Brutal critical is such a let down of a feature. Love the Loxodon racial pick here.

Flavoring beast form as becoming a more primal, brutal Woolly Mammoth works really well.

Fun build - even at low levels. Obviously, mediocre damage totals are the elephant in the room on this, but I like the tactics you’ve stored in the trunk.

Obvious flavor choise for the fangs: Have the tusks grow in size or have them grow spiky protrusions.

I got the notification for this just as I was in the middle of homebrewing a Shield Bearer fighter subclass. Of course I'm going to stop and watch

Loved the Kipling reference! Also can't wait for the next three builds to all be custom lineage with hexblade dips 😂

Level 1:(see above) [barbarian 1 & race] Level 2:(see above) [barbarian 2] Level 3:(@17:16) [barbarian 3 & sub-class] Level 4:(@22:25) [barbarian 4 & ASI] Level 5:(@26:00) [barbarian 5] Level 6:(@26:31) [barbarian 6] Level 7:(see above) [fighter 1 & fighting-style] Level 8:(@35:18) [fighter 2] Level 9:(@35:42) [fighter 3 & sub-class] Level 10:(see above) [fighter 4 & ASI] Level 11:(@42:27) [barbarian 7] Level 12:(@45:45) [barbarian 8 & ASI] Level 13:(@45:56) [barbarian 9] Level 14:(see above) [barbarian 10] Level 15:(@49:12) [barbarian 11] Level 16:(@50:07) [barbarian 12 & ASI] {text says fighter 12} Level 17:(@50:45) [barbarian 13]

Need a chameleon / disguise feature to turn him pink. Imagine a pink elephant walking on the ceiling, you think a guard is going to report seeing you in the castle? “No, Really Sire, I just saw a pink Elephant on the ramparts”. Lol.

I’m a bit miffed that the hobgoblin warlord can use their shield to attack but a fighter can’t, the shove bonus action from the feat is still good though.

Errata: Forgot to add the increase to rage damage at Barbarian 9 - this changes the DPR slightly for levels 13 and 17 damage reports :). Updated the spreadsheets. ALSO! It's true that, even though he initially tweeted to say you *could*, Jeremy Crawford has since clarified that RAI you shouldn't be able to shove with your BA first then make attacks, with the Shield Master feat. I feel confident that most tables would allow it anyway, but if we're trying to be strict with the rules, you probably won't have advantage until round two.

Flavor wise I would love to imagine this character as almost like a wooly mammoth! Super thematic, and it paints your class abilities as more primal evolutionary traits. I could even see a backstory where she's thawed out of ice just like captain america!

I'm literally in the process of making a shield master Paladin as this comes out, perfect timing!

Made a character a few years ago. He's an artificer/rune knight that uses a light hammer reforged into a shield so he can throw and get his shield back.

Love the idea of a humanoid elephant bellowing "Free hugs for all!" as it wraps enemies in its trunk 🤣

I remember requesting a dual shield build on Twitter ages ago. I'm really glad this has come forth in this shape, cool stuff Colby. Thank you!

I imagine the use of the cloud rune as our loxodon swinging one of the grappled targets with their trunk to block an attack. Meat shield.

I love all of your vids it inspires me to make unhinged character ideas and helps me out during these tough times.

I always love your videos! They get the creative juices flowing

Literally running in a campaign as a shield only warforged, even made him with only one arm. He's been one tanky boi i'll tell you what!

One of my players was asking me not long ago about how to make a shieldmaster character and I couldn't really come up with a good build so this video came at a great time!

Yassss, loving the content! You make my day sometimes. Keep it up!

What an amazing build! It honestly sounds fun.

I think this is one of my favourite builds from d4!

Something I would love to see is a build around the Poisoner Feat.

dude, this helped me a ton with a yuanti tank i'm going with. thanks a bunch

12 minutes into the video and I already love the flavor! I'm also liking the different races you have chosen to go with in recent videos! I'm playing a minotaur with a similar story - in the quest for vengeance, this minotaur raged, destroying anything and anyone in their path, until the moment when they almost killed a child. Since then, they have spent a decade in penance, meditating and reflecting over who they are. And have sworn to use violence only as the ultimate last resort. It is interesting because most of our party has a similar idea of non-violence in mind, and the cleric even refuses to use command or bane, because it involves forcing others! Very interesting dynamic.

