Character Ideas Using New Customized Origin Features

[Stangler]

The thread idea is pretty straight forward, just share some of the character ideas you have using the new customized origin feature. Obviously the new characters could be focused on optimization or RPing or whatever else you find fun.

I am curious what the community could come up with.

:smile:

I am also curious if anyone is considering asking their GM to allow them to alter the way their class works for flavor. For example, Dwarf is a more attractive option for a Wizard but maybe the dwarf relies on "rune magic" which changes some of the flavor of how they cast and get their power.

At 1st level, you choose various aspects of your character, including ability scores, race, class, and background. Together these elements help paint a picture of your character’s origin and give you the ability to create many different types of characters. Despite that versatility, a typical character race in D&D includes little or no choice—a lack that can make it difficult to realize certain character concepts. The following subsections address that lack by adding choice to your character’s race, allowing you to customize your ability scores, languages, and certain proficiencies to fit the origin you have in mind for your character. Character race in the game represents your character’s fantasy species, combined with certain cultural assumptions. The following options step outside those assumptions to pave the way for truly unique characters.

ABILITY SCORE INCREASES
Whatever D&D race you choose for your character, you get a trait called Ability Score Increase. This increase reflects an archetypal bit of excellence in the adventurers of this kind in D&D’s past. For example, if you’re a dwarf, your Constitution increases by 2, because dwarf heroes in D&D are often exceptionally tough. This increase doesn’t apply to every dwarf, just to dwarf adventurers, and it exists to reinforce an archetype. That reinforcement is appropriate if you want to lean into the archetype, but it’s unhelpful if your character doesn’t conform to the archetype.
If you’d like your character to follow their own path, you may ignore your Ability Score Increase trait and assign ability score increases tailored to your character. Here’s how to do it: take any ability score increase you gain in your race or subrace and apply it to an ability score of your choice. If you gain more than one increase, you can’t apply those increases to the same ability score, and you can’t increase a score above 20.
For example, if the Ability Score Increase trait of your race or subrace increases your Constitution by 2 and your Wisdom by 1, you could instead increase your Intelligence by 2 and your Charisma by 1.

LANGUAGES
Your character’s race includes languages that your character is assumed to know, usually Common and the language of your ancestors. For example, a halfling adventurer is assumed to know Common and Halfling. Here’s the thing: D&D adventurers are extraordinary, and your character might have grown up speaking languages different from the ones in your Languages trait.
To customize the languages you know, you may replace each language in your Languages trait with a language from the following list: Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Deep Speech, Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnomish, Goblin, Halfling, Infernal, Orc, Primordial, Sylvan, or Undercommon.
Your DM may add or remove languages from that list, depending on what languages are appropriate for your campaign.

PROFICIENCIES
Some races and subraces grant skill, weapon, or tool proficiencies. These proficiencies are usually cultural, but your character might not have any connection to the culture in question or might have pursued different training. You can replace each of those proficiencies with a different one, as shown on the Proficiency Swaps table.

PROFICIENCY SWAPS:
Skill to Skill
Simple weapon to Simple weapon or tool
Martial weapon to Simple/martial weapon or tool
Tool to Tool or simple weapon

For example, high elf adventurers have proficiency with longswords, which are martial weapons. Consulting the Proficiency Swaps table, we see that your high elf can swap that proficiency for proficiency with another weapon or a tool. Your elf might be a musician, who chooses proficiency with a musical instrument—a type of tool—instead of with longswords. Similarly, elves start with proficiency in the Perception skill. Your elf might not have the keen senses associated with your kin and could take proficiency in a different skill, such as Performance.
The “Equipment” chapter of the PH includes weapons and tools suitable for these swaps, and your DM might allow additional options.

PERSONALITY
The description of a race might suggest various things about the behavior and personality of that people’s archetypal adventurers. You may ignore those suggestions, whether they’re about alignment, moods, interests, or any other personality trait. Your character’s personality and behavior are entirely yours to determine.

