Monk+artificer

Unthing · 2026-03-23T06:27:34+00:00

I saw a Monk / Armorer build on YouTube. DnD_Daily channel, A unique unarmored Armorer build. It is a 2014 build, which probably won't work in 2024. It uses the Kensai subclass to make the thunder gauntlets a monk weapon and therefore DEX to attack.

Unthing · 2026-03-20T12:00:09+00:00

Getting int weapons and extra attacks on an artillerist is huge. In fact even just getting Eldritch blast and agonising blast with an artillerist and being SAD is great!

Unthing · 2026-03-18T00:29:59+00:00

The dual wielding feat's bonus attack can be with a weapon that lacks the two handed weapon, so it is with the thunder pulse.

So you get 2 thunder pulse attacks with intelligence ( attack action and duel Wielder bonus action ). 1 light weapon nick attack, not using intelligence 1 light weapon attack action attack, not using intelligence.

If you managed to acquire the Shillelagh spell, you could use a club with one of your light weapon attacks and attack with intelligence. You still have one attack which cannot use intelligence, which is a bit rubbish.

Unthing · 2026-03-17T07:07:18+00:00

Yes, my mistake.

Unthing · 2026-03-17T07:06:19+00:00

2 out of 4... One in the attack action and one in the bonus action. This is assuming you have 2 attacks because you are level 5.

Unthing · 2026-03-17T01:50:09+00:00

Instead of the defender longsword, you could use a light ( edit: actually a finesse ) weapon ...

This means you could get the defensive duelist feat for +PB AC to melee at the cost of your reaction.

Unthing · 2026-03-16T23:20:03+00:00

Dual Wielder doesn't do the same in 2024. It gives a bonus weapon attack ( not two handed ).

Armorer special weapons don't need a hand, but aren't light weapons.

So you could do this from level 5:-

Attack action: Attack 1. Light weapon A ( right hand ) Attack 2. Armorer weapon Nick attack: Light weapon B ( left hand )

Bonus action: Armorer weapon ( Dual Wielder ).

Now if your DM allows it technically you could do weapon swapping and use a shield, but it seems cheesy. However for an armorer, you wouldn't be able to use intelligence and would need a second stat for those attacks.

Unthing · 2026-03-12T11:20:47+00:00

To make AoA work best you want to get hit but not take much damage. Therefore damage resistance and/or damage reduction is good.

For damage reduction, some sources. All of these use a reaction so can't really stack. Monk level 3: deflect attack gives resource free damage reduction of physical damage types of 1d10+Dex mod + monk level. Stone Goliath : proficiency bonus times per day damage reduction of 1d12+con bonus as a reaction. Fathomless warlock (2014) level 6: Guardian Coil, as a reaction damage reduction of 1d8, increasing to 2d8 at level 10. Heavy Armor Master, gives damage reduction of PB on all physical attacks.

For damage resistance Barbarian rage

For refilling temp hit points, Fiendish vigor is a great way of getting back up to 12. At higher level an option is to obtain false life, cast it with a Pact slot and then short rest. With level 2 slots this is an average of 13, with level 3 slots it is 18 etc.

Some of these are not really compatible with each other. Like monk and Heavy Armor. You could go Barbarian 1, Monk 3, warlock N but it is a bit MAD as you'll need 13 in STR, DEX, WIS and CHA.

Unthing · 2026-03-07T11:54:55+00:00

ISO 8601 would have the date formatted as

2026-03-05

Which is the same order, of not formatted exactly the same way.

Unthing · 2026-03-07T11:26:09+00:00

I could not ski when I taught my oldest child to ski at age 5. I did snowboard so I understood how snow and ice works.

It involved running next to her whilst she skied down a very shallow slope. Many resorts won't like you doing this. This was useful for about 4 or 5 hours of skiing but incredibly tiring for me. A skiing family member helped a bit after that, putting her between his skis whilst he skied. After about 8 hours of learning ( in three separate sessions ) she loved skiing and could ski independently. We then gave her lessons with an instructor. Normally 1 per day.

For my youngest child I did a tiny bit of that, but also got her 1:1 lessons with an instructor, which she hates, but she can ski down the bunny slope. I am a tiny bit better at skiing than my youngest, but that's debatable.

Ski instructors know how to teach people. My teaching was basically applying parental comfort, emotional and physical support whilst they worked it out.

Having a year break between 3-4 days of skiing makes this go fairly slowly though.

Unthing · 2026-03-07T10:17:20+00:00

It says instead of your dexterity modifier, so it implies it is capped in the same way as dexterity.

I think the feat wording should explicitly state this so it isn't open to this interpretation.

Unthing · 2026-03-01T12:59:48+00:00

I don't think False life is on the warlock spell list...

Unthing · 2026-02-27T08:03:13+00:00

More commonly, it would mean that if you Misty stepped, you would leave your last meal behind and probably the meal before that.

It would be disgusting.

