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D&D Feats 5e – Multiclassing without Multiclassing

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Today’s video and transcription is all about multiclassing without actually taking levels in another character class. Instead we use feats from 5e D&D to give us that feel of having multiclassing levels.

D&D Feats 5e – Multiclassing without Multiclassing  Video

D&D Feats 5e – Multiclassing without Multiclassing Video Transcription

Dave: “So like Ted said, we’re going to talk about multi- classing without multiclassing we’re actually just going to build out different builds with feats in order to do such.”

Ted: “So feats, obviously this is one of those optional roles in your player’s handbook and if you’re GM allows it and there’s some great ways to add some other class or class like abilities into your character. So you feel like your multiclassing when you’re really not.”

Dave: “So feats, obviously this is one of those optional roles in your player’s handbook and if you’re GM allows it and there’s some great ways to add some other class or class like abilities into your character. So you feel like your multiclassing when you’re really not. We’ve got your skilled character, we’ve got your spell caster character and we’ve got your warrior.”

Ted: “You’re martial if you will. And then we’re also going to talk about some racial feats that wind up giving you some multi-class splashing feel.”

Dave: “Nice! So we’re going to start off with a skilled characters and that’s pretty much going to be our our rogues our rangers.”

Ted: “Our bards.”

Dave: “So with that Bard we actually kind of broke out and put them in our own little spot because they kind of fulfill a little bit of a different role. Obviously they have all the skills like the ranger and the rogue. But then they’re also really great support characters as well.”

Ted: “So if you’re looking at to kind of add bard to your, uh, to your character, whatever you’re playing, there’s three feats that really give you some bardic splash. So if you take actor, inspiring, leader and skilled, you’re gonna give them a real, real good feeling. You don’t need all of them. Any of them will progress you down that Bardic path, you know, skilled winds up giving you, hey, you’re more knowledgeable so that hey, I know a lot of stuff falls into it after. C’Mon, you’re a charismatic, you can do a lot of fun stuff. And inspiring leader kind of gives you some of that, that buff, uh, aspect of the bard is known for.”

Dave: “And it also relies on your, your charisma, just like many of the bard abilities do.”

Ted: “ Absolutely.”

Dave: “So next we move into the idea of ranger and rogue being skilled characters and how we can kind of get a little bit more of that into our character when we’re playing something else.”

Ted: “All right, so where are we going to go for that, Dave?”

Dave: “Alright, so where are we going to go for that, Dave So we’ve got five different feats. We’re actually looking at, so we had skill that’s going to give you three actions or skills for your character. We have sharp shooter that’s going to make you more hard hitting with those ranged attacks. We also have Skulker which you know a kind of sound’s skilled and also kind of sounds a lot like someone who might be a rogue and unsavory. We have alertness and we have athlete.”

Ted: “Rogues rangers are known to be able to hit harder, do some extra damage. They’re known for, you know, having more skills than the other. The other character classes and both of them are known to be more physical in the different things that they’re going to do. Whether it be, you know, being stealth, you know, climbing. So all of these feats windup progressing you more in line with these other character classes.”

Dave: “ Absolutely. So from there we’re going to jump down to our spell casters.”

Ted: “Now this, this is pretty easy. There’s a number of feats that wind up giving you extra spell casting abilities. So whether you’re looking at magic initiate, whether you’re looking at spell sniper, these are going to give you access to spells that even if you’re not playing a spell casting class, boom, now you’ve got them and you’re going to be able to choose where, where you’re getting these spells from. And that selection is going to dictate what type of multi-classing you’re doing with it.””

Dave: “Yeah. If you take those two feats that gives you three cantrips and a first level spell. So obviously that is going to give you the feel, uh, no matter what are the, which of the spellcasters you’re trying to splash in. Now we can get a little bit more specific and talk about, uh, let’s start with I guess the cleric.”

Ted: “Alright. Cleric, obviously the, the two that we already mentioned are going to work, but if you wind up going with a healer, that’s going to give you access to using your medicine kit to provide healing as an action. So therefore you’re going to get healing just like a cleric who normally would without having to use spells.”

