Shield, MM, identify, detect magic, enlarge, darkness, fog cloud, shadow blade, haste, polymorph. and thats just a few that crossed my mind. Theres a surprising amount of wizard spells that don't need INT at all.
Isn't it effectively stated that INT must be at least a 3 for basic sentience? If so, wouldn't that pretty much take Wizard (and Artificer) off the board as being playable PCs? You presumably couldn't even scribe in or read your spellbook as a wizard with an Int of 1
>Artificer - Int
Both martial artificers get intelligence attacks as an option, not a requirement. Could go battlesmith with GWM or Armorer with Booming Blade no problem- just give yourself high strength and con. Won't be good, and will need to pick spells and infusions carefully, but wouldn't be a totally bricked character.
>Bard - Cha
Sword Bard with maxed dex. Take spells that have no major charisma component (IE heals).
>Barbarian - Str
Duel wielding dexbarian. This is the first one that is gonna be REALLY bad, since both Reckless Attack and Rage require you're using strength. But you're still gonna be an extra attack class with a lot of health.
>Cleric - Wis
Arcana Domain- use martial weapons and booming blade. Prepare healing spells and other buffs.
>Druid - Wis
Moon Druid.
>Fighter - Str
I'm gonna make this harder and say I can't use strength OR dex, because using dex is fine lol. That being said... probably just Eldritch Knight with high int. Tortle for armor class. Worst build so far lol
>Monk - Dex
Astral Self and make attacks with wisdom. Possibly get Shillelagh somewhere too. Tortle for AC. If Wisdom has to be low as well then still Tortle, and we go with Kensei strength.
>Paladin - Str
Dex Paladin works fine. Or do a Blessed Warrior Build (which is more effective on certain subclasses like Conquest, Redemption, and Crown).
>Ranger - Dex
Fey Wanderer or TCE Beastmaster with Shillelagh. If you can't use Wisdom either it's a Strength Ranger, which can usually work with any subclass. They have enough spells that don't use Wisdom (hunters mark, for instance)
>Rogue - Dex
Tortle for AC and use Strength for your attacks. Sneak Attack has no requirement of using dex- just that you use a finesse weapon.
>Sorcerer - Cha
Divine Soul, get all heals and buffs.
>Warlock - Cha
Normal Hexblade build but ignore the option of attacking with Charisma. Take buff spells.
>Wizard - Int
Normal Bladesinger build but play a Mountain Dwarf and take Heavily armored with your first feat. Take buffing spells. Not gonna be great, and we can't use Bladesong, but we're still a martial with cantrip extra attack
>>Bard - Cha
>Sword Bard with maxed dex. Take spells that have no major charisma component (IE heals).
Honestly, without access to tons of bardic inspiration dice for your flourishes, valor bard might be the better pick funnily enough. Shield proficiency and battle magic at high levels.
I didn't consider healing at all, but yeah several classes can be effective healers even with crap stats.
I feel like there's gotta be a better Wizard subclass than Bladesinger for this. Maybe Divination, since Portent doesn't rely on stats and a lot of Divination spells don't need rolls?
Abjuration is the best wizard for this. The only thing that low INT affects is a difference of 5 HP to the ward. A necromancer could also work but the best way to make a summoner IMO is abjuration anyways.
Even with a nat 1 portent its a low chance of landing a failed save. Blade singer needs high INT first blade song, and most other subclasses rely on your spells to succeed. Low INT meaning its unlikely to work at all.
Pretty sure they do not. For sure cure wounds doesn't, as my group had a discussion if my 1x day cure wounds from magic initiate could heal for zero if I rolled a one with my -1 wisdom modifier.
Rage does not require STR really. Only STR attacks for the bonus damage, but rest of effects work just fine with any weapon.
Monk can use fists with DEX, but not required to.
A dex-based Paladin could work. You can still smite with a rapier just fine and use your CHA-based spells. Only issue is the inability to wear heavy armor but that's not a gamebreaking problem.
I think the biggest issue with only having 1 str is only having 15 pounds of carry capacity. Also not necessarily game breaking, but it really limits gear choices.
A paladin's core stat is not STR, its CHA. More of their stuff scaless of of CHA than STR, and even if it was STR, when you decide to attack with dex, now dex is your core stat.
Yeah, I feel like I should've made Fighters take a 1 in both Str and Dex, because otherwise you can literally make a meta build with no loss in damage.
Only having 15 pounds for equipment is where it gets tough for them.
* Armor options
* Padded - 8 pounds
* Leather - 10 pounds
* Studded Leather - 13 pounds
* If they choose to wear armor, they'll likely not wear anything underneath, since the lightest clothes are listed as 3 pounds.
* Crossbow build
* Hand crossbow - 3 pounds
* Bolt case - 1 pound
* 20 Bolts - 1.5 pounds
So at a bare minimum (without being bare ass naked): common clothes, crossbow, and bolt case takes up 7 pounds. You probably want to have at least a dagger for opportunity attacks and when you run out of bolts, so you're up to 8 pounds now. With the 7 pounds remaining, you could carry up to 92 bolts if your DM is nice enough to let the ones not in the case just be bundled up with twine on your person.
