My friends and I need some terrible character builds

[Balthasaurus]

Within my small group of gaming buddies, I am normally the Dungeon Master, but we have short campaigns and generally rotate the role of DM after the campaign is finished. The next DM is going to be our least experienced player, who I shall call Brad. Brad does not have a very good system mastery of 5e, and is generally pretty poor at setting the scene and role-playing in general. However, he likes the fact that the world is his own. Last time, we encountered a Death Knight, far more dragons than plausible, absurd magic items, etc., to the extent that our 3rd level party was increased to 12th level after he realised how out of our depth we were.

So, he is going to DM for us for probably a couple of sessions. Considering what happened last time, myself and the other four players have decided to create terrible character builds for 12th level characters.

I was looking through the Warlock's eldritch invocations, and I noticed Otherworldly Leap, an ability that allows the user to cast the Jump spell at will, without material components.

My question is: just how high can I get my character to jump? I need to take at least 9 levels in warlock, but I still have 3 levels to potentially multi-class with. Anyway to get my character to jump higher? Are there any other awful strategies that you can suggest for me?

All of this is just in the interest of creating terrible character builds. I wouldn't use these in any other game, but I want to try them for a bit of fun.

[Consensus]

Rogue 3 with the thief archetype adds dex mod to running jump distance
Monk 2 allows you to spend 1 ki to dash or disengage as a bonus action, as well as have your jump distance doubled for the rest of the turn

[Balthasaurus]

Rogue 3 with the thief archetype adds dex mod to running jump distance
Monk 2 allows you to spend 1 ki to dash or disengage as a bonus action, as well as have your jump distance doubled for the rest of the turn

Nice! I hadn't thought of those. Because we are starting at level 12 (weird, I know), I think we'll be allowed to take an uncommon magic item. If that is the case, the boots of striding and springing would be a must-have for me.

[Provo]

Well jump should stack with the monks step of the wind for 6x your normal jump height/distance. A Monk 3/Lock 9 with 20 strength would jump 120 ft.

[Daphne]

Purple Dragon Knight Fighter with Protection Style

Non-Revised Beast Master Ranger

Sorcerer with bad spells and metamagic selection

[Balthasaurus]

Purple Dragon Knight Fighter with Protection Style

Non-Revised Beast Master Ranger

Sorcerer with bad spells and metamagic selection

Those are pretty bad, but not the sorts of things we might take for the campaign. One of my friends has, for example, decided to take 1 level in every class, and another is going to design a character who only used improvised weapons. Our builds aren't designed with the intention of being bad or hard to play, but with the intentions of being terribly stupid.

Nice ideas, though. We might have a wild magic sorcerer who uses wild magic on an odd roll, not just a 1.

[the secret fire]

Protection Style is actually sneaky good in combination with another melee combatant who takes Sentinel. That way, enemies are penalized for attacking either one of the PCs if they stand abreast in melee. Super Smash Brothers.

But yeah, the PDK sucks big time.

Any CHA-based caster can end up kinda sorry with poor spell selection, so there's that.

There are plenty of multiclass builds with terrible MADness or just zero synergies. Any spellcasting class is going to mix poorly with the Barbarian because you can't cast while raging. Wizard/Barbarian is about as intentionally gimped as it gets.

[Balthasaurus]

Protection Style is actually sneaky good in combination with another melee combatant who takes Sentinel. That way, enemies are penalized for attacking either one of the PCs if they stand abreast in melee. Super Smash Brothers.

But yeah, the PDK sucks big time.

Any CHA-based caster can end up kinda sorry with poor spell selection, so there's that.

There are plenty of multiclass builds with terrible MADness or just zero synergies. Any spellcasting class is going to mix poorly with the Barbarian because you can't cast while raging. Wizard/Barbarian is about as intentionally gimped as it gets.

No, no, we don't want to play as really bad characters. We want to find a specific strategy or idea and see how much we can abuse it to the point it becomes stupid. Wizard/Barbarian is a terrible idea, but it isn't fun to play. The concept of having a character that can jump 120 feet is the sort of thing that stands out as being terrible in this scenario.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Let’s see here...

Battlemaster 12 with the following feats:
Dual wielder, shield Master, and tavern brawler. Bonus points for charger.

Now pick up the fightingstyle defensive.

Throw away your weapons and pick up 2 hardy shields, at least one or both need to be throwable.

Now wade into battle using shields as improvised weapons, throw them around and bash people and use superiority dice to do cool captain America maneuvers.

Even if you threw both of your shields away you can run around punching and grappling .

Future levels should involve barbarian. Or paladin for smites or a horse you can jump off of in battle

[HandofBlades]

Build the dumb strong wizard. Ten INT 20 strength. Make him a half orc. Casts lots of ritual spells and relies on magic missile and shield in melee. Maybe one level fighter dip. So maybe bump up that INT to 14 by level 8.

[Potato_Priest]

So, I challenged my players to make the worst characters they could as part of a one-shot where they all end up fighting to the death.

Here was one of my favorites:

A GOO tome warlock without eldritch blast, with as many spell picks and invocation choices as they could manage oriented towards being able to speak or understand languages, accompanied by the Linguist feat. It was amusing because all of these abilities are nearly worthless due to the 3rd Level GOO lock's telepathy.

[Balthasaurus]

Let’s see here...

Battlemaster 12 with the following feats:
Dual wielder, shield Master, and tavern brawler. Bonus points for charger.

Now pick up the fightingstyle defensive.

Throw away your weapons and pick up 2 hardy shields, at least one or both need to be throwable.

Now wade into battle using shields as improvised weapons, throw them around and bash people and use superiority dice to do cool captain America maneuvers.

Even if you threw both of your shields away you can run around punching and grappling .

Future levels should involve barbarian. Or paladin for smites or a horse you can jump off of in battle

This is great, I actually started laughing as you mentioned using the superiority dice for Captain America manoeuvres. It's exactly the sort of thing we need. Kudos to you.

[Balthasaurus]

So, I challenged my players to make the worst characters they could as part of a one-shot where they all end up fighting to the death.

Here was one of my favorites:

A GOO tome warlock without eldritch blast, with as many spell picks and invocation choices as they could manage oriented towards being able to speak or understand languages, accompanied by the Linguist feat. It was amusing because all of these abilities are nearly worthless due to the 3rd Level GOO lock's telepathy.

Someone who can speak as many languages as possible also sounds fantastic. Great idea!

[Errata]

I think we'll be allowed to take an uncommon magic item. If that is the case, the boots of striding and springing would be a must-have for me.

It's a little ambiguous, but I think that qualifies as the same effect as the jump spell, and the same effect doesn't stack. So if you have jump at will, the boots of springing wouldn't help much. If you were doing a different class without the jump ability, then the boots would be a great way to get it.

I'd go with the slippers of spider climbing in your situation. It would give you a good use for your jumping ability. You can jump between floors, walls, ceilings, and really make free use of your 3 dimensional environment in weird ways. If you wanted to really lean into the spiderman conceit, you could multiclass a couple of levels of druid in order to wild shape into spiders. Land Druid can get the web spell at level 3, which isn't on the Warlock list.

If you're doing a warlock, Grasp of Hadar is a must. With all your vertical abilities, the ability to pull someone 10 feet closer becomes really good, because you're pulling them up into the air. If you pull them from above, you can inflict an extra 1d6 falling damage, and even more importantly knock them prone, leaving them at a disadvantage to melee and a movement penalty to stand back up.

[Balthasaurus]

It's a little ambiguous, but I think that qualifies as the same effect as the jump spell, and the same effect doesn't stack. So if you have jump at will, the boots of springing wouldn't help much. If you were doing a different class without the jump ability, then the boots would be a great way to get it.

I'd go with the slippers of spider climbing in your situation. It would give you a good use for your jumping ability. You can jump between floors, walls, ceilings, and really make free use of your 3 dimensional environment in weird ways.

If you're doing a warlock, Grasp of Hadar is a must. With all your vertical abilities, the ability to pull someone 10 feet closer becomes really good, because you're pulling them up into the air. If you pull them from above, you can inflict an extra 1d6 falling damage, and even more importantly knock them prone, leaving them at a disadvantage to melee and a movement penalty to stand back up.

Ah, thanks for that correction. The effect is identical, but because they didn't have the same proper name I assumed they would stack.

Slippers of Spider Climbing + Grasp of Hadar sound like a great way to abuse my hilarious jump distance. Thanks for that!

[Mortis_Elrod]

Ah, thanks for that correction. The effect is identical, but because they didn't have the same proper name I assumed they would stack.

Slippers of Spider Climbing + Grasp of Hadar sound like a great way to abuse my hilarious jump distance. Thanks for that!

Athlete feat.

[Quoz]

The Care Bear

Druid 10 (moon)/Paladin 2

Take any CR 3 monster, reskin as the cutest, most cartoonish version you can justify (koala or raccoon for example) and then smite all day long. For proper roleplay, never drop wild shape. Play as the party donkey, a familiar, or your ranger's beast companion. Even better if you can find a magic item that lets you talk in beast form, but speak only in sing-along songs and music montages.

[Easy_Lee]

This isn't terrible so much as one-dimensional. You can make a variant human rogue with - 1 in both dexterity and strength who can still function.

Inquisitive Rogue, standard array human.
Feats by level 12: magic initiate (druid: shillelagh, magic stone, detect magic), Observant, Alert, +2 Wisdom (bonus)
16 starting INT and WIS, 8 starting DEX and STR
Expertise: Investigation, Perception, Insight

This is a Sherlock Holmes-type character. Your insight, investigation, perception, and especially passive perception are absolutely ridiculous, but your AC and melee damage both suck. However, you can use magic stone and shillelagh to make ranged and melee attacks using WIS. In fact, magic stones delivered via a sling still qualify for sneak attack.

[Errata]

Remember that jump counts as movement, so your jump in a round of combat can't exceed your normal movement speed. And 10 feet of that is before the jump for a running start (5 with athlete). So you may want to look into things that increase your movement speed once your jump distance is decent, or you won't be able to use the full jump effectively. Boots of speed help a lot, but they're rare, not uncommon, plus the same equipment slot as slippers. Longstrider can help by 10 feet. The Mobile feat is +10. Monk helps, but not much synergy with Warlock. Tabaxi can effectively save up movement for a burst of double movement, which may make sense for representing a big jump.

[Sirithhyando]

To add to the fun that's already been said, get 2 immovable rod and make your warlock a pact of the chain to get a familiar that can fly and use the immovable rob (not sure if doable by RAW but since it's for fun, DM could let it pass).
Just jump to the first rod, let your familiar plce the other and try not to fall while going on top of the rod to jump to the other and so on... pointless? Absolutely, but when someone fly and come face to face with whatever is just lying up the the air... might be fun... until you fall. :smalltongue:

[Mortis_Elrod]

Adding some things here. My shield build above can benifet from Lizardfolk as the race, if you want to unarmed strike a lot as Well as make your own shields.

On the other side if you wanna hammer in that captain America feel pick up Blade Bard for 8 levels and flourish on top of your maneuver for BI + SupDice for damage.

VHuman let’s you get 19 str at level 12 with the charger feat. Charge of the Light Brigade if you mix up paladin and Bard in there. Battlemaster 12/Paladin x/Blade Bard x is pretty solid with the smites.



Now for the jumping. Tabaxi plus monk levels and mobile and athlete feat help out the most. The Grasp of Hadar is pretty gimmicky but doable with a level 2 dip. So something like Shadow Monk 8/Rogue 2/Warlock 2 works out. Grab more in rogue or monk and Mario Style Goomba Stomp for attacks or EB. Pick up the springing and striding boots since you won’t get jump at will. Tabaxi adds speed but VHuman opens up an ASI for feat (magic initiate for long strider/jump) or a Dex bump.
Devil sight as your other invocation makes shadow monk very good for when you want to teleport instead of jump.

[tomato]

The Koolaid Man Barbarian:

Half Orc Barbarian 13
Primal Path: Totem Warrior
Guild Artisan - Tool Proficiency: Mason's Tools
Feats: Great Weapon Mastery, Orcish Fury,

Get Strength to 20 or pick up a belt of giant strength if you can. Make sure you pick up an Adamantine Maul or Greataxe. The level 3 path feature doesn't matter, but the level 6 path feature does: Grab Bear here. Trust me.

You now have advantage on strength checks to break objects, and you crit when you hit an object with the adamantine weapon, and your masonry tools proficiency rules from Xanathar's Guide allows you to deal double damage with your weapons when you break an object. Add in Brutal Critical 2, Savage Attacks, and Great Weapon Master, and congratulations, you now can do something like 100 damage per hit to any object almost guaranteed. If your DM rules it requires a strength check and not a weapon attack to break down a wall, you have the bear totem feature. If the DM rules you must use the attack action, well you don't lose anything except advantage, which you can regain by using reckless attacks. No wall or door is safe.

[Balthasaurus]

The Koolaid Man Barbarian:

Half Orc Barbarian 13
Primal Path: Totem Warrior
Guild Artisan - Tool Proficiency: Mason's Tools
Feats: Great Weapon Mastery, Orcish Fury,

Get Strength to 20 or pick up a belt of giant strength if you can. Make sure you pick up an Adamantine Maul or Greataxe. The level 3 path feature doesn't matter, but the level 6 path feature does: Grab Bear here. Trust me.

You now have advantage on strength checks to break objects, and you crit when you hit an object with the adamantine weapon, and your masonry tools proficiency rules from Xanathar's Guide allows you to deal double damage with your weapons when you break an object. Add in Brutal Critical 2, Savage Attacks, and Great Weapon Master, and congratulations, you now can do something like 100 damage per hit to any object almost guaranteed. If your DM rules it requires a strength check and not a weapon attack to break down a wall, you have the bear totem feature. If the DM rules you must use the attack action, well you don't lose anything except advantage, which you can regain by using reckless attacks. No wall or door is safe.

I was confused at first, but I suddenly realise why it's a "Koolaid Man" barbarian. Using all of your abilities to try and break objects. That's ingeniously stupid. Thank you for the idea!

[Easy_Lee]

The Koolaid Man Barbarian:

Half Orc Barbarian 13
Primal Path: Totem Warrior
Guild Artisan - Tool Proficiency: Mason's Tools
Feats: Great Weapon Mastery, Orcish Fury,

Get Strength to 20 or pick up a belt of giant strength if you can. Make sure you pick up an Adamantine Maul or Greataxe. The level 3 path feature doesn't matter, but the level 6 path feature does: Grab Bear here. Trust me.

You now have advantage on strength checks to break objects, and you crit when you hit an object with the adamantine weapon, and your masonry tools proficiency rules from Xanathar's Guide allows you to deal double damage with your weapons when you break an object. Add in Brutal Critical 2, Savage Attacks, and Great Weapon Master, and congratulations, you now can do something like 100 damage per hit to any object almost guaranteed. If your DM rules it requires a strength check and not a weapon attack to break down a wall, you have the bear totem feature. If the DM rules you must use the attack action, well you don't lose anything except advantage, which you can regain by using reckless attacks. No wall or door is safe.

That's actually pretty great. What party wouldn't want a wall-buster barbarian in the lead? Enter the dungeon from the last direction anyone would expect.

[tomato]

That's actually pretty great. What party wouldn't want a wall-buster barbarian in the lead? Enter the dungeon from the last direction anyone would expect.

My favorite part is that you're still a barbarian at the end of the day. You don't really give much up to make this work: 500gp for an adamantine maul, your background needs to include masonry tool's proficiency, and you need to choose the bear level 6 ribbon feature, but that's it. Not really giving up much to gain a whole lot.

[MxKit]

I don't know if all of these are quite the level of stupid and terrible you guys are looking for, but!

THE CANTRIP MASTER:

Variant Human 12
Draconic Sorcerer 1/Illusion Wizard 2/Arcana Cleric 1/Land Druid 2/Celestial Tomelock 3/Lore Bard 3
Feat: Magic Initiate (take at start)

Stay as a Bard for the entire rest of your career. You have 27 cantrips at lv12, and will get 33 cantrips by lv15, or more if you grab cantrips via your Magical Secrets. Alternately, you can go Glamour Bard for the ability to cast command at-will as a bonus action for a full minute every long rest. And remember that you can pick up Warlock invocations that let you cast some non-cantrip spells at-will as if they were cantrips, too!

SUPLEX GRAPPLER:

Tortle
Open Hand Monk 10/Moon Druid 2
Feats: Athlete, Mobile

Go Strength-based, take Athlete as one of your skill proficiencies (Sailor is a good and thematic background for you!). Take the jump and longstrider spells, cast them on yourself before Wildshaping if you need to Wildshape. Don't even worry about your AC. Grab an enemy or two and jump super high, or run up walls and then jump, and just piledrive them into the ground. Step of the Wind, Slow Fall, Extra Attack, and a +20 ft to your movement will help you out even without taking the spells into account. Alternately, you can go Land Druid if you want some short rest spell recharge; especially worth it if you have another spellcaster in the party who might be willing to cast englarge/reduce on you/your target.

THE POISONOUS DEATH LIZARD:

Lizardfolk Rogue 12
Assassin subclass
Criminal background
Feats: Sharpshooter, Skulker

Dip into Ranger later, at least 2 levels, but 3 levels for a subclass, 4 levels for an ASI/feat, or 5 levels for multiattack could also be worth it. Hunter, Gloom Stalker, Horizon Walker, and Monster Slayer are all fine Ranger subclasses if you go that far, though I like Hunter and Gloom Stalker most for the flavor. Mostly, though, you are spending your money on poisons (this is why I suggest the criminal background, so you can try to get your DM to let you use your contacts to buy poisons; black market, baby!), going for as many surprise attacks and Sneak Attacks as possible, and concentrating on using a blowgun. Yes, a blowgun. What, do you not like the idea of doing potentially 80+ damage with a blowgun during the first round of combat, or something? :smallamused:

SOLD MY SOUL FOR ROCK N ROLL:

Fiend Warlock 3/Glamour Bard 9

Eventually take it to Bard 14/Warlock 6; either Chain or Tomelock would work, but I'm inclined to say Chain. There are multiple ways you can do this wrt race and background, but I like the idea of someone with the Entertainer background, who was kind of struggling before they took their initial levels in Warlock, selling their soul to become a Bard. But I admittedly stole the basic idea from Nerdarchy, who actually suggested a Fiendlock 2/Lore Bard X split, with the Sage background, going Tiefling and saying that your character wasn't born a Tiefling but instead just some ordinary nerdy dude who made a deal with Asmodeus for THE POWER OF ROCK AND ROLL and was turned into a Tiefling among all the rest of the stuff. Which is hilarious and I approve. Take spells like shatter for the mental image of someone wailing on their guitar and breaking things from the sheer force of awesome. Go Elf or Half-Elf if you want the Discworld pun of being "elvish."

[Ventruenox]

Toxic Death Frog: Grung Kensai Monk 9/Circle of Spores Druid 3.

Grung have a standing jump of 15 and long jump of 25 without any need for the 10' run. They also add a DC 12 CON save or take 2d4 poison if you use a piercing weapon as a free part of the attack. Monk 9 will add 15 movement, so take Mobile for another 10'. That gives 50' movement per round - equal to two long jumps. Spider Slippers combined with movement across water and free jumps? Step of the Wind doubles jump, and lets you disengage or dash. That makes for crazy hit and run tactics. But wait, there's competition for the bonus action.

Three Druid levels let you throw down your own AoE like Spike Growth, then force mooks into the kill zone or hit them with Flurry of Blows. With Wild Shape active, the Symbiotic Entity adds 1d6 poison to each of those 4 attacks. The text for Halo of Spores reads as though the poison damage scales with character level, so at level 12 and active Wild Shape, your reaction can be used offensively for 18 poison damage to one target within 10'.

It also makes for a self sufficient utility caster: Longstrider, Pass Without Trace, etc. Mold Earth & Create/Destroy Water will overcome the racial Water Dependency trait. Thorn Whip as the 2nd cantrip gives you a 10' pull from 30' away. Hold Person for crazy crits.

If you prefer, Open Hand is also a viable build. You trade martial weapons and 2 AC for some battlefield control. If you make frequent use of AoE tactics, Open Hand gives you the tools to dominate. Push mooks 15' into Spike Growth for 6d4 piercing damage with no save.

