Lets Play: Princes of the Apocalypse (D&D 5E Adventure)

[Zergrinch]

Here's a DEX build for a Paladin.  Have to sacrifice INT, WIS and STR to get a decent score in the important stats.

http://upload.jetsam.org/documents/Human%20DEX%20Paladin.pdf

 

This character is quite effective from afar as well as close up.  The only advantage a ranger or fighter has over him is that he can never get the Archery fighting style, which boosts ranged effectiveness quite a bit.

 

Paladins come with default Chain Mail, which cost 75 GP.  I swapped this for Scale Mail (50 GP) plus a Light Crossbow (25 GP), although there isn't enough left for crossbow ammo!  Of course, this switch is subject to DM approval.

 

Jeikor, you will need to provide a name and a short biography.  I chose Soldier as your background, which comes with one type of gaming set proficiency, which you will need to choose (Dice, Dragonchess, Playing cards, or Three Dragon Ante).  I have tentatively placed "Celestial" as your second language, though you can change this if you like.  I have also taken the liberty of getting you an Explorer's pack, although you can also choose a Priest's pack if you like.

[Zergrinch]

Here's a Half-Elf Sorcerer Build.

http://upload.jetsam.org/documents/Half-Elf%20Sorcerer.pdf

 

This character has a +3 to CHA and DEX, and a +2 to CON.  If you wish for him to become slightly more survivable (at the cost of being less effective in combat), you can swap the DEX and CON scores.

 

This character should try to avoid melee if he possibly can.  Although he is tankier than most, he's more effective shooting fire from the back.  I have stacked his cantrip list with fire spells such as Firebolt, Create Bonfire, and Control Flames.  While I would personally have chosen another damage type spell such as Frostbite, and would go for a utility spell such as Mage Hand, I believe this choice better fits the concept of a pyromaniac.

 

This character has six trained skills: Sleight of Hand and Stealth from the Urchin Background, two from a limited Sorcerer list, and two from being a half-elf.  I have taken the liberty of choosing Deception and Intimidation as the Sorcerer skills, and Acrobatics and Perception as the Half-Elf skills.  You can change them if you want.

 

Jeikor, you will need to provide a name and a short biography.  I have tentatively placed "Draconic" as your third language, since your character claims gifts from a gold dragon - feel free to change this if you like.   Sorcerers don't need (and can't equip) armor, so I decided to do custom purchases for the character.  With his 3d4x10 + 10 GP = 130 GP in spending money, I have spent 129 GP mainly providing him with a disguise kit and thieves' tools, which his background as urchin is proficient with.

[Rilbur]

Looking at the paladin, you probably should have done gold-buy rather than the default equipment load out.

 

You start with 200 gold (max gold rolls), which lets you get scale mail (50), a shield (10), a rapier (25), and a heavy crossbow (50) or longbow (50).  (Crossbow nets you 1 point damage increase, longbow plays nice with the multiattack feature a paladin eventually earns).  And you'd still have 65 gold pieces left over to grab some ammo, any odds and ends you want, rope, etc etc.  (Or a healing potion...  Give it to the barbarian so he can rez you! )

 

===

 

Party Composition:

 

1) Jeikor - Sorceror, fire based

2) Jeikor - Paladin, dex based

3) Zerg - Druid

4) Zerg - Warlock planning to MC sorc

 

Unless either of you wants to play a third char, I'll probably stick my oar in with something like my Nanoc the Barbarian character, the polearm-mastery barbarian.

[Jeikor]

I agree with Rilbur though, Jeikor.  A paladin typically doesn't care about Dexterity, and has STR as the primary stat, CHA as the secondary stat, and CON as the tertiary stat. 

 

Zerg

If it isn't too much trouble could you generate a paladin based on the above? I think I would prefer to use a longsword (thinking of the Great Weapon style at 2nd level) and just be so-so at shooting maybe opting for daggers, darts or javelin. Please and thank you.  

 

 

 

 

I like the sorcerer just the way he is.

 

Will have names and story by next week.

[Rilbur]

Javelins make a great throwing option. Because they're strength based, you get your full strength based bonus, allowing you to get 'best results' out of them.

