So I've been working for quite some time on a theoretical squad of optimized characters that may one day be a team that I dm as villains/rivals for a party. I want to give the party an epic 'team vs team' showdown and I'm working on optimizing my squad. They will level with the party who will hear about them every now and then and will sometimes interact with them too for various story/rp reasons, and will be 'racing' them to the bbeg at the end of the campaign like a competing adventuring party that's also trying to get a good name with the public of the world/continent/country. They will have a climactic clash before the players reach the bbeg as a penultimate conflict.
So the challenge for the character build:
I'm currently working on the build for a member of my squad who would function with high dpr/high nova(burst) damage. The idea is to build a character that can deal as much damage as possible in a short/average amount of time regardless of resources spent in that time (we can say anywhere from 1 to 5 rounds, your choice).
Build rules:
1) The theme for my dm squad is 'all magic' meaning everyone is a full(or almost full) spellcaster that has to have a 9th level spell of their own prepared even if it has no impact on the build concept. This leaves a maximum of 3 extra levels before 20 to optimize with for multiclassing for this build since you get 9th level spells at level 17. I know most campaigns don't make it to 20 but this is a theoretical idea. What I'm doing is that this is part of a big plan/arc that I would reward a party with who actually managed to reach all the way up to 20 or near 20. The extra 3 levels can be in martial classes or casting classes as needed for the build.
2) No magic items or weapons are to be factored in. This challenge involves using only pure class and racial features. The character should be able to functionally pull of their damage combo and fancy plays even with nothing but a decent shop weapon (up to the 1d12 best) if they are even using one and the best armour they could find at short notice.
3) No preparation(ie combat just started and no spells or traps could have been prepared beforehand). In other words they need to be able to pull off their damage combo on the fly if the resources weren't already spent since the last long rest.
4) No summoning unless it's from a class feature (like the hound of ill omen for the shadow sorcerer). One can easily just say to play a shepard druid or a necromancer wizard and quantify a big number off of all of the summons total dpr, but what we are looking for is to have the character deal the big damage by them self so that they feel like a threat to the party as a powerful individual. This is so that ocs of the players party could form grudges or competitive rivalries with the character on a personal level.
5) No boosts from teammates, such as from spells. Yes this character will be part of a team like I mentioned, but there will be times when they are alone and tracking the party/ doing errands so the party can track them if spotted. Again this is why they need to be capable alone so as to maintain that aura of adventurer status that the players ocs normally have, so that once again they can feel like players too and keep that feeling that they truly are different from any other npc.
6) No homebrew or ua content. I want to work with anything the players would have to work with from official 5e books.
7) Wish and Divine Intervention are off the table. We are trying to give the party a challenge, not flatten them with a steamroller.
So with the build rules out of the way here are some example builds that I have for the character that I'm considering using already (both are winged variant tieflings so that they can reach their targets with ease, but you may have a better idea):
A 17 abberant mind sorcerer/2paladin/1hexblade who can cast booming blade+smite on a 1d12 weapon twice per turn thanks to quicken spell metamagic on the booming blade (boosted further by hexblades curse and maybe even hex too)
or
An 18 tempest cleric/2 sorcerer(to get font magic) with the metamagic adept feat(for heightened spell) and elemental adept(lightning) feat to cast a max rolled upcasted call lightning spell with advantage and while causing vulnerability to make it even more deadly (and to add salt to the wound clockwork soul for the sorc subclass so that restore balance prevents any attempts to use an advantage giving effect to even out the heightened spell effect).
Things like those two builds are what I'm looking for. Both builds have at least 17 levels in a full caster so they pass the main rule check. The point of this exercise is to make a great build without compromising what's important to any full caster, that being a diverse collection of spells to use their many spell slots on.
Here are a list of ideas I have played around with for the 3 extra levels for higher damage, but you may know of some that I have missed:
-1 hex warlock for hexblades curse or genie lock for Genies Wrath
-2 sorcerer levels for metamagic + metamagic adept feat so font magic can be used by a non full sorcerer with only 2 levels or just 3 sorc levels without the feat if you don't want to squeeze 1 level of a 3 class
-2 fighter for action surge
-2 paladin for smites
-Trying to make the main caster work with extra attack (ie valor/sword bard or bladesinger wizard) if they are using weapons attacks for the combo.
-1 or 2 in certain cleric and wizard subclasses have been feeling useful in my reads as well.
