High-power character for group, certain limitations - Help please

[Mieko]

Heya!

So I've been playing in this group for a while, we just started arguably with the third campaign after summer break, though it's a neatless continuation of the 2nd campaign, with the same characters and story since the beginning. I've so far played a tabaxi bard, and at some point into the 2nd campaign the other players started to diss and make fun of my character, because a BARD! And because a FURRYYYYY/CAT! I know, no d&d is better than bad d&d, yes. I'm not really affected negatively by the harassment/my character being the target of jokes all the time, but it's about the principle. Making fun of my character continuously like that is unacceptable. One player is especially bad by now, his fun-making really going past being well-meaning and really being hostile. So much on the reasons why I'm bringing in a new character. I've given them throughout the latter half of the 2nd campaign to stop with their behavior again, they didn't for like 2 months. Cue, the first session again after summer break has been played this week, they still do it. That was the second to last chance they had, now next time I'll bring a new character, and if the making fun of continues then I'm out the door without so much as a goodbye. Funnily enough the DM even has started to repeat along the lines of 'my, they're really mean to you, aren't they!'. Yes, yes they are. The GM would actually be really good despite of the group, preparing lots of stuff, making interesting and deep campaigns and stuff. Just a bit on the 'the group goes there and does that without any inter-party conflict or need for creative thinking' side of things, and the usual 'I can't deal with xyz because it's too complex and hard to counter' stuff.

The GM has that thing about wanting certain roles in the group, and with a wizard filling the 'arcanist / deals with arcana/lore/knowledge stuff', a 'paladin / deals with the crusade-y / visions / holy mission stuff' as well as a 'priest / deals with the religious (knowledge) stuff' and a 'dwarf eldritch knight / deals with dwarf and martial stuff', I was basically assigned the 'sneaky / rogue-ish / trapfinding' niche back then. I don't care much about that role anymore, and it's become a bit of a neglected and not-invoked distinction anymore, since by now basically all npcs are either enemies or allies, and as allies they'll tell and do everything we'd ever need naturally and without any need for social skills or spells. Aside of social being a non-challenge, illusions are basically a waste of spells known, since troublesome to the DM. Mostly enemies would just not be affected at all. Combat is basically about dealing damage, with battlefield control, buffing, debuffing and support being a glorified side note. An example: Hypnotic pattern just stalls a few of the enemies for 1-2 rounds, until the others as usual have woken them up. It would be tooo good if it actually took enemies out of the fight or stalled them for much longer, right?

I do want to play a spellcaster, preferably an arcane one. Wizard and the group member that gets to deal with arcane and knowledge stuff is out of the question basically, see above. I'd like to be able to consistently deal a good amount of damage to all enemies present if possible, like, 30 dmg per round would be a good measure. The others deal comparable damage. It's never just one or two enemies, it's always groups of hard-hitting mooks, and anything but straight hitting back with normal damage via melee or ranged weapons is unheard of, so AC is key.
In terms of species, I know about warforged and it's my backup option. Other than that I'm into githyanki, and I've been allowed prematurely to reroll a mindflayer if I wanted to. Doesn't matter that that's actually evil, the alignments are also basically non-functional by now, it's all about just never appearing to go against the group and be a 'traitor'.

So far my plan A is a warforged cleric1/war school wizard 5 to have immense AC, really high saves against the few save-affecting things here and there, and then I need that constent and sustained high AoE damage, best if it works in the typical 'the enemies have surrounded us' scenario, too.

Thanks for any advice and help! Will probably end up with a better-adjusted character if I'm not doing it all on my own.


Edit: Oh, and I'd like to have something to do and a chance to play out my character during the straightforward no-brain questing. Plan A here is the noble background and to have three followers with tool proficiencies that can craft some kind of advanced good by combining their proficiencies (for example building warforged via woodworking, smithing, jewelry, alchemy and stonemasonry), and giving my character a bit of a group affiliation background, so to say. My bard ended up being a harper, which combined with other harpers becoming relevant in the story, has been a nice change from my niche being reduced to 'plays music in taverns for free food and room'.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Seriously?

