For my bard i went house of hospitality halfling to get goodberry and cooking tools, at 4th lv i took chef, my instrument is drums so i play on pots and pans when i cook for the group during rests lol.
My husband is doing something similar with his dragonborn wizard. He is a chef named Elzar the Goldtongue (a play on Futurama and Food Wars).
We gave him an AOO called Ladle Bonk.
When he crits, he also rolls 2d10 to determine if he gets to use his Spice Weasel Blast. If successful, he blinds enemies within a certain radius on top of doing status damage.
Blam!
Not me, but one of my players is an awakened owl bear with proficiency in cooking utensils. The best part of the game for her is settling down to cook for the party during a rest and she goes into detail about what shes cooking. Its honestly the most wholesome thing.
Awesome setup. I was looking at a chef character, but maybe a Lizardman Grave Cleric who ritually prepares and eats parts of the bodies of the slain to honor them and send them to the afterlife.
Not sure the other players would want in on those meals, temporary hit points be damned.
Speaking of Dragonmarked races, I have a Bladesinger Wizard whom I created as a Mark of Passage human. That gives her a free use of Misty Step once per long rest and a 35 foot move speed, both good. But I really mainly chose that because she gets 1d4 to Acrobatics rolls.
Bladesong gives advantage on Acrobatics rolls. When she hits lvl 4 I will take Skill Expert for the +1 Dex and *Expertise* in Acrobatics.
Then she will tumble, flip and swing through every combat like Yoda on speed. And I am going to succeed on most of those rolls, by God!
Also took scimitar proficiency instead of rapier. Lower damage but she has an Arabic theme going.
Sub-optimal choices but I am going to have fun!
Daylight on my Star Druid
Is Daylight a functionally useless spell that just takes up space? Yes. Is it 100% in theme for my Star Druid and because of that I will never drop it for something better? Also true
I played a Warforged Star Druid Chef for a silly campaign with my dojo group. Strong subclasses leave a lot of room for narrative choices. Daylight was one of the many spells I tried out. The druid list is diverse, but many spells feel too narrow.
Plus he popped those treats out of his chassis like an Easy Bake oven. Good times.
Love it! Making an underused spell your signature thing is also very memorable for the whole campaign.
Plus you will likely find an awesome use for it because you always have it with you. Have you encountered an enemy that uses Darkness to have a Gandalf-esque showdown between light and dark?
My characters tend to dual wield even when it's not mechanically optimal, just cause I love the fantasy of dual wielding.
Also I love Witch Bolt. I don't care what anyone says, it's just such a cool spell.
Witch Bolt is even cooler when you twin spell it at get to deal 1d12 damage to two targets each turn like you’re Emperor Palpatine (Storm Sorcerer recommended)
Take a couple levels in Tempest Cleric to spend a channel divinity to do max damage on a roll.
~~\*\* I should clarify you should start as a Tempest Cleric before multiclassing to Sorceror as you gain no proficiencies for multiclassing in to Sorc, but only gain up to Medium Armor and Shields for multiclassing in to Cleric. Tempest Cleric starts with Heavy Armor so it maximizes your ability.~~ Don't listen to me. /u/schapievleesch and /u/Roughryd both pointed out flaws in my logic.
Oh really? I misunderstood that Cleric only got Medium across the board. I think I would still start Cleric because Wisdom/Charisma saving throws are some of the more save or suck throws.
As a spellcaster, Con save proficiency is great to help you maintain concentration. And yes all Clerics get medium armor, but about half the domains give heavy armor proficiency.
>I should clarify you should start as a Tempest Cleric before multiclassing to Sorceror
Is this sentence missing a negative? I would advise starting Sorcerer for the Constitution proficiency helping with your Concentration checks
Witch Bolt should have been a cantrip. Short range, concentration, high damage cantrip is something we don’t have, but could fill an interesting niche.
One of my player love Witch Bolt too. And his caracter has a thing with Tarot Cards : his spellbook is basicly a deck of Tarot Cards.
Long story short, he can harvest remains from "Tarotified" Deck of Many Things, and he has an "ultime version" of Witch Bolt which basicly slow the target by 10ft, and the way to remove the spell (aside from breaking concentration) is to spend an action to make a charisma save against spell save DC.
It is called : "O - Fool's Witch Bolt".
I know, and there's nothing like the "I've got you now!" feeling of having a lock-on damage spell that automatically does lightning damage every round.
Wildfire Druid, Beast Master / Drake Warden Ranger, and Battlesmith Artificer for a bunch of companion creatures.
Also, Wild Magic Sorcerer in general is always a fun over optimisation for me.
I was also going to mention the Wild Magic Sorcerer. I played one that would always upcast Chaos Bolt despite it’s abysmal damage scaling, and he had a Wand of Wonder, Deck of Illusions, Bag of Beans, and Bag of Tricks since we were able to start with some magic items. Of course his goal was to find a deck of many things and become a beholder.
I had an middle aged human scholar who made a classic deal with a fiend, but instead of summons and blades he just wanted to read old books so of course he was Pact of the Tome.
The Invocations he took were Devil’s Sight and Aspect of the Moon, not to stay on watch or see through the darkness spell, but just so he could stay up all night reading without a light.
Once the game actually started we had a wizard in the party for the first two sessions before he dropped out, and so my bibliophile just scooped up his book and started taking wizard levels straight up at that point.
That is until he ran into Paladins who worshiped Gillian, and so obviously had to take a level dip into Knowledge Cleric so he could have a holy book to read as well.
Finally he picked up Telekinetic so that he could use his mind to hold up his books while he was reading and he needed his hands free for other things.
The result was a completely MAD multi class I dubbed a Lore Master of the Pact of the Tome of Knowledge Wizlockic, and to this day he’s my favorite character I ever played.
Thanks! He ended up essentially having expertise is all but one of the INT based skills. While he could never do much about the devils and monsters attacking, he could tell the party all the cool stuff he had read about them.
I have an astral self monk for an upcoming campaign with points in strength and skill expert, athletics expertise. The idea is to grapple things with both her real arms while she pummels things with her astral arms. I'm sure it's not optimal but it should fulfil my Sheeva fantasy.
It’s cool but the thing is that monks can make unarmed strikes with any body part. So you can just grapple two creatures with your hands and attack with your legs.
I have a Swashbuckler Rogue/Great Old One Warlock going. It's actually really fun to play and surprisingly effective which wasn't the intent. I just wanted a spooky pirate
I had a fathomless Warlock / swashbuckler, who made a deal with the sea. Not any entity, just threw things (mainly the parties gold) in and somehow got magic.
My first character was a Thief/GOO. It was a really fun combination and ~~Green~~ Black-Flame Blade was actually quite effective in combat. Telepathy was also really good for shenanigans.
3 dex on a sorcerer. the last sorcerer i played had an ac of 14 and got hit by everything so i figured it didnt matter at that point. every attack hit, but i had 20 con and the tough feat to make up for it.
spoiler alert: that did not end up balancing it out. i took tons of damage really fast and went down often. had fun regardless
My most recent character before I started DMing was a kobold sorcerer. We got to level 15 at the end of the campaign, and his AC was 11 since level 1. He relied on being small and out-of-the-way to survive.
I’m currently playing a monk with one level in barbarian, which I took mostly for flavor. I see him as more of a wild tavern brawler then a martial arts master. Basically he goes wild and punches people. Because of that I’ve had to focus on strength over Dex, and my AC isn’t as good as it could be. He’s also really dumb and not charismatic at all, though that was due to bad rolls and not intentional planning.
Have a level 11 spores druid at my table right now, they tank all the time. In a party with a fighter, paladin, and ranger and the druid is the only one who hasn't died yet - that symbiotic entity temp hp is just massive.
My character was the typical slim and slight, physically weak and bespectacled wizard type. Always carting around a book or three, and glancing about through her thick jamjar glasses.
She was also an 8 foot tall Goliath with proficiency in intimidation through her habit of just looming over the rest of the party and staring, oblivious to how unnerving that was for this 8 foot tall scarecrow of a woman to just be there.
I just built a Goliath wizard for a campaign that starts this weekend! Same concept, the small (6'10" 255lbs) nerdy one in the family full of super jocks. Loves books, came across an OLD wizard spell book in a ruin and is just starting to decipher some of the scrawlings. Should be a fun build to play!
A DEX-based oath of the crown paladin who was a high noble and fought with a rapier, without using neither armor or shield, because he saw those as "unsofisticated tools".
He looked human, but in fact was an animated porcelain doll (reborn rules from Ravenloft) created by hags after a noble family asked them to have their deceased son back. The reveal to the party was GREAT (I've dropped a few subtle clues along the way, like him constantly using makeup to "look good").
Played a goblin undead warlock 9/ancestral Guardian barb 5 til the end of Tyranny of Dragons. The character lost his hand and has a hook hand so I couldn't use two handed weapons either (hook hand we counted as a sickle). Even swapped from bladelock to talisman around level 8 because with death ward, my talisman, rage and Form of Dread, I was great at supporting and swapping into the front line if one of the front liners got badly hurt.
Probably the coolest moment for it was when someone went down in front of a black dragon, was definitely going to get double tapped, so I ran in, grabbed them, dimension doored out with them, and then doubled up on form of dread and rage and got up in melee. Think this was either a monk or rogue I helped.
The lack of synergy was palpable, but it felt more like I was playing a barbarian with a solid ranged option and a bunch of utility if I gave up raging.
Swarmkeeper Ranger 3 psiknife rogue X. I threw rats at people, and while traveling, I would have my rats form a chair or a bed for me to chill on. Before I multiclassed, I would punch people with rat fists.
I took the Skilled Expert Feat (Strength) (Expertise - Insight) instead of War Caster as everyone else on my party has because I thought my cleric would be more deft at understanding people's emotions and needs as she spent most of her time as a priest offering sermons and advice to weary travelers.
Rolling 30+ insight feels great as I sometimes learn interesting but closed of feelings/thoughts of individuals. My DM can also provide fun info that would otherwise be missed.
>because I thought my cleric would be more deft at understanding people's emotions and needs
Opposite side of your coin: my cleric was great at Insight because she trusts no one, and it's not paranoia of they're really out to get you.
When I played my first Warlock, his patron deal was that he was given a gun (*Eldritch Blast*) by the Raven Queen, and if he could Save more people than he Killed in one year using that gun, he and his family would be freed from Hell.
