Hi all, this post will go over my latest project, the Nightblade. This build aims to explore underutilised mechanics while also fitting into the classic fantasy nightblade archetype. It is by no means finished or perfect, so feedback is appreciated.
This build will:
- Fullfil the nightblade archetype thematically and in playstyle
- Be combat focused, using its stealth capabilities in open combat
- Be a dexterity focused striker that deals high damage and can off-role as the party sneakthief / lockpicker
- Extensively utilise illusion spells to disorient and disable enemies while vanishing into the shadows
- Be optimised for solo HM, but will function perfectly in party HM with minor gearing changes (which I will point out)
- Flex-role as the party cleave / aoe supplier
- Explodes in power at the start of act 3 with many core items coming available at this point, but can come online as early as level 6
Inspiration:
There are two mechanics I've been playing with recently which I feel are underutilised and have inspired me to create this build.
- The first is invisibility in combat, a very strong defensive option which can protect squishy damage dealers. The main issue with invisibility in this game is concentration conflict and the fact greater invisibility is greatly nerfed in HM, making repeated casting of minor invisibility a necessity. This build will utilise concentration-less control and damage spells, have extremely high stealth checks to stay invisible with greater invisibility, and as many spell slots as possible to spam minor invisibility. It will prioritise damage over defense to make the most of the aggro-relief provided by invisibility.
- The second is the use of arcane acuity and the mystic scoundrel ring for purposes other than control spells. This build will use acuity gear to raise the DC of its damage spells to ensure they won't be saved for maximum damage output. It will use the scoundrel to cast invisibility and damage spells using its bonus actions, freeing up main actions for high martial damage.
Build mechanics:
The basic premise is to use the shadowblade + resonance stone for extremely high melee damage while building acuity for our spells and activating mystic scoundrel. With consumables this build can hit 5 times a turn with the shadowblade and build 10 stacks of acuity. Then cast a acuity-boosted, twincast, upcast, dissonant whispers for high damage and to frighten enemies, and then go invisible at the end of the turn, both using bonus actions.
Race:
- No particular race is required. The build struggles slightly with mobility in act 1/2 so I took wood elf for movement speed.
Levelling:
The core chassis of this build is 6 Swords Bard / 3 Shadow Sorcerer.
6 Swords Bard supplies:
- Extra attack for two shadowblade hits per action while still retaining full spell progression
- Minor Invisibility, the primary source of invisibility for this build. We will cast this at the end of every turn unless casting greater invisibility instead.
- This build's core spell, Dissonant Whispers. An exceptional spell which has the rare quality of being both a damage and control spell, and a control spell that does not require concentration. This spell deals psychic damage which gets doubled by the resonance stone so has great synergy for the build. It also inflicts frighten with *no save*. Laugh as the few opponents who survive your attacks are forced to pass their turn as they cannot move. We will cast this with a BA every turn as long as we have spell slots / sorcery points, upcasting as necessary.
- Slashing flourish, a truly OP class ability which sends this build's damage output through the roof and supplies excellent cleave. Save all bardic inspiration for this and don't be afraid to spam it.
- Sneak and Slight of Hand expertise. This gives us the best chance to pass greater invisibility's stealth check and allows the build to function as an excellent lockpicker.
- Glyph of warding. This is a phenomenal spell which can put whole groups of enemies to sleep without concentration. It also provides elemental damage against the few psychic-immune enemies. Lightning / cold is usually the best option due to wet / chilled synergy, more on that later. You can cast this using haste / bloodlust actions when no enemies are in slashing flourish range.
3 Shadow Sorcerer supplies:
- This build's core metamagic, twinspell. Twinspell can be used with dissonant whispers to target two enemies at a time. This doubles our spell damage output and allows the build to frighten 2 enemies per turn. When casting whispers at level 1 this is very resource efficient. When upcasting whispers it becomes very expensive, but is absolutely worth it. More on maintaining spell slots / sorcery points later.
