An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[RogueJK]

And if we could get Bluetooth connectivity, and a can opener, that would be great...

[strangebloke]

Great work Eriol. Really helpful

[Reach Weapon]

And if we could get Bluetooth connectivity, and a can opener, that would be great...

Well, at least you're asking for reasonable things, not absolute ridiculousness like a forum table with appropriate columns.

[LudicSavant]

Hi Ludic! I love your interesting build thread a lot. I've seen you say that Life Cleric is one of the strongest healing builds in the game, and it's inspired me to try and make one. Could I ask for some advice on how to build such a character? Like race, feats, interesting combos, the like. Nothing too in-depth, I don't want to take up too much of your time.

Here's an old example Life Cleric build I made: https://forums.giantitp.com/showsing...8&postcount=51

Some interesting races are discussed here. Some that are interesting for Life Clerics include (but are not limited to):
- Githzerai gets Shield as a Cleric spell known, as well as other nice things (like Subtle Detect Thoughts, Psychic Resistance, and an ironclad defense against charm and fear by combining Advantage with a Cleric's Wis and proficiency).
- Mark of Hospitality Halflings get Goodberry as a Cleric spell known, and Life Clerics can just take that straight to the bank. Also comes with other nice things, like the ability to reroll 1s.
- Goliath gets a good Reaction; Clerics don't have those by default. And theirs can make Concentration checks easier and make you very durable.
- Kobold can get Booming Blade, and can give the party Advantage as a bonus action.
- Shifters are just very durable, if nobody's generating temp HP for you already.
- Goblin is very tough to pin down, which is a problem for the bad guys since if you don't die, it's hard for anyone else to.
- Firbolgs can prevent your crucial party-saving abilities from being Counterspelled with Hidden Step.
- Mark of Sentinel Humans get Shield 1/day and Sentinel's Intuition, which is like pseudo-Expertise for Perception and Insight -- skills that are often already the Cleric's job in the party. Also lets you take a hit for an ally, which synergizes with Blessed Healer. Also puts Counterspell and Bigby's Hand on the Cleric list.
-Loxodons make a Cleric extremely resistant to charm and fear (for the same reason Githzerai does), Advantage on two kinds of Wisdom checks (Perception and Survival), and a trunk.
-Shadar-Kai will get you a teleport, Resistance, Advantage v charms, etc.
(Note: Unless specified otherwise, I'm talking about the latest version of a race; usually MPMM).

Some interesting Feats include...
- Aberrant Dragonmark (+1 Con). Grab Booming Blade and a useful Reaction for just a half-feat.
- Gift of the Chromatic Dragon. Pretend you have Absorb Elements prof/day! Also it can buff an ally's damage.
- Skill Expert (+1 Wis). Especially if you're already the most perceptive character in the party. Less finicky than Observant.
- Fey-Touched (+1 Wis)
- Res:Con (+1 Con). Failing Con saves is bad! Gets better as your proficiency increases.
- Lucky. Helps protect against failed saving throws, but also other things.
- Telepathic (+1 Wis). At-will, action-free telepathic communication and a componentless Detect Thoughts for a Wis-boosting half-feat. That can be quite nifty in the right sort of campaign.
- War Caster is good if your party strategy leads to you getting a fair amount of OAs. Also helps your concentration.
- Magic Initiate. Generally not a priority for Life Cleric, but can get you stuff like Absorb Elements / Shillelagh / Thorn Whip. Especially if you got Booming Blade from something like Kobold or Aberrant Dragonmark earlier. I had the Regenerator take it at late levels after maxing Wis.
- Alert. Extra useful if your team likes fog clouds or the like, since it'll stop Advantage/Disadvantage from canceling out.

Some general tips include...
- Blessed Strikes is usually better than Divine Strike.
- Tasha's makes some high-value additions to the Cleric spell list. Summon Celestial is excellent for single target damage, especially when upcast to a level 6 or 8 slot. Aura of Vitality is hyperefficient on a Life Cleric, especially out of combat. Sunburst is a solid AoE option at high levels.
- It helps to spread damage around, because of Blessed Healer. Also because of your powerful multi-target heals.
- Channel Divinity isn't a spell, so can combo with bonus action spells.
- Don't forget that you can Dodge or fall prone, and still get a lot of output. You've got great Concentration and bonus action effects (or potentially even things that can act on their own like Animate Dead with a standing order)

[Eriol]

Great work Eriol. Really helpful

Thanks. Only ~2 minutes per build, but there's a lot! I'll keep plugging at it though. Credit Ludic for making such a great place to exchange ideas, not to mention the people who made the builds themselves. Lots of thought went into these things.

