Explaining to others

[ZorroGames]

Talking D&D 5th theory with war gamer, non-FRPG, friend.

Mentioned High Elf Fighter would get "magic spell" (cantrips) and that led to hit points for Wizards (vs Fighters vs Clerics) at first level and beyond, DE versus ST Fighters, yada-yada-yada.

Much discussion later I was trying to explain multiclassing and what the trade offs would be...

After showing him PeteNutButter's guide the question was, "Why do you not play Wizards, you did in white box?"

I pointed out, "... all died but one." His answer was, "And she retired at 16th." "Different game," was my point.

But the conversation has me thinking about the character he "designed 'in theory' " for levels 1 - 8;

Optimization was pretty much ignored but his idea of High Elf, Fighter 1/Wizard X with ST 11 (no "weak" fighters,) DE 14+2, CO 13 (see ST above,) IN 13+1, WI 13 ("Gandalf was Wise,") CO 10 pretty much floundered with the unanswered choice of TWF (his suggestion) versus Archery (my suggestion) Fighting style at Fighter level 1.

Yeah, he reminds me of Gygax's comment about Minotaurs and bull headed war gamers sometimes, a lot like me in that respect. But if he gets interested I want to encourage him to join me in shared madness.

[B]While it would be nice to entice him into FRPG gaming I want to get "second opinions" on that fighting style point to present to him because it has to be his character for him to agree to play a game but I want him have the best survivable version of his "theoretical" character so he survives long enough to get the "infection" of FRPGs. He pretty much is set about the abilities scores at this point so pushing too much on that would be counterproductive.[\B]. Believe me, after spending some time here, I tried to convince him (especially the WI and CH scores) but the term "dump stats" made him bristle.

So he is, so far, down to TWF (his idea) versus Archery (my idea but he is open to that) right now. Am I off base in encouraging him to sniper the fighter level over TWF? When (if) he gets past Wizard level 4 will it actually even matter?

We have not even started discussion Schools of Magic in detail yet...

First I need to set the hook...

Thanks in advance.

[coredump]

5E is pretty forgiving. Let him play TWF if that's what he wants.

Besides, by level 2-3 he should be using cantrips instead anyway.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Yeah. As he gets to higher and higher levels, he'll have better cantrip damage (and more spell slots) so archery vs. two-weapon should become less and less important. Either one should be fine for low levels (he does have a cleric's level 1 hit points, armor and second wind, so closing to melee isn't suicidal).

EDIT: I had a player once who, for his first 5e character, played a Light Cleric with one level of Monk for the some melee ability (martial arts and unarmored defense) to better fit his idea of the character he wanted to play. Before he'd even hit level five (for the cantrip damage bump), he was staying back and casting Sacred Flame more often than he was going in for the one-two punch. With wizard getting less HP per level than my Cleric player and better damaging cantrip selection, I imagine your friend following a similar path.

[ZorroGames]

5E is pretty forgiving. Let him play TWF if that's what he wants.

Besides, by level 2-3 he should be using cantrips instead anyway.

Yeah, thanks, I wanted to as Hands off as possible. Now to get him to the table...

[ZorroGames]

Yeah. As he gets to higher and higher levels, he'll have better cantrip damage (and more spell slots) so archery vs. two-weapon should become less and less important. Either one should be fine for low levels (he does have a cleric's level 1 hit points, armor and second wind, so closing to melee isn't suicidal).

EDIT: I had a player once who, for his first 5e character, played a Light Cleric with one level of Monk for the some melee ability (martial arts and unarmored defense) to better fit his idea of the character he wanted to play. Before he'd even hit level five (for the cantrip damage bump), he was staying back and casting Sacred Flame more often than he was going in for the one-two punch. With wizard getting less HP per level than my Cleric player and better damaging cantrip selection, I imagine your friend following a similar path.

Thank you, I will just make sure I don't leave him hanging in the wind by himself until he starts getting into the game. Of course you are supposed to work as a team if only for self-survival reasons.