Build an Epicurean / Gourmand

[HPisBS]

Watching a certain amusing video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfzNlT3g46o) again, I was struck by a new (to me) character concept: a person whose entire motivation for adventuring far and wide is food.

- Are giant crabs and crayfish better than the regular varieties? Is wild minotaur more savory than regular domesticated beef? What dishes might Assassin Vine fruit complement?

As an epicurean, a gourmand, searching for the most delicious of meals propels you forward, enticed towards ever more wild, remote, rarely seen lands. And, once acquired, they will be brought back, farmed, and served to the people who have heretofore made do with their same old bland, monotonous fare. Your restaurant will be the envy of kings!


As long as they're proficient with Cook's Utensils (so as to cook tasty meals wherever the party may be, adding extra healing in the process), this character can be just about anything. A barbarian tribesman who was blown away by a traveling merchant's dinner. A bard who learned tales of unbelievably delicious feasts. Even a cleric who dreamed of Hestia gracing them with the slightest taste of a perfect meal, and a mission to seek out that food and spread it across the world.


So... how would you build such a character?

[CheddarChampion]

V. Human Druid, the Gourmand Feat from on UA or another, Prodigy at level 4 for expertise, then maximize Wis. Plant Growth will help with harvests, animal control spells and a circle of life attitude will help with help with that part.

If that's uncomfortable for you (like it is for me) then you could change it to a nature cleric and say you will bring your god's/goddess's blessings from afar to the people.

This is assuming the DM has cooking as a Wis based skill.

[HPisBS]

The best I've been able to come up with is a Mark of Warding Dwarf Lore Bard.

Being a dwarf lets you resist "poisons" while you're sampling every potential food the world has to offer. Having the Mark of Warding gets you a free Arcane Lock to protect your restaurant with, and adds Secret Chest to your spell list. Note that the chest's dimensions are large enough that you could even fit a Chest of Preserving inside. So, you could always have perfectly fresh ingredients, and maybe even "freshly made" meals with you wherever you go (depending on whether you interpret "does not age or decay" to include temperature change, etc).

Being a Bard lets you learn Plant Growth as well as Speak With Plants, as well as your choice of fast travel spells (even Find Greater Steed or Wind Walk to help you reach those out-of-the-way locales).

The background is a bit more up in the air; there's about a dozen than let you pick an artisan tool, which is all that's really important. That said, I guess Failed Merchant most helpful with its supply chain.

[Misterwhisper]

On topic just use Drunken Master Monk. Like this...

Way of the Culinarian*

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”

The art of cooking is the most divine art there is. All creatures must eat, it is what and how you eat that defines you. If the body is a temple, the chef is its priest.*

Kitchen Training:
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Performance skill if you don’t already have it. Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a trained chef.*
Preparing food is just as much of a performance art as it is concerned with flavor. You also gain proficiency in cooking utensils, if you already have proficiency in cooking utensils, you double your proficiency bonus on those checks.*

Culinary Technique
At 3rd level, you have spent many years moving around a busy kitchen and have learned how to twist and turn quickly as part of your Flurry of Blows. Whenever you use Flurry of Blows, you gain the benefit of the Disengage action, and your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the current turn.

The Flow of Flavor
Starting at 6th level, you can move in sudden, swaying ways. You gain the following benefits.
Leap to Your Feet. When you’re prone, you can stand up by spending 5 feet of movement, rather than half your speed.
Redirect Attack. When a creature misses you with a melee attack roll, you can spend 1 ki point as a reaction to cause that attack to hit one creature of your choice, other than the attacker, that you can see within 5 feet of you.

The Spice of Life
Starting at 11th level, years of food preparation have given you the insight needed to turn any foul ingredients into at least an average meal. When you make an ability check, an attack roll, or a saving throw and have disadvantage on the roll, you can spend 2 ki points to cancel the disadvantage for that roll.

Gastrophile Frenzy
At 17th level, you gain the ability to make an overwhelming number of attacks against a group of enemies. When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can make up to three additional attacks with it (up to a total of five Flurry of Blows attacks), provided that each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn.

Literally the only change was instead of brewers supplies they use cooks utincels.

[tormund]

Why not an Alchemist Artificer?


You basically already flavor your spells as doling out potions, salves, tinctures; why not snacks?
At level 2, you can create an Alchemy Jug, which provides you with a huge range of common sauce bases (aioli/remoulade, acids, honey, oils, vinegar) as well as beer and wine.
You get Tool Expertise at level 6, doubling your proficiency bonus with any tool (including chef's utensils).
Take Acid Splash and Create Bonfire, cook any meat.
Dwarves, gnomes and stout halflings is are natural choices.

[Theodoxus]

I've made a number of clerics who follow Meriadar, the Neutral goblin (mongrelman) god of cooking.

Typically, I play them as Cookie from various spaghetti westerns; or like Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal's character in UnderSiege). Just the unassuming cook for the crew, until the fighting starts and then I'm the teams linchpin, making it hard to keep anyone down for long.

Last game pre-Covid I was in, the DM kept throwing culinary mcguffins at us. The last was a pile of "meth apples" that the bad guys were turning into "meth cider". We stopped them from taking over a town, but didn't get a chance to track them to their hideout to stop them permanently.

My character culinaried his butt off to formulate an antidote to the meth apples (sometimes Lesser Restoration is just so mundane!).

I don't know if we'll ever get back to that campaign - but I do miss that particular iteration of special cook.