#i chose the one that gives me tasha's hideous laughter

[aur-eliaa]

Bahamut diadem. I'm playing smn i guess.

[dicebound]

Barnaby 5e Build

Lineage - Owlin He's literally an owl, there isn't much to say here. You could alternatively go with the Reborn Lineage as well for more undead flavor but you'd lose flight and other useful things.

Class - Bard/Whispers So Barnaby is primarily observed in his level singing about death, slashing at you with a dagger, and conjuring objects out of nowhere to attack you. He also has little ghost buddies as back up singers. With that in mind, You have a few good options with Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock or Rogue standing out to me. A quick breakdown of the subclass options I would consider: Wizard - Necromancy or Conjuration Warlock - Undead Sorcerer - Shadow Bard - Creation, Spirits, Whispers Rogue - Phantom, Arcane Trickster. Rogue is the most out there, with no innate casting. Arcane Trickster certainly fits his personality and gives him thematic spellcasting, but lacks the spooky flavor we're looking for. Phantom has the flavor, but loses the spellcasting. Could be a good multiclass option. While Wizard could fit especially Conjuration for the object summoning, I really feel Barnaby would make a better Charisma caster than an Intelligence caster given his demeanor and "Party Animal" descriptor. Undead Warlock gets you that strong undead flavor, charisma casting and access to the spookier spells in the game, but Barnaby doesn't seem bound up by the demands of a patron. Shadow Sorcerer obviously fits Barnaby aesthetically and even gives you a limited summoning ability. It's a strong contender and was the first thing I thought of when making this list. Finally, Bard captures the musical and social inclinations of the character and has a few good spooky options for subclass. Creation lets you animate objects to fight for you, very fitting but otherwise lacks the flavor we're looking for. Spirit gives you a strong spooky flavor, the ability to tell harrowing stories about the dead or dying, and communicate with the dead. Whispers however gives a little bit more, you have the strong spooky flavor, psychic attacks, a frighten ability, and the ability to tap into creature's fears and steal their shadows. This is the one to me.

3. Background - Entertainer We don't know much about Barnaby's backstory at present, making it difficult to pick something concrete. The standout choices to me are Entertainer, Sage and Haunted One. 4. Skills For his Bard skills, I picked Performance, Arcana and either Sleight of Hand or Persuasion. I avoided Intimidation as his class features will allow him to make people afraid on their own and Stealth is gotten naturally from Owlin. For his background, I chose Entertainer and had to take Acrobatics. I also picked up Perception. For his expertise I selected Performance and Arcana. 5.Stats For his stat spread I selected a +2 to Charisma and a +1 to Dexterity from his lineage and then used point buy to distribute them as follows: Str - 8 Dex - 14 Con - 14 Int - 14 Wis - 9 Cha - 16

I dumped Strength because he has no need of it, and dumped Wisdom because he very clearly can't read a room when interacting with Billie. Con is higher than you might otherwise put on a Bard to represent that resilience of being undead. Decent Dex and Cha are obvious choices for any bard, and heightened Int just felt appropriate. 7. Spells So Spell Choice will vary by level, but good options for 0th-2nd spell level are as follows: For Cantrips most of the options are solid and thematic. I'd likely pick Vicious Mockery* and either Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation or Dancing Lights. Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Nathair's Mischief and Phantasmal Force all fit the spooky vibes and grant either good crowd control or damage. Suggestion, Faerie Fire, Invisibility, Bane, Hold Person and Cloud of Daggers also stand out as good thematic options. * if you're using feats at first level, you can pick up more flavorful/utility cantrips from Bard and grab your damaging cantrips from say Magic Initiate instead.

8. Feats (Optional) Some tables allow for Feats at First Level. Stand out choices to me are Shadow Touched, Eldritch Adept, Magic Initiate, Poisoner, Chef, Slasher and War Caster. Some of these are more flavorful than mechanical however. I find Bard's offensive magic to be too limited especially early on and so Magic Initiate (Warlock) or (Wizard) is very helpful. You want an attack roll cantrip for sure. For Warlock pick up Eldritch Blast and either Mind Sliver or Toll the Dead. For the 1st level spells, Arms of Hadar and Hex are great options. For Wizard, pick up Chill Touch and either Mind Sliver or Toll the Dead. For 1st level spells, Tasha's Caustic Brew is a thematic choice as well as Catapult and False Life. Mechanically motivated options could be Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield or Find Familiar.

