Hi Everyone, so as you see in the title, I have never played D&D before and my brother is currently setting up a campaign, so I've been doing a ton of research into the character I want to build. I have an idea that I really really like, but the problem is that I don't know if he will be too weak to keep up with everyone else. Now I'm not looking to be overpowered or to min/max my character or anything like that, I just want to make sure my idea for one is not garbage, because I know that if he's not as useful as others I personally would not have as much fun with it.
So, some background on my character is that he's a high elf fighter, who has the duelist fighting style, he uses a rapier and bow, and he has 20 Dex. And just to keep in mind, when I get there, the martial archetype I want to choose is battle master. Anyway despite the fact that my character is an elf who has 20 Dex and has a bow, I don't want him to primarily be an archer, the idea I have in my mind is that he's a master fencer, so I don't have so many questions about the ranged side of combat as I do for the melee. And maybe that's dumb but to be honest I'm new enough to this game that I literally have no idea but I think it sounds cool haha.
I'm pretty sure that at level 1 my character will be fairly competent, since, as far as I know, when I roll for damage I will be using 1d8 + 7 (Dex modifier + Dueling trait), which I believe is a good amount of damage for a character at that point, but once again I'm really not sure. The biggest problem I have is if my damage is going to scale well, and in fact I even have questions about how damage is supposed to scale altogether. In most other games where you play a character, whether it be tabletop or a video game, your character's damage naturally increases every new level, but in D&D your damage seems to be completely dependent on outside sources. The only increasing stat that would effect it in my case would be Dex, but if it's already at 20 it would already be maxed out. So how are character's damage supposed to scale, I mean I know that most classes get extra attacks in later levels, but is that only way? To be honest I'm not very knowledgeable about classes beyond the fighter class, and my knowledge of that basically extends to what the player handbook says.
So my questions basically boil down to this: Is the fighter class naturally weak or did I just build it entirely wrong? Is my character even weak in the first place, or am I just uninformed on how much damage a character is supposed to do? How is damage supposed to scale when its based on such stagnant numbers?
If someone could help me with these questions I'd be greatly appreciative! Thanks!
(P.S I do know about the hand crossbow, crossbow expert combo, and as far I understand it, that would actually be a super broken combo, but to me that sounds lame especially for what I want for my character)
In short: Don't worry too much about fine details of your character. It is more important to have a intresting character not just perfectly optimized stat block. Your GM is going to optimize the difficulty of battles after all.
As a fighter, starting out with 20 in your main damage dealing stat at level 1 is pretty high for ‘standard’ builds. I have a level 5 strength build fighter who is only at 18 strength (for comparison). Your damage at level 1 is pretty high since you are at max Dex already. The way you will do more damage as you progress your character will be either through magical weapons and also when you get additional attacks per round, starting at level 5.
Also your other stats will play into the rest of your experience. Constitution will determine how many hp you have. Hard to hit stuff if you’re dead or unconscious :). Other abilities will affect your saving throws and skill checks both inside and outside of combat. Lots more to a fighter than just their main stat. As Terhonator posted above, build what you want and create a character that’s exciting for you to play. Just remember that your DM may not have a combat heavy game, there may be puzzles/mysteries to solve, social interactions, etc that you will be involved in as well as stabbing bad guys and monsters.
First off, I hope you enjoy DnD, I started playing about 6 moths ago and so far it's been great.
In DnD you gain something at every level but that doesn't necessarily mean you deal more damage than you did the previous level. Although one thing you do always get when you level up is HP and since your hit die is a d10 you'll end up having a fair bit of HP. Battle Master is probably the best option for your character and it's also in my opinion, the coolest of the three Fighter archetypes. While it may feel like a bad thing that you start out with 20 Dex it's not, at first level you'll be dealing as much damage as a magic missile (average of 10.5) every turn, and at 2nd level you'll be able to attack twice that once per short rest, also having a maxed out main stat means that you'll be able to focus on maxing it your Constitution or getting feats like Defensive Duelist, which could be very nice for a former fencer. And at 5th level you could potentially deal a massive amount of damage in one turn although you would have to use all you superiority dice and your Action Surge, at 5th level you'd get the extra attack and if you Action Surge you'd get a total of 4 attacks, and if you use a maneuver on all them you'd deal 1d8 (average of 4.5) +7 +1d8 X4 =64 damage on average if all attacks hit, which is unlikely but still possibly.
