Unconventional Level 8 Build

[Skuxintux]

Hey there everybody! I'm starting a new campaign and I need help on making a unique character build, I don't have any set thing yet but so I am open to any suggestions you might have. TY!


Start at Level 8
No V.Humans
Feats allowed
Must be at least Level 5 on one class
A degree of usefulness in combat, exploration & utility
Something unconventional!

[Innocent_bystan]

What about a strength based barbarian-monk? Use the Tortle as a race, to make it a ninja Tortle (and have a fixed 17 AC)
I'd argue you'd need at least barbarian 2 and preferably 3.

I've built one at level 10: barb 3 (ancestral guardian) - monk 7 (drunken master) and it is a blast. Rush in, deal damage, trigger spirits, rush out. Laugh as opponent can now only attack resistant targets and only with disadvantage.

[Aett_Thorn]

Goblin Transmuter Wizard with the Hermit background. Cast a spell, and then Hide as a Bonus Action each round.

[DeanH]

5/3 Bear Totem Barbarian/Arcane Trickster. Earth Genasai, Goliath, or Half-Orc with point buy stats Str 18 (including ASI), Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8. Criminal or urchin background, skills include Stealth, Deception, Athletics, Perception, and Sleight of Hand with Expertise in the first two. Use a familiar to scout, sneak up and mess with people with Minor Illusion, Invisible Mage Hand, or Silent Spell, then rage or use Booming Blade and Cunning Action if the situation warrants. Illusion Disguise gives many social options, and no one will suspect the uncouth barbarian of secretly being a skilled illusionist. Continue AT.

3/5 Tabaxi Arcane Trickster/Red Draconic Sorcerer. Point buy stats Str 8, Dex 18 (with ASI), Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8. Focus on spells like Shield, Haste, Booming Blade, and Green Flame Blade. Continue AT (bumping Dex), then Sorcerer for the damage bonus to GFB, then AT to 9/6 taking Warcaster, then a level of Hexblade, then AT the rest of the way.

3/5 Kenku Arcane Trickster/Drunken Master. Point buy stats Str 8, Dex 18 (with ASI), Con 14, int 10, Wis 16, Cha 10. The Sage background lets this character be seeking to break the Kenku curse by trying to track down places or objects of great creativity and using monk intuition/performance/illusion magic to try to connect to the creative spark.

[RogueJK]

A Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard 7 Chaotic Good Tiefling minstrel priest of the God of Good Times, played as a total hedonist who adheres to his god's dogma to Live Life To Its Fullest. He uses his healing abilities to fix the broken bones of over-enthusiastic adrenaline seekers, end the hangovers for everyone who was at parties the night before, and cure the STDs of the overly lustful, uses his Persuasion skills to spread his god's message and convince folks to "let go and live a little", and uses his Performance skills to put on rockin' concerts. He's all about helping others and making sure everyone's having a good time.


Mechanics-wise, you'd be an effective Skill Monkey, Face, Healer, and Party Support. Use Magical Secrets to pick up some higher level healing/buffing spells that Bards can't normally get. You don't even really need to worry about weapons, with your focus being buffing, debuffing, controlling, healing, and dishing out inspiration. When you're not casting a spell that round, you should be hurling creative insults with the Vicious Mockery cantrip to give enemies Disadvantage, or using the Help Action to give your allies Advantage.

Or if you want the ability to do a bit more damage in combat, you could use a Light Crossbow for ranged attacks, or go with the variant Levistus Tiefling for Ray of Frost, a slightly better attack cantrip than Vicious Mockery. And you could use one of your Magical Secrets picks at Bard6 to acquire the Spiritual Weapon spell, for non-concentration CHA-based Bonus Action attacks that could take the shape of a giant guitar clobbering enemies over the head, or another form appropriate to the character concept.


Stats-wise, focus on CHA first and DEX second. Have a moderate CON. Low STR and INT is fine. You'll need at least a 13 WIS for the Cleric dip, but I wouldn't go higher than 13 (unless you just happened to roll extremely well and have an extra high score to spare).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-g2AgWBxQg0U/W8t-SSE_FKI/AAAAAAAAURo/pr0DIvpREog3ZGG2hALhBGlrLrYO4n-8wCJoC/w800-h800/cr8dmu977jrz.jpg

[ImproperJustice]

Level 5 Fighter
Level 3 Rogue

Put your ASI into skilled, healer or ritual caster.
Play as a versatile non-caster Bard

I would lean towards Battlemaster / Scout or Thief
Thief especially if you take healer.

Specialize in Dex, Con and whateve else sounds good.

Be super mobile, be a skill monkey, set up allies woth trip attack. Heal allies quickly with healer, or do cool ritual stuff (Like have familiar / unseen servant if you went wizard or do augury’s if you went Cleric).

[Keravath]

Unique?

Here is one I am thinking of :) .. fun but perhaps not terribly optimized. This is for AL.

Neutral Good Yuanti-Pureblood
Stats: 8 14 14 14 9 16
1-fighter -medium armor+shield - defensive fighting style
2-warlock - probably goo .. could go fey .. choice is a key element of the character back story
3-warlock - agonizing blast+ mask of many faces (to disguise their heritage if needed)

From here the character goes wizard or sorcerer or in my case a bit of both .. possibly another level of warlock.

All sorcerer (likely draconic) gives 9th level spells
All wizard also gives 9th level spells but you need to use 3 ASI on INT but it works

I might go 3 levels of wizard, 3 levels warlock and 13 sorcerer but it would hurt spell progression .. might be fun though. Alternate would be 2 wizard/2warlock and 15 sorcerer. I’d probably take the first level of wizard relatively early for the enhanced spell list and first level rituals.

ASI would probably be +2 cha twice and resilient wisdom

[CTurbo]

Aarakocra Monk 5, Scout Rogue 3 with Mobile

When an enemy ends its turn next to you, you fly away with your reaction.

[bid]

Barb 5 / tomelock 3 for a shaman. Take guidance, mend, et al. as extra cantrips. Use AoA to be a hard target.

Bladelock 5 / AT 3. Utility slots, Cha SAD with medium armor.

Hunter 5 / grass druid 3 for a roamer.


Most build of extra attack + rogue have become conventional over time.

[Talionis]

Shaman Sniper. 6 Eagle Totem Barbarian /2 Warlock. Feat is Spell Sniper. Invocations are Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear. Eagle Totem let’s you see far distances without penalty. Next level is Warlock 3 for your Spotter Chain Imp.

While you are pretty good in hand to hand combat especially when Raging. You are mobile when you want to be. You have proficiency in Nature.

[CTurbo]

Shaman Sniper. 6 Eagle Totem Barbarian /2 Warlock. Feat is Spell Sniper. Invocations are Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear. Eagle Totem let’s you see far distances without penalty. Next level is Warlock 3 for your Spotter Chain Imp.

While you are pretty good in hand to hand combat especially when Raging. You are mobile when you want to be. You have proficiency in Nature.

The Keen Mind feat is flavorful with this build

[Aaron Underhand]

Wood elf Hunter ranger 5, war cleric 3. Sharpshooter at 4th. Dex and Wis 16, con odd to pick up resilient Con later. Effective sharpshooter with bless and war God's blessings, plus a third attack if the situation warrants.

Go to 15 cleric for full Gish...8th level spells, 9th level slot and three attacks.... Belt of giant strength at some point will even give the possibility of GWM as well :-)

[Vorpalchicken]

Centaur monk. Take mobility. Use strength as your attacking stat. You'll be so fast you won't care that your AC is bad and that you have semi-redundant features. Most attacks against you will be missiles so you'll get to deflect often.
Next level you can run up walls!

[Kwinza]

Aarakocra Monk 5, Scout Rogue 3 with Mobile

When an enemy ends its turn next to you, you fly away with your reaction.

This build shall forever be known as.... "The Pigeon"

[SkipSandwich]

Rogue Assassin 3/Oath of Treachery Paladin 5
You are now the Joker, you just need to fluff your channel divinity Poison attack as Smilex/Joker Venom.
To continue the build take paladin levels up to 11 then Rogue up to 9th.