That said, if you're planning to go with great weapon fighting, you probably want to *start* with a great weapon. Greatsword is traditional (2D6 for an average of 7 dmg), great axe (1D12 with an average of 6.5 dmg but greater variation) is almost as good.

I'll just throw this out one last time though -- Paladins make for a very powerful polearm master. The extra bonus attack is powerful for any class at low levels, and unlike fighters (whose extra attacks make the bonus action attack feel weaker at higher levels) the paladin's improved divine smite (IIRC, automatic 2D6 extra damage on all attacks at level 11) actually scales with the number of attacks pretty effectively.

[Zergrinch]

I only need to do slight modifications for the STR paladin, swapping strength and dexterity.

http://upload.jetsam.org/documents/Human%20STR%20Paladin.pdf

 

I've given him the "Dual Wielder Feat", which lets him wield a longsword in each hand.  You get a slight AC penalty for doing so (-2 AC for no shield, mitigated by its +1 to AC).  Your character can choose to attack twice in one turn - the first attack includes the +3 strength modifier, and the off-hand attack does not.

 

This is sadly not very compatible with three of the fighting styles - Dueling requires a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons; Great Weapon Fighting requires a two-handed melee weapon; Protection requires a shield.  

 

If you are intent on going with Great Weapon Fighting, take note that your AC will be less by two because you can't wield a shield at the same time.  

 

There are other feats that you can take in lieu of Dual Wielder, including:

1. Great Weapon Master: If you crit or reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee weapon, you can make another melee weapon attack as a bonus action; before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon, you can take a -5 penalty to your attack roll to gain +10 damage
2. Heavy Armor Master: Increase strength score by 1; reduce all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from mundane weapons by 3
3. Inspiring Leader: You can spend 10 minutes inspiring your companions to fight; they gain temporary hit points equal to your CHA mod (3) plus your character level (currently, 1)
4. Lucky: You get three luck points per day; you can spend a luck point to roll an additional d20 to basically impose advantage or disadvantage
5. Martial Adept: You gain two Battle Master (Fighter) manuevers and one superiority die to play with
6. Polearm Master: You can attack twice (using a d4 for the opposite end) with a glaive, halberd, or a quarterstaff; when wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, creatures entering your reach provoke an opportunity attack.
7. Sentinel: Creatures hit with your opportunity attack have zero speed for the rest of the turn; creatures within 5 feet of you provoke opportunity attacks even if they take the disengage action; a creature within 5 feet of you that targets someone other than you will provoke an opportunity attack from you. (Note, this feat synergizes well with polearm master)
8. Savage Attacker: Once per turn when rolling damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the damage dice and use either total
9. Tavern Brawler: Increase STR or CON by 1; gain proficiency with improvised weapons and unarmed strikes (d4); if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target.

[Rilbur]

I wouldn't take Heavy Armor Master.  It sounds great, and at low levels it's good, but it simply won't be scalable as the power of the attacks the enemy sends out scales up.

 

Great weapon master is probably more useful than it looks, by either targeting 'hordes' of enemies or a single enemy with low AC and lots of HP.  Polearm master does, in fact, synergise incredibly well with sentinel and your built-in paladin abilities.

 

In fact, great weapon master + polearm mastery + sentinel (this leaves 3 stat upgrades, bringing you str to 20 and your con to 18 potentially) can be a wonderful combination when combined with the great weapon fighting style.

[Zergrinch]

In truth, feat synergies are probably better taken by Fighters (7 ability score improvements) or Rogues (6).  Paladins are designed to be more defensive than offensive; if you want to cleave people in half, that's probably better done with a Barbarian, a Fighter, or an Assassin Rogue

 

Also note that while you are pushing for polearm master, he can't use longswords with them.  He'll be limited only to glaives (2H 1d10 reach), halberds (2H 1d10 reach), and quarterstaves (1d6, 1d8 if 2H)...

[Rilbur]

You're right, I'm pushing him towards a character design I wanted to do, partly because I don't really think of longswords as a 'great weapon'. I'll stop now, wasn't meaning to do that.

As for paladins being defensive... I've seen them used, pretty effectively, as offensive powerhouses. Yes, they have significant defensive capabilities, but don't overlook their equally potent offensive capacity.

[Rilbur]

Poke poke.  Any movement on your decisions, Jeikor?

