Forest Knight

[Brother12]

Hey all, I'm imagining a forest knight kind of character for a future session. My thoughts started off with barbarian and possibly adding ranger for flavor and utility. Then I got thinking more about beast conclave. Here's what I've got.
Variant human with shield master feat, level 1 barbarian for extra hp. Next 4-6 levels in ranger taking dueling fighting style and beastmaster. After that take barbarian and possibly go back for levels 5-6 and maybe up to 8 in ranger depending on how I go first the few levels.
Sword and board, with strength as primary stat. Stat wise, I'd have 16, 14, 16, 8, 12, 10. I could switch them around as I'm human, but I don't see a better way to do so for my current concept. I know it wouldn't be super optimised, but it doesn't seem underpowered to me.
Thoughts?

[nickl_2000]

The first that I think about when I hear forest knight is Oath of the Ancient Paladin.

[Brother12]

Agreed, but it doesn't fit what I have in mind.

[Aett_Thorn]

Are you using the Revised Ranger at all? If you're not, then your beast companion is going to be fairly squishy at higher levels, since it's hit points only scale with Ranger levels. Also, you'll need a Wisdom of 13 to multiclass into or out of Ranger, so you'll need to adjust your stats a bit there.

If it were me, I'd probably go no more than 3 levels into Barbarian for this kind of build. I would keep most levels in Ranger, and just do a dip back into Barbarian after level 6 (1 Barbarian, 5 Ranger).

[TheCleverGuy]

Funny, I'd been thinking of a similar Barb/Ranger build. I was thinking of a Wolf totem barbarian with a Wolf pet. My plan was to take 4 levels of Ranger for the beast master subclass and ASI, and the rest in barb. I'd probably get the Defense fighting style, to boost the unarmored defense of the barb, since his stats would need to be pretty low.

He's only have a few out-of-combat spells, like Beast Bond or Speak with Animals. I haven't been able to settle on a race though.

[Brother12]

Yes to Revised Ranger. However, I'm more inclined to barb with a ranger dip. He's kind of a wolf knight. Wolf companion and flavor rage to frenzy of the hunt or something. The ranger part was originally 2nd level for those benefits then 4th for conclave and asi. Beast conclave so the two classes' 5th level don't seem redundant. Then I saw the Revised Ranger 6th level feature and think ranger 6, barb x is the way to go. Totem barb by the way.

[Guy Lombard-O]

I'd probably get the Defense fighting style, to boost the unarmored defense of the barb, since his stats would need to be pretty low.

Cool idea, but I'm pretty sure the Defense FS requires that you wear some sort of armor.

[Malifice]

The first that I think about when I hear forest knight is Oath of the Ancient Paladin.

This.

A million times this.

[TheCleverGuy]

Cool idea, but I'm pretty sure the Defense FS requires that you wear some sort of armor.

Oh, you're right. Dueling style is probably the way to go then, or two-weapon fighting.

[Brother12]

I appreciate the feedback. Again, paladin isn't really what I'm going for.


Any suggestions for leveling?

[OracularPoet]

If in Faerun, there are two groups which might be of interest: Tree Ghost Uthgart barbarians and the Shadoweirs.

The first, when totem warriors, follow the Tree Ghost totem (follows rules for Bear totem but get Speak With Plants instead of Speak With Animals), refuse to let a living tree be felled in their presence (like all Uthgart) and live in the middle of the High Forest under the gigantic Grandfather Tree.

Better tie-in for your concept, I feel, would be the Shadoweirs, who are a proselytizing order of knights devoted to Mielikki (Our Lady of the Forest) and were, when first introduced, all half-elven ranger/druid multiclassed. They were still allowed to wear elven chain despite being druids. Their name is a combination of two great tree species of the High Forest: the shadowtops and the weirwoods.

Not trying to shackle your concept; just give you some lore leads in case you are in that setting.

[nickl_2000]

So, one of the struggles that you are going to have with this build is that Rangers depend on concentration spells to be able to do enough damage to compete and for a barbarian to be useful you need to rage (which breaks concentration). So, you have a competition between the two.

Throwing this out there as a bit of a weird option. If you were to go with a small race instead of variant human you could do Revised Ranger Cavalier/Beast Master and ride the Wolf through combat. This would benefit in that the wolf would always get advantage on attacks with pack tactics and the unwavering mark ability on the cavalier can make it so the wolf isn't targeted. If your DM is very permissive, your wolf may be able to get the sentinel feat to make it even more crazy.

