this is my first post in this forum so if I'm in the wrong category or I'm doing things wrong: Please tell me!
I've just started to play DnD5e in a local group with some friends. Parallel I'm GM in a Pathfinder group which is level 10 by now.
I would like to get some feedback on my character if you have ideas or feedback on the background, the classes or any idea in general is appreciated.
In this new group I'm playing as a dwarfen barbarian and I'm currently level 2. My background is that I'm a gold dwarf who lived with his parents in a small town near the Vilhon Reach. My father is a well accomplished weapons smith and my mother a herbalist. The small town got raided by some strangers and therefore my family went to the great rift. My character soon realized, that the big city won't be his home forever and he left the city and his family.
Now he is traveling and tries to carry on the legacy of being a weapons and jewellery smith by seeing the great smiths of Mirabar and Mithral Hall. (The campain starts with the starter adventure in phandalin near neverwinter.) So far so good.
Now I really like the idea of an honest, honourable craftsmen and I really try to play him as one but this doesn't really fit into the idea of beiing an barbarian and I also want to multiclass somehow to be more flexible. (even tho multiclassing as barb isnt the best idea)
My first idea was to mix it with druid to become the groups tank and frontline. Which is a great combination skillwise but doesn't really fit into my background. My character wants to smith new things, learn about dwarfen traditions and start to get better at smithing. Therefore I abandoned this idea.
My current idea is to mix it with cleric and somewhat switch to cleric over the time. So I start as a barb 3 and then straight level cleric for 17 levels (if the group lasts that long...) to be a 17 cleric/barb 3 later. This gives me the possibility to rage in some fights, but not all, to get some melee capacities in dmg and resistance and fight as a cleric the rest of the time.
For the deity and domain i'm not sure but Moradin sounds good in general for this character.
Domains:
Forge - doesn't fit well with the barb because of concentration and the need to wear heavy armor (I would like to focus on medium armor instead)
War - generally is okay, but I have to be careful with the concentration spells, so not optimal too.
Light - the percs and spells are good (if you don't mind the often occuring fire resistance later) and I really like the domain in general. I thought of a focus on the fire/sun/heat part of the domain. The forge fire, ember, sparks when forging, the heat, etc. and to be sth. like the 'moradins fire' or so. Do you think thats a viable option?
Grave - I just like the domain and the idea of beeing the one who helps his god to execute orders who lives and who dies. Also this is a pretty strong domain in my opinion. But again the deity doesn't really match. Have you any idea how this could work?
Our GM isn't really a fan of multiclassing but allows it. I don't think I will be happy with an high level barb because it doesn't feel right concidering the background.
You want to play a Dwarf. You want to be a warrior of some type. You have a pretty typical Dwarf background, born and raised by Dwarves, in a Dwarven town, You've visited a Big City and you want to follow Dwarven customs and traditions. Your father was a smith, your mother an herbalist, (no clue where Jewelry Smith comes into it...) and you want to be a smith. So far so good.
What I can't quite figure out is what's wrong with playing a Plain Old Barbarian. There is a subclass specifically for Dwarven Barbarians.
I don't follow what question you're asking, but it's really challenging to mix a class with a lot of spellcasting with Barbarian have it work out. If you were considering a 1-level cleric dip I'd have some thoughts, but abandoning Barbarian wholesale for Cleric will by and large turn your Barbarian levels into wasted levels. Are you... asking us for multiclassing advice? We have to know your statline to give that - you've made it clear you have the stats for Barb/Cleric/Druid, so you're S13+ W13+, but it's hard to give advice with just that.
Some tips:
Barb won't mix well with any caster interested in casting - moon druids like barb levels for when they're in beast form and can't cast anyway. Cleric should not be on your short list.
Barb won't mix at all with heavy armor, which is only attainable through multiclassing if you multiclass into cleric, like the Forge domain.
If you're going to quit after L3, you probably want to do it after L4, for the ASI.
Barbarian/Rogue has excellent synergy, but if you reach L20, maximum synergy is Barb2/Rogue18, because Rogue 18 lets you Reckless Attack without letting others have advantage to hit you.
Barbarian/Fighter has synergy so good, just about everyone does it - you're dead wrong about multiclass barbarians always being a bad idea. Fighter has a lot to offer any Barbarian.
What subclass you pick will matter; I recommend Totem Barbarian (Bear), so you can more reliably live through attacking recklessly.
Crafting is by and large intelligence based in D&D 5E, but I doubt you have a high intelligence stat - and even if you did, both int classes, including the crafting one, are pretty heavily into spellcasting. The only spells that generally work with Barbarians are non-concentration with high durations, like mage armor and darkvision.
