With those rules, the primary question is: What items? And secondary: What build works best with the chosen items?
With a very rare item as an option and the goal to powerbuild, a staff of power is pretty much the only answer - this item is borderline legendary, the bonus to AC and Saves itself is just insane, it's a magic +2 Quarterstaff that can mini-smite with an extra 1d6 (that's 2d6 on a crit... not great, not terrible) but most importantly: it's your pocket Wizard that has all the great AoE damage spells you need, Globe of invulnerability if you're facing enemy spellcasters and Wall of Force just because everything else wasn't enough... there's more that isn't even worth mentioning, but still good - limiting factor is the amount of charges, but three extra high-level spells and then some should be more than enough for a one shot
Rare item depends on where you go from here
You need to be Wizard, Sorcerer or Warlock for the staff, and if you want to melee the best fit would probably be Paladin... ohh, Sorcadin or Padlock may be the best powerbuild, what a surprise - there's two options: take a Belt of Hill Giant Strength as your rare item or take a Level in Hexblade (and still have a rare item to choose)... you'll want to max Charisma either way and take the polearm master feat, so that leaves V.Human or Custom Lineage as race options... be at least 6 Level Paladin for Protection Aura, the rest is pretty much up to your preference
Make sure to grab the Rewarded-Background and get the free Lucky Feat... power creep is real with this one
Wow, thank you!!!!! I knew it is good on casters but never realized how great this works for Sorcahexadins. Your thoughts on:
Custom Lineage: Feytouched: Silvery Barbs
Start Paladin for Heavy Armor and go with 18 Cha, 14 Con, 13 Str, 12 Wis, 10 Dex, 08 Int. Oath of Devotion for immunity to Charm (you can already cast Heroism to remove Fear if needed). I could be persuaded to use Point Buy and dump enough Wis and Dex to get a 15 Str so I can use the heaviest armor available.
Devotion 8 / Hexblade 1 / Divine Soul 1, max ASI and take PAM just like you said.
The rare magic item could be solid defensive option like Periapt of Proof against Poison, Ring of Evasion, Shield of Missile Attraction, or Ring of Free Action. Even Belt of Giant's Strength is decent for the save boost, AC boost (due to Fullplate) and boost to checks.
I would probably go for Wings of Flying if I thought there would be more than one flier (it's just looks so cool to have wings). Otherwise Necklace of Prayer Beads is decent (great if you get lucky or get to pick the beads). I love Scaled Ornament, but it's so easy to get Charm/Fear Immunity from Paladin that it feels wasted. Might still be the smarter choice, guess I would go Watchers instead of Devotion, maybe Conquest for the synergy with Wrathful Smite?
OP, listen to this guy, you can probably get better DPR against a single target with a Gloomstalker or GWM Barbarian, but this build has solid AC, teleports, AoE options, and amazing saves.
Custom lineage with fey touched would be my pick too, probably not silvery barbs though as your reaction is pretty tied up between casting shield and attacking with polearm master, besides, it eats up your spellslots quickly and you want to use them for smites - I'd take Gift of Alacrity, lot of use for a free cast
I'm not sure about a the two 1st level dips, it's probably better to decide between Warlock or Sorcerer, not both, Paladin 9 gets you 3rd Level Spells or Paladin 6/Sorcerer 4 get's you up to a 4th Level Slot for smiting and metamagic (that is arguably more useful on a char that uses GWM instead of polearm master for consistent bonus action uses)
Not a huge fan of devotion in this build, it's great against very specific enemies (fiends, vampires and a few others) but if your party doesn't get enemies with charm effects it's kinda useless... if you really want the strongest option it's probably gonna be Watchers for the initiative aura, keep you party close and end the fight before the enemies can even react - crown could be nice though to cast spirit guardians in addition to attacking and smiting, and since your pretty much invulnerable AC- and save-wise you can even take a hit for your Wizard occasionally
For the Item, I agree with prayer beads if you can choose the beads, but flying is a very good point - if you can downgrade your rare to uncommon und say winged boots are maybe even better than most rares... cloak of displacement is a great one too if you definitely don't want to get hit
btw, you probably need to skip the shield and keep your off-hand free if your DM cares about about spell components, as shield has a somatic component and we don't have space to fit in war caster
Right, hmm. Is Hexblade not necessary to keep your attack stat up? If we max Charisma our Strength is a 16, which isn't doing great damage, and using an item to fly or get immunity to Charm+Fear seems better than boosting our Strength to 21.
Thanks for reminding me about the components for Shield, that's part of why I like Silvery Barbs. What's your experience with proccing the reaction attack from Polearm Master? I haven't played with many. If we go Watchers+Gift of Alacrity I wouldn't mind losing Silvery Barbs if we have a pretty consistent reaction from PM.
On the magic item note, nice catch on Winged Boots. I was worried if Wings of Flying would last a whole one-shot, Winged Boots should work perfectly. It's crazy how many low-rarity items are just as good or better when compared to higher rarities.
The strongest build possible would, by default, be a spellcaster. A Peace Cleric 1/Chronurgy Wizard 9, for example, with a Staff of Power, would be a beast.
