A Monk, A Bard, and A Paladin walk into a Bar

[bluthunda]

I'm currently trying to plan a character for an AL adventure to go with the 3 classes in the title I'm not sure what subclasses they are using and i'm not particularly concerned with optimization.
I played a barbarian last game so I think id like to try a spellcaster this tied up between Life or Light (robes)Cleric , Tome Warlock , or Draconic Origins Sorcerer atm.
All and any opinions welcome thanks in advance

[Corran]

I dont get the joke :p

I'd go with either a warlock or with an evoker, as your group seems to be missing both in single-target ranged damage and in AoE's. So I'd probably pick one of these two. Maybe a fiendlock?

[Herobizkit]

It's tough to go wrong with Cleric. If you're going into AL and you don't know the other players that well, being a Life cleric is "safer" in that you might be able to offset some of the damage that some, um, more excitable players inflict on themselves. You know the ones - see enemy, run ahead swinging, assume they have back-up? :D

If you ARE one of those players, Life Cleric does double duty as a heavy-armor-wearing fellow. Slap on Hill Dwarf for a Wis boost, an extra HP/level, and enjoy wielding battle axes and warhammers with your shield (or not - both of those weapons are versatile). Praise the All-Father!

If you're heart's set on Warlock, you could roll Alt-Human, blow your feat on Healer and take Hermit as your background (for the Herbalism kit proficiency, which allows you to craft healing potions for half-price in your downtime). Have your party each carry one Healer's kit (10 gp for 10 uses) which you can use to pop an unconscious person to 1 HP and/or a free d6+4+(character level) per short rest. Warlocks are short-rest characters (many of their powers 'recharge' on a short rest) so this fits perfectly with your party's need to rest - and be able to be healed again. ^_^

[Citan]

I'm currently trying to plan a character for an AL adventure to go with the 3 classes in the title I'm not sure what subclasses they are using and i'm not particularly concerned with optimization.
I played a barbarian last game so I think id like to try a spellcaster this tied up between Life or Light (robes)Cleric , Tome Warlock , or Draconic Origins Sorcerer atm.
All and any opinions welcome thanks in advance
Hmm, if you had not already some kind of opinion, I would have told you to play a Wizard, shores up the missing stat and you get the most spells to play with. Most Schools are nice too.
Or Land Druid to bring a mess on battlefield with environment spells or conjure spells. ;)
Anyways.

Between your choices, I'd say Tome Fiend Warlock only if you don't like having too many resources to manage or if you want to have fun with many cantrips, in which case I'd also take Ritual Caster Invocation to provide much utility otherwise and maybe a Magic Initiate feat or Spell Sniper feat to further enhance the cantrip area. This character would play mainly as a soft controller in battle (Thorns Whip / Repelling Blast / Shocking Grasp) or plain blaster (Agonizing Blast), using Hex/Mirror Image/Fireball as he progresses while providing heaps of utility otherwise (Mold Earth, Mage Hand, Guidance, Shape Water, Comprehend Languages, Alarm, Gentle Repose, Augury, Leomund's Tiny Hut) ;)

Otherwise, a Draconic Sorcerer would be my suggestion: while Tempest Cleric is also tempting (heavy armor, balance between healing and AOE), Sorcerer with Careful and Quickened metamagics can provide heaps of fun too, and is only lacking in healing department (which your Bard and Paladin friends can cover). Otherwise, lots of AOE option (damage/debuff), areas in which the rest of your party is heavily deficient (Monk has no spells unless 4E, Paladin's most offensive spells are single-target, Bard has mainly illusion spells apart from Shatter so would need to use Magic Secrets). Shield, Magic Missile (to swap later), Sleep (to swap later), Fog Cloud (to swap with Darkness), Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Stinking Cloud, Slow, Fireball would be spells of choice among others.

[JAL_1138]

The bard and the paladin have plenty of healing between them, if you want to play something more offense-oriented. As Corran noted, the party is mainly missing ranged damage and AoE damage (the bard eventually gets great AoE control options like Hypnotic Pattern, but it'll take a couple levels). As folks have already suggested, Wizard, Warlock, or Sorcerer would fit well. Tempest Cleric and Light Cleric would fit, although you don't particularly need extra healing (although, it being League, keep in mind you may play at other tables or different people may join your current table in the future). Tempest is a bit better than Light Cleric IMO, due to having better armor (Warding Flare helps Light out a bit there, but heavy armor is generally better than a limited-use ability to impose Disadvantage against a single attack) and damage types that aren't resisted as often as fire (not much resists Thunder, and a couple things resist Lightning but not as many as fire), but Light Cleric still works fine—Light would shore up some of the ranged damage weakness slightly better than Tempest, so there's a trade-off.