All that to say, you don't really have to worry about being under powered, you thought of a cool character idea and you figured out the best class and subclass for that character, it sounds like you've put in a lot of work to figure out the rules of DnD and it should pay off
You talk to any good DM and they will tell you to play your character however you want to. I've been in a group where we had a warlock that didn't take the eldritch blast cantrip and was meant to not be very useful. Usefulness isn't entirely based on combat either. For example, you are walking around a town and you have to try to talk somebody out of committing murder, or tame a horse that got spooked and it out of control. There are plenty of instances where you can be useful that doesn't rely on combat prowess. The biggest part of playing any game is to have fun. Hope this helped.
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Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
2) fighter scaling goes in big leaps. Lv 5, 11 and 20 when you get extra attacks.
3) for your character concept you could considder rogue with the swashbuckler archtype, or multiclass into it. They have a more linear damage scaling via sneak attack
With 20 in your main stat at lvl 1, you are more than fine. If anything, you are overpowered. With the Dueling bonus damage adding on every Extra Attack, and getting even more damage from (most) Battlemaster maneuvers, you won't have any issue staying relevant in later levels either.
3) for your character concept you could considder rogue with the swashbuckler archtype, or multiclass into it. They have a more linear damage scaling via sneak attack
I'd also suggest Swashbuckler (Rogue) rather than Battle Master. Not because of any power disparity or anything, but because of the concept you described (master fencer). You'll be wearing Light armor anyway, to take advantage of your high Dexterity, and you're already using a finesse weapon, so mechanically it works, too.
If you do decide to stay with Battle Master, no problem, you're fine. You'll find Fighter damage scaling is not smooth, but rather in big chunks (Extra Attack), but that's true for all Fighters, and shouldn't be a problem overall.
You could also go samurai archetype (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything). Although it is mainly RP oriented, it also gives you a good buffer against attacks with fighting spirit.
Hi Everyone, so as you see in the title, I have never played D&D before and my brother is currently setting up a campaign, so I've been doing a ton of research into the character I want to build. I have an idea that I really really like, but the problem is that I don't know if he will be too weak to keep up with everyone else. Now I'm not looking to be overpowered or to min/max my character or anything like that, I just want to make sure my idea for one is not garbage, because I know that if he's not as useful as others I personally would not have as much fun with it.
So, some background on my character is that he's a high elf fighter, who has the duelist fighting style, he uses a rapier and bow, and he has 20 Dex. And just to keep in mind, when I get there, the martial archetype I want to choose is battle master. Anyway despite the fact that my character is an elf who has 20 Dex and has a bow, I don't want him to primarily be an archer, the idea I have in my mind is that he's a master fencer, so I don't have so many questions about the ranged side of combat as I do for the melee. And maybe that's dumb but to be honest I'm new enough to this game that I literally have no idea but I think it sounds cool haha.
I'm pretty sure that at level 1 my character will be fairly competent, since, as far as I know, when I roll for damage I will be using 1d8 + 7 (Dex modifier + Dueling trait), which I believe is a good amount of damage for a character at that point, but once again I'm really not sure. The biggest problem I have is if my damage is going to scale well, and in fact I even have questions about how damage is supposed to scale altogether. In most other games where you play a character, whether it be tabletop or a video game, your character's damage naturally increases every new level, but in D&D your damage seems to be completely dependent on outside sources. The only increasing stat that would effect it in my case would be Dex, but if it's already at 20 it would already be maxed out. So how are character's damage supposed to scale, I mean I know that most classes get extra attacks in later levels, but is that only way? To be honest I'm not very knowledgeable about classes beyond the fighter class, and my knowledge of that basically extends to what the player handbook says.
So my questions basically boil down to this: Is the fighter class naturally weak or did I just build it entirely wrong? Is my character even weak in the first place, or am I just uninformed on how much damage a character is supposed to do? How is damage supposed to scale when its based on such stagnant numbers?
If someone could help me with these questions I'd be greatly appreciative! Thanks!
(P.S I do know about the hand crossbow, crossbow expert combo, and as far I understand it, that would actually be a super broken combo, but to me that sounds lame especially for what I want for my character)
Hello and welcome to forums. (Your first post)
In short: Don't worry too much about fine details of your character. It is more important to have a intresting character not just perfectly optimized stat block. Your GM is going to optimize the difficulty of battles after all.
