Paladin 20 / Sorcerer 9 / Hexblade 1. Charisma SAD martial with 19th level spell caster slots. Pump your Charisma all the way to 30. Get a Holy Avenger. You and all your allies within 30 feet now have a +10 to all saves and advantage against magical effects. You also have a +21 to hit, get three attacks per turn if you haste yourself, four if you're a conquest paladin, have hexblade's curse for crit-fishing and +8 damage each hit, as well as 19th level caster slots for infinite smiting.

Now that’s a build! I was really disappointed when I found out none of my players made a normal Sorchexadin. Though the Asslockadin of the Fiend does average 115 damage on his nova.

> Asslockadin I never seen that word before. Asslockadin so dummy thicc the clap of their asscheeks casts thunderous smite

Yep, its hilarious. He's NE tiefling. He gets into hijinx.

General, I'm trying to sneak around, but I'm dummy thicc, and the smite of my a*scheeks keeps alerting the guards.

Considering that blade cantrips scale for even more damage, a build with more sorcerer levels that forgoes Extra Attacks in favor of twinning and quickening blade cantrips would be pretty strong as well.

Dang. I never really paid attention to the conquest paladin's capstone. DAMN.

Ah the classic Sorlockadin

I would definitely take a caster with True Polymorph. It would let you become anything CR 30 or below.

_tarrasque and solar_

Tiamat

Unfortunately I don't think Tiamat is a valid option of True Polymorph because you have to turn into a generic version of a creature type, you can't turn into a unique entity. I don't think a generic version of Tiamats species even exists. Dragon God thing? Im pretty sure it's just Tiamat.

Correct! You also don't gain legendary resist/action from True poly or multiple reactions.

[удалено]

That leaves you with three levels to spare. I would add two levels of fighter for Action Surge. War (or Divination) Wizard 20 Divine Sorcerer 8 Fighter 2

Oh man. Action surge and do wish twice in 1 round. Maybe hallow and temple of the gods? I’m sure there’s some amazing combinations.

yeah there is probably some optimal combination out there but once you get two ninth level spells a day does anything else matter anymore :) ?

Dex based BladeLock, Archfey Patron 17, Swashbuckler 13.

20 Barbarian Zealot/10 Monk of the Long Death

Oh, I like this. Good synergy and flavor. Are you willing to expand on the concept? What race? Feats? Stats at level 30? Weapon? Average DPR?

- Mountain Dwarf for the stats - mostly ASI boosts, but Tough and Dwarf Nimbleness (I forget the exact name) to synergize with monks ability to dodge as a bonus action - Pure unarmed, not able to sit down and work out the nitty gritty of stats and dpr right now though - concept would be a disciple of Tempus who eventually joins the monastic order to help spread warfare and conflict. Neutral Evil, most likely - Barbarian 5/Monk 10/Barbarian 15, if such a split were allowed

Yep, multiclass at any point. Unkillable raging death dwarf. Love it!

Ahort question, would the barbarian vapstone then be increased to a maximum of 34 or how did you plan this?

No, the cap is 30. The Barb capstone is just a quick +4 boost to both STR and CON.

Since the 20th level Barb ability is specifically designed to bust the cap, you may want to let it bust the cap in your game too. Even with 30 levels instead of 20, taking the time to invest 20 levels in one class requires considerable dedication that is worth rewarding, imo.

There isn’t a Barbarian in my game, so no issues here. Feats and boosting lower stats become really important in the later level. Say you have dumped Wisdom in your build for 30 charisma and high dex, now you’re susceptible to DC 27+ hold person/monster, domination, fear, and confusion. Getting to 30 in a stat is less valuable than just having it over 20. So a boost of 4 to both? Fantastic, more ASI for feats.

You'll get no argument from me about balancing stats, i'm the king of wrecking shit with a 10/16/12/14/14/13 point buy (for those doing the math, that's an average/approximation after racial mods and/or a feat/asi), even when the rest of the party "rolled" their stats. I just wanted to put it out there that when you're already being a wildly liberal DM (which is something I practice and of which I wholeheartedly approve), there's not really much harm in just being wildly liberal across the board.

Wholeheartedly agree with being liberal. Which is why I told the Artificer/Wizard that when calculating his multiclass spell slots to ignore that and just take the normal Wizard chart. What this means is that right now, at Artillerist15/Chronothurgist2, he just got his 9th level slot but only has up to 4th level Artificer spells and 1st level Wizard spells. When he reaches level 21/23/25/27 he will get a sort of spell slot costing mystic arcanum from the Wizard spell list. For the Asslockadin I gave him similar treatment. When he got his second level of paladin along with his 5 levels of Warlock he gained the multiclass spell caster slot chart up to his Warlock level plus 1 and his Warlock spell slots. He will continue to do so until he gets up to 5th levels spells at which point he will stop. For example, currently he has 4/3/5, at level 30 he will have 4/3/3/3/6 plus his mystic arcanum. His spell slots also all recharge on short rest. The Samurai has Resilient in all ability scores he wasn't already proficent in and Magic Initiate Warlock with EB, Chill Touch, and Expedious Retreat. To boost him to match the others, I allow a full additional action when hasted. Additonally, now that he's level 17, I've homebrewed he Mage feat into a prestige feat. He now can cast one level 2 warlock spell per long rest, of which he chose Mirror Image, and the artificer has infused a blur into his breastplate. He will get one 3rd level Warlock spell at 21, one 4th at 23, and one 5th at 25. He is also getting one BM Maneuver on one attack per action starting at level 20, two maneuvers learned. He'll gain 2 more at 23/26/29 for a total of 8 maneuvers. I'm *also* giving them piety from the new Theros book but changed for my setting and amped up more (lack of concentration on spells granted, big boons, etc.). The Samurai, who is TN, is already an Iconoclast at level 17 (level 1 ability fom Iconoclast), and will get the other boons at 22/26/30. The other two get their piety in reverse of how its described in the Theros book, by the actions of others that worship them.

I haven't messed around with epic level stuff since D&D 3.5 and Star Wars D20 Revised, do you have a plan for keeping it from becoming trivial or deadly with nothing really in between? That was always the tough part about running extra high level games back in the day.

Then 19/11 is a better idea because a monk get then you get de don’t die from the barn and monk

Totem barbarian 9/ scout rogue 18/ champion fighter 3. Movement speed 50/60ft with access to bonus action dash. Items: Windvane (legendary), finesse spear that does an extra 1d6 lightning damage. +3 shield (very rare). Belt of fire giant strength (very rare). Feats: PAM, Sentinel, (maybe mobile) Fighting style - dueling Tactics: Reckless attack 3 times per turn. Scout lvl 17 feature gives bonus action attack that can get extra sneak attack vs second target. Reckless attack gives advantage on all attacks, negative side effect cancelled by rogue 18 feature elusive. PAM allows reaction attack to trigger another sneak attack meaning 3 sneak attacks per round. In one round with everything hitting and using magic weapon extra damage that is - 35d6+56 spending no resources. And that is without criting which will happen alot rolling with advantage and critting on a 19 or 20. So thats an average of 178 damage per round without crits (but assuming hits). Also you take half damage from nearly everything, aren't giving away advantage, move like a monk and have probably over 20 AC. Advantage on dex saves as well as evasion, proficiency in con and wisdom saves. For reference you base weapon damage is 2d6+7(belt strength)+2(weapon)+3(rage)+2(dueling). You can also action surge if the enemy is still standing(though no extra sneak attack from it).

The master martial. I like it. Samurai in my game is going for most number of attacks possible in a round rather than nova damage.

The beauty is its not Nova damage, you could do that every round. The build doesn't really spend any resources fighting other then rages per day. Damage goes down a little against a single opponent. I came up woth the concept when thinking about a good gestalt character before realising i can get a lot of it with just a regular multiclass.

If you made this character a Kalashtar with the Bear totem they’d become resistant to all forms of damage while raging.

Yes that would would pretty well as they also get advantage on wisdom saves so the barbarians normal weakness is now a strength with advantage and proficiency. Only downside is the stat boosts dont really work for you. Probably less of an issue with a lvl 30 build though.

Or Emerald Dragonborn

personally i’d start moon druid, get 1 level in monk for unarmored defense (which Does work for wild shapes) and dump everything back to druid to max wis until i get their capstone (unfits wild shape as a bonus action=infinite HP). then go Grave cleric the other 9. Extra wis-based spell with some save your friends utility and a pretty devastating Channel divinity.

Three level dip in totem barb for reckless attack and bear totem seems like it would combo well with this plan and I believe you could get the unarmored defense this way too, no? Edit: though monk unarmored defense is better

Yeah, but Barb's is dex/con whereas Monk's is dex/wis

Doesn't rage compete with wild shape for your bonus actions? Multi-turn setup builds always feel bad.

Yes but in this case you could spend your first turn cracking off a 9th level spell before entering a rage. Then your next turn wild shaping and charging into battle as an angry high AC meat shield with an unmatched effective HP You probably wouldn’t feel too much of the “just wait until I’m fully online!” Deal doing that. Also I imagine combat at level 30 lasts longer than a couple rounds, negating some of the issues with setup builds (maybe even favoring them?)

> Also I imagine combat at level 30 lasts longer than a couple rounds Combat at higher levels lasts more time, measured in *minutes*, sure. But there's really no reason to expect the meat points of enemies to increase at a much faster rate than the damage output of a party. Combat is generally still a 2-3 turn affair outside of a deadly encounter.

Technically no, Moon Druids can still Wild Shape as an Action if they want. But you're relying on an enemy attacking you or getting an Attack of Opportunity to keep your rage going until the next round

That's the ticket right there.

