Filling out the last spot in this party.

[Seekergeek]

So, all of the sudden, after almost a decade of only playing on Roll20 I've found myself with two table games (along with my weekly Roll20 game). I was just invited to join a table starting up this friday. I missed session zero, so I'm just looking to fill the party as best as possible. It's a level 1 game with new players aside from myself and the DM. Makeup is two fighters and a bard. No one has settled on races yet from what I know. The DM has indicated this is going to be a 'high magic, high fantasy' game in a home brew setting. Having never played with him before I can't really be sure what that will mean, exactly.

My inclination is that a druid or a cleric would be a good fit here, and I'm leaning heavily toward a light cleric to cover both modest blasting and support. Druid can obviously fill the same role with some superior control with the right circle, but the bard player has expressed an intention to play a heavy support roll and I don't want to step on his toes.

What would you play in this party?

[nickl_2000]

I would go with Evocation Wizard myself. The rituals alone will really help the party in social and other situations, and with Evocation wizard you can put the hurt down with AoE spells.

You have support, melee, and healing covered in the Bard and the Fighters. The Wizard gives you the rituals and making things go boom.

[stoutstien]

Artificer.
Suddenly the fighters all have magical armor and weapons. With a good list of utility spells, ritual casting, prepared spells and cantrips, you can make the party (especially new players) shine while maintaining a solid base of damage and control yourself.

[firelistener]

I wouldn't worry about healing. The fighters will already have Second Wind to get some decent recovery in at lower levels, and the bard can pick up a healing spell or two if that proves insufficient. Something with good nova damage potential or utility would be best IMO. For that, I'd suggest a paladin or wizard depending on what sounds most fun to you. Rogue could also be really good too, but it sounds like you'll want at least one party member that can make good arcana checks and detect magic or other stuff like that a lot since it's gonna be a "high magic" setting.

[Nidgit]

I'd go Tempest Cleric so you can be comfortable frontlining if necessary.

Other options include Light Cleric like you said, Divine Soul Sorcerer, or a Wizard of some variety.

[da newt]

Talk one of the two Fighters into Paladin so they have different areas of expertise (and a little more healing) and then go master blaster / support with Wizard or Sorcerer (or Druid) as suits your fancy. A background that includes lock pics will probably be handy too.

[Seekergeek]

Some good food for thought here. I'm already playing an artificer in my roll20 game, so I'll remove that from the running though it is a solid suggestion. I hadn't considered the need for a thief - that has me leaning even further toward a druid since infiltration is a lot easier as a spider than it is as a light cleric. I'd like to stick to the PHB if possible just to help in not overwhelming the newbies with prospective options. That request hasn't been made but it seems only polite. I've since learned that giants and dragons are going to play a pivotal role in the story so an anti-giant minded dwarven mountain druid seems like it could be a good fit and be able to blast away with things light lightning bolt and errupting earth while scouting as a wee bug. Maybe take the criminal background and come up with some hooey about a druidic circle of literal cat burglars.

Thanks for the feedback all.

[HiveStriker]

So, all of the sudden, after almost a decade of only playing on Roll20 I've found myself with two table games (along with my weekly Roll20 game). I was just invited to join a table starting up this friday. I missed session zero, so I'm just looking to fill the party as best as possible. It's a level 1 game with new players aside from myself and the DM. Makeup is two fighters and a bard. No one has settled on races yet from what I know. The DM has indicated this is going to be a 'high magic, high fantasy' game in a home brew setting. Having never played with him before I can't really be sure what that will mean, exactly.

My inclination is that a druid or a cleric would be a good fit here, and I'm leaning heavily toward a light cleric to cover both modest blasting and support. Druid can obviously fill the same role with some superior control with the right circle, but the bard player has expressed an intention to play a heavy support roll and I don't want to step on his toes.

What would you play in this party?
Hi!

Usually I'd say Druid. Because it's overall the best class for impromptu versatility.
One small drawback though: most of Druid's control spells rely on environment, with friendly annoyance possibilities.

From your post I get the feeling you'd have to trouble landing things like a Plant Growth without putting your friends inside. But would they themselves be able to use it to their advantage?
If they are really new to RPG in general, or tactical mindset, it may end as putting an extra layer of difficulty when they are just learning the ropes.
With that said, there are enough great spells as a Druid that you can lift your weight while avoiding that.

Keeping that in mind, I'd suggest...