Dave: “Yeah. Like you said with the cleric and wizard, you’re going to, you get those magic initiates spell sniper, they’re going to make you feel like either one depending on which way you go. But you can also take ritual caster as well to get some more access. And I think we were also looking at keen mind as well.”

Ted: “Keen mind is gonna really give you a wizard feel that with that you know, wizards tend to tend to be perceived as more intellectual. So being able to recall knowledge, uh, it just winds up making you look and feel more like a wizard.”

Dave: “And it’s also a half feet. So you, you know, you still get at least one plus one to those mentals. It’s going to be helpful.”

Ted: “Absolutely. So I guess from here we’re going to go and look at our martial classes.”

Dave: “We covered cleric wizard already and you know how you can give that specific feel that leaves druids sorcerer, sorcerer and warlock for them. Pretty much it’s just going to be in magic initiate as well as spell sniper in order to splash it more from those particular spellcasting classes.”

Ted: “And if you want the, you know, bardic spells magic initiate also works here as well.”

Dave: “Absolutely. You know, same thing with the Bard as you mentioned, uh, and spell sniper as well could fit in just as easily. Really those two combinations are just very really versatile for splashing and whatever kind of spell caster you want.”

Ted: “So a now I guess we should go and look at our martial classes and you know, let’s face it, there are a lot of, you know, combat oriented feats in the player’s handbook.”

Dave: “ A good portion of them are combat oriented. So if you’re playing, if you’re playing maybe a spell caster or cleric or you know, one of the skilled characters and you want to make them a little bit more warrior like this, these are the feats you are going to want to take a look at.”

Ted: “Yeah. If you’re playing any of your Gish characters and you want to be more martial and this is a great, great way to get that extra bang for your buck or you know, let’s suppose you’re going totally off the wall. Crazy. Oh, I’m going to play a spell caster, but I’m taking a race. It gives me access to weapons and or armor. This is a way to make you more Gish.”

Dave: “So we kind of put fighter by themselves and then we lumped barbarian and paladin together and really a lot of is just going to be aesthetic and how you describe those characters. But these feat combinations will also help support those descriptions.”

Ted: “Absolutely. So where do we want to start first?”

Dave: “First we’re going to start with fighter. There’s a bunch of feats that you can take that are going to help you feel more like a fighter some of them are actually very specific to feeling like a specific fighter archetype as well.”

Ted: “So obviously let’s start there. So martial adept is a great feat, not as good as being a battle master, but you wind up getting a superiority die. You wind up getting a couple of maneuvers to choose from. I really wish this was a feat that you could take multiple times so that you could keep getting more superiority dice. But alas, it doesn’t work that way. But it’s, it’s definitely a great way to seem like you’re more of a fighter.”

Dave: “So all the armor feats are going to help you feel more like a fighter putting on better armor or even armor heavy armor master or a mobility where it just increases how well you wear. The armor are going to be all useful. They’re going to give you a little bit more of a martial feel to your character. Great weapon fighter fighter is another one. If you’re fighting with big weapons.”

Ted: “You Know being being able to roll a higher damage potential is definitely going to help. And when you’re hitting harder, you’re hurting like a fighter would.

Dave: “And also not only that, it’s under special circumstances. You get an extra attack as your bonus action, which if you’re, if you’re playing a class that doesn’t get extra attacks, this is a way to get them in.”

Ted: “That and that certainly helps. And then last we have shield master.”

Dave: “ Shield master. If you want to be more, feel more like a sword on board fighter is going to help you. Uh, you can shield bash people and give you a little more control on the battlefield by either shoving them back or pushing them over.There are some other really great benefits to that. So I feel like that’s another way to help your character feel a little martial more martial.”

Ted: “It’s definitely going to give you some more options. So definitely fits for fighter for me. So next we’re gonna move on to monk. And what do we know that monks are known for They’re known for having a higher movement and a known for punching things.So are there ways to do those things?”

Dave: “There absolutely are. And not only that, if you’re Jackie Chan, you may need to need to beat someone with a ladder or something as well. So we got that portioned covered as well.”

