The benefits of being unconventional?

[JellyPooga]

So we here in The Playground (and in other places), like to tout the wisdom of "optimal" play, eking out the most bang-for-your-buck from your character by marrying abilities together, whether they be from Race, Class, Feats or what-have-you. What is less frequently discussed is...the other guys. Those characters that might not be the best of the best, those characters that are chosen for "roleplaying" reasons or simply because you enjoy the idea of it. Sometimes this can be a minor thing like choosing a less optimal Archetype (e.g. the Champion Fighter is fairly often called out in this regard), or with a bit of "unwise" multiclassing (e.g. Wizard/Bard...great for diversity, not so great for its MADness or overall "power"). Other times it can be more extreme; it's fairly common to hear comments about "bad" Race/Class combo's (e.g. Gnome Barbarian), or a truly poor multiclass (e.g. the "One Level of Every Class" build).

It's also fairly common to hear someone say something along the lines of "It's really hard to build an actively bad character in 5ed". So with that in mind, what are some of the more unconventional characters you've built or played? What were the reason for choosing a "sub-optimal" build? How did it pan out for you?

To get the ball rolling, here's my own;

Name: Gorrul "Sulfur" Seolfortuxl
Race: Half-Orc
Background: Criminal
Class: Wizard (Necromancer) 1

Traits
- Personality: "I try to cultivate an aloof air of mystery, but my sense of humour often gets in the way; underneath it all, I like a good belly laugh in good company." - "I keep my friends close and my enemies closer; you never know when someone will suddenly become disposable."
- Ideal: Power - "Knowledge is the path to power, glory and wealth. Who wouldn't want more?"
- Bond: "The Guild think they own me but they're only holding me back; I must find a way to free myself of them."
- Flaw: "I have a reckless tendency to let my curiosity get the better of me."

Basic Character Build
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: Arcane Foci, Thieves Tools, Gaming Set (Cards)
Cantrips: Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Mending
Spellbook: Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Fog Cloud, Mage Armour, Ray of Sickness, Sleep

Only a level 1 build currently, but I doubt he'll be straying far from the path of a straight Wizard (unless the campaign develops in an unexpected manner). As you can see, he's far from anything that might be called a "war mage", but as a Half-Orc he has some durability in a scrap, decent Str/Con and every now and then his melee attacks hit a bit harder, so that, combined with Grim Harvest (which he'll pick up at 2nd level) put me in mind of someone that could stick it on the front line somewhat (not a lot, admittedly, but if he wanted to wade in with a big stick, he could). I also wanted him to be part of a thieves guild, so Criminal Background made sense from that angle, but it also gave him a nicely diverse portfolio; Deception and Stealth, plus Thieves Tools and racial Intimidation; he's no Rogue, but he's still a pretty handy guy to have around in a few situations, even when he's out of spells for the day. To make him actually useful in a fight, I gave him the standard "no save, you suck" spells of Fog Cloud and Sleep, added Ray of Sickness in large part because it's thematic and he needs something to trigger Grim Harvest , plus the "standard Mage package" of Mage Armour, Detect Magic and Feather Fall (can you even call yourself a Wizard if you don't know those spells?). The lack of a damage Cantrip is quite intentional; if he's going to be hitting people with sticks, giving him a "better" option of using a Cantrip seems counter-intuitive.

Is he "optimal"? Not even close. Is he going to be a blast to play? I reckon he might well be.

Who's your "Kinda crappy, but fun anyway" character?

[Blacky the Blackball]

It's also fairly common to hear someone say something along the lines of "It's really hard to build an actively bad character in 5ed". So with that in mind, what are some of the more unconventional characters you've built or played? What were the reason for choosing a "sub-optimal" build? How did it pan out for you?

I'm a very visual person, in that when I think of a character the hook that gets me interested in them is usually seeing them do their thing in my imagination rather than any mechanical consideration. Given an optimal build or an interesting build I'll go for the interesting one every time.

It's definitely true that 5e makes it hard to build a bad character. You can go for interesting/fun over optimal and nine times out of ten (unless you've a hardcore optimiser at the table who can't stand anyone else not having a perfectly optimised character and who is a jerk about it) everyone will still have a good time and you won't feel useless.

Here's my two most recent characters - neither of them are optimised, but both are interesting (at least to me!)

Quarion Xiloscient - a Drow Illusionist Wizard. Definitely not the optimal race choice, but I really liked the idea of a drow character who used illusion magic (and a disguise kit) to hide his origin for fear of prejudice from surface dwellers (the rest of the party knew he was a drow and didn't care, but he'd always be disguised when going into a village or town). The lack of a racial intelligence bonus wasn't an issue, and I simply avoided any spell that needed an attack roll in order to not be too hindered by his sunlight sensitivity.

