D&D Episode 152

Law & Disorder

Level 1
 Class: Sorcerer
 Race: Custom Lineage
 Free Feat: Fey Touched (Dissonant Whispers)
 Abilities: 15 Wisdom (+2, +1), 14 Con, 14 Cha
 Equipment: Gold Buy - Scale Mail, Shield
 Sorcerous Origin: Wild Magic
 Wild Magic Surge
 Tides of Chaos
 Spells: Mage Armor, Mind Sliver, Shield, Absorb Elements, Magic Missile, Sleep, Silvery
Barbs

Level 2 (Cleric 1)
 Divine Domain: Order
 Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy Armor, Intimidation or Persuasion
 Voice of Authority
 Spells: (Command and Heroism for free), Guidance, Toll the Dead, Healing Word, Bless,
Bane

Level 3 (Cleric 2)
 Channel Divinity
 Turn Undead
 Harness Divine Power
 Order’s Demand

Level 4 (Cleric 3)
 2nd level spells: (Hold Person, Zone of Truth for free), Aid, Lesser Restoration, Spiritual
Weapon

Level 5 (Cleric 4)
 ASI/Feat: +Wis (20)
 Toll the Dead = 2d12

Level 6 (Cleric 5)
 Destroy Undead (CR ½)
 3rd level spells: (Mass Healing Word, Slow for free), Aura of Vitality, Dispel Magic,
Revivify, Spirit Guardians, Bestow Curse
 Channel Divinity = 2/short rest
Ok, at level 6 it’s time for our first damage report! Here’s what combat is going to look like for
us at this level: assuming we’re trying to do as much damage as possible, on round 1 we’re
getting spirit guardians going, but then on round 2, or whenever we’re ready to burst, with our
action we’re upcasting dissonant whispers as a 3rd level spell, potentially, doing 5d6 to an
enemy and forcing them to run, provoking an opportunity attack from an ally when they do so,
and then with our reaction, later, as soon as an enemy succeeds at something, we silvery barbs,
granting advantage to a different ally and letting them make an opportunity attack as well.

Now, of course, if we’re trying to calculate how much damage “we” are doing with all of this we
have a huge problem and it’s that I have no idea who your allies are and what kind of damage
they’re going to reliably do. So, yeah, we’re going to have to make some assumptions. The best
ally you could be targeting with Silvery Barbs, especially, is an allied rogue, since they would be
making their attack with their reaction and thus getting to use sneak attack again (look it up! I
promise that’s how it works, rules as written), and especially since you’re giving them
advantage via silvery barbs they’re for sure getting to sneak attack – I tried to take advantage of
this fun tactic in one of my first ever “team up” builds a long time ago – the battery and the
blender. Anyways – do you have a rogue in your party? I have no idea. I’m going to assume that
you do, but let’s just say it’s a plain old rogue with nothing fancy, I don’t care about their
subclasss or assume they have magic weapons, they’re just a level 6 rogue using a shortsword
with an 18 dexterity, so if they hit it would be for 4d6+4. As for the other ally… I mean, is it too
much to say they’re like, a barbarian or fighter using a greatsword with the great weapon
master feat? That’s fairly vanilla… not incredibly optimized. But also, definitely not every party.
Maybe not even most parties. But you could do better… a gwm devotion paladin who could
smite with a nice +to hit chance, for example. Let’s call companion #2 a champion fighter with
an 18 strength using a greatsword and the GWM feat. Results will vary, raise or lower these
numbers accordingly. So if everything sticks we’d be doing 5d6 for Dissonant Whispers, 3d8x2
enemies, I’ll assume, for Spirit Guardians, 2d6+14 for the Fighter and 4d6+4 for the Rogue,
again, likely to different targets there, for a grand total of 11d6+6d8+18, divided among two
enemies.

Damage Report! Vs 10 AC and +0 to Wis Save: 75 Damage, Vs 15 and +5: 61 Damage

Level 7 (Cleric 6)
 Embodiment of Law
 4th level spell slots

Level 8 (Sorcerer 2)
 Font of Magic

Level 9 (Sorcerer 3)
 Metamagic: Twinned Spell
 2nd level Sorcerer spells: Wither and Bloom, Vortex Warp
 5th level spell slots
Time for our level 9 damage report! Since last check we’ve added, not only a 2d12 Toll the Dead
to our Nova round but a *twinned* 2d12 Toll the Dead. Our Spirit Guardians can be potentially
upcast to do 5d8 per enemy now with our 5th level spell slot and we *could* upcast Dissonant
Whispers to do 6d6 damage with a 4th level slot as well – not saying that we *should*, of
course, but as always, we’re exploring the limits of what’s possible, right? Right. Oh, and I guess
our Fighter now has a 20 Strength and our Rogue has both a 20 Dex and their sneak attack is
now, what, 5d6? Nice.

Damage Repot! Vs 10 AC and +0 to Wis Save: 128 Damage, Vs 16 and +6: 101 Damage

Level 10 (Cleric 7)
 4th level Cleric spells: (Compulsion, Locate Creature for free), Banishment, Death Ward

Level 11 (Cleric 8)
 ASI/Feat: Metamagic Adept
 Blessed Strikes
 Destroy Undead = CR1
 6th level spell slots
 Toll the Dead = 3d12

Level 12 (Fighter 1) Second Wind

 Fighting Style: Defense

Level 13 (Fighter 2)
 Action Surge

And it’s just in time for our next damage report! Since last check we’ve now increased the
potential damage from Spirit Guardians to 6d8 per enemy, our Dissonant Whispers to 7d6
damage (but honestly, don’t use a 5th level spell slot on Dissonant Whispers… that’s just silly.
Again, just exploring what’s possible here), we saw a bump to our Toll the Dead and are now
using it twice on our turn, potentially. Adding a little extra d8 of damage once to one of those
targets Our Rogue has seen a 2d6 increase to their sneak attack but our fighter hasn’t really
increased in any way, for us, at least, aside from maybe getting a better magic weapon that I’m
not going to account for!

Damage Report! Vs 10 AC and +0 to Wis Save: 201 Damage, Vs 17 and +7: 148 Damage

Level 14 (Cleric 9)
 5th level Cleric spells: (Commune and Dominate Person for free), Greater Restoration

Level 15 (Cleric 10)

 Divine Intervention
  7th level spell slots

Level 16 (Cleric 11)

 6th level Cleric spells: Heal, Heroes’ Feast
 Destroy Undead = CR2

Level 17 (Cleric 12)

 ASI/Feat: +Con (16) or Heavy Armor Master or War Caster
 8th level spell slots
 Toll the Dead = 4d12

And so, for our final damage report, since last check, Toll the Dead got another d12 bump, we
could upcast Spirit Guardians for 8d8 and Dissonant Whispers, if we’re crazy, for 9d6, and then
we just got a whole ton of awesome undead destroying, divine intervention having, big party
buffing options as well thanks to more cleric levels.

Damage Report! Vs 10 AC and +0 to Wis Save: 262 Damage, Vs 18 AC and +8 to Save: 187