Need help being the fourth wheel

[Theodoxus]

I'm (hopefully) going to be joining a group in meatspace in June. This will be the first game I've participated in since 2019...

We're starting at 1st level, in a homebrew campaign, so there's a bit of a learning curve for all of us coming to terms with new locals, traditions, gods, etc. Stat generation is tic tac toe using d8s, so we're all going to be on the uber side... So, odd multiclasses or super MAD builds will probably be pretty valid.

Current party composition I'm told is a Tabaxi Rogue (I built the character for my friend, so I know that's a go). A tiny (fae) Barbarian (my 40 years of D&D experience tell me this is going to be huge fail, and I'm told this is a new (albeit adult) player...) and a Bard of some stripe.

So, I need to come up with something that fits that group. I love playing Clerics, and Life is my specialty, but I think I'm going to need to bring some extra oomph to this party. I don't think the Bard will be sufficient as a healer, so I'm happy to step into that role - but I suspect I'm going to need to be both additional muscle (figuratively, and literally) as well as magical utility.

My initial thought was a melee competent Life Cleric, grabbing MI: Druid for shillelagh and Good Berry at 1st and then Crusher and SS: Booming Blade at 4th and 8th. With d8 generation, it's pretty easy to start with a 20 Wis.. But my fear is that I'll be stepping on the Bards toes with any non-healing specific support spellcasting, and the lack of more traditional arcane utility (teleportation (outside Word of Recall), Phantom Steed et al) would hurt.

I then toyed with an Artificer/Wizard build, maybe Abjurer or Bladesinger (hopefully by the time we get high enough level to make 2nd level Wiz I'd know which to pick) - grabbing the Healer feat at 1st for additional healing... but I'm not sure if two partial healers is sufficient either.

So, I turn to the playground to hopefully snap me out of my analysis paralysis and offer up suggestions.

TL;DR: How would you round out a party comprised of a Barbarian, Bard and Rogue?

[icedraikon]

Can't go wrong with a Warlock. Seems like Ludic's Celestial Generalist would be good here: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds


VHuman Celestial Tomelock 12
20 Cha / 16 Dex / 16 Con
Moderately Armored (+1 Dex) / +4 Cha (ASIs) / War Caster

Cantrips: Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Shillelagh, Shape Water, Guidance, Light, Sacred Flame (Yes, they know 9 Cantrips; 4 base, 2 Celestial, 3 Tome).

Spells: Cure Wounds, Greater Restoration, Revivify, Hellish Rebuke, Synaptic Static, Thunder Step, Hypnotic Pattern, Counterspell, Armor of Agathys, Hex, Misty Step, Mass Suggestion

Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, Book of Ancient Secrets, Eldritch Sight, Mask of Many Faces, Maddening Hex


Let's go down the checklist!

HEALER? You've got Healing Light (which is like 13 Healing Words a day, or a lesser number of bonus action burst heals), the various status-removal spells, and Revivify. That's pretty much all the important bases. You also can take advantage of your short-rest recharge healing to make the party's breaks more efficient.

DIPLOMAT/SPY/IMPERSONATOR? You have 20 Charisma, the proper proficiencies, Guidance, and Disguise Self at-will (which doesn't even use your Concentration, so you're totally using it in dungeon situations too to surprise or confuse people). Oh, and Mass Suggestion.

THIEF? You can teleport, impersonate easily, have 16 Dex + proficiency in the proper skills, and are the magic detector (I find this comes up a lot when doing second story work). There are also some fun thievery tricks you can do with Shape Water and Mage Hand.

MAGIC DETECTOR? Yep, you've got Eldritch Sight.

RITUAL CASTER? Yep, you've got access to every class's rituals from Book of Ancient Secrets.

ARCHER? You've got a 24-hour Hex and an Eldritch Blast that does 3d10+3d6+15, plus a 30 foot knockback (with no size limit, unlike most knockbacks), and Maddening Hex for a guaranteed-hit 5 damage AoE on top of that. You can just dish out that 47 damage all day. And have fun playing pinball (knock enemy into another enemy, then use the Maddening Hex AoE).

