What Role to Fill and How To Fill It!

[Nagog]

So I'm joining a text-based campaign soon with some of my friends, and I'm having the worst indecision I've ever had about anything over choosing a character to play. I don't want to step on anybody's toes as far as playstyle goes, but if some overlap happens then it happens.

So far the party consists of a Fighter Tank/Support (Rune Knight support), a Barbarian Tank, a Druid/Cleric Healer, a Druid Caster, a Sorcerer Blaster, and a Monk Skirmisher/Rogue stand-in. The only thing I can think of that isn't expressly filled is Utility Caster, but I'm at a loss on how to create a fun build that does that. We're starting at levels 6-9 (1d4+5 for some variation) so we're in the midst of Tier 2.

Any role works, any build is accepted. What should I play?

Edit: Being a text-based game, some abilities will vary in usefulness throughout play, as well as some players will be more or less active, for example some Reaction abilities may be harder to pull off, and there may be stretches of time we won't have somebody filling one role or another.

[Man_Over_Game]

So I'm joining a text-based campaign soon with some of my friends, and I'm having the worst indecision I've ever had about anything over choosing a character to play. I don't want to step on anybody's toes as far as playstyle goes, but if some overlap happens then it happens.

So far the party consists of a Fighter Tank/Support (Rune Knight support), a Barbarian Tank, a Druid/Cleric Healer, a Druid Caster, a Sorcerer Blaster, and a Monk Skirmisher/Rogue stand-in. The only thing I can think of that isn't expressly filled is Utility Caster, but I'm at a loss on how to create a fun build that does that. We're starting at levels 6-9 (1d4+5 for some variation) so we're in the midst of Tier 2.

Any role works, any build is accepted. What should I play?

Edit: Being a text-based game, some abilities will vary in usefulness throughout play, as well as some players will be more or less active, for example some Reaction abilities may be harder to pull off, and there may be stretches of time we won't have somebody filling one role or another.

Your team has a lot of options and not a lot of range. There's a big gap in Intelligence checks that isn't filled, so you could do something like illusion, divination, or transmutation wizard, or be a casting-focused Arcane Trickster. I played one of those once (Variant Human for Ritual Caster, Int was higher than Dex) and it was a lot of fun.

[Falcon X]

So, Tank is doubly taken, as is healer/support caster. Steer clear of those roles.

Non-skirmish Rogue is the most obvious hole.
Utility caster by way of wizard or artificer is a small hole (though 2 cleric/druid can do much of it).
Intelligence is a gap.
Another striker class could do well.

I recommend:
1. Ranger - Is a striker class with only minor crossover with the monk. The monk can't track like you can. Of course, two druids already cover some of it's flavor :(
2. Rogue - Focus on talking and backstabbing and you will be unique and useful.
3. Artificer - Has the intelligence and utility of a wizard, a little bit of a roguish mindset, and a flavor completely unrepresented.
4. Utility specialist - Go Illusionist or transfiguration wizard.

[Avigor]

Too bad there's a Sorcerer already, otherwise I'd suggest a Tomelock for the MOAR RITUALS. As-is, as above, if you want to "fill the gap" so to speak instead of just having fun, definitely something intelligent and utilitarian, possibly with a Ritual Caster feat for Cleric depending on how many levels that Cleric/Druid is going for (i.e. if it's just a dip for Life Domain then going pure Druid, definitely take that Ritual Caster feat).

[da newt]

Do you have a skill monkey?
INT abilities should be addressed (Investigation especially).
Will your Sorc be filling the party FACE roll (persuasion, deception, etc)? Who is your con man?
Who will COUNTERSPELL?

Those are the gaps I'd look at. There are any number of ways to fill them, but a High INT Bard could hit them all (YuanTi), a Warlock w/ INT and invocations, Wizards are always beneficial, maybe a real Rogue w/ a bow ...

[Eldariel]

Honestly, it's hard to recommend anything but Wizard for a party with everything but Wizard. Literally everything in the party will be better off with one. So the question is "What do you mean by 'fun build'?" Is the obvious answer of Wizard of some persuasion not fun to you? What aspects are you looking for that the class doesn't cater to? Perhaps the subclass can help: Wizards are a varied bunch that can do anything if necessary. But need more information on what you want first.

[JellyPooga]

As a long-time play-by-post roleplayer, I'll point out that text based roleplaying is a very different beast to tabletop.

1) Combat is slooooooow and frankly it quickly becomes really quite tedious. Don't focus too much on building and being a character that's super-combat-awesome-focused; you'll be wishing for combat to be over and regretting your combat focus.

2) Character, character, character. Those background personality traits? They're your bread and butter and a great foundation for ideas when you're writing your input/post. Be expressive. Be emotional. Be eloquent. Use all the adjectives and verbose description you don't get to use at the table. Written roleplay allows for much greater depth of characted without having to be spontaneous or a great actor. Use this fact to your advantage.

