Creating a PC - What if you don't know who's on your team?

[Alas]

Is there any skill you think's absolutely essential, for example? Important enough to risk, say, using a feat to train in it just in case no one else has it on a particular game night?

I consider picking up Thievery skill training and/or the Ritual Caster feat for almost any character I create. If the party turns out to have someone better at it than my guy, cool-- I can go for the assist. Otherwise, to me those are the two biggest "be prepared" features I can think of.

You don't need all the roles, but you do need to know what tactics to best use with the roles you get.

This bears repeating. Again.

 

[DDogwood]

I'd also suggest trying to create a character with a strong secondary role, instead of a character who is optimized into a primary role. That is, a Ranger who is designed for pure damage and mobility might be more effective in a regular gaming group where each player has a PC who excels at a particular role, but when you don't know what your party composition will be, you might be better off playing a Ranger who has sacrificed a bit of his damage output to multiclass into Cleric, for example.

 

[Chainsaw]

The necessary tweaks should be minimal. No leaders? Add some healing potions and insert a healing fountain somewhere. No Strikers? Chop off some HP's from brutes and solos. No Defenders? Play the monsters a bit dumber so they don't gang up on one character.

As long as there are 4-6 players, you shouldn't have an extremely polarized group, so the adventure shouldn't need too much tweaking. Absence of one or two roles is quite managable on the fly. It is not much different than adjusting the adveture for one fewer or one extra player.

I gotcha now. Cool. That makes sense - thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Chainsaw]

I consider picking up Thievery skill training and/or the Ritual Caster feat for almost any character I create. If the party turns out to have someone better at it than my guy, cool-- I can go for the assist. Otherwise, to me those are the two biggest "be prepared" features I can think of.

I like the way you think. I chose thievery and considered ritual caster. May still get it.

 

[Chainsaw]

I'd also suggest trying to create a character with a strong secondary role, instead of a character who is optimized into a primary role. That is, a Ranger who is designed for pure damage and mobility might be more effective in a regular gaming group where each player has a PC who excels at a particular role, but when you don't know what your party composition will be, you might be better off playing a Ranger who has sacrificed a bit of his damage output to multiclass into Cleric, for example.

This was my strategy.. a Fighter with some Thief elements.

 

[Subumloc]

I consider picking up Thievery skill training and/or the Ritual Caster feat for almost any character I create. If the party turns out to have someone better at it than my guy, cool-- I can go for the assist. Otherwise, to me those are the two biggest "be prepared" features I can think of.

This - actually, Ritual Caster gives you the Knock ritual and a couple other that essentially boost other "situational" skills, so I'd say that given the OP's premises it's quite a solid choice.

 

[Starglim]

You can have too much ranged but not so much too much melee. I would make a melee character or a hybrid rather than a ranged one (ie Battle cleric not laser, melee capable ranger not pure bow).

I'd also suggest trying to create a character with a strong secondary role, instead of a character who is optimized into a primary role.

Good advice

Most classes have enough options to have something to do both separated/at range or in a close-in melee, and to have an escape option or some battlefield control. Otherwise feats, multiclassing or equipment might help. Don't plan for tactics that require other characters. Try not to drop hit points or any defenses too low.

On the role-playing side, avoid concepts that have obvious conflicts with certain others, but also build in motivations to go adventuring that can work for any party or plot arc.

This is a situation that's not ideal in any game system. Many strategies to make a self-sufficient character will remain the same regardless of specific rules.

 

[Danceofmasks]

In practice this is what has happened round here for our LFR - everyone has several characters & every team ends up pretty balanced. It was not like this back in my Living Greyhawk days (4 wizards, a bard & a rogue being a particular low point, especially for the rogue).

Huh?
Having multiple arcanists made the best teams in 3e.
My LG team often consisted of 4+ arcanists (usually 3+ sorcs), and it was made of win.
Best game ever had 4 sorcs (full caster PrC), 1 wiz (full caster PrC), 1 wiz (arcane trickster).
With divination spells, timely pre-buffing, me tanking (I had 141 hp & 11-20 temp hp) and some ridiculous DPS (err, I mean damage per round) ...
Multiple teleport and/or dimension door capable characters = win.

But .. back on topic.
In 4e, some characters are simply better suited for ever-changing party composition than others.
Battle cleric? Yes please. Even if the party = 3 other leaders, it's a win.
Sword & board fighter? Can work well with just about anyone.

Of course, there are weird circumstances that will prove troublesome.
Being heavily armoured and finding yourself in a party of move 7 elves that like to kite could prove very painful.

 

[Mengu]

Thinking about this more, I've never seen a group composition where another defender wouldn't work. Even a group of all defenders can hold their own against most challenges. So I guess if I didn't know who else was going to be in the party, and I knew I would be attending very regularly, I'd build a Fighter, Paladin, or Swordmage (or Warden if that's an option).

I'd make sure I had a way of giving a flank to a potential rogue or melee ranger in the party, and I'd try to make sure I had a good basic attack that would serve well if there was a warlord.

The second role that would be most missed in a party is Leader. I think a Cleric of either variety will work better than a Warlord who relies more on a specific party build.

If I didn't think I would be able to attend regularly, then I'd build a Striker or Controller, so my absence wouldn't hurt the party as much.

 

[Herschel]

As Mengu said, Defender is always a good choice, even two. They're just versatile, survivable and really good in combo if you end up with Twin Warlocks or the like. Twin Defenders is really nice too because then one doesn't have to try and soak ALL the damage. I had an absolute blast playing a LFR game where I was an Assault Swordmage and another player had a Defending Swordmage. The battlefield looked pretty chaotic, but marks were all over and free attacks were there for the taking many times.

From my limited, anecdotal LFR experience, a leader will also make you very popular. We generally so far have two tables running because we have plenty of people for two groups.