Best Solo Class/Build

[Pleh]

Suppose you were to run a Solo game.

Not a Campaign, mind you. A Dungeon Dive. Not necessarily any published AP, just a bog standard Dungeon Grind. Let's suppose it's a modestly sized Mega Dungeon so it won't run your character through 20 levels, but it might run them through their first 10.

What class would you think has the best chances of surviving as a lone hero?

[Man_Over_Game]

Suppose you were to run a Solo game.

Not a Campaign, mind you. A Dungeon Dive. Not necessarily any published AP, just a bog standard Dungeon Grind. Let's suppose it's a modestly sized Mega Dungeon so it won't run your character through 20 levels, but it might run them through their first 10.

What class would you think has the best chances of surviving as a lone hero?

Warforged Hexblade Warlock, picking up a single level of Divine Soul Sorcerer to heal as needed. Take short rests as needed, never having to Long Rest, and not needing anybody to worry about you taking all the time you need.

Moon Druid + 1 level of Barbarian, Gnome. With short rest recharging of a Bear form (which has 34 HP), with two uses per day, you can effectively take 70 HP at level 2 without worrying about your real Druid HP. With the Barbarian Rage, capable of halving your damage two fights a day, there's not much that's going to be able to take you down. Being a Gnome removes almost all of the risk of a bad failed saving throw.

Gloomstalker Ranger 3, Rogue 1, Tiefling. Focus on stealth, using the properly needed Favored Enemies and Favored Terrain to always be stealthed. Gets Darkness to abuse more successful kills. I'd probably start with Rogue for the extra skills and Stealth Expertise you need early on, and then go Ranger from there. Grab your second level of Rogue as soon as you get Gloom Stalker benefits.

[LudicSavant]

Last time I played a solo campaign like that, I played a Cleric using stuff like Dodge/Spirit Guardians.

Also good: Regenerating kitelocks, tanky control Wizards (they're a thing), Druids

[stoutstien]

Suppose you were to run a Solo game.

Not a Campaign, mind you. A Dungeon Dive. Not necessarily any published AP, just a bog standard Dungeon Grind. Let's suppose it's a modestly sized Mega Dungeon so it won't run your character through 20 levels, but it might run them through their first 10.

What class would you think has the best chances of surviving as a lone hero?
Well my vote would be gloom stalker ranger that picks up the skulker feat. Good damage, good skills, good self healing, survivability alone is built into the class, and thematically it works.

[Misterwhisper]

Step 1 something warforged:

They don’t need to scavenge for food and things, immune to disease and don’t have to camp or rest unless they need a refresh.

Warforged envoy also get a bonus skill and a built in tool with expertise.

Step 2 class:

With warforged you have built in scaling armor class that is all good.

You will need healing of some kind because at some point you are going to take damage.

Stealth is a good idea because you don’t want people ambushing you.

Less reliance on specific gear you may never see is a plus, you might can start with that nice glave but you may never see another one.

Scouting is needed too because you don’t want to be walking into a trap.

How about this:

Warforged envoy +1 dex, con, cha
Built in tool: thieves tools
Celestial warlock
Pact of the chain
Invocations:
Lvl 2: agonizing blast, devils sight
Level 5: gift of the ever living ones
Level 7: voice of the chain master or repelling blast
Level 9: the other one

ASI:

4 and 8 just boost cha unless you have an odd dex then take medium armor. For better armor and shields.

Strategy:

Is your handy invisible scout that you can telepathically talk to to scout everything. It also does all social interactions if there are any.
Take stealth and other efficient skills
With a scout that good you should see everything coming. Use
AB/RB to keep things off of you, bonus action max heal as needed.
Rest only when you have to.
If you do have to remember you don’t have to breathe so rest at the bottom of a lake, stream or whatever.

Remember my golden rule:

A coward that lives can tell the story any way he likes.

Hide, fight cheap and unfair.


Honorable mention to a warforged gloomstalker but I do t like long rests in a solo game, I realize the celestial warlock. Reds one for his bonus action heals, but he doesn’t for his normal ones. So heal up and only bonus action in emergency situations.

[Daithi]

Warforged Warlock/Sorcerer CoffeeLock/Hexblade. Cheat even more by giving your Warforged a docent, and let the docent be a Mystic and cast its own "spells".

[8wGremlin]

Warforged Hexblade Warlock/Divine Soul Sorcerer - though I would have more levels of Sorcerer and a couple of levels of warlock.

[Mr.Spastic]

Moon Druid is probably your best bet. Wild Shape recharges on a short rest so...

