Treantmonk and D&D:O Team-up on the Rune Knight

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Correction: Since the bludgeoning damage from Dao can only be applied on your turn, the Crusher Feat can only be applied on your turn. For one thing (and probably the main thing), the "Power Move" can only be applied if you do it with an attack on your turn, not on an opportunity attack.

[@moto2442]

I'd love to see another collab. Where you do one for each of the subclasses and then optimise it as a party. And talk about how you can optimise a party rather than just as an individual character.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

@@moto2442 I have told him I would be up for another collab. Ball is in Colby's court.

[@geniumme2502]

@@TreantmonksTemple we will let him know we want to see this again!

[@PaoloMurphy21]

You can also apply the crusher push on you bonus action attack with the blunt end of the pole arm.

[@muddlewait8844]

@@moto2442 i would LOVE to see an optimized party!

[@Hilianus]

The absolute win for Colby is that he taught Treantmonk(!) a new trick and blew his mind with it (the distant spell use on Word of Radiance). It is good to see someone you thought already knew everything actually learning something new.

[@TheLotusPanther]

My dm gave me a magic item that improved spellcasting distance, whilst I played a cleric. So I got given the keys to this combo by accident.

[@terrywright1644]

Hey there, Colby is a great optimizer as well as Chris. Its always nice to see optimization with different lenses. Thats the fun part about D&D, there are so many different ways to have fun with the game and build your character to fit your concept.

[@johnlewis1497]

It’s a good example of what Colby brings to the table. Distant spell Word of Radiance probably isn’t the best possible thing you can do with those sorcery points on an optimized build, but it’s creative, effective, unexpected, and fun.

[@TheTsugnawmi2010]

8 encounters a day with 1 short rest? Pure Sorcerers don't live long at TreantMonk's table.

[@Kurse_of_Kall]

Monks and Warlocks are sweating too... Gotta be careful!

[@Razdasoldier]

Kal all the warlocks are confused as the eldritch blast again

[@JonathanMandrake]

@@Kurse_of_Kall That's why he has so huge problems with Monk. Even with many more short rest it's bad but this way it's literally the worst

[@quasarsword7479]

Remind me of the gladiator pit in Tyr dark sun

[@matthewdebeer8453]

I was one of the viewers who didn’t know of Colby’s channel before this collab was announced. So happy to have another content creator to follow!

[@dylandugan76]

Same!

[@DnDDeepDive]

Hurray! :)

[@geniumme2502]

you got a lot more content to watch now haha

[@matthewdebeer8453]

@@geniumme2502 Even better/worse: I’ve got to find so many more games to try out all those builds!

[@geniumme2502]

@@matthewdebeer8453 come back some day (or find me over there in the comments) and report what your favorite builds are :D

[@GramGramAnimations]

I’ve never seen treantmonk smile so much 😄😄 I love both of your content, awesome seeing this collab happen!

[@Kurse_of_Kall]

Right? He has such a lovely smile too, I never realized till this video where it comes up so often! idk, his whole face seems to smile along with his mouth :P

[@chrislieu6757]

You've never seen him play them lucky handling on twitch?

[@10SentenceScience]

When you watch, make sure to play the others channel video in the background, so they both get the views for the youtube algorithm! Love this collab.

[@DnDDeepDive]

Hey thanks! ;)

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Hero!

[@sjsblacksmith1693]

It is absolutely hilarious that they both came up with a god wizard fighter build

[@xaropevic7918]

Can you send me the link of Colby's version, please?

[@whyamievendoingthis...]

"You're in a party, man!" This is why I love your takes, Chris. Your optimization doesn't just look at a character in isolation, you also always keep in mind that bringing out the best from your team is crucial. Great collab, very cool discussions.

[@Rashagar]

16 minutes in: "This is lovely!" 21 minutes in: "Oh no!" 43 minutes: "Colby's face is killing me" By the end: "Phew, so glad that worked out"

[@zh90604]

Thanks for pulling this together! It was really fun to watch. I hope you guys enjoyed making it :) (P.S - please do an Order of Scribes build!)

[@sjsblacksmith1693]

Totally agree! That would be really a lot of fun Mastermind Rogue knowledge domain cleric scribes wizard...

[@jasonlarsen5380]

Really enjoyed the Team up! Chris is on point as always moving quickly and effectively through the content balanced well with Colby’s careful and thoughtful approach to a build. The video was longer than normal but I'm glad they took the time to have some banter and share the story of how their paths crossed. I was a watcher of each content creator separately but was happy to see the calibration... It was a success. Rather than future build together (or maybe on occasion) I would love to see the two discuss newly released books/sub-class content, I think they each bring a a different perspective that plays off the other well. Also kudos to Chris for letting Colby present his take on the build first... the man knows the game so well he can always add something even of they presents the exact same build.

