Why You Should Try The Swarmkeeper Ranger

[@matthewwilcox2942]

Gonna make me a Warforged Swarmkeeper. A obsolete, kinda-broken Warforged getting help from a swarm of racoons for daily hijinks and general chicanery

[@TheCantripCast]

OH. I love it.

[@notorious.scoundrel]

I also thought of making a warforged! But itd just bees that live inside him because he was "dead" for about a year and they nested inside him lol

[@IIBr0KenII]

Just to clarify. The 10th level upgrade is not Instead of moving them. You get to move the creature AND knock it prone. Much better.

[@TheCantripCast]

OH GOD YOU'RE RIGHT

[@BH_test]

WHATS THIS! A handsome family picnic woefully underpopulated by bees! This jar full of bees ought to put a stop to that!

[@timkramar9729]

Anytime someone mentions bees now, I think of Nicholas Cage.

[@staykruel5818]

Made a woolly Loxodon Druidic Warrior who's swarm is the perma-frost and light snow on his fur and tusks. It turns into tiny ice spiders that drift in the wind. It horrifies my friend, I love it.

[@peterstoric6560]

Mother of god that is awesome

[@sebastianfranasovic7005]

Recently I played a Swarmkeeper Ranger with the new variant class features, it’s genuinely really fun to play in terms of roleplay and also dungeon crawling. It might not be the best class when it comes to damage or spells, but it sure is incredibly fun to have something which helps me test out spellcasting and close combat with ease. In one of the campaigns I used this Ranger it was a party of new players who never touched the game before, while I had some experience beforehand, being the only martial class in a party of spellcasters made me feel like a really important asset to the team (Since my teammates were a Fiend Warlock and a Lore Bard), so to anyone who wants to test out this class I recommend to talk it out with your party members during character creation so you can focus on making something useful for the party while also playing something you enjoy using.

[@SellingSadness]

i'm playing the rime of the frostamaiden adventure. I play a winter eladrin elf who seek acceptance from auril and want to become one thing with the cold and the winter enviroment he loves . he's a ranger swarmkeeper/bard of spirit multiclass(lawful/neutral). the swarm is snow (they are winter spirit) floating around him all the time. He found the connection with the enviroment he love so much. He's not a strong character but i'm having a blast roleplaying him!

[@johnmichaelarnaud]

I wanna do a scarecrow-themed, Reborn-lineage character, who after being exposed to some stray necrotic energy leaked from a Realm of Dread, pulled itself off the stake and left the field to really make good on its mission of fear. Two levels of Undead warlock for the fear and initial invocations, then straight swarm keeper...using crows, of course. Fighting Style Druidic Warrior allows the use of Shillelagh so you can pull your original stake out of your back and use it as a weapon. Add in Thorn Whip, Repelling Blast, fear from Form of Dread, and the subclass's inherent 15 ft movement option, plus all the control spells this class gets, and you've become one effective manipulator.

[@taterthepenguin]

Damn this character concept is rad

[@NikoLuv]

Poor CthUwU

[@TheCantripCast]

No regrets

[@Skip6235]

I play a level 6 swarmkeeper with a swarm of flying cats. My favorite thing to do with them is pull enemies off ledges/cliffs/bottomless pits. Nothing more fun than a wizard taunting that it's over because he has the high ground only to be pulled off a 30 foot cliff by a swarm of rabid kittens. Soooooo satisfying.

[@TumbleDice]

The Gathered Swarm ability you gain on lvl 3, only adds the benefits once per turn. So not everytime you hit with an attack. Yes, it can only be triggered after hitting an enemy, but only once per turn.

[@colenewer]

My swarmkeeper are incorporeal flying fishes that are swimming around me under my cloak. That will only fly around the room if I take it off. The flavour of this is so good. I love the image when I play him

[@TheCantripCast]

Redfined the meaning behind "fly fishing"

[@colenewer]

@@TheCantripCast ayye ba dum tss

[@theworze273]

remind me of the guy from guardian of the galaxy , who whistles to his arrow

[@xTriceracopx]

I’m trying to get some friends together for my first dnd session and I’m wanting to play a kenku swarmkeeper, with the swarm being a bunch of corvids! I love the idea so much

[@Sheamu5]

Sand! I'll be Gaara

[@benzen5190]

Love this subclass and wanted to share my personal take on it. Im gonna make a badass evil swarmkeeper with ravens as swarm (or flock). Play as a shadar-kai for that raven queen rp synergy. Dual wielding w two weapon fighting for better use of your swarm. And so far i thought of a sick combo with spike growth and moving your enemy, the flock will peck at the enemy causing them to run trough the spike growth dealing up to 6D4. Plus that just sounds so evil and i love it.

