I am starting to get busy lately, and my schedule doesn't allow me to be sure that I can attend sessions anymore. The only specific day that I know I can attend a game is the day that I DM for my group; however, I still want to play as a player also, so thought that I would use Adventurers League as a way of attending a game as a player, as and when I can. I have played season 8 D&D: AL a few times, but I have never played season 9. I also have lots of characters that I have created, but none of them is suitable for organised play, as they were all created to play in my DMs world.
With this in mind, I thought that I would just create an entirely new character, explicitly designed for Adventurers League games.
My +1 is going to be SCAG because I want my character to come from Waterdeep and be a member of the Lords Alliance. I also thought that I would make him a Paladin and give him the Waterdhavian Noble background, but make him Chaotic Good, rather than Lawful Good. So he has a conscience and is generally a decent Human being, and a just person, but is also willing to do whatever is required of him, even if that means he must occasionally break the law, or allow others to do so.
Also, I was thinking of making him a former Acolyte of Lliira. He swore his service to the order of Scarlet Mummers and became a Paladin dedicated to the eradication of the followers of The Maiden of Pain, after his best friend, a female Acolyte of Lliira, was killed by a deranged follower of Loviatar while enjoying the festivities of the Grand Revel of Sune.
Having described the kind of character that I was thinking of, my question is two-fold. First; does this idea sound like an okay character? Remember I want to make this one specifically for Adventurers League, so would this idea fit into Organised Play? Second; is a Human, Waterdhavian Noble, Chaotic Good Paladin, with a grudge against the followers of Loviatar, the best race, class and background for Adventures League, or are there better ones I could use for this character concept?
As a side note, I was thinking of using the Variant Human, instead of the base Human, so that I could give him some useful skills that reflect his time as an Acolyte of Lliira, while still being able to choose Waterdhavian Noble for the background. So; a side question could probably be, is Variant Human allowed as a racial choice in season 9?
Thanks for your time everyone, and I look forward to reading all your answers
Foxes XD
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I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
1) You don't need to select SCAG as your +1 for background reasons. The PHB+1 is only in place for mechanical reasons. If you want to use booming blade/green flame blade, arcana cleric or any of the character options that are only included in SCAG then SCAG would be your +1. Otherwise, just leave it open until you choose something that will actually limit your choice (e.g. choosing Conquest paladin from Xanathar's as your oath ... this would limit your +1 to Xanathars).
2) Any and every character will fit into organized play as long as you follow the character creation guidelines in the ALPG.
- 27 point buy or standard array for stats only (highest stat before modifiers for race is 15)
- PHB + 1 other of the listed sources for mechanics choices
- background description/fluff can be anything you want it to be ... some of the players will be interested and happy to role play with it, others are less inclined. The ALPG includes information on setting up your background including custom ones. In Season 9, you can even create your own faction to belong to but you will still need to take the Safe Haven background feature (at the start or to replace whatever you start with) if your character joins a faction. (e.g. Harpers, Zhenatrim etc).
3) Variant human is allowed as are all the other races in the available AL +1 sources (e.g. volos, mordenkainens). Season 9 has a special race option only available this season. Aarakocra and Winged Tiefling can be used without forcing you to choose the corresponding +1 source. Both will receive actual wings at level 5 that replace specific race features (it is listed in the documentation). The wings can limit the armor that can be worn (it needs to be designed to accommodate wings and I think heavy armor isn't allowed?). Either way this is a character race option only available for season 9 characters and may go away at the end of the season.
4) Your backstory sounds like an Oath of Vengeance paladin might fit quite well. Paladins are usually appreciated in AL due to auras, backup healing, useful spells and decent tank/damage abilities including smites. One of the differences between AL and a regular group is that you may not know who will be playing in the next session so it can be useful to have a character that can fill multiple roles. I've been in AL groups where the only person with a healing spell was the ranger. Paladins are fairly versatile and if they take persuasion as one of their skills they can usually contribute to the social interaction aspects as well.
P.S. To answer the question posed in the thread topic ... as usual there isn't one best choice. You get a wide range of optimization in AL characters and all can contribute something :) ... so play what you feel like playing. You may run into tables where several characters are optmized for combat but many AL modules will involve combat as well as social and/or exploration ... so skills and other abilities besides being able to fight do come in handy.
The best answer for your question is this; The best race, class and background combination for Adventurers League is the one you have the most fun playing that falls within the adventurers league rules. (PHB +1)
Also yes, variant humans are allowed as a playable race. I suggest you look here and read those files thoroughly.
