3 posts tagged “character”

This is a series of articles focused on how to optimize your D&D character.

There are eleven basic classes in the Player’s Handbook and I’ve divided them into three categories: simple, average, and difficult. This is in relation to the learning curve of using these classes rather than their effectiveness. If you’re a veteran of the D&D game, this might not be so helpful to you, but beginning players might want to take a look at the chart to see why certain classes are more difficult to play more than others.

Average

Monk -- The Monk is a tricky subject. First, he suffers from what we call Multiple Attribute Dependency (MAD) which in lay man's terms means he needs a lot of high stats, at least if you want to play him effectively. It wouldn't be so bad perhaps if it weren't for player expectation. I mean when you hear the word monk, the first thing that comes to mind are these martial artist who excel in combat. Unfortunately, the D&D Monk doesn't excel so much in combat, thanks to his average base attack bonus. And while there are a couple of orcs and goblins you can hit with your attack bonus, you start feeling a monk's impotence when you start facing off the higher AC monsters like Dragons (so if you want to be able to hit things, invest in Strength). His hit points, on the other hand, are in the medium spectrum. Enough to survive an encounter, but not high enough to linger, so defense becomes an issue (so raise your Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom). Aside from his deceptive combat capabilities, the Monk is a class that has various abilities sprinkled over twenty levels. Beginning players might be overwhelmed by the options presented to them, but it's obviously not as overbearing as say, learning spells. On a more positive note, the Monk has uncanny resilience: high saves in everything, evasion, and the ability to add Wisdom to your AC. Experienced players will even take the Monk class to a higher level as a mage-killer, thanks to his virtual immunity to evocation spells (which usually require Reflex saves), increased mobility, and the ability to stun opponents.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Warrior, Player's Handbook II, Sandstorm

Paladin -- D&D's holy warrior poster boy, the Paladin, can be quite a challenging class to utilize. First off is the role-playing aspect, the code of conduct, which might not appeal to every player. Less experienced GMs will even assume that he has the same concept of a Paladin's code of conduct as the player. Another learning curve a player needs to master is the rules for mounted combat because as soon as the Paladin reaches 5th-level, he gains his special mount (while flavor-wise is a great concept, takes some getting used to rules-wise). Much like the Monk, a Paladin also suffers from MAD, since he not only needs to raise his physical attributes, but his mental ones as well (Wisdom for spells, Charisma for the Paladin's other abilities). The Paladin's small spell list and turning abilities is also something a player needs to familiarize himself, although again, it's not as overbearing as the abilities of some other classes. A Paladin, however, is not by any means a "weak" class, and the role-playing challenge can be rewarding.

Recommended Supplements: Book of Exalted Deeds, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, Draconomicon

Ranger -- While not as complicated as the Monk or the Paladin, the Ranger is nonetheless a step above playing your typical Fighter. For one thing, your less-than-d10 hit points means you're going to have to play your Ranger smart (more so if you take the two-weapon fighting path). Another aspect that complicates a Ranger's life is choosing the right favored enemy (which actually depends on you communicating with your GM), which becomes an issue to someone who's not familiar with D&D's cosmology. Your animal companion can also give players additional burdens, whether it's acting as a mount, or simply another character the player needs to control when combat occurs. Finally there's your meager repertoire of spells, as well as skill set. Thankfully, they comprise a small list, and isn't too overwhelming.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, Player's Handbook II

Difficult

Bard -- A jack of all trades yet a master of none, the Bard isn't necessarily a hard class to play, it's simply knowing how to play him well optimally. As a bard, it might be tempting to wade into combat, or cast all your spells, but unfortunately, you don't really have a lot of hit points, nor a lot of spell slots either. So where does a Bard excel in? Finding the answer to that is what makes playing a Bard quite difficult, and the answer is support: Inspire Courage for example is a boon most combatants would find helpful, irregardless of level. A Bard also has a more comprehensive spell list compared to a Paladin or a Ranger, but not as extensive as the other spellcasting classes. Finding your niche is the name of the game when it comes to playing a Bard.

