An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Ganryu]

There are a few problems with your build, Wraith:

1. Haste explicitly limits you to making a single attack if you use the action it gives you to take the Attack action.
2. Action Surge doesn't double up your bonus action attacks.
3. Great Weapon Master's bonus attack uses your bonus action.

Your build is capped at 11 attacks, sadly.

Yeah, if we're wanting ungodly amount of attacks, Bardcher's way to go.

College of swords, variant human. Grab Crossbow mastery, use your bonus action as an attack.

At lvl 6, you're at 3 attacks at turn
At lvl 10, grab greater steed and haste. Haste works on greater steed specifically, which should have 2 attacks per turn, making it 3. This is 4+ 3 = 7 attacks.

LVl 14 grab simulocrum, and you now have 14 attacks per turn pretty consistently. Go two levels fighter, you get action surge, making it possible 28 for one turn only at lvl 16.

Granted, this doesn't come online til lvl 10, and relies on cheese. Much smaller version of this can be done with star druid for lvl 3 for people doing low level campaigns.

Star druid, can do an arrow attack as a bonus action, 1d8+wis.
Summon Beast, 1d8+6
Then your action, just a regular ol' crossbow bolt (get it from some racial trait, too lazy to find specifics right now.)

For lvl 3, which is much more reasonable for most campaigns, the druid is making the fighter cry in a corner, doing 1d10 +2d8+12 consistently every turn. Even later on, it's decent damage for really little resources.


Or, if we really want to just blow out number of attacks made in one round:

Necromancer Wizard. It just... it kills games. What's worse, it doesn't NEED it's spells above lvl 6, it just needs spell slots. Which means you can actually multiclass into another spell caster, and lose nothing. Throw on twilight cleric. All your undead now have +14 temp HP every turn, making them more resistant to fireball. Twilight Cleric's broken.

I don't care what other classes had for number of attacks, you're now winning.

I might do a build of that. 6 Necromancer/ 14 twilight.

[Wraith]

There are a few problems with your build, Wraith:

1. Haste explicitly limits you to making a single attack if you use the action it gives you to take the Attack action.
2. Action Surge doesn't double up your bonus action attacks.
3. Great Weapon Master's bonus attack uses your bonus action.

Your build is capped at 11 attacks, sadly.

...Jesus, I even have D&D Beyond open in front of me at the "Haste" spell. I have no idea how I fouled that up so badly - I think I read "additional action" then got excited and stopped.

Thank you, nonetheless. Back to the drawing board....

Star druid, can do an arrow attack as a bonus action, 1d8+wis.
Summon Beast, 1d8+6
Then your action, just a regular ol' crossbow bolt (get it from some racial trait, too lazy to find specifics right now.)

If you're going for more attacks by summoning creatures, Shepherd Druid blows everything else out of the water. Bear Spirit plus Conjure Animals upcast to level 5 gets you 16 wolves each with an additional 8+Level HP, attacking with advantage. They act as a group, so it's just a blob of 16 attacks, plus whatever the Druid itself wants to throw out.

At higher levels, 32 wolves (with extra HP, advantage from pack tactics and with magical attacks) acting as one group isn't out of the question.

[Amechra]

Summons are cheating, you guys. :p

The highest number of attack rolls I've been able to come up with is a Sorcerer 17/Fighter 2/Warlock 1. Scorching Ray fires [spell level + 1] rays, which each have their own attack roll. If you cast a 9th level Scorching Ray with your main action, an 8th level Scorching Ray with your surged action, and quicken Eldritch Blast as a bonus action, you're making 23 attack rolls. I'm actually not 100% that this works (my understanding of rules for action surges and multiple spells per turn is a bit fuzzy), but even if, say, you could only cast the one Scorching Ray and two cantrips, you'd still be making 18 attack rolls.

EDIT: Or just, you know, get 19 attacks by casting an 8th level and a 9th level Scorching Ray.

...

Also, the number of attacks for the Bardcher are straight-up wrong. You actually end up with (2+2+1+4)x2 = 18 attacks, since you only get two extra attacks from Action Surge. And you're being lame by using a Simulacrum and claiming that the attacks it makes are totally yours, honest, I swear on me mum.

EDIT: One avenue for making a ton of attacks:

Bladesinger 6/Eldritch Knight 11/Gloomstalker 3, picking up the Magic Initiate (Warlock) feat for Eldritch Blast and the Metamagic Adept feat for Quicken Spell.

Picture the scene: it's the first round of combat, and we pre-cast Haste. What does this mean?

1. We have four weapon attacks per attack action this round (three from Fighter + one from Gloomstalker).
2. We can make three Attack actions this turn (our normal action, the Haste action, and Action Surge)
3. Now, normally this would allow us to make nine attacks. But, lo and behold, someone had a terrible idea when they rewrote the Bladesinger!
4. We can replace a single weapon attack in each of our Attack actions with four spell attacks from Eldritch Blast. This brings us up to fifteen attacks (if you don't allow the Bladesinger Extra Attack clause to apply to your Haste Attack) or eighteen attacks (if you do).
5. Finally, we can Quicken Eldritch Blast with our bonus action to bring our total up to either nineteen attacks or twenty-two attacks, depending on how you interpret Haste-y Bladesingers.

