#'clerics are for blowing things up with radiant energy and fire and paladins are for healing right?'

[scribblingface]

the thing about multiclassing with paladin levels is every time I start to get into I'm just like 'but a pure paladin would be better'

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Starfire in DnD 5e

After finishing my build for Raven, I figured it was time I go through the entire team and do their builds. I’ve done Starfire before, but I wanted to give her another look before moving on to the boys. And if there’s interest, I’ll also consider doing Terra as well. But before I can build the alien princess, I must first decide how best to incorporate all of Starfire’s powers into one build.

Star Bolts

First we must answer what exactly are star bolts? And the best that I can answer is that they are orbs of condensed energy, which causes them to radiate heat and produce light. When it comes to how to implement them we need to keep a few things in mind: 1. Star bolts are quick and easy, and she hurls them in succession. 2. They most likely deal Fire or Radiant Damage 3. They are primarily a means of long-range combat, though she can use them in close quarters. 4. They can be condensed into a beam, shot out of her eyes, gathered into a large star bolt for a massive bomb, or to enclose herself in a massive star bolt that expands in every direction from her to hit all nearby enemies.

RACE Scourge Aasimar. Your body radiates light energy that harms everyone, including you.

BARBARIAN Wild Soul. When the Wild Soul Barbarian enters their rage, one of the things that can happen is firing a beam of radiant damage, but this is on a table of rolls, so it’s only a good choice if your DM would allow you to only ever use that effect. But it still only activates when you enter a rage, and can’t be used otherwise.

Zealot. While it doesn’t specify shooting beams of light, the Zealot Barbarian can deal extra radiant damage when they attack. Make her an unarmed fighter and she’s punching people with radiant hands.

MONK Sun Soul Monk. This subclass can shoot blasts and beams of radiant damage while also being good at melee combat. The downside is that Monks use Wisdom, and realistically, Wisdom should be Starfire’s lowest stat. She’s gullible, trusting, and easily misinformed. It’s sort of the same reason, I’m not even considering Light Cleric. Plus, Raven is the healer. If Starfire has healing, it takes away from Raven’s role as the support caster. Fortunately the damage is calculated with Dexterity and not Wisdom, so if crossed with a Barbarian for instance, she can still get the unarmored defense, just picking the Barbarian’s DEX+CON over the Monk’s Dex+WIS. But even then, Starfire is really more of a Stronk than a Monk.

Four Elements Monk. Fangs of the Fire Snake can add Fire to your punch which can travel 15 feet, and it’s treated as a punch, meaning that multi-classing this with a Barbarian or a Fighter can really put your muscle and Strength score to use, which is better than the Sun Soul that works by Dexterity.

Spells Light Firebolt Sacred Flame Burning Hands Guiding Bolt Aganazzar’s Scorcher Scorching Ray Fireball Flame Strike Sunbeam Sunburst

Features Magic Initiate: The only requirement necessary for this feat is to know a spell. If you’re a race like Aasimar that comes prepackaged with spells, you can absolutely use this to get cantrips like Firebolt and cast it even as a purely melee build.

Super strength

Goliath Stone’s Endurance can help reduce damage taken.

BARBARIAN By building a pure Barbarian to level 20, she can have a STR score of 24, which is definitely above mortal STR caps.

BRUTE FIGHTER The brute puts even more muscle behind everything they do, and deals extra damage.

Manual of Gainful Exercise While it is an item, it’s one that can raise Stafire’s strength above superhuman levels

Odysseys of Theros: Supernatural Gifts (Variant Rule) Unscarred. Basically the same thing as Goliath’s Stone Endurance.

Odysseys of Theros: Piety Boon (Variant Rule) Piety 50 to Magis, God of Slaughter Piety 50 to Iraos, God of Victory Piety 50 to Hesiod, God of the Sun Piety 50 to Purphoros, God of the Forge Piety 50 to Klothys, God of Destiny All of these have the potential to raise your Strength score by +2 to a maximum of 22, though of them, Iraos is probably the most appropriate.

