I'm getting my character ready for an Icewindale campaign. He is gonna be a ranger (using a long bow) and I'm thinking should I go vanilla or variant human.
Here are the stats (minus human points)
ATK 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Into 10 Wis 15 Cha 10
So I was thinking of getting a feat with 1 ASI like skill expert or something. Int and Cha I don't see using that often (he is a local to ten town's but lived more on the land in a homestead before the adventure) I def want my Dex and wisdom to get as high as I can.
I’d suggest taking Vhuman with Piercer. There aren’t many half ASI feats for DEX that give yiu something you don’t have, I.e. Resilient (DEX) and Weapon Master. Athlete and Gunner are other options too, But neither seemed compelling for a long bow oriented Ranger. Piercer gets you to 18 DEX, lets you reroll 1s for piercing damage, and increases your crits. For someone doing mostly piercing, that’s a big deal. You’ll want Sharpshooter later, probably at level 8 after you max DEX.
I think there are other feats you could consider for RP, or just because they’re fun. Alert, Chef, Medium Armor Master, Prodigy, and Skulker all might be more or less interesting to you if you don’t like Piercer.
I'm thinking of going with skill expert because as a V human I get one free proficiency, skill expert gives me another plus expertise in one and also that extra ASI I can put into Dex.
The expertise I'm putting into animal Handling because of rp reasons
Skill Expert is one of my favorite new feats in the game because it has so much potential either for RP or just mechanically. It's also incredibly versatile... the Ability Score, Skill, and Expertise aren't required to be related to each other... so you could boost DEX, gain a skill that keys off of INT, and put expertise in a different skill that keys off of WIS. I think having Expertise in Animal Handling immediately tells us something unique about your character... something that defines not only important gameplay-related details, but also something about their personality and priorities.
I'm getting my character ready for an Icewindale campaign. He is gonna be a ranger (using a long bow) and I'm thinking should I go vanilla or variant human.
No, unless your goal is playing in hard mode. I am DMing Icewind Dale right now and I told my players multiple times that Icewind Dale is a) cold and b) dark. All but one of them listened and the one that didn't is a constant liability for the party. If you want to look like a human and mechanically speaking have human-like abilities, use Tasha's Custom Lineage, which is Human But Better anyway and will give you access to the tools you need to credibly survive in the cold and/or dark.
Here are the stats (minus human points)
ATK 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Into 10 Wis 15 Cha 10
This is STR 12, right? This is an insanely good spread of stats.
So I was thinking of getting a feat with 1 ASI like skill expert or something. Int and Cha I don't see using that often (he is a local to ten town's but lived more on the land in a homestead before the adventure) I def want my Dex and wisdom to get as high as I can.
What do you guys reckon?
TCL, no question.
Variables to set:
Appearance: Human.
Size: Medium.
ASI: +2 Dex
Feat: Skill Expert and Gunner (if your DM is playing with firearms) are the low-hanging fruit here in terms of what else I've seen suggested in this thread (don't take Piercer, it's significantly worse than Skill Expert or Gunner).
Variable Trait: Darkvision. Icewind Dale is dark.
Languages: Common + choose a language native to Tentowns, such as Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Gnomish, Orcish, or Infernal, or do the Ranger thing and choose a language the monsters around the Dale speak, such as Winter Wolf, Yeti, or Goblin.
That's assuming you want to look human. Some other races are also particularly suitable for the Dale, such as Goliath.
Languages: Common + choose a language native to Tentowns, such as Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Gnomish, Orcish, or Infernal, or do the Ranger thing and choose a language the monsters around the Dale speak, such as Winter Wolf, Yeti, or Goblin
So far I have elvish, halfling, dwarfish and giant languages under my belt so hopefully I can talk my way out of a few things
I would always pick based on RP first, so go Skill Expert.
But I do want to point out that Piercer is hardly a garbage feat. In addition to the DEX, you get an average of 1.225 more damage per round at first level, with a much lower chance to have bad damage rolls (eg 1 or 2). That’s fewer goblins you have to hit twice to down them.
Just like with GWM or Savage Attacker, decreasing your downside volatility can be a way to do a lot more damage overall.
Vuman. Take a half-feat that increases your Dex, Con, or Wis, and put your +1s into the other two of those. Piercer, Skill Expert, or Resilient (Con or Wis) would all be very good.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
I think you mean, Str 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 15 Cha 10
DEFINITELY go for Variant Human. You will get a ton of mileage out of that extra feat.
