Ideas for Twist on the Classic Party (Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Wizard)?

[rahimka]

I'm running a 4th level one-shot next week for 4 friends (my old gaming group) who I haven't played with in a while. Since they are all busy with work this week and I'm on break, I offered to make some pre-gens for them so we can avoid wasting time on Game Day building one-time-use characters. There's four of them, so I had the idea to build a "classic party" of Fighter, Thief, Cleric, & Wizard

But, rather than trying to simulate the old-school base classes with really vanilla choices, I'm looking for ideas and fun twists on how to put together a party of 4 that clearly evokes that "classic" feel and balance but with interesting mechanics or character interactions/relationships.

A few notes on my players:
One of them ALWAYS plays as a beautiful seductress or warrior woman (yup, he's that guy)
Another is a power-gamer/min-maxer, but he really just loves characters with complex tactical options
The other two players are actually recently engaged, so it might be cool to give them an interesting dynamic between their characters they can play off of in RP

That said, even if they have nothing to do with my particular players, I'd love to hear people's ideas and suggestions for putting together an interesting party at this lvl

[BarneyBent]

All Bard party, each with different builds that meet the four archetypes?

[Lille]

All Bard party, each with different builds that meet the four archetypes?

Honestly, that's exactly what I came to this thread to say. It fits pretty well with the description of the players, too.

[rahimka]

All Bards... hmmmmm... That could be pretty good.

It seems like both Lore and Satire map well to Wizard and Rogue respectively, and Swords or Valor could map to Fighter. So what College feels like a Cleric?

[Mr.Spastic]

Are you using point buy? Pre gen? or rolling?

For the player how plays that guy. Build him a swashbuckler with high cha.

For the tactical player. Give him the new war wizard. Personal favorite of mine and really fun. If you are using pre-built stats that have a sixteen play a mountain dwarf for armor and grab either booming blade or green flame blade. That will give you loads of fun tactics in combat.

For the couple I would give one the cleric and one the fighter and give the characters a pairing. Like Link and Mypha in BotW. One is reckless and gets hurt a lot but the other is always their to heal their wounds.

[Mr.Spastic]

As a side note, I wouldn't make a one class party for a one shot unless agreed upon by the group. At level four bards are all pretty same-ish IMO. They don't get enough of their differing features to make a good balanced party.

P.S. For your fighter and cleric I would recommend a battle master and life respectively. They are kind of stereotypical but they are just so good.

[guachi]

Fighter takes a high(ish) Charisma and the Inspiring Leader feat. Rogue takes Healer feat. Those two act as healers.

Cleric chooses Arcane and drops fireballs.

Wizard chooses Bladesinger and enters melee.

[Detective]

For an alternate cleric, you could go for divine soul sorcerer (xanathos guide archetype). Basically, it is a sorcerer that has access to the cleric spell list, as well as the sorcerer list.

Another, possibly more unique route to take for a cleric however, is the celestial warlock. Gets cure wounds and lesser restoration as known spells by level 4, and has healing light as a useful archetype ability for healing/self-healing:
At 1st level, you have a pool of d6s that you can spend to heal others. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level. As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you, spending dice from the pool. The maximum number of dice you can spend at once equals your Charisma modifier (minimum of one die). Roll the dice you spend, add them together, and restore a number of hit points equal to the total. Your pool regains all expended dice when you finish a long rest

As for who could play the warlock, I think the warlock theme, and the high charisma, would suit your "seductress" player. Access to charm person and suggestion + nifty invocations depending on the player's preferences (Looking at you, disguise-self at will, and possibly silent image at will as well), well... This player should have everything he'll need for his "misadventures".

People have already suggested bards, and frankly they can fill almost all the other roles at ease (the only one who I might have some disagreements with is the fighter, just don't see a bard holding up to a fighter in sticking-close and always fighting in melee)

A paladin is basically a fighter with extra abilities to use and take advantage of. Not really familiar with what would be the best "paladin archetype" at level 4 though, so I'll leave that up to other's judgements.

