Searing Smite Build: DnD 5e 2024

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Correction: Level 5 is even worse because you cannot use GWM with True Strike since it can only be used with the attack action. Sig will be delighted!

[@batwithabat2281]

I honestly might not take qwm if I was building this in game. At 4th lvl I'd take Elemental Adept Fire, and bump Charisma to 18 It would let me focus on my Charisma more than Strength, and making me never feel like I'm giving up my bonus action to smite, even if I down an enemy or crit.

[@williamtaylor6886]

Which is better to use then at level 5: GWM or True Strike?

[@burntcustard]

I'm planning an Eldritch Knight who misses out on True Strike plus GWM, until they get to level 7 and can replace an attack with it in the attack action. Then I think it works!

[@sn0wb00ts]

@@burntcustardyeah I believe vb and ek get to.

[@LoreFoundry]

​@@williamtaylor6886 there is no right option. Better is subjective to the game and party you are in. DND isn't played in a vacuum even though every build ever is created in a vacuum. Play what you want and have fun.

[@Odisseia-hh2td]

27:14 eldrich smite also allows you to double-smite in case a crit pops up or you need to finish a foe. It also guarantees the enemy is proned afterwards.

[@lukerazer9565]

Another consideration with fire damage is that creatures that are underwater have resistance. Important for a ship campaign, I'd suppose.

[@TheEliteJohan]

Source? I didn’t think 5e had any environmental resistances.

[@lukerazer9565]

​@@TheEliteJohanJust checked the new PHB: Chapter 1 > Combat > Underwater Combat: "Anything underwater has Resistance to Fire damage".

[@lucasramey6427]

​@@TheEliteJohanit's specifically anything submerged in water has resistance against fire damage (except from a dragon turtle's steam breath it specifically calls out that it gets around it) so for example if you're fighting a kraken underwater it has resistance against fire damage however if you're on a ship and searing smited a kraken's tentacle it would take normal damage because it's not fully submerged

[@TheEliteJohan]

@lukerazer9565 Oh yeah I see it now, checked quickly but must've missed it. It's in the old phb too. I swear I've heard someone justify fireballs doing full damage underwater, but maybe they didn't know either.

[@notsobright7482]

Honestly im going to use this build and go CHARISMA because i wanna swap a feat out with elemental adept to at least not worry about resistance to fire! This is an awesome build

[@SortKaffe]

When you eventually face a *fiend* that is immune to fire, you can still trigger *Radiant Soul* via *Divine Smite* and even on their turn via *True Strike* _(possibly adding _*_Agonizing Blast_*_ too),_ if you take *War Caster* instead of the *Eldritch Mind* invocation.

[@LordNerfherder]

"That was just a warning breath"

[@Albuquerque.c.f]

If the fire damage is being halved too much by the end of this chart, i think its never late to pick a Elemental Affinity Fire to bypass some resistances.

[@mathguydave3699]

The captain is glorious and when he exhales his mighty breath enemies... laugh as they are lightly tickled

[@TreantmonksTemple]

They are made comfortably cozy.

[@smsdownload3426]

congratulations for reaching 100,000 subscribers !!!

[@theshadowbadger]

So glad you’re doing build videos again. I’m playing around with a paladins dip whisper bard that uses true strike to hit like a truck, but primarily just functions like a full spell caster and all of the glory that comes with being a bard.

[@minikawildflower]

This is really cool to see how you adapt a build to be played in a real game. You talk a lot about focusing on making saves and taking realistic defensive options even as you optimize for damage, and here we can see that balance in action, with explanations on why you prioritized certain things for this setting. One of my favorite build vids so far!

[@Tupadre97]

4:32 if you're using the crafting rules in the dmg skilled is actually a great origin feat especially for non humans since you can get Arcana proficiency and 2 tool proficiencies. It's actually pretty cool how the crafting rules actually makes the backgrounds actually viable because without them most of them are garbage.

[@Tupadre97]

Surprised you didn't mention the new oil item which adds 5 damage on ANY instance of fire damage for a whole minute. It would literally combo perfectly with this build.

[@mogalixir]

If you got investment of the chain master you could have your flying familiar throw the oil as your bonus action and their attack action. The DC is based on your spell save DC or the familiar's dexterity bonus plus PB. It would mean you would not searing smite until round 2 unless you sacrifice an attack so the familiar can throw oil as a reaction instead. Then you may not need investment. Edit: you do need investment because the pact of the chain just grants an attack, not a command to use the attack action which is needed for these throwing items.

