Check out World Anvil here! worldanvil.com/?c=D4 Use the promo code d4 at checkout to save 51%! Errata: I don't have the Dex or Str to take that Fighter dip right at the end. Oops! Not a huge deal, and it comes super late, but our AC will be 1 less for that final damage report. Just go back to Artificer and grab the Repulsion Shield Infusion and you get the same +1 to Defense (duh... of course, that's assuming you don't already have a magic shield ;) ) - ALSO! No idea why I blanked and thought Heavy Armor Master could give a +1 to Con (though it really should as an option. Come on). This means we start with only a 16 Con, letting us start with a 16 Int as well though (take three +1's in Cha, Con, and Int) and, let's be honest, this is what we should be doing anyways :P - it *does* mean that our hit point total is slightly lower at damage reports 9, 13, and 17. The impact to the numbers is relatively minor (Tier Score ends up being 42.3 now) - I've updated the spreadsheet accordingly!
I'd usually say it needs more bard levels. But this time... it needs one more bard level. Also, I like this build. Can you also make a folk hero bardster that summons spiritual guardians and murders his enemies with haunting tunes? Yeah?
Before level 9 you can not imbue the Thunder Gauntlets with any infusion. You have to have the level 9 'Armor Modifications' feature before you can do that.
Colby!!! I have a challenge for you! I challenge you to make an optimized build for EACH of the four Genasi sub races, and each build has to lean into the mechanics provided by each! You don't have to stick to the elements them, but the build should somehow be relevant to the spells or abilities the genasi each get!!! :)
Earth Genasi can make decent tanks, but sadly it is basically outclassed by Shadar kai since they get a teleport AND resistance to all damage. It also triggers the bonus action spell rule because cantrips are still spells.
If you did an Earth Genasi tank that used the Artificer for the soft taunt maybe you could have interesting secondary utility synergy between the infiltrator armor and the Earth Genasi Pass Without Trace spell
@@floofzykitty5072If you're bonus action casting blade ward as a tank, your action probably won't be casting a spell. It'll be grappling or smacking the heck out of someone
I love how Colby sometimes gets embarrassed right after he says, “At level one, we are starting…”. Because at this point we are all expecting fighter. I love the story with the artificer!!
Your table of contents has been incredibly helpful! Multiple times I've searched via keyword for a class I want to use in a build and I find several of your builds, and that's saved me a ton of time with building characters
Thanks Colby- I’ve recently taken on the habit of theory crafting when I take my dog for his last walk of the day. I pick a new strategy each week and, after almost a year, I’ve concluded that you’re really good at this! Thanks for the inspiration ❤
This video inspired me so much that I’ve talked to my DM to allow me to adjust my current glamour bard to play this build in our campaign. Really thankful for your videos.
I have a build like that I made for a build challenge, I dumped int are and con and did 16s in dex wis and cha. I made head band, belt of hill giant strength and an amulet of health, I had no weakness' lol. Never got to play it but I also dipped rune knight to make the iron giant basically
My very first d&d character from 30 years ago was a bard. I played him all the way to level 30 (3rd edition, epic level campaign rules) and he became a god in our world. His domains are Loyalty and Lore. This build is SO PERFECT for some of his followers! I'm totally gonna have to make one and play it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for all the fantastic wonderfulness and positive energy and attitude that you always have. I think I'm up to about 110 or so episodes watched. Been watching your entire back catalog 🙂👍
Loved this concept! When you explained the character it made me think immediately of a drag queen. With the armor being their drag persona, kinda cool being a flamboyant fantasy hero mech queen. I might have to play this, with some personal adjustments ofcourse! Great job as always!
I would LOVE to see an updated Glamour bard build with the new 5.5 subclass. It seems CRAZY strong as a controller now, and getting to use Command as an at-will bonus action opens up your action for attacks or other spells.
Dude, I love this build idea! Usually I just enjoy your builds for their crazy OP'ness, but the narrative of this character just spoke to me immediately as something I wanna play in a long-term campaign. Though, I'd probably wanna stop at three levels of Artificer to get so much more Bardic goodnes.
Personal opinion, if you were to do those last 3 levels to go to 20, Conquest Paladin would be a great choice. - Would get you Armor of Agathys to add a butt ton of temp HP alongside Aid, plus dealing damage back to the enemies melee attacking you. A dead enemy takes longer to kill you than a live one and can’t target your allies at all. - alongside that single level of fighter you’d have a second fighting style so you can get both defense and interception. - *SMITE!* because, again, a dead enemy is less of a threat to your allies than a live one. - something that’s more useful against hordes of weak enemies that aren’t immune to fear: your channel divinity being able to target every enemy in 30 feet and make it so those who fail their saves both can’t get closer and have disadvantage on attacks as long as they can see you. As long as your allies are on the opposite side of you from the enemies who failed, that makes it so melees who failed straight up can’t target your allies and ranged ones are still having a hard time. The biggest thing preventing it is that you don’t meet multiclassing minimums due to the strength requirement. But, as you yourself said, this version of the build focused much more on Constitution than you would if you actually played it, so there are ways to make it happen while still having the concepts behind the original build work.
