i was wondering what some of the weirdest class and race combinations would be. like a class that you would never imagine a character of a certain race to ever play as. lore wise, or mechanic wise. like a goliath rogue, or a gnome barbarian. you know, weird stuff like that.

An orc redemption paladin/mastermind rogue/beastmaster. Because all those choices are objectively terrible.

A player of mine played for quite some time a Goliath Rogue ... and it was actually a wonderfull and quirky character.

He had his "Thieves tool" which consisted in a big tree stump that he used to blast through doors (or in his words "pick locks"). Such a great character, played by such a talented player.

At first when it was presented to me I thought "here we go.. another stupid character just to piss me off" ended up loving it!

Endy.

For the emo out there, a Drow cleric of Pelor.  You'd have to hate yourself pretty hardcore to be all about summoning in the sunlight which burns your own eyes.

For the old school out there, a Dwarven Wizard.  Just because once upon a time it wasn't a thing, at all, for very clear reasons, and now it's possible, but I've still never seen it done (for obvious reasons).

For those who like playing on Hard Mode, a "Rock" (tinker) Gnome Devotion Paladin / Assassin Rogue.  Good luck with that oath, and with actually being effective in combat with that incredible MAD (multiple attribute dependency) you've got going on there, with a race which doesn't help AT ALL.

Back in 4e, my dad had a half-orc bard.....

heh.. I recently got back into D&D after around 5 years away(last played 4e).  During that time, our group(of which my brother is another GM) started a Dwarf only campaign in his existing world.   Unfortunately, so stuff happened and he had to stop GMing for a while so, they/we have been playing other game systems with someone else running and myself splitting the running duties in my existing 4E->SavageWorlds->5E campaign(second 5e session last weekend out of our roughly once a month sessions).   

Anyway, we talked a few weeks ago and while I want to get back to our original campaign he was wanting to start GMing back with the Dwarven campaign of which I don't have a character.     So, I thought about what is the most oddball thing I could do with a dwarf and my mind went to either Druid(Pikel bouldersholder) or perhaps a Sorcerer.   I started digging around the various bloodlines in official material and none of them seemed to REALLY scream out at me from a Role playing perspective until I suddenly came across one UA entry...

I give you, the shorted dwarf in the party who claims the blood of giants in his ancestry!!!   He's a loud mouth who can't shut up about the power running through his body.   Whats worse, he has the highest Charisma out of the entire group by a bit so he's the "face".   Unfortunately, it's been removed from D&D Beyond, so if I do end up taking that, I have to put everything back in manually which is a bummer.

I had a gnome barbarian that was bordering on hexblade warlock for plot reasons. It was incredibly fun. In my head-canon, he looked like a stereotypical garden gnome, but upon raging, his little gnome outfit would shred off at the biceps. I negotiated with my DM to create a feat allowing him to use a greatsword.

One of my all time favorite characters I played was a Hill Dwarf Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, using standard array the ability scores weren’t very good, but I had so much fun with him.

With the new UA I like the idea of a Water Genasi circle of Flames druid.  Have the whole cycle of renewal with fire and water.  Sometimes the forest to be burned to allow for new growth.

Also with the giant soul ua that is now defunct I had a lizard folk hill giant bloodline that was hulkulkan.  He would get big and was green so yeah joke was solid, with the added tribal kulkulkan bit.

My current group has an orcish bard, a goliath rogue, and my dwarven wizard. I've seen several orc and half-orc bards. Usually done with a heavy metal vibe.

Dwarves make good wizards in this edition. The higher CON helps counteract the lower HP a bit, and dwarves can use better weapons and armor than other wizards. The armor is also a good compliment to low HP.

I've played an assassin paladin, and I based the concept on the Indian concept of the Thugee. Interestingly, I'm also a preacher, and I've played rpgs with a lot of other clergy, and this same concept has come up a lot.

A few people I know have done kenku bards, which works well enough.

I don't really understand the concept of a bad character combination. I understand some combinations are sub-par from a min-maxing standpoint, but the so-called 'bad' combinations are usually more interesting from an rp standpoint.

One character I want to make in a one shot one day, is a Monk/Barb multiclass. He's calm and serene and passionate. Till he gets hit and then he's a raging mass of steroids and anger. I'd call him Jekyll or Hyde.

My sons first character was amazing (imho), he didn't optimise anything he went with what he thought was cool.

Blue Dragonborn (and it was a real electric blue, bright as possible), then he cripple the lovely blue dragonborn by making it ginger! 7ft tall built like a brick shit house, rouge assassin!

I jokingly said to him as he created the character, how the hell is he going to hide from anyone, his reply was "like this" and rolled a 20, lucky little bugger lol

Could you imagine the fear he would strike into his enemies without killing them, just sneaking up behind them and saying "BOO", leaving the enemy thinking "how the hell did I not see you?"

My little brother plays a half orc paladin.

Has died twice but is still alive due to the gnomish cleric.

Quote from Gandalf_The_Gray >>

My little brother plays a half orc paladin.

Has died twice but is still alive due to the gnomish cleric.

 Playing a half orc paladin isn't that outlandish, though. I mean, the PHB illustration for the paladin class is literally exactly that.

The gnome cleric is somewhat interesting, though.

Anyone said kobold barbarian? Typically known for not much health, and they get strength penalty's.

Quote from BobobSyxtieNein >>

Anyone said kobold barbarian? Typically known for not much health, and they get strength penalty's.

 But Kobolds do get bonus in Dex, so if you were to use only finesse weapons, it would work out.

Quote from DnDgoof1_20 >>

Quote from BobobSyxtieNein >>

Anyone said kobold barbarian? Typically known for not much health, and they get strength penalty's.

 But Kobolds do get bonus in Dex, so if you were to use only finesse weapons, it would work out.

But if you use the Finesse property to use Dexterity instead you lose out on the ability to get the bonus Rage damage from every single attack and you also can't use Reckless anymore. It would be much weaker than just taking the -2 Strength on the chin.

Personally my oddest character is along the same lines - she's a Strength based Tabaxi Fighter based on the Siberian Tiger.

Here’s just another thought to toss into the idea bucket 

sometimes you’ll find the oddest characters in class race combos that fit each other often, for example 

The Human rogue Steven Bercens, “in a world of mystery and secrets, along side danger only the bravest heroes face, one man will rise to the challenge and get you the inside story. That man IS STEVEN BERCENS, ACE REPORTER”. Steven Bercens is an inquisitive rogue and while the class race combo isn’t crazy the idea for it is

Tortle Barbarian/Druid whom just wants to cook good meals for folks because her mum always said, "People are always happy on a full stomach!", so long-story-short that's why she left home to cook for as many people as possible, and oh my how the world is so big and scary sometimes, but long-story-short food always makes things better, and what do you mean "it's too spicy" I only put in half a pound of tumeric, why aren't you happy, are you saying my mum is wrong, and oh... oh, where'd these bodies come from? Oh no, not again... (yes, it's a major run-on by design)

Goliath bard.

Don't ask...