1. Shepherd Druid: focus on healing with Healing Spirit, buffing Fighters with Longstrider as needed, using defensive spells such as Wind Wall / Sleet Storm to disable ranged enemies without putting added tactical strain on your melee pals. Bear Aura will help them immensely, as well as Thorns Whip to pull dangerous enemies. Grabbing a single level of Life Cleric would help a lot in keeping party healthy. Use Conjure Animals to provide them transportation, shield or assist.
Ease party travel and rest with Water Breathing/Walking, Conjure Animals, Pass Without Trace.
You won't tiptoe Bard because his way of supporting will be different, more social and skill based.

Overall I think this is still by far your best option, especially since you'll get some of the best spells a party can hope for (and Bard will provide the other half: Silence, Catnap, Leomund's Tiny Hut).
Alternative archetype: Land Druid for some great spells (Haste a Fighter for example).

2. Tempest Cleric, rather than Light: until you get like level 8 or so, you won't want to spam pure damage spells anyways. And Shatter with CD is actually plain better than Fireball, because you're sure of the damage it will deal and max Shatter (regular level) is already on par or above average Fireball. So, yeah, lesser range, but that also means less risk of friendly fire.
Beyond that, you get a few interesting control/utility spells from Druid list.
Light Cleric is still interesting though, because of the protection effect. Grave Cleric and Nature Cleric would also be good candidates, as well as Life (Channel Divinity heal should not be underestimated even if it caps at half-health).

3. Divine Soul Sorcerer: pick either Subtle or Extend to use with your buffs, pick Careful to use with your mass debuffs, grab Chromatic Orb, Healing Words, Aid, Fireball/Lightning Bolt and Hypnotic Pattern, later Polymorph.
Or grab a level in Hexblade Warlock, learn Spirit Guardians, max CHA and CON, and draw aggro.
This is a repetitive build, but that makes it predictible for your friends which is a good thing, and since you focus on a few spells Bard won't have too much trouble deciding which area to focus on.

4. Tome Warlock: pick Repelling Blast, Rituals, Grasp of Hadar, Lance of Lethargy, Agonizing Blast, in that order preferably.
Control battlefield positioning in fight, do all the travel/scout/sneak heavy lifting otherwise with short-rest Invisibility/Fly and rituals.
Of course require lenient DM to learn many rituals.

[Yakmala]

First question I'd ask is what kind of fighters and what kind of bard?

Are the melee or ranged fighters?

Is the Bard focusing on casting or melee?

You could have anywhere from three melee to three ranged party members or any combo in-between.

I'd also talk to the DM about how much combat vs roleplay he intends to have. While the bard can likely be the party face, having other skills covered is never a bad idea.

My initial thought, not knowing the answers to the questions above, would be Knowledge Cleric 1, Divination or Evocation Wizard X. You can blast, heal, add guidance, make knowledge based skill checks with ease and even tank in a pinch if your fighters are ranged. Since the rest of the party is new players, their tactics might not be that sound, so I'd lean Evocation so you can use Sculpt Spells and get off your area spells without worrying about them.

[Seekergeek]

First question I'd ask is what kind of fighters and what kind of bard?

Are the melee or ranged fighters?

Is the Bard focusing on casting or melee?

You could have anywhere from three melee to three ranged party members or any combo in-between.

I'd also talk to the DM about how much combat vs roleplay he intends to have. While the bard can likely be the party face, having other skills covered is never a bad idea.

My initial thought, not knowing the answers to the questions above, would be Knowledge Cleric 1, Divination or Evocation Wizard X. You can blast, heal, add guidance, make knowledge based skill checks with ease and even tank in a pinch if your fighters are ranged. Since the rest of the party is new players, their tactics might not be that sound, so I'd lean Evocation so you can use Sculpt Spells and get off your area spells without worrying about them.

Having missed session zero I don't know the answer to those questions, myself. The Bard, I know, is going to be caster focused and likely a back-line buffer. The two fighters are a mystery to me. I've reached out to the bard (my contact at the table) and asked him to get me in touch with the DM ahead of the first propper session - hopefully I can get those questions answered.

[HiveStriker]

Quick rebound. The more I think the more I think Druid is the best.
Using Goodberries will alleviate need of emergency heals.
Healing Spirit will make any tactical error a thing of the past as long as you survive fight.
Entangle and Earth Tremor will be useful to help generate advantage for your melee Fighters or make easier for them to pull back.
Fog Cloud then Pass Without Trace will give ways to avoid dangerous direct confrontations or facilitate information gathering.
Spike and Plant Growth will act as deterrent against melee enemies wanting to surround pals or reach you/Bard.
Sleet Storm and Wind Wall will secure party from ranged enemies.