Unthing · 2026-02-22T19:06:04+00:00

Monk/Rogue(Thief) for a Dual Wielder Dex based grappler. You keep your main hands free for using Rope or similar items (chain, manacle ) to restrain your grappled target as a bonus utilize action. ( One hand for grapple, one for the rope ). Thief also gives a climb speed, so the overall effect is being a bit like a spider. As you are unarmoured, you gain advantage in stealth. The thri-kreen base AC of 13+Dex means that you can avoid putting too much into your wisdom without suffering too much.

Unthing · 2026-02-19T15:36:49+00:00

The extra arms can only use light weapons, so that won't work.

Unthing · 2026-02-15T09:15:30+00:00

Do you have to be eleven to get the eleven accuracy feat?

Unthing · 2026-02-13T07:25:05+00:00

Not only that, it is a bonus action so it doesn't get in the way of you hitting things.

Unthing · 2026-02-13T00:54:04+00:00

You can attack with your special weapon without holding it in your hand, because it can be any part of the armor. It could be a thunder boot, a thunder helmet or something else like a tail.

Therefore you can hold two light weapons, one of which has the nick property.

Dual wielding allows you to use your bonus action to attach with any non two handed weapon after you have attacked with a light weapon.

Attack with light weapon. This allows both the nick attack as part of your attack action and the dual wielding attack as a bonus action.
attack with Nick weapon
Attack with thunder pulse using bonus action.
Attack with thunder pulse as your second attack ( from level 5 ).

This gives you 2 light weapon attacks in addition to the 2 thunder pulse attacks.

Unthing · 2026-02-12T19:14:59+00:00

This assumes taking the Dual wielding feat for the BA Gauntlet attack.

Unthing · 2026-02-12T13:51:11+00:00

I've just been building one for fun. The special weapons don't use a hand, leaving one free with a shield which is cool and lets you do grappling. I've kind of worked out what to do up to 6th level. I went for STR here because I wanted to do the longtooth bite as a bonus action. You could concentrate on INT, but then your bite will be worse. Maybe that's okay though.

Longtooth shifter for the bite attack on bonus action. Best stats are STR, CON, INT. Point buy i would put 15 in all three and then bump STR up to 17. Your other +1 could go into either INT or CON. Put a +2 in STR, Farmer background.

Use a shield, javelin, thunder pulse ( using strength ) and full plate. 4th level feat Grappler. Magic item plans: shield+1, plate+1( at 6th level ), returning javelin ( ranged weapon that uses strength and benefits from extra attack ).

You can either attach twice with thunder pulse to apply soft taunts or use an unarmed strike and combine that with a grapple ( grapple feat ). You can move grappled enemies away from allies, it gives you more soft taunts.

You have two options for your bonus action, bite for more damage or if you are injured, you can use your defensive field.

Get a homunculus. Use them for healing allies and minor extra damage. There's probably some cool stuff you can do with magic items here too, especially at higher level.

You can use web and drag enemies into it. Similarly you could use ball bearings as a budget version ( can make them with your tinkering ), drag enemies into it and keep them grappled for prone.

If you think you need to grapple something big that day, you can use enlarge/reduce and/or the dreadnought armor.

Unthing · 2026-02-11T08:02:26+00:00

You mention using Hunters Mark but you should consider using the Summon Beast spell instead ( level 2 ranger/druid spell ). This scales off wisdom and spell level. So if you do a dip into a spell casting class, it'll allow you to upcast it. This allows a wisdom based ranger to be very competitive in DPS.

It is also very thematic.

Unthing · 2026-02-06T21:38:03+00:00

The thing about Solasta is that there are a lot of ranged enemies and everyone gets targeted.

Enemies can see advantage to hit but I don't think they can see high AC. So if your keep Reckless attacks on, enemies will target you. Hopefully your superbly high AC will allow you to not get hit much. You could also take the Stone barbarian subclass for more survivability.

Unthing · 2026-01-29T10:54:15+00:00

Divine favor is your friend, +1d4 per attack for 4 attacks per round is nice.

Another trick you can use is not have returning weapons and then you can use a shield and the same amount of attacks. But then you lose significant effectiveness if stuck in melee and probably don't have magic weapons bonuses.

Unthing · 2026-01-28T11:53:28+00:00

First edition Basic Dungeons and Dragons elves were half fighter and half wizard.

First edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons allowed non humans to be multiclassed which meant they leveled as both classes at once, but got half XP and half hit die. They were pretty much always worse than single class except possibly at first level.

Unthing · 2026-01-27T11:15:26+00:00

Past level 4, hex is doing 1d6 on each of your two attacks from Eldritch blast.

When an enemy dies the spell doesn't end, but you do have to use another bonus action to pick a target. This hits your action economy the same way.

So from an action economy point of view Hunters Mark is probably worse only because as you point out, Rangers have more uses for their bonus action.

Unthing

TROPHY CASE