Raellus:
At 3rd level, I have to choose a Martial Archtype. Champion slightly improves his chances of scoring a critical hit. As a Half-Orc, his critical hits are more devastating. That's about it, though, until he reaches higher Fighter levels. The other option is Battle Master, which opens up all kinds of interesting combat options. I'm leaning towards the latter. My rationale is that, as a pit fighter, he's picked up a lot of techniques in training and on the job experience. He will also attempt to learn melee skills from his allies (Nic, especially).
Aww. No Eldritch Knight? :)
I agree with you on Battle Master. With Gronk functioning as the party's tank, goading attack is a no-brainer for one of his initial maneuvers.
quote:
One downside of multi-classing is that he won't gain his ability score bonus or extra attack until one level later than most of your PCs. The rules aren't super clear on this, but from what I've seen on the interwebs, those features are based on class level and not total character levels. I'd love to be wrong about this, though.
That is correct - it's why the ability score bonuses and extra attacks are in the individual class feature tables rather than the character advancement table on page 15. The only thing that increases with character level rather than class level is proficiency bonus.
Note that fighters and rogues get more ability score bonuses than other classes. Everyone gets them at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19. For rogues, there's an extra at 10. For fighters, there are extras at 6 and 14.