Splinter Twin by Goran Josic
Multiclassing is by far my favorite mechanic in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. I love the weird and powerful combinations it unlocks and how it allows me to demonstrate an amount of creativity monoclassing simply can’t match. However, just because there are a ton of options doesn’t mean all those options were created equal. Today, I want to examine how the classes stack up when factoring in multiclass additions. While I consider each class’s strengths when used as a dip* and as a primary class, I weigh primary viability over dip viability. This means a class that is powerful as the main selection for multiple builds receives a higher ranking than one that is used as a dip in multiple builds.
13. Artificer
Saving me from having to change my outline from the monoclass rank article, we once again have the artificer. There isn’t much new to say about the artificer; it’s a half caster with a bad spell list and lackluster martial features. Its one redeeming element is the Infusions feature, and that is not enough to prop up an entire class.
Multiclassing does nothing to improve the situation. The artificer is one of two classes that uses intelligence as its primary stat, the other being the wizard. This means that most builds hoping to use the artificer have to invest at least a 13 in one of the worst stats in the game. As for wizards, they are one of the best classes in the game and have little motivation to weaken themselves by spending levels on the artificer. The Battle Smith’s ability to use intelligence as a martial stat does present some interesting possibilities, but so far nothing strong enough to free the artificer from its second 13th-place finish.
12. Monk
The first change from the monoclass rankings, we have the monk. Even on that list I mostly ranked monk above ranger for its stronger thematic design rather than mechanical superiority. When multiclassing is added to the mix, I can no longer in good conscience put the monk higher than 12th place. Like artificer, the monk has a heavy cost to multiclass, requiring a 13 in both wisdom and dexterity. This, combined with the monk’s weak abilities, means it’s rarely worth multiclassing into.
There’s one exception: the Martial Arts feature, which allows you to use dexterity as the damage stat for a variety of weapons. This makes taking one level of monk at least a possibility. However, this feature is so restrictive that I’ve only found one build that makes use of it. With the recent publication of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the monk slips even further down the list, as the unarmed fighting style allows non-monk characters to increase their damage to levels the monk can’t surpass until very late in the game.
11. Ranger
Edging its way into 11th place is the ranger. This class shares the monk’s steep multiclassing requirements, and like previous entries, almost none of its features lend themselves to even B-tier builds. However, there is one feature that secures the ranger its spot on this list: access to the Goodberry spell. A ranger that dips a single level in Life cleric can now use their Goodberries to heal their party for forty hit points per spell slot. I would almost always recommend making cleric the main class in that combination, but it’s more than the previous entries have.
10. Fighter
Escaping the dregs of the last three entries, the fighter plays rear guard for worthwhile* classes. The fighter’s problem is that its feature set gains minimal benefit from dipping into other classes. There are some small damage increases that can be gained: warlock levels for Hex, ranger for Hunter’s Mark, or rogue for Sneak Attack and Expertise. But a monoclassed Eldritch Knight is a solid standalone package that would only be weakened by delaying its progress for multiclass dips. Fighter does make a great dip for other classes due to its generous multiclass requirements, proficiencies, and level-one fighting style. However, as the primary class in a build, I rarely find myself wanting to add other classes to the fighter.
9. Barbarian
The barbarian was a hard entry to rank on this list. If I were taking a narrow focus at early and mid levels, this would be one of the top-ranking classes. The Bear Totem with Moon druid dip and eventually a Life cleric level is incredibly good. However, even the best barbarian builds I can come up with take at most five levels. A pure martial build would have a split of 4 barbarian/16 fighter, and the Barbarian/Druid/Cleric build I mentioned rounded out its remaining 12 levels with fighter. None of this is to say those builds are bad – in fact, I think they’re quite effective – but with so many classes gaining a huge amount of power from multiclassing, the fact that barbarian never takes center stage in “barbarian” builds secures its ninth-place entry.
8. Druid
Don’t let the druid’s low placement on this list trick you – the class is still fantastic. However, it is one of the classes that benefits the least from multiclassing. Druid features really want you to keep taking levels of druid* and often don’t play well with what other classes are trying to do. Druid’s main role in my builds is a single level dip Goodberry dispenser that doesn’t slow down my spell slot progression. As I mentioned with the ranger, this is a great combo with Life cleric, but druid is never the primary class.
