What would you do with these rolls (DnD5 character challenge)?
OK, given my choices below I think I have a fun character to play. However, given these four constraints:
- Your basic die rolls are 12, 15, 13, 13, 15, and 14. Nothing to complain about here.
- The character should be a weapon specialist of some sort – not necessarily fighter only, but a fighty-type.
- He’s going to need a reason to wind up miles underground in the Monteport dungeon
- He’ll start with exactly as many XP as he needs to be 5th level
What would you do with those stats in order to provide more weapon and meat to the party.
I'd probably go Human Fighter, with 15 in STR and DEX, 14 con, and whatever you like for the others, take Glaive and a ranged weapon, and opt for the extra human feat, choosing to bump str and dex and take Pole Arms Master and then Heavy Weapons Master. My sense is the Opportunity Attack when opponent's enter your reach will be pretty brutal and the extra attack even if it's only a d4 will be nice. Since we're using gridded combat, the ability to threaten the free movement of the foes seems to be proving surprisingly important, and one or two extra attacks in a turn is a big deal.
"Extra human feat?" Was this in the Basic Rules? I don't have the PHB yet. Can one trade a feat for some/all of the +1 to every stat?
Variant Humans lose the +1 to Six, and gain: +1 to Two or +2 to One; +1 Feat; +1 Skill Proficiency.
Hm. Seems to have eaten my reply. Anyway, what Timeshadows said. Ken is allowing feats and the variant humans, just no multiclassing (which I think is probably wise… that seems to be a vector for a lot of minmaxing). Since fighters get more chances to take feats or increase attributes and you have pretty decent rolls it seems like a nice option to me. You can then either use your 6th level increase to fill in for some of the attr bonus you would otherwise have gotten, or just more feats.
The funny thing is that the alternate human rules are really right there in the basic rules. I just need to look more closely.
You could also do the same thing but go Archery style and then Crossbow Master and Sharpshooter. Then start getting +2 to Dex for every feat (at 6th level). I would probably put the 15 in CON and DEX though and bump those two up with the +1 to two that Variant Human gives you. 12 Int (kind of a dump stat now) and then 13 13 14 distributed as you like. If you want to tank up for when the bad guys actually make it to you then you could put the 14 in STR and then take Heavy Armor Mastery, giving 3 DR for bludgeoning, slashing, piercing and +1 STR, getting you into plate armor (need 15) without a problem.
Or you could just use light armors and stack DEX until the cows come home.
You could make Rogue weapon specialist as well if you want some more skills, and Rogue grapplers are pretty awesome with their skill bonuses. They also get extra feats to allow you to really cheese on whatever weapon you choose. This thread is a great resource for grappling:
http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4142801
As someone who wrote an entire book on grappling for GURPS, I appreciate eye for detail that was on display in that post.
I'm kind of actually going the other way. I want to mostly tank up, plates and two-handed weapon. But I also like to have a credible ranged option.
Then you should deeefinitely get that Heavy Armor Mastery. Resist 3 to slash/bludg/pierce is really great against hordes of little mooks, especially if your DM likes to use average values for damage instead of rolling (*cough* JAMES *cough*).
Joshua is right that Polearm Mastery is really good. Throw it in with Sentinel for some incredible lockdown. I would also agree that Great Weapon fighting style isn't that great. +1 AC is a big deal and if you want to tank I think that's the route I would go.
I thought you would appreciate the grappling post. If the play-by-post I joined with my rogue/fighter grappler ever gets rolling I'll let you know how it works out.
BTW, I would probably *not* go with Great Weapons as a fighting style… the reroll if you roll a 1 or 2 the first time on a damage roll actually works out to a pretty piddly benefit: increase of 0.5 on the expected value of a d4 and 0.8 on a d10. Either the +2 to hit on Archery or the +1 AC when wearing armor seem more valuable.
With two 15's and a 14, it might be a good idea to use a casting melee type… War Cleric, Paladin, Eldritch Knight path, or ever a War College Bard.
Alternatively, you could use the Barbarian's DEX + CON for AC ability, since the three high scores could make a really strong STR/DEX/CON combo.
With those rolls, that fellow is going to be a combat monster regardless of class.
I forgot about an Arcane Trickster Rogue as a DEX fighter / arcane caster. Honestly, these scores give a huge amount of flexibility for just about any class.