Mercy Gunk vs THE GAUNTLET

[@LudicSavant]

This was a lot of fun! Thanks to CMCC and Jonsicari for the game, and RadicalTaoist for creating the module! I love a challenge, so when I saw people on multiple sites saying that the Gauntlet couldn't be cleared by a martial, I just *had* to give it a try with the class many regard as the weakest one. Going into the first fight, I knew that Sharlia Sharkmeat could kite the melee-limited enemies to death if she needed to. The tricky bit, then, would be protecting the sidekicks. The spawn timer started immediately, so I didn't have time to lay down traps on the map or the like. No setting the field with Shape Water, hunting traps, or the like, then. No matter. By backing the party into a corner behind some difficult terrain, I not only ensured there'd be some time before the enemies reached my sidekicks, but I also minimized the amount of Large-sized bodies that could potentially crowd around them at a time (and made it so they had to do some Squeezing). They would have to clamber over difficult terrain, the bulky bodies of their fallen, and each other -- potentially provoking OAs or moving into hazards as they try to make room for their allies to engage. The main danger in my mind was the Chuuls; if not dealt with quickly, they could potentially drag my sidekicks into a more precarious position. And while I can cure Paralysis as a bonus action with Mercy Monk, they could still potentially put in a lot of damage. So I start blasting the Chuuls the second they appear, and start focusing the front of their formation first, ensuring they take longer to engage. Sharlia, being poison immune, could also put herself in the way pretty safely. You'll also notice I use most of the sidekick's spell slots up immediately (they only have the same spell slots as a Paladin). In the event that they did die, I wanted to make sure they weren't taking too many of their resources with them. Despite the watery environs, I preferred the pregen sidekick's Fireball to their Hypnotic Pattern or even their fourth level spell (Polymorph). Why? Well, because, they get a +5 to damage like an Evoker (which is like a free upcast-and-a-half), these monsters have poor dex saves (and thus are almost guaranteed to fail against DC 19), and I was in a race against time. I didn't merely want enemies delayed and waking each other up, I wanted them dead, their corpses clogging the map with difficult terrain for their fellows! I did consider using Polymorph on the Expert to turn them into a sperm whale in the trench, but the way the situation shook out, I just used another Fireball instead. Having Focused Aim was handy to make the outcome of each of my turns predictable, and position accordingly.

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

And it was a blast running this for you. I learned some new things (the conjure bonfire trick for example). Our rules discussions when something blindsided me were always respectful and mutually beneficial.

[@bottomfeeder7924]

Brilliant tactics, you show what is possible with an underdog class and when you know what you’re doing. Definitely appreciated the use of your sidekicks too- was it difficult managing 3 characters at once? What was the time between rounds like?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Between rounds mid-combat? There was no time. Or do you mean time between combats?

[@thomas.edgerton]

Having watched your run twice I think Focused Aim's near hit guarantee was one of if not the biggest contributor to the monk's success. I often see expected damage calculations. but a stat not often looked at is round dpr standard deviation, or even hit chance deviation. This feature does wonders for that. This feature allows smoothing many nova calcs ignore, the ability to near guarantee a hit. It also makes the monk better at what it does best, burn Ki. /s

[@nickrafuse984]

First floor is a master class in positioning and tactics, holy shit that's impressive.

[@AnOptimizerForFun]

Takeaways: -Suprise good -Range > Melee -Tactics > Build Well played, Ludic. They have a brilliant tactical mind that can overcome this gauntlet. That being said, the next two maps worry me. Even higher optimized characters struggle to carry two deadweight sidekicks through them. This is going to be close.

[@Notsogoodguitarguy]

Also, 3 massive fireballs with great high rolls help quite a lot. If you remember Kweizar (Treantmonk's character), he was rolling like 5 damage on high upcast of spirit guardians. If he had high-rolled like the spellcaster here, it would've been a pushover as well. If you roll like shit, no you're gonna get stomped no matter your tactics.

[@matthewcrowther890]

I want whatever drugs the dice roller was on this session the amount of crits from the party and failed saves and missed attacks from the enemies was insane

[@Spiceodog]

Definetly perfomed a sacrifice to them before the game

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Ludic rolled a BUNCH of nat 1s. I believe way more than crits.