Thief Rogue 3/Oath of Vengance Paladin 5
If you'd rather be Batman instead. Make sure to reference your "Utility Belt" whenever you use your Fast Hands feature.

[Agent-KI7KO]

6 Glamour Bard.
1 Archfey Warlock.

A human/half-elf girl who never grew out of the “I wanna be a Fairy” stage.

Once per Short Rest you can charm (with save) everything in a 10ft cube around you, for two turns.
For 10 turns every Long Rest you can also cast Command for free as a Bonus Action. It auto succeeds on any Charmed targets.
You can combo those two for some hilarious results.

Suggestion: take a second Warlock Level for Invocations.

[CTurbo]

It's hard to be truly unconventional with point buy or standard array while also being GOOD lol

I want to play a beautiful woman Barbarian that always wears a dress(unarmored defense). Probably Half-Elf would be best but regular Elf or Human would work with high rolled stats. The problem is, she'd need decent to good stats in Str, Dex, Con, and Cha. Two Bard levels may he necessary for flavor and Expertise in social stats.

I'd play her as super sweet, happy-go-lucky, and flirty but damn she would have a temper lol

[ImproperJustice]

It's hard to be truly unconventional with point buy or standard array while also being GOOD lol

I want to play a beautiful woman Barbarian that always wears a dress(unarmored defense). Probably Half-Elf would be best but regular Elf or Human would work with high rolled stats. The problem is, she'd need decent to good stats in Str, Dex, Con, and Cha. Two Bard levels may he necessary for flavor and Expertise in social stats.

I'd play her as super sweet, happy-go-lucky, and flirty but damn she would have a temper lol

Kinda reminds me of Etta, the Elven Barbarian from the Youtube series “standard action”.

[Zanthy1]

Warforged Pirate (of sorts). I made it as a hexblade with pact of the chain, though you could do 3 warlock levels and then 5 of something more combat if desired.

Play it like a pirate without a ship, who can single handily capture booty. Wait in ports until a ship comes in (can be merchant or even another pirate ship). Walk underwater to the anchor and hold on, wait until the ship is far enough away from anything else so it cannot get help. Have your imp familiar hide on board, invisible and have it give play by play feedback. When the opportunity is right, climb up and take the ship!

[solidork]

The current character I'm playing is actually I a build I wouldn't try playing unless you can start at level 8.

The build is: Eldritch Knight 5/Celestial Tomelock 3

What does this build get you?
-Decent melee. You take Shillelagh to fight with Cha and have Extra Attack from fighter.
-Decent ranged. You have Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast.
-Decent defense. You've got access to any armor type, shields and defensive spells like Shield and Absorb Elements.
-Rituals. Rituals are a great source of out of combat utility.
-Healing. Your Healing Light ability is sort of having three free Healing Words, and if you want you have access to Cure Wounds.
-Mixing long rest and short rest spell slots/resources. This has worked out very well for me in practice.

My character is currently at Fighter 7/Warlock 6 and I feel quite useful no matter the situation. I can always contribute in combat, and since I specialized myself for sneakiness/investigation (the character is a magical detective) I am usually the star of the show when we are doing that.

[Skuxintux]

Thanks for the responses everybody, looking for more suggestions :smallsmile:

[Mystical-man]

One thing that could be interesting is Bard / War cleric, you could essentially be the master of giving people buffs/debuffs and manipulating the battle field. This is a bit MAD but it could work with the right build. You could do Bard 2 / War cleric 6 for bardic inspiration and war god's blessing or Lore bard 6 / War cleric 2 and get shillelagh with additional magical secrets to be a little like hexblade but with buffs instead of pure damage and with some heavy armour too.

There is also the barbarian / monk like some people have said but I haven't seen anyone mention the athletics you could get on one, with 18 str and step of the wind you're clearing 36 foot gaps and with something like athlete you are able to climb up surfaces within seconds. I'd go for a monk 7 / barbarian 1 to make sure you have a lot of Ki but Monk 6 / barbarian 2 or Monk 5 / barbarian 3 is also a viable choice

[Zonugal]

Just pulling from my library of pre-made characters...


