Low Level Character Concept - The Armored Mage - D&D5e

 I love DnD5e and I keep thinking about one of my first character ideas, the armored mage. The point of it is to be incredibly tanky. The build didn't actually work out. So let's look at the build concept and go from there.

Please forgive me if I gloss over some things that don't relate to the build at a level up. I assume you have some knowledge with the classes already.

Level 1 - Fighter

Whenever you're building a multiclassing build that has fighter, you usually go with the fighter 1 for the heavy armor proficiency.

So what stats do we need for our end goal and what do we get from fighter 1?

Strength: 15

Dexterity 10

Constitution 14 + 2 = 16

Intelligence 13 +1 = 14

Wisdom 12

Charisma 8

I recommend getting +2 to Constitution and +1 to Intelligence.

We need at least 13 intelligence to get wizard levels, but we don't need to worry about it for most spells, but we do want to get it up higher to help us hit later.

So we get all the basic fighter stuff (gear, strength and constitution saving throws, hit points and skills).

Get chainmail, martial weapon and shield, hand axes and your favorite of the two packs.

Fighting style we are picking up superior technique with menacing attack.

And we get 2nd wind.

Level 2 & 3 - Wizard 1 and 2

We go multiclassing right away! We want those defenses! We are going with War Wizard at level 2. I like getting Component Pouches when I go multi-classing.

You get 3 cantrips:

Booming Blade (V, M which is your weapon)

Sword Burst (V)

Anything Else, depending on the DM I would choose Mold Earth or Presto (avoid those with material components)

You get 6 first level spells:

Find Familiar (You only ever cast this again if the Familiar dies, and you can ritual cast it)

Silvery Barbs (V)

Shield (V, S)

Magic Missile (V, S)

Feather Fall (V, M) (if you can't get a Gem of the Warmage, just go ahead and get something else that doesn't require material components)

Sleep (V, S, M) (this is usually not always a combat spell, so its okay that it has a material component)

Then 2 more at 2nd level:

Fog Cloud (V, S)

Detect Magic (V, S) (Ritual)

You also get Arcane Deflection (what we are here for!) and Tactical Wit (bonus to initiative).

And that's the build! We are online at level 3. We attack with booming blade, and scare the enemy so they run away from us and trigger the booming blade. We use Arcane Deflection to keep attacks from hitting.

So where do we go from here?

After wizard is online, we don't need too much more from it

Level 4 & 5 - Fighter 2 and 3

We pick up action surge and then become a Psi Warrior fighter. Psi Warrior abilities key off of Intelligence. You get damage reduction ability, which deals extra damage, and the ability to move large to tiny objects from far away.

Future of the Build

Well that's it! That's the build. You are pretty much doing what you wanted to do. Which is Booming Blade with Menacing Attack. You just wait for a critical hit. You get to force the Booming detonation. You also get a reaction bonus to your AC and Saves. And there are a lot of really cool choices for you!

Fighter

You can level up any which way from here, including going 18 levels into Fighter (you get great subclass features from Psi-Warrior all the way up). If you do so, you'll want to use Future ASI to bump up intelligence.

That means Level 4, 6 and 8 gets you to Intelligence 20, which you will want because your attack combo is Booming Blade, Menacing Attack (Fear), Telekenetic Thrust (Prone).

You get War Caster after that. And get more techniques with any other ASIs after.

Now you Booming Blade the enemy to the ground and make them scared of you. They get up triggering the explosion from the blade. They go running away from you, and you reaction attack them with Booming Blade, they immediately trigger it again as they move out of your reach.

Artificer

You can also go Artificer. Battle Smith gives you a Robot Buddy, and you can go 15 levels and get the full Subclass features for it, which can all work with the build. If you go for this build, swap your intelligence and strength starting scores. You will also want to get to Artificer 3 as soon as possible.

Armorer Artificer also lets you do some true tanking, with an actual taunt. If you are planning to go this route, you can just not take Magic Missle for your Wizard level.

Either way, one of your first infusions should probably be Armor enhancement.

Artificer likes getting to level 10 if you don't go 15. This gives you 5 levels which you can use to get to Wizard 6 for extra force damage from War Wizard, or Fighter 8 which gives you 3 ASIs and the 2nd set of Psi-Warrior abilities.

Wizard

You can mix in Wizard levels as well, though I am personally not a fan of War Mage after the first couple of levels, you are still a Wizard, which is just.... amazing. If you go deep into this, you'll be a full caster. The war wizard capstone would give you like 21 damage across 3 targets (7 each) that they don't get a save from, every time someone attacks you. You'd still have 3 levels to get to Fighter 6 or Artificer 3.