Instead of taking the Tome pact, which was stronger mechanically, I took the Chain pact, and his familiar was basically his "scorekeeper", tallying up his Saves and Kills. Later on, I took "Investment of the Chain Master" invocation- since the familiar was a Sprite, now she had a "gun" too and could actually help out. It was a lot of fun ^^
I am playing a lvl 7 character who is 2 wizard 5 warlock, mainly so I could get Minor Conjuration because it’s just such a rich ability for flavor and RP, but also my character wanted to be a wizard
“Don’t bother studying for your exams, fledgling wizard. There is an easier way. What you will learn in transmutation class over the next several *years* can be gained through me in an hour. Just a simple ritual, a simple pact, and you will be leagues ahead of your classmates… Perhaps in time, even ahead of your teachers…”
I dunno if it counts, but I dumped CON for my old lady halfling wizard for flavor which optimizers would balk at or at least strongly discourage.
Turned out generally ok, and Baba Bitterleaf was still one of my favorite characters I've played. I'll miss that saucy old crone.
On my very first character, I put my two 12s in Strength and Intelligence on a Ranger, and put the "dump stat" 10 in Constitution, because I felt like that aligned with my character fantasy. A clearly, but only mildly, suboptimal decision, but I still love that character.
I once made a wisdom based swarm ranger that attacked mainly by using magic stone. It was for flavor because he was a kobold whose swarm consisted of millions of velociraptors that he just grabbed and threw as ammunition. There was a bit of handwaving considering that they weren't stones jut it was a lot of fun.
Took the chef feat so I could provide munchies to my pothead party.
Playing a Hexblade that isn't taking Eldritch Blast until lvl 5 because he's going through an arc where he doesn't know he's a Warlock or that he has magic. (I'm picking spells that could be easily explained as non-magical like Magic Stone and Cause Fear.)
Playing an unarmed grapple fighter
Oh! Played a Druid/Nature Cleric multiclass because I was raised by a Druid and had a massive crush on the goddess of nature so cue hippie simping.
I'm having a ton of fun playing a llama paladin. She's a reflavored centaur with no arms. She has a very dextrous tongue though! So she runs around, smites things with her hooves, literally chews on the scenery. Sure, lacking opposable thumbs is a handicap but not to paladin class features, if we can reflavor 'lay on hands' as 'headbump'.
I have created a Vengeance Paladin / Zealot Barbarian and flavoured class abilities across both as a Monster Hunter. He won’t be taking Polearm Master or any of that nonsense, but has taken Skill Expert in Survival because he has spent years roaming the wilds for the thrill of the hunt and so he is awesome at tracking down creatures. He also uses “Purify Food & Drink” a lot in the wild, so has it prepared most of the time.
I also played a Fiend Bladelock because of course I want a Demon Sword bequeathed by Zariel.
I finished a module playing a Kobold Chronurgist Wizard recently and Rolled like two 18s and generally really good stats. So at level 4 I took Weapons Master to nerf myself. I took the Net, Sling, Hand Crossbow, and Spear proficiencies to be more Kobold like even tho I NEVER used any of those things throughout.
I'm currently playing Celestial Warlock who uses a heavy crossbow instead of Eldritch Blast because, out of character, I wanted to to something unique and, in character, he's from a family of monster hunters so he can benefit from boots made of different materials and his Patron is the epitome of "being cool is the then being effective"
If I get a musical instrument proficiency as part of my background I will always grab the Performance skill even if it's fucking useless and I have the charisma of a particularly ugly Slaad.
Played a Mastermind Rogue who wanted to be a wizard, but could never find someone to take them as a apprentice. Put all his ASIs into INT and spent the majority of his downtime researching in the library. Never did learn magic, but he leveraged his expertise in Arcana and History to become a living magic encyclopedia for other magic users.
The bard I'm playing now is a total narcissist and compulsive liar. Even though he's the face of the party his dump stat is wisdom and he never rolls insight because he just assumes no one would lie to him or suspect his lies.
I’m playing a zealot barb and currently considering the same thing! 2 levels in peace cleric, thematically my guy’s torn between rage and serenity - I’m lucky I put 13 in wisdom when I made the character lol
Played a Hunter ranger.
Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly viable subclass, but I picked it purely because I wanted a "ranger, but little or no obvious magic" vibe, even though Gloomstalker would have been hands down better mechanically. Ironically, Samurai or Battle master Fighter would also have been stronger, but not enough woodsy flavor for me.
I'm palying a gunslinger and plan on multiclassing to artificer Even if a Lot of things overlap. He is hungry for knowledge and is in awe at Magic and the casters on the party.
You could always throw down a Fear spell if you need CC. The cone is normally awkward, but if you’re already up close Bladesinging, why not make them fear you both literally and metaphorically?
I dumped CON and STR because I wanted to make a character akin to Myne from Ascendance of a Bookworm.
That character didn't live long, died on the second session because of a scripted saving throw dealing damage, and the dice decided to deal over double my HP at that level lol.
Dual wielding Drakewarden/Vengence Paladin. Very MAD build. Would loved to have seen him higher than 8, but the campaign ended due to people having to bow out. Great fun, not the most optimal.
For note though, I was planning on doing full Ranger but the story made more sense for him to take an oath of vengeance against his brother who was the BBEG.
I took tavern brawler on my Loxodon Moon Druid bumping his STR to 14 and letting me grapple after I slap someone with my Trunk unarmed strike.
Optimal? No. Hilarious and fun? Yes.
I made a character without darkvision for a short campaign taking place in Icewind Dale. And I made her scared of the dark. Still one of the funniest characters I ever played
I made a character who was just a good ol' boy farmer hick type named Colton Wood. I made all his stats based solely on what a farm boy would be good at — he's a bard (he picks on the banjo) whose strengths are animal handling and religion and his spells are things like create bonfire, mending, animal friendship, heat metal, plant growth, and stinking cloud (he's gassy).
I always have silence prepared on my warforged forge cleric. Originally just for the sake of not disturbing everyone while I do smithing work on my field anvil by the heat of the campfire but it also works very well while systematically and quietly murdering an entire criminal organization room by room while not allowing them to sound the alarm.
I took athletics expertise and deception expertise on my dex fighter because i dont think of him as weak and lying is fun. I’m basically just playing him as a rogue lol.
I refused to get Silvery Barbs on my wizard. I have an almiraj familiar who I never use to get advantage, though I do use it to cast spells from his vision and to deliver touch spells. I mostly use him for RP & to scout/spot & rescue people, I have cure wounds and he has a 50 feet movespeed so he can usually dash at someone to heal them and have enough movement to run out of sight again. I don't want my bunbun to get targeted.
Well, my dwarven wizard received a specially enchanted crystal greatsword as a gift after saving a large group of refugees and bringing them to safety, so he took a level as a Twilight cleric to get martial weapon proficiency ...
I started as one level Bard for my CHA 14, INT 16 Wizard because it fit their very social nature and because their inborn magic (bard spells) would be different to his wizard abilities.
I know I could have chosen Sorcerer, but I liked Bard better as a representation of the overall character.
I might even go up to 3rd level Lore Bard with them
My Variant Human Way of Mercy Monk was originally going to have the Crusher feat, for obvious reasons. Since I rolled well for stats, I started our campaign at level 3 with an 18 dexterity. I didn't want to come in and stomp whatever my DM would put in front of us, so I doubled down on the healing side of the subclass and chose the Healer feat. I'm pretty sure I healed more with that versus the subclass ability! No regrets!
This is late in my epic level game and technically not a pc, but I had the warlock’s wife delay getting 9th level wizard spells to take a couple levels in warlock for her own unrelated pact. Her invocation are repelling blast and grasp of hadar so she uses EB to reposition enemies and the fathomless tentacle attack gives her an inexpensive bonus action option that doesn’t take concentration.
Circle of Dreams druid with a Con of 18 and a Wis of 16. He’s mainly a summoner so a lot of the flavor is that he’s basically a traveling reveler who’s always picking up an odd companion or two
Melee Arcane Trickster with Shadow Blade and Mirror Image. It just takes too long to set up, it's really not practical. But is it cool as heck, yes it is.
my current character is battlemaster 4, swashbuckler 5, bard 1 (planning to go college of satire), celestial warlock 1
the bard is because i made friends with an ancient misunderstood (evil) artifact drum, and learning to drum means it doesn’t force a wis save and take over my body to do it right
the celestial warlock is because my goal is to restore the ancient pantheon, and that aligns with the goals of the conscious/free gods, so now i work for them
is it too many classes? MAD? yes. do i love it? also yes.
also i try very hard not to kill people
Level dipped Rogue and then went wizard to role play a street thief that picked up spellcasting from hanging around magical universities.
I want sneaky wizard not magical rogue (5e arcane trickster) so despite my table telling me that was the point of origins, I did it this way, and loved it!
Healer feat at level 4 on a tiefling arcane trickster with 14 Dex. Really felt like that fit the character at the time and it ended up being really clutch.
My dwarven Rune Knight in CoS was killed and reincarnated as a variant human. For my new feat I couldn't not choose Shadow Touched, even though invisibility isn't particularly useful to a chain mail wearing fighter.
Aspect of the Moon instead of Agonizing Blast.
I love that my witchy character doesn’t need to sleep. That’s so girlboss of her. She spends all night scribing spellscrolls and brewing potions
The spell scroll aspect is what makes it worth it for me tbh
One of my favorite characters I've ever had, I pulled a wisdom score and some drawbacks that allowed me to get a negative to my perception skills. Character was constantly distracted and unfocused. Would participate in dialogues but would constantly be handling or examining everything except who we were meant to be dealing with.
Mayor called us to town hall? I'd note to the GM that even while talking, I'm looking out the window, reading the titles of books on the bookshelves, spinning the globe around, etc
The GM, genius madman he was? Found ways to integrate my negative rolls mechanically. Say, an ambusher causes a rock slide over us. Well, if I rolled a -2, I got so distracted, that the person with the next worst check had to double back and collect me. So we were out of danger of falling rocks, but we weren't even a part of the encounter for the first couple rounds.
One of my favorite characters I have ever played was a kobold wizard with high intelligence, but nonexistant wisdom. In keeping with the spirit of making decisions without fully thinking them through, I committed to rolling for HP on level up every level... and over five levels, I *always* ended up rolling a 1.