[@iLitTheSun]

Loved this! Chris is so thorough, props to Colby for that word of radiance surprise! You guys had good screen chemistry too.

[@metumortis6323]

This was phenomonal. Please do more of these, it looked like both of you had so much fun

[@SamFinklestein]

Really fun seeing the two of you bouncing ideas off each other. Two things to keep in mind about Colby's build: Divine Magic does not let you pick cleric spells only on level-up. It lets you pick them *whenever you can select or replace a sorcerer spell*. So you can get Word of Radiance at level 1. Not much different in the long run. The other thing is more important: Giant's Might does not grow you "one size category." It grows you to Large, no matter your size. This means 1) small characters still become large, meaning a kobold rune knight would be *hilarious,* and 2) you have to go Giant's Might *before* casting Enlarge on yourself if you want to become Huge.

[@tyleremery7088]

I love Chris' little smile when Colby starts describing his build. You can just see him thinking, "Okay, I like where this is going!"

[@japphan]

This concept of videos is just great. Showing different sollutions to problems helps us understand how you think about problems, rather than just provide a sollution (which you also do, 2 sollutions in fact). I also like the dynamic between the two of you. Other ideas for 2 builds in one video would be: - 2 builds of a certain role (tank, striker (melee/range), cc, etc.) - 2 builds of a specific race, taking advantage of their bonuses. - 2 unconventional race/class combos that are still effective. --- I thought the spellcaster addition to both builds really made them shine, so my take on a build like this would be to get to lvl 5 spellcaster much sooner.

[@michaelsilbey7413]

My two favorite youtubers together! Thank you for making this.

[@brian.francisco]

The optimization community may not be large, but you've both got broad reach in that regard. I'm by no means an optimizer, I play vanilla single class characters all the time and I love both your channels!

[@dgmisal1979]

Love both hosts content! Thanks for a cool treat with this collaboration.

[@geniumme2502]

We need more of this :D been viewing both of you for a long time but whenever any collab videos come up they are just amazing !

[@thecharmer5981]

As a ranger fan, to bad no swarm keeper. However, as someone who played a rune knight before and thinks it’s the funnest fighter subclass, this still pleases me

[@elementzero3379]

I really enjoyed this collaboration. I hope the opportunity arises for the two of you to work together again.

[@TheLotusPanther]

I need to start putting my builds online so I can chat with these nerds. Love them. Love these kind of conversations. I think these two really could create the ultimate character together.

[@johngleeman8347]

Yay for collabs. D&D nerdery is much better with friends.

[@bcl03z]

D&D is for everyone 😉

[@commodoreblood]

Already watched this over on the dndoptimized's channel, but am rewatching and liking it here because man, this collab rocked. I'm really looking forward to the next one.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thank you!

[@TheMoebeast]

Same here!

[@dylandugan76]

To build on Colby's discussion of Word of Radiance, A) I'm not sure it's ever worthwhile to spend sorcery points on a cantrip. Just because it is a bit better than your bonus action attack in several ways, I think those limited points would generally be better spent quickening Bless or Enlarge if you need to cast them after initiative is rolled, so they aren't impeding your regular attacks. And more importantly, B) I'm reasonably sure you can't use Distant Spell on Word of Radiance after you've quickened it. Right? Can anybody remind me which metamagic option can be combined with others? I'm pretty sure there's only one of those. In any case, having a fresh discussion about interactions you've never considered before is always super cool. 10/10, would encourage more collabs in the future!

[@loop4x454]

Loved this video as a follower of both your channels, what a crazy build with the Dao lock it ended up being, great content as always!

[@taejaskudva2543]

Just wanted to leave a like and a comment for the algorithm and say great job, since I watched it over on Colby's channel (just because it came in my feed first). Same request I made to him: on the next collab (let it begin!), split it into 2 sections so you can each post a part and get credit for a full watch through! But honestly, great job to both of you, and I especially appreciated your enthusiasm. You looked honestly gleeful the entire time, positively glowing.

[@snarkback]

Watched it on both. Commented on both. You are both amazing resources for the community and I appreciate you.

[@robt9790]

Love it! Was so excited for this video.

[@gerni-]

I really enjoyed that cooperation. Not just the build but especially the discussion around your decisions. Love to see another cooperation.

[@leebarnett2610]

Great content! It is a treat to see two optimancers approach the same problem.

