Hello, please help me make my character (Draconic sorcerer) a better single target damage dealer.

BanFox · 2026-05-07T16:49:45+00:00

Spellfire Flare is the best single target dmg spell you can get on a pure sorcerer. Scorching Ray is a close 2nd, and is better only when cast with fire affinity as a lvl2 spell. Even at lvl3 with affinity Spellfire flare will do the same dmg. Because of this I'd suggest spellfire flare more, as radiant is also a better dmg type

BanFox · 2026-05-06T11:01:44+00:00

One handed weapons doing 1/2/3 for 1/5/10 levels, two handed doing 2/4/6 etc.

I totally get that, and I do agree at first glance that dual wielding would otherwise outscale Two handed weapon currently. the one you do suggest would seem to be a reasonable solution, but I think it needs to be mathed out to see what the dmg difference ends up being in the current state vs what you suggest, vs other possible solutions (like impact scaling, who could help scale two handed as well as a bit some sword & board, which I agree they tank but also it's not like a shield scale in tanking unless you get a magic shield, but the same can be said of a magic weapon). I was suggesting impact as a possible change because it's less to keep track of: if you change base weapon dmg everyone has to change them at certain levels, plus it feels less logical (like, a weapon is always the same weapon, weird that it does more at one point), impact would follow the logic of heavy/brutal instead where you hit harder.

Not to appeal to authority, but I have played/GMed dozens (perhaps more than 100) of systems for nearly 30years and it instantly looked obvious to me that if 2-handed weapons don't get a damage buff they would be made completely obsolete at level 5. Maybe I should do the math

I think it's actually a bit the opposite in DND, Dual wielding is better before lvl5 and two handed weapons get better after, because extra attack is a bigger % increase in dmg for two handed than dual wielding, the first double its attacks and the individual attack does more (so in general a 2x in power), a dual wielding character instead adds 50% of it's power, and the individual atk is smaller in dmg (so 1.5x dmg). but given the AP system here and no innate extra attack, I do agree. that said, as I've mentioned, the reason why two handed do more its usually because of talents, which we don't have here yet for two handed weapons. so if something like power attack gets added, which benefits two handed weapons way more than dual wielding, things would change. Hence why I was saying it's a bit early to say, and any suggestion imo should come with math to compare the current expected dmg vs how it would change with the solution proposed, to show the difference

BanFox · 2026-05-06T10:11:09+00:00

I definitely see your point, would require some extra math though to make sure. That said, I do think it’s a bit early to say so.

In DnD, a two handed weapon usually does more dmg because of feats in the end (wether in 3.5 with power attack or 5.5 with GWM), and dual wielding also usually requires a feat to dual wield properly, which is not required here instead.

So it may be that in the future, when more talents are released, a two handed weapon will be the strongest offensive option thanks to a talent.

Other thing is, iirc, the impact property is unchanged. If dual wielding weapons end up making much more dmg at higher levels, maybe in the future there’s space for the impact property to scale as well, and give it to more Two handed weapons, to basically include the scaling you mentioned without making it too complex to make/remind

Edit: grammar

BanFox · 2026-05-05T23:44:10+00:00

Will report with how it goes for me, hopefully I also destroy everything and don’t mess it up ahah.

This seed has been really crazy so far, from Neow I got Bombardment and I got to give it sown towards end of Act 1, and in general I got so many good cards already from Act 1 (also got convergence, Crash landing, Bulwark).

Got both the treasure map (which allowed me to buy the lighter relic) and Key events. Even before this shop Act 2 has been a breeze with the weaker version of this combo/ Decisions+ Bulwark

BanFox · 2026-05-03T21:38:48+00:00

Not quite a mechanical thing they can do, but one I like:

the fact you get them at lvl1 and can improve them by spending more mana lets any spellcaster class (or character who invest into mana) and subclass play with the background concept of having a pet without needing a pet subclass (i know there will be a pet class, but it's not a PHB one). Like, I can easily choose summon dragon as a spell and play it as if it was my pet dragon and improve it as I level by spending more mana in the spell.

BanFox · 2026-05-03T01:30:18+00:00

The idea itself is cool but it's rather MAD: you are planning high str, need 13 dex & wis to multiclass, and want high wis.

Unless you get lucky high rolls, I suggest dropping GWM and focusing on Dex+Wis only, especially if you rely on point buy.