This may not be a tremendously helpful answer, but since any of those would work, it's down to what you personally favor. Bring some ranged damage and some AoE, and you'll be fine.

[sky red hunter]

Draconic origin sorcerer is the best bet. The monk and paladin should be all up the enemies grill dealing out face to face justice, the bard is meanwhile fulfilling the battle field control role usually occupied by a wizard so whats really needed is some explosive offensive ranged magic!!

You can always multiclass into warlock to 'fix' the short rest get nothing aspect of a sorcerer and the no regeneration of slots problem too.

Thematically if you wanted to go warlock first and then dip into wild magic sorcerer you could treat it like your patrons favour naturally developing within you.

As for how you fit into the party, you get great burst damage with twin and quickened meta-magic options, you can eventually twin spell haste on the paladin and monk and watch as they mop up all around them while you sit back and snipe with your other spells.

The main problems with sorcerer is there is no regeneration of slots, you can convert sorcery points into slots but that costs you the only resource that powers your classes unique abilities and thus is a trap. vice versa you need to spend slots to get sorcery point regeneration, its a candle burning at both ends class.

The other is there is very little need for you to want to short rest, as you get nothing back except spending hit die for health.

warlock multiclass fixes all this.

[bluthunda]

So from what it sounds like to me is a multiclassing Sorcerer Warlock probably starting with warlock would be best . If I was gonna go the sorcerer route I was thinking about going Dragonborn and choosing two different dragon types so I would get two different breath weapons the maybe Black dragon for the race and a metallic one for the bloodline.
Kinda like a good meets evil in one character type deal he would be trying to prove he's not evil to the world .

[Theodoxus]

So from what it sounds like to me is a multiclassing Sorcerer Warlock probably starting with warlock would be best.

People tend to start sorc for the Con save proficiency. I'm not sure what what starting Warlock would do... In fact, based on your premise, starting Sorc could make more sense, in RP terms, as you grow up believing you're part of this evil race of dragons, only to manifest good dragon aligned powers. You call out to the universe and a calming voice - a fey, a great old one, maybe even a NE fiend with good tendencies - answers your call, calming your concerns and granting you expanded powers...

[bluthunda]

People tend to start sorc for the Con save proficiency. I'm not sure what what starting Warlock would do... In fact, based on your premise, starting Sorc could make more sense, in RP terms, as you grow up believing you're part of this evil race of dragons, only to manifest good dragon aligned powers. You call out to the universe and a calming voice - a fey, a great old one, maybe even a NE fiend with good tendencies - answers your call, calming your concerns and granting you expanded powers...

Oh I was thinking starting warlock for armor proficiency higher HP to start and from what I hear Eldritch Blast is like the best DPS Cantrip but yes Con save proficiency would be really useful for any concentration spells thanks for the tip also I like your RP explanation.

[Theodoxus]

Oh I was thinking starting warlock for armor proficiency higher HP to start and from what I hear Eldritch Blast is like the best DPS Cantrip but yes Con save proficiency would be really useful for any concentration spells thanks for the tip also I like your RP explanation.

Well, you're planning Draconic Sorc, so that's literally 1 HP less than Warlock (6+1+Con vs 8+Con). It's base AC is 13+Dex, which is literally 1 AC higher than the best light armor - so, I call that a wash. You'll still get EB when you multiclass, so you'll have to struggle with the lowly Fire bolt (which does the same damage, just slightly worse damage type - and at 1st level, you won't face anything with fire resistance), so again it's a wash...

What level were you planning on multiclassing? Sorcerer has a lot of breakpoints, each with pros and cons...

[Citan]

Oh I was thinking starting warlock for armor proficiency higher HP to start and from what I hear Eldritch Blast is like the best DPS Cantrip but yes Con save proficiency would be really useful for any concentration spells thanks for the tip also I like your RP explanation.
Really start Draconic Sorcerer.
Concentration will be very important for you especially if you take Careful Metamagic with AOE debuffs.
AC will be plain better than light armor proficiency so you don't care about it.
And, in fact, I'd say just stick with Sorcerer at least until level 6.
Eldricht Blast is not worth anything more than any other cantrip before you get at least the second ray (char level 5).
And it can very easily wait for character level 8+ in fact, as long as you get the cantrip and related Invocations for char level 11.

But on the way, you may realize that single-class is as great. Quickened will give you some nova power or emergency spell, and having higher level spells with Careful will usually do much more for your party than a simple sustained damage upgrade, as good as it may be.