The other popular druid-heavy multiclass build involves dipping into barbarian to gain a host of powerful features. As I noted in my multiclass dips, I think this combo is overrated by much of the community, delaying the druid’s power curve by too many levels to be worth it past very early levels. Outside of those two uses, the best druid builds look almost exactly the same whether multiclassing is allowed or not. Druid secures its eighth-place spot on the strength of its monoclass builds.
7. Warlock
When I was first outlining this article and its companion monoclass rankings, I assumed that warlock would be one of the top entries on this list. However, it suffers due to my weighing a class’s role as the primary build class instead of a dip. Warlock plays a huge role in many builds, but it rarely takes the majority of levels. Instead it is used to enable martial builds to fight with charisma or as a two-level dip that provides otherwise low damage builds with the Eldritch Blast/Hex combo.
The main builds warlock plays a major role in are the Lockadin and Sorlock.* The Sorlock in particular is very good, although I’d usually opt for more levels of sorcerer than warlock. The warlock’s short rest spell slots and sorcerer’s ability to use those slots to refresh their sorcery points work so well together, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were part of the same class at some point in 5E’s development. Whichever half of the build you opt to put more levels into, it pushes the warlock far enough to earn seventh place.
6. Rogue
What sort of dark mirror have we stepped into where I rank the rogue above classes like druid? Well, it just so happens that rogue has two builds that benefit hugely with just a hint of multiclassing. The first of these is a ranged Phantom rogue* that takes a level of fighter to gain the all-important Archery Fighting Style. A +2 to attack rolls doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a huge difference, especially for the rogue, which only gets one attack per round to land its Sneak Attack.
The second, less common, build is the sword-and-board Arcane Trickster rogue. This build also takes one level of fighter, but this time for the shield and armor proficiencies, plus the defensive fighting style. This yields a build that enjoys 20 AC* right out of the gate, while still gaining all the fun goodies the Arcane Trickster gets at later levels. Though I haven’t seen this build in action, just looking at its offensive and defensive outputs easily earns rogue the sixth-place spot.
5. Wizard
There’s not much to say on this entry. Are there many multiclass builds that enhance the wizard? No, not really. Is the wizard still the most powerful monoclass in the game? Yes, yes it is. The most viable subclass dip I’ve seen for the wizard is one level of cleric to secure heavy armor proficiency without slowing spell slot progression. Even then I would only recommend that dip for wizards looking to mix it up in melee. The wizard doesn’t even make a good dip class, as its intelligence requirement is one of the worst in the game. Like the druid, the wizard secures its high rank on the list almost entirely due to its monoclassed builds.
4. Sorcerer
We’re in the home stretch now, with classes that are transformed by the addition of multiclassing. The sorcerer starts us off with two dips that massively improve the class: paladin and warlock. The first of these allows for the ever-popular Sorcadin. As I’ve said in other articles, I don’t regard the Sorcadin as highly as much of the community, but there’s no denying it is an impressive mid-game build that allows the sorcerer to operate as a powerful martial character using heavy armor and spells like Shadow Blade.
The second build the sorcerer gains is the same Sorlock I mentioned in the warlock’s entry, albeit stronger because this time we’re putting more levels in sorcerer. Five levels of Celestial/Pact of the Chain warlock, a level of Life cleric, and Divine Soul allows for an incredibly durable frontline damage dealer. This character has Spirit Guardians every fight thanks to its pact slots, maxes any dice rolled to heal it, adds the Life cleric bonus to its own healing, and has heavy armor. This is all without mentioning its access to the normal sorcerer spell list. Unfortunately I can’t go over every detail of this build here, but take my word for it: the sorcerer more than earns the fourth-place spot.
3. Cleric
While I am a major proponent of playing classes the way you want, I also recognize that clerics are some of the better healers in 5E, specifically the Life cleric. On its own, the subclass’s Disciple of Life feature is a good buff to healing in the early game, but it falls off later as hit points scale past the amount it adds to healing. However, if you pair Life cleric with one level of druid or two levels of ranger, you get the amazing Goodberry I mentioned way back in the ranger’s entry. This time, however, we’re focusing on the much better class of cleric.
While I think the additional healing is the strongest feature multiclassing adds to cleric, there are other benefits as well. Cleric/paladin multiclassing, while not incredibly powerful, results in a balanced frontline character with the spells* of the cleric alongside the hitpoints and saves of the paladin.
