I like that you are reading out the spell description. Makes it easier to listen to the video on the way to work or in the background. I never really looked at this spell. Not a huge fan of the Warlock class, not enough slots/diff spells to cast for me.
I fell inlove with armor of agathys when I was aware of a burrowing umber hulk about to attack me so I just cast it. 3 attacks later we had a dead umber hulk.
Man, been a while welcome back! i missed these types of vids. to this day, i still refer people to your vids on major image/silent image, tiny servant, summon greater demon and infernal calling for better understanding of the spell or rules clarifications. anyway armor of agathys is indeed a cool spell to build around. my own version focused more on the retaliatory aspect. i think a couple of other aspects you failed to mention in making an armor of agathys tank is: 1. you can give the enemy no choice to attack you my immobilizing them such as with a grapple or sentinel. 2. cast a good concen control spell. that's like the best "taunt" imo in 5e and why casters make the best tanks. enemies want to go after casters by default, especially those who are disabling their allies.
Shadow of Moil would be another warlock spell to boost the damage from getting hit. Not sure of a good way to get that and Fire Shield reasonably on a build though, since Moil is warlock list only, and fire shield is druid/sorc/wizard, which might require getting to 4th level spells in warlock and in another caster class. So would require either Fiend or Genie Efreeti to get both. Moil is conc though, so if you wanted to do barb levels for resistance that would be either/or.
I took this as a spell secret on a lore bard, thinking it would combo very well with cutting words. It didn't, but it did combo amazingly with enemies deciding they don't want to attack me
If it's been a while since you've been to a con, let me give you some basic pointers as someone who has run multiple cons. 1) get a solid cologne that you like and spread a little under your nostrils; especially from day 2 and on. Trust me on this. Gamer funk is real. 2) remember the 1,2,3 rule. 1 shower a day, 2 meals a day, 3 hours of sleep every night. It might seem really obvious, but I've seen way too many people forget this and wind up crashing 2-3 days in. 3) try to get there the day before con starts so you won't have to rush around right after a long trip. 4) try to stay a day later than the con ends and get the late checkout. Your body and brain will thank you. Have fun!
Treantmonk sent me over here. Great video! It seems like a Draconic Sorcerer wouldn't benefit from Elemental Affinity with Armor of Agathys at all because it only adds to a damage roll, and you don't roll anything for AoA. But like you said, ask your DM, they might be kind or interpret it differently.
I know Armor of Agathys, can be a solid spell, but each time I play a character that can leverage it, I forget about it. I'm about to play a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, so maybe I'll remember to work AoA into my tactics this time. Thanks for the inspiration Bilbron!
Great to have some more content from you my guy. As I've said before, your Deep Dives are my favorite classification of video on your channel. Always great to see your perspective.
I think you forgot to mention the fathomless tentacle damage reduction reaction. Don't worry, I only know it cause I'm playing a fathomless/ranger right now
Heck yeah, more deep dives! I enjoy this spell, making a build around it sounds like a good time. Damage resistance seems like a natural gain bonus, so maybe something like Earth Gensai or Shadar Kai could be quite fun.
mark of warding dwarf abjurer wizard or goliath clockwork soul sorcerer is probably the best way to build around armor of agathys, for the dwarf abjurer, you get a lot of free castings of abjuration spells to replenish the arcane ward and you get aoa added to the wizard spell list so no multiclass required, or clockwork soul goliath can reduce the total damage you take, extending the life of your aoa a long while, you probably want to multiclass hexblade warlock for a decent armor class and two slots that replenish on a short rest giving you a lot of extra sorcery points to spend on extend/transmute with every cast of aoa
Welcome back . . . and thank you for reviewing this spell. I like the automatic upcasting for Warlock, maybe combined with another feature that allows you to teleport/move without opportunity attack
Ok so it's been a minute since this video, just wanted to drop a message that I'm currently playtesting a version of your 2bladed genielock that's dao+shadar kai, dumps charisma and uses AoA a lot. It's pretty bonkers thus far (tested mainly at level 9). Sidenote, a gish that has a 3 attacks sequence and can spam Wall of Stone 2 per short rest is amazing!
This is a really fun one I’m brainstorming all sorts of combos A really good one is having a homie go Lore Bard Then he’d be able to help in 2 ways Cutting wards and at 6th and beyond he could have magical secrets Cleric awarding Bond
My day-to-day life is the polar opposite of escapist fantasy. That being said, your vids are a pleasant & absorbing reprieve from what can be soul-destroying chaos. 👍👍👍
I think Mark of Warding Dwarf upcasting AoAgathys and stacking Fire Shield is the winner. Bladward / Stoneskin / Invulnerability are there for getting more outta your AoA. Next winner is probably 3-5 levls in Totem Bear Barb and a Doa Earth Genie Lock. Think this could make an interesting grappler build between Hex / Repelling Blast / Spike Growth / Advantage to STR saves / AoA
My Ultimate PHB character Ken was supposed to use his 8th level slot on Armor of Agathys, it was supposed to balance his poor hit points as a frontline character and do a bit extra damage to partially mitigate the loss of extra attack... Well, the campaign ended 6 levels early because the final boss was taken out due to the damage of AoA in an encounter which was supposed to make us crap ourselves due to the bad guy's power, I didn't get the 40 damage AoA but alongside the Abjuration Wizard and Oath of Ancients Paladin we managed to close distance and use the 30 damage AoA 5 times which was 150 damage the DM hadn't accounted for in the encounter...
