What is your dream team?

[Miz_Liz]

Picture this:

You are a GM. Five experienced players approach you and say; "We would like you to run a game for us. We just want to play together, so you can decide party composition, and we'll build characters to match."

What would you say? Is there an interesting party comp idea you've always wanted to see, but never got any volunteers for? Do you want to run a perfect balance of tank, healing, and dps? Or perhaps see what happens in a single class group?

For me, I really want to see what an all-bard team plays like. Make them a band, or a circus troupe. I would assign two lore, swords, glamour, and valor.

[Goldlizard]

All clerics called the A-Men

[SpikeFightwicky]

Picture this:

You are a GM. Five experienced players approach you and say; "We would like you to run a game for us. We just want to play together, so you can decide party composition, and we'll build characters to match."

What would you say? Is there an interesting party comp idea you've always wanted to see, but never got any volunteers for? Do you want to run a perfect balance of tank, healing, and dps? Or perhaps see what happens in a single class group?

For me, I really want to see what an all-bard team plays like. Make them a band, or a circus troupe. I would assign two lore, swords, glamour, and valor.

You can call your bard team the "Mighty Mighty Longbows".

[KorvinStarmast]

You are a GM. Five experienced players approach you and say; "We would like you to run a game for us. We just want to play together, so you can decide party composition, and we'll build characters to match."
Five Half Elves.

Paladin
Warlock
Bard
Thief
Sorcerer

Go.

[Man_Over_Game]

I want enough differences for them to create their own dynamics within the group.

Something like:

Bear Totem Barbarian
Grave Cleric
Horizon Walker Ranger
Fiend Warlock
Arcane Trickster

Each one of those are colorful and bring something unique to the table. I could care less if you have a War Cleric, a Paladin, and a Divine Soul Sorcerer, because they'll probably be very agreeable with one another.

[NRSASD]

My honest answer? Surprise me.

I actually don't want to know what the team is until the players show up. A fair bit of the fun is seeing what ridiculous tactics and teamwork they come up with. Though any of the "all {class}" teams are great fun, especially all barbarians.

[JellyPooga]

I'd love to run a "Thieves Guild" adventure. Not neccessarily all Rogues, but I wouldn't complain if they did go for that (there's certainly enough variety within the Rogue chassis for a team of five).

[Karnitis]

To me, the classes matter less than the characters, so I almost think I'd like the "Order of the Stick" composition:

LG who can be a moral compass, along with two other good guys who are CG or NG (because no one wants all-lawful team). A chaotic evil, to keep things interesting. Finally, a CN or TN for swing votes and when we need to pull a buddy system and no one wants to be w/ the CE guy.

[Demonslayer666]

I'd love to see a party filled with characters that were all the same class.

Especially rogues, or bards.

[pragma]

I've been meditating about how five CBX battlemasters would fare in the world, but I'm not sure DMing for that team would actually be all that fun.

[Mercurias]

All clerics called the A-Men

The God Squad.

[Moltenbrisingr]

Weird Unused Sub classes all the way. or...

Theurgy Wizard
Mastermind Rogue
Purple Dragon Knight/Samurai Fighter
Bard College of Glamour

A political intrigue campaign like this would be rad

[GlenSmash!]

My five best friends at the table regardless of what they pick.

[Renvir]

Beastmaster Ranger
Conjuration Wizard
Shepard Druid
Pact of the Chain Warlock
Battle Smith Artificer

Theater of the mind never had so much lag.

[Mercurias]

Serious answer:

Hexblade Warlock (Blade Pact) for Tank/Melee
Celestial Warlock (Tome Pact) for Heals
Archfey Warlock (Any Pact) for Control
Fiend Warlock (Chain Pact) for Yeehaw Blaster
GOO Warlock for (Any Pact) for Subterfuge

This is a pretty obnoxiously lopsided team full of charisma casters who will spend all of their time lying, cheating, and stealing while trying desperately to avoid the wrath of their own patrons.

[Laserlight]

When we were playing 4e, I wanted an all-pixie party, with chaladin, sorc, bard, lock.

For Curse of Strahd, we agreed on all half elves, and everyone had some sort of relationship with two other characters. The paladin was my cousin, the ranger was the grumpy retainer who didn't want me getting into Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, the divine soul was the VIP I was supposed to escort from one side of our territory to the capital (the little detour through Barovia made a mess of that), and the arcane trickster was the forger (for the ranger) and was secretly in love with the paladin.