If you are planning to take artificer levels (which should be Battle Smith if you are going wizard), I suggest taking those levels first before going 14 Wizard.

You can also take the full 17 levels of Wizard and have level 9 spells.

Thanks for Reading!

If you like this build, let me know over on twitter @PangoriaF

You can also support me on Ko-Fi where I sell dnd PDFs.

You can also gain exclusive access to other things I'm working on over on my Patreon.

I'm planning to do videos of these builds on my youtube channel.

If you need any special work done for your business or personal projects, check out Fiverr! It's a great place to get character drawings for your campaign!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 1

The (Un)characteristic Urge to Quit Retail

 or

How I'm Currently Feeling

It's difficult to go around and say, hey, lets do this work here and have to deal with customers. I'm telling you right now, customers are the worst. I love helping people but I hate customers. People I can deal with, customers are just transactional vampires, who want to make everything one-sided in their favor, while not actually spending the amount of money necessary to get those benefits.

A guest of mine, would understand my limitations, and what I can offer them. We work together to give them the value they can afford. I guide them through the help they need to accomplish their goals, and using my advice and guidance, they reach their goals, because they try.

Customers want things done for them. They want you to do the work. They do not, can not, and refuse to do the work. Customers are stupid, lazy, and often bigoted.

So how can we avoid customers in our life?

I think it's about how we present ourselves. We want to filter customers away quickly. Get them to give up and move on as fast as possible. That means, we want to set our boundaries with them and enforce them. If they feel hurt by those boundaries, that's not our fault. Because plenty of others work around our boundaries.

Say NO

So one of the first things I realized when I started to get tired of kowtowing to customers was that I valued myself higher than I valued their money for the company that fails to pay me enough to pay my rent. With that in mind, I learned to say NO.

And honestly, there's nothing quite like saying no to an old entitled white person. They get angry so quickly. I don't know if it's the shock or embarrassment that they should have known better, but they become so furious. Like cartoony in how their face deforms.

"Can I get the key to the bathroom?"

"No."

"Why not, why won't you let me use the bathroom?"

"Because someone is in there right now."

Take time OFF

I also do my best to stay away from my job. I use my sick time when I need it, even if its just because of a headache, or I woke up feeling mopey. I take my time off, and don't hold onto some grand vacation I'll never take and can't afford anyway.

I also make specific time for friends and family. Seriously, spend time with people that love you.

Also while at work, take your breaks. And don't feel like you have to be the person who handles the crazy customer. Excuse yourself and grab your manager. That's what they are getting paid for. For trouble.

Do not let customers dictate your mood

And focus on those wonderful guests of yours. They are the ones that make the work worth it.

Do not help those who will not help themselves

The frustration of it will be too difficult to be worth it. Ask them to try to do it themselves or tell them you will guide them.

My D&D 5e Build, the Charlatan

 In my D&D campaign, that I'm finally a player in, I have gotten to level 6 using a Warlock/Sorcerer build. Now part of what I was trying to figure with the build is, if it works on its way from level 1 to level 6. And it has some serious hiccups along the way.

The Beginning

I started off with Warlock 1, using the Celestial Patron. I chose my homebrew god, who encourages lying as a way to make people feel better about things, and said I was a Priest. I went 3 levels into this, until I got the subclass and chose Pact of the Tome. My eldritch invocation was to I could get ritual spells.

These first 3 levels were pretty typical warlock stuff, with some bonus action healing sometimes.

At level 4 when I got my first level of Sorcerer I chose Storm because of the bonus actions. I lied to everyone about getting hit by lightning and boom, I had storm powers.

I have to say, that the extra bonus action to escape was very useful. I was new to using a familiar (thanks to ritual casting) and was not using it to its full potential.

The Continued Mistakes

I then got to level 5 and messed up on prepping my spell slots for the day. The conversion is very unfavorable, and annoying to calculate. Not to mention you have to have a really solid conversation with your DM about this early set up. How many short rests can I take before I'm useless and have wasted too much of the day?

I didn't position myself well enough in some fights, and kept forgetting to save my slot for cure wounds with my familiar that's supposed to be doing the help action, but I didn't realize he could this whole time.

So I got up to level 6, where I can finally get Meta magic (I chose Subtle and Quickened). With my ultimate goal being Mold Earth and Flaming Sphere on enemies.

Future Planning

My current plans for this character aside from being a coffee lock, is to get a 6/6 split in Warlock and Sorcerer followed by an 8 level finalization into Trickster Domain Cleric. The final result being infinite Death Proofs.

 https://www.patreon.com/posts/47284501

So I created a Social Combat system for D&D5e based on some research I did online and mergining together with another system I have. You can read more about it on my Patreon page linked above.