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

Currently planning a Kobold Oath of Glory paladin with a bonus to strength who has a dream to be the strongest in the world. Since paladin oaths are essentially just being so determined they give you magical powers, I figured, why not physical ones as well? So my explanation for him is that his will to be strong is so great it manifests in his incredible physical strength that grows as his resolve does.

I would prefer maybe to run it as a barbarian just for the capstone (getting to 24 strength would make a bit more sense in terms of being the "strongest") but the fluff for Oath of Glory just fits too perfectly to ignore.

The plan build-wise is to dual-wield shields, using his pure strength to bludgeon foes into submission, which I know you can't do by RAW but I figured I would just make one of the shields be a spiked shield, run as reflavored warhammer or something mechanically, but I'm not quite sure that's the best way to go about doing it. Maybe would multiclass eventually into Rogue or Bard just to grab expertise in athletics, since it fits the theme, even though I'm not quite sure how useful it'd be.

[micahaphone]

-I like Goliaths but I want to try a full caster. A Giant Soul Sorcerer would be a great thematic fit, I'm excited to do that without a 5% effectiveness tax.

-I do some wrestling/grappling martial arts IRL (well, pre-pandemic), I'd like to do a dwarven monk who does up close martial arts, grabbing someone and slamming anchored elbows.

-I have this thought of Orc clans having an arms race of evocation magic, lots of fireballs and lightning bolts. One clan that's losing this arms race sends one of their kids off to an arcane college, but that student finds enchantment or divination magic more interesting. Can they convince their clan that this is still powerful or prove their effectiveness? For character reasons, definitely wouldn't take fireball.

[Aett_Thorn]

Just a few things. The first is more power-gamey, but the rest are ideas I've actually been wanting to try for a while.

Yuan-Ti Barbarian, moving the Cha/Int boosts over to Str/Con. The poison immunity and magic resistance will help increase survivability, no matter which path you take. Sure, the spells that you get won't have as high a DC anymore, but they're mostly for flavor anyways and might still come in handy from time to time.


Lizardfolk Monk, moving the Con bonus over to Dex. Finally, I can be the mobile jaws of death I was meant to be! Bite and tail whip your foes to a bloody pulp, then make them into shields for your friends. (Similarly, you can finally make a Tabaxi that can effectively use their claws as a weapon by switching Dex to Str bonus)


Goliath Storm Sorcerer or Arctic Druid. Fill out the rest of the roles of the tribe. Who says that they're all warriors?


Firbolg Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter. I know that this is also using some "official homebrew" stuff, but I've had an idea for this character since before they switched the Blood Hunter to key off of Int instead of Wisdom. Now I could still make this character and be effective, since I can switch the Wis bonus to Int.


Goblin Sorcerer or Wizard. Bonus action Hide, then use spells with spell attack rolls to try to crit with your Advantage.



I'm still not a huge fan of being able to just switch stats as a base rule instead of working with the DM to make sure that it fits background-wise, but this isn't really the place for that.

[Stangler]

I think a kobold shepherd druid is a bit more viable now and there is some synergy with beg and summoned creatures.

I really like small evil spell casting creatures like kobolds and goblins. Mostly Wizard or Sorc but a cleric or druid themed as a shaman also works. Kobold dragon born sorc is pretty obvious too.

I think thematically warlock is interesting for various monster races like orc and bugbear.

A lot more room for any kind of Elf Paladin but my favorite is probably an Eladrin Oath of Ancients Paladin.

High elf clerics are also really interesting because they can easily get booming blade but can now start with 16/17 wisdom.

[Edea]

Winged tiefling (SCAG) wizard sounds nice; ironically enough, losing Infernal Legacy's actually a boon, because that was the only part of the race that was Charisma-dependent. No more worrying about getting melee'd in tier 1, just fly away from whatever's causing the problem.

Dunno what archetype I'd use with him, though...

