D&D’s Most Overpowered Character Builds For Fire Genasi

The fire genasi playable race in Dungeons & Dragons has received a new iteration in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. This new version of the race has shaken up a major aspect of its stats, which means there are now some optimal builds for fire genasi player characters. In D&D, humanoids can breed with a number of creatures, resulting in offspring that have magical powers.

The genasi race in D&D is composed of four elemental subtypes: air genasi, earth genasi, fire genasi, and water genasi. These are the result of humanoids breeding with genies, many of whom are strongly tied to the elemental planes. The genasi tend to develop physical traits that are tied to their elemental family members, such as fire genasi having rust-red skin and yellow eyes. The genasi tend to be rare and there are few dedicated genasi settlements in any of the official campaign homeworlds. Their connection to the elements means that genasi tend to excel in the magical arts of Dungeons & Dragons, partly due to their own blood containing arcane energy.

The 5e version of the genasi race debuted in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign. In that book, the four genasi had set stat boosts, which many felt were limiting. All genasi received +2 to Constitution, which many saw as a poor optimization choice, as many would rather have the highest bonus be in an offensive or spellcasting stat. The fire genasi received an additional +1 to Intelligence, even though they were tailor-made to be sorcerers. The new version of the genasi has removed this limitation and created opportunities for powerful new builds, especially at lower levels of play (which is about as far as most games go).

The Fire Genasi Player Stats In Dungeons & Dragons

The most recent iteration of the fire genasi appeared in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Like all of the playable races in Monsters of the Multiverse, the fire genasi use the floating stat rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. This means the player chooses a +2 and a +1 to add to any of their stats, rather than having set stat boosts that are already applied. This gives the player more freedom to pick a race and class without feeling as if they’re underpowered.

A fire genasi is classed as a Humanoid creature and the player can choose between a Medium or Small-sized character. The fire genasi has a walking speed of 30ft and 60ft of darkvision. All fire genasi have fire resistance, which means they take half damage from all fire-based damage, regardless of its source. Fire genasi have the Reach to the Blaze feature, which gives them natural spellcasting powers. When the player selects fire genasi as their race, they must choose Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom as their spellcasting ability. All fire genasi know the produce flame cantrip and they gain the burning hands spell at level three and flame blade at level five. The fire genasi can cast burning hands or flame blade once per long rest, or can burn regular spell slots, assuming their class grants them.

D&D: Oil Thrower Fire Genasi Thief Build

Rogues are generally the first class in the line of fire, as it falls to them to detect and disarms traps in D&D. The ability to resist fire damage is going to be extremely useful to any rogue, considering how often fire effects appear in traps. The natural darkvision of a fire genasi will also be useful for a rogue, as they often need to scout ahead using stealth, which is a lot harder to do when carrying a torch. One of the most effective builds for a fire genasi rogue involves the thief archetype, which grants the Fast Hands class feature. Fast Hands lets the player use the Use an Object action as a bonus action each turn. There are some DMs who will argue that there are limits to attacking using Fast Hands/Use an Object, due to confusing wording regarding the actions for vials of acid and alchemist’s fire. A flask of oil has a separate effect that ignores this distinction.

It’s possible to combine the Fast Hands/Use an Object action to pour a bottle of oil on a single five-foot square. The rogue can then ignite it using their burning hands spell, which will not only damage the enemy creature but will ignite the oil, either forcing the creature to move on their turn (and possibly provoke attacks of opportunity) or take additional damage. If there is a hiccup in the plan and the rogue gets hit with the burning oil, then they’ll still only take half damage. A flask of oil only costs a single silver piece in D&D, so players can create a cheap wall of flame over the course of a few rounds, and create a barrier that can discourage enemies from approaching.

D&D: Draconic Mage Fire Genasi Sorcerer Build

A fire genasi already has one strange ancestor in their bloodline, so why not add some more? There are many sorcerers in Dungeons & Dragons that have dragons as ancestors and it’s their blood that grants arcane abilities. A fire genasi sorcerer with the draconic bloodline can choose brass, gold, or red as their ancestry. This will tie them to the fire damage type. The sorcerer class is known for having a limited spell list, so the addition of the fire genasi spells is incredibly useful to a fire-themed sorcerer.

Once they hit level six, they will gain the Elemental Affinity feature, which lets them add their Charisma modifier to one damage dice of an elemental spell tied to their ancestors. Usually, the Elemental Affinity feature lets the player spend a Sorcery Point to gain damage resistance to their elemental type, but fire genasi already have this as a permanent feature. This means the sorcerer also doesn’t need to worry as much about using AoE spells at close range, as they resist their own fire damage.

A D&D game that uses the variant Feat rules will be especially kind to the fire genasi sorcerer, as Elemental Adept can let them ignore enemy fire resistance on damage rolls. Fire is easily the most resisted damage type in Dungeons & Dragons and it’s a major thorn in the side of anyone who wishes to specialize in fire spells. With Elemental Adept, the player is free to unleash as much arcane fire as they like on enemies.

About The Author

Scott Baird
(2502 Articles Published)

Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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