Partner in crime

[Jaryn]

So I'm going to be playing in a two person campaign with my wife. She's going to be playing a forest gnome ranger, so she'll be relatively robust, decent in melee (I think she's going to go the two shortswords route rather than the archery route) but still capable at range. She'll also be stealthy and be able to provide some goodberries for healing (from second level up).

What I'm looking for is something that's going to complement that. Obviously the DM is aware that we won't have the full resources of a typically sized party, but I'd like to try and cover a few bases. Here are a few things I've come up with:


Arcana cleric - good in combat, full spellcaster, healing, bring out some big arcane guns if we get to high level
Paladin - likely either devotion or ancients, specialises in strength and charisma, which are definitely not covered by her build, can do some healing, obviously strong in melee
Valour bard - lots of skills, which is highly useful, can use inspiration side to make her shine more, can heal, lots of utility spells, should be able to hold his own in combat and excel in the social side of things
Fighter 1/Abjuration wizard X - strong and smart, which none of the above build are particularly (and investigation may well be highly useful), although could be a little lacking in social, but with tons of utility and from what I've heard it's worth a resilient build
Celestial warlock generalist - from the eclectic builds thread, this could cover a lot of bases. But it's there too much overlap?

Any thoughts on the situation would be greatly appreciated!

[DeadMech]

Bard maybe. Definitely want to avoid a heavy armor wearing paladin, I think. Wouldn't want to ruin her stealth by clanking along beside her. Even if it otherwise had some nice backup healing or aura support.

Depending how nature friendly her ranger is then maybe a druid.

[Crgaston]

You'll want to be stealthy and have some skills. Probably some magic as well, but it's also easy to run a low magic campaign, and if your DM is tailoring for the party there are plenty of good mundane stories to tell. You will need some way to do in-combat heals in case she goes down, preferably without relying on potions.

1. A Halfling Ancients Paladin, Dex based, with Bountiful Luck. Reroll all your 1's, and all her 1's too. Go Sword & Board and be a melee duo since you'll want to stay within 10' of each other for the Auras.

2. A Shepherd Druid. Druid and Ranger make a natural team (pun intended) and you'll be able to buff with your Auras, heal, and Summon well. Plus Wild Shape for scouting.

3. Another Ranger. Back in 1E, it was forbidden for more than three Rangers to work together at a time. For good reasons. You'll be 2/3 of the way there.

4. A Battlemaster/Thief with the Healer feat. Bonus action pop-up healing limited only by the number of Healer's Kits you have. Goading Attack, Commander's Strike and Riposte for your maneuvers.

5. Mastermind Rogue 3/ Valor Bard archer. You can give her Advantage as a Bonus Action, and she can enable your ranged Sneak Attack damage by being in melee. Lore Bard would also be an option if it's a more magic-focused campaign.

[Jaryn]

Ok, I think I'm definitely narrowing down the kind of character I'm after:

Celestial warlock, pact of the blade
Bladesinger wizard
Swords college bard

So they can all fight a bit, and cast spells pretty well. They can all take stealth and wear light armour, so as not to inconvenience the ranger.

Could anyone help me with a bit of a breakdown of pros and cons, and how they compare with each other in terms of combat prowess? I've got a fairly good handle on the out of combat and general utility aspects, but I'm not so good at analysing the mechanics of fighting!

Note, they don't need to be super optimised or anything; more looking for a kind of overview of how they play.

[Bobthewizard]

Ok, I think I'm definitely narrowing down the kind of character I'm after:

Celestial warlock, pact of the blade
Bladesinger wizard
Swords college bard

So they can all fight a bit, and cast spells pretty well. They can all take stealth and wear light armour, so as not to inconvenience the ranger.

All of those are great choices. This would be a good campaign for a mulitclass dip. For celestial warlock, I'd add 2 levels of paladin. For swords bard I'd take 3 levels of hexblade.

Another choice in that theme is a dex-based paladin 2/ divine soul sorcerer X sorcadin. Divine soul would give you access to both sorcerer and cleric lists, while the Ranger has access to the druid list.

[Misterwhisper]

All of those are great choices. This would be a good campaign for a mulitclass dip. For celestial warlock, I'd add 2 levels of paladin. For swords bard I'd take 3 levels of hexblade.

Another choice in that theme is a dex-based paladin 2/ divine soul sorcerer X sorcadin. Divine soul would give you access to both sorcerer and cleric lists, while the Ranger has access to the druid list.

Celestial warlock lock is a great choice but probably not pact of the blade.
Eldritch blast is just pure gold all the way through, at 6 you add your cha to radiant and fire damage so with green flame blade you would do just as good and save multiple invocations.
I would go chain with an invisible pet to help scout and it can deliver touch spell healing spells at range by channeling through it, or can use help for either of you.
Any race with charisma works but variant human with medium armor training is nice or just go the good reliable half elf for good stats and more skills.

[Jaryn]

All of those are great choices. This would be a good campaign for a mulitclass dip. For celestial warlock, I'd add 2 levels of paladin. For swords bard I'd take 3 levels of hexblade.

Another choice in that theme is a dex-based paladin 2/ divine soul sorcerer X sorcadin. Divine soul would give you access to both sorcerer and cleric lists, while the Ranger has access to the druid list.

These are valid points, but I think a sorcadin or padlock might unbalance the party somewhat - we need to be roughly equal so that both get our time in the spotlight. It's going to be my wife's first time playing and I want her to have a good experience.


Celestial warlock lock is a great choice but probably not pact of the blade.
Eldritch blast is just pure gold all the way through, at 6 you add your cha to radiant and fire damage so with green flame blade you would do just as good and save multiple invocations.
I would go chain with an invisible pet to help scout and it can deliver touch spell healing spells at range by channeling through it, or can use help for either of you.
Any race with charisma works but variant human with medium armor training is nice or just go the good reliable half elf for good stats and more skills.

Ah, I often forget about Green-Flame blade - thank you for the reminder! Hmm - shame the most of the finesse weapons are martial. It might have to be a simple dagger build if I were to go down this route I guess.

I think I'm going to to eliminate bladesinger from the mix. Swords bard or celestial warlock. Getting closer to a decision!

[Misterwhisper]

These are valid points, but I think a sorcadin or padlock might unbalance the party somewhat - we need to be roughly equal so that both get our time in the spotlight. It's going to be my wife's first time playing and I want her to have a good experience.



Ah, I often forget about Green-Flame blade - thank you for the reminder! Hmm - shame the most of the finesse weapons are martial. It might have to be a simple dagger build if I were to go down this route I guess.

I think I'm going to to eliminate bladesinger from the mix. Swords bard or celestial warlock. Getting closer to a decision!

They are both very nice.

Down side is swords bards don’t get shields either.

With celestial just stick to eldritch blasts unless they get on you in melee

[Jaryn]

Ok, my rough analysis is as follows:

Both can talk, both generate temporary HP, both can heal.

Warlocks can do more damage, both in melee and at range. They also have cool weird abilities like being able to alter their appearance or cast detect magic at will. Their few spell slots regenerate on short rests.

Bards have a lot more spells. They are also harder to hit and much better at skills. Their spell slots regenerate on long rests.

Is that about it?

[Misterwhisper]

Ok, my rough analysis is as follows:

Both can talk, both generate temporary HP, both can heal.

Warlocks can do more damage, both in melee and at range. They also have cool weird abilities like being able to alter their appearance or cast detect magic at will. Their few spell slots regenerate on short rests.

Bards have a lot more spells. They are also harder to hit and much better at skills. Their spell slots regenerate on long rests.

Is that about it?

The warlock healing is a bonus action and independent of your spell pool. With the number of bonus dice they get for it they can easily keep up in healing if not do it better. Also short rest heals can be huge.

Bardic inspiration is a real game changer but blades have to burn them for flourishes.

Warlock is more ranged attacker with melee backup just in case
Bard is more melee based as blades school.

Bard has much more group support abilities, warlock is more combat focused with some nice debuffs.

