When you next look at PF2e stuff again, this sort of character concept comes through super well in the Investigator class! Their core "devise a stratagem" feature is fun and flavorful and strong.
Based on his build here I think a PF2E Fighter with Psychic dedication (FA rules, which he uses) might be a good version. Of course an Investigator with Psychic FA would also work. And if he wanted to go "all in" he could look at the Drow Shootist, Gunslinger or Inventor ATs as well. But I think a Fighter with lvl 2 Psychic AT then grabbing Drow Shootist at lvl 9 (Ancestry) would be pretty intetesting.
Can confirm. I'm currently playing an Investigator with the Psychic Dedication, and it has been an absolute beast. Between Imaginary Weapon and Strategic Strike, (especially when I can combine both on a subject of my lead for free), I've felt like an absolute monster in some fights. Built on the frame of a Surgewise Fleshwarp who comes off as a cross between Geralt and Constantine, and it has been nothing but fun since day 1!
One of the coolest things about the psy warrior abilities is the leap and the move ability can be done once per short rest without a die. It encourages you to find ways to use each of these abilities and really varries up the stuff your fighter does.
Got to the point with Telekinetic Thrust when you mentioned killing the last guy with Faerie Fire and running up to them and doing Psionic Strike and Telekinetic Thrust to knock them prone and keep shooting with advantage. I thought it would be even better to take this a step further than do Psi-Powered Leap where you just absolutely charge that last enemy to gun them down. Just jump 60ft to the last enemy to catch them. So awesome.
At the end of the build there, where you were weighing your options on which class to continue those 2 levels in, and even considered rogue, maybe go Wizard? Intelligence based and you get the level 2 arcane tradition added to the build. And spell versatility and slots. So many strong options with all the subclasses listed.
Never played D & D, never had any interest, but found and used your BG3 video and now I am watching all your older content because I find it super interesting for some reason. thanks!
Hey Colby in honor of the upcoming release of Baldur's Gate 3, I'd like to challenge you to make a build specifically designed to excel within it. A few things of note that different in BG3 from D&D: ~I was going to type it all out here but I googled and found a wonderful reddit thread.~ To avoid having to click a link in a youtube comment; Search for "Rule changes from D&D 5e to Baldur's Gate 3" BG3 is shaping up to be one of the best video game adaptations of the D&D ruleset to date and I can't wait! Thanks for all you do Colby, keep up the great work!
Get around the all purpose tool! Just a level 1 dip artificer for some spells and boom, an intelligence attack based weapon. I would put it forward especially for this build because ultimately you're just trying to create an intelligence based fighter. So you can still have that 14 dex but really max out those typically wizard based skill checks.
When it comes to dungeon dudes rating artificer a low dip option, it seems close minded. There is about a third of the fighter subclasses that already scale with INT, and it can be powerful to pick up powerful infusions or an artificer subclass that makes your attacks scale with INT too. The returning weapon or repeating shot infusions create new play patterns more powerful that isn't normally available to fighters. This is all before accounting for the addition of spellcasting options that might not even rely on a good INT to begin with.
I don’t know if you’ve done this already but I’d love to see a build solely focussed on going up against a pack of high level mind flayers - with bg3 coming out.
You had me in the first half with an INT fight. I recently did a one shot using an INT fighter [psi warrior/war magic], but I see we went different paths.
Cool build as always but mainly wanted to say, I love the sign off you give every week. The whole 'have a great time and if not better things are sure to come'. Dead simple, a touch cheesy but definitely appreciated. Back at ya man
Love Psi Warrior. I had a cool moment with one in a one-shot, where I used Psi-Powered Leap to get to a flying enemy, grapple them, and drag them down for my melee pals to wail on.
For this weeks build I was planning on commenting that you should go higher level in Fighter sometime because of Extra Extra Attack and cool subclass features, but I guess you beat me to the punch. Artificer is a really flavorful class, and I'm happy you always dip into it (A little less than fighter I think)!! Psi Warrior might be my favorite fighter subclass, and I have been waiting to see some more of it, because you don't use very often, even though it is a powerful and fun subclass, jumping around the battlefield and creating protective force fields!! Always love the builds!! As always, thanks for the build!! I might just have to use this one! Maybe I can't remember, but have you done a paladin that duel wields? I was thinking of a character concept for burst damage where you take Thri-Kreen to use a heavy weapon and dual-wield light weapons in your small hands. Then you pick up 3 fighter levels for action surge and battle master. Battle master is not only for a significant damage boost but also a trip attack to get an advantage because we would take GWM at the first chance. I don't know how well it would work, but it's worth a shot. I would start the build-in fighter, then take 5 paladin levels, then 2 more fighter, but I'm unsure of the rest. It seems cool though! It would also be a better build to name The Praying Mantis, because, well... paladin.
"Fighters are boring". I'm right there with ya. But check this out, Gem Dragonborn Echo Knight. Oh the synergies! Double down on Con for Echo attacks and Breath weapon attacks, which you can mix in with your other attacks and both work with Action Surge. Max level Action Surge you can have 10 attacks, 2 of which are your Breath Weapon. That's not even counting if you can weaponize your Bonus Action. Even at level 3 when you get the subclass, you can still make a Breath Weapon attack and have your Echo attack on the same turn... then Action Surge... damn. There you go, full Fighter, no magic, feels like a gish. And you give Fighter a bit of AoE.
The flavor of this build reminds me of the Psionic Artificer from 3.5e. They functioned very much like the typical artificer, except they got psionic equivalents instead of the usual magic item crafting and spell list.
As always, attack the glass cannon and controllers, ignore the tank. But when your damage dealers are also tanky, that makes the strongest charecters. Damage numbers are deceptive. This looks top teir.
Colby thank you so much for being such an awesome content creator. My work week would be a lot duller if it weren’t for your videos. Keep up the great work!
"Death Dancer" Satyr (Mirthful Leap) Anthropologist (Adept Linguist). 10 levels of School of Eloquence Bard (all the goodies, get Jump and Spike growth among your magical secrets) 3 levels Pact of the Tome(Guidance, Spare the Dying, Booming Blade) Hexblade Warlock (Eldritch Blast w/ Hadars Grasp and Lance of Lethargy, Cha to Attack and Damage). 7 levels Oath of Vengeance Paladin (Tunnel Fighter, Relentless Avenger, Extra Attack, Medium Armor, Shield, Smite, Aura and Aura spells). Athlete Feat - to use with Mirthful Leaps and Jump spell. Medium Amror Master Feat - Half Plate at +3 with no disadvantage. Spear Mastery - +5' reach with spears and +1 to hit. Shield Mastery - mostly for the push, but Dex bonus to defense is nice. Reflavors - Tunnels fighter "defensive stance" becomes "defensive dance". The Spear Mastery increased reach becomes an "offensive dance". Applicable spells are visually themed after death and winter for damaging spells and growth and summer for restorative or beneficial spells. In combat it's the classic Spike Growth with the push(Shield Mastery)/pull(Eldritch Blast w/Grasp of Hadar) combo. Add in the Lance of Lethargy and the ability to Jump/Athlete/Mirthful Leaps around your own spike growth is devestating. Add in a minimum of two spear attacks with incredibly reach(offensive) or unlimited attacks of opportunity(defensive) while wearing half plate and a shield makes a front line fighter. The character travels the land looking to help those mourning the evils of this world. Adept Linguist/Universal Speech/Expert Performance/Expert Religion/Ritual Caster/Paladin all together means no matter where you are you can perform the rites of dead according to local custom, follow your oath to seek out vengeance, and then come back to lead the ceremonies of life. "They say that misfortune is my muse and I follow her wherever she goes. Let them, at least they are talking. My morbid ways are just like the rest of my race. Satyr are morbid in that we know life is short and hard. We must all learn to leap across the mountainsides of winter so we can live to dance in the glades of summer. Death is natural, and we should never turn our backs on nature, any of it. Now, lets go play this dirge to help the townsfolk mourn. Yeah, I know I know... Im following misfortune."
