Post/Author/DateTime	Post
tomspeeder22 02-18-06, 10:02 AM	:confused: can anyone tell me the optimal ratio of classes in my party, I.E. 2 clerics to 3 fighters? if so, it would hep me a lot.
Zepherin 02-18-06, 10:11 AM	Normally in a party with four characters you will have one combat character, one healer/divine caster, one blaster/arcane caster and one rogue/skill expert, but i dont know if that was what you were looking for. Your question is a bit vague. Hope this helps.
Kibbo 02-18-06, 10:27 AM	3 Clerics and a rogue.
Mirikon 02-18-06, 10:56 AM	Wizard, Cleric, Rogue, Fighter
red_wizard69 02-18-06, 11:21 AM	Once, the party of 4 was a cleric, a druid, a spirit shaman, and a favored soul. We didn't even do it on purpose, I guess we were all thinking in our head, "somebody's got to play the healer" So, we all independently created our PCs, and bam...turns out we all made healers. It was actually pretty powerful.
JulesCARV 02-18-06, 11:25 AM	I prefer to think of the the matter as "roles to be filled," rather than as "classes." Each class, in a typical party, might fulfill more than one role, mind you, and in many parties, one or two roles might go unfilled. For example, a party might not have a face or crafter, and could do alright nonetheless. -Artillery: dishes out ranged damage -Basher: dishes out mêlée damage: may also deal ranged damage, but as archers, not fireballers -Buffer: enhances party effectiveness indirectly, through buffs, invisibility spells, curses on the enemy, etc. -Crafter: creates magical items for people. -Face: handles diplomatic subtleties, negotiations, and such. -Flanker: Tumbles behind enemy lines, disables spellcasters, and the like: fast mover -Healer: self evident -Knower: has lots of knowledge of... everything -Observer: has good "listen," "spot," and "search" checks, along with perhaps some abilities like darkvision, blindsense, and such. -Picker: Picks locks, picks pockets, disables devices, and the like -Sneaker: has goood "hide" and "move silently" checks, along with some enhancing class abilities like hide in plain sight and such. -Tank: Shields the rest of the party I may be missing some. Add your own if you want. Some general possibilities (as far as I can tell: add your own if you want): Barbarian: Basher: secondary Flanker and Tank Bard: Buffer, Knower, and Face: secondary Healer, Picker, and Sneaker Cleric: Buffer and Healer: secondary Tank and Face Druid: Buffer, Healer, and Basher: secondary Observer Fighter: Basher and Tank Monk: Flanker: Secondary Observer and Sneaker Paladin: Basher and Tank: Secondary Face, Buffer, and Healer Ranger: Basher, Observer, and Sneaker: Secondary Buffer and Healer Rogue: Flanker, Picker, Observer, and Sneaker: Secondary Face Sorcerer: Artillery and Buffer: Secondary Face Wizard: Artillery, Buffer, Knower, and Crafter Note: I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm just going with my impressions here.
tiluvias99 02-18-06, 11:41 AM	Have everyone play a druid or cleric. No other classes matter. You now have the most powerful combination of base classes in the game, and can fill every single role. Actually, you might want a bard somewhere though... The Fascinate/Suggestion combo is also one of the most devastating effects in the game.
Feor 02-18-06, 12:24 PM	The proper question is "What are my characters going to be doing?" unlike computer & online RPGs there is no "right" combination of classes in D&D, since you can litterally encouter anything you (or at least your DM) can imagine. You could make the ideal combat party, capable of taking on any foe you encounter. And the next session your DM could send your characters to a fancy dress ball where you have to mingle with royalty and aren't allowed weapons. (except the monk, kinda messy to take his away :P) Suddenly your combat optimized Barbarian is a bumbling moron, and the bard that you thought was just dead weight is pulling your butts out of the fire.
Maraxus 02-18-06, 12:40 PM	We rarely have any cleric and it works pretty good. Other examples for good parties might be: Monk - Ranger - Druid - Sorcerer In this party, everybody cares for his own butt, no real tank. The Sorcerer focusses on defence spells and battlefield control. The Druid needs to be high-level enough to wild shape into something, preferable with pounce. The ranger can also be a fighter with only very some ranger level, it is primary about good stealth/sense skills. Everybody stays out of most harm and then they strike together for good damage. Fighter - Fighter - Fighter - Wizard Here, you get the most of the many diffrent variants of fighters you can have. One is a ranged-damage-maxed out archer, one is a melee-maxed damage dealer (probably dipping a level of barbarien or some rogue or assasin levels for sneak attack) and one combat expertiser, that can trip or grapple about any humanoid opponent (again, a single barbarien level helps). And last but most important, you get a wizard with support spells (like haste) and general utility spells because you have no skills in that team at all. Rogue - Rogue - Cleric - Anything The rogues set flanking positions and sneak anything to death. The cleric makes sure, they survive this. Problem are obviously unsneakable enemies but your ability to circumvent fights should be not bad anyway.
