Looking for advice for my next class

[Mikaleus]

Hello everyone!

In new to D&d and am playing an oath of the Ancients Paladin and it has been super fun.
After casting Moonbeam I thought I need to try a primary caster class next game.

So now I find myself about to join an Out of the Abyss campaign...and unable to decide what class to pick.

Currently I am considering

Forge or Light Cleric

Druid- Land (coastal or underdark) or Shepherd.

Draconic Sorcerer

Divine Soul Sorcerer


Party wise there's a Trickery Cleric and a Tome Warlock. Another member may be a Hexblade or Totem Barbarian and another member is still unknown.

Any insights into these classes/ subclasses is greatly appreciated.

[BobZan]

I don't like Forge Clerics and War Wizards flavor as they were designed.

Draconic and Divine Soul Sorcerers are great. Divine Soul is the dream. Cleric spells with Metamagic. Or as I call it: DIVINE METAMAGIC! (j/k)

Light Clerics are great casters aswell.

Any Wizard is great, Divination on the top of the list, Necromancy and Abjuration are great aswell. I just dislike the flavor of War Magic School.

[JoyfulJester]

Talk to your DM about how they deal with illusions. If they roll with them and have creatures react to illusions despite his knowledge of them, then illusion wizard is hella fun! It opens up so much creativity and possible battlefield control. I use to always maximize my characters for dmg and while it can be fun it's kind of annoying for others when you outshine them in that way all the time. It's a dangerous road to go down in your d&d career (advice from my experiences, take it as you will) When I tried illusion wizard I loved it. It let me be more creative in battles instead of rehashing the same strategies over and over. I got to create situations that allowed others to shine and take advantage of those opportunities and really created a sense of teamwork. Outside of battle you have a ton of utility. Running away from guards, turning a corner and throwing up a wall to hide behind to trick them, so exciting and fun!

[Mikaleus]

Thanks for the replies.

Also tempted to try Glamor Bard but not sure how well suited it is to a campaign of drow and demons.

[Citan]

Hello everyone!

In new to D&d and am playing an oath of the Ancients Paladin and it has been super fun.
After casting Moonbeam I thought I need to try a primary caster class next game.

So now I find myself about to join an Out of the Abyss campaign...and unable to decide what class to pick.

Currently I am considering

Forge or Light Cleric

Druid- Land (coastal or underdark) or Shepherd.

Draconic Sorcerer

Divine Soul Sorcerer


Party wise there's a Trickery Cleric and a Tome Warlock. Another member may be a Hexblade or Totem Barbarian and another member is still unknown.

Any insights into these classes/ subclasses is greatly appreciated.
Hi!


Choice depends on several factors...

1. Do you like having the chance to try many different spells?
Then Druid > Cleric > Bard > Wizard > Sorcerer, hands down.
Druid and Cleric can change spells "at-will" (between long-rests) among an extremely large list.
But Druid trumps Cleric because many more kinds of spells are available.
Then comes Bard: nothing to write home around with level up, but Magic Secrets give you chance to tailor your character, either to enhance Bard's natural strengths (buffs, utility, healing, social control) or shore up its lacks (direct damage, some kinds of control, conjurations).
Then comes Wizard: nothing to write home around with level up, but if your DM has understood that extra spells are the Wizard's equivalent to magic weapon for martials, and give you plenty of it, Wizard has the potential to equal other classes (fairly doable) or utterly trump them (if your DM distributes them like candies).

2. Do you want a class that is easy to play and build?
Then Cleric > Bard = Wizard = Druid > Sorcerer.
Cleric is the easiest: good to great armor, built-in healing, useful short-rest abilities, interchangeable spells: you can safely try things and adapt day-to-day, provided you have some insight to prepare (good news: you also get some tools for that, although DM-dependent).
Bard has some perks: decent (Lore) to good (others) defense, very useful short-rest ability, and you can swap one spell when you level so you can correct a mistake.
Wizard cannot do so, and has no armor, but as long as your DM is nice enough, you can safely try out a few spells even if its end as wasted space in your spellbook: and the no-armor is balanced by many of the best self-defense spells you could ever hope for. Plus many schools provides strong benefits in offense or defense.
Druid is kinda hard to play, at lower levels at least, and especially Land Druid: decentish AC has nothing to help it, and many of the best Druid spells need concentration, which can be kinda hard to maintain unless you play smart: keeping in the backline, wild shaping as an animal that will hide somewhere etc... Past level 6-7 though, things should ease a bit.
Sorcerer is not necessarily the hardest to play, but it is the hardest to build: although you can swap one known spell when leveling up (and heavily encouraged to do so: it's really a part of playing Sorc's strength), if you really want to play an "efficient" Sorcerer you will need to plan ahead a good part of your progression (if not all), especially since each Metamagic has synergy with different subsets of the Sorcerer's spelllist.

