Whatever you think of as fun to play for your character concept is best. Whether that means aiming for something more optimal or for something more quirky.
For instance, I wouldn't mind having a go at building a Dragon Sorc or Genielock Plasmoid with a particular focus on non-material-component spells so they're just completely naked, itemless blobs that sling spells outta nowhere. Not even remotely optimal but sure seems like it would be fun.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Whatever you think of as fun to play for your character concept is best.
That's a nice sentiment but we all know it's, at least technically, not true. Character concept videos will all typically give some consideration to appropriate races and most of these will consider optimization.
My "fun to play" character concept is typically one that will effectively perform the functions of that concept, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tortle was a great race for druids. It had a buff to wisdom, natural armour, and a free proficiency in survival... Sure Sheldyn Roundback (in our ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign) also leaned nicely into a spaced-out, hippy, circle of the stars personality but the strong base structure gave support for confidence in playing the role.
What is best and fun for you is not what is best and fun for others.
You are associating best with optimal. This is not a universal truth.
Best is very much subjective here.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success.
Mau Glee, my Chultan, halfling barbarian, gave a lot of fun moments but, in a very literal sense, he was not strong and was far from my best or even most fun character.
I wouldn't mind having a go at building a Dragon Sorc or Genielock Plasmoid with a particular focus on non-material-component spells so they're just completely naked, itemless blobs ... seems like it would be fun.
Sure, have "a go". Maybe you can report back once any of your more optimally built allies are outperforming you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gimic builds may even be really fun for a one-shot. For instance, I really enjoyed playing "The Germinator" (warforged druid build with actor feat soley for the Arnie voice effect) - but I'd likely prefer the more rounded yet similarly colourful Sheldyn Roundback for a campaign.
There's not an objective "best", but here's some of my favorites that don't involve multiclassing
Artificer (Armorer): Warforged, for massive AC and built-in magic weapons.
Artificer (Battle Smith): Autognome, for a mount that can restore YOUR hit points if you drop to zero when it's still up.
Barbarian (Beast): Shifter (Wildhunt), You can reckless attack for every attack without giving enemies advantage against you.
Bard (Eloquence): Changeling, for Expertise and counting all die rolls less than 10 as 10 for both Deception and Persuasion, all but guaranteeing that no one notices any discrepancy between whomever you're impersonating and your portrayal.
Blood Hunter: Dhampir, Very thematic.
Cleric (Life): Mark of Hospitality Halfling, with the Tasha's variant ability score improvements. Super-Goodberries, without multiclassing, and since they last 24 hours, you can end each day before your Long Rest spending whatever remaining spell slots you have on it to have them the next day, on top of your full assortment of Spell Slots.
Druid (Spores): Reborn, The forces of nature brought you back for a purpose... and mechanically your Wildshapes give you hit point buffers without interfering with your spellcasting.
Fighter (Battle Master): Astral Elf, Adding some teleportation and a daily choice of desired skill proficiency to all of the strengths of the Battle Master.
Monk (Shadow): Kobold, with the Urchin background... little, shadow-teleporting dragon that can pick locks and disable traps to get at the little bits of treasure in the eternal attempt to build a hoard.
Ranger (Drakewarden): Hadozee, Archery from dragonback, and you can negate the fall damage if you ever get knocked off, or if the drake is killed.
Rogue (Swashbuckler): Half-Elf (High Elf variant), Consistent sneak attack without the need to actually sneak, freeing you up to use Booming Blade to punish your foes if they dare to move after you hit them and retreat to a safe distance without provoking their opportunity attacks.
Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind): Eladrin, You get bonus action teleports without them being spells, can cast a lot of your spells directly from Sorcery Points without needing material components, and if you have the Witherbloom Student background, you have healing spells as well.
Warlock (Genie: Djinni): Air Genasi, You're basically becoming a Genie, already half-way there at L1.
Wizard (Abjuration): Svirfneblin, because once you get the Svirfneblin Magic feat, you can keep your arcane ward up and full at all times.
Getting a bit busy with nested quotes and cant be arsed with the html due to the editors quirkyness. These are all in response to Gergkyae
"Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success."
Maybe typically. Definitely not always. And I don't play D&D as a strategy game.
"Sorry but, more often than not, that's how it works."
And your statistical data for this?
The fact it is "more often" not always is my point. It is not a universal truth, so what is best for one or even many is not best for everyone thus not a universal. It's not universal because it is subjective. So this poll, which also, by the way, includes the OP's opinions which are also not fully optimal or "mechanically best" ones, cannot be a source of any definitive answer as to what is best.
So given the OP and I are not going the "mechanically best" route, it seems that so far, in this thread, at this time, your subjective opinion of "best" is currently the minority.
Not best for me, so again, not universal truth kinda best but a subjective - opinion - best.
I can agree some are "mechanically more suited", or "mechanically best" but again, not everyone plays purely for the mechanics.
"Sure, have "a go". Maybe you can report back once any of your more optimally built allies are outperforming you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
Outperforming at what? Roleplay? Probs, I ain't no actor, but I enjoy it all the same and that's all I care about. Outperforming at combat? So what? If combat effectiveness gets you going, then you do you. Not a big thing for me. I like combat. I don't give one slightest iota of **** at being optimal or effective at it.
-
You seem to be trying to "convince me". Let me just speed this along: it will not work. Gary Gygax could rise from the grave to agree with you, the entire pantheon of every GOD could suddenly manifest to tell me to think like you do on this. And none of it will work. I and I alone will decide what is best for me. Just as you and you alone will decide what is best for you. And since my best and your best are different, this proves beyond all shadow of doubt that "best" is subjective opinion and not a universal truth (which, your own post even confirms with use of "most" and "typically").
Hopefully that will help you realise the impasse here and get this to the "agree to disagree" ending it is destined for and get back to the point of the ******* thread. Mmkay?
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I'm with Cybermind. there's no such thing as a best. (This is particularly true post-Tasha, with floating species ASI. But even pre-Tasha, I would have agreed there's no such thing as a best.)
If you really want to have a discussion about the topic, first define what "best" is. Then maybe people can come up with ways to achieve that goal.
Getting a bit busy with nested quotes and cant be arsed with the html due to the editors quirkyness. These are all in response to Gergkyae
"Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success."
Maybe typically. Definitely not always...
but more often than not. We play games of involving the throwing of maths rocks, and some players, wanting the best for their characters, like to stack odds in their favour.
Having an effective character is typically a big contributor to aspects of the game that many view as "fun", at least in games where other players are pursuing builds based on effectiveness.
The downside of this though is that optimization can stifle variety and, to my mind, there can also be a place for (core rules') halfling barbarians and warforged druids with mechanically less than optimally chosen feats. It's just that, in cases where your character struggles, you need to keep yourself satisfied with your less-than-optimal build.
On non-tactics issues, it's also possible to go for something that is
As with the others, there isn't really a best race. There are some poor choices though. Anything that does not have dark vision is at a significant disadvantage whenever night time adventures crop up, underground caverns etc, it's kind of difficult for a rogue to sneak around and hide when they need to have a lit lantern giving their position away. There are also some choices that are better than others - any flying race has huge advantages at low level regardless of class. But pretty much anything that gets a feat - such as variant human or custom lineage due simply to 'feat'
Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success.
Mau Glee, my Chultan, halfling barbarian, gave a lot of fun moments but, in a very literal sense, he was not strong and was far from my best or even most fun character.
What do you mean by success though? You could play a game of D&D where you easily and effortlessly win every single combat that is excruciatingly boring with people who barely speak to you and where your character is nothing more than numbers of paper and have a terrible time. In contrast you could play a game of D&D where every three sessions you are bringing in a new character b/c the last one died a horrible death, where you are laughing with your friends doing all kinds of silly stuff and have a great time. In which game are you "succeeding"?
Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success.
Mau Glee, my Chultan, halfling barbarian, gave a lot of fun moments but, in a very literal sense, he was not strong and was far from my best or even most fun character.
What do you mean by success though? You could play a game of D&D where you easily and effortlessly win every single combat that is excruciatingly boring with people who barely speak to you and where your character is nothing more than numbers of paper and have a terrible time. In contrast you could play a game of D&D where every three sessions you are bringing in a new character b/c the last one died a horrible death, where you are laughing with your friends doing all kinds of silly stuff and have a great time. In which game are you "succeeding"?
