Need advice: Give me the most powerful, broken character for a one-shot

[Avista]

As the title says. Our GM is running a oneshot and I want to try out the most broken build. Ever.

Character Requirements
Character Level 9
PHB & Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Variant Humans are banned
27 Point Buy
Multiclass allowed
Feats allowed (no racial feats)

Let me see some ideas!

[Kane0]

Cleric 9.

10char

[Mitsu]

Level 9? Few good choices here:

1 Fighter/8 Evocation Wizard. Heavy Armor + shield for high AC wizard that blasts everything and has high defense.

1 Hexblade/8 Evocation Wizard to combo Hex Curse bonus damage with upcasted Magic Missles or Schorching Ray.

Another great character is pure Half-Elf Drow Hexblade with GWM talent. Start with 17 CHA, take elven accuracy on level 4 and GWM on level 8, pact blade. Use Darkness + Devil Sight combo or Shadow of Moil spell for advantage and roll 3 dices + bonus action Hexblade curse for 19-20 crit range. 18 CHA will be plenty with 3 rolls.

Another one is classic pure Oath of Devotion GWM Paladin with 20 CHA.

Another good build is Sword Bard 8/1 Hexblade for SAD CHA, extra attack and being full caster.

1 Hexblade/8 Lore Bard is great for his Magic Secrets at level 6.

Vengeance Paladin 6/3 Hexblade is another great combo. SAD CHA, easy advantage with Darkness + Devil's Sight or VoE if enemy has blind sight etc. + great spells + Agonizing Blast for great range spammable attack.

[Bobthewizard]

All of Mitsu's are great at level 9. Here's a few more.

Paladin 2/divine soul sorcerer 7 for quickened booming blade, smites, and upcast spirit guardians. If you think you might get to 10 or 11, then maybe paladin 4/sorcerer 5 but for a one shot I'd go 2/7.

Shepherd druid gives you 16 wolves with an upcast conjure animals. Or mix it up with conjure woodland beings (hope for pixies) and conjure elemental.

Level 9 is a great level for wizard, sorcerer, and bard, getting access to animate objects. For a one shot, I'd take fewer defensive spells and focus on ones with more visual impact for the table - Tasha's, web, invisibility, pyrotechnics, enemies abound, fear, fly, polymorph, animate objects, telekinesis.

[Fable Wright]

Level is one to two short for max potential, but...

Warforged Paladin 5/Sorc 3/Hexblade 1

Coffeelock your way to infinite slots. Congrats, you're a Paladin with Quicken Booming/Greenflame Blade, one of the highest AC in the game, arbitrarily many 2nd level spell slots, and Cha to attack and damage rolls. Possibly twice with Devotion Paladin.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

As the title says. Our GM is running a oneshot and I want to try out the most broken build. Ever.

Character Requirements
Character Level 9
PHB & Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Variant Humans are banned
27 Point Buy
Multiclass allowed
Feats allowed (no racial feats)

Let me see some ideas!

Any idea what the rest of the folks are bringing?

I'm starting to really dig my L10 Lore Bard but by 9 I could have had the Conjure Animals / Animate Objects combo going. Almost as good as Conjure Pixies / Animate Objects.

Get Counterspell, Healing Word, Dissonant Whispers, Heat Metal and Phantasmal Force for more combat fun and a lack of a care in the world if an enemy has an A/C of 40.

[KorvinStarmast]

As the title says. Our GM is running a oneshot and I want to try out the most broken build. Ever.

Character Requirements
Character Level 9
PHB & Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Variant Humans are banned
27 Point Buy
Multiclass allowed
Feats allowed (no racial feats)

Let me see some ideas!
Fighter 6 /Hexblade 3
Half Elf
27 Point buy
7 5 5 0 3 7
14 13 13 8 12 14
14 14 14 8 11 16
Skills to taste based on what you know about the one shot.
You will have six skills. Take Fighter first so that you have Con Proficiency.
@4 ASI +2 Cha.
14 14 14 8 11 18
@6 ASI Alert Feat
Spells: Shield, Blur, Hex

You gain a +5 bonus to Initiative.
You can’t be surprised while you are conscious.
Other creatures don’t gain advantage on Attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you.
At those levels, invisible things show up with some frequency.
You go first
You are NEVER surprised.
Half Plate Armor + Shield

[MaxWilson]

1 Hexblade/8 Evocation Wizard to combo Hex Curse bonus damage with upcasted Magic Missles or Schorching Ray.

At level 9 there's really no point in making Evoker your wizard specialization here, since you won't get Empowered Evocation until level 11. Instead make it e.g. a 1 Hexblade/Necromancer with Inspiring Leader. You can still pull the Hexblade's Curse + Magic Missile trick if you want too, but you can also use your bonus action to make two dozen skeletons fill the target full of arrows.

