Party Without a Melee Focused Character Question

[Aemon]

Hello. I am new to posting on these forums but have been lurking around them for many years. For the first time in a long long time, I have the chance to play D&D again. I used to DM for my group when I was younger, but haven't had anyone to play with for the past 15 years or so. I have some DM experience, but I am obviously very, very rusty.

A few of my friends got interested in D&D from watching Stranger Things, and asked me to run a few games for them. I am pretty happy with the adventure idea I have for them, but I am concerned about how to best handle their choice of character classes. I am totally fine with them playing whatever they would enjoy, but I was going to ask how I could best DM with their class choices.

The main worry I have is that they don't really have a dedicated melee character. We will have an elf wizard, an elf ranger (bow focused), and a druid of a yet to be determined race. I felt a bit better when the player chose a druid, as I figure wild shape can help out with the melee role, but in a lot of guides I've read they equate the druid to a nature wizard, so I wasn't sure.

I really want them to enjoy the game and, hopefully, want to play much more. Do you have any good advice on how to tailor encounters in 5E to fit this type of party or make the adventure more fun and meaningful to their class choices? Any advice is welcome.

Many thanks and I am glad to finally be posting in this forum!

[mephnick]

If the Druid goes Moon then it won't be a big problem, they make decent front line characters while Wildshaped. If they live long enough to get Conjure spells then that will help the front line as well.

But my advice is not to tailor encounters to the party. Throw some melee brutes at them and let them figure it out. That's their job, not yours.

[Cespenar]

Some thoughts:

-Have the party possess a melee mercenary/bodyguard or two, maybe a level or two less than the group.

-Start the combat at greater ranges.

-Throw more ranged enemies into the mix. Don't have all the encounters be, for example, just 5 Dire Wolves or stuff.

-Don't put many meat shield enemies with a lot of HP.

-Have some of the enemies realistically retreat/surrender if they find the chance.

-Put covers and blockades and trees to interact with, in a combat.

-Expanding that, put some other interesting interaction possibilities with the terrain as well, which they could use to escape or slow down the enemies.

[Specter]

The main difference is that you have an easier targeting whoever you want in the field. But that makes it more challenging for them, probably in a fun way. The ranger might have to dual-wield eventually, and the druid could set up hazards to distance enemies, for example.

[Throne12]

I ditto that dont tailor encounters to them not all the time. Over coming shirt comings are a fun process. They'll start thinking out of the box to deal with melee combat. Be it hiring melee meat shields. Or setting up combos and tactics. They are there to have fun dealing with encounters that what D&D is all about.

[Avigor]

I was recently in a game consisting solely of Sorcerers and Warlocks; yes, melee was our weakest point, but we found ways around this, from pushing things back (repelling blast, thunderwave) to in one memorable instance using a Magic Circle spell to great effect against vampire spawn - granted, the DM allowed them to jump into the cylinder from above, but he then allowed the caster to reverse the circle's effect after the fact, trapping them.

[LeonBH]

I'll sing a different tune here. Your players are playing D&D for the first time because they saw it on a TV show. You SHOULD tailor the first few encounters to them. It is their training wheels as well as your pitch to them, to show them how fun D&D is.

You can stop tailor-fitting to the group when you feel they're ready to play "for real." For now, keep the training wheels on.

First of all, give them a mission that all of them can contribute to. The ranger and druid share a lot in common as nature casters. Give them a quest to retrieve an item from a band of thieves hiding in the woods, but it requires the druid speaking to animals in wildshape form, the ranger tracking down the trail of clues the thieves left behind, and the wizard to identify/research back story of that band if thieves.

For combat, throw at them a slow-moving homebrew monster with a small bit of AC but a lot of HP, backed up by some ranged allies. Maybe make them fey creatures whose bonfire they accidentally snuffed.

Since they like Stranger Things, tailor some adventures after the events in Stranger Things, too. That's why they want to play, isnt it? Then that is what they want to see too.

[Laserlight]

They may be under the impression that they can avoid melee and just kite everything; point out to them that isn't always the case. They should make their spell selections etc with that in mind. Other than that they should be okay, particularly if the druid goes Moon.

One of our DMs is in the habit of setting up combats with the sides separated by about 30ft, even though it's daylight and we're in on a road through open farmland and our opponent is a giant who couldn't possibly hide. I occasionally have to say "We could see him from a mile away, right? We've got a couple of longbow archers with us, right? Let's start with the party more like 600ft from the giant, please?"

[Honest Tiefling]

Glad to see a Lurker un-cloak! Welcome aboard!


I'll sing a different tune here. Your players are playing D&D for the first time because they saw it on a TV show. You SHOULD tailor the first few encounters to them. It is their training wheels as well as your pitch to them, to show them how fun D&D is.

This. Your players might be really smart, but they're still adapting to the rules of DnD, so it'll take some time for them to be able to make tactics.

Have you considered a DMPC? Many groups don't like these, but your players are new and you have three of them. You could have one tied to the plot (the group finds a mysterious golem who keeps smacking anything who attacks them...) or a mentor figure that conveniently dies for the plot once they get a handle on things. Just don't put too much of a spotlight onto the character, and there's tons of way of phasing out the meat shield when appropriate.