This has been mentioned but, this is the tips and tactics sub so it's assumed op is talking about meta/mechanically best
Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success.
Mau Glee, my Chultan, halfling barbarian, gave a lot of fun moments but, in a very literal sense, he was not strong and was far from my best or even most fun character.
What do you mean by success though? You could play a game of D&D where you easily and effortlessly win every single combat that is excruciatingly boring with people who barely speak to you and where your character is nothing more than numbers of paper and have a terrible time. In contrast you could play a game of D&D where every three sessions you are bringing in a new character b/c the last one died a horrible death, where you are laughing with your friends doing all kinds of silly stuff and have a great time. In which game are you "succeeding"?
This has been mentioned but, this is the tips and tactics sub so it's assumed op is talking about meta/mechanically best
Mechanically best how though? Is it to break bounded accuracy with super high AC by comboing the Shield spell (available with Githyanki) with armour? Is it to break dungeon crawls with massive increase in DPR for short combats with bugbear? Is it to break the low level game experience by getting PAM/SS/XbowXpert/GWM at level 1? Is it to break environmental/exploration challenges with unlimited flight or free teleportation? Is it to break social / intrigue encounters with Changeling? Is it to break to economic system of the game world with free crafting racial traits? Is it for massive multiclassing madness with standard human?
Race is such a tiny part of a build that a half dozen races can all be "the best" depending on which aspect of the game you care about mechanically. And as I pointed out, building a character that breaks the game can actually make the game much less fun and lead you to the ultimate "lose" condition of D&D - that is that nobody wants to DM a game with you as a player.
As the title says. Don't know exactly why I wanted to create this thread but here we are...
Artificer: Warforged or Gnome
Bard: Any race that won't try to seduce everything (JK) Halfling or Elf
Barbarian: Half-Orc
Blood Hunter: Half-Orc or Leonin
Cleric: Dwarf or Goliath
Druid: Lizardfolk or Plasmoid
Fighter: Minotaur
Monk: Aarakocra or Plasmoid
Paladin: Dragonborn
Ranger: Simic Hybrid
Rogue: Changling
Sorcerer: Reborn Lineage
Warlock: Dhampir Lineage
Wizard: Reborn Lineage or Gnome
DruidVSAdventure
Check out my Homebrew Class The Evoker
There is no best race for each class.
Whatever you think of as fun to play for your character concept is best. Whether that means aiming for something more optimal or for something more quirky.
For instance, I wouldn't mind having a go at building a Dragon Sorc or Genielock Plasmoid with a particular focus on non-material-component spells so they're just completely naked, itemless blobs that sling spells outta nowhere. Not even remotely optimal but sure seems like it would be fun.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
That's a nice sentiment but we all know it's, at least technically, not true. Character concept videos will all typically give some consideration to appropriate races and most of these will consider optimization.
My "fun to play" character concept is typically one that will effectively perform the functions of that concept, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tortle was a great race for druids. It had a buff to wisdom, natural armour, and a free proficiency in survival... Sure Sheldyn Roundback (in our ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign) also leaned nicely into a spaced-out, hippy, circle of the stars personality but the strong base structure gave support for confidence in playing the role.
What is best and fun for you is not what is best and fun for others.
You are associating best with optimal. This is not a universal truth.
Best is very much subjective here.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success.
Mau Glee, my Chultan, halfling barbarian, gave a lot of fun moments but, in a very literal sense, he was not strong and was far from my best or even most fun character.
Sorry but, more often than not, that's how it works.
There are even best classes for plasmoids.
When you find a combination that's both entertaining and effective, that's typically what's MOST fun. That can often make the perfect package. :)
Sure, have "a go". Maybe you can report back once any of your more optimally built allies are outperforming you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gimic builds may even be really fun for a one-shot. For instance, I really enjoyed playing "The Germinator" (warforged druid build with actor feat soley for the Arnie voice effect) - but I'd likely prefer the more rounded yet similarly colourful Sheldyn Roundback for a campaign.
There's not an objective "best", but here's some of my favorites that don't involve multiclassing
Artificer (Armorer): Warforged, for massive AC and built-in magic weapons.
Artificer (Battle Smith): Autognome, for a mount that can restore YOUR hit points if you drop to zero when it's still up.
Barbarian (Beast): Shifter (Wildhunt), You can reckless attack for every attack without giving enemies advantage against you.
Bard (Eloquence): Changeling, for Expertise and counting all die rolls less than 10 as 10 for both Deception and Persuasion, all but guaranteeing that no one notices any discrepancy between whomever you're impersonating and your portrayal.
Blood Hunter: Dhampir, Very thematic.
Cleric (Life): Mark of Hospitality Halfling, with the Tasha's variant ability score improvements. Super-Goodberries, without multiclassing, and since they last 24 hours, you can end each day before your Long Rest spending whatever remaining spell slots you have on it to have them the next day, on top of your full assortment of Spell Slots.
Druid (Spores): Reborn, The forces of nature brought you back for a purpose... and mechanically your Wildshapes give you hit point buffers without interfering with your spellcasting.
Fighter (Battle Master): Astral Elf, Adding some teleportation and a daily choice of desired skill proficiency to all of the strengths of the Battle Master.
Monk (Shadow): Kobold, with the Urchin background... little, shadow-teleporting dragon that can pick locks and disable traps to get at the little bits of treasure in the eternal attempt to build a hoard.
Paladin (Vengeance): Aasimar, divine wrath personified.
Ranger (Drakewarden): Hadozee, Archery from dragonback, and you can negate the fall damage if you ever get knocked off, or if the drake is killed.
Rogue (Swashbuckler): Half-Elf (High Elf variant), Consistent sneak attack without the need to actually sneak, freeing you up to use Booming Blade to punish your foes if they dare to move after you hit them and retreat to a safe distance without provoking their opportunity attacks.
Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind): Eladrin, You get bonus action teleports without them being spells, can cast a lot of your spells directly from Sorcery Points without needing material components, and if you have the Witherbloom Student background, you have healing spells as well.
Warlock (Genie: Djinni): Air Genasi, You're basically becoming a Genie, already half-way there at L1.
Wizard (Abjuration): Svirfneblin, because once you get the Svirfneblin Magic feat, you can keep your arcane ward up and full at all times.
Getting a bit busy with nested quotes and cant be arsed with the html due to the editors quirkyness. These are all in response to Gergkyae
"Best, in strategy games, can typically be correlated with success."
Maybe typically. Definitely not always. And I don't play D&D as a strategy game.
"Sorry but, more often than not, that's how it works."
And your statistical data for this?
The fact it is "more often" not always is my point. It is not a universal truth, so what is best for one or even many is not best for everyone thus not a universal. It's not universal because it is subjective. So this poll, which also, by the way, includes the OP's opinions which are also not fully optimal or "mechanically best" ones, cannot be a source of any definitive answer as to what is best.
So given the OP and I are not going the "mechanically best" route, it seems that so far, in this thread, at this time, your subjective opinion of "best" is currently the minority.
"There are even best classes for plasmoids."
Not best for me, so again, not universal truth kinda best but a subjective - opinion - best.
I can agree some are "mechanically more suited", or "mechanically best" but again, not everyone plays purely for the mechanics.
"Sure, have "a go". Maybe you can report back once any of your more optimally built allies are outperforming you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
Outperforming at what? Roleplay? Probs, I ain't no actor, but I enjoy it all the same and that's all I care about. Outperforming at combat? So what? If combat effectiveness gets you going, then you do you. Not a big thing for me. I like combat. I don't give one slightest iota of **** at being optimal or effective at it.
-
You seem to be trying to "convince me". Let me just speed this along: it will not work. Gary Gygax could rise from the grave to agree with you, the entire pantheon of every GOD could suddenly manifest to tell me to think like you do on this. And none of it will work. I and I alone will decide what is best for me. Just as you and you alone will decide what is best for you. And since my best and your best are different, this proves beyond all shadow of doubt that "best" is subjective opinion and not a universal truth (which, your own post even confirms with use of "most" and "typically").
