An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Jon talks a lot]

Any character can wear heavy armor.

Lower strength lowers your speed by 10 ft.

Nonproficiency gives disadvantage on Str/Dex attacks/saves/checks and prevents you from casting spells.

I am aware. I'm just not sure if the trade-off is worthwhile.

Oh, duh. You can maybe grab some Mithral armor along the way?

And yeah, no problem. I'm a bit of a Johnny, if you're familiar with the term (google "mtg johnny" otherwise), so threads like these are practically a playground to me. I enjoy seeing the crazy things people can do with the combination of tools available to them in a system like DnD. Especially when the goals aren't necessarily "win every combat encounter" but things like "get proficiency and expertise in as many things as possible," or "mindwipe people with Subtle Modify Memory while also being good at other things," or in your case "counterspell everything" or "stack up HP and healing from as many sources as possible."

:)

I'm a bit of a johnny too. I'm a little inexperienced in D&D, only been playing a couple months, but it's fun to make wacky creations.
If you want to talk about having the most skill proficiencies, I have a bard character sitting on the backburner right now that is proficient in 12 of the 18 skills.


Drink your Way to Valhalla:

(This build uses Tasha's variant racial ability score rules)

Race: Mark of Finding Half-Orc
Class: Cleric 17, Monk 3
Subclass: War Domain, Way of the Drunken Master
Ability Scores: 8 STR, 15+1 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 15+2 WIS, 8 CHA
Progression: Cleric 4, Monk 3, Cleric 13
ASI's: War Caster @Cleric 4, +2 WIS @Cleric 8, +1 WIS +1 DEX @Cleric 12, +2 DEX @Cleric 16

Strategy: We are here to smash face, and drink WAY too much. We wade into battle and smack people around. With an AC of 19 from unarmored defense and a high initiative bonus, we should be able to get the drop on a lot of baddies, and if we do, we can deal a lot of damage. First, we have our racial ability Hunter's Mark, which we should use on the biggest dude. Next, we have flurry of blows, which is the only thing we should be spending Ki on, and as a short rest recharge, its spammable enough with 3 ki to make this worthwhile. War priest gives us another way to bonus action attack if we don't flurry of blows. Guided Strike means if we want to hit, we sure can hit. Divine Strike is more damage, and avatar of battle is insane. On top of all this, we are still a 17th level caster and we have divine intervention.

Here's why this is better than War Domain Cleric 20: We have the same AC (disregarding magic items) as normal, but with far superior manoeuvrability from Drunken Technique and monks +10 Speed. We also have the potential to go nova with Flurry of Blows, and you don't lose any cleric features except for guaranteed divine intervention. That's the only thing you lose to gain so much versatility.

I genuinely think this is far superior to any single classed War Cleric you could make.

Spells:
You choose your spells each day, so just choose the best ones I guess? Faerie Fire (From Mark of Finding) is really good, and shouldn't be slept on

Edit: Should I be choosing a different subclass? Way of the Open Hand is real good at level 3, and so is Way of the Kensei. I might do a variant with Way of the Kensei actually.

To Infinity and beyond...

Race: any small race
Class: Druid
Subclass: Wildfire
Ability Scores: none relevant
Progression: Druid 2

Your Wildfire companion can appear as any shape you like, it is small sized with a strength of 10, meaning it can carry 150 lbs.
it can also fly and hover at a speed of 30'.

This means at 2nd level a Wildfire small druid, can be picked up and flown around by their companion, reigning down fire as it does so. Granted you have to use your bonus action to command it, dash is useful, and it moves you.

But it's fast effective and doesn't really limit you, or your companions actions when you do fight.

Other things of note, it's intelligent, and can use equipment you provide it. however it does have the limitation on the Actions you can get it to do.

I love this.

[Jon talks a lot]

Off to the Races:

Here I am making another super mobile build. I guess I just really love them lol.

(This build uses the UA Rabbitfolk Lineage)

Race: Rabbitfolk
Class: Rogue 13, Warlock 7
Subclass: Scout, Fey Pact of the Tome (or hexblade Pact of the Blade but I find them really boring)
Ability Scores: 8 STR, 15+2 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 8 WIS, 15+1 CHA
Progression: Rogue 4, Warlock 7, Rogue 9
ASI's: +2 DEX @Rogue 4, +1 DEX, +1 CON @Warlock 4, Alert @Rogue 8, Mobile @ Rogue 12
Eldritch Invocations: Devil's Sight (because darkvison), Eldritch Sight (Out of Combat Utility), Mask of Many Faces, Book of Ancient Secrets (Out of Combat Utility)

Strategy: Our job is to run around causing a great deal of chaos, and man are we good at that.
To the aim of running around: Cunning action (dash), Skirmisher (move half our speed as a reaction), Superior Mobility (+10 movement speed), Rabbit Hop (+d12 jump), and Misty Escape, so if we take damage, we get a 60 ft teleport. On top of that, we are an initiative beast: +16 to initiative rolls AND advantage on those rolls (Alert, 20 DEX, Hare-Trigger, Superior Mobility)
To the aim of causing Chaos: How does 7d6 sneak attack damage sound. How does forcing everyone within 10 ft to make a wisdom saving throw or be charmed or frightened sound. How does giving advantage to all attacks against the first creature you hit in combat sound. Oh, and we have 6 cantrips and 2 spell slots to play with as a 7th level warlock.
Also, we are never taking damage from failing a DEX save thanks to evasion and Lucky Footwork.

Cantrips: Eldritch blast, Friends, Mage Hand, Dancing Lights, Message, Guidance
Ritual Spells: Identify, Find Familiar
Warlock Spells: Do whatever you think will cause the most chaos

[RingoBongo]

Caliban (a reference to "The Tempest" by none other than William Shakey)

The goal of this build is to keep good monk progression in a monk subclass that can hold it's own (I prefer mercy, I think). Still get that wisdom and dex up to 18 each by level 12 while slapping on extra "spell use" through: 1 level of cleric after extra attack at monk 5 (more later if desired) and racial/feat options that give a sort of spell casting use.

Race: Lotusden halfling
Class: tempest cleric 1+ / way of mercy monk 12+
Ability Scores: 8 STR, 15+2 DEX, 15 CON, 8 INT, 15+1 WIS, 8 CHA
Progression: Monk 5, Cleric 1, Monk 12

ASI's: Aberrant dragonmark (shield + mind sliver or bb) OR crusher (con), +1 dex +1 wis, fey Touched (wisdom + gift of alacrity) OR shadow touched (wisdom + silent Image). Also chef (wisdom or con) is good too, if your feeling fancy. ANYWAY YOU ORDER IT WORKS -- you just want to round out to 18 dex, 16 con, and 18 wisdom by level 12

Strategy: you got your punches, a quarter staff, a short sword, a short bow, and whatever dedicated weapon you want.... The ki can be used for a variety of useful purposes. I'm not going to get into it all but each step of way of mercy subclass is great up to 11... You'll get 18 wisdom eventually and have 4 reaction uses of tempest cleric's wrath of the storm with a decently high dc save -- also higher dc save vs stunning strike and other spells like entangle, thunderwave, bane, toll of the dead, word or radiance

Cantrips: druidcraft, Guidance, toll of the dead, word of radiance, and (if you take aberrant dragonmark -- mind sliver (con) OR booming blade)

Our first spells only come through our racial ability "children of the woods" -- druidcraft, entangle 1/LR @3, spike growth 1/LR @5. Unless we take a fey Touched, shadow touched, or Aberrant dragonmark at level 4.

And then all the sudden at level 6 we get 2 cleric spells and 3 wrath of storm uses (which is a significant powerboost compared to the 1 ki per level progression)... But we don't want to delay monk for too long; I think pushing monk through mercy's 11 subclass ability and then to 12 for the ASI is a great place to take stock of everything and decide rest of build direction.

