Minimalist X-Men Builds

[grarrrg]

Got roped into a game, was spit-balling horrible/dumb character ideas with another player > "see how long it takes the DM to notice what stupid thing we're doing".
(For the record, my *hem* "favorite" idea was four Bards in a band. Tiefling on Bass, Tabaxi on drums, and a pair of Astral Elves on Guitar and Vocals)

Started discussing what classes/races it would take to build the X-Men. It's a level 1 start, so most of these are pretty 'quick and dirty' and only really planned to level 3 tops, with a couple exceptions. These are NOT meant to be optimized, just the bare minimum to get the point across.
Feel free to add your own.

Easy joke first:
Cyclops
Warlock, I CAST ELDRITCHOPTIC BLAST. End of joke.

[General Psychic Character]
Human(Variant), starting Feat either Telepathic or Telekinetic. Some variety of Full-casting class (leaning Sorcerer for limited/dedicated spells known), specializing in mind-control and/or telekinesis flavored spells. Should have a moderate WIS score regardless for 'psychic defense'
Two notable standouts: Jean Grey/Phoenix also uses Fire spells. Emma Frost has a single level of Barbarian > Rage=Diamond form, loses 'psychic'(casting), but gets tough and strong.

Angel
Pick a flying race, done.

Beast
Too many options that only semi-fit. Tabaxi (feline, claws), Satyr/Harengon (animal-human, jumping), Bugbear (general appearance/general abilities). Artificer or Fighter levels.

Bishop
Whatever lets you cast Absorb Elements the most.

Colossus
Goliath Barbarian, huge damage resistant melee powerhouse.
OR VHuman Fighter with Heavy Armor Master feat for a less-huge damage resistant melee powerhouse.

Gambit
Sun Soul Monk 3, fights with a stick, unlimited 'cards' to throw (and see if your DM will allow you to use CHA instead of WIS).

Iceman
Draconic Sorcerer 3 for Cold Resist and Transmuted Spell (COLD!)

Magneto
Counts as a 'Telekinetic Psychic'

Nightcrawler
Low-level Eladrin (teleport) Rogue 2 for Cunning Action>Disengage/Hide.
Mid-level Tiefling (appearance) Monk of Shadow 6 for unlimited Shadow-Step.

Psylocke
Soulknife Rogue 3, see also "general psychic character".

Rogue
Lots of ways to do pieces of Rogue, but no real way to do the "drain abilities" properly, at least not at low levels. Can get Flying, Strong/Tough, Life-drain spells, various abilities (wild-shape), etc... But not all at once.
Added "Oh sweet irony!", lots of classes can contribute something, but "Rogue" itself winds up being a fairly bad match.

Storm
Storm Sorcerer

Wolverine
Regeneration makes this one of the trickier ones to do at low levels. We settled on Tabaxi (Claws/appearance) Druid(Circle of Moon) 2/Barbarian 1+. Wild Shape gives 'extra HP', and you can burn spell slots while Wild Shaped to heal (or just cast Cure Wounds after a fight).

Easy joke last:
Jubilee
Sidekick>Spellcaster 1, Spells known Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, Color Spray.

[Evaar]

Well it's a shame you're only going to 3, because a Tiefling Horizon Walker Ranger at level 11 is exactly Nightcrawler.

[grarrrg]

Well it's a shame you're only going to 3, because a Tiefling Horizon Walker Ranger at level 11 is exactly Nightcrawler.

I have no idea how long the game will go.

But for the sake of "builds to mess with the DM", the sooner it does its "thing" the better.
I just picked level 3 as the 'high' point because that's when all the Subclasses are online.
(we did decide against X-Men, mainly because we'd have to get more than the 2 of us onboard to really get the idea across)

I called out Shadow Monk 6 because that was the earliest 'no limit teleport' I could find.

[Unoriginal]

(we did decide against X-Men, mainly because we'd have to get more than the 2 of us onboard to really get the idea across)

Did you decide on anything else?