Recommended Supplements: Book of Exalted Deeds, Complete Adventurer, Complete Arcane

Cleric -- One thing the Cleric shares with most of the classes in what I deem the "Difficult" section is the fact that he has 9th-level spells. And honestly, that's a huge reading list. If you also slap on the optional turning rules (basically the [Divine] feats in supplements like Complete Divine), that's another set of headaches for starting players. Still, the Cleric is one of the more powerful classes in the game: good hit points, two good saves, ability to wear heavy armor, 9th-level spells and domain powers make it a terrifying package.

Recommend Supplements: Book of Exalted Deeds, Complete Warrior, Complete Divine, Spell Compedium

Druid -- As some of you might assume by now, classes with 9th-level spells make it to this list automatically. An addition consternation to the Druid class is the need to keep track of your animal companion, and worst of all, the powerful-but-leading-to-rules-confusion Wild Shape ability. Perhaps the problem with the Druid is that a player wanting to use him optimally doesn't just need to keep track of all the new spells that gets published, but all the new monsters (specifically animals, but can apply to other creature types as well) as well. Again, much like the Cleric, the Druid is a very powerful class, more so than the Cleric because one can solely focus on the Wisdom ability score and simply use Wild Shape to make up for any lacking in the physical attributes.

Recommended Supplements: Book of Exalted Deeds, Complete Divine, Draconomicon, Monster's Manual, Spell Compedium

Sorcerer -- In a way, a Sorcerer is played more easily compared to a Cleric, Druid, or Wizard simply because he doesn't prepare spells. Once you've made your choice of what spells you know, it's simply a matter of having the spell slots to use them or not. No more problems of "if only I prepared this spell" and similar situations-- that is, once your character has been made, your only concern is how to play him and not the mid-game tweaks (i.e. what spells do I prepare today?) that plagues most spellcasters. Still, that's still a huge task, and once you've chosen a spell to know, you have to live with that choice for most of your Sorcerer career. Low hit points also make the Sorcerer one of the most fragile classes in the game.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Arcane, Complete Mage, Races of the Dragon, Spell Compedium

Wizard -- I'll be blunt: it's a nightmare to play a wizard. You have access to 9th-level spells and that list is amorphous. Unlike divine spellcasters, your spell's known is determined by your spellbook, and while that's not a problem in the early levels, it is later on as you level up as you have to keep track of pages spent in your spellbook and the cost of additional spells (whether copying it from another wizard's spellbook or from a scroll). Then there's the fact that you have to prepare your spells every day, but unlike Clerics and Druids, your spell slots are less so you really have to make those spells count. And then you continually ask yourself the question whether I should expend my spell now or later. A Wizard also has one of the lowest hit points in the game, so surviving becomes an issue as well. The Wizard is a powerful class, make no mistake about it, but the learning curve is one of the steepest.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Arcane, Complete Mage, Spell Compedium

This is a series of articles focused on how to optimize your D&D character.

The Player’s Handbook starts out explaining Ability Scores and then followed by Race. It’s only after those pages that we finally see Character Class. To someone who’s unfamiliar with the game, getting to know Ability Scores and Race is important. From an optimization standpoint, however, character creation begins with Character Classes. Why? Because more often than not, a good chunk of your concept for your character will be derived from the classes you take. Yes, there’s a conceptual difference between a dwarf wizard and an elf wizard, for example, but in the end, you cannot deny that there’s more in common between the two compared to say, a dwarven fighter and a dwarven cleric, even if they’re both dwarves. Choosing where to dump your highest, and lowest, Abillity Scores is also dependent on the class you pick (you don’t want to end up with a Sorcerer who has Strength 18 for example but a measly Charisma 12), as well as what races are advisable.

There are eleven basic classes in the Player’s Handbook and I’ve divided them into three categories: simple, average, and difficult. This is in relation to the learning curve of using these classes rather than their effectiveness. If you’re a veteran of the D&D game, this might not be so helpful to you, but beginning players might want to take a look at the chart to see why certain classes are more difficult to play more than others.

