r/DnDBuilds

I am looking for a build for a character that is not EVIL or the BAD GUY, but he is not the typical good guy.

For example, I am tempted to take 3 levels of Rune Knight for Cloud Rune just so I can stab a party member that annoys me and have the damage hit an enemy. Bonus if I can add more damage to attack (E. Smite / D. Smite / Sneak attack).

Example if he heals (even if it is Cure Sounds from MI Cleric) his Kit looks more like a portable tourcherer's Kit than a healers hit. "Don't worry, this will not cause me any discomfort so just relax."

Basically, the part knows he is on their side but just 90ish percent.

I am also thinking GOO Warlock to get into his enemy's head.

Any ideas?

I am planning on playing my second sorcerer and I want advice on feats fey/shadow touched, and meta magic adept feats.

You can recommend a race that will make this build easier but I pretty much want to be a tabaxi for their fast movement. Mention any magic items that comes to mind that will help with my build please and thank you.

My DM allows us to use this stat array if we want to have a better chance of getting +5 in a stat. Plus 1 in con and my 2 in cha.

-2 6
+2 14
+3 15 16
-1 8
0 11
+4 16 18

Our Dm lets us do any feat at level one and then we can take a feat at level four. That is what I need your help with, here are my two ideas so far.

A. I do (CHA)ASI increase and meta magic adept.

B. Fey and shadow touched to get Cha to max. Fey Touch can give me Hex which works on scorching ray and both misty step and invisibility fits in with my flavor of a speedy caster that can be too fast to see.

I’m not going to worry about level 8 since that will take a while from when we start. Besides whatever I don’t choose I can just do it then.

Either way I want to max my casting stat as soon as possible since that will used the most often and I saw how good it was on our party’s warlock and I wanted to try that for myself.

Howdy everyone!

I got on some really cool anime edits on TikTok, and it has inspired me to create a character that uses “Anime-style attacks” against their enemies. I’m specifically thinking swordsman, when they call out their attack and charge from a distance to deliver a super powerful, all in type of attack. Think Zoro vs. King or Zenitsu’s Thunderclap and Flash. While there are probably more optimal ways to go about this, this was the most fun concept I could think of, while still retaining great utility outside of combat. Here’s the build!

Race: Human for extra origin feat, but also could go High Elf. We really want Booming Blade or True Strike from MI: Wizard or racial bonus, and Sage background doesn’t give us the right ASIs

Background: Zhentarim Mercenary. Perfect for this build, as it lets us take our level 4 feat. Wayfarer is another decent option, although it won’t be as effective for the overall build.

Level split: 8 Swashbuckler / 4 Battle Master
Level 1-5: Swashbuckler Rogue. This subclass has the perfect features to capture the idea of the build. Cunning Actions, Rakish Audacity, first feat, and Cunning Strikes make this build very workable through level 5, although we don’t quite get the damage increase from our mega attack yet.

First feat, Zhentarim Tactics is the desired choice. This will let our rogue do Opportunity Attacks when we get hit by an attack, giving us a chance to do Sneak attack damage if conditions are met. This will happen more often for our Swashbuckler due to Rakish Audacity. If you went Wayfarer, you can pick your choice of Charger, Speedy, or Sentinel. On this build, I dropped Sentinel for Zhentarim Tactics.

At level 6, go 6-9 Battle Master Fighter. I like Dueling Fighting Style, but admittedly the 2 damage is lackluster on the one attack. Could be PYF. ACTION SURGE. Battle Master subclass, and we get another piece to our puzzle. First is Lunging Attack. This pairs well with Speedy, which we will take later on. NeXT maneuver we want is Riposte. We can now do an OA any time someone attacks us. This is a solid way to get another Sneak Attack in the round that isn’t on your turn. The final and best maneuver for us would be Brace. However, since it was not reintroduced in 2024, DnD Beyond won’t let me pick it as a maneuver, so I will not be using it. I chose Disarming Attack for the utility instead. I chose Charger at Level 9.

Level 10+ we finish in Rogue. More expertise, more sneak attack die, evasion, and now Reliable Talent. For this build, i decided to stop at Level 12, but hopefully there is enough context for my choices that you can decide where to go if leveling further.

At level 12, combat would look something like this:
Cunning Action Dash for 80ft of Movement speed. Attack from at least 10 ft in a straight line and damage (under ideal conditions) would go as follows: 1d8 (Rapier) + 1d8 (Lunging attack) + 1d8 (Charger) + 2d8 (Booming Blade) + 4d6 (Sneak Attack) - 1d6 (Cunning Strike: Trip) + 7 (Dex/Dueling) = 5d8 + 3d6 +7 damage on a hit. If the enemy fails their save on the Trip, they will be prone for your melee friends to get advantage on attacks, and standing up should cause the delayed damage from Booming blade to activate, meaning another 3d8 damage to the target. If you are getting OAs on your turn, you can also deal 1d8 + 4d6 + 7 damage on those, and you can roll damage twice thanks to the Background. All of that wrapped up is 9d8 + 7d6 + 14 damages per round. Again, this is making pretty big assumptions, but that can be some pretty high damage numbers for a melee rogue.

Overall, this is not really an optimal build. Sentinel and Brace would raise OA chances even higher, making the overall DPR more consistent. Additionally, you are still a 1 on 1 melee rogue. Sure, you have uncanny dodge, but your reaction will mostly be spent on attacks. This could really limit you to a skirmisher-type play style for survivability, which could mean you rarely trigger the OA requirements. I’ve also never brought this build to the table, just an idea I cooked up in my free time. However, in my head, this does create a very serviceable Rogue/Party face that can still pack quite a punch in combat.