2. Paladin
Speaking of paladins, let’s talk about the amazing combination they get from multiclassing with the warlock. As I hope my Hexstaff build demonstrates, warlock and paladin is a match made in the celestial plane. It takes the already good paladin and allows it to focus exclusively on charisma as the stat that governs all of their combat abilities and class features. This alongside the Sorcadin I mentioned earlier moves the paladin into second place.
1. Bard
It’s only fitting that the most flexible class benefits the most from the increased flexibility of multiclassing. On its own, the bard is already one of the strongest classes in the game, competing with wizards for the top spot. However, unlike the wizard, the bard can make heavy use of multiclassing to create a huge variety of builds.
The most obvious dips the bard can take are from its fellow charisma classes. Sorcerer, warlock, or paladin can all lend the bard additional spell and martial options it wouldn’t be able to take as a monoclass. Out of the three, I’d say warlock is the strongest, as so much of the class’s strength is loaded into its first three levels, but it’s hard to go wrong with any of them.
However, there’s more to the bard’s multiclassing power than meets the eye. Two very strong builds that I’ve come up with use bard as the main class while dipping one level into fighter. What I find especially cool about said dip is that the builds I created with it are radically different in feature choice and play style. One is a sharpshooting Sword bard that leaves its full martial competition in the dust. The other is a smack-talking Lore bard that uses grappling to kill the Tarasque in a single round at level eight by dragging it through thorns.* No matter which direction you go, the bard class can be supported and enhanced by a number of multiclassing options, making it my pick for the strongest class in 5E.*
Lists like this are always tough to write, as some classes are so close it’s hard to nail down the exact position of each one. It’s even truer for this list, as there are so many multiclass options that it’s impossible to give them all the consideration they deserve. Some of the lower-ranked entries moved several times while I was writing. The bright side is that almost every class has at least one powerful multiclass build to play with, and an almost unlimited number of bad ones if their flavor suits your fancy. Regardless of whether my rankings match your own, I hope you enjoyed my explanations and hopefully learned some of the cool things you can do with multiclassing.
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If you want to try out a really fun paladin/rogue build I recommend to doing Oath of Treachery + arcane trickster rogue(or assassin) sword and board. For levels its really flexible you want to end up around lvl 6 pally and lvl5-6 rogue so it depends on if you need more tank/extra attacks or more burst damage. really here you can just make some match levels and I’ll still be a strong character! The paladin subclass abilities fit thematically so well with the rogue it’s kind of insane. The characters both really fun to play and quite strong. Ending up both strong and close combat and against spells!
That sounds like a solid frontline build. It is very nice that the base paladin is so good that a subclass can be picked for its thematic value without substantially weakening overall build.
You’re not really even considering playing as other races outside the PHB. I’ve had a incredible time with my Minotaur Monk character since his horns count as an unarmed strike and he gets the special melee attack ‘Hammering Horns’ you don’t have to mukticlass to make a class more viable, you just need some creativity.
I’m glad you had fun with your minotaur monk. However speaking purely in terms of mechanical power that ancestry’s natural weapons do not even come close to making up for the monk’s shortfalls in other areas.
As part of a challenge build I built a lizardfolk monk, as that ancestry also has 1d6 natural weapons, and it was noticeably worse than builds using variant human, custom lineage, or even half elf. Unfortunately if you want to optimize the vast majority of builds will be picking 1 of those 3 races, and this includes ancestries from all the source books.
This is not to say there are not some creative monk builds that out there, I’m working on a monk that uses Tasha’s falling mechanics to add extra damage to its repertoire, they are just weaker mechanically than almost every other class due to weak underlying mechanics.
Yes but D&D was never intended to be a “Only run purely max optimized characters and have no fun destroying everything in one hit and eventually ruining the DMs campaign by being to overly optimized” kind of game. As long as you build something that you enjoy (no matter how goofy, useful or useless it may be.) That’s all that should matter. I often see that if a player is underperforming compared to their party mates a DM will simply drop them an item to help them out and make it useful enough to keep the level of difficulty without ruining their builds ideals.
You’re right, D&D isn’t just for optimized character and a GM can fix any power imbalance with enough rewards, but that’s not what I’m debating. I’m simply saying that some options are mechanically weaker, including the monk and most ancestry choices. Doesn’t matter how creative you are, your numbers simply aren’t big enough to beat out other options.