[Dalinar]

The Joestar Special
An exercise in nova damage featuring unarmed attacks. ORAORAORA!

There's another thread going along right now about dealing as much possible damage with unarmed attacks as possible without taking any Monk levels. This was my solution, as optimized as I could figure out for nova damage. Did my calculations under the assumption that no damage is lost to missed attacks or successful saving throws.

Note that this requires a DM ruling which is not clear to me based on my Googling, specifically that Swords Bard's Slashing Flourish is compatible with both unarmed strikes and the critical hit mechanic (I think there's a reasonable enough case for both that I'll assume it for this build, but check with your local DM). If this is not the case, you still go to Bard 3 for Hold Person (or any other class that learns it), and probably 4 for the ASI. You can make up some of the difference with the bonus action attack from War Cleric 1, but that does require you to wait another turn for your setup.

Race: Either Variant Human (better at low levels) or Half-Orc (better once we get Hold Person, depends what order you go in)
Starting stats: 16 STR for damage; 13 CHA, 13 DEX, 13 WIS required for multiclassing. Easily achievable through point buy. Rest to taste.
Classes at 20: Rune Knight 11/Swords 5/Hexblade 1/Hunter 3
ASI/Feats: Fighting Initiate, Martial Adept, +2STR, +2STR. If Variant Human, you'll have a fifth feat; I couldn't find one relevant to this build, but I'm open to suggestions.

Progression can be done in whatever order, but here's a level by level breakdown:

Fighter 1: Fighting style. You'll pick up Unarmed Fighting or Superior Technique here, grabbing the other whenever you get the Fighting Initiate feat.
Fighter 2: Action Surge. Self-explanatory.
Fighter 3: Rune Knight. You'll pick up Fire Rune here as well as Giant's Might.
Fighter 4: ASI.
Fighter 5: Extra Attack (2).
Fighter 6: ASI.
Fighter 7: Utility unrelated to our goals.
Fighter 8: ASI.
Fighter 9: Indomitable. Unrelated to our goals.
Fighter 10: Giant's Might extra die becomes a d8.
Fighter 11: Extra Attack (3).

Bard 1: Nothing relevant. BI becomes relevant later, and is a d6.
Bard 2: Nothing relevant.
Bard 3: College of Swords. Slashing Flourish lets you roll a BI die and deal the result in damage to your target and a secondary target. Also Hold Person to guarantee critical hits.
Bard 4: ASI.
Bard 5: BI becomes a d8.

Hexblade 1: Shocking no one, we're here for Hexblade's Curse. Extra damage per hit equal to proficiency bonus.

Ranger 1: Nothing relevant.
Ranger 2: Nothing relevant.
Ranger 3: Hunter. Colossus Slayer is better for one target, Horde Breaker is better for two targets.

The Combo: Cast Hold Person until it works. Hexblade's Curse that person. Next turn, pop Giant's Might, walk up to them, Attack three times, Action Surge, Attack three more. (Unfortunately, can't work in stuff like Hunter's Mark or Haste, as Hold Person is way too valuable to use concentration on anything else--though you do know those spells.) Blow all your riders: Giant's Might, Blade Flourish, Fire Rune, and a d6 Battlemaster maneuver of choice on the first hit, and another maneuver on the second hit. All of these are doubled on a crit, as far as I can tell (just like Divine Smite would be*).

---

The final tally? To quote myself:

First attack: STR + PB (Hexblade's Curse) + 2d8 (Unarmed Fighting Style) + 2d8 (Giant's Might) + 2d8 (Blade Flourish) + 2d6 (first maneuver) + 4d6 (Fire Rune). That's 5 + 6 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 7 + 14 = 59 average damage, a small bump from level 11.

Second attack: STR + PB + 2d8 + 2d6 (second maneuver), for an average of 5 + 6 + 9 + 7 = 27 average damage, also a small bump from level 11.

Third attack: STR + PB + 2d8, for an average of 5 + 6 + 9 = 20 average damage.

Action Surge gives us three more attacks that also average 20 damage apiece.

Add in another 6d8 if you went Half-Orc, as you are critting six times and so deal an extra weapon die of damage per crit. That's an average of 27 damage I didn't account for originally.

Add in 2d8 (Slashing Flourish) and 5+2d8 (Horde Breaker) if you have a secondary target, or just a flat 2d8 (Colossus Slayer) to your second hit if you don't, for an average of 23 and 9 extra damage respectively.

59+27+20+20+20+20+27+23=216 average damage given Half-Orc and two targets. A good bit less with VHuman and one target (I believe 175).

They'll also take 2d6 at the start of their next turn from Fire Rune, but I don't count that as our turn is by definition over at that point.

---

*A note on Divine Smite: it apparently does not work with unarmed strikes per SAC/Jeremy Crawford's rulings. The logic they use is that while an unarmed strike is considered a "melee weapon attack," and thus could trigger a Divine Smite, the text also specifies "the weapon's damage" and unarmed strikes aren't "weapons" so you can't add extra damage to them through Divine Smite. The implications for the Swords Bard part of this build? You can use Blade Flourish, since it also triggers on a "weapon attack," but it also causes "the weapon" to deal the extra damage, and therefore you wouldn't be able to choose any of the available options to deal extra damage. This is clearly not the result the designers intended. To paraphrase Nick Fury, given that that is a... questionable decision, I'm electing to ignore it. Otherwise, you can try Whisper Bard 5 instead of Swords Bard 5, which doesn't contain any "the weapon" language and gives you a 3d6 Psychic Blades rider (which come to think of it is actually stronger than Blade Flourish anyway, but I'd rather not re-do all my math). Failing that, go Bard-of-choice 4 and War Cleric 1 as described in the disclaimer at the top.

[Jon talks a lot]

Here I am with another build: It's like the 8th one in less than 36 hours.

Rave Queen:

(This build uses Tasha's Optional Ability Score Rules, but can easily be adapted)

Race: Satyr
Class: Bard 19, Warlock 1
Subclass: College of Valor, Hexblade
Ability Scores: 8 STR, 14 DEX, 15+1 CON, 10 WIS, 8 INT, 15+2 CHA
Progression: Bard 6, Warlock 1, Bard 13
ASI's: War Caster or Resilient: CON (I prefer this one) @4, +2 CHA @8, +1 CHA, +1 CON @12, +2 CON @16, Inspiring Leader @19

Strategy: We are the face of the party, as well as the tank. Our nova damage isn't amazing, but we can certainly put on the pain. In a pinch (and pre-combat), we are also decent support as a bard.
In combat, we are a 19th level spellcaster with access to any spell of our choice thanks to magical secrets (choose wish). We have two attacks per turn, and, thanks to Battle Magic, a bonus action attack if we instead choose to cast a spell. Hexblade's curse gives us very nice damage, and Hex Warrior gives us a +5 CHA modifier to attack and damage rolls instead of anything else we might have had. War caster lets us keep concentration while we smack the pants off our enemies.
This is probably better than a standard no dip College of Valor Bard at level 20, and the best part is, we are actually far less MAD, allowing us to focus on getting our CON up.

Spells: Just do standard valor and hexblade things.

[Evaar]

Everyone's Best Friend

Race: Mark of Hospitality Halfling
Class: Genie (Dao) Warlock 14
Starting Stats: 16 Charisma, 13 Constitution, 16 Dexterity
Skills: Deception, Persuasion, Insight, Intimidation
Feats: Chef

This uses the default ability score bumps from Mark of Hospitality.

