How to optimize naked characters with no Items?

[that_owlbear]

How would you build the most effective character that is completely naked and have absolutely no items (including no spellcasting focus/components)?

Clarification #1:

To clarify, I mean "most effective" as in most effective in an actual play scenario where a PC would be without items (e.g., night ambush and invaders successfully steal the PC's equipment, or the PC is in a prison cell without any items). I recognize that being effective in the night ambush scenario (mostly combat) would require a different skillset than the jailbreak scenario (non-combat with the possibility of combat), so I assume a build won't be optimized for both (or neither, if you have another scenario in mind, please share!).

My initial thoughts were:


Unarmed build

Summoned weapons build

Caster build that can work well in these scenarios without spells that require material component


Not sure if I missed any concepts. Any and all build ideas are welcomed!

Clarification #2:



No UA. Only officially published materials.

Using point buy or standard array.

If possibly, kindly build to 20 with explanation of the workings of the build at levels 5, 11, 17 and 20 (and any other level you feel is helpful!).

Muticlassing okay.

Feats okay.

Variant races okay.


Many thanks in advance!

[MrStabby]

So a crit fish build of some type I imagine... if we are naked we are invisible aren't we?

[JNAProductions]

I mean... The obvious one is Monk 20.

The other one is Moon Druid 20.

Maybe Barbarian would do okay? Strength-based, Unarmored Defense, bonus damage from Rage...

[Christian]

I made a whole party of characters like this, all just PHB-based. Obviously, nobody is completely effective without gear, but some designs are much less gear-dependent than others ... They were:

An Elf Monk
An obvious choice. Weapons are useful but not crucial at low levels, and rapidly become less and less important. No real reliance on armor or other gear. Ranged combat is a pain point for this character.

A Human Barbarian
This character took the Tavern Brawler feat at first level. She still carried and used weapons when available, but had somewhat effective unarmed fighting ability, especially while raging. Downside: even more MAD than the Monk, with strong requirements for Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. Also similar challenges at range. This was the second-least effective character in the group, but not by a huge margin.

A Half-elf Druid
Casters are challenging, as many spells require material components. Druids are one of the better casters from this point of view, and also have the Circle of the Moon option to give them effective non-casting abilities in combat. Some go-to spells for this character were Produce Flame, Faerie Fire, Thorn Whip, Thunderwave, Spike Growth, and Conjure Animals. There are some VSM spells in there, but they use components he was able to scrounge under the circumstances the party was dealing with.

Tiefling Warlock
Pact of the Blade was tempting, but without armor melee is generally a bad idea for a Warlock. Pact of the Tome is my more normal go-to, but that choice leaves you (temporarily) screwed if your tome is lost or stolen, so I went with Pact of the Chain. Relied very heavily on Eldritch Blast and invocations that boosted it, but that can take you a long way. Armor of Agathys was handy; if your party can't find a cup of damned water, you have serious problems.

Halfling Sorcerer
Avoiding material component requirements was actually a lot harder than for the Druid or Warlock, and this was probably the least effective character in the group. Pretty much lived or died by Scorching Ray.

I ran this group solo (DM and playing) through an adventure based on the Isle of Dread from a D&D Next playtest package. They were shipwrecked with some NPC commoners they had to try to protect, dealing with a lot of random encounters mainly. They were somewhat surprisingly effective against level-appropriate encounters, even with very little gear.

[micahaphone]

wood elf (or maybe hill dwarf?) monk, sometime after level 5 grab 3 levels of bear barbarian for all the resistance, then all ASI to dex, con, or wis, with maybe a Tough feat tossed in somewhere

[SLOTHRPG95]

Monk 20, but probably Four Elements to gain some ranged/CC/AoE options without requiring material components. Or Sun Soul, if you prefer, but then you're not picking up Gaseous Form or Fly.

[Skylivedk]

The Barb 2 / Moon Druid X walks around naked all the time. Well almost. Closer to something like this (https://marde-rooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/beb4986d35ab551ab117e5bc85265fe5.jpg)

He has bracers of armour, but otherwise it's just him, his CON-score and cojones the size of brains.

[Dork_Forge]

I made a whole party of characters like this, all just PHB-based. Obviously, nobody is completely effective without gear, but some designs are much less gear-dependent than others ... They were:

Tiefling Warlock
Pact of the Blade was tempting, but without armor melee is generally a bad idea for a Warlock. Pact of the Tome is my more normal go-to, but that choice leaves you (temporarily) screwed if your tome is lost or stolen, so I went with Pact of the Chain. Relied very heavily on Eldritch Blast and invocations that boosted it, but that can take you a long way. Armor of Agathys was handy; if your party can't find a cup of damned water, you have serious problems.


This is fixed with a Dex based build using Armor of Shadows invocation, an AC of 16-18 is pretty good for a non shield user.

[da newt]

At higher levels, a PC w/ shadowblade, mage armor, shield spell, etc would do just fine as a naked melee combatant. W/ elvish accuracy, mobile, and max dex you are good to go.

