Hey everyone my dm is starting a new campaign sometime in the next week and I’m not sure what to play. It’s a low magic campaign and I got the following rolls 18, 14, 14,13, 10 ,9. I’m excited to see what you come up with.
Well with an 18 and the +2 from race, you can build a great character of a SAD class: fighter, rogue, warlock for example. With 2 14s even a MAD class isn't bad.
I would like to play a character focused on melee combat but don’t want to limit role-play capability by dump stating mental ability scores. Any suggestions?
When you say low magic, is this a setting where spellcasters in general are very rare (perhaps outlawed) or is it just a campaign where magic weapons and items are extremely hard to come by?
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I would like to play a character focused on melee combat but don’t want to limit role-play capability by dump stating mental ability scores. Any suggestions?
You could roleplay your character as being intelligent or wise without them having a super high mental score. Also, dumping mental stats doesn't limit your roleplay capability. I've seen people and have personally roleplayed lower than average intelligence/wisdom/charismatic characters. It's just a different way of roleplaying. It's totally fine if that's not the character you want to roleplay as, but it's certainly not limited.
For a smart melee-type, you could make a Fighter (Battlemaster archetype), tossing that 14 in INT and wear heavy armor to make up for a low CON or DEX score. There are also two archetypes for Rogue (Mastermind and Inquisitive I believe) that utilize mental stats (not including the magical Arcane Trickster).
likely nothing more than half casters as an option? So Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Monk, for no magic (depending on subclass) and Paladin, Ranger added for half caster classes. Really any of the full classes are a lot of fun to play, I am a big supporter of going single class. Lots of options for multiclass depending on what kind of position you would like to play in the group, or if you have any kind of concept in mind (like a favorite character in a tv show or book). For whatever reason I would suggest a Fighter Samurai/Rogue Swashbuckler, just sounds fun for a low magic campaign. High Dex and Charisma and solid constitution. Being able to sneak attack an enemy in a one on one fight, and with samurai being able to give yourself advantage on an attack and a temporary set of hitpoints.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The campaign is supposed to be somewhat based on actual history so mages are feared and extremely rare along with magic items being hard to come by
How does your character feel about magic, personally? If your character fears mages and magic, you could build a higher wisdom mage slayer type. If your character is not fearful of magic, going with an Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, or perhaps an Artificer could give you enough magic to have a reason to try to hide that aspect of their life of dabble in the arcane arts. They would be less afraid because they had studied and learned about it. This aspect and the spellcasting ability would lend to higher intelligence (and arcana and history for skills... Sage background?). Possibly even a rogue thief trying to acquire magical artifacts.
If your character is fearful of magic, a barbarian whose clan was killed by rogue mages, a fighter or ranger trained to track and kill mages, a rogue- mastermind to direct the witch hunts, scout to track after the mages, inquisitive to determine whether someone's lying about being a magic user, or a monk as a zealot hunter. Mobile and Mage Slayer feats will work well on aiding the physical aspect of tracking and impeding the magic users.
If you would like to play up both aspects in the same character, perhaps look at sorcerer or warlock. Hexblade/pact of the blade in particular could allow for the magical aspects while giving a reasonable melee base. I'd probably play this one with either wisdom or intelligence as the 9 to play up the fear aspect while keeping the other viable.
I feel like if magic is rare than leaning into a combo of martial with some magic abilities could be interesting rp. I personally like rogue/barbarian multiclass as it will give you the ability to shove/grapple really well through expertise in athletics as well as tanking with high hp, rage, and uncanny dodge. Going 1 level rogue for skills then 5 levels of barb for hp, rages, reckless attack, and extra attack; then finish the build by going rogue this will give you great sneak attack which pairs well with reckless. I think swashbuckler works well if you want a Viking feel with some that wades through combat and is intimidating on the battlefield. If you want an intrigue character assassin rogue with college of whispers bard is a great skill monkey while being great at infiltration and secret use of magic. I think in this world you could hide your magic as you fear it will get you hanged but you still use it since it helps in your everyday life. Think about the BBC Merlin show it would be a great RP opportunity and would challenge your selection of spells.
So far I’ve come up with a variant human fighter folk hero background his father was a former soldier and he currently works as a blacksmith. Tough feat to make up for low con
Wood elf archer (rogue scout subclass far traveler background). Her village was destroyed when she was young and she was found and raised by sailors on the coast of her tribes island home. Recently left home on an adventure.