Cantrips: Prestidigitation (from race), Eldritch Blast, Friends (yes, Friends), Guidance, Resistance, Shape Water (all 3 from Tome, but pick what you like, none of these are critical), Create Bonfire (3rd Warlock cantrip), Mage Hand (4th warlock cantrip, take whatever you like)

Spells: You'll probably start with Goodberry because healing on a short rest spell slots is handy at low levels, but eventually you'll train that out and use -- Aid (from Mark of Hospitality), Hold Person (it upcasts well), Spike Growth (from the Dao), Hypnotic Pattern, Thunder Step, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Tongues (yes, Tongues), Aura of Purity, Sickening Radiance, Synaptic Static, Wall of Stone
Mystic Arcanum 6th level: Mass Suggestion
7th level: Force Cage

Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, Book of Ancient Secrets, Mask of Many Faces, Gift of the Protectors, Whispers of the Grave

This is primarily a support, utility, face build. However, between Eldritch Blast with Agonizing, Spike Growth, and Create Bonfire, plus the damage bonus from Genie Pact, you should be no slouch on damage output either.

During combat, you primarily spam Eldritch Blast and rearrange the battlefield to your group's liking with Repelling Blast. If you can afford to, use Spike Growth to drop some extra damage on top. At later levels, you can use Sickening Radiance when it will work out well for your side; keep in mind you can really punish things trying to get out of it by pushing them back in since they'll have to save once on the turn you drop them in and again when their turn starts.

Aura of Purity might seem risky since you're only wearing Light Armor with a 16 AC and it has a 30 foot radius, and you're not wrong. However, as a Genie you will gain the ability to hover without Concentration over the battlefield. If your team needs the help, you can play guardian angel and keep them all in your radius while staying safely out of reach of melee enemies (except the really really big guys).

Aid is a crazy good spell for a Warlock to have. You can target 3 creatures, it lasts 8 hours, and it stacks with temporary hit points. At level 14 you have 3 spell slots and you're casting 5th level spells. Start your day by increasing your entire party's HP maximum by 20. This, other than the flavor, is the real reason we're playing Mark of Hospitality. Everyone else might as well dump Constitution because you're making up for it (j/k they still shouldn't but you get my point). Then you just rest for one extra hour and you're good to go. If you have a stingy DM who won't let that work, fine, you just get your spells back after the first short rest and the Aid is still going to last all day.

By the way, you have that genie bottle. You can provide a 10 minute short rest to your group by level 10 once per day. But also, that thing is a super Bag of Holding. It has a 20 foot radius and is 20 feet high with no weight limit. It doesn't specify how you get objects in there, but you can because it specifies that objects stay there until carried out. Presumably, that means objects have to be carried in. Ever find a treasure hoard so vast that you couldn't actually take all of it? I have. This solves that. Over-encumber everyone until they can't move, drop everything in the bottle, catch your breath, then head home.

We also take the Chef feat because it's on brand (or maybe I should say flavorful I'm sorry), it bumps our Constitution to 14, we increase healing efficiency with short rests (stacking nicely with Aid), and we can provide treats for a little THP on top of the Aid buff.

The Gift of the Protectors Invocation is basically Death Ward for your party, although only once per day. If you really wanted this on each of your party members you could play Undying Warlock and get the spell slots back on a short rest, but then you'd be an Undying Warlock.

And of course we have Tome of Ancient Secrets because access to every ritual in the game is handy.

Okay so we're doing battlefield control, we're doing damage, we're providing utility and support in the form of rests and extra HP and carrying capacity and rituals. Let's get to the social stuff.

First, we're a Warlock with a 20 Charisma, proficiency in all the social skills, and we have the Mark of Hospitality for a bonus 1d4 on Persuasion checks. We also have Mask of Many Faces, so we can look like whoever we want at any time without Concentration. That also means we can use Friends without the accountability that comes when it wears off, since we probably don't look like the same person anymore.

But also (and this is definitely a "check with your DM" but I think most will allow it because it's clever) think about how this combines with Whispers of the Grave. I've advocated for this invocation before, click this to see why I think it's so great. But also, with Mask of Many Faces you can look like whatever you need to look like to convince the corpse to give you the info you want. It might be hard to convince a cultist to tell the adventurers who just killed him where the hideout is, but if another city's cultists found the aftermath of the battle and want to reinforce the hideout before those adventurers get there, that might be another story. All of that is clearly intended, what you should check is whether you can cast Friends on a corpse you're talking to. My understanding is technically you cannot because a corpse becomes an object instead of a creature, and Friends targets a creature. But you're talking with it, and it was a creature until presumably a little bit ago, so c'mon. Let 'em play, ref.

This is also why you have Tongues. You can talk to any corpse now. Any corpse that could talk, anyway. Speak With Dead doesn't require a humanoid corpse, it doesn't require that it died recently, and it doesn't require that the corpse is in good shape. You can talk to a 2,000 year old skull if it still has "a mouth." As I say in the other thread: you are a D&D adventurer, you will always need more information and you will spend a lot of time around corpses.

And that's why I say this is everyone's best friend. You can talk to anyone with any language, alive or dead, and you do it really well. You buff your team. You don't exactly heal, but you make it harder to die. You give them a place to rest. You do battlefield control and solid damage. You provide all rituals you can get your hands on. You cook. Your Unseen Servant cleans. You look like whatever you need to look like whenever you want.

Also Resistance gets a bad rep too; it's super handy out of combat when you think someone is about to have to make a saving throw. If you think a hallway has traps, or you're opening a chest or door or whatever, you might be glad for that extra 1d4 on a save.

And then you get Limited Wish and eventually Wish. If you're at that point, think up something clever, you're the expert now.

[Renduaz]

Literally Luke Skywalker

Race: Variant Human
Background: Far Traveler or Knight of The Order ( har.. har.. )
Class: Battle Smith Artificer 3, Creation Bard 6, Scribes Wizard 6, Horizon Walker Ranger 3, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer 1, Peace Cleric 1
Favored Enemy: Humanoids. You know who.
Favored Terrain: No space? Desert I guess, because Tatooine.
Fighting Style: Defense or Dueling, and Blind Fighting.
Artificer Infusions: Homunculus Servant, Returning Weapon
Eldritch Invocations: Eldritch Sight
Feats: Telekinetic, Eldritch Adept, Fighting Initiate, Prodigy
Spells: Light, Guidance, Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, Catapult, Charm Person, Cure Wounds, Command, Jump, Longstrider, Mage Armor, Shield, Sanctuary, Tenser's Floating Disk, Calm Emotions, Enlarge/Reduce, Hold Person, Magic Mouth, Suggestion, Counterspell, Animate Dead, Nondetection

A long time ago, In a Galaxy far, far away..

As you probably guessed by now, this is a total meme build, and it is not intended to be powerful or even decent in any way. It is a great way to troll a campaign, perhaps a one-shot, by mockingly denying any out of game reference and insisting this is just the way your character likes to roll with style, or just fooling around. However, for what it does, it does well, and you are going to be everyone's favorite Jedi in virtually every aspect imaginable.

Well, almost since I kind of wanted to fit in Deflect Missiles even though Shield also does the job, but speaking of which, this entire build is malleable to change and you can roleplay any other Force User with any race really, there are probably some cool possibilities I forgot anyway since I don't take it very seriously. Anyway, let's see what's cooking.

"We're really doing this, aren't we?"

Your weapon - A saber, or Rapier, held by your gloved hand. Infused with the Returning Weapon property, so as to return to your grip when beckoned, bearing the Light Spell and thus becoming a source of bright light with a color of your choixe, and lastly, Magical Tinkering applied to your glove to continously emit a nonverbal sound, namely a low vrooming hum.

Your armor - A particular kind of robe.

Your Companions - STARRING: the Steel Defender as C-3PO, The Homunculus Servant as R2D2 ( Might want to Enlarge it ), and an Animating Performance construct created by Performance of Creation as your *ahem* fake model ( Stone, Iron, glass + coloration ) X-Wing which you can totally pilot with your companions by the way. Long story, check out my Mechapilot build if you want. And last but not least.. a moaning animated Zombie with a fur costume as Chewbacca. Hey, at least you can get the stench right, and its always possible to place a few Magic Mouth necklaces near its mouth, or something else.

