D&D 5E Best classes for theurge caster? What about a Gish Theurge?

[hephalumph]

I am leaning towards a bard/cleric as the best theurge multiclass. Wizard seems more obvious than bard at first glance; but the lore bard is a competent full arcane caster and blends well with the cleric.

And an eldritch knight/paladin seems the obvious gish theurge. But I could see many powerful variants. The bard can be as much of an arcane gish as an arcane knight, and the moon druid could be the divine counterpart to the paladin. I could even see an arcane trickster, built right, as the arcane half of a gishy theurge.

How would you build the 'ultimate' theurge? What race is best; human for the early feat? What class and subclass? Which background? What spells would you learn/prepare?

 

[77IM]

What is your goal? If you want to be a one-man party, you can't go wrong with half-elf paladin/sorcerer with criminal background. Or straight bard. ;}

 

[keterys]

Word of warning - arcane trickster's spell selection is sufficiently focused that it doesn't work very well as part of a gish concept.

It's fun, it can be effective enough at what it does, but it's much more an arcane trickster than an eldritch knight.

 

[Joe Liker]

Fun Fact: Character Optimization has its own forum!

 

[Morrus]

Fun Fact: Character Optimization has its own forum!

I'll slip it over there!

 

[hephalumph]

Well, I wasn't looking for optimization as such, I was asking more for opinions and diverse responses comparing combinations of what is, to each individual, the 'best' - which could mean optimized to some (obviously, it does to Joe Liker), but to others it could mean the most flavorful or the most intriguing. This is why I purposefully posted in the D&D 5e forum and not in optimization. I would appreciate it if the post were put back where it belongs.

 

[Morrus]

It's a character build question. The forum is character builds *and* optimization. It's in the right place!