Before anything else, I'll be writing about the 2014 (?) 5th edition of D&D, not the latest set of rules that were released a few years ago. I have not read the newest ones.
There is an entry in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes about the Drow Shadowblade. Since reading it I've gotten curious how to create a build that could do some of the things it could. In the end I came up with this crazy build.
Before I continue here are the reasons why I got curious about the Shadowblade. They have this Shadow Sword, and they can Shadow Step. Aside from that, if I understood the write up correctly, they're basically assassins. No, I am not an edgelord (I hope).
I haven't played nor done a full build yet. I've done lots of theorycrafting sure, but it's literally been years since my friends and I last played a D&D game. I do know that with the DM's permission I will be doing this build, whether the game is serious or not. I won't be doing a deep dive with the build, just some generic details. So here we go.
I'll be using, of course, a drow. Yes, I understand the penalties that race gets when adventuring under the sun. That will be part of the fun. Being the optimizer that I am, I'll be giving him the Variant Criminal: Spy background. So basically he's being trained by an organization to have special skills. Think of the League of Shadows in Batman Begins.
From an optimizer's perspective this is also a nice background to have as it gives your character proficiency in thieves' tools, which I think is always a nice thing to have in case of emergencies.
We're starting out the build with a warlock. Pick your patron, pick your pact. I'm probably going with fiend and pact of the blade. I'll most likely reach level 3 for warlock before multiclassing. Level 3 gives you access to level 2 spells, and I'll be taking Shadow Blade, which was added in Xanathar's Guide to Everything and is allowed to be used by warlocks.
Once we reach level 3 I'll be multiclassing to Monk, Way of the Shadow. Then I'll be leveling this up until level 6, when the Way of the Shadow gets Shadow Step. The final build will have Warlock 8 and Monk 12, or Warlock 4 and Monk 16. It depends on what features I want or how the storyline goes.
So that's it. My Drow Shadowblade build would take effect at level 9. The biggest issue here is that by then I'll only have had one ability score increase so I need to be smart with where I assign the ability scores, or if I pick a feat instead.
Finally the ability scores. I usually go with standard array so here's the starting values with the Drow racial bonuses applied: STR 8, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 10, WIS 15, CHA 14. I was thinking of getting the Resilient (WIS) feat at Monk 4 so I get proficiency in Wisdom as well as an AC of 16.
So that's it, at least in vague and general terms. My dream Shadowblade build. Hopefully I get a chance to play this character in the future.
Out.