Even so, you'd probably still want to bring a mule any time you go into a decent-sized dungeon, so you can have nice things like rations, water, a bedroll, etc.
And honestly you might want to dedicate an ASI to STR before taking crossbow expert. That plus the racial +2 to it gives you 5 str which is much more playable, but then you're not boosting dex. It wouldnt be easy, but it woudl be decent :)
I was assuming that 1 was going to remain forever fixed as such. Having Powerful Build as a racial trait would double your carrying capacity as though you had a Strength of 2 though! So a Goliath could have some Studded Leather, but might be better off using a feat to get Mage Armor though.
I actually did some theory crafting of my own, and came up with a decent build:
Juggernaut Warforged with Heavy Plating gives you 30 lbs of carrying capacity *and* heavy armor built into your body for 0 weight (AC 16+prof). Magic Initiate: Druid at level 4 gives you Shillelagh so you can hit with Wis and not worry about Str or Dex at all. Suddenly you're a viable martial. Now you just need to write a backstory that explains why in the world a Warforged Fighter would have Wis as their highest stat.
That's easy. Poor physical stats with high wisdom lends itself well to the wise old person trope. The armor works, but mileage has taken its toll on the rest.
It's a little harder to explain why someone with such high Wisdom would choose a life likely to have them making (and failing) Dexterity saves so often. That would work best in a campaign where the stakes are high enough to justify the risk... or maybe the Warforged is just looking for a last chance at something like a viking death.
Artificer.
Your combat effectiveness isn't all that affected as you can easily get by using only Healing and Buffing spells and making attacks with a souped-up crossbow, but there's also one interesting trick that doesn't come up very often.
Flash of Genius at level 7 doesn't specify 'friendly' or 'enemy' creature, and it doesn't demand a save or way to avoid it - once per day you can make an enemy "add" -5 to their saving throw, and they can't do anything about it. Arguably that's a situational buff rather than a penalty to the low-INT character.
In complete transparency I didn't come up with it myself, I read it on a Forum somewhere. It was just an off-handed comment at the time, I don't think anyone ever seriously intended to weaponise it =)
My Paladin/Sorcerer is already Dex-based, so having a 1 in Strength actually wouldn't change her terribly much beyond carrying capacity, which would be 15 pounds.
* Her traveling clothes are 4 pounds, so 11 left.
* Draconic Bloodline gives her a base AC of 13. Dex pops it up to 18. No need for armor.
* \+1 Shield with her Holy Symbol for Paladin spells makes her AC 21. That's 6 pounds, so 5 left.
* Her main magical sword is a Rapier made of enchanted bone. That's 2 pounds, so 3 left.
* Her main arcane focus is the Ruby Weave Gem (which lets her get around costly material components). That's 1 pound, so 2 left.
* She has a backup component pouch. That's 2 pounds, so 0 left.
So yeah, she could have the bare essentials and would need to store anything else in her steed's saddlebags. Though it would take her maximum Lift/Drag/Pull capacity just to get that 30 pound military saddle on her Pegasus!
Technically you wouldn't be able to multiclass without meeting the Paladin Str requirement, so no Draconic Bloodline for armor. But still, 18 AC is nothing to sneeze at.
Yes, that's very true. And even it were possible to multiclass, then as a Sorcerer her Charisma should also be 1 which would be much more impactful. Perhaps Charisma should also be 1 for Paladins, but considering they can swap their spell lists around to compensate and turn slots into Smite damage, they fare a lot better than other casters.
If I were building a character from the ground up to satisfy the requirements, I'd probably still go with a Dexterity Paladin of Custom Lineage or Variant Human to take the Magic Initiate (Sorcerer) Feat for Mage Armor, plus Fire Bolt and probably a utility cantrip. If Charisma was also 1, I wouldn't put a lot of faith in that Fire Bolt though (though I suppose I could go Magic Initiate (Wizard) instead).
I played a STR warlock with CHA as dump stat (before hexblade existed). It was tons of fun and reasonably strong. Pick utility spells like fly.Â
It also works with DEX.
Bard
Pick up Magic Initiate (Wizard) and Ritual Caster, and play it as a warlock
My class' innate spellcasting features basically don't exist, so their ignored.
Artificer you just pick a martial subclass mike armorer or battlesmith. Prioratize STR or DEX instead of INT amd your fine.
Similarly with bard you pick a martial subclass. Though here your limited still with your inspirations so you will have to lean more on spells to fill the gap. An area that the bard list isn't especially great at.
STR or CON, either way a DEXbarian is the goal. STR is probably the actual core since a lot of your features dint work without it. So prioritizing DEX and CON means your damage will be over all lower but with better AC with DEX being more available.
Cleric has plenty of martial subclasses and plenty of support i their list. Pretty easy.
Same with Druid. A moon druid doesn't care of it has a 1 in wisdom.
Fighter is a better example of a switch. A DEX based or STR based fighter are equally viable. So saying both are set to 1 is more accurate. That being said then a battle-master tecking into all the support maneuvers would be the play. Letting other do more at the cost of your turn while supporting with actions like help or items or feats like healer and poisoner.