If a player has fun with those weaker choices, then great, as long as they’re having fun.
I’m gonna have to hard disagree from the very first moment. The Artificer Armorer in my Friday game has consistently out performed the Bard at every turn, both support and damage, and heavily supports the Paladin at Tanking. In fact even the Wizard wasn’t as useful as any of the other PCs except during niche moments. I really don’t agree with a lot of this list, but I respect your opinion of it. Everyone has different experiences. Except that Artificer placement. I can’t agree with that one.
I am glad your party’s artificer is doing well. However, Individual experiences like that have little impact on how I look at classes’ power. There are simply too many ways to build a class sub optimally to compare them that way.
A well built bard is better than a well built artificer by almost any metric, especially with multiclassing. If you have an artificer build you think is stronger I’d be happy to see it and compare its various strengths to that of an optimized bard.
“Best builds” are entirely subjective due the nature of TTRPGs. Even if you made your character mathematically the most superior, that may not do anything for your table if your table agrees killing a Tarrasque at level 8 in 1-round is not in keeping within the spirit of the game, lol. (RAW vs RUI).
Additionally, if you’re just number crunching to determine “the best class” in 5e, you’re missing the point. The best class would be the one that can solve the most problems the most consistently throughout each session, at any table, with any party composition, at any level and no matter the size of the group.
Do you see how impossible that is to gauge? You just can’t. Far too many variables to consider. Sure! You can deal 120 firce damage at level 5, against 5 enemies. Great! But the Barbarian just rolled a 27 on his Intimidate check on those city watch guards, they ran, and ended up falling victim to the Artificer’s mechanical trap, restraining all 5 of them. Problem solved.
Builds are fun to imagine and play with, kinda like a puzzle or mathematical challenge to be solved. Just remember that in the end, they will always be subject to how your table plays and how your DM adjudicates the game.
You are correct, what builds are strongest depends on your definition of strength. I attempt to look at the rules most commonly applicable across all dnd games and then map out ways to get the most from those rules. I do not factor in “spirit of the game” as it’s not something one can plan for when writing an article seen by any number of people from different groups.
If you don’t find number crunching fun, that’s totally fine, I know tons of players who agree with you and have fun with a wide variety of character builds regardless of their numerical strength. However, using math to express the strengths and weaknesses of a build is the best way to explain that build to people who are interested in those things. I have done that very thing in two build articles already. It’s not missing the point, it’s just aiming for a different point than you are.
As for variables, you are right, there are a theoretically infinite number of things that could effect which build is the best. I could come up with a scenario where a character with 8 in every stat is better suited for a task than the character with 20s across the board, but most people would rightly point out that that is a edge case.
With that in mind I aim for what is most common across DnD games, combat. So much of 5es rules are built around combat and many class abilities do the same. It is a common ground from which to measure the effectiveness different classes and builds. If combat isn’t how you want to measure strength, then I’m sure there are plenty of content creators out there who focus on non-combat DnD rules, I’m just not one of them.
Artificer at last place is criminal! A one level dip with wizard gives armor proficiency, shield proficiency, cantrips (you can get guidance, arguably one of the best cantrips, which the wizard cant) and constitution saves without slowing down spell progression AT ALL. Half casters usually round down for the purposes of spell slots, but artificers explicitly say otherwise. Artificer is the hexblade for wizards.
A one level dip for a wizard is one of the better uses for artificer, but I’d argue 1 level of cleric is stronger as it grants heavy armor proficiency via life, twilight, or any other number of subclasses. The one thing starting as an artificer gets you over taking a level of cleric is the con proficiency, which, while good, doesn’t make up for the other failings.
Setting that aside however, artificer is not nearly as good as hexblade. Being able to substitute charisma as your character’s combat stat, hexblades curse, and spells like eldritch blast and Hex on top of decent proficiencies is what makes the hexblade so powerful as a dip. The artificer only has proficiencies going for it.
I also weight these power rankings towards classes that make up the majority of their multiclass combinations. Artificer having 1 decent dip doesn’t raise it much in my estimation.
