All Skill Proficiency (5e Optimized Character Build)

The Concept

Most people say that you should specialize in dnd, that you should focus on providing something the rest of the party can't. But those people are wrong. Why rely on others to do something when you can just do it yourself? This build is going to guide you in how to do exactly that: gain proficiency in all skills. There are actually a few ways to do this. The main build will go over how to do this whilst remaining effective. Variants listed will show alternative routes that will either be faster or grant more than just skill proficiencies. Now, lets begin:

Race: Half-Elf

Nearly all versions of this build rely on the half-elf. This is for a few reasons:

• Skill Versatility gives you two skills of your choice, an absolutely amazing feature for this build.
• +2 Charisma, +1 to two other scores: you're able to increase all your ability scores to be at least decent, letting your proficiency in everything be that much better.

Ability Scores

While these can be changed to fit your needs, the following stats are to allow all the multiclassing you need

• Standard Array: Str 8, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 14
• Point Buy Str 8, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 14 (Enables cleric multiclass wihout investing a racial bonus)

Background

This is another situation where you can choose a lot of different things, but this guide will recommend the Urchin Background.

Leveling

There is a more effective way to do this, but using only the Player Handbook this is a pretty solid way. The skills in the brackets are only the recommended skills at those levels, you can take them in a different order if you wish.

• Pre-Game: Your race and backstory give you 4 skills (Acrobatics, Insight, Sleight of hand, Stealth)
• Level 1 Rogue: You're getting 4 skills at level 1- a pretty great start. (Deception, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion)
• Level 2 Cleric: Take the Knowledge Domain for 2 more skills. (History, Nature)
• Level 3-6 Bard: The multiclass gives you one skill, The College of Lore 3 more, and the "Skilled" feat gives another 3. (Intimidation, Medicine, Survival, Animal Handling, Arcana, and Religion)
• Level 7 Ranger: You get one skill for taking this multiclass. You're now at 18 skill proficiencies, all of them in the game. (Athletics)

While you're a little weak in combat, you are proficient in all skills and have expertise in a large number of them.

Alternative Build

This is the best way to get all skills in the game. It is much more effective at lower levels than the other build, as it starts off with more proficiencies. Before you even pick your class features, take the Variant Human race, which gives you one skill proficiency of your choice, and then take the Skilled feat, which totals your proficiencies to 4. You'll want to take Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, and Survival for your for proficiencies. Next, take the Sage background. This gives you proficiency in Arcana and History.

For your first level, you want to take Rogue. This gives you proficiency in four skills- Acrobatics, Investigation, Perception, and Stealth. You also get two different skills to put Expertise on, which is nice. Next, take a level in Knowledge cleric. This gives you proficiency in Nature and Religion. Then, take 4 levels in bard. You get one skill for multiclassing, which you want to put into Performance. Then, because you take College of Lore, you gain proficiency with three more skills of your choice. At this point you should only have 5 skills left- Deception, Intimidation, Medicine, Persuasion, and Sleight of Hand. You want to take Intimidation, Medicine, and Sleight of Hand. When you get to your 4th level, take the Eldrich Adept feat, which gets you one Eldritch Invocation of your choice. You want to take Beguiling Influence, which gets you proficiency in Deception and Persuasion. At this point, you should have all 18 skills at 6th level. Here is the rundown:

Race: Variant Human with Skilled feat (Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Survival) Background: Sage (Arcana, History) 1st level: Rogue (Acrobatics, Investigation, Perception, Stealth) 2nd level: Knowledge Cleric (Nature, Religion) 3rd-6th level: College of Lore Bard (Performance, Intimidation, Medicine, Sleight of Hand) plus Eldritch Adept feat (Deception, persuasion)

Variants

These builds are either faster or cover things other than skills such as Tools or Weapons.

Simplest Build (WotC Rules)

Don't want to multiclass into a bunch of classes? This build only makes you do it once, a nice simple change.

