So, longtime player of PF and previous editions playing in my first 5e campaign. My group is starting Ravenloft and I was all set to play a swashbuckler but I realized we have no cleric. I'm thinking of switching to some sort of cleric/rogue, a cheery priest of the shadows type, to round out the party better and still give me the rogue role I was hoping for. But, I just don't know the various subclasses yet to figure out what works well together.
I don't need a perfectly optimized character, just one that's effective and fun to play. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Well, rather than multiclass have you thought about going for Sailor Background and Cleric with the Trickery domain and playing the "swashbuckling" pirate/sailor? It should give you a hefty amount of things to do and ways to be useful and entertaining.
So, longtime player of PF and previous editions playing in my first 5e campaign. My group is starting Ravenloft and I was all set to play a swashbuckler but I realized we have no cleric. I'm thinking of switching to some sort of cleric/rogue, a cheery priest of the shadows type, to round out the party better and still give me the rogue role I was hoping for. But, I just don't know the various subclasses yet to figure out what works well together.
I don't need a perfectly optimized character, just one that's effective and fun to play. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
My first thought was Death domain, so you can stack your Rakish Audacity sneak attack with extra necrotic damage. Of course, necrotic damage isn't always the most useful in Barovia...
One other small but potentially fun bonus from the multiclass that might fit a "cheery priest of the shadows" -- Death domain gives you full martial weapon proficiencies, which means you can sneak attack with a whip
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I really have to recommend against playing a Cleric / Rogue, they just don't mesh well. If you do it regardless, definitely support going with the Trickery domain.
Thanks for the feedback. Still on the fence, since my initial SB character was fully developed, I'm just not used to the idea of a party without any sort of cleric!
I;m not sure why but the image of a Bugbear Cleric with Twilight domain and uising a whip just pinged into my head when thinking about this one......
Maybe take 4 levels of Cleric initially then a few levels of rogue for whip sneak attacks with a 15ft range (5ft normally + 5ft for bugbear + 5ft for whip reach).
Edit: Backstory: (insert character name) was a bugbear and a smuggler (use pirate variant of sailor background), running contraband up and down waterways, rivers, coasts and swamps, One night whilst trying to evade some Queens guard he sailed his boat into a fog bank, dropped anchor and waited in silence. The silence was abnormal but he felt at ease. When the fog lifted however he found himself not in familiar waters but in a new and brakish area. Somehow he had travelled to a new region he had never been to before and eventually found himslef in (insert town name) in a land called Barovia. He still runs contraband but found himself now gifted with powers (level 1 cleric) that he views as a blessing although he isnt sure he is quite worthy of them.
That's not a bad idea! I was originally thinking kobold and I was going to mainline rogue and dip into cleric for a couple of levels, but the opposite might work.
I agree in regards wanting either a Cleric or a Paladin for Curse of Strahd. Not having one of either just feels like players begging for a TPK. On the flip side: it's not just one persons responsibility to cover a weak spot. I'm also curious that the party wouldn't have a Paladin. Those guys are powerful and no longer required to be white and shining knight's of lawful awful good alignment.
Edit: As an aside, due to the way short and long rests work in 5e, I'm pretty sure that when it comes to Healing, Clerics are no longer anywhere near as needed in previous editions. You lose out on healing mid battle of course, but the loss there is probably made up for in damage to burn uglies down even faster. Some issues will still occur, such as with things that require Greater or Lesser Restoration to cover and Revivify will be off the table. Resurrections should still be available via a relatively local cleric or such, even if they do charge an arm and a leg.
For myself, I usually recommend either a Cleric, or at least a Druid, or possibly a Bard and Paladin mimimally. But some of that is also recommended for Story access as well as power.
If you are looking for access to cleric spells have you thought of Divine Soul Sorcerer? The CHA would work for both sorcerer and swashbuckler rogue. You have access to all the cleric spells as well as the sorcerer spells.