Assuming you have a celestial warlock/divine sorcerer as your "cleric". A druid could work well as a wizard. The druid itself is also quite versatile, with the ability of changing into different forms of beasts, preparing new spells each day, and only really needs wisdom to work. The druid could be a good fit for your min-maxer I believe, with all the possibilities a druid can have. There are quite a bit of variety when it comes to archetypes as well, so you can pick what you think that player would enjoy the most. (Moon druids for example can wild-shape as a bonus action, and can turn into 1 cr animals , instead of 1/2 cr animals like other druids at level 4)

For your engaged players? Unsure at the moment, sorry :smallredface:. People have suggested a 4 bard party, and while I agree that a mono-class party can be a bit awkward if not agreed upon, what about the engaged players being two bards who have grown fond of each other and traveled together? That is the best I got at the moment.

[Trustypeaches]

Go with a full warlock party.

Player: “Hey, should we take a shor-“
Everyone: “YES”

[yellowrocket]

The all nature themed party. A druid, revised ranger, a nature cleric, and a barbarian (think of the fur armor on this one lol)

For a one shot it could be abominations, undead, or even extra planar beings that they banded together to fight.

[LudicSavant]

A lot of the full caster classes can fill any role. For example the Warlock has the Celestial healer, the Fiend blaster, the Hexblade frontliner, and the Tomelock utility master.

[CTurbo]

Bladesinger Wizard that is a combination of Wizard and Fighter

EK Fighter that's a combination of Fighter and Wizard

Lore Bard that's a combination of Rogue and Cleric

Trickery Cleric that's a combination of Cleric and Rogue

[BarneyBent]

As a side note, I wouldn't make a one class party for a one shot unless agreed upon by the group. At level four bards are all pretty same-ish IMO. They don't get enough of their differing features to make a good balanced party.

P.S. For your fighter and cleric I would recommend a battle master and life respectively. They are kind of stereotypical but they are just so good.

Yeah I suggested that but missed that it was a one-shot. Rogue might work? Swashbuckler for Fighter, Arcane Trickster with ritual casting for Wizard, Scout with Medic for healer, any other archetype for thief.

Cleric is another decent option. Arcana for Wizard, War or Tempest for Fighter, Life for healer, Trickery for Thief.

[KillingTime]

Paladin / Shadow Monk / Druid / Lore Bard

But it's a shame you'll only be playing at 4th level.
As stated above, most classes don't really begin to feel special and unique until they start picking up their level 6 abilities.

[rahimka]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions everybody! The final results are almost ready to go and, though it strayed a bit from my initial concept, I think it turned out great.

For anybody interested, see below for what I ended up with (including RP notes/suggestions for my players):

Ezekiel the Red, LG Human (War Caster feat) Wizard3/Cleric1 (WarMage, Life Domain) - serious demeanor, seasoned former soldier, recently entrusted by the Guild of Adventurers to lead his own handpicked team. Role: Armored tank and magic control/blasting. Secret: deeply ashamed that years ago, when he was a fresh recruit during the Great War, he took part in the criminal slaughter of an entire innocent village

Jillian Zamussels, CG Human (Lucky feat) Fighter4 (BattleMaster) - Poor impulse control but a keen tactical fighter, lives for combat. Role: melee bruiser. Secret: she is the princess of a (tiny) fallen kingdom

Landris, NG Half-Elf Ranger4 (Archery style, Hunter conclave) - brooding former bounty hunter. Role: scout, skill monkey, ranged striker. Secret: his elven heritage is actually from his Drow father (a male who escaped to the surface seeking freedom)

Myra Hartbane, CG Tiefling Bard4 (College of Lore) - flirty troublemaker, loves pranks. Role: party face and support/buff caster. Secret: desperately in love with Landris, but can't spit it out

---


I think my players will each love the character I've built for them. And hopefully the RP notes will help prompt some fun interactions!

If all goes well, they may return for a lvl5 adventure next time we get together... in a month or more... :(

[Unoriginal]

One of the PCs is actually a Rakshasa in disguise.

[jdolch]

I was about to suggest a Half-Orc Barbarian/Fighter Murder-Hobo and 4 supporting Necromancers reenacting 1992's Army of Darkness. But then i read your initial post and now i am sad.:smallbiggrin: