Looking at a game like Dungeons & Dragons in a technical light naturally leads to the discovery of builds widely considered to be “broken” because of the way that they exploit certain D&D mechanics to increase a character’s power far beyond what would be expected, but not all builds labeled as broken actually are. Whether through a combination of otherwise discounted limiters or simply a misunderstanding of what balances out a power, these mechanical balancers.

Players of roleplaying games have a wide variety of reasons for enjoying them. While some find more satisfaction in being able to act out a character and others like to be able to interact with a story, there are still others that enjoy the more technical aspects of the game they’re playing. These are the type of people that generally enjoy making character builds where they maximize their in-game avatar’s potential.

Related: Dungeons & Dragons' Most Overpowered Character Builds - Armored Wizard

But many good game systems, Dungeons & Dragons included, are built in such a way that many logical and useful synergies are balanced against extreme abuses that would render things awkward. This is important for a game like D&D, but also difficult as a result of the many options available to players. Even so, these well-known builds are less overpowered than they've been made out to be, featuring skill combinations that work but also have their own limitations.

The Polearm Sentinel (Combining the Polearm Master and Sentinel Feats)

D&D's Most Overpowered Character Builds Polearm Barbarian - Theros Art

One such notorious combo in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is the union of the Polearm Master and Sentinel feats. One allows those characters who have it the ability to attack any creature that enters their attack range of ten feet with an opportunity attack, while the other forces those hit by opportunity attacks to cease movement. Proponents point out that this combination of abilities allows a character to stop an advancing enemy in their tracks before they become a threat to the party regardless of how cautious they are. And this is true: It does stop a single creature from advancing forward. However, players only get a single reaction per round of combat, which refreshes only once their turn is reached. In any scenario with several enemies, this ability turns into more of a stopgap measure.

This is even more the case when the secondary ability of Sentinel is brought into consideration. This allows the player to make an attack against a creature within five feet of them, if that creature attacks anyone other than the player. The problem is that this also costs the player’s reaction, thus nullifying the primary ability that this combination is used for. In addition, it can only target a creature within five feet, half the range of their ten-foot maximum.

The Sorlock and Warladin (Sorcerer/Warlock Multiclass and Warlock/Paladin Multiclass)

A Warlock casting a spell.

Warlocks are widely considered to be one of the best multiclass options in D&D 5e, largely thanks to their versatility and unique Pact Magic feature. This ability allows Warlocks to cast spells, though at the cost of having less than a handful of spell slots. The reason for this dearth of slots is that Warlocks get them back on a short rest instead of a long rest like every other caster in the game. This ability to get spell slots back allows for unique interactions with some other class’s magically fueled abilities.

Related: Dungeons & Dragons' Best Multiclassing Combinations

For the Sorcerer class, the ability that benefits most from this is the Flexible Casting aspect of the Font of Magic ability. Flexible Casting allows for Sorcerers to consume spell slots and turn them into Sorcery Points, which fuel many of the Sorcerer’s abilities like Metamagic, or can be used to create more spell slots. This ability is omnivorous and so can actually consume the spell slots of any other class that a Sorcerer has access to, including Warlock slots from Pact Magic. Since these slots come back on a short rest while Sorcery points come back on a long rest, this combo allows for a Sorcerer to have more points over the course of a day than they usually would.

The problem that players run into with this combination is that there are significantly more roadblocks to it than there may seem to be at first. The primary issue is that Sorcery points are capped, a Sorcerer can never have more than the maximum they start out with at their level. This combined with the fact that Pact Magic slots are always considered to be slots of the highest level that a D&D Warlock can cast can leave a Sorcerer with having to juggle the exchange math or else face losing potential points that could be spent on Metamagic. There is also a time limitation, as a short rest does take a significant chunk of an in-game day, and so cannot feasibly be taken at any given opportunity. In addition, since teammates without the ability to operate without a long rest will be begging for one (and all benefits of this ability combo are reset after one), it is likely that any bonuses attained will be short-lived.

An illustration of a paladin in Dungeons & Dragons

Combining the Warlock with D&D's historically beloved Paladin class is another popular way of attempting to abuse the Pact Magic feature, and thus suffers from most of the same issues. While many will claim that this combo allows for infinite uses of leveled-up healing spells, or the ever-popular Divine Smite, the time constraints combine with the limited slot count even more in this case. Until Warlock level 11, a nearly unattainable goal for a multiclass character, the number of spell slots will be capped at only two per rest and there are only so many hours in the day.

While these are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to builds players of Dungeons & Dragons find overpowered, they bring up many of the common rebuttals that are baked into the system to prevent such “breaks.” From only having a single reaction per round to in-game time penalties for rests, the rules in the system are largely there for very specific reasons that prevent the types of abuse players may try to utilize. It's especially important to keep these things in mind when building a character, as something that may seem to break them on paper may instead break the player when they run up against the rules they’re trying to exploit.

Next: Dungeons & Dragons Should Bring Back The Warlord Class