Stan Tealeaf - a Lightfoot Halfling Oath of Devotion Paladin. I wanted to play a non-cliched paladin, and decided to go with a reformed ex-criminal. With the Criminal background, he was stealthy and could use thieves tools; so most people simply assumed he was a rogue of some kind. It didn't help that given his dexterity, he wore leather armour and dual-wielded short swords (more attacks equals more chance to crit and get a good smiting in!) Unlike Quarion, he never deceived anyone or denied that he was actually a paladin if asked, but he didn't flaunt it either. His duty to his oath was a quietly personal thing and he didn't walk around with a big holy symbol or cast many spells, instead being humble and quietly getting on with good deeds (and encouraging the party to do the same).

Despite neither of those characters being optimised, they were both lots of fun to play and they were both very popular with the rest of the group.

[MagneticKitty]

One im working on building:

Tortle Warlock (non hexblade)/ paladin
Warlock 6-10 raven queen patron blade pact
Paladin (still deciding but I like oath of ancients) of the raven queen

Dreams of flight, eventually gets the ability to change into a raven through warlock. The raven queen gives him orders through his raven familiar (from warlock). He's a melee character with variable weapons. He likes polearm and sword and shield depending on the occasion. He names all of his weapons.
I think stats were
16 str / 10 dex / 12 con / 14 wis / 8 int / 14 cha
At lv 3 before asi. Maxing str first then con.

[Tetrasodium]

So we here in The Playground (and in other places), like to tout the wisdom of "optimal" play, eking out the most bang-for-your-buck from your character by marrying abilities together, whether they be from Race, Class, Feats or what-have-you. What is less frequently discussed is...the other guys. Those characters that might not be the best of the best, those characters that are chosen for "roleplaying" reasons or simply because you enjoy the idea of it. Sometimes this can be a minor thing like choosing a less optimal Archetype (e.g. the Champion Fighter is fairly often called out in this regard), or with a bit of "unwise" multiclassing (e.g. Wizard/Bard...great for diversity, not so great for its MADness or overall "power"). Other times it can be more extreme; it's fairly common to hear comments about "bad" Race/Class combo's (e.g. Gnome Barbarian), or a truly poor multiclass (e.g. the "One Level of Every Class" build).

It's also fairly common to hear someone say something along the lines of "It's really hard to build an actively bad character in 5ed". So with that in mind, what are some of the more unconventional characters you've built or played? What were the reason for choosing a "sub-optimal" build? How did it pan out for you?

To get the ball rolling, here's my own;

Name: Gorrul "Sulfur" Seolfortuxl
Race: Half-Orc
Background: Criminal
Class: Wizard (Necromancer) 1

Traits
- Personality: "I try to cultivate an aloof air of mystery, but my sense of humour often gets in the way; underneath it all, I like a good belly laugh in good company." - "I keep my friends close and my enemies closer; you never know when someone will suddenly become disposable."
- Ideal: Power - "Knowledge is the path to power, glory and wealth. Who wouldn't want more?"
- Bond: "The Guild think they own me but they're only holding me back; I must find a way to free myself of them."
- Flaw: "I have a reckless tendency to let my curiosity get the better of me."

Basic Character Build
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: Arcane Foci, Thieves Tools, Gaming Set (Cards)
Cantrips: Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Mending
Spellbook: Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Fog Cloud, Mage Armour, Ray of Sickness, Sleep

Only a level 1 build currently, but I doubt he'll be straying far from the path of a straight Wizard (unless the campaign develops in an unexpected manner). As you can see, he's far from anything that might be called a "war mage", but as a Half-Orc he has some durability in a scrap, decent Str/Con and every now and then his melee attacks hit a bit harder, so that, combined with Grim Harvest (which he'll pick up at 2nd level) put me in mind of someone that could stick it on the front line somewhat (not a lot, admittedly, but if he wanted to wade in with a big stick, he could). I also wanted him to be part of a thieves guild, so Criminal Background made sense from that angle, but it also gave him a nicely diverse portfolio; Deception and Stealth, plus Thieves Tools and racial Intimidation; he's no Rogue, but he's still a pretty handy guy to have around in a few situations, even when he's out of spells for the day. To make him actually useful in a fight, I gave him the standard "no save, you suck" spells of Fog Cloud and Sleep, added Ray of Sickness in large part because it's thematic and he needs something to trigger Grim Harvest , plus the "standard Mage package" of Mage Armour, Detect Magic and Feather Fall (can you even call yourself a Wizard if you don't know those spells?). The lack of a damage Cantrip is quite intentional; if he's going to be hitting people with sticks, giving him a "better" option of using a Cantrip seems counter-intuitive.

Is he "optimal"? Not even close. Is he going to be a blast to play? I reckon he might well be.

Who's your "Kinda crappy, but fun anyway" character?

I would look at the spells & cantrips in archtype heroes of the five nations (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248964/Eberron-Archetypes-Heroes-of-the-Five-Nations?affiliate_id=282191) as reaver's touh is an awesome melee spell cantrip that gives you half the damage back as temp hp among other stuff. Multiclass feats (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/202906/Multiclass-Feats-5th-Edition) is also anopther great one with some interesting combos that could help a build like that really shine.

[Mortis_Elrod]

I’ll post an idea that’s been brewing in the spirit of unconventional builds.

