that you do.
I would think that Mage Armour would be a fairly obvious pickup instead of Absorb (much though I love Absorb, taking that at Wizard 2 seems perfactly reasonable) or Silvery (if that is even allowed at your table). A 2 point AC bump to your bear form will help extend your wildshape durability.
going to add to my pinned comment about this...
The major drawback that is probably the biggest one is... 34 health. By level 10 enemies are going to be doing multi attacks that can eat through 34 health in a moment, or a fireball (or many other spells) and you only have ONE reaction fairly late in the build to even reduce the damage. I would imagine that you will be dropping out of bear form fairly often once reaching around level 10 (especially if you are the largest creature and or the enemies know anything about your tactics)
Very possible. I'm hoping that, with the help of either wild shape healing or, later, song of defense, we can mitigate that as much as possible, but don't forget: we're not going to be getting hit *every* time an enemy attacks, and we have two uses of wild shape per short rest... get knocked out, next round, new bear, keep grappling.
I'd love to try it out in game and see how well it works outside of the lab.
@@DnDDeepDiveTrue, it really depends on the table...
For example... my group at level 7 just had to fight a purple worm after a long adventuring day... minimum everyone had 2 levels of exhaustion. Somehow we pulled through using silence and pass without trace and some DM leeway on the reading of those!
I was wondering if someone had mentioned this, as 11 AC base and 34 hp is really weak in mid levels even. Even if we were to add +2 ac from mage armour and +5 from Bladesong, 18 AC will help somewhat, but 34 hp is really low, you'd be out of wildshape in a single round, meaning this combo cant be used often at all. True, you{re still mostly a wizard, but you{re sacrificing 2 levels for this trick, that may or may not pay out.
For this reason, Mirror Image should be cast before every combat if possible. Honestly, it's not a bad Contingency target either.
Alternatively Glyph of Warding Dwarf gives the Armor of Agathys spell to bolster our hp. (RAW this probably has to be contingency? Not 100% if you can cast it pre-wildshape and have it carry over. Either way a good option tho)
My first thoughts are that this will be really powerful. It'll have to be a bit MAD (erm.. multiple ability score dependent), but the combination should be crazy. Wizards and Druids are both difficult to multiclass out of, but I think this can work. Super excited for it!!!!
This build reminds me of the Fochlucan Lyrist prestige class of 3.5e, a singing performer with arcane and druidic magic that combined bardic song and lore with the primal magic of nature.
That's a blast from the past! Thanks for reminding me for a Prestige Class I loved years ago!
My mind is blown. I love the crazy combo!
Fascinating and fun build. Biggest weakness I see at higher levels is bear HP not scaling so potentially losing bear form every round. That being said I still want to use it for atleast a oneshot.
Saw the same issue 34hp, with setup rounds and esp if high dpr should draw aggro. Could be a big problem.
I’m glad you brought up the poll because it clicked as soon as I saw this video. It’s an interesting question.
Called it! I’ve played one of these and they’re so much fun
I always love it when the Bardic Brawler gets a shoutout! I’m playing one at my table and just got to level six (blending time!)
Was not ready for the unboxing content 😆But honestly, all your videos are just unboxing content for hugely entertaining character builds, so I'm not complaining 😄
I LOVE this build. The flavor and background storyline are wide and varied. Having wild shape and wizard spells and zeroing out an enemy with grapple WHILE dumping out top tier damage?
Bravo sir..
Very good build! What a fresh set of ideas to max out the power here
Thanks Colbs! Love your D&D builds!
You can teally feel the new editor with all of those amazing sound effects!
🎉 thanks!
I agree, good job BlackthornEditor! Can’t wait to see progression of ideas and editing in a few months!
Great advice for life there. Instead of lamenting that life doesn’t fit your desires, look for the opportunities. That kind of optimism and creativity are a recipe for success!
Great combo! Excellent Job!!! 💪👍
I had kind of wandered away from the D&D side of CZcams for a bunch of reasons. And i had forgotten how much just putting your videos on in the background to listen to while I go about important but boring task made actually doing those tasks easier.
Having something that my brain is willing to engage makes getting up and doing things feel in a reasonable time feel like a reasonable ask.
I also love that this combo works really well with 2 characters in a party. Any spellcaster who can cast cloud of daggers and a rune knight fighter or path of giants barbarian can pull this off as a team that requires less set up.