[zariel_paladin]

i havent seen enough filthy powergaming here so i am here to present the stupidest thing that has ever been created in this game

THE CONJURER
this is going to be an absolute monster of a build, monoclassed wizard and how to abuse minor conjuration
level 1: you are a wizard, grab unseen servant and find familiar, dont bother with blasting spells, you will be getting something for that real soon... (make sure to grab prestidigitation, some stuff that it can do if your dm runs raw instead of ranfs are detailed in bootbrew)
level 2: oh boy this is where the fun begins, as a conjuration wizard you get minor conjuration at this level, heres a list of some fun stuff you can do with it: shatterstick(property damage go brrrr), catapault munitions(5th level fireball as a cantrip go brr, just have unseen servant/familiar throw it), purple worm poison(self explanatory), ice troll heart(give your entire party 5 hp regen per turn, become immortal), black sap(immunity to charm and poison in exchange for a con save), theki root(make that con save at advantage), ryath root (temphp for the whole party), dreamlilly(become poisoned in exchange for death ward), murosa balm (fire resistance), eberron dragonshard (this singlehandedly allows a conjuration wizard to keep up with chron at late tier 2 through to tier four, and tier four is where things get fun)
tbh everything else here is pretty obvious, grab mark of conjuring as your race if you can and have fun being a god amongst men

bonus section, tier four shenanigans (shamelessly stolen from sil, the person running bootbrew blogs)
the ghost in the machine

having carried your way to tier four with infinite planar binds, you are now near a god, but we can get a little closer than that, so here is what we are going to do
1. prestidigitation summon a two headed worm (on the trinket list) or planar bind a tashas summon
2. true polymorph this into a mighty servant of leuk o
3. double magic jar into a dybbuk
4. nystul the mighty servant into a humanoid
5. place two planar bound chwingas in rocks into the mech, these are your pilots
6. posses the mech
you are now a fullcaster with 500 hp, immunity to most damage types, and resistance to those you arent immune to, immune to every condition except for invisible and prone, three actions, triple concentration, a mean melee attack, immunity to antimagic and 22 ac BASE

[Chaos Jackal]

THE CONJURER
this is going to be an absolute monster of a build, monoclassed wizard and how to abuse minor conjuration
level 1: you are a wizard, grab unseen servant and find familiar, dont bother with blasting spells, you will be getting something for that real soon... (make sure to grab prestidigitation, some stuff that it can do if your dm runs raw instead of ranfs are detailed in bootbrew)
level 2: oh boy this is where the fun begins, as a conjuration wizard you get minor conjuration at this level, heres a list of some fun stuff you can do with it: shatterstick(property damage go brrrr), catapault munitions(5th level fireball as a cantrip go brr, just have unseen servant/familiar throw it), purple worm poison(self explanatory), ice troll heart(give your entire party 5 hp regen per turn, become immortal), black sap(immunity to charm and poison in exchange for a con save), theki root(make that con save at advantage), ryath root (temphp for the whole party), dreamlilly(become poisoned in exchange for death ward), murosa balm (fire resistance), eberron dragonshard (this singlehandedly allows a conjuration wizard to keep up with chron at late tier 2 through to tier four, and tier four is where things get fun)
tbh everything else here is pretty obvious, grab mark of conjuring as your race if you can and have fun being a god amongst men

The ice troll heart is arguably magical (says it has "the following magical properties") and can't be created with Minor Conjuration. Also, I'm not sure what you mean with the dragonshard. Could you explain, because I can't even find the item? Only thing I can find is the spellshard, but that's definitely a magical item (so it can't be created with Minor Conjuration) and the only way I can think of abusing it is arguing that you make it with every spell in the game included, which is iffy at best.

Otherwise, quite the fun take, as long as you can satisfy the need to have seen the object you create with Minor Conjuration (that will often prove to be a problem unfortunately, but what can you do). Nice catch with the catapult munitions.

