Character with Every Skill Proficiency

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

So, I am sure someone has posted about this before, but I wasn't able to find anything via the search so here we go.

I am looking for the fastest build to being proficient in all 18 skills. This is one build I came up with at Level 7 (lowest I could find):

Race - Human: Athletics
Race - Human: Animal Handing, Insight, Medicine (Skilled Feat)
Background - Charlatan: Sleight of Hand, Deception

Level 1 - Rogue 1: Acrobatics, Stealth*, Investigation, Perception*
Level 3 - Rogue 3: Scout Archetype: Nature*, Survival*
Level 4 - Cleric 1: Knowledge Domain: Arcana*, History*
Level 5 - Bard 1: Performance
Level 7 - Bard 3: College of Lore: Religion, Intimidation*, Persuasion*
*Expertise skill

Proficiencies:
Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit
Light Armor
Simple Weapons, Hand Crossbows, Longswords, Rapiers, Shortswords
Thieves' Tools

Languages: Common, Extra (Human), Extra (Cleric), Extra (Cleric)

Here is the skill list with the point when the skill was taken:

Athletics (Human)
Acrobatics (Rogue 1)
Sleight of Hand (Charlatan)
Stealth (Rogue 1)
Arcana (Cleric 1)
History (Cleric 1)
Investigation (Rogue 1)
Nature (Rogue 3)
Religion (Bard 3)
Animal Handling (Skilled)
Insight (Skilled)
Medicine (Skilled)
Perception (Rogue 1)
Survival (Rogue 3)
Deception (Charlatan)
Intimidation (Bard 3)
Performance (Bard 3)
Persuasion (Bard 1)

Anything faster???

 

[Particle_Man]

Well if you start with half-elf you get an extra skill over variant human (Nature?). You can take the skilled feat at level 4 so you lose nothing there, skill-wise.

So Rogue 1
Ranger 1 (get Survival?)
Then Cleric 1 and Bard 3 as you list above.

So you lose expertise in Nature and Survival, but you can get proficiency in all 18 skills by level 6. And it is core.

 

[RogueJK]

Well if you start with half-elf you get an extra skill over variant human (Nature?). You can take the skilled feat at level 4 so you lose nothing there, skill-wise.

So Rogue 1
Ranger 1 (get Survival?)
Then Cleric 1 and Bard 3 as you list above.

So you lose expertise in Nature and Survival, but you can get proficiency in all 18 skills by level 6. And it is core.

Close. But as a Half Elf, you can't take the Skilled feat until you've reached Level 4 in one class. (ASIs/Feats are based on class level, not character level.)

So you'd have to wait until Bard 4 to get those last three skills from the Skilled feat. That would be Rogue1/Ranger1/Cleric1/Bard4, which is Level 7 overall. The same level as the OP's build.

Yours is a slightly different approach, but the same outcome.

In addition, you'd be slightly less skilled, since you'd be missing out on Expertise in two skills (as you already noted).

Plus, if you were to continue with the OP's build for two more levels, that would mean two additional feats (at Rogue 4 and Bard 4), which could be spent on a couple of the Unearthed Arcana Skill feats that grant Expertise in various skills. That would mean proficiency in all eighteen skills plus Expertise in ten skills at Level 9 overall.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

Yeah, Level 7 was the quickest I found. And ultimately the build by end-game would have Expertise in 10 or 11 of the skills... crazy.

Thanks for looking it over.

 

[Particle_Man]

I forgot about the feat by class level! My mistake.

 

[RogueJK]

Yeah, Level 7 was the quickest I found. And ultimately the build by end-game would have Expertise in 10 or 11 of the skills... crazy.

You'd have more than that. You already have Expertise in 8 skills by Level 7 as a Rogue(Scout)3/Bard3/Cleric(Knowledge)1

Then, using either the UA Skills feats or the Prodigy feat from Xanathar's, you could have Expertise in 16 of the 18 skills at level 20 as a Rogue(Scout)12/Bard4/Cleric(Knowledge)4.

Rogue 4: Feat for Expertise in 1
Rogue 6: Expertise in 2
Rogue 8: Feat for Expertise in 1
Rogue 10: Feat for Expertise in 1
Rogue 12: Feat for Expertise in 1
Bard 4: Feat for Expertise in 1
Cleric 4: Feat for Expertise in 1

Plus you'd have the Rogue's Reliable Talent, which means you could never roll less than a 10 on any skill checks, ever.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

Since the UA Skills feats isn't in published form yet, I don't use it. And Prodigy would give me one more expertise, but I have other uses for feat that would take priority. I think with the additional rogue expertise giving 10 skills (prodigy would be 11 if I changed my mind), that is sufficient.

Thanks though, I wasn't even thinking of the UA stuff.

 

[RogueJK]

If you want to grab two more Expertises without using any feats, you could take Bard up to 10 (or more).

That would preclude getting Reliable Talent at Rogue 11, though.

 

[Yunru]

If you want to grab two more Expertises without using any feats, you could take Bard up to 10 (or more).

That would preclude getting Reliable Talent at Rogue 11, though.

Not worth it, given Reliable Talent applies to Jack of All Trades too. Minimum roll of 10 > Expertise.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

I am not worried as much about getting more Expertises, just if you can get all the skills by Level 6 or lower. I don't think there is, but there might be options out there I am unaware of.