Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Extreme Adventurer

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted get totally stoked about a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character all about exploring bigger and better dungeons that others haven’t conquered yet. The Extreme Adventurer might be one of our more tongue-in-cheek 5E D&D character builds. Think Indiana Jones meets American Ninja Warrior contestant. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Extreme Adventurer

Every CBG we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Extreme Adventurer here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Extreme Adventurer’s high adrenaline dungeon delving. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. At every step of the way we considered options for expanding upon the variety of wellness enhancing skills, abilities and features.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Extreme Adventurer acquires the skills to navigate dangerous dungeons like a pro by 8th level. From there on out until 20th level they refine those skills to stay sharp no matter how perilous the plunge.

The Extreme Adventurer is one of my personal favorite CBGs, which says something since we’ve put together about 60 of these things at this point. The guided path doesn’t include much magic — something I typically lean towards — and it doesn’t incorporate flashy features either. But I’ve found myself coming back to this CBG again and again because it’s such a solid staple adventurer. When I think of classic adventuring and even games beyond the tabletop like Neverwinter Nights or Skyrim the Extreme Adventurer feels like a great all around heroic adventurer with enough flexibility to develop lots of ways.

My favorite experience playing an Extreme Adventurer came in a sort of one shot the Nerdarchy crew played with Esper the Bard. One shots in particular I enjoy because it’s fun to try and use as many features as possible during a session and also there’s not much attachment to the character. I ran the character as written in the guide so Jovan Musk was a goliath and I even got to make use of the Powerful Build trait! Nimble, versatile, skilled and adaptable, the Extreme Adventurer can become whatever their adventures mold them to be while staying sharp with traditional dungeon survival expertise.

Extreme Adventurer NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

Developing the Extreme Adventurer came about very easily but mostly because this was a pretty early CBG for us. The player versions were strictly Adventurers League legal for the guidelines at the time and the NPC versions were very much straight adaptations of the player version. Since then we’ve gotten much less restrictive. Nevertheless the Extreme Adventurer can fulfill the same role as the player version — a skilled adversary in a dungeon setting. I really dug the narrative thread of this CBG with the character approaching dungeon delves the way a professional surfer might. They travel the world to find the gnarliest locales and conquer them.

Born to Delve. Whether you are talking about an archaeologist who seeks to uncover lost lore or the unscrupulous tomb raider seeking to turn a quick coin, this character will stop at nothing no matter the risk to be the first to their prizes. Some are even willing to go to murderous extremes

“Skirmisher. Difficult terrain doesn’t cost the extreme adventurer extra movement. When they make a melee attack against a creature, they don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not. If the extreme adventurer moves at least 10 ft. before making an attack they deal an extra 14 (4d6) damage when they hit a target with a melee weapon attack.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a classic adventuring character with solid skills and room for flexibility and customization — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Extreme Adventurer Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — The Triumphant Adventurer from Magic: The Gathering’s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms expansion knows a thing or two about dungeon delving. Every time they attack they venture into the dungeon! Deathtouch and first strike when it’s your turn make this 1/1 human knight excellent at their job of going down into those dungeons and living to come back out with treasure. [Art by Alexander Mokhov]

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