[zariel_paladin]

The ice troll heart is arguably magical (says it has "the following magical properties") and can't be created with Minor Conjuration. Also, I'm not sure what you mean with the dragonshard. Could you explain, because I can't even find the item? Only thing I can find is the spellshard, but that's definitely a magical item (so it can't be created with Minor Conjuration) and the only way I can think of abusing it is arguing that you make it with every spell in the game included, which is iffy at best.

Otherwise, quite the fun take, as long as you can satisfy the need to have seen the object you create with Minor Conjuration (that will often prove to be a problem unfortunately, but what can you do). Nice catch with the catapult munitions.

eberron dragonshards can be used in case of costly components (of course depending on whether you follow crawford or not, you could just summon the components out of hand which works just as well)

[Dualight]

Big probelm with the dragonshards: they are explicitly magical, which disqualifies those too from Minor Conjuration: "Dragonshards ... are crystals imbued with magical energy." (Rising from the Last War p. 275) and "Minor Conjuration ... This object ... must be that of a nonmagical that you have seen"(PHB p. 116)
In other words, cool idea, a lot of flaws that not only do not work by RAW, but would also get shut down by any DM that pays any attention. (seriously, there is a non-magical item that deals damage equal to an upcast fireball that is small enough for Minor Conjuration? I suspect that a lot of DMs will look at you oddly for expecting that they would let you use that at-will.)

As an aside, could you please share what sources you use for those items? The only one that I have heard of before would be the purple worm poison and the dragonshard, but I suppose that a lot of them are from specific adventures?

[Chaos Jackal]

As an aside, could you please share what sources you use for those items? The only one that I have heard of before would be the purple worm poison and the dragonshard, but I suppose that a lot of them are from specific adventures?

Don't have all the sources readily available, but a lot of those, particularly the plants, are from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount while a couple are from Tomb of Annihilation I believe. The ice troll heart (which is magical and thus moot, but whatever) is in Rime of the Frostmaiden, while the catapult munition (which yeah, should actually work with Minor Conjuration) is from Strixhaven... I think. Hence my own comments regarding seeing a lot of these - Exandria-grown plants for example will arguably not be on the list of stuff a character in a generic campaign has seen. Funnily enough, despite the massive at-will damage it offers, catapult munitions should be one of the safest bets in comparison to a lot of the other suggested items.

[zariel_paladin]

Big probelm with the dragonshards: they are explicitly magical, which disqualifies those too from Minor Conjuration: "Dragonshards ... are crystals imbued with magical energy." (Rising from the Last War p. 275) and "Minor Conjuration ... This object ... must be that of a nonmagical that you have seen"(PHB p. 116)
In other words, cool idea, a lot of flaws that not only do not work by RAW, but would also get shut down by any DM that pays any attention. (seriously, there is a non-magical item that deals damage equal to an upcast fireball that is small enough for Minor Conjuration? I suspect that a lot of DMs will look at you oddly for expecting that they would let you use that at-will.)

As an aside, could you please share what sources you use for those items? The only one that I have heard of before would be the purple worm poison and the dragonshard, but I suppose that a lot of them are from specific adventures?

technically an item with magical effects is not actually a magical item unless it is specifically stated to be a magic item
also look up 5etools and just use the search function on that with their names, it works fine

[togapika]

Since we're talking eclectic, anyone got any good builds using the Giff race?

[Psyren]

I made a couple of Fairy Tail builds I wanted to share, but isn't this thread past the page limit? Who's making the next one?

[LudicSavant]

I made a couple of Fairy Tail builds I wanted to share, but isn't this thread past the page limit? Who's making the next one?

I will.

Hoping it doesn't close so I can update the first page with Eriol's stuff (once he's done).

[Grene Kny3t]

Hello Ludic, I recently started playing 5e, and the eclectic builds you and others have created in your thread have been a blast to read about and play.

However, I do have a couple of questions. I'm currently playing a nuclear wizard as a tank, and I noticed you mentioned the usefulness of wands of magic missiles with empowered evocation. Is there somewhere that confirms this interaction works? Specifically, does casting from a wand still count as the evoker casting an evocation spell as far as empowered evocation is concerned?

Also, I would love to know if you have any fun and interesting Bard builds/ideas. I've always loved Bards conceptually in past editions, and they seem more potent than ever in 5e.

