Builds - The Detective
Players have a tendency to get wrapped up in only wanting to hit things or cast spells with big explosions that sometimes they forget there is a world of other options available. Today we’ll look at a build for the Detective. This Detective can go by many names - the Investigator, The Private Eye, or maybe the Gumshoe. Whatever you want to call yourself, this build is based on any number of literary or TV/film detectives, from Agatha Christie to Columbo to Dirk Gently. This brand of an investigator isn’t a rough and tumble type, preferring to use their brains over brawn. Nor are they apt to spend much of their time slinking around in the shadows, preferring to talk to people to discover clues. While they each have their own style, one thing is constant. They are experts at finding clues, solving crimes, and catching the bad guy.
The Detective
Lore Bard / Knowledge Cleric
Race - Half-Elf
Hooray! Another build that doesn’t require a variant human. We rely on our brains and skills, making the half-elf a perfect fit. +2 to Charisma for the bard, and go +1 to Wisdom and +1 to Intelligence. Why Int.? Well, Perception and Insight are crucial when we talk to people, but Investigation is going to be critical when we are searching for clues.
Stats - Str. 8, Dex. 12, Con. 10, Int. 14, Wis. 16, Cha. 16.
Using the standard array, we’re going to have to take a hit somewhere, and I decided on Strength as the odd stat out. We’ll get it up as soon as we can, but it looks like we are going a Dex. build hero!
Skill Proficiencies - Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Religion
Aren’t we the little skill monkey! We aren’t going to be very good at hitting in the early levels, but we are bursting out of the gate with advantage with every skill we need to be an amazing investigator. We even have expertise in Arcana and Religion right out of the gate.
Background - Sage. Gives us proficiency in History, which can’t hurt since lore of any type helps. The researcher background feature lets you know how and where to find the information you need. It does not make it easier to obtain the information since most of the time, what you want is guarded by something mean.
Armor/Weapons - Leather armor, a rapier, and a dagger. It’s not much, but an AC 12 and 1d8+1 melee attack damage is about the best we can hope for at this stage.
Time to hang out our shingle and see what mysteries are out there to solve. Our skills right now rely on us talking to people and looking around. The party may not appreciate what we are currently bringing to the table, but as we start to level up, we’ll be able to prove our worth. Just don’t play the stereotypical bard once you start taking levels in that class. You don’t want to be the cause of any infidelity cases that come your way!
Knowledge Domain Cleric 1
Blessings of Knowledge - More skill proficiencies, so we’ll take the two that are offered that we don’t have yet, Nature and Survival. We also pick up an additional two languages. I’m not a huge fan of the language system in Dungeons & Dragons, but we are now up to 7 we can speak/write, which helps us interview or interrogate a wider variety of individuals.
Cantrips: Resistance, Spare the Dying, and Toll the Dead. 1st level: Command, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Magic, Guiding Bolt, and Identify.
Hitting things is not going to be our forte, but that doesn’t mean we will want to take all offensive spells. Our talents lie elsewhere, and while that doesn’t mean that we cannot contribute during combat, dealing damage isn’t going to be our focus. Our cantrips are focused on giving the party a helpful hand as needed. Having command and identify always prepared is about the best thing since sliced bread for this build. We also add a little healing, damage, and one more spell in detect magic to help with our sleuthing.
Bard 1 / Cleric 1
Bardic Inspiration - It’s not much, but it helps out your teammates it’s a good thing. You’re on buff and battlefield control duty for a while.
Proficiencies - We tack on Stealth, so we can sneak around and look for clues in places we probably should be.
Spells - Cantrips: Friends, Mage Hand. 1st level: Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Sleep, and Speak with Animals
Our cantrips provide us with another way to get people to talk to us and do things like search a room a little more efficiently. Our 1st level spells a splash of battlefield control during combat, with a few great investigative spells. It makes it easier to get information if people think you’re their friend, whether charming them or tricking them into believing you are someone you are not. With speak with animals, I guess technically, we are up to 8 languages spoken.
Cleric 2 / Bard 1
Channel Divinity - Knowledge of the Ages: Being able to tap into a divine well of knowledge is pretty sweet. Now we can use those thieves’ tools to break into a lock box or track down a suspect using the Survival skill, but only as long as it takes 10 minutes or less.
Cleric 2 / Bard 2
Jack of All Trades - So you already used your channel divinity, but you need to make an intimidation check to bully the whereabouts of your suspect. Now you can add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to that or any other skill in which we don’t have proficiency.
Cleric 2 / Bard 3
College of Lore - What else? We are now the ultimate skill monkey!
Proficiencies - Survival to track people down, Medicine because we can, and Intimidation when sweet-talking people just isn’t doing the trick.
Expertise - Investigation and Insight. Now I know you’re thinking, “What about Perception?” It was a tough call. Perception lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something, but in my humble opinion applies more to pre-combat situations such as hidden ambushers waiting to attack or using your sense to see if you can detect someone behind that closed door. An Investigation check is the one to make when you’re searching for clues and then making deductions based on those clues. Being a detective is all about clues! Insight helps you read a person’s tone, body language, and the words they use to determine their true intentions. You may have noticed, but this build is big on talking to people, whether they are witnesses being asked to tell you what they saw to interrogating a suspect. To me, this is one of the most important skills for this build, so expertise is a must.