-I've considered ranger and monk levels but they never seemed to fit any of the builds I make with these rules.
I've been playing with as much as I can find between all of the classes and races but I know there are always more awesome things that we can do with our builds that some of you maybe know that I've missed. I am very curious and excited to see what ideas some of you could share with me for this unique challenge so please let me know, and thank you for any ideas ahead of time.
That means every character will primarily be a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard. There's plenty of variability in that.
Melee
One level of Hexblade Warlock, with Two levels of Paladin, leaves 17 levels for any full caster, my suggestion being the Swords Bard, because it has a higher hit die than the Sorcerer, and can add its Bardic Inspiration dice to damage on top of the nearly endless smite-slots. Has to start with a minimum of 13 Strength, but Charisma will be the character's "god-stat" with Constitution being the second highest. The character will be a beast at melee damage and has Agonizing Eldritch Blast for ranged combat. Get Charisma to 20 as fast as possible, then take Toughness and get Constitution higher.
Three levels of Totem Warrior Barbarian on a Moon Druid Githyanki (MMotM) gives the character Resistance to ALL damage types when raging, which can be done while wildshaped into a T-Rex, and spell slots can be spent to regain hit points while wildshaped (because it's using the slots, but not actually casting spells). Make the mental stats high since you keep them when wild-shaped, but also have the minimum of 13 Strength for the multiclassing requirements.
Battlefield Control/AoE/Blaster
Two-levels of Fighter for Action Surge on a Land Druid allows for devastating spell combos to be pulled off in a single turn. A classic one is to cast Plant Growth and Spike Growth on top of the enemy, so any of them with a movement less than 40ft has to dash to move a single square, while the Druid is free to pelt them with ranged spell attacks, such as circling the trap and using Thorn Whip to drag the enemy over the Spike Growth for extra damage, while preventing them from reaching the edge of the effect. I chose Land druids because they have additional spells available to them, including some that aren't available to other Druids, giving them more versatility.
Healing/Support
A Mark of Hospitality Halfling Life Cleric can end every day by spending the remaining spell slots on Goodberries (each berry restoring a minimum of 4hp), which will all last 24 hours, making them usable through the next day after the Cleric refreshes all spell slots. This effectively gives the party unlimited potion-like healing that can be distributed daily, helping to keep the whole party up by allowing all of them to perform healing duties as needed, freeing the Cleric to cast whatever spells are needed.
Divination Wizards, Chronurgy Wizards, Death Clerics, and Clockwork Soul Sorcerers each manipulate fate in their own way, forcing or denying re-rolls, cancelling disadvantage, or even straight up cancelling critical hits.
A Svirfneblin Abjuration Wizard is a master of Counterspelling and Dispelling Magic, while simultaneously being good at all of the normal Wizard spells. And if you took the Witherbloom Student background, it could be an Arcane, Intelligence-based healer.
That means every character will primarily be a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard. There's plenty of variability in that.
Melee
One level of Hexblade Warlock, with Two levels of Paladin, leaves 17 levels for any full caster, my suggestion being the Swords Bard, because it has a higher hit die than the Sorcerer, and can add its Bardic Inspiration dice to damage on top of the nearly endless smite-slots. Has to start with a minimum of 13 Strength, but Charisma will be the character's "god-stat" with Constitution being the second highest. The character will be a beast at melee damage and has Agonizing Eldritch Blast for ranged combat. Get Charisma to 20 as fast as possible, then take Toughness and get Constitution higher.
Three levels of Totem Warrior Barbarian on a Moon Druid Githyanki (MMotM) gives the character Resistance to ALL damage types when raging, which can be done while wildshaped into a T-Rex, and spell slots can be spent to regain hit points while wildshaped (because it's using the slots, but not actually casting spells). Make the mental stats high since you keep them when wild-shaped, but also have the minimum of 13 Strength for the multiclassing requirements.
Battlefield Control/AoE/Blaster
Two-levels of Fighter for Action Surge on a Land Druid allows for devastating spell combos to be pulled off in a single turn. A classic one is to cast Plant Growth and Spike Growth on top of the enemy, so any of them with a movement less than 40ft has to dash to move a single square, while the Druid is free to pelt them with ranged spell attacks, such as circling the trap and using Thorn Whip to drag the enemy over the Spike Growth for extra damage, while preventing them from reaching the edge of the effect. I chose Land druids because they have additional spells available to them, including some that aren't available to other Druids, giving them more versatility.