The Force

It is strong with this one.

Force Damage - Make an attack? Planar Warrior, force damage. Cast a 1st level spell? Awakened Spellbook, force damage.

Force Ghost - Manifest Mind? Your old master!

Force Connection - Telepathic Speech and Emboldening Bond

Force Training - Blind Fighting, Telekinetic, and Eldritch Sight to sense disturbances in the Force. Prodigy because well, that's what it says on the midi-chlorian reader.

Force Powers - Some mind control powers, some healing, object hurling, movement stunts, Hold Person as Force Choke, Shield to deflect projectiles, Force protection making you harder to hit, Counterspell to contest other force users, and most importantly: Guidance with a verbal component of 'May the Force be with you' and Tenser's Floating Disk so you can always have the high ground.

And there we have it.

[ftafp]

Guys, I don't mean to gatekeep but can we please have some quality control with these builds? This is supposed to be a thread for builds that are both unusual and highly effective. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that are just single-class builds with no surprises, and a lot of stuff that's very clearly not playtested. Also, at least one of these builds is using a race taken from danddwiki.com

Race: Kor
Class: Druid 20
Subclass: Circle of Stars

[Dalinar]

Guys, I don't mean to gatekeep but can we please have some quality control with these builds? This is supposed to be a thread for builds that are both unusual and highly effective. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that are just single-class builds with no surprises, and a lot of stuff that's very clearly not playtested

I think this is a perfectly fair discussion to have. Please take all this with utmost respect.

I won't speak for other recent posters in this thread, but in my case, the Joestar Special was not meant to actually be played, but as my best answer to the question "how hard can you punch somebody in DnD?" It would probably be very clunky and ineffective if you took it to an actual table, since it is designed to do one thing and one thing only, measured against a (humanoid) target dummy with no saving throws, resistances, or AC, and that one thing it does isn't even particularly useful compared to just being, say, a bog-standard Fighter/Barbarian GWM build. But man, can you punch a hole in that (humanoid) sandbag!

As such, I'm not sure "should be playtested" is a criterion that applies.

Then again, to quote the OP:

Herein are collected some builds that were made in response to advice threads and the like. Since these were responses to specific questions, I have tried to summarize the context for each. All of them are good from level 1-20 and can perform in all 3 pillars of play.

Hopefully these help provide people with some ideas for fun and viable builds. Enjoy!

If we're going to take these as our criteria, then I certainly wouldn't describe the Joestar Special as "good from level 1-20," "can perform in all 3 pillars of play," or even "fun and viable." So perhaps it does not belong here.

For what it's worth, this thread appears to have become the "Post Your Character Builds Megathread" of this forum, even if it was originally intended to just be a place for Ludic's builds. If you think there's a more appropriate thread for that, I'd like to be pointed in that direction. (I'd prefer not to post my own thread(s), as to prevent clutter.)

And I'll come back with something cool later, I promise. :)

[Quietus]

Guys, I don't mean to gatekeep but can we please have some quality control with these builds? This is supposed to be a thread for builds that are both unusual and highly effective. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that are just single-class builds with no surprises, and a lot of stuff that's very clearly not playtested. Also, at least one of these builds is using a race taken from danddwiki.com

I was thinking the same earlier, but hesitated in saying it. As Dalinar quoted, even if these builds aren't from Ludic (as it is clear was never the intention), they should be builds that do something interesting or novel, and can engage in all three pillars. Not just "Be D&Dwiki race, be druid".

I think this is a perfectly fair discussion to have. Please take all this with utmost respect.

I won't speak for other recent posters in this thread, but in my case, the Joestar Special was not meant to actually be played, but as my best answer to the question "how hard can you punch somebody in DnD?" It would probably be very clunky and ineffective if you took it to an actual table, since it is designed to do one thing and one thing only, measured against a (humanoid) target dummy with no saving throws, resistances, or AC, and that one thing it does isn't even particularly useful compared to just being, say, a bog-standard Fighter/Barbarian GWM build. But man, can you punch a hole in that (humanoid) sandbag!

As such, I'm not sure "should be playtested" is a criterion that applies.

Then again, to quote the OP:



If we're going to take these as our criteria, then I certainly wouldn't describe the Joestar Special as "good from level 1-20," "can perform in all 3 pillars of play," or even "fun and viable." So perhaps it does not belong here.

For what it's worth, this thread appears to have become the "Post Your Character Builds Megathread" of this forum, even if it was originally intended to just be a place for Ludic's builds. If you think there's a more appropriate thread for that, I'd like to be pointed in that direction. (I'd prefer not to post my own thread(s), as to prevent clutter.)

And I'll come back with something cool later, I promise. :)

Perhaps this forum needs a Character Builds Megathread? There is definitely a place for these posts, but there's been a whole lot of builds posted recently that have had no "Huh, interesting" appeal for me.

[Jon talks a lot]

Guys, I don't mean to gatekeep but can we please have some quality control with these builds? This is supposed to be a thread for builds that are both unusual and highly effective. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that are just single-class builds with no surprises, and a lot of stuff that's very clearly not playtested. Also, at least one of these builds is using a race taken from danddwiki.com

Ok, I shouldn't have posted the druid, that was dumb. I agree that that was stupid.

I mean, I did use UA in one of my builds, and plane shift, but no outright homebrew.

[Jon talks a lot]

\

Perhaps this forum needs a Character Builds Megathread? There is definitely a place for these posts, but there's been a whole lot of builds posted recently that have had no "Huh, interesting" appeal for me.

Most of those are probably from me. I wish there was a character builds megathread, because I would have posted them there instead. I really just wanted advice about them and had nowhere else to post.

Edit: I'm going to delete the single class builds that I just wanted advice on from this thread.

[Evaar]

Guys, I don't mean to gatekeep but can we please have some quality control with these builds? This is supposed to be a thread for builds that are both unusual and highly effective. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that are just single-class builds with no surprises, and a lot of stuff that's very clearly not playtested. Also, at least one of these builds is using a race taken from danddwiki.com

I don’t disagree but I do want to just point out - multiclassing isn’t a requirement here. Personally, I think a lot of builds overcomplicate things by presuming they have to multiclass to be novel.

All of the builds from the first post are all straight class builds. The key is in utilizing everything those classes give access to in order to accomplish a lot of things across all pillars of gameplay and preferably is viable from level 1 - 20.

That’s why I felt the Warlock I posted above qualified, even though it doesn’t multiclass. The most novel thing about it is the ability to upcast Aid with spell slots that return on a short rest, but it contributes a lot of convenience to its party.

[Dalinar]

Civis Mundi was kind enough to make us a Megathread so as to avoid clutter in this one.

I think that if that thread becomes the general "post-your-build-for-feedback" thread, this one can become a more curated "Legendary Builds" thread. It'd feature the most highly-effective builds across all levels and all three pillars, and/or the most creative builds, from this thread, the Megathread, and other threads around this forum (like that Creation 18/Genie 2 thread that went up recently).

Fortunately, Ludic has kind of done that already via linking a bunch of cool builds from this thread in the OP, but I don't necessarily want to saddle one particular person with that job, so...

Thoughts?

[LudicSavant]

*Peeks in at thread to see what's been going on.*

I for one am happy for people to post their optimized builds for feedback and have no intention to gatekeep other peoples' builds (I am highly unlikely to have time to do so regardless) beyond asking that we please stick to the rules and avoid homebrew material like danddwiki. If you can simply make up a rule to achieve what you want, you're not really sharing knowledge about how to build characters within the system, y'know?

[Civis Mundi]

*Peeks in at thread to see what's been going on.*

I for one am happy for people to post their optimized builds for feedback and have no intention to gatekeep other peoples' builds (I am highly unlikely to have time to do so regardless) beyond asking that we please stick to the rules and avoid homebrew material like danddwiki. If you can simply make up a rule to achieve what you want, you're not really sharing knowledge about how to build characters within the system, y'know?

