Show me your gimicky builds!

[KeilFX]

I am getting ready to be a DM, and I want to challenge myself with a silly one-shot with my playgroup that I'm currently a PC in (we have several ongoing campaigns with various levels of storytelling / grandeur). I want to test myself with a one-shot or two, with my sights planted on....

... A gimicky party. So I'd like your help. SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!

Ex: either obnoxious builds like the Halfling Diviner (dice master), or one that utilizes an overlooked game mechanic like the Aakocra STR-Monk (grapple, dash up then drop enemies to their death), or even silly ideas like tripping enemies as a reaction with a ready "Mold Earth".

Maybe I'm asking to get a massive headache, but I want to see what a party of goofy characters would look like, and how I could work around that. So what have you got? Gamebreaking? Gimicky? Niche?

[Talyn]

I liked my boss-killing Oath of Vengeance Paladin. 4 level dip into Lore Bard, the rest straight Vengeance Paladin.

The Lore Bard gets me a few more spells for my smites, and, more importantly, gets me Expertise. Put Expertise in Athletics and suddenly I'm ridiculous at grappling, and I become hilariously good at taking out spell casters. Vengeance Paladin gives me misty step, and my bard levels give me silence. I get into melee with the spell caster, using misty step to bypass guards and blocking terrain like entangle, web, wall of fire and the like, and grab on to the guy.

Next round, I cast silence and whoops, every single combat-useful spell is off the table for him. It is supremely unlikely that he is going to be able to beat my sky-high Athletics check and escape the grapple, so he essentially has one round to teleport away before I win the battle by default. If he does teleport away, I just rinse and repeat the above method to get back into melee with him and grab him again.

Also, fun fact, you can smite within the radius of a silence spell.

[Naanomi]

Not in this order but...

Half Elf Shadow Sorcerer 8/Hexblade 7/Fighter 2/Assassin 3... Elven accuracy, Spellsniper... you are not a caster as much as an Eldritch Blast Archer, sniping from rediculous distances, and nova capacity with the best of them

[Ganymede]

A lot of my characters are borne from playing around with unusual and unintuitive combinations. My current character is a bookish high elf researcher who also happens to be a barbarian.

[Dustrusk]

The most gimmicky build I’ve ever seen is the battlefield jujitsu master. It’s a Monk/Druid/Fighter build that focuses on abusing combinations of spellcasting and grappling. My favorite being the powerbomb suplex throw where you max your jump height with the Jump spell and Step of the Wind and then rocket into the air bringing your grappled foe with you and then throwing them to the ground. Unfortunately the blog the build was on was deleted but the build was preserved by the wayback machine. I unfortunately haven’t made enough posts to give you the link as I’m a bit of a lurker. The build is way too complicated to post here but if you want to read it the link should be somewhere on the last 3 or 4 pages of the grappler’s manual 2.0 forum.

[Naanomi]

There is always the classic ‘v human (skilled) Scout 3/Lore Bard 3/Knowledge Cleric 1’ proficient in all skills build

[ZenBear]

I’m hoping to get a chance to play this in my next game; Terry Jeffords, The Ebony Falcon!

Race: VHuman
Class; Thief Rogue
Background: City Watch
Feat: Moderately Armored
16STR 14CON 10DEX 10INT 14WIS 10CHA
Expertise: Athletics, Acrobatics, Insight, Investigate.
Pick up Heavily Armored at 4, fight with a rapier and a shield/empty off hand for grappling. Capable of chasing down perps with impunity, grapple them to submission, and cuff them with a bonus action through Thief’s Fast Hands.

[Hohadonc]

Master of saves.

Any paladin6/ any monk 14 human core
13str 14 dex 9 con 8 int 13 wis 15 cha
After racials
14 15 10 9 14 16
+2 cha +2 cha +1 dex +1 int, then either +2 dex or Tough feat.
Lowest save bonus at level 20 is +11
You can use both of the the redemption and tranquility subclasses to make the peaceful minister who is incredibly hard to stop.

[CTurbo]

Tunnel Fighter + Polearm Master + Spell Sniper + Warcaster + Booming Blade
Bonus point for getting 7 levels of Vengeance Paladin to be able to move if needed after every AoO.

[Falcon X]

A few I have used, all around level 5:

The Bardsinger:
Bard 1/Bladesinger 4 w/Spell Sniper feat
- Can be done at lower levels if, like my DM, you bypass the elf requirement for Bladesinger by saying she learned it from Elves.
- She inspires, she has a familiar, she shoots eldritch blasts like a champ, has wizard and Bard spells with lots of cantrips.
- Spell Sniper lets her do touch spells with her whip.
- I had her as a Pretty princess with a chihuahua for a familiar, a whip in hand, and a cocky attitude. Also named her chihuahua Prince Gavin after our Bard, who was unnerved.