[@DukeTrout]

@@mogalixirThat’s where the Alert feat would have been useful for such a build - being able to swap your initiative with your familiar’s in order to do the prep work!

[@mogalixir]

That is true. It would make it less clunky because you could ensure you go before your familiar to command them so you don't lose a second turn when using a BA. Also, the reaction attack doesn't work because it's not the attack action - it's a single attack.

[@mogalixir]

Also consider the breath weapon this dragonborn would have too. If fire, it would synergize in a pinch.

[@Lulu_Kazoo]

Ooo, nice call-out, I don't think this is new though, just underutilized

[@JJV7243]

This is a really cool build - thematically this is the first time I wanted to play a celestial patron warlock!

[@watcherknight8760]

Question, would Divine Favor not be an enticing pick up for this build? The wording of Radiant Soul suggests that since Divine Favor is a spell that makes your attacks deal additional radiant damage, it would allow you to add your charisma modifier to one of the damage rolls you make with it per turn. Think it's a decent way to start off an encounter in that case if you don't want to immediately nova with searing smite, gives you some use for those lingering level 1 paladin spell slots too

[@nm2358]

Divine Favor works, Searing Smite just does it without hitting the target for a 2nd time during their turn.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Hmmm, yeah that could work though it would prevent using searing smite on round 1.

[@Lulu_Kazoo]

I think divine favor would be great with this build if you went the charisma route, specifically if you were using shillelagh from either magic initiate or pact of the tome and then grab polearm master to get off turn attacks

[@watcherknight8760]

@@TreantmonksTemple Definitely not for the player who'd like to use all their slots to searing smite as many turns as they can, and certainly much better on a charisma focused version of this build. Also I'm curious if Divine Favor might allow you to quadruple down on your True Strike build? I'm not quite sure if the wording suggests Radiant Soul limits you to only one addition of your charisma modifier total per turn, or if it's just one addition of your charisma modifier, per spell, per turn, if it's the latter technically it would apply, since Divine Favor and True Strike are different instances of radiant damage from different spells you've cast

[@victorzarivcornejocastella6066]

Radiant Soul "Once per turn, when a spell you cast deals Radiant or Fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage against one of the spell’s targets." divine favor target is self... it wont work unless wanna get urself 1d4 radiant damage..

[@nikcantsnipe]

I second a comment that I saw. I'm so happy that the build videos are finally back and we get bits of context and quirks that are very relevant to you outside of this just being an optimised character with math. All of which, I love. Is searing smite more or less the best smite?

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Searing smite is really good for damage when upcast. There are some other sweet smites though, I'll be covering them with Friday's build.

[@JugglingAddict]

I do also like shining smite and blinding smite for their added effects though they are concentration. This has me curious about adding some druid (though probably best on a 3-way gestalt campaign, unfortunately enough the group I am going to learn how to DM for is full of newbies) or vice versa adding some of ^this to druid with heat metal, they are gonna feel a nice burn! 🤣🤣😂😁😁

[@michaellavy4482]

Very glad to see more build videos that highlight cool interactions!

[@zSavageWolves]

At level 5, this character has access to Eldritch Blast + Hex. You could retrain an invocation to Agonizing Blast specifically for this level and still output reasonable and better damage than a single weapon attack. Plus you can still searing smite when desired.

[@sjhsoccer]

It really is funny how much building for a specific campaign makes a difference. I'm running a Yugoloth focused campaign coming up and being able to tell players about poison and acid immunity and fire, lightning, and cold resistance for their builds up front is really nice

[@lholliday198]

This is a really cool build! I really enjoy the mechanically sound build on top of thematically excitimg choices!

[@cascadianone]

Fun build and congrats on 100K!

[@bringitonbatman]

This, but a Tiefling and the oft forgotten Flames of Phlegethos feat 🔥

[@kongoaurius]

I made a similar build but instead of a Dragonborn I used a Zariel Tiefling. They get searing smite at lvl 2 and shining smite for free 🔥🔥

[@JugglingAddict]

Add some bard for heat metal.

[@MrSweden09]

Congrats to 100k🎉 I am still looking forward to the updated opinion on the martial caster divide. Keep up the good work.

[@frogmeister2407]

Chris I know your videos are probably planned out for the year, but please make a Wizard video!! I want to see how powerful the Illusionist is when played optimally! I always love to see your spell choices from the Wizard spell list too. Now that I'm thinking, a video of this type is most certainly easier to make with whatever upcoming splatbooks come with new as well as improved spells... But yes, I was curious to see if you could fit a Wizard build, spells and all, into this new format you've been rocking. (Which is very aesthetic, I must add!)

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I just recorded a build video for wizard (illusionist) today. Still have some work to finish it, but it will be released within the next few weeks.

[@frogmeister2407]

@@TreantmonksTemple Damn what were the chances?! Awesome, I can't wait to see if the illusionist is all it's been made out to be. I might have to see if the ol' DM will allow me to use Malleable Illusions still. It will make for a really fun god wizard. Thanks for all the hard work man! Congrats on 100k!! 🤘

[@AwesomeWookiee]

Could we get a Ranger build that you feel holds it's own? I really want them to be good but I don't see it. Help me Treantmonks Temple, you're my only hope.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I'm working on a Ranger build, but it will multiclass. If there's a straight classed Ranger that works very well, I haven't figured it out.

[@theonlymatthew.l]

​@TreantmonksTemple neither has WOTC sadly

[@verdurite]

​@@TreantmonksTemple been build crafting since the new phb came out. The common theme is that ranger is just worse than every other class for defenses or damage or control or flavor or (the list goes on)

[@AndrewBrownK]

@@TreantmonksTemple I recommend Hunter, Horde Breaker, Cleave, Magic Weapon, GWM. If there are enemies 5 feet together, 1st Attack enemy A, Horde Breaker enemy B, cleave enemy A, 2nd attack enemy A it's not perfect "single target damage" but in real play it might work better than "single target metric" implies, especially if you have a team with push effects that can help set up the combo

[@vincentcarrierthivierge9325]

The short answer is single class ranger is great single target dps from lvl 1-4 then scale really poorly after compare to other (particularly sad in tier 3) They bring utility, exploration, summons and aoe dmg. Just not good single target dmg.

[@grimtruth4301]

As someone who is fairly pessimistic, this is a pretty good build. Honestly, I might end up stealing it for a bad guy if I ever pull up the DM screen again. This is a pretty solid melee build, I honestly love this for a leader like charcter, Treantmonk outdid himself here.

[@mjust7119]

Didn't catch the wording change on Radiant Soul. Hoo boy, what a good armor of agathys + metamagic adept/transmute combo.

[@JugglingAddict]

Nice catch, that's pretty interesting.

[@DanOstrach]

Great video, as always! I built a very similar character for our first campaign under 2024 rules. I'd like to put in an honorable mention for Divine Favor on this build. It'll also proc Radiant Soul and can use one of your paladin slots (and doesn't take concentration which I know isn't an issue here but worth mentioning). Also a note for others recommending a 13 Dex if you can afford it so you can use GWM with longbow. I took a 14 Dex with a 13 Str with medium armor and focused Cha.

[@benclifton8071]

I really liked this take on a build video, taking your existing concept and showing how you actually set the character up for a campaign, then showing the math for it.

[@jordanprice6457]

I always love seeing Treantmonk character builds! I love rules analysis (no one does it like Chris!) but I remember I first got into the channel watching all of his builds for each of the Wizard subclasses, so it’s fun to see some more of that!

[@CivilWarMan]

I'm playing a build a bit like this in a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign I've got coming up, except they're a Kenku with the Charlatan background. I've moved 4 points from Strength into Dexterity, since I'm starting Warlock and will only get Medium armor when I pick up my Paladin level, have more focus on skills and utility than raw damage, will probably take some different invocations (though I also plan on combining Blade/Chain with the Sphinx of Wonder), will focus more on Charisma, and plan on primarily using a Vex or Topple weapon for generating advantage. For early level defenses, before I pick up the Paladin level, I'm probably going to be focusing primarily on stealth and deception to avoid unnecessary combat and aggro, the Barbarian meat shield in the party, and Blade Ward to boost my effective AC.

[@Cyotis]

Bro! That use of Radiant Soul is genius!

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Glad you like it!

[@Cyotis]

@TreantmonksTemple i think a build like this could really help boost a Sword & Shield character.