Ted: “So we have mobile that’s going to give you an extra 10 feet and movement definitely fits with being a monk and we got tavern brawler now your, your punches are actually going to do a d4 not as good as a monk. We know, but it’s still better than the one and you’re going to get proficiency with improvised weapons, which as you said would be what you know, you know, certain types of monks would would use.”

Dave: “Yeah. Also if you use an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon as a bonus action, you can grapple. So that’s kind of cool. We kind of glossed over a mobile, we should probably circle back to that one because that is going to allow you to move around the battlefield without drawing attacks of opportunity. As long as you attack the people who’s threatened area or moving out of as well as if you dash, you can ignore difficult terrain. So all that is going to add up to a much more well mobile character.”

multiclassing

A fighter character as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Ted: “So next we’re gonna move on to our a barbarian Paladin, you know, feat selection. Now we had some conversations off air amongst the two of us and Nerditor Doug. And there was some definitely conversations of how are you lumping these two together. Now, I will say that when you look at the descriptions of what these abilities are, how you flavor the feats definitely is going to how it fits to one or the other.”

Dave: “Yeah, for sure. Both Paladin and barbarian have certain things in in common one, they’re both heavy hitters. They do it in a different way, you know, when does it through rage. The other does it smites. Uh, they tend to use big heavy weapons and they both are kind of tanky barbarians do it by having resistance to a lot of damage and your paladin is going to do it by slathering on on a lot of armor.”

Ted: “So we’re going to be looking at savage attacker. We’re going to be looking at great weapon master and we’re going to be looking at tough.”

Dave: “Yeah. All three of these feats are going to add to that savage attacker rolling dice in order to try and get a higher damage amount is going to help. We already talked about the benefits of using great weapon fighter, so that’s, that’s got some some stuff in there as well. And then tough is two more hit points per level. That is literally like having, you know, four higher for your constitution.”

Ted: “So regardless of of, you know, the, the selection, you know, if you’re, if you’re using savage attacker, well perhaps as you’re a paladin or your quote unquote Paladin, your, you know, calling upon your, your God and your, you’re actually hitting, it’s going to be a higher damage threshold, higher damage minimum that you’re going to wind up looking at. So whether you’re swinging harder and screaming and rage or whether you’re calling upon divine justice to be brought upon your enemies, it’s going to work. It’s just how you describe what’s going on. You know, as you’re, as you’re, you know, barbarian, you’re shrugging off the damage and how you’re laughing as your enemies, you know, bring at you as your paladin and we’ll perhaps you’re claiming it as you know, deflection or it’s bouncing off your armor and you know, you manage to just, you know, muscle through without a problem. But tough works the same way for both. Again, it just comes down to that description.”

Dave: “Yeah, I mean hit points that are an abstraction. Anyway, I do love the idea of every time your your paladin and use a savage attacker. I like the idea that the, the player at the table says a prayer to their deity as they roll the dice and that that depending on how well that role is determines whether you’re, God has answered your prayers are not.”

Ted: “So as we’re, you know, talking about, you know, all of these great feats, there’s another, another thing that we should say is great and that’s going to be D&D Beyond.”

Dave: “D&D beyond is pretty great and it did make making this video a heck of a lot easier because we’re able to sort through and figure out what kind of stuff we wanted to look at, what feats we needed to use to make these builds happen. You know, it’s going to make it easier for when you’re building your characters.”

Ted: “I know I’ve done a lot of just hit hit the random button to see what kind of characters pop out and it’s made some pretty interesting and amazing choices. Things that I hadn’t considered, but after doing, I want to play that character now.”

Dave: “Or sometimes they’re interesting.”

Ted: “Well, however, however you want to play D&D Beyond is, is awesome. There’s loads of great content over there. Even if you want to just go check out the videos and the articles and just the basic SRD stuff.”

Dave: “Yeah. So there’s, there’s tons of like Ted just measure the tons of free stuff you can dig in, dig into D&D B eyond is Nerdarchy’s web app of choice. You should check it out.”

