D&D class coasters! Now up in our Etsy

Which class to take to level 20?

Happy 4/20! It’s me again. Bet y'all are reeeal tired of my bullshit now. Today I’ll be looking through the level 20 bonuses for each class listed in the Player’s Handbook & Artificer. I’ve only ever played a warlock and fighter, but I have a decent enough understanding of how D&D works to rank these. These will be ranked from worst to best, and of course, all of this is my own opinion. At number 13, and the worst Level 20 bonus is..

-Foe Slayer: Ranger-

Look. I have a ranger/rogue that plays with me in my party. I love her and her player, she’s a sweetie. But there’s a reason she chose not to take Ranger 20. Foe Slayer does the following: “Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or damage roll to an attack you make against one of your favoured enemies.” Favoured enemies in general are one of the ranger’s weakest abilities. If you choose undead but your DM uses fey constantly, this bonus will hardly ever come into play. And considering you need to be at 20th level to even do any damage to your favoured enemy is kinda dumb. Sadly, it doesn’t get exponentially good for a while. Next up at 12th place is…

-Eldritch Master: Warlock-

Believe me, it pains me to put one of my favourite classes this low. I love warlocks. However. This one is just not that good. Eldritch Master does the following: “You can spend one minute entreating your patron for aid to regain all expended spell slots from your Pact Magic feature. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.” If this were any other class, this would at least be C tier. But, thanks to the warlock’s Pact Magic, they regain all expended spell slots after a short or long rest. In standard rules, a short rest is only 2 hours of downtime. In GRR (gritty realism resting, the system my DM uses), a short rest is 8 hours of downtime. Either way, all it is is one night’s sleep. If you plan to use Eldritch Master in combat, you cannot do anything other than use Eldritch Master for ten. rounds. And yes, getting all spell slots back for just 1 minute is good outside of combat. But you have to finish a long rest until you can use it again, which is 8 hours standard and 3 days GRR. Isn’t it easier to just take a short rest and forget about it? Now that I’ve finished that rant, in 11th place is…

-Superior Inspiration: Bard-

I promise, this has nothing to do with my personal vendetta against bards. Superior Inspiration does the following: “When you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.” Now, Bardic Inspiration has come in clutch in my campaign a good handful of times. And by level 20, the Bardic Inspiration dice is a d12. However, if you’re already in combat, which is where Bardic Inspiration is most used, it’s unlikely you’ll have to roll initiative again unless a second wave of enemies comes in. And in my time as a player, that’s only happened once. I like Bardic Inspiration, like I said, it’s clutch sometimes. But having this as the final upgrade at level 20 is a little underwhelming. At 10th place is the equally underwhelming…

-Perfect Self: Monk-

Monks in general is a class I’ve always found interesting, but a class I can’t bring myself to play. Perfect Self does the following: “When you roll initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points.” This places above bard’s just because ki points are fucking awesome. All three abilities you can use with ki points are really good. Flurry of Blows deals more damage, Patient Defense can help out in tense situations, and Step of the Wind gives the ever important extra movement. And considering all of these cost only 1 ki point? It’s pretty good. However, as said with Superior Inspiration, if you’re already in combat, it’s rare to be rolling initiative a second time. If your DM likes to spread out your long rests, this can be useful. But it depends on your game, and if your DM is more relaxed with rests, it isn’t nearly as useful. This is the first ability I’d truly put in C tier. Breaking into the single digits at 9th place is…

-Divine Intervention Improvement: Cleric-

I’ve never liked clerics, and I’ve never considered playing one. This feature’s usefulness all depends on your subclass. Divine Intervention itself allows you to call upon your deity’s aid and have them cast a spell from either your cleric spell list or your cleric domain spells. Level 20 allows this request to always succeed with no roll required. If you’re looking for good spells in combat, which is the best use I can think of, most domains are pretty good. For damage, the domains of Light and Tempest are the best. For utility, Life, Trickery, and War are best. However, the Nature and Knowledge domains fall short here, which brings down the entire feature. Of course, if you’re going to be casting spells from the cleric spell list, your domain doesn’t matter as much. But you seriously can’t pass up a good Dimension Door or Shatter. Coming in barely above cleric is the 8th place spot holder…

