Level 3, 1 shot - 1/1/1 Multiclass?

[quetzalcoatl5]

So I was writing out an explainer for multi-classing to the players of a one-shot that I'm DMing in a few months. It's a bunch of my co-workers and only one person has ever played D&D before. Anyway, even though I intend to advise against anyone from trying this, it occurred to me that you could multiclass 1/1/1 here and potentially have an interesting build even if it would be gimped if the game continues.

First one that comes to mind is a a fighter, rogue, monk which would get a fighting style, second wind, sneak attack, expertise, a bonus action attack, and wis plus dex to ac.

I'm sure there are others, and I'm curious who here could think about one, considering that it is only for a one shot where they are already at level 3 and their characters are not going to progress further.

Fighter 1, Rogue 1 is pretty nice so I imagine plenty could match up. War Cleric 1 is nice with a positive wisdom score, especially on an archer.

[J-H]

You can get second level slots with any full-caster mix.
Sorc/Bard/Warlock gets you everything on a Charisma base, but you really only get Bardic Inspiration and your Sorcerous Origin for features. I think you get a lot of cantrips known?

You could go Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue, make it strength-based, and then pick up Expertise in Athletics from your rogue level. If you start with Strength 16, you're making grapple/shove checks at advantage while raging at +7, which is not bad. You only have one attack per round, and 2 rages per day, though.

[JNAProductions]

You only have one attack per round

That's everyone, at this level.
Excepting TWFers.

[Amechra]

You can get second level slots with any full-caster mix.
Sorc/Bard/Warlock gets you everything on a Charisma base, but you really only get Bardic Inspiration and your Sorcerous Origin for features. I think you get a lot of cantrips known?

You're forgetting that Warlocks also get their first subclass level at 1st level.

...

I feel like what you're going to run into is that some classes are absolutely fantastic as one level dips (Cleric, Fighter, and Warlock come to mind), while others are absolutely terrible (poor Druids, Monks, and Paladins...)

[Rukelnikov]

You're forgetting that Warlocks also get their first subclass level at 1st level.

...

I feel like what you're going to run into is that some classes are absolutely fantastic as one level dips (Cleric, Fighter, and Warlock come to mind), while others are absolutely terrible (poor Druids, Monks, and Paladins...)

There's definitely classes that are more interesting, most notably the ones that get a sub at 1st, but even then most classes are useful:

Monks are fine, OP's example of Ftr/Rog/Monk could be turned into Ftr/Monk/Barb, Rage plus Martial Arts plus Unarmed FS its 2 attacks for 1d8+5, that better than taking the dual wielder style since light weapons cap at 1d6.

Artificers are kinda screwed, you got no infusions, and while you are effectively a full caster for this exercise, they are Int based and what they would bring to Cha casters is outdone by Wis casters, and what they bring to Wis casters is outdone by Cha ones. Their niche is for pairing with Wizard and getting armor and some restoration spells, but its probably better to multi with cleric for armor and a subclass to boot.

Wizards don't bring many things to the table that the other arcane casters can't get, but one of those few things is Find Familiar, and spellbook ritual casting is another, and you don't need high int to make either work, so they are useful for added utility. (Ftr/Rog/Wiz for an all rounder adventurer with expertise, a fighting style, a familiar, and can ritual cast detect magic and identify)

I think Paladin is the only one that's really hard to go for, it has more requirements than Ftr and trades Second Wind for 5 daily hp of LoH and FS for Divine Sense. I don't think there are many scenarios where that is a very good pick, if you wanna heal there are better options, if you wanna heal AND have full plate, there are better options too. (Life/Celestialock/Druid).

Ranger ain't much better but at least it has an expertise and poor man's hunter's mark.

[RogueJK]

A Goblin Rogue/Wizard/Artificer would make for a nifty "Arcane Trickster". (Or Bard/Wizard/Artificer if you want 2nd level spell slots for upcasting in exchange for giving up 1d6 Sneak Attack and 1 skill proficiency.)

And a VHuman Rogue/Knowledge Cleric/Bard with the Skilled feat could be a cool low level skill monkey.


That's everyone, at this level.
Excepting TWFers.

And Monks.

And Longtooth Shifters (when Shifted).

And Polearm Masters.

And Crossbow Experts.

And Great Weapon Masters (if they kill or crit).

And War Clerics (WISmod times per day)

And Fathomless Warlocks.

[Skrum]

Barb/rogue/genielock twf
Two attacks per round after the first, rage damage, and +1d6+2 on the first hit per turn. Very respectable for level 3. Some cantrips and a spell slot for a little out of combat utility. Would go shadar kai or goliath for some extra toughness, or vhuman for more damage via duel wielder.

Main weakness is the two rages/LR, so probably don't go this route if you know the DM likes grindy games (in fact, I wouldn't play barb at all in that kind of game).

