Elven Rogue (AT) in a party with Knowledge Cleric/Divination Wizard and Fighter (EK)

[Wasp]

Hey everyone

I am playing a 1st lvl High Elf Rogue with Booming Blade that is planned to go pure Rogue/Arcane Trickster. My original idea was to go mostly ranged and use Steady Aim with Elven Accuracy a lot to get advantage for sneak attack.

Unfortunately the party turned out much smaller than expected and our first adventure was done only with three characters, my rogue, a vhuman fighter that will go Eldritch Knight and a Knowledge Cleric 1 that will go Divination Wizard X.

I was wondering if I should do anything to tweak my original idea as the experience so far has been a little bit rough (we lacked quite a bit of magical support - which changes a little once the EK and I get our magic - and I couldn't really manage to stay out of melee as originally planned) and I fear we will lack healing when the Knowledge Cleric goes Wizard the next level.

What do you think would help this party?

[JellyPooga]

What do you think would help this party?

Experience points!

1st level is always rough. So is 2nd and 3rd. Everything hinges on the roll of a dice and no-one has many options. Death lurks around every corner. It's really not until level 4 or 5 that characters have much safety margin and their "build" realy starts coming online, allowing players to settle in to who their character is and what they can do.

- Don't sweat it that things aren't quite going to plan. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

- Be adaptive. You're an adventurer, so you have to deal with a variety of situations. Your party looks like it has all the tools, you just need to be prepared to switch things up on the fly.

- You're a small party; you won't have the luxury of a graded battleline. It's all the front line when there's only 3 of you...
- ...until you have the money or charisma to hire some followers. Minions aren't just for the bad guys; hire some henchmen, recruit some apprentices. They might not be great in combat, but if you can keep them alive, they can do some of the donkey work of tying up enemy mooks.

- Have fun with it! These low levels are often the moat exciting. Later on you get to be the Big Damn Hero and use all the fun toys, but you'll miss the immediacy of lower levels and the neccesity of ingenuity and quick thinking. It's fun being able to blast a bunch of mooks with Fireball but it's more fun (IMO) to be doing the same when all you have is a torch, a wineskin of the weird oily liquid you found in a pool three rooms back and a whole heap of ancient wood and cloth from the wreckage of the abandoned barracks you're exploring.

[Eldariel]

Well, you will have a Wizard with Healing Word. That's largely fine for pick-ups if not sustenance, but obviously will focus on control and CC. That's a 3-character party so it can be a bit unforgiving, and there's nobody to help the Wizard/Cleric up if they do go down and he's also the only one to clear masses but you're largely fine otherwise. Sadly I don't think there's terribly much you can do about it on the Rogue-chassis; Arcane Trickster is solid (though High Elf isn't all that strong since Arcane Trickster already gets cantrips), but it doesn't really hit the party where it has issues, at least not in the near future. Thief with Healer-feat could do something to that effect but it would of course cause the party to miss even more support magic.

Now, if you were replanning the character for party purposes, you could switch to e.g. Bard that could fill the same role but also support cast; e.g. Swords Bard is a solid melee type that also casts and skills and Whispers is good at pretending to be a Rogue though with only Inspiration of Sneak Attacks (but really, Swords can do similar damage; you don't need Sneak attack specifically to be a solid damage dealer). And the one that would best complement the party is of course Lore: getting e.g. Aura of Vitality would shore up the party's biggest shortcomings on level 6, and you could pick up Moderately Armored to still be a scary frontliner. Or if you were open to switching the whole character, few things are as impressive as Druids on this level of course (and they can also fulfill the Sneak fantasy and be frontline...at least if you Moon, and Goodberry on a full caster chassis mostly fixes up all your sustenance issues).

[Corran]

Small parties can do fine. And once you get to level two and you get cunning action things will definitely get better. Can you give us a bit more about the fighter? Are they STR based or DEX based? What's their weapon set up? Are they set on a specific fighting style?

Healing is going to be a bit of an issue, particularly out of combat healing. Healing word and a careful approach might cut it during combat, but once out of it, you'll most likely have to rely on hit dice to recover health. So while you team is not too short rest oriented, rope trick could be a good pick for the wizard for this reason. Once hit dice get too low, you'll probably need a day off for the wizard to burn slots for cure wounds and to also build your HD back. A good survival skill might be handy if in wilderness, a safehouse/base will be needed if in civilization (anyone a noble? Also, it'll be great if there is a temple where of the cleric/wizard's deity around; perhaps take one or two missions from them to build a good relationship). Tiny hut could also add to making these long rests safer (later on magnificent mansion and potentially demiplane). Avoid time sensitive missions like the plague unless you stock on a lot of healing potions, Summoning (from the wizard) can help mitigate losing hp, and certain summoning spells (eg animate dead) really profit from even one day of downtime (that you may need to heal with cure wounds spam while also building your HD back).

[Khrysaes]

If allowed the wizard, you, and/or the fighter can take wither and bloom from strixhaven which can allow some healing and damage. Life transference and vampiric touch?

I think your party would benefit the most from cc spells. Removing enemies opportunities to do damage to you. The best would be dead. Second would be. Sleep. Incapacitated. Held? Things that allow you all to group up and focus on one target, you especially need advantage, so maybe darkness and the eldritch adept feat for devils sight would be great for you.

Blind fighting style feat and fog cloud is great too.

[TyGuy]

Your party actually sounds pretty dope to be honest. Very Int heavy, which is a rarity. If you're DM cares remotely about your success, you'll get items that help and encounters you can manage.
You have a decently balanced party for three. Front liner, reliable ranged damage, and a versatile full caster. Good luck.

[solidork]

One of the nicest things about Rogues is that they're one of the best switch hitters - very effective in both melee and at range, since most of your damage comes from Sneak Attack. I would try to avoid specializing extensively in either direction so that you can remain flexible and do what your party needs from moment to moment.

I played in a party that was AT(me)/Valor Bard/Open Hand Monk and we handled things perfectly fine. I'm sure you will as well.

[Wasp]

Small parties can do fine. And once you get to level two and you get cunning action things will definitely get better. Can you give us a bit more about the fighter? Are they STR based or DEX based? What's their weapon set up? Are they set on a specific fighting style?
They are DEX based with Rapier and Booming Blade (just like me when not attacking ranged) and Shield with Dueling Fighting Style. I actually don't know what their feat is anymore.

-------------

As for multiclassing: The DM would allow to have a Lore Bard with INT instead of CHA (and also INT for MC), but my INT is also only 14...

But I kinda hope the player with the classic CHA based Lore Bard who wanted to join originally will maybe still join the next session.... (Fingers crossed)