[@Notsogoodguitarguy]

@@cmccbuilds8229 yeah, but Nat20s are much more impactful than Nat1s. It doesn't matter if you miss with a Nat2 or Nat1, but it usually matters a lot if you hit with a Nat19 or Nat20.

[@QuicksilverHg80a]

I've really enjoyed the gauntlet runs. Great idea & great editing/summaries.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Thank you!!

[@nem0men_901]

Ludic is actually insane for this. The rolls were definitely in the party's favor, but still. Super smart positioning, and knowing Ludic makes decisions quickly makes this even more impressive I want this build to succeed so that the only ones to beat the gauntlet are a monk and a warlock

[@MatthewDragonHammer]

You mean to tell me that short-rest-based classes tend to perform well in situations where the party can’t get a long rest between fights? *gasp*

[@notsochosenone5669]

@@MatthewDragonHammer Eh, not really - Nuke Wizard had good chances to win - simulacrum death was easily avoidable, especially with all the resources it had, but anyway.

[@TheStrangeBloke]

Great video! treat to see Ludic's skillz on display

[@Ox9707]

I stand corrected.and thoroughly humbled. Gunk is crushing this so far

[@Wicked_Ways09]

I was worried that this monk wasn’t going to get very far, but she’s really putting in the work! Monk is my favorite class so it’s really nice to see Ludic take the build this far!

[@davidwilfand916]

Ludic is great at D&D. Amazing video!

[@johndidato]

Never doubted Ludic and the mercy gunk. Great editing as well!

[@logancuster8035]

Summation of the first combat strikes me as “Fireballs are powerful against groups of enemies, and ranged combat is better than melee.” Neither of which should be surprising.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Lots of builds have had those two without as much or any success. But yeah. You’re not wrong.

[@logancuster8035]

@@cmccbuilds8229 feel like the surprise was pretty huge as well.

[@LudicSavant]

Sharlia can solo the first floor via kiting if they need to, the tricky bit is getting the sidekicks to live. For this I kept myself in a corner behind difficult terrain to minimize the number of Large-sized bodies that could crowd around the party, and prioritized the Chuuls which could paralyze or drag allies. By contrast the sharks carry little threat; even if they hadn't died quite so fast, only a few could fit around me at a time, so they'd need to face OAs or potentially Create Bonfire to get in there.

[@LudicSavant]

I preferred Fireball and Upcast Fireball to the half-caster sidekick's other spells (Hynpotic Pattern, Fire Shield, or Polymorph) for a few reasons. First, the sidekick comes with the equivalent of Empowered Evocation, giving a +5 to the damage. This means a level 3 Fireball hits for 33 damage -- almost as hard as a 5th level one (35)! They also have a DC 19 save, against monsters that have a -1 to +1 dex save, meaning they're almost guaranteed to take that damage. Even with the water providing resistance to the sharks, it's a very good deal against multiple targets. Second, we're in a race against time here, and the enemies could start waking up their allies while others keep spawning. I wanted to start removing foes from the field, prioritizing whichever ones were nearest to me so that the the enemies would have to travel over or around their corpses (dead creatures are Difficult Terrain), slowing them further and giving me more time to blast away at them.

[@ms4eji0bek]

@@cmccbuilds8229 I'd like you to check out the fireball damage and saves and calculate the probability of that much damage happening to that many people. Since it wasn't noted otherwise, I assume that they were cast at 3rd level? Yeah. The tactics were cool and all, but the RNG was just amazing, and no amount of tactics would've compensated for that.

[@leslierobinson8724]

Excellent run thus far, I am very excited to see how this all turns out. Keep up the fine content please, and take care.

[@Uranium_Diet]

Nice, have been looking forward to this for quite a while.

[@benyblancofrbx]

First time I've ever seen this channel was when I was the Mercy Gunk build... that got me interested enough to watch out for this one... now I have to back & check out the rest! Super entertaining you've got yourself a sub 👍

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Is your name a Carlito's Way/After Hours reference? Benny Blanco from the Bronx?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Yeessssssss!

[@cmccbuilds8229]

What’s the after hours reference?