- Shadowblade. This build's preferred weapon, dealing 4d8*2 damage per hit when upcast to lvl 5 with the resonance stone, few other weapons in the game can hope to match its power. With 9 Spellcaster levels this build will always have access to max-upcast shadowblade across all variants.
- Extended spell. This can be used with whispers when there is only 1 enemy in range to frighten them for 4 turns. This can take a powerful enemy out of the entire fight (again with *no save*) as this build will not usually take longer than 3 turns to end a fight.
- Quickspell. This isn't useful for the build's main strategy but can be useful when flex-casting elemental spells against psychic-immune enemies
- Mage hand. This is a swiss army knife cantrip which has many applications. For this build, it lets us setup haste or apply wet without using an action. Precast the hand and drop a potion of haste or water bottle before entering combat, then throw the potion water at yourself/enemies.
- Strength of the grave. This class ability provides a death ward effect for free every long rest. In solo HM, this ability can be the difference between getting out alive or being sent back to the title screen.
- Eyes of the dark: Darkness. This class ability lets the build setup darkness without a spell slot which also doesn't blind the caster. This competes with invisibility for concentration, but is worth using in specific circumstances and certain fights. As ranged enemies cannot shoot into the darkness, and melee enemies will be blinded, casting darkness and hiding inside it is a very effective defensive play.
- Shield. This spell provides +5 AC on demand, an excellent safety net if we ever get caught out of invisibility.
- Booming blade. This provides a little extra damage when out of slashing flourishes or there is only 1 enemy in range. It also sets up arcane synergy for even more damage.
The best use of the last 3 levels is 1 Wizard / 2 Paladin (more on variants later).
1 Wizard supplies scribing, including essential summoning spells for aggro relief and also gives access to greater invisibility. In solo HM this build requires summons to hold aggro while this build weaves in and out of invisibility and focuses on dealing damage.
- Scribe animate dead, minor / major elemental, and beastial communion. Ghoul flock are excellent cannon fodder which setup paralysis for even more damage for the build, the paralysis DC is low but it activates surprisingly often. Elementals / Deva need no explanation, use water elemental / myrmidon when setting up wet + water elemental can set up filled for our frost spells. It's also possible to use exploits to equip many of your summons with shadowblades, which sends the overall damage output to the moon. I did not use this as I wanted my fights to actually be fights.
- Greater Invisibility allows this build to stay invisible while attacking. In HM the stealth check to stay invisible becomes mathematically impossible in only a few hits. However this build has extremely high stealth checks with high dexterity, proficiency, expertise, and advantage from resonance stone. Therefore, if you are having a low-resource turn next turn (E.G. only attacking 3 times total), it is possible to cast greater invisibility at the end of the turn instead of minor invisibility. If you are planning a high resource turn with bloodlust, haste, etc, then casting greater invisibility is a waste as it is not mathematically possible to stay invisible the whole turn.
- globe of invulnerability, counterspell, and chain lightning, are excellent utility options
- In party HM summons are not necessary and the wizard dip is more optional. However, access to most of wizard's spell list including globe of invulnerability, chain lightning and many ritual spells bard doesn't get is still very worth it.
2 Paladin supplies:
- divine smite, which this build will combine with paralysis for an excellent damage spike.
- defence fighting style for an easy +1 AC
- Crown is the optimal oath here for a precast buff to accuracy using it's channel oath. However, being held to an oath doesn't fit the theme so I broke mine and played oathbreaker. YMMV.
- Command, our tertiary concentration-less control spell. Combine with extended spell and upcast to disable many enemies at once for multiple turns. Command: approach can be used to group enemies for slashing flourish / glyph of warding, enemies will follow even while invisible. Command: grovel can be used to setup prone for your ghoul's devour attack and setup advantage in general. Often in solo HM enemies will be grouped anyway so dissonant whispers is the preferred cast for the greatly increased damage output, but extended command is the gold standard for concentration-less control and will always have a place in the build.
