You're Prepping for ToA; told to make TWO optimised characters. What do you make?

[Rhocian Xothara]

Title.

Context:
So my DM is collecting module books, and I bought her 'Tomb of Annihilation' under the agreement she would run it for our group. Our previous games have been quite light-hearted shenanigans - the kind of games people make 'D&D memes' out of. We're a small group (three players and a DM), and this time the DM has promised us in no uncertain terms that this campaign will be much more serious. Tomb of Annihilation has a vicious reputation as one of the hardest modules in all of D&D (even if the 5e version has been softened up somewhat), and she intends to do it justice.

So, we have been given a spec: "Build two 3rd-level characters. Optimisation recommended but not essential." The idea being that because we're such a small group and because we fully expect character deaths, having two characters means we can swap and change the party with ease. Y'know, until one of the party-of-threes gets killed, obviously.

Here are the details of what we can/can't include in the builds:

All official content allowed, but races not of the same plane as Chult needs special consideration (e.g. Warforged; Aasimar; Dragonmarked races; etc)
Starting Gold OR Starting Equipment. Add 500GP and either two common OR one uncommon magic item(s).
Multiclassing is allowed, as are Coffeelock builds.



For ease of playing with builds, I have rolled stats (before racial modifiers), witnessed by the DM, who has approved them for use with any of my starting builds. These numbers are 8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18. Yes, I know how it looks. Yes, the DM and I laughed a lot about it.

So, put yourself in my situation: You have this game coming up. You have no idea what the other two players are building (you think one is going Tank role and the other has expressed interest in playing a Bard).

What builds do you make? What makes them so good (either in a vacuum or for ToA?)

I'll post the ones I'm considering myself below in a few minutes, but I'm genuinely interested to see what the community would choose.

[Rhocian Xothara]

Builds I have so far:

Yuan-Ti Warlock (The Undying)
This one's with a view to making a Divine Soul/Undying Coffeelock. Her patron is Vecna, the Archlich who will no doubt be interested in the Death Curse plaguing the Material Plane. She is Neutral-Evil, but only insofar that she is driven by self-interest and self-survival. She will help others though, if only because it suits her in the long run to do so.

Why is she an optimal choice? Well between being Yuan-Ti and an Undying Warlock, she has immunity to Poison (very useful in the Jungles of Chult!); advantage on saving throws against disease and all magic, and cannot be forced to sleep - magically or otherwise. As for party role, I'm building her as the ultimate support - Divine Soul sorcerer at CL4 gives her Cure Wounds, and when she takes a second Sorcerer level she'll be able to start hoarding spell slots, enabling me to take care of both healing and utility-casting.

I'm unsure about what magic item to go for. I'm tempted by the Coiling Grasp tattoo from TCoE. I'm of a mind to flavour the 'inky tendrils' as a bunch of smaller (harmless) snakes, being a Yuan-Ti. Only problem is I shouldn't really be so close to hostiles (though it's a nice insurance if we're ambushed or in a confined space). Her +2 in Charisma is going to bolster her secondary stat - I'm putting the 18 into Dex to try and shore up her AC a bit.

Kobold BM Ranger
I've seen for years the possibility of being a 'small'-raced BM Ranger taking to the skies with their Pteranodon companion/mount, and never really had the chance to play it because very few settings feature dinosaurs. Chult, however, is one of those settings, and so this is the perfect excuse!

I was tempted to go for a Lightning Spear item, but to fly with the Pteranodon I need to keep the weight down as much as possible, so I'm going for a Bag of Holding. +2 Dex racial means a full 20 in the stat, giving me decent AC (17), and whilst my main weapon whilst flying will be a crossbow, I'm going sword & board when on foot (which will further increase my AC to 19).

Plus, whilst the Beastmaster Ranger is commonly reviled as one of the worst classes in 5e, TCoE buffed the Ranger with expertise and a couple of spells. In addition, 'Goodberry' is gonna be useful in a game that's largely about survival.