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

@@cmccbuilds8229 After hours was the actual book the Movie Carlito's Way was based on. Carlito's Way Prequel actually has more of the Carlito's novel stuff. Benny Blanco from the Bronx is the character that kills Carlito.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@jonathanhaynes9914 ohh I thought you meant the after hours movie

[@GreyGramarye]

Good stuff, very valid point about Focused Aim doing a ton of work. Because it can help ensure the monk’s actions aren’t wasted, it becomes a big action economy advantage. Bringing Sharpshooter into the mix gets around the issue of lackluster damage from the monk, so all those actions are valuable.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Exactly

[@Dohlenblick]

I appreciate the video for the well played underdog build, but even more so the hours that you've surely put into recreating these combats. Thank you!

[@cmccbuilds8229]

I only wish I could get these out faster

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

@@cmccbuilds8229 yeah, you neglected to mention this was another 10 hours of footage you had to comb through.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

This was only 6.5 hrs. It’s shorter :) You’ll have to see why ;)

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

@@cmccbuilds8229 Oh, right we took that big break in the middle .

[@Marian_DRG]

This demonstrates really well that of you can outrange your enemies and are fast enough to keep that distance up you can do a lot. I think the most impressive thing is keeping the sidekicks alive and healthy, which seems a lot more difficult. There was definitely some luck involved in getting through the first fight so cleanly. Also as someone else in this comment section also pointed out: The good damage is there in great part thanks to guns and especially sharp shooter being strong and ki is already quite plentiful at that level. Monks really struggle for ki ar lower levels and by that point it is fine.

[@kingcobruh2062]

It's crazy how slept on the Monk is as a ranged build. Its consistent accuracy and mobility is hard to counter at later stage campaigns.

[@arsov9885]

I have no words to describe how awesome that video was.

[@arsov9885]

First fight is unreal.

[@cerberus003]

Firstly, I want to say this is a fantastic example of fantastic tactical play from Ludic and I look forward to seeing the continuation of the run. One comment I will argue regarding focussed aim is that in the gauntlet or other scenarios where the A/C of targets is known the feature greatly increases in power. Running completely blind it is still a strong feature however it may result in situations where valuable key is lost due to inaccurate estimates

[@NapoleonSoares]

How often do you find that people who are super mix maxers, like in the case of all the players here, that they don't know relative AC of most monsters they can come across?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

To be clear, the exact AC was actually unknown to ludic on many creatures. Would work it out based on attacks. Some ludic prob knew. But not all.

[@NageIfar]

I'm convinced by this build. It really carried these encounters, and looks fun to play. Next game I'm gonna play a spellcaster with Fireball and Toll the Dead it seems ;)

[@aeeio2239]

damn, so satisfying to see someone that knows how to play the game, well played ludic

[@logancuster8035]

The Spellcaster Ally feels very powerful with those Fireballs.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Because she was able to be kept alive. That’s a big part of it

[@mayuwu4408]

@@cmccbuilds8229 Also having the spellcaster on your side comes with the opportunity cost of not being a spellcaster yourself as an optimized PC, so I think it balances itself out

[@NageIfar]

​@@cmccbuilds8229 I mean, the Gunk didn't have much to do with that apart from finishing off some enemies after the Fireballs dropped. The enemies simply didn't get close because of the map design and surprise round.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@Camerlengo11 killing them fast had a major impact. Best defense is a good offense :)

[@LudicSavant]

The mage sidekick is only a half-caster -- same slots as a Paladin. 3 level 3s, and 1 level 4. After that first encounter, they're dry. It's up to Sharlia to carry them through the rest =)

[@YotamGalli]

A great run and very impressive piloting. I love Ludic's attempt to demonstrate the power of tactics over powerbuilding. I think there were a few favourable DM rulings and environmental details compared to other runs, but nothing that would devalue anything we've seen here

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

I have always tried to run the Gauntlet RAW. I also have not commented (publicly) on anything I took issue with. The rubble being 7' high was a surprise when I learned it (after my 3rd run). Ludic's run was when I learned my maps were off. I had killed at least one kite base build due to that on my 2nd run I believe because monsters exited a sleet storm. On the other hand, I am the DM who is responsible for the "Power Word Chuul" run that succeeded (results available in the Gauntlet discord).

[@BunnyWitchcraft]

The art for the character is astounding. Love the cool video. :)

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Mike puts in so much good work on this stuff. I really wish he saw a higher ROI for his channel on it.

[@DrBeerface]

These are great - hope to see many more!

