Lets talk silly builds

[cerin616]

So, I am looking for some ideas on a silly build to run in an upcoming campaign.
It doesn't need to be broken powerful, it doesn't need to by hyper optimized. Heck, it barely even needs to be "good"

What I am looking for are some neat mechanics to possibly exploit to interact in weird ways, or some outright funny thematic builds.

bonus points if it exploits weird mechanics, makes a funny theme, and is powerful (i.e, the ol psionic sandwich)


I was a big 3.5 player, so some examples of what I am thinking that I remember from that system (some I came up with, some I found on these forums)

Sleep Ranger: A build I read on the forum once
ranger rogue hybrid that gains sneak attack dice, uses a feat to turn the dice into flat cha damage
fires law/chaos/good/evil arrows at hunters marked targets.
All attacks threaten crits and auto confirm crits, dealing insane cha damage and knocking near anything out.

Flurry of Debuffs: An okay character build that relied on law of averages.
Monk/Warlock use flurry of blows/two weapon fighting/natural attacks to get as many swings in as you can per turn.
Eldritch Claw lets you apply eldritch blast in an unarmed/natural attack.
Eldritch blast can be modified with many debuffs (personal favorite was a fort save that made the target lose a level)

Silent Whiff me and my supervisor once came up with this.
Stacked a bunch of sneak attack classes to come out to a character that was roundabout 14BAB and something like 24d6+6d8 sneak attack damage. It didnt hit often, but when it did.... You had to dump the whole bag of dice.

[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
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 24 a.c. with no magic items or spells
26 a.c. with only self cast spell
31 with full plus 3 armor and shield
32 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

I don't believe in luck (or how to make your dm angry)
Halfling w/ bountiful luck
Diviner wizard (That's the future telling one, right....)
Lucky feat

[cerin616]

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
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 24 a.c. with no magic items or spells
26 a.c. with only self cast spell
31 with full plus 3 armor and shield
32 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

I don't believe in luck (or how to make your dm angry)
Halfling w/ bountiful luck
Diviner wizard (That's the future telling one, right....)
Lucky feat

Oh man good suggestions.
Dual lance paladin sounds just absolutely silly!
Poof raven could be classic!
I love it

[EvilAnagram]

I got a party to build Metal Gear characters. There was the Yuan-Ti shadow monk, the Tabaxi with Crossbow Expert, a Thri-Kreen mystic and a a Goliath cleric of the Raven Queen.

It was fun, but the DM's plot was a bit convoluted.

[Oramac]

or some outright funny thematic builds.

I played a Naked Monk in a recent campaign. It was all sorts of fun.

Basically, Unarmored Defense states that you add your Wisdom to your AC when not wearing armor, but it never actually specifies that you must wear ANYTHING AT ALL.

So, I made a Far Traveler Open Hand Monk from the Rose Palm Monastery on the distant coastline, where all the palm trees have red colored leaves.

He wore a Jedi-like cloak most of the time, and nothing else. Once combat broke out, he would throw off the cloak and literally fight naked. I took the Magic Initiate feat for Prestidigitation and Fire Bolt, so keep clean and have ranged attacks, and my DM let me use the 1st level spell as a small pocket dimension barely big enough to fit a standard backpack.

Without a doubt one of the most fun characters I've ever played.

[strangebloke]

Basically, Unarmored Defense states that you add your Wisdom to your AC when not wearing armor, but it never actually specifies that you must wear ANYTHING AT ALL.

You can have more fun with unarmored defense. You can wear literally anything that isn't armor.

Fly into a rage while wearing a ballgown, slap the crap out of the badguys. PRINCESS TRUFFLES IS ANGRY.

Another fun barbarian is Bearlord Phax. You play a bear totem barbarian... and multiclass into moon druid so you can rage, turn into a bear, and have resistance and decent AC on top of a massive sack of hit points.

[Cerefel]

Not exactly a full build, but this reminds me of a previous thread about the wording of Sharpshooter allowing it to apply to melee attacks with ranged weapons, so enjoy the following:

Whip Pistolton

Variant Human Fighter

for feats take tavern brawler at 1st level (for proficiency in improvised weapons) and sharpshooter at 4th so you can run around pistol-whipping people with your hand crossbow with your many fighter attacks and +10 damage per swing

[CTurbo]

My friends and I did a fun one shot once where every picked a class as usual, but then everybody also got 3 free levels of any other class sorta like a mini Gestalt build.

One guy chose Aarakocra Monk as his main class and he took Gloom Stalker 3 as his free levels. He took Sharpshooter at 4 and Mobile at 8. We rolled stats so he started with 20 Dex and 18 Wis.