[@kylesommers6243]

Great and really interesting builds. I've been theorycrafting the more martial/holier side of this build: a Paladin 10+/Hexblade 1+, Rune Knight 3+. maximizing charisma and nearly doubled effective range when enlarged for Protection and Courage aura, Interception, Aura of the Guardian, Sword Burst, Arms of Hadar. Quicker range increase than paladin 18, that's for sure. Enlarge/Reduce for a Sorcadin unfortunately takes up concentration and makes Rune Knight (for both rune passives and actives and the one time 1d6 for a class with only 2 attacks) looks so good as even only a 3 level dip. thanks for the collab you two! both channels are great.

[@douglascheesman]

Yes. Another collaboration would be amazing. I like seeing two different optimized takes on the same build.

[@douglascheesman]

In addition: love a long video. Not sure how it plays for your channel, but I don’t care. One or two hours. I’m in for all of it.

[@markdriver7658]

I just subscribed to treantmonk. Thanks for doing this with Colby. It was great seeing you two work together

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thank you, I really enjoyed this collaboration!

[@maybevoldemort8995]

The tough thing I found about this class when I played it in UA was the action economy. There ends up being so much you want to do that you have to make sure you don’t overwrite your ability or create redundancy within your build. Like you are always going to use your reaction for the cloud rune for advantage/disadvantage- be it for rogues, saving throws etc. Makes deciding on feats etc quite difficult. That being said it was my first ever character and probably one of my favourite subclasses in the game. Fighters are my favourite class (despite everyone telling me they are trash and boring) and this just met what I want from the class so well. Giant’s Might is maybe a bit meh in terms of damage past 3, but every little helps and the runes are the thing that makes it! Edit: btw this vid was great

[@ryanrindler1715]

I was hoping for Clockwork too! So many different ways you can take that subclass...

[@Duranous.]

Well I had no idea Colby's channel existed but I have to check it out now!

[@MrGuyFaux]

My two favorite optimizers in 1 video! Woot Woot! Love them both.

[@jas4341]

Glad to see collaborations between two good KZbinrs. Now I have to watch it on Colby’s channel. Best but was Chris’ face when he realised what a distant spell wowed of radiance would do.

[@DavlinViari]

This was amazing! I love both of your channels, the work you are doing and this collaboration. It is so great to see the appreciation you give to each other and to see both of you having so much fun doing this! Please do this again, I watched it all the way to the end and I still wanted more!

[@memaxNOTyoumax]

Very cool colab. Classic Colby, featuring in an hour+ video.

[@DnDDeepDive]

I'm just surprised we kept it to 90 minutes... :)

[@johnlewis1497]

This is a really good video. Hope you guys get together again. After a lot of time watching treantmonk, d4, pack tactics, tabletop builds, etc…. Chris is my pick for master of practical optimization, and my personal favorite channel. D4 is excellent because he has creative ideas that may not be as practical/optimal as the builds Chris presents, but show a lot of other interesting ways to play the game. Pack and tabletop are where I go when I want fodder to use for (offline) debates with my DM.

[@joshuayoung7698]

These guys are like the optimizer community’s Dungeon Dudes. This is an awesome collaboration.

[@JavierSanchez-mo2ef]

Man cant wait to get out of work to finish watching this!

[@TjarkoTarnen]

I knew of both you guys, two of the best dnd build guys out there!! This colab is awesome.

[@KaelinGoff]

This is good content.

[@Thomas-cc1lj]

Currently playing a Forge Cleric 1/Rune Knight X (currently 4) goliath. Party was low on healing, so the cleric got me a free magic weapon and some mild healing for the party. First ASI was Crusher feat, which goes well with dueling fighting style with shield and a war hammer. I'm primarily a magic user normally, but I've had a lot of fun with this subclass.

[@bozieu]

Being huge and casting a distant Word of Radiance means you'd be affecting 40 squares around you! Much better than regular cantrips :)

[@shawnpeterson2523]

Yeah, that build is so cool. I love the double enlarge, too!

[@Razdasoldier]

Your math is CLOSE it's that but you then go UP since a game is 3d

[@bozieu]

@@Razdasoldier That's a 5D brain you got there, I completely forgot it goes in every direction. It's even better!

[@timuking5762]

Hopefully won't be the last time we see the two of you together - this was a treat.

[@jameswise8396]

Love both of these channels and builds.

[@maxcoto9061]

YESSS. It's here. Such a great collaboration guys, you two have awesome chemistry. Like two kids building awesome lego forts. Just such good vibes. Chris, it's time to get Bilbron into the fold. You're the ambassador for the optimizing community! You have the power.

[@DarthenosC9]

After watching this, I feel like I missed out by not clicking D&DO’s recommended videos before. It’s long, but the video is great so far, thanks for the collab!