Along those lines, if you do commit to Cleric after reaching Bear Totem Barbarian, casting Warding Bond on someone and then raging will generally mean an incoming shot deals half damage to the warded person and then quarter damage to you, for a net 25% reduction, which is otherwise very challenging to accomplish with Warding Bond. A spell worth considering. Warding Bond lasts an hour, no concentration.
Now I really like the idea of an honest, honourable craftsmen and I really try to play him as one but this doesn't really fit into the idea of beiing an barbarian ...
Nonsense. Anyone can be a barbarian, and a barbarian can be anyone. It is a class, not a type of person. The trick is to find the way to connect the class, subclass and features into your character concept.
So you are a barbarian who loves blacksmithing; perhaps follow the path of the Ancients and imagine the spirits you summon to be the ancestral smiths and armorers of your bloodline returning to defend you and your allies, and cast your divination by starting into the forge flames for guidance. Or the path of the Storm Herald (Desert) as the fires of the forge surround you in battle and burn your enemies. Perhaps you are touched with the blood-fury inherited from your grandmother, a legendary Beserker. Or you make your own spiked armor and fight as a Dwarven battlerager. Maybe you do honour the forge gods, and fight as their Zealot wielding holy radiant fire.
Outside of your battle rage, you can be a peaceful and civilised fellow, honing your craft and learning from the great masters. Perhaps you don't wear armor yourself but prefer to go into battle dressed in your smith's leather apron and wielding a giant hammer - trusting to your considerable strength and constitution earned through hours of honest labor to protect you. Your ethos might be to avoid a fight where possible, but always be prepared for battle (explaining your honed senses and your desire to craft weapons of war) and you never hold back when your friends lives are at risk (a very reckless near rage state in battle).
You could commit further by taking a feat like Artificer Initiate and using your blacksmith tools as a focus to hurl firebolts and identify items.
There are so many ways to adapt a class and subclass to your character concept without needing to multiclass.
What I can't quite figure out is what's wrong with playing a Plain Old Barbarian. There is a subclass specifically for Dwarven Barbarians.
There is nothing wrong with it. The reason why I'm currently figuring out what possibilities I have ist just, that I wanted to be a bit more broadly based in my skills and what I can do with my char. Maybe I'm just reducing the barbarian to an big weapon wielding, crazy person living in the nature and thats just not right.
I've looked into the subclass but I don't think I like the idea of having an spike armor and using it. It just feels wierd to me.
If you were considering a 1-level cleric dip I'd have some thoughts...
That would be a possibility, too. The idea of doing 17CLERIC/3BARB is just one option.
We have to know your statline to give that - you've made it clear you have the stats for Barb/Cleric/Druid, so you're S13+ W13+, but it's hard to give advice with just that.
The reason for this setup was, that before creating the background story I really was into the Barb/Moon Druid and therefore got a lot of Wis for the druid. Then I got my background and thought the druid doesn't really match that and went to cleric instead... Thats the reason behind my thinking about the Cleric beeing an option.
Barbarian/Rogue has excellent synergy, but if you reach L20, maximum synergy is Barb2/Rogue18, because Rogue 18 lets you Reckless Attack without letting others have advantage to hit you.
Barbarian/Fighter has synergy so good, just about everyone does it - you're dead wrong about multiclass barbarians always being a bad idea. Fighter has a lot to offer any Barbarian.
What subclass you pick will matter; I recommend Totem Barbarian (Bear), so you can more reliably live through attacking recklessly.
There you are completely right. I was completely talking about casters and retrospecifly I only was thinking about Wisdom based casters... which lead me to druid and cleric...
I would go Bear Totem, too. That was even the plan when going the 17 Cleric /3Barbarian route. But even if not I'm pretty sure I'll go that way.
Nonsense. Anyone can be a barbarian, and a barbarian can be anyone. It is a class, not a type of person. The trick is to find the way to connect the class, subclass and features into your character concept.
Thats one of the thinks I don't get my head around. And this does not mean that I think you are wrong or sth. I thought of my dwarf being somewhat like Logan Ninefingers from the blade series from Joe Abercrombie. And I was pretty fine with that.
But then I talked about this topic with my GM and he thinks of barbarians in a more wild, nature loving way and we e.g. talked about barbarians in Pathfinder which have to be chaotic. So beiing a barbarian by definition leads you to play a non lawful character but I think of my character as beeing Lawful or at least Neutral. Also the class abilities at least give a hint to what a barbarian might lead to with Survival, Nature, ...
So you are a barbarian who loves blacksmithing; perhaps follow the path of the Ancients and imagine the spirits you summon to be the ancestral smiths and armorers of your bloodline returning to defend you and your allies, and cast your divination by starting into the forge flames for guidance. Or the path of the Storm Herald (Desert) as the fires of the forge surround you in battle and burn your enemies. Perhaps you are touched with the blood-fury inherited from your grandmother, a legendary Beserker. Or you make your own spiked armor and fight as a Dwarven battlerager. Maybe you do honour the forge gods, and fight as their Zealot wielding holy radiant fire.
Outside of your battle rage, you can be a peaceful and civilised fellow, honing your craft and learning from the great masters. Perhaps you don't wear armor yourself but prefer to go into battle dressed in your smith's leather apron and wielding a giant hammer - trusting to your considerable strength and constitution earned through hours of honest labor to protect you. Your ethos might be to avoid a fight where possible, but always be prepared for battle (explaining your honed senses and your desire to craft weapons of war) and you never hold back when your friends lives are at risk (a very reckless near rage state in battle).
These ideas are really good. Thank you for those! I think some of that is what I think of my character.
My GM offered the group the possibility to overthink our stats in the first 2 to 3 levels and I'm tempted to lose a big chunk of the Wis and gain strengh and maybe Int/Cha. I think if I go the full barbarian, then having Wis 16 is a waste.
Again: Thanks for the answers. This is what I thought about your answers in the first moments after reading them but I'll think about the points and maybe reply again.
For the character I described earlier, I didn't have a barbarian in mind when it comes to level lets say 6 or above when writing this thread. I thought more of a fighting cleric/smith who can rage in the right situations. I thought of a character who transforms from being a raging warrior to a more mindful character who exactly knows when his rage should take over and when to keep calm and ask his deity for help.
At least thats what I had in mind when starting this thread. But now I don't know if thats the right way to go.
Also we already have played 3 rounds and the group is already level 2. I also don't have to decide it today. But if I want to multiclass with let's say barb 3 / xxx 17 then I have to decide it when I get level 4. Thats why I'm writing here and try to get some advice :)
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Hi,
this is my first post in this forum so if I'm in the wrong category or I'm doing things wrong: Please tell me!
I've just started to play DnD5e in a local group with some friends. Parallel I'm GM in a Pathfinder group which is level 10 by now.
I would like to get some feedback on my character if you have ideas or feedback on the background, the classes or any idea in general is appreciated.
In this new group I'm playing as a dwarfen barbarian and I'm currently level 2. My background is that I'm a gold dwarf who lived with his parents in a small town near the Vilhon Reach. My father is a well accomplished weapons smith and my mother a herbalist. The small town got raided by some strangers and therefore my family went to the great rift. My character soon realized, that the big city won't be his home forever and he left the city and his family.
Now he is traveling and tries to carry on the legacy of being a weapons and jewellery smith by seeing the great smiths of Mirabar and Mithral Hall. (The campain starts with the starter adventure in phandalin near neverwinter.) So far so good.
Now I really like the idea of an honest, honourable craftsmen and I really try to play him as one but this doesn't really fit into the idea of beiing an barbarian and I also want to multiclass somehow to be more flexible. (even tho multiclassing as barb isnt the best idea)
My first idea was to mix it with druid to become the groups tank and frontline. Which is a great combination skillwise but doesn't really fit into my background. My character wants to smith new things, learn about dwarfen traditions and start to get better at smithing. Therefore I abandoned this idea.
My current idea is to mix it with cleric and somewhat switch to cleric over the time. So I start as a barb 3 and then straight level cleric for 17 levels (if the group lasts that long...) to be a 17 cleric/barb 3 later. This gives me the possibility to rage in some fights, but not all, to get some melee capacities in dmg and resistance and fight as a cleric the rest of the time.
For the deity and domain i'm not sure but Moradin sounds good in general for this character.
Domains:
Our GM isn't really a fan of multiclassing but allows it. I don't think I will be happy with an high level barb because it doesn't feel right concidering the background.
Greetings,
Kamrid Gold Blade, dwarfen smith
You want to play a Dwarf. You want to be a warrior of some type. You have a pretty typical Dwarf background, born and raised by Dwarves, in a Dwarven town, You've visited a Big City and you want to follow Dwarven customs and traditions. Your father was a smith, your mother an herbalist, (no clue where Jewelry Smith comes into it...) and you want to be a smith. So far so good.
What I can't quite figure out is what's wrong with playing a Plain Old Barbarian. There is a subclass specifically for Dwarven Barbarians.
<Insert clever signature here>
I don't follow what question you're asking, but it's really challenging to mix a class with a lot of spellcasting with Barbarian have it work out. If you were considering a 1-level cleric dip I'd have some thoughts, but abandoning Barbarian wholesale for Cleric will by and large turn your Barbarian levels into wasted levels. Are you... asking us for multiclassing advice? We have to know your statline to give that - you've made it clear you have the stats for Barb/Cleric/Druid, so you're S13+ W13+, but it's hard to give advice with just that.
Some tips:
Nonsense. Anyone can be a barbarian, and a barbarian can be anyone. It is a class, not a type of person. The trick is to find the way to connect the class, subclass and features into your character concept.
So you are a barbarian who loves blacksmithing; perhaps follow the path of the Ancients and imagine the spirits you summon to be the ancestral smiths and armorers of your bloodline returning to defend you and your allies, and cast your divination by starting into the forge flames for guidance. Or the path of the Storm Herald (Desert) as the fires of the forge surround you in battle and burn your enemies. Perhaps you are touched with the blood-fury inherited from your grandmother, a legendary Beserker. Or you make your own spiked armor and fight as a Dwarven battlerager. Maybe you do honour the forge gods, and fight as their Zealot wielding holy radiant fire.
Outside of your battle rage, you can be a peaceful and civilised fellow, honing your craft and learning from the great masters. Perhaps you don't wear armor yourself but prefer to go into battle dressed in your smith's leather apron and wielding a giant hammer - trusting to your considerable strength and constitution earned through hours of honest labor to protect you. Your ethos might be to avoid a fight where possible, but always be prepared for battle (explaining your honed senses and your desire to craft weapons of war) and you never hold back when your friends lives are at risk (a very reckless near rage state in battle).
You could commit further by taking a feat like Artificer Initiate and using your blacksmith tools as a focus to hurl firebolts and identify items.
There are so many ways to adapt a class and subclass to your character concept without needing to multiclass.
Thank you all for your replys so far.
There is nothing wrong with it. The reason why I'm currently figuring out what possibilities I have ist just, that I wanted to be a bit more broadly based in my skills and what I can do with my char. Maybe I'm just reducing the barbarian to an big weapon wielding, crazy person living in the nature and thats just not right.
I've looked into the subclass but I don't think I like the idea of having an spike armor and using it. It just feels wierd to me.
That would be a possibility, too. The idea of doing 17CLERIC/3BARB is just one option.
My Statline is:
Str: 14, Dex: 12, Con: 16, Int: 8, Wis: 16, Cha: 8
The reason for this setup was, that before creating the background story I really was into the Barb/Moon Druid and therefore got a lot of Wis for the druid. Then I got my background and thought the druid doesn't really match that and went to cleric instead... Thats the reason behind my thinking about the Cleric beeing an option.
There you are completely right. I was completely talking about casters and retrospecifly I only was thinking about Wisdom based casters... which lead me to druid and cleric...
I would go Bear Totem, too. That was even the plan when going the 17 Cleric /3Barbarian route. But even if not I'm pretty sure I'll go that way.
Thats one of the thinks I don't get my head around. And this does not mean that I think you are wrong or sth. I thought of my dwarf being somewhat like Logan Ninefingers from the blade series from Joe Abercrombie. And I was pretty fine with that.
But then I talked about this topic with my GM and he thinks of barbarians in a more wild, nature loving way and we e.g. talked about barbarians in Pathfinder which have to be chaotic. So beiing a barbarian by definition leads you to play a non lawful character but I think of my character as beeing Lawful or at least Neutral. Also the class abilities at least give a hint to what a barbarian might lead to with Survival, Nature, ...
These ideas are really good. Thank you for those! I think some of that is what I think of my character.
My GM offered the group the possibility to overthink our stats in the first 2 to 3 levels and I'm tempted to lose a big chunk of the Wis and gain strengh and maybe Int/Cha. I think if I go the full barbarian, then having Wis 16 is a waste.
Again: Thanks for the answers. This is what I thought about your answers in the first moments after reading them but I'll think about the points and maybe reply again.
If you are thinking of doing 17-3 cleric you barbarian then you really aren’t thinking of playing a Barbarian.
Honestly planning out multiclasses before the first session is not a great idea.give the character a chance to form through play, not just on paper
Yeah you are absolutly right there!
For the character I described earlier, I didn't have a barbarian in mind when it comes to level lets say 6 or above when writing this thread. I thought more of a fighting cleric/smith who can rage in the right situations. I thought of a character who transforms from being a raging warrior to a more mindful character who exactly knows when his rage should take over and when to keep calm and ask his deity for help.
At least thats what I had in mind when starting this thread. But now I don't know if thats the right way to go.
Also we already have played 3 rounds and the group is already level 2. I also don't have to decide it today. But if I want to multiclass with let's say barb 3 / xxx 17 then I have to decide it when I get level 4. Thats why I'm writing here and try to get some advice :)