JBRam2002

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

<Snipped quote by JBRam2002>Dunno if I said that publicly, actually. I don't start taking notes unless it's related to in-game content. ^//^

So...we have a noble dragonborn warlock {@JBRam2002}, an outlander "human" druid (pretty much human) {@The Harbinger of Ferocity}, and the beginnings of a far traveler half-elf cleric {@Ms Ravenwinter}. Is that all right so far?

EEP! And a bard of some sort {@Mesonyx}!

@Ermine

Oops... sorry about that. My PC's information so far is correct at least though :)

You see the avatar above you approaching you in a Virgin Killer sweeter

I think your father was the real virgin killer. (Low blow? Sorry)

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@Mesonyx The first thing I would suggest is to go to the Bard table in the Player's Handbook (p. 53). That gives you the name of each skill you get per level. You can then check through the next few pages and read more info on what the skills do. I put a lot of helpful info in the hiders below, and if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me :)

Leveling Up

For example: at lvl 1 you learn Bardic Inspiration (d6) and Spellcasting. You also have the number of cantrips you know on the table (2), and the number of spells you know (4). You are also told between the table and the description for spellcasting that you can cast 2 lvl 1 spells per long rest (basically 2/day) which means that you know more spells than you can cast. For bardic inspiration (BI), you learn that you can use a bonus action to give an ally a dice roll that they can add to certain abilities. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma mod per long rest, which means a higher CHA gives you more flexibility.

Lvl 2 gives you more spells and spell slots, as well as Jack of all Trades and Song of Rest (d6). For Jack, add 1/2 of your proficiency bonus (PB) to all skill checks (athletics, acrobatics, etc.) Since our PB is 2 at this level, you gain +1 to all skill checks if you aren't already proficient. Sweet. Song of rest allows you to perform a song for us during a short rest, and we all heal a little more. Also sweet.

Lvl 3 is where things get interesting. This is where you choose your college, which pretty much dictates the course of most of the rest of your level ups. In the PHB (Player's Handbook), there are two options: College of Lore and College of Valor. Lore has you focus more on spells, and Valor focuses more on martial fighting. Both are really good, but the choice depends on what you want for your character. Once you make this choice, you (normally) cannot change it. (I say normally cause our DM might be nice if you realize you aren't enjoying an archetype and allow you to respec, but I wouldn't count on it.) If you go College of Lore, you gain some bonus Skill proficiencies and Cutting Words, which allows you to use BI to reduce an enemy's attack. Both of those are incredibly useful. If you go Valor, you gain bonus weapon/armor proficiencies and Combat Inspiration, which allows your inspired allies to use the BI for their AC, potentially negating an attack. Both of those options are also incredibly useful. On top of that, you get lvl 2 spells, new learned spells, and Expertise. Expertise allows you to DOUBLE your PB on two skills. This is incredibly useful.

Ability Scores

How you allocste the points depends largely on specifically what you want your PC to be good at. My descriptions and suggestions below are aimed at a typical bard, so feel free to pick and choose ideas.

Strength allows a character to use stronger weapons and do things like Grapple, etc., easier. Typically not the most important thing for a bard, but some Valor bards could make an interesting build with it. Unless you plan to swing around a Greatsword or try to pun down your foes, I would probably make this an 8.

Dexterity is a measure of how nimble a character is. This is probably the most widely used score in the game. It helps with Initiative, AC, finesse and ranged weapons, escaping grapples, and one of the most common saves in the game. I would suggest this to be your 2nd highest stat.

Constitution is a measure of how much punishment you can take. It is important for Concentration checks (lots of your spells are concentration), HP (you add your Con mod each lvl to your HP roll), and Con saves against some of the most debilitating effects (such as stun, petrify, poison, etc). I would suggest this be your 2nd or 3rd highest stat, although you can definitely make a low Con bard.

Intelligence is really good for gathering info. Depending on the game and the DM, Int checks can be some of the strongest checks in the game. Strategy is always good, and knowledge = power. That said, it has little other use, and INT saves are fairly uncommon. If you go Lore bard and want to be a wealth of knowledge, you might consider putting some points into it. Otherwise, I would probably suggest putting a 10 in here and getting a background that grants a knowledge skill proficiency.

Wisdom can also be extremely helpful. Perception is one of the most-used skills, and Wis Saves are good for avoiding mind-altering spells like Charm, etc. Most non-damaging spells tend to use Wis saves (and some powerful damaging ones too). That said, we likely will have a lot of Wis in the party (druids and clerics use it for casting). There are a few really good wis skills (insight can save your butt), but I would suggest either a 10 or 12 in this, depending on what you do with Int.

Charisma is your strongest stat. Unless you are trying to go for a melee centric Valor bard and are taking spells that don't need a high casting stat (they exist, but are a bit rare), this should probably be your highest stat. You probably also want a race that adds to Cha if possible. Since our highest stat is 15, even a +1 Cha race is useful, but I would consider putting points into this for your ability score improvements (especially if you have nothing better to do). The faster you can get this to 20, the better.

I wrote this in my phone, so I apologize for any typos. Tried to catch most of them.

EDIT:

I set up a test roll campaign, and I just wanted to see how simple it is to use the rolls here, vs trying to use rolls from a different site and copy them in. I know our wonderful DM has said that the dice roller won't be required unless abuse is suspected, but I like to backstop my rolls and be as transparent as possible as a player. So here was my test.