The Detectomancer:
Rogue 1/Chainlock 4
- The goal here is to have a guy that hangs out 20’ behind the rest of the party and knows absolutely everything that will happen before it does.
- Great Old one pact for telepathy. He never gives away his position.
- Expertise in stealth and perception
- Improved Familiar always scouts ahead. He uses Shape Earth to draw the map on the ground instantly.
- Devils Sight and Eldritch Sight.
- Observant feat to not be caught off guard and read lips with Devil’s Sight.

The Face
Changeling Bard 5
- Has multiple personality disorder. Every time combat starts or a stressful situation occurs, he rolls a d8 and plays as the new personality. Includes CN Sly Businesswoman, LE Dark Lord, LG Cleric/Paladin, TN Raging Barbarian, LN Formal Businessman, CE Mad Scientist, and Sane/normal.
- As a changeling, his look changes with his personality.
- In mine, he was an interdimensional postal worker, with a bag of holding and a person he had to deliver items to.

[ImproperJustice]

Captain Cantrip?

Variant human w/ magic initiate

Bard/Cleric/Wizard/Druid Warlock/ Sorceror

That’s 17 Cantrips at level 6.


You could probably drop Cleric or Druid to push warlock further for the tome.

[CTurbo]

Halfling Chain Warlock that gets carried around by his Imp while invisible the entire time spamming Eldritch Blast.





Kobold Beastmaster Ranger riding his Wolf companion while dual wielding Lances. All you need is the Mounted Combat and Dual Wielder feats. Both have Pact Tactics and would have advantage on every attack. Take 5 levels of Fighter, Barb, or Paladin and you and your Wolf would have 2 attacks per round. If you had the stats to go 6 levels of Paladin and it would be nearly impossible to injure your Wolf.





Fighter 2, Gloom Stalker 5, Assassin 13 for the most stupendous first round of every encounter.





Hexblade/Swashbuckler that spams Darkness, Devil's sight, Shadow Blade, and Booming Blade. You'd be doing a whole lot of d8s and d6s of damage per attack.

[Fire Tarrasque]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560894-Are-there-viable-3-class-builds) thread.

[nickl_2000]

The most gimmicky build I’ve ever seen is the battlefield jujitsu master. It’s a Monk/Druid/Fighter build that focuses on abusing combinations of spellcasting and grappling. My favorite being the powerbomb suplex throw where you max your jump height with the Jump spell and Step of the Wind and then rocket into the air bringing your grappled foe with you and then throwing them to the ground. Unfortunately the blog the build was on was deleted but the build was preserved by the wayback machine. I unfortunately haven’t made enough posts to give you the link as I’m a bit of a lurker. The build is way too complicated to post here but if you want to read it the link should be somewhere on the last 3 or 4 pages of the grappler’s manual 2.0 forum.

I grabbed this document and threw it into my personal google drive when I saw that there was a chance it might go away.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwsuOpNsL0HMqA8CNvRbQCGB4EB-8WnbkEJjjtj35C6zS0YQpjfBREQDZr9l0J0k4bDZjbb5ET0ydX Q6/view?usp=sharing

[Specter]

Assassin 3/Ranger 5 - the stealth master.

As soon as you get Expertise and Pass Without Trace, with 20 DEX, you have a +21 modifier to your stealth check. You'll only get caught if your enemies have 22 passive perception and you roll a 1. Happy hunting.

[Bloodcloud]

Eblast Knight

Ftr 1 Warlock 5 Eldritch Knight 7 Warlock X

Take crossbow expert and Warcaster.

Heavy armor, shield and staff.

Basically rely on getting into melee while shooting eldritch blast with repelling blast. Push peopple around the battlefield to isolate them. Being in melle allows for adjusting the angle of the push much better, and keep them in place through rather damaging AO.

[Vorpalchicken]

Could make the Mad Skills Expert .

Half Elf Rogue (Scout) 6, Knowledge Cleric 1, Bard (Lore) 10, Prodigy feat, and Ranger 1 would get you proficiency in everything and expertise in thirteen skills.

Or you could stop Bard at 3 or 4, and take Rogue to 11, sacrificing some expertise for Reliable Talent so you never fail at any but the most impossible skills. You could then take Ranger to 5 for extra attacks and other Ranger goodies.

edit. If using UA and every ASI is devoted to a feat, a half elf Rogue (Scout) 8, Bard (Lore) 12, Cleric (Knowledge) 1, Ranger 1 could have expertise in every skill. You would need to take Prodigy, Everybody's Friend and three others such as Brawny, Investigator and Perceptive. No Reliable Talent with this build though.

