D&D 5E Hello - new player character advice

[imdeadagain]

I personally would avoid great weapon mastery with this character idea, the switch from rapier/shield to 2handed weapon will cost your entire turn, maybe look at the charger or shield master feat, shield master in particular allows you to shove your opponent prone with your shield as a bonus action BEFORE making your attack, advantage is very nice to have! The additional benefits of the feat are pretty cool too.

Great concept btw.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

 

[Toledo]

Okay, I'm getting my feet under me a bit now, and would like to discuss my character a bit more. Thank you in advance for any help.


I gained enough experience to get to Level 4 yesterday. At third level I chose Battlemaster with Menacing Attack, Parry and Precision Attack. My main weapon is the rapier with a breastplate (family crest so I always use that, even over magic armor) and shield. I'm a duelist with the stats from the previous page.

The two players who are there every session are a Mountain Dwarf Paladin (Strength, Constitution and Charisma) and a Human Cleric of Light (Lucky Feat) who are now Level 4. Last night we had our Bard show up (and he gained enough experience to reach Level 3) - I get the impression he plays about half the time. We also had a guest player who was an Assassin - I don't think he is going to be a regular, but an occasional player.

The Paladin and Cleric are the main characters to the story, as the Paladin has a heroic foretold destiny and the Cleric was raised by the Sylvan Elves (more Fey than Wood Elves) and he is favored by the demi-god leader. So the rest of the team has to make sure these two survive, or the demi-god is going to make sure we don't.


The DM is a long time DM who has been DM'ing for 20+ years, and there is a long established world. A few things about the DM:

1) He wants the team to win, but he brings some very tough encounters. At level 3 yesterday, he brought us a Death Fey Beast which did 2D10+6 impact hits (he is also a Warhammer player) and it had a nasty breath weapon which did 8D6+8 damage. I had 31 hit points at Level 3, and would have been one-shot if I hadn't made my breath weapon saving throw - 40 damage went down to 20. This monster also had 77 hit points, had necrotic attacks, and had resistance to non-magical attacks. He does not go strictly by the current Monster Manual, but custom builds monsters including tons of supplements from back to the 1970's material. We haven't seen any enemies yet with less than a 14 AC, this one was an 18.

2) We're going down to reclaim an old Dwarven mine next - prior to this, everything was in town or in the wild. The regulars said his mines are tough and can be deadly.

3) We only get to choose feats from the Players Handbook. Also short rests are 4-hours, long rests are 8-hours. We had three fights yesterday, including a short rest, and we were pretty taxed and beat up.

4) The other players said this is a lower magic world, but when the DM gives magic items, they are good ones, often custom. My rapier was magically turned into a magical sword yesterday, and without it, we would have had no chance against the Death Fey Beast - the resistance was tough. From the bard, it was determined this was a Legendary named blade, one of a set of 5.


Here are the properties it displayed yesterday:

- +2 to hit and damage, damage went up to +5 versus Abyssal creatures like the Death Fey Wolf.
- It grants disadvantage to one creature (with a bonus action) who is attacking a teammate within 5'. Per the demi-god's instructions, I'm supposed to protect the Dwarf and then the Cleric. I never get the benefit of disadvantage to attacks versus me.
-The blade can break if they die.
-Other properties get unlocked as I advance in level. I think I have fear resistance, but I'm not sure.

Also, since the other players have universe knowledge about these magic blades, they know it is a Defender Sword, but not a +3 Defender. This will be a +5 Defender, but at least one + has to go to offense and defense, so +4/+1, +3/+2, +2/+3, or +1/+4. These properties probably won't be unlocked for a while though, the other players guessed to Level 10 or so, but it might get to be a +3 Defender at level 5 or 6.

All great you say - but this is a named Legendary Item (only 5 created) and is a sentient sword (not unlocked that yet). From an in-world game of 1700 years ago, the dwarf and cleric players saw another one of these 5 swords. That one was evil, eventually dominated the character and attempted to destroy the world - so the team had to kill that PC. That was an evil blade though - I've been assured this one is neutral with good tendencies and wants to kill extra planar evil things.

Role playing my character, I told the GM that I would throw the blade away right now if there was any chance of me getting dominated without me having a chance to save myself. I was told that since this wasn't one of the evil blades, I wouldn't be completely dominated. I'm still worried about the blade's influence a lot. I'm going to try and role play it by (in the future) trying to get the blade to get on my character's 4-pronged long term quest goals.


