Waffling over fitting into the party

[Curunir471]

Hello wise and knowledgeable playgrounders, I have a dilemma...

First a bit of background on me, I've been playing D&D for 13 years on and off, mostly on, and I've played just about all of the classes currently available at one point or another. I have 3 groups I currently play with, 1 I DM with a customized forgotten realms setting, another I'm playing a swashbucking rouge 3/bard 8, and then a Cleric of mystra 1/ sorcerer 10 finishing the HotDQ module next week.

The dilemma I'm having is that I don't know what class/race to play once we finish the HotDQ, this group involves my cousin 18, my dad 53, a family friend 19, that family friend's dad 43ish as DM, and me at 22. We will be playing Storm King's Thunder from level 1 with rolled stats(I always roll amazingly with stats, don't ask, it's a running joke at our table, current sorcerer at 1 had 18, 18, 18, 17, 14 ,9.)

My cousin wants to play a gnomish diviner wizard.
Family friend wants to play an elven/halfling assassin.
Dad wants to recreate a half-orc fighter/outcast champion from 3.5 into 5e as a paladin(does that seem like a good fit?)

I want our party to be well balanced and I already have 2 other groups so I have no problem playing the fill, to a point, I'm not just going to play the "heal-bot".

What do you ladies and gentleman think that I should do? Keep in mind, stats are no object, so MAD doesn't really matter.

Ideas I've had:
Ghostwise Halfling Moon Druid
Ghostwise Halfling Beastmaster new ranger
Half-elf bard
Wood elf archer cleric

Any thoughts? I hope to get some honest ideas of what I can do to make sure that I have fun, whilst making sure everyone else has fun too.

[Toofey]

This is going to sound like it flies directly in the face of not wanting to play a heal bot, but you may want to consider a life cleric.

My reasoning is thus. You get all he basic healing spells (other than the healing words which for action economy you want) and a bunch of essential basic cleric spells, letting you make the most of your other spell prep.

In addition, while serving as a 'heal bot' is basically worthless, healing is occasionally useful if it carries a punch. The Life cleric offers a significant 'healing nova' by taking your channel divinity for the healing effect (name escapes me atm) and using a (mass) healing word with your bonus action.

Finally with those stats you'll easily be able to lay the smack down as well as anything and your concentration will be next to unshakable if you were to take warcaster (with say a Vhuman feat) combine this with the cleric's excellent action economy and you have a fun durable build, especially with those stats (although admittedly this would hold true with any cleric class)

[JellyPooga]

Do you know what all parties lack?

Enough Rogue.

Everyone wants more Rogue in the party, even all-Rogue parties want more Rogue in them; how did you think Thieves Guilds get formed in the first place? Rogues are everyones best buddy. They do all the stuff that no-one else wants to like loot the treasure clean up the place, get their hands dirty setting off disarming all those traps, putting that silver tongue to good use by swindling persuading all the NPCs, grubbing around looking for secret doors and more loot and generally doing all that other non-fighty stuff that takes up the other two thirds of the game. And do you know what? They aren't half bad in a ruck either.

If in doubt, play a Rogue. That's my motto.

[bid]

+1 on do not fear life cleric. The sale's pitch goes like this: a single slot as life does as much as 2. You can spend more slot on combat.

With wizard rogue paladin, only Wis is not covered. (and yes, half-orc paladin 16 10 14 10 12 14, prolly vengeance flavored)


With excessive stat, my top choices would be life 1 / lore X, but you can also:
- hunter 3 / monk X: mariner style + slayer + hunter's mark.
- warlock 2 / monk X: hex works with unarmed attacks
- hunter 5 / nature X: dampen element
- draconic 3 / tempest X: twin BB, maxed BB

[Tauguy628]

You could always run a moon druid or try out the new revised ranger (if DM allows). These would allow you to take a little of the healing responsibility off of the pally and would be good at just being awesome in general.

[ClintACK]

a gnomish diviner wizard.
an elven/halfling assassin.
a half-orc paladin.

...

Wood elf archer cleric

That sounds like fun. Or the Moon Druid.

I'd second the idea that the party is missing a healer -- but not to be a spare hit point battery. It's spells like Lesser/Greater Restoration and Remove Curse and Revivify that the party will really miss at the relevant levels.

But don't make healing the main point of the character. Any Druid or Bard or Cleric can get it done.

[Herobizkit]

Ghostwise Halfling UA Ranger Beastmaster /2 Moon Druid.

