The Skill Raven: A Unique Fighter-Rogue Skill Monkey

This build is an insane skill monkey mixing the skill expertise of the soulknife rogue and the battlemaster fighter to come out with some pretty amazing skills.
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[@pedronascimento9416]

Loved the build… the only thing I would do different is going with 4 lvls of college of eloquence bard instead of battle master.. The extra skill, jack of all trades, expertise, silver tongue and a few cantrips and spells, like mage hand, prestidigitation, minor illusion, invisibility, suggestion, silvery barbs, disguise self and healing words would be huge for this character

[@mortalitydoesstuff8965]

If I'm giving up Elusive at rogue level 18 I'd go 6 levels into bard for either eloquence bard for Unfailing Inspiration and Universal Speech or into swords bard if you want to lean into damage a little more. I would take swords bard but there is value in both

[@pedronascimento9416]

@@mortalitydoesstuff8965 yeah, you’re right, 6 lvl on bard would be better. But I would stick with the College of Eloquence, Silver Tongue is amassing for a sill base character and Universal Speech can be a life saving in some campaigns… besides, I think this is more of a support role then a fighting one… and if I’m being honest, if I’m taking 6 bard levels, I may as well take one more lvl to learn Greater Invisibility and Polymorph

[@mortalitydoesstuff8965]

@@pedronascimento9416 nah, save that for a real caster. Slippery mind is really important. You're not wrong about eloquence bard tho

[@pedronascimento9416]

@@mortalitydoesstuff8965 I don’t know… Greater Invisibility + Sneak Attack is pretty awesome, plus, polymorph is so versatile that I think that fits really well with this character…. Enhance Ability, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Suggestion, Silvery Barbs… I think thar fits really well…

[@bricknolty5478]

Synergizes well with Kenku's mimicry too

[@futurecaredesign]

As far as magic items go, never forget the Gloves of Thievery. +5 to Sleight of Hand and Thieves Tools is unheard of for any other skill check.

[@fortello7219]

I made a battle master, all in, the fighting style, the feat, everything. The ability to add their die to their charisma checks CARRIED the team. Just whole sail. Also the bonus to initiative made a big difference.

[@DnD_Daily]

Often overlooked bonuses, though really awesome 👍 adds a lot of flavor and versatility

[@ericpeterson8732]

The problem with skill monkeys is the tendency to overshadow the other players. I recently played a high level rogue that started as a mastermind rogue that specialized as a medic, medical school dropout turned ship physician (Like Errol Flynn in Captain Blood) So my expertise was in Medicine and Insight and later (@6) in Persuasion and Deception. I actually had to take the skilled feat to get acrobatics and stealth (@10) I eventually retrained my mastermind subclass for something more useful in combat (swashbuckler) and it was fun... for a while. The Reliable talent feature gave me +22 on my 5 or 6 expertise skills and +18 on the rest of them. But automatically making all those skill checks grew boring and ultimately when that character died, I was glad to see it go. I'm a cavalier fighter now and sometimes I miss those successful skill checks but I console myself with three attacks per round.

[@deschaingames1851]

I just thought about this a little bit ago but Phantom Rogue has an interesting synergy with recall. With a little bit of planning, you could have the versatility of a skill monkey with fewer class dips because a random dead guy gives you a free proficiency

[@samuelbroad11]

love this use of Battlemaster maneuvers.

[@deschaingames1851]

I just made a similar character for the campaign I’m in right now. I went Cleric but I took Athletics to use with recall. It was handy having the option to just grapple with advantage.

[@crazy36069]

To make this even better, I would take 5 levels of Ranger after the 1st level of Rogue. You get another skill, another expertise, a Ranger subclass which will be Fey Wanderer for another Skill Proficiency, better Charisma (because we add Wisdom to our charisma skill proficiencies), and we get extra attack, Hunter’s Mark and Dreadful Strikes to add to our DPR, along with some spells to add to our already amazing utility. We can also add a level in Cleric or Druid or take some feat to get Guidance to always add a d4 to every skill check we make.