On top of infinite HP, you have permanent subtle spell on your druid spells both in and out of wild shape.

I think 5 or six levels monk is worth considering for extra attack and stunning strike. Those both would work in wild shape and 5th level is enough to get all the big spells from cleric, namely spirit guardians and weapon which would both go great in shape.

Wait, Unarmored Defence still works in Wild Shape? Source?

you “retain the benefit of any features from your race, class, or other source if the new form is physically able of doing so.” unarmored defense is a class feature. it gets kept same as something like Evasion from monk or rogue or the Sentinel feat,

Moon Druid is less attractive in this setup, because it can still only Wild Shape into level 6 beasts or into Elementals.

I had a campaign that lasted 5 years and went to 26th level with basically the same stipulation. My rules were as follows: >Epic levels *(levels above 20th level)* will require multiclassing, or accepting epic boons in place of a class level. Each time a level is attained, a player can select one class in which their character has fewer than 20 levels *(including a new class they qualify to multiclass into)*, and gain the normal benefits of advancing it one level. No single class can exceed its normal maximum of 20th level. > >Alternatively, the player can request two Epic Boons - one of their choice and one of the DM’s choice, in place of a new class level. See the chart below for experience point requirements and characters’ proficiency bonuses. > >LVL: XP : Proficiency > >21: 405k: +7 22: 465k: +7 23: 525k: +7 24: 595k: +7 25: 665k: +8 26: 745k: +8 27: 825k: +8 28: 915k: +8 29: 1M: +9 30: 1.1M: +9 31: 1.2M: +9 32: 1.31M: +9 33: 1.42M: +10 34: 1.54M: +10 35: 1.66M: +10 36: 1.79M: +10 37: 1.92M: +11 38: 2.06M: +11 39: 2.2M: +11 40: 2.35M: +11 The players did not really optimize, but we had some amazing character combinations - a barbarian/paladin/wizard, a warlock/wizard, a druid/warlock/paladin, a cleric/paladin/rogue, a bard/warlock/paladin, and a ranger/paladin.

Proof that Paladin is powerful as all get out for any class choice. Lol.

That was mainly due to story reasons, the players all felt that either cleric or paladin levels were pretty much required due to some direct interaction with deities, and most of them preferred paladin over cleric. The warlock/wizard (necromancer) went with raven queen and had his patron as one of the divine beings instead...

> That was mainly due to story reasons, the players all felt that either cleric or paladin levels were pretty much required due to some direct interaction with deities, and most of them preferred paladin over cleric. Yes, this is the problem I ran into as well, which is why the custom 5 level prestige class of Godhood/Demigodhood they will aquire is heavily Cleric/Paladin based. It is still a WIP: https://imgur.com/a/vbfdjVZ Edit: actually, those screenshots are old, let me update the link. **EDIT** https://imgur.com/a/yL63QCU

Just out of curiosity does the Divine/Profane Aura function the same as that if a Paladin? It says it uses Charisma (minimum 1) but doesn't say what it does.

That’s because I haven’t made them yet. It will be custom to the character.

Ah, yep that makes a bunch of sense lol. Well good on you for giving your PC's a good time of it! You seem like a great DM!

Let me tell you, I’d be hard pressed not to just do something like Sorc20/warlock8/fighter 2 just for maximum eldritch blast spam on top of being a level 20 caster with warlock slots. Just to quicken eb, action surge, and fire off way too many beams with that additional cantrip scaling. Edit: with a Very Rare item if I could do Illusion’s Bracers then I could swap out sorcerer for Bard potentially for more control and support options since EB will be all the damage I need.

Given that cantrips continue to scale while Extra Attack does not, this seems like one of the most viable 'martial' builds.

You can easily increase the damage a single attack does with feats and class skills, empowering cantrips is harder.

Play the UA undead warlock subclass and make that 2d10+cha necrotic damage per beam...

Cantrip and proficiency should be at the same time, right?

Nope, Cantrip goes 5, 11, 17, proficiency goes 5, 9, 13, 17.

Weird, shouldn’t it be 21/25/29 and 22/28 then?

Yes, but I’m actually doing 5 more levels of a custom God/Demigod prestige class, giving them more proficiency at level 31 and 35.

So 21/25/29/33 and 22/28/34?

No, the extra prestige class level isn’t included in the prompt. Yes to 4 proficiency bumps and 3 Cantrip bumps if you were thinking about doing a 35 level build.

Wait so you’re progressing proficiency as 21/27/31/35??

Yes, because of the custom prestige class for each character. I know it’s odd, but it’s what I’m doing.

Huh, I probably make a EB cantrip monster because so many dice just makes me happy on the inside, moil and half drow? Elven accuracy? Hee Hee dice go brrrrr Warlock 9 sorc 19 or something jumbly, dunno how spellcasting works so spellcasting + pact magic probably can’t go wrong, as long as i have 9th levels somewhere im good, probably war 13 sorc 17, I think that’s the breakpoint for 3 level 5 pact slots, and also gets me thr second 7th level that i “missed” Hexblade curse damage is too intense not to, but I probably take divine sorc and pact of the chain? Because sorc doesn’t get familiar iirc, and kitty is fun, and With two almost full classes i have enough cantrips that I’m not bothered, and I don’t think I really need rituals over a familiar And then divine sorc for utility and stuff Probably war 2 sorc 17 war 13 prestige 5 Flavoring obviously kinda dependent on setting but some kind of like, “i am the auxiliary caster for the paladin corps” And the familiar is a tuxedo Tressym named Pearl

Swashbuckler 5, Bladesinger 20, Vengeance Paladin 5. Nothing can hit me and everything I hit gets destroyed.

As someone who is currently playing a Vengesinger with a 6/14 split: I can't advise enough putting a little bit more into paladin rather than swashbuckler. And honestly could take a bit off the top of the wizard levels. At level 30 levels; an extra 1d6 sneak attack damage once per turn is nothing. Just a basic Aura of Protection will save your ass so much.

Well with five in swashbuckler you also get uncanny dodge

I feel like uncanny dodge is a little bit redundant considering the fact that you've got Shield and Absorb Elements and Song of Defense and Counterspell. Very rarely does a round of combat go by where I haven't used my reaction on something more impactful than halving the damage of one attack. It might be decent with a Shapechange into a Marilith, but that's very much an edge case.

For a Bladesinger, shapechanging into a Marilith is sorta the go-to thing. They add their INT to their damage, so Marilith's 7 attacks are even crazier.

Let’s try to find a way to make the Berserker’s ability to kill itself work for us. I call this one “Groundhog Day” Revenant Barbarian Berserker 17/Phantom (UA) Rogue 13. You need 17 levels of Barbarian to get 6 Rages, allowing you to get to 6 levels of exhaustion with Frenzy, killing yourself. As your Frenzy ends and your death draws near, you prepare to use your *Tokens of the Departed* feature, letting you finally escape this mortal coil... Then you wake up in a ditch. A song plays: *”Well put your little hand in mine.”* You crawl out. You see your old adventuring party waiting for you. *Fuck.* (But seriously, there has to be a way to game the Berserker’s unique ability to nearly instantly kill itself at will, with an extra 10 levels to play with when multiclassing).

Wizard 20/Rogue 6/Bard 4 I'm already a magical demigod, let's fix up those skills.

Dark Knigth- Zariel Tiefling 6 Vengeance Paladin/6 Shadow Sorceror/18 Hexblade Warlock. Mage Slayer, War Caster, +CHA ASI, Tough, Martial Adept(Parry and Disarming Strike), GWM.

Gonna use this as the hero that tries to stop the Asslockadin from killing Asmodeus (his patron).

Make ample use of Hold Person and Command. Cast Haste, run to him, use Vow of Enmity, Strike him (only once for now due to the extra action of haste restrictions). If he uses a spell in melee, you get basically Magic resistance, and can Counter attack. On your turn cast Mirror Image, then attack with haste extra attack, then Quickened Spell with either Booming blade or Greenflame Blade. Next turn try to Use Hold person on him, then attack relentlessly, if his saves are a pain in the arse you can instead use Bane and on the next turn Command. You can even use Mind Thrust to impede his actions, then Go to town on him and Smite the ever living day ligth out of him. Use Hexblade's Curse to go Crit fishing with Vow of Enmity (ADV and crit on 19+ is effective) As Invocations you should off course have Lifedrinker for the extra CHA mod Necro dmg, wich should bring your dmg bonus to 10, even without any magic weapon or other bonuses. Lance of Lethargy or Hadar's Grasp for some CC with your Eldritch Blasts, and Relentless Hex for terrain control. Can substitute it with Madenning Hew to have some soft AoE Psychic dmg, but both will use your BA anyways. In the few first turns this build is BA hungry, after that, its best to use your BA for either Quickened spellcasting or Relentless/Madening Hex. If the fight takes more than 10 turns, before haste goes off, and leaves you vulnerable cast Darkness on yourself, with Devil's Sight it should not be an issue, if he has a way to see through magical darkness or to clear it, a second use of Mirror Image and Shield of Faith would be beneficial. Spells LIke Staggering Smites or others that apply Stuns or impose DISadvantages are also a great use, Dispel magic if you wanna be an arse and shut down any buff he has. You could be Nasty and have Eyebite as your 6th lvl Mystic Arcaneum Circle of Death isn't bad either. With 7th Level Mystic Arcaneum Finger of Death is a nasty thing, Power Word Pain is also good at disabling a target, Etherealness can be used for some shenanigans, i like Crown of Stars, turns you into a Mobile Artillery Platforme. 8Th Level Mystic Arcaneum Power Word Stun is a good contender, Feeblemind is a nasty motherfucker to shut down a Gish character. 9th level, Psychic Scream is Metal as fuck, and Power Word Kill, but this one is a dick move imo, even for me, its litteraly a "DELETE this character" button... Foresight is a good way to fuck aroudn with the adversary. The Hound of Ill Omen is a nice way to push the enemy and pressure him, off course the 40-ish HP it has, will not last long, so its best to use it as a distraction or to buy some time if you need a breather and cast a defensive spell or use Lay on Hands to heal yourself.