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- Clam Island campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/By3s5Uqqf (Levels 1-4)
- Frostglade Tundra campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyZ_4eEyKE (Levels 1-4)
- Goldfish Archipelago campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/-3HajWXM (Sequel to Clam Island, Levels 5-8)
As a fighter, starting out with 20 in your main damage dealing stat at level 1 is pretty high for ‘standard’ builds. I have a level 5 strength build fighter who is only at 18 strength (for comparison). Your damage at level 1 is pretty high since you are at max Dex already. The way you will do more damage as you progress your character will be either through magical weapons and also when you get additional attacks per round, starting at level 5.
Also your other stats will play into the rest of your experience. Constitution will determine how many hp you have. Hard to hit stuff if you’re dead or unconscious :). Other abilities will affect your saving throws and skill checks both inside and outside of combat. Lots more to a fighter than just their main stat. As Terhonator posted above, build what you want and create a character that’s exciting for you to play. Just remember that your DM may not have a combat heavy game, there may be puzzles/mysteries to solve, social interactions, etc that you will be involved in as well as stabbing bad guys and monsters.
Welcome, and have fun!
First off, I hope you enjoy DnD, I started playing about 6 moths ago and so far it's been great.
In DnD you gain something at every level but that doesn't necessarily mean you deal more damage than you did the previous level. Although one thing you do always get when you level up is HP and since your hit die is a d10 you'll end up having a fair bit of HP. Battle Master is probably the best option for your character and it's also in my opinion, the coolest of the three Fighter archetypes. While it may feel like a bad thing that you start out with 20 Dex it's not, at first level you'll be dealing as much damage as a magic missile (average of 10.5) every turn, and at 2nd level you'll be able to attack twice that once per short rest, also having a maxed out main stat means that you'll be able to focus on maxing it your Constitution or getting feats like Defensive Duelist, which could be very nice for a former fencer. And at 5th level you could potentially deal a massive amount of damage in one turn although you would have to use all you superiority dice and your Action Surge, at 5th level you'd get the extra attack and if you Action Surge you'd get a total of 4 attacks, and if you use a maneuver on all them you'd deal 1d8 (average of 4.5) +7 +1d8 X4 =64 damage on average if all attacks hit, which is unlikely but still possibly.
All that to say, you don't really have to worry about being under powered, you thought of a cool character idea and you figured out the best class and subclass for that character, it sounds like you've put in a lot of work to figure out the rules of DnD and it should pay off
You talk to any good DM and they will tell you to play your character however you want to. I've been in a group where we had a warlock that didn't take the eldritch blast cantrip and was meant to not be very useful. Usefulness isn't entirely based on combat either. For example, you are walking around a town and you have to try to talk somebody out of committing murder, or tame a horse that got spooked and it out of control. There are plenty of instances where you can be useful that doesn't rely on combat prowess. The biggest part of playing any game is to have fun. Hope this helped.
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
1) your character is more than fine
2) fighter scaling goes in big leaps. Lv 5, 11 and 20 when you get extra attacks.
3) for your character concept you could considder rogue with the swashbuckler archtype, or multiclass into it. They have a more linear damage scaling via sneak attack
With 20 in your main stat at lvl 1, you are more than fine. If anything, you are overpowered. With the Dueling bonus damage adding on every Extra Attack, and getting even more damage from (most) Battlemaster maneuvers, you won't have any issue staying relevant in later levels either.
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I'd also suggest Swashbuckler (Rogue) rather than Battle Master. Not because of any power disparity or anything, but because of the concept you described (master fencer). You'll be wearing Light armor anyway, to take advantage of your high Dexterity, and you're already using a finesse weapon, so mechanically it works, too.
If you do decide to stay with Battle Master, no problem, you're fine. You'll find Fighter damage scaling is not smooth, but rather in big chunks (Extra Attack), but that's true for all Fighters, and shouldn't be a problem overall.
You could also go samurai archetype (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything). Although it is mainly RP oriented, it also gives you a good buffer against attacks with fighting spirit.
I stole my pfp from this person: https://mobile.twitter.com/xelart1/status/1177312449575432193