[@MrClawBoy]

I have a half-elven Arcane Trickster, Knowledge Domain, Fey Wanderer with the Archeologist Background as a really well rounded skill monkey, party diplomat, striker, and off healer.

[@joshuadefriese1907]

This is a very unique build, and I LOVE all that it’s capable of doing with just a little bit of focus in either area. Levels in either class are going to heighten your skills and damage capabilities, and you’re never without great options for solving problems. Keep up the great builds!

[@RecklessFables]

0:22 Larry Elmore classic art. His models were folks he knew, sometimes other artists, often other players.

[@crownlexicon5225]

Reminds me of my swashbuckler/Lore bard. He's currently only 3/3, but the plan is 11/9. As a half elf, I can get 2 skills (though I chose to get a cantrip instead. Booming blade really helps with my hit and run melee style), 2 from background, 4 from rogue, 1 from bard, and 3 from Lore bard. If you're playing in AL you could take Skilled at level 1 for 3 more skills or (what I would do instead) take the 2 skills from half elf and take magic initiate at level 1 instead for booming blade and your other favorite cantrip and 1st level spell. If you're gonna focus purely on skills, 2 from half elf, 2 from background, 4 from rogue, 3 from skilled, 4 from bard/Lore, for 15 total skills. If you go scout rogue, that's 2 more with expertise. That would be 17 of the 18 skills. And you could always take skill expert for the last one plus another expertise.

[@xvader9445]

Awesome build!!!! Because you didn't use Human Variant or Custom Lineage and took advantage of other racial features shows great creativity.

[@theedwardstewart]

3 Ranger (Fey Wanderer) / 3 Rogue (Scout) / 1 Cleric (Knowledge) Start as a Half-Elf. You can dump Charisma and crank your Wisdom with this build. You would have 14 skills by 7th level. For feats, I'd go with Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, and Elven Accuracy. This makes you a solid striker on top of being a skill monkey. Then you could take skilled, skill expert, and/or prodigy to get all the skills. Could go Variant Human and take the skilled feat instead at level one. That'd put you at 16 skills by 7th level.

[@LoadedFPS]

Thank you for your amazing builds as always!

[@Grooveworthy]

I played a dex battlemaster in a modded dragonheist campaign for quite a while. In a social intrigue-heavy game, Tactical Assessment was an excellent feature to pick up. Optimizing for damage is cool and all, but having a couple diverse non-combat options enriches your game overall, and usually barely scratches your dpr

[@xvader9445]

This makes me want to play a Kenku Rogue. Seems interesting from level 1 which is really hard to do

[@benry007]

Plus the new Kenku is less annoying then the old one😂

[@samuelreese1816]

This is great, the only thing I'd change is make them a changeling. Experts in face skills. I built mine before soul knife, but it's a changeling scout rouge4, knowledge cleric1, lore bard...I'm not sure of the level placement off the top of my head, but you end up with proficiency in all skills, and expertise in 10, added jack of all trades. I think it required the skill expert and prodigy feats

[@coombscharlie]

Menacing Attack is useful if a melee opponent is too close.

[@wadeosborn9919]

I’m a DM that leans heavily on skills and tools

[@Legend-gu6yp]

Badass build

[@paulkoch8650]

Another option would be to get 3 levels in Fey Wanderer ranger. This would let you prioritize Wisdom over Charisma, but still have the bonus to all Charisma checks. Just a thought.

[@Battleguild]

Homebrew Fighting Style: Oath Weapon You have trained yourself to use a singular weapon at the exclusion of all other weapons. When you choose this fighting style, choose one weapon that you are proficient with. While you have this fighting style, you lose proficiency with all other weapons and the proficiency bonus with attacks you make with the chosen weapon are doubled instead.