Simple

Barbarian – Barbarians are for the most part simple to use because they’re focused on combat, and most likely melee combat at that. For most people, the challenging question they ask themselves is to Rage now or to Rage later. Aside from that, the other choices aren’t as overwhelming. You don’t have room for lots of Feats so you needn’t bother with the more complex feat trees (i.e. taking Whirlwind is out of the question as it has too many prerequisites for example). Early on, players might ask what method of fighting should I use. However, Barbarians being low on defense to begin with (more so when raging), it’s best to focus on their strongest selling point, which is the ability to deal a lot of damage. More often than not, the best choice for a Barbarian is to wield a two-handed weapon and forget about defense. That’s what your d12 hp is for.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Warrior, Frostburn, Races of Stone

Fighter – Unlike the Barbarian, the Fighter is a flexible class in the sense that you can mold your character to fit one of many warrior archetypes, rather than being a jack of all trades. On one hand, the sheer number of feat options available to you can be overwhelming, but it’s similarly more forgiving to a starting player as well because a wrong feat at a certain level isn’t as crippling compared to most classes (where they’re most likely limited to one feat every three levels). The biggest challenge for a Fighter is where to find his focus (thrown weapons, archery, tripping, grappling, defensive, two-weapon fighting, two-handed weapons, sword and shield, etc.) and to maximize that strength. Still, as complex as that sounds, a Fighter needs only to concentrate on combat when a dangerous encounter begins, and his seemingly lack of options in other arenas (skills, spellcasting) make him one of the easier classes to pick.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, Draconomicon, Miniatures Handbook, Player’s Handbook II

Rogue – The Rogue actually excels in many arenas such as dungeon exploring (by the sheer fact that he’s the only class, at least in the Player’s Handbook, that has the trapfinding ability) and combat (thanks to Sneak Attack), but these are abilities that are packaged with the class. It’s not like you can discard a dice of Sneak Attack to get another ability. While choosing a Rogue’s method of fighting is a secondary priority, his first, and the focus of a beginning player, should be what Skills he picks. Much like the Fighter who has to focus on a certain method of combat, a Rogue must focus on what Skills he should be good at because despite possessing the largest pool of skill points, it’s still not enough to do everything. In addition to simply picking skills, he must synergize them as well. I mean there’s little reason to take Hide if you’re also not going to take Move Silently. And if you want to detect your opponents, the pair Spot and Listen skills should almost always be taken together, to give you at least two chances of sensing the enemy. And while the page devoted to Skills is quite a lot, it’s a lot less than the Spells spellcasters need to know, and they’re more generally used compared to Feats (honestly, do you really need to read the description to figure out what Jump does?). Once that’s done, the Rogue’s next responsibility is to figure out how to stay safe in combat, yet still manage to deal out his Sneak Attack damage on the enemy.

Recommended Supplements: Complete Adventurer, Races of Destiny, Races of the Wild

Just got a hold of a PDF copy of Complete Mage (because the supplier here in the Philippines still doesn't have the latest books, I'm actually still waiting for Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords) and I was able to make a gish (a Githyanki term for fighter/sorcerers) character that doesn't resort to the Polymorph spell for most of his buffs. In fact, thanks to the Complete Mage spell Arcane Fusion, all you need is one round to buff, and then you can start casting extend wraithstrike the next turn and start hitting monsters and NPCs.

Donovan Spellshield (PC)

Human Sorcerer 2/Fighter 4/Abjurant Champion 5 ^{(CM 50)}/Dragonslayer 9 ^{(Dr 125)}

NG medium-sized humanoid (human)

Init +5; Senses superior low-light vision, darkvision 190 ft., blindsense 195 ft.; Listen +3, Spot +3

Languages Common, Draconic

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AC 31, touch 22(+14 against incorporeal touch attacks), flat-footed 26; Dodge, retributive amulet, boots of speed;

(+5 Dex, +9 armor, +5 deflection, +2 sacred)

hp 255 (20 HD); DR 3/-

Immune fear, death spells and effects, energy drain, negative energy effects;

Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, sonic 5;

Fort +22 (+6 Con, +5 resistance), Ref +17 (+5 Dex, +5 Resistance), Will +24 (+3 Wis, +5 Resistance)

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Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)

Melee +5 adamantine collision greathammer +34/+29/+24/+19 (8d6+25/x4)

Ranged +24 ray

Base Atk +19; Grp +29

Atk Options arcane boost, Arcane Strike, Power Attack, Close-Quarters Fighting, damage bonus (dragons), Improved Critical (dragons), boots of speed.

Special Actions abjurant armor, extended abjuration, swift abjuration, overcome draconic spell resistance.

