A guile-less and stupid ranged whispers bard?

[Hiro Quester]

I designed a character I'm playing, as a naive charming optimistic idiot half-elf. He's not smart or wise (8 Int and WIS), but charismatic, sturdy and nimble (17 CHA, 16 DEX and Con). He's best at following the advice of the smarter party members, and only sometimes understands the whole situation he's in.

He's currently 2nd level, bard1/hexblade1.

My original intention was a dashing swordsman type, something like bard1/hexblade5/Bard to 15, with IPW, Thirsting Blade, and Eldrich Smite invocations, and elven accuracy feat, critfishing and pumping sword flourishes and eldritch smites (short-rest recovery resources) into crits.

People kept suggesting that it might be better to play this as a ranged character, since I'd still be kind of squishy (both eldrich smites and weapon flourishes can be used with a pact weapon longbow). We don't really have another ranged attacker in the party (artificer, wizard, cleric, druid, paladin and me). Keep a longsword and shield for when enemies close in.

And some suggested that whispers bard might be better for what I want to achieve, in particular, better damage 2d6 from bardic inspiration resources, that increases with more bard levels to 3d6, 5d6, and 8d6 at bard 15).

I think they might be right. If I wanted to go in that direction, I could maybe turn his personality slowly darker over the next few levels, as the hexblade patron relationship sinks in. And eventually take sharpshooter feat, and swift quiver as a magical secret.

This gives lots of warlock and bard spells (even if only 3 warlock pact slots/short rest) for BFC and buff/debuff, and solid weapon damage, with a couple of pact slots and BI "psychic blades" to pump into crits for bonus glory. It could be fun to play.

But a College of Whispers bard, a dealer in secrets and subterfuge, able to take on the "shadow" of someone who was just killed and be disguised as them with their knowledge, to gather intelligence and infiltrate enemy social settings, seems to require a certain level of intelligence and cunning. But my character is limited in that domain.

Can anyone suggest a way to play a clueless and guileless but charismatic intelligence agent and infiltrator?

Or should I just talk to my DM about rearranging a couple of ability scores?

[Corran]

Can anyone suggest a way to play a clueless and guileless but charismatic intelligence agent and infiltrator?
Guileless? That's tough to pull off. You need someone (another pc) pulling your strings too heavily so that your character wont entirely understand why they are doing what they are doing. Roleplaying seems so one dimensional in these scenarios that I think it would get boring very fast for everyone involved.

Low int and wis could mean (among other things) that you are not the one coming up with the tricky bits of the plan. Someone else (eg enother pc) has the idea of how to ideally use you in such situations, and you can perform well when following the script. Improvising could be tricky, but the more well detailed your role is and the more well versed you are in it, the easier it will become to fall back to it for spontaneous looking reactions when something goes slightly off. Wisdom (as a stat) may not necessarily build up as time goes on, but unless you imagine 8 in both to mean a really low mental capacity, you could have the character act in such a manner undirected if the situation is close enough to a repetition of something you've already done. So long as you leave any clever and original (from an in character perspective of course) ideas for other pc's to come up with them, I'd say you'd be making right by the low wis and int.

[solidork]

If you like your original character concept and feel like you have to bend over backwards to justify something different for optimization reasons, you should 100% just stick with what you were planning. Every time.

Your original concept sounds fun to play and fun to play with.

Corran's answer to your question is a good one though. I actually played a rogue that was the other half of the kind of relationship they describe, but who had messed up and gotten his partner killed. I think it would work best if you work with another player and have your characters already working together in your backstories.

[Sherlockpwns]

I actually envision this RP different from the two above. Charasmatic dummy;

Think loveable henchman, like Kronk from emperors new groove.

To say there is one dimension here I don’t see it.

Sure you are the henchman so you’ll be the one being told to go here and do that; but the RP comes down to how you mess it up! And how else you may act against the wishes of the party or boss because you see it as the right thing to do. Those will be precious moments, times when you let the prisoner go when your party wants them dead, etc.

There are so many awesome moments in a game that has a character willingly, but honestly, messing things up and forcing the party to talk or fight their way out of whatever their hapless loveable friend has got them into.

[Hiro Quester]

I think I agree, Sherlockpwns. I designed him as a low int character, because it's occasionally good comedy to not play a brilliant tactician, but someone who misunderstands, or partially understands.

And low wisdom, impulsive and impetuous (would a high wisdom character really take a deal with an unknown entity from the shadowfell?). I think this can be a source of fun and comedy in a game.

And I do have a very smart party wizard, who I befriended in our backstories (I'm the Barney Stinson to his bookish Ted Moseby, trying to get him to put the book down and come out drinking and dancing). At second level, I'm becoming aware that his advice about tactics is often better than my own instincts. But I'm also not always good at following through with his pla---"Look! Squirrel!!"

I do somewhat fear how badly I could get into trouble with an infiltration mission, though, when the rest of the party isn't there to support and help clean up.

But the whisper bard's ability to both disguise oneself as another person, and also know everything they would tell a good friend (knowing names and details about the other guards in the palace, so you can travel the palace as though you belong there, etc.), seems a goldmine for information gathering. It seems far too cool an ability to not try to exploit.

Plus it seems like playing the shadow as a voice in my head, telling me details ("that guard is Carl, his girlfriend Shiela just dumped him after she caught him in bed with one of the cook's assistants", etc.) could have some fun options for the DM to role-play too.

I can easily see my character gathering lots of information, but misunderstanding or not recalling some important details, though.

Still, I guess I have 3-5 levels of warlock to work through before I have to decide on a Bard school. But if I'm heading in a possibly whispery direction, I might need to lean into the shadowy aspects of hexblade for the next few levels, and see how it feels.

And I might still need to stay back and play bufer/controller/ranged combat for a bit, until I get a few more defensive options. The monsters get tougher at level 4, and I'm delaying my ASI a level. So I can try out archery for a level or two and see how that feels, too.