I feel like if magic is rare than leaning into a combo of martial with some magic abilities. I personally like rogue/barbarian multiclass as it will give you the ability to shove/grapple really well through expertise in athletics as well as tanking with high hp, rage, and uncanny dodge. Going 1 level rogue for skills then 5 levels of barb for hp, rages, reckless attack, and extra attack; then finish the build by going rogue this will give you great sneak attack which pairs well with reckless. I think swashbuckler works well if you want a Viking feel with some that wades through combat and is intimidating on the battlefield. If you want an intrigue character assassin rogue with college of whispers bard is a great skill monkey while being great at infiltration and secret use of magic. I think in this world you could hide your magic as you fear it will get you hanged but you still use it since it helps in your everyday life. Think about the BBC Merlin show it would be a great RP opportunity and would challenge your selection of spells.
I feel like this description of hiding your magic and possibly getting hanged for just having the abilities really nails what the dm was describing for the setting
If you're that set on keeping your mental abilities in the +2 range, why not Loxodon: Druid, Nature Cleric or hexblade? Strength 9, dex 10, Constitution 13/14, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 18/13, Charisma 14/18. The second number on slashes would be for hexblade, the first if one of the wisdom classes. Use Shillelagh or Hex Warrior for your melee attacks (if you bother) and ranged attacks and the Loxodon's Natural Armor for AC. Your final stats are 9, 10, 15/16, 14, 19/14, 14/18 with a 14 or 15 AC without a shield (but can use it in conjunction with Natural Armor). Level 4 could be either a con/wis split to max wisdom and bump your AC or straight Con to get to 16/18 AC. Either way, two more ASIs max both stats. That's not even taking into account half feat options. Druid would replace physical stats with Wild Shape and doesn't appear to be as feared in this world (but what about an elephantine humanoid?), Nature Cleric could be just as accepted or could fall into the Elsa from Frozen paradigm along with hexblade.
Natural Armor. You have thick, leathery skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Still, that's more on my desire not to gimp my constitution than saying your concepts aren't worthy of consideration. I'd say they sounded fun if it weren't for that 10 constitution. If you know how to manage low constitution or are experienced enough to give it a go, knock yourself out.
Both options do suggest that you are leaning towards the more fearful of arcane/divine magic aspect though. If that's going to be a part of the world, I'd address that a part of your backstory. Was the Wood Elf's village destroyed by arcane users (could be attackers or could have been an illegal experiment gone awry)? Is the reason the human became a folk hero because they managed to defeat a wizard who was holding the area hostage with the threat of devastation. The father taught him enough of the sword and tactics of a mage slayer that a little dumb luck managed to see him safely through the fight?
So far I’ve come up with a variant human fighter folk hero background his father was a former soldier and he currently works as a blacksmith. Tough feat to make up for low con
str:18
dex:14
con:10
Int:14
wis:10
cha:14
Tough is not a good substitute for Constitution. It's good if you want to add it to a max CON character but otherwise it's weak. If you took Durable instead and it pushed you from bonus to the next, then it does half the benefit of Tough whilst also generally raising CON by +1 for saving throws. To be honest, I feel that all players should max their prime stat and then CON should be your second highest stat, regardless of the class you play. I'd probably even consider making CON my highest stat these days, regardless of class unless I wanted to RP a character who was physically weak. A character on 0hp has 100% less positive impact on a fight than any character on 1hp.
Anytime I get an 18 on a roll it frees me up to think about character ideas that do well with feats. One idea that I have had recently is using a bugbear build as a fighter to take advantage of his reach. I went with fighter because I needed the ability score/feat choice to give me the feats I wanted. However with an 18 already you can think of doing this with say a paladin and still be able to get the feats you want.
Take the fighter/paladin up to 20 strength with the bugbear racial bonuses.
The idea is that using a polearm or other reach +5 weapon and having a bugbear give you another +5 for a total melee reach of +10. That is huge with these feats. You will be able to get extra attacks using your reaction whenever creature enter (polearm-master) or leave (sentinel) your area of reach and that area is huge.
If you take fighter with martial archetype you can add another 5 feet of reach with a lunging attack (can't use this with the other feats but it works out to 15 total feet of melee reach if you need it.)
With the fighter you have enough ability-score increases that you could add even more feats if you want like: mobile or alert or mounted-combatant or even just lucky
Many options, good luck
(The more I think about it the more attractive mounted combatant would be with these if you can make it work. Advantage and 10 feet of extra reach! Wow)
Anytime I get an 18 on a roll it frees me up to think about character ideas that do well with feats. One idea that I have had recently is using a bugbear build as a fighter to take advantage of his reach. I went with fighter because I needed the ability score/feat choice to give me the feats I wanted. However with an 18 already you can think of doing this with say a paladin and still be able to get the feats you want.
Take the fighter/paladin up to 20 strength with the bugbear racial bonuses.
