D&D 5E The most Powerful out of Combat Characters

[hastur_nz]

Yeah, the one with the smartest Player.

 

[Eltab]

The most Powerful out of Combat Characters. Which characters do you feel are the strongest out of combat. Maybe in socialization. Maybe in exploration. Maybe in some other aspect?

A properly built Ranger/Rogue can see to it that he never gets lost when he walks outside his front door, and nobody else will notice his presence.
- Include the "map in your head" feature from one background.
- Expertise Stealth and Perception.
- Pick your Favored Terrain to suit the campaign area
Ultimate Explorer.

For another form of Power, buy mundane equipment and set yourself a personal goal to figure out a way to use one item per session.
Being attacked by Frost Giants? Ask the DM if you can smash a candle down on your arrowhead, light it, and do Fire damage to the enemy. If nothing else, the rest of the group will get a good laugh at your expense.

 

[jgsugden]

Wizards, with the huge number of rituals, can do almost anything out of combat at high levels. In fact, any PC with the ritual caster feat will be nearly unlimited in their OOC abilities given enough time and access to enough spells.

 

[Daniel Van Patten]

Druid gets you almost everything you need for the Exploration and Socialization pillar, though possibly a little weaker in Socialization. But that is solved by a two level dip in something like Rogue or Warlock.

Likewise, a Tome Warlock with a two level dip in another class can also cover a huge number of bases.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I'm a fan of saying Bard, Warlock and Rogue.


Bard's are terrifying out of combat, especially if we end up seeing the Glamor and Whisper bards from the UA. Combine their magic, expertise and jack of all trades, I think the only thing that prevents bards from being the ultimate class is their low to mid combat abilities. And that's why you have parties, because bards rock at support, not dealing or taking damage.


Warlocks are also high on the list because invocations are beastly. With Disguise Self at-will and the Actor feat my warlock is a chameleon who can disappear into any city or town with little effort. They get so many at-will magical abilities they are a surprisingly good "adventurer" class who can do a lot of different things.


Rogues get a mix between these two, but without reliance on magic it can be either better or worse. Honestly, depending on how you consider Reliable talent they either tie or lose to bards in skills.



But, that's just "mechanically the most powerful", players can do an awful lot and some get more mileage out of different aspects of classes than others.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The most Powerful out of Combat Characters. Which characters do you feel are the strongest out of combat. Maybe in socialization. Maybe in exploration. Maybe in some other aspect?

On the surface, the most potent non-combat features are spellcasting and Expertise.

Skills w/o Expertise or NBD, you can always round out your class skills with your Background. Likewise, everyone gets feats, so feats are relatively neutral in terms of who's 'best.'

So, as the only full caster with Expertise, the Bard would seem to be the obvious stand-out.


But, this is rulings-over-rules 5e, so the most powerful out-of-combat character, like the one most powerful in-combat one, is the one whose player can most consistently manipulate the DM into getting what they want.

 

[iserith]

But, this is rulings-over-rules 5e, so the most powerful out-of-combat character, like the one most powerful in-combat one, is the one whose player can most consistently manipulate the DM into getting what they want.

That is correct.

But I would take the bad faith out of that statement and say instead that it's the player who pays attention, who engages with the scene, and who makes solid decisions based on that in pursuit of automatic success over rolling that fickle d20 that is the most powerful character, regardless of class or build.

 

[FrogReaver]

On the surface, the most potent non-combat features are spellcasting and Expertise.

Skills w/o Expertise or NBD, you can always round out your class skills with your Background. Likewise, everyone gets feats, so feats are relatively neutral in terms of who's 'best.'

So, as the only full caster with Expertise, the Bard would seem to be the obvious stand-out.


But, this is rulings-over-rules 5e, so the most powerful out-of-combat character, like the one most powerful in-combat one, is the one whose player can most consistently manipulate the DM into getting what they want.

I mostly agree but most every caster is lacking some fairly important out of combat spells, the bard included.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I mostly agree but most every caster is lacking some fairly important out of combat spells, the bard included.

The lore bard gets to poach a few spell, though...

 

[FrogReaver]

The lore bard gets to poach a few spell, though...

That is still not the same as having those spells on your spell list and potentially getting them "on time"