After not playing the game since primary school I've been invited by some friends to play in a D&D campaign and I've settled on a Ranger however I'm trying to do some things with my character I'm unsure of. The setting is some unspecified marshlands in Ravenloft, we haven't had our first real session yet, just a session zero with some tavern roleplay and I'm trying to finalize my character sheet before the next session.
1) I'm trying to pick a Favored Enemy. My character is an anti-social wanderer, guide, and part-time monster hunter with strong connections to the Vistani and a Haunted One background. I'm torn between Aberrations and Monstrosities. I want to get both eventually but I don't really know monster types and I'm trying to pick a type we have a feasible chance of encountering at low levels before I pick up the other one. Which should I choose first? Also how the heck do you figure out what kind of languages your favored enemy speaks, especially since a lot of categories just seem to be "practically anything" (Undead, Monstrosities)?
2) My character has been cursed with an undisclosed body horror condition that over time (leveling up) is going to give him aberrant qualities, right now I'm using Eldritch Adept (with DM permission, feat from variant human with the spellcasting requirements waived) to give him Devil's Sight and I was thinking of taking Gloomstalker then using the dark vision to free up and take a new invocation for a new mutation. The character was originally a Pact of the Blade Warlock and I was going to use invocations/spells to represent his mutations but it just got way too complicated and I didn't want him to feel like a mage. Leveling up are there any multiclass or build ideas that you can think of that would be fun or cool to reskin as body horror mutations? He's got really good Dex, Con, and Wis, and good all around stats (13/17/15/13/16/10). We're level 1.
I'm trying to channel a split between a mirror universe Strider and a mish mash of Cronenberg/The Thing/Alien/Bloodborne.
Regarding the first question speak to your DM. THere is no fun in choosing an enemy type only to fine they hardly feature in the campaign and only your DM will know what monsters you are likey to face. A lot of people didn't like favoured enemy for that reason to the extent that they gave ranger several alternative options in Tasha's including favoured foe as an alternative to favoured enemy this isn't dependent on what types of creature you are facing. If you do decide to go with favored foe most aberations speak deep speech and a lot speak undercommon I would go with either of those, most monstrosities don't speak any langauge but of those that do abyssal is probably most common but still spoken by only a very small proportion on monstrosities I would speak to your DM about what would be appropriate.
Regarding your second question gloom stalker is generally regarded as the most powerfull ranger subclass. If does pair well with Rogue (scout or assassin) but usually having rogue as the main class (no more than 5 levels in ranger)If you haven't played since primary school I would stick with a single class as it is easy to mess up multi class if you are inexperienced. For body horror mutations I would probably go with flavour things. There is no "horror" in being able to cast eldritch blast, any sorcerer has inherant spell casting an making a pact with a celestial can give you eldritch blast. Maybe you have a (non functional) tentical or one of your eyes glow yellow. You could say the yellow eyes give you eldritch sight and your eldritch blasts fire from them but you then need to think of a new explanation for what happens with you switch eldritch sight out.
Favored Enemy is situational, double check if your DM allows you to use Tasha’s variant features. Then you can get Favored Foe, which is good at low levels, and Deft Explorer, that is a great feature.
About mutations, honestly, I don’t know how to represent this in D&D. Maybe as flavor for advancing in Gloomstalker? I don’t know.
Leveling up are there any multiclass or build ideas that you can think of that would be fun or cool to reskin as body horror mutations? He's got really good Dex, Con, and Wis, and good all around stats (13/17/15/13/16/10). We're level 1.
BloodHunter has lots of them. But otherwise.... Druid WS could be reflavoured as body-horror (I've played with 2 druids that did that). Death Cleric maybe? or Graviturgy Wizard?
T TBH, Gloomstalker with Devil Sight is such an overdone combo. Sure it's strong as a Rogue multi-class if what you're focusing on is first round nova damage, but after that first round, there's nothing special about it. You also won't be able to benefit from healing or debuffs from your allies because they are either too far away or can't see you half the time cause of the Darkness you created.
Swarmkeeper Ranger could easily be reflavored with a body horror theme. Those movement effects? Those are parts of your body detaching themselves and pulling you/your foe in a certain direction. Or you could say that a your body is like a living hornet's nest: those things moving/pulling creatures are hornets that keep entering and exiting your body. It's easy to build as a pure Ranger.
If you really want to dial up the ick factor, just pick Warlock instead and pick Cloak of Flies and Grasp of Hadar for Invocations. The former lets you create vermin in a 5 foot radius that poison damages anybody in that area while the latter lets you move creatures with eldtrich blast, effectively forcing them into your verminous poison aura.
