A group of us down at the FLGS are mostly wasting time until the new campaign release this fall. As such, I am looking for two different recommendations: one for a level 17 character joining at the end of CoS, basically just in time to fight Strahd and one for a low level game starting at level 1 that I don’t expect to go past level 5. Using DDAL rules to keep things simple for character generation, what would you play? I’m toying with an Oath Of the Ancients paladin for CoS but I’m drawing a blank on the low level character aside from shying away from full casters since the game will end right around the time a full caster starts to come into their own.
For the low level build, a good one is the Druid: Circle of the Moon. Yes, infinite wildshapes is a great level 20 feature. But moon druids truly shine in the early levels, where their wildshapes are strong enough to contend with low-level characters. The ability to wildshape as a bonus action is a great benefit as well, as it frees up your action to perform attacks.
1. Thief Rogue 17: Thief's Reflexes is kind of a crazy ability and it would be fun to play with it. If you have any control over your items, building to have some options enabled by Use-Magic Device could be really fun too.
2. Illusionist Wizard 17: Grab Eldritch Adept: Misty Visions and you can have infinite real adamantine walls, boxes, etc. Illusory Reality is one hell of an ability.
Level 1-5:
1. Rune Knight 5: I agree with your instinct to shy away from full casters on this one. Fighter is excellent in tier 1, and Rune Knight piles on a lot of great stuff at level 3. This can be built in a lot of interesting and fun ways.
2. Swarmkeeper 5: Rangers are excellent in tier 1 as well. You will always have something to help the party. I love the level 3 swarmkeeper abilities and web is a great pick up for the end of the campaign at 5. Just as many fun options as the RK.
I think Barbarians are good low level characters, because (1) its really only Tier 1 where you often face single attacks that risk dropping you in one blow, and the resistance helps with that, and (2) Rage's very-modest flat bonus to damage is more meaningful in Tier 1 when its a higher percentage of your total damage, before a bunch of other misc. bonuses come online. A level 1-5 Barbarian is remarkably tougher than any other character, and does more damage than most others as well.
For level 17, I'd say play a monk, since they'll have the most surreal collection of features by that point in their career. A Long Death Monk at 17 is functionally immortal for about a minute and a half if you use ki, able to swim around in a lake of lava without worries, while also being able to be anywhere on the battlefield they want attacking whoever they want almost as many times as they want, stunning on each blow... Pretty sure Strahd isn't immune to stunned, so its probably a powerful contribution to the fight to be a laser guided stun missile that cannot be stopped by any amount of damage.
A group of us down at the FLGS are mostly wasting time until the new campaign release this fall. As such, I am looking for two different recommendations: one for a level 17 character joining at the end of CoS, basically just in time to fight Strahd and one for a low level game starting at level 1 that I don’t expect to go past level 5. Using DDAL rules to keep things simple for character generation, what would you play? I’m toying with an Oath Of the Ancients paladin for CoS but I’m drawing a blank on the low level character aside from shying away from full casters since the game will end right around the time a full caster starts to come into their own.
For the low level build, a good one is the Druid: Circle of the Moon. Yes, infinite wildshapes is a great level 20 feature. But moon druids truly shine in the early levels, where their wildshapes are strong enough to contend with low-level characters. The ability to wildshape as a bonus action is a great benefit as well, as it frees up your action to perform attacks.
Level 17:
1. Thief Rogue 17: Thief's Reflexes is kind of a crazy ability and it would be fun to play with it. If you have any control over your items, building to have some options enabled by Use-Magic Device could be really fun too.
2. Illusionist Wizard 17: Grab Eldritch Adept: Misty Visions and you can have infinite real adamantine walls, boxes, etc. Illusory Reality is one hell of an ability.
Level 1-5:
1. Rune Knight 5: I agree with your instinct to shy away from full casters on this one. Fighter is excellent in tier 1, and Rune Knight piles on a lot of great stuff at level 3. This can be built in a lot of interesting and fun ways.
2. Swarmkeeper 5: Rangers are excellent in tier 1 as well. You will always have something to help the party. I love the level 3 swarmkeeper abilities and web is a great pick up for the end of the campaign at 5. Just as many fun options as the RK.
I think Barbarians are good low level characters, because (1) its really only Tier 1 where you often face single attacks that risk dropping you in one blow, and the resistance helps with that, and (2) Rage's very-modest flat bonus to damage is more meaningful in Tier 1 when its a higher percentage of your total damage, before a bunch of other misc. bonuses come online. A level 1-5 Barbarian is remarkably tougher than any other character, and does more damage than most others as well.
For level 17, I'd say play a monk, since they'll have the most surreal collection of features by that point in their career. A Long Death Monk at 17 is functionally immortal for about a minute and a half if you use ki, able to swim around in a lake of lava without worries, while also being able to be anywhere on the battlefield they want attacking whoever they want almost as many times as they want, stunning on each blow... Pretty sure Strahd isn't immune to stunned, so its probably a powerful contribution to the fight to be a laser guided stun missile that cannot be stopped by any amount of damage.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.