The Wildfire Druid Cleaver: d4  

This was the first thing that came to mind

This is a great idea

Very good. But at some point you'll lose a bonus action in order to cast it, and... That's fine for being in melee using your wisdom to attack.

I think that's a good rule if the fight was sudden, I think if you initiate combat any player who saw it coming could reasonably have precast something with a -1 round duration.

My understanding is that if you’re casting it every minute you autofail stealth checks while in a dungeon.

Just the backgrounds tend to be banned in my experience 😉

@@DnDDeepDive I do a good bit of paid play and even there the strix backgrounds are banned in most cases

@@DnDDeepDive I allow the spells but I make sure to let my players know the golden rule before hand: any spell you take, my monsters can also take 😈

Way more people allow silvery barbs than allow the feat backgrounds. XD

@@johngleeman8347 I give my players a free 1st level feat and then another one at 4th lvl.

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I Would love to Colby Experiment with using the art in the thumbnail. I know consistent Branding for thumbnails are important but the art so good I'd be hard press to find many people who wouldn't not click on it.

I always love, love, love the background.

I have someone playing this exact build in my PotA campaign right now. 8th level, 6 monk, 2 druid. Deals an UNHOLY amount of damage, nearly keeps up with the dual wielding BM fighter/undead warlock

wow I just brewed this the other day and thought I was kinda unique 😂

Fun build, I like it! Here's my spin: I started off thinking a one level monk dip just for Martial Arts, cus we love that bonus action attack with Spores, getting more value from our Symbiotic Entity, right? But then it occurred to me that we'll be using a quarterstaff, and you know what we can do with that? Polearm Master. This'll deal 1d4 on a bonus action just like early Martial Arts, with the added benefits that this attack will work with Shillelagh too so we don't go too MAD for Dex, we can use a shield, it won't throw off our spellslot progression, and we can use it from first level. So: Pick a class with a starting feat, take PaM. At level 2, we get spores, and twice per short rest we get to do this, assuming Wisdom of 16: Turn one, use use our Action to activate Symbiotic Entity, gain 8 temp HP, Bonus Action Shillelagh, then somebody walks up to us to fight. Polearm Master reaction attack. 1d8+1d6+3. On your turn, attack action and Polearm Master bonus action attack. 1d8+2d6+1d4+6. Overall, that averages 31 damage. Did I mention we're level two and did this with a cantrip? Now we can level up to 4th level. Putting two more points into Wisdom here is the smart move, but you know what's more fun? Taking the Crusher feat and casting Spike Growth. Now, assuming you've set up in advance, your damage looks like this: From your normal attacks: 1d8+2d6+1d4+6 You also Crusher them 5 feet away through the spikes, so that's another 2d4. The enemy approaches you again through the spikes. Another 2d4. You use your PaM reaction and hit them for entering your threatened area. Another 1d8+1d6+3. Here's an interesting interaction: Crusher says 'Once per turn', not 'Once per round'. That means we can use it on our turn and on somebody else's turn. Uh oh, we knock their ass another 5 feet back into the spikes with that reaction, and your DM is getting cross. Another 2d4. If they want to continue approaching you after that, it's another 2d4, but let's be fair, they're probably going to just curl up and cry instead. That puts our damage at: 2d8+3d6+9d4+7, for a whopping 49 average damage at level 4. Suddenly no enemy wants to come near you, and holy shit, you can not blame them. The sexiest part of this is that it doesn't even throw off your spell progression - you're still a full caster, you spiky little monster. The tricky part is setting it all up - Symb Entity takes an Action, so does Spike Growth. Odds are, your best bet is to walk up 10 feet from an enemy, cast Spike Growth centred on them turn one, then Symbiotic Entity turn two. You'll still get your reaction attack when they enter your space, and if they choose not to approach you, it's because they used their turn to Dash out of the spikes (20 feet of difficult terrain needs 40 feet to get out of, so that's going to take a Dash for most creatures), taking 8d4 damage in the process, which is still pretty good, especially if you can make two or more enemies do this and then immediately drop the spell. That's a second level slot dealing 20 average damage per creature, wasting their actions and splitting them up, unless they approach you instead. There's also the possibility that they'll have a ranged attack, and they'll just sit in the spikes and not move. Okay. At tenth level, we can use Spreading Spores to deal 2d8 in a 10 foot cube at the start of every turn. Or, we could consider other fun spells like Wall of Fire or Maelstrom. Maelstrom feels especially cruel, standing on the edges and pushing them back in when they get close to escaping. Druids are scary.