I'm personally very fond of the Half-Elf, because they come with darkvision, two free skill proficiencies (or if you take SCAG, variant Half-Elf abilities), the big +2 bump to Charisma along with two floating +1s, and resistance to Charm/immunity to magical Sleep. However the Variant Human is a close competitor. Paladin is a very nice class in my opinion. Being a Charisma caster means they have some good social skills and they're also brutal in combat. Our gaming group just had a Paladin join us and the auras, great weapon fighting, and divine smites make for a lot easier time for the rest of the party in combat. He took Magic Initiate: Warlock at level 4 for Eldtrich Blast, which means almost the entire party can stand back and shoot the enemy before they come close enough for us to whack them. I also like the Arcana Cleric, which created the "single level dip" for damage cantrips for Wisdom casters. Now there's Wizard for Intelligence casters, Sorcerer or Warlock for Charisma casters, and Arcana Clerics for Wisdom casters. The only downside is that it doesn't work with Magic Initiate while the other three do.
In terms of backgrounds, there are four big ones for me. Sailor gives you proficiency in Perception, which is a very handy proficiency. If you already have proficiency in Perception from another source, Outlander gives you the Wanderer feature which means you can feed yourself and five others in the wild. It saves worrying about food. Criminal and Urchin serve pretty much the same role for me. If you have good Dexterity (14+) and you gain proficiency with Stealth and Thieves' Tools it allows your character to act as a backup Rogue without having to multiclass. My Valor Bard is a Criminal/Spy.
I'm personally very fond of the Half-Elf, because they come with darkvision, two free skill proficiencies
I was looking at the Half Elf in the PHB actually. Surprisingly it is only a race that I have played once before. Reminding myself of what you get as a Half Elf though, made me think that maybe I want to change my race to that from Human.
Especially as I want to be a Paladin.
With the Half Elf, I'd get a boost to charisma, which is my primary ability, and I could also give a +1 to Strength and Constitution, which are my secondary stats.
As a Half Elf, I could choose something like, Athletics and Insight, as my proficiencies. Then as a Paladin, Persuasion and Intimidation (he is more chaotic than lawful, so I can see him using Intimidation if he needs to). Lastly, my background proficiencies could either be something like Religion (to represent his time as an Acolyte) or just something related to a thing that he likes to do and is naturally good at, like, Performance.
So, I'd have
Athletics
Insight
Persuasion
Intimidation
Religion, or, Performance (both if I can)
Those proficiencies, combined with a Paladins ability to Buff/Debuff, decent HP and AC and fighting ability, should make my character useful to just about any party combination that happens to be on the day.
The only downside is that I want the character to be a Waterdhavian Noble. Are there currently any Noble families from Waterdeep who might have Half Elf children?
Although actually, since I also want to be part of a faction, can't use the Waterdhavian Noble background feature anyway, and I doubt I'd get to really explore my background or backstory in adventurers league games, and the Safe Haven background features and the magical items you get later as a Faction Agent, could be useful to the party as well, where as the "kept in style" feature would only really be useful to me, and only then on the sword coast.
Also, just because he'd be a Faction Agent now, doesn't mean that he can't come from a Noble family.
I could custom make his own background, and actually, I think this kind of character, where he is not just "one thing", is probably the whole point of being able to custom make your background anyway.
You've definatly giving me stuff to think about.
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I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
3) Variant human is allowed as are all the other races in the available AL +1 sources (e.g. volos, mordenkainens). Season 9 has a special race option only available this season. Aarakocra and Winged Tiefling can be used without forcing you to choose the corresponding +1 source. Both will receive actual wings at level 5 that replace specific race features (it is listed in the documentation). The wings can limit the armor that can be worn (it needs to be designed to accommodate wings and I think heavy armor isn't allowed?). Either way this is a character race option only available for season 9 characters and may go away at the end of the season.
Slight clarification here. Aarakocra and Winged Tiefling are not available still as they get their wings at 1st level. However, Aasimar and any Tiefling variant ARE allowed without requiring their source to be your PHB +1. The Aasimar and Tiefling then can exchange some of their racial traits for permanent wings.
It doesn't really sound like you are going in the Tiefling or Aasimar race anyway, but wanted to make sure the info you had was correct.
