Greetings!
My friend was inspired by the image on p.25 of PHB (Female Elven Wizard with a white rat familiar). So she wants to start as one in our game next week. She is not that much into optimisation, so I have to cover this part. We have a loving, but strict DM who likes to provide us with overwhelming encounters of all sorts (overcoming physical, social and combat obstacles in somewhat unusual circumstances). Running through everchanging mazes, fighting underwater and prancing in the ballroom (soaking wet I mind you) all in the same day - that's the typical session with him. We start as a tandem, and two more players will join us later, so I'd like to make this two-man party as enduring and diversified as possible untill the "back-up" arrives.
Starting as 3rd level adventurers, using pointbuy and no multiclassing - we were assured of reaching at leasts 17th level (either through rapid experience gain or through some kind of flash/forwardbacks). DM also gave us some hints that the campaign has something to do with Bronze Age (though no homerules exluding any kinds of armours or weapon). My guess is - lots of exploration and very little comforts of civilization.
So Elven Wizard seems to be a solid choice. But I'm not so sure about Schools, and how they coperate with other classes.
Currently I think of following combos:
High Elf Diviner covering "knowledge" checks and reconnaissance (I tried to persuade her to take Wild Elven Cleric of Knowledge, but to no avail), with Half-Elven Paladin of the Ancients for myself (clad in heavy armor and playing a role of meatshield and party face).
High Elf Enchantress (her being a party face) with Wild Elf Ranger (for surviving out of borders of civilization and AoE damage).
High Elf Transmuter and Wild Elf Monk (for more separate action).
But, to be honest, my most experience with D&D is from 2nd edition, so I am kinda lost in 5th edition (though me and our DM both find it very pleasing on paper). Could you please help me to cover most of "three pillars" with two-man party?
So what are you going to play?
Honestly, if there's only two of you, she should take Stealth as a background skill and you should go with a Stealthy build as well. That way you can simply slip past anything your DM puts in front of you that doesn't look beatable in a straight fight.
As a high elf presumably she'll have Dex 16 so Stealth +5 and Perception +1 or +2 won't be too bad at third level.
If you want to bring the most bang while waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, play a Druid. At level 5 you can Conjure Animals all of the meat shields that the two of you could possibly need. Something like:
Human Druid-3
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 12
Insight+5, Perception+5, Persuasion+3, Stealth+4, Survival+5
Hide and Shield
Quarterstaff
Feat: Resilient (Constitution)
Cantrips: Guidance, Shillelagh, whatever
1s: Thunderwave, whatever
2s: Heat Metal, whatever
Take War Caster at level 4 then bump Wisdom at 8 and 12. Conjure Animals, wildshape into something meaty, and keep your friend's Wizard in one piece.
For versatility, I like valor bards.
mellored wrote:
Yeah, I have to second Druid for a two-man party. At low levels, before they get all of their good Conjuration spells, they can tank with the best of them if you go Circle of the Moon. If survivability is less important to you than all-around versatility, and the ability to serve as the party face, then Valor Bard is a good choice.
Rancid_Rogue wrote:
mellored wrote:
I think it depends on what you want to play, but I think the stealth suggestion is a good one.
If I were playing in a 2-man party, I'd like at least 1 PC that could heal and 1 PC that could use Area of Effect spells.
I think a stealthy paladin and a stealthy bard would work well.
"...lots of exploration and very little comforts of civilization."
Druid!
Adding my support for the druid and bard, bard if she's hung up on the arcane class flavor. However, you also know backup will arrive, and those are both versatile classes, so when the party fills up you may find yourself with redundancies in how PCs approach challenges
If she really wants a wizard, go for Divination. Portent can get you out of some hairy situations aside from prepared spells. You bringing a paladin or cleric (life/war) seems a logical choice to add healing and tankiness.
Barbarian with STR, CON and CHA as your main stats. Go totem of the bear for extra survivability.
I think a druid and wizard (if she is inspired, go with it) could work out pretty well. In the early levels, you can provide a lot of tanking and physical damage, plus hippie druid conjuring (see above posts). At the mid-higher levels, a conjuration wizard can just open up all sorts of possibilites. A wizard and druid party can be equipped with pretty much all of the get out of jail spells you would need to escape a fight, plus the RP of a conjurer being very cozy with elementals (inlcuding a level 10 elemental druid) could go great. And then lets not forget at level 14 when you and/or your druid could just bring an entire steroid mephit army (+30 THP to each elemental) plus animals to any fight that gets out of hand. I think the whole campaign would be challenging and extremely rewarding. You should let us know what you decide and how it goes!
Thank you all for the input.
Firstly, my friend is totally drawn to Wizard, so no other options there.
Secondly, I also had a thought regarding stealth party, but DM just loves to put us out of our comfort zone. If we try to specialize in something (like avoiding combat), he will certanly play along. But he will also make it clear how much fun we miss every step of the way. (and I hate missing fun 
)
Leugren is right. I'm not that concerd with our survivability. It's the inability to talk things through or avoid natural hazards what mostly concerns me.
So Conjurer Wizard with Moon Druid might actually be the best choice.
I'm thinking (for her)
High Elf Conjurer/Urchin
Str 8
Dex 16 Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Con 14
Int 16 Arcana, Investigation
Wiz 10 Perception
Cha 10
Urchin background kinda helps in big cities, and Stealth helps to avoid combat if neccessary.
And (for me)
Variant Human (resilient) Moon Druid/Soldier
Str 8 Athletics
Dex 8
Con 16 (+resilient)
Int 8
Wiz 16 Perception, Insight
Cha 16 Intimidation
Athletics and Intimidation working in wild shape can help me to stand in for Muscle (in case we have to overbear something through sheer force) or for Negotiator (kinda).
Does that sound about right?
Sounds pretty nice. Conjurer has a cute ability to summon whatever you need (though I think Abjurer helps survivability, and Diviner helps with Utility but in a different way). Also, they can do some crazy things late game with summon 2-dozen Mephits that have a breathweapon and death burst and have +30 HP each
Plus, with how your stats work out, you can go beast-mode if you need to rip open a door (as a bear) or climb up a wall (as a spider). When you need Intelligence or Dexterity, she's there. If you need Charisma or Wisdom, you've got it. So you have lots of bases covered between stats and abilities!
I'll break from the pack here and suggest Nature cleric as an alternative to druid. It can't tank to the same extent as a Moon druid (though not much can), but you've got better armour, cleric spells, excellent melee potential via shillelagh, charm plants/animals to get around most natural threats, and less ability score pressure (again thanks to shillelagh).