Multiclass Shenanigans

[elyktsorb]

So, I have 2 weeks to either update my current character for a game. (An 8th lvl Bard, Lore college) Or make an entirely new character. I figure this is a horrible idea, but does anyone know how, useful, a character with one level in eight classes would be? I'm also looking into two levels in four classes, and just multiclass shenanigans in general.

[StorytellerHero]

Basic Questions:

Are you allowed to use third party materials for this campaign?

Are you using more than just the PHB?

What are your ability scores? Are you using standard array?

[the secret fire]

One level in eight classes is terrible, as most classes don't get their best features until 2nd or 3rd level.

If any of the classes you plan to take gets an extra attack, it is generally a good idea to stick with that class long enough to get it (usually 5th level).

Other than that, multiclassing is a bit difficult in 5e. Oftentimes, a single-classed character will be more powerful. Fighter and Rogue mix well, and Warlock seems to mix well with the other Cha-based classes, if you enjoy the taste of cheese. Single-level dips into Cleric can also be quite useful for many classes, but particularly Rogues and Wizards. Dunno what else to tell you. Your question is kinda vague.

[elyktsorb]

Basic Questions:

Are you allowed to use third party materials for this campaign?

Are you using more than just the PHB?

What are your ability scores? Are you using standard array?

All the books aside the MTG one.

I would either get to roll stats, use the point buy, or use the stats of my already established character. 11, 18, 16, 10, 15, 16

[elyktsorb]

One level in eight classes is terrible, as most classes don't get their best features until 2nd or 3rd level.

If any of the classes you plan to take gets an extra attack, it is generally a good idea to stick with that class long enough to get it (usually 5th level).

Other than that, multiclassing is a bit difficult in 5e. Oftentimes, a single-classed character will be more powerful. Fighter and Rogue mix well, and Warlock seems to mix well with the other Cha-based classes, if you enjoy the taste of cheese. Single-level dips into Cleric can also be quite useful for many classes, but particularly Rogues and Wizards. Dunno what else to tell you. Your question is kinda vague.

I'm mainly looking to see if I can do something interesting, since party composition isn't an issue, I was thinking variety and utility could come into play with this. That and just silly things.

[the secret fire]

I'm mainly looking to see if I can do something interesting, since party composition isn't an issue, I was thinking variety and utility could come into play with this. That and just silly things.

Lore Bard is already great for variety and utility.

My favorite combo along these lines is Cleric 1 (Knowledge or Light)/Rogue (Arcane Trickster) X. The cleric dip lets you use a shield, gives you a domain feature, gives you cleric cantrips (including the awesome Guidance), and lets you spam all those tasty 1st level Cleric spells with your spell slots. Arcane Tricksters are just all-around fun: good both in and out of combat. The "holy rogue" is pretty flavorful, as well, if you're into that sort of thing.

[Vorpalchicken]

With those stats how about a variant human

S18 D16 Co(15+1)=16 I10 W(11+1+1(Resilient))=13 Ch16

Barbarian/Bard/Life Cleric/Druid/Fighter/Monk/Rogue/Shadow Sorcerer

You could use a str based shortsword and make use of rage, sneak attack, martial arts and duelling style. Starting barbarian will give you that class' s constitution based AC bonus and decent HP

You'll have extra yummy good berries, expertise (maybe in athletics- hmm can you use martial arts to grapple and shove?), slots of a 4th level caster (only level one spells though), 120 foot darkvision, Inspiration, Ummm second wind, uhhh Druid language and thieves cant, errr a chance to survive dropping to zero hp and..

The envy of your friends for having such an awe- inspiring build??