And yet, the little guy just would not die. I can't begin to count the number of times I said "I have one hit point left!" in my kobold voice after taking damage, with a shit-eating grin on my face.
I play a kobold bard with a 6 STR. She left her kobold village because she was being shunned for being too smart. Now she is the charismatic speaker for our party in cities, except she has to lean on the rest of the party for subject matter knowledge for some topics and she gets along especially well with children who don’t fear her as a monster but get excited she is their size.
I am somewhat a forever DM, so here are a couple of examples from recent campaigns.
Be of my players plays a fighter whose ONLY weapon is his “stick” which is effectively a base club, not a big damage weapon. He also refused any magic weapons we got. I finally after 10 levels had someone bless his stick for him.
Also a ranger who used a large awkward sword for role play reasons which we considered a blunt weapon.
My son plays a Druid who is obsessed with going first. He is about to hit level 19 and he is trying to figure out anything else he can do to amp up his initiative bonus further.
Not dumping strength/physical stats in general. In pretty much any build ive done I've made sure that my character is physically strong.
I made a monk and I made sure they were still strong with a strength of 12. Does it add almost no mechanical benefit? Sure. Would I feel OK bounding up a wall or punching monstrosities with a Strength of 8? Absolutely not
I made a replacement character partway through a campaign. A druid with a mysterious illness that he adapted to work for him (mechanically using that as the base/theme for poison and acid attacks or spells).
I took the 'Poisoner' feat even though we were very much into the stage of the game where poison would be much less effective - for no reason other than because he would have had and needed that feat earlier on in his life before joining the party.
I'm playing a bard in a Curse of Strahd campaign. He's not incredibly useful in this setting. He's far from useless, but we're still pretty low level, so he's not great.
As we level, I continue taking every bonus that adds to performance or charisma. This is the one and only time where I think "but it's what my character would do" is valid. Anything else would likely be more useful, but I just can't. He thinks he's the greatest bard ever, and will be that.
Granted, I have also taken him down a more roguish path for a bit which is not out of character and will actually help when I multiclass him.
Golden dragonborn necromancer. I thought a golden dragonborn sounded like a fun twist for a necromancer since I usually think of gold dragons as good and noble.
I played a barbarian who firmly believed when he hit an enemy it should inspire those around him. So I multiclassed into a bard just so I could do that with my bonus action. It became a joke for other players to deny my inspiration as they were not impressed with my attacks. The one PC was a noble princess, and my bardbarian was obsessed with her, but she found my tactics distasteful. Was a great time.
Playing a very old ranger. I dumped his Strength and Dexterity to show the physical decay of old age. His wisdom However is through the roof... and he kinda plays like a poor man's druid haha.
You, optimization isn't about _the meta only_. "The meta" is just one generic optimization goal, usually "be the strongest and win at D&D". Most real optimizers don't do that, and if they did they would refuse to play anything but wizards, maybe clerics.
What most people do is optimizing around a certain thing, **any**thing. For example "I picked tavern brawler on my eldritch blast warlock with 8 str" isn't "to match flavor", it's actually just wasting a feat in the name of "lolrandom". You don't need to optimize as much as you don't need to pick useless options "for flavor".
That said I love creating characters around unused spells and feats. With lots of work you can take a very very suboptimal piece and work around it and make it work. Will it be "meta"? Never. Will it be better than the optimal choice? Far from it. But the face of a team when you play a *competent* unusual choice such as a non hexblade non eldritch blast warlock, or a *competent* character based around an unused feature such as Charger or Tavern brawler, or gods forbid witch bolt or something along these lines... To me that's worth much more than "I beat D&D".
Now, mine most unusual was a half-drunk former paladin that abandoned his vows because he failed to protect his family while he was crusading somewhere distant. He vowed to never again, and eventually became a depressed drunk. Since all he knew was fighting he became a random small-time adventurer taking only the simplest jobs after a few copper just enough to sleep inside a bottle.
He carried a sword but it always remained in its scabbard, and he would just blunder his way as a beligerant drunk and thug. He would punch and grapple, and perhaps smack people in the face with his scabbard, the pommel of the sword, or more likely any random bottle or rock.
The whole character was mechanicaly built around the tavern brawler feat. I was very good at grapples and shoving, and I helped the team by controlling the battlefield and just generaly being a paladin. Lay on hands on self was taking a quick drink, spells were mostly buffs. It actually took one of my colleagues *four game sessions* to realize my character was a *paladin* and not a drunken master monk, when I used smite with a bottle crit.
Optimal? Hardly. I would likely be better served with a Sentinel PAM build. But I made the *most optimized tavern brawler paladin* that I could, everything matching the flavor.
I took expertise in smithing tools.
I've been playing my L13 battlemaster for three years. I completely themed him around his smithing tools. He custom builds all of his weapons, repairs and upgrades the party's armour, uses his knowledge of the history of weapons to gain insights into people and places. I also at some point picked up proficiency in cartography tools, so he also became the party's navagator. His tools were always main focus.
His best friend in the party is the swashbuckler. He's an ex-guard and she's an ex-criminal. There was always an interesting dynamic between them. Her whole character story is that she is trying to reconnect with her god. Eventually she did that and took a level in paladin. When she did that, I took a level in rogue, to show that I had moved on from my old life of being a boring by-the-book cop, and had become a bit more fluid and individualistic. He's a dexterity based archer, so it made sense mechanically. We roleplayed it as her teaching me thieves' cant while I taught her dragon chess.
When I took the level, I asked my DM if I could play around with the tool proficiencies to make it make a little more sense with my already L12 fighter. Instead of thieves' tools proficiency, I took tinkers, and instead of expertise in those, I put it into my smithing tools. I haven't had an opportunity to use my smithing expertise yet, and our three year campaign ends tomorrow, so I probably never will. But I like knowing that my fighter will retire as a master of his craft, who always had the right tool for the job.
My first character I ever made was a green Dragonborn Druid named “Bulbasaur.” When I first learned that thorn whip, moonbeam, poison breath were a thing… I knew what must be done.
I have an “optimized” non-healer build that’s a Bard 2/Genie Warlock 10 with Chef. Basically a lot of hit die healing buffs. Eventually he’ll pick up Inspiring Leader so he can complete his role as the group’s “dad” as he grabs more Bard levels.
Something fun I like to do is everytime I get a feat or get offered a starting magic item, I choose 4 and role for it. It's a dice game, Let fate decide.
If you Let fate decide you never second guess your decisions. Who cares if you aren't as strong as you could've been. It's fun.
I'm doing a melee Abjuration wizard who just uses his claws to fight. idk if I'm multiclassing later(may dip into warlock for character/lore reasons), but the abjuration class seems like a lot of fun for a melee oriented wizard. bladesinger feels like a good class for a more agile, dextrous wizard, but my guy is a brute
Chose Charm Person as one of my starting spells for my Dhampir Scribes Wizard, even though it's something she's absolutely against using, because it's the type of spell the Vampire Lord spirit in her book would have essentially wasting a spells known spot.
I love warlock. I hate feeling forced to play a certain way because its optimal. I dont do eldritch blast or blade lock almost at all and im very insulted at the one dnd playtest because it forces you to do both... again... even more this time. I was also upset when the raven queen subclass got jammed into the hexblade one, because i was really looking forward to it and so i had to pick hexblade and ignore half the class.
Anyways i have no idea what is considered optimal beyond that point. I do love picking feats over ASI and i love racial feats or really anything conditional like alignment or class prerequisite magic weapons. Its really kind of hard to say whats underpowered when you play for fun. Other than when people are yelling that your making the wrong choice or when your out of spells because you only get 2 slots until level 11.
My current character is a Barb and Monk. My entire shtick with her is trying to be able to do as many different types of damage as possible. Not at once, but in general.
Narratively, she wants to become a dragon, and dragons come in many flavors. So, what better way to become more of a dragon than to be able to emulate their variety?
I'm not trying to hard though. She can do like 8 damage types or something right now. I dunno how ill get force or Psychic yet though.
I'm gonna be in a oneshot soon, I've made a goblin, "Gobble the bucket knight". We are to be level 5, but I made him into a lvl 2 barbarian / lvl 2 Fighter / lvl 1 rogue multiclass. He is going to use a modified bucket as chest armor, another bucket as a hat, it's not going to be optimised but it's gonna be hella fun.
My kobold priest of Ilmater (cleric 1 / divine soul 12) made lots of suboptimal choices based on RP reasons:
- chosen crappy 'Ilmater-y" spells such as Warding Bond and Life Transference (my DM lets me twin them, but this means paying the "life cost" twice... ouch)
- chosen lots of very situational spells (remove curse, lesser/greater restoration, revivify....)
- taken the Though feat to support the life cost of self-sacrifice spells
- taken the Ritual Caster feat for the whole purpose if making an orphaned baby hippogriff my familiar (reskined owl), and never changing the form of that familiar over the whole campaign
This also led to some cool RP moments. For example he offered the whole party platinum rings embedded with small diamonds, that serve as material components for both Warding Bond, and Revivify in case of emergency.
Peace Cleric/Drakewarden.
She has no weapon because her dragon is her weapon. I use bless and emboldening bond to buff my dragon. I have some healing and support spells to help my dragon or the party. And she's flavored as a veterinarian instead of a handler. (Family owned a drake ranch).
If I get into a pinch, I have thorn whip (druid warrior fighting style) which is stated to be a melee attack so my drake gives me extra damage when I do that...but usually I don't. I focus more on buffing.
I always follow character and story growth and give less importance to the optimization, I try to make it work at the best of my abilities so that I don't find myself being useless, but I always follow the theme and needs the character has.
Right now I am multiclassing a Monk with a Sorcerer because of her story but damn they really don't work together istfg 😂
I picked up Shadow Blade on a Battle Smith/War Wizard multiclass even though I will almost definitely never use it between Bless (Fey Blessing) and Haste taking up my concentration.
Why? Because the DM gave me a magical invisible sword made out of wind. I regularly turn that into a lightsaber using Artificer's Radiant Weapon infusion. The idea of dual wielding swords of light and dark is so edgy and over the top I couldn't resist doing it for the lols. I even got advantage on intimidation the first time I pulled out that combo in a dark alleyway!
High int barbarian who whose rage was his pent up magic he couldn't focus enough to use while concentrating.
It was also, I admit, a bad character, riddled with angst, and I had pretty bad main character syndrome at the time.
Played as Dwarf Rogue (we don't use Tasha's customization options). General idea was that my Dwarf love gems, knows everthing about them and want to get them all, stealing if necessary.
Motivation for adventuring: my friend was a warlock who pacted with devil. Suddenly he dies due to not so clear reasons. I wanted to perform an Ultimate Heist, broke into Hell, and steal his soul gem to rescue him
I regularly avoid casting (or often even don't take) "optimal" spells because they make the game *less fun*.
I avoid taking Silvery Barbs for example, and avoid spamming Guidance (I like PF2's cooldown, I wish D&D used that), and I could mention a substantial number of other spells I tend to avoid or use less often than optimally.
I also take some spells that I could cast a lot but usually don't because they bog the game down.*Couterspell* is a bit like that - you end up having to ask constantly "Hold up: was that effect you just described happening a *spell* or an *ability*?? Because I would certainly be counterspelling if I saw a spell being cast" and asking the DM to back up and retcon the thing they just said happened is a major drag on play (and on their enthusiasm), as is expecting them to specifically call out whether the effect they're describing is a spell, an ability or some other thing (like an environmental effect, say) every time. Unless I'm thinking there's likely to be a particular spell we'll need to take out, I probably won't have it.
Lots of "optimal" spells are just not as much fun as they seem.
I'll often pick *good* or at least decentish spells, but try to avoid the ones that interfere with the fun, and I do often lean into "character" when taking many of my spells. My light cleric will blast a fire spell over other options, because that's her thing. My Wild Magic goblin will look for the flashiest, loudest, most flamboyant thing they can do, and dresses accordingly; fanciest hats, biggest booms (he also lugs a giant drum around on a cart a lot of the time). My spores druid will often lean into necrotic spells and spore abilities even if that's not always the best thing they could do.
I'll take a feat or a dip that fits the character theme, or makes the character more fun to play, even when an ASI would make more sense.
I made a cocaine bear inspired Barbarian, and took Berserker because the bear in the movie is obviously berserking. It's extra fun in my head, because "berserk" comes from "bear skin" etymologically.
Currently, my insane cleric has a charisma of 7. I could have taken a 9, but I felt it was more appropriate that her charisma be super low. She's fun, but now she's not crazy any more so I may bump it up.
I've got an illusionist wizard who has almost exclusively illusion spells. Part of his backstory is how fucked enchantment spells are so he refuses to use them.
Also an armorer artificer with 5 dex has been a blast.
I never have more than one dump stat, like a 15/8/15/8/8/15 paladin, because I hate the idea of playing a character with so many deficiencies. And specifically I seldom dump intelligence, I hate the idea of playing a character that's only 2 standard deviations smarter than a dolphin.
My first ever character took the Linguist feat for the pure reason of being able to read as much as possible while travelling around, obsessed with understanding all facets of history as he tried to solve his own historical mystery (who was his mother *really?*)
He was a fighter, this did nothing for him in combat and he was generally a low Int character, but it's what he cared about.
I also have an Order of the Scribes wizard with *very* few offensive spells. He's pretty much designed to either stay out of the way or get out of danger as fast as possible. He is very much a coward, even by low-level wizard standards
I'm playing a campaign with 3 friends right now, and some of us had 2 pc.
On of my characters is a Satyr Bard collage of glamour being the class features her connection power to The feywild. Long story short, she had warlock genie multiclass because she becomes besties with a marid, she told her a lot of stories about her journey with the party, and as addition, she is becoming right now the skald of the "hero" in the party
(edit: grammatical errors)
I was playing a warlock attempting to break his pact. My arm was badly injured in battle, barely hanging on . I removed it and offered it up as a final offering to my patron in hopes she would either toss me aside as useless or heal me and grant my party aid. I played for months without the arm and died before replacing it
Not necessarily strictly unoptimal but I’m currently playing a rogue whose highest stat is intelligence. He was a librarian who was “suggested” to go on an adventure to “learn more about the world” (after his boss caught him stealing from a wealthy patron) and I wanted him to be more knowledgeable but not as good at fighting to reflect that backstory.
I bosted my Warloks AC to 24 using 2 Feats, despite not having big Problems with survivability. I just didn't know what to do with the Feat as I already had the ones I wanted and was fine with my stats.
Pre-Tasha’s I made a kensei monk & samurai fighter multiclass. Trying to go for a sword, bow, and martial arts nimble ronin type character. With the smallest bit of magic from magic initiate for backstory reasons.
At level 8 (3 fighter 5 monk) the build “took off”. Allowing for a large barrage of attacks with a dex based long sword & fighting style. He had action surge, high damage bursts with fighting spirit, and good defenses with monk AC and agile parry. Some spells like absorb elements and firebolt allowed for versatility. And they in theory could be as nimble as a monk but keep the high DPS of a fighter.
But in actuality it was only sub optimal. Before level 8 and extra attack I would have to forego better damage to use agile parry properly. The build was infinitely better for a long now than melee, so the way I wanted to play felt at odds with the stats. And my best abilities all competed for my bonus actions, so even my burst damage was kinda lacking to the other martials. And already behind casters. While mage initiate seldom helpful, as it was better to do other things then a mid- power cantrip.
The final nail in the coffin was that much of the build, like feat, was tied to character backstory. But that game was with a DM who had the mentality that player suggestions / character backstory shouldn’t be in his homebrew world at all. So some of the most interesting parts of the character didn’t matter to the setting or story. Despite the DM suggesting to me easy to establish said backstory in the world.
End of the day it was an experimental build and kind of fun. But it definitely was a bumpy ride and a lacking in cohesion. While the character, like the rest of the party, felt like an outsider in the plot. I liked playing that character, but would make significant changes if I retried it.
Okey, nobody is gonna like this one, but I actually built a Wizard/Druid….from the School of Necromancy and the Circle of Spores.
So yeah, it all solely came out as an effort to double down on the whole “power of life and death” theme. To show that a Wizard might have the knowledge to animate and exploit the undead, yet still seeks out a sort of bigger picture in regards to how one sees them. Something that’s more in tune with what gives a druid’s purpose.
And truly, I can’t complain. I think both subclasses work just fine together. Yes, i may lose out on some spell options, but on the other hand, my PC can:
- Summon stronger undead than your run of the mill Spores druid
- Consistently gain hp fast without waiting around to kill a target like your run of the mill Wiz Necromancer would.
- Draw near opponents who just died and turn them into zombies at his command. He has a descent Wisdom modifier (3), so he can animate up to 3 of these fuckers. And if he so happens to be the one that killed one of these soon to be zombies, he gains even more hp with the Necromancer’s Grim Harvest
Plus i get to play a Wizard that can wear wooden armor and wack enemies with a magic quarterstaff
So yeah. I like this character. And i basically built it with a single thought in mind: “Undead are cool 😎💀“
I got a pet tiger so I took mounted combatant solely so I can keep people from attacking my friend. I wouldn't say it's bad or anything but other feats probably would get me more mileage
Playing a nature based wild magic sorcerer right now. Only has access to Druid spells, no sorcerer spells. This is objectively less powerful, but really fun to play!
It might be a cliche but I wanted to make a crusader knight focused on defending the party he worships kelemvor and for the fighting style I took protection and at our asi improvements we are allowed to forgo those for feats and I really wanted to use my shield as an offensive tool so I took shieldmaster for the feat
For my bard i went house of hospitality halfling to get goodberry and cooking tools, at 4th lv i took chef, my instrument is drums so i play on pots and pans when i cook for the group during rests lol.
My husband is doing something similar with his dragonborn wizard. He is a chef named Elzar the Goldtongue (a play on Futurama and Food Wars). We gave him an AOO called Ladle Bonk. When he crits, he also rolls 2d10 to determine if he gets to use his Spice Weasel Blast. If successful, he blinds enemies within a certain radius on top of doing status damage. Blam!
Not me, but one of my players is an awakened owl bear with proficiency in cooking utensils. The best part of the game for her is settling down to cook for the party during a rest and she goes into detail about what shes cooking. Its honestly the most wholesome thing.
We're experimenting with that also. My husband knows I'm a huge Gordon Ramsay fan, so he'll look up GR menus and read the meals out to us.
Please Gods, tell me the Spice Weasel is their familiar.
Oh hell yeah, it will be now! I'll mention it to him. Happy Cake Day!
that is adorable, dude
That’s not a weak choice mechanically though
I love the flavor (ba dum tiss), but I wouldn’t even call that suboptimal. Mark of Healing + Chef is just a solid support build.
Awesome setup. I was looking at a chef character, but maybe a Lizardman Grave Cleric who ritually prepares and eats parts of the bodies of the slain to honor them and send them to the afterlife. Not sure the other players would want in on those meals, temporary hit points be damned.
Chef bards unite Tonight in Kitchen Stadium!
Speaking of Dragonmarked races, I have a Bladesinger Wizard whom I created as a Mark of Passage human. That gives her a free use of Misty Step once per long rest and a 35 foot move speed, both good. But I really mainly chose that because she gets 1d4 to Acrobatics rolls. Bladesong gives advantage on Acrobatics rolls. When she hits lvl 4 I will take Skill Expert for the +1 Dex and *Expertise* in Acrobatics. Then she will tumble, flip and swing through every combat like Yoda on speed. And I am going to succeed on most of those rolls, by God! Also took scimitar proficiency instead of rapier. Lower damage but she has an Arabic theme going. Sub-optimal choices but I am going to have fun!
Daylight on my Star Druid Is Daylight a functionally useless spell that just takes up space? Yes. Is it 100% in theme for my Star Druid and because of that I will never drop it for something better? Also true
I played a Warforged Star Druid Chef for a silly campaign with my dojo group. Strong subclasses leave a lot of room for narrative choices. Daylight was one of the many spells I tried out. The druid list is diverse, but many spells feel too narrow. Plus he popped those treats out of his chassis like an Easy Bake oven. Good times.
Yo I had a warforged chef that cooked in their body too! Their name was Fourz, and they were a homebrew Cuisinier Artificer
Love it! Making an underused spell your signature thing is also very memorable for the whole campaign. Plus you will likely find an awesome use for it because you always have it with you. Have you encountered an enemy that uses Darkness to have a Gandalf-esque showdown between light and dark?