[@theresnoracelikegnome]

9:05 Speedy doesn’t offer a +1 STR, just FYI.

[@johngeralt]

Like having Otherwordly Leap on this build and pretty much all bladelocks for that elite 50 movement speed.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

It's so good

[@harrylynch4224]

Such an awesome build, really excited to play this!

[@scottmcmillen3015]

Hurray for builds! Back to this channel’s glorious roots.

[@Vreely]

I would love to see more builds that are built with the intention of ending at levels 10-13 or so. Love it!

[@joshuadadad5414]

Really nice build. I like optimised tempered by theme

[@nathans9764]

I haven't crunched the numbers, but at mid-high levels, you can cast the new Jallarzi's Storm of Radiance to get around fire resistant enemies. Deal radiant instead, still get that damage boost. Using a Pike and PAM you can knock an enemy into it on your turn, and back into it on their turn. Pair it with a party with forced movement, and you get the bonus damage on a bunch of turns each round.

[@JugglingAddict]

Jallarzi's has easily become my favorite anti-mage spell. We will just have to hope that someone else brings the plant growth spell.

[@nathans9764]

@@JugglingAddict Anti-anybody spell, really. Hit a melee enemy with it, they're blinded and deafened, they won't know which way is out of the effect, or even if they CAN walk out of the effect.

[@PaulLanning-y4e]

I just noticed 100k?! Congrats!

[@tylercirillo1448]

CONGRATS ON THE 100K!

[@shielfoxftw8279]

I’ve been workshopping a very similar build recently, but I’ve been looking at building around Draconic Sorcery instead of Celestial Warlock. After watching this, I’m confident that Celestial would be better, but I’m curious to see how much better.

[@WaltWinfrey]

I recently rebuilt from a Paladin/Divine Sorcerer to a Pally/Celestial Warlock very close to this build, trying to chase a concept I had for the character under 2014 rules that sort of fell apart when we converted to 2024. Based on my experience, the Sorcerer build is about the same in levels 1-4, and much stronger at level 5 because it gets 3rd-level spell slots. From level 6 on, as soon as Thirsting Blade kicks in, the Warlock build quickly eclipses it as far as damage output. The Sorcerer has a ton more spell slots and a more versatile spell list, though, so it really comes down to whether you want to prioritize damage or utility. (Who am I kidding, obviously go for damage)

[@idliketousemyreaction.8750]

I have ran Call from the Deep twice now, it's a huge module. I axe 60% of what's in the book everytime and it makes for a new fun adventure everytime.

[@Nikotheos]

Merry Yule to you and your family, Chris!

[@pederw4900]

28:36 I think that 50% con save rate is probably right, but you need to win that coin flip AND the enemy needs to survive till their following turn for a third damage tick to happen. It’s obviously kinda impossible to account for that in the math, but I might bump it down to 40% or lower for the potential of premature expiration

[@lucasxavier2176]

Hey Chris! A while ago you said you were doing a Paladin 1 / Bard X build for you to play yourself. I'd love to see a build breakdown video like this one, primarily because ths bardadin is a build that I'd like to play, but also for the fun of it! Appreciate it! Love your videos!

[@michaeln.9897]

Brilliant build! I love it!

[@waynebryan1251]

Despite your campaign only going to L13 you should have shown us the damage graph to L20 since we might want to use this build on higher level campaigns

[@thepiratemongoose8965]

Another benefit of going CHA forward with this build is it will increase the save DC of Searing Smite to make it stick a little more often

[@Mr2squids]

Searing blade, burning bright, In my campaign of tonight, What devious mind or thought, Could dare optimize like Treantmonk?

[@MrSpectralfire]

I was already considering level 1 paladin then warlock. This is a good idea for what kind of patron to look at.

[@tridentgreen3346]

You’d think Bless would be a decent choice for the Paladin prep, at least while your pact slots scale with party size. Seems like it’d be a more useful prep and use of concentration than a modest burst of healing, in the early levels at least.

[@Dahnasj]

I did a Celestial one hander like this, but you do paladin 1, 5 warlock, then 2-3 devotion paladin, and then 6-12 warlock. You focus on divine favor and alot of smites. Bonus action can be used to attack with the sphinx, and it ends up around the same damage at level 13 due to the higher to-hit rate, and keeps scaling after that if you would continue. (I did a decision tree, and this is the best overall level path)

[@BrazzBass]

Nice! I'm about to start DMing this campaign! It would be great to follow your games or a guide on how your DM and your party would run this campaign to see the adjustements and how he will take you to level 13, since CftD is originally designated fo levels 1 to 10!

