Should you optimize In D&D 5e?

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[PackTactics]

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[Duskbreaker]

0:12 "I normally assume you have really difficult days"
Ouch, I didn't think Kobold would bring my real life into this

[JustBenUnofficial]

Another note about self nerfing: it can lead to incredibly powerful RP moments. When your back’s against the wall you can drop the proverbial weights and go all out to save the party from disaster.

[seacliff]

I just wished what was optimal matched expected flavors. You would think a Melee Dwarf Fighter with an Axe and Shield would work well enough, and in the context of most DMs it is enough, but in the broader sphere of optimization it sucks. Because any Martial that isn't Human is pretty lacking, with niche cases for Old Kobold and New Bugbear.

[LocalMaple]

I do what I call RoleMax. It’s like MinMax, but puts the character and his roleplay first. If I have a MinMax multiclass—but can’t figure out the backstory, character arc, and how to roleplay—then it’s shelved.

I remember another channel’s top comment was “Coffeelock is a MinMax build only. You can’t make it into a proper character.”
Aisha is an Elven Nurse, using her Divine Soul to ease people’s golden years. One night in the hospice, she heard scratching and muttering coming from a room. When she opened the door, that action broke the ritual circle, releasing a wave of necrotic energy.
When Aisha came to, the hospice was destroyed, and while she alone survived her soul was tainted by Undead energy. The only object to survive: the patient’s Tome.
Aisha journeys to find somebody who can decipher the ritual used and lift her soul’s corruption. Until then, she skips as many Long Rests as possible, focusing on purifying her corrupted soul.

I played Aisha for a Spelljammer campaign. When we had to convince a war-loving alien race to join our armada, the others failed their charisma check. Their leader attacked, so I stepped forward. I cast Hold Person, Silvery Barb’d him to fail, then used Repelling Blast to shove him back into his seat. Before the rest of the party could join the initiative, I spoke: “I can take you on, with skills that any nurse uses to handle unruly patients. Imagine how glorious a battle against trained warriors of my people would be.” My words reached the general, so he accepted our battle plan.

Aisha was not a DPR, at all. But she had Healing Word, Silvery Barbs, Fear and control spells, and could shove with Eldritch Blast to let allies disengage.
She didn’t have awesome battle moments herself aside from Hold Person on that general and the BBEG, but everyone cheered when the Rogue or Paladin used my Silvery Barbs to Crit. She also was an Astral Elf, so she was the party face for several moments.
Aisha is now my second favorite character to play, and is modular enough to fit into any setting or campaign.

[jiiaga]

You should match your table. Read the room.

[SamuelDancingGallew]

"Very scaly, little angry chihuahua..."

I think this might be my favorite description of Kobolds to date.

[iAmEnenra]

Usually at the tables I play at: most of the players have what I would call “light optimization” characters for the most part. So I tend to go towards power that assists to bring the fantasy of my character out, rather than build the fantasy around an optimized build.

But when we do one shots, I usually just try to build as powerful of a character as I can for whatever concept I want to use in the dungeon crawl.

I don’t think there is a one size fits all answer to Optimization at your table. But as another comment said “read the room”

Still love watching optimization content to see the level of power reachable though!

[Found]

I think a lot of popular optimization content differs from this channel in that they go for impact maximization, which is flashier at the tables most people play at with 1-2 encounter days, buffing on the first couple of rounds to triple crit smite overkill the boss by 90 damage is dope. While that stuff is lots of fun, I'm really glad we have this channel and ttb as resources for advice how to survive the extreme adventuring days.

[BestgirlJordanfish]

I mean I think the answer is line up with your table, but it’d be nice if the base game were better balanced around its options, so the gap could be tremendously dropped.

It’s wild how much most alternatives are so well balanced in comparison to 5E.

[gammalolman]

One of my favorite characters is a peacechron (the cleric dip variant). Was able to make an interesting backstory with em, and it's a character others I play with enjoy greatly. Yet too many people spread the information that making an optimized character is a red flag, so I hope that this video can help with destroying that myth.

Personal experience time: people generally feel better if your character is a support character or a controller. Even if in terms of contribution blocking the encounter with Hypnotic Pattern does more than the damage one character deals, people will not mind that because they get an huge headstart. As such, I would say that generally optimizing based on control/support will have a better chance of eneing well than optimizing for damage or similar.

[doodofhype]

I come up with a character idea FIRST and then try and optimize around whatever suboptimal idea I have. I wanted a gauntlet blasting Paladin so I went with sun soul monk. It is fundamentally a BAD multiclass but I’m making it work and I’m having fun. To me that’s optimal optimization.

[jackslack]

This is my favourite video you've done and easily the most helpful to me. See, I'm not much of an optimiser -- I may borrow some fun ideas here and there but overall I'm in the Low to Mid optimisation tiers as a player. (This puts me above one of my comrades who I would fairly classify as an no optimiser, deliberately building terrible characters because they enjoy the flaws more than the strengths.) But the reason I follow this channel and TTB is because as a DM, I want to know what players might throw at me and how to cater to people who play very differently as myself! I found the 'three types of optimisation' discussion very helpful in particular. My question would be this: For a DM in (say) an Adventurer's League type situation, where they have new players each week and only a short time to assess, what questions would be the most helpful to assess what someone wants from a game if they're an optimiser?

[absolutleynotanalien]

Coby from D4 dnd deep dive always gives his builds some kind of story so obviously it's possible.

[Godzillawolf]

I think another important thing to consider is that you should also consider the relative skill level of your fellow players.

I've had to deal with a optimizer power gamer in my first campaign, but the issue is a large percentage of the players were newbies, myself included, who were still learning the game, and most of the party wasn't close to optimized, and the DM was a long time player, first time DM. The power gamer did also make his PC important to the setting. End result was most of the party having nothing to do in combat because he kept killing everything his first turn. That was not fun.

Personally, I'm someone who values my character's characterization over what is optimal, but will do both if it fits them. One of my PCs Acias, was a Cleric who had no idea what a Cleric was (Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, no Divine classes in 300+ years) and in terms of her actual personality and fighting style was more suited for a rogue. So she was a Grave Cleric who was the party infilitrator. Optimal? No, fun? Yes. She was also an Aarakocra, which I nerfed by giving her a backstory reason and mental block that meant she rarely flew when others were watching and hid her wings most of the time. She overcame that block, but it made her more balanced at lower levels.

On the other hand, my Battlemaster Fighter/Paladin for a werewolf campaign was optimized to a degree because I know the DM and knew competence was expected from our PC and he's basically a 'hard mode DM.' So Gemma was made to be an experienced soldier (if rusty from retirement) who knew what she's doing and was very skilled.

[takua]

I thought this video was just going to be about optimizing for combat so I loved that you touched on the different ways you can power game. Also a fun example of a character optimized for role-playing can be seen in Dimension 20: A court of Fae and Flowers. Most characters are built specifically for social interactions and not for fights.

[wesleyjudson]

Here's the thing about D&D 5e.
If its played with 6-8 encounters at medium level difficulty, or a few encounters at higher level of difficulty, most classes will play just fine. Usually, there's one or two ways to make every class perform much better than the standard "move forward & make attacks" gameplan.

Recently, because I've played D&D 5e so much, I've started randomly generating my characters, including my ability scores. I'm playing a dexterity-based paladin character with +0 to their charisma modifier. In the first session, the party met two dragon riders, and my character, who is a Glory paladin, was the first to confront them.

Even with my "terrible" build, the 1st level party did just fine. Turns out, good rolls, proficiency in persuasion, and good roleplay is enough to circumvent many dangerous encounters. And the same can be said for most other classes and options.

In other words, D&D 5e is normally very easy, so optimizing is only important when;
a. The GM is building encounters for optimized characters.
b. The rest of the party is optimized.

[TechtonixZi]

I help people build MTG commander decks, and I ask them what they want to use and how they want it to play. I then show them optimized cards and ways of playing to that strat, but I always ALWAYS tell them "it's your cards and your deck, you can play or use anything you want, as long as you enjoy it, you win!" It's something I try to live by, I optimize what I choose, and sometimes the flavor just has me vibing. I appreciate that message you put into these videos. great work!

[vlrze]

I play a 5e game with some of my friends, we're all new to the game, and we have 1 to 2 encounters per day maximum. I still watch this channel and learn about optimization regardless because I like to learn about the game. Also, Love the content!

[justsomejerseydevilwithint]

I think it's okay to do what you would in an RPG Casual playthrough; Lean into your build, make sure you take strength weapons for your barbarian, maybe upgrade them when you can, and take strength-based feats, the jist, but don't minmax, per se. It's okay to use an axe talisman on your strength build, but maybe don't put on three different hats while giving yourself 3 different status effects to pump your damage and oneshot the boss, if that metaphor makes sense to anyone. It's okay to use a sneak attack rogue, but maybe don't go full gremlin with it.