Alright. Pre-video guess: You want good damage, but not spells, most likely, so I'm guessing Artificer 4 (Battle Smith) / Fighter 12 (Psi Warrior) / Barbarian 1. My original guess was A3/F11/ 3 levels in w/e, but for being Int-Based, I can't imagine any other multi-classes really working great. (I mean, sure, you could go Wizard 3 for Bladesinger stuff, but that feels like a bit of a cop-out to me, and the extra ASI's / Feats seem like they would be more beneficial). You could do Armorer instead, which would kinda work, and would let you ignore that pesky Str. Requirement for heavy armor, allowing you to pick up a 13 Cha and multiclass paladin to pack some smites into the build, I suppose. Sure, we could take 3 levels of Rogue for the Psi Knife pool of abilities, which provides AWESOME utility, but I don't know if "Slave to the Spreadsheet" will allow it. XD I will say, IF Psi Warrior is the path you're taking most of the way, the level 15 feature, even if it doesn't make it into this build, is so good it's worth fully pursuing. One psionic die for a +2 AC and Dex saves for a minute is just incredible, even if Twilight Cleric does it better by this level. Post-Vid (SPOILERS): You didn't go the direction I thought you would! I tend to lean more towards brawlers myself, so I think that probably skewed my thinking. I do think that you hit upon something CRITICALLY important for DPS characters, which is the need for solid defenses. Yeah, maybe this character doesn't have top-tier DPS. But you know what? That is a character that can comfortably hit a 25 AC as needed, while walking around with a 20+ AC most of the time (excluding magic items, etc.), and mostly fighter hit dice and a 16 Con., making you a really effective mid-line defender (You can draw aggro through your damage, and can be close enough to the front line to do your Psi-Shield on a regular basis, while also being tough enough to shrug off a decent number of attacks). That's nothing to sneeze at, and should be a larger consideration for more "DPS" builds from a practical sense. If I were going to point a new player in the direction of a build that would be effective and fun, yet well-rounded enough to live through tactical mistakes or unlucky streaks, this would be a SOLID candidate as a starter build. It even gives JUST enough spells to see how cool they are without being overwhelming. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the 1 level of Rogue at the very end, but I understand that the spreadsheet has needs, too. XD
I joked about almost this exact build in the comments on yesterday's preview short. If not for that level of rogue, my guess was right. But, taken to level 20 so one could add 2 more levels of rogue for Soul Knife's psi bolstered knack and telepathic abilities, you'd practically have a complete Jedi build in DnD.
My main youtube feed is Path of Exile and Colby That title throw me away :DD Mind Over Matter is keystone in PoE that people tend to build they character around
Thanks for the int fighter! I'd been wanting to make a triton psi warrior whose psi abilities were all water-summoning: blasting a water spray, surfing a giant wave, water bubble shields. After this vid, I'm re-thinking to sea elf or half sea elf. The artificer could vibe as a 'little mermaid' fascination in whatsits and thingamabobs, plus, a mechanical crab sidekick? Love it.
It is interesting on your concept, I am currently playing a warforged who was created by a gnome and his dwarven business partner to help around the shop and protect it, the gnome and dwarf eventually dies of old age and leaves Sentry to go out on his own. He knows how to tinker and build things, he often tries to help those who needs help. He is big boy...like a walking tank. He is an echo knight/battle smith with a mechanical bear he created to being as big as he. I am having a ton of fun and with enhanced weapon, and enhanced defense a shield, and plate armor his AC is 24. He uses Int for attacking, and is good at what he does.
