Yet another "ideal 4 man party" Thread

[Decstarr]

Hey guys,

we just rolled stats for our new campaign (we'll all be using the same stats here) and they turned out to be pretty good:

17 16 15 13 12 11

4 PCs needed.
For storytelling purposes, we plan on playing a group that has been together for quite a while (in the likes of a little mercenary unit or something similar), yet we'll be starting at level 1. I'd like to have your input how we best make use of these rather high and well-rounded stats to build a solid and strong group (which it should be, the dudes have been adventuring together for a while and for a reason).

Only limitation is: One of our players is a bit "limited" in terms of his mechanical skills, so far he has only played a pretty flat out rogue assassin. So at least one of the characters should be relatively "simple" with not plenty of stuff that he needs to do because that would delay us a lot.

The upcoming DM excluded UA and also said that "the scope is epic", so we'd likely reach level 20 - prolly not with everyone alive, but let's assume we might - therefore MC suggestions can also be put in.

[toapat]

1: Crossbow Expert Arcane Trickster Rogue for your Newbie.
2: Oath of the Crown Paladin or Paladin/Sorcerer if endurance becomes an issue
3: Tempest Cleric
4: Conjuration wizard
5: Life Cleric 1/College of Lore Bard X. Generally speaking no one should die with a Lore Life build in the party, between the domain benefit of Life cleric combined with paladin's Aura of Vitality from Lore bard, and using Bardic Inspiration dice as appropriate, while Cutting Words is used as your primary attack

[BabyCthulhu]

My ideal group has always been a group of character that have 1 guy specialized in one of the major needs, and then at least abother one able to fit that role in case the specialist needs help or gets down.
That said, I'm against having a tank, a healer, a dps, etc etc. I don't think that mixes well with having fun in D&D.

I would try to make every character have a decent AC, except maybe the ones that are not going into melee.
I would also try to make every character fill at least a couple of useful roles, like everyone sacrifices one skill to be a knowledge skill. (Unless one guys decides to have all of them)
Healing in the middle of a combat is not really useful in 5e, it's better to focus on ways to heal out of combat, but it's also important to have at least one way to emergency-heal someone in combat. Take rests and use those Hit Dices instead of draining spell slots on healing every time.
If One can go stealthy, open locks, and disable traps, good. But if at least 2 guys can go stealthy, it becomes less dangerous to scout ahead, or make stealthier plans.
One can be the party face, but I tend to resolve diplomatic encounters with RP instead of pure rolling.

So, define first what would you guys like to play in broad terms. "I would like to hit things with a sword, I would like to try damaging magic" etc. Then define the classes.

A dex based character with the criminal background make excellent stealthy character.
A level or 2 in Paladin can give casters very good ac and melee capabilities. Paladin/sorcerer and Paladin/bard are very powerful and common.
Even an abjurer wizard/paladin.

Instead of posting here every MC imaginable, take a look at this compilation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?502248-Ultimate-Optimizer-s-Multiclassing-Guide), but again, you should really to know the basic stuff you want to be able to do. Nobody wants to play a very optimized barbarian MC when thy wanted to be casting magic all day.

[Specter]

- Variant Human Bearbarian (Polearm Master or Tough feat). Give damage, resist damage. Simple to use. If player wants more choices later on, grab some Fighter levels.
- Lore Bard: party face and healer, along with whatever else you want to be.
- Rogue/Ranger (sharpshooter): the ultimate scout and ranged striker.
- Divination Wizard: problem-solver, controller, buffer and debuffer.