I prefer Kensai. Picturing this frog with spiked gloves or boots as a monk weapon just seems appropriate, but let's try a morningstar on this (level 12) build. Two attacks plus Flurry of Blows, Deft Strike, & active Symbiotic Entity results in 2d8 piercing + 3d6 bludgeoning +2d6 poison + 18 poison (Halo of Spores) + Dex modifer 4x and force two Con saves or take 4d4 additional poison. Then leap away to the ceiling without provoking any attacks of opportunity. This costs 2 Ki and makes use of your action, bonus action, and reaction.

[DarkKnightJin]

SOLD MY SOUL FOR ROCK N ROLL:

Fiend Warlock 3/Glamour Bard 9

Eventually take it to Bard 14/Warlock 6; either Chain or Tomelock would work, but I'm inclined to say Chain. There are multiple ways you can do this wrt race and background, but I like the idea of someone with the Entertainer background, who was kind of struggling before they took their initial levels in Warlock, selling their soul to become a Bard. But I admittedly stole the basic idea from Nerdarchy, who actually suggested a Fiendlock 2/Lore Bard X split, with the Sage background, going Tiefling and saying that your character wasn't born a Tiefling but instead just some ordinary nerdy dude who made a deal with Asmodeus for THE POWER OF ROCK AND ROLL and was turned into a Tiefling among all the rest of the stuff. Which is hilarious and I approve. Take spells like shatter for the mental image of someone wailing on their guitar and breaking things from the sheer force of awesome. Go Elf or Half-Elf if you want the Discworld pun of being "elvish."

...And now I'm thinking about Tenacious D, with 'Master Exploder'.. Kudos.

[Errata]

Nightmare:
Dragonborn, take Dragon Fear feat.
Conquest Paladin 12

You now have 4 area of effect fear ability uses per day, which don't require concentration. Plus, 3 fear cone spells, and 7 wrathful smites, so you can be maintaining fear nearly all the time, and use a spell any time your concentration isn't already in use by another fear spell.

You have an aura that makes it so that frightened enemies near you have 0 movement. One of the effects of frightened is that they have a disadvantage on ability checks. Use one of your attacks to shove them to the ground, which they must counter with acrobatics or athletics, either way disadvantaged. With 0 movement, they can't stand back up again. So they are prone until their fear runs out. Meaning they are at a disadvantage against all the rest of your melee attacks. Their attacks against you are also disadvantaged because of the fear. Assuming they can even hit you at all, which maybe they can't with 0 movement. Make sure to use a polearm to exploit this.

Leave all your opponents paralyzed and cowering in fear on the ground.

[Quoxis]

Another possibility for the high-jumper is a totem barbarian dip of 3 levels, taking the tiger totem from scag gives you +2ft in jumping height while raging. Width can also be modified, but i don’t remember the intricacies.
Does the jump spell require concentration?

[Vaz]

If you really, really want to jump;

Totem (Tiger) Barbarian gives you +3ft High Jump
Monk 2 gives you Step of the Wind to Double Jump Distance. More Monk gives you increased chance to do this.
Rogue (Thief) gives you Dex Mod to Jump

Running High Jump is something Height, +3ft. Maxing Strength and Dex gives you +32ft Jump. This lets you throw a Javelin at your highest jump height without disadvantage. Athlete feat gives you 5ft Running High Jump. No benefit to your jump height, but it's easier to jump. Jump At Will gives you Triple Jump Distance; 32*3 = 96ft - available via Ring of Jumping, or Warlock Invocation. Having a Belt of Storm Giant Strength gives you 102ft.

If you wanted to make a "Dragoon" a la Final Fantasy, you can nearly jump as high as you can throw a Javelin. I think if you can find a way of moving 306ft in a turn, you can even use Belt of Springing and Striding to jump nearly 100m with a 5ft start.

[Beelzebubba]

I find it hard to make terrible characters this edition. My 'trap detection' from earlier editions fails.

But... there's always becoming some variety of 'Skill Monkey':
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Skill_Monkey_(5e_Optimized_Character_Build)

Here's one way to do it - not optimal, but close enough for me:

'Encyclopedia Braun'
- Variant Human = 1 skill, 1 language
- Prodigy Feat = 1 skill (with expertise), 1 tool, 1 language
- Sage Background = 2 skills, 2 languages
- Rogue 6 = 4 skills (with expertise)
- Bard 3, College of Lore = +4 skills, +1 musical instrument, Jack of All Trades
- Cleric 1 of Knowledge = 2 skills (with expertise)
- Ranger 2 = 1 skill
- Feat (4): Skilled = 3 skills
- Feat (8): Linguist = 3 languages
- Feat (12): Luck = make those skill checks count when you need 'em

--

Or

'Mr/Ms Lucky':
- Halfling Luck = re-roll 1s
- Feat (4) Lucky = 3 advantage rolls per day
- Feat (8) Halfling Bountiful Luck = let someone else re-roll a 1 once per turn
- Bard for Cutting Words, Bane, Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Counterspell, etc.
- Cleric for Guidance, Bless, Bestow Curse, etc.

