What character would you build with this class

[strangebloke]

So this has been done before but we have a lot of new options so I'm curious what people think.

Generic Person
hit die: D8
Proficiences: Light Armor, simple weapons
Class features: You get an ASI every level. Racial and stat requirements do not apply. You can raise any stat to 24

I'm pretty confident that this is always going to redirect into a melee-based charger who dabbles in support (since there's no second attack and no spellcasting) but I'm curious to see where people go with this.

[LudicSavant]

So this has been done before but we have a lot of new options so I'm curious what people think.

Generic Person
hit die: D8
Proficiences: Light Armor, simple weapons
Class features: You get an ASI every level. Racial and stat requirements do not apply. You can raise any stat to 24

I'm pretty confident that this is always going to redirect into a melee-based charger who dabbles in support (since there's no second attack and no spellcasting) but I'm curious to see where people go with this.

As a character without Extra Attack or a primary spellcasting progression, you basically have one option for a scaling attack: Booming Blade. You can pick that up from either High Elf, Half-High Elf, Magic Initiate, or Aberrant Dragonmark.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

It looks like you can get feats.
I will take CBE and SS and the feat that gives a fighting style for archery.

I will aim to improve my shooting skills.
I will take the wood elf only feat that gives spella.
Later I will also take shadow and fey touched and maybe Drow high magic.

The tifling feat that gives resistance is also good.

[OldTrees1]

Unfortunately we don't have that many feats yet, so I can't design *anything* I want.

Hmm, looking at the options it seems we have 5 types of feats
1) Weapon style feats (Polearm Master, Shield Master, Crusher, etc)
2) Skill feats (Skill Expert, Prodigy, Skilled)
3) Healer feats (Inspiring Leader, Healer, Chef)
4) Minor Magic (cantrips, specific spells 1/day, Ritual Caster)
5) Defense (Resilient, Durable)

I think we would see an Eldritch Knight using either a two handed polearm for Polearm Master or using Booming Blade / Green Flame Blade. Unfortunately I don't think we qualify for Eldritch Adept.


I think these 7 feats are probably the ones I would take.
Drow High Magic, Wood Elf Magic, Shadow Touched, Fey Teleportation, Magic Initiate (5th level), Ritual Caster
Cantrips: Guidance, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade(Int).
Rituals: Detect Magic, Identify, Speak With Animals
1/rest: Misty Step
1st level/day: Longstrider, Silent Image, Find Familiar
Higher/day: Dispel Magic, Levitate, Invisibility, Pass Without Trace

Side Effect:
+1 Int/Cha, +1 Int/Wis/Cha

Cantrips:
+1 Artificer (Artificer Initiate)
+2 (Magic Initiate)
Mage Hand (Telekinetic)
+1 Druid (Wood Elf Magic)

At Will:
Detect Magic (Drow High Magic)
2 1st level Rituals (Ritual Caster)

1st level spells:
1st level Artificer spell (Artificer Initiate)
1st level Divination/Enchantment (Fey Touched)
1st level (Magic Initiate)
1st level Illusion/Necromancy (Shadow Tocuhed)
Longstrider (Wood Elf Magic)

Higher (1/rest):
Misty Step (Fey Teleportation)

Higher (1/day):
Levitate (Drow High Magic)
Dispel Magic (Drow High Magic)
Misty Step (Fey Touched)
Invisibility (Shadow Touched)
Detect Thoughts (Telepathic)
Pass Without Trace (Wood Elf Magic)



Hmm, based on that magic, I can definitely see we have some skill support for Stealth/Recon/Infiltration. With Prodigy and Skill Expert we can have 2 Expertise. I am thinking Perception and Deception since we have 3 spells to buff stealth. We start with Perception & Deception and pick a new skill proficiency when we choose to upgrade these to Expertise. That way we can delay these feats until 9th level when Expertise gets a bigger boost.

Expertise: Perception, Deception
Proficiency: Stealth, Persuasion, Insight, Arcana (Hmm, looks like we are a Half Elf for the racial proficiencies, or we take Skilled and also get Athletics).

For combat we are definitely leaning towards Green Flame Blade which helps relax our choices.

Crusher (free automatic push, +1 Str/Con) Hmm but there is no simple bludgeoning finesse weapon
Moderately Armored (+1 Dex, Shield, and Medium Armor Proficiency)
Defensive Dualist (reaction: +prof to AC)
Fighting Initiate (Blind Fighting for blindsight)
Resilient (+1 Con, Constitution because we are less of a friendly fire threat if we fail a Wisdom save)
Maybe Sentinel + Warcaster (around 11th level?)
Elven Accuracy +1 Dex

Finally there are the healing support feats. These feats can enhance our allies a lot.
Inspiring Leader is a good precombat buff even with 8 Cha.
Chef (+1 Con/Wis) gives some useful bonus action healing.
Healer is the strongest healing but is limited because it actually heals rather than prevents and still has the short rest limitation.

