I'm making a character for 5e DnD. Not completely sure about the character himself, but here are his stats (Pic is the best nominee for character art). Feel free to propose your own characters, if you want.
Name: Illyrius Eupheme Walhart Class: Fighter (Eldritch Knight) Race: Human
I can provide any other information about it you need. The main thing I'm still working on is the bonds/flaws, etc.
Elijah Collins
If you can get any of the other official content allowed, Booming Blade / Green Flame Blade is great, much better at certain levels (1-4, 7-10, 17-19) and situationally good at others and allows you to viably multiclass out of EK without repercussions.
'Absorb elements' is also a great spell for an EK.
But, you do what you want to do.
EKs are great defensively, and that rapier works well if you go rapier + shield, and go dexterity over strength. Dexterity is generally better on the defence, and strength is only really useful for grapplers/GWFs/barbarians.
Robert Ward
I might take Shield out and replace it with Green Flame Blade, now that I think about it. Take out Earth Tremors and replace it with Elemental Absorb too.
As for the shield, I'll get it when I get the War Caster feat, which should be at 4th level. To start off I'd rather get the lance so I can save up for a horse and do >that couched lance damage
Final thing, what's the difference between using a rapier with dex and using a rapier with strength? Why would I use Dex if I had a higher strength score? I don't think I can decrease strength, I need it for attacking and carrying armour.
Nathan Carter
Green flame blade is a cantrip.
Shield is a very good spell, probably better than absorb elements. You might as well hold onto that.
You don't really need war caster to cast spells with a weapon and a shield. It costs an action to put the shield away/equip it, but your weapon only takes an object interaction. If your spell doesn't include somatic components then you can do it with your weapon out. If your spell does include somatic components - if it takes a full action, you can just put your weapon away. You'll lack good reaction attacks for a round but you can just pull the weapon out again next round.
There's no difference to attacking with strength and dexterity. If you use a one-handed 1d8 weapon or you use two-weapon-fighting dexterity offers weapons just as strong as strength weapons (rapier, shortsword) If you want to use heavy weapons such as a greatsword, strength covers that.
Here's the real differences, heavy armour:
Strength Fighter: Can use heavy weapons (1d10, 1d12, 2d6 weapons) Has better str saves (not usually as important) Better grapples (Athletics), same grapple escape as both acrobatics and athletics can be used to escape grapples Can wear heavy armour (Plate armour, 1500gp, 18 AC, compared to half-plate or light armour which gives 17 AC) You can.. Push objevcts. 13 str required to multiclass to paladin and barbarian. Dex: Once you reach 20 dex, you can wear light armour for 17 AC AND not have disadvantage on stealth checks. (Cont...)
Liam Phillips
(Cont...) Dex, continued: Crossbows, bows and most ranged attacks work off of dex. Strength still can throw axes and such, but that's generally worse with less range. Can multiclass into rogue, monk, ranger with 13 dexterity. Only needs 14 dexterity (As opposed to 15 strength) to fully utilitize armour. Better dex saves (These are important, second only to con saves, and sometimes more improtant than con saves) Better initiative Better skills (Sleight of hand, stealth, acrobatics. Mostly looking at 'stealth' here.) Restricted to finesse weapons (rapier, shortswords, daggers.. That stuff.) and ranged weapons (bows and such). If your DM makes you sleep without armour, a dex fighter will be MUCH better off for AC if they aren't wearing their armour.
If you're a dwarf, you can go dexterity and still wear heavy armour without -10ft speed, which means there's very little reason to go strength without REALLY needing grappling.
There might be a few things I've forgot to consider, but that's pretty much it.
Dexterity is generally better than strength if you don't need it (Grapples, GWF, Barbarian). However, if you want to go strength for flavour, it's not really massively worse and +1 AC isn't so bad.
You do what you want to do, I'm mostly just talking about metagame stuff here.
Gabriel Hughes
So shocking grasp, flame blade, shield, absorb element, find familiar?
I don't want to have to drop my sword and/or shield just to cast a spell. The shield can wait, I have decent enough dex to dodge and/or parry.
Flavour-wise, I want to be both intelligent and able to use chainmail. How would you recommend I change my stats?
Christian Kelly
> Eldritch knight
user, are you sure?
Brayden Lopez
Unless you can find a class for the merchant background that desn't involve -singing and banging drums like I'm in a Disney musical -acting like a Baltimore level felon -being a hippie
Joshua Walker
Ether that or a non-spergy way to do the Folk Hero background.
Connor Allen
Don't listen to that user, play whatever sounds fun to you.
James Hughes
If you really want to min-max, I'd go dexterity fighter with Green Flame Blade, Booming Blade (cantrips), Shield, Absorb Elements, Find Familiar
You don't drop your sword, you can simply put it away as an object interaction. War caster is still great, as you can cast Booming Blade as a reaction which does a lot for a reaction attack.
If you really want to use chainmail and maybe heavy armour, you only really need 15 strength while then focusing the rest on dex and con.
You don't need obscene levels of intellect to play a EK or intelligent character, at least 13 is enough to say you're certainly intelligent enough to be a bit of an academic. I'm not sure what exactly your stats were before racial changes, but
>dex: highest >str: at least 15 for plate armour >con: next highest, if you ignore strength >int: third highest, ignoring strength >wisdom/charisma: you choose
EK is perfectly viable if you're careful with your choices. Battlemaster's still pretty strong, though.
Some people do like to do 'extra-lawful merchant-inclined paladins' who protect the.. right to free trade and whatever.
Anthony Gray
How about this (After racial modifiers for being human)?
Dex: 16 Str: 15 Con: 13 Int: 13 Cha: 11 Wis: 10
The way it's splayed will get me more of a return from leveling up as a fighter. If I wanted to keep my chainmail, would this work better?
As for spells, I'll go with your suggestions minus booming blade. Shocking Grasp just has too much sinergy with Find Familiar for me to ignore.
The merchant character I'm trying to create is sort of a Spice and Wolf type thing, ecenomics and shit. I might experiment with a fighter down the archer specialty for that.
Luis Baker
If you want to wear chainmail and never wear anything else, you only need 13 strength. However, that's absurd. You should probably ask for a super-chainmail that has the same stats as plate armour for fluff, because otherwise you'd be sacrificing AC.
The problem with only having Green Flame Blade is there are times when you won't be able to use it. You have to have two enemies within 5ft of each other to really make use of it. This means it's great in those circumstances, but at other times you'll either want to use booming blade (At certain levels, or if you want the enemy to stay still / expect them to move) or extra attack (if all else is out the window). Not to mention, fire is a lot more resisted than thunder damage. If you have to choose between booming blade and green flame blade, booming blade is generally better.
Booming blade has MASSIVE synergy with warcaster, because if an enemy is moving and you hit them with booming blade you know you're going to deal maximum damage.
Shocking grasp really doesn't have much synergy. If you throw your familiar ahead, they'll probably get killed. It doesn't take a lot to replace your familiar, but you might as well tell your familiar to take the 'help' action every round instead while you shoot the enemy with a crossbow. You do much more damage with a crossbow, and it's not too often you need to deny an enemy a reaction, even if advantage against armoured targets sometimes helps.
Carson Roberts
Oh, but, I think everything works out. I'd probably recommend variant human if there's any feats you like the look of, but you are pretty MAD requiring 4 out of the 6 stats which is a rare case the non-variant human might actually be useful.
+1 int modifier might kick you in the butt, but Booming Blade, Sheild and (I think?) absorb elements don't use the int modifier, along with some other spells. You shouldn't be using your spell slots on attack spells anyway, so you don't really need an int modifier. Just be wary that if you want to use controlling spells at much, much later levels they're not likely to be too effective. But shield and absorb elements and all that is great for a fighter.
Really, bard probably feels the most 'merchant' sort of class, but that doesn't seem what you're looking for. You don't have to play a bard as 'banging drums' though, as you can use a spell component pouch instead of an instrument.
