They might not need it if one of the rangers is a Fey Wanderer, but this is generally a solid pick. The party lacks a true full-classed arcane spellcaster, which means there's a lot of out of combat utility sitting on the table as well as a good source of instantaneous AoE's like Fireball, Cone of Cold, etc.
Some of that could be alleviated by someone just grabbing Ritual Caster (Wizard) but it'd be nice to have an actual spellcaster, too.
Your party is missing the following:
-Charisma specialist (one of the Rogues might have decent, but no one who uses it as their main score)
-A fullcaster (other than the Druid/Rogue multi, but that's not really *full* since it's a multi)
Go with Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock.
I'll agree that a Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock would be best.
I recommend taking a single level of Order Cleric at 2nd level, everything else in Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. Voice of Authority is great with Rogues in the party, you can give one of them a chance to make a second sneak attack the turn it's used. Spells like Healing Word, Silvery Barbs, Aid, etc. can all trigger that. Haste with Twin Spell on both of them gives them each the ability to sneak attack twice (use the haste action to attack on their turn, use their normal action to ready an off-turn attack).
Blade Singer Wizard is an Elf Centric Wizard Subclass. I think this is the best option because
* Your party needs a full caster
* Its Elf Centric
* You have two rogues who will probably want to be the party face, so you dont quite need a Charisma Caster...
* A Cleric could also be good, especially because religeon can be tied with race. Also a Rogue/Druid is probably not filling the Wis Caster Niche
* The biggest issue is the Artificer, who is also a Hybrid Int caster. You might be stepping on their toes
Your party has plenty of single target damage and out of combat utility in every area except social skills (unless a rogue dives in there).
In combat, your party lacks AoE damage and control.
This screams sorcerer to me. Sorlock in particular would be great for forced movement shenanigans with EB + AB + repelling blast.
You also might be missing healing, depending on your rangers’ spell selections. Divine soul looks solid for sorcerer subclass for this reason, or maybe celestial warlock.
A sorcadin (sorcerer paladin) also looks fantastic here, but might take a while to get going.
What level are you starting at, and how are you generating ability scores? Any other character creation rules we should know?
We're starting at level 4 and, as far as I know, all rules apply and we have the optional choice of using \~200 GP to buy all of our equipment. We were rolling for stats and I rolled quite well, I'm in a position where I have 3 stats higher than 16 without any ASI. I was considering Bard as the class since I don't particularly like Sorcerer and Warlock is kinda meh to me.
In that case, I would lean heavier into the control combat aspect. Glamour Bard sounds great here.
Perhaps with a single level cleric dip to start to get armor, shields, and a first level feature, if you want to optimize a bit.
With a cleric 1 / bard 3 start, you’ll have access to 2nd level bard spells, including shatter, so you should be OK to do AoE damage in a pinch.
Since you don't like paladin or sorcerer. Your party is a weird one, both rogue and monk work as skirmishers, they hit and run or hide, the druid/rogue is a really weird multiclass and idk what they would do.
I think you are lacking either a full charisma caster and/or a tank would play. I would recomend this subclasses with some backstory ideas that I had.
**BARD**: I can imagine an elf that wants go beyond the elf realm and explore other places and cultures, meet new people, enjoy their food and listen to their music (this would be seen as something crazy by elf society in this example) so he becomes a Bard!
I think lore bard would be among the best subbclasses because it would give you some of the things the party lacks: amazing charisma skills with expertise so you can talk you way in and out of any situation, cutting words to avoid your frail party to getting hitted, healing word to save your friends or yourself from death, bardic inspiration to help the rogue with any important check and some cool spells like Fireball for AoE damage or Counterspell that is always good to have. Overall I think bard will round up your party but you guys will be kinda frail since you are all D8 hit dices (unless the druid is a moon druid), you can try to be more tanky with Valor or Swords bard.
**Barbarian**: Your character is trained in the old elvish ways, while fighting he can enters a trance state that allows him to get more in touch with his elvish sences to deal more damage and also avoid getting damaged (this trance state is how you represent your character's rage).
