# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next > Optimization Oathbreaker Summoner

## Ikedashi

Hello everyone, Ikedashi here!

Recently i was thinking about how would be a good way to make this works BEST.

I came to the conclusion that it would be Bard or Warlock, as they help with SADness and access to the the right summoning spells. 
Combining Aura of Hate + Summon Lesser Demons or Animate Dead is devastating to the table dynamics so it's better to stick with Summon Undead, Summon Fiend and Summon Greater Demon that also get buffed.

But that's just my opinion, i would love to see what you guys would do.

PS: I just loved the interaction between summon lesser demons and Aura of Hate. Specially when you get eight Abyssal Chickens  :Small Eek:

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## RogueJK

Skip Summon Greater Demon.  It's almost certainly going to turn unfriendly by succeeding on its CHA save (especially since most Fiends have Magic Resistance for Advantage on their saves). When that happens, your own aura will then be buffing it as it mauls you.  Same with Summon Lesser Demons, which are automatically hostile to you with no save, and would similarly be getting buffed while attacking you.


Summon Undead and Summon Fiend are much better options, getting you guaranteed friendly pets that scale with upcasting.

Neither of them are on the Bard list, so if you go the Bardadin route you're looking at waiting until Bard 10 (or Lore Bard 6) for Summon Undead, and Bard 14 for Summon Fiend.  And since you're taking at least 7 levels of Oathbreaker to get the aura, that means you'll never hit Bard 14 to get Summon Fiend.


Therefore, Padlock is the best route to both Summon Undead/Fiend.  Even though your Pact and Spell slots don't stack, you'll be getting access to Summon Undead at Warlock 5 and Summon Fiend at Warlock 11.  And your Pact slots auto-scale through Warlock 9 to keep boosting your Summon Undead pet's effectiveness.  You can also potentially do stuff like take the Eldritch Smite invocation to double-smite (Divine + Eldritch) when you want to really nova.  With this route, you're looking at something like a Oathbreaker Paladin 7/Undead or Hexblade Warlock 13.


Otherwise, if you're dead-set on Bardadin, I'd do either Lore Bard 6/Oathbreaker Paladin 14 or Oathbreaker Paladin 7/Lore Bard 13, and just content yourself with strictly upcasting Summon Undead since you'll never get access to Summon Fiend.


But either one will likely take quite a while for their buffed summoning to come fully online.  The earliest would be something like Paladin 2/Warlock 5 or Paladin 2/Lore Bard 6 for access to Summon Undead while still being something of a functioning Paladin, but then it's a while longer before your Oathbreaker Aura would come online (not hitting Paladin 7 until Character Level 12/13).

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## Corran

My favourite minions for an oathbreaker are a bunch of zombies. Consider the synergies:
1) Frightened targets by your dreadful aura CD suffer disadvantage on ability checks, so the STR based zombies will have a good improved chance at grappling.
2) Grappling frightened enemies by DA while still inside its radius, means they dont get to save against fear. Meaning that they still roll with disadvantage to escape the grapple, with their other main option being to attack the zombie at disadvantage (the later not being a big deal unless you can armor them with -if so, heavy armor is an option that will not further reduce their speed).
3) Armor or no armor, your zombies will be harder to take down since they profit from your aura of protection if you are nearby.

You dont aim at unkillable zombies or at using them as a damage buffer. Their best use is at excerting battlefield control (in tandem with your CD) while also limiting the enemies' options to less desirable choices (such as forcing them to use their action at escaping a geapple or at attacking a zombie). So, big enemies who can one shot your buffed zombies are not a concern, but AOE's are. Their biggest downside is their poor speed, which means that they wont do well at pushes or any sort of surgical strike, but they are excellent at helping you "hold the line" against charging enemies. And if course you need to rely on animate dead, which is only as useful as the pacing of your adventure allows it to be.


Control undeath is a gamble given it's only one try per short rest, so unless you make it your business to go undead hunting for this specific reason, you might want to use a few bestow curses before you chance using control undeath, given a good opportunity of course.


For max damage in a short burst, you probably want dual wielding skeletons. They are faster than a zombie, but they are far more likely to die than skeletons using bows (still, if burst damage is what you want, then time your dual wielding skeletons' 30' "charge" correctly. The best way to boost the damage of numerous low CR minions is by granting them advantage on their attacks. Shoving enemies prone can work for melee minions, restraining can work for everyone. If you can achieve advantage for your minions without committing your concentration on it (eg web, which minions aside it also has synergy with dreadful aura), you could use it for something like crusader's mantle to capitalize on both your minions' numbers and increased accuracy and push the numbers even higher.

Another idea I had read about, was to use wights. Each wight can command up to a dozen lesser undead that they'll create. You command the wights, the wights command the fodder. You could get wights through the create undead spell, or you could geass them (ideally during downtime with your highest level slots) in order for them to hopefully stick around longer without betraying you too much.

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## Sherlockpwns

I guess If you were playing to or at super high level 

Paladin 7 / necromancer wizard would really shine for the summon undead route. You and your ghost pal just cruisin. 

Sadly of course you cant even get the ghost pal till level 12, but at player level 13 that ghost would be cast at level 4 giving it two attacks at 1d8+7+cha+pb, or at this level potentially 1d8+17 per attack. 

So 2d8+34 plus your two attacks and the various rider effects. 

Sadly of course this is absolutely MAD to the extreme, but if you rolled stats like a boss for a level 13 campaign Id do it!

Bonus, your ghost gets 6 extra hp lol. 

(Obviously this is mathematically better if you were just a wizard and cast at a higher level with level 6 giving 3d8+42, but where is the joy in that?)

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