Fourth Character for Ebberon Campaign

[birdboye713]

I might be playing in an Ebberon campaign soon, but I can't decide on a good character concept, as the other three have already decided on theirs. We will most likely have a Warforged Ancients Paladin, a Storm Sorcerer with the Mark of Storm, and a Halfling Barbarian Dinosaur Rider. I would prefer not playing a full caster, but if I did, I would want to play a druid or cleric. Any ideas?

[Sparky McDibben]

Maybe battlesmith artificer? Use ont as your weapon attack stat, proficiency with martial weapons, and a cool pet?

Also I totally misunderstood the subject of your post from the title. I thought you had lost three previous characters and this would be your fourth. I was impressed; that's like 1 character a week since the book's come out!
:)

[Bobthewizard]

While I don't think you need someone dedicated to healing, this party could use some help in that area. So cleric and druid would be good. Other options include ranger, celestial warlock or bard.

If you don't want to be caster then variant human with the healer feat would be helpful.

[stoutstien]

Artillerist would work well.
-Get one if the front liner to carry your protection turret for solid THP or a flamethrower for hordes.
-You can act as a mid liner. Tougher than the casters in the back but not as tough as the Frontline.
-Flash of genius combined with paladin aura is almost guaranteed to prevent failure on clutch saves.

[carrdrivesyou]

You've got two front liners and some solid blasting from the storm sorc. The paladin will be able to heal a bit without taking much for party resource. The barbarian will be soaking hits like a madman. And anything with a brain will try to pincushion your sorcerer. So I would think something along the lines of either a celestial warlock (probably pact of the chain), a glamour bard (for those sweettalking delights), or halfling vengeance paladin with the criminal background (takes the role of the rogue basically). An argument could be made for a rogue of any design, to help out with the lack of skill in the group.

My personal suggestion: Lightfoot halfling Paladin, Criminal background for thieves tools and stealth, Dexterity and finesse weapons with light armor and a shield, use smites instead of sneak attacks. You get advantage from being hidden.

The lightfoot halfling gets bonuses for your main stats (mostly DEX here), and the Lucky trait nets you crit fail avoidance. On the other hand, using a rapier gets you to use your DEX, instead of your strength, and with the dueling fighting style, gets you some SOLID damage. Paladin spells offer versatility equal in power to that of an arcane trickster (sans cantrips), and gets you access to cure wounds and lay on hands. High DEX also means using lighter armor, so you won't have disadvantage on stealth checks, and will rather excel at them.

If you're feeling particularly mean, take a level or two in rogue first for some skills, expertise, free thieves tools, and that sweet sneak attack die (which will be great with your melee oriented teammates).

Other build would be the same as above, but take variant human for the bonus feat (stat boosts in CHA and DEX), and grab magic initiate for Hex, booming blade, or some others. You could really add in some pain here.

Hope this helps.

[Sexyshoeless]

So looking at your line up from a party balance perspective, you've got a (presumably) blasting caster and two solid front liners. What may be missing is a source of combat healing, skills, and utility spells.

To that end, I would certainly recommend perhaps a bard or druid, but since you would not prefer a full caster, I'd recommend an artificer 100%. Other options could include a ranger or even a rogue to fill in that utility slot.

[Anderlith]

I would suggest Artillerist

[sambojin]

Well, the setting includes dinos. And what class likes dinos existing more than any other? Druid. Moon Druids specifically.

Being a CR1/2 Frilled Deathspitter (from Ixalan, but it's a ranged poison/blinder), a CR1 Deinonychus (3-4 attack meleer) or Dilophosaurus (short ranged blinder/paralyzer), a CR2 Giant Spitting Lizard (poison shooter and melee blocker) or Quetzlcoatlus (huge flyer), etc is fun. This is on top of all the other random malarkey wildshape gives you, so it's not like you can't just be a spider or giant constrictor snake or ape or bear or something if you want.
Honestly don't know if a Kavu Predator is a six-legged dino from Dominaria, but it's a beast, so go wild (15AC, 75HP, 2-3 attacks, CR2 is pretty high on the power chain of wildshape tanking forms).

You can go entire days without really being a caster on anything other than "oh yeah, we've got that skill" (Guidance or Enhance Ability or Pass Without Trace) and maybe a bit of healing, but you can go full-on summoner ("I cast Velociraptor/Jaculi Swarm!") or an actual full-caster when you want. At least you won't be bored, and can serve plenty of roles in a party too. Makes it really easy on the Sorc and the Barb, because you can cover all the utility/lockdown while they blast away, or you can just *be* the dinosaur she/he is built to ride. A big one. Or you can just be a selfish SoaB and never leave wildshape and only use your slots for self healing. The choice is yours :)

At about level 6, if all you ever do is cast Conjure Animals "Warhorse" and then bonus action into a spider/octopus/snake/spitting lizard or whatever and fire/restrain away, you're doing more than enough.


Haven't really read the book yet, but if you want to go an Eberron race, go Kalashtar. Telepathy and big wildshape is awesome, takes a lot of the hassle away from those days when you're definitely not being a full-caster, and the +2 Wis/+1 Cha makes things easy on you, so you're all the beast you can be. Being able to speak to your summons while in wildshape is nice too.


(there's something to be said for being a Warforged and "not-sleeping" as a killer whale though. 120' blindsight certainly makes it easy to choose who's doing guard duty every night....

....or a human with Mark of Hunting. Having Hunter's Mark, even just once per day, is a very nice power boost for you. Doesn't seem like much, but you've got plenty of 2/3/4 attack forms, and it lasts an hour. The +d4 on Perception is nice too, and can stack with Guidance. The rest is pretty poor though....

....or an Aberrant Dragonmark for a little bit of 'lock-like lvl1 magic. I'm not really sure what you'd take with that spell-wise (Expeditious Retreat?), or if it would be better than just taking MI:Warlock and taking Hex/Minor Illusion/whatever or MI:Wizard w/ Find Familiar. Hard to say....

....or a Longtooth Shifter. There's no real reason why a bear can't shift. And having bonus action attacks are very handy as a Moon. Pity the stat enhancements suck for a druid.....

Anyway, there's lots of pretty good options in the book for a Moon Druid's race, but Kalashtar is probably the best)

[Witty Username]

A changeling trickery cleric could be a good fit, go with criminal background to fill out the rogue slot. Or just go rogue.