D&D 5E Fey Wanderer vs Drakewarden on multiclass dip

[ECMO3]

I am going to be playing a Kobold in an upcoming campaign going from level 10-20. The character is going to start as a Swashbuckler 2, Ranger 2, Whispers Bard 5, Divine Soul Sorc 1,

Her stats at level 10 are S8, D16, C12, I8, W14, CH18 and she has the Fey Touched feat. She is mostly a Rogue type character using sneak attack, psychich blades and a blade cantrip.

She is going to take two more Rogue level and a Charisma ASI, then 3 Ranger levels. After that Togue until 19 and her last level as a Sorcerer.

I am debating between Fey wanderer and Drakenwarden for her Ranger levels. Both are tied to her background. She is a member of the Cult of the Dragon and a Divine Soul of Tiamat who has been to Avernus and she has also served (held captive by) Iggwilv in the Feywild.

Fey Wanderer is the only Ranger I played since it came out and I am very familiar with that subclass. With only a 14 Wisdom until very late in game, she won't get much benifits to Charisma checks, although it would be a +2 on her dispel magic checks and that might be huge. Dreadful Strikes is only 1d4.

Drakewarden I have never played. With only 20hps my Drake is not going to be very survivable, she can get 1d6 damage while it is alive though. I don't see it taking actions other than dodge.

I also thought about Horizon Walker, as that would be pretty thematic to her background too, but it seems a bit underpowered, especially since the extra damage would require a bonus action.

Thoughts?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Drakewarden I have never played. With only 20hps my Drake is not going to be very survivable, she can get 1d6 damage while it is alive though. I don't see it taking actions other than dodge.

You answered your own question there. No class based around a scaling pet is a good multiclass dip. Go single class or go home.

There aren't really any good rangers, but Fey wanderer can make a good face character out of combat. But why not gloomstalker? An extra attack on the first round is about the best thing you can get out of this dip. Or if you just want per-round bonus damage, swarmkeeper is 1d6 (or a punt off a cliff). (not that you would even notice an extra d6 at that level range).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You answered your own question there. No class based around a scaling pet is a good multiclass dip. Go single class or go home.

There aren't really any good rangers, but Fey wanderer can make a good face character out of combat. But why not gloomstalker? An extra attack on the first round is about the best thing you can get out of this dip. Or if you just want per-round bonus damage, swarmkeeper is 1d6 (or a punt off a cliff). (not that you would even notice an extra d6 at that level range).

I really disagree with the assertion that there are no good rangers.

After tashas ranger is a fine class that can do a lot of nice stuff. The variant abilities are powerful and thematic.

The phb ranger is not bad either. It is just that their abilities are not well designed to play with each other.

We had a feywanderer in our group and she did very well. +wis to abilities (on top of expertise if you want) is good, even if it is only +2.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I am going to be playing a Kobold in an upcoming campaign going from level 10-20. The character is going to start as a Swashbuckler 2, Ranger 2, Whispers Bard 5, Divine Soul Sorc 1,

Her stats at level 10 are S8, D16, C12, I8, W14, CH18 and she has the Fey Touched feat. She is mostly a Rogue type character using sneak attack, psychich blades and a blade cantrip.

She is going to take two more Rogue level and a Charisma ASI, then 3 Ranger levels. After that Togue until 19 and her last level as a Sorcerer.

I am debating between Fey wanderer and Drakenwarden for her Ranger levels. Both are tied to her background. She is a member of the Cult of the Dragon and a Divine Soul of Tiamat who has been to Avernus and she has also served (held captive by) Iggwilv in the Feywild.

Fey Wanderer is the only Ranger I played since it came out and I am very familiar with that subclass. With only a 14 Wisdom until very late in game, she won't get much benifits to Charisma checks, although it would be a +2 on her dispel magic checks and that might be huge. Dreadful Strikes is only 1d4.

Drakewarden I have never played. With only 20hps my Drake is not going to be very survivable, she can get 1d6 damage while it is alive though. I don't see it taking actions other than dodge.

I also thought about Horizon Walker, as that would be pretty thematic to her background too, but it seems a bit underpowered, especially since the extra damage would require a bonus action.

Thoughts?

If you can get aid spells cast on your Drake it becomes more servivable.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The phb ranger is not bad either

I didn't say "bad" I said "not good".

We had a feywanderer in our group and she did very well. +wis to abilities (on top of expertise if you want) is good, even if it is only +2.

In a game where having very high numbers in interpersonal skills is important, this would be a good option, yes. However, it would be loading psychic damage on psychic damage. And my experience of having psychic damage specialists in the party is that there are an awful lot of monsters that are immune.

 

[ECMO3]

You answered your own question there. No class based around a scaling pet is a good multiclass dip. Go single class or go home.

There aren't really any good rangers, but Fey wanderer can make a good face character out of combat. But why not gloomstalker? An extra attack on the first round is about the best thing you can get out of this dip. Or if you just want per-round bonus damage, swarmkeeper is 1d6 (or a punt off a cliff). (not that you would even notice an extra d6 at that level range).

I want to be able to do damage roughly on par with a basic Rogue of the same level when she attacks. This is a 1-attack a round character. With +2 dueling, 2d8 from blade cantrip+2d6 sneak attack+3d6 psychic blades (5 times a short rest), I am about equal to an 13th level Rogue (without considering secondary blade cantrip damage) at level 13 when my Ranger subclass would come online. The Ranger adds in Favored foe damage PB times per day and whatever I could get from the Ranger subclass on top of that.

Swarmkeeper would be good mechanically, but is going to be difficult to work thematically.

I don't think Gloomstalker is going to be as good. I think consistent damage is going to be better than one extra attack with extra damage on the first round, especially since this character might not have move to get int melee and will have spell options that she might use the first round. Gloomstalker would also be difficult thematically.

 

[ECMO3]

We had a feywanderer in our group and she did very well. +wis to abilities (on top of expertise if you want) is good, even if it is only +2.

This really rocks on a single class max Wisdom Fey Wanderer, but this character is only going to have a 14 Wisdom. Still nice though since she will have an 18/20 Charisma, but not quite as effective.

This character is already going to rock Charisma with expertise from Bard and Rogue. I think the bigger effect though is on the Dispel Magic spell, which she will have with Bard and will be a Charisma check (and would add Wisdom if a Fey Wanderer).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gloomstalker extra attacks on round 1, then spells on subsequent rounds. Far more effective. Or ditch Ranger and just get more dice of sneak attack.

 

[ECMO3]

Gloomstalker extra attacks on round 1, then spells on subsequent rounds. Far more effective. Or ditch Ranger and just get more dice of sneak attack.

Without Ranger, I lose martial weapon proficiency, medium armor proficiency, Shield proficiency, spell slots and I have to give up Sorc and Bard spells to get Longstrider and Absorb Elements. She would get 2d6 more sneak attack damage without Ranger levels, but she would lose Favored foe and whatever her subclass brings so it is not very much of a loss.

The problem with round 1 is this is a melee oriented character, leaning on the blade cantrips and advantage from draconic cry. A lot of times she won't have the movement to make the melee attack on round 1 (especially since she wants to back away). She could go ranged on round 1 to cash in on Gloomstalker, but that means throwing darts or daggers which are relatively low damage. On the 2nd round she will be in position to use a blade cantrip, so she would be giving up 2d8 (or more) from the cantrip to loose the spell on round 2.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m sure the barbarian will be happy to toss your kobold into melee range.

Failing that, have you considered EK?