[@mrbunnyban]

Alright! I was waiting for this! Wait what, he was assigned the expert rather than the warrior? Huh, that's a surprise. I know monks are considered melee, but anyone looking at his build will conclude he's a ranged-focused build who can melee when necessary. So much use of great tactics here! Ludic clearly knows how to use what resources he is given. A fantastic run of the gauntlet!

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

He was assigned the expert as the monk is considered a 'combat class' unlike a rogue (who would get the warrior). A ranged fighter would also get the expert if someone did SS/CBE Battlemaster for example. (I'm the DM who made that decision)

[@mrbunnyban]

@@jonathanhaynes9914 That's very interesting. Thanks for elaborating! I've read the rules but some of the finer details can be a bit tricky to figure out.

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

@@mrbunnyban your welcome

[@trevorgreenough6141]

Someone had better have said "FLAWLESS VICTORY" on upon finishing off the hydra.

[@MrThedowd]

Really nice video and fun to see a monk. But it felt like the Spellcaster was the MVP on map 1 and the monk was the sidekick😅

[@crazyMLC]

Most builds so far have run into that collapsed bridge and gotten surrounded by the sharks. Avoiding that, plus dealing with the first wave so succinctly, really secured it.

[@AndrewBrownK]

Going into this I wasn't sure if Ludic was a complete fool or a tactical legend. Today I learned

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Indeed, though with so much focus on ranged power a few worse rolls on damage and you get surrounded and eaten, or at least chewed up rather more badly than happened this time. Which is part of the nature of 5E to be relatively swingy. So I'd have taken the Orc Warrior over the Kenku expert I think just to have that deliberate chew toy offering ready to put themselves in the way should the fireballs and shooting not have gone so amazingly well.

[@LudicSavant]

​@@foldionepapyrus3441 Yeah, I'd likely have taken the Orc Warrior over the Kenku Expert if I had the option, but I don't get to choose which sidekick I get. My job is to adapt. It would have actually taken a fair bit for the party to get eaten -- Sharlia herself can kite those melee-reliant enemies in circles, (especially with parts of the map that would require large or huge creatures to squeeze), and she's immune to Chuul poison, so the real threat was to the sidekicks. For them, the plan was to put the mage in a corner that would limit the number of Large-sized bodies that could crowd around them (especially since they'd need to contend with squeezing or difficult terrain there). This (plus the Changeling using Shield and maybe even Dodge if they were getting focused) would slow down the enemy's damage enough to be pretty manageable by Sharlia's healing bonus actions. The main threat, then, would be one of the sidekicks getting paralyzed, grappled, and dragged out into the open, at which point Sharlia would have to stage a rescue (she can yo-yo and clear paralysis and poison, all while still shooting), or give up on the sidekicks and switch to Kiting Mode. I also could have had the Kenku flee and start taking Hide actions and wait to return later, after Sharlia had dealt with things. This is why I was using the half-caster mage sidekick's paltry spell slots so liberally. If the changeling was at risk of dying, I wanted them to be taking as many of their resources with them as possible. And I'm happy enough just to get their cantrips through. A big difference between this setup and the Zealot Barbarian run is that the Zealot was charging into the enemy and fighting on their terms, where they could be easily separated from their allies or fully surrounded. Whereas in this case, the enemy had to spend time coming to us (rather than vice versa), and we got to choose the ground to fight on.

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Yep.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

@@LudicSavant Very true being able to choose the ground helps, and being a more ranged group works well if you manage to pick them all off before they close enough to deal any damage to you. With no ranged opponents a ranged group can as this one did potentially get through unharmed with some luck. Which is something the Barbarian really isn't going to do. But really for me the difference isn't the barbarian having to get close, and so take attacks or even separating from their allies, which is exactly what the monk was doing here at times too. And the right thing to do too. Its more that in that Barbarian run lots of rolls went really badly early, and once it starts snowballing there wasn't any getting it back (Though I don't think they made best use of the terrain either). Where this Monk run had a really good start. By being so able to kite so effectively I'd be surprised if the Monk would go down easily, even if the start had gone bad. But the sidekicks would be hurting bad or toast if the initial hordes took even the tiniest amount less damage and saved on those fireballs etc - as then the sidekicks would actually take some attacks, probably quite a few with the large horde of only nearly dead stuff, get dragged into the deeper water etc. Things start to go bad, and the opponents might all be pretty much dead but its many many actions vs 3 (assuming all the party is still up), which quickly should put the party the opponents can actually catch up to into the newly dead territory. Though the monk can probably still clear this map even then as long as they don't run out of places to go far enough away from all the opponents, being just too quick moving and able to still pick them off at range. But it would be rather messy. And if the monk ever does get herded and run out of space the fight probably ends in much the same way it did for the barbarian, though a shorter but still defiant but doomed last stand...