MELEE? You have the AC of a dex fighter, a bonus action heal better than Second Wind, Armor of Agathys, Shillelagh, and Green-Flame Blade that gets buffed by Radiant Soul and your 24-hour Hex. Oh, and War Caster, so if they try to move past you, they get a Booming Blade OA for 6d8+5 (or perhaps something spending an actual spell slot). You also get 16 temp hp every short rest from Celestial Resilience (and your teammates get some too). And if somehow they get through all of that and you need to get out of dodge, you can use Thunder Step to damage them, get out, and rescue a teammate while you're at it!

Someone attacking you in melee could take 25 damage per melee hit from AoA, then take 6d10+5 (38) from Hellish Rebuke, then get whacked by Green-Flame Blade for 3d8+1d6+10 (27) and another 3d8+5 (18.5) to the person standing next to them. Oh, and you have a familiar, so you can make that attack with Advantage.

CONTROLLER? You've got Synaptic Static, Hypnotic Pattern, Mass Suggestion, and 30 foot knockback on your Eldritch Blast. Oh, and moving past you in melee provokes nasty War Caster OAs.

^ Quote from Ludic's An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds thread.

Hits every box you want.
- Extra Oomph: Burst cure wounds + as much bonus action healing as you could want to keep frontliners going.
- Additional Muscle: Charisma for Intimidation, good melee with SCAG cantrips
- Magical Utility: Every ritual you could want (assuming dm provides scrolls/spellbooks to copy)
- Support Casting: All the classic arcane goodies with Spider Climb, Hypnotic Pattern, etc
- Teleportation: Teleportation Circle added to Warlock's spell list in Tasha's.

And, of course, Eldritch Blast for when you're running on fumes, you can still keep up with baseline martials in DPR.

[Eldariel]

Straight Druid seems pretty solid, potentially with a feat to pick up some of the better Wizard options (e.g. Ritual Caster: Wizard). Moon Druid if you want a straight melee type that also brings a ton of healing to the party, while still landing a huge CC spell as needed (Druid list is arguably better at this than the Wizard one in many cases). Shepherd would give the party temporary HP in the form of the totem, which seems pretty good too. Also Pass without Trace which is kind of a big deal on level 3. As a bonus, the party is completely missing a Wis-class so you'd hit all the points (and you can melee in a more support capacity using autorestraint forms like Giant Toad, Giant (R)octopus, Giant Constrictor Snake, etc. to enable your Rogue and Barb). You'd want Mage Armor through some route: e.g. Eldritch Adept for Armor of Shadows (can later switch it for the important part of War Caster when you don't need it - Eldritch Adept allows switching once per level) or Magic Initiate: Wizard (also gets you some cantrips) is nice since Mage Armor is +1-+3 AC for almost all animal shapes, isn't Concentration and lasts 8 hours.

Alternatively, the "do it all" BS going Mark of Healing Halfling Bladesinger is pretty darn solid: finish out with Herbalism Kit and craft potions for your familiar and company. It would cover the Int role very well while providing the big ticket Wizard rituals and spells and awesome. You could do the same on an Abjurer or a War Wizard or even a Necromancer if you wanted to frontline. Long range damage is kind of a problem and Bladesinger works adequately there too though of course, losing out on Heavy weapons means Longbows will always be inefficient for a Halfling (though you can at least cancel out the disadvantage in a pinch with Fog Cloud or similar).

[da newt]

I'd go any full caster who can dip into melee if the situation warrants. There are numerous options in this genre - bladesinger, moon druid, hexblade, arcana clerics, etc ...

[RogueJK]

Can't go wrong with a Warlock. Seems like Ludic's Celestial Generalist would be good here

Hits every box you want.
- Extra Oomph: Burst cure wounds + as much bonus action healing as you could want to keep frontliners going.
- Additional Muscle: Charisma for Intimidation, good melee with SCAG cantrips
- Magical Utility: Every ritual you could want (assuming dm provides scrolls/spellbooks to copy)
- Support Casting: All the classic arcane goodies with Spider Climb, Hypnotic Pattern, etc
- Teleportation: Teleportation Circle added to Warlock's spell list in Tasha's.

And, of course, Eldritch Blast for when you're running on fumes,

That's exactly what I would recommend.

You're going to be hard pressed to find another build that can function as well as a Celestial Tomelock Generalist when it comes to being a combination Frontliner/Healer/Utility Caster.


However, if that doesn't interest you, another good option could be an Arcana Cleric with the Ritual Caster Wizard feat, though you're giving up a bit of melee oompf and utility casting compared to the Celestial Generalist.

Or perhaps a Moon Druid with the Ritual Caster Wizard feat.

