Character Suggestion for a Summoned Creature dominated party

[KyleG]

In a party where summoning large number of creatures to fill the battlefield is common (every battle) from the shepherd druid, a rogue casting web over areas and possibly a ranger shooting from afar, what might you suggest for a build. Party might have a barbarian too.

[Khrysaes]

Anything with an aura.

Paladin and twilight cleric stand out to me.

[Amnestic]

Evoker Wizard.

[Eldariel]

Another summoner is always nice. You can never have too many warm bodies. Necromancer Wizard for a bunch of skeletons is sweet for instance. Other is yeah a teambuffer like Paladin or Lore Bard or whatever. A third is a CCer; casters can make those summons much more efficient with Hypnotic Patterns and such.

[da newt]

Any one who can stealth and kite will be a good fit for this party.

Goblin would be a great race choice. An Evoker would be awesome. An Undead Warlock with repelling blast would be nice. A cleric is always welcome, twilight would add so much to the summons. SS Samurai or battle master. Watcher Paladin would help everyone go first. Maybe Artificer. Arakocra monk. Any control caster or terrain manipulator (spike growth, darkness, fog cloud, etc)

Or you can be the one to charge in and draw agro - zealot barb, bear barb, cavalier, conquest pali, moon druid, war forged forge cleric w/ fighter dip for defense FS who spams spirit guardians and dodge ...

Assuming the shepherd and DM are good at efficiently running a hoard of summons, this could be a very fun party. Lots of opportunities for clever tactics and cooperation.

[Segev]

Gobin shadow monk would be a great scout and would bring pass without trace to the table, though the druid might have that spell, too.

Wizard Illusionist - aside from all the fun tricks that subclass has available - can hide large groups for ambushes, augment the summoned army with "more summons" that aren't really there, etc. So can a warlock with Misty Visions. (Honestly, I recommend wizard illusionists take the feat to get that invocation, too.)

A Valor Bard handing out Inspiration to allies is often nice. I think song of battle helps with large groups of minions, too? I could be mistaken, there, though.

If the summons don't already regularly feature Pack Tactics, a Wolf-Totem Barbarian could be fun to augment their attack actions.

[stoutstien]

I'd say an artillerist artificer. Mass THP on the cheap with a pile of infusions to address mobility concerns for the barbarian/rouge, concentration maintaining buffs/extra spell slots for the druid, and covering down on missing skills Prof.

Additional party tricks include giving a bunch of the summons a way to pass around you SSI for some decent AoE blasting and doubling down on web with your flamethrower to add some injury to the insult.

[Valmark]

You can never have too many warm bodies.

Necromancer Wizard for a bunch of skeletons is sweet for instance.

Something doesn't add up.

[Azuresun]

A Champion Fighter.

You'll get your turns done very quickly, and are likely to be spared when the DM loses patience at how long turns are taking, and drops mass fireballs or an ancient dragon's breath weapon on the blob.

[nickl_2000]

I would consider an Archer Battlemaster fighter.

Lots of critters around to steal unarmed weapons or take advantage of someone knocked prone from afar.

[Bobthewizard]

I agree with the auras suggestion.

1. Twilight cleric or artillerist artificer for THP every round.
2. Paladin for saving throws
3. Another Shepherd druid for more summons and another bear spirit totem for more THP every short rest.
4. Lore bard or paladin for crusaders mantle, especially if shepherd druid can summon something with multiattack. Eight velociraptors and a few party members could be 20 chances at an extra d4.

[loki_ragnarock]

It doesn't matter.

In a party with a shepherd druid, you will fall into the background in combat, anyway. The Ranger has (or should have) pass without trace if the Druid is using all slots/concentration on summons, so you don't really need to be stealthy, either.


So why not focus on being a non-combatant? I'm assuming this is a higher level game if summons are coming into play every combat.

Suggestion the First
Soul Knife Rogue/Lore Bard
Pros: Facilitates perfectly silent communications for those stealth portions, get a little sneak attack in since there's soooooo many allies to be adjacent to enemies, always have a ranged weapon on hand, a fairly wide variety of debuff spells, *very* rarely fail your absurdly wide variety of skills as you dominate the social/knowledge scene, highly mobile, get access to *counterspell* so that enemies can't use dispel magic to shut down your party's summoned gimmick, play a half-elf and be good at *lots* of non-combat stuff, jack of all trades makes you pretty decent at even the few things you aren't good at.
I'd focus more on the Lore Bard than the Soul Knife, as you don't really need to take it past third level to get most of what you need from it.

Suggestion the Second
Soul Knife Rogue/ Whispers Bard
Pros: You get to have Psychic Blades twice, but as two entirely different abilities. Can do more damage than the other one. Doesn't entirely dominate the non-combat portions, but is merely good at a wide variety of things.

Me, I'd go with Suggestion the First.

If some jerk wants to take up all the table time in combat with some summons related nonsense where they take 12 turns to your one, then taking the time to shut them out of all non-combat moments isn't just fair, it's just.

EDIT:
Suggestion the First also gets access to Crusader's Mantle at the same level a straight paladin would. Just so you know.

[Talionis]

Going to second Lore Barb for Crusaders Mantle on a full caster. If someone had skeletons then I’d look towards Oathbreaker Paladin from DMs guide. Otherwise spells will work best. Bard provides utility over Paladin non damage auras.