The idea is that using a polearm or other reach +5 weapon and having a bugbear give you another +5 for a total melee reach of +10. That is huge with these feats. You will be able to get extra attacks using your reaction whenever creature enter (polearm-master) or leave (sentinel) your area of reach and that area is huge.
If you take fighter with martial archetype you can add another 5 feet of reach with a lunging attack (can't use this with the other feats but it works out to 15 total feet of melee reach if you need it.)
With the fighter you have enough ability-score increases that you could add even more feats if you want like: mobile or alert or mounted-combatant or even just lucky
Many options, good luck
(The more I think about it the more attractive mounted combatant would be with these if you can make it work. Advantage and 10 feet of extra reach! Wow)
Just remember that the Bugbear reach option is only on your turn and wouldn't combo with the AoOs for Sentinel or PAM.
Hey everyone my dm is starting a new campaign sometime in the next week and I’m not sure what to play. It’s a low magic campaign and I got the following rolls 18, 14, 14,13, 10 ,9. I’m excited to see what you come up with.
Well with an 18 and the +2 from race, you can build a great character of a SAD class: fighter, rogue, warlock for example. With 2 14s even a MAD class isn't bad.
I would like to play a character focused on melee combat but don’t want to limit role-play capability by dump stating mental ability scores. Any suggestions?
When you say low magic, is this a setting where spellcasters in general are very rare (perhaps outlawed) or is it just a campaign where magic weapons and items are extremely hard to come by?
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The campaign is supposed to be somewhat based on actual history so mages are feared and extremely rare along with magic items being hard to come by
The magic limitations more apply to arcane and divine magic than to nature magic. So a Druid would be fine but a wizard or cleric probably wouldn’t be
You could roleplay your character as being intelligent or wise without them having a super high mental score. Also, dumping mental stats doesn't limit your roleplay capability. I've seen people and have personally roleplayed lower than average intelligence/wisdom/charismatic characters. It's just a different way of roleplaying. It's totally fine if that's not the character you want to roleplay as, but it's certainly not limited.
For a smart melee-type, you could make a Fighter (Battlemaster archetype), tossing that 14 in INT and wear heavy armor to make up for a low CON or DEX score. There are also two archetypes for Rogue (Mastermind and Inquisitive I believe) that utilize mental stats (not including the magical Arcane Trickster).
likely nothing more than half casters as an option? So Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Monk, for no magic (depending on subclass) and Paladin, Ranger added for half caster classes. Really any of the full classes are a lot of fun to play, I am a big supporter of going single class. Lots of options for multiclass depending on what kind of position you would like to play in the group, or if you have any kind of concept in mind (like a favorite character in a tv show or book). For whatever reason I would suggest a Fighter Samurai/Rogue Swashbuckler, just sounds fun for a low magic campaign. High Dex and Charisma and solid constitution. Being able to sneak attack an enemy in a one on one fight, and with samurai being able to give yourself advantage on an attack and a temporary set of hitpoints.
Any ideas you have so far?
example https://ddb.ac/characters/21630553/VvTxzf
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
How does your character feel about magic, personally? If your character fears mages and magic, you could build a higher wisdom mage slayer type. If your character is not fearful of magic, going with an Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, or perhaps an Artificer could give you enough magic to have a reason to try to hide that aspect of their life of dabble in the arcane arts. They would be less afraid because they had studied and learned about it. This aspect and the spellcasting ability would lend to higher intelligence (and arcana and history for skills... Sage background?). Possibly even a rogue thief trying to acquire magical artifacts.
If your character is fearful of magic, a barbarian whose clan was killed by rogue mages, a fighter or ranger trained to track and kill mages, a rogue- mastermind to direct the witch hunts, scout to track after the mages, inquisitive to determine whether someone's lying about being a magic user, or a monk as a zealot hunter. Mobile and Mage Slayer feats will work well on aiding the physical aspect of tracking and impeding the magic users.
If you would like to play up both aspects in the same character, perhaps look at sorcerer or warlock. Hexblade/pact of the blade in particular could allow for the magical aspects while giving a reasonable melee base. I'd probably play this one with either wisdom or intelligence as the 9 to play up the fear aspect while keeping the other viable.
I feel like if magic is rare than leaning into a combo of martial with some magic abilities could be interesting rp. I personally like rogue/barbarian multiclass as it will give you the ability to shove/grapple really well through expertise in athletics as well as tanking with high hp, rage, and uncanny dodge. Going 1 level rogue for skills then 5 levels of barb for hp, rages, reckless attack, and extra attack; then finish the build by going rogue this will give you great sneak attack which pairs well with reckless. I think swashbuckler works well if you want a Viking feel with some that wades through combat and is intimidating on the battlefield. If you want an intrigue character assassin rogue with college of whispers bard is a great skill monkey while being great at infiltration and secret use of magic. I think in this world you could hide your magic as you fear it will get you hanged but you still use it since it helps in your everyday life. Think about the BBC Merlin show it would be a great RP opportunity and would challenge your selection of spells.