I think nineteen might actually be the largest number of attacks you can make in a round without interacting with questionable rules or including summons/simulacra/etc.

EDIT EDIT: Actually, no, I'm dumb. A Fighter 2/Sorcerer 18 can go Action:[Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray] → Action Surge:[Cast an 8th level Scorching Ray] → Haste Action:[Make a single weapon attack] → Bonus Action:[Make an off-hand attack] for twenty attacks.

[Wraith]

Summons are cheating, you guys. :p

Summoning 32 Magical Wolves sounds like a build that is both eclectic *and* effective, to me! Maybe not in the context of "most attacks from one character" but it certainly has a place in this thread

EDIT EDIT: Actually, no, I'm dumb. A Fighter 2/Sorcerer 18 can go Action:[Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray] → Action Surge:[Cast an 8th level Scorching Ray] → Haste Action:[Make a single weapon attack] → Bonus Action:[Make an off-hand attack] for twenty attacks.

How do you feel about swapping Scorching Ray for Magic Missile? I know that it doesn't require an attack roll, but when up-cast the latter does 3+Level bolts so that makes 12+11+2 "attacks" in a round, and being unable to miss only sounds like an upgrade. We're getting into Nuclear Sorcerer territory here, but on paper we would record it as "I have hit you 25 separate times in one round" and frankly most things won't be in a position to argue afterwards

[kaervaak]

A bladesinger 17/echoknight 3 under the effect of shapechange and haste can do more i think

Shapechange into a marilith with 7 attacks -> attack, action surge attack, haste attack + unleash incarnation, replace the unleash incarnation attack with eldritch blast (this one is a little questionable but I think it works RAW), bonus action quicken eldritch blast (metamagic adept). You need to get eldritch blast from magic initiate, but this gives 14 + 1 + 8 attacks, for 23 attack rolls.

[Amechra]

Summoning 32 Magical Wolves sounds like a build that is both eclectic *and* effective, to me! Maybe not in the context of "most attacks from one character" but it certainly has a place in this thread

I don't think it counts as "eclectic" at this point in the system's lifespan, especially since the myriad ways that summons break bounded accuracy have been cataloged at this point. :p

How do you feel about swapping Scorching Ray for Magic Missile? I know that it doesn't require an attack roll, but when up-cast the latter does 3+Level bolts so that makes 12+11+2 "attacks" in a round, and being unable to miss only sounds like an upgrade. We're getting into Nuclear Sorcerer territory here, but on paper we would record it as "I have hit you 25 separate times in one round" and frankly most things won't be in a position to argue afterwards

I'm defining "attacks" in terms of "requires an attack roll" — in essence, it isn't an attack unless Hex adds bonus damage to it. Otherwise, yeah, Magic Missile would be the strongest candidate.

A bladesinger 17/echoknight 3 under the effect of shapechange and haste can do more i think

Shapechange into a marilith with 7 attacks -> attack, action surge attack, haste attack + unleash incarnation, replace the unleash incarnation attack with eldritch blast (this one is a little questionable but I think it works RAW), bonus action quicken eldritch blast (metamagic adept). You need to get eldritch blast from magic initiate, but this gives 14 + 1 + 8 attacks, for 23 attack rolls.

I'm don't think that you can use Unleash Incarnation with your Marilith attacks — the Marilith's seven-attack routine is listed as "Multiattack", not the Attack action. Yes, this is a little pedantic, but pedantry is what the situation calls for!

Though this actually gives us an avenue to absurd numbers of attacks:

Bladesinger Wizard 6/Echo Knight Fighter 11/Gloomstalker Ranger 3.
Feats: Magic Initiate (Warlock), Metamagic Adept (Quicken Spell and ???)
Conditions: First round of combat w/ a pre-manifested echo.

On this one glorious turn, you can make up to five attacks per Attack action (3 from Fighter, +1 from Gloomstalker, +1 from Unleash Incarnation).
Each of those actions are Attack actions, so you can replace one of the attacks with Eldritch Blast, bringing you up to eight attacks per Attack action.

If you go Action:[Attack] → Action Surge:[Attack] →Haste:[Attack] → Bonus Action:[Quickened Eldritch Blast], you are making 8+8+1+4 attacks, for a total of twenty-three attacks. If the DM allowing this nonsense also allows you to swap the Haste attack for another Eldritch Blast (you can't use Unleash Incarnation with that Attack action, thanks to Haste's limiting clause), you end up with twenty-six attacks, which you can conveniently label using all of the letters of the alphabet!

[kaervaak]

I don't think it counts as "eclectic" at this point in the system's lifespan, especially since the myriad ways that summons break bounded accuracy have been cataloged at this point. :p



I'm defining "attacks" in terms of "requires an attack roll" — in essence, it isn't an attack unless Hex adds bonus damage to it. Otherwise, yeah, Magic Missile would be the strongest candidate.