Thanks

[LudicSavant]

Hello Ludic, I recently started playing 5e, and the eclectic builds you and others have created in your thread have been a blast to read about and play.

However, I do have a couple of questions. I'm currently playing a nuclear wizard as a tank, and I noticed you mentioned the usefulness of wands of magic missiles with empowered evocation. Is there somewhere that confirms this interaction works? Specifically, does casting from a wand still count as the evoker casting an evocation spell as far as empowered evocation is concerned?

Per page 241 of the DMG, wands "allow the user to cast a spell from them." You're using the Cast a Spell action, not the Use an Object Action (which is why it can't be used with, say, a Thief's Fast Hands). It's still you casting a spell, effectively, and works the same except as specifically noted by the item rules.

Also, I would love to know if you have any fun and interesting Bard builds/ideas. I've always loved Bards conceptually in past editions, and they seem more potent than ever in 5e.

Thanks

There are tons of fun possibilities for Bards; you can basically build them for any role you like.

Bards are never far away from getting just about anything they could want. Want armor and shield? You can get that from a 1-level dip, or a Dex-boosting half-feat. Want any given spells on your list? You can get that from magical secrets, feats like Fey-Touched, GGtR backgrounds, dragonmarked or MPMM races, or that same 1-level dip that got you armor (like Hexblade 1 granting you Shield, AoA, Booming Blade, and Eldritch Blast, for instance).

I'll say that if you want a tank/protector Bard, I prefer classes like Lore, Glamour, or Swords to Valor.

Why not Valor for that? Because their Bardic Inspiration (IMHO) isn't nearly as good for a tank/protector as the other 3 classes I named, and because Extra Attack isn't actually all that great on its own. Not if your attacks aren't using your primary stat (Cha), aren't getting any boosts from class features like Fighting Style or the like, etc. Sure, you could boost the strength of your Extra Attack with buff spells and it'll work fine, but you could have used those same spell slots on Animate Objects or something.

Now a Valor Bard can get more synergy with Extra Attack by dipping something (like, say, Hexblade or Paladin), but if they do so their level 3 proficiencies become redundant, so you might as well have been a Swords Bard anyway.

Edit: You may also find this useful; in a recent thread I covered many of the uses of Lore Bard's Cutting Words.

Spoiler

Show

It can be used against any ability check, attack roll, or damage roll.

Some notable cases: Damage Rolls
- Effects that can hit multiple targets simultaneously use one damage roll for all targets. If you Cutting Words the damage roll, you cut it for everyone in an AoE, offering a party contribution similar in scope to a Mass Healing Word. You can even considerably weaken a Nuclear Wizard's Magic Missile.

- Cutting a damage roll does more than just save HP, it also can preserve effects like Armor of Agathys for extra hits, or lower the DC of Concentration checks.

Some notable cases: Ability Checks
- Dropping an enemy's initiative can be incredibly valuable. If you switch them from 'beating the party's initiative' to 'behind the party's initiative,' congratulations, they just lost an entire turn with no save. Yes, it's that good.

- You can use Cutting Words on dispel and counterspell checks, essentially getting back a spell slot that otherwise would have gone kaput.

- You can cut Athletics checks to make it easy to grapple/shove people. Who needs Strength when you have wit?

- Some spells use ability checks instead of saving throws, such as Telekinesis or folks trying to break out of Wrathful Smite. You can Cutting Words any such attempts!

- Stacks with a Warlock's Hex penalty to ability checks, too, which can make attempts to break free of grapples and certain spells just doomed to fail basically forever.

Some notable cases: Attack Rolls
- This works pretty much exactly like you expect it to and it's great value against foes with strong individual attacks. Particularly since you alter the roll after a roll is made.

- Try grabbing the Moderately Armored half-feat (or a 1-level multiclass dip) to stack with this. It's not quite armor+shield+Shield, but it's the next best thing and quite spammable.