Monks can be monsters in multi classing too. I’ve played a monk/rogue (Kensei/swashbuckler) and sneak attacks with a longsword that you can use your dexterity for because you are also a Kensei is really strong. The big flaw of Rogues needing their sneak attack is countered by the fact that swashbucklers can use it in duel like combat. They also don’t take much opportunity attacks so they can use their bonus action for either an extra attack, increasing their ac or moving 50 feet more. Rogue/monks are so fast that nothing can keep up. If they are also Kensei they can use the longbow to do ranged damage. The character had tattoo’s from TCoE that gave her bonuses to unarmed strikes. The mega speed combined with ranged weapons works in a similar way as flying does, you can shoot and no one can hit you. Besides all that monks don’t have really strong abilities but they do get a lot of them that have some small advantages. Using your mega speed is even better when you can walk on water and walls and a highly underrated feature of monks is that they can reduce fall damage by a lot. There actually is a max fall damage if you use correct physics and high level monks can negate all that damage by simply using a reaction. Monks swiftness combined with rogues cunning creates an amazing build. The only better builds I’ve played were moon druid barbarians and a sorcerer/fighter with 22AC, evasion, 240 hp and +14 on attacks with his sword that also worked as a wand of lightning bolt
Is it possible to see your lore bard build please ?
The grapple build? Here’s a link to the math I’ve done.
https://anydice.com/program/1dd64
Feel free to message me on discord if you have any questions
pancakemaster808#8368
I call BS on a level 8 character being able to kill a tarrasque in one round. What you posted is nothing more that a graph with numbers on it that does not show an actual rules as written build.
That’s because I don’t keep all my builds in fully mapped out formats like the ones in my articles because that takes a lot of time =P. This one also requires magic items to reach Tarrasque killing numbers so it was never much more than a thought experiment, but if you want a summary, here you go:
Levels: 6Bard-Lore/1 Fighter/1 Warlock-Hexblade
Magic items required: 2x Potion of Giant Size, 1x Potion of Growth, Horseshoes of Speed, Potion of Speed
Thanks to those first two potions we are now big enough to grapple the Tarrasque and ride our Gargantuan warhorse. The Tarrasque isn’t immune to grapple and can’t escape using its legendary resistances.
Grapple Comparison: Tarrasque has a +10 to its strength checks, making its average roll 20.5. Our character has expertise in athletics from its level 1 feat, lucky from its level 4 feat, 25 strength from the potion of giant size, and 1d8 to subtract for the Tarrasque’s roll from cutting words for an effective total of (higher of 2d20) + 1d8 + 13 with an average of 31.32.
If we take a level of wizard instead of fighter we can get a familiar to use the help action for the highest of 3d20, but I would never do that in a real build.
Damage Sources: Warhorse speed of 540ft = 108 spike growth activations + 108 hexblade’s curse activations = 216d4 + 324 for an average damage of 864 in one round.
The potions give you the effect of enlarge from the enlarge/reduce spell. Since a target cannot be under the effects of the same spell multiple times there can be no gargantuan wrestling match without some breaking of the laws of reality, otherwise known as homebrew.
Not RAW!
There is no stacking of spell effects. A copy of Potion of Giant Size is given to both the bard and their mount, increasing them both to huge size. Then a Potion of Growth is given to the horse to increase it to gargantuan size, allowing the huge bard to use it as a mount.
Potion of Giant Size and Potion of Growth are two different effects and can be applied to the same creature. This combination is 100% RAW viable.
Assuming the Tarrasque just stands idle while you prepare what’s to stop the Tarrasque from readying an action to one tap your horse the second it’s in range and then crush your bones to dust?
Assuming the Tarrasque DOES stand there to take the damage and lets you do all your prep dragging the creature takes double the movement so 54 activations not 108, barring some extraordinary luck on 108d4+162 I’d say you’ve got one very dead bard
I realize the rules don’t cover grappling on a mount but they do cover moving a grappled creature
Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
So either your warhorse runs out from under you or drags you away from the grapple.
If my interpretation isn’t enough Jeremy Crawford answered a similar question posed to Sage Advice on Twitter stating that he would allow the mount to move while you maintain the grapple but still at half speed, otherwise you would have to use rules for lifting and carrying but lifting the Tarrasque would eliminate the spike growth damage.
TLDR; Tarrasque won’t wait around to die, but even if it did your math is off
I don’t think it’s a deal breaker, but cutting words is ineffective if the creature is immune to being charmed, which is the case for the tarrasque
Great point, missed that one, I’ll factor it in for the article I’m writing, thanks =).
