Need advice on helping round out the party.

[Fatmonkey]

Hey So I'm having an issues trying to figure out what would work with the group. I recently had a paladin that I was playing and due to him dying and I wasn't having as much fun with him. I'm looking on advice to help round out the group better.

Party Comp So far:
1. Artificer BattleSmith (Mostly Mid-Ranged, Some Support, Skill monkey)
2. Barbarian Path of Totem (Frontline, Tank)
3. Sorcerer Aberrant Mind (Blaster, Voice of Reason)
4. Warlock Genie (Blaster, Voice of Intimidation)

I'm not sure what would really fill the group better maybe something. When I was playing Paladin I was stuck between trying to save spell slots for smite but need to help more. I was thinking mainly something that could frontline and support at the same time. Which would help out way more? I was thinking of something like Twlight Cleric/Stars Druid or Twlight Cleric/Moon Druid. But I'm not sure how well either would be if one is better than the other? Or maybe somebody can suggest something completely different?

[J-H]

I usually prefer not multiclassing, especially with classes that are conceptually at odds like "Gets power from a deity or idea" and "gets power from connection to the land/nature instead of from normal human sources."

Twilight is banned at my table unless re-worked/rebalanced. It may cause problems for your DM.

You have two arcane casters, one melee tank/beatstick, and good party support (artificer). Ranged damage and blasting is covered.

I'd look at:
-Rogue (skills, sneak-attacking whoever is near the barbarian).
-Battlemaster (ranged) using trick shots to help the barbarian by rendering enemies prone or vulnerable.
-Psi Knight as another melee character who can support the barbarian and also do plenty on his own, including some mobility thanks to Force Jump.
-Monk (several options) for melee CC and adding mobility to the party. Mercy monk even brings some healing.
-Cleric. I'd go with something that has heavy armor, pick up Resilient (Con), and go to town in melee. You can Bless, or Spirit Guardians, or whatever. Don't be the healbot. Leverage your 5th level bank of divination spells, your Inflict Wounds, Speak with Dead, Blights, etc.

[da newt]

#1 priority - find someone you want to play.

IMO this party has plenty of casting and blasting, so I'd look for something less in the back lobbing game changing spells. You have just one front line tank, front lines are soooo much better when they aren't just the front single point. You also look like you are a bit short on healing. Someone with a great perception (WIS) would also be handy.

I'd think a druid would be a great fit for this bunch - someone who can tank and bash when needed, heal if needed, and can often find a unique tool for any job. Cleric (or Celestial Warlock) would be another good swiss army knife for this party.

BUT, back to #1 - find something you are excited about.

[Gtdead]

The first thing that comes to mind is a Summoner like Shepherd Druid to combo with Aberrant. Dirt cheap dissonant whispers + conjure animal AoO is lot's of fun (or misery, depends on the table) and it can get even crazier at higher levels by adding Animate Objects. Comboing Evard's with Plant Growth has some potential too and Warlock can pick repelling blast for the odd enemy that will manage to leave the hazard zone. I generally like Druid a lot for this party.

[Fatmonkey]

I'd think a druid would be a great fit for this bunch - someone who can tank and bash when needed, heal if needed, and can often find a unique tool for any job. Cleric (or Celestial Warlock) would be another good swiss army knife for this party.


That is kind of why I'm looking at a small dip in Twlight Cleric/Stars or Moon druid. I think thematically it would be great worshipping the moon and cosmos's. I just don't know which druid would be more fun or good for the group I guess. I'm conflicted on that part. Because wild shape looks awesome but does fall off for a bit. Plus I can't support the group if I'm wild shaped. Whereas Star's druid I don't have to worry about that and can heal the group at will.

[Eldariel]

That is kind of why I'm looking at a small dip in Twlight Cleric/Stars or Moon druid. I think thematically it would be great worshipping the moon and cosmos's. I just don't know which druid would be more fun or good for the group I guess. I'm conflicted on that part. Because wild shape looks awesome but does fall off for a bit. Plus I can't support the group if I'm wild shaped. Whereas Star's druid I don't have to worry about that and can heal the group at will.

You have a Wizard which enhances Moon Druid by a fair bit. I might look in that direction though multiclassing wouldn't be amazing due to depriving you of form advancement. Levels 6, 9 and 10 are all big and 15 is decent too.

Shepherd is of course always amazing. Moon is good too though.

[RogueJK]

I'd say the party needs some additional melee/frontline, as well as additional support/healing and control casting. That screams single classed Druid to me.

Moon Druid will let you be the additional melee/frontline yourself, with some secondary support/control casting.

