So i am in a 6 man party, and I am having trouble picking a class. We have a Barbarian Totem, Ranger beast master, Druid circle of stars, Fighter Battle master, and a rogue Arcane trickster. Currently I am playing a Bard but I feel like most of what I do is covered, 3 of the people have decent charisma and cha skills taken. I also felt I reached the end of the arc with this character. The DM is fine with a switch when we switch arcs which I think we will be level 5, we will be dropping into storm kings thunder. I know we lack anyone really dedicated to INT or big aoe but with so many people...Im kinda stumped. I have too many Ideas, Any recommendations?
I wouldn't think a Bard would be redundant in that party. Who is the party Face? Does anyone play support, boosting the effectiveness of everyone else?
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Agreed. With that party makeup, the Bard should be doing a support role, making enemies weaker, slower or more prone to failing saves, boosting the party skills, saves and such. bard could fill the role, or if you're needing a change, a Cleric would fit well. Forge maybe, for some offense if you're prone, again, lots of buff and debuff options open to you. Divine Sorcerer would be an interesting addition, again, with some Clerical buffs and a few arcane spells, although that keeps you with the Charisma Crowd.
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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.
Bards are awesome, all the more so in a big party like that. Most groups top out at 5. The Bard is kind of the second best at everything type, and if you lean into it the story should keep rolling along. They are the absolute best when it comes to being the party Face like Ohidimancer said. What your party really needs the most is someone in the support role. I looked at them all, started to suggest choices, but then I realized that you have too many ideas already, so I chopped it down to this. Play an Artificer. Whatever kind you pick can help fill some role. Check them out.
Hmm I am the face but so many of our group have good charisma and all the Social skills. What bard subclass would you guys recommend? I was looking at artificer and saw the Armor was pretty neat. Thank you for all the feedback! I guess I felt a bit redundant as our ranger, fighter and rogue have 14 cha and cha skills. I did notice we are very lacking in support and utility spells as the druid is our healer.
A 6 man party is 95% sure to have overlap so just play whatever you want. Honestly if you want to cover the INT/big Aoe section Wizard is where it's at, I love Artificers, but unless you go Artillerist, they don't make for strong blasters.
A wizard or artificer could cover intelligence, some magic, and some utility. But you're going to have overlap. That's just the reality with a 6-person party. Once you reach or pass the 5-man-band, you're going to end up with characters with overlapping/conflicting abilities.
Sounds to me like you’ve got a selfish party so far, circle of stars (can be) more of a self focused druid sub class (like Moon and Spores), not an outward support buffer, and everyone else is just doing their own thing. I would think that as a bard casting heals, buffs, and enemy control to help your team, you would be standing out as a utility rockstar. Rolling up an armorer to be one more selfish superhero in a team already full of them doesn’t sound like what you guys need.
Eloquence, Glamour, Spirits, or Creation are all decent team player bards. Lore, Swords, Valor, or Whispers are more self-focused. Stand out with selflessness.
The party is weakest in INT, support, healing, and maybe AOE, in that order. I think Artificer is the right call, but not Armorer. Consider Artillerist for the THP cannon effect or switching to flame for AOE. But perhaps even more distinctive and useful to plug exactly the holes you have is the Alchemist.
It’s got a variety of healing, from spells to elixirs to class features at higher levels. It’s got plenty of support and utility spells. And Alchemist can actually be pretty good at AOE spells once Alchemical Savant kicks in.
You could be a careful scientist, a mad bomber, a magical brewer of potent drinks, or even a dastardly apothecary with a penchant for poisons. There’s a lot of room for creativity and antics with the Artificer subclasses. Just don’t plan on bringing your Alchemist to the front lines often, or you’ll be prepping another character soon enough.
Play a character that you want to play. Don't worry about party skills, overlap, or any of that stuff. You'll have more fun designing a fun personality and a character that you think is interesting and unique than you will trying to play into other players' weak areas.
Just a thought - don't try to optimize the party. I think parties that fill all the 'slots' are boring. Some of the coolest adventures happen when a party has to oversome a certain area of shortcoming (low magic, not int based characters, etc).
Maybe not the most popular of suggestions but I personally love it when a party has to be ingenious to overcome a shortcoming.
