Ranged Skillmonkey

[Tenmujiin]

I'm hoping the playground can offer some suggestions on making a character that 1. Deals consistent ranged damage and 2. Has expertise. The character will be starting at lv5 and probably won't get much higher than lv10 based off my group's normal campaign length although it may go higher. Feats and multiclassing are both allowed.

At the moment I'm looking at a battlemaster/thief using crossbow expert or a valor bard with a longbow.

[HoarsHalberd]

Skill monkey means rogue straight away. Personally I'd go variant human for the feat and extra skill then choose crossbow master and hand crossbow if you can afford it. Stay pure rogue for your starting levels for expertise skills and 3d6 sneak attack damage and an ASI. Which obviously goes to dex. Archetypes... Thief let's you in combat skill monkey, Assassin means out of combat skill monkey and better in combat. Background, its mainly fluff but pirate is good for murderhobos and gives you perception leaving your free skill free for whatever you'd like.

[CrusaderJoe]

Half Elf Rogue Thief/Cleric of Knowledge/Bard

Background? Ummm... Charlatan?

Background: 2 skills
Half Elf: 2 skills
Rogue: 4 skills
Cleric: 2 Skills
Bard: 1 skill

11 skills, Rogue 2/Cleric 1/Bard 2

Ability Scores:
Str: 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 16

Don't attack with cleric spells, keep those for defense or utility. Guidance Cantrip will be nice.

11 out of 18 skills means you are a skill monkey right? Int skills and Athletics will have a small bonus but a bonus none the less.

You could drop the cleric for another level of rogue, which would be better for damage. You could switch out the cleric level for a wizard level (switch int and wis) and pick up Find Familiar... You would be a great sniper.

Edit:
Going from level 5 to level 10 is up to you. Go rogue or bard but no more MCs.

[AvatarVecna]

Here's what I suggest:

Variant Human
Rogue (?) 2/Bard (College of Lore) 3
Background: ?
Stats: ?
Feat: ?
Skills: ?

All ? are up to you, depending on what you want to be good at. This build gets ? skills (1 Human, 4 Rogue, 2 Background, 1 Bard, 3 College of Lore), gets 4 Expertise, Bard Spellcasting, Sneak Attack, Cunning Action, Bardic Inspiration, and Song of Rest, plenty of utility. Use Magical Secrets to pick up some low-level Rangers spells that can be attached to arrows/bolts and you'll be golden.

What background/feat/skill/archetype you choose depends on exactly what you're going for with this character. Regardless, I suggest getting to Rogue 4/Bard 4 at 8th lvl, no matter what, so that you can get another 2 ASIs/feats into your build. Thief has some interesting skill options, but nothing spectacular; Assassin gets Assassinate, which is awesome for a SA-focused sniper; Arcane Trickster stacks your Rogue levels for the purposes of casting. Or, you know, you could just go Bard 6 and get the Bard class features instead.

Bottom line: Rogue/Bard of any vaguely optimized mix is gonna be an awesome skillmonkey and a decent anything else.

Other Notes

Alternatively, if you wanted to focus more on the ranged combat aspect, Ranger 2-3 pairs nicely with both Rogue and Bard; Ranger gives you the fighting style and some spells to attach to arrows/bolts (and maybe gives you a hunter feature), all of which can pair nicely together with either Sneak Attack/Expertise/Cunning Action/Assassinate or Inspiration/Bardic Spellcasting/Song of Rest/Expertise/Extra Skills.

[Easy_Lee]

Just go half elf valor bard, or variant human with the skilled feat.

You can get the skills you need along with jack of all trades for the ones you don't take. Valor bard can steal swift quiver from the ranger spell list for a very nice number of attacks. Sharpshooter feat will be welcome, and longbow should be fine.

Valor bard could also wait for battle magic and then dip two levels of warlock for the Eldritch blast invocations. What this does is let you throw a full round's worth of Eldritch blast, adding CHA to damage, followed by a ranged attack as a bonus action. Now that's some nice at-will DPR, which enables you to roughly compete with fighters.

Rogue works, but not as well. With ranged weapons you miss out on the potential for opportunity attacks, one of the rogue's best sources of extra DPR. You also don't get jack of all trades as a rogue, nor the bard's wide variety of casting options. When your skills don't get the job done by themselves, you're gonna want those spell slots.