[@DigDoug56]

I stumbled into a weird skill junky build the other day: DEX primary, Wis secondary, PYF third but not CHR. 3 lv astral monk 3 lv fey wanderer 14 rouge PYF (inquisitive will synergies with high WIS) Astral monk allows (when arms active) to use WIS for all STR saves and checks (grappling, jumping, climbing) and fey wander lets you add WIS for all CHR checks all the time. Rouges get skills up the wazoo and expertise and you still benifit from STR and CHR proficiency in skills because you are still making that type of check just either adding wis on top or using in place. Would love to see the progression on this. Thinking dual wielding fighting style from the ranger and some form of free disengage so you can bonus action attack second target (fey wanderer extra damage is limited to once per creature not once per turn)

[@DigDoug56]

Would love to see your take on this build. 3 multiclass that isn’t MAD seems rare

[@SasukeX53]

What about a Astral self monk and soul-knife rogue? Focusing on rogue and getting your main abilities off the bat with skills and focus mainly on rouge. Monk would be at least 7 levels mainly to gain access to Visage of the Astral Self so you can have advantage on insight checks and intimidation, making you a pretty good intimidator for gathering information. Along with the base abilities of the monk with ki you can also have more agile abilities and can use the dodge action as a bonus action if needed. Dex may be alittle low but thats nothing a few feats and ability score improvements cant fix. Other reason i say at least level 7 monk is for Stillness of Mind so you don't have to worry about being charmed or frightened. Rogue: In the end sneak attack will be a 7d6 at level 13 so even if you don't do alot of damage with what ever weapon you choose, sneak attack will help greatly, Evasion will help with the aoe dex saves and cunning dodge well help mitigates damage. You will have 4 skills to choose from at the start and will be be better with Expertise. Have the ability to go invisible with Psychic Veil, Ability to teleport and telepathy is always fun. Monk: Will get profeciency with simple weapons and short swords, but mainly simple weapons so you have more options to have if you don't want to use psychic blades from soul-knife rogue. You will also get astral arms that would reach up to 10 ft, gain access to Extra Attack, and have a Visage of Astral Self: allowing sight in in darkness (normal and magical), advantage on insight and intimidation, and the ability to speak to an individual and only have one being spoken to be the only one who hears the words, or alternitively make your voice booming loud.

[@mortalitydoesstuff8965]

the flavor is really cool but I'd personally never multiclass this way. Monk needs as many levels as possible in order to be functional, and here you're stopping on Evasion which both classes get from this multiclass, same thing with bonus action movement (although in this case it's actually ok bc it saves you some ki points but its still not worth it). Problem is, more levels into monk less levels into rogue. You can see where I'm going with this.

[@SasukeX53]

@@mortalitydoesstuff8965 Honestly it can go either way. You can go more rogue or you can go more monk, it depends on the type of character you are trying to make. With rogue there is a higher increase to sneak attack either melee distance or ranged distance attack. I was more focused on the "skill Raven" aspect. Being more Rogue accomplishes this with two expertise's, and thats not counting Skill Expert feat. Not only useful with tools but also being a stealth intel gatherer, but also a interrogator, and infiltrator by using the higher soul knife ability. Monk will have less abilities but enough to do --- This kind of build would need to take alot of strategy as you have to manage psi points and ki points. Ki would be more used for dodging and movement and the situational interrogation if it can be done at that time. If you are in a fight clearly using ki to get those spectral arms out is important as it lasts for 10 minutes with no concentration. While the psi points will give you more freedom as it is a number to twice you proficiency bonus once you hit level 13 as a character your PB would be +5 meaning you will have a pool of 10 psi points; and there is alot you can do with those points which gives you more skill raven goal.