There are a lots of duos that could be used.

Ex: Mario & Luigi.

[grarrrg]

Did you decide on anything else?

There are a lots of duos that could be used.

Ex: Mario & Luigi.

Not all of the stupid ideas were existing characters.

In the end I decided to go easy on the DM, and mess with the other players instead.
Went with a Cleric, pretending to be a Bard that's pretending to be a Cleric.
Entertainer background for the Instrument, Magic Initiate feat for Bard spells (that aren't on the Cleric list), Knowledge Domain for Skills and more Bard-spells.
Rolled stats, wound up with two 17's (V-Human up to 18's), dropped them into WIS and CHA. The rest of the stats are good enough for a casting focused build.

"Hello, my name is Claire, Rick Claire. I will be your Healer guy today."
"Yes, I know many Cleric Spells, like Healing Word, and Bane. But I don't have Cure Wounds, uh, Prepared today..."

[Ogre Mage]

Mystique:
Changeling (bard or rogue).

[grarrrg]

Tiefling Horizon Walker Ranger at level 11 is exactly Nightcrawler.

It's kind of annoying how none of the Nightcrawler builds use the same class.
Horizon Walker 11 is PERFECT, but Horizon Walker 10 is...eh? I suppose Ethereal Step is an extra 1/rest "teleport", but it isn't much.

Speaking of which, I (mostly purposely) left out ShadowCat in the big list. Are there any classes that can reliably go intangible often?

Mystique:
Changeling (bard or rogue).

Very much yes!




Additional thoughts:
Beast is weird.
He is very much a Jack of ALL Trades. He's an 'Everything'-Scientist (INT/WIS), gets along with dang near everyone (CHA), and has a better-than-human physical body (STR/DEX/CON). He's one of the very few characters (ever, not just X-Men) that would actually justify using the 'normal' Human race for +1 everything.
Class-wise you'd almost have to Gestalt him to fit all the abilities into a reasonable number of hit-dice.
Fighter (borderline Barbarian) for general fighting skills, Monk for Unarmored and Movement-enhancement, Rogue for Skills/Expertise, and could still justify more, like Artificer for inventions.

[TalksAlone]

Toad:

Variant Human (make sure to get +1 Dex)
- Bonus Skill: Athletics. (got hops)
- Feat: Spellsniper (Artificer):
Cantrip - Thornwhip (tongue); 1st level spell - Grease (slippery goo); Tinker's Tools (he does this in the comics).

Rakdos Magneto Cultist Background
- Skills: Acrobatics, Performance. (got hoppy hops)

Green Draconic Sorcerer 3

Features:
- Draconic resistance: AC 13+Dex and +1 HP/level (Enhanced endurance)
- Metamagic: up to taste, I suggest Quicken, Twin and Subtle.

Skills:
- Insight (to know when you screwed up)
- Deception (to weasle your way out when you screw up)

Spellcasting:
Cantrips
- Poison Spray (goo)
- Acid Splash (more goo)
- Friends (hallucinogen pheromones)
- Infestation (make sure to eat some of the flies)

1st level
- Jump (hoppy-ty hop hops)
- Silvery Barbs (you fumble and screw someone up)

2nd level
- Spider Climb (stick to walls)
- Blindness/Deafness (spit some goo in their eyes/ears)

The finishing touch: Dump Charisma (unless you don't want to be completely useless)

Edit: formatting.

[Damon_Tor]

I did a wolverine build a while back: it was mostly a barbarian monk combo using a dwarf chassis.

Most of this centered around the feat that lets dwarves spend a healing die whenever they dodge, and the monk's ability to dodge as a bonus action. I had it split pretty evenly between long death monk and beast barbarian. It's worth noting that the beast's claws count as monk weapons and so deal extra damage with your monk levels. I tossed in some ranger levels to help simulate his super-senses, but I'd ignore that in a low level game.

