Hello! I am completely new to D&D and I made my first character yesterday. I want to know if I made my character correctly or if I broke some rules.

I wanted to make a fighter who fights with skill and not strength hence the Rogue class, but I wanted my fighting style to be a mix of swordplay and hand-to-hand combat so I felt like I had to add a Monk double class. I checked and my character has the minimum requirements for both classes so there should be no problem, but again, I don't know what I'm doing.

So I'd like to know if my character is "legal to play" or if there would be a better way to optimize my character to accomodate his fighting style.

what lv is the character

Multiclassing Monk and Rogue can work as they both rely on DEX. If you are wanting to do both hand to hand and swordplay then Way of the Kensai Monk subclass might be something to look at. What level are you making and do you have access to books other than the Player’s Handbook (PHB)?

The minimum level I could make him was 2. And I didn't buy anything because I have no clue what I'm doing yet.

Are you part of a group and have access to their books? Do members of the group have experience with D&D?  They might be able to help. If you are making your character here you may be a little limited  unless someone in your group has some of the books and has a subscription tier that they can file share if you are in a campaign.

Starting Rogue you will have some skills and sneak attack but not much in the way of hand to hand. Starting monk you will have access to both. But just starting out a fighter might be the way to go until you get your feet wet

How do you think you want to play your character? Any characters in books, movies, etc you are drawing from as inspiration?

I have no group. I wanted to try D&D but don't have close friends to play with so I went online.

I wanted to play rogue because assassins are generally walking crit-only builds in RPGs and that's my favorite playstyle. I also want to play my character as an evasive, punishing fighter. Now let me define punishing. The reason I want to play "sword and fist" is because I've thought swordsmen were badass ever since I played Zelda OoT when I was like 6 and because I learned the Krav Maga martial art and I wanted to combine the two.

The golden rule of Krav Maga is that each time you defend, you simultaneously attack, stunning your opponent and then lash out striking only weak points (groin, nose, eyes, temples, etc.) until the aggressor is either incapacitated or dead (if you practice the military version and not the civillian one). And I thought it would be cool to combine Krav Maga with fencing, I did that by equipping my character with a metal gauntlet on his off-hand so that he could deflect -and even catch- incoming attacks without a weapon. So the way my character would fight would be something like: 1-Opponent attacks. 2- Deflect/catch the opponent's weapon and strike back (either slashing or upsetting his balance by kicking his foot or hitting them with a metal fist) 3- Press the advantage. 4- Repeat

And this is where I don't know how the D&D fight would go, because real life fights last around 2 seconds. If I kick someone in the balls, they'll stop moving and I can knock them unconscious by grabbing their head and smashing my knee into their nose. But I'm pretty sure D&D combat is turn-based so I don't think I can do combo attacks...

Have you considered making a Variant Human with the Tavern Brawler feat?  That would give you better damage with your unarmed strike without needing to multi-class.

As far as if your character is "legal to play", that really depends on where and with whom you will be playing.  There are a number of different methods used to generate ability scores and different races and classes may be restricted by setting.  Still, I think using the above and putting your high score into Dexterity will give you a playable character that should be accepted in any campaign that I have encountered.  

If you would like us to look at and comment on an existing character in DnDBeyond, please post or add a link.  Thanks.

Quote from Eriniel >>

Have you considered making a Variant Human with the Tavern Brawler feat?  That would give you better damage with your unarmed strike without needing to multi-class.

As far as if your character is "legal to play", that really depends on where and with whom you will be playing.  There are a number of different methods used to generate ability scores and different races and classes may be restricted by setting.  Still, I think using the above and putting your high score into Dexterity will give you a playable character that should be accepted in any campaign that I have encountered.  

If you would like us to look at and comment on an existing character in DnDBeyond, please post or add a link.  Thanks.

 this is good advice.  I strongly do not recommend MC for a beginner.

There's not really standard mechanics for parrying (catching someone else's attack) as you describe. Generally, they roll to hit and either they do or they don't. That said, you can usually flavor the way you act as you like, so if someone rolls to hit you, and they miss, you can think of it or describe it as catching their attack. You just wouldn't really get any in-game advantage from that. There's the defensive duelist feat that lets you do something like that.

Also, unarmed attacks aren't considered finesse (I think, could be wrong here, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong) which means you can't get your rogue sneak attack die with a punch. You can still get it with a monk weapon, like a short sword or dagger, however. Just keep that in mind.

Assasins, imo, don't work very well. They are great in theory, but when you are playing with a group, you often don't get the chance to sneak ahead and ambush someone to get that surprise, which takes a bit out of the way they work, in particular the part you're looking for.

You could go with a champion fighter (which also happens to be the easiest character to learn to play) take that feat  Eriniel suggested for allowing you to punch. Then go dex based and use a finesse weapon instead of str. Your punches won't be great (still not finesse), but they'll be an option. Champion will get you those crits (more reliably than rogue), and if your dex based, you'll be pretty sneaky, and it probably fits with the more skillful than brute force idea you're going for. There's also a few backgrounds that will give you proficiency in stealth to amp up your sneakiness, if that's something you were looking for. Champions aren't as flashy as other classes, I should say, but they are just as effective, and can be just as fun to play.

Thanks! I'll look into it

What might be worth looking at is going pure monk, at at level 3 taking Kensei.  The problem with tavern brawler is that it just doesn't mix with anything.  Kensei monk however is dex based, and at level 3 he can pick a normal martial weapon and use it with his dex. Until then, he can still use a shortsword since it's a monk weapon.