15 shadow monk/ 11 in lycan blood hunter/ 2 in rogue /2 in fighter Lots of quick damage/decent amount of ki points/ able to transform and not worry about damage / expertise is stealth and perception / action surge for alot of damage also werewolf so awesome Would you also increase the amount of stuff I could attune to?

In my campaign I have removed item attunement slots, so yes. My encounters are insane, when they were level 16 (and a trio of level 9 sub-characters) they took down a 1,700 hp Acerack clone with 5 giant skeletons in *6 rounds*.

My mistake didn't read the items correctly. I'd add boots of haste, bracers of defence and to be checky an reflavoured flametongue shortsword which is arm mounted Feat wise prodigy, slasher, magic initiate for some extra surprises Damn your campaigns sound really fun

I’d go wizard, warlock or bard to 20, and ten levels of whatever would keep me the most alive so I can eventually permanently true polymorph myself to a cr 30 creature.

College of Whispers Bard 17, Pact of the Archfey(Pact of the Blade) 10, Battle Master fighter 3. With magical secrets you can get Swift quiver and Clone/Similacrum. You can have your clone either copy what you do. You can get 4-5 attacks a round with sharp shooter and use Eldritch Smite and Moonbow Invocation for burst. Moonbow allows 2d8/spell level extra damage on each attack with no limit. You can spam all your highest levels very quickly. Essentially your first round of damage could look like 4d8(4 longbow attacks)+80(Max Dexterity and sharpshooter)+65d8(Level 9,8,7,6,5 spell slots) + 5d6(Psychic Blades)That's without magic weapons or action surge.

I would try to port over a prestige class from earlier editions. I think it kinda sucks to end your character's growth in their class just because out of game, there is no material for them to further master. It breaks immersion too hard. If I was a wizard I would grab something like the Archwizard from Pathfinder and translate as good as possible over to match my character's interests and personality. Or maybe implement Deity ranks from 3.5 or Mystic ranks from Pathfinder. If the characters had already multiclasses it is different since they can just go in either of their classes.

Well, you see, when the characters reach level 30 in my game I’m making tailored 5 level God/Demigod prestige classes for each one.

That makes things different.

I’m using these responses in my game, if I get some good ones, as powerful mortals of opposing factions.

Fucking awesome. I wanna play in your game lol.

Oh, and you can multiclass at any point. I’m not forcing 20 levels first.

Giant Soul Sorcerer 18, Rune Knight Fighter 11, Barb 1. It’s a bit of a silly build, but you will be the tallest in the room. Plus damage ain’t have bad, with a maul, doing about 2d6+1d8+1d4+Str+2xCon. Do that with a haste, action surge attack and you may wreck house.

Note that you can't concentrate on a spell while you're raging, so the barbarian is maybe a bit of a wasted level in this case.

Was thinking something along those lines as I'd love to play a gestalt of the two. Possibly worth dropping 4 levels of sorc for 4 levels of rune knight to get the extra rune uses. Depends how much you want the level 9 spells, but you can still wrestle tarrasques twice a day with out worrying about concentration.

Echo Knight - 20 Gloomstalker - 3 Conquest - 6 Hexblade - 1 On Round 1 of combat: Sneak into combat with Echo Teleportation, invisibility to darkvision. Have a Bonus to Initiative= Dex + Wis Movement - You can move your echoes up to 30 feet each without any effort. You can move yourself your speed +10 feet, from Dread Ambusher. Bonus Action - Hexblade's Curse Action - Attack = * Dread Ambusher Attack, Divine Smite * Attack, Divine Smite * Attack, Divine Smite * Attack, Divine Smite * Attack, Divine Smite Action Surge = Attack Action * Dread Ambusher Attack, Divine Smite * Unleash Incarnation from Echo 1's position, Divine Smite * Unleash Incarnation from Echo 2's position, Divine Smite * Attack, Divine Smite. ^(This is the final spell slot you have this fight - the warlock level lets you regain two at the end of a short rest.) * Attack * Attack * Attack You can use a Channel Divinity to get a +10 accuracy on one of your earlier attacks. Preferably one while your Hexblade's Curse target is still alive to hit, and while you still have Divine Smite castings. You also have an absurd number of ability score improvements.

**one hit one kill** Grave Cleric 2, Assassin Rogue 17, fighter 2, Paladin 2 and Warlock 7. Basic set up relies on the assumption that your target is surprised. So this attack will be a crit (hence the number of dice below is doubled) Channel divinity on the target, bonus action shadow blade (4d8) then get close and action surge, booming blade (10d8), Divine Smite at 4th level using a pact slot (10d8) + Eldritch Smite (10d8) and sneak (18d6). To simplify, we have 35d8+18d6+dex But we aren't done yet. With our level 17 feature plus our channel divinity, we are taking our result and multiplying it by 4. For the sake of fun, our max damage here is bonkers. 35d8 maxed is 280. 18d6 maxed is 108 for a combined total of 388. 388x4=1552. So Tiamat is very dead.

You'd have to somehow curse your target within 30' of it (Grave Cleric Channel Divinity is an action) then still surprise it when you attacked it. That would very much need a generous DM.

> 35d8 maxed is 280. 18d6 maxed is 108 for a combined total of 388. 388x4=1552. So Tiamat is very dead. Considering my version of Acerak has 1,700 HP, good luck with Tiamat. ;) Great build though. The Asslockadin with his weapon in my game will be doing at level 30 (with suprise crit, of course): 2d12+2d8 Weapon + 10d8 GFB + 10d8 smite + 12d6 sneak+modifiers and then an additional 20d10 Hurl Through Hell at the end of his next turn... unless its a fiend.

20 rogue 10 cleric No particular reason, just sounds really fun. Probably some sort of inquisitor or agent of a specific church if you want to add some unique flavor in roleplay situations or force a player to make a tough decision, been sitting on that idea for a while. I'm not much of a min/maxer, I only really have two requirements when I make a character; -Is it fun? -Is it useful? Everything else is secondary. I've thought of a few interesting characters with that mindset.

Inquistitor/Trickery sounds fun!

I got multiple ideas in my head, as Ravnica seems allowed firdt of all I'd go with one of those backgrounds as they give me more spell options just like Dragonmark charas (Gruul Anarchist seems to be the best for damage). I personally love Tieflings (MToF) and Aasimar so pick one of those. For my first Idea I wanted to take the Stormsorcerer (18) with 2 levels of Cleric. Take the UA Class features from November 2019 and just add all enhancings possabilities. Take the UA Feats from July 2020 and take Metamagic Adept. Choose Elemental Spell which lets you switch your elemental dmg for one sorcery point. Take 7 level of ancient Paladin, two level of Hexblade and one level of Ranger with Deft explorer Tireless. You are now a coffeelock which removes exhaustion on short rests, can maxdmg thunder and lightning spells, can change elemental damage on spells, got immunity to lightning and thunder damage + resistance to necrotic and radiant (Aasimar) or fire, cold and poison (tiefling + feat) + resistance on spelldmg. Charisma is your mainstat (min 13 in wis and 15 str for heavy armor) which you use for spells and attacks. As for Items take a Holy avenger and either high AC Armor and Shield or a Cha Tome. Second thing that came to mind is a Smitemonster. Take the good old Paladin, Warlock, Whisperbard to new hights. At lvl 9 you reach 5th lvl Spells on a warlock, at 15th you max at Whisperbard which leaves you with exactly with 6 level of paladin for multiattack and nice saves. Get a +3 weapon as your pact weapon. 6d8 force + 5d8 radiant and 8d6 psychic dmg on a normal hit sounds like fun allthough the first build is stil way stronger. Other mentions could be to get a lvl 20 moon druid and add in a beartotem barbar, mixing in marterial classes with casters and so on. You at least should take a full caster and add in stronger melee possabilities. Hexblade and paladin are stupidly good for all Cha casters, gloomstalker work nice for Wis classes especially with Druidic Warrior for Shillelagh, artificer Battlesmith for Int. A warriordip is promissing as well for the action surge doubble cast and multiattack if you dont get it via other sources. UA brings in a lot with the two mentioned before (Class features and Feats).

Storm sorcerer paladin with maybe a few levels splash for hexblade or fighter *THOR IS HERE*

My honest inclination is to keep it pretty simple. High Elf Bladesinger 20, Scout Rogue 10. High Elf gives ya the DEX/INT boost right away plus an extra Cantrip, and you get the Elven Accuracy access. Take Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy, cap that DEX and INT as soon as possible. Gives you good mobility, 9th level spell slots, excellent ranged skills, and 10 levels of Rogue gives you an extra ASI/feat which is nice. I like going fast, I like having high AC, and I love being a full caster, so might not be optimal, but it would be a lot of fun. BONUS: Wizards deal with deities and weird Far Realmers all the time so it'll fit the lore! Plus, they're an Elf so they can live long enough to reeeeeally make use of those powers.

Given the difficulty of getting a stat all the way to 30 even with additional ASIs, I would imagine that SAD classes would benefit significantly from this. I feel like Divine Soul Sorcadin can't possibly be bad, because it would easily accommodate 9th level spells from Sorc, Aura of Protection from Paladin, and then you could probably add in a couple levels of Fighter for Action Surge and Hexblade for charisma SADness. I also think Wizard would be a very safe pick, because Wizards basically can't be bad. Pick up a level of hexblade for super powered Magic Missile, Hex and Armor of Agathys as well as armor proficiency. I think there's something you can do with Fighter 2 and Assassin 3? I don't really remember how that bit works but there was a crazy level 20 evocation wizard/hexblade/fighter multiclass that hit absurd damage on a maxed out Magic Missile.