Keep the cool Tabaxi Bard and kill the other characters in their sleep.

Make all of THEM roll up new 1st level characters who aren't complete jerks.

[Mieko]

It's not just the characters that are mocking my character, but rather the players making fun about my character out of the game, and letting their characters follow on that - basically the characters repeating fourth wall breaking ridicule. And I think I'll not play bards and catfolk anymore, it's always the same. But I don't need to, anymore, also, my tastes have changed and I like studious arcane practitioners as well as 'alien' species a lot more now. Playing a new character is also playing something that I like more myself, because of that. And the 'killing their characters in their sleep', because it's rather ooc, is the leaving the group if next time with a new character they won't stop making my character the group outcast. Lastly, killing them in their sleep probably won't work also because I bothered to build and play a good support character, while the rest of the group (even the characters that were tanks or healers in the beginning) went full out dps by now.

[denthor]

Our party bard refuses to heal when others make fun or in my case killed his brother.

I killed Kenny you no parents married you.

Do something that lets this player know actions/words have consequences even within the group.

[Mieko]

When my character followed up on the harassment by starting to be more loyal to the harpers than to that group, not telling them everything without a second thought and not taking hits to cover teammates making bad in combat decisions that was deemed treacherous, part of the allegations that are included in the mocking up to today. 'Yeah, the kitten will run away again probably.' 'Mage: Don't worry, I've got [insert spell to deal damage to the bard or root them] prepared.' That's what I meant with straight-forward no-brain loyalty and questing, if you do anything that isn't 'tell the others everything you learn all the time and act totally for the group' it's deemed misbehavior. It's either 'They get one last chance to behave better towards the new character' or 'I'm out, don't come crying and wanting me back after that ****' now. Also, the paladin and cleric can heal and fill the healing niche, not my bard.

[Sigreid]

If you want to chang characters, I think a warlock mindflayer would meet your criteria.

On a more serious note, it seems the party has decided your the party bitch. It's likely that will carry over to any character you make. You will have to communicate in game and out that this will not be tolerated.

[Mieko]

On a more serious note, it seems the party has decided your the party bitch. It's likely that will carry over to any character you make. You will have to communicate in game and out that this will not be tolerated.

Did that, of course I remarked right after it started that that's inacceptable. Since almost the entirety of the mocking is based on my character being a tabaxi for one and a bard, thought I might as well try another character and stick around for a session longer before I leave. That, and for the first one and a half campaigns they were actually able to behave, with the harassment only starting after over a year played. The DM is sympathetic as stated by what she keeps repeating, though the other players are obliviously continuing. That's why they get a last chance with a new character or else I'm gone. Also, party bitch is the term I was looking for. It's not the party troll, being ridiculous and hilarious by own choice, but being made the bitch by the rest of the party. And if it was questionable why I stayed in that group for even a session after the mocking started, as said it's because the campaign itself and the DM are enjoyable.



If you want to chang characters, I think a warlock mindflayer would meet your criteria.

On a more serious note, it seems the party has decided your the party bitch. It's likely that will carry over to any character you make. You will have to communicate in game and out that this will not be tolerated.

I'm interested, what's the deal about warlock here? The ability to nuke well and hit hard?

[Sigreid]

Did that, of course I remarked right after it started that that's inacceptable. Since almost the entirety of the mocking is based on my character being a tabaxi for one and a bard, thought I might as well try another character and stick around for a session longer before I leave. That, and for the first one and a half campaigns they were actually able to behave, with the harassment only starting after over a year played. The DM is sympathetic as stated by what she keeps repeating, though the other players are obliviously continuing. That's why they get a last chance with a new character or else I'm gone. Also, party bitch is the term I was looking for. It's not the party troll, being ridiculous and hilarious by own choice, but being made the bitch by the rest of the party. And if it was questionable why I stayed in that group for even a session after the mocking started, as said it's because the campaign itself and the DM are enjoyable.




I'm interested, what's the deal about warlock here? The ability to nuke well and hit hard?