Combat Gear +5 adamntine collision greathammer

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 19th):

6th (4/day)—karmic retribution ^{(CM 109)} (DC 22).

5th (6/day)—dragonsight ^{(SpC 73)}†, arcane fusion ^{(CM 96)}.

4th (7/day)—dimension door, greater invisibility, flight of the dragon ^{(SpC 95)}.

3rd  (7/day)—protection from energy, greater mighty wallop ^{(RDr 115)}†, ferocity of sanguine rage ^{(DM 67)}, repelling shield ^{(CM 115)} (DC 19).

2nd (8/day)—see invisibility, mirror image, heroics ^{(SpC 113)}, wraithstrike ^{(SpC 243)}, arcane turmoil ^{(CM 96)} (DC18 ).

1st  (14/day)—endure elements†, ray of enfeeblement,  expeditious retreat, ectoplasmic armor ^{(SpC 78)}†, ray of clumsiness ^{(SpC 166)}.

0 (6/day)—resistance, detect magic, read magic, dancing lights, light, ghost sound, mage hand, message, prestidigitation.

† Already cast

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Abilities Str 30 (+6 enhancement, +5 inherent), Dex 20 (+6 enhancement), Con 22 (+6 enhancement, +2 inherent), Int 16 (+6 enhancement), Wis 16 (+6 enhancement), Cha 22 (+6 enhancement).

SQ summon familiar, martial arcanist, aura of courage.

Feats Iron Will^1st, Power Attack^bonus, Combat Casting^3rd, Dodge^bonus, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Greathammer)^{bonus (MM4 101)}, Improved Toughness^{6th (CW 101)}, Combat Reflexes^bonus, Close-Quarters Fighting^{9th (CW 97)}, Arcane Strike^{12th (CW 96)}, Rapid Metamagic^{15th (CM 46)}, Lightning Reflexes^bonus, Extend Spell^18th.

Skills Concentration +23 (+17 ranksm +6 Con), Knowledge (arcana) +9 (+6 rank, +3 Int), Spellcraft +21(+16 ranks, +3 Int, +2 synergy), Tumble +16 (+11 ranks, +5 Dex).

Possessions belt of magnificence +6 ^{(MH 42)}, +5 adamantine collision greathammer ^{(XPH 165, MM4 101)}, +5 soulfire twilight mithral shirt ^{(BoED 112)}, manual of gainful exercise +5, cloak of resistance +5,  boots of haste, retributive amulet ^{(BoED 116)}, ring of protection +5, manual of bodily health +2, ring of wizardry 1, 240 pp.

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Abjurant Armor (Su): Any time you cast an abjuration spell that grants you an armor bonus or shield bonus to AC, you can increase the value of the bonus by your abjurant champion class level.

Extended Abjuration (Su): Double the duration of abjuration spells you cast, as if you had applied the Extend Spell feat to them (but without any change in level or casting time).

Swift Abjuration (Su): You can cast abjuration spells as a swift action, as if you had applied the Quicken Spell feat to them (but without any change in level). The maximum level of spell you can quicken in this way is equal to 1/2 your class level (rounded up).

Arcane Boost (Su): You gain the ability to burn arcane energy to empower your martial abilities. As a swift action, you can spend one of your uncast spells or spell slots to grant yourself one of the following insight bonuses for 1 round.

• Bonus on attack rolls equal to the spell's level.

• Bonus on weapon damage rolls equal to twice the spell's level.

• Bonus to AC equal to the spell's level.

• Bonus on saving throws equal to the spell's level.

• Resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic equal to 5 x the spell's level.

Martial Arcanist (Ex): Your caster level in a chosen arcane spellcasting class is equal to your base attack bonus (unless it would otherwise be higher).

Aura of Courage (Su): A dragonslayer gains immuinity to fear (magical or otherwise). Allies within 10 feet of the dragonslayer gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

Damage Bonus (Ex): A dragonslayer gains a bonus on weapon damage rolls against dragons equal to his class level.

Overcome Draconic Spell Resistance (Ex): A dragonslayer may add his class level to any caster level checks made to overcome a dragon’s spell resistance.

Improved Critical (Ex): A dragonslayer gains the effect of the Improved Critical feat for any weapon he uses against a dragon.