About the background, anyone could be a half elf child of any of Waterdhaveiand families, whether he's a beloved member or a black sheep of the house may be a different story. Either way, it likely won't come up in AL. Faction agent gives the most mechanical benefit with the extra magic item. And like you say, he can still be from a noble family, he just doesn't have any benefit from that that his faction doesn't already give.
My Half-Elf comes from the nation of Neros (I created), which is a Half-Elf nation descended from one of the last Moon Elf kingdoms. Alliances and dalliances between Elves, Half-Elves, and Humans aren't uncommon. I was just making up an Half-Elf Arcana Cleric Azorius Functionary for Ravnica, though reading the fluff I found that there aren't a lot of Half-Elves, and they don't seem to have Arcana Clerics. "Well," says I. "They do now."
This is how I would create a Paladin. Firstly Half-Elf, specifically, reskinning the Drow variant Half-Elf [SCAG is my +1] as a Dhampir (Half-Vampire). They trade their skill proficiencies for Drow Magic, the Dancing Lights cantrip, and Faerie Fire and Darkness spells [once per long rest]. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. Stats: 16/10/14/10/10/16 Sailor Background, proficiency in Athletics and Perception. From Paladin, proficiency in Insight and Intimidation. Take a greatsword and longsword as two martial weapons, pick up a shield when I go to my first town. Take a dagger. Explorer pack, chain mail, holy symbol. At level 2, great weapon fighting. At level 3, Oath of Vengeance. At level 4, Magic Initiate: Warlock. Eldritch Blast, Minor Illusion, Hex. Then I'd just play it out as long as the game lasted. Pumping up strength when I have an ASI, grabbing Great Weapon Mastery at level 16.
I'm toying with rebuilding my Half-Elf Bard as a Paladin, just because I'm tired of our group being so squishy. However I don't want to lose all the things I like about him, like his ability to double as a thief or scout, and play the lute, so.
Adelberto Cattaneo. Lvl 6 Paladin, Oath of Ancients.
Background: Entertainer. Swap out proficiency with disguise kit for proficiency with thieves' tools. If it needs to be justified say that he's an escape artist.
Of course the downside is that because he doesn't have strength 13 he can never multiclass, but to be honest this build gives me just about everything I want.
At level 8 I'll take Elven Accuracy to gain the +1 Charisma.
Hi, guys!
I am starting to get busy lately, and my schedule doesn't allow me to be sure that I can attend sessions anymore. The only specific day that I know I can attend a game is the day that I DM for my group; however, I still want to play as a player also, so thought that I would use Adventurers League as a way of attending a game as a player, as and when I can. I have played season 8 D&D: AL a few times, but I have never played season 9. I also have lots of characters that I have created, but none of them is suitable for organised play, as they were all created to play in my DMs world.
With this in mind, I thought that I would just create an entirely new character, explicitly designed for Adventurers League games.
My +1 is going to be SCAG because I want my character to come from Waterdeep and be a member of the Lords Alliance. I also thought that I would make him a Paladin and give him the Waterdhavian Noble background, but make him Chaotic Good, rather than Lawful Good. So he has a conscience and is generally a decent Human being, and a just person, but is also willing to do whatever is required of him, even if that means he must occasionally break the law, or allow others to do so.
Also, I was thinking of making him a former Acolyte of Lliira. He swore his service to the order of Scarlet Mummers and became a Paladin dedicated to the eradication of the followers of The Maiden of Pain, after his best friend, a female Acolyte of Lliira, was killed by a deranged follower of Loviatar while enjoying the festivities of the Grand Revel of Sune.
Having described the kind of character that I was thinking of, my question is two-fold. First; does this idea sound like an okay character? Remember I want to make this one specifically for Adventurers League, so would this idea fit into Organised Play? Second; is a Human, Waterdhavian Noble, Chaotic Good Paladin, with a grudge against the followers of Loviatar, the best race, class and background for Adventures League, or are there better ones I could use for this character concept?
As a side note, I was thinking of using the Variant Human, instead of the base Human, so that I could give him some useful skills that reflect his time as an Acolyte of Lliira, while still being able to choose Waterdhavian Noble for the background. So; a side question could probably be, is Variant Human allowed as a racial choice in season 9?
Thanks for your time everyone, and I look forward to reading all your answers
Foxes XD
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
1) You don't need to select SCAG as your +1 for background reasons. The PHB+1 is only in place for mechanical reasons. If you want to use booming blade/green flame blade, arcana cleric or any of the character options that are only included in SCAG then SCAG would be your +1. Otherwise, just leave it open until you choose something that will actually limit your choice (e.g. choosing Conquest paladin from Xanathar's as your oath ... this would limit your +1 to Xanathars).
