Party optimisation philosophy

[Eldariel]

I think Max has solid points.

Personally, if I'd optimize the entire party, I have the following guidelines (c/p from earlier optimization challenge thread):

o An obligatory paladin (+5 to saves are just too good)

I have to respond to this specifically, since I see this sentiment a lot when discussing the necessity of Paladin in an optimal party. While Paladin is a strong class, it is my own experience that Aura of Protection is a bit of a paper tiger. Sure, it looks absolutely bonkers on paper to get +5 to all saves for the whole party (and even just personal +5 to all saves is incredibly strong), but the party benefits are often less impressive than that IME, mostly due to the 10' range (up until level 18, which is after full casters already became demigods).

Often, the things you want a saving throw bonus for are AOEs (Fireballs, dragon breaths, Banshee Wail, etc.) and in those encounters, huddling close together for the save bonus guarantees that basically the whole party gets hit. OTOH if you have enough room to split up and be ~30' apart (in the "Fireball formation"), the enemy will have to hit at most two characters. So to gain benefits of Aura of Protection, the party will have to accept more hits from the AOE (obviously this doesn't apply to non-AOE but I find those aren't as frightening all that often; most seem to be like max HP reduction or poisoning or curses or things of that nature that you can tend to out of combat, though save-or-dies and mind control effects do of course exist), which kinda defeats the purpose. Even if everyone saves thanks to the Aura, the total damage split across the party is the same as if two guys got hit and failed the save (let alone if two guys got hit and succeeded the save).

Given the prevalence of AOE on higher levels, my parties generally assume fireball formation by default; it does make teamwork a bit more difficult but OTOH it prevents a powerful enemy from devastating the entire party in a single round. And in precisely such a setup where everyone kinda fends for themselves to a degree, the Aura is at its weakest. Of course, this criticism is far less biting on the level 18 version, which is incredibly good (and don't get me wrong, the level 6 version is also really personally and with significant party value but I feel like the peak value of the ability is somewhat diminished and it's more like "bonus to me and maybe the other frontliner" in most cases rather than "bonus to the whole party"). Ultimately, I generally find it a nice-to-have (Ancients is a bit different; Warding Aura means that against spellcasters who use damage spells specifically, your resistances are such that it's worth it to huddle together even if you take extra hits due to it), but I find the party can make do with Contingencies and Death Wards and Freedom of Movements (and yes, Revivifies) and Counterspells/Dispel Magics/Remove Curses/etc. to shore up the saving throw issues down the line.

The name of the game is resource efficiency.

As Max says, it's good to be able to vary your output -- The more dangerous an enemy is, the more efficient it is to use a nova. The less dangerous, the less efficient.

The mistake some people make is thinking that at-will abilities are inherently more resource efficient, which counter to many people's intuitions isn't true. The reason for this is simple: There are two sides to attrition, that which you spend to do things, and that which is spent by enemies doing things to you (like HP damage). If the amount of bad stuff an enemy would do to you exceeds the cost of your 'reduce them to microscopic particles right this second' option, then that nova option becomes resource-efficient, and not doing so will reduce the number of encounters you can take before resting (or someone dying or something).

Anyways, this is why, for instance, a party of 4 Champions generally won't actually last for more encounters a day than, say, a party of 3 Champions and a Life Cleric.

The one caveat I'd add is that I wouldn't draw much of a distinction between 'literally at will' and 'has enough resources to be drawn out throughout most or all of the day." So, basically what Eldariel said in the very first post.

Indeed, it is good to spell this out. I think I did a poor job of depicting the big picture of party resource consumption, but it's of course worth noting that the longer enemies survive the more defensive resources they will likely burn through. Which is why the party with a lot of nova potential will ultimately probably lose less resources dealing with most problems than the party maxed out on at-will potential. I think taking it into the logical extreme, this is the easiest to showcase with a single character (yes, I know the game isn't designed for single character play).

A single level 1 Fighter (let's say a Vuman Heavy Armor Master) is pretty good at beating weak things (single Goblins, single Skellies, etc.). However, if said Fighter ever runs into an equivalent enemy...say, two Orcs, they don't have anything to fall back on and they will most likely die (unless they are able to engage them out of range and the terrain prevents the Orcs from getting closer but especially with Aggressive, that's a highly specific and much less challenging encounter).

A single level 1 Wizard (let's say a Vuman with Alert), on the other hand, is still pretty good at beating weak things (though again, always at a bit more risk since even a non-crit can kill him) but with tools that let him engage more on his terms (the cantrips) and most importantly, the ability to go nova. He can get Mage Armor on if he casts it and then Arcane Recoveries, thus adventuring with two slots. So the encounter with two Orcs? He can ready an action to cast Shield on the other Orc after the first one has acted. Then he can cast another Sleep on the first one. The Wizard will most likely win if one Orc misses a single attack. Adjusted CR of that fight is 2 (400XP where the daily XP budget of a level 1 solo character is 300), and the Wizard has a pretty reasonable chance even in a white room let alone with environment.