My Bard just died last night and it's time to roll a new character and hopefully not die so quickly. I need some help choosing the right character for this group's composition and the challenges that the DM poses.
Noteable house rules:
Short Rests DON'T heal
Long Rests heal 1 Hit Dice and an additional 1 Hit Dice if the rest was 'comfortable'
Spellcasting in melee-range triggers an Attack of Opportunity (free Mage Slayer for everyone!)
Level 8-9 Team composition:
Wizard
Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Sorcerer
Fighter/Barbarian (melee)
Fighter (bow/gun)
Cleric (MIA - on a 2 months vacation)
So with difficulties maintaining our health pools up and also struggling to cast spells, what kind of build would you guys suggest? I was thinking of trying a 3 Druid (Grassland or Shepherd with Healing Spirit from Xanathar's) and 5 Cleric (Life Domain), staying in the back and trying to keep the rest alive, although if the DM wants me dead he'll get the job done like he did my Bard... Alternatively just go a pure Fighter or a Bear Totem Barbarian... I looked into going 3 Bear Totem Barbarian and the rest in Moon Druid but that looks like it stops being good around level 10-12, once the CR increase of the Wildshape slows down and the character is no longer an effective melee fighter, resulting in a waste of Barbarian levels.
Some form of druid sounds like the best bet to me, if only because you can use your beast form to absorb damage, since it's so difficult to heal yourself in this campaign.
Maybe the MIA Cleric is not on vacation.....he may be tired of the DM's B.S.
I would consider leaving the group. If enough people leave maybe you could start your own group ..... leaving the DM to play with his self :D
lol I was going to offer the same advice... but honestly, I don't know that the OP actually dislikes the game. I've met more than one person who loves to be challenged and who finds 5e too generous and easy. If someone wants to play a punishing game where their characters die every 2 or 3 games, more power to them.
I would vote moon druid (combat wild shape), land druid (natural recovery), or divine sorc/hexblade lock (short rest healing spells). Anything that pads hp and can recover on short rest.
Yeah, I spent the last few days reading everything about all other classes.
A Moon Druid can be pretty fun in the early to mid game, but eventually the CR increase of the Wildshape is outpaced by the difficulty growth of the enemies, forcing you to rely more on your spells and concentration, leaving you with forever diminishing-returns from your investment into Wildshape. Other types of Druid would probably be better for mid to end game...
A Bear Totem Barbarian would be really fun at the levels of our party, until the point where I need to heal and can't get more than 2d12 per Long Rest...
I looked into Open Palm Monks who can heal themselves and stunlock a single enemy, but their AC and Health pools are so small that I fear I'll get burst to death.
I also looked into making a Ranger or a Ranger/Rogue hybrid for Goodberries and Healing Spirits, but that entire character looks completely subpar. Even the improved versions from Xanathar's don't look too appealing.
Gonna go pure Cleric of some school, most likely Life, or maybe Tempest?..
Hi Donsky. I am playing in a campaign with similar houserules (8 hr short rest and PCs only restore 1/2 HD; 3 days = long rest; all spellcasting can trigger Wild Magic). I would recommend a Paladin. Your party has a bunch of ranged attack specialists. Having somebody with heavy armor who can tank, give free saving throw bonuses to others and use Lay on Hands without actually casting a spell is kind of awesome for survival games.
Another possibility not mentioned is the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. This is the version of Barbarian that reduces damage to party members while raging. Those party members just need to be within 30' of you to benefit from this damage mitigation.
Grave Cleric...when people are going down and death saves are common, if you want to save your friends it's the way to go, and might even heal more than the life cleric!
To be honest I'd love to play in your DM's game, I love a good challenge filled with character death (although I have to wonder whether his system doesn't end up favoring casters a bit).
I'm don't know what class you should pick, but if you don't have a race for this character I would honestly choose a Warforged with Heavy Plating. That might help.
I'm looking at Treantmonk's Eternal Cockroach build now, a heavily multiclasses character that has insane defense with great utility and acceptable damage. It's a mix of Warlock, Paladin, Wizard and Bard and the only issue I'm seeing is being able to come up with a backstory that can convince my DM to allow this build...
The main difficulty that these homebrew rules provide is that healing through rests is not gonna happen, but instead of looking to heal damage with spells, you should use spells that prevent your team from taking damage. If both your wizard and your sorcerer are going full blast, pick sorcerer and just pop a twinned polymorph on both your fighters every single combat and make them both T-Rexes. If you look at it in terms of damage they would have taken that their T-Rex form took instead, that's 272 HP "healed" (between both players) with a single spell.
The downside of going sorcerer is that you don't have access to Wall of Force, the best (in my opinion) wall spell in the game. A wizard gains access to this spell, however, and it's an extremely powerful one if you want to isolate a powerful enemy (if you're fighting two strong guys, suddenly you just have to worry about one strong guy. If you're fighting a BBEG and his minions, suddenly you're just fighting his minions). Alternatively, tell your wizard or sorc to do either of these things and then have you do the other.
Look at Treantmonk's Guide to Being a God, it has some good guidelines on how to maximize the power of a caster (hint, it's not by doing damage). If you want to blast, spells like Synaptic Static and Animate Objects are good. Synaptic Static because it targets intelligence, deals good damage, and inflicts a bane-esque debuff without taking concentration. Animate Objects takes concentration, but in terms of sheer damage it's pretty absurd.
I would also recommend druid. As for race look into the mark of healing halfling subrace, it gets healing like the paladin and some free heal centrist spells per day. I would recommend circle of the land that gives invisibility, you must be able to see the target to use attack of opportunity. Maybe mix in a level or 2 of monk or rogue for a bonus action disengage.