Or just play a Divine Sorlock: Goblin Divine Soul 3, Shepherd Druid 6 with Extended Spell metamagic. Str 9 Dex 16 (14) Con 14 (13) Int 9 Wis 13, Cha 15. With Mage Armor and a wooden shield your AC is pretty decent for a druid (18, +5 if you Shield) and you've got Con save proficiency (+6 to Con saves, only 15% chance of losing concentration against usual damage) and one leftover ASI. You can either spam Conjure Animals (III or V for toughest fights) or you can sit back and let other PCs do the fighting*** and then heal everybody to full health when it's all over--you can heal 140 HP with a single casting of Extended Healing Spirit III, even without exploiting the multiple-heals-per-turn cheese.

*** Obviously you don't literally do nothing, but you can do something cheap and fun and non-spotlight-stealing like Wildshape into a Crocodile for free Sentinel-like crowd control to protect the squishies. Since you're wearing Mage Armor anyway you're AC 13, and since you're Large-sized you can block monsters up to size Huge from approaching the party squishies. 19 HP as a crocodile isn't a ton, but still 38 free HP per short rest is 38 free HP, and if you felt seriously threatened you'd just shapeshift back into humanoid form and drop a Conjure Animals bomb.

[Krobar]

Can your Backstory be... 17th level warlock casts True Polymorph, concentrates until it's permanent, and thus you become a Planetar, and then take 9 levels of Paladin?

[Mongobear]

Any chance the DM would allow stuff from the Eberron supplement? If so, Drow or Half-Elf Hexblade with the Revenant Blade Feat, and Pact of the Blade.

With what you listed, Conquest Paladin 9 can totally shut down entire encounters if they're not immune to Fear. Go Fallen Aasimar, since you can't take Dragonborn for their racial Feat. Paladin 8/Hexblade 1, for Charisma SAD. Full Plate, Shield, Longsword. (If you get to pick magic items to start, grab a Mace of Terror, and troll his entire game.) Screw feats, just max Cha to 20, and let that do the work for you.

[Ogre Mage]

Race: Half-Elf
Class: Divine Soul Sorcerer 7/Hexblade Warlock 2
Feats: Elven Accuracy
Sorcerer Metamagic: Quicken Spell, Twin Spell
Warlock Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight
Key Spells: Greater Invisibility, Eldritch Blast, Hex, Healing Word

Cast greater invisibility. Thanks to elven accuracy you now have triple advantage. Eldritch blast away with quicken spell and hex, using spell slots to fuel your spell points. Remember warlock spell slots recharge on a short rest. To add more damage consider spiritual weapon. If there is a rogue in the party, twin spell greater invisibility on both of you. Healing word is another great use of twin spell.

[Eldariel]

Just Wizard 9, Druid 9 or Cleric 9. Bard doesn't get Magical Secrts for level 5 spells but still has Animate Objects, so Bard 9 is also good. Anyways, 5th level spells > everything. Wizard has the best list but all 3 major are good. I'd go Diviner myself (if you're good at using divinations, the 6th level feature is nuts), but any specialty will do. Just learn your spells and make the world your sandbox. Animate Object, Telekinesis, Bigby's, etc. and out of combat the likes of Contact Other Plane and Scrying let you do pretty much anything.

Damage builds are cute but fact remains that a simple Shield negates the entirety of a Hexsorcerer's Twinned Magic Missile. Generally damage just isn't that important; everyone can do it and you only need so much. Polymorph is a far more efficient means of disabling anything without Legendary saves for instance. And your Animated Dead/Created Undead/Tiny Servants/etc. can do damage just fine without you lifting a finger. Hell, give 'em poison, oiled weapons + fire or some such for extra fun.

[Benny89]

Damage builds are cute but fact remains that a simple Shield negates the entirety of a Hexsorcerer's Twinned Magic Missile. Generally damage just isn't that important; everyone can do it and you only need so much. Polymorph is a far more efficient means of disabling anything without Legendary saves for instance. And your Animated Dead/Created Undead/Tiny Servants/etc. can do damage just fine without you lifting a finger. Hell, give 'em poison, oiled weapons + fire or some such for extra fun.

Um, you know you can counter-spell Shield, right? Its reaction vs reaction...

[Mongobear]

Um, you know you can counter-spell Shield, right? Its reaction vs reaction...