I would follow it up by saying that most full casters would struggle. A long rest dependent class might be really rough for your third encounter of the day. This also includes Paladins, Barbarians, and Bards.

Another good class option would be a Eldritch Knight Fighter. Good versatility, great defense, the second wind of a fighter. Pair it with the durable or healer feat and your pretty good to go.

Shadow Monks. Because short rest rechargeable pass without trace is very good. Might want feats like tough to boost AC. Lack of healing would hurt. Chaining Stunning Strike is always fun though.

As others have mentioned, Warlocks. For every reason mentioned above.

Rogues could work seeing how most of their abilities are not rest dependent.

Rangers could also work for the reasons others have said.

[nickl_2000]

My three choices for this would be

-Warforged or Tortle Moon Druid (as others have mentioned). This gives you all the utility, good spells, and melee capability.
-High Elf Arcane Trickster don't need to actually sleep since you trace, so long rests are safer. The rogue chassis is great, good stealth, and find familiar. Of course the level 1 spell is BB.
-Tabaxi Monk - They get Ki back on a short rest, the monk chassis is pretty amazing, and you can play hit and run games all day long with all the movement you get.
-Open Hand would be a good choice for knock down and push abilities.
-Long Death gives you so many temp HP it will almost be silly.
-Sun Soul makes hit and run even easier since you can do it from a distance.

[XmonkTad]

While it will struggle at levels 1-4, a Svirfneblin Abjuration Wizard would be my vote for levels 5-20. Leomunds Tiny Hut makes taking long rests perfectly safe, and you can cast it as a ritual. When you take the Svirfneblin racial feat you'll get basically unlimited temp HP, and gnome+wizard proficiencies will help with all your mental saves. Superior darkvision, a dex bonus, and built in nondetection, you'll be pretty fair at hiding without expertise.

[Wildarm]

Human Life Cleric 1/Warlock 1/Abjurer X /w Heavy Armor Master is pretty self sufficient.

Spam Armor of Agathys with your highest level spell slot and laugh as melee enemies impale themselves on you dealing pitiful damage. Main threat to you is save or suck spells. Your DPS is nothing fantastic unless things are in melee but you've still got a decent amount of options. I'd recommend summoning minions to help you. Your social and stealth skills will likely also be poor. But hey, you can tank all day long.

[Misterwhisper]

Human Life Cleric 1/Warlock 1/Abjurer X /w Heavy Armor Master is pretty self sufficient.

Spam Armor of Agathys with your highest level spell slot and laugh as melee enemies impale themselves on you dealing pitiful damage. Main threat to you is save or suck spells. Your DPS is nothing fantastic unless things are in melee but you've still got a decent amount of options. I'd recommend summoning minions to help you. Your social and stealth skills will likely also be poor. But hey, you can tank all day long.

I would take 2 warlock for the invocation to mage armor at will to recharge your ward as needed for free, and as a human, Devil's Sight is amazing.

I do not like dungeon crawling without darkvison.
Stealth kind of goes out the window if you have to carry around a light.

[Citan]

Suppose you were to run a Solo game.

Not a Campaign, mind you. A Dungeon Dive. Not necessarily any published AP, just a bog standard Dungeon Grind. Let's suppose it's a modestly sized Mega Dungeon so it won't run your character through 20 levels, but it might run them through their first 10.

What class would you think has the best chances of surviving as a lone hero?
Well, it depends on many things...

As far as single-class go, I'd say Bards (especially Swords and Valor), Arcane Trickster Rogues, Druids (especially Moon), Clerics (especially Tempest and Knowledge) and Rangers (especially Gloomstalker) would all fare well in a wide variety of challenges. Paladins would be less versatile but still fine once they get the Aura. Bladesinger would be decent as long as he preserve spells for short resting. Others would be more of late bloomers.

For multiclass builds, there are *MANY* good ways to go.

Easy builds include Monk and Druid (resilience + versatility), anything with a single dip of Rogue for Expertise, any mix of Bard/Warlock/Sorcerer/Paladin, Rogue&Wizard or Fighter&Wizard dual-class...