Loxodon Barbarian/Loxodon Land Druid
I'm torn on this one. Loxodon Barbarian appeals to me as an 'optimal' Barbarian. +2 con racial means I can jack Con to 20, which not only combines well with Loxodon's 'Natural Armour' (giving an AC of 17), but also means that between the +5 health modifier and D12 hit dice, I can be a 7ft wall of HP. Only problem is that poison - which is common in Chult - makes a mockery of HP stats, but that's mitigated by having something like +7 to con saves at 3rd level.

Land Druid is a different direction, utilising the +1 wisdom racial (not really, unless I disrespect wisdom by putting my 12 stat into it, giving me the bare minimum for a Druid). The class gives me lots of utility and healing spells and of course Wildshapes (in a land full of ****ing Dinosaurs!), but beyond that I'm not really sure what direction to take this one in. I'm still tempted to go 20 in Con, least of all because AC is one of the common weaknesses of druids, so having AC17 with natural armour is a nice way to mitigate that, and the con score will help against things like poison, HP and disease.

[borg286]

Use my Renassance Man build (see sig) to optimize on the Tank's Opportunity Attacks. Note that it might overlap with the Bard casting Dissonant Whispers, in which case you'd swap out dissonant Whispers for Command.
For your secondary build go with something that targets uses Conjure Animals. This combos well with Dissonant Whispers as you nearly double the DPR of Conjure Animals, especially with Poisonous flying snakes as many can share a square.

[KorvinStarmast]

We're a small group (three players and a DM), and this time the DM has promised us in no uncertain terms that this campaign will be much more serious. Tomb of Annihilation has a vicious reputation as one of the hardest modules in all of D&D (even if the 5e version has been softened up somewhat), and she intends to do it justice. It's a meat grinder, yeah.

Here are the details of what we can/can't include in the builds:

All official content allowed, but races not of the same plane as Chult needs special consideration (e.g. Warforged; Aasimar; Dragonmarked races; etc)
Starting Gold OR Starting Equipment. Add 500GP and either two common OR one uncommon magic item(s).
Multiclassing is allowed, as are Coffeelock builds.



8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18. Yes, I know how it looks. Yes, the DM and I laughed a lot about it.

What builds do you make? What makes them so good (either in a vacuum or for ToA?)

You start at third level, and it's ToA?

1. vHuman Gloomstalker Ranger
8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18.
STR: 12 +1
DEX: 18 +1
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS 14
CHA 8
Background: Criminal/Spy

Feat: Tasha's feats that add Expertise and +1? Yeah, go with that, and get a 20 Dex to start and Expertise in Athletics. (Take it as a proficiency) I went with Medium Armor Master so that I stealth good

Rapier and Longbow are your weapons.
For an uncommon item, +1 Longbow. With your gold, make sure to silver your rapier.
There are ample undead to mess with in the jungle.
Common Items: Moon Edged Dagger. If you need light, it's a nice thing to have.
Common Item: Need to think about a second one.

I obviously took Survival, and Forest was my favored terrain, but for favored enemy I took Giant (story reasons) while for ToA I'd suggest maybe Undead since the jungles are lousy with undead.

2. Druid, Circle of the Shepherd, Wood Elf
8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18.

S 8 D 14+2 C 16 INT 12 WIS 18+1 Cha 10

Items: any.

You mentioned a Bard. OK.
S 8 D 16+1 C 14+1 INT 10 WIS 12 Cha 18+2
S 8 D 17 C 15 INT 10 Wis 12 Cha 20
Lore Bard. Half Elf. I'd suggest a half elf from Chult.
Why?
Three person party and you need magical secrets eventually for a spell like Conjure Anmials or Counterspell.
Ruby of the Sword Mage is one Magical Item, put it in your Rapier or in a dagger.
Uncommon Item: Broom of Flying.
Common Item: there are so many good ones, I'd get the robes!clothes that allow you to change colors/fashion. Will get you a name later.

[da newt]

Are UA allowed? Dhampir. Spider climb and undead both come in quite handy.

Anything that is particularly good at traps and undead (Rogue, Cleric, Paladin).

Half Orc Relentless Endurance would be very handy. Zealot Barb might be good too.