Overall, this multiclass allocation functions similarly to SSB, which annoys me as I was actively trying to make an innovative build, however sometimes the strongest classes are what they are and the synergy between SB and Paladin isn't going anywhere. What separates this build from SSB is the use of the shadowblade instead of shar's spear, invisibility instead of darkness, and dissonant whispers instead of command (although this build is actually a better command user thanks to extended spell). While the progression and abilities are similar, the Nightblade plays completely differently in practice. And of course this build doesn't need to use smites at all (see variants), it's just the highest burst option. I didn't know about SSSB when making this build which would have saved me a lot of time as it uses very similar optimisations.
Stats:
- Strength: 8
- Dexterity: 17 (20), + hags hair, + mirror of loss
- Constitution: 8 (23), + amulet of greater health
- Intelligence: 16 - if not using con amulet then dump int and raise con
- Wisdom: 8
- Charisma: 15 (16), + patriars memory
Starting Class:
The most important saving throws for this build are wisdom and dexterity, so the starting class should be either wizard or bard respectively. Wisdom is the most important mental save against control spells, and failing a single control save can be run-ending in solo HM. Meanwhile, staying hidden when an enemy casts detecting presence is a dexterity save so opening bard helps to stay invisible. Detecting presence has a small radius and you should generally try to move away from your last known position where possible. Further, this build already has excellent dexterity saves while having poor wisdom saves. For this reason I recommend opening wizard in solo HM and opening bard in party HM.
Itemisation: E - essential, R - recommended, O - optional
Mainhand:
- Shadowblade lvl 5 (R). 4d8*2 damage per hit. You will struggle to find a higher damage melee option. You can of course use whatever weapon you want if it's more flavourful for you, but this is always going to be the best damage.
- Bloodthirst (O) for psychic immune enemies, I mainly relied on spells for these targets however.
Offhand:
- Rhapsody (R). This exceptional dagger provides +3 spell DC, hit chance, and damage. And can be wielded without the duel wielder feat. This build uniquely uses all 3 buffs and gets insane value from this item. Equip it when you get it and never take it off.
- Belm's Scimitar (O). This sword lets you attack with shadowblade using your BA once per turn. This comes at a heavy opportunity cost over rhapsody or another stat stick. Further, even a lvl 1 twincast dissonant whispers will match Belm for damage while freeing up the offhand and frightening enemies,. Unless you have literally 0 spell / sorcery points this is a bad pick. You can however swap to it when you are totally out of resources which I did do mid-combat a single time in my run.
- Shield of devotion (R). This shield can be used to exploit infinite sorcery points and spell slots up to lvl 5. Simply convert all lvl 1 spell slots to sorcery points, equip the shield, convert its free spell slot to sorcery points, unequip and re-equip. This can be used to manage the high resource cost of upcast twincast dissonant whispers, divine smites, and casting invisibility every turn. It can also allow you to enter a fight with more spell slots than normally possible. For example, if I want to leave camp with 20 lvl 5 spell slots, I can, the only limit is patience. From a power gaming perspective, the existence of this item makes high resource build options superior and lets this build push past normal spell slot limitations to its damage and invisibility uptime. It also makes any summon at lvl 5 or below effectively free, as you can cast them out of combat and then recover the spellslot immediately. It is tedious to do, but when you are 80 hours into a run spending 10 minutes to stack resources before a big fight is maybe not a bad idea.
- Markoheshnir / staff of spell power (R). While we cannot wield these in combat, their arcane battery ability can be used to recover spell slots spent on summoning at the start of the day.
Headgear:
- Helm of Grit (R). This helmet is what enables this build to function by providing an extra BA to be used to go invisible at the end of every turn. This requires you to be below 50% hp which is scary at first in solo HM. However, when combined with Aid, Heroes Feast, and Amulet of Health, this build sits at 80 hp with grit active. Which is more hp than an unboosted bard has. This combined with this build's extremely high AC and we are no glass cannon whatsoever. And of course, the build never intends to be targetable in the first place.
- Helm of Bulduran (O). A defensive option which prevents crits and stun. Easily best in slot when getting an extra BA elsewhere.
Chestpiece:
- Armor of Agility (R). Often the default choice for solo HM and dex builds in general, this armor piece provides a staggering 22 AC alongside a universal +2 to all saving throws. Remembering that staying invisible against detecting presence and maintaining concentration on invisibility are both saving throws and the value of this item is obvious. It also helps shore up mental saves against control spells.
- Shadeclinger armor (R). This armor can be equipped while obscured and then removed to grant advantage on all saves. This completely offsets the downside of resonance stone and gives advantage to staying invisible against detecting presence. This is an exploit, see amulet options for alternatives.
- Psionic Ward armor (O). If not camp-casting then this can be used to offset the psychic vulnerability of resonance stone. It may be better to just leave the stone at camp when fighting psychic opponents however.
- Robe of the weave (O). This provides a solid 20 AC when combined with dragon sorcerer and +1 spell save DC. Unfortunately lacks drip.
- Elegant Studded Leather (O). Use this in combination with Vicious Shortbow for damage optimization in party HM.
Gauntlets:
- Battlemage's power (R). These gauntlets provide arcane acuity on spell attacks using a weapon and have a unique (bugged) interaction with shadowblade. Every shadowblade hit activates these gloves for some reason, turning them into a clone of the helm of acuity which frees up the more contested headgear slot for something else. Since this build can stack 10 stacks before using its first spell in combat, this item is equivalent to *five* hoods of the weave, and only using the glove slot. You will not find a higher value item for this slot.
- Abyss Beckoners (O). These gloves provide damage resistance to all summons while driving them mad. Most of the summons this build will use are immune to this madness and so these gloves give a huge bump to summon tankiness with little drawback. However, this leaves the build with no acuity and unacceptably low spell DC.
- Gloves of Dexterity (O). These can be used to free up attribute points for higher wisdom and better mental saves. And allow the use of mirror of loss on charisma for slightly better base spell DC. However, this leaves the build without acuity and therefore much lower DC in practice.
Boots:
- Helldusk boots (R). These boots singlehandedly offset any downside to dumping strength while also providing blanket immunity to various sources of forced movement. They also grant a guaranteed saving throw once per long rest, which is an excellent safety net. Getting thrown into a chasm is a dumb way to lose a HM run, wear these boots.
Rings:
- Mystic Scoundrel (E). This is a core item which enables the build to cast invisibility and dissonant whispers using bonus actions. Don't miss it and don't take it off once you get it. This is the single most essential item for the build. If this ring is contested elsewhere in party HM either prioritise to this build or save the nightblade for another run.
- Ring of arcane synergy (O). This can be activated with a booming blade and provides +6 damage per hit. Since this build can theoretically hit 10 times a turn with shadowblade this scales up to meaningful damage.
- Ring of protection (O). A great defensive option bolstering saves and AC, helping the build stay invisible and resist control.
- Sparkswall, Ring of Poison Resistance (O). If you are not paying with camp casting and thus cannot cast warding bond then the second ring slot should be used for defensive options. Plan ahead and equip the appropriate resistance ring for whatever damage you expect to receive.
- Crypt Lord Ring (O). This gives access to the create undead spell, a tanky summon which gets a multi-attack against frightened enemies. We have multiple sources of frighten so this summon has excellent synergy with the build. If using the thief variant (see below) this ring is your only option in solo HM for a summon to draw aggro while you do your thing.
- Shadowblade ring (O). This can be used to create a second shadowblade to replace Belm in the off-hand. Unfortunately limited to lvl 2 and therefore only superior to Belm when combined with the deathstalker mantle in a no-resource variant (see below).
Amulet:
- Amulet of greater health (R). This provides a huge bump to hp and can be used to almost completely offset helm of grit.
- Amulet of the devout (O). An excellent offensive option providing +2 spell DC. The best choice for party HM.
- Amulet of fey semblance (O). If not using the shadeclinger exploit this should be used to offset resonance stone.