So my original concept of also going with an angry elf fighter with a great sword when not in control (rapier/shield when in control) isn't going to work - I've got a legendary blade which I'll be using almost exclusively. In the mine, we're expecting more of these death creatures who have a lot of resistances. So I'm going to up in the center of things trying to keep the two main characters alive and doing most of the standard melee damage. The bard yesterday didn't do anything offensively, but that was maybe because he was a 100 points short of 3-rd level.


I'm looking for advice on the feats with that knowledge. My AC is going to be locked as a 18 in the greater likelihood. My character won't give up her family's breastplate willing. The Parry Maneuver was critical yesterday - without me expending it three times, I would have gone down hard. Massive damage can also lead to permanent non-healing injuries.

Due to my character's build, I still was planning on taking the Mobile feat at 4th level, as it fit my character concept. The Great Weapon feat is out at 6th though. I liked the idea of my fighter being light on her feet and darting around in combat (especially when I get two attacks); however the regulars are suggesting I shouldn't take it, as the mine (a large one, probably 3 or 4 gaming sessions):

a) is going to be in tight quarters
b) I'm probably going to be in the middle of the fight if I have the only magic weapon and not moving around much
c) I have to remain close to the Dwarf
d) since it is a mine, I don't think there is going to be space to do the acrobatics I hoped for



So I'm looking to see if you all think the Mobile feat will be worthless to my character - or maybe I can delay taking it for a while?

If it is worthless, what should I take? My character's primary goal (she is LG) is to fulfill her long term quest but she is also loyal to her teammates. At this stage, I'm thinking I need to stay alive more than any of my esoteric concept ideas. This is the way I'm ranking my choices right now:

1) Lucky - rerolls for me or big hits against me could protect me for one-shot game ending threats. However, these are limited by a long rest.

2) Defensive Duelist - at 5th level, that would be a +3 to AC once a turn. However, in this DM's world, we only get one bonus or reaction event per turn (I don't know if that is his rule or a main rule - I'm a bit fuzzy on that). This could take away from the disadvantage roll to hit my teammates if I used this reaction. The DM does allow sequencing reactions - A) If I'm attacked, then I get to use this to AC B) If not, protect the teammate. If I do read the rules correct, this wouldn't impact my use of Parry (which literally has saved my character's life so far).

3) Shield Master - I'm just not sure it is the way to go. At 5th Level, I'll get my second attack. I don't think the shoving part of this feat is worth it given what I've said above. I like the breath weapon portion, but I'm not sure how much it will come into play yet. At 5th level (if I live long enough), I'd be at least +10 to hit (+5 dexterity, +3 proficiency, +2 sword) - I think need defensive bonus/reactions, not a shove.

4) Alert - I've been urged this is a great feat for me, but I've been told flanking or attacks from the rear are not affected when I'm engaged by multiple threats - it is for things like a solo creature jumping out at me from the dark or invisible creatures.

5) What else? I like the idea of Tough, but I don't think I'll get enough bang for the buck right now.


I'm also extremely worried about what the blade could due to me, so I'd like to get Resilient (Wisdom) at some point - but the team thinks I'm too preoccupied with this.


Please give me your thoughts - I'd really like to get Mobile at some point, but I want to live through the campaign. I'm leaning towards Lucky, as I think this might get me out the greatest number of game ending events and I might screw it up the least. I've rolled well for hit points (a 8 at 2nd, a 7 at 3rd, a 8 yesterday), so I have 41 hit points.

 

[BoldItalic]

From what you describe, your game is going great and as long as everyone is having fun (which they clearly are) you are certainly doing it right. Don't overthink your character choices, though; go with whatever feels right for your character.

My advice would be, not to go for options that involve improving your weapon attacks but instead develop other, more imaginative, ways to overcome monsters. This might seem strange but from what you are now telling us, your DM is setting up a treadmill situation where he rewards you with increasing plusses to your attack rolls (via generous ability scores, uber-magic weapons and so on) but raises the AC of his monsters to cancel them out, leaving you in reality no better off. It will feel exciting for a while, until you suddenly realise that it makes all your efforts a bit pointless and the game becomes hollow.

That's not to say that he's doing it wrong - there is no "wrong" in D&D - but if he were playing 5th edition "by the book", you wouldn't get a legendary +3 sword of the kind you describe until about level 17, by which time the whole campaign would nearly be over anyway. You wouldn't get one, because you wouldn't need one.

What this means, in the context of your original question, is that the advice you have been given regarding the relative merits of different feats, manoeuvres and so on, may need to be rethought a little because the underlying assumptions that we normally make - particularly a concept we call "Bounded Accuracy" - don't really apply to your game.

tl;dr - choose options that sound fun and don't worry about getting them "right".

