DM's, what's your favorite PC party?

[sayaijin]

So all your veteran players have exhausted every character they could think of, and they want you to make the party.

What group of PC's are you making?

[Jamesps]

So all your veteran players have exhausted every character they could think of, and they want you to make the party.

What group of PC's are you making?

Four rogues pretending to be a standard adventuring party:

Wizard: Arcane Trickster
Cleric: Thief with healer feat (and eventually inspiring leader)
Rogue: Idaknow, any of them?
Fighter: Mountain Dwarf strength rogue.

Run a campaign that looks like it's normal on the outside, but ends up being mostly skill based.

[pr4wn]

Alright, here we go:

• Champion Fighter
• Berserker Barbarian
• Beast Master Ranger
• Four Elements Monk

All standard humans

-pr4wn

[MaxWilson]

So all your veteran players have exhausted every character they could think of, and they want you to make the party.

What group of PC's are you making?

Three Purple Dragon Knights (GWM + Mounted Combatant Sir Lancelot, GWM + HAM Sir Kay, and Healer + Prodigy (Athletics) Sir Bedevere) plus a Mobile Land Druid (Merlin).

[ThatoneGuy84]

I like my party to have a good loadout so that I can try to challange them.
5 Man Party
Cleric
Sorc or Wizard
Ranger
Barbarian or Fighter
Rogue or Warlock

[MrStabby]

So my priority would be to get the kind of game you can't get with high magic. Not that this game is bad, but it has rarity value when all it takes is one person chosing a caster to undo it...

Ancestral Barbarian - probably the most interesting barbarian and 2nd most powerful. I don't want any players to feel bad about what I hand out

Swashbuckler - all the rogue goodness AND some funky subclass abilities

Monster hunter ranger - gets some very cool stuff at high levels, and I would want to run this party at high levels to take advantage of the game not breaking down so much

Artificer battlesmith/samurai/rogue multiclass - broaden out the tools available to the party and give an Int based class. Start levels 5, 4, 2.

So in this ideal party we would be starting at level 11 and running through to level 20.

[Frogreaver]

So all your veteran players have exhausted every character they could think of, and they want you to make the party.

What group of PC's are you making?

I'm picking the classes/subclasses that most people think are underpowered.

Beastmaster Ranger
4 Elements Monk
War Cleric
Assassain Rogue
Wild Magic Sorcerer

Runner ups:
Frenzy Barbarian
Champion Fighter

[KorvinStarmast]

So all your veteran players have exhausted every character they could think of, and they want you to make the party.

What group of PC's are you making?

1 Fighter (Battle Master)
1 Cleric (Arcana)
1 Rogue (Master Mind or Scout, pick one)
1 Warlock (Celestial or GOO)

Pick whatever race and background that you like.

Sources: SCAG, XGTE, PHB, (Caveat: No Tieflings)

Go

[sayaijin]

four rogues pretending to be a standard adventuring party:

wizard: arcane trickster
cleric: thief with healer feat (and eventually inspiring leader)
rogue: idaknow, any of them?
fighter: mountain dwarf strength rogue.

run a campaign that looks like it's normal on the outside, but ends up being mostly skill based.

i've always thought an all-rogue party would be fun, and it would be the best way to make skills matter.

Three Purple Dragon Knights (GWM + Mounted Combatant Sir Lancelot, GWM + HAM Sir Kay, and Healer + Prodigy (Athletics) Sir Bedevere) plus a Mobile Land Druid (Merlin).

Huh, I guess Merlin is a druid / wizard multiclass.

So my priority would be to get the kind of game you can't get with high magic. Not that this game is bad, but it has rarity value when all it takes is one person chosing a caster to undo it...

I've also tried pitching a no-magic campaign, but my players wouldn't bite.

[MaxWilson]

Huh, I guess Merlin is a druid / wizard multiclass.

Agree to disagree. However, this Merlin is not a wizard at all. He can still summon spirits, turn himself and a pupil into animals, smite enemies with molten lava, bind dragons to the earth so they cannot fly, etc., and in short he can do the necessary things to allow the Knights to combat supernatural menaces on somewhat even footing.

