I am trying to advise a player on which class/combination to pursue (20 Battle Smith vs 19Paladin/1Hexblade). But I feel like I am making it too complicated for them. I made a list. I have done the work of calculating dps/healing/etc. But I still feel like I am doing them a disservice.
Can you ...
What is the goal of the player? What type of character do they want to play? The pros/cons can then be structured around that. Otherwise, this is just a pro/con about two build styles, of which folks may attribute pro to one thing, but someone else may think that's a con.
@NautArch False, false, false, false. This is a perfectly reasonable and answerable question as is, and narrowing it artificially would do the site a disservice.
That said, you may be best off simply asking for a compare and contrast of the two options, and posting your own as an answer. That way, if it’s accurate and complete, people can upvote it, and if it’s not, they can downvote it and (hopefully) provide their own.
I honestly disagree with Kryan (and that's okay!) Is your player coming at level 20? If not, is the campaign definitely going to level 20? If it is, how many sessions do you expect that to take as the majority of the player's career will be below that, so doing a comparison of where they'll spend most time (or start with?) may be better for them. Additionally, I do think we need to know what the player wants to do. Do they want to be a nova damage dealer? Do they want out of combat capability? Do they want control/support? Those are the things that I think can help guide a useful answer.
@NautArch The campaign is definitely going to 20. They want support and damage. Truly. Ifeel like at this point I should just ask how do you advise players on multiclassing?
Of course you missed something, because you did not litterally list every single feature that both classes get. Your implicit question is to find all the features that are worth comparing, which is: unclear, because unspecified options like race, feats, and oaths can synergize significantly; primarily opinion based, because different people value different features differently. Moreover, I don't think it is even a useful question to answer because a level 20 character to purse is not a good metric to choose the character you'll play at a lower level.
@Ruse The evaluation of the significance of various class features is not “primarily” opinion-based. It’s precisely the kind of good subjective question that Stack Exchange, offering the opportunity to ask a bunch of experts, is uniquely well-suited to answering.
@KRyan I meant for this topic. Not which is appropriate. Im not certain if I would be better suited by asking "How do you help new players evaluate complex multiclassing options?" Because the title isn't my only problem. I also have someone wanting to go trickster-battle smith vs trickster-artillerist. Someone thinking of going triclass. It is a mess. And I don't know how to help beyond adding up all the values for dps, hps, etc.
With the edit, what do you mean by "mechanical perspective"? Do you just want a list of every class feature that is different between the two class-combinations? Is there a reason you can't do that yourself? Or do you want an analysis of how they play, or roleplay, or something else?
@GreySage No. Lists are bad. Telling the player they can jolt with the pet for 8d6 healing from a pool of 20d6 and the hexadin can lay on hands for 95 means very little to them. I wanted an objective analysis using the facts gleaned from their mechanical differences. A simple summary I could give them. Because my summary. BS is worse than hexadin at damage/defensive/healing but has better uility. Seems too bias. Like I might be missing something.
@kent I'm still not understanding what shape your desired answer is supposed to be in. You don't want a list, you don't want your own summary, do you want the same summary as you gave, but from someone else?
@kent Summarize with what level of detail? Clearly you don't want a low level examination of what mechanically makes them different (damage-per-round, healing options, etc), but you also don't want a high level summary (BS is worse than hexadin at damage/defensive/healing but has better utility, which you already have), so what do you actually want?
@GreySage wait the high level summary is accurate? That was one of the main questions. I don't think I can ask for more. My post set off a meta argument. And something like this is too demanding rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/149863/…
Discussion on question by kent: Can y…
Discussion on question by kent: Can y…