Shepherd Druid: able to solo DiA?

[Eldariel]

So the balance is basically the reason I made the OP. Whether or not a single character could get through this or not is in debate, but the fact that it's even plausible I think is an issue. As you say, much of what happens after level 7 is extremely unfinished, so the more concrete assessment in the thread has been for levels 5-6.

Now, I don't think the entire issue rests with the mod. By 6th level the Shepherd is casting a spell that many posters think is already overtuned, but doing it with roughly twice the efficiency of other casters (in the context of the mod where b/s/p resistance is common). It effectively allows the minions not just to tank, but to actually do significant damage, meaning the Druid can fall back and support with cantrips, and save leveled spells for things like Goodberry and Pass without Trace. The spell also lasts and hour and allows the character to trivialize some exploration and potentially escape (if needed) on mount(s) that have roughly double HP. So a good amount of the 'blame' if that's the right word, lies with the class/ subclass and spell. The other 4 characters I'm DMing (Oathbreaker, Battlemaster, Death Cleric, Arcane Trickster) likely wouldn't survive long alone if they actually attempted to complete the mod.

That said, the mod is often set on 'easy', though you are correct in that at times it can be very difficult if players aren't a bit smart or lucky (mostly thinking of the Baldur's Gate part here). Also the presence of Lulu buffs the group further. I'm thinking my group of 5 is really more like 7 party members if I count Lulu as 1 and my Shepherd as 2; so it's not surprising I need to roughly double the challenge to keep it interesting. And of course there's that magic item that I don't think has been discussed here, which while somewhat situational in the context of the mod, is a real boon if used at the right time.

The one question I would ask you is why do you think OotA doesn't work as written? Now it was the first thing I DMed in 5e, and maybe more crucially the first thing my players played, so they weren't good at optimizing. Unlike chapter 3 in Avernus, the travel portion of OotA was well supported with maps and a good selection of random encounters, etc.

I think there's maybe 10 players on the entire planet who think that the following spells are anything but absurdly overpowered:
- Conjure Animals
- Conjure Woodland Beings
- Animate Dead

Incidentally, any character who intends to solo anything at all will have one of those three (and obviously Conjure Woodland Beings is less problematic by virtue of being higher level). This of course extends to Animate Objects and Danse Macabre and such but the above list breaks the game at the very start of Tier 2, while those come towards the end of Tier 2 and it's long before you have enough level 5+ slots to spam them.

It's not really even up for discussion: they are blatantly and obviously overpowered to a ridiculous degree since 5e favours hordes of creatures and these are most efficient when summoning hordes. As the above Narzugon example shows: even against creatures that have the purported counter to minionmancers (AOE) they still can perform very admirably and obviously they'll totally clown anything that doesn't have AOE. AOE makes them only broken enough so that a level 6 character has a shot at soloing a CR13 challenge. Without AOE they could easily take down a CR20-level numeric threat (like Leviathan that used its Tidal Wave). The only class as egregiously broken as the Shepherd Druid is thus Necromancer Wizard, but any Wizard or Cleric capable of casting Animate Dead is largely more problematic than Shepherd Druid because:
- Animate Dead lasts for 24 hours
- It doesn't take Concentration
- You get ranged attacks from it

This is probably the only adventure path where I'd rather have a Shepherd and that's because of two unique features: The mentioned magical weapon resistance and lack of replenishments for your horde. If you could secure silver weapons for your undead, that would solve one half of the equation but this path is also unusually short on humanoid bodies to animate (in most adventure paths you'll be genociding Goblins or Kobolds or Orcs or Drow or whatever so you will have ample supply), making replenishing your ranks more difficult. Which is the only reason I don't think a Necromancer could solo DiA very easily: you'll simply run out of things unless you get to pitch in on Gideon's graveyard exhuming and even there, you have the logistical issues of hauling around a bunch of bodies (I guess you could outsource this to your Zombies) and your army will obviously slow you down since Zombies aren't exactly fast and you probably want some Zombies for Unholy Toughness + lots of HP + armor - this forces you to fight a lot which means minion attrition. Getting enough silvered weapons for your minions is far from trivial unless you see to it before entering Avernus, which is just another extremely limited resource you'll have to work with. And since you fight demons too, those don't even solve the whole problem. Magic Stone from MI does for 3 but 3 isn't enough for these purposes, even though it does help. Not to mention, Conjured Animals largely have an easier access to advantage, which really helps their DPR.

I've done it the other way around too: my level 5 party of 4 engaged a lone level 8 Wizard (Conjurer) with 12 undead (all level 3 slots burnt). It was actually very, very close to a TPK. Had the Wizard had one more 3rd level slot for a Fireball and had the Ranger not made a DC 13 Int-save (vs. Barlgura's Phantasmal Force) at -1 bonus, it would've been a TPK but instead he was barely dropped with most of the party in single digits and a couple having gone down already. And this was a fairly well-optimised party (Vuman Lore Bard, Vuman Battlemaster S&B, Mountain Dwarf Abjurer Gish, Stout Halfling Gloomstalker SS Archer). Try throwing a random level 8 Battlemaster at a party of 4 level 5 characters instead and he'll get laughed out of the room (after failing a single save against literally anything or just getting DPS'd down). No, minions simply increase power many times over simply because minions grant more actions and this game is all about actions. They also grant more beef and the kind of beef where you don't really even need to bother with recovery.