Fun/optimized builds

[BastionOfPeace]

Hey, all.
My dungeon master is holding a 15th level two shot in a couple of months, so I have plenty of time to prepare.
I'm wanting a really fun build to play, it doesn't have to be OP or anything.
(Nobody has to reply to this section) We can have 1000 gold for non magical items,
And either 3 Uncommon items, 2 rare items, or 1 very rare item. The exchange rate is 1 item for 2 lower rarity, so for instance: 1 rare and 2 uncommon items.
Base stats are:
16 16 14 14 12 10
Anything official is allowed.
We have a:
Bard
monk/barbarian
Grave cleric
Druid/sorcerer
Paladin/sorcerer.
In the regular campaign I'm already playing a sorcadin, so it would kinda beat the horse to death to have two sorcadins.
I was thinking about oathbreaker/hexblade, and come to find out our bard is building their character around summon (greater) demon, so it synergizes well.
I appreciate anybody who replies! I know this topic has been beat to absolute death over the years, but I've only been able to find level 20 builds.

[strangebloke]

The "fun and eclectic builds" thread is great for this sort of thing.

With your list of allies here, I'd build a melee wall so that the monk/barbarian has a friend. My pick here?

Battlemaster 7, Swashbuckler 8.
Race: Half-Elf (wood elf heritage for mask of the wild)
Fighting style: Dueling (rapier and shield)
Maneuvers: Brace, Riposte, Precision Attack, Goading Attack, Ambush
Expertise: Stealth, Athletics, (2 more of your choice, coordinate with the bard here)
items: boots of flying (uncommon), +1 shield(uncommon), cloak of displacement (rare)

Starting Stats after racial mods: 14/17/15/10/12/18.

You'll have four ASIs which you can use to take the following
Elven Accuracy
+2 Dexterity
Sentinel
Shield Master

The basic idea is simple. Win initiative, charge in and knock the enemy down with shield master, then stab them for fat sneak attack damage. Then on your turn, if an enemy enters your threatened area, attacks you (at disadvantage) and misses, leaves your threatened area, or attacks your friend, you can get a reaction attack and under most circumstances apply sneak attack again. You have goading attack to force people to attack you, and you have all the normal goodness of a rogue. You're effectively immune to anything that allows a dexterity save and you can bonus action dash while flying. Your AC is 20 and enemies will have disadvantage on at least their first attack against you, and you can cut the damage in half if you need to.

And you're 100% a noncaster!

[Kane0]

I would go for an artificer or rogue, perhaps a mix of both? You have plenty of people that would benefit from artillerist but you can also help on the frontline as armorer which also adds some stealthiness where necessary

[Nikushimi]

Ngl, Armorer Artificer and Scout Rogue sound pretty neat.

Scout 10/Armorer 5
Race: Honestly up to you. I like the idea of a Genasi or Fairy though for some reason.

I didn't think this entirely through since I'm tired and replying at almost 430am (oops), but oh well.

The idea of this build is simple. Be fast, hit decent.

Armorer 5 gives you access to Lightning Damage with Infiltrator Mode which counts as a simple ranged weapon. Which means you can use it for your sneak attack. That's 1d6 Lightning Damage. Plus, on each of your turns you can add on another 1d6 if I'm reading this right that means 2d6 with just that attack.

Scout 10 gives you access to Sneak Attack for 5d6. Which with melee heavy party members means you will most likely be getting that on every enemy you target since they should be within 5ft of them.

Which, adding that all together means 7d6 per round of Lightning Damage. Pretty...shocking. *boo* *hiss*

If they are resistant or immune to lightning, just pull out a normal bow or switch to the Guardian mode of your Armorer and deal Thunder damage instead.

Not only that, but if an enemy ends its turn within 5ft of you the Scouts ability "Skirmisher" allows you to move up to half your speed without provoking attacks of opportunity as a reaction. Which, would be 20ft (Scout gives you an extra 10 at 9th level and Armorer gives you an extra 5ft when in Infiltrator mode for either 45ft or 40ft movement depending on race. Which means half your movement would be 20ft).

And with Armorer 5th level you get an Extra Attack. Which means another 1d6 of Lightning or any other damage. So that's two attacks for the price of one.

So you're mobile, you're tricky, and you hit them with lightning that hurts. Pew pew mf.

That is all. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[Bobthewizard]

I wouldn't multiclass more than a one level dip for a level 15 build. All of the arcane casters get a really good subclass ability at level 14, so I'd make sure to grab one that I liked.

Since both of the sorcerers multi classed, and are therefore behind in their spellcasting, I'd play a wizard. Specifically an illusionist with eldritch adept for misty visions for at-will silent image. It is OP, but it is a lot of fun.

Use malleable illusions on creation, hallucinatory terrain, mirage arcane, and a level 6 major image. Use illusory reality every round if you want with silent image to create a 15' block of whatever you want - spiky ball, cage, tower, block with holes in it, giant manacles.

Give your simulacrum a distinct personality and enjoy the role-play of that. Mine was always fawning over the character telling everyone how great he was and how much he took care of his sim. Meanwhile the character didn't care about the sim at all since it was like his 37th that he had made. Or you could make the sim be surly and backtalk while he followed instructions.

[Gtdead]

You have a lot of casters and a meatshield. How about a Gloomstalker or a Mark of Passage Archer EK? You will provide Pass Without Trace for your party and take this burden from the druid, fill a striker role and have spells to play with. And you can always carry a shield and get into the frontlines. You will lack the Defense Fighting Style but it won't be your main role anyway, and EK has Shield or Bladeward+bonus action attack just in case while Ranger has goodberry to help with hp regeneration.