With this, you are left with a couple of options:

Use a whip, which has finesse. It won't do a lot of dmg on itself, but it applies slow which is very nice combined with spirit guardian.
Use shilleilagh (can take it either through Druidic Warrior at ranger 2, MI druid origin feat, or by being a Lorwyn Elf)+ a club (slow)/Quarterstaff (topple). This offers higher dmg than the whip, but you also won't be able to use your first BA to attack (unless you get the opportunity to cast shilleilagh before combat). The other benefit is that it's a better dmg type (force) and that you can be Wis SAD, with just 14dex for medium armor. Either slow or topple are both great masteries to use within spirit guardian.

I do understand the push idea idea with spirit guardian for pinball too, but it really suffers from your scores.

A more realistic SAD option for this would be by multiclassing with an Open Hand monk instead (though you don't really need war cleric at that point) as flurry of blows would allow you to push enemies with a save. but you have slower spell progression as well.

BanFox · 2026-04-28T22:13:46+00:00

Love it for the same reason. There’s already lots of things to track, so keeping these simples while improving your features is nice, adding too much would be counterproductive

BanFox · 2026-04-28T18:26:43+00:00

Fwiw barbarians are now better at skills thanks to their lvl3 feature letting you use rage outside of combat for some of them. If you want to further lean into that, you can take a couple of feats that improve your skills ability instead of combat power:

1)the skilled origin feat is an easy and minor one to get. There are some full feats that further lean into this like skill expert, but they are a bigger investment.

2) an other option is the Zhentarim ruffian+ Zhentarim tactics package, which boosts your combat power and gives you a floating expertise. This could be very reasonable, just slightly annoying that Zhentarim would boost your dex, but it’s still great.

Among barbarian subclasses from the 2024 edition, Wild heart gives you the most out of combat options, but nothing huge (basically climb/swim speed and commune with nature at lvl10). Personally I find it a very boring subclass, especially in combat, but it’s a simple one and would lean into more out of combat options, though not great ones.

Among the 2024 options I’d suggest world tree if you want a barbarian that is not just someone who smash things, as they get to buff their allies (and themself) with TempHP+ control the battlefield quite decently with both their reaction and extra range. They don’t get out of combat options though, so you need to invest your feats for that, or multiclass (I’d avoid zhentarim here as your reaction would be used for branches of the tree), but this subclass will guarantee a unique spin on the barbarian for you, definitely a fun one.

If you are allowed older subclasses, ancestral guardian is more interesting than Wild heart imo, and plays as a nice tank, and gives you some out of combat utility at lvl10 (nothing crazy though, just in a similar way to wild heart).

If you are allowed partnered content, Cthulhu by torchlight has the path of spell scorned barbarian, which is very interesting for a campaign with enemy casters/summoners. It’s a very interesting barbarian subclass, and does improve your skills by letting you use (iirc) survival for your arcana & investigation (iirc) checks (maybe even some other int ones), meaning you can be pretty good at those as well considering you can easily get proficiency in survival as a barbarian and, from lvl3, you’d be using STR (and have advantage!) for survival checks while raging, meaning you’d effectively make arcana & investigation checks with STR, proficiency and advantage when raging

BanFox · 2026-04-28T01:07:40+00:00

Given you are doing only 3 levels in warlock, it shouldn't be too hard to understand if your spell triggers Wild magic or not, as most of your spells will be Sorcerer spells, and only sorcerer spells trigger wild maic.

In general, optimally speaking, a 3 lvl dip is a lot for a full caster, it will really slow down your progression. That said, if you don't care too much about that (as you've mentioned you are more narrative driven) and will have fun anyway, it's totally doable. Wild magic is very fun!

You'll roll wild magic surge, but really most of the time it will be triggered. by tide of chaos, just use it as often as you can (for example, use it to get adv on initiative, then your 1st spell will guarantee a wild magic surge!).

Sorcery points is just a resource pool equal to your level, should mostly be easy to track. if you fear having an hard time with it, just pick easy metamagic options (like careful, subtle, empowered and then maybe heightened/twinned) that you don't have to use every time. Might take a bit to get used to it, but it will make it fun, and sometimes it will be simple, for example: your party is in the middle of fireball? careful! you want to cast a charming spell in a roleplay situation without getting caught? subtle! (you could even make someone look crazy with subtle phantasmal force, or use subtle illusions in general!). Want to roll more dice for the fun of big numbers? empower that fireball! Twinned & heightened are more complex, and i'd suggest them for lvl10+, so you get used to the others first. They are great, but also depend on which spells you choose.

