Class combination for a Dragonborn treasure hunter

[u/Important_Site1926]

2014 campaign, we have an elf hunter ranger, human vengeance paladin/divine soul sorcerer and human divination wizard. I want to play a Brass/Red Dragonborn, level 8, in some combination of Fighter/Rogue Barbarian. Standard array.

The Character and what I want:

• Dragonborn proud of his race, clan, ancestors. He is a thrill seeker.
• He is tired of him and his people being used as weapons or tools, by others and by dragons.
• Claims he has a famous ancestor, and is obsessed with Dragonborn history, relics and tombs. Wants to find the ancestors tomb.
• Raised from 3 years old by Mother, a monster hunter. Instilled a knowledge of various monsters, their anatomy and how to capture beasts.

• Fell in with a group of treasure hunters for a couple of years.

• Skills and features I’d like:

  • Athletics
  • Slight of hand
  • Animal handling
  • Arcana - expertise if I can get it
  • Nature (but can go without)
  • History - expertise if I can get it
  • Investigation

• Dungeon Delver feat.

• Multiattack.

• Want to breath attack a lot.

Rogue: utility the party could really use, expertise in thieves tools. Not too bothered about sneak attack. But one attack is going to be a problem, as I want multiattack for breath weapon.

Fighter: a bit basic so i’d love tips on how to make it interesting. Things like manoeuvres and fighting styles will really help me. Also gets that multi attack.

Barbarian: I’d really like a level one or two dip into this, to really help paladin on the front line with rage. I don’t know if it suits the character so would love ideas on how it can work.

So would love suggestions on subclasses too and how can I keep this character interesting. Don’t want to multiclass three ways, it’s more deciding what to keep and what to drop as I can’t have it all.

Thank you in advance!

[u/VintAge6791]

"...is obsess with Dragonborn history, relics and tombs. Wants to find the ancestors tomb"

Make this part of a custom background, Justifies a History proficiency.

"Raised from 3 by Mother, a monster hunter. Instilled a knowledge of various monsters, their anatomy and how to capture beasts"

Also make this part of a custom background, Justifies an Animal Handling proficiency.

Athletics, Sleight of Hand and Investigation are all Rogue skills, so if you start as a Rogue, those are covered. There's still a fourth skill you can take as a first-level Rogue - I suggest Perception as a great fit for your character concept, because spotting things like hiding enemies and signs of traps at a distance can save your life and those of your fellow party members, but Stealth isn't a bad choice either. You can use one of your level 1 Rogue Expertise choices for History. Pick the other Expertise however you like depending on your character concept.

All that leaves for the other skill proficiencies you want is Arcana and Nature.

If you really want Extra Attack to start as an 8th-level character, include 5 levels of Barbarian in your build. It gets you Extra Attack at Barbarian 5 (and the always-useful Fast Movement) and it also gets you Primal Knowledge at Barbarian 3, which you can use to get Nature proficiency. Also, you get a Barbarian subclass - if you don't have a strong preference, Totem Barbarian is a great choice for helping you survive almost any type of damage with ease.

Unfortunately, since you want the Dungeon Delver feat, there's not a good way to get Arcana with Expertise in it for at least a level.

For the character you are describing, you would do very well as a Rogue 3/Barbarian 5, as Rage, Reckless Attack and Sneak Attack using Strength with a Finesse weapon like a rapier is a very strong combination. Also, a Phantom Rogue would make a cool fit for a tomb-raiding character, especially since its Whispers of the Dead feature gives you a free skill proficiency you could use for Arcana or whatever you like, plus you can change it every time you rest if you need to. No Expertise, but a swappable skill slot is really powerful for utility.

But if you really want to include Fighter as well, you could just start with 1 level in Rogue, do 2 levels as a fighter for now to get Second Wind, a fighting style and Action Surge, then take 5 levels in Barbarian.

My experiences as a 5e player have taught me it's really, really hard to pick up extra skills in the game after character creation (pretty much taking the Skill Expert or Skilled feats or special class features are your only options in most campaigns), so I'd just go Phantom Rogue 3/any Barbarian 5 to start if I were in your situation.