Healing/Support
A Mark of Hospitality Halfling Life Cleric can end every day by spending the remaining spell slots on Goodberries (each berry restoring a minimum of 4hp), which will all last 24 hours, making them usable through the next day after the Cleric refreshes all spell slots. This effectively gives the party unlimited potion-like healing that can be distributed daily, helping to keep the whole party up by allowing all of them to perform healing duties as needed, freeing the Cleric to cast whatever spells are needed.
Divination Wizards, Chronurgy Wizards, Death Clerics, and Clockwork Soul Sorcerers each manipulate fate in their own way, forcing or denying re-rolls, cancelling disadvantage, or even straight up cancelling critical hits.
A Svirfneblin Abjuration Wizard is a master of Counterspelling and Dispelling Magic, while simultaneously being good at all of the normal Wizard spells. And if you took the Witherbloom Student background, it could be an Arcane, Intelligence-based healer.
Thank you for the response!
Yeah, a swords/valor bard or bladesinger with smites can attack and smite 3 times per turn if they are dual wielding. A bladesinger does have less hit die but they do have the Song of Defence for what it's worth. If we are to say it's a bard then they could cast hold person a turn prior and unleash a triple critical smite for massive damage on their second turn. Agonizing blast wouldn't fit though because that requires 2 warlock levels and we are already using 2 paladin levels in this example. Still one level of hexblade/genie wouldn't hurt. Maybe one level of war cleric so the character can attack three times with a 1d12 weapon too, but that would be limited though to a bard wisdom mods which at best ive found to be a +2 without compromising other stats.
I actually have a pc who's a vedalken moon druid with 3 berserker barbarian levels(a member of a nerd like race going full rage x nature instead is something i consider quite poetic xd) and I was considering something like them for the tank but I decided that I don't want rage to get in the way of spellcasting(since that's the teams theme) so a 18 moondruid/2paladin feels pretty good for a frontliner/tank type of character. They can smite with wildshape attacks, don't have to rage AND wild shape just to get ready, and they can cast spells and without somatic or verbal components while wildshaped thanks to beast spells. Ofcourse a 20 archdruid moondruid would also be a simple idea for a powerful tank with it's infinite mammoth potential xd. I do feel the smite thing would be more flashy for the team fight though.
Another idea I had for the tank was a 17 clockwork soul sorcerer/2paladin(or 1 fighter for heavy armour) autognome with the tough feat to compensate for the low hit die. They could use quicken spell to spam mending on themself to trigger the autognome feature for extra healing and have access to Trance of Order and Clockwork calvacade for some good tankiness options. I've heard clockwork soul makes a decent tank so I've had that idea as a possibility. This tank even gets the shield spell which is nice unlike a moondruid (who can get it with multiclassing but then cant use it with Beast Spells to cast during a wildshape).
The land druid with action surge idea is interesting to me but characters from the party on these ranges of levels will likely have teleport magic so movement reduction doesn't feel super potent here but it could be used later in the fight when there are less resources. I liked action surge for some nice nova damage or combos but I always turned away from it because its a once off use unlike rogues cunning action or paladin smite which are repeatable. Still action surge is powerful for doubling on the *right* spells if I found an interesting/potent/fun combo.
Your halfling idea is close to the healer idea I have going already. They are 17 shepard druid/1 life cleric who can stack disciple of life with goodberry and stack unicorn spirit with aura of vitality or cure wounds etc. Since healing in dnd isn't like in mmos or mobas, this might not be needed but I still love the idea of a character that can save the whole party from a knockout like Mercy from Overwatch. For race I was thinking anything with wings or good speed like tabaxi or centaur so they can easily reach who they need heal for when healing word isnt enough. If the class levels give flying somewhere then a tabaxi or centaur would be really fun and quirky to see flying around xd.
As far as the teams main damage dealer goes, I like the idea of my 18 tempest cleric/2 clock sorc with metamagic adept heightened plus elemental adept lightning. It feels really fun, clean and potent to me, but I'm still exploring options. The extra attack tripple smite idea with dual wielding is fun but I don't want half the team to have 2 paladin levels unless they are all worshipping the same god in their backstories, otherwise it'll feel like me the dm is metagaming lol.
