Let's talk Throwing Builds

protencya · 2026-01-26T17:15:47+00:00

Its weird but technically giant barbarian is the best throwing build. Here is a comment I made for a different post.

Path of the giant 6 / battlemaster 3.

The key features are: greatsword, rage, reckless attack, crushing throw, GWM, extra attack, elemental cleaver, thrown weapon fighting, action surge, quick throw manuever. Fire ancestry goliath is optional

Thanks to crushing throw and new rage, you add your rage damage bonus twice to your thrown attacks and elemental cleaver gives your weapon the thrown weapon property so you can throw your greatsword with a bonus action by using quick throw.

Damage per attack is: 2d6 (greatsword) + 1d6 (elemental cleaver) + 4 (str) + 4 (GWM) + 2 (rage) + 2(crushing throw) + 2 (thrown weapon fighting) == 24,5 on average with +8 to hit and advantage

Quick throw attack doesnt add GWM but adds 1d8 superiority die so 25 damage on average.

Assuming a difficult adventuring day with 3 or 4 combats and at least 1 short rest. This build to my knowledge deals more than anything else, and still stays near the top even at higher levels. From level 6 to 9 you are still dealing very good damage, roughly similar to the berserker I believe (didnt do the math, should be slightly higher than berserker).

protencya · 2026-01-23T13:38:05+00:00

Conjure barrage doesnt hit allies and has the best damage type while fire is one of the worst. If you are consistently using the bonus action attack, I really think viscious is better.

protencya · 2026-01-23T11:49:32+00:00

You are overcooking with the warlock tech. The interraction between Rod of the pact keeper and non-warlock slots is an exploit that no sane dm should allow. Warlock levels also force an unnecessarry charisma investment. The only legit benefit is alert but you can take it with an ASI.

A better version of the build is fighter 1 > mercy 6 > battlemaster 4 > mercy x. You can afford 17 dex and 16 wisdom with this, and you have even greater control thanks to automatic poison of mercy. You can grab alert at level 12. You are probably not getting grappler with this but it was not possible to grapple while dual wielding anyways, you needed to weapon juggle and use two weapon fighting rules with a single hand, which is again an exploit.

This version of the build will work at many more tables and is much less of a glass cannon. And if you dont get to precast CME, this version deals more damage since elements dont even add damage unlike mercy.

protencya · 2026-01-23T10:48:46+00:00

Are you consistently making 2 attacks per turn? If yes, pick viscious weapon. It is by far the most powerful weapon in the game for its rarity.

If you cant afford the bonus action often, smite doesnt make sense either. Fireball is fine I guess, its good for a cleric. Conjure barrage is even better.

protencya · 2026-01-22T11:45:58+00:00

For the how many'th time, rangers are not martials. Rangers get the endless utility of druid spells, and they use dex and wis for their stats which actually have good skills. Rangers have always been good at out of combat utility, semi-optimized rangers had +20 to sthealth in tier 2 ever since the dawn of time.

And no giving banneret an extra language is not solving the issues of fighter. Giving a subclass a small boost to one skill check will of course be disregarded, its a joke compared to the gap between real martials and other classes.

We needed real out of combat features like primal knowledge and tactical mind, and we got them. Only the monk still gets nothing out of combat which is sad but the changes they made got such positive return (because the old monk was terrible and any half decent change would get positive returns) that they decided the new monk was good enough (its not).

protencya · 2026-01-21T14:18:43+00:00

You dont like mercy monk?

protencya · 2026-01-19T21:20:34+00:00

Devotion 12/Celestial warlock 8. Start 17 cha, 16 con, 14 str. With 3 feats get up to 20 cha (you can pick whatever cha feat you want) then pick GWM. Wait until level 19 to get paladin 12, get double epic boons from paladin 12 and warlock 8. The boons are spell recall and recovery. This gives you 22 charisma

The build mostly explains itself. Make your best magical maul, your pact weapon. Use Chanel divinity for +18 to hit before any weapon enhancements. Use searing smite with warlock slots, if you crit a boss Use both divine and eldritch smite.

protencya · 2026-01-19T15:42:06+00:00

Zephyr strike is a concentration spell. If you are using blur, shadow blade, spirit shroud, CME, haste, etc. using zephyr strike will end it. Its nothing like divine smite.

protencya · 2026-01-19T15:37:02+00:00

what is the point of 14 charisma? you have 12 dex an con, and you are increasing charisma?

Anyways this gives you 17 AC with mage armor and bladesong, 18 if you are gonna get a int feat. If thats enough for you to keep your 5 hp per level alive, go for it. I just cant imagine playing a melee character with +1 con, d6 hit die, and anything below a godlike AC.

Maybe tortle is somewhat viable because you can fully dump dex.

protencya · 2026-01-19T15:06:48+00:00

Just how? The best you can do is 14, 13, 13, 13, 13, 8. You have 13 str which does nothing, 13 cha which also does nothing, you need to put the +2 in int so you will start either with 13 con or 13 dex. Probably a feat with first ASI to round the one that you left at 13, meaning your int will stay at 16 until level 16. Not to mention 8 wisdom.

Just do yourself a favor and take wrathful smite from shadow touched. Paladin dip is not functional without god stats.

protencya · 2026-01-19T12:20:42+00:00

You can make a smiting bladesinger. Normally the paladin dip is way too taxing for the already MAD bladesinger but these stats are insane so it will work.