I'm don't think that you can use Unleash Incarnation with your Marilith attacks — the Marilith's seven-attack routine is listed as "Multiattack", not the Attack action. Yes, this is a little pedantic, but pedantry is what the situation calls for!

Yeah sadly multi-attack doesn't qualify for bladesinger's swap or unleash incarnation. I didn't include those in the calc.

Though this actually gives us an avenue to absurd numbers of attacks:

Bladesinger Wizard 6/Echo Knight Fighter 11/Gloomstalker Ranger 3.
Feats: Magic Initiate (Warlock), Metamagic Adept (Quicken Spell and ???)
Conditions: First round of combat w/ a pre-manifested echo.

On this one glorious turn, you can make up to five attacks per Attack action (3 from Fighter, +1 from Gloomstalker, +1 from Unleash Incarnation).
Each of those actions are Attack actions, so you can replace one of the attacks with Eldritch Blast, bringing you up to eight attacks per Attack action.

If you go Action:[Attack] → Action Surge:[Attack] →Haste:[Attack] → Bonus Action:[Quickened Eldritch Blast], you are making 8+8+1+4 attacks, for a total of twenty-three attacks. If the DM allowing this nonsense also allows you to swap the Haste attack for another Eldritch Blast (you can't use Unleash Incarnation with that Attack action, thanks to Haste's limiting clause), you end up with twenty-six attacks, which you can conveniently label using all of the letters of the alphabet!

I'm pretty sure you can use unleash incarnation with the haste attack. It limits you to 1 weapon attack, but unleash is made from your echo and doesn't break that rule. Now the interesting question is whether you can replace the unleash incarnation attack with a cantrip using bladesinger's ability. I think the gloomstalker ability also adds to the haste attack, but that one's shakier to me. That's a pretty great turn 1!

[Amechra]

I don't think either the Gloomstalker ability or Unleash Incarnation get past the "only one weapon attack" limit on Haste, though — both features make you make additional attacks as part of an Attack action, after all.

Which is also why the answer to "can my Bladesinger/Echo Knight replace their Unleash Incarnation attack with a cantrip?" is "yes, but it's irrelevant" — it's an attack you're making as part of the Attack action, and the Bladesinger lets you replace one (and only one) of the attacks you make during your attack action with a cantrip.

[Mr. Wonderful]

Summoning 32 Magical Wolves sounds like a build that is both eclectic *and* effective, to me! Maybe not in the context of "most attacks from one character" but it certainly has a place in this thread

Effective, eclectic and boring to everyone else at the table.

And don't get me started for trying this in Fantasy Grounds.

[Chaos Jackal]

The highest number of attack rolls I've been able to come up with is a Sorcerer 17/Fighter 2/Warlock 1. Scorching Ray fires [spell level + 1] rays, which each have their own attack roll. If you cast a 9th level Scorching Ray with your main action, an 8th level Scorching Ray with your surged action, and quicken Eldritch Blast as a bonus action, you're making 23 attack rolls.

Just for this part, because there's no issue with the alternatives you offered:
Casting a spell with your bonus action (and cantrips are spells, obviously) locks you out of using any spell as your action for that turn other than a cantrip. Action Surge gives you an additional action but not an additional turn, so the additional action granted from it should also be affected. So if you quicken an eldritch blast you won't be able to cast scorching ray at all.

[RogueJK]

Just for this part, because there's no issue with the alternatives you offered:
Casting a spell with your bonus action (and cantrips are spells, obviously) locks you out of using any spell as your action for that turn other than a cantrip. Action Surge gives you an additional action but not an additional turn, so the additional action granted from it should also be affected. So if you quicken an eldritch blast you won't be able to cast scorching ray at all.

Correct. The section on Bonus Action Spells states (bold emphasis mine):

"A spell cast with a Bonus Action is especially swift. You must use a Bonus Action on Your Turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven’t already taken a Bonus Action this turn. You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a Casting Time of 1 action."

Action Surge gives you an additional Action, but it's part of the same turn.


You could, however, Quicken Scorching Ray to cast it as a Bonus Action, then use your Action to cast Eldritch Blast, and then Action Surge to use your additional Action to cast Eldritch Blast again.

[Wraith]

Effective, eclectic and boring to everyone else at the table.

And don't get me started for trying this in Fantasy Grounds.

Janky as they are sometimes, I'm a fan of the Mob combat rules. It sucks if your Druid is a micro-manager who wants to dictate what each individual wolf is doing every turn, but for the comfort and sanity of everyone else at the table I think as a DM I'd feel justified in saying "tough luck, the Pack is a single 30ft x 30ft entity, treat it appropriately" and then just roll average damage instead of 32 individual To Hit rolls.

[Oramac]

I'm coming in waaaay late to this, but I gotta say I love this whole thread. I'm totally going to play the Jorasco Physician at some point.

Also, might I suggest adding the Tempest Sorcerer Tank? I've personally played it from 1-20 and it plays every bit as well as anything else. The only real disadvantage it has is if you fight something with lightning/thunder immunity. Even then, there are alternatives.

