Help me create my PC for CoS please! Min/Max welcome!

[Decstarr]

Hey guys,

we’re starting CoS next week. Will be my first time playing after DMing a campaign for almost 4 years. We’re 3 experienced d&d guys and 3 relative newbies in the group. Starting at level 1.
Group so far is:
Silver Dragonborn Paladin who will go Oath of the Ancients
Wood Elf Ranger who will go Monster Slayer
Wood Elf Druid who’s gonna be Circle of the Moon
Kobold Druid who’s also gonna be circle of the moon (guy rolled a total stats of 63 with his highest being 13, so he said he basically has to play Moon Druid to be of any use)
Forrest gnome wizard (Conj or Diviner).

I’m the last to choose. Pretty set on playing Human - Variant since the DM said we should have at least one Human in the group and no one else wants to play one.
My rolls were 17, 16, 16, 15, 13, 10. So I basically can play whatever I want. Which is what makes it so hard to decide.

Some basic stuff:
- I’d like to play a pretty easy going character who is sort of the mediator in conflict and entirely not edgy at all. From what the DM dropped I assume it’ll make sense for me to be the face, so all the charisma classes come to mind. But with those rolls, doesn’t really matter.

- I’ll pick the Haunted One background and already talked with the DM about it. I’d like to create a scenario in which at one point my character might be in a position to betray the group. It doesn’t HAVE to happen, but it’d be cool if circumstances have my guy do it.

- We’ll Start at level 1 with some “add-on one shot” that a lot of people do in CoS, according to my DM. He also said the risk of dying is very real there, especially with lvl 1s and had us roll backup stats. On those rolls, my highest was a 12, so I really don’t wanna lose that first PC. Which is the main reason I’m hesitating to just pick a super MAD class like monk who won’t be doing much at level 1.

- Pala is already taken and I’d rather not play a class someone else is playing.

- Cleric and Warlock seem like obvious choices, but I’m not entirely sold on either.

Build me a good level 1 character with a feat and those stats rolls. Thanks!

[8wGremlin]

I played an undying warlock/ divine soul sorcerer in that and picked a lot of cleric spells that I could twin, as well as spiritual guardians. It was great fun to play.

[Expected]

Since you do not have a Rogue and need a party face, a Lore Bard is the perfect character for you to make to complement the rest of your party.

Variant Human
Lore Bard 1-20 (or Lore Bard/Hexblade Warlock 1-2)
Custom Entertainer
Str-Dex-Con-Int-Wis-Cha
8-14-13-12-12-16

Proficiencies
Acrobatics [Level 3]
Arcana [Level 3]
Deception
Insight
Intimidation [Level 3]
Investigation
Perception
Persuasion
Stealth

Expertise
Deception [Level 3]
Insight [Level 10]
Persuasion [Level 3]
Stealth [Level 10]

Tools
Disguise Kit/Forgery Kit
Thieves' Tools

Feats
Resilient: Con
(War Caster)
(Sharpshooter)

From there, just take spells that will seem compatible with the type of campaign you are in (combat vs exploration/rp). I highly suggest Counterspell, Shield/Absorb Elements, and some type of bonus action for action economy--Bigby's Hand, Spiritual Weapon, etc.

Swift Quiver will help your build's DPR immensely if you dip Fighter for Longbow proficiency and the Archery Fighting Style. You can even take Sharpshooter if you'd like.

[jaappleton]

Since you do not have a Rogue and need a party face, a Lore Bard is the perfect character for you to make to complement the rest of your party.

Variant Human
Lore Bard 1-20 (or Lore Bard/Hexblade Warlock 1-2)
Custom Entertainer
Str-Dex-Con-Int-Wis-Cha
8-14-13-12-12-16

Proficiencies
Acrobatics [Level 3]
Arcana [Level 3]
Deception
Insight
Intimidation [Level 3]
Investigation
Perception
Persuasion
Stealth

Expertise
Deception [Level 3]
Insight [Level 10]
Persuasion [Level 3]
Stealth [Level 10]

Tools
Disguise Kit/Forgery Kit
Thieves' Tools

Feats
Resilient: Con
(War Caster)
(Sharpshooter)

From there, just take spells that will seem compatible with the type of campaign you are in (combat vs exploration/rp). I highly suggest Counterspell, Shield/Absorb Elements, and some type of bonus action for action economy--Bigby's Hand, Spiritual Weapon, etc.

Swift Quiver will help your build's DPR immensely if you dip Fighter for Longbow proficiency and the Archery Fighting Style. You can even take Sharpshooter if you'd like.

I agree with almost everything here. I suggest Bard... just not Lore.

