Temporary level 16 and 17 analysis

January 22 2025

Well! We didn’t expect to be writing one of these analyses mid-fight, or for two levels at once, but this should be fun! Level 17 sees everyone’s proficiency bonus go up to a +6, and between it and Level 16, there are a lot of interesting new abilities in play. The temporary nature of the level up means that the players can tailor their choices to this specific fight, which means choices that might be shoo-ins for a normal level up might not actually be what the players choose this go around. Let’s take a look at just what the Hells have in their arsenal now thanks to the Matron of Ravens’ temporary two-level boon.

Ashton

Barbarian 17

HP: +53, total: 201
ASI: None

Ashton got to choose between an ASI and a feat, and wisely chose Tough. This feat has boosted Ashton’s HP just past the 200 HP threshold, bringing them up to 201 total hit points. His Brutal Critical now gives Ashton three additional weapon damage dice (d6s, for his hammer) when he crits. He also gets another rage—which is great since he was on his last one!—and his rage damage goes up to a +4. All in all, a very straightforward pair of level ups for Ashton, though incredibly helpful nonetheless, with the extra HP in particular moving them out of immediate danger.

Braius

Bard 3/Paladin 14

HP: +49, total: 167* may change
ASI: None

Braius is an interesting case! We initially thought Sam took these levels in Bard, as he said he rolled two d8 rather than any d10s (C3E119 03:36:13) and mentioned taking Tough as a Feat. However, the ever-inimitable Dani Carr has confirmed that Braius in fact took two levels in Paladin, perhaps as a nod to his further commitment to Asmodeus. There are no ASIs for Paladins at level 13 or 14, and Sam confirmed on Bluesky that this was an error. Since we still don’t know what feat Braius took at Paladin level 12, it’s entirely possible Sam just missed selecting it last level up, so it was still there as an option on D&D Beyond. Sam also could just decide to swap Tough in for that mystery feat, or we could just chalk it up to a boon from Asmodeus and call it a day. Either way, his stated new HP is 167, up 49 points from his level 15 total, which definitively indicates that Tough was applied at this time.

Braius’ Lay on Hands pool is now at a round 100, though we’ve seen how Predathos can halve and steal healing with Miracle Devour, so those extra 10 points likely won’t go far in this battle, unfortunately. These new levels in Paladin will also get Braius access to a few new spells. From his subclass Oath of the Ancients, he now always has Ice Storm and Stone Skin prepared. He also now has access to 4^th level Paladin spells, including Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Banishment, Death Ward, Find Greater Steed, and Staggering Smite. (He can also now prepare Locate Creature, but that seems a less likely choice in the context of battling Predathos). We’re eyeing Death Ward and Staggering Smite in particular. Death Ward always provides some stress relief in an intense combat situation like this one, since it will keep a character up when they would otherwise drop to 0 hit points and start rolling death saves. That can potentially buy the party a full round to get their endangered companion healed and/or out of harm’s way. Staggering Smite meanwhile does an additional 4d6 psychic damage when applied to a successful melee hit, although that’s not its most appealing element when we suspect Predathos may have some psychic resistance. The more exciting part of it kicks in if Predathos then fails its Wis save—in that case, it would have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, and wouldn’t be able to take reactions, until the end of its next turn. Taking reactions off the table means no attacks of opportunity, which gives the party the chance to get out of claw range without risking a nasty hit. That’s why Shocking Grasp is one of our favorite cantrips!

In terms of spell slots, Braius has gone from a level 9 caster to a level 10 (i.e. his number of Bard levels plus half his number of Paladin levels). This gets him an additional 5^th level spell slot, which he can use to upcast the spells in his arsenal or use as a Divine Smite.

His final additional ability is Cleansing Touch, which he can do up to 4 times per long rest (as his Cha modifier is +4). This lets Braius use his action to simply end a spell on a creature he touches (including himself). This could be an incredible boon in removing debuffs on other members of the party. The one catch is that the creature must be willing for the ability to take effect, so if the afflicted character is under a form of mind control, the ability would not work. It also would not work on spells that are cast on an area of the battlefield rather than on a creature, so he could not end something like Ludinus’s Ravenous Void.

Chetney

Bloodhunter 16/Rogue 1

HP: +57, total: 185
ASI: None

Chet rounds out our Tough crew, as Travis stated in the Cooldown (5:54) that he was also taking that feat. This brings his HP up to 185. He also gains an upgrade to his branding mechanics with “Brand of the Voracious.” This gives him advantage on attacks against whatever creature he’s branded with Brand of Castigation, so long as he’s wolfed out. He also now has advantage on saving throws against his bloodlust, but that particular curse of the wolf doesn’t tend to come up for Chet all that much, so it’s a bit less likely to be relevant. He may have fewer new toys to play with than much of the party, but that ongoing advantage against a branded Predathos could be absolutely killer.

