Characters creation thread

That being said, with the strong constraint on rests coming from Gritty Realism, I feel like I need to offer more options. So:
- you can pick you spells in whatever official WotC publication, and I'll tell if something seem to throw balance off so that we look into it
- for non-casters, if there are official sub-classes that you could make use of, we can look into that too
- and races, too

TL;DR: I'm extending your options to all WotC official publication, while keeping an eye on balance.

Also, those two question still need to be answered.

I'm fine with a 9th level party. I've never used the honor system though.

If it wasn't clear from my previous posts, I'm still trying to gauge the impact of Gritty Realism (GR) on different classes. My main focus is on everyone having fun, and running a political D&D game. So I'm flexible on most of the rest.
I'm experienced enough to understand how it impacts each class, but I'm trying to understand precisely how it affects each of them. I'll try to summarize some thoughts:

Rogue: pinnacle of consistency, does not sweat any of that. Most of their resources are non-expandable.
Barbarian: wreaked by GR. They will be out of rage and HP fast. Most of their features are combat oriented, while GR is opposed to it.
Fighter: they recover most important resources on short rests. They will be very at ease.
Warlock: spellcaster equivalent of the Fighter. In a more political oriented game, their pact will have an impact.
Bard: class features bring a lot of versatility, as does high Charisma. But they'll suffer from the spells slots depletion.
Cleric: get most of their value from the ability to cast rituals, and numerous divination capacities. Class features will have a major impact as well. But will be resource-depleted fast. You get your Channel Divinity back on a short rest, which make it a central part of your skill set.
Paladin: the good remains good (auras and such), but the rest becomes rather bad as they have no easy way to recover.
Druid: will be mostly just fine. Land druid can recover some slots, so he's more than fine.
Monks: actually becomes a strong option, on part with Fighter with a more "magic" approach.
Wizard: are fine. Rituals, book, slot recovery. Some have useful class features, some don't.
Rangers: err. They are effectively ok, but become rather bland if campaign in city.
Sorcerers: not ok. On part with Barbarians, actually.

After refocusing my priorities on the game, I think I can allow the Artificier but have some concerns that I'd like to share :
- Information Overload is extremely potent, more than its cantrips equivalents. I think I might have to tone down the Manifest Mind feature.
- I don't like or want a steampunk feel in the game with engines, robots and such. Unless you're a gnome, then I'd be ok to have some.
- Given the above point, the whole Artillerist would be out. But you wanted to be an Archivist, so you wouldn't mind.

Anyway, I'll allow it in but I'll double check the features you pick. It that OK for you? :)

I'm really having trouble deciding. I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact that lacking a healer would be a glaring omission from the party. Maybe I'll try the scholar and take the physician subclass and healer feat.

Story-wise could they be the personal physician/confidante of some important politician with a chronic illness? Maybe this character's influence is a little more tangential and less straightforward than the other characters who are

The party does not need healing means, it needs survival ones. Preventing the damage from being done is by far the best healing strategy. Healing it afterward, through mundane or consumable ways, is another option.
But as for healing purposes, any relevant skill, feat or spell is a good one. The Physician actually is a very good option that recovers most of his resources on a short rest. With or without the Healer feat.
Who are... ?
But yes, you could very well be that kind of character. I like the personal physician approach, a scientist that of course gives completely impartial and logical opinions. I'm sure there are plenty of politician that suffer from chronic illnesses: tell me the kind you're looking for, or tell me to pick one for you.

What were some of the wars or battles my character could have fought in? What were the enemies involved?

I'm looking at the list of magic items and I'm trying to find ways for some of them to make sense.

Depending on the age of your character, he could have been involved in :
- 85 to 80 years ago, the enemies were unfederated bandits that inhabited the Marsh of Tun and made it a no man's land
- 78 years ago, you could have fought the lizardfolk tribe known as Irhtos Sauriv to conquire the first bits of lands in the Marsh of Tun
- in the past 10 years, you could have been involved in any of the numerous fights against the lizardfolk tribes
- more recently, involved in the battles to keep the undead of the Moaning Marshes away from Vikaastea

I'll say he's in his early 30's. So he would have been battles with the lizardfolk and the undead. Thanks, that helps a lot!

Screw those undead, seriously!

Hahaha, any grief you want to share Ferdy ?

As for the list of magic items, if they are of no help to get inspiration, I can :
- Share more sources, like the 4e books of magic items
- work in freestyle to create something that was described (or simply something adequate for your concept)
- provide simple exemples to help understand the kind of things they can be

After another look at scholar they seem pretty garbage. They're a martial class with severely restricted proficiencies and aren't even useful as skill monkeys. They're MAD as hell, especially the subclass I'm interested in since its abilities are based on wisdom. So it's a squishy melee fighter who needs dex and con to fight, int for its class abilities, and wis for its subclass abilities.

But I don't want to play a gimped version of the archivist either. I don't really get the objection to the class's fluff as well since any class can be refluffed at will by just taking the mechanics and interpreting them differently. Barbarian Rage doesn't need to be a berserk rage by a frothing hulking warrior from the north, it can be a state of focused battle-meditation by a calm zen philosopher-monk. This shit's not set in stone. Any class's mechanics can be made to fit any setting. The mechanics serve the fiction, not the other way around.

While I agree on the fluff part, I don't thing I've limited the class so much. What part of my reserves felt to much to you? Or maybe it was too imprecise?

Ok Ferdy, as it is playtest material and you want to play the sub-class of the Artificer that feels fine to me, let go ahead and try it as it is. The damage is of information overload is actually pretty good, but limited in range so it balanced out. The only thing I'd like to rework a little is the Magical Telephony, as both its fluff and it power are off-limits to me. I'm working on a bunch of alternative to offer, and we'll go with that one. Does it sound OK?

Everyone, the focus being on making a successful D&D political campaign, I'm willing to let some more material ooze in. Let me know if there are options you want me to check out as you are creating your character.

While I see easy potential fixes for most Ferdy's concerns, the class does have one major issue: it seem to lack some reliable at-will options to chose from. It feels like a Bard or a Wizard would offer better features to support the same concept.
Damn, I wanted that class to be well designed! :(

So, in summary:
- Viking1031 wants to play some kind of "practical" rogue the gets the work done
- Squadfather44 want to play a faithful Watch Commander
- Ferdy wants to play and Artificer archivist (which is now back), or a high priest of Bahamut

Well I'd say you have some work to do to make that a functional party that willingly work together! :D
That being said, when you'll be tied to each others and set on working together, internal conflict will make the game rich and healthy.

just bouncing an idea

What if my character is not part of the thieves guild but a works in conjunction with the city guard as a kind of secret police (think CIA or KGB in the city) that would explain being a noble but also the more "practical side" She still wouldn't want people to know what she does but that could be a tie in with the Squadfather as he would know about her since he is higher up in the guard. He could be his contact within the city guard.

(This would work well if we support the city guard faction)

I'm gonna go with the physician despite the fact that I'm underwhelmed by the class's mechanics. A captain of the watch, a spymaster with thieve's guild connections, and a well respected physician makes perfect sense to know one another and work together. Perhaps the physician either cares for those wounded in the line of duty or oversees their care. And directly makes house calls to one particular powerful individual who trusts his judgement. I'll get it done in the next couple days.