I'd go Sorcerer 8 first then either...
1. Pick Spell Sniper (Eldricht Blast) if you tend to use many attack roll spells and stick with Sorcerer afterwards, or...
2 +CHA bump then make your Warlock dip, so you feel a power increase on each gained level (level 8: bit more damage on Firebolt/Frostbite/whatever spell goes with your Origin. Level 9: Eldricht Blast with 2 rays, a slight better than your origin cantrip because better chance to deal damage. Level 10: Agonizing Blast, big increase. Level 11: 3rd ray, big increase). Then back on Sorcerer.

Don't forget that as you go up in level, the next one is increasingly more distant. And Sorcerer gains 3rd Metamagic at 10th level, Chain Lightning and Disintegrate at 11th, fly speed at 14th etc...
Since you already get a better cantrip than most thanks to +CHA bonus, the opportunity cost of dipping is big.

[Specter]

I'd go Ranger. You can be the skillman and shift between melee and range as needed.

[bluthunda]

Well, you're planning Draconic Sorc, so that's literally 1 HP less than Warlock (6+1+Con vs 8+Con). It's base AC is 13+Dex, which is literally 1 AC higher than the best light armor - so, I call that a wash. You'll still get EB when you multiclass, so you'll have to struggle with the lowly Fire bolt (which does the same damage, just slightly worse damage type - and at 1st level, you won't face anything with fire resistance), so again it's a wash...

What level were you planning on multiclassing? Sorcerer has a lot of breakpoints, each with pros and cons...

Well really I was only planning on dipping Warlock but maybe I'll just stick to straight Sorc use one of my ASI to get elemental adept and not have to worry about someone resisting a damage type. Any suggestions on which dragon type to pair with the Black Dragonborn race ?

Thanks for all the great input so far

[Theodoxus]

Black and Gold - As mentioned, the Fire bolt is the best cantrip you'll get. It's not as versatile as EB, since it's a single target all or nothing attack, but it has the same base range and same base damage. Elemental Affinity, the 6th level Draconic ability, adds Charisma to the damage roll of your dragon type (fire, for Gold) - so, it's basically a minor Agonizing Blast (it only adds your charisma to the total, rather than each die, like EB would, but it does affect every fire spell you take - so Burning Hands, Fireball, Scorching Ray, etc. It also grants resistance to the damage type if you spend a sorcery point. Having two different resistances is pretty baller.

Plus, that's a pretty pimpin' symbol - perhaps a yin/yang of black and gold dragons...

If you wanted total synergy, Black and Copper are both Acid based; The Acid Splash cantrip is half the range and just over half the damage... But the two resistances wouldn't stack to provide immunity (without DM fiat - certainly something to ask for, but be prepared for a guffaw'd 'no!')

[polymphus]

Some sorta backline damage-dealer, probably.

[bluthunda]

Black and Gold - As mentioned, the Fire bolt is the best cantrip you'll get. It's not as versatile as EB, since it's a single target all or nothing attack, but it has the same base range and same base damage. Elemental Affinity, the 6th level Draconic ability, adds Charisma to the damage roll of your dragon type (fire, for Gold) - so, it's basically a minor Agonizing Blast (it only adds your charisma to the total, rather than each die, like EB would, but it does affect every fire spell you take - so Burning Hands, Fireball, Scorching Ray, etc. It also grants resistance to the damage type if you spend a sorcery point. Having two different resistances is pretty baller.

Plus, that's a pretty pimpin' symbol - perhaps a yin/yang of black and gold dragons...

If you wanted total synergy, Black and Copper are both Acid based; The Acid Splash cantrip is half the range and just over half the damage... But the two resistances wouldn't stack to provide immunity (without DM fiat - certainly something to ask for, but be prepared for a guffaw'd 'no!')

I know I definately want to go with two different Elements Black dragon for the race to kinda put a stigma on the character so people veiw him as evil but he's gonna be good aligned trying to follow in his ancestors foot steps and I'll probably go with Gold as fire seems to be some of the better spells for damage wise and the idea of a Black scaled Dragonborn with gold flakes/tint when the sun hits his scales type deal sounds cool to me.

I guess another thought I had would be to shelve the Black Dragonborn and go White/Gold and pick spells that use fire and ice as kinda a contrasting elements and alignments idea which I also think would be cool

[leoryff]

You'd think one of them would have a good enough reflex roll to duck under it.

[bluthunda]

You'd think one of them would have a good enough reflex roll to duck under it.

*Slow clap for great joke

[Sicarius Victis]

You'd think one of them would have a good enough reflex roll to duck under it.

The Monk chose to walk into the bar as part of training, the Bard failed the Perception check to notice the bar, and the Paladin...

Maybe the Paladin wanted to walk into the bar. We don't judge people's preferences here at GitP.

Except if someone enjoys 4e, then there seems to be more judgement here than even the Rapture.