Plus he and Sir Bedevere can serve as a source of exposition, via DM-passed notes at judicious times (ideally an encounter or two before the knowledge becomes relevant).

[KorvinStarmast]

Agree to disagree. However, this Merlin is not a wizard at all. He can still summon spirits, turn himself and a pupil into animals, smite enemies with molten lava, bind dragons to the earth so they cannot fly, etc., and in short he can do the necessary things to allow the Knights to combat supernatural menaces on somewhat even footing.

Does that make him a Lore Bard?

[MaxWilson]

Does that make him a Lore Bard?

Land druid, which roughly matches the mythical Merlin of Arthurian legend.

[Teaguethebean]

Land druid, which roughly matches the mythical Merlin of Arthurian legend.

I had always felt this, best way to play a wizard of most mythologies isn't the wizard but druid or warlock.

[AttilatheYeon]

Agree to disagree. However, this Merlin is not a wizard at all. He can still summon spirits, turn himself and a pupil into animals, smite enemies with molten lava, bind dragons to the earth so they cannot fly, etc., and in short he can do the necessary things to allow the Knights to combat supernatural menaces on somewhat even footing.

Plus he and Sir Bedevere can serve as a source of exposition, via DM-passed notes at judicious times (ideally an encounter or two before the knowledge becomes relevant).

I had heard the original druid was modeled after Merlin. In any event. Every story i've read had him learn his "magic" from druids. My theory is he was only called a wizard because of his penchant for wearing pointy hats 😉

[Ashrym]

Champion fighter
Thief rogue
Life Cleric
Evoker wizard

Keep it simple.

Land druid, which roughly matches the mythical Merlin of Arthurian legend.

That depends alot on who's version of the legend. The legend was based on a bard (Myrrdin) and that was an alternate version replacing a bard (Taliesin).

Merlin is one of those characters where bard, druid, or wizard could apply. Just pick your version and call it good. ;)

[Yakmala]

Five Clerics

All different Domains

The Gods have chosen their champions and brought them together for a mission.

[Wraith]

Five Clerics

All different Domains

The Gods have chosen their champions and brought them together for a mission.

By the same token: 5 Warlocks, all different Patrons, and all with strict secret instruction to NOT reveal themselves as being Warlocks.

Celestial Patron = "Cleric" or "Paladin"
Bladelock = "Fighter" or "Bladesinger"
Tomelock = "Wizard" or "Bard"

Etcetera. Turn it into a game of Spy vs. Spy where everyone has to describe their actions and abilities in a way that is accurate mechanically, but they have to be creative with their Invocations and how they describe things to the party without revealing themselves.

Alternatively, this one I saw as a greentext years ago: go the extra mile and don't tell them ANYTHING about their characters - they all wake up naked, in a cell, with complete amnesia and a blank character sheet. The only way they can fill in their stats is through asking questions and trial-and-error.

Player: "I want to try and break down the door - I roll a 11."
GM: "Your score of 14 smashes the door aside and you fall out into the corridor."
Player: "I have +3 STR bonus? Neat! That must mean 16 or 17 as the main stat..."
GM: "Maybe. It's hard to see any muscles underneath your thick, scaly hide."
Player: "I have a WHAT!?"

[AttilatheYeon]

Champion fighter
Thief rogue
Life Cleric
Evoker wizard

Keep it simple.



That depends alot on who's version of the legend. The legend was based on a bard (Myrrdin) and that was an alternate version replacing a bard (Taliesin).

Merlin is one of those characters where bard, druid, or wizard could apply. Just pick your version and call it good. ;)

Ah yes, it was the original bard that i heard was modeled after merlin. Thanks!

[KorvinStarmast]

I had heard the original druid was modeled after Merlin.

