Hello all - I’m beginning AL for the first time and have a stratagem I’d like to share for levelling to ensure that no ability score improvements are to be wasted. I don’t have a complete picture of AL, however, and wanted to crowdsource DNDBeyond members for their opinion to see if they agree with how this strategy will pay off in the late game.
This strategy revolves around the use and propagation of magical items through AL seasons. I know for a fact of at least one magical item (Belt of Giant Strength) that could effectively take a 8 score STR barbarian and put them up to a STR score greater than 20. It would make sense then, if this were acquirable and wouldn’t be assumed to be lost in continuing seasons, that pursuing a higher STR score through Score Improvement is wasted (and, by a more dramatic extension, assigning and number higher than 8 to STR is a waste of putting that higher stat somewhere that cannot be overridden by a magical item.). Because there exists magical items that override ability scores, why spend one’s finite pool of Score Improvements when one may simply pull together (theoretically from a pool of infinite possible) Treasure Points?
How many Ability Scores does this apply to? Is this a strategy worth adopting? Is it too Min/Max-y? If you have any input, I’d love to hear it!
It's a very min/maxy strategy. Still, because AL tends to be a min/max environment (due to the lack of character development), that will only put you a little ahead of the curve. It does mean that your backstory will be a little weird.
The downsides here are multiclassing and tier requirements for purchasing magic items.
If you play something like a barbarian at 8 strength you can't multiclass out of barbarian. This may or may not matter to you.
Also keep in mind that a belt of giant strength is at least a rare item. So while you can rebuild right before tier 2, you will ultimately have to play through some of tier 2 with your abysmally low strength until you have enough treasure points (earned exclusively in tier 2) to buy an item from the same magic item table as the belt to finally trade. I think you will find yourself playing at minimum all of level 5 and 6 with a low strength. This may be less of an issue with something like a belt of giant strength, but more of an issue with something like an amulet of health.
One final thing to note: if you trade away an item that is critical for a character in favor of another character, you are effectively retiring the first character. Again, this may not be an issue for you, but when your barbarian with 8 strength passes on his belt of giant strength to the next generation, his adventuring days are likely over.
This might be easier to achieve if you DM, as then you can just apply rewards as necessary to level your character and give him Treasure points, instead of playing the "sub optimal" version of the character through all those levels.
Totally min/max though, but like Pwhimp said that's kind of the environment of AL as is.
Hello all - I’m beginning AL for the first time and have a stratagem I’d like to share for levelling to ensure that no ability score improvements are to be wasted. I don’t have a complete picture of AL, however, and wanted to crowdsource DNDBeyond members for their opinion to see if they agree with how this strategy will pay off in the late game.
This strategy revolves around the use and propagation of magical items through AL seasons. I know for a fact of at least one magical item (Belt of Giant Strength) that could effectively take a 8 score STR barbarian and put them up to a STR score greater than 20. It would make sense then, if this were acquirable and wouldn’t be assumed to be lost in continuing seasons, that pursuing a higher STR score through Score Improvement is wasted (and, by a more dramatic extension, assigning and number higher than 8 to STR is a waste of putting that higher stat somewhere that cannot be overridden by a magical item.). Because there exists magical items that override ability scores, why spend one’s finite pool of Score Improvements when one may simply pull together (theoretically from a pool of infinite possible) Treasure Points?
How many Ability Scores does this apply to? Is this a strategy worth adopting? Is it too Min/Max-y? If you have any input, I’d love to hear it!
It's a very min/maxy strategy. Still, because AL tends to be a min/max environment (due to the lack of character development), that will only put you a little ahead of the curve. It does mean that your backstory will be a little weird.
The downsides here are multiclassing and tier requirements for purchasing magic items.
If you play something like a barbarian at 8 strength you can't multiclass out of barbarian. This may or may not matter to you.
Also keep in mind that a belt of giant strength is at least a rare item. So while you can rebuild right before tier 2, you will ultimately have to play through some of tier 2 with your abysmally low strength until you have enough treasure points (earned exclusively in tier 2) to buy an item from the same magic item table as the belt to finally trade. I think you will find yourself playing at minimum all of level 5 and 6 with a low strength. This may be less of an issue with something like a belt of giant strength, but more of an issue with something like an amulet of health.
One final thing to note: if you trade away an item that is critical for a character in favor of another character, you are effectively retiring the first character. Again, this may not be an issue for you, but when your barbarian with 8 strength passes on his belt of giant strength to the next generation, his adventuring days are likely over.
This might be easier to achieve if you DM, as then you can just apply rewards as necessary to level your character and give him Treasure points, instead of playing the "sub optimal" version of the character through all those levels.
Totally min/max though, but like Pwhimp said that's kind of the environment of AL as is.
Also of Note is this:
Spreadsheet with Index of Magic Items Obtainable and in which adventure