[RogueJK]

I'm coming in waaaay late to this, but I gotta say I love this whole thread. I'm totally going to play the Jorasco Physician at some point.

Also, might I suggest adding the Tempest Sorcerer Tank? I've personally played it from 1-20 and it plays every bit as well as anything else. The only real disadvantage it has is if you fight something with lightning/thunder immunity. Even then, there are alternatives.

There's already the "The God of Lightning" build added to this thread, which is a Tempest Cleric 2/Storm Sorcerer 18 with Heavy Armor. https://forums.giantitp.com/showsing...&postcount=300 Consider what you could do to make your Tempest Sorcerer Tank stand out significantly from that one.


In addition, you'd probably want to post an updated build anyway, taking into account more recent options. The Tempest Sorcerer Tank build to which you linked is from 2016, and a number of things have changed in the past 5 years. (Even that "God of Lighting" build is pre-Tashas.)

For example, the newer Transmuted Spell metamagic is pretty much a given on this type of character nowadays. (Maximized Shatter is nice, but Maximized Thunderball/Cone of Thunder/etc. is even nicer...)

And with Tasha's swappable ability scores, it opens up some additional racial options besides just Half Elf or Aasimar, such as a Mountain Dwarf going +2 CON/CHA and using Heavy Armor with no penalty despite not having 15 STR.

Plus, consider whether Blue/Bronze Draconic Sorcerer is potentially a better option than Storm Sorcerer for this concept, since the extra HP would help you with the "tank" aspect, and you can now Transmute other elemental damage spells into Lightning to get the bonus damage. Especially if you're already going to be taking the Elemental Adept: Lightning feat anyway.

[Withershins]

Indeed, some of these amazing builds are in need of a little update.

[Oramac]

There's already the "The God of Lightning"

snip

Good call. I admit I only skimmed through all the options and missed that one. And yes, the build definitely needs an update. Thanks for the info!

[ftafp]

The Flame Warden (AKA the Fire Marshal 2.0)
Race: Custom Lineage, Small
Class: Wildfire 3/Abjurer 17
Progression: Wizard 1, Wildfire 1-2, Abjurer 2-3, Wildfire 3, Abjurer 4-17
Stats: 8 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 17 int, 13 wis, 10 cha
ASI: Resilient (+1 con)@0, Fey Touched (Gift of Alacrity, +1 int)@7, +2 int@11, Gift of the Metallic Dragon@15, Warcaster@19
Spells of Note: Shield, Unseen Servant, Aid, Rope Trick, Magic Mouth, Counterspell, Animate Dead, Summon Greater Demon, Creation

An upgraded version of The Fire Marshal, this build was made for one purpose and one purpose only: to make your party so many different types of unhittable that your dm will throw in the towel. This won't be a full write-up because wizard has a lot of room for customizability. That said, I'll give the broad strokes. Let me show you how it works

Tier 1:
We start off tier 1 as a wizard, which is rarely fun at first level but we do get the classics. The first major spell in our book is Unseen Servant, which being a ritual we should have multiples of up at all times. Unseen servants have a number of uses such as keeping caltrops under foot or aiming bullseye lanterns, but the key use I want to bring up is defensive. Namely, Unseen Servants can hold up cover for you and your allies. Mind you with 2 str they're not going to be carrying fortifications, but even thin curtains can keep a creature from targeting you with a spell and give disadvantage on attack rolls by hiding you from sight. Given that they can supposedly do anything an ordinary human can, unseen servants could potentially ready actions to throw themselves in front of attackers who pursue you melee. Being invisible objects it's really hard to damage them with spells or aoes. At 2 we switch into druid which may seem a strange choice but bear with me. 1 level will give you proficiency in medium armor and shields. Seeing as the Sage Advice Compendium (which IS official) effectively removed the druid restriction on metal armor, there's nothing keeping you from half plate, but if your DM gives you a problem point out that Spiked Armor from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is canonically made of leather. Druid 2 is where things get interesting. We grab the Circle of Wildfire which gives us a Wildfire Spirit. Easily the best pet in the game, the Wildfire Spirit has Fiery Teleport as an at-will ability, and it can take allies with it to get them out of danger. They can ready this action, triggering it when they or the allies they're protecting are attacked to sidestep the effect every turn, but did you know that they can also be a flying mount? You read that right, and no, you don't need to be tiny (technically you don't even need to be small). All you need to do is order your spirit to grapple you and pull you into the air. Now, being able to drag and lift 150 lbs your spirit could easily lift you as a small creature, but according to Crawford on multiple tweets, moving a grappled creature does not depend on your carrying capacity or their weight, only the size categories of the creatures involved. You might want to go prone before it grapples you though, because with melee attacks out of the question, all ranged attacks against you will be at disadvantage.