A few of my go-to.
Life Cleric 1 / Monk 5+ / Druid 5+ / (option Rogue 1 for Expertise, 2 for Uncanny Dodge)
Start however you want, first aim at Cleric 1 / Monk 1, using Bless or Shield of Faith to help survive. Then go Monk 2 for better survivability. Then grab Druid 1 to start gaining interesting things: Shillelagh and either Guidance, Thorns Whip or Mold Earth are the ones you want.
From there you can either "main" Monk right now, getting Druid levels sporadically when you want better spells.
Or you can go Druid first to get many great spells.
Or you can try to balance things.
Land Druid would actually fare better with Long Death imo, since you could grab Haste. Unless you can get a Ring of Spell Storing to use with a familiar gained through Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster, but that's far-stretched.
4E is very self-sufficient, so you could use its Ki on push/pull abilities while maintaining a Flaming Sphere or Spike Growth. Because of that it goes well with any Druid except maybe Moon.
This character will soon be a beast, between Monk's versatility, Unarmored AC helping survivability as beast, mobility enhancement and all great spells (especially Life Goodberry and Life Healing Spirit).

Bladesinger 5+ / Arcane Trickster 5+ / (option starting Fighter 1 if you want Action Surge much later).
Simply enough, start Rogue 3, immediately after grab Wizard 2, then Rogue 5, then Wizard 3, then whatever you want.
Only big flaw is lack of heal, minor flaw is lesser stealth tools.
Barring that, you're a very versatile character, and although your resilience relies half on slots, you can be great at that.
Resilient: Constitution is a priority.

Life Cleric 1 / Beastmaster Ranger X
: simple and quick way to help your beast survive as well as you. Ranger is a very solid class overall. You may add a bit of Druid into the mix if you want more versatility.
If you can afford to, you could also go Divine Soul Sorcerer 7 with Twin and Extend: you would trade Share Spells for an alternate, a bit early version: Twin Aid/Longstrider/Death Ward/etc.

Devotion Paladin 3 / Tome GOO Warlock 7 / Draconic Sorcerer 4 / Lore Bard 6
This is a heavy one, but extremely versatile *provided DM is leveling the field where rituals are concerned*.
(Note about Draconic: it's because it's one of my old builds. ;) Technically unless you really like stealth Draconic benefit is wasted, better go Divine Soul or Shadow).
Sorcerer 1 > Paladin 2 > Warlock 3 > Bard 3 > finish however you want, although I'd say getting Warlock 5 early (more chance to learn rituals as you travel) or Bard 5 early (alternate access to LTH + short-rest BI) may be priorities.
This one will obviously not concern himself with anything else other than CHA (Shillelagh through Tome) and CON.
Melee? Shillelagh+Booming Blade+potential short-rest smite.
Ranged? Repelling Blast.
Utility? Potentially all rituals.
And pretty decent resilience (armor + shield + Shield) and nova (smite).

And the potentially best "sustainable" nova character, although it's a long run.
Hexblade Blade Warlock 7 / Devotion Paladin 3 / Whisper Bard 10.
Idea here is to mix and match Sacred Weapon, Bless, Shadow Blade, Booming Blade, Banishing Smite (Magic Secrets), Divine Smite, Eldricht Smite and Psychic Blades to inflict more or less damage depending on your needs.
This build should be reliant enough to work without really needing advantage.
Big strength of it is being very versatile: you could have a pretty high damage every fight if you can get short rests regularly (which you have a good chance of making happen), thanks to short-rest slots (upcast Shadow Blade or Magic Weapon) + Psychic Blades and possibly Booming Blade + small smite in melee.

If you'd rather use Elven Accuracy with Darkness+Devil's Sight, you may want to trade 2 Warlock and 1 Paladin to get Battlemaster 3 (Action Surge and Precision).
Or you could even go very differently, eating levels at Bard, Warlock and Paladin as needed to get Fighter 2-3 (Action Surge, expanded crit) and Grave Cleric 2 (weakness on all next damage), paired with Lucky feat and possibly Elven Accuracy.
This latter is probably the biggest damage dealer, but extremely nova and wonky so cannot recommend it except for high-level one-shots. ^^

[sithlordnergal]

So, if I were to do something like this, I would probably go:

Race: Half-Elf

Classes: Swashbuckler Rogue: 3 / Fighter: 1 / Druid: 1 / Lore Bard: 5

---Abilities---

Str: 8

Dex: 16

Con: 14

Int: 9

Wis: 13

Cha: 18


I'll admit, this seems like a bit of an odd build at first. But here's the gist of it:

-Take the Half-Elf Variant, and go High Elf for the free Cantrip. Take Booming Blade. You now have a reliable source of damage that scales nicely.

-Swashbuckler grants you a sneak attack that you can use against single targets when they have no allies near them. This allows you to use sneak attack without hiding, even when you're alone. You also gain two Expertises, which I'd put into Stealth and Thieve's Tools.

-One level of Fighter grants martial weapons, medium armor and shields, and a fighting style. I'd go defense to boost your AC.

