Raised by Adventurers: Build thoughts?

[Coidzor]

So, the next character I'm working on looks like he's going to end up having been raised by a party of less than reputable adventurers, mostly amoral treasure hunters and opportunists (hence how he ended up with them as a kid to carry things for them and such). I've mostly settled upon an archery character either Bard or Mystic Ranger, as those seem to me to fairly well correspond to the way a kid could pick up things from watching adventurers do their thing, and if I go mystic ranger Sword of the Arcane Order would let me count as arcane for prerequisites. (and the only other classes of that sort of flavor I could think of would be Factotum and Binder and those don't seem to be as readily lent to archery)

One question I have though, is about what age would a human first start to count as a medium creature? I'm thinking right now he'd be starting out as around just before the start of puberty as a 12 year old (bit of a late bloomer) but didn't know if he'd be more like a Medium with slight build or Small or just plain Medium.

A big part of the character right now is his relationship with his Wild Cohort which is an exotic species that the DM and I came up with for the setting this is in after a conversation on the topic of arboreal dogs. So that's either my Human or 1st level feat right there.

Right now, I'm favoring Mystic Ranger, but don't really feel like Swift Huntering it up or staying straight-classed.

So I'm thinking about when to PrC out and what to PrC out into. I like the idea of Heartfire Fanner/PrC Bard to combine the two concepts (not really sure if that's a horrible idea and trying to do too many things though) and then if going into high level play, going with Sublime Chord and spells that aren't dependent on saves.

Was considering the SwordShape Mystic Ranger idea, but that felt like it might be a bit much and possibly not mesh well storywise with the relationship with the Wild Cohort. Though I haven't decided whether I'm going to be using it as a mount or not...

Or, maybe going with Mystic Ranger 7/HeartFire Fanner 5/ToB 8 and Song of the White Raven for 17ish levels of bard + items for IC purposes...

Any other suggestions or thoughts in regards to this?

The Bard route I was considering was basically a Bardblade or Bard > Virtuoso > Sublime Chord > More Virtuoso/HeartFireFanner


edit: Oh, and any thoughts on what kind of personality quirks might be picked up by that kind of upbringing? It's a spelljammery/nauticalish themed campaign setting and these are pretty much like, standard midlevelish adventuring treasure hunter types.

[Flickerdart]

Well, for one, he probably wouldn't be the first of the party's kids...adventuring is a high lethality environment.

[Coidzor]

Well, for one, he probably wouldn't be the first of the party's kids...adventuring is a high lethality environment.

True, but where exactly are you going with this?

[Gavinfoxx]

Maybe he's someone who doesn't feel safe if he isn't sleeping in a Rope Trick?

Even if he is home or at an inn or something...

Build stuff. Um, go the spellcasting version. SotAO Mystic Ranger, with the other spellcasty stuff (there are a few spellcasty variants).

[Bhaakon]

May I suggest a Venture Bros. marathon to flesh out some ideas.

[Coidzor]

May I suggest a Venture Bros. marathon to flesh out some ideas.

... I knew I shouldn't have broken up with the girlfriend who had those on DVD. Hmm. Good point that.

Gavinfoxx: yeah, it's either Bard or SoTAO Mystic Ranger for the castyness.

I'm going to have a 1-on-1 session with the DM while he tries out some things and that'll basically be how I end up splitting ways with the outfit that raised me and going solo until meeting up with the party.

[big teej]

Human adulthood is defined as starting at age 15 in dnd.

so I figure bump the age up by 3 years and all the "slight build" stuff and whatnot goes out the window.

[Coidzor]

Human adulthood is defined as starting at age 15 in dnd.

so I figure bump the age up by 3 years and all the "slight build" stuff and whatnot goes out the window.

Well, yes, puberty is a time of significant growth, but I was wondering when humans generally would get about Medium-sized.

I know I could just have him be 15 and count as medium and hunky dory from there, and I might do that, but for now I mostly just wanna know when humans get Medium.

Edit: So I finally found the table where it tells where medium and small's borders are. So now I just need to know if 12 year olds are typically larger than 4 feet tall. :smallconfused:

[WinWin]

Chameleon. With an Arcane Archer dip. Sure, you don't get 9's, but Imbue Arrow combines with spells like Arrowsplit and Arrow Storm in ludicrous ways.

A far earlier power combo than anything involving Sublime Chord. Still leaves plenty of room for customization.

[Zaq]

Edit: So I finally found the table where it tells where medium and small's borders are. So now I just need to know if 12 year olds are typically larger than 4 feet tall. :smallconfused:

Depends on genetics, nutrition, environment, and luck, really. I certainly wouldn't call BS on you if you said that your 12-year-old was 4 feet tall.