Tier 2:
At 5 we get our 2nd level wizard spells, which are better than the 2nd level spells of just about any class. One I want to call out for the moment is Rope Trick, which can be easily used as a bunker for you and your allies in the middle of combat. Just remember not to use a rope longer than 15 feet because you'll be climbing at half speed, and to roll said rope up to keep enemies out. At 6 we get our 2nd level Druid spells, and with them Aid. Aid will let you increase your spirit's hp, so enemies don't focus fire on it, then at 8 we get our 3rd level spells including Counterspell and Animate Dead. Animate Dead and Unseen Servant perform similar functions, but while Unseen Servants can only hamper ranged attacks, Zombies and Skeletons can move mantlets around to block attacks entirely, even doing so reactively by reading their interact with an item action. They also last for a while. By the way, fun new trick about Animate Dead: while they might not be able to follow complex commands, you can tell them to follow the instructions given by a magic mouth earpiece, allowing them to operate autonomously on a complex program. At 9 you get the ability to throw your arcane ward from Abjurer which gives extra defensive props, and then 10 is where things start getting interesting. Remember that thing we did with the wildfire spirit? Now we can double up. Simply use Summon Greater Demon to summon a dybbuk which also gets at will dimensions door and flight. It requires no action to command, all you have to worry about is it going berserk which is fine because it's not an especially dangerous enemy

Tier 3:
We're almost out of gimmicks here, but when we get to 12 I think its worth mentioning that since we have some zombies up and some 6th level slots with no spells, Creation is a good pick. Just summon a cannon from the dmg. Those things may have low accuracy but 8d10 damage packs a whollop. At 13 we get a bonus to our Counterspell rolls, which is awesome. Last at 15 we finally get to a new addition from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons: Gift of the Metallic Dragon. What this feat does is basically just give you a free casting of shield PB times per day that you can cast on an ally instead of yourself. I think that's pretty neat

[carrdrivesyou]

GHOST IN THE DARKNESS

Race: Any that grants a feat (Take Eldritch Adept for Devils' Sight)
Class: Fighter 3 (Echo Knight) - Monk 6 (Way of Shadow)

Ability Scores (27 Point Buy): 8, 16, 14, 10, 16, 8

Suggested Feats: Sentinel (To keep people locked down), Telekinetic/Telepathic for flavor/RP

Suggested Skills: Perception and Stealth

A fairly straightforward build! Use your action to cast Darkness (using Ki) on your spear. Then use your bonus action to manifest your Echo. Approach the enemy and blot out their lights. They are now in darkness that you can see through but they can't. Oh, and there's two of you in there.

With Flurry of Blows, your darkness sphere becomes a veritable Bagel of Beatings.

Add Unleash Incarnation to make it a Donut of Death.

Throw in Action Surge, and you now have the Not So Cheery-O.

Make some of those attacks into Stunning Strikes and that darkness becomes a Life-Saver of Life-Ending.

In short, anyone who enters your reach joins the Fruit Loop of Free Loot.

If they happen to flee from you, you can always send your Echo to chase them, looking all the while as a ghost from the shadows, teleport to swap places with them, move yourself, then continue with your shadowy slaughter.

[Sorinth]

Here's a build for when you want to kite enemies in confined spaces.

Race: V. Human
Class: Monk: Open Hand

Take Slasher at 1st level which as half-feat essentially gives you +2 Dex, +1 Wis, so with standard array/point buy you start with 16s in both. Beyond that have Con be odd because at level 4 we are taking Crusher and evening it out. After that use your ASIs pump dex/wis.

You'll want to wield a slashing weapon, Handaxe is probably best to start with. In combat it's pretty straightforward, attack with your slashing weapon and impose that -10ft movement speed, then switch to unarmed strikes and push them back 5ft with Crusher and finish with a Flurry of blows and either knock them prone or push them back another 15ft. Move back 5ft or so so that you are out of range.

This combos best in a party that has caster(s) that like area of effect spells like Web, Spike Growth, Wall of Fire, etc... For fights against one big melee enemy it might even be worth them using Ray of Frost and saving their spell slots as -20ft speed can be pretty devastating.

Similar builds can be done with Battlemaster Fighter or Swarmkeeper Ranger and you can multiclass between any of them since their push back effects stack with each other. I prefer Monk because the extra mobility.

[Oramac]

First, there’s your Familiar, who can deliver potions without using their Action, swiftly flying to wherever they need to be and administering the potion to an ally (per the DMG rules for doing so).

EDIT: in regards to The Jorasco Physician

Quick question on this part. I've looked through the DMG and don't see anywhere it says anything about delivering a potion without using an action. Surely I'm just missing it somewhere. Can you point it out please?

Thanks!

[Quietus]

EDIT: in regards to The Jorasco Physician

Quick question on this part. I've looked through the DMG and don't see anywhere it says anything about delivering a potion without using an action. Surely I'm just missing it somewhere. Can you point it out please?

Thanks!

Have your familiar deliver it. Technically still cost an action, just not yours.

[Oramac]

Have your familiar deliver it. Technically still cost an action, just not yours.

That's what I thought. Just the description sounds like it doesn't take the familiar's action either. Regardless, it's still a damn nice thing to have.