If you are more interested in turn undead and things like the for CoS then Trickery would be a thematic choice or if you could find a way to use the Grave domain cleric’s channel divinity to curse a target and then sneak attack (they’re vulnerable to next hit’s damage) that would be nice. But it requires an action so may be hard to pull off and it’s limited in how many times you can use it.
Hmmm. Lot to think about and I'm kinda torn. My SB is all set up and ready to go, character history and all. I don't really want to lose the fun of being a rogue, so I'm not sure I'd want to do more than 2 or 3 levels in cleric, probably twilight. Is 2 levels in twilight cleric worth it to get 3 1st level spells, twilight sanctuary 2/day (assuming a short rest), 300' darkvision, vigilant blessing, and a whip? Would have to give up on SB as my ability scores would be spread too thin to have decent CHR.
The party is very melee heavy, and our only other divine caster is a monk/druid. Don't ask me why. Again, this is my first time with 5e so the class combos are obviously different from what I'm used to. We have no one else with rogue skills.
I'd actually suggest Rogue/Celestial Warlock instead of Sorcerer. Healing Light as a bonus action heal that can't be counterspelled is very very handy. Additionally Warlock Invocations like Armor of Shadows, Devil's Sight, and Mask of Many Faces pair really well with Rogue. A slightly deeper dip into Warlock would even give you 2atk/rnd if you went Pact of the Blade.
You certainly don't want to go into Barovia without someone who can deal radiant damage--much less someone who can heal the party. If you go Rogue/Cleric, I would certainly choose Arcane Trickster as your Rogue subclass, and choose the Trickery domain for your Cleric. You could also do a Swashbuckler Rogue/Vengence Paladin. That could be fun.
What are the other members of your party? You might not need a cleric at all. That said, I do find the idea of a swashbuckling cleric (maybe Tempest?) quite interesting and depending on how you want to play your character your might not need to make it a Rogue to play a rogue, so to speak. Is there anything in particular that you want from the Rogue class that you can't get from Cleric?
I just realised where that cleric/rogue with a whip came from...its the chap from Castlevania. On the pure rogue fornt, have you thought about asking your DM if you can do small hombrew and go Divine Trickster instead of Arcane, just means you select cleric spells instead of wizard, that could be a nice little work around.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
So, longtime player of PF and previous editions playing in my first 5e campaign. My group is starting Ravenloft and I was all set to play a swashbuckler but I realized we have no cleric. I'm thinking of switching to some sort of cleric/rogue, a cheery priest of the shadows type, to round out the party better and still give me the rogue role I was hoping for. But, I just don't know the various subclasses yet to figure out what works well together.
I don't need a perfectly optimized character, just one that's effective and fun to play. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Well, rather than multiclass have you thought about going for Sailor Background and Cleric with the Trickery domain and playing the "swashbuckling" pirate/sailor? It should give you a hefty amount of things to do and ways to be useful and entertaining.
Possibly! Not sure I want to completely give up on rogue but it's something to think about.
My first thought was Death domain, so you can stack your Rakish Audacity sneak attack with extra necrotic damage. Of course, necrotic damage isn't always the most useful in Barovia...
One other small but potentially fun bonus from the multiclass that might fit a "cheery priest of the shadows" -- Death domain gives you full martial weapon proficiencies, which means you can sneak attack with a whip
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
A cleric/rogue multiclass character is a fountain of religious jokes. I promise I will not post any. lol
I really have to recommend against playing a Cleric / Rogue, they just don't mesh well. If you do it regardless, definitely support going with the Trickery domain.
Thanks for the feedback. Still on the fence, since my initial SB character was fully developed, I'm just not used to the idea of a party without any sort of cleric!
I;m not sure why but the image of a Bugbear Cleric with Twilight domain and uising a whip just pinged into my head when thinking about this one......
Maybe take 4 levels of Cleric initially then a few levels of rogue for whip sneak attacks with a 15ft range (5ft normally + 5ft for bugbear + 5ft for whip reach).
