Hi,

I am new to D&D, and also new to the forums, so bear with me if I don't get this quite right.

I have a charecter concept i want to build and play, I'm more about having fun and roll play that optomising for maximum effect. But i also don't want to make a charecter that is so ineffectual that they are a burden to the people im playing with.

The conecpt is fairly well used im sure, a half elf pirate who has spent almost his entire life at sea, being about 90 years old, generally making a nusence fo himself. he probabaly wouldn't be classed as good, he does have his own code of honor though.

I was thinking the base would be a rogue swashbuckler.
as part of the fairly imediate backstory I wanted there to be an un-natural storm that wrecked his ship and killed his crew. As part of this he has been exposed to magic, and develops scorcerous abilities, proabably either an wild magic or shadow magic background. (this would develop over time, he wouldn't understand that he had gained this pwoer to begin with).

I was also thinking about getting a point or two in the figher class for the dual wielding, and maybe some survivability.

Cheers guys

Personnaly  i would put 12 lvl aside to get reliable talent this makes you character a great skill monkey later on. (i would hit lvl rogue 5 before multiclassing just to have uncanny dodge it helps alot in survivbility).

If you gonna dip fighter i would recommend dip untill lvl 6 battlemaster instead only dipping 2. it give you extra attack, extra ability score that normally not acceseble (lvl6) and 3 battle Maneuvers.
battlemaster battle Maneuvers:
*Riposte: This allow you to punish melee fighter that miss. it especially usefull on rogue that can apply there sneak attack again since it trigger on sombody else turn.
*Trip Attack: if it succeed your opponent knocked prone and all melee atack against it advantage now.
*Precision Attack: your attack just barely not enough to overcome your target ac? add your superioty die to see if it hits now.

For dipping into spell caster i would look for CHA spellcasters since it synergy well with some of your swashbuckler CHA based features. This give you option to Bard/sorcerer/warlock.

Sword Bard: give you what you wanted out fighter just bit later but you get more spell/slots this way. (this handy if you wanna be the face of the party when it come to social encounters)

For sorcerer i would lean toward shadow over wild: personally i dont like the randomese of wild + able to cast a ghost hound at lvl 6 just make you more scary pirate :P.

If you only want a very small dip in magic lvl 2 warlock another option you got acces to eldrit blast and hex and if SCAG allowed you could get booming blade or green flame blade cantrip to increase your melee damage. As for RP you could have made a pact that something saved/spared you life and why nobody else on your ship.

Thank you,

I'm new to the world of multiclassing, youve helped me see te possible synergies.

I would probably skip the Fighter levels, juggling three classes can really slow down your progression. The story you've come up with for your character screams Swashbuckler Rogue mixed with Storm Sorcerer, though.