 

[transtemporal]

1) He wants the team to win, but he brings some very tough encounters. At level 3 yesterday, he brought us a Death Fey Beast which did 2D10+6 impact hits (he is also a Warhammer player) and it had a nasty breath weapon which did 8D6+8 damage. I had 31 hit points at Level 3, and would have been one-shot if I hadn't made my breath weapon saving throw - 40 damage went down to 20. This monster also had 77 hit points, had necrotic attacks, and had resistance to non-magical attacks. He does not go strictly by the current Monster Manual, but custom builds monsters including tons of supplements from back to the 1970's material. We haven't seen any enemies yet with less than a 14 AC, this one was an 18.

Yikes! For level 3's?! Are there 10 characters in the party or something?

I probably wouldn't bother putting a lot of effort into your character dude.

 

[Toledo]

Yikes! For level 3's?! Are there 10 characters in the party or something?

I probably wouldn't bother putting a lot of effort into your character dude.

No, there were 5 of us. The sword was the big and necessary item to deal with the Death Fey Beast, as we wouldn't have had the power to defeat it otherwise.

I hope your wrong about not putting in too much effort on the character - I've already written a 4 page backstory, and would be disappointed if it didn't live long enough.

Truthfully, I'm hoping for a few more party encounters and lesser top end monsters - I'd prefer not to be on the front line versus big monsters as much while the cleric is hanging back...

 

[Toledo]

I really like the Mobile feat, so I asked the DM for some clarification on a few situations...


1) 5 wide corridor, 15’ high, a single medium size creature blocking the corridor. If I took the Mobile feat, my speed would be 40’. My strength is 16 (6’ high jump). Let’s say I strike first, so no Opportunity Attacks from the creature. Reading the rules, I believe the following would be legal and wouldn’t even have to take a DC – run back 10’, and run forward 10’ and jump over the creature.

Here’s the math: Run back 10’ + run forward 10’ for speed (gets me to starting spot) +2.5’ to get to the end of my 5’x5’ control zone +5’ vertical jump over shoulder height +5’ vertical descent +5’ to clear opponents zone +2.5’ to center of my back side 5’x5’ zone = 40’. I’m now on the enemy’s back side!

2) I take a swing at a creature, run at a 45 degree angle, jump against a wall parkour style (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmyTaVSI9xQ for an example 1:30 to 2:00) to turn a 90 degree angle and get to a creature’s back side.



DM ruled to jump over the creature in option 1 would require a DC 25 with a pack, shield and breastplate, so not so likely.

DM ruled that simple parkour in option 2 is okay with my gear.


So I'm going with the Mobile feat and will let you know how it goes in a few weeks. Heck, if nothing else when I'm in trouble and if I can swing first, I can freely retreat past an ally and give the ally an Opportunity Attack.

 

[BoldItalic]

Your DM is clearly not playing 5th edition, so it's entirely up to him what you can and can't do.

 

[Toledo]

Your DM is clearly not playing 5th edition, so it's entirely up to him what you can and can't do.

I'm new to the game, but why is that? Is it because the higher ability scores/weapons vs. the tougher monsters/higher AC? IF he has balanced it right, shouldn't it even out?

Or is it because of the parkour? How would you referee that? I took the acrobatics and athletic skills and Strength 16, Dexterity 20 combination specifically to try things like that.

 

[BoldItalic]

I don't want to damper your enthusiasm, but the examples you have quoted are examples of improvised actions where the DM has to make up his own rules on the spur of the moment. They aren't in the books.

In 5e, you can't move through a hostile creature's space unless it is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you. The things you describe require that rule to be waived. The DM is allowed to do that, of course, in the interests of allowing you to try cool things, but at that point you have to put the books away and go with whatever he makes up. You can't figure that out in advance by reading the books, because it isn't going to be in the books.

The jump you describe is neither a 5e high jump (which moves you vertically but not horizontally) nor a 5e long jump (which moves you horizontally over something like a chasm but not vertically over an obstacle as high as another creature) but something improvised that combines features of both. That's cool, but it's not in the books and the DM will have to make up his own rules for it, if he allows it.

The way you have added vertical movement to horizontal movement isn't the way movement works in 5e and you haven't allowed for the rule that moving through a hostile creature's space (even if you are allowed to) counts as difficult terrain and counts double. But your DM doesn't use 5e movement rules. He uses his own. You can't do the calculations.

None of this is in any way "wrong" but what it does mean is that you are overthinking your game. You are trying to optimize your character to carry out improvised actions when you can't know in advance how the DM will handle them. Do yourself a favour - put the books away, loosen up and just have fun.