Edit2:
- Don't feel that you have to pick spells of the highest level you can currently learn when you gain Magical Secrets! For example, the Bard already has a strong level 5 spell list (with stuff like Animate Objects and Synaptic Static). So instead of getting 2x 5th level spells with your level 10 Magical Secrets, consider looking at other nice things. Don't sleep on choices like Absorb Elements, Counterspell, or Find Greater Steed just because they're not 5th level spells! Those things will stay relevant forever.
- Silvery Barbs (why does this spell exist?) is a huge boost to single-class Bards since without it they don't have good reaction spells like Shield or Absorb Elements (unless they used a Magical Secret for one). Especially for Bards that don't get a Reaction from their subclass features (unlike, say, Lore Bard).
- Glamour Bard generates bloody tons of mobility and temp HP for the party over the course of an adventuring day. It creates a situation where you can freely rotate allies around the battlefield without any worries about OAs or the like, basically letting you choose who the enemy gets to deal with.
- Lore Bard is extremely versatile and can be built to be good at pretty much anything with the right Magical Secrets. They also are extremely good at skills and utility; Rogues wish they could be like Lore Bards in this department.
- Swords Bard can stack AC very high by grabbing shield+Shield, since that'll stack with their flourish.
- Whispers Bard benefits a lot from getting its hands on a Hexblade dip, since that will let them use a melee cantrip and Cha for their attack (which will stack nicely with their Bardic Inspiration).

Might post more Bard stuff if I ever find some time...

[nerghull]

Did you have a chance to try Creation Bard ?

[JTVincible]

Hi LudicSavant, love your builds! I have a question about the mechanics of a Control Flames bullseye lantern. Per the spell description, it can expand flames by five feet but there must be fuel in the place it’s expanded to. What exactly are you doing with the lantern? Surely we’re not hanging out in melee range to hit people with a little fire? Thanks!

[LudicSavant]

Hi LudicSavant, love your builds! I have a question about the mechanics of a Control Flames bullseye lantern. Per the spell description, it can expand flames by five feet but there must be fuel in the place it’s expanded to. What exactly are you doing with the lantern? Surely we’re not hanging out in melee range to hit people with a little fire? Thanks!

The main thing Control Flames does for a Bullseye Lantern is it lets you make it significantly brighter (or dimmer too, if you want).

[Eriol]

Life happens. Sorry for putting this down for so long, and only a few this morning.

Continuing where I left off...

Builds created by other posters in this thread:

1. The Caster's Bane, by Alucard89
   Yuan-Ti, Warlock(Hexblade) 1, Paladin (Ancients) 12 Ancients, Sorcerer (Divine Soul) 7 - You are Bane of all casters. You are also hell of a tank with high AC, high HP, tons of defensive spells, resistances and advantage vs spells.
2. Plague Stalker, by Alucard89
   VHuman, Druid (Spore) 15, Ranger (Gloom Stalker) 5 - You are the gloomy guardian of the forests. Polearm Master, Warcaster, gish withranger/druid.
3. The Astral Paraih, by ftafp
   Paladin 2, Moon Druid X - Turn into an animal that glows with galaxies in its fur and then proceed to to rip and tear through everything in your path with claws and searing starlight. the crux of this is that both divne smite and radiant soul work while wild shaped
4. The Templar of Time, by Bobthewizard
   Half-elf, Fighter (Echo Knight) 3, Warlock (Hexblade) 17 - Hexblade multiclass utilizing the new Echo Knight subclass, with great nova potential.
5. The Hex Spoon by ftafp
   Halfling (Mark of Hospitality), Cleric (Life) 1, Warlock (Hexblade of the Tome) 11, Sorcerer (Shadow) 5, Artificer (Alchemist) 3 - Coffeelock for infinite goodberries, with other interesting flavor. Read this post just for the excellent story!
6. The Skill Monkey's Country Cousin by Kvard51
   Tabaxi, Rogue (Scout) 12, Warlock (Raven Queen) 3, Bard (Lore) 4, Ranger 1 - The point of the build is to be more of a Wilderness Skill Monkey.
7. The Guardian of Balance by Benny89
   Mark of Sentinel Human, Druid 1, Cleric (Arcana) - Reason for this build is pretty much to give Arcana Cleric Counterspell + Bigby's Hand. I think both are perfect tools that makes Arcana Cleric best all around martial-caster-support-area denial build
8. The Underwater Basket Weaver by ftafp
   Half Sea elf, Artificer (Alchemist) 2, Rogue (Thief) 3, Wizard (Conjuror) 3 - Support caster with good action economy & options.

[Yattien]

Is there any plans to update the first posts to be up to date?