3) By necessity, play runs smoother with less dice rolls, so be very good at the things you want to be good at; when your opportunity to shine comes up, you don't want to flub the roll. On the flipside, being ok-ish at a lot of things is preferable to only being excellent at very few things; because you'll be rolling less, you can't guarantee you'll get to roll what you're good at.

3a) Auto-pass resources (e.g. spells) are fantastic for bypassing those critical rolls that you don't want to flub.

tl;dr Play a Bard. A 2-lvl dip into Diviner wouldn't hurt either.

[KorvinStarmast]

I don't want to step on anybody's toes as far as playstyle goes, but if some overlap happens then it happens.
1. Don't worry.


Fighter Tank/Support (Rune Knight support),
Barbarian Tank,
Druid/Cleric Healer,
Druid Caster,
Sorcerer Blaster, and
Monk Skirmisher/Rogue stand-in.

It doesn't matter what you make. The party has overlap aplenty already.


Utility Caster, but I'm at a loss on how to create a fun build that does that. We're starting at levels 6-9 (1d4+5 for some variation) so we're in the midst of Tier 2.

Lore Bard or Glamour Bard,
or,
Wood Elf Ranger, Archery fighting style.

[KittenMagician]

Being the 7th man to a group means that there is going to be overlap unless you take a very niche build. wizard and artificer are pretty much your only choices if you dont want overlap or wanna keep it to a minimum. ill hit up some possibilities with different builds.

Transmutation wizard can be awesome if you have some one with a good deception/persuasion to work with. you can turn things into silver for a while and and you can pawn them for real money.

Divination wizard can be built to let you decide the outcome of a lot of things with your d20 replacement effects. go halfling and take their race specific feats to have even more d20 manipulation.

Abjuration wizard can fill in for utility but makes a great support caster too.

The main thing about artificer is that you can make magic items for the group.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It looks like you need more general utility than spellcasting utility, you have plenty of casters already, as well as plenty of melee.

Make a Gnome, any variant works but Forest gets Minor Illusion but Rock is extremely fitting and Deep is just plain good, go single-classed Battle Smith Artificer. The Izzet Engineer background if available is perfect, otherwise Sage specializing in engineering is fine. You'll be using Int for weapon attacks thanks to using Infuse Item, so have Dex 14 and max out Int and Con, use medium armor with a shield. You can make your shield able to function as some kind of artisan's tool (that you're proficient in) so you can also use it as a spellcasting focus, such as a pottery wheel, but that's entirely optional. Get Arcana and Investigation, with Stealth if you go deep gnome, but otherwise focus on additional knowledge skills.

Use your Steel Defender as a mount, it will dodge every turn by default, and say it always uses its reaction to impose disadvantage on the first eligible opponent that attacks you. Ideally make it look like a Mechanostrider mount from World of Warcraft. You can use springs to attach tools and weapons to the top of your defender, they can be readily grabbed as an item interaction and used as needed, when the items are dropped they just sproing back into position ready to be used again. I would use a lance attached this way, at rest it normally sticks straight up but there's a hook in place that can be used to keep it pointed forward if you're going through a low hallway or similar. Have a few types of artisan's tools on hand this way to grab and use as a spellcasting focus when needed. You can also have a hand crossbow that you've infused attached, you can start with Crossbow Expert if you want to use that primarily.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

As a long-time play-by-post roleplayer, I'll point out that text based roleplaying is a very different beast to tabletop.

1) Combat is slooooooow and frankly it quickly becomes really quite tedious. Don't focus too much on building and being a character that's super-combat-awesome-focused; you'll be wishing for combat to be over and regretting your combat focus.

2) Character, character, character. Those background personality traits? They're your bread and butter and a great foundation for ideas when you're writing your input/post. Be expressive. Be emotional. Be eloquent. Use all the adjectives and verbose description you don't get to use at the table. Written roleplay allows for much greater depth of characted without having to be spontaneous or a great actor. Use this fact to your advantage.

3) By necessity, play runs smoother with less dice rolls, so be very good at the things you want to be good at; when your opportunity to shine comes up, you don't want to flub the roll. On the flipside, being ok-ish at a lot of things is preferable to only being excellent at very few things; because you'll be rolling less, you can't guarantee you'll get to roll what you're good at.

3a) Auto-pass resources (e.g. spells) are fantastic for bypassing those critical rolls that you don't want to flub.

tl;dr Play a Bard. A 2-lvl dip into Diviner wouldn't hurt either.

This. Far more roleplaying focus with this style of game, so focus on character development mostly.

[Corran]

Inquisitive rogue or tomelock (hexblade or moderately armored) are my first thoughts. Fighter archer with ritual caster might work decently too.

[Tempist]

Based on your party composition, I think a divination wizard would work wonderfully.

If you don't like divination, than transmutation or illusion should work nearly as well.

Some of the others posting before me recommended artificers, and that's a perfectly valid choice too. They've never quite been my cup of tea, but you may well enjoy the playstyle and flavor.

[1Pirate]

Seems like I've been posting about this a lot lately, but the Celestial Generalist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=23794664&postcount=1) is a fun build that can easily pivot on the go into whatever role the party seems to need.