THANK YOU! I’ve wanted something like this for some time!

I've been thinking about grappling builds a lot lately and I've struggled to find good use for the shield master feat. The abilities that give advantage to strength checks both use your bonus action already and neither are precast friendly, and most of the time I feel like you'd be better off grappling and shoving with your action on round one anyways. Using it also means extra attack martials won't be able to deal good damage since it doesn't work with gwm+pam, which can still combo with grappling for loxodons. The best way to utilize the shield master feat that I've thought of is to go rogue instead. Rogues make great grapplers because of expertise and cunning action dash allowing you to force a grappled opponent to move twice as far, potentially into a web spell or something like it. The problem is they can't grapple and shove prone in the same turn without because they lack extra attack, but shield master fixes that. Soulknife would easily be the best option for this, and of course you'd still need loxodon to have enough free hands to make it work.

Gotta say I've been loving all of your character builds. Having the fun aspect of the character build being just as important as trying to max out the character's combat effectiveness has been a massive boon. I played the Flame Thrower Kobold for a few weeks before he got eaten by a Cloaker, and am now playing the Street Fighter character and having a ton of fun with the interesting backstory to justify all of the crazy options and multiclassing that needs done for it.

Thanks for the video! It was fun to watch as this is very similar to the build I have been playing for 4 or 5 months. I have a Harengon Beast Barbarian(6)/Fighter(4) who wields a shield. True, I miss out on the trunk which is cool, but I get quite a bit of mobility with the Rabbit Hop and Beastial Soul: Jump (especially if you have boots of striding and jumping!). You can Rabbit Hop with a grappled opponent as long as you aren't encumbered. Like you pointed out, the bonus action contention can be a bit frustrating at times, but over all, It is one of the most fun characters I have ever played! Thanks again

Every character u build makes me want to play them :') Keep making great content 👍

Just an FYI, I was looking at using Shield Master in order to shove with my bonus action and then have my attacks with advantage as they are prone, but came across a clarification in the Sage Advice Compendium that says the attack action has to come before the bonus action due to the “if… then …” wording which makes sense. From the SAC: SHIELD MASTER Q: The Shield Master feat lets you shove someone as a bonus action if you take the Attack action. Can you take that bonus action before the Attack action? A: No. The bonus action provided by the Shield Master feat has a precondition: that you take the Attack action on your turn. Intending to take that action isn't sufficient; you must actually take it before you can take the bonus action. During your turn, you do get to decide when to take the bonus action after you've taken the Attack action. This sort of if-then setup appears in many of the game's rules. The “if” must be satisfied before the “then” comes into play.

Do you want ceiling elephants? Because that's how you get ceiling elephants! 🤣 This is why I love your builds. They have such wonderful flavour 😸

I just found this channel yesterday, but I want to say it is awesome.

You could also reflavor tail to trunk and claws to tusks damage would be the same flavor is free

I’m glad you’ve done a beast barbarian! I love this subclass so much, simic hybrid does have some more fun synergy with beast barbarian since you can jump so high the manta glide feature effectively lets you fly

Great artwork for this one

Yay for Tuesday! Another Colby build! 😊

At the end when you were making the elephant noises my daughter came running into the room and saw you doing that. She said, "That's why you like him, he is the younger prettier version of you!" So thanks for that. LOL. I used to make those motions and noises for her all the time. It was funny.

Always wanted to play a good shield basher / brawler, going to play this build in the campaign I'm in. Going to be a great time!! I haven't been able to figure out a good build for a concept I had similar to this one, only using a shield in each hand, more bashing, less grappling. Thanks for doing this one.

Cloud Rune makes me think of the "Stop hitting yourself" all the older siblings know about XD

Hey Colby, just wanted to say I always enjoy your videos. You always have such fun ideas and well made videos. You so a great job editing and scripting these.

Curious: Why did you choose to compare this build to DPR builds instead of Tanks? Control+Hard to kill sounds like a Tank build to me. Would it be hard to add this character to the Tank sheet Too? With or without a short released as bonus content covering just the level checks (since the build was discussed here)?

Looking forward to see how you built this versus my own shield user!

Captain Elephant! Such a great build someone has to be last on a list but they have a special place in my heart!

Those outtakes are the best! Now we need an “ultimate werewolf” build!!!

definitly a great elephant warrior build. What cant be understated is how well rounded and overall good this character is: Ok damage, good control and can take a beating as well. It perfectly counters the crippling weakness of tank bulds by simply beeing countered by walking away from them taking their harmless attacks. On top it feels like this character will get good use out of magic gear and the overall fantasy is great as well. Propably the overall "best" build i have seen on this channel. I could also see that at lvl 11 the character could take 1 lvl of barbarian for the initiative boost and then the rest as fighter. The rune, indomitable an addional asi/feat as well as the extra attack at the very end seems better then what the barbarian offers. The additonal feat itself is likely better by itself.

I saw the short that came before this, and expected something of an optimised tavern brawler. I really dig the build this week, but I still would very much love to see a very scrappy tavern brawler build!

I could see the whole cleric route, where you work on juggling 3 or 4 enemies, you have the ones you let go trying to get out of your spirit guardians (at half their speed since they were prone) and then you drop 2 and go grab them and drag them back to your pile of enemies.

First Elsa, now captain America??? Come on, Colby! We may need to do a collab ;)

the loxoxdon race pick, and that genius idea with grapple and shield master. i am thoroughly liking this idea

Omg the segmented trunk helmet in the artwork is awesome

Loxodon! Yes! I've been trying to figure out a shield master build passively in the back of my brain for a while, as well as an excuse to play a Loxodon. Never connected those in my head. Love it! Another addition to the PC wishlist. May just have to start throwing some in as NPCs to get a little taste! 😂

A player in my game is doing something very similar to this. I should link him the video. Thanks Colby.

Not having watched this yet, I'm so stoked by the concept, mainly because the PC I'm playing right now is a shield master focused build. Earth Genasi Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, currently level 14, going to dip into fighter next 4 levels for battlemaster maneuvers/die. Shield Master, Mobile, maxed CON, Martial Adept (Bait and Switch, Quick Toss), and my DM was gracious enough to give me a Shield of Battering. I can comfortably "control" 2 "nodes" of combat and go between backline and frontline fairly reliably, imposing disadvantage on whoever the biggest threat is to hit anyone but me with Ancestral Guardian feat, reaction only to mitigate damage taken by allies ("You see a spectral Dao come out of the ground beneath you, charging at the attacker and softening the blow, though dusting you in a fine mineral mist" - ancestral guardian genasi can be dope to roleplay/flavor), I can push allies out of melee with forced movement, I can knock enemies prone before my melee allies turn. I'm limited to 2 shove attacks in order to place the Ancestral Protectors, but those can be pushes of 15ft+prone depending on shield charges, or just 5ft or prone. But should I need it, can forgo ancestral protectors and push a total of 45ft in a single turn. (And for clarification on the 3 pushes, "Shove" is a replacement for a single attack of the attack action, so still checking the box of "choosing the attack action" to get the shield master bonus action shove). Anyway, now that I've gushed, I'm hyped to see what you've done!

Just... thanks, you are awesome!

Hey Coby. Long time listener here. I hope you read this Comment. I just want to say that your infections positivity really makes my day every time I watch one of your videos. You really do turn my frown upside down. I wish I could do more than like and subscribe but finances don't allow. Thank you so much for all the great content you provide. 🙂

I had a very similar build and it was a ton of fun. It was more focused on the grappling side than the shield side but I intended to get Shield Master later. I took expertise in Athletics with Skill Expert feat, went Simic Hybrid for manta glide and appendages, and took Beast barb to level 6. I planned to multiclass into Rune Knight fighter after that but game ended before that. The jumping ability (with expertise Athletics + rage adv) plus manta glide is a super cool combo. I had +10 in athletics at level 6 (also great for grappling) and would add that to high jump making jump height 3+STR+2d20kh1+10. Then once in air, I'd use manta glide to coast twice that distance horizontally. Only downside was dungeons/buildings with little headroom. So you're looking at, on average, 10 ft. movement + ~30 ft vert. jump (jump height caps at movement speed total) + 62 ft glide. You can even do it from standing at potentially give even further distance on the glide that way (up to 80 ft glide).

Liked. Then watched. I love the idea of shield master, even if it’s not great, hopefully you prove me wrong in this video!

Good to see the Rune Knight be a staple of multiple Shield Master builds. I'm pondering on that Armorer+RK build myself, which is more pure Shove focused. The new DM is also giving us a free feat at level 1 so I get to solve the Shield Master issue early.... and maybe even mix Shove, Mobile and Ashardalon' Stride late game.

Very interested in playing this Loxodon build here you just did. It’s more my style of play.

Awesome video. I was trying to build a "thug" like character with a big focus on critting when I came across this video. The concepts here had me drop alot of what I had in exchange for the Loxodon pinning an enemy to the ground and repeatedly shanking them, which I loved the flavor of. I ended up as a Loxodon 5 lvl dex based Champion fighter +5 lvl Scout Rogue, with shield master and piercer feats. The thrown weapon fighting style using daggers is also a cool combo with rogue's sneak attacks. Its damage isnt great, but the flavor is so on point and its not using either battlemaster or assassin, so it might actually be a character I play one day :D I also dont build higher than level 10 typically as that is just so far off for most campaigns I have been in, that its mostly irrelevant after at certain point.

Love the barbarian build so much fun

The Shield Master feat says that you have to take the attack action on your turn to get the bonus action shove. That seems to indicate that you have to take your attack action or actions first, then you get the bonus action and not the other way around. So, I think, at best, you're only going to get the bonus action shove after attacks on the second round of combat and thus not have advantage until the 3rd round attack actions from the prone opponent. Or, does converting an attack action into grapple let us trigger the bonus action shove on the first round of combat? If so, this all still works since we are grappling first, then shoving as a bonus.

Fighter (battle master) Artificer Armorer/guardian. Mechanically re-theme the thunder gauntlets as your shield. Use battle master to throw your shield (improvised weapon) and execute battle maneuvers like tripping or disarming.

At level 11 I would go monk levels and change fighting style earlier to unarmed fighting. Flurry of blows with a d6 damage is schaweet! Way of shadow for 3 spells that are not considered spells for raging purposes! It's insanely good. Pass without trace to get in sneaky and leap out of the shadows to surprise or grapple enemies even quicker. Very underrated

My first thought of why a character wouldn't use weapons was from Game Of Thrones. The Dothraki capital is a no blood zone, so some of the merchants employ guards that could bloodlessly kill with their hands.

I built something kinda similar to what you described at the end... except it was a Loxodon Way of Astral Self/Rune Knight/Cleric so all built around WIS and locking down as many enemies as possible in our Spirit Guardians with our Astral Arms feature and trunk

Hey Colby, would love to see your take on a build around the guardian of nature spell. I love the image of it and I am curious what you would do with it.

Love the background.

Would love to see a Wild Magic Barb build at some point.

This is making me rethink my grung path of the beast barbarian build

Some interesting things about Beast Barbarian: The jump boost can be used as a pseudo flight mechanic, though you need to confirm with your DM if it uses your base movement. If so, then you can instead use it with the Herrengone and the Jump spell for extraordinary jumps. One way you can boost your damage while holding a shield is by using two-weapon fighting with the Dual Wielder feat, using a main hand weapon and your tail as an off hand. The claws only count as wielding when empty, so you can still use the hand for object interactions and don’t need to stow the claws.