[@DnDDeepDive]

It's never too late! ... >.>

[@JanLopezPlanas]

First of all: thaank you for this quality content! And is so wonderful you are making the optimizer community a little bit bigger with this colaborations! Now I'm following two awesome channels. I would love to see a nice optimized Clockwork Soul Sorcerer! ;)

[@brianpious3242]

Thanks to this video I have found a new channel to bing watch builds from. My hat goes off to the both of you. 🎩

[@tfilipow7]

Howdy! Its great to see some of my favorite content creators collaborating on something together! The Dungeon Dudes also do a similar build of characters.

[@rileyrogers8309]

I hadn’t heard of Colby’s channel yet, thanks for introducing him to us! I feel bad for correcting him, but a couple of things specifically were incorrect. -Giants might doesn’t make you “one size larger”, it makes you large if you’re smaller. Mostly inconsequential for this build, but an important distinction if someone is a small race. Although you wouldn’t be able to enlarge yourself on a prior turn and then giants might yourself as a BA to still have your action free. -Enlarge/Reduce also doesn’t “make you one size larger”, it doubles the size in all dimensions. So Giants Might+Enlarge doesn’t make you 3x3, it makes you 4x4, which would mean even more threatened squares. So his idea is even stronger than he thought 👌 Fantastic vid, I hope you two decide to collaborate again in the future 🙂

[@bell4298]

You deserve more subscribers lad. Good job, I hope to see more Rune Knight builds.

[@Dave004]

Great video! Never knew Treatmonk was based in Calgary, thats awesome I used to live in Banff and Canmore for a bit. Calgary was great to visit too for shopping days. But back in Ontario now.

[@davidrose7938]

Great collaboration, would definitely be interested in more in the future. I’ve been watching you for the past year and found him a couple weeks ago. The back and forth was a lot of fun. 👍

[@Houster1000]

This radio-show style content with the two of you is great. I listened while at work, wonderful Also, the slashing+bludgeoning melee attacks with slasher crusher + the word of radiance when you are large/huge- Those are exactly the things I enjoy while white room theory crafting. Also you should do a gauntlet playing together like colby did! Anyway greatly enjoyed, thanks!

[@cabie58]

Great stuff Chris & Colby!! Brings out the best in both of you 👍

[@mattdodson1272]

That was great! Keep it coming guys. Love the collaboration.

[@shanebernier2483]

I was initially pretty disappointed in the choice to build Rune Knights, but little did I know that it would result in two new PAM builds (something I had been looking to build anyways). Great job from both parties. I'm not normally the biggest fan of Colby's builds, but this was a nice change of pace.

[@37thgungrunts]

I have never been so torn on which build to try and play before

[@bullroarer-took]

Ok I've watched everything treantmonk. Now I have another channel to watch. Fantastic

[@Tagline4]

Oh damn, I find a great new channel and that treantmonk lives in my city!

[@Leighzer]

The smiles of realization that they made the same choice are so adorable.

[@TheRealGraylocke]

This was great video.

[@monohybridstudios]

Very fun collaboration. I'd love to see more like this!

[@TheAdditionalPylons]

Distant Word of Radiance on a Huge creature is a concept that definitely satisfies the rule of cool

[@olivesandtuna]

Coming here to give you the view right after I finished watching it on D&D:O. You have gained a new subscriber, sir!

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thank you, welcome!

[@Deep_Freeze_DF]

So stoked to learn your Canadian and in Calgary! I'm in Saskatoon, but visit Alberta and the mountains often cuz SK is so boring haha. Collabs like this are awesome and I love your vids and builds!

[@TreantmonksTemple]

My Dad is from a small town not too far from Saskatoon (Eston) and I have family from Biggar as well.

[@tpete096]

1:06:03 Doesn't work, you have to cast giant's might before enlarge/reduce. Giant's might makes your character large so if you're already large it does nothing.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I noticed this when first reviewing the video (when actually recording my mind was otherwise occupied), I let Colby know and he posted a correction in his video comments.

[@moto2442]

I'd probably allow it as a DM. But either way Colby could quicken enlarge/reduce which is what I thought he was initially doing when taking quicken spell. So the order doesn't really matter that much inside of combat as I doubt you are casting enlarge as an action inside of combat.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

@@moto2442 You can set it up in one turn easy enough, you just need to use the bonus action before the action.