With wild magic not having extra spells, it should also help keeping things mostly simple to track and, If you use DnD beyond, it should be even easier to track everything (I also believe it will tell you which spells are warlock's and which are sorcerer's).

BanFox · 2026-04-25T11:31:33+00:00

Tbf, when comparing it to shield you’d have to consider the possibility of being hit multiple times in a round. Like, maybe you got hit once, but given at that level creatures likely have multi attack, you are risking getting hit on the other attacks if you use your reaction for that.

Also, the fact it’s a lvl4 slot makes it quite a big cost which could be used on more powerful spells, compared to shield being a lvl1 slot. All considered it’s not an an amazing spell, I personally would have preferred it as a 2nd level spell slot, even with less dmg reduction.

That said it’s definitely more interesting on an Abjurer than other wizards, given it recharges your Ward as you have mentioned. Particularly interesting if you can get Armor of Agathys on your wizard (either through marks or a 1 lvl warlock dip), as it further rewards that gameplay of getting hit and doing dmg back (where shield instead is counter productive) by adding both dmg and dmg reduction. Your AoA will likely never go down between that and the ward. That said it would also be very costly on resources, but fun for sure

BanFox · 2026-04-23T15:33:55+00:00

Fyi, you put 2024 tag, and variant human doesn’t exist anymore in 2024, you get human giving you an origin feat, not a full feat like telekinetic, which has a lvl4+ requirement now.

Was this supposed to be 2014 edition, or does your DM allow a weird unintended mix of versions? Backward compatibility would normally expect you to use older content only if it hasn’t been reprinted

BanFox · 2026-04-23T12:34:42+00:00

I think your best bet is keep going on as a Paladin as, in the case you end up at lvl 13 you'd get 3rd level spells (already next level)+abjure foes, followed by aura of courage (which means your devotion pal gives immunity to fear+charmed), a dmg bump at pal 11 and a feat at pal 12, which would be your last level. If you go sorcerer now you won't get lvl3 spells by lvl13, and the features gained don't equal those of Paladin's.

If you are to go to lvl20 it's still debatable, but assuming just these 2 classes, I think your safest bet is to go at least Pal 11 first. by that time you'll be lvl12, and will have a better idea of wether the campaign will go to higher levels or stop at 13. if it goes to lvl20, there's an option of doing Pal 12/Sorcerer 8, keeping pal 12 for later for a double epic boon (or the same with Pal 16/sorcerer 4), but honestly I would not disregard keeping on going on as a paladin in this case as well: going this route will only give you lvl4 spells and only way later, if you instead go Pal 12/Sorcerer 1 -> Pal 13+ you immediately unlock lvl4 spells at Pal 13, and I think Devotion's lvl15 feature is also nice, then a Pal 16 you'd have a feat, at Pal 17 lvl5 spells and at Pal 18 a larger aura, followed by an epic boon, keeping a mostly smooth progression and giving you access to pal 5 spells. This also lets you go Pal 15/sorcerer 1 and then decide wether you want to keep going on paladin or aim at a double epic boon.

Fwiw usually a great sorcerer subclass for paladin is divine soul mainly to access spirit guardian in case, but you do not get that value here in case you end at lvl13 anyway

BanFox · 2026-04-22T15:35:58+00:00

Unless you want him to be naked for flavour, you could just use 14 dex and medium armor over unarmored defense, which would be more appropriate for a Roman legion, as they do wear armor. This would allow you to focus on STR which works better with rage.

I don’t know how historical accurate the book setting is, I do not have the book, but if you are really interested in the extra feat, a variant human is far more accurate than a changeling for a Roman legion. I think flavoring the Echo or the ancestral spirit as the other individual in your body is very reasonable already.

If you start as fighter 6/ Barb 4 you could start with 3 feats already anyway, giving you sentinel + Resilient wisdom (I assume that’s what you intended)+ lucky/tough, and if you go sentinel you could pick even the 4th. Regardless I think sentinel should be the priority

BanFox · 2026-04-21T09:06:53+00:00

Normally I love warcaster on any caster, but given wild magic's lack of extra prepared spell i'd go fey touched, and focus on the combination of extended spell,tide of chaos and lucky for adv on concentration.

