What's your favorite singular (non-multiclass) build so far?

[magotter]

Hello friends,

In a few weeks I'll be stepping back into the world of tabletop and will be taking my first toe-dip into fifth edition. Diving in, I see a lot of interesting guides and theorycrafted builds, but almost universally they require dipping and multi-classing. Unfortunately, my DM wants to keep things simple this time around, so I'm keen to ask: What is your favorite single class set up?

And I do mean favorite - while a powerful class is nice, I'm not necessarily looking for anything overwhelmingly Tier 0 or what have you. Rather, what concepts do you think are the most interesting, the most fun, the most playable?

[CrazyCrab]

Wizard, any school.

You get so many options it's ridiculous. You can go utility, ritual, blaster, control, everything. You can go melee with Spell-singer (or Mountain Dwarf for medium-armour wizard), you can go ranged with your blasters.

And the schools are the icing on the cake. Divination lets you override the DM. Conjuration lets you make anything, at any time, as long as its small. Necromancer gets a literal army. They're all great. And the best part? No multiclassing recommended, even. So unless you're playing in a hyper-optimal group, you will never have to worry about anything other than INT. You can assign the rest as you wish.

Honestly, one of the best, most flexible base classes out there, in my opinion.

[Hathorym]

Half-Elf Chaotic Good Ancients Paladin Charlatan with the Actor feat. Lots of fun.

[tkuremento]

I have a Bard who is also a chef and has the Gourmand feat. It is really fun to make people meals and then sing to them after.

I also quite like the concept of a Lizardfolk Monk or Druid. I haven't played one yet but I just really like the idea of instead of being a punchy monk you are a bitey monk, or the concept of a druid that doesn't need to wild shape because of how animalistic he is to begin with.

[Geodude6]

Moon Druid. I think the best race for such a build would be the Ghostwise Halfling from SCAG so you can get "speech" in beast form.

Other fun builds are the aforementioned wizard (though it's slightly stronger with a 1-level cleric dip), totem barbarian with bear totem as lv3 choice, champion fighter ideally as a half-orc (twf style, mounted combatant and dual wielder feats; dual-wield lances from horseback), tempest cleric, arcana cleric, and assassin. And of course the UA mystic.

[Honest Tiefling]

I was going to go wizard, because...Almost all of my characters are wizards of some stripe or another. I like my rut, it is a very cozy rut.

However, will the rest of the party also be new to 5e or DnD? I am assuming there is a chance, given the DM's desire to keep things simple. If this is the case, perhaps consider a build to compliment the party? The challenge would be to make a build that brings something to the table that it lacks. It might encourage you to play a class you haven't in a while.

[KorvinStarmast]

Hello friends,

In a few weeks I'll be stepping back into the world of tabletop and will be taking my first toe-dip into fifth edition.
My favorite is the Tempest Cleric. It's got a nice mix of caster and melee early on, can do a bit of healing, and can do damage, and can do a bit of battlefield control. (Fog Cloud for the win). In my case, due to my time in the Navy, I defaulted to Sailor background. As it turns out, that's a good fit for a number of deities in FR, if you are playing FR, with the storm theme. Umberlee for one.

[Dudewithknives]

Half-Elf
Swashbuckler Rogue
Entertainer background
Danced and sang playing a flute everywhere I went, pretending to be a bard.
Fought with a Razored Sash (1D6 Finesse and Reach) I used to blend in with my dancing.
However my yellow sash was actually also my holy symbol and favored weapon for my god, The King In Yellow.

I had people I was so convinced that I was a bard that the DM tried to give me an Instrument of the bards 3 times.

[Scathain]

Yuan-ti conjurer with the Old Black Magic summoning spells. That extra 30 hp on every summon has saved my butt more times than I can remember.

[Southpaw]

Bladesinger Wizard and Tempest Cleric.

Get your full casting and a bit of melee to change things up.

[BigONotation]

Fighter all day every day.

For power a wizard every day of the week. They are the most powerful class bar none.

[StrikingViking]

Kobold monk. That thing is two feet of terror, pun intended

Full disclosure: The entire party is kobolds, so pack tactics make it so much fun. All of us have gotten into the kobold mindset of hating gnomes and idolizing dragons. The RP is fantastic, like when we grab a giant cloak, stand on each others shoulders, and pretend to be a hill giant. Not blasty-blasty optimized, but we play to laugh and have fun, not "win"

[Naanomi]

I love multiclassing so this is tough but...

