7 Best D&D OP Character Builds You Probably Haven’t Tried Yet

March 11, 2024

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Summary

A lot of
DndD’s
most overpowered character builds see frequent use, but some great ones are less common.
Options like Skill Monkey are great at out-of-combat support, while choices like Bardadins offer strong support and utility in combat.
Many of the most unique OP
DnD
builds have a lot of room for customization.

One of the greatest strengths of Dungeons & Dragons is that it lets players create any number of fantastic characters with a wide range of abilities, and sometimes that means some truly overpowered builds get made. Even before considering things like backstories and roleplaying, DnD characters can be anything a player wants, especially when considering multiclassing combinations. When some feats are thrown into the mix, the fun can really begin, with even low-level characters capable of dealing massive damage.

There are plenty of decisions to make when creating a character, but with a bit of planning, it is possible to make an almost brokenly overpowered DnD character in just a few levels. Some overpowered builds can be achieved with a single class and clever use of race and feat, while others require players to dip their toes into multiclassing. Here are some of the most overpowered DnD builds players can create that are also tons of fun to play.

Just because something is in an official Dungeons & Dragons book does not mean it is properly balanced. DMs should still ban problematic elements.

7 Skill Monkey Is An All-Around Great D&D Build

Pass A Variety Of D&D Checks

Most overpowered DnD builds are focused on combat potential, seeking to exploit gimmicks of classes, races, and more to make uniquely strong combinations on the battlefield. Taking the Skill Monkey approach, on the other hand, is more focused on optimizing things outside of combat. A properly built Skill Monkey can pass many different checks with ease, making it easier for the rest of the party to focus on combat performance without worrying about the rest.

There are plenty of decisions to make when creating a character, but with a bit of planning, it is possible to make an almost brokenly overpowered
DnD
character in just a few levels

The Skill Expert feat added in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything made building a DnD Skill Monkey easier than it ever was before. This feat allows for one ability score to gain a +1 boost, one skill to gain a proficiency, and one skill with proficiency to gain expertise. Although this is the best core feature for the build, there are a number of different ways to create a proper Skill Monkey with it.

Half-Elf is a great racial choice for a Skill Monkey build thanks to Skill Versatility, and Hermit and Acolyte both offer helpful proficiencies as backgrounds. Beyond that, dabbling in multiple classes helps, such as taking at least one level in rogue, bard, and ranger alike. Skill Monkeys aren’t intended to have perfect balance across all of their many strengths, so it’s best to tweak the process according to individual preferences and party needs.

A Pathfinder party works together in battle to take down their foes

There are more things DnD players can do with their actions than just attack, but one of the most useful is often overlooked and misunderstood.

6 Bardadin Is A Master Of Battlefield Control

Paladins And Bards Combined Are Good At All Support

Artwork of a Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons DnD in the midst of battle.

Paladin multiclasses are no stranger to many DnD game tables, with the class of the holy knight serving as a strong basis for interesting and powerful builds. Sorcadin and Padlock, which mix in the powers of sorcerers and warlocks respectively, are two popular choices that prove very effective in gameplay. One that hasn’t achieved quite the same level of universality is the Bardadin (or Palabard), which looks to the more musical class involved in its portmanteau to add flavor to a paladin base.

Bardadin offers similar results overall to a Sorcadin build, but focuses more on support and control than offensive power. This class can most easily be built by going through six levels of paladin before switching over to adding bard levels, as paladin offers consistent boosts throughout early levels and adds Aura of Protection at sixth level for a consistent help to saving throws. Only taking a couple of paladin levels is also viable to focus more on bard abilities and take additional tankiness and the power of Divine Smite’s radiant damage away from paladin.

5 The Sniper Is An Owlin Sharpshooter Build

D&D Archery Can Get Very Powerful

Owlin flies next to their three allies, two stand on a cliff edge and one is holding onto a rope underneath, there's a castle in the background

The Sniper is a great build that lets players deal damage from above with the help of a certain DnD race. To create this build, players will need to choose an Owlin, who have a flying speed equal to their walking speed so long as they are not wearing medium or heavy armor. After that, they should choose the fighter class, some studded leather armor, and focus on making Dexterity the primary stat for the character.

At first level, choose the Archery fighting style to give a +2 bonus to attack rolls with ranged weapons. At third level, players should choose the Champion martial archetype for their DnD fighter, which lets players crit on 19 and 20, then later at level 15, they can also crit with an 18. At fourth level, take the Sharpshooter feat so that long-range attacks don’t have disadvantage and the character can ignore half and three-quarters cover.

Two Owlin Dungeons & Dragons characters battle with magic

Strixhaven introduced the Owlin to D&D, giving these bird folk key abilities. When mixed with the right classes, Owlin’s can be great fun to play as.

Owlin have 120 feet of darkvision and proficiency to stealth, making them great snipers who can spot their targets long before they are noticed. Other great feats for The Sniper are Mobile to increase speed by an additional 10 feet or Piercer, which lets the player reroll damage on attacks that deal piercing damage once per turn. Piercer also does additional damage on crits, adding one extra damage dice. However, players should focus on maxing out their Dexterity at each ability improvement level before taking more DnD feats.

All of this makes for an extremely mobile DnD sniper with insane darkvision. The fighter’s extra attack and action surge mean that The Sniper can deal tons of damage in a fight while staying out of range of any enemies. However, if they are ever caught on the ground, the level 10 additional fighting style of Defense will give them extra AC to make up for the light armor restrictions to their flying speed.

