If you could pick one 10th level class ( with NO leveling up) that you could actually BE for your life, what would it be?  I'm not sure if there's already a thread about this.

I think that I would be a Wizard because I'd love to get all those spells.  Being a Cleric would be cool, but Wizards get some healing spells too.

I'd probably go Druid, Cleric or Paladin. There is no use in my current profession for Fighters or Rogues or whatever. Being a Bard might be fun, but in order to make it work, I'd have to WORK. Being in the entertainment industry to make a living isn't easy.

A Celestial Warlock with Pact of the Tome. The utility and healing spells and Eldritch invocations would make my life great!

Druid, Cleric, or Mage. The advantages in your life would be crazy.

Just about any spellcaster at level 10 would be super overpowered IRL. My top subclass and reason to pick each:

• Knowledge domain cleric. Have the skills you need when you need them. And each day there is a 10% chance of God doing you a solid.
• Circle of the moon druid. Become any animal. Become an embodiment of elemental fury.
• Divine soul sorcerer. Be Jesus. Subtle spell metamagic. A lot of spell options. Kind of meh compared to other options.
• The undying warlock. Tons of useful invocations. Pact of the tome for more cantrips (they are pretty OP IRL), book of ancient secrets for find familiar and any other ritual you'd like. And undying nature lets you go without food, water, or sleep, and you age 1/10th normal.
• School of conjuration wizard. Create whatever and teleport. At least 14 spells, go nuts with rituals. Mostly quality of life improvements.

I think I'd go with undying warlock (moon druid close second).

Quote from DxJxC>>

Just about any spellcasterD&D character at level 10 would be super overpowered IRL. 

I'm not entirely sure what 'over'powered is relative to IRL, but if it's relative to normal people, then a 10th level anything is going to be among the best in the world at whatever it is that they're doing.

• There are no stockbrokers or insurance sellers in D&D. Most of the jobs people actually become talented in are nothing D&D characters care about. And vice versa. So almost nobody in the real world spends time working on how to hide, or how to track people.
• There are people in the real world who are professionals in combat--soldiers, and professional fighters. So would D&D characters be overpowered there too?
• Rangers at 10th level can camouflage themselves in 1 minute, starting from scratch. Actual camouflage in the real world takes a heck of a lot longer than that. 
• That same ranger can pass through any real world (i.e. nonmagical) plants without slowing or being hurt. The spec forces team sneaking into the evil mastermind's mansion to plant listening devices...the mansion surrounded by thick hedges? Yeah, just walk right through them, what's the big deal? 
• A monk could, RAW, catch bullets. And then possibly throw them back with enough force to do normal bullet damage. That same monk can't be poisoned, and is immune to disease.
• A Champion Fighter could almost certainly break the world record in long jump. A 20 Str champion can jump 25 feet with a ten foot runup. The olympic record is just over 29 feet...but they get a 131 foot runup.
• The High Jump world record is 8 feet 0.46 inches. Any 20 Str character can high jump 8 feet. 

The PCs are pretty much meant to be OP in the D&D world. So yeah, they'll easily be far better than almost any of us are at anything they do. They might not be able to trade stocks for a good profit or balance my alignment. But in terms of what they do, they are supposed to be OP. :)

A 10th level wizard with 16 Constitution has an average of 68 Hit Points. A regular person has 5 Hit Points. A 10th level wizard (A class that is comparatively weaker in health than than most others) is almost 14 times harder to kill than an average person. They could take a bullet to the head, laugh, and then zap the shooter with a lightning bolt.

My point here is that basically any of the classes would be overpowered. I would go with Sorcerer for Subtle Spell Metamagic so I won't be burned at the stake for witchcraft and Sorcerers are Charisma based, so at level 10 I'll probably be rocking an 18 or 20 in Charisma. I'll be super likable and persuading, and I'll amass a huge fan base with the help of my trusty magic. Mastercryomancer for President!!

Quote from Brotherbock>>

Quote from DxJxC>>

Just about any spellcasterD&D character at level 10 would be super overpowered IRL. 

I'm not entirely sure what 'over'powered is relative to IRL, but if it's relative to normal people, then a 10th level anything is going to be among the best in the world at whatever it is that they're doing.

• Rangers at 10th level can camouflage themselves in 1 minute, starting from scratch. Actual camouflage in the real world takes a heck of a lot longer than that. 
• That same ranger can pass through any real world (i.e. nonmagical) plants without slowing or being hurt. The spec forces team sneaking into the evil mastermind's mansion to plant listening devices...the mansion surrounded by thick hedges? Yeah, just walk right through them, what's the big deal? 

• A monk could, RAW, catch bullets. And then possibly throw them back with enough force to do normal bullet damage. That same monk can't be poisoned, and is immune to disease.

• A Champion Fighter could almost certainly break the world record in long jump. A 20 Str champion can jump 25 feet with a ten foot runup. The olympic record is just over 29 feet...but they get a 131 foot runup.
• The High Jump world record is 8 feet 0.46 inches. Any 20 Str character can high jump 8 feet. 

 I was working under the assumption, that we would still be commoners stat-wise. If ASIs do apply, then a level 10 fighter could have 16 STR.

But to reiterate. There are people in this world who could already be considered mid level martial characters from years of training. A level 10 martial character would just be the best normal guy. A level 10 mage would be a superhero or demigod, as this is a no-magic setting. You mentioned a ranger being OP IRL because of camouflage and walking through weeds, but invisibility and fly are relatively low level spells.

ua mystic probably awakened archetype with my ability choices done to make it harder to tell I have magic so I can be comparatively low key and avoid being captured by the military and dissected

Mage would be the most versatile and useful, I think.

I'd be awfully tempted by Shadow Monk, however.

Quote from Vedexent >>

Mage would be the most versatile and useful, I think.

I'd be awfully tempted by Shadow Monk, however.

 fair enough.  the spellbook mechanic could allow you to continue learning new spells somewhat negating the never leveling up aspect not allowing improvement but I still think most non psionic magic would be too eyecatching and end up with you getting experimented on and dissected in a government lab

Level 10, I'd have to go with a caster or monk. Level 11, I'd have to seriously consider rogue, never screw up while doing something you're skilled at.

Yeah - level 10 is just shy of some cool Monk abilities as well: Shadow Invisibility :)

I agree with what you said about fighters/rouges.  I don't see the use in modern society for being able to kill/steal things as a profession.

You need to watch the news more. In an ideal world, you'd be right - but the world is far from ideal.

Quote from DxJxC>>

Quote from Brotherbock>>

Quote from DxJxC>>

Just about any spellcasterD&D character at level 10 would be super overpowered IRL. 

I'm not entirely sure what 'over'powered is relative to IRL, but if it's relative to normal people, then a 10th level anything is going to be among the best in the world at whatever it is that they're doing.

• Rangers at 10th level can camouflage themselves in 1 minute, starting from scratch. Actual camouflage in the real world takes a heck of a lot longer than that. 
• That same ranger can pass through any real world (i.e. nonmagical) plants without slowing or being hurt. The spec forces team sneaking into the evil mastermind's mansion to plant listening devices...the mansion surrounded by thick hedges? Yeah, just walk right through them, what's the big deal? 

Trained soldiers and survivalists are pretty good at this stuff too. Granted the ranger is practically supernaturally good at these things, but I was talking about being able to do things that are impossible for normal people.

I mean...I think walking through a thick hedge without slowing your movement in any way is impossible for normal people.  :)

• A monk could, RAW, catch bullets. And then possibly throw them back with enough force to do normal bullet damage. That same monk can't be poisoned, and is immune to disease.

A monk can, RAW, get shot in the hand. The D&D rules for firearms are to keep it balanced against other weapons. And if they can catch the bullet, they can only throw it as well as dart or something, they can't match the gun.

There is nothing I can find in the rules, at least PHB and DMG, that would have firearms be treated any differently than other ranged weapons. Monks can "use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack," and pistols and rifles are listed in the DMG as 'Martial Ranged Weapons'. Heck, there's nothing RAW that says that the monk couldn't catch the frikking beam from a laser pistol :)  (I wouldn't allow it, although I would allow a dodge without the ability to throw it back, but I'm talking RAW here.)

