Best 3 member party for any specific campaign

[Warlush]

I've been thinking about 3 member parties in general, so let me know what 3 member party you would use for any given setting.
Ravnica
Tomb of Annihilation
Curse of Strahd
Whatever whatever.

Example: Tomb of Annihilation
DEX Valor Bard half elf
Undying Warlock Chain pact VHuman Inspiring leader
DEX Arcana Cleric VHuman Prodigy feat, expertise Survival

So you can see my logic right? A couple of faces for the Port Nyanzaru section, lots of defense and offense against undead, stealth skills, wis skills, knowledge skills, damage, healing, utility...

So hit me with your favorite 3 member party for any one setting, published, custom, or hypothetical. As much or as little detail as you please.

Any published material, no UA.

[KorvinStarmast]

Tomb of Annihilation

Ranger, Paladin, Druid
or
Ranger, Paladin, Cleric

Ranger:
Gloom Stalker, Criminal Background. (I did V Human but suspect that other races would work also)
Paladin: Ancients, half elf (We had a dragon born devotion, worked well).
Druid: pick one but Moon IMO would be excellent. I'd go Hill Dwarf, but wood elf is also a fine choice.
CLeric: any.

[CTurbo]

Paladin, Cleric, and Bard is my generic answer to the best 3 man party.

Ranger does have a meta advantage of being able to choose the Favored Enemy type of each campaign so is never a bad choice.

So Paladin, Cleric, and Ranger for specific campaigns

[MrStabby]

So I can't comment for any of the pre-written campaigns as I haven't used them, but for the one I am running:

Wizard - those crucial Lore Skills are really, really important and you can get into pretty deep trouble without them.
Cleric - There are a few ambushes so having a good all rounder that can tank and a few undead encounters where both turn undead and destroy undead will be really useful
Fighter - the party will need someone to carry them through some of the really tough long days, this is a good tough choice with relatively few long rest resources.

[Yakmala]

Lore Bard: Covers skills, party support, backup healing and can use Magical Secrets to custom select the best spells from any class to best suit the campaign's environment and opponents.

Arcana Cleric: Healer, tank and damage as needed. Also tons of cantrips. Pick up Magic Initiate Druid to be able to cast Nature spells in addition to Divine and Arcane spells.

Ancients Paladin: Healing, tanking, damage and most importantly, save bonuses and magical damage resistance.

[J-H]

In general:
Swashbuckler (melee & ranged damage, skills, survivable & versatile)
Paladin (melee damage, healing, survivable, buffs allies to make those saves)
Land Druid or Celestial Warlock (crowd control, ranged damage, some spell utility, healing)

[Eldariel]

Most likely something like:
Wizard (Diviner, Chronurgist, Abjurer or Bladesinger - depending on how you want to specialise the party)
Bard (Lore)
Druid (Moon for low level campaigns, Shepherd if you expect to go to level 6+)

It's just, the more spell levels you have, the better you are at dealing with whatever. I'd love to slot a Cleric in there but it's kinda covered between the Bard and the Druid, and both of those classes bring more indispensable things to the table. Then it's just between Wizard and Cleric and as a rule, I'd take Wizard in a heartbeat. Like, even on level 1 you're basically just walking around Sleeping everything that looks at you the wrong way aside from the enemies immune to Sleep (in which case you do the usual "bash'n'crush" thingy).

You also have all the key skills covered between the three having the major mental stats maxed out, and the party is extremely stealth-capable with all classes operating at light enough armor to stealth and PWT coming on level 3. Full party invisibility would be achievable on level 5 and full party flight on level 8. They also have access to great social ability, scouting ability (familiar, Druid, and Stealth Bard in order of preference with divination like Arcane Eye coming in on level 7), tactical and strategic mobility, survivability and sustenance, combat ability, etc. And with so many spell levels between the party, you don't need to be shy about using them.

If we're going optimal, they should obviously all be Vumans. Moon Druid's feat is flexible, Wizard and Bard probably want Alert since that feat is bonkers good.

[Ogre Mage]

In general I like--

Ancients Paladin: tanking, healing and a powerful aura.

Light Cleric: healing, support and damage. Radiance of the dawn is an extremely powerful AoE at low level. Can support the paladin in melee with spirit guardians or attack at range with guiding bolt and fireball(!). Warding flare is a nice defense.

Lore Bard or Diviner Wizard: control and skills (knowledge or otherwise). At lower level (a Tier 1 to 2 game) the bard is the better choice. But in a Tier 2 to 4 game, the wizard is the better choice. Spells should be focused on control effects: dissonant whispers (bard only), sleep, suggestion, hypnotic pattern, etc.

[pr4wn]

Kobold Berserker Barbarian
Rock Gnome Four Elements Monk
Tiefling Beastmaster Ranger


Oh wait, you said best...

Nevermind.

-pr4wn

[Teaguethebean]

In general I would say it is usually, Paladin, Cleric, Bard. Those classes are all very versatile and can cover each others weaknesses very well.

[airless_wing]

For Out of the Abyss, I think a dream team would look something like:

Ranger - Gloomstalker. Skulker would greatly help during the portions where the party is being pursued (which is half the module).
Monk - Shadow. Mobile feat. Not only is it A-tier for monks in general, but dashing through the Silken Paths and other nasty environments without hindrance would be a huge boon.
Cleric - Forge, or possibly Light. Clerics are always great to have around. Trickery might fit the theme of the party a bit better.

While the heavy-armored forge cleric might throw a bone in the rest of the Dex-centered stealthy party, their Channel Divinity is fantastic early on in that module. But, if they live long enough to encounter some gear, then Light might be better for some mildly tanky blasting and control.

EDIT: Added feats and tactics.

[DrKerosene]

For Curse Of Strahd, I think I’d be inclined to go with Paladin (Vengeance, or maybe a Zealot Barbarian), Druid (Moon or Shepherd), and a Cleric (Grave or Knowledge).

For other campaigns I would probably say the same combo, but with different subclass picks.

[sithlordnergal]

Tomb of Annihilation


Half-Elf Ancients Paladin: This one provides a lot of party defenses, tanking, and burst damage.

Yuan-Ti Lore Bard: The skill monkey and arcane caster of the group. Level 6 Lore Bard will grant access to Fireball and Fly, two highly important and useful spells.

Half-Elf Moon Druid: The Moon Druid will be bearing the brunt of the work. Druids have a wider range of utility spells then the Bard does, and when you throw dinos into the mix, Moon Druids just go nuts. If you make it to level 10, you can basically end the fight with the BBEG in two or three rounds. I know this because I did this. Just have someone cast Fly on you while you're a Fire Elemental, drag it into lava, and hold it there. It dies quickly. I know Half-Elf is an odd choice, but the more skills you can cover in a 3 man party, the better.




Curse of Strahd


Oath of Vengeance Paladin

Cleric

Diviner or Abjuration Wizard

[HiveStriker]

I've been thinking about 3 member parties in general, so let me know what 3 member party you would use for any given setting.
Ravnica
Tomb of Annihilation
Curse of Strahd
Whatever whatever.

Example: Tomb of Annihilation
DEX Valor Bard half elf
Undying Warlock Chain pact VHuman Inspiring leader
DEX Arcana Cleric VHuman Prodigy feat, expertise Survival

So you can see my logic right? A couple of faces for the Port Nyanzaru section, lots of defense and offense against undead, stealth skills, wis skills, knowledge skills, damage, healing, utility...

So hit me with your favorite 3 member party for any one setting, published, custom, or hypothetical. As much or as little detail as you please.

Any published material, no UA.
I don't know any of those campaigns, but these teams should fare well in all situations (single-class only to keep things simple, but I have a multiclass in mind that would probably trounce everything thrown at it).

Moon Druid: WIS skills, adventuring help, control, midliner.
Valor Bard: CHA, party face, secondary heal, frontliner.
Evoker Wizard: INT, utility with rituals, some control, blaster, backliner.

Shepherd Druid: WIS, main caster, scout by delegation.
Hexblade Blade Warlock: CHA, gish (Repelling Blast, "Smite", Lance of Lethargy).
Bladesinger Wizard: INT, gish.

NOTE: I usually design groups by first tackling mental skills, because in my games everything is damn important: not only the usual WIS (Perception) and CHA (Persuasion), but INT checks are really frequent (like analysis monsters for weakness, passive Arcana to identify spells, etc).

For a "martial-based" (although I think in a three man team you need at least either a Druid or Cleric for spellcasting versatility and heal).
Gloomstalker Ranger, Devotion Paladin, Arcane Trickster.

[Rfkannen]

Okay so the only one i have played all the way through is descent into avernus.

A paladin is super useful in hell, either devotion or ancients would probably be best... I would say ancients is slightly better but devotion is more flavorful, so lets do devotion.

There are several instances where having a cleric is super useful in that adventure (or at least someone who can remove curse and raise dead). What cleric is interesting, with a party this small having everyone stay in the paladin's aura is great, but you could also use some ranged damage. I would say that the best one is probably tempest (If I remember fiends are rarely immune or resistant to thunder, while almost all of them resist fire)

With a tempest cleric and a paladin we are high on damage, healing, and tankyness. So I would say the perfect 3rd party member would be some sort of bard! Maybe glamour with a lot of crowd control.


for race... It is honestly hard to beat being a tiefling in descent into avernus, I would probably go tiefling for all of them.


I would be interested in hearing what parties would be good for the dragon queen adventurers and princes of the apocalypse.

[MrCharlie]

Paladin, Artificer, Druid.

Paladin is muscle in combat, artificer can easily build for both melee and ranged and can support with spells, and the Druid can do melee with wildshape, ranged with spells, and is an excellent support caster. Artificer handles traps and can easily build to be a decent scout, and the Druid can supplement that (strictly speaking, at level 3+ the Druid is the best solo scout until rogues hit tier 3, due to pass without trace). Further, if you account for the Druid's wild-shape, no one is vulnerable in combat; the paladin is a frontliner, the artificer is arguably an even better one, and the Druid can use wild-shape to avoid combat or tank hits for a time. All three of them also have great support spells for each other too.

Further, between them they get most spells and are specialized to solve most problems; we got a strong guy/face, smart guy/trap guy, and nature expert/scout. They lack great DEX skills, but most of those can be compensated for by a couple of party members working in concert. They kinduve hit the three pillars perfectly, and hit three of the archetypical class themes (nature, divinity, knowledge) strong, missing out only on skill, which an artificer dabbles in. (I'm ignoring a couple classes with that comment, of course, but most classical themes are represented.)

You could sub a Ranger for the Druid, and it would work until about level 8, at which point ranger becomes painfully underpowered, or an arcane trickster for the Druid as long as they pick up enough WIS skills to fill the gap.

The one thing the party isn't perfect at is AOE damage, but the Druid and Artificer can usually fake something up, and a three man party isn't going to be soloing any armies very easily regardless.

Alternative party; Bard, Wizard, Druid, but you're going pretty all in on either killing or disabling everything in combat, or having optimized enough builds that no one is vulnerable despite being a caster. Attrition would be a real problem.