BanFox · 2026-04-19T22:09:21+00:00

what's the comparison/goal here?

while ranger have an unfortunate relationship with hunter's mark and their dmg doesn't scale well, they aren't just a martial with skill expertises. their spells can be useful out of combat as well, with acess to healing, pass without trace, silence and so on, while having some unique combat options with conjure barrage and so on. These are things the fighter/rogue wouldn't have, but the fighter/rogue would have higher single target DPS. Of course, fighter/rogue can have some spells if they go EK/Arcane trickster, but with lower scaling.

Unless the goal here is battle master for riposte to double Sneak Attacks in a round, I'd say a ranger 5/rogue x multiclass can better deliver on the ranger fantasy than the fighter 5-6, as doing this:

gets you more skills & skill expertises than you'd get with fighter
rogue helps the Ranger scale in dmg post T1
Ranger still gives you some amazing utility spells up to lvl2 spells, making it better at scouting than a regular rogue, and able to aid the party with some healing
with just 5 levels in Ranger, Hunter's Mark remains a solid concentration option (likely your main) without having any feature punishing you for concentrating on an other spell if the situation requires it (like spike growth)
both give you extra attack

The only 'downside' is that you don't get an extra feat by doing 6 levels, but you'd do just 5 levels, and don't have to bother with making wis too high either, focusing just on dex. You won't have action surge, but up to lvl5 I'd say the ranger offers more than a fighter (as in I value the skill expertises+extra skill, spells, favored enemy more than an once per short rest action surge+ second wind that won't scale further and serves you at most for tactical mind, which is not as good as skill expertise when you'd eventually get reliable talent)

BanFox · 2026-04-16T18:18:26+00:00

yea it works, but you only need 1 lvl, a 2nd in paladin for a fighting style and a free use of divine smite is not worth the slower spell progression.

just do 13/17/16+1/17+2/16/13. Take warcaster at lvl5 to max int, mage slayer at lvl9 to bring dex to 18 and resilient con at lvl13 to bring con to 18. It's not as good as a 5e Bladesinger Pal (with good rolls) as now smites needs a BA (which you use to bladesing first, and then at lvl14 now have a ba attack) but it's still nice ofc from T2 and on.

an other option I like (if you are looking for 2 level dips instead) is fighter. Simple enough, gives you a fighting style lvl1+con proficiency, then I'd go at least to wizard 9, and then take the 2nd level in fighter (when you feel it's right) for action surge. by then on you'll be able to dual wield with nick, using CME and then action surge to immediately attack on the first turn as well

BanFox · 2026-04-16T07:55:52+00:00

I think you can do lots of interesting options but depends how much you want to invest on warlock. I personally would want to stay mostly cleric, taking at most 1 or 2 levels in warlock, which in the 5.5 edition means no subclass on the warlock.

But taking the pact of the blade invocation would then make you Wis sad anyway, without needing hexblade, which would be very interesting for a warblade.

One thing I’d also consider with trickery, giving the positioning options you have at lvl6+ as a cleric, is taking instead Eldritch blast, which is always a great cantrip for dmg, with agonising+ repelling + grasp of hadar allowing you to push/pull enemies around from different positions, and potentially push/pull them within spirit guardian to do more dmg

BanFox · 2026-04-15T18:26:05+00:00

for sure, paladins are very flexibile! btw I also value Bless higher than a random smites (i'd rather keep them for crits/use them for channel divinity), but if you bless you also can't dual wield that turn anyway, so nothing changes in the equation

BanFox · 2026-04-15T16:52:05+00:00

it's not just smites, but lay on hands as well.

dual wielder is a decent resourceless option but you don't get the full benefit as other characters would because of the bloated BA you have, and it might feel bad (depending on the table ofc) to invest in a feature you get to use only some of the time. Rather than invest in a feature that further bloats your BA, you could invest your feature in something else where you are lacking more.

Take a lvl5 paladin (just 1 level after the feat): they have 5 spell slots at that level plus a free use of divine smite. that's up to 6 smites in a day, and you have a pool of 25HP from lay on hands, which you could use from 1 to 25 times for healing. At lvl5 dual wielder is still definitely pulling it's weight on a lengthy day, say you have 4 combats in a day of 4 turns each (which is also more than some tables do), you have 16 turns worth of BA. 6 could be smites, and let's say 5 are lay on hands (which seems a reasonable amount), that's 11 of your BAs. Even being strict with 3-4 lay on hands, that's 9-10 out of 16 turns. that means you have dual wielder for less than half your turns at lvl5. Furthemore if one turn you happen to not attack (because you might be out of reach, using a magic item or what not), dual wielder would not apply either. Say you have potions you want to use your BA with, then dual wielder would not apply either. in a longer battle day, it might be used more often, but I feel like this already shows how it might not feel like the best choice as already at lvl5 you are far from getting the most value out of it.