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Hello everyone,
My Bard just died last night and it's time to roll a new character and hopefully not die so quickly. I need some help choosing the right character for this group's composition and the challenges that the DM poses.
Noteable house rules:
Level 8-9 Team composition:
So with difficulties maintaining our health pools up and also struggling to cast spells, what kind of build would you guys suggest? I was thinking of trying a 3 Druid (Grassland or Shepherd with Healing Spirit from Xanathar's) and 5 Cleric (Life Domain), staying in the back and trying to keep the rest alive, although if the DM wants me dead he'll get the job done like he did my Bard... Alternatively just go a pure Fighter or a Bear Totem Barbarian... I looked into going 3 Bear Totem Barbarian and the rest in Moon Druid but that looks like it stops being good around level 10-12, once the CR increase of the Wildshape slows down and the character is no longer an effective melee fighter, resulting in a waste of Barbarian levels.
Ya'll help's appreciated. :)
Some form of druid sounds like the best bet to me, if only because you can use your beast form to absorb damage, since it's so difficult to heal yourself in this campaign.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Maybe the MIA Cleric is not on vacation.....he may be tired of the DM's B.S.
I would consider leaving the group. If enough people leave maybe you could start your own group ..... leaving the DM to play with his self :D
lol I was going to offer the same advice... but honestly, I don't know that the OP actually dislikes the game. I've met more than one person who loves to be challenged and who finds 5e too generous and easy. If someone wants to play a punishing game where their characters die every 2 or 3 games, more power to them.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I would vote moon druid (combat wild shape), land druid (natural recovery), or divine sorc/hexblade lock (short rest healing spells). Anything that pads hp and can recover on short rest.
Full Bore Life or grave cleric. Be a halfling and take lucky.
Win.
Yeah, I spent the last few days reading everything about all other classes.
A Moon Druid can be pretty fun in the early to mid game, but eventually the CR increase of the Wildshape is outpaced by the difficulty growth of the enemies, forcing you to rely more on your spells and concentration, leaving you with forever diminishing-returns from your investment into Wildshape. Other types of Druid would probably be better for mid to end game...
A Bear Totem Barbarian would be really fun at the levels of our party, until the point where I need to heal and can't get more than 2d12 per Long Rest...
I looked into Open Palm Monks who can heal themselves and stunlock a single enemy, but their AC and Health pools are so small that I fear I'll get burst to death.
I also looked into making a Ranger or a Ranger/Rogue hybrid for Goodberries and Healing Spirits, but that entire character looks completely subpar. Even the improved versions from Xanathar's don't look too appealing.
Gonna go pure Cleric of some school, most likely Life, or maybe Tempest?..
Moon druids can also burn spell slots to heal with hit dice while transformed, which is a big boost if your hit dice are useless on short rests.
Hi Donsky. I am playing in a campaign with similar houserules (8 hr short rest and PCs only restore 1/2 HD; 3 days = long rest; all spellcasting can trigger Wild Magic). I would recommend a Paladin. Your party has a bunch of ranged attack specialists. Having somebody with heavy armor who can tank, give free saving throw bonuses to others and use Lay on Hands without actually casting a spell is kind of awesome for survival games.
Another possibility not mentioned is the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. This is the version of Barbarian that reduces damage to party members while raging. Those party members just need to be within 30' of you to benefit from this damage mitigation.
They dont use hitdice, just 1d8 per level of the slot.
Grave Cleric...when people are going down and death saves are common, if you want to save your friends it's the way to go, and might even heal more than the life cleric!
To be honest I'd love to play in your DM's game, I love a good challenge filled with character death (although I have to wonder whether his system doesn't end up favoring casters a bit).
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I'm don't know what class you should pick, but if you don't have a race for this character I would honestly choose a Warforged with Heavy Plating. That might help.
I'm looking at Treantmonk's Eternal Cockroach build now, a heavily multiclasses character that has insane defense with great utility and acceptable damage. It's a mix of Warlock, Paladin, Wizard and Bard and the only issue I'm seeing is being able to come up with a backstory that can convince my DM to allow this build...
The main difficulty that these homebrew rules provide is that healing through rests is not gonna happen, but instead of looking to heal damage with spells, you should use spells that prevent your team from taking damage. If both your wizard and your sorcerer are going full blast, pick sorcerer and just pop a twinned polymorph on both your fighters every single combat and make them both T-Rexes. If you look at it in terms of damage they would have taken that their T-Rex form took instead, that's 272 HP "healed" (between both players) with a single spell.
The downside of going sorcerer is that you don't have access to Wall of Force, the best (in my opinion) wall spell in the game. A wizard gains access to this spell, however, and it's an extremely powerful one if you want to isolate a powerful enemy (if you're fighting two strong guys, suddenly you just have to worry about one strong guy. If you're fighting a BBEG and his minions, suddenly you're just fighting his minions). Alternatively, tell your wizard or sorc to do either of these things and then have you do the other.
Look at Treantmonk's Guide to Being a God, it has some good guidelines on how to maximize the power of a caster (hint, it's not by doing damage). If you want to blast, spells like Synaptic Static and Animate Objects are good. Synaptic Static because it targets intelligence, deals good damage, and inflicts a bane-esque debuff without taking concentration. Animate Objects takes concentration, but in terms of sheer damage it's pretty absurd.
You are correct. My apologies. I'm running a moon druid right now and it's actually never yet been necessary. They're that tanky. :D
I would also recommend druid. As for race look into the mark of healing halfling subrace, it gets healing like the paladin and some free heal centrist spells per day. I would recommend circle of the land that gives invisibility, you must be able to see the target to use attack of opportunity. Maybe mix in a level or 2 of monk or rogue for a bonus action disengage.