D&D 5E Party Balanced

[FrogReaver]

Well, it is hardly a big hurdle, but as I wrote it can be "inconvenient" at times. Oh, and having a light source on your party (light, dancing lights, even just torches) is a beacon to those nasties waiting in the darkness beyond what the human and halfling might see...

Awesome. If my light draws them to me then I ain't gotta go looking for them

 

[DND_Reborn]

Awesome. If my light draws them to me then I ain't gotta go looking for them

Really? I doubt you'll enjoy it so much when they have advantage on ranged attacks against you because they are unseen. Sucks when you are suddenly a pincushion.

 

[Zardnaar]

Really? I doubt you'll enjoy it so much when they have advantage on ranged attacks against you because they are unseen. Sucks when you are suddenly a pincushion.

Still better than OSR when you could attract God knows what.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Still better than OSR when you could attract God knows what.

Oh, they are still out there my friend, waiting in the darkness... they are still out there...

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, they are still out there my friend, waiting in the darkness... they are still out there...

We had a Paladin ride his warhorse into the under dark. Continual light cast on the horse shoes.

Drow acid bolt spell took out his holy avenger and a rather large horde of umber hulks ate the horse then him, the rest bailed.

D&D version of holding up a kick me sign.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So let's say I have a party consisting of the following characters

Half Elf Devotion paladin (Defense fighting style)
Half Orc Battlemaster fighter (GWF fighting style)
Hill Dwarf Life Cleric
Either a Feral Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue or a Lightfoot Halfling Lore Bard
Human Abjuration Wizard

Would this party be considered balanced, or is it lacking something necessary to function properly?

Doubled up on healing, doubled up on casting. Expendable melee. Combat and social more than adequately covered. Nothing screams specialist in exploration, but spell resources should be able to cover that pillar.
Rogue or Bard will make a difference, but the party should have plenty of breadth of competence either way.

You could probably lose any one PC and still be OK.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Frankly 5e isn't particularly picky about party balance. Pretty much any disparate mob will muddle through. The only thing you will want to watch for is if you go with the bard rather than the rogue is you might want someone to pick up proficiency in thieves tools. Might be worth asking your DM about.

 

[Zardnaar]

No rogue the right back ground on the right PC works. Add in guidance it doesn't matter to much.

 

[FrogReaver]

Really? I doubt you'll enjoy it so much when they have advantage on ranged attacks against you because they are unseen. Sucks when you are suddenly a pincushion.

Seriously - Light cantrip cast on arrow is the only party light source. Shoot that arrow in direction their arrows are coming. Now they can no longer see you but you can see them. (if your arrow goes to far then no one sees each other - in this case just have wizard recast light and shoot another arrow.) It's quite funny when you turn the tables on the things in the dark and become the things in the dark yourselves

But more importantly, if these kinds of situations are coming up all the time then you are giving darkvision far to much weight.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Seriously - Light cantrip cast on arrow is the only party light source. Shoot that arrow in direction their arrows are coming. Now they can no longer see you but you can see them. (if your arrow goes to far then no one sees each other - in this case just have wizard recast light and shoot another arrow.) It's quite funny when you turn the tables on the things in the dark and become the things in the dark yourselves

But more importantly, if these kinds of situations are coming up all the time then you are giving darkvision far to much weight.

Well, you're forgetting a few important issues when it comes to darkvision that are more important:

1. When such situations do arise (and they will in most games IME), the party members NOT in armor are likely the first targets of that ambush salvo. Now, if your caster-types have Shield, they are probably not too badly off.

2. If you shot your Light-Arrow at the enemy, it only takes one of them one action to smother it.

3. The most important issue with darkvision (in any case), is most creatures with it have a sight range of only 60 feet. Not very far at all.

How these scenarios play out depends a LOT on the DM and players (strategy and experience and so forth).

My point was, as I stated, those two characters will be a liability at some point for not having darkvision. How much? Who knows? That depends on the table. And FYI, I do give darkvision a lot of weight as being able to see when others are potentially blind is a HUGE benefit IMO. Maybe not at your table, but it always has been at every single table I've played at.