Cutting Words - For those times you send the rogue in to steal what you can’t, cutting words helps distract those pesky guards.
Cleric 2 / Bard 4
ASI - While we need to start leveling up the cleric side of the equation, the chance to increase ability stats is just too good to pass up. I don’t know about you, but I hate to see negative modifiers on my character sheet. +2 to Strength gets us to 10, and since we are a Dexterity build hero, we no longer have to worry about our Strength score. If you don’t mind that -1 on your sheet, put both points in Dexterity to boost your Armor Class.
Knowledge Domain Spells - Augury, Suggestion
Cleric 4 / Bard 4
Feat - Observant. What a great feat for this build. Quick to notice details of your environment is literally the description of the feat. You can read lips, which, while it may not be exactly a language, is a skill that will come in handy. +5 to your passive Wisdom and passive Intelligence now puts your scores at 21 and 23, respectively. With numbers that high, you won’t have to waste much time searching for clues, as you should be able to spot them easily.
Now is also a good time to update our spell list.
Spells
Cleric - Cantrips: Resistance, Spare the Dying, Thaumaturgy, and Toll the Dead. 1st level: Command, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Magic, Guiding Bolt, and Identify. 2nd Level: Aid, Augury, Find Traps, Prayer of Healing, Suggestion, Zone of Truth.
Bard - Cantrips: Friends, Mage Hand, Message. 1st level: Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Sleep, and Speak with Animals. 2nd Level: Detect Thoughts, Invisibility, Locate Object.
A couple of quick notes. You’ve got to take a couple of heal spells since you are still most likely the primary healer. Suggestion and zone of truth are your domain spells, and zone of truth is amazing for this build. Who cares if a suspect knows if you’re casting it enough and with your high Insight, being evasive isn’t going to help them much. Invisibility is just one more way to sneak around without worrying about being a rogue and locate object for those times when you can’t rely on your passive scores.
Cleric 4 / Bard 6
Countercharm - Sometimes things go wrong, and the bad guys are trying to get information out of you to see what and how much you know. This helps prevent you from betraying your client and yourself.
Additional Magic Secrets - Add two additional spells you normally wouldn’t have access to. We have access to most of the spells on the list, but there is one spell, Pass without Trace, we need for our build. For our second spell, take alter self. One more way to trick people into talking to you. There really is any number of spells you can take here, but these are my best recommendations.
Cleric 6 / Bard 6
Channel Divinity - Read Thoughts. Detecting thoughts is nice, read the surface thoughts of a person is even better. Unless they are one cool customer, being able to read its current emotions and what it is actively thinking about may provide you with the information you are looking for. With a distance of 60 feet, you don’t even have to be actively engaged with the person, and 1 minute is forever when you are under pressure.
Knowledge Domain Spells - So, at the 5th level, we picked up nondetection and speak with dead. Now you’ve got one more way to keep yourself hidden from magic. Unfortunately, some of the best information may come from those no longer on this mortal coil, so speak with dead throws out the old saying, “Dead men tell no tales”. Bonus ability too! We can cast suggestion for free.
Cleric 6 / Bard 8
ASI - Since we are going heavy into bard moving forward, put both points in Charisma.
Cleric 6 / Bard 10
Expertise - We’ve got any number of ways to sneak around, so Stealth takes a backseat. Our character hasn’t been one to bully information out of people. You can always play them that way if you wish, but I don’t feel the build plays too well that way, so Intimidation is out. This means we’ll be taking expertise in Perception and Persuasion. We are a bit behind on Perception, but remember, we are looking more at Insight as the skill we focus on using.
Magical Secrets - Two more spells, and there are a plethora to choose from. You have access to a great many spells between bard and cleric, so take some fun spells. I took fireball and cloudkill because I wanted to cast a flaming ball of death and rain destruction down in the form of a giant cloud of poison.
Cleric 8 / Bard 10
ASI - Take two points in Wisdom so your cleric side of the brain doesn’t feel neglected. At this point, if you have magic items that already put you over 18, take Dexterity or Constitution in that order.
Knowledge Domain Spells - Arcane eye, Confusion
Cleric 8 / Bard 12
ASI - One last ability boost. Dexterity or Constitution. Help to hit things or more hit points.
So we are done with our detective! Let’s take one last look at our spell list, as it has grown beyond our wildest dreams.
Cantrips - Friends, Mage Hand, Message, Resistance, Spare the Dying, Thaumaturgy, Toll the Dead, Vicious Mockery
1st Level - Command, Comprehend Languages, Cure Wounds, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Guiding Bolt, Identify, Sleep, Speak with Animals
2nd Level - Aid, Alter Self, Augury, Detect Thoughts, Find Traps, Invisibility, Locate Object, Pass without Trace, See Invisibility, Suggestions, Zone of Truth
3rd Level - Clairvoyance, Fireball, Mass Healing Word, Nondetection, Speak with Dead, Tongues
4th Level - Arcane Eye, Death Ward, Divination, Locate Creature, Polymorph
5th Level - Cloudkill, Scrying
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