3. Would focus on Great Weapons be better? (As I see it the damage with be the same until we get GWM, and that will probably wait until mid - late game)
Few clarifications. Multiclassing wouldn't be preferred as it would slow down the Drake's growth. Going Dex doesn't fit the character either. He wants to fight alongside his dragon not jumping around.
Hi, this are my thoughts: - As long as you hafve fun, any build is viable. What you need to figure out is how to interact and synergize with the rest of the party, and that normally takes a few sessions/combat to see how others play.
- Rangers get 3 skills at 1st level, you are missing one, Nature, Athletics or Acrobatics are nice to have, but maybe Handle Animal would fit better. - As you reach 2nd level you start gaining spells, think ahead which spells you would want to use and see how they fit your playstyle and the party needs. Ranger has a lot of usefull utility spells, beside the combat staple ones and pass without trace. And since you have few spell slots, utility ones eventually become more important.
- As for Great Weapons vs Longsword, it depends a lot on how you feel. Great Weapons offer greater dmg potential (with feats mostly) but you normally can't use a Shield and your AC will be Lower, but then again you expect to get those feats very far away, so you have enough time to figure out if it will fit. You can play with all the options for the entire campaing (or as soon as you can buy/find the weapons), and you will have opportunity to use ranged attacks with bows too (which will be worse than melee for you, but not every fight starts at 30ft). If you don't settle for great weapons later, there is also the Shield Master feat.
A good rule of thumb is rangers try to remain versatile in response to the situation. Sometimes a bow will serve better even if you didn't invest in it. You just need to weigh benefits vs each strategy. Most people focus on damage but every now and then higher ac is better.
Note having a beast will mean double the carrying potential Most of the time. Aka take both.
Sometimes with the pet classes it's better to hold back or dodge.. other times go all out right out of the gate.
There are few "truly bad options" for 5e but some optimizers make it seem like it's not enough unless you're over preforming.
I’m not a big fan of mounted combatant in general, and it really seems kind of worse here. First off, any time you are not mounted, you get no benefit from the feat. That’s going to depend a lot on the campaign, if you have the chance to be mounted or not very often, just something to keep in mind. The first bullet, you get advantage on attacks, but only on creatures smaller than your mount. Since it won’t be size large until level 15 (if you get that high), you won’t get much use from that part, unless you’re fighting a lot of small creatures at level 12-14.
The other two parts are there just to keep your mount alive. But you can always re-summon your drake with a spell. You get more spell slots every day in game, but you’ll only get 4 or 5 feats for the whole campaign. If the drake dies, you can just re-summon it, rather than spend a feat to try and help it
I’d probably go with some other feat at 12. Which is really hard to say. You might have a weapon that lets you take advantage of crusher, piercer or slasher, lucky is alway a good call as is fey touched or even skilled or +2 to con or wisdom. It will really depend on how the campaign shakes out. Could even be mounted combatant ends up working. I guess it’s more just, level 12 is a long way off, see how your game evolves and decide later.
Oh man, I know you clearly stated multiclass is not an option to not slow down your Drake progression, but a single starting level of Fighter would do wonders for you:
- Saves you one feat since you’ll get heavy armor prof for free (would start with Heavy Armor Master and maybe get Piercer at level 5) - Gives you much better CON save prof (DEX saves usually revolves around damage and you get Absorb Elements in your backpocket for that) - An additional fighting style (Defense sounds great) - An ok healing option with Second Wind
You would need to adjust your stats to get DEX and WIS 13 at least, which is fine, because your Drake scales up trough your proficiency bonus, ironically not hampered by multiclass.
By doing this you can get Mounted Combat at level 9, three levels earlier than your former progression and enjoy the amazing synergies Lance + Dueling in Mounted Combat.
Hey, I am playing a Drakewarden in a future game and decided to go Strength based.
The fantasy I am trying to get with this character is "The warrior on Dragonback that is connected to his dragon on a fundamental level".
Stats: V Human: 16 STR; 12 DEX; 14 CON; 8 INT; 14 WIS; 10 CHA;
Feats: 1st level - Heavily Armored (+1 in Str) ; 4th level - Heavy Armor Master (+1 in Str); 8th level - +2 Str; 12th Level - Mounted Combatant.
