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Class for Pacifist
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<blockquote data-quote="Jaelommiss" data-source="post: 6766026" data-attributes="member: 6775925"><p>If you don't mind, I would like to share a pacifist-like character who I have played for the last year.</p><p></p><p>Istari, a LE human divination wizard, strictly avoids killing sentient beings for religious reasons. He accepts that others do not hold his same views and that there are extreme circumstances where slaying an intelligent being is necessary, however still tries to avoid it whenever possible. To date he has inflicted somewhere around 40 damage, and that was from firing a few Magic Missiles at ambushing owlbears. He has reached sixth level without contributing significantly during combat.</p><p></p><p>As a matter of character development, he has grown to accept that he occasionally needs to contribute in battles. While still hesitant to directly take a life, he no longer has qualms about using spells like Hold Person or Hypnotic Pattern that help end a fight. Portent has also been extremely helpful from time to time. Although the party had a rough time at first, they have adapted to fighting a man down half of the time and grown to accept it as a character quirk.</p><p></p><p>The true area that he excels is outside of battle, particularly with information. Between Magic Initiate (cleric) for backstory reasons, taking a one level dip into Knowledge Cleric for ongoing plot reasons, and the Sage background, there are very few knowledge checks that he cannot pass. 1d4 (Guidance) + 5 (Int) + 3 or 6 (proficiency) means that he frequently has 10-13 before even rolling a d20. This will only grow as he advances in levels. </p><p></p><p>My DM has been generous in letting me acquire spellbooks to copy spells from, though I think that was mostly in an effort to give me offensive spells.</p><p></p><p>Cantrips - Message, Minor Illusion, Ray of Frost, Light, Guidance, Thaumaturgy, Mending, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying</p><p>1st level - Comprehend Languages (R), Identify (R), Alarm (R), Unseen Servant (R), Illusory Script (R), Detect Magic (R), Tenser's Floating Disk (R), Find Familiar (R), Charm Person, Silent Image, Magic Missile, Bless (1/Day), Command (Domain), Protection from Evil and Good, Shield of Faith, Detect Poison and Disease (R), plus a handful of other wizard spells that don't get used often</p><p>2nd level - Suggestion, Locate Object, Detect Thoughts, Hold Person</p><p>3rd level - Leomund's Tiny Hut (R), Hypnotic Pattern</p><p></p><p>Message has allowed us to convince enemies that they are needed elsewhere by imitating their deity (with a lucky deception check), in addition to helping us plan movements when the party is split.</p><p>Minor Illusion and Silent Image should be obvious.</p><p>Guidance gets cast upwards of thirty times a session and really helps with playing a know-it-all wizard.</p><p>Thaumaturgy has been useful for helping the party intimidate others.</p><p>Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, Identify, Alarm, and Tenser's Floating Disk have all come up frequently enough just doing what their names' suggest to be worthwhile.</p><p>Unseen Servant was great for retrieving a lost chest from an elemental infested river (coupled with Locate Object), and allowed us to close and lock the door behind enemies when they walked into an ambush we set up.</p><p>Find Familiar has been the single most useful spell I've got. From aerial scouting, to distracting low intelligence predators into chasing them, to freeing tied prisoners at night, my familar almost makes up for not fighting by itself.</p><p>Charm Person does what it says on the box, though has been helpful after conventional interrogation methods fail.</p><p>Although I haven't had a chance to test most of my cleric spells yet, Bless has been handy from time to time.</p><p>Suggestion and Detect Thoughts tend to go nicely with Charm Person. </p><p>Locate Object is really great if we know what we're looking for and don't know which fork in the tunnel to take. It's also useful after water elementals destroy your boat and you need to find your valuable cargo of books before they are ruined.</p><p>Hold Person always makes a melee heavy party happy.</p><p>Leomund's Tiny Hut is another one of those rituals that is just generally useful to have.</p><p>Hypnotic Pattern ends fights without costing any lives. What's not to love?</p><p></p><p>It certainly helps that there are no other casters in the party, excluding a sorcerer focused solely on blasting everything into oblivion. By dropping spells that would generally be used for combat, I have managed to expand my capabilities to cover a wide variety of situations. Sure, a single wizard could cover <em>some</em> of those utility spells, but not many have space for all of them. I don't doubt that any bards or clerics in the party would feel very much like I was encroaching on them. Because the rest of the party generally prefers combat to exploration, they have no problems with my handling almost all of it.</p><p></p><p>At first it was a challenge finding ways to help without being involved in combat, but the satisfaction when it works is immense. It was shortly after the first time I managed to effortlessly defeat an entire encounter without resorting to violence or risky charisma checks that the party started respecting the playstyle.