spitonastranger
First Post
Looked around a bit to see if this had already been suggested, but after reading through the latest Unearthed Arcana and the Sword Coast guide, a bunch of pieces started to click for the ever-popular "How can I play BATMAN?!" build. This includes a ton of cheesy gimmicks to powergame the mighty Bat, though I still think the overall flavor of the build is pretty awesome.
Winged Tiefling gives you a flying speed of 30. Batman can't fly, but he comes close with gadgets! This alone could (very likely will) keep you out of Adventure League games.
Starting scores:
14 Strength
10 Dexterity
14 Constitution
12 Intelligence
9 Wisdom
16 Charisma
... allow you to take mix it up in melee and at range at the lower levels. The build will focus on melee almost totally later on.
Start with 2 levels of Shadow Sorcerer. In addition to having your saving throw proficiencies exactly where you want em (Cha, Con), this gets you two awesome survival abilities: Strength of the Grave to keep Le Bat on his feet until he fails a Con save / gets crit'd, and Eyes of the Dark, which, with your two sorcery points, lets you cast and concentrate on Darkness twice per day AND allows you to see inside the Darkness you cast, similar to the Warlock's Devil's Sight + Darkness gimmick. You get advantage on attacks against enemies inside the Darkness, enemies get disadvantage against you.
Focus on Paladin levels from 3-9. That'll get you your aura and boosts all your saves by a bunch, but MOST notably bumps up your Con save for the Strength of the Grave cheese. There's a good chance you'll live at 1 hp for extended periods of time...
7 levels of Paladin also nets you the Relentless Avenger ability, which doesn't sound all that interesting until you pair it with some more super cheese combos. By now, you should have used an Ability Score Improvement to pick up Polearm Master. When an enemy enters the 10ft reach of your polearm (go halberd!), use your opportunity attack AND fly 15 feet away. Repeat ad nauseum. Once you get Haste, you can drop the Darkness cheese and use Haste to keep yourself at distance with this tactic (flying 30 feet).
There's still a lot of debate on this next layer of cheese, but if you also pick up War Caster and your DM allows you to cast Booming Blade as your opportunity attack, you will have even more FUN. Booming Blade not only increases the damage of the OA, but it also causes addition damage if the target moves again... which they have to do if they ever want to catch you. Sort of a BAT AND MOUSE tactic.
From here, it's your call. I wouldn't take Sorcerer above 5 because the shadow hound stuff seems weak. Paladin 15 / Sorc 5 gets you a nice mix of sorcery points for metamagic / Darkness and the Soul of Vengeance feature from the Vengeance line, allowing you to use that reaction against an enemy that, for whatever reason, can't be tricked into the ol' Bat and Mouse combo. My money, however, is on Sorc 3 / Pally 17. That barely gets you some metamagic while still pushing you high enough into Pally to grab a lvl 5 spell slot.
Use your first ASI's on Polearm Master and either War Caster if your table allows for it to use Booming Blade or Great Weapon Master for a lot of extra damage. Increase Charisma and Strength equally after the feats.
Cantrip and spell selection flavor to your liking and sorta covers the Batman toolbelt of gadgets aspect. Have the background be Investigator, I guess? Shame there isn't a "My Parents Are Dead" background!
Anyyyyyway, have fun!
Winged Tiefling gives you a flying speed of 30. Batman can't fly, but he comes close with gadgets! This alone could (very likely will) keep you out of Adventure League games.
Starting scores:
14 Strength
10 Dexterity
14 Constitution
12 Intelligence
9 Wisdom
16 Charisma
... allow you to take mix it up in melee and at range at the lower levels. The build will focus on melee almost totally later on.
Start with 2 levels of Shadow Sorcerer. In addition to having your saving throw proficiencies exactly where you want em (Cha, Con), this gets you two awesome survival abilities: Strength of the Grave to keep Le Bat on his feet until he fails a Con save / gets crit'd, and Eyes of the Dark, which, with your two sorcery points, lets you cast and concentrate on Darkness twice per day AND allows you to see inside the Darkness you cast, similar to the Warlock's Devil's Sight + Darkness gimmick. You get advantage on attacks against enemies inside the Darkness, enemies get disadvantage against you.
Focus on Paladin levels from 3-9. That'll get you your aura and boosts all your saves by a bunch, but MOST notably bumps up your Con save for the Strength of the Grave cheese. There's a good chance you'll live at 1 hp for extended periods of time...
7 levels of Paladin also nets you the Relentless Avenger ability, which doesn't sound all that interesting until you pair it with some more super cheese combos. By now, you should have used an Ability Score Improvement to pick up Polearm Master. When an enemy enters the 10ft reach of your polearm (go halberd!), use your opportunity attack AND fly 15 feet away. Repeat ad nauseum. Once you get Haste, you can drop the Darkness cheese and use Haste to keep yourself at distance with this tactic (flying 30 feet).
There's still a lot of debate on this next layer of cheese, but if you also pick up War Caster and your DM allows you to cast Booming Blade as your opportunity attack, you will have even more FUN. Booming Blade not only increases the damage of the OA, but it also causes addition damage if the target moves again... which they have to do if they ever want to catch you. Sort of a BAT AND MOUSE tactic.
From here, it's your call. I wouldn't take Sorcerer above 5 because the shadow hound stuff seems weak. Paladin 15 / Sorc 5 gets you a nice mix of sorcery points for metamagic / Darkness and the Soul of Vengeance feature from the Vengeance line, allowing you to use that reaction against an enemy that, for whatever reason, can't be tricked into the ol' Bat and Mouse combo. My money, however, is on Sorc 3 / Pally 17. That barely gets you some metamagic while still pushing you high enough into Pally to grab a lvl 5 spell slot.
Use your first ASI's on Polearm Master and either War Caster if your table allows for it to use Booming Blade or Great Weapon Master for a lot of extra damage. Increase Charisma and Strength equally after the feats.
Cantrip and spell selection flavor to your liking and sorta covers the Batman toolbelt of gadgets aspect. Have the background be Investigator, I guess? Shame there isn't a "My Parents Are Dead" background!
Anyyyyyway, have fun!
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