Hi, I'm a newbie and I'm doing my first character sheet. Please notice that I am not an English speaker and some terms may be badly translated. Sadly, I suffer from a disease that does not allow me to do anything the usual way lol. I created a nice story for my character and I really liked it, but at the same time I want to keep faithfull to his history I don't want him to be too bad in combat.
I idealized a character inspired by historical figures like Willian Wallace or Vecingetorix. His name is Windrivver, a half-elf from a tribe of humans who was constantly attacked by Drows who wanted to enslave them. Son of the village druid and a drow in a non consensual relation, he grew up in a hut isolated from the rest of the tribe who never fully accepted him. After reaching maturity, he excelled in battles against the Drows, mainly for his ability to see in the dark (giving him a good ability to avoid traps) and the frightening fury with which he struggled. Although he was neither good at military tactics nor very clever, his inspiring personality made others lose their fear in the battlefield, so he soon became the military leader of the tribe. However, it did not take long for the lack of strategy to cause him and his tribe to be defeated and massacred. He managed to escape and is now an outsider in distant lands, suffering prejudice for his appearance.
To be true to the character, I chose the barbarian class. As a half-elf, I have +2 Charisma and 2x + 1 in two statuses (dexterity and constitution). Using the standart array, I imagined the following distribution: STR: 10 DEX: 16 CON: 15 INT: 8 WIS: 13 CHA: 14
I chose the Outlander background and have six skills (I get two extras for being a half-elf): Perception Intimidate Diplomacy Insight Acrobatics Endurance
My idea is to use a shield to have a good AC and choose Wolf Totem at level 3 and the Inspiring Leader feat at level 4 to improve the combat skills of my teammates. What is your opinion?
I would suggest this ability score distribution to avoid odd scores:
STR: 10
DEX: 16 = 15 + 1 (half-elf)
CON: 14 = 13 + 1 (half-elf)
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 14 = 12 + 2 (half-elf)
Otherwise, your plan looks fun. Do remember though that since you'll presumably be attacking with DEX, the bonus damage from rage and the advantage granted from reckless attack will not apply (they both only work with STR melee attacks).
Honestly, Barbarian is bad choice for this character concept, entirely because Rage explicitly applies most of its benefits to STR-based attacks. If your DM is willing to let you shift any STR-based benefits to Dex for your character that could work, but honestly nothing in your character's backstory really says "Barbarian" to me. Even the detail that the character has trouble controlling his anger isn't something that needs to be done with the Rage ability. The only thing that seems to make this character mechanically a Barbarian is that they're good at avoiding traps, and with the Wolf Totem you can give advantage to allies. I'd say that you'd be better served playing as a Battlemaster fighter... it gives you a lot of battlefield control options to focus on assisting allies, but still allows for the armor and equipment to get right up in the heat of battle. Maybe you could even go Paladin if you just want an area-of-effect around your character to help your allies.
Thanks for all answers! After reading your tips, I'm considering keep the main idea and change the class to Fighter, after lvl 1 I could multiclass to bard and play a horn to to inspire my friends in battle (like Boromir from LOTR). This way I would choose the Protection fight style and just keep a valor bard till the end.
What do you think? Maybe I should ask for tips on Bard's topic.
Thanks for all answers! After reading your tips, I'm considering keep the stats and and change the class to Warrior, after lvl 1 I could multiclass to bard and play a horn to to inspire my friends in battle (like Boromir from LOTR).
If you're doing this, may I suggest skipping the first level of figher and instead go straight bard, College of Valor? Levels 1 and 2 will be difficult since you can't use a shield yet, but these levels usually go quickly. The reason I suggest this is that 1 level of fighter is not bringing much to the table, and you wouldn't want to delay getting the nice bard features at level 5 and 6.
I gues you got a point. But I really see my character much more a Fighter than a Bard.
What if I went fighter until lvl 3 and than multiclassed to Bard? This way I would have a higher AC and a CON save throw plus the bard trick BladeWard. At the same time I would give bonus from Protection (fight style), the battle maneuvers Commander's Strike, Goading Attack and Rally plus Bardic Inspiration and the spells, Faerie Fire, Healling Word and Heroism.
Another option would be just go fighter all the way. But I would really like to make the first option work somehow. I think I really should start a new thread under Bard or Fighter topic 🤔.
Hi, I'm a newbie and I'm doing my first character sheet. Please notice that I am not an English speaker and some terms may be badly translated.