I know thats not the point of this channel, but I always enjoy seeing combos that work better with team work within a party anyways.
The editing is better than ever! I love the new damage report
Thanks to Dallin!
😁😁 thanks!
If your damage report is always at the same lvls. The portrait or design could change depending on that. "More damage letters or some" just an idea. Love the content.
@@krysuh6936 hmmm…. Sounds like a fun thing to try out!
Yeah it feels like when you succeed in doing a combo on a pinball machine :D
Nice build 👍 I love the new jingle just before damage reports. I guess that's Dallin's hand in the video 😉
👋 glad you like it!
I like what you did inverting the camera, great editing on this video, really pleasant to see!
Thanks!
You need to do a bladesinger multiclass for all the classes now!
Absolutely loved this build :D
I've been wanting this for a while. So freaking happy
Came for the build. Stayed for the singing.
This worked a lot better than I expected. Nicely done, Colby.
my friend was struggling to decide between a moon druid and a bladesinger. so this timing is very good him and very bad for me, the dm!
Even though this build doesn’t make use of melee attacks that often in favor of grappling, I might rule that you could use the primal savagery cantrip while wild shaped, and make use of the Bladesinger extra attack.
I love this, but, we would have to use our Druid spell mod (WIS) to hit, which is my great.
Normally when i play a moon druid i take the telepathic feat (the first time up until level 8 i had a patchwork quilt with things I could point to on it while in animal form "trap floor" "short rest later fight now" etc etc)
I think for this though if you cant giff then the telekinetic feat would be really good lettinf you do some 5ft push/pull with your bonus action and spell DC each turn. There's also an argument that if theres no verbal or somatic components there'd be nothing stopping your bear form summoning a mage hand which could write messages in the sand or something
Fantastic video again. Thank you!
A fun thing I've seen for some people homebrewing that grappling makes the enemy occupy the same square is that they can have an infinite amount of creatures on the same square as long as you continuously grapple a creature that already has another grappled.
Looks like somebody got a new editing tool they wanted to play with 😏 Quick side note, you can't use Contingency to cast Force Cage or Crown of Stars since they're not 5th level or lower (and doesn't target you). In fact, rules as written, Cloud of Daggers targets a point within 60 feet, and not a creature, so even though you could cast it so it technically affects you and no one else, it's not a spell that can target you, and therefore can't be used with Contingency. Love the build as always, and looking forward to episode 150!
aye - pinned a comment on this one :)
I love that you made the giff/jiff joke, as its written into their setting info that the culture itself argues over the pronunciation!
Always surprised by the amazing builds. Definitely listening to this episode a couple of times over because what is this build? Lol too cool
Was so stoked for what it was gonna be based off the short. Even more excited to see "Moon Singer" which is great fun. Good stuff as always. I love your friendly enthusiasm, even this many videos in. I'm gonna keep up with them all, too good to miss any.
Had the Moon Singer realisation back in Feb 22. So excited to see someone do something with it. But thought you might enjoy my original concept for the build. Was more for flavour and fun rather than effect.
Kalastar
5 bear barbarian
1 monk
2 blade-singer wizard
2 moon druid
A turn into a
Ape
raging
Resistant to all damage
with a rapier
add dex + Int + wis or con to ac
+20ft movement
I will definitely use contingency for Polymorph, just for the memes.
Think of the enemy working so hard to knock you out of your bear form and possibly your concentration only for you to insta transform into an Ooazaru from Dragon ball Z
Edit: Also I would cough up the gold for simulacrum. What's better than one cloud of dagger casting , tough to hit and surprisingly nimble, shoving and dragging brown bear? two cloud of dagger casting....
Hippo hippie from outer space sounds like a song that I would definitely listen to
Sounds like a Bowie classic. 😂😂
One thing to not is that enlarge reduce says that the creature maintains the enlarges features even if it can’t grow to that size due to outside conditions so either way it will allow you to grapple larger creatures
Tuesdays have become my favorite day just for these videos. Get a good cup of coffee, a blanket and ready to take notes on a class I would never have thought of on my own.
Damn, just when I think I know where the build is going. This was amazing!
I like the image of a gargantuan bear with person-sized meteors floating around them when you use crown of stars
I haven't clicked so fast before. Let's go MoonSinger.