[@LudicSavant]

The main thing I needed to avoid was putting myself in a situation where the sidekicks could get burst and die outright. Hurting, by contrast, is an acceptable outcome. After all, a tier 3 Mercy Monk potentially has more healing resources than many characters' entire health bars (Barbarians included). Even if this left me low on ki, I could just take my first short rest early: I'd build a little igloo for the sidekicks to rest in out of shape water in case the Assassin came, set up my hunting traps and such around it, and have Sharlia keep watch, ready to solo the guy (which I expect she can do even without ki, as almost all of the Assassin + Winter Wolf's offense comes from poison and dex saves, both of which are harmless to a Monk).

[@Tom-zd2fc]

The Monk, specially the Gunk Is another class at high level compare to low level Monk. So much ki, good CA, Salv. And the sharpshooter compensaten the damage, the movility really shine un the first combat

[@motokuchoma]

Sharlia: "Casters lul"

[@killerm5]

From what I saw, the monk seemed to really benefit hard from having a wizard which dealt tons of AoE damage by blasting all his resources in the big first combat. However, this combat seems to be one of the hardest of the entire gauntlet, at least with the environment. But that is also why people are playing in a party and not solo adventuring. And the new tashas features for the monk really shined with the ranged weapon + sharpshooter for the monk as a mobile dps. I could even see a shadowmonk gloomstalker multiclass, since it would give the archery fighting style. I think this goes to show that sharpshooter/great weapon master is really mandatory for all (most) martials, even monks.

[@DBXNaato]

i still can't believe that first combat

[@johngleeman8347]

The gunk dunked on that first combat. XD

[@artlab2046]

I must admit, I thought the monk would be beaten in the first map, like the barbarian. I'm REALLY surprised

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Range, healing, and focused aim makes this monk > barbarians

[@ikaros4464]

​​@@cmccbuilds8229absolute facts. I'm playing a ranged monk myself and it's so much better than melee. Hand crossbow rather than musket though.

[@7068365]

to be fair a 1d12 ranged weapon REALLY helps. Not to say it's isn't a good build (it is) or wasn't piloted well (it was), but guns hurt a lot more than bows.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@7068365 2 pts on average per HIT above longbow. Around 1.5 per attack with crits included. The impact is minimal. But it’s there.

[@7068365]

@@cmccbuilds8229 did the pilot roll average damage? It seemed like he was rolling pretty high. I'm not gonna sit here and deny math over time, but it felt like it made a difference.

[@Arclight-Arcanum]

Like I’ve always said. Monks and Bards are handled best in the hands of tactical minds.

[@fakjbf3129]

I was mostly worried about the first map with the sheer number of enemies, but having a spellcaster throwing fireballs like they are candy was super impactful. I think if they can spend the next map kiting enemies to conserve ki for the final battle, they've got a good shot at this. I think the spell caster is going to have to go nova to do it, so I expect them to run out of spell slots and then get slaughtered before Ludic moves onto the boss. But that sacrifice will clear the way for Ludic and the Expert to go down and finish things out.

[@MichelFialloPerez]

Offering a comment to the algorithm gods. Good stuff!

[@drakeford4860]

So Ludic, how does it feel to be Lady Red Knight's favorite? More genuinely though, this is excellent. A great proof of concept for the theory that versatility and tactical acumen can often overcome challenges that would stifle duller approaches from greater powers.

[@LudicSavant]

Praise be to the Red Knight, Grandmaster of the Lanceboard! :) One of the biggest things that attracted me to the Gauntlet is that it puts an emphasis on decisions in moment to moment play, which is arguably the *most* important part of practical optimization, and yet so little D&D content covers it. And while builds are certainly important, tactics are even moreso. I definitely would like to see more such content in the optimization community!

[@MalloonTarka]

When _Unsettling Visage_ was mentioned I was confused. Then I understood that the Changeling was the monster, not the race. It's a potent combination with ranged attackers.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Yup. Sidekicks use monsters from the MM not PHB races.

