I'm looking for a pair of builds which have good synergy. These will not be the only two party members, so they don't need to cover all weaknesses, they just need to be interacting with each other. The only example I've been able to think of so far is a Warlock hexing the target for STR or DEX (whichever's higher) to help a Grappler ally.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks :)

Entangle with ranged attacks (weapons or spells) works brilliantly

Quote from Stormknight >>

The Druid and Barbarian in the group I DM for have developed some interesting synergy.

The druid has gone Circle of the Moon for the WIld Shape and the Barbarian has gone Totem Warrior. Synergy like:

• The Barbarian can use speak with animals to communicate with the druid whilst she's in animal form and Beast Sense to experience the senses of the druid while scouting.
• The druid wildshaped into a Warhorse, with the Barbarian riding.

That last one led to a cool situation where the Barbarian needed to meet with some bad guys, who demanded that they come alone and unarmed. The druid took the Barbarian's 2-handed Maul and then wildshaped into the horse (equipment transforms with them). When the Barbarian was inevitably betrayed by the bad guys, the druid jumps over the wall and resumes humanoid shape, handing the maul to the Barbarian. Carnage ensued.

 Minor instance that only works starting at level 7, but a little thing I've had in mind for my own party: Rogues get evasion at level 7, sorcerers have access to metamagic including Careful Spell. Sorcerer casts fireball/lightning bolt/some other "take half damage on a successful dex save" spell and utilizes Careful Spell to let the rogue auto-save while in range, Evasion causing the rogue to take no damage in such a case. Kind of limited use but helps to avoid limiting where you can cast your spells.

Also just any class with buff spells is nice. Cast shield of faith or something on the party tank for some fun.

Quote from Irianne >>

I'm looking for a pair of builds which have good synergy. These will not be the only two party members, so they don't need to cover all weaknesses, they just need to be interacting with each other. The only example I've been able to think of so far is a Warlock hexing the target for STR or DEX (whichever's higher) to help a Grappler ally.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks :)

In my game, the fighter, who took the protection fighting style, has teamed up with the wizard on a couple of occasions to create some excellent synergy. The fighter would stay close to the wizard and use his reaction to cause disadvantage to attack rolls against the wizard while the wizard was using spells that required concentration, such as witchbolt. In this instance the combination allowed the wizard to avoid being hit and inflict 4 rounds of damage via witchbolt, which she had cast using a second level spell slot. That was a whopping 8d12 points of damage. Not a bad combination if you ask me.

I saw this combo on YouTube somewhere (not sure if I'm remembering this 100% accurately): an Oath of Vengeance Paladin (variant human lvl3) combined with a lvl2 Trickery Cleric/ lvl1 Rogue. The pally had taken Sentinel feat. Pair would stand side by side and double team enemies. Clerogue would get sneak attk, attracting enemy ire, at which point the pally could reaction attk w smite. Smite plus snk attk plus opportunity attk plus both could heal and had med or heavy armor. 

Quote from Irianne >>

I'm looking for a pair of builds which have good synergy. These will not be the only two party members, so they don't need to cover all weaknesses, they just need to be interacting with each other. The only example I've been able to think of so far is a Warlock hexing the target for STR or DEX (whichever's higher) to help a Grappler ally.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks :)

Also, pick ANY class. Now add a bard. ;)

I've actually been thinking about special attacks that each group gets to make together (as a once per long rest kind of deal). 

I figure make one combo for each group of players: for example the dragonborn (bronze) Paladin and the genasi (water) Cleric could use a special Acid Attack that combines the Acid Breath weapon with the Genasi's Shape Water spell to cause the breath attack to hit a larger area and have a higher save DC. 

We have another player that is playing a homebrew Dragoon class (with a pet Pseudodragon) that can combine with the dragonborn Paladin's Smite to also apply the Pseudodragon's Sting (but using the Paladin's spell DC instead of the lower DC of the pseudodragon)

I enjoy Bard+Wizard doing Bane then Slow.  Dex saves get a 3-6 penalty so they can unload Dex save AOE spells, the melee fighters hit easier with enemies having -2 A.C., and enemies can at best attack once with a 1-4 penalty.

Its a fun combo.

