So I've got stuck on this idea of playing a lizard man who is a bit offended by people assuming he is a primitive idiot. I want to create a character who pretends to be that idiot for their own gain, but is secretly highly intelligent and shrewd. To pull off that concept, what class and potentially what subclass would you go for?

Maybe a bard. College of eloquence, for those nice bumps to persuasion and deception checks, since it seems like those would be the skills you’d need to pull that off. Maybe take a dip into rogue to get Expertise in those skills as well. 

Quote from BunniRabbi >>

So I've got stuck on this idea of playing a lizard man who is a bit offended by people assuming he is a primitive idiot. I want to create a character who pretends to be that idiot for their own gain, but is secretly highly intelligent and shrewd. To pull off that concept, what class and potentially what subclass would you go for?

 Mastermind rogue.

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from BunniRabbi >>

So I've got stuck on this idea of playing a lizard man who is a bit offended by people assuming he is a primitive idiot. I want to create a character who pretends to be that idiot for their own gain, but is secretly highly intelligent and shrewd. To pull off that concept, what class and potentially what subclass would you go for?

 Mastermind rogue.

Agreed! Although a Barbarian Path of the Totem Warrior with a crocodile as your totem (re-skin the bear as a crocodile) would be an even more fun choice. Who suspects the stupid barbarian Lizardfolk of being intelligent?

Rogue! Deception is the main mechanic. Then stealth, perception and persuasion will be important. You'll use persuasion to convince folks you're a bit dim when you're not. With these tools, be a rogue and capitalize on your perceived persona.The

I'd also try to have a companion act on any actionable intelligence you can gather. This helps keep you out of the mix if something goes.wrong.

Looking through Mastermind I particularly like the way that it uses the Help action. You could do a lot of buffoonery with that and make it useful.

I'll add another vote to the Mastermind Rogue.

mastermind rogue

He needs to have pretty good intelligence, obviously.  He would also need good charisma to be deceptive.    It would be easiest to build a character that uses one of these two stats as his attack stat.  It would be somewhat difficult to build a wizard or artificer that appears to be unintelligent.  But I'm sure that a Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock could pull it off. 

A Barbarian is an obvious choice as someone that would be stereotyped as dumb, but you're left with needing five good stats if you play a high intelligence, high charisma Barbarian.  A Rogue would need three good stats, plus decent constitution.  A charisma caster would need two good stats, plus decent constitution and decent dexterity.  A Paladin likes to have high charisma, but it's hard to roleplay a Paladin that is interested in deceiving people for selfish gain.  A Trickery Cleric would make an excellent choice thematically, but like the Barbarian, it would require a lot of good stats to make it work.  However, Lizardfolk are an excellent race for a Cleric to choose, so if you're content to just have mediocre Charisma, it could work quite well.

One of the most important questions is: do you want to play a caster, or do you want to play a martial character?  Both options can work, but do you have a preference between whether or not you're a magic user?

 Thematically, I think a Trickery Cleric makes the most sense, especially if you're doing the Lizardfolk race with their +1 Wisdom.

I think that a Rogue's expertise can compensate for less-than-ideal stats. So if we go Mastermind and you go for Max Dex, Great Int, but only decent Cha, it's still possible to be great at deception by taking expertise in it. So maybe you're not great at convincing people to actually listen to you with persuasion, but if you want to make them not realize how intelligent you are you're still good.

Wolf Totem Barbarian with Tandem Tactician.

Advantage for you, and you, and you!

What is Tandem Tactician?

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

What is Tandem Tactician?

 From the recent Feats UA:

Tandem Tactician

Your presence in a scrap tends to elevate your comrades. You gain the following benefits:

• You can use the Help action as a bonus action.
• When you use the Help action to aid an ally in attacking a creature, increase the range of the Help action by 10 feet. Additionally, you can help two allies targeting the same creature within range when you use the Help action this way.

Thanks.  That seems like a great feat for a build without a lot of bonus actions. 

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Thanks.  That seems like a great feat for a build without a lot of bonus actions. 

 As long as they don’t mind being within 10 feet of the enemy in question.

As long as they don’t mind being within 10 15 feet of the enemy in question.

I'm playing a Tandem Tactician Rune Knight Fighter who is a Party Defender, Buffer, and Debuffer.  This PC pretends to be stupid and incompetent but manages to "accidentally" aid allies in combat  through "coincidental" timing.  Rather like real-world drunken-monkey style kung fu, but applies only to others.

Go on, buck the stereotype... Be a smart barbarian.

Though if it were me, I'd be thinking of Fighter, Eldritch Knight or Rune Knight.

Personally I've never really liked barbarians. The concept of rage being a source of power is just very contrary to what I consider true, verging on offensive. 

Quote from BunniRabbi >>

Personally I've never really liked barbarians. The concept of rage being a source of power is just very contrary to what I consider true, verging on offensive. 

 You would be surprised what rage can make one capable of. I once got so angry changing a tire that I picked the back half of the car a foot up off the ground.

Quote from BunniRabbi >>

Personally I've never really liked barbarians. The concept of rage being a source of power is just very contrary to what I consider true, verging on offensive. 

 
You do know that the whole drawing power from rage is real, right?

I mean sure the whole resistance and special powers are all fiction but the actual using rage to fight better and stuff is real.

When you truly rage, and not just being overdramatic angry, that narrowed mentality and intense surge of adrenaline will let you use every ounce of strength possible and feel a lot less pain.

Nordic barbarians (in the more original sense of the word: people who preferred living in tribes rather than in cities, it also means people who like war) have been known to use certain types of meditations, behaviours and drugs from plants and stuff, to induce a pure frenzy  . They were called Berserkers and are where the inspiration of the Beserker subclass comes from - because in real history there were actual Beserker barbarians using frenzied rage to increase combat prowess. They would don animal pelts and race into battle pretty much out of their mind on savage fury. This made them very fierce and battle to the point of producing legends and fanciful myths like how they became so fearsome they seemed to become the animal whose skin they wore (which is why we have a barbarian class focused on animals).

So the whole not liking barbarians because their rage thing does seem true enough is very weird considering it's actually real and the class is based on real people.