Melee build ideas with lots of choices (suggestions?)

[MagneticKitty]

Please post some fun and interesting melee builds that are fun from lv 1-end game. It can be a melee caster, but main form of damage should be from being up close and personal.

Stats will probably be rolled with a fall back on 27 point buy if we roll bad (for now base on point buy since we won't be rolling anytime soon). This will be for the next campaign I'm in which might be 6 months to a year down the line. Current campaign with same group is at lv 17 so I would guess it will eventually get to high levels.

I want the following things:

Multiple viable things to do in and out of combat
No human-like races (elves, gnomes, half orcs, humans, half-elves, gith, dwarves) I find these boring.
Decently tanky/front liner

I most recently played a beast master ranger/ scout rogue, an artificer (kiblestasty homebrew not official), and an open hand monk. So probably not something super close to those.

[suplee215]

Kensi Monk even if not the most optimized has plenty of possibilities. Thanks to multiple kensie weapons you can easily be a bit of a swiss army knife instead of just focusing on one weapon like most melee classes. And the ki give you options to either stun or anything else.

[Man_Over_Game]

Dexterity-based Swashbuckler/Battle Master is pretty good.

Hexblade is always a solid option. Mask of Many Faces is the only non-combat tool you need for a good time.

Moon Druid has a ton of options, to the point that many consider it overwhelming.

Paladin/Sorcerer is pretty big, too. Paladins come equipped with lots of non-combat options.

The classic choices for "extraordinary" races as melee combatants are Tortles, Yuan-Ti, Aasimar, or Ghost Halfling (in the case of the Moon Druid). Gnomes actually make fantastic melee combatants, as they are resistant to mental saving throws.

[Wizard_Lizard]

does dragonborn count as humannlike?

[MagneticKitty]

does dragonborn count as humannlike?

Dragonborn is fine. Wish it was a little stronger, but I like the flavor.

I just want to look at my race and know it's fantasy without measuring how tall my human is or if my human has pointy ears. Lol.

[Friv]

If you want to do something sort of weird, why not lean into it? Play as a Firbolg Barbarian (Totem Warrior) and you'll have all sorts of neat tricks while being a well-constructed tank:

* Being a barbarian gives you the rage, tankiness, and general power.
* As a Firbolg, you get a few personal spells that are useful outside of combat (Detect Magic, Disguise Self, and Invisibility) and can speak with animals and plants. You also get +1 Strength and +2 Wisdom, so you have both combat skill and a decent spread of skills.
* As a Totem Warrior, you can see through animal eyes, and take extra skills or special tracking, or similar things.
* After you push your Strength to 18 at Level 4, you can take a Feat at Level 8 to boost your odd-numbered stat and have an extra non-combat trick.
* If you're feeling not broad enough, you can take a four-level Rogue (Scout) dip after you hit Barbarian 6 to pick up Expertise, skirmish through a fight, and manage the occasional invisibility sneak attack, then go back to barbarian super-murders.

*EDIT* Instead of being a Totem Warrior, you could try a Storm Herald (Tundra). You lose out on sharing beast senses and getting tracking or extra skills, but you gain the ability to give temporary HP to your allies whenever you rage, cold resistance, and the ability to turn water into ice (and given enough time, the ability to share cold resistance with your friends and immobilizing people.)

[MagneticKitty]

Thanks for all the builds so far. Probably will not do monk since I was just one. Barbarian sounds interesting but I don't feel it has enough choices.. I'd want it as a dip or maybe half half with a wisdom caster for utility. Or something.

The barBEARian has always been interesting
Bear totem Barb 3 /moon druid x

Barb-rogue has always fascinated me
If i did that, I think I'd go barb 5 /rogue x
Or maybe up to barb 8 tops

str on a rapier is kinda funny to me.
I also like the duality of having high enough dex to use dex when calm and str when raging.

Another idea that appealed to me was paladin 10 (not sure what oath, but who's god was the raven queen) / Warlock 10 (raven queen patron, tome pact)

[djreynolds]

Eldritch Knight/ Arcane trickster. It needs to be in increments of 3, but can dish it out in melee and can be dex or strength based.

You decide which skills to be great in. You can lean on magic for stealth and exploration, and skills for social. Really anything.

I suggest 1 level of wizard for this build and this can come in at anytime

Also battlemaster/swashbuckler, even in full plate or leather armor

[Lunali]

Kensi Monk even if not the most optimized has plenty of possibilities. Thanks to multiple kensie weapons you can easily be a bit of a swiss army knife instead of just focusing on one weapon like most melee classes. And the ki give you options to either stun or anything else.

As an added bonus, you're still a credible threat at range, allowing you to use your speed to stay out of melee in a pinch.

[GlenSmash!]

Eldritch Knight with utility cantrips and utility spells. Rely on your Martial skill and the Shield spell in combat, and have utility out of combat. Could mix in Wizard as you see fit.

[Quoz]

Two builds I've been interested in trying for a while but haven't gotten to:

The smite bear: paladin 2/moon druid X. Paladin smites in wild shape with the spell slots of a full caster. If you roll really well and have high charisma, can also play as Ancients paladin 7/Moon druid 13. Kobold may be one of the best choices, since stats aren't as important and in wild shape you would still have pack tactics but lose sunlight sensitivity.

Kermit the Hermit: Grung Battlemaster 3/Monk X. In one round you can force a ridiculous amount of saves with stunning strike, superiority dice, grung poison, and open hand flurry riders. And they are all resources that recharge on a short rest, so you can do cool maneuvers almost every fight. Racial jump distance is almost as good as flight in the early game too.

[MagneticKitty]

Two builds I've been interested in trying for a while but haven't gotten to:

The smite bear: paladin 2/moon druid X. Paladin smites in wild shape with the spell slots of a full caster. If you roll really well and have high charisma, can also play as Ancients paladin 7/Moon druid 13. Kobold may be one of the best choices, since stats aren't as important and in wild shape you would still have pack tactics but lose sunlight sensitivity.

Kermit the Hermit: Grung Battlemaster 3/Monk X. In one round you can force a ridiculous amount of saves with stunning strike, superiority dice, grung poison, and open hand flurry riders. And they are all resources that recharge on a short rest, so you can do cool maneuvers almost every fight. Racial jump distance is almost as good as flight in the early game too.

Probably not monk I just was one.

On kobold wildshape: sunlight sensitivity is more of a curse than an eye condition, per sage advice you don't lose it..

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/01/20/would-a-wildshaped-druid-still-suffer-from-sunlight-sensitivity/

Also the ranger I just played was a kobold. :p

I do like smite bear, if I had to chose a race for traits to work in wildshape it would probably be ghostwise halfling (talking animals with lucky), bugbear (long reach), dragonborn (breath weapon animals sage advice says it works), lizardfolk (if animals with an attack called "bite" can use hungry jaws?), ect.

A grappler grung would maybe be neat tho. Sad for the character, no team hugs ever :(
Character needs a bag of holding full of water or that jug of infinite water tho