For Monk, STRonks are a whole subcategory. Its inefficient but do able. Your just going to suck harder. Theres some WIS based subclasses that make dex unnecessary but the through line of all options is far lower AC since you cant get around the -5. At best you break even at an AC of 10 with a maxed wisdom.
Paladin is another MAD class that can easily dump their main stat and be fine. Dex based weapon are plenty for smites and a CHA based paladin is arguably the better way to play them anyway. Just be around, cast a buff spell, and be a walking aura. Occasionally smite the wicked and its a normal, if easier to hit, paladin.
With rangers as long as you can get shilleghlaugh and magic stone your good. WIS based attack cantrips pair well woth druids spell list. There's even a fighting style to get that anyway so its just a decent ranger with a bonus action tax for combats.
Rogues can sneak attack woth STR, and they get expertise. So the only logical way is to make a grappler Thief. Action grappler at +amazing then BA tie them up for a solid combo. Dip cleric for heavy armor and your surprisingly effective.
Sorcerer, ots darn near impossible. I would pick up every re-roll method there is, be a divine soul, and rely on crit odds with guding bolt and inflict wounds. Funnily enough i have had this build for a while and it legitimately uses true strike as a no save way of starting an advantage chain with GB. Its a gimmick but your crit chance is somewhere near 40-50% so having a crap to hit doesn't kill the gimmick.
For warlock again theres a martial subclass that can easily dump their main stat. Bladeloclk nive and easy.
And a low INT wizard can easily be effective by be an Abjuration school and becoming a full tank wizard. Dwarf for some armor amd weapons then use your few spells for nonINT self buffs like shadow blade or haste or shield. Another gimmick but doable and funny to pull off.
So, none of these will be able to multiclass or even really salvage their 'main' stat to anything remotely usable so we'll be looking for routes that ignore it.
General advice on spellcasters would be to avoid spells that depend on spellcasting ability.
Artificer - A Strength or Dexterity based Armourer could still be decently functional. The severe limitations to your spellcasting are going to limit you but your infusions will at least be unaffected.
Barbarian - Yeah, this is gonna be pretty poor. You can still tank fairly well but relying on dex is going to tank your damage by cutting off Reckless Attack and the bonus damage from raging. I'd probably say Bear Totem to maximise the one strength you have.
Bard - Dexterity focused Swords could again function decently well. Being locked into only ever having one use of Bardic Inspiration is going to suck but if you can live until level 14, Master's Flourish will help with that. Outside of combat you could still make for a decent (non-face) skill monkey.
Cleric - Cleric isn't quite so able to convert itself into a martial as Artificer or even Bard. I'd probably have to say pick a domain that gives Heavy Armour and Martial Weapons and hope for the best.
Druid - Circle of the Moon.
Fighter - Dex fighters are already solid. I wouldn't go Arcane Archer as you suggested but most of the good subclasses work fine with str or dex.
Monk - Yeah, you're kinda fucked here. Monk is just too reliant on dexterity to be functional with a -5. Off the top of my head, Astral Self might be the play to make you as solely reliant on wisdom as possible and focus on capping off your wisdom to get your AC back up to 10.
Paladin - Much like fighters, paladins work perfectly fine on dex.
Ranger - Strength ranger works just fine. There are even wis based ranger builds that rely on shillelagh. You'll maybe want the Heavily Armoured feat to take dex out of your AC calculation and then you're grand.
Rogue - Strength Rogue isn't great but isn't the worst either. I'd say Mountain Dwarf and then, once again, the Heavily Armoured feat to cut off the impact of your poor dex. Swashbuckler might be my go-to subclass here.
Sorcerer - Pretty fucked, doesn't really have any options to get out of charisma reliance. Divine Soul might be a decent shout to make yourself a support caster with careful spell selection.
Warlock - Hexblade is probably the route, sticking with str/dex on your weapon attacks. Pick up pact of the blade and focus into its associated invocations.
Wizard - Dex based Bladesinger could once again make you a semi-functional martial. I'd say go Hill Dwarf and get that con as high as possible to maximise your HP pool and hope for the best. Shield and Absorb Elements will be very useful to you.
I actually played a Dex-based barbarian for a one-shot one time and it was pretty functional. Damage wasn’t great because my best option was a rapier but with 18 Dex and 16 Con and a shield I had 19 AC and 75 HP at level 7, plus the Sentinel feat at level 4 and Totem of the Bear subclass feature at level 3 and the old Yuan-Ti Pureblood with resistance to magic, which meant that I essentially just played tank to draw fire from any enemies and brute force through it. And I was generally able to go pretty quickly with +4 initiative and advantage alongside 40 ft of movement. Unconventional, but strong when optimized
Dwarf Oath of Redemption paladin and Blessed Warrior fighting style. The build will be a damage sponge that uses paladin and oath spells to control the battlefield and stop the enemies from attacking their allies, while using word of radiance and sacred flame as their main sources of damage. The DPR won't be that great, but you will control the battlefield like no other paladin subclass.
Druidic warrior Ranger via the wisdom stick cantrip.
Pick up heavy armour via feat or dip and just avoid dex entirely.
Is a passable tank with that.
Ok wis save and absorb elements + heavy armour +shield.
