D&D 5E What's the WORST party composition possibly with 4 or 5 characters?

[CTurbo]

I think a band of Bards would make a pretty solid team. Surely if you have multiple Bards, each Bard could have a single Inspiration die going at a time?

I think a party of Monks would struggle in a lot of situations. A party of Druids sounds really boring too.

 

[Caliburn101]

5 x Beastmaster Rangers... hands down, no contest, every other suggestion is wrong.... lol

 

[Eltab]

I think a party of Monks would struggle in a lot of situations.

Fortunately, the Sun Soul Monk solves the most obvious problem: enemy is standing in bright light (no shadows) on the other side of A Bottomless Pit, bow-and-arrow'ing you. SS can shoot back (to 30 feet anyways).

If built with the thought in mind, each monk can take varying skills - which makes many challenges do-able albeit not always easy.

 

[jaelis]

Even a party of Open Hand monks would at least have a fairly easy time getting to most enemies.

 

[pogre]

I think 5 rangers would be my choice.

However, an all one-class party makes a ton of sense from a "get the party together" perspective:
5 rogues = thieves' guild
5 monks = mission from the monastary
5 paladins = Church templars on crusade
5 fighters = soldiers on a mission
5 wizards = a coven seeking to protect their magical circle
etc.

One of the interesting challenges of D&D is to explain why folks of such different backgrounds and even varying races work in concert.

Sorry for veering a bit OT.

 

[Charlaquin]

5 Rangers, particularly 5 beastmaster rangers, is definitely the correct answer. What would make for more of a puzzle though is what’s the worst party you can make of five different classes (again, assuming they’re all competently built and played. My instinct would be Barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue, and maybe ranger or warlock, just to give them the least access to spells possible given the constraints, but I don’t know.

 

[Hussar]

Do you mean the standard PHB beastmaster rangers or the UA updated one? Because the updated ranger is bloody death on toast and 5 UA beast master rangers would be an extremely powerful group. Good skills, excellent stealth, very good to excellent combat capabilities, decent healing.

I mean, by 4th level, with wolf companions, you've got a group that's making 20 attacks per round (presuming 2 weapon fighting), 10 of which are at advantage and possible knockdown. That's a pretty devastating combination.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

If we're talking about 5 competently built characters of different races and classes from the PHB, I would nominate a group with no tank and little access to healing.

Halfling Thief Rogue
Wood Elf Way of the Four Elements Monk
Dragonborn Wild Magic Sorcerer
Standard Human Transmuter Wizard
Tiefling Great Old One Warlock

Yes, they've got some power and can handle a variety of situations, but sooner or later (probably sooner) they'll make a mistake and end up with a TPK - probably before they hit 5th level.

 

[Ogre Mage]

5 Rangers, particularly 5 beastmaster rangers, is definitely the correct answer. What would make for more of a puzzle though is what’s the worst party you can make of five different classes (again, assuming they’re all competently built and played. My instinct would be Barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue, and maybe ranger or warlock, just to give them the least access to spells possible given the constraints, but I don’t know.

Beastmaster Ranger
Four Elements Monk
Berserker Barbarian
Purple Dragon Knight Fighter
Undying Warlock

This party of 5 different classes would be horrible.

 

[KRussellB]

Yeah, but no version of the rogue can heal (outside of the Healer feat), and the spellcasting version doesn't have a lot of utility (limited spell slots and spell selection). You would be all stealth and sneak attack - which is great up until the point something goes wrong. The main weakness is relatively low AC on most rogue variants and limited ability to heal in combat.

That reminds me of a d20 Conan (I miss d20 Conan) game I ran for a few years in which all the players agreed to have sneaky characters. So we had a Barbarian, a Thief, a Soldier, and a Scholar who all invested in stealth skills.

Anytime the characters could ambush, they would wipe the floor with the enemies. Anytime the characters were ambushed, combat was extremely difficult and deadly.

It really shifted the way I planned out encounters and adventures! Rather than the combat itself being the source of tension, the build-up to the combat was the more narratively interesting part of the story.

I actually really like unbalanced party compositions. I think it's neat how the party composition can set expectations for the narrative. If everyone is a barbarian / fighter, or so on, or everyone is a druid / cleric / paladin, or everyone is a wizard / bard / warlock / sorcerer... it really changes how adventures and combats play out in interesting ways!