D&D 5E Entourage: Companions at large

[merwins]

Just as a thought experiment.

I'm trying to determine how many hangers-on a character could have in 5E.

Obviously, this would require multi-classing. I have listed the minimum character level to the left of each line.

(Level 1) Many spellcasting classes have Find Familiar. Find Familiar doesn't stack. You get one, no matter how many classes offer the spell.

(Level 5) Paladin gets Find Steed.

(Level 3) Ranger gets a beast companion.

(Level 3) Both Bard and Druid have access to the 1st level Animal Friendship (don't hurt me) and the 2nd level Animal Messenger (deliver this) fixed function companion spells.

(Level 6) Animate Undead from a necromancer will create 2 undead at a time, and maintain 5 undead (if I understand everything correctly) with each casting. They do not require concentration to maintain, but you do need to reestablish control every 24 hours, so in theory, you lose a bunch of slots to maintain these creatures. And since you have two slots for Animate Undead, you could have 10 undead companions trailing you.

I also note the existence of:
(Level 5) Conjure Animals spell from a wizard. With the wimpy option, you can get eight creatures of 1/4 CR or lower.
But this requires concentration, and I'm not sure I like counting these creatures because of that.


To optimize for level, I'd probably pick Bard (Lore). At 6th level, I'd choose Animate Undead and Conjure Animals for Magical Secrets. This would cut my maintainable undead group from 10 to 8, but it's a far more "practical" approach.
I'd be forced to take one level of some wizard to get Find Familiar, along with five levels of Paladin and three levels of Ranger.

Total level: 15
Total companions: 19

Am I missing anything?

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

You can also get 3 levels of ranger and everything else as lore bard, choosing find familiar, animate dead, find steed and conjure animals as your secrets. By 13th level, you'd be able to get everything online without needing a lot of multiclass. Seems like too much headache, though.

 

[merwins]

Yes, right! Don't know what I was thinking. At 10th level, Lore Bard gets four non-list spells. So Find Familiar, Find Steed, Animate Undead and Conjure Animals are all covered.
Combine with 3 levels of Ranger for the beast companion for a total of 13 levels.

It's definitely not practical.

 

[transtemporal]

Noble background can get 3 retainers, knight can get a squire or something?

In my last campign (4e) before it ended, the heroes had gained a title and I was about to introduce Agents. I picked up the idea from another game but basically the idea is you spend a portion of xp and gold on an NPC Agent who does your bidding in the world while you're off adventuring. Has a CR of not more than 3/4 PCs level, ultimately controlled by the DM but is fanatically loyal to the PC, can come adventuring but if they die it takes a year and a day to get another one. Basically the player proposed who the Agent would be, what they'd do and what the benefit would be.

 

[merwins]

Noble background can get 3 retainers, knight can get a squire or something?

Nice catch. Also, in my initial post, I forgot to add in the Animal Friendship and Animal Messenger creatures.

Now we're at:
Total Levels: 13 (L10 Lore Bard + L3 Ranger)
Total companions: 22 (3 retainers, familiar, steed, beast companion, 8 undead, 8 conjured animals, friend animal, messenger animal)