Backstory
You are an agent of the Zhentarim. The Zhentarim, previously known as the Black Network, was a mercenary company, and greater mercantile organization in Faerun, who, over their 200 years of existence, has had a storied history as a cadre of self-serving thieves, spies, assassins and malevolent wizards.
The goals of the Zhentarim are domination through economic manipulation. By offering the best guards and mercenaries, with the final aim of an iron-fisted monopoly on protection services in the Realms, they sought to make the merchants of Faerûn, and thus the continental economy, completely reliant upon them as an organization. While many of their practices and services they offer are completely legal, they are not above spending a tremendous amount of gold to destroy their competitors and secure future profits to increase their wealth, influence and power.
Your organization has found some information about the discovery of an 'object with untapped potential' by the Rockseeker brothers. You were appointed to infiltrate their ranks, get on their good side and gather information about the brothers and the object they are trying to restore. Also the organization wants to use the brothers as an 'unpaid workforce' to find and restore the object and then to jump in and grab it for themselves through manipulation and economic machinations.
You also have a criminal contact in the town of Phandalin. Her name is Halia Thornton. She is currently secretly working on a mission of her own in the town.
Class Overview
Stats
Your character has good Dexterity, Charisma and Constitution, but has slightly above average Intelligence, average Wisdom and low Strength. That does not neccessarily make them stupid or weak, but it shows their lack of academic knowledge and physical prowess. Your high Dexterity contributes to your initiative, AC and saving throws against 'duck down or get hit' type of spells. Your high Charisma allows you to be good at social interactions. Your good Constitution allows you to maintain concentration and adds some survivability.
Skills
You are good at Dexterity and Charisma based skills and decent in others. That includes Intimidation, Acrobatics, Performance, Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, and Deception. You are exceptionally good at the last four, so don't shy away from using them in social encounters (and sometimes in combat) which require you to scare someone into submission, hide the truth, sneak in, steal something or operate a mechanism or when you need to persuade someone to do something. Your criminal background also reinforces the idea of a more indirect approach in dealing with problems.
Proficiencies
You are proficient in light armor, and lack proficiency with most weapons. Your low Strength and high Dexterity leave you only with Dexterity based options for weapons: daggers, light crossbows, hand crossbows, shortswords and rapiers.
Attacks
Your attacks come from your choice of weapons. Generally speaking, you can perform a single attack per round. It will usually be in a form:
1d20 + 5 to hit
[dice] + 3 damage
Where [dice] will depend on your weapon:
- 1d8 for rapier or light crossbow
- 1d6 for shortsword or hand crossbow
- 1d4 for dagger
Note: you also can perform two throws or melee attacks with daggers or shortswords, but the second attack will be less effective, plus you need to draw both weapons. Use this option if you appear in melee range and have a drop on your enemy.
Spells
Cantrips:
- Vicious Mockery
This is a control cantrip. First of all, it allows you to have a different type of damage (psychic) and it causes the target to have disadvantage on their next attack. Furthermore, it targets WIS.
- Minor Illusion
This is a versatile cantrip, that does not require your concentration. The possibilities are endless. Create a barrel and sit in it. 'Summon' a dark scary totem or a creature. Create a sound of approaching soldiers. Make a pile of gold appear on the ground. Put an illusion of a creature, hiding in a bush etc.
- Thaumaturgy
This is another utility cantrip that allows you to have some minor effects (several at the same type). Use it for flavour and to create simple distractions.
1st level spells:
- Dissonant Whispers
This spell allows you to deal large amount of damage to a single creature and possibly set it running away from you on their next turn. This move can provoke opportunity attacks, so positioning is key.
- Disguise Self
This spell allows you to cover your true identity for up to an hour. Use it for infiltration or to create an element of surprise.
- Faerie Fire
We've discussed how good advantage is, and this spell provides an easy source of advantage for your party with added benefit of detecting invisible creatures.
- Hideous Laughter
This spell allows you to disable an enemy for one or more turns, while your party deals with its allies. Use it on stronger enemies with lower WIS scores.
- Sleep
This spell allows you to deny either a single creature with moderate HP or several creatures with low HP. It doesn't have a saving throw, so this is one of the most reliable options of dealing with creatures.
- Thunderwave
This spell provides you with an AoE damaging option, as well as crowd control option. Use it, if there are three or more enemies in front of you, that would get caught in the blast.
Other Abilities
Bardic Inspiration Thiis ability allows you to give a creature other than you a bonus die to add to a single attack roll, ability check or saving throw. Use it in important interactions outside of combat and in serious combat encounters to turn those hits into misses and failed saves into successful ones.
Song of Rest This ability allows you and your allies to heal more effectively during short rests. It's nothing much, but it's nice to have.
Jack of All Trades This ability allows you to add half your proficiency bonus to any ability check that doesn't already use it, which includes initiative. It does not amount to much at low levels, but it's also nice to have.
Tactics
Your role is 'support/control'. While you have several damaging options, your low HP and AC don't allow you to take a lot of damage. However, you have several options of controlling the battlefield. They allow you to lay some pressure of the 'tanks' and disable dangerous targets, with which you cannot deal quickly. You don't have a lot of spell slots, though, so don't burn through them quickly. Instead, try to choose the right moment to cast a spell for the most game swinging effect at the right time. You can also hide behind the tank and help them flank enemies and hit low HP enemies. Your sneakiness allows you to also setup ambushes. Bardic Inspiration also gives you an option to help your allies avoid harm and land their attacks, though you don't have many uses of it for now.