LukeBeeman

friendly neighborhood rando

  • any/all

Software engineer, ace/aro, any/all pronouns. I'm into all kinds of media (especially indie games and anime), media criticism/analysis, and politics.



The party/inventory management stuff is really fiddly and I have spent literal hours messing with everyone's builds, but the end result of all of that is that I'm now able to curb stomp nearly every combat encounter (the Nere fight was a bit touch-and-go, but that's basically the sole exception) while almost never resting. I'm currently in the middle of Act 2 with a level 8 party and have long rested maybe 5 or 6 times total? I have enough supplies that I could be long-resting after every single fight, but I'm rarely losing much health or spending resources (I'll often go through fights without bothering to cast leveled spells or have my barbarian use a Rage charge or anything), and the game keeps handing me buffs from quest stuff that only lasts until the next long rest, so that only gives me even more incentive to delay resting.

Anyway, my secret weapons are my custom assasin rogue character Mara and Lae'zel (fighter) as offensive and defensive powerhouses respectively, supplemented by Wyll (warlock) and Karlach (barbarian). Whenever possible, I'll have some party member other than Mara initiate combat from stealth to trigger a surprise round, which allows Mara to join the combat with an automatic crit sneak attack, followed immediately by another automatic crit sneak attack from the off-hand attack since sneak attacking prior to joining combat gets around the usual once-per-turn limit. If that doesn't basically end the fight on its own, then thanks to her various magic items she gets to keep critting and delivering more big piles of sneak attack damage on an 18 or above1, which is a 27.75% chance provided she hides for advantage (and that's not even getting into her lethal once-a-day combination of making an enemy vulnerable to her next attack before turning a hit into an automatic crit). Meanwhile, Lae'zel has the kind of build where she can be on the receiving end of a nat 20 from a creature two levels higher than her and still take 0 damage, thanks to a combination of crit negation, damage reduction of up to 6 depending on type, and resistance to all damage (thanks to a Warding Bond cast by Shadowheart, who just sits back at camp soaking up damage on Lae'zel's behalf2). She also has 23 AC, plenty of saving throw bonuses, and the Sentinel feat so she can lock down enemies and prevent them from seeking out targets they're actually capable of dealing damage to.

It's all so incredibly broken and it rules.


  1. I'm sorely tempted to take a 3 level Champion Fighter dip so I can bring this down to 17, which would be absurd. EDIT: I just realized there's an elixir that lets me bring the crit range down to 17, which means Champion Fighter would let me bring it down to 16. 16!!!

  2. Doing this is actually great for all kinds of all-day non-concentration spells; I also have Gale and Shadowheart load up my party with Aid for extra HP, Longstrider for extra move speed (that one's now a ritual for some reason so it's literally free), Mage Armor for extra AC for Wyll, and Death Ward to prevent a couple party members from going down, not to mention I can always make a quick jaunt back to camp if a need for healing or non-combat utility spells comes up mid-day.


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