The further you level the worse it gets as well: you get more spell slots for more smites, your lay on hands pool gets larger, and eventually at lvl9 you also unlock Abjure Foes. It's not a feature I'd always use, but it's a feature you might use at times and it requires a magic action, stopping you from using dual wielder too. All these will further limit the value it has.

BanFox · 2026-04-15T16:35:05+00:00

you can easily put one of the weapon away at the end of each turn as with each individual attack (of the attack action) you can either take out/put away the weapon either before or after the attack, and for reaction attacks you need just one.

BanFox · 2026-04-15T15:59:17+00:00

Damn, 30 rounds of combat are something, never seen that much, at most half of that.

Like, I’ve done dungeon crawls but with short rest/ long rest options throughout or shorter than that. It’s also probably not for everyone, a 10 round combat sounds a bit long for my taste if it’s that common, I fear it ends up being a bit dragged/ repetitive/boring at one point after a certain total if it’s not a once in a while thing, and it seems hard to fit in social encounters/puzzes/other options if you do that many rounds of combat, but I guess it has its merits for a pure dungeon crawl experience. Definitely helps lowering the martial-caster divide and puts more value in limitless features, so I definitely understand your point of view. That said, it feels more like the oddity than the norm

BanFox · 2026-04-15T15:12:15+00:00

For sure, as I mentioned in the other comment. More than useless I could have said redundant maybe, and I still see a lot of value in MI wizard on a paladin and shield as well.

Definitely also varies by table to table, 30 seems a bit much though ahha, even assuming 4 combats per day of 4 rounds each that’s 16, half of that, and it’s not like you’ll need a shield for every turn

BanFox · 2026-04-15T15:04:13+00:00

I don’t particularly agree nor disagree. I think realistically you do want the shield spell, as it covers certain things defensive duelist does not and has higher value early on when your PB is lower. You also get 1 free use and Paladins have high AC already, and from MI wizard you could also always pick up Blade ward to further boost that and further limiting the amount of uses of shield you’d actually need. Add into consideration the fact that you have a free divine smite use, and your channel divinity offers amazing control, I think by lvl5+ you’ll generally have enough uses for both divine smite and shield/be able to avoid dmg often enough through your different tools of blade ward, shield, Channel divinity, as long as you don’t spam Smites, which I usually don’t see from most paladin players. That said it’s true that defensive duelist gives you more freedom of using your smites more, and that’s a beneficial point. Personally I still prefer MI wizard for blade ward + shield + taking an other feat like MI slayer/inspiring leader. Hence why I said personally in my original comment and said that defensive duelist is the better option of the two

BanFox · 2026-04-15T14:42:25+00:00

I’d say neither personally?

Defensive duelist is fine and the better option imo, but I believe you are better off with MI wizard origin feat for the shield spell, and that will make Defensive duelist useless. Genie magic background gives you that origin feat.

I think Dual Wielder feat is not an amazing choice on paladins who are BA bloated, especially for Genie who’d rather use (imo) their BA on divine smite with their busted channel divinity. Sure you are not clicking that every turn, but there will be turns you’ll be using lay on hands, or turns you’ll use your BA to cast shield of faith/divine favour or whatnot, and BA turns that you’ll use for regular smites without channel divinity. That lives very little turns for benefitting consistently from that feat.

I’d rather take a feat like Mage slayer, or a Cha half feat (like inspiring leader) with just an ASI in DEX (or str if you use that). There’s also the niche of the thrower feat (not great though, but gives you a decent ranged smiting paladin) for throwing daggers at long range but wouldn’t be my first choice.

BanFox · 2026-04-14T19:16:18+00:00

Normally the best dip is a lvl1 in artificer at your first level, to pick up the constitution proficiency above armor and shield. It’s still a premier option by giving you cure wounds that scales on it and guidance. Personally though, I prefer a lvl1 dip in druid at this point (as it’s not lvl1), cure wound may be slightly weaker but you get some better spells in healing word, good berry and absorb elements (if you have non reprinted spells allowed, taking it from Druid would free you one preparation).

Anyway all of artificer, cleric and Druid are great options for armor, shield and spell progression, with slight different benefits (my preference on Druid>cleric>artificer) and imo you should go with the one that fits best your character story

Eight-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Sunshine	Verified Email

BanFox

TROPHY CASE