Or on the slim chance that your DM allows the Dragonmarked races in this campaign, possibly a Mark of Healing Halfling Hexblade Warlock 1 or 2/Abjuration Wizard X.

[animorte]

That's exactly what I would recommend.

You're going to be hard pressed to find another build that can function as well as a Celestial Tomelock Generalist when it comes to being a combination Frontliner/Healer/Utility Caster.

However, if that doesn't interest you, another good option could be an Arcana Cleric with the Ritual Caster Wizard feat, though you're giving up a bit of melee oompf and utility casting compared to the Celestial Generalist.


Yes, I was going to directly respond to the Warlock suggestion having little competition. But you answered yourself with Cleric, and why. So this!

I would recommend a Warlock or Cleric (and perhaps Druid) as a good addition to just about any group, regardless of preexisting class choices. Just build it to suit your purposes.

[Schwann145]

I'll second the single-classed Druid suggestion as a very solid one.

A non-life Cleric would also fit well. I'd suggest Light to add some blasting capability to the party, but there's plenty of good melee cleric options if you'd rather go that route.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I'll second the single-classed Druid suggestion as a very solid one.

A non-life Cleric would also fit well. I'd suggest Light to add some blasting capability to the party, but there's plenty of good melee cleric options if you'd rather go that route.

Light cleric was also the first thing that came to my head: blasting + healing. Divine soul sorc would also get you both of these.

[stoutstien]

Order cleric could be nice to help the newer players feel impactful by handing out reaction attacks and setting up nice combos.

[Eldariel]

Yes, I was going to directly respond to the Warlock suggestion having little competition. But you answered yourself with Cleric, and why. So this!

I would recommend a Warlock or Cleric (and perhaps Druid) as a good addition to just about any group, regardless of preexisting class choices. Just build it to suit your purposes.

I dunno if that's really any more so than e.g. Druid or Wizard. All casters are really, really good and one isn't clearly more omniuseful than another (especially since in this case, there's already a big Cha class but none in Wis and Int).

[Nidgit]

Druid was also my thought. In addition to the suggestions of Moon or Shepherd, Stars is also another strong and versatile subclass to consider. You never want to be in melee but you have options between cheap DPS, healing, and concentration support depending on the situation.

For Cleric, Tempest, Light, or Arcana would be my top picks.

[prototype00]

The ever solid combo of the Peace Cleric's Emboldening Bond and the Bless spell, both of which you can keep up at the same time for +2d4 to most rolls is actually legit game-math breaking.

The best part is that you only need one level of Peace Cleric for it and then you can branch out, and it's as powerful as if you had spent 20 levels in cleric. I'm playing a Peace Cleric 1 / Diviner Wizard X and the amount of support you can generate on that Emboldening Bond and Bless has been phenomenal (on top of guidance and all sorts of Wizard versatility).

Less effective if your DPS doesn't depend on attack rolls, but from what you've described, it does.

[Kane0]

TL;DR: How would you round out a party comprised of a Barbarian, Bard and Rogue?

My vote would be a Druid (Stars or Dreams) or Artificer (Artillerist or Battlesmith).

[Isaire]

You have a new player playing barbarian, and a rogue. I'd probably want to stop and think about how optimally these players are going to play / level before picking out a very strong eclectic build! Straight druid would probably get my vote as simple enough to be the right level for the party, and also effective.

[Psyren]

Is the rogue melee or ranged? What's the bard doing in combat? Those would be the primary drivers for my decision, but I'd definitely lean toward something Int-based.

[JLandan]

If you want a Cleric other than Life, but still want a combat support role, try Grave. It's very good for keeping downed PCs alive until non-combat help arrives. Fey Barbarian will be a loyal customer for ranged Spare the Dying.

I had a lot of fun with this, my race was Firbolg. He was a sort of gentle giant, except for his big club.

[Aalbatr0ss]

Current party composition I'm told is a Tabaxi Rogue (I built the character for my friend, so I know that's a go). A tiny (fae) Barbarian (my 40 years of D&D experience tell me this is going to be huge fail, and I'm told this is a new (albeit adult) player...) and a Bard of some stripe.



Just be nice going in. If the others are more casual players and you’re highly experienced you could come in a little hot. There is no reason a tiny barbarian should be an automatic fail. Maybe think of how your character could help that concept work?
And use your expertise to help everyone have a good time?