Your secret is safe with my indifference - Percy
So far I’ve come up with a variant human fighter folk hero background his father was a former soldier and he currently works as a blacksmith. Tough feat to make up for low con
str:18
dex:14
con:10
Int:14
wis:10
cha:14
Wood elf archer (rogue scout subclass far traveler background). Her village was destroyed when she was young and she was found and raised by sailors on the coast of her tribes island home. Recently left home on an adventure.
str: 9
dex:20
con: 10
int:14
wis:14
cha:14
I feel like this description of hiding your magic and possibly getting hanged for just having the abilities really nails what the dm was describing for the setting
If you're that set on keeping your mental abilities in the +2 range, why not Loxodon: Druid, Nature Cleric or hexblade? Strength 9, dex 10, Constitution 13/14, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 18/13, Charisma 14/18. The second number on slashes would be for hexblade, the first if one of the wisdom classes. Use Shillelagh or Hex Warrior for your melee attacks (if you bother) and ranged attacks and the Loxodon's Natural Armor for AC. Your final stats are 9, 10, 15/16, 14, 19/14, 14/18 with a 14 or 15 AC without a shield (but can use it in conjunction with Natural Armor). Level 4 could be either a con/wis split to max wisdom and bump your AC or straight Con to get to 16/18 AC. Either way, two more ASIs max both stats. That's not even taking into account half feat options. Druid would replace physical stats with Wild Shape and doesn't appear to be as feared in this world (but what about an elephantine humanoid?), Nature Cleric could be just as accepted or could fall into the Elsa from Frozen paradigm along with hexblade.
Natural Armor. You have thick, leathery skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Still, that's more on my desire not to gimp my constitution than saying your concepts aren't worthy of consideration. I'd say they sounded fun if it weren't for that 10 constitution. If you know how to manage low constitution or are experienced enough to give it a go, knock yourself out.
Both options do suggest that you are leaning towards the more fearful of arcane/divine magic aspect though. If that's going to be a part of the world, I'd address that a part of your backstory. Was the Wood Elf's village destroyed by arcane users (could be attackers or could have been an illegal experiment gone awry)? Is the reason the human became a folk hero because they managed to defeat a wizard who was holding the area hostage with the threat of devastation. The father taught him enough of the sword and tactics of a mage slayer that a little dumb luck managed to see him safely through the fight?
Tough is not a good substitute for Constitution. It's good if you want to add it to a max CON character but otherwise it's weak. If you took Durable instead and it pushed you from bonus to the next, then it does half the benefit of Tough whilst also generally raising CON by +1 for saving throws. To be honest, I feel that all players should max their prime stat and then CON should be your second highest stat, regardless of the class you play. I'd probably even consider making CON my highest stat these days, regardless of class unless I wanted to RP a character who was physically weak. A character on 0hp has 100% less positive impact on a fight than any character on 1hp.
Anytime I get an 18 on a roll it frees me up to think about character ideas that do well with feats. One idea that I have had recently is using a bugbear build as a fighter to take advantage of his reach. I went with fighter because I needed the ability score/feat choice to give me the feats I wanted. However with an 18 already you can think of doing this with say a paladin and still be able to get the feats you want.
Take the fighter/paladin up to 20 strength with the bugbear racial bonuses.
Take these feats with the ability score increases: polearm-master , sentinel, great-weapon-master
The idea is that using a polearm or other reach +5 weapon and having a bugbear give you another +5 for a total melee reach of +10. That is huge with these feats. You will be able to get extra attacks using your reaction whenever creature enter (polearm-master) or leave (sentinel) your area of reach and that area is huge.
If you take fighter with martial archetype you can add another 5 feet of reach with a lunging attack (can't use this with the other feats but it works out to 15 total feet of melee reach if you need it.)
With the fighter you have enough ability-score increases that you could add even more feats if you want like: mobile or alert or mounted-combatant or even just lucky
Many options, good luck
(The more I think about it the more attractive mounted combatant would be with these if you can make it work. Advantage and 10 feet of extra reach! Wow)
Lot's of stuff ...
It seems like you've come up with ideas of your own just fine.
Just remember that the Bugbear reach option is only on your turn and wouldn't combo with the AoOs for Sentinel or PAM.
Funny how it is so easy to make a quick interpretation and miss these little details :-)
Lot's of stuff ...
If magic is rare I don’t know if exotic races would be allowed as well. Maybe the OP can clarify?
Your secret is safe with my indifference - Percy