Hi, I'm new to d&d- my group is just wrapping up Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. I chose the Cleric Dwarf who has a -1 Dex/-1 Initiative. I have 2 questions,
1. is there a way to increase my initiative? (-1 kinda sux) &
2. Once I reach level 5 my Proficiency Bonus increases, including my "modifier for saving throws and skills I'm profiecient in increase by 1". Does this include my actual skills (Strength, Dexterity, Consitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma)? And if so, this would increase my initiate, correct? (because it's based off my dexterity)
Or am I totally mucking it up? 
Thanks in advance for any help!!!
You can change the -1 to initiative by raising your Dexterity high enough to change the ability modifier. This is done at certain levels when you are granted an ability score increase (increase 1 ability score by 2 points, or 2 ability scores by 1 point each, to a max of 20). The level chart will tell you when you can do this.
The proficiency bonus only affects Skills (Persuasion, Stealth, etc) on the Skills section of a character sheet, your attacks (with a weapon you are proficient in) and your spell attacks and any other die roll where the rules or an ability description says to apply it.
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are Ability Scores and based on their number modify skills, saving throws, attacks, and other dice rolls. An ability score of 10 or 11 has a 0 modifier, so if your Dexterity is at -1 it must mean it's an 8 or 9. You can basically get the modifier for an ability score by subtracting 10, divide by 2 and round down (or look at the ability score modifier table, but roughly 8-9 is -1, 10-11 is 0, 12-13 is +1, and so on in either direction).
Being a Cleric you can look at the cleric levelling table to see when you get an ability score increase, your first comes at level 4. If you haven't done it I would suggest downloading and reading the Player's Basic Rules PDF from the main wizards D&D site if you don't have access to the Starter Set or PHB books. It covers what your class gets, explains how the different stats on your character work. For your specific question a good section to read over is Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores starting on page 57 of the PDF.
High initiative is great if you are a rogue or spell casting controller, but if you are a healer or tank there are more important areas to focus on. You can improve your iniative several ways- abilty increases as you level up and feats like Alert (+5 to iniative) or Athlete (+1 to dex) but ultimately, clerics generally are at the bottom of the iniative order.
- What role in the party does your cleric play?
- Why did you choose a cleric?
- Why did you choose dex as your dump stat?
- Does your group focus more on roleplaying or combat?
Depending on how answer the above, you may want to rethink your your PC build.
PS- I am playing a dwarf cleric with a dex of 16, but not for the iniative, but because I have the Sheild Master and Resilient feats which allow me to reduce the damage I take and use my healing on my teammates.
OoftaMeg wrote:
ezrider23 wrote:
Yeah, -1 initiative shouldn't be a problem and I certainly wouldn't raise Dex from 8 to 10 on level 4 just to raise it to +0, that'd be a total waste on that character. Plus -1 isn't really all that bad, you should still find yourself going earlier than others occassionally. And after the first round it doesn't even matter anymore.
And your proficiency bonus is applied to saving throws and skills you are proficient with. Strength, Dexterity etc. are called an ability scores, they are not skills and you can't be proficient with them. A skill is something like "Athletics" and "Sleight of Hand".
If you look at the official starter set character sheet (here), the proficiency bonus is applied to everything with a black dot in front.
The main downside is that there are a lot of Dexterity saving throws (spells and dragon's breath, for example) and that 1 point might come in handy on many occasions. Just another complication to add to the decision-making process. I agree it's not worth changing just for initiative, though.
The main downside is that there are a lot of Dexterity saving throws (spells and dragon's breath, for example) and that 1 point might come in handy on many occasions. Just another complication to add to the decision-making process. I agree it's not worth changing just for initiative, though.
Thanks so much everyone!! Lots of helpful information!