[@aaronwhite1882]

I'm not sure if you'd ever get a bonus action attack with Great Weapon Master, considering you'd probably want to make a Smite on that attack.

[@mattdahm4289]

Thanks Treantmonk! 🌲🥷👊

[@jwraper1498]

Just wondering if you have been taking note of how many short and long rests your party has been taking during this campaign. Has the actual amount of rests taken matched your assumptions?

[@verdurite]

Would like to know this as well

[@TreantmonksTemple]

It's been pretty close actually, I think, I haven't kept track. I seem to remember we recently did a day with a whole lot of combats, definitely more than 4, but that was an exception.

[@kydddeath]

Yes I love these videos. Getting to be a bigger fan every time you make these that are not well you could rules lawyer crap most of the dnd videos try to do.

[@SandroGabellini]

Thematically the Goolock work perfectly here with resistance to psychic against mind flayer or the sea druid also in a maritime campaign

[@scorpiovenator_4736]

Can't wait for an updated Armor Of Agathys build since it was buffed. I was thinking it would likely be some kind of fiend warlock constantly regaining temporary hit points, but knowing treantmonk he will likely think of something completely out of the blue

[@padraicgillespie1438]

My table allows old content and I thought of something similar to this, but Draconic Sorc instead of Warlock and GFB/Shillelagh for the triple CHA on the initial hit. Searing Smite is a frontrunner for my favorite spell in 5R

[@Odisseia-hh2td]

Also, using a maul or a lance for topple might inprove this a bit. Also increase the crit chance. Pike also nice for battlefield control.

[@My_kolenko]

What i build! When PHB came out i made a very similar build for my upcoming campaign for Baldur’s Gate: Decent into Avernus, that is also ends at lvl 13. My build was to create an aasimar pal 1 warlock 12 with the idea of dealing damage with divine favor and radiant soul(i’m maxing cha not str) and doing divine smites on crits. I will consider an idea of searing smite in case when we’re fighting a non-devil enemy(bc devils are immune to fire). But it’s very nice to see someone else being inspired by the same concept of palalock with a decent working build))

[@lreactor]

Elemental Adept (Fire) would be *fire* for this build ;) Helps with the versatility, and worth a bit of extra damage. And it could help the charisma

[@victorlaurentafonso251]

As one of the talent feat to pick, since you already said that this caracter does'nt have nothing to do with his Bonus action (because he does'nt have much spell slots to do Smites) so you can choose the Polearm Master to attack with your bonus action and reaction and give a little bit more damage since you will have the hex magic casted, or you can pick Elemental Adept Fire at Higher levels to ignore resistances and have much more targets for you Searing Combo, or maybe you can have the Slasher Feat since both of your weapon can deal Slashing Damage (but I personally don't like this one very much). And with Mystic Invocations you can pick The Lesson of the First One's three times to get the Origin Feats: Alert, Tough and maybe Lucky

[@Exxtraverage]

I am just happy that the celestial warlock's lvl 6 ability can be used for some interesting combos. A thought is to maybe pick up 3 lvls of sorc to use the transmute spell metamagic and change other spells to utilize the effect. The firat one that comes to mind is armor of agathys, making the damage radiant or fire. Also that would help with the searing smite though i am unsure if the subsequent damage would change. (Note i am using online sources for wording so my appologies if this is inaccurate)

[@whynaut1]

It is good to know that there is still a place for multiclassing despite WotC beefing up the later levels

[@TheMichaellathrop]

For post level 13 I'm wondering what all non item dependent damage change options are available to this build, for instance is there something you could get from 7 levels of sorcerer or some kind of more magical fighter multiclass? Obviously it would be too hard to work in the int to multiclass into wizard to take advantage of something like scribes wizard or the wisdom for something like a cleric or a druid to change the damage to something else(preferably radiant).

