Need Ideas For a New PC

[Name2020]

My friend invited me to a campaign he is running with three others. The first session I play in starts Sunday and I'm kind of pressed for character ideas. They currently have a wizard, fighter, and the newest version of the artificer from UA. If you got any ideas for fun and interesting ideas for characters I will graciously accept them.

[Theaitetos]

Your party could definitely use a "face", i.e. someone with CHA and interpersonal skills like persuasion & deception, as well as insight or perception (WIS): a Paladin, Bard, Warlock, or Sorcerer. Otherwise what your party is likely to lack depends a little on the artificer's choices (rogue, healer/supporter, ranged attacks, …). Another option is a "nature" character like a Druid or Ranger.

I would recommend a paladin, especially if your party's fighter is ranged. If your artificer isn't big into healing/support, then maybe a druid, but paladin works in every case.

[KorvinStarmast]

1. Paladin.
2. Bard (Valor)
3. Rogue, but make sure they have a 12 or 14 Cha and expertise in a social skill: persuasion or deception.

Only because I have to say it:

Warlock, Hexblade. :smallyuk:

[malachi]

Half-elf devotion paladin, folk hero background.
You grew up on a farm, and whenever you speak you have a thick country accent - except for when you speak elvish, where you speak with a posh british or french accent.
You're not a knight in shining armor, but a strong guy wearing whatever he could find - but he still has the same effect, when the day's done.

[jaappleton]

Bard.

It may seem silly at first, if you've never played one. Music, bad reputation, blah blah. Don't let that fool you! Bards in 5th Edition are absolutely awesome, I've played several and I've completely ignored the whole 'musical' thing. You aren't beholden to the tropes. But, if you lean into them, they can be a blast to play.

Bards have an excellent spell list and much like a Cleric, everyone in the group should appreciate having one on the team. They can support allies and control enemies incredibly well, and can be capable healers.

Character Concept: You're a musical Bard that had a legitimate song hit about 30 years ago, but you've never been more than a one hit wonder. After spending decades in obscurity, your one song is now recited only as a joke. Desperate to have your legacy mean something more, you've struck out on the road for the adventuring lifestyle.

You're Rick Astley, D&D Adventurer, and you're never going to let them down.

[Tawmis]

You're Rick Astley, D&D Adventurer, and you're never going to let them down.

I am not sure anyone can beat this answer...

That said, if you ever want a backstory for the character, let me know. (See the signature for more)!

[Nikushimi]

I guess it depends on what you determine as "Fun" and if you want to round out your party since it is technically missing a divine caster of sorts.

So, some fun ideas for classes imo are

1. Divine Soul Sorcerer. Blessed by the gods you have both arcane and divine abilities. Capable of healing your allies and blasting your foes.
2. Cleric, any domain, but my personal favorite is Light Domain. Burn evil in holy fire!
3. Celestial Warlock. Command the powers granted to you by the divine beings themselves! Similar to the Divine Soul Sorcerer being able to heal your allies and blast your foes, but with the added bonus of Invocations! Some of the coolest things I feel in D&D.

Half-Elf for race imo cause of what they get. Though, Kalashtar seem pretty damn interesting.

A Kalashtar Celestial Warlock would be actually amazing. Your Patron could actually BE the spirit attached to you. The Spirit which sought you out is actually a Celestial Spirit which grants you powers in exchange for its connection with you. Something like that could be interesting, unique, and fun....Actually, I might steal this idea in the future, lol.

The same could be said about a Divine Soul Sorcerer with where you get your magic from as a Kalashtar.

These are my suggestions.

[Eldariel]

Diviner Wizard is just awesome. Come level 6-9 you can just use all your evening slots prying into the campaign notes completely in-character. There's never enough Wizards in the party, particularly as they can specialize any which way. Portent is cool too and the subclass is just all-around awesome. The only reason I wouldn't run it would be if the other Wizard were precisely a Diviner too.


Other ideas, there's always room for a Cleric and a Druid.

[J-H]

I suggest you gather more information.
What level does it start at?
Does it have an expected ending level?
What races and/or classes are or are not welcome/permitted for setting reasons?
What is the focus of the campaign? Dungeoncrawling, overland chase of an artifact, politics, war, etc.?

[Man_Over_Game]

I feel like we need a bit more information to appropriately give you suggestions. What we think is fun will be different from what you think is fun, and we don't have any frame of reference as to what your version of fun is.

I have a solution: Below is a personality quiz that determines your perfect class/race/subclass that I made a while back. People seemed to like it, and I'd dare say it is really damn accurate.