[Talionis]

This would be one of my few complaints about 5E. The rules are simpler so there are less gimmicky things available to players. I've jet to see an viable Weapon Throwing build.

Gimmicks builds fall into these camps:

Grappler
Armor of Agathys optimization
Coffeelock
Simulacrum (usually with some questionable RAW)
Shillelagh
Hexblade -- One level dip for melee Sorcerer/Bard/Warlock/Paladin
Find Steed -- (Spells you cast on yourself also get cast on the Steed)
Optimized Jump Height/Distance
All the Skills Expertise
All the Cantrips casters
Fear Paladin XGTE
Divine Wizard Monk - Optimizing the level 17 death punch
Sorcerer metamagic hijinks
Subtle Sorcerer -- Casting when no one knows he's casting
Dipping Warlock 2 for Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast Invocation
Assassin -- Doubling Damage
Mastiff mounted Halfling
Warlock Darksight that can see through the Magical Darkness from a Darkness spell
Undead Wizard/Oathbreaker Paladin

This isnt' an exhaustive list, but I've probably got about half of what could be considered a gimmick in 5E. The power level of the different classes is really balanced. Even characters that are good at something are generally barely better than an unoptimized character. Do try to have fun. If you have an idea you can probably do it, but it may barely be better than anything else.

[Theodoxus]

Champion 5/Rogue x (AT, Thief or Assassin for AL legal), Kobold.

Shortbow user for all the d6's. With a crit range of 19-20 and advantage on your attacks (provided there's an ally within 5' of your target, and you (or your target) isn't in direct sunlight).

I like going AT, for Shield and ranged legerdemain (you don't wanna get too close to traps if you can avoid it) plus Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, ​etc.

[MagneticKitty]

Snakes with lasers
Yuan ti sun soul monk.
Yuan ti's racial feat just makes them a snake. A talking snake that fires lasers.

Dual wielding lance knight
Any Paladin min 2 - max 4 (defense fighting style and heavy armor prof)
Swords Bard 10+ (dual wielding fighting style, find greater steed, second attack, full caster slots.)
Mounted combatant and dual welder feat.
You can dual wield lances and smite with them while mounted.

All the ac
Plate armor 18 (+3 if magic)
Warforged +1
Dual wielding feat +1
Shield +2 (+3 If magic)
Force cleric lv 6 / +2 (+1 if armor is already magic)
Fighter x defense fighting style +1
Shield of faith +2
That's 25 a.c. with no magic items or spells
27 a.c. with only self cast spell
31 with full plus 3 armor and shield
33 with all above + haste from other caster

Do you even lift bro?
Goliath, bearbarian/sorc with enhance ability

Raven keeper
Kenku or raven themed aarakocra
Pack of tome raven queen patron Warlock
Raven queen raven, + tome familiar raven
Has a raven on each shoulder at all times, can turn into a raven.
For fun make one albino and one regular and have them constantly play shoulder angel and devil whispering in your ear
Have them always mimic what you say for an ominous echo effect.
Or if you're a kenku and can't speak take low int. Then your ravens take turns talking and fill in eachothers sentences like they're the brains of the character
Add enough druid or bard levels to pick magical secrets conjure animals and make yourself vanish in a swarm of ravens

[Beechgnome]

Gnome fighter 1/Abjurer with war caster feat who likes to tank with Enlarge/reduce. Then, in melee, take the dodge action.

So...

Advantage on strength saves. (Enlarge)
Advantage on Dex saves (dodge)
Advantage on Con saves to maintain concentration.
Advantage on Int/Wis/Cha saves vs spells (gnome cunning)

Just sit back with your amazing AC from armor plus shield spell, your arcane ward to soak up extra damage, and your hilarious saving throws. Hang out with a sentinel ancients paladin and their auras and a nature cleric for added invincibility.

Optimal? No. Annoying? Very likely.

[Naanomi]

You can always ride something funny as a small-race beastmaster... pteradon is popular but have you considered Giant Spider? Giant Crab? Centipede? Burrowing Badger? Ride inside a Giant Frog’s Mouth?

[prototype00]

Catch me if you can.

Ancestral Guardian Barbarian with a Reach Weapon, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master and Sentinel.

Attack an enemy engaging a foe from 10ft range, then move away. The enemy can either

1. Attack his original target at disadvantage and deal half damage minus your Spirit Shields damage reduction, or

2. They can chase after you, eat an OA from their original target, eat an OA from yourself and if they get hit, stop moving and waste their turn.

Of course GWM is there to “persuade” them it’s a good idea to attack you.