@@Red_Okami This build is using the 2024 players handbook rules. So every background grants an origin feat and some ability score improvements. I chose outlander since it wasn’t one of the listed ones, and therefore we can choose our own feat and ability scores to improve.

@@aaxxeell92 thanks! Turns out the independent microphone makes a big difference.

@@richardrdotson I agree there are things in 2024 that don’t work well. Conjure Minor Elementals is the worst offender in my eyes. But what don’t you like about Nick? Is it the wording making it unclear which weapon makes the Nick attack, or something else?

@ it shows to me they know “two weapon fighting” does not exist in 5, but instead of just saying ‘you attack with both weapons’ they went this convoluted route in 5.5. If they won’t fix this, they won’t fix the overpowered spells, or others. Great video though. Don’t let me get you down.

@ No worries! I’m always happy to talk rule opinions. For awhile I thought a fun fix would be, if you are attacking with both weapons it’s still one attack, but you add both weapons damage dice. But your modifier only once. So if you’re dual wielding short swords it’s 2d6, same as a Greatsword. Could get convoluted with magic weapons though. Then with the old version of Dual Wielder feat you could use two longswords for 2d8 per hit. Slightly better than a greatsword, but still less damage than a Great Weapon Master.

@ we took inspiration from 3.5 for two weapon fighting, but locked non-light weapons behind fighter, and said two handed weapons get double str to dmg. The magic weapon is accounted for with the per person limit. Yes, a two weapon fighter can have two +5 weapons, but that’s half their max magic item so will be less in defense and/or attribute buff.

@@JohnMoyle-b8f We never end up making a bonus action scimitar or dagger attack. Once we have both Extra attack and Weapon mastery we can make 3 attacks on the action. Then with the dual wielder feat we can make a bite attack as a bonus action. So it’s Action: Bite True strike Nick attack Bonus Action: Bite I suppose prior to getting weapon mastery from rogue, we can still make 3 attacks, 2 from extra attack and then a dual wielding bonus action attack!

@@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds So you're making the extra attack using Truestrike with the Nick weapon?

@ No, I’d rather make that attack with the short sword, so the Nick attack can benefit from Vex, since it’s a dexterity based attack, which is a lower to hit than the constitution based true strike

@@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds This is where I get confused. You're first attack is a Bite, your second is truestrike with Vex. The Light weapon property allows you to make a 2nd weapon attack with a different light weapon as a bonus action, when you take the attack action using a light weapon. Nick says when you make the extra attack of the light property as part of that attack action rather than as a bonus action. They way it reads to me, nothing is triggering Nick, because a weapon with the Nick property wasn't used via the attack action. What am I missing?

@ You’re definitely catching onto the unclear wording of the Nick Mastery. Other mastery properties specify “With this Weapon” Nick doesn’t say that. I see it as the Nick weapon makes the additional attack, sort of like fitting an extra Nick into your attack. But other people read it like how you are, with the Nick weapon needing to originate the attack. The rules don’t exactly specify which is right! Some people think it can be either or. If we go with your ruling, just make the true strike attack with the scimitar, and the Nick attack with the Shortsword. Maybe they’ll fix the wording in a future errata!

@@The1WiThe6un no worries! The Aberrant Dragonmark feat gives you a sorcerer cantrip, and a 1st level spell. And it makes the spellcasting ability Constitution for both.

@ Ohhhh, nice! 👍

@@nightangel6868 Yeah that is a fun one! D10 bites now with the 2024 monk.

@@glitchking666 that is an awesome combo! I hadn’t thought of that.

@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds it's very easy to overlook and the rider to give disadvantage on ability checks is truly a hard one to figure out, but it's so much fun when it comes up

@ I loved using Hex for grapple builds back when grapple wasn’t a DC.

@@brynwtsn Shoot, I’m stuck in 2014 thinking. I did the same thing with reliable talent last month. Thanks for the correction!

@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds no problem.

I'm with you, after so many multi-classes; it feels good to make a simple and straightforward single class build.

@@woutvanostaden1299 that’s awesome! I miss the old level 1 cleric subclass. I had a Monk/ War Cleric, and loved having Divine Favor and Shield of Faith as soon as I took the dip. Of course now Shield of Faith doesn’t work with unarmed strikes, sad day haha.

It's worth a shot! Especially since Divine Smite works with unarmed strikes now. Not sure it'd be worth it over a Flurry of Blows though. Maybe a Kensei Monk using Agile Parry and Patient Defense + a paladin's Shield of Faith and the Defensive Duelist feat for an extremely high armor class?