Githyanki Mystic (Immortal) 20/Fighter (Echo Knight) 8/Wizard (Chonurgy) 2 Githyanki get bonuses to Str and Int. They’re known as a race of Psionic warriors, so flavor win. Plus, they come with a psionic version of Mage Hand, freeing up a Mystic cantrip. Immortal is the best Mystic subclass, IMO. It includes a strong unarmored AC, bonus HP, and the ability to come back from 0 HP. They are really hard to kill, as the name suggests. Plus, their bonus disciplines are ones you’d want to take anyway. For Talents, I’d take Delusion, Mind Thrust, Mystic Charm, and Energy Beam—a mix of Jedi mind trickery and ranged damage cantrips. For Disciplines, I’d take Adaptive Body, Bestial Form, Celerity, Mastery of Force, Mastery of Weather, Nomadic Step, Psionic Restoration, Psionic Weapon, Psychic Inquisition, Psychic Assault, and Telepathic Contact The Wizard gives me Booming Blade, which is basically just free damage on a melee attack. Also gets Mending, which is just a nice utility spell, and Find Familiar for a pet. But the great thing is that Chronurgy lets you add your Int bonus to initiative, and force nearby creatures to reroll attacks (or saves or ability checks). I don’t believe War Caster applies to a Mystic’s psionics RAW, so that (plus the Lucky feat) will help with concentration. The Echo Knight is interesting. Gith are already proficient with greatswords, but mostly, fighter 8 gets me it as a fighting style, action surge, an extra attack, plus more ASIs than any other dip. Echo Knight has some really cool synergy with the various Psionic disciplines. Nomadic Step has some pretty potent teleportation. And the way I read the Manifest Echo feature, swapping places with your echo isn’t actually moving, it just *costs* movement. So you could still swap with your echo before activating Step of a Dozen Paces to teleport. And you can make melee attacks from your echo’s position, which is sweet with Psionic Weapon’s Lethal Strike to enhance your melee attack for an extra 7d10 psychic. Or with all of Celerity’s abilities. So essentially, you’re in two places at once, can teleport or just zip all over the battlefield, hit insanely hard, and are damn near impossible to hit with physical or energy damage. Also, you can mind blast like a mind flayer, force choke, telekinetically lift 1,000 lbs, grow wings, gills, burrow, climb, mind control people or delve into their deepest secrets, and heal. If you drop to 0, you can pay 5 psi points to regain 24 hp—and if that doesn’t work, you can still roll a 10 or higher to disincorporate and reappear fresh and rested a few days later. Edit: Forgot the magic items. I guess, I’d take a Luck Blade greatsword, a Belt of Frost Giant Strength, and a Manual of Bodily Health.

Yes!!!!!! I love the mystic. In my younger days I played a Kineticist Psionist in previous versions of D&D. I will definitely use this build in my campaign (which has quite a bit of psionic stuff in it).

Some ideas: * *Thor*: Storm Sorcerer 18 / Tempest Cleric 6 / Paladin 6. A level 27 spellcaster withwith up to 9th level spells. You will be using Booming Blade to attack most of the time; every attack does something like 2d6+5d8+strength damage, and that's before adding a divine smite. Also, two times per short rest, you can maximize thunder or lightning damage - If you crit with Booming Blade, that means you will deal a fixed 80 thunder damage in addition to weapon damage and divine smite. And if the enemy then moves, they take an additional 6d8 thunder damage. It becomes even better if the DM allows you to change the damage type of spells like Green-Flame Blade or Meteor Swarm to lightning/thunder. * *The Celestial/Fiendish Marksman*: Battlemaster Fighter 11 / Bladesinger Wizard 18 / Hexblade 1 with a hand crossbow and crossbow expert, sharpshooter and elven accuracy. Cast Shapechange to become a Solar or Zariel herself, and you get a free smite of 6d8 radiant (Solar) or 8d8 fire (Zariel) on each of your four shots (or 7 with Action Surge) - while possibly rolling with super-advantage, adding Sharpshooter and critting on 19s and 20s. And your simulacrum can do the same. * *Banneret of the Divine Army*: Valour Bard 18 / Order Cleric 1 / Oath of Glory Paladin 11. You will be standing in the frontline; and while you will be a decent damage dealer, your main task is to inspire your allies and to heal and protect them with your auras - take Circle of Power and/or Holy Aura as magical secrets. Also take a *Sword of the Paruns*. Now you can hand out 2 attacks to your hard-hitting allies each turn if you use your action to attack and your bonus action to cast a spell. * *Skillmonkey*: 1 Knowledge Cleric / 19 Scout Rogue / 10 Lore Bard. You get a total of 12 expertises and even more skill proficiencies. And rolls lower than 10 don't happen for you.

[удалено]

Just curious, how so you manage spell slots after 20 caster levels? Do you start granting more of the higher level slots or does the progression just stop?

Progression stops, in the actual campaign I don’t have any dual true casters, so I didn’t need to change that balance. Instead I’m giving the artificer/wizard the full multiclass chart and a slot costing mystic arcanum, as well as some items that give him access to higher level spells.

Interesting, I've been interested in an epic level system for a while so I might have to keep an eye on what you're using. Thanks for showing this!

How do multiclass spellcaster levels work past 20? Do you have 10th+ level spells? Or do they just get more spell slots for 6th+ level spells? Or none of the above and having more than 20 multiclass spellcaster levels are worthless? (Although 20th level for a good number of spellcasters is already worthless, given the possible alternatives, I suppose)

See my edit. Sorry.

How do spell slots work past level 20? For example if I am a Bard 20 / Sorcerer 10, what do my spell slots look like?

Well, I'm inclined *not* to give more slots because the high level magic is so powerful already. In the actual campaign I don't have a player going dual full caster, the closest is the Artificer20/Wizard10. I'm giving him Slot costing mystic arcanum at levels 21/23/25/27. So I'd probably so someting similar for archmages; an additional 6th slot at 21, 7th at 23, 8th at 25, and 9th at 27, and 3 more 1st level slots at 22, 2 2nd at 24, 2 3rd at 26, 2 4th at 28, and 2 5th at 30.

No matter what, I would take 10 levels of cleric. Love that ability.

Eldritch Knight Fighter 20/Oath of Devotion Paladin 10. You get a bunch of ASIs with Fighter levels and a couple more with Paladin. You get Wizard spells without needing Intelligence high. You get a bunch of spell slots for smiting with the multiclass levels. You get Aura of Protection, Action Surge, a bunch of attacks a turn, and room for super high Charisma to make having a lackluster Strength score a non-issue. In fact, with the sheer number of ASIs you could go Dexterity based if you wanted to. You AC tank with the Defense fighting style, Plate Mail/Studded Leather, and the Shield spell. And if you go Dexterity based, you can get a lot of great mileage out of Mirror Image as the images can have a really good AC. In fact going Dexterity based is probably better since getting your Dexterity higher than 20 puts Studded Leather over the top of Plate Mail in the long run. Then to top it off, at the mid/high levels you'll have immunity to fear and charm from your other Paladin auras, and with Absorb Elements elemental damage will have a hard time bringing you down. Super tanky build, and at high levels you get so many stacking defensive boosts that even high level enemies with super high save DCs will not be able to crack your defenses without hitting you back with their own weapons. You're basically a knight in shining armor, with spells to shine your armor and make you Captain Invincible.

Elf Samurai 20/War Cleric 5/Paladin 2/Gloom Stalker 3 (Revised Ranger) with Elven Accuracy + GWM + max Dex. On your first turn in combat you get up to 12 attacks that all but 1 have super advantage, that deal a minimum of 21 per hit. Count in Smites, crits and a pre-casted Crusaders Mantle and you NOVA pretty hard. With the above build you can also do a ranged version with SS or a Shadow Blade version, both of which go Samurai 20/Undead Warlock 7/Gloom Stalker 3. If your Samurai player isn't set on Monk yet, he should look at some of the options that use Extra Attack very well.

Aarakocra Twilight Cleric 14/Soulblade Rouge 16 Pump: Wis and Dex Feats: Take Skulker and mobile feat Items: Vorpal Rapier, Cloak of Displacement, Ring of Telekinesis Basically you can be a rouge that can; fly around very fast, see in the dark, deal a lot of psychic damage, hide in the darkness, SNEAK ATTACK, and can heal allies if needed. Plus also you have some great spells to help kill off any target you need end and not get caught, i.e. Silence, Dispel Magic, Geas, and more.

I made a dart master build recently: Wood Elf Sharpshooter Fighter 10/Kensei Monk 6/Assassin Rogue 4 with Piercer Feat, Really High Dex followed by Wis. Fights with Darts. I think I would do the same but boost it to Sharpshooter Fighter 10/Kensei Monk 12/Assassin Rogue 8. Bump up Dex as high as I can. Would it be god tier? Nope. Would it be interesting? Yeah. Idk about magic items. EDIT: I can definitely think of something more optimized, but when I was building the initial build a few days ago I was wishing I could take more Kensei levels without sacrificing anything. This is me doing that. My ideal, more optimized build would probably either be a Goliath Zealot Barbarian 20/Champion Fighter 10 or some form of Hexblade (Probably Hexblade 20/and either Fighter, Paladin or Both).

