New campaign: Help on what to play!

[Zorth]

Hello everyone! I'm a long time lurker on these forums, and haven't posted anything until today, since i can't decide on what to play and i figured y'all maybe can help me pick. We will starting a new Icewind Dale campaign with a group. Everyone already picked their characters (human arcana cleric, drow pact of the fiend warlock, goliath rune knight and elf monster slayer), but me. We'll be starting at level 3. The campaign also features a sort of "factions" that all characters are a part of (we are asociated with the Arcane Broterhod of Luskan, so every pc on the party has some "arcane" connection or nature), and we also have a secret, mine being: "You were a citizen of Netheril (an ancient civilization, extremely advanced in magic, with floating cities and a thousand other wonders). You were in stasis for hundreds of years, and you finally woke up in an unknown world a few weeks ago. You can speak and read Netheril, but the information about this ancient city is confusing".

I was originally going to play a Paladin (Oath of Arcana, a homebrew subclass more mage protector-focused), with the idea of playing something like a protector, guard or the like from this ancient city (that died, went into stasis, something like that), now trying to find out what happened to everyone and everething they swore to protect...but it seemed to me that we already have a CHA user, and since we were lacking some INT, i could play a wizard, so i thought of this idea: a Chronurgy wizard, that actually died, was resurrected, and wants to literally go back in time to stop his death (probably not going to happen during the campaign, but as a motivation i found it cool). The thing is, i been playing full casters for a while now, and i'm kinda fed up...so i thought, maybe the same character concept (more like an inventor from Netheril, brought back now) but as an artificer?...and was pointing towards an armorer, but the armorer (and the artificer as a whole, maybe except the alchemist) feels to me kinda off in the setting and campaign in particular, and i'm having a really hard time justifying the class and feels not really thematic...So i'm kinda lost on what to pick, and i thought maybe asking here would give me some ideas or opinions (or other classes/concepts) on what to play!}

Cheers!

[MrStabby]

I quite like the Artificer refluffed. Artificers don't really need to be magitech - you could be a priest with blessed relics and your power comes from consecrating items to be more effective. in Lord of the Rings, Sauron would be a good candidate for an artificer as well, and does without the whole magitech thing.

If you want to play a protector an artificer is excellent. Its level 7 ability captures that, you can protect through infusions and through spells.

If you wanted to, you could ask for you DM to allow you to play the artificer with the Paladin spell list to round out the protection theme whilst not stepping on the toes of the charisma casters. It would probably be a slight lift in power (though lack of some spells like shield would hurt) but this would just be closing the gap with the paladin.

[J-H]

My understanding is that RotFM is designed for AL play, and expects the DM to insert magic items where you'd get them in Adventurer's League. If your DM doesn't know this, it's very stingy with magic items.
Based on this, I'd go with something that's not very gear-dependent. Artificer can bypass this, but requires downtime which you may not have.

[Nefariis]

Alright, from what I gathered, you are looking for something that fills the INT (arcana, history, religion) role, who is not a full caster, who has ties to an ancient civilization, and who was maybe a protector/guard in their previous life - starting at level 3.

If you want to fill the INT skill role, I would take first level in knowledge cleric.


At 1st level, you learn two languages of your choice. You also become proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of those skills.

As a bonus you get Bless, PFGE, Shield of Faith, and Sanctuary - all spells that fill the "Guard/Protector" Role.

For your next levels, I would check out Rogue if you are looking to mix up your playing style. They get two more skills with double proficiency and it would fit in well with your party composition.

For a link to your previous civilization, you could re-flavor Phantom to draw upon the knowledge and power of your ancestors - you would have spirit guardians from the old world guiding and aiding you.

Arcane Trickster would also be great because it puts that INT score to use.

So at third level you would have proficiency in 6/7 skills (depending on race), 4 of them would be double proficiency (Arcana, History, Religion, Insight/Perception/Nature), you would do decent damage, and if you took arcane trickster, you would have access to Green flame blade, shadow blade, and booming blade.


My second thought would be an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian while still taking a first level of knowledge cleric - I think the first option (1KC/2AT) would do more damage, have better skills, make more use of INT - but AG definitely fills that guard/protector role that draws upon an ancient civilization.


I've played a few cleric/rogue multiclasses and being able to self Bless /Booming Blade someone is pretty fun.


**Late edit**

I completely forgot that 2nd level knowledge cleric also give you this


Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to tap into a divine well of knowledge. As an action, you choose one skill or tool. For 10 minutes, you have proficiency with the chosen skill or tool.

would be pretty cool to combine with phantom (or en lieu of if you wanted the feature, but wanted to go arcane trickster)


Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can gain one skill or tool proficiency of your choice, as a ghostly presence shares its knowledge with you. You lose this proficiency when you use this feature to choose a different proficiency that you lack. (which is re-flavored to your ancestors)