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<blockquote data-quote="ilmoin" data-source="post: 4769355" data-attributes="member: 74756">With a five-character party it doesn't matter too much what the role of the final character is, so long as you have one of each.&nbsp; They all work, just with slight different emphases.&nbsp; You can even drop characters from some of the roles, but you should have at least one defender and one leader--not having strikers or controllers is a problem, but not the end of the world.The second thing you want to think about is melee / range balance.&nbsp; You need some characters (and at least one defender) who can stand on the front line of the party and go toe to toe with the enemy.&nbsp; Not having this means you forfeit your ability to control which of your characters your enemies attack.&nbsp; Similarly, if you overload on melee characters the tactical terrain will cramp up and you also won't have the ability to focus fire so effectively or to deal with primarily ranged opponents.&nbsp; As a rule of thumb, you want slightly more than half your characters to be primarily melee, or at least able to stand on the front line.&nbsp; In a five character party, three melee and two ranged is ideal.&nbsp; Personally, I like 2 defender parties, because you have a really strong front line.&nbsp; (You can fudge this in all kinds of ways, though: for instance, infernal warlocks and protector druids do fine as a third frontline character; shamans and beastmaster rangers add another character to the front line.)After that, it is really about much more detailed synergies.&nbsp; It is possible to make groups with very complex and powerful interlinked abilities, but that takes away a lot of choice from your players.&nbsp; The good news is that there are so many combos that your players will discover them as they play.&nbsp; With a little bit of retraining and some thought about what is and isn't working, the group will come together on its own.&nbsp; Just try to avoid the three striker / no leader parties, or ones with all ranged and no melee characters--even these parties can work, but they get themselves into trouble.Good luck!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ilmoin, post: 4769355, member: 74756"] With a five-character party it doesn't matter too much what the role of the final character is, so long as you have one of each. They all work, just with slight different emphases. You can even drop characters from some of the roles, but you should have at least one defender and one leader--not having strikers or controllers is a problem, but not the end of the world. The second thing you want to think about is melee / range balance. You need some characters (and at least one defender) who can stand on the front line of the party and go toe to toe with the enemy. Not having this means you forfeit your ability to control which of your characters your enemies attack. Similarly, if you overload on melee characters the tactical terrain will cramp up and you also won't have the ability to focus fire so effectively or to deal with primarily ranged opponents. As a rule of thumb, you want slightly more than half your characters to be primarily melee, or at least able to stand on the front line. In a five character party, three melee and two ranged is ideal. Personally, I like 2 defender parties, because you have a really strong front line. (You can fudge this in all kinds of ways, though: for instance, infernal warlocks and protector druids do fine as a third frontline character; shamans and beastmaster rangers add another character to the front line.) After that, it is really about much more detailed synergies. It is possible to make groups with very complex and powerful interlinked abilities, but that takes away a lot of choice from your players. The good news is that there are so many combos that your players will discover them as they play. With a little bit of retraining and some thought about what is and isn't working, the group will come together on its own. Just try to avoid the three striker / no leader parties, or ones with all ranged and no melee characters--even these parties can work, but they get themselves into trouble. Good luck! [/QUOTE]

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