Please let me know your thoughts, any questions, or any improvements you would make to better fit the goal of this build. Thanks!

I am looking to build a warlock (fathomless), I am trying to get as much proficiency as possible. The reason is to create as many tentacles as possible. I also need proficiency and then expertise in slight of hand. As again tentacle swarm (creates a number equal to my proficiency modifier) and I can use a decanter of endless water to then use my teleport to swim down the water and chest burst some dudes. I have some shadow dancer monk but I dont know what kind of rouge i should mix in

I’m going to be playing a one-shot in 5e, and we are level 6. I really want to play a ranger, except I’ve heard how weak they are, and I don’t want to play something that doesn’t bring me joy because I feel like I’m not really doing anything. So, I was wondering if there are any good combinations with feats, weapons, races, etc. I’m going to assume he doesn’t want us to use Variant Human or anything similar to that. I’d also rather play a humanoid or something very close to one, like an elf, for example. So please help with the build idea! Optional features and races do seem to be allowed.

Hello, long time optimizer first time poster. my friend is starting up a Curse of Strahd (5.5, 2024, whatever we’re calling it) and my friend wants to play an eloquence bard. No characters details yet just a blank slate so free to play in the space as it were. Im providing some basic optimization advice but I’m a little stumped and would like to know others opinion.

The crux of the issue is that we have a hard out at level 10 to end the campaign. 8/10 time I would ALWAYS recommend a level one dip for a bard to fix its bad saves, bad armor, lack of defensive spells, and/or mid starting hit die. However doing so would prevent getting magical secrets at level 10. Now I know the real answer - whatever is the most fun is the most optimal, and I agree. However if we are to white room optimize, what would you do here divorced from character choice. I think an armor dip is honestly super potent and is relevant wayyy longer than level 10; However magical secrets is super strong for a notoriously challenging final stretch of a campaign and would feel like a cool capstone.

Additional info: I will recommend magic initiate wizard here for true strike/shield; and high elf for misty step access and dark vision - regardless of dip or no. We’re using roll or point buy, she rolled bad so prolly the latter. She wants to build to be the party face, a bit of a skill monkey, and a control caster/support - a real Bard’s Bard.

TL;DR: Is forgoing magical secrets worth a one level defensive dip for a bard, levels 1-10, purely from an optimization perspective?

Hello everyone! So... I have this character i'm planning and they are going to be fighter/archfey warlock. As for the fighter class i was thinking about master tactitian as subclass but i'm open to suggestions. How would you optimize this build considering also race and gear, starting from level one?

Thank you so much!

Edit: i wanted to add, as for background my character was once part of the city guard, and that's why i went with fighter to start, but of course if you think of some class or subclass that isn't fighter but can be fitting for a city guard background and you think it sinergizes Better with archfey warlock please share your idea!

I'm playing a tempest cleric(5e) currently lvl 3, cutom liniage - resilient con
8 str, 14 dex, 16 con, 17wis, 10 int, 8 cha
I have magic innitiate wizard - background (find familiar, booming blade, shape water)

I plan to pick up telekinetic to raise Wis and help with double spirit guardians damage/booming blade activation

At lvl6 there is another chanel divinity which is mandatory pick up for tempest cleric

What do i do past this point? do i just cleric all the way? coz call lightning upcasts so well that i could not find a spell to beat it even on other spell lists

Is there anything to multiclass to that allows me to pick up shield/other worthy non cleric spells?
Any other ideas where to take this?

Need a new level 5 character and I wanted to focus on the frightened condition. initially I was going to go conquest paladin but then found out about the undead warlock and thought that may be a fun route. I haven't played paladin or warlock enough to know the best mechanics so some help would be grateful.

Ok so I need advice. I want to create a character who has insane damage output. For this build I want everything offence. So the ideal build would be a build that can do high damage reliably.

Some infos:

- we start the campaign on lvl 3

- the campaign will mostly be pvp and just a bit of pve

- leveling is a bit tricky, so the build should be good for low level (lvl 5- 8)

- can be a caster, but a melee build will probably be stronger, since we can grab sword of wounding very early on.

I thought of this build last year, thinking of finally using it. Just wanted to see if there was anything wrong with it RAW.

I wanted a tank to protect the squishiest or most relevant character on a battle field almost having a similar play style to Yuumi from LoL (jumping to support who needs it the most)

These are my notes from when I first thought of the build:

"This works for any druid but Moon Druid will work best. Due to the ability to cast spells in wild shape and extra temp hp.

1. Be a druid

2. get the tough origin feet (optional)

3. At level four get the Mounted Combatant feat.

4. Transform into a tiny creature and mount a friend that you want to protect. Now all attack on them can be directed at you and any DEX saves they need could be fully avoided if they succeed the saving throw.

5. At level five you can now refresh your temp HP using spell slots to wild shape again.

6. If you multi class into warlock or your DM allows you to use the rune carver feat or the old version of magic initiate you can take Armor of Agathys. Now when hit, you will deal damage.

Pros of multi class warlock, you get a level one spell slots on short rest. You also get an invocation which can be used for advantage of concentrating checks, an upgraded familiar, extra spells, or a summonable weapon. At druid level 5 your extra spell slots can be used for another wild shape 

Cons of multi class warlock, loss of spell slots progression, takes longer to get a flying speed. 13 Charisma needed"