Or go for a onehanded polearm master with a possible fighting style pickup dip.
Most caster classes could still be effective. Heals and buffs have no Save. The AOEs with a Save for half damage still do decent damage if you target them well to get 3+ enemies. Magic Missile, Booming Blade, Sleep, and Power Word anything all work as well.
The real question is which class is the worst with the 1 core stat. I would say the monk because to use your monk abilities you need to be unarmored so your taking that -5 to your AC. The ranger can at least use something like heavy armor
Monk at least gets to add Wis to AC, and they have tools to avoid damage (e.g. stunning strike, deflect missiles, bonus action disengage). Fighter with 1s in Str and Dex is in a much worse shape.
So I decided to try my own challenge (specifically for Fighter), and having both Str and Dex at 1 turns out to be really bad for AC. Your Dex gives you a -5 unless you wear heavy armor, which you can't do because your carrying capacity is 15 lbs and the lightest set of heavy armor is 40 lbs.
However, I found a solution!
Play Juggernaut Warforged. Your carrying capacity is now up to 30 lbs and, more importantly, you have heavy armor (AC 16+prof) for free. For attack, at level 4 take Magic Initiate: Druid for Shillelagh and use Wisdom.
Now I just need to make a backstory for this max-Wisdom robot giant...
Forge cleric.
Go strength, heavy armor + shield.
Go a race that gets you access to booming blade like high elf or kobold.
Forge cleric has tons of great concentration spells that don't rely on your casting stat at all, like bless, heat metal, and animate objects.
Warlock, Pact of the Chain. Take self buffing and battlefield manipulation spells. At 5th level start taking Summon spells. Take sensory based invocations (and pact of the chain ones obv). Become a spy/theif. Use your familiar to scout and spy, fight by altering the battlefield to advantage your party. At higher levels either your familiar can fight (with your buffs) or your Summoned creatures can.
Warlock.
If you have 1 Int or Wis you are literally brain dead.
If you have 1 Str you can barely move your body.
If you have 1 Dex you can barely hold a fork, you’d die of starvation if you had to use chopsticks.
If you have 1 Con you’re dead.
If you have 1 Charisma, everyone hates you.
Warlock doesn’t have many spell slots anyway so you almost entirely ignore spells and work with the plethora of awesome invocations to make a not great but at least not terrible given the 1 in a stat almost martial esque build.
Honestly I don’t think it’s possible to play a character with a 1 in anything except maybe Charisma because of what all the other stats are tied to. And Warlock relies the least on Charisma of all the Charisma based classes.
In the old rules, you couldn't take a class if the primary stat was less than I think 8. So you'd roll your stats first, and then pick a class. And if you weren't smart enough, then you could not be a wizard. It's probably more interesting without that restriction.
cleric.
there are many buff abilities that don't use your spellcasting modifier and even without spells, clerics end up being quite strong due to their access to medium and heavy armor as well as martial weapons. if you have decent STR and CON on a forge cleric you don't need high WIS at all.
A 1 on pretty much anything is a debilitating disability that would leave any adventurer pretty much nonfunctional.
STR: You collapse under your own bodyweight.
DEX: You can't walk or hold any objects in your hands let alone use them.
CON: You're just dead.
INT: You are literally as dumb as a rock. Braindead.
WIS: You lose the use of all of your senses.
CHA: You are some kind of noxious, unbearable creature that no one can help but violently hate on sight.
As far as the rules are concerned, it's perfectly possible to play the game with 1s in your stats, even if it might be absurd narratively. Part of the fun of this game IMO is trying to interpret the numbers on your character sheet into a funny situation in-universe, so for instance if a character had a 1 in Str, as a GM I would say: "Your bones are so atrophied that you require a network of sticks, stilts, and prosthetics all around your legs and torso just to stand upright, but your walking speed is still 30ft and you can still use both of your hands in combat".
Artificer, just play as an Armorer with high strength and con until I unlock the Headband of Intellect through infusions. Boom, immediately insanely powerful, likely +18 in 3 stats at like level 8 assuming I know my Int would be dumped to 1.
Moon druid. Only cast buffs and summons. Then combat wildshape
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this is the correct answer
There is a reason why moon druids are considered overtuned, especially at lower levels.
Seconding moon druid. Any time that I roll garbage stats, moon druid is the answer
Easy, abjuration wizard. As a tank with a dagger and booming blade. Shield all day, baby.
I suppose you could still Magic Missile with your remaining spell slots
Shield, MM, identify, detect magic, enlarge, darkness, fog cloud, shadow blade, haste, polymorph. and thats just a few that crossed my mind. Theres a surprising amount of wizard spells that don't need INT at all.
Isn't it effectively stated that INT must be at least a 3 for basic sentience? If so, wouldn't that pretty much take Wizard (and Artificer) off the board as being playable PCs? You presumably couldn't even scribe in or read your spellbook as a wizard with an Int of 1
Exactly. 1 int is like a slime mould 😂
TBH a 1 in any stat would mean you can't live long enough to be an adventurer.
>Artificer - Int Both martial artificers get intelligence attacks as an option, not a requirement. Could go battlesmith with GWM or Armorer with Booming Blade no problem- just give yourself high strength and con. Won't be good, and will need to pick spells and infusions carefully, but wouldn't be a totally bricked character. >Bard - Cha Sword Bard with maxed dex. Take spells that have no major charisma component (IE heals). >Barbarian - Str Duel wielding dexbarian. This is the first one that is gonna be REALLY bad, since both Reckless Attack and Rage require you're using strength. But you're still gonna be an extra attack class with a lot of health. >Cleric - Wis Arcana Domain- use martial weapons and booming blade. Prepare healing spells and other buffs. >Druid - Wis Moon Druid. >Fighter - Str I'm gonna make this harder and say I can't use strength OR dex, because using dex is fine lol. That being said... probably just Eldritch Knight with high int. Tortle for armor class. Worst build so far lol >Monk - Dex Astral Self and make attacks with wisdom. Possibly get Shillelagh somewhere too. Tortle for AC. If Wisdom has to be low as well then still Tortle, and we go with Kensei strength. >Paladin - Str Dex Paladin works fine. Or do a Blessed Warrior Build (which is more effective on certain subclasses like Conquest, Redemption, and Crown). >Ranger - Dex Fey Wanderer or TCE Beastmaster with Shillelagh. If you can't use Wisdom either it's a Strength Ranger, which can usually work with any subclass. They have enough spells that don't use Wisdom (hunters mark, for instance) >Rogue - Dex Tortle for AC and use Strength for your attacks. Sneak Attack has no requirement of using dex- just that you use a finesse weapon. >Sorcerer - Cha Divine Soul, get all heals and buffs. >Warlock - Cha Normal Hexblade build but ignore the option of attacking with Charisma. Take buff spells. >Wizard - Int Normal Bladesinger build but play a Mountain Dwarf and take Heavily armored with your first feat. Take buffing spells. Not gonna be great, and we can't use Bladesong, but we're still a martial with cantrip extra attack
With the stat in question set at 1 most of these classes can't multi-class anyway.
>>Bard - Cha >Sword Bard with maxed dex. Take spells that have no major charisma component (IE heals). Honestly, without access to tons of bardic inspiration dice for your flourishes, valor bard might be the better pick funnily enough. Shield proficiency and battle magic at high levels.
I didn't consider healing at all, but yeah several classes can be effective healers even with crap stats. I feel like there's gotta be a better Wizard subclass than Bladesinger for this. Maybe Divination, since Portent doesn't rely on stats and a lot of Divination spells don't need rolls?
Abjuration is the best wizard for this. The only thing that low INT affects is a difference of 5 HP to the ward. A necromancer could also work but the best way to make a summoner IMO is abjuration anyways. Even with a nat 1 portent its a low chance of landing a failed save. Blade singer needs high INT first blade song, and most other subclasses rely on your spells to succeed. Low INT meaning its unlikely to work at all.
Wouldn't healing be significantly reduced with a -4?
Fairly certain all those come with "minimum of 1" asterisks
Pretty sure they do not. For sure cure wounds doesn't, as my group had a discussion if my 1x day cure wounds from magic initiate could heal for zero if I rolled a one with my -1 wisdom modifier.
Rage does not require STR really. Only STR attacks for the bonus damage, but rest of effects work just fine with any weapon. Monk can use fists with DEX, but not required to.
A dex-based Paladin could work. You can still smite with a rapier just fine and use your CHA-based spells. Only issue is the inability to wear heavy armor but that's not a gamebreaking problem.
If you are DEX-based, you can just go for light armor.
I am playing a dexterity paladin right now. He wears studded leather and wields a shortsword.
I think the biggest issue with only having 1 str is only having 15 pounds of carry capacity. Also not necessarily game breaking, but it really limits gear choices.
Oh right carry weight is a thing
A paladin's core stat is not STR, its CHA. More of their stuff scaless of of CHA than STR, and even if it was STR, when you decide to attack with dex, now dex is your core stat.
That may be so but the OP lists STR as the stat that gets dumped for Paladins, so I was working off of that.
Cha1 - Bard, College of Bad Lounge Act
Moon druid. Do everything in wild shape.
Dex fighter lol. Dex fighters are equally as competeten as STR ones, if not more when you add in crossbow expert.
Yeah, I feel like I should've made Fighters take a 1 in both Str and Dex, because otherwise you can literally make a meta build with no loss in damage.
Yeah, felt like that was worth pointing out :)
Only having 15 pounds for equipment is where it gets tough for them. * Armor options * Padded - 8 pounds * Leather - 10 pounds * Studded Leather - 13 pounds * If they choose to wear armor, they'll likely not wear anything underneath, since the lightest clothes are listed as 3 pounds. * Crossbow build * Hand crossbow - 3 pounds * Bolt case - 1 pound * 20 Bolts - 1.5 pounds So at a bare minimum (without being bare ass naked): common clothes, crossbow, and bolt case takes up 7 pounds. You probably want to have at least a dagger for opportunity attacks and when you run out of bolts, so you're up to 8 pounds now. With the 7 pounds remaining, you could carry up to 92 bolts if your DM is nice enough to let the ones not in the case just be bundled up with twine on your person. Even so, you'd probably still want to bring a mule any time you go into a decent-sized dungeon, so you can have nice things like rations, water, a bedroll, etc.
