Crazy Skillmonkey

[Santra]

I was looking to see how much of a skill monkey I could build with a little work and this is what I came up with.

Half elf Rogue 1/Cleric of knowledge 1/Lore Bard 18. So I end up with 12 skills and expertise in eight of them. Other than the MAD how crazy is this?

I know you could go rogue six for another two expertise but I wanted to maintain as much bard casting as possible.

[AvatarVecna]

Pretty good build; it's possible to get all 18 skills trained, with 8 expertise's, but that build ends up not having anything other than skills going for it. A straight bard with a 2-lvl dip into Rogue, Cleric, or Warlock is a wonderful skillmonkey in general.

[Seruvius]

If I remember correctly I saw somehwere on a wizards forum a skillmonkey build that via various level dips was proficient in ALL 18 skills.
As not all skills are that useful and being proficient in all is a bit of an overkill, heres another version from the same thread that makes sense Roleplay wise while still bein a superb skillmonkey, so the DM wont throw the book at you for being a Munchkin :smallwink:


Half-elven Lore bard 3/ Cleric (Knowledge) 2 with Urchin Background.

By level 5 you are proficient in 12 skills (2 from Half-Elf, 2 Background, 3 Bard, 3 (Bard Lore College), 2 (Cleric Divine Domain Knowledge)), with expertise in four of them (2 any, and 2 from a list of 4 from Cleric (Knowledge)). FOr the other 6 skills that you aren't proficient in, you get half proficiency from Jack of all trades anyway or a channel divinity to be proficient for 10 minutes if you really need it that extra bonus.
Also make sure to take the Guidance Cantrip for cleric, as that give you an extra 1d4, and the bard spell Enhance ABility to gain advantage on 1 type of ability check.

Sidenote: while multiclassed you are still a full caster.

[Chronos]

Heck, a straight bard with no dips at all is already a pretty good skillmonkey. Don't forget to take the Urchin background, which gives four great proficiencies (two skills and two tools often used by skillmonkeys).

AvatarVecna, how do you get all 18 skills proficient? Remember that multiclassing doesn't get you all of the new class's proficiencies.

[AvatarVecna]

AvatarVecna, how do you get all 18 skills proficient? Remember that multiclassing doesn't get you all of the new class's proficiencies.

Race: Variant Human
Background: Player's Choice
Class Levels (minimum): Rogue 1/Cleric (Knowledge Domain) 1/Warlock 2/Bard (College of Lore) 3; from there, your choice

Variant Human feat: Skilled
Warlock: Beguiling Influence

Skill Proficiencies:
--4 (Rogue)
--1 (Variant Human)
--3 (Skilled feat)
--2 (Background)
--2 (Knowledge Domain)
--2 (Beguiling Influence)
--1 (Bard multiclass)
--3 (College of Lore)

Expertise in...
--2 of your choice (Rogue 1)
--2 of your choice (Bard 3)
--2 from a list (Knowledge Domain)

This is at 7th lvl; on top of that, you have cleric and bard casting with a warlock dip, letting you cast your lvl 1 spells per short rest, rather than per long rest. Where the build goes from here is up to you.

If you were to go into a build like that, I'd actually recommend getting rogue to 4th, and splitting the remaining levels between Bard and Warlock, giving your reduced casting (compared to your level) per short rest rather than per long rest, as well as some cleric spells of your choice.

EDIT: Of course, this is, in fact, a 4-class build in 5e; not exactly gonna be totally optimized. As I stated previously, a Bard build with a dip into Rogue, Cleric, or Warlock is awesome enough. I mean, what kind of party are you in where one character needs to be good at every single skill?

[Chronos]

Ah, right, I was forgetting about Beguiling Influence. And if you really wanted to troll your DM, you could then multiclass into Ranger, and get one more skill proficiency in... um... something.

[CrusaderJoe]

Ah, right, I was forgetting about Beguiling Influence. And if you really wanted to troll your DM, you could then multiclass into Ranger, and get one more skill proficiency in... um... something.

Gourmet Cooking obviously

Edit: I find it funny that I make this joke while my avatar is a kobold.