[FaithfulCenturi]

Long time lurker myself OP.

I am just now wrapping up the first ever campaign of D&D I've ever played here about a year after we started playing. My DM had me and another player who had never played before and so he did give us some serious training wheels/ lee-way as we learned the game. This same group will be starting a new campaign next week and the DM warned us that the training wheels are coming off and we're going to be more expected to understand how things work.

But since this is your friends' first game, I agree with above posters that your "job" is to show them how fun it is to play. Let them figure out mechanics and rules basics before figuring out the more complex pieces.

Well that's my two cents anyways, and you might find it worth less.

[Vogie]

I'll sing a different tune here. Your players are playing D&D for the first time because they saw it on a TV show. You SHOULD tailor the first few encounters to them. It is their training wheels as well as your pitch to them, to show them how fun D&D is.

You can stop tailor-fitting to the group when you feel they're ready to play "for real." For now, keep the training wheels on.

This is huge. To quote Mark Rosewater, "A well-crafted game should end before the player wants to stop playing". You want this experience be enjoyable, first and foremost, and then, after they get the hang of things, then you can start ratcheting up the complexity in the sessions.

And the best part about a new group, especially those who came into this from outside media, is you can pull out the tropes that would make veteran RPG players roll their eyes. Be tropey as hell. And you also have the bonus of creating scenarios that you normally wouldn't because the melees would have nothing to do.

The party is supporting an infantry troop, keeping them alive.

They find themselves in a fort under siege.

Any type of moving-platform encounter - Defending an airship, softening up a boat to board it, pushing back a griffin or harpy attack

Fighting a single lumbering, massive target, where kiting is the key.

Fighting over a cracking ice, or amongst lava flows

[Contrast]

If they go moon druid and the ranger goes beast master you'd actually be reasonably melee focused at low levels at least.

Even if the ranger goes for a bow focus I find it can be helpful to occasionally remind them that melee weapons do still work for them and are sometimes going to be the better tactical option.

My other suggestion with completely new players (particularly if you're coming back yourself as well) - soft ball the first few encounters. If they realise their lack of melee support is an issue, let them try to resolve it (hirelings or depending on setting robots/animal companions). If they don't, maybe suggest it by having them meet an adventuring duo of barbarian who body blocks and support dude who supports. This assume it even is an issue...you might find its not as bad as you feared.

[Aemon]

Wow! This is amazing!

I wrote this today during a break at work and made it home to see all these awesome replies. I knew this forum was pretty great. Thank you all for taking the time to look at this and give your comments and advice. I feel a lot more comfortable with their character choices now and you've given me some great ideas to work around it if it does become a problem. I really like the idea of keeping the training wheels on for a bit. I think this will be good for both me and then as I will be relearning a lot too.

I didn't think of it before, but it is nice to be able to pull out all the D&D and fantasy cliches now with a new group. And you are right, making a campaign in the Stranger Things genre would be really fun. I had set up this adventure so it ends on a cliffhanger. If they want to stop then the story makes sense, but hopefully they will want to keep going and the story will allow for it. They are going to be fighting goblins in a cave/ruined watchtower who stole a wizard's artifact from a caravan the PCs were guarding, and they will be able to almost just get it (unless they surprise me and just kick my tail and end up with it :smallsmile:), but either way, that artifact could lead to all sorts of plane hopping/Shadowfell type shenanigans.

You all have made me much more excited to play and much more comfortable with all this. Thanks very much!

[mephnick]

Wow! This is amazing!
..
You all have made me much more excited to play and much more comfortable with all this. Thanks very much!

See, we're not a toxic community! We did it!

[SharkForce]

even if the druid doesn't go moon druid, he'll have fewer total HP to absorb damage, but it isn't like druids can't stand on the front line in their normal form either. same with the ranger. even a bow focused ranger should be able to pull out a scimitar or rapier or short sword and be reasonably effective (or two if he prefers), and in any event, will have the exact same AC and hit points you'd expect from a TWF melee-focused ranger even if he keeps the bow out. it might be a good idea for him to either pick up crossbow expert (for the melee range shooting ability) or maybe a pair of rogue levels (for the bonus action disengage, and why not get some other goodies while he's at it) or both, and even the wizard can potentially be just fine (either abjurer or necromancer can give a surprising amount of tankiness to a wizard).

they will probably need to be prepared to get melee'd occasionally, but they shouldn't be *that* vulnerable.

[Aemon]

The first session went very well. The characters did a decent job of handling fights. Of course, we will all still learning the basics of D&D (for them) and the 5e rules (for me), so I am sure they will improve as time goes on. The druid got a bit too close to the guy with a warhammer, but that was the only difficult part of the night, and as it was the boss fight, I figure that works well.

Best part is, they loved the game and asked to play again next Friday!

Thanks again for the help!

[LeonBH]

No, thank you for introducing more people into this silly hobby :)

[mgshamster]

I'll sing a different tune here.

I cannot recommend Leon's ideas enough.

D&D is all about imagination, and if the show inspired their imagination, you should tailor their adventure to that.