Editor’s note: Any comments that attack the author or another commenter will be removed.
For the uninitiated, I will say that that link is unintelligible data but I suspect it is a combination of damage and chance to do said damage.
In your assessment and use of spike growth to do damage, are you assuming that damage is taken for every 5 foot square that the tarrasque is touching and moves through or are you assuming that it takes damage for every 5 feet of moved?
The rules of D&D are that the GM makes rulings on what is sensical in the narrative of the game and the GM makes calls where there are gaps on what the rules can capture. I’d be hard pressed to believe that any GM worth there salt would make the ruling that you’re looking to leveraging in actual play. It’s a fun thought experiment but it doesn’t have any place at any table where people care about the fun of others.
There’s a great video I really enjoyed by Treantmonk’s Temple in which Chris talks about theoretical optimization vs practical optimization, I hope we can all agree killing a task in one turn would fall into the category of theoretical optimization.
https://youtu.be/qIUXmTl2vZA
You’re right, that math isn’t in a very readable format, I don’t keep builds I’m not writing an article about in a presentable form because that’s a lot of work for no real gain. However, they asked about it and that’s what I had so I linked it, if they want more info I hope they ask.
I assume spike growth triggers once per 5ft moved, regardless of creature size, as that is my understanding of the rules and its the more conservative measure.
I can’t speak for every GM but I would definitely allow a grapple/spike growth build at my table. If you or your GM wouldn’t, then great, just don’t use the build, I just like to present cool builds.
Treantmonk is great! I enjoy talking builds on his discord and he’s been kind enough to give feedback on some of the larger homebrew projects I’ve worked on. He’s my favorite DnD content creator and I have both watched and enjoyed the video he did on types of optimization.
In regard to the grapple build, I would definitely agree that level 8 vs Tarrasque is theoretical optimization, as I don’t see it happening outside of specifically testing whether or not the build can kill the thing. However, the build simply existing at a table doing its grapply business? I’m doing that right now in a game and so far it’s been fine. I can do a lot of damage to at most 1 target per round, but so can a lot of builds.
Have you like look past 1st levels? Artificer’s specialist abilities are amazing, and this list is entirely subjective, not offering any evidence and plain wrong.
I look at all levels when making these lists. You’re right there is some level of subjectiveness to this list, it’s impossible to do otherwise. If you think the artificer is great feel free to send me a build. I get no joy from saying the artificer is bad and I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
Ari seems like the kind of person who is never wrong and i correct you if you disagree with his point of view.
Nice article but you dont need to defend yourself with every comment.
I like to engage with the folks who comment on my work and if someone convinces me of an alternative opinion I’ll happily admit it.
Yeah, didn’t you know ur only allowed to reply to X numbers of comments? Duh =p
My apologies, forgot to read the manual
I noticed you used Magic card art without attributing the artists. When possible, can you go through your article and attribute the artists for their works? Thanks!
I disagree with many of these.
A Battlemaster Fighter is one of the best damage dealers in the game.
In contrast, Artificer arguably has poor combat ability but gains some fantastic support abilities early on. As many of those abilities aren’t really impacted by your INT score, it’s easy to MC into something else and leave your INT at the minimum.
Which build of battlemaster do you find to be the strongest? No build that I’ve mapped out comes close to beating well made casters or the Eldritch knight.
Which support abilities does the artificer gain that are worth the dip? An int of 13 is still a pretty big investment given how bad the stat is.
Hey, im new to DnD. I just play one advanture as a Drow Half-Elf solo class Rogue , but now I would like to try multiclassing. Is there a site where I can look at some builds?
Sorry for my bad english.
Welcome to the game, hope you had fun your first time around =).
If you’re looking for stuff that I’ve wrote, here’s an article on multiclass dips
https://mythcreants.com/blog/top-10-5th-edition-dd-multiclass-dips/
And two build articles that make heavy use of multiclassing
https://mythcreants.com/blog/four-fun-dd-character-builds-for-power-gaming/
https://mythcreants.com/blog/four-more-fun-dd-builds-for-power-gaming/
As for other sites, here’s one that does very detailed explanations on the topic. I don’t agree with all their conclusions, but I think they’re a good source.
https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/multiclassing.html
An interesting article.