[@derekchristensen6965]

Tis not the build... Tis the pilot

[@Gafizal1]

Some pretty good rolls favoring the party in general, but a master class in tactics! I do wonder about the lack of remaining spell slots.

[@Brianpuz]

I just love these videos and hope for many more

[@micahthomas6600]

I love love love this run! Ludic you are a beast! Also, the character art reminds me of the Final Fantasy Tactics series. I love that style so much. I still play ffta2 to this day. 💜

[@SirGregarious]

I just came across this series last week. It's been a fun watch. My friend picked up the files for this from the Discord server and ran it for me as well, which was a ton of fun and I highly recommend other people give it a try. I was curious about this: At 11:34 the Hydra does not do anything with its action at all, is there a reason that it did not take the Dash action to close the distance or take the Dodge action to potentially avoid incoming damage?

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

The hydra did dash that round, you only see 30 feet because it moved straight down to avoid difficult terrain then diagonally south east IIRC.

[@jaceg810]

What are the rules for targeting squares? I always thought that a square counted as included if half or more was in the area of effect, which is not the case at 19:03, Just trying to learn, how does it work?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

That’s for a circle effect not a square

[@Capt.Fail.]

@@cmccbuilds8229But the rule also specifies you must choose an intersection of squares for the point of origin if you are playing on a grid. The offset square wouldn’t meet that condition, and honestly it seems pretty obvious that shuffling the square diagonally shouldn’t suddenly make that effect hit triple the area. If you’re playing on a grid, a 5ft cube hits a single square, simple as that.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@Capt.Fail. No. This is false. Single cubes can hit up to 4 squares.

[@Capt.Fail.]

@@cmccbuilds8229I mean, would you mind citing why? By what rule?

[@Sorentous]

I believe that in Xanathars pg 86 we have rules for area of effects on a grid that specify you must select an intersection as point of origin and in phb pg 204 it says that the point of origin of a cube is anywhere in its face, so i think you can affect 2 squares but not 3 or 4. Of course all of Xanathar rules are threated as optional, so there is always some space to argument

[@oswc99]

When does the 2nd part come out?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Next week

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

today

[@Finalplayer14]

Pretty exciting so far! Luck and great tactics has been on this Monks side! I did notice one thing, why was the Monk rolling with disadvantage when attacking in melee doesn't this build use the Gunner feat?

[@ExplosiveFloofBall]

I think that was the expert

[@ExplosiveFloofBall]

Nevermind

[@LudicSavant]

I get Disadvantage if attacking enemies that are fully submerged underwater, or if they're invisible.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Usually invisibility from weirds, wisps, geists

[@Finalplayer14]

@@cmccbuilds8229 Right! Forgot those fellas were always invisible. All is good.

[@Razdasoldier]

I have always wondered why people dont use frost fingers to bypass room 1

[@Herderus]

Well this video showcases The players' skill more than the build. Gunk itself didn't do anything that a gun fighter wouldn't do better to be brutally honest

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Did you miss the numerous Focused Aim, Ki Fueled Attack, and movement advantages the build (monk) provided. Agreed this was a tactical showcase, though. Spot on there.

[@Herderus]

@@cmccbuilds8229 Focused Aim is outweighted by Archery Fighting Style, Ki-Fueled Attack by just having 3 Attacks on Fighter past 10th lvl. If you want more movement you just pick 11 fighter/3 rogue or simply Dash as you just have more DPR, or can Action Surge in a pinch. Treantmonk made a video on Gunk in particular. Focused Aim is better in case when you know AC you're targetting,

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Archery gives you +2. Focused aim gives +2 to +6. I have multiple videos discussing Chris’ thoughts on monks and where we differ.

[@LudicSavant]

The reason I picked Mercy instead of Kensei or Shadow wasn't to have the biggest DPR (the other subclasses are better at that), it was for the sustain and status coverage. Basically, Sharlia has an answer to most forms of offense. She can kite melee, deflect ranged, make saves, ignore poison and fireballs, restore status, and heal more HP than a standard Barbarian can tank (be it on herself, or her allies). And, on occasion, she might inflict poison or go in for a Stunning Strike on a caster. In short, I expect not a lot of things in the gauntlet can meaningfully hurt her, so long as I play my cards right.