Sadly, I suffer from a disease that does not allow me to do anything the usual way lol. I created a nice story for my character and I really liked it, but at the same time I want to keep faithfull to his history I don't want him to be too bad in combat.
I idealized a character inspired by historical figures like Willian Wallace or Vecingetorix. His name is Windrivver, a half-elf from a tribe of humans who was constantly attacked by Drows who wanted to enslave them. Son of the village druid and a drow in a non consensual relation, he grew up in a hut isolated from the rest of the tribe who never fully accepted him.
After reaching maturity, he excelled in battles against the Drows, mainly for his ability to see in the dark (giving him a good ability to avoid traps) and the frightening fury with which he struggled.
Although he was neither good at military tactics nor very clever, his inspiring personality made others lose their fear in the battlefield, so he soon became the military leader of the tribe. However, it did not take long for the lack of strategy to cause him and his tribe to be defeated and massacred. He managed to escape and is now an outsider in distant lands, suffering prejudice for his appearance.
To be true to the character, I chose the barbarian class. As a half-elf, I have +2 Charisma and 2x + 1 in two statuses (dexterity and constitution).
Using the standart array, I imagined the following distribution:
STR: 10
DEX: 16
CON: 15
INT: 8
WIS: 13
CHA: 14
I chose the Outlander background and have six skills (I get two extras for being a half-elf):
Perception
Intimidate
Diplomacy
Insight
Acrobatics
Endurance
My idea is to use a shield to have a good AC and choose Wolf Totem at level 3 and the Inspiring Leader feat at level 4 to improve the combat skills of my teammates.
What is your opinion?
I would suggest this ability score distribution to avoid odd scores:
Otherwise, your plan looks fun. Do remember though that since you'll presumably be attacking with DEX, the bonus damage from rage and the advantage granted from reckless attack will not apply (they both only work with STR melee attacks).
I know you put a lot into your class but if you would reconsider the stats even more it would be a lot more optimized.
First I've always disliked standard array. See if you could roll for stats. Thats fun. Or go point buy
To 'maximize' optimization you could just go 15 are 15 dex n 15 con. Everything else at 8 (cha will go to 10 cuz of half elf stat)
Otherwise using the same swap out wisdom and str. You need your str for attacks. Wis is just to look around
Honestly, Barbarian is bad choice for this character concept, entirely because Rage explicitly applies most of its benefits to STR-based attacks. If your DM is willing to let you shift any STR-based benefits to Dex for your character that could work, but honestly nothing in your character's backstory really says "Barbarian" to me. Even the detail that the character has trouble controlling his anger isn't something that needs to be done with the Rage ability. The only thing that seems to make this character mechanically a Barbarian is that they're good at avoiding traps, and with the Wolf Totem you can give advantage to allies. I'd say that you'd be better served playing as a Battlemaster fighter... it gives you a lot of battlefield control options to focus on assisting allies, but still allows for the armor and equipment to get right up in the heat of battle. Maybe you could even go Paladin if you just want an area-of-effect around your character to help your allies.
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Here’s an example of a high Cha/Str combination but you could easily swap this to a Cha/Dex build with the same philosophy:
https://ddb.ac/characters/20120329/srZfCG
You can use Intimidating Presence at will which adds a level of potency for your battlefield control, and it’ll have a high DC to boot.
Thanks for all answers! After reading your tips, I'm considering keep the main idea and change the class to Fighter, after lvl 1 I could multiclass to bard and play a horn to to inspire my friends in battle (like Boromir from LOTR). This way I would choose the Protection fight style and just keep a valor bard till the end.
What do you think? Maybe I should ask for tips on Bard's topic.
If you're doing this, may I suggest skipping the first level of figher and instead go straight bard, College of Valor? Levels 1 and 2 will be difficult since you can't use a shield yet, but these levels usually go quickly. The reason I suggest this is that 1 level of fighter is not bringing much to the table, and you wouldn't want to delay getting the nice bard features at level 5 and 6.
I gues you got a point. But I really see my character much more a Fighter than a Bard.
What if I went fighter until lvl 3 and than multiclassed to Bard? This way I would have a higher AC and a CON save throw plus the bard trick BladeWard. At the same time I would give bonus from Protection (fight style), the battle maneuvers Commander's Strike, Goading Attack and Rally plus Bardic Inspiration and the spells, Faerie Fire, Healling Word and Heroism.
Another option would be just go fighter all the way. But I would really like to make the first option work somehow. I think I really should start a new thread under Bard or Fighter topic 🤔.