Aim every single thing you do to mess with everyone else's rolls - up, down, Advantage, Disadvantage, cancel their actions entirely - and do it every round you possibly can.

--

Not terrible, but definitely more gimmicky than I'd ever do.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Nightmare:
Dragonborn, take Dragon Fear feat.
Conquest Paladin 12

You now have 4 area of effect fear ability uses per day, which don't require concentration. Plus, 3 fear cone spells, and 7 wrathful smites, so you can be maintaining fear nearly all the time, and use a spell any time your concentration isn't already in use by another fear spell.

You have an aura that makes it so that frightened enemies near you have 0 movement. One of the effects of frightened is that they have a disadvantage on ability checks. Use one of your attacks to shove them to the ground, which they must counter with acrobatics or athletics, either way disadvantaged. With 0 movement, they can't stand back up again. So they are prone until their fear runs out. Meaning they are at a disadvantage against all the rest of your melee attacks. Their attacks against you are also disadvantaged because of the fear. Assuming they can even hit you at all, which maybe they can't with 0 movement. Make sure to use a polearm to exploit this.

Leave all your opponents paralyzed and cowering in fear on the ground.

Take a few levels of long death monk for more fear

[Beechgnome]

The lazy chainmaster, or The tireless imp and that slob he hangs out with.

Divine Soul Sorcerer 9/Great Old One Warlock 3 Variant Tiefling (Mammon, from UA)

Between your imp familiar and Subtle spell, your character need never lift a finger to do anything. Even speak.

As a sorcerer, take touch spells that you can cast through your familiar like Sanctuary, Inflict Wounds, Cure Wounds, Invisibility, Enhance Ability, Bestow Curse, Freedom of Movement etc.
Or spells that buff your familiar, like Aid for extra hp, dragon's breath, sanctuary, death ward, etc.

Then have him do Everything. Fly in and out battle. Make you tea. Take voice of the chain master and talk exclusively through him.

The Mammon tiefling lets you get mage hand, tenser's floating disk and arcane lock (which the imp can cast at range). So anything the imp can't carry, you get the disk to handle.

Add unseen servant as a warlock spell and you are set. You can have tea and watch the fight from, uh, a safe distance.

[johnbragg]

Unarmed Rogue with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Expertise in Athletics. That gives you double your proficiency bonus + 4 to Strength (Athletics) checks to make an attack that knocks your opponent prone. That gives you Advantage on your next attack, which gives you Sneak Attack dice.

You just built WWE hall of famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, who taking down his opponent and then brutalizing them with the Ankle Lock.

I don't know how 5E multiclassing works, but is there a way to stack 2 Fighter levels on top of that, to get an Action Surge to do the takedown and the Sneak Attack on the same round?

Or stack it with Barbarian rage, so you get Advantage on the Strength (Athletics) check?

Maybe a Tibaxi so you can kitty-run? "RKO Outta Nowhere!"?

Is there a way to combine this with Pounce, "off the top rope"? Harder to fluff "off the top rope" with no ring to jump off of, but....

[Balthasaurus]

Another possibility for the high-jumper is a totem barbarian dip of 3 levels, taking the tiger totem from scag gives you +2ft in jumping height while raging. Width can also be modified, but i don’t remember the intricacies.
Does the jump spell require concentration?

No Jump, doesn't require concentration, and with the Otherworldly Leap invocation it can be cast at will. Totem Barbarian sounds like it could be a good way to improve my jumping height, thanks for finding that!

[Balthasaurus]

The lazy chainmaster, or The tireless imp and that slob he hangs out with.

Divine Soul Sorcerer 9/Great Old One Warlock 3 Variant Tiefling (Mammon, from UA)

Between your imp familiar and Subtle spell, your character need never lift a finger to do anything. Even speak.

As a sorcerer, take touch spells that you can cast through your familiar like Sanctuary, Inflict Wounds, Cure Wounds, Invisibility, Enhance Ability, Bestow Curse, Freedom of Movement etc.
Or spells that buff your familiar, like Aid for extra hp, dragon's breath, sanctuary, death ward, etc.

Then have him do Everything. Fly in and out battle. Make you tea. Take voice of the chain master and talk exclusively through him.

The Mammon tiefling lets you get mage hand, tenser's floating disk and arcane lock (which the imp can cast at range). So anything the imp can't carry, you get the disk to handle.

Add unseen servant as a warlock spell and you are set. You can have tea and watch the fight from, uh, a safe distance.

This is also great. Having your familiar do literally everything for you is phenomenal. Thanks for the idea!

[Balthasaurus]

Unarmed Rogue with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Expertise in Athletics. That gives you double your proficiency bonus + 4 to Strength (Athletics) checks to make an attack that knocks your opponent prone. That gives you Advantage on your next attack, which gives you Sneak Attack dice.

You just built WWE hall of famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, who taking down his opponent and then brutalizing them with the Ankle Lock.

I don't know how 5E multiclassing works, but is there a way to stack 2 Fighter levels on top of that, to get an Action Surge to do the takedown and the Sneak Attack on the same round?

Or stack it with Barbarian rage, so you get Advantage on the Strength (Athletics) check?