2) Any and every character will fit into organized play as long as you follow the character creation guidelines in the ALPG.
- 27 point buy or standard array for stats only (highest stat before modifiers for race is 15)
- PHB + 1 other of the listed sources for mechanics choices
- background description/fluff can be anything you want it to be ... some of the players will be interested and happy to role play with it, others are less inclined. The ALPG includes information on setting up your background including custom ones. In Season 9, you can even create your own faction to belong to but you will still need to take the Safe Haven background feature (at the start or to replace whatever you start with) if your character joins a faction. (e.g. Harpers, Zhenatrim etc).
3) Variant human is allowed as are all the other races in the available AL +1 sources (e.g. volos, mordenkainens). Season 9 has a special race option only available this season. Aarakocra and Winged Tiefling can be used without forcing you to choose the corresponding +1 source. Both will receive actual wings at level 5 that replace specific race features (it is listed in the documentation). The wings can limit the armor that can be worn (it needs to be designed to accommodate wings and I think heavy armor isn't allowed?). Either way this is a character race option only available for season 9 characters and may go away at the end of the season.
4) Your backstory sounds like an Oath of Vengeance paladin might fit quite well. Paladins are usually appreciated in AL due to auras, backup healing, useful spells and decent tank/damage abilities including smites. One of the differences between AL and a regular group is that you may not know who will be playing in the next session so it can be useful to have a character that can fill multiple roles. I've been in AL groups where the only person with a healing spell was the ranger. Paladins are fairly versatile and if they take persuasion as one of their skills they can usually contribute to the social interaction aspects as well.
P.S. To answer the question posed in the thread topic ... as usual there isn't one best choice. You get a wide range of optimization in AL characters and all can contribute something :) ... so play what you feel like playing. You may run into tables where several characters are optmized for combat but many AL modules will involve combat as well as social and/or exploration ... so skills and other abilities besides being able to fight do come in handy.
Hello there!
The best answer for your question is this; The best race, class and background combination for Adventurers League is the one you have the most fun playing that falls within the adventurers league rules. (PHB +1)
Also yes, variant humans are allowed as a playable race. I suggest you look here and read those files thoroughly.
Have fun!
I'm personally very fond of the Half-Elf, because they come with darkvision, two free skill proficiencies (or if you take SCAG, variant Half-Elf abilities), the big +2 bump to Charisma along with two floating +1s, and resistance to Charm/immunity to magical Sleep.
However the Variant Human is a close competitor.
Paladin is a very nice class in my opinion. Being a Charisma caster means they have some good social skills and they're also brutal in combat. Our gaming group just had a Paladin join us and the auras, great weapon fighting, and divine smites make for a lot easier time for the rest of the party in combat. He took Magic Initiate: Warlock at level 4 for Eldtrich Blast, which means almost the entire party can stand back and shoot the enemy before they come close enough for us to whack them.
I also like the Arcana Cleric, which created the "single level dip" for damage cantrips for Wisdom casters. Now there's Wizard for Intelligence casters, Sorcerer or Warlock for Charisma casters, and Arcana Clerics for Wisdom casters. The only downside is that it doesn't work with Magic Initiate while the other three do.
In terms of backgrounds, there are four big ones for me.
Sailor gives you proficiency in Perception, which is a very handy proficiency.
If you already have proficiency in Perception from another source, Outlander gives you the Wanderer feature which means you can feed yourself and five others in the wild. It saves worrying about food.
Criminal and Urchin serve pretty much the same role for me. If you have good Dexterity (14+) and you gain proficiency with Stealth and Thieves' Tools it allows your character to act as a backup Rogue without having to multiclass. My Valor Bard is a Criminal/Spy.
I was looking at the Half Elf in the PHB actually. Surprisingly it is only a race that I have played once before. Reminding myself of what you get as a Half Elf though, made me think that maybe I want to change my race to that from Human.
Especially as I want to be a Paladin.
With the Half Elf, I'd get a boost to charisma, which is my primary ability, and I could also give a +1 to Strength and Constitution, which are my secondary stats.