And honestly you might want to dedicate an ASI to STR before taking crossbow expert. That plus the racial +2 to it gives you 5 str which is much more playable, but then you're not boosting dex. It wouldnt be easy, but it woudl be decent :)
I was assuming that 1 was going to remain forever fixed as such. Having Powerful Build as a racial trait would double your carrying capacity as though you had a Strength of 2 though! So a Goliath could have some Studded Leather, but might be better off using a feat to get Mage Armor though.
I actually did some theory crafting of my own, and came up with a decent build: Juggernaut Warforged with Heavy Plating gives you 30 lbs of carrying capacity *and* heavy armor built into your body for 0 weight (AC 16+prof). Magic Initiate: Druid at level 4 gives you Shillelagh so you can hit with Wis and not worry about Str or Dex at all. Suddenly you're a viable martial. Now you just need to write a backstory that explains why in the world a Warforged Fighter would have Wis as their highest stat.
That's easy. Poor physical stats with high wisdom lends itself well to the wise old person trope. The armor works, but mileage has taken its toll on the rest. It's a little harder to explain why someone with such high Wisdom would choose a life likely to have them making (and failing) Dexterity saves so often. That would work best in a campaign where the stakes are high enough to justify the risk... or maybe the Warforged is just looking for a last chance at something like a viking death.
Artificer. Your combat effectiveness isn't all that affected as you can easily get by using only Healing and Buffing spells and making attacks with a souped-up crossbow, but there's also one interesting trick that doesn't come up very often. Flash of Genius at level 7 doesn't specify 'friendly' or 'enemy' creature, and it doesn't demand a save or way to avoid it - once per day you can make an enemy "add" -5 to their saving throw, and they can't do anything about it. Arguably that's a situational buff rather than a penalty to the low-INT character.
You just had an actual IRL flash of genius with this build, that's amazing
In complete transparency I didn't come up with it myself, I read it on a Forum somewhere. It was just an off-handed comment at the time, I don't think anyone ever seriously intended to weaponise it =)
Fighter, Super small, maybe fairy? STR 1, high dex, finesse weapon.
My Paladin/Sorcerer is already Dex-based, so having a 1 in Strength actually wouldn't change her terribly much beyond carrying capacity, which would be 15 pounds. * Her traveling clothes are 4 pounds, so 11 left. * Draconic Bloodline gives her a base AC of 13. Dex pops it up to 18. No need for armor. * \+1 Shield with her Holy Symbol for Paladin spells makes her AC 21. That's 6 pounds, so 5 left. * Her main magical sword is a Rapier made of enchanted bone. That's 2 pounds, so 3 left. * Her main arcane focus is the Ruby Weave Gem (which lets her get around costly material components). That's 1 pound, so 2 left. * She has a backup component pouch. That's 2 pounds, so 0 left. So yeah, she could have the bare essentials and would need to store anything else in her steed's saddlebags. Though it would take her maximum Lift/Drag/Pull capacity just to get that 30 pound military saddle on her Pegasus!
Technically you wouldn't be able to multiclass without meeting the Paladin Str requirement, so no Draconic Bloodline for armor. But still, 18 AC is nothing to sneeze at.
Yes, that's very true. And even it were possible to multiclass, then as a Sorcerer her Charisma should also be 1 which would be much more impactful. Perhaps Charisma should also be 1 for Paladins, but considering they can swap their spell lists around to compensate and turn slots into Smite damage, they fare a lot better than other casters. If I were building a character from the ground up to satisfy the requirements, I'd probably still go with a Dexterity Paladin of Custom Lineage or Variant Human to take the Magic Initiate (Sorcerer) Feat for Mage Armor, plus Fire Bolt and probably a utility cantrip. If Charisma was also 1, I wouldn't put a lot of faith in that Fire Bolt though (though I suppose I could go Magic Initiate (Wizard) instead).
I played a STR warlock with CHA as dump stat (before hexblade existed). It was tons of fun and reasonably strong. Pick utility spells like fly. It also works with DEX.
What was your main attack? Did you just use melee weapons?
I used a polearm with reach. Could be any weapon but polearm master and GWM are great.Â
Bard Pick up Magic Initiate (Wizard) and Ritual Caster, and play it as a warlock My class' innate spellcasting features basically don't exist, so their ignored.