Pretty sure there was an errata that said you can't Counterspell while you're already casting a spell that's being Counterspelled.

It's been forever tho, so it might have been changed.

[Benny89]

Pretty sure there was an errata that said you can't Counterspell while you're already casting a spell that's being Counterspelled.

It's been forever tho, so it might have been changed.

Never heard that. RAW you can counter-spell and last Sage Advice I remember confirmed it:

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SA-Compendium.pdf

"Can you also cast a reaction spell on your turn? You sure
can! Here’s a common way for it to happen: Cornelius the
wizard is casting fireball on his turn, and his foe casts counterspell on him. Cornelius has counterspell prepared, so he
uses his reaction to cast it and break his foe’s counterspell
before it can stop fireball."

Therefore If I want to nuke you with my super Magic Missile and you cast Shield, I counter-spell it and you are eating missiles.

[CNagy]

Ancients Paladin 7/Hexblade 2
Half Elf
Str 13, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 18

You smite. You use Cha for everything. You have resistance to all spell damage. +4 (soon to be +5) to all saves. You have ranged damage with Eldritch Blast. 20 AC with Half Plate, Shield, and Defense fighting style (22 with Shield of Faith). Healing for yourself, maybe others.

It might not be the absolute most powerful/broken, but it's a hell of a swiss army knife in addition to being powerful/broken.

[strangebloke]

Taking a bit of a different tack here:

It doesn't matter what you play. Just be sure that you know the build backwards, forwards, and sideways. Know how every single interaction between your abilities and spells works. Even something relatively mundane like a 9th level fighter can be a threat if the player knows all the tricks.

To be honest, at that level? It's really hard to beat a cleric. Heavy Armor, 5th level spells, Short Rest powerhouse abilities, and with some subclasses you can even even do crazy DPR. All these crazy multiclass builds are just trying to get you to do that in some way. Their spell list is mediocre when considering spells of higher levels than five, but at five specifically the list is totally fine with solid spells like spirit guardians, spiritual weapon, and banishment.

Here's what I would do:

Hill Dwarf Forge Cleric 9
14/12/16/8/16/8
ASIs: Warcaster, +2 WIS

AC: 22 (shield, +1 from soul of the forge, +1 from Blessing of the forge, plate)
HP: 84

When combat begins, drop a flame wall or animate objects or spirit guardians and wreck face. If you animate 10 tiny objects, like ball bearings, each one has 8 attack, 30 foot blindsense, and deals 1d4+4. So if they all hit you'll deal 10d4 + 40 damage a round for a minute.

You've got great AC so you shouldn't be making too many concentration checks but if you do, you'll make them 91% of the time. Your HP is great, you resist poison and fire damage, and you are super hardened against WIS saves.

For magic items I'm a big fan of a cloak of protection (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Cloak%20of%20Protection#content) for being a super solid item that generally is easy to get ahold of.

This build is even better as a warforged envoy but for some reason your DM isn't allowing that. Paladins are really strong too, but I think that at the level you're at its basically unthinkable that someone else wouldn't bring a paladin, and having two paladins in the party is... not good.

[jaappleton]

Paging DracoKnight, paging DracoKnight...

[Misterwhisper]

Paging DracoKnight, paging DracoKnight...

Dude, if that works, we will all throw bad rolling dice at you.

[JNAProductions]

Dude, if that works, we will all throw bad rolling dice at you.

You might be thinking of Lord Drako. That's the spammer.

DracoKnight is a talented and experienced homebrewer.

[Misterwhisper]

You might be thinking of Lord Drako. That's the spammer.

DracoKnight is a talented and experienced homebrewer.

Drako has had so many alts I can’t keep track.

[DracoKnight]

Paging DracoKnight, paging DracoKnight...

So. Broken builds. The temptation to just say "moon druid" is very strong, but honestly Druids don't get too broken until 18-20.

So, I'ma build you a SAD boi.

Using 27 point buy, we're gonna set your stats to be:

STR 8
DEX 8
CON 15 (9 points)
INT 13 (5 points)
WIS 12 (4 points)
CHA 15 (9 points)

So for your Race, we're gonna pick Tortle, because for AL they qualify as part of Xanathar's. So that will boost your STR by +2 and your WIS by +1. Your AC will be set at 17.

We're going to start this character off as a Sorcerer. We're going to pick Shadow because of the ability to pop back up when you're reduced to 0 HP, plus the ability to create magical darkness that you can see through will save resources later.

After that 1st level Sorcerer, we're going to multiclass into Warlock, going Hexblade. From here we're going to bum rush 5th level Warlock. Get our first ASI and those 3rd level spell slots that come back on a short rest.