Moon Druid 2/Wizard X has always been overlooked as a fantastic build. Lots of ways to do it. With the focus on Cloud of Daggers and Extra Attack with claws, I’d definitely take the Slasher feat on this particular one.
I loved the dungeon dude’s series about multiclassing and looked forward to each episode every week. However, my favorite episode was the one about warlocks. I loved taking a deeper look at multiclassing into warlock beyond just Hexblade. That video was full of things I had never thought of before and I feel like you could spend several months making videos on ideas just from that one episode alone.
Beast barbarian + undead warlock
I played a similar grappling moon druid cheese grater. Same race and background, but concentrated on spike growth and took levels in rogue (scout) instead of bladesinger to give extra movement with bonus action and reaction. I used a moorbounder instead of a bear. Any enemy that got grappled was instantly shredded with all that forced movement through the spikes.
I would like to see if most DMs consider the "Multiattack" action that monsters have as the same as a PC taking the "Attack" action with Extra Attack. Grappling requires you to take the Attack action and replace an attack with a grapple, so it is technically not the same as taking the multiattack action that monsters get. That being said, if I was the DM, as long as the attack could reasonably grapple the target I'd allow it.
I ordered those candles for the people I play with for Christmas. Thanks for the suggestion.
You should also be rest casting mage armour which will carry through just like enlarge/reduce would, so you will have a base AC of 17 in Bear form while blade singing.
Now this is the kind of surprisingly effective nonsense I subscribed to you for Colby
New favorite build. Now do all the classes that are left. Please and thank you.
Man, that "All singing, all dancing bear of the world." line GOT ME. That's a fan shout out if I've ever seen one. XD
Also, I always love these Grater builds. I don't plan on ever doing ANY of them myself (because 2-3 rounds of setup just feels... meh to me), but it does inform the way I think about damage with allies, and the importance of movement abilities. I'm in a campaign right now playing a control-oriented evocation wizard, and many of my choice spells push and pull enemies as a side affect. Soon, I'll have access to Pulse Wave, my two cleric allies will have access to Spirit Guardians, and my Ranger ally will likely have Spike Growth, and I would never have considered all of those interactions without regularly being reminded of the power of Graters. So the first time these new players see a Pulse Wave through Spike Growth into twin Spirit Guardians (and maybe even a Cloud of Daggers, from my wizard ally), I will think of you.
You are not your khakis.
The Moon Singer: D&D Build #149
Level 1:(see above) [druid 1 & race]
Level 2:(see above) [druid 2 & subclass]
Level 3:(@15:57) [wizard 1]
Level 4:(@17:55) [wizard 2 & subclass]
Level 5:(@21:01) [wizard 3]
Level 6:(@24:08) [wizard 4 & ASI]
Level 7:(see above) [wizard 5]
Level 8:(@31:05) [wizard 6]
Level 9:(@32:51) [wizard 7]
Level 10:(see above) [wizard 8 & ASI]
Level 11:(@38:09) [wizard 9]
Level 12:(@41:00) [wizard 10]
Level 13:(@42:11) [wizard 11]
Level 14:(see above) [wizard 12 & ASI]
Level 15:(@45:31) [wizard 13]
Level 16:(@47:07) [wizard 14]
Level 17:(@48:20) [wizard 15]
You study under flando?
@@ya-dude I did not know who that was until you mentioned them. I am not a critter, because I do not enjoy watching others play except for maybe an hour at a time, which is why I made it through the Force Grey stuff & I did experience the first YT of Critical Roll, but not enough to know who that was. I do this for myself, but it works out that sharing it makes others happy too.
I would love to see you do a series of builds that are optimized for races / lineages which are not frequently used by players!
Edit: TIL that, the light halo behind Colby is coming from a torch shining on the wall (see the last outtake). Love it!
Hippos truly are the most dangerous creatures known to man 😂 great video as always. Just a 2 cents on the outtakes if feedback is wanted on the change; the bleep to break up the cuts made me giggle but as someone that usually watches these videos multiple times (I listen back to old episodes to wind down for bed) the level of the bleep might wake me up if I’d drifted off so could come down slightly.
If this is the first vid with the new editor I think I remember being mentioned, thanks for your work and great job fitting in to the style of the channel!