Fair enough! I hope it's clear that my intention was not to gatekeep. I started the thread because there was talk about such a thing, and I thought, why not? I figured it would be easier to navigate this thread with another one open to work-in-process. That way, people could go to that thread when they're still developing ideas, and this thread when they want to present them as finished products to be used by future players. I know I've got a lot of builds kicking around that I'd love to further develop, but I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing many of them in this thread, at least in their current state. They're just not up to snuff.

Anyway, I don't mean to ramble. If the other thread dies on the vine, it wasn't meant to be. But for my own peace of mind, I wanted to make sure my intentions were clear. I made the thread to encourage further sharing, not in the spirit of elitism.

[Wraith]

The Oxymoronic Meat-Grinder


Hard to tell that she's an Enlarged Rune Knight, but it's a trick of perspective -
the rest of the party are down here, lower than the thighs of this 30' tall dwarf.

Honest.

Race: Dwarf (Duergar)
Class: Fighter 3 / Ranger 11
Subclasses: Rune Knight / Hunter Conclave
Favoured Foe/Terrain: Doesn't really matter, pick something appropriate to your campaign - or at least, something that tends to appear in large groups, like Zombies or Goblins.

Starting Stats (without TCoE): STR 15 (+1), DEX 14, CON 12 (+2), INT 10, WIS 13, CHA 8
ASI’s: Increase STR and CON, and recommended feats include: War Caster; Heavy Armour Master; Polearm Master; Sentinel; Great Weapon Master.

This started out as an exercise in “How many attacks can I make in 1 round” kind of thing and took off from there.
DISCLAIMER: Theory-crafting is in effect from here onwards - the situation in which you get the absolute highest efficiency with this build is unlikely, but technically possible and scales down in other circumstances. Don’t expect to do this every single round, but be prepared to bask in glory when the opportunity arises.

Starting Out:
If it wasn’t already clear, we begin by abusing the synergy between a Rune Knight’s Giant Size ability and the fact that a Duergar can cast Enlarge as a racial spell from level 3. We can now be Huge sized whenever we like, which gives us a footprint of 15ft by 15ft - or, 3x3 squares (PHB pg191).

It’s a Huge Dwarf. There’s your oxymoron, since you were wondering.

After this, we pick up Ranger. It really doesn’t matter what your Favoured Foes or your Favoured Terrain are, pick whatever you think will be suitable for your campaign. Something that turns up in large numbers would be wise - Undead for packs of zombies, etc.

We’ll take Blindfighting as our Fighting Style because it’s a generally acceptable way of dealing with Sunlight Sensitivity (check with your GM to make certain) and because an ability with a 10ft radius is all the better when we already start with a 60ft circumference, rather than the usual 20ft.

At level 6 our Conclave is Hunter, because all we’re going to do is head in a straight line to Hunter 11. Doesn't really matter what other Conclave abilities you pick along the way, but since we’re staying on theme for “More Attacks” then Horde Breaker is recommended, as is Escape the Horde for help in getting into or out of our favourable setup.

At Ranger 11 we get to pick our Multiattack option, which should be Whirlwind Attack. This is the capstone to our combo which, under ideal circumstances, lets us drop our wrath on a ridiculous number of enemies.
Whirlwind Attack lets us spend an action to make a separate attack roll against any number of enemies within 5’, but because we are 15ft x 15ft wide that gives us an effective Area of Effect of 16 squares around our circumference and we can roll to hit each and every one of them. And then Action Surge to do it again. And because we have Horde Breaker, we can make one additional attack against anyone who isn’t the first guy we hit.

Unfortunately because Whirlwind Attack is a specific action and not an Attack action we can’t then use our offhand for one more swing, but frankly that’s probably fair. Up to 33 attack rolls in one round is plenty, and we can repeat this for every round for as long as we maintain concentration on Enlarge, because Whirlwind Attack isn’t limited by Uses Per Day.

And there’s your Meat-Grinder, if it weren’t already obvious.

For ASI’s you’re very likely to max out that STR one way or another - the plan for this character is to insert themselves into a mob of enemies and then Spin-to-Win until they all die, but if any of them survive then you’re going to be surrounded by angry monsters having just drawn attention to yourself. Making sure that they take as much damage as possible, or that you can soak as much as possible, is vital.

With that in mind, your recommended feats are slightly different to that of a normal front-line melee character. For a start, War Caster is huge - you only have one Enlarge per day and you’re inevitably going to be surrounded by enemies, so you need to make sure it doesn’t get lost. Similarly, any other feats are likely to be ones that keep you alive - Heavy Armour Master and Lucky, for example.
If you’d rather stick to more traditional Ranger apparel, you might consider swapping your Great Weapon Fighting style for Two-Weapon Fighting, just for the compromise of carrying a Finesse weapon in your off-hand and then picking up Defensive Duellist, as +3AC can potentially be a lifesaver when enough attacks are thrown at you and you can't/won't carry a shield.
Of course, you can throw caution to the wind with the usual Polearm Master/Sentinel combination and just make sure that everything dies before it gets near to you. Similarly, since you’re likely to kill SOMETHING then Great Weapon Master gives you the chance to make yet another attack after dropping one of your many victims to 0hp. That's your 34th attack of the turn, for those who are keeping count.

Unfortunately there isn’t much that we can do with Ranger spells; an awful lot of them require concentration which is going to cost us our Enlarge, so I recommend things that we can use as ‘emergency buttons’ for dire situations. Zephyr Strike will let us escape from a crowd more or less unscathed, and Meld Into Stone will do the same thing albeit in a different direction. Otherwise, healing spells and Absorb Elements to use as a Reaction are probably your best, safest ways to keep going in a prolonged fight.

To finish the build, our statline limits us to a small handful of options and Fighter is probably the best one - those extra levels gets us 3 valuable ASIs and some excellent class abilities like Giant's Runes and Indomitable, whereas 6 more levels of Ranger only gets us more Favoured Enemies and one choice from Superior Hunter’s Defences, which are…. Okay in the right campaign, in all fairness, but just not as great.
Ranger 12 / Fighter 8 misses out on Indomitable, but gets you the last ASI from Ranger so that's probably a fair trade if you're going feat-heavy or want to top up on a stat.

Pro's of the Build: Your explosive potential is just hilarious. Improve your damage in any way - buff from an ally, magical weapon, multiclass into something like Hexblade, etc - and your Damage-Per-Turn potentially skyrockets. On top of that you have some useful out-of-fight abilities to help get the party where they need to go, a little bit of stealth for good measure, and all the battlefield control that being a Huge creature with a Reach weapon can provide.

Con's of the Build: It's clearly a late-bloomer; you're going to be level 14 before you can do your 'trick' and until then you're just a front-line melee beatstick. This isn't necessarily a horrible proposition as Polearm Master and/or Sentinel + Reach arrives significantly earlier and is always welcome in a squishy party that needs protecting, but it's almost all you'll be doing for quite a long time.
Similarly; One day you're just going to fight an enemy who, by preference, is alone - a dragon for example, or a Tarrasque - at which point you are just a big person with a stick who is trying not to die. Such is already the problem with being a Hunter Conclave Ranger in general, but if you're also leaning heavily into it then you run out of other options quite quickly.

Alternative Starts:

Elf / Eladrin / Shadar Kai (Two-Weapon Fighting; Feat - Fey Teleportation)
Although you’re only going to be Large rather than Huge and thus in range of a smaller number of enemies, being able to teleport is a HUGE advantage for this build as it lets us get into the most densely populated area of the map without breaking our concentration. This means we can set up Giant Size and then a suitable way to give ourselves an edge - Fog Cloud for example, which we ignore with Blindfighting - before diving in and unleashing havoc.