Draconic Sorcerer's Elemental Affinity does not work on Armor of Agathys. It only applies damage to damage rolls which the spell does not do. Armor of Agathys only deals flat damage.
the image of someone casually laying on their back while goblins invade spirit guardians and explode in ice every time they land a hit... I find that hilarious and very enjoyable
I think you got something wrong in the "backdoor options to aquire the spell" part. As i know, Magic Initiate lets you LEARN the spell and in addition you can cast it once as first lvl spell. Basically you are right for all non caster classes but it would be fine for any bladesinger or sword bard. I really enjoy your deep dives into spells other tactical D&D chanels seem to ignore. lookin forward for your next one. :)
Nope. MI is once per long rest. Artificer Initiate, Fey Touched, Gift of the Metallic Dragon, Shadow Touched, Strixhaven Initiate, and Telepathic work like that. But WotC wasn't wording features like this back when they wrote Magic Initiate. There is one exception, though. Here's the Sage Advice for MI: *_If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1st level spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat?_* Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare.
dndbeyond devs are lazy af, never fixed aberrant mind and clockwork. You should be able to swap out their class spells but they hard coded it to the defaults. The only work around is making a homebrew subclass using clockwork as the base and then swap the spells manually. Complete bs.
I'm planning to put AoA into a ring of Spell storing, and have my familiar use it on itself to make it more resilient and deal extra damage in battles.
I've newly discovered your channel thanks to Treantmonk. I enjoyed both the content and your presentation. I've subscribed and look forward to both the existing library and future videos.
My Hexsinger (wizard 15/warlock 3) used this spell with their dual swords of the sun and moon. We combined it with a Fire Shield to have enemies take fire and ice damage for hitting me.
I have picked it a couple of times. However our DM I have noticed never really allows pre battle casting, always "springing" the battle on us. So that drastically reduces the value. Thanks for the in depth look.
Amazing spell. And thematically appropriate for my question for you. Are you still planning on doing a Maridlock build to finish the series? I love the genie builds and the Marid might be my favorite tbh
I love the genie warlock, it’s my favorite subclass in the game. I would love to know how good you thought it was. I am playing a Djinn Sorlock, and I have AA, but I found myself not using it once I got the ability to cast greater invisibility. The combo of concentrationless flight and invisibility made it super easy to never even being attacked in combat, unless the DM specifically builds the encounter to stop your cheese. In those cases I have mirror image and AA.
Came here from the Treantmonk video on the same spell. Lots of interesting stuff but it really bugs me that the two of them are pronouncing Agathys differently. :p
Conquest paladin plus find steed. Casting armor of agathys puts its effect on both you and the mount. Doubling it. Level 2 smite is average of 14 damage no crit. Two agathys if destroyed in one hit is 20 damage. Easily 30 or 40 if you reslly build for it.
Question, can a high level warlock use their Mystic Arcanum to upcast other spells on their list? i.e using their 6th level Mystic Arcanum to upcast Armor of Agathys?
If you pair Warlock with Order of the Scribes Wizard, could you change the damage type of Armor of Agathys to further increase your defensive (for example; changing the damage from cold to thunder, force or lightning)?
Hey bilbron. if you're "back" already to doing regular deep dives again. I'd like your deep dive comparison for telekinesis and bigby's hand as these 2 spells are often compared and imo underutilized.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons btw in case if you havent seen it yet, Treantmonk gave you a shoutout in his latest vid on armor of agathys. Definitely deserving as this vid of yours was one of your best and imo your specialty. i look forward to more. If you're open to requests here are a couple of underrated spells which i think people would find interesting: 1. control winds 2. phantasmal force 3. summon celestial vs summon draconic spirit
@@TheRobversion1 I did see that, it was super awesome of him! Great ideas, will put them on the list. I especially want to do one on Control Winds as I literally just added it to one of my current PCs, and am very excited about it!
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons yeah i have to admit i was one of those people who ignored control winds until about 2 weeks ago a friend played an airbending storm sorc at our table and i was like wow. it's plant growth on steroids. he had it up pre-combat (extend spell) so he could do different actions on turn 1 while also using it for some shenanigans out of combat.
Can anyone give me some direction? I am sure I remember seeing a Bilbron video where he built an Artificer Armorer/Abjuration wizard tank built around Armor of Agathys, taunting opponents with attacks, and using Tiny Servants/Magic stone for damage. But I've looked through all his videos and can't find that particular one. Am I hallucinating?
I released the video in a rush as I was heading to Gen Con and forgot to put in time stamps, but I'll add them in a few days when I get back from Indianapolis
