D&D 5E Working on a Wood Elf Fighter/Rogue archer, with a likely 15-level cap, looking for suggestions

pdegan2814

First Post
First off, as a brand new refugee from the Wizards board, I'm looking forward to seeing what this forum has to offer :)

I just recently started playing in a 5e campaign(my first D&D game in over 20 years, woohoo!), and decided to play a Wood Elf specializing in archery. His first level was in Fighter, with proficiencies in Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception, Stealth, and Survival. Starting stats were Str - 12, Dex - 17, Con, 14, Int - 10, Wis - 14, Cha - 8. For L2, I decided to take a level of Rogue, putting my Expertise bonus in Stealth and Thieves Tools, and taking Investigation as my extra proficiency. My premise for this guy is to make him the advance scout for the group, a sneaky SOB who spots the hazards, secret doors, traps, etc. and can also get the drop on the monsters before they see him coming before the melee attackers in his party rush in. I want to take my Rogue levels up to at least 3 to get Assassinate, but I'm still trying to decide what I want his eventual level balance to look like. We're playing Princes Of The Apocalypse, which I'm told will take our characters up to about Level 15 or so. As far as I know there are no plans for our characters beyond the campaign laid out in the book. Therefore a lot of the usual suggested multiclass builds that describe 11/9 or 12/8 splits wouldn't really apply. I think right now my baseline is Fighter8/Rogue4, which will give me 4 ASI/feat slots(planning some order of Dex+2, Resilient(Dex), Sharpshooter and probably Alert, though I might swap Alert for Tough or Con+2 if HP is becoming an issue), Assassinate, and the 2nd benefit from my Fighter archetype(still torn between Battle Master and Champion). Beyond that, my options seem to be take the last three levels as a Fighter to get one Saving Throll re-roll per day, my third attack per round, and the extra Martial Archetype benefits. Or go Rogue and get Uncanny Dodge, two more Expertise bonuses(likely Perception & Investigation to go with the "advance scout" theme), and Evasion, plus more Sneak Attack damage of course.

I'm not looking to min/max this guy within an inch of his life, I just want to create an effective character that I'll enjoy playing. If anyone has any suggestions on where to place those last few levels, which Martial Archetype would go best with this combo, which order to take my levels, etc. I'd appreciate any advice. I'm having a lot of fun playing D&D again after so long, but I'm still getting into the swing of things. :)
 

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Forged Fury

First Post
Hi @pdegan2814

I don't have any direct suggestions for the build, but wanted to note that there is a Character Build sub-forum. I imagine the mods will likely move this thread there at some point to help you get a bit more focus on it. Good luck!

Edit: Interesting, it seems that it is already there! Shows how much I know...
 


Forged Fury

First Post
Yep. My bad, for some reason the main board is displaying all of the sub-forum posts as well for me. Must be some odd setting I messed up.
 

bid

First Post
I don't recommend dipping 3+ Rogue then pushing for fighter 11, since you will be 3+ levels late for fighter 11 extra attack. Much better to stop at fighter 5-6 and go rogue afterward, you'll hit harder except for levels 11-13.
Archery Style gains a lot from Sharpshooter, it's better than an ASI. You should go SS, Resilient, Dex+2 in order
 

Green1

First Post
I hear you about min-maxing. But, one thing planning ahead does not cover is what is in your party or what yall are up to.

Why not just let what you are doing in game decide the level? We can go over and over theorycrafting builds, but the best way usually is campaign dependent. Weak on fighters? Go Fighter. Weak on scouting? More Rogue. Level 15 is a loooooong time to plan that far ahead.
 

pdegan2814

First Post
I hear you about min-maxing. But, one thing planning ahead does not cover is what is in your party or what yall are up to.

Why not just let what you are doing in game decide the level? We can go over and over theorycrafting builds, but the best way usually is campaign dependent. Weak on fighters? Go Fighter. Weak on scouting? More Rogue. Level 15 is a loooooong time to plan that far ahead.

We've got plenty of in-your-face combat in our party, so I'm starting to think putting more emphasis on my abilities as the advance scout will help the party more. I think the only other guy with proficiency in Stealth is our Warlock.
 

Green1

First Post
We've got plenty of in-your-face combat in our party, so I'm starting to think putting more emphasis on my abilities as the advance scout will help the party more. I think the only other guy with proficiency in Stealth is our Warlock.

Then straight Rogue. That one level as fighter is not wasted. You get better HP than a straight rogue. You have a fighting style that with bounded accuracy will pay dividends as a scouting archer. Second Wind makes you a bit hardier at least till the Cleric arrives. Bad thing is, you are stuck with Fighter saves (STR, CON) and DO NOT get the good saves of a rogue from multiclassing. This makes later features like evasion less useful. But, you aren't the acrobatic wonder. You are the tough dude scouting ahead who can tough out a CON save that would make a typical rogue croak. And, with Mr. Warlock dude scouting with you, you guys can hold your own till the rest come in a lot of situations.
 

Ahrimon

Bourbon and Dice
As far as the forums go, I'm pretty sure if you tag something as dungeons & dragons, aka the 5e tag, it gets cross linked in the 5e forum. I could be wrong though.

As far as levels go, I'm a big fan of the champion, but loves me some crits. Critting with sneak attack is icing on the cake too. If you stick with fighter beyond lvl 2 I recomend going to at least lvl 4 for the ASI. 6 is also tempting for the next ASI and then only two more for another. I'm not as familiar with Rogue as I am with the fighter, but if you are going for assassin then the Champions initiative bonus, lvl 6 I believe, comes in really handy. Combined with the feat that gives you a bonus to initiative, and you should have plenty with 8 levels of fighter you should almost always go first.
 

Barantor

Explorer
I understand wanting the feats, but why not Ranger instead of Fighter? You could roll into hunter and get a lot more out of your archery that way.

Favored enemy will give you some tracking bonuses for when you are scouting. Stealth at normal pace in favored terrain.

Fighting Style Archery just like fighter.

Colossus Slayer extra 1D8 damage to stack on top of that sneak attack or Horde Breaker to basically have an extra shot early.

Spells like Hunters Mark (moar damage!), Hail of thorns, (moar arrows) and ensnaring strike (moar stuck enemies!)

If not, then I agree with Ahrimon, with archery I like Champion for the extra crit.
 

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