@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds Depends on whether we crit, since then it could be it with the increased damage or we could abuse the extra effect from the other smite spells. If you want adding a third class (like a druids spike growth) is fine, just as long as the majority is in paladin and monk. For example conquest and new elements monk long unarmed strikes and flight (by level 11) we can fly above them (locking down their movement options thanks to sentinel feat) hit them from a distance with wrathful smite making it impossible to move. Levels in warlock can also help a lot with the MADness of stats (genie even gets spike growth) and your aura's could help you a lot with your saves making evation even better and in this regard ancients might have a leg up. While I gave the examples of conquest or genie, I think it would actually be more interesting if we could stick to the 2024 rules without backwards compatibility, otherwise the doors are wide open (undead warlock1/conquest paladin8/long death monk11 on a dhampir and the story/theme writes itself) especially if we were to open the door to gestalt or multi-way gestalt campaign builds and third party published contend (I'm referring to something like Sebastian's guide to Drakkenheim, which I have and it's really tempting since it has a really good ⅓ spellcaster monk in the same vein as eldritch knight and arcane trickster, as well as polearm monk wielding glaives and halberds and such making weapon masteries even better), but THE MORE YOU restrict your options, THE MORE your creativity will get to SHINE and your channel could use more subscriber and it's more in line with the channels name. I hope this gave some good ideas, if you have any diffeculties/lack of inspiration let me know. 😉😁

@ You are giving me some good ideas here! Now I’m thinking about some sort of elements monk themed after fire giants. I like the idea of outranging and locking them down. Yeah I usually stick to published content, but I’ve played in some games with DM’s guild classes and they are usually pretty good! I’ll start working on a build and see what it comes out looking like!

@@YungOtaku Thank you so much! New builds every Monday.

@@ovoss89 Thank you! I agree, I’ve always felt bad for the Ranger, even in 2014 5th edition. Personally I’ve seen some really good rangers at the table, dual wielding hunters, sharpshooter gloom stalkers, so I never agreed with people that it was a bad class!

@@wmdavidhamilton Sure thing! I’ve never played an echo knight before, so that’ll be fun.

@@xiongray Glamour bard adds a cool style, The beasts are part of the band!

@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds Oh, and my character in my last campaign was a Satyr Wild Magic Sorcerer 1 / Four Elements Monk 4 with Athlete feat. Main tactic was grab Mages & bring them to the party. Running, jumping, climbing. Using my fall damage to knock foes Prone. When I cast four elements ki spells like burning Hands, it would trigger a Wild Magic Surge. The Sorcerer Cantrips were reserved for Gust, Shape Water, Mold Earth, & Control Flames. I remembered one 1st level Spell was Absorb Elements. If I were to recreate it now, I'd probably ask to use Four Elements with 2024 Monk progression. Otherwise, Wood Elf Wild Magic Sorcerer 3/ Dance Bard 17. Elementalism, Sorcerous Burst, Message.

@@xiongray I always love a build that sticks it to spellcasters! I don’t see a lot of people using the athlete feat, so I’m glad you made use of it! A Satyr with enhanced jumping is just so perfect too.

@@edwardbirdsall6580 I’m working on a Dhampir bard/Rogue right now! It’ll be out next Monday!

@@WooBunny I like the idea of Warlock 1! That last Paladin level wasn’t super necessary since I didn’t pick up a second epic boon. So it could totally fit in. I think if I was adding warlock I’d probably go for oath breaker in that instance since it matches RP well.

Definitely not a beginner friendly build! I leaned heavily into Charisma so Wisdom is low for most of it. Bonus action heavy for sure! And with the new Divine Smite rules, you won't be smiting much either. Thanks for the comment!

@@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds Also, I'd take Boon of Spell recall since you only have 9 spell slots total and all of them below 4th level, so the chance to cast a spell and not use the slot is very valuable

@@Time628 Thats a good one! I would definitely be happy to drop a 4th level spell slot on Summon Beast, and get it for free.

@@HybridDom I wanna catch ‘em all!

@@ExploringtheBuild That’s some great roleplay! Thank you!

Sounds like Hector the devil forge master from the Castlevania Anime

@@sykune Good reference! It totally does.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

@@Bardaffo77 thank you!

@@xvader9445 Thank you! Same here. I really relate to what Colby at D4 says in his intros about character building being the majority of his enjoyment of the game.

Best Familiar there is!