The thing to be prepared for is no matter how well you approach things, how clever you are, etc; sometimes it doesn't matter, a PC will die. There should be no expectation of 'fair.' Sometimes the way to get through is to cleverly solve the puzzle using the provided clues, sometimes the only way through is to do the opposite and just do random stuff, sometimes it doesn't matter what you do at all.

[sithlordnergal]

Quick question, is your DM using the Tasha's rules for Ability Scores?

[Wizard_Lizard]

Uhhhhhh Protecter Aasimar Beast Barbarian 3 and uhhhh Tabaxi Rogue (Phantom)

[kaervaak]

First character should be a ranger if there isn't one in the party. It makes the hex crawl go much faster.

Backup character for when that one dies should be a tomb raider type. Dungeon delver feat would be great. My vote would be artificer 1/abjuration wizard X that focuses on magic control, dispelling, and survival. Mark of Warding dwarf is great for this.

Str 10 Dex 14 Con 18 (+2) Int 19 (+1) Wis 12 Cha 8

first feat would be telekinetic for +1 int (character level 5)

second feat would be dungeon delver unless you have a better skill monkey on the team. Otherwise eldritch adept for armor of shadows for that free ward recharge would be my pick. (character level 9)

Splint mail and a shield puts your starting AC at 18. That's pretty great for a wizard.

You can cast armor of agathys since you're a mark of warding dwarf. Anyone who hits you has to get through both your abjurer's ward and the THP from AoA before they actually hurt you and they'll take a bunch of cold damage every time.

Your concentration is unshakable with proficiency in con saves and +4 con bonus.

You'll have more effective HP as a fighter (at character level 9 when you get a 5th level spell slot to upcast AoA with, you'll have 21 HP in your ward and 25 THP from AoA, total HP = 130 vs a fighter with second wind and the same con mod = 119) and competitive AC. If you have 2 minutes of break you can fully recharge your ward with armor of shadows.

[Eldariel]

Well, this is a module where skills and cantrips are nice to have. That would suggest Bard. Two Bards is ideal since they can lend Inspiration to one another. Lore Bard is great as is Eloquence Bard. Either is fine for this adventure so it's more down to your style and whether you want to be more defensive or offensive. You could go melee Bard too if you went Swords or Valor; both work but ultimately I much prefer a castier, skillier Bard for this path. Could go Vuman and pick up either Moderately Armored to shore up your AC or Alert/Lucky to be generally good about shutting encounters down. I prefer Alert of the bunch; Moderately Armored on 4 then maybe.

The alternative is the ever-potent option of a Druid or a Wizard. Or even a Cleric; Knowledge Cleric could get excellent mileage out of their Channel Divinity here. But in general, Druid and Wizard spells shine on this level so they're more than fine. Of Druids, Shepherd and Moon stand out as ever, while of Wizards, Chronurgist is clearly a cut above the rest, but Diviner is also just great on these levels. Less skilly solving of problems (though as both get Enhance Ability and Druid gets Guidance, that does do a lot) but a lot of cantrippy and spelly solving of problems (and especially ritualising with Wizard).


My top list would be like:
- Moon Druid
- Lore Bard
- Chronurgist Wizard

[Intregus182]

If you get the create food and water spell and leomonds tiny hut you essentially remive the hexcrawl difficulty

[Unoriginal]

the DM has promised us in no uncertain terms that this campaign will be much more serious. Tomb of Annihilation has a vicious reputation as one of the hardest modules in all of D&D (even if the 5e version has been softened up somewhat), and she intends to do it justice.

Just to precise something:

The Tomb of Horror has a vicious reputation as one of the hardest dungeons in all of D&D, even if the 5e version has been softened up somewhat.

The Tomb of Annihilation is a lot worse in many regards, due to being a) a whole campaign b) actually calibrated for 5e characters.


If you get the create food and water spell and leomonds tiny hut you essentially remive the hexcrawl difficulty

Untrue. You still have to go through the hexes, and spend your ressources wisely.

[Rhocian Xothara]

Quick question, is your DM using the Tasha's rules for Ability Scores?

You mean the Custom Lineage/Racial respeccing rules? Yes, albeit optional of course.