[LudicSavant]

That's what I thought. Just the description sounds like it doesn't take the familiar's action either. Regardless, it's still a damn nice thing to have.

Quietus has the right of it; it is intended to say "without using your action" rather than "their." Edited it to be clear.

[ftafp]

The Wild, Wild Ride

Race: Yuan-Ti
Class: Peace Cleric 1, Wild Mage X
Progression: Wild Mage 1, Peace Cleric 1, Wild Mage 2-19
Stats: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 13 Wis, 16 Cha
ASI: Mounted Combatant@5, +2 Cha@9, +2 Cha@13, Warcaster@17, Lucky@19
Spells of Note: Booming Blade, Absorb Elements, Animal Friendship, Bless, Counterspell, Polymorph
Equipment: mount, dagger

Quick build today. I'm just going to get into the meat

• This build uses a mount to take advantage of wild magic's hazards. Due to the number of surges with aoe effects a fast mount will let you run into melee, possibly explode, and then duck back out, ensuring its enemies you hit, not friends. In addition, the mount is there to evacuate you in case you go down or get turned into a potted plant, and while you can't move towards the nearest creature you're frightened of, your mount can still carry you
• Yuan Ti and Peace Cleric are there to ensure you and your mount have the best saves possible for your own spells, as you will rarely be able to rely on Tides of Chaos for self-inflicted injuries
• Absorb Elements and Counterspell are there to intercept your own self-inflicted spells. They even work if you lose your ability to speak from wild magic
• Booming Blade and a dagger likewise are selected because they're your best combat options besides dodging in case you lose your ability to speak. Your mount being able to disengage with its own action also ensures melee enemies will have to move
• Yuan-Ti gets Suggestion and Animal Friendship, both of which are useful for potentially recruiting monsters as allies or steeds (Just make sure you don't ). Your at-will Animal Friendship only works on snakes, but you can use Polymorph to turn any creature into a snake to charm it, then turn it back. RAW charming a creature isn't mind control like most DMs treat it, but the fact that so many DMs DO treat it that way means that this is at the very least useful. Note that you won't want to use wild magic near a creature you have under an enchantment because a violent surge can and will break it.

[Khrysaes]

No Image

The Faece

This is more of a general idea than a build

I wanted to add something while it was in my head, and I know it is not complete.

The Fey Ranger level 3 feature can grant +wisdom to charisma based skills, notably this is a bonus, not a replacement, so its proficiency + wis + cha.

Since insight, the empathy skill, Is also wisdom based these pair well.

So

Mark of Sentinel Human, can get a +1d4 for perception and insight, both good skills
Grants Counterspell to the spell list.
+2 wis, +1 attribute of choice. Good.

Classes:
Fey Wanderer Ranger 3: you don't really need more than that unless you want it
College of Eloquence Bard 3: Allows you to treat all rolls on persuasion and deception checks of 9 and below as 10.
Investigator Rogue 3: Allows you to treat insight checks to tell if someone is lying of 7 and lower as 8.

You can cast Charm Person for advantage on charisma checks.

...
I give up.

I am going to bed. I am sure there are more synergies between these.

[Amechra]

You also have the Samurai, whose 7th-level feature lets you add your Wisdom to your Persuasion checks.

So yeah, something like a Fey Wanderer 4/Samurai 12/Eloquence Bard 4 (in whatever order seems best) who maxed all relevant stats and took expertise in Persuasion would have a mighty +27 to their roll.

...

Honestly, though, the Fey Wanderer is a glorious chance to make a very Wisdom SAD Ranger — you don't need Charisma to be the group's face, you can pick up Druidic Warrior as your Fighting Style and stick to Wisdom in melee... hmm...

What do you think the best way to multiclass a Fey Wanderer Ranger with an Astral Self Monk would be?

[CrowOfJudgement]

So yeah, something like a Fey Wanderer 4/Samurai 12/Eloquence Bard 4 (in whatever order seems best) who maxed all relevant stats and took expertise in Persuasion would have a mighty +27 to their roll.

...I think we can get this higher.

Let's call this guy The Master of Persuasion.

Race: Mark of Hospitality Halfling. Relevant bits here are the +1 to charisma, obviously, and Ever Hospitable, meaning we get to add a d4 to our persuasion.

Stats (Point Buy): 13 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 8 Int, 15 Wis, 15 Cha. Might seem a bit weird, but I promise there's a reason.

Level Breakdown: Eloquence Bard 4/Samurai Fighter 8/Fey Wanderer Ranger 4/Redemption Paladin 4

Choose Druidic Warrior fighting style for Ranger, and pick Guidance as your cantrip. An important spell to get your hands on is enhance ability, which will obviously be for charisma primarily. With Fighter, snag the Superior Technique Fighting Style, and the technique you want is Commanding Presence. And take your bardic Expertise in Persuasion and whatever other skill you want (I'd personally recommend Deception or Insight, but it's really whatever you want)

Speaking of said ASI's, you want to focus on getting your charisma and Wisdom to 20 as quickly as possible.

