D&D 5E A Collection of Guides - A Library of Character Builds

[Mistwell]

The Wizards of the Coast forums are shutting down at the end of October, 2015. There is a lot of great content on those message boards, and I am going to try and do my part to move some of that content over to these message boards. I'd also like to carry on some of the good traditions from that board, and I think this concept of a Character Build Library is one of those good traditions.

Below is a Guide to the Guides, a compendium of guidebooks and collected advice on various character builds, concepts, and optimizations. For each guide, I will create a thread for that guide here at ENWorld, and link it in this thread as an organizational index. As the list also includes lists and links to guides found on boards outside of the Wizards of the Coast message board, I am not sure how I will handle those. Maybe just a link to them, and maybe I will copy those here as well for a more complete set of guides. As new guides are added here I can include them in this grand list.

Wherever possible I have tried to include the proper credit for whoever created the guide.

It's possible some of these guides were already replicated here at ENWorld. I've tried to search for each guide first in Google using the guide title and site:enworld.org to make sure there is no duplicate thread. But if they were posted under a different title, I won't catch them that way. So apologies in advance if I duplicate content already found here, and I will try to work with the mods to merge such threads or delete one should that occur.

 

[Mistwell]

This is the initial list. It will contain links to the Wizards of the Coast threads until I move each one over and correct the link to point here. If it's already been moved, I've put it in BOLD.

Barbarian
The Gentleman’s Guide to Proper Barbarism
Graceful Destruction: A Guide to Dex Based Barbarism

Bard
A party without music is lame: A Bard Guide
Bardic Lore: A Basic College of Lore Bard Guide

Cleric
For God and Party-A Cleric's guide
Dictum Mortuum's The Cleric Handbook[Note: Outside URL]
Celestial Link Evoking Radiance Into Creation

Druid
Thy Fearful Symmetry: A Circle of the Moon Handbook
[Editors Note: The second Druid guide, titled Lunar Wilds, contained almost nothing and was almost totally incomplete, so I am not moving that over. I will however make a note of his few comments in the Circle of the Moon handbook thread]
By Your Powers Combined: A Land Druid Handbook

Fighter
Bow Bond: An Eldritch Knight’s guide to Archery
The Art of War: A Fighter Guide

Monk
Meditation, Mediation, Devastation: A Monk's Guide
Monk and the Four Elements (Subclasses mini guide)

Paladin
Oathbound: The Paladin Guide
My Word Is My Sword - Paladin Guide

Ranger
Animal Buddy: A Guide to the Ranger's Beast Companion
The Outdoorsman's Guide to natural Ranging
Into the Woods We Go

Rogue
A Knife in the Dark – The Rogue’s Handbook
Dealing Death: Handbook of the True Assassin
I Fought the Law and Won

Sorcerer
Power Overwhelming: A Sorcerer Guide
Guide for optimized Sorcerer
Playing Dice with the Universe: A Slant Guide to Wild Magic Sorcerers

Warlock
Blade, Book, and Chain - A Warlock Guide
Pacts, Patrons and Power - A Warlock Guide

Wizard
Arrive on Time - A General Guide to Wizardry
Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards 5e
A blast from the past - Wizarding 101 by Avalongod

Other
5th Edition Spells Spreadsheet
Annual Cantrip Review
Basic Char-Op
Conjurer of Cheap Tricks - A Conjuration Handbook
DPR King
Handbook to Guide Writing
Level Dip Guide
The Grappler's Manual - Grappling in 5th Edition
A Collection of Useful Spell Lists
Ways to attack with your Reaction
REPOSITORY: Homebrew & Original Content
Know Your Rites: A Guide to Ritual Casting
Stealth, hiding and you!
What's Your Story: A Custom Backgrounds Guide
List of ability check modifiers
Know Your Enemy
Skill Monkey Builds
Dagger Thrower

 

[Matthan]

Thanks for doing this. These were the first things I thought of when I read the announcement. I read a few of those guides before I started DMing 5E. Not only did they make me want to play (a dream that I still haven't obtained), but they helped nail down the mechanics in my head. A great resource and a great service, sir.

 

[Mistwell]

OK I finished moving over the first Barbarian guide, and I'd say it took around 2 hours to properly get it formatted here. I am going to see if I can cut that time down with some search and replace stuff in a Word document.

I also am not sure how to approach future edits to guides. Normally, a discussion breaks out on some aspect of the guide, some consensus is reached that a change needs to be made to the guide, and the change is made. However, I am not the author of these guides, but I am tinkering with their work. Should I include a line that says, "By: "WOTC Username" with Edits by: Mistwell" or something like that? Should I leave the original guide alone and somehow try to incorporate changes in a different post? Should I put edits in brackets within the original guide to indicate where an edit is being made?