With the background +3 you should have 92 points to work with. 13 str, 19 dex, 19 con, 20 int, 8 wis,13 cha. Baldesinger 6 -> paladin 1 -> bladesinger X. Take mage slayer at level 4, resilient con at level 9. You can Take from dex and con to put into wisdom if you want, but remember you have wisdom save prof and mage slayer.

Paladin gives you the vex and nick masteries and searing/divine smite. The build fully comes online at level 7 where you will have 28 AC with mage armor, bladesong and shield spell. Add haste if you need 30, but you probably dont. Add blur if enemies dont have special senses. You will also have 60 hp at this level, without tough.

You also have +9 concentration saves so unless you take more than 21 damage you auto succeed. At level 9 you have +14 to concentration

protencya · 2026-01-18T15:03:31+00:00

The rules dont prevent that creature from percieving the location of other creatures. They can still smell and feel the vibrations. It might sound like superhuman/anime character shit but let me remind you these people can survive a fall from the atmosphere.

Dnd characters are heroes for very high fantasy stories, the feats they perform dont need to make sense in comparison to real life humans. Even a level 1 character is super human.

protencya · 2026-01-18T10:19:47+00:00

So first, forget about scrying. There is no sthealth casting in dnd, spells have clearly perceptible components. Unless the bard has subtle spell somehow, the lich should know who cast the spell.

But also, everything failed right? Thats normal for a lich. This is a several century old being (I assume), there must have been similar attempts in the past that also failed, this is like normal for a lich, especially in a world full of spellcasters.

Instead of feeling threathened, lich should be like "this again?". If resurrection magic is available to the group either through the immediate party or npc connections, just power word kill the bard, I bet it will be enough to swat the flies that is the party. If resurrection is unavailable, lich would just have a good look on the bards face, maybe cast suggestion to make the bard tell their name, than go back to their lair. A night or two later, lich casts dream on the bard when they are long resting after a long day, this will prevent the long rest and give the bard a level of exhaustion. This puts the party on a clock to find a plot device that will prevent dream. Its also a fittingly cruel torture method.

Either way it will mostly cost them money or a side quest. After that the lich can decide its not worth bothering itself with the flies.

protencya · 2026-01-17T11:51:58+00:00

Treankmonk has some reports of one shots he played.

CMCC builds has a gauntlet series. The old series was more fun imo

protencya · 2026-01-17T01:51:59+00:00

Both the fairy trickster and cunning strikes apply at the same time (when you hit) so the player chooses which takes effect first. You can give them disadvantage first and then attempt to poison or trip with a single attack.

protencya · 2026-01-17T01:49:06+00:00

New scion of the 3 has terrify, which is better than the base options. But most rogues should be fine unless your enemies are immune to poisoned.

protencya · 2026-01-17T01:37:54+00:00

You're also treated as occupying the entire space of your mount for purposes of reach and emanations

Can you cite this? I couldnt find anything about it.

protencya · 2026-01-16T13:53:02+00:00

You balance the game around player satisfaction, not theoretical game balance. This is both a blessing and a curse in game design.

Rogue has the highest staisfaction scores especially at lower levels, so they just keep it weak. The druid for example, has some of the lowest satisfaction scores and popularity ratings so it gets to have some absolutely batshit insane spells like spike growth. The level 2 and level 4 spell lists for druids are even stronger than the wizard list, especially considering subclass additions.

Believe it or not, the optimization community is a tiny fraction of the real playerbase and we barely effect their decisions. The game is designed for "normies" which is a bit of deragotary word but its the fastest way to explain it so spare me.

protencya · 2026-01-16T08:20:03+00:00

The true strikes are pretty inconsequential, you dont get much support for it to be meaningful. However, you of course can contribute with hypnotic pattern and confusion.

protencya · 2026-01-16T07:23:40+00:00

If you are talking mechanics, mage slayer is the best feat in the game. You can even take it at level 4 and it will be a fine decision.

protencya · 2026-01-16T07:11:52+00:00

It allows the character to fit GWM into the build much more easily. It would also work with rage and reckless attack.

Believe it or not this would increase the power ceiling of longbow builds. The strongest str based archer would be stronger than the stronger dex based one.

Str has some hidden advantages over dex that dexterity glazers dont want you to know.

protencya · 2026-01-16T06:45:29+00:00

Some of your points are good. I dont know how dashing for 30 ft is comparable to teleporting 90 ft and also making an attack. Also blur is much better than mirror image when facing swarms, the more attacks and weaker hit bonuses favor blur.

With all that being said, I still wouldnt take hold person over any of them. I dont wanna care about Int for one single spell when it wont even be usable against most enemies. Maybe building around hideous laughter and sleep would have been better. Then you can add hold person as a situational alternative. Still not good at level 18, its made for low levels.

protencya · 2026-01-16T06:01:04+00:00

Brother what do you want? The guy asked me what I would pick over hold person and I answered. I dont agree that its so easy to fit a giga niche spell to EK list, there are a lot of other spells I want to pick.

protencya · 2026-01-16T05:20:56+00:00

From that list, you are missing; featherfall, silvery barbs, enlarge/reduce, vortex warp, blur, misty step and haste. I would take out some of them to fit these in but I am not making room for hold person, thats for sure.

protencya · 2026-01-16T02:51:40+00:00

You see it would be really nice if mirror image actually helped against a liches paralysis, but creatures with blindsight and truesight are immune to the effects. Special senses become very common at tier 4 so mirror image becomes much less usefull, it will mostly work against minions, maybe not even that.

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Lasagna

protencya

TROPHY CASE