As a player myself I'm quite fond of the sorcerer and bard classes so I have ended up not knowing too much about possible damage combos that wizards and clerics could brew up, and I'm keen to see what ideas people have for that. I know spirit guardians and cloud kill are a thing though. Also, I have never really been fond of going more than 2 or 3 three levels into warlock because of their huge lack of spell slots. With that said I've never explored warlock features beyond level dipping for other classes.
Again, thank you for the ideas! Hopefully more people will share ^^
To continue the conversation, I have a bit more to say about some of these character ideas:
An advantage of having your Life Cleric be a Mark of Hospitality Halfling, or giving the character the Quandrix or Witherbloom Student background for access to Goodberry, is that there's no delay of spell progression. Getting the higher-level spells on time is a huge boon, and even if you don't plan to use Divine Intervention to perform any action beyond what a spell does, it's a chance to produce a 9th level spell effect that can't be counterspelled.
Keep in mind that a wildshaped Druid isn't going to be casting any spells while wildshaped anyways, and the character will probably only be raging while wildshaped, so the only limitation of having the Barbarian levels on spellcasting is the 3-level delay, and not concentratin g on a spell while wildshaped. Since the character can still expend all of those spell slots for healing while wildshaped, the character is still using that magic, even if it's not to cast spells.
For the Land Druid, a lot of characters and creatures lack the ability to teleport out of such sticky situations, and those that do have to expend resources to do so, and risk losing the benefit if their teleportation spells are counterspelled (which your party of all casters is perfectly capable of doing). And even if a character gets out, there are numerous abilities that allow a character to move opponents, so you could push them back in. Fairies are a perfect option for Land Druids. I personally like the Coast option because it's the only way Druids get Misty Step.
Here's a few damage calculations from not particularly unique builds that can serve as a basis of comparison for judging the damage output of other builds. (I didn't account for critical hits, which makes the numbers a bit higher)
Ranged DPR, preferably on a flying race: (3) Hexblade Warlock, (17) Sorcerer can use the Quickened Metamagic to cast Agonizing Eldritch Blast twice every round, for a total of 8 shots, dealing 1d10+1d6+11 Force damage each (with Hex and Hexblade's Curse), for an average of160 Force Damage per turn if they all hit. Against AC20, the character could be expected to hit on a 9+, which is a 60% hit rate, meaning it would land an average of 96 damage per turn on an enemy with AC20.
Tank with melee and ranged damage options: (1) Hexblade Warlock, (2) Paladin, (17) Swords Bard can attack three times if dual-wielding, dealing 7d6+1d12+11 each (with Divine Smite, Hex, Hexblades' Curse, and Slashing Flourish, for an average of 90 Piercing or Slashing damage per turn if they all hit, and against AC20, the character can be expected to hit on a 9+, which is a 60% hit rate, meaning it would land an average of 54 damage per turn on an enemy with AC20. This character can also use Eldritch Blast at range for 18 damage per turn if they all hit, or48 average damage on a creature with AC20.
Melee Tank: (3) Totem Barbarian, (17) Moon Druid, can reckless attack as a T-Rex for advantage on two attacks, for 53 damage output per turn, or 40 average total output on a target with AC20. This character is also taking half damage on its 136 hit points, and using a bonus action every turn to regain 1d8 hit points per level of the spell slot expended for that turn. For a combat that runs 4 rounds, this character has an effective number of hit points equal to 407 after accounting for the self-healing and Resistance.
Hi everyone and good day.
So I've been working for quite some time on a theoretical squad of optimized characters that may one day be a team that I dm as villains/rivals for a party. I want to give the party an epic 'team vs team' showdown and I'm working on optimizing my squad. They will level with the party who will hear about them every now and then and will sometimes interact with them too for various story/rp reasons, and will be 'racing' them to the bbeg at the end of the campaign like a competing adventuring party that's also trying to get a good name with the public of the world/continent/country. They will have a climactic clash before the players reach the bbeg as a penultimate conflict.
So the challenge for the character build:
I'm currently working on the build for a member of my squad who would function with high dpr/high nova(burst) damage. The idea is to build a character that can deal as much damage as possible in a short/average amount of time regardless of resources spent in that time (we can say anywhere from 1 to 5 rounds, your choice).
Build rules:
1) The theme for my dm squad is 'all magic' meaning everyone is a full(or almost full) spellcaster that has to have a 9th level spell of their own prepared even if it has no impact on the build concept. This leaves a maximum of 3 extra levels before 20 to optimize with for multiclassing for this build since you get 9th level spells at level 17. I know most campaigns don't make it to 20 but this is a theoretical idea. What I'm doing is that this is part of a big plan/arc that I would reward a party with who actually managed to reach all the way up to 20 or near 20. The extra 3 levels can be in martial classes or casting classes as needed for the build.
2) No magic items or weapons are to be factored in. This challenge involves using only pure class and racial features. The character should be able to functionally pull of their damage combo and fancy plays even with nothing but a decent shop weapon (up to the 1d12 best) if they are even using one and the best armour they could find at short notice.
3) No preparation (ie combat just started and no spells or traps could have been prepared beforehand). In other words they need to be able to pull off their damage combo on the fly if the resources weren't already spent since the last long rest.
4) No summoning unless it's from a class feature (like the hound of ill omen for the shadow sorcerer). One can easily just say to play a shepard druid or a necromancer wizard and quantify a big number off of all of the summons total dpr, but what we are looking for is to have the character deal the big damage by them self so that they feel like a threat to the party as a powerful individual. This is so that ocs of the players party could form grudges or competitive rivalries with the character on a personal level.
5) No boosts from teammates, such as from spells. Yes this character will be part of a team like I mentioned, but there will be times when they are alone and tracking the party/ doing errands so the party can track them if spotted. Again this is why they need to be capable alone so as to maintain that aura of adventurer status that the players ocs normally have, so that once again they can feel like players too and keep that feeling that they truly are different from any other npc.
6) No homebrew or ua content. I want to work with anything the players would have to work with from official 5e books.
7) Wish and Divine Intervention are off the table. We are trying to give the party a challenge, not flatten them with a steamroller.
So with the build rules out of the way here are some example builds that I have for the character that I'm considering using already (both are winged variant tieflings so that they can reach their targets with ease, but you may have a better idea):
A 17 abberant mind sorcerer/2paladin/1hexblade who can cast booming blade+smite on a 1d12 weapon twice per turn thanks to quicken spell metamagic on the booming blade (boosted further by hexblades curse and maybe even hex too)
or
An 18 tempest cleric/2 sorcerer(to get font magic) with the metamagic adept feat(for heightened spell) and elemental adept(lightning) feat to cast a max rolled upcasted call lightning spell with advantage and while causing vulnerability to make it even more deadly (and to add salt to the wound clockwork soul for the sorc subclass so that restore balance prevents any attempts to use an advantage giving effect to even out the heightened spell effect).
Things like those two builds are what I'm looking for. Both builds have at least 17 levels in a full caster so they pass the main rule check. The point of this exercise is to make a great build without compromising what's important to any full caster, that being a diverse collection of spells to use their many spell slots on.
Here are a list of ideas I have played around with for the 3 extra levels for higher damage, but you may know of some that I have missed:
-1 hex warlock for hexblades curse or genie lock for Genies Wrath
-2 sorcerer levels for metamagic + metamagic adept feat so font magic can be used by a non full sorcerer with only 2 levels or just 3 sorc levels without the feat if you don't want to squeeze 1 level of a 3 class
-2 fighter for action surge
-2 paladin for smites
-Trying to make the main caster work with extra attack (ie valor/sword bard or bladesinger wizard) if they are using weapons attacks for the combo.
-1 or 2 in certain cleric and wizard subclasses have been feeling useful in my reads as well.
-I've considered ranger and monk levels but they never seemed to fit any of the builds I make with these rules.
I've been playing with as much as I can find between all of the classes and races but I know there are always more awesome things that we can do with our builds that some of you maybe know that I've missed. I am very curious and excited to see what ideas some of you could share with me for this unique challenge so please let me know, and thank you for any ideas ahead of time.
That means every character will primarily be a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard. There's plenty of variability in that.
Melee
One level of Hexblade Warlock, with Two levels of Paladin, leaves 17 levels for any full caster, my suggestion being the Swords Bard, because it has a higher hit die than the Sorcerer, and can add its Bardic Inspiration dice to damage on top of the nearly endless smite-slots. Has to start with a minimum of 13 Strength, but Charisma will be the character's "god-stat" with Constitution being the second highest. The character will be a beast at melee damage and has Agonizing Eldritch Blast for ranged combat. Get Charisma to 20 as fast as possible, then take Toughness and get Constitution higher.
