D&D 5E Best Gish

[chaosronin]

How well do Druid's Gish?

I am slotted to play a Druid and wanted to try it out.

I figure the build would look something like this;

Arcana Cleric 1/ Land(Grassland) Druid X

Arcana Initiate Cantrips: Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade
Druid Cantrip: Shillelagh

Prepare more battlefield control and support spells and wade into melee to do your damage?

 

[Yunru]

Druid's gish by cheating. Throw up a concentration spell, turn into an animal and attack.

Otherwise they don't gish. They get no second attack and no bonus to attacks to compensate.

 

[Blue]

In order of powergaming "best" builds for being a Gish:

1. Vengeance Paladin 6/Sorc +

Great gish.

2. Tempest Cleric 6/Sorc +

Mostly the same as the Paladin build EXCEPT build for crushing hordes as well. Your saves will be a bit weaker, but you'll be solid with your buff spells.

Much, much more importantly, is the Channel Divinity. Holy jebus is this a gish power. Start dropping Maximized Chromatic Orbs/Shatters/Call Lightning and watch your DM realize how OP this combo is.

Except you're not done yet. Because you also get protection against the typical weakness of gish builds, which is hordes of smaller creatures in melee with you. Aka....Spirit Guardians. The spell works great with multiclassing because you still get full spellcasting slot progression to upcast SG.

A very effective character, but I don't think it qualifies as a gish. Part of "gish" is melee, and this doesn't seem to be able to handle dealing damage that way. You have one attack. OOkay, a SCAG cantrip with a martial weapon doesn't suck, but doesn't hold up to And with the damage-dealing spells pushing your CHR for higher save DCs is likely more important than pushing your STR for melee. (Assuming w/ heavy armor that you aren't going DEX.)

I'm not putting down the build, it's got great synergies. Just that it doesn't fit "gish".

 

[RulesJD]

Great gish.



A very effective character, but I don't think it qualifies as a gish. Part of "gish" is melee, and this doesn't seem to be able to handle dealing damage that way. You have one attack. OOkay, a SCAG cantrip with a martial weapon doesn't suck, but doesn't hold up to And with the damage-dealing spells pushing your CHR for higher save DCs is likely more important than pushing your STR for melee. (Assuming w/ heavy armor that you aren't going DEX.)

I'm not putting down the build, it's got great synergies. Just that it doesn't fit "gish".

1. Spirit Guardians

2. Booming Blade

3. Spiritual Weapon

Those three stacked together deal some pretty fantastic damage in melee. Not as single target as a Paladorc I'll grant you, but that's my point. Having a "horde" based gish that can still deal some pretty terrific damage to a Single targetand everyone around them definitely qualifies as gish.

Not to mention that the Cleric/Sorc is likely to be more heavily armored (higher AC) than the Paladin just because Paladin gishes tend to go for 2H weapons.

 

[Blue]

1. Spirit Guardians

2. Booming Blade

3. Spiritual Weapon

Those three stacked together deal some pretty fantastic damage in melee. Not as single target as a Paladorc I'll grant you, but that's my point. Having a "horde" based gish that can still deal some pretty terrific damage to a Single targetand everyone around them definitely qualifies as gish.

Not to mention that the Cleric/Sorc is likely to be more heavily armored (higher AC) than the Paladin just because Paladin gishes tend to go for 2H weapons.

I think we have to agree to disagree. To me, you are showing a caster that operates at short range but uses spells to do most of their damage, with a single booming blade attack as their melee for the round, and boosting INT before STR/DEX because their damaging spells are their bread and butter.

On the other hand, my understanding of a gish is that they deal damage primarily with melee attacks (like the wonderful Paladin/Sorcerer you posted with it's extra attack and divine smite powered by full-caster slots), and they focus on attack abilities (DEX or STR) first and INT second because melee attacks are more important than save DCs/spell attack bonus. Magic is used primarily for buff/utility. Sure you can throw out the occasional spell attack when it makes sense, but that's not where you've been focusing.

I think it's just our definition of "gish" doesn't align with each other.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

I have to agree with Blue, although I do like the "feel" of RulesJD Cleric/Sorc. That one sounds like its own classification, like a Magical Melee. But when I think of "Gish" I think of someone who can hold their own with magic if their weapon was taken away, and could hold their own with a weapon if their magic was taken away.

I'm still super keen on Kreinas's build from Page 2: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?478985-Best-Gish&p=6831975&viewfull=1#post6831975
Right now that's my "on deck" character build for the next time I can play a new character. I have the character "built" up to level 5 and have been quietly seeing how he would fare in situations my other character has been in while at the table. It might possibly be my personal "perfect" gish build.

 

[RCanine]

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned my build, Swashbuckler / Dragon Sorcerer. I'm not particularly high level yet, but the combos are pretty incredible. Dragonic Resilience gives you decent AC for light armor. Booming Blade synergizes well with both Sneak Attack, Fancy Footwork and Panache. Plus Green Flame and Booming Blade cover the rogue's main weakness: AoE.

Unlike the wizard, your casting stat is important to your class as well, and unlike warlock or bard you get access to shield.

 

[Zardnaar]

How well do Druid's Gish?

I am slotted to play a Druid and wanted to try it out.

I figure the build would look something like this;

Arcana Cleric 1/ Land(Grassland) Druid X

Arcana Initiate Cantrips: Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade
Druid Cantrip: Shillelagh

Prepare more battlefield control and support spells and wade into melee to do your damage?

Moon Druid at certain levels otherwise meh.

The 2 leading contenders IMHO right now are.

Paladin/6/Sorc XYZ type builds (Sorc MCing into Paladin IMHO) and Fighter1/Warlock XYZ (hex, reduces MAD, fighter goodies, con save proficiency etc).

To some earlier posts. You can't cast 2 fireballs per round regardless of quicken and things like action surge. you may as well quicken the cantrip and hard cast the other spell to save metamagic points.

 

[Yunru]

To some earlier posts. You can't cast 2 fireballs per round regardless of quicken and things like action surge.

You're half right. Nothing stops you casting two fireballs with Action Surge.

 

[Cognomen's Cassowary]

you may as well quicken the cantrip and hard cast the other spell to save metamagic points.

If you use a bonus action to cast a spell, the only other spell you can cast on your turn is "a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action" (Player's Basic Rules 79). I would say that that applies even if the bonus-action spell is a cantrip, though other DMs might house rule it.