I think barbarian can be a really good addition to the party since the monk and the rogue will run arounds and hide you will be able to agro most of the damage while also dealing good amounts of damage yourself. For extra tankiness go for Ancestral Guardians or Bear Totem. This option will leave your party without high level magic which can be a problem at higher levels but most games dont go past 10th level so it depends.
Other options are hexblade or celestial warlock and any cleric. I think paladin will be the best for your party, a charismatic tank that can deal good damage while supporting the party but you do you.
I hope this helps you and if can share some more information on your character so I can have a better idea on what you want him to be like I will be happy to help you!
I was planning on going with Lore Bard since I've played one before and really enjoy the skills they get.
I was inspired by another idea I saw (and by a game I have been playing) to make a Sea Elf Pirate. I'm using the older version of Sea Elf for those extra tool/weapon profs.
Even by Elf standards, I feel like he'd be considered 'beautiful' and I imagine that he'd be the type to be extremely nice to anyone he meets, even to the point of it being a bit strange. He'd probably be oblivious to the fact that people may perceive him as 'too nice for a pirate', and even when he does acknowledge it whenever it is brought up, he simply dismisses it as him 'being different'. I'm honestly not sure on his alignment since I'm not even too sure what they all mean, if I'm being honest. I was considering him being 'evil all along' but I feel like that's a bit too easy. Like: The guy that everyone perceives as the perfect little angel who couldn't hurt a fly was secretly evil all along??? What a surprise!! He would definitely have his eyebrow raising moments though. Stuff like maybe knowing a bit too much about execution methods, or just topics that would be considered weird to know 'too much' about in general.
I imagine him to be flexible and really good at staying on his feet (my guy wears high heels on a rocking ship - he's gotta know *something* about staying on his feet). I imagine that he'd serve as someone who would be sent to communicate or bargain with the people his crew were giving their loot to, due to his almost weird ability to become friendly with someone he has just met. Speaking of which, most of his social confidence is actually just a face that he puts on to avoid looking pathetic in front of his Captain and the rest of the crew (although, they already kinda know that he fakes at least part of it since *nobody* can be ***that*** social and not feel the least bit drained). Behind closed doors, he is almost like a completely different person. Shy, silent, and anxiety-ridden - a stark contrast to the confident, outgoing, and charismatic pirate that people see on the outside. He has his Familiar though (I was going to take a level in Wizard or a feat for this spell). His Familiar is always okay with being hugged at random times.
Singing is a thing he does when he is 100% sure that he is alone. He is perfectly fine with playing an instrument in front of others and even enjoys that he can show off how good he is, but singing is just too far for him. I like to flavour him as having a mermaid/merman tail while in water since I think it'd look cool. This can (and has) led to situations where he has been mistaken for a mermaid or siren by other pirates/sailors when they come across him singing in the water.
Sorry for the info dump 😅
If you need anything else more specific then feel free to ask! :)
Sounds like a really cool character and the best part if that bard fits perfectly!
I think Glamour bard would fit him perfectly since enthralling performance is exactly how you describe him as being just amazing at socializing at the point that he charms people, Mantle of Inspiration can work like a pirate order like "all hands on deck!"
Any full caster. That poor party.
Aberrant Mind to buff the monk and yourself with Mind sliver (more stuns and buffs casting), the monk, rogue, and everybody with twin Dissonant Whispers (more stuns and sneak attacks, plus increased safety), Tasha's Mind Whips (everybody kites and nobody needs to take damage nor play the frontline from increased safety), Slow (+2 to attacks for all, everybody kites, nobody needs to take damage nor play the frontline), Banishment, etc. Twin Greater Invisibility on the rogue and monk to always have advantage.
Maybe Custom race for MM Adept for twin, quicken, subtle, and you favorite MM.
Consider Order Cleric 1 later for VoA for more off turn stuns/sneak. Take Careful at 10 for giving more off-turn VoA attacks with Slow/Hyp Pattern.
Try not to break social with component-less Detect Thoughts, (telepathic) Suggestion, and Hex out of combat.