Three levels of Totem Warrior Barbarian on a Moon Druid Githyanki (MMotM) gives the character Resistance to ALL damage types when raging, which can be done while wildshaped into a T-Rex, and spell slots can be spent to regain hit points while wildshaped (because it's using the slots, but not actually casting spells). Make the mental stats high since you keep them when wild-shaped, but also have the minimum of 13 Strength for the multiclassing requirements.
Battlefield Control/AoE/Blaster
Two-levels of Fighter for Action Surge on a Land Druid allows for devastating spell combos to be pulled off in a single turn. A classic one is to cast Plant Growth and Spike Growth on top of the enemy, so any of them with a movement less than 40ft has to dash to move a single square, while the Druid is free to pelt them with ranged spell attacks, such as circling the trap and using Thorn Whip to drag the enemy over the Spike Growth for extra damage, while preventing them from reaching the edge of the effect. I chose Land druids because they have additional spells available to them, including some that aren't available to other Druids, giving them more versatility.
Healing/Support
A Mark of Hospitality Halfling Life Cleric can end every day by spending the remaining spell slots on Goodberries (each berry restoring a minimum of 4hp), which will all last 24 hours, making them usable through the next day after the Cleric refreshes all spell slots. This effectively gives the party unlimited potion-like healing that can be distributed daily, helping to keep the whole party up by allowing all of them to perform healing duties as needed, freeing the Cleric to cast whatever spells are needed.
Divination Wizards, Chronurgy Wizards, Death Clerics, and Clockwork Soul Sorcerers each manipulate fate in their own way, forcing or denying re-rolls, cancelling disadvantage, or even straight up cancelling critical hits.
A Svirfneblin Abjuration Wizard is a master of Counterspelling and Dispelling Magic, while simultaneously being good at all of the normal Wizard spells. And if you took the Witherbloom Student background, it could be an Arcane, Intelligence-based healer.
Thank you for the response!
Yeah, a swords/valor bard or bladesinger with smites can attack and smite 3 times per turn if they are dual wielding. A bladesinger does have less hit die but they do have the Song of Defence for what it's worth. If we are to say it's a bard then they could cast hold person a turn prior and unleash a triple critical smite for massive damage on their second turn. Agonizing blast wouldn't fit though because that requires 2 warlock levels and we are already using 2 paladin levels in this example. Still one level of hexblade/genie wouldn't hurt. Maybe one level of war cleric so the character can attack three times with a 1d12 weapon too, but that would be limited though to a bard wisdom mods which at best ive found to be a +2 without compromising other stats.
I actually have a pc who's a vedalken moon druid with 3 berserker barbarian levels(a member of a nerd like race going full rage x nature instead is something i consider quite poetic xd) and I was considering something like them for the tank but I decided that I don't want rage to get in the way of spellcasting(since that's the teams theme) so a 18 moondruid/2paladin feels pretty good for a frontliner/tank type of character. They can smite with wildshape attacks, don't have to rage AND wild shape just to get ready, and they can cast spells and without somatic or verbal components while wildshaped thanks to beast spells. Ofcourse a 20 archdruid moondruid would also be a simple idea for a powerful tank with it's infinite mammoth potential xd. I do feel the smite thing would be more flashy for the team fight though.
Another idea I had for the tank was a 17 clockwork soul sorcerer/2paladin(or 1 fighter for heavy armour) autognome with the tough feat to compensate for the low hit die. They could use quicken spell to spam mending on themself to trigger the autognome feature for extra healing and have access to Trance of Order and Clockwork calvacade for some good tankiness options. I've heard clockwork soul makes a decent tank so I've had that idea as a possibility. This tank even gets the shield spell which is nice unlike a moondruid (who can get it with multiclassing but then cant use it with Beast Spells to cast during a wildshape).
The land druid with action surge idea is interesting to me but characters from the party on these ranges of levels will likely have teleport magic so movement reduction doesn't feel super potent here but it could be used later in the fight when there are less resources. I liked action surge for some nice nova damage or combos but I always turned away from it because its a once off use unlike rogues cunning action or paladin smite which are repeatable. Still action surge is powerful for doubling on the *right* spells if I found an interesting/potent/fun combo.
