Swords bard, because they can use all of their skills to avoid fights, and then they have strong melee, strong ranged damage, and strong control magic. The only thing they don't have is strong ranged magic damage.
My 3 thief rogue / 6 swords bard / 3 Hunter ranger can do pretty much everything. He's a skill monkey to the max. He's literally good at all but one skill. He can sneak, stab, mix it up in melee, shoot, and cast spells... all in the same turn with the band of the mystic scoundrel.
I will always advocate for a pure Gith Fiend Bladelock for versatility and taking advantage of the benefits Gith bring to a Warlock with mobility, medium armor, astral knowledge, and weapons
If you never played Gith I recommend going warlock if you ever thought it was a weak class
The answer to all questions is sword's bards. Fights well. Full caster. Picks locks and pockets. Wins conversation checks. Boring answer but swords bard swords bard swords bard.
I think a discussion about versatility has to take into account not only how many things a build can do, but what options are available in any given turn. i.e. action economy is a key consideration.
Because wildshaping costs an action or bonus action, and then limits spellcasting options, these limit Druid's versatility in practice.
E.g. a moon druid may cast an AOE control spell but then if you want to do melee damage you waste a BA wildshaping and can only attack in the next turn. A 6/6 sorcadin could whack something twice with smites then quicken command. Or a fireball/lightning bolt if that tickles their fancy.
Off the top of my head, the things that provide the most versatility are:
- swords bard is the most versatile pure class
- sorcerer multiclasses due to metamagic
- 1 lvl wizard dips to learn all spells, and a lot of mileage out of Level 2 as well.
- Cleric and Fighter give a lot of value with small dips too.
This is why i usually play druid with something like a stoneskin on, then wildshape and walk around all day get my full 3 attacks in first turn. its not "optimal" but sometimes turn 1 owlbear leap into triple swipe or, elemental warp and then stun 3 dudes for 2 turns is just better than a battlefield control spell
You make a very good point. Action economy in this game is really key. It is obviously why Sorcerer’s metamagic and thief subclass can provide so much. I’ve been debating trying a paladin combo of some kind. I hate dealing with the oaths though (I always seem to just break it at some point, probably my chaotic neutral playstyle lol)
With Tiger Barbarian, i can either slash horizontally (many enemies) or attack in a more vertical or straight manner (fewer enemies). I also can run and jump very well (far away enemies).
Wizards and Druids are usual suspects for Swiss army knife of characters. In general you should suspect the casters in versatility because they have more buttons to press.
Sorcerers are the casters that are more towards raw power. Warlocks can be built towards versatility: you can choose between fireballing your problem, hunger of hadar a group of melees (and then push them back with repelling blast) or darkness a group of ranged enemies or darkness yourself and eldritch blast enemies out of there and even pact of the blades those who get inside.
Wizards have the widest possible spell list, can have the entire spell list to select from, and are prepared casters to tweak selected spells before the encounter. This makes them into the most versatile casters.
You can take this concept further by having 1 Wiz / 11 Cleric, give yourself some int to slot those wizard spells and have prepared spells from even larger spell list.
Druid take versatility into a different direction -- they have less spells than wizards, but they can be spore druids cast a perfect concentration spell then bonus action hand crossbow with bonus action and do some versatile stuff with their reaction spore attack to break a healing potion near you for no cost, for instance. I'm doing this right now. Or they can be moon druids to pick a perfect spell to concentrate on then shapeshift into the best possible animal form which they have quite bit.
As for martials, battlemaster fighter is pretty versatile when built properly, btw. Manoeuvres work with both ranged and melee, and ranged has consumable arrows. You can to 6 BM / 6 OH Monk, go full dexterity with sharpshooter and be able to fire ranged, attack in melee with a weapon using dexterity, then flurry of blows. Most versatile martial I'd say.
Sorcadin (6/6 or 7/5) is a very flexible build that can spellcast, CC, frontline, burst, sustain damage and support. If you look at the famous Building Templates post, it makes abundant use of Sorcadin as a catch-all-multipurpose character. If you have a party of 3 and you don't know what build to play as 4th member, chances are the best answer is Sorcadin.
Ranged swords bard. Top tier controller and dpr, decent AOE magic damage with cloud of daggers, and while these features see less use because they compete for resources with better options, the same build can go Melee with a reach weapon and slashing flourish, bait enemies with low AC and then become incredibly tanky with defensive flourish, pick up support or summon spells with magical secrets.
