D&D 5E party composition at character level 7

[qnaspc]

Hi!
[5e]
We (ranger, lore bard(healer), wizard abjurer, blade warlock all 6th level) ended an adventure with a boss fight and we lost big! we were not able to kill the monsters fast enough. Group seemed to squishy. We survived anyway, finished the adventure. now we are level 7. The warlock will dm the new adventure, the previous dm will play a paladin. the new party now: paladin, wizard abjurer, ranger.
should i stay lore bard or change to someone who is able to deal more damage and who will be more tankier like cleric, barbarian(totem), fighter or monk ? or even multiclass fighter2/barbarian5? any suggestions? Thank you for your help!

 

[LapBandit]

Stay lore bard, maybe concentrate less on healing and use magical secrets to take a few direct damage spells?

 

[mellored]

You could use some more damage. Bard's work best when there's a beatstick to enable, but the only one doing good damage is the ranger. So I would go great weapon fighter.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Did you have fun playing your bard? If yes, then keep doing that. If no, then maybe change. How tough, easy, hard or squishy a fight is doesn't make a lick of difference if you and everyone else is having fun.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Warlocks are generally excellent damage dealers, and so are Sharpshooter rangers, so I'd say:

If you can rebuild at all, take Aura of Vitality and Conjure Animals as your Magical Secrets. In important (deadly) fights, cast Conjure Animals.

Also, take two levels of warlock as soon as you can for Agonizing Repelling Eldritch Blast. Goes really well with the meatshields you get from Conjure Animals and the other PCs.

Meanwhile, your Abjuror can do tricks like Polymorphing someone into a Giant Ape or (at 8th level) a T-Rex and using crowd control spells like Hypnotic Pattern, your Ranger can abuse Spike Growth to kill mobs of monsters (sounds like there was a mob involved in your boss fight, right?) and Pass Without Trace to help you gain surprise, and your new Paladin can use Wrathful Smite + repositioning to lock down the deadliest monster in each fight. Your Abjuror could also summon up some zombie meat shields (put them in chain mail and give them greatswords, or just give them chain mail + shields with no weapon and tell them to Help the PCs attack) if you're comfortable with that level of... expedience.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hiya!

Did you have fun playing your bard? If yes, then keep doing that. If no, then maybe change. How tough, easy, hard or squishy a fight is doesn't make a lick of difference if you and everyone else is having fun.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I think [MENTION=6861188]qnaspc[/MENTION] is having fun being a bard, but not having fun losing fights. And it's that latter part he wants advice on (even if that means giving up the bard part)

D&D is not just role-playing after all. It is a game too. And a game you can be good or bad at. Fun isn't everything if you never win.

Actually, in my circles D&D is the rpg most suited to the "game" part. D&D is by far the tabletop rpg we view as most inviting to powergaming. D&D is by far the rpg where I see players treating their characters as playing pieces to be optimized, rather than living breathing beings with quirks and flaws.

So actually one honest suggestion, qnaspc, is - if having fun is much more important than winning, perhaps switch games? There are A LOT of fantasy rpgs where charop and dps and winning isn't nearly as large a part of the game's heritage. Good luck qnaspc!

 

[Herobizkit]

How's your Wisdom?

Slap on 2 levels of Moon Druid and you'll have a great HP buffer to take some abuse, plus some access to some great battlefield control spells (Entangle, Faerie Fire, Thunderwave), or utility spells (Longstrider, Jump), or healing (Cure Wounds, Goodberry, Healing Word).

 

[Yunru]

With a Paladin in the party you now have the tankiness you were lacking.

If you still find yourself becoming overwhelmed, pick up a couple of conjure X spells.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I'd say if you like Lore Bard stick with it for now and try to see how it goes with a Paladin instead of a Warlock. And if you think the party is still too squishy, then you can look for other options perhaps a War Cleric would bring more for it then.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I think @qnaspc is having fun being a bard, but not having fun losing fights. And it's that latter part he wants advice on (even if that means giving up the bard part)

D&D is not just role-playing after all. It is a game too. And a game you can be good or bad at. Fun isn't everything if you never win.

Actually, in my circles D&D is the rpg most suited to the "game" part. D&D is by far the tabletop rpg we view as most inviting to powergaming. D&D is by far the rpg where I see players treating their characters as playing pieces to be optimized, rather than living breathing beings with quirks and flaws.

All fair points, Cap'n. Sometimes I kinda get lost on the more "simulationist/narrative" part of the game and neglect the whole "gamist" part...at least during play. Funny thing is, though, that when I'm prepping for an upcoming game, I get very much into the 'game mechanics' side of thing. I'm a hopeless "rules tweaker". Always have been, always will be at this point (old dog, new tricks and all that).

I have one ex-powergamer in the mix here. I say ex because he use to be all about that. But that was all he knew. His previous experience with a few DM's was all about "DPR" and min/maxing. It took him a while (a good year) to finally have it sink in that his character could try to do just about anything he wanted...not 'just what was on his sheet'.

But I digress. I think I have to agree with you on the whole "D&D is by far...characters being optimized" statement. As much as it pains me to say do, yeah, I think I've seen "optimized" D&D characters more than I've seen "optimized" characters for Marvel Super Heroes Advanced, Call of Cthulhu, Powers & Perils, or Gamma World 3rd Edition. Not sure if it's the system or some other thing, but yeah, a lot of D&D optimizers out there.

So actually one honest suggestion, qnaspc, is - if having fun is much more important than winning, perhaps switch games? There are A LOT of fantasy rpgs where charop and dps and winning isn't nearly as large a part of the game's heritage. Good luck qnaspc!

Seconded. As I said, if you hare having fun...keep doing that. If you aren't, how much "un-fun" are you having? If you find yourself thinking that your guy sucks compared to others, try looking at the game when there isn't combat and when your character does 'shine'. Use those situations to your advantage and maybe you'll start to see your character more as a sort of "jack-of-all-trades" (your's was the bard, right?) guy...look at your bonuses and whatnot (game mechanics stuff) compared to the others. Maybe that will give you the "my character is cool" boost you are looking for. If not, then maybe try adding in (I can't believe I'm saying this!)...gulp...add in a level of Fighter or maybe Monk? Something that you can combine with your bard stuff to give you a lot more 'oomph' to your combat side, at least in terms of diversity if nothing else.

I'd recommend staying with your character, however. One thing about D&D characters...even ones that start off totally sucking balls can become some of the most heroic, memorable and interesting characters of a campaign. ("Barkus Liebintaub" comes to mind; a BECMI Fighter who used a volgue, wore leather armor, and had a STR 4. Yes..*4*. He was still alive and kicking at 10th level. He had a penchant for getting swallowed by big creatures, and refused to take bath's. Very cool character that 'sucked' at his core class stat...but he could still kick the tar outta many creatures due to player savvy and just being a Fighter).

"Sometimes the roughest diamonds shine the greatest".

^_^

Paul L. Ming