As a Half Elf, I could choose something like, Athletics and Insight, as my proficiencies. Then as a Paladin, Persuasion and Intimidation (he is more chaotic than lawful, so I can see him using Intimidation if he needs to). Lastly, my background proficiencies could either be something like Religion (to represent his time as an Acolyte) or just something related to a thing that he likes to do and is naturally good at, like, Performance.
So, I'd have
Athletics
Insight
Persuasion
Intimidation
Religion, or, Performance (both if I can)
Those proficiencies, combined with a Paladins ability to Buff/Debuff, decent HP and AC and fighting ability, should make my character useful to just about any party combination that happens to be on the day.
The only downside is that I want the character to be a Waterdhavian Noble. Are there currently any Noble families from Waterdeep who might have Half Elf children?
Although actually, since I also want to be part of a faction, can't use the Waterdhavian Noble background feature anyway, and I doubt I'd get to really explore my background or backstory in adventurers league games, and the Safe Haven background features and the magical items you get later as a Faction Agent, could be useful to the party as well, where as the "kept in style" feature would only really be useful to me, and only then on the sword coast.
Also, just because he'd be a Faction Agent now, doesn't mean that he can't come from a Noble family.
I could custom make his own background, and actually, I think this kind of character, where he is not just "one thing", is probably the whole point of being able to custom make your background anyway.
You've definatly giving me stuff to think about.
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
Slight clarification here. Aarakocra and Winged Tiefling are not available still as they get their wings at 1st level. However, Aasimar and any Tiefling variant ARE allowed without requiring their source to be your PHB +1. The Aasimar and Tiefling then can exchange some of their racial traits for permanent wings.
It doesn't really sound like you are going in the Tiefling or Aasimar race anyway, but wanted to make sure the info you had was correct.
About the background, anyone could be a half elf child of any of Waterdhaveiand families, whether he's a beloved member or a black sheep of the house may be a different story. Either way, it likely won't come up in AL. Faction agent gives the most mechanical benefit with the extra magic item. And like you say, he can still be from a noble family, he just doesn't have any benefit from that that his faction doesn't already give.
My Half-Elf comes from the nation of Neros (I created), which is a Half-Elf nation descended from one of the last Moon Elf kingdoms.
Alliances and dalliances between Elves, Half-Elves, and Humans aren't uncommon.
I was just making up an Half-Elf Arcana Cleric Azorius Functionary for Ravnica, though reading the fluff I found that there aren't a lot of Half-Elves, and they don't seem to have Arcana Clerics. "Well," says I. "They do now."
This is how I would create a Paladin.
Firstly Half-Elf, specifically, reskinning the Drow variant Half-Elf [SCAG is my +1] as a Dhampir (Half-Vampire). They trade their skill proficiencies for Drow Magic, the Dancing Lights cantrip, and Faerie Fire and Darkness spells [once per long rest]. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution.
Stats: 16/10/14/10/10/16
Sailor Background, proficiency in Athletics and Perception.
From Paladin, proficiency in Insight and Intimidation.
Take a greatsword and longsword as two martial weapons, pick up a shield when I go to my first town.
Take a dagger.
Explorer pack, chain mail, holy symbol.
At level 2, great weapon fighting.
At level 3, Oath of Vengeance.
At level 4, Magic Initiate: Warlock. Eldritch Blast, Minor Illusion, Hex.
Then I'd just play it out as long as the game lasted. Pumping up strength when I have an ASI, grabbing Great Weapon Mastery at level 16.
Just to necromancy a thread.
I'm toying with rebuilding my Half-Elf Bard as a Paladin, just because I'm tired of our group being so squishy. However I don't want to lose all the things I like about him, like his ability to double as a thief or scout, and play the lute, so.
Adelberto Cattaneo. Lvl 6 Paladin, Oath of Ancients.
Strength 8
Dexterity 16
Constitution 14
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 10
Charisma 17
Background: Entertainer. Swap out proficiency with disguise kit for proficiency with thieves' tools. If it needs to be justified say that he's an escape artist.
Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Performance, Insight, Stealth, Persuasion, Perception.
Proficieny: Instruments - Lute, Thieves' Tools.
Languages: Common, Elvish, Infernal.
Feat: Magic Initiate: Warlock. (Hex, Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand)
Weapons: Rapier (+2), Dagger, Longbow, Whip.
Fighting Style: Dueling.
Of course the downside is that because he doesn't have strength 13 he can never multiclass, but to be honest this build gives me just about everything I want.
At level 8 I'll take Elven Accuracy to gain the +1 Charisma.