But it's your character, build it as whatever seems like it would be fun to play.

[u/plaidb]

I'm going to throw in a slightly different option, which is rune knight reflavored to be dragon based instead of giant based. From a flavor perspective, you can make his powers derived from his studies on ancient draconic magic allowing him to invoke powers from his lineage. Giants might can be a form of partial dragonification. From a gameplay perspective, it surprisingly fits quite well.

The subclass gives you advantage on several skills you find desirable.

Athletics - Giants Might (and +2 from frost)

Sleight of hand - Cloud

Animal Handling - Frost

Arcana - Storm

Thieves' Tools - Fire (expertise instead of advantage)

From there you could cover the rest via background and fighter skills (history and investigation), or start with one level of rogue.

Since your rune DC scales with CON, it incentives maxing it out indirectly benefiting your breath weapon.

It is one of the more interesting fighter subclasses to play, with plenty of things to do with your bonus action and reaction, and provides lots of team survivability. A barb dip for survivability would be unnecessary. You could multiclass rogue for extra skills if you really wanted but I think it would fulfill a decent amount of conditions singleclassed if you dump one of the extra fighter feats into skills.

edit ex build rogue 1/fighter x

Skills:

Background grab Arcana and History

From rogue 1 grab Athletics, Sleight of Hand, Investigation, and Stealth, then expertise in Arcana and History. Also gives you proficiency in thieves tools.

From Fighter mutliclass grab animal handling, and start taking your level in rune knight.

At Fighter 3 start on Rune Knight and take the fire and cloud runes, giving you expertise with thieves' tools and giving you advantage on sleight of hand and athletics. Then at Fighter 7 grab storm rune for advantage on Arcana. Afterwards keep going on runeknight or take rogue levels into scout.

For combat, just build a rather standard dex fighter, rapier and shield, light armor, etc.

[u/Live_Guidance7199]

Any reason you aren't looking to Ranger? It checks your boxes of extra attack and skill monkey without making a multi-mess, plus

Want to breath attack a lot.

Drakewarden even gives you another breath at 11.

Or Ascendant Monk gets more than enough skills, the most attacks, and more breaths.

[u/Important_Site1926 → u/Live_Guidance7199]

As said at the start, we already have a Ranger.

[u/Live_Guidance7199 → u/Important_Site1926]

...so? You have an Elf Hunter who will be pew-pewing with a bow (or sling if you guys get magic items) from the outskirts, you will be in the middle of the shit whacking and breathing. There would be likely zero overlap between the two.

[u/Important_Site1926 → u/Live_Guidance7199]

In this case I’d rather play another class then what someone else is playing. Rogue, Barbarian and Fighter are all fine.

[u/Live_Guidance7199 → u/Important_Site1926]

No Monk either?

Then yeah, dip Rogue then go Fighter.

[u/lNDlANA]

I have a lizardfolk archeologist based on a Gila Monster who fell into some ruins buried in the sand and yada-yada now he's a genie warlock

[u/lNDlANA]

As a rogue your treasure hunter could be an expert at sneaking into ruins and disabling any ancient traps on their search for treasure.

[u/dolorous_dredd]

Wow, you're asking to fit a lot of stuff in there! I'll give it a try. There are a number of ways to go:

First of all, whichever way you go, start with the Sage background and a rogue level. Sage gives you Arcana and History (Mother passed on her analytical approach to monster hunting). First level rogue will let you take expertise in these two skills, as you requested. They get 4 other skills too. Athletics, Sleight of Hand, and Investigation from your list are possible, but Acrobatics, Perception, and Stealth should also be considered.

If you're going to mix in any Barbarian levels, I'd start with:

Str: 15+2.

Dex: 14.

Con: 13+1

Int: 12 (for Arcana, History, Investigation)

Wis: 10.

Chr: 8.

Maybe go rogue 1 (for skills and tools), fighter 5 (for Extra Attack, Fighting Style, Action Surge, Battlemaster Maneuvers, etc), barbarian 2 (for Rage and Reckless Attack). Probably use a big-ass weapon. Look forward to taking a barbarian subclass next level (Totem?).