-One level of Druid grants Create Water and Good Berry. Your food is now permanently taken care of. Keep in mind that while a Druid can technically wear metal armor with no downsides, you'll need to talk to your DM first. If the DM says no, drop the Druid level and take a level in Lore Bard instead to grab your two survival spells.

-Finally Lore Bard grants you more utility, more skills, more Expertise, some Battlefield Control spells, and once you get Bard 5 you have access to Leomund's Tiny Hut. Which gives you a mostly safe place to sleep.

[Misterwhisper]

So, if I were to do something like this, I would probably go:

Race: Half-Elf

Classes: Swashbuckler Rogue: 3 / Fighter: 1 / Druid: 1 / Lore Bard: 5

---Abilities---

Str: 8

Dex: 16

Con: 14

Int: 9

Wis: 13

Cha: 18


I'll admit, this seems like a bit of an odd build at first. But here's the gist of it:

-Take the Half-Elf Variant, and go High Elf for the free Cantrip. Take Booming Blade. You now have a reliable source of damage that scales nicely.

-Swashbuckler grants you a sneak attack that you can use against single targets when they have no allies near them. This allows you to use sneak attack without hiding, even when you're alone. You also gain two Expertises, which I'd put into Stealth and Thieve's Tools.

-One level of Fighter grants martial weapons, medium armor and shields, and a fighting style. I'd go defense to boost your AC.

-One level of Druid grants Create Water and Good Berry. Your food is now permanently taken care of. Keep in mind that while a Druid can technically wear metal armor with no downsides, you'll need to talk to your DM first. If the DM says no, drop the Druid level and take a level in Lore Bard instead to grab your two survival spells.

-Finally Lore Bard grants you more utility, more skills, more Expertise, some Battlefield Control spells, and once you get Bard 5 you have access to Leomund's Tiny Hut. Which gives you a mostly safe place to sleep.

Swashbuckler is when there is nobody with 5ft of you, not them.

Any time you are outnumbered you are in trouble.

[Pleh]

Swashbuckler is when there is nobody with 5ft of you, not them.

Any time you are outnumbered you are in trouble.

Unless you have some fancy footwork. There can be any number of enemies as long as only one is adjacent to you when you attack (which actually makes the fact that it's a Swashbuckler ability incredibly fitting and well designed).

I'm enjoying the responses so far. I was originally just doing some research, but it looks like people are just generally having fun answering the question, which is fantastic.:smallsmile:

[sithlordnergal]

Swashbuckler is when there is nobody with 5ft of you, not them.

Any time you are outnumbered you are in trouble.

Ah, thank you for the correction. I'll admit, I'm away from book currently, so I be building stuff based off memory. XD

[Misterwhisper]

Unless you have some fancy footwork. There can be any number of enemies as long as only one is adjacent to you when you attack (which actually makes the fact that it's a Swashbuckler ability incredibly fitting and well designed).

I'm enjoying the responses so far. I was originally just doing some research, but it looks like people are just generally having fun answering the question, which is fantastic.:smallsmile:

To use fancy footwork you would have to attacked the two people in melee with you to get away, it won’t help get the sneak attack. or you could use disengage and walk around them to get it and move away but your range would be limited.

A melee rogue in a solo game is going to have problems.

[Pleh]

To use fancy footwork you would have to attacked the two people in melee with you to get away, it won’t help get the sneak attack. or you could use disengage and walk around them to get it and move away but your range would be limited.

A melee rogue in a solo game is going to have problems.

Wait, is there no Acrobatics roll to avoid Attacks of Opportunity in 5e? Seems like Rogues tumbling into optimal position is a long staple of D&D

[Angelalex242]

I've had a lot of success with just straight Ancients Paladin. Then again, I've also usually been tanking for other people and letting them kill things, saving my smites for burst damage against a boss.

[Misterwhisper]

Wait, is there no Acrobatics roll to avoid Attacks of Opportunity in 5e? Seems like Rogues tumbling into optimal position is a long staple of D&D

Nope, they left that out because now under normal circumstances moving is the only thing that provoked aoes so if all it took was an acrobatics check nobody with decent Tex would take them.

[Pleh]

Nope, they left that out because now under normal circumstances moving is the only thing that provoked aoes so if all it took was an acrobatics check nobody with decent Tex would take them.

That might be a great special ability for a swashbuckler or dervish, then, if they would ever bring it back in. If it's a class feature instead of a standard function of a skill anyone can use, it should be a tight enough tradeoff that few creatures will have access.

It's an interesting limit, in any case.