GitP post: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579402-I-ve-UPLOADED-a-personality-quiz-that-gives-you-your-best-build-Wanna-try

Quiz download link (Excel document): https://www.enworld.org/threads/personality-quiz-to-determine-your-favorite-class-race-subclass.657399/#post-7568062

Or, if you're interested in the results but don't want to download anything, read the following spoiler (from the first link) and just post your answers:

Section 1: Class

For each question, you will give me one number, with an optional second number. The first number is on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the absolute of one side of the question, and 10 being the opposite side.

The second number is a multiplier to determine how important that distinction is. You can choose to ignore the second number, but it defaults to 1. So if you want something to be twice as important as anything else, you just give me 2 as the second number and you can have every other one of your answers have no second number (because I'll just default it to 1).

For example, the first question is whether you want to be a melee combatant (1) or a ranged combatant (10). For the first number, 1 is a strictly melee combatant, 10 is a strictly ranged combatant, 5 is a character halfway between both. How big the second number is will change how important that distinction is. For example, if you chose your first number as 5, and your multiplier as 3 (written as 5/3), you've indicated that it's 3x as important for your character to be equally as good with melee and ranged combat. However, 10 with 0.5 implies that you prefer very long ranged combat (10), but it's not that important of a distinction for what you're looking for (0.5).

You can also just choose to use 0 or N/A in any answer and I'll just omit it so that it has no impact on your end result.

Questions:


Do you prefer to be Melee (1) or Ranged (10)?
Do you solve your problems through Force (1) or Finesse (10)?
Do you solve your problems through Talent (1) or Magic (10)?
Do you want playing your character to be Simple (1) or Complex (10)?
Do you want your character to be Civil (1) or Savage (10)?
Do you prefer your character to be Kind (1) or Selfish (10)?
Does your character serve a higher power (1) or their own interests (10)?
Does your character influence others (1) or are they more independent (10)?
Do you want to be more Consistent (1) or more Versatile (10)?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Section 2: Race

Same deal. This is mostly to find a race/society that mostly matches your targeted persona, rather than directly trying to maximize stats. You can be a social Goliath, it just means you're probably very different from the expectations of your race. I haven't gotten around to adding all the obscure races yet. Only PHB, Elemental Evil, and Aasimar so far. You can also add a second digit, just like before, to change how important an option is (although I just default to 1 if you omit the multiplier)

Questions:


Are you Wild (1) or Civilized (10)?
Are you Sturdy (1) or Nimble (10)?
Are you Firm (1) or Easygoing (10)?
Are you strong Physically (1) or Magically (10)?
Are you Selfish (1) or Sacrificing (10)?
Are you Quiet (1) or Sociable (10)?


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Section 3: Subclass

This should be filled out after you know what class you want to be, not before. These questions are a little bit different, and basically ask how you want to shift the core concept of the class, based on a polar scale of 1-5, with 3 being unchanged. For example, if you wanted to pick the Rogue, and the first question asked if you wanted to be more physical (1) or magical (5), you could pick 4 for a slight emphasis on adding magic (Arcane Trickster, Mastermind), or 1 for a huge emphasis on using physical talents (Thief, Scout).

You could also choose to say 0 to not have any preference at all. This can be important if you care more about other aspects for your perfect subclass, and that question won't be relevant for your final result.

Questions:

Do you prefer your class to become more:

Physical (1) or Magical (5)?
Simple (1) or Complex (5)?
Heroic (1) or Supportive (5)?
Risky (1) or Conservative (5)?
Melee (1) or Ranged (5)?
Holy (1) or Dark (5)?
Mobile (1) or Sturdy (5)?

[jaappleton]

What kind of motherboard are you getting?

[Name2020]

What kind of motherboard are you getting?

bruh sound effect #2

[Keravath]

Personally :), I find I can't go wrong with a lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2 in most parties, variant human with resilient con feat to start. Take proficiency in thieves tools. The character works fine through tier 1 and comes together at level 5 with 3 bard/2 warlock. I like devils sight and agonizing blast for invocations. Medium armor/shield, hex and shield spells, extra cantrips plus the bard spells. Very versatile and agonizing blast gives you decent direct damage if you are concentrating on a buff or control spell. I like it better than a pure lore bard which is much less defensive and has to rely on vicious mockery for damage.

Anyway, in your current party, it would be a good ranged damage option, healer with healing word, party face, lots of skills, and as the bard levels go up you have suggestion/blindness/shatter/faerie fire for additional party support.

[Sparky McDibben]

You're Rick Astley, D&D Adventurer, and you're never going to let them down.

This is amazing and I love it. Thank you so much for this idea.

[Undyne]

My friend invited me to a campaign he is running with three others. The first session I play in starts Sunday and I'm kind of pressed for character ideas. They currently have a wizard, fighter, and the newest version of the artificer from UA. If you got any ideas for fun and interesting ideas for characters I will graciously accept them.

A Druid who focuses on evolution (AKA Transmutation Spells). Circle of the Land.