[Spiritchaser]

Yuan-Ti Barbarian, moving the Cha/Int boosts over to Str/Con. The poison immunity and magic resistance will help increase survivability, no matter which path you take. Sure, the spells that you get won't have as high a DC anymore, but they're mostly for flavor anyways and might still come in handy from time to time.


I actually have one of these with the current fixed stat rules (ok, it’s an echo knight/barb mix) and not surprisingly the save bonus really does help, but in my opinion res wis is still needed.

I spent quite a while trying to think about what a notoriously unemotional race would be like in a rage, or how and why the character would need to be different from most Yuan Ti such that rage made sense. Theres definitely room for some interesting background there

[Evaar]

In the other thread on this ruleset, I realized that Kalashtar have advantage to Wisdom saving throws. Barbarians get advantage to most Dexterity saving throws, and they have proficiency in Constitution saves (plus a typically high Constitution).

So you end up being quite strong at all the major saving throws. If you want to focus on personal defense, you can go Kalashtarbearian (Kalashtar, Barbarian, Bear Totem) and add psychic resistance to your repertoire for resistance to every damage type in the game. Realistically, though, I think that's probably overkill and you'd be better off with something like an Ancestral Guardian to protect your team. Easy to reflavor the ancestor spirits as your Quori-self.

[Pondincherry]

I've always been annoyed that Dragonborn breath weapons are Constitution-based but they don't get a bonus to it. Now that they can, I like the idea of a Dragonborn Storm Herald Barbarian with CON as a primary stat and wearing no armor, picking the Storm Herald paths that require enemies to make saves (since the save is determined using CON).

[Detective]

I've been thinking of trying out a half-orc druid. I haven't much of a background yet, but simply put? Born in an orc village as a weak boy, he eventually found his path by walking the path of druidism. Specifically- The moon druid path.

I like the idea of an half-orc relying on fighting in the frontlines using wildshape. That, and I think relentless endurance can function when your wildshape's HP reaches 0.

[Man_Over_Game]

I've always been annoyed that Dragonborn breath weapons are Constitution-based but they don't get a bonus to it. Now that they can, I like the idea of a Dragonborn Storm Herald Barbarian with CON as a primary stat and wearing no armor, picking the Storm Herald paths that require enemies to make saves (since the save is determined using CON).

That's pretty dang good.

I like the idea of a Strength Aarokocra Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, using Polearms and maybe Sentinel. Or swap out Sentinel/PAM for 2 levels into Rogue to be a grapple specialist as I pick my enemies up and drop them on their heads.

[zinycor]

I have been thinking of orc and dwarven artificers. Both could be super fun.

[Evaar]

I have been thinking of orc and dwarven artificers. Both could be super fun.

It does seem pretty wild that one of the races most renowned for crafting high quality items, magic items, and artifacts has historically not been a very good choice for the Artificer class.

Like, if there's one race that exhibits the distinction between Wizardry and Artifice, it's Dwarves. And yet.

Good thing we have some fixes on the way.

[LudicSavant]

Wildhunt Shifter for a Wolverine-style Barbarian. (Note: Wildhunt Shifters can negate the downsides of Reckless Attack, while retaining the upsides).

[Scarytincan]

Assuming the subclass makes the cut, which I think it will... Scourge aasimar Way of mercy monk. A radiant aura and poison aura, extra radiant damage and extra necrotic damage one attack per round... Really plays up the theme I think. And both are known to wear masks.

[micahaphone]

It does seem pretty wild that one of the races most renowned for crafting high quality items, magic items, and artifacts has historically not been a very good choice for the Artificer class.

Like, if there's one race that exhibits the distinction between Wizardry and Artifice, it's Dwarves. And yet.

Good thing we have some fixes on the way.

I think that's supposed to be covered by gnomes but I've always disliked that fine line. Dwarves making great mundane stuff and gnomes inventing tiny fiddly stuff.


TBH I've never been a big fan of gnomes in dnd anyway, I feel like they are a split between dwarves and halflings.

