Species: Kobold

Background: Knight of Solamnia

Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Putrefy, Knight of the Crown

The core of this build is the Summon Undead spell, which creates a single Undead summon with unique abilities. Compared to conventional School of Necromancy builds, where dozens of animated dead slow the game to a crawl, this character is far more table-friendly, and much more fun to play.

In the 2014 rules, the Putrid Undead Spirit's Rotting Claw attack required a Constitution save to render a Poisoned creature Paralyzed, but in the 2024 ruleset this was buffed by removing the save entirely, so a single hit is now enough to take a poisoned creature out of play.

Additionally, Poisoned is one of the easiest conditions to trigger in D&D, especially in the 2024 ruleset.

• Ray of Sickness, a 1st-level spell capable of inflicting Poisoned on a hit, no longer requires a save to apply the condition.
• The Putrid Undead Spirit itself has the Festering Aura trait, which renders on any creature within 5 feet of it Poisoned if they fail a Constitution save.

The Spirit can also be buffed using a number of different effects.

• Necromancy Wizard's Undead Thralls feature makes the normally squishy spirit dramatically more durable by adding your Wizard level to its health, and boosts its damage by adding your proficiency bonus to damage rolls.
• Kobold's Draconic Cry can give all your allies, including the Spirit, advantage on their attacks against any creature caught in the area of effect for an entire round.
• Order Cleric's Voice of Authority can grant one ally, including the spirit, an additional attack when you target them with a spell. This can even be a buff such as Longstrider, Vortex Warp, or Healing Word.
• If the spirit already has advantage on its attacks (for example, against a Paralyzed foe), Knight of the Crown's Commanding Rally replaces Draconic Cry as the best bonus action option, granting the Spirit an additional attack whilst still conserving your action and reaction for Ray of Sickness and defensive spells respectively.

Finally, this build has access to some synergies and emergent interactions that take it to the next level.

• Wither and Bloom, a 2nd-level spell, has a strong synergy with the Putrefy feat and Voice of Authority.
  • Wither and Bloom deals necrotic damage even on a successful save, which triggers the Putrefy feat, rendering the victim Poisoned.
  • Additionally, the spell can also buff one ally within range, restoring some of their health. However, the real power comes from the fact that this can trigger Voice of Authority, letting the spirit immediately attack and potentially convert that directly into Paralysis.
• Silvery Barbs, a 1st-level reaction spell, has a powerful interaction with Festering Aura that can double the duration of the Paralysis inflicted by Rotting Claw.
  • Festering Aura forces foes within 5 feet of the Undead Spirit to make a Constitution save at the start of their turn against being Poisoned even if they have the condition already.
  • If they succeed, we can use Silvery Barbs, giving advantage to the spirit on its next attack, and rerolling their save against being Poisoned, potentially inflicting the condition if they didn't have it already.
  • Since Silvery Barbs targeted the spirit, Voice of Authority Triggers, and the spirit makes an attack with Rotting Claw.
  • If this attack hits, the target is paralyzed until the end of their next turn, as always. However, since Rotting Claw triggered on their turn, this paralyses them for two turns.

Species: Minotaur

Background: Giant Foundling

Feats: Strike of the Giants, Charger, Polearm Master

This build takes advantage of the numerous forced movement effects released in recent sourcebooks, stacking them to devastating effect. Some of its best uses include:

• Pushing enemies into an area of effect
• Pushing enemies far enough away that they have to spend actions Dashing to re-enter melee
• Taking advantage of environmental hazards, such as cliffs

Specifically, it stacks the following features:

• Strike of the Giants' Stone Strike, which can push foes back 10 feet on a hit
• Swarmkeeper's Gathered Swarm, which can push foes back 15 feet on a hit
• The Push weapon mastery, which can push foes back 10 feet on a hit
• Minotaur's Hammering Horns, which can push foes back 10 feet on a hit, at the cost of a bonus action
• The Charger feat can, which push foes back 10 feet on a hit if you move at least 10 feet towards them before hitting them

This is especially potent since Rangers get access to Spike Growth, which damage to a foe that scales with how far they were pushed through it.

On top of that, it also has access to a powerful synergy with Polearm Master's Reactive Strike, which allows it to make an attack when a creature enters its range. Polearm Master works with Pikes, which have not only the Push mastery but also the Reach property, meaning that an approaching enemy can be smacked away before they even get a chance to attack, wasting their movement and leaving them within range to attack on your turn.

On top of the control options listed above, this build also has access to potent burst damage:

• Stone Strike also deals 1d8 force damage alongside the push
• Gathered Swarm can deal 1d6 piercing damage instead of pushing
• Charger can deal 1d8 additional damage instead of pushing

This makes it a build that can truly work in any situation, whether it's an open plain or a cramped room.