[Desteplo]

There’s nothing you can be build that will be terrible. You won’t be the best but you will always have the ability to participate

[Provo]

Well if you want powerful:
-Pally/sorcerer is high nova
-Sorcerer/Warlock is high sustained damage
-Barbarian/rogue is amazing at tanking damage

If you want fun shenanigans:
-Druid 2/Monk is gets fun monk abilities in wildshape
-Warlock 3/Sorcerer is the coffeelock with limitless spell slots
-Bard/Rogue/Cleric can have proficiency in tons of skills
-kobold Warlock can be carried by its flying familiar
-Barbarian/Warlock is a build that actually wants to be hit
-deep gnome Abjuration wizard always has a full ward

That's all the cheese I can think of now. As for the 1 level in 8 classes. It might be fun for a session or two, but I imagine you would get tired of it fast. If you do want to try it, I have seen people put 1 in every spell casting class as a theme.

[elyktsorb]

Thank you all, I appreciate the insight, since I haven't done much with 5e so I don't know about all these sorts of things. I'm going to have a nice time thinking about this character.

[XmonkTad]

Barbarian/rogues are known for being amazing grapplers. Level 8 seems like the perfect time to make a sorcadin (paladin 5/sorc 3) because you just got extra attack and metamagic.
For super shenanigans, coffeelock is your PC of choice.
Coffeelock is a tricky one, ask if your DM is using any penalties for not sleeping, and if that's synonymous with a long rest. If you are allowed to build one, it's a unique playstyle, with tons of spell slots.

[adolann]

If you are mainly looking for something that is crazy multiclass, but still has some viable options, especially with your previous stats...

Str 10 Dex 11 Con 15 or Dex 11 Con 15 Int 16 Wis 16 Chr 18

Warlock 3 - Celestial Patron - Pact of the Tome (2 Warlock Cantrips, Light and Sacred Flame from Patron, 3 Cantrips from any list for Tome) 7 total
Cleric 1 - Arcana Domain (3 Cleric cantrips, two Wizard cantrips from Domain that will use wisdom) 5 Total
Sorcerer 1 - Any, although Divine Soul lets you pick from Cleric or Sorcerer lists (4 cantrips) 4 Total
Wizard 2 - Illusionist (3 cantrips + Minor Illusion; if you already have Minor Illusion, pick any Wizard instead) 4 Total

Either Bard 1 or Druid 1 - Both will net you 2 cantrips; if you go druid and take a second level, you can get one more cantrip from Land druid

That's a total of 22 cantrips. Since cantrip damage scales, you do okay there, and have pretty much every utility cantrip in existence available.

You wind up with
2 short rest 2nd level slots
4 1st Level, 3 2nd Level, 2 3rd Level long rest slots
2 Warlock invocations
Up to 2nd level Warlock spells known
1st level spells known for Cleric, Sorcerer, Wizard, and either Bard or Druid.

Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, Simple Weapons + whatever your starting class offered.
Skills and Save Profs will come from whatever class you chose to start

If you went Bard, you have skills and d6 inspiration; If you went Druid, you are one level away from wildshaping for some utility.

At this point, you can go a lot of ways. You almost certainly want to take the next level in Warlock for the ASI, but after that, you pretty much pick a class and take it through to the end.

If you go up to 20, you can wind up with 7th level spells, but the main point is that at 8, you have an at will ability for every occasion. The real problem you run into is keeping track of all your options.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You can do real well utility-wise with multiclassing. You can pick up tons of skills and utility cantrips, if you so desire, and low-level spells like Charm Person, Unseen Servant, and Disguise Self never really go out of fashion.

You can do... well, your defense won't suffer much with multiclassing, at least. Armor and shields are easy to come by, and heavy armor in particular scales with wealth rather than with ASIs. Plus, lots of slots available for always-in-style defensive spells like Shield and Absorb Elements.

Offense is where you run into potential problems. No Extra Attack (or Sneak Attack scaling) makes martial combat difficult. No high-level spells makes offensive casting difficult, though you can potentially have decently high-level slots. No ASIs makes everything difficult, except that you can start with an 18, which covers a multitude of sins. No ASIs also means no feats. So what you need is some form of attack that scales with character level, rather than class.

That means relying on cantrips for offense. And since most of those kind of stink, at least without higher-level class features, that really boils down to one of two options: the SCAG melee cantrips or Eldritch Blast, both of which are clear outliers in terms of effectiveness, especially if you add in a two-level "get my offense going" dip-- Rogue 2 for Cunning Action + Booming Blade, or Warlock 2 for Agonizing Blast + Eldritch Blast. Either option will give you a very solid offense for the entire game, regardless of what else you do.