Noted. I will lower the beeps for the future outtakes. 😊😊
Hooray! New video! In love with the name :)
A big weakness here is teleporting enemies, can't keep them grappled despite your great bonus and advantage
Had a cleric/paladin forge cleric who had two bandoliers of +1 adamantium daggers that I would just chuck on the ground and then animate them in future turns. That was a lot of fun.
‘Swiss army bear’ sounds like a character out of girl genius. I love it.
This could be said for all of your builds that use this tactic but you can do a team up with others that use moonbeam or spike growth to melt enemies.
This is absolutely brilliant, one of your most fun builds yet. It’s effectively weaponizing your *movement* to deal damage, which I’ve never seen before (except in your cheese grater build)
Armor of Agathys would be incredible on this build though, and I think I’d take the new Rune Shaper build to get it. You mentioned Fire Shield being great on this character-AofA is even better for damage, it lasts for eight hours, and the temp HP would go a long way to keep you in wild shape (plus hey, they stack)
You end up lowering the Athletics proficiency bonus. IF the DM is flexible and will allow you to try Rune Carver first and if the Grapples are not landing switch to Outlander or whichever. Great suggestion though.
Stop it Colby, the moment I accept that I can't possibly have enough games to play the characters I want to play you come and give me ideas!
There goes my afternoon xD
One interesting benefit to Artificer if you are going to wear armor and take 2 levels for infusions, grab the armor of magical strength to add your INT modifier to your athletics checks up to 6x per day :)
Also my friend, you could keep it going with ALL the Dungeon Dudes' D rank multiclass options ;p We would definitely watch!
Also I love the Canadian shirt for the "last" DD vid XD
You are the Johnny of all Johnnys and I am here for it.
Yes!!! I was waiting for this combo.
I'm starting out with a Dhampir Moon Druid and I was given a Claws of Insignia as a starting magic item (DM is actually going to improve it further as certain milestones, probably tiers, are met; kind of like 4e items.) So this build is looking better and better for me. Grapple, spiderclimb as bear (Dhampir movement) up a wall and hold the enemy in the cloud of daggers. If they get out of the grapple, fall damage. Then at about the 47:30 mark, you mention the same magic item and I was excited. But I remember that I got the idea from your Dhampir video, so of course you'd be thinking about this item.
Exactly what I'm looking for.. this Video could not have come out at a better time.
Yeah this is alright, i like my stars druid/diviner wizard combo... astronomy and astrology all in one.
Love the new damage report
Just watching another d4 video, the bear necessities
I like to do what I call the “Skinny Dip” (Barbarian 1/Bladesinger 2) so my character can ignore wearing armor. Did look at doing this with my Werewolf because a high Int + a beast’s Con makes for a pretty good AC.
The getting around high AC is a big deal. I like it. Rolling one up now.
Just throwing this out there. How about a character build around Weakening enemies for your party.
Thinking along the lines of Mind Sliver + Bane... maybe some Mind Whip action, too. Sounds fun!
You might enjoy "The Fate Weaver" if you haven't seen it yet...
@@DnDDeepDive I'll check it out!
18:37 Challenge accepted.
I've always been a freak. Even among a Circle of animagi, an Awakened hippo that walks upright is shunned as a failed experiment. They could not kick me out or kill me because I was the "beloved child" of the leader of the Circle, the one who Awakened me, but the rest of the Circle never let me forget that I was not welcome. So when she fell in battle, I ran before they could make good on their many threats of what they would do when I was no longer under her protection. I ran and ran and ran. And when I could run no more, I collapsed in an open field under a full moon. I thought I must be hallucinating then because I saw two eleven maidens approaching me: one with skin like alabaster and hair of raven black, the other with skin like purple coal and hair of silver; one clothed, the other not; one laughing as she wept, the other crying as she smiled. They sang and danced over me and I felt strength fill to my body. I remember none of their words and sing them to this day. I remember none of the steps and I dance them each night. Just as I did that morning when I rose to sing and dance for she who calls all to sing and she who leads all life in dance.
-The testimony of Grin the Singer
Obviously, if the setting you're bringing this character to doesn't have Selune and/or Eilistraee, talk with your DM about an appropriate replacement. Not quite a hippo hippy from space but this is what I would use for my backstory if I was going to play this. That said, there would probably be a twist at some point later in the campaign (possibly the end of the story but maybe before) where he finds out that he's not actually an awakened hippo but was found by his adopted mother in a crater in what she thought was an asteroid when his biological parents show up in their spelljammer looking for him.