[Ogre Mage]

Dazzler
Light Domain Cleric
Light cantrip, faerie fire, guiding bolt, blindness, daylight, warding flare, radiance of the dawn.

[tieren]

I recently played a nightcrawler build, started fighter (con sav proficiency and fighting style), leveled bladesinger wizard to 6 (special extra attack, blink, misty step), then shadow monk to 6 for shadow step. Was a bit MAD, had to rely on headband of intellect most of his career. Was a lot of fun though and he could teleport like nobody's business. Magic items included Cape of the Montebank and atlas of endless Horizons.

Campaign stopped after level 16 but we did a final level 20 one shot with the characters and I went Fighter (champion) 3/Wizard (bladesinger) 10/ Monk (shadow) 7.

[grarrrg]

Trying to think up other characters, Juggernaut came to mind, but I quickly dismissed him as "Copy/Paste Colossus".
Later I realized there aren't much of any characters that would really fit with the general Paladin-vibe.

To make a long story short, I solved two of my problems.

Juggernaut
VHuman Oathbreaker Paladin 3+ with Heavy Armor Master feat (feel free to add a couple levels of Barbarian).
Recommended spells: Heroism, Thunderous Smite

Almost every Oath had at least one ability that shouted "Unstoppable Force". Here's a few of the runners-up:
Ancients, lvl 7 spell damage resistance, lvl 15 1/day can't drop to 0
Devotion, lvl 7 can't be Charmed, level 15 permanent Protection from Evil/Good
Redemption, level 15 regen hp if below half, lvl 20 resistance to all creature-based damage, auto-retribution damage when you are attacked (added bonus that it's "On all the time", downside you lose the benefits against a creature if you purposely attack it.... But it DOES let you beatdown one dude while being able to ignore his friends)

Had to reject them though, as none of them allow you to act like a total bastard.
Oathbreaker being the best fit overall. Channeling to Frighten, bonus damage to attacks, BPS-resistance. Dread Lord doesn't quite fit, but is kinda fun.

The finishing touch: Dump Charisma (unless you don't want to be completely useless)

But if I'm supposed to be Toad, don't I want to be useless

Dazzler
Light Domain Cleric
Light cantrip, faerie fire, guiding bolt, blindness, daylight, warding flare, radiance of the dawn.

If this were a higher level thing, I would demand Bard.
As-is, I think we're fine just adding the Entertainer Background.

[Evaar]

For intangiblity you have a few options -

18th level monk using Empty Body. good luck.

13th level phantom rogue using Ghost Walk

or 3rd level Order of Salt & Iron Blood Hunter, using laserllama's (better designed) version of the class. Google will find that for you.

Shadowcat doesn't really fit the blood hunter vibe, but you could flavor some blood maledicts as the result of using phased attacks.

[TalksAlone]

But if I'm supposed to be Toad, don't I want to be useless

That would be comitting to the bit, yes.

[Trickster]

Gambit:

Trickster Rogue 7/ Open hand Monk 9/ Hexblade tomelock 4. Take agonizing blast and repelling blast. Go for shillelagh, jump, longstrider, and charm person

[grarrrg]

Scarlet Witch
We're going to go a bit 'old school' here. Back when her only real power was inflicting 'slightly bad luck'.
V-Human (Lucky Feat) Divination Wizard 2/Clockwork Soul Sorcerer
Not certain where to go from there though. She definitely seems more of a "Sorcerer" than a "Wizard", but the general flavor of Clockwork is VERY NOT Scarlet Witch.

Gambit:

Trickster Rogue 7/ Open hand Monk 9/ Hexblade tomelock 4. Take agonizing blast and repelling blast. Go for shillelagh, jump, longstrider, and charm person

I'm not 100% on the reasoning behind some of those breakpoints (Monk 9 but only Warlock 4?), but I think I get the overall picture.