Opinions on New Party

[Kereea]

Opinions sought on my new party. We started at lv. 5 and got to select one Magic Item from a list during the prologue of the Spelljammer module.

I am Cleo, Goblin (MotmM version) Battlesmith Artificer with my Steel Defender, a feminine humanoid called Laura. I am currently built for support and ranged damage and have the highest AC of the party thanks of overpaying for a Breastplate. I am the merchant ship captain. My choice of Magic Item was Bag of Holding.

Lando is our Giff Fighter/Druid combo (I think Star Druid and know Battlemaster Fighter), currently heavier on Fighter. He seems to be aiming for Tank despite an armor class of 12 without spells to buff it. Also one of his first spells was a spectacular use of the Jump spell. I'm not kidding. He picked up the whole party and used the spell to jump us all onto the ship at once. His player has also decided he owes me money in-game. His choice of Magic Item was Stone of Good Luck.

Finally. A. Kobold, real name unknown, the Kobold Warlock whose pact is with Tiamat. He was adrift in the Astral Sea for so long he's gone a wee bit insane. He's generally the Nuker, and used Fireball twice last session, both times wiping out all but one enemy combatant. He has almost no money because he is a Ritual Caster and Tiamat makes him spend a lot on new Rituals. Jury's out if Cleo is trying to stop him from being a danger to others in his madness or merely using him as easy labor. His Magic Item is Slippers of Spider Climb since his player decided he's not smart enough to take a Pearl of Power without prompting.

So far both fights have gone similarly. Lando and Laura tank hits, I help by tying up enemies with Web...and Kobold, who seems to always go last, sets as many enemies as possible, with the Web, alight with Fireball. This actually works very well against mobs so far.

My main concern is our Tanks both having only so-so AC (Laura is 15, Lando is 12 pre-buffs) which makes melee combat worrying. I think Kobold's AC is only about 15 as well. The main issue is, how much does AC matter when there's going to be a lot of ship combat going on? Because our main loadout for that is Kobold using Incovations to snipe while I used ranged attacks and Lando flies the ship. It's melee that worries me. Any ideas?

[Unoriginal]

Opinions sought on my new party. We started at lv. 5 and got to select one Magic Item from a list during the prologue of the Spelljammer module.

I am Cleo, Goblin (MotmM version) Battlesmith Artificer with my Steel Defender, a feminine humanoid called Laura. I am currently built for support and ranged damage and have the highest AC of the party thanks of overpaying for a Breastplate. I am the merchant ship captain. My choice of Magic Item was Bag of Holding.

Lando is our Giff Fighter/Druid combo (I think Star Druid and know Battlemaster Fighter), currently heavier on Fighter. He seems to be aiming for Tank despite an armor class of 12 without spells to buff it. Also one of his first spells was a spectacular use of the Jump spell. I'm not kidding. He picked up the whole party and used the spell to jump us all onto the ship at once. His player has also decided he owes me money in-game. His choice of Magic Item was Stone of Good Luck.

Finally. A. Kobold, real name unknown, the Kobold Warlock whose pact is with Tiamat. He was adrift in the Astral Sea for so long he's gone a wee bit insane. He's generally the Nuker, and used Fireball twice last session, both times wiping out all but one enemy combatant. He has almost no money because he is a Ritual Caster and Tiamat makes him spend a lot on new Rituals. Jury's out if Cleo is trying to stop him from being a danger to others in his madness or merely using him as easy labor. His Magic Item is Slippers of Spider Climb since his player decided he's not smart enough to take a Pearl of Power without prompting.

So far both fights have gone similarly. Lando and Laura tank hits, I help by tying up enemies with Web...and Kobold, who seems to always go last, sets as many enemies as possible, with the Web, alight with Fireball. This actually works very well against mobs so far.

My main concern is our Tanks both having only so-so AC (Laura is 15, Lando is 12 pre-buffs) which makes melee combat worrying. I think Kobold's AC is only about 15 as well. The main issue is, how much does AC matter when there's going to be a lot of ship combat going on? Because our main loadout for that is Kobold using Incovations to snipe while I used ranged attacks and Lando flies the ship. It's melee that worries me. Any ideas?

I mean, your PC is an Artificier and a merchant. I'd say finding or crafting a fitting armor for the Giff would be a nice plot point.

[togapika]

the Kobold Warlock whose pact is with Tiamat.

Is this a 3rd party patron, homebrew, or reflavor?

[RogueJK]

As an Artificer, I wouldn't have taken a Bag of Holding as my free magic item pick, considering an Artificer can craft their own Bag of Holding starting at Level 2 via the Replicate Magic Item infusion. But I guess it frees up one of your infusions, so it's not a total waste.

Your Druid/Fighter is going to have major survivability issues. An AC of 12 is absolutely abysmal for any PC, but especially for someone wanting to be a frontline tank. Why is it so low? Sounds like they have something like a 12 DEX and Leather Armor? Or 10 DEX and Studded Leather or Hide Armor? That's definitely going to be a serious ongoing issue. I'd work on finding/buying/crafting them a set of non-metal Half Plate/Plate/Breastplate ASAP. In the meantime, you can get them a shield and use your Enhanced Defense infusion on it to boost their AC to 15, which still isn't great but is at least a band-aid until you can get them some much better armor. You can also try to use spells like Aid and Heroism to help prop up their HP from all the unnecessary hits they're going to be taking, but use of those spells eats your limited spell slots.

As for your Steel Defender's middling AC, keep in mind that they're a creature and therefore RAW they can attune to magic items. Them being humanoid-shaped helps here too, to allow them to wear normal bracers/cloaks/rings/robes/etc. So even though they're not proficient with armor/shields, they can still use magic items like Braces of Defense, Cloak/Ring of Protection, etc. to boost their AC. In addition, them having a lower AC isn't as big of an issue as a PC like your Druid/Fighter, since you can use the Mending cantrip between combats to get the Steel Defender back to full HP for "free", and you can use a 1st level slot to resurrect them if they die. Even if they die and you don't have any slots left, they come back after a long rest for free. So the consequences of them having a lower AC aren't as serious as your Druid/Fighter.

[Kereea]

Thanks for the help everyone! Yeah, armor crafting is def in my future unless the DM works hard to deny me leather and wood to work with. To give him a Shield with Enhanced Defense I'll need to retrain an infusion next level or see if the DM will let me retrain Enhanced Arcane Focus (it's useless for the Warlock since his Focus is not a Wand, Staff, or Rod, it's a Crystal, and my spell bonuses are fine) ASAP. I need to keep Repeating Shot for me, but Mind Sharpener isn't always a must-have.

Thankfully most armor isn't THAT expensive, it's mainly going to be getting the materials to make it. Magic Item Adept would be nice but we don't think the campaign is going to lv 10.

I took the Bag of Holding so I can keep my infusion slots free, yeah. The Warlock has a similar item, but I don't trust his character with using it well.

As for the Warlock's Patron, I think he's Fiend subclass with Tiamat as the boss. Tome specialty.

I did not know about items for the Steel Defender! Thanks, that might be a big help.

[NecessaryWeevil]

How hard have the combats been so far?
Since your party seems willing to make suboptimal build decisions for the sake of roleplay, maybe the DM will throw you a bone.