I’d like to point out that the Artificer is an effective multiclass option for the wizard. Since Artificer levels are rounded up instead of down when you half them for spell slot calculation, a one level dip means that they add half of one level, rounded up (one level) to the progression of the wizard’s spell slot progression. This one level of Artificer gives the wizard Con Save proficiency, medium armor and shields, 2 extra cantrips and a smattering of unique 1st-level spells (like Cure Wounds) that scales with their intelligence, all without affecting their spell slot progression. Wizards, Artificers, Eldritch Knights, and Arcane Tricksters are all very happy to multiclass with each other. I play a fire genasi EK 7/ Wiz 2 that has access to 9 cantrips and 19 level 1 spells (including ritual casting). I have utility coming out my ears. Ritual casting with a spell book is incredibly strong, and it RAW scales with spell slot level. This is great for anyone using the wizard spell list, like the EK or AT.
Also, I think you neglected the fighter a bit. You forgot to mention the benefit of Action Surge after a spell caster reaches level 5. Two fireballs in a turn is bananas. In fact, taking essentially 2 turns in a row is super powerful, no matter who you are.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in the comments and the article itself, I think 1 level of cleric does almost everything better than 1 level of artificer. You get better armor, more cantrips, can be more flexible when you take the dip, and a subclass. The one thing artificer does better is the con save proficiency, which is very good, but as casters like the wizard often require fewer feats than martial classes, taking resilience con is relatively cheap.
I also weight this list more towards classes that make up the majority of the build they are in. Artificers being a decent 1 level dip for some specific wizard builds doesn’t raise it much higher in my eyes.
I’m glad you’re having fun and are effective with your build, it sounds cool. For me utility will almost always take a backseat to applicable combat power. As an EK I would rather have my 3rd attack at level 11 than two levels of wizard. If a game isn’t going to 11 that changes things, but sadly I can’t cover all those possibilities in an article.
Action Surge is another ability that I think feels stronger than it is. Yes it’s really cool and spectacular when you launch off double Fireballs, but now you’ve expended two slots of at least 3rd level and your Action Surge, a very large amount of resources for most characters. Every time I’ve mapped out the actual damage increase of Action Surge it is fairly low. Of course if your games have very few fights then being able to stack more damage into a single round is more valuable, but once again I can’t cover every type of game unfortunately.
Well, a D&D Youtuber named minmax munchkin actually made a video about a build he made that focuses on using action surge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS_-daF_s-g
It is incredibly powerful, and it has a flood of ways to kill even TPKs in a couple rounds.
It’s a cool video, Munchkin is one of the D&D youtubers I follow. As he demonstrates, you can use Action Surge to do a lot in 1 turn, and there are some very powerful spell combos included in those options.
However, it is still a heavy expenditure in class levels and character resources to make all that happen. I would personally rather have 2 more levels of wizard for higher level spells, but if you want to do a bunch of stuff in a single turn or your game has short rests between every encounter, Action Surge’s value definitely goes up.
“http://put in link to monoclass article”
Heh.
Love the article – as well as your commitment to mathematically proving out your builds for dpr and combat effectiveness. I think everyone who is reading should remember that this is purely a contest of mathematical superiority – anyone can play any class/race/background combo and have fun at a table if the DM and other players are competent and trying to have a good time. Overall, I appreciate your builds, and suggestions for multiclassing – as a veteran player and DM, I suggest your builds to my players looking to do well in any combat scenario, and have played your builds myself for the past few years with great success. I am really looking forward to your next build article. I can’t wait to see that bard build you are talking about.
Happy gaming!
Thanks =). I’m currently ranking the various subclasses, but I promise a new build article is coming, just a bit more of a time commitment =P.
I started off this article quite sceptical as I generally find these kind of conversations redundant, mainly in terms of my enjoyment of each class. That opinion hasn’t changed, each class brings unique mechanics both in combat and out, I simply don’t care at all which one is better. I have, however, been incredibly impressed by your critical and methodical breakdowns of the classes. The grappler bard breakdown of the Tarrasque murder was hilarious, well explained and you accepted the fair point regarding cutting words immediately and with humility. (Even though it’s still kind of a moot point as your average roll was still a good 5-7 above the Tarrasque’s.)
I’m curious if you wouldn’t mind using your super power on some builds that I’ve been interested in playing.