[ftafp]

TBH I've never been a big fan of gnomes in dnd anyway, I feel like they are a split between dwarves and halflings.

honestly, the way they tend to be stereotyped, gnomes kind of seem like anti-goblins to me. Where goblins are impish gnomes are spritely. Where goblins are cowardly, gnomes are fearless to the point of naivety. Where goblin inventions are flimsy disasters likely to explode and kill you, gnome inventions are cute little masterpieces likely to explode and turn you purple for a month.

A gnome would step out of a giant shoe and give you gumdrops. A goblin would waddle out of a giant mushroom and give you hepatitis

[LudicSavant]

Okay. Here's a Goliath ice-armored TWF/grappler tank build that takes advantage of Goliath's synergy with Armor of Agathys... but never had stat mods suitable for a caster or half-caster prior to Tasha's.

Nothing wildly overpowered or anything. Just effective, fun, and a little different.

The Dancer of the Boreal Valley
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/913549078511963932/0109FD3AB36E995E3C704B78CB70786D16767F7A/
Goliath Oath of Conquest Paladin 20
Starting Point Buy: 17 Str / 16 Cha / 14 Con / 10 Dex
ASIs: Heavy Armor Mastery (18 Strength) @4, 18 Cha@8, 20 Cha@12, 20 Str@16, Dual Wielder@19

Why Two-Weapon Fighting?
Two Weapon Fighting sucks... for classes that actually have the Two-Weapon Fighting style. It's more useful for Paladins and Rogues than it is for Fighters.

On a Paladin, it does four things.

1: It gets you access to a bonus action attack without a feat or reduction in the kind of weapons you can use. Paladins scale very well with bonus action attacks because of Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite. And they also don't have a lot of ASI space for feats (since they really, really want to max two stats... unless of course they're cheesing with Hexblade).

2: It lets you toss away one of your weapons to give you a free hand for grappling, and still stab people in the face. You can't do that if you're holding a shield or a two-handed weapon. This ability to grapple synergizes with Armor of Agathys (since it makes them harder to attack anyone who isn't you).

3: Since the Defense style is versatile, you can easily switch between this style and sword-and-board as suits the situation. The loss in AC matters less when you kinda want people to hit you in melee sometimes, because of Armor of Agathys.

4: It's sexy and thematic. Shut up.

Tanking
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c2/25/3a/c2253afe92a76705914767c46081b344.gif
You can't run, but you can't hit me.

Paladins are naturally durable, with heavy armor, Lay on Hands, spellcasting, and their incredible aura granting a well-rounded defense.

Conquest Paladins get Armor of Agathys (and later Scornful Rebuke). Heavy Armor Master (worth 3 damage/hit) and the Goliath reaction (worth 8.5 damage) will make your Armor of Agathys last longer, which means more retribution damage. Bonus points if you can team up with an Abjurer or Lore Bard or something for even more reduction. You could up the ante even further by taking the Rakdos background for Hellish Rebuke (see 'variants').

HAM is a great deal because (in addition to its AoA synergy) nonmagical physical damage never goes out of style -- it's even common at high levels. And even though 3 damage is more at low levels than high levels, you'll be eating more attacks at higher levels. And it doesn't take that many attacks for this to be worth more hit points than +2 Constitution. And it's bumping your 17 Strength score while you're at it, increasing your damage.

But of course none of that would be any good if enemies could simply run from you. That's where your other abilities comes in. Frightened foes straight up can't move in your aura, and you have a few different ways to frighten people (Conquering Presence, Wrathful Smite, Fear, etc). If the enemy can't be Frightened, you can drop one of your swords and shove/grapple them. You also have an unusually strong OA since you can attach a Divine Smite to it.

Conquering Presence (one of your Channel Divinity options) is a great tanking/control ability all on its own; it has an enormous AoE and applies an ongoing fear effect, which gives enemies Disadvantage on all their attacks and makes it so that they can't move closer to you -- which generally means they can't move closer to whatever allies you want to keep them away from, either. Or move at all, if they're in your aura.

Additionally, your good damage output and ability to heal and protect allies means that it's tougher to keep the party down as long as you're standing.

And since you're from the Boreal Valley you're Resistant to Cold. Just cuz.

Single Class Benefits
Obviously, you'd get a lot of nice things from multiclassing into Sorcerer or the like (like more spell slots), but single class gets you a bunch of nice things too. The main highlights being...

- A Pegasus (or Griffon) from Find Greater Steed! These guys will not only move you around the map incredibly quickly (making Monks jealous) but they're quite durable in their own right with high saves across the board (thanks to a good base + your aura) and the fact that they can totally share your Armor of Agathys. They also can act independently and are okay fighters (Griffons have multiattack). I'd rather have this spell than the entire Beastmaster subclass.

- +1d8 damage per hit from Improved Divine Smite, which combos neatly with dual-wielding.

- A big aura, so your allies don't quite have to stand in Fireball Formation to benefit from it.

- Scornful Rebuke, which deals 5 damage per attack that hits you (including ranged attacks), on top of Armor of Agathys and such.

- Invincible Conqueror, which is a pretty good capstone.

- Faster ASI progression.

- Cleansing Touch, which is kinda like 5 upcast dispels a day.

Variants
- Obviously, you can multiclass this into Sorcerer or the like.
- Ravnica backgrounds are basically free power creep, and can get you stuff like Hellish Rebuke/Haste (Rakdos) or Spirit Guardians (Orzhov) or Pass Without Trace (Dimir).

[Evaar]

I think that's supposed to be covered by gnomes but I've always disliked that fine line. Dwarves making great mundane stuff and gnomes inventing tiny fiddly stuff.


TBH I've never been a big fan of gnomes in dnd anyway, I feel like they are a split between dwarves and halflings.

I mean, their main god is Moradin and his holy symbol is an anvil. Smithing is absolutely central to their culture. It doesn’t feel right to say “It’s a masterwork dwarven crafted longsword. It’s mechanically identical to any other mundane longsword but, like, fancy.”

Battlesmith seems designed for dwarves. Now they can actually do that effectively.

[Darthnazrael]

I've always been annoyed that Dragonborn breath weapons are Constitution-based but they don't get a bonus to it. Now that they can, I like the idea of a Dragonborn Storm Herald Barbarian with CON as a primary stat and wearing no armor, picking the Storm Herald paths that require enemies to make saves (since the save is determined using CON).

Definitely consider Aberrant Dragonmark, too. You could pick up Firebolt or the like for a strong Con-based Ranged attack when you're too far away for your breath attack, or con-based Greenflame Blade, and then maybe Shield, Absorb Elements or even Earth Tremor. I havent done the math, but since Barbarians dont progress their Extra Attack past Tier 2, I wouldn't be surprised if GFB might surpass Extra attack as of Tier 3-4.

As for me, I love the idea of a Goblin Artificer. Not sure whether to go with the 'boom' flavor of Artillerist, or the 'unpredictable chemistry' of Alchemist.

[LudicSavant]

Goblins were already strong enough to be worth picking for casters despite their lack of a mental stat. So now they're just gonna be fantastic. Cast a spell with your Action, then use a bonus action to Hide. Very effective. Also helps your resourceless output a lot since you get Advantage on just about every Fire Bolt or what-have-you.

[Kane0]

Gnomish martials would be fun, shoring up weaker mental saves with advantage.

Elves and Dwarves become very good skilled types with a handful of tool profs in place of weapons

Rerolling 1 halflings are now even more entertaining for attack spamming warlocks, fighters and monks

Half orcs looking to capitalize on crits with something like assassin rogue/stalker ranger

Goliath casters ignore str as a dump stat for carry capacity and can reduce both damage taken and concentration DCs with the reaction ability

Im sure there’s more

[Sindal]

-A dragonborn alchemsit named "Chem" with an int dip. Hes just trying to make a living. A lot of people out there needing potions.

-a kobold whisper bard named "Cashew" with a cha dip. After all: who would suspect Sir Cashew, knight in service to the dragon crown and one of their valued spies, to be anything more than just a pet or handservant.

[GooeyChewie]

My first thought was a Genasi Genie Patron Warlock, swapping the +2 Con to +2 Cha and the +1 subrace bonus back to +1 Con. Then I realized the racial spells use Con, so they'll be less powerful than my regular spells, which means I'm probably still better off with another race.

Then I thought I'd make a Minotaur Fiend Patron Warlock, using Baphomet as my patron. Then I realized most of the Minotaur racial features are still Str-based, so I'd really better off with pretty much any other race.

For Dwarf Artificer I plan to keep on using Mark of Warding. That subrace was released in the same book as the Artificer class, so I'm pretty sure they were meant for each other.

I think two main things will happen. One, races with physical ability score boosts and racial features that were somewhat redundant on martial characters will become great casters. Two, races with racial features that do not base themselves on any particular ability score will become good at everything. So from that perspective, I think my future character concepts might include Tortle Wizard and Half-Elf literally anything.

[micahaphone]

Okay. Here's a Goliath ice-armored TWF/grappler tank build that takes advantage of Goliath's synergy with Armor of Agathys... but never had stat mods suitable for a caster or half-caster prior to Tasha's.

Nothing wildly overpowered or anything. Just effective, fun, and a little different.

The Dancer of the Boreal Valley


Damn that looks really fun. I've been looking into playing a conquest pally, but hadn't settled on a race. I figured the rp would be a disillusioned champion who now believes in authoritarianism as a guiding hand, and while zariel tiefling has the perfect stats for a paladin, idk the edgy backstory + tiefling almost feels like too much. But the cold themed mountain of a man who imposes his will on the terrified subjects? that's cool!

[Bobthewizard]

Goblin Sorcerer or Wizard. Bonus action Hide, then use spells with spell attack rolls to try to crit with your Advantage.

This. That BA hide or disengage made for great wizards and sorcerers even with being behind in the casting stat. Now they are amazing. At everything but rogue. Which is interesting. Goblins should make good rogues.

[KorvinStarmast]

Character Ideas Using New Customized Origin Features Well, my new idea is to figure out if there is a class and sub class that I want to play and then make one. I don't have any favorite background/ancestry/bloodline so it really doesn't matter. There are a few I'll never use - kenku, yuan ti, tiefling - due to personal dislike for how they are implemented, and I have played so many hobbit/halflings over the years that the odds of me ever playing one ever again is about zero.

Everything else is up for grabs. I had hopes that I could get into an AL Rime of the Frotsmaiden game but it appears that my spare time will not allow that based on my wife's priorities for how I spend my time.

Such is life.

[Hawk7915]

Excited to play a Drow Cleric of Eilistraee or Lloth that isn't embarrassingly awful, stat-wise.

I also love Dragonborn but their stats really pigeon-holed them. Looking forward to a Dragonborn Sorcerer or Warlock that is a little better.

Ditto Lizardfolk; any race with +2 CON gets a lot better since they can shuffle that to a stat that actually helps their attack rolls/spell save DC.

[ProsecutorGodot]

If I have the chance I plan to finally port my go to Argonian Scout Rogue into DND using Lizardfolk with a Dex/Wis boost. Another idea is an eccentric Tabaxi Wizard.

[Naanomi]

Kobold Battlesmith riding their Robot, an easy 6/14/15/17/10/8 stat spread

[ProsecutorGodot]

Kobold Battlesmith riding their Robot, an easy 6/14/15/17/10/8 stat spread

Even better, you probably won't have the penalty to strength.

[Naanomi]

Even better, you probably won't have the penalty to strength.
Inconsequential in all likelyhood

[ProsecutorGodot]

Inconsequential in all likelyhood

Yeah, unless your DM suddenly decides to pull out variant encumbrance it's almost never anything but a less bad looking number.

