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Advise me on a Dragonborn Valor Bard
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<blockquote data-quote="ccooke" data-source="post: 6695679" data-attributes="member: 6695890"><p>There's already some good advice in this thread, but a few comments:</p><p></p><p>1) +1 on Versatile weapons if you go for Strength. The quarterstaff is versatile as a good starting point, until you get martial weapons.</p><p>2) You're going down a Strength-based route to be good at grappling. But you don't necessarily have to do that.</p><p>You said you want to do some grappling, but not necessarily optimise for it. Well, consider - a Fighter with a strength bonus of +3 (the highest you can start with using point buy) and proficiency in Acrobatics (the relevant skill for both Shoving and Grappling) has a +5 skill check at levels 1-3. If you had a Strength of 12, you would have a +3 bonus. Weaker, but not so much that you couldn't use it. Get to level 3 and choose Athletics as one of your Expertise options, though, and you suddenly have a +5 check, and your check will jump to +7 at level 5. The fighter, assuming they increased STR at level 4, would be +6 at level 4 and +7 at level 5 (when proficiency increases). Basically, you will be as good as a fighter at grappling for 90+% of the game, and if you choose to increase your strength later you will be better than them. That means you could realistically choose stats like:</p><p>STR: 12(10), DEX 14, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 8, CHA 16(15). (I happen to prefer playing unwise characters, but you could swap INT and WIS of course ;-)</p><p>With a Dragonborn you're obviously never going to get Dex to +3 at level 1, but +2 (+4 with proficiency) is good enough to contribute in melee, and the extra CON bonus not only gives you more hit points, but it makes your Dragonborn breath weapon harder to resist, increases the usefulness of Concentration spells later and means you can have +3 for your spellcasting. </p><p>3) Your go-to spell is Vicious Mockery. It was great for Bards in 4e, and it's even better in 5e - it's one of the best cantrips in the game. Low damage, but excellent support. You said you want to mix it up in melee - but does that mean you want to be attacking every round? With dex-based weapons and a decent CON score, you can be right up in people's faces. The Thunderwave spell, your breath weapon, Vicious Mockery and Healing Word all work well for a very powerful melee bard. If you need to get out of combat, remember that Vicious Mockery imposes disadvantage on the next attack - which means if you're in combat with one enemy, you can use VM on them and then retreat, and any attack of opportunity on you will have disadvantage. Getting a +3 CHA bonus will help all of those. </p><p>4) A thing that people often miss - the 2nd level Jack of All Trades ability lets you add half your proficiency to all ability checks that you are not proficient in. Initiative is a Dexterity ability check - so you can apply JoAT to it. </p><p>5) The Dissonant Whispers spell is monstrously awful, especially if you are standing next to the creature you cast it on. Shame you don't have a rogue, which would make it even more hilarious - a second sneak attack in a round is a big thing. </p><p>6) Healing Word will be very familiar to you from 4e, and works well if you're going for melee-based support. Since it's a bonus action to cast, you can still attack on the same turn.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ccooke, post: 6695679, member: 6695890"] There's already some good advice in this thread, but a few comments: 1) +1 on Versatile weapons if you go for Strength. The quarterstaff is versatile as a good starting point, until you get martial weapons. 2) You're going down a Strength-based route to be good at grappling. But you don't necessarily have to do that. You said you want to do some grappling, but not necessarily optimise for it. Well, consider - a Fighter with a strength bonus of +3 (the highest you can start with using point buy) and proficiency in Acrobatics (the relevant skill for both Shoving and Grappling) has a +5 skill check at levels 1-3. If you had a Strength of 12, you would have a +3 bonus. Weaker, but not so much that you couldn't use it. Get to level 3 and choose Athletics as one of your Expertise options, though, and you suddenly have a +5 check, and your check will jump to +7 at level 5. The fighter, assuming they increased STR at level 4, would be +6 at level 4 and +7 at level 5 (when proficiency increases). Basically, you will be as good as a fighter at grappling for 90+% of the game, and if you choose to increase your strength later you will be better than them. That means you could realistically choose stats like: STR: 12(10), DEX 14, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 8, CHA 16(15). (I happen to prefer playing unwise characters, but you could swap INT and WIS of course ;-) With a Dragonborn you're obviously never going to get Dex to +3 at level 1, but +2 (+4 with proficiency) is good enough to contribute in melee, and the extra CON bonus not only gives you more hit points, but it makes your Dragonborn breath weapon harder to resist, increases the usefulness of Concentration spells later and means you can have +3 for your spellcasting. 3) Your go-to spell is Vicious Mockery. It was great for Bards in 4e, and it's even better in 5e - it's one of the best cantrips in the game. Low damage, but excellent support. You said you want to mix it up in melee - but does that mean you want to be attacking every round? With dex-based weapons and a decent CON score, you can be right up in people's faces. The Thunderwave spell, your breath weapon, Vicious Mockery and Healing Word all work well for a very powerful melee bard. If you need to get out of combat, remember that Vicious Mockery imposes disadvantage on the next attack - which means if you're in combat with one enemy, you can use VM on them and then retreat, and any attack of opportunity on you will have disadvantage. Getting a +3 CHA bonus will help all of those. 4) A thing that people often miss - the 2nd level Jack of All Trades ability lets you add half your proficiency to all ability checks that you are not proficient in. Initiative is a Dexterity ability check - so you can apply JoAT to it. 5) The Dissonant Whispers spell is monstrously awful, especially if you are standing next to the creature you cast it on. Shame you don't have a rogue, which would make it even more hilarious - a second sneak attack in a round is a big thing. 6) Healing Word will be very familiar to you from 4e, and works well if you're going for melee-based support. Since it's a bonus action to cast, you can still attack on the same turn. [/QUOTE]
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