I am playing my first ever d&d game in a few days and have decided (maybe stupidly) to play as a lv2 eladrin ranger (autumn leaning).
I have done some research but am lacking practical knowledge about what skills/spells/tricks I can do. For example, can I perform a basic fey step at lv2?
I am playing my first ever d&d game in a few days and have decided (maybe stupidly) to play as a lv2 eladrin ranger (autumn leaning).
I have done some research but am lacking practical knowledge about what skills/spells/tricks I can do. For example, can I perform a basic fey step at lv2?
Yes, you can Fey Step just fine. What's locked behind L3 are your seasonal buffs to the Fey Step. Don't forget, you're not locked to one season unless you decide you want to be.
The only spell you definitely need to know about right now is Hunter's Mark, which is functionally as compulsory for you as Hex is for Warlocks. Other L1 spells to look out for include Absorb Elements, Longstrider, and Goodberry (one of the best uses of Goodberry is to cast it using every slot you have on the last day of some downtime, so the next day you have a big sack of healing).
If you don't know where to put your Expertise skill, it's hard to go wrong with Perception, no matter what your build is. Aside from Spring, your other three Fey Step buffs are locked to Charisma in terms of setting their save DCs or amount of damage. If you want to double down on it working, the Fey Wanderer subclass's L7 ability directly synergizes with both Fall and Winter, but while Fey Wanderer has some use for Charisma, since it lets you stack your Wisdom with your Charisma for Charisma checks, there just isn't a Ranger build designed to be at all Charisma heavy - your spell DCs are always going to be Wisdom based and you'll always need Dex/Str for landing weapon hits. You'll have an easier time from L3 onwards just giving up on those two buffs to Fey Step - if you stick to Spring especially, your relatively poor Charisma won't even come up.
In terms of feats, as an Eladrin you qualify for Elven Accuracy - other than that, the feats to draw your attention to are fairly intuitive. Fey Touched will stack with your Eladrin teleport, giving you a misty step 1/long rest, another 1/short rest, and then as many as you can pay for with spell slots.
Honestly, don’t worry about it if it’s your first game— just play. I would ask your DM if you can reconfigure your character between sessions up to level 5 (which used to be allowed in adventurers league-not sure if it still is). Most would be totally fine with that concept , especially for a person’s first character. On pretty much every choice you make on your first character, you’ll end up wanting to change it.
Most DMs and Players will be more than willing to help you out. If I were you, I would stay mostly in the Players Handbook, it will be your best friend. D&D Beyond also has a good chunk of the Players Handbook for free. Rangers are real fun and have many options, you can be an archer, wield two weapons, it's a very versatile class, and can accommodate many different builds. A cool part about Rangers is nothing is really mandatory to have if your going for a combat god, and because nothing there is mandatory, you can easily make a more role-playing character too. Eladrin are really cool, and Fey Step is very powerful in the early levels. You have a cool race/class combination and I hope you have fun playing D&D :)
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D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
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I am playing my first ever d&d game in a few days and have decided (maybe stupidly) to play as a lv2 eladrin ranger (autumn leaning).
I have done some research but am lacking practical knowledge about what skills/spells/tricks I can do. For example, can I perform a basic fey step at lv2?
Yes, you can Fey Step just fine. What's locked behind L3 are your seasonal buffs to the Fey Step. Don't forget, you're not locked to one season unless you decide you want to be.
The only spell you definitely need to know about right now is Hunter's Mark, which is functionally as compulsory for you as Hex is for Warlocks. Other L1 spells to look out for include Absorb Elements, Longstrider, and Goodberry (one of the best uses of Goodberry is to cast it using every slot you have on the last day of some downtime, so the next day you have a big sack of healing).
If you don't know where to put your Expertise skill, it's hard to go wrong with Perception, no matter what your build is. Aside from Spring, your other three Fey Step buffs are locked to Charisma in terms of setting their save DCs or amount of damage. If you want to double down on it working, the Fey Wanderer subclass's L7 ability directly synergizes with both Fall and Winter, but while Fey Wanderer has some use for Charisma, since it lets you stack your Wisdom with your Charisma for Charisma checks, there just isn't a Ranger build designed to be at all Charisma heavy - your spell DCs are always going to be Wisdom based and you'll always need Dex/Str for landing weapon hits. You'll have an easier time from L3 onwards just giving up on those two buffs to Fey Step - if you stick to Spring especially, your relatively poor Charisma won't even come up.
In terms of feats, as an Eladrin you qualify for Elven Accuracy - other than that, the feats to draw your attention to are fairly intuitive. Fey Touched will stack with your Eladrin teleport, giving you a misty step 1/long rest, another 1/short rest, and then as many as you can pay for with spell slots.
Did your DM tell you that you are starting at level 2? It’s an unusual place.
Are you using the optional ranger class features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything?
Honestly, don’t worry about it if it’s your first game— just play. I would ask your DM if you can reconfigure your character between sessions up to level 5 (which used to be allowed in adventurers league-not sure if it still is). Most would be totally fine with that concept , especially for a person’s first character. On pretty much every choice you make on your first character, you’ll end up wanting to change it.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Most DMs and Players will be more than willing to help you out. If I were you, I would stay mostly in the Players Handbook, it will be your best friend. D&D Beyond also has a good chunk of the Players Handbook for free. Rangers are real fun and have many options, you can be an archer, wield two weapons, it's a very versatile class, and can accommodate many different builds. A cool part about Rangers is nothing is really mandatory to have if your going for a combat god, and because nothing there is mandatory, you can easily make a more role-playing character too. Eladrin are really cool, and Fey Step is very powerful in the early levels. You have a cool race/class combination and I hope you have fun playing D&D :)
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p