Maybe a Tibaxi so you can kitty-run? "RKO Outta Nowhere!"?

Is there a way to combine this with Pounce, "off the top rope"? Harder to fluff "off the top rope" with no ring to jump off of, but....

Get an immovable rod, place it in mid-air, and viola!, you have a "top rope" to jump off of. :smallbiggrin:

[Alex Cadle]

How about a really loud annoying dwarf rogue
; )

[DrowPiratRobrts]

One of my friends has, for example, decided to take 1 level in every class, and another is going to design a character who only used improvised weapons.

This is actually the best idea you guys could've had. In fact, it's so incredibly bad that it may just be broken haha. I want to hear how this character goes specifically.

[ImproperJustice]

This is actually the best idea you guys could've had. In fact, it's so incredibly bad that it may just be broken haha. I want to hear how this character goes specifically.

In one game I have a seventh level Fighter/Bard/Cleric/Rogue/Wizard.

It takes some thinking to wrap your head around maximizing the synergy, but it isn’t quite as bad as you might think.

You certainly have something you can do every round, and it helps to have like 9 cantrips at your disposal.

[Vogie]

Let’s see here...

Battlemaster 12 with the following feats:
Dual wielder, shield Master, and tavern brawler. Bonus points for charger.

Now pick up the fightingstyle defensive.

Throw away your weapons and pick up 2 hardy shields, at least one or both need to be throwable.

Now wade into battle using shields as improvised weapons, throw them around and bash people and use superiority dice to do cool captain America maneuvers.

Even if you threw both of your shields away you can run around punching and grappling .

Future levels should involve barbarian. Or paladin for smites or a horse you can jump off of in battle

If you use EK instead of BM, you'll be able to cast Jump, AND summon the shield(s) back to your arm as a bonus action. Pick up Martial Adept if you do need Captain A-maneuvers, then grab 3 levels in Tiger Barbarian for added jump length.

You could also do it at level 8 (assuming VHuman), rather than 12

[JakOfAllTirades]

The Infamous Gnome Assassin, Silent G.

A right, stabby, shanky, little runt.

Rogue(Assassin) 6th / Bard(Whispers) 6th

Not actually very good at killing.

Mostly, he just likes to scare people.

[JAL_1138]

This one takes a long time to come online, and isn't very optimal when it does. But it's annoying to fight once it does.

Variant human, 16 8 14 8 10 16. Start Paladin with Polearm Master. At Paladin 2, multiclass to Swords Bard.

Pick up Warcaster at Bard 4. At Bard 8, take Spell Sniper. Use Spell Sniper to nab Booming Blade (depending on the exact wording, you might have to wait for it as a Magical Secret instead). At Bard 10, consider Spirit Guardians as a backup for when you can't cast Tenser's. At Bard 14, you can use a d6 instead of a Bardic Inspiration die every single time you take the Attack Action, and you also learn more Magical Secrets, pick up Tenser's Transformation here. This takes until level 16 to really get rolling, but can get started around level 12.

Start by casting Tenser's. Whenever the first enemy comes close, Warcaster+Spell Sniper+Polearm Master+Booming Blade+Tenser's+Divine Smite them with your reaction. On your turn, PAM+Tenser's+Smite them 3x, and add on Defensive Flourish for an extra damage die and to add the number you roll on that die to your AC until your next turn, or Mobile Flourish to add damage, push your enemy 5ft and reposition yourself.

To get rolling earlier, use Spirit Guardians instead of Tenser's and burn your normal BI dice instead of the free d6. This is less damage (versus a single target; AoE it's not t, but is doubly annoying because now to close into melee with you, an enemy has to go into Spirit Guardians, and once you Booming Blade them, has to either stay in Spirit Guardians and eat damage from that, or move and take the Booming Blade damage, and its speed is halved while in Spirit Guardians range to boot.

(Note: am AFB and on a cell phone, so take w/ a grain of salt, double-check it, and please excuse any errors.)

[Nidgit]

Kobold Paladin 5/ Draconic Sorcerer 7. Cast Find Steed and Find Familiar in advance, then only ever use Twinned Dragon Breath to give all three of you fire breath. Takes a little bit of DM oking but should be fun to run around breathing fire absolutely everywhere.

[Crgaston]

This one takes a long time to come online, and isn't very optimal when it does. But it's annoying to fight once it does.

Variant human, 16 8 14 8 10 16. Start Paladin with Polearm Master. At Paladin 2, multiclass to Swords Bard.

Pick up Warcaster at Bard 4. At Bard 8, take Spell Sniper. Use Spell Sniper to nab Booming Blade (depending on the exact wording, you might have to wait for it as a Magical Secret instead). At Bard 10, consider Spirit Guardians as a backup for when you can't cast Tenser's. At Bard 14, you can use a d6 instead of a Bardic Inspiration die every single time you take the Attack Action, and you also learn more Magical Secrets, pick up Tenser's Transformation here. This takes until level 16 to really get rolling, but can get started around level 12.

Start by casting Tenser's. Whenever the first enemy comes close, Warcaster+Spell Sniper+Polearm Master+Booming Blade+Tenser's+Divine Smite them with your reaction. On your turn, PAM+Tenser's+Smite them 3x, and add on Defensive Flourish for an extra damage die and to add the number you roll on that die to your AC until your next turn, or Mobile Flourish to add damage, push your enemy 5ft and reposition yourself.

