Holy crap I was finally free up to play some D&D this past weekend. Adult life is such crap at times! Especially when you want to throw dice with the guys.
They were starting a new group so I threw out a couple dudes that would be starting at 3rd level. Everyone got a single heirloom-like weapon/item/armor that would give a +1 combat bonus to hit and damage as well.
The first was an ½ elven ranger. A gold standard character for any fantasy game. I made him an archer because once again, gold standard! I used the quick build to get his gear and the majority of his skills. He would choose the hunting class and bow as his weapon focus. Then take colossal slayer and pick beasts as his ranger nemesis. A couple spells, hail o’ thorns, cure wounds and some entangling shot spell. His long bow would be the +1/+1 magical item. One character down.
The second character I had joked about and then really decided to make it, a bard. I had no idea what they did in 5th edition, but I was never a fan of the previous versions. Once again I went quick build to get skills, background and gear. I made him a human and took the college of lore for his sub class bit. Why a bard? I’m still not sure. The fact he can add an extra D6 roll a few times a day to help with this, damage, skills etc. He could be an off healer when resting seemed alright too. The rest of his abilities seemed situational at best. The spell list is all over the board for them with a few minor damage spells, some status effects and then a lot of situational and misc. spells. Vicious Taunt, Blindness, Heroism and Dissonant Whispers look to be the three I might use the most. He grabbed a sword, shield and a pan flute and scampered off to battle.
We ran a standard dungeon crawl and it was fun, but I felt really rusty with forgotten bonuses, rules and dice rolls.
The bard didn’t do a whole lot. Being able to throw out an add-on D6 for a turn or so is great, but it is limited to only a few times per day. That was lame. Would once per turn be too much? Maybe if it was like a concentration ability? Useful, but not useful enough. Having a cantrip that causes paddy damage, but can cause an enemy to have combat disadvantage is pretty damn useful. Having a spell that adds temporary hit points to someone at the start of every turn is sweet. Having those temporary hit points be based off an ability score bonus, well not so sweet. Especially while fighting a big punchy brute. I don’t hate this guy, but I’m not sure I know what to really do with him. He was not a negative to the party so that was a positive.
The range just felt a bit cheaty at times. Getting to throw an extra dice on range attack damage vs. a wounded foe is nuts. The only part that didn’t make it feel 100% tricksy is that I missed sooooo many times with my bow. A bow that I had a +8 bonus to hit. I had really bad dice with this guy. However, a pure ranged non-wizard is an awesome option! Plus the Hail of Thorns spell was really great at raking up damage to bunched up orcs. Fun spell and the only one he ever used.
The bard could be fun with some work. The ranged ranger is just so easy and the damage output potential is sickening.
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