[@MalloonTarka]

Monks are a lot better if a day has a lot of combat, due to Short Rests bringing back all the Ki. As long as they can avoid damage, which ranged attacks let you do often. Then Sharpshooter + Focused Aim put the ranged damage into overdrive. I most definitely underestimated the Gunk.

[@igrgic1]

What level was the Gunk in the gauntlet? And why did its gunshots in melee range have disadv. if it has Gunner feat?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

The build is linked. It’s a lvl 14 gauntlet

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

disadvantage attacks where on invisible targets.

[@igrgic1]

@@jonathanhaynes9914I see, thnx

[@igrgic1]

@@cmccbuilds8229 for a supposedly underpowered class, Gunk is tearing up this gauntlet :) Monks were always my favorite class, no matter what people in the dnd optimization community kept on saying

[@Rashagar]

Oohhh I think I know the name Ludic Savant from the giantitp forums! Neat!

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Yeah that’s where we met - along with some of the other “stones” that run that gauntlet.

[@GodOf-Hammers]

Aberrant Dragonmark's 1st level feature actually resets on a short or long rest.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

nice catch!

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

It's here.

[@epicazeroth]

Square circles my mortal enemy

[@LudicSavant]

Ha, I feel the same way! When I DM, I always use the variant that makes circles into, well, circles.

[@peterrasmussen4428]

I notice a lot of focused aim being used to hit the enemy. In a normal game you don't know the enemy AC, so you can't do that from the beginning, until you have attacked a few times so you have seen what hits and misses. The mage did a lot to help getting through that first room. So did a few criticals. But still, the Gunk did way better than I had expected.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

You don’t know the enemy AC? Why not?

[@peterrasmussen4428]

@@cmccbuilds8229 Because the DM never tells me. I mean if the DM gives you a copy of the enemy stat block in your games, that is totally fine, nothing wrong with that, just not how 99% of games runs. Of course after a few attacks you will start to learn enemy AC and focused aim will be more efficient.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@peterrasmussen4428 yeah the latter should get you there

[@peterrasmussen4428]

@@cmccbuilds8229 On the suprise round everything hits but looked to me like all the rolls were 20+, so on round 2 when she turns an 11 - > 13, you wouldn't know that would work in most games. If not for that knowledge, the weird might have had a turn. So yeah, you will get there eventually, but that is far from as good as knowing from the start.

[@BlueFoxXT]

@@peterrasmussen4428 noteworthy that this is not meant to be the most realistic gameplay, as the players are encouraged to watch Nuke's run. Therefore, they have 'unfair' meta knowledge of the encounters anyway. It's a showcase. To your actual point, though, you are right in that it wouldn't usually be worth using Focused Aim if you weren't sure it would work, but it usually isn't very difficult in regular games to figure out AC within a round, or with good descriptions of the creatures. I expect a huge lumbering slime to have low AC and a plate-wearing knight to have at least 18, for example

[@Spiceodog]

Wait, was spell caster sidekick and option this whole time ?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

For non-spellcasters, yes. The barbarian had the spellcaster sidekick.

[@brannenpfister2579]

I’m confused, why does this build get a spellcaster but others only got a warrior? Is there a draft?

[@LudicSavant]

The Zealot Barbarian also got the Changeling Mage. The way it works is that CMCC judges whether a character is a 'warrior, expert, or spellcaster' and then you get the two sidekicks that aren't whatever category you are. So for example the Monk and Barbarian were judged a 'warrior' and thus got the Expert and Spellcaster sidekicks.

[@brannenpfister2579]

@@LudicSavant Got it!! That makes so much sense, thank you for clarifying!

[@500gmatt6]

I'm impressed! I'm puzzled though, why wasn't rope trick used after the 3rd combat?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Rope trick?

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Mage didn't have it.

[@LudicSavant]

The mage sidekick is a pregen that was assigned to me; I didn't get to choose their spell list.

[@Commodore468]

Did Ludic know the AC of the enemies so they were able to know the exact amount of ki to use?

