Best 5th party member?

[The Cardinal]

Druid (3.5) - ultra versatile: great support character, best non-PrC 3.5 shapechanger, the fighter/cleric/wizard/rogue outfit lacks an outdoor character which the druid provides, decent to good melee fighter, great for creative players

 

[Umbran]

Feel free to explain why you think so.

I'd vote, "It depends". Are you doing mostly dungeon crawl, mostly winlderness, mostly political intrigue? What will serve best depends enough upon the situation that a generic answer isn't useful. That paladin will be a real pain if you're dealing with a lot of muddy-grey moral issues, for instance.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I went with Bard because I like them. Ideally, another clerics is best. Any of the above classes could help the party out.

 

[Davelozzi]

Another fighter. You can never have too many fighters.

 

[Nifft]

Druid!

He Cures! He scouts! He draws down fire from the heavens! He turns into a Bear and lays the smack down on opponents!

The ability to turn into some kind of creature native to the area and scout around without leaving a trail is pretty cool.

-- Nifft

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Bard-while he may not be the best on his own, he can help everyone else out in what they do. (It doesn't hurt that I really like bards as well )

 

[Imperialus]

I voted paladin though it would be a toss up between him and ranger. Clerics make reasonable second line bashers as long as they are backing up a fighter so haveing more grunt muscle isn't really nessesary. The ranger however is a very capable class, praticularly between dungon hacks. His scouting abilities and the survival skill will cut down on being surprised by random encounters and if the party runs low on food or hits poor weather he will keep them alive. Once he hits 5th level he can bring an animal companion into the mix and begins casting some spells makeing him a reasonable backup healer. A Ranger with boots of strideing and springing and the longstrider spell with a companion wolf is quite possibly the best scout a party could hope for.

 

[Majere]

Bah you missed the best one of them all
Ranger 1/Fighter, archer feats
Reason ?

1) He can dish out unholy damage with all the bow feats and a nice bow.
2) He isnt strictly a front line, so in his normal role you dont have a cleric trying to heal 2 fighters
3) If the sh*t hits the fan he can strap on plate mail, pick up a shield and slug it out the old fashioned way (reason for fighter of straight ragner path, more feats and can wear nice heavy armor ad still keep all his archery feats)
4) Ranger spelllist lets you pick up a wand and becomea back up healer/ second healer.
5) Track feat and other wilderness based skills that a fw ranks in can really help when outside
6) Favoured enemy, damage bonus that works over 30'
7) You havent damged you BAB progression so you still get your second attacks etc

Its just a nice all round kick ass character

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Paladin of course because with his heart pure he'll have the strength of 10 men
ken

 

[Magic Slim]

The druid got my vote, but, as someone pointed out, it'll really depend on what kind of campaign / adventures are run.

Slim (the magic kind, not the shady kind)