Best Dex Melee build?

[Klaus Teufel]

Can anyone point me to a good source for a Dex Melee built with an eye to playability at all levels?

[CheddarChampion]

Rogue 20
Swashbuckler 17/Battlemaster 3 or 15/5 - get rogue 5, then fighter levels, then back to rogue
Paladin 20 (use Dex not Str)
Monk 20
Swords Bard 20
Draconic Sorcerer 20 - use shadow blade + SCAG cantrips, quicken/twin metamagic as appropriate.

[Foxhound438]

You might want to peruse this catalogue of guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491) for some light reading.

but in general my favorite dex built characters tend to be monks. You'll do less damage than a fighter or ranger might in some cases, but you have a lot of other things that those guys don't get. There's not a whole lot to building the best monks in my opinion, either go variant human and pick mobile as your feat, or go for open hand, and then spend your ASI's boosting dex then wis to max.

If you want to optimize around dealing more damage, go for a ranger or fighter. Probably don't go for dual wielding, both classes have plenty of ways to spend a bonus action and choosing dueling fighting style lets you keep up in damage even when you don't have a good bonus action, plus carry a shield. For fighter, look into battlemaster first, as that gives you a lot of easy ways to do extra damage at will. If they don't suit your fancy, an eldritch knight does less damage usually but being able to pick up ludicrous things like shadow blade (from Xanathar's Guide) for burst damage or misty step for utility is pretty great in its own ways. For ranger, check out the subclasses in Xanathar's guide, as those tend to be better than the PHB options.

Paladins also aren't terrible as dex builds, but in general they build and play almost identically to a strength build that opts for a longsword, you just have lower AC for higher initiative for the most part, with the biggest possible differences probably coming from choosing a dex race rather than a str one.

I'm leaving out a lot of the more finnicky details like races and spell choices, but stuff like that shouldn't make or break your character compared to the class features you get.

[HiveStriker]

Can anyone point me to a good source for a Dex Melee built with an eye to playability at all levels?
If magic is off: Monk (any archetype, although Drunken and Kensei would have an edge at respectively low and high level): best mobility, melee attack and defense (at high level) of all pure martials.
Then comes close together Battlemaster (lots of feats, short-rest abilities) and Swashbuckler (high mobility, free disengage).
If magic is on?
- Devotion Paladin: incredible to-hit, + bless, + smites. Mobility is not good though, so Mobile would be a given.
- Eldricht Knight: great chassis, chance for extra feats, Shadow Blade, Booming Blade.
- Arcane Trickster Rogue: same idea but focused on a single attack.
- Whispers Bard: same idea but you'll need a feat on armor probably or grab Shield: on the plus side, you can use defensive spells early and more often.
- Hexblade Warlock: same idea of using a defensive spell paired with Booming Blade. Can also benefit from specific invocations. Go Blade for choice between focus fire and chance to hit, or Tome for versatility.
- Bladesinger Wizard: like Paladin, if you don't boost mental stat along DEX, the efficiency is lesser. Is still an outstanding beast twice per short rests.

(Note:
- Ranger is not making it because I suppose you say "melee" as in "I want to spend as much time in melee as possible". Ranger can and is pretty good in melee, still, it's definitely not in the top 5 because too versatile in spells and class features
- Barbarian is far from being good "in general" at least from a no multiclass point of view. A Totem Barbarian could probably be fine overall, but you'd still gimp yourself from a good and reliable extra damage. So without multiclass I see no purpose to it).

Whatever happens, be an Elf or Half-Elf for Elven Accuracy if you think you have any way to regularly get advantage (easiest would be half-decent score in STR and Expertise to Shove, or ways to blind or get invis).

If magic AND multiclass is an option?
I'd probably pick Whispers Bard as main class, with possibly a starting dip in Draconic Sorcerer. and simply pick two (Cunning Action) or three levels of Rogue (Swash) somewhere. So DEX and a bit of CHA.

Or a Bladesinger Wizard with 2 levels of Rogue just for the sake of not really needing to take Mobile feat neither relying on spells when I need to be really fast.

Whatever happens, you'll want the "Mobile feat effect" either from feat or class feature.
You'll want spike AC (Shield, Mirror Image, Riposte, Dodge as bonus action, Greater Invisibility to quote a few examples).
Then a strategy to up damage (multiattacks with upcast Shadow Blade, "all-in spike" with Whispers or Sneak Attack, "all-in nova" with Smite).

[CNagy]

Pretty much any flavor of Rogue12/Fighter8 or vice-versa. Start as a Rogue, go Fighter for 6 levels, Rogue up to 8/10/12 and then Fighter up to 8/10/12. Fighter/Rogue is the multiclass that approximates a great single class if you order the levels correctly.

[Evaar]

The third build in this thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds

Or the “Shadow Warrior” build in this thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?591621-Waazraath-5e-build-compendium&p=24020188

Those are my two favorites I’ve seen here.

[Zerubbabel]

You'll get different responses depending on whether you advocate optional feats or multi-classing.

Not including those things though, best Dex Melee build is probably a Battlemaster Aarakocra (if this race is permitted) else an Air Genasi, Wood elf, or Aquatic elf (for aquatic campaigns) are all excellent choices.

Shield, half plate, and rapier and you're good to go.
Air Genasi are just straight up cool, so that gets my vote.

No doubt a Hexblade Warlock, Variant Tiefling (whichever one gets dex bonus) is very capable as well.