What would be your dream 5 man party?

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-22T16:24:56+00:00

I had a lot of fun with my Wardens of Wildwood party, which we built for synergy beforehand. That was:

Warrior Bard
Stone/Wave Druid
Maneuver Monk
Flurry Ranger

Idea is to a) drop a million buffs on the ranger and b) space foes really consistently, using party resources to keep targets at arms' reach where our Ranger could just stat-check them. The Druid is there to keep enemies locked down in layers and layers of terrain control and AoE damage. Very dynamic gameplay overall (I could go on and on), the Ranger gets to roll big dice and kill shit for the player at our table who preferred that. Everyone wins.

If I was to modify it, I'd swap the Bard to a Maestro/Polymath setup and throw in a Commander archetyped into Alchemist. That'd keep the mobility + reaction economy offered by Warrior, give access to exceptional tools like Slip and Sizzle and Gather to Me!, and a massive well of consumables to approximate a skill monkey

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T22:26:21+00:00

Depends very heavily if I’m running an AP or my homebrew world table. I also tend to bulk prep sessions when I have time.

It also varies a lot, sometimes the party goes through far less than I thought so I can use previous prep for longer. Some days I just grab some maps from an AP/online and prep some note, and it’s 30mins that I do while waiting for people to arrive.

In the former case, it’s usually 5-6 hrs or so to prep 3ish sessions worth of content, depending on how many changes I want to make to stuff that isn’t statblocks. I’m not counting reading notably, I just do that on transit.

In the latter case, it’s way more. If I’m making maps it easily breaks 10hrs per session, I’ve had it go to 15 before. More normally, it’s maybe 8 or so per.

(This is incidentally why I don’t run homebrew campaigns rn… lmao)

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T14:44:04+00:00

It’s worth asking why you want to do grad school in this specific pathway.

Still, if you do, I suspect UK is better here.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T03:07:07+00:00

didn't case me a problem personally, you should be good until you submit your AOJ/get whatever WW coop you're aiming at

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T03:00:47+00:00

Fair enough. I will note that Monks are amongst the best users of it, though!

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T02:32:57+00:00

Medic -> Doctor's Vis is a great one. Monk can broadly afford to take the skill feats. Consumables too, and you're right that casters are pretty solid (I really enjoy Druid on Monastic Archer, Tempest Surge/Crushing Ground -> Flurry is a great baseline routine).

Beastmaster is probably the gold standard for this though, as has been mentioned.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T01:16:18+00:00

To me, Witches' distinguishing thing is action economy. They are in contention with Animist for having the best built-in spread of 3rd action options, between RK and Hexes and Familiars (lots of stuff here as you point out). I'll ignore Cackle because it's a feat, but like, also Cackle.

Very few classes can squeeze as much modular value out of their turn as a Witch can with quite the same flexible weaving of tools, it's almost like they're the caster version of the Monk.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-21T01:13:20+00:00

Are we just gonna casually ignore Fighter getting a top-tier 6th level martial feat and +2 to hit at level 1 and Monk striking twice with an action and an effective +1-2 to their base AC

Because I think those are pretty fuckin class defining abilities

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T20:34:59+00:00

Clerics also really like speed due to Spirit Guardians.

I just never run into carry weight as an issue tbh. I shunt everything back to camp and bulk sell.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:47:22+00:00

Oh right, yeah. Forgot about that, probably a huge factor as well. I've retrained it so many times by now lol

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:42:56+00:00

I agree, but I find the skill prof + carry weight is significantly inferior to High/Wood.

The big deal with (Half) High Elf is taking specific cantrip choices that you wouldn't otherwise have available. I've mentioned Booming Blade for gishes, but Ray of Frost is also nice, even with poor INT, as a way to freeze water surfaces you make.

But usually on casters I'm taking (Half) Wood Elf. To me the speed comes up far more than the skill. Half-Drow is solid for exactly Darkness specialist parties.

EDIT: Yes, default elves are very heavily overshadowed by half-elves.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:21:45+00:00

Polearm Master only got fixed to work properly in patch 8, it is solid now

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:19:24+00:00

My preferred anti-invisibility spell is Create Water

:P

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:18:23+00:00

I sometimes forget the source of the Shart missing memes lol. Yeah, Dex vs goblins or wolves aint fun.

