I'm playing in two games and would just like to hear some opinions on directions to take my builds (and maybe boost a little 5e discussion on this board). Both games have some homebrew or unofficial content.
Game 1: Triton Paladin 9 (Open Seas) /Sorcerer 1 (Sea UA)
- Sea sorcerer basically adds some extra bonuses to cold/lightning cantrips or forced movement, and I was able to change booming blade/green flame blade to those elements
- I have an in-game feat that lets me make extra attack like bladesinger to mix in a cantrip with my regular attack
- fighting style: tunnel fighter (UA) which uses my bonus action and reaction, but it rarely comes up so maybe I should retrain to interception/protection instead
- I took Paladin 9 because I wanted 3rd level paladin spells (which also gets call lightning from Open Seas)
- my main role is tank, I have an AC of 23, I used to be the primary melee damage dealer but we had a dual wielding barbarian rune knight join recently who outdamages me unless I'm crit-smiting
- fear is relatively rare, but it has come up in a couple big fights
- my most frequent buff/concentration is Protection from Evil as we encounter a lot of undead, elementals and fiends
- currently halfway through Rime of the Frostmaiden, we are into the chapter after Auril descending into the magic city, which also seems full of undead so far
- If I keep pushing paladin, I get the aura of courage (10), improved divine smite (11), ASI (12), then 4th level spells for find greater steed(13);
- if I keep going sorcerer, I'll gain slots for smiting faster, but I won't gain 4th level spells until level 16, vs 14 if I went more paladin, but metamagic would likely be quicken to let me do something with my bonus action
- or maybe I could consider Bard or Warlock? bard would give me a good use for my bonus actions every round and shore up some skills; Hexblade for crit smite fishing is appealing, though I also like Form of Dread from undead warlock for inducing fear. I could also take Warlock to 3 for pact of the blade because I have a Sunblade, and this way I can never lose it (or do the same with Eldritch Knight 3)
- party roleplay = ok; party optimization = medium; party aptitude = good
- party composition: paladin (me), druid (moon), druid (stars), necromancer, rune knight/wild magic barbarian
Game 2: modified dragonborn beast barbarian 6/Fighter 1 (planning Echo Knight 4)
- modified race to be more primitive, large size, no hands (no somatic casting, very difficult to do anything on my own), but massive boosted Str/Con, breath weapon like the new Dragonborn who can use it as part of the attack action
- story wise I have a second dragon soul embedded inside, which I will flavour as the echo manifestation
- I took the feat aberrant dragonmark to boost my con and get feather fall, the cantrip doesn't matter because I can't cast it yet (feather fall because my teammates are idiots and they have an airship with no arcane caster in the party)
- the next feat at Echo4 that I plan to take is a homebrew one that allows non-somatic casting and grants mage hand and +1 to casting stat (which because I took Aberrant Dragonmark, technically I'm boosting Con
)
- Beyond this my fuzzy plan is dip Twilight cleric 1 for darkvision and a couple utility spells (and I want to pull a Ralph (from Simpsons) shouting "I'm helping" and somehow actually helping with guidance but not realizing how it's happening), then Gloom Stalker 4 and/or Arcane Trickster 5. Gloom because of nova ability and general nice features, arcane trickster because I think a sneaky stealthy triceratops with a climb speed dropping from the ceiling is hilarious, and bonus action mage hand legerdemain is also funny. Sadly my DM won't let me apply sneak with my claws, but at that point I just want the skills/expertise and features from Arcane Trickster. Plus some utility casting never hurts (though a find familiar and non-concentration Longstrinder/gift of alacrity are nice too)
- I have a background trait that lets me do a one-level dip into a class even if I don't meet the prerequisites; I do have Wis 13 but Cha 9
- party roleplay = high but ADHD (large group 7-9 each week); party optimization = none; party aptitude = Leroy Jenkins
- party composition = beast barbarian (me), ancestral guardian barbarian, cleric dipped fighter, fighter dipper cleric (low attendance), rogue scout, druid dipped rogue, draconic sorcerer (low attendance), paladin
- my role: damage and more damage; I do more than everyone else combined, and somehow I have a higher AC than the paladin because she forgets to buy armour
- I don't mind going more barbarian as the subclass features are alright and my DM likes to run fairly dangerous encounters so Relentless Rage may come in handy, but the Twilight/Gloom/ArcaneTrickster route felt more interesting and offered lots of utility magic
- or maybe there's a different route I should consider? I'm not married to any particular build for flavour reasons other than Echo 4; with such a large group we hardly get to roleplay individually anyways and I'm behind the scenes helping to manage some stuff on roll20 anyways because my DM is not very computer literate
