D&D 5E Building a character for Adventure League - questions

[fba827]

I'm making a character to try an Adventure League game (D&D Expeditions).
Could questions ....


1) Is "Customizing your Background" in the PHB considered a "variant" (and therefore not allowed since it isn't mentioned in the Adventure League Guide) or is it core/allowed in the Adventure League? My gut tells me that since it is not in a "variant" sidebar that it is core/legal. But the word 'customize' keeps making me second guess myself. So I thought I'd ask just in case so that I didn't do anything wrong.

2) I'm trying to decide what to play -- my mantra is to play what i want, but i've narrowed it down to two choices that i want to play.
I'm not really (very) familiar with the style and tone of organized play so I thought I'd toss out for opinions.
* One of my choices is a cleric of light. basically healing and fire blasts and more knowledge oriented skills. fairly direct and straight forward.
* the other choice is a druid (90% sure that i will eventually take the path that focuses on spells rather than wildshape). basically healing and entangle and utility-like spells. more survival-oriented skills and more skills in general due to feat choice. Compared to the cleric, this would also be a bit more "let's scale the wall and take them by surprise on the second floor rather than going in the front door" type.

Would survival stuff really come up in an adventure league game or are locations really more controlled (i.e. exploring a single temple/castle/dungeon) for the purpose of getting through the session in a controlled location?

Would a straight forward character be better in a public game so as to not slow things down or complicate plans of action for other players?

If it matters, neither of my character choices are optimized, but they aren't gimped either. I made choices based on character concept and personal preference.

3) I was told about some optional background features that can be used as substitutes from tyranny of dragons (one involved having a cover identity within the cult, while the other involved having a research specialty in dragonic lore .... of course, both of those are really just specific spins on existing PHB background features.). they seem interesting, but is it smart to get a background tied to this specific story line? Would it make the character not valid for future/later story lines?

Anyway, i'm sure the answers are obvious but i am just tossing it out there for opinions.

Thanks in advance

 

[Andor]

Well, as should be fairly obvious, the quality of GMs in things like organized play varies.

If you have a poor GM a straightforward character will always be able to do his job, the unusual characters playstyle might go... unrewarded. If you have a good GM a more 'outside the box' character will be more fun to play and possibly more effective, the straightforward character will still always be able to do his job.

Also in organized play you have no idea what other players are bringing to the table. if you have a character who is dependant on stealth and surprise tactics and the rest of the party shows up as Dwarven Bards and decide to form an adventuring jazz band....

Howver both Cleric and Druid are solid classes, it's hard to go really wrong. The only classes that might really suffer from a bad party are ones whose abilities require teamwork like a Rogue.

I don't have a huge amount of experience with Organized Play, but as I recall the GMs I've played with have been pretty good.

 

[TDarien]

You can use a character in any storyline you wish, but it can only be created with rules from one storyline.
The Tyranny of Dragons player options are limited to the additional bonds and background features. The Bonds really only give your character a reason to be headed to Greenest (Where HotDQ starts), and can easily be taken in addition to the Bond from your chosen background.

As far as the Features go, they wouldn't likely come into play in future storylines, but that doesn't make them invalid choices. Your character will work just fine. Backgrounds are exactly that... background. What happened to your character before a particular adventure could have an impact on the adventure...or it may not. You're not really limited either way.

That said, by the time the next storyline comes around, your character will probably be in a higher tier, so you couldn't use it in entry-level adventures. You'd have to wait for higher-tier adventures to be available to play in, of begin the main story with a level 1 character built from the new storyline rules..