Ooh I like the title card and little guitar riff for the damage report
Huge singing space circus bear is a phenomenal addition for a spelljammer campaign.
11:47 you can simply choose proficiency in Athletics no matter whtat background. See the "Customizing your Background" section in the PHB, which is often overlooked but NOT otptional.
yeah that Drakenheim monk was a bit broken but oh so fun!
Great build, one idea for a bit more optimization. Take the Giant Foundling background which gives the Strike of the Giants feat, take Hill Giant option so you can attack with more damage and potentially make them prone without needing to use an attack dedicated to it. When you take Skill expert just use that opportunity to take athletics and then expertise it as well.
I played this as a max int mostly druid + 2 levels of bladesinger and it was pretty fun. No extra attack but the AC, con and movement speed boosts were 👌🏻👌🏻
Another bladesinger build ?! Wow, thank you Coby, this is really one of my favorite channels here, thank you a lot, and thank you for make me love bladesinger : ) !!! and Shadowblades >: ) !!! : ) !!!
This brings up an interesting question I was once confronted with from a Druid/Cleric multiclass player: he was a Triton so he asked if I would allow him to ignore the swim speed restriction for wildshape since the character has a swim speed already and, in theory, as a low level Druid in the water he would probably be mostly exposed to swimming animals. I said yes, but made sure that the precedent didn’t also apply to Aarokocra’s fly speed.
The combo I didn’t know I needed until today
Agreed
I would contingency Cloud of Daggers potentially at 5th level to activate when i activate Wild Shape, so that you could be in Bear form, with cloud of daggers up, and have movement and a full action all on round 1. losing 1 level of upcasting on the spell but you are fully functional by round 1 instead of round 3. You could also cast Cloud of Daggers NEXT to the enemy in this scenario in round 1 which i see going as such: Run up to them, grapple, shove them prone, then drag them with left over movement into the spells radius to make them take the initial damage and the start of their turn.
i too amend my plan after realizing that contingency must be targeted on yourself
Fantastic build! I think I've only commented on your videos before to provide occasional algorithm boosts, but I've always felt compelled to talk about possible fun build stuff and just generally talk about the build in the video, and I've decided to start doing that now. Who cares if people read it? I want to rant about DnD, dammit!!
I love this build, and the synergy present between bladesong and wild shape. It makes a very compelling build, especially at lower levels. But I want to further discuss the idea of using cloud of daggers in combination with wild shape, to make an effective SAD (mostly) full caster that can do some great control, and damage through that control, when they want to.
Firstly, I wanted to mention the race pick. While I love giff, and think it was the correct pick for this build, I can't help but be dissatisfied by the fact that so many of the giff's features don't really aid in the main focus of this build - the wild shaping in combat. So I wanted to propose plasmoid. Plasmoid is going to be accepted at far fewer tables, I believe - it's harder to sell slime creature that turns into a gummy bear to your high-fantasy loving DM - so giff is still probably a better pick, but I believe that plasmoid's on-paper features are just as, if not more, helpful, and fun to talk about as an alternative. They get advantage on checks to "initiate or escape a grapple." This does mean, sadly, that they wouldn't have that same advantage on checks to shove a creature, but the main focus of this build is grappling, and most of the damage isn't granted by attacks on a creature, so I don't view that as a horrible problem. More importantly, plasmoid gives you several compelling advantages. Firstly, you can squeeze through spaces as narrow as 1 inch wide - no restriction on size, and no description of anatomy, so this would work while you're wildshaping. This is quite handy, especially if your large bear is a little too big for the space you're fighting in, and it means you might be able to achieve half- or even three quarters-cover from your enemy.
Secondly, and perhaps even more compelling, is the ability to create a psuedopod. This costs a bonus action - which isn't SUPER spoken for on this character - and the feature lists some things you can do with the psuedopod as part of the same bonus action, and then specifies some general actions you cannot take with the psuedopod, implying that any other action could be taken with the psuedopod, as if it were a normal limb (as long as it didn't require the use of fingers, which I'm assuming things like using magic items does). One of these restricted actions is attacking. I believe that this would also stop you from being able to grapple anything with that psuedopod, as grappling is labeled a "special type of melee attack," but I think that DM's would oftentimes allow you to grapple a third creature with this if you asked them, thus letting you control yet another creature and possibly force them into the area of your spell as well. Even if you can't grapple with this, though, it's helpful to have another use for your bonus action, and there's some interesting stuff that could happen with your psuedopod, from the options described in the feature.
On top of that, I think the use of the shove in this build would be... somewhat unsportsmanlike in practice? I always balk at the idea of using knocking prone as a source of advantage, due to its providing disadvantage to anyone at range. While you could bring this up with your party during character creation and work around it without too much difficulty, I still wouldn't want to utilize shove liberally. Not that there's anything wrong with suggesting it and taking it into account for calculations in your build, to be clear! Just worth mentioning in the comparison between plasmoid and giff here, I think.
Beyond that, I wanted to discuss alternative options for build ideas like this. The idea here is, functionally, utilizing synergies to make a build that can provide great control and damage through a concentration option and grappling, while still maintaining SAD, through the use of wild shape. And I think there are other interesting ways to go with that build.
Sorcerer also provides access to the cloud of daggers spell, and could get you constitution saving throw proficiency from level 1, if you started sorcerer - which I don't think is too much of a hinderance, given that a lot of tables start at level 3 or higher, from my experience. Bard is also worth noting, because swords bard would still grant an extra attack at level 8, give you that extra 10 feet of movement speed after you attack, and you could utilize blade flourishes fine while wild shaped (the only specification for using a blade flourish is "making an attack with a melee weapon," and I don't see any reasons our claws wouldn't count as weapons. They're natural weapons!). Plus, I don't see any reason you couldn't do bardic inspiration in wild shape, either - a great use of your bonus action.
But the most compelling option here by far, for me, is Warlock.
Warlocks get access to cloud of daggers. Hex is also a compelling option for concentration, if you don't have the spell slots for cloud of daggers. Additionally, Hexblades (yes, Hexblade, please don't eviscerate me) get some really interesting synergies here.
Firstly, Hexblade's curse. Obviously. Again, this character doesn't have a very well spoken for bonus action, so hexblade's curse is a decent option, once you start making attacks.
Secondly, Hexblade allows you to do the following: "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls." Now, this is a bit of a weird tech, but I THINK it works, rules as written; I don't see any reason that you couldn't do this with your claws once you've wild shaped. They don't have the two-handed property, and you add the bear's proficiency bonus to attacks with them (given that the +5 is higher than your +4 Strength modifier), so you're certainly proficient while you're a bear. And since it doesn't take any action cost, there's no reason you couldn't do it in combat.
All of this only really amounts to giving you a +1 bump to attack and damage when you get a +5 Charisma, but it also means that you could apply invocations to it. Thirsting blade to get extra attack, eldritch smite for a more reliable option to prone an enemy, plus more damage and just generally a really good burst option. Lifedrinker, once you're a high enough level for it.
You could also get a familiar, by starting with pact of the chain, summoning a familiar with it (preferably one that could turn invisible), and then swapping it for pact of the blade with eldritch versatility at level 4. This does mean you wouldn't be able to re-summon the familiar if it died, but since it can turn invisible, I don't think that's too likely to happen. Plus, it adds more stakes to the campaign, so like. I'm on board. Armor of hexes is also quite useful, though quite high level, and accursed specter isn't bad.
Perhaps most importantly, though - you could pick up repelling blast through this build, and still have a no-resource control and forced movement option, even when you're out of wild shapes. Even at low levels.
Do I think that this hypothetical build is more powerful than your build? No, not at all. The biggest issue is that you wouldn't even have anything to boost your concentration with this - unless you started with a level or two in barbarian or sorcerer, and then you'd just slow down your progress to being a bear, and a two level dip into barbarian to start would ruin a big part of the whole idea here - being SAD. Plus, a straight wizard is just more powerful than a straight warlock, and the two levels into druid doesn't change that for this build.
But c'mon. A hexblade, whose cursed weapon they've made a pact with is literally the claws of the bear they become? Imagine if you had an insignia of claws with this character, tattooed across your back, as a permanent reminder of your pact that possesses you when you wild shape. It's so sick. It's so edgy. It's so DnD.
Worth considering IMO.
I present to you the SwashBlade; a Rogue Swashbuckler/Wizard Bladesinger. You don't need allies or advantage to get sneak attack. Booming Blade attack and Fancy Footwork to strike and move away. It's fun to play.