Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 RedDragonKaji Mar 19, 2014 13:39:12	Hello everyone, my name is Kaji. I'm an ameture D&D player and first time poster here. I've been playing for a few months now and my DM is starting a new campaign, 4 players total including myself, and I'd like some advice on my character build.   The setting is a prehistoric style world in a massive tree. Mammals and dinosaurs alike, who knows what else. We only get stone age tools of minus inducing quality, and rather than buy our own the DM is going to hand out everything we get. And to top it all off, we're using NPC only classes. Aristocrat isn't allowed, and commoner is awful, which leaves me with three options, each with their own pros and cons:   Adept Pros: The only magic class. Starting spells are decent at 3 0th level and 1 1st level at level 1. Spells are prepared at the start of the day. Access to damage through Burning Hands, and it gets two healing spells (Cure minor and light wounds). Gets a familiar at level 2, which could be a big help. Cons: Better get used to those starting spell slots because progression as far as available spells is so slow it's not even funny. I'll be stuck with 1st level spells until at least 4th level. Base Attack bonus is simply horrid, as are saves other than will.  Expert Pros: Skill Points aplenty! And considering we're probably going to need a lot of good rolls for things like constructing makeshift shelters, foraging for food, and possibly crafting weapons, this could be very valuable. Lets you pick any ten skills to be class skills as well, so I can pick the most useful ones for the campaign. Proficiancy with light armor is nice too but I doubt we'll be getting any armor. Base Attack Bonus is okay, certainly better than Adept. Cons: Having played only two other characters in my D&D experience, and with both of them being arcane casters, I must admit I am a bit bias towards them. In a campaign where everything we make or get will be low quality, I worry a hit die of D6 without the benefit of healing or shooting fire from my hands won't stand out much. Warrior Pros: D8 Hit die. Considering we have a "high chance of dying" according to the DM, I'll take every hit point I can get. A decent Base Attack Bonus is nice as well and should make up for the awful weapons. Fort saves are nice, and I anticipate more poisous insects than I do mind bending wizards. Cons: My anticipations are meaningless before the cruelty of the DM, who ensures there will be strange things in this world but isn't specific. Expect the unexpected and all that. Will and Ref saves don't give me much faith in getting any spectacular rolls and skill points are so low I don't have much utility.    DM slipped a tease that we might get to take levels in non-NPC classes later in the campaign, but I have to live to see that day, so it's best to plan for the now. He had me roll my stats, and said I can put each roll into whatever stats I want. Here's what I got.   11 10 11 12 15 9   The dice were kind to me, very kind. Where I put those will depend on what class I pick.  Right now I'm leaning towards Expert, as there are no shops and thus what you craft is what you get. I'm super indecisive, and haven't heard back from my fellow players yet, but I was hoping for some preliminary advice from more experienced players.
#2 Krusk Mar 19, 2014 15:04:57	The adept is actually better than some real classes, so thats what you should play. Especially if no shops. Take adept, and grab some item creation feats. Either make bank being the only shop in the world, or at a minimum make sure your party is properly equipped.    If you don't want casting, or intend to play a real class that isn't a prestige class that advances casting, having two seperate casting classes generally sucks. So I'd recomend you play an expert instead.    Warrior is a worse fighter. And fighters are the worst. So don't do that.
#3 BRJN Apr 14, 2014 13:20:30	If the DM is as new as you are, ask him if he sees this campaign going very far along.  Playing a highly-simplified character until say L4 is not a totally bad idea to get used to the mechanics of the game.  Playing that one character until L20 will be extremely constricting.  If the DM thinks that after a month or two he will be ready for actual playable-class group of PCs, then call this an internship and get as much learning from it as you can.  Try everything in the rule books (swashbuckle, mid-turn skill checks) and browse the basic books between sessions for ideas. Hopefully your DM and group will decide, "Hey, we've got the practice, we can do this for real."  If your DM is still hesitant, offer to DM your own mini-campaign with normal classes and L1 characters.  Build up confidence, don't upstage him.  Hopefully everybody will be looking at this as a challenge instead of an overwhelming stack of stuff to prepare for (or hide from).