- Spellcrux amulet (R). This can be used to regain any spellslot once per long rest. Use this at the start of the day to recover lvl 6 spell slots spent on summoning.
Cloak:
- Wavemother's cloak (R). This provides +2 AC and saves before getting hit each turn. This build loves both of those things and has no intention of getting hit anyway.
- Cloak of the Weave (O). +1 spell DC, the best option for party HM.
- The deathstalker mantle (R). This provides free invisibilty every turn after a kill which is fantastic. However, it is limited to durge runs. Also, this prevents you from continuing to attack after your first kill which can severely limit damage output. Using this allows for high invisibility uptime at much lower resource cost. However, the wavemother is better for actually staying invisible with its higher saves.
Bow:
- Hellrider Longbow (R). This bow brings the build's initiative to +8, as this build really wants to go first this is an obvious pick.
- Darkfire Shortbow (O). If playing without warding bond this bow can be used for fire and cold resistance.
- Vicious Shortbow (O). Use this with a different initiative item (you want at least 1 initiative item if not more) in party HM to maximise damage output. Crits are easier to set up in party HM as well, so this item puts out consistent damage.
Miscellaneous:
- Resonance stone (E). This item doubles our damage output while simultaneously granting advantage on dexterity checks. This includes the check to stay invisible with greater invisibility, and lockpick checks. It also imposes disadvantage on enemies' mental saves, including against dissonant whispers and command, which combined with acuity will ensure our spells will never be saved. It's a high risk high reward item, which is exactly what this build wants as it already has safety from invisibility. The downsides can be largely offset with items as outlined above.
- Astral touched tadpole (R). This item grants the partial-ilithid buff. This provides true flight, which helps immensely with the mobility issues this build otherwise has. Also, many ilithid powers deal psychic damage and as such get excellent synergy with the build. Try to get the awakened buff from the zaithisk. In particular, mind blast deals aoe psychic and stun. If there are 3 or more enemies in the radius this becomes superior to twincast whispers. It can also be cast using a bloodlust action if awakened was missed. Black Hole can be used to group enemies for slashing flourish and tip the action economy in your favour.
Feats.
This build only gets one feat, and that feat should always be savage attacker. Savage attacker is proportionally more valuable the more of your damage comes from dice rolls as opposed to flat additions. For this build that is the overwhelming proportion of its damage so savage attacker is extremely potent.
Variants:
3 fiend warlock - My favourite variant. This requires going down to 2 sorcerer. It supplies:
- 2 level 2 spell slots per short rest. This lets this build cast invisibility 8! extra times per long rest, allowing this build to fit into low resource short rest teams. However it loses out on high level summons and support spells, and is the lowest damage variant. Be sure to pick up invisibility using your warlock levels as this will make invisibility use your warlock pact magic spell slots before your regular spell slots. Combine with Belm or an off-hand shadowblade created by the shadowblade ring and the deathstalker mantle for a low-no resource variant of the build which can succeed in no-rest challenges and make the most of day-long buffs like elixirs, bliss spores, etc.
3 Thief - requires dropping wizard scribing
- This build requires at least 2 BAs to function. If you are not using helm of grit due to cowardice then this variant must be used. It can also be used alongside grit for even more dissonant whisper spam, but comes at a heavy cost in spell progression and the paladin variant outdamages with divine smites. Also useable with the no-resource itemisation outlined above.
Consumables:
- Bloodlust elixir. This excellent elixir is easy to craft and provides a significant bump in damage whenever killing an enemy, which with this build is almost every turn. Conceptualise this as a free haste every single turn, and it is clear why no other elixir slot is worth considering. Try to have this active always, unless using a resistance elixir against certain bosses when playing without camp casting.
- Terazul. This expensive and late-game drug applies a haste effect that stacks with potion of speed, and requires no action to consume. Save this for major act 3 bosses like Raphael and netherbrain.
- Potion of Speed. This build's only source of haste in solo HM. In party HM potion reliance can be reduced with a haste support caster. Buy these wherever possible and use for any strong boss / encounter.
