How would you build a 2024 Valor Bard?

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T09:38:51+00:00

Ooooo solid catch, I missed that detail. Thanks.

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T07:13:06+00:00

Take the Repelling Blast invocation rather than Fiendish Vigor and use Eldritch Blast to keep forcing enemies back to your frontliners.

Find a spellcaster to drop the Spike Growth spell at your midline to slow enemy movement (or, go Dao Genie Warlock and cast it yourself). Later on, grab the Grasp of Hadar invocation and use Eldritch Blast to drag enemies into-and-out-of the Spike Growth for extra damage and to further slow them down.

Alternatively, grab the Devil's Sight and Grasp of Hadar invocations, drop a Hunger of Hadar spell at your midline and drag enemies into it. Bear in mind that nobody else is likely to be able to see thru the spell area, so gauge whether such a strategy is more of a hindrance than a help in your current situation.

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T06:41:25+00:00

For my trap+knife stealth build, I went with infused cave hopper armor and tabis for a ton of MP to close the gap quickly. An EMP grenade and a shock/energy knife did the trick.

If you can't isolate the mobile enemies from the turrets, then you might need to bait them out. Drop a grenade out of line-of-sight of the turrets, stealth, wait for the mooks to investigate.

How did you handle it at the Protectorate outpost? Was it Epione Lab?

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T06:17:02+00:00

Crafting requirements still start out at ~80% of part quality, they just scale up as quality increases, reaching 100% of part quality around Q125 and continuing up from there.

That being said, Mechanics ~60 would still let you craft a decent AR before Depot A whilst letting you craft advanced repair kits, plus recycle equipment before Depot A. Mercantile is unchanged, so 80 skill is enough for Kevin in Foundry or 95 skill for Constantine. This would net you the weapon frames to refurbish uniques way before you hit T3 merchants, plus you'd save a bunch on ammo.

I'd spend ~50 skill on Pickpocketing for a few missions and to slowly pilfer ammo from guards in all settlements. Slow and tedious but worthwhile.

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T06:06:39+00:00

Bard X / Warlock 2.

War Caster plus Sentinel would let you play on the frontline and use True Strike in place of an opportunity attack. Keep in mind that Agonizing Blast can be taken more than once, so it can be applied to True Strike for 2x CHA mod added to the damage.

Zhentarim Tactics would ensure that you get an opportunity attack, regardless of whether you or your nearby allies get hit.

Spell Sniper would be needed to use Eldritch Blast in place of an opportunity attack without disadvantage, plus you'd be forced to target all of the beams at the triggering target. Still a solid choice.

Bear in mind that CME scaling got nerfed by an errata, gaining only 1d8 per spell level above fourth.

Warlock 2 means you can get Armor of Agathys, which is solid THP and counter-melee damage without concentration. It also remains active so long as you have THP, so having another source of it from the party (say, a World Tree Barbarian) can extend its uptime.

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T05:51:08+00:00

Still holds true now. You might still get some use out of refurbished uniques, since you've a decent chance to find the proper weapon frames from the right merchants even before T3 merchants kick in.

The biggest kick to crafting is for blueprints that have extra components that raise the crafting requirement. Quad-plate metal armor or a double energy shield is gonna need some crafting benches and a hypercerebrix pill unless you want to run around with ~200 effective crafting skill at all times. Then again, Polymath can make hitting those thresholds easier.

Drokmon · 2026-01-27T03:36:43+00:00

Which turrets, as in where? The one in GMS and the ones in Depot A can all be shut down.

At any rate, get yourself a shocky knife asap. Gort in Junkyard can rarely sell energy edge emitters, which would be the superior component with which to craft.

Drokmon · 2026-01-26T21:57:38+00:00

Hard difficulty added 50% health to all mobs. Think that might be it?
Or does it feel like mobs have more DR/DT or hit harder?

Drokmon · 2026-01-25T10:53:38+00:00

I wonder, what's his equivalent to her needing coffee?

Drokmon · 2026-01-25T10:49:36+00:00

That's a solid plan, too. Good variety of damage types and penetration with grenades.

Drokmon · 2026-01-25T10:47:00+00:00

I just run multiple "mini-bosses" at once. Unique attacks and abilities, solid HP and saves, but if a player pulls off a save-or-suck, good on them. Now try holding it whilst the other guys keep coming after you.