Your halfling idea is close to the healer idea I have going already. They are 17 shepard druid/1 life cleric who can stack disciple of life with goodberry and stack unicorn spirit with aura of vitality or cure wounds etc. Since healing in dnd isn't like in mmos or mobas, this might not be needed but I still love the idea of a character that can save the whole party from a knockout like Mercy from Overwatch. For race I was thinking anything with wings or good speed like tabaxi or centaur so they can easily reach who they need heal for when healing word isnt enough. If the class levels give flying somewhere then a tabaxi or centaur would be really fun and quirky to see flying around xd.
As far as the teams main damage dealer goes, I like the idea of my 18 tempest cleric/2 clock sorc with metamagic adept heightened plus elemental adept lightning. It feels really fun, clean and potent to me, but I'm still exploring options. The extra attack tripple smite idea with dual wielding is fun but I don't want half the team to have 2 paladin levels unless they are all worshipping the same god in their backstories, otherwise it'll feel like me the dm is metagaming lol.
As a player myself I'm quite fond of the sorcerer and bard classes so I have ended up not knowing too much about possible damage combos that wizards and clerics could brew up, and I'm keen to see what ideas people have for that. I know spirit guardians and cloud kill are a thing though. Also, I have never really been fond of going more than 2 or 3 three levels into warlock because of their huge lack of spell slots. With that said I've never explored warlock features beyond level dipping for other classes.
Again, thank you for the ideas! Hopefully more people will share ^^
To continue the conversation, I have a bit more to say about some of these character ideas:
An advantage of having your Life Cleric be a Mark of Hospitality Halfling, or giving the character the Quandrix or Witherbloom Student background for access to Goodberry, is that there's no delay of spell progression. Getting the higher-level spells on time is a huge boon, and even if you don't plan to use Divine Intervention to perform any action beyond what a spell does, it's a chance to produce a 9th level spell effect that can't be counterspelled.
Keep in mind that a wildshaped Druid isn't going to be casting any spells while wildshaped anyways, and the character will probably only be raging while wildshaped, so the only limitation of having the Barbarian levels on spellcasting is the 3-level delay, and not concentratin g on a spell while wildshaped. Since the character can still expend all of those spell slots for healing while wildshaped, the character is still using that magic, even if it's not to cast spells.
For the Land Druid, a lot of characters and creatures lack the ability to teleport out of such sticky situations, and those that do have to expend resources to do so, and risk losing the benefit if their teleportation spells are counterspelled (which your party of all casters is perfectly capable of doing). And even if a character gets out, there are numerous abilities that allow a character to move opponents, so you could push them back in. Fairies are a perfect option for Land Druids. I personally like the Coast option because it's the only way Druids get Misty Step.
Here's a few damage calculations from not particularly unique builds that can serve as a basis of comparison for judging the damage output of other builds. (I didn't account for critical hits, which makes the numbers a bit higher)
Ranged DPR, preferably on a flying race: (3) Hexblade Warlock, (17) Sorcerer can use the Quickened Metamagic to cast Agonizing Eldritch Blast twice every round, for a total of 8 shots, dealing 1d10+1d6+11 Force damage each (with Hex and Hexblade's Curse), for an average of160 Force Damage per turn if they all hit. Against AC20, the character could be expected to hit on a 9+, which is a 60% hit rate, meaning it would land an average of 96 damage per turn on an enemy with AC20.
Tank with melee and ranged damage options: (1) Hexblade Warlock, (2) Paladin, (17) Swords Bard can attack three times if dual-wielding, dealing 7d6+1d12+11 each (with Divine Smite, Hex, Hexblades' Curse, and Slashing Flourish, for an average of 90 Piercing or Slashing damage per turn if they all hit, and against AC20, the character can be expected to hit on a 9+, which is a 60% hit rate, meaning it would land an average of 54 damage per turn on an enemy with AC20. This character can also use Eldritch Blast at range for 18 damage per turn if they all hit, or48 average damage on a creature with AC20.
Melee Tank: (3) Totem Barbarian, (17) Moon Druid, can reckless attack as a T-Rex for advantage on two attacks, for 53 damage output per turn, or 40 average total output on a target with AC20. This character is also taking half damage on its 136 hit points, and using a bonus action every turn to regain 1d8 hit points per level of the spell slot expended for that turn. For a combat that runs 4 rounds, this character has an effective number of hit points equal to 407 after accounting for the self-healing and Resistance.