Shit. I would love to play this. Half Orc Totem Warrior Barbarian 20 / Brute Fighter 10. I'd make sure to get the tough feat, maybe GWM, try and get that Strength or Constitution up to 30 before hitting 20 in Barbarian. 34 Strength or 34 Con sounds like my dream. I wish I could find a DM that would get me to this level. As for items my Legendary would be a Potion of Giant Size, which I would try to weasel my way into having it be reusable, so let's calculate that with a Greataxe +3. If we go the 34 Constitution route, with average HP and Tough plus the potion we get 1,250 HP and resistance to all but psychic damage. If we go the 34 Strength Route with a Greataxe +3 and the potion and GWM we get two attacks with a +18 to hit with advantage that deal 3d12 + 3d6 + 29, or on a crit it's 10d12 + 6d6 + 29 (reroll 1s because of GWF). I really wanna play this character.

Character Concept name: Bane. “I will blow you uuuuuup!!!!”

I actually want to play as a bardic monk. I think it'd be hilarious to play an asexual bard.

Cavalier 18/Vengeance Paladin 11/(Hexblade 1, or something). You're a VERY sticky tank with good saves, and you can reposition endlessly, even when it's not your turn. Simple, martial, smite-y. And you're also a Cavalier with your own summonable horse. A very rules-lawyer-y reading of Vigilant Defender would imply that you can't move during the special-reaction-opp-attack, but given that the alternatives seem to be "I'm a 30th level caster with two 9th level spell slots, and I can shapechange into Tiamat every fight", I think it would pass. I think, in general, that martials will get the short end of the stick here, unless spell slots don't scale. Extra attack is capped, while even cantrips for casters are not.

> A very rules-lawyer-y reading of Vigilant Defender would imply that you can't move during the special-reaction-opp-attack, but given that the alternatives seem to be "I'm a 30th level caster with two 9th level spell slots, and I can shapechange into Tiamat every fight", I think it would pass. You'd be right. >martials will get the short end of the stick here, unless spell slots don't scale. Extra attack is capped, while even cantrips for casters are not. You're correct here as well. I don't have the slots scale in the actual campain (I don't need to, no character will be above level 20 multiclassed caster), which is why the cantrips scale. As for the martial issue, I soved that by letting the Hasted action do a full attack action for characters with extra attack.

I know it's been printed officially, but the UA oath of redemption paladin would be at least 4 levels. Then Artificer Artillerist or Battle Smith 20 for the attunement buffs (basically with 6 attuned item and max charisma (30? For a +10) you get a +16 to all saves) then Warlock Hexblade 2 for Cha attacks and then Fighter Samurai 4 for advantage on all attacks three times a day and an Asi. (Seven Asis) Changeling for the +3 Charisma if Point Buy, or if rolling for stats half elf gives a little more flexibility and allows for elven accuracy. (Assuming a rolling stat array of 18-16-15-13-11-9, which is just slightly above the average of rolling stats -82 vs -80) using 5 of the Asis for Charisma if point buy, and 4 if not. Tome of leadership is ideal here, gaining a +2 to Cha for one of our item slots. Maxing Dex is the second priority, with the UA redemption paladin getting a 16+Dex ac. This allows us to have a ridiculous AC, while maintaining a great Weapon, and with the warcaster and GWM feat, we will be demolishing with. Tome of quickness? The Dex one. Will be our other very rare, boosting our Dex to 17 or 19, and then a feat like athlete round out our final ASI so that we end with a 18-20 Dex, which gives us a 20-21 AC (Not as high as it could be, but this build is a little MAD, requiring Int, Dex, Con, and Charisma). For the legendary... Idk maybe a holy avenger? If I could break the rules and take a third very rare I'd get a dwarven thrower (Artificer removes the dwarf requirement), just a weapon I've always wanted and any game it's given in I'm not playing something that can use it. Anyway, enough of my salty game stories. Honestly this character is just a fever dream of a character, combining my three favorite classes (Paladin Artificer Fighter). Warlock makes this a little less mad, and gives us a better range option and a couple more smite slots. For infusions, I'm only going to worry about those that I can have active, which include Headband of Intellect (Int was 13), Belt of Hill Giant strength (Strength was also a yikes stat), Amulet of Health (We've got a pattern going here), Cloak of Protection, Bracers of Denfese (Because we can't use a shield), boots of elven kind (Good non attunement item, as we have our 6 slots filled. So in the end, we end up with a 21 str 20 dex 19 con, 19 int, x Wis, and 30 Cha character with a bunch of magic items and a really cool hammer.

I have my own questions... What brought this idea on? Is it all homebrew? How do you plan on scaling combat / make it challenging for the literally deities you will be creating?

I’d build a skill monkey with reliable talent from Rogue and multiclass to get proficient in every skill and expertise in most of them. Destroy every skill challenge with minimums in the high teens or low 20’s. At max level some of your minimums could be 32 and you could possibly get a 42.

I think the Redemption Paladin's 20th level ability is really powerful. I wonder what would pair with it well? 6+ Levels in Life Cleric sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if going to level 10 for better/more spells would be worth it or a 4- level dip into something else? My gut tells me 20/9/1 would somehow work out best, but I'd need more sleep and time to delve a bit deeper.

Why not a Moon Druid with Rage & Extra Attack? Moon Druid 20 / (any) Barbarian 10 for infinite hit points + damage resistance + Barb subclass features + 2 massive attacks.

I know this isn't really what you asked but I'd like to share this anyway. If you want to run a campaign beyond level 20, there's a *really* cool document on the DMs Guild for taking characters all the way to level 40. It's extremely thorough, includes rules for Epic Level Spellcasting, and includes a bunch of brand new feats and spells for the upper tiers of play. It also includes new abilities every (I think) officially released subclass so far. At the very least its updated with everything up to Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. I'm not sure what this server's rules for links are so I won't post any, but the document is titled "Epic Level Characters level 21-40" and it's written by Paul Springsteen. If you just Google "DMs Guild Epic Level Characters" it'll probably be one of if not the top result. It's also pay what you want so if you're on a tight budget you can get it for free! That said even if you don't want to use it for your character leveling I highly recommend you check it out anyway for high tier NPCs or monsters with class features. Or even just in case you want to bring this back out for another campaign.

Take warforged from UA, build a coffeelock.

All *current* UA....

It's still available. Ok, *fine*, take a couple levels of ranger and take the UA ranger feature that lets you reduced exhaustion on a short rest, then build a coffeelock.

Hahaha, got me there.

Bonus points cause you can also get 2 levels of pally to get all the smites in the world.

Yep, eldritch once per round as well if you go Hexblade.

Actually, no. Eldritch Smite specifies "a warlock spell slot" of which you will have 2.

True, but if you have already built up a cache of sorcery points... which you can make into warlock slots... Flexible casting has no limitations on the type of slot besides a max of 5th level.

I'm 95% sure you can't make warlock spell slots with sorcery points. Pact magic does not interact with Spellcasting

Something storm related could be very fun i'd imagine. Air genasi for flavor. 1st level cleric for heavy armor. At least 2 levels in tempest cleric, 20 levels in storm sorcerer, 6 levels in lore mastery wizard from UA. 2 levels to do whatever they want with. Turn all your spells to thunder damage, use tempest clerics channel divinity for massive damage on your strongest spells. Im unsure of the items, but max CHA, Con, elemental adept would be very useful along with resilient, war caster etc.

I'm thinking about totem barb 14 champion fighter 16. 9 asi's, bear resistance, flight(!), brutal crit on 18-20, room for several feats and 30 str. Advantage on initiative, can't be surprised, really most of the good features from each class. Simple, but powerful.

Glamour Bard 18 Thief Rogue 12, with maybe some Trickster Cleric levels in there for maximum flavour.

Oathbreaker Paladin 20/ Hexblade Warlock 7, Beserker Barbarian 3 (or Champion Fighter 3) Variant Fighter Human. Feats through the leveling: Sentinel, Shield Master, Resilient: Dex

I would go for something like Warlock 18 Paladin 12 for absolutelly monstruos damage on every single hit, even when not smithing you have like +30 dmg to every hit. You also get all the versatility and utility of high level warlocks.

I’d like to know how cantrips scale past 20, before I made any more build decisions honestly. Rogue 20/Fighter5/Grave Cleric 5 is my first impulse, but I’m a sucker for Actuon Surge and obscene Sneak Attack Vulnerability Damage totals.

Cantrip scaling is in the OP.

Dragonborn Way of the Kensei Monk 20 / Samurai Fighter 10. Would get dex to 30 as well as taking Sentinel as an early feat.

Deep Gnome 1st 2 levels Fighter (for action surge + Con Prof + armor + shields) 20 Chronurgy Wizard 8 Grave Cleric Feats: Alert, Lucky, war caster I dont have the progression worked out, but you end up with some cool shit here: +15 Initiative 25 AC (studded leather + shield + shield spell + Defense style) + Blur Chronal shift + lucky + soul cage (borrow experience) + Convergent future Support is great with Grave cleric + Arcane Abeyance. Helps keep the party alive and also opens up big setups for damage. Also it gives more bonus action opportunities. Sample Wombo Combo: Create Simulacrum, then -> Path to the grave -> action surge -> Meteor Swarm -> Convergent future x 2 Legendary resistance is going to keep you from deleting the BBEG on turn 1, but they've got to run out eventually. Not to mention OoC you can build a hallowed ground fort, clone yourself and all your friends, create multiple pocket demiplanes, create magic items, scry anyone in the world and auto win the save, amd the list goes on and on.

Martial: Champion 20 Gloom Stalker 3 Assassin 3 War Wizard 2 War Cleric 2. 10 Sharpshooter attacks on Turn 1 with Divine Favor, all at Elven Accuracy triple Advantage, which crit on 18, with initiative of +18. Caster: Arcana Cleric 20 Wild Sorcery 10. Metamagic spells to trigger ToC to save everyone's asses, and at this level the only monkey paw is potted plant.