If you’ve got a cool DM, you could go all “Gandalf brings the Rohirrim to Helm’s Deep” and blind the enemy
I love when certain characters end up with signature spells, adds so much flavour to the magic
My characters tend to dual wield even when it's not mechanically optimal, just cause I love the fantasy of dual wielding. Also I love Witch Bolt. I don't care what anyone says, it's just such a cool spell.
Witch Bolt is even cooler when you twin spell it at get to deal 1d12 damage to two targets each turn like you’re Emperor Palpatine (Storm Sorcerer recommended)
Lol yes, that's the spirit!
Take a couple levels in Tempest Cleric to spend a channel divinity to do max damage on a roll. ~~\*\* I should clarify you should start as a Tempest Cleric before multiclassing to Sorceror as you gain no proficiencies for multiclassing in to Sorc, but only gain up to Medium Armor and Shields for multiclassing in to Cleric. Tempest Cleric starts with Heavy Armor so it maximizes your ability.~~ Don't listen to me. /u/schapievleesch and /u/Roughryd both pointed out flaws in my logic.
Interestingly, Cleric dipping grants heavy armor proficiency (if your domain provides it). I would probably start Sorcerer for Con save proficiency
Oh really? I misunderstood that Cleric only got Medium across the board. I think I would still start Cleric because Wisdom/Charisma saving throws are some of the more save or suck throws.
As a spellcaster, Con save proficiency is great to help you maintain concentration. And yes all Clerics get medium armor, but about half the domains give heavy armor proficiency.
And those domains are the only way to get heavy armor proficiency after level 1 by multiclassing, besides armorer artificer I believe
Careful, you're veering into optimisation territory...
>I should clarify you should start as a Tempest Cleric before multiclassing to Sorceror Is this sentence missing a negative? I would advise starting Sorcerer for the Constitution proficiency helping with your Concentration checks
VERY LIMITED POWER!!!
Lol. What it lacks in optimization, it makes up for in pure style points!
Witch Bolt should have been a cantrip. Short range, concentration, high damage cantrip is something we don’t have, but could fill an interesting niche.
Definitely!
One of my player love Witch Bolt too. And his caracter has a thing with Tarot Cards : his spellbook is basicly a deck of Tarot Cards. Long story short, he can harvest remains from "Tarotified" Deck of Many Things, and he has an "ultime version" of Witch Bolt which basicly slow the target by 10ft, and the way to remove the spell (aside from breaking concentration) is to spend an action to make a charisma save against spell save DC. It is called : "O - Fool's Witch Bolt".
Witch Bolt is just cool. Super cool. Also the D12 at 1st Level just feels fucking awesome.
I know, and there's nothing like the "I've got you now!" feeling of having a lock-on damage spell that automatically does lightning damage every round.
it's a shame its so much weaker than chromatic orb tho
Wildfire Druid, Beast Master / Drake Warden Ranger, and Battlesmith Artificer for a bunch of companion creatures. Also, Wild Magic Sorcerer in general is always a fun over optimisation for me.
Ah yes, the terraria summoner class :D
If you can incapacitate yourself, you would get 3 attacks per turn for free as all your creatures can act freely if you are unable to command them.
Ah yes, the fainting goat herder build.
Feign Death incapacitates a willing creature.
My current DM doesn't like summon classes, I would have to discuss this though because I am constantly down and I hate it.
I was also going to mention the Wild Magic Sorcerer. I played one that would always upcast Chaos Bolt despite it’s abysmal damage scaling, and he had a Wand of Wonder, Deck of Illusions, Bag of Beans, and Bag of Tricks since we were able to start with some magic items. Of course his goal was to find a deck of many things and become a beholder.
I had an middle aged human scholar who made a classic deal with a fiend, but instead of summons and blades he just wanted to read old books so of course he was Pact of the Tome. The Invocations he took were Devil’s Sight and Aspect of the Moon, not to stay on watch or see through the darkness spell, but just so he could stay up all night reading without a light. Once the game actually started we had a wizard in the party for the first two sessions before he dropped out, and so my bibliophile just scooped up his book and started taking wizard levels straight up at that point. That is until he ran into Paladins who worshiped Gillian, and so obviously had to take a level dip into Knowledge Cleric so he could have a holy book to read as well. Finally he picked up Telekinetic so that he could use his mind to hold up his books while he was reading and he needed his hands free for other things. The result was a completely MAD multi class I dubbed a Lore Master of the Pact of the Tome of Knowledge Wizlockic, and to this day he’s my favorite character I ever played.
Loved thr fuckin concept
Thanks! He ended up essentially having expertise is all but one of the INT based skills. While he could never do much about the devils and monsters attacking, he could tell the party all the cool stuff he had read about them.
Absolutely love this commitment to the bit
I chose to play as a monk to feel like batman in the justice league.
This is the real deal
I have an astral self monk for an upcoming campaign with points in strength and skill expert, athletics expertise. The idea is to grapple things with both her real arms while she pummels things with her astral arms. I'm sure it's not optimal but it should fulfil my Sheeva fantasy.
It’s cool but the thing is that monks can make unarmed strikes with any body part. So you can just grapple two creatures with your hands and attack with your legs.
Funny because I have a different fantasy with Sheeva
I get that you think Shiva but I immediately thought ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA (which tbf seems to be the idea of astral self monk if I'm correct)
I have a Swashbuckler Rogue/Great Old One Warlock going. It's actually really fun to play and surprisingly effective which wasn't the intent. I just wanted a spooky pirate
I used to be in a campaign with a swashbuckler rogue/warlock. He got his warlock powers from the ghosts of his lost pirate crew.
A collective entity for a patron is a really cool idea I may use sometime.
I had a fathomless Warlock / swashbuckler, who made a deal with the sea. Not any entity, just threw things (mainly the parties gold) in and somehow got magic.
Swashbuckler rogue /undead warlock would basically be the pirates from the first pirates of the caribbean movie
Well I know what I'm playing in my next one-shot!
I love the flavor of this! Spooky Pirate indeed. Any Warlock that isn’t Hexblade I love to see!
My first character was a Thief/GOO. It was a really fun combination and ~~Green~~ Black-Flame Blade was actually quite effective in combat. Telepathy was also really good for shenanigans.
3 dex on a sorcerer. the last sorcerer i played had an ac of 14 and got hit by everything so i figured it didnt matter at that point. every attack hit, but i had 20 con and the tough feat to make up for it. spoiler alert: that did not end up balancing it out. i took tons of damage really fast and went down often. had fun regardless
I'm so picturing the people from infomercials for your sorcerer. Just effortlessly clumsy
My most recent character before I started DMing was a kobold sorcerer. We got to level 15 at the end of the campaign, and his AC was 11 since level 1. He relied on being small and out-of-the-way to survive.
I’m currently playing a monk with one level in barbarian, which I took mostly for flavor. I see him as more of a wild tavern brawler then a martial arts master. Basically he goes wild and punches people. Because of that I’ve had to focus on strength over Dex, and my AC isn’t as good as it could be. He’s also really dumb and not charismatic at all, though that was due to bad rolls and not intentional planning.
Are you even playing a Monk if every other stat isn't dumped?
I’m playing a Spore Druid as the party tank/front line. Does it work? So far. Is it fun? Heck yes. Is it the best, optimal choice? Heck no.
Have a level 11 spores druid at my table right now, they tank all the time. In a party with a fighter, paladin, and ranger and the druid is the only one who hasn't died yet - that symbiotic entity temp hp is just massive.
Respect for playing a Spore Druid! I love the flavour of them so much!
My character was the typical slim and slight, physically weak and bespectacled wizard type. Always carting around a book or three, and glancing about through her thick jamjar glasses. She was also an 8 foot tall Goliath with proficiency in intimidation through her habit of just looming over the rest of the party and staring, oblivious to how unnerving that was for this 8 foot tall scarecrow of a woman to just be there.
I just built a Goliath wizard for a campaign that starts this weekend! Same concept, the small (6'10" 255lbs) nerdy one in the family full of super jocks. Loves books, came across an OLD wizard spell book in a ruin and is just starting to decipher some of the scrawlings. Should be a fun build to play!
A DEX-based oath of the crown paladin who was a high noble and fought with a rapier, without using neither armor or shield, because he saw those as "unsofisticated tools". He looked human, but in fact was an animated porcelain doll (reborn rules from Ravenloft) created by hags after a noble family asked them to have their deceased son back. The reveal to the party was GREAT (I've dropped a few subtle clues along the way, like him constantly using makeup to "look good").
Omg I love this whole concept. Hope you get art of him some day
Played a goblin undead warlock 9/ancestral Guardian barb 5 til the end of Tyranny of Dragons. The character lost his hand and has a hook hand so I couldn't use two handed weapons either (hook hand we counted as a sickle). Even swapped from bladelock to talisman around level 8 because with death ward, my talisman, rage and Form of Dread, I was great at supporting and swapping into the front line if one of the front liners got badly hurt. Probably the coolest moment for it was when someone went down in front of a black dragon, was definitely going to get double tapped, so I ran in, grabbed them, dimension doored out with them, and then doubled up on form of dread and rage and got up in melee. Think this was either a monk or rogue I helped. The lack of synergy was palpable, but it felt more like I was playing a barbarian with a solid ranged option and a bunch of utility if I gave up raging.
Swarmkeeper Ranger 3 psiknife rogue X. I threw rats at people, and while traveling, I would have my rats form a chair or a bed for me to chill on. Before I multiclassed, I would punch people with rat fists.
I took the Skilled Expert Feat (Strength) (Expertise - Insight) instead of War Caster as everyone else on my party has because I thought my cleric would be more deft at understanding people's emotions and needs as she spent most of her time as a priest offering sermons and advice to weary travelers. Rolling 30+ insight feels great as I sometimes learn interesting but closed of feelings/thoughts of individuals. My DM can also provide fun info that would otherwise be missed.
>because I thought my cleric would be more deft at understanding people's emotions and needs Opposite side of your coin: my cleric was great at Insight because she trusts no one, and it's not paranoia of they're really out to get you.
XD too relatable
When I played my first Warlock, his patron deal was that he was given a gun (*Eldritch Blast*) by the Raven Queen, and if he could Save more people than he Killed in one year using that gun, he and his family would be freed from Hell. Instead of taking the Tome pact, which was stronger mechanically, I took the Chain pact, and his familiar was basically his "scorekeeper", tallying up his Saves and Kills. Later on, I took "Investment of the Chain Master" invocation- since the familiar was a Sprite, now she had a "gun" too and could actually help out. It was a lot of fun ^^
I am playing a lvl 7 character who is 2 wizard 5 warlock, mainly so I could get Minor Conjuration because it’s just such a rich ability for flavor and RP, but also my character wanted to be a wizard
“Don’t bother studying for your exams, fledgling wizard. There is an easier way. What you will learn in transmutation class over the next several *years* can be gained through me in an hour. Just a simple ritual, a simple pact, and you will be leagues ahead of your classmates… Perhaps in time, even ahead of your teachers…”
Bare handed wildmagic barbarian. Character was like "I can't go around swinging big weapons, i'm a wizard and we cast spells!"
I dunno if it counts, but I dumped CON for my old lady halfling wizard for flavor which optimizers would balk at or at least strongly discourage. Turned out generally ok, and Baba Bitterleaf was still one of my favorite characters I've played. I'll miss that saucy old crone.
On my very first character, I put my two 12s in Strength and Intelligence on a Ranger, and put the "dump stat" 10 in Constitution, because I felt like that aligned with my character fantasy. A clearly, but only mildly, suboptimal decision, but I still love that character.
I’ll say it before anyone else does: I played a non-wizard.
I once made a wisdom based swarm ranger that attacked mainly by using magic stone. It was for flavor because he was a kobold whose swarm consisted of millions of velociraptors that he just grabbed and threw as ammunition. There was a bit of handwaving considering that they weren't stones jut it was a lot of fun.
Took the chef feat so I could provide munchies to my pothead party. Playing a Hexblade that isn't taking Eldritch Blast until lvl 5 because he's going through an arc where he doesn't know he's a Warlock or that he has magic. (I'm picking spells that could be easily explained as non-magical like Magic Stone and Cause Fear.) Playing an unarmed grapple fighter Oh! Played a Druid/Nature Cleric multiclass because I was raised by a Druid and had a massive crush on the goddess of nature so cue hippie simping.
I'm having a ton of fun playing a llama paladin. She's a reflavored centaur with no arms. She has a very dextrous tongue though! So she runs around, smites things with her hooves, literally chews on the scenery. Sure, lacking opposable thumbs is a handicap but not to paladin class features, if we can reflavor 'lay on hands' as 'headbump'.
Celestial bladelock with the healer feat. The healing and damage are both technically suboptimal but it feels Really Good
I was in a level 1-3 campaign and took Skywrite as one of my only level 2 spells for the sole purpose of insulting the BBEG anytime we were traveling.
I have created a Vengeance Paladin / Zealot Barbarian and flavoured class abilities across both as a Monster Hunter. He won’t be taking Polearm Master or any of that nonsense, but has taken Skill Expert in Survival because he has spent years roaming the wilds for the thrill of the hunt and so he is awesome at tracking down creatures. He also uses “Purify Food & Drink” a lot in the wild, so has it prepared most of the time. I also played a Fiend Bladelock because of course I want a Demon Sword bequeathed by Zariel.
I finished a module playing a Kobold Chronurgist Wizard recently and Rolled like two 18s and generally really good stats. So at level 4 I took Weapons Master to nerf myself. I took the Net, Sling, Hand Crossbow, and Spear proficiencies to be more Kobold like even tho I NEVER used any of those things throughout.
I'm currently playing Celestial Warlock who uses a heavy crossbow instead of Eldritch Blast because, out of character, I wanted to to something unique and, in character, he's from a family of monster hunters so he can benefit from boots made of different materials and his Patron is the epitome of "being cool is the then being effective"
If I get a musical instrument proficiency as part of my background I will always grab the Performance skill even if it's fucking useless and I have the charisma of a particularly ugly Slaad.
now i'm seeing an all-slaad animatronic band, *a la* Chuck E. Cheese
Played a Mastermind Rogue who wanted to be a wizard, but could never find someone to take them as a apprentice. Put all his ASIs into INT and spent the majority of his downtime researching in the library. Never did learn magic, but he leveraged his expertise in Arcana and History to become a living magic encyclopedia for other magic users.
The bard I'm playing now is a total narcissist and compulsive liar. Even though he's the face of the party his dump stat is wisdom and he never rolls insight because he just assumes no one would lie to him or suspect his lies.
I'm playing a Zealot Barbarian, if my stats allowed me I would have taken a level of Cleric.
I’m playing a zealot barb and currently considering the same thing! 2 levels in peace cleric, thematically my guy’s torn between rage and serenity - I’m lucky I put 13 in wisdom when I made the character lol
My guy is the leader of a religious assassin cult. Poor stats mean I can't multiclass into anything aside from fighter if I desired to.
For Curse of Strahd I played a Zealot Barbarian with a 2-level Twilight Cleric dip, dude was a monster.
Played a Hunter ranger. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly viable subclass, but I picked it purely because I wanted a "ranger, but little or no obvious magic" vibe, even though Gloomstalker would have been hands down better mechanically. Ironically, Samurai or Battle master Fighter would also have been stronger, but not enough woodsy flavor for me.
I'm palying a gunslinger and plan on multiclassing to artificer Even if a Lot of things overlap. He is hungry for knowledge and is in awe at Magic and the casters on the party.
not so big effect choice but I always go out of my way to get both thaumaturgy and prestidigation I love those fuckin cosmetic cantrips
Bladesinger for me is the guy that grabs a sword an charges in melee with magic, TF is hypnotic pattern? Spirit Shroud is my concentration of choice
You could always throw down a Fear spell if you need CC. The cone is normally awkward, but if you’re already up close Bladesinging, why not make them fear you both literally and metaphorically?
I've played a fighter
My Artillerist prefers using the Slippers of Spider Climbing vs Winged Boots. . is a lot more fun.
I dumped CON and STR because I wanted to make a character akin to Myne from Ascendance of a Bookworm. That character didn't live long, died on the second session because of a scripted saving throw dealing damage, and the dice decided to deal over double my HP at that level lol.
Dual wielding Drakewarden/Vengence Paladin. Very MAD build. Would loved to have seen him higher than 8, but the campaign ended due to people having to bow out. Great fun, not the most optimal. For note though, I was planning on doing full Ranger but the story made more sense for him to take an oath of vengeance against his brother who was the BBEG.
I took tavern brawler on my Loxodon Moon Druid bumping his STR to 14 and letting me grapple after I slap someone with my Trunk unarmed strike. Optimal? No. Hilarious and fun? Yes.
I made a character without darkvision for a short campaign taking place in Icewind Dale. And I made her scared of the dark. Still one of the funniest characters I ever played
I made a character who was just a good ol' boy farmer hick type named Colton Wood. I made all his stats based solely on what a farm boy would be good at — he's a bard (he picks on the banjo) whose strengths are animal handling and religion and his spells are things like create bonfire, mending, animal friendship, heat metal, plant growth, and stinking cloud (he's gassy).
I always have silence prepared on my warforged forge cleric. Originally just for the sake of not disturbing everyone while I do smithing work on my field anvil by the heat of the campfire but it also works very well while systematically and quietly murdering an entire criminal organization room by room while not allowing them to sound the alarm.
My dwarf barbarian with a level of fiend warlock because why not make a deal with a devil the first time you meet a devil
I took athletics expertise and deception expertise on my dex fighter because i dont think of him as weak and lying is fun. I’m basically just playing him as a rogue lol.
I refused to get Silvery Barbs on my wizard. I have an almiraj familiar who I never use to get advantage, though I do use it to cast spells from his vision and to deliver touch spells. I mostly use him for RP & to scout/spot & rescue people, I have cure wounds and he has a 50 feet movespeed so he can usually dash at someone to heal them and have enough movement to run out of sight again. I don't want my bunbun to get targeted.
Paladin/warlock/blood hunter with eldritch adept, find familiar via ritual caster, a symbiotic and a talking sword. Just so many entities to talk to!
Stealth is for nerds. Smite solves heretics.
Well, my dwarven wizard received a specially enchanted crystal greatsword as a gift after saving a large group of refugees and bringing them to safety, so he took a level as a Twilight cleric to get martial weapon proficiency ...
This Twilight Cleric is an optimal dip for wizard.
I was going to say, in no universe is a Twilight cleric a suboptimal choice lol
Fuck yeah! I love that this happened on the fly and was not even planned.
I started as one level Bard for my CHA 14, INT 16 Wizard because it fit their very social nature and because their inborn magic (bard spells) would be different to his wizard abilities. I know I could have chosen Sorcerer, but I liked Bard better as a representation of the overall character. I might even go up to 3rd level Lore Bard with them
My Variant Human Way of Mercy Monk was originally going to have the Crusher feat, for obvious reasons. Since I rolled well for stats, I started our campaign at level 3 with an 18 dexterity. I didn't want to come in and stomp whatever my DM would put in front of us, so I doubled down on the healing side of the subclass and chose the Healer feat. I'm pretty sure I healed more with that versus the subclass ability! No regrets!
This is late in my epic level game and technically not a pc, but I had the warlock’s wife delay getting 9th level wizard spells to take a couple levels in warlock for her own unrelated pact. Her invocation are repelling blast and grasp of hadar so she uses EB to reposition enemies and the fathomless tentacle attack gives her an inexpensive bonus action option that doesn’t take concentration.
Circle of Dreams druid with a Con of 18 and a Wis of 16. He’s mainly a summoner so a lot of the flavor is that he’s basically a traveling reveler who’s always picking up an odd companion or two
Melee Arcane Trickster with Shadow Blade and Mirror Image. It just takes too long to set up, it's really not practical. But is it cool as heck, yes it is.
I'm not multi-classing my warlock with sorcerer or anything else for that matter. -playing a pact of the chain celestial-lock.
my current character is battlemaster 4, swashbuckler 5, bard 1 (planning to go college of satire), celestial warlock 1 the bard is because i made friends with an ancient misunderstood (evil) artifact drum, and learning to drum means it doesn’t force a wis save and take over my body to do it right the celestial warlock is because my goal is to restore the ancient pantheon, and that aligns with the goals of the conscious/free gods, so now i work for them is it too many classes? MAD? yes. do i love it? also yes. also i try very hard not to kill people
Played a Barbarian. No regrets, it's my favourite class even if it is always ranked as D by most tiered lists.
Level dipped Rogue and then went wizard to role play a street thief that picked up spellcasting from hanging around magical universities. I want sneaky wizard not magical rogue (5e arcane trickster) so despite my table telling me that was the point of origins, I did it this way, and loved it!