[@TheCantripCast]

Mother of God, thats amazing

[@benzen5190]

@@TheCantripCast haha thanks! Can’t wait to play, really enjoyed your vid. Cheers!

[@timkramar9729]

I thought ravens would make a great swarm in Curse of Strahd. Or bats, or rats. In fact, in game play, it seemed like our bard wanted to multiclass into swarmkeeper. Because he did a Pied Piper thing with a swarm that attacked.

[@qdaniele97]

Check oug how good it goes with booming blade. Hit enemy with your sword, push it 5 feet with the swarm, BOOM

[@carlosforma5978]

First of all, unless there was an errata, you can move the enemy or yourself horizontally in ANY direction, by that amount of feet. Second of all, SPIKE GROWTH is in the Ranger spell list. That should be enough said, but here it goes anyway. Set up Spike Growth around the enemies, especially the toughest or hardest hitting one. Most creatures will only be able to move 15 feet. Then next turn, you hit them with an arrow, and if they fail the Str Save, back in they go. All while taking damage from the distance moved. As in, your attack gains 6d4 extra damage on a failed save, and it is MAGICAL piercing (or slashing, I don't recall) damage.

[@qdaniele97]

Also, the movement is always "forced movement", so when you use the swarm to push yourself out the way you don't provoke attacks of opportunity.

[@ardet7383]

Im currently building a sentient ooze with 5 levels in swarmkeeper and everything else in spore druid. There moves combine fantasticly, and the flavor is amazing.

[@bertiebrown581]

New to dnd, and outside my first campaign, I’m playing a oneshot as a level 3 Yuan-Ti Pureblood Swarmkeeper Ranger. My swarm is snakes obviously, but I’m really excited to give it a try. I’ve chosen ensnaring strike & hail of thorns, and am super hyped that my dm is okay with those being snake based instead of thorns. Anyhow, great video.

[@AuraXars]

Dont forget to combine things like web or spike growth with your forced movement! For extra spice use crusher with either a light hammer, str based fighter or hell druidic warrior + shillelagh and a wis based druid for more pushy goodness! I love forced movement and this is one of the absolute best ones

[@qdaniele97]

Also fog + blind fight. Or booming blade + swarm forced push/pull

[@Barris42]

This makes me want to make a firbolg beekeeper that carries the beehive on his back. He should also carry a quarter staff that looks like a big honey ladle. Not sure what a fitting range weapon would be?

[@iamjenbrodie]

Oh my goodness THANK YOU! My next character is going to be a beekeeper and I didn't even know about this subclass. This is PERFECT!

[@RicardoAlmeidatm]

Velociraptors are tiny beasts. Your swarm can be any tiny creature.

[@TheCantripCast]

HA!

[@Pandafaust11]

I personally like carnivorous soap bubbles.

[@BeautyBeatdown]

Thanks for the video! I'm new to DND and rolling a swarmkeeper ranger for my next campaign I'll be in.

[@doggydog1998]

i want to make a oogie boogie inspired swarmkeeper. where he is the swarm. i play a custom lineage, having me be a swarm more of a cosmetic/role play thing. i have being a swarm as a curse from a fey. take fey touched as the feat from custom lineage and fey touched 2nd spell as hex. flavor hex as sending part as my swarm out and my connection to the swarm give me the bonus, swarm bite for extra damage and swarm buzzing around them give them the negative they get. i have the swarm as different kinds of bugs and i picture him looking a bit like a jawa from star wars with the glowing eyes being firefly.

[@Madman3721]

I’m planning on making a one shot character who is a furbolg, with 3 levels in this as well as some levels in nature cleric(possibility Moon Druid)

[@ricardoweber5744]

A bear (or honey badger) who summons bees with every paw swipe. I like the idea

[@Fignewton8790]

Uh at 3rd level (gathered swarm) it’s not every time you hit with an attack. It’s once on each of your turns when you hit with an attack. So even if you can do multiple attacks it would only trigger on 1 each turn.