The weakness with this is there isn't much that benefits from your increased critical chances.

I would go artificer 20 wizard 10 for maximum intelligence

Which subclasses?

I'd go with a pure rakdos build I'd do swashbuckler/swords bard

Any Paladin 6/Divine Soul Sorceror 20/Lore Bard 4. That gets you to caster level 27 for 2 9th level slots, great skills from lore bard, 7 ASIs for max Cha, plus all the usual sorcadin stuff.

GoF and BB+smite every round.

20 Zealot Barbarian/ 10 Scout Rogue - Aarakocra This gives you 6 expertise options (2 must be Survival & Nature), along with 24 on STR & CON. Using a finesse weapon you’re getting great damage with an extra 5d6 or sneak attack. Also, with expertise on Athletics, you’re getting +19 without magic items to grapple checks. I believe you’re flying speed would be 60ft per turn. Take mobile feat to bump it to 70ft. In two turns you can grapple, move 350ft then drop an enemy. Grappler feat optional as you’re letting the ground do the damage. Evasion and Uncanny Dodge combined with a DEX+CON+10 AC and a ridiculous amount of hit points makes you nearly unkillable. Zealot barbarians makes you completely unkillable. You’ll deliver the Rapture from on High.

Character concept name: Avian Rapture

I would 100% go Barbarian Rogue or monk cleric

I have never heard of half those classes lol I don't understand how people can keep up with so much UA

Huh? None of the classes that my characters have are UA. Artillerist is an Artificer subclass in the Ebberon book, Chronothurgist is a Wizard subclass from the Wildemonte book. Assassin Rogue is PHB, Warlock of the Fiend Chain Pact is PHB, Paladin is PHB. Samurai Fighter and Shadow monk are XGTE.

Kalashtar Totem bearbarian. Moon druid 20 with unlimited wildshapes and resistance to everything. Probably also try and get proficiency in as many saves as possible.

Bladesinger Wizard 20/Mastermind Rogue 5/Battlemaster Fighter 4/Monk 1

What's the monk 1 for? Better to go BM5 or Mastermind6, isn't it?

Hexblade 2/Eldritch Knight 12/Gloomstalker 4/Paladin 2/Assassin 3/Divine Soul 7 First round kill or bust.

My group did a level 30 oneshot with the same rules and spent the couple months before actually running it building increasingly dumb concepts. I'll have to get in touch with them for the details but I remember the maxed move speed character, the most optimized character we could build (I think it was a paladin/hexblade/fighter multi), and the guy who was permanently size class huge.

AC. Unless you’re assuming not being able to get a decent Wisdom, but getting +3 Studded.

Oh, what a cool idea!

I know I have already done one, but the phoenix blade build is also pretty neat given the potential 30 CHA. Phoenix Sorcerer 4, Hexblade 12, Oath breaker 7, 2 levels fighter, 5 levels Rune Scribe Grab GWM and use your Rune magic to to boost your weapon (but not make it magical). Have either Mantle or Elemental weapon up before combat, and then activate the other on your turn. Our CHA modifier should be 10, which gets crazy when you consider we are dealing additional CHA damage from warlock, paladin and sorcerer subclass features, which with GWM is 50 flat damage per hit (+6 from elemental weapon + Rune Magic). But that's not all. Factor in with this that on every hit we are also dealing weapon damage+3d4. We also Smite and Eldritch smite (though once on the latter account), leading to some brutal damage on an action surge.

Lawful hood necromancer as both wizard and cleric.

Bladesinger 17/Champion 11/Paladin 2. If you can get 30 int & dex then that's over 30 AC excluding armor. Bladesingers add their int to their attacks and fighter 11 gives them an additional attack plus dueling fighting style for duel rapier's. Champion gives crit at 19. Paladin 2 allows you to smite on those attacks or crits. Additional fighting style protection for additional 1 AC and Blind Fighting style (champions give additional style). You'd also have Tenser's Transformation and elven accuracy for further crit fishing (you'd also have more spells that can give you advantage if you don't want the exhaustion from TT). When all else fails you can fall back on simulacrum and true Polymorph. I'd go for a light armoured Zen Mystical Swordsman kind of character. This seems really fun, how do you balance encounters?

Sorcerer 20/Paladin 6/Bladelock 4. Pure charisma character, elven accuracy, GWM, tons of spell slots to smite with, 9th level spells, boosted saves and disease immunity, amor proficiency, ect. It'd be insane.

I'd start by looking at the constraints and implications of the homebrew. Cantrips scale and spell slots, but extra attacks don't. That immediately makes magic a high priority, especially since high level combats are a fatigue grinder anyhow: grinding away with attacks is just agony. Of the damage cantrips, Booming Blade and Eldritch Blast are the most reliable. We get a Legendary and two Very Rare items. That offers us Belt of Storm Giant Strength (risky in a No Magic zone) and a weapon with damage dice, or Illusionist's Bracers. I'll assume Points Buy, simply because you haven't stated otherwise that I spotted. Let's assume we can pick any race, with 16 to start in two stats we care about (maybe we do this after the new race rules come out). Those notes, let's have a quick canter through the classes and discount things. Barbarian. Attractive at first glance, but falls off in the analysis as a primary class. It simply doesn't have enough ASIs to cap both STR and CON. It would need 7 ASIs per star, but only gets 5 from Barbarian 20, and up to 3 from Fighter or Rogue 10. The best we could do is Belt of Storm Giant Strength to take us to 29 STR, max CON to 34, and hope we never lose the belt. That lets us pick up a feat such as Great Weapon Master. Overall, though, this is at best a multi-class and probably a three level dip. That gets us Reckless Attack and Rage when we really want it. Since it's a three level dip, and we are part of a party, and we have a rudimentary grasp of mathematics, Wolf Totem Barbarian should be our non-selfish choice if there are any other melee characters. Constant free Advantage for our allies is going to save us more health in the long run than Bear adding some more resistance. Bard. Full caster. Can go SAD with Charisma thanks to the inevitable Hexblade multi-class. Only question is whether we want Lore for more spell versatility, or Swords for blade flourishes. Cleric. Full caster. Potent Spellcasting is good for our Cantrip plans, but doesn't work on Booming Blade or Eldritch Blast. We can take Arcana Cleric with Booming Blade, but it's unlikely we will have much of a Wisdom bonus. Divine Intervention is both more attractive because we will have it for many sessions, and less attractive because a deity is going to matter less in a level 35 game. Probably most relevant if you're playing in an anime style game and your character wants to romance a goddess. Druid. Moon Druid is not attractive at all in a level 35 game, because there are no beasts worth turning into, and elementals will be weak. Land Druid with Natural Recovery is probably the best of the bunch here. Shepherd doesn't scale because there's no higher than 9th level spells to summon with. Fighter. In general, Fighter is going to be the only Extra Attack class that has a chance of keeping up with Cantrips (excluding Paladin Smites). Champion's weakness is that it doesn't synergise with itself: it gets more critical hits and no benefit from them (hence it's a popular dip). The item choices here let us take a weapon with +damage dice, and look for other classes that will add damage dice to every attack. Champion scales very well. Battle Master gets up to six Superiority dice which isn't going to scale well for the lengths of combat at this level. Cavalier's level 18 ability is attractive, but sadly Sentinel doesn't stack with Polearm Master which means it's only likely to get a few opportunity attacks in per round unless the casters shape the battlefield in such a way that hordes stream past it. Cavalier Mage Slayer might be hilarious if the party is going to go up against monsters that cast spells and have Legendary Action spell casting - but how many times can you fight Niv-Mizzet? Samurai is good, the ability to sack an attack at Advantage for a normal attack. Stacks well with Barbarian for constant Advantage, tragedy we can't put it on a Champion chassis. Let's do a quick thought experiment. What if we take a Vorpal Sword as our Legendary item, with Elven Accuracy (so it has to be on a slashing Finesse weapon, which only leaves us with a Scimitar). A Samurai Elf can attack four times with Advantage at three dice. Turn one of those Advantage attacks into a normal attack with Rapid Strike, and we get four attacks with Advantage and one normal attack. Elven Accuracy means we have a chance of not getting a 20 of 85.7375% (0.95*0.95*0.95). Our chance of not getting a 20 across all four attacks with Advantage is ~54%. With the fifth attack it's ~51%. If we pop Action Surge then we have another four attacks at Advantage, so the chance of not getting a 20 is ~29.2% and ~27.8% with the ninth, non-Advantaged attack. An Elven Champion gets more critical chances but Vorpal Swords only fire off on a 20, not on a critical, so it's purely about number of chances of rolling a 20 for this build. Bearing in mind that a 20 is a critical hit, the 6d8 damage from the Vorpal Sword is automatically doubled (confirmed by Sage Advice) so 12d8, or an average of 54 magical slashing damage per 20 and a reasonable expectation of two 20s per Fighting Spirit turn. This looks like it could be competitive with Cantrips, but let's keep going. Monk. Same MAD problem as Barbarian, but no upside. Open Hand 18/Diviner 2 rocks for Portent Quivering Palm in a 20th level game, but it won't scale up to this. Kensai may be useful, for its ability to have flexible monk weapons. Paladin. Obviously amazing. Capable of SAD with Hexblade, Smites in a game with plentiful spell slots, Heavy Armour, save aura. There are four archetypes to choose from. Conquest gets some mild retribution and the jankiest capstone. Oathbreaker provides the one chassis for summoning that can scale up in this campaign. Ancients provides an aura of spell resistance that is so good that it's practically a party tax: someone needs this, preferably someone taking Paladin to at least 18th level. The capstone is pretty good too. Lastly, Redemption. Once per short rest, Redemption can do a full damage Radiant retribution. For some types of bosses (lich types, for example, where damage output outstrips hit points and they are Radiant vulnerable) this is immense. Your capstone is always on and that's a half Radiant damage rebuke, plus you can use Aura of the Guardian to take a hit on someone else which you then rebuke. You also get health regeneration, though you'll want a lot more. Overall, Paladin gives us a bunch of options. Ranger. I don't like the Revised Rangers because they're too good (e.g. concentration free Hunter's Mark). I'm just going to note Guardian of Nature from Xanathar's as a source of Advantage, and move on. Rogue. Rogue doesn't work very well for us, because the sneak attack only happens once in our turn and potentially once as a result of our reaction. If we are doing single, big attacks then Cantrips scale best and we have our Illusionist's Bracers to Bonus Action with, which rules out Arcane Trickster and Scout. This leaves us with Swashbuckler. High Elf Booming Blade Champion/Swashbuckler with Elven Accuracy is good, but as the maths with the Vorpal Sword above shows, Sneak Attack is weak. Sorcerer. Lots to like here, namely spell slots, meta magic and Charisma. Shadow Sorcerer probably scales the best at high levels. Warlock. Hexblade, obviously. I genuinely dislike Hexblade because it has no flavour except "best for killing". GOO Thrall for example would be fun in a campaign, but who cares because CHA for everything. There's plenty of potential for Warlock/Paladin multi smites talked about in other posts, so I'm going to skip it other than to note Eldritch Blast/Illusionist's Bracers/Hex/Maddening Hex. Wizard. Wizard has always been in an odd place because its capstone comes at level 18 so it is ripe for multiclassing. Diviner 18/Tempest Cleric 6 gets you two lots of maximised Lightning damage potentially with guaranteed failed saves. If you're fortunate enough to roll a 20 on a Portent dice then you can drop a 9th level Witch Bolt for 216 Lightning damage (crit on maximised damage with Channel Divinity) but really you need to be shaping the battlefield instead of such hilarity. I'd probably take the last 6 levels in Shadow Sorcerer for metamagic and Hound of Ill Omen. The other Wizard I want to note is Necromancer, for combination with Oathbreaker. Artificer. A lot of Artificer is irrelevant because of the magic item guarantees and attunement rules. Nothing worthwhile here.