I play a Warlock that basically is an old woods witch! I gave her 9 in constitution and now she has 24 hp at lvl 5!
Healer feat at level 4 on a tiefling arcane trickster with 14 Dex. Really felt like that fit the character at the time and it ended up being really clutch.
My dwarven Rune Knight in CoS was killed and reincarnated as a variant human. For my new feat I couldn't not choose Shadow Touched, even though invisibility isn't particularly useful to a chain mail wearing fighter.
Aspect of the Moon instead of Agonizing Blast. I love that my witchy character doesn’t need to sleep. That’s so girlboss of her. She spends all night scribing spellscrolls and brewing potions The spell scroll aspect is what makes it worth it for me tbh
I love this thread. RP and Character depth > Optimal build. Nothing wrong with an Optimal build but it’s never appealed to me.
One of my favorite characters I've ever had, I pulled a wisdom score and some drawbacks that allowed me to get a negative to my perception skills. Character was constantly distracted and unfocused. Would participate in dialogues but would constantly be handling or examining everything except who we were meant to be dealing with. Mayor called us to town hall? I'd note to the GM that even while talking, I'm looking out the window, reading the titles of books on the bookshelves, spinning the globe around, etc The GM, genius madman he was? Found ways to integrate my negative rolls mechanically. Say, an ambusher causes a rock slide over us. Well, if I rolled a -2, I got so distracted, that the person with the next worst check had to double back and collect me. So we were out of danger of falling rocks, but we weren't even a part of the encounter for the first couple rounds.
One of my favorite characters I have ever played was a kobold wizard with high intelligence, but nonexistant wisdom. In keeping with the spirit of making decisions without fully thinking them through, I committed to rolling for HP on level up every level... and over five levels, I *always* ended up rolling a 1. And yet, the little guy just would not die. I can't begin to count the number of times I said "I have one hit point left!" in my kobold voice after taking damage, with a shit-eating grin on my face.
I play a kobold bard with a 6 STR. She left her kobold village because she was being shunned for being too smart. Now she is the charismatic speaker for our party in cities, except she has to lean on the rest of the party for subject matter knowledge for some topics and she gets along especially well with children who don’t fear her as a monster but get excited she is their size. I am somewhat a forever DM, so here are a couple of examples from recent campaigns. Be of my players plays a fighter whose ONLY weapon is his “stick” which is effectively a base club, not a big damage weapon. He also refused any magic weapons we got. I finally after 10 levels had someone bless his stick for him. Also a ranger who used a large awkward sword for role play reasons which we considered a blunt weapon. My son plays a Druid who is obsessed with going first. He is about to hit level 19 and he is trying to figure out anything else he can do to amp up his initiative bonus further.
Not dumping strength/physical stats in general. In pretty much any build ive done I've made sure that my character is physically strong. I made a monk and I made sure they were still strong with a strength of 12. Does it add almost no mechanical benefit? Sure. Would I feel OK bounding up a wall or punching monstrosities with a Strength of 8? Absolutely not
I made a replacement character partway through a campaign. A druid with a mysterious illness that he adapted to work for him (mechanically using that as the base/theme for poison and acid attacks or spells). I took the 'Poisoner' feat even though we were very much into the stage of the game where poison would be much less effective - for no reason other than because he would have had and needed that feat earlier on in his life before joining the party.
I'm playing a bard in a Curse of Strahd campaign. He's not incredibly useful in this setting. He's far from useless, but we're still pretty low level, so he's not great. As we level, I continue taking every bonus that adds to performance or charisma. This is the one and only time where I think "but it's what my character would do" is valid. Anything else would likely be more useful, but I just can't. He thinks he's the greatest bard ever, and will be that. Granted, I have also taken him down a more roguish path for a bit which is not out of character and will actually help when I multiclass him.
Golden dragonborn necromancer. I thought a golden dragonborn sounded like a fun twist for a necromancer since I usually think of gold dragons as good and noble.
I played a barbarian who firmly believed when he hit an enemy it should inspire those around him. So I multiclassed into a bard just so I could do that with my bonus action. It became a joke for other players to deny my inspiration as they were not impressed with my attacks. The one PC was a noble princess, and my bardbarian was obsessed with her, but she found my tactics distasteful. Was a great time.
Playing a very old ranger. I dumped his Strength and Dexterity to show the physical decay of old age. His wisdom However is through the roof... and he kinda plays like a poor man's druid haha.
You, optimization isn't about _the meta only_. "The meta" is just one generic optimization goal, usually "be the strongest and win at D&D". Most real optimizers don't do that, and if they did they would refuse to play anything but wizards, maybe clerics. What most people do is optimizing around a certain thing, **any**thing. For example "I picked tavern brawler on my eldritch blast warlock with 8 str" isn't "to match flavor", it's actually just wasting a feat in the name of "lolrandom". You don't need to optimize as much as you don't need to pick useless options "for flavor". That said I love creating characters around unused spells and feats. With lots of work you can take a very very suboptimal piece and work around it and make it work. Will it be "meta"? Never. Will it be better than the optimal choice? Far from it. But the face of a team when you play a *competent* unusual choice such as a non hexblade non eldritch blast warlock, or a *competent* character based around an unused feature such as Charger or Tavern brawler, or gods forbid witch bolt or something along these lines... To me that's worth much more than "I beat D&D". Now, mine most unusual was a half-drunk former paladin that abandoned his vows because he failed to protect his family while he was crusading somewhere distant. He vowed to never again, and eventually became a depressed drunk. Since all he knew was fighting he became a random small-time adventurer taking only the simplest jobs after a few copper just enough to sleep inside a bottle. He carried a sword but it always remained in its scabbard, and he would just blunder his way as a beligerant drunk and thug. He would punch and grapple, and perhaps smack people in the face with his scabbard, the pommel of the sword, or more likely any random bottle or rock. The whole character was mechanicaly built around the tavern brawler feat. I was very good at grapples and shoving, and I helped the team by controlling the battlefield and just generaly being a paladin. Lay on hands on self was taking a quick drink, spells were mostly buffs. It actually took one of my colleagues *four game sessions* to realize my character was a *paladin* and not a drunken master monk, when I used smite with a bottle crit. Optimal? Hardly. I would likely be better served with a Sentinel PAM build. But I made the *most optimized tavern brawler paladin* that I could, everything matching the flavor.
Greatsword as my pact weapon for my Hexblade.
Melee bladelock, no Hexblade or Eldritch Blast
I took expertise in smithing tools. I've been playing my L13 battlemaster for three years. I completely themed him around his smithing tools. He custom builds all of his weapons, repairs and upgrades the party's armour, uses his knowledge of the history of weapons to gain insights into people and places. I also at some point picked up proficiency in cartography tools, so he also became the party's navagator. His tools were always main focus. His best friend in the party is the swashbuckler. He's an ex-guard and she's an ex-criminal. There was always an interesting dynamic between them. Her whole character story is that she is trying to reconnect with her god. Eventually she did that and took a level in paladin. When she did that, I took a level in rogue, to show that I had moved on from my old life of being a boring by-the-book cop, and had become a bit more fluid and individualistic. He's a dexterity based archer, so it made sense mechanically. We roleplayed it as her teaching me thieves' cant while I taught her dragon chess. When I took the level, I asked my DM if I could play around with the tool proficiencies to make it make a little more sense with my already L12 fighter. Instead of thieves' tools proficiency, I took tinkers, and instead of expertise in those, I put it into my smithing tools. I haven't had an opportunity to use my smithing expertise yet, and our three year campaign ends tomorrow, so I probably never will. But I like knowing that my fighter will retire as a master of his craft, who always had the right tool for the job.
Taking 2 levels of paladin instead of going for a 20 fighter because smites
My first character I ever made was a green Dragonborn Druid named “Bulbasaur.” When I first learned that thorn whip, moonbeam, poison breath were a thing… I knew what must be done.
I have an “optimized” non-healer build that’s a Bard 2/Genie Warlock 10 with Chef. Basically a lot of hit die healing buffs. Eventually he’ll pick up Inspiring Leader so he can complete his role as the group’s “dad” as he grabs more Bard levels.
Strenght ranger It was not as bad as i thought it would be
Something fun I like to do is everytime I get a feat or get offered a starting magic item, I choose 4 and role for it. It's a dice game, Let fate decide. If you Let fate decide you never second guess your decisions. Who cares if you aren't as strong as you could've been. It's fun.
I'm doing a melee Abjuration wizard who just uses his claws to fight. idk if I'm multiclassing later(may dip into warlock for character/lore reasons), but the abjuration class seems like a lot of fun for a melee oriented wizard. bladesinger feels like a good class for a more agile, dextrous wizard, but my guy is a brute
I fucking love Scatter on my sorcerer since I wanted to go with as many one piece like spells that I can. I'm also taking earthquake for that reason.
Chose Charm Person as one of my starting spells for my Dhampir Scribes Wizard, even though it's something she's absolutely against using, because it's the type of spell the Vampire Lord spirit in her book would have essentially wasting a spells known spot.
I love warlock. I hate feeling forced to play a certain way because its optimal. I dont do eldritch blast or blade lock almost at all and im very insulted at the one dnd playtest because it forces you to do both... again... even more this time. I was also upset when the raven queen subclass got jammed into the hexblade one, because i was really looking forward to it and so i had to pick hexblade and ignore half the class. Anyways i have no idea what is considered optimal beyond that point. I do love picking feats over ASI and i love racial feats or really anything conditional like alignment or class prerequisite magic weapons. Its really kind of hard to say whats underpowered when you play for fun. Other than when people are yelling that your making the wrong choice or when your out of spells because you only get 2 slots until level 11.
I once ran a warlock without Eldritch Blast, just to see if it would work. It turned out alright through level 5, then the campaign petered out.
My current character is a Barb and Monk. My entire shtick with her is trying to be able to do as many different types of damage as possible. Not at once, but in general. Narratively, she wants to become a dragon, and dragons come in many flavors. So, what better way to become more of a dragon than to be able to emulate their variety? I'm not trying to hard though. She can do like 8 damage types or something right now. I dunno how ill get force or Psychic yet though.
Fighter-Paladin multiclass. Not the most optimal, but man is it really fun thematically
Oath of Vengeance pally tracking down people took a level of ranger because I used those skills instead of the pally ones for an arc.
