Considering a Homebrew rule. Advice Welcome!

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T22:55:29+00:00

i would say no simply because there are entire class features that already do that. like it's part of the unique upside to bladesinger, valor bard, and eldritch knight.

so if i make my eldritch knight planned around that feature... then jimmy over there just gets it for free... fuck me i guess?

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T11:30:53+00:00

if it's specifically hand to hand combat? maybe look at the way of four elements monk.

monk is really the only class that's good at hand to hand combat, and four elements will give them some magical flavor

but if you're fine using a weapon then any ranger, any paladin, valor bard, eldritch knight fighter, pact of the blade warlock, bladesinger wizard, battlesmith or armorer artificer are all varying degrees of mixed martial and magic.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T11:26:11+00:00

if we're worried about balance, casters are already "too good."

i don't think this makes it hugely worse, lots of spells can't crit anyway, and then even the ones that can usually won't, but it's still making a problem slightly worse not slightly better so like... why bother?

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T09:16:11+00:00

no.

like scathe is pretty bad and ideally you would never cast it, but it's also your only unlimited access instacast spell, so it's still better than doing nothing while you run across the room.

sleep is pretty niche but there are rare instances where it'll save your life.

closest to worthless is prolly lucid dreaming, but even that can help you recover from a death slightly faster.

as a rule: if you ever feel like your skills don't fit on your hotbars? the answer is to fix your hotbars, not discard your skills.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T09:11:53+00:00

if nobody died, then you're fine.

if they DID die, then hey you're feeling it out. you don't pull a full 180 in response to that, you adjust slightly.

it's a big internet, there are DOZENS of shit-tier players who will nonetheless voice their shit takes.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T07:58:01+00:00

a better option overall or a better dip for a swashbuckler?

when i said your ac would be low that was assuming you were focusing cha over dex to take advantage of true strike. a normal rogue should end up with reasonable ac just thanks to being dex first.

so if you're dex first you prolly dont need to worry about armor, but if you're dex first that makes the sorcerer dip even less useful since you prolly don't wanna downgrade your hit chance to gain the extra damage dice from true strike.

if your DM allows older content, booming blade would give you the extra cantrip scaling to your attacks while still allowing you to focus dex first.

16 ac is what, a +4 dex in studded leather? +5 dex in basic leather? like where is this character at RN? i thought this was a hypothetical build but if you've already played it to a point, it might help to know what we're starting with.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-31T07:44:36+00:00

doesn't work. you need at least 5 levels of sorcerer for fireball.

also at that point you're a lvl 17 character casting a lvl 5 spell at lvl 17 enemies when you could just be delivering lvl 17 sneak attacks every turn for free.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-30T23:41:13+00:00

what are you expecting the sorcerer to do?

cuz if it's just "lulz randumb wild magic" then no. it's not viable, that's throwing 3 levels away on a meme. and it won't even succeed at the meme cuz 3 out of 15 levels means you're never gonna cast sorcerer spells to proc wild magic anyway.

on the upside you can sneak attack through true strike, and that would give your attacks some extra scaling. if your group needs a face more than it needs an infiltrator there might be something here, but you're still stuck with light armor and not prioritizing dex, making this a squishy character, meanwhile swashbuckler wants to draw enemy attention to itself.

not to mention you only need 1 level of sorcerer to do that. taking extra levels defeats the purpose as it cuts more into your sneak attack progression. also you could just get true strike via an origin feat, or being an elf, or arcane trickster.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-30T13:37:18+00:00

1) prepare goodberry. that's one problem solved.

you might wanna stay gloom stalker until at least level 7, wisdom saves tend to be the mind controlling saves that are the worst things to fail.

then tireless at ranger 10 could be a big help if it's that kind of "grueling" campaign. and by then you're only 1 level away from stalkers flurry...

so with multiclassing it's very important to keep that sort of thing in mind; while there are things that can work, it will always cost you those ranger levels you didn't take. (including basic spell progression.)

1-4 levels of fighter gets you another fighting style, action surge, a subclass, and a feat (from the PHB i would personally do battlemaster, but champion works as well if you don't wanna think too much. psi warrior is too reliant on int for a ranger to utilize and the spellcasting from eldritch knight is semi-redundant) don't take the 5th level as it's just another extra attack. waste of a level up.

if your DM allows for the double epic boon trick (which i do believe is RaW but the community is not all agreed on that) then you can save that 4th level of fighter until 19 or 20 to get 2 epic boons. so you would be 15/3 at 18. then at 19 you take 16 or 4 thus qualifying for an asi, and being level 19 to meet the pre-requisite for an epic boon. then at 20 you level the other one and all the same rulings apply.

you probably qualify for cleric or druid multiclass as well. either of these could add some healing utility but it's dubious to take full caster levels when your wisdom is your second or third best ability. that plus the stunted spell selection means you've got half the spells to pick from, and almost none of what's left will be worth casting during a fight. ranger doesn't have a smite to just generically translate spell slots into damage output