Go for Longbow with Sharpshooter, don't get CE. It won't be the most powerful archer but you will bring a lot of utility. Personally I don't care about CE that much. Being able to attack from 600 feet away is better tactically.

[Sillybird99]

Mark of warding dwarf artificer 1/ abjurer 14 would be pretty solid addition. Very solid protector with enhanced counterspell, spell resistance, and projected ward. The armor of Agathys racial and medium armor/shield will enable you to stick it out in melee. Take warcaster for even better concentration checks and to get some more utility out of your reactions.

[Khrysaes]

Mark of warding dwarf artificer 1/ abjurer 14 would be pretty solid addition. Very solid protector with enhanced counterspell, spell resistance, and projected ward. The armor of Agathys racial and medium armor/shield will enable you to stick it out in melee. Take warcaster for even better concentration checks and to get some more utility out of your reactions.

Why arti 1? Con saves?

Also 2 warlock or eldritch invocation feat +armor of shadows means infinite recharging of your ward

[Bobthewizard]

Why arti 1? Con saves?

Also 2 warlock or eldritch invocation feat +armor of shadows means infinite recharging of your ward

Warlock 2 requires a 13 Cha and delays your spellcasting. Artificer 1 doesn't slow down your slots and only requires INT so you can likely get your CON score 2 higher for more HP. It also gets you CON saves as you said.

Now that eldritch adept exists, I think artificer is a better start for an abjurer than hexblade.

[Khrysaes]

Warlock 2 requires a 13 Cha and delays your spellcasting. Artificer 1 doesn't slow down your slots and only requires INT so you can likely get your CON score 2 higher for more HP. It also gets you CON saves as you said.

Now that eldritch adept exists, I think artificer is a better start for an abjurer than hexblade.
I mean, i agree i iust wondered your reasoning as opposed to 15 wizard


On that note. Why warding dwarf? The only new spell it gives you is armor of agathys, all published content is allowed, so with tasha’s available i think mountain is better with medium armor prof and +2/+2 ability

[Bobthewizard]

I mean, i agree i iust wondered your reasoning as opposed to 15 wizard

1 level of artificer gets you medium armor, CON save proficiency, and cure wounds for some emergency healing. It doesn't slow down your spell slots so you can still get that extra 7th level slot at 20. It's a great dip for a wizard.

Personally, I normally go straight wizard if it's a character I'm playing through all the levels. I think the level behind in wizard spells hurts a lot, always getting the next level of spells one whole level late. And I'd rather start with WIS saves and an odd CON score then CON saves and an odd WIS score, and take Res. CON, adding the point to CON rather than needing Res. WIS. But starting at level 15, I'd be tempted to start with the one level of artificer.


On that note. Why warding dwarf? The only new spell it gives you is armor of agathys, all published content is allowed, so with tasha’s available i think mountain is better with medium armor prof and +2/+2 ability

Armor of Agathys is great for an abjurer since damage goes to the ward first but still triggers the counterattack damage. I would rather have that spell than armor of shadows if I had to choose. But yes, mountain dwarf otherwise has now become the best sorcerer/wizard race in the game.

[Sillybird99]

I mean, i agree i iust wondered your reasoning as opposed to 15 wizard


On that note. Why warding dwarf? The only new spell it gives you is armor of agathys, all published content is allowed, so with tasha’s available i think mountain is better with medium armor prof and +2/+2 ability

Armor of Agathys gets way more mileage on Abjurer because the arcane ward protects the temp hp while still dealing the cold damage. 15 wizard doesnt get any class features. Starting Artificer gets you armor and save proficiencies (not to mention bonus preparations of abjuration spells like sanctuary, alarm, absorb elements, snare; and guidance and curewounds) to make you way tankier and doesnt slow slot progression. Armor of Agathys scales super well when upcast and recharges the Arcane ward, so your highest level slot will always have a solid use. 8h level armor of Agathys is 40thp and 40 cold damage protected behind an arcane ward that should be 33 hit points at level 15 with the arti dip.

Not saying that's your best use of an 8th level slot on round 1, but when your ward goes down or takes big damage, an 8th level AoA could save your live, bumping that ward back up significantly and granting the temp hp.

[Eldariel]

On this level? Illusionist all the way! There are few enough opportunities to play Illusionist at full power and it's a blast to! You can just have a horde of permanent Major Images around, Malleable + Illusory Reality them as needed without even using your Concentration and you have Mirage Arcana as your "godmode" (an absurd spell with Malleable Illusions; believing or disbelieving doesn't really matter and it can even deal damage).

Add to this the normal high level Wizard shenanigans like Simulacrum, Create Demiplane + Glyph of Warding (for when you need to go Ironman with like Tenser's + Haste (+ Polymorph) + Spirit Shroud + Tasha's Guise + whatever, all of which you've cast with Glyph on the Demiplane at some point with some easy trigger condition), Teleport/Plane Shift, Contact Other Plane + near-automake Int check (make sure to have Lucky, Alert, and Res: Con), Phantom Steeds from you and your Simulacrum for the whole party (of up to 10 characters), Magic Jar body upgrades, Contingency as a get-out-of-jail-for-free card, etc. and it's just a blast.

Chronurgist is also pretty sweet especially with Magic Jar into e.g. Shadar-kai body for Exhaustion immunity for at-will Convergent Future, but that's just numbers while Illusionist lets you do literally whatever you want. Few things are as "different" from typical play as high level Illusionists and that makes them incredibly enjoyable IME.


EDIT: What's this about dipping Artificer? Giving up Maze/Demiplane/Mind Blank-level options for...what, armor proficiency? On TIER 3?