Dwarf sorcerer who hates their magic and has only spells with no material components (surprisingly viable)

Stout halfling battlemaster hand-crossbow 'gunslinger'

Watergesai (or triton) Beastmaster ranger with a giant crab pet 'aquatic attack squad'

[ruy343]

I've enjoyed all of the characters I've played so far (though that only amounts to 5). I really enjoyed playing a 4-elements monk, a life cleric, a halfling transmuter wizard, and a barbarian (Ancestral Guardian).

However, the character that took the cake was a Vhuman Wizard (Conjurer) with the "Keen Mind" feat, a background in cartography and a familiar through whom he could get a good mapping perspective. In a campaign where half of the challenges were supposed to be related to survival and exploration, I was able to override half of the campaign in one session by having just the right answer to anything we encountered, right off the bat at level 1. I generally focused on useful ritual spells and buffs (Eventually, the group started calling me the "cheat sheet"), and let the rest of my party rule the combat arena (which was a good choice with our fighter/rogue and monk).

It was awesome.

[Gignere]

Definitely Diviner Wizard you will never forget when you guarantee Tasha a shadow dragon to death due to fall from height and cakewalk a double deadly encounter.

[hymer]

Land druid (arctic) sylvan elf. The bow proficiency and dex 16 will keep you going easily until level 5, when big stuff starts to happen. Between wild shape and druid spells you have huge versatility, and you can find a role to play in just about any party. I know, you totally saw that coming.

[Yuroch Kern]

I've been playing human fighters forever, and I will not stop. Except a human Valor bard. Who saves the party constantly with the BRUTAL HEALING POWER OF METAL. \m/

[MBControl]

I love the Ranger - Hunter build. I enjoy it's versatility. A talented fighter, with limited but strong casting abilities. A dex build that can make you stealthy, hard to hit, and dangerous with your weapons.

You can really start to rack up damage with the help of colossus slayer and hunter's mark. Your ability to "rogue" is strong with a high stealth score, aided by Pass Without Trace".

You have a solid and useful skill options as well. This is a solid class that can do important things well. If you want a fighter class, you can go ranger and allow yourself to be competent outside of combat.

[TrinculoLives]

Halfling Beastmaster Ranger who uses his companion as a mount.*

The PHB version is fine for playing, but I can't imagine playing the class again without implementing a few of the changes from the Revised Ranger UA. It really smooths over some of the rougher spots of the original class (although personally I think some stuff was poorly handled in the UA, getting rid of Favoured Terrains was too far I thought and gaining all humanoids as favoured enemies.)


*having the companion act on your initiative is the only way to do this, so that part of the UA has to be ignored for sure.

[nickl_2000]

Of the two characters I've played so far, I've liked my halfling shadow monk the best. He gives a massive versatility in combat, can hide better than most rogues, can teleport as a bonus action, and has been fun.

That being said, the bard I'm playing has really challenged me by being the face of the party. It's been a harder character to play since I'm expected to be doing most of the interaction (he's a pretty, pretty man, well half-elf). Still, it's been enjoyable.

Next comes a Moon druid that will be starting soon. I'm looking forward to him, since I see some crazy versatility. Also, he has a massive dump stat in Cha (6). So, he really doesn't like people, especially people who mistreat animals. I may piss off my party, but I'm likely going to be beating on some idiot commoner who thinks it's okay to hurt their horse.

[Sabeta]

Single Builds: Not counting UA

Wizards are the best caster by a strong margin. I'm personally partial to Sorcerer, but their limited spells known make it kind of hard to build them well.

With UA

Favored Soul / Death Domain. You get medium armor and shields, extra attack, free spells that don't count against you, and the ability to fly later on (iirc). This is my favorite Sorcerer chassis, but by default it's very similar to Bard. Either way, mine will be quite sturdy thanks to Quickened Vampiric Touch and 17 AC.

[Sirdar]

Pact of the Chain Warlock.

Because Warlock! Choose a nice blend of combat/utility spells, cool invocations and walk around with an awesome familiar. Patron? They're all good, it's just a matter of taste.

[Steampunkette]

Warlocks.

Thery're solid for basic at-will damage and have a nice chassis that you can customize into different styles.

Wanna be a Melee-Fighter with Gishiness? Hexblade with Greenflame Blade.

Wanna be a Melee-Fighter Gish-Controller? Hexblade with Pact of the Tome to get Thorn Whip (Pull/push shenanigans).

Wanna be a ranged damage dealer? Fiendlock.

Wanna be a controller and troubleshooter? Great Old Lock.

Different spell packages give them a LOT of flexibility.


Barbarians. Sure they're pretty much one-trick ponies, but they do their trick -very- well. And, really, isn't that the point of overwhelming your challenges with brute strength?

[poolio]

Clerics, love 'em, I've played a couple life and war, but i really want to try a knowledge one, who is trying to create a bestiary to aid future would be adventurers.

