Chameleon Character

[Griswold]

I really liked the 3.5 Factotum and Chameleon classes, which had lots and lots of versatility, and could effectively pretend to be other people as well other classes. I'd like to build a 5E character that does that. One day, have the character claim to be a dwarven cleric, then the next day be an elven wizard, then the next be a half-orc fighter. And do so somewhat convincingly.

What build do you think can best achieve this goal in the tier 2 range (levels 5-10)? I have a bunch of DM rewards saved up in Adventurers League, so I can reliably get a number of magic items as well (including a Hat of Disguise, which I'm sure will be vital).

For reference, I play AL, so that means 27 point buy, PHB + 1 other official book, and no homebrew.

[JNAProductions]

I really liked the 3.5 Factotum and Chameleon classes, which had lots and lots of versatility, and could effectively pretend to be other people as well other classes. I'd like to build a 5E character that does that. One day, have the character claim to be a dwarven cleric, then the next day be an elven wizard, then the next be a half-orc fighter. And do so somewhat convincingly.

What build do you think can best achieve this goal in the tier 2 range (levels 5-10)? I have a bunch of DM rewards saved up in Adventurers League, so I can reliably get a number of magic items as well (including a Hat of Disguise, which I'm sure will be vital).

For reference, I play AL, so that means 27 point buy, PHB + 1 other official book, and no homebrew.

For Tier 2 AL play... I'm not sure you can really do that-at least, do that and still be effective.

Arcana Cleric might be your best bet. They get Clerical abilities, Wizardly abilities, and are still Clerics, so can mix it up reasonably well.

[Griswold]

For Tier 2 AL play... I'm not sure you can really do that-at least, do that and still be effective.

Do you have a non-AL suggestion? Or outside Tier 2?

[NecroDancer]

I’d suggest a sword bard or valor bard. You can get a bunch of skills, expertise in stealth or other rogue abilities, magical secrets to learn spells from any class list, an extra attack, you have a mix of wizard/sorcerer spells with healing spells, and you have high charisma to help trick people.

[Talionis]

I would go 3 Eldritch Knight Fighter/ 2 Knowledge Cleric / x Lore Bard. Make up for not having two attacks with melee Cantrips like Sword Burst.

Knowledge Cleric 2 has a very Factotem feel to it.

[Vogie]

Swords Bard with a 3 level dip in Celestial Warlock, PHB+XGTE. Any Race, but preferably with a Dex & Cha bonus

You can effortlessly switch between martial attacks, Blasting with damaging spells, healing, and scouting.

Healer mode - 4d6 of bonus action healing that requires no spell slots, a pair of 2nd level spell slots the refresh on short rest alongside nearly-full casting progression via Bard
Wizard mode - A Chain Familiar alongside a full compliment of cantrips and blast-y spells. Alternatively, Tomelock with Book of Ancient Secrets will give you a full compliment of cantrips alongside Omni-class Ritual casting.
Scout Mode - Chain Familiars are invisible, and all of the Bard's utility spells and expertise.
Fighter mode - All of the "Blade Flourishes" can be used on either melee or ranged weapons, acting as pseudo maneuver/smites, and you get an extra attack.


And to add to it, you get 3 invocations. Just pick what you want

Mask of Many Faces means you don't need to shell out for a hat of disguise
You can choose to use Mage Armor without having to invest in armor
At-will Detect Magic, Silent Image?
Add your charisma to damage to the strongest cantrip in the game, just for giggles


You can even go full circle and pick up the Martial Adept feat to help with Fighter-fu, even from level 1 via Variant Human.

For point buy, you'd probably go 10 13 14 8 12 15, before racials. For VH, +1 to DEX & Cha. Other options from the PHB would be Drow, Half Elf, & Human

[Temperjoke]

Divine Sorcerer from XGtE combined with a Paladin would let you mimic being a cleric, wizard, fighter in addition to your actual classes.

[GreyBlack]

Just off the top of my head, maybe something like an Eldritch Knight/Trickery Cleric with 2 levels in Rogue?

.... well, shoot. Now _I_ want to play that concept.

Standard Human
Str: 13+1=14
Dex: 13+1=14
Con: 13+1=14
Wis: 15+1=16
Int: 8+1=9
Cha: 11+1=12

Start with Fighter 5, then go into Trickery Cleric for 13 levels, back to Fighter for 2 levels, giving Fighter 7/Cleric 13.