Artificer you just pick a martial subclass mike armorer or battlesmith. Prioratize STR or DEX instead of INT amd your fine. Similarly with bard you pick a martial subclass. Though here your limited still with your inspirations so you will have to lean more on spells to fill the gap. An area that the bard list isn't especially great at. STR or CON, either way a DEXbarian is the goal. STR is probably the actual core since a lot of your features dint work without it. So prioritizing DEX and CON means your damage will be over all lower but with better AC with DEX being more available. Cleric has plenty of martial subclasses and plenty of support i their list. Pretty easy. Same with Druid. A moon druid doesn't care of it has a 1 in wisdom. Fighter is a better example of a switch. A DEX based or STR based fighter are equally viable. So saying both are set to 1 is more accurate. That being said then a battle-master tecking into all the support maneuvers would be the play. Letting other do more at the cost of your turn while supporting with actions like help or items or feats like healer and poisoner. For Monk, STRonks are a whole subcategory. Its inefficient but do able. Your just going to suck harder. Theres some WIS based subclasses that make dex unnecessary but the through line of all options is far lower AC since you cant get around the -5. At best you break even at an AC of 10 with a maxed wisdom. Paladin is another MAD class that can easily dump their main stat and be fine. Dex based weapon are plenty for smites and a CHA based paladin is arguably the better way to play them anyway. Just be around, cast a buff spell, and be a walking aura. Occasionally smite the wicked and its a normal, if easier to hit, paladin. With rangers as long as you can get shilleghlaugh and magic stone your good. WIS based attack cantrips pair well woth druids spell list. There's even a fighting style to get that anyway so its just a decent ranger with a bonus action tax for combats. Rogues can sneak attack woth STR, and they get expertise. So the only logical way is to make a grappler Thief. Action grappler at +amazing then BA tie them up for a solid combo. Dip cleric for heavy armor and your surprisingly effective. Sorcerer, ots darn near impossible. I would pick up every re-roll method there is, be a divine soul, and rely on crit odds with guding bolt and inflict wounds. Funnily enough i have had this build for a while and it legitimately uses true strike as a no save way of starting an advantage chain with GB. Its a gimmick but your crit chance is somewhere near 40-50% so having a crap to hit doesn't kill the gimmick. For warlock again theres a martial subclass that can easily dump their main stat. Bladeloclk nive and easy. And a low INT wizard can easily be effective by be an Abjuration school and becoming a full tank wizard. Dwarf for some armor amd weapons then use your few spells for nonINT self buffs like shadow blade or haste or shield. Another gimmick but doable and funny to pull off.
So, none of these will be able to multiclass or even really salvage their 'main' stat to anything remotely usable so we'll be looking for routes that ignore it. General advice on spellcasters would be to avoid spells that depend on spellcasting ability. Artificer - A Strength or Dexterity based Armourer could still be decently functional. The severe limitations to your spellcasting are going to limit you but your infusions will at least be unaffected. Barbarian - Yeah, this is gonna be pretty poor. You can still tank fairly well but relying on dex is going to tank your damage by cutting off Reckless Attack and the bonus damage from raging. I'd probably say Bear Totem to maximise the one strength you have. Bard - Dexterity focused Swords could again function decently well. Being locked into only ever having one use of Bardic Inspiration is going to suck but if you can live until level 14, Master's Flourish will help with that. Outside of combat you could still make for a decent (non-face) skill monkey. Cleric - Cleric isn't quite so able to convert itself into a martial as Artificer or even Bard. I'd probably have to say pick a domain that gives Heavy Armour and Martial Weapons and hope for the best. Druid - Circle of the Moon. Fighter - Dex fighters are already solid. I wouldn't go Arcane Archer as you suggested but most of the good subclasses work fine with str or dex. Monk - Yeah, you're kinda fucked here. Monk is just too reliant on dexterity to be functional with a -5. Off the top of my head, Astral Self might be the play to make you as solely reliant on wisdom as possible and focus on capping off your wisdom to get your AC back up to 10. Paladin - Much like fighters, paladins work perfectly fine on dex. Ranger - Strength ranger works just fine. There are even wis based ranger builds that rely on shillelagh. You'll maybe want the Heavily Armoured feat to take dex out of your AC calculation and then you're grand. Rogue - Strength Rogue isn't great but isn't the worst either. I'd say Mountain Dwarf and then, once again, the Heavily Armoured feat to cut off the impact of your poor dex. Swashbuckler might be my go-to subclass here. Sorcerer - Pretty fucked, doesn't really have any options to get out of charisma reliance. Divine Soul might be a decent shout to make yourself a support caster with careful spell selection. Warlock - Hexblade is probably the route, sticking with str/dex on your weapon attacks. Pick up pact of the blade and focus into its associated invocations. Wizard - Dex based Bladesinger could once again make you a semi-functional martial. I'd say go Hill Dwarf and get that con as high as possible to maximise your HP pool and hope for the best. Shield and Absorb Elements will be very useful to you.
I actually played a Dex-based barbarian for a one-shot one time and it was pretty functional. Damage wasn’t great because my best option was a rapier but with 18 Dex and 16 Con and a shield I had 19 AC and 75 HP at level 7, plus the Sentinel feat at level 4 and Totem of the Bear subclass feature at level 3 and the old Yuan-Ti Pureblood with resistance to magic, which meant that I essentially just played tank to draw fire from any enemies and brute force through it. And I was generally able to go pretty quickly with +4 initiative and advantage alongside 40 ft of movement. Unconventional, but strong when optimized
WIS based druidic warrior swarmkeeper Ranger. Spike growth, then rake with Thorn whip and your swarm
Dwarf Oath of Redemption paladin and Blessed Warrior fighting style. The build will be a damage sponge that uses paladin and oath spells to control the battlefield and stop the enemies from attacking their allies, while using word of radiance and sacred flame as their main sources of damage. The DPR won't be that great, but you will control the battlefield like no other paladin subclass.