[Nidgit]

Druid X/Rogue 2-3, a master thief with an environmental bent. You're unparalleled at scouting and infiltration, here to go full Greenpeace by freeing animals, redistributing wealth, dismantling power structures or whatever other Chaotic Good-ish behaviors you desire. Combines two support-oriented skillsets to make a unique and versatile skillmonkey caster that's not just another Bard.

[Theaitetos]

Druid X/Rogue 2-3, a master thief with an environmental bent. You're unparalleled at scouting and infiltration, here to go full Greenpeace by freeing animals, redistributing wealth, dismantling power structures or whatever other Chaotic Good-ish behaviors you desire. Combines two support-oriented skillsets to make a unique and versatile skillmonkey caster that's not just another Bard.

That's one of the reasons why more information is needed. The party artificer has (most likely) proficiency with thieves tools already, can cast healing spells, and the wizard has a familiar to scout. Artificers are very versatile and before we know more in which direction that artificer goes, it's hard to say what exactly the party lacks and what the party already has plenty of. If the artificer goes support + skillmonkey, all the healer proposals (cleric, divine soul, bard) and similar proposals might be really bad.

Similarly, it's important to know whether the fighter in the party is melee (as usual) or a ranged fighter (arcane archer or something), because that would leave your party without a proper tank, in fact without a single dedicated melee fighter.

A hexblade warlock is a good option, for example, that can fill any role that the party eventually leaves up for grabs. However, your party might want to play without short rests, since neither fighter, nor wizard, nor artificer really depend on those. If that were to happen, your warlock would lose a significant amount of power.

If you cannot get that information before the game starts – e.g. the artificer isn't sure which roles to play yet, the party/DM is unsure about short rests – then a Paladin is the safest bet: Strong melee, can tank or protect the squishy casters, can act as party face with high CHA, and can also do some healing if the artificer doesn't want to.

[Anderlith]

Half Elf Conquest Paladin

[Pandyman]

A character i'm really enjoying right now is a Warlock/monk. You can utilize armor of shadows to make up for reducing your wisdom to qualify for warlock or take toughness and lower your constitution. If you fight a big bad, you can utilize hex to basically do greatsword damage with your fists and monk weapons by level 7. There are so many ways to do this, you could go way of the shadow to make use of the devil's sight invocation or you could even go way of the open palm just to get some free cc style abilities. Either way, i'm really enjoying it.

You could also go life cleric/divine soul sorcerer and rp it as someone who has a much closer connection to their deity than a straight cleric. This will let you use Distant Spell metamagic with Cure Wounds which makes you an insanely good healer, but you also get spirit guardians and spiritual weapon to do some decent damage on the side. The fact that you can cast cure wounds from a range is really nice as someone with a moderately low health pool. Otherwise you can still blast out a decent AoE cause you're still a sorcerer.

[Spiritchaser]

I’d vote paladin 1, hexblade 1, then conquest paladin x (maybe take more hexblade eventually). Lots of races work here, But make sure you fit in persuasion and or intimidation.

Unless that wizard is a stealthy Bladesinger, and that fighter is a Dex fighter, and that artificer knows how to lurk well

Then I’d say go with a stealthy bard, and try and go with a shadow dragonmark for your race.

[Man_Over_Game]

We should probably wait for OP to respond back. As of right now, these are the only two things he's said:


My friend invited me to a campaign he is running with three others. The first session I play in starts Sunday and I'm kind of pressed for character ideas. They currently have a wizard, fighter, and the newest version of the artificer from UA. If you got any ideas for fun and interesting ideas for characters I will graciously accept them.


bruh sound effect #2

So all of these suggestions are just being shouted at the wind.

[Theaitetos]

You could also go life cleric/divine soul sorcerer and rp it as someone who has a much closer connection to their deity than a straight cleric. This will let you use Distant Spell metamagic with Cure Wounds which makes you an insanely good healer, but you also get spirit guardians and spiritual weapon to do some decent damage on the side. The fact that you can cast cure wounds from a range is really nice as someone with a moderately low health pool.

If you want the heavy armor proficiency, then yes, otherwise dipping Druid might be a better choice with the Class Features Variant UA: The druid's Wildshape allows you to summon a familiar and that familiar can deliver your touch spells for you. That way you don't need the Distant Spell metamagic (which is one of the weaker metamagics). The familiar can even carry Goodberries and feed them to party members independent of your own actions (if your DM allows certain familiar actions (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1020.html)).
And 3 levels of druid gives you the amazing Healing Spirit spell, which restores like 70HP per person outside of combat; it would even benefit from the Extended Spell metamagic (which is only useful on a Divine Soul sorcerer) – healing ~150HP per person. That's really more powerful than the Life Cleric option imo.