Take a D&D Character Build and Make it Sing!

Giving life to D&D character optimization

When we hear “optimization” or “min-maxing” in Dungeons & Dragons, we think of a player character that is focused on mechanics at the cost of roleplaying or backstory elements. That does not have to be true. There are an infinite number of ways to come up with a character for D&D. One possibility that yields both, great roleplaying opportunities, and effective mechanics, is to take an optimized build, and make it sing. Make it your own. Give it life. Turn numbers into stories.

When we say “optimized” in this article, we don’t refer to a power gamer’s fantasy of trivializing combats or challenges. Our goal is not to overshadow other players. Instead, we are looking for a build that follows a specific concept, and tries to find the best combination of mechanics to bring that concept to life effectively. An optimized build might be a spore-beast-hybrid. Or a mounted techno-knight. Or a master of life and death. We take these builds as an inspiring starting point for character creation.

Infinite ways of building a D&D character

You might have your own way to create a character. Some people like to be inspired by a narrative concept first. They might take a theme, a character from fiction, or even an image as a starting point. Mechanics might not come into play, until everything else from backstory, to personality traits, and ideals, bonds and flaws have been decided.

Other possibilities include playing with pre-generated characters. This is a great option if you’re running or playing in a one-shot adventure. The pre-made characters can be easily tied into the story, and the DM knows what to expect mechanically.

We could also build a character with varying degrees of randomness involved in the process. We might roll for personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws. Maybe we even let the dice decide our race, class, and aspects of our backstory!

Great mechanics as a starting point

But what if we started at the ending? With the mechanics of our character. What if we took a mechanically optimized build as the starting point and created a rich, memorable, and effective character out of it?

The standard approach would be to think of a concept, and then find effective mechanics for it. But in this method, we start with the mechanics. Where can we find optimized builds that inspire us in D&D character creation? Here are three amazing sources for unique builds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons:

Treantmonk’s Temple – https://www.youtube.com/user/sevlevboss
d4: D&D Deep Dive – https://www.youtube.com/c/DDDeepDive
3d6 subreddit – https://www.reddit.com/r/3d6/

Browsing these sources is inspiring in itself. Even beyond character creation, we can pick up unique concepts for NPCs or villains. But when we’re coming up with a new D&D character, we choose a build that seems fun to us from these or other sources. We then strip it of most if not all of its attached lore and flavor. Then we make it our own.

Making an optimized build our own

Focus on the story, be inspired by mechanics

By using a preconceived character build, we can free our mind from mechanical considerations. We can turn our full attention to building the narrative around the character. For example, we can take mechanical aspects of the build and think through what these signify for the character. Where did this mounted battle smith find its mechanical steed? Did they build it themselves? Did they defeat it in battle once and now it is bound to serve the character? Fun mechanics can inspire a rich story.

Choose an interesting race

Sometimes, an optimized build is reliant on a particular choice of race. But with the changes in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, often, that is no longer the case. That means we can often exchange the recommended race for something we like thematically.

Before Tasha’s, certain classes relied on a specific race for their Ability Score Increases. A barbarian usually needs an increase to Strength and/or Constitution to be effective. That left them with few choices such as goliath or half-orc. With the changes in Tasha’s, we can now change the Ability Score Increases to whatever stat we need for our character. The dream of the hobgoblin wizard, the gnome barbarian, or the goliath rogue is finally possible without making the character less effective.

By choosing Custom Lineage from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, we can come up with even more intriguing ancestries for our characters. Maybe their mother was a human but their father an efreeti. As a result the character has human features with a fiery mind, which is channeled into their magic, their skills, or their battle rage. Custom Lineage allows us to gain a +2 increase to an Ability Score of our choice, and a free feat. That option, together with customized Ability Score Increases, leaves plenty of room to make optimized builds our own, by choosing an interesting race.

Choose a unique background

Most of the time, the background is not an essential part of a mechanically optimized build. This leaves us with an obvious avenue for customization. Playing against type is often a fantastic method to create memorable characters. What if our spore-druid-beast-barbarian is actually a sage. The mechanics are all about dealing tons of damage with natural weapons. Maybe the character created these weapons through years of research. Backgrounds are an easy way to bring a min-maxed build to life.

Example: Meemon Northgate

The build: The Guardian by Treantmonk

As an example, let’s say we start with the build called “The Guardian” by Treantmonk. The combination of mechanics of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, the Echo Knight Fighter, and the War Magic Wizard seem unique, fun, and party-focused. Now let’s give some life to this build.

Choosing background and race to create a story

We can imagine a character like this, who is focused on protecting his allies, as a friendly and caring individual. Let’s say they serve in the City Watch of Waterdeep, where they can earn a livelihood protecting others. Let’s call him Meemon – a randomly generated, friendly-sounding name. We change the background of the character to a mix of City Watch Member, Folk Hero, and Urchin.

The Path of Ancestral Guardians calls upon spectral ancestral spirits that aid us in battle. We can portray that in our choice of race. Let’s go with firbolg. It is a comparably rare race, it has strong tribal ties in its lore, and the large physique of firbolgs work well with our barbarian’s martial prowess. We can imagine the character being left in Waterdeep as an infant. We can signify that through Meemon’s last name: Northgate. As an orphan, he had no last name, so the place where he was found works well.

Letting great mechanics inspire the narrative

So, how is Meemon getting access to the mechanical features of the build? Clearly, his firbolg ancestors are present within him. When he rages, they become visible as spectral firbolgs who stride into battle alongside Officer Northgate, protecting those in need. Later on, we can tie the Echo Knight feature into this story. At that point, Meemon gains better control over one spirit in particular. Through that singular ancestral guardian, he can make attacks, and even swap places with them. Our later levels in Wizard can be foreshadowed with an old leather-bound book that was found with Meemon as an infant. The glyphs in it are incomprehensible for now, but later Meemon might decipher some of them and thereby create his personal spellbook.

So we started with an existing mechanical build, “The Guardian.” We then change the background and the race to give a personal touch to the mechanics of the build. Then, we come up with flavorful descriptions and explanations for the abilities of the character. We might have begun with just mechanics, but we ended up with Meemon Northgate, a unique, interesting, and effective D&D character.

How to build a mechanically effective, rich and memorable character

The result of this approach is a D&D character that is both, really effective mechanically, and unique and memorable from a narrative perspective. We can start our character creation process by choosing a min-maxed build, and making it our own. Focus on the story, be inspired by mechanics. Decide how your character acquired the features of the build. Change the race. Change the background. That way, we build a fantastic narrative around the optimized build. In this process, we break the false distinction between optimizer and roleplayer. The two are not mutually exclusive. Great mechanics can inspire great roleplay. If we follow this approach, we create a character that is fun to pilot in battle, and rewarding to portray in roleplay.

What’s next: The Suicide Squad as a D&D Party

In the next few articles, we are going to build the characters from the 2021 movie The Suicide Squad as D&D characters. These player-focused articles diverge from the usual DM advice on this blog. Nonetheless, they can be useful to both players and DMs. Especially forever-DMs should put themselves in their players’ position every once in a while. Also… Character creation can be extremely entertaining, so stay tuned!

In the next article, we begin with Bloodsport – a gunslinger in high-tech armor!