-Archdruid: Druid-

I like druids well enough. Druids are cool. Archdruid is pretty simple: it allows the druid to use their Wild Shape as many times as they want/need to. Wild Shape is the class’s primary ability, allowing them to change into creatures of a certain CR as well as a few other restraints. By level 20, druids can turn into any creature they’ve seen before with a challenge rating of 1 or lower. Some creatures, like owls, can be very useful in and out of combat. However, it all depends on the player’s strategic thinking. If you’re dealing with an experienced druid main or a smart player in general, they can use this ability to be an absolute powerhouse of a druid. But if you have a newer player or a player who doesn’t always remember what abilities they have, this can be underwhelming at best and useless at worst. Wild Shape is a really good ability, but it needs a really good player to use it to its fullest potential. Coming in at 7th place is…

-Soul of Artifice: Artificer-

Next to warlock and fighter, artificer is one of my favourite classes and I’ve been itching to play one. Soul of Artifice has 2 effects: “You gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to” and “If you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed out-right, you can use your reaction to end one of your artificer infusions, causing you to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0.” The one I’d like to focus on is that first one. By level 20, it’s likely that the artificer is attuned to 3 magic items, which gives a +3 to allsaving throws. So say your Constitution score is a 20, making the modifier +5. And artificers are proficient in Con saving throws, adding a proficiency bonus of +6 at level 20. This is already a substantial bonus of +11. But adding Soul of Artifice on top of that with 3 attuned magic items makes that a +14, which means you’ll never be affected by poison ever. In addition to that, +3 is still half your proficiency bonus, meaning the artificer essentially has half proficiency in all saving throws. The second ability is also good, saving you from needing to make death saving throws provided you can cast a quick cure wounds on yourself before taking more damage. This is a solid A tier. Coming in just below the top 5 at 6th place is…

-Sacred Oath Feature: Paladin-

Similar to cleric, this feature is dependent on your subclass, or for Paladins, your Sacred Oath. I’ll go over the bonuses for each subclass in the PHB. For the Oath of Devotion, once per long rest, you begin to shine with bright light in a 30 foot radius, damaging any creature that starts its turn in the bright light for 10 radiant damage. You also have advantage on saving throws against fiends or undead. For the Oath of the Ancients, once per long rest, for one minute (10 rounds of combat), you regain 10 hit points at the start of your turn, you can cast spells that require an action as a bonus action, and enemies within 10 feet of you have disadvantage on saving throws against your paladin spells and Channel Divinity. For the Oath of Vengeance, once per long rest, for 1 hour, you sprout wings that grant you a flying speed of 60 feet, and each creature that gets within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened by you for 1 minute or until it takes damage. Attacks against the frightened creature have advantage. Without a doubt, the best one is the Oath of the Ancients. Regaining HP is good, casting spells as a bonus action is better, and disadvantage on saving throws against your spells is even better. The other 2 can be viable in certain situations. If I had to choose a worst, it’d be the Oath of Vengeance. A flying speed of 60 feet is incredible, but the frightened mechanic isn’t really good in 5e. When I get the chance to play a paladin, expect me to take the Oath of the Ancients. Now, breaking into the top 5 at 5th place is…

-Sorcerous Restoration: Sorcerer-

Now, the sorcerer I play alongside may have influenced this spot. We were discussing level 20 abilities and they brought up the uses for Sorcerous Restoration. The feature allows you to do the following: “You regain 4 expended sorcery points when you finish a short rest.” Considering you only regain sorcery points on a long rest from levels 1-19, this can be super useful. Metamagic does cost more sorcery points than the monk’s abilities cost ki points, but metamagic is some of the strongest spellcasting in the game. For example, our sorcerer enjoys twin casting Blight, which, at base level, costs 4 sorcery points. And considering that Blight does 8d8 necrotic damage on a failed save and half on a success, that’s still a fuck ton of damage total. All of the metamagic options are good, and getting back sorcery points more often allows for more creative use for it. Coming in at 4th place is…