Weapons and Fighting Style: Longsword + Shield; Dueling;
Proficiency: History, Perssuassion (Knight Background) ; Insight (V Human); Sneak & Perception (Ranger)
A few questions:
1. Is this build viable?
2. How would you improve it?
3. Would focus on Great Weapons be better? (As I see it the damage with be the same until we get GWM, and that will probably wait until mid - late game)
Few clarifications. Multiclassing wouldn't be preferred as it would slow down the Drake's growth. Going Dex doesn't fit the character either. He wants to fight alongside his dragon not jumping around.
Hi, this are my thoughts:
- As long as you hafve fun, any build is viable. What you need to figure out is how to interact and synergize with the rest of the party, and that normally takes a few sessions/combat to see how others play.
- Rangers get 3 skills at 1st level, you are missing one, Nature, Athletics or Acrobatics are nice to have, but maybe Handle Animal would fit better.
- As you reach 2nd level you start gaining spells, think ahead which spells you would want to use and see how they fit your playstyle and the party needs. Ranger has a lot of usefull utility spells, beside the combat staple ones and pass without trace. And since you have few spell slots, utility ones eventually become more important.
- As for Great Weapons vs Longsword, it depends a lot on how you feel. Great Weapons offer greater dmg potential (with feats mostly) but you normally can't use a Shield and your AC will be Lower, but then again you expect to get those feats very far away, so you have enough time to figure out if it will fit. You can play with all the options for the entire campaing (or as soon as you can buy/find the weapons), and you will have opportunity to use ranged attacks with bows too (which will be worse than melee for you, but not every fight starts at 30ft). If you don't settle for great weapons later, there is also the Shield Master feat.
Hope you enjoy your character.
A good rule of thumb is rangers try to remain versatile in response to the situation. Sometimes a bow will serve better even if you didn't invest in it. You just need to weigh benefits vs each strategy. Most people focus on damage but every now and then higher ac is better.
Note having a beast will mean double the carrying potential Most of the time. Aka take both.
Sometimes with the pet classes it's better to hold back or dodge.. other times go all out right out of the gate.
There are few "truly bad options" for 5e but some optimizers make it seem like it's not enough unless you're over preforming.
I’m not a big fan of mounted combatant in general, and it really seems kind of worse here. First off, any time you are not mounted, you get no benefit from the feat. That’s going to depend a lot on the campaign, if you have the chance to be mounted or not very often, just something to keep in mind.
The first bullet, you get advantage on attacks, but only on creatures smaller than your mount. Since it won’t be size large until level 15 (if you get that high), you won’t get much use from that part, unless you’re fighting a lot of small creatures at level 12-14.
The other two parts are there just to keep your mount alive. But you can always re-summon your drake with a spell. You get more spell slots every day in game, but you’ll only get 4 or 5 feats for the whole campaign. If the drake dies, you can just re-summon it, rather than spend a feat to try and help it
I’d probably go with some other feat at 12. Which is really hard to say. You might have a weapon that lets you take advantage of crusher, piercer or slasher, lucky is alway a good call as is fey touched or even skilled or +2 to con or wisdom. It will really depend on how the campaign shakes out. Could even be mounted combatant ends up working. I guess it’s more just, level 12 is a long way off, see how your game evolves and decide later.
Oh man, I know you clearly stated multiclass is not an option to not slow down your Drake progression, but a single starting level of Fighter would do wonders for you:
- Saves you one feat since you’ll get heavy armor prof for free (would start with Heavy Armor Master and maybe get Piercer at level 5)
- Gives you much better CON save prof (DEX saves usually revolves around damage and you get Absorb Elements in your backpocket for that)
- An additional fighting style (Defense sounds great)
- An ok healing option with Second Wind
You would need to adjust your stats to get DEX and WIS 13 at least, which is fine, because your Drake scales up trough your proficiency bonus, ironically not hampered by multiclass.
By doing this you can get Mounted Combat at level 9, three levels earlier than your former progression and enjoy the amazing synergies Lance + Dueling in Mounted Combat.