Flight

Races Aasimar (Protector) - limited Aarakocra Dragonborn (with feat) Winged Bloodline Tiefling

Subclasses Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Divine Soul Sorcerer Phoenix Sorcerer - limited Storm Sorcerer - limited Vengeance Paladin - limited Eagle Totem Warrior Barbarian - limited

Spells Fly Otherworldly Form (grow wings)

Items Winged Boots Wings of Flying

For race, I did consider Goliath as a valid candidate, as it allows Starfire to lift, carry and push heavy objects, reduce damage from hits she takes, and allows Starfire to easily tolerate cold climates, which don’t bother her. However, Starfire’s primary role is as the party’s blaster, dealing damage is her bread and butter. It’s hard to overlook the fact that the Aasimar adds radiant damage to its spell and melee attacks for 1 minute (10 turns) meaning that from level 3 on, once per long rest, she can deal up to 30-200 extra radiant damage if combat lasts the full 10 rounds. That extra damage is hard to ignore, especially with how much it adds up in the end. The Protector Aasimar gets to deal all that extra damage, and fly as well to boot, so we’ll pick it for Starfire’s race.

As a warrior princess, we’ll take the soldier background for Athletics, and swap out Intimidation for Acrobatics. Then we’ll pick Intimidation back up and pair it with Persuasion from our Sorcerer skills list.

We do good for the sake of goodness, not for law or personal interest. We’re Neutral Good.

SORCERER Phoenix 

Channeling more of Starfire’s comic book origins, we’ll make our powers stronger through our emotions and personality, like a Tamaranean. As a Phoenix Sorcerer, we’ll add our Charisma mod to fire spells when we use our Mantle of Flames feature. You could consider the Phoenix Spark which brings her back into the fight to be her warrior fighting spirit giving her a second wind in combat. Nourishing Flame could likewise be a flavor of her supernatural toughness, giving her the strength to carry on. Finally, her Form of the Phoenix lets her fly when she activates her Mantle of Flames.

The most important stats for Starfire are going to be Charisma, which controls the power of her star bolts, her Strength which should defy mortal expectations, and her Constitution, to let her shrug off blows. However, the only way to make everything maxed is with manuals to raise her physical stats.

STR 20 DEX 10 CON 16 INT 8 WIS 9 CHA 20

Starfire’s Spells

CANTRIPS Control Flames Create Bonfire Dancing Lights Firebolt Friends Green-Flame Blade Light

1ST LEVEL Burning Hands

2ND LEVEL Aganazzar’s Scorcher Dragon’s Breath (reflavor as eye-lasers) Scorching Ray

3RD LEVEL Fireball Fly (self only) Melf’s Minute Meteors

5TH LEVEL Immolation

6TH LEVEL Investiture of Flame Otherworldly Form Sunbeam

7TH LEVEL Delayed Blast Fireball Fire Storm

8TH LEVEL Sunburst

9TH LEVEL Meteor Swarm

Variant Rule: Mythic Odysseys of Theros

Unscarred. When you take damage, use a reaction to reduce the damage by 1d12 + your Constitution modifier. You can use this feature once per rest.

Piety. Iroas, God of Victory

+3 Cast Compelled Duel equal to your Charisma mod per long rest +10 Cast Crusader’s Mantle once per long rest, and have advantage against being frightened +25 As a bonus action, no creature can get advantage against you for 1 minute per long rest. +50 Increase your Strength or Charisma by 2 to a maximum of 22.

Looking back on our build, we’ve done pretty well. We have 4 methods of flight avilable to us: Radiant Soul, Fly spell, Otherworldly Form spell, and Form of the Phoenix. Her power is also very commendable, as she’s able to deal a lot of damage. Unfortunately, she is held back by a need to have maxed out STR which admittedly gets in the way of improving her Constitution, or taking a feat. Speaking of which, Elemental Adept would be nice for such a one-trick pony, but her Alien strength warrants such a high score. If you know your DM will be a bit more liberal with the manuals of gainful exercise or the manuals of bodily health, you can afford to spend an ASI gaining Elemental Adept, or if you don’t care about her STR score and only want to focus on her role as a magical blaster, then max out her Constitution instead and/or pick up Elemental Adept so nothing can resist your fire. But Starfire  does what she’s meant to do, hit like a truck, shrug off injuries, and rain down righteous fury from the sky.