 

[Yunru]

It's easier if you're the owner of the post on WoTC. You can just click "edit" and C+P.

 

[Morrus]

What I might be able to do - if it helps - is work out a way to reassign the post to the actual creator if they should register here and both you and they want me to do that. Then it will be just as though they posted it themself. I don't know offhand how to do that, but I think I'll be able to.

 

[Morrus]

It's easier if you're the owner of the post on WoTC. You can just click "edit" and C+P.

Try clicking "quote" over there - I don't know if WotC's forums work like that (some do), but it *might* show as a BB coded post in the quote rather than a formatted one. Or it might not. Worth a try!

 

[Yunru]

Try clicking "quote" over there - I don't know if WotC's forums work like that (some do), but it *might* show as a BB coded post in the quote rather than a formatted one. Or it might not. Worth a try!

Yup, and if that doesn't work, just click "disable rich-text".

 

[Mistwell]

Try clicking "quote" over there - I don't know if WotC's forums work like that (some do), but it *might* show as a BB coded post in the quote rather than a formatted one. Or it might not. Worth a try!

Yup, and if that doesn't work, just click "disable rich-text".

Here is what the BB Code version of a post looks like from there (rich-text not disabled):

Table of Contents
Introduction
Proficiencies, Attributes, Backgrounds, and Class Features
Domains.
Races
Feats
Spells
Equipment
Multiclassing
FAQ
Builds and Combos

(If anyone can help me find a picture that might go with this.)

For this guide I am going to use the typical color scheme for ratings.
Red: No please don’t
Purple: Really, I guess if you want to.
Black: Not bad, not the best, but ok.
Blue: Good:
Sky-Blue: Really good
Gold: What is stopping you?

Green: The thing in question has too many variables (maybe mostly how your DM acts) to rate well.

Part 1: Introduction.

The basic cleric has been in every version of dnd. In some editions they were the only healers. Even when there were other classes with healing they were best class for healing. In this addition they still have some of the best healing spells. So if you play a cleric, most people at the table will expect you to patch up their booboos. The nice thing that this edition kept from 4th edition is that you can heal and still lay some smack down.

For most clerics your damaging will come from weapons. This means you will need a good strength or dexterity to use those weapons. You will most likely want a good wisdom as that is your spellcasting attribute. This gives you 2 stats that you need to maintain. (There are a couple of builds that use a certain spell that can make you single stat class but without that option you need two stats to be high.)

Note, all the colors do not come through.

Here is the same post with rich-text disabled:

</p>

<p> <strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>

<ol>
<li>Introduction</li>
<li>Proficiencies, Attributes, Backgrounds, and Class Features</li>
<li>Domains.</li>
<li>Races</li>
<li>Feats</li>
<li>Spells</li>
<li>Equipment</li>
<li>Multiclassing</li>
<li>FAQ</li>
<li>Builds and Combos</li>
</ol>

<p> </p>

<p>(If anyone can help me find a picture that might go with this.)</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For this guide I am going to use the typical color scheme for ratings.</p>

<p><span style="color:red">Red:</span> No please don’t</p>

<p><span style="colorurple">Purple:</span> Really, I guess if you want to.</p>

<p><strong>Black:</strong> Not bad, not the best, but ok.</p>

<p><span style="color:blue">Blue:</span> Good:</p>

<p><span style="color:skyblue">Sky-Blue:</span> Really good</p>

<p><span style="color:gold">Gold:</span> What is stopping you?</p>

<p> </p>

<p><span style="color:green">Green:</span> The thing in question has too many variables (maybe mostly how your DM acts) to rate well.</p>

<p> </p>

<p><strong>Part 1: Introduction.</strong></p>

<p> </p>

<p>The basic cleric has been in every version of dnd. In some editions they were the only healers. Even when there were other classes with healing they were best class for healing. In this addition they still have some of the best healing spells. So if you play a cleric, most people at the table will expect you to patch up their booboos. The nice thing that this edition kept from 4th edition is that you can heal and still lay some smack down.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For most clerics your damaging will come from weapons. This means you will need a good strength or dexterity to use those weapons. You will most likely want a good wisdom as that is your spellcasting attribute. This gives you 2 stats that you need to maintain. (There are a couple of builds that use a certain spell that can make you single stat class but without that option you need two stats to be high.)</p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p>

Then they also have options for Media Wiki format, and Plain Text format, both of which are no better than the Rich Text Disabled version.

 

[Morrus]

That sucks. I don't know what software they use, but it's not a common brand. They used to use vBulletin, a few years back.