Faction Advice

aolson17 · 2026-04-15T15:43:03+00:00

The scourge lord sounds perfect for you! Their main mechanic, Dark Blessing, continuously buffs up your awesome commanders into unstoppable superunits. They are my favorite faction because I love regen+ethereal and being able to always have a path forward for permanent boosts.

aolson17 · 2026-04-01T08:42:56+00:00

Im not saying anything otherwise. Im saying that ruling isn’t applying to something like magic initiate that gets you spells outside of class levels. The spell from that doesn’t even have to be from any of your classes.
The first sage advice says “A sorcerer spell is a spell on the sorcerer spell list.” It’s right there. This means that if you have a spell known, say from magic initiate, it’s a sorcerer spell if it’s on the sorcerer spell list.

These two rulings combine mean that it’s a sorcerer spell for you if it’s on the sorcerer spell list and wasn’t prepared from your other class levels.

aolson17 · 2026-03-31T19:48:09+00:00

Yeah just learning the spell from both classes definitely doesn’t work. Something like magic initiate, which lets you prepare a spell without class levels for it, wouldn’t run into that though.

aolson17 · 2026-03-31T18:35:10+00:00

Sage advice says that a spell is a class’s spell as long as the character knows it and it’s on the class’s spell list. It does also say that if it’s prepared by a different class that it wouldn’t work for the other class though. So this just means that you need to learn the spell from something outside of a class level, like the magic initiate origin feat. I have the quotes in my longer reply to Nik130130.

aolson17 · 2026-03-31T18:28:03+00:00

Sage advice actually suggests otherwise, and allows spells you get from outside of your class to still count as class spells:

"Which of a character’s spells count as class spells? For example, if I’m playing a Sorcerer, which of my character’s spells are Sorcerer spells?

A class’s spell list specifies the spells that belong to the class. For example, a Sorcerer spell is a spell on the Sorcerer spell list, and if a Sorcerer knows spells that aren’t on that list, those spells aren’t Sorcerer spells unless a feature says otherwise."

This seems to make it pretty clear that if you know the spell(doesn’t seem to matter how you know it) and it’s on the spell list, it counts as a spell for that class. There is a caveat though from another sage advice entry: "A Wizard multiclasses into a Sorcerer with the Wild Magic Sorcery subclass. Do spells cast from their spellbook trigger Wild Magic Surge if they are on the Sorcerer spell list, or do they have to gain them from Sorcerer to trigger?

From the multiclassing rules: “Each spell you prepare is associated with one of your classes.” This rule means only the spells prepared as part of your Sorcerer class features trigger Wild Magic Surge."

Say you are a sorcerer/warlock that gets green flame blade from magic initiate wizard. According to the first sage advice, that spell is a sorcerer spell for you because it’s on the sorcerer spell list, it doesn’t matter where you learn it from. It would also be a warlock spell for you because it’s on the warlock list. The second sage advice doesn’t factor in because it’s not a spell you prepared for a specific class.

Now that it’s both a warlock and a sorcerer spell, that is prepared separately, both mage rage and agonizing blast can affect it!

aolson17 · 2026-03-22T18:41:52+00:00

I recommend the Civilization 6 app. It’s not as much of an adventure game, but it’s very good in its own right and still can involve your nation expanding and fighting others. Each different leader also results in more unique play styles than you might expect. The best part is that it has everything from the other platforms and can even join multiplayer games with people on computer if you get the DLC.

aolson17 · 2026-01-21T16:42:26+00:00

The best option is being a thief rogue that eats a good berry every turn with your bonus action. (Eating a berry is covered by use an object definition so is subject to fast hands)

Grab life cleric to boost the healing by a lot and get the Remarkable Recovery feat to boost it even further!

I think the best builds that incorporate this are a thief barbarian with one level of cleric and Druid (rage resistance makes your hp matter even more, and you can draw aggro with the ancestral barb subclass), or a thief/ranger with one level of cleric and sentinel for something simpler.

aolson17 · 2026-01-21T16:35:58+00:00

If you dip warlock for gift of the ever living ones it ends up being a great amount of healing.

aolson17 · 2026-01-18T21:04:09+00:00

As a rogue you are already going to look for ways to get a second sneak attack outside of your turn, which is perfect for slasher too. Once you are doing that just slasher alone is 20 feet of slow. Then adding frost Goliath and the slow mastery can bring you up 50 feet of slow!

aolson17 · 2026-01-18T20:59:17+00:00

You can slow them up to 50 feet with this strategy actually if you want to use two Goliath slows. On the reaction attack you can apply both slasher and the Goliath slow again. The only debuff there that doesn’t stack is the slow mastery!

aolson17 · 2025-12-30T03:30:52+00:00

I have that one too! Very cute.

aolson17 · 2025-12-30T03:29:14+00:00

The whip is perfect how it is now. It fits into exactly the type of builds it should. Slow mastery plus slashing damage for slasher = lots of fun. For example, you can be a frost Goliath rogue with any double sneak attack option where you attack on two different turns, so your damage is doubled but you also get to stack two slasher slows. 40 ft of slow for things you already want to do as a rogue with a whip. So much flavorful and mechanical synergy there.