[@waynebryan1251]

The upcast scaling for searing smite is well above all the rest of smite spells. It seems like this is another case of the designers making a mistake that should be corrected (similar to but not as Bad as Conjure Minor Elementals)

[@theformation3781]

Considering radiant soul also works on divine smites which can be coupled with true strike (which itself can be coupled with agonizing blast), i reckon the character archetype won't have too much of an issue even if built around charisma or being forced to do radiant damage in case of an enemy being immune to fire damage. I'll probably retrofit a charisma based silver dragon variant (fits lorewise tbh) if I ever get the chance to run a paladin/warlock in the near future

[@ButlerWho]

This is a really elegant synergy of spell and subclass ability. I think a lot of players probably overlook Searing Smite because 'Fire Damage Bad' and 'CON Save Bad,' but you've shown how powerful it can be when used correctly.

[@evansmith2832]

If you wanna increase damage before getting gwm and thirsting blade, you could use the agonizing blast+true strike combo levels 3 and 4. Works even better if you decide to go charisma based over strength based.

[@Alavorn]

I feel going charisma based and using the feat elemental adept to ignore fire resistance would be a great option

[@ChristnThms]

Love the theme combo with Paladin and celestial WL. As an observation, much of the same structure of build could be accomplished with Draconic Sorcerer instead of WL, using TS instead of extra attack. Your base damage would be less, but you'd be smiting even more. Not necessarily better, just a very similar option for people who like the Searing Smite synergy but don't want WL.

[@UltimateMustacheX]

I always find it odd seeing a build that thematically leans towards one class, but then only has a few levels of that class. Not that the celestial patron doesn't fit, just that the noble paladin fits the initial idea more. In cases like this, I'd still lean paladin as the flavor, with the warlock just being a mechanical means to an end. I do that with a few of my builds that take a single level dip for some mechanical reason. My artificer with a wizard dip is just writing down a few blueprints of his gadgets into a notebook for easy access. Or my Grung ranger feels too restrained in standard armor, and discards it with a monk dip to get the more dexterous style he had in his tribal hunter past (and a DEX spear I wanted him to use).

[@verdurite]

This build could do warlock 16 paladin 4

[@TreantmonksTemple]

My next video will give you a pure paladin build

[@noah9942.]

Would elemental adept-fire allow you to bypass the resistance of enemies in/under water?

[@pederw4900]

AW YEAH I LOVE SEARING SMITE

[@mogalixir]

Is there a way to add oil to this build somehow when not on a ship?

[@EmeraldUsakaze]

I'd be curious to see how the Charisma-focused version of this would work. What weapons and feats to take in a GWM-less world. The obvious Elemental Adept pick for getting around that fire spamming issue has been noted, but still other Str feats to replace (though I guess Mage Slayer would still be important if the whole point is the mental protection).

[@johngeralt]

you would still take GWM, you just start with 14 STR, 16 Con, 17 CHA, and 10/8/8. When you take GWM it will up your STR enough to wear Full Plate.

[@redbomber4357]

Something he doesn't mention is that you can craft or buy spell scrolls to get more level 1 searing smites in. They will benefit from the additional cha mod of damage too! This may open up your warlock spell slots for other spells. Great build, I am playing it now in my campaign!

[@verdurite]

IF your dm allows it. Crafting still hinges on how much downtime, gold, and materials the dm gives you

[@johngeralt]

@@verdurite well crafting scrolls is in the phb, so the DM don't necessarily have to unlock it the way they do other magical item crafting. Not to mention scrolls of cantrip and 1st level spells are listed within the Adventuring Gear section as things you can buy like you could climbing kit, tent, ball bearings etc. as for downtime, you are only supposed to travel 8 hours a day unless you risk exhaustion for you and maybe your beast of burden carrying the wagon. It leaves you with 16 hours to perform a workday. Players have more downtime than they think, it's just never been incentive to use it.

[@johngillan4475]

Thank you for your information video

[@IFailAtUsernames19]

I played Call of the Deep, and it is amazing!

[@batwithabat2281]

I've been building this same build for the past week X3

[@GreyGramarye]

I’m playing basically this build already for a Drakkenheim campaign, also ending at 13, but I’m focusing Charisma. I’m not so sure that I need Mage Slayer, but we’ll see.

[@seanholmes3658]

Yeah, we will have to see how many monsters in the new Monster Manual are resistant/immune to fire.