[zinycor]

Inconsequential in all likelyhood

There's a good number of saves that attack str. But yeah, probably is worth it to dump it

[jaappleton]

Veldaken Paladin. Advantage on mental saves plus the right stats for the class, coupled with Paladins natural save bonuses?

[Lord Raziere]

A graceful High Elf Bard who sings peaceful melodies or plays the violin or perhaps produces orchestral music somehow, a high class sophisticated lady who plays quiet pieces for everyday performances but can launch into epic classical songs when she feels it appropriate.

various goblin concepts for the Ghaal'dar and Dhakaani for Eberron.

with the languages thing various sorcerer and warlock concepts can have things like Primordial, Draconic, Sylvan, Infernal and so on learned.

wood elves will finally get to be better Oath of Ancients Paladins

Lot of chaotic Dex-like races that normally don't get Wisdom can now be better Trickery Domain Clerics. Warrior races with Str/con that normally don't get wisdom can now be better War Domain Clerics. Air Genasi Storm domain Cleric, Changeling Cleric worshipping the Traveler, knowledge-based Int races can now be better Knowledge Domain clerics, things like that.

Half Elves can now get a +2 to anything rather than just charisma on top of their three +1s to anything. that opens up... a lot.

aside from Wizards for a lot of warrior races now being more of a thing, I wonder what a High Elf Barbarian would be like. just imagine the most posh and fanciest of the elves just suddenly having a berserker rage, it'd be fantastic.

and then there's Monks: you want a Tiefling monk doing training to overcome the infernal-ness? there you go. you want Protector Aasimar being a Monk? there you go.

[Wasp]

I like the idea of a Firbolg Scout or Gloomstalker/Scout

[jaappleton]

Hobgoblin Divine Soul
Their Saving Face feature combined with Favored of the Gods should make any saving throw easy to handle.

Hobgoblin Chronurgist Wizard
I love this one as a military commander, training the party by manipulating time and results.
“No, Fighter, the enemy will get your blindside that way!”
-freezes the enemy with Momentary Stasis-
“Next time, keep that in mind. Now strike!”

I really want to build out a Goliath for Frostmaiden, but going non-STR oriented. However, strength and strength based competitions are so baked into their lore that it just seems wrong to do.

[Naanomi]

There's a good number of saves that attack str. But yeah, probably is worth it to dump it
If it ever became a frequent issue, I have a class feature to make STR boosting items eventually

[Jellypants]

I really want to build out a Goliath for Frostmaiden, but going non-STR oriented. However, strength and strength based competitions are so baked into their lore that it just seems wrong to do.

Just make it part of your character's backstory. Shunned in his youth for his lack of strength and frailty, Nariak Dreamweaver left his home in search for alternate means of showing his worth. When he returns, he will not be the weakling he once was...

[Sparky McDibben]

I really want to build out a Goliath for Frostmaiden, but going non-STR oriented. However, strength and strength based competitions are so baked into their lore that it just seems wrong to do.

It's fairly trite now, but there are many kinds of strength. Maybe your goliath is trying to convince their people of this fact.

[kobo1d]

Since this was previewed, these are the weird things I’ve theorycrafted that I wouldn’t otherwise have:

-Hill Dwarf Armorer Artificer
-Yuan-ti Pureblood Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 5 / Swashbuckler Rogue X
-Winged Tiefling Berserker Barbarian X / Gloom Stalker Ranger 4
-Winged Tiefling Undead Warlock
-Kalashtar Moon Druid
-Kobold Divine Soul Sorcerer X / Hexblade Warlock 3

[Naanomi]

I just rolled up a Kenku Order of the Scribe... copy those books!

Someone else in our party is planning a centaur drunken monk next game

[Amnestic]

A water genasi Celestial Tomelock 3/Lord Bard X shrine maiden who fires eldritch blast arrows from her longbow. She doesn't need proficiency with it because she's not actually using it as a weapon.