"Drow" Gloom Stalker

[Nosta]

My character is a.Drow but not. He was exploring a very large cave like dungeon before the start of story if our game like 5 years before he was an elf and him and his party went to explore this newly discovered dungeon when he passed out. when he awoke his party was Dispatched and his body had changed to resembled a Drow. When he returned to the surface he soon found his new form was more than mere cosmetic the sun affected him as it did with Drows

I have a level 5 maybe level 6 character to build depends on the Gms plan. What is a good Gloom Stalker build for a drow. Should I go strait gloom Stalker or should I multi in to another class as some point ?

[CTurbo]

Drow Gloom Stalker 5, then start taking Rogue levels. Assassin, Scout, Swashbuckler, or Arcane Trickster would be great choices and any of them would be fun.

[Nosta]

Drow Gloom Stalker 5, then start taking Rogue levels. Assassin, Scout, Swashbuckler, or Arcane Trickster would be great choices and any of them would be fun.

How would you do my Stats
4th level Feat or Stats Improved?

[RogueJK]

Yep. Gloomstalker to 5, then multiclass into something else.

Rogue is a great multiclass option for a Gloomstalker, as noted above. Assassin is good for stealth-focused DPR, although you don't get much from the subclass past Level 3. Scout is good for a Ranged Gloomstalker. Swashbuckler is good for a melee Gloomstalker, provided you have at least a moderate CHA. Arcane Trickster brings a lot of cool abilities, provided you have a decent INT, and stacks with your Ranger levels for upper level spell slots with which to upcast your Ranger and AT spells. And Inquisitive would actually be pretty good for a character that will likely have a fairly good WIS score.

Fighter is a good choice as well. Battlemaster maneuvers are useful on just about any martial character. Eldritch Knight could add some useful defensive spells, even with a poor INT, and like AT would get you some higher level spell slots with which to upcast your Ranger and EK spells.

Cleric multiclasses well with 5 levels of Ranger too. Go with a martial-focused Domain like Tempest, Nature, Order, or Forge, since you'll be more of a primary martial than a primary caster. Lots of useful buff spells, and upper level spell slots with which to upcast your Cleric and Ranger spells. Plus 3x attacks per round with Extra Attack and Spiritual Weapon. I've played a Gloomstalker/Nature Cleric up to Level 11 (5/6) before, and it was a lot of fun, and a good melee frontliner.

[CTurbo]

How would you do my Stats
4th level Feat or Stats Improved?

How do you generate your stats? Point buy? Standard array? roll 4d6?

Dex is the most important stat likely followed by Con, but if you choose Swashbuckler, you may want to make Cha your secondary sat. If you choose Arcane Trickster, Int would be your secondary stat. For Scout and Assassin, I'd rather have Wis.

[RogueJK]

How would you do my Stats
4th level Feat or Stats Improved?

Depends on what your method of generating stats are, whether you want to be primarily ranged or melee, and what class you plan on multiclassing into. But in general:

Highest in DEX. Next highest in CON or WIS, depending on whether you want to be melee or ranged and whether you plan on multiclassing into Rogue/Fighter/Cleric. Next is the other one of CON or WIS.

(But if you plan to go Arcane Trickster or Swashbuckler, that would change things a bit.)

[Nosta]

How do you generate your stats? Point buy? Standard array? roll 4d6?

Dex is the most important stat likely followed by Con, but if you choose Swashbuckler, you may want to make Cha your secondary sat. If you choose Arcane Trickster, Int would be your secondary stat. For Scout and Assassin, I'd rather have Wis.
Oh point buy :)

[RogueJK]

In general, it would be something like:
STR 8
DEX 15+2
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 15
CHA 8+1
Going +1 DEX/WIS at Level 4.

But again, it will depend on what class you're planning to multiclass into after Gloomstalker 5, as well as whether you want to be a Ranged or Melee attacker.

[Nosta]

In general, it would be something like:
STR 8
DEX 15+2
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 15
CHA 8+1
Going +1 DEX/WIS at Level 4.

But again, it will depend on what class you're planning to multiclass into after Gloomstalker 5, as well as whether you want to be a Ranged or Melee attacker.
Either assassin or scout.

[RogueJK]

For specifically an Assassin or Scout multiclass, since you won't need WIS as much, a good alternative to the above stat array would be to do the following:
STR 10
DEX 15+2
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 8+1
And then take Elven Accuracy at Level 4 for +1 DEX and Triple Advantage.

If going melee Assassin, then you'll want to raise DEX to 20 at your next ASI at Rogue 4 (Character Level 9). And go with the Dueling or Defense Fighting Style at Ranger 2.