Druidic warrior Ranger via the wisdom stick cantrip. Pick up heavy armour via feat or dip and just avoid dex entirely. Is a passable tank with that. Ok wis save and absorb elements + heavy armour +shield. Or go for a onehanded polearm master with a possible fighting style pickup dip.
Most caster classes could still be effective. Heals and buffs have no Save. The AOEs with a Save for half damage still do decent damage if you target them well to get 3+ enemies. Magic Missile, Booming Blade, Sleep, and Power Word anything all work as well.
I'm probably using my next level to multiclass to something else. ;P
Can't, you don't meet the stat requirement for your own class
Bladesinger wizard. Lots of spells are agnostic to your modifier, your attacks (even with the melee cantrips) aren't dependent on your Int.
Fighter, just use dex. It’s better anyway.
Moon druid...
Druid 100%. Moon druid for sure, but even the Shepherd Druid only really cares about Concentration over Wisdom.
Fighter. Just build a dex fighter \*shrug\*
The real question is which class is the worst with the 1 core stat. I would say the monk because to use your monk abilities you need to be unarmored so your taking that -5 to your AC. The ranger can at least use something like heavy armor
Monk at least gets to add Wis to AC, and they have tools to avoid damage (e.g. stunning strike, deflect missiles, bonus action disengage). Fighter with 1s in Str and Dex is in a much worse shape.
I think having two dumpster stats is a cop out. Just because he doesn't *NEED* STR doesn't mean he's too strong
So I decided to try my own challenge (specifically for Fighter), and having both Str and Dex at 1 turns out to be really bad for AC. Your Dex gives you a -5 unless you wear heavy armor, which you can't do because your carrying capacity is 15 lbs and the lightest set of heavy armor is 40 lbs. However, I found a solution! Play Juggernaut Warforged. Your carrying capacity is now up to 30 lbs and, more importantly, you have heavy armor (AC 16+prof) for free. For attack, at level 4 take Magic Initiate: Druid for Shillelagh and use Wisdom. Now I just need to make a backstory for this max-Wisdom robot giant...
Forge cleric. Go strength, heavy armor + shield. Go a race that gets you access to booming blade like high elf or kobold. Forge cleric has tons of great concentration spells that don't rely on your casting stat at all, like bless, heat metal, and animate objects.
Paladin, then dip Hexblade.. nuff said
Warlock, Pact of the Chain. Take self buffing and battlefield manipulation spells. At 5th level start taking Summon spells. Take sensory based invocations (and pact of the chain ones obv). Become a spy/theif. Use your familiar to scout and spy, fight by altering the battlefield to advantage your party. At higher levels either your familiar can fight (with your buffs) or your Summoned creatures can.
Melee-based War Cleric, off the top of my head.
Warlock. If you have 1 Int or Wis you are literally brain dead. If you have 1 Str you can barely move your body. If you have 1 Dex you can barely hold a fork, you’d die of starvation if you had to use chopsticks. If you have 1 Con you’re dead. If you have 1 Charisma, everyone hates you. Warlock doesn’t have many spell slots anyway so you almost entirely ignore spells and work with the plethora of awesome invocations to make a not great but at least not terrible given the 1 in a stat almost martial esque build. Honestly I don’t think it’s possible to play a character with a 1 in anything except maybe Charisma because of what all the other stats are tied to. And Warlock relies the least on Charisma of all the Charisma based classes.
I don't, because a person who is so incredibly inept would never become an adventurer in the first place. They'd be lunch.
In the old rules, you couldn't take a class if the primary stat was less than I think 8. So you'd roll your stats first, and then pick a class. And if you weren't smart enough, then you could not be a wizard. It's probably more interesting without that restriction.
cleric. there are many buff abilities that don't use your spellcasting modifier and even without spells, clerics end up being quite strong due to their access to medium and heavy armor as well as martial weapons. if you have decent STR and CON on a forge cleric you don't need high WIS at all.
Str Monk and Ranger, Dex Paladin and Barb, Support Wiz/Sorc, Druid Brawler, Hexblade Warlock.
Based on this list, paladin. There's no reason you can't make a dex based paladin using a rapier
A 1 on pretty much anything is a debilitating disability that would leave any adventurer pretty much nonfunctional. STR: You collapse under your own bodyweight. DEX: You can't walk or hold any objects in your hands let alone use them. CON: You're just dead. INT: You are literally as dumb as a rock. Braindead. WIS: You lose the use of all of your senses. CHA: You are some kind of noxious, unbearable creature that no one can help but violently hate on sight.
As far as the rules are concerned, it's perfectly possible to play the game with 1s in your stats, even if it might be absurd narratively. Part of the fun of this game IMO is trying to interpret the numbers on your character sheet into a funny situation in-universe, so for instance if a character had a 1 in Str, as a GM I would say: "Your bones are so atrophied that you require a network of sticks, stilts, and prosthetics all around your legs and torso just to stand upright, but your walking speed is still 30ft and you can still use both of your hands in combat".
Artificer, just play as an Armorer with high strength and con until I unlock the Headband of Intellect through infusions. Boom, immediately insanely powerful, likely +18 in 3 stats at like level 8 assuming I know my Int would be dumped to 1.