Firbolg Spore Druid/Undying Tomelock. Going for the blighter/Walker In the Waste theme. Firbolg outcasted for perversing nature. Thought about death cleric since it’s still on theme but I like the idea of the guy messing up his own body or maybe the magic is soaking into him more and more.

Land or moon also work for this though.

[Particle_Man]

Well, you already mentioned Champion Fighter, which I took for the simplicity. I also made him human. Not variant human but the original +1 to each stat human. The reason? The stats I rolled (16,15, 12,12,11,9) were such that by doing this my weakest stat (int) went to 10, meaning I had no negative numbers on my character sheet, which I liked. And yes it was simpler. Also, I did not take athletics (I figure I will get half of it anyhow at 7th). I took persuasion, insight, perception and animal handling. With a charisma of 13 I sometimes do "face" stuff, which is fun.

An unconventional option I am considering maybe doing one day, which would be suboptimal, to say the least, would be to take Wizard (diviner) to 6th multiclassed with cleric of the order domain from unearthed arcana (also to 6th). Probably I would take the cleric first, for the simple weapon proficiencies. Anyhow the neat thing here is that diviner wizard 6 can "recycle" divination spells of 2nd level of higher (gaining back a spell slot of a lower level but no higher than 5th) and order cleric 6 can do the same with enchantment spells of 2nd level of higher. And it seems that this multiclass could recycle wizard diviniation and enchantment spells and cleric divination and enchantment spells, AFAICT.

Now obviously you lose a lot of spells of higher levels (a cleric 12 or wizard 12 knows 6th level spells and this character knows onl 3rd level spells) but you get the same spell slots as a single-classed caster and many spells can be cast for greater effect in higher-level slots, so the loss isn't as bad as it might be.

I see it as a sort of "mystic theurge" (from 3.5, a prestige class caster of both arcane and divine spells, also usually thought to be suboptimal, at least in the standard cleric 3/wizard 3/mystic theurge 10/then what? progression). Also, with the focus on order and divination, it wouldn't be too hard to reskin the order cleric/diviner wizard as a Sapphire Hierarch (my favourite prestige class from 3.5, found in Magic of Incarnum). I mean, background hermit or sage or acolyte would pretty much fit.

If we are talking very, very unconventional, if some "think outside the box" DM allowed me to use the DMG stats of the NPC skeleton I could try a Berkserker Barbarian. Immunity to exhaustion makes that archetype viable. Plus it evokes images of Lost Worlds skeleton with scimitar and shield, or Harryhausen special effects. But, oh, would it be hard to get magical healing! Undead usually don't benefit from that stuff.

[Corran]

Lotton was a competent high elf wizard, who at some point in his life (and due to some world changing events, around which the whole premise of the game world and the story were revolving), he burned his spellbook and devoted himself to the gods (with Vecna being the one holding his leash).

Now, if I remember correctly, his stats were sth like this (after rolling): STR 7, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 13, CHA 13. My 4th level feat was ritual caster, cause I wanted a spellbook (never bothered to even pick or use any ritual). He was standing at the back, in his fancy robes, and he would be casting firebolt and magic missiles most of the times. The campaign didn't last long but this is a character I really liked and I will be relishing to play him again in some future campaign (this time maybe a little more carefully planned).
Edit: Mechanically speaking, Lotton was a cleric with the arcane domain.

[Particle_Man]

Did the character take the spell mastery feat so as to be able to cast magic missile despite a burned spell book?

[Corran]

Did the character take the spell mastery feat so as to be able to cast magic missile despite a burned spell book?
Oh, I forgot to mention it, I picked the arcana domain.

Edit: Arcane domain cleric.

[Consensus]

I would look at the spells & cantrips in archtype heroes of the five nations (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248964/Eberron-Archetypes-Heroes-of-the-Five-Nations?affiliate_id=282191) as reaver's touh is an awesome melee spell cantrip that gives you half the damage back as temp hp among other stuff. Multiclass feats (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/202906/Multiclass-Feats-5th-Edition) is also anopther great one with some interesting combos that could help a build like that really shine.

I'm a big eberron fan myself, but nearly every post you make that I've seen is all eberron, why?

[Naanomi]

I ‘optimize’; but frequently optimize nonsense stuff rather than the best stuff; so I end up with characters like this...

-Water Genasi Beastmaster with his giant crab buddy...
-Dwarven Wild Sorcerer who hates their spells and so didn’t take any without material components (easier after XgtE!)

[Tetrasodium]

I'm a big eberron fan myself, but nearly every post you make that I've seen is all eberron, why?

those two have a bunch of stuff useful to the OP's build & I pointed at some of them. the multiclass feats is not any particular setting as far as I could tell when I looked through it as well. Hope that answers your rather odd question.

[DarkKnightJin]

My very first character was a Dragonborn Paladin/Celestial Warlock. Then UA. It didn't see more than 1 session of play.
The next character that I made, and got to play for a long while(still playing him).. Is a Dragonborn Death Cleric, with a (1st level) dip of Fighter for the armor profs.

He's very much not optimized, and I don't care. He does what needs to do well enough for me.
And he's just a ton of fun to play.