u/VidarNL

Hi all. I'm fairly new to DnD (been playing for 2 years now, in my second campaign at the moment) and I've noticed that I quite like the exploration and investigation side of the adventures. Combat is fun too, but the talking to NPCs part is either just not clicking for me as I don't know what to say or ask, or I'm not comfortable being the face of the party.

So it's more the physical investigation of the surroundings and exploring areas that I'd like to build a character for, but still be good at combat. But how do I do that? Which classes would be good for this, which skills/spells/feats to focus on etc?

Note: I have played a 5.0 Barbarian, now playing a 5.5 Monk and I made a 5.5 Bard because the spells seem fun, but then I'm a high CHA character and probably expected to do a lot of the talking, which I'm not overly fond of...

That's the whole party, her, a 1st level Red Dragonborn Bard and her Blink Dog Sidekick. She will just have gone through the abandoned mine that the poachers are using as their base (4-5 rooms, 1 or 2 other fights, I'll grant her a short rest) and now there's the Captain. What sort of enemy could he be, what abilities could he have, and could there be any environmental things that I could add to his room at the end of the dungeon that she could use?

It's at level 1. Or should I have leveled her up to 2 or even 3 before even attempting any sort of boss fight and stick to maybe two low level poachers at a time at this low level?

I'm creating a character for my daughter who wants to try DnD, and I think she'd love to be a Fairy. Thing is, Fairies have Flying, so I assume it will be able to fly all the time. Which makes me think she can just fly over all kinds of things to avoid them. Pop over a wall, attack, pop back down. Avoid several floors of a building with all kinds of dangers by flying straight to the top. Just fly over a wide chasm instead of traveling miles around it, avoiding an encounter she was supposed to have near a bridge, etc. etc.

I'm pretty certain I'll try Dragon of Icespire Peak with her as it has instructions for scaling down to 1 player (plus sidekick), but there are quite a few bits where flying could let her avoid things like this.

How do I handle this? (I would be DMing for the first time too, btw)

My daughter (9) has been asking about my DnD sessions every time I've played and has expressed interest in trying it out herself. I thought I'd try a ready-made low level adventure to start her off, like the free Frozen Sick. But how do I scale it down to 1 or 2 PCs or 1 PC plus a sidekick?

​

And do I really need to buy Tasha's just to figure out how to make a sidekick? I've watched some videos, but all they seem to say is "it's a monster, but it levels up and it has 3 classes, which are these), but they don't actually take you through the process. Any tips there, or resources that instruct you on how to create one? Would love to give her a big wolf or something to help her out.

My daughter keeps saying she wants to play DnD, but that would mean I'd need to DM even though I have zero experience with it and am still learning how to play myself. How can I get her started? Any adventures I can download or purchase (not too much money) that really support me as a first-time DM?

Btw, she would like to be a bard, which I guess isn't ideal if she's the only player, so should I create a PC for myself as well and play alongside her?

I'm lvl 8 Cobalt Soul Monk right now. Next time I level up, I'm considering dipping into Fighter for one level.

1: There's a Warlock(?) in the party that can create magical darkness. As no one else can see in this darkness, he's not using it at all.

Blind Fighting would give me the ability to see in that darkness (right?), and the enemies would have disadvantage on attack rolls. Maybe I have advantage on attack rolls as well? Not sure how that works, but the enemies having disadvantage is already great, because if they miss me, I can get a reaction attack against them, provided I have analysed them with a hit from my Flurry of Blows, because of Cobalt Soul things. I can also grapple other enemies and drag them into this darkness.

2: I can gain mastery with shortbows, which gives me advantage on the next attack against that enemy. So I can attack from a distance first, get advantage, run up, hit them (which is now much more likely), and then stun or grapple more easily, because the attack I want to apply that with is more easy to hit (of course there's still the CON or STR/DEX save to deal with after that).

Does this all work the way I imagine it to, or am I missing anything?