I've been a proponent of glamour bard for almost as long as it's been out THP and out of turn movement is absolutely insane in many battle scenarios. I'm excited to hear your take on it.
In a table I was playing once, we ended up allowing magical inspiration to affect magic missile, since we only rolled once for all projectiles, it made sense to us. I was the bard and that felt like a great use of an inspiration and first level spell, especially because the sorcerer rolled a 4 on the d4 and a 6 on the d6, 33 force damage at level 2. That table was on roll20 and it was the first (and only) time I saw a 48 damage fireball, the same sorcerer got to roll all greens, it was so cool, the dragon flew away spooked.
Great timing for a tank build. I just introduced two NPC tanks for my party. One is a bard / pladin designd to figth in front. The other is a sorcer paladin to keep the people in back safe. I disabled some of their abilities and took a limited spell list to avoid outshining the heroes. Maybe this time they beat the dungeon instead of being forced to retreat.
This is so much fun to see, I've been playing this exact combo: armorer and glamour bard with a larger focus on artificer, using 3 levels of bard for fun utility stuff and this as an alternative, or to show how much tanking I could be doing is incredibly fun... if anyone is wondering about theming: A Fashion designer that uses flair and clothing designs as their "artistic expression" for bard spells is a lot of fun...
The really cool thing there is the combo of flash of genius, guidance and inspiration... that is int+1d4+1d6, which can be so clutch... very fun... less tanky of course, but also I just really enjoy artificers a lot
Just FYI, Heavy armor master can only increase strength, not constitution. Though honestly, this makes the triple-16 start even more tempting, which will in turn make the early game much easier for you.
A slight twist on the build would be to invest a few more levels in Sorcerer and pick up Twinned Spell. You can then combine that with Mantel of Majesty and double the amount of commands you’re throwing out each turn as a bonus action. Plus you can still pick up Warding Bond with the Divine Soul bloodline. 👍🏼 Still, I appreciate you going deep into the bard levels. Rock on!🤘
Colby Yesss trust me Glamour is so slept on. Glamour bard with the Aid spell (added to spell list in Tasha’s) at level 3 you have mantle of inspiration 5 temp hp + aid 5 hp max * number of party members. In one round I could basically heal 35 hp across the party in one round. I did the math and it was basically like adding another party member in terms of HP.
I don't often stick around for the bloopers at the end, but I felt that string of throat clearings and "ok"s. Glad I'm not the only one, haha Also, great build!
I'm currently playing stop an artificer 3 wizard one, planning on going abjuration. The math on the late game for it is pretty awesome, between the arcane Ward and the armor giving temp HP.
One thing I love on these tank builds is that no tank can do it all. Some of the builds to struggle on the boss but succeed well on the fireball. This tank struggles into the fireball because of middling Dave's on their dex, which is fine. The fact it can just walk into a horde of enemies and live forever is powerful enough for most tables
We actually made good consistent use of Counter Charm in my last campaign. We had a Long Death Monk that maxed out Wisdom first and spammed Hour of Reaping. The Bard using Counter Charm (or Heroism when they had slots) kept the party un-frieghtened while all the enemies were constantly debuffed 👌
Also remember that Magical Inspiration lets a creature with the die add it to a spell's damage roll. Again, not great, but it's nice to have on a Valor Bard, especially if you have an 18th level Wild Magic Sorcerer. Great build, BTW!
Synaptic Static as a 5th level spell would be huge for tanking purposes. I played a Valor Bard from 1-20 in a high-power campaign. The Bard's natural AC was 21, but between Synaptic Static, Shield (acquired via Strixhaven Initiate), and Bane (my concentration of choice, though Slow is also a favorite), that was effectively a +12 AC for myself and a +7 AC boost for my party. Throw in Foresight as a buff in endgame, and you're nearly untouchable.
Artificer 6 unlocks new infusions like Repulsion Shield as a third infused item, increasing your AC by 1. I would take that before dipping Fighter for the Defense fighting style.
Oh man, it's so hard for me to not play some sort of Barbarian combo because I just love the flavor text - but I think this build is *very* tempting! Very fun!
I'm only a few minutes into the video, but I think the idea of quantifying things in DND is really interesting. This makes me want to develop a system to empirically analyze a way to measure how much you are "supporting" your party. Add how much average damage you save your party by debuffing enemies to how much temp hp you give and how much damage you add to your party members.
