D&D 5E Has Anyone Seen the Following Builds?

[Zardnaar]

Treantmonk has a great Fighter 2 / Warmage 18 build. Because level 1 is Fighter, it has a reasonably strong Fighter flavor for the low tiers.

It is a fantastic Strength Wizard build. I plan to play one.

He built it with Githyanki, but any 2024 species is optimal now.

Treatment is an old power faner who used to post on the 3.0 boards

I can generally pokerface just f8ne I'm not a Dan of level 20 builds mostly because they're theorycrafting.

Unless builds playable from 1.

 

[Yaarel]

Treatment is an old power faner who used to post on the 3.0 boards

I can generally pokerface just f8ne I'm not a Dan of level 20 builds mostly because they're theorycrafting.

Unless builds playable from 1.

This Fighter/Warmage build is very playable. I am excited to play a real Strength Wizard!

Because the power build only requires a few features, theres lots of room for play, such as whether to go Strength or Dexterity for the Fighter, or even go pure Wizard, plus whatever spells one wants.

Starting with the Strength Fighter plays like a normal Fighter. When the Wizard levels enter at level 2, the False Life spell compensates well for the lesser hit points. The Warmage "Arcane Deflection" feature grants an incredible +4 to any saving throw, making the Fighter super tough. At higher levels the spell casting starts to play more like Wizard, but is always a frontline Fighter at any level.

The more recent options allow even more ways to build this basic idea.


Here is the video by Treantmonk from 2019 Oct.

 

[Zardnaar]

This Fighter/Warmage build is very playable. I am excited to play a real Strength Wizard!

Because the power build only requires a few features, theres lots of room for play, such as whether to go Strength or Dexterity for the Fighter, or even go pure Wizard, plus whatever spells one wants.

Starting with the Strength Fighter plays like a normal Fighter. When the Wizard levels enter at level 2, the False Life spell compensates well for the lesser hit points. The Warmage "Arcane Deflection" feature grants an incredible +4 to any saving throw, making the Fighter super tough. At higher levels the spell casting starts to play more like Wizard, but is always a frontline Fighter at any level.

The more recent options allow even more ways to build this basic idea.


Here is the video by Treantmonk from 2019 Oct.

Cheers I've watched sone of his hideous, Dungeon Dudes I watch a bit as I like their tier lists.

 

[jurrubin]

You need a 13 strength to multiclass into or out of Paladin, so it is not really either Strength or Dexterity. If you are doing standard array Strength will need to be one of your 3 highest scores and you will not be able to start with a 16 Dex, 16 Charisma and 14 Con (unless you start as a Paladin and take an ASI or half feat in strength at level 4).

Good catch. I'm so used to running a Paladin/Hex when I see a STR 13 come up during rolls that it's become second nature to think only of DEX/CON/CHA in that instance, especially since my DMs allow the use of all the character creation options from Tasha's and Xanathar's. That's a bias I hadn't realized I'd developed. Shame on me for that.

So, given that 13 STR must be included in the mix and even setting DEX as low as possible without incurring a negative modifier, using point-buy to build a Paladin/Hex is more challenging just because of MAD. However, running a "flawed" character is often entertaining. Roleplaying a Paladin/Hex with a low INT was a bit frustrating at times but usually hilarious. The guy became known as being able to find any trap under any circumstances..with his face.

A Halfling Assasin 11 -Vengence Paladin 5 did the highest damage on a single hit I have seen done in play (crit sneak attack-smite). That character was really awesome but she had no Warlock in it though.

Not sure what you mean about save buff. It is Dex saves, which are not as good as Wisdom saves I don't think. They do get you and extra skill though and that is probably worth it

I think you would want at least 2 levels of Hexblade for this to get Agonizing Blast

Halfling Assassin 11/Vengeance 5? Yeah, that's really deadly combination!

I often use 1 point of Warlock to give my characters an instantly available ranged weapon. As long as standard heavy crossbow damage is useful, that 1 point is good enough and doesn't set the character progress in its main class back too much.

While Agonizing Blast is extremely useful as an invocation to boost Eldritch Blast damage, I've also found that Devil's Sight is almost criticial since my experience has been most DMs can't avoid using the 2nd level Darkness spell on an adventuring party that stays grouped up for any reason. It's just too useful (I often refer to Darkness as "DM's catnip"). I've also found the Repelling Blast invocation can be pretty effective for managing the battle field and helping out party members finding themselves in trouble. I admit its usefulness is situational though while Agonizing Blast is useful in all combat situations and a few non-combat ones when damaging objects from a distance is needed.

Repelling Blast can cause the Paladin to get more attention from the baddies once the Paladin exceeds their tolerance of being pushed around. Given the Paladin in a party is often the tank, this can be a good thing.

 

[Earth2Carnifex]

I have seen a couple of Wizards take early dips into Fighter for the Action Surge and Second Wind abilities, in fact I have done it myself. I have seen Rogues do this as well, an extra Action and a bit of healing for a short rest is a decent trade off.