Miles Rubyheart
http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/EPIC_Gallery/Gallery1/44199_C1_bard.jpg

Miles Rubyheart
Half-Elf ‘College of Lore’ Bard 7 with the Archeologist background
Medium humanoid (human, elf), Chaotic Good
Armor class 16 (studded leather)
Hit points 60 (8d8+16)
Speed 30 ft.
---
Str 8 (-1), Dex 16 (+3), Con 14 (+2), Int 12 (+1), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 20 (+5)
---
Saving Throws Dexterity +7 and Charisma +9
Skills Acrobatics +6, Arcana +4, Cartographer's Tools +3, Deception +8, History +4, Investigation +4, Musical Instrument (Drum, Flute & Mandolin), Perception +6, Performance +8, Persuasion +11, Stealth +6, and Survival +3
Feats --
Senses passive Perception 16; darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Elvish and Giant
---
Special Abilities
Racial Abilities: Darkvision (60 ft.), Fey Ancestry, & Skill Versatility
Background Abilities: Historical Knowledge
Class Abilities: Bardic Spellcasting, Ritual Casting (Bard), Spellcasting Focus (Instrument), Bardic Inspiration (4d8/long rest), Jack of All Trades, Song of Rest (+1d6), Bard College (College of Lore), Cutting Words, Expertise (Perception & Persuasion), Font of Inspiration, Countercharm, and Additional Magical Secrets.
---
Actions
Dagger. Melee weapon attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., range 20 ft./60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) slashing damage; finesse, light
Rapier. Melee weapon attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., range 20 ft./60 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage; finesse
Eldritch Blast. Ranged spell attack: +8 to hit, range 120 ft., one to two target(s). Hit: 5 (1d10) force damage
--
Bard Spells -- Miles Rubyheart’s spellcasting ability is Charisma-based (spell save DC 15)
Cantrips Known (at will) -- Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, & Vicious Mockery
1st-level Spells Known (4/long rest) -- Charm Person, Cure Wounds, Detect Magic, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, & Thunderwave
2nd-level Spells Known (3/long rest) -- Enhance Ability & Suggestion
3rd-level Spells Known (3/long rest) -- Counterspell, Dispel Magic & Major Image
4th-level Spells Known (2/long rest) -- Charm Monster & Polymorph
--
Fochlucan Bandore Spells -- The Fochlucan Bandore’s spellcasting ability is Charisma-based (spell save DC 16)
Cantrips Known (1/day each) -- Shillelagh
1st-level Spells Known (1/day each) -- Entangle, Faerie Fire, Protection from Evil and Good, & Speak With Animals
2nd-level Spells Known (1/day each) -- Invisibility & Levitate
3rd-level Spells Known (1/day each) -- Fly
--
Equipment: a bullseye lantern, Cloak of Protection, three daggers, an explorer’s pack, Instrument of the Gods (Fochlucan Bandore), a miner’s pick, Mandolin of Illusions, musical instrument (flute), a Potion of Healing, a pouch (25 gp), a rapier, a scroll of Comprehend Languages, a shovel, a set of traveler’s clothes, a trinket recovered from a dig site (an indecipherable treasure map), a two-person tent, a wooden case containing a map to a ruin or dungeon
--
Character Attributes
Personality Trait: You might think I’m a scholar, but I love a good brawl. These fists were made for punching.
Ideal: (Greed) I won’t risk my life for nothing. I expect some kind of payment.
Bond: I hope to bring prestige to a library, a museum or a university.
Flaw: When I’m not exploring dungeons or lairs, I get jittery and impatient.
Signature Item: Medallion
Defining Works: “A Fool in the Abyss,” a comedic poem about a jester’s travels among demons.
Embarrassments: The first and last public performance of “Mirt, Man about Town.”

[Finback]

Unique?

Here is one I am thinking of :) .. fun but perhaps not terribly optimized. This is for AL.