I'd rather focus on the relationships than the classes. "Angela has the hots for Beth but realizes that connecting with Charles would improve her situation more" is more important than Angela being a druid, Beth a fighter and Charles a ranger. Well, until Angela turns into a giant snake, in a town where everyone hates and fears the serpent cult. That was a bit of a faux pas.

[Kane0]

I've done most of the gimmick parties like all X class in oneshots, so i'd probably pick something to maximise homebrew playtesting...
The players vote on one of the following parties, using races of their choosing:

- Barbarian (Bloodrager)
- Fighter (Hexblade)
- Ranger (Arcane Archer)
- Sorcerer (Spellscarred)
- Wizard (Runemaster)

- Bard (Fortune)
- Fighter (Warlord)
- Monk (Four Elements)
- Ranger (Beastmaster)
- Warlock (Titan, Chain Pact)

[Zetakya]

I would like to play more games with just a single race. 5 Dwarves! 5 Elves! Something like that.



For me, I really want to see what an all-bard team plays like. Make them a band, or a circus troupe. I would assign two lore, swords, glamour, and valor.

A friend of mine did this. http://bardslov.esyou.com/welcome

[Yakmala]

I would do what I always do when running a homebrew campaign.

Give the players a general overview of the campaign world and its history and then invite them to make whomever they like. I'll then tweak my plot and NPCs to incorporate their background and goals into the game world to make each of them an integral part of the narrative.

[Nagog]

Only 5? Dang.

for 5, I'd have every full martial class I can, each with their choice of Magic Initiate and see where that goes.

Full Barbarian Squad. However, you cannot be a medium-sized race, only Small races allowed. Squad name: Temper Tantrum.

If I had enough, I'd love to see a group of Wizards, one for each school of magic subclass. From there, the players should be experienced enough to rely on things like control spells and defensive spells to fill in the gaps where a tank and support would normally fill.

[iTreeby]

5 lizardmen any classes, resist the invading empire.

[Jerrykhor]

Ranger (Beastmaster)
Monk (4 elements)
Fighter (Purple DK)
Sorcerer (Wild Magic)
Warlock (GOO, Chain pact)

I'd like to see experienced players make this work.

[richardbob123]

i would go with five bards, who are all looking for the father

[yellowrocket]

I'm going with things that i havent seen played by anyone but me. So a bard, a ranger, a warlock, and a wizard. No one in the games I've played have been any of those 4 classes. And ive been the only druid.

Little skimpy on the frontline potentially. But if I get to design their backgrounds, and its my regular group, they'll make it work while having interesting dynamics.

[Spo]

5 monks.

That would take me back to my youth of watching kung fu theater on TV.

[BaconAwesome]

Put me down for single race parties. 5 dwarves or Yuan-Ti would be awesome, or four plus a Butler.

[TyGuy]

Dream team:
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid

[Tawmis]

Picture this:
You are a GM. Five experienced players approach you and say; "We would like you to run a game for us. We just want to play together, so you can decide party composition, and we'll build characters to match."
What would you say? Is there an interesting party comp idea you've always wanted to see, but never got any volunteers for? Do you want to run a perfect balance of tank, healing, and dps? Or perhaps see what happens in a single class group?
For me, I really want to see what an all-bard team plays like. Make them a band, or a circus troupe. I would assign two lore, swords, glamour, and valor.

For me, what they pick as (races or classes) doesn't matter too much. So I don't have a "dream team" for a specific set.
I would say however, if possible, that everyone play something a little different. So that no one can overshadow someone else.
But no matter what as a DM, I'd just adjust as needed, to ensure everyone is (ideally) having a good time.

[Kane0]

Dream team:
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid
Circle of Dreams Druid

Nah mate Dream Druid, GooLock, Illusionist Wiz, Whispers Bard and Trickery Cleric.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Five rogues, meat grinder game with a focus on dungeons that feature plenty of alternative routes, complex enemy tactics and competence, and open-ended design.

What I'm saying is I want to run Metal Gear Solid in D&D.

[mucat]

In one campaign set in a pseudo-Victorian steampunk world, we had great fun with a scientist-heavy party. The science of that world was based more on Jules-Verne-and-Mary-Shelly-era science fiction than on actual reality...so our characters were constantly at each others' throats over conflicting mad-science paradigms, which meant far more to us than alignment, political ideology, or national loyalty. Except when we all united to gripe about the party's honor-bound luddite martial artist, who detested science on principle, but couldn't be fired because she kept saving our arses in close combat. (Plus, she was actually a good friend when she wasn't denouncing us as Meddlers in Things Man Was Never Meant to Know. I mean, how can we know which things we were never meant to know if we don't know them?)