>Draj rushes forward to the Titan, swinging his longsword upwards and aiming for the gap between the enemy's chestplate and pauldrons. With his ally flanking, the enemy is slightly distracted. Now is his chance to shine! To Hit: 18 | 21 for 9 slashing damage!

Well, it's not the simplest method in the world, but the information is all there, and the roller is pretty user-friendly, as long as you know some basic BBCode to set up the URL correctly.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@The Harbinger of Ferocity I played a Battle Master Fighter X / Berserker Barbarian 3 up to about lvl 10... she was nigh unkillable. It was amazing.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@The Harbinger of Ferocity Death Cleric has a d8 hit die, martial weapons, medium armor with Dex and a necrotic damage smite that's later buffed by all of my necro damage not being reduced by necro damage resist. I might not be a great melee combatant but I can at least help some.

@Ms Ravenwinter

@The Harbinger of Ferocity My PC is a melee build almost entirely. Spells are mostly for closing in, AoE options, and for when melee is not an option. However, I'm not much of a tank since just d8 HD and medium armor, same as Death Cleric.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

I'm having so much fun rolling things in secret. O_o Things I'm only rolling for my own fun. To self: NERD!

Working on the "public" aspects of the homebrewery thing. Which is mainly just saying @JBRam2002 has a character.

Edit: Oh look. There's a new link early on in the intro post that leads to a page with some information! How strange!

@Ermine

I knew I never should have mentioned Sparky :P

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@Ermine Hope you enjoy the PM I sent :P

@The Harbinger of Ferocity Perhaps of passing interest to you is that in the game I DM'd recently, we had a Leonine Paladin of Gaia (Oath of the Ancients). Once he got his auras, man was he annoying to create encounters against. Granted resistance to magic and a bonus to saves in his aura, and he could Misty Step almost anywhere.

@Ms RavenwinterOooh, I've wanted to see a Death Domain cleric run for quite some time!

Whatever Happens, It's Your Fault (Game)

I think we should decide to make the bag into a stylish pair of pants. I mean, we can't run around pantsless.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@The Harbinger of Ferocity An interesting possibility that I don't know if you've considered... Have you looked at the latest Unearthed Arcana for Sorcerers? There's an Earth Sorcerer option that gives the tankiness of a barbarian, but allows for a full caster at the same time. Alternatively, Eldritch Knight fighter would allow for a character with relatively high INT, as none of our other classes appear to focus on that stat. We have a lot of CHA and WIS currently. That's assuming you want to go with a full-caster party.

If we do go with a full caster party, we should probably be aware that casters tend to be less than tanky... it looks like my character will tend to be a front-liner (bladelock, ya know). To counter that, we might want a Paladin (hey, it's a caster). The downside is that 5e paladins tend to be rather underwhelming for the first few levels (but get super fantastic once their auras really start kicking in). Certain Clerics can be fairly tanky (War, huh... that's what it's good for?), but I'm not sure which archetype the Raven Priestess would be.

I'm not pushing for a full-caster group, personally. If we end up with one, it would be quite interesting, though. A friend of mine is making an NPC party of UA Sorcerers and calling them the Avatar group. There's Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Sorcerer archetypes, and they look like they could actually be a viable party.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

@Mesonyx The biggest thing I'll say about bard is that Bardic Inspiration is your bread and butter. Since it's a bonus action, you can use it pretty frequently (although until lvl 5, you're very limited on number of uses since it recharges on a long rest instead of a short rest... that changes at lvl 5 with Font of Inspiration). However, you want to make sure that you aren't using your bonus actions for other things, like spells or an offhand attack.

There's a pretty in-depth chapter for how spells work, and each spell explains what exactly you need to cast it (components, casting time, duration, etc). If the spell says Concentration, you may only have one Conc spell active at once, so keep that in mind. You don't want to load up on buff spells that are all Concentration and only be able to cast one at a time.

Bards generally won't be dealing much damage (or really feel very useful) for the first few levels. However, they get extremely powerful in terms of spells and Inspiration as time goes on. They have access to only one damaging cantrip (lvl 0 spell that you can cast an unlimited number of times). Taking Spell Sniper as a feat would give you the ability to get an additional damaging cantrip and extend your spell range, as well as other useful things. The War Caster feat is also extremely useful if you go College of Valor, as it will allow you to cast spells that have an S component (most of them) with a shield or weapon in your offhand, and gives advantage on Concentration saves (which you would have to roll whenever you take damage while concentrating on a spell - very useful).

Of course, since you're watching Critical Role, you already know a bard. Scanlan is a Lore bard, and is probably the best example of the stereotypical bard I can think of. Bards are often known for their hedonistic tendencies, and they generally either sing or play an instrument. Since they have a lot of Charisma (needed for their spell casting), they are usually fairly good at Cha-skills like Deception, Persuaasion, Intimidation, etc. They also get the Jack of all Trades ability which means they're pretty decent at almost every skill, unless they have a low ability score for that skill. Generally, they end up having to put the least points in Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom (not necessarily in that order), so they are often seen as weaker and not the wisest or brightest in the bunch (Scanlan shows that beautifully in several cases). Constitution is useful for Concentration checks and HP, and Dex is useful for several skills, Initiative, AC, and any finesse or ranged weapon's attack and damage. This is all just standard or typical info... feel free to deviate to match your character.