For ASIs we probably want to get to Dex 18-20, Con 14-16, Wis 12-14, Cha 12-14. Since we get +2 Dex, +2 Con, +1 Int, +1 Wis from feats and +2/+1/+1 from Half Elf. We probably only want 1 ASIs (+2 Dex).

Str 08, Con 12+2(species)+3(feats), Dex 15+1(species)+2(feat)+2(ASI), Int 12+1(feat)+1(ASI), Wis 13+1(ASI), Cha13+1(species)

Yikes that is exactly 18 feats and 2 ASI. Figuring out the order is going to be tricky.

]
Str 08, Con 14, Dex 16, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 14
Deception, Stealth, Perception, Persuasion
Elven Accuracy (17 Dex)
Drow High Magic (Detect Magic at-will, Levitate 1/day, Dispel Magic 1/day)
Moderately Armored (18 Dex)
Ritual Caster (Identify, Speak With Animals)
Magic Initiate (Green Flame Blade[Int], Booming Blade, Find Familiar)
Inspiring Leader
Resilient Constitution (15 Con)
Wood Elf Magic (Guidance, Longstrider 1/day, Pass without Trace 1/day)
Prodigy(Expert Stealth, Proficient Insight, Thieves Tools, +1 language)
Fighting Initiate (Blind Fighting for blindsight)
Sentinel
Warcaster
Skill Expert(Expert Deception, Proficient Arcana)
Chef (16 Con)
Shadow Touched (Silent Image 1/day, Invisibility 1/day)
Fey Teleportation (Int 13, Misty Step 1/rest)
ASI (Dex 20)
ASI (Int 14 Wis 14)
Defensive Dualist
Healer


I tried to balance the progression a bit by delaying some features while still getting important features sooner. However late Tier 3 and all of Tier 4 is a disappointment.

You are a half elf arcane trickster without sneak attack. You provide some healing support.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd just play any other class and once my primary stat is 20, dip two levels into this to boost it to 24.

[RogueJK]

I'm pretty confident that this is always going to redirect into a melee-based charger who dabbles in support (since there's no second attack and no spellcasting)

Not necessarily. You can get a wide variety of lower level spellcasting through feats. And Eldritch Blast effectively gets you "additional attacks". So I'd do something like:

Take Magic Initiate: Warlock for EB, and Eldritch Adept for Agonizing Blast. Then just rely on scaling EB for your attacks, eventually maxing CHA to 24. Take Telekinetic along the way for a good option for your Bonus Action each round. Elven Accuracy could be useful with EB. And you might also eventually take Crossbow Expert to remove the close range penalty.

The ultra-high CHA also lets you take advantage of stuff like the Inspiring Leader feat. Feats like Skill Expert for CHA skill proficiency and Expertise in Persuasion, plus the Actor feat, would let you really lean into the high CHA in social interactions.

Supplement with other feats like Aberrant Dragonmark, Wood Elf Magic, Drow High Magic, Svirfneblin Magic, Ritual Caster - Wizard, Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Spell Sniper, other Magic Initiate, etc. for additional spellcasting as desired.

Beyond CHA, you'll also want a high DEX because you're limited to light armor and no shields. Or spend a feat on Moderately Armored.

[LudicSavant]

Take Magic Initiate: Warlock for EB, and Eldritch Adept for Agonizing Blast.

You don’t qualify for the Eldritch Adept feat.

[Dalinar]

I'm going to take a different tack.

Eloquence Bard 4 / Generic Person 3.

Eloquence Bard is already notorious for its ridiculous Persuasion and Deception checks; start 17 CHA, take Actor at 4 to bump that to 18, take three levels of Generic Person to bump that to 24.

Your minimum roll on a Persuasion or Deception check is 10, you have a +7 CHA, you have expertise and a +3 proficiency bonus, so by 7 your minimum roll on either of those checks is 23. You also have advantage on Deception or Performance while trying to pass yourself off as another person, meaning that even against a DC 25 Deception check you still have two chances to roll a 12 or better, so you'll more likely than not hit it.

You also have Disguise Self.

You can pretty much be anyone you want (within the limits of Disguise Self) as far as social interactions are concerned.

So instead of going to kill the dragon, why not convince those bored other adventurers at the tavern to do it for you? You're the king in disguise, after all, so you can promise a handsome reward (and then vanish if they actually pull it off).

And even if things do come to combat, you still have a spell save DC of 8+3+7=18, effectively a little better than that due to Unsettling Words, and you get Hypnotic Pattern with one more Bard level, so you have a better chance than not of disabling anyone that tries to come for you. You probably also have a loyal band of bodyguards because, again, you're the king.