[Eldariel]

Wizard/Sorcerer wouldn't be all that bad: you get a decent number of good spells without components and you don't really care about any other items. Shield and Absorb Elements are both Mless, and for armor you can kinda wing it at times. Yeah, a lot of the good spells do have components including a few of the standouts but a quick list of good ones that don't:

Cantrips:
Chill Touch
Fire Bolt
Mold Earth
Prestidigitation
Ray of Frost
Toll the Dead
Shape Water
Mage Hand
Create Bonfire


[frankly, the only major losses are Minor Illusion and Friends - while Minor Illusion is probably the strongest in the game, Mage Hand, Mold Earth and Shape Water are very competitive and Toll the Dead/Fire Bolt/Ray of Frost/Chill Touch/Create Bonfire gives you your choice of combat cantrips]

1st level

Defense:
Absorb Elements
Shield

Utility:
Charm Person
Disguise Self
Expeditious Retreat

Combat:
Thunderwave
Magic Missile
(Catapult)
Fog Cloud
Burning Hands

Rituals:
Detect Magic

[Losing out on Find Familiar sucks but if you can get that one-time component, it's a free underling for the rest of the game. Other than that, the big losses are Silent Image, and Sleep; everything else you can kinda cover. No Mage Armor means it's probably the best to go a natural armor class if you intend to play the AC game. Catapult is much worse without stuff to throw yourself though you should generally be able to access a pebble or something for the basic functionality at least]

2nd level

Defense:
Mirror Image
Blur

Utility:
Misty Step
Warding Wind
Knock
Magic Weapon
Alter Self

Combat:
(Pyrotechnics)
Crown of Madness
Blindness/Deafness
Shadow Blade
Scorching Ray
Earthbind

Rituals:


[Pyrotechnics gets much worse without easy access to creating fire yourself. Notable losses on this level include Suggestion, Levitate, Magic Mouth, Invisibility, etc. Lots of the good single target CC, one of the best utility spells in the game, Web in terms of good multitarget CC, some sight magic, a lot of good divinations, but you can still craft a perfectly servicable spell list out of what you do have.]

3rd level

Defense:
Blink

Utility:
Dispel Magic
Protection from Energy
Remove Curse
Thunder Step

Combat:
Counterspell
Enemies Abound
Flame Arrows
Vampiric Touch

Rituals:

[First of the really painful levels: you lose out on the best spells of the level in Hypnotic Pattern and Fear. You also lose out on the better damage effects on the level in Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Then Fly is a huge one. On the flipside, you do get the irreplaceable magic interaction effects and some decent single target CC and even a bit of damage ability]

4th level

Defense:


Utility:
Greater Invisibility
Dimension Door
Charm Monster

Combat:
Storm Sphere
Sickening Radiance

Rituals:

[Wow, I never thought I'd say "What a level!" while losing Polymorph, Banishment, Summon Greater Demon, etc. But the spells you get complement what you get perfectly: you finally get a great Invisibility effect, a very powerful party teleportation effect and some great AOE CC and even a decent AOE damage/kill effect. Overall, I'd say this is actually a great level for this character!]

5th level

Defense:


Utility:
Modify Memory
Mislead
Skill Empowerment
Far Step
Dominate Person
Control Winds
Seeming

Combat:
(Animate Objects)
(Danse Macabre)
Telekinesis
Synaptic Static

Rituals:

[This level is awesome! While you lose out on Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Bigby's, the standout spells, you do get Telekinesis, Animate Objects and Synaptic Static from the very top of the power scale. Sadly Animate Objects and Danse Macabre are slightly less reliable than normally, but most places should have things to animate and eventually most places will have corpses too - certainly Animate Objects is the better of the two.]


Overall, it actually works pretty well. You'll miss the absolute top tier options for tier 1 but especially from level 4 spells on you're actually really fine. That's more than enough good spells to sculpt a spell list for whole game; plenty of random spell lists would actually be much worse than that. The biggest problem is missing the ability to endemically produce flame for Pyrotechnics, objects for Animate Object or Danse Macabre, and useful things to throw with Catapult. Pyrotechnics and Animate Object are still good enough but weaker than in a default Wizard's build. And yeah, not having a spellbook means you basically just get your choice of spells and that's it - probably anyways. Certainly no Ritual Casting or spell swapping, but with how few rituals exist without materials (basically just Detect Magic; and yeah, Skywrite), that's kinda irrelevant. Probably better off as a Sorc since you don't get most of what makes Wizard awesome anyways though the specialty goodies like Diviner/Abjurer/etc. still certainly do exist.

That should be a fine addition to any standard party (though again, having a race with natural armor would be kinda nice to alleviate the issue of lacking Mage Armor - would make you just as hardy as any Wizard).

[CTurbo]

I played a naked Goliath Barb with the Tavern Brawler feat and it was a fun build. In the same campaign my Barb had a "pet" 4 Int Halfling that was also naked, but he usually carried a light hammer.


As mentioned above, Monk is perfect for this too. No need for any material things.

Moon Druids would work well some of the time. A completely naked Moon Druid would be weak in caster form though and even a level 20 Moon Druid is not always going to be wildshaped.