Up next in 10
X-Men in D&D 5e 💥 How we build parties, not just characters
97K views
Sep 27, 2022
We wanted to demonstrate how players can build adventuring parties instead of a hodge-podge of mismatched characters. Players who proactively discuss their characters in the context of the adventuring party are wise, setting up themselves and their friends to maximize the fun of their campaign. 💥 #SquadGoalsDND We used the Giant-Size X-Men comics for inspiration in this first video, looking at Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Wolverine. These characters are functional on their own, but let's see how they gel together! You can read a write-up of my Nightcrawler concept in my accompanying article: https://www.flutesloot.com/nightcrawler-in-dnd-5e-xmen/ Subscribe to my friends in the video! @Wally DM @Dungeoneer's Pack @Fil Kearney ⏰Time Stamps: 00:00 Squad Goals for the Giant-Size X-Men comics 00:58 Nightcrawler D&D 5e build 04:55 Colossus D&D 5e build 08:14 Wolverine D&D 5e build 12:41 Storm D&D 5e build 17:48 Flaws, ideals, and bonds from backgrounds 19:12 Fiction demonstrates team-based dynamics 19:47 Adapting our builds as a team
View Video Transcript
0:00
Today we're going to do our very first episode of Squad Goals
0:03
We're going to take a look at some pop culture references and we're going to build a team using the characters that are within those references
0:12
We're going to take a look at the giant sized X-Men. Now, this first debuted in the comics in 1975
0:19
Joining me today and introducing the characters that they're going to have, we have Jordan from Flute's Lute that will be giving us a presentation on Nightcrawler and how
0:29
how he would build him. We have Phil Kearney with us that is going to be doing Colossus. And we have Josh from
0:37
Dungeoneers Pack that will be taking Wolverine and being able to put that character together. And for myself
0:45
I will be giving a small idea of how you could play Storm in Dungeons and Dragons. So let's get this
0:52
started. Jordan from Flute, you have Nightcrawler. How would you build Nightcrawler in the game
0:58
So my build with night crawler, I had kind of a tier list of what I wanted to get for sure in the build versus what would just be nice to have
1:06
So one thing that people will think with night crawler is you want to be blue, have a tail, be able to wall crawl, and obviously teleportation
1:12
You want to be able to teleport pretty freely and eventually be able to teleport with someone else because he's really good at rescuing people
1:20
He doesn't just teleport himself. He can rescue others or even teleport others
1:24
So the way I went about it was I said, okay, what are all the things I could do? and I thought, oh, I could be a Shadarqai elf and have like the misty step sort of ability where they like resist damage and I can flavor that to be him teleporting and avoiding damage
1:37
And that's what I thought I was going to do for a while. But then I realized what I could do is have him be a t-fling, which is pretty obvious
1:44
Then repurpose it as a dampeer, which if you don't know, is a lineage that can kind of go over another lineage from Ben Rickton's Guide to Ravenlaw
1:54
And the reason I went with that is because that's the easy. easiest way that I found to get proper wall crawling passively as a character because at level three, the
2:02
dampeer can crawl on walls and hang off of ceilings freely and they don't need to like a hand on the wall
2:07
So then I thought, how do I get a lot of free teleportation? And I realized after a lot of thought that the
2:12
best way to do that, I think, was not the shadow monk because that's too limited to shadows. I went with
2:17
the echo night fighter because you can freely teleport between your echo. And so if you just
2:22
reflaver it as if you're teleporting really quickly between two points, your echo can work like just
2:27
yourself teleporting and making attacks and that sort of thing. And I really like that because you
2:31
can make your echo as many times as you want, switch places with it, three levels of Echo Night
2:35
Fighter. And then I really wanted to get a lot of those teleportation spells along the way as fast
2:40
as possible. It gets Dimension Door specifically for teleporting myself and someone else. I ended up
2:45
deciding between doing a sorcerer because I thought it would be cool to also use MetaMagic to be
2:49
able to distance spell and teleport extra far. But I ended up going it with trickery cleric
2:54
because I like that they get more hit points slightly, and Kurt Wagner is Nightcrawler
3:00
and he is also very religious, whatever that religion be, he's devout
3:04
And so I thought Cleric works extra well. And so I went with trickery cleric, and they get Dimension Door
3:09
They also get blink. They do not get Misty Step, but you can take Fay Touch as a feat and learn Misty Step
3:14
and so that's not really a problem. Along the way, a few more details. Fighting style was dueling for the fighter
3:20
so you can do a sword and shield, because Nightcrawler is known to use scimitars
3:24
and that sort of thing when he's getting extra violent, I guess, let's say. And then also disguise self is one that the trickery cleric gets
3:31
which he's known to use disguises so that he hides his very blue appearance
3:36
Blessing of the trickster is great for helping someone with their stealth. And he also gets invoked duplicity, which again, kind of like the Echo Knight
3:43