- Oil of accuracy. This build already has excellent accuracy but this can be used for very high AC bosses. I never used nor needed it for my solo HM run using this build, but it's there if you need it.
- Crawler mucus / karabasan's poison. An excellent option for concentration-less paralysis on top of our ghouls, which greatly increases damage output.
Camp Casting / Morning Routine:
There is some debate on whether camp casting is valid for solo HM. I consider solo HM to be any HM run where only the player avatar participates in combat, so camp casting is valid for me. However, I have made gearing accommodations for no camp casting solo HM runs above. Naturally, solo HM without camp-casting is much harder for any build and requires careful planning / gearing. Note - I haven't tried equipping the warding bond ring onto a summon as I don't really do summon exploits but that could be a really funny way to get warding bond in no camp casting runs.
- The main camp casting priorities for this build are warding bond, free action, upcast aid, and heroes feast. This provides resistance to all damage types except psychic, immunity to poison, immunity to paralysis, and 160 total hp when combined with the health amulet.
- Start the day by casting lvl 5 shadowblade and minor elemental, recover these slots using shield of devotion. Cast ritual spells like longstrider as appropriate. Summon deva, ghoul flock, and myrmidon using Spellcrux amulet and arcane batteries. Preserve your actual lvl 6 slot for combat. This gives you a maximum of 2 lvl 6 spells in combat, 1 with the spell slot and 1 with freecast. Become obscured and equip then unequip the shadeclinger armor for advantage on all physical saves and neutral mental saves. You can quickly get below 50% hp to activate grit by unequipping and re-equipping the amulet of health.
Early game:
This build truly comes online at the end of act 2 / start of act 3, with many essential items available at this point such as the resonance stone and mystic scoundrel. This also about the time you'll have enough levels to get the core chassis online at lvl 9 for 6 bard / 2 sorcerer / 1 wizard.
However this build can get a bootleg version working as early as lvl 6 in act 1. Get to level 6 however you want, bard is incidentally a great early game class for solo HM with hand crossbow proficiency, decent hp, ritual casting, and many powerful offensive / utility spells. You can get 2 +1 hand crossbows and a +1 breastplate from damon. There's an exploit to get the helldusk armor in act 1, otherwise rush grymforge for the adamantine scale mail. Take easy fights and farm exp as much as possible.
Once at level 6 respec to 3 Thief / 3 GOOlock. Cast shadowblade and equip it in the off-hand. You can now attack twice per turn with shadowblade and cast dissonant whispers using your main action, cast invisibility using your bloodlust / haste action. If without bloodlust or haste just skip whispers and go straight to invisible. Balanced hands is necessary here as I don't think there's another way to get off-hand proficiency with this split.
Damage output:
Disclaimer - mathematics is not my strong suit and I used a DnD dice calculator to calculate savage attacker damage. I believe the numbers work the same in bg3 though.