3. Do you prefer a heavily focused caster, someone that has a clear role but can make some "jumps" into another area or a truly polyvalent one?

Sorcerer: view it as the "routine caster": few spells, but great ones: on the plus side, you are "reliable": your friends will learn quickly how you usually react to a situation, then can build upon it. Plus, you have the best "efficiency per spell" of all casters barring Diviner Wizards twice per long rest.
On the minus side, your spelllist will be stable for increasingly greater amounts of (real-life) time, so you better not be the kind that is bored of having the same tools to use over time.
Finally, please note that "focused" is not incompatible with "creative" nor with "versatile": although Sorcerer has a reduced choice compared to others, he gets (proportionally) the greatest number of "built-in versatility" spells: Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Haste, Slow, Polymorph, Alter Self (IIRC), etc...

Cleric: possibly the most "clear role" of all: you are here mainly for protection and healing, possibly calling for divine help. On the plus side, the Divine Domain grant you spells that are usually faring outside the usual spheres (Light and Tempest: offense, Trickery: utility and defense, etc). And a good 25% of the spell list are spells that are there to provide some fresh air by giving niche tools for niche situations.

Bard: has clearly some favor towards utility, healing and some control, but still offers a nice array of versatile, "multi-tasks" spells (Enhance Ability, Silence, Animate Objects, Shatter, Bestow Curse) to give you some freedom. AND you get Magic Secrets, so you get 6-8 spells that are absolutely whatever you want, including some of the best exclusives of other classes (Circle of Power, Swift Quiver, Conjure X, Wish, Simulacrum, Holy Aura etc).

Wizard: basically choice of School "defines" your focus, besides that nothing prevents you to be as focused or as unfocused as you want onto your area of expertise. With the largest pool of spells to learn from, it's really easy to build precisely what you want.

Druid: "be good at all, be great at none" could be, with a lump of ill faith, be told about Druid. Truth be told, Druid have spells of every category, but they have none of the best in each except where it's about using environment or conjuration. So you could technically prepare only AOE spells, or only control spells, or only utility ones, but there is really no good reason to do so.

4. Do you like being creative?
That is a trap question really, because creativity is, at the end, only limited by your mind, and the DM's "leeway perimeter".
If you want "built-in" creativity though, there are some classes better tailored than others:
- Wizards are the prime contenders here, between Glyphs of Warding (does Sorcerer have it? Don't remember), Polymorph, Magic Jar, Simulacrum, and probably three dozen of spells I never even tried to really use...
- Sorcerers come second, thanks to "built-in creativity" spells (just Polymorph alone can be used in nearly any and every situation). Tied in is Moon Druid (or maybe is it even above the former): wild shaping is really a game in the game, and the fact you can keep concentration on a pre-cast spell opens an awfully wide panel of tactics.
- Bard obviously come third, thanks to many "creative spells" like Suggestion and Magic Secrets. Tied in or just behind depending on campaign and DM are every other Druid, because many of their spells can open up interesting ways of exploring / infiltrating (like using Water Breathing ritual, or conjure rats and cats to go spy).
- Clerics have mostly clear-cut spells, but they get the largest quantity of "divination" ones so if your DM works with you, they can be actually the most interesting. Otherwise, sadly, they are good lasts.

So, I realize I totally didn't speak about Warlocks: many things could (should) be said about them, but the fact they have only two slots per short rest for a good while make them a very different kind of beast. So I guess it's fair to put them aside unless you were also interested into them.

Also, please note that I totally put aside fluff considerations, but they are (normally XD) actually quite important: people will have different expectations "by default" in terms of behaviours, actions and reference depending on your class: while Bard is mostly "neutral" and Sorcerer can be easily worked around, Druid has some "nature-lover / protector" strings to it, Warlock has (should) orders and duties coming from your Patron, and Cleric is expected to enforce his chosen deity's values and abide by it any chance he gets.
If your DM tends to enforce "RP by class", beware of that. If he doesn't care (or you provide an interesting character concept that goes against the current so it's fine with him) then everything is good. :)

[Mikaleus]

Thanks for the really detailed response.

To nobody's surprise, I have chosen Druid.
My party members include a trickery Cleric, a Great One Warlock and 2 monks.

For my Circle, I'm either going to choose Shepherd for minions and healing, Moon for wildshape or possibly Land for the extra spells.

Rolled stats of 17 17 16 12 11 11.