[Merudo]

ToA is structured so the first half is an outdoor hexcrawl where 5 minutes adventure days are the norm, and the second half is mostly a underground dungeon crawl.

Additionally, there will be

- Plenty of poison
- Plenty of beasts (dinosaurs)
- Plenty of undead
- Plenty of magic toward the end

Equipment-wise, heavy armor is rare and three times the usual price in Chult. I wouldn't plan on being able to get Full Plate armor anytime soon.

There are few magical items, but a +1 shield, +1 yklwa (1d8 simple weapon), and +1 ammunition are readily purchasable. Later on, some creatures are immune to nonmagical weapon, so for martials it's probably best if you go sword & board with the +1 yklwa and +1 shield, and/or get some +1 ammunition for your bow or crossbow.

As always, flying races will be very handy for the adventure. Being able to fly and avoid the hazard and melee enemies in Chult will be available. It will be less useful in the second half of the adventure, though.

Otherwise, the Yuan-Ti is by far the best racial choice, with immunity to poison and magic resistance. Both will come up a lot in the adventure.

[Rhocian Xothara]

If you get the create food and water spell and leomonds tiny hut you essentially remive the hexcrawl difficulty

The biggest threat in the hexcrawl from a survival POV - especially for the Coffeelock - is the weather. Floods are common and Leomund's Tiny Hut might not stop the overnight flooding of the jungle from creeping in.

We could camp in the trees (especially if I go small-race, like Kobold), but the trees here can eat people!

Goodberry sorts out the food & drink element of survival, and I could probably pull some camping bull**** with "Mold Earth" (trenches, landscaping etc) but yeah... I'm expecting adverse weather DCs aplenty.

[sithlordnergal]

You mean the Custom Lineage/Racial respeccing rules? Yes, albeit optional of course.

1st Build:
Yuan-Ti Moon Druid

Str: 10

Dex: 14 (+2)

Con: 16

Int: 8

Wis: 18

Cha: 12 (+1)

Snag Studded Leather armor and a wooden shield, take a Quarterstaff as your weapon of choice since it can also be used as a Druid Focus. As for your uncommon item, I'd go with the Cloak of Protection. For your cantrips, I'd take Produce Flame and Primal Savagery.


2nd Build:

Yuan-Ti Paladin/Sorcerer

Str: 16 (+2)

Dex: 10

Con: 14 (+1)

Int: 8

Wis: 12

Cha: 18

Stick with single level Paladin until level 6, then swap over to Sorcerer. I'd snag a +1 weapon for your Uncommon Magic Item, and I'd either go Dueling or Defense for your Fighting Style.


3rd Build:

Yuan-Ti Shepard Druid

Str: 10

Dex: 14 (+2)

Con: 16

Int: 8

Wis: 18

Cha: 12 (+1)

Find out how your DM plans do deal with spells like Conjure Animals. If you're allowed to choose what you summon, then perfect. If your DM is known for giving you useful summons when you cast it, great. If your DM has nerfed Conjure Animals so you can't summon 8 cr 1/4 beasts, then don't bother with this build.

[Rhocian Xothara]

Well, this is a module where skills and cantrips are nice to have. That would suggest Bard. Two Bards is ideal since they can lend Inspiration to one another. Lore Bard is great as is Eloquence Bard. Either is fine for this adventure so it's more down to your style and whether you want to be more defensive or offensive. You could go melee Bard too if you went Swords or Valor; both work but ultimately I much prefer a castier, skillier Bard for this path. Could go Vuman and pick up either Moderately Armored to shore up your AC or Alert/Lucky to be generally good about shutting encounters down. I prefer Alert of the bunch; Moderately Armored on 4 then maybe.

The alternative is the ever-potent option of a Druid or a Wizard. Or even a Cleric; Knowledge Cleric could get excellent mileage out of their Channel Divinity here. But in general, Druid and Wizard spells shine on this level so they're more than fine. Of Druids, Shepherd and Moon stand out as ever, while of Wizards, Chronurgist is clearly a cut above the rest, but Diviner is also just great on these levels. Less skilly solving of problems (though as both get Enhance Ability and Druid gets Guidance, that does do a lot) but a lot of cantrippy and spelly solving of problems (and especially ritualising with Wizard).