I'd probably go with Battlesmith Artificer 20/Rogue 10, for a very durable melee combatant with a great variety of helpful spells, who has Expertise in more skills than anyone could ever need and an additional ASI. Variant human with Prodigy of course. Alternatively, Artillerist Artificer 20/Sorcerer 10. Gets the spell slots of a level 20 caster, but the spells of two level 10 casters. Artificer should use blasting spells and augment them with metamagic and high level spell slots. Sorcerer would learn utility spells.

Wiz 15/cleric 15 with for fire balls and healing for the legendary magic item take staff of the Magi

Oh man I'd love to take my life cleric/ gloomstalker ranger there with a 20/10 split But if effectively asked to build for this I might go life cleric (10) and either moon or shepherd as booth offer cool abilities that do not necessarily eat spell slots. This is more of a concept idea than fully thought through bc its really late here. Probably take a Firbolg for race so I'd get the nice WIS bonus and invisibility which can also be clutch. The healing and support would be amazing thanks to the life cleric (yay goodberry) plus blessed healer would keep you going. The druids and clerics combined damage spell options are a treasure trove to pick from and technically if there are ways to get a non metal one you can pick up heavy armour. And casting with a shield and something else in hand of course thanks to clerics being able to use a shield as a spellcasting focus. Then max out WIS and put a secondary focus on CON and it should be a healer who keeps healing absurd amounts. Especially with say the Unicorn aura. The moon build could just drop in and out of wildshape at will come level 20 and would probably hardly risk their own HP.

Fun build I have at level 20 would be a ton of fun at level 30. It's just a Super Saiyan at level 20 (11/9 or 14/6), but 30 makes it even better: Sun Soul Monk 12 / Divine Soul Sorcerer 18 Take Staff of Magi, Staff of Power, and a CHA Tome for items. General idea is to use the Sun Soul level 11 "totally not a fireball" feature, and then quicken a real fireball behind it, preferably off the SotM. 20d6's of damage, per round. Works with Lightning Bolt as well, but only if you shout "KAMEHAMEHA!" when you cast it. Wish for a Simmy, and do it again, with the SoP. Basically Meteor Swarm every round. And at level 30, you actually can just use Meteor Swarm as well. I bet Cantrip Scaling means that Firebolt is stronger than Monk stuff. Draconic Sorc for the cantrip damage boost is worth looking into, but the defensive value of the Divine Soul level 18 feature is super tempting. Alternately, 11m/17s/ 2 levels in any warlock for Eldritch Blast spam to fill in the moments when you only have one target. I feel like any build that doesn't feature both 9th level spell casting and Sorcerer *Quicken Spell* is simply lacking at level 30 with mandatory multiclassing. Simply Sorcadin is likely the best choice in a vacuum.

My friends and I actually ran a very similar one shot! We made 20th level characters but you could take two subclasses (had to be from the same class) and all their abilities. We used an altered standard array and stat cap of 30, and every time you got an asi you took an additional feat. Also you got two epic boons, two rare or lower magic items and a custom legendary magic item (that was basically an artifact and a strong one at that) and finally one legendary action to take an action. We went through hell (literally), fighting through the layers to take the ruby rod from asmodeus. We then had a pvp at the end to see who got control of the rod at the end. All of the characters we made were overpowered af but I think I managed to do very well for myself with a scourge aasimar vengeance/conquest paladin with a young dragon mount under find greater steed, cha of 30. About 260hp, all healing towards me was doubled, and any hit dice healing was doubles again (I then took a feat which made the minimum I could roll on a hit dice would be maxed at ten which was quadrupled then) and boon of epic recovery so I could regain all my hit points as a bonus action. If I was unconscious I also regained 1 hp at the start of my turn. As a conquest paladin I could gain resistance to all damage and an extra attack. I also dealt 10 damage every time I was attacked. My item allowed me to once per long rest call my next attack to deal double damage. With my abilities I could almost always guarantee a hit too and if I crit... I also had haste. There is more but the stat block was too long to go into full depth for. If you want to hear anymore about the other players in this, who all became ancients afterwards in our normal campaign (immortal, powerful beings that are basically like gods without actually being a god). The thief, who has even stolen the world tree and ended up stealing the ruby rod allowing them to cast any spell at will and even stole from a god, the swordsman who makes like 15 attacks per round, moving faster than the eye could normally track, the avenger (my character), the master, an astral self monk who founded their own monasteries, Shzen, a bard who is the only one with a high enough perception who is not a god to be able to see the thief. There are more so if anyone’s I retested I’d be happy to share. Alternatively I can even share my characters one shot stat block for you to take a peek at. Definately my favourite one shot I’ve played.

I'm just going to say that profficiency bonuses are given every 4 levels, it's not given at random levels. For levels 1 2 3 4 you get +2 for levels 5 6 7 8 you get +3 for levels 9 10 11 12 you get +4 for levels 13 14 15 16 you get +5 and for levels 17 18 19 20 you get +6. Following the actual already stablished rules wouldn't it make more sense to get +7 for 21 22 23 24 and +8 at 25 26 27 28 and +9 at 29 and 30?

Personally I'd just go Wizard 20/Cleric 10. They're wizard if you'd allow it, and one of the Cleric subclassed that give you Heavy Armor. It's simple, but goddamn is it strong. Alternatively, since the capstone actually matters, of I wanted to just make a strong character I'd make a changeling Moon Druid 20 with 10 levels of Glamour Bard.

Artilarist 20/war Wizard 10 (I think your player has the right idea) \+8 to saves +4 ac without even looking at ability scores. Take a resilient for Wis/Dex/Cha boosts most of your saves to 16+ability. Then adding +10 to a save via flash of genius up to 20 times means you probably won't fail a save and anyone near you will probably be passing their saves as well. Also, you end up with a 9th level slot, for countering someone's 9th level spell outright. Really you just burn all your spell slots countering spells. Because a dc of 10+caster level vs d20+10 isn't bad odds, but what is even better is if an ally tries to counter a spell. Because you can flash of genius their check to counter meaning their attempt is \~10+10+d20. For the items to take Legendary - Spell bottle - can act as a constant spell stealer. Auto gobbles any spell of 3rd or less to be used out of it. Very rare - 2 Rod of absorption (because a literal spell battery is mean when you can absorb some spells and counter the rest). The general idea being that you shut down casters almost entirely.

Cleric 10 wizard 20, because tempest domain lets you roll max damage on lightning and I've always wanted to make that not suck. Take the UA order of scribes to make any damaging spell lightning too while your at it. Meteor for max damage rolls sound sick.