I dare you. :)

It's an empty threat, but Storm King's Thunder begs for a giant-killer, and Ranger is a Giant-Killer.

Also, who wouldn't want their own pair of wolves when one of those wolves could be YOU?

[MrFahrenheit]

Hill dwarf moon Druid; con>wis>dex>int>str/cha. Your first three ASIs should be con to 18 via resilient, con to 20, then toughness. Last two ASIs boost wis to 20.

Virtually unkillable, you're a meat shield in combat until you lose both forms, at which case you can transition to summons/support. OOC, you can be very stealthy, using your wildshapes to transform into an innocuous rodent (and eventually bird) and spy, spy, spy...

[NecroDancer]

I'd go cleric and focus on battlefield control at level 1 using spells like command and guiding bolt to mess with the enemy. Then at later levels you can build a zombie army with animate dead or start start blasting with fireball If your a light cleric (if you go arcane cleric you can get teleportation circle which is great for travel).

I'd recommend a light cleric and start blasting or you can play a necromancer build and start building an army.

[NecroDancer]

Or go trickster cleric and the party rogue will love you

[Curunir471]

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions/advice, I think that I will probably end up going with a Ghostwise Halfling moon druid, potentially dipping in monk for the Unarmored defense. The other option that sounded great to me is what @bid mentioned life cleric 1/ lore bard x.

[Joe the Rat]

Or go trickster cleric and the party rogue will love youGive your Touch to the paladin, and you might actually be able to sneak as a group.

[Herobizkit]

I'm presently playing a 2 Moon Druid 2/Monk 1 in my current home campaign. It is just lovely. 2 Monk is great for improved move and Ki, as both are usable in beast mode.

... and having a Giant Badger with a burrow speed of 20' (up to 60' with Dash and Ki) will drive your DM nuts.

[INDYSTAR188]

That sounds like fun. Or the Moon Druid.

I'd second the idea that the party is missing a healer -- but not to be a spare hit point battery. It's spells like Lesser/Greater Restoration and Remove Curse and Revivify that the party will really miss at the relevant levels.

But don't make healing the main point of the character. Any Druid or Bard or Cleric can get it done.

How would you build an archer cleric?

[Douche]

Do you know what all parties lack?

Enough Rogue.

Everyone wants more Rogue in the party, even all-Rogue parties want more Rogue in them; how did you think Thieves Guilds get formed in the first place? Rogues are everyones best buddy. They do all the stuff that no-one else wants to like loot the treasure clean up the place, get their hands dirty setting off disarming all those traps, putting that silver tongue to good use by swindling persuading all the NPCs, grubbing around looking for secret doors and more loot and generally doing all that other non-fighty stuff that takes up the other two thirds of the game. And do you know what? They aren't half bad in a ruck either.

If in doubt, play a Rogue. That's my motto.

It's true. I played in a one-shot a few weeks ago, and we ended up having 4 out of 5 players be rogues. Instead of making new characters, we went with it. Ended up using outrageous stealth & misdirection to complete the entire scenario without fighting once.

I mean it took a DM who was willing to work with it, but even still - I was a trickery cleric multiclass so with guidance & pass without trace we were pretty much undetectable

[ClintACK]

How would you build an archer cleric?

You'd start with:
Wood Elf --> +2 Dex, +1 Wis, Longbow proficiency.


After 4th level, you'll never keep up with the pure archery damage of a fighter or ranger, but you've got a bunch of other tricks -- like spiritual weapon and healing word -- that don't interfere with shooting arrows at the bad guy.

Maybe build to Tempest Cleric 17/Hunter Ranger 3... or /Assassin 3.

[Biggstick]

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions/advice, I think that I will probably end up going with a Ghostwise Halfling moon druid, potentially dipping in monk for the Unarmored defense. The other option that sounded great to me is what @bid mentioned life cleric 1/ lore bard x.

Going off on the Life Cleric option, you could always go Valor Bard instead of Lore Bard. This would allow you to have super effective healing, Bless, and the ability to contribute like a martial during combat. You could run this as either a melee or a ranged character. As the Valor Bard, you have access to all the same buff and debuff spells that a Lore Bard does, you just don't have access to Magical Secrets at level 6. This type of character could poach Swift Quiver if ranged at level 11 (Life Cleric 1//Valor Bard 10), or Destructive Wave if melee. Or, you can grab both!