[@cmccbuilds8229]

As mentioned elsewhere he was able to figure it out after a few attacks, generally

[@ninjasquirrels]

Impressive - great piloting skills and great understanding of the class rules/abilities & how to use them. This is Bilbron level stuff. Everyone who wants to see Dungeon Dudes and D&D Deep Dive run the gauntlet…they’re not. I know they have a big fan base but, as far as running a gauntlet like this one - I don’t see either of them being any good. Dungeon Dudes are RP flavor players, no good at combat. One of my eight year olds even questioned their understanding of the game mechanics after they built a lvl 15 sorcerer with nothing but concentration spells and a couple of cantrips as their “OP build”. D&D Deep Dive is all about the spread sheets, not a very good “pilot” either as it were…just look at the one shot lvl 20 gameplay they did together with Chris. I know this is going to anger some people but, don’t think for a second I think they are “bad at D&D”…they’re just not good at stuff like this gauntlet. I subscribe to both and thoroughly enjoy their content. Just different play style is all.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Never say never ;)

[@ninjasquirrels]

@@cmccbuilds8229 ooooh sweet!!! Hopefully Deep Dive will do good, I would love to see that…haven’t seen Monty doing much piloting so, I would LOVE to see either of them.

[@binolombardi]

Aberrant dragon mark casting comes back on short rests.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Yup!

[@gethriel]

Meh. I'd be surprised if any group failed at level 14 - has nothing to do with monk. This only suggest a Gunk mercy monk has an advantage, not that monks are any less pathetic than they are.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

You’d be surprised if any group failed? What? Lol

[@MalloonTarka]

Most previous - and optimised - builds failed. You're underestimating how impressive this was.

[@arcanerecovery2567]

I love when a individual proves the masses wrong. Who said monks were weak? Yeah, I see you tucking tail and trying to slink away to hide. Hear that? It's not a death knell, it's the dinner bell. Time to eat some crow!

[@notsochosenone5669]

Monk still sucks though - this is gunk, special case in and out of itself. Comparable damage to other martials (because range is astronomically better than melee) with mobility options of monk, and with best monk subclass on top. One can only imagine how badly something like Open Hand (with two ribbon features on 6th and 11th level) would do in same scenarios. Monk suck and gunk good is not mutually exclusive things, after all Double Phantom rogue is also great damage build - doesn't mean that rogue is automatically good class.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@notsochosenone5669 the best gunk is not a mercy monk.

[@KickingKiwi6]

Shadow monk go brrrrrr

[@notsochosenone5669]

@@cmccbuilds8229 That's right, it is not best gunk - still best subclass of monk though. And probably couple more points of damage is still worse than utility of hand of healing/harm with 11th level feature.

[@blshouse]

The problem with monk isn't that they aren't viable at high level. The problem with monk is that they suck getting to high level.

[@bradleyscott6304]

First

[@SleepyOmel]

Airst

[@ms4eji0bek]

So the best features of a monk are Sharpshooter and Fireballs. Got it. Edit 1: Opponents spent their actions doing silly stuff like biting corpses and hydra putting out flames instead of biting... Looks rigged.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

"looks rigged" LOL

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

I'm not laughing. Also, the shark wasn't pulling the corpse, it was destroying it to clear a path to the party (Mike missed that I guess). Bodies were stacking up, making it difficult to move into the area the party chose to fort up in. I always do my best, within the rules, to destroy the party as a gauntlet DM and I don't appreciate having my integrity questioned.

[@theichthyophile8836]

@@jonathanhaynes9914 I enjoyed the video and Ludic's tactics, but I also have some questions about a couple of things, in the OP's defense: 1.) Why did Sharlia have advantage against the water weirds at the start of the combat? 2.) In round 8, why wouldn't the Hydra dash to get into position to attack the sidekicks with up to 5 opportunity attacks? 3.) For the Hydra's final action, why not make attacks against the party if it was going to die anyway?

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

@theichthyophile8836 1: could see the wierds, the couldn't detect her. 2: It did, difficult terrain (stacked bodies) prevented it IIRC. 3: I do not exactly recall the math in the situation. I believe I was thinking at the time that the Hydra would want it's regeneration back, but you have to understand that this was run quite some time ago.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

@theichthyophile8836 1. Sharlia is outside their blindsight range, but not outside of her own range. 2. I don’t remember specifically - but I believe the goal was to stay out of melee until it could attack. 3. The hydra didn’t know it was going to die. Just that it would definitely die if it didn’t put it out.

[@The_mekboy_you_deserve]

I'm greatly and gladly surprised at the result

[@1979ce]

A gun no thanks

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Lol. No one is forcing a gun on you.

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Light crossbow would have worked just as well, with crossbow expert instead of gunner. Hand crossbow even more.