[wearesorcerer]

[5e] 8th-Level Spells

The glorious thing about 8th-level spells is that they are almost the same thing as 9th-level spells: horrendously powerful in ways that are barely limited. The limitations on 8th-level spells might be a smidge greater than those on 9th-level ones, but it’s not so much that (IMHO) it matters. (TBF, in 3.x spell levels vary by class; mass cure critical wounds is a 9th-level Druid spell but an 8th-level Cleric and Healing domain spell.) 8th-level spells have several perks over 9th-level spells despite being roughly as powerful: they’re available at a lower class level and you can use them more often (because you can use 8th-level and 9th-level spell slots to cast them). From experience and hearsay, I’m well aware that games don’t often get to the highest levels, but they can get to 15th/16th.

In other words, your choice of 8th-level spell is more important than your 9th. The 9th-level spell is the cherry; the 8th-level spell is either the whipped cream or some kind of drizzle.

Primary List

Abi-Dalzim’s horrid wilting · dominate monster · earthquake · incendiary cloud · power word stun · sunburst

That’s four boom-booms and two crowd-controls, with some CC mixed in with the boom-boom.

Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting: you violently dehydrate all creatures (except constructs and undead) in a 30-ft cube, dealing 12d8 necrotic damage (Con half; plants and water elementals take double damage). Non-creature, non-magical plants in the area wither and die instantly. This spell didn’t have an associated mage’s name in 3e, so I’m not sure where that came from. Other differences: it deals necrotic instead of typeless damage (you’re not applying what 3e would call “negative energy”), so undead and constructs are now immune to it; it deals a flat number of d8s instead of 1d6 per caster level (up to 20d6); and vulnerable creatures take double damage (makes sense) instead of increasing the die type to d8s. I don’t have much to complain about with this spell. It’s not my personal cuppa, but it sure is effective. Good.

Dominate Monster: you charm a creature, turning it into your mind slave for up to an hour. This is overall a downgrade from the 3e version (which lasted for one day per caster level and allowed you to perceive through the subject’s senses if you concentrated), but you don’t have to worry about issuing weird commands to prevent a creature from pulling a Sorcerer’s Apprentice problem -- and, well, you’re not waiting until 18th level (as you had to in 3.x) to get it. Do not pretend you are not horrifically evil for using this. “Good” in the sense that it’s highly useful and powerful.

Earthquake: This is the structural aspect of meteor swarm without the direct damage. It’s nearly as spectacular and will assuredly scare people in the area. The mun doesn’t care for the Earth element, but can still respect this thing’s power. Good.

Incendiary Cloud: a moving fireball that deals a flat amount of damage (10d8 fire, Dex half) but is effectively a DoT. Y’know, in case just blasting things to death wasn’t good enough for you. So far, so good.

Power Word Stun: target of 150 HP or less within range is stunned (no save); it remains stunned until, on each of its turns, it can succeed at a Con save. I like this spell a little better than power word kill in that there is some chance of the effect wearing off, as opposed to being an “I win” button almost regardless of level. It also affects more HP, so you’ll get more mileage out of it -- provided you don’t cast it on something with a good Con save. It’s not dominate monster levels of “I win,” but it’s also not mind control.

Sunburst: much bigger than fireball, blinds for one minute and deals 12d6 radiant damage (Con negates blindness, halves damage; oozes and undead have disadvantage on the save). Creatures blinded by the spell can save at the end of each of their turns to remove the blindness. ”Radiant” damage is a hold-over from 4e and was the term used to replace “positive energy,” which related to the plane of the same name. The 3.x version deals half as much typeless damage (bigger radius, though), ‘cuz it’s a light effect, not a holy effect. Sorcerers don’t get a lot of spells that deal Radiant damage unless they go Divine Soul and the Elemental Spell metamagic (UA variants) doesn’t let you change to or from Radiant (or any physical, Force, Necrotic, Poison, or Psychic) damage, so if you’re trying to cover your damage types, this is probably the spell for you. Unless you want sunbeam. A good boom-boom of boominess.