Hopefully that will help you realise the impasse here and get this to the "agree to disagree" ending it is destined for and get back to the point of the ******* thread. Mmkay?
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I'm with Cybermind. there's no such thing as a best. (This is particularly true post-Tasha, with floating species ASI. But even pre-Tasha, I would have agreed there's no such thing as a best.)
If you really want to have a discussion about the topic, first define what "best" is. Then maybe people can come up with ways to achieve that goal.
Common question zero correct answers.
However, if asked, the best species for any class is Human Variant. Though your choice for Rogue is one that I considered strongly.
Reminder: This is a thread on "Tips and Tactics", not on roleplay and fluff
but more often than not. We play games of involving the throwing of maths rocks, and some players, wanting the best for their characters, like to stack odds in their favour.
or in skill/social abilities or other utility...
Having an effective character is typically a big contributor to aspects of the game that many view as "fun", at least in games where other players are pursuing builds based on effectiveness.
The downside of this though is that optimization can stifle variety and, to my mind, there can also be a place for (core rules') halfling barbarians and warforged druids with mechanically less than optimally chosen feats. It's just that, in cases where your character struggles, you need to keep yourself satisfied with your less-than-optimal build.
On non-tactics issues, it's also possible to go for something that is
As with the others, there isn't really a best race. There are some poor choices though. Anything that does not have dark vision is at a significant disadvantage whenever night time adventures crop up, underground caverns etc, it's kind of difficult for a rogue to sneak around and hide when they need to have a lit lantern giving their position away. There are also some choices that are better than others - any flying race has huge advantages at low level regardless of class. But pretty much anything that gets a feat - such as variant human or custom lineage due simply to 'feat'
I think wood elf is the best for ranger,simple but effective
Human variant for literally everything... pick the 2 attribute bumps you want.. pick a feat you want.. hard to compete with that
"best" is rather meaningless. Here's my most fun options:
Artificer: Lizardfolk - turning a dead turtle into a +2 shield is too awesome
Bard: Leonin - roaring your BI is a must!
Barbarian: Bugbear - so you can be a bugbearbarian
Blood Hunter: Goblin - the cursed who curses back or
Blood Hunter: Thri-Kreen - ultimate preying mantis
Cleric: Firbolg - hug your friends until they are all better
Druid: Warforged - who doesn't want to be a talking walking tree?
Fighter: Human - dude + stick = dead dragon..
Monk: Tortle - do I even need to say it?
Paladin: Goliath - strike with the force of a mountain.
Ranger (Swarmkeeper): Triton - the master of the swamp... plus have a swarm of piranas!
Rogue (Swashbuckler): Tabaxi - Yes, yes this is .. Puss.. in Boots!
Sorcerer (Draconic): Kobold - dream big little guy some day you'll be a real dragon!
Warlock : Reborn - how else would you be resurrected?
Wizard: Fairy - Forget reality, I substitute my own.
What do you mean by success though? You could play a game of D&D where you easily and effortlessly win every single combat that is excruciatingly boring with people who barely speak to you and where your character is nothing more than numbers of paper and have a terrible time. In contrast you could play a game of D&D where every three sessions you are bringing in a new character b/c the last one died a horrible death, where you are laughing with your friends doing all kinds of silly stuff and have a great time. In which game are you "succeeding"?
This has been mentioned but, this is the tips and tactics sub so it's assumed op is talking about meta/mechanically best
Mechanically best how though? Is it to break bounded accuracy with super high AC by comboing the Shield spell (available with Githyanki) with armour? Is it to break dungeon crawls with massive increase in DPR for short combats with bugbear? Is it to break the low level game experience by getting PAM/SS/XbowXpert/GWM at level 1? Is it to break environmental/exploration challenges with unlimited flight or free teleportation? Is it to break social / intrigue encounters with Changeling? Is it to break to economic system of the game world with free crafting racial traits? Is it for massive multiclassing madness with standard human?
Race is such a tiny part of a build that a half dozen races can all be "the best" depending on which aspect of the game you care about mechanically. And as I pointed out, building a character that breaks the game can actually make the game much less fun and lead you to the ultimate "lose" condition of D&D - that is that nobody wants to DM a game with you as a player.