Neutral Good Yuanti-Pureblood
Stats: 8 14 14 14 9 16
1-fighter -medium armor+shield - defensive fighting style
2-warlock - probably goo .. could go fey .. choice is a key element of the character back story

For entities to use, GOO can easily claim Yig, Father of Serpents, while fey could claim the Lizard Lord from the Beastlands (patron of all scalekind). One is more "animals are awesome", the other is "kill a snake, and I'm going to have you killed by venomous snakes until your corpse is a bloated oozing pile of venom. And THEN I'll make it so all your bloodline are often born with limbs missing and the like."

(Do not taunt Father Yig)

[Finback]

This build shall forever be known as.... "The Pigeon"

Forever pursued by an evil ranger and his hound companion in an airship.

[Skuxintux]

Lol :smallbiggrin:

[AvatarVecna]

A while back I got a character idea to play a traveling merchant/explorer willing to take some risk in order to obtain artifacts of historical value and whatnot. The mechanical intent is to focus your spellcasting on utility and use Inspiration and Skills to assist others in combat rather than attacking yourself.

Half-Elf, Mastermind Rogue 3/Lore Bard 5, Guild Merchant background

Attributes: 9/14/12/14/14/18

Feats: Historian

Skills/Tools:
Athletics +2
Acrobatics +5
Sleight Of Hand +3
Stealth +5
Arcana +5
History +8
Investigation +5
Nature +5
Religion +5
Animal Handling +3
Insight +8
Medicine +3
Perception +5
Survival +3
Deception +10
Intimidation +5
Performance +5
Persuasion +10
Thieves Tools +8
Navigator's Tools +5
Disguise Kit +7
Forgery Kit +5
Dragonchess +5

Spells Known:
0th
Friends
Mending
Prestidigitation

1st
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Identify
Unseen Servant

2nd
Enhance Ability
Locate Object

3rd
Sending
Tongues


You've got expert Deception and Persuasion, proficiency in disguise and forgery kits, speak 5 languages (and thieves' cant), and can mimic dialects/speech patterns/accents. You've also got a bit of bard magic helping you out. You're okay at finding traps and pretty good at disarming them, and you know at least a little bit about everything. You've got a spell list full of utility rituals. But in combat...

You can Help an attack roll against a target up to 30 ft away from you, you can Help as a bonus action, and when you Help an ability check, you can make a DC 15 History check to add your proficiency to their check in addition to giving them advantage; sure, you have to be next to them to help out with ability checks, but with Dash/Disengage available as Bonus Actions, you can get around the battlefield pretty quickly. Your combats will tend to be a mixture of handing out Inspiration (up to 4/encounter) and just helping two people around with whatever you want. If you wanna really help out, cast Enhance Ability on yourself beforehand for advantage on all those History checks you'll be making to give out that extra +3 more often. Hell, if you can get wind of a coming fight, Help two allies on their initiative checks.

Personal advice if you think you're facing a caster: stand next to whoever has Counterspell and just Help him on Counterspelling every round while still handing out advantage on an attack to one of your allies. Sure, he won't be countering every turn, but if he needs to, advantage +3 will help him keep that pesky enemy mage down. And if you're not facing casters, just keep close to the melee and hand out advantage and Inspiration like candy, darting in when an ally needs Help on an Athletics or Acrobatics check for grappling/shoving (offense or defense). Cunning Action and Historian don't have usage limits, so feel free to spam Help.

EDIT: Oh, and this just gets way better when you level up to 9th - another +1 to proficiency helps your 12 skills, 5 tool sets, and the Historian bonus you give others.

[GreyBlack]

V.Human Berserker Barbarian 5/Thief Rogue 3. Pick up the Grappler feat and use a short sword. Expertise in Athletics and whatever you want, maybe acrobatics?

Pin someone, fly into a rage, then start stabbing them with your short sword. Oh, and because of Second Story Work, you're capable of absolutely ridiculous feats of strength.

I call it the Conan.

EDIT: Oops, didn't see the "No V.Human" clause. No worries. Go Mountain Dwarf instead and go Battlerager.

[Danielqueue1]

The "I like dragons!" Build

Dragonborn draconic bloodline sorecer (5) with fiend or celestial warlock 3 (fiend for Tiamat, celestial for Bahumut)
Use pact of the chain to get a pseudo-dragon familiar then twin-cast dragon's breath on yourself and the familiar.