Grung (Two-Weapon Fighting; Feat - Poisoner)
Check with your GM before assuming that this works, because it reads like it should but feels like it shouldn’t.
A Grung’s Poisonous Skin ability reads: “You can also apply this poison to any piercing weapon as part of an attack with that weapon”, which is not necessarily the same thing as making an Attack action. On paper, it works with Whirlwind Attack as that also reads “makes melee attacks” rather than “make an Attack action”, so again although you’re only Large, you’re trading quantity for quality and forcing Poison damage on everyone you strike, up to 25 times in a row.

Artificer / Wizard / Sorcerer (3)
Let’s say you want the best of both worlds, wherein you want to be Huge and you want to be anything other than a Dwarf. In principle you can - it’s just a 3 level dip to pick up 2nd level Spellcasting from Wizard, Sorcerer or Artificer.
The killer with this is that we’re now super-MAD because we’ll need STR and CON to make the build effective, WIS for Ranger, and then either INT or CHA for the third class. It can be done, either by spending ASI’s on your dumped stats (WRONG) or by dumping DEX from the beginning and just dealing with being a slow-poke. Potentially a lot of fun for a high level game - we’re now up to level 17 just to get it all squeezed in together - but it’s there if you want it!

[LumenPlacidum]

You could use Moon Druid to get a larger form instead of Rune Knight or Duergar. Unfortunately, you need 6 levels of druid to get a huge form (either Giant Constrictor Snake or Quetzalcoatlus)

On the plus side, Quetzalcoatlus lets you use Dive Attack on every single one of those whirlwind targets. So, each will take 6d6+2 damage from the bite. On the down side, you only have +4 to hit...

[Wraith]

Interesting idea. Can we go bigger?

Yes we can, with a magic item. Duergar Hunter 11 / Fighter 2 / Moon Druid 7. Put your Enlarge into a Ring of Spell Storing and have a Familiar or Ally use it after you have Wild Shaped - Huge becomes Gargantuan, so enjoy Whirlwind Attack-ing a ring of 20 targets, twice per turn. And then Horde Breaker someone, because why not?

Giant Elk (CR2) are Huge too, and they have a massive +6 to hit. Doesn't hit nearly as hard, but also a more viable alternative if your DM is a stickler for the "creatures that you have actually seen" pre-requisite.

That might be crossing the line and going too far, but frankly we'd struggle to even see the line from WAAAAYYY up here.

[Citadel97501]

In regards to the Oxymoronic Meat Grinder, I wonder if there is a way to do this with Word of Radiance? I think it would come online earlier and still be a lot of fun. Perhaps something like the following?


Race: Aasimar simply due to cool factor of a giant glowing angry angel...
Fighter: 6, Rune Knight
Sorcerer: 14 Divine Soul
ASI & Feats: Charisma, & Constitution, Meta-magic feat from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and Heavy Armor Mastery (I have been looking for a reason to use this).

This gives you great concentration saves, armor proficiencies, great meta-magic options, possible healing and support effects while letting you stay a pretty solid tank. You also have a good mix of short rest and long rest abilities, many of which are bonus action or reactions.

Damage: 3d6 per target on a failed save. So with a size of huge, this should always be at least 2 targets.

Con's: Really wonky build but the sheer number of options will be a lot of fun.

[Wraith]

I really like that idea - the idea of an 'Angel' plummeting out of the sky and everything around it exploding in a ring of holy light.

It adds together nicely too - Aasimar get their Radiant Soul/Radiant Consumption/Necrotic Shroud transformation and deal [Level] to one target once per turn, so that becomes 3d6 Radiant (half on save) +20 Radiant/Necrotic (straight up, no save) and actually goes some way to solving the problem of how to efficiently fight one target rather than a crowd.

I might've tried to squeeze in 6 levels of Celestial Warlock (Fighter 3/Warlock 6/Sorcerer 11) because then that gives us another +CHA Radiant damage via Radiant Soul per casting, Hexblade allows us to make use of our inevitably buffed CHA in melee if we feel like it for a change and feel like being even more SAD, and we can Coffeelock spell slots down the line too.... But that might be needlessly complicated. Giant Aasimar with Word of Radiance is pretty cool all by itself.

Alternatively; Wizard (Evocation) 6 instead? Potent Cantrip doesn't specify Wizard cantrips after all, so it's guaranteed damage... Or just drop Sorcerer for Wizard 14 and do the same thing for Sword Burst or Thunderclap depending on what flavour you want to go for.

....Rune Knight 3 / Hunter 11 / Evoker 6 with the Magic Initiate (Cleric) feat. Guaranteed Radiant, Thunder or Force damage on command, multiple Enlarge's per day, no restriction on race, and a Glaive to PAM/Sentinel anything that survives. It's an absolute mess to build and we've dropped a whole bunch of ASI's, so why do we need all of this? ....Because.

[ftafp]

The Wagoneer

Thesis: This is a build designed to showcase the College of Creation's fantastic abilities as a crafter due to its ability to ignore costly material components for spells that can quickly add up for other casters

Race: Human, Mark of Making
Class Split: Artificer 2/Creation Bard 18
Level Progression: Artificer 1 -> Bard 1 -> Artificer 2 -> Creation Bard 2-18
Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, (12+2) Con, 13 Int, 10 Wis, (15+1) Cha
Asi: Cha +2@6, Cha +2@10, Lucky@14, Warcaster@18
Infusions: Spellwrought Tattoo (1st level), Repeating Weapon

Tier 1: 1st level is artificer. As with most builds that start at level 1, this is kind of a boring place to be, particularly for classes that start with a dip level. Fret not though, level 2 will give us our bard spells and abilities which will be much more to our liking. Level 3 is where things get interesting, as we get access to our infusions. Spellwrought tattoo has a number of uses (giving your whole party a familiar seems to be the popular one), but there's plenty of amazing buffs you can cast with this like Bless or Gift of Alacrity that you should really make a top priority (Gift of Alacrity it should be noted can be cast on the whole party as the spellwrought tattoo doesnt disappear until after the spell you cast with it ends). Level 4 caps off tier 1 with jack of all trades, and then in tier 2 the fun begins.

Tier 2: At level 5 you gain your subclass. College of Creation is a fun pick with a lot of great uses, but the one I want to highlight is that your Performance of Creation can be used to create the material components for spells. This means when we get Magic Mouth at this level we can cast it for free. There are whole threads showing what you can do with this spell but for the moment I'm going to focus on one: get yourself a pair of earmuffs and cast magic mouth on it, with the instructions to whisper "hidden creature detected" when it notices a creature in 30 feet. As long the target can be seen or heard, it will go off. Not impressed? Let's cast this a few more times on the earmuffs, as nothing prevents you from casting it multiple times on the same object: "invisible creature detected", "trap detected", "illusion detected", "liar detected", "treasure detected", "secret door detected". Want more detailed detection? cast it another time and have it add "at 12-o'-clock" if it sees the thing is right in front of you. cast it again for 1-o'-clock through 11, and then cast it a six more times to add "5 feet away", "10 feet away" and so on up to 30 feet. the spell is a ritual so don't worry about slots. At this level you can make the detailed detector for free in just 5 hours.