[RogueJK]

VHuman/CLineage Hexblade Warlock/Rogue/Fighter with Crossbow Expert and Archery Fighting Style. High attack bonus on two CHA-based Hand Crossbow attacks per turn, plus added Sneak Attack damage. And you can have Expertise in two Face skills to pair with your CHA focus.

VHuman/CLineage Rogue/Fighter/Peace Cleric with Sharpshooter and Archery Fighting Style. Big single Longbow attacks with Sneak Attack and Sharpshooter damage, and the ability to overcome Sharpshooter's -5 via Emboldening Bond, Bless, and Archery Fighting Style.

VHuman/CLineage TWF Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue with Dual Wielder feat and TWF style, dual wielding Rapiers for up to 2d8+1d6+6 when not Raging and 2d8+1d6+10 when Raging.

VHuman/CLineage Life Cleric/Druid/Fighter with Polearm Master. 2x WIS-based Shillelagh quarterstaff attacks per turn, with added Dueling damage to each, a high AC, and boosted healing (including Goodberries that heal 4 HP apiece).

Or getting away from VHuman/CLineage feat builds, a Tortle Monk/Shadow Sorcerer/Undead Warlock would work well as a brawler with decent unarmed damage output who's quite difficult to put down, thanks to their high AC, Temp HP, defensive spellcasting, fear effect, and means to avoid dropping to 0 HP.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Rogue/Fighter/Monk honestly is a pretty good Batman build!

Rogue/Bard/Sorcerer would get a lot of skills and decent spells to cast.

[KorvinStarmast]

Paladin/Bard/Warlock
Paladin/Bard/Sorcerer

[RogueJK]

Paladin/Bard/Warlock
Paladin/Bard/Sorcerer

The issue is that Paladin 1 gains you nothing over Cleric 1 or Fighter 1.

Paladin 1 only gets you armor and weapon proficiency, 5 HP of daily healing, and a few Divine Sense uses. (Divine Smite doesn't kick in until 2. Same with Paladin spellcasting, and their Fighting Style.)

You can get the same armor/weapon proficiencies from Cleric or Fighter instead. Plus Cleric gets you additional spells known, 2nd level spell slots, subclass abilities, and access to well more than 5 HP of additiinal healing. Or Fighter gets you 6.5 average HP of self-healing and a fighting style.

[thoroughlyS]

After doing some research and tooling with some concepts, I have some recommendations for your build.

Shifter (Longtooth) Soldier
Divine Soul Sorcerer 1 / Wizard 1 / Order Cleric 1
STR 13
DEX 8
CON 14 (13 + 1)
INT 13
WIS 16 (14 + 2)
CHA 13


Divine soul sorcerer gives you CON save proficiency and Favored by the Gods to keep concentration up on bless and shield of faith. Wizard gives you an extra spell slot, access to four rituals, and two reaction spells. Order cleric is the core of this build, because it gives you heavy armor and Voice of Authority to have your party members attack off-turn. Shifter gives you a way to use your bonus action in combat, after you've set up the spell you're concentrating on. The most complicated part of this build is managing which spell comes from which spell list (since your cleric DC is the only one you should expect to use. For convenience, I have listed them below:



Sorcerer Spells Known
Wizard Spells in Spellbook
Cleric Spells Prepared


bless*
absorb elements**
bane


shield of faith
alarm
command†


sleep
comprehend languages
guiding bolt



detect magic
healing word



find familiar
heroism†



shield**
protection from Evil and Good


*Divine Magic spell
**prepared
†Domain spell

[Amechra]

Monks are fine, OP's example of Ftr/Rog/Monk could be turned into Ftr/Monk/Barb, Rage plus Martial Arts plus Unarmed FS its 2 attacks for 1d8+5, that better than taking the dual wielder style since light weapons cap at 1d6.

That's honestly a pretty bad deal if you actually start doing the math. Let's go down the list:



You can't Sneak Attack with unarmed strikes, so that kinda rules out Monk/Rogue.
While Martial Arts + Unarmed FS does deal more damage than the Two-Weapon FS... you're also spending an entire level on what effectively amounts to a +1 to damage.
More importantly, though, using Martial Arts forces you to also use Unarmored Defense... on a character who gets heavy armor proficiency and who gets to start with chain mail (Unarmored Defense caps out at AC 16... which is exactly what chain mail gives you).
The Monk route is harsh when it comes to ability score requirements, especially if you want a decent AC (which, again, is at best as good as the chain mail you're already proficient with).


And before you go "what about an armored monk?"... Monk 1 is literally the reason why that kind of build is a total meme.