where you flavor it as teleporting between the two. Any illusion of himself can kind of work in that way
3:48
So he also gets a mirror image, which I think is a great way to flavor him teleporting to dodge attacks
3:52
Pass without trace could be refavored as. you literally teleporting your whole party somewhere without being noticed
3:57
I also really like getting the Sentinel feet at level seven with trickery four, because then you can use your Echo Knight double as if you teleported to that spot to
4:04
stop someone's movement and keep them in place. Channel Divinity cloak of shadows at level six
4:09
One of his lesser known powers is he actually can almost become invisible in the dark
4:14
And that is Kurt, Nightcrawler. I like to use the Echo Night. That's really clever
4:18
I also like the duplicity, pulling the mirror images. I think it's smart build, man
4:23
Hold on. Yeah, I really like the use of the, specifically the Echo Knight and using its teleportation ability to actually mimic Nightcrawler's ability to teleport
4:30
That was really, really smart. For the illusions or the duplicates you can have, it simply could be like the enemies saw you at that last point
4:37
Yeah, I really like that. I was getting visions of Nightcrawler, being that Echo Knight and seeing, because when I used to play the video game, I remember just like, there's like moments
4:48
And you could just see the trajectory of where he was teleporting to and stuff
4:52
And I really, yeah, I'm very impressed with the Echo Knight. Well done on that. Phil, you've got Colossus
4:57
How are you building Colossus for us? Pretty straightforward, artifice or armor all the way to 20
5:02
If you wanted to go early X-Men when he would have tales of him on the street as a normal person
5:10
then you could opt just for variant human. If you wanted to just go Deadpool and Chrome all the time forever, I would want to go with a war-forged look
5:21
will eventually be able to get gear that's going to make up for the physicality stuff
5:26
It gets fulfilled by 10. It gets really good at 14 and it becomes ridiculous at 20
5:33
The quick skim, an armor, whatever armor you're proficient with or wearing technically
5:39
but you want to be proficient with it so you don't screw yourself up. So whatever armor you're wearing becomes fused to you, it's permanent until you say it's not
5:47
It does thunder damage. If you go with the guardian, and I don't only be going with guardian
5:51
It gives you temporary hit points, and it allows you to ignore any kind of penalties involved with the armor
5:57
And when you punch things, you do thunder damage. The spell repertoire that comes from the artificer-like enlarge, absorb elements, freedom of movement
6:07
he can just break free from stuff. He's colossus. Stone skin, pretty obvious
6:11
All the gear that he gets from the artificer is also subtle stuff like reining of mind shielding
6:17
reing of free action. if you don't want to worry about the freedom of movement. Resistant armor gives you more tankiness when you get hit
6:25
Ring of shielding gives you armor class boosts. You can eventually get a belt of hill giant strength
6:30
which bumps them up to 21 strength in an amulet of health, which puts him at 19 eventually
6:35
He has six times per day your level in temporary hit points that you can load
6:39
So at 20th level, he'd be able to do an extra 120 temporary hit points per day
6:44
and he'd be packing on average around 250 hit points with average
6:48
rolls with that kind of a constitution. He can tank three, 400 points of damage a day
6:53
So, and his armor class is going to be 22. And he's doing 3D8 damage from the fist that he's
6:58
punching with. And he's got abilities that like, if somebody tries to run by you, he just grabs him
7:02
and yanks him to him. It's great. It's a great build. It's, it's dummy simple. But it has the
7:08
flexibility of like, if I need to heal somebody, it's like, you know, let me cook muffins for you
7:13
And he only cooks some muffins and he hands it to him. He's like, bless or cure light or whatever you need
7:18
to do. You can BS the flavor because he's a really personable guy. And on top of it, he's a
7:23
painter. If I recall correctly, there was a time he was spending with Dazzler and Dazzler couldn't be
7:27
photographed because of what she does the light. So she always had to be painted like old school
7:32
album covers. Yeah, were you tempted at all to throw in like a barbarian level just to like make
7:38
your effective HP even bigger or? Yeah. Yeah, I was. Actually, when, when we first talked about it
7:44
I misunderstood this and I thought I was supposed to like create a unique subclass. So I like went full
7:48
in on 20 Barbarian and all this stuff was about like having unlimited lifting capacity being
7:54
able to throw any kind of object like a Wolverine at something to cause extra damage yeah outside of
8:00
being Colossus that just sounds like a fun tank to play I mean you've got you've got you're
8:05
hard to hit you've got all the hit points you've got the damage I mean yeah that's that's definitely
8:10
colossus in a nutshell yeah literal tank so let's uh take a look at Wolverine Josh what do you have for us
8:17
All right, Wolverine's a tough one. Wolverine is a character with a lot of comic history, has a lot of small things that kind of add up to probably one of the most powerful and iconic X-Men in media
8:29
While most of the other X-Men tend to have one, maybe two powers, Wolverine has heightened senses
8:33
He has an amyandium claws and an antimandium skeleton and then a healing factor
