Hello everyone,
I'm currently building some characters for a future one-shot (with potentially further campaign if the players like 5e), and I've made this little build.
I'm the DM of the one-shot, so even if I want to stay as close to the rules as possible, I'm the one who can validate little changes.
The characters for the one-shot will all be lvl3 (mainly because I want the players to benefit from the subclasses). Considering their third level, I upgrade a bit their equiment with what would seems normal purchases.
This ranger 2 / Rogue 1 is not as nature-oriented as a classic ranger, and is though as a rogue with extra utility based on the ranger powers for tracking side of the build.
3rd-level Human : Ranger 2 / Rogue 1
Medium Male Humanoid
Armor Class: 15 (17 with shield)
Hit Points: 19
Speed 30 ft.
Sense Normal
Str 10 (+0) Dex 16 (+3) Con 8 (-1)
Int 12 (+1) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 14 (+2)
Alignment neutral
Common, Halfling, Goblin, Abyssal, Thieves' cant
TRAITS
Background Urchin [City Secrets]
Personality Traits: I like to squeeze (and climb) into small places where no-one else can get to me
Trait : (soldier inspired) I'm haunted by memories of clan war, I can't get the images of violence out of my mind.
Ideal: Neutral. I help people who help me : that's what kepps us alive.
Bond: No one else should have to endure the hardships I've been throught
Flaw: I'd rather kill someone in their sleep than fight fair
Proficiency (+2)
Tools: Disguise kit, Poisoner's kit, Thieves' tools
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Strength
SKILLS
Acobatics +5, Athletics +4, Deception +4, Insight +4, Perception +4, Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +7
Expertise (Athletics, Stealth)
Sneak Attack (1d6)
Actions
ACTIONS
Melee Attacks—Dagger: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 1d4+3 piercing damage
Melee Attacks—Rapier: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 1d8+3 piercing damage
Ranged Attack—Dagger: +5 to hit (range 60 ft; one creature).
Hit: 1d4+3 piercing damage
Ranged Attack—Hand crossbow: +5 to hit (range 120 ft; one creature).
Hit: 1d6+3 piercing damage
Ranged Attack—Longbow: +5 to hit (range 600 ft; one creature).
Hit: 1d8+3 piercing damage
EQUIPMENT
6 daggers, rapier, hand crossbow, longbow, studded leather armor, shield, Disguise kit, Poisoner's kit, Thieves' tools, Burglar's pack
KNOWN SPELLS
1st level : Ensnaring Strike, Hunter's Mark
SPECIAL
Ranger 1 - Favored Enemy : Goblins
Ranger 1 - Favored enemy : Bhaal's follower
Ranger 1 - Urban Explorer : port district (instead of a "natural explorer")
Ranger 2 - Fighting Style : Archery
Human Feature : Sharpshooter
BACKGROUND
Bareris is the (oh so common) only survivor of a goblin attack on his village when he was barely 8 years old. He only survived by wandering in the streets of a nearby town, where a group of shady mercenaries (members of a guild of thieves and assassins) took him under their wing. Bareris quickly became aware of the rivalries between other groups and his, all of them being more or less mercenaries to higher entities. His adventures begin shortly after most of his contacts get tortured and killed by an assassin's guild of Bhaal's followers.
QUESTIONS :
Any general advice about the build ?
The constitution modifier is negative : it gets "added" anyway, right ?
The hunter's mark doesn't mention that the target known it is marked (as the charm spells do), so can it be used to track someone without him knowing ?
The pre-generated characters thread seems to have most of them formatted the same way : is there a software to do so ?
TomPlisss wrote:
In the pre-gen thread, I took the OP's style, modified it a little, and made a template on Google Drive. I don't think he used any particular software, just had a good idea to start with for how to display the stats and used the rich text editor options in the forum software to make it look nice.
I agree with mellored on the stats; there is simply no reason to nerf your CON for that build (assuming there isn't a story element that justifies it). You have no skills or abilities that depend on INT, so it's a much better dump stat. You could even go with STR if you don't want to play a below-average smarty and only your Athletics skill bonus would suffer.
I like the character. Cliche backgrounds are cliche because they're useful! Half of my characters start as orphans or urchins somehow. It's an effective story-telling device and gives you a fairly clean slate to work with.
Thanks for the answers.
I initially boosted Int because of the Investigation skill, but this rogue is proficient in "only" 7 skills, so it may be lowered a bit.
I don't know whether boosting Con is worth it. I know it would grant 3-6 HP easily, but the whole character is centered on ranged combat and staying away from enemies' range (that's why Str is at 10 and Athletics benefits from expertise, after all).
And thanks for the other answers 
It's always hard to make a bit of background of a character you will give to somebody else ^^"
The thing is that proficency works with a d20. So +1 give you 5% more.
But Con works on a d8 (usually). So you get 12.5% more.
So you need to use investigation 2.5x as much as you use HP to make it worth while.
Which might happen in a trap heavy dungon with a ranged character, but probably not overall.
That said, it's not always fun to play the most optimized character.