He would fly hundreds of feet up in the air and rain arrows down on enemies with his Longbow. His base fly speed was 80ft and could dash as a bonus action. I'm not sure he ever took any damage outdoors. Of curse even in doors he was a still a very effective character, but I always thought his Kiting idea was really silly.

[CTurbo]

Not exactly a full build, but this reminds me of a previous thread about the wording of Sharpshooter allowing it to apply to melee attacks with ranged weapons, so enjoy the following:

Whip Pistolton

Variant Human Fighter

for feats take tavern brawler at 1st level (for proficiency in improvised weapons) and sharpshooter at 4th so you can run around pistol-whipping people with your hand crossbow with your many fighter attacks and +10 damage per swing


Huh? I'm not sure what you're talking about but nothing about Sharpshooter lets you do any of that.

Are you talking about Crossbow Expert? That lets you not suffer disadvantage against enemies within 10ft of you? Even that specifies it must be a ranged attack.

[Speely]

This is more bad than silly, but it's also silly. Sorry if this is a tad off-topic.

I once ran a game where I told the players to make the worst characters they could make, and promised to reward them with situational good fortune in amounts proportionate to how mechanically bad their characters were. The idea was to have a group of screw-ups who got into weird situations and found ways to come out ok. Was a very RP-focused game with sparse combat.

Someone made an Enchantment Wizard with a 7 Int and a 17 Cha, predicated upon the idea that they confused personal magnetism for scholarly aptitude. They were dumb enough to not realize they were doing it wrong. Strangely, they came through in some clutch social situations and acted like their good Persuasion/Deception checks were spells. The character was so mechanically bad on so many levels that they ended up being a mega-hero (per my promise.)

It was really fun watching her try to do pretty much anything Wizard-like and almost always failing. So many wasted spell slots because saves. The successes were SO epic, though. Like, the entire table cheering epic.


Oh, we also had a pacifist high-elf barbarian who would get really mad and take out his aggression on objects rather than living beings. I houseruled that his rage could continue if he attacked an object each round. Got messy, and they had a hell of a time finding inns in which to spend the night.

[CTurbo]

I'm gonna one up the Duel Wielding Lance Paladin silliness with a Duel Wielding BeastMaster Ranger.

Choose Halfling, Gnome, or Kobold and use your companion as your mount.

[8wGremlin]

Huh? I'm not sure what you're talking about but nothing about Sharpshooter lets you do any of that.

Are you talking about Crossbow Expert? That lets you not suffer disadvantage against enemies within 10ft of you? Even that specifies it must be a ranged attack.

I think it's an interplay between

* Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage. (from sharpshooter)

and

* using the hand crossbow (a ranged weapon) and Tavern Brawler (improvised weapon proficiency) to use it as a melee weapon.

They are technically using a ranged weapon to make an attack (doesn't state ranged weapon attack) , thus technically it's viable.

[Doorhandle]

No discussion of silly characters is complete without Los Tiburon, Shark of the land! (https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Los_Tiburon)

It helps that Tavern Brawler makes you 2 steps away from a wrestler already, what with the focus on grappling and improvised weapons.
So barbarian X, and either rouge 2 or bard 2 for athletics/performances expertise, and possibly 2 levels in monk for the Ki pool/better unarmed damage.
Grapple ALL THE THINGS, for the honor of the Lucha!



You can have more fun with unarmored defense. You can wear literally anything that isn't armor.

Fly into a rage while wearing a ballgown, slap the crap out of the badguys. PRINCESS TRUFFLES IS ANGRY.

This explains so, so much about superhero costumes...



I don't believe in luck (or how to make your dm angry)
Halfling w/ bountiful luck
Diviner wizard (That's the future telling one, right....)
Lucky feat




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSK0AcFqkyU


And while I can't remember it off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure there's yet another reroll feat or spell somewhere in Xanithar's guide.

[CTurbo]

I think it's an interplay between

* Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage. (from sharpshooter)

and

* using the hand crossbow (a ranged weapon) and Tavern Brawler (improvised weapon proficiency) to use it as a melee weapon.

They are technically using a ranged weapon to make an attack (doesn't state ranged weapon attack) , thus technically it's viable.


That's really cheesy, but I see it

[Mercurias]

Play a Lightfoot Halfling Wild Magic Sorcerer with the Lucky feat and, if you can fit it in, the Magic Initiate feat for Bless and Guidance. Get your DM to Wild Magic Surge you all the time. Pass out re-rolls and bonus dice to your friends as much as you can and live dangerously as someone who believes luck is on their side. Jump off the cliff to escape. It’ll be fine, just cast Guidance first for that climb check and have Tides of Chaos AND Lucky handy.