Optimal possible single turn average damage - assuming perfect conditions, paralysis on all targets, at least two targets in range at all times, arcane synergy pre-activated (note - actual damage in normal gameplay will be usually be much lower due to target unavailability, resource limitations, and inconsistent paralysis):
- Main hand action: lvl 5 shadowblade slashing flourish with lvl 4+ divine smite on a critical hit with savage attacker, arcane synergy, and 3 scarlet remittance: (((8d8+5+3+3)x2)+10d8)x2 = 296.18
- Extra attack: same as above: = 296.18
- Bloodlust action: same as above = 296.18
- Haste action: same as above = 296.18
- Terazul action: same as above = 296.18
- Bonus action: lvl 6 twincast dissonant whispers with scarlet remittance: (8d6+3)x2x2 = 124
- Total average dpr: 1,604.9
Optimal average single turn damage without crits:
- Main hand action: lvl 5 shadowblade slashing flourish with lvl 4 divine smite with savage attacker, arcane synergy and scarlet remittance: (((4d8+5+3+3)x2)+5d8)x2 = 173.18
- Extra attack: same as above: 173.18
- Bloodlust action: same as above: 173.18
- Haste action: same as above: 173.18
- Terazul action: same as above: 173.18
- Bonus action: lvl 6 twincast dissonant whispers with scarlet remittance: (8d6+3)x2x2 = 124
- Total average dpr: 989.925
Average low-resource/suboptimal single turn damage (assuming no crits, slashing flourish on only 1 action, only bloodlust elixir, lvl 1 twincast dissonant whispers, lvl 2 divine smites, 3 scarlet remittance):
- Main hand action: lvl 5 shadowblade slashing flourish with lvl 2 divine smite with savage attacker: (((4d8+5+3+3)x2)+3d8)x2 = 165.79
- Extra attack: lvl 5 shadowblade booming blade with lvl 2 divine smite with savage attacker: ((4d8+5+3+3)x2)+2d8+3d8 = 85.792
- Bloodlust action: the same as above = 85.792
- Bonus action: lvl 1 twincast dissonant whispers: (3d6+3)x2x2 = 54
- Total average dpr: 355.374
Average no-resource damage (assuming warlock variant, no spell slots, no crits, no flourishes, off-hand shadowblade, deathstalker mantle, bloodlust elixir):
- Main hand action: lvl 5 shadowblade booming blade with arcane synergy: ((4d8+5+3)x2)+2d8 = 66.194
- Bloodlust action: same as above = 66.194
- Extra attack: lvl 5 shadowblade with arcane synergy: (4d8+5+3)x2 = 57.194
- Bonus action: lvl 2 shadowblade with arcane synergy: (2d8+5+3)x2 = 37.69
- Bonus action 2: same as above: 37.69
- Total average dpr: 264.962
Optimal average damage using elemental spells against psychic-immune targets (assuming 4 available targets, wet pre-applied, acuity pre-built, 3 scarlet remittance).
- Main action: lvl 6 chain lightning with scarlet remittance: (10d8+3)x2 = 372
- Bloodlust action: same as above (castable with freecast): = 372
- Haste action: lvl 5 lightning glyph of warding with scarlet remittance: (7d8+3)x2 = 138
- Terazul action: used for invisibility.
- First bonus action: quickspell lvl 5 lightning glyph: = 138
- Second bonus action: same as above: = 138
- Total average dpr: 1,158
Spell DC:
Remembering that enemies will be making saves with disadvantage thanks to resonance stone.
Using defensive solo HM gear: 8 (base) + 4 (proficiency) + 3 (spellcasting modifier) + 3 (scarlet remittance) + 10 (arcane acuity) = 28 DC
Using offensive party HM gear 8 (base) + 4 (proficiency) + 3 (spellcasting modifier) + 3 (scarlet remittance) + 2 (amulet of devout) + 1 (cloak of the weave) +1 (robe of the weave) + 10 (arcane acuity) = 32 DC
For many enemies this means they will need double 20s to save our spells, or 1/400 chance. When punching through legendary resistance it's a different matter, but the odds are strongly in the Nightblade's favour.
Armor Class:
17 base (armor of agility) + 5 (dexterity) + 2 (haste) +1 (warding bond) + 2 (wavemother cloak) +1 (defence fighting style) +5 (shield spell) = total 33 AC
Summary:
I think this guide outlines well the utility of invisibility as a defensive option for damage orientated characters. Sometimes the best defense is to not get attacked at all. It allows offensive gearing you simply couldn't get away with normally in solo HM. I really enjoy the interaction between mystic scoundrel, helm of grit, and the invisibility spell.
This guide has gone over the extremely high resource variant, which deals extreme damage at the cost of requiring exploits to multiply spell slots / sorcery points or long resting every fight. Then also low-resource short-rest variants and even no-resource no-rest variants. Unsurprisingly, damage output scales with resource commitment, but even the lowest resource variants put out respectable damage.
For me, the main thing is hitting the theme, which is a nightblade assassin who weaves in and out of invisibility and uses powerful illusion spells. But, just because damage isn't the focus doesn't mean we can't do a lot of it.