Character Optimization through play.

1. Before the group starts, check your basic equipment and make sure you have the adventure essentials. Don't forget candles, you can use the wax to plug ears to protect against a Harpy in addition to its use as a candle. Everyone needs rope also.
2. Fire stops regeneration and many other things. You can throw oil and then your wizard can ignite it. Take much oil and find ways to use it.
3. Holy water does radiant damage so it will stop regeneration on some things also. There is no reason you cant get some for free from the Church that sponsors your adventuring.
4. An oiled or greased up Monk would certainly be very tough to grapple, I would give a bonus if you did that. Worked for Macho Man Savage.
5. Wine is a solvent, so you can use it against sticky things that hold you to something or grapple you.
6. Guidance is a cantrip and takes one action to cast. There is no reason not to cast it over and over to get the bonus to initiative. "May the faith of ____ speed my actions is enough to convince most DMs. You can concentrate on it while walking down a hallway or path.
7. If fighting invisible creatures at low level watch for the surface they walk on. Ball bearings help with this, I had a player throw ashes from a fire in the air to coat the invisible person. Talk to DM also, some invisible creature will cast shadows. Detect Evil and Good will work sometimes, you can then throw something on the creature like ink or paint so everyone can see them.
8. Don't forget three dimensions. A fog cloud cast 25 ft in the air still protects you from the archers on the ledge above while allowing you to walk under it without problems. A fireball cast at 30' in the air will burn all those giants while not hitting your friends underneath.
9. Make sure to tell the DM you are looking for items that are out of place and listening for odd noises also. You can get a heads up on many things that way.
10. You are rarely in a rush, so take time to cast that detect magic as a ritual and use other abilities like stone cunning and secret door checks. After you clean out an area make sure to go over it, detect magic has a duration of 10 minutes and all you need to do is scan around.
11. If you are a polymorph user, for sanity's sake have the creatures you polymorph into ready to go on an index card or something.
12. Don't forget to salvage the creatures you just beat. Regular plate mail is worth 1500 GP, half if you sell it. Often at low levels there is more money laying around in equipment then in treasure. Don't forget to open the gut of creatures who swallow things.
13. You can feed the bodies of the just killed to the Roper you cant handle to let you pass or dispose of the evidence. You can then kill the roper later.
14. Most published adventures and many homebrewed ones have continual flame lighting in areas. Take them for yourself and use them since they are disposable. Drop them down all the dark places the DM puts in front of you.
15. An arrow is an object, so you can cast light on an arrow and then shoot it across the way to see what's there.
16. Don't forget your familiar can use the help action to give someone advantage. Some can use it and keep moving, like an owl, so it can fly around just handing out advantage on its turn.
17. Use the environment. The bad guys get swept away by rushing water just like you can. They fall off ledges too if you help them.
18. Be careful of loud spells, they alert everyone.
19. Know a little actual lore to sell a story to the DM. For example, its tradition that Vampires are obsessive compulsive and will obsessively count things even if it means they do so until the sun comes up and kills them, that's why the tradition of sprinkling salt outside your door.
20. Know a little actual lore to detect things, to see if something is fishy. Trolls are traditionally as dumb as they were in The Hobbit, so if you see a troll doing something intelligent its probably not a real troll. Running water affects a Vampire, but standing water does not, so the Vampire could live at the bottom of the pool.

smbakeresq said:

I have enjoyed and contributed to these boards for a while, and wanted to start a thread on the general topic that I see everywhere but should have its own thread, PC optimization while at the table. I will start at list, but of course if anyone has a better idea on how to organize it please post. The idea is a repository for good play ideas that make PCs and gameplay better. I will post a few to get started, off the top of my rather large head. Some of them are obvious.

