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General tips for character creation and play: Remember, although there are serious issues with class balance, it is not a competitive game. If you don't want to be a wizard and want to be a sword guy, you don't have to. Unless of course, your DM is a poo poo trying to kill you, not understanding TTRPGs, in which case, find a new DM. Multi-Classing: -The first class you take for Level 1 is the most important, because it determines your full array of proficiency. IE: You only get the save proficiency of your first class, as well as your skills. You cannot gain heavy armor proficiency from multiclassing. If you want to be an Heavily Armored Wizard with a sword, your first level should be Fighter, not Wizard. Barbarians: -The Frenzy Path is not advised. The stacking exhaustion will derail your character fast unless you literally only rage once per day. You may try to convince your DM to remove or at least cap that rule because it makes it unplayable IMO. Fighter -Champion path is not advised, unless all you truly want to do is say 'I attack'. You are probably not on this forum if this is your level of involvement in the game. They only get a critical boost, and critical hits are not too strong in this game. Battlemaster lets you be more involved, and everything they get refreshes on a short rest, so it's the advised go to Fighter archetype. -Eldritch Knights are weirdly limiting. If you really want an Arcane-casting Fighter, consider multi-classing Battlemaster with something else, or just take 1 or 2 levels of fighter for the abilities and proficiency. A combo that jumps to my mind possibly is Sorcerer/Fighter, using quickened spell on top of standard attacks. Fighter/Wizard is the most obvious parallel, although it forces you to attack or cast, rarely ever both(unless you Action Surge.) Healers: -Healing Word is superior to Cure Wounds. Cure Wounds requires a standard, for you to be right next to your ally. Healing Word, on average, heals only two less HP but is a bonus and has range. This is important because: -Healing in battle is not worth it. Outside a few exceptions of the Heal spell and Restore Health channel divinity, 1d4 or 1d8+WIS/CHA is not going to make a long term difference. In Early levels, using Healing Word and making an attack will push the party to victory more effectively than Cure Wounds and doing nothing. In later levels, it's best used to revive people who have fallen unconscious, because no matter what you do, 1d8+modifiers will not help someone survive more than one hit. -The 'Healer' feat is not terrible at lower levels for what amounts to something stronger than a hit die. It's pretty much a poor man's version of the Wand of Cure Light Wounds from 3.5. It's cheap, reusable on a short rest, and should be used before normal hit dice are used. Rogue -Similar to the Champion, the Assassin is actually very poor in combat. It can be chosen for the disguise perks, but that's the only reason to take it. You become a one trick pony. Granted, you are VERY good at that trick. -You can only sneak attack once per round, so a multi-class combo with Fighter, like in 3.5, doesn't work too well. Humans -If you're playing a heavily armored Human who will be in melee, IE: Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, consider the human variant and take Heavy Armor Master. It's a great boon for low levels and acts as a mild survivability buff in higher levels. General Advice: -Great Weapon Fighting is a must if fighting with a two hander. The -5 penalty becomes less of an issue as levels go up, and the +10 damage applies to every attack. The 'Cleave' is nice when cleaning up weak enemies - and remember, you get your extra bonus attacks on a critical hit as well. -Polearm Master gives you an opportunity attack against approaching enemies with a reach weapon. This can be combined with great weapon fighting. -You only have one reaction a turn, so don't pick too many effects which use that as a resource. More if I think of any.
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Feb 8, 2015 23:51
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 22:38 |
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P.d0t posted:How much should Bards care about their weapon stat? (i.e. STR or DEX) I guess it's how much you want to hit things vs. cast spells. Bards innately are keyed towards being DEX characters but there's nothing stopping you from doing Strength based characters. One of the concepts I might use is a Fighter1/ValorBardX with two battle axes. Suboptimal, but there's nothing I see that is keyed off dexterity. Halfings are pretty good for any DEX based class that doesn't rely on the longbow, and probably makes the most out of it on a character with a bunch of attack rolls. Bards and Rogues are good standards. A Rapier-based fighter/two weapon finesse fighter also prob works just fine. Non-standard, there's nothing saying a Paladin must be strength based, so a halfling paladin with a rapier could do just fine. The Con or Cha bonus both apply pretty well. Gnomes are far more limited. Only one class really cares about INT. If you insist on Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, they'll be competent at either, and the only real way Gnomes can flourish statistically as front line fighters. The rules as written put a damper on Gnomes with Greatswords or Gnomebarians, which really does tell me Mike Mearls hates fun.
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Feb 9, 2015 01:32
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Nothing on the bard is keyed to DEX, go hog wild. 1 Level of fighter gets you a fighting style too, which is certainly nice. And Second Wind, which... ok, if you have nothing else to do with your bonus action(and free heal before short rests). Two would give you action surge which is ripe for tricks, but delays your spell progression even more.
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Feb 9, 2015 06:10
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Laphroaig posted:This is not true. If you multi-class as Cleric, you gain the domain feature as a normal class feature, which includes the ability to gain proficiency in Heavy Armor from Life and War domains. Ah, loophole. Didn't notice. Advice still stands for the standard Wizard Knight, though. By RAW you need 13 WIS to multi-class cleric, and said Heavily Armored Artillery Wizard is looking at serious MAD from STR(need for Armor if nothing else)/INT/CON alone without tacking WIS on there. Alternately get a cool DM who just lets you have Heavy Armor proficiency for a level of fighter. If your character takes up a sword and armor as a wizard, it seems pointless to say NO YOU CAN'T GET THIS THROUGH NORMAL FIGHTER TRAINING. (Cause I look at the armor proficiency feats as traps really. The martial weapon one too.)
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Feb 11, 2015 03:24
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nope, still 'ability to cast one spell', which magic initiate fulfills. Uses for Magic Initiate: Casting Bless, 1/day at low levels seems nice. Spare the Dying is auto-stabilize. Cantrips are based on character level so there's that. There's prob a few more selectively useful spells. You can then take Spell Sniper as a monk and pick like, I dunno, Produce Flame? 60 foot range on that would give you a okay ranged option. Worth two feats? Probably not. Other 1st level spells have uses, but it's really limited with 1/day. Fighters, Barbs, Rogues tend to have bottomed out mental stats, and if they don't they probably fulfill the spellcasting requirement naturally. Actual Advice Question: Are there any good ranged options for Open Hand Monks? I got one at the table and tossing darts at disadvantage when something's far away is prob not fun. Anything beyond shoving a shortbow at them?
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Feb 28, 2015 09:56
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 22:38 |
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Speed doesn't help when fighting something that flies though. Which was more of my concern. Had an issue in HotDQ where dragon sat on ceiling 40 ft up. Monk futiley threw darts at disadvantage. Also, taking Magic Initiate for Eldritch Blast is a poor choice IMO. Spell Sniper can give you it and a few other benefits. I wouldn't knock 1 level dips either. Technically you have more levels than Feats. You also get another perk on top of 2 1st level spells and a cantrip. Downside is usually a stat requirement. Ex: Wizard: Arcane Recovery at Lv1 gives you a spell slot back on a short rest. Sorcerer: Weaker dip. Draconic gives you basically half a Tough feat, with free armor if you usually don't wear any. Wild Magic is Wild Magic. Cleric: The domain perks are powerful. War gets around proficiency and gives you Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons - which is technically multiple feats worth in itself. Druid is prob the weakest 1 level dip. Druidic is very situational and mostly RP.
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Feb 28, 2015 22:46
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