-Signature Spell: Wizard-

As much as I make fun of wizards and as much as I don’t like playing them, their level 20 bonus is pretty good. Signature Spell does the following: “Choose two 3rd-level spells in your spellbook. You always have these spells prepared, they don’t count against the number of spells you have prepared, and you can cast each of them once at 3rd level without expending a spell slot. When you do so, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.” There are a lot of really good 3rd level spells, and wizards have most of these at their disposal, so long as they have them in their spellbook. Counterspell, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Vampiric Touch come to mind as damage spells, and Remove/Bestow Curse can be useful in and out. Considering that you can cast each spell once per rest without expending a spell slot, Counterspell in particular begins to shine. As long as your DM hasn’t banned it. Now, coming in with the bronze medal is…

-Stroke of Luck: Rogue-

So. You wanted to go to rogue 20. Congrats! You’re now a half-halfling (or a quarterling) once per rest. Stroke of Luck does the following: “If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.” This is stupidly good. If you’re up against a creature with a high AC, you can automatically hit with any weapon. It’s important to note that this does not affect spell attacks (Arcane Trickster) or saving throws. God forbid you’re a halfling rogue. You’ll never fail at anything. Next up at 2nd place is..

-Extra Attack (3): Fighter-

I swear, this has nothing to do with fighters being my favourite. Okay, it might have something to do with it. But this ability is truly the definition of less is more. Extra Attack (3) does the following: “You can attack four times, instead of once, when you take the attack action on your turn.” Did you catch that? You can attack. Four.Times. And that’s without Action Surge, which you now have two uses of! This allows for eight attacks per turn, and, if you play a melee fighter with a 20 in Strength, that’s a +11 to hit without any sort of magical weapon. Which means you’ll be hitting things. A lot. God forbid you chose the Champion subclass (like I did *sunglasses emoji*) and you have a 15% chance to crit. After extensive testing of rolling 4d20 for standard actions, and 8d20 for Action Surges, 12/20 rolls included at least 1 critical hit. One Action Surge roll even included 3 crits. You can’t beat that. What I’m really saying here is that Fighter 20 is overpowered, and fuck you I like Champion Fighter. Now, by process of elimination, you may already know what I think the best level 20 feature is. But if you don’t, I’ll go ahead and say it. The 1st place winner of my ranking is…

-Primal Champion: Barbarian-

If you’re unfamiliar with the rules of D&D, you may be asking. Why is having a higher ability cap so good? Let me explain. Primal Champion does the following: “Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for these scores is now 24.” By Barbarian 20, you’ve burned through 5 ASIs, and there’s a good chance most of them went into Strength and Constitution. If you got lucky in rolling, you may even have them both at 20. Let’s break down the first part. Your Strength and Constitution scores both increase by 4. That is the equivalent of four Ability Score Improvements, aka, sixteen levels in barbarian. Holy shit. And by level 20, your Strength and Con are probably at least to 18, even if you did get unlucky. So this would usually put both at 20, right? Wrong. Let’s look at that second half. Your maximum for these scores is now 24. Holy. Shit. In the campaign I play in, my fighter took a pact with our dragon mom. Now, his Strength can cap at 22. Good, but not 24. A 24 in Strength and Constitution would set both modifiers at a +7. Since barbarians are proficient in all weapons, any melee weapon attack would have a +13 to hit without any sort of magic items. In addition, barbarian’s Unarmored Defense puts their AC at 10+Dex. mod+ Con. mod. Even if your Dex. mod is +0, that’s still an unarmored AC of 17. Seventeen. Seven. teen. All I’m saying is,, if I hadn’t picked fighter, I’d absolutely be picking barbarian. I love this, and I wish fighters got it too. But fighter 20 ranked 2nd place, and I think that’s pretty good.

—————————–

Anyways, that’s all my rambling for today. DM, if you’re reading this, for the love of god can my boy have a higher unarmored AC. Desperate.

I’ve been having a big mlm knight brainrot lately I want to share it with you guys but idk if yall would care about it pls if anyone wants to see a very sad paladin pinning after a priest leave a like or something idk lol