So it begins!

Introduction

So, let's start off.

I am Israel Abel, owner of the Silver Dragon Tavern & Games, a game store coming to Miami, Fl this summer. This year marks my 20th year playing Dungeons and Dragons in some form or another. D&D wasn’t my first game that honour goes to Battlemasters, and Heroquest which I started playing when I was 9 and 8 respectively, but it is the game that is closest to my heart. When I started playing my dad was my DM, and so I got plenty of time as a player in my youth, as I got older I became the DM for my group of friends and my play time dwindled to almost nothing. The running joke is that I have player exactly 2 characters for more than 5 sessions in the last 15 years.

With 5th edition coming out and this being the 20th year of my D&D life I wanted to come back to the game I loved for so long, after the disappointment of 4th edition. The trick, I wanted to be a player! Luckily for me a friend was looking for a party and invited me to join. I decided this would a perfect time to do two things, one write about my journey rediscovering playing as well as learning the new rules, and remake my first ever character for the new edition. Thus was born Aurelion Silverspear, and this blog.

The idea here, every two weeks I plan on making a blog post. It's going to be split into two parts, the first part will be Aurelion’s journal about what is currently going on in the game and the second will be my thoughts on rules and mechanics stuff that happened. For this first one I am going to talk character concept creation, and his prologue.

Prologue

Everything was going precisely as it was supposed to, Aurelion was attending the bladesinging school that had been founded by his ancestors centuries ago, his family was respected, and his inheritance was being wielded by his father, Lariel.

This was not meant to last long, Rialoth, Aurelion's uncle wanted the blade for himself. Conspiring with dark forces from the wilds beyond the town he attacked the city killing Lariel and attempting to take the blade for himself. The blade rejected him and now he keeps it as a trophy of his victory. Rialoth wants Aurelion dead as the only remaining heir to the blade. Aurelion wants his vengeance and to reclaim his family's legacy, but for now he must train.

((For a character background, I prefer something short and sweet that gives the story plenty of room to grow. I know as a DM a character having so much background that his story doesn’t gel with the overall impedes things.))

Character Creation

That first character long ago came right out of the Complete Book of Elves a fighter/mage kit called the Bladesinger. Even though most people know me these days as a hardcore dwarf player when I was younger it was the Fae Folk that I found most interesting. Conveniently the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide(SCAG) brought back the Bladesingers as a wizard tradition. This made my first two choices, race and class, very easy.

Next step went into deciding stats, knowing that the idea was to be a close combat wizard I decided that my main two stats would be dexterity and intelligence. We used a point buy to create our attributes, and so I decided that before racial modifiers I would be at: 13,15,10,14,10,10. Giving Aurelion a respectable Str 13 Dex 17 Con 10 Int 15 Wis 10 Cha 10 at first level. In retrospect I should have gone with the 13 Con and stuck with finesse weapons, but I didn’t learn that they added to damage as well as to hit until I hit level 2.

For character background the inheritor out of SCAG fit right in with what I was trying to do with him. He was someone who was trying to regain the inheritance that had been taken from him by his evil uncle. For the feature I went with a tattoo which was in keeping with the bladesinger fluff that each school had its own tattoo.

For the final step of character creation was choosing spells. Now this was actually one of the more difficult parts, spell lists have changed a ton since I was really playing last. Things like unlimited cantrips, and spells scaling differently made me look at things very carefully before deciding.

Cantrips

True Strike: The ability to grant myself advantage on my next attack was just too big to pass up. I figured I can use this as my prepping for combat spell or if the party finds itself facing something that we just can’t hit.

Green Flame Blade: SCAG also added some cantrip that make the bladesinger a feasible option, and as far as I am concerned Green Flame Blade is the best of the three. It gives you the ability to damage to opponents with one melee strike. This one was a no brainer.

Sword Burst: Another SCAG cantrip sword burst is a PBAOE that I thought would be rather useful if I ever found myself surrounded. It also scales really well.

Message: I decided to take a little bit of utility for my last cantrip thinking this might be useful. We are four sessions in. I greatly regret it. The character lacks any kind of reliable missile attack, and this makes it difficult when the party is in a tight corridor.

1st Level

Find Familiar: I took this out of nostalgia, a wizard isn’t a wizard without a familiar.

Mage Armour: This has been a standard since AD&D and as a close combat wizard it's even more needed. Having a base AC of 16 is the only thing that keeps you going when you are this squishy.

Magic Missile: Another wizard staple. 5e has really increased its strength and it went from being an opening spell to something to save for bosses.

Detect Magic: Utility, and the ability to cast it as a ritual makes it a must have.

Burning Hands: Some more AOE usefulness for those times when we see more quantity of enemies of quality. More proof that first level spells are now forces to be reckoned with. It's a brave new world.

Identify: When magic is around, it's the wizard’s job to know what it is, so identify.

Character Progression

Before starting the game I did a bit of research into how people were playing the bladesinger, I wasn’t overly convinced with the straight wizard path. It was just too squishy and not enough slashy for what I was used to seeing from a bladesinger, so I decided I was going to go Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger. This would give me the feel of the class I was looking for. It’s going to be interesting to see where I go with it, but for now I know the plan is to be 12EK/8BS at level 20. This gives me access to some really powerful spells while taking advantage of the ability stat increases of the fighter, and some of the special abilities of the Eldritch knight.  The plan being to take level 2 as a fighter for some more health and fighting style, then 3 as a wizard to pick up bladesong. After that I will be taking mostly fighter levels for a while. Let’s see how it goes.