To get rolling earlier, use Spirit Guardians instead of Tenser's and burn your normal BI dice instead of the free d6. This is less damage (versus a single target; AoE it's not t, but is doubly annoying because now to close into melee with you, an enemy has to go into Spirit Guardians, and once you Booming Blade them, has to either stay in Spirit Guardians and eat damage from that, or move and take the Booming Blade damage, and its speed is halved while in Spirit Guardians range to boot.

(Note: am AFB and on a cell phone, so take w/ a grain of salt, double-check it, and please excuse any errors.)


Sadly, you can't cast spells with Tenser's Transformation, which I assume includes cantrips, so no BB, but the smites should be fine.

[apepi]

Sherlock Gnome, a Gnome Inquisitor that has Expertise in Insight, Perception and Investigation.

[JAL_1138]

Sadly, you can't cast spells with Tenser's Transformation, which I assume includes cantrips, so no BB, but the smites should be fine.

Awww. That's what I get for trying to do builds when away from my books. Welp, there goes that. Thanks for the correction.

For Tenser's Transformation build: Replace Spell Sniper+BB with Sentinel instead. Might as well get another movement-control feat, and PAM+Sentinel is always a fun combo.

For Spell Sniper+BB build: go with Spirit Guardians and bring the build online-ish at level 12.

[EdenIndustries]

'Mr/Ms Lucky':
- Halfling Luck = re-roll 1s
- Feat (4) Lucky = 3 advantage rolls per day
- Feat (8) Halfling Bountiful Luck = let someone else re-roll a 1 once per turn
- Bard for Cutting Words, Bane, Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Counterspell, etc.
- Cleric for Guidance, Bless, Bestow Curse, etc.

Aim every single thing you do to mess with everyone else's rolls - up, down, Advantage, Disadvantage, cancel their actions entirely - and do it every round you possibly can.

--

Not terrible, but definitely more gimmicky than I'd ever do.

I'm playing a character similar to this based on a thread a made a while back (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?526665-Ultimate-Dice-Manipulator-(character-concept)) that also includes Divination Wizard and Wild Magic Sorceror. And let me tell you, it is insanely fun to play!

[xyianth]

If Unearthed Arcana is available to use, here is a great lockdown build:


Race: Variant Human
Build: Monk 1/Eldritch Knight Fighter 4/Rune Scribe 1/Primeval Guardian Ranger 4/Mystic(Wu Jen or Immortal) 1
ASIs: Polearm Master[1], Savage Attacker[5], War Caster[10]
Fighting Styles: Martial Arts[1], Great Weapon Fighting[2], Tunnel Fighter[8]
Rune: Orb of the Stein
Cantrips: Booming Blade[4], 1 other
Spells: Find Familiar, 3 others(EK) + Entangle, Longstrider, 2 others(Ranger)
Disciplines: Giant Growth, Mastery of Force, 1 other
Talents: any 1
Stat Requirements: 13 Int, 13 Wis, Maximize Dex
Skills: any 6-8(depending on Mystic Order chosen)

The way this works is you wield a quarterstaff (a versatile weapon) in both hands. Use Martial Arts to attack using Dex and replace the damage die with your Martial Arts die. (1d4) Use the Crushing Brand property of the Stein Rune to enchant your quarterstaff giving it +1 and allowing hits to bypass resistance and immunity. Maximum damage rolls also cause the target to fall prone without a save and regardless of size. Great Weapon Fighting allows you to re-roll all 1s and 2s while using a two-handed heavy or versatile weapon. Savage attacker lets you re-roll a damage roll once per turn. Your main attack each round is a Booming Blade attack, allowing your attack damage to scale despite missing out on Extra Attack and using a low damage die. Your Familiar can Help you on your turn and give you advantage on your primary Booming Blade attack. Tunnel Fighter lets you trade your bonus action for unlimited opportunity attacks, which are triggered when enemies enter your reach thanks to Polearm Master. War Caster lets you use your reaction instead of an OA to cast Booming Blade again. Enemies that fall prone have two options: stand up (costing half base movement) or crawl (costing double normal movement). Both count as willing movement and trigger the extra damage from Booming Blade. Keep your psionic focus on Giant Growth for +5' reach. When you are in a good position in combat, use the Primeval Guardian Ranger's Guardian Soul ability to extend your reach a further 5'. (total is 15') Piercing Thorns adds 1d6 damage to one weapon attack per turn. Each OA you make counts as a new turn, so this applies to each of them. Use Mastery of Force to manifest Inertial Armor for an AC of 14+dex.

If you wish to continue this build into later levels, getting to Mystic 8 adds an extra 1d8 psychic damage to every hit and gives you a lot more psionic options in the form of disciplines and pp.

[Potato_Priest]

So in general, one of the best paths to a weak character is investing in multiple abilities that do the exact same thing or similar things, but that do not stack and can’t be used in conjunction. Taking the linguist feat when you have telepathy that ignores languages is a good example. A monk taking the lightly armored feat is another one.