Shrek's Dungeons & Dragons Class Isn't What You'd Expect (2024)

If there's one thing that Dungeons & Dragons fans love more than playing the game, it's trying to classify pop culture characters with D&D mechanics and terms. Building famous characters in D&D can provide a lot of fun, and piecing together how a character's actions and abilities translate into D&D rules can be endlessly entertaining. What makes it even more fun is when a character like Shrek from the Dreamworks film series of the same name ends up being a class that isn't obvious at first glance.

As a swamp-dwelling ogre who is suddenly thrust into a fantastical adventure, Shrek lives a life that can be easily translated into several of the D&D classes players will be familiar with. Like with any pop culture character, it isn't easy to pin down Shrek with a single particular class, as he tends to show off abilities or features that can be interpreted as several different classes at once. However, throughout all the movies Shrek has been in, there's no class that better exemplifies him than rogue.

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Why Rogue Fits Shrek More Than Any Other Class

Rogue may seem like a strange choice for the ogre, but over the course of his adventures, Shrek routinely shows the cunning, dexterity, and talent that the class exemplifies. While Shrek is unlikely to be the most talented or powerful rogue, several scenes throughout the Shrek films show him using some rather roguish abilities. When escaping from the dragon in the first movie, Shrek evades dragon fire without being burned at all by managing several impressive feats of acrobatics, reflecting a rogue's evasion and reliable talent class features. Throughout all his movies, Shrek routinely shows off the sort of clever tricks and ingenuity that rogues are famous for, routinely winning against his villains with wit as much as strength.

Shrek's subclass as a rogue is just as unexpected but wholly understandable: swashbuckler. While it may not seem immediately obvious, Shrek's ability to routinely rally the fairytale creatures of his world to his cause shows that the ogre has high charisma. His ability to both perform and fight at once can be seen when he defeats Lord Farquaad's knights in the first movie, both succeeding at taking out all his opponents while also winning over the crowd with his theatrics. The finale of the second movie also shows his charisma as he assembles an entire army to assist him in invading the castle to rescue Fiona.

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Several Other DnD Classes Also Fit Shrek

While rogue does fit Shrek best, there are several options that the ogre could be multiclassing into. His preference for fighting bare-handed could mean he has levels in monk (a class that Fiona belongs to), while his anger and resilience hint at barbarian. He also shares many similarities with ranger, though he does not have an animal companion (Donkey is very much a bard, down to having successfully seduced a dragon). Throughout the films, Shrek shows little interest or aptitude in magic, which puts many classes firmly out of his reach. Even then, his familiarity and comfort with nature could mean that he can easily be a druid if he were a practitioner of magic.

Even though it's unlikely that Shrek would function as a successful rogue in a D&D campaign, his unlikely similarities with the class show just how versatile and unique players can be when building a character. For D&D fans who are struggling with their campaign, pulling from diverse and oftentimes unexpected sources can help create new ideas that stretch the boundaries of what Dungeons & Dragons classes can be, showing that the game, like ogres and onions, has layers.