D&D 5E 5th Edition -- Help Me Break the Game!

[MarkChevallier]

As far as I can tell from looking at the basic rules, which should be the same as the PHB they do not, but I will check my PHB later tonight to confirm. As far as I know if you want Plate you need to take the feat for heavy armor, and you need to have Str 15 to wear it.

The penalty for wearing armour with below the listed Strength is -10 feet to your speed, but Dwarves have an ability which circumvents this. So there's no minimum Strength for a Dwarf Wizard in Plate armour.

 

[Cybit]

As far as I can tell from looking at the basic rules, which should be the same they do not, but I will check my PHB later tonight to confirm. As far as I know if you want Plate you need to take the feat for heavy armor, and you need to have Str 15 to wear it.

Grumpy and Omni are both right. The only thing that dwarves get is they negate the speed penalty for wearing heavy armor. I think intended use is that for heavy armor they are proficient in; not all heavy armor, but it says heavy armor, period. The STR requirement for armor is so that one does not take a -10 penalty to speed.

That said, since we're already using variant rules (Feats and Multiclassing), Encumbrance could be fairly brutal, as it would reduce your speed by 10 as a function of weight, not just armor penalties. Also, by STR score, you would not actually be able to climb a vertical rope, as your STR wouldn't be good enough for your weight + armor weight. Get that fly spell asap.

It is known that multiclassing has the potential to break things; they tamped down on many of the abuses, but some of the other ones that were talked about being changed started making the basic concept of multi-classing into that class not work as well as complicating the game significantly, and so I think they decided to leave some of them and just make multi-classing an optional rule from the beginning. That way, DMs know from the get-go that MC'ing might make some more powerful options.

 

[GrumpyGamer]

Cleric 1 / Wizard 19. The level 1 dip into Cleric and Life Domain gives you Heavy Armor proficiency. Dwarf negates the heavy armor speed penalty for having less than 13/15 STR. Taking the HA feat is unnecessary.

You are correct about not needing the HA feat, as I overlooked the Life Domain. The Strength penalty not applying to Dwarves did not make it out of beta, or at least it is not in the basic rules. I will confirm this in the PHB later today.

 

[MarkChevallier]

You are correct about not needing the HA feat, as I overlooked the Life Domain. The Strength penalty not applying to Dwarves did not make it out of beta, or at least it is not in the basic rules. I will confirm this in the PHB later today.

I got my PHB right here: "Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armour." In the Dwarf race, under speed. That covers the Strength penalty by any straight-forward reading.

 

[GrumpyGamer]

I got my PHB right here: "Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armour." In the Dwarf race, under speed. That covers the Strength penalty by any straight-forward reading.

Same in basic it turns out; I was looking for it as a racial feature and overlooked it in speed.

I would also point out that if your group uses encumbrance this build is going to be in trouble with only an 8 str trying to use Plate:

• Over 40 pounds reduces you by 10, which is not made up with the dwarf racial.
• 71 pounds for the armor and shield leaves very little to spare for any other equipment before you hit 80. Over 80 pounds your "speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use
  Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution."

Edit: Cybit Mentioned encumbrance first... so credit to him

 

[Boarstorm]

By the time he can afford full plate he can probably just cast levitate and tie a rope around his waist and the other party members can pull him around like a balloon.

 

[MarkChevallier]

Same in basic it turns out; I was looking for it as a racial feature and overlooked it in speed.

I would also point out that if your group uses encumbrance this build is going to be in trouble with only an 8 str trying to use Plate:

• Over 40 pounds reduces you by 10, which is not made up with the dwarf racial.
• 71 pounds for the armor and shield leaves very little to spare for any other equipment before you hit 80. Over 80 pounds your "speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use
  Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution."

Edit: Cybit Mentioned encumbrance first... so credit to him

Yes, personally, I'd use encumbrance rules with this build (I don't generally bother with them). 8 Strength in full plate feels wrong, even for Dwarves! I was just clarifying the rule.

 

[omniknight]

By the time he can afford full plate he can probably just cast levitate and tie a rope around his waist and the other party members can pull him around like a balloon.

Your sig is apt.

I already checked with my DM and we are sticking with the normal encumbrance rules (15*STR), and he knows about my full plate wearing 8 STR Dwarf. Of any race with 8 STR, it makes the most sense that Dwarf would be unhindered by it even counting weight with the variant encumbrance penalties. Regardless, I feel the the 5*STR is a bit too stringent and I think if he implemented that rule variant, ~8-10*STR would probably be more appropriate to start being Encumbered. We all hate dealing with weight minutiae, so it's only going to be a concern if we try to ridiculously overburden ourselves.

 

[drjones]

Yes yes, dwarf wizards, cleric wizards ok. All very clever. Is the game broken? Does not sound like it. Exactly how much more powerful is a Wiz 19/Cler 1 than a Cler 20? Or how do they match up at a level that people actually play? It seems like what has been accomplished is you have gained some attributes of a class that you don't want to play while playing a class that you do want to play, not built an unstoppable encounter-breaking juggernaut.

The undead thing is a different question, though it does well justify why an NPC necromancer might have a nice crowd of skellies to fight without just saying monster casters are special. I think that in-game the character would either have to be pretty high level to crank out a lot of minions or be basically on sabbatical for a month in a graveyard to restock every time they got hit by a fireball. Either way, they probably got better stuff to do. After that I doubt they would be welcome at the local inn between adventures with their shambling friends and would attract anti-undead adventurers and authorities like flies.

 

[Werebat]

We all hate dealing with weight minutiae, so it's only going to be a concern if we try to ridiculously overburden ourselves.

Of course, this is the outlook that leads to an audit at 8th level where everyone is shocked to learn how ridiculously overburdened they are.