Our ASI is spent on bumping CHA and CON.

Then we're going to take 3 more levels in Sorcerer. Our second ASI will be spent on bumping CHA.

Your Eldritch Invocations are going to want to be:

Agonizing Blast
Thirsting Blade
Eldritch Smite

Your spell loadout can be to taste, but I highly recommend using either a double-scimitar or a greatsword for your pact weapon.

Your stats and level split end up looking like:

AC 17

STR 8
DEX 8
CON 16
INT 13
WIS 13
CHA 18

1st: Shadow Sorcerer (less hit points, but CON save proficiency is lit)
2nd: Hexblade Warlock (Hexblade's Curse, Martial Weapons, pact magic)
3rd: Hexblade (Eldritch Invocations, Agonizing Blast and any random EI for now)
4th: Hexblade (Pact of the Blade, this is some good **** on a hexblade; now you can use two-handed hex weapons)
5th: Hexblade (+1 CHA/+1 CON)
6th: Hexblade (Swap your random EI for Thirsting Blade and pick up Eldritch Smite)
7th: Sorcerer (Font of Magic)
8th: Sorcerer (Meta Magic, may I recommend subtle and empowered?)
9th: Sorcerer (+2 CHA)

It's a blend of the dreaded coffelock and a solid gish, a decent face, great AC that's effectively heavy armor without a stealth penalty. Plus, it's a thematically appropriate pairing. Both subclasses draw their power from the Shadowfell, so you could've made a pact with the darkness that was inside you all along (Told you I was gonna make you a SAD boi). If you get some magic items, I might recommend the sword of warning, or the cloak of protection (the equivalent of plate mail with no stealth penalty? yes please); depending on your DM's generosity maybe even a scimitar of speed? (Yes, I know I said double-scimitar/greatsword. Those are the best options, always go with those options - unless you can get a scimitar of speed, then get a scimitar of speed. You can use a shield for 19-20 AC with a scimitar of speed.)


DracoKnight is a talented and experienced homebrewer.

You're too kind <3

[Misterwhisper]

How about this:

Half Elf
Hexblade 2, Conquest Paladin 7

Str: 13
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 10
CHA: 20

ASI: +2 Cha and Elven Accuracy


Max Cha, it is added to your: Hit, Damage, saves, Spell DC, spell to hit, and all the normal skills.
Wear Medium armor, carry a shield, and whatever one handed weapon you want, like a longsword or a spear.

If you can get magic items or whatever take a rod of the pact mage and magic armor.
Invocations: Devils Sight and Agonizing blast
Fighting Style: Defense

Keep it simple:

You should have good AC Thanks to medium armor, a shield, and defensive style
You have smites if they get close, or Agonizing Blasts if they are at range.
You have some spells to buff and debuff as needed.
Renewing Warlock first level spells but probably not going to come up.

[GandalfTheWhite]

How about this:

Half Elf
Hexblade 2, Conquest Paladin 7

Str: 13
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 10
CHA: 20

ASI: +2 Cha and Elven Accuracy


Max Cha, it is added to your: Hit, Damage, saves, Spell DC, spell to hit, and all the normal skills.
Wear Medium armor, carry a shield, and whatever one handed weapon you want, like a longsword or a spear.

If you can get magic items or whatever take a rod of the pact mage and magic armor.
Invocations: Devils Sight and Agonizing blast
Fighting Style: Defense

Keep it simple:

You should have good AC Thanks to medium armor, a shield, and defensive style
You have smites if they get close, or Agonizing Blasts if they are at range.
You have some spells to buff and debuff as needed.
Renewing Warlock first level spells but probably not going to come up.

Where are you getting your second ASI from? That’s at 8th level, bud. You get either +2 CHA or Elven Accuracy with your build, not both.

[Misterwhisper]

Where are you getting your second ASI from? That’s at 8th level, bud. You get either +2 CHA or Elven Accuracy with your build, not both.

Oh, yeah, by brain switched off for a bit.

Just scrap that, not worth it without a 20 cha.

[Skylivedk]

For pure dpr, the Battlemaster 4/Gloomstalker 5 is worth a look.

Stats could be something like
12/17/14/10/14/8
Feats: Elven Accuracy (hence 18 Dex) and Sharpshooter
FS: Archery and Defence

You open with six attacks with Hex if you want to. If all hit without using a sup dice: 8d8+6d6+84 = 36+84+27 = 147. 4 Sup dice can bring it up to 165 - without crits. You also have spiked growth and pushing attacks which stack nicely, fairly good skills and high movement speed (especially first round). I didn't pick crossbow expert, which is optional instead of elven accuracy. I'm not sure the bonus attack is worth it, if you plan on using Hunter's Mark compared to super advantage and +1 mod in God Stat.