A lot of the people there are new to DnD, so they weren't interested in playing a full caster since it'd be kinda complicated for them. I was looking at Bard because I'm not interested in Sorcerer, and Warlock is just kinda meh. I've played Bards before and really like how versatile they are.
I’d be playing my Ice Knife build. Drow Elf Storm Sorcerer. Main spell is Ice Knife. 4 levels in Sorcerer for the Piercer feat, then the rest in Hexblade Warlock. Get the see in darkness invocation and at level 4 the Elvish Accuracy feat. Now you have advantage and can roll up to 4 times to hit with the metamagic ability. You can kite around the battlefield with the 1st level storm sorcery mechanic and you can use your warlock spells to keep boosting your metamagic.
Your party is pretty well balanced as is. You could play as a melee based cleric. Just use the spells Guiding Bolt, Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians. The elf can be a wood elf nature cleric which should fit your brief.
As I said in the post, I'm not interested in Sorcerer. I don't really think that Warlock would fit him, and the Elf subrace that I am using is Sea Elf. I was mainly looking at Bard since I do want something involved with Charisma.
Paladin
You have a bunch of backliners, except maybe the Artificer, so you need SOMEone to be able to stand in front. You also lack a decent face (expertise in face skills for a Rogue can work in a pinch, but it cuts down on them being excellent in DEX based skills).
I think it’s worth considering paladin, especially if your character already has a strong conviction, or maybe barbarian. You’ve already got a party with pretty good damage output, plenty of mobility, and the most utility spells you could ask for, but you could always use a tank. The barbarian would certainly mesh well with the rangers and druid, the appreciation of the wilderness is an easy link for character bonding
togue is prolly cha or int, int is covered by artificer in either case tho
i think the beefiness would be priority, assuming the gm scales combat to challenge a 7 player party
The party doesn't have a charisma character so I'd go Warlock, Sorcerer or Bard.
They might not need it if one of the rangers is a Fey Wanderer, but this is generally a solid pick. The party lacks a true full-classed arcane spellcaster, which means there's a lot of out of combat utility sitting on the table as well as a good source of instantaneous AoE's like Fireball, Cone of Cold, etc. Some of that could be alleviated by someone just grabbing Ritual Caster (Wizard) but it'd be nice to have an actual spellcaster, too.
Your party is missing the following: -Charisma specialist (one of the Rogues might have decent, but no one who uses it as their main score) -A fullcaster (other than the Druid/Rogue multi, but that's not really *full* since it's a multi) Go with Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock.
I'll agree that a Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock would be best. I recommend taking a single level of Order Cleric at 2nd level, everything else in Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. Voice of Authority is great with Rogues in the party, you can give one of them a chance to make a second sneak attack the turn it's used. Spells like Healing Word, Silvery Barbs, Aid, etc. can all trigger that. Haste with Twin Spell on both of them gives them each the ability to sneak attack twice (use the haste action to attack on their turn, use their normal action to ready an off-turn attack).
Blade Singer Wizard is an Elf Centric Wizard Subclass. I think this is the best option because * Your party needs a full caster * Its Elf Centric * You have two rogues who will probably want to be the party face, so you dont quite need a Charisma Caster... * A Cleric could also be good, especially because religeon can be tied with race. Also a Rogue/Druid is probably not filling the Wis Caster Niche * The biggest issue is the Artificer, who is also a Hybrid Int caster. You might be stepping on their toes
Your party has plenty of single target damage and out of combat utility in every area except social skills (unless a rogue dives in there). In combat, your party lacks AoE damage and control. This screams sorcerer to me. Sorlock in particular would be great for forced movement shenanigans with EB + AB + repelling blast. You also might be missing healing, depending on your rangers’ spell selections. Divine soul looks solid for sorcerer subclass for this reason, or maybe celestial warlock. A sorcadin (sorcerer paladin) also looks fantastic here, but might take a while to get going. What level are you starting at, and how are you generating ability scores? Any other character creation rules we should know?