My top list would be like:
- Moon Druid
- Lore Bard
- Chronurgist Wizard

I've been thinking about your comment(s). I've wanted for some time to make an 'Arcanist' (remember those?) in 5e and I think the secret lies in cantrips and metamagic to become a powerful 'support' caster.

Partly because the offensive cantrips scale based on Character level and not Class Level, but also because most cantrips are utilitarian in nature.

At higher levels it'd start to almost look like an "Abserd" build, but it's not. Levels in Bard; Wizard; Warlock; Sorcerer and Cleric (probably don't need Druid) all bring something to the table, and don't really need more than 3 levels in any given class to get the crux of their class features. Furthermore it's not very resource-heavy: Cantrips are an infinite resource, and if you have five spellcasters' worth of Cantrips on hand you're not likely to be left wanting for 'the right spell for the right moment'. You've probably got a cantrip for every magical damage type, too.

It's kinda like a variant of the Coffeelock: If the aim of the Coffeelock is to be the master of levelled spells, the 'Arcanist' is the Cantrip Master (to say nothing for the sheer number of 1st-level spells you'd be able to cast, too!)

[Intregus182]

The biggest threat in the hexcrawl from a survival POV - especially for the Coffeelock - is the weather. Floods are common and Leomund's Tiny Hut might not stop the overnight flooding of the jungle from creeping in.

We could camp in the trees (especially if I go small-race, like Kobold), but the trees here can eat people!

Goodberry sorts out the food & drink element of survival, and I could probably pull some camping bull**** with "Mold Earth" (trenches, landscaping etc) but yeah... I'm expecting adverse weather DCs aplenty.

Take the mold earth cantrip and use that to make moats around your tent! Or to creat a hill to put your tent on.

[Gale]

Floods are common and Leomund's Tiny Hut might not stop the overnight flooding of the jungle from creeping in.

I would be interested to hear a DM's reasoning as for why flooding water would penetrate a tiny hut. Not accusing them of being wrong by any means, but it really feels like it's against the spirit of the spell. The atmosphere is supposed to be comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside; and a flood definitely feels like a weather effect.

[Temperjoke]

I'm not good at optimizing, honestly, it's not how I come up with characters. I don't mind pointing out certain benefits though.

Class: I'd recommend druids, rangers, or the Scout Rogue. Druids are masters of flexibility and their spells are useful in nature survival situations. Rangers in general have a lot of benefits for the first half of the adventure. Scout Rogues get all the main benefits of the rogue class, plus useful features for the first half of the adventure.

Race: Yuan-ti are definitely strong characters, given how much poison is a danger in this. Tabaxi also have advantages in climbing that some of the other classes don't have, after all, the first half is a jungle. Lizardfolk are another option that give some skills, such as a good swimming speed, the ability to hold their breath for an extended time. They have natural armor and can make some items from enemy corpses. Lizardfolk and Tabaxi provide some proficiencies from the original race options, so that can free up options from your class choices.

[Temperjoke]

I would be interested to hear a DM's reasoning as for why flooding water would penetrate a tiny hut. Not accusing them of being wrong by any means, but it really feels like it's against the spirit of the spell. The atmosphere is supposed to be comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside; and a flood definitely feels like a weather effect.

There's no bottom to the hut; rain in this sense is torrential sheets of rain that flood everything, so while water may not come through the dome, there's nothing that would stop it from coming up beneath it.

[Gale]

There's no bottom to the hut; rain in this sense is torrential sheets of rain that flood everything, so while water may not come through the dome, there's nothing that would stop it from coming up beneath it.

Crawford says it has a floor. (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/823774362293542912) But I don't think you would necessarily be wrong if you said it didn't.

[Temperjoke]

Crawford says it has a floor. (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/823774362293542912) But I don't think you would necessarily be wrong if you said it didn't.

Looking at the spell, I see why he says that. I don't agree with him, since the text description of the spell says dome, not hemisphere, but I can see the argument, so I guess it would depend on the DM.