[@TheCantripCast]

Yeah you're right. Misread on my end

[@Fignewton8790]

@@TheCantripCast no problem Just didn’t know if u knew 👌very good video though

[@maanNL]

An attack includes cantrips right? It doesn’t say weapon attacks so all attacks are legit?

[@Fignewton8790]

@@maanNL Right although most attack cantrips have a casting time of 1 action. It’s probably better to attack with a weapon since you have multi attack at lv 5

[@maanNL]

@@Fignewton8790 its probably not optimal but I’m thinking of a cleric/ ranger multiclass. Cleric with spiritual weapon on bonus action with gathered swarm damage. :) that spirtual weapon is in the shape of its swarm ;)

[@js739]

So I am currently playing a warforged who woke up after being buried in sand for an untold time and went ranger cuz I wanted to play a wisdom class; then I remembered this video and let me just tell you Swarm Keeper reflavours perfectly into Sandman powers...

[@Theonemanoffire]

Take eldritch adept for cloak of flies, the flavor is amazing also I want a build that takes 3 bloodhunter profane soul for eldritch blast then take eldritch adept again for repelling blast, phenomenal control and super fun flavor potential

[@beerbatreps3861]

I'm doing a flower witch with a bee swarm. Think Dani from Midsommar covered in flowers and bees. My idea is that her magic makes you hallucinate. So is that swarm actually making a giant hand in the sky? Is it actually making her fly? Did that flower girl actually just teleport or are you tripping? Then you realize too late that the bee stings and daggers are all too real

[@karenlowe9283]

Just made me a shadar Kai swarmkeeper. Really goes with the evil decay

[@itzplant3196]

Moth Ranger here I come

[@TheCantripCast]

Hello Mothra

[@itzplant3196]

@@TheCantripCast I love that Kaiju.

[@codybearden3091]

I love this sub class I made my character a vampire so when I got hit I would just turn into a swarm of bats

[@MoonbeamPony]

"I like my rangers like I like my coffee: covered in bees!"

[@Derpyspartan154]

If my PC is a swarmkeeper ranger whose swarm is made of bees and they multiclass into a circle of spores druid whose fungus of choice is yeast, do they become a walking meadery? I think they do

[@mcullennz]

My stepdaughter would love this class

[@TheCantripCast]

ITS SO FUN

[@mcullennz]

She's 10 and love bugs

[@miketiker]

Gonna make a dhampir swarm keeper flavoured as bats

[@adammoore3703]

Ranger: i upcast Bees at 8th level The teammate AND the BBEG who bost have Melissophobia: (Nicolas Cage impression) And the Dm regretted giving my Ranger a custom feat.

[@jignaciovitale3460]

Great video. You make me a believer.

[@JotaroKujo-fr7uo]

Big hero?

[@victorbourguignon6897]

ok, fuck it imma say it: chwinga. Look those tiny spirits up they are cute and insane. I made a wood elf that dresses almost like them except that his clothes are made of tiny pebbles, stick and other bits and bobs so his chwinga friends can stay and sleep inside the rocks he carries. Now you just have this wild 4,5 feet tall wood elf with a mask and a robe made of all sorts of random material of the forest that has random tiny super cute charm giving spirits that come out to see why you do anything!

[@jdfs21]

Fairy race, flavored as a bee... 👑 🐝

[@imperialdrone6261]

Gonna make me an awakened Thri-Kreen ranger swarmkeeper

[@lordeppiothe1]

