Most Unkillable Character

[Skrum]

Since my main character just died, I'm of course thinking about my next character, and I'm interested it making them Death Proof.

What I think I've landed on is yuan ti ancients paladin 7 bear totem barb 3. Resistant to almost everything, resistant to spells, advantage on saves against spells, and Cha to saving throws. I can't cast while raging, but I can use divine smite. Sword and board should be able to get my AC 18, which with the resistances is going to be quite good.

I know the "correct" answer is some variety of wizard that rarely gets attacked at all, but that's really not my style. I like characters that make attack rolls, with a preference for melee

My other idea is an githzerai armorer artificer. High AC, good spells, save boosting. Mediocre offense though.
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Max level 10, all official sources are available (actually, it's most... Can't use Mark Of races from Eberron, or the backgrounds that give feats. Everything else is good). Need them to be functional from at least 7th, though the lower the better.

Any ideas, suggestions?

[Mastikator]

Hexadin is pretty hard to kill. Heavy armor, good saves, good HP. Rest is up to the players.

[Skrum]

Hexadin is pretty hard to kill. Heavy armor, good saves, good HP. Rest is up to the players.

I completely agree, but there's already a hexadin at the table. I'm not entirely opposed, but I would want to come with a new angle.

[Sigreid]

Taking a slightly different angle on it, a shadow monk has an amazing ability to separate from melee if needed and a few levels in and most things can't catch one.

[Waazraath]

Since my main character just died, I'm of course thinking about my next character, and I'm interested it making them Death Proof.

What I think I've landed on is yuan ti ancients paladin 7 bear totem barb 3. Resistant to almost everything, resistant to spells, advantage on saves against spells, and Cha to saving throws. I can't cast while raging, but I can use divine smite. Sword and board should be able to get my AC 18, which with the resistances is going to be quite good.

I know the "correct" answer is some variety of wizard that rarely gets attacked at all, but that's really not my style. I like characters that make attack rolls, with a preference for melee

My other idea is an githzerai armorer artificer. High AC, good spells, save boosting. Mediocre offense though.
=======
Max level 10, all official sources are available (actually, it's most... Can't use Mark Of races from Eberron, or the backgrounds that give feats. Everything else is good). Need them to be functional from at least 7th, though the lower the better.

Any ideas, suggestions?

Artificer battlesmith. Between the infusions (pretty good ones that boost survivability), the save bonus as a reaction, the steel defender's deflect attacks, the spell list (shield & aid for instance) and armor/shield proficiency your survivability is very fine. I rate the pet much higher than the armorer's armor, for both damage as well as survivability.

The pally/bear totem seems fine as well for your purpose.

[Silly Name]

I mean, if the goal is to be truly unkillable, nothing really beats a straight Zealot Barbarian. At level 10 you don't have "Rage Beyond Death" yet, but even if you were to die, as long as someone in the party has Revivify or Raise Dead, you can be resurrected at no cost.

If you do want to the Paladin route (and Ancients has quite a few features aimed at not dying), I would honestly drop the three levels of Barbarian - they're honestly not worth it, even if Resistance to everything while Raging is neat. Hexblade Warlock or Draconic/Divine Soul Sorcerer may turn out to be more effective multiclasses.

Theoretically, the most death-resistant character is a level 20 Moon Druid, 'cause infinite Wildshapes mean an effectively infinite HP pool. But, of course, it's a bit too late for what you want.

Here's a proposed build:

Reborn (VRGR), Ancients Paladin 8/Divine Soul Sorcerer 2

STR 16 DEX 10 CON 16 INT 8 WIS 10 CAR 18

Fighting Style: Defense
Divine Affinity: Law (Bless)

Notable Features:

- Advantage against being poisoned, resistance to Poison damage
- Advantage on Death Saving Throws
- No need to eat, drink or breathe
- Aura of Protection
- Aura of Warding
- Favored by the Gods

You're probably one of the hardest creatures to truly kill. You are unlikely to ever fail a saving throw, and if you do you can use Favored by the Gods once per day to probably succeed. If you progress past level 10, go to Sorcerer 4 then full Paladin.

Also, personally, a Reborn Divine Soul is something that just oozes with flavor. The character can go quite a few directions, personality wise. And you can tell people that you've tried dying, and it was just not for you :smallbiggrin:!