The Goblin Iron Wizard is also worth a look and so is the Arcana Cleric tank from LudicSavant's Eccentric and Fun Builds thread.

A pure class conquest can be really good as well. For dungeon crawling, a pure hexblade is also very strong. I've just completed Tomb of Annihilation with one and he never dropped in combat, had a high steady damage output and could do a lot of experimenting with traps etc because of Armour of Agathys and Dimension Door meant extra hp and get out of jail free card were both readily available.

[Eldariel]

Never heard that. RAW you can counter-spell and last Sage Advice I remember confirmed it:

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SA-Compendium.pdf

"Can you also cast a reaction spell on your turn? You sure
can! Here’s a common way for it to happen: Cornelius the
wizard is casting fireball on his turn, and his foe casts counterspell on him. Cornelius has counterspell prepared, so he
uses his reaction to cast it and break his foe’s counterspell
before it can stop fireball."

Therefore If I want to nuke you with my super Magic Missile and you cast Shield, I counter-spell it and you are eating missiles.

Sorry, I didn't notice this. Sage Advice -wise it might work but I find it hard to believe many DMs would allow you to interrupt the "a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures" of one spell (somatic components) for another without losing the first spell. In any case, you have to be within 60' to Counterspell, which is a far cry from the 120' Magic Missile range. Of course, Subtle Spell works.

[Avista]

Thank you everyone for so many great ideas!! I'm picking my favorites and going through them carefully. Part of the challenge is that we're going in blind to each other's picks, so I don't know what the rest of the party is bringing.

I'm personally loving the Sorclocks or Cleric 9. Pallylocks would be a choice, but I don't want to impose disadvantage on the party with the Darkness/Devil Eyes combo.

[strangebloke]

Thank you everyone for so many great ideas!! I'm picking my favorites and going through them carefully. Part of the challenge is that we're going in blind to each other's picks, so I don't know what the rest of the party is bringing.

I'm personally loving the Sorclocks or Cleric 9. Pallylocks would be a choice, but I don't want to impose disadvantage on the party with the Darkness/Devil Eyes combo.

Just reiterating: paladins are not nearly as cool when there are lots of paladins. Paladins (and pal-locks and sorlockadins and sorcadins) are all strong in large part because of the paladin aura. You can only get benefit from the aura once, so additional auras are pointless. Additionally, paladins tend to be very specialized as melee characters with support magic so having more than one is... not good. You risk all dying to a dragon flying overhead just out of reach.

FWIW, nobody mentioned shepherd druid, but a totally basic shepherd druid absolutely deserves to be up there with the best of them.

[col_impact]

FWIW, nobody mentioned shepherd druid, but a totally basic shepherd druid absolutely deserves to be up there with the best of them.

And a Life Cleric 1/ Shepherd 8 would make probably the most powerful, crazy broken character of all those mentioned so far.

[Undyne]

As the title says. Our GM is running a oneshot and I want to try out the most broken build. Ever.

Character Requirements
Character Level 9
PHB & Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Variant Humans are banned
27 Point Buy
Multiclass allowed
Feats allowed (no racial feats)

Let me see some ideas!

Race: Half Elf. Put your +1s in Dex and Con.
Point Buy: 7 points in Charisma, 5 points each in Dex and Con. Spend your last 10 however you like.
Class totaling: Sorcerer 7, Warlock 2.
Class Progression: Sorcerer 1, Shadow Sorcerer. Warlock 2 levels, Hexblade. Grab Hex and Eldritch Blast. Invocations are Agonizing Blast and one other of your choice. Spend your last levels in Sorcerer, taking Quicken Spell metamagic. You are now an Eldritch Blast machine gun.

[TheUser]

Level 9 is pretty much ideal Necromancer territory.
Your skeleton archers still land attacks on plenty of targets and do great damage.

A contingent of 4 costs 1 level 3 slot to maintain and each deals 1d6+6 damage. Loads of spells offer ways for them to attack at advantage or debuff enemy AC to improve their ability to land attacks (Web, Slow and Evard's Black Tentacles come to mind).

You also have access to Wall of Force which in small enclosed areas (see also: Dungeon) can sequester large chunks of an enemy force while you and your party smash the others.

Divine Soul Sorcs also unlock the dreaded Bane + Synaptic Static combo at level 9, which with careful spell is sublime.