[Keravath]

Rogue/warlock was what I played for ToA and it worked out well for me :)

Is your DM the kind to play the module as written or will they modify it? There are very few magical weapons of ANY kind in ToA and I don't think there are any magical ranged weapons at all. However, there are many creatures that need magical weapons to take full damage especially later in the module so depending on your DM you may need to plan your character to be able to create your own magical weapon.

Also, try to find the Nolzur's Marvellous Pigments since they can be exceptionally useful. Being able to pain doors in walls can provide a very useful way out of some difficult situations.

However, there are a large number of characters that could work well in ToA depending on what you want to play.

[OldTrees1]

Dun the Dungeon Tour Guide

Guild Artisan Wood Elf Knowledge Cleric 1 / Arcane Trickster X
ASIs / Feats
5th: Observant
9th: Skulker
11th: Resilient Constitution
13th: +2 Dex I guess.

Arcane Trickster flexible spells:
1st: Find Familiar
2nd: Darkvision (some tourists don't have it innately)
3rd: Dispel Magic

Expertise in:
Arcana, History, Perception, Thieves Tools, Investigation, Stealth

You rolled 8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18.
Con 14, Wis 17, Dex 20, Int 12, Str 10, Cha 08.
Maybe +1 Wis / +1 Con for 12th?

Dun the Tour Guide has already escorted 1 party of well armed tourists through this dungeon.
Note: Bring backup thieves tools for someone else to carry



Local Protector

Outlander Yuan ti Paladin of Ancients X
ASIs:
4th: Inspiring Leader
8th: +2 Cha
12th: +2 Cha

You rolled 8; 10; 12; 14; 16 and 18.
Cha 18, Str 18, Con 14, Wis 12, Int 11, Dex 08
Choose something new for 12th level

You really can't go wrong with Aura of Protection +5 and Paladin of Ancient's gives the party an excuse to group up in Fireball Formation.

[KorvinStarmast]

For those of you recommending Yuan Ti PCs: in this module/adventure, the Yuan Ti are seriously the bad guys.

As are a wide variety of other various and sundry characters that the PCs will encounter.

[OldTrees1]

For those of you recommending Yuan Ti PCs: in this module/adventure, the Yuan Ti are seriously the bad guys.

As are a wide variety of other various and sundry characters that the PCs will encounter.


You missed something about that dynamic. The Yuan Ti are not the enemy. You could even call them allies. Of course the PCs won't necessarily know that until later if ever. On the other hand, Yuan Ti are not a monolith. There is infighting between the settlements.


Playing a Yuan Ti in ToA provides some interesting opportunities for character development before and during the campaign. One of the tourists Dun escorted was a Yuan Ti. It was a good time.

[Temperjoke]

For those of you recommending Yuan Ti PCs: in this module/adventure, the Yuan Ti are seriously the bad guys.

As are a wide variety of other various and sundry characters that the PCs will encounter.

Yes, but that does not change the fact that they are an optimal race for this adventure, and in several social encounters, being of the same race may change things a little, depending on the character and the DM.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

How about an ultimate survivor duo?

V.Human, Twilight Cleric
Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14+1, Int 10, Wis 18+1+1, Cha 12
Bonus feat is Telekinetic: Wis, future ASI's should include Resilient: Con, and Healer.
Uncommon Item: pick either Amulet of the Devout +1 (Tasha's) or Adamantine Plate.

Half-Elf, Ancients Paladin
Str 18+1, Dex 8, Con 14+1, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16+2
Future ASI's: +1 Str and Con, +2 Cha or PAM/GWM
Uncommon Item: Pick either a +1 weapon, or Adamantine Plate.


Or maybe go with a Rogue and someone who can give him reaction attacks (Order Cleric, Battle Master, etc.).

[Rhocian Xothara]

Just to touch on these comment points:


I would be interested to hear a DM's reasoning as for why flooding water would penetrate a tiny hut. Not accusing them of being wrong by any means, but it really feels like it's against the spirit of the spell. The atmosphere is supposed to be comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside; and a flood definitely feels like a weather effect.