Roll in as a Changeling Warlock. Pick Mask of Many Faces and Misty Visions, as well as the Friends and Minor Illusion cantrips. Be a level 2 character who can change shape, change wardrobe, gain advantage on all social checks, and cast a ludicrous amount of illusions on a whim.

[Rusvul]

I've been throwing around an idea for a "some guy who hits things" build for a while.

So there's this guy. Suppose his name is Greg. Greg's a simple guy, he likes to drink and brawl.

Variant Human Monk (Drunken Master) 3+/Barbarian 1/Rogue 1-2/Fighter 3 (Battlemaster)

He's mechanically a monk, but he doesn't use his Dexterity or Wisdom. Nah, screw that. Strength and Constitution all the way. He doesn't wear armor because it's uncomfortable and it screws with his Monk abilities, but he's also a Barbarian, so that works out fine.

Greg's combats usually look like this:
Drink a shot of "tactical whiskey" (enter a barbarian rage)
Grab someone and push them to the ground (with Expertise in Athletics and advantage from Rage)
Kick them repeatedly (flurry of blows and Sneak Attack)

If he has at least Strength 18 and can get a Wizard to cast Jump on him, he can grab someone and jump 21' into the air, causing his victim to take fall damage. He does too, but he's raging, so it barely matters. Depending on how the DM rules, he can make them take extra damage by landing on top of them.

With his Monk and Rogue levels, Greg has outstanding mobility, and while his AC is low (probably in the range of 14-17) he has good hit points and other defensive abilities (Monk, Battlemaster's parry). He has a whole bunch of fun tricks from his Monk and Battlemaster levels (and if he wants, a third level of Rogue), and he's very good at Athletics: altogether, an extremely versatile character.

The best part is, he doesn't have to look or act like an adventurer. He's just drunk Greg.

Next chance I get, I'm playing Greg.


Another silly build: Halfling Diviner with the Lucky feat. Everything will always go your way. If you want to capitalize on that even more, you could take 3 levels of Champion Fighter for extra criticals, and... I guess 13 levels of Barbarian for Improved Improved Critical? That would make for a very strange character: Wizard 2/Fighter 3/Barbarian 13... tiny over-the-top-lucky halfling with a temper...

[lperkins2]

That's really cheesy, but I see it

I suppose it sorta fills the trope about the archer stabbing an approaching mook with an arrow rather than shooting them, if you fluff it as stabbing them rather than swinging the bow.

[Vessyra]

I came up with an idea for a barbarian who sees dodging as a "cowards defence"

Barbarian (preferably zealot from Xanathar's guide, but any will do) at least level 2, monk 1. Dump wisdom and dex, then choose to use you monk unarmored AC. As such, if roll roll any negative statistics, you can have an AC between 9-2. Coupled with reckless attack, you will almost never utilise the "cowards defence".

Best part? You're a barbarian, so you'll have enough hit points to last, and if you're a zealot, your chances of death are almost nil

[cerin616]

Have I mentioned this is like, my favorite community?

There are a lot of seriously good ideas in this thread, and I think I am going to start piecing together a bare knuckle brawler.
I might talk to my DM about some homebrew ideas, becaue this has me jonesing for a smite evil unarmed combat.

[cerin616]

This is more bad than silly, but it's also silly. Sorry if this is a tad off-topic.

I once ran a game where I told the players to make the worst characters they could make, and promised to reward them with situational good fortune in amounts proportionate to how mechanically bad their characters were. The idea was to have a group of screw-ups who got into weird situations and found ways to come out ok. Was a very RP-focused game with sparse combat.

Someone made an Enchantment Wizard with a 7 Int and a 17 Cha, predicated upon the idea that they confused personal magnetism for scholarly aptitude. They were dumb enough to not realize they were doing it wrong. Strangely, they came through in some clutch social situations and acted like their good Persuasion/Deception checks were spells. The character was so mechanically bad on so many levels that they ended up being a mega-hero (per my promise.)

It was really fun watching her try to do pretty much anything Wizard-like and almost always failing. So many wasted spell slots because saves. The successes were SO epic, though. Like, the entire table cheering epic.


Oh, we also had a pacifist high-elf barbarian who would get really mad and take out his aggression on objects rather than living beings. I houseruled that his rage could continue if he attacked an object each round. Got messy, and they had a hell of a time finding inns in which to spend the night.

Completely on topic. I enjoy the crap out of some good ol absurd results.