[Dalinar]

I have seen people crank some wild AC numbers out of Artificer, but that's just attacks.

You definitely want Paladin 6 somewhere IMO. My experience has been that saving throws tend to be much scarier than attack rolls, so anything to crank that is good. A Hexblade level along the way does help, but that's more about offense--I'd consider it after maxing CHA. Basically, if your goal is to have good passive defenses, Paladin is probably the best baseline.

You can also add some active defenses on top of that. Take at least one level in something that gives you Shield, Silvery Barbs, and/or Absorb Elements. Sorcerer is the classic source for stuff like that. If you're feeling spicy, doing three Lore Bard levels instead gives you Cutting Words, which lets you use Bardic Inspiration dice (of which you have CHA/LR) on reaction to reduce incoming attack and damage rolls (also ability checks, relevant to things like grappling and shoving as well as enemy Counterspells).

Actually, I might take that over to the Eclectic thread.

[Mastikator]

I completely agree, but there's already a hexadin at the table. I'm not entirely opposed, but I would want to come with a new angle.

Ah. Then don't take paladin at all IMO. Artificer (battlesmith), go sword and board. Get halfplate if you can, otherwise scalemail is starting equipment. Improved defense grants +2 at 10th level, with inflused cloak of protection your AC could be 15(halfplate)+2(dex)+2(shield)+2(on halfplate)+1(cloak) = 22. Use arcane jolt for healing. Use the steel defender to inflict disadvantage on enemy attacks, and to body block.

If you can get a magic weapon from the DM then I'd put the final infusion on repulsion shield, for an AC of 23. Otherwise an infused weapon would turn the weapon into a +2 weapon.

Keep absorb elements and shield prepped. You will be able to cast spells without war-caster feat with sword and board if either is infused.

Your strengths will be tankiness and utility. You will have a bit of healing. Your damage will be adequate.

[RSP]

Not as familiar with Artificer but that might be your best move, as the OP Barb/Paladin only comes online at the max possible level of the campaign (if I’m understanding the OP correctly).

Artificer will give boosts throughout the campaign, which will help survivability much more than waiting until level 6, 7 and 10.

[stoutstien]

Ah. Then don't take paladin at all IMO. Artificer (battlesmith), go sword and board. Get halfplate if you can, otherwise scalemail is starting equipment. Improved defense grants +2 at 10th level, with inflused cloak of protection your AC could be 15(halfplate)+2(dex)+2(shield)+2(on halfplate)+1(cloak) = 22. Use arcane jolt for healing. Use the steel defender to inflict disadvantage on enemy attacks, and to body block.

If you can get a magic weapon from the DM then I'd put the final infusion on repulsion shield, for an AC of 23. Otherwise an infused weapon would turn the weapon into a +2 weapon.

Keep absorb elements and shield prepped. You will be able to cast spells without war-caster feat with sword and board if either is infused.

Your strengths will be tankiness and utility. You will have a bit of healing. Your damage will be adequate.

Only change is make would grab resistant armor over the AC. As long as you have a rough idea what you'll see day to day you'll get alot if mileage out of it.

Radiant weapon is also pretty clutch for mitigation as it has no range limit so you can punish those archers in the back. Id course there the doom flute as well for party friendly movement prevention and disadvantage on incoming attacks. Stacking AC is fun but there is a lot of options for artificers to stack mitigation.

Battlesmith is equal parts infernal cockroach and thorns so you are hard to hit and in the end they don't want to hit you anyways. In the same vein you are super annoying to get around.

[Unoriginal]

The Long Death Monk is unkillable by damage so long as they have ki left. And they fit with your melee playstyle.

Half-Orc Long Death Monk/Barbarian or Long Death Monk/Paladin probably fit what you want, if you don't want a single class progression.

[RSP]

The Long Death Monk is unkillable by damage so long as they have ki left. And they fit with your melee playstyle.

Half-Orc Long Death Monk/Barbarian or Long Death Monk/Paladin probably fit what you want, if you don't want a single class progression.

I believe they stated “max level 10” which means LDM would never achieve that ability, unfortunately.

[Skrum]

Not as familiar with Artificer but that might be your best move, as the OP Barb/Paladin only comes online at the max possible level of the campaign (if I’m understanding the OP correctly).