And


There's no bottom to the hut; rain in this sense is torrential sheets of rain that flood everything, so while water may not come through the dome, there's nothing that would stop it from coming up beneath it.

This was a long discussion with the DM, and I have since sent the Sage Advice clarification to her. Her ruling is "fine, but you maaaaay have several feet of water rushing in to deal with once the spell wears off.

I guess that's where the 'shape water' cantrip comes into play? Freeze 10ft-by 5ft amounts of water upstream (if it's flowing) to act as a wall, dispell the Hut, and then move to safety by creating 5ft blocks of ice at a time and huddling behind them one at a time.

Or, if I can ritual-cast the Hut, just keep ritual-casting it, changing it to a new place each time until we come to some sort of safe ground where we won't be pulled in by the current. We can easily waste a couple of hours doing that, but it's better than being carried by what my DM is threatening to be 'a river'.

Worst part is: Leomund's Tiny Hut is a 3rd level spell. Since we're starting at CL3, it'll be some time before we get it.

[Hael]

Rogues are really useful in this campaign, and there are some useful social situations as well, so something like a swashbuckler. Dwarves and Yuan Ti are strong bc of the poison resist/immunities.

Of course Tashas clerics are probably ideal in this day and age.

Ask the DM how he/she treat short/long rests, bc a lot of DMs homebrew solutions for this module as things are not very balanced on that front.

[da newt]

I found the first half of the campaign to be much less deadly than the second half (but that may have been due to my DM), so I'm surprised how many of the recommendations seem to emphasize the jungle exploration side of things.



Also, Dispel Magic is an absolute must have IMO.

[Rhocian Xothara]

I found the first half of the campaign to be much less deadly than the second half (but that may have been due to my DM), so I'm surprised how many of the recommendations seem to emphasize the jungle exploration side of things.

Also, Dispel Magic is an absolute must have IMO.

I think part of that is the 'power creep' at higher levels. The first challenge of Tomb of Annihilation any major campaign is to climb out of those early levels, and after around 5th level their survivability tends to jump somewhat.

I also think emphases on poison resistance/immunity could carry over well to the dungeon-crawls. A lot of classic dungeon traps use poison. I've never actually played Tomb of Annihilation before, but I know it by reputation, and the Tomb of Horrors strikes me as one of those OG classic dungeons where the 10-foot pole is still not just a relevant inventory item, but almost essential.

As for Dispel Magic: Good shout. My Coffeelock's Invocation goodies are gonna be Aspect of the Moon (obviously) and "Eldritch Sight". I feel like as the resident "Magical Girl" it's my job to be able to Detect Magic innately.

[KorvinStarmast]

I'll update my suggestion later on, there's a common item that is a collapsable ten foot pole; nice to have in the dungeon bits.

[elyktsorb]

Actually about to play this module and I'm rocking astral self monk/spore druid like I've always wanted to.

[micahaphone]

I don't know if your DM is skipping all the "in town" stuff with that starting character level, or if they don't mind someone playing a yuan-ti, but I'll give advice assuming that your DM will treat a monstrous player race as a monster that if discovered will probably get your character killed.

I really like the Ancients paladin suggested above, they will add a shocking amount of survivability to the entire party while still being a tanky frontliner. But for a different frontliner that I've been looking forward to playing:

hill dwarf path of the beast barbarian:
18 str / 14 dex / 16+2 con / 8 int / 12+1 wis /10 cha
Outlander Background means you'll at least avoid starving in the hex crawl.
18 con + hill dwarf racial ability + D12 hit die means you won't go down without a hell of a lot of damage
Unarmored Defense will put you at equal AC to wearing half plate but without the stealth penalty, and that plus path of the beast means you'll fight just as well when stark naked and stripped of gear, like the world's toughest monk.
resistance to poison
For magic item, I'm a sucker for Boots of Striding and Springing on a barbarian - lets you get into the thick of things ASAP!
Insignia of Claws is also an uncommon item that would give you +1 with all your beast barb weapons/unarmed attacks

A coffeelock is always incredibly strong, but take it from me, I'm playing an Undying warlock in Curse of Strahd right now, the module where their features should be great, and it's not. The one good thing is the Death Ward on the expanded spell list, as I'm in a party of 3 PCs, so each morning we take a long breakfast so I can give my melee allies death ward for free. See if your DM would be interested in the UA undying warlock that came out recently, or perhaps with that character concept the Celestial patron would still work, and give you a stronger connection to the Divine Soul part of the build.