[@corvidpebble4518]

Looks like a really fun build! I'd personally have a hard time passing up the Charisma version, but Mage Slayer definitely is even better in a Mind Flayer campaign than it already is normally. Although I'm not sure Thirsting Blade would allow the Dragonborn's Breath Weapon, since it grants Extra Attack "for your pact weapon only". Maybe it's up for interpretation but I could see DMs disallowing it.

[@joshuadadad5414]

You could use base attack to flame breath, then extra attack with pact weapon

[@ariashkenazi9211]

For a brief moment I had hope you'd found a way to make Flame Blade good. Very fun smite build though

[@blakereid5785]

You could probably play with invocations swapping to get agonizing blast(true strike) to LVL 5 up a little. Then swap it out on LVL 6(5 warlock)

[@colep715]

What would you do if you were going keep playing this character after 13 know that it had peaked. Another multiclass dip maybe? A few levels in fighter just to toughen up a bit?

[@mpetrov2402]

Oath of Devotion, Divine favor + arcana for DF scrolls, Elemental adept: Fire. Also roll a d20 Deception/Intimidation/Persuasion check on your DM to allow spirit shroud.

[@ChryssaBL]

That's actually useful without having to blow on the fire to keep it going like you did in the 2014 version

[@Adurnis]

Mage slayer is always handy when you run into a walking brain and the DM hasn’t read the updated Rules Glossary entry on Long Rests. I know you don’t have a lot of 1st-level slots, but I would still be tempted to grab *Divine Favor* so you can trigger the extra Celestial damage on opportunity attacks (plus those d4s add up). I know BA clog is real though.

[@JugglingAddict]

I'm curious how these would work with glyph of warding and could we use this to stack the spells?

[@JoelBrage]

I was eyeing something similar but for my half Balor concept. Right now I am instead eyeing a dualwielding shillelagh scimitar beastmaster ranger infernal tiefling or dragonborn. I my napkin math the DPR should be quite good. Advantage from hex, 2 shillelagh attacks + offhand attack + 2 companion attacks + 4*hex damage + hellish rebuke or breathweapon depending on build. Setup costs only 1 attack.

[@josuelservin]

Congrats on the 100k! Are you gonna do something special for your 700 video?

[@pdtrozan]

Transmute Armor of Agathys to Fire? Then get the bonus damage from Celestial Warlock applied to it

[@williamtaylor6886]

Can you switch out the Paladin’s cure wounds if you never take another Paladin level?

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Yes, after a long rest.

[@georgeseed4009]

Why haven't you proposed any tool proficiency with Skilled feat? These seem fun in the new rules, especially if you also have Arcana. Do you have no downtime for some crafting? When you switch weapons, using interaction to stow, and draw as part of an Attack action, you can't use BA to make the new drawn weapon a pact weapon before attacking with it, right? So it's dealing the less reliable damage type during that turn, at the end of which you can BA to make the magic weapon owned by the character your new pact weapon. Before owning magical weapons (both halberd and glaive) it seems to work better: just drop conjured halberd as item interaction and BA conjure glaive.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

We are using Bastions in this campaign, and crafting will be done with hirelings.

[@SephyriumTV]

100K! TO THE MOON, CHRIS!!!

[@alexr2753]

Could you do a war domain cleric that focuses on using HWM and blessed strikes and spiritual weapon and then holy weapon after level 10. You get a bunch of free castings and concentration free spiritual weapon at 6. Could take 2 levels of rogue for steady aim and use H.Xbow to lump some sneak attack in as well.

[@danielbrintnall1188]

Almost might be worth the time to take hellish rebuke

[@insanogeddon]

Love this new direction .. great build keeping it real as usual but now with some rp contextual glory. Might steal this as an npc but make it red dragon and a fallen cellestial or a warped rules laywered pact by big red to use the fool celestials patronige to spread burnination

[@Brandonrod]

I got a question. For the level 6 ability with adding your chr mod to a spell that deals rad or fire. Would divine favor apply every round? Technically it’s a spell that deals radiant damage. If so that’s way better than the smite since this is concentration free and radiant dmg is much better than fire

[@bponcho414]

Is it worth using 1st level slots and a single BA for Divine Favour? I feel like it could complement GWM damage, Cleave attack, and works on your GWM BA if you kill anything (or replace GWM if you went CHA build..), another die to crit with, etc. If you're already willing to use Hex, why not DF? I also agree with Monty on Paladins using bless, so it should be on the table.