His martial arts strikes will fire as a bonus action, using dex, so he can strike with his sword, then punch someone in the face as a bonus action, which is pretty much exactly what he described wanting.

For that matter, a non-kensei monk can still use a shortsword to achieve the same effect as a rogue (rogues can do a bit more damage from sneak attack though).

Basically, any character that wants to unironically fight with it's fists are going to need monk levels, tavern brawler, or a natural weapon. But almost all options besides monk are STR based, not DEX based.

Even tavern brawler doesn't really do it.  You can't make the bonus action attack with your fist because two weapon fighting requires that you're using a weapon.  A fist doesn't qualify.  Monk fixes that.  Kensei isn't required, it just opens up a wider variety of weapons to use for a bit better damage.

SteelarmFelix,

You asked if your “character is ‘legal to play’ or if there would be a better way to optimize” but I personally don’t think that’s the right question for a couple of reasons.

• For one, hose two things are not mutually exclusive. As long as you followed the rules, it’s “legal to play” wheather or not it’s “optimized.”
• More importantly, the answer to “is it legal” is kinda dependent on the campaign in which that character will be played. For example the campaign starts at 1st level as is common then no, starting as a 2nd level character would not be legal.

You mentioned not having a group yet, so designing your character now is a little like putting the cart before the horse so to speak. Anyone can make characters in a vacuum, and it’s quite fun to do. “Theorycrafting” PCs is a long honored tradition. But it doesn’t always mean that what you dreamed up will work, even if you came up with a fantastic idea and executed it well. The reason is that no two campaigns are ever quite alike, even if they both have same DM.

I cannot tell you how many characters I planned out for a campaign that didn’t actually end up quite anywhere close to what I had initially planned. You might have heard the old adage “No plan lasts past first contact with the enemy” and that’s generally true. By 3rd level, things will already start to look a little different from what was expected, by 5th you will most likely have started to deviate a bit and by 8th you will often have made different choices than you had initially planned.

The reason is because a D&D campaign, much like any TTRPG, is a dynamic environment. Things a player has never anticipated will happen. Players will have made decisions in that time based on information that they didn’t have at 1st level. The one thing I feel confident guaranteeing you is that things will happen to and around your character during the campaign that will make character progression far more fluid, some might say reactive, than than it first appears.

Maybe the party will end up in a situation and your PC will heroically do something that will change your plan for various reasons like selling your soul to save the others even though you know it will require you to choose to swear a Pact to a devil and pick up a level of Warlock or something. Or maybe an opportunity will present itself for your character to do something you just cannot pass up, like swearing a Pact with a Devil.... 😉 Or maybe your PC will have died and been Reincarnated as a different race.

More likely, a player will realize that what the party really needs is some [whatever] and then go a slightly different rout to help with that. Maybe there isn’t enough healing in the party, or “whatever” and then a level or two of something you never expected before becomes a better option in that situation than following your original plan.

That kind of thing just cannot be predicted.

In addition, the best characters are usually the ones written to fit into a specific campaign. Most DMs will run something generally referred to as “Session 0” when they pitch their campaign idea, tell players about how they generally plan to do things, and field questions. Maybe it’ll be a very serious campaign where death is around every corner, and “thems that die’ll be the lucky ones.” (-Long John Silver, Treasure Island) Or maybe it’ll by a lighter, more humorous campaign. Maybe it’ll be combat heavy, or maybe it’ll be RP heavy, or maybe.... You can see how not every character will fit the same into every campaign.

My legitimate advice is twofold:

1. Find a group and and make a character that fits that campaign. It may very well be what you planned is a perfect fit, but you might decide something else would be better for that campaign. You won’t know until you ask your DM.
2. Don’t worry about “optimized” so much. For one thing, most of the time it really doesn’t matter, at least not nearly as much as people like to claim. Not to mention that this is your first character so making it 100% perfectly optimized. Heck, that isn’t always easy for experienced players. Add to that the fact that “optimized” is often dependent on the campaign and the group as I mentioned earlier. 
   (And I personally recommend against Multiclassing for newer players because it can often make things more complicated, and you will have enough on your plate just learning the game in the beginning. But, like most things in D&D, there is no “one theory fits all” approach.)

Welcome to D&D!!

^^

Much truth there.  My current character, a MC bard|warlock is a prime example.  My original plan was for him to be primarily a blastlock, that could throw faerie fire to buff, and do a bit of healing in a pinch.  He's turned into the party's primary supporter, mostly via heal.  I run into more resists than I'd like with faerie fire, so I don't use it as much as I planned.  I use hex more than I expected to and use most of my warlock slots for upcast cure wounds.  It's not playing at all the way I'd originally envisioned it, but that's what the party's needed from me.

Quote from SteelarmFelix >>

Hello! I am completely new to D&D and I made my first character yesterday. I want to know if I made my character correctly or if I broke some rules.

I wanted to make a fighter who fights with skill and not strength hence the Rogue class, but I wanted my fighting style to be a mix of swordplay and hand-to-hand combat so I felt like I had to add a Monk double class. I checked and my character has the minimum requirements for both classes so there should be no problem, but again, I don't know what I'm doing.

So I'd like to know if my character is "legal to play" or if there would be a better way to optimize my character to accomodate his fighting style.

 Just play a Kensei Monk and you will get what you're after. You'll have to wait until level 3 until it really takes of but before then you can still use simple weapons and short swords.