Dorian

Bard 17

HP: +38, total: 176
ASI: +1 to Con, +1 to Cha

At level 17, Dorian’s Song of Rest die bumps up to d12. For his level 16 ASI, Dani’s recap confirms that Dorian added one point to his Con and one point to his Cha. Since that extra point of Con increases his modifier to a +4, and since Con adjustments to HP apply retroactively, this bump gives him an extra 17 HP on top of what he’d otherwise gain. Bumping up his Cha by one won’t change his bonus, though–it’s still a +3.

Dorian also gets a 9^th level spell and slot. Based on the conditions of this fight and what’s available to him as a Bard—he’s not high enough level yet to use Magical Secrets for his 9^th level—we would favor True Polymorph for Dorian. Foresight grants a very nice buff, but it’s only for one creature, and at least some of its effects are redundant to the advantages granted by Heroes’ Feast and other characters’ buff abilities. Power Word Kill is a huge all-or-nothing gamble against a creature that cannot, we are told, permanently die, and could only work after Predathos had been significantly whittled down regardless. Power Word Heal is severely limited by being a touch spell, and we don’t know yet whether Predathos’s Miracle Devour ability halves and absorbs all kinds of healing spells, or just healing from a divine source (Matt’s phrasing regarding similar Reiloran abilities implies that it is specific to divine healing, but since we have yet to see non-divine healing in Predathos’ presence, it is not confirmed). Psychic Scream is a fantastic spell, but a lot of its draw comes from it affecting multiple enemies, and it also seems highly likely that Predathos has psychic resistance or even immunity. It doesn’t really seem the time for Mass Polymorph, and while the 2024 rules add Prismatic Wall to the Bard spell list, the application of 2024 changes has been situational in Campaign 3 so far, so it’s not a sure option. That leaves True Polymorph, and Dorian possibly turning into an Adult Dragon, which would of course be dope as hell.

Fearne

Druid 10/Rogue 7

HP: +15, total: 112
ASI: None

We continue to be delighted by Fearne’s Roguish turn (Cooldown 6:47). While multiclass spellcasting rules mean she hasn’t gained any spell slots—she’s gone from a level 11 caster to a level 12, calculated as her Druid levels plus a third of her Arcane Trickster levels (rounded down), and there are no additional slots in that change—she does get one more Wizard spell from her Arcane Trickster archetype, from either the Enchantment or Illusion school of magic. Mirror Image would be an incredible pick, providing extra protection against those brutal claw attacks from Predathos and preserving her reaction for Uncanny Dodge. She could also take Silvery Barbs instead, which we admittedly like in no small part because we imagine Matt’s reaction would be funny. Either way, with the new addition of Evasion, Fearne is getting hard to hit in general; she will also now be well-situated to handle Predathos’s area of effect attacks, with any attack that requires a Dexterity save only doing half damage if she fails, and no damage if she succeeds. With her low HP, this sure makes us less stressed, particularly since we know for sure she has Revivify prepared as a subclass spell.

Fearne also gets to turn two more of her Proficiencies into Expertise. Her options are Sleight of Hand, Thieves’ Tools, Medicine, Perception, Performance, and Survival. Most of those aren’t likely to come up in the battle with Predathos; Perception might, so perhaps she will choose that. Any others we might not get a chance to see, since who knows how long this temporary level up will last, but Sleight of Hand would always be a fun continuing character choice, and with Fearne’s maxed out Wis, Survival expertise would make her one a hell of a tracker.

Imogen

Sorcerer 17

HP: +14, total: 106 (though currently at 146 due to Vordo consumption)
ASI: +1 to Int, +1 to Wis

Imogen has already put her new Metamagic option to work, using Transmute Spell to change her Lightning Bolt damage to Thunder. She also took an ASI, bumping both her Int and Wis by one each, which knocks them both up a modifier tier; she now gets a +1 to Intelligence checks and saves, and a +2 to Wisdom checks and saves. Every little bit helps when you’re facing an eldritch being that can dominate your will and mind!