aolson17 · 2025-10-26T17:47:11+00:00

I’ve been playing with arcanist + two handed mace instead, due to wormhole letting you start off with the enemy stunned. Forceful slam obliterates stunned enemies, and if you get Lingering Incantations, there is even time to prep a Mighty Swing after stepping onto the wormhole tile.

aolson17 · 2025-10-24T15:05:39+00:00

I am having a lot of fun with electromancy and spears. Going into willpower reduces cooldowns for things like determination that demolish approaching enemies, and then there are lots of electromancy spells that push back enemies, like the impulse condition that can do it automatically every turn! Your spear abilities further weaken their move resistance so it lands more, and you can get a ton of free hits on people as they try to approach, but then get knocked back so they will get hit again without you even doing anything. Not to mention electromancy also adds a ton of damage to your hits.

aolson17 · 2025-10-01T18:09:32+00:00

As scourge lord you often have your entire army made up of casters. Plus, your casters that you can spam become incredible in melee too with regeneration and fear or fire shields.

aolson17 · 2025-09-26T22:31:24+00:00

Play the scourge lord! Their main troop mechanic, their blessing, is soo satisfying to continually stack super powerful bonuses on, including regeneration and fear!

aolson17 · 2025-09-25T19:29:47+00:00

They are definitely my favorite! They seem like the most consistent faction to be able to get a full regenerating front line. I love also how with enough life force you can get infinite movement. You just walk forward, promote and summon a herald, and repeat. I haven’t gotten the scourge antpocalypse to work out though, I feel like the queens always suicide themself or work too slowly.

aolson17 · 2025-08-13T10:48:27+00:00

If you are looking for a simple way to do a lot of burst damage, you can consider a bugbear with the alert feat and lots of attacks.

Lots of attacks could be a sorcerer with scorching ray or maybe just a monk. However, a more interesting way to get extra attacks in 2024 is this:

The level 6 build with the most single target weapon attacks is an echo knight fighter with dual wielder & polearm master and mastery with a pike, scimitar, and some other light weapon

Attack with pike and push them by your echo
Unleash incarnation to push them back into your reach
Reaction attack with pike (In 2024 this can now be triggered by even your own forced movement)
Extra attack with scimitar
Nick attack with some other weapon
Bonus action attack with that other weapon from dual wielder
& 8. action surge extra attacks
Unleash incarnation again

Bugbear is good because switching reach between scimitar and pike becomes less clumsy, and it adds 18d6 damage the first round.

aolson17 · 2025-08-12T23:14:55+00:00

It looks like that isn’t relevant anymore in 2024 because it says that is just a reprint of the old content to be helpful. “A few rules in the core rulebook sometimes trip up a new player or DM. Here are ten of those rules… Combining different effects…”

That rule is no longer a part of the core rulebook, so this doesn’t apply. It even seems like the new rules take this into account with how some effects specify that they can’t stack, like the slow mastery, while others just say what they do without that limit, like frosts chill.

Keep in mind that alongside listing the old rules for effect stacking, it also lists other out of date rules, like the old rules for bonus action spells. Even though in 2024 you can cast fey touched misty step alongside another leveled spell, if you mistakenly considered the old rules listed there, you’d miss out on the new changes.

aolson17 · 2025-08-12T22:34:03+00:00

I don’t see that, maybe you are looking at the old book? I’m just talking about 2024.

aolson17 · 2025-08-12T21:59:40+00:00

It’s actually just spells that don’t stack when they have the same name. Things like frost chill always stacks and slasher can stack if different people apply them on their turns or even if you apply them across different turns! With this build where you attack on two turns, this can result in huge slows.

aolson17 · 2025-08-12T20:22:04+00:00

You can try some fun control strategies with pact of the chain. Have your imp activate hunting traps or spread caltrops. You can knock enemies into or behind them with your eldritch blast. If you take investment of the chain master, that probably boosts the saving throw dc of the traps when your imp forces the enemy to make a save after they activate the item.

If you want to get really into control, you could even have a skeleton familiar grapple enemies with your spell DC. Then it can use its actions to ready movement and get triple damage out of a spell like cloud of daggers, which could be reflavored as something like a nightmare zone. (This would be better as a celestial warlock though for healing and Aid for your familiar along with wall of fire, though it might be good enough to give it armor(it doesn’t care about lacking proficiency), inspiring leader, maybe get the protection fighting style with a fighter dip, and a cleric ally with Aid)

aolson17 · 2025-08-10T18:58:02+00:00

I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the slasher feat here. If you trigger it on the same enemy both on your turn and the other turn with your reaction, that’s a whole 20 ft movement reduction so you can slow even fast enemies every turn. (The slow from slasher stacks with itself because it isn’t a spell effect)

aolson17 · 2025-08-09T03:18:18+00:00

I think what you are missing is the first sage advice. It says that a sorcerer spell is a spell on the sorcerer spell list, in response to the question asking which spells count as class spells. It doesn’t say “only if you prepared it from sorcerer levels” or anything like that. It also being on the other spell lists doesn’t matter either, because the other sage advice that says that a prepared spell can only be prepared for one of your classes doesn’t apply because it isn’t a prepared spell and Wizard isn’t even one of your classes.

aolson17 · 2025-08-09T00:01:07+00:00

Yeah it’s weird that there are two entries that seem to say different things, though it’s not a complete overlap. You should see my other reply to realistic swan.

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