For a utility and skill focused character who just wants consistent, reliable ranged DPR, I would say that bard is the better choice (as much as I love the rogue class).

[Felvion]

How much expertise do you need? Skill-monkey in 5th has a different definition than it used to. A bard is the king of skills but needs at least 3 levels to get expertise and the extra 3 skills from lore path. He doesn't get more expertise before lvl 10.
The rogue is the only other class that gets expertise, first at level 1 and then at level 6.
If you only want expertise once, a dip of rogue1 or bard 3 can do the job.

There are many classes that can deal consistent ranged damage.
Fighters can do the job reliably and multiclassing with them is easy and profitable as the get more ASIs/feats at the early levels than any other class.
Hunter rangers deal more consistent damage compared to the fighters but they lack action surge. They get one extra skill though and spells and features that help to boost their damage. Wis prerequisite for multiclassing hurts a bit.
Warlocks are great for ranged damage and have a flavor of their own. They have two attacks to make with eldritch blast, assuming you start at level 5. Their damage is comparable with a rogues single sneak attack but they don't rely on any conditions too activate it, just the cost of one invocation. They can boost their damage with hex and possibly add minor battlefield control with repelling blast. Pushing someone 20ft back if you hit him twice is nothing to sneeze at. Something often overlooked is that the warlock deals his ranged damage through spell which means it's harder to resist and it saves you the cost of a magical weapon. Resistance is a thing in 5th and every damage dealer needs to find a way to bypass it.
I'm not a paladin expert but they offer great damage potential too, though i'm not sure they are very rp flexible to suit any character.
I left rogues for last. They deal good damage but you can hardly call it consistent. When it comes to battle, a good rogue is the one that will find a way to make every attack count as sneak attack. That's not always possible (hence not reliable) but still good in overall. The lack of second attack hurts a bit. Dual weilding is not optimal, as you'd probably need your bonus action to use cunning action, but helps. Assassin class offers great damage potential but it's not reliable either.

Any combination of classes on the categories above can do the job for you. Take rogue1 or bard3 and add any number of levels from warlock, fighter, ranger, or rogue. I won't go down to numbers but every combination can do what you asked more or less. I think you should pick what suits you best based on the theme you have in mind.

Honorable mention goes to the deadly Champion5+/assasin3 combo.
Also, in case you chose any bard, warlock or paladin part for your build make sure you take a look at the half elf for your race. You get 2 bonus skills, bonus to any 2 secondary stats and all the darkvision/resistancies goodies they have.

[Tenmujiin]

My badly worded thread title seems to have misdirected everyone. The charcter should be a ranged damage dealer that also has expertise, not a completely skill focused charcter, basically I'm wondering how people would build a ranged attacker that has at least 1 level of rogue or 3 of bard. Sorry for not being clear with my first post.

Edit: typo

[Easy_Lee]

My badly worded thread title seems to have misdirected everyone. The charcter should be a ranged damage dealer that also has expertise, not a completely skill focused charcter, basically I'm wondering how people would build a ranged attacker that has at least 1 level of rogue or 3 of bard. Sorry for not being clear with my first post.

Edit: typo

Felvion's assassin 3 / fighter 5 build is probably what you want then. I would use expertise for stealth, then pick up sharpshooter and/or skulker. It plays a bit like a sneak archer from Skyrim.

After that core, I'd aim for fighter 6 / Rogue 14 with the build. You get the most ASIs (6 of em), skill expertise, reliable talent, and more than enough sneak attack.

[CrusaderJoe]

My badly worded thread title seems to have misdirected everyone. The charcter should be a ranged damage dealer that also has expertise, not a completely skill focused charcter, basically I'm wondering how people would build a ranged attacker that has at least 1 level of rogue or 3 of bard. Sorry for not being clear with my first post.

Edit: typo

In that case...

Stout Halfling Fighter 2/Rogue 3 works well. Hell with Archery style (+2 attack)... You could do Dragonborn Fighter 2/Bard 3.

You would have a 14 in Dex, your attack roll would still be +7 with a bow or crossbow. Not bad. Low level stick with sleep as your main offensive spell or keep them for things like cure wounds.

Then use straight Bard the rest of the way. Boost Cha and Dex.

[calebrus]

basically I'm wondering how people would build a ranged attacker that has at least 1 level of rogue or 3 of bard.