Artificer will give boosts throughout the campaign, which will help survivability much more than waiting until level 6, 7 and 10.

I would probably start this character at 5 or 6. For the paladin/barb build, I'd probably do paladin to 6, and 3 levels of barb, then the 7th level of paladin.

Paladin 6 is very good, just doing paladin things.
Paladin 6 Barb 1, and the basic idea of the build comes online. Cha to saves, adv against spells thanks to yuan ti, and resistance to b p s 2/LR.
Barb 2 doesn't offer a lot
Barb 3, and it gets resistance to everything but psychic and 3 rages/LR
Finally, paladin 7 will give the aura of warding. This is actually mostly redundant with bear totem as far as the character's personal protection goes, but extending it to everyone within 10' is pretty sweet.

I think this is pretty playable throughout.
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Artificer, I'm mostly interested in for the 10th level ability. Armorer in particular gets to infuse the crap out of their armor, on top of getting 4 attunements slots. That's extremely enticing. But I think the character would be less interesting before that.

[Silly Name]

Artificer, I'm mostly interested in for the 10th level ability. Armorer in particular gets to infuse the crap out of their armor, on top of getting 4 attunements slots. That's extremely enticing. But I think the character would be less interesting before that.

At what level is this character starting play?

In any case, I think you may be underselling Artificer a bit - it's a very fun class, if you're the kind of player who likes to fiddle with Infusions.

It is a bit of a "weird" class to learn to use the first time around, but it's pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

[Skrum]

At what level is this character starting play?

In any case, I think you may be underselling Artificer a bit - it's a very fun class, if you're the kind of player who likes to fiddle with Infusions.

It is a bit of a "weird" class to learn to use the first time around, but it's pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

5 or 6. I have a lot of control over how fast they level too, but I would want to play them with a little more "natural" progression - starting at 5ish, and then only gaining a level every few games.

Artificer is perfectly functional, but I like gimmicky stuff xD. I *never* play single class characters, for example. Artificer 10 is tempting me though. It's an amazing "capstone" for a character that is unlikely to go higher than 10.

[kingcheesepants]

Not counting high level wizards (who are unkillable because of things like Clone and contingency) the two most unkillable characters I've seen in play were both artificers. On top of the high AC they also get flash of genius which while not always on like a paladin's aura, has a 30 ft range so it ends up feeling more useful overall. Plus they can make their own rings and cloaks of protection and they have extra item slots and if you go to 11 spell storing items are extremely good and at the highest of high level play (which it sounds like you won't be going to but still) soul of artifice makes you effectively immune to HP death and gives you a big boost to all your saves.

[Bosh]

Taking a slightly different angle on it, a shadow monk has an amazing ability to separate from melee if needed and a few levels in and most things can't catch one.

I really liked my shadow monk with a one level dip in war cleric (Eldritch Initiate feat to see in magical darkness and GWM to small people in the head with a big damn maul), most of the mobility of a normal shadow monk combined with heavy armor and constantly being in a big cloud of darkness made for a fun Dark Knight style of character.

Same basic build works with a one level dip in fighter for heavy weapons and armor and the blindsight fighting style.

[Intregus182]

Most unkillable character is the edge lord who writes in his 20 pages of backstory how he's really an immortal

So just do that. But remember you also gotta sneak in stuff like how you have a sword that can cut through anything hidden away at a location that just so happens to be part of the campaign you're playing in.

[Phhase]

Technically, there are very few things that cankill a Warforged Zealot Barbarian.

[RogueJK]

That concept sounds more like "most resistant to taking damage" to me, rather than a concept of "most unkillable/death proof". (Granted, taking damage is the reason why you'd die...)

Whereas if you're going for a flavor theme of "unable to die" rather than just being "tough/resilient", how about just a Half Orc Undead Tomelock 10.

This gets access to Death Ward as an Undead subclass spell (which you can cast daily for effectively free as a "1 hour ritual"), Relentless Endurance as a racial trait, Necrotic Husk as an Undead subclass ability, and Gift of the Protectors as a Tome Pact invocation.

That's four chances per day to avoid dropping to 0 HP at all. You'd take damage normally, but you're supernaturally unkillable, thanks to your deal with some undead abomination.

[Kane0]

Whereas if you're going for a flavor theme of "unable to die" rather than just being "tough/resilient", how about just a Half Orc Undead Tomelock 10.


