I will be playing in a strix campaign soon, and I have some questions for character creation:
Can martial characters succeed? For example a ranger, which is kind of a Half caster?
Can my character be successful with a low/average intelligence?
My current character concept is a human drakewarden ranger with the Sliverquill Student Background. Her human feat is actor.
Her backstory:
The forest she loved was destroyed by a greedy corporation’s mining and she feels that she could have saved it if she’d had more confidence and verbal ability to defend it. So she studied hard for admittance to Silverquill so that she could learn how to use literary power. (I like Silverquill’s concept the best. Also, apparently her training involved language studying since she got Com+1 from human, 2 from Tasha’s ranger and 2 from Silverquill)
Meanwhile, on her journeys, she fought and killed a drake without realizing that it was guarding its nest. Upon discovery, she vowed to protect the egg until it hatches, (at third level). Until then, she will be carrying a shiny rock that no one is allowed to touch.
The Student Backgrounds are kind of too powerful partly because they're intended to compensate for playing as a martial character and still being viable in a magic-heavy setting like Strixhaven. A Half-Caster like a Ranger is perfectly well equipped to handle the adventure, and I don't see anything in your character concept that would make this particularly difficult or challenging beyond the expected challenges for D&D in general
The adventures are designed in a way that can compensate for low intelligence... not all tests are just straight up intelligence checks and there are methods established in game to study and increase your odds of success. It does lean fairly heavily on INT, but if you play as a big dummy the adventure is still playable.
Each test consists of two skill checks, with one of them typically being an Intelligence-based check, and the other typically being wisdom or charisma. You pass the test if you succeed on at least one of the two checks, and passing them both is "acing" the test. The only penalty to failing a test is that you're ejected from your extracurriculars until you pass the next test, as the extra time is used in mandated tutoring. That means the only real mechanical effect of failing a test is missing out on the student dice.
student dice are d4s that you earn from extracurriculars, and from passing tests. Each is tied to one or two skills that it can be added to, once per day.
The game gives you the option of studying the night before, which is a skill check of the player's choice, typically with the same DC as the test, and if you pass the check when studying, you get to re-roll one of your dice on the test.
Pulling an all-nighter gives you a second re-roll, but also disadvantage on the skill checks, so you'll typically be using the middle roll of three dice for both checks on the test, instead of just having a re-roll on one of them.
I will be playing in a strix campaign soon, and I have some questions for character creation:
My current character concept is a human drakewarden ranger with the Sliverquill Student Background. Her human feat is actor.
Her backstory:
The forest she loved was destroyed by a greedy corporation’s mining and she feels that she could have saved it if she’d had more confidence and verbal ability to defend it. So she studied hard for admittance to Silverquill so that she could learn how to use literary power. (I like Silverquill’s concept the best. Also, apparently her training involved language studying since she got Com+1 from human, 2 from Tasha’s ranger and 2 from Silverquill)
Meanwhile, on her journeys, she fought and killed a drake without realizing that it was guarding its nest. Upon discovery, she vowed to protect the egg until it hatches, (at third level). Until then, she will be carrying a shiny rock that no one is allowed to touch.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
The Student Backgrounds are kind of too powerful partly because they're intended to compensate for playing as a martial character and still being viable in a magic-heavy setting like Strixhaven. A Half-Caster like a Ranger is perfectly well equipped to handle the adventure, and I don't see anything in your character concept that would make this particularly difficult or challenging beyond the expected challenges for D&D in general
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Thank you! What about the low/average intelligence? I assumed that taking tests would require a high intelligence.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
The adventures are designed in a way that can compensate for low intelligence... not all tests are just straight up intelligence checks and there are methods established in game to study and increase your odds of success. It does lean fairly heavily on INT, but if you play as a big dummy the adventure is still playable.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Each test consists of two skill checks, with one of them typically being an Intelligence-based check, and the other typically being wisdom or charisma. You pass the test if you succeed on at least one of the two checks, and passing them both is "acing" the test. The only penalty to failing a test is that you're ejected from your extracurriculars until you pass the next test, as the extra time is used in mandated tutoring. That means the only real mechanical effect of failing a test is missing out on the student dice.
student dice are d4s that you earn from extracurriculars, and from passing tests. Each is tied to one or two skills that it can be added to, once per day.
The game gives you the option of studying the night before, which is a skill check of the player's choice, typically with the same DC as the test, and if you pass the check when studying, you get to re-roll one of your dice on the test.
Pulling an all-nighter gives you a second re-roll, but also disadvantage on the skill checks, so you'll typically be using the middle roll of three dice for both checks on the test, instead of just having a re-roll on one of them.
How did it go? Which college did you choose, Witherbloom? I'm about to start as a Silverquill divine soul sorcerer.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
It went well! I ended up with Silverquill. We’re currently on summer break, playing a Keys from the Golden Vault heist to pay for tuition.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep