Dungeons & Dragonsis a system that primarily focuses on combat. Most of its rules are about it; most of your class features make you better in combat, whether it is to cause damage, absorb it, heal, or buff allies, etc., and most items are also focused on it.
That said, while we do think you should optimize your character for combat a little bit, you can also make them good at other things that may come up during the campaign. After all, just because the game focuses on it doesn’t mean that it’s the only thing that happens in the game.
If you want your character to be highly focused on something other than combat, we recommend talking to your DM about it so they can ensure your strengths will come up during the adventure. Still, you can make them good at one of these and combat simultaneously.
9Social Interactions
Talk Your Way Through Things
If your character needs charisma for their spellcasting, or you’re a rogue with decent charisma and you’re unsure where to useyour expertise, making them a master of conversation is a valuable asset. Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation can work in many parts of the game, after all.
You can avoid a lot of combat by talking your way through enemies, and though you can let the dice rolls do the job, it’s a particularly fun skill to have if you enjoy roleplaying these conversations yourself.
8Exploration
From Wilderness To Dungeons
Going to multiple areas is usually a big part of D&D campaigns - one of the Ds stands for dungeons, after all. Being able to navigate through a dungeon, understanding and figuring out its secrets while also protecting yourself and others from dangers such as traps, makes a lot of difference.
Plus, if the campaign involves a lot of traveling, having a character who can navigate these areas makes things substantially easier. This is also where players learn the value of Create Food and Water, Goodberry, or similar things.
With the right build, your character can even have multiple specializations listed here and in combat.
7Hunting
Or Tracking
Speaking of traveling a lot, you may want to be able to track your food if you lack the magic to do so, or you want to save money on rations. Thus, making a character who can hunt is quite useful, and the Survival skill is usually enough.
Still, you can go one step further with this concept and make a character that has an easy time tracking targets. You can make a character focused on tracking down villains who are harder to catch through clues you gathered (more on that later), or one of your party members can.
6Crafting
DIY Gear
Whether you’re extracting poison from monsters, making your ammo, or just spawning magical items into existence by being an artificer, being able to make your stuff is rarely used by players, but you can go far with this.
Admittedly, you’re able to do well just by purchasing or looting what you need, but if you’re playing in a scenario that relies a lot on surviving in dangerous environments (something like Tomb of Annihilation), then making your own items is helpful.
5Magic
Fireball Is Not The Only Spell
Now, this one is a bit vague, to be fair, but magic is too big of a deal in D&D for us not to mention it. Aside from damage, healing, buffs, and debuffs, magic can be very useful outside of combat.
Pretty much every specialization mentioned here can be done with magic - we even used Create Food and Water as an example, didn’t we? Whether you rely on magic or not usually revolves around whether you think the situation is worth wasting a spell slot. Regardless, you can go far with a spellcaster that mainly focuses on utility magic.
4Information Gatherer
Elementary, My Dear Goblin
We’ve mentioned how your character can learn through the environment, but since dungeon exploration is something that requires a lot of different skills (and thus, a lot of party members doing different things), you’re able to make your character focus solely on investigating.
Along with theInvestigation skill(and Perception, just in case), all intelligence-based skills will do wonders for your character here, so they can match clues with fields of study they already have from their background. If you’re using one of the few classes that rely on intelligence for combat, covering these skills your dumb party members will lack is helpful for everybody.
Rogues can excel here, too, if they’re good at hiding. They can be powerful spies this way. Curiously, the same applies to druids, as insects can usually go unnoticed in places.
3Maneuverability
Get Anywhere You Want
Whether you’re using Athletics or convincing your DM to do the check with Acrobatics instead, having a character that can virtually go anywhere on the map is very useful. And there are many ways you’re able to go about it.
you’re able to climb and help allies out through items such as ropes. You can use more magic. You can fly. And depending on how you build your character, your choice of species can cover most of it, since there are species with climbing speed, like tabaxis, or flying speed,like aarakocras.
2Strength
You’ll Value It When You Lose It
A lot of people can overlook strength as it’s an ability score that can be easily replaced depending on your build. If you do overlook it, you’ll learn its value when every player makes the same choice, and you play in a party where no one is physically strong.
There’s a lot of utility in just being able to carry things, but even if your DM ignores encumbrance or you have a bag of holding, being able to lift, push, pull, or break obstacles is useful, even if these don’t come up as often. Being able to do these things without consuming resources, too, is a nice plus.
1Skill Monkey
A Bit Meta, But Doable
Suppose you want to be useful outside of combat. In that case, some builds revolve around getting a lot of skill proficiencies, so you can be useful at a bunch of random things, even if your ability score isn’t particularly high on whichever skill you’re using.
A character like this can focus onskills that come up oftenand go for it. you’re able to be good at talking, noticing things, lockpicking, and more. Some classes, like bards and rogues, get a lot of proficiencies, and you can get expertise, too, something more classes offer in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.
