Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 8384406" data-attributes="member: 50987">Okay, here you go.[USER=20564]@Blue[/USER], [USER=18]@Ruin Explorer[/USER], and  [USER=7023840]@Snarf Zagyg[/USER], allow me to present Ivann Iron-Tusk for your consideration.  He is unlike any bard I've ever seen.[ATTACH=full]142823[/ATTACH][SPOILER=Things I Learned]For versatility, the bard class relies a lot more on racial features than other classes do.  For example, I went with Mountain Dwarf to get the weapon and armor proficiencies I needed for a "warrior" build.  I considered going with High Elf to get a more useful cantrip, or Tiefling to get more useful spells.  It's unfortunate, but I couldn't find a way to make a baseline human bard that could keep pace with other character classes.The Lore bard was the obvious choice for a gap-filler.  In my "mounted warrior" build here, the three extra proficiencies allowed me to pick up the Animal Handling skill that I needed, and a handful of other gladiator-style skills to better round out the character.  It's essentially giving you the Skilled feat for free at 3rd level.In conclusion:  the Bard still isn't my cup of tea, but I'd rather play this bard than, say, an Eldritch Knight or a Sorcerer.[/SPOILER][SPOILER=Gold and Equipment at 4th Level]You might be asking, "how did your 4th level character afford all that kit?"  And that's a fair question!  The answer is:  umm...well, you see, to be perfectly honest I didn't really take money into consideration when I filled out that character sheet.  I was kinda preoccupied with the whole "make a bard interesting" part of the challenge and kind of just went with my gut, ya know?  But let me take a look and see how far off the mark I was...According to D&D Beyond, a character is expected to have about 400gp worth of items by the time they reach 4th level, and 700gp by the time they reach 5th level.  This doesn't include magic items, but magic items aren't in the Player's Handbook anyway so they aren't part of this challenge.So as a 4th level character, Ivann should have between 400 and 699gp, depending on how long he's been 4th level.  Looking at his equipment, he owns the following stuff:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elephant: 200gp</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Saddle: 60gp</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Barding: "x4." I didn't specify what kind of barding Thunderstep wears, so let's worry about that in a minute.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Breastplate: 400gp</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Warhammer: free (starting equipment)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battleaxe: 10gp</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2 Spears: 2 gp.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Explorer's Pack: 10gp</li> </ul>The total so far: 682 gp.Now let's assume that by the time he reached 4th level, Ivann had sold or traded that useless lute (35gp), the entertainer's pack (40gp), and leather armor (10gp) that all bards receive as starting equipment. Let's call that a credit of 85gp.  Now, 682 - 85 = 597gp, which is comfortably within a typical 4th level character's wealth range. (A bit high, but not too bad for an accident!) If we assume that Ivann has been Level 4 for a couple of adventures now, he should be fine.That doesn't leave a lot of room for the barding, though. Since armor for animals costs quadruple the amount for humans, and since I only have about 100gp left before I cross over into the 5th level character's turf, ol' Thunderstep will have to settle for leather barding (40gp) at best.  It's probably better if we just forget about it entirely, at least until Ivann reaches 5th level.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

Verification