8:37
Not all of these things make sense in D&D in Fifth Edition. So I needed to look at especially the healing factor a variety of ways to actually reinforce how he able to survive and able to take hits But first I start off with Hildorf specifically because in the comics Wolverine only 5
8:53
He's a short guy. In the movies, yeah, Hugh Jackman's 6 foot plus, but in the comics, Wolverine isn't
9:00
He's short king, man. He's the short king. So, yeah, I went with Dwarf
9:04
But also, Hilldorf has a couple of things, dark vision. So this also plays into his heightened senses
9:10
Dorvan resilience and Dorven Toughness also play into the healing. So Dorven Resilience, they have an advantage against poison
9:16
Dorven toughness. They get additional hit points. So those two things easily factored into it
9:21
Part of the struggle Wolverine has, he can't really get drunk. Dwarven resilience, he's chugging beers just to get a little, a little buzz before it goes away
9:28
For background, it would have been very easy to go into a soldier because Wolverine has a long
9:33
history of a military career and a variety of settings. But I went with Haunted one because it made a little bit more sense of the tragedy behind
9:40
him of not really having his full memories and constantly going from a tragedy to tragedy and kind of
9:45
reliving life and eventually kind of regaining everything back. So what a hundred one gave me was
9:49
investigation and it also gave me survival which both play into the heightened senses idea of being
9:55
able to kind of track and look deeper into things. Investigation also calls back to some of his
10:00
military training as a CIA agent. And then survival is just his ability to survive in the world after
10:05
with a weapon X he was pretty much was full feral. So this is where he kind of gained the natural ability
10:09
to survive. And then for my. My classes, I did a eight three split between barbarian and fighter
10:14
And for barbarian, I went with Path of the Beast because it was very, very straightforward
10:18
I'm going to berserker rage, go and get my claws and just go to town and get as many attacks as possible
10:24
And then stuff like taking perception to get as another representation of his heightened senses
10:29
Danger sense also is another thing that represents kind of his heightened sense, is able to avoid attacks, avoid stuff that's coming towards him
10:36
Reckless attack is that berserker rage, the berserker barrage that you pretty much see like in every
10:40
Barber versus Capcom game that he features in. He's just going in and attacking. And then I took Feet Dwarven Fortitude as another way to represent his healing factor
10:48
And then with the additional fast movement, it kind of like propels Wolverine to kind of be this snowball effect of a frontline attacker, more focusing on attacking and just dealing as much damage as possible
10:57
So that's from one to five. Then I jumped over to Samurai fighter to also do another call back to his time in Japan
11:04
Pick it up blind fighting as another way to represent his heightened senses. So anybody within a small sense, he picks up that scent and he can still go to town
11:10
fight them. Second win is another big thing that represents a healing factor. Just take a little small
11:15
breather and then just heel back up and then action surge again, berserker rage, just go to town and
11:19
keep attacking. And then with the fighter, you get fighting spirit. And this is kind of a little of
11:23
a non-bow because you rage and then you kind of want to have the barbarian in the years and your
11:28
claws, you get an extra attack as a bonus action. But you need to use your bonus action to hit fighting
11:33
spirit, which will give you advantage on all your attacks, which plays nicely with the way the barbarians
11:37
are set up with brutal critical and stuff like that later on. And after those, you know, three levels in a fighter
11:41
dump back into Barbarian for the rest of the way, just to finish up and really going into taking
11:46
Beastial Soul, Fearal Instinct, but really picking up another feet and going skill expert
11:50
to really double down on heightened senses and to get expertise and perception. Probably the most used skill in the game
11:56
but also it just hits that note of Wolverine being able to track with his eyes
12:00
all his senses. And then also picking up history, as at this point he started to remember everything he's gone through
12:06
That is Wolverine. I was tempted to go Ranger a little bit because that also had that sense of being able to track
12:11
But the madness that would have been with a barbarian ranger split was what turned me off of it
12:16
because it would have been a strength, wisdom, con, and decks build
12:20
Really, really rough to kind of figure out. Fighter does the trick. Very good. Yeah. When I think of Wolverine, I think of rage
12:26
I mean, that's just like the first thing that always comes to mind is him just getting angry. The veins are popping out of his head
12:31
He's got the claws out. Yeah, I definitely love the barbarian aspect of it
12:35
I also really like that rage, the damage resistance that you get from that, You could flavor it as like you're regenerating instead of just resisting
12:41
So I guess that leaves me and I did a character build for Storm
12:47
And the way that I'm thinking of Storm is I want to go with a thief or rogue level one and the rest of the way out on Storm Sorcerer
12:57