Easier or harder to hit is about even. Bards have defensive flourish but warlock has more ways to give the enemy disadvantage like darkness and devils sight and hunger of hadar.

Bards get expertise which is solid gold on perception and whatever charisma skill you want.

It comes down to:

Warlock, better damage of the best type in the game and ranged blasting.

Bard, better skills and support with moderate melee ability but not much for ranged until level 10

Also a note on some of the other classes:

Just because you can wear medium or plate does not mean you have to, you could easily play a dex friendly cleric or paladin.

If I was going to be in a two person group with a dex based dual wielding ranger I would go with something that is a little tougher that could hold its own in a fight and honestly on their own a bard is going to have problems.

Rogue would step on her toes some.
Monk Has no real support other than stunning fist.
Barbarian would just overshadow a ranger built to melee.
Paladin will blow her damage out of the water and leave you ranged light.
Fighter is too light on buffs.
Divine soul sorcerer would be good if you took something with armor and shield use first.
Wizard would be great after you are both like 5th. But those early levels will be scary.
Bard is captain skill guy, and has the lock on support abilities but lack offense to handle things alone. If your dm takes it into account it would be amazing
Warlock is offense long and reliable, hexblade is great for offense and armor but has only one tiny heal. Celestial is a big ball of healing but not great ac and good melee if you have to use it. Could go tome for shillelagh and club them with charisma but it won’t help your defense.
Druid is very well rounded and fits the theme very well. They have many subclasses to fit just about any style. Other than spore which sucks all their other subclasses are good.
Cleric is about the same as Druid but more defense and less air mostly.

I would go:
Warforged Envoy, celestial warlock, if your dm gives you a free feat at level 1 like many dms especially with such a small group take medium armor proficiency.

Str: 10
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 16

Carry a shield and a casting focus.
That will give you 19 ac at level 1 that improves for free as you level for free.
Sentry’s rest is amazing on a warlock. You never need more than a short rest. Can travel just about anywhere and don’t need provisions.

If you don’t get a free feat, take it at 4th, or take one level of fighter.

[zinycor]

Ok, I think I'm definitely narrowing down the kind of character I'm after:

Celestial warlock, pact of the blade
Bladesinger wizard
Swords college bard

So they can all fight a bit, and cast spells pretty well. They can all take stealth and wear light armour, so as not to inconvenience the ranger.

Could anyone help me with a bit of a breakdown of pros and cons, and how they compare with each other in terms of combat prowess? I've got a fairly good handle on the out of combat and general utility aspects, but I'm not so good at analysing the mechanics of fighting!

Note, they don't need to be super optimised or anything; more looking for a kind of overview of how they play.

I would go support, picking bard, using bardic inspiration with your bonus action and many spells for supporting/control purposes.

[Jaryn]

If I was going to be in a two person group with a dex based dual wielding ranger I would go with something that is a little tougher that could hold its own in a fight and honestly on their own a bard is going to have problems.

Rogue would step on her toes some.
Monk Has no real support other than stunning fist.
Barbarian would just overshadow a ranger built to melee.
Paladin will blow her damage out of the water and leave you ranged light.
Fighter is too light on buffs.
Divine soul sorcerer would be good if you took something with armor and shield use first.
Wizard would be great after you are both like 5th. But those early levels will be scary.
Bard is captain skill guy, and has the lock on support abilities but lack offense to handle things alone. If your dm takes it into account it would be amazing
Warlock is offense long and reliable, hexblade is great for offense and armor but has only one tiny heal. Celestial is a big ball of healing but not great ac and good melee if you have to use it. Could go tome for shillelagh and club them with charisma but it won’t help your defense.
Druid is very well rounded and fits the theme very well. They have many subclasses to fit just about any style. Other than spore which sucks all their other subclasses are good.
Cleric is about the same as Druid but more defense and less air mostly.

This is a really helpful breakdown! Just one question; when you say a cleric has less air than a druid, what do you mean?

[Misterwhisper]

This is a really helpful breakdown! Just one question; when you say a cleric has less air than a druid, what do you mean?

Sorry auto correct. Should have been AoE.

Clerics have one or two really good ones but Druids have tons