1. Before the group starts, check your basic equipment and make sure you have the adventure essentials. Don't forget candles, you can use the wax to plug ears to protect against a Harpy in addition to its use as a candle. Everyone needs rope also.
2. Fire stops regeneration and many other things. You can throw oil and then your wizard can ignite it. Take much oil and find ways to use it.
3. Holy water does radiant damage so it will stop regeneration on some things also. There is no reason you cant get some for free from the Church that sponsors your adventuring.
4. An oiled or greased up Monk would certainly be very tough to grapple, I would give a bonus if you did that. Worked for Macho Man Savage.
5. Wine is a solvent, so you can use it against sticky things that hold you to something or grapple you.
6. Guidance is a cantrip and takes one action to cast. There is no reason not to cast it over and over to get the bonus to initiative. "May the faith of ____ speed my actions is enough to convince most DMs. You can concentrate on it while walking down a hallway or path.
7. If fighting invisible creatures at low level watch for the surface they walk on. Ball bearings help with this, I had a player throw ashes from a fire in the air to coat the invisible person. Talk to DM also, some invisible creature will cast shadows. Detect Evil and Good will work sometimes, you can then throw something on the creature like ink or paint so everyone can see them.
8. Don't forget three dimensions. A fog cloud cast 25 ft in the air still protects you from the archers on the ledge above while allowing you to walk under it without problems. A fireball cast at 30' in the air will burn all those giants while not hitting your friends underneath.
9. Make sure to tell the DM you are looking for items that are out of place and listening for odd noises also. You can get a heads up on many things that way.
10. You are rarely in a rush, so take time to cast that detect magic as a ritual and use other abilities like stone cunning and secret door checks. After you clean out an area make sure to go over it, detect magic has a duration of 10 minutes and all you need to do is scan around.
11. If you are a polymorph user, for sanity's sake have the creatures you polymorph into ready to go on an index card or something.
12. Don't forget to salvage the creatures you just beat. Regular plate mail is worth 1500 GP, half if you sell it. Often at low levels there is more money laying around in equipment then in treasure. Don't forget to open the gut of creatures who swallow things.
13. You can feed the bodies of the just killed to the Roper you cant handle to let you pass or dispose of the evidence. You can then kill the roper later.
14. Most published adventures and many homebrewed ones have continual flame lighting in areas. Take them for yourself and use them since they are disposable. Drop them down all the dark places the DM puts in front of you.
15. An arrow is an object, so you can cast light on an arrow and then shoot it across the way to see what's there.
16. Don't forget your familiar can use the help action to give someone advantage. Some can use it and keep moving, like an owl, so it can fly around just handing out advantage on its turn.
17. Use the environment. The bad guys get swept away by rushing water just like you can. They fall off ledges too if you help them.
18. Be careful of loud spells, they alert everyone.
19. Know a little actual lore to sell a story to the DM. For example, its tradition that Vampires are obsessive compulsive and will obsessively count things even if it means they do so until the sun comes up and kills them, that's why the tradition of sprinkling salt outside your door.
20. Know a little actual lore to detect things, to see if something is fishy. Trolls are traditionally as dumb as they were in The Hobbit, so if you see a troll doing something intelligent its probably not a real troll. Running water affects a Vampire, but standing water does not, so the Vampire could live at the bottom of the pool.

What else do you guys know.

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Gavin O. said:

Hold Person and Hold Monster are not defensive "remove someone from the fight" spells, they're damage buff spells. They're at their best when the initiative order reads:

You -> Your melee-focused allies -> The target.

If the targets fails the first save, it should die before it makes its second. Attacking a paralyzed target grants you not only grants advantage to hit, but also an automatic critical if you do hit.

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Gavin O. said:

Hold Person and Hold Monster are not defensive "remove someone from the fight" spells, they're damage buff spells.

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CapnZapp said:

Yeah, that's a 3rd edition-ism.

In that edition they were. But they aren't very good at this job in 5E. On the other hand, they are excellent at what you say - especially at higher levels (when your save DC is high enough).

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Gavin O. said:

What do you mean? (I'm sorry, I've never played 3e)

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