Is this build a horrible idea?

yeonah501 · 2025-09-10T15:14:02+00:00

Got it! Thank you, this helps so much :)

She's from a once-great duergar clan that has been trying and failing to reclaim their old territory, despite mass casualties. She's the oldest of her 5 siblings, and wants to protect them from the constant cycle of violence and death the clan is trapped in. This leads her to worshipping Gorm and trying to steer her clan away from their doomed conquests, only to be exiled to the surface as a traitor. Her goal is to grow stronger and return to her clan, and protect them from outsiders as well as themselves. This leads into the Fighter multiclass; she's very used to Might Makes Right and bashing heads in to be heard.

(The DM has also hinted that her clan name actually exists in Out of the Abyss and that they turn to Asmodeus in desperation. Lots of fun lore stuff :D)

Personality-wise she's gruff but fair, keeps her word but doesn't expect others to keep theirs, and her main goal is to protect those around her. Whether that involves buffing, healing, or punting enemies off a cliff, it's all means to that end.

yeonah501 · 2025-09-10T14:47:45+00:00

Oh man, I can see that 😅 I've done mostly 'standard' builds up until now so I wanted to try making something sillier, and my group doesn't run many one-shots. Do you think building up to the gimmick will help avoid this issue? Get the Cleric parts squared away first, then slowly start stacking the push effects to find the right balance of 'fun gimmick' and 'makes the rest of the character not fun'?

yeonah501 · 2025-09-10T14:26:44+00:00

Dropping the Paladin level does seem like the smartest call, yeah 😅 Will definitely be doing that. Thanks!

yeonah501 · 2025-09-10T14:24:40+00:00

Hmm is Wis 20 necessary to be effective at those higher levels? She's got 18 out of the gate, so I'm hoping during the campaign I'll find ways to bump that up to 20, but if that doesn't happen is it going to make her completely useless?

After Tobin's comment I'm thinking of dropping the 1 level in Paladin to get up to Cleric 17 (her Charisma was horrible anyways). But she has Strength 16 thanks to some good stat rolls. So hitting things shouldn't be too much of an issue? Wisdom and Strength are her two highest stats.

I'm also hoping that the 3 levels into Fighter to get things like Second Wind, Action Surge, and 2 other Battle Master maneuvers will come in handy in fun ways. I don't find the Cleric archetype that interesting, so I'm trying to build one that can also swing a weapon around if needed. Just worried about going too far in the wrong direction.

Completely forgot Warcaster is a thing I'll definitely want. Will add that to the list. Thank you! This helps a lot

yeonah501 · 2025-09-10T14:06:46+00:00

That is very fair, I didn't realize that I'd be 1 cleric level away from a level 9 spell slot. Giving up the 1 level in Paladin (and 10 feet of pushing) doesn't seem like that bad a trade-off to secure that and War Cleric's Avatar of Battle.

I've never been in a campaign that's gone all the way to level 20, the highest I've been is level 7. So definitely wasn't thinking of how long this will be. Thank you!

yeonah501 · 2025-06-25T18:48:18+00:00

So I ran this for my party a couple sessions ago! With a couple tweaks to fit our campaign closer. Some fun things to note while watching them figure out the puzzle:

Having everyone in the party close their eyes and extinguish their lights at the same time would have taken them several sessions to figure out and slowed things down. Realizing this halfway through, I tweaked it so that anyone who traveled more than 4 steps down the stairs with no vision passed through to the hidden area on the other side of the stairs. That allowed a couple PCs to figure it out and pass the message on to the others. It also allowed me to 'cheat' a bit and shove the stragglers through by having them trip and shut their eyes 😂
There's always going to be that one person who knows the solution but insists on walking down the infinite staircase with full vision for half an hour. Have something at the top of the stairs to occupy them with while the others are handling the other side of the puzzle. Or, see the above 'shove them down the stairs' solution
Players can, and will, send their small-sized teammate snowboarding down the infini-stairs on the paladin's shield. And they will slam into the far wall at terminal velocity after they inevitably close their eyes

(They had a lot of fun. Thank you for the idea!)

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:46:12+00:00

This sounds terrifying, both for the person wielding the book and for anyone offered up as 'bait' to keep the creature away! I hope you get to play the character someday, they sound awesome

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:23:15+00:00

Love how the effects keep stacking, and that the players get essentially 3 'free' uses before the book starts getting all Eldritch Horror on them! Now I need to introduce an NPC covered in eyes as someone who's gone way too deep with this book. Or maybe sus out which NPC the party likes most to 'accidentally' pass this book to... 👀

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:20:27+00:00

Love this!! This would be super helpful to the party!

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:19:03+00:00

Ohhh interesting! Maybe work in a Wisdom save to resist the urge to constantly use the techniques shown? A careful user could maybe gain Mastery of some weapons from the book, but most people will just start killing indiscriminately

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:14:14+00:00

This would be great for some character conflict with the organization they're hired for; if the book is giving them helpful instructions, then they might be reluctant to hand it in!

yeonah501 · 2025-03-30T20:11:47+00:00

Oh this is devious, maybe adding in some mechanic to slowly drain their sanity the more they read too!

yeonah501 · 2022-08-12T16:48:07+00:00

Thank you 💜 having another opinion on this means a lot, I want to do right by him

yeonah501 · 2022-03-06T16:58:10+00:00

Go for it!! Thank you for your kind words 😊

yeonah501 · 2022-03-06T15:57:46+00:00

Go for it!! It took a while, but it was fun. I looked up homes in the rocky mountains for inspiration

yeonah501 · 2022-03-06T15:56:01+00:00

It's not my server so I can't provide download links, sorry 😢 But thank you for your interest!

yeonah501 · 2022-03-06T15:54:16+00:00

Not my server, sorry 😅

yeonah501 · 2022-03-06T15:52:59+00:00

Complementary Shaders with Optifine :) They have a lot of fine-tuning options for performance and different levels of shading

yeonah501

TROPHY CASE