can I get some help thinking of ideas for a backup character?

[Rfkannen]

So I am in a campaign, and many times my character has almsot died, in fact last session i bassically only lived because the dm didn't want me to die. So I thought it might be a good idea to make a backup.

Currently the part fluctatues(up to 8 people) but normally the bladelock is always there, there is an assasin rogue(the melee type, does use bows though) who is usualy there, and we just got a melee war cleric who i think will stay.

Personally, I have a dwarven hunter ranger. (archery fighting style)

my dm allowed the eberron unearthed arcana, so i think it would be cool to play a changeling or a shifter

Some notes about the campaign, human centered(very few other things, there is a religius inquestion that hates magic. We do a lot of combat, the main antagonist is a orc army. Most people have never seen anythign besides a human, and maybe an orc a halfling or a dwarf.

What kind of character do you think would work?

ps. I dont want this character to be a ranger.


TLDR. I have a team of a bladelock, a rogue, and a warcleric, Want to make a character that would fit with that team. what do you think would work? Would like it to be a changeling or a shifter.

[Yagyujubei]

with those classes already in pt i think bard would serve you well. you can provide a bit of healing and battlefield control while still offering ranged dps with spells and a bow.

[Rfkannen]

with those classes already in pt i think bard would serve you well. you can provide a bit of healing and battlefield control while still offering ranged dps with spells and a bow.

bard? Good idea, bards are cool. Would you recomend valor or lore? What about changeling vs shifter?

[Felvion]

If you pick a changeling you are better with classes that mix cha and dex and perhaps you'll find yourself doing the same things wtith the warlock or the rogue too often. I don't think you need such a guy but if you insist a changeling bard is good as Yagyujubei already suggested. You lack some arcane casting and battlefield control is always welcome.
You could also be a dex-based paladin. He doesn't fit much with the deceptive theme but apart from this you can bring some tankiness, sustained damage, healing and all those valuable auras that your melee party can benefit greatly from. Vengeance oath and religious campain also makes a nice rp combo.
I may be wrong but if you die a lot as a dwarf ranger maybe your party didn't care a lot about covering your @ss from time to time or your dm was going too hard on you. If that's the case i'd recommend playing a barbarian.
First off, you won't die! Second, you can deal lots of damage without anyone's support and of course you can make awesome path-shifter subrace combinations. Beasthide and bear-totem offer great tankiness so you can relentlessly attack all day long. Longstrider and longtooth are also good for barbarian shifters but if you'd go berseker make sure that your shifting feature doesn't consume a bonus action. Personally i'd pick either human or dwarf for a barbarian but that's your call.

[Yagyujubei]

if it were me, Changeling Lore bard would be the pick with a dip from another class for a few reasons:

1. a performer that could change his appearance at will sounds amazing just from a flavor standpoint, and as far as mechanically, you would be a master at impersonating others which would be great for subterfuge activities. performance/deception and your shapechanging will allow you to do some pretty crazy stuff.

2. Lore bard because it has much better front loaded abilities. skill proficiencies and magical secrets before level 10 are fantastic, and cutting words is INCREDIBLE and is a reaction, which wont find use very often otherwise and with high CHA from the start you won't have to be so stingy about using inspiration die (bump it up to 20 asap though).

3. also with lore bard, you will be able to assume the skill monkey roll quite well, you'll have lots of proficient skills, 4 expertise skills, and peerless skill. there will be nothing you can do out of combat.

4. then I would take a 3 level dip in sorcerer or warlock. each of these will grant you higher armor than any leather armor would, grant you amazing cantrips for at will damage, and offer very useful utility in the form of metamagic and invocations

[Tenmujiin]

I would say some kind of ranged character or an arcane caster (wizard/bard/sorcerer). Valor bard would suit your group well by filling both ranged attacker (valor bards are mean with a bow) and caster. Dip a level in fighter or ranger for the +2 to ranged attacks (I would go ranger for flavor) and then take swift quiver at bard lv10 (if you get that high) and otherwise focus on filling the casting gaps your cleric lacks.

Edit:
For races I would go changeling, bonuses to dex and charisma fit the character perfectly and you can hide your identity to avoid the anti-magic people.