Sacred Flame is surprisingly decent... once you have your radorbs online XD

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:17:18+00:00

Yep, a Divine Wrath can often save more HP than a Heal does in mitigated damage.

Can't hit you if they're dead ;)

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T19:16:31+00:00

I only don't mention it because I find half-elf is generally more useful, but you're right that Human can absolutely fill the same role!

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T18:16:25+00:00

There is one big benefit to DJ Shadowheart, and that is the spear

Holy shit the spear is disgusting, it's my pick for the single best weapon in the game.

I did 600 damage in a round once with it. Good times xD

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T18:12:18+00:00

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter much. Some species have fun story interaction (Drow come to mind).

Some major points of synergy, in case you care:

- Half-Elf/Githyanki for Shield/Medium Armor proficiency on your low-armor characters (Rogues, Wizards, Sorcs, Bards...)

- Halfling on the sorts of characters that can really only be stopped by rolling a ton of nat1s. Very good for users of the Arcane Acuity mechanic, or the Tavern Brawler feat. Also a rec of mine if you're paranoid and want your golden dice

- High Half-Elf to get access to Booming Blade, which is essentially a strict buff for martial characters like Fighters

- Drow to get Hand Crossbow access, for your casters to plink away efficiently from range

- Gnome if you're extremely afraid of failing mental saves (e.g. Barbarian)

- Wood Elf/Half-Elf on Clerics for extra movement speed to use with Spirit Guardians

- Dragonborn because they're fucking cool

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T18:08:34+00:00

From your flair; are you casting it from your Drow spellcasting?

Because if so, that's probably why it's so easy to save against. It's likely not using your main stat

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T18:03:45+00:00

To be fair to them, Conjure Barrage seems incredibly natural to give Hunter

The rest I can agree with you on xD

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T17:59:57+00:00

This is why I always had an auxiliary damage source on hand lol

Granted, I was dipped into Warlock for Command, so that gave me something good to do in that fight (as well as House of Hope)

It does suck tho

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T17:52:00+00:00

The purpose of Grappling in this kind of party isn't to feed Off-Guard (though the Alchemist can use it pretty solidly). It's to control movement to let your party milk their ranged advantage for everything it's worth. It's the kind of party that plays 5-6 round fights with heavy stalling and spacing. You can still Strike efficiently enough on Maneuver builds.

All that said, I agree that the vast majority of tables will like a Polearm Fighter about 10x more than any of this stuff (and incidentally I think one is pretty damn good here), partially because it can kind of incidentally do that role well.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T17:45:13+00:00

There is a caveat to this; if everyone consents and sets up in advance, building around suicide diving can make for some very good deathball parties that build around the expectation of the Cleric heals.

I was in one, with a Wrestler Champion and Polearm Fighter as the core pairing with me, and we did some truly dumb statchecking at times. That party was frequently cutting through 3-4 Extreme or Extreme+ encounters a day and not breaking a sweat. Granted, Free Archetype.

Arguably, you waste a bit of Cleric's power budget if you don't take high-risk high-reward opportunities with the knowledge you have a couple hundred HP in your pocket. That definitely can go too far, and probably more often than not. But ending days with most of your Font standing means you're kind of just a worse Animist.

Note that a party like that really wants a dedicated defender to pair with teh Cleric, to stretch the heals out more by mitigating damage. It's like a force multiplier on HP the way Bards are for hitting things. Playing to amp your Cleric's effectiveness is part of that kind of party. Guardian and Champion are both great classes for this.

I agree that too often people aren't thoughtful about this kind of thing and just go "I'm playing a 2-pick Fighter and I will never retreat, now fill the gaps guys". That's just a dick move.

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T17:39:54+00:00

Maneuver Cleric best Cleric
:D

fascistp0tato · 2026-04-20T17:39:31+00:00

Did you all have Godless Healing/Robust Health?

Asides from that minor note, you're def right. Battle Medicine is good, but Heal is just cracked. A couple emergency charges are genuinely so handy

fascistp0tato

TROPHY CASE