A friend of mine ran a one-shot last weekend with some fairly restrictive character requirements:

• Player Handbook (PHB) Only
• Level 1
• Standard Array
• Starting Equipment + 25 gold
• Roll 1d6 for your character's age (1=Very Young, 2=Young, 3= Average Age, 4= Middle Age, 5=Old, 6=Very Old)

He had the following questions:

1. Thus far in life what has your experience been with KOBOLDS?
2. Why does your journey matter to you personally?
3. Is there a secret spot you like to retreat to? If there is, why that spot.

One-Shot Background

BACKSTORY Rumors spread across Faerun, a dreaded kobold queen and an amassing army, kobolds that believe in a new world born of fire and blood, and will destroy anything in their path to claim it. Each of you has heard a disturbing tale of what's happening in Proskur. Some think it is nothing more than a joke, or a drunk's tall tale. For one reason or another, something has drawn you to investigate.

Hannah Ironbreaker- cast as Fiona Rose Stout- Proskur Lawwoman, Middle aged dwarf, the years of chain smoking her pipe, and stress of small town sheriffing have been rough on her. She is your main point if contact when you get to town.

1. So far in life what has your experience been with kobolds? Kobolds are pesky little scavengers. Good for nothing, good at nothing. Whatever is troubling the town can’t be kobolds, they aren’t smart enough to organize like this.
2. Why does your journey matter to you personally? I’ve lived in Proskur before it was even Proskur. I’ve been the Lawwoman for 40 years and I’ll probably die here someday.
3. Is there a secret spot you like to retreat to? If there is, why that spot. Oh yes. I like to fancy myself a professional fisherwoman. I’ve got a nice little quiet spot along the river where i sit for hours and watch the salmon and river sharks.

Frank D’Hank - cast as John Boyega - a Young Black Dragonborn. He is the new tavern owner of the Rearend; short for Pelor’s Rearend. The Rearend serves as the group’s hangout.

1. So far in life what has your experience been with kobolds? Nothing but scavengers. My da use to find them digging thru the compost out back, . But I haven’t seen them since taking over the Rearend.
2. Why does your journey matter to you personally? My Da built and ran the Rearend for 30 years, then just last month he up and disappeared. The Lawwoman says there was no trace. I’m trying to keep it open, but I just don’t know.
3. Is there a secret spot you like to retreat to? Yes, i have my room in the attic. From there I can see the sun rise over the lake. I enjoy watching it each morning.

Party Composition

I don't know much about the party's composition but here's what I know...

Ark Kainen, cast as Finn Wolfhard (with a more muscular build.) Age 19

1. Sneaky fellas. I catch a glimpse of them once and again creeping around in the early mornings when I set out fishin’ with Pa, but they’ve never bothered us otherwise.
2. Ma says it’s time to get out of the house and Pa agrees. They didn’t build the house expecting to adopt a half-orc! Pa says any good halfling would have been up and down the Sword Coast by now. What with all these disappearances, I’m a little worried to leave them right now, but know that the adventure would be incredible. Imagine the fish I could catch at the sea!
3. I like to canoe out to a hidden spot out on the lake that’s hidden in the brush. It is gorgeous, quiet, and it feels so nice to be at peace.

Yasmine LaCroix, Cast as Holly Hunter, Age 83 (middle aged for a halfling)

1. Kolbolds are pests. The help is always trying to clear them out of the corners, but they just can't get rid of all of them. Such nuisances.
2. I am sick and tired of everyone muddying the name of LaCroix. Saying we are an essence of our former selves. I will not stand for that.
3. Now don't tell anyone, but I have a large cistern that I have had cleaned out and filled with my family's riches. Sometimes I like to go into the hoard of coins and swim around. I know, that doesn't logically makes sense, but I tell you it is the most relaxing thing.

Korkos, Goliath, cast as Hoarah Loux from Elden Ring because I have no shame.

1. He’s never seen one because lizards do poorly in cold weather, and the mountains are very cold. He’s heard of them, though, and think they sound interesting to fight, in large enough numbers.
2. Korkos is 72 and feeling his years. He’s on a journey to seek an honorable death.
3. There’s a notched ridge between two mountain peaks near his home. He likes to go there just before sunrise, when it’s coldest, and watch the sun come up over the glacier.

We're probably looking at a half-orc figher (or barbarian), a halfling rogue (or bard), and a goliath barbarian (through and through) There's one more player that might show up later but I don't have any idea of what that person will play.

Post-Game Update: The half-orc fighter wasn't able to make it and the halfiing turned out to be a monk.