[Zergrinch]

Man hasn't been online since 30 hours ago. Give him time.

[Rilbur]

Man hasn't been online since 30 hours ago. Give him time.

 

I'm reasonably certain he's been online since then.  Could be wrong.

[Rilbur]

Four days.

 

Jeikor, did you forget about this thread?

[Rilbur]

I'm going to throw two points out.  First one is a character build thought, that the 'arsonist sorcerer' might be very effectively built from a Light Domain Favored Soul.  Lots of bonus fire theme spells there.

 

Second...

 

If Jeikor doesn't come back and start responding within a day, I will regretfully call this game so I can run PotA elsewhere.

[Jeikor]

Sorry, I have been much busier than expected and even had to work 8 hours today. Also I am trying to finish my entry to the 1700's story contest and I thought I clicked to follow this thread but apparently forgot to do it before leaving so didn't think anything was going on.

 

I have decided to keep the arsonist sorcerer as is and want to use the second strength based paladin. I have not had time to come up with names and stories yet. Will try to have it by end of weekend.

[Rilbur]

Alright, looking at the class makeup we have a Druid, a Pally, a Sorcerer, and a warlock (planning to go Sorc).

 

A fun, interesting, and diverse group.  Healing is covered (Druid and Pally), raw DPS is covered (Sorc + Warlock), and our squishies aren't all that squishy.  The paladin should be able to hold a decent front line, and once wild shape comes online I imagine the druid can help out.  I've updated the first post with an index of characters.

 

That leaves the third character, who will be a DMPC.  I was originally thinking favored soul (I love gish's, and favoured souls make great a great gish), but three sorcerers might be a bit much...  The painful thing is that I just discovered there's a finesse spear available in this campaign, which would perfectly match the dex-based favoured soul gish I wanted to build.  I'm tempted to do a valor bard, but then you guys will have to 'carry' me for the first three levels before he 'comes into his own' properly.

 

I'll meditate on my options and come back with my final selection when I darned well feel like it, probably sometime tomorrow or Monday.

[Zergrinch]

How about a Pact of the Blade Warlock? Plays like a magic Ranger from level 1 and 2, and starting from level 3, can magicke up a weapon that takes whatever shape you want.

Alternatively, a Nature Cleric is plenty tanky, and if he chooses Shillelagh as his druid cantrip, can use wisdom to hit and damage...

[Jeikor]

Half-elf Draconic Ancestry Sorcerer: His name is Ignaciden and he is 18 years old.. He loves fire to the point of obsession. Because of this he has had to leave his village after the last fire occurred although he is pretty sure he didn't set this one. At least not on purpose. Anyway he now has to make his way on his own.

 

Human Paladin(Strength based): His name is Myles and he is 23 years old. He wanted to travel more so he joined a caravan that brought him to the Dessarin Valley.

[Rilbur]

How about a Pact of the Blade Warlock? Plays like a magic Ranger from level 1 and 2, and starting from level 3, can magicke up a weapon that takes whatever shape you want.

Alternatively, a Nature Cleric is plenty tanky, and if he chooses Shillelagh as his druid cantrip, can use wisdom to hit and damage...

 

Actually, I think I like the idea of the valor bard.  (It's a fun build)  The only real problem is you guys have to carry me the first few levels.

 

Unless, of course, we start at 5th level.  Which also has the advantage of letting me skip over some boring 'level the party up' front-matter.  Opinions on that thought?

[Zergrinch]

Level 3 is where most of the classes' features start to kick in.  Level 5 might be a little daunting since Jeikor is still adjusting to 5e

[Jeikor]

Wasn't going to say anything but on top of learning 5e these are two very new types of characters for me. I have never done a sorcerer or a paladin before.

If you all had decided it would be more fun to jump the characters levels then I would have went along. Would have had to bend the learning curve a little sharper is all.      

[Rilbur]

Level 3 works.  I think I wanted 4 for that first feat increase, and level 5 is actually a new 'teir' when a lot of features really start to gel.

 

So we'll start at level 3, and I'll come up with a little bit of front-matter to put in front of it.

