D&D 5E How Would You Build the Hero With No Destiny?

[Leatherhead]

It just occurred to me that a Talisman Pact Hexblade would thematically fit this backstory. After all, a Warlock's powers are not about the Warlock being special, but rather their patron being special.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

if I were going to do it, I'd do something like this to start with (standard array)... if you wanted to make her "underpowered" you could swap Dex and Int to get that feel as well.

Variant Human
Str 8 (she's only a kid), Dex 16, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 14
Variant skill: Perform
Variant feat: Lucky

Fighter 1-3 (Battlemaster) with Evasive Footwork, Lunging Strike, Tripping Attack.
Skills: Acrobatics, History
Fighting Style: Protection Or Interception if you us the new UA, or Duelist if you'd rather focus on damage

Background; Cloistered Scholar
Skills: Investigation or Nature, Arcana (as she learns about the fey, or Nature if that is the Int skill for fey in your games)

As you level up, if you don't want to boost stats you can stack on these feats depending on what you want to emphasize or how the character grows: Alert, Athlete, Defensive Duelist, Keen Mind, Martial Adept, Prodigy, Skilled, etc.

That’s a solid set of suggestions. I’d probably sneak in a rogue level at level 1, to make the character more about skills than fighting to start out, and possibly take more rogue levels later on. Eventually they’ll be an amazing swordfighter, but they’ll never be able to warp reality and they’ll never (necessarily) be optimized enough to reliably take the spotlight.

To me, all of those things can be reflected by the Battlemaster concept with feats. Second Wind = someone who doesn't stay down. Action Surge = someone who is determined but not magical, etc.



That... depends on what you mean by "empowered". If she gets powers by her bonds, then you need to look at other classes like Bard (Swords) probably and use spells as "empowered". If you just mean she gets her grit because of her emotional bonds... well that is all fluff!

Bard is way too magic, way too “party face”, and way too “look at me”, for the concept, IMO.

Bonds empowering a character can be “all fluff”, but that certainly isn’t required.

I do agree that those early Fighter features can help model that determination. I think a rogue/fighter could do really well for this.

"Destiny" is a very strange word to use for this concept.
Here is a character with no destiny: A Diviner Wizard, who tried to look into their own future, only got a blank response.

Instead, it seems you want to play a commoner. For that, just use a NPC Sidekick stat block.

nope. Just...absolute nope.

This is going to be a challenge because all D&D classes are built for fighting, more or less. Realistically, Connie would be a Commoner who picks up a couple levels of Fighter later on. But, to capture the more general idea of the character who gets involved in a conflict that they’re really not cut out to participate in, but devote themes to anyway out of loyalty to a loved one who is directly impacted by said conflict, honestly I would go for Paladin. Like, Oath of Devotion is pretty thematically on-point for Do It For Him.

I really wish there was a less overtly magical Paladin. The 5e Paladin is just...very spotlight grabbing, very “special”. But I’d also say that the path of the crown actually fits better, as well. Devotion as a word fits better, but the actual oath doesn’t fit as well IMO.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is going to be a challenge because all D&D classes are built for fighting, more or less. Realistically, Connie would be a Commoner who picks up a couple levels of Fighter later on. But, to capture the more general idea of the character who gets involved in a conflict that they’re really not cut out to participate in, but devote themes to anyway out of loyalty to a loved one who is directly impacted by said conflict, honestly I would go for Paladin. Like, Oath of Devotion is pretty thematically on-point for Do It For Him.

Realistically, most characters are commoners who take levels of something later on. In dnd we skip to whatever class makes sense once they join the team and start doing things.

Also, it’s not about directly modeling Connie, it’s about playing a similarly themed character.

Barring using the sage or something from Adventures In Middle Earth and then multiclassing PHB Fighter, I think rogue and fighter are the best way to go here.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I almost think either class could use a subclass focused on the determine “heart” character who refuses to be deterred or stay down, but isn’t magical or “special” like dnd normally wants to make such characters.

There you go: Moonsong's Heart Noble!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There you go: Moonsong's Heart Noble!

Hmm. That might be worth checking out for this.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well I can’t check out the Noble until I am home at a computer because it’s a zip file and my phone currently has no app for that.

But my ADHD brain has taken me from that to Star Wars Saga Edition, and I think it may be a better game for the idea.