• Level 1-4 Rogue (Scout): You get a total of 6 proficiencies from the first 3 levels. Then at level 4 take the Skilled Feat. You already have 13 skills of 18
• Level 5-8 Bard (Lore): The multiclass gives you 1 skill, The college of lore gives you 3 more, and then your final skill proficiency will come from choosing the Prodigy feat. That gives you a total of 18 skill proficiencies, all the skills available in the game.
• Levels 9+: this build doesn't really acount for these levels since it has already gotten you its main objective. Most likely you want to increase your rogue level, Using your bardic features to offer some mild utility for your team. You'll eventually get reliable tallent, meaning you can never roll less than 10 on ANY ability check since you're proficient in them all!

One thing to note is that you have expertise in 7 skills, almost half. You are an absolute monster when it comes to skill checks! If you really want to get excessive get the Guidance cantrip somehow and add a d4 to all of those checks.

It should be noted that with the new Skill Expert feat from Tasha's you no longer need to pick Half-Elf as your race, this build will now work for any race that provides two skill proficiencies, or one that doesn't if you're ok with not getting all the skills until a later level when you can take this feat multiple times.

7th Level Min-Max

Author: Taterbean

This is the most efficient method I have found to achieve 18 skill proficiencies as soon as possible while consolidating class levels to two classes. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCE) is required for this build.

Note: Do not take nature, survival, deception, or persuasion until the guide says to do so. 13 Charisma is required.

• Race: Variant Human. Take the 'Skilled' feat and pick any four skills. (+4 Skills)
• Background: Any background that doesn't have the four barred skills will do. (+2 Skills)
• First Class: Rogue, any four skills. Advance to level three and pick the 'Scout' subclass to gain nature and survival proficiencies (+6 Skills)
• Multi-Class: Bard, any one skill. Advance to level three and pick the 'College of Lore' subclass, pick any three skills (+4 Skills)
• 4th Level Feat: Pick either bard or rogue for your seventh level, then pick 'Eldritch Adept' (TCE) feat to gain an eldritch invocation. Pick 'Beguiling Influence' for deception and persuasion proficiencies. (+2 Skills)

6th Level Early Entry

Author: Osha

Note: Do not take Deception or Persuasion until the guide mentions it. This build is somewhat MAD, requiring 13 in Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Similar to the 7th level build above, this build focuses on earliest possible acquisition of the 18 skill proficiencies, without consolidating class levels. It substitutes two rogue levels for one level of cleric. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCE) is required for this build.

• Race: Variant Human. Take the 'Skilled' feat and pick any four skills. (+4 Skills)
• Background: Any background that doesn't have the two barred skills. (+2 Skills)
• First Class: Rogue, any four skills from the Rogue list. (+4 Skills)
• Multi-Class: Cleric, select the Knowledge Domain and pick two from the domain list (+2 Skills)
• Multi-Class: Bard, select any one skill. Advance to level three and pick the college of lore, pick any three skills (+4 Skills)
• 4th Level Feat: Advance to level four in Bard, then pick 'Eldritch Adept' (TCE) feat to gain an eldritch invocation. Pick 'Beguiling Influence' to gain proficiency in Deception and Persuasion. (+2 Skills)

Final result: Human (variant) Rogue 1 / Cleric 1 / Bard 4

All (Types of) Tools, Weapons, Armor, Skills, and Languages

It's impossible to get proficiency with every single tool in the game, but here is how to get a Level 20 character with all weapons, armor, skills, languages, and at least one of every type of tool. This build requires both Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

• Race: Half-Elf
• Background: Sailor
• Starting Attributes with Point Buy: 8 Str, 15+1 Dex, 12 Con, 13 Int, 13+1 Wis, 12+2 Cha
• Starting Class: Bard
• Final Class Breakdown: Lore Bard 4/Armorer Artificer 4/Mercy Monk 4/Mastermind Rogue 3/Shepherds Druid 2/Knowledge Cleric 1/Ranger 1/Draconic or Storm Sorcerer 1

Outside of starting Bard, you can take these classes and feats in any order. Starting Bard gives you one extra tool (1 more musical instrument) than any other order. If you don't like the musical instrument, start Rogue and pick a third tool with the Skilled feat instead of a skill.

