Deciding on AL character(part 2)

[Jessica]

I made a post a few weeks ago asking for advice on making a character to play with my best friend/room mate in AL that would help her character shine. Eventually I realized that a 90 minute one-way commute to AL every week was not happening for her(I'm already at that LGS when 6pm rolls around) so I had to give up on doing AL with her(although I offered to DM 4e for her if we can get a few more people around for a physical game in Lansing). Today I finally got to play an AL game at the new area we moved to and here is our party make up:

DEX/WIS Half Elf archery Hunter Ranger
DEX/CHA Half Elf gish blade pact Great Old One Warlock
DEX/CHA Half Elf gish blade pact Great Old One Warlock
DEX/CHA Human gish-ish Lore Bard

You read that right. We have two Half Elf Warlocks with the exact same pact and exact same patron type. I feel too similar for comfort to a lot of the other characters in our group with our three Dex/Cha gishes who have a focus on control/utility spells. I was kinda hoping to change what I'm playing to something interesting and engaging to play. Now that my best friend isn't playing any more, I really don't give a crap about playing a support character although I kinda like the potential to play "kingmaker" by deciding who gets buffs and healing and who doesn't(which means I'm probably the worst person in the world to play support for strangers). Mostly I like playing characters with multiple at-will in-combat options(usually in the form of cantrips whether innately or through jacking the SCAG cantrips with Magic Initiate), with a reasonable resource pool(often in the form of spell slots), and is rather self sufficient. I guess I'm trying to find something that can shore up our weaknesses(which somehow is surprisingly front-line durability and dps) and is interesting to play.

 

[mellored]

Given the dex heavy nature, i'd suggest a trickster cleric.

Make a full stealth party and try for lot's of surprise rounds. Also heals and buff with bless.

 

[Kithas]

Similar to Mello's Suggestion you could do a Con/Dex/int Rogue, go arcane trickster for cantrips/extra options. Rogues can be surprisingly good tanks, between uncanny dodge, expertise(athletics) and evasion they get some solid defensive abilities, and they don't need awesome stats to have good damage. Depending on your rolls you may want to dip a level into fighter for Medium armor, shields and dueling (plus second wind), if your dex is a 14-16 med armor is better and the Dueling style helps with your damage. You don't need to do two weapon fighting if you use Greenfire blade or Booming blade. Once you get Blur that will help out a lot.

Alternatively a Dex based War/tempest Cleric doin the heavy armor(if youre a dwarf you dont need str) or medium and being a melee caster/tank could work well too.

 

[pdegan2814]

Arcane Trickster sounds like it could be an interesting choice, my first thought was actually to try a Dex-based Barbarian with Magic Initiate to grab those SCAG cantrips if you like using them(and I don't blame you). You'd lose out on the Strength-focused abilities of Barbarian, but you'd make good use of Unarmored Defense(potentially AC 18 w/shield at Level 1?). If you chose the first Bear Totem option, you could be a very solid front-liner while still able to Stealth effectively. The Arcane Trickster route could also be a highly effective one though, I may even like that one better(because...Rogues). They obviously don't have as much raw durability as Barbarians, but Kithas is right that they have a lot of abilities that aid in combat survivability. If you're going to do the 1-level Fighter dip Kithas mentions, it might be worth taking that level first for the Con save proficiency. Your Dex saves are going to be pretty good as it is, especially if you make it to Rogue7. In addition, the attacks made as part of Booming/GreenFire Blade are eligible for Sneak Attack(based on tweets from Mearls/Crawford), so yeah. Scratch my Barbarian idea, go with Kithas' plan.

 

[Jessica]

Given the dex heavy nature, i'd suggest a trickster cleric.

Make a full stealth party and try for lot's of surprise rounds. Also heals and buff with bless.

I don't know. I'm not a fan of those bonus spells nor am I fan of those domain features.

Similar to Mello's Suggestion you could do a Con/Dex/int Rogue, go arcane trickster for cantrips/extra options. Rogues can be surprisingly good tanks, between uncanny dodge, expertise(athletics) and evasion they get some solid defensive abilities, and they don't need awesome stats to have good damage. Depending on your rolls you may want to dip a level into fighter for Medium armor, shields and dueling (plus second wind), if your dex is a 14-16 med armor is better and the Dueling style helps with your damage. You don't need to do two weapon fighting if you use Greenfire blade or Booming blade. Once you get Blur that will help out a lot.

How hard is it to set yourself up your own sneak attack? Two of my team mates are gish-y but I've seen them go pure ranged/casting for certain fights and pure melee for others.

Alternatively a Dex based War/tempest Cleric doin the heavy armor(if youre a dwarf you dont need str) or medium and being a melee caster/tank could work well too.