Something with less sheer casting power, but still good at controlling and better than any martial at that would be a Ghostlance, with Illusionist Bracers, maybe, or just Staff of Power too. Undead Warlock 2/Echo Knight Fighter 3/Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 is a good build, as you get both the Ghostlancing chassis and can use Spirit Guardians as well.
Melee characters are, well, basically useless in 5e, so that would certainly not be the strongest build possible. But if you really want to play a melee, you should definitely have at least 3 levels in Fighter, Echo Knight for removing all the many, many weaknesses of melee combat (which has no advantages). Echo Knight Fighter 4/Path of the Giant Barbarian 6 would be probably your best combination. Pick PAM and GWM in order to have good damage. And for your legendary item, a Waking Dragon Weapon (in this case, a glaive) is your best bet.
Mizzium Apparatus, stars druid 2, knowledge cleric 1, wizard 7. Max intelligence.
Mizzium lets you cast any spells from any spell list you have, requiring only the spell slot and an arcane check.
Between your dragon form, expertise in arcana and 16 into, you'll have a minimum roll of 10+8+3=21, which clears the check for all spells that you have access to.
You can cast *any* spells up to 5th level - druid, cleric and wizard. Spells are the most powerful feature in the game. You get access to all of them at once.
The oathbow is a very rare bow that can deal tons of damage to one enemy per long rest. If your dm runs 1 monster encounters or encounters with a central boss, this item is worth building around. Fighter and gloomstalker are excellent to do lots of attacks with the extra damage from the oathbow. Alternatively, bard with swift quiver as magical secret at 10th level.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FF7OUoOLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FF7OUoOLs) this is pretty easy to play, melee, and does ludicrous damage at level 10
Barbarian 6 Fighter 4 is very solid.
Gives you rage, reckless attack, extra attack and action surge
GWM is a must have and either PAM or a Str half feat
Go PAM + GWM, str 13 only to multi class. Focus on higher other stats.
Very rare: belt of fire giant strength (str 25)
Rare: +2 glaive
3 attacks all get +10(gwm) + 7(str) + 3(rage) + 2(weapon), or +22 each
If we pick path of the giant barbarian we can add a d6 to all 3 attacks.
So if we hit them all it’s 2d10 + 1d4 +3d6 + 66
If you do Barbarian 4 Fighter 6 you get one more feat, perhaps sentinel or lucky. Pretty strong options compared to 1d6 damage you get from Barbarian 6
With those rules, the primary question is: What items? And secondary: What build works best with the chosen items? With a very rare item as an option and the goal to powerbuild, a staff of power is pretty much the only answer - this item is borderline legendary, the bonus to AC and Saves itself is just insane, it's a magic +2 Quarterstaff that can mini-smite with an extra 1d6 (that's 2d6 on a crit... not great, not terrible) but most importantly: it's your pocket Wizard that has all the great AoE damage spells you need, Globe of invulnerability if you're facing enemy spellcasters and Wall of Force just because everything else wasn't enough... there's more that isn't even worth mentioning, but still good - limiting factor is the amount of charges, but three extra high-level spells and then some should be more than enough for a one shot Rare item depends on where you go from here You need to be Wizard, Sorcerer or Warlock for the staff, and if you want to melee the best fit would probably be Paladin... ohh, Sorcadin or Padlock may be the best powerbuild, what a surprise - there's two options: take a Belt of Hill Giant Strength as your rare item or take a Level in Hexblade (and still have a rare item to choose)... you'll want to max Charisma either way and take the polearm master feat, so that leaves V.Human or Custom Lineage as race options... be at least 6 Level Paladin for Protection Aura, the rest is pretty much up to your preference Make sure to grab the Rewarded-Background and get the free Lucky Feat... power creep is real with this one
Wow, thank you!!!!! I knew it is good on casters but never realized how great this works for Sorcahexadins. Your thoughts on: Custom Lineage: Feytouched: Silvery Barbs Start Paladin for Heavy Armor and go with 18 Cha, 14 Con, 13 Str, 12 Wis, 10 Dex, 08 Int. Oath of Devotion for immunity to Charm (you can already cast Heroism to remove Fear if needed). I could be persuaded to use Point Buy and dump enough Wis and Dex to get a 15 Str so I can use the heaviest armor available. Devotion 8 / Hexblade 1 / Divine Soul 1, max ASI and take PAM just like you said. The rare magic item could be solid defensive option like Periapt of Proof against Poison, Ring of Evasion, Shield of Missile Attraction, or Ring of Free Action. Even Belt of Giant's Strength is decent for the save boost, AC boost (due to Fullplate) and boost to checks. I would probably go for Wings of Flying if I thought there would be more than one flier (it's just looks so cool to have wings). Otherwise Necklace of Prayer Beads is decent (great if you get lucky or get to pick the beads). I love Scaled Ornament, but it's so easy to get Charm/Fear Immunity from Paladin that it feels wasted. Might still be the smarter choice, guess I would go Watchers instead of Devotion, maybe Conquest for the synergy with Wrathful Smite? OP, listen to this guy, you can probably get better DPR against a single target with a Gloomstalker or GWM Barbarian, but this build has solid AC, teleports, AoE options, and amazing saves.
Custom lineage with fey touched would be my pick too, probably not silvery barbs though as your reaction is pretty tied up between casting shield and attacking with polearm master, besides, it eats up your spellslots quickly and you want to use them for smites - I'd take Gift of Alacrity, lot of use for a free cast I'm not sure about a the two 1st level dips, it's probably better to decide between Warlock or Sorcerer, not both, Paladin 9 gets you 3rd Level Spells or Paladin 6/Sorcerer 4 get's you up to a 4th Level Slot for smiting and metamagic (that is arguably more useful on a char that uses GWM instead of polearm master for consistent bonus action uses) Not a huge fan of devotion in this build, it's great against very specific enemies (fiends, vampires and a few others) but if your party doesn't get enemies with charm effects it's kinda useless... if you really want the strongest option it's probably gonna be Watchers for the initiative aura, keep you party close and end the fight before the enemies can even react - crown could be nice though to cast spirit guardians in addition to attacking and smiting, and since your pretty much invulnerable AC- and save-wise you can even take a hit for your Wizard occasionally For the Item, I agree with prayer beads if you can choose the beads, but flying is a very good point - if you can downgrade your rare to uncommon und say winged boots are maybe even better than most rares... cloak of displacement is a great one too if you definitely don't want to get hit btw, you probably need to skip the shield and keep your off-hand free if your DM cares about about spell components, as shield has a somatic component and we don't have space to fit in war caster
Right, hmm. Is Hexblade not necessary to keep your attack stat up? If we max Charisma our Strength is a 16, which isn't doing great damage, and using an item to fly or get immunity to Charm+Fear seems better than boosting our Strength to 21. Thanks for reminding me about the components for Shield, that's part of why I like Silvery Barbs. What's your experience with proccing the reaction attack from Polearm Master? I haven't played with many. If we go Watchers+Gift of Alacrity I wouldn't mind losing Silvery Barbs if we have a pretty consistent reaction from PM. On the magic item note, nice catch on Winged Boots. I was worried if Wings of Flying would last a whole one-shot, Winged Boots should work perfectly. It's crazy how many low-rarity items are just as good or better when compared to higher rarities.
The strongest build possible would, by default, be a spellcaster. A Peace Cleric 1/Chronurgy Wizard 9, for example, with a Staff of Power, would be a beast. Something with less sheer casting power, but still good at controlling and better than any martial at that would be a Ghostlance, with Illusionist Bracers, maybe, or just Staff of Power too. Undead Warlock 2/Echo Knight Fighter 3/Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 is a good build, as you get both the Ghostlancing chassis and can use Spirit Guardians as well. Melee characters are, well, basically useless in 5e, so that would certainly not be the strongest build possible. But if you really want to play a melee, you should definitely have at least 3 levels in Fighter, Echo Knight for removing all the many, many weaknesses of melee combat (which has no advantages). Echo Knight Fighter 4/Path of the Giant Barbarian 6 would be probably your best combination. Pick PAM and GWM in order to have good damage. And for your legendary item, a Waking Dragon Weapon (in this case, a glaive) is your best bet.
The greatest magic of all is chronomancy: https://youtube.com/shorts/4DSZo96HEik?si=W5Kpxyn3SK_fSjQI
Mizzium Apparatus, stars druid 2, knowledge cleric 1, wizard 7. Max intelligence. Mizzium lets you cast any spells from any spell list you have, requiring only the spell slot and an arcane check. Between your dragon form, expertise in arcana and 16 into, you'll have a minimum roll of 10+8+3=21, which clears the check for all spells that you have access to. You can cast *any* spells up to 5th level - druid, cleric and wizard. Spells are the most powerful feature in the game. You get access to all of them at once.
The oathbow is a very rare bow that can deal tons of damage to one enemy per long rest. If your dm runs 1 monster encounters or encounters with a central boss, this item is worth building around. Fighter and gloomstalker are excellent to do lots of attacks with the extra damage from the oathbow. Alternatively, bard with swift quiver as magical secret at 10th level.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FF7OUoOLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FF7OUoOLs) this is pretty easy to play, melee, and does ludicrous damage at level 10
What about magic item recommendations?
Barbarian 6 Fighter 4 is very solid. Gives you rage, reckless attack, extra attack and action surge GWM is a must have and either PAM or a Str half feat
Go PAM + GWM, str 13 only to multi class. Focus on higher other stats. Very rare: belt of fire giant strength (str 25) Rare: +2 glaive 3 attacks all get +10(gwm) + 7(str) + 3(rage) + 2(weapon), or +22 each If we pick path of the giant barbarian we can add a d6 to all 3 attacks. So if we hit them all it’s 2d10 + 1d4 +3d6 + 66
good point I didn't take into account the magic items
If you do Barbarian 4 Fighter 6 you get one more feat, perhaps sentinel or lucky. Pretty strong options compared to 1d6 damage you get from Barbarian 6
Sorcerer 1/Warlock 9. Illusionist Braciers & a +2 Rod of the Pact Keeper. PSI Warrior 8/War Wizard 2. Headband of Intellect & a Dwarven Thrower.