Piercer is a popular option, and (considering it's a half feat), I don't think it's a bad choice. But I do think it's overrated. When you actually do the math it amounts to very little extra damage.
I would go with Skill Expert. You'll get more mileage out of an extra skill and the added expertise. I would recommend expertise in either stealth or perception. So I would do it like this:
Human Variant (+1 Con, +1 Wis)
Skill Expert Feat (+1 Dex)
New Stats: Str 12 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 10
Vuman. Take a half-feat that increases your Dex, Con, or Wis, and put your +1s into the other two of those. Piercer, Skill Expert, or Resilient (Con or Wis) would all be very good.
I don't know why that option slipped my mind, but YES. That's arguably the best choice right there. Both are great but I would lean Con for those concentration saves.
Vuman. Take a half-feat that increases your Dex, Con, or Wis, and put your +1s into the other two of those. Piercer, Skill Expert, or Resilient (Con or Wis) would all be very good.
I don't know why that option slipped my mind, but YES. That's arguably the best choice right there. Both are great but I would lean Con for those concentration saves.
Yeah, I also thought Con would probably be a little better, what with it being Icewind Dale.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
I'm sorry, you're telling me there's a human option other than Variant Human?
Of course! There's also the Mark of Sentinel Human, the Mark of Finding Human, the Mark of Handling Human... who knows, there might be other human subraces just waiting to be discovered!
Really?!? That +1 across the board may be boring, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.
Think about it in these terms...
A feat essentially amounts to the equivalent of +2 ASI, because you can essentially choose that or a feat. So a Human Variant gets the numeric equivalent to +4 ASI (1 feat plus 2 ASI).
The regular Human gets +6 ASI. That's more, right?
The problem is where you put those bonuses matters, a lot. Ask any experienced player if they'd be willing to shave a point off of two of their least valuable stats by one point for a feat. ALL DAY ANY DAY.
Really?!? That +1 across the board may be boring, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.
Think about it in these terms...
A feat essentially amounts to the equivalent of +2 ASI, because you can essentially choose that or a feat. So a Human Variant gets the numeric equivalent to +4 ASI (1 feat plus 2 ASI).
The regular Human gets +6 ASI. That's more, right?
The problem is where you put those bonuses matters, a lot. Ask any experienced player if they'd be willing to shave a point off of two of their least valuable stats by one point for a feat. ALL DAY ANY DAY.
Being an experienced player, I can’t say that’s true.
Really?!? That +1 across the board may be boring, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.
Think about it in these terms...
A feat essentially amounts to the equivalent of +2 ASI, because you can essentially choose that or a feat. So a Human Variant gets the numeric equivalent to +4 ASI (1 feat plus 2 ASI).
The regular Human gets +6 ASI. That's more, right?
The problem is where you put those bonuses matters, a lot. Ask any experienced player if they'd be willing to shave a point off of two of their least valuable stats by one point for a feat. ALL DAY ANY DAY.
Being an experienced player, I can’t say that’s true.
Cool. So as an experienced player, if you were playing a Wizard you would rather have +1 to strength and charisma than have War Caster. Or as a Fighter you would rather have +1 to intelligence and charisma than PAM, or Sentinel, or Sharpshooter, etc. Cool.
I'm getting my character ready for an Icewindale campaign. He is gonna be a ranger (using a long bow) and I'm thinking should I go vanilla or variant human.
Here are the stats (minus human points)
ATK 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Into 10 Wis 15 Cha 10
So I was thinking of getting a feat with 1 ASI like skill expert or something. Int and Cha I don't see using that often (he is a local to ten town's but lived more on the land in a homestead before the adventure) I def want my Dex and wisdom to get as high as I can.
What do you guys reckon?
I’d suggest taking Vhuman with Piercer. There aren’t many half ASI feats for DEX that give yiu something you don’t have, I.e. Resilient (DEX) and Weapon Master. Athlete and Gunner are other options too, But neither seemed compelling for a long bow oriented Ranger. Piercer gets you to 18 DEX, lets you reroll 1s for piercing damage, and increases your crits. For someone doing mostly piercing, that’s a big deal. You’ll want Sharpshooter later, probably at level 8 after you max DEX.