Ok, first you can't competent your way out of party bitch, you have to ruthless your way out of it. Basically, don't help unless there's something in it for you until they make efforts to befriend you.

I suggested the warlock because it's a character with a scary feel that is an arcane caster that deals reliable round to round damage when you want it to.

[Mieko]

Duly noted, thank you for the advice. The next character will remain business-like for a while (if I'm playing beyond the next session), helping for being helped only. A mindflayer should be fun in that regard, provide me with a steady supply of juicy brains from our enemies, then I'll stay with that group that gets me more brains than any lair-with-occasional-abductions lifestyle. And warlock sounds good, I might give that a try over sorcerer, and will definitely look further into the class, thank you!

[GorogIrongut]

In your shoes... I'd be tempted to start being a passive aggressive a*hole. Go Warlock with Devil's Sight and just constantly cast Darkness. It makes YOU super effective but can screw with party members... hard.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, do you have restrictions on where you can choose subclasses from? What level characters are we talking?

I'd personally start my levels off as a Shadow Sorceror and take obscene advantage of the fact that when you cast darkness, you can see through it (see avoiding the need for Devil's Sight above). Mix and match in a few levels of either Paladin or Hexblade Warlock (this will depend a lot on the stats you roll or can take because Hexblade makes things a lot easier to not be MAD). If you go Warlock, then I would choose Pact of the Chain because super familiars have got your back (and add to the sneaky, skulking vibe your DM seems to want you to fill).

You can spend all of your time popping in and out of the shadows shooting peoples' heads off with Eldritch Blast. Especially if they start the BS complaining about your character choices again. Remember to abuse your metamagic mercilessly. And then when you need the big guns, you can stop with Eldritch Blast and actually start casting all the blasty spells your sorceror has (make a blaster/control freak subtype). Few things are nastier than landing an Empowered Fireball. Again and again and again. Even better when it's a mindflayer.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Ok, first you can't competent your way out of party bitch, you have to ruthless your way out of it. Basically, don't help unless there's something in it for you until they make efforts to befriend you.

I suggested the warlock because it's a character with a scary feel that is an arcane caster that deals reliable round to round damage when you want it to.

I can verify this from experience, and I'll second this suggestion.

[Sigreid]

One final suggestion, take the initiative in any situation your character would care about. Lead, dont follow.

Edit: my perspective comes from when I was younger and I would make someone into the party bitch to exert my dominance.

[Mieko]

The restriction on where to choose from is, no UA. The characters are lvl 6 now. Paladin is probably out of the question, since two people can't have the same class under that niches distributed system. I've heard about sorcerer/warlock - if I start with let's say shadow sorcerer, how many levels should I take in it before jumping to warlock? And do you mean abusing the metamagics for empowered agonized eldritch blasts?

Yeah, I suspect so much as that one player now trying to exert dominance that way, since I've had such a situation before with an ex-friend that went competitive against me especially with about every board game and p&p we'd played in our group. Was ridiculous and really annoying, especially since they were no match with their complete lack of knowledge about the system and about the played board games. I'll mind those suggestions in play, taking the lead and not being helpful for free. Brains or else! I guess I'm just too lenient to go to ruthless instead of noncaring behavior on my own. If they continue that s***, still they can weep over my departure, won't stick around to give them hell since they can go f*** themselves in that case, and I got better things to do.

[Keravath]

1) From the sounds of it this is more of a player issue than an in game character issue. They may have started teasing the character in game but it appears to have gone beyond that to teasing the player and then falling back on "but we were only teasing your character". It is BS. It is unacceptable and honestly it should have to stop if it is bothering you at all which it clearly is. It is the responsibility of you to state it and the DM to 100% back you up and tell the other players in no uncertain terms that the behavior is bothersome and unacceptable. If it is "teasing a player" then changing characters won't change anything except the choice of comments for teasing.

2) If you want to change characters and the DM has no issues ... sorlock is a decent choice. Do you use point buy or rolled stats? Do you use feats?

Go shadow sorcerer X/hexblade warlock 2, variant human with resilient for either wis or con depending on which class you take first. Use eldritch blast, either take devils sight and use darkness or use the shadow sorcerer ability to cast darkness they can see through using sorcery points and pick a different invocation. Agonizing blast+repelling blast, agonizing blast+devils sight if you want to see through any magical darkness. You will have 120' darkvision and 120' devils sight allowing you to see as if it was broad daylight under ANY lighting conditions from daylight to complete darkness, magical or otherwise. Shadow sorcerer has the additional advantage over divine soul that you don't have to take any spells to buff your team. Your single target damage is good and you can pick up some AoE and utility spells. Pick up twin and quicken meta magics and choose spells that complement the choices. Wear medium armor, carry a shield, maybe have a one handed weapon as a melee backup and possibly pick up the booming blade cantrip in case your DM tries to force you into melee - that way you will still have something you can do. Boost your charisma at 4 and 8 to max it if you started out with point buy.

[False God]

Your GM needs to woman up and stop feeling "sympathetic" to you and tell the other players to knock that stuff off or she's gonna knock some heads. Sympathy means nothing if it's just words and no action. Heck, THAT pisses me off more than the other party members being jerks to you.

I also second that the only way out of being party bitch is aggressive and violent behavior. Don't try to make them love you, make them fear you.

EX: I played a were-tiger in one game, she was incredibly vain and at one point lost her tail due to a weird magical mishap, which at the same time turned another character into a cat-person. That character started mocking mine for the loss of her tail when he had gained one. So she grabbed them and chopped off their tail and kept it as a belt.

My character didn't get made fun of again. By anyone.

IMO: if you're bent on a new character and your DM says you can be a mind-flayer, be a frikken mind flayer. If the party makes fun of you, do that thing in your name: flay some frikken minds.

[Mieko]

The hilarious thing is that it's seemingly not an out of character issue - 3 of the other players have been close friends for many years that among other things are the most lovely and amicable players in the campaign I DM, the other 2 are a couple that is nice so far, except for the husband being such a douche about my character. I know my way around *******s, and these people clearly are not, aside of that. Guess the old rule 'some friends you just shouldn't p&p with', a rule that has applied to other friends before and been working like a charm. And as said all the jokes are about my character being a tabaxi, being a bard and some things my character did. That's why I'm giving them a last chance with a new character. The DM is unfortunately not the assertive type, don't expect her to be able to shut this down. Not an excuse, it just means that the GM is part of the problem rather than an ally in it. Gonna do it myself one way or another. Trust me, if these people were actual *******s in real life I'd have banned them out of my life long ago.

We use point buy and feats are allowed.
Noted down the shadow sorcerer / hexblade warlock build you all are suggesting, and gonna build one as soon as I find the time! Thank you very much for that suggestion, it sounds really flavorful also.
And fear it is! I'll see and report how that ruthlessness is gonna affect things.
Thank you also for all the support!

[GorogIrongut]

So here's a quick rough up of what I would do:

Half Elf (because there are too many bonuses to not take this):
30' Move & 60' Darkvision (later 120')
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
For Half-Elf Versatility I would choose the following because it's very fitting for a Shadow Sorceror:
Drow Magic (Dark Elf Heritage). You know the Dancing Lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast Faerie Fire once, and it recharges after a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast Darkness once, and it recharges after a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Str 8 Averaged HP of: 44
Dex 14+1=15 (later on get resilient dex)
Con 15+1=16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 14+2=16 +2 from the ASI= 18