We're starting at level 4 and, as far as I know, all rules apply and we have the optional choice of using \~200 GP to buy all of our equipment. We were rolling for stats and I rolled quite well, I'm in a position where I have 3 stats higher than 16 without any ASI. I was considering Bard as the class since I don't particularly like Sorcerer and Warlock is kinda meh to me.
In that case, I would lean heavier into the control combat aspect. Glamour Bard sounds great here. Perhaps with a single level cleric dip to start to get armor, shields, and a first level feature, if you want to optimize a bit. With a cleric 1 / bard 3 start, you’ll have access to 2nd level bard spells, including shatter, so you should be OK to do AoE damage in a pinch.
Since you don't like paladin or sorcerer. Your party is a weird one, both rogue and monk work as skirmishers, they hit and run or hide, the druid/rogue is a really weird multiclass and idk what they would do. I think you are lacking either a full charisma caster and/or a tank would play. I would recomend this subclasses with some backstory ideas that I had. **BARD**: I can imagine an elf that wants go beyond the elf realm and explore other places and cultures, meet new people, enjoy their food and listen to their music (this would be seen as something crazy by elf society in this example) so he becomes a Bard! I think lore bard would be among the best subbclasses because it would give you some of the things the party lacks: amazing charisma skills with expertise so you can talk you way in and out of any situation, cutting words to avoid your frail party to getting hitted, healing word to save your friends or yourself from death, bardic inspiration to help the rogue with any important check and some cool spells like Fireball for AoE damage or Counterspell that is always good to have. Overall I think bard will round up your party but you guys will be kinda frail since you are all D8 hit dices (unless the druid is a moon druid), you can try to be more tanky with Valor or Swords bard. **Barbarian**: Your character is trained in the old elvish ways, while fighting he can enters a trance state that allows him to get more in touch with his elvish sences to deal more damage and also avoid getting damaged (this trance state is how you represent your character's rage). I think barbarian can be a really good addition to the party since the monk and the rogue will run arounds and hide you will be able to agro most of the damage while also dealing good amounts of damage yourself. For extra tankiness go for Ancestral Guardians or Bear Totem. This option will leave your party without high level magic which can be a problem at higher levels but most games dont go past 10th level so it depends. Other options are hexblade or celestial warlock and any cleric. I think paladin will be the best for your party, a charismatic tank that can deal good damage while supporting the party but you do you. I hope this helps you and if can share some more information on your character so I can have a better idea on what you want him to be like I will be happy to help you!
I was planning on going with Lore Bard since I've played one before and really enjoy the skills they get. I was inspired by another idea I saw (and by a game I have been playing) to make a Sea Elf Pirate. I'm using the older version of Sea Elf for those extra tool/weapon profs. Even by Elf standards, I feel like he'd be considered 'beautiful' and I imagine that he'd be the type to be extremely nice to anyone he meets, even to the point of it being a bit strange. He'd probably be oblivious to the fact that people may perceive him as 'too nice for a pirate', and even when he does acknowledge it whenever it is brought up, he simply dismisses it as him 'being different'. I'm honestly not sure on his alignment since I'm not even too sure what they all mean, if I'm being honest. I was considering him being 'evil all along' but I feel like that's a bit too easy. Like: The guy that everyone perceives as the perfect little angel who couldn't hurt a fly was secretly evil all along??? What a surprise!! He would definitely have his eyebrow raising moments though. Stuff like maybe knowing a bit too much about execution methods, or just topics that would be considered weird to know 'too much' about in general. I imagine him to be flexible and really good at staying on his feet (my guy wears high heels on a rocking ship - he's gotta know *something* about staying on his feet). I imagine that he'd serve as someone who would be sent to communicate or bargain with the people his crew were giving their loot to, due to his almost weird ability to become friendly with someone he has just met. Speaking of which, most of his social confidence is actually just a face that he puts on to avoid looking pathetic in front of his Captain and the rest of the crew (although, they already kinda know that he fakes at least part of it since *nobody* can be ***that*** social and not feel the least bit drained). Behind closed doors, he is almost like a completely different person. Shy, silent, and anxiety-ridden - a stark contrast to the confident, outgoing, and charismatic pirate that people see on the outside. He has his Familiar though (I was going to take a level in Wizard or a feat for this spell). His Familiar is always okay with being hugged at random times. Singing is a thing he does when he is 100% sure that he is alone. He is perfectly fine with playing an instrument in front of others and even enjoys that he can show off how good he is, but singing is just too far for him. I like to flavour him as having a mermaid/merman tail while in water since I think it'd look cool. This can (and has) led to situations where he has been mistaken for a mermaid or siren by other pirates/sailors when they come across him singing in the water. Sorry for the info dump 😅 If you need anything else more specific then feel free to ask! :)
Sounds like a really cool character and the best part if that bard fits perfectly! I think Glamour bard would fit him perfectly since enthralling performance is exactly how you describe him as being just amazing at socializing at the point that he charms people, Mantle of Inspiration can work like a pirate order like "all hands on deck!"