If going ranged Assassin or Scout, then consider going Sharpshooter instead at Rogue 4 (Character Level 9). And go with the Archery fighting style at Ranger 2.

[Nosta]

ok Gloom Stalker 5 Scout X
4th level Elven Accuracy

Advice on skills ?

[Nosta]

Another question
Got 1000 Go to Start

What Armor should I use

And other items

Is there any unquie ammo?

Also Gm is debating 1 rare item of our choice

Any good bow or X-Bow

[RogueJK]

You'll have 3 skills from Ranger. 2 more from Background. And you'll eventually get another skill when you multiclass into Rogue, and then Nature and Survival from Scout.

You'll definitely want Stealth, Perception, and Acrobatics, for sure. (You get Perception already from your Elf race.) So that leaves 4 more to choose. I'd do Athletics, Insight, Investigation, and Sleight of Hand.

[Nosta]

Another question
Got 1000 Go to Start

What Armor should I use

And other items

Is there any unquie ammo?

Also Gm is debating 1 rare item of our choice

Any good bow or X-Bow

[iTreeby]

Another question
Got 1000 Go to Start

What Armor should I use

And other items

Is there any unquie ammo?

Also Gm is debating 1 rare item of our choice

Any good bow or X-Bow

Breastplate is the best with your stats unless you get mithral armor, then Half plate is better. Money is not super useful if you can't by magic items but antitoxin is a thing. If the DM gives you a rare item of your choice, I'd vote for daern's instant fortress or a helm of teleportation.

[Corran]

Crossbow expert (your action economy faces far less pressure than that of other ranged dpr builds) and sharpshooter (you've got good ways to leverage the -5/+10 for extra damage) are great on a gloomstalker. I'd definitely grab both these feats.

Elven accuracy is good too, and there is no reason not to pick it up in the place of a DEX bump if you are using point buy (and since you are already committed to drow, that both gets access to it in the fist place, but also starts with a +2 to DEX). It is a little anti-synergistic with stalker's fury (and you wont make as much of it as someone who crits better, eg a rogue), but on the other hand it's easy enough to get advantage in the first place, so when you are set up so nicely to take this feat, I think it easily justifies the resulting -2 to a tertiary stat (which occurs if you start with 17 instead of 16 in DEX when using point buy).

Dont underestimate the importance of wisdom saves. Try not to postpone too much getting access to the iron mind feature (lvl 7 gloomstalker), if at all. Some effects you might avoid due to being unseen, but dont mistake that for eliminating a weakness. (Ranged) dpr builds need strong wisdom saves to defend against being shut down.

Stalker's fury is not as good as extra attack (2), but it gets better the more attacks you get to make, so it works well with dread ambusher and with CE (which is a feat you already want to take). And it also gets better the higher the AC of you opponent is (and as a weapon based dpr build with SS, high AC enemies will be a problem, so it's good to have a feature that helps you in situations where you probably need as much help you can get). In short, no, it's not good as extra attack (2), but it's not that far off (especially when you'll need it the most). Dont treat it like a weak feature or as something you can give up without a second thought (especially if you end up fighting in daylight more than you'd be comfortable to do).

Your biggest concern will be (direct) sunlight and enemies with heightened senses. Now, there are ways to cancel disadvantage (or even to create advantage) during the daytime (through obscurement, or spells like darkness and greater invisibility that you -can- have), but generally the best course of action is to try and avoid fighting during sunny days in exposed areas (talk to your DM about what daylight sensitivity means for their campaign), but ideally to try and fight when or where it's dark (darkvision for the whole party goes a long way, but more on that in the ps).

On the other hand, enemies with heightened senses is not something you can so actively avoid. At least if in the dark, your best way to deal with them, is to try and cancel that advantage of theirs. A simple way to try to do this, is to exploit your superior vision (drow gloomstalker means you see up to 150'; coincidently, this sets you up for scouting), which will be more than enough to beat the range of blindsight/tremorsense/truesight most of the time. I'd still opt for a hand crossbow as my main weapon, but I'd keep a longbow handy (if that does not ruin your style) for when (eg enemy with 120' truesight) I'd want to shoot things from more than 120' away (which is the maximum range for a SS-enhanced hand crossbow).