belthazzar1113 02-18-06, 01:03 PM	it really depends on who you are and where your going.... and how well the group synergizes. My friends and I are going through the worlds largest dungeon, which is a huge dungeon crawl spanning levels 1-20 and there is no town or downtime to speak of, so we gotta pack what we need. We ended up having a party of two clerics, a paladin, a spelltheif, a bard and an angel (astral deva). we were pretty loaded on healing spells and we needed all of it just to manage. it was rough going, but thats the situation we were in... Our last game ran fairly long and we had a group of one thrall herd psion (with a marshal thrall) one bard/dragon lyrisist, one warpriest, and one wizard/spellweaver, a true necromancer and a frenzied berzerker. We had our own private army, and between spell weaving false life, bardsong, mass bull strength, and two marshal auras, invoke frenzy... well we made followers terrors to behold, and since It was my thrallherd attracting them we didn't need to worry about them dying or or anything. and once they DID die... well the true necromancer was in charge of batallion B.... thre isn't really a proper tried and true hard line of what ratios you need in a party. You need someone to do damage, someone to deal with creatures attacks, someone to deal with traps and skill based challenges, and someone who can help the party recover. Typically you have a fighter or a paladin to deal with something attacking you, but a monk, or a high dex defensive rogue, or a cleric can serve just as well... then you need someone doing damage... a sneak attacking rogue, a wizard with fireball, a sorc with magic missle and scorching ray, a barbarian, just about anything can be built to be a damage dealer. then you need a skill based character, most typically a rogue, but you can have a ranger, or a dwarf dealing with a great many traps, druids or summoners also provide an alternate trap defense (though you will play hell with the celestial badger population), and then lastly you need someone to recover the party. A bar, a cleric, a druid, favored soul, anyone with healing magic or the ability to fake it will do. We had a warlock with UMD and a wand of healing that was enough for our group. but that was because all of us stayed away from melle combat and avoided rather than absorbed most damage. as long as you have the basics covered it doesn't really matter what you play, its how you work together. damage dealing, dealing with damage, recovery, and scouting (both for traps and for jobs) are the only thing you need to worry about. and you can come up with creative ways to get around some of those requirments... like if you have a vampire tank, then you don't need to worry about recovery as long as he is up front taking all the damage. or if you have a summoner or a thrall herd or a constructor you don't need to worrry about recovery because you have disposable minions. dealing damage to hp is the most obvious way to attack but also working with several characters that do similar types of ability damage (with poision, spells, or other abilities) will also take most things down rapidly. Be creative with your groups. If its stupid, but it works, then its not stupid. Don't be afraid to experiment.
Milo HoBo 02-18-06, 02:40 PM	3 Clerics and a rogue. Beat me to it. Archvist, Cleric, Druid, and Shujenja [and Bard if you want it] That works. Or, go natural: Ranger, Barbarian, Druid, Scout
RadicalTaoist 02-18-06, 03:22 PM	Cleric, Cleric, Druid, Artificer. The Clerics may be replaced with an Archivist and a Bard if you so wish.
Jaxgaret 02-19-06, 12:26 AM	Core, no PrCs? Druid Druid Cleric Wizard.
EonOmega 02-19-06, 12:52 AM	Meat shield (Barbarian, High con monk, fighter. Psychic warrior, cleric... even druid in some cases...), Caster (Wizard, sorcerer, psion of some kind or Cleric... or druid...), Sneaker (rogue, monk, ranger) and Healer (cleric... or druid...) are the... more sane choice. As for defining sane, I mean as a "traditional" choice, not... a party of insane clerics, or druids rampaging through towns, smacking everything down with the fist of +5 versus everyone.
belthazzar1113 02-19-06, 01:29 AM	sacrificing minions... is there any problem it can't solve? no. warlock with the dead walk invocation and charm, druid with lots of summon natures ally spells, psion thrall herd with astral construct power and a wizard focusing on charm, illusion and necromancy possibly becoming an effigy master. everyone has NI minions that are disposable and reuseable. there is no need for healing or tanking if you have minions to deal with that... you don't need trapfinding when you can just send minions ahead to spring them all, and you have NI components for undead masters to use for more minions. Illusionary minions save wear and tear on more fragile living or undead minions, combine with charm for turning enemies into more minions and you don't even need people to talk to npcs, just charm them. Then you can pretty much just take over the world.... or save it if thats your thing. :cool:
Romanus_Mortus 02-19-06, 02:04 AM	Now, I may be a bitter old stick in the mud (indeed, I am), but I find my *favorite* combination, if not the optimal: Friend Friend Friend Friend *Optional fifth guy you don't really like but who is a friend of a friend Sadistic Mofo DM (usually me) If you really care about what classes you have: Cleric, Fighter, Wizard, Ranger(with some levels in rogue) - by far my fav group build to DM for. They can deal with almost anything, and you can throw almost anything at them without feeling like you're being grossly unfair.
dystmesis 02-19-06, 02:47 AM	A party of all druids is great. Especially when you consider that you can bring along your companion and easily bring other animals, too. Level 1 druids might not be melee powerhouses, but 4 druids, 4 wolves, and 4 or more mules (awesome creatures for only 8 gp!) is an army and a half. And of course, at higher levels, druids can be healers and/or nukers and/or tanks. Rogue type things are the only thing you can't handle, and that's what all those squirrels in the forest are for.
gorfnad the shiznit 02-19-06, 03:06 AM	My current party is: Ranger, Hexblade, Rogue, Cleric, and Warlock...though five members it is very balanced.