D&D 5E What's the WORST party composition possibly with 4 or 5 characters?

[Schmoe]

4 Kenku anythings...................................and a Tabaxi Monk...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0aW7xTNrsIk/maxresdefault.jpg

 

[BookBarbarian]

And I mean reasonably built characters too not a Barbarian with 6 in Str and Con or a Wizard with 3 Int.

Discuss! haha

At level 1? All Wizards, or all Sorcerers. At level 20 all Rogues, or all Fighters, or All Barbarians.

 

[Wiseblood]

The action economy would favor thieves/rogues after level 2 furthermore any enemy they can gang up on is going to die even faster than normal. Bonus dash or disengage means they decide if they suffer AoO. Enemies need greater than 45 movement to keep up and greater than 50 if they want to attack at all. Even with low stats they will probably have decent chance to hit at range. Only spellcaster rogues rely on rests for anything other than regaining HP/HD.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I'm going to say 5 rangers, assuming most campaigns. Most of their abilities overlap (woo, all 5 of us can find food in the wilderness!), most campaigns don't care about overland travel times (they should, but they don't, because everything happens "just as the heroes arrive" instead of at a predetermined rate), finding food in the wilderness, or tracking creatures, their magic often replaces things that they could already do, and they don't really have any benefits for dealing with spellcasters. Finally their subclasses don't give much in the way of variation.

And of course there's also the fact that all of them will want to roleplay sullen loners or elves called some variation on legolas.

 

[Tony Vargas]

At level 1? All Wizards, or all Sorcerers. At level 20 all Rogues, or all Fighters, or All Barbarians.

Once again, 5e has captured the classic feel of D&D. ;P

Seriously, though, if it hasn't already been said too much: 4 or 5 identical builds, almost regardless of class. 5 sharp-shooting Champion archer folk-heroes, 4 magic-missile-tossing evokers, 4 life clerics, 5 assassins... 7 samurai ... whatever, lack of contrast among the PCs can suck a lot of fun out of the experience.

 

[ccs]

I think that the premise is that the players play to the best of their abilities and that characters are created optimally. Also that they are team players.

You can absolutely be team players, create characters optimally, play to the best of your abilities - and still end up with characters you don't enjoy playing.
And that makes for crappy gaming - wich is a waste of time.

That's why this is the worst party you could come up with.

 

[CTurbo]

They're a little inefficient in terms of action economy, but they have tanks and strikers and healing spells. You could definitely do worse.

A group of jacks with no discernible strengths or weaknesses is a stronger group in the long run than a group of specialist who share one weakness that they can't overcome.

Oh did I forget to mention that the Beast Ranger parties' beasts were a cat, rat, bat, and hat?

 

[CTurbo]

I think a party of all Clerics or Paladins would be great at any level. I'm trying to imagine how ridiculous a party full of level 20 Wizards or Sorcerers would be. Somebody mentioned all Life Clerics but I think that would be epic. Sure combat would take forever, but who is going to kill that group? haha

 

[GreenTengu]

I think the first reply, the 5 bards is the correct one.

Everything else here, the characters can all simultaneously contribute to the success of the party. But because of the way concentration spells work and because one can only have a single bardic inspiration at a time, one bard using their key class feature means that the others cannot use their own class features and generally become pretty ineffective versions of the four main classes rolled into one.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the first reply, the 5 bards is the correct one.

Everything else here, the characters can all simultaneously contribute to the success of the party. But because of the way concentration spells work and because one can only have a single bardic inspiration at a time, one bard using their key class feature means that the others cannot use their own class features and generally become pretty ineffective versions of the four main classes rolled into one.

Not even close. The inspiration is a bonus action, so its not like you can't keep using them. Further, don't forget cutting words for lore bards. With a team of bards every key enemy is going to have penalties to key roles. A team of bards will have expertise in almost every key skill imaginably. A well of exotic spells through their gaining of other classes' spell. I'm not saying a team of bards is the best, but certainly not the worst. They can be exceptionally flexible.

Ultimately I'm going to go with the team of 5 fighters, at least towards mid to high levels. The team will be ridiculously strong in standard combat, but would be very very inflexible. A DM designing an encounter to exploit their weakness is going to wreck shop. Spellcasters always have spells to get them out of a jam. But if an encounter is going to be tough for a fighter, it will be very tough for a team of them.