Who has played a sub-optimal class/race/stat character that turned out really awesome? What is your story?

I played a Myconid Circle of Spores druid whose stats were 10- 10- 10- 6- 15- 6 by 7th level. Really played up the spore reanimation and decomposer bit. The PCs though he was incredibly weird and creepy and wanted to be rid of him asap (even though he was a great healer/controller). Thr players thought he was weird and creepy and pretty great xD

I played a Mountain Dwarf Sorcerer, and took the Heavily Armored Feat at level 4. I fought with a Battleaxe and my full plate, staying near enemies, slashing them with my axe and zapping them with wild magic

in a game I'm running our paladin has pretty much no strength and negative dex, as well as low constitution, luckily he's a redemption paladin, so that helps. he's basically the party face, it's fun

So, I play a high elf barbarian. Not exactly optimal due to not getting any strength bonuses or real offensive bonuses. However, I didn’t realize I got a +2 to dexterity. That turned my 16 in dex, to an 18. At level 3, I had a 16 AC. Which, if you ask me, is a good thing.

Gnome Anchients Paladin. Everything I see online says this is sub-optimal or an extremely rare choice. Combining the Gnome mental spell save bonus with the Anchients spell damage reduction was what made me want to play this character. Made a pretty decent anti-spellcaster.

Some of my choices made it extra awesome along the way. A small character can use a lance while mounted. A small character can ride a medium sized dog indoors. I was always mounted on my Find Steed spell dog. I even took Mounted Combat at level 4 and didn't bump strength to 16 until level 8.

The extra goodness was that you can freely move around the battlefield with a mount because they are faster and can easily disengage. I took the protection fighting style to help out my friends. It was common for me to disengage one enemy, ride over to stand behind a friend, attack through their space with a lance, then use protection to deflect an attack that comes at them.

I played a character that was two twin souls sharing a body that would swap control more or less randomly. One was a fighter and the other a wizard with stats reflecting that. The switching was really inconvenient, but it was a super interesting character to play.

Ran a ranger-only one shot at one point, wherein the players were not allowed to be the 'classic' longbow shooting type (you know the kind of thing I mean). One of the players made a Half-Orc, who relyed on strength-based attacks (a greataxe). Wasn't as bad as one would think, played more like a paladin in battle, but the session proved to my players that the classes could be played however you like.

There was an article on 538.com a while back that gave a breakdown of the various race/class combos drawn from D&DBeyond. The least common was an Aasimar Ranger, so I made one. Haven't had a chance to play it yet but it will replace my current one upon his death, whenever that may be.

Noodles, my gnome ranger is a blast to play. not super optimal because I can’t use large weapons like the longbow and the +1 dx is nothing to write home about. She’s the first to dive into any pit and I set off mostly every trap because of my gnomish curiosity

I played a Half-Orc Bard named Pituña who spoke in third person. It was fun to roleplay and i was still decent at combat too.

I’m gonna start playing a firbolg old one warlock/ potential sorcerer in PotA soon, basically a southern man who moves from a low/no magic village to a high magic area and thinks magic is just the coolest thing he’s ever seen. Although his son was killed by the elemental cults. I’m really excited.

I play a Goliath Sorcerer. Really low strength and dex, but the con makes up for it. And decent charisma.

It’s a fun character to play, because he’s a sorc that can take a hit. I’ve provoked AOO attacks to get into a better place to do more spell damage.

Gnome Barbarian was really fun.

Orc Wizard. -2 to INT. With standard array I started at 14/12/14/13/8/10. Went Necromancy. It was fun because everyone expected me to run into battle, then they expected me to stay back, but in actuality I did run in and used Green-Flame Blade.

Lola boombottom, a halfling dragqueen bard of glamour. Pretty sure my highest stat was a 17 at 5th level and I had a negative intelligence and a negative in dexterity. I justified her low dexterity due to the fact that she had large hobbit feet stuffed into high heels that would constantly break under her weight. I mainly cared about supporting the group which doesn’t really require high stats. It was a blast playing her. I played her in a one shot so there was not a whole lot of backstory, but the idea was that we would all start in prison and we would have to figure out how we got there.

My crime was being caught drunk in public, she was not actually drunk just wobbling around on her broken heal. I treated the prison like it was some kinky bdsm orgy and faked my servitude while doing my best to make as many inappropriate jokes as possible.

I play a bit of a weird sub-optimal character. I'm currently playing an Undead Tiefling named Gigas, that racial combination happens to make him one of the most hated things in the continent our setting is taking place in.

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Now Gigas is a smart cookie, what way could he conceal his face without drawing attention to whats hiding underneath? He donned a mask and baggy clothing and became a performer using his arcane powers(he's a div wizard) as his gimmick. Rather rapidly, his legend spread across the continent he hailed from. "For if the wandering performer graced your halls, your food and drink would rise to unimaginable heights for the time he stayed." In actuality, I would prestidigitation food and drink to taste amazing. So they could sell their bottom shelf stuff and have it taste like top shelf. Aside from spreading my legend, even more, every time I stayed at a tavern, I would make a killing in profits.

When I first started playing in my dm's world about a dozen years ago he mentioned a society of nomadic halflings that live some where on the northern end of the continent and ride velociraptors. I tucked that nugget away in my brain, and finally last year, after never having met any of them I told my dm "I'd like to play one of those raptor riding halflings you mentioned a bit ago" when he said we would be starting a short campaign. He was amazed I remembered it for that long and had me make home brew subclass. So I did that, making a halfling barbarian with a velociraptor sidekick. Still no str bonus, but the subclass does have a +1 wis. Suboptimal barbarian build, but optimal playing experience.

Currently playing a grung circle of the shepherd druid in a chult campaign. He does nothing but summon swarms of velociraptors, while throwing poison darts. With the jump spell a grung can jump 45ft in the air and long jump 75ft with a 10ft running start. Grung is great fun.

I played Leo, Wizard of Illusion. As in he illusioned his diploma because he flunked out. Stat of 8 - 12 - 10 - 6 - 10 - 14, he flunked out of College, but was able to learn a few things. He illusioned a diploma to make his parents proud and set off for a life of "adventure". His wizard book was filled mostly with drawings as he wanted to be an artist, and the only spell he memorized was Magic Missile as it never fails him.

During sessions, his familer owl (Whowig) end up becoming more useful than him.

First character I ever made and played was Skunk the Gnome Monk. Did it mostly for the fun word play. He lasted 2 sessions...