I can promise you that it was not. (Eldritch Wizardry had no Merlin references).
I note that you since corrected that to bard. FWIW, the original Bard was not modeled after Merlin; neither in Strat Review nor in AD&D PHB 1. From the original article by Dave Schewgman (Strategic Review Number 6, Feb 1976, page 11)

. . I believe it is a logical addition to the D & D scene and the one I have composed is a hodgepodge of at least three different kinds, the norse ‘skald’, the celtic ‘bard’, and the southern european ‘minstrel’. The skalds were often old warriors who were a kind of self appointed historian whose duty was to record the ancient battles, blood feuds, and deeds of exceptional prowess by setting them to verse much like the ancient Greek poets did. Tolkien, a great Nordic scholar, copied this style several times in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (for example Bilbo’s chant of Earendil the Mariner). The Celts, especially in Britain, had a much more organized structure in which the post of Barbs as official historians fell somewhere between the Gwelfili or public recorders and the Druids who were the judges as well as spiritual leaders. In the Celtic system Bards were trained by the Druids for a period of almost twenty years before they assumed their duties, among which was to follow the heroes into battle to provide an accurate account of their deeds, as well as to act as trusted intermediaries to settle hostilities among opposing tribes. By far the most common conception of a Bard is as a minstrel who entertained to courts of princes and kings in France, Italy and parts of Germany in the latter middle ages. Such a character was not as trust worthy as the Celtic or Nordic Bards and could be compared to a combination Thief-Illusionist. These characters were called Jongleurs by the French, from which the corrupt term juggler and court jester are remembered today . . . I wanted to put the Bard into perspective so that his multitudinous abilities in Dungeons and Drageons can be explained. I have fashioned the character more after the Celtic and Norse types than anything else, thus he is a character who resembles a fighter more than anything else, but who knows something about the mysterious forces of magic and is well adept with his hands, etc.

In AD&D 1e they turned it into something like a prestige class.
In AD&D 2e I think the Bard really came into its own. (Rogue sub class)

But Merlin as Bard seems to me an excellent fit, particularly in this edition.

@Ashrym:

Merlin is one of those characters where bard, druid, or wizard could apply. Just pick your version and call it good. ;)

Yeah, good call.

[Eldariel]

Standard high-powered Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Bard. You can throw anything at them and they'll be fine and it'll all be on their court. If they play bad they might just die horribly but if they play smart, they'll be punching miles above their weight class. Cleric/Druid built with more combat focus (Moon/Shepherd and Arcana/Forge/whatever) with Lore Bard and whatever Wizard acting in ranged roles (though everyone of course needs to be able to kite).

[birdboye713]

Samurai Fighter + at least 1 level of rogue
Dreams Druid
Whispers Bard
Illusion Wizard

I chose these because they're all good subclasses that I never see played in my group, (especially druid, because the only subclass that's been played in my group is moon)
I'd also want this campaign to focus more on the social pillar, so I wanted to give everyone something to do.

[TrueAlphaGamer]

Well, if I made their builds . . .

∴ Melee Wizard (Either Warlock/Abjurer, EK/War, etc.)
∴ Hexblade 2/Lore Bard X
∴ Monk, Fighter, or Melee Cleric

I want the combats to be brawls. Dirty, gritty fights where they just go ham on the enemies and the enemies can go ham on them.

[Ashrym]

Ah yes, it was the original bard that i heard was modeled after merlin. Thanks!

The original bard was modelled heavily on Celtic and Welsh legends, heavily influenced by skalds, and had flavors of jongleur fitting more into pop culture perception.

D&D took inspiration from several sources. There's a link to the legends on which bards originated and Merlin but I don't think it was a direct inspiration.

I do think the 5e bard reflects those original inspirations better than previous editions though.

[KorvinStarmast]

The original bard was modelled heavily on Celtic and Welsh legends, heavily influenced by skalds, and had flavors of jongleur fitting more into pop culture perception. D&D took inspiration from several sources.

I even have the original Bard author's quotes in my post up there.

I do think the 5e bard reflects those original inspirations better than previous editions though.

I like what they did with it also.