The final party member

[Jaryn]

There are four of us creating characters, and three of us have chosen the following:

Human paladin - used to be a mercenary veteran, going for a classic sword and shield, front line combatant. Decent social skills, as long as things are fairly straightforward. Likely to stick with paladin for the duration of the campaign.

Half-elf rogue - entertainer, very sociable, acrobatic, sneaky, etc. Going to support from range in combat by using a shortbow. Possibly thinking of multiclassing straight into bard, if not will go for arcane trickster.

Human wizard - classically trained apprentice, spent a lot of time studying/with head in books. Loves a mystery and hung out with the city guard in his spare time. No plans to multiclass.

Our fourth player is fairly amenable to creating something that would help fill any gaps, with a vague leaning to playing a dwarf/halfling/gnome.

They have asked for suggestions, and I'm not entirely sure (this is our first campaign of 5e). It's going to be a home brew adventure, and the DM says that all three pillars will be involved.

Questions I'm thinking are:


Do we need another front line fighter type?
Do we have enough healing?
Do we need a ranger or druid to help us through any wilderness or will any class with the outlander background suffice?


Any thoughts or advice on race/class combinations from more experienced players would be welcomed!

[nickl_2000]

Personally I think a ghostwise halfling moon druid would be a perfect choice.

They get crazy healing in healing spirit, can tank in animal form, and have silly good utility in wildshape. Can communicate all the time to.

[Man_Over_Game]

There are four of us creating characters, and three of us have chosen the following:

Human paladin - used to be a mercenary veteran, going for a classic sword and shield, front line combatant. Decent social skills, as long as things are fairly straightforward. Likely to stick with paladin for the duration of the campaign.

Half-elf rogue - entertainer, very sociable, acrobatic, sneaky, etc. Going to support from range in combat by using a shortbow. Possibly thinking of multiclassing straight into bard, if not will go for arcane trickster.

Human wizard - classically trained apprentice, spent a lot of time studying/with head in books. Loves a mystery and hung out with the city guard in his spare time. No plans to multiclass.

Our fourth player is fairly amenable to creating something that would help fill any gaps, with a vague leaning to playing a dwarf/halfling/gnome.

They have asked for suggestions, and I'm not entirely sure (this is our first campaign of 5e). It's going to be a home brew adventure, and the DM says that all three pillars will be involved.

Questions I'm thinking are:


Do we need another front line fighter type?
Do we have enough healing?
Do we need a ranger or druid to help us through any wilderness or will any class with the outlander background suffice?


Any thoughts or advice on race/class combinations from more experienced players would be welcomed!

With a Paladin, a Rogue, and a Wizard available, there's not any more damage needed, honestly. Based on the fact that the Rogue is mostly a ranged combatant, I'd recommend helping out the front lines.

Cleric/Druid seems to be the most obvious fit, considering there's nobody with decent Wisdom here.

With Druid, it's hard to go wrong. Help out more on the front lines via Moon. Play a half melee character with Land-Coast or some variant of it. Protect the team with Shephard or Dreams using healing or damage mitigation.

Cleric has some of the more "classical" means to assist on the front lines. Overall, a lot more melee-focused for its options than Druid, which could be very useful.

My recommendation is to kill two birds with one stone. In hindsight, that's actually a terrible thing to say, because I'm recommending Nature Cleric. It has a lot of control, it offers a lot of the utility you expect out of a Druid, but you can wear Heavy Armor and keep any jerks off of your Wizard and Rogue fairly well.

[CTurbo]

You just about can't go wrong with the 4th character. What does the person want to play? If you're looking for maximum party balance I would probably say go Cleric, but any other Wis based class would work too.

[Jaryn]

Awesome, thank you. Yes, we are somewhat lacking in the wisdom department! I'll talk through moon druid and nature cleric and see what they say.

[Ganryu]

Depends on what your wizard does. If he does long range damage, a bit of support could be nice. Bard/Cleric/Sorcerer. If your Wizard IS support, go for a long range damage dealer, like the warlock, or a ranger.

Having an aid in the front line could also be useful with your paladin, to have someone to protect eachother's back.

Healing I find to be less important in 5e. If someone's up, they are up, you really only need healing for getting someone up. Otherwise its not worth the action economy to try.

[Chronos]

Yes, but being able to get somebody up makes a big difference. It really helps to have at least one character able to cast Healing Word (which is a bonus action, so it doesn't interfere all that much with action economy).

Alternately, with druid, you can use up all of your leftover spell slots on each night on Goodberry, and then distribute them among the party members the next day, so everyone has the ability to shove a berry down a downed ally's throat. That's an action, so it mostly uses up someone's turn (though a rogue can do it with Cunning Action or Mage Hand), but it's also very efficient in healing per spell slot (especially since it's yesterday's slots that you're using).

[RogueJK]

I think you've identified your needs. Yes, you need another melee combatant. Yes, some more healing would be handy, so the Paladin can focus his limited spellcasting on Smites and buffs. And yes, it's nice to have someone to handle nature-related situations.

Moon Druid is one solid option. Wildshape to assist with tanking/melee, when needed. Damage/control spells to augment the Wizard. And healing, supplemented by the Paladin as a backup healer. Plus they can be the party's "nature guy" with Nature/Survival/Animal Handling/Speak With Animals/etc.

Cleric is another good option that fills a similar role. More of a primary healer than a Druid (especially a Moon Druid who spends most of his time in animal form). Supplemental spellcaster with buff/control/damage spells. Secondary tank with good AC and melee ability. And they can still be the "nature guy" by going Nature Domain plus something like the Outlander or Folk Hero background.

Of the two, I'd lean towards Cleric in this situation. But both are viable.

As for race, either way they'll probably want a race with a Wisdom bonus, as that's the primary stat for either class. (Unless you roll for stats, and they're lucky enough to get an 18 to stick in WIS, but even then they may want to boost it higher from the start.) So they're most likely looking at something like Wood Elf, Hill Dwarf, Ghostwise Halfling, Firbolg, Half-Elf, or Human. There are a few other more exotic races that work well too.

[Mercurias]

Honestly, this seems like a good place for a Life or Forge Cleric. That Paladin isn't going to be the best healer on his own.

Druids are very, very fun to play. They're also pretty difficult to master because you have to keep track of your spells, unique skills, and wildshape stat blocks. If your friend is organized, that would be a good fit for them. If they aren't, a Cleric might be easier on their nerves come combat time.

[Christian]

If the rogue goes arcane trickster rather than multiclassing bard (and taking cure wounds or healing word), this party will find itself pretty desperate for healing before long. This isn't the death sentence it would have been in earlier editions ... but a cleric or druid would be really nice.

[Vogie]

I'll second the Nature Cleric pick.

If they're not thrilled about the option, explain they can be more like Dar the Beastmaster (from the movie/tv show) than a traditional holy man. Give them an animal companion (via animal friendship), and let them use their channel divinity to randomly conscript an animal or plant to help them in battle from time to time.

If the rogue does go on to switch to Bard, they can also throw some levels into Ranger (preferably revised) to be a bit more action economy.

[Laserlight]

Is there a theme to the campaign? You might want a different pick for, say, "Eastern Front Necromancer" or "Dawn Archipelago Buccaneers" or "Miners and Mindflayers".

That said, if your fourth is fairly new to 5e, I'd suggest cleric rather than druid; less of a learning curve.

[nickl_2000]

That said, if your fourth is fairly new to 5e, I'd suggest cleric rather than druid; less of a learning curve.

Agreed, I'm playing a Moon Druid and the book keeping on that is silly. I have an app on my tablet for spells and my wildshape forms and about 5 sheets of printouts for various summons

[MoiMagnus]

They get crazy healing in healing spirit

This spell is from Xanathar. So I would not count on it being available for their first campaign.

[Thorgrim]

Dwarf Order Cleric. All the cleric goodness PLUS the ability to let your rogue use their reactions to make attacks, doubling their sneak attack damage on some turns. Heavy armor to boot.

A sorcerer could also be pretty potent. Twin Haste or Polymorph on your physical damage types and let them go nuts.

[Chronos]

Polymorphing your physical damage types probably isn't a good plan, since it completely replaces their stats with the new form's. You don't end up with a smiting beast or a sneak attacking beast; you just end up with a beast. You'd be better off casting it on a familiar or something that wouldn't be contributing much to combat otherwise. Or possibly on yourself, if you're trying to conserve spell slots.

[Jaryn]

We have a decision: Hill dwarf nature cleric! It does seem simpler than keeping track of all the shapechanging - maybe we'll save that for when we've got a little more experienced.

Thank you for all your help!

[KorvinStarmast]

Rock solid choice, best wishes on a fun campaign.

[nickl_2000]

We have a decision: Hill dwarf nature cleric! It does seem simpler than keeping track of all the shapechanging - maybe we'll save that for when we've got a little more experienced.

Thank you for all your help!

For a newer player or group, this is a very solid choice. Have fun!

[RogueJK]

Great choice.

With a Hill Dwarf Nature Cleric, you can even ignore STR and just focus on WIS and CON.

Dwarves don't need to meet the STR requirement for Heavy Armor.

And a Nature Cleric can take Shillelagh for their free Druid cantrip, which lets them use their WIS for both attack and damage with a club or quarterstaff.

With point buy, that'd look something like

STR 11
DEX 10
CON 15+2
INT 10
WIS 15+1
CHA 10