If you are looking to multiclass, then fighter 2 is probably the best option for a small dip, as action surge has great synergy with dread ambusher (and with sharpshooter), but it's tricky to say when I'd want to start investing towards action surge (with a drow, I think I might end up delaying it for some time, cause I think that at the very least I'd want both CE and SS before action surge). A 1 level dip in rogue could be reasonable too, as expertise (eg perception, investigation, thieves' tools, stealth; to name some of the best choices) would help you greatly support a role you are already pretty good at (ie scouting ahead). If you are not using the revised ranger, rogue 2 (ie cunning action) starts looking tasty too, but I think a gloomstalker could do without (and a drow gloomstalker can probably do without even more, but the value of this remark is too small/conditional to take the time to write/read the justification for it). Finally, a weakness that you have is that you dont have easy access to a magic weapon (which will be problematic whenever you fight enemies resistant to non magical bps). There is no easy way to address this with multiclassing, and it's probably better to hope for either finding a magic weapon or for someone buffing you, but if you've got to do this yourself, then your best option is to mc (at least) 3 levels in either cleric (arcana, forge, war) or wizard (for magic weapon), in warlock (for pact of the blade), or even in devotion paladin (for sacred weapon). Your other choices being artificer (5), (any) paladin (5), lore bard (6), arcane trickster (7) or eldritch knight (7).


ps: It's very important if everyone else in your group has darkvision (this could mean that someone has to take the darkvision spell; that someone might be you, cause rangers get access to it). You dont want light sources as an additional obstacle to overcome when fighting in ideal environment, and you can contribute even better anyway even if you can overcome the obstacle of a light source (eg you can choose to stay close and tempt some attacks to go your way, for better damage distribution among your party members). Similarly, any way to snuff out light sources can help you a lot, so if someone (even if that someone isn't you) can grab something as simple as thaumaturgy and control flames (which dont require concentration), that could work in your side's benefit.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Sharp shooter before EA IMO.

Longbow and half-plate.
+2 longbow.
Two levels in fighter for archery fighting style and action surge.
A level or two in Hexblade for Hexblade curse and some slots for shield
Can also go 3 gloom stalker/fighter 2/Hexblade X or gloomstalker 3/Hexblade 2/Fighter 11

[Eldariel]

Sharp shooter before EA IMO.

Longbow and half-plate.
+2 longbow.
Two levels in fighter for archery fighting style and action surge.
A level or two in Hexblade for Hexblade curse and some slots for shield
Can also go 3 gloom stalker/fighter 2/Hexblade X or gloomstalker 3/Hexblade 2/Fighter 11

Skipping out on Gloomstalker 5 with its Pass without Trace is pretty rough though. I'd much rather recommend Gloom Stalker 5/Fighter 2 (if you want another fighting style).

[Tiamatwing]

thinking about a similar character, what are peoples opinions on fighter 3 for arcane archer(shadow arrow/grasping arrow) compared to just ranger/rogue or fighter 2?

[Eldariel]

thinking about a similar character, what are peoples opinions on fighter 3 for arcane archer(shadow arrow/grasping arrow) compared to just ranger/rogue or fighter 2?

Arcane Archer is pretty bad due to how rarely it can use its arrows and how weak the abilities in general are for how rarely they can use them. If you want "trick shooter", just play a Battlemaster instead; 4/SR and scaling instead of 2/SR - and the power is quite similar (even broader for Battlemaster actually, which is kinda sad: they make much better Sharpshooter-users due to Precision Attack and have some extra utility with Maneuvering Attack and pretty solid on-hits as well). Maneuver does a bit less damage but total damage dealt per SR is actually higher to not even mention how versatile the effects are by comparison.

But yeah, Battlemaster from Fighter 3 is an extremely solid pick. It's a highly powerful option even for straight Fighters and it basically doesn't scale meaningfully beyond level 3: so you get almost the whole best Fighter archetype from it (contra Eldritch Knight that takes dedication due to needing levels for those higher level spell slots and spells known - though doesn't really get useful class features due to how strong Full Attack is).


EDIT: Oh yeah and Arcane Shots are Int-based so the save DCs are basically always lower than on maneuvers that use Dex/Str (Dex in your case).

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Skipping out on Gloomstalker 5 with its Pass without Trace is pretty rough though. I'd much rather recommend Gloom Stalker 5/Fighter 2 (if you want another fighting style).

That's depends on the level you are going to finish you game in.
I do get your position, this is better for the early levels.

[iTreeby]

But yeah, Battlemaster from Fighter 3 is an extremely solid pick. It's a highly powerful option even for straight Fighters and it basically doesn't scale meaningfully beyond level 3: so you get almost the whole best Fighter archetype from it (contra Eldritch Knight that takes dedication due to needing levels for those higher level spell slots and spells known - though doesn't really get useful class features due to how strong Full Attack is).

Echo Knight is possibly the most front loaded. 3rd level fighter. It can also generate reactions, less consistently but it doesn't run out of steam, plus it has some extra attacks. The only reason not to pick it is basically that you still only have one bonus action.