Also good access to THP. But if you want a tank character then yeah a barb/pally is a good choice. Goliath and Earth Genasi are good alternate race options, or Vhuman for heavy armor master.

[crabwizard77]

Mabye half orc?

[Skrum]

That concept sounds more like "most resistant to taking damage" to me, rather than a concept of "most unkillable/death proof". (Granted, taking damage is the reason why you'd die...)

Whereas if you're going for a flavor theme of "unable to die" rather than just being "tough/resilient", how about just a Half Orc Undead Tomelock 10.

This gets access to Death Ward as an Undead subclass spell (which you can cast daily for effectively free as a "1 hour ritual"), Relentless Endurance as a racial trait, Necrotic Husk as an Undead subclass ability, and Gift of the Protectors as a Tome Pact invocation.

That's four chances per day to avoid dropping to 0 HP at all. You'd take damage normally, but you're supernaturally unkillable, thanks to your deal with some undead abomination.

I considered something like this as well, but the cast-rest thing is explicitly banned at the table. It's a little rough being a warlock tbh.

I like the theming though.

[Yakmala]

Two come to mind, both of which I've played and both of which are very hard to kill.

1: Long Death Monk. Once they hit Level 11 and pick up Mastery of Death, they are almost impossible to put down. They can spend 1 Ki point to be at 1 HP whenever they drop to 0 HP. This takes nothing from the action economy and has no limits on when it can be used. Asleep? Paralyzed? Petrified? Doesn't matter. You need something like Power Word Kill, that skips over death saves and goes directly to dead, in order to put a Long Death Monk down.

2: Zealot Barbarian: Once they get Rage Beyond Death at Level 14, they can keep going until their rage stops, even when technically dead. To keep that rage going, it's suggested to play a class that can't be put to sleep, such as an Elf or a Reborn. And getting to level 15 will get you Persistent Rage, allowing the rage to continue unless you are unconscious, a condition you do not suffer for being at 0 HP due to Rage Beyond Death.

[Witty Username]

Abjurer+Hexblade, Armor of shadows for arcane ward refreshment, and Armor of Agathys for a buffer of Temp HP, with the added bonus of trying to kill you hurts. And you can have a bunch of defense and support spells on hand.

For Ancient Bear Paladin, that looks pretty alright, my only note is that Goliath may work better than Yuan-ti, for the DR reaction. That being said, Ascetics should take priority there in my mind, which Yuan-ti is generally superior. I think the only thing is spells and rage are kinda frustrating to juggle.

[Hairfish]

Battle Smith Artificer is good, but you won't get Arcane Jolt until most of the way through your campaign. You might consider Artillerist instead. You still get Shield (plus Shatter now and eventually Fireball) and the protector cannon is a pretty good damage mitigator for yourself and any party member near you, as long as you don't plan on having much competition for your bonus action.

[BerzerkerUnit]

If you’re using the new playtest warlock from UA 7, it’s warlock.

Chain Pact with Imp, Investment of Chain Master, Gaze of Two Minds, Agonizing Blast.

You remain 100 feet away while your invisible Imp drone strikes your foes from 100 feet away. It’s not attacking or casting a spell so it’s invisiblity isn’t breaking. It can dash every round to reposition outside possible AOEs. You can use your reaction to give it resistance and it has 2 immunities, to the most common enemy damage boosts, fire and poison.

[Kenny_Snoggins]

Since my main character just died, I'm of course thinking about my next character, and I'm interested it making them Death Proof.

What I think I've landed on is yuan ti ancients paladin 7 bear totem barb 3. Resistant to almost everything, resistant to spells, advantage on saves against spells, and Cha to saving throws. I can't cast while raging, but I can use divine smite. Sword and board should be able to get my AC 18, which with the resistances is going to be quite good.

I know the "correct" answer is some variety of wizard that rarely gets attacked at all, but that's really not my style. I like characters that make attack rolls, with a preference for melee

My other idea is an githzerai armorer artificer. High AC, good spells, save boosting. Mediocre offense though.
=======
Max level 10, all official sources are available (actually, it's most... Can't use Mark Of races from Eberron, or the backgrounds that give feats. Everything else is good). Need them to be functional from at least 7th, though the lower the better.

