In which ways has a character of yours surprised you good and bad?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I was thinking about in combat at first but anyway really.

Now that we're up to Level 7 my Lore Bard is a way more competent spell caster than I expected. It took a few levels for me to figure out the spells and get enough of them to suit any situation.

On the other hand she isn't quite the melee fighter I was expecting with the high Dex score. The fighters and rogues have (naturally) outpaced her with their crits and multi-attacks.

[ImproperJustice]

I have been pleasantly suprised in 5th edition to see almost every class have it’s moments to shine, including those generally considered to be bottom tier.

[Asmotherion]

Dragon's Breath is much better in actual Play than I initially Expected. I never expected to have an other "Default" offensive spell for my Sorlocks, but now that it's on, AoE Damage per turn is an excelent option. I think I might even opt out Fireball (due to limited spell selection) over this. And this is something I never thought possible.

Overall I am so pleased with my Dragonic Origin Hexblade Sorlock that I can't begin to Describe. It's all I've been wanting in D&D. Sure, I could opt out for Divine Origin which is more optimisable, but I have a Dragonic Theme I like to keep. I have great options for Melee, Mid and Ranged Combat, will eventually permanantly Fly, and have equal AC to Martials, which I can buff up even more with the Shield Spell. Quicken Spell, Agonising Blast and Hex (plus Hexblade's Curse on Boss Fights) give me the Ultimate Ranged Weapon, and Booming Blade+Hex, and latter Eldritch Smite will allow me to keep up with the best in melee combat as well. Dragon's Breath is the Best AoE I could ever ask for, since not only it is per round (using Concentration, but still), but it also makes me Feel more like an actual Dragon(ic origin Sorcerer) on demand, using my Short Rest Recovered Spell Slots. Best Character Ever.

Disguise Self was the most disapointing part of my RP experiance; It has to do with how your DM will rull the whole "to dicern that you are disguised, a creature can use it's action to inspect your appearance" thing. My understanding of it is, if you do something that raises suspicion, you may give a creature a reason to inspect you. If your DM understands that, everyone in the room gets to roll against your spell save DC the moment they notice you, the spell becomes a lot more useless, especially since, the more people in the room, the more chances someone will eventurally get a high roll. It was one of those instances that got me disapointed on how the spell performed, and I droped the spell entirelly.

[Belier]

Disguise Self was the most disapointing part of my RP experiance; It has to do with how your DM will rull the whole "to dicern that you are disguised, a creature can use it's action to inspect your appearance" thing. My understanding of it is, if you do something that raises suspicion, you may give a creature a reason to inspect you. If your DM understands that, everyone in the room gets to roll against your spell save DC the moment they notice you, the spell becomes a lot more useless, especially since, the more people in the room, the more chances someone will eventurally get a high roll. It was one of those instances that got me disapointed on how the spell performed, and I droped the spell entirelly.

Some dm hates illusions and will make any creature auto inspect spells like phantasmal force to end the effect even if the creature is supposed to believed the spell is real. An example, the creature is affected by an illusion of alchimist fire, instead of trying to extenguish it on it's first turn he will auto inspect the illusion. Then the target is suppose to rationalise why he failed to extenguish the flames but he might still auto check it second turn. In fact, they should auto inspect when an ally would tell them, your not onfire wake up it is illusion.

So from my experience, I have this druid on which I had nothing to damage at level 1 and he was having a -1 strength penalty and I had guidance and druidcraft as my go to cantrips and detect magic, goodberry, healing voice and entangle as my spells. I expected to be not so useful but it turned out I was very useful. I had befriended the forest pixies in the quest because of detect magic and sylvan speaking. They were a huge help in a fight vs 3 displacers, they transformed them into toads. My good berries were allowed to be finger crushed to be forced in the mouth of uncouncious people. Healing voice is super awesome and my entangle helped vs the displacers also. My scimitar did also some nice job since it can be used with my dex doing some decent damage against some plants. The role play aspect was very nice with guidance and druidcraft. Some cadavre were stinking, druidcraft some faint flower smell to make it less stinky. Asking eldath for guidance on allies skill check was also quite usefull.

[FreddyNoNose]

I don't like to write up lengthy backgrounds when I create a character and prefer the organic learn what the character is as I play it. It almost always ends up being a surprise in some ways.

[Lord8Ball]

I had a diviner wizard who was hiding his identity by becoming a part of the clergy. His whole mojo was trying to divine the origin of the soul and what it actually is. He had connections to the underworld and was using illusory scripts to send coded messages and bribe people or buy components off of the black market. I was trying the stern religious type but slipped into a kindly personality. His actions such as saving a woman from rape, from a corrupt drunk paladin, with only a knife as well as the paladin's wizard hunters out the town started to change that. He adopted a child who showed magic abilities in an orphanage to protect him under the sanctuary of the church. Then he developed a sexual relationship with another cleric who ended up acting as the mother figure for the child. In two sessions Lucifer became the town hero and settled down to raise a family when I originally intended for him to become a (LE) mastermind kind of character.

[CantigThimble]

I've been surprised by how effective impulsive characters can be. I'm typically on over-planning type of guy. I usually know the rules better than anyone else at the table and know everyone else's characters' abilities better than they do themselves. As a result, I often end up doing a lot of planning and coordination. However, I've since tried playing very impulsive characters who get themselves into trouble first and worry about how to get out later. I've found that not only does that often get the job done, it often moves the story forward a lot faster and in more interesting ways. You don't want a whole party of characters like that, but one or two can really help get the game moving.

I've also been surprised by how incredibly useful athletics is. When you play a high strength character with athletics it's just shocking how many problems can be solved by running, jumping, climbing and being able to move heavy things. Dex may be tied to a larger number of skills, but high strength is just so damn good. I'll take a strength fighter over a dex fighter any day of the week.