They're Pinky and The Brain!

[SamsDisciple]

So... in an upcoming campaign I am going to be playing The Brain, my friend will be playing Pinky, and I am reasonably certain that we will be attempting to conquer a village/city of Giants. What would be your thoughts on how to create a megalomaniac, genius, little to no combat focus (or using other people/inventions to do combat for me) and simply fun to play? I have my ideas but I am not certain I want to taint the creativity of the playground quite yet. So how would you create Brain from Pinky and the Brain?

[MBControl]

So my first thought for Brain would be a gnome tinkerer. You can make a bunch of hokey little clockwork contraptions.
Maybe an illusionary mage, with lots of booming voice, fear tactics, and bravado. Maybe a sorcerer, with wild magic. Chaotic Evil for sure.

Pinky would have the Lucky Feat. Maybe a halfling with lucky built in. If Pinky has spell casting ability, you need to use the friends spell/cantrip. I would be tempted to use a monk class type with him, make him super DEXy, but the flavour would be that he basically trips and falls and perfectly avoids a trap. Stuff like that. Chaotic Neutral. Pinky doesn't mean to be bad.

Super fun idea buy the way.

[Nifft]

Pinky could be a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky feat and a bunch of touch-range spells (e.g. Shocking Grasp).

The Brain might be a Gnome Rogue (Mastermind).

[Keltest]

Well, both characters need a high charisma. Pinky is very likable, and the Brain has a very commanding presence.

[Tanarii]

So ... I take it you're not subscribing to the theory that Pinky is secretly the real genius? :)

[Dr. Cliché]

I don't suppose Moon Rats made it into 5th?

[SamsDisciple]

I like the idea of the gnome tinkerer for the brain but there isn't enough stuff RAW to actually do. If I went with actually building my home made death machines it would take years to accomplish based on my understanding of the 5e crafting rules (5 gp progress per full day crafting, if I am wrong then PLEASE correct me) I agree that Brain needs charisma for his commanding presence which made me think maybe Lore Bard for both skills and magic.

As for Pinky being the Real genius... Brain by far has the higher intelligence but wisdom.... well there is a reason that all these plans have failed.

[R.Shackleford]

So ... I take it you're not subscribing to the theory that Pinky is secretly the real genius? :)

Came here to say this.

Pinky is the world's savior.

[Keltest]

I like the idea of the gnome tinkerer for the brain but there isn't enough stuff RAW to actually do. If I went with actually building my home made death machines it would take years to accomplish based on my understanding of the 5e crafting rules (5 gp progress per full day crafting, if I am wrong then PLEASE correct me) I agree that Brain needs charisma for his commanding presence which made me think maybe Lore Bard for both skills and magic.

As for Pinky being the Real genius... Brain by far has the higher intelligence but wisdom.... well there is a reason that all these plans have failed.

Im pretty sure they took over the world at least three times. That's three more times than anyone else I know.

[Sigreid]

So... in an upcoming campaign I am going to be playing The Brain, my friend will be playing Pinky, and I am reasonably certain that we will be attempting to conquer a village/city of Giants. What would be your thoughts on how to create a megalomaniac, genius, little to no combat focus (or using other people/inventions to do combat for me) and simply fun to play? I have my ideas but I am not certain I want to taint the creativity of the playground quite yet. So how would you create Brain from Pinky and the Brain?

I think you should keep in mind that "One is a genius, the other insane" and if you watched long enough it became clear that Pinky was the genius.

[Nifft]

So ... I take it you're not subscribing to the theory that Pinky is secretly the real genius? :)

I have Pinky set up as the smartest subtype of the smartest class.

[SamsDisciple]

While I love the ideas tossed out for Pinky (and I think that his Wisdom is far higher than Brains... (possibly a cleric or druid) my friend who will be playing the Pinky side of things focused on the "insane" bit and decided to go with Barbarian. His reasoning is that he is crazy and that craziness makes him better at everything he does. Also it makes him more able to be the help to create the inventions since Brain doesn't have the muscle to actually put things together. While I think that Pinky could be done alot better than that this is his character not mine...

Back to Brain now, is it feasible to make setting traps a focus for a character? Be a divination mage, set up traps in the path of the big uglies, and then maybe charm/bribe/torture them to help me conquer the world?

[Connington]

For Brain specifically I would look at the psionic Mystic (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/psionics-and-mystic-%E2%80%93-take-two) from Unearthed Arcana, assuming the campaign isn't at level 11 or higher. Go Order of the Awakened, take Conquering Mind, Mind Vault, and Mind Over Emotion. Some skill monkey aptitude, plenty of mind control, and it's even more direct at applying Intelligence to take over the world than a Wizard.