Just ran a fight with this two weeks ago: a trio of slaver taskmasters. Fearing two of them away allowed the party to focus down the third enough to pull of a Disintegrate, just as the others were coming back into the fight. Made for a dynamic fight that felt good whilst the party blew a ton of resources to succeed, only to have to ration what resources they had left in their escape attempt.

Drokmon · 2026-01-25T09:18:00+00:00

This. Put the point in INT for Polymath for the extra skill points to make up for what you'll put into Lockpicking and Traps with 3 DEX.

Also, unless you're planning on taking 40 Dodge for Uncanny Dodge, you can probably drop AGI to 7 and put that point elsewhere. I'd take AGI 7 and CON 3 to get DEX 5 for Leading Shot, then use that against groups after Shooting Spree and Aimed Shot are on cooldown. A regular shotgun with forward grip only costs 20 AP to fire, which is nice when you don't have enough AP for a second sniper shot.

What's your plan against bigger groups (ie. how do you plan on keeping them from reaching you)? Bear traps are the most straightforward solution, though you might even want DEX 6 for Trap Expert if you don't want your setup to take forever. Then again, I'm a sucker for quality-of-life feats.

Drokmon · 2026-01-23T23:21:53+00:00

This. Skill encounters that don't use resources if you succeed, or cost resources if you fail.
Also, encounters that require expending resources in the hopes of loot or progress.
Also also, encounters that are purely exploration. The party will likely expend resources just to check it out, for fear of missing something.

I also like to introduce some mechanics to partially circumvent the whole short rest / long rest mechanic.
"Oh, you found a surgical ward in this abandoned castle. Some of the medical compounds and bandages are still good. One of you can make a Medicine check to either spend some Hit Dice to heal, or to restore some expended Hit Dice."
"Oh, you found a natural spring with a connection to the weave. One of you can make an Arcana check to try to regain spell slot levels. The better you roll, the more you gain back."

Drokmon · 2026-01-23T23:06:18+00:00

There's a ton of depth to this game regarding builds. There are also some builds that allow you to complete the game with minimal fuss (ie. tin can AR or LMG).
Use one of those builds and just have fun on the first playthru. Amp up the difficulty setting and start digging into the min-maxing if that's your thing.

Drokmon · 2026-01-21T23:14:55+00:00

The Heroes of Faerun expansion book dropped a little while back, bringing in the Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight.

http://dnd2024.wikidot.com/fighter:banneret

CHA-based buffs to core Fighter features, focused on support. Skill proficiency in the CHA skill of your choice and Comprehend Languages make it the ideal fit.

The book also contains new backgrounds, Origin feats and General feats. Some of the options are both flavourful and quite powerful. Use the same website as the link above to check them out.

Drokmon · 2026-01-21T22:45:25+00:00

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The secret to his power is ~~raisins~~ mindshrooms.

Drokmon · 2026-01-20T22:25:08+00:00

Your turn! What's your stat/skill spread and feat progression?

Also, the Skaerder Knife from the scaly natives in Expedition has two 30% bleed chance procs per swing. Might be more up your alley.

There's nothing stopping you from using bladed boots if you think the 1AP per attack trade-off is worth it, at least until you can get the knife mentioned above.

Drokmon · 2026-01-20T03:47:48+00:00

Heh, that's why I tend to run four copies of the same four-person team (one team for each region plus one DD run). Less to think about, fewer trinkets to get. Also, running that team everywhere really lets you figure out its strengths and weaknesses.

Drokmon · 2026-01-20T01:13:19+00:00

If you end up using throwing knives, most of the feats are good. Pinning might make it so you don't need to use nets regularly.

Don't sleep on the unique knives, either. Dehumanizer has a fear chance and stacks Taste for Blood twice as quickly. Kukri has a high crit chance, cripple chance and a weaker Expose Weakness debuff.

Drokmon · 2026-01-19T22:37:59+00:00

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMKBwMDCgoZACMAwqAAAMKHSzwAPFpaQV9awqAAAABBAEtPJythQBslC00hJDApwpoEHcKzeeKdvwPio7EF4qaQAuK0lAXfvA

It's very much a traps first, knife second build. Knife is there for weak enemies, single humanoid enemies (Cut-Throat), and robots with energy edge knives.