I honestly really like how the unearthed arcana makes fighters a bit tankier and gives more weapons some viability if we compare straight fighter to mind over matter in the playtest, you end up with similar results, with a few minor deviations -straight fighter getting Indomitable now, is huge, which combos really well with being less MAD, crossbow expert and sharpshooter being half feats mean you could realistically start with a 16 dex and by level 6 have your 18, meaning you don't have to wait till level 10 to get your +4 stat also, in said playtest, crossbow expert seems to now want to function with a pair of hand crossbows, though I would rule it is fine with 1 hand crossbow, so long as it didn't have the loading property, which repeating shot allows for anyway *also* and you have a +11 to hit with potentially tripple advantage at level 10, but no -5 = +10 mechanic, you end up with an accuracy of about 98% or something silly, and I do like playing the character who never misses a shot, so personally I very much appreciate that, instead of how it is right now, where being a sharpshooter makes you somehow less accurate?? anyway, it means that the archery fighting style is now equivalently powered to the other options mathematically, so it is no longer a must have, you are able to choose between that and say defense it also means that having spells like faerie fire which have the sole purpose of gaining advantage can be dolled out as part of one's background, because advantage is no longer as powerful, overall the game becomes more consistent and less spikey, with advantage being more common but a bit less powerful, assuming advantage would now actually make sense instead of being a rare *best case scenario* in fact, I think when I make builds and rate them, I will probably have outputs on with advantage, and without advantage, depending on whether an ally with topple has knocked down an enemy also, features like Giants might being a soft once per turn is really good for game design because they don't have to take into account, how many attacks can this character get through multiclassing? etc, they basically just add a flat, consistent, dpr bump I honestly love these features so much because even if you only hit half of your attacks (the average amount), you still get the full benefit from all of your once per turn effects, so you will do more like 60% of your potential damage instead of 50%, and I am all for that consistency, makes all my damage calculations more accurate, so when I calculate that I can beat x in combat, I will be less likely to be wrong I like to pick my battles very carefully, and this stuff makes it so much easier to do that therefore, I like the rogue level for sneak attack, I think it's hilarious
Cody, I don't know if you're a video gamer at all but Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be releasing in a few weeks and it is the biggest D&D game release in a long time. It would be interesting to see your take on bills within the limitations of the game (max level 12, some classes get homebrew changes). It might be a good way to get some new viewers and potentially get people interested in the table top side of things.
This is great, I've been noodling this idea around all week, but went Eldritch Knight and Artillerist with a precision melee weapon and flamethrower battery, allowing options in combat. However, it doesn't give Int on all attacks.
I'd kinda be interested to see Colby build (and maybe play) an optimised character for the CMCC Builds gauntlet! Especially after Treantmonk tried to beat it.
Watching CR c1 and seeing them fail so many int-based skill checks actually sparked me thinking about this type of build. I had planned out an Eldritch Knight (+ Artificer), but this video definitely makes me realize how much potential Psi Warrior has. I do think the extra skill coverage of this kind of build is very useful, particularly in a party without a wizard. I would even be tempted to take Skill Expert with one of Fighter's vast number of ASIs just to drive that home.
Hi Colby! I've been brainstorming about a similar intelligence fighter builds recently, but I just keep coming back to straight battlesmith artificer (so i have to kindly disagree :P) (Or 1 level fighter for archery style ;)). Infused Crossbow sharpshooter. Once you get Spell storing item, giving it to your steel defender for 10 webs or faerie fires a day as a bonus action, I cant seem to find anything better. lvl13 you get summon construct for 2 robots with advantage because of web/ff bonus action. Then lvl 17 animated objects. Even though these massive numbers come from limited high level spell slots, you can always downgrade to, haste, or take fey touched and get bless for your smaller fight concentration spells for a nice damage boost. I just cant get passed the idea of 2 concentration spells going, and the bonus action casting of Spell storing item with steel defender, it just adds so much + you still get to attack action (or other spell) first round. I'm struggling to find a weapon wielding intelligence build that beats it at the moment.
Colby, I love your work dude! One of my players have finally decided to run a campaign (think MoP). What would you think would be great 1-5 build, I'm thinking your Vengeance paladin. Would love your thought on what you would play. Keep the builds coming! ❤
I hope people haven't been watching these as rebuttals haha. I love how you are using their content and I write down at least 6 interesting builds every time I watch one of their multiclass videos
I love love love the Psi Warrior, I'm so glad you used it! BTW, Monty and Kelly basically have written off a Ranger/Paladin build (probably wise 😅) and I just know you could make something interesting and powerful there
Love your vids dude! I've been working on a psi warrior artificer build but being a staff user and leaning more towards the "mystic" in flavor. Picking up eldritch blast through artificers "all purpose tool" but reskinning it as "psi blasts" and PAM/warcaster for all kinds of fun.... Maybe even picking a small race and ride my defender around! You always give me great ideas
Hey Colby! Absolutely love your videos! I'm officially "Home" here. :D I had a question for you though - have you ever considered doing a build or two around assumptions that you have a party to buff you? You mentioned in this video "the limitations of working in a vacuum" - well, what if you didn't have the limitation? What would be your highest sustained damage build if, for example, you could count on a cleric being there with bless, and say a sorcerer casting heightened hold monster? ... As I think about it, that might end up being a little boring, given that the answer is probably just a half-orc barbarian with a greatsword and a fighter dip for action surge to take advantage of all of the automatic crits. Still, though, it might be interesting to talk about builds where you make at least one assumption about the party to enable them, instead of being wholly self-reliant!