[Bjarkmundur]

I know I'm about to twist your words, but I'd love to see if this answer gets any traction.

The Explorer - A player who loves interacting with the setting, often in hilarious or overblown manner.
The Optimist - A player who doesn't mind failing forward and triggering traps to keep the game moving forward, and makes it funny.
The Scribe - A player who takes notes about EVERYTHING, and keeps the game on track.
The Poet -A player who makes the best descriptions, and teaches the others to do the same.
The Vigilante - A player who keeps the group from going full murder hobo, but never argues with the group decisions.

[Spacehamster]

All stealth team, everyone needs expertise in stealth and one of them ranger or Druid with pass without trace and one character with invisibility spells and the like, then play a game entirely about skulking, spying, setting up ambushes, avoiding fights that would be too hard, escaping and such. :)

[Eldariel]

The Wizards' Guild Goes Marching game would be just awesome. 5 specialists, say, Illusionist (controller), Transmuter ("healer"), Diviner (God), Necromancer (minionmancer) & Abjurer (frontliner). Easy to pull off any Super Sentai nonsense. I'd love to DM a game like that.

[Bannan_mantis]

I think something I've had in the back of my mind is a type of for honor style game but where the players are all heroes from factions that have come together for one specific threat.

The way I'd do this is to have all of them be martial characters but make non of them have access to spells, this overall puts the players in a position where out of combat situations are something they have to use skills and roleplay to beat with no access to spells making them require a higher level of decision making on the part of the players. Also the roleplay aspect of them being 5 warriors with different pasts but similar abilities is honestly just so cool, wizards are cool and all but nothing beats the coolness factor of ancient warriors using just their skills with the blade to defeat foes.

[Spiritchaser]

I know it’s a bit overdone but I like to have both a paladin and a warlock in the party... and I don’t mean summer court archfey.

The tension between a fiendlock or hexblade and a paladin never seems to get old for me, and I generally find it hilarious to watch.

Plus... when they do manage to cooperate; getting to see an imaginative “Good cop/possessed cop” interrogation is practically worth the price of admission all on its own.

[Spiritchaser]

All stealth team, everyone needs expertise in stealth and one of them ranger or Druid with pass without trace and one character with invisibility spells and the like, then play a game entirely about skulking, spying, setting up ambushes, avoiding fights that would be too hard, escaping and such. :)

I HAVE a campaign like this! It’s really broken! (Not quite everyone has expertise in stealth yet)

Sure there will be one or two encounters a day where stealth, even with invisibility, just won’t work, but they almost always save so many resources on the other encounters that they can afford to spend them lavishly when they need to melt down those elementals with tremorsense... or whatever

[firelistener]

Just for everyone to be Lawful Good for once, please.

[Zhorn]

One of my players was asking me the other day what class I wanted them to roll next to improve the party.
I'll tell you the same thing I told them; "I want everyone to pick and play the class they want to play the most. The Character that they look towards to playing as so I know they are looking forwards to the game each week".
Scheduling all the players to make each game can be a bit of a pain at times. But if they have a character that THEY are in love with playing, I know they'll put in that real effort to show up to the game.


Just for everyone to be Lawful Good for once, please.
I'll settle for not chaotic evil

[MrStabby]

Hmm. I would be looking for some modestly specialised characters not looking to step on anyone elses toes.

Light Cleric
Monster Hunter Ranger
Ancestor Barbarian
Druid of the Land
Long death monk

[KorvinStarmast]

Just for everyone to be Lawful Good for once, please. Yes, for once. Please. That would be cool.

My second team since all of my best buddies from way back are Rolling Stones Fans: five adventurers.

1. The Axe Man: Barbarian. (Keith Richard, who once toured with Stanley Clarke and Ron Wood as "The New Barbarians. Guitar - Axe ... ) Yes, he's a skinny zombie IRL, but the concept is .. Barbarian.

2. The Party Face: Bard, College of Glamour (Mick Jagger, nuff said).

3. The Support: Tempest Cleric (Bass Player (Electric, Bill Wyman)

4. The Spellcaster: Wizard, Illusionist (Ron Wood, once part of The Faces)

5. The Backbone of the Team: Fighter, Battle Master (Charlie Watts, the Drummer)

[CNagy]

I have an unused short campaign sitting around where the characters (4 or 5) are a trained hit-squad (starting 3rd level, 2 levels of Rogue mandatory, free Crossbow Expert feat) where the major encounters are designed with highly mobile characters and enemies in mind. From there, it's mostly a cliche plot (do some normal missions, stumble onto a plot, get framed, etc).