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So i am in a 6 man party, and I am having trouble picking a class. We have a Barbarian Totem, Ranger beast master, Druid circle of stars, Fighter Battle master, and a rogue Arcane trickster. Currently I am playing a Bard but I feel like most of what I do is covered, 3 of the people have decent charisma and cha skills taken. I also felt I reached the end of the arc with this character. The DM is fine with a switch when we switch arcs which I think we will be level 5, we will be dropping into storm kings thunder. I know we lack anyone really dedicated to INT or big aoe but with so many people...Im kinda stumped. I have too many Ideas, Any recommendations?
I wouldn't think a Bard would be redundant in that party. Who is the party Face? Does anyone play support, boosting the effectiveness of everyone else?
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Agreed. With that party makeup, the Bard should be doing a support role, making enemies weaker, slower or more prone to failing saves, boosting the party skills, saves and such. bard could fill the role, or if you're needing a change, a Cleric would fit well. Forge maybe, for some offense if you're prone, again, lots of buff and debuff options open to you. Divine Sorcerer would be an interesting addition, again, with some Clerical buffs and a few arcane spells, although that keeps you with the Charisma Crowd.
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.
Bards are awesome, all the more so in a big party like that. Most groups top out at 5. The Bard is kind of the second best at everything type, and if you lean into it the story should keep rolling along. They are the absolute best when it comes to being the party Face like Ohidimancer said. What your party really needs the most is someone in the support role. I looked at them all, started to suggest choices, but then I realized that you have too many ideas already, so I chopped it down to this. Play an Artificer. Whatever kind you pick can help fill some role. Check them out.
<Insert clever signature here>
Hmm I am the face but so many of our group have good charisma and all the Social skills. What bard subclass would you guys recommend? I was looking at artificer and saw the Armor was pretty neat. Thank you for all the feedback! I guess I felt a bit redundant as our ranger, fighter and rogue have 14 cha and cha skills. I did notice we are very lacking in support and utility spells as the druid is our healer.
Any ideas other ideas ya have are great
A 6 man party is 95% sure to have overlap so just play whatever you want.
Honestly if you want to cover the INT/big Aoe section Wizard is where it's at, I love Artificers, but unless you go Artillerist, they don't make for strong blasters.
A wizard or artificer could cover intelligence, some magic, and some utility. But you're going to have overlap. That's just the reality with a 6-person party. Once you reach or pass the 5-man-band, you're going to end up with characters with overlapping/conflicting abilities.
Are there no women or enbies in these parties? ;)
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Sounds to me like you’ve got a selfish party so far, circle of stars (can be) more of a self focused druid sub class (like Moon and Spores), not an outward support buffer, and everyone else is just doing their own thing. I would think that as a bard casting heals, buffs, and enemy control to help your team, you would be standing out as a utility rockstar. Rolling up an armorer to be one more selfish superhero in a team already full of them doesn’t sound like what you guys need.
Eloquence, Glamour, Spirits, or Creation are all decent team player bards. Lore, Swords, Valor, or Whispers are more self-focused. Stand out with selflessness.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The party is weakest in INT, support, healing, and maybe AOE, in that order. I think Artificer is the right call, but not Armorer. Consider Artillerist for the THP cannon effect or switching to flame for AOE. But perhaps even more distinctive and useful to plug exactly the holes you have is the Alchemist.
It’s got a variety of healing, from spells to elixirs to class features at higher levels. It’s got plenty of support and utility spells. And Alchemist can actually be pretty good at AOE spells once Alchemical Savant kicks in.
You could be a careful scientist, a mad bomber, a magical brewer of potent drinks, or even a dastardly apothecary with a penchant for poisons. There’s a lot of room for creativity and antics with the Artificer subclasses. Just don’t plan on bringing your Alchemist to the front lines often, or you’ll be prepping another character soon enough.
Play a character that you want to play. Don't worry about party skills, overlap, or any of that stuff. You'll have more fun designing a fun personality and a character that you think is interesting and unique than you will trying to play into other players' weak areas.
Damn guys, great options! thanks for all the advice!
Just a thought - don't try to optimize the party. I think parties that fill all the 'slots' are boring. Some of the coolest adventures happen when a party has to oversome a certain area of shortcoming (low magic, not int based characters, etc).
Maybe not the most popular of suggestions but I personally love it when a party has to be ingenious to overcome a shortcoming.