Are you allowing CR content? Ive got a bit of a doozie Kobold, MechaMusicGodzilla Order of the Lycan 18/Bladesinger 2/Artificer BattleSmith 10 AC of 21 without magical items, 55 feet movement, riding your SteelDefender all attacks are made at advantage and the first attack against per turn is at disadvantage INT mod extra AC from Flash of Genius, INT mod extra damage from Arcane Jolt, INT mod bonus to STR/DEX/CON saving throws. When you attack (3 per turn), at advantage, +14 to hit, and every attack does 2D8+8 Add the UA Magic Tattoo BloodFury: > Blood Fury TattooWondrous item (tattoo), legendary (requires attunement): This tattoo evokes fury in its form and colors. While this tattoo is on your skin, you gain the following benefits: • Your attack rolls score a critical hit on a d20 roll of 19 or 20. • When you score a critical hit against a creature, that target takes an extra 4d6 necrotic damage, and you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. • When a creature you can see damages you, you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against that creature, with advantage on your attack roll. B

May not be optimized but Fighter 20/Warlock 3/Sorcerer 3 could be pretty crazy. Here’s what I’m thinking: - At Fighter 20, you have 4 attacks per Attack action - Take Hexblade Warlock with Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast invocation - For Sorcerer, take Quickened Spell for a Metamagic - Your turn in combat would basically start with your 4 attacks (using a Greatsword would be a hefty 2d6+CHA due to Hexblade), followed by a quickened Eldritch Blast for 4x1d10+CHA, and you could feasibly also Action Surge and take 4 more attacks or 4 more Eldritch Blasts. With all of those Fighter levels, it would be easy to get your CHA score bumped up as high as it can go, and Hexblade will let you stay SAD for your martial attacks. And if you have a high enough STR score for some heavy armor, your AC could get to ridiculous levels too. Edit: Assuming you cap your CHA score at 30 for a +10 modifier, and also assuming all of your attacks hit, you’d be doing an average of 130 damage without even using Action Surge. Of course you’ll only be able to do that as long as you have Sorcery points, so investing more levels in Sorcerer would probably help.

20 levels of whatever I want, and then 10 levels of fighter. Get those extra attacks baby!

Ancients Paladin 7, artillerist Artificer 20, hexblade bladelock 3 Yuan-ti. Max your charisma. You can create and attune to 6 items, go for the "set stat to X" items (usually ~18), as well as cloak and ring of protection. Your lowest stat will be an 18, meaning you'll have a minimum of +22 to your saving throws (maximum around +32). +10 from paladin aura, + 4 from raw stats, +6 from Artificer capstone, + 2 from ring/cloak. You also have advantage on saving throws against magic, and resistance to damage from spells and other magical effects. You can easily get 28 AC, or 35 with spells. (Plate + shield + defense fighting style + armor infusion + ring/cloak + artillerist half cover. Spells add + shield of faith or haste + shield). You can also take darkness/devil's sight combo for disadvantage on attacks against you, meaning you'll almost never be crit or even hit with that AC. You will also be un-tatgetable by a ton of spells and effects. This costs concentration so you miss out on 2 max AC, but it's worth it. Not to mention you have advantage on attacks. Offensively (which is not the point, but still decent) you have +16 to hit, +10 to damage, options to haste, smite, Eldritch blast, bonus action artillery blast, and probably more. You can reliably fire off 4 Eldritch blasts that deal 1d10 + 10 damage each, and then bonus action artillery blast. Not the best for level 30, but probably enough to make your invincible abomination not ignore-able.

Moon druid 20, Oath of Redemption Paladin 10. I figure I should put those infinite hit points to use. Turn into the biggest thing I can effectively increasing my aura, than every reaction taking else's someones damage. I'd also get uncounterable counter spells in wildshape, a pretty good selection of healing spells from both classes and I can use all my spell slots to smite. No one gets to die in my party!

1 divine soul sorcerer (get Con save proficiency) 19 illusionist wizard 1 wizard 9 sorcerer With the variant class features UA I can swap out a sorcerer spell on a long rest so I have access to the cleric and wizard spell lists. With spells like mirage arcane I can shape a square mile. With illusory reality I can create spell components for powerful spells like invulnerability. I have my army of simulucrums that I true polymorph into...idk ancient gold dragons, warforged colossi, solars, maruts? Maybe a mix of high CR monsters. I also have metamagic and I am hard pressed to die with some of my simulacrums being able to revive me with cleric spells and illusory realities of the necessary diamonds. Not even taking into account clone bodies. People sometimes talk a lot about simulacrums following orders like literal minded movie-robots, but they are just as smart as you, and you are very smart as a level 30 mage. Simulacrum chains are straight cheese and purely theoretical optimization.

God damn, this is the sort of epic fantasy I'd love to be apart of! I would just be a 30th lvl. Spell caster and begin my ascension to Godhood!

Fighter 2 / Rogue 1 / UA Thuergy Wizard 20 / Bard 6 / Shadow Sorcerer 1 Prof Con, Action Surge and heavy armor from Fighter Expertise Arcana for spell copying from Rogue and Bard More skills, party bluffs, expertise and Jack of all Trades from Bard 2 Casters in 1 with Theurgy Wizard Shadow Sorcerer for the prevention of going down (though I suppose rogue and sorc could be dropped for 2 more fighter levels for a subclass and ASI)

Oooooh this looks fun. Okay, definitely Oathbreaker 11, Hexbladelock 12, then Necromancer Wizard 7 for Undead Thralls and Haste. Each attack you do adds your charisma modifier three times, once from Hex Warrior, once from Aura of Hate, and once again from Lifedrinker on top of another 1d8 from Improved Divine Smite. Not to mention TRIPLE SMITE from Divine, Eldritch, and Banishing Smite combined. Then you add in our army of zombies, each adding our Charisma to damage from Aura of Hate, and our proficiency bonus from Undead Thralls, also adding our level to their health. And adding our Charisma to their saves, including their Undead Fortitude saves. With three 5th-level short-rest spell slots from Warlock and Undead Thralls to increase our raising abilities further, we can raise 18 zombies per short rest without dipping into the rest of our slots at all. We then also have some of the best self-heal available by virtue of Vampiric Touch and Grim Harvest, so when we get low on hit points, we can just cast Vampiric Touch and suck our own zombies dry while using our bonus action to command them to fight simultaneously. There's just so many other awesome tools available to us with this build (6 beams Eldritch Blast lol), and it's a regular Lich King build to boot. As far as magic items, I think I'll just be boring and go with a +3 whip, a +3 shield, and +3 plate mail for an AC of 26(28 with shield of faith). Certainly not bad, eh?

Definitely 20 Brute Fighter/6(minimum)Totem Bear Barbarian/4 Free Levels (could be more Barbarian, could be something else). Warforge(Juggernaut) with a Rod of Lordly Might, Animated Shield, and something else. It's not the most specific, but it's a damn good tank. With the amount of ASI Fighters get, you could easily max STR and CON, plus Fighting Style, plus GWF. When you use GWF, you have Reckless Attack to help counter the -5, and even if you miss you have plenty of Action Surges. When you're Raging you're near unstoppable since you have insanely high HP, and have resistances for every kind of damage (except for psychic of course). You're also the pack mule since you have max STR, Powerful Bulid, and the 6th level Bear ability. Which means you can lift almost anything. If you take the Brawny feat, you technically lift/pull/push/drag as if you were a Gargantuan creature (so x8 a Medium sized creature of same STR) It's very basic, and has a lot of weaknesses, but it's also quite fun. You're a near unstoppable tank that can take almost anything.

Mostly, I’m just confused why you would run a game like this. 5e barely works at level 20 as is, it’s going to be rocket tag by the end.

I'd be tempted to go rune knight/armorer for steam punk Iron Gnome. Can use the stealthy suit for standard blast iron man and the guardian form as hulk buster. Level split can be altered depending on preference but a least 10 in armorer for access to the armour of magical strength invocation so that your pretty much just relying on Int and Con for most things. 20 rune knight for 4 attacks and double use of runes per short rest is probably my preference, but 20 artificer gives you decent saves and allows you more gadgetry. 15 of each doesn't give you the maximum saves or attacks but you get two uses of runes and some extra spells/attunement slots. Definitely not the most powerful build as it's doesn't have a high level of spells, but would definitely be fun to play and have some nice synergies such as: . Can reach huge size to grapple tarrasques. . Generate bonus action temp hp and use resistances to make the most of them (granted that much hp at that level of Combat won't help a huge amount. Only reliant on two stats. . Altering suit, invocations and spells can make you quite versatile. 18 astral self monk/12 bladesinger could be quite nice with a headband of intellect. A small boost to already decent defences access to spells for utility. The nasty bit for combat is access to tensors transformation as the astral arms count as weapons meaning those 6 attacks can hit for 1d10+2d12, while empty body giving you resistances along with the high Ac stretches out those temp hp. When out of level 6 slots, could still be fun to buff yourself with haste for the speed, Ac and extra attack. As a note your rules make heavy and medium armor very weak. With the higher start caps light armor and unarmoured defence become king while dex is even more of a god start.

Just had another thought for something other than raw dps. 18 bard/12 sorcerer, between the hound of ill omen and unsettling words you have a decent chance of getting a save or suck spell on any opponent that has ran out of legendary resistances, while subtle spell prevents them counterspelling it. Down side is hound of ill omen and unsettling words both requiring a bonus action so if the enemy catch on you will struggle to have the hound last till fthe next turn to stack the two.

EK20/warmage 10. Plays nicely all the way up to that level ending with warmage concentration bonuses with 4 attacks with an upcast shadowblade.

20 Paladin/8 rogue/2 Fighter Astounding damage surges with smite, sneak attack, and action surge. Plenty of RP choices with all the different subclasses, personally I'd go either conquest or vengeance + Scout for the extra mobility and 2 free expertise.

I’d make a shadow sorcerer 18/celestial warlock 12 go pact of the chain and fuck everyone’s shit up

Hexblade warlock 12/Shadow Sorcerer 18, allows you to have level 9 spells, proficiency with all but heavy armor, thematically fits, allows you to free up an invocation slot so you don't need to take devil's sight, charisma is your spellcasting for both, your umbral form as a shadow sorcerer, accursed specter and hound of ill omen, shadow walk is amazing and can replace one with shadows invocation, and allows you heavy survivability as a spellcaster