- 5e

Reactive Builds

What is a reactive build?

A reactive build is using a broad template to define a character's path. A build should never be set in stone and should react to conditions introduced by the game/campaign. These builds look at how magic items can affect the design of a character -- think of it as a subset to a build (opposite of how feats create a superset of a build, or a template).

Reactive builds focus on "why" not "what"

Some examples of a reactive build include using oversized weapons, lycanthropy, or building around a magic item wishlist (see Kinneas). If I were playing in a game and learned lycanthropy was available, I'd look for ways to build my character around lycanthropy since this sort of thing is unique for many tables; if I were playing a warlock, I'd be interested in making sure my subclass was Hexblade and I'd start looking to optimize Armor of Agathys.

Getting access to a Belt of Giant Strength has tremendous impact on the direction of a character and it might be advantageous to player a character that can benefit from it instead of a character that must use it. For example, a Life Domain Cleric may want to dump strength and focus on medium armor and a finesse weapon then transition to heavy armor and a war hammer if a belt becomes available.

Trading Magic Items https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/103499/what-is-the-process-to-officially-trade-magic-items

Build for a wide range of situations, not the ideal/perfect situation.

Most builds, especially the damage-centric ones that put an emphasis on damage calculations, focus on the ideal situation that likely never comes up. One of the best examples of this is building around the Cleric's Death Domain class feature -- Reaper. If you cast a necromancy cantrip on a target and there is another target within 5 feet, you can target both creatures. You shouldn't ever expect this situation to come up, let alone determine the build's success on it.

What a reactive build is not

Reactive builds aren't meant to be disruptive.

A reactive build isn't intended to over-optimize or angle shoot. Always favor decisions based on narrative purposes, not optimization -- we're not looking to switch subclasses because a given subclass is strong in a particular tier but weaker in other ones.

Always talk to your DM, we might look for favorable rulings but we can't always assume you'll get them. One of my favorite examples of a reactive build is a wizard multi-classing into Artificer later in a campaign and having the multi-class sequence ret-conned for the Artificer Save Proficiencies (replacing the Wizard proficiencies) -- don't count on something like this.

"I need it more than they do"

Don't be that guy. Understand the difference between taking advantage of a Belt of Giant Strength and depending on a Amulet of Health -- transitioning from a dexterity build to strength build has a different meaning than dumping Constitution during character creation (or even re-rolling a character during a campaign, like in the instance of character death). If the item were to be destroyed or you were tossed in an anti-magic zone, the consequences are much more severe in the Amulet of Health example.

Why play a reactive build?

Reactive builds have the potential of bringing more flavor to a character.

I have a strong opinion that the Fighter class (specifically getting 3 or 4 attacks) is only good when the player knows weapons like Flame Tongue or Oathbow are available.

Pros/Cons

The pros and cons of a reactive build are...

Reactive Build Guides will assume optional rules introduced in Tasha's Guide to Everything and the subclass rules from Adventurer's League (AL) are available:

CHANGING YOUR SUBCLASS
You can replace one of your character’s subclasses with another subclass at 5th level, 11th level, 16th level, and 20th level. This isn't subject to PH+1.