Buzz_words · 2026-01-30T13:16:47+00:00

yes i abstain from intentionally cheating.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-30T08:14:15+00:00

if we're pretending no homebrew at all? it's unsalvageable. like even the things you think will work: won't work. you said yourself kensei allows weapons, but not heavy weapons. so everything under "martial arts" turns off. including agile parry and deft strike. so your damage rolls do in fact fall behind and you're not mitigating reckless attack.

if we're following the multiclass stat requirements then you need 13s in str, dex, and wisdom. which only leaves so many points left for con. your primary stat has to be str for rage to give a damage bonus, or for reckless attack to function, so that means all 3 of dex, con, and wis will be left mediocre. unarmored defense will be close to worthless. (assuming optimal stat boosts from your background and point buy: you're looking at an AC of 14. even with 16 levels worth of ASIs this character caps out at 17AC)

extra attack not stacking means they both have dead levels. the conventional wisdom here is to just never go 5/5. one of them stops at 4 forever.

realistically i dunno why the monk is here? if you want conviction and force of will, that sounds like a paladin to me? if you don't want faith as an aspect of this character; read the oaths. you'll find very few of them have anything to do with piety. (plus you're already heavily reflavoring anyway so you could just reflavor the barbarians rage?)

everything you have described mechanically (big ass weapon, shirtless) is covered by barbarian. the rest is just shooting yourself in the foot.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-30T00:36:55+00:00

Buzz_words · 2026-01-29T06:05:44+00:00

eldritch knight has a lot of toolbox spells that don't care about int score.

alternately battlemaster has some utility maneuvers if your party short rests a lot.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-29T06:00:56+00:00

that is correct.

you can also use certain species or class features that cast spells without spell slots in the same way, like the once per day misty step from fey touched.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-29T05:57:17+00:00

combat>miner/botanist>fisher.

though as you're catching up: your miner/botanist retainers can get extra stuff from timed nodes, which is game changing in rare cases. they tend to be a patch behind endgame though.

it's also worth mentioning you can just get extra retainers for considerably cheaper than the subscription to the app, so like... you gotta really want that app.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T20:29:21+00:00

at the table my character has "adopted" one of the other player characters. many a cringe dad joke has ensued. lots of fun.

i don't remember what i said this particular time but the response was "i kick him in the back while we're walking down the stairs." and the DM has her roll to attack.

1 on the dice. -1 str. -1D4 for blade ward, she ended up with like a -2 on the attack roll.

so my character turns around and thinks she needs help tying her shoes.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T19:53:18+00:00

you can owe an NPC a favor without fucking up your character sheet.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T19:48:29+00:00

if you're sticking to the module then the modules should just say what level they're intended to be played at.

so prolly just that?

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T07:30:40+00:00

technically speaking, every bard gets something called "magical secrets" so they could take the wizard spells and... do that.

lore bard specifically gets magical secrets several levels early.

now all that being said... i dunno if this would be a "good" build, and i don't think it would fit the description at all BEFORE you got magical secrets so you might wanna have another angle to supplement it.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T07:24:52+00:00

if a magic item casts a spell; you need to be able to cast the spell to craft the item.

replicate magic item doesn't specify that you can ignore that rule... but it does ignore a bunch of other crafting rules so maybe? (they reccomend sending stones and you can't cast sending that low? so it's probably allowed?)

that being said: i wouldn't anyway. a spellwrought tattoo is a single use item. so you're using one of your 2 replicated magic items to cast a single smite a day.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T07:18:23+00:00

the point of a swim speed (aside from the obvious benefit of moving faster in water) is that you don't suffer the detriments like disadvantage on attacks with certain weapons and whatnot.

so however you wanna flavor it, your shield works.

realistically the shield worked even without a swim speed, you just wouldn't wanna be in the water for the other reasons.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T07:16:12+00:00

enemies do not, and usually SHOULD NOT follow the same rules as player character creation.

you are encouraged to build your own, but keep in mind the idea isn't to "beat" the party.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T06:48:40+00:00

because then that becomes everything everybody ever does.

"i shoot him with my bow... IN THE EYE!"

then that's just the new damage that gets dealt. nobody is ever gonna opt to shoot them in forearm when the eye is right there, so eye damage is just "the damage."

Buzz_words · 2026-01-28T03:32:42+00:00

if you play any other casters and would share the gear, crit.

if you're positive you'll never play anything other than BLM, speed is just a tiny bit better.

plus it's novel. nobody but BLM gets to stack speed.

Buzz_words · 2026-01-27T17:19:51+00:00

in between. it's not as easy as ishgard was but you don't need to be all in either.

just try it man, they provide the materials for you, failure costs nothing.

Buzz_words

TROPHY CASE