[@moto2442]

@@TreantmonksTemple I agree. But that is more as a set up round as you can't deal any damage that round which hurts your dpr. Potentially you aren't going to be particularly close to the enemy in the first place so that doesn't necessarily reduce your damage if you are say starting off on the other side of a large field or even room or something. So you wouldn't necessarily have been able to attack in the first place without growing anyway. I'm assuming there is a good chance that Colby is cannibalising his level 1 spell slots to make it so he can quicken enlarge/reduce or Spirit Guardians so he would be able to do that regularly. I think the only way to get to that size in battle is for the abilities to be used in successive turns using a quickened enlarge/reduce spell (although I'm now imagining this gargantuan bug bear sitting behind cover reaching round the side of a house to attack with his glaive).

[@laurenzreichelt4911]

This was absolutely great, I‘d love it if I got two opinions on all builds from now on ;D

[@alanschaub147]

You two are both great on your own, and even more fantastic as a team! ❤️

[@mikeclementecard]

This was really great

[@cesargarcia5490]

now this is dope! as a subscriber to both, this makes me immensively happy!

[@toddcoleman3726]

Great collaboration video from two excellent theory crafters

[@chopcooey]

nice to have those 2 together. all we need now is Powergamer's Tactics Room and we have the holy trinity of dnd5e youtube optimizers

[@danieljames7629]

I’ve been watching both of your videos for months now and just found this because I’m thinking of playing a rune knight, highly recommend you both do this again with another A tier subclass

[@jstogdill9195]

Great collab, and I’m not gonna lie a bit proud you guys didn’t snatch the low hanging dpr fruit that is GWM. I thought Colby would once he took Sentinel.

[@jimmyhill5079]

Fun build. I've been eyeballing the Rune Knight for a bit. I wish DD:O would post his character sheets for reference.

[@JoshuaKarstendick]

This was so much fun! Thanks for doing this

[@tpete096]

This was an amazing video idea! Two very creative builds that are both similar and unique. You definitely have to do this more! (Also I really liked your talk about dpr and how range is not taken into account)

[@shawnpeterson2523]

Quick question: Around 1:06:00, you mention that there is no (generic) rule stating that you cannot get moved into another creature's square. But, in the giant's might feature, the last bullet point states: "If you lack the room to become Large, your size doesn’t change". And (for D&D:O's build) the enlarge/reduce spell says: "If there isn't enough room for the target to double its size, the creature or object attains the maximum possible size in the space available." Forgive me if you addressed this in the video and I missed it, but how do these statements reconcile with you and D&D:O's interpretation of the rules (or lack there of). I am not saying you're wrong, I am just trying to understand. Both of those rules I just quoted are admittedly vague.

[@muskrat7444]

Great to see you two working together on this!!!!!. The intro is on Fire 💥💥💥💥💥. Meet cutes, Canadiana, and dnd. It doesn't get much better than that!

[@---..]

Giant’s Might does not increase size by one (as stated in the video). Instead: "If you are smaller than Large, you become Large". This is particularly fun for small sized characters to use heavy weapons. It also means the combo with enlarge reduce has to be done in the correct order (reverse order was mentioned). Also worth noting is this can be combined amusing with polymorph or wild-shape (ex: turn into a tiny creature, then become a large version of it: mega pixie for example). Optimization wise, I don't think this adds anything comparable to the excellent builds in the video, but it adds some room for fun.

[@SamSam-ke9zy]

This is my favorite build. The more I think about it thought the bigger of an area a character in 5e "controls" the less they control it. This is due to the ability for movement in threatened spaces. Look at the area a large creature with 10ft reach controls. Now look how much a hostile creature can move around and behind the character while still in that threatened area. Seems counter productive.

[@burningwp]

Colby was one of the ways the KZbin algorithm actually worked for me.

[@Zoddlander]

Currantly playing a Lotusden halfling Rune knight polearmmaster(quaterstaff) with 4lvls of barbarian ancestrial guardian in a homebrew campaign! having tons of fun! great vid guys!

[@yargmouth]

This was awesome and went over the fighter subclass I have been dying to try out! My bugbear detective just found his build thanks to Colby

[@fortello7219]

I don't know if you're going to be doing more videos in this format again but, with how much background you're each not using, you should have cut off the sides of your videos so there would be less black bars on the top and bottom.

[@rkk667]

Great collaboration, well done to you both.

[@lamp1003]

This is awesome!

[@andynelson952]

Great video, I'm going to have to see what route my Rune Knight takes. He's a dwarf and a rune Knight for all the right reasons, he's got a thing for giant ladies. Thanks for the video!

[@jwraper1498]

Great job guys. Like to see more collaborations!

[@declanglover4752]

Here from D&D optimized!

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Welcome!

[@jason212o35]

"So how much reach do you have?" "Everything the light touches..."

[@Ricardo-zo1ti]

Here from Colby's channel, boosting the algorithm :)