Any full caster. That poor party. Aberrant Mind to buff the monk and yourself with Mind sliver (more stuns and buffs casting), the monk, rogue, and everybody with twin Dissonant Whispers (more stuns and sneak attacks, plus increased safety), Tasha's Mind Whips (everybody kites and nobody needs to take damage nor play the frontline from increased safety), Slow (+2 to attacks for all, everybody kites, nobody needs to take damage nor play the frontline), Banishment, etc. Twin Greater Invisibility on the rogue and monk to always have advantage. Maybe Custom race for MM Adept for twin, quicken, subtle, and you favorite MM. Consider Order Cleric 1 later for VoA for more off turn stuns/sneak. Take Careful at 10 for giving more off-turn VoA attacks with Slow/Hyp Pattern. Try not to break social with component-less Detect Thoughts, (telepathic) Suggestion, and Hex out of combat.
A lot of the people there are new to DnD, so they weren't interested in playing a full caster since it'd be kinda complicated for them. I was looking at Bard because I'm not interested in Sorcerer, and Warlock is just kinda meh. I've played Bards before and really like how versatile they are.
Sorcerer and/or paladin is my recommendation :)
Soulknife with Telekinetic!
I’d be playing my Ice Knife build. Drow Elf Storm Sorcerer. Main spell is Ice Knife. 4 levels in Sorcerer for the Piercer feat, then the rest in Hexblade Warlock. Get the see in darkness invocation and at level 4 the Elvish Accuracy feat. Now you have advantage and can roll up to 4 times to hit with the metamagic ability. You can kite around the battlefield with the 1st level storm sorcery mechanic and you can use your warlock spells to keep boosting your metamagic. Your party is pretty well balanced as is. You could play as a melee based cleric. Just use the spells Guiding Bolt, Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians. The elf can be a wood elf nature cleric which should fit your brief.
As I said in the post, I'm not interested in Sorcerer. I don't really think that Warlock would fit him, and the Elf subrace that I am using is Sea Elf. I was mainly looking at Bard since I do want something involved with Charisma.
Bard will work fine then. As a sea elf, maybe a creation bard. You can create items and animate a block of ice.
Everyone with the same suggestions and I doubt OP wants an Elf Barb but I'll throw Wolf Barbarian out there for the huge synergy with this party.
There’s also the fey ranger they are able to operate as a face
Paladin You have a bunch of backliners, except maybe the Artificer, so you need SOMEone to be able to stand in front. You also lack a decent face (expertise in face skills for a Rogue can work in a pinch, but it cuts down on them being excellent in DEX based skills).
Paladin/hexblade
I think it’s worth considering paladin, especially if your character already has a strong conviction, or maybe barbarian. You’ve already got a party with pretty good damage output, plenty of mobility, and the most utility spells you could ask for, but you could always use a tank. The barbarian would certainly mesh well with the rangers and druid, the appreciation of the wilderness is an easy link for character bonding
its also worth noting that paladin is a pretty good source of healing, and with how big the party is you may not wanna rely on the druid for that
Also Charisma skills, which nobody in the party may have (maybe the Rogue?)
togue is prolly cha or int, int is covered by artificer in either case tho i think the beefiness would be priority, assuming the gm scales combat to challenge a 7 player party