in my next campaign me and my friends agreed to play a more evil and dark campaign, were our souls are shifted into new bodies. Because of this people often hate and despise us. So my idea is that in my previous life i was a regular city guard, that was tasked to kill several rats that infested a barracks. but instead of killing them he caught them and released them in the wild. the rats ran off, looked at him for a while in unison and disappeared into the forest. at that time my character thought it was them saying thanks. Without him knowing however the rats followed him back to the camp, and overnight devoured the entire food stocks of the barracks. As a punishment he got tied to a chair and killed by tying a bucked with a rat in it around his belly, then heating the end of the bucket, which caused the rat to claw its way through his flesh. After dying and changing into his new body he get help from a swarm of rats, they look normal and friendly, and my character just assumes that it is because he saved them, they now are trying to save him. Over time however the rats become larger and bolder, at first my character becomes obsessed with the rats, thinking he has been chosen by them as their leader. past that point my character loses his sanity slowly, feeling the rats non-stop across his body, not being able to sleep because the rats keep crawling over him despite him trying to shoo them away, and at one point wont stop hearing and feeling gnawing inside his head. the rats start to become unnaturally large, aggressive to enemies, devouring them in a frenzy and look sickly. At lvl 11 the swarm gets a buff, so i figured they would after leveling swarm his body completely and cover it. beginning to bite and gnaw at it. after a moment of that a hand raises from the pile of swarming rats... although it is no hand but a claw, and from underneath no longer the old body appears but that of a Ratfolk, comparable to the skaven of Warhammer. the rats now work in complete unison and my character starts talking as ''us, we and ours'' as his mind has been taken over by the swarm. at that point we learn that the guard was selected by Talona, goddess of disease, venom and plagues, who has Rats and dire rats as her favored animals, the day he saved those rats.

[@radiantflame1895]

Enter - The Mire A high rollers reference for those who don't know

[@arctic2607]

Love the video bro

[@TheCantripCast]

Thanks man!

[@dannyacevedo174]

So I can make my Swarm a bunch of sand and play as Gaara, got it.

[@mcullennz]

A swarm of bats and make batman (thanks todd kendrick @ dndbeyond)

[@schemesof40k]

Middle age Woods Ranger: My swarm is pixie MILFs.

[@timkramar9729]

In Hamelin Town, it would be rats.

[@felipelomba7033]

Dude, for real, great vídeo!

[@TheCantripCast]

Thank you!

[@DiemosT113]

Did this and flavored it as rats for a one shot

[@Storyteller_Studios0]

I found my new favorite class the Ranger by the way it’s me Mr. face eater

[@carlosforma5978]

Tressym kittens, or go to your room. If you're playing Swarmkeeper without a Tressym Kitten Swarm, you're doing it wrong. No ifs, ands or buts.

[@___i3ambi126]

Your swarm really should have the ability to fly. Otherwise quite a few of the abilities dont make sense. Sorry rat swarm, you need to wear the devil wings.

[@TheCantripCast]

Eh from my perspective I'd allow anything as long as the player can describe it in enough flair. For example if I had a swarm of guinea pigs, I imagine them making me hover means I'm just standing on a massive mound of guinea pigs that's moving. Or if they go to knock a creature prone, they don't fly at him, but rather charge with full force and attack. Like the zombies from world War z

[@TheCantripCast]

However rats with devil wings is horrifying and I love it

[@RicardoAlmeidatm]

Just make the ranger be lifted by a towering mass of rats. Plague Tale style.

[@lordeppiothe1]

@@TheCantripCast yeah a pillar of living rats is also what came to my mind, i like that just as much as flying creatures.

[@KiallVunMyeret]

Ow no no no, you do not push targets away if you hit them. You move them 15 feet in a horizontal direction you want. any direction pesky range unti? throw them into the fighter and knock them prone so your fighter can go nuts If your dm has any preference to putting enviromental hazards in his game this is an absolute blast. and hey if not, make your own. That sweet web spell you get. if they get restrained attack with advantage and put them dead center if you hit. if they break out they have to slug through difficult terrain and if you hit them after back to the center they go Or spike growth letting you deal up to 6d4 extra damage per turn and putting them dead center in the danger zone extra fun if you have another player like a wizard that can put dangerous tiles on the board. cloud of daggers looks a lot more fun if it deals 8d4 damage if you hit an attack with 15 feet of it for a level 2 spell (first when they enter and then again when they start their turn)

[@Randomdudefromtheinternet]

Swarmkeeper starting pack: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHXXeJmsmJiKsLs

[@vernonhampton5863]

Bards make the world go round. Just saying.

[@BrDGifford]

GI Joe tag fee lynx D20 read y daze detect sanctuary shield guidance light message status guard proud bard pixelter behavior