which classes/builds have the most linear progresion?

[Camman1984]

i am going to be involved with a party where i dont know what level the campaign will run too. A couple of us want to run characters that start and stay decent throughout their careers, rather than being either good to start with but the tailing off or crap to start with but requiring a specific level x ability to turn good.

Mainly looking for an archer build and a caster build, but interested to see what options there are.

[MrStabby]

My personal view is that power-wise most things are pretty well balanced up to level 17 when things begin to break down a bit. Most of the outliers seem to be on the powerful side so there are few "traps".

The bigger issue is what is fun to play. Casters can be a bit dull at lover levels - functionally fine but they never do showy amounts of damage and they run out of there other spells pretty quickly. On the other hand the stabby classes can be even more limited if you have no means/desire to use the other combat actions like grapple or shove.

I would recommend a rogue for interesting RP at all levels, decent scaling damage, lots of uses for actions, bonus actions and skills and it is a great class for multiclassing if you get bored.

Monks are similar - although their resources are limited at early levels there is still a lot they can do without resources and their high level abilities are crazy-fun.

Personally I have a bit of a love for Paladins as well - lots of cool abilities that keep on coming (at least for the first 12 levels), spells that can be cast or converted to damage, meaningful choices for character development (both mechanical and thematic).

Regarding archer and caster classes, wizard is fun as you get a of of choices and the different schools give you pretty cool abilities. Archer can be a decent number of classes - bard, rogue, fighter, ranger spring to mind. Certainly Bard might be good if you want a caster/archer?

[Finieous]

Archer - Rogue

Caster - Tempest Cleric (heavy armor and marital weapons balance scarcity of spell slots at low levels, making you nearly as effective as low-level fighters, then the class evolves into an effective blaster at higher levels)

[umbrellasamurai]

Mainly looking for an archer build and a caster build

Why not both?

A DEX-focused Tempest Cleric, variant human, with the Crossbow Expert feat is right on the money.

Taking either a whip and a hand crossbow, dual-wielding two hand crossbows, or rapid-firing a single one (as DM fiat allows) you would have a healthy combination of single-target damage, blasting, and secondary defensive abilities starting immediately.

- Progression is nice and steady as you work your way up to higher-level spells
- Wrath of the Storm is useful for anyone that does manage to close distance (more useful if you're limited to a whip + hand crossbow)
- Destructive Wrath lets your blasting power remain relevant, with additional uses per rest as you progress to higher levels
- Divine Strike ensures your weapon damage is good (just 'decent' for a non- Crossbow Expert cleric, which you aren't)
- Thunderbolt Strike: electrocute someone with Wrath of the Storm, push them back, then shoot them next turn
- Stormborn is arguably better for a ranged character anyway: rain down death from above

[Naanomi]

As long as you don't monkey around multiclassing, everything scales pretty reasonably. You can hamstring yourself with poor multiclassing though

[Ardantis]

Barbarians offer solid damage and survivability at all levels, just be sure to go totem.

Archers are best as rogues or fighters, but they play really differently.