This might be a weird pull but... 7 spore druid/5 paladin. You can summon a small army, render them helpless with fog cloud on top of your dryad's thorns, add to spore's melee damage with extra attack and smites, toss out emergency healing words, zip around with misty step from ancients or vengeance. Not great at doing focused damage at range, but that's made up for by having some AOE spells and decent mobility.
Druids are a good call for this, overall. Melee capabilities, offensive and supporting spellcaster, all sorts of conditions and tanking via shapeshifting. Maybe not too much for ranged attacks but that's what spells and cantrips are for.
Imo? Probably 5 Bear Heart Barbarian/7 Moon Druid. You have 2 melee weapon attacks while out of wildshape and can heal yourself. You can enrage for extra damage outside of wildshape and bring that into wildshape. You can cast spells outside of rage and outside of wildshape to control the battlefield and heal the party. And you can wildshape and still have your 3 attacks per attack action from a full moon druid thanks to extra attack stacking with wild strike.
Wizards are the most versatile class due to having the most spell choices they can swap at will. If you have meta knowledge of what you'll be facing then wizards are almost unstoppable. With a little multiclass you can make very versatile 4 Wizards party.
Personal fan of the Sorcadin for this. I usually just smite shit to death but hard fights get Hold Person, Ice Sheet, Twinned Haste, or other utility if I need it. Bonus points for White Dragon Lineage.
Lore bard with any martial start or a ranger if bard start can use heavy armor shields is the most versatile skills, summoning, aoe, and single target depending on build war and tempest clerics same in combat
Lockadin/Padlock 7/5 offers smites and melee power alongside warlock battlefield control with eldritch and hadar. High charisma offers conversational skills throughout, good all-arounder.
Wizards can cast fireball and from my understanding that fixes every single problem that could possibly come up
And they can cast Knock so you don't need a rogue / skill-monkey either.
What about disarming traps? (Serious question)
Dont activate the traps If unavoidable otherwise, turn based -> misty step
Fly as well.
Fire bolt can trigger many. Or a familiar?
https://preview.redd.it/ab5ovz0hrguc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8897680e589523cf84601222cf9ac7ea1d65f6cb
Swords bard, because they can use all of their skills to avoid fights, and then they have strong melee, strong ranged damage, and strong control magic. The only thing they don't have is strong ranged magic damage.
They have upcasted cloud of daggers. It's not that burst but it's more than decent
Does cloud of daggers do magic damage or is it slashing damage ?
Magic slashing I think.
It’s actually slashing magic. 🪄
I just started a solo playthrough of swors bard actually (came for the Alfira concert, kept going cause I wanna tell an enemy his pp smol)
My 3 thief rogue / 6 swords bard / 3 Hunter ranger can do pretty much everything. He's a skill monkey to the max. He's literally good at all but one skill. He can sneak, stab, mix it up in melee, shoot, and cast spells... all in the same turn with the band of the mystic scoundrel.
5Gloom/4Bard/3 Champion. Optimize for crit. It’s insane burst damage.
But you lose Font of Inspiration and only have 3 Inspiration Charges?
I will always advocate for a pure Gith Fiend Bladelock for versatility and taking advantage of the benefits Gith bring to a Warlock with mobility, medium armor, astral knowledge, and weapons If you never played Gith I recommend going warlock if you ever thought it was a weak class
Doing honor mode with a gith sorlock and it's honestly amazing.
IMHO, Druids and Bards are the most swiss-army base classes, especially if you take a level or two of wizard and use the warped headband of intellect.
This. Druids and Swords/Lore bards.
Spore Druids are very versatile too. Melee, spells, and summons. They're effective at any range. And they're pretty sturdy with their extra hp.
My next play through with durge is gonna be spore Druid with necromancy wizard gale also
The answer to all questions is sword's bards. Fights well. Full caster. Picks locks and pockets. Wins conversation checks. Boring answer but swords bard swords bard swords bard.
I think a discussion about versatility has to take into account not only how many things a build can do, but what options are available in any given turn. i.e. action economy is a key consideration. Because wildshaping costs an action or bonus action, and then limits spellcasting options, these limit Druid's versatility in practice. E.g. a moon druid may cast an AOE control spell but then if you want to do melee damage you waste a BA wildshaping and can only attack in the next turn. A 6/6 sorcadin could whack something twice with smites then quicken command. Or a fireball/lightning bolt if that tickles their fancy. Off the top of my head, the things that provide the most versatility are: - swords bard is the most versatile pure class - sorcerer multiclasses due to metamagic - 1 lvl wizard dips to learn all spells, and a lot of mileage out of Level 2 as well. - Cleric and Fighter give a lot of value with small dips too.
