Decisions, decisions

[OddlucK]

Hello, World!

I'm just looking for a little input. I've created a Half-Elf, Faction Agent, Rogue 1/Knowledge Cleric 1/Ranger 1/Lore Bard 4. May be pretty obvious, but she started as an experiment in making a Skill Monkey.

As I've been thinking about it, though, I'm growing attached to the idea of an Agent (I've decided she's a Harper, or at least was), who is cocky, but kind, and am leaning toward the Bard/Rogue archetype of quippy, talkative, snarky, skilled with a sword, etc. More or less Robin Hood, but not so much with the archery (though that's an option too).

As such, I'm debating between growing more in Lore Bard, or going into (SCAG) Swashbuckler Rogue. Looking at the levels, I'll eventually get more ASI's if I go Rogue, but will get mental magic (among others) with Bard. Or, I could forego both and delve into Ranger for the shooty-shooty.

Any thoughts/ideas?

Thanks! :D

[Man_Over_Game]

I've had a decent amount of luck going Dex Class 1/Warlock 2 as a skill monkey. The Disguise Self At-Will invocation really puts in a LOT of work for those social types.

Specifically, I went Rogue 1 -> Warlock 1-2 (into Great Old One) -> Rogue 2-X (into Swashbuckler) into an amazing skill monkey that could speak to people telepathically and had a great list of skills.

I think going Knowledge isn't a bad idea, but I'd probably say it's something worth wholly investing in. The spells you get later on, with the versatility of a high level cleric, can fill in the slot of a skill monkey just fine.

Lore Bard as a single class works perfectly fine, too, and is definitely something I'd suggest. Skills are useful to fill in the spaces that magic can't account for, so improving your spellcasting, when it provides utility options, is going to be a better investment than dividing up your levels.

So my recommendation is full Knowledge Cleric, full Lore Bard, or some mix of rogue/warlock/ranger, depending on what you're looking to do. An Arcane Trickster, with Ritual Caster, for instance, is a better utility/skill monkey character than almost anything else you can find, even without multiclassing.

[OddlucK]

The idea was to be proficient in everything, not just most things, hence the multi-class dipping. It started from a mechanical bent. That said, if I ever were to actually play this character, I think I would probably stick with either Rogue or Bard (or maybe multi- with both).

This is why I more often start with a character's flavor when building, and bring mechanics into it later. :D