I think there are other feats you could consider for RP, or just because they’re fun. Alert, Chef, Medium Armor Master, Prodigy, and Skulker all might be more or less interesting to you if you don’t like Piercer.
I'm thinking of going with skill expert because as a V human I get one free proficiency, skill expert gives me another plus expertise in one and also that extra ASI I can put into Dex.
The expertise I'm putting into animal Handling because of rp reasons
Skill Expert is one of my favorite new feats in the game because it has so much potential either for RP or just mechanically. It's also incredibly versatile... the Ability Score, Skill, and Expertise aren't required to be related to each other... so you could boost DEX, gain a skill that keys off of INT, and put expertise in a different skill that keys off of WIS. I think having Expertise in Animal Handling immediately tells us something unique about your character... something that defines not only important gameplay-related details, but also something about their personality and priorities.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
No, unless your goal is playing in hard mode. I am DMing Icewind Dale right now and I told my players multiple times that Icewind Dale is a) cold and b) dark. All but one of them listened and the one that didn't is a constant liability for the party. If you want to look like a human and mechanically speaking have human-like abilities, use Tasha's Custom Lineage, which is Human But Better anyway and will give you access to the tools you need to credibly survive in the cold and/or dark.
This is STR 12, right? This is an insanely good spread of stats.
TCL, no question.
Variables to set:
That's assuming you want to look human. Some other races are also particularly suitable for the Dale, such as Goliath.
So far I have elvish, halfling, dwarfish and giant languages under my belt so hopefully I can talk my way out of a few things
I would always pick based on RP first, so go Skill Expert.
But I do want to point out that Piercer is hardly a garbage feat. In addition to the DEX, you get an average of 1.225 more damage per round at first level, with a much lower chance to have bad damage rolls (eg 1 or 2). That’s fewer goblins you have to hit twice to down them.
Just like with GWM or Savage Attacker, decreasing your downside volatility can be a way to do a lot more damage overall.
Well the lack of human dark vision has been fixed. I got a secret from the Icewindale campaign that gives me dark vision among other things
Vuman. Take a half-feat that increases your Dex, Con, or Wis, and put your +1s into the other two of those. Piercer, Skill Expert, or Resilient (Con or Wis) would all be very good.
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
"ATK 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Into 10 Wis 15 Cha 10" ??
I think you mean, Str 12 Dex 17 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 15 Cha 10
DEFINITELY go for Variant Human. You will get a ton of mileage out of that extra feat.
Piercer is a popular option, and (considering it's a half feat), I don't think it's a bad choice. But I do think it's overrated. When you actually do the math it amounts to very little extra damage.
I would go with Skill Expert. You'll get more mileage out of an extra skill and the added expertise. I would recommend expertise in either stealth or perception. So I would do it like this:
Human Variant (+1 Con, +1 Wis)
Skill Expert Feat (+1 Dex)
New Stats: Str 12 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 10
Take Sharpshooter at level 4.
You assigned your initial stats exactly as I would have done.
I don't know why that option slipped my mind, but YES. That's arguably the best choice right there. Both are great but I would lean Con for those concentration saves.
I'm sorry, you're telling me there's a human option other than Variant Human?
Yeah, I also thought Con would probably be a little better, what with it being Icewind Dale.
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
Of course! There's also the Mark of Sentinel Human, the Mark of Finding Human, the Mark of Handling Human... who knows, there might be other human subraces just waiting to be discovered!
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
If there was no standard “human,” how could there be a “variant human?” That’s what the word “variant” means.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I just didn't know they existed. I've never encountered someone who played as anything other than variant human when playing human xD
(I was just being sarcastic with the comment before)
Really?!? That +1 across the board may be boring, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Think about it in these terms...
A feat essentially amounts to the equivalent of +2 ASI, because you can essentially choose that or a feat. So a Human Variant gets the numeric equivalent to +4 ASI (1 feat plus 2 ASI).
The regular Human gets +6 ASI. That's more, right?
The problem is where you put those bonuses matters, a lot. Ask any experienced player if they'd be willing to shave a point off of two of their least valuable stats by one point for a feat. ALL DAY ANY DAY.
Being an experienced player, I can’t say that’s true.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Cool. So as an experienced player, if you were playing a Wizard you would rather have +1 to strength and charisma than have War Caster. Or as a Fighter you would rather have +1 to intelligence and charisma than PAM, or Sentinel, or Sharpshooter, etc. Cool.