D&D 5E Best Gish

brehobit · Feb 22, 2016

There have been a few discussions about "best Gish" hidden in other threads, but given that I strongly prefer to play casters who can hold their own in melee, I thought it would be fun to see what folks prefer for their fighter/caster.

Without multiclassing, I'd say you've got the valor bard, the more martial clerics, the EK, and _maybe_ the ranger or paladin. Also the bladesinger. But I find the full casters are really, well, casters whose powers don't help with melee much and the non-full casters are barely casters at all. Valor bard and bladesinger are probably closest.

With multiclassing, I've two combinations I really like:

Barbarian 1, warlock X. Strong casting but with rage makes for a solid warrior. Various warlock spells help with melee (Armor of A with rage is gross for example). If you go with the bladelock (which is probably generally the weakest option) you get decent bonuses including that 2nd attack and (very late) a CHR bonus to damage. This one I've pushed STR over CHR and been mostly happy with that call as I largely play the character _as_ a barbarian with a few magical power (even at high level) rather than as a caster.
Paladin 2/bard X where you go bard of lore. This one doesn't play real well until probably 8th level where it really starts to rock (fireball and booming blade help a lot). Generally with a focus on CHR over STR, which sucks, but you can hope for some STR boosting item.

What do other Gish players prefer? What am I missing or what thoughts do you have?

TwoSix · Feb 22, 2016

Paladin 2/Undying Light Tomelock 3 is my personal preference right now, for the Charisma synergy. I'm also a big fan of Arcana cleric right now, because it can do a little bit of everything, and scales nicely from 1-20.

mellored · Feb 22, 2016

Favored soul is an option if your using UA.

FormerlyHemlock · Feb 22, 2016

It really depends, but overall I'd have to give the prize to the Paladin of Devotion 9/Cthulock 2/Wild Sorc 9. He's only at 11th level so far (Pal 7/Sorc 4), and he was originally planned as a Paladin 6/Dragon Sorc 14 for flying, but he's been three times as good as I ever expected him to be. Extremely versatile in-combat and out. Plus I like his personality, not that you Internet readers care about that.

bid · Feb 23, 2016

Half-elf monk 5 / tomelock 3 - 8 16 16 8 13 14, AC16
Armor of shadow to dump Wis, hex to boost DPR. And you get 8 hp per level!

Half-elf swashbuckler 3 / draconic sorcerer 3 - 8 16 16 8 10 16, AC16
Only for the twin BB cheese. Again, 8 hp per level.

Half-elf swashbuckler 3 / valor bard 6 - 8 16 14 10 12 16, AC16
You get something like +8 init and you can dance in and out of range.

Wood elf EK 6 / cleric 3 - 10 16 14 10 16 8, AC16
- war = SS until your CD is used. Divine favor and spiritual weapon
- nature = shillelagh + spiritual weapon, swap Dex/Con.
- life = just because you can waste your slots on damage.

FrogReaver · Feb 23, 2016

Warlock and paladin are the best 2 gishes.
Bard and Ranger round out the next tier IMO.
Eldritch Knight and arcane trickter and elemental monk round out the rest.

Zardnaar · Feb 23, 2016

Paladin and Fighter1/WarlockXYZ are the best I have seen so far.

zaratan · Feb 23, 2016

later game I think is eldritch knight 11 or 12/ wild sorcerer rest. 5 or 6 Asi/feats

twin buffs, 3 attacks (4 with haste), than cast a spell (or booming blade) with the bonus action that the target/s will save with desadvantage and you still can subtract 1d4 from the result. plus wild magic is great in front line.

If you'll use only spells for buff, you can dump Cha and Int.

pali/sorc is great too. Auras are amazing, oath of ancients will protect you from wild magic, but you have less Asi/feat and no desadvantage in enemies saves (unless you burn 3 SP).

famousringo · Feb 23, 2016

zaratan said:
later game I think is eldritch knight 11 or 12/ wild sorcerer rest. 5 or 6 Asi/feats

twin buffs, 3 attacks (4 with haste), than cast a spell (or booming blade) with the bonus action that the target/s will save with desadvantage and you still can subtract 1d4 from the result. plus wild magic is great in front line.

If you'll use only spells for buff, you can dump Cha and Int.

pali/sorc is great too. Auras are amazing, oath of ancients will protect you from wild magic, but you have less Asi/feat and no desadvantage in enemies saves (unless you burn 3 SP).

I like the idea of EK/Sorc, too, but it takes sooooo long to come online. You need to be 10th level just to get War Magic and Metamagic.

Then again, Twin Booming Blade + War Magic is much more dangerous than 3 attacks from a simple level 11 fighter, so I suppose it's fair.

brehobit · Feb 23, 2016

famousringo said:
I like the idea of EK/Sorc, too, but it takes sooooo long to come online. You need to be 10th level just to get War Magic and Metamagic.

Then again, Twin Booming Blade + War Magic is much more dangerous than 3 attacks from a simple level 11 fighter, so I suppose it's fair.

Holly cow. That's two booming blades and an extra attack, all with the same weapon. The only real problem is that the two booming blade attacks have to hit to different opponents. Which does slow it down.

Cool though.

D&D 5E Best Gish

brehobit

Explorer

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer

mellored

Legend

FormerlyHemlock

Hero

bid

First Post

FrogReaver

As long as i get to be the frog

Zardnaar

Legend

zaratan

First Post

famousringo

First Post

brehobit

Explorer

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