Ted: “All right, so now we’re going to, uh, you know, kind of look at some of the, the cool racial feats that have, uh, have come out and how that’s going to, you know, kind of affect multi-class. So let’s start off with dwarf.”

Dave: ”So Ted said, start off with Dorf, but we can lump gnome and halfling in here as well. Squat nimbleness is going to increase your movement speed. Obviously we know anything increases our move movement, speed and mobility on the battlefield is going to give us more of a monk feel. So if you couple that with mobile, you know, if you can get another 15 feet of movement I think, and that feels very monk like to me.”

Ted: “Absolutely. So I guess next we can move on to wood elf and they have wood elf Magic, which is literally going to give you druid spells.”

Dave: “Yeah. See if you combine that with some of the other options we mentioned earlier, that is going to be a really strong feel for druidic magic in addition to whatever else it is your character does.”

Ted: “So wood elf we know makes a great great. Rangers, if you want to be like a ranger druid, totally be an awesome, awesome, uh, build.”

Dave: ”Oh yeah, I love that combination that it is a great idea. For half-orc we have orcish fury. This is a great one. It’s one of those ones that we call a half feat because you’re going to get a bonus either strength or con feeling very martial right there.”

Ted: “ Absolutely.”

Dave: “If they attack where they simple or martial Weapon, they can add an extra die of damage of the same type.”

Ted: “Only gonna be able to use this once per rest, but once per rest you’re going to be able to just hit harder, which is always nice.”

Dave: “Absolutely, and then finally when you use your relentless endurance, you can use a reaction to make an attack.”

Ted: “You’re getting extra attacks, you’re getting to do extra damage and you’re getting a plus one stat. How does this not sound like being a fighter?”

Dave: “Or any other kind of militant class Our martial Class, so it’s a great add if you happen to be playing a half-orc.”

Ted: “Absolutely. If we look at the drow, drow, have the drow high magic, it’s definitely going to add some extra magic extra casting into whatever character you’re playing.”

Dave: “Absolutely. Then we have our half-elf, half-orc, and humans can all take prodigy. This is going to be a great feat. If you want to add more skills into your character and be more like a skilled character, you’re going to get a language, you’re going to get a skill and you are also going to get a tool but more than that, your also also going to get expertise in one of those.”

Ted: “Regardless of what you make as a selection, you are definitely going to fit into that, into that skilled category. Whether you go ranger, whether you go rogue, whether you go bard, uh, you know it all it all fits and it’s fabulous.”

Dave: “Finally, last but not least, we have svirfneblin magic. So if you’re playing a deep gnome and you want to add more magic into your character, this is one of the most powerful feats in the game in my opinion. You get non detection at will and then you get three other spells as well and they’re really good spells.”

Ted: “So what, what it spells do, they wind up getting?”

Dave: “They get non detection at will super strong. They get blindness, deafness, they get disguise self and they get blur. So three decent level spells once per day and non detection out will super strong and that is definitely going to make you feel like a caster, especially if you’re going for like an illusionist type feel.”

Ted: “So that, that definitely works in uh, in, in my book. If you’re trying to add some wizard to your gnome.”

Dave: “Absolutely. That would be a great way to do, especially when you start combining it with the other things, you’re going to have a slew of spells and magic you can throw around without actually being a spell caster.”

Ted: “All around. There’s some great ways to add multi classing without actually having to sacrifice those awesome high level abilities. Yeah, you’re not going to get action surge and you know, arcane recovery, you’re, you’re not going to be able to get some of the really signature, uh, aspects. Oh, you know, of a particular class, but you’re definitely going to be able to get the feel for whichever class you’re trying to do through feats ”

Dave: “Without sacrificing those high level abilities.”

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david friant

My name is Dave Friant I've been gaming off and on for over 27 years. But here is the thing it's always been a part of my life I've kept secret and hidden away. I've always been ashamed of the stigma that gaming and my other nerdy and geeky pursuits summon forth. Recently I decided screw it! This is who I am the world be damned. From now on I'm gonna be a geek, nerd, or however folks want to judge me and just enjoy life. Currently one of my greatest joys is introducing my 13 yr old son to table top RPG's.

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