Now, with all that out of the way, the big numbers and the fun part of this build.

The relevant features that go into this guys are: Ever Hospitable (d4 to persuasion), Eloquence Bard's Silver Tongue (Can't roll below 10 on a persuasion check), Samurai's Elegant Courtier (+ wisdom modifier to persuasion), Fey Wanderer's Otherworldly Glamour (Another + wisdom modifier to any charisma check), Redemption Paladin's Emissary of Peace (+5 to Persuasion for 10 minutes), and Commanding Presence (+ a d6 to performance, intimidation, or persuasion). And your expertise in Persuasion. I'm sure you smart individuals can see where I'm going with this.

At level twenty, the final gimmick comes together. Pick a random powerful individual. Pop Emissary of Peace, cast Guidance, and use your Commanding Presence. Silver Tongue makes your Persuasion Roll a minimum of 10. Your base modifier will be a +27, as Amechra said. Here's where we get better. You add another 5 from Emissary of Peace, so +32. Add your Guidance d4, your Ever Hospitable d4, and your Commanding Presence d6.

Minimum: 10 + 32 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 45

Maximum with a roll at/under 10: 10 + 32 + 4 + 4 + 6 = 56

Max with a Nat 20 for ****s and giggles: 20 + 32 + 4 + 4 + 6 = 66

Whoever you're trying to persuade, whatever you're trying to convince them of, it is absolutely guaranteed to succeed. You are more persuasive than any god. You could convince the gods to worship you instead. Your absolute minimum is enough to exceed the DC of what is meant to be impossible, 30. Your max is twice that. This is so absurd that I can't even visualize what that would look like in-game aside from the world itself warping and changing to suit your whims. Want to deceive rather than persuade? You might not be quite as good at it, after all your minimum roll would be a measly 32 (assuming you take Deception expertise).

But wait, there's more!

Not much more though. Basically, you're not a one trick gimmick pony. Outside of this strategy, you're a 9th level caster. You've got Lay on Hands, Bardic Inspiration, and since this whole shtick doesn't require any spell slots you don't have to worry about hoarding them for that persuasion roll, meaning you can spend them on supporting allies and blasting enemies. And magic aside, you've got the necessary features to ensure you're an absolute beast in combat.

Alright. I'd say that's about as far as we can take that.

[Khrysaes]

...I think we can get this higher.

Let's call this guy The Master of Persuasion.

Race: Mark of Hospitality Halfling. Relevant bits here are the +1 to charisma, obviously, and Ever Hospitable, meaning we get to add a d4 to our persuasion.

Stats (Point Buy): 13 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 8 Int, 15 Wis, 15 Cha. Might seem a bit weird, but I promise there's a reason.

Level Breakdown: Eloquence Bard 4/Samurai Fighter 8/Fey Wanderer Ranger 4/Redemption Paladin 4

Choose Druidic Warrior fighting style for Ranger, and pick Guidance as your cantrip. An important spell to get your hands on is enhance ability, which will obviously be for charisma primarily. With Fighter, snag the Superior Technique Fighting Style, and the technique you want is Commanding Presence. And take your bardic Expertise in Persuasion and whatever other skill you want (I'd personally recommend Deception or Insight, but it's really whatever you want)

Speaking of said ASI's, you want to focus on getting your charisma and Wisdom to 20 as quickly as possible.

Now, with all that out of the way, the big numbers and the fun part of this build.

The relevant features that go into this guys are: Ever Hospitable (d4 to persuasion), Eloquence Bard's Silver Tongue (Can't roll below 10 on a persuasion check), Samurai's Elegant Courtier (+ wisdom modifier to persuasion), Fey Wanderer's Otherworldly Glamour (Another + wisdom modifier to any charisma check), Redemption Paladin's Emissary of Peace (+5 to Persuasion for 10 minutes), and Commanding Presence (+ a d6 to performance, intimidation, or persuasion). And your expertise in Persuasion. I'm sure you smart individuals can see where I'm going with this.

At level twenty, the final gimmick comes together. Pick a random powerful individual. Pop Emissary of Peace, cast Guidance, and use your Commanding Presence. Silver Tongue makes your Persuasion Roll a minimum of 10. Your base modifier will be a +27, as Amechra said. Here's where we get better. You add another 5 from Emissary of Peace, so +32. Add your Guidance d4, your Ever Hospitable d4, and your Commanding Presence d6.

Minimum: 10 + 32 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 45

Maximum with a roll at/under 10: 10 + 32 + 4 + 4 + 6 = 56

Max with a Nat 20 for ****s and giggles: 20 + 32 + 4 + 4 + 6 = 66

Whoever you're trying to persuade, whatever you're trying to convince them of, it is absolutely guaranteed to succeed. You are more persuasive than any god. You could convince the gods to worship you instead. Your absolute minimum is enough to exceed the DC of what is meant to be impossible, 30. Your max is twice that. This is so absurd that I can't even visualize what that would look like in-game aside from the world itself warping and changing to suit your whims. Want to deceive rather than persuade? You might not be quite as good at it, after all your minimum roll would be a measly 32 (assuming you take Deception expertise).

