D&D 5E Char OP Advice - Bard/Pally UA Dex Spearfighter

[smoke_shinobi]

A bit of background - currently playing HotDQ, party includes halforc DW fighter/barb, human shadow monk, dwarven wizard in heavy armor, half elf cleric healing, halfling rouge assassin, (occasionally) tiefling blastlock, my character is a high elf bard, currently level 3.

We are working in a homebrew world where heavy armour, or any armour really, isn't very common - due to the world being very temperate and the presence of firearms. Not to mention magic, I really doubt in a magically charged world anyone would really wear armour at all, but thats not the point. While adventurers are more likely to wear armour, going underground, figthing at night/in a forest/etc, thus negating the heat factor, my character is a secret agent james bond style, so being well defended while wearing no armour is a priority. Also, Ive wanted to make an unarmoured spear fighter for some time - think Balsa, or the Viper.



unarmored dex based spear fighter - SECRET AGENT/DUELIST

Bard Lore 14/Paladin Vengence 5/Monk 1
Race Highelf
Background Criminal (Spy)
Str13, Dex19, Con14, Int14, Wis16, Cha15

Monk 1 - Unarmored Defence, with my high dex and wis combo with bracers of defence results in competitive AC.
- monk weapons (SPEAR) use dex for attack and damage

Paladin 5 - Caster synergy, Vow of Enmity (advantage on attacks for 1 minute, hunters mark), EXTRA ATTACK, smitey goodness, not to mention all sorts of paladin fun in those early levels.

1 - bard1 - BI(d6)
2 - bard2 - JAck of all trades
3 - bard3 - Lore College, Expertise (Acro, Decep), cutting words
4 - monk1 - UA Defence, Martial Arts,
5 - paladin1 - divine sense 3/day, Lay on Hands,
6 - paladin2 - fighting style (GWF), Divine Smite 2d8,
7 - paladin3 - immune to disease, bane/hunters mark spells, vow of enimity (advantage on attacks for 1min/short rest)
8 - paladin4 - +1dex +1cha
9 - paladin5 - extra attack
10 - bard4 - +2wis
11 - bard5 BI(d8)
12 - bard6 - magical secrets (swift quiver, fireball/X Smite)

Sure, in the long run miss out of level 8 and 9 spells. Which results in the loss of TWO spells. Which I can live with.

by level 10 I'll have Dex 20, Wis 18, Cha 16. Initiative +7, AC 19, +13 Acrobatics, +11 Deception, 2 attacks. Add all the fun spells, buffs, vows, smites, 8 trained skills.

Im really just asking for your thoughts on its general efficacy in terms of game play. as this is my first 5e character Ive played.

 

[smoke_shinobi]

any thoughts??

 

[travathian]

I have no idea what the point of this character is. Cha of 15 means your spells are less effective, not to mention you never get an 8th or 9th level spell slot, and lots of useful bard skills are Cha based, which again, is sub-par. You're dumping a bunch of points into wisdom, taking a second class just to get a mediocre AC bonus? So you can fight melee with a spear? Or are you carrying an endless supply of them and throwing them?

I think maybe you should start by explaining exactly the point of this character and what you hope to excel at.

 

[Oliver Shead]

Sounds interesting. To be honest I'm not awesome at the OP aspect. I'm more into the character and who the person is, making them awesome that way then working out their powers. With that in mind, do you have some thoughts on who this character is? I've seen other pally/bards, though not often. It's an intriguing sort of mix.

On the crunch side of things, what do you hope to gain from the mix? Why go bard instead of, say, fully pally - or why not go bard/fighter or even bard/sorc?

 

[smoke_shinobi]

I'll give some background for my character and a little bit of the crunch as well.

We are working in a homebrew world where heavy armour, or any armour really, isn't very common - due to the world being very temperate and the presence of firearms. Not to mention magic, I really doubt in a magically charged world anyone would really wear armour at all, but thats not the point. While adventurers are more likely to wear armour, going underground, figthing at night/in a forest/etc, thus negating the heat factor, my character is a secret agent james bond style, so being well defended while wearing no armour is a priority. Also, Ive wanted to make an unarmoured spear fighter for some time - think Balsa, or the Viper.

