Witch Doctor
THIS IS NOT A GUIDE.
This is a concept build that may or may not be optimized. While the tendency is usually to "make things work well", the building process is driven by the concept, so there could be better choices available to min-max a similar build.
The concept for this build was born when a dear friend of mine (coming from the land down under) was going to DM for me a one-shot. Knowing already that it was going to be incredibly fun, I quickly had this idea that I would play differently, an anti-hero perhaps.
"A khraal a kaarogaaluur maagaan, KHRUUL!".
Another one that has fear to die. At first they run into the enemy like an all mighty but disorganised horde, and one swipe of the giant's club is enough to break them in spirit and body. They lay down half broken or half smashed hoping that I run and save them. Which is the thing I do, sometimes.
The front is the perfect place for me to practice and experiment, but I can't stay anymore. This morning I've received a letter, a small party of humans decided to raid the village I was born. I don't know what they wanted but they must have been either very stupid or without remorse. Anyone knows that we don't have riches, why they keep attacking us?
I must leave as soon as possible to assess the situation. I'm not the only one from that village, so I won't walk alone, but I'm the only one that received a message. Either someone I know is still alive or it is a trap. Filthy humans always plotting against us, always thinking they are best, always smelling disgusting. I will rip apart anyone who did this, I will rip them apart and I'll eat their flesh.
The idea is of a goblin that is a death cleric. A 'healer' for the tribes of goblins (and orcs) that go to war, a healer that knows how to fight. The first level in fighter is for all the same reasons (proficiencies and Second Wind) justified by the fact that the goblin has experience in war, the rest is death cleric.
Goblin is a very fitting race in mu opinion plus they have:
- Nimble Escape that offers a unique ability on a bonus action seen only on the Rogue class allowing for a very neat hit and run tactic;
- Fury of the Small will contribute together with Touch of Death (Channel Divinity) to the damage.
Another totally valid race is the VHuman
- Mobile as first feat will give us more mobility avoiding at the same time unwanted AoO.
I AM USING A 27 POINT BUY, if you are using a different method to allocate abilities, I'm sure you are intelligent enough to understand what to do.
Let's start with the fact that I love Constitution and I will generally try and get a very high score on that, even though it means to have a lower score in my second important ability. I am of the opinion that I don't want to be downed. Downed means zero usefulness, I'd rather be charmed and start beating on a party member than be downed and do nothing. Oh the laughs... I will try to get always the highest possible score in COS.
With that out of the way, I wanted to optimize some of the aspects trying to be true to the type of character I'm building.
- Goblin are small, ugly and mostly don't want to reason too much on plans. For these reasons I decided to totally dump STR, INT and CHA.
- Goblin are also very nimble and in a certain sense resilient, so I bumped up both DEX and COS.
- WIS is obviously the skill needed to be a cleric so that is something I had to bump as well.
This would be my preferred ability points distribution for this build:
| Ability | Score | Racial | Total | Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 8 | 8 | -1 | |
| Dexterity | 15 | +2 | 17 | +3 |
| Constitution | 15 | +1 | 16 | +3 |
| Intelligence | 8 | 8 | -1 | |
| Wisdom | 15 | 15 | +2 | |
| Charisma | 8 | 8 | -1 |
With VHuman we get a slightly different array of skills:
- Humans are in general stronger but not as nimble as a Goblin that is why STR receives a small bump while DEX goes down one tier. Not a big deal since the first level in Fighter allows us to be proficient in any type of armor;
- INT and CHA stay average for a regular human;
- As first Feat I would suggest Mobile, but others might fit better your idea.
| Ability | Score | Racial | Total | Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 10 | 10 | 0 | |
| Dexterity | 14 | 14 | +2 | |
| Constitution | 15 | +1 | 16 | +3 |
| Intelligence | 8 | 8 | -1 | |
| Wisdom | 15 | +1 | 16 | +3 |
| Charisma | 8 | 8 | -1 |
Level 20 build progressions are useless, even in the case one wants to play a Lv20 adventure the progression is not that helpful. I will probably list the breakpoints, leaving open the build for any change.
Remember the build is created with the idea in mind of this weird looking guy that jumps in melee, says some guttural words and touches his victims causing necrotic pain (Inflict Wounds, Vampiric Touch) or slices them open and then if needed has the possibility to disengage. High HP and AC paired with the healing from necrotic spells makes it very resilient. From distance he makes use of debuffing spells like Chill Touch or twinning his favourite cantrip: Toll the Dead.
After writing it, it appears that the Goblin build tends to be a little more melee oriented, while the human build seems to be more caster-y.
The build will progress along these lines:
| Level | Class | Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fighter | COS proficiency, Second Wind, all weapons and armor proficiency |
| 2 | Cleric | Death Cleric, Reaper (Chill Touch or Toll the Dead) |
| 3 | Cleric | Channel Divinity - Touch of Death |
| 4 | Cleric | Lvl 2 spells |
| 5 | Cleric | ASI! Goblin +1 DEX +1 WIS, VHuman +2 WIS |
| ... |
At this point you could either finish everything as a Death Cleric, in this case CONGRATS you are done!
One alternative is to take 2 more levels in Fighter (Eldritch Knight) possibly after lvl5 in Cleric to get:
- Action Surge
- Sweet (blade?) cantrips and Shield spell?
Another alternative is to take 2 levels in Wizard school of Necromancy and snag Grim Harvest and some cool Wizard cantrips and spells.
This build seems to be very resilient and being a Cleric is per se very versatile. You could hold the line in melee as well as you can act as a medium range threat. Going in battle with Spirit Guardian doing necrotic damage or Vampiric Touch having beefy HP ad a nice AC makes this guy a pain to deal with.