@@Silverythoughts Good point! I tried to stay away from Dex on principle this time, but it would be more effective to have that modifier there instead of strength. Yeah CME is destructive to balance right now. I feel like I have to mention it in these builds because it’s so strong. But when I’m DMing it’ll likely get banned. That’s saying alot too because I’ve never banned a spell or feature in my games. Not even silvery barbs.

@@jeffersonian000 That sounds super flavorful! I imagine yours is the leader of the pack. Especially with an AOE howl like that.

@@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds We started at lvl1 getting stranded on a world (called “Neverland” by the locals) that’s the corpse of a god, it’s a Steampunk style Spelljammer game (an Artificer’s paradise). The first thing I did was found a mercenary company with the other player characters called the Troop Garou (ie, the Werewolves). His name is Alvas Lupo, ie, White Wolf. Our moto is “That which doesn’t kill us … should run.” We are currently at lvl7, and have liberated four towns/cities from forces oppressing those trapped here with us (spell jamming ships trying to leave explode at 20,000 feet altitude). At each location we recruit a local chapter of the Troop, leaving behind a garrison while taking volunteers with us. We are nominally working for the Industrial Guild (an alliance of races that control commerce between city states in the Scraper Kingdom) and fighting on their behalf against the Brewers (dwarves controlling steam tech clockwork automatons). Other factions we’ve encountered are the Arboreal Empire (treants, all the trees are sentient, I made a deal with them so that they transmit coded communications for us via Semaphore), the Gung-ho Guns (a monastery of gun fighting Monks with artifacts that merge melee weapons with firearms), the Dark City (Necromancers), the Atlantean Confederation (all the aquatic races living at the bottom of a sea sized lake), and the Vampirates (vampire spell jamming pirates that are allowed to leave the world after they “tithe” sentients to the Mycelium, a sentient fugal colony that is trying to move Neverland so it can invade another planet and is the BBEG of the story). There are more factions we haven’t met yet. Sourcing food is difficult because almost every living thing on the world is sentient. Cheese and milk products from the mammal races, Thri-Kreen produce mead from their honey, there are small vegetable plots that are difficult to keep alive without magic because the world is in perpetual twilight. We eat mostly Goodberries and drink bone broth like it’s coffee, which we call “Larry”. We are having a blast.

@ That’s awesome, you don’t always see players so invested in their games, so it’s good to hear someone be so into it. Make my DM heart soar haha. I also love that you’re in a steampunk setting and you’re playing a werewolf.

@@rayindc2074 I definitely overthought this one! Now I’m just picturing a Captain America style werewolf with a shield and claws. Thank you for the clarification!

@@mattlockshin4744 You’re totally right! I must have gotten caught up in the flavor and assumed it was a dual wield esque feature. But reading it again you’re absolutely right, it says nothing about that. Thanks for the clarification!

@@Bardaffo77 Yeah it’s definitely a “hit me not my friends” kind of build!

@@ProfessorArgus That would be awesome! Makes me think of Fable 1, with the escort quest through the woods, then one of the merchants you are escorting turns into a werewolf halfway through.

@@sohkaswifteagle2604 Thank you for the feedback! I did mention during my ending summary that a Bladesinger’s greatest strength is still the wizard spell list, as well as the drawbacks of the small hit point pool. I’m not sure I would call a 27 AC useless at high levels. Reducing a boss monster’s hit chance to 45% is pretty respectable. Not to mention magic items like Rings or Cloaks of Protectin, Bracers of Defense, Staffs of Power, etc; possibly bringing it above 30. Even without CME, three attacks with an upcast Spirit Shroud and +10 damage is competitive with most melee damage builds At the end of the day, a character is what you make it. If you want to play a blade singer who mainly casts spells do it. I like playing melee builds, so my blade singer will be buffing themself and swinging. Thanks for the comment!

@@willbforcexd8731 Yeah it’s a potent race! I gotta make a monk with one next time.

@@nightangel6868 Thank you so much! I have a great time making them, so I’m glad you enjoy them. :)

@czcrossman Thanks Zack! :)

@@BTrillJ Thank you!

@@jasonlarsen5380 I’ve never heard of that before, which racial features do you get? Do you pick and choose from each species, or is it its own species option?

Or just remove the Elven lineage requirement altogether and call it Accuracy. "Half-Elf Tortle" is nonsense cringe

@@jeffhovinga1758 @TegwenYT and @Bardaffo77 clarified in the comments here that Spell Mastery only works for spells with a casting time of 1 action. So turns out Shield and Misty Step don’t work. Bummer huh?