[Zergrinch]

Jeikor, if we're starting at level 3, you'll need to make some decisions for your Sorcerer:

1. What four spells do you want to know (you can cast 4x level 1 spells and 2x level 2 spells everyday)
2. What two metamagic options do you want?  (You can activate metamagic with your "sorcery points" - you have 3 sorcery points per day right now)

Here are your spell options.

 

LEVEL 1

 

Attack:

- Burning Hands (AoE) <-- recommended for your pyromaniac

- Catapult

- Chromatic Orb (note - requires an expensive non-consumable component)

- Earth Tremor

- Ice Knife (mini-AoE) <-- recommended for damage

- Magic Missile (is always an auto-hit)

- Ray of Sickness

- Thunderwave (AoE)

- Witch Bolt (Sith force lightning)

 

Social:

- Charm Person

 

Buff:

- Expeditious Retreat (increase your speed)

- False Life (give you temporary hit points)

- Mage Armor <-- you don't need this

- Shield (+5 AC for one round)

 

Debuff

- Color Spray (AoE)

- Sleep (AoE) <-- I don't recommend this past level 3.

 

Utility

- Comprehend Languages

- Detect Magic

- Disguise Self

- Feather Fall

- Fog Cloud

- Jump

- Silent Image

 

LEVEL 2 (don't take more than 2)

 

Attack:

- Aganazzar's Scorcher (AoE) <-- recommended for your pyromaniac

- Cloud of Daggers

- Crown of Madness

- Maximillan's Earthen Grasp

- Phantasmal Force <-- I love the roleplaying possibilities of this spell

- Scorching Ray <-- recommended for your pyromaniac

- Shatter (AoE)

- Snilloc's Snowball Swarm (AoE)

 

Social:

- Alter Self

- Detect Thoughts

- Suggestion

 

Buff:

- Blur

- Darkvision

- Enhance Ability

- Enlarge/Reduce

- Invisibility <-- extremely useful situational spell

- Mirror Image

- Spider Climb

 

Debuff:

- Blindness/Deafness

- Dust Devil (AoE)

- Earthbind

- Hold Person

- Web

 

Utility:

- Darkness

- Gust of Wind

- Knock

- Levitate

- Misty Step

- Pyrotechnics

- See Invisibility

- Warding Wind

 

 

METAMAGIC OPTIONS (Choose 2)

- Careful Spell (automatically reduces damage some allies from your AoE spells)

- Distant Spell increase the range of your spells)

- Empowered Spell (reroll damage dice) <-- recommended

- Extended Spell (extend spell durations) 

- Heightened Spell (impose disadvantage on saves vs. your spells)

- Quickened Spell (reduce spellcasting time to a bonus action) <-- recommended

- Subtle Spell (cast a spell without somatic or verbal components)

- Twinned Spell (a spell that targets one creature can now target two) <-- recommended

[Zergrinch]

Your Paladin has the following options:

1. Choose a Fighting Style (Defense, Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Protection)
2. You can prepare four level 1 spells per day, in addition to your oath spells. 
3. Choose your Sacred Oath:

• Oath of Devotion: You are all about honor
• Oath of the Ancients: You are all about the environment
• Oath of Vengeance: You are all about revenge
• Oathbreaker (requires DM approval): You are an evil paladin

SPELL OPTIONS:

• Bless <-- recommended
• Command
• Compelled Duel
• Cure Wounds <-- recommended
• Detect Evil and Good
• Detect Magic
• Detect Poison and Disease
• Divine Favor
• Heroism
• Protection from Evil and Good
• Searing Smite
• Shield of Faith
• Thunderous Smite
• Wrathful Smite

Also, question to Rilbur.  If we are starting at level 3, do we get more starting $$$ to play with?

[Rilbur]

Also, question to Rilbur.  If we are starting at level 3, do we get more starting $$$ to play with?

 

The DMG suggests 500 gold + starting wealth for a level 5 character.  Doesn't really give anything to level 1-4 past starting wealth...

 

But I'm going to go ahead and throw that 500 at you anyway.  'Cause I'm nice.

 

Also, Jeikor, when you go to choose your spells, this guide may be helpful.  It gives the author's opinions on good and bad spells at each level.

 

E. G. It shows that shield is a first level spell you'll probably want all game long.  At lower levels it can save your life, and at later levels it gives you something useful to do with level 1 spell slots that may be of less use at that point.