Heya I'm a relatively new DM but a major fan and a player of dnd since I was but a boy! I want to start a new campaign with some friends so I can get some dm experience, but the characters my crew has made doesn't seem very well rounded! I have a wild magic sorcerer, an undecided warlock, and a scout rogue, we're all starting lvl 1 but that's what they're planning on doing. Would this be a problem when it comes to combat? From what I've seen none of those classes are very tanky, so I think things can get dicey real quick. Would this party comp be a problem and should I bring this up for someone to change their class or like, make an npc party member?
Tell the warlock to make sure they're kind of tanky, and suggest something like hexblade or dao patron, something with good defensive/offensive abilities. The rest don't seem horribly unbalanced, unless neither the sorcerer nor the warlock take combat spells, in which case the rogue will left by themself in combat.
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I see, thank you! I forget that there's more subclasses than what the handbook has, and we haven't had time to make the warlock yet so I'll make sure to beef em up a bit
If no one has any healing spells, see if someone is at least proficient in medicine or has the healer feat, if you're handing out feats at level 1. An NPC who can do some free healing or stabilization might also be useful at low levels.
If no one has any healing spells, see if someone is at least proficient in medicine or has the healer feat, if you're handing out feats at level 1. An NPC who can do some free healing or stabilization might also be useful at low levels.
Either this or be generous with healing potions. Or both.
Keep in mind. Those 3 characters will do a ton of damage if they play strategically! They’re not very good at absorbing damage or dodging hits, but they will also be doing huge amounts of damage.
I ran a one shot once that was only wizards. They took damage, but they did so much damage that combats were short and it didn’t matter that they got hit every time I attacked them.
This isn’t like an MMO, if the DM plays their monsters intelligently then they are likely to avoid the tank and go for the squishies that do lots of damage whenever possible. Party rolls like “the tank,” “the white mage,” etc. aren’t as important to D&D as they are to a game like WoW.
I will agree that it will be very useful for you to be generous with the tiramisu (pick me ups). That wouldn’t hurt.
You don't really have to worry about party composition.
Maybe instead of handing out full healing potions give something lighter like a healing salve that only heals for 1d4. Something was a gift from their family, mentor or employer as they head into danger. Then you can let a few full sized healing potions be available at a temple or magic shop.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Since you only have a 3 PC party, throwing a couple Sidekicks in might help out in soaking up/spreading out damage. It could also be useful when trying to prevent combat encounter swingyness with small-ish parties. One Warrior, and maybe one Healer might be enough to smooth out the bumps without getting in the way too much. Con to this plan is that a couple players have to be willing to run a second piece on the chessboard.
Another suggestion might be to pull out the Healing Surge option out and give it a try.
Just a thought.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
It'll be touchy for you for the first couple levels, building encounters that won't wipe them easily on a couple bad rolls. Once they beef up a tiny bit, as was stated earlier, they have potential for a LOT of burst damage, to flatten things before THEY get flattened.
Hexblade for the Lock would give you a tank-ish type, that should suffice, with the Rogue skirmishing to mitigate damage a bit as needed and dealing their fair share plus of damage with ongoing Sneak Attack due to the Hexblade being within 5 feet of the foe. Also noted, throw them healing potions as needed to keep HP where you (they) need it to carry on. I'd also suggest maybe sprinkling in some defensive stuff for the squishy tank, some +1 or 2 Studded leather can go a decent way with a solid Dex.
A lot of how well they do will depend on the encounters you throw at them. As I said earlier, early on, a couple bad rounds of lousy dice for PC and decent rolls for enemies can REALLY hit a soft party hard, so keep an eye on that. As they gain levels and thus a FEW more HP, battles are less swing-to-critical in a round.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
For small parties a hireling healer from the local temple is often the best alternative. As intelligent NPC's they would not normally engage in combat since they were not hired as a fighter but they could concentrate everything on healing. Spells potions and skills.
The last cleric I ran did just that. Everything was geared to healing until the rest of the party got into their groove and didn't need it as much. Then he switched to more offense spells and dropped the damage hammer on groups of enemies at a time.
For small parties a hireling healer from the local temple is often the best alternative. As intelligent NPC's they would not normally engage in combat since they were not hired as a fighter but they could concentrate everything on healing. Spells potions and skills.
The last cleric I ran did just that. Everything was geared to healing until the rest of the party got into their groove and didn't need it as much. Then he switched to more offense spells and dropped the damage hammer on groups of enemies at a time.
Yes, I agree with this! I too have found that an NPC that can heal the party but won't really enter combat is perfect!
I recently co-ran a session where there was a priest helping the party, and while she had damaging spells, they didn't unbalance anything because of how high-level their opponent was. Someone like that can provide a good balance to an encounter, and if the party doesn't travel too much, they might always be available to the party for help or even quest-giving!
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Being gender-fluid and pansexual makes roleplay a lot easier!
Hey sorry I haven't replied to all of these (ie I replied to one) but I'm taking all of these answers into consideration! This is some primo info and I'm surprised I even got one person to help me out here! We're about to get the warlock rolled up in a few days so I'll see what they wanna make and I'll go from there! Oh and yall can obviously keep the answers coming I don't want this to come off as me being done, I'd like to see if anybody else has some cool tips! Thank you!!
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Heya I'm a relatively new DM but a major fan and a player of dnd since I was but a boy! I want to start a new campaign with some friends so I can get some dm experience, but the characters my crew has made doesn't seem very well rounded! I have a wild magic sorcerer, an undecided warlock, and a scout rogue, we're all starting lvl 1 but that's what they're planning on doing. Would this be a problem when it comes to combat? From what I've seen none of those classes are very tanky, so I think things can get dicey real quick. Would this party comp be a problem and should I bring this up for someone to change their class or like, make an npc party member?
Tell the warlock to make sure they're kind of tanky, and suggest something like hexblade or dao patron, something with good defensive/offensive abilities. The rest don't seem horribly unbalanced, unless neither the sorcerer nor the warlock take combat spells, in which case the rogue will left by themself in combat.
Being gender-fluid and pansexual makes roleplay a lot easier!
I see, thank you! I forget that there's more subclasses than what the handbook has, and we haven't had time to make the warlock yet so I'll make sure to beef em up a bit
If no one has any healing spells, see if someone is at least proficient in medicine or has the healer feat, if you're handing out feats at level 1. An NPC who can do some free healing or stabilization might also be useful at low levels.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
Either this or be generous with healing potions. Or both.
Keep in mind. Those 3 characters will do a ton of damage if they play strategically! They’re not very good at absorbing damage or dodging hits, but they will also be doing huge amounts of damage.
I ran a one shot once that was only wizards. They took damage, but they did so much damage that combats were short and it didn’t matter that they got hit every time I attacked them.
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This isn’t like an MMO, if the DM plays their monsters intelligently then they are likely to avoid the tank and go for the squishies that do lots of damage whenever possible. Party rolls like “the tank,” “the white mage,” etc. aren’t as important to D&D as they are to a game like WoW.
I will agree that it will be very useful for you to be generous with the tiramisu (pick me ups). That wouldn’t hurt.
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You don't really have to worry about party composition.
Maybe instead of handing out full healing potions give something lighter like a healing salve that only heals for 1d4. Something was a gift from their family, mentor or employer as they head into danger. Then you can let a few full sized healing potions be available at a temple or magic shop.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Since you only have a 3 PC party, throwing a couple Sidekicks in might help out in soaking up/spreading out damage. It could also be useful when trying to prevent combat encounter swingyness with small-ish parties. One Warrior, and maybe one Healer might be enough to smooth out the bumps without getting in the way too much. Con to this plan is that a couple players have to be willing to run a second piece on the chessboard.
Another suggestion might be to pull out the Healing Surge option out and give it a try.
Just a thought.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
It'll be touchy for you for the first couple levels, building encounters that won't wipe them easily on a couple bad rolls. Once they beef up a tiny bit, as was stated earlier, they have potential for a LOT of burst damage, to flatten things before THEY get flattened.
Hexblade for the Lock would give you a tank-ish type, that should suffice, with the Rogue skirmishing to mitigate damage a bit as needed and dealing their fair share plus of damage with ongoing Sneak Attack due to the Hexblade being within 5 feet of the foe. Also noted, throw them healing potions as needed to keep HP where you (they) need it to carry on. I'd also suggest maybe sprinkling in some defensive stuff for the squishy tank, some +1 or 2 Studded leather can go a decent way with a solid Dex.
A lot of how well they do will depend on the encounters you throw at them. As I said earlier, early on, a couple bad rounds of lousy dice for PC and decent rolls for enemies can REALLY hit a soft party hard, so keep an eye on that. As they gain levels and thus a FEW more HP, battles are less swing-to-critical in a round.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
For small parties a hireling healer from the local temple is often the best alternative. As intelligent NPC's they would not normally engage in combat since they were not hired as a fighter but they could concentrate everything on healing. Spells potions and skills.
The last cleric I ran did just that. Everything was geared to healing until the rest of the party got into their groove and didn't need it as much. Then he switched to more offense spells and dropped the damage hammer on groups of enemies at a time.
Yes, I agree with this!
I too have found that an NPC that can heal the party but won't really enter combat is perfect!
I recently co-ran a session where there was a priest helping the party, and while she had damaging spells, they didn't unbalance anything because of how high-level their opponent was. Someone like that can provide a good balance to an encounter, and if the party doesn't travel too much, they might always be available to the party for help or even quest-giving!
Being gender-fluid and pansexual makes roleplay a lot easier!
Hey sorry I haven't replied to all of these (ie I replied to one) but I'm taking all of these answers into consideration! This is some primo info and I'm surprised I even got one person to help me out here! We're about to get the warlock rolled up in a few days so I'll see what they wanna make and I'll go from there! Oh and yall can obviously keep the answers coming I don't want this to come off as me being done, I'd like to see if anybody else has some cool tips! Thank you!!