Shepherd Druid will allow you to summon additional melee/frontline and buff them, and focus on being more of a flexible caster type.

Of the two, I'd likely go with the latter in this party. (And if you really want to crank up your "Swiss Army Knife" flexible casting capabilities, take the Ritual Caster: Wizard feat for more utility casting too!)

Something like a Variant Human Shepherd Druid
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 14+1
INT 12
WIS 15+1
CHA 8
With Ritual Caster Wizard at Level 1, Resilient CON at Level 4, then +2 WIS at Levels 8 and 12. Focus primarily on Summon/Conjure spells and your auras to bolster the party's melee/frontline capability, and use additional utility/support/control casting options as the situation dictates.


Twilight Cleric 2/Stars Druid X or even just Stars Druid X is potentially a good option for support/control caster, but I don't think it'd necessarily be as useful as either of the pure Druids above due to lacking in frontline capability, especially since it'd still be limited to Druid armor only. So it only really hits 2 of the 3 marks. It'd work better as a purely ranged caster, but your party has plenty of ranged capability already.

On the other hands, a Stars Druid 2/Twilight Cleric X or even just Twilight Cleric X has better frontline capability thanks to additional Cleric spells and additional Twilight Temp HP from more Cleric levels, and definitely has support capability, but is lacking in control. Again, only 2/3 (actually 1.5/3 for the Stars Druid dip version, due to still being limited to only Druid armor).


And multiclassing a Moon Druid (other than potentially a 1 level dip into Barbarian or Monk for better Combat Wild Shape AC) is a bad idea; Moon Druids are heavily dependent on scaling their Druid levels up in order to keep their Combat Wild Shape forms competitive with the increasing challenges. A Twilight Cleric/Moon Druid multiclass would be too far behind the Combat Wild Shape power curve.

[KorvinStarmast]

My suggestions:
1. Monk (Drunken Master or Way of Mercy)
2. Fighter, Rune Knight
3. Rogue, Arcane Trickster

[Bobthewizard]

I vote cleric or druid. Any sublclass of either would be fine. Cleric would be better than all but moon druid for this party up until level 5. Then conjure animals would be better for you than spirit guardians.

If you go cleric, don't multi class with druid, just stay cleric. If you go druid, I wouldn't multi class until after level 5, then it's mostly just to get the level 1 subclass features.

[Keravath]

I think the first question is "What do you want to play?"

You played a paladin but didn't really like it for some reason. A PAM paladin using a spear or quarterstaff and a shield can have three attack/turn at level 5 as well as a good AC. Aura at 6 is good. They can cast bless if they wish in the first round or just use spell slots for smites when the opportunity arises. However, there was something about this playstyle that you didn't like so it is important to identify what you DO want to play.

Moon druid can be a tank and a healer and a caster but it is important to remember that it can't be a tank at the same time as the other two. In addition, multiclassing as a moon druid slows down your access to higher CR beast forms and elemental forms which is really not desirable if you want to really play into the Combat Beast shape abilities. On the other hand, a shepherd druid focuses on summoning creatures and enhancing their abilities - but your DM and group need to be onside with the druid summoning up 8 wolves with pack tactics and then making 8 attack rolls on their turn in addition to whatever you want to do. The whole process can be made pretty efficient by you rolling lots of dice at once and summarizing for the DM but if you go through searching for dice, rolling each summoned creature one by one, asking the DM for the result of each die roll ... your turn will take as long or longer than everyone else's turn put together. This can be an issue at some tables.

If you are interested in the class, then I would probably suggest a melee combat cleric - have healing word prepped but otherwise you focus on spirit guardians, spiritual weapon - if you go with arcana cleric then you might also have booming blade and some other cantrips. However, twilight cleric is particularly good and with its ability to bestow temporary hit points it can really support the party. Variant human twilight cleric with resilient con at level 1 (or the Ritual Caster: Wizard option mentioned above could also work).

[Contrast]

Summoning Druids are extremely powerful but also a bit of a pain and time hog to play at the table so unless Druid is something you really want to play I'd be inclined to steer towards other options.


Depending what you mean by support my advice is Rune Knight or cleric.

Rune Knights with the right runes provide a lot of damage mitigation for your party as a whole and a RK and barbarian would provide a hugely chonky front line. My only concern here would be that you might actually overshadow the barbarian somewhat.

Any cleric provides more traditional support options and off tank capability, particularly any subclass with heavy armour. As others have mentioned Peace and Twilight are usually considered the best but cleric is fine whatever sublcass you go with really so I'd prioritise something that sounds fun.