Optimising for all 3 of D&D’s pillars
I’ve written a lot about how to optimise your characters to make them the most effective fighting machines in D&D 5e. This is important as no one wants to be the character that spends half the battle unconscious or the one that contributed almost nothing to a combat encounter.
There’s also a great sense of power that comes from laying on some mad combos that completely turn the tide of battle. I recently had my sorceror twin spell enemies abound, forcing 2 monsters to start causing havoc and killing their allies. It was beautiful carnage that delighted the table and helped turn the tide of a very challenging encounter.
The best character I’ve created
But for all my Shadar-Kai sorceror’s optimisation and prowess in combat, he is not my favourite character. That honour goes to my character in my other campaign. A master of disguise and subterfuge who is a Changeling rogue.
If you’ve read my guide on Changelings, you’ll know that there is nothing about them that improves your characters abilities in combat. However, out of combat, they gain some skill proficiencies and the ability to alter their appearance to pretty much anything humanoid looking which is immensely powerful.
On its own, this has provided a host of interesting role playing and exploration moments. Some of them practical, like impersonating members of a cult. Others have been more amusing, like impersonating our paladin when visiting the order of the radiant heart and getting up to mischief.
To really enhance my Changeling’s ability to impersonate, I opted for the rogue mastermind subclass. This is generally one of the weaker rogue subclasses with mostly poor combat options. Sure, granting advantage to allies as a bonus action is pretty handy, but otherwise, the mastermind gives you little in combat.
Out of combat though, you can mimic speech and have proficiency in creating disguises; abilities that complement a Changeling very well.
The 3 pillars of D&D
While combat (and being effective in combat) is really important, it’s only one pillar of what makes up playing D&D. D&D has actually been designed around 3 pillars; exploration, social interactions and combat (Sly Flourish have a nice little article on this very topic).
While most optimisation guides (mine included) focus on optimising for combat, it can be easy to forget to optimise for exploration and social interactions. And sometimes, these elements can be the most fun. There’s a reason so many people love playing a bard; they’re naturally optimised for all 3 pillars of D&D so you have a role to play almost no matter what you’re doing.
Which brings me back to why I’ve enjoyed playing my Changeling character so much. He, above any other character I’ve played, is thoroughly optimised for social interactions and exploration.
This has pushed us to think less about brute forcing our way through situations, and more about how we get around our problems. This doesn’t always work, but that’s also what makes things so intense. Impersonations and subterfuge make your character vulnerable giving you a high risk, high reward approach to plans, but dammit, it’s such a fun way to play!
Creating characters for social interactions and exploration
So here’s my soapbox moment! Don’t just optimise for combat. Optimise for exploration and social encounters too as this can be even more satisfying than landing those big blows in combat.
This doesn’t even need to come from your abilities. Imagine a fighter or a barbarian, classes that are built primarily for combat. They aren’t optimised for social interactions or exploration. However, your personality can be optimised for these things.
Sometimes, I see players create characters that are a little one note (barbarians can be big offenders here). These characters will punch first and think later. And while this may lean into the barbarians strengths, what tends to happen is the barbarian charges in while the party are still discussing their plan and this steals from the other pillars of D&D.
But your warrior classes do not need to play this way! In fact, many warrior classes in media don’t do this. Geralt from the Witcher often tries to find another way round his problems than just fighting. The same could be said for captain America. And even someone like Gimli, who lacks a bit of finesse, will generally follow the party plan, ready to swing his axe when needed.
So even if you can’t optimise your character for all 3 pillars with abilities, you can still do it with your personality. I love the idea of a philosophical barbarian, the reluctant soldier (Kaladin Stormblessed) or a noble ranger (Aragorn). All these personality types and more can easily be optimised for D&D’s other 2 pillars.
