6 PC playtest - who to clone and how to adjust

[OnlineDM]

I ran a party of 6 PCs, and they chose to double up on the fighter. I printed out two copies of each character sheet, so they could have picked two of anything; we just happened to have two people who wanted to be fighters.

As for adjusting the encounters, I threw in a couple of extra kobolds wherever it felt appropriate.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I made a ranger.

Well, it's an Elf Fighter with the Lurker Theme and a "Hunter" background I made by giving him four skills. (Those being Perception, Stealth, Set Snares, Wilderness Lore) and Trapper feature (2 hours of work to feed a party of six, make a meager living off it) I gave him a d10 bow (figure a Wood Elf would get that)

Good to go.

Next I'll make a cutthroat (Human Rogue with Slayer Theme) Should be fun.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I made a ranger.

Well, it's an Elf Fighter with the Lurker Theme and a "Hunter" background I made by giving him four skills. (Those being Perception, Stealth, Set Snares, Wilderness Lore) and Trapper feature (2 hours of work to feed a party of six, make a meager living off it) I gave him a d10 bow (figure a Wood Elf would get that)

Good to go.

Next I'll make a cutthroat (Human Rogue with Slayer Theme) Should be fun.

My game is having 8 players, and I also swapped some stuff around to make some "new" characters. An elf fighter with the Lurker theme and a "Scout" background (pretty much matching the four skills you mentioned)... a human guardian fighter with the commoner background, and a human Magic-User themed, Sage backgrounded Rogue with a "Bard" rogue scheme-- Bluff, Diplomacy, & Sleight of Hand, with the scheme abilities being the commoner's Trade feature (Performer) and three additional languages. We'll see how things play. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Make a fighter with the guardian theme and commoner background?

Human/Fighter/Commoner/Guardian is what I would try and build

a human guardian fighter with the commoner background

...Why? I don't mean to insult your tastes or anything, but to me Human/Commoner/Fighter/Guardian is literally the most boring combination imaginable. What's the appeal? Just genuinely curious.

 

[variant]

Try the human cleric with the Slayer theme. You deal damage every round no matter what, just by spamming Radiant Lance. It's like magic missile, with more damage (and it even has a chance to crit).

It wouldn't work with Radiant Lance as Radiant Lance doesn't deal your Dexterity modifier to damage despite being a ranged attack. It also describes it as a melee weapon theme.

 

[jadrax]

...Why? I don't mean to insult your tastes or anything, but to me Human/Commoner/Fighter/Guardian is literally the most boring combination imaginable. What's the appeal? Just genuinely curious.

That pretty much is the appeal, its something that feels like its really standard - which is what you often want in a test environment.

 

[CleverNickName]

It wouldn't work with Radiant Lance as Radiant Lance doesn't deal your Dexterity modifier to damage despite being a ranged attack. It also describes it as a melee weapon theme.

Where did you find the reference to it being a melee weapon theme? On the character sheet, it just says "an attack." It doesn't indicate that the attack has to be from a weapon or from a spell, or that it has to be melee or ranged. Sure, the flavor text for the Theme talks about a weapon "rising and falling," but the Reaper feat description says nothing about weapons. In fact, it doesn't even say "Strength modifier," it says "the ability score modifier of the ability you used to make the attack." Wouldn't it be restricted to Strength, if it were only allowed in melee?

So, since Radiant Lance is a ranged attack, it uses Dexterity for its attack modifier...and the human cleric has a +2 modifier to Dexterity. Thus, the human's Radiant Lance deals at least 2 points of damage every round, even on a miss.

 

[jadrax]

Where did you find the reference to it being a melee weapon theme? On the character sheet, it just says "an attack." It doesn't indicate that the attack has to be from a weapon or from a spell, or that it has to be melee or ranged.

'it's all attacks, including spells and ranged.' - Mike Mearl's Twitter feed

 

[UngeheuerLich]

And a slayer should slay with his spells...

It is rather a question if you like damage on miss mechanics or not. I personally do like them to a certain extend. Maybe I´d add a saving throw, if it reduces you to 0hp.

 

[Pickles JG]

6 Clerics of Moradin with a couple of healer themes & the rest slayers.
Is noone trying to break the system? (everyone shielded by faith every fight at level 3 looks "interesting")