Build Considerations

I'm probably the biggest munchkin, power gamer, optimizer, or whatever in the group but I also tend to focus on the group more than my own character's power.

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What Happens as More Books were Added or this was a campaign?

High Elf Clerics are interesting when you have access to gish cantrips (Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade)

Half feats get much better with custom origins and access to Telekensis and/or Telepathy.

Sorcerer gets a lot more interesting: Divine Soul, Shadow Magic, and even Aberrant Mind. At level 6, Elemental Affinity applies to cantrips...

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Choosing a Class

Alright, so a level one one-shot means a few things:

• Only three classes get their subclass at level one: Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock

Of those classes, my subclass options are:

• Cleric: Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, War
• Sorcerer: Draconic, Wild
• Warlock: The Archfey, The Fiend, The Great Old One

No metamagic (level 3), no invocations (level 2), no Channel Divinity or Divine Domain (level 2), so even though I get the subclass at level one... there isn't too much to be gained here. However, Pact Magic is in play and I'd expect at least one short rest for every long rest (if we even have a long rest) so there's probably a slight edge for the warlock here.

On the off-chance we level during the game, the classes that get their subclass are level two are:

• Druid: Land, Moon
• Wizard: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation

Moon Druids are a house and on the off-chance we hit level two, the game changes drastically for the character.

Choosing a Race

• I don't have access to origin customization (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything)
• Variant Human is probably the go-to race for the extra feat (flexibility)

Thinking about Race Bonuses

A +1/+1 split means max stats are 16/14/14.

A +2/+1 split means I could get 16/16 but I lose out on a feat. PHB only means I can't get 18 in my primary stat.

What races give charisma or wisdom bonuses?

• Dragonborn (+2 STR/+1 CHA): Perfect for a paladin but strength is wasted on a sorcerer or warlock and charisma is wasted on the cleric
• Hill Dwarf (+2 CON/+1 WIS): Might be okay for a tanky cleric - 16 CON/WIS (but 13 STR)
  • Mountain Dwarf is clunky here, +2/+2 won't matter until level 4.
• Wood Elf (+2 DEX/+1 WIS): 16/14/14 looks pretty nice for cleric
• Half-Elf (+2 CHA/+1 ANY/+1 ANY): 16/16/14 is pretty nice stat distribution for sorcerer or warlock
• Tiefling (+2 CHA/+1 INT): INT is normally a dump stat (or close to) for the classes I'm looking at, so this option isn't great but the fire resistance might be great.
• Variant Human (+1 ANY/+1 ANY): 16 CHA (or WIS), 14 CON, and 14 to a secondary stat (DEX)

Hill Dwarf Cleric looks pretty good. Variant Human looks great for everything.

Too bad paladins don't get their subclass until level three because a Dragonborn or Half-Elf paladin looks great.

Dragonborn gets resistance to a damage type (probably fire). Breath Weapon is... something.

Half-Elf gets Dark Vision and some protection against charm/sleep.

Available Feats

Since Variant Human is an option, it's important to look at what feats are available. Custom Origins is off the table, so the value of half feats (e.g. Actor, Resilient) are off the table.

• Inspiring Leader: A level one campaign where most characters have 8-13 hit points and this feat gives 4 HP to up to 6 characters every short rest? Yes, please.
• Spell Sniper: Cantrips are nice, it gives me access to Eldritch Blast. The cover part might be useful, too.
• Magic Initiate: Again, more cantrips but this gets Vicious Mockery from the Bard list.
• Elemental Adept: Removing the resistance to fire looks great for sorcerers and warlocks. FWIW, Poison Spray is the highest damage cantrip available for this one-shot but Elemental Adept doesn't offer poison as an option.
• War Caster: Good for paladins and clerics (Hexblade Warlock isn't available)
• Great Weapon Master / Sharpshooter: I'm not in love with these options knowing it's a one-shot and low level. Dual-wielding is a decent way to use bonus actions at low levels and there is no multi-attack until level 5.
• Polearm Master / Sentinel: Not in love with these because we can't combine them.

Inspiring Leader seems like a lock for feats. Hit points are hard to come by at level one and this feat should shine at low-levels (the effective hit points diminish as characters level up). Since I've never seen it in action, I'm pretty sure this is where we'll end up.

I like Spell Sniper on the Warlock because it frees up my cantrip options (only have two) for Mage Hand and Prestidigitation. Magic Initiate (Bard) might throw the DM for a loop if they aren't expecting Vicious Mockery.

Character Options

With everything we've thought about above, I'm looking at a few options here (ranked in order of perceived viability):

1. Human CHA-based Caster (Sorcerer or Warlock)
2. Dwarf/Elf Cleric
3. Dragonborn Paladin

Variant Human Draconic Sorcerer

Strap in, there's a lot to unpack here...

