Author: kobo1d
Welcome to Tabletop Builds! This site was created to be a repository of character optimization knowledge for tabletop roleplaying games, specifically (for now) Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.
Before we dive into character options and complete builds themselves, let’s talk briefly about what we believe, so we’re all operating on the same page to begin. Everyone plays TTRPG’s a little bit differently, so it is helpful to set some baseline assumptions.
Optimization and Roleplaying
- Roleplaying and character optimization are not in conflict. Character optimizing doesn’t end with build design, even though that’s what we focus on here. It’s up to you to turn a build into a compelling character to roleplay.
- Communication is key. Any table or ruling conflict can be addressed by having good faith discussions with your group. Optimization isn’t in itself the cause of such conflicts.
- Flavor is free. Any individual class or mechanic has countless ways you can re-imagine or re-flavor it in support of a concept.
Balance and Challenge
- 5E is not perfectly balanced, nor are all rules unambiguous. We try to highlight ambiguity, and we do not shy away from pointing out that some options are mechanically superior to others.
- Plan for a difficult game:
- We assume a high number of encounters, where even the strongest builds will be challenged to effectively manage resources. We strive to build characters that can endure the very hardest adventuring days.
- We assume a DM that is fair but pulls no punches. Targeting the whole party in the most effective ways with intelligent foes is not common at every table. We don’t assume the luxury of a wholly ignored “backline” if the “frontline” has no means to keep foes stuck to them.
- Challenge Rating can be flawed, and a DM can and will throw more firepower at an optimized party. This is good, we enjoy the challenge.
- Player Characters don’t have plot armor, and can in fact be killed or experience other horrific fates.
- An effective party needs to satisfy multiple roles, with as much overlap as possible:
- Maximize damage output per round in a large variety of situations.
- Maximize resource efficiency when overcoming challenges, with hit points being one of the resources.
- Provide sufficient out of combat utility to solve the many non-combat challenges of a typical game.
- Minimize the risk of a total party wipe in challenging combat scenarios with minimal resource expenditure.
- If all your PC does is damage, they better do it really well. If all your PC does is “tank” damage, they must have ways to draw fire or punish foes that simply ignore them.
- High Armor Class and the means to protect Concentration are both incredibly valuable. (Mental saving throws (Int/Wis/Cha) tend to be much more debilitating than physical ones (Str/Dex/Con).) Because of frequency, however, the priority for saving throws is generally Con > Wis > Dex > Int = Cha > Str.
Philosophy
- Math is math. Probability is a well understood phenomenon. We can easily calculate the expected value of the vast majority of character features in D&D, and we strive to prove our opinions to you with MATH and LOGIC. If there are uncertainties and missing variables, we state our assumptions to better contextualize our numbers.
- Anecdotes are not good evidence. Within the confines of a single game, probability and emotional attachments may dictate that a poor option does well, or a superior option does poorly. We seek to reduce the psychological impact of these experiences with our analysis.
- Play to your table; the most powerful character is not always appropriate for your group.
- No Homebrew; we only consider officially printed material for our characters and guides.
Class Guides
We intend to write and publish a guide for each class for D&D 5E, with ratings and reviews of different options so you can select the very best features for your characters.
Spell and Feature Guides
Within the context of each class, features like Spellcasting are often complex enough to require an entirely separate guide. Individual spells might even need a whole guide to get the most out of them! We also highlight features that have multiple valid rules interpretations for your consideration, because not every DM rules on everything in the same way. Where available, we intend to cite Sage Advice in an attempt to ascertain what “Rules as Intended” is when “Rules as Written” is unclear.
Character Builds
We have identified what we believe to be some of the very most effective character builds in D&D 5E, and want to share them with you in a consistent and useful format. From a ready-made single-class build for each class to the most cutting edge and complex multiclass builds, we want to provide you with characters that you could play yourself or use as inspiration for your own creations.
….and much more
From “tier lists” of subclass power levels with written explanations, to articles with specific tactical tips, to controversial rules interpretations that have implications for optimization, one thing you can count on is useful advice to build and play the most powerful and effective characters possible!
Looking forward to getting this blog up and running!