International diplomacy? You're a visiting foreign dignitary with a bit of a sensitive ego. People will scramble to help you if you feign even the slightest offense, lest you go back home and provoke a war. Get in a meeting with the actual powers that be and make your demands.

Run-in with a dragon? The dragon probably bats for another team, because your DM is a spoilsport, but s/he found your seduction attempts hilarious and will probably do you a favor for the laugh. Also, you're the king again, so you've now given the poor guy a reputation for... interesting predilections.

Undead? You have bodyguards for that, but if there's a lich or something commanding them, you could probably work something out. You demonstrate your Disguise Self powers (secretly, of course) and promise to do business anonymously in town to get the lich more fresh bodies to work with. (You promptly leave the continent and hope he never finds you.)

Truesight? Okay, okay, you've finally been caught impersonating the king all this time, but you have a perfectly good reason for that: the king asked you to do some of his business on his behalf, and it's easier to just use Disguise Self rather than worry about a letter of recommendation that might be stolen or whatever. Also, if the king contradicts you, he's lying, and mad because you slept with the queen.

You get the idea.

[strangebloke]

I really feel that I shouldn't have to say this, but this silly class is notintended for multiclassing.

[OldTrees1]

Does anyone else have a "ThisClass 20" build? Let's see the ideas.

[Dalinar]

I really feel that I shouldn't have to say this, but this silly class is notintended for multiclassing.

If you meant this, then you definitely should have explicitly said it, because every official class absolutely *is* intended for multiclassing, and while I'm not the most knowledgeable on what the homebrew scene looks like, I can't imagine that your typical homebrew creator would throw away multiclass-oriented feedback, considering that it seems the vast majority of tables at least allow the multiclassing rules. Additionally, this thread is fundamentally all about the explicitly optional feat rules from the same PHB chapter, as I gather from the "racial and stat requirements do not apply" and "lots of new options" lines. Lastly, your sig.

EDIT: Okay, I think I might have overreacted a little. I guess this is a lesson on how hard it is to convey tone in a text medium, huh?

---

Anyway, given this limitation, we can still do my Actor build, as we mainly lose out on the minimum Deception/Persuasion rolls and Unsettling Words by dropping the Bard levels (we can grab Disguise Self from a feat). We grab Skill Expert, Prodigy, Magic Initiate or Shadow-touched, Actor, and enough ASIs to get 24 CHA (this will take us about 6-7 total levels).

At this point, we still have a +13 modifier to any of your two favorite social skills (Deception and Performance probably, since you have advantage on those checks from Actor), and you have 1/LR Disguise Self. It sucks losing the bad-luck protection from Eloquence, but we'll make do.

---

For a more directly combat-oriented build, your best bet for an offensive package is probably Booming Blade, as mentioned by others. At some point, also grab Ritual Caster to get yourself a familiar, so you can give yourself advantage on attacks or skill checks (not a lot of good ways to weaponize your bonus action here).

While you can't use the bonus action attack from Polearm Master alongside Booming Blade, it's still probably worth grabbing to weaponize your reaction a little better (that or Sentinel), and the bonus action attack from a Great Weapon Master crit or lethal hit doesn't seem to require the Attack action, although you're busy ordering your familiar around so you probably still won't get it (but -5/+10 is worth it on low-AC targets). War Caster turns the OAs from PAM/Sentinel into Booming Blades, and we qualify for it since we don't actually need a Spellcasting/Pact Magic class feature, just the ability to use any spell.

Speaking of, Weapon Master is probably worth it given no multiclassing, so that you can get better weapons (you're probably making do with something like a quarterstaff up to this point).

[x3n0n]

One core build concept, online at 2nd level:

Goblin for Nimble Escape (Disengage or Hide)
1st: Moderately Armored
2nd: MI:Wizard for Booming Blade, Chill Touch, and Find Familiar

Lots more to add, but the core of (Hide or Owl Help for advantage) + (BB/Disengage or ranged cantrip) seems pretty good for single-target scaling damage all the way up.

Skill Expert makes Hide better.
Mobile opens up "free Disengage" so you can look for other bonus actions (Expeditious Retreat?)
Skulker opens up hiding when lightly obscured.
Medium Armor Master gives more AC while avoiding disadvantage on Stealth.

Getting GFB for multi-target damage and another attack cantrip for necrotic resistance is worthwhile.

Fighting Initiate (Blind Fighting) opens up combos with obscurement for more advantage options (Fog Cloud, possible Eversmoking Bottle; others?)

Eventual Resilient (Con or Wis) for sure.
Ritual Caster (Wizard) for sure; could open another MI option if delaying Find Familiar for a level is acceptable.

War Caster + PAM + more Str offers useful BB on approach.

MI:Warlock opens up EB and Hex as another scaling damage source; Fey Touched offers a second casting of Hex.