• Sorcerer is better a level one

• Warlock is better at level two

• Sorcerer (or a Sorcerer/Warlock multiclass) is better at level three

• Sorcerer has more relevant saving throws - CON/CHA

• Draconic Resilience (15 AC) at level 1 is incredibly relevant; it's as much AC as a monk or barbarian should have.

• Chill Touch should mostly outperform Eldritch Blast at level one; I know it's 1d8 vs a 1d10 but preventing health regeneration and giving undead disadvantage is worth 1 point of expected damage.

  • If we level, it will feel pretty bad to lose out on a Elritch Invocation that would increase Eldritch Blast's expected damage by 3.

• Pact Magic doesn't function well at level 1, there aren't enough hit dice available for multiple short rests. This results in a sorcerer with two initial spell slots being more flexible than a warlock with one spell slot.

• Sorcerer has more utility in their spell list, a warlock is virtually locked into Armor of Argathys/Hex with a focus in being a ranged damage dealer.

Draconic Sorcerer: Chill Touch, Light, Message, Prestidigitation*, Silent Image, Sleep

Fiend Warlock: Eldritch Blast, Prestidigitation*, Armor of Argathys, Command

* If there's an opportunity to multiclass, take Mage Hand in place of Prestidigitation.

For the variant human feat, there are three options:

• Inspiring Leader: This is by far the best option for a level one CHA-based character, especially if there's a chance the party will not have a healer. 4 temporary hit points will increase the party's effective hitpoints by at least 33%.
• Spell Sniper (Eldritch Blast): Eldritch Blast is the choice here because it frees up the warlock's cantrip for Mage Hand.
• Magic Initiate (Bard): Tons of good options but the goal is to take Vicious Mockery as your damage cantrip (instead of Chill Touch) and take something like Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, or Heroism as the level one spell.

Wood Elf Knowledge Cleric

I have a confession, I'm a skill monkey at heart. I gravitate towards classes/subclasses that offers more skill proficiencies or expertise.

There's an edge case to consider here: if we level up during the game, we should consider the trade-offs with a druid.

Since this one-shot is using standard array, I think Wood Elf offers a better ability skill distribution:

• Wood Elf: 8/14/14/13/16/10 (with access to short swords and bows)
• Hill Dwarf: 13/12/16/10/16/8 (with resistance to poison damage)

Knowledge Domain is pretty tempting with the Wood Elf stat line. Life Domain is always a good choice (we won't be taking advantage of heavy armor, even if we're proficient).

Dwarven Combat Training (battleaxe and warhammers) and Elf Weapon Training (shortsword, longsword, and longbow) mostly wash out here. You'll have access to a 1d8 one-handed weapon and a 1d8 two-handed range weapon either way. There's a slight edge to the Wood Elf because they have a slightly higher chance to hit with a shortsword with 14 dex.

We're looking to wear Scale Mail with our 14 DEX, it's going to provide the same amount of AC as Chain Mail without the movement speed penalty.

A note about strength and heavy armor: Dwarves have a benefit of not losing movement speed if they don't have enough strength to handle the strength requirement for heavy armor. Since wood elves have a base movement speed of 35, it ends up being a wash.

The Wood Elf option is better. Our +2 DEX modifier gives our short sword a +4 chance to hit with a 1d6+2 (5.5 average). If we put 13 into strength and went with a longsword, we're +3 to hit and a 1d8+1 (5.5 average). Same average, slightly better chance to hit (we're using a shield so versatility doesn't matter here). If we can somehow get our hands on a longbow, do it (DM's discretion since it costs 50 gold); otherwise, a light crossbow will do the same thing. Pick up some daggers, throwing them is always nice.

Things to account for here: A level one cleric can multiclass into a druid (or even wizard) and our ability score accounts for that.

Knowledge Elf (Scale Mail + Short Sword) - 10 HP, 18 AC, 35 movement

Life Dwarf (Chain Mail + Warhammer) - 12 HP, 18 AC, 25 movement

Dragonborn Paladin

The Dragonborn Paladin plays perfectly into the one-shot's story -- kobolds and dragonborn have a lot of history between the two and it should give me plenty of opportunities to tell my character's story. Fire resistance sounds like it will be incredibly relevant.

Final Verdict

I was split between the warlock and sorcerer and I specifically made my character's backstory account for a game-time decision (the character's scars were either a result from an accidental pact with a demon or from unlocking his dragon bloodline).

Meet Thomas Cartwright.