But wait, there's more!

Not much more though. Basically, you're not a one trick gimmick pony. Outside of combat, you're a 9th level caster. You've got Lay on Hands, Bardic Inspiration, and since this whole shtick doesn't require any spell slots you don't have to worry about hoarding them for that persuasion roll, meaning you can spend them on supporting allies and blasting enemies. And magic aside, you've got the necessary features to ensure you're an absolute beast in combat.

Alright. I'd say that's about as far as we can take that.

You can boost it 1d4 more with a 1st level peace cleric, either yourself, or a party member. You do lose an ASI for it though.

[RogueJK]

What do you think the best way to multiclass a Fey Wanderer Ranger with an Astral Self Monk would be?

6 levels of Astral Self Monk (or 8 if you need the ASI sooner rather than later), then 3 levels of Fey Wanderer, then back to Monk.

Honestly, though, the Fey Wanderer is a glorious chance to make a very Wisdom SAD Ranger — you don't need Charisma to be the group's face, you can pick up Druidic Warrior as your Fighting Style and stick to Wisdom in melee... hmm...

You can do similar with a WIS-SAD Samurai Fighter, picking up the Wood Elf Magic or Magic Initiate Druid feat for Shillelagh for WIS-based melee, and getting +WIS to Persuasion checks.

Call it the Wise Warrior:

Wood Elf Samurai Fighter 20, using medium armor, a staff, and a shield.
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 15+2
CHA 10
Feats: Wood Elf Magic, Elven Accuracy (+1 WIS), Polearm Master, Crusher (+1 CON), Fey Touched (+1 WIS, Hunter's Mark), +1 WIS/CON, Lucky
Fighter Skills: Insight, Acrobatics
Samurai Skill: Persuasion
Background Skills: Survival and Stealth
Racial Skill: Perception
Dueling Fighting Style

or

Variant Human Samurai Fighter 20, using medium armor, a staff, and a shield.
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 15+1
CHA 10
Feats: Magic Initiate Druid (Shillelagh, Produce Flame, Absorb Elements), Polearm Master, +2 WIS, Sentinel, Crusher (+1 CON), Fey Touched (+1 WIS, Hunter's Mark), +1 WIS/CON, Lucky
Fighter Skills: Insight, Acrobatics
Samurai Skill: Persuasion
Background Skills: Survival and Stealth
Racial Skill: Perception
Dueling Fighting Style

Not super optimized, but could be a fun and well-rounded character to play, being useful both in and out of combat (unlike a lot of Fighters out there), and being quite a change from what you usually see in most Fighter builds.

[Khrysaes]

6 levels of Astral Self Monk (or 8 if you need the ASI sooner rather than later), then 3 levels of Fey Wanderer, then back to Monk.



You can do similar with a WIS-SAD Samurai Fighter, picking up the Wood Elf Magic or Magic Initiate Druid feat for Shillelagh for WIS-based melee, and getting +WIS to Persuasion checks.

Call it the Wise Warrior:

Wood Elf Samurai Fighter 20, using medium armor, a staff, and a shield.
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 15+2
CHA 10
Feats: Wood Elf Magic, Elven Accuracy (+1 WIS), Polearm Master, Crusher (+1 CON), Fey Touched (+1 WIS, Hunter's Mark), +1 WIS/CON, Lucky
Fighter Skills: Insight, Acrobatics
Samurai Skill: Persuasion
Background Skills: Survival and Stealth
Racial Skill: Perception
Dueling Fighting Style

or

Variant Human Samurai Fighter 20, using medium armor, a staff, and a shield.
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 15+1
CHA 10
Feats: Magic Initiate Druid (Shillelagh, Produce Flame, Absorb Elements), Polearm Master, +2 WIS, Sentinel, Crusher (+1 CON), Fey Touched (+1 WIS, Hunter's Mark), +1 WIS/CON, Lucky
Fighter Skills: Insight, Acrobatics
Samurai Skill: Persuasion
Background Skills: Survival and Stealth
Racial Skill: Perception
Dueling Fighting Style

Not super optimized, but could be a fun and well-rounded character to play, being useful both in and out of combat (unlike a lot of Fighters out there), and being quite a change from what you usually see in most Fighter builds.

I think the Battlemaster fighter in LudicSavant's original post is a wood elf.
It could be possible to just adapt that with Samurai. You could also multiclass a Samurai/Ranger and get double wis to persuasion with a bit more spells. You lose one attack. A 12 Fighter/4 monk/4 ranger, could work too if one wanted some other wis based features, but I don't like monk enough to do that.

Here is that feat list:
Elven Accuracy (18 dex)
20 Dex
Wood Elf Magic (Guidance as your cantrip)
Alert
Ritual Caster (Wizard)
Shield Master
Resilient (Wisdom) (16 Wis)


EDIT:

on another note, has anyone attempted to update any of the old builds with new feats/races/subclasses?