D&D 5E Round out our group!

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
The only thing I dislike about moon Druid is you won’t have in ckmbat healing without making a significant sacrifice to your wild shapes.
Yea, this might actually be a pretty good composition for a caster druid. Shepherd Druid + Hawk Spirit is a nice combo to give that rogue constant sneak attack. Entangle is a great low level spell for a squishy, ranged party.
 

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Burnside

Space Jam Confirmed
Supporter
Like others have said, I think:

- Dex-based paladin or war (or tempest) cleric w/ light armor
- College of Valor or College of Swords bard (I think the latter is stronger)
- Circle of Shepherd Druid

All of the above are going to cover a lot of bases in terms of being able to front-line plus heal. The Shepherd druid has good summoning which can bolster your front line.

I think with a barbarian, fighter, or monk, the lack of healing is going to be an issue. You'll basically be down to like one Cure Wounds spell from the ranger (and a ranger who refuses to pick up that spell is annoying imo). Your DM will have to be very generous with healing potions or resting.

Also, the ranger and rogue are going to probably have to deal with being in melee at least occasionally, because sometimes there just isn't going to be anything between them and the enemy with this party.

Since the campaign will be primarily dungeons and Underdark, might want to consider a duergar or drow character since sunlight sensitivity probably won't be a big issue.
 
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Barbarian with ok to good dex would be my personal choice for to fill out that group.

As for the ranger picking up Cure Light Wounds, I think Goodberry is a much better choice. About the same healing potential unless the ranger has exceptional wisdom. But more importantly are four other factors for Goodberry. The healing can be split up. Anyone can carry a goodberry so now anyone can heal as long as they have one. They reduce travel time because noone needs to forage, or they save space and money because noone needs to bring rations. And a "hidden" benefit is that they roll-over for 24 hours. So time to camp, cast as many goodberry spells as you want out of your remaining spells, and you have all that healing for the next day.
 

Xefenthal

First Post
Wow! Thanks for all the great responses. A lot for me to consider. Druid has changed so much since we played that I hadn't even considered it. I'll definitely check it out. As to the concerns of not having in-combat healing, if I play Barbarian, or even Paladin, there likely won't be much in-combat heals anyway.

I'd love to play a bard but if I did that, our rogue would be our tank. Poor guy would have a tough go.
 

Dessert Nomad

Adventurer
The only thing I dislike about moon Druid is you won’t have in ckmbat healing without making a significant sacrifice to your wild shapes.

Most in-combat healing is a trap, putting in effort to outheal damage is generally weaker than just doing more damage unless you are playing one of the really heavy duty healing setups, and those aren't required. The moon druid can heal the party tank in-combat just fine with combat wild shape, can pop out healing word during any time they're knocked out of wild shape by damage, and can leave a healing spirit going if ongoing combat healing is warranted. So I'd say that they have decent in-combat healing overall.
 

FrogReaver

As long as i get to be the frog
Most in-combat healing is a trap, putting in effort to outheal damage is generally weaker than just doing more damage unless you are playing one of the really heavy duty healing setups, and those aren't required. The moon druid can heal the party tank in-combat just fine with combat wild shape, can pop out healing word during any time they're knocked out of wild shape by damage, and can leave a healing spirit going if ongoing combat healing is warranted. So I'd say that they have decent in-combat healing overall.

Most of the abilities listed don’t work well with wildshaping. The only thing that does is being able to heal theirselves while in wild shape. But if any other pc gets low or to 0 in ckmbat they use a lot of resources trying to do anything about it. Concentration is easily broken for druids due to their low ac so trying to concentrate on a spell and tank isn’t advised IMO. It’s a good way to waste a spell.

That said they have amazing out of combat healing and amazing tankiness throughout most of the game. Also combat healing isn’t about spamming heals every turn, it’s about being able to heal ally’s when they most need it.
 

FrogReaver

As long as i get to be the frog
Wow! Thanks for all the great responses. A lot for me to consider. Druid has changed so much since we played that I hadn't even considered it. I'll definitely check it out. As to the concerns of not having in-combat healing, if I play Barbarian, or even Paladin, there likely won't be much in-combat heals anyway.

I'd love to play a bard but if I did that, our rogue would be our tank. Poor guy would have a tough go.

I’d advocate taking the healer feat for the barbarian. The paladin has lay on hands for healing And it works really well for healing at least once a day. It does require an action but it can heal enough to really make that action worth using for healing.
 

aco175

Legend
Dwarf life cleric who is a bit pacifist. Just use fighting defensively to make it hard to be hit. Let the others worry about doing damage while you heal them. They will still like you and need you.
 