Level 1 Shadow Sorceror: 6 hp+3, Con Save, 4 Cantrips and 2 1st level spells and slots, Eyes of the Dark (120' Darkvision and other Darkness shenanigans) and Strength of the Grave (so you're harder to take down to 0).
-Booming Blade, Control Flames (putting out all fire sources to create darkness), Mage Hand, Mold Earth
-Your 1st level spells you're just going to swap out later... Remember when you go Hexblade you can get Shield.
Level 2Hexblade: d8+3 hp, A level 1 short rest spell slot, Hexblade's Curse (You can be a vindictive person with this.) & Hex Warrior
-Hex Warrior:You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. You get to attack with one weapon using Charisma.
-Eldritch Blast, (Prestidigitation or Minor Illusion)
-Armor of Agathys, Shield
Level 3Hexblade: d8+3h hp, Another Level 1 Short Rest Spell Slot, 2 Eldritch Invocations (SO many options)
-Hex
-Agonizing Blast-+Cha to Eldritch Blast & Mask of Many Faces- You can cast Disguise Self at will without spending a slot.
Honourable Mention goes to the following if you take Pact of the Chain later on:
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones
Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature
Whenever you regain hit points while your familiar is within 100 feet of you, treat any dice rolled to determine the hit points you regain as having rolled their maximum value for you.
Level 4 Shadow Sorceror: d6+3 hp, Sorcery Points, a level 1 spell slot
-Thunderwave
Level 5 Shadow Sorceror: d6+3 hp, Metamagic! 4 1st level slots and 2 2nd,
-So many 2nd level spells to choose from. You get one on levelling and you can swap out one you know. Do that and then pick one you like from the following:
Aganazzar's Scorcher/Dragon's Breath/Invisibility/Maximillian's Earthen Grasp/Mirror Image/Misty Step/Scorching Ray/Shadow Blade
-Metamagics! I'm a big fan of Subtle. You also reap a lot of benefit from Empowered, Quickened and Twinned. Also remember you're low level and have few Sorcery Points. Avoid the expensive metamagics for now. I'd personally go Subtle and Empowered (for next level's Fireball). Don't take Heightened because the Shadow's Hound does pretty much the same thing.
Level 6Shadow Sorceror: d6+3 hp, ASI, Another Cantrip & Spell known, a 3rd level 2 spell slot for Darkness, 4 Sorcery Points
I'd put the ASI into a +2 for Charisma... because it covers so many things that benefit your character.

At level 7 you want to go Shadow Sorceror so you can get access to level 3 spells. There's a big jump in power. After that, it's down to your preference.

Darkness lasts 10 mins. Cast it on a stone and put it in your pocket. Carry it around with you. Do whatever you want with it. You've got the free drow cast. You've the got Sorcery Point casting of it, which you SHOULD use. You can just hide in the back and shoot eldritch blast after eldritch blast at people with minimal fear of repercussion. Considering you're getting 2 shots at d10+4 with a +7 to hit... and you can do it forever because it's a cantrip... You'll get a lot of mileage out of it. You could theoretically quicken it for 2 lots of Eldritch Blast... but I'm not sure it's worth it. You may also have to decide if it's more worth it to cast Hex instead of Darkness because each bolt of Eldritch blast gets a further d6 necrotic damage.

There are a lot of things you can play with. It just depends on how you want to play. You're a bit of a glass cannon. You can hit very hard... and even though you have access to M Armour, Shields and Martial Weapons, you still have fewer hp than you would like. This is why I put the higher score in Constitution and took the spell Armor of Agathys. You have to decide if you want to hide in the back and burn people. Or if you want to get in melee and ride the Darkness.

[Nhorianscum]

Your bard as is with the caveat that you clearly state how not-ok you are with the current state of affairs and set boundaries.

Rerolling ain't gonna fix anything.

[Eldariel]

Honestly, Bard is already an extremely high-powered option to the point of being Top 4 classes in the game (with the Wizard, Druid and Cleric). You aren't going to get much better than that. Perhaps Lore Bard or some Wizard class instead and focus on minionmancy (Lore Bard with like Conjure Animals + Animate Dead on 6, Find Greater Steed + Telekinesis on 10 and so on gets pretty great for example) is stronger but ultimately your problem is clearly not a problem of class power. This will have to be dealt with out of character.

[Vorpalchicken]

When you say "not taking hits to cover teammates making bad in combat decisions" do you mean that you tabaxi dash+dashed away from a downed team-mate instead of healing them or trying to at least using your action to in some way fight or hinder your enemies?

Could the players possibly be annoyed with your game play style?

How should characters that are abandoned mid fight by their ally treat that ally? Scornful comments might be getting off lightly.