We finally get an ASI at level 6. You're a Cha caster so pump Cha. Level 7 will finally bring the joy of 3rd level spells. Level 8 is where we get our next big crafting break: Animating performance, allowing you to create a large or smaller object and make it fly. If you want to be cool like I do, you can take large board or something like it and animate it to make a hoverboard. If you want to be more practical you can buy an enclosed wagon like the Vistani use with a glass door. Now you can hide inside your animated wagon for full cover. Things only get better at level 9 when you get 4th level spells, among them is Fabricate from the mark of making spell list. This spell has a ton of underrated uses, including fabricating walls into rubble, but the reason we want this is what we can do with our tool proficiencies. See, Modern Rifles in the DMG don't have a price tag so we can't craft them normally, but we do know what they're made of and we do know how much of of that material is needed. so just take 5gp worth of chain and turn it into an automatic rifle and then slap your repeating shot on it so you don't have to worry about ammo. Now, it's probably better to give this to an ally, but if your DM lets you take the Flying Monkey familiar from Tomb of Annihilation, you can give your monkey a rifle and it can use the Burst Fire ability every turn as a DC 15 AoE that is conveniently not an attack RAW and conveniently won't waste ammo. Finally, we cap off tier 2 with level 10 where we max out our CHA. tier 3 is next and it's going to be a wild ride

Tier 3: At level 11 you get 5th level spells. Among them is Creation from the Mark of Making spell list. We won't need this yet, but at level 12 we get our 6th level spell slots, allowing us to use it to create a large object, such as a cannon which you can make dance. We'll need some creatures to man the cannon so get Tiny Servant as one of your magical secrets. A large number of these fellows can aim, load and fire your canon while standing in the same space. We might want to create this cannon inside our dancing wagon so you can give your servants full cover. This is the first reason why we wanted a lot of floor space. We get another magical secret at this level so grab Immovable Object. Your first priority should be casting this on the boots of your allies, allowing them to lock their feet in mid air, giving them a fly speed. Because this might break your allies ankles if they're hit with forced movement or knocked prone, your next objective should be casting it on their armor so they can't be knocked around. While you're at it, hit your wagon so it can't be pushed around, and some arrows if you have an archer friend to pin enemies in place. Next level we get 6th level spells. Lucky is a nice addition at 14, and at 15 we get 7th level spells. 16 is the real breadwinner here as our performance of creation no longer has a price limit, so you know what we can make now? Antimatter Rifles! RAW you get an hour before your long rest ends to use up any unused abilities and spell slots, so create an antimatter rifle and slap your repeating shot on it. If your party's archer dex martial has a reliable way to get cancel out disadvantage or get big, you might want to supersize that rifle and make one for a large creature, since according to the DMG a medium creature can wield a large weapon at disadvantage and such a weapon does twice as many damage dice. If they happen to be a pure rune knight, you can even make them a huge version for triple damage dice. But that's not all we get this level. We also get Hallow from magical secrets, which we can cast for free inside our wagon as many times as we like. Now, Hallow does say that the spell fails if it overlaps with another hallow spell, but that's no trouble, as the radius can be less than that 60 foot max, so choose a tiny safe space in the middle of the wagon and make some tiny hallow spells to give you resistance to everything. You might also want to throw some 5-foot radius hallows in the all four corners for auras of fear to inflict on your enemies.

Tier 4: Tier 4 isn't something most campaigns play to as it's where the rules start to break down and full casters become gods. Therefore I'll just leave you with one last crafting trick: True Polymorph is great for making armies of constructs from random objects. Personally, I like Living Spells from Eberron Rising from the last War, as you can make pretty much any potentially damage-dealing spell under 5th level spammable

Reposting this here as well I guess

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I was reading over the Turntech, and I was wondering how someone got the Spellwrought Tattoo as an infusion? From what I can see that would require changing the Replicate Magic Item tables to allow it, which frankly is a bad idea as that item would be easily broken...

[Wraith]

Hello all, I was reading over the Turntech, and I was wondering how someone got the Spellwrought Tattoo as an infusion? From what I can see that would require changing the Replicate Magic Item tables to allow it, which frankly is a bad idea as that item would be easily broken...

A Spellwrought Tattoo that casts either a cantrip or a 1st level spell is a Common rarity magic item. Feels like a bit of an oversight since it excludes other disposable items like potions and scrolls, but it seems legit.

Using this infusion, you replicate a particular magic item. You can learn this infusion multiple times; each time you do so, choose a magic item that you can make with it, picking from the Replicable Items tables. A table's title tells you the level you must be in the class to choose an item from the table. Alternatively, you can choose the magic item from among the common magic items in the game, not including potions or scrolls.

[bpugliese]

Build 4: Arcana Cleric Frontliner
This one was built to showcase how Arcana Clerics can make sticky and versatile frontliners who can do an awful lot to actively lock down or counter foes… whether we’re talking about melee brutes, mook swarms, spellcasters, whatever. It's very similar to a build we used in a campaign that ran from low to high levels, to great effect.

I enjoyed the idea behind this one.
Would you consider changing anything on it today (with tashas and all) or is it still as a good as before?

[LudicSavant]

I enjoyed the idea behind this one.
Would you consider changing anything on it today (with tashas and all) or is it still as a good as before?

Tasha's has power creeped it with an expanded spell list (most notably Aura of Vitality, Summon Celestial, and Sunburst) and a much better use of Channel Divinity (Harness Divine Power).

Also, Tasha's has a lot of strong feats to consider. It also offers us the Custom Lineage race, which allows us to have a 17 Wis / 15 Con base, bump the Con up to 16 when we take Res(Con), and fit an extra Wis half-feat (like Fey-Touched) into the progression without slowing it down.

As for why those new spells are notable:

- Summon Celestial is arguably the best Tasha's summon, and can up your DPR substantially when cast from a level 6 or 8 slot, essentially giving you 3-4 ranged PC quality attacks, for no additional action economy, for an entire hour. This is seriously like just adding an extra martial character to your team.

To get an idea of how much damage we're talking about here, a level 17 GWM Bear-barian using a greatsword, Rage, Brutal Critical and Reckless Attack deals ~36.7 DPR vs AC 19, with Advantage (just ~22.6 DPR without). A level 17 Champion with Superior Critical, GWF, GWM, and a greatsword deals ~35.8 DPR vs AC 19. A level 8 Summon Celestial Avenger deals 45.6 DPR vs AC 19, or 62.4 with Advantage. And it's Radiant (the best damage type along with Force) and long ranged. Again, this is on top of the Arcana Cleric's Booming Blade and Spiritual Weapon and such. Your summon doesn't impact your action economy at all. In short, you are now a high single target damage character for an hour.

But wait, there's more. You can use Simulacrum and have two of these Celestials, and two of your Booming Blades and Spiritual Weapons. Eat your heart out, Fighter with Action Surge.

Also, it's Large, and flies, which means you can potentially use it as a mount. You're just stacking this on top of your Spiritual Weapon and Booming Blade in order to just obliterate single targets in an efficient manner at high levels.

- Aura of Vitality is the most efficient heal in its slot level, and applies Spellbreaker. No surprises here.

- Sunburst gives Clerics access to a non-Concentration giant-size AoE -- a whopping 120 foot diameter. Much bigger than Fire Storm. If you're facing an army, having you and your Simulacrum drop this may just solve the encounter outright.

[Rihno]

Not at all an all-powerfull build, but just something I made for friend for fun.



"D6 Piercer"

Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian (Ancestral) 5/12 Rogue (Swashbuckler)/3 Fighter Champion
ASI: Piercer +1 STR, Orcish Fury +1 STR, +2 STR
Fighting Style: Two-Weapon Fighting Style (requires two light weapons)
Weapons: Dual Short Swords (two light weapons) for piercing damage.

The base is to make 3 attacks with Advantage, critting on 19-20. That is same crit chance as Elven Accuracy 3 attacks without 19-20 crit range, though little less accurate. If we use Action Surge our crit chance during single turn is around... 60%? So nice.

As Ancestral we can hit a guy and make him either chase us or he will attack with disadvantage our allies who will have resistance to all his damage and as Swashbuckler we can attack and move out without provoking OAs so no need to take Mobile feat (though you can take it later if you want). A Hit'n'Run taunt crit-fish build so to say.

When we score crit we can combine Savage Attacks, Sneak attack 6d6 (requires finease weapon, not attacking with DEX), Orcish Fury (making weapon dice 2d6) and Piercer (another 1d6 to cirt) for total of 18d6 critical hit + 5 for 63 crit damage. Without Orcish Fury you can make it 16d6 critical.