 In my current game, our druid turns into a flying squirrel. The Barbarian (me) then throws the squirrel/druid above a group of enemies.

While in midair the druid then changes into a whale.

Squish.

Also, Faerie Fire from the Bard on a group of enemies, bardic inspiration to the Ranger, ranger chooses Horde Breaker at level 3 plus sharpshooter.

How would you like advantage, while inspired, on multiple foes? And at level 5, two attacks. Plus, you could take the -5 to hit, +10 to damage on every shot.

A Battlemaster can use Commander's Strike to allow a Rogue to take two Sneak Attacks in one combat round - once as an action on the Rogue's turn, and once as a reaction on the Battlemaster's.

paralysis is HIGHLY under-used IMHO

most people don't consider it a good tactic, but it's REMARKABLE

you have RAW carrion Crawler Mucus poison you can use for NON casters

and for caster types (vengeance paladins, wizards, sorcs, etc) you can always use Hold person/monster

if your caster's are willing to help support the team by throwing a high level hold person at some people they could potentially cast it on 8 targets, about 4 will probably lose saving throw

now those targets are ALL a hit with advantage for your party AND if they land a blow that's an automatic critical.

imagine what a sneak attack could do on a paralyzed foe...

for example: vengeance paladin uses first action to cast hold person on someone, and THEN uses second action to attack said person, with advantage, and if they land a hit they could use divine smite with a mere 1st lvl spell slot for an additional 2d8. that's all doubled dice.

why more people aren't utilizing the conditions and getting those on their foes is beyond me, but i've started encouraging my players to check them out and try out combos that can do it and the combat is WAY more fun, i can throw harder foes at them, and they feel more heroic.

but that's just my ideas.

Quote from Auberginian >>

In my game, the fighter, who took the protection fighting style, has teamed up with the wizard on a couple of occasions to create some excellent synergy. The fighter would stay close to the wizard and use his reaction to cause disadvantage to attack rolls against the wizard while the wizard was using spells that required concentration, such as witchbolt. In this instance the combination allowed the wizard to avoid being hit and inflict 4 rounds of damage via witchbolt, which she had cast using a second level spell slot. That was a whopping 8d12 points of damage. Not a bad combination if you ask me.

Barbarian with Path of the Totem Warrior (bear) + Cleric (any class that can heal in general) = UNSTOPABLE MONSTER!!!

The Barbarian will basically take half damage on almost everything (only excluding psychic damage). Also at level 14 all attacks done to allies are done so with disadvantage. Pairing that up with healing makes it insanely hard to kill them. This way the healer's got nothing to worry about :)

Now unfortunately I'm not well versed in cleric or any other classes capable of healing (it's just not my play style) so there may be even more bonus synergies than the one I spoke of.

ANY caster able to cast Minor Illusion + Ranged build Rogue. Technically, any ranged build will pair well with the caster, but Rogue is the best because of sneak attack.

Required: The rogue must go after the caster, but before the target in initiative order, or (more likely to happen) the rogue must go before the target with the caster going after the target.

Placement: Rogue should be far back, otherwise this is relatively pointless.

Caster puts the illusion of anything opaque in front of the target's face. The target now can't see the Rogue, which gives the Rogue advantage on their attack roll, allowing them to use Sneak Attack on a hit.

Even though as soon as it is the target's turn, they can maneuver around or go through the wall, the Rogue still gets at least one shot in with advantage.

Why this is so useful when possible:

• It allows the Rogue to use their cunning action for something besides hiding for that advantage on their attack. Also, hiding doesn't always work.
• Your rogue won't always have an active ally within 5 feet of their target, and sometimes that enemy wizard standing away from the skirmish really needs to be dealt with.
• Minor Illusion is a cantrip, so the caster can do this as often as they want.
• On their turn, the target will realistically either move because there is apparently a floating brick wall in front of them, or waste their action making an investigation check against the illusion (and failing sometimes, too!)

Reasons why you may not use this:

• There may often be better uses for a caster's action.
• Although, OOC, this is easily planned, it's a little harder for some groups to realistically say "Vlad knows instinctively that Carl will want to shoot that target, so he uses one of his weakest spells to make it appear as if a brick wall is there." This may not be an issue, though. Maybe your characters have developed this tactic themselves.