Hey!   I would appreciate some advice.  I apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this but. I Need help with making a new character. Don’t have a lot of experience with 5e. Playing a solid three day long session for my friends birthday. I have never played with the group before but everyone is making new characters. It will be a party of a Dwarf Paladin, Gnome Sorcerer, and Kinder Cleric. We will be in the Dragonlance world. Not sure what class I should play to balance the group out.  Open to thoughts and suggestions.

With the other options your party members have picked, you could really be any class and your party would be fine. That being said, I'd recommend a skill-monkey like Artificer, Bard, or Rogue. Your party seems to be well rounded but having a versatile and more niche character could always really help a group.

bah, forget balance.  play what you want to play.  play what you think will be fun to role play and use those class features with.  Some of the best parties i've been in have been sans rogues or clerics or even tanks, the creativity an unbalanced party inspires can be so much fun.

Plus, you already got tank, damage, and healing...so yeah.  you can be pretty much anything and the party will be pretty strong.

Firstly, yeah, play what you want.

If you're wanting to complement the team though, here are some ideas:

Rogue or Artificer skill monkey. The party is slightly lacking in skills, and these could do the job. Rogue gives you sneakiness, Artificer gives you Intelligence, which the party will be rather lacking as well. Either one can lean somewhat to the other's strength via subclass.

Alternatively, you can lean full into Intelligence and go Wizard. Depending on level, they often get spells that can over come the lack of skills.

To be honest though, your party has most things covered, so feel free to go whatever. I'd just make sure a member of the party (doesn't have to be you) has a reasonably high Intelligence and proficiency in Investigation. 

I’d just say make sure someone has a thieves tools proficiency, you usually need someone to pick a lock or disarm a trap. 

Also, you might want a session 0 talk with the person playing the kender. Obviously, I don’t know the person, but there are folks out there who use kenders a license to be annoying and steal things from party members — and from NPCs no matter how much trouble it may cause. They can be really, really annoying in the hands of some players. 

Quote from Melsia >>

Hey!   I would appreciate some advice.  I apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this but. I Need help with making a new character. Don’t have a lot of experience with 5e. Playing a solid three day long session for my friends birthday. I have never played with the group before but everyone is making new characters. It will be a party of a Dwarf Paladin, Gnome Sorcerer, and Kinder Cleric. We will be in the Dragonlance world. Not sure what class I should play to balance the group out.  Open to thoughts and suggestions.

Is this intentionally an all-little folk party? Because if not, I'd be tempted to play a goliath of whatever class, just for the contrast/humor potential

Thank you for all the responses! Very helpfu!