</p><p></p><p></p><p>To finally respond to the original post, I would recommend deciding why your character is a pacifist before determining class. For myself, I decided that it was religious reasons and that my character had something of an obsession with amassing knowledge. Making him a Divination Wizard with a later dip into cleric naturally followed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jaelommiss, post: 6766026, member: 6775925"] If you don't mind, I would like to share a pacifist-like character who I have played for the last year. Istari, a LE human divination wizard, strictly avoids killing sentient beings for religious reasons. He accepts that others do not hold his same views and that there are extreme circumstances where slaying an intelligent being is necessary, however still tries to avoid it whenever possible. To date he has inflicted somewhere around 40 damage, and that was from firing a few Magic Missiles at ambushing owlbears. He has reached sixth level without contributing significantly during combat. As a matter of character development, he has grown to accept that he occasionally needs to contribute in battles. While still hesitant to directly take a life, he no longer has qualms about using spells like Hold Person or Hypnotic Pattern that help end a fight. Portent has also been extremely helpful from time to time. Although the party had a rough time at first, they have adapted to fighting a man down half of the time and grown to accept it as a character quirk. The true area that he excels is outside of battle, particularly with information. Between Magic Initiate (cleric) for backstory reasons, taking a one level dip into Knowledge Cleric for ongoing plot reasons, and the Sage background, there are very few knowledge checks that he cannot pass. 1d4 (Guidance) + 5 (Int) + 3 or 6 (proficiency) means that he frequently has 10-13 before even rolling a d20. This will only grow as he advances in levels. My DM has been generous in letting me acquire spellbooks to copy spells from, though I think that was mostly in an effort to give me offensive spells. Cantrips - Message, Minor Illusion, Ray of Frost, Light, Guidance, Thaumaturgy, Mending, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying 1st level - Comprehend Languages (R), Identify (R), Alarm (R), Unseen Servant (R), Illusory Script (R), Detect Magic (R), Tenser's Floating Disk (R), Find Familiar (R), Charm Person, Silent Image, Magic Missile, Bless (1/Day), Command (Domain), Protection from Evil and Good, Shield of Faith, Detect Poison and Disease (R), plus a handful of other wizard spells that don't get used often 2nd level - Suggestion, Locate Object, Detect Thoughts, Hold Person 3rd level - Leomund's Tiny Hut (R), Hypnotic Pattern Message has allowed us to convince enemies that they are needed elsewhere by imitating their deity (with a lucky deception check), in addition to helping us plan movements when the party is split. Minor Illusion and Silent Image should be obvious. Guidance gets cast upwards of thirty times a session and really helps with playing a know-it-all wizard. Thaumaturgy has been useful for helping the party intimidate others. Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, Identify, Alarm, and Tenser's Floating Disk have all come up frequently enough just doing what their names' suggest to be worthwhile. Unseen Servant was great for retrieving a lost chest from an elemental infested river (coupled with Locate Object), and allowed us to close and lock the door behind enemies when they walked into an ambush we set up. Find Familiar has been the single most useful spell I've got. From aerial scouting, to distracting low intelligence predators into chasing them, to freeing tied prisoners at night, my familar almost makes up for not fighting by itself. Charm Person does what it says on the box, though has been helpful after conventional interrogation methods fail. Although I haven't had a chance to test most of my cleric spells yet, Bless has been handy from time to time. Suggestion and Detect Thoughts tend to go nicely with Charm Person. Locate Object is really great if we know what we're looking for and don't know which fork in the tunnel to take. It's also useful after water elementals destroy your boat and you need to find your valuable cargo of books before they are ruined. Hold Person always makes a melee heavy party happy. Leomund's Tiny Hut is another one of those rituals that is just generally useful to have. Hypnotic Pattern ends fights without costing any lives. What's not to love? It certainly helps that there are no other casters in the party, excluding a sorcerer focused solely on blasting everything into oblivion. By dropping spells that would generally be used for combat, I have managed to expand my capabilities to cover a wide variety of situations. Sure, a single wizard could cover [I]some[/I] of those utility spells, but not many have space for all of them. I don't doubt that any bards or clerics in the party would feel very much like I was encroaching on them. Because the rest of the party generally prefers combat to exploration, they have no problems with my handling almost all of it. At first it was a challenge finding ways to help without being involved in combat, but the satisfaction when it works is immense. It was shortly after the first time I managed to effortlessly defeat an entire encounter without resorting to violence or risky charisma checks that the party started respecting the playstyle. To finally respond to the original post, I would recommend deciding why your character is a pacifist before determining class. For myself, I decided that it was religious reasons and that my character had something of an obsession with amassing knowledge. Making him a Divination Wizard with a later dip into cleric naturally followed. [/QUOTE]
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