Monk 1 - Unarmoured Defence, with my high dex and wis combo with bracers of defence results in competitive AC.
- monk weapons (SPEAR) use dex for attack and damage

Paladin 5 - Caster synergy, Vow of Enimity (advantage on attacks for 1 minute, hunters mark), EXTRA ATTACK, smitey goodness, not to mention all sorts of paladin fun in those early levels.

1 - bard1 - BI(d6)
2 - bard2 - JAck of all trades
3 - bard3 - Lore College, Expertise (Acro, Decep), cutting words
4 - monk1 - UA Defence, Martial Arts,
5 - paladin1 - divine sense 3/day, Lay on Hands,
6 - paladin2 - fighting style (GWF), Divine Smite 2d8,
7 - paladin3 - immune to disease, bane/hunters mark spells, vow of enimity (advantage on attacks for 1min/short rest)
8 - paladin4 - +1dex +1cha
9 - paladin5 - extra attack
10 - bard4 - +2wis
11 - bard5 BI(d8)
12 - bard6 - magical secrets (swift quiver, fireball/X Smite)

Sure, in the long run miss out of level 8 and 9 spells. Which results in the loss of TWO spells. Which I can live with.

by level 10 I'll have Dex 20, Wis 18, Cha 16. Initiative +7, AC 19, +13 Acrobatics, +11 Deception, 2 attacks. Add all the fun spells, buffs, vows, smites, 8 trained skills.

At tthis point, Im even more convinced of playing my High Elf Secret Agent Spear Duelist.

Im really just asking for your thoughts on its general efficacy in terms of game play. as this is my first 5e character Ive played.

 

[travathian]

I think you need to focus your character more. A Lore Bard is not designed to be a front line fighter. James Bond is not a Avenging Paladin wielding a spear.

Do you want to be James Bond or do you want to be Balsa?

James Bond is not an unarmored fighting machine, he is a make believe character whose fights are choreographed, and since he is the hero, he almost always wins them. Same thing with Balsa, protagonists don't lose, so trying to mimic them is kinda silly. Trying to combine them both in 5E dilutes them both and you end up with a character that can do a lot of stuff poorly. The only thing your character is good at is not getting hit.

If you want to be Balsa with subtle shades of James Bond, go Monk. Just Monk. Then use the Criminal background (spy option) or Charlatan, pick 2 from Insight, Acrobatics, and Stealth for your Monk skills, grab the Actor feat and just put some points into Charisma and play your character like James Bond. Your character sheet doesn't need to have a bunch of feats/skills/abilities for you to roleplay like him.

If you want to be a Bard, then be a Bard. They are arguably the best class in the game, and a Lore Bard is awesome. But a 16 Cha, and taking all those other class levels just destroys them. Why bother? And you say that the bard loses out on just TWO spells in your build. Go read up on some 8th and 9th level spells, all of them, and then remember with magic secrets at level 18, the bard can pick from any of them to add to his known spells. Oh hey, my bard knows Wish. You can give up a single level and really not miss out on much. 2 levels means you lose an attribute/feat. 6 levels? and 16 Cha? Why bother to even take bard? If you want to be a fighting bard, go Valor Bard and just wear Studded Leather.

Frankly, based on your current party makeup, stick with Lore Bard, just that. You'll be a huge asset to the team, can save your unarmored spear fighter for another campaign, and still be the smarmy, skill based James Bond while letting the actual close quarters combat types be up front doing the fighting. See this thread for suggestions on Lore Bard building:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?363601-Bardic-Lore-A-Basic-College-of-Lore-Bard-Guide

 

[Zaruthustran]

Fit'so a cool notion. But like Travathian says: really think about what you want to accomplish.

You're already a Lore Bard, right? So you already have spear proficiency. You have Bracers of Defense, so you have good unarmored AC (and by the way, those Bracers don't work with the Monk's Unarmored Defense anyway). You can take Tavern Brawler feat if you really want to be able to punch people.

So you're mostly there already. Maybe Dip one level of Monk so you can use Dex for your spear attacks, and get Flurry. Maybe take more levels for Path of shadow/max sneakiness. Paladin doesn't make any sense to me.