Hell yeah Glamour Bard People really seem to overlook it, which is wild given how unique and HP effective Mantle of Inspiration is Ofc less useful if your group has a Twilight Cleric.... but a great support Character for any party
I think it'll get more love after PHB24 comes out. It got a decent glow up to Tasha's level of efficacy, as did the other Xanathar's classes that made their way in (a moment of silence for the Xanathar's classes functionally removed by the PHB24 rules, Hexblade and Cicle of the Shepherd)
Have you considered the idea of building around certain Magical Items? The MIzzium Apparatus for example? Tabletop Builds has a list of Build-Changing / defining items and it seems right up your alley.
at lvl 1 you suggest skipping the weapon for cantrips but then recommend Booming Blade for a cantrip which REQUIRES a weapon as the target of the spell. not an issue for thorn whip of course.
First Treantmonk features my second favorite tanking spell, Warding Bond, and now you feature my favorite Bard class? Christmas is coming early this year (or maybe late last year?). I play mostly tanks with a few healers, and a while back I was thinking of the best tanking sub-class for each class, and Glamour Bard actually got me to stop even thinking about it as “tanking” and more “protecting”. The “what” is keeping your allies in the fight. For Tanks, taking all of the damage is the “how” they keep everyone in the fight. For the Glamour Bard, manipulating where everyone is on the battlefield is the “how” they keep everyone in the fight. I am actually planning on doing a Glamour Bard “tank” for whatever campaign I do next. My build is going to be 6 levels in Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, at least 10 levels in Glamour Bard (to get Magical Secrets and the 11 temp HP per Mantle use), and then potentially 3+ levels in Warlock (probably Celestial, but maybe not) grabbing Pact of the Tome for Thorn Whip and giving me Pact Magic to get more sorcery points on a short rest. My “taunt” is Dissonant Whispers twin-spelled at level 1. Your melee enemy can’t attack your allies if they start every turn more than their movement away from them, and the ranged enemies can be dealt with using stuff like Hypnotic Pattern or Hold Monster. The two feats I know I am going to take are War Caster and Moderately Armored to get Half Plate and Shield proficiency. I know I could multi-class to get those proficiencies, but it will slow my progression in my important classes more than I would be willing to do, and MA is a half feat, so it will bump my 13 DEX to the 14 I want for medium armor. I will hold enemies close with War Caster and Thorn Whip. I know I won’t have the obligatory “disadvantage taunt” that everyone chases for tanks, but personally, while I agree that it is a really good ability overall, I think it is more of a support ability than a tanking one. I’ve played 5 tanks and never had this ability and have never had issue “holding aggro”. In my experience, where everyone is on the battlefield is significantly more important in enemies choosing what to attack than what bonuses they have or don’t have. And, in all of my games so far, I have had at least one and usually two allies whose ACs are so much lower than mine, the enemy is still more likely to hit them with disadvantage than they are to hit me without. Instead, with this character, they can either choose to attack me, or they can use their action to dash to my allies, provoking an opportunity attack from me, and not getting to attack them anyway. Then, next turn, I either make them run 30 feet away with a failed Dissonant Whispers save, while my ally moves 30 feet the other direction, or, if the enemy saves against DW, I use Mantle of Inspiration to allow my ally to move 30 feet away on my turn then they move another 30 feet away on their turn. If the enemy goes before my ally, then I would just move up to the enemy after the successful save and my Mantle of Inspiration to be within melee of the enemy, so if they try to go after my ally I can just Thorn Whip them back and prevent them from getting all the way to them. And lastly, if all else fails, I can just Vortex Warp my ally 90 feet away from me (my Battle Smith tank uses Vortex Warp a lot). I had not really thought about Slow in the context you are using it, and I think that is a really good option for this character. The concentration spell I was planning on using was Hypnotic Pattern. If all my allies and I gather together, the enemies will likely swarm in to attack. Then, on my turn, I just Mantle of Inspiration so that we all leave the cluster of bodies, then I drop a Hypnotic Pattern right in the middle of the crowd. Then we just pick off the ones that made the save one at a time. Alternatively, we could each drop a Fireball in the middle of the crowd. But, Slow is a really good option if the enemies decide not to run up in a mosh pit.
It's funny you mentioned warding bond, not sure if you saw treantmonks video about it but aside from its obvious use as a tank spell he pointed out you can technically cast it on yourself for added survivability, giving yourself the extra stats and with taking resisted damage twice it basically rounds down the total damage all the odd number damage you take by 1 and makes concentration checks way easier to make
Colby! Love your videos and I have a powerful mechanic you haven't tried building around to my knowledge. The artillerist protector cannon. Please show me what you can do with this impressive source of temporary hit points 😊
I love the flavor for this build and I think Randal out did himself with the art for this one. The sparkly pink armor with the anime pose is beautiful!
It has been a while since I have had to beat this drum, but I will maintain that the Interception fighting style is just as good if not better for tanking compared to the soft taunt of the armorer/ancestral guardian/cavalier. I have had three different campaigns where the paladin took Interception, and that fighting style does so much work. Combined with aura of protection makes the paladin an excellent protector of teammates, no soft taunt necessary.
Ive been so busy I am just now catching up with Colbys videos. The last one he had a man bun and looked like a capoera instructer. Now in this one he looks like a rugged salior. I missed so much plot development!!
Awesome build as always. But you did get one thing wrong at the end. A Bear Totem Barbarian can use Heavy Armor and still benefits from the bear Totem resistance and Heavy Armor Master while Raging RAW. You would still get the resistance from the subclass feature but loose all other benefits from the class feature like the dmg buff and advantage on strength checks.
I'm going to strongly recommend you look at Chris's "The Most Powerful Bard is a Disney Princess" video. It has opened my own eyes to how a Bard can be played and to this day the Creation Bard is my all-time favorite. However, this would be an excellent runner-up. :D
Love the idea that the PC hides their face behind their armor because of how hideous they are. And then when you finally see their face, they are just a normal looking dude/lady. Also, ( I know you probably have dozens of ideas to still do) but would still love to see a build combining the level 1 genie warlock's Bottled Respite combined with a build that makes the most use out of Glyph of Warding, as RAW, you should be able to set up all the Glyphs you want inside your bottle and in a single turn, BA teleport into the bottle, say your activation word, trigger all the Glyphs, and with an action hop back out. Except now, you are juiced with a bunch of stackable concentration spells. Anyway, love your vids Colby! take care
Useful magic item for this build would be the Illusionist Bracers from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Fun item, if you use an action to cast a cantrip, you can spend your bonus action that round to cast the same cantrip. Stacks REALLY well with Eldritch Blast, but being able to insult someone to death with Vicious Mockery twice as fast is funny.
I would love to see a Ranger Artificer combination. Half elf crossbow expert elven accuracy sharpshooter combo sure. It's the base for a lot of strong builds. It's mostly a ranger but dips 2 levels into artificer for Enhanced Weapon and Repeating shot. That way you could enchant both crossbows with a +1 to hit. Along with the archery fighting style and elven accuracy, you're not missing out too much by not bumping Dexterity for most of the character's career. I also just like the idea of a ranger that uses some of their magic to enhance their weapons. A crossbow feels so much more mechanical than a short bow or long bow. So it would be fun to have a ranger that really leans into crafting a lot of their own gear.
Love the video! Another work of art my dude! I know you’re a busy guy, but I was wondering if you had another whisper bard in the back log? A whisper bard who goes hexblade and at least 2 levels of pali. Going for a huge nova, getting pali smite, eldrich smite, and phychic blades, not counting concentration or other spells. I think it could make for an interesting dark character, but alas, I’ll stop talking your ear off! Keep up the great work! Can’t wait for September!
Before you start using the new PHB when it comes out, I’d love to see you use the existing classes and subclasses to make a character with high DPR and DTPR. Throw in both sustained and burst DPR to put this character on all three spreadsheets and just try to make a character who can do it ALL very well. I think it would be a nice send off before using the updated versions of the classes going forward.
Judging by how some class features related to "Magical" physical damage got changed in One DnD, there will no longer be any "Magical" physical damage. For example, currently Monks get the "Magical" physical damage on their attacks at level 7 (I think?), but in One DnD they simply get Force damage as an option.
This is a good character to give the artificer some flavor. Let the proficiency be with sewing needles and fabric instead of a hammer and anvil. Let the character wrap themselves in fantasy kevlar or something. Enchanted cloth can have a high armor class, right? If the main theme of the character is that they are shy and want to hide behind a mask, we can make that a literal thing. We could even justify some sort of cosplay with this if we had to.
I want to play so badly a Glamour Bard, with Circle of Power as a magical secret. I feel like this spell is so underrated, and could be such a strong defensive features for all your party. Did I mention that the combo with Mantle of inspiration is incredible ?
HE USED MY NAME SUGGESTION‼️‼️‼️ I was pretty proud of this one, so I’m glad it was put to use, lol Thank u Colby for making all these awesome videos of us (:
As someone who has an armorer in their party, i can confirm they are a pain in the ass to try and take down. I was going to play a moon druid when they run our next campaign but now I'm getting other ideas lol
Shield fix? Deflects up to proficiency number of blows, if the +5 bonus itself deflects the blows. Upcast targets more targets within 5×spell level ft. **still can only deflect up to PB number of blows total**
Instead of Divine Soul Sorcerer you could alternatively take War Magic Wizard. The arcane deflection feature might be a bit better for patching up that dexterity saving throw. There are other trade offs by going this route and the build is probably better with Sorcerer. I just like giving alternatives when they come to mind--especially underrepresented subclasses. Also, the bonus to initiative could help get slow up on enemies before they have the chance to move.