Played a Lore myself for awhile. My group is currently finishing up CoS. There's one feature of the Lore Bard which makes it tough for CoS:

Cutting Words specifically doesn't work against targets that can't hear you, or are immune to being charmed. Many Undead are immune to charms, unfortunately. For this reason, I'd go with another College.

Aside from Bard, the other recommendation I'd go with is Cleric. While the Paladin can heal, it takes their Action. While the Druids can heal, they're Moon and can't cast spell while Wild Shaped (at least for awhile). And to be clear, I'm not saying you should be the healer; no no no. But SOMEONE should be able to heal as a bonus action, and that means Healing Word, which is available to Clerics, Bards, and Druids. What other advantages does Cleric bring? I'm going to specifically suggest Forge Cleric. Not for its amazing abilities of +1 AC at lv6, or to make someones weapon magical starting at 1st level (You've no idea how useful that'll be :smalltongue: ), or even for its solid Domain spell list like Wall of Fire. Not even suggesting it for its ability to give you Fire Resistance, which will really come in handy.

No, I'm suggesting Forge Cleric for its Channel Divinity... Because in CoS, you'll need magical or silvered weapons. And the main currency is Electrum, which is part silver. You picking up what I'm putting down?

[Decstarr]

I agree with almost everything here. I suggest Bard... just not Lore.

Played a Lore myself for awhile. My group is currently finishing up CoS. There's one feature of the Lore Bard which makes it tough for CoS:

Cutting Words specifically doesn't work against targets that can't hear you, or are immune to being charmed. Many Undead are immune to charms, unfortunately. For this reason, I'd go with another College.

Aside from Bard, the other recommendation I'd go with is Cleric. While the Paladin can heal, it takes their Action. While the Druids can heal, they're Moon and can't cast spell while Wild Shaped (at least for awhile). And to be clear, I'm not saying you should be the healer; no no no. But SOMEONE should be able to heal as a bonus action, and that means Healing Word, which is available to Clerics, Bards, and Druids. What other advantages does Cleric bring? I'm going to specifically suggest Forge Cleric. Not for its amazing abilities of +1 AC at lv6, or to make someones weapon magical starting at 1st level (You've no idea how useful that'll be :smalltongue: ), or even for its solid Domain spell list like Wall of Fire. Not even suggesting it for its ability to give you Fire Resistance, which will really come in handy.

No, I'm suggesting Forge Cleric for its Channel Divinity... Because in CoS, you'll need magical or silvered weapons. And the main currency is Electrum, which is part silver. You picking up what I'm putting down?

And how would you skill the Forge Cleric? Specifically with regards to which feat should I pick? I think stats are rather straight forward, but I'm having a hard time deciding on a feat if I think about cleric.

[Damon_Tor]

And how would you skill the Forge Cleric? Specifically with regards to which feat should I pick? I think stats are rather straight forward, but I'm having a hard time deciding on a feat if I think about cleric.

Probably Resilient (Con) or Warcaster to pass those concentration saves.

[jaappleton]

Probably Resilient (Con) or Warcaster to pass those concentration saves.

CoS goes to level 10-ish. With some strategy and a little luck, you can actually take on Strahd as early as level 7, but its tough. If you do everything you should, it goes to 10. But some parties miss entire quest chains, and the book is fairly vague in when the party should level. It basically states, "When they complete a quest, the party should level". But... there's enough quests to get to level 12, and some are much more involved than others, so...? I guess what I'm saying is that if you get to 10, great, but you'll likely end around 8 or 9.

That's important for feat selection because many feats, like Resilient, involve your proficiency bonus.

I'm actually going to recommend Warcaster here. Level 8+ is where I recommend Resilient, starting anytime before that and I suggest Warcaster basically every time.

[Sigreid]

Forge cleric is a good choice. Any group with a cleric has an edge.

[Bobthewizard]

You definitely want a cleric for COS. Turn undead is too helpful to pass up. I'd go either grave for the detect undead or something with heavy armor. I like bards, but not as the primary healer in COS.

You might even want to try to talk the paladin into going Oath of Devotion to get another use of turn undead.

[Terdarius]

Cleric for the healing would be my recommendation as well.
We recently finished CoS and whenever our cleric wasn't there we had a rough time because we had very little healing without him.

Otherwise i made a backup char for CoS using the haunted one background, which would really fit in well.
It was meant to replicate the demon hunter from Diablo III but instead of demons she would hunt undead.

The build was:
Bladelock 5 / Ranger (hunter) X, With hand-crossbow cheese. (so eventually 3 crossbow attacks per round using charisma)
The first few levels would be a bit of a struggle, but eventually it should do some very nice DPR and has some good flavor.

[jaappleton]

You definitely want a cleric for COS. Turn undead is too helpful to pass up. I'd go either grave for the detect undead or something with heavy armor. I like bards, but not as the primary healer in COS.

You might even want to try to talk the paladin into going Oath of Devotion to get another use of turn undead.

Both Ancients and Devotion are amazing. Devotion grants immunity to charms, while Ancients provides half damage from spells. Both of those can save the life of the party. I personally like Ancients more.

[Damon_Tor]

CoS goes to level 10-ish. With some strategy and a little luck, you can actually take on Strahd as early as level 7, but its tough. If you do everything you should, it goes to 10. But some parties miss entire quest chains, and the book is fairly vague in when the party should level. It basically states, "When they complete a quest, the party should level". But... there's enough quests to get to level 12, and some are much more involved than others, so...? I guess what I'm saying is that if you get to 10, great, but you'll likely end around 8 or 9.

That's important for feat selection because many feats, like Resilient, involve your proficiency bonus.

I'm actually going to recommend Warcaster here. Level 8+ is where I recommend Resilient, starting anytime before that and I suggest Warcaster basically every time.

I'll note that one of those rolled 16s is probably going in con, which means after his racial +1 its going to be sitting at 17, so Resilient would bump that up to 18. So the feat represents +3 on all his con saves (not +2) as well as an extra hitpoint at every levelup. Warcaster is going to be better for the concentration saves specifically, but doesn't effect other con saves (and there are plenty in CoS) and the other two benefits of warcaster are largely wasted on a cleric with his stats: he'll have Str enough that his melee attack will outperform his cantrips and clerics don't have to worry about somatic components most of the time because their holy symbols can be built into their shields.

Comparing the two feats directly against one another for concentration saves specifically, the results are a win for warcaster, but a small one: Warcaster (+3 with Advantage) passes a DC 10 concentration save 91% of the time, while Resilient (+6) passes 85% of the time.

So you need to ask yourself if a 6% increased chance of passing concentration saves is worth giving up a 15% bonus on all other con saves and an extra hitpoint per level.

[Keravath]

There are lots of good choices ... your stats will support all sorts of combinations with a starting 18 and 3 x 16 as a variant human. If you go with a caster class then I would suggest either resilient con or wis (whichever you are missing as your first level feat - it isn't exciting but there are a lot of effects including concentration saving throws where proficiency in con and wis saves would be good - if you don't take it at 1st, take it at 4th).

Knowledge cleric 1 / lore bard X - for skills/full spell casting/armor and shields plus first level cleric spells.

Hexblade warlock 2/ lore bard X - I have played this one and it works really well with the hexblade dip providing armor+shields, scaling single target at-will damage with agonizing blast, see in the dark with devils sight which could be important for a variant human. Your spells will run one level behind but for me this was really only noticeable at character level 6.

I like lore bard for the extra skills and cutting words. Ghouls, Ghasts, Ghosts and Specters are immune to charm though but Zombies, Skeletons and Vampires are not so there will be some targets vulnerable to it and some not. You can also use your bardic inspiration the normal way for those cases where cutting words doesn't work.

Hexblade warlock 2/ divine soul sorcerer X - good blasting options and access to cleric spells to fill in for the lack of a cleric. However, the party has two druids, a paladin and a ranger, all of which have the ability to heal so healing isn't a big focus.

Your party also has 3 melee with 2 moon druids and the paladin so adding a ranged spellcaster like a bard could be very useful.

Finally, there are the cleric builds. In particular the arcana cleric taking the Magic initiate druid feat for shillelagh, thorn whip and a spell. They get to pick the booming blade cantrip as a cleric cantrip and can make a very good melee cleric especially with spirit guardians up. (There is a good thread on this site that details the arcana cleric build). The 6th level dispel effect when you heal a target by at least one hit point can be VERY useful. You can use a healing word to end a hold person or fear on one of your team mates as a bonus action for example. All clerics get turn undead but the arcana cleric also gets the ability to turn one celestial/fey/fiend/elemental which could also come in handy though I don't know how many of these might be in COS. Last point is the 8th level ability that adds your wisdom modifier when you do damage with any cleric cantrip. So this adds not only to sacred flame or toll the dead, but also to the initial damage from booming blade and again on additional damage if the target moves and takes the rider damage.

Anyway, there are lots of good options to consider. The main concern with a variant human cleric is lack of darkvision, though with your stats you can get darkvision with a single level of shadow sorcerer (which would add a bunch more cantrips, the shield and absorb elements spell) so it might very well be worth the investment. You could do the same with a single level of wizard too depending on how you distribute your stats. The arcana cleric build will probably also need the warcaster feat at some point fairly early.

[Sigreid]

Healing isn't actually why I suggest cleric. There are in campaign reasons I don't want to spoil why a cleric is a benefit a druid can't be.

[Damon_Tor]

Healing isn't actually why I suggest cleric. There are in campaign reasons I don't want to spoil why a cleric is a benefit a druid can't be.

This is true, and as others have noted, the Forge Cleric in particular is valuable simply because the campaign setting is particularly sparse when it comes to vendors. The ability to create your own silvered weapons is extremely relevant.

[Feddlefew]

Based on your party composition I'd go either go cleric or, if the paladin isn't going to be the party Face, glamour bard. Arcane trickster gives you some nifty options, but wouldn't be my first choice since you have a ranger.

Glamour bards make great face characters and gets some really, really good control options. Bards are a bit weak early in the game, so the opening adventure might be rough.

Really most cleric domain options are good, though for CoS I'd say knowledge, war, and forge would be my top domain picks. Healing is also good if you think the party needs extra healing, but a lot of the danger in CoS comes from being caught unprepared. Just don't take trickery, trickery is terrible.

Arcane tricksters are amazing if you can get the weapon attack cantrips from SCAG. They can also feasible fill the party face roll and mesh surprisingly well with rogues rangers.

[jaappleton]

Another note on Forge Domain and silvered weapons.

Some small spoilers ahead.


You can find plenty of silver. There's lots of silver around. Silver candlesticks, silver flatware, etc. Lots of things in many areas are specifically stated as being made of silver.

So... That's a thing.

My group, which has a Forge Cleric, we raided a corrupt persons house and took their silver. Then the Forge Cleric did their work, and we had silvered weapons.

[GreyBlack]

Hey there! Current DM of Curse of Strahd here!

My current party for Curse of Strahd is a Devotion Paladin, Knowledge Cleric, Druid of the Moon, GOO warlock, and an Open Hand monk. They're currently getting ready to head to Castle Ravenloft right now.

Of these, the Moon Druid has consistently been the big hitter, although I suspect it has something to do with the player in addition to the character. There are also some really fun wild shape forms you can get, so beware of that.

The second big hitter is the Devotion Paladin. Obvious because fighting undead is kinda her schtick, but there's some great two handed fighting stuff you can get depending on where you choose to fight.

Knowledge Cleric has been fun; Turn Undead is great in this adventure module, so yay for that. There's also artifact level magic items for a Cleric in the game so enjoy those.

Then comes the Warlock and Monk. The Warlock has been kinda inconsistent, but I suspect that's both due to him not being at the game some of the time. The monk, by comparison, has dealt huge damage and been effective at scouting, but also a bit wonky in what magic items have been available to him. I wound up giving him a certain one because... well he's Chaotic Neutral, so that's I could totally see a certain barbarian warlord giving him their favor.

Something that I might recommend also would be Wizard. If you search around, you will find spellbooks a plenty for your treasure, in addition to Wizard being generally effective. Otherwise, your mileage may vary.

[Decstarr]

thanks for all the input so far. After reading a lot and thinking about it for the entirety of this day, I have decided that I would like to give the Warlock a try. Reasoning here that since noone else in the group bothered thinking about effectiveness when creating their character but simply playing what they feel like, why should I?
And I feel like playing a super nice, good looking, well rounded Warlock who is very diplomatic and just generally "nice".

I have very little experience with Warlocks, so my new question would be: How to min/max the Human variant Warlock with my stat rolls in CoS.

Undying seems pretty good with stabilizing group members for free and having a very high chance to not be attacked by friggin' undead.
Hexblade is always good I guess.

Which feat would you take? Which Patron would you recommend?

[Sigreid]

Celestial would be a really good fit.

[Bobthewizard]

thanks for all the input so far. After reading a lot and thinking about it for the entirety of this day, I have decided that I would like to give the Warlock a try. Reasoning here that since noone else in the group bothered thinking about effectiveness when creating their character but simply playing what they feel like, why should I?
And I feel like playing a super nice, good looking, well rounded Warlock who is very diplomatic and just generally "nice".

I have very little experience with Warlocks, so my new question would be: How to min/max the Human variant Warlock with my stat rolls in CoS.

Undying seems pretty good with stabilizing group members for free and having a very high chance to not be attacked by friggin' undead.
Hexblade is always good I guess.

Which feat would you take? Which Patron would you recommend?

I like talking about min/maxing on here but my advice is to always play what you want, so good for you. Hexblade is the most powerful subclass but you can make any warlock work if you focus on Eldritch Blast, taking agonizing blast and repelling blast as invocations.

With your stats, a 2 level dip in paladin could make you more versatile in combat but you already have a paladin and 2 moon druids so staying back and sniping works just fine.

[SirGraystone]

For RP reason is you do a cleric, you should pick a god that link to the sun, pelor, lathander. Another choice for a face would be a bard, always useful in a group, and if you want a possible betrayal later, ask your DM if your unknown father could be Vistani.