[tarakaybee]

Another Oxventure Post

Since the Oxbox gang apparently have chicken scratch handwriting and have trouble reading the things on their character sheets, I thought I’d blatantly call them out and go on D&DBeyond and whip up what their stats are most likely to be, based on me randomly making a spreadsheet of all the times that they called their stats, and making guesses at which numbers were correct.

First there’s Corazon, his background is likely Pirate, which means he has proficiency with Athletics and Perception, his starting Rogue proficiencies appear to be Stealth, Sleight of hand, Investigation and Persuasion, with his expertises being Stealth, Sleight of hand, Perception and Investigation, also proficiency with helming water vehicles and navigating which I guess was pretty obvious. In addition, Corazon’s passive Investigation being so high at this stage means that it’s impossible for him to be fooled by most illusions.

As a human he can have started with an extra language, and his spells from his dual-archetype thing are Mage Hand, Dancing Lights, Minor Illusion, Grease, Feather Fall, Comprehend Languages and Disguise Self. Plus, his sneak attack bonus is currently 4D6 (That one time he said “Lets see what cool race bonuses humans have...never mind.” I assume that was a joke because humans have +1 to every stat and variant humans have Feats at LV 1).

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After of all we have Dob, I know Luke said that Dob has 21 DEX and 20 CHA but D&D Beyond won’t allow me to type higher than the starting cap of 18. The fact that he appears to be proficient in Disguise Kits, Acrobatics and Performance leads me to believe that he took the Entertainer background, and with his starting class being Bard, he has at least three other skill Proficiencies, three other instrument proficiencies and one Expertise unaccounted for. His spell save DC ought to be 15 and his spell attack should be +4.

His spells include Mending, Message, Prestidigitation, Cure Wounds, Sleep, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Thunderwave, Calm Emotions, Crown of Madness, Heat Metal, Major Image, Speak With Dead and Greater Invisibility.

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Next up we have Egbert, his stats are mildly more reasonable. Being a Paladin with a decent CHA score, Egbert has amazing saving throws at all times owing to his Aura of Protection, so despite his negative Wisdom he actually has a higher WIS save than anybody except Merilwen. Similarly he has his other Aura which gives him resistances to all spell damage. His background is most likely Acolyte, which would give him proficiency with Insight and Religion, in addition to two languages on top of his Common and Draconic, he also ought to have two starting proficiencies which we’ll sadly never know about. In this screenshow below he has a Morningstar, because I definitely recall him rolling a d8 and dealing piercing damage, plus it’s definitely a morningstar in the artwork.

The spells that Egbert knows include Bless, Command, Cure Wounds, Ensnaring Strike, Speak with Animals, Find Steed, Locate Object, Misty Step Moonbeam and Silent Image. Johnny let him choose Silent Image for the heck of it, and Mike for some reason chose the Paladin subclass that gives you Druid spells rather than the one called ‘Oath of Atonement’ which gives you buffs to none-violent solutions.

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Prudence is next, I presume she has the Acolyte background again, so she also has proficiency in Insight and Religion and two additional languges, her starting Warlock proficiencies were Arcana and Intimidation, which were both specifically mentioned in the first few stories. She’s also the only party member to have a maxed out stat with the normal rules, since Tieflings have a +2 bonus to charisma.

Her spells include Blade Ward, Eldritch Blast, Charm Person, Spider Climb, Clairvoyance, Hunger of Hadar, Summon Greater Demon, in addition to three other first level spells that she has never had cause to use. With her Eldritch Invocations she also has Comprehend Languages, Message, Vicious Mockery, Bestow Curse, Detect Magic, one additional Cantrip from Pact of the Tome, and two additional rituals spells from Book of Ancient Secrets.

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Merilwen is a Wood-Elf so she automatically has proficiency in Perception, as well as a ton of martial weapons. Her background is likely to be Outlander, which means she has proficiency in Athletics and Survival, it also allows an extra language and an instrument proficiency for some reason, her starting Druid proficiencies haven’t been explicitly stated as far as I remember. Also a Herbalism Kit proficiency, Tool Proficiencies are unbelievably useful but they had to hide the interesting rules at the bottom of Xanathar’s Guide, but basically it can do things such as neutralise wounds without spellcasting and identify any plant by smelling it.

Her spells include Druidcraft, Poison Spray, Thorn Whip, Animal Friendship, Create or Destroy Water, Entangle, Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, Moonbeam, Spike Growth, Speak with Plants, Water Breathing, Wind Wall and Stone shape. She woudln’t have had the option to take the Wood-Elf  Magic feat at level six like Ellen says she did, but those spells were Produce Flame, Longstrider and Pass Without Trace.