D&D 5E Round out our group!

[FrogReaver]

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.

Based on his stated goals a moon Druid is a better fit than a barbarian. I totally agree.

The ckmbat healing point was comparing the moon Druid to the cleric and paladin.

 

[Blue]

You have damage. Hopefully your wizard focuses on crowd control and debuffing instead of a 3rd damage. You have traps. You have rural exploration. You have INT based skills.

You need a frontliner. You need healing and buffing. You need a face.

I can give you any two of those, but not three.

Front liner + healing: Druid. Either Moon for direct front lining or Sheppard for summons to do it.

Front liner + healing + buffing: Cleric. Life is the most obvious with heavy armor, shield, and super healing so more slots left over for buffing, but many types fit.

Buffing, Face, and some healing: Bard. Glamour with all those temp HPs might be the best and reducing the need for healing. Valor is a good bard, but not a front liner.

Front-liner, face, with a bit of healing: Paladin

I guess you could do a Barbarian build for excellent front lining and some face, with the right background and some points in CHR.

 

[Xefenthal]

Just to update those who so kindly expressed interest and shared feedback, we settled on our group.

The player who was taking wizard changed his mind and chose Druid, so this is how final group looks

Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter)
Half-Elf Rogue (Thief)
Forest Gnome Druid (Circle of the Land)
Half-Elf Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)

We’re pretty happy with it. I think the entire elven/nature thing may have come out of left field for our DM but he’s super creative and I’m sure it will all work.

 

[AkaKageWarrior]

Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter)
Half-Elf Rogue (Thief)
Forest Gnome Druid (Circle of the Land)
Half-Elf Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)

That looks pretty solid!

 

[Charlaquin]

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.

Try telling that to my players! I’ve had so many situations go from bad to worse because they keep wasting turns healing, only to take the damage immediately back again... and then waste more turns healing! I’ve told them flat-out, casting a healing spell is a waste of a turn unless you heal more damage than you take in the following round. And still, when anyone’s turn comes up who knows healing spells, “anybody need healing?”

I think a certain degree of it is indecision. Most of my players aren’t super confident in their tactics, so I think a lot of time they figure, they don’t know what the best move is, but healing someone at low HP at least helps the rest of the party.

 

[Charlaquin]

Just to update those who so kindly expressed interest and shared feedback, we settled on our group.

The player who was taking wizard changed his mind and chose Druid, so this is how final group looks

Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter)
Half-Elf Rogue (Thief)
Forest Gnome Druid (Circle of the Land)
Half-Elf Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)

We’re pretty happy with it. I think the entire elven/nature thing may have come out of left field for our DM but he’s super creative and I’m sure it will all work.

What an awesome party!

 

[Dessert Nomad]

Glad to see you came up with a cool party mix. Remember that your druid can help the paladin sneak with the rest of you if he's a heavy armor type, if he is a typical paladin he'll probably need it.

I think a certain degree of it is indecision. Most of my players aren’t super confident in their tactics, so I think a lot of time they figure, they don’t know what the best move is, but healing someone at low HP at least helps the rest of the party.

IMO it's a thing people get from playing MMOs that are built around dedicated healer classes who's job in combat is to spam heals; in those the game is designed with enough incoming damage that the party will die without dedicated healing so someone has to be healing all the time. In 5e, if you're not one of the super-healer setups (like life cleric or divine soul sorcerer), you are almost always better off only using bonus action heals and 'fire and forget' things like the Shepherd Druid totems. Why someone thinks it's better for a druid to burn a 3rd level slot to give 3d8+3 HP to one person so that their one set of attacks keeps going, instead of dropping 16d8+16 HP of wolves on the field with their 8 extra 'knock prone' attacks at advantage is beyond me.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'll see if I can maybe find a lightly armored cleric or paladin. I know it's not conventional but if I'm the only one moving slow and clanging around while everyone else has stealth or wearing bathrobes it might be a problem.

Bard is also a good choice, as they're capable of fairly solid healing. With a Bard and a Ranger, you can heal pretty well. Bards can be secondaries in multiple roles with one character, as well. Depending on College, you can be a focused buffer, controller, a very wide-based generalist, a skirmisher combatant, etc.

A Dex based Paladin is also a perfectly legit character. Probably want medium armor until you max out your dex, or go light armor and shield. Dex paladins are fun. Too bad there's already a rogue, because Dex Paladin of Vengeance with Swashbuckler Rogue is...just...so beautiful and fun to play there are no words.

Monks and Warlocks are great 5th man classes, but both work better when someone else can be in the front line. Still, Drunken Master and Shadow monk are really hard to pin down and have fun tricks, Open Hand can mess up enemies in serveral ways each round, Sun Soul is a blaster monk, which is rad, and 4 Elements is fun if your DM is willing to decrease every Discipline Ki cost by 1 Ki.

Warlocks have too many options to even try to get into in a quick post, and they're all fun. Seriously, I could rant. Walocks are so cool in 5e.

 

[Xefenthal]

How does a dex based Paladin, or fighter for that matter, work? For Melee combat you wouldn’t have any attack or damage modiefiers. It seems like a really big shortcoming.

 

[Burnside]

How does a dex based Paladin, or fighter for that matter, work? For Melee combat you wouldn’t have any attack or damage modiefiers. It seems like a really big shortcoming.

You use finesse melee weapons like a rapier, which allow you to apply your dex modifiers to attack and damage. Dex fighters with two-weapon fighting style can duel wield short swords and apply mods to the off-hand, which is pretty devastating.

OP's new party lineup looks great.