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After not playing the game since primary school I've been invited by some friends to play in a D&D campaign and I've settled on a Ranger however I'm trying to do some things with my character I'm unsure of. The setting is some unspecified marshlands in Ravenloft, we haven't had our first real session yet, just a session zero with some tavern roleplay and I'm trying to finalize my character sheet before the next session.
1) I'm trying to pick a Favored Enemy. My character is an anti-social wanderer, guide, and part-time monster hunter with strong connections to the Vistani and a Haunted One background. I'm torn between Aberrations and Monstrosities. I want to get both eventually but I don't really know monster types and I'm trying to pick a type we have a feasible chance of encountering at low levels before I pick up the other one. Which should I choose first? Also how the heck do you figure out what kind of languages your favored enemy speaks, especially since a lot of categories just seem to be "practically anything" (Undead, Monstrosities)?
2) My character has been cursed with an undisclosed body horror condition that over time (leveling up) is going to give him aberrant qualities, right now I'm using Eldritch Adept (with DM permission, feat from variant human with the spellcasting requirements waived) to give him Devil's Sight and I was thinking of taking Gloomstalker then using the dark vision to free up and take a new invocation for a new mutation. The character was originally a Pact of the Blade Warlock and I was going to use invocations/spells to represent his mutations but it just got way too complicated and I didn't want him to feel like a mage. Leveling up are there any multiclass or build ideas that you can think of that would be fun or cool to reskin as body horror mutations? He's got really good Dex, Con, and Wis, and good all around stats (13/17/15/13/16/10). We're level 1.
I'm trying to channel a split between a mirror universe Strider and a mish mash of Cronenberg/The Thing/Alien/Bloodborne.
Regarding the first question speak to your DM. THere is no fun in choosing an enemy type only to fine they hardly feature in the campaign and only your DM will know what monsters you are likey to face. A lot of people didn't like favoured enemy for that reason to the extent that they gave ranger several alternative options in Tasha's including favoured foe as an alternative to favoured enemy this isn't dependent on what types of creature you are facing. If you do decide to go with favored foe most aberations speak deep speech and a lot speak undercommon I would go with either of those, most monstrosities don't speak any langauge but of those that do abyssal is probably most common but still spoken by only a very small proportion on monstrosities I would speak to your DM about what would be appropriate.
Regarding your second question gloom stalker is generally regarded as the most powerfull ranger subclass. If does pair well with Rogue (scout or assassin) but usually having rogue as the main class (no more than 5 levels in ranger)If you haven't played since primary school I would stick with a single class as it is easy to mess up multi class if you are inexperienced. For body horror mutations I would probably go with flavour things. There is no "horror" in being able to cast eldritch blast, any sorcerer has inherant spell casting an making a pact with a celestial can give you eldritch blast. Maybe you have a (non functional) tentical or one of your eyes glow yellow. You could say the yellow eyes give you eldritch sight and your eldritch blasts fire from them but you then need to think of a new explanation for what happens with you switch eldritch sight out.
Favored Enemy is situational, double check if your DM allows you to use Tasha’s variant features. Then you can get Favored Foe, which is good at low levels, and Deft Explorer, that is a great feature.
About mutations, honestly, I don’t know how to represent this in D&D. Maybe as flavor for advancing in Gloomstalker? I don’t know.
BloodHunter has lots of them. But otherwise.... Druid WS could be reflavoured as body-horror (I've played with 2 druids that did that). Death Cleric maybe? or Graviturgy Wizard?
T TBH, Gloomstalker with Devil Sight is such an overdone combo. Sure it's strong as a Rogue multi-class if what you're focusing on is first round nova damage, but after that first round, there's nothing special about it. You also won't be able to benefit from healing or debuffs from your allies because they are either too far away or can't see you half the time cause of the Darkness you created.
Swarmkeeper Ranger could easily be reflavored with a body horror theme. Those movement effects? Those are parts of your body detaching themselves and pulling you/your foe in a certain direction. Or you could say that a your body is like a living hornet's nest: those things moving/pulling creatures are hornets that keep entering and exiting your body. It's easy to build as a pure Ranger.
If you really want to dial up the ick factor, just pick Warlock instead and pick Cloak of Flies and Grasp of Hadar for Invocations. The former lets you create vermin in a 5 foot radius that poison damages anybody in that area while the latter lets you move creatures with eldtrich blast, effectively forcing them into your verminous poison aura.