I could probably do a Tempest Cleric but I'm kinda worried about not being able to get much use out of Call Lightning if I reach level 5 since we are in the underdark for the most part. I'll admit I don't know much about War Clerics.

Arcane Trickster sounds like it could be an interesting choice, my first thought was actually to try a Dex-based Barbarian with Magic Initiate to grab those SCAG cantrips if you like using them(and I don't blame you). You'd lose out on the Strength-focused abilities of Barbarian, but you'd make good use of Unarmored Defense(potentially AC 18 w/shield at Level 1?). If you chose the first Bear Totem option, you could be a very solid front-liner while still able to Stealth effectively. The Arcane Trickster route could also be a highly effective one though, I may even like that one better(because...Rogues). They obviously don't have as much raw durability as Barbarians, but Kithas is right that they have a lot of abilities that aid in combat survivability. If you're going to do the 1-level Fighter dip Kithas mentions, it might be worth taking that level first for the Con save proficiency. Your Dex saves are going to be pretty good as it is, especially if you make it to Rogue7. In addition, the attacks made as part of Booming/GreenFire Blade are eligible for Sneak Attack(based on tweets from Mearls/Crawford), so yeah. Scratch my Barbarian idea, go with Kithas' plan.

Doesn't raging stop me from using cantrips though?

 

[Kithas]

How hard is it to set yourself up your own sneak attack? Two of my team mates are gish-y but I've seen them go pure ranged/casting for certain fights and pure melee for others.

Basically you either need advantage or an ally nearby, easiest thing if everyone else is going ranged would be have your ranger do an ensnaring strike, restrained gives you advantage. If you do expertise on athletics and your str score isn't awful you can get the shield master feat so that as a bonus action you can shove people prone, which gives you advantage. You could also use Find Familiar to summon an owl that uses the Help action to give you advantage(owls have flyby so they don't get OAs). Hold Person also works incredibly well as it will also make you crit. P.s. you crit super hard.

Hopefully you being an 'anchor' in melee will encourage them to go into melee more often. Things like the Sentinel feat should help with this.

Doesn't raging stop me from using cantrips though?

Yes yes it will.


Honestly the cleric options where more of an afterthought because you seem to want more casting. I remember you having thematic issues with clerics though so it may be easier to steer clear. As a side note while call lighting is great what you really get from it is thunderwave and shatter maxed out, also wrath is good when you're getting attacked. Overall though I think 1fighter/19 rogue will be rather enjoyable for you.

 

[Jessica]

I was thinking just a bit ago, what about a one-third caster/full caster multiclass? Like EK/Wizard or AT/Wizard? How do those work out?

Edit: Ugh! I forgot how max levels stack for spells known/prepared. :/

 

[Herobizkit]

How about Paladin/Sorcerer? (Bonus points if Dragonborn Paladin/Dragon Sorc of Bahamut)

Wanna cast blow-up spells? Sure.
Wanna use those extra slots for Smites? Sure.
Wanna be able to use and wear whatever from level 1? Sure...
If you Paladin 6/Sorc 14, you can still get at least one level 9 slot by level 20, if that's important.
A Wild Mage Sorc will gives you many skill buffs, not that your party needs them. Sheesh.

(I'm betting those warlocks were made because Star Wars is back on the menu. lol)

 

[Kithas]

I was thinking just a bit ago, what about a one-third caster/full caster multiclass? Like EK/Wizard or AT/Wizard? How do those work out?

Edit: Ugh! I forgot how max levels stack for spells known/prepared. :/

It works out pretty well, your main sticking point will be spells known, it's not too big a deal to be behind on spells known vs the level of slots you have as most good spells can be cast at a higher slot for good benefit.

 

[Jessica]

It works out pretty well, your main sticking point will be spells known, it's not too big a deal to be behind on spells known vs the level of slots you have as most good spells can be cast at a higher slot for good benefit.

What would recommend for level order for Eldritch Knight/Wizard? If I like it in play here then I'll probably go for it again when next season starts in like a month and a half. Which school/subclass for Wizard do you think? Which race? I was considering Human Str/Int EK/Wizard for either Sentinel, Polearm Mastery, or GWM. But I was also considering Tiefling or High Elf as well* and going Dex/Int. Currently, I was thinking since I'm level 3 that I would go 1/2 Fig/Wiz for now and then when we all hit level 4(assuming we finally earn some dang downtime days) that if we all boost to level 5 that I would go 3 EK/2 Wiz.



*I'm not really a fan of Gnomes because I think they are dumb and I have anger issues that would probably result in me dispensing harsh chastisement on someone the first time they made a short joke. I'm usually giving people the stink eye already when they make Bard jokes.