Starting Proficiencies

• Weapons: Simple Weapons
• Armor: Light Armor
• Skills: 7 of your choice (any except Medicine or Insight, but make sure to leave 2 knowledge skills, 1 Rogue skill and 1 Ranger skill available)
• Tools: 3 Musical Instruments, Navigator's Tools, Water Vehicles
• Languages: Common, Elvish, and 1 of your choice (any except Sylvan or Primordial/Draconic)

3 levels in Bard: Take the College of Lore

• Extra Skills: 3 of your choice

3 levels in Monk: Take the Way of Mercy subclass

• Extra Skills: Medicine, Insight
• Extra Tools: Herbalism Kit

3 levels in Artificer: Take the Armorer subclass

• Extra Armor: Medium Armor + Shields (if not taken with Cleric or Ranger), Heavy Armor
• Extra Tools: Tinker's Tools, Smith's Tools + Bargain with your DM for an All-Purpose Tool

3 levels in Rogue: Take the Mastermind archetype

• Extra Skills: 1 off the Rogue list
• Extra Tools: Thieves' Tools, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, 1 Gaming Set
• Extra Languages: 2 of your choice + Thieves' Cant

2 levels in Druid: Take the Circle of the Shepherd

• Extra Languages: Sylvan + Druidic

1 level in Cleric: Take the Knowledge Domain

• Extra Armor: Medium Armor + Shields (if not taken with Ranger or Artificer)
• Extra Skills: 2 of Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion
• Extra Languages: 2 of your choice

1 level in Ranger: Bargain with your DM to use the Deft Explorer Optional Class Feature but keep the Favored Enemy feature

• Extra Weapons: Martial Weapons
• Extra Armor: Medium Armor + Shields (if not taken with Cleric or Artificer)
• Extra Skills: 1 off the Ranger list
• Extra Languages: 3 of your choice, 1 of which must match a Favored Enemy

1 level in Sorcerer: Take either the Draconic Bloodline or Storm Sorcerer Origin

• Extra Languages: Draconic or Primordial

Raise Bard, Monk, and Artificer to Level 4 and take the Prodigy, Skilled, and Linguist feats.

• Extra Skills: 2 of your choice
• Extra Tools: Land Vehicles, Poisoner's Kit, 1 gaming set or musical instrument of your choice
• Extra Languages: 4 of your choice

At Level 20 this results in proficiency in simple and martial weapons; light, medium, and heavy armor; all 18 skills; all 11 types of tools; and all 16 languages (as well as Druidic and Thieves' Cant).

Jack-of-all-Trades, Master of (almost) All

By MetalShadowOverlord

Uses WotC rules

I reckon many players have tried making characters that have proficiencies in most or every skill. However, what about getting expertise? Can you do THAT at a low level? Well, no, but that doesn't mean you still can't get a ton of skill expertise as you grow in levels. Here's how:

Put 6 levels into Rogue instead of just 1. This will allow you to get Expertise twice (meaning 4 Expertise skills) and choose the Scout archetype. Doing so automatically gives you expertise in Nature and Survival. Put 1 level into Cleric, but choose Arcana (or Religion) instead of Nature. Put 12 levels into Bard. This will allow you to get Expertise twice (again, meaning 4 Expertise skills).

Feats:

Like the aforementioned guide says, go for Skilled to get any remaining skills you need. Since you're a Half-elf, you can take Prodigy which, among other things, allows you to gain 1 Expertise. Once more, thanks to being a Half-elf, you can take Everybody's Friend and get Expertise in both Persuasion and Deception.

You should have 1 ASI to spare, meaning you can take another feat to gain expertise in something you don't already, meaning, by level 19, you'll have Expertise in all but 2 skills.

--Alternative--

An alternative is you could sacrifice 5 levels of Bard (meaning sacrificing getting Expertise in at least 2 other skills) and pour them into Rogue, allowing you to take advantage of the Rogue's Reliable Talent feature. Rolling anything lower than a 10 on a skill you have expertise in automatically becomes (at level 17-20, at least) a 22.

Another alternative is going half-elf background 1 rogue 1 knowledge cleric 4 bard 2 loremaster wizard make sure you hsve proficiency in nature by now then put 10 more levels in rogue since you already have double proficiency in nature you can swap it get prodigy twice and everyone's friend . That's reliable talent 2+2+4+2+1+3+1x2+2=18 skills 2+2+2+4+2+2+1x2+2=18 expertise Congratulations, you are now both a Jack AND An Ace Of (almost) All Trades!

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