As for damage, the pistol would do 1d10. A monk throwing it back as a monk weapon would do 1d6. When you add in ability modifiers, the monk could easily be doing more or less the same damage as the bullet. The average is only 2 points off. My point above being that, if I or any other real world human were to throw a bullet at someone, it would be guaranteed to do zero damage (unless it hit you in the eye or tooth or something). A 10th level monk can catch a bullet out of the air and then throw it back at you hard enough to hurt you with it...supernaturally hard.

• A Champion Fighter could almost certainly break the world record in long jump. A 20 Str champion can jump 25 feet with a ten foot runup. The olympic record is just over 29 feet...but they get a 131 foot runup.
• The High Jump world record is 8 feet 0.46 inches. Any 20 Str character can high jump 8 feet. 

 I was working under the assumption, that we would still be commoners stat-wise. If ASIs do apply, then a level 10 fighter could have 16 STR.

But to reiterate. There are people in this world who could already be considered mid level martial characters from years of training. A level 10 martial character would just be the best normal guy. A level 10 mage would be a superhero or demigod, as this is a no-magic setting. You mentioned a ranger being OP IRL because of camouflage and walking through weeds, but invisibility and fly are relatively low level spells.

I was building the 10th level fighter as any player would build it. ASIs included. Why exclude a given feature of the class? And why limit to just one kind of stat creation? By RAW, a 1st level fighter could have a 20 Str. 

I agree that there are people in the real world who can come close to what D&D characters can do. But here's my point--the best real world human being, specializing in running and jumping to the exclusion of pretty much everything else, can jump 29 feet with a 131 foot runup. The strongest D&D fighter can jump just a few feet less with just a 10 foot runup (and thus could presumably jump father with a longer runup...otherwise the Olympics would only use a 10 foot runup). And the D&D fighter is doing that as an afterthough. The D&D fighter isn't training to the exclusion of everything else in his life to be able to run fast and jump far. The D&D fighter is in fact almost assuredly spending most of his time on tactics, swordplay, and other much more prominent stuff. The jumping is a thing he 'happens to be able to do'. For the real world athlete, that jumping is the result of a lifetime of training at just that one thing. Running and jumping. The long jumper is not also an MMA champ, the long jumper is not also a champion (or even competitive) powerlifter. The closest athlete to a D&D fighter is a Modern Pentathlete, and the best there aren't close to what a 10th level fighter can do.

The fighter is superhuman in that sense.  

I'm not saying that spells aren't also supernatural and allow you to do the impossible. My point is just that every class already allows the impossible. That's actually purposefully baked into the game, particularly for 5e. 

I think all D&D Characters are superhuman - they're Heroes after all :)

That seems to be the way 5e ( and older editions ) are written - which is fine, it's a High Fantasy setting.

Other RPGs like Hunter: The Vigil by White Wolf or Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium deal more with "ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations".

Quote from Vedexent >>

I think all D&D Characters are superhuman - they're Heroes after all :)

That seems to be the way 5e ( and older editions ) are written - which is fine, it's a High Fantasy setting.

Other RPGs like Hunter: The Vigil by White Wolf or Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium deal more with "ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations".

The sci-fi games I am familiar with also tend to treat people as more normal. My favorite sci fi game had hit points, but unless you took injections of a wonder drug, your hit points never increased. And even then, there were limits to how much you could improve. What you did to increase survivability is buy better armor, get better at skills (dodge, camouflage) and get better at killing them before they killed you :) But a brand new character and a character after a year of play, both hit by the same weapon and neither with armor, will be damaged the same. And most probably both with simply die from being hit by 90% of the sci-fi weapons in the game. A plasma cannon that can blow off half your flex-steel armor will blow off half of you just as easily :) 

But yeah, D&D was always supposed to come with the assumption that the PCs are all Boris Vallejo painting subjects. These are people who are so strong they have muscles in their s**t :)

Druid without a doubt. Start fixing the environment.

You had better be an Arch druid, and have an entire circle of colleagues for that one ...