D&D 5E Skill Monkey Builds

Iolo Morganwg · Oct 1, 2016

Never mind. Apparently I need to pay more attention to detail!

Halma · Jan 26, 2017

My Take on a Human Variant Rogue/Warlock/Bard Skill Monkey build

8/14/13/13/13/15 point buy-
1st lvl Rogue - 4 Skills + 2 Background + 3 from Skilled Feat + 1 Human = 10 skills ( 2 Expertise skills)
2nd Lvl Warlock 1 = 10 Skills (2 Expertise Skills)
3rd Lvl Warlock 2 - (Beguiling Influence (Deception + Persuasion)) = 12 Skills (Also take Devil Site 120' Dark Vision takes away from the weakness of being Human)
4th Lvl Bard 1 - Performance = 13 Skills
5th Lvl Bard 2 - 0
6th Lvl Bard 3 - Lore Bard + 3 Skills = 16 Skills (4 Expertise Skills)
7th lvl - 20th lvl Rogue 15th lvl = 16 Skills (6 Expertise Skills) + Darkvision 120' + Resilient Feat (Charisma)= 4 Good Saves (Dex, Int, Wis, Cha)

The two skills you don't take will be 2 or 4 by 20th depending on your stats. The lowest skills will be around +7, but your expertise skills will be +15 or +13 depending again on your stats, that's 1/3rds of your skills have expertise.

Yunru · Jan 27, 2017

Rogue 11/Lore Bard 3/Knowledge Cleric 1.
As many expertise as possible, and a minimum roll of 10 on all checks.

krunchyfrogg · May 25, 2017

Considering there are some skills that really don't matter as much, and being proficient in everything takes away from Jack of all Trades a tiny bit, I'm quite happy with:

Half elf
Rogue 1
Knowledge cleric 1
Lore bard X

That's 14 skills, 6 with expertise by level 5.

JoaT covers the other 4.

You can wear medium armor and you're in pretty good shape on the back line, having only one level not as a spellcaster.

hejtmane · Jun 13, 2017

Back Ground Hermit gets you the Herbalism kit and you can make healing potions

Johnpaulsundeen · Jun 23, 2017

Love it good to know that there are other dms out there that truly are pouring there heart into there campaign

norman leroy · Apr 11, 2018

These are knowledge monkeys. I made a toolbox skill monkey.
Rock gnome tinker
Urchin
Rogue mastermind.
Several tool kit proficiencies. 6 skills. 4 languages.
Artificers lore.
Mastermind. If you aren't smart enough you can help people and act like you are. I play it true neutral and imagine rocket raccoon when I do. "Oh I didn't need the leg just these 2 things"

Warren Aaberg · Oct 15, 2018

ddb.ac/characters/1345189/3HYOCA

Half-Elf Rogue [Scout] 6 (Starting Class) / Bard [Lore] 10 / Cleric [Knowledge] 2 / Warlock [Whatever] 2 has proficiency in all skills, mastery in 13, can gain proficiency in any ad-hoc skills the DM might throw at you (including tools) via channel divinity and upgrade to mastery in those skills via 5th level bard spell "Skill Empowerment".

I should point out, the Ioun Stone of Mastery is definitely the best possible end-game gear for this character. The bonus stacks so you can have three of them.

I don't think you can optimize it any more than that... but, let me know.

jphl · May 2, 2020

this build is a pretty good skill monkey. you could drop some rogue level for more bard to get more spells and other goodies and expertise in 2 skills so everything is a bit higher but i liked reliable talent for a skill monkey build. you auto pass most dc20 checks and you don't get quite the numbers Warren's character above me gets but you don't rey on the large amount of magic items either and as i said it is impossible to roll less than a ten on skill checks here. And depending on how your dm reads the interaction between reliable talent and jack of all trades and the fact that features that add half your proficiency don't stack because you can't add your modifier more than once to suggest jack of all trades lets you use reliable talent with all tools. It is a variant human for the prodigy feat, it starts off in rogue and will eventually have 11 levels for reliable talent, takes a level in knowledge domain cleric for expertise in two skills two levels in warlock for beguiling influence, and goes bard 6 for the expertise and jack of all trades. in the end all skills except animal handling are at least +10 with reliable talent so they pass dc20 checks no matter what you roll. here is my character named after the main character from the show Psych
ddb.ac/characters/23368427/qkTmjX