Storm is a human in the comics, but I wanted to go with an Ergenasi just because it seemed more flavorful
13:04
Air Genasi also gets the levitate ability. So I really like that as far as being able to disengage from whoever might be in melee combat with them
13:13
They can push off a little bit, levitate up in the air, and then hit them with Ray of Frost and whatever cant trips that she has
13:20
As far as background, Storm was an orphan. Her parents had died in an Arab-Israeli conflict in the comics
13:28
A plane had crashed into her homes. So picking urchin was an easy selection. And also it gives me sleight of hand, stealth and the herbalism kit
13:36
And all of those are important to her backstory because she was an expert thief in her younger days, very good at pickpocketing and picking locks
13:45
She is also an expert gardener. Now, with the rogue, I wanted to hammer in on that first level of rogue for several reasons
13:53
I wanted to emphasize her younger days before she officially became storm with all the powers that she had highlight on that expert thief
14:00
And not only that, but as far as the game goes, we get a lot better skills. Plus, we get the ability to wear leather armor acrobatics
14:07
She's very known for her agility and swiftness, so I get acrobatics there
14:11
She's very high influential with connections and things. She was the queen of Wakanda for a while, I believe
14:17
And so Persuasion came in there for natural leadership skills. Expert Tactician, which I applied with perception and insight, being able to read the battlefield
14:26
After the first level, rogue, I'm going all the way out with Storm Sorcer
14:30
It has her name in it, Storm Sorcer. So it's perfect. It's easy
14:34
You get flight abilities at level one where instead of like a disengaged, because I was
14:38
tempted to go two levels of rogue for that cunning action where we could disengage as a bonus action
14:43
But as a first level of Storm Sorcerer, we get Tim, yeah, something magic. And it allows you to fly up to 10 feet without provoking an opportunity attack
14:51
And that's a bonus action. It's pretty much the same as a disengage that you could use
14:55
At sixth level, we're going to get heart of storm, which is going to give us lightning and thunder resistance
14:59
Plus it will also do a little bit of extra damage to those that are around. She can stop rain in one spot
15:05
She can rearrange winds. At 14th level, we have Storm's Fury, which lets her push some attacker, causes some lightning damage
15:11
And then at 18th level, with the Storm Sorcercer, we get Wind Sol, which Lightning and Thunder
15:16
Immunity, plus she can fly with the 60 foot movement speed or cut back on that a little
15:22
bit and help some of her allies fly. So I really like that because when I think Storm, I think flying
15:27
So the ability at first level to be able to disengage, fly 10 feet to get away, or at least to levitate
15:32
the beginning part of her being able to fly. Now, as far as feats, there's three feats that I would take
15:37
The first one's going to be telekinetic, the telekinetic feat. I'm doing that because I want that plus one to charisma to get my charisma up to the next level
15:43
But I also can refavor a little bit like if she does shove someone, maybe it's a little bit
15:47
of wind that shoves that individual. The other two that I pick, again, this one's going to be more thematic than optimization
15:54
And that's going to be the resilient feat for the plus one to wisdom and give us proficiency
15:59
in wisdom saving throws because she does have an indomitable will. The third one that I'm going to
16:04
pick is going to be at level 12 or 13 world. And that's going to be the inspiring leader feet because
16:10
she was a leader of the X-Men for quite some time. So that one definitely makes a lot of sense
16:14
Finally, I do want to introduce some of the spells that I chose. And a lot of them are going to be
16:17
lightning and thunder base. They're going to be cold base. And they're going to be air or
16:21
gusty wind base. And those cant trips, I'm looking at gust, lightning lure, press the digitation
16:27
Ray of Frost. First level, I'm picking up absorbed elements, fog cloud and witch bolt. Second level
16:33
gust of wind and shatter. Third level, this one I'm really looking forward to. I finally get the ability to fly
16:39
and I get lightning bolt. Both are very important. Fourth level, dimension door and the storm sphere
16:44
Again, it has her name right in it. It can't help but pick that. Fifth level, I might pick up a few other things
16:49
but sixth level, really looking forward to that one for chain lightning and investor of wind. And that's as far as I went with this build
16:56
I think you can get the flavor of playing Storm from right at the get-go
17:00
I mean, you're playing her entire character arc, and you can have a lot of fun with it
17:05
If I were to give advice for optimization, you may want to look at Tempice Clark
17:09
taking two levels of Tempice Clarke to be able to maximize lightning and thunder damage
17:13
But I think this one with the one-level rogue will be a lot of fun, simply to get the better skills
17:18
That's awesome. Freaking on point, man. There's so much weather and lightning-based stuff inside of
17:26
the storm source already, you can really just kid out your entire payload and just stain on
17:31
on flavor That great She seems like a really solid like blaster controller sort of character kind of like normally you would be like the go for that But I think with your loadout that you have for her like she pretty much can trump a druid