4 Polearm Barbarian Is Perfect For D&D Melee

D&D's Most Overpowered Character Builds Polearm Barbarian - Theros Art

One of the most overpowered melee DnD builds is the Polearm Barbarian. To get the most out of this character, players should choose a variant human to get a feat from level one. Taking the Polearm Master feat gives players an extra attack as a bonus action when they have used their polearm, such as a glaive or halberd, to attack an enemy and deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage. The feat also lets the Polearm Barbarian take attacks of opportunity when an enemy enters their reach, which with the polearm will be 10 feet rather than five.

This would be overpowered enough for a barbarian to have such range on the battlefield; however, players can also choose the bear as their Totem Spirit with the Path of the Totem Warrior. This gives the DnD character resistance to every damage except psychic while raging, making them even harder to take down. At 14th level, a second animal totem can be chosen, and the wolf is an excellent choice as it lets the player use a bonus action to knock large or smaller creatures prone with a melee weapon attack.

Other DnD feats such as Durable and Tough can make the Polearm Barbarian even deadlier and are always useful feats to take early on with barbarians. Pairing a polearm with Sentinel makes things interesting with the 10-foot reach, while Mobile increases the barbarian’s already high walking speed. All of this means nothing should be able to get away from, or take down the Polearm Barbarian.

3 Fey War Priest Offers Attack Precision

Missing D&D Attacks Is Unnecessary

D&D Fey Wanderer transposed on forest background

The Fey War Priest is a fantastic cleric ranger multiclass option that makes it almost impossible to miss attacks. Any DnD race can be used for this build, but the feat given to variant humans makes them an obvious choice. At first level, players should choose the Sharpshooter feat along with their first level in Ranger. The Archer fighting style at level two will give the character +2 to ranged attacks, while Sharpshooter means that attacking at long range has no disadvantage. They can ignore half three-quarters cover and can choose to take -5 to attack roll for +10 damage.

Picking up hunter’s mark at level two is a must to deal an extra 1d6 damage. At level three, players should choose the ranger DnD subclass Fey Wanderer to gain the feature Dreadful Strikes, dealing an extra 1d4 psychic damage per turn. Level four brings the Crossbow expert feat to ignore disadvantage from being within five feet of a target, although Sharpshoot is an alternative for playing a different race. One final level of ranger should be taken to get the extra attack at level five.

The rangers in Dungeons & Dragons 5e are lacking in several ways, including missing a key item that they need for one of their class features.

From there, it’s time to multiclass into cleric and choose the War Domain, which grants access to heavy armor for an increased AC. The War Priest feature gives another weapon attack as a bonus action equal to the DnD character’s Wisdom modifier. Then, at the second level of cleric, the channel divinity ability Guided Strike gives a +10 bonus to attack rolls, counteracting the -5 from Sharpshooter.

Another final level in cleric makes it possible to access second-level cleric spells for spiritual weapon, which is useful for when the character runs out of bonus action attacks from War Priest. It’s always worth remembering to have Bless prepared and that it can target the casting player giving another 1d4 to attack rolls. After that, DnD players should continue to level up ranger as the Fey War Priests take down enemies with ease.

2 Goodberry Life Cleric Is All About Healing

Keep The Party Alive At All Times

Only some challenges an adventuring party will face can be solved with combat. Having a character whose power lies in healing the rest of the party with a single spell is pretty overpowered. The Goodberry Life Cleric is one of the better-known builds in DnD and relies on the druid spell goodberry.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is to choose a variant human to gain the Magic Initiate feat at level one and pick from the druid DnD spell list. This makes it possible to learn two druid cantrips and one first-level druid spell. For the spell, choose goodberry with the cantrips shillelagh and thorn whip. Thorn whip is great for a quick ranged attack and can pull the enemy closer if needed, while shillelagh means, as a bonus action, the character can make a wooden weapon become magical and use d8s for damage.

A man in full armor stands, arms held up, summoning healing energy. Light radiates off of him.

With 14 cleric subclasses to choose from, it’s no wonder some players are left scratching their heads. Here are the best D&D cleric domains on offer.

However, the real power comes from being a Life Domain DnD cleric. The feature Disciple of Life means that any healing spell of first level or higher allows the target to regain an additional two hit points plus the spell’s level. Goodberry produces 10 berries, each restoring one hit point, so when combined with Disciple of Life, each berry grants four hit points.

That’s 40 points of healing from a first-level spell at level one. The berries last for 24 hours and also fill up the eater, so no rations are needed on the party’s travels. Combined with the high AC from the Life Domain’s access to heavy armor and shillelagh‘s extra damage, the Goodberry Life Cleric is one of the most overpowered support DnD characters.

1 Bear-barian Makes For An OP D&D Tank

Damage Resistances Just Keep Stacking

DnD artwork of a druid sitting on the ground getting nuzzled by a friendly bear.

The most overpowered DnD build of all is the Bear-barian; a druid barbarian multiclass that can tank almost anything. For this DnD build players will be starting with a druid, taking Circle of the Moon at level two to allow them to Wild Shape as a bonus action and for better choices for combat Wild Shapes. Then the players will need to shift over to Barbarian, which opens up this build’s interesting and overpowered aspect.

Barbarians get Rage at level one, so now this character can Wild Shape then Rage for resistance to damage from physical attacks. Continuing to level up barbarian and choose Path of the Totem Warrior along with the bear Totem Spirit. This means raging while Wild Shaped grants resistance to all damage except psychic. Players should continue with barbarian for another two levels to get the extra attack at level 5 and switch back to druid.

With the new ability scores for characters, race isn’t always that important, and players should put two ability points into Wisdom and one in Constitution. However, a good choice is Gnome for the Gnomish Cunning ability. When teamed with Danger Sense from the second level of barbarian, it means the character will have advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Dexterity saving throws making them officially an awesomely overpowered Dungeons & Dragons build.