Squee when you see a real dragon.

The best part of this build is you are still a sor-lock with lots of options. If you need to disguise yourself, pretend to be a wizard...draw dragons in your "spellbook."

[Bannan_mantis]

bit late to the party but I have a fun build. It's probably been done before but it's one I find really fun to use. I give you the strongest character you could make at this level and I don't mean strongest as in most powerful, I mean strongest as in he can win world's strongest man.

Barbarian 6 / Druid 2
Choose goliath for your race and then moon druid / bear totem barbarian. The last thing you need is brawny (if your dm is cool with it) and you can get these results

STR: 19 (when you're a bear)
Carry weight: 19 x 15 x 2 (powerful build) x 2 (large size) x 2 (bear totem) = 2280 pounds!

If we add some UA then you can add Brawny and Wondermaker (if you have a gnome in your party.) Get that gnome to make you a lifter with their wonder maker feat and with Brawny you can get up to 22800 pounds! And then since lifting capacity is equal to double your carrying capacity you suddenly become the guy what can lift 45600 pounds! That's close to you being able to lift 4 African bush elephants at once.

Also before anyone gets on it, there could be some miscalculations in this.

[KorvinStarmast]

Fighter 6 Warlock(GOO) 2
1 ASI, 1 Feat (War Caster)
Human
S 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 11 Ch 16
Background: Criminal (Smuggler) (Prof Thieves Tools; Dice-Gaming Set)
Proficiencies: Athletics, Intimidation, Deception, Stealth
Spells:
Cantrips: Mage Hand, Eldritch Blast
1st Level: Hex, Tasha's Hideous Laughter (GOO)
Invocations: Devil's Sight; Repelling blast
GOO telepathy good for a whole lot of situations
Use of repelling blast to get enemies off of allies expected to be part of his role.
When wearing half plate and using shield, not as sneaky. When using breast plate and shield, sneaking about much easier.
Mage hand is a nice little utility cantrip.

[Azgeroth]

Forest Gnome, Monk OH 5/ Druid Moon 3..

i don't think i need to explain this build, just think about it... hehehehe...

Goblin, Paladin of Conquest 8.

Tabaxi AT Rogue

Half Elf Warlock GOO 6, Bard 2.

Wood Elf, Hunter Ranger 6, Nature Cleric 2.

Rock Gnome, Forge Cleric 8 (re-flavour spells as tinkering/machinations)

Halfling Lore Bard 8


ok, so they are not all 'unconventional' but they should all be alot of fun.

[Yunru]

A Hexblade 1/Horse Bard 7?

[CTurbo]

Forest Gnome, Monk OH 5/ Druid Moon 3..

i don't think i need to explain this build, just think about it... hehehehe...

Goblin, Paladin of Conquest 8.

Tabaxi AT Rogue

Half Elf Warlock GOO 6, Bard 2.

Wood Elf, Hunter Ranger 6, Nature Cleric 2.

Rock Gnome, Forge Cleric 8 (re-flavour spells as tinkering/machinations)

Halfling Lore Bard 8


ok, so they are not all 'unconventional' but they should all be alot of fun.


What's unconventional about Half-Elf Goolock 6/Bard 2? Sounds like a great build to me.

I prefer Kobold Conquest Paladin to Goblin. Grovel, Cower, and Beg one minute, frighten everyone the next hahaha

[Throne12]

A Hexblade 1/Horse Bard 7?

What in the 9 hell's is a horse bard?

[Vorpalchicken]

What in the 9 hell's is a horse bard?
They can wear barding.

[Yunru]

What in the 9 hell's is a horse bard?

Well you pretend your a Lore Bard, but ride about on your sweet ass Find Steed that may or may not be using Booming Blade right along side you (DM dependent).

[MagneticKitty]

Kenku Warlock raven queen patron chain lock.
One raven on each shoulder, shoulder devil and shoulder angel, whispering in your ears. They do your talking for you, your kenku cannot speak.