Best Gimmick Characters

[Moltenbrisingr]

I once played a Minotaur named skull cruncher (crunchy for short) who was kind of fast. Really fast actually. His backstory was he grew up in a dangerous labyrinth and always had to run. he had a few levels in monk and many more in barbarian. By the end he moved about 450 feet a round... He actually ended up being a character I will always love, but he was built as a joke and my DM ended the campaign when I got the ability to fly at my movement speed (the other characters were similar levels of OP)...

What is the best character you have made where you were trying to make something ridiculous? I'd love to hear about it whether they turned into a real character or you eventually just moved on.

[strangebloke]

Well, I DM, I don't play, so I haven't *made* these characters, but these are some good examples:

Hyper-aware Inquisitive Rogue with Observant.
Super diplomancer redemption paladin with rogue levels
Obligatory super-stealthy goblin/rogue.
Tabaxi monk that can run a 1000 feet in a round.
thief rogue with healer, inspiring leader, and medium armor proficiency. Just keep everyone on their feat and deal great damage every round.

[Yakmala]

After getting tired of playing a big dumb Barbarian in a campaign where skill rolls were happening dozens of times per session, I unleashed this guy...

Half Elf: +2 Skills
Background: +2 Skills
Level 1 - Rogue: +4 Skills, +2 Expertise
Level 2 - Knowledge Cleric: +2 Skills, +2 Expertise
Level 3 - Bard: +1 Skill
Levels 4-5 - Bard (Lore): +3 Skills, +2 Expertise
Levels 6-7 - Rogue (Scout): +2 Skills, +2 Expertise

So, at level 7, we now have proficiency in 16 of 18 skills with expertise in 8 of them.

There's a lot of different ways to make this build. In the version above, the intent is to get Rogue to at least level 11, at which point there will 10 Expertise skills with the lowest possible skill roll being around 16 (with proficiency) and 20 (with expertise).

You could also go Variant Human and pick up the Skilled feat if you can't bear having two skills without proficiency. You could also stick to a single level of Rogue and Knowledge Cleric and go Bard the rest of the way. You'll have two less skills and expertise, but with Jack of all Trades, it barely matters. Plus you get all your Magical Secrets!

[Moltenbrisingr]

After getting tired of playing a big dumb Barbarian in a campaign where skill rolls were happening dozens of times per session, I unleashed this guy...

Half Elf: +2 Skills
Background: +2 Skills
Level 1 - Rogue: +4 Skills, +2 Expertise
Level 2 - Knowledge Cleric: +2 Skills, +2 Expertise
Level 3 - Bard: +1 Skill
Levels 4-5 - Bard (Lore): +3 Skills, +2 Expertise
Levels 6-7 - Rogue (Scout): +2 Skills, +2 Expertise

So, at level 7, we now have proficiency in 16 of 18 skills with expertise in 8 of them.

There's a lot of different ways to make this build. In the version above, the intent is to get Rogue to at least level 11, at which point there will 10 Expertise skills with the lowest possible skill roll being around 16 (with proficiency) and 20 (with expertise).

You could also go Variant Human and pick up the Skilled feat if you can't bear having two skills without proficiency. You could also stick to a single level of Rogue and Knowledge Cleric and go Bard the rest of the way. You'll have two less skills and expertise, but with Jack of all Trades, it barely matters. Plus you get all your Magical Secrets!

I bet your DM loved that lol.

[Yakmala]

thief rogue with healer, inspiring leader, and medium armor proficiency. Just keep everyone on their feat and deal great damage every round.

I can attest that the Combat Medic Thief is fantastic. Fast Hands lets you use a healing kit as a bonus action, so you can get someone back on their feet and still sneak attack in the same round, or, if your party had a really bad round, you can Action > Heal > Move > Bonus Action > Heal again. I've lost track of how many times my Thief has turned the tide in an encounter gone bad by getting people back on their feet quickly; and without anyone needing to burn a precious spell slot.

[GlenSmash!]

I haven't got to play him yet, but the UA Scout Fighter/Barbarian(or class with enlarge spell) with Expertise in Athletics from Prodigy, Rogue, or Bard

Expertise in Athletics, plus Advantage from Rage or Enlarge, plus half a Superiority Die roll added to Athletics will make it pretty easy to grapple anything that can be grappled.

[dragoeniex]

I made a dungeon inspector for a oneshot. Her whole schtick was tagging along with adventuring parties to gather valuable data on effective and ineffective traps, locations, guards... And she would send that back to her infernal headquarters for future use.

So her job was to try and help parties get past their choice of dungeon, leaving notes for violations like "Storage packing too safe," or "Dogs well-fed," or "Guard napping beside own sword- did not survive stabbing to retaliate."



Variant Tiefling Shadow Monk lv 6, dungeon delver feat.

High dex/wiz, decent con and int.

Silence to help the team move past creatures, shadow step to bamf around hazards, deflect missiles/slow fall to deal with trap fallout, dungeon delver and frequent room scans to prevent it...

She had a robe of useful items and would occasionally pull out something like a 10 ft-square pit and toss some caltrops in it, then make a sound. Test the reflexes of the mooks coming around the corner. The poles were great for measuring how deep/lethal to your average area adventurer falls would be.

Unarmed strikes meant she could carry a clipboard the whole way and off-handedly punch-stun enemies that got past the party.



It was pretty fun! Another teammate liked the sound of it and created a partner concerned with critiquing dungeon decor to go along with.

[nickl_2000]

My current character is a human moon druid custom vet background, who doesn't really like people. So, he heals animal and spends as much time as an animal as possible.

It works out since the party has a tabaxi and lizardman in it.

[DerficusRex]

I've been thinking about rolling up a warlock who liked the idea of being a bard but thought it sounded like too much work, so he sold his soul as a shortcut.

Key points:

Entertainer background to pick up an instrument (or an entertainer-adjacent custom background with two instruments)
Variant Tiefling for Vicious Mockery (with Charm Person and Enthrall later as a bonus)
Take Minor Illusion and Eldritch Blast, but only grudgingly break out EB if it's an emergency. Blasting is so un-bardlike.
Mask of Many Faces because he thinks no one will take him seriously if he's not a half-elf
Misty Visions because illusions are bardy, right?
Pact of the Tome because more magic, and Guidance will be handy if he's trying to pass himself off as a bard with all of 4 skill proficiencies and no expertise or jack of all trades.
Book of Ancient Secrets to expand the spell list a bit more and save on spell slot use


Could go any of three ways on patron choice:

Archfey has a bunch of bard-type spells on its expanded list, starting with Faerie Fire and Sleep
GOO has Dissonant Whispers. He must be a bard if he's casting Dissonant Whispers!
Fiend for that classic "sold your soul to the devil" flavour. Spell list is less bardy, but Command seems like the kind of thing that *could* be a bard spell even though it isn't, and Blindness/Deafness is there. Also, Dark One's Own Luck would be handy for helping Guidance mitigate his not-very-bardlike lack of skill proficiencies.


There's still no Bardic Inspiration (maybe take Resistance to go with Guidance as one of the other Pact of the Tome cantrips, but can't do anything for attack rolls), or Song of Rest (Inspiring Leader feat, sort of?), and he barely knows which end of a rapier to hold, but I think he could do a decent if somewhat half assed impression of a second-rate bard.

[Dualswinger]

I’m playing a bard who uses animate objects to play an entire mini-orchestra by himself. Sometimes halfway through the performance he’ll send out the instruments to attack the audience if they deserve it.