[@SenseiSourNutt]

I think I've built a pretty crazy damage build. Correct me anyone if I've messed something up here. Bugbear (new version) Gloomstalker 5/Fighter 2 Glaive or Halberd PAM and GWM feats. Round one of combat goes as such Two attacks, Plus an extra gloomstalker attack, plus a bonus action attack from PAM, action surge, Two attacks, plus bonus attack from gloomstalker (wording is kind of vague here, but even without that extra one attack its wild) Now let's say you hit with all these (which you should if you're in darkness as a gloomstalker with that sweet advantage) and they were all gwm -5/+10 attacks, you should get somewhere around (assuming good rolls and max str) 136+16d6+7d10+1d8+1d4 if i did my math right. At level 7. This only gets crazier if you have a +2 weapon which isn't unreasonable at level 7, or even a +1 weapon

[@saltypork101]

Bards with a single level dip in peace cleric are great skill monkeys - you just turn the rest of your party into a bunch of skill monkeys using guidance, emboldening bond, bardic inspiration, and the help action. Once you hit bard 5, you can take a 3 level dip in Warlock for pact of the talisman on top of all that. But don't stop there. Put these two characters together, and they'll be reliably hitting DCs of 30+ when you really need to!

[@DracosDiabolis]

What a awesome build ☕️

[@sage7172]

☕️

[@joeydk]

Kenku hype! :p

[@morganpetros9635]

You actually don't need much in CHA to be a really effective party face as a Soul Knife rogue. Between proficiency, expertise (and you really only need Persuasion and one of the other two social skills to be effective) and Psi-Powered Knack, you should be able to cover nearly all situations with CHA 10 quite reliably ... especially once you've got Reliable Talent. What I would suggest keying on after DEX is CON for hit points (rogues are squishy) and WIS for save bonuses and Perception. Unlike earlier versions of the game where you needed INT for skill points, in 5e (at least RAW) you can safely dump that stat (read the description of Investigate in PH Chapter 7, p. 178; it doesn't actually help you find traps, just put clues together or do library research and the like).

[@CosmicBingo]

Instead of multiclassing, you could just take the fighting initiate and martial adept feats without missing any rogue progression.

[@StriderZessei]

Rogue 1 -> Gloomstalker 3 -> Soulknife. Half-Elf, granting 2 proficiencies. Ranger grants another one, the always-useful Disguise Self, and amazing stealth abilities in darkness, plus a bit more damage and a fighting style.

[@spookwoop1295]

I remember making a build that had proficiency in all skills except for one. I think it used the old UA Scout subclass for Fighter. As such I don't think it would count as being within RAW, but still

[@adamkaris]

scout rogue on its own can have over half by level 3. And if you mc into lore bard you can have almost all by 6. And definitely all by 8 with feats (4/4 level split)

[@TheFuzzyDoctor]

I am hoping to run a Kenku with this build and my DM is allowing a Point Buy System. What should I dedicate points and levels into? The DM is apparently starting the Campaign with everyone at level 5.

[@RoninXDarknight]

Kenku, 17 Soulknife/3 College of Lore Bard. Extra proficiency/expertise from Bard and with a couple of feats and a couple of skills from a background and you can have proficiency in every skill, expertise in 6 skills, w/at will advantage on all skill checks proficiency times per long rest, the ability to add a D12 to any of your own skill checks 2x proficiency times per long rest while also subtracting a D6 from whomever your target is charisma modifier times per long rest. Combined w/reliable talent and the lowest you can role on any skill check before modifiers is an 11. And if you wanna be really extra, toss in Lucky for at will advantage 3 more times per day. Also, Bard gives you 2 cantrips and 6 magic spells to play with just for shits'n'giggles...so grab Enhance Ability to get 1 hour of advantage on all skills for a particular modifier. Disguise Self & Gift of Gab are probably on theme here too.

[@NobodyDungeons]

So, when it comes to fighter rogue multiclassing I personally think the echo knight fighter is king. The reason being is that with three levels in echo knight fighter you can summon, and attack from the echo's position which lets you do all sorts of fun things. My favorite thing to do is to just force surprise every round by remaining hidden by attacking from your echo's position which is especially powerful when mixed with assassin rogue giving you consistent critical sneak attacks every round. I personally like getting the eldritch adept, and the ritual caster feat for unlimited disguise self and access to find familiar and unseen servant.

[@Ramme86]

eeeh.. bard ? :D

[@danf4635]

this is a ridiculous way to approach D&D. just play a video game if this is how youre gonna do it lol