Bully zealot build

[Spacehamster]

Custom lineage: +2 STR, dark vision and shield master feat, medium size.
Background: any you want
Ability scores point buy: 17/14/14/8/12/8
Level 4: skill expert expertise athletics + prof in any skill, +1 STR.
Level 8 & 12 either two STR half feats or +2 STR and any full feat you want.

Combat: whack twice with one handed weapon of choice & bonus action pummel fools to the ground with your mighty shield with advantage & expertise in athletics to help your weak & feeble party members get advantage. Bonus points if you think up good degrading insults for those you pummel to the ground.

Thoughts?

[Unoriginal]

Custom lineage: +2 STR, dark vision and shield master feat, medium size.
Background: any you want
Ability scores point buy: 17/14/14/8/12/8
Level 4: skill expert expertise athletics + prof in any skill, +1 STR.
Level 8 & 12 either two STR half feats or +2 STR and any full feat you want.

Combat: whack twice with one handed weapon of choice & bonus action pummel fools to the ground with your mighty shield with advantage & expertise in athletics to help your weak & feeble party members get advantage. Bonus points if you think up good degrading insults for those you pummel to the ground.

Thoughts?

1) I'm assuming the class-subclass is Zealot Barbarian, right?

2) Will be hard to degrade/insult people well with 8 in CHA. I would suggest investing at least a bit in that stat if you want the character's capacities to match the character concept.

3) With 14 CON 14 DEX your Barbarian will likely go for the Medium Armor, don't forget that it will have an impact. on what you can and cannot do.

4) Enemies who are above Large in size will be a big problem (pun intended) for your Zealot.

Build works for what you want to do, otherwise

[Spacehamster]

1) I'm assuming the class-subclass is Zealot Barbarian, right?

2) Will be hard to degrade/insult people well with 8 in CHA. I would suggest investing at least a bit in that stat if you want the character's capacities to match the character concept.

3) With 14 CON 14 DEX your Barbarian will likely go for the Medium Armor, don't forget that it will have an impact. on what you can and cannot do.

4) Enemies who are above Large in size will be a big problem (pun intended) for your Zealot.

Build works for what you want to do, otherwise

Zealot yes, bullies don’t tend to make smart witty insult so a low CHA fits just fine in my opinion.
For huge and larger enemies you are still a barbarian, hard to kill and do decent damage, plus can always ask your friendly neighborhood wizard to enlarge you so you can slam huge mobs too. :3

[Opsimos]

Custom lineage: +2 STR, dark vision and shield master feat, medium size.
Background: any you want
Ability scores point buy: 17/14/14/8/12/8
Level 4: skill expert expertise athletics + prof in any skill, +1 STR.
Level 8 & 12 either two STR half feats or +2 STR and any full feat you want.

Combat: whack twice with one handed weapon of choice & bonus action pummel fools to the ground with your mighty shield with advantage & expertise in athletics to help your weak & feeble party members get advantage. Bonus points if you think up good degrading insults for those you pummel to the ground.

Thoughts?

Advantage and Expertise are imo overkill. If multiclassing is an option, consider Rune Knight (3) and Rogue (1). The former gives you Action Surge, lets you grapple huge enemies, opens up oversized weapons if you are playing with that rule and being small which lets you ride cheap medium-sized mounts. For much of the same, take a look at the new Duergar race. The Rogue dip offers you a slight damage increase and frees up one feat (GWM and Res(Wis) come to mind).

I played a mechanically similar character once and while not overpowered, he held his own and was a joy to play.

[RogueJK]

Keep in mind that you can only grapple/shove/prone enemies that are no more than 1 size category larger than you. So anything over Large size would be immune to the concept that you've built this character around, and invested feats on.

That's where the suggestion for the 3 level Rune Knight dip shines. It gets you Giant Might that not only adds damage but also makes you Large (without requiring Concentration like the Enlarge spell), which means you can extend your combat trick to affect Huge enemies too.

In addition, the Barbarian class loses much of its luster after level 6ish, not gaining very much from its higher levels, compared to most other classes. So you're not missing out on much by dipping Fighter or totally switching over to Fighter.

As a result, something like a Zealot Barbarian 5 or 6 -> Rune Knight Fighter 3 or 4 -> maybe back to Zealot 6 or 7 or 8 -> Rune Knight X becomes even more attractive. Even if you want to take Zealot to higher levels for Rage Beyond Death, you could shoot for something like Zealot 14/Rune Knight 6.

Or you can approach it from the other way around, if you want the Rune Knight grapple boost sooner than the Zealot damage boost, doing something like Barbarian 1 -> Rune Knight Fighter 5 or 6 -> Zealot Barbarian 3 or 6 -> Rune Knight X.

[Corran]

If you want to bully commoners you can do it as anyone. If you want to bully the other pc's your optimal choice is a buffer, just flavor your heals, buffs, inspiring speeches, etc into what your bully pc thinks of as encouraging and motivating. If you want to bully big scary monsters, well, there are lots of ways, but the rune knight based idea already mentioned does sound very amusing. And if you want to bully the whole game world, then play some kind of fullcaster, most likely a wizard.

Though the barbarian idea is cool too. As long as you dont forget to break down doors, pick up fight in taverns and lift non cooperative NPCs up in the air, it's all good.

[TyGuy]

My bully-build forewent the advantage from rage and went shield master + crusher on BM with shove and trip maneuvers. Was very bully-ish.

[animorte]

Zealot yes, bullies don’t tend to make smart witty insult so a low CHA fits just fine in my opinion.
Well, bullying comes in many forms, including verbal. I can see that’s not the angle you prefer, which is fine.


Though the barbarian idea is cool too. As long as you dont forget to break down doors, pick up fight in taverns and lift non cooperative NPCs up in the air, it's all good.
Don’t forget to dangle them upside down while you’re at it. Give one or two good shakes for lunch money, and stuff them in a locker/garbage can. Remember all your 90s grade school bully tropes.

[Psyren]

2) Will be hard to degrade/insult people well with 8 in CHA. I would suggest investing at least a bit in that stat if you want the character's capacities to match the character concept.


Nah, you don't need Charisma to insult people. You might need it for your insults to influence them to do specific things, but just yelling out whatever epithets or expletives you want is free.

[Corran]

Don’t forget to dangle them upside down while you’re at it. Give one or two good shakes for lunch money, and stuff them in a locker/garbage can. Remember all your 90s grade school bully tropes.
Of course. That fullplate wont just buy itself, every coin counts. The garbage can is the kind of finishing touch that can earn you inspiration, which is probably better than a couple of extra xp points.

Ps: Which do you think is best for a bully caster? Bigby's hand or telekinesis? Telekinesis seems to have lots of potential, but I dunno, there is something special about Bigby's hand that I cannot pinpoint exactly.

Pps: Battlemaster 3/ thief 3 for disarming strike and fast hands. For snatching weapons, spellbooks, etc. Tavern brawler grabbed along the way too.

[da newt]

I'd look at a one lvl dip in rogue for 2x expertise and 1d6 SA depending on weapon vs spending a precious ASI on skill expert. I think there's a bit more bang for your buck w/ the dip.

[Spacehamster]

I'd look at a one lvl dip in rogue for 2x expertise and 1d6 SA depending on weapon vs spending a precious ASI on skill expert. I think there's a bit more bang for your buck w/ the dip.

Skill expert gives plus 1 to STR tho so no cost at all vs delaying progress by two level multi class? :)

[Opsimos]

Why by two levels? One level is enough.