Help with my Wife's complex ask (character building)

[Drache64]

DM wanted us to have high stats, my wife has the following:
STR: 11
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 13
WIS: 16
CHA: 18

Currently she is a level 5 revised beast master Ranger. Her character is based on Peter Pan but her love of Aslan made her want a pet Lion.

She wanted the fighting of Peter Pan, the ability to fly, a Tinker Bell familiar and to be great at wilderness adventuring. So naturally the DM and I recommended she play Beast Master Ranger (Lion, duelist fighting style, humanoid favorite enemy [especially adult pirates], wilderness adventuring), Protector Aasimar (longer lifespan [half-elf half-angel instead of half-human), flight), and that she take Magic Initiate with find familiar (Raven familiar reskinned as Tinkerbell).

She likes what she does so far, but now she wants more magical trickery like Peter Pan from "Once Upon A Time". She wants a lot of spells for flying and playing pranks, but not for damage (she prefers to fight with her sword).

With a decent wisdom and stellar charisma she can easily play any non-int caster. I'm thinking of recommending she go one of the following and I'd love some feedback:

Warlock Archfey with Pact of the Tome for a real Sprite familiar that can also fight and with some good invocations buff her.

Trickery Domain Cleric

Some sort of sorcerer... not sure which fits her design but it does give the greatest selection of Arcane Spells.

[Quietus]

I'd be very careful with multiclassing. With Beastmaster you really want to stay the course, if you aren't going to bail entirely. However, if she doesn't want to actually use the lion in combat, multiclassing is fine, and Warlock would probably get you plenty of toys to play with.

If she wants to stay the course with the lion, I'd see about some of the UA feats that just came out. There's one that will give Misty Step and one other first level spell known, and the ability to cast each one once a day. A quick teleport that you can flavor as a jet of speed, and a first level spell for whatever shenanigans come to mind, will do plenty.

As an Aasimar, she does have a voice in her head; if she doesn't want the sprite to do anything except have RP moments with her, you can fluff that as her Tinkerbell. Otherwise I'd look at either Magic Initiate as you noted, for a couple cantrips on top of the familiar. Or Ritual Caster, which will get you Find Familiar and other rituals if you wanted longer term setup shenanigans.

[Drache64]

I'd be very careful with multiclassing. With Beastmaster you really want to stay the course, if you aren't going to bail entirely. However, if she doesn't want to actually use the lion in combat, multiclassing is fine, and Warlock would probably get you plenty of toys to play with.

If she wants to stay the course with the lion, I'd see about some of the UA feats that just came out. There's one that will give Misty Step and one other first level spell known, and the ability to cast each one once a day. A quick teleport that you can flavor as a jet of speed, and a first level spell for whatever shenanigans come to mind, will do plenty.

As an Aasimar, she does have a voice in her head; if she doesn't want the sprite to do anything except have RP moments with her, you can fluff that as her Tinkerbell. Otherwise I'd look at either Magic Initiate as you noted, for a couple cantrips on top of the familiar. Or Ritual Caster, which will get you Find Familiar and other rituals if you wanted longer term setup shenanigans.

Thank you for the reply! She likes having the lion, and with revised Ranger I think it will continue to level up with her as the UA doesn't specify "ranger levels" just "your level" but she doesn't seem to care about the further class abilities. One fun thing with Warlock if she went Hexblade would be getting multiattack as right now as a Beast Master she only has "Coordinated Attack" Wich let's her pet get an attack when she attacks. For her combat isn't such a draw, it's the shenanigans and RP outside of combat, and I'm just making sure her class has enough teeth when combat comes regardless. With a rapier, 18 dex, 18 con, a shield, and Hunter's Mark, she's doing well enough as it is just by stats and dice alone with 18 AC, great HP, great chance to hit, and 1d8+1d6+4 damage on a success. I'm also sure I'll be able to get her like flame toungue rapier at a higher level for 1d8+2d6+1d6+4 to make up for her lack of extra attack, not to mention my wizard could always haste her if I wanted her to have more fun in combat.

[micahaphone]

Now if I were going to try to make a peter pan esque character, I'd go rogue, either swashbuckler or arcane trickster, but mixing 1/2 caster (ranger) with 1/3 caster (arcane trickster) will really slow down your spell progression.

I feel like pure rogue with expertise used for survival and perception fits 90% of what she wants, except for the lion. Which I'd be tempted to make a part of a magic ring or something, and have as a quest reward later. Didn't everyone's favorite drow Driz'zt have a ring that summoned panthers or something? Was there ever a stat block for that item in previous editions.

[DevilMcam]

Peter pan is a warlock in my book with a sprite familiar.
He just doesn't eldritch blast much.
Flight/at will levitate
Trickery
Tinkerbell

This just does't gives you a proper per but this is not a peter pan defining feature afair

[CTurbo]

There is no way to get an extra attack AND a stronger familiar since you can't take both Blade and Chain. The extra attack comes from Blade not Hexblade unless I'm seriously missing something.

It really sounds like Chain Pact for a Sprite is the way to go though. I'd jump back to Ranger after 3 levels though.

