Character Build Recommendations for an E6 West Marches Campaign?

[CheddarChampion]

Current campaign is ending next month and it sounds like we will be rotating DM's for a West Marches style E6 campaign.
The details haven't been hammered out but I expect we will start at level 3 and have a level cap of 6. "Level Ups" past that point will be a feat/ASI.

What builds do you recommend if the level cap is 6 but you can keep gaining feats/ASI's?

[Yakk]

You either need extra attack or level 3 spells. So that means you are 5 in one class, and at most 1 in another.

ASI/Feats means MAD classes and feat-heavy builds can continue to get stronger.

Paladin 6 is tempting. You are MAD (Str, Con, Cha). Level 6 Paladin is crazy good (+saving throw aura). It is overpowered in many "1 encounter/day" situations that tend to be common in travel heavy campaigns.

PAM Shield+Spear is good; 3 attacks/round. If you end up with endurance combat, a 2 H polearm with GWM has really nice sustained DPS. If not, Shield Master shores up your Dex save and gives you a shove (for more crit chances).

Bard 6, either Lore or Swords, is also good. Swords gets both extra attack *and* level 3 spells. Lore gets magical secrets. Swords would go SS/XBE for sustained damage, and use its spells for ridiculous utility. MAD (Dex/Con/Cha) so will continue to scale past 6.

Deep Gnome Abjurerer 6 is fun; you can soak 17 damage per fight at 20 int, and can recharge your ward for free.

For a Rogue, level 4-6 gives you expertise, 1d6 sneak attack and uncanny dodge. An assassin 3/gloomstalker 3 might be better (extra attack on first round), especially if you have class feature variants (for wis uses of HM/day). Again, decent at 6, scales with ASI/feats (Dex/Wis/Con).

Monks are also MAD (Dex/Wis/Con) and can scale quite nicely with higher dex/wisdom.

Barbarian 6 is always acceptable. GWM plus Reckless plus Polearm plus 20 strength makes them a beast.

Moon druids have a power spike at level 6. Giant Constrictor Snake with some grappling feats and sentinal is really fun; the ability to use your own abilities while in beast form makes it scale a bit better with further feats/ASIs.

Ranger 6 is meh. Ranger 5/Something 1?

Something 5/Hex 1 could work. Paladin 5/Hex 1 costs you your CHA save aura, but gives you a daily 19-20 crit thing.

[Keravath]

If it is capped at level 6 but you can continue to gain ASI/feats then I would lean towards ...

1) Paladin - can really make use of feats/ASI - PAM+dueling with shield and spear does very good DPS and has great AC. The aura at level 6 and the ability to max charisma/str/con will boost the character capability as you go along.

2) Monk - great chassis and it needs DEX+WIS. Short rest class so if you can get a rest after every fight it still gives you 6 Ki to work with. Shadow monk gets the 60' teleport at level 6. Can also make good use of mobile.

3) Arcana cleric has most of its ability online about level 5 but picks up mini-dispel magic on heals at level 6 - could be extremely useful. The extra wizard cantrips are also good for booming blade. Spirit guardians + spiritual weapon for big fights. Magic initiate druid for shillelagh+thorn whip. You can also take healing word to get your team mates off the ground in a tough fight and with medium armor+shield your AC is good. Class works best with several feats - warcaster, magic initiate, resilient con + boost wis then con then attack stat if you don't want to rely on shillelagh. (I find that casting shillelagh interferes with getting this character going in combat since you want to cast spirit guardians or spiritual weapon + booming blade which doesn't leave much room for getting shillelagh cast in the first three rounds of combat). So a high attack stat and a magical weapon makes the character more efficient in the end ... but shillelagh works fine to start with.

[8wGremlin]

Current campaign is ending next month and it sounds like we will be rotating DM's for a West Marches style E6 campaign.
The details haven't been hammered out but I expect we will start at level 3 and have a level cap of 6. "Level Ups" past that point will be a feat/ASI.

What builds do you recommend if the level cap is 6 but you can keep gaining feats/ASI's?


Excellent advice so far.
But what books are allowed, what Unearthed Arcana, etc. having limitations or a list really helps.

Also how fast do you think you'll get to 6th and then how long do you think you'll play after 6th.
How many feats or ASI do you think you'll get in the characters life time?

cheers.

[Griswold]

I'd consider Bladesinger 6. As noted elsewhere, level 3 spells plus extra attack is a strong combination.

Bladesinger also does well getting lots of ASIs/feats to get high Int/Dex/Con along with Warcaster/Polearm Master/Elven Accuracy.

The other option would be to consider playing a really heavy utility caster by taking Ritual Caster + Magic Initiate. Then, play as a Wood Elf, Deep Gnome, or Drow for their awesome racial spellcasting. These options all are nice but rather lackluster at high levels, but stuck at level 6 the combo is effective and gives lots of staying power. Class is irrelevant for this, although it adds a lot more to a non- or half-caster.

[CheddarChampion]

But what books are allowed, what Unearthed Arcana, etc. having limitations or a list really helps.

Also how fast do you think you'll get to 6th and then how long do you think you'll play after 6th.
How many feats or ASI do you think you'll get in the characters life time?

Most UA is allowed, it depends on how the DM views it. The current game has an oath of heroism paladin. Mystic would most likely not get a thumbs up.
Most books are allowed, unusual-setting specific stuff like GGtR is not. Strongholds and Followers is also used (though I don't think we will be raising an army).
I'm unsure how fast we'll get there. I'm guessing new characters will start at 3rd level and I expect 2-3 weekly sessions are required for a level up.
It sounds like we'll regularly swap out characters so certain players don't get bored. I'll probably run 2 or 3 different characters.
My guess is that a powerful character will end up with 3 or 4 extra feats/ASI's before we move on to another game.
My character bias is for heroic types. Not necessarily tanks or paladins but ones that put themselves in harms way to help others. Any build that has an action hero vibe gets bonus points in my book.

And thanks all for the help!