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

[iserith]

You aren't wrong, but this line of argument seems to be missing the point of the question to a degree.

If a player came up to me as the DM and said "I'd like to make a character who is the best at things outside of combat, what qould you recommend" responding "Be an effective player" or "All characters can interact with the scenario equally" is a bit disingenuous and/or unhelpful to the question being asked of me.

They aren't untrue answers, but the player wants to know what mechanical class and sets of abilities tend to translate well into out of combat capability, not that paying attention and engaging with the scene are the best ways to accomplish things out of combat.

Sure, an ineffective player can make even the most mechanically tuned character near useless and a highly effective player can make a character with few mechanical aspects geared towards out of combat ability the best in the party. I'd say the majority of people would recognize that, but what do those mechanically tuned characters look like?

Please note that my part in the discussion began in response to someone else who established that the best character is the one played by the player who can manipulate the DM. I disagree with the cynical nature of such a statement, but agree with the idea that mechanics are secondary to player skill, given a fair DM. I won't attempt to answer what character is mechanically superior in an out-of-combat situation as that seems to have already been answered to varying degrees.