Cleric (Divine Soul) List

antimagic field · control weather · holy aura

Antimagic Field: magic stops working in a 10 ft. radius sphere centered on you. That means you shut down your class. Why would anyone do this? Mainly because of other casters. I WOULD NOT PICK THIS SPELL UNLESS YOU FIND A WAY OF ALSO BEING COMPETENT IN MELEE.

Control Weather: I’m pretty sure this is also an option for the Storm Soul or whatever it’s called, but whatevs. You’re Storm from X-Men. Need I say more? TAKE THIS SPELL!

Holy Aura: for 1000 gp, you can pretend to be a Paladin for up to a minute (with concentration). You and creatures you choose glow; they (and presumably you) have advantage on saving throws and all other creatures have disadvantage on attacks against them; Fiends and Undead that hit a creature must save (Con) vs. blindness until the spell ends. The effects are kinda neat, but why am I spending an 8th-level spell on this? Like, seriously, this is a second-level spell’s power. Pass.

Variant List

Demiplane: you create a permanent 30′ x 30′ x 30′ extradimensional room; every time you cast the spell, you can either create a new plane or gain access (via shadowy door) to one you’ve made or know of. It’s like having a better version of a bag of holding and a worse version of Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion at once. The advantages over MMM (no costly material component, the space is permanent) outweigh its drawbacks. For Sorcerers who have incredibly awesome plans and/or just like planar magic.

Spells I Wish Were on the List

animal shapes · antipathy/sympathy · clone · glibness · illusory dragon · maze ·  mind blank · telepathy · tsunami

Animal Shapes: as I said about 9th-level spells, animal shapes is better for anyone who cares about polymorphing party members. There’s bound to be a Druidic or therianthropic origin at some point.

Antipathy/Sympathy: because 3.x got rid of inverting spells (a thing in AD&D), these were separate ones, so it’s good to see them as one effect. The downside is...why is this so high level? You specify a kind of creature (which sounds like species rather than type) that is affected by the spell and either wants to approach or flee from within 60 ft. of something. In real life, 60 ft. is not all that big; it’s tremendous in D&D because D&D is weird. The 10 day duration is really the only thing that justifies this spell’s level, but that’s an upgrade (it was two hours per caster level).

Clone: as I recall, this was the spell that made me realize how restricted the 5e Sorcerer’s spell list was, to my great disappointment. I’ve never used clone, but it’s a spell that’s worth using. You want to pull a Naraku? You can out do Naraku. You want to be a lich? Why would you when you can just use this spell and find a better method of gaining immortality? Such a good spell!

Glibness: This is something of an upgrade, yet not. The spell was new to 3.5; it was a Bard-only spell and third level (why it’s a Transmutation effect and not an Enchantment is beyond me), whereas here it’s 8th-level. The effects are identical save that the 3.5 gave you +30 on the check and worked for 10 min./level (which, given how Bards worked back then, meant 70+ minutes), whereas this treats your roll as a 15 and lasts for an hour. Rolling a 15 in 5e is much better than it was in 3.x given how easy it was to inflate die rolls, so the spells are roughly the same...except that this is an 8th-level spell, which is mind-blowing to me.

Illusory Dragon: other than going off of Investigation (3.5: Search) instead of Perception (Spot), this is pretty much greater shadow conjuration one level higher and with a specific thing it can do. I’d say compare it against phantasmal forces from O/B/AD&D. Still cool.

Maze: I’m assuming you can accomplish the same thing with imprisonment, but regardless, mazing is awesome.

Mind Blank: this is pretty much the best abjuration magic against spells that affect or target a creature’s mind. (I’d say that unequivocally, but I don’t know all spells in 5e.) Yes, it’s worth having. Very much so.

Telepathy: the only advantages this spell has over telepathic bond (a 5th-level spell) are that it lasts for 24 hours, you can cast it on a creature on the same plane from any distance, and it affects basically all creatures (IIRC you can’t have 0 in a stat anymore). The duration is key here, as permanency is no longer a spell.

Tsunami: I just like the idea, ‘kay?