In short, you'll be the master of vision and movement.

Meanwhile, Bard will be the master of noise and decision making, between Silence, Dissonant Whispers, Silent Image, Phantasmal Force, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern.

For adventuring, you can take care of all that concerns travel, while Bard and you together can create extremely secure perimeters (charming animals to take guard -you-, setting up Magic Mouth or Leomund's Tiny Hut or Glyphs of Warding -Bard-).

For information gathering, you can use every feature you have to gather information from "environmental analysis" (using beasts, Locate rituals, WildShaping into beasts with special senses) while Bard can take care of all "intelligence review" (interrogating people with Charm people / Comprehend Languages, spying with Disguise Self / Detect Thoughts or Invisiblity, manipulating people directly or indirectly with illusions or Suggestion).

You can also tag-team, you Enhance Ability for Bard to ensure success, him using Tongues on you so you can spy on anyone as a beast.

I'm just a bit afraid Fighter players would feel less than useful in non-combat situations.
Leads to avoid/mitigate that.
1. Have DM allow Rune Fighter so one takes it so he can be great at some skills.
2. Have one Fighter grab Eldricht Knight and the other Battlemaster with UA manoeuvers.
3. Suggest them to invest in some feats: one could for example specialize in Wizard/Cleric rituals, while the other could grab utility from archetype and compensate by focusing on combat feats.
4. Ask DM that you quickly find Rings of spell storing and give at least one to each Fighter. This is by far the best option in that you don't infer building choices in any way, while allowing them to profit from the same versatility that you have (+ it completely optimizes concentration party-wide).
5. Have one of them go Eldricht Knight with Magic Initiate for extra utility cantrips and Ritual Caster Wizard so he can greatly expand his utility, and the other pick Devotion/Vengeance Paladin that simply uses Bless on everyone and otherwise combine Channel Divinity, regular attacks and occasional smite.

[Theaitetos]

I hadn't considered the need for a thief - that has me leaning even further toward a druid since infiltration is a lot easier as a spider than it is as a light cleric. I'd like to stick to the PHB if possible just to help in not overwhelming the newbies with prospective options.

I'd recommend an Archfey warlock instead of a druid. Using the druid's few wildshapes for scouting might have a negative impact on your combat power at early levels. Find Familiar is a cheaper way to accomplish this, and it's less risky when getting discovered & attacked.

The Archfey patron fits thematically into the "nature" idea just as well as a druid – instead of drawing on the power of nature itself, you draw upon the power of a guardian of nature (a powerful dryad maybe?).

The warlock also boasts great invocations to improve upon this and fulfill the role of "magic detector": Speak with Animals at will, Detect Magic at will, Disguise Self at will, …

With dragons and possible trolls (as they are giants too), it might be a good idea to have an acid/fire cantrip or Chill Touch and a cantrip around immunities, which Eldritch Blast would fit perfectly. Additionally: there are very few options aside from EB that allow easy pushing/pulling of large/huge/gigantic creatures – something that might be useful when dealing with giants & dragons.

And a warlock leaves you with playing for 3 levels in your party before you have to decide whether you go Chainlock (for superior scouting & normal thieving) or Tomelock (normal scouting & superior utility). Bladelock wouldn't work (minimal scouting due to Speak with Animals, no utility).

Light cleric: A full cleric might be a bad idea if the Bard player wants to fill the role of supporter/healer. However, the Bard lacks cleric-only support spells like Spare the Dying and Guidance, which a one-level dip into cleric could provide – or a tomelock, who additionally offers all possible rituals (Tiny Hut, Water Breathing, Find Familiar, …).

[CTurbo]

Here is the obligatory "this is 5e and any class will work" reply lol


But seriously, any class will work. What do you WANT to play? Anything could work. Anything.

Cleric or Druid would probably be "best" from a maximum optimization standpoint, but there is no reason you couldn't be a Monk or Barbarian. Being slightly unoptimized is actually fun and interesting. I sometimes play at a table where it is against the rules to tell anybody else what character you are going to play specifically to prevent the group from purposefully optimizing. The most recent campaign had 4 out of 6 players with Sorcerers lol. It's worked out just fine. Many many campaigns have had 2 Clerics or multiple Fighters.

I think a Baster character would be fun though. Tempest or Light Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Evocation Wizard. Likewise, an Archer Ranger would be really good too.

Rogue is a good fit with any party.

There are even enough Bard subclasses for you to play a Bard alongside your friend while keeping things different enough.

Basically play what you want.