[Catullus64]

Gimped is putting it very strongly, regarding continuing with such a character further into the game. Some thematically resonant and modestly optimized setups could include:

Fighter/Monk/Your Choice of Druid or Nature Cleric: Pick up Shillelagh, go heavy on WIS first, DEX second. Cleric would be my preference for more Cantrips. Probably start as Fighter for CON saves. Since you'll probably be going unarmored and unshielded to take advantage of Martial Arts, take Dueling and one-hand your quarterstaff. Or pick up Blind Fighting and drop some Fog Clouds. This is really the only one I wouldn't be wild about carrying into higher levels.

Fighter/Rogue/Full Caster of Choice: DEX first, a mental ability score second. Really commit to the Jack of All Trades, Master of None bit. There's pretty much no bad choice for the full caster, but Wizard is a classic for this setup, and grants lots of rituals/potential for in-game acquisition of new spells. Dueling or Archery for Fighting Style. Starting as Rogue gets you an extra Skill, starting as Fighter or Caster gets better saves depending on choice and subjective preference. Focus on utility cantrips, most of your damage should come from weapon attacks.

Paladin/Bard/Divine Soul Sorcerer: A reasonably tanky CHA support character. Start as Sorcerer for CON saves or Paladin for Heavy Armor, your call. Between the classes, you'll have a reasonable mix of buffs, healing, and CC. Carry a shield and a component pouch.

If you want three casters, I would do Cleric/Wizard/Druid, emphasis WIS. Cleric gives a 1st-level Domain feature, access to a boatload of spell options, and Armor proficiencies. Druid adds more variety to spell list, and is mainly there for Wisdom synergy. Wizard is nice both because of Arcane Recovery (you've got 2nd-level slots!) and because you can actually get a lot out of a single level without high INT. Pick lots of rituals for your spellbook, and it doesn't matter that you can't prepare them. Outside of rituals, Magic Missile, Sleep, Shield and Feather Fall are all top-of-the-line spells in part because they don't depend much on your ability score. Get your spells with saves and attack rolls from the Wisdom classes. Which class you start as doesn't really matter much here unless you have some reason to believe that INT or CHA saves will matter a lot, or there's a 1st-level feat with key prereqs.

[Amechra]

Bear in mind that this would be a one shot, which implies that there isn't going to be a "continuing further into the game".

Within context, the Paladin is essentially just an alternate Fighter that swaps a Fighting Style and Second Wind for Divine Sense, 5pts of Lay on Hands, and what are arguably a worse set of save proficiencies for a low-level character. Any Paladin/X/Y build would probably be better off as a Fighter/X/Y build. Similarly, people look at Unarmed Fighting + Martial Arts, go "ooh shiney", and ignoring that they just spent a level on, at best, +1 weapon damage over just taking Two-Weapon Fighting. Heck, if you want damage, just replace that Monk level with Ranger or Rogue, and also get some utility.

The reason that I specifically highlighted Druid, Monk, and Paladin as classes that are terrible under these constraints is because all three of them are classes that have really mediocre first levels in exchange for getting awesome second levels where they actually get the cool iconic abilities they're known for.

[Catullus64]

Within context, the Paladin is essentially just an alternate Fighter that swaps a Fighting Style and Second Wind for Divine Sense, 5pts of Lay on Hands, and what are arguably a worse set of save proficiencies for a low-level character. Any Paladin/X/Y build would probably be better off as a Fighter/X/Y build. Similarly, people look at Unarmed Fighting + Martial Arts, go "ooh shiney", and ignoring that they just spent a level on, at best, +1 weapon damage over just taking Two-Weapon Fighting. Heck, if you want damage, just replace that Monk level with Ranger or Rogue, and also get some utility.

For a build focused on combat, I would incline to agree about the dubious value of Paladin, but for a Charisma-based support caster I would call it a better route to Heavy Armor than Fighter or certain Clerics.

[Amechra]

certain Clerics.

Nah, Cleric would definitely be better for a support caster, since it would be +1 caster level (effectively doubling your number of spell slots).

[Catullus64]

Nah, Cleric would definitely be better for a support caster, since it would be +1 caster level (effectively doubling your number of spell slots).

I suppose I don't know the stat generation method at play here, but having to keep a 13+ in reserve for Wisdom alongside other multiclass requisites seems onerous, especially since you already need Charisma (for the central conceit of the build) and Strength (to actually wear the Heavy Armor), plus decent Constitution.

EDIT: Upon reflection, Cleric also has the advantage that it can grant Heavy Armor if taken at levels other than 1, allowing Sorcerer 1 for CON saves. I cede the point, Cleric is probably better.

[Slipjig]

If you are DMing for a bunch of people who have mostly never played D&D before, why on earth would you hand them such a complicated character?

I mean, why even start them at Level 3? Unless they experience playing something like BG3, I would expect they'd probably have more fun with fewer things to keep track of round to round.