17:44
and being able to control the area for her. And area and blast people away. I really like how this came out
17:48
I like how you incorporated her backstory with the rogue level as well
17:53
That's fun. I don't remember if it's comic book canon or if it was just, like, one of the TV shows or something
17:58
But I think she was also claustrophobic. That might be a fun. and flaw to use with her as well
18:03
It's not really a mechanical thing, but it just came to me that that might be fun to think about too
18:07
That's kind of what I like about the X-Men is a lot of them do have those quirks or flaws
18:10
that you can include in your game. And you hit her right on the head. Yeah, she was definitely claustrophobic
18:17
I believe she doubted herself as far as being a leader at one point. She went through a few of those phases
18:21
So if you're going to play a squad with a theme like this, like the giant's size X-Men, I really like the ability of including those quirks
18:31
I'm glad you brought that up. It made me realize I forgot I kind of glossed over something with a night crawler
18:36
I went with the background of the entertainer, a tumbler, because he was part of the circus for a while
18:40
Oh. So he's very acrobatic. And so that was a good one. I tried to make sure he also got religion as a skill for him
18:46
But getting acrobatics and performance from his background just made a lot of sense. And it just feels good
18:51
And I think that's something. So if you want to play a group of characters like this, and I think it's fun
18:56
Any time you can get together with your fellow players, be like, hey, let's play the X-Men
19:01
all pick an X-Men character and build them and this is how we're going to play our new campaign
19:04
I think any time you can do that and really hone in on those backstories, on those flaws
19:09
on those abilities. It's, yeah, it's just a ton of fun. Yeah. And even then, like in the comics, these characters are work kind of in this unison on the narrative level
19:17
and they're pretty much on how their powers actually work. And it's a really great transition into D&D since it is a team-based game
19:23
I think there's too much advice and stuff out there in regards to how you're building your character
19:27
that just focus solely on you, that taking the time to talk
19:31
with your party and be like, hey, we all like this group. We all like the X-Men. Let's play the X-Men
19:35
And you'll find that everything kind of just slots in together. Everybody's going to be able to fit into a role after time to shine and actually be
19:40
be active in the game instead of kind of overlapping what you kind of see in a lot of like single
19:44
character builds that are just focused on making yourself really good. None that we've heard each other's builds because we didn't really vet these ahead of time
19:50
We just kind of made our own. And now we kind of enter the phase of let's see how we would adapt as a team
19:56
Just like we encourage players of D&D to do. You know, look at what your other character, your other players are
20:01
doing with their characters and think how you can adapt. One thing that came to mind when I was making Nightcrawler was I thought, do I have to go
20:07
with a climbing speed lineage or the dampeer like I went with? Or could I just have an artificer in the party who could give me the slippers of spider
20:14
crawling or whatever they're called spider climbing. That would also do the same thing
20:18
And so I really like the Dampere flavor, but it's kind of fun to say like, oh, we have an artificer
20:22
What are some items that they plan on making? Is there room to make, you know, the spider crawling stuff for me
20:27
Because I see that conversation come up a lot with artificers. as other people in the party are like, hey, could you hook me up
20:32
You know? I only need four items of the eight that I get as an armor for me to fulfill what I want
20:40
a colossus. So I've already picked out a small selection of stuff that I would be happy to hand off to the team
20:46
like the boots of the winding path. It requires attunements. Sixth level artifice
20:51
or I can give you teleport as a bonus action 15 feet. Doesn't say there's a time limit on it or a limit at all
20:56
So I could happily hand off nightcrawler, infinite teleportation. That would be cool. I also, I don't remember, can artificeers make boots of
21:04
springing and jumping and spring? Yeah, yeah, they sure can. It'd be funny to give those to Wolverine
21:09
because the Beast Barbarian can already do like super jumps. Yes. So if you gave them the boots
21:14
you could totally flavor it. I think you were kind of referencing Colossus because they do the
21:18
fastball special. Yeah. Yeah. Bro Wolverine. And so if you can jump enough as Wolverine, and so if you can
21:22
jump enough as Wolverine, you can flavor it as Colossus tossing you, that would be really cool
21:26
Absolutely. Also, yeah. Also, also the, also the period up of moon closure. It automatically stabilizes you if you're dying. And if you roll hit dice to gain hit points
21:36
it doubles. So if he's using second wind, it'll be like a third wind. That's strong. And it seemed
21:42
obvious to give wing boots to storm because it's four hours of unlimited flight
21:48
Klossis has a bag full of goodies. Yeah. I mean, you know, the one left will ride him. I would have the eight slot would just be a bag of