Finally, like Dorian, Imogen gets her 9^th level spell and slot. It seems likeliest that her choice will be Wish. While Psychic Scream is very Imogen in flavor and we’d consider it a top contender in other circumstances, as we talked about with Dorian above, it’s not well-suited to fighting Predathos. She already has an emergency Meteor Swarm via the ring given to her by the Arch Heart, so taking it here feels redundant. And while Imogen took a shine to her mother’s use of a Time Stop variant, that spell has a big limitation: it ends when any spell or action taken during it affects another creature. Imogen doesn’t have a lot of buffing spells, nor does she have something like Delayed Blast Fireball, which would let her set up one attack before she ends the Time Stop with another. She could always use one turn to cast something like Telekinesis or Whirlwind (if she got her 7^th level slot back from the Sphere of Dunamantic Restoration), but since these spells are concentration, she could only do one of them during the Stop. Another 9^th level spell she could take is Blade of Disaster, which could do some real potent damage (as the Hells know first-hand from having it turned on them by Delaudna!), but it requires concentration, which would limit what she could do with her other spells, and since Imogen does not have War Caster to help her with those checks, having her 9^th level be concentration feels a little riskier than we like. Wish, meanwhile, would provide incredible versatility by being able to act as any spell level 8 or lower, from any class’s spell list; that versatility is especially important when remaining spell slots are limited. The spell could also be used to heal the entire party to full (presuming that Miracle Devour only works on divine healing), simultaneously removing status effects à la greater restoration. We can’t overstate how clutch that could be, particularly since the Hells no longer have a Cleric.

Laudna

Sorcerer 14/Warlock 3

HP: +16, total: 148
ASI: None

Marisha has once again commented that she’s likely not going to take any more Warlock levels, so we have two more Sorcerer levels for Laudna here (Cooldown 6:11). She does not get a feat or ASI the way many of the Hells do, but she does get a Shadow Magic origin feature, Shadow Walk, which lets her teleport up to 120 feet from one place of dim light or darkness to another she can see as a bonus action. Enhanced movement is great for Laudna, since it plays so well with Spell Sniper, so we’re really excited that she has this in her pocket now!

Laudna also gets her first 7^th level spell and slot. Normally, we’d say there are a lot of great options here, but given the particulars of the battle facing them, a number of these 7^th level spells lose a lot of their utility. We expect Reverse Gravity wouldn’t do much to Predathos given that it is the room they are currently in, and Prismatic Spray and Firestorm work best for groups of enemies, rather than just one big fella. It’s possible that the different parts of Predathos phase two—the head and two hands—would count as separate targets, but that’s far from a sure thing. Finger of Death, meanwhile, has a high potential damage total much the way Disintegrate does, with its 7d8 + 30, or (unlike Disintegrate!) half as much on a successful Con save. The downside of Finger of Death for this fight is that Laudna can’t make use of its additional effect, which raises a humanoid killed with the spell as a zombie under the caster’s control. Since that extra effect can’t come into play, Finger of Death in this context functions as a straight damage spell. Delayed Blast Fireball is also a damage spell, but this one has a Dex save, and we can’t imagine Predathos has great Dex, given, again, that it is currently a room, so we suspect Predathos would have an easier time succeeding on Finger of Death’s Con save. Delayed Blast Fireball does 12d6 or half that much on a successful Dex save (or legendary resistance), which puts it very close to Finger of Death in terms of simple firepower. It also gets more powerful the longer it is held back, adding an additional 1d6 at the end of the caster’s turn if it has not yet detonated. Since it does not detonate immediately, it potentially allows allies to fall back so they don’t get caught in the explosion. With all those angles factored in, we would guess Delayed Blast Fireball is the play here.

Orym

Fighter 17

HP: +20, total: 181
ASI: None

Two of Orym’s bread-and-butter fighter abilities get a bump at level 17; his Action Surge now has 2 uses per rest, and Indomitable now has 3 uses per long rest. Rather than an ASI, Orym took the feat Fighting Initiate: Duelist, which gives him a +2 to damage when wielding only a one-handed melee weapon. The rest of Orym’s level up is pretty straightforward. However, we failed to discuss his two new Maneuvers from level 15 in our last analysis. (Archivist Shadow is aghast at their oversight. Sorry, Orym!) Unlike everything else in this analysis, these would have been chosen before the big battle against Predathos, and so would not be specifically geared towards those conditions. With that in mind, we would favor Tactical Assessment and either Rally or Distracting Strike for Orym’s newest Maneuvers. Tactical Assessment would let Orym add his Superiority Die plus his Cha modifier (so 1d8+1) to Investigation, History, or Insight checks, which we think suits his tendency to sit back and observe. The Hells in general have a bit of a weakness when it comes to Intelligence-based checks, and while Orym does already have expertise in History checks, the ability to buff Investigation in particular would be very helpful, generally speaking. Rally would let Orym spend a Superiority die as a bonus action to grant an ally 1d8+1 temporary hit points. Distracting Strike, meanwhile, would allow Orym to spend a superiority die to do 1d8 of extra damage, and then grant advantage to the next person to attack. Both allow him to work in sync with the rest of the party, which is in keeping with some of his other recent decisions, like opting for Bountiful Luck at level 14!