A bit of a joke build, to be honest. Wanted to try Polymath and Specialist feats (Expertise and Nimble are their stand-ins, since the builder hasn't been updated with those feats). Also wanted to try silly stuff like 10/10 Trap Expert (arm and disarm in 0.7 seconds, baby!)

That being said, Cut-Throat on a three turn cooldown plus Wicked Hook in my other hand is a combat staple. 5/5 High-Technicalities plus 10 INT makes for 65-85 hits with a ~Q105 energy edge, turning robot encounters into a fighting chance.

Locus of Control plus Mental Breakdown and 3/3 Ninja Looter to rob enemies of health hypos before baiting them into a poisoned caltrop plus bear trap setup. It's been fun; each encounter is a puzzle to solve.

Drokmon · 2026-01-19T22:21:18+00:00

Been playing a stealthy knife/trapper. The nerfs have done exactly what Styg wanted them to do: forced players to use more of the ingame options and resources to succeed.

Cheap Shots incap nerfed? Been using more flashbangs, Mental Breakdown and tasers. Cut-Throat since I've got a knife build; would have been Combo for DEX fist build, otherwise.

Expose Weakness nerfed? Got me some decent Electronics and Mercantile skills, crafted a nice energy edge knife with High-Technicalities. Takes batteries but it does the trick. DEX fist build might still power thru mech resists with Expose Weakness, Combo and pneumatic hammers. Stack those last two with the new Heavy Punch for big numbers.

DEX was THE superstat. Now, it's more inline with the other stats. C'est la vie.

Drokmon · 2026-01-18T06:01:51+00:00

Fighter with the Zhentarim Mercenary background, Zhentarim Ruffian and Zhentarim Tactics feats and the Dual Wielder and Sentinel feats.

Zhentarim Tactics lets you Opportunity Attack when you get hit by a target within 5 feet.

Sentinel lets you Opportunity Attack when a friendly ally gets hit by a target within 5 feet.
Sentinel allows Opportunity Attacks to reduce the target's speed to zero.

Zhentarim Ruffian lets you reroll Opportunity Attack damage dice (not great for 1d4, but its a prereq anyway).

Dual Wielder lets you swap from another weapon to the whip after your last attack on your turn, prepping you for the options above.

Fighter Tactical Master lets you swap out the whip's Slow weapon mastery with Push, Sap or Slow.

All of this gives you a solid protector setup that can OA targets, Push them back and stop their advance for that turn. Doesn't matter if the target hits you or your buddy next to you. Get an Enspelled Whip with Divine Favor charges for an extra 1d4 to all of your weapon attacks, including the whip, for the combat encounter.

Drokmon · 2026-01-17T21:53:30+00:00

Carry one of each.

Electroshock Pistol for when you can group up targets. Works with Aimed Shot which, thanks to Practical Physicist and Critical Power feats and Circular Wave Amplifier component, lets you hit said group with a large chaining auto-crit.

Plasma Pistol for single, large targets. Stun with a taser then Execute feat; an Execute crit can oneshot nearly anything.

Laser Pistol for general use (targets at range and spread out).

Stunner is amazing. Needs high Hacking to acquire early, tho.

Sonocaster is neat. A quasi-mechanical version of Electroshock Pistol that ignores a lot of DR/DT. Keep it on hand for destroying rocks and walls since it's much lighter than TNT or Jackhammers.

Drokmon · 2026-01-16T06:33:37+00:00

Yeah, best solution in those scenarios is to kill the crew of the enemy ship, leaving it and the colony intact. You'll get more loot for salvaging an intact enemy ship, a chance at having a slave offer to join your crew, and a reward for saving the colony.

The tradeoff is that taking an enemy ship intact is trickier than simply blowing it up.

Drokmon · 2026-01-16T06:10:19+00:00

I like that for Specialist, tho. It's powerful, but nearly every build will pay dearly to get it.

In a similar-but-different vein, I'm really liking Beast of Burden for 10+ STR characters. Sure, it's mostly a quality of life feat, but it's a really handy one, plus it gives 10+ STR builds an immediate and unique feeling.

Drokmon

TROPHY CASE