UngeheuerLich
Legend
Depends on what your focus is.
In my book the artificer, even the Alchemist who is quite low powered brings a lot of versatility to the table.
If your only metric is "does x damage at level y" then you are out luck though.
D&D 5E What is the best class for a single class only campaign?
In my book the artificer, even the Alchemist who is quite low powered brings a lot of versatility to the table.
If your only metric is "does x damage at level y" then you are out luck though.
hopeless
Adventurer
Yes I can see why they went Bard or Cleric I went Ranger because whilst the Bard could probably "talk" their way out and Cleric rely on their AC and abilities the Ranger like the Rogue can evade those encounters and could in the long run prove much more interesting.
It really depends on your DM and what kind of game they want to run.
The rogue is the one I think is better, but urban games are where they are the best and d&d isn't always about urban adventures not that they can't handle the wilderness but the Ranger is the jack of trades in that area not the best but adaptable like the rogue.
It really depends on your DM and what kind of game they want to run.
The rogue is the one I think is better, but urban games are where they are the best and d&d isn't always about urban adventures not that they can't handle the wilderness but the Ranger is the jack of trades in that area not the best but adaptable like the rogue.
Zardnaar
Legend
It's not damage but you're a half caster with a d8 hit dice. Paladins and Rangers are a thing....
I don't rate a class by damage, bards Rock and are a bit meh at damage.
Other classes nail the versatility thing as well and are also primary casters or good at damage or whatever. They're good at something relevant.
Artificially cers do switch on later but to little to late.
A party of 5 of the same class is going to have to deviate from the stereotypes and tropes quite a bit as you look at the characters across the board. For example, 5 Paladins who all have the acolyte background and who all put everything into strength, constitution and charisma is not going to work very well. It will probably still work, but it will be much more difficult than if the same five paladins had a variety of stat distributions and backgrounds.
I don't think I have ever played a game with a Rogue in heavy armor, I have played a Rogue in medium armor though and have played a strength build on a Rogue, and both of those are fine, even in a more heterogeneous party. Also cunning action dash and expertise Rogues make the best grapplers in the game bar none. Arcane Trickster is the most powerful and versatile Rogue class already because of spells and in this case with no other potential casters I think one or two of the characters would want to be ATs. I think whoever is going to play the melee role is one of these ATs because of the ability to get the shield spell and because he can do more damage combining a cantrip with SA then he could do with SA alone.
Rogues are not great at damage, but the bigger problem in a party of 5 of them in a fight is that it is hard to pin down enemies. Most Rogues rely on movement and another character "fixing" the enemy. With a 5-Rogue party I think you could have one of them be a strength Rogue with expertise in athletics to do this. Take a half-feat in brawling so he can grapple as a bonus action after making an attack, It only costs half of an ASI to do that. I personally would add other feats to further lean into grappling but you could go other directions too. i just think for the parrty of 5 Rogues this makes the most sense. Since this character will be in front-line combat I would be a mountain Dwarf for the armor and take an AT both for the shield spell and GFB and the ability to use oil, holy water or acid as a bonus action with the mage hand.
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Gammadoodler
Hero
If I had to guess, it would be because Dex does not contribute much to a grappling build, and you don't, strictly speaking, need it for sneak attack.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
I think "fixed" is an overstatement. 5E changed it, just like every other edition has changed it... moved some numbers around, adjusted the refresh rates, shifted the balance a little to the left or right. I like the 5E version best so far, but i hope they aren't done tweaking it.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
It's an overstatement you'll hear quite a lot though. Perhaps not vociferously on this forum, but on others, I've absolutely been straight-up told that 5e nerfed casters hard enough that any disparity that might've existed is gone.
As for the poll itself: the overall results more or less reflect my expectations, though I'm a little surprised that Cleric did better than Bard (purely because the latter, as the literal and figurative Jack of All Trades, is the easiest class to bend toward a specific niche outside its normal one). Yes, Clerics have their domains, but IMHO you don't get nearly as much variation from domains as you do from Bard Colleges.
Also a tad surprised that Paladin and Warlock are only barely above the pack. The former isn't as flexible but offers both strong mechanics and interesting flavor (a group of knights from different faiths adventuring together for a common cause), while the latter has quite high flexibility and having everyone on the Warlock's short-rest recovery would significantly improve the class's balance. With the advent of the Talisman pact, you could even have nearly every party member using very different rules, e.g.:
- Two Chain warlocks with different patrons (pick two of Fiend, Celestial, or Archfey)
- Talisman + Genie warlock
- Hexblade + Blade Pact, for obvious reasons
- Tome + GOO (or Archfey, if it wasn't used for the Chain warlocks)
If the group goes out of its way to avoid too much stepping on one anothers' toes in terms of spell selection, you could have some very interesting stuff here. I could also see doing one Chain and two Tome pacts, as the Tome grants greater spell flexibility (so you don't necessarily need to have every warlock using Eldritch Blast). Would work perfectly fine on its own and offer some very interesting flavor (what brings together such an unusual mix of loyalties?), but with just the lightest touch of useful homebrew (e.g. one or two custom Invocations for each character) you could easily turn it up to 11.
Perhaps I'll have to keep that fundamental idea--four or five representatives of powerful figures, brought together by their patrons' plots but finding camaraderie and internal loyalty along the way--for a future campaign, whenever my current one expires. I doubt I'd run it in 5e, but as an explanation for a 13A party meeting up, the idea has legs...
I don't think I ever suggested heavy armor. Medium armor is a different story though. Strictly speaking, on a Rogue I would generally look to get that from a race rather than a feat.