 

[FrogReaver]

This Fighter/Warmage build is very playable. I am excited to play a real Strength Wizard!

Because the power build only requires a few features, theres lots of room for play, such as whether to go Strength or Dexterity for the Fighter, or even go pure Wizard, plus whatever spells one wants.

Starting with the Strength Fighter plays like a normal Fighter. When the Wizard levels enter at level 2, the False Life spell compensates well for the lesser hit points. The Warmage "Arcane Deflection" feature grants an incredible +4 to any saving throw, making the Fighter super tough. At higher levels the spell casting starts to play more like Wizard, but is always a frontline Fighter at any level.

The more recent options allow even more ways to build this basic idea.


Here is the video by Treantmonk from 2019 Oct.

IMO, Playable while leveling is quite different than good.

I have no doubt the build is playable. You can always fall back toward mostly being a high level wizard and your completely at will damage isn’t that far behind with booming blade.

The problem for playing from level 1 is that extra attack, feats and fighter subclass abilities all add a ton of power to the fighter. Add on magic weapons and it’s an even larger gap.

The fighter/wizard probably can be quite a bit more defensive and sticky (due to booming blade) but the defensive part usually comes at the expense of many spell resources that are traditionally much more useful when used as control.

That said I wouldn’t recommend staying in fighter past level 5/6. I’d multiclass with a full caster then as well - probably wizard. In which case I rather quickly get most of the good wizard defensive options as well.

 

[Yaarel]

IMO, Playable while leveling is quite different than good.

I have no doubt the build is playable. You can always fall back toward mostly being a high level wizard and your completely at will damage isn’t that far behind with booming blade.

The problem for playing from level 1 is that extra attack, feats and fighter subclass abilities all add a ton of power to the fighter. Add on magic weapons and it’s an even larger gap.

Essentially, the Fighter/Warmage is using specific combos in order to keep up with the Fighter.

The fighter/wizard probably can be quite a bit more defensive and sticky (due to booming blade) but the defensive part usually comes at the expense of many spell resources that are traditionally much more useful when used as control.

That said I wouldn’t recommend staying in fighter past level 5/6. I’d multiclass with a full caster then as well - probably wizard. In which case I rather quickly get most of the good wizard defensive options as well.

Taking 5 to 6 levels of Fighter is more powerful than Wizard at lower tiers, but then loses out on gaining the highest tier spells (especially slot 9), thus becoming less powerful than Wizard at the higher tiers.

Wizards start to gain gamechanging spells at level 9 (slot 5). Level 11 is meh. But then levels 13 on up, slots 7 on up are accelerating a different kind of fantasy genre.

 

[Yaarel]

I have seen a couple of Wizards take early dips into Fighter for the Action Surge and Second Wind abilities, in fact I have done it myself. I have seen Rogues do this as well, an extra Action and a bit of healing for a short rest is a decent trade off.

This Fighter/Warmage build starts at Fighter 1. Then goes Fighter 1/Warmage 9 to access the slot 5 spells as soon as possible. But then goes Fighter 2/Warmage 9 for the Action Surge. At this mid tier (9-12), the Action Surge becomes powerful because the Warmage can use it to cast two high-slot spells in a row at the same target, with many combos possible. After this, the build continues Fighter 2/Warmage 18.

 

[Zardnaar]

This Fighter/Warmage build starts at Fighter 1. Then goes Fighter 1/Warmage 9 to access the slot 5 spells as soon as possible. But then goes Fighter 2/Warmage 9 for the Action Surge. At this mid tier (9-12), the Action Surge becomes powerful because the Warmage can use it to cast two high-slot spells in a row at the same target, with many combos possible. After this, the build continues Fighter 2/Warmage 18.

The fighter or Sorcerer splash is just about worth it for the proficiency in con saves.

 

[FrogReaver]

Essentially, the Fighter/Warmage is using specific combos in order to keep up with the Fighter.

I’d say they mostly fail at that. A bit more defensive but alot less offensive - at least for most of the game.

Taking 5 to 6 levels of Fighter is more powerful than Wizard at lower tiers, but then loses out on gaining the highest tier spells (especially slot 9), thus becoming less powerful than Wizard at the higher tiers.

But im not trying to make him a wizard. The fighter 5/wizard X is a fighter that uses wizardry to augment his fighter abilities and IMO comes out 5x as strong as a solo class fighter.

Just to make it clear how that relates to fighter wizard discussion - if a fighter 2/wizard x devotes their spells to being fightery, then the fighter 5/wizard x is going to outperform at being fightery for most of the game.

Wizards start to gain gamechanging spells at level 9 (slot 5). Level 11 is meh. But then levels 13 on up, slots 7 on up are accelerating a different kind of fantasy genre.

Not really sure why you say things I agree with as if I don’t.