Edit: Backstory: (insert character name) was a bugbear and a smuggler (use pirate variant of sailor background), running contraband up and down waterways, rivers, coasts and swamps, One night whilst trying to evade some Queens guard he sailed his boat into a fog bank, dropped anchor and waited in silence. The silence was abnormal but he felt at ease. When the fog lifted however he found himself not in familiar waters but in a new and brakish area. Somehow he had travelled to a new region he had never been to before and eventually found himslef in (insert town name) in a land called Barovia. He still runs contraband but found himself now gifted with powers (level 1 cleric) that he views as a blessing although he isnt sure he is quite worthy of them.
That's not a bad idea! I was originally thinking kobold and I was going to mainline rogue and dip into cleric for a couple of levels, but the opposite might work.
I agree in regards wanting either a Cleric or a Paladin for Curse of Strahd. Not having one of either just feels like players begging for a TPK. On the flip side: it's not just one persons responsibility to cover a weak spot. I'm also curious that the party wouldn't have a Paladin. Those guys are powerful and no longer required to be white and shining knight's of lawful awful good alignment.
Edit: As an aside, due to the way short and long rests work in 5e, I'm pretty sure that when it comes to Healing, Clerics are no longer anywhere near as needed in previous editions. You lose out on healing mid battle of course, but the loss there is probably made up for in damage to burn uglies down even faster. Some issues will still occur, such as with things that require Greater or Lesser Restoration to cover and Revivify will be off the table. Resurrections should still be available via a relatively local cleric or such, even if they do charge an arm and a leg.
For myself, I usually recommend either a Cleric, or at least a Druid, or possibly a Bard and Paladin mimimally. But some of that is also recommended for Story access as well as power.
If you are looking for access to cleric spells have you thought of Divine Soul Sorcerer? The CHA would work for both sorcerer and swashbuckler rogue. You have access to all the cleric spells as well as the sorcerer spells.
If you are more interested in turn undead and things like the for CoS then Trickery would be a thematic choice or if you could find a way to use the Grave domain cleric’s channel divinity to curse a target and then sneak attack (they’re vulnerable to next hit’s damage) that would be nice. But it requires an action so may be hard to pull off and it’s limited in how many times you can use it.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Hmmm. Lot to think about and I'm kinda torn. My SB is all set up and ready to go, character history and all. I don't really want to lose the fun of being a rogue, so I'm not sure I'd want to do more than 2 or 3 levels in cleric, probably twilight. Is 2 levels in twilight cleric worth it to get 3 1st level spells, twilight sanctuary 2/day (assuming a short rest), 300' darkvision, vigilant blessing, and a whip? Would have to give up on SB as my ability scores would be spread too thin to have decent CHR.
The party is very melee heavy, and our only other divine caster is a monk/druid. Don't ask me why. Again, this is my first time with 5e so the class combos are obviously different from what I'm used to. We have no one else with rogue skills.
I'd actually suggest Rogue/Celestial Warlock instead of Sorcerer. Healing Light as a bonus action heal that can't be counterspelled is very very handy. Additionally Warlock Invocations like Armor of Shadows, Devil's Sight, and Mask of Many Faces pair really well with Rogue. A slightly deeper dip into Warlock would even give you 2atk/rnd if you went Pact of the Blade.
You certainly don't want to go into Barovia without someone who can deal radiant damage--much less someone who can heal the party. If you go Rogue/Cleric, I would certainly choose Arcane Trickster as your Rogue subclass, and choose the Trickery domain for your Cleric. You could also do a Swashbuckler Rogue/Vengence Paladin. That could be fun.
5e favors offense over defense. Having a healer in the party is overrated, just play your stabby rogue.
What are the other members of your party? You might not need a cleric at all. That said, I do find the idea of a swashbuckling cleric (maybe Tempest?) quite interesting and depending on how you want to play your character your might not need to make it a Rogue to play a rogue, so to speak. Is there anything in particular that you want from the Rogue class that you can't get from Cleric?
I just realised where that cleric/rogue with a whip came from...its the chap from Castlevania. On the pure rogue fornt, have you thought about asking your DM if you can do small hombrew and go Divine Trickster instead of Arcane, just means you select cleric spells instead of wizard, that could be a nice little work around.