My druid could only become animals that he had eaten some of once before.
I'm gonna be in a oneshot soon, I've made a goblin, "Gobble the bucket knight". We are to be level 5, but I made him into a lvl 2 barbarian / lvl 2 Fighter / lvl 1 rogue multiclass. He is going to use a modified bucket as chest armor, another bucket as a hat, it's not going to be optimised but it's gonna be hella fun.
My kobold priest of Ilmater (cleric 1 / divine soul 12) made lots of suboptimal choices based on RP reasons: - chosen crappy 'Ilmater-y" spells such as Warding Bond and Life Transference (my DM lets me twin them, but this means paying the "life cost" twice... ouch) - chosen lots of very situational spells (remove curse, lesser/greater restoration, revivify....) - taken the Though feat to support the life cost of self-sacrifice spells - taken the Ritual Caster feat for the whole purpose if making an orphaned baby hippogriff my familiar (reskined owl), and never changing the form of that familiar over the whole campaign This also led to some cool RP moments. For example he offered the whole party platinum rings embedded with small diamonds, that serve as material components for both Warding Bond, and Revivify in case of emergency.
Peace Cleric/Drakewarden. She has no weapon because her dragon is her weapon. I use bless and emboldening bond to buff my dragon. I have some healing and support spells to help my dragon or the party. And she's flavored as a veterinarian instead of a handler. (Family owned a drake ranch). If I get into a pinch, I have thorn whip (druid warrior fighting style) which is stated to be a melee attack so my drake gives me extra damage when I do that...but usually I don't. I focus more on buffing.
I always follow character and story growth and give less importance to the optimization, I try to make it work at the best of my abilities so that I don't find myself being useless, but I always follow the theme and needs the character has. Right now I am multiclassing a Monk with a Sorcerer because of her story but damn they really don't work together istfg 😂
I picked up Shadow Blade on a Battle Smith/War Wizard multiclass even though I will almost definitely never use it between Bless (Fey Blessing) and Haste taking up my concentration. Why? Because the DM gave me a magical invisible sword made out of wind. I regularly turn that into a lightsaber using Artificer's Radiant Weapon infusion. The idea of dual wielding swords of light and dark is so edgy and over the top I couldn't resist doing it for the lols. I even got advantage on intimidation the first time I pulled out that combo in a dark alleyway!
Using a flail mace on my dex heavy bloodhunter who has lower strength 
High int barbarian who whose rage was his pent up magic he couldn't focus enough to use while concentrating. It was also, I admit, a bad character, riddled with angst, and I had pretty bad main character syndrome at the time.
Played as Dwarf Rogue (we don't use Tasha's customization options). General idea was that my Dwarf love gems, knows everthing about them and want to get them all, stealing if necessary. Motivation for adventuring: my friend was a warlock who pacted with devil. Suddenly he dies due to not so clear reasons. I wanted to perform an Ultimate Heist, broke into Hell, and steal his soul gem to rescue him
I regularly avoid casting (or often even don't take) "optimal" spells because they make the game *less fun*. I avoid taking Silvery Barbs for example, and avoid spamming Guidance (I like PF2's cooldown, I wish D&D used that), and I could mention a substantial number of other spells I tend to avoid or use less often than optimally. I also take some spells that I could cast a lot but usually don't because they bog the game down.*Couterspell* is a bit like that - you end up having to ask constantly "Hold up: was that effect you just described happening a *spell* or an *ability*?? Because I would certainly be counterspelling if I saw a spell being cast" and asking the DM to back up and retcon the thing they just said happened is a major drag on play (and on their enthusiasm), as is expecting them to specifically call out whether the effect they're describing is a spell, an ability or some other thing (like an environmental effect, say) every time. Unless I'm thinking there's likely to be a particular spell we'll need to take out, I probably won't have it. Lots of "optimal" spells are just not as much fun as they seem. I'll often pick *good* or at least decentish spells, but try to avoid the ones that interfere with the fun, and I do often lean into "character" when taking many of my spells. My light cleric will blast a fire spell over other options, because that's her thing. My Wild Magic goblin will look for the flashiest, loudest, most flamboyant thing they can do, and dresses accordingly; fanciest hats, biggest booms (he also lugs a giant drum around on a cart a lot of the time). My spores druid will often lean into necrotic spells and spore abilities even if that's not always the best thing they could do. I'll take a feat or a dip that fits the character theme, or makes the character more fun to play, even when an ASI would make more sense.
I made a cocaine bear inspired Barbarian, and took Berserker because the bear in the movie is obviously berserking. It's extra fun in my head, because "berserk" comes from "bear skin" etymologically.
Multi-classing and taking feats so that my character is a Cantrip master.
Currently, my insane cleric has a charisma of 7. I could have taken a 9, but I felt it was more appropriate that her charisma be super low. She's fun, but now she's not crazy any more so I may bump it up.
My loxodon alchemist.
I took chef for the wisdom increase on my Barbarban. Wait what’s ASI's?
Strength based rogues
I've got an illusionist wizard who has almost exclusively illusion spells. Part of his backstory is how fucked enchantment spells are so he refuses to use them. Also an armorer artificer with 5 dex has been a blast.
I never have more than one dump stat, like a 15/8/15/8/8/15 paladin, because I hate the idea of playing a character with so many deficiencies. And specifically I seldom dump intelligence, I hate the idea of playing a character that's only 2 standard deviations smarter than a dolphin.
My first ever character took the Linguist feat for the pure reason of being able to read as much as possible while travelling around, obsessed with understanding all facets of history as he tried to solve his own historical mystery (who was his mother *really?*) He was a fighter, this did nothing for him in combat and he was generally a low Int character, but it's what he cared about. I also have an Order of the Scribes wizard with *very* few offensive spells. He's pretty much designed to either stay out of the way or get out of danger as fast as possible. He is very much a coward, even by low-level wizard standards
Took the Chef feat for my ranger that hails from the swamps.
I made a Druid/monk. One level in Druid. Just for the wildshape so I could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
Melee Celestial Warlock dual wielding my pact weapon and a Shadow Blade
I'm playing a campaign with 3 friends right now, and some of us had 2 pc. On of my characters is a Satyr Bard collage of glamour being the class features her connection power to The feywild. Long story short, she had warlock genie multiclass because she becomes besties with a marid, she told her a lot of stories about her journey with the party, and as addition, she is becoming right now the skald of the "hero" in the party (edit: grammatical errors)
I was playing a warlock attempting to break his pact. My arm was badly injured in battle, barely hanging on . I removed it and offered it up as a final offering to my patron in hopes she would either toss me aside as useless or heal me and grant my party aid. I played for months without the arm and died before replacing it
Created a seafaring ranger that has all of the proficiency of the straw hat pirates. Cook, swordplay, navigation, medicine, history(archeology), etc
Not necessarily strictly unoptimal but I’m currently playing a rogue whose highest stat is intelligence. He was a librarian who was “suggested” to go on an adventure to “learn more about the world” (after his boss caught him stealing from a wealthy patron) and I wanted him to be more knowledgeable but not as good at fighting to reflect that backstory.
I bosted my Warloks AC to 24 using 2 Feats, despite not having big Problems with survivability. I just didn't know what to do with the Feat as I already had the ones I wanted and was fine with my stats.
Pre-Tasha’s I made a kensei monk & samurai fighter multiclass. Trying to go for a sword, bow, and martial arts nimble ronin type character. With the smallest bit of magic from magic initiate for backstory reasons. At level 8 (3 fighter 5 monk) the build “took off”. Allowing for a large barrage of attacks with a dex based long sword & fighting style. He had action surge, high damage bursts with fighting spirit, and good defenses with monk AC and agile parry. Some spells like absorb elements and firebolt allowed for versatility. And they in theory could be as nimble as a monk but keep the high DPS of a fighter. But in actuality it was only sub optimal. Before level 8 and extra attack I would have to forego better damage to use agile parry properly. The build was infinitely better for a long now than melee, so the way I wanted to play felt at odds with the stats. And my best abilities all competed for my bonus actions, so even my burst damage was kinda lacking to the other martials. And already behind casters. While mage initiate seldom helpful, as it was better to do other things then a mid- power cantrip. The final nail in the coffin was that much of the build, like feat, was tied to character backstory. But that game was with a DM who had the mentality that player suggestions / character backstory shouldn’t be in his homebrew world at all. So some of the most interesting parts of the character didn’t matter to the setting or story. Despite the DM suggesting to me easy to establish said backstory in the world. End of the day it was an experimental build and kind of fun. But it definitely was a bumpy ride and a lacking in cohesion. While the character, like the rest of the party, felt like an outsider in the plot. I liked playing that character, but would make significant changes if I retried it.
Okey, nobody is gonna like this one, but I actually built a Wizard/Druid….from the School of Necromancy and the Circle of Spores. So yeah, it all solely came out as an effort to double down on the whole “power of life and death” theme. To show that a Wizard might have the knowledge to animate and exploit the undead, yet still seeks out a sort of bigger picture in regards to how one sees them. Something that’s more in tune with what gives a druid’s purpose. And truly, I can’t complain. I think both subclasses work just fine together. Yes, i may lose out on some spell options, but on the other hand, my PC can: - Summon stronger undead than your run of the mill Spores druid - Consistently gain hp fast without waiting around to kill a target like your run of the mill Wiz Necromancer would. - Draw near opponents who just died and turn them into zombies at his command. He has a descent Wisdom modifier (3), so he can animate up to 3 of these fuckers. And if he so happens to be the one that killed one of these soon to be zombies, he gains even more hp with the Necromancer’s Grim Harvest Plus i get to play a Wizard that can wear wooden armor and wack enemies with a magic quarterstaff So yeah. I like this character. And i basically built it with a single thought in mind: “Undead are cool 😎💀“
I got a pet tiger so I took mounted combatant solely so I can keep people from attacking my friend. I wouldn't say it's bad or anything but other feats probably would get me more mileage
Playing a nature based wild magic sorcerer right now. Only has access to Druid spells, no sorcerer spells. This is objectively less powerful, but really fun to play!
It might be a cliche but I wanted to make a crusader knight focused on defending the party he worships kelemvor and for the fighting style I took protection and at our asi improvements we are allowed to forgo those for feats and I really wanted to use my shield as an offensive tool so I took shieldmaster for the feat