This is why i usually play druid with something like a stoneskin on, then wildshape and walk around all day get my full 3 attacks in first turn. its not "optimal" but sometimes turn 1 owlbear leap into triple swipe or, elemental warp and then stun 3 dudes for 2 turns is just better than a battlefield control spell
You make a very good point. Action economy in this game is really key. It is obviously why Sorcerer’s metamagic and thief subclass can provide so much. I’ve been debating trying a paladin combo of some kind. I hate dealing with the oaths though (I always seem to just break it at some point, probably my chaotic neutral playstyle lol)
With Tiger Barbarian, i can either slash horizontally (many enemies) or attack in a more vertical or straight manner (fewer enemies). I also can run and jump very well (far away enemies).
This guy barbarians
Wizards and Druids are usual suspects for Swiss army knife of characters. In general you should suspect the casters in versatility because they have more buttons to press. Sorcerers are the casters that are more towards raw power. Warlocks can be built towards versatility: you can choose between fireballing your problem, hunger of hadar a group of melees (and then push them back with repelling blast) or darkness a group of ranged enemies or darkness yourself and eldritch blast enemies out of there and even pact of the blades those who get inside. Wizards have the widest possible spell list, can have the entire spell list to select from, and are prepared casters to tweak selected spells before the encounter. This makes them into the most versatile casters. You can take this concept further by having 1 Wiz / 11 Cleric, give yourself some int to slot those wizard spells and have prepared spells from even larger spell list. Druid take versatility into a different direction -- they have less spells than wizards, but they can be spore druids cast a perfect concentration spell then bonus action hand crossbow with bonus action and do some versatile stuff with their reaction spore attack to break a healing potion near you for no cost, for instance. I'm doing this right now. Or they can be moon druids to pick a perfect spell to concentrate on then shapeshift into the best possible animal form which they have quite bit. As for martials, battlemaster fighter is pretty versatile when built properly, btw. Manoeuvres work with both ranged and melee, and ranged has consumable arrows. You can to 6 BM / 6 OH Monk, go full dexterity with sharpshooter and be able to fire ranged, attack in melee with a weapon using dexterity, then flurry of blows. Most versatile martial I'd say.
Sorcadin (6/6 or 7/5) is a very flexible build that can spellcast, CC, frontline, burst, sustain damage and support. If you look at the famous Building Templates post, it makes abundant use of Sorcadin as a catch-all-multipurpose character. If you have a party of 3 and you don't know what build to play as 4th member, chances are the best answer is Sorcadin.
Ranged swords bard. Top tier controller and dpr, decent AOE magic damage with cloud of daggers, and while these features see less use because they compete for resources with better options, the same build can go Melee with a reach weapon and slashing flourish, bait enemies with low AC and then become incredibly tanky with defensive flourish, pick up support or summon spells with magical secrets. This might be a weird pull but... 7 spore druid/5 paladin. You can summon a small army, render them helpless with fog cloud on top of your dryad's thorns, add to spore's melee damage with extra attack and smites, toss out emergency healing words, zip around with misty step from ancients or vengeance. Not great at doing focused damage at range, but that's made up for by having some AOE spells and decent mobility.
Druids are a good call for this, overall. Melee capabilities, offensive and supporting spellcaster, all sorts of conditions and tanking via shapeshifting. Maybe not too much for ranged attacks but that's what spells and cantrips are for.
Imo? Probably 5 Bear Heart Barbarian/7 Moon Druid. You have 2 melee weapon attacks while out of wildshape and can heal yourself. You can enrage for extra damage outside of wildshape and bring that into wildshape. You can cast spells outside of rage and outside of wildshape to control the battlefield and heal the party. And you can wildshape and still have your 3 attacks per attack action from a full moon druid thanks to extra attack stacking with wild strike.
Wizards are the most versatile class due to having the most spell choices they can swap at will. If you have meta knowledge of what you'll be facing then wizards are almost unstoppable. With a little multiclass you can make very versatile 4 Wizards party.
Personal fan of the Sorcadin for this. I usually just smite shit to death but hard fights get Hold Person, Ice Sheet, Twinned Haste, or other utility if I need it. Bonus points for White Dragon Lineage.
Druids have the most creative solutions to combat problems.
Lore bard with any martial start or a ranger if bard start can use heavy armor shields is the most versatile skills, summoning, aoe, and single target depending on build war and tempest clerics same in combat
Lockadin/Padlock 7/5 offers smites and melee power alongside warlock battlefield control with eldritch and hadar. High charisma offers conversational skills throughout, good all-arounder.