I realise that keeping track of them all is likely very time consuming though so if not then all good! I just loved looking down the list and reading the ones that sounded good to me personally, I've even used some of the build.

[Psyren]

Is there any plans to update the first posts to be up to date?

I realise that keeping track of them all is likely very time consuming though so if not then all good! I just loved looking down the list and reading the ones that sounded good to me personally, I've even used some of the build.

Given that the thread is at 51 pages we should probably just wait for a new OP. I'm personally holding off until the new thread is made before contributing.

[LudicSavant]

Is there any plans to update the first posts to be up to date?

Yes. I was holding off for Eriol's list. But I might just do it before that.

[Yattien]

Given that the thread is at 51 pages we should probably just wait for a new OP. I'm personally holding off until the new thread is made before contributing.

That might make sense. It's kind of what has put me off finding the latest build ideas, as there is a lot of pages to get through. I check occasionally, but not enough that I don't miss things as I don't use the forum much, mostly just come here for this thread.

Yes. I was holding off for Eriol's list. But I might just do it before that.

Awesome, thanks the dedication, as I said above, I only ever really come to this forum for this thread and the class ideas contained within so knowing there is plans to update it is nice.

[Eriol]

Yes. I was holding off for Eriol's list. But I might just do it before that.

Update with what I have so far (across a few posts). Life is just not doing what I need to finish my update. And then we had Fiona hit here this weekend, which doesn't help!

[Dissented]

Man has this been a great forum to stumble upon. I'm actually really curious @Ludicsavant if you have any immediate changes to your Celestial Warlock Generalist concept as available content has changed since it's post. Planning on trying it in a new campaign soon. Thank you everyone for all of your contributions :)

[Dissented]

Yes. I was holding off for Eriol's list. But I might just do it before that.

Man has this been a great forum to stumble upon. I'm actually really curious @Ludicsavant if you have any immediate changes to your Celestial Warlock Generalist concept as available content has changed since it's post. Planning on trying it in a new campaign soon. Thank you everyone for all of your contributions :)

[Ortho]

Given that the thread is at 51 pages we should probably just wait for a new OP. I'm personally holding off until the new thread is made before contributing.

Is that necessary? I know it's a forum tradition to start a new thread at 50 pages, but considering that this thread is a de facto community showcase I'm wondering if it might be better to keep it as a single thread.

[animorte]

Man has this been a great forum to stumble upon. I'm actually really curious @Ludicsavant if you have any immediate changes to your Celestial Warlock Generalist concept as available content has changed since it's post. Planning on trying it in a new campaign soon. Thank you everyone for all of your contributions :)

It really is fantastic. There’s a reason I popped it in my sig. Thanks as always LS for your work on this and everybody else for input. I’ve tried a few things in here and hope to contribute something worthwhile in the near future.

[tiornys]

I'll try to work on these while Eriol is unavailable

Builds created by other posters in this thread:

1. Lung Wang, by ftafp
   Kobold, Artificer 1, Wizard (Conjuration, Necromancy, or Transmutation) X - A thought experiment build that attempts to recreate Pun-Pun
2. The Cheese Grater, by Skylivedk
   Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid or Wood Elf, Hexblade 3, Moon Druid 10, Fighter 2, Scout 3, Paladin 2 - abuse the cheese (Hexblade's Curse) and grate your enemies to a fine rotten milk smelling dust with Spiked Growth
3. Grapple Bard: My Shield is Here For You, by PancakeMaster80
   VHuman, Fighter 1, Lore Bard 6, Hexblade 3, Lore Bard X - Grab and grate your enemies
4. The Platinum-Tongued Diplomat, by Legospasm
   Any +Cha race, Redemption Paladin 3, Eloquence Bard X - Play the ultimate face and talk your way past everything your DM throws at you
5. All in Persuasion, by Legospasm
   Half Elf, Changeling, or VHuman, Redemption Paladin 3, Eloquence Bard X, Samurai Fighter 7, Archfey Warlock 1 - Getting the biggest Persuasion rolls possible without spellcasting
6. Guardian Angel/Party Pleaser, by Legospasm
   Protector Aasimar, Devotion Paladin 15, Eloquence Bard 5 or Devotion Paladin 5, Eloquence Bard 15 - Devoted to finding nonviolent solutions to encounters