New Party Balance Check - Pitfalls and Advantages

[Cikomyr]

Hey. I am starting to DM a group tonight made of friends and my mother (who is trying out D&D for the first time at 63!!! I am so psyched!)

I just wanted to tell the party composition here and ask if there's any holes in the party's skillset that should only be exploited carefully, and what sort of challenges they should be overqualified to take on.

- Eladrin Fighter (Eldritch Knight) - - > mum's char, will probably need some small degree of coaching so she builds her own confidencs. Otherwise I think I'll be lenient with what spell she can pick up. Cloistered Scholar background, Plan to give her the Ritual Caster (wizard) feat.
- Dwarven Rogue (Swashbuckler). Experienced player who loved game breaking builds in 3.5. Hillsfar Smuggler background. Plan to give him either the Battlemaster feat or the Duellist feat.
- Half Orc Barbarian (Bear Totem). The player wants to give him a Druidish/innocence flavor. Acolyte Background (with a Druid flavor instead of clerical flavor). Will probably give him minor Druid spellcasting. (the Initiate Caster fest, probably)
- Tiefling Sorcerer (Favored Soul). Initial concept was to be a Cleric of Nature, but we found out about Favored Soul only two days ago and thought it was more fitting. Bit of a pyromaniac, pirate background (nicknamed by her people "The Daughter of Te-Ka" ). Since she only has an oar (quarterstaff) to fight with, I think I'll allow her to take Shillelag as a cantrip). Plan to give her the Tiefling's fire damage booster feat.

Any big hole i should be careful? It's not fun to accidentally hammer a group on their weak point.

[PhoenixPhyre]

You seem to be low on healing (only the FS sorcerer can, and she's really spells-known constrained). Which is fine, but you'll have to build in room for short rests frequently so they can use HD.

None of your characters are WIS-heavy. This can lead to some issues with
* hard crowd control (hold person and the like)
* charms
* perception (so ambushes)
* Insight

[Spore]

Debuffs and disables are dangerous for this group but they can reliably tank major damage spikes, fight horde battles and buffed up single battles. Maybe have a friendly NPC healer where they can backtrack to if time is of no concern.

[SirGraystone]

I would give everyone one healing potion to start with if you are worried about healing. But the group seem fine, I would check with the barbarian if he plan to multi class into druid later since he would need 13 wisdom. The sorcerer doesn't really need shillelagh since she should fight with magic but it's hardly game breaking to give it to her either.

If you give them a free feat at level 1, I would (at least for the experienced player) let them choose the feat they want.

As for weakness, many thing can bring a low level group down, mostly magic control (hold, charm, sleep) so be careful introducing spellcaster villain, any kind of area of effect attack like dragon breath or fireball, not something they are likely to face at level 1 unless you are very mean to them.

And remember the most important is not character or group optomizing, it's having fun :-D

[Cikomyr]

I really appreciate your feedback everyone



And remember the most important is not character or group optomizing, it's having fun :-D

Actually, in my case it's anti-optimization. Thanks to PhoenixPhyre's post for example, I know what sort of weakness my party has so I won't accidentally create an encounter that is tailored to exploit their weakness.

When they *are* confronted by something that can exploit them, I feel it has to be meaningful and not random.

[Kyutaru]

Reinforcing the healing concern. This edition is less about your stats and more about can you survive the battle. The most broken stat in 5th edition is HP. With a healthy party, you can topple virtually any enemy in the game up to and including Asmodeus and Tiamat. They have advantages that work for them in roleplay but I've done tests with ordinarily equipped party members with bags of hitpoints and lots of evocation and they still go down. When accuracy is bounded and damage normalized, health is overpowered.

[Cikomyr]

I think the main takeaway is Healing + Wisdom saving throws.

Thanks a lot y'all!!!

If you have further questions or comments, shoot. I will be happy to answer

[The Kool]

Healing shouldn't be hard, actually. Just make sure the FS has a single upcastable healing spell, and then some method of backup healing (a few potions, for example) in case they go down.

[Toadkiller]

Yeah, I wouldn’t sweat healing too much. Some potions and maybe a single use item like a scroll or something to mix it up a little.

Shillelagh is a super fun spell. While it can be made “optimal” with some work out of the box it gives a caster a simple to manage melee option. I had it on a warlock and really enjoyed being able to mix it up in combat when it fit story wise to do so. Running up to stand next to a fallen comrade even if it isn’t the “best” thing to do mechanically can be great fun.

I would suggest playing to their weakness some and see how they come up with ways to get past them. Ambushes, con artists trying to trick them. Merchants with high priced healing potions. Don’t be a jerk of course, but it gives you an angle to create hurdles outside of combat. They can, and hopefully will, come up with work arounds and have fun in the process.

[Aaron Underhand]

Having played a character with the healer feat I cannot speak highly enough of how well it allows you to use spells for other interesting stuff. Perhaps the favoured soul has that ( though inspiring leader works as well, I prefer healer for the infinite "wake up" effect)