21:53
old. It's not necessarily optimal, but one thought that I did have
21:59
was that a storm could hit Colossus with a shocking hands or like just like a piddily what the
22:08
weakest lightning damage that you have I could absorb elements and then when I punch somebody I'd be
22:14
able to channel the lightning that she hits him with grew him but where his target is he's doing
22:19
thunder and lightning damage on a hit perfect reaction every turn I think team tactics what like
22:24
we can probably discuss like roles our character would feel with now that we kind of we know
22:29
what everybody's trying to do. Okay. I can take some of that. Yeah. And I probably would kind of keep his distance and use echo to do attacks if he could
22:35
And I'd probably also use bless a lot, but reflaver it as like, I'm not just like blessing us with
22:41
holy power. But like your attacks and saving throws do better because maybe I am teleporting around to like
22:46
intervene and help. Nice. And so when you go to strike someone, you're blessed with a D4 of extra accuracy
22:52
But maybe that's me teleporting in really quick to the ground and doing like an upper kick at their shield to open them up and that sort of thing
22:58
Especially because Storm won't really rely on attack roles as much, but we three will
23:02
So the Bless covers three of us without having to upcast it. I think that's great
23:06
And so I can just kind of be like the support fighter in it all. What I'm noticing with all four of our builds, there is a quote, quote, lack of healer
23:14
It's like what people would see in a traditional thing. But I don't think this group really needs it. You got Colossus here who pretty much has, you're going to be super, super hard to hit
23:22
And then he has a lot of self-preservation, a lot of ways to mitigate damage on his own. Wolverine build is the same way
23:27
There's a lot of ways to self-heal and kind of. both of us be pretty much in the fight, just tanking, hitting everything
23:31
And then I'm noticing with Nightcrawler, you're going to be zooming in and out of fight, so you're not really going to be the front end of the damage, which leaves it okay
23:37
for Storm to sit in the back and just blast away and just kind of control. So, like, I'm looking at it's like you don't really need, like, a quote-unquote, full healer
23:43
and for this group, you can just survive on potions and all your other features, and you should
23:48
be good to go. Yeah, I think that's in the company stash at Xavier's Man-M mansion
23:53
It's not all those healing potions and super-healing potions. Yeah, open the fridge, take
23:58
out a few, like, yeah. You know what else I like is that the only one of us using heavy armor is Colossus
24:04
I can give Blessing of the Trickster to give advantage on stealth
24:08
And so that offsets the heavy armor's usual disadvantage. And then with Pass Without Trace, like we really can be a pretty good ambush squad as well
24:16
That's great. Which reminds me of in this comic I've got on the shelf right here, there's actually a scene
24:22
where a bunch of enemies, because this is one of their more brutal comics where they actually
24:27
kill people. And night crawler and magic teleport Wolverine and Colossus just straight through
24:33
the head of a car and just pulverize these guys. And so that's kind of what I'm picturing is like us doing
24:41
that. Just imagine you're driving and all of a sudden like portals open up and Colossus and Wolverine
24:45
just smash through your windshield like brutal stuff. I'm skilled empowerment I can give to anybody
24:51
and like the fortress I can give to anybody. Also the jump spell too. So super beast jumping jumps
24:57
Spell, boots of springing. That's a lot of jumping. I can back you up on Bless with the guidance
25:04
Just stay in there. You're doing great. That does prompt, because then you have to ask the DM like, hey, we have all this
25:12
jumping power. Are you going to limit us to you only jumping as far as Wolverine's movement speed
25:17
Or can we have some fun with that? That's a good question for the DM, you know? Absolutely. Or maybe an exception if you had catapult
25:23
That was another way to do fastball special. The DM's like, can he just catapult Wolverine
25:26
Yeah. Can we do that? That's a good way to bargain, right
25:31
Is if the DM doesn't want to just give you the free jumping without movement
25:35
just say, well, what if we just burn a spell? Like Catapult couldn't usually throw someone, but what if we do all this other investment
25:40
What if we burned a spell slot to do it too? And if I were the DM, I'd be like, all right, go for it. Sure
25:46
Storm could use spells like fog cloud or sleet storm that completely removes enemy visibility
25:52
And Wolverine can still see because he's got the blind fighting. Fighting
25:57
Part of me is like, maybe I would do that too. And I would just be teleporting in and being able to whack them
26:03
He could really do a lot of like cloud cover from Storm. If there was going to be more people in the party, like a Gene Gray
26:09
they often do like a telepathic link so that they can all sync up their attack
26:13
So that would make sense why maybe I could see, quote, in the fog
26:17
because Wolverine's feeding me what he's picking up on. That could be some fun stuff if we started adding more party members I do you like that What do you guys think out of this four if we were to add a fifth What role would they need to feel to kind of make up our shortcomings and which character
26:31
within the giant size would be able to fit that role? Thunderbird and Cyclops. I think there was the other two we didn't pick
26:36
But then in addition to that, the other members of the team were Sunfire and Banshee were
26:41
also a giant size X-Men. So both them, all four of them were missing
26:45
I really do like the idea of Gene Gray as like an aberrant mind sorcerer or something like
26:49
that giving us all telepathic links. Then we'd have two sorcerers. That just sounds fun
26:53
Since I don't have a lot of familiarity with the X-Men and stuff
26:57
would there be one that is more of a support type of a class
27:01
like a bard or a cleric? Do any of them fit that role? I mean, there's so many X-Men, but, like, this giant-sized, we're more limited
27:08
There's a lot of them that would be great supports. You mentioned, like, what if we did have a healer
27:12
Elixir is an X-Men in more recent comics who can heal Zorn before he was revealed
27:18
to be Magneto, which he basically looked like a war forage. It was pretty cool
27:22
And using nanobytes to, like, heal Professor Xavier's paralysis and stuff like that
27:27
Some pretty nutty stuff. Yeah, Dazzar will be pretty strong in like in the bard, especially being a bard
27:32
Yeah, that's pretty straightforward. And then maybe Jubilee. Her abilities aren't as, as expansive, but they're very more support-driven
27:39
It could probably be some sort of a variation of an illusionist build, I can see with that
27:43
But yeah, even if we were still limiting to the giant size, the only one I can possibly see
27:47
or Professor X, but he's actually still there. Yeah. He's the one that sends them out to go find the rescue the rest of the X-Men on that
27:54
first issue. I can see Prox doing like a divination wizard and then like loading up on like on Scri
28:03
an arcane eye. So it could be. You can just take over the mind of, I know you can see through the eyes of normal people
28:08
I don't know if you can see through animals or not. I mean, he's a professor, so he's smart. What if he was an enchantment wizard because he's all about like mind control and mind reading
28:16
except when he has cerebral to do like the tracking and stuff like you were talking about. And it can set up that telepathic link like we were talking about
28:22
What if you also went with for a level or a few levels of peace cleric to do that bond that they can create with each other so that they, it's kind of like a bless spell
28:31
And then later on it helps them like coordinate their efforts in some way. That could be a cool way to play Professor X
28:37
Yeah, I think we've got a pretty good team here. And that's one of the great things about X-Men as inspiration is there's so many different characters and specialties that it's kind of easy to come together
28:46
you and all your friends like X-Men. And again, you don't have to be like, oh, we are the X-Men, but sometimes it's fun to find
28:51
some inspiration along the way and just try to build them. And sometimes you find concepts you really like
28:56
Like, I'd be excited to play this group as we just presented it. I think we'd have some fun
29:01
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Most definitely, yeah. Is there anything else we could discuss that would be helpful for people to plan teams and
29:08
tactics instead of just their own characters with like no thought for the campaign or what
29:12
the other players are doing? Is there anything we could discuss in that way? The only comment I would say is, like you were saying about leaning into flavor and bribing the DM to let you bend the rules at a sacrifice
29:23
And if you're looking to bend the rules, if you're looking to bend it so that your character can make someone else's characters shine more, like I'm willing to, I'm willing to sacrifice catapult spell slots so that Wolverine can perform the Cannda Ball special, for instance
29:40
Like I'm going to use my resources so that he can shine. I as a DM have often, like if you will sacrifice a feat, I'll let you do this extra thing
29:47
Or if you eat up two of your third level spell slots immediately when you wake up
29:52
then I'll let you do this little perk. You can always compromise, especially if you're willing to give up more than the DM
29:57
the thing that you would. I think DMs actually would crave that from players because it allows them to have a little
30:01
more control over what their abilities actually are, being able to sculpt the party into
30:06
well, this is what they do well. I know there's still holes in their abilities here, here and here
30:10
So when I need to pull out challenges, I know I can, I know I can, to approach the team and not where you got just being rolled over
30:16
Yeah, I can think of some examples when I've been a DM and a player. And man, do those moments stick out when someone is trying to make someone else look good
30:23
And this is an improvisation principle I've talked about in an improv video where the more you try to make your fellow players and the DM look good
30:31
the more people are going to want to play with you and the more fun people are going to have. And so if you can do those negotiation moments like, oh, so-and-so is trying to do something, but the DM's not totally cool with it
30:40
What if I burn a resource to make it happen? you know, have that little negotiation moment
30:44
Whoa, they're really trying to make that other person succeed. And that really sticks out
30:48
And as a DM, I'm like always open to that sort of thing. Absolutely. I love that
30:53
I think for me, like if players are looking to do this and wanting to corral their group to really figure out and build together
31:00
I don't think that conversation gets spoken to enough. We talk a lot about session zero
31:04
And then everybody kind of sort of brings their own character already. And sometimes you get these mixed mass parties of just like solo characters
31:10
that all sort of are kind of just banded together. It's a good opportunity to take session zero
31:14
and not bring anything and everybody kind of just talk and be like, hey, what if we do the X-Men
31:18
What if we do Fantastic Four, whatever team you want to do? But also be up front with the DM and let them know
31:22
hey, you're running this kind of campaign. We think if we kind of model or inspired by these characters
31:27
fit within that realm, it gives a DM incentive to kind of include some of more of those themes into the game
31:33
Because X-Men alone, it's the mutant gene. That your DM can very much include some sort of
31:38
there's this like hex blood magic with all these characters that are there kind of binding them and you kind of can bring the flavor of the mutant gene and mutants into that world and bind your characters even closer together to you like you open their possibilities it's money communication is I think is always the big the big point for all this stuff just be open and talk with each other and with your DM I think not only that but when you bring hey we're all going to play X-Men characters so the DM's like okay I get villains you know so right on I've been into so many
32:08
session zero's where the players just kind of show up and passively listen to the DM and the
32:13
DM kind of goes over some stuff sometimes it can go in one ear and out the other and players don't
32:18
align with what was even talked about it's kind of weird if players are active in session zero like hey
32:22
what are you doing and I've tried to do this sometimes and sometimes it's kind of like hitting a wall like hey does anyone want to know my character ahead of time maybe we have history together and it's like
32:29
crickets that that hurts sometimes people should be more willing in session zero as players to really
32:34
feel things out and really explore things and use that time otherwise session zero
32:38
oftentimes can be a waste of time if you're not actively engaged in it
32:42
Yeah, I absolutely love it when at least a few of the players like, hey, let's do a shared backstory or, you know, something like that
32:50
Those are awesome. I'm just sitting back and listen. So even then, I played with my play group for years now
32:56
And then, even then when we started a campaign, you can feel when the synergy is there with the characters and everybody kind of just brought their solo hero into the game
33:05
And you feel it. And most of the time, those campaigns we play, they end pretty quick
33:10
And the ones that end up lasting longer and we end up playing them
33:14
It's more there's a bit of a structure where to like, hey, we're building in a team orientation
33:19
And everybody sort of picks the other class or whatever. And then we end up having more fun that way
33:23
Yeah. It's just changing that mindset of we, not me. You can think of concepts that you normally wouldn't when you work together
33:29
Like we were kind of talking about. Like one time, my wife and I kind of planned our characters together and she was going to be a big bug bear and I was going to be a tiny cobald
33:36
I was like, what if I just ride around on your back and your backpack all the time? You know? It's like stuff like that is fun to think of ahead of time and it gets you excited to play
33:43
This is why we are doing this series of squad goals is to inspire you to plan as a team instead of just lone character, your lone wolf, who somehow become a part of the group
33:52
So those are the characters that we would build if we were having an entire party that was the giant size X-Men
33:59
Leave a comment below. Let us know what character you would bring to the table and what you think of these builds
34:05
What would you do differently? And did you enjoy this type of video
34:09
I want to thank my YouTube friends for joining us. Let them know where they can find you
34:13
Jordan. Hey, you can find me at the Flutes Lute YouTube channel. I do all kinds of D&D content
34:18
It's kind of a whatever is the flavor of the week with me and my wife doing videos
34:22
How about you, Phil? The best way to keep track of what I have going on is through Twitter at Phil Kear at Phil Kearney, as written at F-L-L-K-E-A-R-N-E-Y
34:29
You can also search on YouTube for Phil Kearney and you'll find my content there
34:33
I paints. You can search Phil Kearney on. on DM's Guild to see all the products I put out there 100% preview
34:39
So if you like them, buy them. Otherwise, skip it. And Josh
34:43
Hello, I am Josh from Dungeon Neers Pack. My channel focuses on character builds based off of flavor
34:48
And also I focus on the character options and how you can actually fit them into other fifth edition settings, all wrapped up in a nice short presentation video
34:56
Fantastic. Thanks again, everybody for joining me. And thank you for watching
35:00
And we'll see you next time. On to the next
#Action & Platform Games
#Board Games
#Fighting Games
#Miniatures & Wargaming
#Roleplaying Games
#Virtual Worlds