[Wildarm]

Wait, is there no Acrobatics roll to avoid Attacks of Opportunity in 5e? Seems like Rogues tumbling into optimal position is a long staple of D&D

It's built into the Cunning Action skill. Bonus Action Disengage - I always describe that as acrobatics or tumbling when moving through spaces adjacent to enemies.

[solidork]

That might be a great special ability for a swashbuckler or dervish, then, if they would ever bring it back in. If it's a class feature instead of a standard function of a skill anyone can use, it should be a tight enough tradeoff that few creatures will have access.

It's an interesting limit, in any case.

I mean, they already get to Disengage as a bonus action so they are innately one of the best classes at avoiding attacks of opportunity. You can fluff that as tumbling if you like, but you don't have to leave it up to a roll in order to do it.

[CTurbo]

UA Revised Beastmaster Ranger 5, Fiend or GOO Chainlock 3, Ancients Paladin 12

You get a beast companion and a super familiar. Take a small race like Halfling and ride a Wolf or Panther. Take Mounted Combat feat and it would be nearly impossible to hurt your companion.

[Vexacia]

I'm gonna concur with everyone saying Moon Druid. I think straight Moon Druid is just the best option here.

Below level 8 and worried you'll need to solve vertical challenges or challenges involving floors that are either hostile (i.e. lava) or non-existent (i.e. bottomless pit)? Pick a race with built-in Flight like Aarakocra.

Buff up and Wild Shape for combat, heal your humanoid form between combats with the broken Healing Spirit if necessary, stealth through anywhere necessary with help from Pass without Trace, get rid of debilitating conditions on yourself with Lesser Restoration, sharpen your eyesight to find those traps or ambushes with Enhance Ability (Wisdom), enlighten your mind for important Investigation checks or knowledge checks with Enhance Ability (Intelligence), drop Faerie Fire on the entire dungeon room if you're worried about invisibility, cast Fog Cloud if you need to shut down a whole room of baddies at once without a save.

It's dark and you're playing a race without darkvision? Cast Darkvision! Wild Shapes feeling inadequate at or past level 7? Polymorph yourself! Need a long rest in the middle of the dungeon? Run completely out of rations or water? Make some with Goodberry and Create or Destroy Water! Cast Meld into Stone, step into the nearest wall, and pass out undetected by anything nonmagical for 8 hours (or 4 hours if playing an Elf).

Really, you name it and Druid's got a trick for either handling it or bypassing it.

If you're feeling particularly extra that day, carry your excess ill-gotten gains hard-earned rewards out of the dungeon with Enhance Ability (Strength).

[Misterwhisper]

I'm gonna concur with everyone saying Moon Druid. I think straight Moon Druid is just the best option here.

Below level 8 and worried you'll need to solve vertical challenges or challenges involving floors that are either hostile (i.e. lava) or non-existent (i.e. bottomless pit)? Pick a race with built-in Flight like Aarakocra.

Buff up and Wild Shape for combat, heal your humanoid form between combats with the broken Healing Spirit if necessary, stealth through anywhere necessary with help from Pass without Trace, get rid of debilitating conditions on yourself with Lesser Restoration, sharpen your eyesight to find those traps or ambushes with Enhance Ability (Wisdom), enlighten your mind for important Investigation checks or knowledge checks with Enhance Ability (Intelligence), drop Faerie Fire on the entire dungeon room if you're worried about invisibility, cast Fog Cloud if you need to shut down a whole room of baddies at once without a save.

It's dark and you're playing a race without darkvision? Cast Darkvision! Wild Shapes feeling inadequate at or past level 7? Polymorph yourself! Need a long rest in the middle of the dungeon? Run completely out of rations or water? Make some with Goodberry and Create or Destroy Water! Cast Meld into Stone, step into the nearest wall, and pass out undetected by anything nonmagical for 8 hours (or 4 hours if playing an Elf).

Really, you name it and Druid's got a trick for either handling it or bypassing it.

If you're feeling particularly extra that day, carry your excess ill-gotten gains hard-earned rewards out of the dungeon with Enhance Ability (Strength).

Could also combine that all with a warforged envoy.

Other than the massive darkvision issue it is VERY self sufficient.

[Naanomi]

Necromancer: Why play a solo RPG when you can play a miniature wargame?

Celestial Warlock with pact of the tome: Healing, damage, ritual casting, temp-HP, short rest mechanics (long rests are hard to come by with no one else to keep watch), a disposable familiar for scouting...

Svirfneblin Rogue 2/Immortal X: Shrink, invisible, run away... don't fight, stealth your way through the entire dungeon