If you want to stick with variant human, you would be able to use a Brown Bear as a companion and do something similar. Although I might consider taking mounted combatant as my level 1 feat to make it really crazy.

[Contrast]

I appreciate the feedback. Again, paladin isn't really what I'm going for.

It might help if you explain a bit more about what the concept is as 'forest knight' definitely says ancients paladin to me. Barbarian ranger says 'crazy guy who lives in the woods'. If we knew what you were aiming for it makes it a bit clearer what is important to try and get online first and what the focus in terms of multi-classing should be. You describe wanting to play a barbarian dipping ranger for flavour and utility but then your build is primarily ranger...

Also helps to know what level you're starting at and expect to get to.

I don't personally see a lot of synergy between ranger and barbarian so my personal choice would be to choose 1, get it to level 5 and see if you still want to multiclass from there.

Would the outlander background give you sufficient ranger feel or is the pet the more important thematic element? Is being a spellcaster important? Do you not want paladin just because you don't want to wear heavy armour or is there some other issue? If you are going to multiclass barbarian on a primary ranger, what features are making you want to dip more than 2 levels?

Edit - In fact thinking about it normally you dip 2 levels for reckless attack and danger sense but Shield Master makes reckless attack a little less tempting (assuming your DM lets you BA shove then attack anyway), there's synergy with DS but don't know if thats worth a level. Another option open to you might be mixing barbarian with scout rogue if you're not interested in spells/pets. Expertise in Athletics makes Shield Master amazing.

[Willie the Duck]

It might help if you explain a bit more about what the concept is as 'forest knight' definitely says ancients paladin to me.

That*, or literally anything that would qualify as a knight (any martial? Anyone that wants their character to be 'a knight'?) that is in the forest (presumably with the skill and equipment to reasonably be out there). I can see either someone with the noble background but the survival skill (through any means), or any of the martial classes plus the outlander background.
*ancients paladins, to me, evoke the 18th and 19th century retrospective chivalry revivalism seen in a lot of fantasy artwork.

In theory, how you would play a knight-like character should change for staying in the forest. Longbows would have less usefulness compared to smaller hunting bows or javelins, a hanger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_swords#Double-edge_and_straight_swords) or messer would have less trouble being wielded in close confines than an arming or longsword, spending 24/7 (or just 8-12 hrs/day) in full plate would be extremely frustrating, etc. However, if the rest of your character options do not face such scrutiny, applying that level of realism to this specific build only would be cherry-picking.

Honestly, any martial build would work, so the OP's ideas certainly could. Carolingian knights would consider a noble Ostrogoth cavalrymen to be a barbarian, while in his own eyes he might be a keeper of the Ordo Equestris, and thus easily as much claim to knighthood as they.

[Brother12]

For me, ancients paladin is a forest protector who uses his/her power to defend the wild and their allies.

My character concept is more of a wildman who lives in the woods and lives like the wolves. He has access to metal armor and weapons, and appreciates this advantage, but can't stand being completely weighed down. So yes, in part the heavy armor is not what I want. I could just use medium. I don't love smite flavor for this build though. Barbarian rage fits more into wild-wolf-man-in-the-woods. Also, I'd rather invest in wisdom than charisma for this nature warrior. The knight name was misleading on my part, sorry. I'm going for more of a skilled warrior than noble fighter.

The idea for his role is mostly melee fighting, but capable at scouting and other utility from the ranger. Also, with some dexterity, he could be alright at range attacks. He's not going to be the face so lower charisma isn't a problem.

Folk hero is probably the background for this build. Outlander barbarian could work, but I do like the animal companion, fighting style, and some spells like goodberry and longstrider that don't require concentration.
Either barb 5/ranger x or ranger 4/barb x seems the most similar to what I'm thinking. Barb 5 for extra attack and overall tankiness and ranger 4 for asi and companion.

As far as levels, I'd either start at 1 or join another campaign somewhere between 7 and 10. Most likely, neither would go beyond level 15.

[Brother12]

I also want to apologize for not knowing how to quote.

[Vogie]

You could ask your DM if you could do an Eldritch Knight with the Druid Spell list instead of the Wizard Spell list.

Another option would be Nature Cleric with a Barbarian dip. Spiritual Weapon is a Wolfskull, which you can combine with Rage. Shillelagh too.

Yet another option is an Samurai Fighter with a Scout Rogue dip, and Magic Initiate:Druid so You get Animal Friendship (so you can charm a wolf companion) or goodberry.