Cool dnd website with interesting information!
This is an amazing site.
I would love to see your opinions on Level Up:Advanced 5e
They adjusted some balance elements in what I see as sneaky ways, In addition to a system of maneuvers for martial combatants.
While no homebrew is specifically part of our philosophy, even if it were something we’d do, we simply do not have the time to consider both officially printed material together and talk about homebrew.
Sharing what we think is important in the base game is very important to us, and we cannot prioritize content outside of that.
Hi Lance. As pandaniel said, as a site we can’t/won’t focus on homebrew content, but I can give some of my thoughts on A5E individually, since I have perused some of the documents (there is also occasional A5E discussion in the Discord, if you join).
Personally, when I read the A5E team’s blog post about changes they were making to existing classes, the reasons they made certain changes made me skeptical as to their understanding of optimized 5E as a whole (now, admittedly, I can only speak to my experience playing games, so I don’t presume to speak for the entire community, or even the optimization community at large). Making eldritch blast a class feature is a good change, but the reasoning for all the changes listed in their blog post didn’t inspire confidence in me (I think they overvalue Divine Smite a lot, they viewed Fighter 2 as a game-breaking multiclass, and their assessment of several “builds” they deemed broken doesn’t really align at all with what I (and I think a lot of TTB) believes.
Additionally, I think their feat chain idea is just horrible, just does not work well with 5E as written at all.
Still, I think adding more maneuvers for martials to open up the diversity of playstyle a little is a good thing and I’ve heard great things about the exploration rules and the monsters!
Time can be a limit on all of us. Level up is a third party product created by a pretty extensive team from Enworld.org (not exactly what I would call a homebrew though I suppose I can see where you might see it as such). It is a full recreation in a sense of the core 5e system they call it “backwards compatible” and it shares enough commonality one, that some I have heard call it “The best 5e that 5e can be while still being 5e” LOL not sure I agree exactly. For me its just a better starting point towards addressing issues I have with 5e (issues which I hear echoed throughout your analysis).
Your work on presenting and figuring out the root game goes a long ways towards teaching how I can analyze this other game and I thank you for that.
First off: love the content. All of it.
Second: I wonder if you would consider using Strixhaven backgrounds for your builds? Those plus the MoTM races can lead to unique spell assortments (like Quandrix Student/Earth Genasi gets you fun things like Goodberry or Shield, Guiding Bolt, Aura of Vitality, Pass Without Trace, etc. Even as one of your optional builds. Just a thought!
Hey Jake! Thanks for your comment.
As for your question: We have definitely considered it. However, while we know we could make a lot of super strong builds using those (and for example the similar backgrounds from Ravnica), it is sadly low on our priority list. We are trying (maybe not always succeeding) to make our content widely accessible to our audience, and there just isn’t that many tables that allow Strixhaven backgrounds vs. how many do allow it!
But as a quick look into the future: I myself am writing an article on backgrounds in general which will talk about when we believe the Strixhaven (and Ravnica) backgrounds can truly shine, so maybe with that and our Basic Builds you can make your own baller builds :). And who knows, maybe in the future we’ll release an article with ALL content allowed, then we could go wild!!
“5E is not perfectly balanced”
In the sense that the Earth is not perfectly flat, sure. 😉
Props for optimizing around a long day, though, it doesn’t seem to be typical, but it does seem to be an assumption of the encounter guidelines.
Love what Im seeing so far, and thats from a build your character from a RP standpoint first, then figure out how he/she works…Flaws are cool too, as they provide story complexity. I love all this though, and is a super fun read and super helpful. Especially as a GM that has always had some issues with some of the rule ambiguity in 5e,
Want to discuss my nova build with you, I think you may be interested. It’s well rounded character capable of doing 162/291/436 damage on level 8/12/20.
I wish to see this treasure alive, at 2024 and after the release of the D&D 5.5 edition.
Are you planned to lauch some of new contents?
Tabletop Builds is a volunteer effort and people commit their time when they feel like it, there’s no coordinated pressure to release and many articles are created in a spurt of activity in a single night. So we’ll just need to see if people feel like it when the game releases, though content production seems to be going slow at the moment.