[Spiritchaser]

Just for everyone to be Lawful Good for once, please.

This just adds more work for the DM.

Fostering severe inter-party paranoia is much more work.

Oh sure you can have two lawful good clerics or paladins diametrically opposed on some ethical point, and you can build internal secrecy and mistrust from there, all founded on two different self consistent interpretations of the greater good but I have to ask... is it worth it? You only have so much prep time to Come up with grounds for conflict and only a little game time to devote to those side plots.

Mistrust piles up so much more organically with a mix of alignments and motives.

[KorvinStarmast]

This just adds more work for the DM.

Fostering severe inter-party paranoia is much more work.

Oh sure you can have two lawful good clerics or paladins diametrically opposed on some ethical point, and you can build internal secrecy and mistrust from there, all founded on two different self consistent interpretations of the greater good but I have to ask... is it worth it? You only have so much prep time to Come up with grounds for conflict and only a little game time to devote to those side plots.

Mistrust piles up so much more organically with a mix of alignments and motives. Not all DM's like conflict within the party in every game.

[TyGuy]

Surprised nobody wants a simply quintessential D&D party.

Dwarf champion fighter
Elf evocation wizard
Halfling thief rogue
Half-elf glamor bard
Human life cleric

[Dessunri]

I'd love to run a "Thieves Guild" adventure. Not neccessarily all Rogues, but I wouldn't complain if they did go for that (there's certainly enough variety within the Rogue chassis for a team of five).

I played the Open at Gamehole Con last year and it was 5 pregen rogues basically doing a heist. It was the most fun I've had at a table in a long time. We all had to figure out the strengths of our character that we've never played with before. And having everyone use the Ideals, Flaws, slight backstory, etc. to play their character differently was awesome. So yeah, 5 rogues is tons of fun in an intrigue/heist scenario.

[Dessunri]

All clerics called the A-Men

I want to play this so badly. My friend and I have discussed it at length. you can really cover all necessary roles in a party with 5 clerics.

[GlenSmash!]

Yes, for once. Please. That would be cool.

My second team since all of my best buddies from way back are Rolling Stones Fans: five adventurers.

1. The Axe Man: Barbarian. (Keith Richard, who once toured with Stanley Clarke and Ron Wood as "The New Barbarians. Guitar - Axe ... ) Yes, he's a skinny zombie IRL, but the concept is .. Barbarian.

2. The Party Face: Bard, College of Glamour (Mick Jagger, nuff said).

3. The Support: Tempest Cleric (Bass Player (Electric, Bill Wyman)

4. The Spellcaster: Wizard, Illusionist (Ron Wood, once part of The Faces)

5. The Backbone of the Team: Fighter, Battle Master (Charlie Watts, the Drummer)

This is pretty much the setup for Kings of the Wyld (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30841984-kings-of-the-wyld)

Getting the adventuring "band" back together for one last campaign.

[Spiritchaser]

Not all DM's like conflict within the party in every game.

More than fair. I probably should have been much less inclusive in my wording, and indicated that it was my preference. But I think it’s more entertaining if it’s a little bit obnoxious so I’m going to let it stand.

[FilthyLucre]

Picture this:

You are a GM. Five experienced players approach you and say; "We would like you to run a game for us. We just want to play together, so you can decide party composition, and we'll build characters to match."

What would you say? Is there an interesting party comp idea you've always wanted to see, but never got any volunteers for? Do you want to run a perfect balance of tank, healing, and dps? Or perhaps see what happens in a single class group?

For me, I really want to see what an all-bard team plays like. Make them a band, or a circus troupe. I would assign two lore, swords, glamour, and valor.

Dwarf Barbarian
Elf Wizard
Halfling Rogue
Human Cleric
Human Fighter

[FabulousFizban]

lute bard, flute bard, bass bard, drum bard, & vocal bard

[patchyman]

My dream team would be one that plays around with the standard roles and classes:

1 Dwarven Infernal Bladelock
1 Blue Dragonborn Tempest Cleric
1 Human Shadow Monk (for lockpicking and general Dex tricks)
1 Tiefling Divine Soul Sorcerer (buffing and debugging)
1 Half-Elf Druid of the Coast (for control)