Essentially a pokedex of monsters :smalltongue:

[Maxilian]

Honestly, one of the best, most flexible base classes out there, in my opinion.

I don't think they are flexible (they have a lot of versatility), when it comes to flexibility i will give the point to Fighter (And also that's my favorite singular class);

Fighter get the more ASIS (or feats) than any other classes, only that, give you the option to make a Fighter in many different ways (irrelevant of the race, the race only give you more options), also the Fighter is the class that let you play more with your Stats (as you can go with DEX or STR as one of your main stats without much problem, and the feats allow you to even go with more cracy options, like having CHA or WIS as your main stat and Dex as secondary);

It lets you go from a Range character (with or without spells -EK-) to a melee character (with or without spells), you are never going to have your spells as your main thing (not even as an EK, unless you count Cantrips), but you got many things to play around with.

[Mith]

I greatly enjoyed my Half Orc totem Barbarian. He is more effective than a regular barbarian in some ways because the DM allowed for training skills, which gives him better saves. But I love the totem animal and commune with nature. It is very useful for information gathering.

[Asmotherion]

Hmm... Warlock is my favorite class by far. Eldritch Blasting can be lots of fun when you describe what you do, and how. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. I love to Disguise self at-will (and latter Alter Self), to really mess with the RP, Use Misty vissions for prety much the equivalent of a limited at-will Wish, and pretty much a lot of At-Will magical abilities. I just love the mechancs. I love going Old One, for the whole Cthulhu feel of the archetype, and the Telekinetic/Telepathic theme of abilities. Also, he's the only one who can virtually dominate a minion of considerable CR/level permanantly, which frankly, is quite the ability. It also allows no save, as long as it's incapaciated, which oppens up a lot to think about.

[mgshamster]

I've played nearly every class and so far I haven't found a class I don't enjoy.

I've done frenzy barbarian, tempest cleric, land druid, champion fighter, open hand monk, four elements monk, ancients paladin, beast master ranger, thief rogue, and wild magic sorcerer.

Each and every one of them have been a blast to play.

In addition, I've DM'd for every archetype in the game, including the mystic (I DM a lot of AL Games and a few homebrew games). As a DM, I've enjoyed seeing every class and every archetype in play.

[DanyBallon]

If you want a real feel of the difference between older editions and 5e, Champion fighter is quite simple yet fut to play. For a splash of magic, Eldritch Knight (I'm having a blast playing one right now).

But as far as I'm concerned, any classes can be fun to play. Choose one, create yourself a great backstory and have fun playing the game. It's all that is important.

[Occasional Sage]

Half-elven bard with the Acolyte background (whatever your setting's Deity of Knowledge is), played much like Indiana Jones.

[8wGremlin]

I'm a 3.5 player - and I hate fighters...
but
I took one of the team and played a human, fighter (battle master), crossbow master, hand crossbow in one hand. played him like a fist full of dollars. He has grown on me, has been versatile, always bringing something to the table and kept up with the casters and surpassed a few doing damage.


I'm allowed to multiclass now - so will be going into Revised Darkstalker Ranger.

[coredump]

I have a high level Paladin I really enjoy.
I have a midlevel Warlock I really enjoy
I have a low-mid level monk I really enjoy
I have a low level fighter I really enjoy

Its not the class, its the characters.

[Asmotherion]

I have a high level Paladin I really enjoy.
I have a midlevel Warlock I really enjoy
I have a low-mid level monk I really enjoy
I have a low level fighter I really enjoy

Its not the class, its the characters.

I second that. Though, sometimes the character's theme might be linked to a class, nobody ever said you can't play a pure Wizard thief, a War Veteran Warlock or a Paladin of an Evil Deity. All you need is a bit of refluffing, good will from the DM and creativity. Just because a class has a "Default theme" (The schollary Wizard, the Vallant Paladin, the Faustian Contract Warlock or the greedy Rogue cleptomaniac) it doesn't mean you have to abide to those themes. Sure, you may loose some bonuses by changing themes (Mostly Core Abitity focused on skill proficiencies), but I think playing an original character over one that has been done like a million times is worth the trade.

[warmachine]

You idea of fun and interesting may differ from mine. Also, I've only played a handful of classes, so my assessment is very limited. Nonetheless, I shall say Sorcerer because it's a primary spellcaster with on-the-fly metamagic options. In D&D, the most interesting tactical options have always been spells.

I'm also playing a Rogue (Thief). As their class features are at-will, you'd think it'd be boring but I have fun zipping about the battlefield like a roadrunner on speed, Sneak Attacking targets. Cunning Action allows running to a different target without worrying about Opportunity Attacks, or running more than 30ft and still getting an attack in. Plus good skill proficiencies.