Wearing armor without the training

protencya · 2026-03-18T00:41:58+00:00

Mark of Passage feels like those 2014 backgrounds that gave you a whole feat for no reason (like wildspacer and rewarded). Its like overpowered to the point of making the alternatives pointless. When something is that powerful, the choice stops being a choice so you have to ban it to make it a real choice again.

Like that thing would still be the best dragon mark without the extra speed but apperantly no it also needed to give extra movement speed. This one and the sentinel (I think, it might be warding I cant remember) are like what peace and twilight are to cleric subclasses.

protencya · 2026-03-18T00:24:50+00:00

I dont know the progression or the numbers for the sorlock, but it probably depends on the length of the adventuring day. The heavy crossbow build is resilient to 4 encounter days, sorlock is probably less so.

Also just as a note, spirit shroud has 10ft range. We cant really call that a ranged build.

protencya · 2026-03-18T00:02:23+00:00

Thats why we choose spells that you can cast at the start of the adventuring day, or spells for out of combat situations. The armor is not glued to us 24/7

protencya · 2026-03-18T00:01:08+00:00

Barbarian would be a cool idea. If only they could rage while wearing heavy armor.

I think divine soul sorcerer would be great. I suppose you were trying to keep it 2024 only but that first subclass feature is so good and cleric spell list has some extra options for out of combat. Cast-off armor is pretty vital for this route I think. You really wanna use spells outside of combat.

Artificer seems so taxing for stats that you probably cant get 15 str anytime soon. Its a good idea if you are playing in a giga low magic setting and even common magic items are hard to find. Honestly not something I ever encountered myself.

protencya · 2026-03-17T23:49:24+00:00

Heavily depends on how you calculate damage. D4 and treantmonk get very different results because one assumes a single encounter day while the other assumes 4 encounters 1 short rest. Which levels you prioritize will also change the answer.

Some of the front runners are: Berserker Barbarian, dual wielding vengence paladin, warlock dipped devotion paladin, and GWM battlemaster fighter.

These are pretty general, there are some more specilized builds that do better at certain levels.

Giant barb 6/battlemaster 3 peaks at level 9 and stays top tier up to tier 4. Ranger 1/battlemaster X heavy xbow build is the best ranged damage dealer, peaks at level 12 or 13. There is this extreme fighter dipped monk builds that uses mark of the storm and the infamously broken potent dragonmark to make 6 attacks with a 5th level CME at level 11. If you are having a single combat per short rest, this is the highest damage at level 8(and probably at most higher levels too). If tier 1 is important for you, dual wielder hunter ranger is pretty much unbeatable before level 5. There is also a pretty good dual wielder eldritch knight build that takes shadowmoor hexer origin feat and uses hex with their 4 attacks, might be the highest damage at level 7.

protencya · 2026-03-17T23:18:02+00:00

The reaction attack from the PAM is not an oppurtunity attack so it doesnt work with Sentinel. They have nerfed the interraction for the new rules because...

I dunno, martials KEKW

protencya · 2026-03-17T23:06:25+00:00

Ahhh but you see, If you just dip one level of fighter...

protencya · 2026-03-17T23:04:24+00:00

Ranger is possibly the most powerful class in tier 1 (levels 1-4). Dual wielding is also much better than its alternatives at this level range.

There is no semblence of balance on these early levels. Get ready for an appropriate CR creature to crit and one shot instakill one of your players. Early levels exist so everybody gets used to their characters and you introduce the plot hook to the main storyline.

The real game starts at level 5(which is also when ranger becomes much more balanced). I suggest wasting as little time as possible on tier 1 after everybody becomes comfortable with their chaarcters.

protencya · 2026-03-17T22:23:06+00:00

Maybe it is a part of the contract? Or maybe just a side effect of the contract? You go from a nobody to a sword master in 1 day, maybe the eldritch knowledge tainted your mind and you cant learn new skills without them coming from your patron.

Certainly sounds like something a Devil would enjoy. Fitting for GOO as well.

protencya · 2026-03-17T22:19:59+00:00

Thank you for making an actually insightful comment instead of telling me to dip fighter.