The reason that the Greeks who admired brains and smarts and learning were fond of Hercules, the embodiment of physical strength, is that he WAS SMART. He didn't physically shovel out the wretched stables that his cousin couldn't be bothered to hire people to clean. He redirected a river to wash through it. He didn't overwhelmingly HACK the hydra to pieces so fast that it died before it could regenerate its heads. He had his nephew Iolaius burn the neck stumps with pine tar torches while he tanked the beast. Because he was acting out of character for a brawn-no-brains war-jock, his stepmonster (who hated his guts because her husband spawned him off his own granddaughter) ... made him do two more quest tasks. Because he was too smart.
Very nice video as always! You also look adorable in that cap 😁 Thank you for your videos, hope you’re having a great vacation! Also build idea: Undead and or Fiend specialist. Nova/Sustained DPR build that has heavy specialization particularly in Undeads and or Fiends. Of course, Turn Undead doesn’t count, Legendary Resistances send their regards! But something like Ghostslayer BH + Any Paladin and may be something else to boot (Grave Cleric + Quickened Bladetrip + 2 Hemocraft dice + Smite + something else? Ooh boy…). Could make usual DPR Calculation and against Fiend/Undead DPR Calculation, for example :) Anyway, that’s just a sidenote idea. Main thing is that we love you, Colby, as much as you love us!
Hey Colby! With the release of Baldur's Gate 3 fast approaching, will you be theory crafting some possible builds within the confines of that game? Thanks & love the content!
@@shadownite9091 Yes, you can multiclass, as well as do full respecs. You can also respec the rest of the party, although if you change their class you apparently lose some of the class, and maybe subclass specific dialogue
@@voicetest6019 interesting. It would be fun to see what Colby thinks up with respect to this game. I just looked and my own custom multiclass build is kinda playable pre-mods, albeit only kinda. They have the biggest subclasses/features that I need.
Given that you can split up your move and attacks and interweave them, your example at around 35 minutes of what happens when you run out of Faerie Fire'd foes to attack could also go: shoot someone within 30' of yourself, knock them down, THEN run up to point-blank range while they're prone. In case you want to PRETEND you don't have all the feats. ;)
Another awesome video Colby; I had just made a version of this build but instead took crusher/ returning weapon and used a light hammer for a Thor sort of vibe!
Nice build. I was going to build a straight battle smith in a campaign that’s going to lvl 20. Someone else grabbed up an armorer, so I went wizard instead. It was a John Wick build, as it even included the dog! Plus I got an ok to use guns…
It would be a giant distraction from the challenges I'm trying to over come but, I'm super curious to that list of total levels of each class in all your build. I feel like it would provide a lot of useful info.
B for build that's the rule anyway I also believe either Monty or Kelly played an artificer with a gun in one of the untold tales and considered it very strong
Hey it's been a long time since you did a duo build and I have a suggestion. So I've tampered with the idea of a armorer artificer that instead of using the arcane armor themselves gives it to an ally. Then this artificer can avoid the front line and focus or being ranged and support. Mean while the character that gets the armor gets to enjoy a significant power up(especially when we get to level 9). I'd like to see how you would build the artificer and the lucky armor recipient!
I just wanna point out that while this character is ranged based, they can pick up any magical melee weapon and be very strong with it without any investment, thanks to battle ready and elven accuracy. One of the better Switch Hitters in the game. With Fighter getting more ASI, its even feasible to pick up GWM later to be truly awesome both at range and melee.
Im still waiting for a valor bard that weaponizes battle magic. I mean think about it: Either cast a blade cantrip and attack again as a bonus action resource free like a EK or go nova with warcaster, with a setup round casting animate objects (tiny), then next round upcast dissonant whispers, get 10 reaction attacks and cast booming blade as your opportunity attack and since you cast a bard spell you can attack again as a bonus action.
I would like to see your optimal build for changeling race. I know typically you go for a race that will benefit the scores the most but changeling's disguise ability, plus what class? A lot say Rogue, I could see them being just about any class but I'd like to see your thoughts/build for the most useful Changeling