I was actually making a "Crab-barian" with a simic hybrid, with a strict unarmed strike / grappling design in mind. Though I am not gonna use a shield, I was using totem barbarian, to have my character attune to a crab totem and thus be ostracized by his barbarian clan. However my biggest concern was dealing with creatures with physical resistance/immunity. I had NO idea beast barbarian actually fixed that problem! I am now redesigning my character with that in mind, thank you so much for that info!

I had a similar idea some time ago. Reflavoring the loxodon race to be a baga that uses her tail to grapple enemies!

Fun thing to remember with the beast super jump is that with proficiency in athletics and advantage while raging, a level 6 beast barb can jump an average of 15 avg from advantage+ probably 4 for str mod+ 3 proficiency+ 7 feet of standing high jump, for a total average standing high jump of almost 30 feet vertical. If you use the guy you are grappling as a cushion, that is a lot of extra damage. When you get to the rune knight levels and can become large, you can have an eleven foot tall mammoth man launching 30+ feet towards enemies.

The recent UA 7 from OneDnD gave us the Brawler Fighter subclass. I feel like their user of improvised weapons, maybe mixed with the recent Giant Barbarian, would make for a fantastic Shield Master 2.0 🤔

I made a very similar character in my current game. Custom lin: Tavern Brawler Fighter 3: unarmed fighting style, echo knight Monk 3: way of astral self Barb 3: ancestral guardians It takes till lvl 9 to get the full potential, but it so fun. I also understand that it takes three turns to fully get the rage, echo, and arms out. This however then allows you to grapple enemies near and far for a BA due to Tavern Brawler. This also gives a free d4 to our grappled targets due to our fighting style. Not optimized, but a lot of fun.

Huh, javelin to keep the Rage going? *hand shaking terribly* 😉 Love the build, especially the Loxodon choice and the often shunned Beast Barbarian! And the Elephant sound is hilarious 😆

The barbarian build sounds like a lot of fun.

Liked for the Kipling reference! I loved Just So Stories as a kid. And I'd like it twice if I could for the Wax & Wayne reference too!

I love the possibility of getting Infectious Fury and becoming this travelling menace that causes brawls to break out in every tavern you visit

I think if you're done with the base class features, a 3rd multi-class into rogue would probably be the biggest DPR gain. Having advantage essentially on demand, ensures you get sneak attack every round. Additionally you gain up to 4 expertise, and Uncanny Dodge (rogue 5). Anything past that is just levels for ASI, and more sneak attack dice.

In the end of the video you suggested War Cleric to get that extra BA attack, but I will point out that if the campaign has not rewarded this character a thematically appropriate magic shield, Forge Cleric can get you one, and by the wording for Shield Master, its bonuses go up as well.

I love the Loxodon Barbarian flavor! Someone at my table dubbed it the BARBARian. I actually made a build with similar inspiration: Introducing, the Boxodon! A Loxodon Beast Barbarian 5+ / Monk 1 / Rogue 1 / Fighter 1 - that’s right, quad class action! Start off Barbarian, then grab a level of Monk for at will bonus action trunk slaps. Then focus on Barbarian up to PC level 6. Play as pretty much a normal Beast Barbarian, except you have that bonus action up your sleeve. Why beast? Long term, claws give you an extra attack, which is sweet. Before you get extra attack at PC level 6, you probably want to use Tail for AC as you need to use a monk weapon at least once on your turn to get the BA attack, so unarmed strikes are better than beast form attacks (for now). While each attack may have a small damage die, adding Strength modifier and Rage damage to the four hits (at 6+) per turn pumps those numbers! Along the way, use your first ASI to grab Shield Master. Your Rage gives you advantage on Strength checks, so you’re a natural grappler and shover. And since you can grapple enemies with your trunk, you really are a natural grappler! At level six, in a turn, you can either make two claw attacks and two unarmed attacks, or two claw attacks, a grapple, and a shove. You’re either dishing out some damage and controlling the battlefield, or just dishing out substantial damage. (A focus on grappling is more MMA than boxing, but boxers DO grapple and I couldn’t pass on the Boxodon pun! #sorrynotosorry) Also, adding shield mod to some dex saves and taking no damage on all Dex save successes against damage makes you a master of all three physical saves! Next, a level of Rogue gives you expertise, at athletics naturally. If you’re going to forgo attacks to grapple and trip people, you want them to succeed and you want them to be unable to break free. When going for damage, you can also draw a dagger at the start of each turn to get your sneak attack, and it’s still a monk weapon to make your bonus action trunk slap. Reckless attack gives you advantage so you’ll always be eligible for Sneak Attack! “Obviously” drop the dagger between your dagger strike and your claw attacks to still make four attacks. Lastly, a level of Fighter taking the Unarmed fighting style bumps your trunk up a die into a formidable weapon! And (very slightly… 1d4…..) punishes grappled foes if they didn’t break free (or die) since you grabbed them. Also second wind is not a bad touch of out of combat healing. It’s essentially an extra hit die per rest! From here on out, the world is your oyster! - Another level of Monk gives you two flurry of blows a short rest (or dashes / dodges as bonus actions), which contributes to the relentless beat ’em up fun! - Another level of Fighter gives you action surge, also for bringing the pain with three extra attacks in one turn per short rest! - Another level of Rogue gives you at will bonus action dash, disengage, & hide - making you the true master of at will bonus actions! - Or just keep focusing on Barbarian to get - some ASIs - more rages - more rage damage - magical slashes for the purpose of resistance / immunity - and Infectious Fury is also great when you’re grappling foes and dragging them into melee range of their allies so you dictate who they strike! In short, that’s the Boxodon! Thanks for coming to enduring my Ted talk!