Well, that all depends on what else I wanted from the character. The way that you're asking it basically leaves this character open to literally anything that can effectively and easily fight from range, which includes fighter, ranger, bard, rogue, any caster, some specific monk and paladin builds, and only truly removes barbarian from the options.

But with that bare bones idea in mind, personally, being partial to rogues, and considering you're starting at level 5, I'd make an arcane trickster with a single level of wizard, using my ASI for crossbow expert.
Dual hand crossbows for ranged, with the option for a finesse melee weapon and a hand crossbow when you're forced into melee combat.
3d6+dex damage, and if the first attack hits you still have cunning action available. If it doesn't hit, you can use your bonus to get a second chance instead of using cunning action.
Some decent casting, with that wizard level basically doubling your prepared spells for the day at early levels, and granting arcane recovery for one extra slot per day and allowing for some 1st level rituals (of which there are some good ones).

But I'm also partial to rogues, so my opinion is a bit biased. :smallwink:

[CrusaderJoe]

Wait... I think I have a great "ranged" character.


Dwarf Rogue 2/Druid X

Get to flying wildshape as soon as possible.

Fly around in the air, stealth it up or whatever, and then when you see the BBEG fly above them (200' or whatever) and fall on them after leaving wildshape. 20d6 (?) Damage + 2d6 sneak attack + 1d6 short sword + str modifier...

You can probably do this once but it might be the strongest range attack for your level.

[Myzz]

Variant Human (w/Xbow expert and then sharpshooter), or Lightfoot Halfling (bonus dex and hide behind ally's)

Rogue to 4 (for first ASI), go assassin.
Then Fighter till X. Take Archery fighting style to offset Sharpshooter

Take Urchin Background, use the double up on Theives Tool proficiency to get your Poison Kit Prof at level 1, then whatever tool prof when you get assassin.

As mentioned Dual wield Xbows, stay at range (if halfling use ability to hide behind medium creatures).

The problem is with either you're probably using your expertise for stealth and poison kit, so if your expertise was for something else...

I don't think Sharpshooter is great till your +hit gets a lil better. Get a friend who can summon poisonous creatures or befriend them so you have a ready supply of poison. Giant Poisonous Snake CR 1/4 has a 3d6 poison on a Con 11 Save for half.

If your not into poisons, I'd prolly go Tiefling Lore Bard/Warlock

[Mandragola]

As Easy Lee says, assassin/fighter is probably the way to go. You get expertise, archery style and all the proficiencies a person could want. You'll do real damage.

I can't really see the point in the "true" skillmonkey. Skills aren't really that hard to come by, or that important even. Stealth, perception and athletics help most in play, then you'll want to either have some knowledges or some charisma stuff. Supporting both intelligence and charisma makes you a bit MAD so best to pick one.

[Phion]

Rogue assassin all the way as most people have said, they get a lot of skills anyway and excel at the ones they will defiantly need. Possibly go as a wood elf and take the sharpshooter feat at level 4 so you can shoot with the longbow 600 feet without disadvantage (thus advantage if hiding, thus sneak attack) and get a crit if its surprise round because of assassin feat

[Myzz]

Rogue assassin all the way as most people have said, they get a lot of skills anyway and excel at the ones they will defiantly need. Possibly go as a wood elf and take the sharpshooter feat at level 4 so you can shoot with the longbow 600 feet without disadvantage (thus advantage if hiding, thus sneak attack) and get a crit if its surprise round because of assassin feat

unless at night or underground since you darkvision is only 60 ft...

Hand Xbow with Crossbow Expert as your 4th level feat way better if you have even the most basic of poisons... Dual wield for 2 attacks each turn, only 1 of which gets your sneak attack but hey your poison still gonna hit, and if you miss with that 1 long bow shot, your not hidden anymore and you blew your surprise... At least with assassinate you double chance to get your sneak attack in on that surprise round AND if you do hit with both since they will all have advantage, they are auto crits... even on the poison...

[calebrus]

they are auto crits... even on the poison...

I see you edited the 3 to a 2, so no need for me to address it.
But poisons critting is an issue up for heated debate.
The intention is that they cannot crit, because a poison's effectiveness is determined by a saving throw, not an attack roll.
If you interpret the RAW to read that poisons can crit, then you are ignoring the intent (and some people will disagree/debate your interpretation even without that intent being known, based on the fact that it is poison damage rather than weapon damage).

In short, if your table plays where poisons can crit, more power to you. But that is technically not correct by intention or design.