RogueJK

It's not "Rouge"... That's makeup.
I agree that something like an armored Cleric or Paladin would be a natural way of filling your party's Tank and Healer roles. But there are other options that could work too.

Druids can both tank and heal, as already mentioned.

And Bards can actually make good Healers in 5e. A Bard with 1 level of Life Cleric and a good Con score would make a fairly effective Tank and Healer, thanks to the Bard's spell list (which contains some healing and defensive spells) plus Life Cleric's bonus on healing spells and ability to use a Shield and wear Medium or Heavy Armor (depending on your stats). You could then decide if you want to focus more on healing by getting additional healing/restoration spells that aren't on the Bard's list by going Lore College Bard, or if you want to focus more on boosting your melee ability by going Valor or Swords College Bard. Being a Bard will also allow you to be the Party Face, with Charisma as your primary stat plus high skill checks for social skills.

There are also some other fun alternate options for a Healer/Tank that I haven't seen mentioned yet, like a Favored Soul Sorcerer (basically a Sorcerer with access to Cleric spells) splashed with a level or two of something like Paladin, Cleric, or Hexblade Warlock for greater melee/tank/front line ability. You'll definitely want to boost your Con to compensate for the diminished HP, though. For example, something like a Hexblade1/Favored SoulX has Medium armor, Shields, a few extra Warlock cantrips and 1st level spells, and nearly full Cleric/Sorcerer spellcasting, and only needs to focus on Charisma and Constitution (with a lesser focus on Dexterity up to 14) since one-handed melee attacks for a Hexblade are based on Charisma instead of Strength/Dexterity. You won't have the Extra Attacks of a dedicated melee fighter, but taking the scaling melee cantrip Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade will help your one melee attack to continue pumping out decent melee damage as you level up. You can focus your spellcasting on Sorcerer and Cleric defensive spells and Cleric healing/restoration/support spells, plus a smattering of other stuff like a couple blasty Sorcerer AOE spells. And being primarily Charisma-based means you can grab some social skill proficiencies and be an effective Face (although you won't have quite as many skills as a Bard).

A Levistus Tiefling would be a good race for either one of the above alternate Tank/Healer options (BardX/LifeCleric1 or FavoredSoulSorcererX/Hexblade1). It has a bonus to Charisma, a bonus to Constitution, Darkvision so you're not the odd man out, and some nifty additional racial spells, including Armor of Agathys for 10 extra temp HP 1/day. Human, Half Elf, or Scourge Aasimar also gets you a bonus to Charisma and Constitution. Hill Dwarf might be another good choice, depending on how you roll, due to the constant speed when wearing armor no matter your Strength score, the Constitution bonus, and the extra HP each level, although the Wisdom bonus doesn't help as much.

You could also try to talk the Rogue into going Thief subclass and taking the Healer feat too, which can make for some handy additional in-combat healing options. A Thief can use items like a Healer's Kit or Healing Potion as a bonus action during a round, and the Healer feat lets Healer's Kits not only stabilize downed allies but actually heal HP too to bring them back up to consciousness. This gets even a bit more effective when they have a high movement rate (from stuff like the Mobile feat and/or a race like Tabaxi), and can zip around the battlefield like an ambulance when needed.
 
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Dessert Nomad

Adventurer
Most of the abilities listed don’t work well with wildshaping. The only thing that does is being able to heal theirselves while in wild shape. But if any other pc gets low or to 0 in ckmbat they use a lot of resources trying to do anything about it. Concentration is easily broken for druids due to their low ac so trying to concentrate on a spell and tank isn’t advised IMO. It’s a good way to waste a spell.

No, a good way to waste spells is to spam healing spells instead of taking down enemies. If a PC gets low, they can drink a healing potion or deal with it on their own - no more resources than if the OP plays a barbarian. If a PC goes down, the druid is likely to get knocked out of wild shape at some point, and can healing word them then. It usually takes multiple rounds for someone to actually die, and any party member can use a healing kit to stabilize them if they get unlucky. Maintaining concentration spells is actually not that hard if the druid takes Warcaster and Resilient:Constitution. Guess what feats I would recommend for a Moon druid at levels 4 and 8, even more than increasing wisdom?

Seriously, saying 'moon druid doesn't have enough combat healing' when the guy is contemplating a barbarian with no healing instead is a bit silly.
 

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