A swashbuckling rogue bulk/barbarian 5/fighter 1(maybe) a duel wielding tazzy devil like fighter, fancy footwork in and out of battle, reckless attacks and rapiers for sneak
War wizard/fighter 1 level, a frontline wizard in plate with defense and abjuration magic along with shield master feat. All in addition to the amazing Green flame blade and evocation carnage.
Vengeance Paladin/kensei monk, a bit of a thin spread on stats but at higher levels a disciplined warrior that deals in stuns and smites, all whilst hasted.
Looking forward to your analysis!
Ari, I’m getting ready to build a dwarf support cleric for a new campaign and I love your idea for clerics of adding a level of Druid for Goodberry. Since I’m relatively new to 5e, what would you recommend for a stat distribution for a life Cleric, and when would you take the Druid level?
Without knowing the type of dwarf you are, here’s what I’d do
Str: 8
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Int: 8
Wis: 17
Cha: 10
As for what level to take the druid dip, I’d say 2 for your character, as you want to support and this is the fastest you can get that support online. An alternative to the druid level if you want to keep wearing metal armor is 2 levels of ranger. It’s slower but lets you retain your full defensive capabilities.
Lemme know if you have any other questions
Thanks very much for your prompt response! Good point about losing metal armor with druid, I’m not up for that. We are getting ready to play Dragon Heist following by Dungeons of the Mad Mage, if that helps. I believe the first is a treasure hunt (lvl 1-5), the second is a megadungeon (6-20). We have to use the standard array to assign ability scores.
I’ll be more specific in what I’m trying for. My overall vision is for a well-rounded cleric that will be able to bolster and heal the party for extended dungeon exploration, and have significant defenses. I think that a Peace Cleric would be more my speed. I am also planning on taking at least one level of Hexblade. I gave him a background of Faction Agent for the nice skill proficiencies and languages. I gave him a shield, scale mail and a warhammer (though most of the time he’ll be able to use eldritch blast). Let me know your thoughts.
My thoughts are close to yours for stats:
Str 8
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 16
Cha 13
Looks like a solid stat spread to me. Peace domain is very good and I think you’ll be a great party support with that subclass. If you’re not taking Life then I’d ignore Goodberry in general since it’s not worth the investment without the additional healing.
I don’t know… it all seems too mathematical…
I’ve seen crazy builds focused on features rather than number crunching.
Classes still have secondary abilities that could be completely ingnored in favor of a more suitable one for multiclass.
Besides there is the table play and not all campaigns evolve in lue to dealing raw damage, there’s also functionality.
I’ve seen wacky builds like Monks ditching DEX for CHA and going full diplomatic in Barovia befriending monsters, avoiding conflict and nerfing threats. I’ve seen rangers ditching WIS for INT in order to get and extra boost from the power armor features. Not to mention how a race can affect the build…
I don’t know if I’m making too much of a mess but I just feel I’ve seen things evolve differently in the games I played.
There are also some levels that some player feel stale and that dont add much more than hit dice or proficiency increment so might as well do whatever they want with those… There’s also feats that can be used as segways and Tasha’s variants.
Mathematical is the approach I try to take with my articles, as it’s something I can actually define and compare. What is fun can vary wildly from person to person, but numbers stay consistent.
None of my articles are intended to tell people what they should have fun with, if you want to be the charisma monk or intelligence ranger and have fun in that role, then great! Dnd is a flexible game and I’m glad niches exist for people looking to fill those rolls.
However, I generally won’t mention those types of builds because they lack mechanical strength. I don’t want people looking to my articles for build advice to be stuck playing a mechanically weak build that relies on a very specific type of player to be fun. Instead I want to offer strong mechanical builds folks can tailor and adjust to fit their own playstyle.
Do you have you fighter arcane trickster build?
I have a build that dips 1 level of fighter then takes 19 levels of rogue, is that what you’re talking about?
You mention it’s got good offense and defense numbers and I’m curious what you are using.
Which class are you referring to?
Sorry the arcane trickster 19/fighter1 from the rogue entry.
I’m figuring you can get around 29ac with haste and attack with a booming blade and then ready a sneak attack for a second hit?
That’s the idea yeah, allows you to be an excellent frontliner with competitive damage.
Here’s an outline of the character I’ve worked on.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1InRNirtLp25w0XLcjuHEFE0QsGkh7ej-bVQeO4CN3pQ/edit#gid=926012330
Ty. You definitely given me some ideas to incorporate in the rogue I’m running.
Sure thing =)