[Applecrow]

I came up with an idea for a barbarian who sees dodging as a "cowards defence"

Barbarian (preferably zealot from Xanathar's guide, but any will do) at least level 2, monk 1. Dump wisdom and dex, then choose to use you monk unarmored AC. As such, if roll roll any negative statistics, you can have an AC between 9-2. Coupled with reckless attack, you will almost never utilise the "cowards defence".

Best part? You're a barbarian, so you'll have enough hit points to last, and if you're a zealot, your chances of death are almost nil

This reminds me of Harangutan from Venture Bros

[Applecrow]

My first silly build would be a Kobold Paladin of Conquest. Alternate between striking fear into your opponents and cowering to give your allies advantage.

History is written by the victors, after all. (or the best paid bard)

[Rebonack]

The Sick Burn Bard

Lore Bard with Fire Shield and Armor of Agathys picked up via magical secrets. Cast both on yourself and then walk into melee, mocking everyone nearby. Provoke as many opportunity attacks as you can. Make fun of the bad guys. Be a giant jerk. When they hit you, use Cutting Words to further insult them (and reduce the damage you take) as they burn and freeze simultaneously.

[Sorlock Master]

I mean if were doing fun...

Planet of the Apes
Beast master with Ape pet all ASI go into Apes CHA it ends up being 17 pick persuasion and deception as the skills. Give him a monocle, and a circlet of intelligence. Your Ape is now the party face. For added fun your Ape insists all other species are inferior, especially humans.

[xyianth]

The Sick Burn Bard

Lore Bard with Fire Shield and Armor of Agathys picked up via magical secrets. Cast both on yourself and then walk into melee, mocking everyone nearby. Provoke as many opportunity attacks as you can. Make fun of the bad guys. Be a giant jerk. When they hit you, use Cutting Words to further insult them (and reduce the damage you take) as they burn and freeze simultaneously.

Tiefling race + the Flames of Phlegethos feat as well.

[Rysto]

I posted a similar build before, but it wasn't until Xanathar's that it became complete.

Battlemaster 11/Swords Bard 3/Paladin 3

In combat, cast Divine Favor and then attack with a greataxe. If you hit, spend a superiority die on a combat maneuver that does damage, a bardic inspiration die on a flourish, and a spell slot for a smite. You deal 1d4 + 1d6 + 2d8 + 1d10 + 1d12 damage.

[Oramac]

I mean if were doing fun...

Planet of the Apes
Beast master with Ape pet all ASI go into Apes CHA it ends up being 17 pick persuasion and deception as the skills. Give him a monocle, and a circlet of intelligence. Your Ape is now the party face. For added fun your Ape insists all other species are inferior, especially humans.

Only works with the Revised Ranger, but I absolutely love this. It would be so much fun!

[Nifft]

You deal 1d4 + 1d6 + 2d8 + 1d10 + 1d12 damage.

That's beautiful.

[Quoxis]

Good ol‘ Sherlock Gnomes (lore bard 10/knowledge cleric 1/mastermind rogue 9) is an often copied and revised staple - 10 expertise skills (requires the „skilled“ feat to even get all of those, because you need to be proficient to get expertise as bard and rogue), half proficiency in all of the others, proficiency in multiple tools and instruments, features that scream deception and insight...

Another silly build: the „i didn’t ask for this“. A barbarian that got sorcerer powers by accident (looking at the class description...) and doesn’t have a clue what to do with them, until he witnesses a paladin using their smite and doing his best to learn that too.
Paladin 2/wild magic sorc 6/any kind of barbarian 12 (totem/zealot: „Oh great bear of the heavens, why hast thou cursed me with ye spellcraft?“, storm herald: „well ****, at least the lightning powers are nice, but what am i supposed to do with stuff that makes me breathe bubbles or turn into a plant?“ etc.) using all spell slots either for smites or for the bend luck feature, both of which work while raging - our low-int/wis buddy wouldn’t know what else to do with them otherwise.

The light cleric/shadow monk who uses both divine light and otherworldly shadows to fight while hiding the fact he’s deathly afraid of the dark and can’t sleep without the light cantrip is also a joke writing itself, but if you think about it it’s a really defensive take.

Another one would be the angry thor: storm herald (sea) barbarian 3/tempest cleric 17 who flies around the battlefield, hitting and lightning-sizzling opponents to death, and the funniest thing about it is that with each of his bonus action attacks he can push his opponent 10 feet away (which works each time he deals lightning damage - not necessarily with a spell, so his bonus action attack now not only deals 1d6 damage, but also rearranges the battlefield), and it also works if he’s getting attacked as a reaction.