[Aaron Underhand]

I'd seriously consider lore bard... Great spells and little offense. Gets all the roguish skills, and cutting words is so Peter pan...

Or swords or valor bard if you want second attack... swords would keep combat options, but you lose out on a shield..

Either way you can get find greater steed in a mere 10 levels time.... something to look forward to...

[Bobthewizard]

...with revised Ranger I think it will continue to level up with her as the UA doesn't specify "ranger levels" just "your level" but she doesn't seem to care about the further class abilities.

It's your game so do what you want, but class features refer to your level in that class even if they don't specify it.

[nickl_2000]

With those stats 5 levels of Warlock, pact of the tome would be a great choice with booming blade and friends as a cantrip at level 1 to keep melee combat viable without a second attack. While it is less powerful, I would choose Archfey for Peter Pan due to the spell choices. Giving you faerie fire, sleep, phantasmal force, and blink are all pretty fitting for Peter Pan. Fey Presence is also fitting for a prankster.

With pact of the tome you get lots of cantrips, which can be used for playing pranks. Add in the ritual invocation to get the Find Familiar spell and other out of combat rituals that can be used as tricks.

Invocations:
Book of Ancient Secrets and
2 of
Mask of Many faces
Misty Visions
Armor of Shadows.

I would personally choose Misty Visions and Armor of Shadows for Peter Pan


Cantrips:
Booming Blade
Friends
Mage Hand
Prestidigitation
Minor Illusion
Thaumaturgy (Tome)


By 5th level you know 6 spells that you choose:
Fly
Charm Person
Cause Fear
Invisibility
Suggestion
Misty Step

Plus your archfey spells
faerie fire
sleep
calm emotions
phantasmal force
blink
plant growth


As a side note: Hexblade would be better in combat with the ability to get a shield and use Charisma for attack/damage (longsword), but I think Archfey is more fitting personally.

[Contrast]

As has been mentioned - animal companion scales with ranger levels not overall level so if she wants the companion to remain relevant in combat they may wish to continue levelling ranger and discuss the possibility of adding some just spells to the ranger class list instead of trying to mess around with multiclassing. I doubt trickery spells are going to be a substantial combat boost so if I were DMing and it fit with someones character concept I would be ameniable. Ranger spells known are at a premium so the opportunity cost is still there.

Edit - Hmm you know having double checked the wording you can argue its character level actually. That said, I'm pretty sure the RAI would be ranger level. Up to the DM I guess. /edit

I think the most mechanically synergistic answer is probably to go rogue and go Arcane Trickster but then the additional spell abilities would be 3 levels away which might not be quite what you're looking for.

If you're dead set on multiclassing a spellcaster I'd probably go with warlock if you're only planning on dropping a couple of levels or bard if you're thinking of giving up ranger entirely. Personally I would suggest discussing and ruling out either of the other two options above before going down this route however.

[da newt]

She's a lvl 5 ranger already, right? So she already has multi-attack.

She also already has a familiar that is reskinned a pixie, so that's done too.

Peter Pan seems like a bard to me.


- Whoops. Turns out REVISED ranger isn't what I know. Ignore the first bullet.

[Contrast]

She's a lvl 5 ranger already, right? So she already has multi-attack.

Revised Ranger Beastmaster actually doesn't get Extra Attack. They get an ability that says when they take the Attack action, their beast can use its reaction to make an attack.

*cries in Hunters Mark*

[Drache64]

There is no way to get an extra attack AND a stronger familiar since you can't take both Blade and Chain. The extra attack comes from Blade not Hexblade unless I'm seriously missing something.

It really sounds like Chain Pact for a Sprite is the way to go though. I'd jump back to Ranger after 3 levels though.

Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant keeping her reskinned familiar that she currently has (a Raven) and taking Hexblade instead.

[CTurbo]

Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant keeping her reskinned familiar that she currently has (a Raven) and taking Hexblade instead.


If she already has a Raven reskinned as a Pixie or Sprite, I wouldn't even consider Warlock then. The only reason for Warlock IMO was to get the improved familiar that Chain Pact offers.

As a couple people have mentioned above, Bard would be much better flavor wise.

Lore probably fits best and gets you Magical Secrets at level 6, but you miss out on getting a second attack.
Swords or Valor gets you your second attack, but you have to wait until level 10 for Magical Secrets.

[Scarytincan]

Could swap magic initiate for or take as well the ritual Caster feat? Opens up more magic shenanigans and still keeps familiar. That or swap a cantrip from magic initiate to minor illusion

[Keravath]

If she seriously wants a Tinkerbell familiar ... then I'd say at least three levels of Archfey warlock with pact of the chain so she can have a sprite as a familar to go with the lion as her companion. Although pact of the tome might be mechanically more useful for the ritual spells, it certainly seems to me that chain pact with the special familiars would fit the goals of the character better. She also picks up some cantrips and invocations along with 2 short rest spell slots.


If she really wants to replicate Peter Pan then the suggestion for a swashbuckler rogue mixed with fey chain pact warlock would get a character that can dance in and out of combat sword fighting and a sprite familiar for Tinkerbell. However, they wouldn't have the lion companion which doesn't really fit the Peter Pan theme anyway as far as I can tell.