Also if you do end up playing a Yuan Ti, you might want to use your 1 uncommon item to get a Brooch of Living Essence - it's meant to hide an undead or extraplanar creature, but it'd still mark you as "nondescript" to any of the typical detection spells

Da Newt made me give it a second look, it wouldn't help yeah. Would probably want a Hat of Disguise item or take the Mask of Many Faces invocation. I know the general stat block says "easily pass as human" but I could see the people of Chult keeping a closer eye out, or at least having an expert among their town guard.

[da newt]

Per Volo's YuanTi Purebloods can "easily pass as human" and are not Undead or Extraplanar.

[kaervaak]

Yuan-ti can pass as humans. There's a hidden Yuan-ti agent in port Nyanzaru who passes for human with no real issue.

[LumenPlacidum]

I would go the expectations-denying route and really embrace the idea that you might have a campaign where you'll need to think and play dirty in order to survive. Go with characters who are hyperspecialized and not good in a variety of common tasks.

I'd go with a low-Con wizard/sorcerer who has a ton of cantrips for terrain manipulation, who needs to be extremely careful to not die. Take some effects to make it less likely that a single bad roll will kill you, like making sure to grab Absorb Elements. Grab a Periapt of Wound Closure.

For the other one, hmm. Maybe a really tough character who always makes dumb mistakes? So, a bear-totem barbarian or beast barbarian with a tail who rushes into things and attracts a lot of attention while the scrawny caster does what he can to keep the barbarian alive, while remaining out of harms way. Perhaps the caster has spread a rumor that keeps putting disposable meat-shields in front of him, and this is just the meat-shield who has lasted the longest? But, the caster would totally cut-and-run if things took a turn for the worse.

[Rashagar]

I don't know very much about about the campaign in specific, but in a party of 3, with 1 being a tanky character and one being a bard, I'd probably want to lean into either a wisdom or intelligence character, and tbh I'd probably go for 5 levels of either ranger or artificer and get a beast companion/steel defender to bulk out your party's numbers and take some focus off your front liner.

For race, I'd probably go with a stout halfling, with those stats you can easily afford to get some of the racial feats like letting allies reroll 1s and the one that lets you avoid a crit/combat.

[CTurbo]

When I first saw the thread topic, I assumed playing 2 characters at once and I immediately thought Wolf Totem Barb + Rogue or Dex Paladin with Elven Accuracy.

But it's more have a main character and then a backup character?

I agree with a Wis based class. I'd probably start with a Gloom Stalker that eventually takes some Scout Rogue levels, and roll up a Cleric as backup. Maybe Light Domain? Druids are a great choice too though.

[Menji]

Playing it now, almost done.

We have a large-ish party, but the keys are:

A paladin, mainly for the aura but also for nova damage (Ours is a YT Pal(Veng)6/Hexblade1/WarWizard3)
A gloomstalker ranger for scouting etc (ghostwise halfling w/CBE & sharpshooter, 9 ranger/1 rogue)
A wizard for utility/dispels/control etc. Tip: take Rary's Telepathic Bond (high elf illusionist 10) - would recommend abjurer, diviner, chronurgist, War, or Bladesinger instead.

Clerics and druids wouldn't be bad either. A lore or eloquence bard could work but it'd take a smart player.

[Rihno]

When I hear "make optimised build for this adventure" or "best build to min-max for unknown campaign" and so on my answers are only two:

1. Paladin.

2. Wizard.

There are tons of builds for each, my favourite are Dex Paladins with Elven Accuracy and Evocation Wizards.

Point is you can't go wrong with them. Both are always usefull, always strong, always good, and there is no party who would say no to any of those two.

When in doubt, pick one of those 2. There is a reason both are highest rated classes in 5e when it comes to player satisfaction. Also both are most complained about by DMs so that also says a lot :)