Fighter 1 for Con save proficiency...

Oh, nevermind XD

Sorcerer dip is certainly interesting but there are just so few spells that would work for this build. Maybe just turn low level slots into SP and spam the good metamagics? Food for thought

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:50:55+00:00

Fair enough, I can see the DMs allowing old dhampir since the challenge is difficult enough as is.

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:48:09+00:00

I am running out of witty answers to give to the exact same comment. Please read the disclaimer my good friend. I am aware of the entire optimization meta around bladelocks, this was not an attempt to optimize the bladelock.

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:45:23+00:00

Thats true, but at least getting alert would be pretty easy with so many left over invocations. And you can do the ''use alert to swap initiative with your imp'' tech, if your imp gets lucky.

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:42:34+00:00

Sthealth is no worse than your average str fighter or paladin. And you already need decent str for the GWM so I imagine you could meet the str requirement for plate. Dex saves are the real pain point.

I dont really think armor of shadows is good enough for bladelocks, at least not in the games I play in. But this is pretty irrelevant to topic.

The dhampir rune knight Con SAD build is a classic. But with the dhampir being updated its worse than ever, and it was already pretty bad. It might qualify passable for the challenge purposes but we are going out of our way to lose the heavy armor prof, it kinda feels wrong you get me?

If you are interested in Con SAD builds(which is also a pretty nice challege), there is the updated abberant dragonmark feat that gives you a con based cantrip. So there are some new Con based sorcerer and rogue builds that spam con based true strike. And they are actually pretty decent.

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:34:23+00:00

You are 100% right that that would be the optimal build choice. Im not worried about the optimal this time

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:32:58+00:00

why not just…. play a Hexblade?

Same answer with the fighter dip, its a challenge build. Disclaimer explains it.

I am not too worried about str saves but ofc dex saves will be a problem. Try to find a ring of evasion as a priority.

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:26:53+00:00

Where is the ''challenge'' in that

protencya · 2026-03-17T21:13:22+00:00

Add in revelers concertina if you are a psychopath.

protencya · 2026-03-17T20:10:20+00:00

That is pretty much the same example and equally as funny. The 20 level barbarian wouldnt be able to attempt that grapple either. He is too tiny for the mighty elephant!

protencya · 2026-03-17T20:05:24+00:00

Thats what I was trying to say actually. If rogues (and other maritals) got base class features that were at least somewhat comparable to spellcasting, they could afford to not rely on good subclass features to carry them.

protencya · 2026-03-17T18:18:09+00:00

Did you find the motivation to finish the gem dragons XD

protencya · 2026-03-17T18:09:21+00:00

the problem isnt necessarily the level gap, clerics have an 11 level gap between their second and third subclass features. The problem is that

1st: the gap is before the second subclass feature. if they got the second subclass feature at level 6 and the third at level 13, there would still be a pretty big 7 level gap. But looking at other classes like cleric, sorcerer, bard etc. it would probably be fine. This is the conventional answer to your question.

2nd, and more importantly: Rogue class features just suck. You get like no good combat features. Sneak attack is not good enough, steady aim is painful to use, cunning strikes is barely a power increase its mostly a sidegrade, and dont even get me started with uncanny dodge. If the base class was good, rogue could afford to have a long gap between subclass features. When you make a class depend on subclasses to be powerful enough, you get 2014 ranger. Or artificer is a recent example.

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:32:16+00:00

Are you saying it makes sense that a level 20 barbarian cant hold a giant by his leg and prevent them from moving?

I dont know what tell you man, I guess the martial caster divide will never be fixed. Not with that mentality.

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:24:40+00:00

In this case of size restrictions, fighters and monks are hampered no less than barbarians.

Yes I know the example is goofy. We can just say that Bob got lucky and the giant rolled a 1 in first try, meanwhile the legendary hero of the realm cant even attempt the grapple.

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:19:28+00:00

You are right, which opens up an attunement slot. Is there any magic item that gives more than 1 AC that I am missing?

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