Lucas Green
Now that I think about it, I'll probably upgrade to platemail when I can. I thought for a second that chainmail was medium and didn't give disadvantage.
The way that most DMs play enemies, a melee character won't move around all that much when they've already reached their target. It seems like one of those things you get when it upgrades and you have more spells learned at a higher level.
What I was thinking when I included shocking grasp had more to do with field battle. First I'd do a touch range spell from a distance, then I'd charge in with a couched lance, then I'd dismount and spellsword thier shit up. I might reconsider if it isn't as stronk as I thought it was.
Jacob Wright
If you're going to do that, it'd probably be better to have your team keep distance and use a crossbow until the enemy gets in melee range, and them simply walk up to them and start fighting normally. Lances are great on horses, but otherwise.. And to be honest, I don't tend to see a lot of mounted combat.
Most DMs will have occasional times you make reaction attacks. If you have war caster, you'll get to cast booming blade. If you cast booming blade as a reaction attack, you deal (weapon damage) + (1d8 if at least level 5 + 1d8 if at least level 11 + 1d8 if at least level 17) + (1d8 + 1d8 if at least level 5 + 1d8 if at least level 11 + 1d8 if at least level 17) thunder (rarely resisted) damage, because the enemy will immediately trigger booming blade's secondary effect. There are levels where booming blade /green flame blade is almost always better than multi-attack, and being able to use booming blade instead of green flame blade is a bit of a boon in the off chance something causes that enemy to move willingly (There are spells that force the enemy to 'willingly' move, enemies retreat sometimes, enemies run past you to attack the squishy magic caster..)
You can always pick up shocking grasp later on if I recall correctly, but probably it's best to take the two.
But, as always, you can do as you want. It's not all about being the best, and if you want to try a certain sort of magic approach you can try that.
Ryan Wood
I plan to get a horse at some point, so couched lancing will be both cool and stronk.
Thank you for your help. If you feel like it, I still could use some help with the bonds/flaws/etc.
Anthony Hall
Just a word of warning on horse and lance (and this was 2e so I'm not talking mechanics), if you're going to be in dungeons it is not something you want your build to focus on too much. You go from "I charge the undead giant!" to "I guess I'll leave my awesome horse out here and go into the cave with my sword..."
Matthew Gomez
Yeah. The lance is +2 damage over a 1d8 one-handed weapon if you're holding it in one hand for 1d12. It's not a massive amount, and might not be worth changing your build over unless you get to use it a lot.
Bonds/flaws/and such can mostly be done by you. That's really about character design and what you want from your character.
Ian Edwards
I know. It's more of a cool thing I'd like to pull off now and then than a fully-fleged strategy.
Which of the personality options would work well with the noble background without being too much, by the way? Or do you have any ideas for something custom? I'm thinking that his bond might be that he's in love with a lady from another house that only cares for accomplished adventurers.
Dominic Thomas
As an additional question, if you go for the standard item loadout, can you buy additional stuff before starting the campaign? Or do you have to wait to spend your gold?
Andrew Gray
Ask you DM, if this is for DnD Adventures or whatever it's called these days then I don't know.
>personality options Personality is a mechanic now? Man I'm out of the loop with DnD.
Jordan Rivera
If I remember right, there's traits, flaws, bonds and ideals, which come together to form a personality. You get bonuses for going along with it, and maluses for going against it.
Nathaniel Smith
Oh, that makes more sense. I thought he meant personality options like choosing a voice in Buldur's Gate.
Luis Rodriguez
Nah. I want to do the noble, but I want to do it right. I was originally planning for a stern, domineering type, but that seemed spergy. I'm thinking more the gregarious leader type now. Suggestons? I have to go soon, by the way, so don't be surprised if I drop off the face of the earth for tonight.
Michael Morris
Like Aragorn, or Robb Stark.
Noah Perez
Name: Hole Digger Class: Rogue Race: Whatever floats your boat