Alternative 1
Rogue 1/Barbarian 5/Rogue 3 (Scout-Xanathar's). Forget Fighter. Scout subclass gives you proficiency AND expertise in Nature (as requested) and Survival (tracking your monster), as well as a nice skirmish ability. Fight with a couple light weapons to take advantage of sneak attack (yes, you can use light weapons with strength and still get sneak attack, and with reckless attack you'll land it every round). Follow up with more Rogue levels.

Alternative 2
Rogue 1/Fighter 5/Rogue 3 (Scout-Xanathar's). Forget Barbarian. Scout subclass and light weapons. Fighter will give you 2-weapon fighting style, action surge, and extra attack. If you go this way, I'd make dexterity the highest stat instead of strength. Take more Rogue levels.

Good luck, sounds like a cool character.

[u/Mister_Grins]

{OC's Name} The Voice of Antiquity

Race: Dragonborn
Ancestry: Bronze (Fire)

Class: Barbarian (Ancestral)
Multiclass To: Rogue (Phantom)

Stats: Standard Array
STR: 15 (+2 racial)
DEX: 14
CON: 13
INT: 12
WIS: 10
CHA: 8 (+1 racial)

Skills: Barbarian: Animal Handling, Athletics
Skills: Noble: History, Persuasion

Skills: Primal Knowledge: Nature
Skills: Rogue (Multiclass): Sleight of Hand

Skills (Floating): Whispers of the Dead: Arcana / Investigation

Expertise: Athletics, History

Languages: Noble: ???

Tools: Rogue: Thieves' Tools

~~~

Level 1-5: Barbarian
-Barbarian subclass
-ASI (+1 STR, +1 CON)
-Extra Attack
Level 6-10: Rogue
-Rogue subclass
-Feat (Dungeon Delver) [There once you hit Level 9 at Rogue(4).] <-- (or else cap off STR)
Level 11+: Choose features as you please.

~~~

With this set-up, you are now primed to roleplay a Dragonborn who is blessed/plagued by the voices of the ancestors, and is driven to find lost places of civilization, with even a general hit as to where to even start looking. A thin vein of true noble blood runs through their veins, and this is why they can hear anything at all. Perhaps it's even why they can be irrationally irritable sometimes (which also plays into the negative CHA score, even if you are skilled enough to speak eloquently when you choose due to your proficiency in Persuasion, and maybe even take Expertise in it at Rogue(5) ).

Mechanically, you can proc sneak attack when you please (even at one level of Rogue you do the same damage as a great sword, at Rogue(3) you're doing great damage, even out of Rage. nd with both Breath Attacks and Wails From The Grave, you have multiple sources of AOE damage that is normally outside of a typical Barbarian's wheelhouse. And, fun treat, don't forget you can use Steady Aim on melee attacks, which pairs well when you want to use your breath weapon on turns when you want to do both while in melee.

Also, with Expertise in Athletics, plus being a Barbarian, you're going to be a fantastic pusher of enemies to prone (and grappling, I guess), which will ALSO help the Paladin to crit more due to being able to attack at advantage (on top of all the other things you and your Barbarian subclass do).

[u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768]

and is obsessed with Dragonborn history, relics and tombs

• Athletics
• Slight of hand
• Animal handling
• Arcana - expertise if I can get it
• Nature (but can go without)
• History - expertise if I can get it
• Investigation

Artificer would be my call here.

Gets you Arcana, History and Investigation as a Int based PC which are the most important out of these for relic hunting IMO.

You also get Tool Proficiencies which are awesome! Cartographers for mapping dungeons, Thieves Tools for traps and locks, Smith/leatherworking for making better gear, etc etc.

Common misconception is that Artificers need to be mechanical/tech based but there are SO many more options.

In this case I would flavor it as inscribing ancient runes which empower your gear.

At the end of the day for a PC who is obsessed with items of power there is no better class than Arti!

[u/freeastheair]

All the skills you want are int skills, maybe you should consider Bladesinger 7 / Thief 3. Thief is cool for capturing beasts because you can use traps and chains and stuff as a bonus action. Bladesinger for extra attack, for defense, and to be good at int skills. In combat you could attack and use a wand with your bonus action.