@@Bardaffo77 Good choices! I totally missed the new requirement that the spells must be an action, I guess my head is still a little stuck in 2014. Thanks for the comment!

@@jeffersonian000 That’s an awesome character! I really want to try a light cleric/ Sun Soul monk multiclass sometime for the aesthetic.

@@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds I do have a small Aasimar Sun Soul 18/ Bladesinger 2 build that I built for a “Littles” one-shot (a “Littles” game is where everyone plays a small character). Being able to stack Wis, Int, and Dex on a character that shoots lasers with their hands is a great concept, but we do points buy, and it’s difficult to cap three stats with a non-Fighter build. If I were to rebuild her in 2024, I would go Monk 12/Wizard 4 to net two epic boons, or just go straight Monk to net a 24 Dex and Wis.

@@jeffersonian000 Wow, a Bladesinger/Monk must be impossible to hit. Getting mage armor probably helps keep that wisdom low too. Yeah that Monk capstone is hard to pass up on, same as the Barbarian one.

@@The482075 That would fit perfectly here! Sea turtles are cold blooded after all.

@@The482075 Same! I always end up making mostly gish builds for the channel haha.

@@ovoss89 Thank you for the comment! Let me know if you get the chance to play it!

that extra feat could be weapon mastery for a light weapon with nick. that gives you back your bonus action and you still make 3 attacks.

@@ericrbacher9371 I see where you are coming from! I had the same hang up when I was theory crafting a hoplite character that used a spear and shield plus polearm master. If the visual doesn’t look right, it’s hard to get invested in a character. But with quarterstaffs there is a wealth of one handed technique videos out there to give examples of how it might look. I personally like the visualize it as an attack action diagonal swing downward, from shoulder to hip. Then rotate the wrist and jab with the opposite end. And that position also sets you up for the extra attack being an upward and diagonal swing along the same path as the first attack. Also it pays to remember these weapon types in the PHB are extreme generalizations. What the rules call a quarterstaff can be anything from a 6 foot long Bo staff, to a 3 foot long Tanbo. At the end of the day, flavor is free. So as long as the rules allow it, we can visualize and flavor the characters actions in whatever way makes sense to us.

@@ericrbacher9371 That would be a good direction to go, dual wielding almost like a TMNT Rafael aesthetic. Unfortunately with that Nick attack, there’s no way to attack with Intelligence. So we’d need some Dexterity or Strength investment.

Oh shoot you're right! Can't believe I missed that. Thank you for the correction!

@@soubigo No worries, the 2014 rules were good fun, I don’t blame you at all. Good luck out there!

I think the whole point here was to build a very different Bladesinger who does not need to rely on Dex at all. Two weapon fighting and the new Nick property will not work with Shillelagh and a quarterstaff or club. I think this is a different take, and may not be as powerful for straight damage, but gives some nice other benefits.

@@Brandonrod that sounds like a fun build, full on martial with light armor and weapons. At that point you don’t even need Shillelagh. What would you do for you origin feat?

@ alert bc u would have a 17 dex and 18 dex when u take duel wilder. Then I would stop at dex and do the next two ASI to get int to 20 assuming you want a good dc for spells since in the end of the day you’re a wizard.

@@elhombredequeso That was the goal! Thanks for the comment!

@@ericpeterson8732 thanks for the feedback! I thought the possibility of dumping Dex made it worth a revisit. But it’s definitely a subclass that’s been done a lot!

Do you mean the same 2024 wizard that has no new subclasses? The 2024 PHB invalidates everything that came before, causing buying the previous books to retroactively be wastes. Not to mention, the gap widened significantly, J Craw is anti-race mixing, and Ranger got nerfed into the ground.

I hear you. Getting rid of half-elves and half-orcs in favor of orcs and goliaths was a terrible decision. And I get that you don't like the 2024 revisions. But the four wizard subclasses are good and not a hybrid subclass like bladesinger. He could have done a conjuration wizard or even a transmutation wizard and I would be more interested. Like PAM, XBE, hexblades, bladesingers are the optimizers' default picks, and I'm tired of them.

@@bponcho414 I didn’t notice that! Still getting used to these new spells I guess. Thanks for the comment!

@RulesAsWrittenCharacterBuilds No worries, me too tbh. I just wish it scaled, like at all, lol

@ same! Especially when Conjure Minor Elementals scales like crazy.

@@bponcho414 World Tree is an awesome subclass! I was going for more of a mundane warrior aesthetic here, but I definitely think I’ll do something with World Tree in the future!