The Warlock 2 route will probably be more effective in the long run, especially since you can stack caster level for upcasting/sorcerery points/smites, and the 18 Cha plays well with so many more classes. And with ****ing Hexblade. Put the 16s in Con and Wisdom and dip into... oh, let's say Cleric 1 (something that gets heavy armor), Druid 2, Sorcerer 2, and Bard 1. That'll get you up to 3rd level spell slots, along with nine spells prepared plus nine known plus two for your Domain, all with quite respectable casting modifiers. And 13 cantrips. And sorcery points, though you could easily swap some levels for Paladin 2 if you wanted more of a melee presence.

[strangebloke]

Vhuman,

Hexblade(pact of the chain) 3
Paladin 2
Red Draconic Sorcerer 3

It's probably the best 3-class build I can give you.

You'll be SAD, have a great ranged damage option in the form of EB and a great melee damage option in the form of GFB. You'll have metamagic and smiting for great burst potential and wide number of powerful low-level spells. You'll have shield and medium armor proficiency. You'll have a familiar to hang around and give you a boost. The warlock levels ensure that you'll never quite run out of resources.

It's pretty solid. The best way to continue this build is to take more sorcerer levels, but you could theoretically multiclass into fighter, bard, or rogue.

[thoroughlyS]

If the whole point is to string a bunch of classes together and still be useful, I have one fun idea:

Half-Elf Paladin 2/Sorcerer 2/Bard 1/Cleric 1/Druid 1/Wizard 1

This gives you a few fun toys:

You have Divine Smite and up to 4th-level spell slots
You can convert higher level slots into multiple lower level slots to spam all day
You have wizard ritual casting (any rituals in your spellbook)
14 cantrips
Divine Domain
Sorcerous Origin

This requires 13 STR, 13 INT, 13 WIS, and 13 CHA—easily done considering your rolls:

18 STR
10 DEX
12 CON (11 + 1)
16 INT
16 WIS (15 + 1)
18 CHA (16 + 2)

[Silkensword]

If you want to play a combo that beats the **** out of things on the first turn, consider this:

revised ranger Gloomstalker 3 / Battlemaster 5 Bugbear

you get a ton of bonus to initiative, and are invisible to creatures that would need darkvision to see you. Plan to work during the night or in darkness. You deal extra damage on surprise rounds (Bugbear) and get an additional attack per attack action in your first round of combat.

In the first turn of combat, you get two attacks from BM, one from Gloomstalker, then you can action surge, getting another two attacks from BM and one more from Gloomstalker, doing 6 attacks in one turn at level 8

[E’Tallitnics]

Vhuman,

Hexblade(pact of the chain) 3
Paladin 2
Red Draconic Sorcerer 3

It's probably the best 3-class build I can give you.

You'll be SAD, have a great ranged damage option in the form of EB and a great melee damage option in the form of GFB. You'll have metamagic and smiting for great burst potential and wide number of powerful low-level spells. You'll have shield and medium armor proficiency. You'll have a familiar to hang around and give you a boost. The warlock levels ensure that you'll never quite run out of resources.

It's pretty solid. The best way to continue this build is to take more sorcerer levels, but you could theoretically multiclass into fighter, bard, or rogue.

Sounds intriguing, but why Variant Human?

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Sounds intriguing, but why Variant Human?

Probably for the warcaster feat, use Booming Blade as a reaction attack.

[elyktsorb]

So I've currently been thinking. I don't want to do anything too ridiculous, as my DM is fairly level headed. So all this in consideration I've started looking into a combination of Bard, Rogue, and Fighter.

[Talionis]

2 Knowledge Cleric/Lore Bard 3/ Rogue 1/Warlock 2. Makes a very cool skill monkey. Lots of expertise, guidance, invocations, being able to use tools and knowledge skills from cleric. I think a build like this makes sense. You have lots of spells known, and cast at a decent level.