Any ideas, suggestions?

I played a Kalashtar Swords Bard that was surprisingly durable to physical attacks and somewhat durable against magical attacks, which usually are huge weakness for bards. If you did the regular HexBard 1 level warlock dip, you're one level away from having a Griffon, which radically boosts your survivability, due to the huge maneuverability boost and elevated action economy. Aside from that, with defensive flourish, shield spell, medium armor, mirror image, and a shield your AC and general survivability against melee attacks is so high that most DMs won't even try unless they have nobody better to attack. Resistance to psychic damage is cute but advantage on wisdom saves is pretty strong. Your best defense against magic though is going to be your mobility. Very easy to get out of line of sight after your action using a flying mount. If you pick up mounted combatant somehow you'll have advantage on your attacks a surprising amount of the time. And IMO the old 'gravity experiment' grapple+fly up+drop monster on other monster combo never gets old.

[XmonkTad]

You remain 100 feet away while your invisible Imp drone strikes your foes from 100 feet away.
I love this strategy, although it may be easily countered by your DM. The best defense is when no one even thinks about targeting you.

[Skrum]

If you’re using the new playtest warlock from UA 7, it’s warlock.

Chain Pact with Imp, Investment of Chain Master, Gaze of Two Minds, Agonizing Blast.

You remain 100 feet away while your invisible Imp drone strikes your foes from 100 feet away. It’s not attacking or casting a spell so it’s invisiblity isn’t breaking. It can dash every round to reposition outside possible AOEs. You can use your reaction to give it resistance and it has 2 immunities, to the most common enemy damage boosts, fire and poison.

OK what's the combo here? How is the imp not breaking invisibility?

Also, I'll be honest this looks like a "white room" build. Not a lot of maps allow that kind of range, and if they do, there's often enemies coming from all over.

[Keravath]

I really liked my shadow monk with a one level dip in war cleric (Eldritch Initiate feat to see in magical darkness and GWM to small people in the head with a big damn maul), most of the mobility of a normal shadow monk combined with heavy armor and constantly being in a big cloud of darkness made for a fun Dark Knight style of character.

Same basic build works with a one level dip in fighter for heavy weapons and armor and the blindsight fighting style.

Hi! I'm not really sure how that combination works.

The monk unarmored movement only works if not wearing armor or shield. So the character's speed is normal but you do keep the 60' bonus action teleport at level 6+ monk.

All of the martial arts features, using dex for weapons, unarmed strikes that use increasing die for damage, bonus action unarmed strike - are all inactive when wearing armor. Flurry of blows would still give you two unarmed strikes as a bonus action but the damage would be 1+str.

Stun also still works since it only requires an attack with a melee weapon.

Character would need high strength and wisdom I would guess.

However, it seems a lot to give up just to get stun and a bonus action teleport in darkness/dim light. Wouldn't 6 levels of shadow monk + 14 of something else do it better (except the ki pool is smaller)?

[Kane0]

Artificer is perfectly functional, but I like gimmicky stuff xD. I *never* play single class characters, for example.

I challenge you to single class fighter! You can be something like a Goliath or Earth Genasi for the racial defenses, you have access to the excellent defence and interception fighting styles, you get an extra ASI you can use on a feat like Resilient, Lucky, Inspiring Leader or Heavy Armor master and between Samurai, PsiWar and Rune Knight you have plenty of choices on how you prefer to keep yourself alive (Fighting Spirit, Protective Field, Hill Rune/Runic Shield).

[Skrum]

I challenge you to single class fighter! You can be something like a Goliath or Earth Genasi for the racial defenses, you have access to the excellent defence and interception fighting styles, you get an extra ASI you can use on a feat like Resilient, Lucky, Inspiring Leader or Heavy Armor master and between Samurai, PsiWar and Rune Knight you have plenty of choices on how you prefer to keep yourself alive (Fighting Spirit, Protective Field, Hill Rune/Runic Shield).

Ha, I actually have a character mapped out for single class fighter - a dex-based rune knight. I was thinking like a commando type character that uses the runes and items like sentinel shield and boots of elvenkind to get advantage on 5-6 skills. They would serve a tanky support role in combat.

Ultimately decided it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. While the saves are better than the "average" fighter, they're not great in an absolute sense, and the skills angle isn't a great match for the table I play at.