I've noticed several times in your video you've mentioned Simics. I would like to provide some mechanics that can help utilize them in optimizable ways. Starting a Grapple: RAW is "Requires at least one hand" (PHB Making an Attack) as opposed to "Requires one hand" stated in the video. Simics can grapple with hand and tentacle by RAW, and maintaining a grapple with tentacle is RAW by the virtue of their ability. Just establish the grapple with normal grapple rules then free the hand.

Echo knight, protection fighting style, shield master. Done.

I always enjoy the dScryb character description/, but this one was particularly good.

I feel like having prints of the feats, items, etc you talk about on the image would help a lot

Souns like a really fun build. I am playing a character that uses a shield and refuses normal weapons, but I do use magic a lot. I made a Hill Dwarf Battlemaster (Bait and Switch, Feint Attack, Tatical Assassment) and Fiendlock. So EB is my main form of attack, while I use bait an switch a lot to get squishier spellcaster out of harms way.

yesyesyesyesyes been wanting this build done for a while

This build gave me an idea for a character that has an aura around itself that damages enemies who get to close with spells and abilities like spirit guardians

I would be tempted to get the Charger feat. It conflicts with all or our opening bonus actions but it is so thematic and could be usefull if we started combat at long ranges. Allowing us to do something after running infront of all out teammates to get into battle first

I love this character!

I feel like I've referenced Dwarf Fortress somewhere else on this channel, but, man, oh man, if you want to do damage in game with any item Dwarf Fortress is amazing with the miscellaneous item user skill. If you choose a piece or furniture as your weapon the random junk you shove into the coffin or cabinet adds to the modifiers for the damage you do and it gets ridiculous how many things crumble beneath the weight of everything. Also, throwing anything at anyone can be surprisingly effective. It cracks me up. Dnd doesn't know how to make a difference between hitting someone with a sock versus a frying pan vs a shovel vs a table. It would be cool if they did.

I love this idea. It just generate memes

I had a warforged paladin that used grappling & the tavern brawler feat to beat Yeenoghu with one of his own minions during the Descent into Avernus dream sequence

I did level 2 in artificer really just for the returning weapon and level 3 fighter for battlemaster as a human variant ofc. Taking sharpshooter and making the shield as a ranged attack. Close range attack then melee attack plus the 10 from sharpshooterand any bonus from the battlemaster sound nice and looks nice. I never got passed level 7 with this build but from level 5 and up the build is active.

I love you for that Elephant Child reference.

I love the Elephant's child read by Jack Nicholson with music by Bobby McFerrin. It's amazing!