Direwight
2019-03-23, 07:00 PM
Hello!
I wanted to solicit some advice on a character build concept. We're running a fairly low-level roleplaying-heavy campaign, at lvl3 right now and gaining levels very, very slowly so I'm only interested in how my idea would work in practise at levels 4-8 or so, not beyond that. I'm not trying to particularly minmax, as concept and fun roleplaying potential comes first, however I'd still like to make sure I could be somewhat useful and survivable in battle instead of nothing more than a drag.
So, what I wanted to make is an old matronly only-somewhat-senile half-orc proficient in folk wisdom, poetry and dancing. Since I'd also need to fill a melee role, she'd not be a heavy magic user but instead would simply tend to smack the unruly goblins with her big staff/club while muttering something about the youth of today. She'll heal and buff you and provide good advice, but probably only if you stop denigrating wise and benevolent Gruumsh.
This is what I got so far (no ability scores, as they will be rolled, but let's assume I get average rolls to allocate), starting at lvl4:
Divine bard 2 / fighter 2. Divine bard to avoid arcane spell failure in armor, although it does mean I need to have a reasonable wis score to cast spells. Dex would be low, and cha probably not great (not looking to pick almost any social skills, though, nor offensive spells). Wearing splint/banded mail to begin with, hitting things with a greatclub-fluffed-as-staff. I'd also pick two flaws, so I'd get a big pile of feats, with ideas I've had including: extra music (4 extra bardic music uses per day), battle dancer (+2 to attack rolls if moving and bardic music in effect), knowledge devotion if I'm allowed, improved initiative to get bardic music going faster.
I mostly worry about melee survivability (poor AC, lower hitpoints because of bardiness, although the improved toughness feat could help a little bit) and whether I can actually regularly crank out useful actions like inspire courage or buff spells when I should at the same time already be in melee. Of course, I also wouldn't really be utilizing the best melee weapons I'd be proficient with, nor shields.
Would this make for an annoyingly ineffective character? Would a straight-up cleric or druid be mechanically considerably better (I really really like having lots of skill points, though)? How would you do it, instead? Did I just make a dumb newbie thread?
I wanted to solicit some advice on a character build concept. We're running a fairly low-level roleplaying-heavy campaign, at lvl3 right now and gaining levels very, very slowly so I'm only interested in how my idea would work in practise at levels 4-8 or so, not beyond that. I'm not trying to particularly minmax, as concept and fun roleplaying potential comes first, however I'd still like to make sure I could be somewhat useful and survivable in battle instead of nothing more than a drag.
So, what I wanted to make is an old matronly only-somewhat-senile half-orc proficient in folk wisdom, poetry and dancing. Since I'd also need to fill a melee role, she'd not be a heavy magic user but instead would simply tend to smack the unruly goblins with her big staff/club while muttering something about the youth of today. She'll heal and buff you and provide good advice, but probably only if you stop denigrating wise and benevolent Gruumsh.
This is what I got so far (no ability scores, as they will be rolled, but let's assume I get average rolls to allocate), starting at lvl4:
Divine bard 2 / fighter 2. Divine bard to avoid arcane spell failure in armor, although it does mean I need to have a reasonable wis score to cast spells. Dex would be low, and cha probably not great (not looking to pick almost any social skills, though, nor offensive spells). Wearing splint/banded mail to begin with, hitting things with a greatclub-fluffed-as-staff. I'd also pick two flaws, so I'd get a big pile of feats, with ideas I've had including: extra music (4 extra bardic music uses per day), battle dancer (+2 to attack rolls if moving and bardic music in effect), knowledge devotion if I'm allowed, improved initiative to get bardic music going faster.
I mostly worry about melee survivability (poor AC, lower hitpoints because of bardiness, although the improved toughness feat could help a little bit) and whether I can actually regularly crank out useful actions like inspire courage or buff spells when I should at the same time already be in melee. Of course, I also wouldn't really be utilizing the best melee weapons I'd be proficient with, nor shields.
Would this make for an annoyingly ineffective character? Would a straight-up cleric or druid be mechanically considerably better (I really really like having lots of skill points, though)? How would you do it, instead? Did I just make a dumb newbie thread?