Proficiency in all weapons and armor, War Magic as a capstone, level 8 spell level, can do pretty much everything.

[Corran]

Valor bard gets my vote. Pick a background that will give you roguelike tools and skills.
Changeling for race if allowed.

[Rukelnikov]

Swords Bard with a 3 level dip in Celestial Warlock, PHB+XGTE. Any Race, but preferably with a Dex & Cha bonus

You can effortlessly switch between martial attacks, Blasting with damaging spells, healing, and scouting.

Healer mode - 4d6 of bonus action healing that requires no spell slots, a pair of 2nd level spell slots the refresh on short rest alongside nearly-full casting progression via Bard
Wizard mode - A Chain Familiar alongside a full compliment of cantrips and blast-y spells. Alternatively, Tomelock with Book of Ancient Secrets will give you a full compliment of cantrips alongside Omni-class Ritual casting.
Scout Mode - Chain Familiars are invisible, and all of the Bard's utility spells and expertise.
Fighter mode - All of the "Blade Flourishes" can be used on either melee or ranged weapons, acting as pseudo maneuver/smites, and you get an extra attack.


And to add to it, you get 3 invocations. Just pick what you want

Mask of Many Faces means you don't need to shell out for a hat of disguise
You can choose to use Mage Armor without having to invest in armor
At-will Detect Magic, Silent Image?
Add your charisma to damage to the strongest cantrip in the game, just for giggles


You can even go full circle and pick up the Martial Adept feat to help with Fighter-fu, even from level 1 via Variant Human.

For point buy, you'd probably go 10 13 14 8 12 15, before racials. For VH, +1 to DEX & Cha. Other options from the PHB would be Drow, Half Elf, & Human

In AL this is probably amongst the best you can do, and its online (for its intended pupose) reasonably early.

A couple extra suggestions:


Make sure to get thieves tools proficiency
Go tomelock, you aim to be the ultimate jack of all trades, casting rituals and having cantrips from any class will deliver that better that the improved familiar.
If you get shillelag from the tome you can use it with Cha.
Mage Armor may not be your best use of an invocation, you are gonna have to use (light/medium) armor anyway for when you pretend to be a fighter.
Devil's Sight is a great way to get Darkvision if you are gonna be Human.
Consider the Actor feat.

[Quoxis]

In AL this is probably amongst the best you can do, and its online (for its intended pupose) reasonably early.

A couple extra suggestions:


Make sure to get thieves tools proficiency
Go tomelock, you aim to be the ultimate jack of all trades, casting rituals and having cantrips from any class will deliver that better that the improved familiar.
If you get shillelag from the tome you can use it with Cha.
Mage Armor may not be your best use of an invocation, you are gonna have to use (light/medium) armor anyway for when you pretend to be a fighter.
Devil's Sight is a great way to get Darkvision if you are gonna be Human.
Consider the Actor feat.


This. One level of rogue gives you thieves tools, more proficiencies and expertise (you probably won’t have the stats to back every single skill you’d need to prove your value as a wizard/ranger/cleric etc., but with multiple expertises and jack of all trades from bard you should be fine), and if you go three rogue levels for the mastermind subclass you get more languages and tool proficiencies and can mimic speech patterns (as in the actor feat) and accents...

[Anderlith]

A tiny bit of Paladin, & Lore Bard mixed with Hexblade Warlock

You get heals, damage, versatility, armor & weapons, stealth etc. Feel free to take a different Warlock if you like but Hexblade will make you less MAD

[BigPixie]

Mix rogue and warlock, get mask of many faces and also lore bard for the ultimate Chameleon skill monkey.

[Keravath]

Depending on what you want to prioritize I would suggest

Hexblade warlock 5 for pack of the blade and two attacks which will let you impersonate almost any martial character.

Divine soul sorcerer 3 which will give you some cleric and wizard spell capability

Rogue 2 - for expertise and rogue abilities

The key is the mask of many faces invocation. Add agonizing blast and thirsting blade. Some mixture of these three classes should let you reasonably impersonate the capabilities of most classes at least to some extent.

I'd start with hexblade 2/divine soul 3 and see how you enjoy playing.

If you don't want bladelock then tomelock has a lot of utility.

Either way, a hexblade has the weapon, armor and shield proficiencies to effectively look like any martial class.