Species: Shadar-Kai

Background: Mage of High Sorcery

Feats: Initiate of High Sorcery, Adept of the White Robes, Heavy Armor Master

Have you ever worried about losing a character? If so, then this is the build for you. It boasts the following features:

• A huge pool of temporary HP which regenerates every turn (from Twilight Cleric's Channel Divinity, Twilight Sanctuary)
• Complete resistance to all damage via Shadar-Kai's Blessing of the Raven Queen
• A range of damage reduction options, including:
  • Heavy Armor Master's Damage Reduction, which reduces incoming bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage by your proficiency bonus
  • Adept of the White Robes' Protective Ward, which lets you expend a spell slot to reduce the damage you take by 1d6 per level, plus your spellcasting ability modifier. As a Cleric, you've got no shortage of spell slots either.
• Armor of Agathys, a Warlock-exclusive spell which deals damage to foes who hit you.

Normally, one of the biggest issues with tanking is that enemies can just target other characters. Not this build, though - Clerics get access to Spirit Guardians, one of the most potent offensive spells in the game. Nobody's ignoring you in a hurry!

Species: Simic Hybrid

Background: Knight of the Gauntlet

Feats: Tyro of the Gauntlet

In the 2024 rules, many area-of-effect spells received a massive buff, as they can now be triggered in three different ways:

• When a creature moves into the area
• When the area moves onto a creature
• When a creature ends its turn in the area

This opened up the possibility to trigger these AoEs many more times than had previously been possible. One particularly strong option is Conjure Woodland Beings, a 10ft Emanation which deals 5d8 damage (save for half), and which moves with you. However, while it can trigger an unlimited number of times per round, it can only damage the same creature once each turn.

This build utilises off-turn movement effects - teleports, reactions, and summons - to act on as many turns as possible, triggering Conjure Woodland Beings as many times as possible. However, it does require a very specific sequence of actions to work:

• On your turn:
  • Action: Ready movement. As a side benefit, this triggers Tyro of the Gauntlet, giving the next attack roll against you disadvantage.
  • Movement: Move forward, triggering CWB, then move back 5ft
  • Bonus Action: Command your Wildfire Spirit to use Fiery Teleportation
• On your Wildfire Spirit's turn:
  • Action: The Spirit follows your command, using Fiery Teleportation to teleport you 10ft above an enemy. Not only does this trigger CWB, but you can then use Simic Hybrid's Manta Glide to move 20ft horizontally as you fall, potentially triggering CWB again.
• On enemy turns: CWB triggers if they end their turn in the area
• As your reaction: Use your Readied movement to trigger CWB a 5th time

Species: Changeling

Background: Mage of High Sorcery

Feats: Initiate of High Sorcery, Actor, Adept of the Red Robes

Although over 99% of published D&D content centres around the combat system, a considerable portion of games focus on the other two pillars, especially social interaction. This is a build for those games.

It turns out that one of the easiest ways to solve out-of-combat challenges is just to pretend to be someone else. In theory, every feature that does this is supposed to have a drawback which prevents them from becoming too powerful, but they can be combined to cancel out any of their weaknesses and make the ultimate assassin:

• Mimic voices using Actor
• Change your clothes with unlimited uses of Disguise Self from the Mask of Many Faces invocation
• Change size using Changeling's Shape-Shifter
• Steal the memories of those you kill using Mantle of Whispers
• Forge documents with a Forgery Kit

On top of this, Bard and Warlock have perhaps the best general-purpose infiltration kit in the game.

• The Misty Visions invocation gives unlimited casts of Silent Image, perfect for a stealthy illusionist
• Suggestion is the closest thing you'll ever get to mind control.
• Message is essentially unlimited telepathy
• Comprehend Languages and Tongues let you blend into any situation
• Detect Thoughts is perfect for stealing information
• Major Image is the best distraction in the game
• Bard's Expertise, Jack of All Trades, and Enhance Ability are somewhat useful in check-heavy campaigns

In very check-heavy campaigns, take Adept of the Red Robes before Actor. With all your bonuses running, your minimum roll on a check to pretend to be someone else is 10 (Red Robes)+3(Proficiency)+3(Expertise)+3(Charisma)+5(Mantle of Whispers) = 24, with a mean roll of 26.75. You might not be able to mimic voices but you'll definitely be able to convince people otherwise!

Species: Variant Human

Feats: Gunner, Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert

Picture a grizzled ex-military mercenary who lets his colossal musket do the talking for him. But in combat, he takes out the huge weapon, loads it, cocks it, aims it, and then... throws it?

This build takes advantage of an unusual interaction that makes throwing guns even better than firing them. Specifically,

• Giant Barbarian's Elemental Cleaver can give any weapon the Thrown property, including ranged weapons. This lets you make ranged weapon attacks with Strength, and deal bonus elemental damage too.
• Gunner lets you ignore the loading property and make as many attacks with your gun as any other weapon-user can with their sword.
• With Sharpshooter letting you ignore disadvantage from attacking at long range, and Crossbow expert letting you ignore disadvantage from attacking in melee, positioning barely matters - if you can see a foe, they're in danger.
• A single level in Fighter grants the Archery Fighting Style, which dramatically boosts the average damage of Sharpshooter's -5/+10 power attacks.
• Later on, more levels in Fighter can give access to features like Precision Attack which push your damage even further.

Possibly the funniest detail of this build is that it doesn't actually remove the Ammunition property from its thrown weapons - they're still discharging midflight and expending ammunition before they hit the foe and teleport back to your hand.