It's a gimmick build but my friend wanted "Nimble Barbarian stabbing people in hearts with fast light weapons" so I came with it. Not bad, not terrible :D

As for Progression I would go Barbarian 5/8 Rogue/3 Champion and continue Rogue from there but you can do as you please.

[Evaar]

"D6 Piercer"

Reminds me of the opening fight from Troy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXJkQWdyNA

[LumenPlacidum]

After extensive efforts to improve upon Soulknife with multiclassing, I think I'm going to suggest the following build.

Soulknife Generalist

Build goals - Be an effective user of many of the most important skills in the game. Doesn't need to focus on damage output, but shouldn't fall significantly behind either. Uses the Soulknife rogue subclass in a way that doesn't ignore its titular feature.

Race. Tabaxi
Starting Class. Rogue
Ability Scores. Str 12, Dex 14+2, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12+1
Total Build. Rogue (Soulknife) 10 / Ranger (Fey Wanderer) 3 / Fighter 7 (Rune Knight)

Level 1-3. Rogue (Soulknife)
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +5, Arcana +2, Athletics +3, Disguise Kit +3, Insight +4, Investigation +4, Perception +6, Persuasion +3, Poisoner's Kit +2, Stealth +5, Thieves' Tools +5

You are a typical rogue with +5 to hit with a rapier or bow and 1d6 sneak attack. You have a climb speed and proficiency in Athletics to get you to those places that the other party members cannot reach, enhancing your ability as a scout. If needed, you can move with great speed.
You offer the party not just reliable skills, but also absolutely silent communications over up to a mile with telepathy. You're a great, mobile, sneaky scout who can actually understand what you're looking at. The ability to coordinate with your team is excellent.
Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +5 (1d6+3) and Psychic Blade +5 (1d4+3) and Sneak Attack +2d6. 10.14 expected damage per turn.

Level 4-6. Ranger (Fey Wanderer)
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +6, Arcana +6, Athletics +4, Deception +6, Disguise Kit +6, Insight +5, Investigation +6, Perception +8, Persuasion +6, Poisoner's Kit +3, Stealth +6, Survival +5, Thieves' Tools +6

With Fey Wanderer, you aren't depressing your extra sneak attack damage dice too much because Favored Foe and Dreadful Strikes are giving you the ability to add 2d4 to damage. Actually, 2d6+2d4 is better than 3d6! You gain the ability to use some good utility spells from Ranger. You also have either the blindfighting (for use with fog cloud) or dueling style.
Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +6 (1d6+3+1d4) and Psychic Blade +6 (1d4+3+1d4) and Sneak Attack +2d6 and Dreadful Strikes +1d4. 15.56 expected damage per turn.

Level 7-8. Rogue (Soulknife)
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +7, Arcana +6, Athletics +7, Deception +6, Disguise Kit +6, Insight +5, Investigation +6, Perception +8, Persuasion +6, Poisoner's Kit +3, Stealth +10, Survival +5, Thieves' Tools +7

You are happy to boost your Dex by 2 with your first ASI. You sink Expertise into a couple more skills--this time focusing on things that you want to be great at rather than things that you don't want to be bad at. Grabbing Uncanny Dodge never hurt anyone...
Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +7 (1d6+4+1d4) and Psychic Blade +7 (1d4+4+1d4) and Sneak Attack +3d6 and Dreadful Strikes +1d4. 20.78 expected damage per turn (dipping quite close to my minimum acceptable of 2.5 per level).

Level 9-11. Fighter (Rune Knight)
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +8, Arcana +8, Athletics +9, Deception(a) +7, Disguise Kit +11, Insight +6, Investigation +8, Perception +10, Persuasion +7, Poisoner's Kit +8, Smith's Tools +10, Stealth +12, Survival +6, Thieves' Tools +12

Fighter gives you the Blind-Fighting or Dueling style (whichever one you didn't select from Ranger). The runes from Rune Knight get you advantage with Sleight of Hand checks (you're not proficient, but you have a +4 anyway), Deception checks (+7 with advantage is solid), and Expertise with all tools that you're already proficient in. Additionally, you get to switch an attack target and you get to restrain someone with fiery shackles once per rest. Also, even though we're still taking levels in things that aren't rogue, we're still getting bonus damage dice. Giant Might gives you +1d6 on a damage roll each round, and hey, it makes you make Athletics rolls with advantage (at +9!).
Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +8 (1d6+4+1d4+2) and Psychic Blade +8 (1d4+4+1d4+2) and Sneak Attack +3d6 and Dreadful Strikes +1d4 and Giant Might +1d6. 27.56 expected damage per turn (still quite close to my minimum).

Level 12-16. Rogue (Soulknife)
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +10, Arcana +10, Athletics +11, Deception(a) +8, Disguise Kit +13, Insight +7, Investigation +10, Perception +12, Persuasion +8, Poisoner's Kit +10, Smith's Tools +12, Stealth +15, Survival +7, Thieves' Tools +15

Dex goes up to 20 with the ASI and you grab the ability to boost your missed attacks with a psi-die, as well as other rogue goodies. Your psi-die becomes a d10. You may not be able to toss spells around like a wizard, but you're still highly mobile and you have a lot of utility.
With your ASI at Rogue 10, I would grab Ritual Caster (wizard) or Alert.
Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +10+1d10 (1d6+5+1d4+2) and Psychic Blade +10+1d10 (1d4+5+1d4+2) and Sneak Attack +5d6 and Dreadful Strikes +1d4 and Giant Might +1d6. 47.72 expected damage per turn. The Soul Blades ability fixed our dipping damage.

Level 17-20. Fighter
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +11, Arcana +12, Athletics +13, Deception(a) +11, Disguise Kit +17, Insight +10, Investigation +12, Perception +16, Persuasion +11, Poisoner's Kit +12, Smith's Tools +16, Stealth +17, Survival +11, Thieves' Tools +17

Bump your Wisdom. You get solid rune options and more reaction abilities using the Storm Rune and Runic Shield. With Extra Attack you could choose to wield a weapon in one hand and... swap it to the other hand in your attack action? Or drop it. This gets you a third attack, although it's awfully silly. Let's assume that it's with a dagger.

Attack Routine. Psychic Blade +11+1d10 (1d6+5+1d4+2) and Dagger +11 (1d4+5+1d4+2) and Psychic Blade +11+1d10 (1d4+5+1d4+2) and Sneak Attack +5d6 and Dreadful Strikes +1d4 and Giant Might +1d6. ~59 expected damage per turn if you attack with the dagger.

---

You are doing solid damage in combat, without the need to get into melee range (you're throwing your psychic blades). You're using your reactions to either improve your own survivability (Uncanny Dodge), turn around an enemy attack (Cloud Rune), or at level 20, impose advantage or disadvantage on something (Storm Rune or Runic Shield).

You have rock-solid skills distributed over scouting, thievery, knowledges, and social aptitude. You are almost completely innocuous in society, since the only weapon you carry around is a dagger and you're wearing only light armor.

[bpugliese]

Build 13: The Ancient Kyujutsu Master

Really cool way of playing ranged combat.

Some questions (sorry in advance if they have obvious answers, I'm kinda new to the concept):
1. Isn't using Hand Crossbows and Crossbow expert better DPR? I don't mean going battlemaster, I saw your comparison of the two. I mean staying in your samurai build but with more attacks at lower levels.

2. If the answer to (1) is no, is it worth picking crossbow expert just for negating disadvantage at close quarters? I see you put it pretty late when compared to other sharpshotter builds, but in your case it seems you could straight up ignore it and get something else instead.

3. Besides the firearms variation you posted later on the thread, is there any other suggestion to update this with the most recent content additions? My table doesn't allow firearms so that new samurai with musket build seems unachievable for me.


Thanks in advance.