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Build 1: Arcane Trickster Rogue
Race: Halfling
Boost our Dexterity by 2
Lucky Trait
If you roll a 1, you can reroll it and you must use that new roll.
Brave Trait
Gives you advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Ability Scores:
DEX
INT
CON
Class: Rogue
Level 1:
Starting Equipment
Pick up the shortbow and the shortsword or dagger
Sneak Attack
staple of Rogue
allows you to deal more damage, once per turn, to one creature if you have advantage on the attack roll or if an enemy of the target is within 5 feet of the target. This extra damage starts at 1d6 and scales as you go up in levels.
Expertise
double your proficiency bonus on two skill proficiencies or a skill proficiency and thieves’ tools
Perception and Stealth are always solid options
allow you to see and hide better
Level 2:
Cunning Action
Nice utility option for your bonus action
Level 3:
Sneak Attack Damage
Moves up to 2d6 extra damage
Roguish Archetype:
Arcane Trickster
good way to get your feet wet with Spellcasting and still be able to deal damage reliably
Spells
Cantrips: Mage Hand, Booming Blade (use our dagger/shortsword), Message
The uses that Mage Hand and Message have are as big as your brain is and Booming Blade is a really good cantrip for attacking in melee.
The best way to use Booming Blade is to cast the cantrip as an action and then using the Cunning Action feature to Disengage as a bonus action. You can move without getting hit by an Opportunity Attack and if the enemy you attacked with Booming Blade tries to follow you, it takes even more damage.
1st Level Spells: Disguise Self, Hideous Laughter and Find Familiar
Disguise Self also has a multitude of possibilities on how you can use it, Hideous Laughter is a good control option that can potentially incapacitate enemies until they take damage and Find Familiar (choosing the owl) gives you an extra option for gaining advantage so you can Sneak Attack
Mage Hand Ledgerdemain
Effectively the Giga Chad version of the Mage Hand cantrip, this allows you to control the spectral hand created by the cantrip as a bonus action, giving you more options without having to give up your action.
Level 4:
Feat @ Level 4: Crossbow Expert (if we can't get a crossbow, Sharpshooter is a great feat to take instead)
We'll need a crossbow for this to work
Allows you to be more versatile when stuck in melee and you can ignore the loading property of crossbows. You also can make a bonus action attack with a crossbow that you're holding, after you take the attack action by attacking with a one-handed weapon.
Strong feat, allowing you to deal more damage
OR
ASI
Boost your Dexterity.
Spells:
1st Level Spells: Silent Image
A great spell with a lot of versatility if you get creative with your illusions
Level 5:
Sneak Attack Damage
Bumps up to 3d6 extra damage
Uncanny Dodge
A solid reaction feature allowing you to halve the damage of a single incoming attack
Build 2: Divine Soul Sorcerer
Level 1:
Race:
Half-Elf(Drow), this race can boost all of our important ability scores and it gives us a few extra spells that are still based on our Charisma.
Starting Equipment: Pick whatever, most important is a component pouch or arcane focus
Spells:
Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Toll the Dead, Guidance, Mind Sliver. Fire Bolt, Toll the Dead, and Mind Sliver are all damage cantrips that will be good in different situations. Guidance is probably the best utility cantrip and will let us add a d4 to most of our ability checks.
1st Level: Sleep, Mage Armor, Sleep is often considered the best control spell at low levels because it does not require a saving throw and Mage Armor will be a nice boost to our defenses since we can't wear armor.
Choose the Law option from Divine Magic to get Bless. Bless is a great concentration spell and will continue to be good at higher levels as well.
Favored by the gods, a great ability that can boost 1 attack roll or saving throw per short rest. I would almost always save this for an important saving throw and would rarely use it on attack rolls.
Level 2:
Font of Magic, we gain sorcery points and the ability to convert them to spell slots and vice versa. We will gain another use of sorcery points next level
Spells:
Healing Word, use this to bring up allies after they go unconscious.
Level 3:
Metamagic: Twinned Spell and Subtle Spell. This will be our new main use for sorcery points. Twinned spell effectively lets us cast spells that target 1 creature twice within the same action or bonus action as long as we target 2 different creatures. Subtle spell is nice for non-combat situations where we don't want other creatures to notice us casting a spell and it will be nice at higher levels as it lets us avoid being counterspelled. An enemy caster can only use counterspell if they know the spell is being cast.
Spells:
Swap Sleep for Web and pick up Rime’s Binding Ice. Web is one of the best control spells in the game, especially for its level. It restrains enemies on a failed save and requires them to use an action to get out of it. Rime's Binding Ice is like a mini cone of cold that also freezes the enemy in place and like Web, they have to use an action to get out of it.
Level 4:
Feat: War Caster, this is mainly to improve our concentration checks. If your table doesn't use feats just take a +2 to your Charisma instead.
Spells:
Shield, a really good defensive option that adds +5 to our AC for a round as a reaction. This in combination with Mage Armor will make our AC pretty decent.
Level 5:
Spells:
Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern. Fireball is probably the most well-known AOE damage spell, and it's one of the best at 5th level too. Hypnotic Pattern is another great control spell that incapacitates enemies for up to 1 minute as long as you maintain concentration, or until the enemies take damage.
Build 3: Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian
Race: Half-Orc
Boost your Strength by 2 and your Constitution by 1
Darkvision
Relentless Endurance Trait
When an attack drops you to 0 hit points and doesn’t kill you outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. This feature can only be used once per long rest, but it’s a good option if you need to use it.
Savage Attacks Trait
When you score a critical hit on a melee attack, you can reroll one damage dice and add it to the total damage for that hit.
Ability Scores:
STR
CON
DEX
Class: Barbarian
Level 1:
Starting Equipment
Pick up the greatsword or maul
Rage
Main Feature of Barbarian
allows you to be better at things that require strength, makes you more durable, and allows you to deal more damage. This damage also scales as you gain levels in this class.
Unarmored Defense
Special feature for Barbarians that explains how to calculate your Armor Class if you’re not wearing armor. This feature stills works if you use a shield.
Level 2:
Danger Sense
You gain advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, as long as you aren’t blinded, deafened or incapacitated.
Good feature to make you more resilient in and out of combat
Reckless Attack
On the first attack of your turn, you can decide to gain advantage on all of your attack rolls for that turn. There is a trade-off here, as attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Which means if you get a chance to hit more often, but so do your enemies.
Level 3:
Primal Path
Path of the Totem Warrior
Totem Spirit ‘Bear’
which makes you resistant to all damage except psychic damage while you’re raging.
Level 4:
Feat: Great Weapon Master
an awesome power feat that is essential on a build like this.
allows you to have some extra interactions with critical hits
The biggest thing about this feat is that before you attack, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to your attack roll and if the attack hits, you can add +10 to that attack’s damage.
OR
ASI
Boost your Strength.
Level 5:
Extra Attack
Attack twice per one attack action
Fast Movement
Speed improves by 10 feet since you’re not wearing heavy armor
Honorable Mention:
Battle Master Fighter:
Crossbow Expert feat with a Hand Crossbow for Ranged. Dexterity is your main ability score.
Polearm Master feat with a Glaive/Halberd for Melee. Strength is your main ability score but make sure you have a good Constitution since you’re going into melee.
Menacing Attack, Trip Attack, and Precision Attack are often considered the best maneuvers whether you’re melee or ranged
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