@@A2Ztigers I've got an arcana cleric 1/wildfire druid 9 set up for a oneshot for Christmas, got PAM, Warcaster and GFB. 12th level druid feat would be crusher for sure 😈

@@Kirk9019 it deals average damage at best

I wonder if my DM would give me double xp for killing them twice… 🤔

Ah, someone else notice.

Personally, I get more of a Bob Ross vibe.

That's a good way to run it. I would also penalize stealth attempts while they are continuous casting due to the verbal component of the spell.

Recasting a spell every minute would be so annoying though for RP. I generally don't allow that sort of thing unless they are in a situation they would percieve as dangerous. e.g. exploring a dungeon - sure you can be constantly casting it as long as you aren't trying to be sneaky, walking around town - no people are going to stare at you like you're nuts or be annoyed when you interrupt a conversation to recast the spell.

I do this for my players with Shillelagh, but since it is a 60 second duration and a combat round is 6 seconds I ask for a d10 instead. Given that combat starts instantly that is, like a surprise attack or such.

@@lynxgoddess Totally what I meant, a d10! Thanks for correcting!

@@okayhellohihowyadoin Haha, I figured. But hey, can't tell anyone else how to manage their house rules! :P

Doesn't he get the subclass at druid 2?

@@Felrohan You are right. I edited it to show the subclass at the right level. Thanks for letting me know I rushed through that.

whoa this is remarkably close to my current campaign/character - a wildfire fire genasi whose fire spirit resembles his lost efreeti father.

I feel like shadow touched is better for RP scenarios and fey touched us better for combat. Being able to pick up Invisibility and Disguise Self or Silent Image is great for creative players and lean more towards an infiltration scenarios. However, there are a lot more 1st level enchantment spells that remain powerful as you get into higher levels. Things like Silvery Barbs, Bless, and Command are incredibly useful. They also tend to be better in combat, which is unfortunately where a lot of DND optimizers focus.

@@jordanholt9170 I think it's good for a stealth class that doesn't have invisibility. Or a character with low bonus action economy to maybe take a hex spell. Wait can you take hex with shadow touched?

@@LoreFoundry Hex is enchantment so it's part of Fey Touched

@@Onethirdless ah right my bad I was thinking it was shadow touched that picks it. I suppose we are limited on good options for shadow touched

@@LoreFoundry Shadow Touched is limited to Illusion spells. Hex is an Enchantment spell, which actually makes it available to be taken with Fey Touched.

I played one for 13 levels in Rhime of Frostmaiden and loved it. Took magic adept with variant human for Hex, Eblast and GFlame blade and went straight Druid. I got some of the same benefits from Colby’s build and full casting. Such a fun character to play, especially in Icewind dale where I could turn the fire on.

Yeah I went the Fire Bolt route with Prismari student since it was available at my table.

I'm DMing a group with a wildfire druid and I can only agree that the spirit is Powerful - and it's such a tank compared to what you'd expect. Perfect for a table of only three players to have an extra half a character in the game. :P

Extra utility on a semi tanky body

Especially if they’re using a bo staff…

I'd like to know what you're thinking of by taking advantage of opportunity attacks from one another created in melee as I can only assume you mean forced movement. As forced movement doesn't create opportunity when the opponent leaves your threat area.

Thanks!!!

small note: Squirrel molotov cocktails don't work because Tiny creatures don't spawn flames. This prevents players from killing a bunch of rats to heal between combat.

Oh damn, that's a good idea.

An extra d6 per attack is nice, but it only lasting as long as the temp hp lasts is a pretty hard check on its power. Not that I haven’t made good use of it before :).

And if you do decide to go Kobold for this build, it can be seen as trying to match the power of your Red Dragon ancestors or something.

@@1manApocalypse_CP very thematic :)

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High praise! ☺️